Sermon in Ishpeming 14.08.2005

Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we, Thy grace children, have come before Thy holy face and into the hearing of Thy holy and precious word.

Father, we ask of Thee that service blessing, that Thou would be present with us through Thy Spirit, that Thou would open this holy and precious word to us, that we might grow in the grace of Thy dear Son and in the knowledge of Thy dear Son. We ask, dear Father, that Thou would bless Thy services, that Thou would put Thy holy word into the mouth of Thy weak and poor servants, that Thy children would be strengthened and encouraged to continue in this begun faith.

Dear Father, we ask that Thou would especially comfort those who have been given grace to enter into Thy kingdom, those that live in faraway lands, that have found the sweetness of the gospel and the hope of eternal life. And especially comes to mind that small flock there in the country of Kenya, who even have their own speaker, brother, servant of God. And we pray on behalf of him and those believers that Thy word would be able to go forth there also to seek and to find those that search for a gracious God.

Dear Father, we too have come here today as those that are needy, those that are poor, those that needy, hear the promises of the gospel and be reassured and comforted with the words of grace and the words of truth. We ask that Thou would give unto each of us ears to hear and hearts to receive that word which You would see fit to open unto us this day.

We thank Thee that Thou hast kept and preserved us in this begun faith and hast cared for us with the care of Thy kingdom and hast worked in our midst through the power of Thy Spirit and through the light of Thy word. We ask that Thou hast kept and keep us yet until the end of our journey, that we might reach that destination of life eternal and be able to celebrate with those saints that have gone before.

Dear Father, Thou hast given us many blessings in this life, those blessings that are needed for this body and this life. Thou hast given us a free nation and the possibility to travel freely and even to gather at the services and the protection of the law of this land. And Thou hast given us a free nation and the peace that Thou hast given us a free nation and the peace that Thou hast given us a free nation. For which we raise our hearts in thanksgiving.

But we especially are mindful of this, that Thou gave unto us Thine own Son in whom we have the hope of eternal life. And we ask that Thou would warm our cold and weary hearts through the fire of love and the light of Thy word.

Dear Father, we pray for those who are not partakers of this grace kingdom, those many prodigal sons and daughters that have left even from our midst over the years, who have given up the way of keeping faith and good conscience and are now in the bonds of darkness and the bond of the enemy of the soul. We pray on their behalf and ask that this word would go forth to seek and to find all those prodigal children, those neighbors and friends who are seeking for Thee. Bless the work of Thy kingdom and give power unto Thy word.

We pray, dear Father, 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 an epistle text that is found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, the fourth chapter, verses 1-4. We read in Jesus' name:

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherein ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness and with longsuffering and forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called, in one hope of your calling. Amen.

Before we begin our study of this portion of God's holy and precious word, I would want to return to each of you those greetings that you sent with me when Avis and I traveled to Finland to be part of the service schedule there. Many children of God, of course, related the greetings back to you, some of whom know you personally and some of whom did not know or neither have been here in Ishpraming before to know you personally.

But I have to say that we lacked for nothing on our trip, and I want to express that because it demonstrates the unity of the Spirit that there is here between the believers of America and Finland and all of this world. We were cared for in every way. We were encouraged and comforted with the gospel.

I related unto some of the brothers, the speaker brothers especially, how in some very simple ways I was able to feel that encouragement and that desire to strengthen me in that work that I was called to do, where many of the speaker brothers came and personally wanted to say in a few words that may God bless the work and give courage to do the work. And it was comforting.

There were many other things that I could relate, but even in an external way, I felt a connection to the Finnish brothers and sisters and those in the village of Betterho, being that that was the hometown of my father and also my mother's father. There I was also able to meet the first cousin of my father who was a believer, and it seemed as though I was connected even in an earthly and fleshly way that I had not experienced before. And it was a very precious moment.

It was also such a time that I was able to hear the good news that one of my grandfather Kosky's sister's children had received the grace of repentance after many years in unbelief. And I had not heard that before, and we were able to meet that individual and his wife who had likewise received that grace to return.

Truly, the message of the gospel goes forth to many people there at the summer services. These services are broadcast, and it is possible that over three million people can hear those summer services.

