The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

John 8:31 “Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ 33 They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, You shall become free?’ 34 Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. 35 And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. 36 ‘If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.’” (NASB)

George Orwell of “1984″ fame said, “In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” The telling of the truth in a world and even a church that is captive to a lie is always revolutionary and never welcomed. It wasn’t welcomed in the time of the Old Testament prophets. It wasn’t welcomed in the when the Son of God took on flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. It wasn’t welcomed during He three year ministry. It wasn’t welcomed when the apostles went about preaching, teaching, and establishing Christian congregations. It wasn’t welcome during the Early Church and the Church of the middle ages. And it wasn’t welcomed during in the centuries and decades leading up to the Reformation.

But today we celebrate the return of the Truth to the church. We celebrate the truth that a person is set free from sin, judgment, death, and the power of the devil. Jesus said (John 8:31-32), “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Now the proposition that there is only one universal truth (not many contradictory truths or no truth at all) that makes a person free as Jesus says here is a scandalous, offensive, and exclusive proposition. This proposition rests on three fundamental assertions about the nature of reality and the human condition.

First, humanity is captive to a universal deceit. Humanity in in bondage to sin. Second, the truth has the power to cleave this dark deceit and free people who were once children of darkness. Third, only those who know, that is trust in this truth shall be free.

As history moves towards it end, the details of the lie change from time to time. But at its core, the deceit remains consistent. In Luther’s day the deceit found its expression in religious doctrines and a system of works-righteousness within the dogma and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Now lest you think I am picking on the Roman Catholic Church, then and now works-righteousness is sinful humanity’s default religion and philosophy.

All the world’s religions and philosophies teach that “righteousness” comes from adherence to certain laws and by conformity to those laws. If a person is going to be judged “good”, or “righteous”, or “worthy” before a god or gods and other human beings, they must do things to earn that status. The advocates of these works righteousness systems generally don’t hide the fact that they in fact advocate a works righteousness system.

From his earliest days, Martin Luther the child, student, monk, and priest understood he was being raised within a system that taught that he had to do certain kinds of works to help balance the scales. Faith plus good works eventually resulted in acceptance by God and entrance into heaven upon death.

All man made religious systems set before their followers various commandments and practices that must be practiced in order to become an acceptable person in God’s sight. This is the universal deceit. This is the great lie, that sinners can make amendments for their sinful natures and the acts of sin to placate the anger and wrath of God.

The lie made its way into the Old Testament church named Israel. If a Jew in the Old and New Testament period kept certain laws and traditions, they believed that they were reckoned righteous. Many of the New Testament Epistles were written because that lie had been mixed into Christian theology. What better way to take people captive than to enlist Jesus as the principle practitioner.

The sad truth is that most people are content to abide such a system. They live the lie. They don’t see the deceit. For a few though, chief among them Luther something was very wrong with such a system. The system did not bring peace and assurance of salvation. The law was never satisfied. The penitent could never fulfill the law. The system only produced more demands, more doubt, more fear, and more despair. And that had implications for how a person viewed God.

Luther once said, “Our God appears to be a cruel and intolerable God, by which very many have been offended in all ages. And who would not be? I was myself more than once driven to the very abyss of despair so that I wish I had never been created. . . For there is no escape.”

No matter how stridently Luther tried, he could not escape the truth. He was a sinner and could not save Himself. Bible verses like Romans 3:19ff would not let him rest. “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight…”

No flesh is justified in God’s sight by the works of the flesh. But the lie says the opposite. The lie tells people to trust in their own self defined good deeds.

The problem is that human nature is hardwired to believe the lie. The blind cannot see. The deaf cannot hear. These people don’t even know that they are captive to the lie, sin, death, and the devil.

The Jews to whom Jesus was speaking in John 8 were advocates of the lie so they could not understand or believe the truth. The same today. Jesus here is not talking about your financial situation. He is not talking about freedom of sickness or persecution or loneliness or afflictions of the mind. Jesus was talking about freedom from God’s judgment. The Jews to whom Jesus was talking thought Jesus was talking politics. They even thought of the Messiah as a political figure and still do today. They said to Jesus, “We are Abraham’s offspring, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, You shall become free?” They thought they were free and they thought they were free because God was happy with them. Why not! In their thinking they were happy with themselves and that is really the thing. Self-delusion. That’s the thing about self-righteousness. It deceives the self into believing something about the self that isn’t true. But human beings are usually quite content with the deception.

Today if the “woke” says that something is true, or if they say people must love one thing and hate the other, most people comply. They will tolerate, defend, and nominally think and do as they are told to think and do. Why? So that they will be considered a “good,” “caring,” and “sensitive” person.

That which was once regarded as good is now deemed as evil and that which was evil is now called good. It’s an age old problem. Isaiah 5:18-21 “Woe to those who drag wrongdoing with the cords of deceit, And sin as if with cart ropes . . . Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness . . . Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes And clever in their own sight!”

We are in a much worse place than was Luther. The people believed and rightly so that sin existed. They believed sin was an offense to God and that He judged sin and sinners. The believed that they were sinners. Today a person is treated as unclean and worthy of cancellation if they call sin by its proper name.

If a person happened to say or do something five, ten, or twenty years ago that is consider offensive by today’s guardians of public virtue, they are told by the same guardians that there is no forgiveness and no path to redemption. There is only exile.

As for the churches in Europe and America, they are buying into every manner of decadence, every so called secular and pagan environmental, racial, social justice, and gender orientation that is rolled out by the virtue signaling mobs.

As for individual Christians, that self righteous streak still lives in us in the old sinful nature. A great many church goers simply go along and makes these evil ideologies there own.

Those who remain Christian, well all too often we don’t want to be labeled by the world, not to mention family, friends, and co-workers as mean spirited, or arrogant. Christians today cower for fear of being shunned or cancelled. So we sit passively by and let our neighbors and even our kin folk die the sinners death.

In contrast to these systems of works-righteousness and a life and culture under man made laws, stands the truth and a proper understanding of the Law and Gospel of Jesus Christ. In direct opposition to all these religions and philosophies of “good deeds” and forced compliance stands those three fundamental truths.

Humanity is captive to a universal deceit. You were once a child born darkness and deceit. Ephesians 5:7-9, “Therefore do not become partners with them [did you hear that?– Don’t be partners with people who are engaged in promoting the lie]; for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth).

Second, the Truth has the power to cleave the darkness of this deceit and free people who were once children of this darkness. Colossians 1:13

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Matthew 4:16 “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light, And those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, Upon them a Light dawned.”

Third, only those who know, that is trust in this Truth shall be free; free from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Free from universal deceit. Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

Romans 6:6-7 “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has died is freed from sin.”

Jesus is clear about what it means to believe in Him. (John 8:31-32) “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free . . . If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” To believe in Jesus is to believe in His word, His preaching and teachings.

We live in freedom because we live in the Word of God. “If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” Galatians 5:1 “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”

In one of Luther’s best theological treatises, “On the Freedom of the Christian,” he summarized our state of freedom and it’s effect on the Christian in two seemingly contradictory statements. “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all.”

In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act. You are a people of the Truth. You are free from sin, death, and the devil. Continue the revolution.

Amen.

May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 

Reformation Sunday, 2021 – Truth in an Age of Falsehood

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