Sermon in Rockford 31.07.2016

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Let us thank and pray.

Holy Father, Almighty God, we thank you for your grace, for your blessings, for everything which you give unto us. Because by faith we understand that whatever you give, it is good. Dear God, we humbly pray this morning that you would bless our coming together, that you would open your word unto us. Because with our means it stays closed, and we have to turn away empty from it. But if you, dear Father, are so gracious that you open it, we open it. We are being emboldened, strengthened, revived, and refreshed in our faith. And we go away praising you.

So, dear God, we ask for your service blessing this morning hour. And we also ask that you would help us in our afflictions. You know where we came from. You know our burdens, our fears, our trials, because you have allowed them unto us so that they would drive us to you. And we want to stay there. And we ask that you would help us.

Dear Father, we say, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Amen.

The theme of this Sunday is very touching and it comes close to us. It speaks of the times of agitation. And the Old Testament text that kept coming is from the book of Jeremiah, chapter 6, verses 16 through 19. And we hear these words in Jesus' name:

Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. Also I said, watchmen over you, saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not hearken. Therefore, hear ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth, behold, I will bring evil upon these people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor unto my law, but rejected it.

Amen.

This is a strong text, gloomy words. And I would have wanted to read something else. But this felt like the text for today. Jeremiah had a difficult calling in his life. He was called a prophet when he was young. He was so young that he struggled. And from a human standpoint, he fought against it as much as he could. But God didn't hear him in this sense. Of course God heard, but God's thoughts were different. That was his calling. And God sent him, and God was faithful. And when God sent him, He said, do not fear their faces.

Jeremiah had to speak to the people who did not want to hear his message. I am fortunate that when I can serve you, I see love in the faces and not hatred. Jeremiah saw much hatred when he spoke. But he had to. And he was obedient and spoke. And so, I tried to be obedient to this text. I was obedient, although there was a temptation to take something, a narrative that has lots of Bible history, information, neutral, kind. It would be easier to your flesh and mine. But here we are, reading the warning.

These words are a warning to us. God said, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, which is the good way. So first, stand ye in the ways. Stand. Don't go. Be there, stay there. Stay where you are. And then he says, and see. What do you see when you look around? Do you see God's congregation? Or do you see a group of sinful people who you don't regard very highly? Do you see a group of saints or a group of sinners?

If we go and ask from this world, it might be interesting to hear their comments. They might say, oh yeah, they're nice people. They are biblical. They are faithful. But they're too narrow-minded. They are judgmental. They preach of sin. They are fundamentalists. They stick to the Bible, to these old texts. They live in the history. They cannot change, they cannot accept the change which is all over. Why are they so stubborn? And when someone might say, when I hear their sermons, they're painful. Even I've heard some people say about our songs that they're too melancholic. They don't convey joy or hope or peace to them. But they don't have their rhythm that takes them with. They don't like them.

And the Bible says that the word, the Gospel, speaks of death to unbelieving people. See the difference. Do you agree with them or do you disagree with them? But they don't have the rhythm, they don't beat with, they don't have the rhythm or the service of death. They don't have the truth. They don't have the word. Do you disagree with them? It's a personal question. Everybody has to take a stand. No one in the long run can go by the flow. But everybody has to take a stand.

Stand ye in the ways. And see. He says, if you stand in the ways, you will see. Believing is seeing. It's not in the way as this world says that seeing is believing. They say, I only believe what I can see. I only accept what I can handle or understand, what is concrete to me. I only accept that. We can't do it. If we would only accept that which we can believe and with our temporal talent can handle, or as the saying goes, put our hands around it, there would not be very much to be believed for us.

Or do you think that Abraham understood when he said to the servants near the mount where he was to go to sacrifice his son, when he said to the servants, Stand ye here, and I and my son will go to pray, and we will return back to you? Abraham didn't know because God had said that you have to sacrifice your son. And sacrificing at that time meant a burnt offering. And still he said, We will return.

Or do you think that Noah understood very clearly what's going to happen when God gave commandments for his work of one hundred and twenty years to build the ark, a huge ship on the desert? I would dare to say that he did not understand. And the Bible testifies of that, that by faith they did it. Faith was the key, not understanding.

And if I understand something in a way, I don't need to believe into it. If I understand, if it's clear, if all within me, my corrupt old portion included, accepts it, there's not much to believe. How often we have experienced how our old portion battles against the new portion. How the thoughts of our carnal portion fight against the will of God or the doctrine of God. It happens all the time. And that's how it is. That's why the only way to cross the void is by faith. The only way is by faith.

Stand ye in the ways and see. And see the way. And then Jeremiah says, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way. Ask for the old paths because that is the good way. We can read it, ask for the old paths, where is the good way. But we can also read this, ask for the old paths, where is the good way, the good way. And I think both are right. The old paths are a good way. And of course, we also want to carefully place our feet on the ground that we stay on the good way. So we also ask, where is the good way? And the answer is the old paths.

And walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Do you want to be in peace? Do you want to find rest for your soul? If you do, seek for the old paths and seek, seek for the paths that have been tried and tested. But they said, we will not walk therein.

And now we ask, if someone is not content with the old path, what do they look for? And I guess the answer is simple: something new, something new. Of course, we know that in human perspective there are different kinds of people. Some prefer the old and some prefer the change. There are people who are excited about new. That's human. But in faith, that's unhealthy.

In faith life, if someone rebukes you and says that you are old fashioned, be content, be happy, say quick, Yes, yes I am. And if they ask why, tell them, it's safest that way. It's tried and tested. You shall find rest for your souls.

When Apostle Paul wrote to the congregation of Rome, and there were obviously questions that were trying and testing the congregation, there were questions even about food and if it was okay to eat that food that came from a slaughterhouse that put part of the meat to the temples that served idols. Paul spoke of that and encouraged that we would not offend one another. But then after that he said, the kingdom of God is not meat, but it's righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit.

If you have found rest for your soul, it means you have found peace. Rest and peace are synonyms. If you are troubled, if you are unhappy, if you wish to speak against the sermons or the speakers or the boards or individuals, are you in peace?

May God grant us a simple but not stupid, simple and stupid are two different things, simple and childlike, down to earth, humble mind to seek for the old paths, to strive to keep the unity of love so that when the devil comes and tempts with the new thoughts, with the new findings, with the new ways, that we would say no, I look for the old paths and there I have rest for my soul.

But they said that we will not walk therein. It's a bold statement. That is a personal decision. And no one can believe for someone else. If we could believe for the others, none of us would have unbelieving children or siblings or parents or friends. We would believe for us and for them. But have you come into the realization that we cannot even believe for ourselves? We need lots of help in order to keep faith and good conscience.

First of all, we need God constantly. We need His forgiveness daily. We need His protection. We need the reminders of God's word. And then we need our brothers and sisters around us. We need the congregation of God. We need the support and the love of God and lots of forgiveness from them.

So the word together, to me, it describes our walk of faith. Together we will make it to heaven. Together with your help, I will make it to heaven. Without you, my dear brothers and sisters, I will have no hope. I will have no hope.

And then Jeremiah was given words from God to say, Also I set watchmen over you. It's God's order that there are watchmen. And God says, I set watchmen over you. And we, whom you have placed to serve you yourselves, we say because we know how the things were, we did not expect to be called. That was, I would say, my life's biggest surprise when my name came up in 1982 in the convocational meeting. I never thought about that.

And that's the same with all that the convocation of God has put to speak. Maybe someone has been received some kind of pre-warning from God, maybe not. But it is God's order to set watchmen.

Watchmen, just like if we take a picture of a city of the time. In that time, the cities were small and they were protected by the wall. And the cities and other people put watchmen to the walls. And the job of a watchman was to watch. That's why they are called watchmen. Watch around. But they were put to the walls of the city. The others were tilling the ground and preparing food and doing their temporal job.

It's impossible to till the ground if you are standing high on the wall of the city. There are two different colleagues. And a watchman who is standing on the wall is allowed to see further. That's the job of a watchman, to look from the wall. You see further than if you are tilling the ground, bending towards the ground.

And if the calling is different, it doesn't make the people different. Those who have been said to be watchmen are not more important than those that till the ground. They only have a different calling. And the calling comes from God. And God decides after all when a congregation in a prayerful heart asks, invites, and calls for a speaker. The call from some comes from God and not from the congregation. It's God through his spirit that takes the power of God and the wisdom of God to install the individual.

So if the watchman is no different or no better or more honorable than the one who tills the ground, is there any difference? Yes, there is. God has put that difference there. And it's not based on the people. It's based on the calling because the calling is different.

A job of a watchman is to watch. That's why they are to be on the walls of Zion so that they can see. What do they see? Or what do they watch? They watch what the enemy does. What is the enemy planning?

If we again go to the image of the time of Jeremiah where there is a city and the watchmen are on the city walls, they see to the horizon. They see and they hear if the enemy is planning to attack, if the enemy is gathering its troops and is preparing to attack.

What does a watchman do when he sees that the enemy is preparing to attack? He uses his tools. What is a tool of the watchman? What was a tool of the watchman in his time? In Jeremiah's time, there was a horn. Typically, I think it was an animal horn. At least the priests, they used ram's horn and they blew on it.

That's the job of a watchman. When the watchman sees that the enemy is preparing to attack, they raise the horn and blow on it as loud as possible. And the Bible says that the warning sign should be clear so that people can stop the temporal duties and come to protect their city.

