Each Day in the Word, Saturday, September 10th

Posted on September 10, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

1 Thessalonians 4:1–12 (NKJV)

1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. 9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; 11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

God wills your sanctification; that is, He desires not only that you grow in faith but that you also steer clear of things that militate against saving faith. And if there’s one thing that poses a very grave danger to faith, it is sexual immorality. The Greek word is “porneia” which sounds exactly like what it is—pornography, filth, immorality—not treating your own body (or that of others) in a God-pleasing way; seeking self-gratification and personal sexual pleasures; putting yourself and your lusts first, therefore making yourself out to be your own god. It is a violation not only of the Sixth Commandment, but the First as well. When the devil gets you to sin in this way, he knows more than you do how powerful and dangerous it is, and he loves it when you side with him. Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 6, “He who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body,” which is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). When you are tempted to sin in this way, flee to Christ, call on Him, run to preaching and Christ’s Sacraments, and trust that He will help.

Of course, all sin is first and foremost against God; and as Paul stated, the Lord is the Avenger of all such sin. Those who reject Paul’s teaching—which is really God the Holy Spirit’s teaching—ultimately reject not Paul but God Himself. For this we are called to repentance.

If this is you in any way, confess your sins. Seek out your pastor to hear your confession in order that he may speak Christ’s forgiveness and grant you release. Remember your Baptism in which Christ put His name on you, called you His own, and rescued you from death and the devil. And run to Holy Communion where Christ puts His real and true body and blood into you for forgiveness, life, and salvation. These gifts of God will strengthen you and help you to “lead a quiet life” to the glory of God and your spiritual health.

Let us pray: I come to Thee with sin and grief, for Thou alone canst give relief.   Thy death for me, dear Lord, I plead: O Jesus, help me in my need. O Jesus, Lamb of God, alone Thou didst for all our sins atone; be merciful, I Thee implore, be merciful forevermore. Amen. (TLH 330:2, 5)

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Each Day in the Word, Friday, September 9th

Posted on September 9, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

1 Thessalonians 3:1–13 (NKJV)

1 Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone, 2 and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, 3 that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. 4 For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened, and you know. 5 For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain. 6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always have good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see us, as we also to see you—7 therefore, brethren, in all our affliction and distress we were comforted concerning you by your faith. 8 For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, 10 night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith? 11 Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. 12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, 13 so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

At the end of 1 Thess. 2, Paul wrote that he, Silvanus, and Timothy had not only been away from the Christians in Thessalonica for a while and were eager to return to them, but that they had been hindered by Satan in their plans to reunite with the brethren there. When they “could no longer endure” the separation, Paul and Silvanus sent Timothy to them to establish them and encourage them concerning their faith. They did this so that the Thessalonians might be encouraged in their faith in Christ and not shaken by their afflictions. He then adds these touching words: “Therefore, brethren, in all our affliction and distress we were comforted concerning you by your faith.” Paul and the others were comforted and strengthened by the faith of the Thessalonians as they continued to live their lives to the glory of God in the true confession of Christ.

In Christ’s Church, Christians are gifted by God to be able to bear one another’s burdens and share one another’s joys, for they are all part of the body of Christ. When someone else in the church is hurting, that person can and should be comforted by others in the faith who have experienced similar difficulties and challenges. By sharing with each other God’s faithfulness in seeing them through their own circumstances, brothers and sisters in Christ have not only the duty but the privilege to stand with each other, to confess their sins and faults to each other, to encourage each other, and simply to live as fellow members of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. In this way, the whole congregation is bolstered and built up.

Take Paul’s words to heart: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another…so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”

Let us pray: Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. This glorious hope revives our courage by the way, while each in expectation lives and longs to see the Day. (TLH 464:1, 5)

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Each Day in the Word, Thursday, September 8th

Posted on September 8, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

1 Thessalonians 2:1–20 (NKJV)

1 For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. 3 For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit. 4 But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. 5 For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. 8 So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. 9 For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; 11 as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, 12 that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. 13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. 14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, 16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. 17 But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire. 18 Therefore we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us. 19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? 20 For you are our glory and joy.

