Sermon in Rockford 01.02.2015

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us join into thanksgiving and prayer.

Righteous God, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful day of rest, Sunday, which you have given unto us. And we also thank you that you have allowed us together to study your Holy Word and to be encouraged in our weak faith through it and through receiving the blessed meal, Holy Communion.

Dear God, we remember those dear ones who cannot be present here for various reasons. And we pray that you would encourage them in their faith. Uplift their hope. Kindle the fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire of faith in their hearts. And we also ask that you would call and invite those who are wandering in the cold, dark world without hope of heaven.

Dear God, we humbly pray that you would open your word unto us. That you would bless our service. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

So important letter that everybody should know it by heart. So in Romans chapter number 9 from verse 11 to 23 we read, For the children, being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, not of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replieth against God? Shall the thing say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power of the clay, or the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?

What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath, and to make one of the vessels of mercy? Amen. Amen.

This is a difficult question. Why does God save some and destroy the others? It is impossible for us to understand. It's impossible for us to fully see. Did you notice that basically all this text was when Paul was quoting Old Testament, Paul was quoting Bible all the time. I think he himself felt it's so difficult to understand and to touch, that he felt a special need to use much Bible for it. I don't think I've ever seen a Bible text that contains more quotes from the Bible. This whole chapter quotes the Old Testament Bible all the time. Hosea, Moses, Ezekiel, and many portions from there.

And now, this is a question that has been asked me many times. Of course, the first question is, do you think that you are the only ones who will be saved? And Bible speaks very clearly of it. There is only one saving faith. There is only one flock of sheep, meaning the flock of believers. And I would say that the clear picture of this is the analogy that the Bible uses being of one body.

You know your body. If you have, if you pinch your finger or hit your thumb with a hammer, the whole body knows it. Oh, you know very clearly that now I hit myself. And the next person may laugh at you because you look funny and they don't hurt at all. They don't feel the pain. One body feels the pain. And that's it.

And secondly, the body is one entity. One unit. We naturally abhor a thought of a beheaded body. A body without a head. It's so unnatural. It's gross. And Jesus said when he spoke of the body that I am the head. The head and the body belong together. And if somebody wants to find Jesus, the body, the head, they must find the body.

And Jesus said I will be with you always even unto the end of the world. There is only one body of Christ. Christ has no two or three or five bodies. He has one body. And he is connected to that like a head. He is connected to a natural body.

And I understand the plight or the pain of those people who ponder in their small minds that how about those who have never heard about God. I understand that. I don't know why. I can't explain why. But this text speaks about it.

And our text started talking about children, twins, twin brothers who were in the mother's womb. Mother was Rebecca and the father was Isaac. Isaac was 40 when he married Rebecca. It feels like Rebecca was younger. But anyway it says in the Bible that Rebecca was barren and Isaac prayed for her and God heard the prayer and gave them a child. But not only one but two.

When she became pregnant she had twins in her womb. And in the book of Exodus it tells how when the two, when the twins were in the womb they battled. They battled so hard that Rebecca thought that they died. And she asked God why is it so? Why did you give me children and now they're going to kill themselves one another in the womb? And she heard like we heard here in our text. It says, It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

I'll read this first verse again. For the children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth. It was said to her. The elder shall serve the younger.

So God said to Rebecca that the elder shall serve the younger. God said to Rebecca that two nations shall separate from thy womb. Shall come out of thy womb. Two nations. Two different kinds of people. And the elder shall serve the younger.

And of course we know that he was according to the tradition of the time. First born had the blessing of a first born and they also erred double compared to the others. But in this case God said to the mother think about that already before the boys were born. The mother knew that there shall be two kinds of people coming out from her.

What did it say? We spoke just a minute ago that there are only two kinds of people in this world. Believers and unbelievers. She knew this mother cried already for the elder brother before he was born. She knew that this elder brother will not stay in faith.

Have you ever thought I have never thought when a baby was born to me I have never thought that would they be a believer or not. The thought didn't cross my mind. Maybe somebody has thought. I have never thought about that. And when my children those who have given up their faith it has been a pain on that moment. Never thought about that before.

So with this picture God shows unto us that he knew already before they were born that one will give up his faith and the other will stay in faith. They received the same upbringing of course. They were children of the same parents. They lived at the same home where the father spoke to one he spoke to another or the mother spoke to one he spoke to another.

