Sermon in Minneapolis 18.03.2018

Praise, mercy, and peace from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us begin our service this morning with opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Holy and righteous God, our dear Heavenly Father, this morning we again ask for your service blessings. We ask for your presence through your Holy Spirit that you would open up your word for us so that we as weak travelers of the way could be encouraged, refreshed, and uplifted, and also fed with your bread of life on our journey of faith. We reveal unto us the sole reason for our salvation, which is alone through the merits of your Son, Jesus Christ. So we ask that you would be with us again today and always. And we ask all of this in the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Amen. Today is approximately nine months before Christmas. So nine months before Christmas is the day of the Annunciation of Mary, when Mary received the announcement from the Archangel Gabriel that she was now pregnant. That she was conceived in a supernatural way, not by Joseph, who she was engaged to, but she was conceived by the Holy Ghost. So today is Mary's Day and our epistle text for today is from Romans chapter 8, verses 1 through 4. And we will hear these words as follows in Jesus' name.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Amen.

Today is Minnesota Wide Rotation Services, and it was supposed to be Steve Hattie here in Minneapolis, but he asked that could he come next Sunday. So we did a switch. So I'm here in Steve's place today, and he will be here next Sunday.

This text of ours is a very important text, and it speaks about the matter of justification. That may be a new word, or an uncommon term. As one believing lady recently said, when there was some talk about justification, she was in her 80s, she says, I've never heard that term in my life. Well, today we will talk about justification. I'm sure you know the concept. I'm sure you know the idea. And it is the core. It is the core of our salvation. It is the foundation. It is the cornerstone. It is the A and the O of our salvation.

But thinking about the term of justification, there has been, throughout the history of mankind, debates over this issue. In fact, in times past, it has even divided Christendom. It has divided Christendom. In Germany, 500 years ago, during the time of Luther, it was being talked about and debated in the universities. It was being talked about in the homes. It was even talked about in the villages. The matter of justification was such that it has even caused wars in the history of mankind. Such impact and influence, this simple word, has caused in the history of mankind.

So why? It is impossible for our human mind, our carnal reason, to comprehend the matter of justification. When people think about God, they think that, well, he is a loving God. And he should pardon each and every person and individual. Just because. Just because he is a loving God. So God could be and do whatever and thus they expect, people expect, that God would be thus merciful and pardon people.

So, as I mentioned, our text speaks about the matter of justification. And last year was a special year when we celebrated the 500th year of the Reformation in commemoration when Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church door there in Wittenberg. During the past year we especially talked much about the Reformation, the importance of Reformation and its meaning and significance. And one of the main themes of Reformation that came out of the Reformation, nothing new, but it was re-emphasized and we could say re-coined was we are saved alone by faith, alone by grace, alone and only alone through the merits of Christ Jesus.

So, God has done everything. God has prepared all for the matter of salvation by and through his son, Jesus Christ. So, it's alone by faith, alone by grace, alone through the merits of Christ Jesus. Nothing can be added, nothing can be subtracted from it.

Well, during the time of Luther, well, soon after his death, I think he died in 1546 or thereabouts, then the so-called confessional books were compiled or put together, and it's known as the Book of Concord, if anyone's interested. It contains the major documents of the Reformation era and are actually part of the Lutheran doctrine, so to say. They include documents such as the small catechism, large catechism, the Augsburg Confession, the Apology or the Defense of the Augsburg Confession, the small called Articles, and then the last one is called the Formula of Concord.

Well, the Formula of Concord was written by Luther's co-worker whose name was Melanchthon, Philip Melanchthon, and it was written in the year of 1550 so after Luther's death. And there's many parts in this Formula of Concord if you're interested, want to Google it and look it up. All of these documents are very worthwhile reading.

But there's one subsection in the Formula of Concord called the Third Use of the Law. And I'll explain what the first second and third uses mean. But as a result of this appearance of this third use of the Law, it caused a division, a separation, a split, or a heresy in the Lutheran Church.

