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Soldiers in Christ's Kingdom

3/26/2025

Oculi Sermon (Lent 3)
Luke 11:14-28
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 23, 2025

“But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you,” says Jesus. The finger of God is the Holy Spirit. When a work is done by the finger of God it means that the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Holy Trinity has done it. And when the Holy Spirit casts out demons, that means that God’s Kingdom has arrived. Christ casts out demons in your life. When you were Baptized, you received the Holy Spirit, who washed you in the washing of regeneration and cast Satan out from you. And when you hear the preaching of the Gospel, through which the Holy Spirit works to create faith, there too Satan is cast out. The Holy Spirit works through Baptism and the proclamation of the Gospel to join you to Christ’s victory over Satan and sin when He died on the cross for all sins. St. Paul tells us that those who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death and resurrection (Romans 6). And the proclamation of the Gospel is the message of how Christ, the stronger man overpowered Satan the strong man by taking away all our sins.
And so, since you have been baptized into Christ and you have believed the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, the Finger of God has cast out demons before you, and therefore, the Kingdom of God has come upon you. This is what St. Paul means when he says, “He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14) So, what does it mean for you that God has delivered you out of the darkness of Satan’s kingdom and transferred you to Christ’s kingdom of light? It means that you should walk in the light. St. Paul again writes in Ephesians 5, “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are the light of the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).”
Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” He then explains that when an unclean spirit is cast out of a person, but returns to find the place empty, it returns with seven more spirits more evil than itself, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. And so, we learn that there is no neutral ground in this spiritual battle between Christ’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom. When Christ casts out demons before you by the finger of God, He places you into the safety of His Kingdom. If you have been placed in God’s kingdom, how then ought you to live? Should you live as a citizen of God’s kingdom or as a citizen of Satan’s kingdom? Obviously, you ought to walk according to Christ and follow the Holy Spirit.
St. Peter warns about those who have been rescued from the dominion of darkness and placed in the kingdom of light, yet go back to living in darkness. He writes, “For, if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” (2 Peter 2:20) Yes, instead of being tormented by one unclean spirit, they are tormented by seven more eviler spirits!
If God has cast Satan out from you and delivered you from his kingdom of darkness and placed you into Christ’s kingdom of light, then you must walk in the light. Scripture repeatedly warns that those who do works of darkness will not inherit the kingdom of God. By continuing in these works, they are leaving Christ’s kingdom of light and crossing the border into Satan’s kingdom of darkness. St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.” (vss. 9-11) Paul makes clear that we must no longer live as we did before we were washed clean by the Holy Spirit, or we will not inherit God’s kingdom.
Again, in Galatians 5, St. Paul writes, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (vss. 18-21) No, if Christ’s Spirit has taken you out of Satan’s kingdom, then you must no longer do these works! Again, we heard St. Paul write in Ephesians 5, “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” (vss. 5-6)
Now there are many works of darkness, but St. Paul repeats three evil works in our Epistle lesson: sexual immorality, impurity, that is, uncleanness, and covetousness. Sexual immorality is fornication, that is, sex outside of marriage. The word in Greek is προρνεία (porneia), where we get the word pornography. Impurity or uncleanness refers to those works of the flesh which separate you from God. Jesus calls the demon an unclean spirit. In the Old Testament uncleanness referred to being ceremonially unclean, when you were not permitted to touch holy things or participate in the worship of the congregation. In the New Testament, unclean things refer to the sins of the flesh, often paired with sexual immorality and sensuality, that is, those fleshly desires, which war against the Spirit of God. Covetousness, St. Paul calls idolatry, because whatever you trust in most is your god. When people are greedy for money, property, prestige, and an easy life, they worship false gods.
