Facing Reality

Galatians 5:25-6:10

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.  Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.  Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.  For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.  But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.  For each one shall bear his own load.  And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.  And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.  So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity                                      9/28/25

Facing Reality

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Everyone has heard of the shell game.  You may never have played it – I haven't – but you have probably seen it played on television.  The point of the shell game is misdirection.  You are intended to think you saw something you did not, that the pea or the little ball is under a shell that it is not actually under.  Some people play the game as a scam, taking the ball into their hand without being seen to do so, and then no matter which shell you choose, you have been deceived.

The Christian faith and life are a great deal like the shell game for many people.  For some it seems as though it is misdirection and for others it is a scam.  The longer we wait for Christ to return, the more years that pile up between then and now, and the greater the technological distance between the world in which Jesus walked and the world in which we live, the easier it is to be deceived, the more difficult it becomes to keep from allowing ourselves to be deceived.  But our text tells us not to be deceived.  Each part of our text speaks about dealing with reality as it is.  Our theme, in the light of this emphasis, is "Facing Reality."

In every sermon, I try to find the gospel in the text.  I frequently take passages that you have always thought talked about good works and showed you, hopefully clearly, that they were talking about faith and trust and doctrine, and not about your good deeds at all.  I cannot do that this morning.  This text is about your behavior.  It is about the way you live your life and how you treat one another as those who claim to be Christians, the elect and precious of God the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In our text, the Gospel is presupposed.  That is because there are two type of righteousness for every Christian.  There is the righteousness which they may possess – and do possess, in fact, if they are truly Christians – in the eyes of God.  Then there is the righteousness which they may possess in the eyes of their fellow man.  The Gospel is primarily about how we stand before God.  We stand justified and forgiven, in connection with Jesus Christ.  The second sort of righteousness draws its motivation from the Gospel, but it is something that we do.  It is how we deal with our fellow-Christians, and fellow-man in general.

In this text, Paul is writing to Christians, and those who style themselves as Christians.  He is writing about what the Christian faith means to how they live their lives, and how they treat one another.  He issues a stern warning, a warning it is my duty as Pastor to communicate to you.  The warning is that Christians must not allow themselves to be deceived, or fool themselves into thinking that what is not godly is actually okay for them.  Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.  In other words, it is about facing reality.

This epistle is written to Christians.  The basic warning is true for everyone, believer and unbeliever alike, but Paul was writing to those who confess the Christian faith.  That is clear from the first verse of the text: If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.  Only those that believe live by the Spirit, and only those who live by the Spirit may believe, for No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.  Those who live by the Spirit are Christians.  And what Paul is saying here is that only those who walk by the Spirit are Christians.  Confess Christ all you want, if you do not walk by the Spirit, that is, if your life is not guided by the Holy Spirit of God, any confession of being Christian, or following Christ, is hypocritical. 

You cannot know, without the enlightening by the Spirit, what a sinner you are, how tremendous and terrible your sin really is.  If you know these things, you cannot then hold up another man as worse than you.  You cannot actually believe that your burden of sin has been taken by Christ, forgiven, and that Jesus died on account of your sins, and then refuse to forgive someone else.  You cannot look at the cross, the price paid for your sin and rebellion, and then be peaceful and comfortable with your unwillingness to forgive.  You cannot understand or believe the love which God has for you and has poured out on you, and then not be moved by it in such a way that the same love starts leaking out of you onto others.

Don't let anyone fool you – and don't kid yourself.  Face reality.  God cannot be fooled – and God is not mocked.  You cannot take from His hand all the good and the blessings He bestows and then act as if it was all by your doing, and that it is all there for merely for your purposes.  That would be mocking God.  He doesn't allow that, not for long.

Your sins have been forgiven.  What a great thing!  But God didn't just brush your sins under the rug and pretend you didn't do them.  He poured out His wrath against you and your sins, but He poured it out on Jesus.  He paid a tremendous price for what you have done, the sins you have committed, the unfaithfulness, the selfishness, the prejudices, the pride, the violence, the immoralities, the grumbling and the gossip.  You know what they are.  You did them – you still do some of them at times.  Jesus died for all of that.  You are forgiven, freely, but it comes at an enormous cost – the very life of the Son of God Himself.

