"Trust the Whole
Counsel of God's Word"
Text: Jeremiah
26:1-6
Praise be to
God the Father for making known to us his Word and Will; praise be to God the
Son for making that Word a message of hope; and praise be to God the Holy
Spirit for creating in our hearts the faith to believe that Holy Word, and to
trust that Jesus Christ is the full and only payment for all of our sins. Amen.
Dear Fellow
Christians:
Many of you are no doubt aware that we
are in the midst of hunting season here in North Dakota – the deer gun season,
for example, opened this weekend. Whether you've hunted or not, odds are you
would have a fairly good idea of the basics – you point the gun and pull the
trigger, trusting that the gun, the shell, kinetic energy and all that will do
what it is supposed to do. You're not going to hit something every time, but
the basic idea is solid.
Now imagine that you become frustrated
at your lack of success, so much so that you begin to doubt the basics quiet
stalk, point, aim and shoot. You no longer trust the gun and the shell, so you
decide to try something different. Instead of stalking in silence, maybe you'll
put on some soft music, which will certainly attract the game. Instead of aiming
the gun at the target and pulling the trigger, you just point it any old
direction and yell "Bang!" Think that will work? Hold that thought
for just a minute.
Now suppose you want to bake a loaf of
bread, so you mix up all of the ingredients, add the yeast, allow the dough to
rise, and put the bread in the oven to bake. (I assume the process goes
something like that.) What you've always done is, essentially, to trust that
the yeast and the oven will do what they are supposed to do, and the result
will be more or less edible.
The problem is a few of the loaves have
pretty much flopped, so you decide to be innovative and try something new and
different. Instead of baking the
bread, you decide to pop the dough into the freezer and to serve it as a frozen
snack. Sound good?
The point is that in life there are
certain things that do not get along very well with innovation; certain things
are what they are and prove extremely resistant to changes or shortcuts.
Yelling "Bang!" will never be a viable shortcut to pulling the
trigger, and freezing a lump of dough will never be a viable substitute for
baking it. Bear these simple truths in mind as you read the words of our text
for this morning, found recorded in the Book of the Prophet
Jeremiah, the 26th Chapter:
NKJ Jeremiah 26:1-6 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came
from the LORD, saying, 2 "Thus says the LORD: 'Stand in the
court of the LORD's house, and speak to all the
cities of Judah, which come to worship in
the LORD's house, all the words that I command
you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word. 3 'Perhaps everyone
will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the
calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings.'
4 "And you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: "If you will
not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, 5
"to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent to you, both
rising up early and sending them (but
you have not heeded), 6 "then I will make this house like Shiloh,
and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth."'"
These are the
Words of God. In these words are Life and peace. That we too might share in
these blessings so we pray, "Sanctify us through Your
truth, O Lord. Your word is truth!" Amen.
Some of you have heard of Benjamin
Spock. Dr. Spock was the pediatrician/psychologist that convinced an entire
generation of parents not to discipline their children, but to allow the
children to express themselves. Discipline, he told us, would warp a child’s
fragile ego. Millions followed his advice. His book, Baby and Child Care, was second only to the Bible in non-fiction
sales. Only one small problem. He was dead wrong. In
fact prior to his death in 1998, he said:
We have reared a
generation of brats. Parents aren't firm enough with their children for fear of
losing their love or incurring their resentment. This is a cruel deprivation
that we professionals have imposed on mothers and fathers. Of course, we did it
with the best of intentions. We didn't realize until it was too late how our
know-it-all attitude was undermining the self assurance of parents.
This amounts
to one great big "Oops, my bad." A little
late for that generation of brats. Some things, again, don't lend
themselves well to innovation – although we continue to try. You may have heard
the "Total Transformation Program" advertised on the radio. It is
guaranteed to solve all child behavior problems by learning and employing some
magic words. Seriously.
The problem
with these new and innovative ideas concerning child rearing is that by the
time they are shown to be the failures that they certainly are, it is usually
too late for the poor little guinea pigs on whom these fads have been tested.
The result, according to the innovative Dr. Spock, is usually a generation of
brats. (Send in the Oompa Loompas.)
If trying
shortcuts and innovative new ideas in the area of childrearing is this
disastrous, imagine the consequences of trying such things with the Christian
religion. Many times in the past you've heard me come down rather hard on those
innovative mega-churches where the seats are full, but the human hearts are
empty. The leader in this new and innovative approach to church and ministry
has been
Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago. The founder, Bill Hybels, has been telling the entire Christian Church for
decades to throw out everything we have previously thought and been taught
about the Great Commission and to replace it with a new paradigm, a new way to do
ministry.
