The Word Doesn't Return Empty

The Parable of the Sower and the Word of God

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrook.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 8th chapter. When a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to Jesus, He said in a parable, A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.

And some fell on the rock, and it grew up. It withered away because it had no moisture. Some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.

And as He said these things, He called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when His disciples asked Him what this parable meant, He said, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God.

But for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard.

Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root, and they believe for a while, and in time of testing they fall away.

As for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear. But as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and the riches and the pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

This is the gospel of the Lord, in the name of Jesus. The word of God. Christ likens it to seed. And that seed is, well, it's living and active. Sharper than a double-edged sword, it does stuff. But you'll note that people in the visible church, of all places, are quite inattentive and oftentimes hostile to the word of God.

Notable historical examples, I think, would be helpful here. And we'll note that during the time of the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church locked up the Bible in Latin. And unless you knew Latin, you weren't hearing the word of God.

And I remember when I was growing up, my grandmother would take me to the Latin Mass. And I would sit there and I would know what was going on because I didn't know a lick of Latin. Might as well have been speaking in tongues.

And then, of course, during the history of the Reformation, those who were translating the scriptures into the vernacular of the people of the different nations, many of them faced persecution. Some of them actually martyred for doing what?

Making the word of God available in their own language? What heresy, right? And then you'll note that now that we have the Bible, that doesn't mean that it always has free reign in the visible church.

I would note, in notable places, it is oftentimes attacked. It is maligned. And I think about what's left of what you call the mainline churches, the Episcopal church, the ELCA, some parts of the Presbyterian churches.

These people, from the pulpit, attack the word of God. Right before Christmas on the Fighting for the Faith YouTube channel, I played a video of a fellow who, from the pulpit, while wearing vestments and everything, this fellow attacked the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

He says, we live in the 21st century and we know how human procreation works. And this idea that Jesus was born of a virgin is preposterous. Of course, I sit there and go, do you not think that the people of the ancient world had no clue how human procreation worked?

Right, this is just nonsense. And so he postulated this idea that Jesus the virgin born was somehow some title, a legend to kind of show that Jesus was a very, very important fellow. Right, that's attacking the word of God.

But then you'll note that in other churches, oh, the word of God barely makes an appearance at all. Let me give you an example that I think we can all relate to now. Have you noticed that the Bougie set, that they like these cups called Stanley cups?

I don't understand the rage on the Stanley cups, right? And those things are ginormous, right? You see a woman walking around with a hot pink or Barbie pink Stanley cup, and you're sitting there going, how much water are you drinking in a day?

If I were drinking out of a Stanley cup every day, I'd have to just set my office up in my bathroom. But the whole point is that those Stanley cups, they hold a lot of liquid. That's a big deal. But at churches today, many churches, they don't get the word of God in Stanley cup proportions.

When it comes to getting the word of God, they pull out one of those old thimbles that grandma used to use, and they get a water dropper and they take a couple of drops. Here you go, here's some word of God for you.

And God's word barely makes an appearance. But then again, also, you'll note that our old Adam is not keen on listening to the word of God or reading the word of God. The idea of reading your Bible, that dusty old thing that's sitting on your nightstand, your old sinful Adam isn't really interested in that.

Nowadays, we live in a world where within the visible church, the word of God is not trusted. In fact, you go to some churches and you start taking the Bible seriously. You actually read the thing and you sit there and go, Whoa, the Bible says this, but my church body says that.

Something's wrong here. And you start to ask questions. And the first thing they do is they say to you, You know, you need to stop taking that Bible so seriously. I'm a little concerned for you, brother, because don't you understand that head knowledge makes you arrogant?

And, you know, we have heart knowledge here. And so we're just not interested in all your Bible knowledge. You need to keep that stuff to yourself, right? It's a terrible thing. But again, we ignore the word of God to our own detriment.

The Last Days and the Apostasy of the Church

The Apostle Paul prophesied our days and prophesied what would be the state of the church in the last days. Listen to what he prophesied in 2 Timothy 3. Paul writes, Understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty.

