THIRD SUNDAY after TRINITY 2020

"The God who cares" is a phrase that only the Christian understands and comprises the little gallery below. Pic #1 depicts our first parents Adam and Eve; Pic #2 is Gustave Doré's 1868 engraving of the expulsion of the couple that were first created in the image of God, true righteousness and holiness; Pic #3 shows how man, in his evil devises, believes a new paradise can be gained; Pic #4 encapsulates a broken and contrite heart as a man leans upon his caring God, Jesus Christ; and, lastly Pic #5 shows the meaning of true restoration by the New Man putting on Christ's own righteousness. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

This brings me to this morning's address:

“God Cares for the Humble of Heart”
1 Peter 5:6-7 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. NKJV

My Christian friends: I bring to your attention two simple verses from today’s epistle for this reason, namely, that they demonstrate what it is to be a Christian. These two verses separate the Christian religion from all the other religions of the world. All the other religions of the world are pagan for they tell you what you must do to obtain God and a place in heaven; whereas the Christian religion tells you what God has already obtained and done for you in His Son Jesus Christ. All the other religions place bigger cares upon you as a practitioner of paganism; whereas, Christianity relieves you of your cares by placing them upon Jesus, the true God that cares for you! Paganism teaches you to exalt yourself by your good works in order to please God; Christianity teaches you to humble yourself in order that you may be exalted and by His power do good works. The two verses are these: Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon Him; for he cares for you.

The late Missourian, Pastor Herzberger, wrote in “The Family Altar” of 1943, regarding John 3:30:
“‘He (Jesus) must increase, but I (John the Baptist) must decrease’” And then referring to that which John strived, Herzberger wrote regarding Jesus, “With this humble submission even unto death He atoned for our inborn pride and vainglory that causes much strife and pain in the world. But with His humble example before us, we are to learn of Him, to grow like Him in meekness and lowliness of heart. When we do that, really strive to follow His example, we shall grow more and more in the knowledge of our deep, sinful depravity, our utter worthlessness and helplessness to save ourselves, while our blessed Lord with His unmerited love of our poor souls, His daily pardon and help, and comfort grow more and more precious in our sight. The more we learn to forget self and live in and for our Savior, the more we shall attain to that ‘rest of soul’ which He promises those that take upon themselves His easy yoke and light burden.”

Here is our Savior’s great love – mercy and care. This providential care sustains you when times get rough. The burdens and cares you experience – you cannot carry them for they will eventually overwhelm you. It doesn’t matter what your cares are: the corona virus pandemic, finances, loss of friends or family, or even the omnipresent social teachings of Marxism in our government that even today is hell-bent on destroying our Republic. It simply does not matter. If you think that you can solve the world’s problems then you are bound to go through mental and spiritual crises. So take a step back and think to yourself, “Why do the democrat socialists want everyone to have a free college education?” Could it be that it is in these free colleges and universities that every student is being indoctrinated not to think for themselves, but to be anti-free speech, anti-capitalism and indoctrinated to submit themselves in everything to the Marxist-socialists ideologies?

Our young are often taught to have more self-esteem with slogans like “Respect me; respect yourself” or “Black Lives Matter” to the exclusion of anyone else. But if you think too much of yourself you will always become haughty and self-loving. However, if you follow the example of John the Baptist who wished to emulate Christ, you would be self-abasing, and hence be lifted up by God Himself, in due time. You would then experience that which King David expressed in Psalm 55:22, “Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”

The Christian’s burdens will be greater than those of the heathen, but these burdens will always be opportunities for the Christian to express the love of Jesus and to give thanks for having a God that cares. Prayer and praise should ring out to God in times of trouble, such as, “My heavenly Father, You have created me when I was nothing; You, and You alone have redeemed me through the merits of Your Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ; You will not fail me now in my time of need.” Such a prayer is ridiculed by the haughty, self-lovers of this world; however, such a prayer makes your heavenly Father blessed indeed.

People today are not inclined to believe and trust in God that cares. Mankind simply does not think that God, if man believes there is a God, is concerned about everyday life. Man is more likely to believe in the process of evolution; that we are mere accidents of a random process. Or to put the best construction on it, man may believe that God created the primordial slime that eventually evolved into man and that God now leaves all things to order themselves.

