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Luther for the Busy Man
Hosted by Martin Luther · EN
Luther for the Busy Man is a new project brought to you by the Free Lutheran Bible College and Seminary, in cooperation with Ambassador Publications, the publishing arm of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations. Listen to daily meditations by Martin Luther himself, following the church calendar and read to you by Dave Ryerson.
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Week of Pentecost - Friday
May 2900:03:39Tap to summarizeTHE WEEK OF PENTECOST - FRIDAYLESSON: EPHESIANS 4:25-32If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Galatians 5:25There must always be a mixture or blending in us: we must feel both the Holy Spirit and our sin and imperfection. If there is to be improvement in us, we must resemble a sick person in the hands of a physician. Therefore, let no one conclude as follows: this person has the Holy Spirit; therefore, he or she must be quite strong; bring forth the most precious works and never show any signs of weakness. Not so! The Gospel is not a proclamation for everyone.It is beyond measure a sweet proclamation, but if it encounters raw and acid hearts, it does not achieve its purpose. In this case, men become only more insolent and frivolous in the belief that there is really no need for them to struggle against sin. They have no real knowledge of sin or misfortune. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is given to no one but to those who are truly sorrowful because of their sins and who are afraid of the consequences. Among such people, the Gospel can go to work usefully and fruitfully.The gift of the Gospel is such an exalted and noble gift that God does not throw it to dogs. Even if the latter come by chance upon the Gospel and hear it preached, they simply devour it without knowing what they are devouring. For successful work, the Holy Spirit must encounter hearts which feel and realize their sinful lusts, and which know that by nature they are in a hopeless situation. There must be a struggle in the heart if the Spirit is to come with His help. No one should imagine that things can take another course here.SL 11:1027 (23)PRAYER: Heavenly Father, You have implanted desires in our hearts so great that only You can bring them to pass. Strengthen us by Your Holy Spirit that we may successfully complete all that we have begun in Your name and in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.
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Week of Pentecost - Thursday
May 2800:03:32Tap to summarizeTHE WEEK OF PENTECOST - THURSDAYLESSON: ROMANS 7:13-20Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. Romans 8:26In connection with the Holy Spirit and His work, it is always necessary to maintain a certain reserve, so that we do not approach the Holy Spirit with an importunity that amounts to arrogance and a joyfulness that is almost levity.Some people are so filled with the Spirit that they become secure and imagine themselves to be on the threshold of perfection. A pious Christian is still flesh and blood like other men, except that he deeply deplores his sin and evil lust. He has experiences which he would rather forget. Unbelievers take little account of sin and do not allow it to bother them unduly.The important thing here is not merely the experience of evil lust and fighting against it. We must not allow our feelings and experience to determine the issue. We must not conclude that all is lost because we still feel our sins. We must keep on working at our sins every day of our lives and permit the Holy Spirit to continue His work in us. We must also have the earnest desire to get rid of our sins. This desire never ceases in believers.Such sighs penetrate so deeply that they reach a level where they are beyond words (Romans 8:26). But they have a precious auditor, the Holy Spirit Himself. He can fully appreciate all this sighing and comfort the conscience from which it comes.SL 11:1026 (21)PRAYER: Hear our sighs, O Holy Spirit, Comforter and Counsellor, and keep working on us with Your purposes of grace and salvation, in and through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.
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Week of Pentecost - Wednesday
May 2700:02:58Tap to summarizeTHE WEEK OF PENTECOST - WEDNESDAYLESSON: PHILIPPIANS 3:12-16Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Philippians 3:12We should learn to understand that a man who has received the Holy Spirit does not necessarily become a perfect Christian immediately, experiencing no further trouble from the Law or from sin. Nor is the Spirit’s presence always immediately evident from a spotless purity.We do not teach that the Holy Spirit has already fully performed His office and completed it but simply that He has begun to carry out His office, that His work is beginning to run its course and continually developing without ceasing.You will never find a single person who is without sin and sorrow, full of righteousness and joy, and so perfect that he is completely self-sufficient, serving everyone in perfect freedom. Scripture clearly tells us what the work and office of the Holy Spirit is, to save men from sin and its terrors, but that office is still not fully accomplished. Every Christian will at times feel sin in his heart and experience the terrors of death. He will be subject to all the assaults which assail other sinners.Unbelievers are held so fast in their sins that they no longer feel them. Believers, however, do feel them, but they have a helper, the Holy Spirit, who comforts them and strengthens them. Had the Spirit completed His office, this would not be the case.SL 11:1025 (19-20)PRAYER: We beseech You, O Lord, to grant us the comforting presence and aid of Your Holy Spirit, that, whatever by His teaching we know to be our duty, we may by His grace and mercy be able to perform, through Christ our Lord. Amen.Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.