So what is the first use of the law? It is a temporal use of the law. And in this sense, we, even as believers, are under the law. Now you probably think that he's really off his rocker. No, that's a temporal use of the law. We obey our government, we pay our taxes, we obey our employers, or obey into our employers, we follow the rules of the land. So Western civilization and its laws are founded and based on the Ten Commandment Law of Moses. So the temporal use of the law touches and pertains to us as believers as well.

But then there's a second use of the law, which is the spiritual use of the law. And its purpose is to awaken a person who is in unbelief, in the darkness of sin and unbelief, to realize their real true condition before God, their Heavenly Father. As the Apostle Paul said of himself who lived in self-righteous, he said, he knew nothing of sin until the law came and woke him. And when it woke him, sin as if woke up and it slew him and he died.

So Paul, Saul back then, was thinking that he is a good self-righteous person and thus acceptable to God. But the law was able to come and prick his conscience and he realized, not so. I am not heaven acceptable. It slew him and he died spiritually. So the law, the second use of the law, the law of Moses, is a law of condemnation. It was condemning him to hell. And he died. It's an office of death.

There's no grace whatsoever in this law of Moses. There's no mercy. There's no love. If you're perfect, then it will not bother you. But if you're faulty and even one point, it condemns you with a harsh hand and a fist and immediately condemns you to hell. No mercy whatsoever. Absolutely no mercy whatsoever.

So the purpose of the law is then to lead a person in unbelief, awakened by the law, to find help and salvation. So it brings one, it's a guide, it leads one by the hand to find salvation, which is in the kingdom of God. But the law does not belong to a believer. Christ is the end of the law, under salvation, for all who believe. So the law gets left, so to say, outside of the borders of God's kingdom. It doesn't pertain, it doesn't belong to the believer. It is for the ungodly, the ardent righteous, as Paul writes to Timothy, first chapter, a long list of its duties.

But now, going back to this formula of the conquered and this subsection on the third use of the law, it came out with this statement. It's a long, long statement, but I wrote one little tiny paragraph down just to refresh my mind. And listen, listen if you can see something odd in it. Paragraph nine, small called, a formula of the conquered, a section six, called third use of the law, paragraph nine.

Therefore, because of these lusts of the flesh, we all have lusts of the flesh, the old Adam has never made repentance and it never will. We'll only be rid of it when we enter into the grave and are buried. So, therefore, these lusts of the flesh, which are with us, even as believers, and even with the truly believing, the elect and the regenerate children of God, need in this life not only the daily instructions, so we need admonitions and instructions which come from the Bible and the Holy Ghost, so we need not only daily instruction and admonition warning, but also we need, as believers, threatening of the law. Also, frequent punishments, that they may be roused and that the old man may be driven out of us, so that we could follow the Spirit of God.

So, in that document, it says that the law still belongs to a believer. False doctrine. Wrong doctrine.

Last fall, there was those two Finland ministers that came here, and they kept a Bible camp up at Stoney Lake in October, and I was visiting with one of them afterwards, Joanne Luke and he was talking about the upcoming speakers meeting in Odu, which is always between Christmas and New Year's, and he told me a little bit about the upcoming presentation, which is going to be the law in the gospel, which was kept by Oliver Wojtunen, I'm sure you know the name, he's been here many times, and he said that the SRK work committee or whatever committee asked him to do the presentation asked him, Oliver Wojtunen, to specifically put some mention into that presentation about the third use of the law.

So it's a timely topic, always. For some reason, they found it necessary and deemed it good to have some mention about the third use of the law in that presentation.

So what does that mean? I got a couple of quotes here I'll read. One was written by Heike Yusula, and he says, heretics in our time, during his time when he was living at the turn of the century, he said, and they were saying incorrectly, but they were saying that the beginning was correct when you received the gospel and believed alone by faith, alone by grace, alone through the merits of Christ Jesus, that they said, the heretics began to say that the beginning was correct, but the fault was in the gospel. The gospel, just believing the pure gospel alone by grace, wasn't enough. You needed something more, something additional added to it, because the gospel was not enough to lead us correctly in our walk of life as believers. They didn't trust in the gospel leading us.

