St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Reformation -- October 31st and November 3rd,
2002
Genesis 3:9 – Sin
The LORD God called to the
man, "Where are you?"
John 3:16 – Grace
16"For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life.
Romans 3:28 -- Faith
28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from
observing the law.
1 John 3:11 -- Love
11This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love
one another.
Today we are celebrating the festival of the Reformation. It is on this day
that we are reminded of what God accomplished through his servant Martin Luther
and other faithful men who were led by the power of the Holy Spirit to let
God’s Word speak plainly to them. There were many great things accomplished
during the Reformation, but today I hope that we can get to the heart of what
really happened at the time of the Reformation and see why we can thank and
praise our God for what happened at this very important time on the history of
God’s Church. We will do this as we study four verses from four third chapters
in four books in the Holy Scriptures. In these verses I hope we can hear and
feel the powerful emphasis on four of the great truths of the Reformation.
These truths of God are needed today and always. So let’s look at:
Theme: Great Truths of the Reformation
1. Sin
-- Genesis 3:9
Our first truth is Sin. Our verse
is God speaking to Adam and Eve after they had eaten the fruit and sinned in
the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were hiding in the bushes, because they were
afraid of what God might do to them. God called out to Adam and Eve with these
words, "Where are you?" God knew exactly where they were, but
he wanted them to realize that they were lost in their sin. Adam and Eve were
hiding because of their sin and their feeling of guilt. God also calls out to
us with these same words, "Where are you.?" As God calls out
to us with this same phrase, we must truthfully answer that we are not with
God, but that we are rather living in our sins. We know where we should be. We
should be by God’s side in eager service to our Lord and Savior, but we are not
always there.
This little question also leads us
to see that because of our sin, we are separated from God.. We have to admit,
that we are over here, far away, hiding in our shame, naked in our sin and guilt.
This question leads us to see that we are already dying because of our sin.
This question from God leads us to say, God, please don't look for me, don't
even look at me.
We are still running away into the
bushes of sin, trying to hide from God. Of course this is always a failing
proposition, since we can never hide from God’s all-knowing power. We find
ourselves in more and more trouble. Though intended as the crown of all
creation, we are our own worst enemy. We are lost in sin, in darkness, in crime,
in violence, in selfishness, in hatred, and are at war with God. We are where
we ought never to be and from where we cannot escape. We are dead in sin, and
in our own works of unrighteousness. That’s where I am. That’s where you are.
That’s where we all are. We can never forget our true spiritual condition. We
need to know our miserable condition caused by our sin. God in his holy
Scriptures makes this makes this very plain,, "Surely I was sinful at
birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." (Ps. 51:5). "What
a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Rom.
7:24). If we never recognize that we are lost in sin, we will never see a
need to know Jesus as our Savior.
2.
Grace
After looking at the truth that we
are lost and condemned because of our sins, we might ask, What can be done? But
instead we should ask, has anything been done about this? The answer is, Yes!
The second great Reformation truth is grace. John 3:16 speaks of God's love. "For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life. (John 3:16) Grace is the love and compassion of
God in action. God loves because he is gracious. God is gracious because he
loves, and who does he love? He loves every terrified and desperate sinner. God
loves not only us, but all people as John writes, "God so loved the
world." God can and must love. Yes, he even loves the worst of
sinners.. God loves you and me.
What is the result of God’s grace
and love? God gave his one and only Son. This is the great donation. This is
the gift of God. God sent his Son into our flesh for us to take on our nature,
our shame, our guilt, our sin. He carried all these burdens for all people. He
carried them for 33 wonderful but tough years. He carried the burden of sin
around in his healing hands, on his praying heart, in his searching eyes, and
on his wounded back. He gave not of himself, but he gave himself. He endured
beatings and other sufferings and even death on the cross. He gave one life for
the life of all people, so that we might be spared, forgiven, redeemed and
saved.
What more can you ask? What more do
we need? Here is our full salvation. Jesus came to seek and to save that which
was lost. God loves you and he has always loved you, and he does not ever want
to let you go. The word for grace in Hebrew and Greek has many shades of
meaning. But this is always in it: Grace is a free gift. God’s grace is the
heart, core, and center of the Gospel of salvation. It stands as the final word
of God to all men It needs to remain central in all our preaching, teaching,
reaching. For grace saves. It is the only thing that does save. God saved us by
loving us enough to die for us.
