1ST SUNDAY IN LENT

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus!

Since man does not become nor remain a Christian and is not saved by good works but only by faith in Christ, many think that there is nothing easier than to become and remain a Christian. And of a truth! it seems to cost only a few pains; yes, it looks at though one could according to this doctrine peacefully lay one's hands in his lap and without a struggle receive the victor's crown.

But that is not at all the case. Indeed, it is true that salvation is not a work to which we can contribute something; it is a pure gift of grace; but whoever is by grace actually brought to that faith by which he has salvation is not only immediately led to the battlefield, but grace also immediately equips him with the desire and the power to struggle for the treasure which his heavenly calling in Christ Jesus holds before him. That old hymn is correct which says that he who does not fight will also not carry away the crown of eternal life.

There was a time when this was most clear; this was the time of the bloody persecutions in the first three centuries A. D. Then few received that incorruptible and undefiled inheritance which fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them without a bitter struggle. Then every one who wanted to be a Christian and be saved clearly perceived that it is not enough merely to wish to have faith in his heart in all quietness, but that those who here wanted to receive it with honor had to bear shame and disgrace, that those who wanted some day to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven must here forsake the world and deny all its glory, and that those who wanted to enter into life, must here be ready and willing to give up their earthly life. That was a time when even the weakest had to make up his mind and either become a hero or be lost. Then whoever dared to confess, I am a Christian and believe in the Crucified, to him the government said, Deny him and sacrifice to the heathen idols or lay your head on the block, or give your neck to the sword, or be torn by lions and tigers and gored by wild steers, or be burnt alive at the stake, or be cut in pieces, or let your flesh be torn from your bones, or spring into a cauldron of boiling oil, or lay down upon a glowing grate. When Christians had this fearful choice of either denying Christ or dying slowly amid the most exquisite tortures, then it became clear that faith indeed saves but that there is no victory without the struggle of faith and no crown without faithfulness to this faith. Christ indeed says, "Whosoever believeth in me hath eternal life," but he also says, "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." Lk 9:24. "Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." Mt 10:33.

Well then, my dear hearers, you who take comfort in your faith, enter into your heart. Do you wish not only to believe in Christ? are you, as the first Christians, also armed and equipped by your faith to be willing to shed your blood amid the most frightful tortures rather than to deny him by merely one word whom you carry in your heart by faith? Are you ready at any hour to go with Christ into death? to die for him as he died for you?

Yet if you should hesitate to answer this question, it would not be a sign

that you have not as yet taken Christ into your heart in true faith, for many of the most heroic martyrs were at first very fainthearted and looked at this hour of great trial with fear and trembling, whereas others who at first were considered unconquerable later fell away. There is, however, one struggle with certain temptations in which Christians must be at all times,and without which they cannot receive the crown of life. In order that no one may deceive himself in regard to the salvation of his soul, permit me to present this struggle today which we all must carry on if we wish to receive the crown.

The text. Matthew 4:1-11.

The Gospel lesson can be considered from two viewpoints; first, we can see from it how Christ as our Redeemer, Savior, and Substitute struggled with the tempter for us and conquered him; then, we can view Christ as an example, whom we should follow if we want to be his disciples. Let us this morning consider our Gospel from the last viewpoint; I speak to you on

THE THREE MAIN TEMPTATIONS BECAUSE OF WHICH A CHRISTIAN

MUST CONTINUALLY STRUGGLE

I. The Temptation of Want and All Manner of Tribulation,

II. The Temptation of a False Faith and Spirituality, and finally,

III. The Temptation of Riches and All Manner of Temporal Advantages.

Lord Jesus Christ! Whoever believes in you from his heart has through you a gracious God, forgiveness of all his sins, righteousness, life, and salvation you also give him the Holy Ghost who enlightens, enlivens, rules, and equips him with power and strength to struggle against the world, flesh, and Satan, and thus gain the victory through you. But alas, oh Lord, we must confess that we indeed wish to have all your grace and righteousness but do not want to struggle faithfully and earnestly in your power and might. How many have already lost your grace just because of such laziness and unfaithfulness! How many have followed the Gospel light for a time, yet never reached the heavenly Canaan! How many have fallen even before you could give them the eternal prize of victory! Oh, do not let us be among those! Awaken us now through your Word to forsake all feeling of security, work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and fight until we enter through the gates which lead to eternal life. Amen. Amen.