Like most innovations, this new way to
do church was much easier. Hire marketing firms and public relations experts to
make your church appealing. Doctrine and preaching are out, "felt
needs" (whatever those are) and "feel good" are in. As one
writer recently put it: The mention of
sin, salvation and sanctification were taboo and were replaced by Starbucks,
strategy and sensitivity… He goes on: Thousands
of pastors hung on every word that emanated from the lips of the church growth
experts. Satellite seminars were packed with hungry church leaders learning the
latest way to “do church.” The promise was clear: thousands of people and
millions of dollars couldn’t be wrong. Forget what people need, give them what
they want. How can you argue with the numbers? If you dared to challenge the
“experts” you were immediately labeled as a “traditionalist,” a throwback to
the 50s, a stubborn dinosaur unwilling to change with the times.
Again, just one
problem. The new approach has failed miserably – and this is their evaluation, not ours. Willow Creek
conducted a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their programs and
philosophy of ministry. The report reveals that they got it wrong – and taught
others to do the same. Their innovative approach is not producing solid disciples
of Jesus Christ. The churches are full, but the guests are empty. In what can
only be termed a shocking confession, Hybels now
admits:
We made a mistake.
What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become
Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they
have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten
people, taught people, how to read their bible between services, how to do the
spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.
Again, oops. It is Benjamin Spock
all over again, but this time the catastrophe runs even deeper as the
foundation of thousands of American churches is now discovered to be mere sand
- a “mistake.” The extent of this error defies measurement. At least now
they've learned their lesson, right? Listen to their solution:
Our dream is that we
fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of
paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture.
Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to
transform this planet.
Apparently no
lessons have really been learned here, not when their plan going forward lists
"rethinking" and "informed by research" and "new
insights" as the keys to success. The fact is the "wheel" of
God-pleasing ministry has already been invented. Christians are made and
sustained by the whole counsel of God's Word – law and gospel – not by
innovation or "new insights." Jesus himself gave us the divine plan
in the Great Commission when he told us to make disciples through baptism and
by "teaching
them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded."
Not every hunt
is successful, and not every loaf of bread turns out, but there are certain
things you just can't make better by abandoning the basics. So too rejection
and apathy will continue to plague our goal of "making disciples of all the
nations," but abandoning God's basic plan in favor of
"innovative new ideas" simply serves to disguise ongoing rejection –
and to make it even worse.
In our text
for this morning the Prophet Jeremiah got the same message from our God. He was
sent by God to bring God's Word to the Children of Israel. There is little
doubt that he would much rather have opted for something a little more
"Willow Creek-ish" – something with more
"innovation" and less, well, law. Maybe a softer,
gentler, less confrontational approach for the rebellious nation of Judah.
In fact in Jeremiah's case, the downside was not just a declining attendance
and balance sheet, it was death.
What is
interesting is that it may well have been the physical danger that served to demonstrate to Jeremiah the
importance of his spiritual message, together
with the importance of the precision of that message. The life and death physical danger very likely gave
credence in his mind to the life and death spiritual
danger that made his message so important, so critical. It made the necessity
of bringing God's Word to the hearts of man much more real. Since we face no such physical danger today, it
is easy to dismiss the necessity of bringing the whole counsel of God's Word to
bear in our lives, and in the lives of our neighbor. Certainly history bears
this out, for the Christian Church has never done well during the good times.
The Church has, conversely, flourished in times of greatest persecution. A wise
old seminary professor was well known among his students for his maxim: "The greatest danger to the Church is
prosperity." Hear these words with your heart as well as with your ears
and mind, for we indeed live in times of great prosperity.
Knowing full
well that as a frail human being Jeremiah might be tempted to tone down the
harsh message of condemnation (while enhancing the loving message of hope he
had been instructed to bring to Judah) God gave Jeremiah the words that ought
also to ring in our ears and hearts this morning. "Thus says the LORD: 'Stand
in the court of the Lord's house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which
come to worship in the Lord's house, all the words that I command you to speak
to them. Do not diminish a word.'" There was both love and justice
in this command to Jeremiah. God told Jeremiah not to diminish a word because
the power to turn and save was carried by that Word of God. When mankind tries
to improve that Word of God by tinkering with it, he diminishes it; he makes is
something less than it was before. God knows full well the most effective means
to save souls. He knows that his words alone are pure, true, and powerful. His
words alone are able to turn a man from death to life. That is the love we see
in God's command to "not diminish a word." That means don't add anything.