These three works: sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness are the works of demons. That does not mean that if you engage in these works that it is not your fault and you can say, “The devil made me do it.” No, rather, what I am saying is that if you have sex outside of marriage, or view pornography, or engage in other unclean behavior like drunkenness and drug use, theft, and sexual perversion, or if you let greed consume you, you are engaging with demons. And you are opening yourself up for demonic oppression. Demons are real. This means that you are dealing with creatures, which are more powerful than you. To engage with demons is to play with fire, to work in Satan’s kingdom, and to become a slave of darkness. Those who continue to do these evil deeds will lead themselves out of the kingdom of Christ into Satan’s dominion of darkness, to become slaves of the evil one again.
Jesus warns those who have been rescued from the dominion of darkness and placed into His kingdom of light that if they do not walk in the light, they will fall away and become even more enslaved in the kingdom of darkness. And for this solemn teaching, a pious woman in the crowd shouted, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed.” To which Jesus replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!” Certainly, the Virgin Mary is blessed, but Jesus says that His mother and brothers and sisters are those who hear the Word of God and do it (Luke 8:21). So, Mary is blessed because she treasured up God’s Word and pondered it in her heart, even more than she is blessed for being the mother of God! For it is only through faith that we receive blessing and honor from God.
It is by the Word of God that the Holy Spirit cast Satan out from you and transferred you from the dominion of darkness into Christ’s kingdom of light. And so, it is by the Word of God that you remain in the kingdom of light. But what does it mean to keep the Word of God? It means to use it! To read, mark, learn and inwardly digest it. To trust in it. To pray according to it. To live according to it, applying it to your life according to your station, as a Christian, husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, worker. As citizens of God’s Kingdom of Light, we are armed soldiers equipped by God to fight against the forces of Satan. St. Paul writes in Ephesians 6, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” (vss. 10-18)
The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, by which you fight back the demonic hordes, which seek to drag you back into the kingdom of darkness with the lies that sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness will satisfy you. By living according to the Word of God, you can keep yourself busy, so that you do not give yourself the opportunity to gratify the desires of the flesh, as St. Peter exhorts us, “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing (that is, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love), they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:7-8) Yet, while we sojourn in this life, we will not keep ourselves entirely without sin. Satan will catch you without your armor. So, you must remember that the Word of God which casts Satan out from you and secures you in Christ’s kingdom is not the Law, which depends on your works, but the Gospel, which is the Work of God. This is why St. John writes in Revelation 12 of the saints, who have conquered Satan, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” (vs. 11)
The Word of God by which the Holy Spirit casts Satan from you and transfers you to Christ’s kingdom is the Word that declares Christ’s victory over sin, death, and hell. Satan binds us in his kingdom by our sins. Christ’s blood washes our sins away, melting away Satan’s bonds. And so, as we war against the kingdom of Satan, we must employ the weapon of the Stronger Man, which is the very Gospel of Christ by which the Holy Spirit works. Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. But Christ Jesus sets us free from our sins by forgiving us. Yet, He not only sets us free from the consequences of our sin, but from our sins themselves. So, we must continue to flee to Him for forgiveness and strength to resist sin, until we are finally set free from the clutches of our sins forever. Amen.

