Luther's Galatians Commentary

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The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2014.

The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2014

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Daylight 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 

Better Than All the Books

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 Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

KJV Luke 17:11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. 19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

Fourteenth Sunday After Trinity

Lord God, heavenly Father, who by Thy blessed word and Thy holy baptism hast mercifully cleansed all who believe from the fearful leprosy of sin, and daily dost grant us Thy gracious help in all our need: We beseech Thee so to enlighten our hearts by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may never forget these Thy blessings, but ever live in Thy fear, and, trusting fully in Thy grace, with thankful hearts continually praise and glorify Thee; through Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

Rest in Peace, Gary Meyer

We are often reminded that we do not having an abiding city on earth. God has called from our midst Gary Meyer, Alicia's husband, who died peacefully at his home this week. The family will have a private commitment ceremony.

Better Than All the Books

KJV Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

This is a good lesson for expounding on Luther's statement in the graphic above.

"The Holy Spirit teaches man better than all the books; He teaches him to understand the Scriptures better than he can understand them from the teaching of any other; and of his own accord he does everything God wills he should, so the Law dare make no demands upon him."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 280. Pentecost Sunday John 14:23-31. 

This statement, closely related to Paul's, is built on the Biblical foundation of the Spirit always working through the Word and never apart from the Word. In short, when the Bible speaks of the Spirit, the Word can be used in its place. And the Word is the instrument of the Spirit, so it stands for God's work - at all times.

Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk according to the Word of God, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (paraphrase)

Most of the year I teach non-Lutherans in the classrooms and non-Lutherans in the Lutheran synods. The Baptists and Pentecostals get this basic doctrine, but the Lutherans leaders do not.

There are many ways this is expressed in the classroom. I do not choose the textbook and I have a low opinion of textbooks in general. They are Wikipedia without the name. A student is shocked by some claim by the textbook about the Bible. I have to tell them, "It is only a textbook. Someone's opinion. What does the Bible say? That is the only book God ever published."

Paul contrasts the Spirit and the flesh, the Gospel and Law, works and faith. Human flesh teaches works and remains in unbelief. When man teaches salvation by religious Law, it is only a variation of salvation by works. Man feels secure in the Law, the flesh, and works. The Gospel is freedom and it is giddy for some, who go back to the old ways.

Paul had to admonish the Galatians not to desert the Gospel. so we have the finest short epistle on justification by faith - and the best Biblical commentary, Luther's Galatians Commentary. In short, we do not need to study salvation by works much, because it comes to us naturally and it returns when we neglect the Gospel.

However, we do need to study justification by faith and all it involves through the work of the Holy Spirit in the Word.

Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 

This is why we must study the Word - because the Holy Spirit teaches us better than all the books. Our sinful flesh has an evil desire against the Word of God, and the Word of God battles against the flesh. They are and must remain opposed to each other. The Spirit keeps us from following the desires of the flesh.

This is also important to keep in mind because of authority. The truth is revealed plainly in the Word of God. No one can place his authority above the Word, and yet everyone can be taught by the Word.

When a pastor says, "I am the pastor. I am highly trained. I studied Greek. You must submit to me," he is denying what the Word teaches. No man and no institution has the authority to provide a special meaning to the Word that is alien to the Scriptures. 

Nothing speaks to the spirit of this age more than political rallies where various factions squabble and vote on the meaning of the Bible. The most ridiculous came when ELCA almost eliminated Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from its constitution. There was a big effort to restore the Trinitarian name to the constitution since various synonyms were being used for the feminist agenda or even for Unitarianism. The Trinity won by only a few votes and was restored. Does that mean anything, when a vote is divided  almost 50/50? No. In fact, voting on such things is ludicrous and disgusting, but it continues on a regular basis in the Olde Synodical Conference. 

Does anyone notice that Vatican doctrine is derived the same way? There was no official Immaculate Conception of Mary until various lobbies got it "determined" and expounded by the Pope himself, who said he did not need the dogma of infallibility since he already proved it by declaring Mary Immaculate.

A convention does not make a particular belief or program Biblical, even by majority vote. The popularity of a pastor does not make him right, nor does unpopularity make him wrong. Paul was probably quite irritating in many ways, and he certainly could cause trouble just by preaching. The question was, as he discussed in 2 Corinthians - was he faithful to the Word?

The laity have not had their authority to read the Bible taken away from them. They have surrendered it to the clergy, contrary to a proper reading of the Word.

Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 

Paul's list of the works of the flesh are a plain description of what we are like without faith, without the Gospel. Man teaches that favorite sins are perfectly acceptable, and they excuse them. These sins vary with each person. Therefore, the preaching of the Law is not preaching against unbelief, but preaching against a safe sin which they cannot be accused of promoting - the sin of disagreeing with the synod, the sin of not doing enough, the sin of skipping meetings, the sin of being against diversity or global warming,etc. It depends.

Real Law preaching starts with John 16:8f. - to convict the world of unbelief, because they do not utterly trust in Me.

Martin Chemnitz quoted the early Church Fathers, who put away all their creeds and paraded the Scriptures in front of theological conferences, setting aside all human authorities to return to where the source was pure  - the Word of God.

That is why the Bible teaches better than all of man's books. So I am putting together a book on the Trinity. People have said the Trinity was invented 500 AD or so. I can name many important books that say this. The modern founder of UOJ, Knapp, thought so too. 

But this little book will show what the Bible says about the Trinity, with artwork from Norma Boeckler. It will be better than any book on the Trinity, even better than Augustine's massive and important study of the doctrine.

Nothing is simpler or plainer than the Word of God, and nothing else has the divine power of the Word.

You would think that the Word of God gets its divine power from Fuller Seminary, or Willowcreek, or from statistics and studies and graphs and demographics. The Shrinkers who get drunk on shrinking the true Church. 

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

The Law can lead us to Christ, but the Law bears no fruit. Mankind loves the works of the flesh. The media focus on these all the time. But the Spirit alone (the Gospel alone) - or faith in Christ alone - bears fruit, the nine-fold fruits which come from God, not from us. 

Luther - Galatians Commentary -

The Apostle does not speak of the works of the Spirit as he spoke of the works of the flesh, but he attaches to these Christian virtues a better name. He calls them the fruits of the Spirit. 

LOVE 

It would have been enough to mention only the single fruit of love, for love embraces all the fruits of the Spirit. In I Corinthians 13, Paul attributes to love all the fruits of the Spirit: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind," etc. Here he lets love stand by itself among other fruits of the Spirit to remind the Christians to love one another, "in honor preferring one another," to esteem others more than themselves because they have Christ and the Holy Ghost within them. 

JOY 

Joy means sweet thoughts of Christ , melodious hymns and psalms, praises and thanksgiving, with which Christians instruct, inspire, and refresh themselves . God does not like doubt and dejection. He hates dreary doctrine, gloomy and melancholy thought. God likes cheerful hearts. He did not send His Son to fill us with sadness, but to gladden our hearts. For this reason the prophets , apostles, and Christ Himself urge, yes, command us to rejoice and be glad. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout , O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy king cometh unto thee." (Zech. 9: 9.) In the Psalms we are repeatedly told to be "joyful in the Lord." Paul says: "Rejoice in the Lord always." Christ says: "Rejoice, for your names are written in heaven." 

PEACE 

Peace towards God and men. Christians are to be peaceful and quiet. Not argumentative , not hateful, but thoughtful and patient. There can be no peace without longsuffering, and therefore Paul lists this virtue next. LONGSUFFERING Longsuffering is that quality which enables a person to bear adversity, injury, reproach, and makes them patient to wait for the improvement of those who have done him wrong. When the devil finds that he cannot overcome certain persons by force he tries to overcome them in the long run. He knows that we are weak and cannot stand anything long. Therefore he repeats his temptation time and again until he succeeds. To withstand his continued assaults we must be longsuffering and patiently wait for the devil to get tired of his game. 

GENTLENESS 

Gentleness in conduct and life. True followers of the Gospel must not be sharp and bitter, but gentle, mild, courteous, and soft-spoken, which should encourage others to seek their company. Gentleness can overlook other people's faults and cover them up. Gentleness is always glad to give in to others. Gentleness can get along with forward and difficult persons according to the old pagan saying: " You must know the manners of your friends, but you must not hate them." Such a gentle person was our Savior Jesus Christ, as the Gospel portrays Him. Of Peter it is recorded that he wept whenever he remembered the sweet gentleness of Christ in His daily contact with people. Gentleness is an excellent virtue and very useful in every walk of life. 

GOODNESS 

A person is good when he is willing to help others in their need. 

FAITH 

In listing faith among the fruits of the Spirit, Paul obviously does not mean faith in Christ, but faith in men. Such faith is not suspicious of people but believes the best. Naturally the possessor of such faith will be deceived, but he lets it pass. He is ready to believe all men, but he will not trust all men. Where this virtue is lacking men are suspicious, forward, and wayward and will believe nothing nor yield to anybody. No matter how well a person says or does anything, they will find fault with it, and if you do not humor them you can never please them. It is quite impossible to get along with them. Such faith in people therefore, is quite necessary . What kind of life would this be if one person could not believe another person? 

MEEKNESS 

A person is meek when he is not quick to get angry. Many things occur in daily life to provoke a person's anger, but the Christian gets over his anger by meekness. 

TEMPERANCE 

Christians are to lead sober and chaste lives. They should not be adulterers, fornicators , or sensualists. They should not be quarrelers or drunkards. In the first and second chapters of the Epistle to Titus, the Apostle admonishes bishops, young women, and married folks to be chaste and pure. 

VERSE 23. Against such there is no law. There is a law, of course, but it does not apply to those who bear these fruits of the Spirit. The Law is not given for the righteous man. A true Christian conducts himself in such a way that he does not need any law to warn or to restrain him. He obeys the Law without compulsion. The Law does not concern him. As far as he is concerned there would not have to be any Law. 

