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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Dear friends, in Christ, for this morning's meditation, we come again to the gospel given for us. Jesus said, O woman, your faith is great, be it done for you as you wish.

 

And her daughter was healed at once. This is from this morning's text. The Lord be with you.

 

Thank you. It's interesting that this one line is the only line in this pericope where the word faith is mentioned. And it's to this woman who has said nothing about faith, the word faith.

 

So, what do you think of when you think of someone with a great faith? Often in our society, and very much in our American society, it's usually someone who's got, they've got a little pizzazz to their spiritual life. They've got a little extra knowledge, a little extra fervency. Man, I wish I could have strong faith like that.

 

And suddenly we hear faith being preached about, almost like it's a virtue. Boy, if only I could have the faith like that. You know, I remember once going off to a Lutheran school, and one of my roommates came back and told people in the local congregation, well, how's Doug doing? Oh, faith.

 

Not Clarence Dub Barnett's kid, not that way, not that way. But that brings us to Matthew then, because it is quite, it is quite interesting. And Jesus went away from there and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon.

 

We hear that and go, okay. Well, Tyre and Sidon is outside Israel. It's not part of the promised land.

 

In fact, it's over on the Mediterranean Sea. There are seaports. You hear about them sometimes today even.

 

I think today it would be Lebanon, back then it was Phoenician, it was different ones, but they were not Israelites. Yet, Tyre and Sidon, interesting that reference. And behold, a Canaanite woman, that's one of the locals.

 

She's not one of us, not by blood. Well, I can't even say that. We're not even one of us.

 

But a Canaanite woman came out from that region and began to cry out, have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is cruelly demon-possessed, but he did not answer her a word. Interesting that a Canaanite woman would come to the Lord and say, son of David.

 

Except that you know this region, we don't know because I know you didn't get up and read about this this morning, but if you'd go to 1 Kings chapter 17 about the newly ordained prophet Elijah, about 700 years before this event, you would know that he had dealings with a certain widow from a place called Zarephath, the widow of Zarephath. Well, Zarephath is a little community between Tyre and Sidon. This prophet of the Lord named Elijah came to this widow, and the Lord direct… because the Lord directed it, he didn't go there because he was looking for a new mission field.

 

He went there because it was by the Lord's bidding. And so in that place he met this widow, and she had a very ill son as it were as well, but it really didn't matter because it was a time of famine, no food. And yet you might remember the account about Elijah then asking her what she had, and she had a little handful of flour, just a little handful of flour.

 

And so she put it by his direction into a jar, and from that jar she drew out enough flour for her to have bread for her life and her family for months and months and months. It was a miracle of the Lord through his prophet Elijah who was sent to her by the Lord's bidding, not his own bidding, to this little place called Zarephath. So it's not coincidental that we see that Jesus is going to Tyre and Sidon, and there a Canaanite woman of all people approaches him and pleads for mercy because she has a very, what a very ill daughter, demon possessed.

 

But she calls him son of David. So you go, oh, maybe news traveled generation to generation to generation, and this woman and her family knew Israel and knew they were also called to be part of Israel by the prophet Elijah who brought the name of the Lord even into their Canaanite community way back then. This is how the Lord operates.

 

He's not looking for your blood relatives. He's looking to bring His name to be set forth among you in your family the same way He does with us today in the name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We say so many things here in the church in the name.

 

You're baptized into the name. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We're going to sing it again today, but it's interesting this account.

 

So she addresses him, and he says nothing. Oh, you're one of us. Oh, you're a true believer.

 

What faith do you have? No, he says nothing. But the disciples say plenty because they're bothered, and you can see. It's just, he didn't answer a word, but his disciples came to him and kept asking him.

 

That's very interesting. They kept asking him. They persisted asking him, saying, send her away.

 

Get rid of her, for she's shouting out after us. She's making a scene. Do you like to be in the middle of scenes? Nobody likes to be in scenes.

 

Everybody gets away from the scene, but she's making a scene, and she's making a scene there with Jesus and His disciples, and so they're going to try to do something about it. Send her away. She's just a Canaanite, I guess you'd wonder.

 

But he answered and said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The lost sheep of the house of Israel. Okay.

 

Yes, he was, because he is the fulfillment of Israel. By his blood, by his life, by everything, by his sacrifice, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and began to bow down before him, saying, Lord, help me.

 

If you look up your Greek, it's even in the Greek, Kyrie eleison. That's a phrase we hear in the Lord's church very often. Lord, have mercy.

 

Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. We just sang it.

 

We sang it in English, but it's always been there in the Latin and the Greek before this. And he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Wow.

 

You're low when you're talking about dogs. Unless we think that our Lord was just trying to get even with her, no. He's just stating the fact.

