Sermon in Ishpeming 01.07.2007

Let us quieten our hearts into prayer and thanksgiving. Holy and righteous God, we thy children have gathered here this beautiful Sunday morning to be in the hearing of thy holy and precious word and to be warmed by the hope of eternal life that has been won for us through thy dear Son.

We have gathered here today into the fellowship of thy children and we ask that thou would speak unto us through thy poor and weak servants that we might receive that word of life that we need to make this journey, that nourishment of thy word and those instructions and teachings and comfort that each of us needs to renew those promises, to continue in faith and to receive even those instructions and warnings of those things that we face.

Dear Father, we thank thee for all gifts and blessings that thou hast given us that are needful for this life and this body. And most importantly, we thank thee that thou hast given us the gift of faith and has through thy dear Son won that victory of salvation which is intended for all people.

Dear Father, we thank thee for thy kingdom and that living word that thou hast caused to be preached here in the midst of thy children. Give unto us again this day those ears of thy disciples and those hearts that would receive and believe thy holy and precious word.

Dear Father, we also this day bring forth a special petition. We pray for our dear sister Archie and her family. We know that thy will will be done in all matters. But we as a congregation and her brothers and sisters in faith do pray that she would yet have many years in our midst. And so we ask that thou would even do that miracle and that healing that is necessary that she might yet be part of our fellowship for time to come. Strengthen her family especially her husband Tom that he may receive thy will and may endure even in this time of trial.

And dear Father, we pray even as thy dear Son has taught us: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

We shall read for our consideration and study a portion of God's word that is found in the first epistle of John, the first chapter. The chapter is short and we will read the entire ten verses plus two verses from the second chapter. In Jesus' name:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the word of life; for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.

This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you: that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another; and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

My little children, these things I write unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Amen.

This text that we have read is not one of the texts that was appointed for this Sunday, but this text and one that was commonly or often read from the twelfth chapter of Hebrews came to mind concerning this life in God's kingdom and the personal endeavor of faith here.

The first epistle of John is not addressed to any specific congregation as many of the epistles of Paul were, but John has written a general epistle, kind of an open declaration of faith to those believers of his time and certainly being the word of God have remained timely and necessary even until this very day.

We read in the beginning of this chapter kind of, we could say, a salutation or an introduction that John wrote as is quite common even when we would write letters in the old-fashioned way with ink and paper and write some greeting or some salutation to the one who would receive the letter.

In this particular epistle, John begins by reviewing, we could say in a nutshell, the experience that the disciples had with the Lord Jesus Christ: that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, of the word of life. That speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, that which was, that or he who was from the beginning, he who was able to be seen as the word become flesh and they were able to have fellowship with him.

John, as well as the other disciples, had been called from the ways of this world to be followers of the Lord Jesus, and following his resurrection from the dead and his commissioning, they went forth into this world to confess their faith and to preach the word of God with the power of God's Spirit.

So John wants his listeners to know of this fellowship that he has experienced with the others with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

So John, as a faithful servant of God, as a believer who had that heartfelt Christianity, that heartfelt joy of salvation, wanted others to know all of which he knew and had seen that their faith would be encouraged and that they would be able to continue on this way that leads unto life eternal.

And he says that these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. So it seems that the apostle here wants to start his letter in this way that he emphasizes his own personal faith and his relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ before he begins to talk about other matters that were needed to be talked about and to be written of.

And he wants them to experience the joy of salvation that he himself has come to know when he received the forgiveness of his sins and began this walk in faith, this endeavor of faith.

And this is certainly not anything different than life in God's kingdom today, even the endeavor of faith, the personal faith of the heart, the making of promises to be faithful unto the Lord Jesus and to walk here in the kingdom of God in the light of the word of God.

This then is the message which we have heard from him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

We could perhaps even with somewhat amazement and astonishment think about how John has summarized here in only one sentence that message that he wished to declare unto his listeners: that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

That certainly covers, we could say, all avenues and all aspects of the heavenly Father, the God who knows all, God who is light, that kind of light that is not only the light of creation but that light that is able to see all things and all people and know all the things that are part of us as mankind and even as us as believers, to know perfectly well our cares and our concerns, our fallings and all things.

Nothing can be hid from the living God, the God of light who displays his light unto his children through his kingdom.

John says that there is no darkness in him at all. There is no part of him that has any kind of deceit, any kind of error, mistruth, but he is the God of light.

It has so pleased God, it says in the scriptures, that by the foolishness of preaching that some would be saved.

And we, speaker brothers, I think often lament of our own inabilities and weak understandings and lament of our duties, and it sometimes seems that way that would there not have been a different manner, a different means of delivering unto these children of God the message of God, the proclamation of the gospel.

