The Offense of the Truth

Rev. Richard A. Bolland

Ezekiel 2:1-8

(July 27, 2003 sermon transcript)

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        And God spoke to the prophet, The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says.' And whether they listen or fail to listen-- for they are a rebellious house-- they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you."

        This is the text. Please be seated.

        People of God, it is well-known wisdom among us that sometimes telling the truth will get you in trouble. We are about to enter a new political season. And I have news for you! You will hear people who will sound like they are telling you the truth. And some of them actually will. But on the other hand, others will "spin" the truth. They will shade it, or make it seem like the truth, but in fact, it won’t be the truth. And sometimes, as much as we like to poke fun at our politicians, we do the same thing.

        God speaks the truth in His word. And He insists, in this text, that His prophet Ezekiel do precisely the same thing. Dear friends, what it is about God’s word that causes so much offense in the ears of those who hear it? Why does truth, particularly God’s truth in His word, cause such a violent reaction in people of our own culture today, as well as in the day of the last days of the Nation of Israel before the exile?

        For indeed, I would ask, "If God’s word is unpopular, should we make it different than what it is?" Well, the resounding answer we hear from the scriptures, and particularly from this text is a resounding "Absolutely not!" God’s word is not to be changed! It is not to be amended. It is not to be shaded. It is not to be spun.

        It is to be spoken precisely as God gives it. Without equivocation. And without any shading of meaning.

        Some people, of course, don’t like to hear God’s word. And they certainly don’t accept the truth of what He says, because it doesn’t seem to square with human reason at times.

        Well, I would suggest that it was precisely the problem with the people of Nazareth in our gospel lesson today. Here is a man they’ve known since He was a child. He was the son of a carpenter. They know His brothers and they know His sisters. And suddenly, they hear Him speaking words, spoken with great authority. Authority unlike anything they had ever heard in their lives, and they asked a logical questions, "Who is this guy? And where does He get this wisdom? We know who He comes from. Forget about it!" We read about it in parallel text in other gospels, where not only did they not believe in Him, and you’ll notice that it ends with the fact that Jesus is amazed at their lack of faith. But they got angry with Him. They took Him out to the edge of a cliff and intended to take His life. So angry were they with His words. So upset they were from having heard the truth.

        Well, reason can mess us up. Sometimes we think of human reason and we think, "Well, naturally, everything that is true must be decided by our reason. After all, there’s nothing else to go by!"

        But that isn’t, of course, true! There is the revelation of God in His word. And when God speaks through His word it is a special revelation. It is not subject to our monkeying with it or our tinkering with it, rather it is the very word of God, spoken by the mouth of the apostles and the prophets in such fashion that it is without error and it is without any kind of fallibility whatsoever.

        If He did anything other than that, He would not be God and He could not speak as God, for God only, by His nature, can only speak that which is true!

        And yet, human reason says, "I’m not interested!" We want to whittle God down to our own human size. If our own human reason cannot encompass God, then we want to reject what He has to say. And how foolish is that?

        In the words of the prophet Job, as we look at the 38th chapter, last week’s Old Testament reading. After much complaining and groaning and moaning, sometimes justified, but not always, Job asks God to show up and give him his day in court. To tell him what he had done that was so wrong that he should suffer so badly. And finally, God acquiesces and comes to him. And this is what God says. "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone--while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?" And after about 25 verses of that, Job of old lowers his head and his eyes, and says, "I have misspoken."

        God cannot be reduced down to the size of human reason. He is too awesome. He is too great. He is too far beyond our ability to measure Him or grasp Him. All we know of Him is what He tells us. And He doesn’t tell us everything. He insists, rather, that we have (you’re not going to like this part!) some faith. That for that which we do not understand requires that we trust Him.

        No, human reason is not the final arbiter of truth. Nor can God be measured by it. And yet so many will simply turn their backs on the truth God’s word proclaims because they can’t understand it.

        There is another reason too. And that is, sometimes when human reason bumps up against certain issues, they tend to say, "That can’t be true! And so therefore none of this is dependable!"