If you believe that, begin by facing reality, then live that reality out.  God isn't fooled by hypocrisy.  He can see right through a good front and pious words.  Your life and your values and your attitudes are either shaped by God's great goodness to you, that is to say that they are shaped by the Spirit of God dwelling in you, or they are shaped by your flesh.  And your flesh is shaped and controlled by Satan.  Your life will either reflect that you trust God, as our Gospel lesson points out, or it will show the world that you do not.  The Gospel says not to worry – God is with you, and He knows you.  He is there so intimately involved that He knows the number of hairs on your head.  He is so close that seemingly insignificant birds are fed daily.  Even the grass of the field has His attention.  If you really believe that this God loves you, and you really trust in Him, live it out.

Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.  We are not in a competition, at least, not with one another.  We are a family, each one is given to care about the others – all of the others.  Some things we may do will work to strengthen our faith, and some things we may do will work to strengthen our flesh.  Pride, gossip, strife within the church serve the flesh, not the body of Christ.  Patience with error, with false teachings, and with unfaithful church practices also sow to the flesh.  But when we sow to the flesh, we reap corruption.  And "corruption" is just a Biblical euphemism for death and hell.

We want, rather, to sow to the Spirit.  We want to do those things which reflect and re-enforce our confidence in God and our trust in His love and goodness.  Paul doesn't tell us everything we could do, but gives us examples. He mentions restoring one caught in a trespass.  That means church discipline – starting with one-on-one, face to face confrontation with anyone that is caught up in what is wrong – anger, gossip, immorality, anything we might call a "trespass".  Restoring them is calling them back, and loving them as a fellow-member of the body of Christ by helping them to face reality and not allowing them quietly to slip away from us, or from the truth.  Some sins are so common that we are often minded to just ignore them.  Gossip is one of those.  Anger is another.  Unforgiveness is another.  They are easier to ignore than to confront.  But if we don't confront them, they will ultimately prove deadly to the sinner, and often damaging to the whole congregation as well.

Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the Law of Christ.  That is what we are doing when we confront sin.  Sin is a pain and a burden.  We also do this when we share someone else's sorrow, listen to their fears and pray with them.  We bear their burdens when we reach into the abundance of our own blessings and give to our brother or sister in Christ that thing which we have that they need at the moment.  And this not limited to physical things either.  Bearing their burden is what we do when we forgive them as we have been forgiven by Christ.  

This burden bearing is not accomplished just by giving them our money, like Habitat for Humanity or Citizens Against Domestic Violence.  Don't get me wrong, supporting charities like those is decent thing to do – but bearing one another's burdens is not about taking care of the whole world, it is about taking care of one another – fellow believers, fellow members of the congregation, or this circuit, or our Synod.  The group covered by the words "one another" starts just outside of your skin, and radiates out in concentric circles, but it is focused particularly on fellow believers, brothers and sister in Christ.  So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

It is a big job.  It is mind-numbingly unending.  It means thinking all of the time, and thinking about the other guy, the others members of our family here, and our regular visitors.  It means facing reality, thinking about them in the light of God's goodness to us, individually.  It means acting toward them on the basis of our forgiveness – and our salvation – and our trust that God will never leave us nor forsake us, but will always give us all that we need, both physically and spiritually, to survive and hold on until everlasting life.  This care for one another is never ending.  Which explains why Paul exhorts us – and let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.  Weary is easy and natural.  But we reap what we sow.  If we sow from faith and hope, we reap what God pours out on faith and hope.  If we sow from a sense of exhaustion and self pity, we reap what grows in that rocky and selfish soil.

Face reality.  God isn't fooled, and He is not mocked – He does not allow us to claim the prize if we quit the race early.  But the race is really quite short, if you think about it.  Short as life is, the race can still be tiring, which is why God has given us this holy meal, which rests on the altar this morning.  He gives us His true body and the very blood once shed for us for our refreshment and strengthening, for our forgiveness and edification.  He never leaves us without a hope and a comfort, and this is our comfort and our strength – the body once crucified, the blood once shed for us, now given to us to eat and drink hidden under the form of the bread and wine.  With this He gives us our unity and our family.  With it He gives us new strength and fills us again with His Spirit.

