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Enmity with the Devil

2/22/2021

Invocavit (Lent 1)
Genesis 3:15
Matthew 4:1-11
February 21, 2021

“The Lord God said to the serpent, …
‘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 heel.’” (Genesis 3:15)

When Adam sinned, he plunged the entire human race into sin and death. St. Paul explains, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12) And so, it is expected that our God, who created the world to be good and who warned Adam against eating the forbidden fruit, would punish those who sullied his once perfect creation. Yet, even in his doling out of punishment, our God shows his immense mercy and grace. While it is true that our sins merit us eternal damnation and separation from God, the punishments God gave to Adam and Eve that day were temporary and they did not even remove the earthly blessings he gave us in creation. Yes, the woman would experience great pain in child-bearing and would have strife as she struggled against submitting to her husband, yet God still blessed the woman with children and with a husband. Yes, the man would experience pain and fatigue in his work and would eventually die and leave all his riches behind him, yet God still blessed him with food, clothing, and all that he needs for his body and life.
Yet, to the serpent, Satan himself, God declared the ultimate punishment, complete destruction. And it is in the punishment of Satan that God first declares the promise of our salvation. God says, “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 heel.” God has put enmity between the devil and the mother of all the living. The serpent is Satan. This is not just any serpent. A snake is an animal not capable of enmity. Satan is a fallen angel, who possessed the serpent in order to tempt Adam and Eve into sin. Satan is at enmity with the woman and all her children. Satan is our enemy. In order for us to be saved, Satan must be defeated. So, in the very hour that Adam and Eve sinned, God promised their salvation by promising Satan’s defeat. The seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. The bruising of the serpent’s head is the defeat of Satan. This will be accomplished through no one else that Jesus Christ, who was wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:4).
Satan is your enemy. In fact, the word Satan comes from the Hebrew word for adversary. Satan is the archenemy of God and his Church. If Satan is not your enemy, then you are his slave and he is your abusive father. But if God is your good and gracious Father, then Satan must be your enemy. Satan is the number one thing that stands between you and eternal life in heaven. For you to enter heaven, Satan must be defeated.
Satan attacks you in two ways. First, he tempts you into sin. Second, he accuses you of sin in order to bring you to despair and unbelief. He tempts you into sin by lying. Jesus spoke to those Jews who refused to believe in him, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44).
Satan lies. That is how he leads you into sin. “Did God really say?” That’s his trick. Yes, that’s it. He questions God’s Word, whether God’s Word is true, whether it means what it clearly says, whether it is clear, whether it is God’s Word at all. Yet, he uses the constant pressure of the sinful world and the corruptness of your own sinful heart against you. So, while in theory it seems quite simple to resist Satan’s lies (simply believe God’s Word), he succeeds against you over and over again, until your heart feels hollow and your sins pile up on your conscience and go over your head (Psalm 38:4).
And then Satan brings in his second way of attack. He accuses you. St. John records in Revelation chapter 12, “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the world….” And God’s people cried, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.” This is what Satan does. He accuses us of the sins he himself has lured us into committing! And he is so brazen as to accuse us before the throne of God, as he did against God’s servant Job! In fact, the name devil comes from the Greek word for slanderer or accuser. The devil slanders and accuses us to our conscience and to our God.
So, in order for God to rescue us from Satan, he must rescue us from these two attacks of the devil: the devil’s lies, by which he tempts us into sin and the devil’s accusations, by which he draws us to despair and unbelief. Jesus Christ is our champion, who defeats Satan against both these attacks.
Jesus is the seed of the woman. It is peculiar that Scripture refers to the woman’s seed. Seed is something a man has. Usually when the Bible refers to someone’s seed, it refers to the descendants of fathers. But here, God speaks of the woman’s seed in order to prophecy the virgin birth of Jesus to his mother Mary. Jesus was born of a virgin, which is impossible by the natural course of things, because he is God. God himself, the eternal Son of the Father, came to fight Satan for us in human flesh. St. Paul writes, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Romans 5:4)
