Sermon in Minneapolis 25.05.2006

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we have come before the face of God, to hear and speak of the Word of God, to get refreshments to our faith, and to learn and hear what God, who knows us all, our hearts and our lives, what He has to say, what He has to speak unto us.

We have received, or we have been asked a prayer of intercession for a certain family, that God would give them power to stay in faith, and because their child was given up faith, that God would call her with His grace and gospel back to His kingdom.

So we shall begin our services, pray. Dear Heavenly Father, You are Almighty, All-Knowing God, who has created all that we see. You have given us the gift of life. And You have brought us this evening to hear Your Word.

Dear Father, we pray, first on behalf of this family, that You would encourage them through Your gospel, through Your great promises, that they wouldn't look upon their own hearts and their own weakness, but that they could put their trust and hope into Your power, which is immense.

Dear Father, call that their child, whom the enemy, the soul, has been able to lead astray, using the power of sin. Give room for the words of grace and for the power of the gospel.

Dear Father, we have come this evening to read and hear Your Word. Our power is weak, and our understanding is small. That You have everything. And therefore, we humbly ask that You would open Your Word, so that we can hear and receive something for our souls.

Because we are sinful. We are tempted by sin. We have trials every day. And the powers of sin and the enemy of the soul of this world come so close to us. We are like lambs, which have been sent into the midst of wolves. We are in constant danger. Please help us. Open our ears to hear, and our hearts to understand. Open Your Word. Because if You don't open, we must go away poor and empty.

The grace, and the glory, and the majesty be unto Your name, now and forever. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, it's my great joy to be amongst you. There are many personal friends, and many more, who know me, and whom I am sorry to admit that I don't know the names. Familiar faces are many, but I don't know all the names. But through faith and through spirit, we know one another.

It's so good to be here. It was 20 years ago when I was here for the first time. And when I came to the church, I felt the love and the unity and the spirit being the same. You know how it goes. You have heard. I have heard from the brothers that we believe in the same way. We have the same love and same hope and same spirit.

But when I felt it the first time, I felt so warm. And that's what I feel now, so good to be here. And many brothers and sisters sent their greetings. Many have been here, whom you know personally, by names, and by faces, and by hearts. They wanted their greetings to be sent here.

And now we've got so well as an offense. We will pause around the word, which I read from Genesis 27, verse 38. And Esau said unto his father, "Cast thou but one blessing, my father. Bless me, even me also, O my father." And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

Esau was about a 40-year-old man. A married man. And the story of Jacob and Esau is a hard one for us. Because when we look at the story, it seems quite clear who is wrong and who is right. But the spirit and the other way of God says it's not so, but it's the other way wrong.

So it looks like Jacob did wrong. Jacob took a place which did not belong to him. It even looks or seems to us that when he saw, "I am Esau, your oldest son," he lied straight, clear, boldly to his father. That's how it looks like.

And I heard once, an old speaker brother was asked, how was it, Mary or Esau and Jacob, it seems so hard to understand that, how, which one was right? The old speaker brother had said that, "I agree with God." And then he started reading what the word of God says.

And I think that it's good for us also to agree with God. So we start looking at Jacob, Jacob and Esau with the carnal mind, with our human understanding, how it looks like, how it seems, how it feels like, how it shouldn't be. We go wrong. We go wrong.

Because Jacob was Jacob. But he said, "I'm Esau." Much had happened before this. They were 40 years old men, both, Jacob and Esau. They were twins. Much had happened before they were born, even.

It is said that, before they were born, the mother was pregnant, expecting the twins. The twins battled in her womb, so badly, so hard, that she thought that they died.

It's said in the Bible that the mother asked, "If it had to happen so, why was I conceived?" And she was given a, what's the, I suppose, prediction? That there are two nations in your womb, two different nations, which, which, if I find it, I'll read it.

And the Lord said out of her, "Two nations are in the womb, and two manner of people, two manner of people, shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger."