People will be lovers of self. This was before they coined the term narcissist. If they had that phrase back then, he would have used it because that's what he's describing here. Have you ever read the book, The Narcissism Epidemic?

You think COVID was bad, right? The Narcissism Epidemic is just running amok. And I fear that it's some kind of an airborne disease through casual contact with social media and things like this. You'll note how many people are all about taking those selfies and posting them up there.

Their main goal in life isn't serving their neighbor in a godly vocation. Their main goal is to become an influencer, right? Oh, the Narcissism Epidemic is running amok, and it's in the church too. So people will be lovers of self, lovers of money.

Proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

I'm not describing the pagan world. I'm describing the state of the church. That's what Paul's doing here. This is the state of the church in our day. We might want to pay attention because Paul said that this is what it would be like in the last days.

In other words, if you're paying attention to the Word of God, then you'll note that we're not that far away from the return of Christ. I couldn't tell you how long it's going to be. I only work in marketing, management team, and the Trinity, they never tell me what's going on as far as dates and stuff like that.

But the point is this, we ought to pay attention to God's Word because it is screaming at us right now that things are going exactly the way God prophesied through the apostles that it would be going.

It's happening in our days. We should be paying attention. And so Paul then says to Christians, avoid such people. Are you attending a church where you've got a narcissist leading you? Where they're lovers of money and proud and arrogant and disobedient to their parents and all these kind of other things?

Avoid such people. Get to a good church. Among them, and listen to this description, talk about salient in our day. Among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women. That's right.

These are actually perverse pastors.

They're creepers.

And in our day, you'll note that a big scandal has been brewing south of us in Kansas City, International House of Prayer. And just this past week, their church released a report done by an independent third party and claimed that Mike Bickle, not with one, but now two verified women, basically said things like, God told me that my wife Diana was going to die.

And so it's okay for the two of us to be together and eventually we'll be married. And there were sexual things going on and stuff like that. And I sit there and go, wow. The apostle Paul, a true apostle of Jesus Christ who had the ability through the Holy Spirit to prophesy the future, he nailed it.

Among those who are creeping to households, capture weak women, burdened with sins, led astray by various passions. And then listen to their description. Always learning, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

But the right question is, what are they learning? In those churches where God's word barely makes an appearance, do you know how long the sermons are? They're not four minutes long. Well, here's three sentences from five different texts and good luck figuring out what the rest of that is.

No, their sermons go on for an hour. What are they talking about? I have no idea. Okay, but the one thing I can tell you, they're not talking about what God's word says. Always learning, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

And then here comes the point. Paul then uses a metaphor, just as Janus and Jambres opposed Moses. Now, if you don't know who those two fellows are, think back to the book of Exodus, when Moses was finally sent by God to have a chat with Pharaoh.

Yahweh says, let my people go. And Pharaoh goes, who's this Yahweh guy that I should obey him, right? And so Moses performed signs and wonders. And the earlier signs and wonders, Janus and Jambres were able to mimic using the dark arts of sorcery and things like this, like turning water into blood and stuff like this.

But eventually their magic tricks ran out and the signs and judgments of God kept going. But no, Janus and Jambres then are held up as examples of people who not only oppose Moses, but they are an example to us of those men who oppose the truth.

Don't you be bringing God's word to this church. We don't want to hear it, sir. Those who oppose the truth. And that's in so many different capacities. So many different examples throughout the visible church nowadays.

It's a mess. So pay attention. Those who oppose the truth of God's word, we're not interested in hearing it or only selectively kind of smorgasbording it together. You know, kind of picking, well, we'll take a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

But one thing for sure, we're not going to listen to it. Man, recently, just the other day, I saw a woman preacher. You know, she was filling in at one of these ELCA congregations and she was a guest pastrix.

And she gets up into the pulpit and she says, Hi, my name is El and my pronouns are she them. Right. And then no sooner does she say that, she says, Now, I understand that many of you are alarmed by what we read.