The Son of God obviously had no need for himself to be under the law or to fulfill the law’s demands. Yet, he did so in human flesh in order to be our substitute. Jesus was obedient under the Law in our place. Through faith, we receive everything Jesus has. Jesus in our human flesh obeyed the Law, so through faith we receive his obedience. St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 5, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” We are made righteous, not by our own obedience, but by Christ’s obedience, which we receive through faith.
Again, St. Paul writes, “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” Through faith, we receive the credit for the obedience of Christ, just as Abraham believed God’s promise and it was counted to him as righteousness (Romans 4:3; Genesis 15:6).
“And you shall bruise his heel.” This refers to Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus would be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. But in order to be a sacrifice for our sins, he needed to fulfill the Law in our place and be blameless like a lamb without spot or blemish. This is why the author to the Hebrews confesses Christ to be the perfect High Priest, he writes, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
This means that what we witness in Jesus’ temptations from Satan in the wilderness is our victory over Satan. Satan lied to Jesus. He denied God’s Word, he twisted God’s Word, he ignored God’s Word. Yet, Jesus in human flesh wielded the same weapon that is available to us humans. Jesus did not cast Satan away by his Divine power, but he strove with him as a man armed with God’s Word. And as a man, he defeated Satan’s lies. Jesus, our champion won.
This also means that the devil’s second attack is impotent against us. What can Satan accuse us of? Sin? What sin? Jesus is our substitute. He couldn’t get Jesus to sin. We receive Jesus’ obedience through faith. Satan’s mouth is shut by the obedience of Christ. In that Revelation passage, which I read earlier, where the people of God rejoice that Satan, the accuser has been cast down, it goes on, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” When Satan accuses you of sin, through faith, you have the right to say to Satan, “You lost. You strove with the man Jesus and you failed. You couldn’t make him sin. Yet, he has paid the debt of my sins. You cannot accuse me. I have Jesus. If you are to accuse me, you must accuse Jesus first, and I know you can’t, because I saw you lose to him in the wilderness.” That is the confidence that Jesus’ victory gives us. It gives us confidence to withstand the devil’s accusations against even our most grievous sins. This is not brazenness or impenitence over our sin. Rather, this is confidence in Jesus’ victory over Satan, in the success of his passion and death over our sins. It is confidence that Jesus’ blood washes us clean and that God’s promise of forgiveness is true.
The seed of the serpent also is at enmity with the Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ. Of course, Satan, being a spirit, cannot have physical seed. His seed are those who believe his lies and obey his will. That is why Jesus told the Jews that hated him that their father was the devil. They were obedient to Satan. Those who are obedient to Satan are at enmity with Christ. But those who are obedient to God are at peace with him. Adam was disobedient to God and brought us into enmity with God. So, our obedience to God must bring us into reconciliation with God.
Yet, how can we be obedient to God? An obvious answer is to follow the Ten Commandments. Yet, how do we do this? When we look at Satan’s temptation of Jesus, we see that he tempts Jesus to break the first three commandments. By telling Jesus to turn stones into bread, he was tempting Jesus to despise God’s Word, which is breaking the Third Commandment. Jesus resists temptation by saying that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. By selectively edition Scripture, Satan tried to tempt Jesus into testing God by leaping from the pinnacle of the temple. This would be breaking the Second Commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” And finally, by tempting Jesus with the glory of the world in order to get him to worship Satan, he tempted him to break the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods.”  Yet, Jesus correctly declared that you should worship and serve the Lord God alone. These three commandments make up the First Table of the Law, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.”
Jesus perfectly teaches us how to resist temptation and be obedient to God. However, even with Jesus’ perfect example, the commandment still depends on us doing it in order to be obedient. Yet, we do not accomplish it. We fail to be perfectly obedient by our works. The only way we can be truly obedient is through faith in Jesus’ obedience. The Commandments demand love. We cannot love God if he hates us. We can only love him if he loves us. And we can only receive his love through faith in Christ Jesus, who was obedient on our behalf. It is through the obedience of faith that we are rescued from the oppression of Satan. And it is through walking in faith in Christ Jesus that we trample Satan under our feet. Amen.

