Sermon on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pu_IwN3reo

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The parable of the dishonest manager from Luke chapter 16 is notorious for being one of the more challenging parables in the Bible. That’s not because the main point is necessarily hard to find, at least I don’t think so, but because the way that Jesus gets there is a little bit different than normally does. Usually, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God and how it works to something positive that we can copy directly. He’ll say that God’s Kingdom is a like a sower who goes out to sow seeds, or a fisherman who casts His net in the water. But in this instance, the point of comparison kind of works in reverse. Jesus uses a negative example, to encourage us to do something good. It’s sort of like saying, you should love God just as much as those guys on wall street love their money.

Obviously, Jesus doesn’t want us to act exactly like the manager did in the parable. That guy was the worst. In fact, he was a thief. He wasted his master’s money, and then we he got caught, he came up with a plan to functionally steal even more of it in order save his own rear end before he got fired. Clearly, Jesus isn’t teaching us that it’s okay to steal things from our boss and protect our livelihood at all costs. But what He is saying is that we should be just as wise in the godly use of our possessions, as the dishonest manger was in the ungodlyuse of his. That’s what Jesus means at the end of the parable when He says, “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” He means that sometimes unbelievers are better at sinning than we Christians are at doing good works. Especially when it comes to money, sometimes they put more effort into keeping it, than we do in sharing it. And Jesus is saying that we can learn from that. Not that we learn how to sin, but that we learn how to be zealous. We should be just as zealous to do the right things with our possessions as unbelievers are to do the wrong things.

So, the parable really is just a basic overview of Christian stewardship. It’s about learning to be generous with what you have, and especially as it pertains to the support of the proclamation of the Gospel.

The right perspective on Christian stewardship always starts with the Gospel. It begins with that central truth that everything that we have is a gift that comes from God, including our salvation. Not only does the Lord promise to give us everything that we need for this body and life, but He’s also secured for us eternal life. Through sending His Son Jesus to cancel the debt of sin that we owe, by suffering for it in our place, God has provided us with an eternal home. We don’t have to run around like the dishonest manager did, frantically trying to secure a place to live. We have a place to live! Through faith in Christ, we will live with Him forever.

And because we already have such a great treasure in Jesus, that changes the way that we look at our earthly treasures. It changes the way that we use them. On the one hand, it makes it clear that we can’t and shouldn’t try to use our money to buy God’s favor. We don’t put things in the offering plate to try and make up for our sins or get on God’s good side. Some people actually do that. They think that if they send in a monthly or yearly check to church that that will keep them in God’s good graces. But that shows that they don’t really believe in the grace of God at all. They think that God’s grace is something that needs to be bought without realizing that Jesus Christ already paid the full price for it when He died. So, any attempt to buy if for ourselves completely undermines the work of our Lord. It makes a mockery of the Gospel and the free forgivness of sins that we have in Jesus.

The other thing the Gospel does to us when the Holy Spirit causes us to believe it is that it inspires us to use our money in a different way. Those who don’t know the love of Jesus, see money as a security blanket. They think that the more that you have, the safer you’ll be, so they try and hold on to as much of it as possible. But when we know that our security comes from Christ, and that even if we should walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we don’t have to fear any evil, because our Good Shepherd is with us, then we don’t have to be so worried about our money. As the hymn writher says, “What is the world to me with all its vaunted pleasure, when you and you alone Lord Jesus are my treasure! You only, dearest Lord, My soul’s delight shall be; You are my peace, my rest. What is the world to me?” The world means nothing to us as Christians. The things of this world are passing away. But we have the one thing that endures forever. We have salvation in Christ. So, now, we’re called to use our worldly possessions for heavenly purposes. We use our money not for self-preservation, and self-fulfillment, but for the sake of serving others, and especially creating opportunities where others can come to faith.

“Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth,” Jesus says, “so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” Our money is going to fail. We can’t take it with us when we die, but if we use it in the right kind of way now, such as supporting the Church, and making sure there is a place for others to hear God’s Word and receive His sacraments, then when we die, there will be more people waiting for us in heaven when we get there. All those individuals that were saved by the Gospel that we supported with our meager tithes and offerings will greet us as friends when we enter into God’s eternal kingdom.

