Pastor James Hopkins preached a sermon from the following outline on Wednesday in the First Week of Lent, 3/9/2022. The service was broadcast live on the FLC youtube channel at 7pm. To follow along from home, use the office of Vespers from the Lutheran Service Book (LSB) page 229.
The texts for the sermon were The Ten Commandments, from Luther’s Small Catechism, Galatians 3, and Exodus 20:1-21.
A. What the Law of God Is
a. Will of God
i. Revealed in Creation (Natural Law)
1. Knowledge that there is a God
2. That murder, stealing, etc is wrong
3. That punishment ought to follow transgression
ii. Revealed in the 10 Commandments
1. God makes clear what we would make unclear
2. Wrote in stone (permanent)
3. Teaches what we owe God and what we owe our neighbor
b. Requirement / Demand
i. Don’t have pretend Gods
ii. Pray
iii. Worship
iv. Honor your father
v. Don’t murder
*Every commandment connects back to the first commandment
c. Picture of how life work’s best
i. Honoring father and mother
ii. Not lying about your neighbor
iii. Not desiring what others have
B. Things the Law Does
a. CURB: Helps to control violent outbursts of sin and keeps order in the world
i. We encounter this most clearly in the civil realm
ii. Legislation is morality applied
iii. Someone may not fear God, but they will fear His servant
b. MIRROR: Accuses us and shows us our sin
i. Have you trusted in something or someone other than God?
ii. Have you lusted or thought evil of anyone?
iii. Individual Confession: Examination
c. GUIDE: Teaches us Christians what we should and should not do to live a God-pleasing life. The power to live according to the Law, however, comes from the Gospel
i. “How, then, shall we live?”
1. God gave Adam instruction before the fall into sin
2. Asked because people want to live a God-pleasing life
ii. The Gospel goes beyond the commandments
1. Second Commandment: You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord, your God.
a. “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie or deceive by His Name.”
b. Gospel adds, “But call upon it in every trouble; pray, praise, and give thanks.”
2. Fifth Commandment: You shall not murder
a. We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body…
b. The Christian also desires to do more: “…but help and support him in every physical need.”
C. Things the Law Doesn’t Do
a. Give life
b. Make you righteous
i. “If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.”
c. Save you
i. “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”
d. Give you any aid, quarter, or refuge
i. Pastoral care is not legal advice
ii. Pastoral care is judgment
1. Christ has been found guilty
2. This one is not guilty
D. What Christ Does
a. Christ is born under the law for you
b. Fulfills the Law for you and suffers in your place
c. Declares you not only innocent, but righteous
d. Makes you a child of God
i. “…God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