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Rend You Hearts

2/18/2021

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Nikolaos Gyzis, "Repentance," 1895. Public Domain

Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:12-13
Matthew 6:16-21
February 17, 2021

12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.

“Rend your hearts and not your garments!” declares our Lord. This is the same lesson our Lord taught years later when we walked among his people in the flesh, before he was crucified for their sins. “When you fast,” he says, “do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.” With these words, our Lord rebukes both the manifest sinner and the hypocrite, who desires to look penitent before men, while his heart is bursting with pride. With these words, our Lord rebukes us all and urges us to repent.
Everyone must repent. First, because it is true that we are sinners. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,” Scripture declares (1 John 1:8). Again, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) To repent means to acknowledge the truth about yourself. The hypocrite, who makes it clear to everyone that he is fasting, moans, and humble-brags about his penitence and fasting is looking for praise from others, and he has received his reward on earth. He will not receive one from God in heaven. And the manifest sinner, who claims no need to repent, but forgetting how to blush continues in his sin as if God cannot judge him, likewise will receive the wages for his sin. Both the hypocrite and the manifest sinner fail to repent, because they fail to recognize God’s right to judge the living and the dead.
It is necessary for all to repent, because all are sinners, who are incapable of saving themselves. Sin separates us from God. Sin is evil. When we recognize how sinful we really are, how much we deserve to go to hell, then we become afraid of sin. We fear God. We desire to escape our sins, to become different than we are. Only such a person, who is terrified of his sin and the consequence his sin brings will recognize the advantage of Jesus and his salvation for us. If you think that you are not that bad, that you can earn salvation by yourself, then you won’t need Jesus. There is no point in trusting in him, if you can trust in yourself. Then Jesus’ death and resurrection are of no advantage to you. But if you recognize that your sins earn you God’s wrath and hell and you are incapable of rescuing yourself, God’s grace and mercy through Jesus Christ becomes the most soothing balm of healing, the sweetest message of hope and salvation.
True repentance is not simply outward show. As Jesus teaches, you can look very penitent while your heart is still proud and not sorry. Yet, outward expressions of sorrow can certainly show the true condition of the heart. The Lord said through the Prophet Joel, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Jesus said, “When you fast.” Not only are these outward actions the natural response to emotions deep in the heart, such bodily discipline as fasting can help train the soul to reject things of the flesh as gods over you, so that you can focus more intently on your spiritual renewal. But whether you fast or not, whether you weep or wash your face and anoint your head, repentance should take place in your heart. You should not think that since everyone is a sinner, you are safe from God’s judgement. Rather, when you consider your sinful condition, consider yourself alone and how you have failed to love God with your whole heart. Such an exercise from within will teach you to recognize your deep need for Jesus.
This is the primary reason God has given us the Ten Commandments. They are indeed good commandments. No one can honestly deny that! Yet, if we could actually keep these commandments, then God would not have sent Jesus to die and pay our debt against them! Rather, since we are sinners incapable of keeping the Law, God has given us these Ten Commandments so that we may recognize our sin and need for a Savior. St. Paul writes in Romans 7, “Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ … Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.” (Romans 7:7-8, 13)
The Ten Commandments make us sinful beyond measure, not by increasing the actually sin in our hearts, but by magnifying and exposing the sin that already resides in our hearts. That is why it is a good exercise at all times, and especially during the Lenten Season as we prepare to celebrate our victory over death and hell on Easter, that we examine our lives according to the Ten Commandments.
Do you have any other gods? Do you put other things like money, school, work, sports, and leisure before God and his word? Do you use God’s name as an expletive? Do you call upon God in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks? Do you gladly hear the word of God? Do you obey your father and mother and all others, whom God has place in authority over you? Have you sought to protect your neighbor in his body? Have you hated him in your heart? Have you committed adultery or looked at another person with lust in your heart? Have you been hot tempered or quarrelsome? Have you sought to get what belongs to your neighbor? Have you been lazy or negligent? Have you delighted in harming your neighbor’s reputation? Are you a gossip? Are you satisfied with what God has given you or do you let the desires of your heart rule over you like a master over a slave?
When you are honest with yourself and seek the truth about yourself according to the Ten Commandments, you recognize that out of your own heart have come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, and all uncleanness. You see from God’s law that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9; Galatians 5:21). Such an exercise is essential, not to muster up some phony emotion of sorrow, but to recognize that without Christ you would be cast in hell for all eternity. Without God’s forgiveness, you could not pray to God let alone stand before him on Judgement Day. By examining yourself according to God’s Law, you recognize that there is nothing you need more than Christ Jesus and the forgiveness he won for you on the cross. You recognize that there is no more joyous news than that Christ arose triumphantly from the grave after paying your debt of sin and crushing Satan under his feet.
No, you do not need to enumerate every sin you’ve committed. God knows we are incapable of doing that (Psalm 19:12). But we must confess our sins to God, even those sins which we do not know, we must confess that we are utterly lost in sin without Jesus, and God promises to forgive, for he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. As we frequently confess with the Psalmist, “I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5)
Repentance is not trying to earn our salvation or to pay back God for our sins. Repentance is crying out to the God who gladly forgives and justifies the ungodly. As our sinful condition makes our damnation certain, so much more does Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection make our salvation certain, as St. Paul writes, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21)
Do you know what that means? It means that God’s grace and forgiveness are inexhaustible. As your sin increased, so God’s grace to forgive you increased. Jesus’s blood is an infinite potion of forgiveness and cleansing. The more we recognize our sin, the more we recognize God’s grace to forgive, the more we see the good in Jesus’ crucifixion for us.
By examining ourselves and our sinful condition, we not only learn to value and appreciate Christ’s passion and death for our sins, but also to long for and cherish the Means of Grace by which God lavishes us with the Gospel. When you recognize your sin, you recognize all the more the priceless treasure you possess in your Baptism! The great relief of the Absolution. The urgency in receiving the Sacrament of the Altar. The value of a pure Christian sermon. The comfort of Christian friends and family. Let us this Lententide rend our hearts, plead guilty before God’s Law, and cherish the Gospel of Christ’s free forgiveness and salvation. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) Amen.

