Sermon - Midweek Advent III - Sola Scriptura - 2017

Two weeks ago we discussed grace alone: We are saved through no merit of our own, but wholly on account of Christ who died and rose for the forgiveness of our sins. Last week we discussed faith alone: The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts to trust in the promise of salvation and apply that promise of grace to us. Today, during our 3rd and final Advent midweek service, we’ll discuss the third Sola which confesses that the Word of God is Spirit and life: scripture alone.

Quite frankly, scripture has always had a hard go at it, and through much of history has been held with rather low regard. In the days of Israel’s kings, scripture had been so forgotten that it was lost entirely for a period. It wasn’t until the high priest Hilkiah found the scriptures and brought them to King Josiah that God’s Word was restored.

The Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day may have had the scriptures, and even memorized many of them, but they preferred their man-made statutes over and against God’s Word. Following Jesus’ ascension, many stopped following God’s Word and invented false doctrines of their own to replace God’s true doctrine. In the middle ages church councils and writings superseded God’s inspired Word. Following the Reformation, the rise of rationalism and the enlightenment elevated man’s reason above the simple truth of scripture. Now today since the early 20th century postmodernism has replaced God’s clear Word with the felt needs and lies masquerading as truth that live within man’s heart. 

The common thread that runs throughout history, from Adam and Eve to you and me, is that God’s Word is “a hard saying; who can listen to it?” In your own personal life, have you noticed how ashamed you are of God’s Word at times? Like when you read the creation account in Genesis, where God created everything in six literal days, making evolution and the big bang theory therefore false. Or perhaps when Jesus says that the only way to the Father is through Him, condemning all other religions. Or what about that we eat and drink Jesus body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. Or how about the scripture verses that call homosexuality sinful or declare that women are not to be pastors. “This is a hard word; who can listen to it?”

God’s Word certainly is a difficult word, it goes against human reason and political correctness. How ashamed and hesitant are you of God’s Word? But just because it’s a hard word doesn’t mean that’s a valid excuse for our sinful feelings towards it! Jesus’ words that he has “spoken to you are spirit and life!” “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” So be rebuked by God’s Word this evening and let us repent of our shame and hesitancy to proclaim God’s Word loudly and clearly in the face of our wicked hearts and the hearts of all mankind!

God’s Word may be hard and difficult, but it is true and trustworthy! If you were to turn away from God’s Word, where would you go and in what would you trust? Would you look for hope from your thoughts and feelings, or the thoughts and feelings of others? If so, let me warn you that there is no hope there, only feel-good, sparkly delusions of such. Instead heed the wisdom of St. Peter “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 

God’s Word in scripture are the words of eternal life! Last week we briefly mentioned that faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and that we don’t create faith in ourselves but the Holy Spirit works it within us. What’s more is that the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts through the means of grace, namely through the scriptures! God’s Word turns plain water into baptism, God’s Word turns wine and bread into body and blood, God’s Word turns the reading of a book into Spirit and life! 

It is only through the holy scriptures that our faith is informed and the Holy Spirit fulfills the promise of grace for us. The world is filled with lies and falsehoods, formed by the imaginations of mankind’s wicked hearts. Though God has given us our ability to reason and rationalize, this skill has been severely impacted by the Fall into sin. Now we have only one source of truth and wisdom and that is through the scriptures!

Let not your hearts be deceived! Though you may think that your feelings and dreams and powers of reason can fully inform your faith, you are wrong! The Lord declares: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

The dream or vision where you presume to have seen Jesus is not to be trusted. Your decision to do this or be that is still quite fallible if not grounded in God’s Word. Though you may perceive yourself as quite intelligent and perceptive, your mind is no match for the Lord’s. So give up the false pretences and entrust yourself to the Lord as He reveals Himself to you in His Word. 

For His Word is not false and God does not lie. His Word “shall not return to Him empty, but it shall accomplish that which He purposes, and shall succeed in the thing for which He sent it.” The scriptures, the sacred writings “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Of His Word alone do we hope and continue to follow in for knowledge of salvation. 

The reason God’s Word is so powerful is because it is Spirit! God’s Word is not like the word that fills our lips most of the time. But the Word has been made flesh in the incarnation of Jesus, the Word was in the beginning with the Father and the Spirit, the word is God.

God in His Word informs our hearts and minds. Through the reading of the scriptures, God’s Word fills your heart with joy and understanding. God’s Word is that which proclaims life and salvation through Christ alone. When the cross of Christ is proclaimed from the scriptures, it is as if Jesus Himself were brought back from the past of ancient Israel, brought down from the heights of heaven above, and descends to our poor mortal ears here on earth below today. In the reading of the scriptures, God comes down to us so as to carry us back to Him.

In the Words of the scriptures your Jesus travels to you, where He forgives your shame and hesitancy of His Word. Though we may be stuck on earth in the wretchedness of our sin and doubt, Christ has come to declare us righteous, pay for our sins with His blood, and restore us to life everlasting. The Word of God alone, the scriptures, they deliver Jesus to you and the promise of Grace eternal. Here your faith is given life and your life is given value by the proclamation of God’s Word.

When others mock our faith in the Word, or Christians appear to know better than the scriptures, do not be ashamed of your love for God’s Word. Instead let your lips be filled with it night and day, may your heart ponder it every waking moment, for God’s Word is our great heritage and shall be ours forever. Let our prayers ever imitate that of the Psalmist who prayed “Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of Your Words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments… Make Your face shine upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes.”