The mother received these words before the children were born. So the mother knew what would happen before it happened. Does it sound familiar? The word of God oftentimes spoke of matters before they happened.

Let's take one example. When Joseph was taken into Egypt, and Jacob, old Jacob was at home, and when Joseph showed himself to his brothers, and asked them to go and pitch old Jacob and his family to Egypt, and when they came to Jacob, and told the story to him of Joseph, he got the word of God, and the word of God explained him, or predicted him that your nation, your family will be in Egypt over 400 years, and they will come back.

So, before old Jacob went to Egypt, he knew that one day they will all go away, come back to the promised land. So, that's very common in the Bible. Oftentimes, we see that God has spoken beforehand through the prophets, and through those, through his song, God.

So, although we feel it, we don't feel clear. We don't see openly. Our mind is weak. Our understanding is small, and we are so carnal. We so easily attach into this world. We are trying to think in man's way.

Still, we know what's going to happen. We are not in a bar. There's a hymn in the Finnish song, I don't know if it's been translated, which says that, oh, those poems are so hard. It says, let me try. Okay, somebody else.

Synnin sumu sielun peintää. Fog of sin covers my soul. Fog of sin. So the sin is like fog. If a person starts living in sin, it's like fog appears around the person. And we know what fog is. We cannot see clear.

Once I go to work on a highway, and there was not a very heavy fog, but loud enough that I had to reduce speed a little. And I started thinking, I'm not authenticated in this kind of fog, but that happened to be that I remember this hymn, this very hymn, how sin affects.

And I thought that what happens in the fog? You know, I could quite easily drive, because a road opens before me. But I'm the, I'm Dutch, it disappeared, but I could see where the road was. So I could find it.

And so I thought that what are the consequences of fog? And then I found at least one matter. I didn't see where I was going to. I saw the route, I saw the way for a certain length, but not far. I didn't see the goal.

And I think that that is one important thing that happens also. If sin can rule the goal in a person's life, you know, the fog appears, and then you don't see the goal.

Boys and girls, little boys and girls, why are we believing? Have you ever been asked in day circle or Sunday school, why do we believe? What's the reason why we believe? Because it's so fun? No.

But so that one day we would go to heaven. I think you haven't thought that many times, but it seems that we tend to forget it. We also, a big one at all, we tend to forget why we believe. We are where to heaven.

Our hope is not in this life. Although it is good to be a believer, it's a good lot to be a believer in this time also. This faith protects us from so many dangerous things which harm people's lives.

The freedom, the so-called freedom, which is also the kingdom of God, is a trap. You start ruining the freedom, you start enjoying the freedom, and you may enjoy it for a while, for a moment.

For a certain time, it feels good. It feels that now, this is a freedom. This is free, like nobody did what I can do. Now I can be what I want to. That's a trap.

One day, it happens so that the sin kind of lost its good feelings and the juice goes away. And then comes all those consequences. You have lost faith, you have lost hope.

My brother lost his faith 20, 30 years ago, he said that after that, he said openly, that after that I have not had good friends. And that's true.

Well, there are good people in the world. I'm not saying that. There are nice people in the world, very nice, trustworthy, very good lives, decent people, but still, it's so different. It's so very different.

The bond of the spirit, it goes, it's like the peace of God, the word of God says, it goes beyond all human understanding. The peace of God is different from any other peace.

There is peace in the world. Or some people have peace in the world. That's faith. It's human peace.

Paul said of himself that when he persecuted the believers, he did it with good conscience. It didn't bother him. He felt good. When he was at Rome, he did fine, just fine. No problems. No problems. No problems. He had peace.

But that peace is different from our peace. This goes over our human understanding. It is much more than that peace or trust or hope which even a good life can give in this world.

Peace. And Esau had lost peace. He had lost his childhood faith.

When Bible describes these brothers, there's a big difference. Even when they were small, young, the Bible says that Jacob stayed at home. He was a whole boy.

And Esau, he didn't want to stay at home. He feeds words. He had to go. And I understand so simply that during these trips, sin attached.