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Faith without Love is Nothing

2/15/2021

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Crucifixion, Jusepe de Ribera, c.1620, Naples, Italy. Public Domain

Quinquagesima
1 Corinthians 13
February 14, 2021

“If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” How can St. Paul say such a thing about faith? Jesus himself is the one who said that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you could command mountains to move, and they would obey you (Matthew 17:20). We know that we are saved by faith alone, apart from our works (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:25-28; 4:4-5). Even in our Gospel lesson, Jesus tells the blind man, “Your faith has saved you.” It is faith, which saves us. Not our works. Not our love. This is the clear teaching of Scripture. And it is incredibly comforting, because our love and works are always imperfect. If our salvation depended on them, our salvation would ever be in doubt. So, why does St. Paul say that faith without love is nothing?
First, because faith must have an object in order to be anything. Faith is only as good as its object. The object of faith is what it receives, that is, what it trusts in. You could have great faith in money. Many do. But that faith certainly won’t give you eternal life! You can have faith in yourself, faith in some political leader, faith in humanity, faith in faith itself! None of these faiths will save you. So, what is the object of saving faith? What does saving faith trust in? In a word, “Love.”
No, not just any love. Certainly not what this perverse world calls love! The object of saving faith is God’s love. Saving faith trusts in God’s love; receives God’s love; is saved by God’s love. Jesus declares, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Scripture again asserts, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) Again, St. Paul writes to the Romans in chapter 5, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And blind Bartimaeus, the man to whom Jesus said, “Your faith has saved you,” what was his faith in? What did he cry out? “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18:38) What is mercy, but the kindest and most undeserving display of love? The faith, which saved Bartimaeus, was the faith in Jesus’ love!
The object of saving faith is love, God’s love, which he put into action by sending his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. Faith receives the promise that God forgives us and will give us eternal life on account of Jesus Christ, who has washed away our sins and clothes us in his righteousness. Faith trusts in the love God has for us, and so faith saves us. Without this love as faith’s object, faith is nothing.
There is another reason why faith without love is nothing. Because the outward fruit of faith is love, that is, that we would love one another in word and action. Again, Scripture says, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16) and “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11) and “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) Scripture makes it abundantly clear that the love of God we receive through faith pours out of us. It is the fruit that reveals a believing heart. This is why Jesus says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
Yet, this love cannot be pursued without faith in Christ’s love for us! It is all too common that Christians and congregations become embarrassed of the Gospel of Christ. They think it is too much to focus every week on Jesus’ dying for our sins. It gets too repetitive. It’s not relevant to people’s day to day lives. Besides, not everyone believes in Jesus, but certainly everyone can agree that we should love one another! So, Christians seek to focus less on the Gospel that Jesus died for sinners and more on acts of love. Churches believe their primary mission is not the proclamation of the Gospel (Mark 16:15), but missions of mercy, helping the poor, etc. Preachers think their hearers need something more practical for their day-to-day life than the preaching of Christ crucified, so they promote 12 step programs to improve your marriage, your budget, your job, your relationship with your kids, and anything else that can fit into a neat and tidy outline.
And of course, missions of mercy are important, it is good to feed the poor. Scripture commands us to help those in need (1 John 3:17). And obtaining knowledge that will help with your relationships at home and at work and help you manage your life better are certainly practical! Yet, these are not the primary mission of the church. The preaching of Christ crucified is (1 Corinthians 2:2; 9:16). Preaching Christ crucified is always the most loving and practical thing. And without this love, all your acts of mercy and prudent wisdom are nothing. The Christian Church can offer the world nothing if it does not offer Christ the Crucified.
“If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, … If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” You can only love if you have received Christ’s love through faith. Without faith in Christ’s love, you can give away all your wealth, feed all the poor in the world, and write the best self-help book, and you will still have nothing. It won’t please God. It won’t save you.
This is because it is impossible to truly love God and your neighbor unless you have received God’s love through faith. In Luke chapter 7, a sinful woman washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and dries them with her hair before anointing them with expensive ointment. Jesus is judged harshly by his host for permitting this sinful woman to touch him, so Jesus responds with a parable. He asks, “A certain moneylender has two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which one of them will love him more?” The obvious answer is that the one who is forgiven the greater debt will love more. Jesus then concludes that the woman has been forgiven much. What is his proof? She loves much. Much love proves much forgiveness.
Without God showing his love to us by forgiving our sins, we could not love him. We can only be afraid of him and hate him for judging us unless we know that he loves us. We can only know that God loves us through the cross of Christ. Pursuing missions of love and knowledge without the proclamation of God’s love for us through the cross of Christ is a foolish venture that will end in vanity. Yet, faith which truly trusts in God’s love for us will bear much fruits of love as certainly as apple trees bear apples and orange trees bear oranges. Love is the fruit of saving faith. When St. Paul says that a faith that can remove mountains is nothing without love, he is saying that there is no such mountain-moving-faith without love. Saving faith produces love. If you have faith in Christ, you love. If you do not have faith in Christ, then you will not love.
Just look at how St. Paul describes love, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Who is St. Paul describing? Is he not perfectly describing our Lord Jesus? Jesus patiently endures with our weaknesses and sin. He’s kind to us. Although he is the Lord of heaven, he came to earth to serve us and he still gladly dwells with his humble Church on earth. He did not insist on his own way, but did the will of his Father by going to the cross as a willing sacrifice for our sins! He doesn’t love us by accepting the evil we do. He does not rejoice in evil as our present world insists he does. Rather, he rejoices in the truth. Nothing causes Jesus to rejoice more than sinners repenting and turning to him for forgiveness (Luke 15:16-17).
And so, through faith in our Savior Jesus who loves us and gave himself for us (Galatians 2:20), we live out this love. We strive to be patient and kind, because Christ is patient with us. We do not insist on our own way, but seek to follow God’s Word above all else, and consider others more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). We don’t use love as an excuse to sin, but as an opportunity to repent and confess Christ by forgiving those who sin against us! We bear with the weaknesses of others. We put the best construction on others and believe the best about them before we believe evil against them. We suffer before we harm our neighbor. These are the fruits of faith. This is what God’s love does through us. And when we see that we’ve failed to live this love, we turn to Love himself, our Savior Jesus Christ.
“Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Here St. Paul is saying that love is the greatest Christian virtue. Yet, how can our love be greater than our faith. It is clear that our faith does not exists apart from our love, but neither does our love exist apart from our faith. So, why does St. Paul, who preaches that we are saved by grace through faith alone say that our love is greatest? Because love never ends.
We have faith now. We hope now in what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1; Romans 8:24). Yet, there will come a day when we will no longer be looking through a mirror dimly, but we will see God as he is, because we will be like him (1 John 3:2). Faith is an instrument God uses to save us in this sinful and perishing world. Through faith, we receive what we cannot yet see. Through faith, we are children waiting for a blessed inheritance. Yet, when the perfect comes, when the eyes of faith are replaced with the eyes of renewed flesh, we shall see our Redeemer (Job 19:25-26). Faith will have outgrown its purpose. We will no longer hope. Rather, we will live with Christ in love forever. That is the goal of our faith: eternal love. This love was from the beginning when God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loved one another with perfect and eternal love. This love was brought forth in stunning magnitude on the cross where our God died for us. This love was placed into our hearts through faith. And we ourselves will live in perfect love, which we have learned from our Savior Jesus. Our love for God and one another will never end. Amen.

