Fear and Love God's Commandments: Close of the Commandments! Isaiah 29:17-24

Twelfth Sunday After Trinity                                                     4-Sept-22
Sermon Text: Isaiah 29:17-24
Sermon Theme: “Fear & Love God’s Commandments: Close of Commandments.”  by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert

I.N.R.I. “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwells.” Our Lord God preaches these words through the prophet Isaiah to Ariel - another name for Jerusalem. Why is the Lord preaching woe to the city where He had placed His Name in the Temple for a blessing? They have become blind, drunk, illiterate - no longer able to read and understand God’s Word recorded by His prophets. Isa 29:13-14 Therefore the Lord said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, (14) Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden." Forsaking God’s Holy Commandments they invented their own. They longed to be their “own gods” making up the rules according to their fantasies and feelings. Forsaking the Creator’s clear recorded Word they were slaves of Satan, the Lie, sin, shame, guilt, hell, and the fear of death. They were like a rebellious piece of clay, boasting against the Potter who carefully formed and molded it. Christ preaches, Isa 29:16 Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, "He did not make me"? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding"?
      Within a hundred years after Isaiah preached calling Jerusalem to repent and return to the Lord she would be destroyed. She rejected the Word of the Lord and had no wisdom. Nations who reject their Creator’s Word and rule soon self-destruct. Only a fool claims that there is “no god” and humanity is self-made rising up from the slime. Only those intoxicated with self-love and pride in their own learning claim that God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - “have no understanding.” The ancients wiser than we understood that life was too complex to evolve by chance. The man made unscientific myth of evolution rejected the Creator and His Word. Instead they choose the lie that material goods were all that mattered. Marx atheistic philosophy would give birth to communism and its attempts to create a utopia on earth through revolution and death. Instead of unifying a people communism constantly seeks to set one group against another to stir up hate and anger. Far from creating utopias the lie has only enslaved and murdered millions. Rejecting the Creator and Lord of Life it lauds death as a right and answer to all problems.
      As our nation celebrates “Labor Day” we need to repent acknowledging that all that we need to support body and life is a gracious gift of our Heavenly Father through our various vocations. Instead of listening to Satan’s lie that God doesn’t care and we might as well eat rocks. We need to learn well from our Creator and say with Jesus, Mat 4:4 ..., "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.'
    Listen and learn: “Fear & Love God’s Commandments: Close of Commandments.”
    The Lord Jesus preaches through the prophet (Isa. 29:17). The Creator is preparing to step into His creation. It is a fearful thing to stand before the living God. It was a fearful day in the history of mankind when the Lord God descended upon Mount Sinai in a thick dark cloud thunder and lightning, with the loud blasts of trumpets. The former Egyptian slaves, the children of Israel, numbering over two million people, saw the sight and trembled. They felt they would die when their Creator and God spoke to them His Ten Words - the Decalogue - the Ten Commandments. History records, “Exo 20:1-6 And God spoke all these words, saying: (2) "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (3) "You shall have no other gods before Me. (4) "You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; (5) you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, (6) but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” The Creator had redeemed them from slavery, bondage, death, and fear through the flesh and blood of the Passover Lamb, the water of the Red Sea, and Bread from heaven. He is “your” God! Yahweh - the Lord of the promise. Elohim- the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of life. He is “your” God - He knows you personally and draws near to deliver you from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil.
    (LSB pg. 322 Close of Commandments W.D.T.M?) Why do we call this the “close of the commandments” when it was attached to the first commandment? It applies to all Ten Commandments. The fear, love, and trust in God above all things is the golden ring that links all together as one golden chain. If we could keep the first commandment we’d keep the rest.