Paul, speaking for himself and his coworkers, writes, “we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.” These are very telling words, for they point us to a very important aspect which marks a faithful pastor: that he be not a man-pleaser, but a God-pleaser. Many a preacher, both today and throughout history, has given in to the ways of the world and delivered messages that tickle itching ears, soften the fangs of the Law, and speak an impotent Gospel that does little more than say nice things about God. These are not true preachers, but they are, as our Lord said, “false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Mt. 7:15). They are pretenders, using Bible-y sounding words, but accomplishing only the devil’s work. They are to be avoided at all costs because the cost of listening to and following them is an eternally damning one. And the reason that is so is because, as Jesus once tersely said to Peter, they “do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men” (Mt. 16:23).

Paul says, “we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.” Pastors and lay-folk alike are encouraged to be gentle but clear as they present the Gospel to others. Knowing that the Holy Spirit works through the Word, our happy task is to “speak the truth in love” (Eph 4:15), and then let the Holy Spirit do His thing, not depending on our delivery, style, or personality, but on the efficient power of God’s Word alone. Paul then thanked God on behalf of himself and his companions because the Thessalonians had received their message “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God.” The Thessalonians were modeling the Bereans of Acts 17 who heard Paul and Silas’ preaching and still “searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so” (17:11). This is also our happy task as Christians, to make sure that what our pastor is preaching and teaching is soundly Scriptural, and not a message of men. In this way God is glorified and His church is built up in the saving truth of Christ.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, make all pastors confident and bold to preach only Your Word and truth. Amen.

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How you use your tongue matters

Posted on September 7, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 12

Isaiah 29:18-19  +  James 3:1-12  +  Matthew 12:31-42

Last week Wednesday, we heard those key words from Romans 10, “Faith comes by hearing! And hearing by the word of God.” God saves us—justifies us—through faith in Jesus Christ, and that faith doesn’t spring up naturally within us; God the Holy Spirit has to call us through Gospel. As we confess in the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed: I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel…And in that Gospel call, He moves us to believe. You heard Isaiah’s prophecy this evening, in which he prophesied the work of Christ (through His Spirit) to open the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind.

In Sunday’s Gospel of the healing of the deaf and mute man, we saw Isaiah’s prophecy being fulfilled in a literal way, just as it’s fulfilled in a spiritual way—again, emphasizing that it’s God the Holy Spirit—the “Finger of God”—who has to come to us in the Word and open our ears to the Gospel, converting us from unbelievers to believers, so that we can then confess with our tongues that Jesus is the Lord, who was delivered up for our sins and raised from the dead for our justification. And He does convert people and bring them to faith, when they don’t stubbornly resist Him as He works through preaching.

The stubborn resistance to the Spirit is a big problem, though. It’s a threat, not just to unbelievers, but also to Christians. We could—God forbid!—plug up the ears that God the Holy Spirit has opened for us, and we could fail to heed James’ warning to put a bridle on our tongue. Our tongues, as Christians, have been loosed to bless our God and Father, to praise and worship Him and to speak kind and helpful words to our neighbor. But with those same tongues we can so easily fall into cursing our neighbor, speaking maliciously about other people or speaking cruelly to other people. If we don’t watch out for that, or if we don’t repent of it when it happens, then we risk driving out the Holy Spirit and having our ears permanently stopped up and our tongues permanently bound again. That’s what happens when you stubbornly resist the Holy Spirit, who is constantly working on the tongues of Christians, to silence them from speaking evil and falsehood and to spur them on to speak what is good and healthy and edifying and true.

