Wisdom and Strength - Third Sunday in Lent - March 3, 2024 - Text: 1 Cor. 1:18-31

There seems to be a war going on in our world today, a war for the minds of people in general and a war for the minds of our children in particular. With the idealism that we want only the best for our children, that we want our children to have it better than we had it, that we really are looking out for what will make for a better future for our children, with such idealism we make some horrendous blunders in the name of education. With a great misunderstanding of wisdom and strength we make great strides toward raising the STAAR scores as well as college entrance exam SAT and ACT scores. We strive to make our children smarter than the children from other countries. More often than not all this striving is striving for human wisdom which our text reminds us is foolishness when compared to God’s wisdom.
 

Paul tells us that of the seeking of signs and wisdom there is no end. We have had sign seekers, of one kind or another, since the beginning of time. We have specially educated people who look into the sky to see what kind of weather we are going to have and when all is said and done their guess is usually no better than yours or mine. As we often joke, the job of a weather man is the only job one can have and be wrong more times than right and still keep his job. We have specially educated (and I say that loosely) people who look into the stars, or into cards, or tea leaves and so on to see what our future will bring. Today we have many sign seekers who want proof. We even have people in our own Christian churches who are seeking for signs as proof that a person is a Christian. We have forgotten what faith really is. Faith based on proof is no faith. But faith that is firmly based on the objective facts of the past and the hope of the future in heaven is true faith.
 

We have sign seekers and we have wisdom seekers. We have people who work for one degree after another thinking that if they just knew enough then they would have it made. And I have to admit that even I like to read, study and learn even more. But it gets worse, shall we say, as we even have people today who have studied so much that they believe they are smarter than the Bible. There are people who believe God’s word has become another book with stories that can be explained in human terms and there is nothing special about it. To these “educated” people, to believe in the so called miracles of the Bible is foolishness and is only for those people who need that as a crutch in their lives.
 

Is it no wonder that the proclamation of Christ crucified is a stumbling block? Why would anyone put their faith in someone who was condemned to die? Heros are not people who die, heros are people who overcome and win out in the end. The good always defeats the evil. Thus, Christ crucified is more than a stumbling block, it is a death trap, an eternal death trap.
 

Not only is Christ crucified a stumbling block, it is also foolishness. How can death be a way to life? It does not make sense to us that someone who is supposed to be our Savior dies. It is not logical that death is a way to life? To the unbeliever this is all foolishness.
 

But to those who are called, to the Christian, to us, it is the power and wisdom of God. No human being can raise another person from the dead, although our doctors and scientists are trying their best. Only the power of God can raise Christ from the dead. What more do we need as proof that Jesus is the Son of God than the witness of all those who saw Him alive after His resurrection.
 

Christ resurrection showed the power of God, but it also shows the wisdom of God to save us from our sins. Remember in the beginning, back at creation, God created the world and everything in it perfect and everything was perfect until Adam and Eve fell into sin. Adam and Eve’s sin separated them and us from God. Physical death is a result of that sin and eternal death and hell is a result without faith in Jesus Christ. But, God in His grace immediately came up with the perfect plan to bring us back into a right relationship with Himself. His plan included the foolishness of the death of His only Son. Yet, even with that promise we continue to be sinners. Our Old Testament lesson for today is the account of the giving of the ten commandments. One quick skimming of those commandments puts us in our place and makes us realize what sinful people we really are. We constantly break our relationship with God by placing our human needs above our Lord, trusting in ourselves instead of relying completely on Him, by cursing and swearing, by neglecting to be in God’s Word, through personal reading of our Bible, through personal and family devotions, by not being in Bible Class as well as by not being in Divine Service every Sunday. We constantly break our relationship with our fellow human beings by being disobedient, not only to our parents, but also to those in authority over us, by killing and if not actual killing, by hurting and harming others through hating, name calling, and the like, through our lusting, through our stealing, through not only our gossiping, but also our listening to gossip, through our discontent and coveting. We break these commandments in thought, word, and in deed. And we break these commandments by doing something we are not supposed to do and by not doing what we are supposed to do.
 

