Reformation Sunday

SERMON

Text: Genesis 15:1-6

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram, in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." But Abram said, "Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring, indeed one born in my house is my heir!" And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

In Christ Jesus, whose redemptive work saves us by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, as instructed by Scripture alone, dear fellow redeemed:

"Grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone"—these are the key truths restored through the Lutheran Reformation of the 16^th century. They are truths vital for us, both as we live our lives in this world, and as we look forward with confidence to that gift of life we will receive in the next. They are truths for which 16^th century Lutherans risked their lands and lives as they boldly confessed them before kings and councils. They are truths for which 17^th century Lutherans went to war. They are truths for which 18^th and 19^th centuries Lutherans emigrated to the Americas and built new churches and schools for their preservation and proclamation. They are truths, unfortunately, which many 20^th century Lutherans have forfeited in the name of modern theology and for the sake of false ecumenism! Earlier this year in an article in the magazine entitled, Metro Lutheran, Carl Braaten, a leading theologian in the ELCA, called for Lutherans "to embrace a reformed papacy for the sake of authority and discipline in the Christian church" (May 1999). He did so because in his own words, "the historical critical method (a method of Bible study embraced by Braaten and the vast majority of pastors in the ELCA which denies the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture) robs Scripture of its believability!"

My dear friends, I stand here today and assure you that the Bible is God’s verbally inspired and inerrant Word. It is true in all its parts! We can and should believe it all, for it reveals to us God in all of His grace and glory! It is intended by God to bring us joy, confidence, and life through the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ! We of Immanuel need not and will not heed the call of Carl Braaten or any other theologian who denies the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, for to do so would inevitably lead to the destruction of faith! Rather, we will treasure the legacy of Martin Luther, who based his teachings upon Scripture alone, and who embraced salvation alone by grace through faith!

Key to the understanding of Luther are the epistles of St. Paul. St. Paul repeatedly used the example of Abraham to explain and defend the Scriptural teaching of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. This morning we return to the book of Genesis to consider the account of Abraham. Let us consider ABRAHAM—AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH FOR ALL BELIEVERS!

I.

We note, first of all, that Abraham trusted in the LORD! The history of Abraham is a familiar one. Abraham was called by God to leave his home and extended family and to go to a land God would show him. God had chosen Abraham and his future family to preserve the promise of the Savior from sin. He told Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Abraham trusted in the LORD and responded by packing up his possessions and together with his wife, Sara, and his nephew, Lot, he left for what at that time was an unknown destination. The LORD led Abraham to the land of Canaan and promised the land to him. After some time Abraham and Lot separated, because the LORD had blessed them with flocks and herds so large that no single area could sustain them. Later, Lot was captured by heathen kings and Abraham at great risk to himself rescued him.

It was shortly thereafter that we are told, “the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision.” The LORD first assured Abraham that he need not be afraid, for He Himself would be his “shield” and his “exceedingly great reward.” Abraham had reason to fear humanly speaking, for he had just made a number of serious enemies by defeating four kings in order to rescue Lot. But Abraham trusted in God. He knew he really had nothing to fear, as long as the LORD was beside him. However, Abraham was troubled by one thing. God had promised that “all the families of the earth” would be blessed through his descendants. In other words, God had promised that the Savior would come from Abraham’s family. Yet at that time he had no descendants. Oh, he had an heir, for as was the custom of the day, Abraham had appointed his chief steward, a man by the name of Eliezer, to be his heir, but he had no son of his own. Indeed, Abraham wondered, “What will You give me, seeing I go childless?” Abraham was at this time 85 years old. Sara, his wife, was 75 years old. In his mind the prospect of ever having a child was remote, if not impossible. To his surprise, the LORD stated, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” He then took Abraham outside and showed him the night skies filled with millions of stars. He promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars. What Abraham viewed as virtually impossible, the LORD was now telling him would become a reality. This Abraham believed! He would be given a son, one of whose descendents would be the Savior!