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Week of Pentecost - Tuesday
May 2600:03:03Tap to summarizeTHE WEEK OF PENTECOST - TUESDAYLESSON: MATTHEW 13:44-45“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name … will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:26You will know who the Holy Spirit is if you know why He was given and what His office is. He it is who applies the treasure of Christ and all that He has to us—Christ who is given to us and proclaimed to us through the Gospel. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to fix this treasure in our hearts as our very own possession.When He has done this and you experience this treasure in your heart, it follows that you will have to ask yourself: If the real issue here is that your works count for nothing and that the Holy Spirit must work all this in you, why should you continue to flog yourself with works of the Law?All human works and the Law are no longer of any significance here, not even the law of Moses, for a man who has the treasure of Christ in his heart is above all law. The Holy Spirit teaches him better than all books, so that he understands the Scripture better than we can explain it to him and of himself does all that God wants of him. The Law can make no demands on him. The only real use of books is that one can use them to demonstrate in what manner the Holy Spirit teaches men.Our faith must never become a mere private matter which we keep to ourselves; it must burst forth. To establish and prove our faith, we must have Scripture. Take care, then, that you do not regard the Holy Spirit as a law-giver but as the one who abrogates the Law and sets men free, so that not a letter of it remains in force against you as far as your salvation is concerned.SL 11:1025 (17-18)PRAYER: Come Holy Spirit, Comforter and Counselor, with all Your gifts of grace in Christ and dwell in our hearts in such a way that we always have a confident assurance and remain free men, in and through Christ our Savior. Amen.Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.
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Week of Pentecost - Monday
May 2500:03:12Tap to summarizeTHE WEEK OF PENTECOST - MONDAYLESSON: EPHESIANS 2:19-22“When the Counsellor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me.” John 15:26In what way does the Holy Spirit change the heart and make it new? What means does He use to take hold of the heart? He does it by proclaiming and preaching the Lord Jesus Christ, as Christ Himself declares in John’s Gospel, “When the Counsellor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me.”We have often heard that this Gospel, which God allows to be preached in the world and proclaimed to everyone, teaches that no one can become righteous before God through the Law, but that the Law only makes the situation worse for every man. Therefore, God sent His beloved Son into the world to die and shed His blood for the world and to demonstrate that men cannot destroy their sins and get rid of them by their own strength and works.For the proclamation of this Gospel, something additional is needed. I do not necessarily believe this Gospel simply by hearing it preached. For this purpose, God has given us the additional gift of His Holy Spirit who impresses this Gospel upon our hearts, so that it sticks to the heart and lives in the heart. In the work of Christ, there is the whole treasure of salvation, but it is not necessarily distributed and applied.If we are to enjoy this treasure, the Holy Spirit must come to us and put this treasure into our hearts and awaken faith in this treasure in our hearts so that it becomes our very own possession. This is the special work of the Holy Spirit.SL. 11:1024 (15-16)PRAYER: Almighty and merciful Lord, in the gifts of Your Holy Spirit You have given us a sure pledge that Christ’s work of salvation belongs to us. May Your Holy Spirit always continue to bear witness with our spirit that we are Your children and heirs of Your kingdom, in and through our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.
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Day of Pentecost - Sunday
May 2400:03:27Tap to summarizeTHE DAY OF PENTECOST - SUNDAYLESSON: JOHN 14:23-31The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2On the day of Pentecost, when the disciples of Christ were all together in one place, the Holy Spirit came upon them and filled them. Before this joyful event, they sat in deep gloom, fear, and sorrow. The Spirit gave them cloven tongues of fire, enkindled them so that they became bold, preached freely in groups, and were afraid of nothing.From all this, you see quite clearly that it is not the office of the Holy Spirit to write books or to set up laws but to abolish all this in the interests of freedom. The Holy Spirit is a God who does His writing in the heart, making it burn. He supplies a man with new courage so that he becomes joyful before God and begins to love Him and then serves his fellowman with a joyful heart.To set forth the Holy Spirit in this light is to preach the Holy Spirit correctly. Do not believe anyone who sets forth the Spirit in a different light. If the Spirit comes in this way, you see that He annuls the letter of the Law and wants to free men from sins and the Law. Indeed, He wants to make it quite clear that we have no further use of the Law and that He rules inwardly in our hearts without the Law.SL 11:1023 (14)PRAYER: Renew our spirits by Your Holy Spirit, heavenly Father, and draw our hearts to Yourself in Him. Let us not serve You as slaves, with a spirit of bondage, but with freedom and gladness as Your true sons, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:272-287.
