Play Time Is Over

In any great forest you will find many huge trees. They tower above other trees and appear to be the very picture of strength and maturity. However, loggers will sometimes not even bother to cut down these huge trees. At first one wonders, “Why leave them? After all, a tree that big must contain twice or thrice the amount of lumber as a smaller tree.”

The reason is simple. Huge trees are often rotten on the inside. They are the hollow trees that children’s picture books show raccoons living in. And they are the trees that are often blown over in a strong windstorm because, while they appear to be the picture of strength, in fact their hollowness makes them weak.

This is the essence of hypocrisy—appearing strong on the outside but hollow and rotten on the inside.

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Luke 13:23–27 ESV

And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’

The Spirit-Led Church is the Church that takes Jesus Christ at His Word, because the Holy Spirit always acts in accordance with the Word, and never independent of or in opposition to that Word.

Of course, there are a lot of places around that call themselves “churches.” There are a lot of people who claim to speak and act in Jesus’ name. It is possible to fool others - it is even possible to fool yourself! Is there a way to determine that you are not, in fact, someone who the Lord does not know?

We confess, in the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord,

The Book of Concord Article XI: Concerning God’s Eternal Foreknowledge and Election

[30] Therefore, the elect are described as follows. In John 10[:27*, 28*], “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life.” In Ephesians 1[:11*, 13*]: Those who are preordained “according to his purpose” to receive his “inheritance” are those who hear the gospel, believe in Christ, pray, give thanks, are sanctified in love, have hope, patience, and comfort in their crosses (Rom. 8[:25*]). Even if these things are all very weak in them, they still have a hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt. 5[:6*]).

[31] Thus, the Spirit of God gives the elect the “testimony that they are children of God,” and even if they “do not know how to pray as they ought,” he intercedes for them “with sighs too deep for words” (Rom. 8[:16*, 26*]).

The first thing I note in our confession is that the active agent is God, not the elect. It is “His purpose” that motivates their being “preordained…to receive His inheritance.” “The Spirit of God gives the elect the testimony that they are children of God.” They do not create it of themselves. Everything that we confess about the elect and their activities have their source, not in their wills, desires, or passions, but in His purpose. What they have, He gives to them. Where they go, He leads them.

At the same time, as Jesus gives the illustration in our text today, there are others, people who are physically near to Christ, but theologically afar off. They are in the area, but not inside the door. Christ “taught in [their] streets” but they did not sit at His table, although they “ate and drank in [His] presence.”

How is this possible? Isn’t it our goal to be in “the presence of the Lord?” Our text says “NO!” It is not enough simply to be in His presence, You don’t bear the fruit of the Spirit by trying to “act spiritual,” nor does faith come by osmosis. Just as living in the same neighborhood as a congregation does not mean that one is in fellowship with that congregation, or having familial connections does not make for a shared Christian identity, being around God’s Word does not birth faith, but as it is written:

(ESV)

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

There is more than one “Gospel” being preached today, more than one “Jesus” who is offered to people today as “the answer for the world today.” It isn’t the size of the tree in my earlier illustration that determines the usefulness of that tree, but the recognized quality of it. What is the quality of a “Gospel” that promises you satisfaction, comfort, and success in this life, with place for the Cross? What is the certainty of a Jesus who just “happened” to die on a cross, but whose real legacy was his moral example, his heroic rebuke of the status quo, His kindness to strangers? The Christ of the Gospel that was preached by the Apostles didn’t “happen” to die, He came to die, as “a ransom for many.” Baptism does not initiate us into a social club or a community organization, it “unites us into Christ’s death.” It “washes away our sins.” It “buries” us so that we can be raised to newness of life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 6:3–4 ESV

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

It isn’t enough to be “around Jesus,” to “know about Jesus,” or even, to be familiar with His name.

Acts 19:13–17 ESV

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

Acts 19:11–17 ESV

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

God chose to work through Paul, because God chose Paul to hear His Word. When Ananias questioned the Lord’s direction to send him to find the man who he knew as a bitter foe of the Gospel, His reply removed all concern:

God chose to work through Paul, because God chose Paul to hear His Word.

Acts 9:15 ESV

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

Just God used Paul as a called servant, we confess that He uses us today:

The Book of Concord Article XI: Concerning God’s Eternal Foreknowledge and Election

[32] In the same vein, Holy Scripture also testifies that God, who has called us, is so faithful that when he has “begun a good work in us,” he will also continue it to the end and complete it, if we do not turn away from him, but “remain steadfast to the end in that which he has begun.” For this purpose he has promised his grace (1 Cor. 1[:8*]; Phil. 1[:6*]; 2[:16*]; 2 Peter 3[:9*]; Heb. 3[:6*, 14*]).

It is this that we are to focus our attention, giving heed to the Word of the Lord, rather than to other things that God has not promised to work through, not looking to our works which we have done, not looking even to our efforts to be in the presence of the Lord. Instead,

The Book of Concord Article XI: Concerning God’s Eternal Foreknowledge and Election

[33] We should concern ourselves with this revealed will of God, follow it, and devote our attention to it, because the Holy Spirit bestows grace, power, and ability through the Word, through which he calls us. We should therefore not attempt to fathom the abyss of God’s hidden foreknowledge, as it is written in Luke 13[:23*, 24*]. When someone asked, “Lord, do you think that only a few will be saved?” Christ answered, “Strive to enter through the narrow door.” Thus, Luther says, “Follow the order of the Epistle to the Romans. Worry first about Christ and the gospel, that you may recognize your sin and his grace, and then fight your sin, as Paul teaches from the first to the eighth chapters. Then, when you come under the cross and suffering in the eighth chapter, this will teach you of foreknowledge in chapters 9, 10, and 11, and how comforting it is.”323

You won’t “grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him who called you” if you refuse to take heed to the Word. You won’t grow if you do not “desire the pure milk of the Word.” If the best that you can say about Christ is that “You taught in our streets and we ate and drank in Your presence,” He will reply, “Depart from me, I don’t know you, workers of iniquity.” If your sinful nature controls you, if the works of the flesh order your steps, watch out:

Romans 8:5–6 ESV

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Philippians 2:12–13 ESV

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

You can’t fake that, because you can’t produce the fruit of the Spirit without Him. The true righteousness of faith can’t be faked, because it comes from God

(ESV)

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Let God be true, though every man be a liar. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you feed upon His pure Word of grace.

And let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your heart and minds, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

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Play Time Is Over

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