Emmanuel Lutheran Church

Sermon
Download Sermon

Service
To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.	Download Bulletin

Sermon for Trinity 8

Romans 8:12-17 + Matthew 7:15-23

For the last several weeks, the Sunday Gospels have been showing us some of the tasks we are to be performing on a regular basis as forgiven children of God. In today’s Gospel, Jesus highlights a task that a lot of Christians have been shirking, neglecting, failing to do. It’s the task of testing the preachers who claim to speak for Christ.

As I said, many Christians fail to do this. If they grow up in a certain church, in a certain “tradition,” they never question it, never actually test their preachers, because they would never consider leaving their family church. Others celebrate the diversity of doctrines that their preachers embrace. Others look for a church that’s going to tell them what they want to hear, or that gives them the kind of worship “experience” they’re looking for. They don’t test the teaching. Instead, they test the format, the atmosphere, the music. But the most important factor, by far, in choosing a church is the doctrine that is taught and practiced in that church, regardless of any external trappings. Why is it so important? Because of whose doctrine it is. It’s Christ’s doctrine, Christ’s teaching. And if we love Him, then we must also love what He teaches—and that means everything He teaches.

Of course, if you’re hearing the Word of Christ directly from the mouth of Christ, then you don’t have to worry about testing the preacher, do you? But that’s not the situation we find ourselves in. Jesus never intended to stay on earth and preach and teach until the end of time. It was always His intention to call His sheep and to feed His sheep through the preaching and teaching of ministers whom He would send to preach and teach in His name until He comes again. But He also knew that many, many preachers would come along, claiming to speak for Christ, who would go out into the world spreading lies in His name. And so He issues this stern warning to His disciples, as one of the most basic tasks Christians are to be doing, regularly: Watch out for false prophets.

Why? Because they won’t come to you with a big sign on their chest saying, “False prophet.” On the contrary, they will claim that they’re speaking to you in Jesus’ name, that they’re telling you the truth about God, about Jesus, about what it means to be a Christian. That’s what it means to come in “sheep’s clothing”—innocent, harmless, likeable, believable, looking like a true follower of Jesus. But inwardly they are ravenous wolves. If they get you to believe lies about yourself, lies about God and His Word, lies about how anyone can be saved from death and from eternal condemnation, then they have devoured you. They have robbed you of salvation. They have led you to believe in a fake Jesus, and a fake Jesus can’t save anyone.

How do you watch out for them? You test them. You don’t test them based on how they look, or by how educated they are by worldly standards, or by their personality, their charisma, or their sense of humor. You don’t test them by the mere fact that they claim Jesus as Lord or wave a Bible around. You test them by examining their “fruits.” By their fruits you will know them, Jesus says. Now, two things are included in a preacher’s fruits: his doctrine, and his life. In other words, whether he does the will of my Father in heaven in what he teaches and in how he lives.

How do you test a preacher’s doctrine? How do you “test the spirits,” as St. John writes in chapter 4 of his first epistle, “whether they are of God”? Well, there’s only one way. You have to do as the Bereans did in Acts 17 when the apostle Paul came to them claiming to speak for God. What did they do? They “searched the Scriptures” to find out if what Paul was saying was true. They only had the Old Testament Scriptures at that time. You now also have the New Testament Scriptures. You have to use them in order to do what Jesus tells you here. You have to know your Bible, study your Bible. There’s no way around it. It’s the only infallible source of truth—unchanging, unwavering truth, the inspired Word of God that remains forever.

It’s a big book, but not overly big. It’s knowable. We’ve also broken down its teachings and summarized them in six chief parts, as you know if you’re familiar with Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, which is tremendously helpful for testing a Christian preacher’s doctrine.

For example, does his doctrine line up with the Ten Commandments? Does he point you to the Lord God alone as the only God and Savior, to worship Him alone, to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things? Does he teach you to honor God’s name and God’s Word? To honor your parents and those in authority over you? To guard your neighbor’s life, including the lives of the children waiting to be born? Does he teach you to honor marriage—the lifelong union between one man and one woman—to keep the marriage bed pure, and to avoid all sexual immorality, including homosexuality? Does he teach you not to steal, not to give false testimony against your neighbor, not to covet what your neighbor has, but to be content with what God has given you? If yes, good! If not, then that’s bad fruit to watch out for and to avoid.