Now, understand, we followed the lectionary here. And what Paul said about women not being pastors and not able to do stuff like that. He was just a meanie poopy head and that he was part of the evil patriarchy.

But we listen to Jesus. We don't listen to Paul. That's what she said. Just gasping. Right. Holy smokes. Talk about opposing the truth. Paul nailed it. These people oppose the truth, but they will not get very far.

Their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. But you, however, Paul, now writing to young Pastor Timothy, You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, and my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, which persecutions I endured.

Yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Notice it didn't say some. It's kind of a bummer. Right. It's like, well, you know, you're getting it, but I'm not getting it.

No, all, everyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And we'll note here, that's legitimately the case. We're already experiencing soft forms of persecution within the visible church.

Just wait till it breaks out in the world. And evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And understand this, your sinful nature is an evil person. Your sinful nature is an imposter.

And your sinful nature desires to steer you back into the vomit of sin. Like a pig wallowing in vomit, right? But as for you, you continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings.

Scripture as God-Breathed and Profitable for Salvation

Hmm. Paul's last letter. Peter's last letter have a lot in common. This is Paul's last letter before he's going to have his head taken off his shoulders by a Roman soldier's gladius. He is pointing young Pastor Timothy to the sacred writings, to the scripture.

And he says, they are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Again, the word of God is living and active. It is breathed out by God. That's what he says here. He says all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness.

It is breathed out by God. You're going to note here at the lectern when we read the word of God as a congregation. I say these words. This is the word of the Lord. And you say thanks be to God. But if I were to get up on a Sunday morning and say, you know, I really feel like the Lord is telling me right now that we're entering into a new season of breakthrough and stuff like this.

If I were to say this is the word of the Lord, you guys take me outside and rock me. Right. Yeah. OK. I got confirmation from the elders. Good. Right. Because is that the word of the Lord? No, it's not.

But how many people are chasing after words that are not from God? But all scripture, it is breathed out by God. And I love that word. It's just this idea. It just it all comes from the very mouth of God.

In one of our Bible studies yesterday, there was a great question. Wonderful question. Because what we did in the Bible study, looking at next week's text, we looked at the anointing of David with the prophet Samuel.

And that text is just brewing with like tie ins to Christ. And it's so messianic. It's fun. So we spent time looking at all the connections between the anointing of David and Jesus Christ. And it was a fun, fun, fun, fun Bible study.

But then somebody asked the question, you know, well, I've got some friends who get really nervous when we do things like this because they say the authors never intended us to look for Christ in the Old Testament.

Bah humbug. Bah humbug. Are you not familiar with what Peter writes in Second Peter? No prophet wrote according to his own will what he wanted to write, but they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit is the common author of all of the scriptures. And do you think the Holy Spirit didn't intend for us to find Jesus in the Old Testament? Of course he did. Right. That's kind of the point.

So all scripture is breathed out by God. It's profitable for teaching, the next two are negative, for reproof and for correction. Oh, that sounds so negative, right? Remember when Joel Osteen came on the scene and everybody noticed that he never preaches sin or repentance or anything like that.

The guy is like the tyranny of the positive thinker, right? And somebody asked him about that. He says, well, you know, the Lord has called me to stay in my lane. And so I have a special calling to encourage people.

No, you don't. No pastor has a special calling to not reprove, to not rebuke. But those are negative. You might hurt somebody's self-esteem if you did that. That's a good point. So if I say that what you are doing is sinful, that it's wrong, it's selfish, it is myopic, it's not loving God or loving neighbor, you sit there and go, oh, I'm offended.

You hurt my self-esteem. My answer is good. Buck up, buttercup. It's about time your self-esteem had the hot air popped and dispersed into the atmosphere like a big fart that it is, right? That's what we call a strong rebuke.

But the point is this. You don't have a right to not be offended. You don't have a right to rule over God's word with your self-esteem. If your self-esteem is in conflict with the word of God, your self-esteem is in error and needs to repent.