Praise the Lord for the power and wisdom of God. Praise the Lord that His weakness is stronger than our power. We may think we have power, well, after all, we can blow up the earth, but in His power God said, “Let there be” and there was. God alone can create and destroy matter. We human beings can only change the matter which our Lord has created for us.
 

Praise the Lord that His foolishness is wiser than our wisdom. We may think we are wise, especially when we begin to explain the processes that occur in our world. This is where we need to constantly remind ourselves, lest we forget, that we are merely explaining processes. It is God who created all the processes, how long has it taken us to understand just a few? Oh, there are people who would like to explain away the world according to chance, but the faith it would take to believe those theories is much greater than the faith the Lord gives us to believe His truth.
 

From time to time I see a car with the Christian fish made with legs and the name “Darwin” inscribe in the middle. I have always wondered what it would be like to stop the person and asked, “So, how many years did it take for all those parts to come together by themselves to make your car?” Certainly, the person would look at me like I was crazy. And I did leave out the whole problem of where did the parts come from in the first place. If you would ask anyone this question they would think you were out of your mind. Yet, no one seems to mind suggesting that our bodies, which are even more complex than a car, evolved over millions of years. How much greater is the foolishness of God than the greatest wisdom of man.
 

What Does This Mean? There are basically two religions in the world. There is man’s religion and there is God’s religion. The religion of man is based on self-righteousness, on man’s reaching up to God, on man’s ability, his character, his working out his own salvation, his attempting to be the person God wants him to be. Basically, according to man’s religion, one must earn his or her salvation. A person is to do good and then he or she is saved.
 

And then there is God’s religion. God’s religion is based on grace. God does it all and gives it all. And God does it all and gives it all even though we are undeserving of any and all that He does and has to give. God gives salvation and then a person is motivated, again, by God, to respond, that is to do and to live.
 

Thus, the cross is foolishness to the self-righteous and so they do not hear the preaching of the cross. The cross is simply another reminder of our sin and our inability to do anything about our sin. We like to think of ourselves as basically good people. Have you noticed how the people of our world flock to these churches that, basically tell people they are good people. And if we are basically good people, then we do not need anyone to pay any price for our sins, because basically we do not have any sin. This is man’s wisdom. Or should I say, “This is man’s wisdom?” (Said in a questioning tone). Remember, as I said last week and as I have said numerous times before, the forgiveness of sins is our greatest need and the greatest gift we are given to by God. For, without forgiveness, we are yet in our sins and we would be destined to eternal death and hell. When we think we are so good that we have no need for forgiveness, when we are not reminded of our sins so that we confess, then we remain in our sins and our destiny is set.
 

Yet, as we see, there are many in our world today who revel in this foolishness and in this powerlessness. People flock to churches and seminars where they are told how good they really are and how they can do some many good things to please the Lord. There are many who believe God wants and even needs something from them. Here again we see human wisdom at its best. As Christians, as redeemed children of God, as sinners made saints through God’s grace which gives faith, forgiveness and eternal life we are certainly reminded, what could our God possibly need from us? He is the One who created us. He is the One who redeemed us. He is the One who is working in us our Sanctification. He created us in order to do for us and give to us, in order to love us. How many parents do you know have children so they can be served by their children? No, we have children in order to love them, care for them, and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We are God’s children and He created us to love us, care for us and nurture us.
 

So, if we are going to boast, then we only boast in the Lord. As we look at our three texts for this morning, we are reminded that we boast in the fact that our Lord loves us so much that He gives us the Ten Commandments, which point out our sins, so we do repent. We boast in the Lord, that Jesus is the Son of God, even God Himself, who came to earth to do for us what we are unable to do. That is, Jesus obeyed all the commandments perfectly for us and then took our sins of breaking all the commandments, and paid the price for our sins. And now we are reminded of the foolishness and weakness of our Lord, which are far greater than what we believe to be our wisdom and strength.
 

