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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading with reference to both the Epistle and the Old Testament reading about Abraham and Isaac. You may be seated.
The dictionary defines the word to tempt in this way: to tempt means to entice people or to lure someone by a promise of a reward towards something that’s morally wrong and sinful. James clarified this for us in his epistle. He said, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I’m being tempted by God.’ For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”
Well, temptation is a part of life, and it’s normal, right? No, temptation is not meant to be a part of our life. Again, James makes this clear: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. But the death of which James writes is not physical death. Believers die a physical death; the kind of death of which James is writing is impenitence—not repenting, dying an unbeliever’s death, being damned eternally.
Temptation is a normal part of our life in the sense that we are sinners living in a sinful world, and that is to be expected. Sinners are enticed by sin. And living in a sinful world, being a sinner, what do we do with this temptation? Because we are continually put forth by the world, in our own flesh, and Satan right along to be considered sinners. A temptation.
When the temptation comes, we actually entertain it. Oh, let’s not talk about the ones you don’t struggle with; that’s kind of not even a point right now. Let’s talk about the things that you actually entertain in your head. The things that you consider whether you should say it or not, whether you should do that or not—those kinds of things. Just entertaining it in your head is a sin because you’re weighing the option. Amen. Is it worth the short-term reward, even though there’s a possible consequence? Funny, you don’t think of eternal consequences typically at those moments.
Because whether you make a decision not to sin or to sin, both have consequences. Contemplating it, evaluating it, considering whether you can hide it after you’ve sinned, after you’ve said those pointed words that hurt your loved one, rather than repenting and apologizing. Sin is crouching at your door, was what God said to Cain. It wasn’t that Cain all of a sudden woke up that morning and said, “You know what, today I’m going to kill my brother because I’ve had my belly full.” Cain had considered the sin, not just once or twice, but repeatedly, daily, and did not kill it with repenting. He entertained the thought, questioned it, justified it, and validated it before he actually premeditatively killed his brother.
It is the same with you and me. We may not do a horrific sin like literally taking the life of our brother or our sister, physically our sibling. But boy, have we used harsh words with our brother and our sister, our siblings. We’ve murdered them with our mouth and with our thoughts. Yes, contemplating them, considering them, and even living with—not the eternal consequences, by God’s grace—the temporal consequences.
Well, what about a little white lie? Abraham told a little white lie, didn’t he? He did it not just once. He said, “Well, Sarah’s not really my wife; she’s my sister,” so that he could be prevented from being killed. No, because he did not trust in God’s promise. That’s kind of when you and I have our problems—when we don’t trust in God’s promise. When we’re fearful, when we’re anxious. Because fear and anxiety cause us to snap at people that don’t deserve to be snapped at. Fear and anxiety cause us to beat ourselves up when that’s Satan’s great glory—to see us do such things.
We say, “I trust that God will provide,” and yet look at us fret over our finances at home. And don’t think you can keep it at home, because fretting and having anxiety at home is brought to the church, and we all get to enjoy your anxiety over your fears at home. And we foist that upon one another, don’t we? Do not think we can hide our own sins and our own fears. It comes out one way or the other, and it affects the people sitting next to you in the pew. You are not autonomous or an island. You are connected, and most assuredly, you’re connected at this rail. If it happens at home, it’s going to happen in God’s church, because the church is made up of people’s homes.
We have to repent. To repent means to be sorry for that sin. It means not just to be sorry for that sin, but to be sorry that you’re a sinner who’s prone to sin, who’s got raging desires. Now, that seems a little melodramatic to use the word raging because we can sure cover it up, can’t we? Talking so sweetly to one another and thinking thoughts. We’re very good at it. We’ve practiced a long time, haven’t we?
And do you remember when you were a young boy or girl how you could smell hypocrisy from your teachers and from your parents when they would say one thing and do another and you knew that wasn’t right? And you always reminded your parents of your brothers’ and sisters’ hypocrisy because you could see it and smell it? God can do that still to you. It’s not hard. And we can do that to one another. It’s not hard. We’re not that good. Amen.
Repentance doesn’t just flow from the fact that we’ve been caught. Our spouse points out to us our felicitous inconsistencies and we’re upset. “How dare she? How dare he?” Are we only sorry because finally it’s been pointed out to us? Does contrition and repentance only tie into the fact that we’re aware of it now when we weren’t before? Or is it the fact that someone whom we thought we had fooled with our perfection sees through us?