There are always opportunities for us to use the things that we have to spread the Word of God. We can use our time. We can use our talents. And we can use our treasures. And the most basic thing that we can do is not let the offering plate get passed in front of us without putting anything into it. We need to have a regular habit of giving to the church. That’s what the Bible says, and that’s what we all learned in the Catechism: “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.” Galatians chapter 6 verse 6. I’m not talking about pastors getting rich off the poverty of their people. I’m talking about full time Ministry, and making sure not just that you have a pastor, but that everyone else who needs one can have one two. We don’t just use the money in the plate to pay the bills. We use it for all kinds of things that advance the Kingdom of God. Last year we helped out a seminarian finish his pastoral training, and gave him a few extra dollars to make it out of there with less debt. That’s wonderful! Through the generosity of this congregation, we were able to send 6 of our youth to a conference that taught them to love the liturgy and love being a Lutheran. Do you know how many 25-year-old I’ve talked to that went to Higher Things growing up who say it made them realize why Lutheran worship was such a blessing? We took 3 young men to a week-long summer camp and one of them told we afterward that maybe he might want to be a pastor someday. None of that stuff would have happened if we didn’t have the money to do it. And image what else we could do, if we each gave a little bit more?

Sometimes what stops people from being regular givers to the church, and I’ve seen this everywhere I’ve ever been, is the idea that now’s just not a good time: “I don’t have enough right now to give, but when I do, I’ll start to be generous.” Dear brothers and sister in Christ, that is not how it works. As Jesus also tells us in our text, “One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much.” If we aren’t faithful with what we already have, why do we think that we’ll become faithful when we get even more? We won’t. The same attitude that is holding us captive to our possessions now will only rule over us even more when they increase. But if we see Christ as our treasure, and trust that in Him we have everything that we need already, then we can let go of what we have, no matter how much or how little it is.

I’m going to get very practical in this part of the sermon, because sometimes that’s the only way for things to stick. My parents taught me before I even had a bank account that whatever money you get from work you need to put 10% of it in the plate. That’s how the Israelites did it. And even if that’s not a command from God that still applies to us in the same way, it’s still a good place to start. How could we who know the full picture of the Gospel do less than those who only knew it by types and signs? In the Old Testament, the Jews were told not even to eat with the Gentiles. Their God-given missionary strategy, if you want to call it that, was to provide for the Levites who served in the temple as priests and stayed put. But after Jesus rose from the dead, He told His disciples to go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel. He told them to go and make disciples of all nations, meaning from all over the earth. So, is there more work for us to do now, or less? There’s much more. And that means that we should be willing to be even more generous to get it done. Let’s start with 10% and go from there. I don’t say that as a law to bind consciences. I say it as godly wisdom for your encouragement. If you really don’t think that you can live off of 90% of your income, and that you’re going to starve to death if you try, then by all means, give what you can. But at the same time, what does the Psalmist say, “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.” The Lord will provide. He always does. And you can be sure that He will even if you give 10% to the church because He gave much more than 10% for you. He gave everything that He had. Jesus let His very life be taken away from Him so that you would be forgiven and live forever. You can’t out give God. And whatever you do give in faith, you’ll get back a hundredfold when you’re in heaven.  Whatever you miss out on in this life, because you couldn’t afford it due to your giving, won’t even compare to the joy you’ll have with the saints and angels when you are standing before the throne of God free from sin and sorrow.

So, do what Jesus says and make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth. Use your worldly possessions in support of the things that you know matter the most. Let your money follow your heart, which loves Jesus, and don’t let your heart follow after your money. Jesus is your priceless treasure. He is the fount of all true and lasting pleasure. And by grace He has entrusted you with all the riches of His Kingdom. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sometimes as a parent you have to use a different tone of voice with your kids depending upon the seriousness of the situation. For example, if my kid is about to bump over his drink cup, and spill juice all over the kitchen table, then, sure, I might have to raise my voice a little bit: “Watch your elbow there, son, you’re going to knock over your drink cup.” But if the kid is about to ride his bike into the road, and there’s a car barreling down the street at 50 miles an hour, you better believe I’m going to yell pretty much as loudly as I can: “Watch out, there’s a car coming! Stop!”

Today, in our Gospel lesson from Matthew chapter 7, Jesus speaks to us in that second kind of way. He warns us about something in the most serious possible tone that He can take. With a word that He only uses a couple of times in the New Testament, our Lord tells us to “beware.” Just like a parent, who sits down their little one to talk with them about why you don’t get into a car with strangers, Jesus sits down His disciples, and gives them a speech about who to stay away from. And what exactly does our Lord warn us about? False prophets, He says, those “who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

So, in this morning’s sermon, based off this text, I’d like to do two things. First, we’re going to think about why false prophets are so dangerous, and what makes them worse than anything else, and second, we’re going to talk about how you recognize them, so that you can stay away from them.

