Lent Midweek Sermon 5 - "As Surely as I Live," God Said - 2020

614 “As Surely as I Live,” God Said

Stanzas 1,2,3,4,4.1

“As surely as I live,” God said,

“I would not see the sinner dead.

I want him turned from error’s ways,

Repentant, living endless days.”

And so our Lord gave this command:

“Go forth and preach in ev’ry land;

Bestow on all My pard’ning grace

Who will repent and mend their ways.

“All those whose sins you thus remit

I truly pardon and acquit,

And those whose sins you will retain

Condemned and guilty shall remain.

“What you will bind, that bound shall be;

What you will loose, that shall be free;

To My dear Church the keys are giv’n

To open, close the gates of heav’n.”

“They who believe, when you proclaim

The joyful tidings in My name,

That I for them My blood have shed,

Are free from guilt and judgement dread.”

Homily

“As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Trully, “the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.” But in times of cross and sadness, it can indeed be difficult to realize that God is still abundantly merciful. But nevertheless, God is always gracious and His mercy always overcomes His wrath.

God may have destroyed the whole world with a flood, but He still preserved believing Noah and his family aboard the ark. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, but He rescued Lot and his daughters. God made the Israelites wander in the wilderness for forty years, but He saved them from the hands of the Egyptians. God has sent us this pestilence, but He has also sent us His Son Jesus who heals our every disease in the resurrection. 

God is just and He makes His wrath known, but more than that, He is merciful. Part of being merciful requires that He sometimes speaks harshly with us in order to awaken us unto repentance. “As surely as I live, God said, I would not see the sinner dead. I want him turned from error’s ways, repentant, living endless days.” God reveals His wrath for sin, sometimes in words and other times in natural calamities, but always in order to bring us to repentance and draw us closer to His mercy. Mercy for His people is what God desires. He desires that His people would live and have abundant life even eternally! 

However, as we know, the wages of sin is death. Those who are attached to sin shall die. In order to show mercy, as a remedy for sin and death, He took our sin upon Himself and died for us while we were still sinners. By His death, our sin and our death was taken away from us so that we might live eternally! The joyful tidings of Christ are that He has shed His blood for us, so that we might be freed from guilt and judgement. 

But, if we choose to cling to our sin instead of Jesus, then we will die! Such a thing would be a tragedy! It would be tragic that God pays the debt of sin and gives us life, but we would choose instead to remain in sin and die. So out of His mercy, God has risen up prophets, apostles, and pastors to preach repentance in every land. He ordered them to bestow upon all the repentant His pardoning grace, and to bind the unrepentant to their sin, condemned and guilty they remain.

In His mercy, God has raised up pastors to be watchmen, to listen to the Word of God and give the people warning for their sin. Just as the watchman on the tower doesn’t cry out in order to hurt people, but because he cares for them and wants them to live; so are pastors to cry out and warn people of their sin because they are to care for them and desire their forgiveness. 

Just as God has raised up pastors to be watchmen who must speak the frightening word of warning, so also especially does He raise up pastors to be men who speak God’s Word of absolution.

Stanzas 5, 5.1, 6, 6.1, 6.2

The words which absolution give

Are His who died that we might live;

The minister whom Christ has sent

Is but His humble instrument.

However great our sin may be,

The absolution sets us free,

Appointed by God’s own dear Son

To bring the pardon He has won.

When ministers lay on their hands,

Absolved by Christ the sinner stands;

He who by grace the Word believes

The purchase of His blood receives.

This is the Power of Holy Keys,

It binds and doth again release;

The Church retains them at her side,

Our Mother, and Christ’s holy Bride.

Let those who stings of conscience bear,

Whom sin would drive to dark despair,

To Jesus come with trustful mind

And peace in absolution find.

 Homily

When Jesus came to His disciples on that first Easter, where they were cowering behind a locked door for fear of death, He came to them, stood among them, and said “Peace be with you.” For those who have heard the word of warning from the watchman, who have run from their sins, and fear death: Christ comes to give peace. 

Just as Christ sent pastors to speak the frightening word of warning, so does Christ send pastors to speak the comforting words of absolution. My job is both to give you a word of warning for your sin, and when you’ve heeded that warning, to pronounce you forgiven! However great your sins, however terrified you are of death, however much you deserve hell, God’s forgiveness and mercy is greater and sets you free from that terror! God’s forgiveness is more powerful than your sin! 

As terrible as the worst pestilence might be, as bad as the destruction of the whole world would be, God’s mercy is greater and overcomes it all! When God sends sadness, repent of your sins, and find peace in Jesus. He promises you a rest outside of this life, away from this world of sadness and sickness, a home not filled with war and pestilence. Jesus tells us these things so that we will have peace in Him. Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” 

Indeed in this world we will have trouble, not just because of disease, sickness, and death, but particularly because of our sin. Yet in Christ, we have peace on account of the forgiveness that Christ has died and risen in order to give us. Christ has truly overcome the world, sin and death included! The peace of Christ now reigns supreme!

I have a feeling that this Easter will be just a small gathering of the saints, not unlike the first Easter we read about today. But just like that first one, Christ still comes to be with His terrified people and give them peace. Even when we lock ourselves in our homes, afraid of death, He comes and He shows us His richest grace! He promises never to leave us alone in the fear of our sins! He promises to be with us in the midst of our sins and death! 

Dear Christians, your Lord Jesus wants you to be comforted with His grace and forgiveness. He wants you to know that you’re forgiven and that He’s with you. You’re not alone. You will live forever. In order to do this He sent pastors as a sign of His peace and goodwill towards you. 

When you see pastors, really try to look beyond the man and all of his faults and weaknesses, and instead look to the office of pastor that this man holds. Be like the little child who in innocence thinks that the pastor is actually Jesus. Not because the man is Jesus, but because the words the pastor speaks are Jesus’ words. When the pastor says “I forgive you,” or “Go in peace,” know that it’s Jesus who speaks and His words of comfort are certainly for you. Just as Jesus speaks a word of warning through the pastor, so does Jesus speak a word of comfort through the pastor.

Believe me when I tell you: you’re not alone. Your sins are not stuck to you anymore. Death isn’t your future; only life! God loves you. Jesus died for you. Jesus forgives your sins. Peace be with you.

Stanzas 7, 8

All praise to You, O Christ, shall be

For absolution full and free,

In which You show Your richest grace;

From false indulgence guard our race.

Praise God the Father and the Son

And Holy Spirit, Three in One,

As was, is now, and so shall be

World without end, eternally!