I’m constantly amazed at reading Martin Luther’s writings or hymns.
Consistently I say, “That’s what I needed to hear.”
God Himself fights by our side With weapons of the Spirit. Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child or spouse, Though life be wrenched away, They cannot win the day. The Kingdom’s ours forever.
That gives me courage, that strengthens my faith, that put everything into perspective. That preaches to me the eternal Gospel.
And that’s what the Lutheran Reformation is all about.
Luther’s preaching and any pastor’s preaching or any Christian’s sharing is only every exactly what you need to hear when it is faithful to God’s Word.
Our emotions and thoughts constantly change – but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
Sin is ever present, and if anyone sins, he is a slave to sin – but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
If you abide in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
What we think we need to hear is dependent too often of our sin sick heart – but the Truth of God’s Word endures forever.
Today is Reformation Sunday and that is what it was all about – the Word of the Lord endures forever.
The freeing truth – grace alone, Scripture alone, faith alone, Christ alone –
To God alone be the glory.
And to God alone be the glory for giving us exactly what we need through faithful Christians in past.
Those who knew the freeing truth and therefore had confidence to be free even if there were many opposed to them.
Martin Luther was a freed man. Freed by the Gospel. Freed by the Son of God.
Luther was plagued with people who hated him, who called a trouble maker, who said he was dividing the church.
His life was wanted. He was kicked out of the Church.
The devil, the world, and his sinful flesh constantly harassed him.
But he was a free man. He abided in God’s Word and so he knew the truth and that truth set him free.
God’s Word set him free to have confidence in God no matter what was happening on the outside and what was happening on the inside.
That freedom is a beautiful thing.
And that freedom is what you receive again today.
The most important thing we can from Luther or any Christian who went before is to have no confidence in ourselves, but to not waver in our confidence in God.
Abide in God’s Word.
Receive His freeing truth.
Pray for continued strength to believe His Promises and live His commandments and then trust that God will do what He wants with that faithfulness.
There is nothing more freeing than that truth.
If you abide in my Word, then you will be my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
There is freedom for you no matter what other people think about you.
You know what God thinks about you. He tells you.
There is freedom for you no matter how you are feeling.
You know how God feels about you. He tells you.
There is freedom whether you think what you are doing for others is fruitful or not.
Because it isn’t about what you think. You are to be faithful and let God do what He wants to do.
God gives us freedom that comes from Him, from the outside, from His Word, from His promises and power.
The world would so often have us looking on the inside.
Luther, as a faithful Christian, pointed others to the outside, to God’s Word.
Luther in a book called Freedom of the Christian Man said,
One thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ, as Christ says, John 11[:25], “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live”; and John 8[:36], “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed”; and Matt. 4[:4], “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Luther goes on to say,
Let us then consider it certain and firmly established that the soul can do without anything except the Word of God and that where the Word of God is missing there is no help at all for the soul. If it has the Word of God it is rich and lacks nothing since it is the Word of life, truth, light, peace, righteousness, salvation, joy, liberty, wisdom, power, grace, glory, and of every incalculable blessing.
Every incalculable blessing, Luther says! You lack nothing, Luther says!
If you don’t have God’s Word, you soul will be empty.
You will always be looking for something, but you will alway be sent empty.
But if you have the Word, if you have the Truth, then you have everything.
You have life in the midst of death.
You have truth even if you’re surrounded by lies.
You have peace, inner peace, that nothing outside of you can take way.
Even if your outer natures wastes away, your inner nature will be renewed day be day.
Luther says,
To preach Christ means to feed the soul, make it righteous, set it free, and save it.
Do you know what freedom you leave with when you are again fed with the Gospel.
It is freedom to suffer with peace. It is the freedom to fail, but not be destroyed. The freedom to experience all sorts of bad things in the confidence you have nothing to fear.
Luther says,
Nothing at all can ever harm such a freed person, indeed, all things are subject and forced to serve for salvation. Paul states this in Rom. 8[:28]: “We know that all things work together for good for the elect.” 76 He says the same thing in 1 Cor. 3[:21b-23]: “All things are yours, whether . . . life or death or the present or the future . . . for you belong to Christ.”