But this text, which also happens by coincidence to be the same text that I used at the summer services, has a special meaning today. As we, as speaker brothers and board members, were founded, necessary and beneficial to gather and discuss the matters of God's kingdom and the matters of the unity of spirit between the workers of God's kingdom.

We did this this Friday evening and discussed many things. And I, for one, was able to understand that I was very faulty in these matters and was very good at false watching and even the loss of trust in some of these matters of the work of the kingdom. And so I was able to hear the sweet message of the gospel even for such lackings and such shortcomings and sins.

Here Paul in this letter to the Ephesians starts off by calling attention to the fact that he is a prisoner of the Lord or in the Finnish text it says a prisoner in the Lord and I'm not sure if that means exactly the same thing. But Paul wrote four epistles and one of them is the epistle to the Ephesians and these were called the prison epistles.

Some more in more recent times have noticed that the ancient text was perhaps written to several congregations and not just Ephesus, but because Ephesus was a central congregation of that time in Asia Minor, that somehow through the years it became known as the epistle to the Ephesians. But it does not matter; that is a detail that remains maybe a mystery somewhat of the ancient times.

But we understand it as Paul's letter to the Ephesians, but it applies as much to us as it does to the children of God of any time. But he wrote this letter from the confines of imprisonment and wrote it to the Ephesians, a new congregation which was a mixture of Jew and Gentile as many of the congregations were of that time.

And he gave this kind of instruction, and it comes to mind that even in reading this as it has in past times, that if we weren't in such a position of Paul confined to prison, no way to actually verbally bring forth the contents of the heart, what would we have written?

And of course we have it before us. Paul wrote those things that pressed against his mind and heart and through the power of the Spirit were the most important matters to bring forth. But he said that he beseeches you, beseeches the Ephesians, that they would walk worthy of the vocation wherein they are called.

And I looked at some of these words of the Finnish text because the words beseech and vocation are not ones that we commonly use in our time. But the word vocation Paul used the word the calling, that calling that we have received, the calling wherein we are called.

We know that he is speaking of that grace calling, that calling that we have as the children of God to be called here into God's kingdom to be partakers of the promises of grace and that hope of eternal life.

So he speaks of it in this kind of way that we are more used to hearing as part of the language of Canaan, the calling of grace, and as exhort he uses the word instruct. So we could perhaps paraphrase even these words that I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, advise or instruct you that you would walk worthy of this calling wherein ye are called.

We as the children of God walk this journey towards that destination of life eternal. We find as the children of God that oftentimes we are overcome by sin, by doubts, by fear, by false watchings, by all manner of corruption.

And as much as we would want to be successful travelers, we find that more often than not that we have fallen short, that we are corrupted travelers. But yet we do need the reminder of Paul that we are on this way that leads to eternal life, that our footsteps or our feet have been placed upon this path by the power of God.

Whether we have been called as prodigal children, sons or daughters, or from the darkness of this world, or if we have been born into Christian homes and have been in contact with the word of God from the time that we have sat on our parents' lap and our mother's knee and so forth, it is possible that many have heard the songs of Zion for as many days as they have been alive.

But we have this endeavor. It would be so pleasant, we could say, if we could be without temptation, without the wounds of sin, that this world would mean nothing to us, that we could pass through this world and there would be nothing that would draw us, no temptations.

But we find that that is not the case, that whether it be sins of the flesh or sins of the right side or self-righteousness, that these are always before us.

So Paul wanted to remind those travelers there of his time, those travelers of Asia Minor and even us, that we would make this endeavor of faith according to the light of God's word, according to the Spirit, and according to the doctrine of salvation that has been given to us from heaven.

And that we would not make this journey unto our own way, our own road, but that we would remain here in the midst of the children of God on this narrow way that has the promise of life eternal, for great is the reward that is promised unto us, the reward of eternal life.

There my thoughts go back to Finland and listening to the word of God there and to the presentations of some of the brothers. And what we were able to experience is that the children of God there, even the youth, have temptations and have trials.

