Matthew 11:15, “He who has ears, let him hear.”
When one does not adhere to God’s Word and abide in Christ, they will tell Christians many lies that belong to their pagan worldview. They tell us abortion is okay because it’s the woman’s body, ignoring the other body inside her. Autonomy becomes sacred. Almost all sexual immorality is justified—homosexuality because of their false idea of “love” and “happiness,” premarital sex and masturbation and pornography because they’re apparently healthy despite the neurological evidence pointing to the contrary, and even adultery becomes permissible so long as the two adulterers love each other.
Those who aren’t tuned to God’s Word are like a bad radio signal. With a bad radio signal, there is nothing but static and the occasional times the signal gets through, but it ultimately cannot tune in to the correct channel. Those who aren’t tuned in to God’s Word can get a few things right since God’s moral law is bound on every human heart (Romans 2:15), which is why cultures that know nothing of God or Christ will have similar morals against murder and theft. However, they ultimately cannot tune in to God’s Word completely without the proper transmitter of the Holy Spirit, so they ultimately get everything wrong. Those who are tuned in to God’s Word, however, receive the message fully as it is in Scripture and if he or she is a responsible Christian, they will adhere to His Word.
The lies of the world has its own frequency people are tuned to. These world views often go directly against God’s Word. Sometimes it messes with our own frequency—it causes us to go fuzzy for a while and sometimes we begin to follow the ways of the world for a little while, until the Holy Spirit interferes and fixes our frequency to God’s Word. Only God’s Word can pierce through our flesh and bring change. “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). Although we primarily think of God’s Word as something we read in order to gain knowledge and insight, we actually have it backwards. God’s Word reads us—it penetrates to our core and exposes who we really are. This is ultimately why many often reject God’s Word, because it reveals the truth about who we are and we don’t like who we truly are—sinners and enemies of God who deserve condemnation
Yet there is good news after this verse: “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16). As our High Priest, Jesus is our Mediator in Heaven (1 Timothy 2:5), so not only are praying to the saints unbiblical, but it is also unnecessary. Jesus Christ is more than enough; He is our High Priest at the right hand of God, and we have direct access to Him through prayer, the Word, and the Sacraments. The role of priest is to intercede for God’s people on their behalf and represent God to the people; this is exactly the role Jesus enacts for us at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest.
Our High Priest desires to tune us in to God’s Word, whose Holy Spirit pierces our flesh and testifies about Him—that for our sake He died for our sins and became the propitiation for our sins so we don’t have to suffer the wrath of God we deserve. This is exactly why we can approach His throne of grace with confidence in His grace and mercy to find His help in time of need, for He promises to give it to us (see Matthew 11:28-30). As we tune in to God’s Word, we find salvation in Christ, the truth for righteous living, and the help we need in times of trouble and weariness.
The Lutheran Column 