Our Only Answer

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday, the 23rd of October, 2022, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.]

I seldom work from the Old Testament.  I’m much more often led by the Spirit to the New Testament and the testimony of those who walked with or were divinely inspired by Jesus.

But the Old Testament is also filled with testimony.  It foreshadows Jesus and prepares us for His coming.  And it contains very important lessons for us, lessons provided directly by God, lessons we need to learn in order to be and remain right in God’s eyes.

In our opening invocation, we noted that the Lord hears and answers the prayers of the righteous, of those who obey God’s word, but that He stays far off from the wicked and doesn’t even hear their pleas.

Jeremiah was a righteous man.  He was so righteous, that God allowed him to be a prophet.  The Almighty God chose to speak through Jeremiah.  And God would listen when Jeremiah prayed.  But as we know, God’s answer to our prayer is not always what we had hoped for.  And that goes for Jeremiah, too.

I’d like to share with you one of the many times that Jeremiah prayed.  In this particular instance, he pleads with the Lord for the sake of His people, and the Lord responds.  Please listen and follow along to the exchange the prophet recorded, in chapter 14, verses 7 through 10 of the book bearing his name, and I’ll be reading this from the New American Standard Bible version…

7 “Though our wrongdoings testify against us,

Lord, act for the sake of Your name!

Our apostasies have indeed been many,

We have sinned against You.

8 Hope of Israel,

Its Savior in time of distress,

Why are You like a stranger in the land,

Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night?

9 Why are You like a confused person,

Like a warrior who cannot save?

Yet You are in our midst, Lord,

And we are called by Your name;

Do not leave us!”

10 This is what the Lord says to this people: “So much they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; now He will remember their wrongdoing and call their sins to account.”

--Jeremiah 14:7-10 (NASB)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for ensuring that Your word would be saved for us, even across many thousands of years.  Before You sent Your Son Jesus to the earth as one of us, to offer us salvation, You chose people to speak to us through.  Jeremiah was one of those prophets.  Thank You, loving God, for providing us with these lessons to help guide us in our walk through this life.  Forgive us, please Father, when we wander from You and the path You would have us follow.  Forgive us when we fail to heed the warnings You issued through Your prophets.  Please help us remember all the lessons from our Bible, from both Old and New Testaments.  Help us learn from the examples of those who went before us, both the good and the bad.  And Father, please protect us from Satan and from those who do his work.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Give us greater insight into what it means to be righteous, to be right with You.  Please do not turn Your ear away from us.  This we pray in the glorious name of Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

A gentleman by the name of John Endsley once said, “It is not the severity of punishment that acts as a deterrent. It is its inevitability.”  I believe we can see this concept manifested in our society today, with horrendous results.  We have perhaps become too lenient as a society, too lenient in what we allow, in what we’ll accept.

We’ve all seen or heard of the frazzled parent who over and over again tells their child to behave or they’ll really get it.  But they never do.  The child receives no punishment for misbehaving.  There is no incentive to do better.

Criminals are caught and then released the same day.  They may stand trial, but receive little or no punishment for their criminal activities.  There is no incentive to do better, no deterrent to bad behavior.

We Christians would do well to pay attention to this trend, for it could greatly affect us, not only personally but in our assigned mission as well.  Too many people think they can get away with anything, that there will be no real or lasting punishment for their wickedness.  They may be right in their thinking… in this life.  But they won’t get away with it when God is their Judge.  He has promised not only will He turn a deaf ear to their prayers, but He will “remember their wrongdoing and call their sins to account”.  He told us this through His prophet Jeremiah, and we know it to be true because everything God says is truth.  In our efforts to help save the lost, we need to share God’s warning with them, and assure them that God’s punishment for the wicked is inevitable.

Now, Jeremiah isn’t the only one who warns the evildoers of punishment to come.  This message appears often in our Bible, in both Testaments.  And we know, and can share with others, that anytime something is repeated in our Bible, it is very important for us to pay attention and understand what we’re being told.

