The Finger of God Prevents Apostasy
Oculi (Lent 3)| Luke 11:14-28| Pastor James Preus| March 3, 2024
When you were baptized, you were asked the following questions.
Do you renounce the devil?
Do you renounce all his works?
Do you renounce all his ways?
And you or your sponsors answered, ‘yes.’ Then, as the pastor spoke the words of Christ and poured the water on you, the Holy Spirit, who is the very finger of God, came upon you and ripped you out of the kingdom of Satan and placed you firmly into the Kingdom of Christ in which you have redemption, the forgiveness of your sins (Acts 2:38; Colossians 1:13-14). Yet, that was a long time ago. Do you still renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways? Our Lord warns, “When an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
Jesus warns here against apostasy. Children, I want you to know what apostasy means and to hate it with every fiber of your being and to pray fervently to God every day that He will keep you and your brothers and sisters in Christ from apostasy. Apostasy is falling away from the Christian faith. Apostasy is going back to Satan’s kingdom and being made Satan’s slave again after having been rescued from Satan by Christ. Apostasy is the worst thing that could ever happen to you. It means to lose your salvation, to lose Christ. Apostasy is evil. Apostasy destroys the soul. Apostasy is Satan’s greatest work.
St. Peter describes apostasy in his second epistle, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.” (2 Peter 2:20-21) This is exactly what Jesus says. The last state of that person is worst than the first. So, we should always be on guard against apostasy! We should pray fervently with the hymnist, “O make me Thine forever! And should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never, Outlive my love for Thee!” (O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, LSB 449:2)
Children, pray that you never fall away from Christ. And recognize anything that would pull you away from Jesus and His Church as the greatest evil. Parents, recognize apostasy as the worst thing that can happen to your children. Apostasy is worse than your child being kidnapped, because there is no crueler kidnapper than Satan. Apostasy is worse than your child being murdered, because Satan commits the most permanent form of murder. I have been praying every morning that God would grant and increase a zeal for the Gospel in the hearts of the parents of this congregation, so that they would faithfully teach their children the Gospel at home and regularly take them to church to worship Christ. Parents, your children learn from you. When you skip church for stupid reasons, your children learn that worshiping Christ is less important than sports and catching up on sleep. When you fail to have devotions and pray with your children at home, your children learn that God’s Word and prayer aren’t important. When you use crass language and watch entertainment, which glorifies fornication and violence, your children learn that these things are okay. But when you hold up God’s Word as the most precious thing in your house, and faithfully bring your children to worship Christ, they too will hold Christ and His Word as precious. And none of us should become confident in ourselves that we will not fall away, as the Apostle Paul warns, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12) Our confidence is never in ourselves, but in Christ.
Apostasy comes in several ways. It is Satan’s constant work, of which he is tremendously skilled. Christ has plundered Satan’s house, and Satan desperately wants to get you back. He works tirelessly night and day at this aim, as St. Peter elsewhere writes, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:80) So, I want to tell you about two ways that Satan works to get you to fall away from the saving faith and be captured again in his kingdom.
First, Satan twists the Gospel of Christ so that you think that you can indulge in the sinful works of the flesh and remain a Christian. Since Christ rescued you by grace without your works, Satan lies that you can go on sinning, so that grace may abound (Romans 6:1)! St. Paul warns against this in Ephesians chapter 5 (which we just heard), “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” (vss. 6-8) Many who were once baptized, and who believed the Gospel have fallen away, because they continued in the sins of the flesh without repenting. Eventually their faith died, and they became children of wrath again like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2). Therefore, Christians must daily repent of their sins, drowning their old Adam, so that their new self may walk in newness of life.
A second way Satan brings you to apostasy is by teaching you to be neutral. This is a softer approach, but is often more effective. He won’t tell you to curse Christ. He won’t even tell you to indulge in the most reprehensible sins. He’ll simply tell you to chill out and not be so serious about Jesus. “You don’t need to go to church every week. That’s excessive. You can go months without going to church. That doesn’t mean you despise Christ and His Word. You don’t need to get in a habit of prayer. You don’t need to devote yourself to God’s Word or teach His Word to your children or confess His Word with your mouth. You can be silent and inactive in your faith. That’s just fine. In fact, Jesus is cool with it.” Satan convinces you to be neutral. But what does Jesus say? “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” So, no, you cannot be neutral. You cannot have an idle faith. You cannot refuse to confess Christ before men. You cannot neglect God’s preaching and Word and say you aren’t despising it. You are either working for Christ’s kingdom, or you are working against it. You are either in Christ’s kingdom, or you are in Satan’s. Jesus tells you this truth. Satan denies it.
So, we’ve established the worst thing that can happen to any of us is to fall away from the Christian faith. So, how can we prevent apostasy? Jesus says that if it is by the finger of God that He casts out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Satan’s kingdom is uprooted when God’s kingdom comes. How does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes by itself without our prayer. It came when Christ became man, bound up the strongman Satan, and plundered His house through His innocent sufferings, death, and resurrection. By doing this he fulfilled what God spoke through the prophet Isaiah (49:24-26), “Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? For thus says the LORD: ‘Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh and they shall be drunk with their own blood, as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your redeemer, the Mighty one of Jacob.”
Yet, how does God’s kingdom come to us? Our Catechism tells us, “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.” Having won our salvation and release from Satan’s kingdom, the Holy Spirit must bring us that salvation. The Holy Spirit is the finger of God, which casts out demons and brings us into God’s kingdom. But how do we receive the Holy Spirit? St. Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 3, “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? … Does He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” And St. Paul writes in Ephesians 6 that the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.
The Holy Spirit works through God’s Word. God’s Word is His sword, His instrument by which He rescues people from Satan and creates faith in Christ in their hearts. Where people are baptized, there the Holy Spirit works, because God promises the Holy Spirit in Baptism (Acts 2:38). Where the Gospel is preached, there the Holy Spirit works, because God promises His Holy Spirit through His Word.
Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.” Here, Jesus teaches us how apostasy is prevented. By keeping the Word of God. The word for keep He uses there is the same word He used to say that the strong man, Satan, guards his house. Satan guards his possessions with lies and by keeping them from hearing the Word of God. You guard your faith and are kept from apostasy by guarding the Word of God, which speaks the truth to you, brings you to repentance every day, comforts you with the forgiveness of sins won by Christ, so that your faith increases, and produces beautiful fruit pleasing to God.
To be blessed means to be free from Satan’s kingdom and to be safe in Christ’s kingdom, where there is forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life. “Blessed is the one who hears of the Word of God and keeps it,” Jesus says. You hear the Word of God when you come to church and hear that your sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. You guard the Word of God in your heart when you receive Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper and trust Christ’s Words that it is given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. You guard the Word of God when you remember your Baptism, that you put on Christ, so that you shun Satan, all his works, and all his ways, and hold fast to Christ ever growing in His Word.
When you guard the Word of God in your heart, it is the Holy Spirit, the finger of God, who works for you and in you to keep Satan away. Then Satan will not return to find an empty house, but one filled with the Holy Spirit, so that he cannot take you back. Apostasy is the worst thing that could happen to anyone of us. That means that hearing and keeping the Word of Christ is the best thing we can ever do. Amen.