“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Perhaps you have heard that sentiment before. The purpose of such sentiments is to get us to look at our lives, to see how we might be better people and perhaps even better Christians. It is a nice sentiment. I hope what you noticed about such a sentiment, as well as similar sentiments, it is a law statement. We know it is law, because it is asking us to do something. I could add other sentimental statements, or pious platitudes such as, “If you knew you were going to die in a month would you do anything different?” and of course I would have to follow that up with the law question, “Then why aren’t you?” The sentiment and the result are the same. The fact of the matter is, and this should not be a surprise to hear, we are conceived and born in sin, every inclination of our heart is evil all the time, we are continually at odds with our Lord and if we seriously and honestly looked at our lives we would be able to see how true this is. Thanks be to God that our Lord continues to be our Lord and continues to give us His many good gifts and blessings. Our Lord continues to be a gracious God as we see in our text.
Getting to our text, our Lord gives us the whole lot, both the law and the gospel. Verse one reads, “1Thus says the Lord: ‘Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed’” (v. 1). Our Lord begins by giving us the law, telling us that we are to maintain justice and do what is right. As sinners in a sin filled world we realize that for us to attempt to do this by ourselves is an impossibility. The Lord knows that this is a task we cannot perform which is why He does not stop with this command, but continues with the second part of the verse, giving us His gospel message.
Our Lord presents us with the Gospel by telling us, “for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.” Keeping this statement in its context we realize that this statement is being made to the children of Israel and that this is the promise that the Messiah will come to save them. The Lord’s salvation is the Messiah, namely Jesus Christ. This statement is not meant just for the Israelites, it is meant for us today. We have seen the salvation of the Lord. We have seen His righteousness, but we continue to look forward to His second revelation, when the Messiah will return on the last day to take us to be with Himself in heaven.
Our text picks up at verse six with the Lord including foreigners in His covenant. We read, “6‘And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— 7these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 8The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered’” (v. 6-8). This is good news for us because we are the foreigners. We are the foreigners who will serve Him, who will love the name of the LORD, who will keep the Sabbath, who will hold fast to His covenant. We will do these things, not in and of ourselves, but because the Lord will work these good works in us. We will do these things, not to earn our salvation, but as a response of active obedience for our salvation which He has earned for us.
And because He works these good works in us He will bring us to His holy mountain and give us joy in His house of prayer. He will make our burnt offerings and sacrifices acceptable on His altar, in other words He will make our good works acceptable to Himself. He will gather still others besides us meaning that those who are included in His covenant will be a great number.
So we get to the question we ask about every text, what does this mean? What does this mean to us as a church, as a congregation? What does this mean to me personally? This means that we continually remind ourselves of what God has done; what we cannot do; what God works in and through us; and what we gain.
We remember what God has done. Obviously to remember all that God has done would take several days, even years. With that said, it is important to remember what God has done. What He has done here at St. Matthew Lutheran church as a congregation as well as what He has done in our own lives. As a congregation He granted that people got together and saw the need to begin a Christian church. He has granted our church over 100 years even 117 years of being a church. He has granted us a place to worship as well as the continued freedom to worship. We are especially thankful as we are reminded that He has given us both the talents and abilities as well as the means to continue to be His church and his people in this place. He has given us this building in which we worship Him in divine service. Personally we remember and are ever so thankful that He has given us our very lives, at conception. He has given us new life through our baptism which we daily remember and through which we are daily strengthened. We remember that He gives us His Holy Precious Word as well as His true body and blood in His Holy Supper. We remember that He gives us the greatest and most wonderful gift of forgiveness as we confess our sins and hear His most precious words of forgiveness. His Word reminds us of all the prophecies which He has given and how Jesus fulfilled all those prophecies.
As I sat down thinking about what God has done for us I began to think about Dr. Martin Luther’s explanations to the articles of the Apostles’ Creed. Immediately I began type out his words, then I thought, maybe I should not take so much from Dr. Luther and I almost erased what I had typed. Then I thought a second time. Why not use Dr. Luther’s words? When I am through preaching you will go home and maybe, just maybe, you will say to yourself, what were those words Pastor Bogs was saying that said how much God has done for me. Then I thought, if I give you Dr. Luther’s words you can go home and if you have them memorized or if you remember them from your own conformation, or of you have forgotten them, then you look them up in your catechism and constantly be reminded of all that God has done for you.
With that in mind let us listen to Dr. Luther’s words as he reminds us so well what God has done for us in His explanations to the first and second article of the Apostles’ Creed. He says, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.”
We remember what God has done, but we also remember what we cannot do. Again, Dr. Martin Luther said it so well in his explanation to the third article of the Apostles’ Creed when he said, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason our strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.”
In and of ourselves we can do no good thing. In and of ourselves we can only do the evil that is born in us. We cannot keep God’s Word. We cannot keep His commandments. We cannot do all the things that He would have us to do. We cannot even respond to all the good things that He has done and continues to do for us. As a matter of fact, apart from our Lord all we can do is rebel against Him as His enemies and we do this on a daily basis, breaking not one or two, but all the commandments.
Knowing that we can do no good thing in and of ourselves we are moved to remember what God works in and through us. It is God who works a renewing of our faith. It is God who works a renewing of our commitment to being in the Word. It is God who works in us the response to come to His House of worship. It is God who works in us a response to make regular and diligent use of His means of grace, those means through which He comes to give us the good gifts and blessings He has to give to us. Any and all good works that we do we do because it is God working in and through us.
When we stop and think about it, it is rather amazing and to use the language from God’s Word, it is rather a mystery. None of us was here when this congregation began. Soon we will pass away and yet this congregation will continue on. This is not our church. This is not our congregation. As a matter of fact, if you look at the history of this congregation, it has gone through some tough times, mostly because of the attacks of Satan, working through those who have tried to undo what God has done. That the devil is working so hard might give us a little confidence that we are doing something right, because you know the devil is not going to waste his time on something he already has.
Because God works good works in and through us, we gain all the gifts which He has promised to us. Because of God’s good works, namely because of His work of sending His only Son, Jesus Christ, to live for us, living perfectly as we cannot, and then taking our sins upon Himself and paying the price for our sins, by shedding His holy precious blood, because of Jesus, we gain eternal life with Him in heaven.
“1Thus says the Lord: ‘Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed’” (56:1). With the help of the Holy Spirit we respond by working to maintain justice and doing what is right. We respond, with His help to be the people He would have us to be in this place. And with the help of the Holy Spirit we pray that in this place God’s Word may continue to be proclaimed in all its truth and purity. We pray that the Holy Spirit may use us as His congregation for the extending of His kingdom, for the strengthening of His people and for the praise and glory of His Holy Name. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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