14TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY-2
Text: Galatians 5:16-24
Source from Back to Luther with German archive reference. Back to Walther's Epistle Sermons.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Dear friends in Jesus Christ.
When man was still in the state in which God had created him in paradise, his greatest worth and blessedness consisted in this, that God himself lived in his soul, that God himself was the light of his understanding and the moving force of his will. But after all men had fallen into sin, the greatest misery of man, on the other hand, consisted in this, that by nature they are lost, without God. What Isaiah testifies of the Israelites, is true of all men in their
natural condition: "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." Is 59:2. As long as a person still belongs to the world, so long is he without God. Christ says, Jn 14:17: "The world cannot receive the Spirit." Before they are converted to Christ all men are godless, that is, without God; their unforgiven sins build the high, tragic wall of partition.
But Christ came into the world for the very purpose of uniting heaven and earth again, reconciling God and man, and leading us sinners back again into communion with God. As soon as a person repentantly confesses his fall from God and in faith turns to the Mediator of the New Testament, to Jesus Christ, the wall of separation crashes down, which hitherto had Separated him from God, his eins are forgiven, and God graciously unites again with him. "God saves us," says St. Paul to Titus, "by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly." Tit 3:5b.6. And to the Ephesians he writes: "In whom also after that ye believed,ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption." Eph 1:13b.14. "Know ye not," the same apostle adds in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, "that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" 1 Cor 3:16.
My friends, recognize from this what an honored and blessed person each true Christian is. My dear Christian, though you may see another honored before you and you see yourself despised and in deep humility, bear in mind, the honor and high station of all children of this world is nothing in comparison to the honor in which you share because the great, Most High God has graciously united himself with you poor sinner. If the centurion of Capernaum did not consider himself worthy that the Son of God should enter under his roof, for what inexpressible honor must you view this, that the Triune God not only has entered under your roof, but even into your poor heart! My dear hearers, if you are a true Christian you will often hear the Holy Ghost sigh in you, and will learn how he enlightens you ever more through the Word of God, how he drives, reprimands, comforts, and admonishes you in your heart. Why do you wish to continue to yearn for honor in this world, or grieve and vex yourself on account of the contempt you experience, since the great God, before whom everything in heaven and on earth must bow, does not disdain to live in your soul!
That Christians receive the Holy Ghost through faith is not only a great honor, but also a boundless comfort. For whoever has experienced that he was moved by the Holy Spirit has also a divine incontestable testimony that he is God's child, and is in grace; he has,as the apostle says, an inviolable seal and certain pledge of his eternal inheritance. "But," says St. Paul, "if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom 8:11.
Certainly, a Christian can never be sad in tribulation, never despondent in contempt, and never can despair in the temptations of sin, if he ever truly remembers how precious he must be considered by God, since God not only looks upon him from his great heavenly throne, but really and truly has chosen his miserable heart as his dwelling place.
But my friends, if it is true that all true Christians are temples of God the Holy Ghost, it is not only certain that all of us who do not have Christ's Spirit cannot be true but only make-believe Christians; it is also true that everyone who has become a partaker of the Holy Spirit must also " walk in the Spirit." and thereby reveal, that this great Holy Spirit is in his heart. Our today's Epistle speaks of this necessary walk in the Spirit. Let us today
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hear more of this Word of God for our awakening, testing, and edification.
The text. Galatians 5:16-24.
My friends, St. Paul had shown in the words preceding our text, that Christians are not called to the authority of the Law, but to the freedom of the Gospel; they could not receive the Spirit through the Law but only through the preaching of grace. Perhaps many Galatians could understand this falsely, and suppose, that hence the Christian is no longer bound to any divine Law, but under the protection of grace could live according to the lusts of his flesh. To prevent this misunderstanding, the apostle shortly before our text said to the Galatians: “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh." V.13. Now the apostle shows us in our text, that all those who had received the Holy Spirit through the preaching of grace, must walk after this Spirit, "Walk in the Spirit," he says, " and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." V.16. Therefore, ponder with me today:
THE CHRISTIAN WALK IN THE SPIRIT
1. Wherein It Consists, and
2. Whereby It Is Revealed.
O God, you want to open the heart of each of us by the hearing of your holy Word, so that it is not preached in vain to any of us. Awaken in each a holy attention, and apportion to each that very word which he needs, and let it become powerful in his soul. Everything is in your hands; let divinely anxious souls find true comfort in a little word for them, the weak something for their strengthening, the despondent something for their establishment, the lazy something for their awakening, and the hypocrite and secure something to their shame, that they, struck by the power of your Word, may reflect and also hurry to save their souls. Dear heavenly Father, who does not want his Word to return void, fulfil this your faithful promise today also in us for the sake of your eternal mercy in Christ Jesus. Amen!
I.
" Walk in the Spirit ! " Thus reads the word which God at one time commanded to be preached to the Christians of Galatia, and which he commands to be preached to each of us today. Oh, may this important word become bright and powerful in our hearts today. " Walk in the Spirit ! 11 says the sainted apostle. What does this mean? Does this perhaps demand that whoever wishes to call himself a Christian and be saved must be completely spiritual, completely pure and holy, and without any sins? Alas, then one would hunt in vain for a Christian among men. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" asks Job. Job 14:4. Only Jesus could say: "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" Jn 8: 46.
However, the apostle clearly says to you in the following, that under the necessary Christian way of living in the Spirit not a perfect holiness, not a spirituality of angels is to be understood, because he adds: " And ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are contrary the one to the other. so that ye cannot do the things ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the Law." Vv.16-18. Also those who walk in the Spirit therefore are and remain poor sinners. They also still have the flesh and its sinful lusts along with the Spirit. Also the true Church errs and sins and has had to pray
even from the time of the apostle to the present day: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Even through the work of regeneration the unfathomable ruin with which we come into this world is not completely destroyed. Even if grace is so powerful in a person, it cannot in this life completely erase sin from our hearts. Even in the hearts of true children of God, evil, impure, yes, at times even blasphemous thoughts still arise. Even the most holy saint must often find the most shameful lusts in his soul until his death.
Yes, the hol i er a person Is the more terrible the attacks and temptations to sin with which he is often visited. Even the Apostle Paul had to confess of himself: "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." Rom 7:18. Even St. John had to complain: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 Jn 1:8. And even David must yearn for that desired justification: "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults." Ps 19:12. "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" Ps 130:3. "Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." Ps 143:2.Yes, Solomon says: "A just man falleth seven times." Prov 24:16. We see from this that even the just who walk in the Spirit are not only attacked by sins in them, but then stumble and even fall. If e.g.. someone is by nature inclined toward anger, through conversion the power of this sin is indeed broken. Yet even an upright Christian falls into It in the hour of temptation. Thus it is with the natural inclination to pride, to thoughtlessness, to joking, to fear of men, and with all the other sins of human nature. Even true Christians are often so greatly covered with weaknesses and failings, that without further ado a faultfinder can attack their state of grace, yes, even humble but i nexperienced Christians suppose that they must deny them the way of living in the Spirit.
However, my friends, although the true Christian, who walks after the Spirit, is a poor sinner just as well as a false Christian, who walks after the flesh, and although a child of the world in many particulars seems to be similar to a child of God, such a great difference lies between both as between death and life, freedom and slavery. Our text says: Man, as long as you still love a sin, and have no power to hate it and struggle against it, but when you meet with a sin you like, you do it as the servant of sin, the new spirit is not in you; you still walk after the flesh on the way to hell. Whoever walks in the Spirit also has the flesh whose lusts he must still fell in himself, but he also has the Spirit which hates sin, and battles against it, so that sin does not come to completion.
If you commit sin because you wish to do it, you walk after the flesh; whoever walks in the Spirit also sins, but then he does what he does not want to do, what he hates and detests. He can say with Paul: "What I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do....To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man, but I see another Law in my members." Rom 7:15b. 18b. 19. 22.23.
If you are still in that state that you can peacefully undertake to do something which you know is sin, if you still sin purposely and deliberately, you are still on the broad way of the flesh which leads to destruction. If one walk? in the Spirit, of course, one sins, but out of weakness and rashness.
If your sins still give you pleasure, or if you are indifferent over against them, you live in the flesh. Whoever walks in the Spirit sorrows daily over his sine, is filled with anxiety and worry over them, and with a thousand bitter te a r s of repentance often bewails them; they are his greatest misery, his heaviest burden, hie greatest cross. Every time an evil thought, a sinful lust arises in him, he is also driven inwardly to sigh: Alas, God, have mercy on me! Alas, see how corrupt my heart still is! Forgive me this sinful impulse !
400 14th Sunday after Trinity-2.
