Sermon manuscript:
Today I’d like to speak about our will? Perhaps the first
thing that comes to mind is a person’s last will and testament. This is a
solemn declaration that a person makes about his or her property and effects—what
he or she wants to have done after death. A will is what someone wants to have
happen. And so we can talk about a person’s will in a different way than just
this last will and testament. We can speak about a person’s will as being what
a person wants, not just after death, but also as we live out our life.
What do you want? Whatever that might be is your will. If
you want water, then you just might get out of your chair to get some. If you
want entertainment, then you might turn on the TV or play a game. These are
some mundane examples. Our will might go after some higher goals.
We might want to be rich. We might want to be fit and
athletic. To fulfill these wants there is a lot that has to go into it. We
might have to spend time doing things that are tiresome to become rich. We
might have to quit eating some things we like, and start eating some things
that we don’t like, as well as spend time making our muscles ache in order to
be fit and athletic. So perhaps you can see that wanting something is one
thing. Actually achieving it is another. We all might want to be rich or fit,
but we might not want to do what is necessary to achieve those goals.
The Israelites, when they were slaves in Egypt, had
something that they wanted. They wanted to live in the land of Canaan, promised
to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was a land flowing with
milk and honey. But as they were making their way through the wilderness that
existed between Egypt and Canaan, they were thwarted by many things that they
did not want.
For example, in our Old Testament reading we heard about how
they were tested right away after passing through the Red Sea on their way to
Sinai. There was no water to drink. They, their children, and their livestock
were thirsty. So they quarreled with Moses and told him that this goal of going
to Canaan was a terrible idea. They would rather have stayed in Egypt.
There was no end to these kinds of challenges against God
and against his prophet Moses. Over and over again the people no longer wanted
to go to Canaan. It was too hard to go to Canaan. They didn’t have water or
food or weapons. One thing after another they lacked. They would have liked to
have lived in Canaan if it were easy, but, barring that, they would have rather
just eaten, drunk, and been merry.
As it turned out, the people that we heard about, this
generation of Israelites, ended up getting neither. They rebelled against God
who would have brought them into the promised land regardless of the
difficulties. God punished them with 40 years of wandering in the wilderness
until all of them were dead. None of them would make it into the promised land.
Plus they wouldn’t have the niceties of life that they had enjoyed in Egypt
even though they were slaves. They truly had tragic, miserable lives. They lost
God’s favor and they didn’t enjoy the creature comforts that caused them to
rebel against him in the first place. Such are the sorrows of the wicked that
even what they have is taken away from them.
So what should they have done instead? Should they have
feared, loved, and trusted in God more? Should they not have despised Moses’s
preaching and God’s Word, but rather gladly heard and learned it? Should they
have called upon God’s name in every trouble, prayed, praised, and given thanks?
All of this goes without saying. Of course they should have done these things.
But that’s a little bit like telling a lame man that he should get up and walk,
or telling a deaf man that he should listen up and hear. They were blinded to
what was truly good, which was their relationship with God. For God had told
them that they were a chosen nation, a nation of priests before God. But this
meant very little to them. Their will was directed towards the maximization of
pleasure and the minimization of pain. Accordingly they were filled with
covetousness from the tops of their heads to the soles of their feet.
This is not surprising, because ever since the fall into sin
our wills have been mangled beyond all recognition. As human beings were
originally created, before the fall into sin, we were to find delight in our
God and his will being done. But immediately after the fall into sin, Adam and
Eve got to work accumulating things for themselves. Being fed by God like the
birds are fed, day after day, became practically a nightmare to them. They
didn’t want daily bread. They wanted enough money socked away for months and
months or years and years. In fact, we never seem to be satisfied no matter how
much we have. We always want more. We want it all. And we want it now.
The only way that we can be set free from this ravenous,
covetous will of ours is by the gift of God’s Word that works by the power of
the Holy Spirit. By God’s Word Adam and Eve’s eyes were lifted up from their
paltry human existence to the coming of the Savior. For God had told them that
the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. Ever since then the Word
of God has been spoken on this earth.
Year after year and generation after generation it has been
passed on. People have been encouraged to lift up their eyes to their Creator,
Redeemer, and Sanctifier. They have been urged to believe that God is their
Father who art in heaven. They have been taught that there is no greater
blessing that we can receive from God than that his name should be hallowed
among us, and that his kingdom should come to us. Thus there have been
believers, and there will continue to be believers, until that last person whom
God has chosen for salvation is converted to faith in Jesus. Then the end will
come, for there will no longer be a reason for this old earth to keep spinning
‘round.
But at the same time there have also always been unbelievers,
despite the Word of God being available and used. Right from the get-go, Cain,
the first man born in the natural way, turned away from God, murdered his
believing brother Abel, and went off to make his fortunes.
Even when the Word of God is preached with power, and mighty
signs accompany it, such as at the time of Moses, it can still be disbelieved.