And, if we live by the Spirit (and we do) let us also walk by the Spirit.  Let us sow to the Spirit the seeds of our attitudes and prejudices and actions.  Let us bear one another's burdens, and be patient with each other.  Each man will give account to God for himself.  Just live in Christ the way you will want Christ to see you live in Him.  We never know exactly what is inside another, or what troubles and temptations they bear – each one does bear their own load.  So we want to be patient with one another, and forgiving, as God has been patient and forgiving with us, and so fulfill the law of Christ, which is the law of love.

Remember, facing reality goes two ways.  God will not be confused or deceived by hypocrisy – but He will also not be confused or deceived by the world.  His people shall be blessed and protected, fed and sheltered and finally brought home to eternal life.  The one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.

You may have noticed that there is one line in this text I have not preached.  I have rarely preach it because I don't know how to preach it without sounding self-serving.  But it, too, is the Word of God.  So, I will simply read it – it is clear and easy to understand.  And I will let you make of it what you will.  And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches.

Life is often much like the shell game - confusing, distracting, deceiving.  It helps if we start with what we know, and face reality from the basis of the faith we confess.  Instead of trying to unravel the deceits of the world, we should keep our eyes on the Gospel, and live our lives facing reality.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

  (Let the people say Amen)

You Got Deeds or Fruit?

Galatians 5:16-24

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.  For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity                                      9/21/25

You Got Deeds or Fruit?

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Our nation is at war.  It is a war on Islamic Terrorism and far-left lunacy.  The enemy is not another country, but another way of perceiving reality, and another, dangerously anti-Christian religion.

This war is subtle, and our enemy is almost undefinable until he strikes us.  We saw that aspect in the ugly assassination of Charlie Kirk. Our nation has been engaged in this war with terrorists for over 40 years, and we are just recently awakening to that truth.  We tend not to think of the war as among us, but it is.  We are a nation at war!  

In so many ways, this war makes a good analogy for the life of a Christian.  We Christians are at war, spiritual war!  Islam is an element in the war against us Christians, but it is not the real enemy.  Islam is more like a weapon in the war, just one weapon from an enormous arsenal.  The real enemy is the devil, and among the enemy foot-soldiers is our own human nature, which our text calls "the flesh."

Paul describes the flesh as distinct from the Spirit who guides us Christians.  One of the ways he distinguishes between them is to refer to the "deeds" of the flesh in contrast to what Paul calls the "fruit" of the Spirit.  Paul encourages one while he discourages the other.  This morning I want to look at this text with you, and approach it by asking the question, "You Got Deeds or Fruit?"

You may have noticed that the sermons in this part of the church year all seem to talk about the same general topic - the living of life as a faithful child of God, or Sanctification in ‘the narrow sense'.  That just makes sense.  Once we have learned the fundamental truths of our faith, the rest of our energy is spent living day to day while we await the call of God to come home to heaven and eternal life and glory with Christ.  Sometimes just living while we wait boldly confronts us, and sometimes the task of being a faithful, confessing Christian almost sneaks on by us.  At times we have crises, and at other times we have things pretty much as we want them.  No matter how things strike us at any given moment, if we are faithful, we will eventually find that we must spend our lives at war, serving and confessing Christ by what we do and what we say.

Our lives won't always seem as though we are at war.  First, that is because the enemy is does not always look like an enemy, does not always appear to us as hostile, and the battle will not seem to be upon us.  Sometimes we don't recognize the struggle, even when we are in the very heat of the battle.  We Christians need to be on a war-footing at all times, even when the war seems like it is a long way removed from us.  Like the War on Terror, being deliberately Christian doesn't always feel like a war.  But it is!

And like the War on Terror, ours is a fight for liberty.  Paul writes, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.  For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law."  

Due to the nature of this war, we cannot simply do as we please.  We are not free to do evil, of course, because we are the adopted children of the Holy One.  Evil is contrary to who we are.  Because our flesh is still sold in sin, we cannot freely follow what is holy, because our flesh resists and fights us every inch of the way.  And the term "flesh" includes part of what we call our will, and part of what we call our intellect - the greater part of both, or so it seems at times.  That makes the battle we fight difficult in the extreme.  It is like the cartoon strip character, Pogo, once said, "We have met the enemy, . . . and he is us!"  St. Paul says,   "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please."