If you have s ins which you really recognize as sins but deem them insignificant, alas, you still live in the flesh. Whoever walks in: the Spirit considers great, serious, and horrible all sins in himself, even those which appear to be most insignificant.
If you try to excuse your sins gladly when they are held up to you, you still live in the flesh. Whoever walks in the Spirit tries rather really to know the depths of his fall, gladly admits his guilt before God and man immediately, whenever he is convicted in his conscience, and even judges and condemns himself before others pronounce sentence upon him. If you know that you have committed a serious sin and are calm, postpone your repentance from day to day, and do not earnestly seek God's grace and forgiveness for them, you are still a child of sin and death and walk in the flesh. Whoever walks in the Spirit can, of course, also fall, but he again rises quickly with Peter, hurls himself down before God with sorrow and deep shame as a miserable worm, and sighs and begs and implores for Jesus Christ's sake for forgiveness and grace; he does not rest until his conscience is again cleansed, until he has again found rest, and is certain of his reconciliation with his heavenly Father, whom he has offended by his sin.
If you sin in such a manner that the Good Spirit of God must depart from your heart, you live in the flesh; whoever walks in the Spirit can at times also grieve the Holy Spirit, but he does not reject him by wanton sinning; sin can Indeed rebel against the authority of the Spirit in his heart, but he does not let sin get control but remains under the rule of the Spirit.
Therefore, my dear hearers, examine yourself as to whether you have hitherto followed the admonitions of the apostle: " Walk in the Spirit." Is God's Spirit in you? or are you still spiritually dead? Do you daily experience his war against the lust of your flesh, or do you still commit sin without resisting it? Do you wish to do good, and do you actually hate all evil? Do you still sin purposely, or alone from weakness and rashness? Are you calm about your sins, or do you sorrow over them daily? Do you consider each one of your sins great and serious, or insignificant and small? Do you still try to minimize your sins, or even to excuse them, or do you immediately and gladly plead guilty and beg for grace? Is your whole life a daily repentance of your sins, or do you postpone it from one day to the next? Do you let yourself be reprimanded, enticed, and drawn only now and then by the Spirit of God, or does he really " rule " in your hearts? Ah, do not flatter yourself in this examination; if you find the flesh in control, let the word of the apostle: " Walk in the Spirit." pierce your soul like a two-edged sword; humble yourselves before the Most High, confess your misery, pray for the, forgiveness of your previous enmity against God, and he will accept you, give you his Holy Spirit today, so that you can also walk in him.
However, in our text the apostle adds how the walk in the Spirit is revealed. In the second place let us for our examination and awakening consider this.
II.
We read in our text: " Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings. murders, drunkenness, revelings. and such like; of the which I tell you before. as I have also told...you in time hast, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Vv.19-21. Of a truth my dear hearers, these are absolutely shocking words! The more shocking since we do not hear them from the mouth of Moses, but from the mouth of St. Paul, whose mouth otherwise always
overflowed with the evangelical testimony of God's grace in Christ. Here the apostle presents an entire register of sins, of which he says two things: If anyone lives in such sins, it is clear that such a person certainly does not walk in the Spirit, not in faith, but after the flesh and cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
Ah, listen to this, you who live in the sin of adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness, and seek your pleasure either with others or alone in unclean lusts. As secret as your sins may be, concealed perhaps from the eyes of men by the mantle of night, to God's all-seeing eyes you are revealed as a slave of your flesh; you will be an abomination to the holy, pure God, as long as the sins of shameful passion and the lust of the flesh have not become an abomination to you.
Or you who live in idolatry, love gold more than God, fear temporal disgrace more than God's wrath, build more upon earthly wealth and men, on your own wisdom, cleverness, and power than upon God, seek a comfortable life in the world, make your belly your God; know this, you greedy and earthly-minded person, you live after the flesh and God's kingdom is still locked as far as you are concerned. Or you who carry on witchcraft, i.e.. through the misuse of God's name and superstitious means, yes, through the help of a secret satanic power try to cure your sicknesses, you reveal that God's Spirit does not live in you.
Or you who still cherish and nourish enmities, strifes, jealousies. wraths, factions, and splits in your heart, do not consider these as only pardonable weaknesses and failings. You loveless dealings over against your friends or enemies, or over against your wife and child, gives evidence of the existent damnable control of your flesh. Or you who against your own conscience hold fast to destructive errors, know this that rests are works of the flesh, by which no salvation and no state of grace is possible. Or if you go on sprees and carouse, are intemperate in eating and drinking, if you do the desires of your flesh and do not feel ashamed to drink yourself drunk now and then, or make yourself by immoderate enjoyment of spiritous drinks incapable of prayer and daily work, know this that no glutton, no drunkard will inherit God's kingdom.