 

I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. And Lord, help me. It's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

 

But then you listen to this. See, because she's interested not in big things. She's interested in the small things.

 

She knows about that small handful of flour. She knows about that small handful of flour that sustained families for months and months and months, and even years through the famine during Elijah. But she came and began to bow down before him saying, Lord, help me.

 

And he answered and said, not good to take the children's bread, throw it to the dogs. But she said, yes, Lord. So let's just acknowledge that she agreed with the Lord on this dog comment.

 

You're calling me a dog. I'll tell you, you know, none of us would have made it through the conversation. Well, I'm never going back there again.

 

That's enough for me. No, she agrees with him. Yes, Lord.

 

But even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table. It's the small things that do big things. With this Lord, He's upside down from this world.

 

And then suddenly we see that He takes heed. Yes. Then Jesus answered and said to her, oh woman, your faith is great.

 

You see, she has big faith because she understands the little things. And she understands the unobvious things of God, that God does not work in His great grandiose ways of power and might and all the rest. She understands that this Lord comes to His people in the small things, a handful of flour, a crumb of bread, because in that is life and full life and everything you need in life and ever want in life.

 

That is the big faith. That's so often when Jesus is talking about have big faith. That's what He's talking about.

 

Big faith that understands our God works not in big ways to the world like, oh man, awesome God. But our God works in the things that are weak in the world's eyes. Our God works in the ways that are, well, what should we say? The cornerstone of His church was on the stones that the knowledgeable builders reject, cracked, broken.

 

That's the stone the builders reject because they want strong, solid stones. So when Jesus comes and responds to this woman about, and she responds about small things like dog crumbs, that's it. That's big faith.

 

Is that how you hear it out there? I dare say, probably not. It's an amazing thing. And because of that it perplexes us like, man, what's the, why does He say your faith is great? Because she understands how this Lord comes to His people, gently riding on a donkey, gently in His Word, placing His name.

 

He empties Himself from all of His power and His might as God's own Son. Oh, He can do all those things, that's for sure. He can prove that, but that's not how He's come to the world, and that's not why He's come up here to Tyre and Sidon at the place of the widow of Zarephath.

 

He comes in weakness and gentleness. Because He comes to broken people like you and me, who never feel like their faith is big enough. That's why it's profound that this passage is not talking about faith.

 

It's simply the woman pleading for mercy. Son of David, have mercy on me. Yeah, woman, great is your faith.

 

You see, because it's not about, oh man, you got awesome faith. It's because her trust and her hope in that moment is on the object, the great thing of her faith. It is this Lord who has come for her sins and the sins of her family.

 

That's the greatness. It's the object of the faith. It's the trust simply in, well, the Lord said it, the Lord meant it, He put His name on us.

 

It's incredible. Even one crumb of bread with this Lord is everything. Even one crumb of bread at this Lord's altar is everything.

 

My body, my blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Man, what great faith. And isn't it interesting that the church, the church for centuries has put into the liturgy as we prepare to come to the Lord's table and receive His crumbs and this little small sip of wine that is His body and blood.

 

The church rings out in the holy, holy, holy of Isaiah 6, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. That's where you and I are here today gathered, not because, I tell you what, I wish they could be like us out there.

 

We know we're not. We're just too Lutheran. It's because we have a fantastic Lord who comes to us in the very weakness of His body and blood given and shed on the cross to pay the price for all of your sins, my sins, all of our sins.

 

Wow. Now that is faith to be followed because that is faith in something not so small but that is amazingly large. The love and the grace of this God and this Lord.

 

Who wouldn't want to come and hear those words into their ears as it is given into their mouths, my body and my blood for you for the forgiveness of all sins. Just like with that Canaanite woman who came to Jesus. Oh woman, how great is your faith.

 

You have gotten it totally. It's the name that you have come to, the name that has been put upon you, and here you are ready with that name. That's how to qualify and have faith in the gospel.

 

Be a sinner. That's when you know you're ready and you're faithful, is when you admit you're sinner and you're coming here to plead for mercy and to receive that mercy. So, Jesus' word to this woman and to all those listening including His disciples, be a sinner looking for mercy, looking for even a small crumb and saying, yeah, that's for me.

 

Knowing that even a crumb from Him is everything. Take and drink, says Jesus to those sinners thirsting for righteousness. This is my blood, my body.

 

I forgive you your sins. Amen. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding.

 

Keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. And let us pray.

 

O Lord, send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives, in Jesus' name. Amen. For those of you who've been keeping score at home, this is the 10th consecutive week we've been in Romans.

 

We've only got a few more weeks to go, which means we're coming up to the concluding portions of the letter. Remember that last week Paul ended chapter 9 with the statement that the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness before God through works of the law, because they didn't have the law, those Gentiles still attained that righteousness through faith in Christ. And the Jews, who did pursue righteousness through works of the law, they did not get righteousness, because righteousness doesn't come through works of the law.

