The Third Article: Sanctified And Kept In Faith
Sermon
What's That Supposed To Mean?
Using The Catechism In The 21st Century
Object:
The Apostles' Creed -- The Third Article
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen. What does this mean? I believe that ... the Holy Ghost has ... sanctified and kept me in the true faith....
No matter how much a man tries to reform himself, he can never achieve the newness of life that God wants him to have in Christ. Although a man can make changes in his life, even positive changes, he still remains the same person and often goes from one kind of problem to another. Sports broadcaster Harry Kalas once introduced a Philadelphia Phillies baseball player, Garry Maddox, with the following words: "He has turned his life around. He used to be depressed and miserable. Now he's miserable and depressed."
The Bible teaches that we can achieve newness of life only one way. We need the help of the Holy Spirit. King David understood this very well. He had an affair with a woman and had her husband killed so he could marry her. But David could not escape his sin. When the whole mess became public, he threw himself on the mercy of God. David's Psalm 51 is his personal prayer to God. But this prayer is our prayer also. In this psalm we confess that we are unable to be the kind of people God wants us to be. We also confess that only God can make us the kind of people He wants us to be.
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Some of these words have hit me the hardest: "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." What about the man David killed? What about the people we sin against? Don't they count? Of course they do! We sin against God alone because we do sin against each other. When we gossip, or spit out angry words, or insult or hurt other people in any other way, we might as well pound a nail into the hand of Jesus.
Why do I say that? Try an experiment the next time you visit someone's home. First, start moving the furniture around in the living room. When you finish eating, turn to someone in your family and say, "This tasted pretty bad. I could do better blindfolded." As you leave, take a walk through the flower bed in front of the house. Then see how long it is before you are invited back. My guess is that your hosts will be offended, though you never once said or did anything to them. That's because when we insult the handiwork of a person, we insult the person. Likewise, when we sin against each other, we are really sinning against the God who created each of us and who shed His blood for each of us. We are His handiwork.
David shows us in his prayer how God takes away that sin. "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." That makes me think of baptism right away. Hyssop was what folks used as a scouring pad in those days. We ask God to scour us clean, and in Jesus' name, baptism does just that.
"Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity." These words make me think of the good news preached about Jesus. Shepherds used to break the legs of wandering sheep. This meant that the shepherd would have to feed the sheep personally. Soon the sheep would learn to love and trust the shepherd. I know that sorrow is meant to drive me closer to Jesus. I can rejoice because now I know that Jesus has forgiven me the sins that earn me eternal punishment.
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." These are the words that teach us how God plans to change us. First, He must give us a new heart. The heart stands for the person's whole life. What comes out of a person's heart goes all through his body. Jesus tells us that it is from the heart whence all evil springs. God must give us a new heart, a new personality. We also need a spirit that will stand up to temptation. The normal human spirit is not strong enough to endure temptation. That new heart and steadfast spirit is given to us at our baptism, when we are joined to Jesus. We pray that God would stay with us. We especially pray that God would not take His Holy Spirit from us. If you wonder what would happen if God were to take his Spirit from us, all you have to do is remember what happens when He takes our spirit from us -- we die. His Spirit gives us eternal life, so if that is gone, we are dead forever.
We cannot hope to be holy unless God stays close to us. God does this as His Word is preached and the sacraments Jesus gave us are used. Jesus prayed for His disciples, "Father, make them holy by the truth. Your word is truth." He also told His disciples that He was giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them. We don't need self-help books to be better. We need the Holy Spirit opening up our hearts and minds to what God says. It does not matter that we cannot remember all we hear. Maybe your mind is like a sieve, everything leaks through. When you pour water over a sieve, no matter how much you pour, you don't collect much. But at least you end up with a clean sieve. God's Word will do better than water on a sieve. We can also take comfort in knowing that the day is coming when we will not be sieves anymore.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, Gift divine, give us greater faith than ever before as we hear about the good things Jesus has done for us so that we will be able to stand up against temptation. Forgive us for thinking that we can live holy lives without any help from You. Give us a greater love for the Bible You have given us and the sacraments that act out the same message of grace. Amen.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen. What does this mean? I believe that ... the Holy Ghost has ... sanctified and kept me in the true faith....