He saw that which he should not see. There's a children's song, I don't know if that has been either translated, which says that little eyes don't look at every direction. Do not look at every matter. It's not good to look at everything.

We see a rod which is against our faith, which is against good conscience. And it is not good to look at them. So that the battle is not outside us, but it's inside.

Last year, I had a chance to go to one school to speak or tell the students. They were 60-year-old students, and I spoke to them of conservative Lutheranism. It's what we are.

I had a laptop computer and a data projector when I went there, and I said that I wouldn't like, I would not like to show pictures or slides of our services or organizational charts and vision that. I would hope merely that you would make questions. Be free and ask. Whatever you want to ask, be free to ask.

I don't know if I can answer, but I try. I try my best. And they started making questions. Questions. And God helped me so that they made so good questions. They were honest young people who wanted to know.

They had heard a lot. Many kinds of interesting stories, what we are. And they wanted to know. So, they asked, what's the difference between you and other Lutherans? You know, that's the situation. What's the difference between you and other Lutherans?

They knew that other Lutherans are one group and we are the other. And I tried to say, I spoke of, I just made a list. I said, I'll make a short list. And then they started making questions.

So, what's wrong with television? And I again made a short list. And then they asked, when one of the short lists again was rock music, they said, what's wrong with rock music? I said, it's spirit. It's more than noise or voice for singing. It's spirit.

And they said, okay. They, no one said a word against. And then, then, one girl said that, so, how is it so that if somebody takes a film from internet, downloads it to the computer and starts looking from the computer, what's the difference? Well, what's the difference? I said, there is no difference. It's the same thing. It's no difference if you download it through internet or look from television. What's the difference? And they said, that's right.

And then, then one girl asked me, so, have you ever felt a temptation to do something what's wrong? How would you say, I said that I have not only felt the temptation, but I have done so much evil.

And then they, you know, I was supposed to be a believer. And I am a believer. And that's what the believers are. I tried to say to them that there are nothing but sinners in this world. That's why I'm a believer, because I'm a sinner.

If I had not sinned, I wouldn't need to believe them forgiven. I wouldn't need to believe. So, it can freeze.

Then the same girl asked, so, what do you do when or after you do something what you shouldn't do? And I said to them many times, you do good questions.

And then I explained them. I explained them in detail. That normally, I go to my wife. She is the prophet help which God has given to me. I go with her and I told her what's happened to me.

When I was a young, young married man, my wife always saw through me. When I came home and I had defied conscience, she said, what's wrong with you? And I thought that why can't I hide myself from my wife? But now I thank it.

I thank God because it's been my support. It's been my very best help. That's how God has preserved me in my faith. I'm a sinner and I have needed much forgiveness.

And so I told the girl that I go to my wife and I told her what's happened to me and I asked, can you please forgive me? And then I said that she forgives me in the name and life of Jesus.

And then I said that God in heaven is, amen, and wipes away the sin. The sin disappears. The pain goes away and I'm free again.

So that kind of question they made. It was a nice discussion. I packed a laptop, but I didn't use it at all. And we talked ten minutes over due time. That's what happens to me often times, maybe also this thing.

So that's the power of sin. The power of sin is the second biggest power in the world. It's so big that we shouldn't be little bit. The will of God says that no one can take hot coals without burning himself.

We cannot keep hot coals in our hands without burning our hands. That's the truth.

So Esau was not a believer anymore. He had lived such a life that Rebecca said to Isaac, "I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Pev."

Namely, those daughters of Pev were Esau's wife. Esau had several wives. That was the culture of that time. That was not in itself wrong, I suppose. That was the culture of that time. That was the way of that time.

Jacob himself had four wives. But they were unbelievers and that was wrong. It is so clear of the word of God that the believer can never with good conscience take an unbelieving spouse. It's impossible.

How can you mix life and darkness? How can you mix water and fire? It's impossible.