        When God said He created the world in six days, human reason says, "You’ve got to be kidding! It took billions of years, didn’t it?" Well, I hate to tell you this, but God didn’t need the six days! He is omnipotent! That is, He holds all power to Himself. There is nothing that God cannot do! He took His time using six days! He could have done it in an instant. Or less than that.

        But He did it for our sakes. That we might know the divine cycle of things. To know that on the seventh day, there’s a day set apart for the Lord. A day of rest. A day of communion with Him. God did not need six days! He chose to take six days.

        Or perhaps we might think of His word being revealed that it cannot all be true. And yet, what do we find? That there is a lot at stake here. The Bible is true! And if it is, then we truly should listen to it for it is God speaking! But people don’t wish to do that.

        They wish rather to say less than what God’s word says. Or more than what it says! They wish to make rules that God didn’t make, thus saying more, and requiring of people that which God does not require, ending up in the cruelty of legalism.

        Or people wish to discount what God says, to ignore it. To say, "It doesn’t square with what I believe, so therefore we will just let that part be not true." But God says quite the opposite. That my word is truth. That when God speaks, that all of God’s word, is indeed, useful for learning. Useful for rebuke. Useful for growing to the maturity of Christ.

        It is the Holy Bible. Holy, meaning "without mistake". Holy, meaning that it is set apart for sacred use. Holy, meaning that it is God’s holy gift to His people, that we may know Him as fully as we humans can.

        Another thing gets in the way and seems to bring offense to the eyes of humanity. And that is, that sometimes God’s word does not seem to square with current cultural conclusions. Indeed, we’d like to dress God up as though He were a 21st century American. And let Him comply with what our view of things should be. Or at least, so we think.

        I would hold up for you as an example of how that does not work to St. Paul. As he goes to Athens, and goes up to the Aereopagus, he is speaking to a culture that is completely at odds with the faith of Christianity. For the Greeks understood things differently than we understand them. The Greeks understood that indeed, flesh and anything physical or material was of no value whatsoever!

        And so, what does St. Paul do? Does he adjust the message to match the culture? Not at all! In fact, he gives a rather in-your-face speech on the Aereopagus hill, and he says, "Let me tell you about the unknown God you don’t know! He is a God who became flesh!" If the Greeks were listening, they said, "A god who becomes flesh? A god who corrupts himself by taking on human flesh?" But that did not deter Paul. He said, "This is a God who becomes flesh and dwells among us! This is a God who has come to pay for our fleshly sins!"

        And the Greeks are thinking, "What do mean, ‘fleshly sins’? What’s done in the flesh doesn’t even matter. It’s what spiritual that counts."

        But does Paul adjust his message? Does Paul "spin" it to match the society? Does Paul compromise in any way this word which is to be spoken? And the answer is, "Of course not!" He keeps going. He says, "Not only did this God become flesh and dwell among us, in fact, He died in human flesh. He was crucified on a cross. And by the substitutionary sacrifice of Himself, your sins are forgiven!"

        And the Greeks are scratching their heads, and trying to hear better, and saying, "This is crazy! What do you mean? Sin doesn’t matter in the flesh anyway, so why would someone die for it? And what do you mean that someone’s death in the flesh would mean anything? That would be an improvement!"

        And then to cap it off, Paul tells them, "Oh! By the way, on the third day after He was laid in the tomb He rose from the dead! In the flesh!"

        And most of the Greeks tried to laugh him off the hill. Their culture, their current cultural conclusions did not square with the truth of God. And so they rejected the very thing that they needed to hear.

        But by God’s grace, some indeed did listen, and a congregation was established. And people believed.

        What about today? Today we live in what is known as the post-modern era of human history. What are our conclusions? Our current, cultural, contemporary conclusions? Well, in our society, there is not truth! Truth is whatever you decide it should be. And therefore God is whatever you determine He should be. If you like a god of love but not a god of judgment, then by all means, believe in a god of love who does not judge!

        If you want a god who is conveniently far away from you, not wanting to interfere in your life by telling you what to do, well then by all means, adopt your own version.

