Church Sermon - October 28, 2001

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH!

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

 Old Testament Lesson, Jeremiah 3:31 - 34
Gospel Lesson, John 8:31 -36
Sermon Text, Romans 3:19 - 28

Four hundred eighty-four years ago this week, on October 31, 1517 a lonely, lowly monk walked to the Wittenberg church doors, took a hammer and a piece of paper, and nailed on that door what has become known as the "95 Theses". And with that, unbeknownst to him, began a reformation, known as the Lutheran Reformation. A reformation that would change the church

that would change the world

and that would change history!

Martin Luther had no intention of starting some great reformation. However, as time went on, it became evident to many people that what he taught was the

And, so there came to be groups of people who believed the same things that Martin Luther believed. And they taught the same things that Martin Luther taught from scripture.

These little groups of people, these churches, or congregations had to identify themselves somehow. And, so they needed a name for themselves. Martin Luther demanded that they NOT call themselves Lutherans. He said that would make it appear as if he was someone greater than someone he was...that they were worshipping him...that it would put him up on a pedestal that he should not be put on, because he was a sinner, just like all the rest of us.

And, so those followers of Luther, those people who believed the same things that Luther believed, started out by calling themselves Evangelicals. An evangelical is, the word evangelical means, someone who is centered on the gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ. And so they began to call themselves Evangelicals.

A few years later they became known throughout Germany, not as Evangelicals, but as Protestants, because it was known that they were protesting the teachings of the church of that day. They were known as Protest-ants or Protestants.

But then a few years later, the enemies of Martin Luther began to make fun of his followers. They did it by calling his followers Lutherans, in a derogatory

sort of way. And even though Luther didn't want them to be known as Lutherans, and the followers of Luther didn't necessarily want to be known as Lutherans, they became known as Lutherans. And to this day you and I are known as Lutherans. We belong to Holy Cross Lutheran Church. We are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

What does it mean to be a Lutheran? When I say that I am a Lutheran, what do I mean by that? The teachings of Luther can really be summed up in three little Latin phrases, which have become known as the touchstone, the description, and the definition of what it means to be a Lutheran.

The three Latin phrases are:

Sola Scriptura

Sola Gratia and

Sola Fide

The word sola means alone or only. And so that means that Lutherans believe that in scripture alone (sola scriptura), they believe in grace alone (sola gratia), and they believe in faith alone (sola fide).

So what do those three phrases really mean? When I say I am a Lutheran and I believe in solo scriptura, scripture alone, what do I mean by that?

When Martin Luther was a young man, he was brought up in a world and a church where he believed many, many different things.

He believed for example that it was very important for him to pray to the saints.

As a matter of a fact when he was almost struck by lightening he said, "Saint Anne, save me!"

He believed that Saint Anne could save him.

He was also taught to pray to Mary.

He was taught that relics, things like having a piece of the cross or a nail from the cross could make you closer to God.

He was taught that certain people, by their life styles could be closer to God. If you would become a monk, then you would be closer to God and you could earn God's favor.

He was taught that there was a place called Purgatory. He was taught that if people didn't go to Heaven, if they hadn’t done enough good works to get into Heaven, they could go to this place called Purgatory.

He was taught that the purchase of indulgences could somehow get you out of Purgatory, more quickly.

He was taught that if you crawled on your knees, up steps you would earn God's favor.

He was taught that if you didn't eat for days on end you could earn God's favor.

He was taught that if you went and slept with almost nothing on in the bitter cold weather, you could earn God's favor.

And, Martin Luther, being brought up in a world where he was taught all of those things, believed them. He believed them with all of his heart. He was a very spiritual, very religious young man. And he strove with all of his heart to meet all of those conditions. He tried and tried to pray to the saints, to do good things, to do good works, to crawl up steps, to sleep almost naked in the cold for days on end, and to go without food.

But the more he tried to do those things, the more he felt something was wrong, something was missing. He still felt inside as if he was a sinner…as if he had not pleased God…as if he wasn't meeting up to God's holy demands. And, so he began to do something that everyone should do, whenever they are troubled whether they are meeting up to God's demands or not. He took out this book (the Bible). It was a book that had been hidden for centuries and centuries. It was a book that was written in a language that the people in Germany couldn't even read. But Martin Luther, through his training, had learned how to read Greek and Hebrew, which the Bible had been written in.

And so, Martin Luther began to study the Bible, to find the answers to his questions. "What should I do, when I pray to the saints? How much should I fast, when I fast? How many times should I crawl up those steps to earn God's favor?" And, as he looked through the scripture, he discovered that the Bible never says anything about praying to the saints. The Bible never says that I must fast to earn God's favor. The Bible never says that I must sleep in the cold to earn God's favor. The Bible never says anything about becoming a monk to earn God's favor.

And, as Luther studied scripture more and more, he came to the conclusion that when it comes to knowing what God expects of us and what God demands of us, there is only one place we can go, to know what God expects and demands - and it is not from other people and it is not from my own mind, my own human reason. It is in one place and that is in Holy Scripture. And, if the Bible says it, I believe it. And, if the Bible does not say it, then it is false teachings. It is an abuse of God and God's Word. And so, Martin Luther became a strong defender of Scripture Alone!

