WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.559 So I got to make good on my promise. 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:07.919 The theme of the day is apostasy. 00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:28.539 Now in terms of our three readings this morning, the Proverbs reading from Proverbs 4, apostasy looks like being taught the way of the righteous, being put on the way of the righteous by your parents, by God, and then leaving that path to walk the path of the wicked. 00:00:28.539 --> 00:00:50.298 To know what is right, to know what leads to life, to know how to walk on the path that is brighter and brighter and brighter until full day, just like the dawn, but to instead choose to hang out with those who lose sleep when they do not have the chance to hurt somebody else or cause them to stumble. 00:00:50.298 --> 00:01:12.540 And in the terms of our epistle reading from Galatians, apostasy looks like knowing the benefits of Christ, being brought out of darkness into his marvelous light, but then to persist in the works of the flesh and to ultimately not inherit the kingdom of God. 00:01:12.540 --> 00:01:22.859 And in our gospel lesson, the picture here of apostasy is those nine lepers who received this great blessing from Jesus that they asked for by name. 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:23.900 They knew his name. 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:33.579 They called him Master and asked him to have mercy, and he did, and they just kept right on walking. 00:01:33.579 --> 00:01:41.180 For all we know, they never saw him again, never thought about him again. 00:01:41.180 --> 00:01:43.620 These ten lepers call out to Jesus to be healed. 00:01:43.620 --> 00:01:51.338 Jesus heals every one of them, but Jesus only says to one of them, your faith has saved you. 00:01:51.338 --> 00:01:56.058 Now, in the ESV, it's translated, made you well. 00:01:56.058 --> 00:01:57.058 I don't like that. 00:01:57.058 --> 00:02:13.659 I very rarely disagree with our translation of choice in the LCMS from the pulpit, but this word, sozo, that stands behind made you well, is also the word that stands behind salvation, saved you, rescued you. 00:02:13.659 --> 00:02:16.300 Your faith has saved you. 00:02:16.300 --> 00:02:26.580 So I think that's a legitimate translation, just as legitimate as made you well, and it's less confusing because they were all made well. 00:02:26.580 --> 00:02:28.300 But there's something different about this one leper. 00:02:28.300 --> 00:02:31.179 I'm getting ahead of myself. 00:02:31.179 --> 00:02:44.778 As soon as the Lord had blessed and purified and healed this one guy, a new life began for him, a life that was not focused on his own healing, but on worshiping the one that brought him out of darkness and into light. 00:02:44.778 --> 00:02:48.058 Lepers could not live in the towns and villages. 00:02:48.058 --> 00:02:50.860 They had to live outside in their own colonies. 00:02:50.860 --> 00:02:52.379 They were alone. 00:02:52.379 --> 00:03:00.639 They had to shout out, unclean, unclean, everywhere they went so that people knew to keep the right amount of distance away from them. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:05.479 What Jesus did for these lepers was incredible. 00:03:05.479 --> 00:03:12.038 And for this one, it changed him more than just in the sense of physical healing. 00:03:12.038 --> 00:03:17.159 St. Paul is saying something about this to the believers in Galatia this morning in our epistle lesson. 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:25.000 So that's actually what I'm going to preach on, is Galatians 5, so that I can say the same thing to you that Paul is saying to them. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:43.199 We who believe in Jesus must now walk according to the Spirit so that we do not end up like those nine lepers, people who received a blessing from Jesus but never turned back to praise him, thank him. 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:51.159 If we walk by the flesh instead of the Spirit, we do enjoy a little comfort and peace for a time, as those nine lepers surely did. 00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:54.159 Their life was radically transformed. 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:56.699 Things did get a lot better for them. 00:03:56.699 --> 00:04:13.179 But if spiritually we make the same move they did, we do not receive what matters most, which is not just the healing from leprosy, but that, like Jesus said to that one leper who came back, your faith has saved you. 00:04:13.179 --> 00:04:18.920 This is what's at stake with how we walk, how we live our lives now, as those who profess the name of Christ. 