Sermon in Minneapolis 25.09.2016

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let us begin our services with opening prayer.

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 have trespassed against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Today is the 19th Sunday after Pentecost, and one of the texts for today is from Romans chapter 10. I'll read verses 1 through 10.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses describeth righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down from above. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is, to bring Christ up again from the dead. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee. It is even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is, the word of faith which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Amen.

Amen.

This is Paul's letter to the Romans, and Luther really valued or appreciated this letter. In fact, he did something very bold, and he kind of put in his own mind some of the books of the Bible in order of importance. And he put the letter to James as last. In fact, he even questioned that, should the book of, or the epistle of James, be even included in the Bible? Because he figured in his own mind it emphasizes too much works. Because there's one statement in there that says, by the works of man, a person shall be shown that they are justified. So, he even goes as far as to say that he called it a letter of straw, or a straw letter. And if those, if any of you have ever been on a farm, or lived on a farm, you know that you don't feed a cow straw. You feed them hay. There's no value, nutritional value, in straw. So, that's what he is calling the letter of James, a straw letter.

But then, at the other end of the spectrum, he considered the letter to the Romans as, in his mind, the most important book in the Bible. And, in fact, you can look online and, nowadays, all of the, all of his prefaces, little introductions to every book of the Bible are digitized and you can Google them and find them online. And, it's interesting to read his preface to the letter to the Romans. And, he considered it so important, he exhorted the readers of that preface to read it daily, every day. And, even, thought it would be a good idea that you would memorize the entire letter to the Romans, all 16 chapters, word for word. Well, that's quite a feat. I don't know if there's anyone, or, I should say, not many people who could do it.

Well, there was one old Finnish minister who actually visited this country two or three times. And, his name was Heikki Yusila. He's written songs, and the book called The Grace of the Caller is written by him, and he was a prolific writer in his day, but he apparently knew it by heart. Someone challenged him one time, another speaker brother, when they're sitting in the sacristy, before services, or after services, or between services, and, well, he said, okay, open up your Bible, and he proceeded to recite the letter to the Romans, word for word, from chapter one to chapter sixteen.

So, why then did Luther consider the letter of the Romans to be such an important letter? It was for this reason that it emphasized and showed so clearly how God saves a sinner, and how it is alone through the merits of Christ Jesus, alone by faith, alone by grace, alone through the merits of Christ Jesus, as was one of his reformation sayings and statements.

So, this letter that we read, we see a term or a word that is repeated many times, righteousness. And it's a very central concept in the Bible and in religious language.

I was in Finland at the time when they were just finishing up the latest translation of the Bible and the newest translation is a very good translation but some of the real important theological terms, they were choosing other words in place, something more common, something more secular. And one of the words they tried to change, I don't know if they did in the final version, was the word righteousness in Finnish, vanhurskaus. And they figured that the common reader nowadays, that term is so uncommon and so foreign that they won't understand at all what it means, that why even have it in the modern day translation of the Bible.

But we know and we understand that this is a very important term and very central to Christianity and to living faith. Even though it's not common in our English vernacular, nevertheless you can look at the word and you can see where it comes from, righteousness. And if you break it down into its most basic parts, it comes from the word right or correct. And this is talking about the essence of God.

Who is God? What is he like? He is a just God. What does it mean when God is a just God? It means that God is always correct in all of his judgments and all of his decisions. And because he is just, he does not want to accept or will not accept anything that is unholy, anything that is filthy, or anything that is imperfect. So God being a just God demands perfection.

In fact, when Luther was in the monastery and doing research on the Old Testament and going through the book of Psalms and giving lectures on the book of Psalms, he said he was always extremely frightened when he came across this word righteousness, or God as a just God, because he knew that he was imperfect himself, and God being a just God or a righteous God demanding perfection, there is no way that he can measure up to God's demands. So, even at times, he closed the Bible and moved on, or at least jumped over those portions of Scripture.