He was called to the city of Worms and he was demanded to take back everything that he had taught. He was told, "You have said that it is not proper to pray to the saints. You have said it is not proper to crawl up steps on you knees. You take all of that back." And, his friends advised him. "Don't go. They are going to try to take your life!"

But Martin Luther told his friends, that if there were devils on every rooftop all the way from here to the city of Worms, if there was fire from here to the city of Worms, "I would go." So he went to the city of Worms and when they demanded that he recant. He said this:

"Unless you can prove to me, from scripture, my conscious is bound by the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant. Here I stand, so help me God."

That's what it means to be a Lutheran. To be a Lutheran means that you are someone who stands only on the Word of God, when it comes to knowing what is true and what is not true, in spiritual matters. And, we agree with Luther that scripture alone, scripture alone, is the only place we can go. Because this alone is where God speaks to us and promises to talk to us.

Luther became very busy. He believed that with all of his heart that scripture alone is the place where God talks to us. And, he knew that his friends in Germany who didn't know Greek, Hebrew, or Latin could not read this book, the Bible. He knew that they could mislead by people, because they didn't know what the Bible says. So he made it his job to translate the Bible into the language, the common language, of the people.

It was a monumental task – literally, a humanly monumental task that Martin Luther, all by himself, translated the New Testament and the Old Testament into the German language.

And, he put the Bible into the hands of the people. He told them, "I don't want you to read what I have written. I don't want you to read my interpretation of the scripture. At most those should only be scaffolding that leads you to this book, the Bible."

Read this book, the Bible.

Listen to what this book, the Bible says.

Learn what this book, the Bible says.

We stand on scripture alone.

And, that is what it means to be a Lutheran.

Martin Luther once said this, "for the doctrine, the teaching is not ours but God's who is not to suffer anything. For God' s Word I am to risk all that I have, and to suffer all that the enemies of God may inflict on me, so that the honor of God and His Word may not be violated. For if I perish, little harm is done. But if I silently allow God's Word to be suppressed and corrupted, then I am doing great harm to God and to all the world."

Luther stood up as a firm defender of God's Word in spite of what it might bring to him. Scripture alone, defending the truth of God's Word, that is what it means to be a Lutheran.

But secondly we believe that to be a Lutheran means that we believe solo gratia, grace alone. Martin Luther was brought up in a world where he believed, and where he was taught, that in order to be saved you had to earn God's favor. You had to do good works. You had to deserve salvation from God! And, Martin Luther tried with all of his might to earn, and deserve, and work for that favor of God. He became a monk. He crawled up steps on his knees. He prayed for hours and hours a day. He went without food and he went without sleep. But, the more he did, the more he began to feel like he wasn't meeting up to the holy demands of God.

When he looked at scripture, he began to realize that he was trying to do things that God didn’t even demand that he do. God doesn't demand that I become a monk. God doesn’t demand that I crawl up steps. And, God doesn't demand that I say prayers for a certain amount of time every day. As he looked into the scripture, he began to realize that there is really only thing that God demand of us. And, the church had not been teaching this...and that one thing that God DOES demand of us is:

The Ten Commandments,

God's Law,

God's Holy Law.

God DEMANDS that you follow the Ten Commandments perfectly.

When you look at the scripture reading, if there is anyone here that believes that we can be saved by earning God's favor, by following the Ten Commandments, by doing good things, by doing good works, this scripture reading is like a thunderbolt from God that shatters that belief. Listen to what it says. "Now we know that whatever the Law says (that is the Ten Commandments), it says to those who are under Law (and that is all of us), we are all expected to follow God's Ten Commandments, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world be held accountable to God." 

Everybody in the world knows

The Ten Commandments.

Whether you have the Bible or don't have the Bible. Your conscious knows that it is wrong to kill. It is wrong to commit adultery. It is wrong to steal. It is wrong to bear false witness. We are all accountable to God, and the Bible says, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the Law, rather through the Law we become conscious of sin."

There is, as Luther says, that great thunderbolt from Heaven, where God says that every mouth will be silenced. Every mouth will be silenced.

There is no one, not one of us in our puny little way who could stand up to god and say, "But God, look at me! Look at how good I am! Don’t I deserve to be in your Heaven? Haven't I worked hard enough? Haven’t I earned your favor?"

Here it says, "Every mouth will be silenced.

You will not be declared righteous

by observing the works of the Law," God says.

We cannot get to Heaven by trying to earn our way into Heaven, by trying to do good works, by trying to please God and this passage is so very clear about that. Luther says this is a thunderbolt from God.

Luther went on to say that if that troubles you, if that makes you tremble, if you are terrified by a feeling of God's wrath, and in horror of God's Judgment and Hell, then have confidence! You are the one that God wants to talk to! You are the one He wants to show His mercy to! You are the one He wants to save! That is what His promises say! He is the God of the poor.

Anyone who is troubled by the fact, "I cannot be good enough to earn my way into Heaven" scripture gives a different way to be saved.

