Can't make it to church, but still want to hear God's Word, below are the recent sermons given during the Worship Hour.

First Sunday in Lent   --   February 25, 2007

“God Has Already Come Near to You”   --   Romans 10:8b-10

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The text for our sermon today is the Epistle of the Day, especially verses 8-10:  “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

This is God’s Word.

    As most of you know, Lu and I visited with our children and grandchildren in late January.  When we arrived in Charlotte, my daughter brought out a gift she had purchased for her youngest son, who is 5 ½.  This gift was a house, except it was still in pieces, 450 pieces, and the pieces were small,  and they had to be held together with mortar.  This was a brick house with attached garage, and each brick was about an inch and a quarter long with appropriate proportions for the other dimensions.  The tiny bricks looked like bricks.  They were shaped like bricks.  The mortar had to be mixed and then applied with a trowel that was about two inches long.  The walls had a couple of offsets, and given that the house had to be placed on a pressed board base, lines had to be drawn on that board so as to keep the walls straight and square.  This was NOT a toy for a 5-year old child.  This was obviously my daughter’s way of keeping her dad busy.

     So, I got started and after placing 2 or 3 bricks in place, my grandson wanted to apply some mortar and lay some bricks.  So, he picked up a brick and the trowel and started to work, but after only doing half of one, he decided that this was not something he wanted to do.  The job was beyond his capability.

     Now in America, we have a candidate running for president who is a Mormon.  It is good that publicity will be placed in that direction so that we will learn more about what they believe.  For instance, the Mormons do believe in Jesus Christ as Savior, but what does that mean for them?  One of their books says “All men by the grace of God have the power to gain eternal life.   This is called salvation by grace coupled with obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel…  Salvation in the kingdom of God is available because of the atoning blood of Christ.  But it is received only on condition of faith, repentance, baptism, and enduring to the end by keeping the commandments of God.”  Now this doesn’t sound too far afield from the Bible  EXCEPT  that faith is the work of the individual, repentance is the work of the individual, and baptism is the work of the individual.  Now that doesn’t fit with Ephesians 2:8-9, where it is written:  “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God  -- not by works.”  Yes, faith is a gift from God worked in us by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This job of salvation is beyond the capability of the political candidate.  It is beyond your capability.  It is beyond my capability.

    However, God has done the work.  It is finished.  And, when God does the work He does it in abundance.  There is always more grace than we need.  It is written in II Corinthians 9:8,  “God is able to make all grace abound in you.”  God, therefore, is rich as He hears us, but we are poor as we pray;  He is powerful in His fulfilling, while we are weak and fearful in our asking.  We do not ask as much as He is willing and able to give, that is, we do not ask according to His power but far beneath His power and in accordance with our own infirmity.  But He cannot give except in accord with His power.  Therefore He always gives more than is requested.  Thus He says:  “Open your mouth wide, and I will (not just let a few drops fall in) (I will) fill it.”  In Psalm 81:10, it is written: “Ask as much as you can, and I will give more, because My giving is more powerful than the power of your prayer.”

    The voice of righteousness by faith does not say “Do!” --  as in Do this!” or “Do that!”  RATHER, “It is done!”  “It is finished!”  God’s justifying deed is there, available to man, in the Word which comes to him through the written Word, the Word read and proclaimed.  Man does not have to work for it or look for it or modify it for the 21^st century.  Man needs only believe in his heart and proclaim from his mouth this word of faith, the Word that creates the faith.  This Word is near to each of us, creating faith in our heart and then leading us to confess with our lips as we have done at our confirmation and as we do again and again, each time we confess our faith according to one of the creeds.

    Thus, this “word of faith,” this Gospel, is a power for salvation, because if a person confesses with his lips that Jesus is Lord, he already has the Holy Spirit in his heart, because it is written:  “…no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (I Cor. 12:3).

     The text says, “with the heart a person believes”.  This is so very true, but this is NOT a generic believing.  There must be content to what the person believes.  In James, it is written, “You believe that God is one; you do well.  Even the demons believe  --  and shudder!”  James is being sarcastic when he wrote that we do well to believe that God is one.  There must be more, as our text tells us.  “If you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  That is far more than merely believing that there is a God, OR than believing that Jesus is our Savior, but we must work to earn the benefits of his actions.  Saving faith is that faith, given to us by God, given by grace, never worked for, never earned, and based solely and totally on the suffering and death of the innocent Lamb of God.

    In the language of the Bible, “heart” covers the whole inner man, his mind no less than his emotions and his will.  He believes and so he is cleared of guilt;  He comes under the justifying verdict which God has spoken in the death and resurrection of His one and only Son.  Righteousness is his.  Righteousness is yours!  Righteousness is mine!  We confess and thus are saved.  Faith and confess are two aspects of one reality; they constitute one life before God under the lordship of Jesus Christ.  We do not come to faith in solitude.  The Word is proclaimed to us.  The Word is taught to us.  The Word comes through our eyes into our mind, so that we are led to confess, “I believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.”

    And, yes, I mentioned confession.  And here, I refer to confession of sins, not confession of faith.  Even though we have been declared righteous, even though we have been declared right with God, that’s what justified means, still we daily sin much.  Every day we need to get on to our knees and confess that we are sinners, kneeling along side St. Paul, who confessed that he was the chief of sinners.  All of us are at the head of line, with Paul, and yet, all our sins were washed away in the blood shed by the last sacrifice God ever commanded.  Yes, confession is necessary – confession of sins and confession of faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.

    No one who has the Lord Jesus for his Lord remains a silent servant of his Lord.  No one who has Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior is ashamed to acknowledge Him before men.  Instead, we confess Him before friend, neighbor and relative.  And, in turn the Lord Jesus will confess us before our heavenly Father at the time of our judgment.

     Are you afraid to admit your faith in the Lord Jesus?  Are you afraid to admit your need to hear God’s Word regularly?  Well tell me, are you afraid to tell people that you daily need to take blood pressure medicine?  Is the kidney patient afraid to tell others of his/her need for dialysis?  Are you afraid to tell others of your daily need, to take medicine to thin your blood to prevent a heart attack?  Heaven forbid that we should ever be afraid to speak of our daily need for God’s Word.

     When you were born, God’s Word, the Word of Law was already written in your heart.  At your baptism, Christ, the water of life came into your mind and your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.  In your Sunday School classes and Confirmation classes, God’s Word came into your mind, especially as you were pushed to memorize that Word.  And, now each day that you read and meditate on that Word, and each time you come to Divine Worship and hear God’s Word, that Word is reinforced in your mind.  In Christ, God is closer than your heartbeat.  He is always there to heal and to forgive, to respond to even the smallest quiver of faith.  Call on him!  Especially since He is so near to you!  Speak the Word to others, so they may call on him also.  As you open your mouth to confess that Jesus is Lord, the Holy Spirit will be with you to give you the words AND He will assure that the words never return void.  Amen.