Does his doctrine line up with the Apostles’ Creed? Does he teach that the one God, who is three Persons, created all things in six days by His almighty Word? Does he teach that Christ is true God from eternity, and true Man, born of the virgin Mary? Does he teach that Christ has redeemed mankind from sin, death, and the power of the devil with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death? Does he teach that Christ rose bodily from the dead on the third day and lives and rules eternally at the right hand of God, and will return on the last day (and not before!) to raise all the dead and to give eternal life to all who have believed in Him? Does he teach that the Spirit of God is the one who, through the preaching of the Gospel, calls poor sinners from every race, tribe, language, and people, who brings people to faith through the message that is preached, and justifies them by faith alone in Christ and in no other way, that it is the Spirit who gathers His Church and preserves it through the means of grace—through preaching and the Sacraments? If yes, good! If not, then that’s bad fruit to watch out for and to avoid.

Does a preacher’s doctrine line up with the Lord’s Prayer, teaching you to pray to no one in heaven except for our Father in heaven, how to pray with dignity and with reverence, to seek the glory of God’s name and His kingdom, and to look to Him as the Provider of all you need, from daily bread, to the forgiveness of sins, to strength to resist temptation, to deliverance from all evil? If yes, good! If not, then that’s bad fruit to watch out for and to avoid.

Does a preacher’s doctrine line up with the Bible’s teaching of Holy Baptism, that it’s intended for “all nations,” including little children, that it is a water of life, rich in grace, and a washing of rebirth in the Holy Spirit, that it works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this? If yes, good! If not, then that’s bad fruit to watch out for and to avoid.

Does a preacher’s doctrine line up with the Bible’s teaching about the office of the holy ministry? Does he teach that Christ calls men (and not women), through the call of the Church, to be His ministers, to use the keys of the kingdom of heaven in His name, to forgive sins to the penitent in the stead of Christ and to deny forgiveness to the impenitent, to administer Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in Jesus’ name? If yes, good! If not, then that’s bad fruit to watch out for and to avoid.

Finally, does a preacher’s doctrine line up with the Bible’s teaching about the Sacrament of the Altar? Does he teach that the bread and wine of Holy Communion are the true body and blood of Christ, and that Christ’s body and blood are truly received by all communicants—for the forgiveness of sins to those who believe, and for judgment to those who disbelieve? If yes, good! If not, then that’s bad fruit to watch out for and to avoid.

If a preacher’s fruit—his doctrine—is good, if it lines up with, not just some, but all of these teachings of Scripture, then receive him and believe him. If it’s bad, then “avoid him,” as Paul writes to the Romans in chapter 16.

Then you also have the preacher’s life as part of his fruit, how he behaves, what he does. It’s important, but secondary, because it’s knowing Christ rightly and trusting in Him that will save you, not the preacher’s life. And we know that every preacher is sinful, so don’t waste your time looking for a one who never sins. You won’t find one. But do look for someone who practices what he preaches, which includes repenting when he sins. Test his life with mercy. Test him with love. But do test his life to see if he fulfills the requirements St. Paul set forth for preachers in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus chapter 1. For example, if, while preaching against stealing, he helps himself to a portion of the offerings, that’s obviously bad fruit! If, while preaching against adultery, he becomes an adulterer, that’s bad fruit! If he preaches mercy but doesn’t know how to show mercy himself, that’s bad fruit! If he preaches that the doctrine of Christ is all-important, but is willing to compromise it by remaining in fellowship with false teachers, or by allowing people to commune together at the Lord’s altar without first making sure that their confession of faith lines up entirely with the truth of God’s Word, that’s bad fruit!

