The Eighteenth Sunday after
Trinity, 2013
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
Bethany Lutheran Church, 10
AM Central Time
The Hymn # 292 Lord Jesus
Christ 1:2
The Confession
of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual
The
Gospel
Glory be to
Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon
Hymn # 192 Awake My Heart 1:22
Printed sermon – Luther – Lenker edition.
The Communion
Hymn # 480 Lord of the Worlds 1:62
The Preface p.
24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn # 511 Jesus Shall Reign 1:80
KJV 1 Corinthians 1:4 I
thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ; 5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance,
and in all knowledge; 6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in
you: 7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ: 8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom ye were
called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
KJV Matthew 22:34 But when
the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were
gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him
a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great
commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This
is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all
the law and the prophets. 41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus
asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto
him, The Son of David. 43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in
spirit call him Lord, saying, 44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my
right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? 45 If David then call him
Lord, how is he his son? 46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither
durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity
Lord God, heavenly Father: We are poor, miserable sinners;
we know Thy will, but cannot fulfill it because of the weakness of our flesh
and blood, and because our enemy, the devil, will not leave us in peace.
Therefore we beseech Thee, shed Thy Holy Spirit in our hearts, that, in
steadfast faith, we may cling to Thy Son Jesus Christ, find comfort in His
passion and death, believe the forgiveness of sin through Him, and in willing
obedience to Thy will lead holy lives on earth, until by Thy grace, through a
blessed death, we depart from this world of sorrow, and obtain eternal life,
through Thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and
the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
Guest Preacher – Martin Luther
MATTHEW 22:34-46.
KJV
Matthew 22:34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to
silence, they were gathered
together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question,
tempting him, and
saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is
the first and great
commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 40
On these two commandments hang all
the law and the prophets. 41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus
asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ?
whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. 43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit
call him Lord, saying, 44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right
hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? 45 If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son? 46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither
durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
CONTENTS:
THE
DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL; OR THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT AND
CHRIST.
I. IN
GENERAL.
1. How
and why the doctrine of the law and the Gospel should not be separated from one
another. 1-2.
2. How
and why God ordained these doctrines from the beginning that they should remain
together. 2.
II. IN
DETAIL.
A. The
Doctrine of the Law.
1. Why
God gave this doctrine. 2-3.
2.
What one is to think of persons who wish to abolish this doctrine. 4- 5.
B. The
Doctrine of the Gospel.
1. Its
necessity. 6f.
2.
This doctrine will continue to the day of judgment. 7-8.
3. The
comforting contents of this doctrine. 9f.
4.
Whether this doctrine of the law is abolished by the preaching of the Gospel.
10-12.
* Of
the beginning and completion of the sanctification of believers. 12-13.
III.
IN GENERAL THERE WILL BE ANEW TREATMENT OF THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
1. How
and why the doctrine of the law and the Gospel must always go together. 14-15.
2. How
and why the doctrine of the law and Gospel must be faithfully enforced in
Christendom. 16f.
3.
This doctrine both of the law and of the Gospel have become entirely extinct in
the Papacy. 17-18.
4. In
what way these doctrines are to be united with one another. 19f.
* The
two parts of help, which Christ gives us. 20-21.
5. The
doctrine of the law Is not sufficient for salvation, the doctrine of the Gospel
must come to its help. 22-25.
*
Christ alone aids to salvation.
1. In
this Gospel Christ answers the question the Pharisees put to him:
Which
is the greatest commandment in the Law ? and in turn asks them the question:
What think ye of the Christ, whose son is he ? Thus this Gospel presents to us
that which we continually hear and should hear, so that these two sermons must
continue to be preached in Christendom, namely: the first, the teaching of the
Law or of the ten commandments, and the second, the doctrine concerning the
grace of Christ. For if either of these fall it pulls the other with it; while
on the other hand, wherever the one remains steadfast and is faithfully put
into practice, it brings the other with it.
2. And
God has ordained that these two themes shall be preached forever in the
Christian Church, yea, they have always since the beginning of the world
accompanied one another; they were given to our father Adam, while he was still
in Paradise, and were later confirmed through Abraham, Moses and the Prophets.