The battle, however, is for liberty.  "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law."  That is the liberty!  The Gospel sets you free from the Law.  Because Christ has fulfilled it for you, you are set free from the coercion of the Law.  That means it cannot threaten you with dire consequences.  It cannot condemn you or determine your eternal fate.  Jesus has taken the Law out of the way, and out of the calculations about your eternal destination.  What we have done neither condemns us any longer, nor saves us.  Jesus has taken the full measure of our condemnation for sin in His flesh upon the cross.  And His life, not ours, wins eternal righteousness and life and favor with God by His perfect holiness and sinlessness.

So, those who "are led by the Spirit," meaning "Believers" or "Christians" are no longer "under" the Law, and therefore are free.  We are not free, however, in an absolute sense.  The Law still applies to us - meaning that what it teaches is right and good and holy is still true, and is still the will of God for our lives.  It simply has lost its power to accuse or condemn us.  We are free to serve God because we desire to do so from a willing spirit, rather than because we must do so by compulsion of the Law.

The results of the two states, being under the Law and being led by the Spirit, are different.  One result is called the deeds of the flesh.  The other is called "the fruit of the Spirit".  

The deeds of the flesh, being evil are not difficult to identify. "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

Most of those terms are fairly easy to understand.  Immorality refers to sexual immorality.  Impurity means uncleanness - we might use the word "dirty" to describe this sort of behavior.  Sensuality means living for pleasure, or allowing ‘how it feels' to guide your moral compass.  Idolatry is pretty well understood.  Gross Idolatry is worshiping another god, refined idolatry is setting anything before God in your life, money, pleasure, power, health, or family and friends.  Sorcery primarily refers to the mixing of potions for achieve a supposedly magical effect, the primary use of which seems to have been to produce an abortion in the ancient world.  Hatred - called enmities - strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger (generally violent in word or deed), disputes, dissentions, and factions are familiar to all of us in one context or another.  Envying is a common form of evil - commonly seen active in "keeping up with the Joneses."  And finally, Drunkenness and carousing mean just what you think they do.  Have a drink?  Yes.  Get drunk? No.  And regularly getting drunk is called "drunkenness" and whooping it up without decorum and self-control is called "carousing."  

You may not hear a lot of preaching about those things today, but those things are still considered deeds of the flesh - and are still counted as contrary to the Spirit of the Christian faith.  Paul writes, "And things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."  This is behavior unbecoming a Christian.  Damning, according to Paul.  But take note of the word "practice" - those who practice such things.  It indicates that those who "make a practice of", or "do these things with some frequency" show that the flesh, and not the Spirit, rules in their hearts and lives.  They have deeds.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  There is a difference in the lives of those in whom the Holy Spirit is at work.  This is not to say that every Christian is identical, or will be as clearly different from those ruled by the flesh as every other Christian.  Some Christians are wonderful and great and obvious saints, and some are weak and immature in the faith, and not so clearly Christian in their lives at this or that point in time.  But this "fruit" is that which the Spirit of God works in those in whom He dwells.  If the Spirit of God is in you, and that means if you are really a Christian, then He is at work in your heart and life and spirit, and these qualities are the sorts of fruit He produces.  This means that you can aim at being this sort of person and know that you are not working at cross-purposes with God's Spirit within you.

The Holy Spirit works love, because "God is love."  The joy arises from knowing your redemption, your salvation, the rich promises of God, and from having the firm expectation that they are all true for you and will be fulfilled.  Peace comes from actually trusting God - and from forgiving those whose sins cause anger and distress.  We have patience because Christians forgive as we have been forgiven - and once you forgive, what is there to be impatient about?  All things will happen in God's good time, right?  Kindness and goodness flow from the Spirit because God is kind and gracious and good.  He is so good that we overflow with His goodness when He dwells within us.  God is faithful, and so, when the Spirit works faith in us, He also works faithfulness in us.