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:26.480 And so, this morning I say to you, walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh and its desires. 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:39.160 When Paul says that the desires of the flesh are against the desires of the Spirit and that these two are opposed to each other, he's talking about two external powers that are at work in the world. 00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:41.559 He's not describing an internal struggle alone. 00:04:41.559 --> 00:04:49.358 He's talking about things that are at work in our communities, in our society, in our world. 00:04:49.358 --> 00:04:54.720 And Christians, we are caught up in the middle of that struggle. 00:04:54.720 --> 00:05:03.559 It's not an equal struggle, we've got to be clear about that, as if the power of Almighty God is equaled by the power of sin, death, and the devil. 00:05:03.559 --> 00:05:13.678 And the decisive factor, you know, like it's 50-50 and it's up to us to decide the battle for evil or for good. 00:05:13.678 --> 00:05:21.559 No, God is Almighty, it's in the Word. 00:05:21.559 --> 00:05:31.040 Paul is clear that Christ has achieved victory on the cross that reaches to the ends of the universe and that Christians must live in that victory. 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:43.139 But as we do, we've got to be aware that the flesh, although it is defeated, is still fighting a losing battle in our world that does affect our lives. 00:05:43.139 --> 00:05:50.019 The flesh is trying to claw back those of us whom Christ has claimed for his own. 00:05:50.019 --> 00:05:55.939 This power that Paul calls the flesh, it wants to keep you from living as a Christian. 00:05:55.939 --> 00:06:18.000 It's great, Satan's got you right where he wants you if you claim to be a Christian but you don't actually live like a Christian and you're not bearing fruit because then you've lost any sense of urgency about this and he can kind of mark you checked off and done and he's just got to wait for you to die and he's won again. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:24.939 The flesh tries to keep us from living as a Christian, not primarily by just tempting our body. 00:06:24.939 --> 00:06:27.338 It's kind of ironic. 00:06:27.338 --> 00:06:35.778 Instead, the primary thing here is a focus inward on ourselves, on our own wants and needs. 00:06:35.778 --> 00:06:46.420 Again, not just physical needs but at least with the list that Paul gives in Galatians 5 here, primarily social, relational needs, emotional needs. 00:06:46.420 --> 00:06:54.738 The majority of the works, I'm going to read it from a scholar here, the majority of the works have nothing to do with satisfying one's physical desire. 00:06:54.738 --> 00:07:02.660 Paul is not speaking of human flesh but rather of flesh as a power that is asserting itself over and through humanity. 00:07:02.660 --> 00:07:07.019 Sexual sins hardly exhaust the darkness in that realm. 00:07:07.019 --> 00:07:13.019 The next two, idolatry and sorcery, are primarily sins against God. 00:07:13.019 --> 00:07:18.059 The eight sins that follow manifest themselves within community relationships. 00:07:18.059 --> 00:07:26.459 Enmities, strife, jealousy, rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy. 00:07:26.459 --> 00:07:32.459 The final two, drunkenness and carousing, are sins of excess. 00:07:32.459 --> 00:07:34.660 Here's the point of this here. 00:07:34.660 --> 00:07:42.199 The evil works Paul lists exemplify the chaotic and destructive self-centeredness that accompanies rebellion against God. 00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:44.819 I'm going to read that last sentence one more time. 00:07:44.819 --> 00:07:45.939 That's the kicker. 00:07:45.939 --> 00:08:00.259 The evil works that Paul lists here in Galatians 5 in our epistle for this morning, they exemplify the chaotic and destructive self-centeredness that accompanies rebellion against God. 00:08:00.259 --> 00:08:23.939 And now against the power of the flesh is the Holy Spirit who makes us participants in the divine nature and makes us holy through the word and sacraments, both forgiving and cleansing us from sin and training us as our lives go on in righteousness so that we learn how to avoid sin in the future. 00:08:23.939 --> 00:08:30.298 And the apostolic testimony to the Holy Spirit's ongoing work in believers, this is all over the New Testament. 00:08:30.298 --> 00:08:35.379 Just like I told the kids that honor your father and mother is all over the Old Testament and in fact the New Testament as well. 00:08:35.379 --> 00:08:43.619 St. Peter writes here in 2 Peter 1, 3 and 4, by his divine power God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. 00:08:43.619 --> 00:08:51.298 We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 00:08:51.298 --> 00:08:56.658 And because of his glory and excellence he has given us great and precious promises. 