 

Thus, Paul says, Jesus becomes a stone for all people. He's a stone of stumbling for those who want to pursue righteousness through works of their own, but for those who believe they're declared righteous through faith, Jesus becomes the stone for standing, the rock-solid foundation. Paul then opens chapter 10 by saying that God's righteousness was never meant to come through any law, not even the law of Moses.

 

For, he says, Christ is the end of that law. The end of the law is righteousness for everyone who believes. Now when Paul says Jesus is the end of the law, he doesn't just mean in a chronological sense.

 

It's not just that Jesus is the end of the law in the same way that the inauguration of one president signals the end of term for the previous one. It's true that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus means the law of Moses has reached its temporal conclusion, which is why Old Testament laws about what we wear, what we eat, are no longer binding on Christians today. But there's more to it than that.

 

Saying Jesus is the end of the law is more like saying Jesus is what the law was always meant to point to in the first place. It's not just that when Jesus arrived, the next thing started. Paul's point is that Jesus was always the point of the law.

 

Not only was the law of Moses a reflection of God's holy nature, but it was designed in such a way as to prepare Israel and to prepare the whole world for the Messiah, for who he would be and what he was sent to do. And so the countless animals sacrificed in the place of the Israelites, that foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, sacrificed in our place. The weekly observance of the Sabbath, that foreshadowed the rest that belongs to those who have fellowship with God through the work of Christ.

 

The entire law of Moses was given in ways that foreshadowed the work of Jesus, because Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. He's the purpose of the law. He's the end of the law, the goal, the talos, Paul says.

 

That's where today's reading picks up. After arguing once again that a righteousness gained through works of the law is no real righteousness at all, Paul shifts his attention to the righteousness that comes through faith. He points us to the work of Christ in our place.

 

The righteousness that comes from faith does not attempt to bring Christ down from heaven. Jesus has already done that in the incarnation. Nor does it seek to raise Christ up from the dead.

 

Jesus already did that too. What does it say? It says the word is near you already. True righteousness comes through faith, and faith comes by hearing the message of Christ.

 

While a righteousness sought from the law demands that you do something, a righteousness from faith actually specifically excludes it. There's nothing left to do. Jesus has already done it.

 

He's already with you. Believe it. Walk in newness of life.

 

Paul's still heartbroken over the lack of faith from so many Jews. He maintains this confession that there is no longer any distinction between Jew and Greek. He says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

 

All have been declared righteous on account of Christ, because the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing on all people who call on him his riches, both Jew and Gentile. It breaks Paul's heart that even though God is Lord of all, so many of his kinsmen have rejected it. But it's the death of Jesus and the proclamation of that death that brings righteousness to all people.

 

And so even though not all believe, even though not all have obeyed the gospel, the fault lies not with God. That language might be a little bit confusing for us, because we typically understand obedience to be the response to the law. But Paul says here they have not obeyed the gospel.

 

To paraphrase Walther, the law is what gives me something to do. The gospel gives me something to believe. How can we obey the gospel? But the great root there is the word akouo, where we get words like acoustics.

 

Paul's talking about hearing. It's a listening word. Paul's talking about the response based on hearing more than simply being obedient to a set of rules.

 

So think of it like this. Imagine hearing the message that your mother-in-law's coming to visit, or that your favorite celebrity is down in Old Town signing autographs and taking selfies with fans. If you believe that proclamation to be true, you're gonna act one way.

 

If you think that proclamation is made up, you're gonna do something different. But it's the belief that motivates the action. That's what Paul's talking about when he says obedience to the gospel.

 

Faith that believes the proclamation is true is faith that changes the way a person lives. Paul's saying that even though the proclamation has gone out, not all have heard it, not all have responded, but it's not as though God has failed. God's Word has gone out to Jew and Gentile alike, calling all to repentance, calling all to reconciliation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

 

The fact that so many of Paul's kinsmen rejected that proclamation, it saddens Paul. But it's not as though God has failed. It's not as though God has abandoned His people.

 

That's the topic that Paul takes up in chapter 11. But as far as today's text is concerned, today our Lord simply calls us back to the promise He gives, the promise to work through His Word, the gift of the Word. That's what Paul puts before us this morning.

 

He's maintained throughout the entire letter that true righteousness comes through faith. Today he's explicit. Faith comes by hearing.

 

It's the bedrock of our Lord's message throughout the scriptures. It's the bedrock of the Reformation, and it's a truth that the Israelites got wrong, a truth the Gentiles missed, and a reality that we still struggle with today. Because the sinful flesh is always looking to contribute something.

