The 12th Sunday after Trinity

SERMON - God’s Word Is Reliable and Authoratative!

INI

Text: Isaiah 29:18-20

In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nothing, the scornful one is consumed, and all who watch for iniquity are cut off.

In Christ Jesus, who urges us to abide in His Word, so that we might know the truth and be truly free, dear fellow redeemed:

I recently read a book entitled Already Gone. It has a rather provocative subtitle—Why Your Kids Will Quit the Church and What You Can Do to Stop It. It is co-authored by Ken Ham (the President of Answers in Genesis) and Britt Beemer (the President of a firm called America’s Research Group). The book begins by citing an alarming statistic about England. Only 6.3% of that formerly strong Christian nation’s population attends church. The book then points to research that reveals that fully two-thirds of the young people attending Christian churches here in the United States are leaving the church after high school, which means that within another twenty years we in the United States could be facing a similar crisis.

The purpose of Already Gone is to examine the reasons behind this mass exodus of young people from the church and to suggest possible solutions. Britt Beemer’s firm interviewed in depth one thousand young people in their 20’s and 30’s from across our country [Note: The results of the 73 question survey are included in Appendix I of Already Gone.]. All of these individuals had once attended conservative Christian churches, but no longer did so. What they discovered was very interesting. These young people did not leave the church because they were bored with traditional orders of service or the use of older hymns—reasons often cited by many for such lack of involvement. Rather, the underlying reason was that these young people began to doubt the reliability and authority of the Scriptures, and therefore its relevance to their daily lives!

Doubting the reliability and authority of the Bible is surely nothing new, for in our text we see that Isaiah faced similar doubts in his day—seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. However, the intensity of those attacks has certainly increased within our society, and the fact that many of those attacks are coming from teachers and preachers within the external church has caused the situation to grow worse. Certainly, as we noted in Bible Class this morning, the undermining of the reliability, that is, the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible and its authority has led to the confusion within the ranks of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its recent decisions approving homosexuality under certain circumstances among its members and clergy.

The solution for ending the exodus of young people from the church, Ken Ham and Britt Beemer suggest, is to impress once again upon each heart the Bible’s truth and its importance for our individual lives. That is likewise the message of Isaiah—GOD’S WORD IS RELIABLE AND AUTHORATATIVE! It enables us—the deaf and the blind—to hear and to see! It directs us—the humble and poor—to rejoice in Jesus! It assures us—Jesus’ disciples—that His enemies will go down in defeat!

I.

Isaiah was facing a society that had grown tired of God’s Word. They were concerned about the here and now, not the promise of a future Savior. They prospered, but forgot the source of their prosperity—God’s gracious hand. The kings of Israel introduced gross idolatry and a vast majority of their people accepted it! Over time in Judah, the people also embraced idolatry. Instead of loving each other, they preyed upon each other. Lip-service was still paid to God, but true expressions of faith—walking humbly before God and serving with willing hearts—were seldom found! God described the situation by saying: “These people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but have removed their hearts from Me” (Is. 29:13).

God, therefore, decided to punish His people. Isaiah and the other prophets warned the people, but to no avail. God then permitted the Assyrians to carry the ten tribes of Israel into captivity. Their nation simply was no more—the people displaced and lost. Judah, it would seem, learned nothing! Its people did not mend their ways, but rather pursued evil with even more passion. Isaiah, therefore, announced God’s coming judgment—a judgment that occurred over one hundred years later when Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 B.C.

There were those, however, who remained faithful believers—good and godly children of God even in the midst of a society gone astray. To these people Isaiah offered the words of our text: “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.” Isaiah pointed ahead to “that day” when God’s promised Savior would finally come. That Savior, Jesus, would fully reveal to all of mankind the truths of God’s kingdom. His words would be recorded in “the book”—the Bible and people like you and me, who by nature are spiritually deaf and spiritually blind, would be enabled by the Holy Spirit both to hear and to see! Remember the words of our Gospel Lesson. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn. 8:31-32). When the Spirit brought you and me to faith, He set us free and allowed us to hear, to see, and accept God’s truths!

God’s word is reliable! Jesus tells us that “the Scripture cannot be broken” (Jn. 10:35). It, therefore, possesses His authority! We are to hear it, and we can believe it without fear, for it does not contain human errors. Who is the one, true God? The Bible informs us it is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the God who created us, who has redeemed us, and who now seeks to sanctify us through this very word! Who are we? We are by nature lost and condemned sinners, but we are now sinners saved by God’s grace. In and through the sacrifice of Jesus, the condemnation we deserve has been removed. We have been pardoned and forgiven. How are we to live our lives? God reveals His will for us in His word. It is not unclear. His commandments remain in force—the expressions of His will, but also expressions of His deep desire to protect us and His tremendous concern for our welfare. Yes, GOD’S WORD IS RELIBLE AND AUTHORATATIVE! It enables us—the deaf and the blind—to see and to hear!