The reformers were people who were
filled by the grace of God. This was not an enabling, promissory grace, that
gives you the strength so you can save yourself, as people had thought and had
been taught. No; it is a grace that changes, transforms, renews everything in a
person’s heart. That is God's grace in Christ. The manger is where this grace
was revealed. The cross was the achievement of grace. The resurrection and the
empty tomb are the validation of grace, and heaven is ours by grace. This is
what the people of the Reformation brought to the forefront and we thank God
that this is the heart of what we believe and teach.
3. Faith
The question now is, How do I get
this gift of God? Can I buy it? Can I earn it? Is this gift for me? Can I even
find it? Where is it? And when I know where it is, how does it benefit me?
These are serious questions. We are not the first to ask them. God anticipates
them, and he has given us his answer. Hear it! It jumped out at us in our
second text and it becomes more clear in our third. In fact, it weaves it way
through all Scripture, particularly in the stories of the life of Jesus and in
the writings of Paul. What did Jesus say when people wanted help "Whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
And now Paul writes in our third text, "Man is justified by
faith." (Romans 3:28) After analyzing other alternatives -- works,
Jewish law and life, human wisdom -- Paul comes up with this great answer: "Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved – you and your household."
(Acts 16:31)
Now, what is faith? Is faith really
all that it takes to be justified? A number of definitions of faith can be
examined. Some people speak of "the leap of faith" -- a jump into the
unknown dark, over a great valley to safety on the other side. Others say faith
is a decision -- a decision for what is right over what is wrong. Such
definitions for faith are not quite correct They are pictures rather than
explanations. Faith is a leap, but surely not into the unknown or into the
dark. When you talk about a leap, God has first made the leap to us. He has
made himself known to us in Christ through his holy Word. Faith, then, is a
leap, but a leap into the waiting arms of a loving God.
While these terms can be
beautifully explained, we would in a Reformation sermon much rather speak in
the language of Scripture. Faith is trusting in things we can’t see and
trusting in what we hope for. God gives us faith. It is a gift from God. Luther
used to ask: "How can I find a gracious God?" It is easy. God has
showed himself to be a gracious God. Not all questions are answered when we
have faith, but this main question is answered. God is gracious to me in
Christ. My sins are forgiven. I am God's child. God looks at me in Christ and
sees only Christ's righteousness; He tells me I am justified. I believe in
Jesus Christ, my Lord. He is my Lord. That is justifying faith.
.
4.
Love
Now lastly, love. You notice that
we have spoken of faith as described by Paul in our third text. Part of that
passage tells us that faith saves, "apart from observing the law."
It is self-evident that if and when a man is saved by faith, works are
excluded. He is saved by faith alone. But when we think of the Reformation and
of the church that damned the Reformation, the question occurs, What about
works? Can a man of faith, do no works and still be saved? Or can he keep right
on sinning and breaking the Law and still say, I am saved? We will have to
answer these questions too, because the Reformation, Luther's theology, and our
church many times has been accused of preaching and teaching that if faith
saves, and faith alone, then we can go and live as we please.
Now, of course, this is not true.
It is not true that the Reformation, Luther, or our church teaches that we can
keep living a life of sin. We take the fourth text seriously. "We
should love one another." We can put it another way -- the way St.
James does: "Faith without works is dead." (James 2:20). The
believer loves all people and will show it with his life. The believer loves
his God and will show his love in his every word and action It is not the
teaching of the Bible or of the Christian Church or of the Reformation or of
our church that works are unimportant or unnecessary. But we need to be clear.
Good works cannot save anyone, or redeem a man and good works are not the door
to heaven. Christ's work alone saves and redeems and opens heaven to us.
It is, however, the teaching of the
Bible, the New Testament, the Christian Church, the Reformation, and it is our
teaching that works, as they flow out of faith in giving thanks to God, are
necessary. They are inevitable. These acts of love show that our faith is
alive. God's love creates in us a desire to love him and the people in our
lives. This is not a selfish, self-seeking love, but a love that seeks the good
of our neighbors and of our brothers and sisters in Christ as well as the good
of the church, the nation, the world.
St. Paul reminds us of what part
works of love play in a Christians life,: "For it is by grace you have
been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
– not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works." Ephesians 2:8-10) . Our
good works, like our faith, are God's gifts. Here, too, the Reformation,
rightly understood and emphasized the truth of God. As sinners who are saved by
grace through faith alone which leads us to live a life of love in Christ,
That's what it means to be a Lutheran, yes, a Christian.
These four truths that we have
looked at this morning were being lost in the church leading up to the time of
the Reformation. We thank God that we are able to read and study his holy
Scriptures which clearly teach us about these truths (Sin – Grace – Faith – Love).
Amen