Date: Reformation Day, October 31, 2010
Text: John 8:31-36
Title: Set free!
[Jesus said,] "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
How many lies can a person believe, and still be holding to the truth? When you are taking a test, and there is a true-or-false question, how much of the question has to be false before the whole thing is false and, thus, the answer to the question is false? When you have a disease, can you deny having the disease and remain healthy—can you create your own truth by what you believe, even if your belief is false?
How many lies can a person believe, and still be holding to the truth? How many lies can you believe, and be set free from the lie that you believe? Say you had been shackled in chains for years. One night, someone unlocked you, but you were not aware of it. Thinking you were still chained, you remained a prisoner, even though it was now a lie—it was a false thing—that you were locked up. Because you believed a lie, the truth had not set you free.
How many lies can a person believe, and still be holding to the truth? How many lies can you believe and still be a true believer and child of God? On this Reformation Day—which is a celebration of the Lord’s setting Martin Luther free from the many religion-lies of his day, with the enlightenment of the true Gospel—our answer begins in the Gospel lesson.
When the Lord Jesus tells the Jews, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free," He is as much as telling them that they have been abiding in a set of lies and, because of the lies they have believed, they were not free people—they were shackled to their sins, to death, and to eternal damnation.
Their reply showed this to be true: "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone." Yet, it was the offspring of that very Abraham who were enslaved in Egypt for what amounted to about twice as long as the USA has been a free nation—430 years. And, at the moment that Jesus was speaking to them, Israel was not a free nation. Though that land had been God’s gift to Israel when the Lord got them released from the shackles of slavery in Egypt, Israel lost their freedom because of the passel of religion-lies they practiced and, by the time the Lord Jesus was born, Israel was a slave of Rome.
We want to say, "What a bunch of dopes. How blind could they be?" But, are we not every bit as blind?
On this Reformation Day, when we rejoice in the good work that God began through Martin Luther so that we know the truth—so that the truth can have us be free from slavery to sin, shackled to death, and doomed to eternal imprisonment in hell—we need to ask ourselves: are we tightly bound to the true Word of God? If we are not tightly bound to the true Word of God, what lies are we mingling with it? And, if we are mingling lies with truth, are we still, as the Lord says, abiding in His Word, knowing the truth, and being set free?
Next Sunday, I will host a Town Hall meeting, as I first announced in my sermon, two Sundays ago. Read more about it in the November newsletter, which is in your church box.
Two weeks ago, I exposed half of the two-pronged reason that Ken Ham—the author of the book, Already Gone, from which I got the information that I will be sharing, next week—gives for young people straying from the Christian Church. Ken’s argument is that the Christian Church is not zealous in believing, teaching, and confessing the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis—those are the chapters which teach about creation, the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, the flood of Noah, and the Tower of Babel.
Ken argues that, if the Church says it doesn’t matter what a person believes about his creation, then why should he listen to what the Church says about his salvation? Put into the terms of this sermon: How many lies can a person believe, and still be holding to the truth? How many lies can you believe before you wind up just like Israel at the time of Jesus, where He has the terrible task of telling you that your father is the devil?
In the following ten items, do we have no more than a restaurant menu from which you can pick and choose and believe whatever you like and, as long as you don’t believe too many of them, you’re still a true believer?
That two men, or two women, can love each other just as validly as a man and a woman, so why can’t they be married?
It’s a woman’s choice, what she does with her body.
God would never send anyone to hell.
There are many religions that lead to God and heaven.
God used evolution to create the world; science has proven it; the Bible’s story of God creating the world in six days is just that—a story.
The Bible was written by humans, so, of course, it contains errors.
You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian; good people can go to heaven.
You can enjoy sex, whether or not you are married. Everyone does it.
You can gamble all you want—it’s your money.
You can get drunk, you can gossip, you can cheat on your taxes, you can lie to save your hide, you can live however you please, just as long as you confess your sins.
Do you believe any of those? More than one? According to the Word of God, every one of them is a lie. How many of them can you believe, and still be holding to the truth—still be considered by God to be one of His children?
Who makes the rules, anyway? Do you and I make the rules about what we can believe, or does God? Do we make the rules about how we live, or does God? Are you living and believing as if you are the rule-maker, or as if your Creator and Savior is the rule-maker?
Does God expect perfection? Does He expect a perfect faith from you? Well, actually, yes, He does. God expected Adam and Eve to be perfect, and told them that they would be cursed with death if they blew it. They blew it. They died. They led all of their offspring into death. Sin and Satan rule their disobedient children. All people are born locked to the shackles of death.
Jesus said, "So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." Praise your heavenly Father, for the Son has set you free, so you are free, indeed.
Jesus crushed Satan when He took your sins into His flesh and had it crucified upon the cross. Jesus was laced with every lie, so that truth could win the day.
Jesus taught the truth to His disciples, who recorded it in the Gospels and Epistles, which are contained in our Bible. Jesus charged the apostles with the preaching of the Gospel, the baptizing into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the distribution of His Supper. Jesus gave us the true Word of His Father so that we could know the truth, and the truth would set us free from death, devil, and damnation, through the forgiveness, life, and salvation which are given in the Gospel, Baptism, and Communion of Jesus Christ.
The time is now for you to examine your heart. Are you truly a disciple of Jesus Christ? Do you hold to His truth? Are you free from the many lies of the devil, the world, and your own sinful nature?
God expects you to be perfect. On your own, you cannot live up to His mark of perfection. That’s why Jesus had to be perfect in your place. Your life is full of lies; Jesus is the Truth.
That’s why you cling to Jesus. That’s why you listen to the Gospel, just as I forgave your sins to begin this service. That’s why I remind you of your baptism into God’s truth, which is His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation through Jesus Christ. That’s why you hunger to eat and drink of Christ’s body and blood, so that His truth will kill all lies in you.
Rejoice, this Reformation Day, and every day, for Christ has set you free from the lies of the devil, the world, and your own sinful nature. Jesus Christ is the truth, for your eternal lives. You are free, indeed. Amen.