And Eustace then concludes and he says, we, as believers, can thank God that we haven't been led down the way of our own holiness, or the way of our own self-righteousness.

So they wanted something more, some works, something addition to be added to believing the gospel alone by faith, alone by grace, alone through the merits of Christ Jesus.

Well, there was another minister who wrote Leonard Dippe, he used to live in Fitchburg, Massachusetts at the beginning of the century, but then moved back to Finland, and he was a very prolific writer to the back then, and he's even written some songs, I think one of the most beautiful Easter songs are written by Lerna Dippe. And he's referring or talking about Galatians chapter 1, and the situation in Galatia was exactly this. Paul had gone there, he had preached the gospel, many people had been converted, and they were believing alone by faith, alone by grace, alone through the merits of Christ Jesus.

But then after Paul departed, then came some other teachers, false teachers, and they began to preach a new message, that to believe alone by grace isn't enough. You need to add works to it. And then Paul had to write this letter to the Galatians, and he said that if someone comes, if I, or a false teacher comes, or even an angel from heaven would come and preach another, a new gospel, a new message, which is not according to the scriptures, let that person be accursed.

So, Lerna Dipra is now writing on this Galatians chapter 1, and he says, the false apostles, during the time of the writing of the letter to the Galatians, these false apostles, had begun to cause great destruction among the Galatians. But this kind of fall that occurred in the area of Galatia was one that they were strained from grace and faith in the free gospel. And they were moved or translated under the law and works.

And Lerna Dipra says, this air is very difficult to detect. It's so subtle. It's very subtle. And they began to say that the gospel and the grace of Christ seems to be too loose, too free, it's too lenient, too liberal. Grace isn't a good enough teacher. Something needs to be added to it. We can't trust grace alone.

Last evening we had a beautiful discussion in Rockford and it was about grace. Grace and truth. The law was given by Moses, grace and truth came through Christ Jesus.

And so but this other gospel, this new message, this false teaching, this other gospel is one that is mixed with the law and works and it seems to be, for our human mind, to be so correct. But it's actually incorrect. Doctrinally it is wrong.

One more quote if you'll bear with me. And this is written after, in 1935 in the Sione Lai that's after the small firstborn heresy had just departed in Finland. And the small firstborn heresy departed because they advocated the third use of the law, saying that the law also belongs to the believer, to lead them unto good works and to help mortify our sinful flesh and so on and so forth.

And so this author says, oh what darkness when a child of light begins to belittle and despise the grace of God. And one begins to think that the power of our old Adam can be guided in a better way with the law. That our old corrupt portion can be controlled better if it's controlled by the works of the law. But we're not under law. We're under grace. It is guided better with the love of the heavenly father. The love of the heavenly father is in other words, grace.

And then he continues, when a person belittles grace, one belittles the entire redemption work of Christ. When a person belittles grace, they are belittling the entire redemption work of Christ. Just think. A powerful statement. If this is not an incorrect teaching, then nothing is, he says.

So again, I've repeated it many times, we are saved, alone by faith, alone by grace, alone through the merits of Christ Jesus. So, the law does not belong to a believer.

Luther says that when the law is preached, it has its duty in place, and it's preached as if grace didn't even exist. And it's intended for the unbelievers, the unrighteous, the ungodly, those in the darkness of the world.

But now, when grace is preached, it is preached as if the law never even existed. We preach sheer, pure grace through the merits of Christ Jesus.

So, this isn't anything new to have this kind of idea. For example, in philosophy and humanism, they have this concept, this idea, and those of you from Finland, you're well aware and know the author called Enoleino, and he's one of the most significant authors of literature in the country of Finland. And he came up with this statement, coined this phrase, which is often repeated, a doctrinal error, but nonetheless, it's well known, and he says in this way, there's no human who is bad or evil, one person is just a little bit weaker than the next.

