B, Christmas 1, New Year's Eve - 1 Peter 1:22-25 "The Word of God"
In
2023 the Lord God has given, and the Lord God has taken away, blessed be the
name of the Lord (Job 1:21)! Whatever
it is he has given you in 2023, he has given so you look to him and give
thanks. Whatever it is he has taken from
you, he has taken from you, so you turn and learn to trust in him.
In
2023 God has given you, his Word! His
Word is given, and the Holy Spirit has moved in you with his Word, to
discipline and disciple you, so you abide and remain living with Jesus, the
Word made Flesh.
If
you have been faithful to God’s Word, the Holy Spirit brings comfort through
the forgiveness of your sin. If you have
fought against being brought to repentance in the Word of God, or you have
failed to hear the Word through disobedience, or have used God’s Word to your
own glory, the Holy Spirit will let you suffer, to save you and return you to
God’s Word, and his one true church.
It
is the Holy Spirit’s job to call and gather you, enlighten you in the Word of
God, and make you holy by keeping you united with Jesus Christ in the one true
faith. Push against the Holy Spirit from
bringing you to Jesus Christ, and you place yourself on sinking sand, and in
grave danger of sinning against the giver of faith.
God
wants what’s good for you! He wants to
work his goodness for your good. The
Holy Spirit has been sent from God the Father, and God the Son, to bring you to
our Father through the Son. The Holy
Spirit does this work by gently walking beside us, like a friend walking with
his arm around our shoulder, comforting us as he moves us to the safety of the
cross. But sometimes he needs to walk
behind us, giving us a sharp swift kick that might hurt a bit! But it’s done for our eternal benefit
returning us in repentance to the cross and worker of our salvation!
As
individuals the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes us holy as
God’s one church. We remain in God’s
church when we allow the Holy Spirit to set us apart.
However,
when we, the church of God, set ourselves apart from the Word of God and the
Holy Spirit, we place ourselves in corporate danger. Collectively gathering as one human spirit,
we may think we have the Holy Spirit, but end up sitting in authority over the
Word of God, judging the Word of God with a human spirit. In other words, we use our powers and
principles, which are our works and will, and not God’s!
Do
you think that a loving Heavenly Father, will not seek to return us to
him? God indeed will fight for us, to
correct us, and lead us back to Jesus Christ, to the Word made Flesh, so we
re-submit to the written Word, from where he gives us light and life! All prodigal sons and self-righteous sons are
called back to our Heavenly Father through “the Son of God”, with his
Sonship, worked within, by the Holy Spirit!
Like
a fig tree that hasn’t been bearing fruit, we have been allowed to continue
as the Lutheran Church in Australia by our heavenly Father. Faithful pastors have dug around the roots
and fertilised the tree of the church with the Word of God. Some however have chosen to fertilise with a
compromised word, leaving out the call to repentance, rather encouraging God’s
children to follow their feelings.
But
Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets,
who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is
cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus
you will recognize them by their fruits.”
(Matthew 7:15–16a, 19–20 ESV)
And
again he warns “I tell you, on the day of
judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by
your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
(Matthew 12:36–37 ESV)
God
calls us to return to the Word of God over against the feelings, the opinions,
and the words of our hearts. Our
fleeting words will not save us. Like
rotten fruit will be thrown out or a fruitless tree will be taken to with an
axe, those who persistently deny God and his Word, dangerously put themselves
on the wrong side of God’s Word and his judgement!
If
you think there are no ravenous wolves in the LCANZ, you need to wake up to the
reality of the world and the church. Do
not accept what any pastor says, just because they are a pastor, me included!
Submit
what every pastor teaches and preaches to the glory test! What is the glory test? Does it glorify Jesus Christ eternally, or
does the glory go somewhere else, dying before the fullness of time? Investigate and judge for yourselves with a
right judgement, to where the glory is going!
2024
will be a year of chaos for the LCANZ.
Many other churches of Christendom have chosen to walk away from the
Word by following the ways of the world.
Modern heresies abound in the denominations of the Reformation, where
the Word of God is watered down more and more to accommodate the confusion and
chaos of the world.
The
light and life, of God’s one true holy apostolic church gathered around Jesus
Christ, has been diminished in many denominations, including the Lutheran
Church of Australia. The cult of the LCA
has been caught up in the chaos and confusion of the world.
The
powers and principles the church has sought to trust, has moved from God to
man, from trusting God and his Word, to seeking popularity and approval from
the world, by reading the world into the Word, to make the Word and the LCANZ
more accommodating to Australia’s sinful society.
The
LCANZ has realised it cannot discern from the Word of God that women should be
ordained. Yet because the desire is
strong, we’re making the same mistakes as others and are stepping away from the
Word, to become engaged in wilful mischief, deliberate sin, and self-glorifying
righteousness.
Where
God is silent, some have become presumptuously boisterous, actively scoffing,
and seeking to shame those who seek to follow the Word of God! How have we got to a point where the spirit
of the world reigns over the Holy Spirit?
Many refuse to repent, but rather travel the way that’s wide, that leads
to eternal death!
The
chaos that is unfolding in the church, is evident. God is handing us over to our will,
withdrawing and leaving us to our own devices.
Synod in Melbourne in February saw due process and the Word of God held
ransom to the procedural direction of a few.
Chaos and confusion reigned, but submission to the Word was fleeting at
best!
Rather
than God speaking through gathered congregations in synod, a top-down directive
occurred. Where congregations once got
together as synod to do what they could not do individually, now a small group
of individuals has usurped the authority of the Synod, the Pastor’s Conference,
but more importantly God and his Word.
Just like what happened in the Garden of Eden, the authority has been
reversed!
It's
no surprise that in 2023, a small group, without the authority of the synod,
decided to secretly change the call of lecturers at the seminary without their
consultation and has decided to sell off the seminary and national office in
Adelaide. In its best light, it’s a poor
business decision, at its worse it is the complete mismanagement of God’s gifts
to continue supplying confessional Christ centred pastors to feed, forgive, and
prepare God’s flock of Lutherans to bear God’s Word in the world.
2024
will be a year of chaos for the LCANZ as it continues on its path against God
and his Word. While the LCANZ follows
the flesh, its glory will fade and fall like that of grass flowers. “The grass withers, and the flower falls, but
the word of the Lord remains forever.”
Jeremiah
talks about good figs and bad figs. Just
as we have taunted God for twenty-three years since the 2000 synod, Jeremiah
informs the bad figs, the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, saying, “For
twenty-three years, …to this day, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I
have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. You have neither listened nor inclined your
ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all his servants the
prophets… Yet you have not listened to me, declares the LORD, that you might
provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.” (Jeremiah 25:3-4, 7 ESV)
We
might say, “But we have Jesus, we have
Jesus!”, just as they said, “We have the temple of the Lord, the temple
of the Lord!” (Jeremiah 7:4) But
where is that temple of the Lord today?
It’s gone! It disappeared into
the echelons of time.
God
calls you to follow his Word, and not the world, as he has done throughout the
history of mankind. We are no different
to any other generation. Moses called
Israel to choose life and live! Jesus
calls us to abide in his Word, as branches live in the vine (John 15:1-9). Paul and the Apostles proclaimed Jesus
Christ, so we choose life and live.
Luther also calls us to choose life in the Word of God, and so too do
many others.
They all call us, to not stand over God’s Word for our short-term gain, but rather call us to remain in submission to God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, and the Holy Spirit who truly works the Word within for our repentance and salvation. Amen.