It was until later when the Bible opened up in a new light, and he began to realize that there is righteousness. The Bible talks about righteous Noah, and righteous Lot, for example. So, those are two examples where a human being can be called righteous. In other words, someone who is meeting up to the demands and expectations of God, and thus acceptable unto God, the Heavenly Father.

So, we'll talk a little bit more about the Apostle Paul a little bit later, but the Apostle Paul experienced some of the same things as Luther, and then from experience, then is now writing this letter. So, we could call this letter, the letter of the righteousness of faith.

At the beginning of this letter now, the Apostle is writing to those in the city of Rome, and Paul had never been to Rome, he had never met those people of that congregation, most likely. He expected to go there one day, and when he eventually arrived in Rome, he arrived as a prisoner, and then met his death, martyr's death, eventually, in the city of Rome.

But now, here he, at the beginning of this letter, he says, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, the promised nation of Israel, the Jewish people, the non-Gentile people, that they might be saved. And he does acknowledge that they have a zeal, a spiritual zealousness and piety of God. They were religious, outwardly very religious, but he goes on to say over the qualifier statement, qualifying statement, that it's not according to knowledge, or that zeal was not such a piety that was acceptable unto God, the heavenly father.

And he goes on to say that why? Because they were ignorant of God's righteousness. They didn't know what God's righteousness was. And they went about to try to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

So then he reminds them, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness that everyone who believes. So first of all, he's talking about the duty of the law of Moses. And the law of Moses is such that it kind of sets before the listener the measuring stick of God. That this is what God expects. If you live up to all of the expectations and the measuring stick of God, well, you're heaven acceptable and you get passage into heaven. But you have to meet the full, complete expectations of God. You have to meet all of the standards of that measuring stick. If you fall short even by one little jot or tittle, if you're imperfect, if you're successful 99.999% of the time but unsuccessful .0001% of the time, it's not good enough. The doors to heaven are shut and the doors to hell remain open.

So the duty of the law is demanding. In the law, there is no grace. In the law, there is no forgiveness. Basically, you've got one chance. If you fail once, everything is lost. There's no second chances.

But what is the duty and the purpose of the law? Well, in theory, it's possible to get to heaven by fulfilling the law. But in reality, it's virtually impossible. That rich young man came to Jesus and asked, what must he do to get to heaven, to inherit heaven? And Jesus asked him about the law.

Today's theme is the dual commandment to love. To love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. That's part one. And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.

That rich young man said to Jesus, well, I've done that. I've been perfect ever since my youth, ever since I was born. Well, Jesus wanted to illustrate how, in theory, that person thought he had fulfilled the law. But what about in practice? And he said, okay, if that's so, go, empty your bank accounts, cash in your stocks, liquidate your mutual funds, and go and give everything to the poor. That would illustrate that you love your neighbor just as much as you love yourself. That was too much. The rich young man turned and walked away sorrowfully.

Jesus turned to the disciples who were standing nearby and he said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle. Just imagine a huge camel going through the eye of a little tiny sewing needle that with my eyesight nowadays I can't even thread unless I have a magnifying glass. Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle than it is for a rich man, not temporally rich. This isn't what Jesus was talking about. He was just using that as an illustration to show that this person was actually spiritually rich in himself. Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

So the duty of the law then is to show to point out where that person stands before God. To awaken sin in that person. The apostle Paul says when the law came sin welled up in me that he thought he never had. It slew me and I died. He realized I'm a sinner before God and thus being a sinner I'm unacceptable, not heaven acceptable.

So then it awakens a person to the knowledge of their sinful condition and then leads one to another place onto the borders of God's kingdom onto Christ wherein they can find everlasting peace salvation.

And here it says for Christ is the end of the law for salvation or righteousness for everyone who believes. So the law does not belong to a believer. So no person in practice on this earth ever except for Christ is able to fulfill the law.

So when Adam and Eve fell into sin then they were chased out of the garden of Eden and the door into paradise shut behind them. An angel with a flaming sword was put to guard the entrance that they could not enter back in.

