Lord have mercy on the flock where the Under-Shepherd willfully substitutes the clear testimony of God's Word for the speculative testimony of the sheep.
Lord have mercy on the sheep where the pastor feeds them the speculative testimony of the sheep about the Lord and His work according to what they have seen and experienced, rather than the living testimony of God's inerrant Word.
Lord have mercy on those who justify this as a "training of the sheep's eyes" to see the unseen God and encourage them in the life of faith.
Lord have mercy, for such substitutions trains their earthly eyes and their hope on what is seen and experienced rather than on Your Word alone.
Lord have mercy, for what are such sheep to do when what they see and experience seems to testify that God has left them.
Lord have mercy, for how will sheep who have been trained to look and understand things according to what is seen and experienced, ever be able to NOT look to the things seen, but to the things that are unseen and eternal. (2 Cor 4:18).
Lord have mercy, for how will the sheep trained to live with God by sight, ever be able to live by faith in God, when what they see would appear to be testimony that God has left, has abandoned them? (2 Cor 5:7)
Lord have mercy, for You have spoken a "woe" through Isaiah the prophet on all those "who put darkness for light and light for darkness."
Lord have mercy on the sheep of Your pasture and the under-shepherds of Your flock according to Your Word, for neither can live by anything except every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deut 8:3)
The following is an excerpt from Luther on where we are to look and find the Lord and His truth. Emphasis in it are mine. Many thanks to my dear brother and beloved friend Rev. David Fleming for sharing this excerpt with me and the brothers of our area.
- pmwl
"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak ..." John 16:13
"Here Christ makes the Holy Spirit a Preacher. He does so to prevent one from gaping toward heaven in search of Him, as the fluttering spirits28 and enthusiasts do, and from divorcing Him from the oral Word or the ministry.
One should know and learn that He will be in and with the Word, that it will guide us into all truth, in order that we may believe it, use it as a weapon, be preserved by it against all the lies and deception of the devil, and prevail in all trials and temptations. For there is, after all, no other way and no other means of perceiving the Holy Spirit’s consolation and power, as I have often demonstrated from Holy Writ and have often experienced myself.
For I, too, am a half-baked theologian.29 This I say lest I exalt myself over the great minds who have long ago ascended into the clouds beyond all Scripture and have nestled under the wings of the Holy Spirit.30 But experience has taught me all too often that whenever the devil catches me outside Scripture and sees that my thoughts are rambling and that I, too, am fluttering toward heaven, he brings me to the point of not knowing where God is or where I am.
The Holy Spirit wants this truth which He is to impress into our hearts to be so firmly fixed that reason and all one’s own thoughts and feelings are relegated to the background.
He wants us to adhere solely to the Word and to regard it as the only truth. And through this Word alone He governs the Christian Church to the end."
One should know and learn that He will be in and with the Word, that it will guide us into all truth, in order that we may believe it, use it as a weapon, be preserved by it against all the lies and deception of the devil, and prevail in all trials and temptations. For there is, after all, no other way and no other means of perceiving the Holy Spirit’s consolation and power, as I have often demonstrated from Holy Writ and have often experienced myself.
For I, too, am a half-baked theologian.29 This I say lest I exalt myself over the great minds who have long ago ascended into the clouds beyond all Scripture and have nestled under the wings of the Holy Spirit.30 But experience has taught me all too often that whenever the devil catches me outside Scripture and sees that my thoughts are rambling and that I, too, am fluttering toward heaven, he brings me to the point of not knowing where God is or where I am.
The Holy Spirit wants this truth which He is to impress into our hearts to be so firmly fixed that reason and all one’s own thoughts and feelings are relegated to the background.
He wants us to adhere solely to the Word and to regard it as the only truth. And through this Word alone He governs the Christian Church to the end."
28 Cf. Luther’s Works, 22, p. 330, note 42.
29 Luther’s term is halb gelerter Doctor.
30 Luther says elsewhere that such people had “devoured the Holy Spirit feathers and all,” Luther’s Works, 40, p. 83.
Luther, Martin: Luther's Works, Vol. 24 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 14-16.
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