Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2003 : August 10, 2003
You Are Sheep in God's Fold
Pentecost 9
I don't remember a whole lot from history class when I was at school -- names, dates, what happened -- over the years those things tend to get a little blurred. But that's not because I don't like history -- I love history. But you simply can't remember every sentence the teacher says. But a few names especially I remember very well. They were both kings of England. One was Ethelred and the other was Ethelbert. Why would I remember those names -- not because of what they did, but because of what people thought of them. Ethelred is known as King Ethelred the Unready. Ethelbert is known as King Ethelbert the Uncertain. What a sad story of your reign as king to be known to history as unready or uncertain. Their names reveal much about their reigns and their lives as kings.
The King that we'll be looking at this morning is Jesus Christ. Even though he was ridiculed and mocked as a king in his suffering for us, what he really was and is as King is awe-inspiring. Our text doesn't call King Jesus unready or uncertain; it calls him, "The LORD Our Righteousness." Jesus lived up to this name prophesied about him from Jeremiah. And because Jesus lived up to his name, God is able to call us his sheep and he calls himself our Shepherd. Today as you hear God's Word you will realize with amazement that You Are Sheep in God's Fold, where he feeds you with his Word, and where he saves you through his perfect Son.
The words before us take us to a very dismal time in the history of God's people. God's people had forsaken him and gone their own way. And much of the blame for the waywardness of his people God placed at the doorstep of Israel's spiritual leaders -- their kings, their prophets and their priests, most of whom led God's people away from the Lord instead of to him. They were to be like shepherds who were to carefully take care of God's sheep and tend them. But this is what God had to say to them:
"Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!" declares the LORD. Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: "Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done," declares the LORD.
How did these shepherds scatter God's flock? They did it by leading them into idolatry. Everywhere the Lord looked he could see a shrine to Baal here, an altar to Chemosh there. Some of the kings of God's people had even set up idols in the temple itself. Some had even sacrificed their own children in fire to false gods. When God told the shepherds and his people to repent and turn back to him, they refused to listen. Instead, the shepherds kept saying everything was going to be fine. They encouraged the people to live how they wanted, and they would have peace and security. They had exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and in so doing, had driven them away from God and not cared for them.
Do we see spiritual leaders doing that today? Any time a spiritual leader speaks his own thoughts and fails to speak God's Word and will, the people in their care will be driven farther and farther from God. Do we have any examples of that today? Well, where should we start! It's common today for people not to want to hear about hell. "It doesn't exist," is the argument, "because I don't want to believe in a God who would punish people." Or just look at what's happened in the Episcopal church. They have gotten so far from God's Word that most of the leaders in the church are backing an openly gay man to be a bishop. Some are projecting a huge backlash, an exodus of people from that church or a huge split. Will it happen? Maybe. Maybe a few will dissent and form their own group. But the vast majority will go on thinking it's no big deal or that it's good for the church because it shows how nice and all-inclusive the church is. And we wonder: "How many of them have read their Bibles?" Sodom and Gomorrah. Romans 12. 1st Corinthians 6. The Bible clearly calls homosexuality a sin. Is that politically correct these days? No way. Will we get abuse heaped on us for holding to such an "outdated" and "better-than-thou" view? You bet. But since when do God's people take their truth from polls of popular human opinion? Unfortunately, God's people have been doing it for centuries, and they have been scattered and destroyed because of it. The truth of God's Word is substituted for a lie.
That is what God is warning us against this morning. We are living in a very difficult time in the church. We live in the age of relativism -- what's good for you is good for you, but it might not be for me. This is how it works. People are taught that there is no Creator, but that we just evolved into what we are. That might not sound so sinister, but listen to what that means. If there is no Creator, then there is no God. If there is no God, we are here by chance. If we are here by chance, we don't have to live for anybody but ourselves, because there's no God anyway. If we live for ourselves, then we have become our own god. No one can tell us what's right and no wrong -- certainly not God because there is no God. I decide what's right or wrong for myself. If there's no right or wrong, everything becomes what I want it to be. If I want to pour sugar on my Fruit Loops, I can -- there will be no consequence besides being very awake. If there is no right or wrong, the Bible is just another book -- it might be right, it might be wrong. Who cares? If the Bible is just some book that might be wrong, I don't have to follow it. Basically, I can do whatever I jolly well please and there will be no consequences. Is this a scary world? You bet it is! And we're living in it!