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The Word of the Lord Grows

2/8/2021

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James Tissot, The Sower, c.1894, Public Domain

Sexagesima
Luke 8:4-15
February 7, 2021

When we consider these four types of earth into which the seed is sown: the path on which the seed is trampled and eaten by birds; the rocks where the seed dries out for lack of moisture; the thorns, which choke out the sprouting plant; and finally, the good soil from which the seed grows and produces much fruit; we must be careful about the assumptions we make. The seed is the word of God, Jesus tells us plainly. These four types of earth are the four types of people who hear the word of God. And as we see, only one of the four groups is saved and produces good fruit. So, a common assumption is that those among the good soil are better than those among the path, rocks, and thorns. But this is not the case. Rather, those among the good soil are given saving faith as a gift.
Jesus says to his disciples, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God.” Given, that is, as a gift. Faith is a gift from God, as Scripture clearly says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift from God.” (Ephesians 2:8) Those among the good soil are just as incapable in and of themselves of understanding and believing the Gospel as those among the bad earth. Again, Scripture says, “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.” (1 Corinthians 2:14) We are dead in our trespasses and sins following the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air until God makes us alive in Christ Jesus. This he does by grace. (Ephesians 2:1-5)
“Many are called, but few are chosen.” Jesus says. (Matthew 22:14) It is the chosen, elected before the foundation of the world by God’s grace, who are given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God (Ephesians 1:4). So, those among the good soil have no cause for boasting in themselves, but may only boast in the Lord who has created saving faith in their hearts. Once you boast in yourself, your trust is no longer in Christ, but in yourself. So, we must not even trust in our ability to believe in Christ. We are saved by grace through God’s mercy in Christ, not according to our works.
Yet, there is another assumption equally damaging, that those among the good soil need not beware of the dangers of the three bad types of earth. As with any parable, there are limitations. The good soil is not kept completely separate from the road, rocks, and thorns. Rather, among those who hold fast to the word with an honest and good heart, are those who are pulled away by the enemies of the word. And every Christian must endure the trials and dangers of the devil, the world, and his own sinful flesh. Those among the good soil do get accosted by the devil, wooed by the world, and betrayed by their sinful flesh. And so, they must not rely on their own strength, but on the word of Christ. And, we should be aware of the threats to our faith in this life.
The birds that gobble up the seed, Jesus says, are the devil, who takes the word from our hearts, so that we may not believe and be saved. Protect us from this, heavenly Father! Yet, how does Satan accomplish this? Well, how has Scripture shown Satan to do this and how has Satan shown himself to do this throughout history? The devil asked Eve in the garden, “Did God really say.” And he’s been playing that same trick ever since. “Did God really say? Do you really want to believe that? Does that sound fair? Does that sound plausible? And so, even in church the devil works to create doubt in your heart at the preaching of God’s word. And he even goes after the preachers themselves, so that many churches preach and teach a false gospel, rejecting what is unpopular or difficult to accept. Satan takes the word of God from Christians’ hearts through false doctrine, which rejects God’s truth for the opinions of men.
And not only in church does the devil attack, but out in the world. Through television, and countless forms of entertainment and education, Satan works to rob God’s word from the heart of believers. Young people go off to college, which has proven to be the most dangerous place for the faith of young Christians, and while there Satan robs them of God’s word and fills them with ideas that will fade with the grass. All Christians should beware the lies of Satan, which question the clear words of Scripture.
Jesus says those among the rocky soil are those who believe for a while, but at a time of testing fall away. Christians must endure testing. And they do not get to choose where and when and how they are tested. Testing is what it sounds like. You can either fail or pass. Failing is to fall into sin. To pass is to resist temptation, not fall into sin, and to increase in faith. Those among the rocks with a shallow faith cannot endure testing. When given a cross to bear on account of Christ, or a temptation into sin, or persecution, they abandon the faith. This is a danger for Christians. This is why we should always pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” And when we see that we are weak and when the burden of being a Christian is heavy, to go to Christ for strength. Those among the good soil are not those who are never tempted or even who never sin, but rather, when they sin, they repent and seek forgiveness for Christ’s sake.