00:08:56.658 --> 00:09:07.460 These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. 00:09:07.460 --> 00:09:17.058 And St. Paul again, writing this time to Titus and to the church that Titus pastored, says this in Titus chapter 3, Once we too were foolish and disobedient. 00:09:17.058 --> 00:09:20.479 We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. 00:09:20.479 --> 00:09:24.840 Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. 00:09:24.840 --> 00:09:33.580 But when God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. 00:09:33.580 --> 00:09:38.418 He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 00:09:38.418 --> 00:09:43.019 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 00:09:43.019 --> 00:09:50.158 Because of his grace, he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life. 00:09:50.158 --> 00:10:01.500 This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:04.658 These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone. 00:10:04.658 --> 00:10:16.399 The Holy Spirit and the flesh are opposed to each other, and we who follow Jesus are caught up right in the middle of this struggle in the world. 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:19.979 And this struggle is extremely high stakes. 00:10:19.979 --> 00:10:40.859 In the Lutheran Church, there is this annoying tendency to inappropriately maximize God's grace and scandalously minimize the severity of sin by throwing slogans around like, Sin boldly, but believe more boldly still. 00:10:40.859 --> 00:10:46.899 Well to that, we have to respond with these next verses from Galatians 5. 00:10:46.899 --> 00:11:00.820 I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things, these works of the flesh that Paul lists, will not inherit the kingdom of God. 00:11:00.820 --> 00:11:10.859 Although we should never treat sins lightly, if entering God's kingdom required us not only to believe in Christ but also to never sin, none of us would ever enter heaven and the gospel would come undone. 00:11:10.859 --> 00:11:19.219 So if you've ever fallen into sin, your toast cannot be what Paul means here. 00:11:19.219 --> 00:11:24.219 Alright, that's a relief. 00:11:24.219 --> 00:11:26.379 So what does he mean? 00:11:26.379 --> 00:11:41.320 The scriptures do teach that sin still clings to us, yeah, but the scriptures also teach that Christians are no longer under the spell of sins so as to be ruled by them. 00:11:41.320 --> 00:12:01.019 We can and we do still fall into sin after we've been regenerated through the washing and renewal of holy baptism, after we've been catechized in the truths of the scriptures, after we've taken a confirmation vow to live the rest of our lives as Christians, after we've been fed the Lord's body and blood again and again. 00:12:01.019 --> 00:12:04.739 We can and we do still fall into sin after all of that. 00:12:04.739 --> 00:12:21.779 But Christians, this is not a Christian thing to do, to intentionally defy God's word and then think, I gotta get out of jail free card here through the gospel. 00:12:21.779 --> 00:12:27.619 That is a very dangerous place to be. 00:12:27.619 --> 00:12:53.678 When believers fall into manifest sins where there is no doubt, like King David fell into adultery, murder, blasphemy, false witness, coveting, I mean, David broke like every one of those commandments when he took Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, to be his own and then had Uriah killed in battle. 00:12:53.678 --> 00:13:06.320 When believers do this kind of thing, just like David did, faith and the Holy Spirit have departed from them. 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:11.359 The Holy Spirit in a believer does not permit sin to have dominion. 00:13:11.359 --> 00:13:17.279 Remember what I said, it's not like the Holy Spirit and sin are evenly matched. 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:18.599 They're not. 00:13:18.599 --> 00:13:21.359 The Holy Spirit is stronger than sin. 00:13:21.359 --> 00:13:24.639 Sin can't beat the Holy Spirit. 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:31.259 The Holy Spirit represses and restrains sin so that believers can say no to temptation. 00:13:31.259 --> 00:13:45.259 But if you decide to give in anyway, then the Holy Spirit and faith are not present because you drove them out. 00:13:45.259 --> 00:13:50.580 When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband to cover it up, the Holy Spirit departed from him. 00:13:50.580 --> 00:14:07.219 Which is why, in Psalm 51, he writes, Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 00:14:07.219 --> 00:14:11.399 As we sing in Divine Service, setting three. 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:14.460 Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. 