Isaiah is another who God chose to speak through, and is arguably the greatest prophet of all.  In the 11th verse of the 13th chapter of his book of prophecy, Isaiah recorded God saying…

11 “I will punish the world for its evil,

And the wicked for their iniquity;

I will halt the arrogance of the proud,

And will lay low the haughtiness of the tyrants."

--Isaiah 13:11 (NKJV)

Just as He did with Jeremiah, God speaks through Isaiah, warning that punishment will come.  The wicked will pay for their sins.  The haughty and the arrogant will be brought low.  Punishment for evildoers is inevitable.

Our passage from Jeremiah teaches an important lesson to us of the need to be righteous in God’s eyes, to obey His word.  And it speaks a grave warning, that our heavenly Father will turn His ear from the wicked and punish them for their sins.  But it also continues with the message from last week on the importance of and need for prayer.

We no longer have a Jeremiah or an Isaiah to pray for us, to plead on our behalf, and to relay God’s response to us.  Once Jesus came to us and died for us, He became our great High Priest, our Prophet of God.  We need to pray to our heavenly Father through Jesus His Son, pray for our own selves and for others as we are led.  And we know that prayer works, for James, the brother of Jesus, tells us that the prayer of a righteous person avails much.

Ezra was another righteous man, another prophet of God, and widely considered to be the author of the Books of the Chronicles.  Hear what God spoke through Ezra, from the 2nd Book of Chronicles, chapter 7, verses 13 and 14…

13 "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

--2 Chronicles 7:13-14 (NKJV)

Through Ezra, God gives us the answer to all our problems: pray.  Just pray.  If we would just humble ourselves and pray, seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways, then the Lord will hear our plea, forgive our sin, and heal our land.

Family, this is our only answer: just pray.  The world and the wicked may be seeing part of their punishment right now, but the worst is yet to come for them.  They need to join us in prayer.  If only they could hear and heed the words of Jeremiah and Isaiah and Ezra.

There’s one more person we need to hear from this morning, one who, while not a prophet in the traditional sense, still speaks for Jesus and for God.  Please listen as the Apostle Paul reaffirms why prayer works, in chapter 10 verses 3 through 5 of his 2nd letter to the Corinthians...

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

--2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NKJV)

Prayer works because God is all-powerful, almighty, invincible.  God can do anything.  Nothing can stand against Him.

We mortals, in our flesh, can do very little, especially in warfare against evil.  Our manmade weapons are ultimately useless.  But we do have a not-so-secret weapon that is greater than anything the devil can bring to bear.  We have prayer, and a loving Father in heaven who hears and answers our prayers.  But we need to make sure that we are right in God’s sight, and not actually among the wicked.  We need to obey God’s word to avoid His inevitable punishment of evil.

Family, there is very little you and I can do to change the world, to right all the wrongs we see across the globe.  We can make a difference locally, even if only a slight improvement in conditions.  But really, our only answer is prayer.  Our only answer to all the craziness and hurt and injustice and wickedness in the world today is prayer.

Jesus is our Mediator.  When we pray in His name, God listens.  We just need to obey Jesus, for Jesus is God’s Word.  Obey Jesus, stay right with God, and pray.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for hearing our prayers.  Thank You for not turning Your back on us.  Father, too often we don’t take the time to stop and pray.  And even when we do, we’re too focused on our own needs and wants, with less concern that Your will be done rather than our own.  Thank You for warning us of the punishment that awaits the wicked.  Forgive us, Father, when we focus our time on the wrong things.  Forgive us when we seek a change in our situation rather than a change in our heart, in our character.  Please, loving Father, help us not only come to You more often, but with a right attitude.  Remind us what the next life will hold for both the good and the evil.  Help us be right in Your sight.  And Father, please help us remain strong, faithful, and true through all that we face in this age.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, once You came to this earth as one of us and died for us, we no longer had need for prophets.  You now speak for God, and You mediate with God on our behalf.  Thank You, Lord, for serving as our greatest High Priest and only Mediator.  Please, Lord, help us be more faithful in our prayer life.  Please help us open ourselves up to God, seeking only His will in all things.  Help us be more righteous, doing only what is right in our Father’s eyes, obeying His word.  And Jesus, please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us remain trusting and obedient no matter what we go through.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.