Those who fell among the thorns are probably the most familiar to us. Jesus says the cares and riches and pleasures of life choke out the word. We see this all the time. Why do Christians stop going to church, where they hear the word of God? Because the cares, riches, and pleasures of life distract them and become more important to them. Why do Christian families neglect to have devotions? Why can’t they take a few minutes for God’s word and prayer each day? Because there are too many other things to care about. And so, the word of God gets choked out. The fruit breaks off the vine before its ripe, and the plant dies. Not a day should go by that you do not cast away the idols in your life, which distract you from Christ and his word. If you are choosing some care or pleasure in life at the expense of hearing God’s word, remember the warning of the thorn bush! Repent and seek Christ in his word.
Yet, those that fell among the good soil are those who hear the word of God, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. With patience means that they must endure attacks of the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh. Yet, they endure. How? By holding fast to the word. We are saved by grace apart from our works. Faith is a gift of God. Yet, this gift is not given without means. It isn’t just dropped from the sky or infused in your heart while you’re dreaming. The gift of faith is given and strengthen through the word of God.
This is why Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Saving faith comes from hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). God promises that his word does not return to him empty, but will accomplish that which it purposes (Isaiah 55:10-11). The purpose of the word of God is to create faith in our hearts, so that we are saved from eternal death, as St. John writes, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”
Don’t be confused by the fact that God has chosen the elect before the foundation of the world. This does not mean that God does not desire all people to be saved. He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). This is why Christ has commanded that the Gospel be preached to the whole world. Neither assume that the elect can be saved apart from hearing and believing God’s word. You can know nothing of your election apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which promises forgiveness of sins to all who believe. The teaching of election is meant to be a comfort for those who gladly hear and believe the Gospel, not to those who despise God’s word.
The word of God is so precious, because it gives us Jesus. Jesus says that unless a kernel fall to the ground and die it will not grow to bear much fruit (John 12:24). He was speaking of himself. He needed to die for our sins on the cross. Jesus is the seed that is buried into the ground dead and rises to new life to bear much fruit. We are that fruit! St. James tells us that the implanted word is able to save our souls (James 1:21). And St. Peter writes that we are born again by imperishable seed through the living and abiding word of God. The word of God plants Jesus in our hearts, so that we die to sin and live to righteousness.
The word of God, which saves is received through faith and not by works. This is because the saving word of God, that is, the Gospel does not command works, but promises salvation. Jesus has done all the work for us. He has died for our sins in our place. He has opened the gates of heaven to all who will believe in him. This is why this word is so precious. It gives us the kingdom of heaven as a gift. We must cherish Christ’s word and guard it at all times from all enemies, whether from the devil, the pressures of this world, or even our lazy and stubborn hearts, which would rather be attached to something transient and mortal. We should seek to hear and learn God’s word at all times, teach it to our children, and hold it as our dearest treasure, because it has the power to forgive our sins, create and preserve faith, and defend against the devil and all temptation.
Jesus says that those who hold fast to the word with honest and good hearts bear fruit with patience. He is speaking of the fruit of faith, which is love, peace, charity, gentleness, self-control, and things like these. These fruits can be a comfort, because they are a sign that the word of God is alive within you. When you forgive those who sin against you, you are comforted, because you are reminded that God has forgiven you for Christ’s sake. Yet, we must remember that we are not saved, because of the fruit we bear. We bear good fruit, because we are saved. If you want an apple orchard, you don’t just buy bushels of apples and stick them on trees. You must plant apple trees. And so, you cannot make yourself a Christian by bearing good fruit, but you must start with the seed, the word of Christ, which is the power of salvation to all who believe it.
When we believe the promises God makes to us in his word, we receive everything Jesus won for us through his death and resurrection. We inherit the kingdom of God! May no delusion from the devil, the world, or our sinful flesh ever rob us of this greatest treasure. Amen.
Lord, keep us steadfast in Your word. Curb those who by deceit or sword
Would wrest the kingdom from Your Son, And bring to naught all He has done.
Amen.