00:14:14.460 --> 00:14:16.139 Restore to me the joy of your salvation. 00:14:16.139 --> 00:14:19.538 David is begging for something. 00:14:19.538 --> 00:14:25.058 He wants God to give back what his sin drove away. 00:14:25.058 --> 00:14:34.859 And in America, we are surrounded by Christians who will tell you that once you are saved, you are always saved. 00:14:34.859 --> 00:14:38.440 And that a believer cannot lose the Holy Spirit. 00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:39.619 That this doesn't actually happen. 00:14:39.619 --> 00:14:42.219 And in the Lutheran Church, we condemn that teaching. 00:14:42.219 --> 00:14:44.580 We have for 500 years. 00:14:44.580 --> 00:14:55.139 We have this weird reputation for being so soft on sin as Lutherans, but in fact, we are much more serious about sin than most other Protestants. 00:14:55.139 --> 00:14:58.298 Maybe all other Protestants. 00:14:58.298 --> 00:15:12.418 Christians cannot indulge wicked lusts without fear or shame, resist the Holy Spirit, purposely engage in sins against conscience, and yet still retain faith in God's grace and salvation. 00:15:12.979 --> 00:15:13.979 Let me say it again. 00:15:13.979 --> 00:15:25.099 There cannot be in the same heart both saving faith in the Lord Jesus and at the same time a wicked intention to continue in sins. 00:15:25.099 --> 00:15:27.580 Here's what that means for your life. 00:15:27.580 --> 00:15:33.080 The Holy Spirit comes to you through the Word of God and through the sacraments. 00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:36.558 No other avenue that he uses than these. 00:15:36.558 --> 00:15:44.119 This is how Christ delivers to you what he won for you on the cross, forgiveness, life, and salvation. 00:15:44.119 --> 00:15:51.719 They only come to you by the Holy Spirit using God's Word and the sacraments as instruments. 00:15:51.719 --> 00:15:55.719 That's how you receive everything. 00:15:55.719 --> 00:16:10.418 But when you persist in sin against your conscience, when you know what God's Word says, and you choose to keep doing what it forbids, you are driving the Holy Spirit away from you. 00:16:10.418 --> 00:16:18.899 And when the Holy Spirit goes, so does the faith that he gives you. 00:16:18.899 --> 00:16:29.739 You lose the faith through which you receive forgiveness by trying to do this thing where you say, I believe in Jesus, but I'm going to refuse to forgive somebody else. 00:16:29.739 --> 00:16:33.259 Or I'm just going to call my porn habit a struggle. 00:16:33.259 --> 00:16:42.538 Or I'm going to live with somebody I'm not married to. 00:16:42.538 --> 00:16:50.178 Or I'm not going to put to death my addiction to alcohol. 00:16:50.178 --> 00:16:52.219 Whatever it takes. 00:16:52.219 --> 00:16:54.940 I'm not going to honor my parents. 00:16:54.940 --> 00:17:03.538 You cannot pick and choose what you're going to do. 00:17:03.538 --> 00:17:13.199 When you persist in sin, you lose the very thing that makes the Word and sacraments do you any good. 00:17:13.199 --> 00:17:14.420 You can still sit in a pew. 00:17:14.420 --> 00:17:16.578 You can still hear a sermon. 00:17:16.578 --> 00:17:20.979 You can still think of yourself as a Christian. 00:17:20.979 --> 00:17:24.459 You can justify it. 00:17:24.459 --> 00:17:33.459 But if you are persisting in sin against your conscience, you are receiving God's Word. 00:17:33.459 --> 00:17:46.779 And if you're keeping it from me, you're receiving the Lord's Supper without true faith, which means you're receiving it to your own judgment and potentially your damnation. 00:17:46.779 --> 00:17:53.219 It's that serious, guys. 00:17:53.219 --> 00:18:00.739 These things condemn you if you receive them without faith because you are treating holy things as though they don't really matter. 00:18:00.739 --> 00:18:07.779 Again, this is not the same thing as saying, if you have ever fallen into sin, you're lost. 00:18:07.779 --> 00:18:08.779 Christians do still sin. 00:18:08.779 --> 00:18:19.779 Despite their best efforts, the Lord's Supper is given for anxious consciences who desire God's forgiveness and know that they need to leave things behind in their life. 00:18:19.779 --> 00:18:27.739 It's not given to be abused by those who are comfortable with the sin in their life. 00:18:27.739 --> 00:18:35.900 Christians who persist in sin against conscience lose the Holy Spirit. 00:18:35.900 --> 00:18:39.098 The difference is not between big sins and small sins. 00:18:39.098 --> 00:18:49.640 The difference is between the sin that you fight and that you spend your life repenting of and the sin that you have made peace with and that you might not even think about as a sin anymore. 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:52.039 So the question for you this morning is not whether you have ever sinned. 