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How to Wrestle God and Win

3/20/2025

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Reminiscere Sunday (Lent 2)
Genesis 32:22-32 and Matthew 15:21-28
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 16, 2025

Last week, Jesus taught us how to wrestle with Satan and win. This week Jesus teaches us how to wrestle with God and win. In our Old Testament lesson from Genesis 32, Jacob wrestles with a man, whom he later identifies as God. This man was the preincarnate Christ. But to understand this struggle between Jacob and God, we need to fill in some context. In Genesis 28, after Jacob had cheated his older brother Esau out of his blessing, he fled to his uncle Laban’s. As he slept on a rock, God appeared to him in a vision with a ladder to heaven and said to Jacob, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and in your offspring all families of the earth will be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (vss. 13-15) And so, Jacob went with great encouragement of faith to Laban’s house, where God immensely blessed him. Despite Laban trying to cheat Jacob repeatedly, Jacob departed from Laban a rich man, with wives, children, and large herds and flocks.
However, in Genesis 32, Jacob receives reports that his brother Esau was approaching with 400 men to meet him. After dividing his camps, Jacob bows down and prays to God, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’” (vss. 9-12)
You are hard-pressed to find a better prayer than that! Jacob addresses God as God introduced Himself to Jacob. He confesses his own unworthiness to receive anything good from God, but rather confesses what God promised to do for him. All Christians should model their prayers after this prayer of Jacob. Yet, how did God react to this exemplary prayer? Does He reveal Himself to Jacob and assure him that He will protect him from Esau and fulfill His promise? No. The Lord is silent. He doesn’t answer him a word. Then, to make matters worse, He appears to Jacob as a man and wrestles with him all night long. Yet, though God knocked Jacob’s hip out of joint, Jacob held on saying, “I will not let go until you bless me.” And so, God blessed Jacob, renaming him Israel, because he had striven with God and man and yet prevailed. And in the morning, Esau greets his brother in peace, and Jacob’s nightmare is over.
Thus, Jacob gives us a master class in wrestling with God and winning. Jacob teaches us three things to do to win in a wrestling match with God. First, hold fast to God’s promises found in His Word. God gave Jacob a certain promise that He would bless him with a large family and bring him back to the land of his fathers, so that all families of the earth could be blessed through His offspring (that is through Jesus). And God promised not to leave him until He had accomplished what He promised. So, Jacob held on to that promise. He prayed according to that promise, because faith holds only to God’s promises. Second, Jacob teaches us to be humble. Jacob confessed that he was not worthy of any of the good things God had given him or would give him. He relied solely on God’s promise. Faith does not depend on our worthiness, but on God’s promises. Finally, Jacob was persistent. When God was silent to him and when it appeared that God was saying, ‘no,’ and going back on His promise by wrestling him through the night, Jacob persisted. He held on to God’s promise, insisting on it, and would not let go until God had blessed him. And God did. And so, the nation of Israel and indeed all the faithful are now called by Jacob’s new name, Israel, because of his great example of faith.
Yet, 18 centuries later, a daughter of Israel gives us another master class on wrestling with God, following the example of Jacob, her father in the faith. Yet, this woman was not a daughter of Israel through blood. She was a Canaanite woman, a descendent of the people God promised to remove from the land of Israel, so that Jacob’s descendants could live there instead. However, because of the children of Israel’s disobedience, God left the Canaanites as a thorn in their side. Yet, now, this daughter of Canaan, this Gentile from the most cursed family on earth, claims a seat at the table of Israel.
She cries out to Jesus, because her daughter is terribly oppressed by a demon. Yet, Jesus ignores her, not saying a word to her. She continues to cry out until Jesus’ disciples ask him to send her away, because she is annoying them. Yet, Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” pointing out that she is a Canaanite. Then when the woman kneels before Jesus and says, “Lord, help me!” Jesus insults her by saying, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and feed it to the dogs.” So, it appears that Jesus not only says she is not of the household of Israel, but she is an unworthy dog.
