6TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

The text. Matthew 5:20-26.

In Christ my dear hearers.

The Gospel of Christ is still, as in the days of the apostles, an offence to all self-righteous and foolishness to all the wise. In our days no doctrine is heard with greater unwillingness than the doctrine that man is righteous before God and will be saved only by grace through faith in Christ, the Savior of sinners. The sermons and books which show this way to salvation provide a nourishment which now satisfies only a few; most are filled with a loathing and contempt over against it.

The doctrine which now pleases the majority even of those who still call themselves Christians is that man must merit heaven by his virtue, by his good works. Wherever this is preached, there the churches are filled; there they give the herald an attentive ear; there they boast of receiving the proper food for their soul. The old devotional books in which Christ is extolled as the only way, the truth, and the life gather dust and most are ashamed of the faith of their forefathers who sought a gracious God and Father in heaven through Christ's reconciliation; on the other hand, the thousands upon thousands of new devotional books, in which man is shown how he must please God by his own piety and righteousness and become worthy of a better life in eternity, these are purchased, read, and praised.

Is not this a good sign that nowadays the doctrine of virtue and good works is esteemed so highly? Yes, one should think that; but if we consider how the world is, we must certainly admit that at no time is virtue practised less, good works done less seldom, and God's commands transgressed with less hesitation than now. Yes, we see that the very ones who recommend ethics most highly and hate the Gospel of grace the most, live the most unbridled life after the evil lusts of their heart. We find that the very ones who can speak with great enthusiasm on morality and on the great worth and nobility of man walk immorally, shamefully, and ignobly. We notice that now many loudly say that man is free and cannot only desire the good but also perform it fully and by nature has great powers to live as the image of God; all he needs is a good education; and the very ones who laud this great strong will in man are the very ones we repeatedly see walking as the slaves of their passions and sins.

Tell me, my friends, whence this contradiction that most want to be saved by keeping God's commandments, whereas no one despises God's commandments more than they? The reason is this: the false teachers of our day do not preach God's Law as it is; sometimes they add to it, sometimes they take something away;' they preach such a wretched set of morals that everyone hopes to attain it even if neither fear nor love nor trust in God nor true love toward his neighbor: lives in his heart; they comfort the people if merely outwardly they fulfill the commandments and conceal from them that God is holy and his Law is spiritual and that even the smallest sin is enough to merit God's curse and death. Thus millions are misled, they consider themselves good people, despise Christ's reconciliation, and thus are eternally lost with their prophets of virtue.

Guard yourselves against this poison of the new false moralists; why even the Pharisees and scribes showed this false way to their hearers; Christ therefore met them and thoroughly refuted them. We find this in our Gospel. Let us,

therefore, sit at his feet and hear this important subject:

THE VIRTUE OF NATURAL MAN IS ABSOLUTELY INADEQUATE

I. To Fulfil God's Commandments, and

II. To Receive Salvation.

I.

Of what value is faith, if man is not virtuous? God has given the commandments for us to keep; keeping them is the true way to eternal life, and this way we go, is the way the Pharisees and scribes once talked, and that is even now the talk of the unbelievers of our day. That sounds so beautiful,for who can deny that we are obligated to keep what God has commanded us? Who can deny that it must please God when a person fulfills his commandments, and that God would gloriously reward such good obedient subjects of his kingdom? Did not God himself say, "Do this, and thou shalt live;" "showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments"?

Though it would really be something wonderful if there were people who faithfully went this way of virtue prescribed by God, Christ in our text foils the boast of all those who brag of such piety and he does this by expounding to us just one commandment according to its true content and understanding, namely, the fifth. For of all the commandments, by this one it is especially easy to show that all the virtue of a natural man, no matter how beautiful it may shine in men's eyes, is absolutely inadequate to actually fulfil the Law.

Christ says, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment." V. 21. Here Christ means to say: Your fathers who preached the Law have explained the Fifth Commandment this way: Only he who shed his neighbor's blood has transgressed the Fifth Commandment; he has committed a terrible sin, falls under judgment, and has deserved death; therefore whoever wishes to pass for a true Israelite and not fall into this terrible guilt and punishment should guard himself against lifting up his hand in murder against his neighbor and he will please God and man.

