LAW & GOSPEL UPDATED AND MOVED!

Dear readers and friends,

We have udpated this blog. To read new posts, you must go to http://www.lawgospel.com/blog

You will need to change your links and/or RSS feeds to http://www.lawgospel.com/ if you see torelion.blogspot.com in any of your links.

Updates and new material are continuing to take place, so feel free to provide your feedback. At the new site, you can still get all the blogs from the last few years.

Tell your friends to access the blog at www.lawgospel.com/blog

Thank you!

Tom Baker

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Sermon B: 3 S Lent: 1 Cor 1:22

For the third Sunday in Lent, the three readings for Church Year B are Exodus 20:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 and John 2:13-25. The text chosen on which to preach is 1 Corinthians 1:22, "For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom."

The most important part of the sermon is to make sure that Law and the Gospel reach the target audience. For a radio program the target audience is usually those who would best appreciate what is being said. For a cooking program, the target audience are cooks; for a landscapping program, the target audience are gardeners and so forth. But what is the primary target audience for a religious program of either sermon or Bible class?

Most preachers would suggest that the target audience are the specific individuals in the congregation or the listening audience. However, such a view would mean that the message needs to be used that best reaches that audience. According to verse 22 of 1 Corinthians, Jews are best reached if you can persuade by a sign, a miracle, or some evidence. And Grentiles are best reached if you persuade them by reason or logic. However, it is clear from this verse that such a means of persuasion cannot work with Christianity. For it is impossible to persuade an unbeliever by a sign or reason since what Christians believe offers no evidence and is totally unreasonable!

As the Bible reveals, even were someone to rise from the dead, no one would be persuaded. And even if the wisest of philosophers used reason and logic to the best of his ability, no unbeliever would be persuaded. Why? Because the message of Christianity is foolishness to those who are perishing (verse 18). Then, who is the primary target audience of the preacher. Our answer will surprise you.

The primary target audience is not human--the primary target audience is the Holy Spirit! What does that mean? Glad you asked. As host of Law and Gospel on radio station AM 850 KFUO for over a dozen years, the question is asked as to how many people I have converted. The answer is always the same--none! Conversion is not our job--it is the work of the Holy Spirit. If converting people made a preacher successful, then Jesus was the worst preacher of all time unable to persuade even His own hometown. Yet the Father still considered Him as One in Whom He was well pleased. How so?

Because the success of the witness is not in the results but in the proper use of the means of grace. Jesus was successful always regardless of the response on the part of listeners but because He clearly and accurately spoke the Word of God. Today our message needs to be stated in such a way that the Holy Spirit can make use of the Word of God in creating a new heart and renewing a right spirit. God does not work through false doctrine.

It is not that the listener is never a target audience. It is just that the listeners are secondary targets. First get the Word straight and then use that part of the Word of God which best touches the lives and problems of the listener. That is, to a listener at a funeral, use the Gospel promises dealing with the sure hope of those who trust in Jesus Christ. To a listener at a wedding, use the Gospel promises that deal with Jesus Christ as the third person in every marriage and the promises He brings to such a covenant.

While the temporal realm may properly use evidence and reason to persuade, in the realm of Christianity the only sure means of salvation is the pure Word of God and the proper use of the Sacraments. In fact, those are not only the proper tools for the Holy Spirit to convert, they also are where the Church in its mission truly exists.

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The Cure For Racism: Two Trees

This truly is "a one-of-a-kind book. At times the authors seem to go where angels fear to tread. Enlisting the Bible, the lessons of history, and sound science, Dr. Peter Kurowski and James L. Ramer take on racism." So reads the back cover of "The Cure For Racism: Two Trees". What are the two trees?

The first tree is the family tree of Adam and Eve. The second tree is the Cross of Christ! The first tree is important as it clearly proves that all human beings came from the same parents--Adam and Eve. We are all related. No room for racism here. But because of our fall into sin, the second tree of the cross of Christ was necessary to cure racism.

Not only is the book an energetic examination of the pervasive problem of racism in many of its evil forms, but more importantly it outlines in a clear and practical way the only real and lasting cure for this pernicious problem. Through the Biblical images of two powerful trees, the authors take a law-sharpened axe to racism and a grace-giving water hose to love. This "must read" book shows wherever the message of the "Two Trees" is embraced, racism retreats.

Widely endorsed, Dr. John Warwick Montgomery adds his thoughts with, "A strong Gospel-oriented argument showing that Holy Scripture opposes racism from cover to cover. Just the remedy for those who think that the Bible is mere compendium of fallible human opinion."

"The Cure for Racism: Two Trees" is only available at www.lawgospel.com for a price of $17.00 plus shipping and handling. However, if you order and insert the coupon number 777 when paying through PayPal, there will be no postage, shipping or handling costs. The total price will be $17.00. Since it includes 8 Bible studies at the end of the book, pastors may want to buy in bulk. Please contact lawgospel@lawgospel.com with inquiries about bulk ordering. Additional information on the book can also be found at www.lawgospel.com by clicking on the book.

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Sermon B: 2 S Lent: Rom 5:8

This being the 2nd Sunday in Lent, the readings are Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Romans 5:1-11 and Mark 8:27-38. The text chosen to preach on is Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

While this text may be helpful to most Christians, for those uninitiated in Bible-speak, it appears that Christ's death is somehow for us because while we were still sinners, God demonstrates His love toward us. Some have taken that to mean that God so loved us that He wanted us to follow the example of Jesus Who died and suffered for others so that we can be saved by our suffering.

The question to ask is what does it mean that "Christ died for us"? The text itself actually provides four answers. The first is Law; the last three are Gospel. The first answer as to the necessity of Christ's death is verse 6 that Christ died for the "ungodly." That just doesn't mean that we are bad sinners; it also means that there was nothing we could do to get saved. Ungodly as we were and are, there was and is nothing we could do to invite, choose, decide, work, speak or think properly to climb up to heaven.

Christ HAD to die for us because there was no way that we could do anything to take care of our problem with God. But precisely what was that problem? Most people would say that sin is what separated us from God. No, verse 9 says that what really brought us under His Judgment was His wrath. Christ's death somehow saved us from God's wrath. How so?

The wrath is the result of the curse of the Law that in the day we sin, death is the result. God's wrath is the spiritual death that Eve and Adam realized when they fled from the Almighty in the Garden. Jesus' death substituted for our death in that He took upon Himself all the wrath of God that could have been leveled at us. The evidence that Jesus experienced that wrath is heard from His lips, "...why have You forsaken Me?"

Saved from His wrath means we are forgiven. But that needs to be understood with all the radical input that can be provided. Throughout the Bible, (eg. Psalm 32), being forgiven means that God is no longer holding the world accountable for sin. It was that accountability that really separated us from God. Now, according to 2 Corinthians 5, God is reconciled to you, as verse 11 reveals. No longer is the problem God--as in all other religions of Law. The problem is you and me who prefer not to be reconciled to God!

Which leads to another piece of the Gospel promises as found in verse 1 that we have "peace with God" through our Lord Jesus Christ as a result of His dying for us. This is not a peace promised between nations or quarreling family members. This is the peace between you and God. Recall the first words spoken by the angels to the shepherds and the first word of Jesus on the night of His resurrection--"Peace be to you."

Since every Christian is a teacher-in-training, we need not just to learn about the Bible but also to teach the reason God reveals for the death of His only-begotten Son. That death was not for an example for us to follow. No, it took care of every reason for separation from the holy Trinity as Jesus became sin in order that you might be the righteousness of God in Him. That's a Lenten theme worth sharing!

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