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Equality under the Law; Equality under the Gospel

2/1/2021

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Lucas Cranach the Younger, The Vineyard of the Lord, 1569, Public Domain.

Septuagesima
Matthew 20:1-16
January 31, 2021

The first thing we need to realize about this parable of our Lord Jesus is that he is not teaching us what a master of a vineyard is like or how a vineyard is run. Rather, he is teaching us what the kingdom of heaven is like by comparing it to a master and vineyard unlike any you would find on earth. No employer would pay his workers, who worked one hour the same as his workers, who worked all day in the hot sun. In fact, no employer would go out in the last hour of the day to hire workers for that day! Yet, this is the way God works. The grumbling of those workers who worked all hours of the day is the grumbling of the works-righteous against God and his kingdom.

The laborers who agreed to a denarius a day grumbled when those who worked just an hour got paid the same as them, who bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat. “He made us equal,” they complained. And this of course, teaches us about the kingdom of God. It makes us equal. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, no male and female, but we are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). The reason we are all equal, is because we all receive the same gift: the same Jesus, the same Baptism, the same Lord’s Supper, the same forgiveness and salvation. This greatly upsets those who are proud of their great labor and think they deserve more than others. Instead of seeing the master’s generosity as a sign of great love, they resent him for it.

The term works-righteous refers to people who think that they are righteous before God by their own works. In other words, they think they deserve a reward from God. In several places, Jesus preaches against works-righteousness. In Luke chapter 17, he says, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” Would that we could say that! Would that we had done our duty! Yet, we know that we have not even done that. We have not done what was commanded of us. It was commanded of us that we love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, and mind. None of us has done that. It was commanded of us that we love our neighbor as ourselves. None of us can claim to have reached such a level of selflessness. This is why St. Paul writes in Galatians 3, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”

So, while the works-righteous grumble against God, because they see that God’s grace makes everyone equal, they fail to realize that God’s Law has already made everyone equal, by condemning one and all as a sinner! Again, Scripture declares, “None is righteous, no not one;” and “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:10, 23) Yet, if you do not realize that the Law has condemned us all, then you will not recognize how wonderful it is that the Gospel saves us all. Again, Scripture says in Romans 11:32, “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” In other words, God has convicted everyone of sin, so that he might save them by his grace, as a gift. Just as all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all “are justified by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Romans 3:24-25)

The Law condemns everyone. No one can be saved by his own works. No one can claim to be righteous before God by his own works. No matter how good you think you are or how much better you think you are than others, the Law condemns you the same. Everyone deserves to go to hell.

The Gospel saves everyone. There is no one that the Gospel does not offer free forgiveness of sins and salvation. No matter how bad your sins are, how undeserving you are of the kingdom of heaven, the Gospel offers it to you freely for Christ’s sake.