        And what is the obligation of the church in this day? In this age? And I would point us back to the words God spoke to the prophet Ezekiel. He says, The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says.' And whether they listen or fail to listen-- for they are a rebellious house-- they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, do not be afraid (he repeats three times). Why shouldn’t he be afraid? Why shouldn’t we be afraid?

        Well, to our post-modern times we need to clearly say what God has said. We need to tell them forthrightly that the ten commandments have not become the ten suggestions! We need to tell them, without any backing away, that salvation is, in fact, necessary because of humanity’s sin. Your sin and mine. We need to tell them that salvation comes by the choosing of God’s own solution for its coming. And that is the sending of God’s son in the flesh!

        If we try to somehow accommodate the subjective truth-seeing of our culture’s conclusions, we will destroy the very gospel which God has given to us! And we will deny to people who otherwise would be in heaven as our brothers and sisters in Christ forever, the opportunity to be there!

        Christ is God’s exclusive answer to humanity’s sin!

        How can we possibly think that we can make that more palatable to a world that sees all religions as the same?

        How can we possibly think that we could possibly improve on God’s solution for mankind’s rebellion? When His son is the only answer that is given. And by His death, our sins are taken away. And by His righteous living, our unrighteousness is clothed instead with His righteousness. And that our hope, our only hope, the only hope of the world, is by God’s grace to believe and to trust that God’s son has done all things well for us.

        No. The church today must speak with clarity. The church today must not equivocate. It cannot "spin" the truth of God. And it does not matter, if you read this text clearly and forthrightly, whether or not people choose to listen to us. It does not matter to the prophet Ezekiel if the children of Israel tell him to go take a hike! And neither should it matter to us. This doesn’t excuse us from being winsome. It doesn’t excuse us from approaching people in a kind and compassionate way. Indeed, there is no other way to come to a sinner, including ourselves, except with compassion.

        But we do not mince our words. And we do not confuse our message. And we do not make it less than it ought to be. And we do not back away from declaring the full counsel of God, both God’s law and His gracious gospel. We speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. For that is exactly what God has provided to us.

        Like Ezekiel, we must stand, not by our own power. We must speak not with our own words. But we must speak the words that are given to us, which He has provided quite clearly and straightforwardly.

        We do not subject that word to things which it should not be subjected to. To human sophistry. To human compromise. And to human spin. But we let them say what the plain sense of the text says. That Jesus Christ came to us in human flesh. That God put on human flesh and lived among us. That indeed, He lived a life that was impossible for any other human to live, in that He fulfilled God’s law to utter perfection! Because we couldn’t. And He gives to us His obedience as a gift. That He came to a cross. And for the sake of our sins that cross becomes an altar. That is why, in this congregation, there is an altar at the front of our church. And that is why, in this and in many Christian congregations, there is a cross over that altar to remind us visually, every time we enter into this building, that there is a sacrifice which avails for us, and it is that of God’s own son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

        And that having been killed and laid in a stone-cold tomb that He could not be contained by it. That He rose from the dead. And gives us the victory that we so incredibly and desperately needed over sin, death, and the grave itself. And that we can live forever with Him in heaven.

        Now if you think you can improve on that, please come and chat with me! Because I want to know how you’re going to do it! And I’m telling you now, you can’t. God has spoken by the prophets, and now in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, the scriptures say (Hebrews 1:1-2). Let us speak! For there is a world starving to death for the truth. And there is a world that is dying for the lack of God’s grace in their lives.

        If you feel you need training, fine! We have an evangelism program to help you learn more. "Sharing Life, Sharing Faith". You want to get involved? You don’t think you know enough?  First of all, you know plenty! Secondly, it doesn’t hurt to know more. Talk to Julie Martinez. She’ll get you signed up! Get you trained! Get ready to talk. But remember what God said to His prophet Ezekiel. He said, Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. And that describes humanity in general quite well, thank you very much! You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you."

        Consume the word of God in your own life, and know it well and deeply! And then, by all means, stand by the power of God’s spirit, confessing the truth of His word without equivocation and without error, and let people know how deeply and abidingly God has loved them as He has loved us all through His son. In Jesus’ name, Amen.