Yet, the faithful Canaanite woman grasps at these words. “You call me a dog? Fine, I’m a dog. But even a dog eats the crumbs that fall from its master’s table.” With these words, the woman won her wrestling match as Jesus hoped she would. That was the pinning combination. First, she clings to the promise of God. She calls Jesus the Son of David, which means that she is confessing Him to be the Christ. She believed that He would be a light even to the nations, as Scripture promises (Isaiah 42:6). She appears to have heard Jesus’ teaching, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) Next, the woman was humble. She was not discouraged when Jesus ignored her or insulted her. She did not claim to be worthy of what she asked, but only clung to the promise found in Jesus’ Word. Finally, she was persistent. She would hold on to Jesus’ words until she found the “yes” her faith was looking for. And so, she proved herself to be a true daughter of Israel, because it is not all who are descendants of Israel who belong to Israel, but those of faith (Romans 9:6).
These saints teach you to hold fast to God’s promises in Scripture, because true saving faith can only rest on God’s promises in Christ Jesus. These saints teach you to be humble, because we do not receive our salvation or any good thing based on our worthiness, but by God’s grace according to His promises in Christ. And they teach us to be persistent, because we don’t need our faith for a little while, but the entire way, because only through faith may we be saved. You have received wonderful promises from God through Jesus Christ. Yet, as with Jacob and this Canaanite woman, God has sent you tribulation. And though, you compose the perfect prayer, God is often silent to you. Then thoughts come to you that the promise was not meant for you and that you are unworthy to receive God’s grace because of your sin. So, what do you do? You say, “Yes, Lord, you are right. I am unworthy. I am a poor miserable sinner.” If the Canaanite woman can say, “I am a dog. So, give me a dog’s due.” Then you can say, “I am a sinner. Give me what you promise sinners.” Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13) And Scripture declares, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15) So, Jesus, You said that You have come to save sinners! I am a sinner. Save me! You said that heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents. I am a sinner who turns to you. Rejoice over me!
“But you said!” Jacob cried to God. Thus, we pray to God. You said that as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ and that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (Galatians 3:27; Mark 16:16). You said, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you.” (John 16:23) You said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) You said, “Whoever comes to me, I will by no means cast out,” (John 6:37) You said, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus!” (Romans 8:1) This is how you defeat Jesus in a wrestling match. You catch Him in His words!
Jesus wants you to win your wrestling match against Him. He wants you to overcome everything through faith in His Word. He wants you to persist in prayer in His name until God grants you what you pray for. When speaking of wrestling God, we are not speaking of God as our adversary, but as He who challenges us for our own good.
Yet, how is it for your own good that God wrestles with you? St. Peter tells us in his first epistle, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6-7) God wrestles with us to test our faith as gold and silver are tested and purified in the crucible. He does this to strengthen our faith, so that Satan cannot defeat us, so that the world and our sinful flesh may not destroy our faith. St. John writes, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 John 5:4) A faith that can withstand God’s test can most certainly overcome Satan and the world.
One thing you’ll notice when reflecting on Jacob’s match with God is that you forget about Esau. God is much bigger than Esau. And when reflecting on the woman and Jesus, you forget about the demon oppressing her daughter. Not that Esau and the demon are not problems that need to be addressed, but we learn that God is so much greater. If God answers you, what is man, what is a demon, what is death, sin, or hell against God? What is cancer, poverty, and pain against God? God wrestles with us to turn our focus from the lesser to the greater. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and the rest will be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)
Finally, God wrestles with us for the sake of our sanctification, as St. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4. God desires us to be pure, avoiding sexual immorality and every other sin. When we are pulled away from ourselves and the world and Satan to wrestle with God, burying ourselves in His Word and prayer to seek our victory, then we have less of an opportunity to sin and we become stronger against sin. Jacob limped in his body after his match with Christ, yet He walked more steadily in God’s path.
So, do not be discouraged when God challenges you. Rather hold on tighter to Him. Cling to His promises found in His Word, pray fervently with a repentant heart. God wrestles with those whom He loves. Hold fast to God’s promises in Christ, and He will bless you. Amen.