It therefore is no small wonder why mankind thinks so highly of itself, over and above its Creator, since mankind doesn’t believe that God cared so much to create man in His image of true righteousness and holiness. Man must now recreate God, especially the Lord Jesus Christ who became man, according to one’s own race and imaginations. But this is what it means to be created in the image of God as St. Paul tells the Ephesian Church:
“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:17-24)

I never heard of an ape that was righteous and holy, although humans are so inclined to give animals rights that even exceed that of our own species. But this I do know: God created Adam and Eve in righteousness and holiness because He is a caring God and not some cosmic prankster who loves to watch primordial slime ooze its way into becoming a man by means of evolution. Pius XII, in his 1950 papal encyclical, pronounced that Darwin's theory about the origins of life and Christianity were not necessarily in conflict, the Roman Catholic church has viewed evolution as a “serious hypothesis.”

Pope John Paul II, in a letter released to the Pontifical Academy of Science meeting in October1996 in Rome, said “Fresh knowledge leads to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just a hypothesis.” That, by the way, is the teaching of the late Pope John Paul II, namely that God did not create Adam and Eve as the Bible says it happened, but that man was an evolutionary process and that we indeed evolved from apes. But God nevertheless cares; and if He cared enough to make Adam and Eve in His image of true righteousness and holiness, then it had to be that He cared for man so much that He was obliged to redeem His fallen creation, not for man’s sake, but for His own name’s sake.
As it is written in the 23rd Psalm, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Or take Psalm 37:5-7, Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for him: fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.

If Christian pastors believe that God personally doesn’t care – then they should not be preaching. The true angel God had in His care, was that angel who proclaimed the everlasting covenant during the turbulent times of the Reformation, namely, Martin Luther. 

As Luther himself wrote in his sermon for today:
“Let me illustrate from my own experience. What should I have done when I began to denounce the lies of the indulgence system, and later the errors of the papacy, if I had listened and given heed to the terrible things all the world wrote and said would happen to me? How often I heard it said that if I wrote against such and such eminent people I would provoke their displeasure, which would prove too severe for me and the whole German nation. But, led thereto by reason of my office (otherwise I would have preferred to keep silence), I must continue. I commended the cause to God and let Him bear the burden of care, both as to the result of the work and also to my own fate…Oh, how much good would God accomplish through us if people could be persuaded, especially the eminent lords and kings, that what Peter here says is true: ‘He careth for you!’ How much could He do if they only believed that truth instead of seeking, through their own wisdom and reason, to equip, strengthen, and compose themselves by aid of human might and assistance, friendship and alliance, for the accomplishment and maintenance of their own cause!”

Many have for a long time, even a life-time, talked about trusting in God above all things and yet
have proven this to be only lip service as they sought human wisdom in lieu of God’s Word. And although Christians have come a long way in trusting in the caring providence of God, we still have a long way to go to show in our daily living that God cares for us. We need to daily confess our sins and seek God who really cares for us. His mercy is caring and is displayed throughout the Bible in both New and Old Testaments.

His promises, those old certainties, haven’t changed one iota even though the world in its folly has changed enormously. Philosophies flood the market and have overcome even the sales of the Bible in America; philosophies of Karl Marx and Black Lives Matter inundate our news media; and, the Bible itself has continually changed in translations even to the detriment of civil social order and of men’s souls.

But look at what Jesus told His disciples in Luke 12:29-31, “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.” Or consider what St. Paul wrote the Church in Corinth (2 Cor. 11:7), “Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that you might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?” And, also in 2 Corinthians 8:5, “And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.”

My friends, you do no one wrong in seeking the God of the Bible who cares for you; you do no wrong in praising and glorifying our heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. You who seek to follow Jesus’ example of caring and giving, even if it means self-abasement, is the reason that God in His wrath has not already destroyed this world. For if anyone wants to contend with you in what you believe, teach, and confess, let him do so at the detriment of his own soul. For you it is who depends upon this fundamental Christian teaching. Yes, to depend upon the One eternal God that cares for you in every aspect of your life is a Christ-like thing. This is nothing less than mercy that emanates from the bowels of God Himself who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. But, as Christians, you too must be exhorted to cast all your cares upon the Lord.