My dear friends the essence of faith is trust. It is that confidence we place in God at times and in situations, which appear out of control and beyond resolution. Faith recognizes that God is all-powerful. Faith recognizes that God is all-knowing. Faith recognizes that God always present. Faith recognizes that God by grace has determined to reach out of eternity into time to bring us blessing! This is what He did for Abraham. This is what He has done for us through Abraham’s Seed—our Lord Jesus Christ! Abraham thought he could not have a child, but trusted in the LORD’s promise that He would. We, who by nature are sinful and under God’s just condemnation for our sins, faced the impossible task of paying for our sins and gaining a righteousness that might stand before the eye of our just God. God promised to send His Son to secure for us both the forgiveness we need and the righteousness we lack. He fulfilled God’s law perfectly. He died bearing the weight of the sins of all mankind. God promises, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). As Abraham trusted in God, even so we ought likewise to trust in our Savior, who gives us life!

II.

Yes, ABRAHAM IS AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH FOR ALL BELIEVERS! He trusted in the LORD! The LORD also justified him! The key verse of our text, which became the basis for St. Paul’s defense, and consequently Luther’s defense of the gospel, is, “And he (Abraham) believed the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness!”

The most important question any of us can ever answer is, "How can I be saved?" The world may scoff at such soul-searching and suggest that we should just concentrate on the problems and the challenges of this life. Such was the attitude of the rich fool in the gospel account, who focused on building bigger barns, but then died that night losing not only his wealth, but also his soul. Such was also the attitude of "Dives," the wealthy man who died in unbelief, but then asked Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers! Let us not be so foolish! There is an existence after life in this world as surely as there is a God. How can you and I be saved?

We face a problem with our sin. We have all sinned as both the Bible and our personal experience testifies. The Scriptures reveal that, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). The world addresses this problem with false presumptions. They presume that they can adjust God’s standards of morality. God says, “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) and warns us that, “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). The world says, "You don’t have to be perfect. Just do the best that you can, and God surely will be satisfied!" God is not satisfied with man’s best effort, for His law demands perfection! The world presumes that it can make up for any sins that are committed. God says, “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). We cannot gain merit in God’s eyes and make up for our sins by doing good deeds, for God expects such good deeds in the first place. How can just doing what we are expected to do make up for what we have failed to do? No, we cannot answer the question, "How can we be saved," by following the thinking of the world, for such thinking will inevitably lead to our personal and eternal damnation!

The answer to the question is found in the example of Abraham. “He believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness!” The Bible teaches us that God, recognizing our sins and our inability to overcome sin, determined to send His Son into this world to be our Savior. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Is there a more precious message than that for any sinner’s ear? “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,….For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:19,21). God has chosen not to charge us with our sins, but rather laid our sins on the shoulders of Jesus. Having removed our sins, God credits to our account the righteousness of Christ, accounting us to be righteous by faith when we believe in Jesus as our Savior from sin!

Dear friends, this truth is vital for our spiritual lives! God does not want us to live in uncertainty, yet that is exactly where we will be if we follow the example of the world. If I follow the logic of the world and "try my best," will my best be good enough? I can never be certain. If I try to make up for my past sins by doing good, when will I know I have done enough? I will never know. I will live my life in fear, trying to merit God’s love by a love motivated entirely by fear. But the Bible says, “We love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Listen to it one more time and rejoice in God’s grace, “We love Him, because He first loved us!” We don’t "love Him in order that He will love us!" Our hope, our joy, our certainty is found in the fact that, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Let us, therefore, cling to our Savior in faith, approaching Him with repentant hearts and trusting in the fact that His blood “cleanses us from all sins” (1 John 1:7).

This is the core of the sweet truths of Scripture restored to us through the Lutheran Reformation. Permit me to close with a quotation from the Smalcald Articles, written by Dr. Martin Luther. After summarizing these very truths he wrote, “Nothing in this article can be given up or compromised, even if heaven and earth and things temporal should be destroyed. For as St. Peter says, ‘There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12). ‘And with his stripes we are healed’ (Isaiah 53:5). On this article rests all that we teach and practice against the pope, the devil, and the world. Therefore we must be quite certain and have no doubts about it. Otherwise all is lost, and the pope, the devil, and all our adversaries will gain the victory.” (The Book of Concord, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989), 292). Amen.

In Nomine Jesu!

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting