God's Word Shall Not Return Empty
Grace
and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let
him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for
He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the
snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making
it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me
empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the
thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:6-11).
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near,” our
text invites. The problem is that none of us has the natural ability to seek
the Lord. In fact, left to ourselves, none of us even wants to seek the Lord. Like
Adam and Eve after the fall into sin, we run away, we hide from Him. Why is
that? Because ever since the fall we are enemies of God. We are conceived and
born dead in our trespasses and sins. We want nothing to do with a holy God.
But God, in His grace does not leave us alone. He sends His Word to draw us
to Him. We Lutherans confess this in the explanation to the Third Article of
the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength
believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has
called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified, and kept me
in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and
sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ
in the one true faith.”
The Lord God is extremely patient and gracious. Through His Word, the Holy
Spirit invites us to seek the Lord and call upon Him in faith. He urges us to
turn away from our wicked ways and to turn to Him while there is still
opportunity. He promises to have mercy on the penitent sinner and to pardon him
freely through His powerful, gracious Word. God’s Word works faith and bestows
forgiveness. I know, it sounds too good to be true, but it is true! Our
salvation is entirely in our Lord’s hands from start to finish. What a comfort
for us sinners!
The death of a loved one, without fail, triggers every emotion in the human
existence in very short order. For people of faith, the question also arises
concerning the eternal welfare of the departed. And too often, our thinking
becomes fretting in light of what we knew or thought we knew. It is difficult
for us, in such a time as this, to reflect and focus our concerns with what God
knows.
Through the prophet Isaiah, our Lord reminds us that He operates in ways
that we cannot always understand; and He points out the arrogance of man in
presuming to know all things. We don’t like to admit it when we don’t know the
answer. It pesters us to no end when we are confronted with things that are
beyond our limited human comprehension. We find it difficult to place the
knowledge of all things with God alone and leave it in His hands. But so we
must.
Fortunately, there is much that we can know, from which our Lord would have
us receive strength and comfort, especially in times like this. We know,
according to the Scriptures, that it is the Lord alone who searches the heart
and the Lord alone who has the power to save. And He has promised you that His
Word does not go out into the ears of His hearers in vain.
Through His prophet, God also tells us how His Word works. God’s Word comes
down from Him like rain and snow from heaven, which waters the ground and makes
it bud and flourish. When God’s Word comes to sinners, it works in the same way.
God’s Word works when and where He pleases, simply by His grace.
The free gift of eternal salvation by grace through faith in Christ Jesus
is just that—a free gift. And the Lord has told us in His Word how it is that
He gives us this saving faith. He tells us in Titus, chapter 3, that He saved
us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own
mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He
poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being
justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal
life.
Dean was baptized at Zion Lutheran Church. That Word of God works forgiveness
of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all
who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. Dean publicly confessed
his Christian faith and pledged to continue in this confession and Church. Like
each of us, Dean was less than perfect in his keeping of his vows. Thankfully, our
salvation is not dependent upon our keeping of vows, but rather on God’s
keeping of His promises, or else none of us would be saved. And so, today we
take solace in this promise of God: His Word does not return to Him empty, even
when we can’t measure the results with our limited human minds and sinful
hearts. Your peace and your comfort cannot come from what you know or think you
might know, but must come from the certain and the eternal Word of God.
The Lord Jesus, true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity, and
also true Man, born of the Virgin Mary, is the Word made flesh who dwelt among
us. Our heavenly Father sent Jesus, His only Son to reconcile the whole world, Dean
included, to Himself. He bought us back from sin and the power of the grave not
with gold or silver, but with His own precious blood and His innocent suffering
and death. Though the wages of sin is death, as we are grimly reminded today,
the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus paid the
price for all of our transgressions, and gives the promise of everlasting life to
all who would believe in Him through His life-giving Word.
It has been said that a funeral service is for the living and not
the dead. That is most certainly true. Therefore also the funeral sermon is one
for you, the living, and the applications must be made to you. For each one of
us here... well, there will come a time when no doctor will be able to help...
when no accountant will be able to give you a few extra days... when no
repairman can fix what’s broken. We will each face circumstances in our life
that we cannot possibly handle on our own; that just don’t make sense to our
limited human reasoning. Moreover, your death and mine are also coming. And so
we must seek the Lord while He may found.
And we need to do this today, not tomorrow. None of us knows if we
will even be around at the end of this day. We don’t have any guarantees. Let Dean’s
death be a sobering reminder for us to get our lives in order and our
priorities straight. Tonight as you are in bed and it is dark and quiet, think
about your own sin and your need for a Savior. Turn to God’s Word for comfort,
peace, hope, and guidance. Pour out your heart to God in prayer.
If you have more questions or want to talk more about these things
in the days ahead, please speak to your pastor or other mature Christian
friend. If you don’t have anyone else, I would love to speak with you about
these things, or I can certainly help get you in touch with someone else who
can. I mean this. There is truly nothing more important. It is literally a
matter of life and death—eternal life and death.
Seek the Lord while He may be found in His Word. Call upon Him while He is
near in His means of grace. Forsake your wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts. Return
to the Lord, that He may have compassion on you and pardon your sins. His Word will
not return to Him empty. It shall accomplish His purposes. For by that Word, you
have forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. Indeed, you are forgiven for all
your sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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