http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/04/luthers-sermons-titus-211-15-christmas.html
42. Take heed to believe true what the apostle, through the Gospel, declares — that Christ gave Himself for you for the sake of redeeming you from all unrighteousness and of purifying you for a peculiar inheritance. It follows that, in the first place, you must believe and confess all your efforts, impure, unrighteous; and that your human nature, reason, art and free-will are ineffectual apart from Christ. Unless you so believe, you make void the Gospel; for, according to the Gospel, Christ did not give Himself for the righteous and the pure. Why should He? With righteousness and purity existent, He would be giving Himself in vain. It would be a senseless giving.
In the second place, you must believe that Christ gave Himself for you, to put away your impurity and unrighteousness and make you pure and righteous in Himself. If you believe this, it will be so. Faith will accomplish it. The fact that He gave Himself for you can make you pure and righteous only through faith on your part. Peter ( Acts 15:9) speaks of the cleansing of hearts by faith. Observe, Christ is not put into your hand, not given you in a coffer, not placed in your bosom nor in your mouth. He is presented to you through the Word, the Gospel; He is held up before your heart, through the ears He is offered to you, as the Being who gave Himself for you — for your unrighteousness and impurity. Only with your heart can you receive Him. And your heart receives when it responds to your opened mind, saying, “Yes, I believe.” Thus through the medium of the Gospel Christ penetrates your heart by way of your hearing, and dwells there by your faith. Then are you pure and righteous; not by your own efforts, but in consequence of the Guest received into your heart through faith. How rich and precious these blessings!
Martin Luther, Sermons, Lenker Edition, First Christmas Sermon, Titus 2:11-15.
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What do we call Luther from this passage? Calvinist? Synergist? Intuitu fidei-ist? He wrote with great clarity about justification by faith, as he always did, but always giving new examples and clarifications.
Mrs. Ichabod needed a medical follow-up with her main doctor, so I grabbed four Lenkers on my way out the door. My Lenker set gets scattered because it is my favorite set of books to read. When I get tired of Synodical Conference myth, legends, and false exegesis, Luther's sermons give my brain and soul a chiropractic adjustment.
I ended up with the Christmas epistles in my hand, so I opened up to Christmas Day and found two passages especially good for graphics. I thought, "Christmas Day. No-Call-Paul will criticize me for posting a quotation for a Christmas reading!" He did that once, on Tim Glende's blog, when I found a great passage for an earlier Sunday, created a graphic, and posted it. The lesson was the Rich Man and Lazarus, which was appropriate for any time in the year - in season, and out of season, as the Apostle Paul wrote.
The overpaid are bothered at times that they are soaking up so much money for doing so little, while genuine pastors decide between food and the pharmacy. One WELS pastor told me about that dilemma, which Tim Glende instantly challenged. I always wondered why Tim wanted to expose his indolence, lack of character, and false doctrine in his blog. No wonder he has kilcreased three blog efforts - sincere self-criticism or synodical mandate? "Stop telling the truth about us, Tim Boy." I remember - Tim thought he was anonymous, although the software tracked the comments to Appleton and a Mac computer.
Likewise, I got very nasty comments from Kudu Don Patterson's hometown in Texas. I thought maybe a WELS guy there, but no, even SP Schroeder wrote to deny it was that person. Could it have been Patterson? He emailed me once to call me a fool and a liar. Once I pinpointed the comments and their location, they stopped.
The UOJ Stormtroopers make every doctrinal issue a personal one. It is either my opinion they oppose or another's opinion. But they are teaching sound doctrine! Heavy competition - my personal, defective opinion versus their synod-anointed pure doctrine. Pure doctrine comes from synodical drones writing horrid, confused, contradictory essays.
Clergy like Glende and Buchholz are content as long as they can play teeter-totter, sinking to the very bottom, jumping off, and laughing that the other person lands suddenly and painfully.
But that does not matter in the long run, which we should keep in mind. What we teach and leave as a legacy for the next generation matters. I do not mean a legacy of money or buildings - but God's Word, which must be defended and maintained in each generation. That has not happened for many decades.
A college president mentioned to us that the Hobby Lobby people donated a $20 million college campus to another school. The failed college had been founded by Dwight L. Moody himself. The president was sighing that such a prize went to another institution. I thought, "That is a big liability, to own an empty campus with pretty buildings, in this era."
Many know what a deal it is, to buy a deluxe campus from the Roman Catholics, a real bargain, and spend millions on it as a prep school. That was Prairie du Chien, which is now a prison. WELS thought of simply abandoning it for unpaid taxes. Whadda deal.
I think of the zillions Marvin Schwan spent in guilt-money, which was squandered on buildings to make synodocats feel good about themselves, while students were piled high with loans. The professors made out like bandits, too, because the bottom of the heap had to borrow money to pay excessive salaries for very little work done.
The real work of the true Church is not to build new temples for big egos, but to teach and preach and visit. The three essential duties are completely neglected by fat, lazy, indolent clergy. The worse they are, the more likely they will control the synod. The reason is easy to discern - the corrupt take care of each other. Therefore, they can tolerate any teaching except sound doctrine. That is dangerous.
Very few Luther clergy really understand Roman Catholic doctrine. They imagine they do because their fellow pastors are just as ignorant. If they knew how closely the ELS and WELS and LCMS followed Holy Father Antichrist and His bishops in all their behavior, they might be completely repulsed by it.
But too much has happened. A corrupt tree produces corrupt fruit, and the corrupt fruit is not going to give way without a tremendous battle.