It’s that stubborn resistance to the Holy Spirit that we also encounter in the lesson this evening from Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus had been driving out demons by the Finger of God, by the Spirit of God. But the Pharisees used their tongues in a terrible way: This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. In other words, they were speaking of the Holy Spirit of God as if He were the devil himself. They literally “spoke against the Holy Spirit.” And that, Jesus says, cannot be forgiven.

Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. To speak against Jesus is a grave sin, obviously. Many of the people of Israel did that. St. Paul did that when he was still unconverted as Saul the Pharisee. But many in Israel were converted and forgiven, weren’t they? Saul was converted and forgiven. That is, they were brought to repentance and faith in that same Jesus against whom they had formerly spoken. How? By the working of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. But to “speak against” the Spirit, that is, to reject the Holy Spirit as He calls out and invites people to repent and to believe in Christ—that’s unforgivable, as long as a person continues in such a sin.

As I said a moment ago, even believers can fall into that sin, and when they do, it’s especially tragic. As the writer to the Hebrews puts it, if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

I don’t understand how some false teachers can get away with teaching Christians that, once they’ve truly been brought to faith and rescued out of the devil’s kingdom, they can never fall away. They can never go back to being “unforgiven” or “unsaved.” No, that’s not at all what the Scriptures teach. Believers—those who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit and have been sanctified by Him and set apart from the perishing world—are constantly warned in Scripture not to resist the Holy Spirit, but to walk with Him always, which means striving to avoid sin, and, when we stumble, taking seriously the Holy Spirit’s warning to repent and return to Christ for forgiveness.

There’s one of those warnings in Matthew’s Gospel that you heard tonight: But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

What does that mean? It means that your words matter. How you use your God-given tongue matters for eternity. If you speak idle or “useless” words—and who can say that he hasn’t?—you’ll be judged for them and condemned. That should strike fear into all our hearts. But by your words you will be justified. By which words? By the words of faith. That is, when the Holy Spirit convicts you through the Gospel of misusing your tongue, then He calls you back to repent of it, and to trust in Christ for forgiveness, which always leads to confessing, again that Jesus Christ is the Lord, who was delivered up for our sins and raised from the dead for our justification. As we heard last Wednesday, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And then, with ears and tongues again renewed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, you’ll devote yourself again to speaking good words, helpful words, words of praise for God, and words of building up for your neighbor. Amen.

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Each Day in the Word, Wednesday, September 7th

Posted on September 7, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

1 Thessalonians 1:1–10 (NKJV)

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, 4 knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. 5 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. 6 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. 8 For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. 9 For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Many a faithful pastor begins his sermons with these or similar words as he expounds the Holy Scriptures to the people he is called and ordained to serve. As he preaches, he delivers God’s grace, His love for all, shown in Christ’s death for all, and God’s peace, which is the peace Christ won for them. As this faithful preaching continues and bears fruit, the congregation grows stronger in Christ and becomes an effective witness to those in the community and other places.

In this letter, Paul, speaking not only on behalf of himself but also for his coworkers, thanks God as he recalls the Thessalonians’ “work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope” in the Lord Jesus. Yes, he’s bragging on them, and for good reason. He commends these Christians for their respect and appreciation for those who spoke the Gospel to them and for believing the right things. The Thessalonians “received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit.” They were experiencing challenges for their faith in Christ and for their having “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” It could not have been easy for them to make a spiritual 180, leaving behind their former false beliefs and trusting the preaching and teaching of Paul and his companions about Christ crucified for sinners. But with the help of the Holy Spirit working through the preached Word, they were on the right track. This resulted in Paul praising God for their strong, clear witness to the surrounding areas.

May God grant your pastor and your congregation to be faithful always to God’s holy Word and not to bow to any false teachings that can and will lead God’s people astray. And may God make them a strong witness to His grace and peace in Christ.

Let us pray: O Holy Spirit, grant us grace that we our Lord and Savior in faith and fervent love embrace and truly serve Him ever. Amen. (TLH 293:1a)

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