In Finland, the ladies make tiger cake. There is black and white together and they mix it. Not very much. So it's black and white from inside. But you cannot mix light and darkness.

When the light comes, the darkness disappears. When the light disappears, darkness comes. That's unavoidable.

If you have fire and you put water upon it, you know what happens. Even your kids know what happens when you put water upon the coals fire, it disappears. They don't fit together.

And then Rebekah said, "If Jacob take the wife of the daughters of him, such as these which are the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do? What good shall my life do me?"

So, so that the life of Esau, what had made his mother's life very hard. So we see and understand that was wrong. But Esau didn't see it.

If we try to go to our text, it says, "Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father?" And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

Esau had an understanding of this matter. But that was wrong understanding, misunderstanding. And that's very different from true, correct understanding.

It's dangerous if a person does not understand that he does not understand. If a person understands that I don't understand, that's who we say, it's a beginning of wisdom. It's a start of light. The person can see light.

But if a person does not understand that he does not understand, he's in total darkness. There's no need of help. There's no need of change. He thinks that's fine. Everything is fine. He thinks everything is in good order. There's no need of change.

Repentance is the change of mind. Isn't it? If a person repents, it is a change of mind, always. No matter if it's an unbelieving person or a believer, it's a change of mind.

I don't want to do that. I want to do as I know is right. I want to give that up. I want to do it again. God, please, dear Heavenly Father, help me that I would not fall unto it again anymore.

I don't want to do it because I know it's wrong and that separates me from God.

What was the first command? God said, I am something like this, I am Lord of thy God who brought you away from Egypt. Keep no other gods before me.

So, if I am before God, God said, keep no other god before me, where are those other gods, those other matters from my point of view, if they are before God? They are, aren't they, between me and the God. They are in between them.

So, they separate me from God. And God is a jealous God. He wants to be number one. I said to my wife, that you are number two. The matter is so. They must be so. Not even a spouse can be sold here. It should be.

Although, it's best, you know, we can say it's the best gift that one can have. It is not that, it is not the most important thing in life. That's faith.

Come now to the father who had blessed Jacob, that Jacob whom the mother had prepared to go before the father.

And I understand very simply that this story of Jacob and Esau speaks of a last day, of the judgment day.

And in Esau we see two pictures. And in Rebecca we see two pictures. And as you know, if you had an overhead trajectory and you put two overheads at the same time, they disturb one another so that they... You don't know really what there is.

You must look at those pictures separately to find what they are. You cannot put them together.

And in Isaac we see God, the heavenly father, on the last day. And Jacob is a child of God before the God in the last judgment day.

So, when we children of God go to the judgment seat on the last day, there before us is a blind father who does not see us as we are. We are Jacob's, aren't we? Sinners.

When we go there, we are being asked, who are you? And we say, I am Esau. Hello, I am Jacob. I am Esau. I am a sinner. But I am a righteous, pure, sinless child.

And the blind God, He does not see us as we are. He tries us, and He feels the skin of the sheep. And when we come close to Him, He smells the smell of the clothes that Rebecca, the congregation mother, has put upon us.

He doesn't see us as we are. Isn't it good? He only touches us. He hears us. And He smells us, but does not see us as we are. And we praise Him.

We are fake Jesus. Not real. But good enough to please Him. And that's because of Rebecca, the congregation mother, prepared Jacob to go before Esau. She put the robe upon Himself.

There was over a 40-year-old man. How does he feel like if your mother loves you every morning? Doesn't feel very natural. That's how it happened.

When Jacob went to meet his father, Rebecca put him the whole son. Rebecca made the food. The mother made her ready.

The congregation, this holy crown here upon earth, kingdom of God. The believers, they are a gift of God to us. They help us. This is the kingdom where is the grace of God, the forgiveness of God, the words of consolation and grace. Jesus.

And so, Jacob was blessed. And then came Esau, thinking that he had done everything as he had to. He had prepared himself what was needed. He came with his own words, thinking that everything is as it needs to be.

