Sermon 2-25-24

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

The Second Sunday in Lent

True Or False 

Behavior follows faith. This is a truth made clear by Saint Paul and later made clear by the Lutheran reformers. The Roman Church to this day still doesn’t get it right. They say behavior must predate faith in order for faith to be real. That’s a misinterpretation of Scripture. It’s very clear, even from the book of James, that human behavior proceeds out of what humans actually believe to be true, and not the other way around.

Therefore, what we actually believe to be true about life has powerful effects. And we can see this around us all the time. This hideous gender dysphoria that is resulting in the mutilation of children is based on faith in a ghastly falsehood. Marxists are teaching as an article of faith that the categories of male and female are mere “social constructions” made by human societies. There is no real objective truth in the two categories. Instead, we can be anything we want. What makes this teaching false is that the idea that male and female are mere social constructions is itself a mere social construction. It’s made up. It has no objective truth. And as social constructions go, it’s totally out of touch with reality.

The power of a lie is very great. Here’s what Jesus had to say in John 8:44, “. . . ‘He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.’” The two parents of the entire human race brought all the tragedy, catastrophe and suffering of this world upon themselves and us because they believed a lie told by the father of lies. When Yahweh asked Eve what she had done, Eve replied in Genesis 3:13, “. . . ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” And Yahweh did not disagree with her. Lies and deception are the devils trademarks. And this is because the devil is self-deceived and bitter about the fate his self-deception has brought upon himself. All those who believe His lies are also lost in incredible self deception.

And there’s one other result of the devil’s lies. Jesus went on to say in John 8:45-47, “45 ‘Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? 47 He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.’”

From these verses we learn three truths. First, since Yahweh is the Creator of everything that exists, including ourselves, whatever He has to say about the reality He has created is the absolute truth. No matter how much wishful thinking is applied, there is no other truth — no other reality. Second, we don’t much care for Yahweh’s truth. And third, we don’t care much for Yahweh Himself because by nature we don’t belong to Him. Therefore, if Jesus is Yahweh come to earth in mortal human form to tell us the truth, we’ll crucify Him.

Indeed, on Good Friday, we’ll see this little exchange between Jesus and Pontius Pilate. John 18:36-38, “36 Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.’ 37 'You are a king, then!’ said Pilate. Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’ 38 ‘What is truth?’ Pilate asked. With this he went out again. . . .” And we know what eventually happened. Pilate didn’t side with Jesus because he couldn’t and wouldn’t stand up for the truth.

Here’s what the Apostle Paul had to say about the final chapter of earth’s history. 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12, “8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”

This means that from earth’s first day all the way to its last, Yahweh’s truth and Satan’s lies will struggle for our allegiance. There’s a struggle for your heart and mine, and for the heart of everyone who has and will ever live. Who you gonna believe? All your thinking and behavior in this present life will depend on it. Your eternal destiny in the life to come will depend on it.

As I said last week, not all of today’s young people are falling for the enemy’s lies. Some have been given the grace to sense that there’s something wrong with what they’re hearing and being taught. They’re also observing the behavior around them, the behavior they’ve witnessed in the generations above them and the behavior they’re being encouraged to engage in. Something in it all isn’t adding up for them — as it shouldn’t. So much of it is based on lies straight from the one who was a murderer from the beginning. Therefore, the church of Jesus Christ has great opportunity in this situation.

In order to do so, let’s take a look at what the apostles did as they sought to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the pagan world outside of Israel. We know from history that no matter what they were up against, they succeeded. We ourselves are evidence of that fact. Therefore, how did the apostles speak to a pagan world so that it responded to the Gospel?

The New Testament book of the Acts of the Apostles is a good place to begin. In its opening chapters it tells of how the apostles spoke the gospel within the initial Jewish environment. However, in its later chapters it tells us what they said to the gentile world. Of course, the letters that the apostles wrote were mostly aimed toward gentile Christians living as former pagans within a pagan world. We can glean much information from the letters also. 