No matter how much a man tries to reform himself, he can never achieve the newness of life that God wants him to have in Christ. Although a man can make changes in his life, even positive changes, he still remains the same person and often goes from one kind of problem to another. Sports broadcaster Harry Kalas once introduced a Philadelphia Phillies baseball player, Garry Maddox, with the following words: "He has turned his life around. He used to be depressed and miserable. Now he's miserable and depressed."
The Bible teaches that we can achieve newness of life only one way. We need the help of the Holy Spirit. King David understood this very well. He had an affair with a woman and had her husband killed so he could marry her. But David could not escape his sin. When the whole mess became public, he threw himself on the mercy of God. David's Psalm 51 is his personal prayer to God. But this prayer is our prayer also. In this psalm we confess that we are unable to be the kind of people God wants us to be. We also confess that only God can make us the kind of people He wants us to be.
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Some of these words have hit me the hardest: "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." What about the man David killed? What about the people we sin against? Don't they count? Of course they do! We sin against God alone because we do sin against each other. When we gossip, or spit out angry words, or insult or hurt other people in any other way, we might as well pound a nail into the hand of Jesus.
Why do I say that? Try an experiment the next time you visit someone's home. First, start moving the furniture around in the living room. When you finish eating, turn to someone in your family and say, "This tasted pretty bad. I could do better blindfolded." As you leave, take a walk through the flower bed in front of the house. Then see how long it is before you are invited back. My guess is that your hosts will be offended, though you never once said or did anything to them. That's because when we insult the handiwork of a person, we insult the person. Likewise, when we sin against each other, we are really sinning against the God who created each of us and who shed His blood for each of us. We are His handiwork.
David shows us in his prayer how God takes away that sin. "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." That makes me think of baptism right away. Hyssop was what folks used as a scouring pad in those days. We ask God to scour us clean, and in Jesus' name, baptism does just that.
"Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity." These words make me think of the good news preached about Jesus. Shepherds used to break the legs of wandering sheep. This meant that the shepherd would have to feed the sheep personally. Soon the sheep would learn to love and trust the shepherd. I know that sorrow is meant to drive me closer to Jesus. I can rejoice because now I know that Jesus has forgiven me the sins that earn me eternal punishment.
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." These are the words that teach us how God plans to change us. First, He must give us a new heart. The heart stands for the person's whole life. What comes out of a person's heart goes all through his body. Jesus tells us that it is from the heart whence all evil springs. God must give us a new heart, a new personality. We also need a spirit that will stand up to temptation. The normal human spirit is not strong enough to endure temptation. That new heart and steadfast spirit is given to us at our baptism, when we are joined to Jesus. We pray that God would stay with us. We especially pray that God would not take His Holy Spirit from us. If you wonder what would happen if God were to take his Spirit from us, all you have to do is remember what happens when He takes our spirit from us -- we die. His Spirit gives us eternal life, so if that is gone, we are dead forever.
We cannot hope to be holy unless God stays close to us. God does this as His Word is preached and the sacraments Jesus gave us are used. Jesus prayed for His disciples, "Father, make them holy by the truth. Your word is truth." He also told His disciples that He was giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them. We don't need self-help books to be better. We need the Holy Spirit opening up our hearts and minds to what God says. It does not matter that we cannot remember all we hear. Maybe your mind is like a sieve, everything leaks through. When you pour water over a sieve, no matter how much you pour, you don't collect much. But at least you end up with a clean sieve. God's Word will do better than water on a sieve. We can also take comfort in knowing that the day is coming when we will not be sieves anymore.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, Gift divine, give us greater faith than ever before as we hear about the good things Jesus has done for us so that we will be able to stand up against temptation. Forgive us for thinking that we can live holy lives without any help from You. Give us a greater love for the Bible You have given us and the sacraments that act out the same message of grace. Amen.