He didn't know that he was wrong. And I think that's the saddest part of this whole story, that he did not know.

You know, when he went there, he was quite sure. Jacob was weak and doubting and fearful, thinking that he knows me. How can I go? If Rebecca said go, be obedient, be obedient to my voice.

Didn’t she say, be only obedient to my voice, myself? And that's one thing, that's one important thing. Obedience does not mean that we have to understand. Isn't it so?

To be obedient does not mean that I understand, but it means that I listen to. If you don't see, you can listen. Hear.

If somebody lives in such a right situation that the part of sin surrounds, then he or she cannot see, still he or she can hear. And that's important.

If you don't know, if you don't see, if you don't understand, you still can hear. Be only obedient to my voice, said Rebecca. Said mother, and that is what saved Jacob.

He was obedient. He listened too. He did what he was said, although he didn't understand, although he feared.

There he went, fearing that he would be sent away. And he was blessed. And then came the elder brother, being sure that I will please my father, and he was rejected.

It's spoken in Hebrew. That's one portion of the Bible, which the speaker read. It says here, Hebrews 12:16, "Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

For ye know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.

For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."

He tried his best, but it was not enough. He was rejected.

So that can also happen.

It said in John that there were some of the highest Jews who believed upon him, but Jesus did not trust himself to them because he knew them by their heart and no one had to explain how their heart was. He knew them.

So people believed on Jesus, but Jesus did not trust himself unto them. Why? Believing is not only believing.

Believing does not mean that I believe what has happened, that it is true. It is not only keeping it true.

With that kind of faith, we are not in a very good conflict. It says in James that you believe that Bibles are true. That is well done. The devils also do so and tremble.

We are not in a good company with that thing.

The inner soul believes into the word of God. The believing is not that we think or keep that that is true. It's not enough.

What is believing then? How would you say? Isn't it asking and hoping that please dear father help me if you don't help me I'll drown. I cannot live I cannot believe without your help.

We need God's constant help. We need his grace. We need his power. Our power is so small it's so small that it shouldn't be called power.

We remember what happened to Peter. He was an old speaker brother. He had walked he had lived with Jesus for three years.

He had been cooked many times in hot water. You know he had fought for the word of God for years. He had spoken on the matters of faith for many years. He was a tried man.

But when he decided to follow Jesus with his own power you remember what happened. It was a young girl young servant. I suppose I don't know for sure but I think that she was way under twenty a young girl and she didn't ask she just stated that you were also in Jesus one of his followers.

She didn't ask were you she just said that you were one of them. So it wasn't a question. He could have been fighting and that were quiet. If he didn't say anything that was positive. He could have said hmm or but he couldn't do even that.

He denied. He said I was not. So that's what we can do with our own power. We can deny our faith. Sin. And that's it.

Without the help of God we are lost.

So what do we learn of our text? I would like to say dear brothers and sisters let us fear sin. The power of sin is much greater than we can even think. Let us fear sin.

So what should we do if sin attaches? If when it attaches? We should believe our sins forgiven.

So what is then confession? If I can use a few minutes what is confession? I was selling an old car and I know that it's not easy to sell a used car. You're not in good shape.

And I was selling it to a believing brother and he was willing to pay very little. I owed a lot more but that was it. And I knew that it is not easy to sell a used car and I wanted to tell him what were the cause in the car or faults.

Yeah. So I told him I explained as much as I could remember I had even a kind of mind of prayer that I would like to do that it should be done.

But I present one thing that the driver's not the driver's door but the other door the lock was broken. I forgot it.

And so we decided the money and when I was bringing the car to him then I remembered the lock. But the always eager helper and the soul said to me don't tell it.

If you say he may say that I don't want to have it. And so I didn't say it. And after that I felt that. And I thought that I understood that I did wrong.

He was not right. I should have said it. And then I sat on the service bench in our wife and a certain dear brother burst and I kept the sermon and spoke very warmly and preached the forgiveness of all sins and I sat in the bench and remembered the lock.