There’s an episode in Acts 17:16-34 where Paul speaks to an exclusively pagan gentile audience of philosophers in the city of Athens, Greece. This sermon or teaching is distinctively different from anything else we hear from Paul in Acts. It focuses on three topics. The first is that this universe has a Creator. Idolatry is false. The second is that there is not only life after death, there is life in a resurrected body after death. Third, turning a blind eye to points one and two will bring eternal wrathful judgment down upon you from the Creator.

We might begin by asking why Paul concentrated on these three elements. First, as I explained last week, the very existence of this universe demands that something must be uncreated, eternal, infinite and self-existing. And there are only two choices. Either the universe must have an uncreated, eternal, infinite and self-existing Creator, or the universe itself must be uncreated, eternal, infinite and self-existing.

The problem with the universe being uncreated is that everything we know about it so far shouts “created!” The big bang theory of the universe’s creation is gradually falling out of favor. Nevertheless, that theory declares that the universe had a beginning. Where did it come from? Theoretical physicists have been struggling to overcome this problem and make the universe eternal. But that’s a matter for a lecture, not a sermon.

As I explained last week, the paganism of the ancient world conceived of gods and goddesses moving around in an uncreated, eternal universe. Paganism even said that some of these gods and goddesses organized our local section of the universe so that earth exists as it does. However, the one thing paganism in all cultures rejected was a Creator God. Judaism was the only ancient religion that proclaimed Yahweh, the uncreated Creator God. Yet, Judaism never was able to convert the ancient world to the worship of a Creator God. It was left to the Jewish sect that became Christianity to accomplish that. And this happened because Christians had the message of the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead.

How terrified of death are you? Even if you think you’re not terrified, how happy are you about the prospects? Well, the ancients felt the same way you and I do. Death wrecks everything. That’s why there’s not much left from the ancient world except ruins. So, when these Christians came proclaiming that a human being had been physically raised from the dead and that He would raise from the dead all who put their trust in Him, that was huge news. Christians even proved their faith in this news by not flinching in the face of persecution and death. The prospect of resurrection took the ancient world by storm.

But, the Christian message is not just resurrection from the dead, it’s resurrection from the dead into eternal righteous life. Therefore, to enter the Kingdom of God every human being who has ever lived must face judgment by the Creator of the universe. This isn’t particularly good news. However, because it’s a warning, it needs to be heeded.

This warning concerns a matter of life over which we have both no choice and choice. Saint Paul explains it this way in Romans 6:16, “Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” He went on to say in Romans 6:20-23, “20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The issue with good and evil is that there is no way to escape the problem that good and evil present. Either we must serve good or serve evil. There is no way to escape the servitude. We have no choice. We must be slaves to one or the other.

So, since we must be slaves, which will we have? We all intrinsically know that righteousness — goodness — is far superior. But, there is a great thrill in lust, self-indulgence and defying the good. Because of the sinful nature, all humans easily succumb to the deadly thrill.

It’s clear that the thrill brings catastrophe of one kind or another. As Paul put it in Galatians 6:7-8, “7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

It’s being seen by the newer generations that the so-called sexual revolution brings so much danger and trouble that some young men are now refusing to date women. They basically ignore women. It seems to be a growing trend. It has recently been predicted that 45% of women in the prime child bearing years of 18-29 will be single by the year 2030. It’s taken 60 years of sexual revolution and feminism to get to this point. But, God cannot be mocked. If we sow evil and rebellion, we get a harvest of evil and rebellion.

This is also being seen in our cities in another way. In the name of addressing so-called racist inequalities, Marxist governments have basically legalized brazen shoplifting and theft. What’s been the result? An ongoing collapse of retail.

This has even spread to rural areas. It’s being reported in California that organized gangs are stealing valuable farm machinery. This is how a society eventually consumes itself. Thieves — whether they are supposedly respectable politicians or common criminals — can only consume what someone else has worked for. What happens when there’s no one left to produce for them? They don’t worry about that, confident that they can always find new, untapped sources to steal from. But, our Creator cannot be mocked. The universe He created only works in certain ways. Those who defy Him ultimately bring disaster on themselves and everyone else in this life. And in eternity it’s even worse.