 

We want to control something. We want to be involved somehow in our own salvation. Paul says no.

 

Faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by the proclamation of God's Word. Now Luther was never one to mince words, and some of his strongest language is found on this exact subject, God working through the proclamation of His Word.

 

Think, for example, what he wrote in the Smalcald articles. He says we ought and must constantly maintain that God does not wish to deal with us in any way other than through the spoken word and the sacraments, and that whatever is extolled as coming from the Spirit without the Word and sacraments is from the devil himself. Or Luther said this in a sermon, there's no other way to have sins forgiven than through God's Word.

 

The Lord our God has not promised to forgive our sins through any work that we do, but He's connected it to the irreplaceable work of Christ Himself. He is the one who suffered and is risen from the dead. And this work of Christ, He placed it in the mouth of His apostles.

 

He gave it to the ministers of His Church, puts it on the tongues of all Christians to the end, that they would distribute and proclaim the forgiveness of sins through the spoken word. Proclaiming forgiveness to those who desire it. Proclaiming forgiveness to those who need it.

 

That is our forgiveness. That is your forgiveness. Your Lord speaks to you through His Word.

 

He gives you life through His Word. And so we immerse ourselves in that Word. I heard another pastor put it like this.

 

He says we all speak language, at least one, our native language, simply because someone else spoke it to us first. None of us invented English. None of us invented Spanish or whatever your native tongue might be.

 

We received it from someone else and we did so long before we understood the grammar or anything about how the language worked. We just learned to speak it through constantly hearing until eventually it came out of our own mouths. He says the same is true about God's Word and the Word of the sinful flesh.

 

Sin has its own language. The language of sin is fluent in self-justification, self-improvement, comparison, pride, despair, excuses. As Jesus says, the devil is the father of lies, so lying is his native tongue.

 

And left to ourselves, that is the language that we speak, the language of lies. Even our religious vocabulary becomes infected. We begin speaking about our own decision, the sincerity of our faith, our progress, our morality, our feelings, our commitments.

 

We may use Christian words, but we're still speaking sin's language because we're still trying to find ways to contribute to our own righteousness. So our Lord gives us a completely new language. And like every language, it's not mastered simply by memorizing vocab.

 

It's learned by immersion. The language of heaven is learned by continually being surrounded by our Lord's Word. For here, sinners are pronounced forgiven before they ever learn to pronounce it themselves.

 

In our Lord's Word, we hear that Jesus is Lord before we can ever confess it by ourselves. And in the Word of Christ, sinners hear absolution before they can ever speak words of comfort to one another. Our Lord surrounds us with his word of forgiveness.

 

He surrounds us with his word of promise. He surrounds us with his word of comfort and reconciliation, to the point that it becomes our language because we're immersed in the speech of our Lord. So we find great comfort in the word of our Lord.

 

His words of forgiveness reconcile us with the Father. His words of promise that the bread and wine of this altar are his very body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. His words that there is no condemnation for those who belong to him.

 

Those words will not fail. Your Lord will never leave you or forsake you, and he tells you that every week that you come to this altar. He tells you that every day.

 

These words not only point us to his promises, they create in us the faith in what they say. Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. So may that word guard and protect you in the true faith till the day of Christ's return.

 

In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us pray.

 

O Lord, send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.

 

It takes a lot of creativity to invent an alternate universe in which to set a fictional story. It's even more complicated when the stories created are loved so passionately that fans begin to notice discrepancies. They point out unanswered questions or plot holes.

 

For example, if the whole point of sending Luke Skywalker into hiding was to protect him from Darth Vader, why send him back to his father's home planet and why not change his name? It's a plot hole, one that was most likely created by adding a plot twist later on, but the effect is that after people enjoy the emotional high of the happy ending, they later look back and realize there are some unanswered questions. Such is the reality that helps us understand what's going on in Romans chapters 9 through 11. The first half of Romans chapters 1 through 8 is a beautiful crescendo.

 

The climactic words of chapter 8 just layered with gospel promise. There is no condemnation for God's chosen ones. If God is for us, nothing can stand against us.

 

There's nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And it's not hard to imagine the swell of comfort the first hearers would have heard and felt with these strong words of gospel promise. That's comfort we ourselves feel at these words.

 

But now imagine what would happen if the epistle ended there. Imagine yourself on the walk home, maybe later in the week. Step into the shoes of a first century Christian being told that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law.

 

He is the Messiah promised to Israel from of old. Imagine hearing that nothing can separate God's people from him. And then picture walking into the market, seeing all those Jews in your city who rejected Jesus as the Messiah.