This teaching which the scribes and Pharisees had received from their teachers is even now rampant in many quarters. If a person knows that he has not purposely and violently take the life of any man, he "thanks his lucky stars" that he has faithfully kept the Fifth Commandment. If they read or hear the words, "Thou shalt not kill," they think: May God guard me against transgressing this important commandment. No, as I considered my neighbor's life something holy and precious in the past, so will I also in the future. When they hear the Fifth Commandment preached, all the rigid moralists of our day wash their hands with Pilate and say: Thanks be to God! We are guiltless of all the blood which ever was shed.

But in thinking that they err greatly. Anyone who can boast of nothing more than having never shed man's blood boasts in vain of having fulfilled the Fifth Commandment. This very Commandment contains in itself such great and profound demands, that all self-righteous must blush for shame. For no person is in a position to fulfil it according to its true meaning.

Christ continues speaking in our Gospel, "But I say unto you. That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother. Raca, shall be in danger of the

council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." V. 22. So Christ declares that one can transgress the Fifth Commandment even with his heart, and that everyone who is angry with his brother is in God's eyes a murder who is sentenced to the gallows.

Here Christ as though with a powerful clap of thunder silences all who say, We also hope to be saved because we have kept God's commandments. According to the explanation of the divine Lawgiver himself, can they stand up who can confess that they have thus fulfilled the Fifth Commandment? Who is the person who can say: I have never become angry with a single person? There is none. For by nature our heart can do nothing else; the moment it is insulted, hatred and anger arise within it. Anyone who wants to deny that deceives himself and others daily experience positively contradicts this boast.

Äs long as a person, who is proud of the fact that he is a moral person, is not irritated, so long he indeed seems to be absolutely blameless. Many a one perhaps shows a great hatred of all deceitful and unchristian acts; he, therefore, openly attacks the secret scoundrel, reveals his crookedness, and publicly exposes him; he is most active for the good of all; he does good to all, helpful and generous toward the poor and unfortunate. Everyone often admires him as a man of outstanding character; they wish that all would be as good as he is; then, they suppose, righteousness, love, and happiness would bloom amongst mankind.

But if we watch such seemingly exemplary people when they are insulted and provoked, they very soon lose their holy air with which they were at first surrounded. Those who at first were so gentle quickly become angry; the degree of uprightness which they displayed becomes the degree of wrong with which they act over against those who become their enemy. Yes, if we regard the rigid moralists of our day who boast that they do not want to receive grace from God but righteousness: can they endure insults? Can they conquer their wrath at their enemies? Yes, are they ashamed of their anger? No, they display it openly to the whole world and show that if they are attacked they thirst for revenge; they say that they owe this to themselves and call their thirst for vengeance manliness and noble pride.

They betray themselves the most clearly when a Christian says to them, that with their natural righteousness they do not count in God's eyes, that they have not kept the commandments, that with all their virtue they still are not true Christians; then first that which lies concealed in their heart comes to the light of day, then their anger, their hatred, their hostility knows no bounds.

The Pharisees and scribes were an example of this. They boasted not only of having fulfilled the Law but most of them also lived in such a way that no one could speak ill of them. Everyone considered them as the holiest of the nation. However, Christ, the Lord, saw into their heart and saw through their guile. He, therefore reprimanded them and called them hypocrites. And the moment Christ had risen against them, they revealed of what spirit they were; for with a burning hatred they persecuted him who had spoken the truth to them.

Now can a person still cherish the delusion that he does what God demands of him in his commandments, when he does not actually kill someone, .but is nevertheless angry with his neighbor, yes is hateful and vindictive in his heart over against him? Men can be deceived but not the omniscient God who searches the heart. He says, "Thou shalt not kill," he does not say: with your hand, your dagger, but: you, oh man, with heart, mouth, and hand.