For
they are required by the needs of humanity, fallen as it is under the power of
satan, so that we live and move in sin and are worthy of eternal death. Adam
felt and lamented sin and its injuries; but later the sense of sin soon
weakened and was disregarded, so that the heathen did not consider it sin
although they indeed felt evil lust and desire in their bodies; but they
imagined all that belonged to the character and nature of man. Yet they taught
man should restrain such lust and desires and not allow them to go too far; but
this nature in itself they did not condemn.
3.
Therefore God gave this one simple teaching that reveals what man is, what he
has been, and what he should again become. This is the doctrine of the Law,
which Christ here cites: “Thou shalt love God with all thy heart, etc.” As if
to say: Thus thou hast been, and thus thou shalt still be and become. In
Paradise you were in possession of the treasure, and were thus created that you
loved God with all your heart; this you have lost; but now you must again
become as you were, or you will never enter the Kingdom of God. In like manner
he speaks clearly and plainly in other places, Matthew 19:17: “If thou wouldst
enter into life, keep the commandments.” Likewise, Luke 10:28: “This do and
thou shalt live, etc.” This must in short be kept; and that we wish to dispute
so much about it amounts to nothing, as if one might be saved without it,
namely, without that which is called loving God with the whole heart and your
neighbor as yourself. This divine law must be fulfilled by you as purely and
completely as the angels in heaven fulfill it.
4.
Therefore it is wrong and not to be allowed, as some in ancient times said and
as some stupid spirits now say: Although you do not keep the commandment, and
do not love God and your neighbor, yea, although you are even an adulterer,
that makes no difference, if you only believe, then you will be saved. No, dear
mortal, that amounts to nothing; you will never thus gain heaven; it must come
to the point that you keep the commandments, and abide in love toward God and
your neighbor. For there it stands briefly determined; “If thou wouldst enter
into life, keep the commandments.” Again, to the Galatians, 5:19-21: “Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, of which I forewarn you, even as I did
forewarn you, that those who practice such things, shall not inherit the
Kingdom of Heaven, etc.”
5. And
Christ wishes this doctrine to be observed by the Christians so that they may
know what they have been, what they are still lacking and what they should
again become, that they continue not in the misery and filth in which they find
themselves now; for if they do, they must be lost.
Christ
speaks right out plainly in Matthew 5:17-18: “Think not that I came to destroy
the Law or the Prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I
say unto you, the Law must be so taught and observed that not the smallest
letter or one tittle of it shall in any wise pass away, till all things be
accomplished.” Again, Christ says further in Matthew 12:36: “And I say unto
you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof
on the day of judgment.” And St. Paul in Romans 8:4: “God sent his Son in the
flesh that the righteousness, required by the Law, might be fulfilled in us.”
And in Romans 3:31: “Do we then make the Law of none effect if we teach man is
justified through faith, and not through works. That is far from us; nay, we
establish the Law.” That is, for this very reason we teach faith, by which the
law is fulfilled.
6. For
this is indeed a glorious doctrine that teaches what we are to become; but that
it may also be realized and not continue to be preached in vain, the other
doctrine must be added, namely, how and through what means we may again return
to our former state. We return when we hear what we lost in Paradise; when Adam
lived in full love to God, and in pure love to his neighbor, and in perfect
obedience without evil lust, and that had he remained thus we would still be
so; but now, since through sin he fell from this command, we also lie in the
same misery, full of sin and disobedience, under God’s wrath and curse, and
fall from one sin to another, and the Law stands there, holds us guilty, urges
and requires us to be pious and obedient to God.
7.
What shall we then do here, since the Law continually commands and drives us,
and we are powerless? For here my own conscience argues ever against me: Since
I am to love God with my whole heart and my neighbor as myself, and I do not do
it, I must therefore be condemned and God approves and confirms the sentence of
condemnation. Who will counsel me in this instance? I do not know what to
counsel you, says the Law; but it decrees and demands plainly that you be
obedient.
Here
the Prophets come now, and preach Christ, and say: One is coming who will give
counsel how man may regain what he lost and again enter the state from which he
fell, to which the Law points him. This is the other sermon that should and
must be preached until the day of judgment, namely, the help from sin, death
and satan, and restoration of our bodies and souls, so that we may come into
the state that we love God and our neighbor from our hearts. This is to be done
fully and perfectly in the future life, but here in this life it should be
commenced.
