First Sermon delivered by H.A. Preus at the Spring Prairie Church

August 10, 1851, the 8^th Sunday after Trinity

Jesus, I long for Thy blessed communion,

Yearning for Thee fills my heart and my mind;

Draw me from all that would hinder our union,

May I to Thee, my beginning, be joined;

Show me more clearly my hopeless condition;

Show me the depth of corruption in me,

So that my nature may die in contrition,

And that my spirit may live unto Thee!

O that I only might learn consecration,

Make full surrender of heart day by day!

O that my Jesus might be my whole portion,

I am, alas! all too far, far away.

Jesus, whose voice full of love's gentle warning,

Gladly I follow, O give me Thy hand,

That in pure holiness, faith's bright adorning,

Like a true Christian I walk to the end.1

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves." Matthew 7:15.

WHAT IS GOD'S WILL WITH RESPECT TO HIS CHURCH AND HIS SERVANT?

Dear congregation! Fellow redeemed brothers and sisters in Christ!

Christian friends!

Two thousand years have soon passed since a Man whose name was Wonderful and the Prince of Peace, from whose lips flowed words like milk and honey and who spoke the words we have heard read, stepped forward at the River Jordan. What was it really which drew people to him every time he came into their region? What was it which made crowds flock around him from far and near and in silent anticipation listen to the blessed words which came from his mouth, to the kind voice which spoke to them? What was it which made many of them who had come to him never want to leave him but rather to forsake everything they had and to follow him and to cling to him with all their soul throughout their lives?

We know what, friends! It was a not seldom deep, earnest need, a strong and inner yearning which did not allow them any peace but which urged them on. It was because they believed they would find in him, and many times they did find it, what their hearts had desired in hours of pain, that which they knew made up for all their shortcomings and which had healing in itself for the sicknesses, the evil which gnawed at their innermost heart. It was because they had to acknowledge that he did not speak as the scribes but as one who had authority and because the words which he spoke were like heavenly manna for their hungry souls, and poured soothing balm into their wounds and brought a peace hitherto unknown to them, and salvation to their troubled, fearful hearts. Yes, my friends, because they felt that the serpent of sin was devouring life at its root and that the angel of death had laid his hand upon them, that's why they fled to him in the pain of despair as the Rock of their salvation and their source of blessedness! That's why they listened to those words of life which we wonderfully refreshed them and which, when they accepted them in faith, let them feel the powers of life surge through them, chase the angel of death away and bring life into everything which before was dead. Then they recognized that the Lord was a gracious God who does not desire the death of sinners but rather that they should live, and that for their sakes he revealed himself as a man, since he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to the world.

This Jesus Christ, we know, left the world with his visible presence only a few years after he had appeared.

Did the grace and mercy of God stop then with that? Was his longsuffering over and afterward did he only turn the face of his anger toward his creatures? Or did the Savior who was those people's comfort and hope and true life go home to his heavenly dwelling because perhaps following generations did not need him but could walk in love and true fear of God, as before the face of the Lord without him? No, certainly not, brethren! None of that was the case! There is still a sigh going through all nature and there is a hunger in the whole creation even if they do not all want to feel it and yearn after getting it stilled, but neither do they want to languish, because death clings to us all, because we have all sinned, because we are all conceived in sin and no one is righteous, no, not one, apart from him who was man and also God. In him there was no sin. Neither has God turned away in wrath from any of his creatures who cry out to him for help in sincerity of heart. No, God is still the same loving Father who sincerely pities and who is merciful to his creatures who have fallen from him but who implore him again and again for grace. His Word stands firm that he wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

And that his Word was not an empty sound, but powerful and alive, as is every word which comes from his mouth, that he has also shown through a fact evident to everyone who wants to see, evident also to this very day. Because just for our sake, for our righteousness and salvation, Christ walked through the gates of death and sat down at the right hand of the Father, as he says himself, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you," and "he shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." Jo. 16:7.14.

And the Comforter did come. The Spirit of the Lord was poured out upon Israel's sons and daughters as the prophet Joel had foretold. He was poured out upon the apostles on that great Pentecost festival so that in the fire and power of the Holy Spirit they prophesied and spoke in various languages.

And the fact is, witnessed clearly and distinctly for the world by God's grace and love in Christ, that on that day the first congregation of the Lord in the New Testament was established, the Christian Church was founded, a divine agency for people's salvation and life in him through their sharing in Jesus Christ.

Yes, thanked and praised be his mercy eternally! Through his church he lets the Word of salvation about him who is the way, the truth and the life, go out through his servants throughout the heathen world. Through his church he grafts the wild branch into the true vine. Through Holy Baptism he makes us members of it, members of the body whose head is Christ. In his church he makes us partakers in our dear Savior's body and blood which were given into death and shed for us for the remission of our sins, and he gives us eternal life.