"Now a righteousness from God, apart from Law,"

not from following the Ten Commandments

not from doing good works

not by trying to earn God's favor

"Now a righteousness from God, apart from Law, has been made known." And then it goes on and says, "We are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

There it says that we are justified by grace. The word grace means it is undeserved. It is unearned. It is not something that we work for. It is a free gift! Grace is the very nature of God. God is a gracious God. God gives to us, and He wants to give us what we don't deserve, what we have not earned, what we have not worked for. God in His love, looks down on us in pity and He wants to give sinners what we don't deserve. He wants to give us the forgiveness of sins. He wants to give us a home in Heaven. And how has God done that? The Bible says, "We are justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

There, the clear teaching of scripture is stated.

We are not saved by what we do.

That was the door that opened Heaven for Martin Luther and that should be the door that opens Heaven for you and me. Martin Luther once said this about Jesus. He said, "You shall by no means make Christ into a small Christ, into a little savior who can only save from imaginary, insignificant, childish sins. No! That would not do well for us. But He is appointed of God to be a great savior who can and will deliver from truly great and enormous and damnable transgressions and sins and misdeeds, which the greatest, the worst and indeed all sinners on earth have committed, if they will but believe on Him and heartily desire his grace and help."

Martin Luther once said to Jesus, "Jesus, you have taken from what is mine, and given me what is yours. You have become what you are not, and made me what I am not. You have become my sin and I have become your righteousness." That is the teaching of scripture. Jesus has taken all of our sin and He has given to us all His righteousness. And, our sins are paid for. They are forgiven, by Christ, our Savior. And we are saved by grace alone!

And that's what it means to be a Lutheran! A Lutheran is somebody who believes what scripture says. I am not saved by my good works. I am saved by what Christ did for me.

And the third thing a Lutheran believes: scripture alone, grace alone and then sola fide: faith alone.

When Martin Luther was a young man, he had no confidence as to whether or not he was going to be in Heaven. The harder he tried to please God, the less confident he became. In fact, in his day all the people lacked confidence. They didn't know for sure whether or not they would go to Heaven. Most of them thought that they would end up in the imaginary place called Purgatory, because they didn't know if they had done enough good works to please God. Who knows whether I have done enough good works? Have I really done enough good works to make God happy with me??? And, since no one knew, it was very easy to sell them indulgences. An indulgence was a piece of paper that said that now that you have paid a certain amount of money, even if you end up in Purgatory, you wouldn’t have to suffer there. God is going to let you out of Purgatory, more quickly.

People were uncertain. They didn’t know, that if they died tonight, they would be in Heaven. But scripture teaches something very different from that! God is a God of certainty. God is a God who wants us to have comfort. God is a God who wants us to have confidence! God doesn’t want to trouble us. He doesn’t want to worry us. He doesn’t want us to be concerned whether or not we will be saved. God wants us to be confident people. So, God has given us a way for us to be absolutely confident. We can know that we will be saved on the day we die. We will be in Heaven.

Our scripture readings state, "We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the Law."

I don’t have to worry if I have done enough good things to be in Heaven. That would make me uncertain. I would never know if I had done enough good things. But, here the scripture says,

"We maintain a man is justified by faith,

apart from observing the Law."

And, there is scripture’s grand,

and great,

and holy,

and comforting promise!

When you believe that Jesus is your savior from sin, when you believe that Jesus died for you, when you believe that Jesus lived a perfect life for you, here is scripture’s promise: We are justified! Everything that Christ won for us is ours! And, God declares us not guilty, innocent, by faith! Simply by trusting in Christ! God gives us the promise, "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!" God gives us the promise, "He who believes has ever lasting life." God gives us the promise, "it is by grace you have been saved, through faith." Scripture gives us the promise; "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

There a Christian can have sure and absolute, certain confidence. God has given me a promise. God will not, does not, cannot, must not and never will go back on that promise! And the promise is, when I believe and I am saved.

A Christian can have absolute confidence that we are going to Heaven, for Christ’s sake, which is why Martin Luther on his deathbed could say this, "Oh my Heavenly Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, thou God of all comfort, I thank thee, because thou hast revealed onto me thy dear Son Jesus Christ in whom I believe, whom I have preached and confessed, whom I have loved and whom I have glorified. I pray thee my Lord Jesus Christ, receive my little soul. Oh Heavenly Father though I must depart from this body and must be torn out of this life, yet I know for a certainty, I KNOW FOR A CERTAINTY, that I shall be with thee forever. And, no one shall pluck me out thy Hands. And then he said, three times, "Father into thy Hands I commit my spirit."

And, then he went quiet for a little while.

And, then when of his good friends put his lips to Luther’s ear and asked him, "Venerable father will you steadfastly die in Jesus Christ and the doctrine that you have preached?"

To which Martin Luther answered with a loud voice, "Yes!"

And, then he died.

He had that absolute certainty that "I am saved!" He had that certainty; because God made a promise that we are saved by faith. And, that is what it means to be a Lutheran. To be a Lutheran is to be someone who believes in scripture alone, grace alone and faith alone.

Thank God, that by His grace, that is our heritage! And that is a heritage for God’s sake and for the sake of the Word of God! That is a heritage we want to preserve for all generations.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray You protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me.

Amen.

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