What Saving Wisdom!

15th Sunday after Pentecost, 9/6/15
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8


What Saving Wisdom!
I. Guard it.
II. Share it.


There are far too many people in our world who consider Christianity to be utter foolishness. They’re aware of what the Bible teaches about creation, marriage, the virgin birth, the miracles of Christ, the exclusive claims he made about himself and about the way of salvation and they dismiss it as utter nonsense.

And the actions of some Christians have only reinforced that impression. Handling snakes? Come on! Shaking Bibles in people’s faces, shouting and pointing fingers never changed a single heart. It just adds fuel to the fire. Protesting at the funerals of fallen soldiers? That’s shameful. It only makes Christianity look foolish.

But that’s nothing compared to this. Just a few nights ago, the streets of major cities in China were filled with people burning paper money and food. It was the annual ghost festival. When a Christian asked what this was all about, he was told by one young lady that she was doing it for her dead father who would need money to buy things in the afterlife and food to eat. And this was an intelligent young lady who was studying the Bible. Make it your prayer that she continues to study the Bible to remove such foolishness from her heart.

You’re here this morning because you believe that God’s word is saving wisdom; it’s not foolishness. It’s the most important wisdom there is because it’s the only wisdom that rescues your soul from hell and guarantees life in heaven.

In that regard you’re in good company. The great Old Testament prophet Moses was convinced of the saving wisdom of God’s word as well. Therefore, in his farewell sermon to the Israelites he placed that saving wisdom before them one more time. That’s what we have before us this morning from Deuteronomy 4. Moses spoke these words 3,500 years ago but they’re still God’s truth today. What saving wisdom! Let’s hear what our God wants us to do with it as we apply our hearts to this wisdom once again this morning.

Part I.

What do you do to protect your valuables? To what lengths do you go? When I was a child we only locked the doors of our house when we left town. Now, we keep them locked all the time even when we’re home. We leave lights on or have them connected to motion sensors. Some of you may have home security systems. But even if you do all that, it’s not enough. That’s because theft of property is no longer the largest threat. Cyber theft is. It wasn’t too long ago that the dollar amount of cyber theft surpassed property theft. Are you protected?

If only we Christians were just as concerned about protecting God’s saving wisdom! Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that you aren’t concerned about the truth of God’s word. It’s probably one of the reasons you chose this church to be the one where you hear God’s word. I’m sure every one of you would be quick to object if I were to preach or teach false doctrine.

But listen again to the opening words of our text. Moses said, “Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.” Moses makes reference to “decrees and laws.” What he’s referring to is all the word of God which God had shared with him and which he then had shared with the Israelites. His first command is for them to follow it. In other words, live it! Don’t just give a head-nod to what God says in his word, giving the impression that you’re in complete agreement with it. Live according to what it says.

Just as important, don’t add to it or subtract from it. That’s all over the Christian landscape. Who would have thought 50 years ago that Christian churches would violate the sanctity of the life of the unborn, that they would deny the Bible’s definition of marriage, that they would no longer condemn immorality, that they would no longer insist of the virgin birth of Jesus or his resurrection from the dead? But please don’t think that because we’ve taken a stand on the truth of God’s word that we’re immune from adding to or subtracting from God’s word. The propensity to do so lurks right in here. Every time we want to relax the divine truths in God’s word, to bend the divine rules, to gloss over what the Bible states about a particular issue, we’re not guarding the truth.

So our loving Lord implores us to guard his saving wisdom from A to Z. That means we’ll need to know what that saving wisdom is. That’s one of the reasons you’re here today—to grow your faith. That need never ceases. We never outgrow our thirst for the saving wisdom of God. We’re lifelong learners of the word. We can always grow in our ability to know God’s truths and how to apply them properly in our lives. That’s a community responsibility as iron sharpens iron. It’s all about your faith. That’s your greatest possession. That faith is founded on Jesus who lived, died and rose again for you. That faith is centered on everything your Savior says to you in his word.

What saving wisdom! Guard it!

Guarding the saving wisdom of God is an important endeavor. Thankfully we have help with that. That’s one of the functions of our affiliation with the Wisconsin Synod. Thousands of your fellow Christians have joined together in our synod to preserve the truth of God’s word. But guarding it also involves following it, living according to it, aligning your daily life with the holy wisdom of your Lord. But that’s not easy! Every one of our sins gives a nod to the word of God but then we do as we please anyway. Our malicious intent, our critical and judgmental spirits, our sinful pride as well as our faith-damaging despair, our discontent, our lack of compassion, our inactivity when others need our help—all these are evidence that we have trouble guarding the truth by following the truth. But that’s why God’s truth is saving wisdom. His wisdom not only reveals our transgressions, it also reveals our Savior from the punishment those transgressions deserve. His saving wisdom does not demand a payment for sin from us. His saving wisdom declares the payment has been made by his Son, Jesus. That payment was made on Calvary’s cross. The resurrection of Jesus stamps our bill paid in full. What God demands of us he gives us in his Son. What saving wisdom! Guard it!

Part II.

Is there anyone here today who would disagree that we live in an evil world? Heroin addiction. Murders of and by law enforcement officers. Child molesters. Human trafficking. Violence in our streets. Corporate greed and illegal activity. It’s a sick world.

Things were much the same in the days when Moses spoke these words. The nations around God’s people were viciously evil. They had no regard for human life. They practiced human sacrifice. They were grossly immoral. They were driven by greed. They practiced witchcraft.

So, what’s the answer? Listen to what Moses told the people. “Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” In effect, he told the people to be lights shining in the darkness of evil. God’s saving wisdom is the only answer to evil. Sharing God’s saving wisdom is what our world needs now more than ever. Sure the world is going to do whatever it can to silence you and me. But the One enthroned in heaven laughs at the puny efforts of sinful mortals to silence the saving wisdom of the almighty God. With God on our side, who can be against us?

The wisdom our world desperately needs centers in the love of the only true God. That God loves each sinner so much—even the ones who mock Christianity—that he sacrificed his Son for them. God doesn’t demand that we slave away to find our way to him. He comes to us with the news that he has redeemed us with the blood of his Son and set us at peace with him. His highest will is for every sinner to live with him forever by faith in Jesus. As we share that saving wisdom we have God’s sure promise that his Holy Spirit will work faith when and where it pleases him. It’s not up to us to convert the world. That’s God’s work. Our work is to share God’s saving wisdom.

What saving wisdom! Share it!

Some of you have shared with me your efforts to share God’s saving wisdom with someone who doesn’t have it. That really encourages me! I want to encourage you—every one of you—to make your goal this week to think about someone who doesn’t know Christ or needs to deepen their relationship with him. Pray for that person. Pray that God will give you an opportunity to share your faith and, when he does, the words to say. Realize it might take years for your efforts to bear fruit. Then again, they might immediately accept your invitation to worship with you or to study God’s word with you. You have the solution to the evil in our world. It’s the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. You have the solution to the evil in our world. Don’t you think it’s about time you do something about it? Let’s help each other do just that! What saving wisdom! Share it! Amen.