Trinity 11
Dear friends in Christ! It is the age old question that unbelievers try to use to discredit and silence Christians; try to use to make themselves secure in their thinking, rationalizing away their unbelief—and even some Christians get tripped up in this sort of thinking: if there is a God and He is good, then why is there all sorts of evil in the world? What’s implied is that either there is no God or He is powerless to do anything against the evil. It tries to place the blame for evil in the world on God and to “excuse” us from our sin. There is evil in the world because the devil since the Garden of Eden has been the prime mover of all evil; and since we have been conceived and born in sin, the human heart is the cause of sin. Each person, not God, is responsible for his/her thoughts, words and deeds.
But faith is bold: by faith we know that God turns around the evil/ sin that the devil wants to work and uses it for His good and gracious purpose to carry out His gracious, saving will. As an illustration we could point to all the history leading up to the coming of Christ and how through all sorts of evils, God worked to prepare for the coming of the Savior; we could also point to the greatest evil ever perpetrated—Jesus’ crucifixion, where sinful man killed his God—and there see that precisely through that evil, God worked the greatest good: the salvation of the world.
Unbelief/ rejection of the true God—looking only at the outward, is the most weak/ gutless thing. Faith is bold because it looks to and holds firmly to the word and promises of God—even when everything else screams the opposite.
Our text also introduces us to another age old question: How can God be a good God who loves people if He punishes them for their sin? This is an attempt to pit God’s righteousness against His mercy. Today, many people think of God only as a God of love who would not condemn anyone to hell. They think that because God loves all He will, in the end, save all. The natural consequence of this thinking is what we see around us in our once formerly Christian society: because people do not take the righteous demands of God and His wrath seriously—because He is a God of love, who will not and cannot condemn—they live any way they want to with no regard to the Lord and His holy will. If we’re in the end all going to be saved; if I can be a slave to sin and my desires and in the end go to heaven—why not live any debauched way I can; why give any thought to God at all?
That’s how the people of Micah’s day basically thought: God is a God of love; we are His people; we can do what we want and God can do nothing about. Yes, He is a God of love—not because He didn’t/ wouldn’t punish the people for sin but because He warned them against their sin and of the coming doom/destruction that they were bringing upon themselves because they were rejecting Him and His holy will—because as a holy God He must punish sin.
Our text: Is this the talk in the house of Jacob? Is the Spirit of the LORD restricted? These are not His doings, are they? Through the preaching of prophets like Micah and Isaiah the Lord was preaching His holy Law. He was confronting the Israelites with their sin and warning them of the consequences of their sin—punishment now and eternally. But what was their response? Were they happy their waywardness and sin had been pointed out so they could cease and desist? Hardly! They still considered themselves: the house of Jacob, that is, they still considered themselves to be God’s people, like their ancestor Jacob, but they were utterly unlike Jacob who trusted in the Lord, looked forward in faith to the coming Savior and was sorry for his sin. They asked: is the Spirit of the LORD restricted, that is, is God impatient, like the threats of Micah and the other faithful prophets indicate. Basically they were saying that God would ignore their sin and not punish them—He’s not impatient with us. The people would appeal to God’s mercy whenever the prophets would point to sin and judgment.
They would ask: These are not His doings, are they? They were basically saying: it can’t be the case that these threatened punishments would come because that would be vindictiveness on God’s part and it seems that He would delight in them. Again, they held to part of God’s word: He promises to be with His people and protect them. Certainly He wouldn’t change His mind!?
Dear Christian, notice what’s happening here. The people were holding on to bits and pieces of God’s word—not God’s word in its entirety. They did not like the parts about keeping God’s holy Law and the punishments that result when it is disobeyed; but liked the bits about His love, protection, patience, etc. So what did they do? They used God’s mercy, love, patience wrongly—as a cloak/ excuse to sin. St. Paul puts it this way [Romans 6.1,2a]: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. Precisely here we must examine our own hearts and lives to see whether we are keeping straight God’s holy Law and his Gospel. Wherever God’s word is taught rightly, there the devil will always be working to destroy the right, Spirit-given doctrine and understanding.
Sin, our sin, is a serious matter. It is an affront to the holy God, a rebellion against His just and holy will. The Lord in our text describes sin this way: My people have risen up as an enemy. May we be on guard here against the devil’s deceptions. Notice what the devil does—he takes a bit of the truth but distorts and twists it into a lie. Although sin, our sin, is a serious matter—worthy of punishment now and for all eternity—that is serious preaching of the Law to drive us to recognize and sorrow over our sin, despair of our own ability to save ourselves and to look to Christ as Savior from that sin—the devil here wants us to misapply the Gospel.