It means don't leave anything out. He is giving us the absolute best tool to
call back his children from unbelief and eternal death. His words of love in
our text bear this out: "Perhaps everyone will listen and turn
from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to
bring on them because of the evil of their doings." That is what
God wanted for the Children of Israel. That is what God wants for all mankind,
then and now. God wants all men to turn and be saved. God therefore
demonstrates his deep love for mankind when he says: Bring them my Words, all of my Words, and nothing but my Words.
So far so
good; but why then do so many things today seem to be going so badly? Why are
the nations not turning in repentance, as did the citizens of ancient Nineveh
when they heard the words of the Prophet Jonah? Sinful rejection is the
problem, compounded by the fact that people today are not hearing the words of
the Prophet Jonah. They are not hearing God's Law because God's messengers have
changed the message. God's Word is just not good enough the way it came from
the factory. Man is intent upon modifying it – adding and subtracting to
somehow make it better, or at least more suited to
today's ideas and opinions. This in spite of the fact that God specifically and
repeated said, Don't do that!
This is God's
message to you and me today. Unfortunately, our natural inclination is to
diminish both parts of the message God commanded us to speak – his law and his
gospel. Our society does not tolerate the law in its full severity, and therefore
sees no need for the gospel in its full, unconditional sweetness. Most folks
today believe in mixing the two, and in the process they destroy both. The
world's philosophy is that everyone should try to be good and to do good, and good will certainly be your reward. If you at
least try to be good, God will accept you. What a damning lie this truly is. Mankind
would dearly love to believe that good guys go to heaven (and to define
"good" as whatever they themselves happen to
be like at that particular moment). That's not the message God told us to bring
to the world. The fact is hell will be full of "good guys." The key
is faith in Jesus Christ. "God
so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him should not perish but have eternal life." Note that there
is nothing there about being good, feeling good, or "felt needs." Faith
in Jesus saves. Unbelief (denying that Jesus died to pay for your sins) damns.
The world will
never understand the love involved in crushing a sinner with God's Holy Law.
They will never be able to understand how the human heart must first be made to
acknowledge sin, and then to utterly despair of ever being able to fix its own sin
problem. Only then can eternal death give way to eternal life; only then can a
soul be rescued from the eternal terror of hell and carried to the waiting arms
of our loving Savior. This is what God wanted for his chosen people in
Jeremiah's day; this is what he wants today for you and me. Think of it!
Contemplate in your mind and heart the love that God has for you. He
does not desire your death; he yearns for your eternal life. He does want you
to be happy here on this earth, but never at the expense of the eternal joys of
heaven. He wants your joy – both now and later – to be true, real, and genuine.
The joy and comfort of those who have not acknowledged and repented of their
sin, and who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their one and only Savior from
that sin, such joy and comfort on the part of the unbeliever is a myth, a wisp.
It is a hollow and deceptive sentence of death on all who accept the lie. God
our Savior wants more for you, so much more. Hear the love in God's words in
our text when he says, "Perhaps everyone will listen and turn
from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the
calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their
doings." Hear in these words your loving God calling you away from
sin and death, and to eternal life in his Son, Jesus
Christ.
What a joy also
now to realize that we have not only been brought to spiritual life through
that perfect Word of God, we have been given the rare and wonderful opportunity
to serve as the spokesmen for the Maker of heaven and earth. He has given us
the very words we are to speak to dying men everywhere. We have been given to
know that salvation comes only as a free, unearned gift from God. Everyone who
believes that Jesus Christ paid for our sins when he offered his sinless life
on the cross will be saved. We have been given to know the
will of our God. We have been fully briefed as to what our God has determined
is right, and what he has determined is wrong. In love he has instructed us to
speak that same perfect, powerful Word to the nations, one neighbor at a time.
He has told us to speak all of that
Word, in love, to every created soul.
Be
lion-hearted, Christian messengers. Rejoicing in the gift
that you have been given, bring that same powerful, effective Word to bear on
your own heart, and on the hearts of your family, friends, and neighbors.
Do not dilute God's Word. Serve it as God prepared it. Bring absolutely the
full counsel of God's Word, expecting opposition, for against this pure, uncut
Word the devil and the sinful world will always rage. God grant each of us a
love and reverence for the full counsel of God's Word, which alone saves. Amen.
Scripture
Readings and Sunday Bulletin for November 11, 2007
NKJ 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 All
of which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that
you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer;
6 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation
those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled
rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty
angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know
God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9
These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day,
to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe,
because our testimony among you was believed.
NKJ Luke 19:11-27 Now as
they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near
Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.