II.

It also directs us—the humble and poor—to rejoice in Jesus! Isaiah writes: “The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” Who are the humble and who are the poor? They are us, when we are brought to an understanding of our sins and humbly confess them before God. They are us, when we realize that we cannot earn our way to heaven or stand before God on the basis of our own works and merit. Such a knowledge is truly humbling, yet such a knowledge also brings us joy and enables us to rejoice. Notice, however, in whom Isaiah says the humble and poor will increase their joy and rejoice—“in the LORD” and “in the Holy One of Israel.”

Isaiah’s comments mirror those of St. Paul eight hundred years later when he wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4) No matter what our circumstances are, when we know that by God’s grace we are His children and heirs, we can rejoice! Upon occasion I visit individuals in the Blue Earth County Jail or in one of our state prisons. I often share that passage with them, because St. Paul was in prison when he wrote it. In fact, St. Paul was facing a trial which might very well have ended in his execution, and yet he was able to rejoice! How? Why? St. Paul did not say, “Rejoice that you are in prison,” nor would he say to someone dealing with cancer, “Rejoice in your cancer.” But in the midst of imprisonment as well as in the midst of chemotherapy, a humble child of God can rejoice in the grace and the power of God, who promises that He will hear us when we call upon Him and deliver us from the dangers that beset us (cf. Ps. 50:15). God will indeed “work all things together for our good” (Rom. 8:28), for we love Him and more importantly He loves us!

As we then seek the answers to the perplexing topics of the day, whether they deal with questions of sexuality or other areas of inter-personal relationships, let us turn to God’s Word. As we seek to deal with the uncertainties of this age, whether we are dealing with issues of addiction or complex aspects of economics, let us turn to God’s Word. In many cases, God’s Word will give us outstanding direction, but in all cases it will direct us to rejoice in Jesus for in Him we can always find hope and through Him we can always gain confidence. Yes, GOD’S WORD IS RELIABLE AND AUTHORATATIVE! It directs us—the humble and poor—to rejoice in Jesus!

III.

It, finally, assures us—Jesus’ disciples—that His enemies will go down in defeat! Isaiah writes, “For the terrible one is brought to nothing, the scornful one is consumed, and all who watch for iniquity are cut off.” Those who oppose the Lord will go down to ultimate defeat! That truth should be sobering to the unbeliever and is intended to be a source of great comfort for the believer. While Isaiah probably does not intend to identify someone specific when he speaks of “the terrible one” or “the scornful one,” we can certainly and appropriately identify various individuals with these names. Satan is certainly “the (most) terrible one” and “the (most) scornful one” at all times. He has been defeated by Christ and will be sentenced to everlasting judgment in hell. Is he still dangerous? Yes, he is, but he is not undefeatable, but rather can be overcome with the application of God’s Word! We are to apply the same tactics to oppose Satan in our lives as Jesus did in His—“It is written” Satan (cf. Mt. 4:4,7,10), so desist and depart!

Should any individual or any army of individuals oppose you as you stand on the truth, do not fear! “If God is for us, who can (successfully) be against us?” (Rom. 8:31) There are times when people will lie about you as they seek your harm. Do not fear. God knows the truth. He will support you, and he will vindicate you at the time of His choosing. Think of Joseph, who was condemned to prison because of the lies of Potiphar’s wife, but who was later raised to a position second only to Pharaoh—a position from which he led ancient Egypt. Think of Daniel, who was cast into the lions’ den not for committing a crime, but because of the envy of fellow officials, but God shut the lions’ mouths and Daniel received even greater glory, while his enemies perished. Think of Esther who was able to overcome the plots of Haman—Haman being hung on his own gallows!

The Bible tells us that everything we find written within it was written “for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). If the Bible is unreliable, how can it properly instruct us? It could not! If the Bible is unreliable, how could it properly comfort us? It could not! If the Bible is unreliable, how could it ever instill true hope? Yet it does, because GOD’S WORD IS RELIABLE and, consequently, it is AUTHORATATIVE! Let us, therefore, listen to it, learn from it, and live by it! Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting
Soli Gloria Deo!