A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! By repeated and persistent habit, the people of Judah had made sin, faithlessness, and rebellion a way of life. The pieces of evidence were everywhere. Their children gave ample testimony to their idolatry. Everywhere, in every suitable location, even in the temple (2 Kings 23:7), they had set up shrines to Baal and his consort Asherah. She was the mother of the gods. They worshiped her by raising up sacred wooden poles near her shrines and offering themselves to the temple prostitutes. Through these widespread practices, they had turned their hearts from the Lord. Because of that sin, through their own fault, the Lord would surrender them and His temple and all its treasures to the looming enemy. Into this dire situation, the Lord had called Jeremiah to preach and to call the people to repentance, starting with their wayward kings. Jeremiah’s main opponent was Zedekiah, the last ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. This sermon is from a series written by Rev. Paul L. Beisel and published by Concordia Publishing House.

Click here to list to this sermon. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! It is fitting, I suppose, that we speak tonight from the shadow of a tree. It is Christmas Eve, after all, and we Lutherans love our Christmas trees. In fact, it was a Lutheran pastor, Rev. H. C. Schwann, who is credited with putting up the first Christmas tree in an American church in 1851. What a beautiful tree we have here! Bright white lights! Shiny silver and royal blue ornaments! A dazzling star! But the fruit on this tree, though a delight to the eye, is obviously not good for food, nor does it promise to make one wise, like the forbidden fruit of the tree in Eden.  The Lord spoke the words of our text from the shadow of that tree on one of the worst days ever—the day that Adam and Eve fell into sin. God had ...