NOVEMBER 23 SERMON: Last Sunday in the Church year Isaiah 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The perfect reality. In six days God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit created everything seen and unseen. Water, light, sky, land, vegetation, stars, sun, moon, fish, birds, livestock and wild animals. He created it all. But He was not finished with His perfect reality until he made man. While everything was good, He did not stop His work of creation until He created man in His own image. Having created them male and female, God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day. Genesis 1:28-31 Having made man, God gave all of His creation to him to inhabit it and rule it, every created thing for the benefit of man and his life with God. And only after He had created man in His image and given everything into his possession and care did God say it was VERY good, so good in fact that His work was finished and on the seventh day He rested, blessed this day of rest and called it Holy -- the perfect reality. But there was one who did not care for this reality, an angel, one of God's creatures who in jealousy of man and rebellion against the God in whose image man was formed rejected the reality that as an angel he was a mere servant of God and man. This fallen angel we call the devil, exchanged God's reality for the fantasy that he could be God and tempted Adam and Eve with the fantasy that they could be God. Coveting God's power and all that He had given to the man and woman, the devil bore false witness against them, stealing them from God by leading them to commit adultery, that is being unfaithful against God, thus killing them by their dishonoring their Father in this way, breaking the Day of Rest that was theirs by the Holy Word of God, ignoring the name He had given them to call on and, of course, making themselves god in the place of the One True God who had created them and given them everything He had to give. And so the man and woman gave up God's perfect reality for the fantasy set before them. But God's perfect reality included a plan to deliver His people from the power of this fantasy the devil laid before them and the certain death this fantasy masked. This is the perfect reality of God's plan God promised to Adam & Eve as He spoke to the devil in the garden that day: I will put enmity between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. This is the perfect reality of God's plan which He promised to Abraham: all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. This is the perfect reality of God's plan to which the prophet Isaiah spoke in our OT lesson today: Listen to me, my people; hear me my nation; The law will go from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. This is the perfect reality of God's plan which was accomplished in Christ and finished for all eternity:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Just as the devil did with Adam and Eve that day in the garden, so he continues to do with us today. He tempts us to exchange faith in God's reality of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation in Christ alone for the fantasy that we can be god, or at least that we can somehow hide from His wrath or earn His favor. The devil continues to tempt us to [exchange] the truth of God for a lie; the fantasy that if I fill my life with enough things that entertain me, make me happy and distract me from the disappointment, conflict, sorrow and evil in my life that somehow everything will be just fine rather than the reality that through being buried with Christ into His death I am buried into His life; the fantasy that the power of prayer is in the words I speak rather than the reality of the Word God gives us to hear; the fantasy that by the blood, sweat and tears of my faithful service to God I can glorify God rather than the reality that by the body and blood of Jesus Christ God glorifies me. But just as God promised deliverance in the garden, so does He promise deliverance for us today. The same seed who crushed the devil on Calvary comes to us today. He forgives our sins, and creates and sustains faith in us through His Word and Sacrament today in order to lead us away from the temptation and deliver us from the evil of the fantasy set before us by the evil one. And by His Word to us today through he prophet Isaiah, God calls us to turn away from that fantasy and look forward to the reality of the deliverance that awaits us at the return of Jesus Christ the right arm of His justice, righteousness and salvation. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail. For Christ is His salvation and Christ is His righteousness -- the reality of Christ that overcame the fantasy of the devil on the cross and said it is finished, is the reality that comes to you today and gives His salvation and righteousness to you. And when He comes again the fantasy will be forever destroyed and His reality will be established forever. Amen. ____________________________________________________________ Liberty University Online Earn a bachelors degree online in Nursing. Get free info now! http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2241/c?cp=JCTAjdu8rssB7ocym9NN5wAAJ1Eta3nV55KFmsSNzPEXRdIvAAQAAAAFAAAAAH_46D4AAAMlAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABSGmAAAAAA=