12 Therefore He said: "A certain nobleman went into a far country to
receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 13 "So he called
ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do
business till I come.' 14 "But his citizens hated him, and sent
a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over
us.' 15 "And so it was that when he returned, having received
the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money,
to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by
trading. 16 "Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina
has earned ten minas.' 17 "And he said to him, 'Well done, good
servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten
cities.' 18 "And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina
has earned five minas.' 19 "Likewise he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.' 20 "Then
another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in
a handkerchief. 21
'For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You
collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.' 22
"And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked
servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit
and reaping what I did not sow. 23 'Why then did you not put my
money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'
24 "And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and
give it to him who has ten minas.' 25 ("But they said to him, 'Master, he has
ten minas.') 26 'For I say to you, that to everyone who has
will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken
away from him. 27 'But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not
want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.' "
NKJ Jeremiah 26:1-6 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim
the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD, saying, 2
"Thus says the LORD: 'Stand in the court of the LORD's
house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the
LORD's house, all the words that I command you to
speak to them. Do not diminish a word. 3 'Perhaps everyone will
listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity
which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings.' 4
"And you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: "If you will not
listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, 5
"to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent to you, both
rising up early and sending them (but you have not heeded), 6
"then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse
to all the nations of the earth." ' "
ST. PAUL
Bismarck,
ND 58501 (701) 223-4885 Cell: (701)
226-8510
Mr. Mark
Johnson, President (222-1855)
Mrs. Eileen McEnroe, Organist
The 24th Sunday after Pentecost – November
11, 2007
|
The Opening
Prayer by the Pastor
The Opening
Hymn ‑#437- (Red Hymnal)
"Who Trusts in God, a Strong
Abode"
The Order of Morning Service – Red Hymnal page 15.
The Scripture Lessons: (Printed on the bulletin insert)
The Epistle Lesson: (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10) For the
sake of the old Adam in us, we want to remember that the reality of hell for
all unbelievers is just as certain as the reality of heaven for all who believe
in Jesus Christ. So our first lesson reminds us to soberly reflect also on such
truths as we approach the end of another Church Year.
The Gospel Lesson: (Luke
19:11-27) In teaching us the Parable of the Talents, Jesus here reminds us not
only that we are all to use the Word of God as we carry out His Great
Commission, we are also here reminded that God is not mocked. There will indeed
be a final judgment against all unbelief. Both law and gospel are necessary for
effective outreach.
The
Confession of Faith ‑
The Nicene Creed (Red Hymnal page 22)
The Pre‑Sermon
Hymn ‑#372- (Red Hymnal)
"Through Jesus' Blood and Merit"
The Sermon – Text: Jeremiah 26:1-6 (Printed on the back page)
"The Whole Counsel of God's
Word"
"Create
In Me" (The Offertory) – Red Hymnal page 22
The Offering, followed by the Prayers
The Pre-Communion Hymn -#371- (Verses 1-4) (Red Hymnal)
"Jesus,
Thy Blood and Righteousness"
The
Preparation for Holy Communion (Red Hymnal page 24)
The
Distribution -Hymn #315- (Red Hymnal)
"I
Come, O Savior, to Thy Table"
The Nunc
Dimittis (Red Hymnal page 29)
The Benediction
The Closing
Hymn ‑#283- (Red Hymnal)
"God's Word Is Our Great
Heritage"
Silent
Prayer
Attendance ‑ Last Sunday (53) 2007 Average (56)
This Week
at
Today -10:00 a.m. – Worship Service w/ Holy Communion
-11:15 a.m. – Fellowship Hour
Wednesday -6:00
p.m. – Confirmation & Bible History
-7:00 p.m. –
Midweek Bible Study
Next Sunday -8:45 a.m. – Sunday School and Bible Class
-10:00
a.m. – Worship
Service
-11:00
a.m. – Fellowship
Hour
CLC News – Please take time to read through
the November CLC Unified Report, which was placed in your mailbox last week.
Not only is the Unified Report an update of what is going on in the CLC, it is
the only update.
Voters Notes – The Voters Assembly met last
Sunday. Full minutes are available from Secretary Fred Adams. Pastor Roehl
reported that the church web site has been receiving a great deal of interest
(with over 800 visits since September 4th) and is scheduled to be
upgraded this winter. Treasurer Weiss reported that offerings for October fell
short of budgeted needs by $567, but that this shortfall continues to be offset
by below-budget expenses. The deductible for the church insurance policy was
increased from $500 to $1000, which will result in a savings of $230 annually. The
Voters reviewed and approved certain minor changes to the Policy and Procedures
Manual relating to the use of the fellowship hall and sanctuary. Copies of
those changes are available upon request. The Annual Meeting is scheduled for
Sunday, December 16. A fellowship meal is also scheduled for that day.