I.

"If any man serve me, let him follow me," says Christ, Jn 12:26; with these words the Savior declares that following Christ is a necessary part of true Christianity, and that they deceive themselves completely who;suppose that they can take comfort in the Gospel by faith even if they do not follow Christ.

If we want to be Christians, our life must be similar to the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. The experiences he had. in this world must also be ours. The temptations which according to our today's Gospel he underwent most; certainly also come upon us the moment we enter into communion with him through true faith. Not only do true Christians, as did their Lord and Master, have Satan as their declared enemy, who lays traps especially for them, causes them to lose their faith again; and in that way also lose grace and salvation, but God himself has decreed first to test his children here on earth for a time, to exercise their faith, to cause Satan, the world, and the flesh to be foiled to his honor, and not till after they have fought and conquered, to let them enter into eternal rest and go from believing to seeing.

As easily as one can become a Christian, just so many difficulties must one surmount,, if one wants to remain a Christian; as easily as God lets his grace be won from him by faith in his dear Son, just so difficult it is to persevere in that faith and, therefore, in God's grace until the end. The Christian's walk in this life is a journey toward eternity with the little lamp of faith through the dark of night during fierce gales, traveling the narrow way past many abysses and through dark, forests in which enemies of his soul wait impatiently for him. Oh, how easily the Christian's little lamp of faith can be extinguished upon such a road! how easily he can fall from the narrow way into the abysses of sin, unbelief, or hypocrisy, fall into the hands of spiritual robbers and thus die spiritually before he has attained his goal! How much it costs a person before he is out of this world and finally bears away his soul as booty out of the grasp of this world's tumultuous battle! Yes, how many have started out as Christ's disciples, have followed him only a shorter or a longer stretch on his way of the cross, have become tired, ceased going forward, and thus finally have been eternally, lost! Of a truth, an earnest struggle is necessary.

The first reason why a Christian must continually struggle we find in the first temptation which according to our Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer. It tells us: After Christ had fasted 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness and was hungry, the tempter came to him and said, "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." V. 3. With these words the tempter sought to bring about two effects in Christ: first, he was to doubt whether he was God's Son, since he was forsaken and exposed to hunger and misery, or that because of little faith he was to perform a miracle.

This, describes the same temptation which Christians repeatedly face as did their Savior., If a Christian has received God's grace through faith, he is then to think that temporal blessings will also come visibly to him; he will have less trouble in this life than the other secure sinners. By showering down upon him many temporal blessings as health, riches, honor, success in business deals,; God will show to all the world that He stands in his grace and is his dear child.

But that is not so. From the very time when a person begins to cling to Christ most earnestly and zealously, he must very often follow his Savior into the wilderness; whilst others become rich, he very often becomes or remains poor whilst others and their families are healthy, sickness and chronic ill health enter his home; whilst others receive honors, he remains a despised little light, yes, the world or even his brothers in the faith shower contempt upon him; whilst others succeed in what they undertake, often no endeavor of his prospers, yes, blow often follows blow, misfortune follows misfortune; if at one time he, thinks that he will soon be delivered from his great distress, then an even greater misfortune breaks over him. That is the way it went with Job, thus with David, yes, almost all of God's saints.

That is a severe temptation. Then quite soon the heart says, as Satan said to Christ, either, "If thou be the Son of God." Are you God's child? Does God actually love you, is he gracious to you since he smites you so hard? Why does this have to happen to me? Why not others as well? Oh, let go of your faith; it is clear that God is angry with me; I certainly am not God's child. Or the heart says to the Christian being visited with tribulation, "Command that these stones be made bread," that is, Help yourself in any way I can; I see that in following Christ I don't get a thing; act like the world; be covetous, scrape, and scratch; lie and deceive; I am. in trouble; necessity is the mother of invention; necessity knows no law. Why did God forsake me? I am now compelled to forsake him.