So, no one is evil, but I'm just maybe a little bit weaker than you are. So, the thought is, behind this, is that I, or you, or anyone else, am not entirely evil through and through. That I have some good in me, and that little good that I have in me, I can maybe present or offer as maybe a partial payment for my salvation.

That's pleasing to our carnal mind. Our carnal mind says, yep, that seems good, that seems right.

What the Bible says, Isaiah chapter 1, we are entirely corrupt, from the top of our head to the heel of our foot. Every single cell in our body is sin corrupt. We are entirely black, like the cover of this Bible that we have before us. There's no one who is good. No, not one. We have all sinned, all. No one is excluded. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There's no one who is righteous. No, not one. There's no one who even, on their own part, begins to seek after God.

So, if we go back to paradise, it was a wonderful situation. God created Adam and Eve in his own likeness. In some Bible translations, it says that he created Adam to be almost like him. Almost. He's got that word almost. Adam wasn't God, but he was almost God. Well, he wasn't God, and therefore, but Adam and Eve lived in harmony. They perfectly lived in harmony with God. The connection was unbroken. And without compulsion or fear, they willingly fulfilled God's will. It came just spontaneously, out of good will, not being prompted or provoked, but just naturally. They lived in such good, perfect harmony with God.

Until, well, until, the great fall into sin took place. Satan came, the serpent came, beguiled, Eve and Adam, and they fell, they agreed with Satan, and thus as a result, a new ruler came into their heart. And the will of man now became under the control of Satan's will.

Now, this perfect connection that they had with God, living in perfect harmony with God, was now severed. It was broken. It was almost like a curtain came down from heaven. There was no passage at that point to heaven. The doors were shut. You couldn't go through that curtain, you couldn't climb over that curtain, couldn't go under it, couldn't go around it, either way, it was completely shut.

And Adam and Eve, now, came under the wrath of God. The wrath of God was now resting upon them. It was a catastrophe. It was a great catastrophe.

Now, man, Adam and Eve, were totally corrupt. They had no goodness in them anymore. No characteristic in them by which they could even seek after God. As Paul writes to the Romans in the third chapter. That person doesn't have this initiative to even begin to even seek after God.

Adam and Eve fled into the darkness of the night when God came calling, Adam, Adam, where are you? And actually, they didn't even realize the need that they have a need for the salvation help of God at that point.

So, thus, can man do anything to please God for their salvation? No. Absolutely nothing. Even though man may think that he can or could, he can't. There's nothing we as humans can do to offer for God for our salvation.

So as a result of the fall into sin, everyone is guilty. No one's excluded. And the law says if you are perfect, you'll get a free right to have it, free access to have it. But if one time, you got one chance, if you even one time have an angry thought toward a fellow person, you broke the sixth commandment or fifth commandment, whatever it is, thou shalt not kill, and there's no other chances, all the curses of the Bible come upon you, and you sink down into condemnation and hell. One chance, and that's it. You had your chance, and sorry, you broke it. So that is what the law says.

So we are all guilty. Every single human being is guilty.

Well, fortunately, God prepared his gift of salvation through his son, Jesus Christ. He paid the price of sin. He died for our sins. He rose victorious from the grave, prepared the gift of salvation.

And this gift of salvation is there to be had, to be owned, and is being offered. And it's offered in the gospel. And in the gospel it says, and we can hear and believe, and we have believed. You can believe all your sins, even the sin of unbelief, which is the mother of all sins, you can believe all your sins. No sin gets left unforgiven. You can believe all your sins forgiven in Jesus' name and blood.

And at that point, when an unbelieving person is able to hear that and believe that, then that person is moved. He is translated from under the wrath of God and now is translated to be, to come under the grace of God. How? Through the atonement message of the blood of Jesus that he has heard and believed in his gospel.

Then a miracle occurs in that person's heart. Luther calls it a wonderful exchange. It's a beautiful concept. A wonderful exchange. And this is a mystery of justification by faith. Justification by faith. A very important concept. Or a wonderful exchange.

