Septuagesima Sermon

KJV John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

Septuagesima Sunday

1 Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

KJV Matthew 20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. 2 And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? 7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. 8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 9 And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. 11 And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, 12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. 13 But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? 14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? 16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

Collect
Lord God, heavenly Father, through your holy Word You have called us into your vineyard; Send, we beseech You, Your Holy Spirit into our hearts, that we may labor faithfully in Your vineyard, shun sin and all offense, obediently keep Your Word and do Your will, and put our whole and only trust in Your grace, which You have bestowed upon us so abundantly; through Your Son Jesus Christ, that we might obtain eternal salvation through Him; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, world without end. Amen.

TLH Hymns:
331 – Yeas, As I Live Jehovah Saith
123 – O God Our Help in Ages Past
387 – Dear Christians One and All Rejoice
495 – From Greenland’s Icy Mountains

Justification by Faith and the Great Seduction

1 Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

"Now, although both, the planting and watering of the preacher, and the running and willing of the hearer, would be in vain, and no conversion would follow it if the power and efficacy of the Holy Ghost were not added thereto, who enlightens and converts the hearts through the Word preached and heard, so that men believe this Word and assent thereto, still, neither preacher nor hearer is to doubt this grace and efficacy of the Holy Ghost, but should be certain that when the Word of God is preached purely and truly, according to the command and will of God, and men listen attentively and earnestly and meditate upon it, God is certainly present with His grace, and grants, as has been said, what otherwise man can neither accept nor give from his own powers."
Solid Declaration, Article II, Free Will, 55?56, Formula of Concord, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 903. Tappert, p. 531f.

When people discuss justification by faith, other matters often intrude. Paul addresses this in the epistle for today.

Someone—either Paul Kelm or one of his buddies—introduced those arguments in the last week. Here they are:

Is it the Church Growth Movement when we learn how to remove or reduce barriers to communicating the gospel clearly? If I better know the mind of an unbeliever, might I better be "all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some?" If I give thought to having adequate parking at our church knowing that if I don't the first-time visitor might drive off, does this mean I am a CGM flunkie? Or is it possible that I'm so in love with Christ and his powerful Word that I will bend over backwards to remove every possible barrier which might keep a person from coming into contact with the Word and hearing it clearly?

First of all, what does the Bible teach about the order of salvation?

The Law does not save but the Holy Spirit does work through the Law. In salvation, the Law works to soften the hearts of the audience, so they hunger and thirst for righteousness. Many people think of Law preaching as aimed at gambling, intoxication, and all the obvious carnal sins. Most of those people are ministers. They actually think Law preaching will have Gospel fruits. The longer they hammer at the Law, the better the results will be.
There are several problems with this. One is that the Law does not bear fruit. Only the Gospel promises will bear fruit. More importantly, people do not have their faith strengthened by hearing the Law alone.

The Law is comprised of condemnation, threats, and punishment. Luther addressed carnal sins from time to time, but he condemned two great matters in the sermons I have read. One is lack of faith in God’s Word. The other is false doctrine.

Lack of Faith in God’s Word
I wrote before, that this saying came up more than once in Isaac B. Singer’s stories – “If God wants vinegar to burn, it will burn.” That is a vivid way of saying, “God can do anything through His will and Word.” Humans doubt. That is the Old Adam at work. We resist giving credit to God for His infinite power while trusting in our own.

We also doubt God’s wisdom and love.

KJV Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

Questioning God’s love and power is rebellion against His Word, a sin that leads to many other sins. Doubt in God’s Word is the foundational sin.

Luther was surrounded by carnal sin in his time—not that it is absent in ours. The Medieval preachers had scared people to death with Hell and Purgatory for centuries. Preaching against carnal sin had no effect on the congregations, except to make people respond to Law preaching with Law responses. It is just like a requirement in school. If the instructor says, “A 700 word paper with two references,” the results will be 700 word papers with two references. When the Medieval priest said there was a price to pay (reparation, still in effect) for a given sin, the listener said, “OK, how much do I pay?”

The effect of preaching only the Law could be seen in the Medieval Church. The religious were so corrupt, greedy, and immoral that some think Christianity was ready to collapse forever.

Luther aimed at his era in two ways. He assailed their doubt in God’s Word and preached against false doctrine. One writer said this is what caused the Reformation – identifying false doctrine. Other writers and preachers spoke about the Gospel Promises, but they did not identify the errors of the visible Church. Law preaching against false doctrine made the Vatican furious and the Reformation, already simmering for 100 years, exploded.

The effect of the Law is to soften hearts and to make people crave what the Gospel alone can provide – forgiveness of sin and eternal life.

Gospel Promises
We are born sinful and cannot save ourselves. We do not even have the inclination to believe in the true Word of God. There is a natural belief in the divine. Most people believe in some sort of Creation, some system of right and wrong.