The gentleness and self-control flow out of all the things that the Spirit works in us.  We are gentle because we have nothing to be violent about.  God is in charge.  God will provide.  God will handle revenge - "Take no thought for revenge, brethren, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, ‘VENGEANCE IS MINE.  I WILL REPAY, SAITH THE LORD'."  The whole process of living  deliberately according to what you believe and confess requires constant self-control.  We who believe know that in our flesh exists no good thing, and so we must control our flesh if we wish to live out the truth of our existence as the chosen of God and the children of our heavenly Father.

Part of what Paul is telling us is that we don't have to work this stuff up in ourselves.  It is what the Spirit produces.  They are "fruits".  I don't imagine that pear trees struggle to produce pears.  Pears are what happen as a result of the pear tree living and just going on with life.  These fruits – likewise – are not our work -even though they may have sounded like we work them, as I described them, or that they were the natural, psychological results of certain conditions.  They are not, they are the fruits of the Spirit which He produces in us by dwelling within us.

Essentially, these fruits are what occurs naturally when one lives in faith, trusting God, and allowing God to work His blessings and salvation by whatever means – both good times and painful, frightening, and difficult events or situations.  God is in charge, what need for fear or worry do we have?  The fruit of such living faith is  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

"Against such things there is no law."  No one is going to object to people who are like this. The evil of the world may mock you, or even attack you for being holy, but there is no law on the books against such things.  What you experience in any sort of persecution is the hatred of the world for Christ.  And the true nature of evil shows itself to be truly evil in that love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control are things that need to be attacked.  But what those who persecute such holy behavior are attacking is the reflection of Christ in you - not you personally.

Jesus told us that persecutions and hatred by the world would happen, if we were faithful.  Those are things we hate to face and fear to experience and long to avoid.  They are repulsive to the flesh, so we feel that pain and fear.  Plus, denying our flesh is painful.  Paul referred to it as "putting to death the deeds of the flesh", in Romans 8:13, because it is so painful.  But God clearly tells us, "Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

The believer recognizes that the deeds of the flesh are at war with the fruit of the Spirit.  So the child of God in Christ Jesus crucifies those deeds of the flesh, which is to say, the true believer is deliberately Christian.  We walk by faith - but we also walk in our faith, choosing to do and say things – or not to do or say various things – based on what we believe about ourselves, and about one another, and about God and His promises.

Finally, it boils down to admitting that we are involved in a war.  It is the cosmic war, not between good and evil (as the world likes to imagine), but between our Savior God and the devil who seeks to destroy us at last by deceiving us.   We can confess by asking ourselves, You got deeds or fruit?  The flesh has deeds.  The Spirit produces fruits.  The Christian is filled with the Spirit, and seeks to put to death the deeds of the flesh.  

So, how is it with you?  You got deeds or fruit?

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

Obedience or Faith?

 Galatians 3:15-22

Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.  Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.  He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ.  What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.  For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

Why the Law then?  It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.  Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one.  Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God?  May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.  But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Trinity                                      9/14/25

Obedience or Faith

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The Christian church has had a debate going on within it since the beginning.  Is it what we do that saves us, or is it faith?  It seems pretty clear, right?  But some people answer the question and go right back to asking it in different forms.  Sure, faith saves, but you gotta do something, you gotta be just so holy, you gotta feel something.  In our Epistle lesson, this morning, Paul addresses the controversy again, and answers from Scriptures.  Let us review the question and the answers with out theme, "Obedience or Faith?".

That has been the question from the very beginning.  Our human nature wants to be responsible – or at least it wants to be in charge.  The notion that our eternal destiny does not rest in our hands is objectionable to our nature.  We want to earn it, or we want to choose it, or we want to have some say in the thing.  The gift of God  – which He pours out on all mankind alike – is not acceptable to many because we feel helpless, impotent.  We don't quite trust the gift, by nature, because we can clearly see many people who are obviously not going to heaven – and no one in their right mind would want to go to Hell.  So there has to be some sort of difference in those who go to heaven and those who go to hell.

Of course, we cannot see it as choosing to go to hell, because who in their right mind would choose to go to hell?   No one!  That's who!