That's the point. Reprove, rebuke, exhort. These are the things that we're called to do. For the word of God is profitable for training in righteousness, so that the man or the woman of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

There is no good work that God is going to call you to that the word of God will not prepare you for. So then he goes on to say this to young Pastor Timothy, and note how firm, how stern this charge is.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Jesus is coming back. He'll be here in five minutes.

You know what you need to be doing during those five minutes? Preach the word. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine.

They will hate the word, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and they will turn away from listening to the truth, and they will wander off into myths.

Yep, and that's the thing. Our sinful nature doesn't want to hear this. Our sinful nature wants free reign to follow after our sins. I've heard more than one person say over the decades that the reason why that person is opposed to what that text says is because that text contradicts and confronts their favorite sin.

And the problem is we all have favorite sins. And when God's word convicts us, we're stuck. We don't like to hear that we're guilty. We don't like to hear that we have despised his word, cast his word behind our backs and despised it.

And so we like to put on airs that somehow we've got our acts together. No, we do not. And if you don't believe me, then, well, when we start off the divine service next week, don't confess your sins with the rest of us.

Right? So people will turn away from listening to the truth, wander off into myths. As for you, be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. So pastors are to be about the business of preaching the word.

And note it says in season and out of season. A little bit of a note here. Every time I read this text, it is a callback to my childhood. It's the weirdest thing. But you guys remember Bugs Bunny? As a Gen Xer, I grew up on Bugs Bunny.

It was part of my socializing catechism. And I learned snarkiness from Bugs Bunny. But one of my favorite episodes was when Elmer Fudd's out doing his hunting with his shotgun. And there's a debate between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as to whether or not it's rabbit season or duck season.

And so they get into this verbal back and forth. Rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season, rabbit season, duck season. And as soon as Daffy Duck says duck season, he says fire!

And blammo! Blows the face off of Daffy Duck. And his bill goes... It's just the funniest thing ever, right? But here's the thing. There would be people today, and there have been people for a long time throughout the history of the church, who would tell us this is not Bible season.

We don't need to be hearing that Bible stuff. No, no, no, no. We need to rethink Christianity. We need to reimagine it. It's time for us to forge on ahead and recognize that the people who wrote the Scriptures, they had some important things to say, but we can just ignore those things.

So the Bible, it's no longer Bible season. It's some other kind of season. And what's a pastor to do when their church body says no more Bible season? It's something else. You know what he's supposed to do?

He's supposed to break the rules. And he's supposed to preach the Word even when people are screeching, no, no, no, it's not the time for that. Oh, it is always the time for that. In season, out of season, that's what we are to do.

The Gospel of Christ's Saving Work and the Promise That God's Word Will Not Return Empty

But you're going to note then, here, this first part of the sermon has pointed out the multitudinous ways in which we, all of us, Christians, have fought against God's Word, refused to hear God's Word, have not gladly heard it, have not hold it sacred, have turned away from it.

In fact, every time we sin, we turn away from God's Word. But you'll note then, that does not call us then to give up. Instead, it's only in God's Word that we hear the good news of the Gospel. Jesus Christ laying down His life for your sins and mine.

You can find this nowhere else than in the Word of God. Only in the Word of God will you hear that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Only in the Word of God will you hear that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Only in the Word of God will you hear that.

So you are inattentive to God's Word to your own demise, because without the Gospel, you are left trying to fumble your own solution to try to figure out how to be saved, because we all know we're going to stand before God on the day of judgment.

But I assure you that your little mud patties that you're trying to put into some kind of a castle to impress God with is not going to impress Him. Instead, it is only by the merit of Christ, only by the shed blood of Christ, that you or anybody is saved.

And I think about this past week and what a great, powerful thing the Word of God is. Back in the day when I was attending Christ College Irvine, there was this earthy man named Dr. Rod Rosenblatt. And man, he was earthy.

I was a Nazarene at the time, self-righteous beyond belief, pious, well, pretending to be, right? Struggling with sin like you wouldn't believe because I didn't understand the Gospel. And I was taking an apologetics class with that man, who after every class went out and had a cigarette.