We live in a world that is filled with all kinds of dangers. There are poisonous snakes, diseases, con-artists, earthquakes, and tornados. But the most dangerous thing by far, according to God’s Word, is a false teacher. Even though they might not seem that bad to begin with, which, of course, is one of the things that makes them such a threat, they’re at the very top of the list, and it not even close. And that’s because they alone have the ability to do something to us that nothing else can. Yes, snakes can bite you, and scammers can steal all of your money, but a false prophet has the ability to destroy your faith. Through their lies and false teaching, they can lead you away from Christ, so that you lose out on your salvation. Remember what Jesus tells us elsewhere, such as in Matthew chapter 10. He says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

There are some things in this life that you should be more afraid of. There are certain things, that you should to pay extra special attention to, so that you don’t go anywhere near them, and get away from them as far as possible. And Jesus says that its false teachers. It’s one thing to get sick and die, but falling away from the faith, so that when you die, you go to hell, is infinitely worse. Those two things aren’t even comparable. And that’s what false teachers can do to you, if you follow after their false teaching. 

It's very common, even within the church, for people to act as if what a church teaches doesn’t really matter, as long as you have some of the basics. But that is not what the Bible actually says. Listen to what Saint Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 5. He says, “a little bit of leaven, leavens the whole lump.” Just like a small amount of yeast will spread through all of the dough, and eventually cause the whole thing to rise, even the smallest amount of false doctrine can spread through the whole body of doctrine and contaminate it. Since everything in God’s Word hold together, and all of it serves the purpose of pointing us to Christ, and the total and free forgivness that we have in Him, any divergence from God’s Word, will ultimately lead us away from Jesus too. It might not do that right away, but over time it can, and it will.

I could use a lot of different examples here, to explain how this works, but let me just give a couple. What about the very popular false teaching that coming to faith in Christ is an act of our own free will, and not something that God does for us apart from our own help and assistance. Well, not only does that false doctrine undermine clear passages from the Bible, such as 1 Corinthians 2, which tells us that the natural man cannot accept the things of the Spirit of God, but it also paves the way for other spiritual problems in the future. When you teach people that coming to faith in Christ is something that you do, and that you need to make a decision for Jesus if you want to be saved, then later on, when they’re carrying their cross and struggling with the failures of their sinful nature, lots of times those people start to wonder whether or not they really did make that decision. Why do I keep falling into sin? How come I’m not getting any better at it? Did I really give my heart to Jesus? Maybe I didn’t. Maybe I’m not even a Christian. Maybe my sins really aren’t forgiven yet at all.

So, you see, by pointing people inward at the very beginning of their walk with Christ, now they can never get them looking outward later on. But when we look inside ourselves, we’re never going to find any certainty there. If we focus on the things that we do, we’re never going to have confidence in our salvation. Our faith will always be unsure, because in that instance it isn’t being built upon the sure foundation of Jesus, and His work for us. It’s being built upon our work for God, which can never be enough.

Or, here’s another false doctrine that we sometimes have to deal with. What about the teaching that it’s okay for women to be pastors and that we should let them serve in that role in the Church if they want to. Just this last week, at our Synodical convention in Arizona, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod voted once again to affirm the Bible’s clear position that only men can be pastors. I wish it would have been a unanimous vote, which is a conversation for another day, but we’ll keep working on that. Because this isn’t just a small teaching. Again, it has the ability to infect every other teaching of God’s Word too. 

What happens when you open the door to dismissing certain parts of the Bible that you don’t like? Eventually, that leads you to getting rid of all of parts of the Bible that you don’t like, even the parts that teach that Jesus is the only way to salvation. Just look at what has happened in every single liberal church body in America that has also punted the ball on male only pastors. The ELCA, the Episcopalians, the United Methodists, and the United Church of Christ, all have serious problems. They got rid of that one teaching, and now what other things won’t they teach either? Most of them wont even say that homosexuality is sinful, even though God calls it an abomination. They argue that it’s okay to for women to end the lives of their children in the womb, if that’s their choice, and some of them refuse to define what a woman even is. Did you know that a few years ago an ELCA lady “pastor” had her congregation say something called the “sparkle creed” which argued that Jesus was non-binary and that He had two dads? I’m not going to quote it out loud in church, but if you want to look it up later on the internet you can. It’s insane. But that’s what happens when you get rid of one part of God’s Word. That’s what can happen through any false teaching, no matter how small it may seem. It can lead you away from Christ, trap you in your sin, and deprive you of eternal life.

