Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (2009)

Evil Hearts Spoil the Communion Rev. Toby Byrd

Hebrews 3:12-19 (ESV)

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. [13] But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. [14] For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. [15] As it is said,

"Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

[16] For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? [17] And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? [18] And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? [19] So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

The writer to the Hebrews begins our Epistle Reading for today by saying, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (v. 12). For most of us this seems to be a strange statement to say to those whom you find in worship on Sunday morning. However, on further examination, it may not be as strange as one might think.

The writer reminds his readers that this was the situation with those whom God had rescued from Egypt. After having crossed the Red Sea, escaping from the Egyptian army, who were bent on their destruction, the people God saved turned their back on Him and began to worship a golden calf. Surely they knew better. They had been eye-witnesses to salvation. They were the very recipients of that salvation. However, rather than worship the God of Creation who saved them, they chose to worship something they created; something tangible, something pragmatic, something made from their hands, something to their liking.

Yet isn’t this the way our human minds think? Isn’t this the way our human nature leads us. Our nature never leads us to God; it only leads us to ourselves. There is no better evidence to support this truth than our first parents, Adam and Eve. They, like the exiting Hebrews were eye-witnesses to God’s goodness, yet it was not enough to satisfy their desire to be their own person; to be master’s of their own fate. Like the exiting Hebrews, the hearts of Adam and Eve were swayed to follow the temptation of Satan and thus they lost their communion with God; so, too, the Hebrews who followed Moses out of Egypt. They chose to follow the evil of their hearts and thus spoil the communion God had established with them.

The history of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt and their subsequent wandering in the wilderness is a lesson we who profess allegiance to our Lord, Jesus Christ should learn and learn well. For more than four-hundred years the descendants of Jacob toiled in the land of the Pharaohs as slaves. Having lost their splendor as members of the wealthy and powerful covenant family of God, they were reduced to the harsh labor of erecting the Egyptians burial tombs, the pyramids. However, despite their misery and harsh life, God had not forgotten them; He had not forgotten His covenant promise. In His grace, God sent Moses to lead them from the land of oppression to the promised land of milk and honey; Canaan. Many of the Hebrews had forgotten their God and those who hadn’t still had a difficult time believing His promise would ever be fulfilled. So, too, did the Egyptians.

When Moses asked for the release of his people, the Egyptians were not swayed so easily. To overcome their refusal to release His people, God intervened and brought plague after plague upon the Egyptians until they were finally convinced to free the Hebrews. However, even after releasing them Pharaoh’s hardened-heart could not let go of his anger and he sent his army to destroy the fleeing Hebrews. God’s promise though would be fulfilled and thus He destroyed the Egyptian army by drowning them in the waters of the Red Sea. Holy Scripture tells us that as, “Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31 ESV).

Yet, no more than having been saved by a gracious and loving God the Hebrews begin to grumble and complain. For three months Moses has to endure their constant whining, there’s not enough food to eat, we don’t like the food, there’s not enough water to drink, and so on until they come to Mount Sinai. There God gives the people His commandments for living, which among them was a prohibition against building an idol from gold or silver (Ex. 20:23). Moreover, the people, after hearing God’s commands said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (Exodus 24:7 ESV); so much for the promises of the people. For quicker than you can say golden calf, while Moses was up on the mountain, the people talked Aaron into making a golden calf for them to worship. Unbelieving hearts prevailed within the Assembly of God’s people and spoiled their communion with God. This act of defiance and unbelief sentenced the people to forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Of the six-hundred thousand men who had been rescued from Egyptian slavery, only two were allowed into the Promised Land; Joshua and Caleb. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31 ESV).

Christians need to heed the warning of the writer to the Hebrews when he admonishes us not to allow an evil, unbelieving heart to be a part of our communion, because such a heart will eventually lead God’s people to fall away from the living God. Is there any evidence more clear than what recently occurred within the communion of those who claim to follow Christ yet allow the world to rule within their sanctuaries by allowing homosexuals and lesbians living in same sex relationships to occupy the office of the holy ministry? Truth is that particular church body was doomed from the beginning because their communion foundation was not based on Christ but on secular thinking and philosophy. It would have been better for them to have rejected the evil heart among them than spoil their communion with Christ. This is truly sad, because many can remember when many from that church body were more faithful.

Many within the congregations that formed the alliance which came to that unholy decision were faithful followers of Christ. However, convinced by others that what they were doing was being “Christian” they followed false teachers, men and women who denied the truth of Holy Scripture, who denied its inerrancy, and who denied the truth of Holy Communion by dispensing the body and blood of Christ to those unworthy of reception. Their sin is a glowing testimony to the truth that all who are indifferent to true doctrine will also be indifferent to false doctrine. Their failure to emphasize the unity of true doctrine was tantamount to denying the true presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, thereby leading innocence hearts into sin. Our Lord Jesus warned us against such an attitude when He said, “Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33 ESV). Denying the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist is in fact denying Christ; the result of which is a sinful and unbelieving heart, a heart which spoils communion with God.

Again, the writer to the Hebrews says, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (v. 12) thus echoing the words of our Lord when He said, “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today” (Deut. 8:11 ESV).