But he has chosen that through this medium of preaching of the word of God that his will and the truth of God's word, the grace of God's word, would be brought forth unto this world and unto his kingdom.

And that word, even though delivered by faulty servants, nevertheless is the word of God.

Was it Lestadius who spoke of the Lord of the seeds? And he used that analogy or comparison that, as even others have, Luther throughout the time of how the sower has gone forth to sow and has had those seeds to cast forth onto the ground.

And the sower is not perfect but the seed is good.

And the comparison, of course, that we make is that even though the servant of God is faulty and poor, yet that seed is good.

That's the seed of the word of God that is sown into the hearts of mankind.

So there is no problem with the seed; it is that word of God which is the light that lights our pathway that will take us or takes us onto the promise of heaven and shows the way.

And we have experienced that in our lives that this word shines into our hearts.

We as listeners to the word of God must be honest with ourselves.

There was one preacher brother some years back, Peter Nordstrom, who perhaps the younger generation may have only heard by name, but for many of us he was a dear friend and brother in faith.

But I recall him as one who often put it in that way: be honest with yourself and in the hearing of the word of God allow the word of God to penetrate into your heart.

Listen to the word of God when you come into the services and don't stay away from the word of God.

Another part of these scriptures speak in this way that as that day approaches that we would assemble more frequently together, that day of the end of time.

Here John then says that if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

Elsewhere in this, and we read it in our text, is that at the very next verse that if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.

So John makes that kind of contrast for us between light and darkness and where the light is found and where the darkness is found.

And how we oftentimes say that we can't walk with one foot in the world and one foot in God's kingdom.

But the fellowship that he is speaking of here is the fellowship of the children of God.

If we say that we have fellowship with him, meaning God or the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we walk in the darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

So one struggles if they try to travel with a divided heart, and many have tried and no one has succeeded to travel with this world and with the children of God.

For in this world is darkness, the worst darkness of all kind, the darkness that overcomes the heart and conscience.

And one is in danger then to travel in the ways of this world or with the fellowship that is too close to this world.

But John puts it very straightforwardly that if one would so travel this way, or he says if we say, using the plural, that if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth, the truth which is found in God's word.

But then he says if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another; in the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Walking in the light is the walk of faith, the endeavor of faith.

Perhaps there are other ways that we could try to describe even life here in God's kingdom in our individual endeavor of faith, but largely it is this that we receive the word of God into our heart and we know that that word is true.

And we know that the word of God is light even as God is light, and we desire to live according to that word even though our mind, even though this world and all of its attractions would want to entice us away from this word and the believing of this word.

But when we do this, when we walk in this light, it says that we have fellowship one with another, fellowship with our brothers and sisters in faith where we feel, we could say, good about being a child of God and traveling here in the kingdom of God.

We have that fellowship.

It doesn't mean that we can't have friends who are outside of God's kingdom, but it means that our friends are first and foremost the children of God.

And it is because the children of God love the life and truth of God's word.

When we are all focused on that, when we individually are, we could say, focused on getting to heaven, receiving the salvation of the child of God or that is prepared for a child of God, and our focus is there, and we desire to hear the word of God because it teaches us how we can keep our focus there, how we can keep our bearings in this journey of faith.

And that word penetrates into our heart and conscience to even show where we have erred, where we have fallen short, where we have deviated from where the word of God has shown us we have because of fleshly attractions and corruption that we carry.

It shows us where we have gone off the path or started to go in a direction that will not lead us up to that destination of life eternal.

But that fellowship between the children of God is the greatest of fellowships because it is centered on the word of God.

And we, even though we carry flesh and blood and some matter, whatever it may be, can arise and cause what we call hard feelings and broken love.

Yet this word teaches us to reconcile one to another in the name and the blood of Jesus by putting away sin.

As sin attaches, I had that kind of experience myself in youth of not, I could say, it did not seem deliberately falling into some matter but making that kind of a proud and even self-righteous promise, said, well, I'll never do that again.

That certainly wasn't right and certainly of itself that's part of it.

But the truth of the matter is that sin does not leave from the conscience until one has been washed in the blood of Christ.

So that's why John even in this short verse has connected so many very important and fundamental things for the child of God walking in life as he is in the life is our personal endeavor of faith here within the life of God's word and the fellowship that we have here one with another.

And he says in the blood of Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

So that is the power of each child of God: the blood of Christ which has washed away the sins of the entire world and our own sins is to put sin away.

As sin attaches one, I remember reading even of the, you could say, the magnitude of sin and big sins, little sins, and we could say minor, and not in the sense that sin is free or that sin has no consequence.

But I remember reading in one of the finished books of how one writer had put it that certainly the large and major sins bring one unto the destruction of hell.

But then he said, but the little ones don't leave you on the way, meaning that little sins accumulate and they make that kind of difference that the conscience becomes hardened and one is not able to feel the love of the congregation.