 

Imagine being a Jewish Christian yourself who was rejected by your own family, cast out of the synagogue for following Jesus. Would you not then ask Paul the simple question about the seemingly glaring hole in his argument? Paul, if God's choosing is so certain, why have the majority of his people refused to believe in him? Why aren't all the Jews followers of Jesus? And it would be a fair question. And it's the question that Paul takes up in today's text.

 

In a few chapters, he'll address the Gentile Christians more directly. But today, he begins an answer focused on the Jewish conference, and he starts by pointing out the anguish that he feels based on the sad reality. Those Jews who rejected Jesus are his kinsmen.

 

They are the Israelites. They are born the people of God. To them belongs the adoption in Abraham, being chose out of all people on earth purely by the grace of God without any merit or worthiness in them.

 

To them belongs the glory of God at the tabernacle, in the temple, God's gracious presence among his people. To them belong the covenants God made with Abraham and Moses and David. To them belongs the law given on Mount Sinai, but also the whole law, the Torah, the fullness of God's revelation to the people of earth through the prophets of Israel.

 

To them belongs worship at God's altar where he comes to them to forgive their sins, to dwell among them for their good. To them belong the promises of God, the promise of the Messiah, the restoration that he would bring. To them belongs every advantage over the Gentiles, and yet so many of them are blind to what God is actually doing in Christ.

 

So many of them have rejected the fulfillment and chosen instead to stay with the foreshadowing, and it breaks Paul's heart. And what are we to say to that? Perhaps the first thing we can say and should say is that Paul's lament over the Jews of his day easily translates into our own setting, into our own lives. It's not hard for us to look at Christians born and raised in the faith who in adulthood turn away.

 

We might say to them belong the water and the word, the body and the blood. To them was given the liturgy and the catechism, but where are they now? And our hearts might break like Paul's, especially when those who have walked away are our own children, our grandchildren, our brothers and sisters, family and friends for whom we care deeply, which is why Paul's next words are as important for us as they were for the Jewish Christians of the first century. As sad as the reality is, it's not as though God's word has failed.

 

God's word does not fail. Paul goes on from there. To be an Israelite of the Old Testament was not a matter of genetics, he says.

 

It's a matter of confession, a matter of being chosen by God. It was not determined ultimately by whom your father or grandfather was. It was determined by whose altar you worshiped at, which God you trusted.

 

Not all who were genetic descendants of Abraham were true Israelites, but only those who trusted in God's promise. It was not the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael who were the people of God, but the descendants of Isaac, but not even all the descendants of Isaac. For those who were descendants of Isaac through Esau were not even Israelites, even though they could trace their lineage back to Abraham through Isaac.

 

Paul's pointing out the key factor is not DNA. The key factor is the promise of God, a matter of God's choice, not man's genetics, which of course raises the objection that Paul anticipates. Paul, that doesn't seem fair.

 

If it truly does all come down to God's choice, then why would anyone be left out? Paul, why doesn't God just choose everyone? Again, it's a good question, and it's an objection that Paul answers in two parts. First, he echoes the sentiment of God's words to Job when Job begins to question whether or not God really knew what he was doing. Who are you, Paul says.

 

Who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? Can that which is created say to the creator, why have you made me like this? Can man say to God, you're doing it wrong? Paul then provides a series of Old Testament references from Hosea and Isaiah and demonstrates that the Jews' rejection of the Messiah was already foretold in the Old Testament. And when we get to chapter 11, Paul's going to point out that it's not like God rejected the Jews entirely. He saved a remnant for himself of first century Jews like Paul, like Peter, like so many other Israelites who did receive Jesus as Lord.

 

We'll look at that text in a few weeks when we get there, but today, today what we're left with is one of the great unanswered questions of scripture. A plot hole, according to some. Supposedly irreconcilable inconsistency.

 

If God desires all to be saved and if the death of Jesus on the cross is really for all people, if faith comes by hearing the proclamation of that message, then why are not all who hear saved? Why do some people not believe? Why did so many first century Jews reject their Messiah? Why do so many of our own fall away? And it's a good question and it's a fair question and it's a hard question and it's a question that our Lord refuses to answer in the way that we want. He refuses to point us to something specific that we could maybe manipulate, somehow modify or tap into to ensure a successful evangelism. Instead, our Lord gives us two simple truths to stand on.

 

First, to use Paul's language from Romans 9, it's not as though the word of God has failed. Whatever else is going on that's resulting in people falling away from the faith, the fault is not in God's word. The failure, the shortcoming is not in the work of Christ.

 

And it's an invitation for us to continue to cling to that word, to look at Christ alone as our hope and our comfort. The work of Jesus on the cross was for all people, which means it was for you. Paul has already made that abundantly clear in Romans, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and all have been declared right with God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

 

All have been declared right. And as the trespass of one man led to condemnation for all people, so also one man's act of righteousness leads to justification for all people. Paul is adamant.