Jesus tells us in our text today that the way that you’re supposed to recognize false teachers, so that you can stay away from them, is always by their fruits. That’s means that you need to look beyond what you see in them initially, and instead focus on the outcome of what they say. I’ve never met a false teacher before, who taught one of those things that we just talked about earlier, that I didn’t think was a nice guy. They’re all nice! But that doesn’t mean that what they say is true. That’s why Jesus tells us that lots of times they’ll come to us in sheep’s clothing, even though inwardly they’re ravenous wolves. He means that you can’t trust someone just because of how they look, or how they act, what matters is the content of their preaching and teaching.

The easy false prophets to spot are the ones who won’t even give lip service to the truth and don’t even try to conform what they say to the Bible at all. This the like the Atheists and the Agnostics that openly tell you that Jesus isn’t God or that there’s no way to be sure that He is. Those guys aren’t hard to point out. But then there’s the ones who will talk about Jesus, and even call Him the Lord, but their doctrine doesn’t line up with the truth. They use religious sounding words like “sin, justice, and love,” but then then hollow those terms out and give them completely unbiblical definitions. As Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in you name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

Just as there will be individuals, who did not have true faith, but gave the impression that they did to others, that are still kept out of heaven on judgment day, the same thing applies to the false teachers. They might have done some things that the world calls miraculous. They may have even invoked the name of Jesus at times and given the impression that they were on His side. But they did not preach and teach the true faith. They did not hold to the full doctrine of God’s Word, which is also to hold to Christ Himself. And so, when Christ comes back, He won’t acknowledge them, even though they we’re convinced that they were on the same team.

The way that you always recognize a false teacher is first and foremost through their attitude toward God’s Word. What does the guy say about the Bible? Will he admit that the Scriptures are the inspired and inerrant Word of God and that every part of them is faithful and true? Does He say that the Bible is man’s word, mingled with God’s Word, or does He say that all of it is God’s Word together? If it isn’t the second one, then you need to run away from that person or that church immediately. Don’t even stick around to hear the rest of the argument. Get out of there, and go to a place where God’s Word is actually respected. And then when you get there, evaluate whether or not it is respected in reality, or just in theory. Does this church actually teach what the Bible says, or does it only say that it does. There’s a big difference in that too. Lots of churches will tell you that they get their teachings from the Bible, but in order to know that, you’re going to have to know the Bible for yourself. You’re going to need to be like the Bereans from the book of Acts, who examined the Scriptures daily to see whether or not the things that Paul told them were true.

I made this speech to you the first time I preached in this pulpit, and I’ll say it again. Do not listen to me. At least, don’t listen just to what I say, but listen for whether or not what comes out of my mouth comes from the Bible. Because if any teaching or preaching does not agree with God’s Word, and it isn’t the product of the Scriptures interpreting the Scriptures, and clear passages being used to understand those that seem difficult, then it doesn’t matter how shiny or nice the fruit looks, inside, it’s full of worms and maggots. It will not be able to feed your faith, and if you eat too much of it, your faith is going to die.

Jesus does not want your faith to die. That’s why He warns you to beware of false prophets. The way that you recognize a false prophet isn’t necessarily by how they dress or how they act. It’s by what they teach. All teachings in the church must be derived from God’s clear Word. They don’t come from a pope. They don’t come just from Church councils or voters’ meetings. They don’t come from your feeling. And they don’t come from your reason. They come from the Bible. God has given us a great treasure in the gift of the Old and New Testament. From Genesis to Revelation, we have a perfect account of the whole council of God. Everything that we need to know to be saved is in there. And those books have the ability to guard us from every error. 

You might have to give some things up if you want to be in a church that preaches and teachings the full truth of God’s Word. I’m convinced that in this church, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, so far, by God’s grace, we still have it. We could lose it, so we shouldn’t become complacent, but right now, it’s still there. No, we might not have everything that people want. We might not have as many youth or young families in our congregation. Our worship services might not always give you the chills, or leave you feeling the way that you do when you leave a rock concert. We might not have all the programs and amenities of one of those mega churches. But we do have the Word of God. If you read our Catechism, and study our Book of Concord alongside the Scriptures, I’m convinced that you will find 100% agreement between them. You will hear the voice of your Good Shepherd, and He will protect from all of the wolves.