So, obviously, the choosing part has to be choosing or earning or deserving heaven.  The human race as a group cannot deal with the theological truth that we have all earned hell, and that we are all destined by nature to destruction.  We think we're pretty cool!  We want to go to the good stuff!  So the Bible must have it wrong.  Some maintain that there is no life after death, except that human nature actually knows that there is, so it is only limited portion of mankind who can deceive themselves so thoroughly that they can walk boldly into hell saying to themselves that there is nothing there, and the red glow in their eyes is just their imagination.

Others invent a cosmology much more to their own liking.  They have a universe where they can go on, everyone to the same "next step".  Some go in joy and glory and others in shame and fear, but we just move on to the next, more wonderful world.  It doesn't matter that their image of the afterlife is drawn from whole-cloth wild-eyed imaginings.  It sounds better than hell.

Or, they imagine heaven and hell, but they switch the roles around.  Those awful religionists – you know, Christians – are going to suffer, and the ordinary guy is going to go on to something better.   Or, we build our own destiny.  Only the most rotten people go on to perdition.  The rest of us are really worth something in and of ourselves, merely by virtue of our existence.  But those cosmologies are all based in rejecting God and the Bible.  They are the near-frantic wishful thinking of the unbelieving who can still feel the breath of God on the back of their necks.

But when you come to constructing a world-view with an eye toward eternity which takes Scripture into account, most people grab hold of the Law, because they can sense the rightness of it, and they build a hope of something after death upon their own goodness and decency.  Sometimes they acknowledge that they need a bit of help, and thank God!, Jesus is there to make getting to heaven possible, or to finish the job that good works can only start, but we still need to do our part.  After all, salvation cannot be just absolutely free, and besides, what about those decent people who don't believe the Gospel and who aren't - let's face it - going to go to heaven.  What is the difference between them and us – and there must be a difference – and the difference must be within us or our conduct or our thinking or something about us!

The only answer (in their minds) is the Law.  Some of us deserve it because we act right, or think right or decide the right things.  We make the difference, don't ya know!  And Paul says, "You're wrong."

Salvation, he says, was given by God upon agreement by Abraham, and it rested upon trust in the promise of God.  "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."  And the promise of God was spoken to Abraham and to his seed.  This happened 430 years before the giving of the Law.  So, salvation existed before there was any Law to fulfill to merit it.  Therefore, salvation does not depend on the Law at all.  Either that, or the Law of God invalidates the promise of God - in which case we are all in deep kimchee [a Korean dish made of cabbage and other stuff] because the Law sets the standard for salvation at perfect sinlessness.

But the promises of God cannot be set aside, and the promises of God in regard to salvation are connected to a covenant with Abraham from long before the Law.  So the Law is not the source of salvation, nor can it possibly be, both because it cannot invalidate God's promises, and because it sets the standard for salvation beyond human ability - seeing as how we are born less than perfect from the very start.

So why was the Law given?  That is how the argument of Paul continues.  Why would God give us a Law that we cannot keep if He knows we cannot keep it!?  That is how a Baptist friend I had this discussion with put the question.  God gave us the Law to do it, he said.  If we could not keep it, God would not have given it to us, or so he said.

Paul answers in advance.  It was given to us because of transgressions.  That phrase means for the reason of transgressions.  Yes, oddly, the law was given so that we would sin against it.  There would be an objective standard, one that we could see and sense the rightness of, that we would sin against anyhow.  While God did not want us to sin, He knew we could not help it - and that we could not and would not see our own wickedness.  So, He gave the Law.  He gave it so that we would sin against something we saw as clearly good and right, so that we would not be able to pretend holiness, but would have to admit and confess our sinfulness.

So the thing that men look to to prove their fitness for salvation is actually the thing God gave us to show us most clearly how undeserving and unworthy we truly are.  He gave the law so that we would all be undeniably wicked and sinful even in our own eyes, when we looked at ourselves from God's holy standard.  That is what Paul calls, But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin.  None of us can honestly say we have no sin.  We can pretend, of course, but when we look into the Law, we see our guilt and shame.  He did it for our blessing, though.

