Trinity 8
Jeremiah 23:16-29; Matthew 7:15-23
August 2, 2020
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
Fake news all around. How do I know what to believe? Things change faster than we can keep up. New information, changing decisions, different views practically every day. It’s exhausting trying to keep up. At the end of the day, if you even try anymore, you are left with questions about what to believe, who to believe, and if there is any kind of objective reality or truthy anywhere in the world anymore.
Even those who don’t think they are trying are still looking to find some kind of truth, something to anchor their lives in, some authority or source for guidance. Some look inward at their own feelings and thoughts. Some look to their education or credentials. Some prefer a news source of one kind or another. But more and more people in our culture are looking toward things like technology, politicians, social justice warriors, experts in a field that match what a person already thinks to be true.
A look to technology and medicine or politicians or celebrities to be our savior is an act of idolatry, plain and simple. It has become a false prophet, spreading a false gospel that produces false hope and false security. Now sure, there might be an effective treatment and vaccine to the coronavirus developed and it should be our hope and prayer that this is the case. And yes, social injustices and evils need to be called out and corrected when and where they appear. But that is only a superficial treatment to a symptom of the deeper disease and evil. That disease is sin, and it has a 100% mortality rate. In order to treat the root cause of evil, you’ve got to get down to the heart of the matter.
And yet we get so easily distracted by the worries and the cares of this world, and we chase the symptoms all day long. And then false preachers and false messiah’s take advantage of the uncertainty and anxiety. It’s been this way before. During the days of Jeremiah the prophet, God called out those who speak visions of their own minds, the delusions of their own dreams, and not the words from the mouth of the Lord. They thought they could manipulate God’s word and God’s people by their lives and their deceit. And Jesus warns near the end of the Sermon on the Mount that false prophets could come, ravenous wolves in sheep clothing. You will recognize the false prophets by their fruits, by their words, for that is what a prophet is judged by, the message that he proclaims. False prophets preaching a false gospel – current social justice issues are not the Gospel. Virtue signaling and identity shaming are not the Gospel. Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins. If the message does not relate to this, is not centered on this, does not have its main focus on this truth, then it is not the true Gospel.
Some might say, it’s not that big of a deal. There are a lot of well intentioned, well spoken, well mannered, people claiming to have an answer. As long as they are mostly right, or speak what itching ears like to hear, then it’s not that big of a deal. But it is a big deal. Satan deceived Adam and Eve not with a big lie, but by mixing a little lie with the truth, by leading them away from what is most sure and true – God’s Word. They lost their trust in God and no longer believed what He said. Instead, they believed Satan’s lies. When Satan deprives people of their trust in God, it’s not surprising that they become proud and despise God and other people. Then their values and morality change. Eventually they will run to adultery, murder, theft, slander, and so all. Letting go of God’s Word is the root of all temptation. It results in the destruction and violation of all God’s commandments. Unbelief and misbelief are the source of sin. And sin leads only to death.
With the Shepherd, we are safe. The wolves cannot stand against Him and death has no power over Him. They sink their teeth into Him and cannot pull them out again. They are destroyed by killing Him. His death satisfies the Law’s demands and ends all of Hell’s accusations. There He declares His sheep to be innocent and His own. The wolves cannot have them.
The wolves cannot stand against the Shepherd so they seek to separate us from the flock. Rather than simply wait for us to fall away from the Shepherd, they infiltrate the flock and attempt to mislead us into an ambush. This is the cause of persecution and of misbelief.
To guide us throughout this dangerous life, the Lord blesses His people with undershepherds. We call them pastors. They stand in the stead of the Shepherd and hearken us back, again and again, into the fold, back to the Shepherd where we are safe. Pastors are supposed to fufill a prophetic role, that is to say, to speak God’s Word to God’s people. That is my main job as your pastor – to say, “this is the Word of the Lord.” The undersheperds can’t be trusted. I can’t be trusted, not fully. No earthly pastor, no priest, no pope, no seminary professor, nor president of synod or Lutheran hour speaker, can be trusted fully. The wolves can dress up like any of them. And even those who aren’t wolves, who mean well, can fail. They can break promises. They can crumble under pressure. They can make wrong decisions. Pastors are sinners too.
What, and who, can be trusted? God’s Word. That is the standard by which the sheep must judge the undershepherds. That is the sole source and norm of all our doctrine and life. Not the woke mob, nor the politicians nor media nor fancy dressed pastors or popish pretenders. Only and always the Word of God, the Word of Christ. This is the message that the world needs to hear, this is the medicine that is needed to what ails us, this is our only hope and source of comfort in a crazy world.
So what are we to do in the crazy, mixed up, world full of sinful people, and of fear and lies and death? Stat Crux dum volvitur orbis. “The world turns, the cross remains.” (Motto of the Carthusian monks. While they certainly don’t have it all together, they do get this point correct.)