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Monergism and Synergism

3/12/2025

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Invocavit (Lent 1)
Matthew 4:1-11
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 9, 2025

Do you children know what Monergism means? Monergism comes from the Greek words for alone and working. Regarding our salvation, God works alone. You don’t help at all. As David went out on the battlefield by himself with his sling and sack of rocks to face the giant Goliath, so our Lord Jesus Christ went into the wilderness alone to face Satan, and He won without our help. Christ alone won your salvation. He did this through His active and passive obedience.
Jesus’ active obedience is when He obeyed God’s Law in human flesh in our place. St. Paul writes in Galatians 4, “But when the fulness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Jesus fulfilled the Law for us. He did what Adam and Eve and every human being after them, including you, have failed to do. He withstood the temptation of Satan and was a perfectly obedient Son of God.
Jesus’ passive obedience is when He suffered the punishment for our sins. St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, “For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” And again, in Galatians 3, he writes, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” Christ fulfilled the Law without your help. And He satisfied the wrath of God against all sins without your help by suffering alone on the cross. Christ worked alone to redeem you from your sins. That is Monergism.
Not only did God work alone to redeem you from your sins, but God worked alone to convert you to the saving faith. We rightly confess in our Catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” We confess this, because the Bible clearly teaches that by nature, we are sinful and incapable of accepting God or believing the Gospel. St. Paul says in Ephesians 2 that we were dead in our trespasses and sins and were children of wrath like the rest of mankind until God made us alive by grace. And he writes in 1 Corinthians 12 that no one can say that Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit (vs.3). And as I noted last week, Jesus says that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). So, your conversion to the Christian faith is entirely a work of God. You were spiritually dead, and God made you alive. You were unwilling, and God made you willing. Your conversion to Christ is divine monergism, that is, God alone accomplished the work to make you a Christian.
Regarding your redemption and your conversion, the Bible rejects Synergism. Do you know what Synergism is? Synergism comes from the Greek words for together and working. Synergism means working together. We do not work together with God to redeem ourselves or justify ourselves before God. God works alone. We do not work together with God to convert ourselves to the saving faith. God worked alone to bring you to spiritual life. You accept the preaching of the Gospel, because the Holy Spirit works through the Word to create faith. In Baptism, it is God who works to forgive your sins, give you His Holy Spirit, join you to Christ’s death and resurrection, and make you God’s child. And it is God, who through His Word and Sacraments keeps you in the true faith. From beginning to end, your salvation is entirely God’s work. That is divine Monergism. Regarding your salvation, Synergism is entirely rejected.
Yet, in 2 Corinthians 6, St. Paul says, “Working together with Him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” Paul says that we work with God. He even uses the Greek word “Συνεργοῦντες (synergountes), where we get the word Synergism. Yet, here, St. Paul is not talking about redemption, justification, conversion, or salvation. He is speaking of the activity of Christians in their daily renewal. While we do not work with God to save ourselves, after we have been converted and the Holy Spirit has caused us to be born again into a new creation, our new self does work with God. Our Lutheran Confessions explains it in Formula of Concord article II on Free Will, “As soon as the Holy Spirit has begun His work of regeneration and renewal in us through the Word and holy Sacraments, we can and should cooperate through His power, although still in great weakness. This cooperation does not come from our fleshly natural powers, but from the new powers and gifts that the Holy Spirit has begun in us in conversion.” (SD II:65)
So, regarding our salvation, God works monergistically. Yet, regarding our sanctification, that is, our daily renewal, we work with God, our new self being guided by the Holy Spirit to do what is pleasing to God. Some arrogantly ask, “If God does all the work for our salvation, why should we do any good works at all?” Yet, they ignore what God’s salvation does to us. God’s salvation makes us His children! If a father tells his son to take out the trash, does his son say, “Father, I know that I am your son by grace apart from my works and that I will remain your son whether I take out the trash or not, so I will continue to sit here watching TV and will ignore your command to take out the trash.”? How absurd! And should we behave in such a way to our heavenly Father, ignoring His commandments and doing whatever our sinful flesh pleases? No, having been saved by God through grace, by His work alone, we now seek to please Him as a good son seeks to please his father. We desire to work with Him for good, even if it is in great weakness.