So the law then shuts the mouths of all people. And after the fall into sin then God looked down from heaven onto earth to see if he could find anyone who was righteous. Anyone who was good. And he wrote in this way there is no one who is righteous. No, not a one. There is no one who has understanding. There is no one who even seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, gone astray, become unprofitable. There is no one who does good. No, not a one.

And he goes on to give some illustrations. Their throat is like an open grave or a sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. They have the poison of asps or poisonous serpents under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. And their feet are swift to shed blood.

So now we have a situation where I have used this illustration at confirmation camp in order to try to portray the message. That God wishes, or in order to make it to heaven, a person needs to have a straight A report card. No A pluses and no A minuses and no B pluses, no C's, D's. It's got to be straight A's. A, A, A, A, A. If there's even one B plus, it's not good enough. You won't make it to heaven.

So let's look at the report card of us as human beings. I just read a few moments ago. There's no one who is righteous. No, not one. Well, it looks like it's not quite a straight A report card. There's no one who even understands. No one who even begins to seek after God. They have all gone astray. They have all become unprofitable. Their throat is open, sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Well, it sounds to me, and it looks like, the report card is not A-A-A, but F-F-F. That looks like a pretty hopeless situation.

Then I sometimes use the illustration that in order to get to heaven, if I had a pure white piece of paper, it would work a little bit better, but it has to be pure white. If there's any blotches of black like there is printing on this piece of paper, it's not good enough. But based on the report card that we just read from the Apostle Paul in the third chapter, it looks like when God looks down from heaven into our hearts, it's completely black. And it needs to be completely white, not even a blemish of black. Otherwise, there's no access one day into the glory of heaven.

So, this is where we come to the concept or the idea or the principle of righteousness or righteousness of faith.

Now, when I mentioned earlier, the Bible does give examples where it talks about righteous Noah. The Bible talks about righteous Lot. Well, how is it possible that these two individuals, for example, were able to carry the title righteous before them when we're all, as human beings, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

I'll read a few quotes from Luther about this topic of the righteousness of faith.

In the right of the Galatians, if we lose the doctrine of justification, or in other words, the doctrine of the righteousness of faith, we lose simply everything. Hence, the most necessary and important thing is that we teach and repeat this doctrine daily.

And, later on in the commentary to the Galatians, he says, the doctrine of justification must be learned diligently, for in it are included all other doctrines of our faith. If this doctrine is sound, all the others are sound as well. Therefore, when we teach that man are justified through Christ, and that Christ is the victor over sin, death, and eternal curse, we are testifying at the same time that he is God by nature.

Another one. Quote, of this article, of the justification by faith, or righteousness of faith, nothing may be yielded or conceded, even though heaven and earth and whatever will not abide and fall to ruin. Still, nothing from this doctrine can be yielded.

And then, one last one. On this article, all that we teach and practice is based, so everything is based upon this doctrine of justification. That is why we must be very certain of this doctrine and not doubt, otherwise, all is lost.

So, after Adam and Eve fell into sin, God gave a promise. And the promise was this, that one day he will send his son, the promised Messiah.

Messiah.

And Jesus was born eventually on the first Christmas day and lived 30 some years upon this earth and from the point, from the laying on the straw there in Bethlehem to the last breath of his life, he lived a perfect life. He was sinless. He was blameless. He was able to meet up to that measuring stick of God. He fulfilled the law and only he has ever been able to do such a feat. He fulfilled the law to the last letter. And therefore, when he was on the middle cross of Golgotha, when he took his last breath, he said, all is fulfilled. Now, Father, into your hands I submit my life. And he died.

And so, therefore, the Apostle Paul then writes to the Corinthians that Christ is our righteousness.

So, Luther, when he realized this, that when I look inside myself, thought Luther, he was scared of God. Because he realized that he was imperfect, he was a sinner. And then he had an aha moment. Perhaps it was, you know, after he was converted, at the time he was converted, then he realized that this righteousness, this gift that is acceptable to God, comes from outside of himself. So, he can't find anything from within himself, so that has to come from outside of himself. And this gift is Christ Jesus. He is our righteousness. He is our perfection. He is our sanctification, or holiness. He is our redemption. Christ prepared all of this on our behalf.

