By the Word

First Sunday in Lent

February 10, 2008

Matthew 4:1-11

"The tempter came and said to [Jesus,] . . . But [Jesus] answered, ‘It is written . . .’"

If you were with us last weekend, you recall that I spent a few minutes talking about my concerns for how casual we can be in this hour of worship; that I am concerned about behavior and the way that we dress. I framed this in the context of this being a holy place, and that we are in the presence of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this place, and this hour, simply must be different—it must transcend how we act and dress in everyday life.

I have high expectations for this place and for you people. You are the people of the one true God, and I am His spokesman.

I endeavor to preach on difficult subjects—and, yeah, talking about people wearing jeans and tennis shoes to church is a difficult subject because I don’t want to needlessly offend anyone, yet I am deeply bothered by such a casual attitude that so many of us have, and I know that some people get their noses bent out of shape at the slightest hint of being told they might be doing something wrong.

But, I fear, very greatly, that this congregation, and this church school, could vanish in a generation. The generation, which is my age and younger, scares me. Yes, we have some diligent members, who truly care about what the Lord teaches, and take serious sermons to heart, and work hard for this place. But, the numbers are way too small.

Way too many take worship for granted. Way too many only come to church when the kids sing, or their child has to acolyte, or they have a basketball game and they can’t play if they don’t go to church, or some other responsibility drags them to church. Way too many support their kids in their school and their sports, but the Lord . . . the Lord is so far in the back seat that He’s in the trunk, and He’s gasping for air in the lives of these folks.

God didn’t put me into this pulpit only to give you fifteen minutes of pep talk, each week. He’s not into the "build their self-esteem" business. Indeed, God doesn’t care about your self-esteem. His good and gracious will is for you to know two things: first, that you are a lousy, no good for nothing, miserable worm of a sinner, who really doesn’t give a hoot about His commandments or loving your neighbor as you love yourself and, second, that He loves you with such a compassionate love that He took your sins into His own flesh and blood so that you would not have to suffer eternal punishment for them.

What audacity, on our part, to think that we can be the children of this heavenly Father, who chooses to punish His eternal Son for the sins of His created people, by making His Son suffer hell in our place, and that we can dress and act however we please, and that we can decide that it is perfectly okay to worship whenever we feel like it—even that we only worship when we have a duty to fulfill—and that we can live our lives however we feel like it, even if however we feel like living our lives is completely opposed to God’s will.

If you fall under any of this, you had better repent of your sins, or you are putting yourself in serious peril of losing your lofty status as a child of the heavenly Father. God’s grace is free, but it is not cheap—it came at the cost of His Son being forsaken by His Father because He was riddled with your hideous sin. And, if you treat God’s grace as if it is no more valuable to you than the fast-food containers, which you toss out when you are done eating, then you will be tossed to the dogs on the day of judgment.

Mark my words, you, who call yourselves Christians. The time is now to wake up and smell your sinfulness. The time is now to see what a superb Savior you have in Jesus Christ, because He has dragged you from the triple threats of death, devil, and damnation, and brought you into the triple gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

There is no better time than the season of Lent to do these two things: see your sin and see your Savior. Confess your sin and confess your Savior. Hate your sin and love your Savior.

Your Savior—He is Jesus. He is God in the flesh, yet He did all of the work that He gave the human race to do. He had set up Adam and Eve in a garden, with companionship, with food, even walking with them in the cool of the day. But, when they would not listen to Him and bought the devil’s snake oil, He took matters into His own hands.

As we are taught in Hebrews, since we children of God have flesh and blood, He took on our flesh and blood so that He could save us. Marvelous.

But, He wouldn’t fight the devil in a lush garden; He went into the wilderness. He didn’t have a wife by His side; He was all by Himself. He didn’t have every delicious food at His disposal; He went hungry for forty days. And, His Father didn’t walk with Him in the cool of the day; there was no cool of the day, and the only one to walk with Him was the wily deceiver, Satan.

Adam and Eve had the Word of God on which to rely, but Adam and Eve fought the devil with a plastic fast-food knife. When the devil tried to trip up the Lord Jesus, Jesus fought with the sharp sword of the Word of God.

At Satan’s first temptation, Jesus quoted the Word: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

But, how can you, Christian, live by every word that comes from the mouth of God if you rarely hear God’s Word? You can quote the latest thing in the news about your favorite star, but can you quote Ephesians 2:8, or John 14:6, or Acts 4:12, or Revelation 2:10?

How can you live by the Word of God if you don’t know the Word of God? How can you know the Word of God, when the Word of God is being preached in this place but you are off ice fishing, or sleeping in, or whatever else it is that you slap in the face of God as being a better use of your time than being in His house?

"You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." Jesus quoted this to Satan when the devil quoted this verse to Jesus: "He will command his angels concerning you . . . lest you strike your foot against a stone."

You people think that God will forgive you—after all, that’s the business God’s in, and that’s what you hear preached in every sermon from this pulpit, even after this pastor has scolded you good. But, since when does God give you permission to skip church? Since when does God put His stamp of approval on the typical American lifestyle, in which we serve our bellies and our covetous passions as the good consumers that the government wants us to be?

Why should God send His angels to protect anyone who doesn’t act like the child of God for whom He personally faced and beat the devil, and for whom He personally suffered and died? If I were God, I would let negligent, feckless people eat, drink, and be merry all the way to hell, and spend my days trying to make the Detroit Lions into a Super Bowl winner.

Lastly, the devil tried to give Jesus all things if Jesus would only bow down to him. Isn’t that the exact thing with which the devil is tempting you? You modern Americans have everything at your disposal. You whine and gripe about a million things, but you lack for nothing. If you think you do lack something, we’ll set up a trade—your life for the life of a refugee in Sudan. Maybe then you will see the wealth of stuff you have surrounding you.

And, you worship it. You polish it. You adore it. You work to improve and increase it. Your stuff, and your life, is everything to you.

Yet, your faith teaches you exactly the opposite. Your Jesus rebuked Satan’s temptation with these familiar words: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve."

Thank God that Jesus fulfilled God’s commandment.

Jesus did not fail so that you, who fail, and fail, daily, might yet be saved from Satan.

Jesus stood up to the devil before whom you constantly fall. He defeated the devil, and the world, and your own sinful nature, by taking all sins into His flesh on His cross of sacrifice.

And, yes, amazingly, He loved you to death so that He could give you His life. Yes, amazingly, He does not want to cast you off, despite how frustrating you, and I, and every sinner is to Him.

He continues to work His promises in the baptism that you received, however long ago it was, in which He set you apart to belong to Him. He continues to grace you with His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation in every Word of the good news of Jesus Christ, even if you only hear it when you are in church because you gotta be. He continues to feed you upon His holy body and blood—upon the sacrifice which killed Him on the cross—and He can feed you, because the grave could not hold Him in death.

This Lent, dear Christians, throw yourself at the mercy of your Lord Jesus, for He is merciful. This Lent, be diligent to worship Him, and hear His Word, and take it to heart, so that you save yourself, and so that you have a fine faith to pass on to the next generation.

This Lent, get to know your Savior Jesus all the better, because salvation is found in no one else, as there is no other name given to men by which you must be saved. And, saved you are, in Jesus Christ, and for His sake. Amen.