In the last part of today’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that none of this is a question of a preacher’s sincerity. These false prophets against whom Jesus warns think they’re serving the Lord Christ. They call Him, “Lord! Lord!” And they’re shocked and horrified on the last day when the Lord rejects them, saying, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you evildoers! They thought they knew Jesus, and they preached the Jesus they thought they knew. Some even did miracles, (supposedly) in Jesus’ name. But it turns out they didn’t know Him, and so the Jesus they preached was a false one. They allowed themselves to be led away and deceived by Satan and his doctrines of demons, which they then echoed in their preaching. It was Satan’s power behind their miracles, even as Scripture says that in the last days the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.

So don’t test a preacher based on his sincerity or even by miracles he performs. Test him by his fruit—by his doctrine and his life. It’s one of the most basic tasks given to Christians by Christ, and it’s why we often include it in our General Prayer. Because you don’t want to arrive at the day of your death or at judgment day and only then find out that you didn’t actually know the real Jesus. He doesn’t want that to happen, either! That’s why He has given you His dependable Word, and His warning, but also His Holy Spirit in the Word to “guide you into all truth,” as He promised His disciples, to guide you and to teach you, and to keep you from being deceived. And when you have tested and found that a Christian preacher is actually bringing you the Word of Christ, then use his ministry. Hear him, believe him, and put the Word of Christ that he preaches into practice. Then you will be, as Jesus says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, like the wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Amen.

(Only audio of the sermon is available. Click here to download.)

Sermon for Trinity 6

Romans 6:3-11 + Matthew 5:20-26

Early in His ministry, Jesus was not well understood by the Jews. He came preaching a message that the Gospel writers summarize with, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand! Repent and believe the Gospel!” The “Gospel”? What about “the Law”? What about Moses and the Prophets? What about the Ten Commandments, with which every single Jew was intimately familiar? Was Jesus abandoning them? Was He trying to replace them with a different message? That’s what the scribes and Pharisees were accusing Him of. But in the verses just before today’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus corrected His disciples’ understanding: Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

Well, then, why were the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law still persecuting Jesus? They, too, were keenly interested in fulfilling the Law. So what was the problem? What was the difference between their teaching of the Law and Jesus’ teaching of it? The difference was that the Pharisees and teachers of the Law weren’t using the law lawfully, while Jesus was. St. Paul wrote to Timothy, We know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. Let’s dig into today’s Gospel and discover what it means to use the Law lawfully—and unlawfully.

How were the teachers of the Law using the Law unlawfully? We can point to two things. First, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law weren’t teaching the Law hard enough. They dumbed it down. They made it too easy to obey, because they made it all about outward obedience. What do I have to do to fulfill the Law? “Don’t curse your parents. Don’t murder anyone. Don’t sleep with another man’s wife. Don’t take someone else’s property. Give at least 10% of your income to the Lord. And do no work at all on the Sabbath Day.” That just about summed it up, for them. Yes, the Pharisees added more laws than that, a whole list of specific actions people were able to take, if they applied themselves. But essentially, if they were able to do those simple things, they thought they were fulfilling the Law.

But that’s not how Jesus explained the Law and how to fulfill it. He says in our text, I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. For all their reputation as the best and brightest within the Church, for all their infatuation with the Law, the Pharisees weren’t keeping the Law well enough to gain heaven by it.

Jesus goes on to explain, using a few examples from the Ten Commandments and from other laws embedded in the Old Testament. You have heard that it was said to the people of old, ‘You shall not murder,’ and, ‘Whoever murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be subject to the council; but whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire. So Jesus agrees with the Law, You shall not murder. But, as He goes on to explain, the Law requires more than just not killing someone. It requires that you never become unjustly angry with your brother or hate your brother. It requires that that you never speak hurtful, harmful, nasty words to your brother.

He goes on, Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny. In other words, the Pharisees taught that offerings and sacrifices made up for a person’s sins against his brother. They thought that such “little” sins against their brother, like anger, like hurtful words, could be easily taken care by simply bringing a nice offering to God. But Jesus says, no, the Law requires more than that. It requires that, if you injure your brother in any way, you make it up to him, not just to God. And if you refuse to do that, don’t imagine that God will accept you. No, the Law continues to accuse you as unrighteous. There’s no way you can be saved by it.