Here Jeremiah says, Also I said watchmen over you saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet, meaning listen to the sound of the trumpet. They said, We will not hearken.

Think about the foolishness of the people of the city who know that their security lies on the alertness of the watchman and the security of the watchman. If the watchman sleep and nobody blows a horn, the enemy can attack so that the people are unaware and they may destroy the whole city.

But if the watchmen do their job and they see the enemy approach and blow the horn, people say, We don't listen. But people say, We don't listen. We don't care. We don't trust those watchmen. We don't believe there is no enemy.

But saints can peace. We know what's going to happen to those people. The enemy will attack as bad as he can. The watchman will attack as bad as he can.

And now has come the time that the watchman on the walls of Zion here in North America try to blow the horn. The enemy is gathering his troops and is attacking God's congregation. We blow the horn and we blow the horn and we blow the horn and we blow the horn.

And he's going to burn the whole Bible, all of the world, the world. And we will be erased and we will be erased all world of God, the world of God. We are here on who seem to want to stir the pot time and time again.

The question about forgiveness has been going now for months, maybe years. And honestly, I don't understand. What are we talking about? We preach the gospel happily always when it's possible, always when there's a penitent person. We preach the gospel and we rejoice of that. That's our calling. That's our job. That's the essence of God's kingdom. We preach the gospel.

And we don't study the hearts. Who could? And it's not our job to start studying, studying the hearts, picking apart someone's heart to know if your intentions are clean or not. How could we do that? It is impossible. It's not our task to study the hearts.

And with a sorrowful heart I have listened to the accusations of hypothetical examples. They may be hypothetical to a young person who has never experienced those. They may think that they're hypothetical. But how about to those who have experienced those, gone through those? How does a young person think that I know everything? And if I don't know that it's hypothetical.

It's a strong accusation. It's not good. It's unwise. It's not healthy to rise against the ministers or the congregation. It's very unhealthy. We should fear God that He would not take protection from us. Every one of us, every minister, every congregation member should fear God because God is the majesty. He decides. And if God hardens the heart who can soften it?

May God keep us timid in a right way. Childlike in a right way. Childlike, childlike, simple but not stupid. Simple is good. Stupid is not. Man's wisdom can turn out to be very stupid. It's man's wisdom. God's wisdom is simple and never stupid. God is so big that He can afford to appear very simple and small. God does not need to show off. God's doctrine is very simple. It's not complicated. That's the beauty of God's doctrine. That's so simple.

I was in a confirmation camp and on the camp exercise there's a question number 18 that warmed my heart. The question says, To whom is the gospel preached? There may be some who have answered to this question on your confirmation exercise so you know immediately. What is the answer? To whom is the gospel preached? It says, To the penitent and remorseful. And don't you say yes, exactly. That's how it is. To the penitent and to remorseful the gospel is preached. Period. No exceptions. No studying. No searching. No judging. Preach the gospel.

So we also can ask, to whom is the gospel not preached? And the answer is glaringly clear: To impenitent and unremorseful. The gospel is not preached. It is not preached. It is not preached.

Jesus said to whosoever sins ye retain they are retained. What is a retaining wall? It's a wall that keeps the dirt on the other side. That's retained. It holds back. That's what retained means. If God's congregation retains the sins on earth they are retained in heaven. They won't leak away from there. They stay.

And that pertains to the whole world. And that pertains to the whole world.

Therefore hear ye nations and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth, behold, I will bring evil upon these people even the fruit of their thoughts because they have not hearkened unto my words nor my law but rejected it.

Here we see a grave warning from God. Hear. Listen. Like the word of God says, let the one who has ear to hear.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us listen to the warnings of God that he echoes forth through his servants, those servants that you have installed to serve you. Let us hear them. Let us fear God with the heart of God, with the heart of love. We don't need to fear God like those who are slaves. But we fear God with a loving heart. We fear and love him at the same time.

God is our hope. And God wants us to stay alive. God wants us and our hearts and heart consciences to stay tender, that we don't get hardened, that we have ears to hear, and that we can believe with our hearts.

May God give you a wise heart and me to humbly accept and believe what he wants us to do. And God wants to keep us. We are his treasure. We are his own people. His favorite children that he loves tenderly. And that's why God wants to warn us of the dangers of the time that we would not be washed away and we would not go by the flow but we could stand upright humbly though fearfully, yes, but still stand in our place and seek for the old paths.

Dear brothers and sisters, uplift your hearts and believe your temptations, trials, doubts, and sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood. And I want to be in the love of God's congregation. I want to be protected by my own congregation. Can I believe my sins forgiven? I so much want to believe together with you. May God help us and keep us. And he is faithful. He has promised. He has promised to keep us.

Let us stay low, simple, and humble and keep our house clean. Our conscience is clean. That there are no hidden secrets. There are no sins. And God will take care of us. In Jesus' name. Amen.