8. For
in the life beyond there will be no longer any faith, but perfect love, and all
the Law demands we will do with our whole heart. Therefore we must now preach
what we should become and should forever continue to be, namely, that we are to
love God and our neighbor with our whole heart. This I will commence, says
Christ, and complete, not alone as to my own person, but I will aid you to make
a beginning, and to continue ever in it, until you come where you will also
fulfill it perfectly.
9. Now
this will come to pass thus. Since we are unable to keep the Law and it is
impossible for the natural man to do so, Christ came and stepped between the
Father and us, and prays for us: Beloved Father, be gracious unto them and
forgive them their sins. I will take upon me their transgressions and bear
them; I love thee with my whole heart, and in addition the entire human race,
and this I will prove by shedding my blood for mankind. Moreover, I have
fulfilled the Law and I did it for their welfare in order that they may partake
of my fulfilling the Law and thereby come to grace.
10.
Thus there is first given us through Christ the sense that we do not fulfill
the Law and that sin is fully and completely forgiven: however, this is not
bestowed in a way or to the end, that we in the future need not keep the Law,
and may forever continue to sin, or that we should teach, if we have faith then
we need no longer to love God and our neighbor. But there is bestowed upon us
the sense that the fulfilling of the Law may now for the first time be
successfully attempted and perfectly realized, and this is the eternal, fixed
and unchangeable will of God. To this end it is necessary to preach grace, that
man may find counsel and help to come to a perfect life.
11.
But the help offered us is, that Christ prays the Father to forgive us our sins
against this Law, and not to impute what we are still indebted. Then he
promises also to give the Holy Spirit, by whose aid the heart begins to love
God and to keep his commandments. For God is not gracious and merciful to
sinners to the end that they might not keep his Law, nor that they should
remain as they were before they received grace and mercy; but he condones and
forgives both sin and death for the sake of Christ, who has fulfilled the whole
Law in order thereby to make the heart sweet and through the Holy Spirit to
kindle and move the heart to begin again to love from day to day more and more.
12.
Thus begins in us not only love, but also truth, that is, a true character, as
the Law requires; like St. John says in 1:17, that Christ is full of grace and
truth, and through him grace and truth grow in us, which neither Moses nor the
law can give us. For the Law is not abolished thus by grace, that the truth is
to be overlooked, and that we should not love God; but through him we
experience that we do not as perfectly keep the Law as we ought in the kingdom
of forgiveness or of grace. But besides the Holy Spirit is given us, who
kindles a new flame or fire in us, namely, love and desire to do God’s
commandments. In the kingdom of grace this should begin and ever grow until the
day of judgment, when it shall no longer be called grace or forgiveness, but
pure truth and perfect obedience. In the meantime he continues to give,
forgive, to bear and forbear, until we are laid in our graves.
13.
Now if we thus continue in faith, that is, in what the Holy Spirit gives and
forgives, in what he begins and ends, then the fire on the judgment day, by
which the whole world is to be consumed, will cleanse and purify us, so that we
will no longer need this giving and forgiving, as if there were something
unclean and sinful in us, as there really is at present; we will certainly be
as the brightness of the dear sun, without spot and defect, full of love, as
Adam was at the beginning in Paradise.
Thus
will it then be truly said, the Law is established and fulfilled, Romans 3:31.
For it will then no longer blame and rebuke us; but the Law shall be considered
satisfied, and the debt paid, even by ourselves; since all is now fulfilled,
not through us, and yet by it we are freed and saved, so that we creep under
Christ’s mantle and wings, that he makes satisfaction for us until we lie under
the earth and then come again out of the grave with a beautiful, glorified body
that will be nothing but holiness and purity, with a cleansed soul full of the
love of God. Then we will no longer be in need of his mantle and of his
prayers, but we will all be there perfect and complete, as we should be. Now,
since I believe in him, my sins are forgiven and I am called a child of grace.
And moreover, the truth also should arise in me, that is, a new righteous
character, that shall continue until it perfects me; since Christ, the truth,
has come, not to destroy the Law, but to establish it, not only in himself,
which was done long ago. but in me and in all Christians.
14.
These are the two doctrines that should accompany one another, since they
belong together or the one is in the other, and they must always go together as
long as we live here, by which the Law or God’s commandment may begin to work
in Christians, so that the wicked, disobedient persons of the world may be
restrained and punished. Since they will not fear and love God like Christians
and believers, they are obliged to fear eternal fire, perdition and other
punishments. Others, however, will be taught by it from what they have fallen
and how sorely and fully they have inherited sin.