      “For I the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” Human jealousy arises out of our self-centered and self-serving interests. Yet, still it often has to do with our relationships with each other and love. The Lord God is a jealous God because He is Love and the Source of all good and perfect gifts. Satan’s lie, trumpeted by the world, and believed by our fallen fleshly reason is that God doesn’t care - His commandments limit real living, fun, and enjoyment. It is a lie. The Lord your God hates sin for it only enslaves and kills you - now and eternally in hell. The wages of sin is only and always death. What is sin? Breaking God’s Ten Commandments in what we think, say, do, or fail to do. If we break one of them we break all of them.
    What does this mean? “God threatens to punish all who break these commandments.” Ignore the Creator’s laws of gravity and physics and think that you can fly jumping from a plane will only result in death when you hit the ground. It is exactly the same when individuals, families, or nations ignore the Creator’s moral law - nature’s law written upon the hearts and consciences of humanity. It brings death. St. Paul calls the Ten Commandments written upon stone the ministry of death - not because the Law was faulty, but because humanity willfully tore itself away from its Creator and His life sustaining Word.
    “Therefore we should fear His wrath and not do anything against them.” (Isa. 29:20-21) Jerusalem would be destroyed and her people lead into captivity in Babylon for the Lord God loved them enough to save them from their sinful rebellion. The Ten Commandments are not child’s play - they are the very voice of our Creator. Break them and enslaved to sin you die! The first use of the Law is as a “curb” or a “breaking bit” in the mouth of a untamed horse - it hurts the wild animal more to disobey than to obey the commands of its trainer. So the first use of the law is for our ungodly world. Scripture teaches, 1Ti 1:8-11 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, (9) knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, (10) for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, (11) according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.” If children continue in the stubborn rebellion of their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents against the Lord’s Word - His Law will bring upon them the same punishment. Here the Law also keeps my old adam, the self-centered sinful idol called “ME” in check. Our nation’s father’s confessed that God’s Ten Commandments were the most distilled form of natural law - so they engraved it upon their court buildings - liberty flows within the boundaries of God’s Will for His Creation.         The Second use of God’s Law is a mirror. It shows us who we are before the only true and holy God. St. John teaches us, 1Jn 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (9) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.   (LSB pg. 322 Close of Commandments W.D.T.M?) The Law holds a promise. God “promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments.” Isn’t that the rub. We are poor miserable sinners - sinning we are enslaved to sin. Looking into the mirror of God’s Holy Law we see that we don’t fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We neglect prayer and are deaf to hearing His Word. Instead of love we bite and devour our neighbor to get ahead - only to be left empty. We cannot save ourselves from our sin. Listen! (Isa. 29:17-19) The Creator enters history to undo what our sinful rebellion corrupted. He opens our ears to hear His Word of promise. His Word of grace and every blessing in the flesh and blood of Jesus. “Therefore, we should also love and trust in Him” 1Jn 4:9-11 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. (10) In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” God’s love for you in Christ Jesus is perfect. He came as your Brother, fulfilling God’s Will for humanity from the moment of His conception to His death for you upon the cross. Now His perfect life is wrapped around you in Holy Baptism. He clothes you in His righteousness, innocence, and blessedness that you may live in His kingdom - for He is risen from the dead and rules!
        Trust in Christ’s fulfillment of these Holy Ten Commandments alone as that which justifies you before God’s judgment throne. (Isa. 29:22-24) The deaf mute man met his Creator in the flesh and blood of Jesus. Jesus uses sign language. Then speaks to a deaf man, “Be Opened!” His Word is living, active, making all things new - for it is full of the Holy Spirit - the Lord and Giver of Life. .   (LSB pg. 322 Close of Commandments W.D.T.M?) Paying our debt of sin once and for all Jesus cried out, “It is finished.” Then He breathed out His life giving Spirit. He would breathe Him out again resurrected from the dead giving peace to His disciples through the forgiveness of their sins. Made alive by God the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus. “We love and trust in Him and gladly do what He commands.” The Law is no longer burdensome - it is the Christian’s guide, the channel through which all good works flow from God to our neighbor’s need. Through the mundane tasks of our daily vocations our Creator cares for His creation and those around us. 1Co 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Amen.