Even though there are more of them in Christianity, certainly living faith, the conservative Lestadian beliefs are very much in the public's eye, yet the children of God there struggle with the temptations that come from the way of this world and from their own flesh and blood, and they talk about the same kind of matters that we do.

One of the things that comes to mind now, and maybe is a departure from our text here a little, but it comes to mind nevertheless, is that of the youth and how this associating between the opposite sex is becoming a concern there as it is here.

And some of the presenters, that perhaps are my age and remember the timidity and the shyness that existed between boys and girls of our era and how that has changed in our time, and how there is a kind of forwardness.

One brother mentioned how his 11-year-old son had received a phone call from someone in school, and the unbelieving girl wanted to be his girlfriend and asked if he had a girlfriend and could they be boyfriend and girlfriend, and he said no, he can't do that.

And she immediately accused him of being a believer. But it was one small example, but it is that way. I know even in our society, and such kind of experiences can already even be here where Christian youth receive those kind of calls.

But it is something of a phenomenon, a place of watching that we have here in our time.

But our text, in our text, Paul gave an example or statement of how one would walk in this calling, and he said with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love.

In this journey of faith, we are many personalities and we are individual people, even though we have that same hope of eternal life.

And one may struggle in one issue and one in another, and we are caretakers one of another.

And Paul wishes and encourages that when we make this journey of faith, that it would be with lowliness and meekness.

Now here again I could add that from the Finnish text, that in place of meekness, the word chastity or purity is used, but it gives us a picture of what should be our state of mind and what should be in our heart when we make this endeavor of faith on our own part and how we interact with other brothers and sisters in faith and how we interact with those that are on the outside of God's kingdom.

But here Paul talks about, we could say, the mind of Christ, and sometimes we use that terminology that we must keep the mind of Christ, and we mean by that the characteristics that Christ had of being longsuffering and being gentle and being kind and being above all forgiving of those that transgressed against him.

And he too was longsuffering, that we would suffer even the misdeeds or the injustices of others.

This oftentimes comes into play in our life here in God's kingdom, although on one hand we might be quick to wrath, of which the Bible warns against, that we would not be avengers or quick to wrath.

Rather that we would be longsuffering one toward another and that we would do this in love one toward another.

And this does characterize even that example of Christ, that mind of Christ that he had toward all sinners.

We sometimes remember those examples of scriptures of the individual that received the great debt of sin forgiven, ten thousand talents, and how he had no capability to pay that debt, but it was paid, forgiven him by the king.

And yet how on the other hand he took one fellow servant who owed him a small amount and demanded payment.

It pictures for us even our own corruption and our own evilness if we could always only remember that grace and that forgiveness that has been given unto us personally.

But we are such forgetful hearers of God's word, even though we would want to be much better than we are and we would want to make new promises that we would try harder.

Yet we find that we still carry this old portion, this portion of clay, and try as we may still, we find it so needful to be in the hearing of God's word and to be encouraged with the promises of the gospel.

For it is unto the poor that the gospel is preached, unto the weak and the corrupted and sin-blackened that the gospel of the forgiveness of sins is preached.

And we are perhaps so slow as travelers here in God's kingdom, as mothers and fathers and even as children in the home, to ask for the gospel.

It does not have to be even such a great matter that there would be a named sin necessarily, but oftentimes in home life and life in general, we begin to feel the pressing of the old portion and the corruption, and we feel our own sinfulness and evilness.

And we forget that the gospel is as close as our husband or wife or good friend in the congregation or our fellow traveler.

We forget that it is that close, that we don't have to give any lengthy explanation or no one would ask us why are you asking for the gospel or why is it that way with you.

But rather the opposite is true, that the children of God are so willing to preach the gospel to those that are feeling their own needs and perhaps even their own sins and named matters if that would be the case.

But it seems at least with myself that I travel for a while and little by little the weight of corruption comes to bear and the thoughts become so doubting and so heavy.

And before I realize it, once again the old portion has overtaken.

But it is good, dear brothers and sisters, that we live in such a kingdom that the struggling one and the weak one does not have to despair of their sin, does not have to travel beneath the burden of doubt or fear, but can come unto the throne of grace and the time of need to receive personally that promise of the gospel of the forgiveness of sins.