Praise the Lord that in His power and wisdom He did not let the weaknesses and foolishness of this world get in the way so that He did accomplish His plan of salvation so that by grace, through faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection we have the promise of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Faith and Works - February 28, 2024 - Third Wednesday in Lent - Text: Eph. 2:8-10; Heb. 11:6

Last week we continued our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe, teach and confess about the Freedom of the Will. Today we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe, teach and confess about faith and works and how these two important parts of our lives works together, especially how they interact.
 

There are truly only two religions in the world, the religion of man and the religion of Christ, the Christian Church. The religion of man is based on one’s character or good works. A person is commanded to do in order to live. Failure to do leads to death. This religion is based solely on the law and points a person to himself or herself. As you have heard me say before, a preaching of Law only, without the Gospel will lead a person either to despair believing there is no salvation and no hope or to works righteousness that is believing one is able to do what is commanded, like choose Jesus, dedicate your life to Jesus, be obedient and so on. Of course, the bar for doing enough good is always lowered and lowered as we are unable to do any good in and of ourselves.
 

The religion of man is based on good works, whereas the Christian faith is based on the Gospel and points us to Jesus. We are not saved because of some innate goodness in ourselves, we are not saved because we have been obedient or because we have chosen Jesus, but we are saved by God’s grace, through faith, given to us, in Jesus. We are saved because Jesus chose us. We live by faith and because faith is given to us our response is to live lives of faith. So, instead of doing and living we live and are moved to be doing.
 

The Apostle Paul writes concerning the connection of faith and works. To the Ephesians he writes, “8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul writes to make sure we understand that first and foremost we are saved by grace. We cannot save ourselves. We might asked, “Can a dead man bring himself back to life?” “Can a drowning person save himself?” “Can a person choose to be born?” The answer to all these questions is a resounding “No.” Our salvation must come from outside of us and it does. Our salvation is a gift given to us.
 

As for this word “grace” unfortunately there are others who would misdefine this word as God giving us the ability to do something. The word “grace” actually means gift. Here I would point out that gift and present are not exactly the same. I would define present as, “You give me a present and I will reciprocate and give you a present.” Whereas I would define a “gift” as giving something without receiving anything in return and without expecting anything in return. Indeed, something that is truly a gift is something that always points us to Jesus. Gift is Gospel talk.
 

Paul says that we are saved by grace, that is, salvation is a gift and he goes on to say that it is through faith. Thus, faith is important. So, how do we define “faith?” Although there are different types or aspects of faith, that is faith may simply be an ascent, accepting something as true, “Yes, I believe it will rain,” or it may be an acknowledgment, “Yes, the sky is blue,” true saving faith is complete trust in something outside ourselves. For faith to be saving faith it must have an object and its object must be Jesus and only Jesus. Faith in a tree does not save. Only faith in Jesus, faith given as a gift, that is graced to us, will save us.
 

Now that Paul has established this fact that we are saved by God’s grace as a gift given to us, a gift giving us faith in Jesus alone for our salvation, he moves on to encourage us in our response of faith, that is in what naturally follows the gift of faith, which is our desire to live lives of faith, as Paul further states, “10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
 

As you have heard me say before, and as I said at the beginning of this series, God created us, first and foremost, to love us. At the same time, as God gifts us faith the faith He gives stirs in us the desire to be the people He would have us to be, though as we know we can only be the people He would have us to be rather imperfectly. Paul express our desire as being created to do the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do. In other words, it is something we really cannot help but desire to do.
 

So, Paul encourages us much like James does in his epistle to understand that good works flow from faith. A person who has been given faith cannot help but want to respond by living a life of faith, by doing those works God has prepared in advance for us to do. It simply becomes a natural flow out of a thankful heart.
 