Paul finishes the sentence above like this, But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.  We have been subjected the humiliation of the Law so that we would be prepared and able to receive the gift of salvation, the gift that is so difficult for human nature to accept.  But, as the hymn describes it, when sinners see their lost condition, they turn to the promise of God of forgiveness and life with joy and thanksgiving.  Since you cannot earn or deserve it in the least, isn't it great that God has won salvation for you and gives it to you as a free gift - by grace you have been saved, though faith, and than no of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not on the basis of works, so that no one can boast.

Of course, even with that knowledge, human nature and human reason are hard to overcome.  We still want to earn.  We still want to merit it and have something to hold up and say, "See?  I did this!"  So human reason still insists that there is a part for us to play in causing our salvation or creating our own worthiness.  Paul reminds us that if there were a law that could do that, by the keeping of which we could earn salvation – and it was something that we could do – then there would have been no need for the Gospel with all its forgiveness and gift of resurrection and eternal life.  But there is no such law.

There is no community which can stand up and truly announce that they are the deserving ones, that they are holy while everyone else is corrupt and despicable.  Christians cannot boast that they have eternal life or salvation because they did it right, or because they believed right or because they were anything good.  We are just like the people around us – sinners!  We deserve what they deserve.  We simply have the gift of God.  We know and believe that our salvation rests entirely on Jesus.  Our salvation was already accomplished.  Jesus lifted sin from us and bore it in His body on the cross to pay for our sin, and He gave us His righteousness and the life eternal which He had earned in exchange for our guilt and shame.

We can boast about Jesus!  But not about ourselves.  We can not only boast, but we can tell others, and thereby share the gift.  It isn't like a cash reward which you spend down and lose by using it.  This is a gift which cannot be lost by sharing it, nor is it diminished by being spread over a larger group.  We have the cure for death and the answer to sin and guilt and shame – and the comfort each of us needs in the times of sorrow that this world visits upon us so often, and the encouragement in times of despair or fear.  God is in charge, and He loves you, and He has saved you to the uttermost!  You are His and He is yours and you have life everlasting in His name!

And best of all, death doesn't touch it.  Just because we see people die and we bury them doesn't mean that they are gone forever.  God has also given us resurrection from the grave.  For them that believe, it is a wonderful gift to life without end in joy and peace and glory, with Jesus Christ.  For those who choose not to let God save them, the resurrection is to something dark and painful, but also eternal.  But when anyone hears of the gift of God in Jesus Christ, and takes God at the word of His promise - he or she is forgiven, and even if they should die, they will rise again to everlasting life and we shall walk with them in glory because of all that Jesus, not us but Jesus, has done.

The answer of Paul to the question "Obedience or faith?" is clearly, FAITH!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

Being Made Adequate

 2 Corinthians 3:4-11

And such confidence we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?  For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.  For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it.  For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

Sermon for the 12th Sunday after Trinity                    9/07/25

Being Made Adequate

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Our text this morning is about the ministry.  It is fashionable today to refer to anything one does in the church as a "ministry".  We have the ministry of the LWML and the ministry of the evangelism committee.  There is, among some congregtions, the kitchen ministry of the good women who serve potlucks and the ministry of compassion when we deliberately organize to do socially useful things.  The idea that everything we do is "ministry" is so firmly rooted in our Synod that at a recent convention we passed a resolution entitled, "To Support Quilting Ministries" which encourages you all to visit the members of your quilting group (if you have one), thank them for their service to the church over all these years, and encourage more people to become involved in quilting "ministry".

Our text deals with ministry in a more theologically technical sense.  This speaks about the ministry of the Word, and divides Law and Gospel as it does so.  Paul boasts in our text about his work among the Corinthians, and the result of his labors, and then gives the glory to God.  The thing that makes the difference, according to our text, is not the messenger, but the message.  It is not the qualities of the pastor in terms of charm and eloquence, but it is the work of God.  Our theme is "being made adequate."

Paul is speaking of the Corinthians as being his "letter of commendation" from Christ to the church and to the world.  But he apparently is sensitive to the thought that people think he is bragging.  So Paul writes, "And such confidence we have through Christ toward God."  What that expresses is that Paul believes that his success as an Apostle is from God.  He continues with that thought, "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant."