You see, that is the way the heart speaks in trouble; that is the way Satan leads the Christian in temptation so that he despairs of God's grace, or tries to help himself out of trouble any way he can, no matter whether it is right or wrong. If he does not put up a fight, during such times and does not want to fight earnestly, he will soon be conquered by his evil heart, willingly surrenders to the power of the devil, and is then lost. If anyone does not want to be lost, he must not judge his cross according to his reason but by God's Word; he must consider that God did not send the cross to have him throw his faith away but that when all other comfort is taken away he should learn to know the weakness of his faith, be freed from all false trust in visible things still clinging to him, and become stronger by ever new experiences of how God comforts and helps in distress. As Christ held God's Word up to Satan and said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." v.4, so a Christian must also hold this Word before his heart and comfort himself with the fact that bread and temporal things do not preserve man's life but God's Word; for if God would not pronounce his blessing upon the bread, it would nourish us as little as does stone. We see this clearly during sicknesses when the sick often partake of no food and are preserved alone by God's Word and will; and when the hour of death finally comes, no bread or earthly nourishment can again cause the dying tree of life to show life and become green; then it is clear that only the Word can help one to go from death to life. Well, then, a Christian should think, if one lives while rich only by the Word, then one will also live, while poor and afflicted and needy by the Word as well. He who wrestles thus with himself, conquers the temptation; if he does not want to do this, then the trouble which had been given him for salvation and life becomes a snare, a fall, and death.

II.

We continue. We read further in our Gospel that the devil then took Christ to the holy city, placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." V. 6.

Here we hear: When Satan noticed that Christ could not be brought to fall by want and trouble, that he clung to God's Word in this temptation and comforted himself with it, Satan thought: if he clings so firmly to God's Word, well, I will also quote God's Word, only leave out a few little words and thus bring him to a false faith, and still move him to act contrary to God's will; if I could not get him to cast away his trust in trouble, then by a false trust I will get him to do that without trouble. Satan commanded Christ, in trust in the promised protection of the angels, not to descend by the steps from the pinnacle of the temple but to jump into the air. He appealed to a verse from the 91st Psalm; but he slyly omitted a few important words from that verse, "in all thy ways." for according to these words God has promised us the protection of the angels if we walk upon the path of duty, but outside of that not; if we wilfully go into danger, we tempt God and perish by our own.fault. But Christ did not let himself be trapped by such a sin of tempting God, but parried the attack with the weapon of God's Word when he said, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." V. 7.

This also, my friends, was written for doctrine and warning. From Christ's second struggle with Satan we learn to know the second reason why also all Christians must continually and earnestly put up a good fight, if they do not want to lose the treasure again. First of all, we see that a Christian must

guard himself not only against what God's Word rejects completely but also, and much more, against those who appeal to God's Word, repeatedly' quote it in their writings and sermons, and thus pretend to be able to prove all their teachings and institutions. He who lets himself be deceived by such bare allegations can be deceived only too easily in a dangerous way. If we read in our Gospel that Satan himself cited God's Word in order to move Christ, God's Son, to a false faith, dare we be surprised that human false teachers misuse God's Word for their purposes? No, St. Paul himself therefore speaks of false teachers at Corinth, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no, marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness." 2 Cor 11:13-15a. If we go through the Old and New Testaments, we learn that false prophets have always appealed to God's Word. We read in Jeremiah 23, "Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they make you vain; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said." vv.16,17a. Therefore, every time a Christian hears or reads that a teacher quotes God's Word for his doctrine, he must check very closely to see whether the teacher also quotes God's Word correctly, or whether he as Satan in our text mutilates it,'leaves something out, or applies it wrongly; if someone presents a new teaching and quotes a dark passage of Holy Scripture with which he wants to palliate his error, if he says, See, "it is written," a Christian must cling to clear Scripture passages with Christ and reply, "It is written again." Be warned, my dear friends, and do not let me be a voice crying in the wilderness; with every day the times become more hazardous, the traps of temptation more slyly camouflaged; it means watching, praying, testing, and struggling; the beautiful crown will be placed only upon the head of the victor.