So, what is a good work. What is a good work in God’s eyes? Good works that are truly good works in God’s eyes are those works that are motivated by God, work in and through us by God and give God glory. In other words, our sinful nature will not prompt us to do good works. It is only as God stirs in us that we will be moved to do good works. Because good works do not come natural for us, God works them in and through us, meaning we usually are not aware of when we are doing a good work. And certainly any work that is a good work in God’s eyes is done to His glory. Meaning, quite frankly, most of the time we are doing a good work we do not even realize what we have done.
 

As the writer to Hebrews tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 ).  So, good works in God’s eyes are different than what we would identify as social good works. A rather harsh way of looking at social good works is to suggest that social good works are those good deeds done for oneself, self recognition, tax write off, or other personal gain.
 

We believe, teach and confess that without faith a person cannot do good works that are good works in God’s eyes, but one can only do good works which we would consider to be social good works. In other words, many if not most of the good deeds we see done in our world today, especially those done by people outside the faith, are simply social good deeds and works and have no accounting in God’s eyes for, as Isaiah tells us, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6a). And the polluted garments of which Isaiah speaks are menstrual rags, in other words, when we offer what we believe to be our good deeds to God, outside of faith they are filthy rags. It is faith, and faith alone, that motivates what are truly good works in God’s eyes.
 

What does this mean? First, we would recognize that, although faith and good works go together, faith must come first. It is faith, given to us as a gift, graced to us, and faith in Jesus alone that stirs in us and moves us to live lives of faith, to be the people God would have us to be, though imperfectly we would always add, and to do the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do.
 

Thus, good works are a demonstration of one’s faith. Although a person without faith might be inclined to do a social good work for whatever benefit, a Christian cannot help but let his or her faith shine through not only their desire, but also their doing the good deeds God motivates them to do, works in and through them and does to His glory. Indeed, all good works, that are motivated by God, worked in and through us by God, are done to His glory.
 

As we continue on during this Lenten Season first and foremost we are reminded of our sin and the fact that it was because of our sin and God’s great love for us that the events of Holy Week had to take place. As we celebrate Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday with Good Friday in view we do so in humility understanding that all these things are done because of God’s great love for us. And we rejoice in God’s gifts to us, His grace poured out on us. His gift of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. And most especially the fact that He stirs in us our response of faith, living lives as His people, giving praise and glory to His holy name. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

We Have Been Justified (Accomplished Action) - Second Sunday in Lent - February 25, 2024 - Text: Romans 5:1-11

Computers are great inventions, at least, I believe they are. I remember getting my first computer and being very hesitant about doing anything wrong, after all, it was rather expensive and I did not want to break it. Then I discovered the “reset” button. I also remember my first word processing program. And then getting into a more powerful word processing program. Today these programs almost type what you want before you even think it. Most word processing programs have spell check and even a grammar checker. I tried using the grammar checker a couple times on my sermons, but I found that they do not really work, at least on sermons. Let me explain. The times I checked my sermons for grammar I kept getting corrected on using the passive voice. At first I was not sure what that meant, but as I learned, I realized that, grammatically speaking, I should use the active voice, in other words, I should be talking about how things are and how we are doing things, instead of the passive voice, that is how things were and how things are done even without any action or initiative of our own. Then I realized, although the active voice is good grammar and the passive voice should be avoided, that does not make for good theology. The passive voice and not the active voice are what make for good theology. In other words, I do not preach about what we have done or are doing or even have to do for our salvation, rather I talk about what God has done, how God acts on us, and how we are simply done to and given to. Now, that may not be good grammar, but that is great theology. And so, this morning we get even more great theology as Paul continues to use the passive voice in describing who God is and what He continues to do for us and in and through us.
 

We begin with a very familiar passage of Scripture where Paul talks about peace in suffering. We begin at verse one, “1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (v. 1-5).
 

As we know, faith is not something we get, or do or proclaim, indeed as we confess in the explanation of the Third article of the Apostles’ Creed, “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.” Rather we know and believe that God gives faith. God gives faith, not directly, but indirectly, that is through means. Through the means of grace, the Word, the Bible, Holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, God gives faith. It is this faith which God gives through these means that grasps all the other gifts God gives. Faith is the instrument which is what takes hold of and makes God’s gifts and blessings ours.
 

