Dearly loved by God in Christ Jesus,
Two items I saw last week reminded me to remind you what a blessing of God’s grace to have this Mission Statement at Bethlehem, “We preach, teach, and share God’s Word in its truth and purity.
The Vatican decreed that anyone who attended Catholic World Youth Day, or followed Pope Francis on twitter would win an indulgence for years off in purgatory. The other item is that the ELCA is declining rapidly in membership due to its stances on fellowship with the Episcopalian church, and homosexual clergy.
These bits of news are not simply the result of different ways of interpreting the Bible. They stem from a failure to accept the authority of Holy Scripture. The Church of Rome places church teaching above the Word. The ELCA does not consider the Bible the inspired and inerrant Word of God.
In both churches, prophets constantly shout the teachings of their hearts to drown out the Word from the Lord’s mouth. There is nothing new here. This is exactly what happened in Judah that led to the Lord’s judgment under the Babylonians.
Through Jeremiah, the Lord told the faithful prophets, like Jeremiah, not to give up speaking the truth; the truth not as they saw it but as God revealed it. The LORD’s words are a strong encouragement and commendation for all who hold God’s Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it. Let the One Who has My Word Speak It Faithfully. Why? To do otherwise brings only false hopes. Why? So that God’s people will not forget his name.
The Holy Scriptures give many warnings against false teachers. God warns against false prophets because they are not his spokesmen. The LORD said, “I did not send these prophets. I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.” If a preacher or teacher does not share God’s Word, he is not a called servant of the Word. If there is no message of sin that damns completely, and Jesus’ cross alone that saves completely, the Lord did not send them.
There are but two sources of doctrine; the human heart, and the Lord’s mouth. False prophets speak a message from their hearts, which determine their minds, and dreams. We heard in our gospel lesson about the human heart as a source for thought and action, “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.”
The LORD points out that while he did use dreams, false prophets wrongly used their dreams as anti-revelation. They used their dreams as support for their lies and deceit that do not include the Law that gives the true knowledge of sin and its consequences. Nor do their lies include the gospel that is the power of God for salvation through the knowledge of Christ and his gift of eternal life.
False prophets do not follow Psalm 1. “Which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and hear his Word? Who has listened and heard his Word? False doctrine does not come from different and equally valid interpretations of the clear Word of God. It comes from a disdain for the Word, a rejection of the Word.
I do not interpret a sermon text to give it meaning. I ask the Holy Spirit to enable me to discern his meaning. False prophets do not read, mark, learn and take God’s Word to heart. Mark means pay attention and heed. Did your parents or someone every say to you, “Mark my words?” False prophets say, “They could not mean that because that is not what I want them to mean.”
What are false prophets doing to people, yes, would do even to us should we be foolish and careless enough to listen? “They fill you with false hope.” KJV is closer to the meaning, “They make you vain,’ or literally, “they fill you with vanity.” In slang we might say, “They are blowing smoke.” They are offering nothing and yet if we listen and take to heart their “ceaseless flow of words” we are just as guilty.
The LORD points out their lies. “They keep saying to those who despise me, You will have peace. And to all who follow their stubborn hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.” In other words, they say you can be a Christian and still love and practice what God says is clearly contrary to his holy will. “The anger of the LORD will not turn back.” One day false prophets and those who listened to them will face harsh judgment.
God sums up his thoughts by saying, “Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully.” God continues to allow false prophets to tell their lies and people to believe them. There but by the grace of God go we. The LORD also reminds us of the other reason such faithful preaching is needed, so that God’s people will not forget his name.
God reveals his name by describing it and comparing it to idols. “Am I only a God nearby,’ declares the LORD, ‘and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?...Do I not fill heaven and earth?”
An idol is only nearby, local, in one place. It has no knowledge of anything, anywhere. The prophets of idols have as their thought to make people forget the true God. The true God is not like idols. His name is the God who fills all things in heaven and earth. He is not just nearby but everywhere. He is not on the same level as us but far above us. His name is that he knows all our thoughts before we think them and all our actions before we do them.
False prophets vs. true prophets are dreams from the sinful natural heart vs. revelation from the mouth of the holy God. It is lies vs. truth. The more subtle those thoughts of man the more dangerous they are. We must have our spiritual antennae up and on so that we can detect the flattering self-seeking false prophets who are blowing smoke in order to turn us away from the truths God has revealed in his Word.
This is not a matter of interpretation. This is a matter of walking in the council of the LORD and marking his Word, or, Not.
Why do we care? The hearts and eternal salvation of all God’s believers, including our own, are at stake. “But if they had stood in my council they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds. “ They who have God’s Word and speak it faithfully do not lead sinners to false hope, but to the certain hope of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus’ name.. Amen. <SDG>