So, keep on listening to Jesus. Be on your guard against false prophets, and cling instead to the pure Word of Christ. Put your faith not in what is most popular or what is most profound, but in what the Bible clearly teaches. Trust in Jesus alone for your salvation, and hold to all of the doctrines of the Scriptures that back that up. Whether that’s male only pastors, or the regenerative power of Baptism, or the true presence of Christ in the Sacrament, dig your heels in on that, and you will be standing on the sure foundation that saves. Then, when Christ comes back, you won’t be told, “I never knew you,” instead Jesus will say, “Come inherit the kingdom, you who are blessed by my Father.” In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

When it comes to messing up God’s law, there are two different ways to get it wrong, both of which Jesus addresses in our Gospel lesson today from Matthew chapter 5. The first way is something called legalism, and the other one is called antinomianism.

Legalism, which maybe you’ve heard of before, is the idea that the way that a person gets to heaven is through their own keeping of the law. This is the belief that salvation comes not from Christ, and His atoning sacrifice for us on the cross, but by our obedience to God’s commandments. In its essence, legalism reduces Christianity simply to a list of “do’s and don’ts,” and then states that if a person wants be saved, he or she just needs to follow all the rules. But that, of course, is easier said than done. Because when a person actually reads the Bible, and takes what it says there seriously, very quickly they come to realize that keeping God’s law perfectly is a lot harder than it sounds. In fact, keeping it perfectly is impossible. As Saint Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, “For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scriptures imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” Yes, God’s law does tell us what a person needs to do in order to be saved, but that doesn’t mean that it gives us the power to do it. And so, those who try to gain heaven by their obedience, either end up giving up and despairing, or they try and change the standard so that its easier for them to meet.

And that’s what Jesus is speaking to in the second half of our text with His example of the fifth commandment. The fifth commandment is “you shall not murder.” Now, most people can actually claim that they’ve never killed someone before and broken that commandment in a literal way. But Jesus teaches us here that there are other ways to break it too. He says, “Everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” To keep the fifth commandment in its entirety doesn’t just mean that you don’t commit literal murder, it means not having any anger or animosity towards other people at all. It means always showing love to others, even including the people that don’t love you back. It means having patience and forgiveness with every friend, family member, and fellow neighbor that does you wrong. Keeping the fifth commandment, and all of God’s commandments for that matter, isn’t just about what goes on on the outside. It’s about everything that happens on the inside too. God sees the heart, and His law requires that every single desire of our heart, every thought, every feeling, every emotion, needs to be pure. 

And because legalists think that salvation can be achieved by keeping the law, you can see why they’re so quick to try and change it when it gets too hard. They always end up adding commandments that make it look like they’re actually keeping the real commandment, even though they aren’t.

But as the Bible teaches us over and over again, there is absolutely no hope for salvation through our obedience to the law. As Saint Paul tells us again in the book of Galatians, “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law.” And as Jesus also explains in our reading, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” In order to be saved, we need to have a righteousness that consists in more than just an outward show of good deeds. We need to do more than what the scribes and Pharisees could do. They were very good at putting on appearances. If you would have followed one of them around and watched them for a whole day, it would have been very hard to catch them in the act of doing something that looked sinful. But that doesn’t mean that they didn’t sin. And God’s law doesn’t just ask us to try, it tells us that we have to be perfect. If we want to be saved by keeping the commandments, we have to keep all of them in such a way where we fulfill them in every part. And there’s only One person who can and has done that.

The real reason why legalism is so bad, is not simply because it leads people to make up laws, and causes them to become self-righteous hypocrites, but because it robs Christ of His glory, and it takes away all the true comfort and certainty of salvation that we find in Him. If we’re saved by the things that we do, then what’s the point of what Jesus did? Why did Christ even come down from heaven at all? And why did He have to suffer and die on the cross? If all that matters is doing our best, and that’s good enough, then why do we even need a Savior? We don’t. As Saint Paul once said, “if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” Real Christians put their hope in Jesus and not in their works. They trust in what Christ did them, and not in what they do for others, because what we do is never enough. Jesus alone has the kind of righteousness that truly surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees. His righteousness is the only one that avails before God, and brings us the assurance of eternal life. 

So, that’s one way to get God’s law wrong, and that’s through legalism. But legalism isn’t the only way to do that, and it might not even be the one that we usually struggle the most with as Lutheran. If we know anything in the Lutheran Church it’s that salvation is not by our works. Faith alone is our constant cry. And that’s good. But there’s also a danger waiting for us on the other side too. 