 

The cross was for all people, which means the cross is for you. And so we cling to that cross. We cling to the hope it brings, especially in the midst of things we cannot understand.

 

That's the second thing we're given to remember. It's the next thing Paul says, the knowledge about why some believe and why others don't. So that knowledge belongs to God himself.

 

It's not our concern. Now the sinful flesh will not see this as a gift. The sinful flesh sees this as an insult because the nature of the sinful flesh is that it always wants to be in charge.

 

The sinful flesh wants to be top dog. Satan and his demons were cast out of heaven for trying to usurp God's throne. The temptation in the garden was to be like God.

 

And so also in questions like this, the desire of the sinful flesh is to accuse God of injustice, to accuse the one whose very nature is justice. So Satan presents it as if it's a simple request for clarification. That's because Satan is clever.

 

He frames it as God's refusal to answer as some sort of insult to our intelligence. But the great deceiver is just pulling a bait and switch. If God's word about justice cannot be trusted, then none of his word can be trusted.

 

Not his promise that Jesus is the name under heaven by which we have been saved. Not his promise that comes by hearing. Not his promise that baptism now saves you.

 

Not his promise that the bread and wine of this altar is the body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. Not any of his promises. The deceiver packages it as if it's a legitimate question about the fairness of God or how God operates.

 

But really it's an assault on the goodness of God and on the trustworthiness of what he says. So in next week's reading from chapter 10, we hear Paul once again direct us out of speculation concerning the hidden things of God and put the spoken word of God, the revealed word of God right before us. Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of Christ.

 

So today that's where we find our comfort. As Paul says at the end of chapter 9, the first century Gentiles who did not pursue God's righteousness attained it, but the Israelites who pursued the law did not. Why? Because Israel did not pursue God's righteousness through faith.

 

So we will take our stand on the promises of God received in faith. We will not be shaken by Satan's attempts to undermine God's mercy, to get us to doubt God's love for his creation. Like Paul, we will continue to pray for those we love who have fallen away from the faith.

 

We will continue to proclaim God's word of promise and reconciliation to them. No longer the gospel alone produces faith. We continue to pray for reconciliation and restoration and following where Paul is pointing, we find our ultimate hope, our ultimate confidence in the work of Jesus in our place.

 

For if God is the author of it, it cannot fail. We will not allow Satan to distract us with hypotheticals, with questions that our Lord has left unanswered. Instead, we find our comfort in what he has made so abundantly clear.

 

We fix our eyes on Jesus, whom God did not send into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. We rejoice in that salvation. We trust in that salvation.

 

We trust in our Lord's promise that Christ is our rock. We take our stand on him. May God grant it for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

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Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. And let us pray.

 

Oh Lord, send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, it's been a full two weeks for me.

 

A lot of travel, a lot of long days. I had a great time at Higher Things in Colorado with our youth, and I enjoyed my time at the National Convention. It was nice to catch up with some old friends in both places, nice to make some new connections with people I have not yet met from the Rocky Mountain District.

 

But for me, the best part of both Higher Things and the LCMS Convention was the singing. And don't misunderstand me, I love worshiping here with you at Grace. It's a blessing to be gathered together with you each week around our Lord's gifts of word and sacrament, to sing together here in this place as we've just done.

 

And truly there is no replacement for worshiping consistently with the body of Christ where you are, your home church, the people that you know, the people who know you. You know each other's struggles and joys. You've been through things together.

 

There's no replacement for that. But there is something special about being in a room with about 1,200 people, most of them high schoolers, singing the hymns and the liturgy of the church. There's something special about being in the convention hall with 2,000 other Book of Concord Lutherans from all across the world singing the liturgy and the hymns of the church.

 

There's something about being encircled by those voices. Something about the sound that lingers in the air after the final chord, after the instruments and the voices have stopped. And in that pause, there's something about the experience that's hard to put into words.

 

I love to just sit there and soak in the moment. I feel something similar each time I read the section of Romans that was our epistle for today. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who can bring any charge against the children of God? God's already declared us righteous.

 

What accusation could possibly outweigh God's verdict? We've already been united to our Lord in baptism. What could separate us from him? What could possibly overpower the hand of our Lord that is holding us safe? Nothing. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

When we hear Paul's words, I just want to sit in the air for a few moments. When Paul reaches that climactic proclamation of sweet gospel promise, what could I possibly add to it? What about it is unclear? What needs further elaboration? There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God that is yours in Christ Jesus. Nothing.

 

It's Romans 8, a chapter full of gospel. Paul states clearly and concisely the conclusion that he's been building towards all along. We heard it at the beginning of the chapter.

 

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus through baptism. We heard it in the middle of the chapter. The sufferings of this present time are not even worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed.