And so, understanding the distinction between Monergism and Synergism, and how we are saved by God’s work alone apart from our help, yet having been made God’s children by grace, we desire to work with Him, we learn how to understand Christ’s temptation from Satan. On the one hand, we see Christ battling alone without our help to vanquish our evil foe and win for us salvation. On the other hand, we see Christ giving us an example, so that we may learn to work with Him, to resist the temptations of the devil, and to not receive the grace of God in vain.
Christ begins His temptation after He was baptized and declared to be God’s beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. And so, we cannot properly combat the devil until we first have been baptized, have put on Christ, and have become children of God. Then, we wear Christ’s victory, which He won for us without our help. Then also, our new self is empowered by the Holy Spirit to work with God to resist temptation and strive to please Him.
The first temptation Satan threw at Jesus was turning His tribulation against Him. Jesus had been fasting in the wilderness for forty days. The Holy Spirit had led Him into this situation. Satan tempted Christ to take off His divinely appointed burden and care instead for the needs of His body. Satan does the same for you. Although God has in His power to give you everything you could ever want, the Holy Spirit leads you through trials and tribulation for your own good. Satan tries to use these trials to turn you into your own flesh, to forsake God’s Word, thinking that God will not provide for you. And so, people choose jobs that keep them from ever coming to church, they become obsessed with turning stones into bread, that is, making money or solving their earthly problems, that they ignore God’s Word and preaching. Yet, Jesus teaches us to use Holy Scripture to combat Satan. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Deuteronomy 8:3). And so, you remind Satan and yourself that God will care for your physical needs if you seek first His kingdom and Righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
Next, the devil tempts Christ to test God. He misquotes Psalm 91 by taking out the line, “to guard you in all your ways,” so that it sounds like Scripture preaches a prosperity Gospel. Satan does the same to you. He tries to get you to blaspheme God by living an ungodly life, thinking that you are secure in your salvation even when you continue in sin, drunkenness, fornication, despising God’s Word, and other reckless behavior. Yet, Jesus employs Holy Scripture again, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Deuteronomy 6:16). And so, you too, do not test the Lord, testing His patience, testing the power of your Baptism, by continuing in sins you know are wrong. Rather, use Scripture to warn yourself against such testing of God. St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” God indeed sends His angels to protect you. However, if you continue to resist His Holy Spirit, you cast off the care of His angels and God will deliver you over to your own depraved sins which lead to death and damnation.
Finally, Satan tempted Jesus to worship him in exchange for the kingdoms of the world. Jesus Himself told His disciples that Satan is the ruler of this world (John 14:3). Yet, Satan can only give the things of this world temporarily before you die and go to hell. He can offer no eternal treasure. Only God can do that. So, Jesus again teaches us to quote the Bible, “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” (Deuteronomy 6:13) Most people scoff at the idea that they worship Satan. Yet, Jesus teaches us that whatever you fear, love, and trust in most is your god. And so, whatever of this world that you love most, fear most, trust in most, is your god. And Satan is the ruler of this world for now. So, love of the world is the truest form of Satanism. So, when your love for things of this world demands your devotion above God and His Word, then you are bending the knee to Satan.
It is a great comfort that your salvation is by God’s Monergism. This gives you certainty that your sins are forgiven and confidence to rely on His Word and Sacraments to keep you in the saving faith. Yet, having been rescued from sin, death, and hell by God alone, He has made you His coworker in the Kingdom, although in this life, you can only work in great weakness led by the Holy Spirit. Yet, if you are a child of God, you will work with Him. God truly has made you into a new creation. If you stop working with God, that is a sign that you have rejected God and lost the faith. But Scripture teaches us to work, to strive with Satan using the weapons given us by God, His Holy Word found in Scripture and prayer. Using these tools given by God, you can indeed resist temptation and cause Satan to flee from you (James 4:7). And you can do this with confidence, because the battle does not depend on you. It depends on Christ, who has won the battle against Satan without your help.
And so, the greatest Word of God you can wield against Satan is the victory Christ won against Satan. God gives us that victory through faith as a gift apart from our works. And it is through faith in Christ that we work together with God and cause the devil to flee from us. It is through faith in Christ that we find the strength and will to follow God’s commandments. And it is through faith in Christ that we find victory, even after seeing our own failures again and again. May God the Holy Spirit lead us to spurn Satan through faith in Christ and grant us the aid of His holy angels, so that we do not labor in vain. Amen.