And Luther says, everything that belonged to Christ, Christ is perfect, Christ is holy, Christ is blameless, Christ is sinless, in him is purity. So everything that belongs to Christ now belongs to me. He's given it to me as a gift of no worthiness of my own. I didn't merit it, but I received it as a gift. I didn't have to offer any money, I didn't have to do any works, simply hear, believe, and accept that gospel of grace by faith all through the merits of Christ Jesus. And now it belongs to me.

And everything that belonged to me, my sin corrupt, everything that was sinful, now belongs to Christ. We've done an exchange. Like at Christmas time, you exchange gifts. A wonderful exchange occurred.

So in the promise of Christ declared, your sin is mine, says Jesus, and my innocence and my perfection is now yours. We did an exchange just like at Christmas time, exchanging gifts right by the Christmas tree. You don't want to use that illustration.

So Jesus entering his public ministry, he proclaimed, again and again, the lepers are cleansed, the lame are now able to walk, the deaf are able to hear, the dead are raised up, the blind are able to receive their sight, and unto the poor is preached the gospel. Unto the poor is preached the gospel.

But then in our text, in the third verse, it's talking about the law, and we've been talking a little bit about the law already, for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful man, and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh.

So Jesus came not to overthrow the law, or to undo the law, but Jesus came to fulfill the law. So in order to get to heaven, the law of God, which is demanding, needs to be fulfilled. Otherwise, there's no getting to heaven, for no one. The law needs to be fulfilled to the last letter. It's still out there, it still exists, it still needs to be fulfilled. We can't fulfill it, I can't fulfill it, you can't fulfill it, no human being is able to fulfill it, but it needs to be fulfilled, otherwise there's no access to heaven.

So what happened? God sent his son, Jesus, who was a human like us, but at the same time he was divine, he was God, God and human at the same time. And his son lived a perfect life. His son was born sinless.

Now we get back to Mary's day. Adam and Eve fell into sin, and as a result of falling into sin, their children were born in original sin, Cain and Abel, and when their children got married and had children, their children were born in original sin, and it continued on from one generation to another.

When my parents had their eleven children, they're all born with inherited sin. When you were born, each one of you, from your parents, that inheritance from Adam and Eve, went from generation to generation, and you were born with original sin. Original sin is a condemning power.

So, there needed to be someone who was born sinless, without original sin. Thus, we come to Mary's day. The significance of Mary's day, which is today. Gabriel, the archangel, came to Mary and said, Mary, you're engaged to Joseph, but you haven't had any sexual relationships with each other. You're a chaste, pure virgin, untouched by any man, but a miracle is going to occur. God, in his miraculous way, is going to fertilize the egg in your womb. You are now pregnant. It happened one time, and it will never happen again. It's God's miracle.

We say in the Creed, he was conceived, Jesus, Mary was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary. Thus, he was born without original sin. He was sinless. And when he walked on this earth, he was perfect. He was so perfect that he fulfilled God's demanding law to the very last letter.

And then as a perfect sacrifice, he was brought to the hill of Golgotha and fulfilling God's righteousness, demand of or expectation of righteousness, he then was nailed to the cross. He wasn't killed. He wasn't killed. But he gave up the ghost. If he wanted to, he could have stepped down from the cross. He had that power. But he willingly, why? For his love for you, his love for me, and his love for all mankind.

God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that who would believe on him would not need to perish, but would have everlasting life. He suffered pain. He suffered agony. Father, in Gethsemane, he said, if it's possible, remove this cup of suffering that I'm about to drink.

At that point, he looked back at the Old Testament. All those Old Testament believers were believing upon the promise of the coming Messiah and died in faith with that hope of its fulfillment. And in faith, he is looking toward us, the New Testament believers, who are believing on the fulfillment of his promise. He was remembering you. He was remembering I in each and every one of us.

That's why he said, Father, I will do what you please and what you wish for love for you and I and sin fallen mankind. And in the end, on the cross, hanging on the cross, he gave up the ghost. Voluntarily, he gave up the ghost, slumped over, and he died. All is finished. Father, now into your hands I give my life. Christ.