 

We hear it today at the end of the chapter. We know that for those who through baptism now walk a new life of love for God, all things work together for good. Those words are not a warning that if you don't love God nothing will ever go right in your life.

 

They're not a threat along the lines of you better love God or he's gonna get you. These words are a rock-solid promise that for all who love God through faith, the end of our story is resurrection. If God is for us, who can stand against us? Even if we do suffer in this life for a time, what can that ultimately do? We already know we're not going to make it out of this life alive.

 

Our hope is not in avoiding hardship. Our hope is not in being comfortable. Our hope is resurrection.

 

And even if we continue to sin in the flesh, what can that ultimately do? We ought not continue carelessly in sin just so that grace can abound, but neither do we live in fear of sin, as if God's declaration of forgiveness can somehow be undone by our failing. Everything will work out for the good. And it's not just the wishful thinking of a friend who doesn't know what else to say, so all they can come up with is, I'm sure it'll be fine.

 

No, this is the unbreakable gospel promise of the God who gets the last word in all things. And his last word for you is forgiveness, resurrection. And if that's the God who's on your side, truly, who can stand against you? No one.

 

And so you know that all things will work out for the good in the end. That doesn't mean all things are good, but that even the wicked and evil things in this life are, when it comes right down to it, only a small part of a story that ends in resurrection. And Paul offers us more comfort, comfort that's often misunderstood.

 

Paul says that we know that all things will work out for the good because we know that those whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. That language of foreknowledge, predestination, often makes us uncomfortable. We don't know what to do with it, but our confessions help us see the comfort.

 

Our confessions help us to make a distinction between foreknowledge and predestination. They're not the same thing. Our confessions teach us that God's foreknowledge is his omniscience.

 

It's knowledge that rightly belongs to the one who exists outside of time. And because God exists outside of time, he sees all time, all things, in an instant, which means he knows all things even before they happen in the timeline. But God's foreknowledge doesn't make him the cause of evil or of sin.

 

The cause for those things is us, our sin, this fallen creation. God's predestination, on the other hand, is his choosing, his election, his holy choosing. And it's a promise of comfort to those who have been united to the death and resurrection of Christ in baptism.

 

We've sang it twice already today. It's the reminder that I did not choose God. God chose me.

 

God chose you. And since our salvation rests entirely on his choosing, on his accomplishing, I have no reason to doubt it. There's no way I can undo it, no matter what the circumstances of my life look like at any given moment.

 

It's the next step in what Paul's been doing this entire epistle. We've heard all these chapters and all these readings for the last several months. It makes sense why Paul would mention this here, because it's not a temptation or an invitation to pry into the secret things of God.

 

Remember, Paul began Romans by proclaiming how serious sin really is, and the law's role to keep every mouth silenced, to take away every excuse. And then Paul reminds us that our hope for deliverance is not found in ourselves, it's found in Christ. Abraham believed God, and his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

 

And so also we are right with God on account of what he has done, not what we do for ourselves. Then in chapters 5 and 6, Paul draws our attention to the ongoing battle that we have with sin in the flesh, sin in the world around us, and he exhorts us to see ourselves as our Lord sees us, to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Then he addresses the reality of tribulation and hardship, even in the lives of those who have been chosen by God.

 

But he does so with the promise that for those who have been chosen in baptism, all things work out for the good. How could they not? And so we know that our struggles are not a surprise to God, but that as Paul says, he foreknew that the life of Christ would set the pattern for the life of his Christians. Just as Jesus endured hardship, so also does the church.

 

But just as Jesus was raised imperishable and undefiled, so also will his church be raised. The church of Christ is ever being shaped into the image of Christ, and that's an image of death and resurrection. But Paul puts that before us here as comfort.

 

It's the comfort of knowing that the hardships and struggles of a sinful flesh and a fallen world, they're expected. It comes with being chosen by God and being shaped into the image of his Son. So Paul layers comfort upon comfort for us.

 

So as you face whatever difficulty is threatening to steal your comfort, hear Paul's words again. Remember, they are his words for you. For you are one who has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and you are one who has been justified freely by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is yours in Christ Jesus.

 

And you are one who was an enemy of God. You were at odds with the creator of the universe, but God showed his love for you, and that while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you and put things right. You have been united to Christ in baptism, sharing with him in a death like his so that you will share with him in a resurrection like his.

 

And yes, you still struggle with sin in this life, but there is nothing that can condemn you. You have been washed by our Lord at his fount. You have been fed by our Lord from his table.

 

You have heard our Lord's proclamation of forgiveness, spoken by one who stands in his stead and to whom he gave authority to comfort you. God has shown you over and over and over again that he is on your side. He has shown you over and over and over again that he is for you.

