We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know!

2nd Sunday of End Time, Last Judgment, 11/10/13
Jeremiah 26:1-6


We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know!
I. God has sent his messengers and his message.
II. God calls for us to listen and repent.


Here’s some sage advice: Expect the unexpected. Plan for the unknown. In spite of the fact that those statements are oxymora, they’re true. We can’t be sure of what will happen to us later this afternoon, let alone next year. We’re forced to live knowing that we don’t know what’s coming. We don’t even know if a year from now we’ll still be living here or we’ll be enjoying heaven.

But the Lord has told us that one great event will still occur. The last great event in history—The Last Judgment. He and he alone knows when it will occur and he’s not telling us with good reason. Instead, he simply tells us in no uncertain terms that the Last Judgment will occur and we need to be ready for it at any time. Right now even.

That’s not our favorite subject. When is the last time Judgment Day was the topic of your casual conversation? Probably never. We’d rather not even think about it ourselves. But it won’t do any good to bury our heads in the sand. We need to be ready for it.

It’s a good thing for us, then, that our God wants us to be ready. He doesn’t want us to be unprepared for the day when Jesus returns. So that we are ready, he shares his word with us. He tells us what he wants us to do to be ready. In doing so, we can never offer the feeble excuse that we didn’t know.

God used his prophet Jeremiah to inform his people of what he wanted them to know about his impending day of judgment. He accomplishes the same thing for us through Jeremiah. And because he does so, we can’t say we didn’t know. Let’s see what God wants us to know about his day of judgment.

Part I.

Some of you probably participated in voting for local positions and levies this past week. One year from now the mid-term elections will occur. That means it won’t be too long before politicians will once again flood the media with their campaign promises. As in the past, look for them to tell US citizens what the voting public wants to hear. Making the campaign promise that you are going to raise taxes is a sure way to lose the election. Forecasting that the economy will remain stagnant and the unemployment rate high is a sure way to send voters in the other direction. Instead, tell the people what they want to hear.

Jeremiah could have taken that approach. Countless prophets of his day had. The world scene in 609 BC was unstable at best. Most would call it chaotic. Old world powers were being crushed and new world powers were emerging. God’s people, while just a small pawn in the world power game, were right in the middle of it. Just months earlier godly King Josiah had tried to get involved against good advice and got crushed. He himself died in battle. Now what? God sent Jeremiah to let them know.

The world scene was bad enough. Israel’s spiritual situation was even worse. Imagine this—God’s people were actually stubborn idolaters. Josiah had tried to reform the people, but it didn’t take. The people loved their false gods. Oh, they came to Jerusalem to the Temple to worship, but it was all pretence, mere lip service, just going through the motions. Like washed pigs they jumped right back into the filth of their idolatrous, immoral lifestyles.

So, did the Lord simply sit back and watch as the situation went from bad to worse? Did he look with disinterest as his people indulged in the newest idol worship and took advantage of one another? Did he whistle happy tunes as his people marched on their merry way to hell? Of course not! He got involved to the hilt. He told Jeremiah, “Stand in the courtyard of the LORD’s house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the LORD. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word.” In effect he was telling Jeremiah, “Don’t soften my words of judgment. Don’t tell the people what they want to hear. Tell them what they need to hear—my word, every word of it.” Jeremiah had a tough ministry to carry out. God sent him with a message to proclaim but the people wouldn’t listen to it. In fact, here was the response to what Jeremiah said, “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city.” Get this—they accused Jeremiah of being a traitor when, in reality, they were the traitors! And they wanted to put him to death. By the way, this wasn’t the only time during his ministry that the people wanted to fill Jeremiah’s sandals with concrete and throw him into the ocean.

In fact, Jeremiah wasn’t even the first to proclaim this message of judgment to the people. For the past 300 years God had been sending prophets like Elijah and Elisha and Isaiah to his people with harsh messages of judgment. But their words fell on deaf ears and hard hearts. God’s people loved their sinful lives just the way they were, thank-you very much, God!

But when judgment came for these people in the form of the Babylonians, no one could claim, “But we didn’t know! If only you had warned us, God!”

A far greater day of judgment is coming. Likewise, we can’t say we didn’t know. God has sent his messengers and his message to us.

During your lifetime, did a parent or teacher or some other authority figure ever loudly claim about you, “But you didn’t listen to me!”? I’m sure it’s happened to all of us, probably more often than we can recall. It’s bad enough when an earthly authority rightly says it of us; it’s unbearable when that claim comes from the mouth of the holy God who knows all and sees all. That makes us squirm at best and shudder at worst. I’m not saying that we refuse to believe that a day of judgment is coming. That’s the reason we’re here today—to focus on the Last Judgment. But we’re still guilty of selective listening when it comes to our God’s judgments against sin. On the one hand, we decide that God doesn’t know what he’s talking about in this situation we’re in. We’re better suited to make up our own minds and if that means doing what he says we shouldn’t, that’s fine. On the other hand, we fail to trust him when he does reach out to us with his help and power and comfort. As we sit here confronted with our failures, our sins, our acts of defiance, we certainly can’t say we didn’t know. Thank God that he has sent his messengers with his messages into our lives day after day, reminding us just how often we have deserved his judgment, but also that he took that judgment upon himself in the person and work of our Savior, Jesus. There’s our hope—yes, our confidence—in the Last Judgment. We have nothing to fear with Jesus as our Savior. We have every reason to rejoice even in the Last Judgment with Jesus as our Savior.

Part II.

There are sobering times in our lives when we have to make the admission, “I didn’t listen.” Those words aren’t easy to say, especially when they’re spoken to a loved one who deserves our attention and respect. We can only confess, “Shame on me for not listening!”

Indeed, God’s people in Jeremiah’s day would speak those words. The all-knowing God makes a stunning prediction. He said, “If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.” Shiloh was the town in which the Tabernacle resided prior to the time of King David. The Philistines destroyed the city. God was telling the people of Jeremiah’s day that the same thing would happen to this magnificent Temple in Jerusalem. And it did, in 586 BC. The Babylonians looted it and smashed what remained. Why? Because they wouldn’t listen.

But there was still hope for the people. Listen again to what the Lord said, “Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent.” Our God is not about punishing sinners; he’s about saving sinners. He is the God who is slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, showing mercy to thousands of generations of those who love him. He does just that to those who listen to his word and repent. At the beginning of each week we gather together as God’s people to admit that we haven’t listened to our loving God who only wants what is best for us. And our God’s response is that he forgives us because of what Jesus has done for us. That’s what makes us ready for the Last Judgment and keeps us ready for it.

We can’t say we didn’t know. Our God calls for us to listen and repent.

Our loving God doesn’t want us filled with fear or doubt about his judgment on the Last Day, as if we were waiting for the jury to return from its deliberation with the verdict. He’s already told us what he will say to those who listen to his word and repent. He will tell us to come and inherit the kingdom that he has prepared for us. It’s all ours through faith in Jesus—the same Jesus who lived and died in our place. Through Jesus he fills us with confidence as we look forward to the Last Day and as we live each day until then. Listen to his word and repent. Now none of us can claim that we didn’t know. By God’s grace and power we do know. Thank God we know! Amen.