As a parent I want my sons’ lives to be good. I want them to feel minimal pain, minimal strife, minimal sadness. I want them to be well off, happy, find love and have a family that loves them. Do you all feel the same way towards your loved ones? But, can you guarantee this? Can you state for a fact that their life will be good? We all know the answer is not in this lifetime.
Ever since the fall of man, the expulsion from the garden of Eden, sin entered the world. Everything is now corrupt and corruption breeds corruption. This world, life here is not getting better, but it continues to get worse. This is the making of man, this is the making of sin, you inherit it and pass it on from generation to generation. To ask for good in this life is an oxymoron.
To be honest, this life holds only pain, sadness, suffering, and death. It is full of greed, envy, sloth, adultery, murder, gluttony and humanity thinks it can make it better. It’s like spilling a drip of paint on a priceless painting and saying ‘I can fix it’ in which you just smear it over more parts of the painting in trying to wipe it off spreading the destruction and messing the painting up even more.
You are known by your fruits. Look at what mankind has done. Our sin has led to massive waste, our sin has caused the extinction of species, our sin has led to massive pollution, our sin has led to disease after disease. Humanity apart from God is a diseased tree bearing only deadly fruit. You see this in the selfishness and vanity of people, you see this in the distrust of neighbors, you see this in the apathetic way people ignore others in need. What good can come from man. The answer is none. Dead in sin, rotten literally to your core there is nothing you can do to make your situation any better. Have you not heard the phrase the road to hell is paved with ‘good intentions.’
The Gospel tells you to beware of false prophets. Those people out in the world that will tell you that you are good the way you are. You do you. Do what you feel. Love yourself. Find your happiness. Love is love.
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.'”
These are the fierce wolves who say twisted things to turn you away from God.
Yes, you are a sinner, but your comfort is not in yourself. Do not listen to those who tell you otherwise, but trust only in the Word of God. For this is your comfort. Yes, you are wicked, yes you are a sinner, but this is why Christ came down from heaven. He took corrupted mankind and was born of a virgin. He was born without sin. He who knew no sin took on sin in our place and went to the cross to die for you. Yes, you are a sinner, but you are saved. Your hope is in Christ Jesus. You know that this world is fallen, but you have real good, pure good with you because you have Christ. You have been washed clean by water and His Word.
Yet, even though you are made brand new in Christ. He does not say that it’s going to be roses and unicorns. He tells you that life as a Christian is going to be rough because you are foreigner in a land that is no longer meant for you. You are a citizen of heaven and that makes you an enemy of this world and satan. This world and satan will do whatever it can to corrupt you, to choke you out so that you turn away from that saving Word, that you turn away from the fact that Christ has forgiven you, and covered you in His righteousness. Not by what you have done, but by what He has done for you. Therefore, because you have this you will be attacked all the more. Look at Job, look at the prophets, look at the apostles, it did not end well for them in this world. Do not think it will end well for you either.
People may think that this is a bleak outlook that I am telling you that you only have troubles and tribulations ahead, but I would be lying if I said otherwise. But, but this world is not where your home is. This world is not where your treasures lie. You can leave this place in joy, you can wake up tomorrow in joy because this is not your home because this is not where your treasures lie. You have joy because of what Christ has done, you have joy in the bleakest of situations because you have been paid for by the blood of the only begotten son of God born of the virgin Mary Jesus Christ. His blood has set you free from the slavery of sin, His blood has set you free from the dominion of death, His blood has set you free from the chains of satan. You are His child! He is with you! He cares for you and in Him you have grace and mercy that knows no bounds.
Through Christ you do bear fruit, you will be recognized by your fruit in this fallen world. You will be recognized by the way you show love to your neighbor, the way you sacrifice for others, the way you have joy in terrible circumstances. These fruits are because God has given you a heart of flesh. He has sent His Spirit to dwell with you. It is He that works in you to do these good works. You are a light shining on a hill that others will see because He has made you clean and it is He that shines through you. You have been attached to the one true vine and He will prune you and make sure you bear love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. It is because of Christ’s sacrifice that God does know you and will never leave you nor forsake you. It is through Him that good has entered back into this fallen world. It is by Him that you are blessed.
In this life, life in Christ, you see God’s work, you see it by what He does in you and what He does in others. You see it in His word, you see it in His Church. Here in this life you see relief with the absolution of your sins, you see joy for God guarantees His forgiveness and grace, you are given strength by His very body and blood. You see life in His Word and Sacraments. Look at baptism, look at the font back there. That font is where life begins. You are reminded of this every time you enter this church. In Christ you see the stain of sin not smeared but removed completely. The masterpiece now fully restored. That masterpiece being you.
As a parent who is saved by grace my son’s lives are good for it is Christ’s life that lives in them. My sons will not have pain, strife or sadness because in heaven Jesus will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. They will be well off for their Father, their Father in heaven has put a ring on their finger and put a robe on them and has celebrated their homecoming. They do have love, they have a love that is pure and good and unending for it flows from the sacrifice of Christ. In this sacrifice they are given a new name and a family that will care for them forever. I can guarantee this. I can guarantee this because God has told me this in His Word. A Word that has always been kept, never unbroken. My sons have this and so do you. You have this guarantee in Christ and what joy that is.
SDG
Pr. Daniel Holm
Matt 7
15 ‘”Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
‘”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 your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Jeremiah 23
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’
For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord
to see and to hear his word,
or who has paid attention to his word and listened?
Behold, the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his heart.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.
I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their deeds.
Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
Acts 20
27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.