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Week of Ascension - Saturday
May 2300:03:31Tap to summarizeTHE WEEK OF ASCENSION - SATURDAYLESSON: 1 THESSALONIANS 1:2-10“And you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.” John 15:27“When you have become sure and certain through the Holy Spirit who has witnessed to you, then first and foremost you will bear witness to Me.”This is Christ’s conviction about His disciples. He had, of course, chosen them as His apostles; they had heard His words and doctrine; they had seen His works and His life. All this would be very important to their proclamation of Christ. But, in addition, they still needed the witness of the Holy Spirit, or else they would achieve nothing.Conscience is always too weak to offer effective resistance to sin. There is no sin so small that conscience can really stand up against it, even such a matter, for example, as laughing in church. Likewise, conscience can achieve very little when death assails us. We must look elsewhere for help to supply courage to a timid and despondent conscience, so that it never gives up, although it may be heavily laden with sins.This needed help, like the One who promises it, must be almighty help so that the timid conscience, which beforehand was previously terrified by the sound of a driven leaf (Leviticus 26:36), is no longer afraid before all the devils of hell. And the conscience, which was previously so sensitive that it could not even endure laughter, is now quite able to stand up against any number of sins.SL 11:997 (13)PRAYER: Make us strong, bold, and brave confessors of our faith, heavenly Father, through the witness of the Counsellor, whom You and Your Son have promised to send us, in Jesus’ name and for His sake. Amen.Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:244-254.
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Week of Ascension - Friday
May 2200:03:03Tap to summarizeTHE WEEK OF ASCENSION - FRIDAYLESSON: 1 PETER 2:7-10“He will bear witness to me.” John 15:26If the Holy Spirit is in your hearts, He will speak through you and make you sure and certain that the Gospel is the truth. From this conviction will also flow your witness to the Gospel.What is the Gospel? It is the testimony concerning Christ, that He is the Son of God and the Savior, besides whom there is no other Savior.This is also what Peter means in his first epistle when he reminds us that we are “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). We have been chosen by God to proclaim Christ and to make Him known. Such testimony is certainly necessary, even though it always arouses the wrath of the world. The cross follows such testimony or witness.There will be insurrections against the Gospel. Princes and lords will rise in anger, and all that is great in the world will oppose the Gospel. The world always finds it hard to listen to the Gospel and to tolerate its proclamation. Hence, the Gospel is always a proclamation that arouses hostility. When Christ and faith in Christ is proclaimed as the one source of salvation, the wisdom of the world is placarded as tomfoolery and nonsense. One of these must give way. So, the world rejects the Gospel and remains as it was.SL 11:996 (10-11)PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, grant us the courage and faith to witness clearly and consistently to the faith awakened in our hearts by Your gift of the Spirit of truth. If our witness involves us in a cross, Your Counsellor is greater than all and every opposition. Keep Him ever at our side, for Your name’s sake. Amen. Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:244-254.
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Week of Ascension - Thursday
May 2100:03:33Tap to summarizeTHE WEEK OF ASCENSION - THURSDAYLESSON: EPHESIANS 1:15-23“Even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father … will bear witness to me.” John 15:26This amounts to saying: He who will comfort you is almighty and Lord over all things. What can any creature do against us when the Creator is at our side? Behold, how great is the comfort of the Holy Spirit! Let all the enemies come on in full array; if the Holy Spirit is our protector and supporter, no danger threatens us.In his first epistle, John says, “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20). He also says in the next chapter, “Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).The Lord here says to us, “I will send the Spirit to you so that nothing may harm you.” Is this not a great consolation? Who will not be bold and courageous after such an assurance?And the Lord calls Him “the Spirit of truth.” Where the Spirit is and where the Spirit comes, there is basic and absolute truth with no falsehood or hypocrisy. The Spirit never plays the hypocrite. But where the Spirit is absent, you will find utter hypocrisy and falsehood. That is also why men fall away when battle threatens; they do not have the Spirit of truth.SL 11:995 (9)PRAYER: Thanks and praise be to You, dear Lord, for the precious gift of the Counsellor, the Spirit of truth, and all we are and enjoy by His presence with us. Keep Him ever close to us and us with Him, in Your name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:244-254.
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Week of Ascension - Wednesday
May 2000:03:48Tap to summarizeTHE WEEK OF ASCENSION - WEDNESDAYLESSON: ROMANS 15:13-21“When the Counsellor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father …” John 15:26So that we do not become despondent and lose heart, Christ here assures us that He will send us a Counsellor or Comforter, and a very unique one at that, one who is almighty. He here calls the Holy Spirit a Counsellor or Comforter.Although our sins and the fear of death at times make us fell, timid, and rather crestfallen, the Spirit comes to us and touches our heart and says, “Wake up and get into things!” He inspires us with courage, speaking to us in a friendly and comforting manner, so that we do not despair in the face of death but rush into the fray as though we had ten necks to risk and say, “Although I do have sins, they are no longer of any real account for me; and even if I had still more of them and they made a common assault on me, I still have the confidence that they can no longer harm me.”Not that we should no longer be sensible of our sins, for the flesh must be sensible of them. But the Spirit overcomes and suppresses timidity and fear and guides us safely through such experiences, as He has the power to do. Jesus also says of the Spirit here, “I will send Him to you from the Father.” “The Father is the initial person; I am the Son, and the Holy Spirit comes from us.”These three Persons are one entity and essence, of equal power and might, as He explains even better in the words that follow.SL 11:995 (7-8)PRAYER: Let us always enjoy the comfort, consolation, and power of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom You, Lord Jesus, send us from the Father in Your name and for Your sake. Amen. Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:244-254.
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