And I believed and I felt good and I felt there in the bench that now if I die all my sins are forgiven and I go to heaven but if I leave them this lock it bothers me as long as I speak it to the brother.

And it seemed to be that I may not die but I may live and I decided that to live easier or to have to feel easier I should go and talk to the brother and then I thought that all this is what confession is for it is not for death but for life.

So the gift of confession is the gift of God so that it would be easier for us to live as believers if the sins are forgiven and if I die that won't bother me but the gift of confession has been given and showed that if I live it's easier to meet that brother.

And I was so happy that never before or never after confession has been so easy that it was that easy I was so thankful to God that he taught me in a very simple way what confession means.

And I went to the certain brother and I told him that dear brother when I sold you that car I didn't tell the lot of the door that it was broken that I should have done that and I feel so bad that can you forgive that.

He forgave gladly even smilingly and he said that that I have found it and he said that the one who buys the car has also his own responsibility.

So that which the enemy of the soul had said to me that was again lying has the enemy of the soul ever told you anything else but lies? No.

It's fire. I sometimes thought that it would be good to listen to the enemy of the soul but to do opposite listen to him but do contrary and you do right.

The inner of the soul says it's not very right to go to services they gave me you're so tired then remember that hey I seem to need services very much today.

The inner of the soul says the work of the kingdom of God is not very important yet a lot of other things to do then remember that it's important to do the work of God.

And when the enemy of the soul says to you young believers that the sin which is upon your conscience is so big that no one will understand it remember then that every believer will understand it.

Or if the enemy of the soul says that the sin which is upon your conscience is so small that you shouldn't talk about it then understand that it is so big that you have to put it away soon.

The enemy of the soul has said to me that you always keep the same sermon and I said to him that you too you constantly keep the same sermon and he says that you don't make it to heaven.

We are sinners that's right I am a sinner I am weak and sinful sin so often attaches.

We had young people in our home a few months ago and I had my home you know they are very familiar kids from our neighborhood and they teenagers some 15 17 years old.

And I asked those kids do you really think that when we speak of sin that's the kind of theory that in reality we don't fall into sin anymore we are so old that sin doesn't attach us anymore that's how do you feel.

They said yes that's how we understand. I said that's I'm sorry but that's not true you young brothers and sisters I have been a young believer I have been there where you are now.

That was one reason why I wanted to speak in English this evening although I know that there were many who would have wanted to hear sermon in Finnish but I wanted to speak in English so that also young believers could know that that is truly what the speaker speaks and says and thinks and understands.

I have been there where you are now the views which you are looking and the sermon which the enemy of the soul is keeping to you is very familiar to me.

I have been there your parents are in there when they warn you they know because they have burned their hands with sin.

The power of sin is so big that without the help of God we are all lost like Esau we might think that it's alright with me my marital correct and my marital right as Paul said when law awakened did he say so did he said I died when he didn't understand that he shouldn't sin he didn't know what sin is.

That's a situation of Esau he thought that he is ready to receive blessing but there was just one blessing and he could not receive it he was rejected and it does not mean that God doesn't want to bless or forgive no it doesn't mean that but he didn't want to change his life.

Repentance is a change of mind God dear brothers and sisters this evening who feel and understand that sin has attached my conscience defiled my conscience I'm a sinner listen to the word of God which God has made us to speak.

I have come here to practice sins that's the reason of our sermons believe your sins forgiven in Jesus name and precious upon your brother sins are forgiven in Jesus name sins forgiven sins are forgiven in Jesus name and precious upon sins forgiven in Jesus name socially sins forgiven.

And you have a permission to believe. Even little boys and girls, that is the food for our souls, that we can believe sins forgiven. Believe all sins forgiven in Jesus name and precious Atonement land.

And there is no fear that I am a big sinner before you, nor I also blame my sins forgiven. I want to believe.

By praying, by serving with the word, no one becomes saved, but by true faith. True believing is a big gift to God that we can believe.

In Jesus name, Amen.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen.