Daily Lutheran Sermon Quote - "We Must Look into the Heart of Lazarus Also, And Seek the Treasure Which Made His Sores So Precious. That Was Surely His Faith and Love."

 

Link to Complete Sermon - First Sunday after Trinity, Luke 16:19-31. Examples of Unbelief and Faith. The Rich Man and Lazarus.

PART II. POOR LAZARUS.

12. Likewise we must not judge poor Lazarus in his sores, poverty and anxiety, according to his outward appearance. For many persons suffer from affliction and want, and yet they gain nothing by it; for example King Herod suffered a great affliction, as is related in Acts 12:23; but afterwards he did not have it better before God on account of it. Poverty and suffering make no one acceptable to God; but, whoever is first acceptable to God, his poverty and suffering are precious in the eyes of God, as Psalm 116:15 says: “Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints.”

13. Thus we must look into the heart of Lazarus also, and seek the treasure which made his sores so precious. That was surely his faith and love; for without faith it is impossible to please God, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, Hebrews 11:6. Therefore his heart also must have confessed that he even in the midst of such poverty and misery expected all good from God, and comfortably relied upon him; with whose blessings and grace he was so richly satisfied, and had such pleasure in them, that he would have heartily and willingly suffered even more misery, if the will of his gracious God had so determined. See, that is a true, living faith, which softened his heart by the knowledge of the divine goodness; so that nothing was too heavy or too much to suffer and to do. So clever and skillful does faith make the heart, when it experiences the grace of God.

14. From this faith follows now another virtue, namely, love to one’s neighbor, so that he is willing and ready to serve everybody; but since Lazarus is poor and in misery himself, he had nothing with which he could serve others; therefore his good will is taken for the deed.

15. But this lack of service in temporal things he abundantly makes good by his services in things spiritual. For even now, long after his death, he serves the whole world with his sores, hunger and misery. His bodily hunger feeds our spiritual hunger; his bodily nakedness clothes (or feeds, as some editions read) our spiritual nakedness; his bodily sores heal our spiritual sores; in this way he teaches and comforts by his example, how God is pleased with us, when we are not prosperous here upon the earth, if we believe; and warns us how God is angry with us, even if we are prosperous in our unbelief; just as God had pleasure in Lazarus in his misery, and was displeased with the rich man.

16. Tell me, what king could have rendered a service to the whole world with his possessions, like poor Lazarus has done with his sores, hunger and poverty? Oh, the wonderful works and judgments of God! In what a masterly manner he puts to shame the cunning goddess and fool of this world, namely, reason and worldly wisdom! She stalks abroad and fixes her eyes rather upon the beautiful purple of the rich man, than upon the wounds of poor Lazarus; she would rather center her eyes upon a healthy, handsome person, as this rich man was, than upon a revolting and naked person like Lazarus; yea, she holds her nose before the stench of his wounds and turns her eyes from his nakedness. Thus the great goddess and fool of this world overlooks God in the very presence of such a noble treasure, and always quietly passes her own judgment, and at the same time makes this poor person so precious and dear, that all the kings hence are not worthy to serve him or to dress his sores. For what king, do you think, would not now with his whole heart exchange his health, purple and crown for the sores, poverty and misery of poor Lazarus, if it were possible for him to do so? And what person is there who would now give a snuff for the purple and all the riches of this rich man?

The Lutheran Church No Longer Exists in North America. Jump on Rome's Bandwagon - Charon's Ferryboat

 

I was thinking about how many Lutheran clergy have swooned and 

1. Joined the Church of Rome as priests
2. Tried their best or worst to copy the sacrilege of the Mass
3. Spent their money on robes, hats, and vaping incense
4. Disparaged the Biblical teaching of Luther while calling themselves orthodox and confessional
5. Venerated the Virgin Mother rather than the Son, mocked the Bible while assuming papal inerrancy.

The quickly fading Lutheran Forum letter wiped its dirty footprints on my mailbox this week. Inside was an article about the former editor of the little newsletter, Leonard R. Klein, who became a Catholic priest under the watchful eye of Father Richard J. Neuhaus (LCMS, AELC, ELCA, Rome).

Neuhaus was guided into Rome by Avery Dulles, SJ, though it started at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Dulles was famous for his converts and Neuhaus joined the proselyte glee club.

We liked James Crumley, who was secretary to the LCA, then Synod President, then Bishop. Unfortunately, he pushed the boundaries by lining up with the Vatican.