Up', all of you who still live in such and similar declared works of the flesh. Do not comfort yourself with this, that even true Christians are poor sinful, frail human beings. Such knowing, intentional, cherished, wanton sins no Christian commits as long as he is a Christian. If there are such works of the flesh, there is no walk in the Spirit, no state of grace, and no faith. Where such works are done, there the Spirit is driven from the heart; if someone was a child of God's grace before such works, he is a child of Satan and hell after the deed. As much of a child of God as David first was, so that God himself called him a man after his own heart, the moment he had fallen into adultery he was a child of Satan and damnation until he repented. Whoever wishes to comfort himself by thinking of fallen David must also arise with him, repent with him, be converted with him. If David had lived on without repentance and died without repenting of his sins, this one-time great saint would now lament in hell. Of course, no sin is so great that it cannot be forgiven, the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost alone accepted. But if one wantonly persists in sin, no sin is so small that it does not cause us to lose our soul and salvation.
Therefore, if there should be a few among us who ever continue to besmirch their conscience with intentional sins, let them be warned. Do not you yourself be the cause of the lose of your eternal life. In such a state you rely in vain upon your alleged faith; your faith is a dream. In such a condition you also rely in vain upon God's mercy for God is also just. Ah, let the word of the apostle pierce your heart to repentance: " Of the which I tell you
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before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." V.21b. Let this frightful conclusion of God shake you vehemently. There still is time for conversion; if you remain in your sins and death comes, your conscience or Satan will in this frightful momentous hour hold this passage before your eyes and hurl your departing soul into despair.
After the apostle has shown in our text how it becomes plain that a person does not walk in the Spirit, he adds certain signs of this life when he adds: " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Vv.22.23. My friends, here you see the beautiful picture in which those are glorified who walk in the Spirit. Here you see the conduct by which a true Christian is revealed. Learn from this, that all praise of true faith, the true knowledge, the pure doctrine, the true Church, the true light, all this is nothing, is hypocrisy, self-deceit, useless, and in vain if these fruits of the Spirit do not show themselves. Listen, oh listen, my dear hearers, to our dear teacher, the sainted Apostle Paul. In our text he tells us so clearly that everyone can easily understand it: If there is the true walk in the Spirit, there is also love, namely the love for one's brother, that the one deferently prefers the other and each one thinks more of the other person than of himself. There one finds also joy in God and his Word, in Christ and his grace, which inner spiritual joy is unknown to the world; it is well- known to the Christian, for whom it sweetens a thousandfold all the miseries of this world. There one finds also peace, namely peace with God and the love of peace with every person. There one finds longsuffering, namely over against one's poor, erring, weak brother; there gentleness, that is, such a loving, pleasant outward appearance, in which the brother can recognize the love of the heart; there goodness. i.e.. the love and desire to do good to all men by word and deed; there faith, here that is the good confidence of each true Christian toward his brethren of whom he hopes the best, who also does not lose his confidence in others when he is very often deceived; there meekness, that is, a friendly heart, also toward one's offender, there also temperance, that is a continual seeking for cleanness of heart and mind.
Thus, my dear hearers, you see that if you wish to examine yourself as to whether you walk in the Spirit, you should not ask about great works, but according to Paul's instruction only after these fruits of the Spirit and ask; Where is my love? where my joy? where my peace? where my longsuffering? where my gentleness? where my goodness? where my faith? where my meekness? where my temperance? If God's Spirit is in you, your heart will also as a cultivated tree certainly bring these noble, sweet, and lovely fruits before God and man. God's love will be poured into you and Christ's grace toward you will have filled your heart with mercy toward your brother.
" Against such," the apostle concludes, " there is no Law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." V.23b.24. Thus the apostle tells us that also those fruits of the Spirit are found only imperfectly in a Christian, that even the best Christian must daily crucify his flesh together with its lusts and desires, which want to hinder and destroy the fruits of the Spirit in him.
Now may God pour his very own Spirit over us all, that we do not bring to completion the lusts of the flesh, but walk in the Spirit, bring the fruits of the Spirit, and finally fall asleep by the comforts of the Spirit to a joyful awakening through Jesus Christ. Amen!