God gives faith and it is this faith which grasps forgiveness of sins, the most important gift. Perhaps you have heard me say this before, that the most important gift we are given is forgiveness of sins and maybe you have wondered why I say that. Forgiveness of sins is the most important gift we are given because without forgiveness of sins, we are left to suffer the punishment for sin, which is eternal death and hell. It is only with forgiveness that we have life and salvation. And so we see the need, every Sunday, and even every day, for confession and absolution, that is to confess before God, all our sins in thought, word and deed, sins of omission and sins of commission. And it is important that we hear God’s words of absolution, that our sins are, that our sins have been, past tense, passive voice, forgiven. This is not something we accomplish but what has already been accomplished for us, outside of us and given to us.
 

God gives faith which grasps forgiveness of sins. With forgiveness of sins we are given peace. This peace is not a moment of calm during one’s hectic life, but this peace is true peace. This peace is the peace we have from the removal of sin and guilt. And that is true peace.
 

God gives faith, God gives forgiveness, and God gives peace. And with faith, forgiveness and peace we also have the hope of eternal life in heaven. This hope of eternal life in heaven is not a far off hope, but is a hope which is ours now. This hope is not a wishy washy maybe hope, but is a certainty. And this hope is a present reality, it is ours now. Certainly we will not move into our heavenly home until after we pass away from this world, or the Lord returns, but our place in heaven is secure, right at this very moment.
 

And so, while we remain in this world there may be suffering. This suffering is a result of temptation and sin. Ever since the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, the whole world, the earth itself has been groaning, waiting for the end. Because we live in a world that has been tainted by sin, we will incur temptation and sin.
 

Last week we were reminded that God tempts no one to sin. We were also reminded that God may allow testing in our lives. This morning we are reminded that God uses suffering to produce endurance, character and hope. So, again, we are always pointed to that fact that God is the one doing the doing and we are being done to, that is, passively being done to.
 

But Paul is not finished. He reminds us even more of what God is doing and how He is doing it according to His own perfect timing. We pick up at verse six, “6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (v. 6-11).
 

Paul says, “at the right time,” that is at just the right time, the right time according to human history, the right time according to our need for a Savior. God’s timing is always perfect timing. When all the events of the world were where they needed to be, God sent His Son to live for us and to give His life for ours. And Paul shows us the difference between man’s love and God’s love.
 

Man’s love is this that someone, some human being may give one’s life for a good person or even for a good cause, but for a person or cause we deem unworthy, probably not. Certainly we have heard of situations where a person may give bone marrow or a kidney, or some other “spare” body part, but not one’s life. Or, we may have heard of someone giving their life for someone deemed worthy as we understand the secret service men are to give their lives to save the president. But, that is about as far as we human beings will go.
 

On the other hand, God’s love is so much greater and He shows how His love is so much greater. God’s love is so great that He was willing and He did give His life for us while we were sinners. Well, after all, we are conceived and born in sin. Our natural inclination is to sin. We talked about that last week, even the fact that we love to sin because sinning is fun. And yet, to call ourselves sinners really does not do justice to how bad we really are. Not only are we sinners, but we are also enemies of God, actually fighting against Him. We are not simply passive sinners, but we are active sinners. We actively fight against God. We actively refuse and reject His gifts. We actively disobey all His commandments. And yet, God’s love is such that while we are active sinners, He gave His life for ours.
 

God’s love is shown in the shedding of Jesus’ blood. He shed His blood, that is He paid the price of His life, the price or cost for sin, for us. What we owed, He paid. Thus, we are saved from the wrath of God, because the wrath of God was taken out on Jesus.
 

When we talk about partaking of the Lord’s Supper in “remembrance” of Him, we understand that remembrance is a participation. Thus, we understand that Jesus’ life is our life. Jesus’ death is our death. And now, how much more do we understand that His life is our life.
 

