✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    The church at large today sadly often takes its cue from the world.  And the world just wants everyone to be nice and to agree to disagree and accept all beliefs and not be sticklers about insisting on the truth.  And so in the church, pure doctrine is not usually treated as something that’s essential.  As long as we all believe in Jesus, it is said, there’s no need to get too worked up about the other details.  “Doctrine divides, the Gospel unites” is the slogan.  Or, “Deeds, not creeds.”  “Let’s just focus on love and missions and community.”  The problem with that is that it’s the creed that creates the deed.  Holding to the pure Word of God is what produces pure and real love in His sight.  Christian doctrine, Christian teaching, is what drives Christian living and creates the Christian community.  The mission that we have is to confess and proclaim the doctrine of Christ.

    So if someone tries to pit doctrine against love or doctrine against Christ, the response to that is simply this: Doctrine is Christ.  All Biblical teaching ultimately centers on Jesus.  Or to put it another way, Biblical doctrine is the Gospel of Christ unfolded in all its articles. If you love Jesus, you love Christian doctrine.

    Here’s my favorite way to illustrate this point: It is commonly said that all that really counts is that a person believes the simple Gospel as it is given to us in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  And that is very true; that sums it up well.  But there are a few things that this verse implies that we should make clear and explicit.

    Such as, who is this God who loved the world?  Is it the same god that the Muslims worship or Hindus or other religions worship?  Well, no. The Scriptures make it clear that there is only one true God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the God who is 3 in 1. So in the very first word of John 3:16, we are already into what the Bible teaches about the doctrine of the Trinity.

    This verse also speaks about people perishing.  Well, why is it that people are going to perish? The Scriptural answer is that it is the curse of man’s rebellion against His Creator.  Man is a fallen creature under God’s judgment. All of our supposed righteousness is filth before God.  We need to be called to repentance.  And so John 3:16 also involves an understanding of the doctrine of original sin and the fallen nature of mankind.

    Then this verse talks about the only-begotten Son. What does “only begotten” mean? And who is the Son? Is Jesus only a divine being? Is He also human? The answer according to the Scriptures is that He is fully God and fully man in one sinless person, the only Son of the Father. John 3:16 involves the doctrine of the two natures of Christ.

    Then this verse speaks about having eternal life.  How do we attain that? Is that something that’s based on my works and efforts and achievements? No, the Bible teaches that this is something solely and completely won for all people by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. John 3:16 involves an understanding of the doctrine of redemption.

    Then this verse speaks about believing in Christ. What does that mean? What is faith? Is it my decision or my commitment to Christ? Is it something I add to the work of Christ to complete my salvation? No, according to the Scriptures faith is a gift worked by the Holy Spirit whereby we trust in Christ and receive His free and full salvation. And how is that gift given? God’s Word teaches that it is born in Baptism, sustained through the preached Word of Christ, and nourished in the sacred meal of Christ’s true body and blood. John 3:16 involves the right doctrine of faith and of the Sacraments.

    There’s even more that I could say, but I hope by now you see my point. Doctrine and Jesus, doctrine and the Gospel cannot be separated. You mess with one, you mess with the other. You can’t disagree on doctrine and agree on the Gospel. It all hangs together. Now this is not to say that the Gospel is something so complicated that only a theologian can grasp it. For even a little child can receive it. The Gospel is indeed wonderfully simple and clear. And yet it is not simplistic or shallow or trivial. It is the mystery of God which we are always growing into ever more deeply and richly, the doctrine of the eternal Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.

    Therefore it follows that we will want to be on guard against anything that infringes upon or attacks that Word.  For in the end such things are an attack on Christ and our salvation in Him. That’s why Jesus warns us in today’s Gospel, “Beware of false prophets.” Be on guard, because they’re not going to appear false; they’re going to be appealing and offer a real pull away from the truth. Jesus says here that they come to you in sheep’s clothing. They come looking rather pious and good.  They are preachers and teachers in the church. They have the signs of the office, perhaps even a collar and a robe and a stole and a chasuble. But they don’t teach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; they are wolves, even if they don’t fully realize it. Notice what Paul said in the Acts reading, “Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, (twisting the Scriptures) to draw away disciples after themselves.” The devil comes an angel of light, Scripture says, and so do his false prophets.

