The Book of Jude for Lenten Repentance The Third Midweek Service in Lent
Relying On Their Dreams Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! In tonight’s reading, Jude points to God’s Scriptures as our only shield and defense as we “contend for the faith” against those who “pervert the grace of our God.” · First, Jude warned us not to cut anything away from God’s Scriptures. Jude did this by saying, “I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it.” · Now Jude warns us not to add anything to the Scriptures, either. Those “certain people [who]… crept in unnoticed” were adding to God’s Scriptures by “relying on their dreams.” As Jude said, “these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.” Dear Christian friends, The Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY, is an appealing fieldtrip destination, even for many Lutheran schools. The slogan on the museum’s website is “prepare to believe.” In addition to showing you exciting things, such as the actual size of Noah’s Ark and what the Garden of Eden might have looked like, the Creation Museum also wants to present you with geological evidence to support what you believe about the creation. Here is the deal the Creation Museum can offer you: They will show you a fossil and a thick layer of silt; you “prepare to believe.” “Prepare to believe.” This slogan is telling you that, if you are given the right amount of visual evidence and other proof, you will finally be able to believe. You can become convinced to embrace creation as the true explanation for how our world came to be. Just look at the evidence. The evidence demands a verdict. When we shuttle our Lutheran schoolchildren off to the Creation Museum, we deny the power of God’s Word. When we bring guest speakers into our schools to show us the evidence for creation—speakers who usually reject God’s miracles of Baptism and Holy Communion, but who have lots of exciting proof for creation—we again deny the power of God’s Word. We deny the power of God’s Word when we pretend that we can build our faith upon those things that we see with our eyes and touch with our hands. Forget that God has said, “Faith is… the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). The supposed evidence for creation is persuasive and compelling! The supposed evidence is helpful and exciting and it gives our children our reason to believe! No. The supposed evidence for creation labors against our children’s faith. The supposed evidence for creation will destroy their faith in the same way that the devil’s lie of evolution will destroy their faith. The supposed evidence for creation is just subtler in dealing its deathblow. “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God” (Hebrews 11:3). “Faith is… the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). “Hope that is seen is not hope” (Romans 8:24). The supposed evidence for creation threatens faith because “faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Christ does not speak through the supposed evidence. Christ speaks through His Scriptures. “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1). Aorist verb; once and for all; conversation is over! Thus says the LORD: · “You shall not add to the Word that I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2). · “Everything I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it” (Deuteronomy 12:32). · “Do not add to His [God’s] Words, lest He rebuke you” (Proverbs 30:6). This is exactly what the supposed geological evidence for creation hopes to do, adding to God’s Scriptures even in the name of Christianity. The evidence claims to give you a reason to believe. The museum’s slogan is “Prepare to believe.” In reality, the evidence only offers you false comfort and counterfeit consolation. Yet isn’t this desire for proof the very thing that you and I feel tempted to do every day of our lives? There is a reason why this Creation Science stuff is so popular among Christians! False comforts and counterfeit consolations are like heroin for our sinful, fallen nature. You and I might be running off to Petersburg, KY, so we can prove creation. Nevertheless, the sinful nature, alive within us, would love · to replace God’s spoken promises of forgiveness and peace with inward feelings of happiness or sensations of peace and satisfaction. That way, we can inwardly feel that we are saved, rather than believe on the basis of God’s Word and Baptism that God promises to save us. · hear God’s voice whisper inwardly to our hearts and our minds, rather than speaking to us exclusively through the Scriptures. That way, I can know God’s personal will for my life, as if the Ten Commandments were not enough! · to have our worship be a moving—perhaps even an exciting—experience. That way, we can head into our week, supercharged for what lays ahead. The preached Word of forgiveness and the assurances given in Holy Communion DO NOT SATISFY the corrupt, sinful flesh. My flesh easily fools me into thinking that I didn’t get that much out of worship last Sunday. Something must be added. These are the sorts of things Jude warns us about when he says, “Certain people… pervert the grace of God… relying on their dreams.” · What were their dreams, other than the things these “certain people” preferred instead of God’s Word? · What were their dreams, if not an ancient form of the Creation Museum, or of whatever false consolations we might use to satisfy our emotional cravings? · What are all these things, if not the magic beans for which we would trade away the cow and the milk and butter of God’s Scriptures? “These people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.” (I am not sure what exactly Jude means by the Words “defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones,” but it does not sound good!) Jude would have us repent. Jude would have us repent of our desire to have any proof for the Christian faith—dreams or geology or feelings or otherwise. Jude calls us to repent of wanting to place trust in anything other than the Words written on God’s page. Jude would have us act out our repentance by plugging our ears to those who would have us “prepare to believe.” When we look away from the Scriptures, we lose strength to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” When we seek comforts outside those given by God between the covers of His book, we deny the all-sufficient power of the Word contained therein. Add to the Scriptures or taking away from them, and the result will always be the same: the grace of God will get perverted into sensuality and our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, will be denied. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