But in this second attack Satan did not want to bring Christ chiefly to a false faith but to get him to tempt God. The Christian, especially in our day, is tempted to commit this sin more often than we suppose, not so much in temporal as in spiritual things. Yes, what say I? not only are most souls, who nowadays want to be the most zealous Christians sick because of this sin, but it has, as we might say, become the heart and soul of the new Christianity.

For what else are the Word and Sacraments but the true ladder to heaven upon which alone we can ascend into heaven? But are Christians now taught how they are to seek no other ladder to heaven but to cling firmly to the Word and Sacraments, take comfort in the promises and pledge of grace contained in them, seize them as God's hands Stretched out to us, and found and build their faith upon them? Not at all. Most of those who nowadays preach with great zeal that man must be converted if he wants to be saved, sad to say, do not point their hearers to the Word and Sacraments at all; yes, they condemn trust in them as something fleshly and direct the sorrowful sinner only to the experiences and discoveries of their heart. Alas, they are zealous for God but not with knowledge; they do not consider that they are summoning their hearers to tempt God, that, as it were, they cry out with Satan, If you are God's children, descend from the pinnacle of the temple, ascend into heaven to God without the solid bridge of his Word, without the secure ladder of his holy Sacraments.

In such a time as ours when so many self-made ways to heaven are shown, it is truly necessary to show great faithfulness, great earnestness, and great zeal to find the truth which saves, preserve it in a clean conscience, and remain with it; and every day and hour to pray:

Lord Jesus, this I ask of Thee,

Deny me not this favor;

When Satan sorely troubles me,

Then do not let me waver.

Keep watch and ward, O gracious Lord,

Fulfil thy faithful saying:

Who doth believe He shall receive

An answer to his praying. (517,3)

III.

Finally, we hear that Satan led Christ to a very high mountain, showed him all the riches of the world and its glory, and said, "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." V. 9

This last temptation of Satan appears to be so clumsy that we might wonder how such a sly spirit could have dared it; however, it is not as clumsy as it seems to be at first glance. Since Christ at that time concealed his divinity, Satan certainly was often doubtful whether he actually was God's Son or merely an outstanding prophet. But Satan knows how the human heart by nature clings to temporal things, to riches, honor, and glory; he knows how weak even the strongest Christian is in himself and how easily he is blinded in the hour of temptation by earthly glory and can be made to fall. Therefore, he attempted this last powerful attack on Christ. To be sure, all his weapons broke on his divine heart, but it is not so with us.

There have been thousands of Christians who have remained faithful to Christ, all the while they were persecuted, who loved Christ's grace and Word above all else all the while they were poor, who remained poor in spirit all the while they were despised, in short, who followed Christ in the faith all the while they were oppressed by trouble, the cross, and tribulation. But what a tragic change took place in them, when the world acted in a friendly manner toward them, when they became rich and well-to-do, when they got ahead and were honored! Alas, countless Christians have weathered all the storms of misfortune like cedars and finally withered away under the sunshine of fortune and good days, finally died without faith, and were cut down in death as unfruitful trees and cast into the fire.

According to this, who will venture to become indolent in prayer, in watching, in reading and hearing God's Word, in the use of the holy Sacraments, and in the struggle against every sin - and still hope to be saved? Oh, may such a fool not be found among us! Whoever hopes to receive the crown without a daily struggle will find that he will be deceived in the end.

Now all this is said of Christians; finally, how will you receive salvation, you who live on securely and carelessly in manifest sins, in anger and irreconcilableness, in unchastity and impurity, in lies and deceit, in drunkenness and gluttony, in contempt of the Word and the holy Sacraments, and the like? "They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Gal 5: 21b. St. Peter cries to you, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" 1 Pet 4:18. "Be not deceived," Paul adds; . "God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that; soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Gal 6:7-9. Amen.