All that is left is the rejoicing. All we can do is respond and interestingly enough, that is something we do passively as well. It is the Holy Spirit who moves in us to rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
 

What Does This Mean? In and of ourselves, apart from Christ, we are lost and condemned persons. When we attempt to take an active role, our active role is that we are spiritually blind, spiritually dead and actually enemies of God, fighting and striving against Him. Of course, that is our nature after all and bad habits are hard to change.
 

Thanks be to God that Christ has taken an active role. In His active role Christ has taken care of everything. He has paid the price, notice past tense, that we owe. He paid the price, which is eternal death and hell, by shedding His blood. Jesus actively obeyed all the law and the prophets perfectly, doing for His people, the children of Israel, what they were unable to do, and doing for us, His children by faith, faith given to us, what we are unable to do. He lived perfectly for us in our place. He took our sins upon Himself and suffered and paid the price for all our sins. He died, for us, in our place. And yet, death and the grave, as we know, had no power over Him. He rose, for us, in our place so that we know that we too will rise again.
 

Our response, then, again, is a passive response. Yes, God gives and we are given to. God has done it all and we have been done to. That may not be good grammar, but it is great theology and that is what is more important, great theology.
 

Christ does it all; dying to pay the price for our sins, while we were yet His enemies, fighting and sinning against Him; giving us faith so that we have peace, which comes from forgiveness of sin and guilt; strengthening us during times of suffering so that we have true hope which does not disappoint us; and stirring in us to rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, our response is to passively be given to and to say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Freedom of the Will - February 21, 2024 - Second Wednesday in Lent - Text: Rom. 8:7; 1 Cor. 12:3

Last week we began our series on Lutheran Doctrine by hearing what we believe about the creation of the world. Today we continue our series by being reminded of what we believe about the freedom of the will and I will break the news to you now, truly we really do not have a free will because our will has been cursed and tainted from the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden.
 

The apostle Paul tells us, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Rom. 8:7). Our nature is that we are dead, dead in our trespasses and sins. Our nature is that we are spiritually dead, spiritually blind and enemies of God. Our nature is that we are conceived and born in sin. Our nature is that sin is in our DNA and because the price for sin was set in the Garden of Eden, we will die. We will die an earthly physical death, and except for the fact that Jesus paid the price for our sins, we would be destined to an eternal death in hell.
 

Because our nature is that we are conceived and born in sin our natural inclination is to refuse and reject anything that is good and from God. We cannot accept Jesus as our personal Savior. We cannot choose to follow Jesus. Because we can only refuse and reject, our condemnation is our own fault. Truly, although God’s desire and will is that all people are saved, and although He has never intended, let alone predetermine or predestined anyone to hell, because our nature is to reject Jesus, it is our own fault if we die in unbelief. At the same time, Jesus gets the credit for our salvation and rightly so, after all, He is the one who gave His life for us.
 

So, our journey in understanding the freedom of our will is that our will has been tainted by sin and the curse so our will and our nature is evil and contrary to God.
 

Paul continues by telling us, “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). Here again we are reminded that we cannot choose or accept Jesus, except by the power of the Holy Spirit working faith in our hearts, meaning, it is not we who are doing the choosing and accepting, but God who is choosing and accepting us and giving us faith. We reiterate Paul’s words in our confession of faith. In the explanation of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed we confess, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.” We might well add, thanks be to God that He comes to us, that He chooses us, that He accepts us.
 

We further confess that our being given faith also comes from outside of us and it comes by the work and power of the Holy Spirit. As we confess, “but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” Here we confess the means through which the Holy Spirit calls us to and gives us faith, the outward means of the Gospel and the means of grace, Holy Absolution and the Sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper.
 

Here we are reminded once again that faith is not some internal feeling or inclination. Faith is a gift given to us from outside of us. Here again we are reminded of the importance of the external means of grace. God comes to us from outside of us through the means He has given, His Word, water, bread and wine. He gives us life and conception. He gives us new life, even eternal life, forgiving our sins and writing our names in the book of life, writing His name on us through the water and His name at Holy Baptism. He forgives our sins through Holy Absolution. He strengthens us through bread and wine and His Word, His body and blood in His Holy Supper.
 

