Ash Wednesday, 2014
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The Hymn #552 Abide with Me 2.11
The Order of Vespers p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 1 p. 123
The Lection Joel 2:12-19
Matthew 6:16-2
The Sermon Hymn # 17 O Worship the King 2.44
The Sermon – Gospel of Faith
The Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
The Collect for Grace p. 45
The Hymn # 429 Lord, Thee I Love 2.54
KJV Joel 2:12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: 16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? 18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people. 19 Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:
KJV Matthew 6:16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Collect
Lord God, heavenly Father, who didst manifest Thyself, with the Holy Ghost, in the fullness of grace at the baptism of Thy dear Son, and with Thy voice didst direct us to Him who hath borne our sins, that we might receive grace and the remission of sins: Keep us, we beseech Thee, in the true faith; and inasmuch as we have been baptized in accordance with Thy command, and the example of Thy dear Son, we pray Thee to strengthen our faith by Thy Holy Spirit, and lead us to everlasting life and salvation, through Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
Gospel of Faith
KJV Matthew 6:16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
I was discussing the righteousness of faith with someone on Facebook. We were writing about the disappearance of Romans 4:25 as "proof" that the world was absolved without faith on Easter.
UOJ pastors would write this claim and add - "He was raised for our justification. Romans 4:25."
Since the complete sentence includes, "If we believe that Jesus was raised from the dead" in Romans 4:24, that claim was wrecked by the immediate context. Moreover, the argument of Romans 4 is entirely about justification by faith.
The next frontier is "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." That is described so extensively in the Luther Galatians Commentary that I am surprised it is mentioned as UOJ proof. Later I will develop more about that.
Here we have Jesus speaking about the difference between justification by faith and justification by works. There are two and only two possibilities.
Whoever argues against justification by faith is advocating justification by works, no matter what he may do to crabwalk away from that conclusion.
All religions are based upon, works, except for the Christian Faith. All religions talk about what man does for God, but Christianity teaches what God gives to man.
Thus, the distinction between the Gospel of faith, taught by Jesus, and the Gospel of works, which He discussed in the behavior of the Pharisees.
Although He was discussing Pharisees the way they were, the description applies to all the great, wise, and holy today who have no faith. Luther had no problems ascribing the same description to most admired of his day.
I have noticed with photos of perpetual alcoholics, like the ELCA bishop who ran down the woman with his car, DUI, they try to look sober. I checked his photos on the Net and he was always trying hard to be the opposite of what he was - pickled.
People without faith, in religious roles, assume an attitude of great piety, and that has always struck me as funny. How would we know that these people are fasting? They have to show us, and so they receive their reward in the regard of fellow unbelievers.
I observed a Pentecostal show, where the minister did such things as weeping on command. He caught my gimlet eye and knew immediately that I was on to him. After the service, as we were leaving, he gave me the handshake that pushes out the door, somewhat like crack the whip.
But this is especially true of those who spend their lives teaching against the Christian Faith while achieving maximum benefits from the religion they despise. This is true of the vast majority of denominational leaders and their spokesmen in the seminaries, not unlike the Medieval Church where the pope and all the great theologians were anti-Christian but super-pious on the outside.
They have their reward in this world but not the next. As I have said many times, I know what they do to ordinary clergy, especially the faithful ones, which is criminal.
It hard to understand how this can go on much longer, because the most obvious signs of anti-Christianity are abundant among the celebrity leaders, such as open adultery (Benny Hinn) and gay advocacy (Andy Stanley and many other Shrinkers).
17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
Or - "you have as much laughter as you have faith," as Luther wrote. There is a vast gulf between knowing that God forgives graciously and thinking that one must put on a show to prove something.
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Lay up treasures in heaven - This is a great play on words, because people stored treasure and hid treasure in the ancient world - and even recently. One couple claims to have found $10 million worth of gold coins hidden underground, I believe in their yard. The dog dug it up.
When people feared invasion or went on long trips, they buried treasure in a field. Often it was not dug up by the owner and became a big surprise for later residents.
Treasure is hidden away because of fears of theft.
The Lutheran Reformation recognized that the Gospel is our treasure. The Book of Concord is full of references to this treasure. Luther used the term, too. The atonement of Christ is the great treasure, but it does us no good in a heap. So the Holy Spirit distributes it through the Means of Grace.
This is such a beautiful contrast between that treasure that does not last and gathering the treasure that does last.
No one is exempt from this. Many a minister has handled the Gospel in such a way and to insure his own security and luxury. He finds a way to compromise to keep things the way they are and not have the apostates take them away. They are so happy to enroll another member of their union, to see how fear can silence someone without any real threat being made. An implied threat is so much better. Saber rattling is effective when the wrong treasure is guarded.
But when we gather around the Means of Grace, God increases our blessings and our faith.