And from time to time during class, we're at a Christian university, he might let one of those four-letter words fly from time to time. And you sit there and go, what's wrong with this guy? And I was thinking, he cannot possibly be saved because he's not even trying.

But the one thing he kept doing every single class was point to the shed blood of Christ. Every class I heard him say things like, if my salvation depended even in part on my sanctification, then I'm damned.

He would say, I'm going to have to bet all the blue chips on Jesus, and I know that on the last day the ball is going to fall on him. He put all of his trust, every bit of his confidence, in the shed blood of Christ.

And he found that in the Scriptures. In his famous lecture, The Gospel for Those Broken by the Church, again, it's very earthy. If you're prone to being offended by earthiness, don't watch it. But if you want to hear the Gospel, then watch it.

In there he talks about how when we finally get to heaven, people will be saying things like, you mean it was only the shed blood of Christ and what he's done for us only that saved us? We'll all be damned.

And he'd say things like this. And you sit there and go, you can't say that, Rosenblatt.

But he did.

And that was kind of the point. And then he described the great joy that will be there for those who are in Christ, whose only hope is his merit, his forgiveness, his mercy, his sinless sacrifice for our sins because God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might be saved.

He says when they get to heaven, their joy will be such that they will be like calves leaping from the stall. I rewatched that this week because a couple of days ago, Dr. Rosenblatt slipped from this veil of tears, and he's now in the presence of Christ.

And he is experiencing that joy that he preached because God's word is true. God doesn't lie. And it's kind of weird thinking about Rosenblatt leaping around like a calf. It's kind of wrong and at the same time really right.

And I'm so thankful for it. But to have the ability to go back and remember, hearing the word over and over from him, the truth, the truth that we're saved by grace through faith alone. I didn't believe it when I heard it from him.

I challenged him on it, pushed back as hard as I could because as a Nazarene, I didn't believe that we were saved by grace alone. And I remember going to him and saying, Rosenblatt, if what you're saying is true, then you're saying I can do whatever I want.

Boy, that tells you something is wrong with me, right? What kind of theology says that if Christ bled and died for all of your sins, that means you can go out and live like a complete pagan. My theology was a mess.

He says, of course, Chris. Now that Christ has set you free from slavery to sin, death, and the devil, what do you want to do? I wasn't prepared for that answer, right? But brothers and sisters, I would note this.

This is exactly the point of our Old Testament text. It really legitimately is. Have you read our Old Testament text? Why is there no segue from talking about God's word accomplishing its thing to then just blammo, we're talking about the end of the world?

There's a good reason for it. And if you want to follow along, please do. But here again, the words of our Old Testament text for today. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and they do not return there, but they water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower, bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.

And here's the words. It shall not return to me empty. It shall accomplish that which I purpose, and it shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Why has God sent his word? These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name.

God sent forth his living, active word, and it will not return to him empty because it returns to him with you. It returns to him with me. God sent his word into the darkness so that you and I can be saved.

His word has gathered us here today, and we have heard the glorious words that our sins are forgiven. We'll feast on the body of Christ in a minute, and in feasting we will hear these words. Take, eat, this is the true body of Christ, broken for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

Take, drink, this is the true blood of Christ, shed for you for the forgiveness of our sins. His word does not return to him empty. It has accomplished it. It has gathered us together, and it will deliver us safely into his kingdom.

We would despise his word to our own loss of salvation, to our own damnation. God's word has come to us, and it has gathered us, and this is why then, without any segue, for you shall go out in joy.

Why?

Because his word has grabbed you and returned you to God. You will be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you will break into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress. Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle, and it shall make a name for Yahweh, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. So, brothers and sisters, God doesn't want you to avoid his word because he's ready to thump you on the head.

He wants you to listen to his word and not avoid it because through his word he's bringing you to himself so that you can experience the joys of heaven, and God can experience the joy of his lost children being brought home because his word truly does not return to him void.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ, and we have heard the words of Christ, and God has given us faith, and he is saving us, and he is bringing us into his kingdom. So let us thank God for the gospel, for the word, which doesn't return to God empty because it has brought us to him.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

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