Intro: The Lord seeks you out because you are His.

When we say that God has ransomed the world through the blood of His Son, we do not mean that the Devil had to be bought off in order for us to be saved.  The Devil didn’t earn something by getting humanity to sin and he doesn’t hold onto Jesus’ blood now as some kind of trophy.  All the Devil was ever able to do was to pit God’s natural wrath and animosity towards sin, against you.  The Devil’s plan was that, when God had to turn His face from you (on account of sin), you’d have nowhere else to go, but to him (the Devil).

            But the Devil misjudged God.  The Devil never suspected that God would send His Son to be what the bible calls, “the propitiation for our sins”.  A “propitiation” is like a shield.  In ancient combat, a shield was all you had between you and blows of the sword and the arrows of your enemy.  If it was a good shield, it took and absorbed all the blows and arrows and you lived to fight another day.  God sent Jesus to be your propitiation.  Jesus is your shield.  Jesus stood and took all the blows and overwhelming force of God against sin, that you might walk away.  The Devil never saw this coming.  The Devil thought he had you by default.  He never guessed that God would lay down His life in your stead.  That God would make Himself what the prophetic Word describes Him as:  Your shield and your buckler; your very sure defense.

            The Devil tried to steal God’s creation through a “slight of hand” – “Well, guess He doesn’t like you any more.  See!  I told you He wasn’t telling you the whole truth!”.  (That’s what the Devil says).  And here, the Devil misjudged God once again.  He never guessed that God would never forget His creation.  The Devil couldn’t fathom the mind of a God that was not like himself. What I mean is that the Devil can forget.  The Devil can forget because sin forgets.  Sin says, “You’re no longer of any use to me…forget you!”.  But God never forgets.  That’s why He honestly tells us through the prophet Isaiah that He’s “written our names on the palm of His hand”.  From the beginning of creation, all creation was always His. The Devil forgets, but God never forgets.

            That’s why the Lord ransomed you.  He paid the price that His own perfect holiness required that you might stand in His presence once again.  He paid the price because He’s never forgotten you. He paid the price that it took to restore all righteousness because He would never forget His own. Since then, God is continually working to bring all His sheep back into His fold.

I. This is what He’s talking about today as He speaks through the Prophet Ezekiel  

“Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out”.  God wants all men to be saved and to come back into the fold.

            The question though is ‘How does God seek out His sheep?’.  ‘By what means does He search for them?’.  And the answer to this question is simple:  God uses His own sheep as the “means”.  He sends Prophets like Ezekiel.  He sends Apostles like Peter and Paul.  He sends His Son – that those, like us, that are born of sinful mothers and fathers might hear the call of their Heavenly Father in a way that we can relate to.  He does this that they might hear His voice and be gathered.  He does this so that, as He says through Ezekiel, “His flock might know that He is among them”.  

GOD THE FATHER, WORKS, SPEAKS, CALLS AND GATHERS THROUGH MEANS

And one of these means, could be you!

II. The Word by which God seeks His flock has been spoken to you.

            To illustrate this, for a moment, suppose there was a rebellious uprising and an entire city had formed a conspiracy against its sovereign lord.  In their uprising, the citizens killed the king’s son, and as a result, the King declared that every citizen would have to pay for that crime with their lives. To stretch this parable even further, suppose one of the king’s other sons had come to intercede for the rebels and had persuaded his father to pardon them, to issue a document of amnesty. Then the son announces this to the rebels—either personally or by messengers—assuring his father that the rebels will then again become good and grateful citizens and loyal subjects. Suppose the king yields to his son and, while remaining quietly in his castle, sends out messengers to read the document of amnesty on every street corner, calling to the rebel citizens: “You have been pardoned!” 

Would the citizens believe their word?  Maybe not at first, but as they realized that this messenger “there” is saying the same as this messenger “here”, they probably would.  And believing the message, they’d be restored to their former lives again.

But let’s suppose that the messengers were not able to reach every place. Instead, others who had heard of the pardon went into every nook and cranny and spread the news. Their announcement would be just as much a decree of pardon as what the messengers were proclaiming. The pardon would be valid, not because of a special authority of the messengers who are offering it, but because the pardon had been decreed, embossed, and sealed. In a nutshell, this amnesty would be valid because it had been confirmed and circulated in the king’s name and by his order. 