Apart from legalism, the other great threat in misunderstanding and misapplying God’s law is something called antinomianism. The word antinomianism literally means, “anti-law.” It’s the idea that because Jesus died for our sins, and won complete and total salvation for us on the cross, now we can just ignore God’s law and do whatever we want instead. An antinomian operates under the false assumption that because its impossible even for Christians to keep the law perfectly, we don’t need even need to try. They act as if since God forgives us of our sin, now our sins don’t really matter. We can do sinful things on purpose and it won’t have any effect on our faith. In fact, antinomians believe that faith can still exist even without repentance. They give the impression that after conversion, we stay the same way that we were before, and still commit sin without remorse.

But that not what we read in the Bible. Here’s what Saint Paul tells us in our Epistle lesson today: “You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” When we get baptized into Christ, we are made new. We are joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus, so that we might walk in newness of life. Were set free from curse of law, not so that we can return to our old life of willful sin, but so that we can follow Jesus in a new life of true good works and love for our neighbor. A life that is not contrary to God’s law, but guided by what it says. 

The law always has a place in our life as Christians. Even though it’s not the thing that gives us salvation, it does shows us how we’re supposed to live as people who have been saved. As Jesus says in our gospel lesson, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

Jesus came to fulfill the law’s demands, not to get rid of them. He came to live and die for us not so that we would be freed to live in whatever way that we want, but so we might be free to live for Him. And, for that, the law still instructs us. Even and especially as Christians, it gives us encouragement and guidance. Yes, it continues to accuse us of our sins, because we still have a sinful nature and need ongoing forgivness, but it doesn’t only accuse us. When we hear Jesus speak in our text today about the fifth commandment, He isn’t just trying to show us the great depth of our sins, He’s also teaching us about forgiveness and reconciliation and how we’re supposed to do it. He's showing us what a life of faith and repentance actually looks like. As Jesus says, “if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

As Christians we are to be constantly forgiving of others just as God has forgiven us. We even pray that God would help us do that in the Lord’s Prayer. We don’t act as if just because we love God, and have faith in Him, that means that it’s okay for us hate our brother, and withhold forgiveness from people that we don’t like. That would be ignoring God’s law instead of learning from it. And if we live that way, we prove by our actions that the Holy Spirit doesn’t live within us, and we are not real Christians. As Saint John tells us in his first epistle, “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar.” Our relationship with the Lord does not exist independent of our relationship to each other. To use Jesus’ example, we can’t give our money to the church, and think that God is pleased with us for that, while at the same time we despise and hate someone else that He’s put in our life. That’s antinomianism. It’s dangerous not because it says that the law saves us, but because it says that the law doesn’t need to be observed at all. Even worse, it uses the gospel, and the free forgiveness found in Christ, as an excuse to do sinful things. It turns the message of salvation into a message of rebellion.

Antinomianism will always be a threat to the Lutheran Church. That’s because we do have the pure gospel. We know that it’s Christ alone who saves us. We know that we’ve sinned against God by our thoughts, words, and deeds. We know that we’ve not kept His law perfectly in our lives and because of that we deserve nothing but wrath and punishment. And yet, we also know that God in His mercy sent His Son to be our Savior. We know that Christ came to the fulfill the law and kept every part of it in our place. We know that He alone is our righteousness and that we receive that righteousness through faith alone. We know that that God saves us not by our works, but by the work of Jesus. And we know that Jesus has already forgiven us for all of our sins. And because we know all those things, we can be sure that the devil will constantly try and use them against us. He will tempt us to see the gospel as an excuse to break the law, and pit those two things against each other, as if they’re enemies.

But those two things are not enemies. It’s not as if one of them is bad and the other one is good. They’re both good. They both come from God. Both of them are part of His message to us in the Scriptures and necessary for our salvation. It’s just that they have different purposes, and we need to use them correctly. As our hymn we sang today said, “the law of God is good and wise it sets His will before our eyes, shows us the way of righteousness and dooms to death when we transgress.” The chief purpose of the law is to show us our sins and the great need we have for Jesus. It’s to be a hammer like Jeremiah calls it that breaks rocks to pieces and crushes the proud thoughts of our heart. The law always accuses, always condemns, and never saves. But that’s not all that it does. Not for those who put their hope in Christ. For us Christians, the law is the way that God teaches us to conduct ourselves in this world. It shows us what kind of good works to do now that we know that our good works don’t save us, because Jesus saves us.

So may God guard and keep us from abusing His law. Whether that’s through legalism or antinomianism, may the Lord protect us from every false view of His commandments, so that we would continue to trust in Christ alone for salvation, and live the kind of life that He’s called us to. In Jesus Name. Amen.