Every Christian should glory in Jesus Christ their Savior who gives them strength when they do not know where to turn; Jesus, who is the sinner’s friend; Jesus, who cancelled the debt that the Law demanded by carrying the Commandments and nailing them to the holy cross with His body. Jesus, who with the Father sent the Holy Spirit to comfort those who are terrified and fear what is overtaking them in this world as well as the fear of the wrath of God that is coming to all those who are boastful and irreverent.

As Luther spoke of humbling oneself, “The heart, through knowledge of its sin, becomes terrified in the presence of God’s anger and anxiously seeks grace. Thus, a humility is born, not merely external and before men, but of the heart of God, from fear of God and knowledge of one’s own unworthiness and weakness. He who fears God and trembles at His word will surely not boast against anyone. He will even manifest a gentle spirit toward his enemies…The cause of this shall be ‘the mighty hand of God.’”

Therefore, let us implore God, through the mercies of Jesus Christ, that He may grant boldness and steadfastness to the leaders of our Republic to strike down the evils that are now besetting us. Wait patiently and commit yourselves to prayer so that even the enemies within our State may also humble themselves under God’s mighty hand.

And, in all things let us retain the knowledge to always submit ourselves to God’s providential care so that we may truly believe what is written in the last stanza of Hans Brorsom’s Danish hymn of 1734 (TLH #413), “I Walk in Danger All the Way”: “My walk is heavenward all the way; Await, my soul, the morrow. When thou shalt find release for aye From all thy sin and sorrow. All worldly pomp be gone! To heaven I now press on. For all the world I would not stay; My walk is heavenward all the way.” Amen.

TRINITY SUNDAY 2020

The Blessings of the Triune God summarizes the little gallery below: Pic #1 is "Jesus Instructing Nicodemus" by Crijn Hendricksz, a 17th Century Dutch artist. Jesus, sent by His Father, explains the New Birth to Nicodemus found in the Holy Spirit; thus, Pic #2 demonstrates what Jesus said to do to all nations about being baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; Pic #3 takes us back to the vision of Isaiah 6, with the hymn of the 3-fold blessings of holiness, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; for even though there are three persons, there are not three gods but one God, as Pic #4 explains. For the God is united as One as the Hebrew word echad actually means.





This brings me to this Trinity Sunday's address:

“Being Born Again of the Triune God”

Text: John 3:3-8 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

My Christian friends: To show what it is like for everyone to be born a sinful natural birth, hear the words of the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 16:1-5: “Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite (both natural enemies of the Triune God). As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.’”

But friends, you yourself can dread the day that you were born but you will still not have hope for the future. All help is therefore dead as it might well be, as long as you feel you can do anything to correct your miserable plight and cause yourself to live. You can do nothing of the sort as Paul tells the Ephesians: “…you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” For as long as your umbilical cord was never severed you are still being nourished by corruptible seed and, if perchance it is severed, you will nevertheless die from starvation if no one takes pity on you. It is amazing how much each and every one of the sons of Adam are like the corruptible Jerusalem that the Lord has Ezekiel prophesy against. How much more can our generation say that our fathers were Amorites and mothers Hittites, enemies of the Lord God, in natural births?

Ah, but look at the blessings of actually having Christian fathers and mothers who would look at you when you were born and say, “Live! Live!” It is as the prophet says to the abominable Jerusalem in Ezekiel 16:6ff “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you thrive like a plant in the field…“Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil.” Here you find the explanation of the one true Baptism and the one Holy Spirit, which is the oil of gladness. Here is the remedy for your new birth; here is where Christian mothers and fathers bring their little ones so that they might be born-again.

It is as the Bible means when stating the significance of the flood that destroyed all mankind yet saved eight souls through means of water. Peter records in his first epistle (1 Peter 3:18-21): “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us — baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

If you take the very Word of God, as penned by the holy Apostle, you will also find in the first chapter, verse three, the word blessed. “Blesséd be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Why is God the Father blessed? Simply because of the works of His Son explained this way: “who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”

Christian, the words of the Bible must stand without you adding or subtracting from them in order to fit your own agenda or to match up with what your church body teaches, lest you risk forfeiting your right to the tree of life.