Christina and I met Leonard Klein and his wife at Ad Fontes, where we also spoke with Neuhaus and LCA President James Crumley. The title of the conference was no doubt aimed at the Roman trend in the LCA. Crumley supported playing footsie with the Pope while being disturbed at losing Neuhaus, who became a priest soon after the event. Klein also became a priest and he was allowed to stay married (dabbing my eyes) to Christa, PhD.

I find it disturbing that a Lutheran newsletter would promote an ex-Lutheran Roman Catholic priest's book of sermons, lavishing praise on Klein as a priest and as an ideal preacher. 

The Hypocritical Trend

The cool Lutheran pastors (LCMS-ELCA-ELS-ELDONA) do everything they can to copy Romanism, which is clearly against the Book of Concord, yet they call themselves "confessional Lutherans." That entire group of apostates joins WELS in repudiating the Chief Article, Justification by Faith, and the tradition Bible known for its precision and accuracy - the King James Version.

I doubt ELDONA's sincerity in previously switching to Justification by Faith when they have started to split already from Heiser's long-felt addiction to Rome.

ELDONA Denied That Their Baylor Alumnus Studied at a Babtist School.Baylor Says Otherwise, Although They Spelled Babtist Wrong

Transformation Takes Time

The revised charter retained Baylor’s official relationship with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and stipulated that the president and all members of the board of regents would be Baptists. The university would continue to be operated according to the “the aims and ideals of Baptists, which included the Baptist Faith and Message Statement of 1963” — a statement of faith that was later amended in 1998 and 2000 by conservatives. Bylaws were revised, providing for the Texas convention to elect a quarter of the board. 

The Right Reverend Bishop James Heiser was not wearing Roman Catholic finery in those days, and the hay-bail beards were absent or at least trimmed.

Why Luther's Sermons? Why Sermons at All?

 

A number of people have responded to the Daily Luther Sermon Quote. They look forward to it, as much as I do. Here is a little history:

1. I began going through the eight-volume Luther Sermons (Lenker), marking the best quotes, then putting them into Megatron, my DOS database. Christina helped by marking the best quotations with some of her wry comments about synods. Typing the quotes in and correcting them made me much more familiar with Luther.
2. Much later, I found a crude set of those sermons published on the Internet, so I copied them into Ichabod.
3. When the synods began to mock the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, I decided to put the Lenker edition into print. I had a lot of help with editing and graphics (Norma A. Boeckler, artwork; Virginia Roberts, editing; Terry Howell, editing; and some other helpers).
4. I almost always post the appropriate Luther sermon with the sermon for the week.
5. Luther is a much better writer, so I decided to cull quotations from the sermons, not quips with no citations, but at least a paragraph or two, almost every day.
6. I enjoy reading Luther each morning and using the Norma A. Boeckler artwork plus a few works of classic artists.
7. There are good reasons to know Luther's sermons, which a Roman Catholic nun praised when we were in the same program at Notre Dame, almost 50 years ago. "How can a man from 500 years ago speak to me - a nun -today?" I answered, "Because he is explained the Word of God, which never changes."

The great Karl Barth and his Marxist cupcake.

"I am not a cupcake. I am the main writer for this bum's systematics. His work will stop when I die." And it did! And he finally dedicated a volume to his wife, what's her name. Nelly, I think.

Deadly Systematics

Systematics are a deadly disease, going back to Augustine, a real windbag. It got worse with Aquinas, who did his best to re-invent Aristotle.

The German Reformation did not produce systematics, but the Zwingli-Calvinists did their best to crank them out. Unfortunately, the post-Reformation Lutherans fell into that style in answering the Zwingli-Calvinists, which led into an attitude of sacred awe toward anyone who produced a set. After Chemnitz and Gerhard, who were not dogmaticians, there is not much to enjoy. I suppose that is why Walther picked Baier as his back-up, because it was much farther from Luther. Does anyone study Baier today? Walther was not only a criminal leader of a cult, but also a prolific theological tyrant, kidnapper, and grand larceny thief. 

Knapp's  Calvinist-Pietist translator thought up the two justifications - objective and subjective - and Walther liked them, one heretic following another.

Always look for the crooked smile. The camera does not lie, but synod leaders do. David Preus was the most malleable Preus and also lived the longest of the three - David, Jack, and Robert.

Walther, the control freak, made sure that Pieper took over after him.