Again, even if young people raised as pagans in a pagan society can’t make sense of what they’re seeing in the biblical terms I’ve just presented, they, nevertheless, know that something isn’t quite right with their world. Videos of fentanyl addicted people standing immobile as bizarrely twisted statues on city streets is not escaping their attention. That’s divine judgment staring them in the face. It’s the catastrophe that slavery to lust and self-indulgence brings. Our Creator cannot be mocked.

 So, can Paul’s sermon in Acts 17 play in this time? It can. But not without opposition. Our pagan education system claims that everything in the natural world can be explained without a Creator. And if something can’t be explained without resorting to a Creator, it’s not real.

However, actual science is discovering that this isn’t so. Recently, I listened to an interesting panel discussion about Charles Darwin and Darwinism. The panelists noted what historical investigation is revealing. The scientists before Darwin attributed the observable changes in species to information contained within the animal itself. But Darwin changed the paradigm. He declared that changes in the environment are solely responsible for the changes we see. Thus, he came up with a rule we’re very familiar with: the survival of the fittest. Biology has been done exclusively on this doctrine ever since.

However, there is a group of biologists that are now rebelling against Darwin’s doctrine. Their actual experimentation has convinced them that the earlier scientists were correct. The source of variation in living things is contained in the DNA. And given the right stimulation, DNA can express significant changes in animals in a scientifically observable short number of generations — not in the millions of years Darwinism posits as necessary. Therefore, I’m convinced that as biology progresses, the struggle will be fierce, but Darwinism will eventually be overthrown.

Even now, we can clearly make a scientific case for intelligent design. It’s being discovered that every living cell in your body is incredibly complex. Darwinist doctrine teaches that each piece of design had to be randomly added over long periods of time. However, it has become clear that without all the complex pieces of a cell being present at the same time, a cell can’t live. Therefore, the only rational way to explain the interrelationship of such incredible complexity is by design. And if there is design, there is a designer. That’s the only rational conclusion. The revelation of Holy Scripture tells us this designer is Yahweh, the Creator of all things.

And what about the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ? Fifty years ago when I was in seminary it was considered irrational to believe that Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead in a body.

This congregation had no pastor in 1984. I was told that in that year the call committee had interviewed several candidates for pastor. When asked if they believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, each of them explained that Jesus’ disciples had had an experience of Him alive. However, He had not been raised in the physical body. On the other hand, by 1985 I had shaken free of that explanation and was able to answer that I believed in a bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, I was called as pastor.

About 1975 a candidate for a doctorate in theology named Gary Habermas began a doctoral thesis on the resurrection of Jesus Christ that also proved to be his life’s work. Now in his seventies, Dr. Habermas is putting together four volumes of all the information he has collected from the ancient world on the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Due to his work and the work of others, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is now considered the most reliable historical fact we have from antiquity. Even bible skeptics like Dr. Bart Ehrman admit that it’s accurate history to say that the church was proclaiming Jesus Christ bodily resurrected from the dead within a year or two of the actual event. This is a far cry from the 1970’s when the resurrection was considered a myth added by the church to Jesus’ life story long after He lived.

The evidence has now been amassed. We can confidently proclaim that something incredible has happened on this earth almost 2,000 years ago. A dead human being was resurrected from the grave in an immortal human body. More than that, He was resurrected to perfect righteousness in that body. And Jesus has promised that all those who come to faith in Him will also be resurrected in the same perfect righteousness for eternal life.

On this present earth, the victorious resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth after His suffering and death means that freedom from slavery to sin is available to all who put their faith in Him. Slavery to the righteousness that leads into righteous eternal life is now available to all who put their faith in Him. This is the incredible gift of God won by Jesus’ perfect obedience on the cross.

So, to people of all ages, but especially to the young, we have this message to proclaim. Behavior follows faith. If you see troubling behavior in yourself, in others and the in the world, then it’s reasonable to look at what you actually believe as a cause for the behavior. Historically, pagan belief has brought about godless behavior. But, there is another way to believe. History reveals that ordinary citizens believing in Messiah Jesus tend to live lives of great value in this world. And exceptional citizens believing in Messiah Jesus tend to live exceptional lives of value. The way of the cross is a most excellent way. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the NIV.