For God's kingdom are many such brothers and sisters and even confessor fathers and mothers, such kind of vessels that can hear these psalms and hear even of the defeats and the wounds of the enemy of the soul and will help you and help me to continue in this journey of faith.

That is the kind of kingdom that we have.

Paul continued and reminded those believers of his time that endeavor or endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And I try to think of an example of what might even picture this but was not able to come up with anything.

But the Finnish text in the word in the place of the word bond uses siddhe, which is more like, I think, a binding or we could say a tying together, some kind of device.

Maybe we could think of it as a rope or a string or wire that would bind something together so that this unity that is part of the characteristic of the Spirit of God is bound together with these binds of peace so that we would be able to journey together in this power of the Spirit.

It is possible, and here it speaks of Spirit meaning the Holy Spirit, that there can be binds of spirit that are not the proper binds.

We remember those, or those older ones of us remember including myself, remember the days of heresy and how those of heresy were bound together in some kind of peace that was not the peace of God but was the peace of a kind of sleep of sin where they did not want to be reminded or instructed with the word of God.

So the unity among us must be that unity that is inspired by the Spirit of God and is the fruit of the Spirit of God in our midst.

And that peace that is here must be the peace that is the peace of God that comes when one is able to enjoy the peace of the good conscience with God and with man, with the fellow brothers and sisters in faith and even with those that are not of the household of faith.

Even though we can't have God's peace with them, we can live in peace with them.

But it is so, as Paul has said here, that it is an endeavor that kind of speaks of it in this way that maybe it's not so easy to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, that it requires maintenance, it requires care.

It requires these things that we have spoken of already of longsuffering and of love and of putting the benefit of the doubt, we can say, upon the speech and actions of one another.

Or as Luther so often said, that we would put the best of construction on what our neighbor does or our brother and sister in faith, that we would want to view it in that kind of light.

If there is something that we don't quite understand, that we would at least do that part, that we would think the best of our brother.

And in that way work to keep the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace because we know how the enemy of the soul works or tries to cause division and difference between the children of God.

We here in North America have experienced that from time to time, but I was surprised that even there in Finland that is a concern for them that this unity would be preserved.

And there was much discussion, much admonition even in the sermons that were heard there concerning life here in God's kingdom and bringing before the mind and before the congregation of the children of God that what is this kingdom of God.

And more than once I heard and even expressed personally that part of scripture that the kingdom of God is not meat or drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

There is one body, one Spirit, even as you are called in the hope, one hope of your calling.

And that upon that we have built the hope of salvation that we have here on earth.

But one kingdom of God, one Spirit of God, there is only one hope of salvation.

That is what we believe and that is what we confess.

That here is the kingdom of God and we are ourselves not worthy to be members of it.

But even Apostle Paul said that by God's grace I am what I am.

He felt the infirmities of corruption and perhaps each of you have felt that even as I oftentimes do myself feel this infirmity that we must carry.

And yet we are here on this way that leads to life eternal, dear brother and sister, and it is good that we can gather here into the light of God's word and to the fellowship of His children and be reminded of that hope of salvation that we have.

That it is not built upon our endeavor, it is not built upon anything that we can do, but it is built upon the grace promises of God.

And we, as weak and we as poor, we as struggling oftentimes in faith, we can only look to the author and finisher of our faith in the hopes that we would be cared for by God's kingdom and we would be loved by the children of God and that we would be able to safely reach the destination of life eternal.

So it is so that to such ones is the gospel of the forgiveness of sins preached.

And that is our hope and our strength, dear brothers and sisters.

As you would find yourself this day, as you may have come from different places of watching and have had different thoughts and different cares that you have brought to the services today, but you need not look any further or any deeper.

But you can uplift your heart to believe the forgiveness of all sins and errors in the name and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus.

You can do so unto peace, freedom, and joy, and you can remain in the care of God.

And I, as your weak brother in faith and weak servant of God, ask that you would bless and forgive me too for all of my failings and false watchings and all manner of sin that so often is found even in me.

May you yet preach unto me that gospel.

I do promise to believe together with you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Hymn number 449. Ho to your eyes you can see.