READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Proverbs 8:11-22
Philippians 3:17-21
- St. Matthew 22:15-22
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of
God and of Jesus our Lord
(2 Pet 1:2)
Who speaks to you today, only through His Gospel, saying,
“Teacher, we know
that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care
about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.”
God has made a Way, as we hear in these words from the
Gospel reading. It is His Way and we are not to find others, nor are we to
change the ways of this Way. Part of the truth that Jesus teaches faithfully is
that He remains faithful when all others, including ourselves, are faithless.
The devil hates the Gospel and ceases not to sow weeds among the wheat. To lose
this faithfulness, this pure doctrine, is to lose Christ; to lose Christ is to
lose everything.
People are obsessed, these days, with having a relationship
with God. That is all so-called-evangelicals talk about in their services and
Bible studies. Every. Single. Day.
Do you have a relationship with God? Do you know Him? Is
Jesus the love of your life?
The one problem with that relationship talk, when God is the
subject, is the persons involved never ask God what kind of relationship He
wants. In one sense because we can’t ask Him, or at least He won’t answer in a
way we understand. And in another sense, what He describes in His Word is too
complex for us. So, we either give up or pretend God is happy with our version
of a relationship to Him.
But the 6th Commandment does not say “good enough” or
“pretend”, it says, “You shall not”.
“You shall not commit adultery”. What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in
what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.
God takes the relationship with Him in that direction and
our puritan values cannot stand it. Last week we talked about our bodies and
how important they are to God and His work, and this week is no different. Your
body is just as important in your relationship to God as your spirit is.
But sex is not all adultery means, neither is it all a
relationship means. In fact, this is modern language. The catechism used to
teach, “We should fear and love God so that we lead a chaste and decent life…”
Chastity being our lost word of the day and the real focus of what God has for
us.
The reason being is because God has spoken of our
relationship to Him, and its not just sinner and angry God. Listen to these
verses:
From Hosea 2:19-20, “And I will betroth you to me
forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast
love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know
the Lord.”
And Isaiah 54:5, “For your Maker is your husband, the
Lord of hosts is His Name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God
of the whole earth He is called.”
Two verses among others that puts adultery on par with
unbelief and going after false gods. In this way, we will get at chastity by
going through adultery, the words that is. For, to adulter or adulterate means
to change. As in, when you sin against the 6th Command, you are altering the
deal of God’s marriage. You are changing the terms of the Lord’s chastity.
Because chastity has mainly to do with being faithful.
Faithfulness, truthfulness, and purity. Thus, chastity is simply participating
in God’s marriage without altering the deal. Marriage stuff is for marriage.
None of it works outside marriage. Sex, love, commitment, sacrifice. All need
marriage to be the things they were meant to be.
With our relationship with God, we can’t think of it simply
as taking His hand and saying “I do”. Just as Jesus gives Himself in marriage,
as He gives His mother to St. John for care at the cross, so too will He be the
one to institute this relationship for us. As with everything, it begins with
His Word.
In Psalm 12:6: “The words of the Lord are chaste words:
as silver tried by the fire, purged from the earth, refined seven times.”
At His Word, He declares us bound to Him by marriage and at His Word we will be
kept chaste. And from His Word come His teaching on marriage, adultery, and all
things necessary for salvation.
Jesus says in John 14:26, “But the Advocate, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and
will remind you of everything I have said to you.” In everything from the
Holy Spirit, Jesus says, we find this teaching, this doctrine. Doctrine is just
the fancy Church word for teachings.
In this case today, teachings about Jesus, our Husband. This
was the entire fight of the Reformation. That the people had been led off the
Way. Christ had ceased being the center and the Word was overturned with new
laws of purity.
Pure doctrine (reine Lehre), therefore, is nothing
other than the unadulterated Word of God, rightly divided and faithfully
preached, centering entirely on the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As our holy confession in the Book of Concord bears witness, pure
doctrine is not a set of clever human opinions, nor the traditions of popes and
councils, but the very truth of God revealed in Holy Scripture.