One is not able to feel that the kingdom of God is any longer their home.

That's because of sin.

Jesus wrote in, or Jesus spoke in, or the evangelist wrote that concerning the end of time that the love, because sin abounds, the love of many shall wax cold.

And what does he mean by that?

He means or speaks of the effects of sin on the heart that when there are sins, unforgiven sins, love then begins to diminish.

Love towards the children of God, love towards God.

And one thing then becomes in danger of losing faith altogether.

So the message of God's kingdom has been enclosed in this kind of the marrow of the bone or the core of the apple is always the same: that puts sin away as sin attaches and trust in the power of the gospel of the forgiveness of sins.

John then seems to go back to his earlier thoughts and says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Again speaking of this that would one say that they have no sin, that there is no sin, then is this self-deceit, you could say, where one is deceived of themselves.

Or is it not so, dear brothers and sisters, that the word of God when it shines into our hearts it does shine as a very bright light that shows that we are those that need grace and forgiveness, that we are those that are sinful.

But yet when we have our sins forgiven, we are the redeemed children of God, the pardoned sinners, those whose sins have been washed away.

John then speaks if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So I think John is here perhaps speaking, and when he says that we could confess our sins, that we would, as Luther in the catechism taught, acknowledge ourselves guilty of all manner of sin, that we are indeed sinful.

But those that trouble our hearts and consciences are those that we then use that grace privilege of confession to free ourselves with, not that we are made righteous because we have confessed our sins, but because when we confess them we believe the gospel of the forgiveness of sins.

That gift has been given to us, dear brothers and sisters, the gift of confession of sins.

And that to me it seems like it's this way: that it's hard to confess our sins, it's hard to confess where we have erred.

And yet we can name those names, sins that have wounded us on the way, and we can hear that brother or sister, even that sin is forgiven in the name and blood of Jesus.

It's as if it's a very specific proclamation for that very sin that has happened.

Certainly all sins are forgiven in the name and blood of Jesus, but when we confess our sins, those that have troubled and burdened us and dogged us and so forth and caused us to fall, maybe even many times, we can hear for that very named sin that Jesus died even for that.

And therefore be of good cheer for even that sin is forgiven in his name and blood.

If we say that we have not sinned, do we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

Sin then John says in the first verse of the next chapter, he says, My little children, these things I write unto you that ye sin not.

In other words, that certainly is why we preach and proclaim the word of God, that neither I nor you nor anyone would fall into sin.

And we look unto our Lord and Savior who has won the victory as our source of strength that we would not fall into sin.

But then he says, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

So we have not fallen out of faith if we have sinned.

Certainly the process of many unforgiven sins will cause finally that one will depart from God's kingdom.

But we do not believe, as some of those old heretical groups, that if one falls into sin that they have fallen out of faith and out of God's kingdom automatically.

But when one loses faith, one then falls from this kingdom.

But we in this, you could say, in this time especially, but it has always been so that in each generation and each time and the era that the children of God have lived in, that there have been the temptations of this world.

The love of this world is close and self-righteousness is close.

In our time, it seems as though the love of this world is very close because all sins are open and people live as if there is no consequence for sin.

They live as if there is, so to speak, no tomorrow and that they will never be held accountable for having lived in sin.

This troubles even us, the children of God, because it is very close to us, it's close to our children.

When Lot, or when Lot lived in the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, says that he lived in and amongst all manner of evilness.

And even in his time there was the matter of homosexuality and who knows what other kind of sins were found there.

And he in his daily life had to hear of all that the people did in their life of sin and it troubled him.

The scriptures say that it vexed his spirit.

It was hard to live in that kind of situation and remain as a child of God.

But God even physically provided a means of escape for him when he was led out of the city.

But that is kind of the way that we live even now.

It's a time of open sinfulness where people speak of their living together and shacking up and their use of drugs and alcohol and parties and on and on and on.

And this is ever around us.

And because of our flesh and blood these things do have an attraction.

They seem pleasant and exciting and so on.

But we live in such a time.

But we under no circumstance would say that the prince of darkness or the enemy of the soul is more powerful than the living God who has given unto us the gospel message wherein we can put away sins and believe them forgiven in the name and the blood of Jesus Christ.

So that is our power that smites the enemy of the soul and washes away sin when we humble ourselves to walk those steps of repentance and to put away those sins that have become a hindrance to our faith and our life here in God's kingdom.

Dear brothers and sisters, be encouraged to believe personally the gospel of the forgiveness of sins for your own heart, for your own sins, and believe out to peace, freedom, and joy and trust in the power of the gospel of the forgiveness of sins and trust in the word of God and his kingdom which he has given unto us.

In Jesus' name, Amen.