What do we need in such a world? We need a leader, a shepherd who will guide us through. That leader, that shepherd is God himself. Psalm 46 says, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea." Then he describes God's people as a city, "the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress." This is what God promised for the people of Jeremiah's day: " 'I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,' declares the LORD." God punished his own people by allowing their enemies to triumph over them. They were besieged; they were humiliated; many were killed. They were taken away from their homes into exile. It all happened because they forsook their God. But God promised that he would bring them back and give them faithful shepherds to care for them, just as he was providing Jeremiah at that time. They were faithful because they weren't afraid to stand up for what God said. And he blessed his people as a result as they followed his Word.
You are sheep in God's fold. He feeds you with his pure Word, not someone's opinions of what is right and wrong, not someone's idea of what is truth and falsehood. He feeds you with his pure Word. That is what we need. Today many people go after many other things that they think will be good for them, but it ends up being the opposite. As an example, recently a small plane loaded with $20 million worth of cocaine was intercepted by federal agents as it flew over the Florida coast. Immediately, bales of cocaine began falling from the sky. Some dropped in the Everglades, some in parking lots, one even on the roof of someone's house. When the plane finally landed, four bundles of cocaine were still on board. Two men were arrested and could be behind bars for the rest of their lives. How strange that something thought to be so profitable suddenly became so condemning.
We don't need what this world sees as profitable or good, whether it's cocaine or a "believe what you want to believe" philosophy. There is a standard. There is absolute truth. It is God's Word. God uses it to feed us as sheep in his fold.
In that Word, not only do we find out what is definitely right and wrong, truth and falsehood, but most importantly we find God's perfect Son, our Savior.
Think of the times you haven't stood up for what is right. Think of the times you haven't stood staunchly on God's Word when others ridiculed you. Think of the times you haven't been the good leader God wants you to be, whether that's being a good leader in the church, leading by example and humility, or being a leader in your family, encouraging regular Bible study and leading your children by example. For that we deserve to have the reality of hell poured out on us. But then we need to listen to the last verses in our text:
"The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness."
God described the line of kings over Israel as dead because they forsook the Lord. He described it as a dead stump. But from the line of spiritually dead kings God would make a living Branch sprout. Instead of following other gods and living for himself, this King would live perfectly, he would do what is just and right. Who would this king be? God's own Son, whom God sent into the world to save sinners. That is the greatest truth of the Bible. It doesn't just tell us what's right and wrong. It tells us how all our wrongs have been righted by Jesus who came to live and die for us to bring us eternal life as a gift. Unlike King Ethelred, Jesus was not "unready." Unlike King Ethelbert, Jesus was not "uncertain." He knew what he had to do. He knew what is would cost him -- suffering hell itself for the whole world when he hung on the cross. And he was ready and willing to do it. And he did. He took all the sins you and I have committed when we weren't good leaders in the church or in the home, when we didn't stand up for the Bible as we should, and he died for those sins. He has gone down in history with the name he was given by God through Jeremiah -- "the LORD our righteousness." He is God himself who gave us his righteousness and took all our sins upon himself and suffered and died for them and paid for them in full.
There are many things that people don't like about history and might forget about their history class in school. But you tell them of the most important event that ever occurred in history -- Jesus died on the cross to take away the world's sins, including ours. God has saved you through Jesus. You are sheep in God's fold. Live off the pure Word he feeds you. Live in his perfect Son who saved you. Amen.