They were even twins. They were the same age. So in a way who could receive more similar upbringing than the twins? They are even the same age. They go through all phases of their puberty and development with the same speed. They are there at the same time. So they for sure heard the same instructions. And one stayed in faith and the other did not. And God knew it before they were born.

And now there is this big word God's election. And it is not of works but it is of him who calls. Have you ever stopped to think? And I especially ask you younger folks, have you ever stopped to think why you are a believer? What's the reason why you can be a believer? Have you ever stopped to think that what was the grace of God that I was born into a believing home? Or you who have received the grace of repentance later in your life that what was the reason why God called me? Why did he call me?

And I know that there are people who struggle with this question. They see so many nice good morally upright people in this world and they ask that how am I a believer or how is someone else who may not be that noble if I dare to say than the someone who is in the unbelief that is God fair or have I misunderstood something?

This is a difficult question. I know that there are many very nice people in this world. Many. But they are not. No one is being saved by their niceness or works. No one. We are not being saved for our works.

I have said sometimes maybe a little bit jokingly but there is a personal truth that I am amazed that we can operate as a congregation because there is so much to be done. Church needs to be cleaned. Well today the communion needs to be prepared. Everything needs to be done. There is so much that happens. How many Sunday school teachers taught this morning? And so on and so forth.

How can we operate because we would be saved without doing anything? We are not being saved for our works. You dear Sunday school teacher you are not being saved for your teaching. So why do you teach? I think I think I know at least partially one reason is that you have been asked and you had no good enough excuse to say no.

But I think that there is a deeper reason for that. Because you are so thankful for this election of God. The God has elected you has chosen you from the sea of this world. And you know that you have not deserved it because you are a sinner.

That's how I feel. I can't understand. I can't say, I can't give any reason why God gave me this precious lot that I can believe my sins forgiven. My many sins forgiven. God has forgiven me every day. He has taken care of me. He has loved me. He has protected me much more than I can know. And He has blessed me with all kinds of gifts.

And then He wants to give me eternal joy in heaven. Why? I don't know. And that's why we love God. That's why you come here on Tuesday evening to the cold, quiet, dark church to do the cleaning. Because you love God. You serve Him.

Whatever we do when we serve one another, we serve God. And God sees it and that brings joy to Him. So let us serve God willingly.

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Is God unrighteous because He saves one and destroys the another? Paul says, God forbid. We are not to think that way. It's not right to think that way.

I read once, I think it's coming to this February Voices I in one devotional article when I was reading it before the publication. There was a thought that really made my heart joyous. One single thought. It said doubts are seeds of unbelief. Think about that.

If we start cultivating and watering the doubts, they will grow. They are seeds of unbelief. God's word is seeds of faith and doubts are seeds of unbelief. It is important that we fight against those evil seeds of unbelief, doubts. That we put them away.

If we are very deeply troubled with doubts, open your mouth and speak about them and ask for forgiveness over them because the absolution, the gospel, is God's power, even over doubts.

And this thought process where Paul is very deep and caused many doubts. And now he takes a few Bible quotes and a few examples from the Bible. He said, For God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

God doesn't explain. And he doesn't have to. He will have mercy on whom he wants to. On whom he decides to. That's it. End of discussion.

Secondly, the scripture says unto Pharaoh, you see how many Bible quotes there are. And this is what we read at Bible study day about Pharaoh that God said before these happened, before the plagues happened, that that is the reason why I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee.

That was why Pharaoh received his high position, that Pharaoh at the time of Egypt was God, nothing less than the God. And God raised the Pharaoh up into his very high position. Egypt was the superpower of the world at the time, when the plague started happening.

God wanted to show his power in Pharaoh. He took Pharaoh down step by step and the whole country, he destroyed the Egypt. And at the Red Sea, he drowned Pharaoh and the whole army, the whole super army was destroyed in one sweep, drowned.

And so, that is how God shows his power. We should have wisdom to see it. And if God has that much power, we should understand that he has also that much wisdom. And he does whatever he wants to. We cannot teach him.

It says, who are you to reply against God, says Paul. And then he takes us to the book of Jeremiah, where Jeremiah was brought into the potter's workplace. See how the potter worked.

Have you ever seen a potter in his work? He takes a lump of clay and puts it or hits it into the center of that I don't know now, what is that thing that goes around? Anyway, he attaches it there and then the table starts going around and he forms you can see it how he forms a clay to become a vessel something and the clay has no will clay has no power it just is there and the potter does whatever he wants to.