What does this mean in ourselves? Because we may die at any time from the moment of conception this fact means we are accountable for our sins from the moment of conception. Remember there was no death until Adam and Eve sinned. At the moment of their sin they and all God’s cursed world was subject to death. Thus, we see the importance of infant baptism. Just as no one can choose to be born, so we cannot choose to be reborn. Thanks be to God that our parents brought us to the font so that God, using the hands of the pastor could put water on us and using the mouth of the pastor could put His name on us, giving us faith, forgiveness and eternal life.
 

Just as a dead man cannot bring himself back to life so we cannot bring ourselves back to life. We cannot choose Jesus. We cannot accept Jesus. We cannot dedicate our lives to Jesus. We can do nothing because we are born spiritually dead. We are born spiritually blind and enemies of God.
 

Whenever be begin pointing to ourselves we lose. We can never be sure of ourselves. We can never be sure of our feelings. As Ebenezer Scrooge would admit, he did not believe in ghost because it could have been something he ate. Our surety and confidence must and does come from outside of us. We are most sure that God speaks to us, that God calls us from the external means of grace, especially His Holy Word. And when God gives us His gifts through the external means of grace of Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism and His Holy Supper. These means are most sure because they are outside of us and from God who does and gives what His Word says. Left to ourselves we would refuse, deny, and reject anything of God and from God because that is, after all, our conceived and born in nature. Thanks be to God that there is another way.
 

What does this mean in Jesus? When we come to Divine Service we are not pointed to ourselves. Although we hear the Law, that we are sinners in need of forgiveness, we are never pointed to ourselves as if there is something in us that can have any part in gaining God’s forgiveness and favor. We are not encouraged to accept or choose Jesus, to dedicate our lives to Him, to be obedient to His Word.
 

Rather we are encourage and we rejoice in hearing the Gospel, the good new that it is God who has chosen us. It is God who promised and sent Jesus to dedicate His life to us. It is Jesus who was obedient, perfectly obedient to all God’s Laws, all God’s commands and demands. It is Jesus who lived the perfect life for us in our place because we cannot. And Jesus did what He did for us of His own, untainted, perfect and holy free will. Because of His great love for us God created us and Jesus redeemed us, bought us back with His Holy Precious Blood and His innocent suffering and death, again as we confess in our creeds.
 

As we rightly confess and as we should indeed confess every week, in our creeds we confess our faith in God our Creator, in Jesus our Redeemer and in the Holy Spirit, the one who gives us faith and strengthens us in our faith. What better confession can we have and what joy and relief to confess that our salvation does not depend on us. What joy to confess that faith, forgiveness and life are all gifts from our great and loving God.
 

And even more, not only does God give us faith, forgiveness and life He also stirs in us to respond by living lives as priest in the priesthood of all believers. He stirs in us our response of faith, giving praise and glory to Him for all His good gifts and blessings.
 

As we continue on during this Lenten Season we are reminded of our part in these events of Jesus life. We are reminded of our sin and the price for our sin, death, blood being shed. We are reminded of our nature, our sinful nature that is always contrary to God. We are reminded of our total depravity. And we need that reminder lest we begin to think more highly of ourselves as if we have any part in our salvation, thus denying all that our Lord has done, does and continues to do for us. And so we most certainly rejoice in the fact, that although in and of ourselves we would be lost thanks be to God that He does all and all gives all to us. Thanks be to God that He calls us to and gives us life. He calls us to and gives us faith. He forgives our sins. He strengthens our faith. He gives us eternal life with Him in heaven. He stirs in us our response of faith, that is to live lives of faith, imperfect as they may be. He shows His love for us in creating us, in sending Jesus to live for us, in taking our sins and paying the price for us, in giving us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give. Indeed, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.