This is the heart of the passage.  Paul confesses that in and of himself, he is not particularly competent or even adequate   for the task he is performing, and the work he does is not successful because of his talent or intelligence.  He acknowledges, instead, that everything comes from God.  His competence, and his success is God-worked.  God has made him adequate to the task.

That is the truth of the Holy Ministry.  No one who holds the office of the ministry is competent for the task, in and of himself.  Our adequacy is also from God.  Surely there are pastors that you have liked more than others.  Some were better speakers.  Some were just wonderful at calling on people and making them feel right at home.  Some fit in like a glove, while others may have seemed odd and out of place.  The truth, however, is that you may like them or not, but the power and adequacy for doing the work of the ministry is God-given.  Faith does not come by the eloquence of the preacher, or his intellectual arguments, or his personal appeal.  Faith comes by hearing, and that hearing is by the Word of God. 

We confess that much in the Small Catechism, in the meaning to the Third Article of the Apostles' Creed, "I believe that I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ , my Lord, or come to Hm; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me, just as He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it in Christ Jesus in the one true faith."

God creates faith, because, "a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."  So, our faith does not depend on us OR on the skill of the preacher, but on God.  As long as your pastor is faithful and teaches the whole counsel of God faithfully, God is at work through him, making him adequate for the work which God has called him to do and granting the success which God Himself has planned for His Word in this place.

Of course, the pastor must preach the whole counsel of God - both the Law and the Gospel.  That is what the part of the text is about when Paul writes about the ministry of condemnation and the ministry of righteousness.  The ministry of condemnation, which he also calls the ministry of death, is the preaching of Moses - or of the Law.  The new covenant - or better, the New Testament, is not of Law or of the letter of the law, but of the Spirit.  It is the New Testament of the grace of God in Christ Jesus.

I want you to take note of the fact that Paul does not dismiss the Law.  He says that it has glory - it is true and valid yet today.  It is simply outshined.  The glory of the covenant, or testament, of righteousness in Jesus Christ is so great and the Gospel is so wonderful that the Law recedes into the shadows.  It is like taking a brightly burning candle from a dark room out into the bright sunshine.   If you do that, it will look like the candle has gone out.  You will see the wick as though it were not burning, but don't touch it!  It is still true and valid, hot and on fire!

So it is with the Law in the face of the Gospel.  Is the Law true.  Yes!  It is the Word of God.  The condemnations and judgments of God have not changed.  The Ten Commandments are still in force.  But in the face of the Gospel, they shrink away, because your sins are forgiven!  Does this mean that sinning is no longer a problem?  No.  Sin is always a problem, and a deadly danger.  But when we repent, God is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness - because Jesus has already paid the penalty by dying in our place on the cross.  The judgment of God over your sin is seen on the cross, just as clearly as the forgiveness of your sins is seen in the glorious resurrection of Jesus.

The Law is still true, and good.  But the Gospel is better.  It is not ‘more true', it is merely also true.  And forgiveness trumps condemnation, and the righteousness received by grace through faith trumps sinfulness, and eternal life trumps death.  This is all received by those who believe, for it is the plan and will of God that faith lays hold of the riches of Christ which He won for us in His passion, death, and resurrection.  "He that believes and is baptized, shall be saved."

Which would you rather live under, God's judgment of your works or the free gift of everlasting life?  It is, as they say, a "no-brainer."  Yet it is not by your choice but by the grace of God.  We are adequate for salvation because of being made adequate by Christ.  And with Paul we must confess, "such is our confidence towards God through Jesus Christ."

And, as it is true for each of us, that our adequacy is from God, so it is also true for your pastor.  Love ‘em or dislike him as a person, if he preaches the word of God clearly, and in its purity, he is being made adequate for the task by God.  He will give you what you need, by the grace of God.  And God's Word will prosper in you and among you by the power and work of God.

So, look past the man to his doctrine.  Ignore his weaknesses, for we all have them.  Never mind how you feel about the man, personally.  But attend to the Word he preaches.  If he does that right, he has been made adequate by God who alone works blessings, faith and salvation in His Church.  Rejoice in the Word, encourage your pastor to keep preaching it faithfully and clearly, and give thanks to God who alone makes us adequate for eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)