PENTECOST 13, B – August 30, 2009

SCRIPTURES – Psalm 51; Deut. 4:1-2, 6-9; Eph. 6:10-20; Mark 7:14-23 

We are in the midst of a very great struggle right now. Is it the struggle over government spending, and the massive debt our federal and state governments are laying upon us? Or, is it the struggle over health care and whether or not it should be the government that provides it? Very serious though these issues are, they are not nearly as serious as the struggle that confronts us all. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” we are told in Ephesians 6. Satan and his demonic hosts are attacking us, and doing so constantly. They are far greater enemies than any earthly enemy could ever be. 

How does Satan assault us? The same way he did at the beginning of creation, when he confronted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When God made them, He made them in His own image and likeness. Now, this does not mean that they were gods themselves. No, no creature, no matter how great and wonderful, can begin to compare with God the almighty and all-wise Creator. But, God did make them like Him, as little children are like their parents. Adam and Eve were reflections of God Himself, and so given to rule over all creation as the head rules over the body. They were still His children, however, and under Him. He emphasized this by placing in the Garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and commanding them not to eat of it. Their obedience would show their love of Him and acceptance of Him as their head.

And then Satan assaulted them. Notice how he did so. His first words were, “Has God indeed said?” Satan challenged God’s word that forbade them to eat of the tree. He questioned whether it should be taken in its plain and simple meaning and accepted as a good word. Then, as he challenged what God said, he also challenged the nature God had given Adam and Eve. Should they be content to be in God’s image and likeness, be similar to Him, like children, but yet be less than and under Him? No, that is not enough, Satan tempted. “If you eat of the fruit, you will be as God.” He tempted them to listen to and follow, not God, but themselves. Be gods! Sadly, Adam and Eve listened to Satan and ate; and they became utterly unlike God. Sin and evil so filled them – and so also every one of us, their descendants – that the Lord Jesus, the true Son of God, now says of man: “out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” The likeness of the devil now stains us. This is what our natures are like now. 

Much has changed in this world since the days of Adam and Eve. This, however, has not changed: Satan and his demonic hosts are still attacking us. We still “wrestle against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” In the heavenly places. Where is this? It is where God’s holy Word is, in the Church that proclaims it and the heart that receives it. 

Satan attacks God’s Word constantly, especially in the Church, for he knows that the Word of God it proclaims is the sword of the Spirit which can slay him. He tempts us to question whether the Bible is from God at all, or is simply the product of men’s thoughts. He tempts us to question whether the words of the Bible are good words which will bless us as we follow them. He tempts us to consider them old words which need to be updated and reinterpreted to be applicable and good for us today. Many Church bodies have listened to Satan and turned away from the clear and plain words of God. We heard a very clear example of this last week from the pastors and people of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as they met in convention. They decided that homosexuals who are living in committed relationships could be pastors in their churches. Read the following words of Scripture and tell me how they agree with that!

Leviticus 18:22 – “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”

Leviticus 20:13 – “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

Romans 1:26-27 – “God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-20 – “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God…

    The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
   

Now, you might say, “How could the pastors and people of the ELCA ignore such clear words?” Luther in his Galatians Commentary points out how:

Let us learn to recognize the tricks and craft of the devil. A heretic does not come with the label “error” or “devil”; nor does the devil himself come in the form of a devil… Satan emerges not black but white, in the guise of an angel or even of God Himself. He peddles his deadly poison as the doctrine of grace, the Word of God, and the Gospel of Christ…

Nowadays, when the sectarians cannot condemn us overtly, they say instead: “[You] have a cowardly spirit. [You] do not dare speak the truth frankly and freely and draw the consequences from it. To be sure, [you] have laid a foundation, that is, faith in Christ. But the beginning, the middle, and the end must be joined together.” …

Therefore let us learn that this is one of the devil’s specialties: If he cannot do his damage by persecuting and destroying, he will do it under the guise of correcting and edifying… He is arousing false teachers. At first they accept our teaching and preach it in agreement with us. But later on they say that we have made a good start, but that the more sublime things have been saved until now...”
 

Luther says that false teachers will emphasize grace and God’s love and forgiveness – which we should emphasize, right? They make love rule, so that any Word of God which would seem to condemn what we consider to be good and loving must be changed, reinterpreted. But, this is not us in the Missouri Synod, is it! We boast that we follow what God says in Deuteronomy: “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” We would never reject something God says! No. But, Satan has been very successful with us, also. He has gotten us to take away from what God says by not preaching, reading, or listening to all that God says, and so not knowing His words. A sword that is unsheathed is useful for neither defense nor offense. If you don’t know what God teaches, how can recognize Satan’s temptations? How can you overcome his assaults? How can you believe and follow God?

 

Without God’s Word, you are left with your own heart and nature, your own thoughts and ideas to guide you. But, “out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” Without God’s words we have nothing but sin and death, and then the eternal punishment of sin in hell itself.

 

Listen to God’s words, and receive them in their clear and plain meaning, even when they condemn. For, they are life! They bring us God’s life in Jesus, the forgive-ness of every sin and new life which Jesus has gained for us! As God told His people Israel: “listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you… Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding.” By His Word God gives you a new and holy nature and life – Christ’s nature and life! By them He breathes Christ into you, just as He breathed life into Adam at the beginning. But, as Jesus is the crucified One, the life He gives by His Word is a crucified life, a life in which we turn away from the desires of our flesh and the wisdom of this world to follow Him.

 

Following Jesus, the crucified One, life in this world is not easy. But, with His Word you have God with you: with you as your life, your protector, your Savior. For this reason Martin Luther says:

“If you wish to be strong and invincible, let the Lord Christ be your strength; take hold of Him, and exercise yourselves in Him, that He is well known to you, and preserve His Word in its purity, learn it diligently, use it daily, and impress it upon your mind and soul with such intensity that God’s Word and your heart by and by become one and the same thing, so that you may be sure in your confidence, more certain than that of your own life.”

 

In closing, ponder upon and fix in your hearts and minds these words from Psalm 19 (p. 858 in pew Bible):

⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
       The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

 ⁸ The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
       The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

 ⁹ The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
       The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.

 ¹⁰ They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
       they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

 ¹¹ By them is your servant warned;
       in keeping them there is great reward.

 ¹² Who can discern his errors?
       Forgive my hidden faults.

 ¹³ Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.
       Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

 ¹⁴ May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing

     in your sight,
       O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.