15.
For when I compare my life with the Law I see and experience always the contrary
of what the Law enjoins. I shall entrust to God my body and soul, and love him
with my whole heart; yet, I would rather have a dollar in my chest than ten
gods in my heart, and I am happier when I know how to make ten dollars, than
when I hear the whole Gospel. Let a prince give a person a castle or several
thousand dollars, what a jumping and rejoicing it creates! On the other hand,
let a person be baptized or receive the communion which is a heavenly, eternal
treasure, there is not one-tenth as much rejoicing. Thus we are by nature;
there is none who so heartily rejoices over God’s gifts and grace as over money
and earthly possessions; what does that mean but that we do not love God as we
ought? For if we trusted and loved him, we would rejoice more that he gave us
the sense of sight than if we possessed the whole world. And the word of
consolation he speaks to me through the Gospel ought to give me higher joy than
the favor, money, wealth and honor of the whole world. But that it is not so
and ten thousand dollars can make people happier than all the grace and
possessions of God, proves what kind of fruit we are, and what a distressing
and horrible fall it is in which we lie. And yet we would not see nor realize
it, if it were not revealed to us through the Law, and we would have to remain
forever in it and be lost, if we were not again helped out of it through
Christ. Therefore the Law and the Gospel are given to the end that we may learn
to know both how guilty we are and to what we should again return.
16.
This now is the Christian teaching and preaching, which, God be praised, we
know and possess, and it is not necessary at present to develop it further, but
only to offer the admonition that it be maintained in Christendom with all
diligence. For satan has continually attacked it hard and strong from the
beginning until the present, and gladly would he completely extinguish it and
tread it under foot. For he cannot endure that the people continue in it and
conduct themselves uprightly and he seeks a hundred thousand arts and wiles
only to crush it. Therefore I so gladly preach it, as it is greatly needed; for
until the present it has never been heard nor known in the Papacy.
17.
For I myself was a learned doctor of theology and yet I never understood the
ten commandments rightly. Yea, there were many highly celebrated doctors who
did not know whether there were nine, ten or eleven commandments, and much less
did we know the Gospel and Christ.
But
the only thing that was taught and advocated was: Invoke the Virgin Mary and
other saints as your mediators and intercessors; fast often and pray much; make
pilgrimages, enter cloisters and become monks, or pay for the saying of many
masses and like works. And thus we imagined when we did these things we had merited
heaven.
18.
That was the time of blindness when we knew nothing of God’s Word, but led
ourselves and others into misery by our own idle talk and dreams.
And I
was one of those who indeed bathed in this sweat or in this bath of anxiety.
Therefore let us give heed that we may thoroughly grasp and retain this
doctrine, if other fanatics and false spirits wish to attack it, so that we may
be fore-armed and learn, while we have the time and the beloved sun again
enlightens us, and buy while the market is at our door.
For it
will come to this when once these lights, which God now gives, have departed,
satan will not take a furlough until he raises up other fanatical spirits to do
harm; as he has already commenced to do in many places during our generation.
What will take place after we are gone?
19.
Therefore learn, who can learn, and learn well, so that we may know, first the
ten commandments, what we owe to God. For if we do not know this, then we know
nothing and we will not inquire about Christ in the least. Just like we monks
did who either held Christ to be an angry judge or despised him entirely in the
face of our imaginary holiness. We fancied we were not in sin, which the ten
commandments show and punish; but we had the natural light of reason and free
will, and if we lived according to that, as much as we were able, then God
would have to bestow upon us his grace, etc. But now, if we are to know Christ
as our helper and Savior, then we must first know, out of what he can help us,
not out of fire or water, or other bodily need and danger, but out of sin and
the hatred of God. But whence do I know that I lie drowned in misery? From no
other source than from the Law, that must show me what my loss and disease are,
or I will never inquire for the physician and his help.
20.
Thus we have both parts of the help of Christ: the one, that he must represent
us over against God and be a cloak to cover our shame, as the one who takes
upon himself our sins and disgrace; a cloak, I say, for us, as the one who takes
our sins and shame upon himself, but before God a throne of grace in whom there
is no sin or shame; but only virtue and honor. And like a hen he spreads out
his wings against the buzzard, the devil with his sin and death, so that God
for his sake forgives all, and to us he can do no harm. But on the condition
that you only remain under these wings. For while you are under his mantle and
protection and do not come out from under it, sin that is still in you must not
be sin for the sake of him who covers you with his righteousness.