What we see in Micah’s day we have to watch out for in our own lives. We have to watch out for confusing Law and Gospel in our lives. What happens when we are confronted with the preaching of God’s holy Law, His holy 10 Commandments and our inability to keep them? Do we merely say “Oh, well, no big deal. God will forgive them all anyway.” Do we take our sin lightly as no “big deal?” Do we hide behind the fact: well I’m baptized, I’m a Christian, I don’t have to worry about it; do we say the Lord will be merciful and forgive that one too? And so, in the end, continue on as before?
If we do, we have fallen prey to the devil’s lies and confused law and Gospel. The Gospel—the good news for the forgiveness of sins in Christ, that in Christ we are reconciled to God and forgiven our sin—that dare never be used as an easy way out of sin so that we not only not sorrow over it but also continue in it and grow in our sin. Notice how deceitful the devil is and how willing our own sinful heart is to follow. Only when we are confronted by our sin in God’s holy Law and crushed by the enormity of our sin, hate our rebellion against our just, holy and gracious Lord, recognize our hopelessness of trying to save ourselves, and long for a Savior from that sin—then and only then dare we hide behind our baptism and with the hand of faith reclaim the gifts and blessings of our baptism; then and only then, in the sorrow over sin and trust in Christ, do we run to and apply God’s mercy and patience to ourselves, receiving His absolution/ forgiveness, and continue to fight against that sin; then and only then dare we apply to ourselves the promise of God to be with us, protect us.
First the Law—and rightly applied to ourselves and allowed to work to show us our sin to work true sorrow—and first then to the heart and conscience troubled over sin comes the Gospel, the good news of the forgiveness of sins. Or, to put it differently: the Gospel does not apply to those who are not sorry for their sin, to the impenitent.
That’s the point the devil and their own sinful hearts have led many to ignore and so use what they think the Christian faith is to continue to live a life unconcerned about sin and becoming more and more secure in their sin. The devil and the sinful heart love to create this caricature of the holy Christian faith. But let us hear again the Lord’s word from our text: Do not My words do good To him who walks uprightly? The one who walks uprightly—the one who recognizes his/her sin, sorrows over them, trusts in Christ for the forgiveness of those sins, and by the power of the Holy Spirit fights against them—to that person the Lord is always ready to give every heavenly blessing of forgiveness, life, joy, peace etc.
But to the one that is not sorry for sin and wants to remain in sin and impenitence, such a person can expect no grace/ forgiveness as long as they remain impenitent. So greatly does sin, Satan and sinful heart deceive, that people want to be told only what’s pleasing to the old sinful self and so they continue on that path of sin. Our text: If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people! So corrupted by sin, people only want to hear what’s pleasant, to hear lies, to ignore the holy Law of God and yet think they are entitled to all good things God promises. As was true with the Israelites then, so too today: people clamor for a Gospel that’s no Gospel; they clamor for what suits their fleshly lusts and passions. Lest we be deceived by our sinful nature, the call for us, dear Christian, is for us examine our hearts and lives; to listen to both God’s holy Law, by which God condemns our sin and brings us to nothing; and when we recognize our sin let us hear His holy Gospel, by which in Word and Sacrament, He gives us forgiveness of sin and His Holy Spirit by Whose strength we fight against sin.
The Lord is good! He is a God of love. His purpose is not to bring people in judgment and rejection. But as a God of love, He must preach to us His holy law; He must at times use it and even, like He would with the Israelites, use drastic means to call to us, to wake us up from the sleep of sin; to alert us of our sin and the punishment that awaits. Remember what Scripture clearly teaches [1 Timothy 2.4]: God our Savior…desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Even God’s use of His holy Law, both in preaching and in earthly punishments for sins, must serve His loving purpose of keeping us from eternal judgment and rejection because of sin. Our text: Arise and depart, For this is not your rest; Because it is defiled, it shall destroy, Yes, with utter destruction. To awaken the people from their sin and their lives of continued sin, the Lord allowed the people to suffer the earthly consequence of their sin—He would kick them out of the land He had given them; send them into exile; they would not enjoy His protection, peace and prosperity. Where there is no sorrow over sin, there is no cure/ remedy and so the Lord in love has to show the ultimate results/ consequences of sin.
As He does so now—be it ever so painful as He allows the consequences of sin to come on us, it is His love calling us to recognize our sin and repent of it.
Can a God of love punish us because of our sin? Absolutely! God is a holy God and our sin is a serious matter: it is disobedience to the holy will of God and defiance of the One who demands perfection. By His Law He brings us to recognize our sin and our inability to save ourselves and our well-deserved punishment for sin—let us rightly hear and apply God’s holy law to our own hearts and lives. But God comes with His holy Gospel of forgiveness of sins in Christ assuring us of/ and giving us His mercy, grace, love, patience. Here alone is our salvation. But woe to us if we reject it; then we reject the only way we can be saved. But now is the time of grace—our good and gracious Lord is calling to us to repent of our sin and trust in Him for forgiveness. INJ Amen