So where is it mentioned in all of Scripture that you can do anything to affect your own salvation? Where is it mentioned that you can merit a new birth by what you say or do? Nowhere. Where, again, is it written that if a person repeats a sinner’s prayer that he is then born-again? As Paul told the Corinthians, “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” That is why Paul, in Romans 10:9-17 told the Roman Church that no one can call on the name of the Lord unless they heard of Him by the graces distributed to them by a called preacher. Emphasis is given to verses 14 and 15: “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’”

As far as I can see, Jesus did not lead Nicodemus in a sinner’s prayer so that he could exclaim that he was now born-again…and why not? Would not Jesus have given Nicodemus the concrete, psychological answer that human reason demands for peace of mind? The answer is relatively simple: Man can produce only that which is of the flesh but the Holy Spirit brings about the second birth which is rightly from above.

It is therefore through faith (that is also a gift of God) that man receives this new birth and therefore is born-again; in faith, by faith, through faith, faith alone in Christ that grants you access to these heavenly gifts, even salvation. As John 1:11-13 testifies, “[Jesus] came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The late Lutheran theologian, R.C.H. Lenski, speaks truth when he says: “We are begotten again when the life from God is implanted into our souls.” And, again: “The greatness of God’s mercy appears when we see what we were at one time by virtue of our natural birth and what we are now by virtue of our spiritual rebirth. It was…great mercy for God to stoop down to such wretched creatures as we were. Great also is the evidence of mercy when we note what God begot us: ‘to living hope,’ the opposite of an empty, false, deceptive hope.”

So it is also the same message of instruction of being born-again, not how to be born-again (i.e. not “getting” born-again) that our Lord spoke to Nicodemus in John 3:3. It is also the same message stated in Ephesians 2:4-6 and also Colossians 2:13, “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.”

The suffering masses of people who don’t trust in the mercy of our God are arrogant Amorites and Hittites indeed. They depend upon their own natural abilities and sinful selves and are content with dragging down their friends and family into the pits of perdition with their self-pride, false securities, and their false dreams and visions as their idols. This is not what you have learned from Christian pulpits, but repentance by all means! But not without a living faith in the forgiveness of sins in the crucified Christ, which the Holy Spirit gives testimony to in Word and Sacrament.

It is this faith that comes through the mercies of God the Father in Christ Jesus which we receive for our healing. “And His name, through faith in His name, has made you strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all,” is what Peter spoke to the crowd about the healing of the lame man at the gate of the temple. This was a sign of God about the spiritual healing that is made available to all who trust in Jesus. For it should go without saying that if it is by the stripes of Jesus that you are healed and now have peace with God, why would you ever feel that it is up to you, dead in your trespasses and sins, to make some decision for Christ? Have you ever really done enough and done whatever you believe is necessary to truly obtain a new birth?

Look at what St. Paul says to the church in Philippi: Phil 2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation (speaking that which was already given you who believe) with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

Born again from above! Live! Live!! Why die eternally? You are born again by God; kept by God; even sustained in your new birth by God to do the works of God, by God working through you. Man could never claim these works for himself without, at the same time, holding on to a false, deceptive hope. If there are any good feelings to be had from all this, it should be the feelings of wanting to bless God for having Christ so richly live in you through Word and Sacrament.

Being born again is a good feeling, subjectively speaking. But more importantly, being born again by the Holy Spirit, means that even when the natural flesh fails you, the Word of God remains true to its promises. And because God’s word is true, you will always have that living hope through the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Peter writes: [You] “who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”

However, if your hope depends on your decision to accept Christ and not by faith simply believing in the promise God made to you that He has chosen to accept you through the mercies of Jesus Christ…if your hope depends upon you bringing Christ down into your sinful heart then your hope will surely be dashed to bits. Remember that you are naturally born of the flesh and without being born of the Spirit, you are already doomed; doomed to fail God in this life and doomed to be without God’s mercy in the life to come.

Therefore, remember God’s mercy and apply it by faith to yourself. For holy baptism is the mercy that Paul reminded Titus (3:4,5), when he said, “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

Born-again! Yes, born from above! Blessed be our loving God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through the mercies of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.