Now, the case of all humanity is identical to that of those rebels. We are those that rebelled against the King, and the Son of God has done everything necessary to win us a pardon. And because this has happened, when a Lutheran pastor announces the forgiveness of sins or absolves a sinner, he does nothing else than communicate to his congregation the news that Christ has interceded for them in their sorry situation and that God has restored them to favor. Moreover, he’s doing this by the explicit order of Christ. If someone commissions me to tell so-and-so that he has forgiven so-and-so, and I carry out this order, that forgiveness is just as valid and effective as if the party himself were there to deliver it. 

Or suppose you had a friend who had severely offended you, and you find out that he is suffering great regret over his action and is worried that God will not receive him into His grace because of it—in a case like this, would you go see your friend? You could!  But what if that friend lived far away? Couldn’t you just write him a letter or ask some acquaintance of yours that lives in the same town to tell your friend that you forgave him long ago and that he should no longer worry about the wrong he had done you?  It doesn’t matter where from and it doesn’t matter who carries it.

            The same is true even if the messenger is a child.  A child is a perfectly valid carrier of the decree – just as much as a Pastor or a Doctor or the most devout Christian you know.  The decree is valid, not because of the credentials of the child (or the Pastor) but because of the authority behind the words.

III.  When you go about your day, you do so, remembering this decree.

            Every Christian believes this decree and every Christian has been sent with this decree into, what Ezekiel calls, “all the inhabited places”.  And the Lord is serious about this commission.  That’s why, through Ezekiel, the Lord goes on to say the following:  “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?” – What does that mean?

            It means simply this:  Don’t live your life as if you have never heard this decree and don’t act as if there are other “suitable authorities”.  In Ancient Israel, the religious rulers tolerated other religions.  They “muddied the waters” because they didn’t do their job of guarding the doctrine of their people.  As St. Gregory once wrote: “muddying the streams” refers to false teachers who, by their vain imaginings, forced the lean “sheep”—that is, the true Christians—to ingest mud from fountains that had been polluted by errant teaching”.

            The same problem exists today and don’t think that just because someone isn’t a pastor, that they can’t have committed the same sin.  If you’re communing at other altars, besides those in fellowship with our church:  You’re muddying the waters.  I’d say you’re guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

            If you’re calling people to “altar calls” and pointing them to what they need to do in order to be saved in place of believing in what Christ has done that God might count their faith in Christ as righteousness: You’re muddying the waters.

            If you’re telling people that they need to give their hearts to Jesus in place of telling them that Jesus gave His life for you:  You’re muddying the waters.  The same could be said of those that reject the clear Word of God because the “issue strikes too close to home”.  The same could be said of those thatknow what a God-pleasing life looks like, and yet have decided to “let some things slide” because God’s way just doesn’t seem to “work today”:  They’re muddying the waters.  And we could go on about people that balk about holding people accountable for public sins; about those that would rather that we “just not say anything” rather than risk offending; and about those that are so negligent in seeking the knowledge of the Lord that they regularly say and support things that lead people astray.  They’re all muddying the waters.  Repent. To all of these, God says, “Behold my flock…I judge between sheep and sheep”. There is no amnesty beyond that which God has decreed in Christ Jesus.

Conclusion:  So, be a faithful ambassador of God’s Word. One of God’s sheep or little lambs, might just be “found” through you. God works through means and you might just be that means.  So, hold fast to the Word you’ve received.  Drink of the pure water that the Lord has given.  Remember daily that through baptism you have died with Christ and now your life is hidden with Him in God.  Don’t let it be “muddied”. Remember instead, the joy that accompanies all those who repent.  You’ve been called back into God’s Kingdom.  The shield has gone up in the sign of the cross. You’ve been redeemed through the shedding of Jesus’ blood, your righteousness in Him is restored and your sins are forgiven. By grace, you will be a citizen of God’s Kingdom, forever.  In the Name +