Oh, Christian friends! has not this fact been generally known among us? Has not his kingdom, his church, come also to us here in this foreign land? Has he in some measure left himself without a witness to us? Or, does not this very day bear an incontestable testimony of God's singular, unchanging love to us, this day, when he sends you one of his servants, when he offers you rich, blessed words through me whom he has called to proclaim his pleasing will and the rich grace which is given us in Jesus Christ our Lord?

Indeed we had to be ungrateful then, both you and I, if in this hour we did not feel our hearts burning within us and filled with the fire of love for him, the Giver of all good things, if we did not give God the glory due him, and turn to him with praise and thanks and heartfelt prayer that we may preserve his grace and that he will be with us now and always with his rich blessing.

Yes, Lord! Fear and anxiety strike me in this hour when I consider what an all-important calling you have placed me in, what precious goods you have given me to administer. Shame and holy trembling do I feel, that I, a man sinful and frail, that I, dust and ashes as I am, have not been rejected by you but have been placed as a shepherd over your flock to lead and to watch over it according to your holy will. How-ever, at the same time I am permeated with a holy joy in the Lord over the fact that you have deigned to give me so glorious a gift of grace, making me steward over the good things of your house. O. that you then also, O God, will preserve the gift of grace which is given me! O, that I, O that we all might be found to have been faithful stewards when you call us to give an account!

The Lord's words to Peter speak earnestly to me, "Feed my sheep!" Lord, you know that I love you (Jo. 20). I have sworn to feed your flock with the food which nourishes unto eternal life. Lord, give me wisdom and understanding to do that! Let the light of your truth shine in this congregation so that all its members may see your works and praise you, so that more and more your kingdom may come to us, your will more and more be done among us!

Yes, Christians! It's about the will of the Lord our God being done among us all. May all our work be directed to that.

My first words to you, fellow redeemed in Christ! shall therefore be an answer to the question:

WHAT IS THE WILL OF GOD FOR HIS CHURCH AND FOR ITS SERVANT?

Jesus tells us the will of God for all of us in general in the words just before today's text, "Enter in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there. Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leads unto life, and few there be that find it." Mt. 7:13.14.

It is through the strait gate and along the narrow way that God wants us to walk because it leads to life. O, how loving is not our Lord! You see, it's life, true life, which consists in fellowship with him in which he wants us to have a part. O, that we all, though, would consider our own welfare and walk this path! But alas, unfortunately, most people are going down the broad way to destruction instead. Let us guard against walking in their footsteps. Let us do the will of God and walk the way which truly is narrow, but which has so good an end. But where do we find this way, this gate?

"I am the way, the truth and the life," Christ says, and in another place, "I am the door of the sheep." Jo. 14:6; 10:7.

Christ therefore is t he way, the door for us. It is the will of God. We should follow Christ. Through him, only in fellowship with him, can we obtain a share of life.

But can there then be talk about the fact that the way can be so narrow and the gate so strait, so difficult to get through regardless of where it leads, since he says that there are many who are walking on the way which leads to destruction? Can it then be so big a thing to follow Christ?

Yes, friends, it is certainly hard work, yes, impossible, for the natural man! It first becomes possible for us through the power of God when through the Spirit's working in the Word and Sacraments we are born again to a new life and become a new creation. But even for them who are converted and have received another Spirit and another power in this way, even for them it is difficult to follow Christ. The old Adam with all his natural affections and lusts has to be killed so that the second Adam, Christ, can grow within us. The weeds and the hypocrisy of the times must be pulled up by the roots so that they do not grow up and choke the good growth through the heat of the world's sun. How much pain for the natural heart, how many bitter hours will it not cause you, and yet it must be done if you want to walk the way which is Christ. If Christ is to be everything for you, if you are going to abandon yourself to him completely and because of his atonement in your stead expect grace from God and forgiveness for your sin, then you must forsake the world with its lusts and temptations, the devil and all his works, yes, forsake father and mother if it has to be so, for the sake of Christ in order to remain with him.

Yes, just as we could then for the first time grasp Christ and in true faith in our justification appropriate to ourselves what he has done and suffered for us when in the acknowledgement of the greatness of our sins and our complete inability to help ourselves, we are brought to doubt ourselves and with a contrite spirit and a broken heart bow before the throne of grace, just as in that way the way can be said to be narrow when a soul comes to Christ, that will also be the way if a person is to remain with Christ and follow him. Many a cross will stand in the way before us on this walk of ours, but we must take them upon our shoulders and follow Christ our Cross-bearer. Many a suffering will befall us, but we must bear it patiently and not succumb to the burden but seek comfort and strength through looking to him who suffered so much for us.

