Blessed Is the Man Who Trusts in the Lord!

Jeremiah 17:5-8 “Thus says the Lord”.  That is the way our text begins and if that is all there was to it, it would be more than sufficient to profitably occupy our reflection and meditation on God’s Word this morning.  “Thus says the Lord!”  The only question is:  will we hear it as God’s Word to us?

      I hope so because the words that God speaks to us today are words of curse for those who do not trust in him--or blessing for those who do.  Curse or blessing for this life and for the life to come.  Thus says the Lord:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” 

      Just the briefest reflection on those words, and what the Lord says to us through those words, and the point that Jeremiah is making is self-evident:  why on earth would anyone trust in flesh?   The Bible says that:

"All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.  The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever."

      Andy yet, despite knowing the frailty of man and futility of flesh, how often do we earn God’s curse because we trust in them?

      We think that our security is found in how much money we have saved.  We believe that our success depends upon our hard work.  We imagine that our nation’s future depends on the outcome of some election.

      And because there is the need to save money and work hard and vote wisely, the devil is right there taking those good things and twisting them and tempting us to believe that that is all there is—our efforts—our strength—our flesh.

      But what we need to remember is that God stands behind it all!  It all depends upon God!  He is the One who daily and richly provides us with all that we need for this life.  He is the One who has created us and given us our strength and intellect.  He is the One who guides the forces of history.  It is God alone—not our flesh-- who must be trusted.

      And it is not just our physical life where we are tempted to trust in man and flesh—it is our spiritual life too. 

      We are think that because we belong to the right church --and because we lead an outwardly moral life-- and because we do what we are supposed to do-- that we are in good shape spiritually.

      And because it is important to go to a church where the truth is taught and because God does want us to lead a decent life-- the devil is right there, twisting those good things and tempting us to believe that that is all there is. 

      But there is a God who stands behind it all who is totally responsible for our salvation and it is he alone—not our flesh-- who must be trusted in all things spiritual.  And so we too need that lesson and that warning that God speaks today:  “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength.”  

      Why is that?  Why is trusting even in our best works cursed by God?  It is because trusting in ourselves: turns our heart away from the Lord.”  

      If you are trusting in yourself—in your hard work, in your intellect, in your good deeds, in your own righteousness—your heart has turned away from the Lord—and that earns God’s curse on your life in time and eternity.

      The sin that Jeremiah is warning us against is the sin of idolatry—of trusting in something or someone other than the LORD—and it is always brings curses into our lives because it cuts us off from the LORD who is the one true source of our life in this world and our life in the world to come. 

      Oftentimes we tend to absolve ourselves of this sin of idolatry because we think of it only in terms of things like pagan worship.  We tell ourselves that we don’t pray to statues or worship false gods and so we are keeping the First Commandment.

      Not so!  And because the temptations we face are much more subtle than a statue-- we must be on guard even more when it comes to trusting in ourselves. 

      Behind our physical efforts is the God who creates and sustains-- and behind our spiritual efforts is the God who calls, gathers, and enlightens his church-- and so we must always look beyond ourselves to the LORD and find in him ALONE the source of our faith and trust and life because a life lived apart from God is small and dry and unfruitful.

“He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”  

      This is one of those places where the necessity of hearing these word--s as words from the LORD-- is readily apparent. 

      When we look, with our physical eyes, at the world around us, we see people who seemed to have escaped this curse and are making it just fine without God.  But what we cannot see-- and what must revealed to us-- is what these lives lived apart from God look like to God. 

      No peace.  No joy.  No hope.  No faith.  No trust.  Nothing but an endless catering to the flesh until the flesh is no more.  That is not the life of a human—it is the life of an animal—and for an animal it is fine.  When their life is over they are simply no more.

      But we are not animals and we are not meant to live like animals.  We are human beings-- and we were created for life with God --and a life that is lived apart from him in this life will result in a life lived apart from him under an eternal curse.

      But there is another way that God sets before us this morning—a way of blessing.  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust IS the Lord.”  Where the end of each human life—billions of time over—from our very first parents until the obituaries in today’s paper--have shown the futility of trusting in man—God has shown again and again that he is worthy of our trust. 

      He always has been and always will be the God of salvation and deliverance and provision and through it all he was pointing the way to the greatest sign of his steadfast love and trustworthiness—the sending of his own Son Jesus Christ so that not only do we trust IN the Lord-- but now our trust IS the LORD.

      Jesus Christ is the content of our faith—he is the reason for our hope—he is the substance of our trust. 

      His death:  the redeeming price of our sins.  His resurrection:  the bridge between God and us.  His gift of the Holy Spirit:  God’s life in our heart.  Jesus is the blessing of the LORD in our life and when we trust in him we are planted and rooted in his person and work like a tree rooted in rich, life-giving soil.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” 

      Driving through west Texas during the summer months you have a sense of how hot and dry and desolate this area is—except alongside the rivers.  You can go for miles and never see anything green but when you come to banks of the Colorado and San Saba and Llano and Concho things are lush and fruitful and alive.

      That is the power of water in a dry land.  That is the power of the living water Jesus Christ in our lives—the difference between life and death—blessing and curse.

      Jeremiah presents us with a powerful contrast between those who trust in man and those who trust in God—it is the difference between a desert shrub having to scrape by just to live and a fruitful tree that has no fear of the drought around it because its roots are fed from directly from the water beside it.  Jesus promises,

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 

      Every time we hear the Good News about Jesus preached—every time we hear in absolution that in him we are forgiven—every time we come to Holy Communion and receive his body and blood-- our spiritual lives are renewed and fed and watered again and again by the living water of the Holy Spirit which flows from Jesus Christ.

      Rooted in him we can be confident and courageous even in hard times—and those will come.  There is no promise that there will never be times of heat and drought.  Trials and struggles come to the Christian too. 

      But there is all the difference in the world between the way that we face these hard times—trusting in the LORD--and what happens to those who do not know Jesus.  We have God’s never ending strength and presence to depend on—and they have only their own frail flesh.

      That is why the Christian’s life remains fruitful even in times and trial and tribulation.  Rooted in the living God—our lives fed by his life—our spirits sustained by his Spirit--there is still peace and joy and hope and trust in our lives even when there is no earthly reason for this fruit-- but only because we trust in him. 

“Cursed in the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.  Blessed is the man who trust in the LORD, whose trusts IS the LORD.”