Those who once believed might not necessarily always believe. St. Paul himself,
in our epistle reading, admits the possibility that he who preached Christ to
others could fall and be disqualified. It is as the old hymn says, “[We] walk
in danger all the way.”
So let us be done with a common misconception among us where
it is believed that practically everybody is a believer, practically everybody
goes to heaven, as though it were a matter of course. It is believed by many
that some vague commitment is sufficient—some tip of the hat towards Jesus or
the Bible where a person lives his or her life as they dang well please, but
show up at Christmas and Easter. It is a widespread fantasy that the Word of
God doesn’t matter, that you don’t have to learn and keep learning what God says,
and of course this is an attractive idea. Who wouldn’t be attracted to the idea
that you can indulge your sinful will to the fullest, that you can live sopped
and lathered in covetousness, and with a wink and a gleam in his eye the old
man upstairs says that all that’s just fine?
This same thing applies also to others who cut a better
figure, who make a better show of piety by coming to church more often, or even
every Sunday. In our epistle reading Paul says that God was displeased with the
vast, vast majority of the Israelites. If there has ever been anyone who could
brag about being a member of a great congregation, it would be these
Israelites. Who has had a better, more energetic and serious preacher sent to
them than these did with Moses? Who has seen so many prophesies fulfilled
before their very eyes?
So it is the height of foolishness for people to believe
that just because they are on a membership roll of a congregation that they are
bound for heaven because of that. Jesus does not say that whoever goes to
church or whoever gives offerings will go to heaven. Rather he says, “Whoever
believes and is baptized shall be saved. Whoever does not believe will be
condemned.”
Unbelief is not rare, even among church members. Even among
those whom God has elected to salvation, there are many instances of falling
away and unbelief. King David, for example, grew covetous, became an adulterer,
and finally a murderer. If he had died during this time he surely would have
gone to hell, for he was living according to his flesh in unbelief. But God had
mercy on him and sent him the prophet Nathan. Through Nathan God converted him
again to faith.
The Christian life consists of walking, and (unfortunately)
stumbling, perhaps (unfortunately) falling, and (by God’s grace) getting back
up again. But it can happen that our fight against sin grows less and less. Our
will gets bent more and more away from God’s will. And perhaps when we fall,
God does not pick us back up again. God preserve and keep us from such a fate,
for this is the worst thing that can possibly happen, and it can happen while
still being outwardly a member of a congregation like the Israelites were.
The problem is that we continue to have our sinful flesh,
even after receiving the Holy Spirit when we believe. Our sinful flesh fights
against the Spirit, so that we do not continue to do those things that we would
want. Our flesh has its desires; the Holy Spirit has different desires. Our
flesh wants sexual immorality, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, discord, jealousy,
selfish ambition, drunkenness, feasting, and so on. The fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self control. If we return to slavery to our flesh, then we will be condemned.
If, by the Spirit, we put to death the deeds of the flesh, then we will live.
Christians always find this a terrible burden, a war between
the flesh and the Spirit that drags on for years, until our sinful flesh is
finally destroyed by death. One of the things that you can look forward to in
heaven is that this battle will be over. For we will be resurrected from the
dead with a flesh that has been purified from sin.
What might we do in the meantime? Are there any aides
available to fight in this battle? Yes, there are. They correspond to the first
three commandments. God has given us his Word and his Sacraments. Joined to
this Word is the Holy Spirit, who is able to open the ears of the deaf and give
sight to the blind. The Holy Spirit is able to bring us to repentance, to hate
our own will, and ask that God’s will be done instead of our own.
The Sacrament of the altar is also important for us as we
are battered and beaten by the devil, the world, and our own flesh. Jesus’s
body and blood work the forgiveness of our sins and lift up our eyes from the
mundane covetousness of this world to Christ on the cross. As Jesus himself
says, we are to do this in remembrance of him. The Sacrament changes our will
so that our faith in God is increased, and we begin to fervently love one
another.
So the first aide that we have against our flesh and
unbelief is God’s Word. The second aide that we have is prayer. In the prayer
that Jesus taught his disciples to pray we ask that God’s name would be
hallowed among us, that his kingdom would come, and that his will would be done
on earth as it is in heaven. All of these petitions are directed against our
bent and sinful will. Instead of praying for more stuff or for an increase in
pleasure and a decrease in suffering, Jesus teaches that it is most important
that the Holy Spirit be at work in God’s kingdom among us. When we pray these
things that Jesus has taught us to pray we should be certain that our prayer is
heard by God and is well pleasing to him. For he himself has commanded us to
pray this way and has promised to hear us.
The Word of God, the Sacraments, and prayer have God’s
promise of creating faith in us. It is by faith, and faith alone, that we
overcome the world. There is no other way for us to bend our will towards God
than by the Holy Spirit accomplishing it in us—drowning our flesh, and raising
us together with Christ. Fight the good fight of faith, therefore, by taking in
hand these divine weapons that our God has given to us.
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