00:18:52.039 --> 00:18:53.160 Of course you have. 00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:56.078 Of course I have. 00:18:56.078 --> 00:18:58.759 The question is, what are you doing with it? 00:18:58.759 --> 00:19:00.118 How are you thinking about it? 00:19:00.118 --> 00:19:01.239 Are you fighting it? 00:19:01.239 --> 00:19:02.239 Are you repenting of it? 00:19:02.239 --> 00:19:11.000 Are you, by God's power that he gives to you through the Word and through the sacraments, putting it to death? 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:12.400 Or have you made your peace with it? 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:30.118 Because those who make a practice of the works of the flesh, who persist in sin against conscience and comfort themselves with a grace from God that they are actually in the process of throwing away, these people will not inherit the kingdom of God. 00:19:30.118 --> 00:19:37.358 And I don't want that to be true about a single one of you or anybody you love. 00:19:37.358 --> 00:19:45.719 Walk by the Spirit because those who practice the works of the flesh will not inherit God's kingdom. 00:19:45.719 --> 00:19:50.160 Notice that Paul calls what the flesh does works and what the Spirit does fruit. 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:52.439 The works of the flesh are things that you do. 00:19:52.439 --> 00:19:55.439 The fruit of the Spirit is something that grows. 00:19:55.439 --> 00:19:58.479 And it differs from the works of the flesh in two ways. 00:19:58.479 --> 00:20:00.959 First in direction. 00:20:00.959 --> 00:20:05.400 The works of the flesh, we talked about this already, they're all inwardly focused. 00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:10.160 Satisfying my desires, protecting my interests, getting what I want. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:12.479 The fruit of the Spirit is outwardly focused. 00:20:12.719 --> 00:20:20.519 Love, patience, kindness, gentleness, all of these things directed outward toward other people for their good. 00:20:20.519 --> 00:20:25.160 Second, the difference is whose action makes it happen. 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:28.239 The works of the flesh are all you. 00:20:28.239 --> 00:20:42.199 Your and my corrupt self-interest driving, like the pilot of a plane, our reason, our senses, all of our powers toward sinful ends. 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:53.160 The fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, is God sharing with you what He already is and then working these things in you for the benefit of other people. 00:20:53.160 --> 00:21:00.838 So this sermon is not going to conclude, we are coming up to it, with me standing up here saying you need to love people more, you just need to be more patient. 00:21:00.838 --> 00:21:07.920 Come on, work out that face and crack a smile, bear the fruit of joy. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:11.799 You guys are really intense when you listen to sermons, by the way. 00:21:11.799 --> 00:21:15.640 You could smile a little more, that would help. 00:21:15.640 --> 00:21:17.479 You need to work harder at self-control. 00:21:17.479 --> 00:21:20.318 That's not the way this sermon's going to end, because that's not the point. 00:21:20.318 --> 00:21:24.078 Fruit grows when the conditions are right. 00:21:24.078 --> 00:21:28.799 Some years, you plant 10 tomato plants and you get 1,000 tomatoes. 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:32.239 Cherry tomatoes, God be praised, not full-size tomatoes. 00:21:32.239 --> 00:21:40.199 Other years, you plant one tomato plant and you get one tomato, like me, this year. 00:21:40.199 --> 00:21:43.118 The conditions aren't different, they're not right this year. 00:21:43.118 --> 00:21:51.880 I goofed somehow along the way, because if everything was right, the fruit would be there. 00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:58.239 The conditions for us bearing the fruit of the Spirit, they're not that complicated. 00:21:58.239 --> 00:22:02.318 Think about that one leper in today's Gospel reading who turned back. 00:22:02.318 --> 00:22:06.439 All 10 of them received this real gift from Jesus, but 9 of them kept on walking. 00:22:06.439 --> 00:22:11.078 One, when he realized what had happened, what Jesus had done for him, he turned back. 00:22:11.078 --> 00:22:16.479 He gave praise to God, and then he fell at Jesus' feet and gave thanks to him. 00:22:16.479 --> 00:22:19.559 Jesus said to that guy, your faith has saved you. 00:22:19.559 --> 00:22:25.838 Not just healed, we talked about this already too, but saved. 00:22:25.838 --> 00:22:28.199 What did he do differently than the 9? 