The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1880, Page 13

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL Lurueran SynopicaL ConrereNcE or Nortn AMERICA.

S

Edited by Prof. R. A. BISCHOFF.©  *

Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

Vol. II.

St. Louis, Mo., June, 1880.

No. 4.

Are you Born Again?

It would be well for every one to search his
heart with the solemn question, Are you born
again? Christ said to Nicodemus, ‘‘Verily,
verily, Isay unto thee, Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’’,
John 8, 3. Nicodemus wondered at this start-
ling statement, but Christ said unto him,
“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be
born again.’”’ (v. 7.) And the reason for this
must be is given in the sixth verse: “That
which is born of the flesh is flesh.’’? This means
that every man being born of sinful parents is
sinful. Since the fall of Adam every man by

his natural birth gets a sinful and- corrupt | name; which were born, not of blood, nor of

nature and must cry out, ‘Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive
me’, Psalm 51, 5. Every man is a born
sinner, with a heart deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked; dead in trespasses and
sins, (Jeremiah 17, 9.; Eph. 2, 1.). And there
is here no difference. The flesh, the corrupt
nature, of the most refined and cultivated is
flesh, is sinful, just as well as the flesh of the
vilest sinner. Nicodemus was not what the
world would call a bad man. He was a strict
- Pharisee leading an outwardly moral life. And
to this man Christ said that he must be born
again; for that which is born of the flesh is
flesh. This flesh, this sinful nature of ours
cannot enter the kingdom of God. We must
therefore be born again, we must receive a new
nature. How is this done? Nicodemus said,
‘‘How can a man be born when he is old? can
he® enter the second time into his mother’s
womb, and be born?’’, (v. 4.). Ifa man could
be born a million times in this natural way,
that would do him no good; for he would be
born a million times of the flesh and ‘‘that
which is born of the flesh’is flesh’. Christ
therefore answered, “Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God”’, (v. 5.). We must be
born of the Spirit; for ‘‘that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit’’, (v. 6.). The Spirit of
God does this work of regeneration through the
Word of God in the water of Baptism and in
the reading and preaching of the Gospel. By
that-Word of God the Spirit works faith in the

heart of the convicted sinner. The sinner who
has been crushed by the law of God, who has
come to the knowledge of his sinful nature,
who finds nothing good in himself is led by the
Spirit through the Word of God to trust in
Jesus as his only Saviour. Thus a man is born
again. Besides that sinful nature which he re-
ceived by birth from his earthly parents, he
now has‘a new, sinless nature by this new birth
of the Spirit. As by his natural birth he be-
came a sinful child of sinful parents, he by this
new birth of the Spirit has become a beloved
child of the holy God. ‘As many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his

A Jubilee.

1530—1880. ;

On the 25th of June the Lutheran Church
celebrates a grand Jubilee. She on that day
commemorates two memorable events of her
history. The first is the presentation of the
Augsburg Confession, the history of which our
readers may read in this number in our ‘‘Life
of Luther’. It occurred 350 years ago, on the
25th of June, 1530. That Confession is the
pure and correct confession of the Divine truth
of Holy Scripture. Our fathers therefore re-
joiced over it. Dr. Luther said, ‘‘I rejoice that
I have lived to see the hour in which Christ is
publicly preached by His confessors, before an
assembly so illustrious, in this glorious Confes-
sion. Herein is fulfilled what the Scripture
saith: ‘I will declare thy testimonies in the
presence of kings’. Yea, that will also be ful-
filled which follows: ‘and shall not be put to
shame.’ ‘For he that confesses me before men’,
says He who cannot lie, ‘him will I also confess
before my father who is in heaven’.’’ “Another
great divine calls our Augsburg Confession ‘‘a
confession the like of which has not been heard
not only for a thousand years, but not since the
world exists. In no history and in no ancient
father is anything like it to be found.’’ It is
the oldest Protestant Confession; it is the first
public testimony of the true Church against
Romish corruption; it is a wall of adamant
against false doctrine; it is the glorious banner
around which all true Lutherans of all lands
rally. With joy and thanksgiving -we this
year celebrate the 350th anniversary of the
Augsburg Confession.

1580—I1880.

The other event which we commemorate on
our day of Jubilee is the publication of the
Book of Concord. It was published: for the
first time 800 years ago, on the 25th of June,
1580. What does that book contain? It con-
tains the creeds or confessions adopted by the
Lutheran Church. ‘They are the following:

The Apostles’ Oreed. It consists of the three
articles which are found in our Catechism, and
is called the Apostles’ Creed, because it contains

the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God”’, (John 1, 12. 13.); ‘‘Ye are the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus”’,
(Gal. 3, 6.).

Reader, are you born again? Ifnot, you can-
not enter the kingdom of God. You may cul-
tivate that flesh, that sinful, corrupt nature of
yours in all the refinements of the nineteenth
century, you may carry that flesh to church
and practice all kinds of ceremonies and profess
Christianity with your mouth before the largest
congregation of the world, if you do not be-
lieve in Jesus as a poor lost and condemned
sinner, you are not born again; and if you are
not born again, you cannot enter the kingdom
of God. Dear reader, are you born again? If
not, oh, then do not, do not resist the Holy
Spirit, who by the Gospel of Jesus will bring
you to true faith in your Saviour and will make
you a happy child of God. By the great value
of your immortal soul, by all the terrors of the
hell, by all the beauties of heaven I beseech
you, do not, do not resist the Holy Spirit; for
of that Spirit only you can be born again.

—_—<» ec 0

‘THE RICHES OF GOD’s WORD.—Let us regard
the Word with due honor. I have now, for
some years, read the Bible through twice a
year; and as if it were a great, mighty tree,
and all words were twigs or branches, I have
beaten each of them to know what was growing
on it and what good it could supply, and I
have every time succeeded in gathering some
few more apples or pears.—Lnither.

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