But then, here is some interesting verses here in our text. And Paul writes, Christ. But the righteousness, which is of faith, speaks in this way. It says, first of all, don't say in your heart, who will try to ascend into heaven, and then try to bring Christ down from heaven.

This is a human idea or thought that if I could build my own ladder up to heaven, isn't that what they tried to do when they attempted to build that tower of Babel during the Old Testament time, all the way to heaven? God didn't allow that to happen. He confounded their languages and destroyed that tower, the tower of Babel.

But this is what a person may do, that perhaps through prayer, or perhaps through trying to do some effort or good work of themselves, maybe if I make a perfect confession, if I remember to confess every last deed before my confessor father, then there will be a better confession. We remember Luther tried that when he was in the monastery before he was converted. He went to the abbot, was it Staupitz, and for hour after hour after hour he was confessing his sins and finally the abbot says, that's enough, go away, he says, go and try to find refuge in the wounds of Christ Jesus.

Luther realized that it's vain in that way to try to become acceptable, pleasing unto God the heavenly father.

It's interesting how Paul writes to the Thessalonians that at the end of times the son of man or Satan will be revealed and he will exalt himself up in the temple. And he'll rise up so high and he'll try to rise up to the level of God or try to even climb higher than the level of God. So this is one of the signs of the end of time that Paul writes about to the Thessalonians.

But then, so he says, don't try to go in the upward direction to try to bring Christ down from heaven to earth again. But then, he says, in the other way, or don't say in this way, who will try to ascend into the deep? That is, to try to bring Christ up again from the dead.

There's many people who try to think that if I have deep feelings of sorrow and penitence and remorse and there's tears flowing from my eyes, now I can kind of use that as a gift to go meet God halfway and use that as a partial payment and then God will fulfill the rest. The Apostle Paul says, no, that isn't what is being asked, that isn't what is being required. Christ did this all on our behalf.

The Bible says about the depth of penitence that is needed, he only says, when someone comes and says, I repent, that's enough. No deeper, further penitence is needed than that. If they say I repent, we forgive. According to Luke, chapter 17, verse 4.

But we remember what Jesus did there when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, it says that he sunk deep, deep into the mires of the well. He went into the deep muck of the underworld. And the waters of Belial were so deep and covering him so much, and there were so many sins cast upon him that there were more sins than there are upon the hairs on our head.

Dead.

So Jesus went into the depths. He went that direction for us on our behalf so we wouldn't have to.

The Apostle Paul, as I reminded you or mentioned earlier that I'll refer to the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul was from a very self-righteous background and he thought to himself that that I'm of the tribe of Benjamin and I'm a true Pharisee and I have studied under the feet of Gamaliel the high priest and if anyone's a Pharisee he says I'm of the strictest sect of the Pharisees. And he thought that regarding the law of Moses I have been perfect. I have been blameless. I have been impeccable.

But we remember that God stopped him on the way to Damascus struck him blind and he was led into the city of Damascus and there Paul had time to think for three days and three nights. And I'm sure the thoughts of Paul, we can only imagine but we can think that the thoughts of Paul were this, in this state, in this condition, before God the Heavenly Father, I am nothing but fuel for the fires of hell. I am not acceptable before God the Heavenly Father.

But then God simply sent a messenger whose name was Ananias. Ananias simply came, the Bible says, put his hands upon Saul and he was able to receive his physical eyesight and spiritual eyesight again.

So, if we don't try to go up into the heights and bring them down from above, if we don't try to go down into the depths to bring them up from that direction, then what? But what does the righteousness of faith say? It says in this way, the word is near you. It is in your mouth. It is in your heart. And it is the word of faith which we preach.

So, the gift of salvation has been prepared. It's ready. It's complete. Jesus said, all is fulfilled. But now, a person needs to receive this gift. For one who is in the world in unbelief and does not have this gift, they need to find that gift.