VERSE 24. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. True believers are no hypocrites. They crucify the flesh with its evil desires and lusts. Inasmuch as they have not altogether put off the sinful flesh they are inclined to sin. They do not fear or love God as they should. They are likely to be provoked to anger, to envy, to impatience, to carnal lust, and other emotions. But they will not do the things to which the flesh incites them. They crucify the flesh with its evil desires and lusts by fasting and exercise and, above all, by a walk in the Spirit. To resist the flesh in this manner is to nail it to the Cross. Although the flesh is still alive it cannot very well act upon its desires because it is bound and nailed to the Cross.

Martin Luther. Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (Kindle Locations 3121ff). 

Feeding the Birds

I remember the days when I could buy some suet at the grocery store and get some citrus bags for free. When they began selling pre-cut meat, the suet had to come from the bird food supply companies, where one lump is $6 - and the minimal order is $20.

Dime's Meat Store sells suet because they actually cut their own meat. I ordered mesh bags from a supply house to hang the suet. I will put 10 bags around the yard today, hoping this does not make the yard Raccoon Central. The butcher and I exchanged raccoon stories when I got the suet.

Mine was pretty funny, except the varmits ate all the food I was leaving out for bluebirds and the pileated woodpeckers. In Bella Vista we had bird feeding stations all around the house, so pulling up to the house was something like visiting an airport for birds. They were everywhere. Since we lived above a creek, next to oak woods, and had a lawn and bushes, all the ingredients were there for a constant display of bird life. Blue jays built a nest outside our bedroom window, in the bushes, and we watched them hatch, flutter their wings, and learn to fly.

Our dogs were waking up in the wee hours from noise, so I kept a big flashlight near the bed. At 3 AM I saw dimly a raccoon on the window ledge outside, fiddling with the suet basket. I knew how to terrify him, as Sassy growled and moaned on the bed. I got right up to the window and shone the light in his diabolical eyes. He didn't flinch or look away. Instead, with one arm he reached back and unhitched the suet basket, letting the treasure drop to the ground. He followed it down and enjoyed his treat.

Nothing like a pound of suet to purge the system.

My only hope was that he got as sick on that square of suet as he did on the big lump from Dunhill, which he quickly recycled back onto the deck.

In short, suet-eating birds are insect eaters, so suet helps establish and fortify the best possible bird varieties:

• Starlings
• Cardinals
• Woodpeckers
• Blue jays
• Chickadees
• Blue birds
• Juncos
• Nuthatches

Downy Woodpecker - by Norma Boeckler.

These birds do well all winter because God decreed that insects would leave their larvae in bark and hidden in bushes. If there is a sleet storm, their food is hidden beneath ice, and they are really desperate. Otherwise, they enjoy the treats and use them as a small part of their diet.

As I wrote before, there are many gardening aspects to welcoming the birds. They enjoy a combination of trees, bushes, grass, and various plants - with plenty of bathing/drinking stations.
Since I am extending the elevated soaker-hose around the fence, I can have some herbs and tall plants growing in the distant back yard. Siberian sunflowers are an easy option, but I also want some other tall plants for bird cover and feeding, not to mention compost contributions.

A hedge of butterfly bushes will attract...butterflies.
Another interesting addition is the butterfly weed.

My winter garden is comprised of hardy bulbs, soon to arrive, garlic, and spinach. The corn patch is now mulched completely. Our helper asked, "Are we going to put soil on top?" I said, "No, we will pull some mulch aside, plant the corn, and mulch around the plants." In fact, pumpkin vines will mulch the bare spots and pole beans will grow up the corn stalks.

Grass loves sunlight, so a packet of newspapers will begin the rotting process fast. The grass turned black where we stored the mulch until we had time and weather to put in in the back. In some spots, where the grass poked out of the mulch and grew robustly from the rot nearby, I put down a wet layer of newspapers and saved a ton of time trimming.

When neighbors give me newspaper stacks to invest in gardening, I think, "You are giving me pounds of new soil." Their dividends are paid in roses for now. There will be corn and berries next year.

Congregations are increasingly confused about what they should be doing. I just finished an Old Testament survey class where I wrote to a large group of Evangelicals, "We should be singing hymns about God, not about us." A number of participants responded, "We are tired of singing about ourselves. All the modern music is about us, not about God."

God constantly displays the intricacies of His Creation, so we can see how He works, even while we are asleep. The clown princes of Church Growth tell their bedazzled followers, "You need to study statistics. You need to study management. You need to have contemporary worship, so Brunhilda sings her solo and all her relatives come to hear her."

They do not pay attention to the seed growing secretly because they ignore Creation and the Creator in favor of their own imagined cleverness.

Mark 4:26-29 King James Version  

26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

In a rush to redeem the summer, I planted Malabar spinach, and now we eat the tender leaves. I grabbed some half-dead tomato plants from the display at Lowe's, and we have fresh tomatoes. I expertly dug holes for roses, expertly mulched them, and expertly pruned them. After doing almost nothing with roses, I harvest dozens of roses all the time.

Our helper says he worries about the garden - how are we going to deal with the weedy areas. I tell him, "Relax. We have already used bags of mushroom compost - old manure. The weeds are green manure. We will cover them to rot them into the soil - for the earthworms." His children now have a picture book on earthworms.

No, winter is for gardeners, when they dream about the perfect garden
and mentally buy all their supplies - no work, no cost -
the perfect season.