We will be exposed to many temptations, many of them. In our Gospel for today Jesus warns against false prophets, false teachers who will try to bring us to fall away from the faith in which we were baptized, the covenant we have concluded with God. They will come clothed in the garb of light but hiding the fiery darts of the wicked one which they want to hurl at us. Then we have to resist, armed with the shield of faith. They will come in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves who will try to tear the flock apart. They will promulgate false doctrines through which they deceive many people. "Beware of them," says Christ.

Many of these false prophets have the appearance of godliness but they deny its power. They proclaim a Christ, but not the Christ we preach, he, who became flesh and died for us, and who is revealed to us in God's holy Word. Their's is another Christ, a false Christ, because they make him out to be a servant of sin. True, they are constantly using words such as "Spirit, faith, justification," but they do not want to hear about the Spirit's true fruit of faith, which is sanctification. True enough, they can boast about faith but they don't want to exert themselves to improve their lives, just as if it would do to have faith and not at the same time be permeated by love for their Savior, his Word and Sacraments, and love for the brethren. Beware of such people! They can easily deceive us. But they cannot fool God. The words apply to them, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven," (Mt. 7:23).

Others of these prophets try to set up another rock of salvation than ours, who is Christ. Pharisees in mind and appearance, they urge good works a great deal and try to fulfill every letter of the Law, forgetting its Spirit and fulfillment which is love, and without looking to the source from which power is to be drawn. Like monks of the Middle Ages they demand abstinence from the enjoyment even of the good things which God has given to people to accept with thanksgiving. Instead of using the gifts of God with thankfulness toward the Giver, as those who do not misuse them, they drag out their lives in sluggish dullness, wailing constantly. They set up a righteousness of the Law and demand keeping of the Commandments without asking about the frame of mind from which the deed receives its worth, without complying with the Father's will to believe in him and the One he has sent. Only where faith has taken root will a good work sprout. "A corrupt tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree which does not produce good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire" Mt. 7:18.19. So will it also go with them if they do not turn from their way of destruction and seek God's mercy in Christ. Therefore, beware of false prophets! Who can enumerate the errors they bring? How seductive do they not sound! Don't forget that it has to do with your soul.

You see, it was the will of God for us all and for every individual in particular, each in our situation, that we should believe that Christ has become our Reconciler, he and no one else; that we should consider as an accursed thing everyone who proclaims salvation in someone else or preaches another Christ than he who was preached by the apostles.

My friends, if we do the will of God in this which is the chief thing, then we will neither forget nor neglect that which God requires of the congregation or its servant in the individual things as they relate to one another.

Let us never forget that when God has gathered his church here, that he has gathered it around his Word and Sacraments. We are stewards over them. And more than anything else, faithfulness is required of stewards. We should show faithfulness in hearing the Word and in living according to it. "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves," Ja. 1:22. God demands faithfulness of the hearer toward the Word as God's Word. God demands faithfulness of his servant so that he does not add to or take from it, does not preach himself, but Christ and him crucified, that he divides the Word rightly by chastising the stubborn but comforting the downcast, fearlessly without respect of persons, without wanting to rule over the Lord's flock, knowing that he is not the congregation's lord but its servant, but also God's servant to whom he is someday to give account of his stewardship.

Let us never forget that the church of God is to be built up not on the world's wisdom, not on any foundation which man can lay, but on the foundation of the apostles and prophets of which Jesus Christ is the Chief Cornerstone.

But for that reason we should also remember that we are members one of another and take Paul's admonition to heart, "You should walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." (Ep. 4:1-6).

O, dear Christian congregation! Let us always ask God for that for our congregation! Then the preaching of the Word is not going to be in vain. Then our work together here in the Lord's vineyard is going to be to his glory and our good. Then we will also live as his children in faith in our Savior Jesus Christ, in love and forbearance toward one another and with a blessed hope in our hearts.

Be then our workday short or long, it will be blessed. Let the way even be wearisome and narrow, it leads to a good and blessed end.

If you will your Savior honor,

Then to Him your life do offer.

May it be our motto then: "My Father works hitherto, and I work." Jo. 5:17. "I must work his work." Jo. 9:4. And to that end, O God, grant your grace for the sake of Christ! Amen.

Mindeblade til Jubelfesten paa Spring Prairie, 1851-1901, pages 6-12. (Souvenir of the Jubilee Festival at Spring Prairie)