21.
Then in the second place Christ does not only thus cover and protect us, but he
will also nourish and feed us as the hen does her little chickens, that is, he
gives us the Holy Spirit and strength, to begin to love God and to keep his
commandments. And this shall continue to the last day when faith and this cloak
of shame will cease, so that we will behold the Father without any medium or
covering, and we ourselves stand before him, and there will be no longer any
sin in us to be forgiven; but all will be again restored and brought back or
perfected, as St. Paul says in Acts 3:21, purified and perfect, what satan from
the beginning disturbed and ruined.
22.
Now Christ wishes to teach this by his answer and the question, with which he
in reply upbraided the Pharisees. As if he should say, you know nothing more
than to speak of the Law, which teaches you that you should love God and your
neighbor and yet you do not understand it; for you imagine you have fulfilled
it, though you are still far from doing so. Just like the one in Matthew
19:20-21, who boasts he had kept all the commandments from his youth; but
Christ says to him: “If thou wouldst be perfect, go sell that which thou hast,
and give to the poor.” This is as much as to say: Whoever will love God aright
and keep his commandments, must be able to sacrifice his possessions, body and
life. Therefore another thing is necessary, Christ will say, for you to know,
namely, that you know and possess the man called Christ, who helps us to the
end that this doctrine of the Law may be established and perfected in you.
23.
But what does it mean to know Christ aright? This the Pharisees and scribes do
not know; for they do not consider him more than David’s son, that is, he who
is to sit on David’s throne (as born from his flesh and blood) and is lord and
king, also greater and mightier than David was, and yet only to be a temporal
ruler to make his people the lords of the world and bring all heathen under his
rule, etc. But that they should need him in their lost state, to help them out
of sin and death, of that they knew nothing. Therefore the Holy Spirit must
teach that he was not only David’s son, but also God’s Son, as was taught after
his resurrection.
24.
Now here Christ does not explain this, but he only broaches that David in
<19B001> Psalm 110:1, called Christ his Lord: “How then,” he says, “doth
David in the Spirit call him Lord?” It does not sound right and it is against
nature for a father to call his son lord, and to be subject to him and serve
him. Now David calls Christ his Lord, and a Lord, to whom Jehovah himself says:
“Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool,” that is,
be like me, acknowledge and worshipped as the right and true God; for it becometh
none other to sit at his right hand; he is indeed so jealous that he allows no
one aside from himself to sit equal to him, as he says in the prophesy of
Isaiah 48:11, “My glory will I not give to another.” Since Jehovah now places
Christ equal with himself, he must be more than all creatures. Therefore he
proposes to them a great question, but lets them thus stick; for they did not
understand it and it was not yet the time to make this known public. But the
meaning is as our articles of faith teach us to believe; that Christ was both
David’s true natural son of his blood and flesh and also David’s Lord, whom
David himself must worship and hold as God. However it was impossible to make
these statements harmonize, as it is still impossible for human reason, where
the Holy Spirit does not reveal it, how the two should be at the same time in
the one Christ, both that he was truly David’s seed and God’s Son by nature.
25.
Now Christ propounded this question to teach it is not enough to have the Law
which is the only thing that shows from what state we have fallen; but whoever
will return again to it and become renewed, that Christ must do through a
knowledge of him, who is indeed born of David and is his flesh and blood, but
not born in sin, as David and all men are born, but had to be born without man
of a drop of the pure blood of a virgin, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, that he
was born a real and true man without any sin.
26. He
is the only man that has been able to keep and fulfill the Law; like all other
men by nature, and yet not in the same guilt, but reared without sin and God’s
wrath. This one had to intercede in our behalf before God and be our right hand
and protection, be to us what the hen is to her little chickens, in whom we
have forgiveness of sins and deliverance from God’s anger and hell. And not
only this, but he also gives us the Holy Ghost to follow him, and here begins
to extinguish and slay sin, until we come to him and be like him without any
sin and in perfect righteousness; for he was raised from the dead to the right
hand of the Father to totally abolish sin, death and hell and bring us to the
new eternal righteousness and eternal life. Amen.
End of Martin Luther’s second sermon, Lenker edition.