Proper Law preaching shows people that false systems of salvation are bound to crush people or give them false hopes. The study of world religion shows that. All the world religions concentrate on what man does for God to receive salvation. The Christian faith alone teaches what God does for man, without a charge.

Gospel in the Old Testament
Someone sent me a book, The Jewish Trinity. The point of this complicated book is to show how often the Trinity appears in the Old Testament. The author appears to be a Jew trained in rabbinic thought. The English translations, especially the NIV, bury the strange Hebrew constructions of plurals (Elohim – gods) with singular verbs. The obvious parallel is John, where Jesus said, “The Father and I, we are One.” The author’s point is to show how the Trinity was not new to Jews at the time of Jesus, explaining why the disciples believed in Jesus and the people easily moved from implicit faith in the Trinity to explicit faith in the Trinity, Jesus as Savior.

So correct Judaism is really Christianity before the Incarnation. Many accepted that in the time of Jesus and afterwards. A reaction built up and Judaism officially rejected Jesus as the true Messiah. Nevertheless, the clues are there in the Old Testament and Jews continue to take that final step into explicit faith in Christ. As I have seen in the stories of Isaac Singer, Polish Jews believed in eternal life and a personal Messiah.

Justification and the Gospel
The passage from the Formula of Concord teaches clearly what the Scriptures reveal. All that the Church needs is faithful preaching of the Gospel Promises and attentive listening to the Word. The Holy Spirit will always work through that Word, creating and sustaining faith. Through faith we receive the Gospel Promises.

What are those promises? The chief Promise is forgiveness and salvation. “Believe and you will be saved. Believe and you will be forgiven. Believe and you will have eternal life.”

Believe and be saved
KJV Luke 8:12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

KJV Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

KJV Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Believe and you will be forgiven.
KJV Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

KJV Romans 4:23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Believe and you will have eternal life.
KJV John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? 27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

Faith in Christ means faith in God’s Word. Doubt about God’s Word means doubt about Christ, the power and love of God. The only purpose of God’s Word is to bring Christ to us, to show us the way of salvation, and to build up our faith so that we do not depart from eternal life.

Justification by faith leads to the fruits of the Christian faith. The famous Roman passage is often used to address justification, but notice how it also discusses the ongoing benefits of salvation:

KJV Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

The Formula of Concord passages is plain and clear for anyone to understand. If the preacher proclaims man’s word, it is not God’s Word. Man’s word is not accompanied by the Holy Spirit. There are many successful gatherings where God is barely mentioned in the entire service. The minister and people are celebrating themselves and not worshiping God.

Likewise there are faithful ministers everywhere who preach the true Word of God to people who are indifferent, lazy, or just plain hostile to the Gospel. Adulterers hate the Word of God because they have lost faith but crave the appearance of being godly. The last thing they want to hear on Sunday is the way of salvation. Also, Satan hates the way a mortal man, a weakling with so many faults, can defeat him—the Prince of this world—with the Word. “One little Word will fell him.” So Satan rages against faithful Christians, faithful ministers, faithful congregations. People see the turmoil and say, “O look at how troubled they are, for all their talk about being true to the Word. We have better insights, true peace, and the biggest parking lot in the city.”

We are not to doubt the work of the Holy Spirit in any setting, but attach ourselves to the true Word and cling to that. Those who remain on the True Vine (John 15) bear fruit.

God brings judgment to the false teachers. They have their moments acclamation, but God plagues them with inner doubts. That is why false teachers fly into a rage when their doctrine is questioned. That is also why they spend so much energy lying about everything. First one thing must be covered up, then another and another. In time they become so used to lying that their habits edge them over the cliff into personal ruin. Satan enjoys ripping the scales from their eyes at the last minute. Far better to remain in a cottage than reign for a moment in Satan’s cathedral.

People give themselves away. If someone would drive away from a church from the lack of a good parking place, that person will stay for material reasons too. If a minister believes in material means for saving people, he will place all his trust in the material and none of it in the Word.

Strangely—or not so strangely—false teachers hate being quoted. Even more they hate having their pearls of wisdom placed next to the statements of Luther, Chemnitz, and others. They do not trust God’s Word to do God’s work according to His will, but they trust their word and their wisdom will accomplish what God is unable to do without them. The shallowness of this false-gospel is too obvious.

God has given us a wonderful treasure in this Gospel, that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world and for each and every one of us. The Holy Spirit distributes this treasure through the invisible Word of preaching and teaching, the visible Word of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.
· Some want to distribute garbage from the dumpsters of Fuller Seminary and some are eager to grasp it.
· Some have the real Treasure of the Gospel offered to them in a dozen ways and turn it away, or turn from it over time.
· Still others grasp the Gospel at the last minute and find salvation in the moments before death.

KJV John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.