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The Character of Saving Faith

3/5/2025

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Quinquagesima
Luke 18:31-43
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 2, 2025

“Your faith has saved you.” Jesus said to the blind man. This is one of Jesus’ most oft repeated statements, “Your faith has saved you.” (Matthew 9:22; Mark 10:52; Luke 7:50; 17:19; 18:42) While often, the statement is translated, “Your faith has made you well,” because of the context of Jesus healing a person, it is always best understood by the axiom, “Your faith has saved you.” This is what He said to the sinful woman, who washed His feet, of whom Scripture does not say He healed in any other way (Luke 7:5). Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave this final instruction to His disciples, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16) And His disciples consistently and persistently proclaimed this same message, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household!” (Acts 16:31)
Faith alone saves. This means that we are not saved by our works. This means we are not condemned by our sins. We are saved when we believe that God forgives us and accepts us for Christ’s sake. That faith alone saves is the most comforting message mankind has ever heard. Yet, since faith alone saves, we must be sure that we have the correct faith! Not any faith saves. Faith in money does not save. When you die it will abandon you. Faith in health and fitness does not save. All flesh is grass and will fade like the flower in the field. Faith in Allah does not save. He is a false god, who demands obedience with no promise of salvation. Faith in your own goodness does not save. You are a sinner, who deserves damnation. No, only the true saving faith saves and grants eternal life. And in this Gospel lesson, we are taught clearly what the one, true, saving faith is. This Gospel lesson teaches us three things about saving faith.
First, saving faith holds fast to the true teaching of Christ found in Holy Scripture. Jesus said, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything written by the prophets about the Son of man will be fulfilled. For He will be delivered over to the gentiles and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon and after scourging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.” Faith is only as good as what your faith is in. You can have the strongest faith in the world, but if it is in something false, then your faith is still false. Saving faith trusts in Jesus Christ. And it is Holy Scripture, which teaches the truth about Jesus. Only Scripture, which was caused to be written by God Himself, is the source of the true teaching about Jesus. If a sermon or book does not find its source in Scripture, then its teaching about Jesus cannot be trusted. But what the Bible says about Jesus is trustworthy and sure.
“Everything written in the prophets will be fulfilled.” By prophets, Jesus means the Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus says in John 5, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” Scripture teaches that Christ will be betrayed into the hands of gentiles, would be mistreated, crucified, and die, but on the third day rise. Psalm 35 prophesies of Christ, “Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not go. They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft.” (vss. 11-12) Psalm 22 prophesies, “Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.” And “For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and my feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.” (vss. 12, 16-18) Isaiah prophesies in chapter 50, “The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.”
And of course, in chapter 53, Isaiah writes of Christ, “Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to His own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment, He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him; He has put Him to grief.” (vss. 4-10) And prophecies like these are found throughout Scripture, starting way back in Genesis 3:15, when God spoke to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heal.”
And the Old Testament prophesied Jesus’ resurrection as well. Psalm 22 states, “Posterity shall serve Him.” Psalm 56, “For You have delivered my soul from death,” and Psalm 16, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let Your Holy One see corruption.” (vs. 10) And Isaiah writes in chapter 53, “When His soul makes an offering for guilt, He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong His days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.” (vs. 10)
The Old Testament clearly prophesied of Christ’s suffering and death for our sins and of His resurrection. And Jesus fulfilled it all. The New Testament, written by the Apostles of Jesus, even more clearly reveals Jesus as the Savior of sinners. And on this journey to Jerusalem, Jesus most clearly told His disciples exactly what would happen. Yet, His disciples did not understand what He was saying. It was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. This is the second thing this Gospel lesson teaches us about true saving faith. True saving faith is a gift from God.