Walther plucked Francis Pieper from the Wisconsin Synod, which began its work in Lutheran-Calvinism, a fact unknown to Spineless Schroeder today. Pieper cleverly merged Walther's bombastic fantasies with Lutheran terminology.

Dogmatics became popular in the 20th century, because some academics wanted to merge Christian vocabulary with their invented philosophies. Karl Barth was a Marxist who installed his young female assistant in his own home, though he was married with children. Paul Tillich was a seriously disturbed philosopher who used his students' wives and anyone else available, as described by his wife. 

Two Courtesans and the Evangelist

For the sake of simplicity, out of an abundance of editing, I place the Church into three categories.

1. Rome with tag-along Eastern Orthodoxy
2. Calvinism and its rationalistic baggage
3. Luther

Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy have seduced the entire Protestant world (especially the so-called Lutherans) into their corporate structure. If the Lutheran synods would examine themselves, they would agree that everything they do in their organizational structure, false doctrine, and criminal abuse is learned from Rome.

Calvinist is the simplest way to describe the rationalists who use the terms but do not believe the meaning of those words. Their "Easter faith of the disciples" means that the Apostles imagined Jesus rose from the dead, so the Twelve promoted faith as something never experienced, except in their hearts. Calvinism is an all-purpose courtesan that goes well with Marxist activism and Peter Drucker sales mechanics. All the modern Bibles - especially the Beck Bible - are Calvinist. Deal with it. Their answer to - You don't agree with Evolution and deny Creation, do you? - is YES!

Luther

Martin Luther is the label for those pastors and laity who make the Scriptures their foundation for faith and salvation. The Reformation swept over German and Europe on the strength of Biblical exposition, simply teaching the Bible. That was accomplished by Luther, his circle of Scriptural scholars, and the next generation or two.

Those who agree with Luther's teaching belong to the work of the Holy Spirit in the Word and Sacraments. They ex-communicate with those who play kissy-face with Rome, rationalism, and other spiritual maladies.

Daily Lutheran Sermon Quote - "So We See Now in the Example of the Rich Man That It Is impossible To Love, Where No Faith Exists."

Link to Complete Sermon - First Sunday after Trinity, Luke 16:19-31. Examples of Unbelief and Faith. The Rich Man and Lazarus.

9. But the nature of unbelief is that it does not expect any good from God. By which unbelief the heart is blinded so that it neither feels nor knows how good and gracious God is; but as Psalm 14:2 says: he cares not for God, seeks not after him. Out of this blindness follows further that his heart becomes so hard, obdurate and unmerciful that he has no desire to do a kindness to his fellow man; yea, he would rather harm and offend everybody. For as he is insensible to the goodness of God, so he takes no pleasure in doing good to his neighbor. Consequently it follows that he does not look after the sick, poor and despised people, to whom he could and should be helpful and profitable; but he casts his eyes upward and sees only the high, rich and influential, from whom he himself may receive advantage, gain, pleasure and honor.

10. So we see now in the example of the rich man that it is impossible to love, where no faith exists, and impossible to believe, where there is no love; for both will and must be together, so that a believer loves everybody and serves everybody; but an unbeliever at heart is an enemy of everybody and wishes to be served by every person and yet he covers all such horrible, perverted sins with the little show of his hypocritical works as with a sheep’s skin; just as that large bird, the ostrich, which is so stupid that when it sticks its head into a bush, it thinks its entire body is concealed. Yea, here you see that there is nothing blinder and more unmerciful than unbelief. For here the dogs, the most irascible animals, are more merciful to poor Lazarus than this rich man, and they recognize the need of the poor man and lick his sores; while the obdurate, blinded hypocrite is so hard hearted that he does not wish him to have the crumbs that fell from his table.

11. Now all unbelieving people are like this rich hypocrite. Unbelief cannot do nor be different than this rich man is pictured and set forth by his life.

And especially is this the character of the clergy-, as we see before our eyes, who never do a truly good work, but only seek a good time, never serving nor profiting any one; but reversing the order they want everybody to serve them. Like harpies they only claw everything into their own pockets; and like the old adage runs they “rob the poor of his purse.” They are not moved in the least by the poverty of others. And although some have not expensive food and raiment, yet they do not lack will power and the spirit of action; for they imitate the rich, the princes and the lords, and do many hypocritically good works by founding institutions and building churches, with which they conceal the great rogue, the wolf of unbelief; so that they become obdurate and hardened and are of no use to anybody.

These are the rich man.