 

And if God is for us, who can stand against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? And who can bring any charge against God's chosen ones? God's the one who justifies. Who's left to condemn us? Jesus is the one who died, and more than that, who lives. He's the one who's sitting at the right hand of the Father.

 

He's the one who's interceding for us. What can separate us from the love of him? Can tribulation or distress or persecution can famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No. No, even in these things we're more than conquerors through him who loved us.

 

For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything whatsoever in all creation, nothing is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited

The text for today's sermon is based on the last two verses of the epistle, Romans chapter 8, verse 26 and 27. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

 

These are the words of the text. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Are you a planner? Are you a person who likes structure in life? Do you prefer routine instead of chaos? Calm normalcy instead of noisy disorder? What happens when plans go astray? What happens when the structure and routine go away? What happens when financial setbacks or sickness or a broken relationship interrupts the plan, the structure, the routine? You talk to a trusted friend, an advisor, a pastor. They listen, they empathize, they care. They tell you that they will pray for you.

 

They really do. They encourage you to do likewise. Pray about it, they say.

 

Therein is the problem. You find yourself in such a low place, such despair, such a dead end. You just don't know how to pray.

 

Where do I begin, Lord? How do I approach you with this mess, you ask? Have you ever been at a loss for the words to pray to Almighty God? Join the human race. The last two verses of today's epistle from Saint Paul's letter to the Roman Christians are a jewel that is often overlooked. They are words that bring us comfort and strength in our weakness.

 

The subject of these words is God, the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Most Holy Trinity. We confess our belief in Him in the words of the Nicene Creed.

 

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life. I like to think of the Holy Spirit as the silent partner of the Godhead. The one often overlooked but ever present.

 

Constantly working to accomplish the good and gracious will of God in our lives and in the lives of the saints. Keep in mind, this same Holy Spirit was present at creation, Genesis chapter 1 verse 2, as He hovered over the waters. He participated in the creation of Adam, Genesis chapter 2 verse 7, as He breathed into Adam the breath of life.

 

In chapter, in John chapter 14, Jesus promised to send this same Holy Spirit who would be our divine helper and advocate. This is what Saint Paul is referring to in the epistle. When we are so perplexed that we have no idea how to pray or even what to pray for, God the Holy Ghost seamlessly serves as our advocate, our divine lawyer as it were, before the throne of the Father, offering prayer and intercession on our behalf.

 

Like little babies, we are too weak, too helpless to solve our problems. The same Holy Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation, who breathed life into the dust of Adam, who gives life to all that lives. This Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf before the Father in heaven.

There is no start switch, no mechanism that you must activate to make this happen. It is seamless, automatic, spontaneous on the part of God the Holy Ghost. It is His divine will to assist us, to support us, to sustain us through every need unto eternal life with the angels, archangels, and all the saints in heaven.

 

That is why Saint Paul said, we consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. The world, not knowing the most blessed Holy Trinity, speaks of karma, luck, what goes around comes around and so forth. No matter what gods they serve or philosophies they believe in, the world fails to understand that there is something very unique about the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

 

That unique quality, three persons in one divine essence, is above all else, the God of loving relationship. Each person in the Godhead is in loving relationship with the other. They do not compete with one another or fight one another.

 

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are in conversation, holy conversation with one another. At creation we hear them say, let us make man, Genesis 1: 26. Words of loving relationship.

 

At Jesus' baptism, God the Father said, this is my beloved Son, Matthew chapter 3:17. Words of loving relationship. At the transfiguration of our Lord, the Father repeated these very same words, Matthew 17 verse 5. On the cross at Calvary, our dying Lord spoke to His Father with haunting words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Matthew 27:46.

 

Words of deepest relationship. But what does all this have to do with our struggles when plans fall apart? How does it help us when we don't even know how to pray? As we rely upon God, the Holy Spirit, to pray to the Father on our behalf, we learn to make some adjustments. For example, perhaps we should use a pencil when making plans instead of an ink pen.

 

Perhaps the delete button on our devices can be used a bit more often. Confident that the Holy Spirit will lead us in a better direction. Perhaps we will learn to follow the words of Psalm 46 verse 10, be still and know that I am God.

 

If God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die in sacrifice for our sins, would not that same love extend unto us in all our sorrows? As it is written in Lamentations chapter three, His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.

 

The holy conversation within the most blessed Holy Trinity continues to this day. In love, God the Holy Spirit takes our petitions, our needs, our worries to the throne of the Father. Like a lawyer, an advocate, a counselor in a courthouse, the Holy Ghost represents us in the name of the same Jesus who bore our sins on Calvary.

 

The Holy Spirit intercedes for us in divine conversation in ways we never can. He includes our needs in that holy conversation, the loving relationship we have with the triune God continues forevermore. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, Amen.