The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1905, Page 42

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42

The Lutheran Pioneer.

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But the Holy Spirit is still active in the Church. It
is He who comes in the-means of grace, the Word
and Sacraments of God, and brings sinners to faith
in Jesus and keeps them in the faith.

We know that’ there are still mockers as there
were such on that first day of Pentecost; men to
whom the Gospel is but foolishness and who resist
the working of the Holy Spirit. Unhappy men!
The Gospel-day of the New Testament has come
with all the brightness of its heavenly light, but
they still sit in darkness; the sweet spring-time of
the Gospel has come with all its beauties, but the
coldness of winter still reigns in their hearts. Un-
happy men!

Blessed are all that by the Holy Spirit’s grace
are brought to Jesus. They enjoy all the blessings
of the Gospel-Church of the New Testament; they
have forgiveness of sins, comfort in all troubles,
salvation, and life everlasting. The great blessings
they enjoy must move them to make others par-
takers of the same grace. The more they value the
* Holy Spirit’s gift, the more zealous they will be in
missionary work. Thanking God for His unde-
served mercy, they will do all they can to lead those
who are still in darkness to the light which through
the Holy Spirit’s work they have found in Jesus and
_ His Gospel.

aan

The Holy Ghost Must Bring Us to Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, was born
of the Virgin Mary, suffered, and died, in short, re-
deemed us that we might be His own and live under
Him in His kingdom. Only then can we live under
Christ in His kingdom, only then can we be eter-
nally blessed if we become His own. We must be-
come Christ’s own. But if we would ‘be His own,
we must come to Christ, we must put all our con-
fidence in Him, we must believe in Him.

But this we cannot do by our own reason or
strength. We confess: ‘I believe that I cannot by
my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ,
my Lord, or come to Him.”? 1 Cor. 2, 14 we read:
“The natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spirit-
ually discerned.’? This passage speaks of the nat-
ural man, of man as he is by nature. A natural
man is 2 man who is yet in his sinful state which
he has inherited from Adam. This natural, sinful
man receiveth with his reason not the things of the
Spirit of God. He is blind to all those things need-
ful to his soul’s salvation. Though such a person
be as wise as were the old Grecian philosophers,

though he be ever so enlightened in earthly matters,
in spiritual things he is blind, totally blind. And
even then when the Holy Spirit reveals these things,
the natural man will not receive them, because they
are foolishness unto him. God’s wisdom appears
to the unregenerate man to be a mass of unreason-
able, unrhymed, contradictory nonsense. He there-
fore despises it, scoffs at it, derides it. Like Nico-
demus, he will exclaim, ‘‘How can it be?’’ So,
then, by his own reason the natural man cannot
believe in Christ, or come to Him. The Gospel will
ever remain foolishness to the proud, unconverted
Greek anda stumbling block to the selfrighteous Jew.
Neither can man by his natural strength come
to Christ. The Holy Scriptures declare that the
natural man has no strength whatever in spiritual
things; they plainly say that he is spiritually dead.
‘*Ye were dead in trespasses and sin,’’ says Paul to
the believing Ephesians. Before they believed, the
Ephesians were dead. Such is the spiritual state
of every man by nature. He is not only weak, not
merely crippled, not even merely paralyzed, he is
actually dead, spiritually dead. As the man natu-
rally dead can do nothing that a living man can do,
so the spiritually dead person can do nothing spirit-
ual; he can only sin, only trespass God’s laws.
And we also know that a man naturally dead can
do nothing to bring himself to life. He cannot even
do so much as raise his little finger. Likewise it is
true that he that is spiritually dead cannot do the
least to become spiritually alive. He is dead, and
as far as he is concerned will remain dead forever.
But do not men come to Christ; are not Sauls
changed to Pauls? Certainly, but not by their own
power or strength. Who, then, brings us to Christ,
who leads us to believe in Him? The Apostle tells
us 1 Cor. 12, 8: ‘‘No man can say that Jesus is the
Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.’’ No man can, yes,
no man will by nature recognize Jesus as his Lord,
for ‘‘the carnal mind is enmity against God.’”’? We
by nature hate all that is of God, and love that which
God hates. Therefore it is only by the Holy Ghost
that man can be brought to renounce his old alle- _
giance to Satan and sin and be willing to accept
Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. And this work of
the Holy Ghost is called Sanctification. He brings us
to Christ, He sanctifies us, makes us sinners saints..
O how grateful we should be to God for this gra-
cious work of the Holy Ghost! Were it not for this
blessed work of sanctification, our redemption would
be in vain. - God has not only created us, not only
redeemed us, but He also desires to sanctify us, -
bring us to Christ, so that we may be partakers of
His salvation and blessedness. F.J.L.