If he wants to make it low and big he will if he wants to make it high and more narrow he can do it and if it gets wrecked you know what he does he puts back together and makes a new one a potter does whatever he wants to with clay and that's a picture of God God is a potter and we are clay.

Have you ever wondered why you are like you are? We talked that Maria made an interesting question when we were driving here that does God work does God's word speak about different kinds of people and I told her that yes.

The disciples were once walking on the wayside and there was sitting a blind person and the disciples they wanted to understand why he was born blind and they made if you think about it it's a kind of funny question they asked Jesus who did sin this person or their parents that he was to be born blind.

How could a fetus sin? How could someone sin before birth? So it is impossible that he sinned that he was born blind and why would God give a blind child a blindness to a child because of the sin of the parents?

So Jesus said neither did this person sin nor their parents but that God's mighty works might be shown in him through him.

So why are we different? Because God wants to show his power in us. None has all the gifts everybody has something that they feel I'm missing whether it be sight or hearing or some kind of skill or whatever and God does it intentionally that we would see what we have compared to others and would thank and praise God for that.

We shouldn't be boasting but we should be thankful we are what we are after his wise doing. Let us never look down on someone else because they are different than what we can stand. We are God's doing every one of us.

And now he says shall the thing formed so shall a pot of clay say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus? Think about there is a low and broad piece a vessel of clay and then there's a taller one more narrow one and if maybe this is a foolish example but we think how the example here that the low vessel starts speaking to the potter and says why did you make me this low and broad why didn't you make me high and narrow that I would have wanted to be very narrow and very high.

It's funny a piece of clay doesn't speak well but we do some of us would have wanted to be taller some of us would have wanted to be broader some of us would have wanted to be thinner and so on and so forth.

Who are we to complain against God? Why did you give me this kind of nose? I don't like my nose I would like to have a different kind of nose I hate my nose. Who like their nose by the way? Who are we to complain against God?

And are these the most important matters? We live in the time when this kind of beauty has been elevated almost as like a God who is beautiful must be wise and that is not the truth.

May God give us humble hearts to accept what we are and see the beauty in people's hearts and minds.

You remember when Samuel went to anoint a new king for Israel and he went to Bethlehem to this one home and when he saw the firstborn of the family Samuel he thought oh this is God's anointed.

God said to him do not look unto his power and beauty for God does not look to the outward appearance but God looks into the heart. I have not chosen him and so Samuel had to go all the way down to the last youngest David who was very young and it feels like he was smaller than the others and God chose him.

So God saves whom he wants to.

I have been asked how about the little village in Africa who has never heard about God. We could ask how about the other little village Indonesia or Australia or here and there wherever you know. Does it mean that God has to save everybody if he wants to save one? Who are we to teach God?

And one last example if I have five bucks in my pocket and you tell me how I should use it because you don't like what I'm planning to buy you don't like the candy that I would like to buy and you come and tell me you are not supposed to I don't like it do I have to do with my money that what you want to or can I do with my money what I want to?

You see the logic there if you have money which is your own you can use it as you wish because you own it. Who owns salvation? Who prepared salvation? God. It is he. Why can't he do with his own what he wants to? He says whom he wants to and he can harden whom he wants to.

And that is what I fear. I fear that I will become hardened and lose my faith. I can't trust myself. I spoken about this before I don't trust myself and I find no reason to do it. What I trust is God's word and God's congregation. This is what I need.

I want to be part of this congregation to make it to heaven and that is why I'm so thankful that God even forces me to be here to make me a little pastor in this congregation that I have to be here that I don't go away because he knows that I want to make it to heaven.

Do you want to make it to heaven? Is that your highest wish in your life that you would make it to heaven? If you want to make it to heaven pray to God he has all the power he is a potter and you are clay.

Pray to him that he would make you as he says a vessel of mercy prepared unto glory that he would shape you and form you through the phases trials and difficulties of your life that you would be preserved as a child of God.

We are being formed all our lifetime and then when we are ready formed then we don't live anymore. God forms us through our lives here. May us have wisdom to pray to God that he would keep us in faith.

Dear brothers and sisters uplift your hearts and believe your sins forgiven in Jesus name and precious blood. Be of good cheer God loves you as you are. If you want to believe God knows it and God answers to your heart in your place wherever you sit and listen.

If you open your heart God blesses you so don't listen to the others but listen to yourself believer sins forgiven in Jesus name and precious blood. Amen. Can I also believe my sins forgiven? I want to believe together with you. Amen.