It is so easy for Christians to forget the sacrifice and work of Christ for their salvation. Spurred on by their sinful human nature, they want to see their efforts, their works be the means of salvation. It is not uncommon to hear, “Yes, the Lord blesses me but only because I work at being good” or “I got Jesus in my heart, all those other things in the Bible, they don’t really matter” or “I remember the day, hour, and minute I accepted Jesus, can you?” Each of these statements, and many more like them, are statements led on by a work righteous attitude; the claim that man has something to do with his salvation and conversion. Thus, the church is never without trial; for her members do not continue on the proper and steady course of their calling but, like Lot’s wife, they are constantly looking back to see their accomplishments. Such an attitude leads many to seek forms of worship which glorify and satisfy man, not God. It’s all about the satisfaction of self rather than the reverent and purposeful worship of God. Rather than understand that worship is where we commune with God; sitting in His very presence, receiving His gift of forgiveness for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ; and where we commune with the angelic host at God’s altar, far too many see it as nothing more than an opportunity to socialize and, oh, by-the-way listen to a little preaching. Such an attitude toward divine worship falls way short of what God has described.

Sadly, even Lutherans are not immune to poor worship practices, even idolatry. We don’t have to look very far to see godly reaction to poor worship practice. Upon returning from his exile in the Wartburg castle, Martin Luther found the church in Wittenberg in disarray. While he was gone, Andreas Carlstadt had assumed the office of the ministry and his idea of worship was, to say the least, most unorthodox! Carlstadt had abandoned the Gospel placing piety over faith while cleaving to heightened spiritualism rather than the Word of God. His insistence that the body and blood of Christ was not present in Holy Communion showed his unwillingness to believe the truth of Holy Scripture and it was a sin against the Holy Spirit. Moreover, Carlstadt was remiss in requiring his listeners to become more learned in Holy Scripture. He was content that they should live by a home grown spiritualism. To these offenses against the Gospel, Luther expelled Carlstadt from the church. Sadly, within Lutheranism today we can still find variations of Carlstadt’s type of godless worship being extolled. Such worship practices lead away from God and toward man.

Such an attitude is displayed in the words of the young rich man in today’s Gospel Reading. The young man asks Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17 ESV). What must I do! This is a question asked by many and although there is no human answer, the problem is, too many answer the question by saying they are the answer. Our Lord’s first response to the young man is the second table of the Law; Love your neighbor as yourself. When the young man says all that he has done, our Lord then directs him to the only way to inherit eternal life; to sell all his possessions and follow Him. That is, to believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.

Our Lord’s response mystifies His disciples and when they’re alone they ask Him what He meant with His answer. To which our Lord replies, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:25 ESV). Now, by this statement is our Lord saying we should all be poor? Hardly! In fact, Moses tells us God will reward the faithful with riches (Deut. 28:1-8). Moreover, we see this truth in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon and others. Rather than a rebuke of the rich, our Lord Jesus is saying that the entrance to heaven and eternal life is strictly a gift. We cannot purchase eternal life by our works.

Luther reminds us, “If you want to serve God, bear in mind that you must believe in Him whom the Father sent. If you want to know how to obtain God’s grace and how to approach God, how to render satisfaction for your sin, and how to escape death, then this is truly God’s will and true service that you believe in Christ.” Moreover, he reminds us, “If there is no faith, God accepts nothing as service rendered to Him. Here we have the answer to the question: What is the real service of God? It is the doctrine of faith in Christ.” Furthermore, “Christ tells us about the origin of faith – for no one possesses faith of himself – when He says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44 ESV). And again, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65 ESV). For faith is a divine work which God demands of us; but at the same time He Himself must implant it in us, for we cannot believe by ourselves.”

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (v. 12). The writer to the Hebrews is speaking to believers and he wants to shield them from the sin of apostasy; falling away from the faith. Of course, there are those who deny such a thing is even possible, but they do so to their own peril. This same writer to the Hebrews says to them, “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV). There is more than ample proof in our day and age to support this truth of Holy Scripture. Thus, we are admonished by the writer to the Hebrews to not only be aware that such can happen, but that when we see an evil, unbelieving heart within our communion, we are to, “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (v. 13). St. Paul exhorts all pastors to, “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2 ESV). However, this admonition is not solely the purview of pastors, but it is said to all true believers. According to St. Paul, you are to, “admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thes. 5:14-22 ESV).

There is no doubt that evil hearts spoil the communion and the Holy Spirit admonishes us to, “Purge the evil person from among you” (1 Cor. 5:13 ESV). Now, the easy way out is to embrace the writer to the Hebrews and say this person is an apostate therefore beyond restoration. However, we must remember, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ died for that person too. His death was for their forgiveness as well as ours. Only His works are perfect. He alone is the fulfillment of all God’s commands. Moreover, Jesus didn’t come to earth to show us a better way; rather He came to save us who are unable to save ourselves. He came to teach us the only work of salvation is faith in Him. Therefore, before expulsion from the community of Christ, we are to do all that is humanly possible to bring that person back into a right communion with the Lord; forgiving them as we have been forgiven. Then, if they will not repent, we place them into the hands of the Living God, praying for their repentance. “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” Amen.

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.