Lord, Reform Us Daily!

1st Sunday of End Time, Reformation, Jeremiah 18:1-11 Lord, Reform Us Daily! I. By grace alone II. By faith alone III. Through scripture alone It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. And that’s due to the fact that the picture implants something visible on our minds. In communicating with his prophet Jeremiah, on several occasions the Lord used object lessons—pictures—to implant his message on Jeremiah’s mind. We have one of those object lessons before us this morning in Jeremiah 18. The Lord told Jeremiah, “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” He wanted Jeremiah to see something before he shared something with Jeremiah. Listen again to that account. “So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” So, what message was the Lord conveying to his people, the nation of Judah? Destruction was coming, and it was coming from the Lord. Jeremiah received this message about 610 BC. One hundred years earlier, through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord had told the Jews that he would send the Babylonians against them and that they would be sent into exile. How could this be?! The Jews were God’s chosen people! Indeed, they were. But that was not their own doing; that was the result of the Lord’s work. As he stated many times in the Old Testament, the descendants of Abraham were a people that the Lord had formed for himself. His plan to save all people from death in hell was to use the Jews to bring the Savior into the world, as he had promised. At Mt. Sinai, under the leadership of Moses, he formed them as his special nation, unlike any on earth. But, over the centuries, God’s special nation had become deformed. It started already at Mt. Sinai when the Jews fashioned a golden calf and worshipped it. It continued as the Children of Israel rebelled against the Lord repeatedly on their journey to the Promised Land. And, even in the Promised Land, with the exception of the reign of King David, the rebellion continued in the form of idolatry. By the time of Jeremiah, the people God had formed for himself looked like any other heathen nation. A reformation was needed if the Lord still planned to use the Jews to bring a Savior into the world. And that’s what happened. The Babylonians invaded Judah in three campaigns—in 605, 597, and 586 BC. They destroyed Jerusalem and its temple. And they hauled several thousand Jews into exile. And in exile, the Jews finally came to their spiritual senses. Like the potter, the Lord did as he pleased. The pot was marred, so he reformed it and shaped it as it seemed best to him. Much the same happened with God’s people in the New Testament. He formed sinful people into his Church through the teaching of the apostles. That Church spread throughout the known world and became a dominant force in the world. But, with that power came corruption. The church on earth deformed as it embraced false teachings, the worst of which was that sinners must do something to save themselves. The saving light of the gospel of Jesus Christ was in danger of being snuffed out. So, the Lord reformed the church, using his servant, Martin Luther. That reformation began 504 years ago today as Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The Lord used Luther to unleash the power of the gospel. The Lutheran Church taught that we are saved by grace alone, by faith alone, through scripture alone. Five centuries later, that is still what we believe and proclaim. How amazing! But, like the Jews of the Old Testament, we could lose it all. We could lose it all if we don’t realize that, as daily sinners, we need daily reformation. So, let’s make that our Reformation prayer. Lord, reform us daily! Part I. First, that reformation comes about by God’s grace alone. God’s grace frees the sinner from sin and guilt. The church of Luther’s youth knew nothing of God’s grace, which is his undeserved favor for sinners. Instead, the church was in the daily business of binding consciences. Its teachings struck fear in the hearts of sinners, not love for their Savior. Instead of freeing sinners from guilt, the church burdened sinners with guilt. The people had no concept of God’s grace. But that grace is at the heart and center of our relationship with the God of our salvation. We know and believe the truth that we are saved by grace and not by works. There is nothing in ourselves in which we can boast. Who we are—children of God—is solely the work of our God. Like a spiritual potter, he formed us to be his own by grace. Like spiritual pottery, we are filled with God’s grace. But it’s so easy to despise the grace of God! It happens every time we think our God should treat us better than he is because of what we do for him and others. It happens every time we look down at our talk down on others, as if somehow, we are better than they are. It happens when I get so busy with living my life, that I fail to praise and worship the God of grace for what he has done for me. Reform me, Lord! Reform us Lord, daily! Lead me to see what a spiritual beggar I am, unworthy of anything good from you. And yet you sacrificed your Son for me, to redeem me, forgive me, and make me an heir of eternal life. That’s grace! All grace. Grace alone! Part II. I mentioned a minute ago that the church of Luther’s youth was in the business of binding consciences and loading sinners with guilt. It relentlessly demanded that sinners live holy lives—something impossible to do. And Luther hated the God that demanded of him something he could never give. But then the Lord reformed Luther as he led Luther to see that the righteous live by faith. God gives his righteousness or holiness to those who have faith in Jesus. That righteousness has nothing to do with how Luther lived or what he did. It was all about what Luther believed. Faith in Jesus is what matters, not the works of God’s people. That truth transformed Luther. He came to love the God he once hated. His spiritual depression departed and was replaced with saving joy. It marked Luther’s personal reformation. That same faith in Jesus has reformed you and me. It has brought you forgiveness of sins, made you a child of God and an heir of eternal life. Your faith in Jesus is your great treasure. But what does it mean to you? At your confirmation in the Lutheran faith, you likely vowed to suffer all, even death, rather that fall away from it. Would you still be willing to die for your faith, or, do you treat it like a gadget in your home? It’s handy when you need it, but otherwise it’s in a drawer somewhere and you hardly give it a thought. Lord, reform us daily! Without faith in Jesus we’re doomed eternally! Without Christ in our lives, we’re headed for destruction in hell. Without trust in Jesus, we are lost eternally. Lord, cause us to see that daily! Reform us when our spiritual lives get warped. Remind us of our sins and lead us to the cross of Christ, the object of our faith. Lord, reform us daily by faith alone. Part III. Listen again to the Lord’s closing words of our text from Jeremiah 18. “Turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.” The Lord called his people to repentance. But their hearts were hard. They wanted nothing to do with the Lord or his word. The people of Luther’s day came to church to hear God’s word, but the service was in a language that the common people didn’t understand. And when the word was shared with them in the language they spoke daily, it was buried under man-made traditions and demands. Luther set about getting God’s word into the ears and hearts of God’s people in the German language. And then he stood back and watched God’s word work. And like a spiritual wildfire, it blazed among his fellow Germans. It emboldened Luther and others to use it in opposition to some of the world’s most powerful leaders in church and state. And that word kept doing its work of reforming human hearts, one by one. By and large our world today hates the word of God. Even vast stretches of the Christian church on earth no longer consider it to be true and authoritative. And the same malaise affects us, too. We’re prone to think that we can stand above God’s word, to take it or leave it as it suits us, or to disregard what we don’t want to hear, believe, and do. Lord, reform us daily through scripture alone! In spite of the fact that we don’t always cherish your word, continue to use it to confront us with our sins and then use it to announce to us as repentant sinners your mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Use that word to comfort our anguished souls. When our hearts are filled with fear over the future of our lives and the course of our world, share with us the confidence that only your word can give us. Lord, keep us steadfast in your word! Reform us daily through it! It took 70 years of exile for the people in Jeremiah’s day to be reformed. That’s far too long. Let this celebration of Luther’s Reformation of the Church remind you of your daily need for reformation. Lord, grant us such a daily reformation, and then we will praise you eternally for it. Amen.