Therefore, believe this, my dear friends: all who think that they actually fulfil God's commands, are smitten with a terrible blindness, the which, if they remain in it, will cause them to lose their soul's salvation. You say: I. am not a murder, and you are that because of your anger. You say: I am not an adulterer, and you are that because of your unchaste thoughts and desires. You say: I am not a thief, and you are that because of your grasping after riches. You say: I am not an idolater, and you are that for God is not your greatest good. You say, I am not one who curses, and you are that for you still abuse God's name.

So, my friends, anyone who wishes can indeed perceive that the virtues of a natural man are absolutely inadequate for fulfilling the Law; therefore, hear in the second place how they cannot help one receive salvation.

II.

Christ states this clearly in our Gospel, "For I say unto you."he cries aloud in it, "That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." V. 20.

Oh yes, it is true that in many places Holy Scripture promises salvation to those who keep the Law, but only to those who keep it perfectly to the letter in thoughts, words, and deeds. You see from this, how craftily the false teachers of our times act. They preach: It is not clearly written in Scripture: He that acts upright is upright? Does not Christ himself say: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments?" Mt 19:17b. You see, they say, it all depends upon doing and keeping the commandments, not upon faith. But they are liars who use the Holy Scriptures as a cloak for their false doctrine, for they fear that if they flatly repudiate the Scriptures no one will give them money for their preaching; for it is that alone which they seek. And so they are silent about the fact that according to the Scriptures the promise of the kingdom of heaven is given only to those who perfectly fulfil the Law. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Mt 5:48. And James says, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." James 2:10,11. Of that the false prophets of virtue are silent. They dull the sharp two-edged sword of the Law when they add, Of course, you are a weak person and you will fail often, but God overlooks that. Just do as much as you can and you will be saved. But where is that written? God does not say: man should do as much as he can but as much as He, God, has commanded him. And God commands a perfect holiness. Therefore, any one who wants to be saved by his works, must also be absolutely holy and pure in his heart or he cannot inherit eternal life.

My friends, do the false prophets expound the Law as Christ does? Does Christ say, as do the false prophets of our day, God is gracious and will overlook the weaknesses of men, he is satisfied if we just guard ourselves against the gross transgressions of the Law?

No, he tells us that anyone whose heart is minded otherwise than God's Law demands, and anyone who transgresses it if only with one word, is confronted with the threats of the Law; he is condemned as a rebel in God's kingdom; he has lost his claim to God's grace, to heaven, and to eternal life; he is a fruit ripe for hell where he must pay his debt to the last farthing.

According to Christ's declaration you have condemned yourself, if you ad-

mit that you are not without sin. Though your sins may be great or small, they are great, for they offend the great God. Therefore, except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The Most High has uttered these words; his verdict is irreversible; with these words the staff is broken upon all who want to be saved by their works; they are excluded from the kingdom of God.

And now will many exclaim, who then can be saved? Since all men are sinners, are they not lost without a chance of ever being saved? Yes, as long as they want to save themselves they are beyond help. Yet there is a way to escape the curse of the Law which strikes us all. The apostles describe this way thus: "As. many as are under the works Of the law are under the curse." Gal 3:10. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." Gal 3:13. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Rom 10:4.

That is the only way of salvation. If we are frightened at the voice of thunder in theLaw; if we own that the highest Lawgiver of all creatures is right; if .we humble ourselves at his feet as sinners and cry to him for mercy, he cries out to us in the Gospel, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye; him," Mt 17:5; in him you should believe for he that believes in him should not be lost but have eternal life.

Oh, then, all of you travel this way. Do not wish to establish your own righteousness, virtue, and piety, for it avails before God as less than nothing.Only Christ's intercession can deliver you on the last day in God's strict judgment from being eternally rejected; only he can adorn you in his true righteousness which avails before God. Therefore, believe in him, embrace him, never, never let him go, and all will be well with you. .Then in your death, when the comfort of this world disappears, you will nevertheless sing full of peace and comfort:

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress;

Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,

With joy shall I lift up my head. 371,1.

Amen.

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