00:22:28.199 --> 00:22:31.759 He turned back, yeah, but it's more than that. 00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:39.358 When he fell at Jesus' feet, that is an unmistakable act of worship. 00:22:39.358 --> 00:22:51.358 And given what he just said, he was thanking and praising God, and he's falling at Jesus' feet and worshiping him, which means he's confessing that Jesus is God. 00:22:51.358 --> 00:22:55.199 The other 9 who did not return, they did receive something from Jesus. 00:22:55.199 --> 00:22:57.559 Again, their leprosy was gone. 00:22:57.559 --> 00:23:00.920 It didn't come back while they were on their way to show themselves to the priest. 00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:02.880 He's like, ah, darn it, what happened? 00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:04.078 I thought he said he was going to heal us. 00:23:04.078 --> 00:23:05.078 That's not what happened. 00:23:05.078 --> 00:23:10.479 They were healed, but they were still going to die at the end of their life. 00:23:10.479 --> 00:23:16.078 There was a greater gift that Jesus had for them, not just healing, but what? 00:23:16.078 --> 00:23:18.719 Salvation. 00:23:18.719 --> 00:23:26.118 And they walked away from it, because to them, Jesus was just an impressive man who worked a kind of miracle for them, but he was certainly not God. 00:23:26.118 --> 00:23:29.358 They weren't ready to make that claim about him. 00:23:29.358 --> 00:23:34.439 Jesus was not the Lord before whom they needed to fall on their faces. 00:23:34.439 --> 00:23:36.318 So they kept right on going. 00:23:36.318 --> 00:23:48.838 This is exactly what happens when someone is baptized, confirmed, received Lord's Supper, they receive all these real gifts from Jesus, real things from him, and then they walk away. 00:23:48.838 --> 00:23:50.160 They're like the 9. 00:23:50.160 --> 00:24:07.318 They got something good, but they're not going to inherit the kingdom of God because they never came back to confess that Jesus is their God and their Lord, and to keep receiving from him what only God can give, forgiveness of sins, life, salvation. 00:24:07.318 --> 00:24:11.880 The difference between the 9 and the 1 is not just gratitude or effort. 00:24:11.880 --> 00:24:27.239 It's faith more than anything else, faith that recognizes who Jesus is, and here's really the edge on this, and will not walk away from him. 00:24:27.239 --> 00:24:30.160 That's exactly the dynamic Paul is describing in Galatians. 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:34.519 When you persist in sin, you're walking away from Jesus with your blessing, like the 9. 00:24:34.519 --> 00:24:54.920 But when you turn back to Christ and his finished work for you, when you do what you're doing right now, when you come to church to receive his gifts and worded sacraments, when you read your Bible outside of here, you pray with your family, when you carry out your callings faithfully, you are like the one who turned back because you're keeping your eyes on Christ. 00:24:54.920 --> 00:25:03.439 You're not letting him out of your sight, and as you do, the Holy Spirit bears his fruit through you. 00:25:03.439 --> 00:25:09.239 You're not producing love and patience and self-control by your own effort, as if these things are just a new law for us to follow. 00:25:09.239 --> 00:25:25.318 No, these things are what God produces in people whose faces are always turned toward him in whatever situation in life they're in, or who are realizing that they're not turned to him anymore, and are repenting and turning back. 00:25:25.318 --> 00:25:28.358 The Old Testament reading this morning says the same thing in a different way. 00:25:28.358 --> 00:25:36.160 Proverbs 4 says, the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until full day, and this is how the path gets brighter. 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:41.479 Solomon tells us, let them not escape from your sight, keep them within your heart. 00:25:41.479 --> 00:25:43.239 Keep what within your heart? 00:25:43.239 --> 00:25:45.039 Let what not escape from your sight? 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:50.078 The words of eternal life that Jesus has for us. 00:25:50.078 --> 00:25:53.479 Where else will we go? 00:25:53.479 --> 00:25:55.039 Keep these things always in front of you. 00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:57.640 Don't let them out of your sight. 00:25:57.640 --> 00:26:01.880 This is how the path gets brighter for you, Christians, day by day. 00:26:01.880 --> 00:26:04.239 The Christian life is not that complicated, then. 00:26:04.239 --> 00:26:13.078 The Holy Spirit works through the means of grace, which are the word and the sacraments, and if you never let these things out of your sight, so to speak, right? 