    I can’t help but make a reference here to the practice of ordaining women to be pastors. Though Jesus treated women with profound respect and had many among those who followed him, yet it was 12 men whom He chose to be the first apostles and pastors. Even though the Roman world of that time commonly had female priestesses among the various pagan religions, and that was culturally accepted, yet the New Testament clearly prohibits women from speaking the Word of God to the assembly and being pastors and bishops of the church.

    And yet today this issue is dealt with not on the basis of God’s eternal Word but on the basis of politics and “rights.”  What the Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah certainly applies to women’s ordination, “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.” They are by definition false prophets. For a pastor is there to stand in the stead of Christ to speak the Groom’s words of forgiveness and life to His beloved bride, the Church. A priestess simply cannot stand in Christ’s place in that way. And in attempting to do so she denies the nature of God and perverts the male/female, groom/bride relationship into a female/female relationship. It’s not a coincidence that in nearly all the church bodies that ordain women, there is also a condoning and a sanctioning of homosexual relationships. Of course, that rejection of God’s Word is also done in the name of love.

    But really, what is the truly loving thing to do, to let people take the broad way of the world that leads to destruction, or to patiently and compassionately and consistently call people back to the narrow, difficult way that leads to life in Christ? Which is the more caring outcome: temporary happiness and unity in this world, or eternal joy and reconciliation with God in the world to come? The narrow way of Christ is the way of real love.

    Jesus says that you will know false prophets by their fruit. The fruit refers not simply to their loving or pious lifestyle, since that can be the deceptive clothing of the wolf. Nor does the fruit refer to how successful they are, either, since this world often crowns false teachers with great success and prosperity. The fruit refers to the doctrine. What spiritual food do they offer? What do they hold forth for your souls to feast upon? The pure Bread of Life or something else?  It is written, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

    So if you want to know whether a teacher is true or false, just ask yourself: Does he direct me to the shifting sands of my own decisions and commitments, or does he direct me to the solid rock of Christ’s commitment to me and His sure baptismal promise which I have received? Does he direct me to my own good works as a way of purifying myself or gaining eternal life, or does he direct me to the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ on the cross? Does he only speak of things in spiritual terms, or does he emphasize the concrete realities of the faith, that Christ took on our flesh and blood, that He was raised from the dead in the body, that He comes to us now in His true body and blood for our forgiveness in the Sacrament, that we will be raised in the body on the Last Day? Does he minimize the seriousness of sin, or does he preach the Law in all its fullness in order to maximize the glory of Christ, the Savior from sin?

    Here’s another test: St. Paul said to the Corinthians, “I determined not to know anything among you except Christ and Him crucified.” If Jesus and His sacrifice are not the center of everything that is proclaimed, if the cross is just sort of an add-on or a tag line without much real relevance to today, then that prophet isn’t true. In the 2nd reading Paul told the pastors at Ephesus “to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” That blood of Christ is the thread that runs through all true prophecy and preaching.

    Or finally you could go at it in this way: “Is the teaching of this man in keeping with the faith of the Scriptures confessed in the creeds? Is it consistent with what I’ve learned of sin and of Christ and of faith in the Small Catechism? Does it square with the preaching of the Word of God that I hear in my church?” If not, then beware of it, flee from it.

    Flee to Christ; take refuge in Him. For the truth of God’s Word is simply this: The good tree in the Gospel that bears good fruit is the cross. It is written, “Christ Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we having died to sins, might live for righteousness. By His stripes we are healed.” Jesus walked the narrow and difficult way which only He could walk. For only He could bear the sins of the world and make full payment for them. He is Himself the Way and the Truth and the Life. Jesus is not a wolf in sheep’s clothing; He is a sheep in wolves’ clothing. He is the pure Lamb of God who allowed Himself to be cloaked in darkness and evil at Calvary in order to put them to death in His body, so that we might be delivered from all evil forever. In His cross and resurrection, He destroyed the lies; He ripped apart the wolves forever. Sin, death, and the devil have been conquered and undone for you. Believing in Christ you are saved and safe forever. You are forgiven for Jesus’ sake. In this very hour you are given to eat from the sacred tree you, to receive the holy fruit of His blood and His body, which cleanses you of your sin and gives you everlasting life. In Him you shall rise bodily on the Last Day to the fullness of life in His kingdom.

    Enter, then, by the narrow gate which is the cross. For though the cross involves death to sin and self, it is also the entrance to light and life. It is the only gate that leads to the resurrection. Jesus is your true Prophet and the fulfillment of all prophecy. You will know Him by His fruits.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