The glass very clearly and notices how deeply flawed we are. Why else is it that when someone who is a colleague points out to you your inconsistency, it hurts? You take it personally. You become defensive. Why? Because we’ve been caught. And repentance isn’t just for those select sins that you can remind yourself of or think about—the sins that you struggle with and can even put a face or a name to; it’s for all sins. Because if God allowed us to see all of our sinfulness, woe unto us, for we shall be crushed if God did.
Such self-righteousness is called Phariseeism, and it’s the seedbed for impenitence. Impenitence is steadfastly standing and saying, “It’s not my problem; it’s your problem.” Impenitence says, “I’m okay; you’ve got the problem; you need counseling; you need to deal with it, not me.” Impenitence says, “I am not a problem.” That was Adam’s word to God: “You, the woman you sent to me, she’s the one who gave me the fruit, and I ate of it.” All he needed to do was to say, “I’m sorry; you are right, I am a sinner.”
Remember the two men in the temple, the Pharisee and the tax collector? It was the tax collector that was in the corner of the temple, beating his breast and crying out, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” It was the Pharisee who stood in the middle of the temple and justified himself and qualified that he’s not like the tax collector. And you know what? The Pharisee was right. Every aspect of the Pharisee’s outward life was a far cry better than that tax collector’s outward life.
God doesn’t judge your outward life, does he? He also judges your inward heart from which all thoughts and words flow. It was only your Jesus—and only your Jesus—who was driven out into the wilderness for 40 days of temptation. You didn’t. You can maybe think of something you’ve given up for 40 days. How many times did you fudge on it? How many New Year’s resolutions have you broken? How many “I’m going to start doing that” have you not started doing? Or did it for a while, then stopped doing it? All of the best-laid intentions that have carpeted the floor of our life. How many?
He never fudged once, for no other reason than for you. Only your Jesus endured such considerable harassment by Satan, such substantial fear, such applicable anxiety. It was only Jesus who, on a very empty stomach, had to face every day when that sun went down. You know that time of day. It gets dark, and daylight seems a long way away—hours. It’s then, when you and I are left with loneliness, and we’re left to consider ourselves. We contemplate all kinds of things in our head, wrestling with it. He endured it on an empty stomach. You don’t.
And not only such, but you know everything that causes you fear and anxiety is always coupled to darkness. There were literal wild animals around him. He heard the roar of the lion, the growl of the bear, the slithering of the serpent—the howl of the jackal. He heard them, and they appealed to his fears, and he did not succumb to such. He trusted in God’s promise, not like you and me.
It is only your Jesus who did battle with Satan in such a manner that he could not only do battle with him, but he finished it. Unlike you and I, who start something and don’t. He finished it, and he finished it with the worst departure possible—ever. There did he finish it for you—rejected by the Father, dying alone. Be thankful: by God’s grace, you don’t have to die alone. There’ll be some other human being with you. He died alone and not bereft of God, which you’ll never have to die from. You’ll never have to know what it’s like to die apart from God. He did—only your Jesus—for you.
As we sing in that hymn, for us, for us, for us, over and over in that hymn we just sang. Jesus made it very clear: the time is now; it’s fulfilled now; the kingdom of God is at hand now—not going to be; it’s at hand now. Now is the day of salvation. His kingdom, which comes to you now, you heard through my voice speaking his word to you.
His kingdom, which has come to you now, you heard in, “I forgive you your sins,” through my voice. His kingdom has been coming to you through this sermon, which is his word—use my voice. You want to live in a kingdom that’s ruled by grace, don’t you? You don’t want to live in a kingdom that’s ruled by the law. If you lived in a kingdom ruled by the law, you shall be damned, and there is no hope. Abandon all.
He rules. He lived in the kingdom of the law for you, that you may always live in the kingdom of forgiveness, compassion, and mercy. He lived that kingdom of the law to fulfill that law for you, to dot every “I” you have avoided dotting, and to cross every “T” you have been too lazy to cross, so that you would live in a kingdom of grace. Ha! When we live according to the law, aren’t we quick to point out everybody else’s problems? And living according to grace, we give forgiveness. We give forgiveness to undeserved sinners.
God provided for Abraham in that ram caught in that thicket. Because there’s nothing that Abraham could have done to have made God happy. That was a picture of the sacrifice of the Lamb. Because there’s nothing that you can do to offer or sacrifice that will make God happy. That’s living in a kingdom of the law. He lived that; he was sacrificed for that; he was substituted for you. That you may live in this kingdom of grace and forgiveness.
Hear his words: His kingdom is at hand now. Live in it by grace and not by the law. But behold the one who did so that you may have confidence in your grace in his kingdom.
In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