And Christ, on ascension day, ascended into the glory of heaven and now sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. But then, we ask that, well, if a person is to find and receive this gift, they need to know the address. Each one of us have our own physical address. If you receive a package or a letter from another individual or from a company or a store, well, they write your address on the envelope or the package and it comes to your address. We all have a physical address.

If I want to send you a text message or you send me a text message, well, the address is our cell phone number or email address or whatever. Likewise, Christ has an address.

There was one sailor years ago in Scandinavia and an unbelieving man and kind of ridiculed the believers. He kind of knew about them and often just publicly made fun of them. One time he was out on his ship in a large storm then came upon the sea and it seemed like his boat was going to capsize and if it would capsize he would surely die.

But somehow the ship made it back to harbor and then he went to the address where he could find salvation. And he went on his own two feet. Where did he go to? He went to those individuals that he had often made fun of. And there he was able to receive the grace of repentance.

Jesus says that where two or three are gathered in my name I am there in their midst and I am with you always even unto the end of the world. So Christ is with his own people in the hearts of his believers in the kingdom of God.

And so all of us every one of us have been given this power this office of reconciliation. So Luther says in this way when Christ ascended into heaven he didn't take the gospel with him but he actually left it here upon this earth and he left it with his believers in his kingdom. And that is where the address of Christ is today. So it's in your mouth.

We could find many examples in the Bible where Ananias preached to Saul and Peter preached to Cornelius and so on and so forth. And I'm sure or perhaps there's examples in your life too where you have encountered where maybe an unbelieving individual has talked to you or a friend of yours and been able to hear that gospel and receive the grace of repentance.

But now we are on the way and on the journey and we are justified by faith and we are believers walking on the narrow way of life. So following the righteousness of faith then comes the righteousness of life and we are on this narrow way of life and traveling toward our destination that eternal home in the glory of heaven.

But there's trials and tribulations and there's temptations and there's sometimes wavering to the left side and there's sometimes wavering to the right side. But here Paul says even on the narrow way of life while traveling that don't try to again rise up into the heights to bring Christ down from above. Or don't try to go down into the depths to bring Christ up from that direction.

The enemy of souls may try to preach to you during times of temptation that oh if you weren't so poor if you weren't so unsuccessful then you would be or you should be a better light.

If I can give a light-hearted example I just heard it yesterday when I was at a wedding and one of the grandfather recalled when he was in Finland they were at the summer services in Finland and always at the opening of summer services the bishop of that locality comes and gives a welcome well he wasn't given his welcome but he was visiting with the people before his welcome speech and welcome address and happened to say kind of lightheartedly he says you know I've been hearing so much about you that I'm many people saying in their sermons they're talking about being so poor being so poor and he says I don't know why you're talking about poor Lestadians when people are driving around in Mercedes Benz and big RVs and so on and so forth.

Well it's kind of just tongue in cheek and light heartedly but yes the Bible says unto the poor is preached the gospel but the devil would then want to say that you're not poor enough you have been too unsuccessful.

Last night I was visiting in one home and we're visiting with a bunch of couples about matters of faith and one individual said that you know at times when I read the Bible it's hard for me to read the Bible because the more I read it it seems like I'm a greater and greater sinner and such a great sinner will never make it to heaven.

Well the other individual said that well it's believing alone by grace no matter of your feelings alone by faith it's all through the merits of Christ Jesus and so also he says don't go looking into the depths you won't find anything there.

At times we may be led astray by the enemy of souls that have you found every last thought that you may want to recall and recollect have you found the bottom root and so on and so forth this is the temptations and the instructions of the enemy of souls.

Let us remember it all of the grace of God there were the merits of his son Jesus Christ we can believe now simply just as we are just as we find ourselves seem how it may seem feel how it may feel with a hand of faith you want to grasp and cling onto those grace promises of God believe now and always day by day moment by moment the power of the gospel of God which is containing Christ Jesus will lift us it will carry us it will bring us footstep by footstep moment by moment until we can be translated from this life to that eternal life in the glory of heaven.

Be of good cheer sins are forgiven can I also believe for myself my sins forgiven I wish to believe together with you 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 countenance upon us and give us peace in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost Amen.