Although the Gospel offers salvation to everyone freely, not everyone receives it. This is because it can only be received through faith. Faith is how the gift of eternal life is received. What is faith? Believing and trusting in the promise. When you believe that God is gracious to you and forgives all your sins for Christ’s sake, then you receive his grace and forgiveness. And nothing, not your sins or Satan himself can take that grace and forgiveness away from you. That it is by faith makes it clear that it does not depend on your works. Your works are riddled with sin. Your works put your salvation into doubt. But faith clings to Jesus alone, which makes your salvation trustworthy and sure.

“Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Romans 4:4-5) It can’t possibly get any clearer than that. Your works do not earn for you righteousness. Faith makes you righteous before God by trusting in him who declares the ungodly righteous. Just so, the master of the vineyard gave a full day’s wage to those who had hardly gotten to the vineyard, because they trusted in him.

Some might accuse this of cheap grace. There is nothing cheap about it. The master didn’t hand out counterfeit money. He paid those who worked for an hour a full day’s wage, just as he paid all the works for a whole day. He gave away his money to those who trusted in him. This is how the kingdom of heaven is like. Christ Jesus paid the debt for our sins. “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’—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13-14)

Grace is not cheap. It is given to us at the cost of the precious blood and innocent suffering and death of God’s own Son Jesus Christ. There literally is no price higher, no treasure more precious. The fact that it is given away freely to those who do not deserve it does not make it any less valuable. The denarius the last workers received was worth just as much as the denarius the first workers received. It bought just as much food and clothing. Yet, if someone were to treat faith as a cheap thing, as if the grace it receives is not expensively wrought, then that would not be faith. If a sinner were to interpret faith as a license to sin, he would not have true faith. It would be like someone hearing the call to come to the vineyard, but not entering the vineyard at all. He would not receive the denarius.

The vineyard is the Holy Christian Church on earth. One enters the Holy Christian Church through faith. Yet, in order to have faith, you must be called, just as the workers did not enter the vineyard until the master went out and invited them in. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17). This is how this free forgiveness and salvation is given: through the proclamation of the Gospel, so that it can be received through faith.

Because it is a matter of faith and not works, the master will not stop calling until the very end. Think of it. Who calls day laborers at the very last hour of the day? They hardly have any time to work! Yet, God calls until the sun goes down. Christ may return this afternoon for all we know. Yet, until then God will still be calling. He continues to send out his ministers to preach the free forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake. And so, this parable not only teaches us that we will receive our reward from our heavenly Father by grace through faith and not on account of our works. But this parable teaches us that God is still calling more people to come to his vineyard and see that he is good and generous. Today there are people outside the vineyard we are currently laboring in. They are outside, but God wants them inside. He doesn’t want them standing around idol. He calls them as he calls you. He desires their salvation, even as Christ Jesus poured his blood for them. And this should be our desire too. We should not be ashamed of the Gospel, but desire all to believe it as we do, because it is the power of salvation to all who believe.

Jesus uses a parable about workers to teach us about grace, which is salvation without work. We are not saved by our work, but we are called to work. Yet, the work we are called to do is not like the work, which weighs down the works-righteous. Jesus calls to us, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30). This might sound strange, when we recollect the great labors Christians bear for the sake of the kingdom: persecution, mockery, hatred, and the like. Yet, Jesus calls these yokes easy. Why? Because we bear them through faith in Christ. We do not labor under a heavy-handed master, who wants to make sure that he gets what he pays for. We labor freely under him, who desires to give his kingdom to us as a gift. We do not box as one beating the air. We do not labor in vain. We know we have a reward stored up for us, because Christ Jesus has earned it for us. If the world lays on persecution and hatred, this cannot take away our reward from Christ, rather, it gives us greater confidence that we bear his name!

Yet, those who think they must earn their way resent every pound they must carry and every minute they must labor. They resent those who get paid the same as them, because they think they have earned more. So, in their act of proving to themselves that they are righteous, they prove to God that they are not by hating their neighbor whom God loves. The Law lays on a heavy burden and only God’s grace and forgiveness can lift its weight from your back.

Those who wanted to be paid the wages of their labors were told to take their payment and go. And they left the vineyard. It is like the hymnist puts it,

“But they who have always resisted His grace

And on their own virtue depended

Shall then be condemned at cast out from His Face,

Eternally lost and unfriended.

Have mercy upon us, O Jesus! (Magnus Landstad, Lo, Many Shall Come from the East and the West, TLH 415:2)

But those who received the gift through faith remained with the kind master. This is how we remain in the vineyard of our Lord: through faith in his grace and forgiveness for Christ’s sake. And through faith in God’s grace, we will be content to labor in his vineyard until we are welcomed into the heavenly eternal vineyard. Because, through faith in Christ we know our labor is not in vain. Amen.

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

Enmity with the Devil

Rend You Hearts

Faith without Love is Nothing

The Word of the Lord Grows

Equality under the Law; Equality under the Gospel

Rev. James Preus

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