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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Revelation 2:18-29
St. Matthew 27:45-49
Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
Jesus speaks to you tonight, saying:
“Hold fast what
you have until I come”
We come, this evening to our Lord’s letter to His Church
residing in Thyatira, from Revelation 2. Last week, we found ourselves dwelling
where satan dwells and sits on his throne (Rev. 2:13). Tonight, we still find
an equally horrible situation. We are caught in Jezebel’s bed (v.20). And
though Jesus does seem to indicate there is resistance to her teachings, we
appear to have tolerated those teachings as Gospel.
Not just tolerated, but participated; communed. This is the
sin of adultery in its fullness. It is not just sleeping around on yours and
others’ husbands and wives. It is sleeping around on your God. It is the
bringing of foreign doctrine and practice within the cope of faith and calling
it good.
In the adultery we have been desensitized to, it is no big
deal, which in turn make the adultery of faith no big deal. In fact, with the
sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s, it has become a lucrative business. The
porn industry is one of the highest grossing businesses of our times. If you
are not committing adultery, you are an abomination to the world and no one
understands your caveman thinking. Those who remain virgins until they marry
are considered circus side show freaks.
The damage this revolution has caused is incalculable. Not
only has it shattered the nuclear family, the firm foundation of all culture
and civil institutions, but it has destroyed the human psyche. Divorce rates
skyrocket. Fatherless children are the norm and broken. Babies being destroyed
in the womb increase each year. Child-psychiatric drug use has never been
higher. Not to mention gender-, body-, and sexual dysphoria have become
standard and we must accept it or else.
And that’s just biology. The human psyche is also fractured.
We trust more easily in lies, than our own family. We stake our lives on the
words of government-funded “experts”, rather than our own senses. We cause
strife and discord by our ego-driven words and actions. No one goes to church
anymore and even if they do, they are not given the free forgiveness of sins in
said churches.
If you ever needed proof of the value of the 6th Commandment
and the good it produces, just take all that in.
In the second place, all this destroys faith. For, if you
cannot be chaste or faithful to your sister and brother whom you can see, who
are you gonna convince that you can be faithful to God, Whom you cannot see? No
one. No one will believe you.
This is why Dr. Luther has included the word “chaste” in the
meaning of the 6th Commandment, in the Small Catechism. Though it isn’t there
in today’s translation because greed, “chaste” means so much more than
sexuality. It means being faithful and trustworthy. Adultery means unfaithful;
untrustworthy. Once a cheater, always a cheater.
So closely does our sin stick to us, that we are unfaithful
towards God and neighbor. Marriage is hard. You are not the first to encounter
difficulties. Love and honor your husband or wife, regardless. Do not let your
sinful thoughts destroy what God has brought together.
Similarly, faith is hard. Love and honor your God. Do not
seek Jezebel and her Anti-church and Anti-sacraments. Her liturgy is
drunkenness, sexual immorality, and the like. She offers only bodily, chemical
reactions that wither and fade each time. Like drugs, she sells just one more
high as it keeps getting further and further out of reach.
These are the “deep things of satan”, from our letter. That
somehow, through the flesh, you can attain godlike status, godly enlightenment,
and godly nirvana. And the best part is, you do not even have to go through
Jesus to get it. You just find the next partner, the next religion, and make
your own faith.
Adultery is having marriage and sex outside of God’s order.
Adultery is seeking salvation and righteousness apart from Christ. The remedy
is not just “stop doing it”, although that’s part of it. The remedy Jesus
offers is His Works for you (v.26).
What are the works of Jesus? They are the things which you
already have, since He gave you faith. He says in verse 25, “hold fast what
you have until I come”. Not only hold fast to the husband or wife that you
have, which you chose willingly, but also hold fast to what you have in Church.
Maybe not your church today, but what has been handed down to the Church from
the ages.
The Divine Service is specifically designed to accomplish
this task for you. It places you among things that you did not create or
choose. It sits you in the midst of God’s Work, of which you did not approve.
It orders you under His Word, which you did not write and it communes you in
His Sacraments for which you did not vote. This is Church.
You may not like them. It may be hard. It may be confusing.
It may not even be relevant, according to the kids. But this is “what you have”
and more importantly, you can trace it to exactly what God gave you, what He
wants you to have, which far exceeds any approval you may need.
This is similar to the promise given to the Church in
Ephesus: remember your first love. Remember the commandments, the creeds, the
prayers, the hymns you memorized. Remember the joy and happiness coming from
church things. Remember the work God has done on your behalf, which is
continually preached in the Divine Service.
When we are quick to exchange worldly fads for godly
traditions, we fall into the Jezebel trap. We are sold when they are billed as
“making an impact”, “reaching the youts”, or “being relevant”.
Really, all those mean the same thing: give up Christ and
Him Crucified, and you will succeed in the world. But who wants that? Who wants
worldly success if it costs your soul? Who wants friendship with the world when
it costs your mental well-being? Who wants peace, when it kills and destroys
the good,, the true, and the noble?
Repent of these sins. Hold fast to what you have, what you
have been given by those who were faithful before you. Keep the works of Christ
in front of you, for the Morning Star is dawning. The night is ending. There is
not much longer you have to endure under the tribulation of Jezebel and there
is only a short time of suffering under the alleged success of Jezebel.
The Son of God comes, indeed He is already here with flaming
eyes only for His Bride, the Church. The Son of Man marches on bronze feet
towards His Divine Service. His authority authorizes Word and Sacrament, Divine
Liturgy, and chastity towards those things of God, wherein we hear and find His
promises.
His promises that He works on our behalf. He promises that
He will rescue us from the deep things of satan and the Anti-church of Jezebel,
for we cannot escape on our own. Indeed, it doesn’t even feel as if we are a
part of all that evil. Yet Jesus is still the Crucified, the Crucified because
of our unchastity and in His sacrifice, grants us His Chastity and the
remission of all our sins.
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