00:26:13.920 --> 00:26:17.358 I'm not saying you always have to be facing the church, no matter where you are. 00:26:17.358 --> 00:26:18.358 It's not like that. 00:26:18.358 --> 00:26:19.880 I'm talking spiritually. 00:26:19.880 --> 00:26:52.838 If you never let God's word get too far away from you, too far outside of the realm of your attention, if you're always turning back to thank and praise God, keeping your focus on Christ and the victory he won for you, like our memory focus says, call upon God's name in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks, if you keep your focus on Christ, the Spirit will bear his fruit in your life. 00:26:52.838 --> 00:26:54.279 It's that simple. 00:26:54.279 --> 00:26:57.039 That's how you walk by the Spirit. 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:07.479 Walking by the Spirit is not a new complicated thing like Christianity 201 that you move on to after the basics of the gospel are kind of done and graduated from. 00:27:07.479 --> 00:27:09.559 No, this is the whole thing. 00:27:09.559 --> 00:27:12.598 It's all right here, one day at a time. 00:27:12.598 --> 00:27:30.000 We walk by the Spirit by keeping our eyes on Christ as the Spirit leads us, and each day as we do, the path grows a little brighter, a little clearer, until full day does dawn, either when Christ returns or when he calls us home, when we cross our finish line. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:32.000 And this is why it matters how you think of yourself. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:38.239 This is another one of these slogans, saint and sinner, sinner and saint, all right? 00:27:38.239 --> 00:27:43.199 You in Christ are not sinners anymore. 00:27:43.199 --> 00:27:45.439 Jesus has done something for you. 00:27:45.439 --> 00:27:48.680 You have crucified the flesh with all its desires. 00:27:48.680 --> 00:27:57.979 So if you believe in Jesus, you are a saint who still sins in this life and needs God's forgiveness. 00:27:57.979 --> 00:28:19.118 That is more true of you than to say you're a sinner who Jesus forgives again and again and again, because if you think of yourself as a sinner, you're going to start to give yourself a pass on little sins and then bigger sins and then bigger sins, and then pretty soon you're living like you've got to get out of jail free card to hands to God when you die. 00:28:19.118 --> 00:28:24.318 And as we've heard this morning, that's not going to go well for you. 00:28:24.318 --> 00:28:48.299 When you sin, Christians, because your identity is found in Christ and in Christ you are holy, when you sin, you're not acting like yourself, you're acting like the old you, you're acting against yourself, and the Holy Spirit calls you back again and again to remember who you really are, Christ alone. 00:28:48.299 --> 00:28:52.380 So walk by the Spirit, not by the flesh and its desires. 00:28:52.380 --> 00:28:57.420 That's what Paul says to the Galatians, that's what I'm saying to you this morning. 00:28:57.420 --> 00:29:05.660 What we are doing right now is not some kind of preparation for the Spirit to do His work, it is the Spirit's work in us. 00:29:05.660 --> 00:29:12.140 You're hearing God's Word preached to you, you heard the promise of forgiveness as if Christ were here Himself speaking it to you. 00:29:12.140 --> 00:29:15.299 In a moment we're going to receive the Lord's body and blood. 00:29:15.299 --> 00:29:31.039 This is how the Holy Spirit bears His fruit, through the means of grace delivered to His people, so that those people will bear those fruit, so that others might be drawn to the Gospel also. 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:45.939 And if you're sitting here this morning knowing that you have been walking like the nine, that if you've taken what Jesus gave you at some earlier time in your life and you've walked away from Him into sin, that you have made your peace with. 00:29:45.939 --> 00:29:49.140 And be aware of what is happening right now. 00:29:49.259 --> 00:29:53.660 Don't miss this moment, don't harden your heart against it. 00:29:53.660 --> 00:29:58.380 You're once again hearing the Word of God that is not neutral. 00:29:58.380 --> 00:30:03.699 The Holy Spirit is calling you to repentance right now, in this moment. 00:30:03.699 --> 00:30:14.660 He's calling you back to who you really are, who Christ made you by His Word, by the washing of holy baptism. 00:30:14.660 --> 00:30:22.699 The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, it shines brighter and brighter until full day, and that path isn't out there somewhere. 00:30:22.699 --> 00:30:24.699 It's pretty mundane, it's ordinary. 00:30:24.699 --> 00:30:31.299 It runs right here, through the font, through this pulpit, through the altar. 00:30:31.299 --> 00:30:37.299 And it starts, or starts again, today. 00:30:37.299 --> 00:30:41.699 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.