During the Great Reformation, the defense of this pure
doctrine was not a mere squabble over words or academic vanity. It was—and
remains—a matter of eternal life and death.
Listen to the words of our Confessions:
“The first and chief article is this:
Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was
raised again for our justification (Romans 4:24–25).
He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world (John 1:29), and God has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all (Isaiah
53:6).
All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own
works or merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
in His blood (Romans 3:23–25).
This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise
acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore, it is clear and
certain that this faith alone justifies us. As St. Paul says:
For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from
works of the law. (Romans 3:28)
Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even
though heaven and earth and everything else falls [Mark 13:31]. “For there
is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts
4:12).
Everything depends upon this article. Everything that we
teach and practice. This pure doctrine stands in opposition to the pope, the
devil, and the whole world. Therefore, we must be certain and not doubt this
doctrine. Otherwise, all is lost, and the pope, the devil, and all adversaries
win the victory and the right over us. (SA 2:I:1-5)
In this way, Jesus purifies us, gives us our purity back,
which we had lost in sin. As a bride prepared for her husband, Jesus prepares
His Church Himself. “Husbands, love your wives”, Ephesians 5:25-27 says,
“just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to sanctify
her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present
her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such
blemish, but holy and blameless.”
“This mystery is profound, but I am speaking of Christ
and the Church” (Eph 5:32)
Your relationship with God depends on pure, unadulterated
doctrine. This is the Way of God, that He has come to you, that He has given
gifts to His Church on earth, and that He is handing them out freely there. The
gift of Faith gets you in, belief keeps you faithful.
In your own marriage, the gift of your spouse keeps you in
and practice keeps you faithful.
Chastity, keeping the deal pure, is letting God be God.
First, the Church is not a creature of the law but a creature of the gospel.
That is, God has come to serve us His gifts of eternal life, faith, and
forgiveness. God has blessed this estate of marriage over all others. “He also
wishes us to honor it and to maintain and govern it as a divine and blessed
estate because, in the first place, He has instituted it before all others.”
In addition, He has bestowed on it and wrapped up in it
everything in the world, so that this estate might be well and richly provided
for. Married life is, therefore, no joke or presumption. It is an excellent
thing and a matter of divine seriousness. For marriage has the highest
importance to God so that people are raised up who may serve the world and
promote the knowledge of God, godly living, and all virtues, to fight against
wickedness and the devil. (LC I:206-208)
Second, since practice and doctrine draw from the same
substance, they are inseparably related: two sides of one coin. Therefore, a
legal piece of paper is not enough for this relationship. Freedom from sin and
death is. If you are married, you are freed to love, honor, and cherish your
spouse from the heart with perfect fidelity, contrary to what the world
teaches.
If you are single, you are freed to live decently and
chastely, honoring the bodies of others as temples of the Holy Spirit. You no
longer need to look to change the deal, because Christ has given us the
ultimate, unchanging deal of His eternal love.
The Gospel of Jesus frees the sinner from his sinful
thoughts and desires, which look and feel good, but are really what drags him
to hell. And from the pure doctrine of Jesus, we learn it to be a matter of
purity, of chastity, and of faith.
He to you, is what I mean. He is faithful to us, gives His
faithfulness to us, and it is reflected in our doctrine and practice. You were
created for marriage. Marriage between husband and wife, but also a holy union
between you and your God. Our marriages are simply reflections of this eternal
relationship we are invited into by Jesus.
In Christ, the 6th Commandment is fulfilled. He
does not wait for you to get your marriage or relationships right, but instead
creates His own and gives it to you, to live in and to live out. You are
invited to marriage and you are invited to Church.
You may want to side with the Pharisees and adulter the deal
with worldly tastes and pursuits, but He will not let you. He will forgive you,
putting His life on the line for your chastity. And He will place His image and
His likeness upon you, giving you His First and Last Name, so that there is no
question who you are and Who’s you are.
Now, “thus says the Lord, Who created you…and formed
you…’Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are
Mine’” and not even death will part us. (Isa 43:1)
Amen.
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