After our text ends, Jesus goes on to talk about another Commandment, You shall not commit adultery. But, as He explains, the Law requires more than just not sleeping with another person’s husband or wife. It requires pure and chaste thoughts, in your heart, in your mind. I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. This is why God gave a Ninth and a Tenth Commandment, where the Law forbids coveting—desiring or lusting after anything that belongs to your neighbor. The Law commands, not only the hands, but the lips, and, above all, the heart.

So, even though the Pharisees and teachers of the Law sang the praises of the Law, they weren’t using it lawfully, because they weren’t teaching it with the full force of its scope and its condemnation. They made it too easy for themselves and for others to keep, when in reality, the demands of the Law are much broader and all-encompassing, demanding that a person’s whole life—words, deeds, and desires—be devoted to serving God and one’s neighbor. To teach the Law that way is to use it lawfully, to use it in its full force as a mirror that shows impenitent sinners how far they have strayed from the holiness that God requires.

Because the Pharisees and teachers of the Law didn’t understand just how much the Law required of them, they also used it unlawfully in another way: Because they thought they could keep it if they worked hard enough, they also used it, and pointed people to it, as the path to get into God’s kingdom. But that is an unlawful use of the Law. As St. Paul writes to the Romans, If there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the Law. But, he says, the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Contrary to popular opinion at the time of Jesus, the Law was never intended to give life to anyone. That is, no one was ever supposed to draw close to God by his careful keeping of the Law. The Pharisees viewed the Law as the ultimate goal. They preached the Law in such a way that the people would go running to the Law for salvation. Jesus, on the other hand, preached the Law in such a way that, once people realized how impossible it was to reach God through the Law, they would flee from the Law, toward Him, toward His Gospel, for salvation.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.

In order to use the Law lawfully, you can’t use it to work your way into heaven. You can’t send people to it in order to save them. You use the Law lawfully when you use it to show impenitent sinners their sins, so that they might come to realize how much they need the Gospel, so that they might turn from their sins in repentance and turn toward Christ Jesus for the gift of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation—the gift that’s promised in the Gospel.

Only then, only when the poor sinner has been brought to repentance, and has found salvation in Christ after hearing the Gospel promise, only then, when a person has been born again, through the Gospel, through faith, does the Law have another lawful use. For those who have been born again of water and the Spirit, baptized into the death of Christ, having their sins washed away, the Law no longer accuses, no longer condemns. For penitent believers, for Christians, the Law serves as a wonderful guide for serving God and our neighbor.

If you try to guide the impenitent with the Law, that’s an unlawful use of it. Telling an unbeliever who’s living in adultery, for example, to stop living in adultery, as if that would mend their relationship with God—that’s using the Law unlawfully. Telling a classroom of public school students to keep God’s commandment, “You shall not steal,” as if, by not stealing, they would be keeping God’s Law, as if, by not stealing, they would be pleasing to God, is to use the Law unlawfully. But telling a baptized believer to flee from adultery, to steal no longer, urging a believer to learn and to keep God’s commandments, yes, that’s a lawful use of the Law, one that Jesus uses often when talking to His disciples, one that His apostles use often in their Epistles when writing to baptized Christians, one that you’ll often hear me using among you, who have confessed Christ Jesus as your Lord.

The works of the Law can’t make anyone acceptable to God. First the person has to be made acceptable, through faith in Christ Jesus, by trusting in God’s promised mercy for Christ’s sake, and then he can begin to do works that are acceptable to God, works that are guided and informed by God’s commandments. It’s to such acceptable, baptized believers in Jesus that Paul writes in today’s Epistle, In the same way, you also, count yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Your faith-righteousness already exceeds the Law-righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and by it you are already qualified for heaven. Now learn and study God’s holy Law, and be careful to put all God’s commandments into practice, so that your lives on earth may reflect the righteousness that is already yours by faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.