LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 76

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I remember waking up in the middle of the night and
realizing that I had fallen asleep without saying prayers
for my grandfather’s soul. I cried and I cried that I had the
power to help, and I didn’t do it.
The worst part of it all was that it wasn’t true. There’s no
mention of purgatory in the Bible. No one can make
satisfaction for sin except Jesus. False teaching had
alienated us from the love of Christ, just as all false
teaching ultimately steals the joy the Lord wants you to
have and leaves you with heartache and horror! We
should have been rejoicing in the resurrection.
The one thing that almost all false teachings have in
common is that they take a free gift of God and try to
convince us that our works are necessary to make God’s
gifts our own. There are so many errors, so many false
teachings in our world. As the Book of Ecclesiastes teaches
us, nothing is new. That’s why the church’s confessions,
her accumulated wisdom, mean so much. These battles
have been fought and won before.
Don’t baptize your babies; Christ is not present in the
Lord’s Supper; the Holy Spirit must speak to you apart
from His Word; you must give your life to Jesus; God
predestined some to hell. These are false teachings, hopes,
terrors and lies that the devil has been telling since
ancient times. He doesn’t need new tricks; the old ones
work well.
But through the years, we Lutherans have been the
beneficiaries of a sentinel that stands guard over our joy.
It’s a guide that loving families and pastors and teachers
have implanted in our hearts and minds for the day of
trouble, and that directs us away from the devil’s lies and
straight to God’s Word and salvation:
I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father
from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary,
is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned
person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death,
and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver,
but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent
suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under
Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting
righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is
risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. (Small
Catechism, Second Article)
The catechism is not the only way to tell this truth, but it
is a faithful way to say it. In times of trial, we need
something reliable, honest and tested. We need a guide
that faithfully confesses God’s promises and leads us
more deeply into them. From the creeds to the Formula of
Concord, they have taught the faith, given substance to
our confession and stood steadfast against false teaching.
They are a gift from God.
76 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION

We don’t place the catechism or the Confessions on the
level of Scripture, as some have slanderously asserted.
They are a map and a guide around stumbling blocks.
They are the signposts that point to salient verses of God’s
Word and promises. They’re like the words of a wise
mother written in the back of your Bible that say, “Turn to
this Gospel, this epistle, this psalm when you’re in need.”
They ultimately lead us to Christ Himself, “who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the
shame” (Heb. 12:2).
If we really want joy, we need to remember what gives joy
and what takes it away. In our reading, the apostle Paul
says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake” (Col.
1:24). Joy is not a lack of pain or suffering. In this fallen
world, everyone is going to suffer. Jesus’ goal is to save His
Father’s children. Joy is about being on that mission to
bring the lost children safely home to their Father’s house.
Joy is being the scared and lost and broken child who
hears the Savior’s voice say, “Everything is all right. I’ve
found you. I’m going to bring you home.”
But take heart, the Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens,
and sanctifies” His people from the pulpit, the font and
the altar. He will give them new hearts. He will preach
good news to the poor and will use our mouths to do it.
We are imperfect and fallible, but His Word which we
preach is pure and perfect. The world is full of lies and
deceit, but our forebearers throughout the history of the
church have annotated our Bibles and our lives to warn us
about the dark corners in which the devil hides. They have
written down the words and wisdom that help us know
the devil’s schemes. They have prepared hymns and songs
for when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, that sound
to our ears like the distant triumph song that makes our
hearts brave again and our arms strong.
And we, His people, do not walk alone. We walk and work
and eat and drink among angels and archangels and all
the company of heaven. God’s Word and Sacraments have
inspired a common confession of the pure Gospel among
His children. We with our fathers and mothers in the faith
walk in the light of this truth and joy. We will put on the
full armor of God and will not leave behind any good tools
with which the Lord or our family of faith has endowed
us. We will fight against false teaching that steals the joy
of our salvation. We will live in joy, fully Lutheran.

Convention Sermons