The Eighth Sunday after Trinity, 2023
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #511 Jesus Shall Reign
- The altar flowers are in memory of Christina Jackson, whose birthday was on July 20th. The Andersons (Randy, Ivy, Andy, Aby) traveled from the People's Republic of California to be here.
- Medical supervision - Sarah Buck, Kermit Way, Maria Way, Pastor Jim Shrader and Chris. Doing well after surgery - Randy Anderson.
- Randy and Ivy Anderson, Andrea and Aby came to visit for Christina's birthday.
- Pray for honest, elections and renewed dedication to the US Constitution, where state legislatures control their elections.
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Eighth Sunday After Trinity
Matthew 7:27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
The Beatitudes are a sermon of their own, and the ending of the Sermon on the Mount offers two different-and-engaging illustrations of the future - 1) faith in false teachers versus faithful teachers; 2) faith having a firm foundation versus one washed away by current fads.
The Lupine Liberal
Lupine means wolf. Ovine means sheep. Bovine means cow.
We should always remember that Jesus, the Lord of Creation, uses His own creation in His parables. No one knows the nature of these creatures better than He does. Sheep are sure-footed for feeding, good at converting plants into meat and fat, mild in temperament. Wolves are stealthy, armed with the strength and the jaws to slaughter sheep, gaining a rich supply of their needs by creeping silently up on the flock. A pack of wolves can slowly descend on a flock of sheep.
The lupine liberals have been stalking the sheep from the beginning. The moment the Gospel spread, after the Ascension of Christ, the opponents were energized to stop the growth of the Christian Faith. Many Jews were converted, because Paul was so energetic in preaching and teaching. That outraged the Pharisaical party even more, because the Gospel spread among their own people. The Gentiles also believed after hearing the Word of God, because the myths of Greece and Rome were so crude and so much like today's Hollywood, journalists, and higher education genius crowd.
The lupine liberals of the last 200 years have chipped away at the unity and the truth of the Scriptures. One tool has been to glorify fake New Testaments as genuine, rare, and priceless. These are featured in all "scholarly" translations, books, and journals - Codex Sinaiticus, a crude forgery from the 1800s, and Codex Vaticanus, a Greek translation from Latin, promoted by the Church of Rome. The Evil Four plus Beck are these bogus Bibles: RSV, NRSV, ESV, NIV and Beck. Because the liberal scholars sanctified the fake sources, they were able to "translate" them and sell them for big bucks, each version contradicting the others while changing on a regular basis.
The purpose of Jesus' example is to show the destruction of His teaching will come from clever, stealthy, deceitful false teachers. St. Paul pleaded -
Acts 20:28-31, when he was about to depart from Ephesus, among other things, he said: “Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Wherefore watch ye, remembering that by the space of three years I ceased not to admonish every one night and day with tears.”
Bottom Line
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Fruit or fruits are a common terms for results - "the new plan was not fruitful." In gardening and farming, every effort is made to enjoy products grown and enjoyed. Many plants look good but they are bitter or even toxic. A bird caused an impressive plant that grew over six feet, attracting lady bug babies. Red markings at the base confirmed it was hemlock, a poison (no cure). One friend pulled out an unknown weed that put him in the hospital. I tugged on poison ivy and needed meds for a week.
Toxic plants and toxic teaching are parallel. They look impressive but they are horribly painful when given enough time to produce. The most "successful" false teachers are smoother than chocolate pudding. They are charming eager to spin something any way that suits their own needs.
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
America has many examples of evil plants developed or brought in, some promoted by our own government, now almost impossible to remove - kudzu, bartlett pears, one kind of blackberry, multi-flora rose. Like the famous Church Growth Movement (adored by LCMS, WELS, ELCA, and all denominations), the evil plants have spread without any benefit, and cannot be eradicated without an aggressive response.
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| At the "Free" LCMS-WELS-ELS Emmaus Conference, our Justification by Faith materials were ordered removed. |
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
We must trust in the value of sound or healthy doctrine based directly on the Scriptures. Jesus and Paul compare false doctrine to sickness and cancer. The New Testament word for healthy is hygiene, but people get drawn to unhealthy teaching, which seems so delightful at first.
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| David Scaer is The David P. Scaer Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology. |
Evil is spread easily while Biblical doctrine is halted, examined, and frequently expelled by the very people who claim they are Bible scholars or Luther scholars or both.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
6. Here you may ask: why does God permit false prophets to come among his pious people and be the successors of his true ministers? Is he not powerful and strong enough to prevent it, so that the Gospel may continue pure and in its power? Of course he is. But he permits it in order to prove and preserve his own people, and to punish the unthankful. It is as St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:19 says: “For there must be also factions among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest among you.” This means, that those whose faith is approved may become manifest, so that their spirit and word appear, and testify that they are true.
7. When God gives us his Word, his gifts and Spirit, it is not his will that we should be lazy, sleepy and idle. For if you have the true Word and its true meaning, the world will attack you on one side, and the devil will attempt to tear you from it on the other, not only by means of worldly tyrants who persecute the Word with the sword; but also by means of our own reason and the wisest people in the world. Thus God desires to develop you by his Word, and to give the Holy Spirit whom he has bestowed upon you something to do, so that you may learn that God’s wisdom is wiser than the world’s wisdom, that God’s strength is stronger than the strength and power of the world, which you will not learn unless you pass through this conflict with false teachers.
8. Wherever he permits the devil to create factions, he would thus stir you up, and say: Defend yourself, lay hold of the Word, and learn to experience God’s wisdom and power against the wisdom of the world and the lies of satan. Thus the strength and wisdom of God’s Word will appear, that you may learn that it is not to be conquered with power and wisdom; but it conquers, and puts to shame all power, cunning and wisdom opposed to it.
This is one reason why God permits factions and sects among us, who enter in as it were edgewise, as though they were beneficial and served to the end that the Word, the truth and Spirit prove themselves to be better and plainer; however aside from this factions and sects serve no good purpose.
The people I know have had similar experiences -
- dealing with false doctrine,
- wondering about false teachers and Bad Bible Boosters. ,
- challenging falsehoods and
- given the Left Foot of Fellowship, the stink-eye, and total shunning.
I am not alone. Those experiences have made some cower in fear, lest their clergy benefits be lost. Laity have told me they would be shunned by the entire extended family if they questioned Holy Mother Synod. Parallels to the Pharisees seem not to bother the abusive sect orthodoxy. Instead of bearing the cross, they are unbearably cross if anyone steps on their delicate toes.
As Luther wrote, the false teachers end up in sharpening our knowledge of the Gospel. We want to know that much more about the Scriptures and the Reformation. Physical exercise makes us hungry for food. Spiritual exercise makes us hungry for the truth of God's Word. I hate to say it, but thousands of words of theology today are entirely lacking the divinity of Christ, the miracles, and faith in Him. Many are deliberately mocking because they have no faith and want to spread their apostasy. I know two pastors who moved from Church Growth to loudmouth atheism.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
This should be a truly frightening pair of verses for those who say, "But I was a charter member!"
Nor does it matter what one's siblings, relatives or great-grandfathers did for Holy Mother Synod.
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| The Great CFW Walther did many evil things, but the worst was his consistent false teaching of Objective Faithless Justification. |
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