So at that point, when he said those words, then the temple veil, separating the holy from the holies, was ripped into, and as the writer of the Hebrew says, that he entered into the most holy, that is, into heaven, through his flesh, thus through the suffering and death on the cross. Preparing and opening that way that were shut in paradise.

Remember when Adam and Eve fell into sin in paradise? They were shut out of the Garden of Eden, out of paradise. The gate into paradise was clanged shut and an angel with a flaming sword was there in his hand guarding that no one could enter back into paradise.

And as a result, that impassable curtain fell down from heaven and all roads to heaven were shut.

Well now the pathway to heaven was open. Jesus says, I am the way I am the truth and I am the life. If you want to get to heaven it's by and through me. It's the way of faith. It's the way of the righteousness of faith. It is the way of the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus has, with his bloody hands he has ripped open or opened that door to heaven which had been shut after the fall of Adam and Eve there in paradise.

So he slumped over and he died and he carried our sins into the grave when he was buried there in the grave. But then one more miracle. Sin, the power of death could not hold him. As Paul writes to the Corinthians he says, Death, where is your sting? Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory?

So death could not contain him because the grip of death is by and through sin. But when Jesus was sinless the grip of death could not hold him and keep him there. But it had to release its grip and he rose victorious from the grave on Easter morning.

Paul writes to the Romans Jesus suffered and died for the sins of you and all mankind but he rose for our righteousness sake. That final thread into the robe of righteousness was now drawn in when he rose victorious from the grave on Easter morning.

Now the robe of righteousness was perfect. It was complete. It was seamless. It was airless. It was spotless. It is the robe of Christ Jesus the righteousness of Christ. All is finished. All is complete. Father into your hands I give my life.

But then one more miracle. Jesus ascended into the glory of heaven. He was both God and man. And in his human body in his body of resurrection he ascended into the glory of heaven and he is the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead and he has gone to blaze that trail we could say to the glory of heaven.

One day the trumpets will sound the graves will open the dead will rise up every human being will rise up resurrection will occur each one of us one day will be buried in the grave from dust the heart unto dust thou shalt return but Jesus Christ our savior will raise you on the last day.

But when we own by faith Christ Jesus alone by grace alone by faith and are able to die owning him in our hearts we are a living seed a seed is soon to be planted or many seeds this spring when the sun melts the snow and softens the earth and spring is upon us the farmers will go out and begin planting seeds in their fields we may have a garden at home that seed is planted into the earth it decays it breaks down but from that seed germinate a new plant so we will rise on the last day when the trumpet sound in a body a human body not the same body but it will be a perfect body a sinless body cleansed from all sin a body of resurrection likened unto Christ body of resurrection when he rose from the grave and we will be called at the sound of the trumpet to go and meet our Lord and we can praise him forever and ever.

This is the mystery of justification by faith but we still carry this old portion the sin corrupt portion which weighs us down brings burdens upon us causes doubts causes us to stumble and fall many times but another concept or a phrase during the time of reformation is simul justus et pecador a Latin phrase good phrase to remember simul simultaneously justus is justification justified et pecador so simultaneously justified and a sinner we're justified and we're a sinner at the same time even though we feel so sin corrupt and so unworthy on our own part we own Christ Jesus our savior our redeemer our perfection by and through faith feel how it may feel seem how it may seem how unworthy and sinful we may seem and feel still in spite of our feelings we can cling and own with a hand of faith to the merit works of Christ Jesus he is our salvation he is our hope he is our purification in his blood is in his victory and in his in his blood is our our hope so free even now believe just as you are just as you find yourself through the merits of Christ Jesus in his name and in his blood sins forgiven you can believe unto peace freedom and joy the power of the gospel grace will carry us until we reach our eternal home in heaven be of good cheer in Jesus name amen the Lord bless us and keep us the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us the Lord lift up his confidence upon us and give us your peace in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost amen to to is for all to