True saving faith is a gift from God means that a person can only have saving faith if God grants it. Jesus says in John 6, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44) and, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29) Why can a person only believe in Christ if it is granted by God? St. Paul explains in 1 Corinthian 2, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (vs. 14) Because we are born spiritually dead in sin, we cannot accept the Gospel unless the Holy Spirit awakens us to believe His Holy Word. We are by nature spiritually deaf, blind, yes, even dead. So, faith must be a gift from God, or we would never believe.
The third thing this Gospel lesson teaches us about saving faith is that it is loud. Blind Bartimaeus shouted after Jesus. And when he was told to be quiet, he shouted all the more loudly. This is what saving faith does. It believes in Christ. It trusts that God saves for Christ’s sake. And it cries out to God for help. God says in Psalm 50, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will glorify Me.” (vs. 15) And so, the Psalmist cries, “Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord, hear my voice!” St. Paul writes in Romans 10, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (vss. 9-10) And the Prophet Joel declares, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Joel 2:32)
So, saving faith is loud. It loudly cries out to God in mercy, pleading for forgiveness, because saving faith knows that sin is our greatest problem and that we deserve death and hell. And faith loudly confesses Jesus as the only name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
Blind Bartimaeus is a wonderful example of saving faith. First, he has true knowledge of Jesus, which he learned from Holy Scripture. He calls Him the Son of David. He does this, because he believes God’s promise to King David in 2 Samuel 7, “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and will establish His kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.” (vss. 12-13) Blind Bartimaeus believed what the prophets said about Christ, and He believed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of David.
Second, Bartimaeus was blind. This shows that saving faith does not trust in the senses of the flesh. Rather, Bartimaeus received this faith as a gift from God. Bartimaeus was a beggar. And so, everyone who has true saving faith is a beggar, who receives forgiveness, salvation, and healing from God as a free gift by grace.
Finally, Bartimaeus was loud. He cried out to Jesus for mercy. And he didn’t stop until Christ had had mercy on him. And then he continued to follow Jesus, glorifying God. He didn’t become quiet after Christ had had mercy on him. Rather, he continued to be loud, praising God for Jesus’ sake.
And so, Bartimaeus teaches you about your faith. If your faith is saving faith, it must rest in the promises of Holy Scripture. And so, you should listen to God’s Word, meditate on it, learn it, and trust in it. That is the only way that you can have saving faith in Christ. Second, you must be a beggar. If you think you will earn your way or that God owes you something for your works, or that you can figure it out on your own, then you are going astray. Faith itself is a pure gift from God, given by the Holy Spirit through the Word. And Scripture teaches that everything we receive from God is from His bountiful goodness, without any merit or worthiness in us. We are beggars. Yet, it is a wonderful thing to be a beggar before Jesus, because He is kind and generous. He gladly does for beggars what they ask. And Holy Scripture teaches us to ask for only the best things.
Finally, Bartimaeus teaches you to be loud. First, be loud before God. God wants to hear your voice. He wants you to ask Him for help. He wants you to pray to Him and ask Him for everything you need. Do not be silent to Him. Plead for forgiveness of your sins. Ask for strengthening of faith. Ask for eternal life. And pray too for the things of this life. He will hear you and He will answer you. Second, be loud before others. It is a lie from Satan that you should keep your faith to yourself and not wear your religion on your sleave. Rather, Jesus says, “Whoever confesses me before men, I too will confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I too will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33) And St. Peter exhorts us to always be prepared to give a defense of the reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). So, don’t let others tell you to be quiet. Confess Christ. Tell your children about Him. Tell your family and friends about Him. Pray at your dinner table out loud without embarrassment. Say prayers with your family regularly out loud. And come to church and sing loudly hymns of praise to our Lord.
May God grant all of you saving faith through His Word, that you may loudly proclaim His glories now and forever. Amen.

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"For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:17

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How to Wrestle God and Win

Monergism and Synergism

The Character of Saving Faith

Rev. James Preus

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