More Luther Sermons

By Pastor Marshall

More volumes of Luther’s writings are being translated. The latest is volume 77 – sermons newly translated from the 1544 Summer Postil or collection. Among my favorite passages are the following – make use of them as your prepare for the 500th Anniversary of the reformation in 2017: “[The] Psalter [is] the finest and most precious prayer book and hymnal of them all” (9); “[This] cannot be any trifling wrath of God when we hear that no other sacrifice can stand up to this or compensate for sin except the only Son of God” (19); “[Our] old hide must be thoroughly salted and afflicted so that we cry out and call for help, and so stretch and expand ourselves both through internal and external suffering that we may come up to and attain… joy and comfort from [Christ]” (25–26); “[When] you feel that it is too hard for you to believe, do this: fall on your knees, tell Him your inability, and say with the apostles: ‘O Lord, increase our faith’” (32); “[Foolish] and inexperienced spirits…. think that faith is nothing other than having heard and knowing the story and history, and then they imagine that they have at once and thoroughly understood and believed everything the Gospel says about Christ when they have heard and read it once, and that they no longer need to learn and believe it. This is nothing other than a loose, futile thought, which is proved when they must confess that this knowledge of the history lies in their hearts still, cold, and idle, like a bare, empty husk, without moisture or strength, neither benefiting nor helping them, neither strengthening nor improving them” (46); “We should not dream about a church on earth in which there are no defects or errors in faith” (49); “Scripture is the kind of book which requires not only reading and preaching but also the… revelation of the Holy Spirit…. This revelation also requires true students who want to be taught and instructed…. [For this] is the kind of doctrine which makes our wisdom into folly and puts out the eyes of our reason, if it is to be believed and understood. It does not come from human wisdom like other teachings…. That is why it is impossible to grasp this revelation with our reason…. All heresies from the beginning have arisen from reason…. Only the godly, simple people who hold to this course and say, ‘God said it; therefore, I will believe it,’ can grasp and understand [it]” (51–52); “So [the Holy Scriptures] are only understood when the Holy Spirit comes, preaches, and reveals them to people who believe with simple hearts and persist in them. Then it begins to taste good and to provide its juice and strength, so that they must say, ‘This does it; it enlightens the heart and lights a fire there’” (55); “[Because the Bible] is called God’s Word, it is a completely different thing (even if it is spoken through the mouth of a man or even through the mouth of a donkey―Numbers 22:28–30) than what is called ‘man’s word’” (63); “Christ… can help no one except those who perceive sin and death” (71); “Whoever has not tasted the bitter does not relish the sweet” (73); “We must not be troubled and frightened by [the fact] that no one wants… the Gospel” (73); “To know the weak Christ who hangs on the cross and lies in death requires greater understanding” (75); “[Believers] should always strive to become stronger” (76); “God’s way of dealing with us is that He first frightens those who are not yet frightened” (80); “The devil depicts a false Christ or even disguises himself in His form” (83); “Christ paid for our sin through His blood and dying, and reconciled God” (89); “God wants all people… to learn to know themselves” (93); “Who would believe that I, with such a wonderfully respectful life (even if I am without faith), merit only God’s wrath” (93); “God cannot be… gracious to sin… unless sufficient payment is made for it” (96); “Christ requires of everyone that we… regard [his] preaching [as] divine, unchangeable truth” (98); “To confess does not mean… to make a long list [of our] sins, but to… confess that we are sinners” (100); “It is not only useless but also harmful and damnable to hear about the glorious and blessed comfort of the resurrection if… nothing more follows from it than does among those who have never heard about it” (103); “If we are Christians,… we should be dead – and yet we ought still to live, or else we are not Christians” (104); “It has now become very common for people to do whatever they desire, [expecting not] to be rebuked for it” (108); “No one can list how many subtle tricks greed can find” (109); “The world… cannot tolerate that you believe in Christ” (111); “A Christian has to struggle and contend with himself so that he retains the Spirit and the… new, divine life” (112); “Although the words [of salvation] are very simple,… yet in the ears of all men they are completely unusual and unintelligible” (113); “A second birth is necessary, which is better than that of all people” (114); “The world…. is nothing other than a great stable full of unbelieving, shameful, evil people” (116); “A Christian must be a different man than a reasonable heathen and an intelligent, worldly man” (117); “How could it enter into a Christian’s heart – if he believes he has received an inexpressibly great treasure through God’s Son – to leave his neighbor in even trifling need when he could easily help him?” (118); “No one knows at what time and hour God will touch and enlighten his or another person’s heart” (121); “Reason… knows nothing about how to… take comfort in time of need” (128); “Each Christian… should listen to the pastor or preacher not as a man, but as God Himself” (141); “Unfortunately, people now would like to…. give nothing to the ministers who teach God’s Word purely and faithfully [and so] starve their pastors out and get rid of them” (143); “The more God shows… the godless, condemned world… grace and favor, the more unthankful and worse it becomes” (147); “There is no middle ground at all with the human heart: either it is so hard like wood and stone that it cares nothing at all about God or the devil, or, on the other hand, it is despondent, fickle, and despairing” (148); “Since [Christians] are freed from sin and healed, we must not again defile ourselves with sins” (169); “Everything Moses instituted and ordered with the priesthood, temple, and worship should be finished and done with…. This surely is knocking the bottom out of the barrel, cutting the head off of all Judaism, depriving it of all it glory” (174); “By nature the sheep is more weak and defenseless than all other animals and must live by the protection, defense, and help of another” (179); “This one doctrine [is] the chief point of our salvation… that Christ alone rescues us through His death from the power of death and the devil” (187); “Many have Baptism… and nevertheless are evil and not Christians” (188); “In short, nothing that is in us or can be done by us makes us Christian” (189); “In their heads… mad, arrogant saints and foolish sophists… picture a church which must have only perfect, heavenly saints, without any blemish, flaw, or offense – which cannot be in this life” (192); “Christians should neither settle down as if they would remain here nor… want to avoid the worldly estates and offices, flee, and run out of the world…. We should… remain together… as God has bound us together, and serve one another. Yet we are to regard this life as… a pilgrimage or journey, on which we spend the night together in an inn, eat, drink, and then must travel on” (197); “A Christian deals with the temporal in such a way that he does not lose the eternal; rather, he leaves the temporal behind and forgets it and always stretches for the eternal as the goal set before him” (200); “Holy Scriptures are a different book than human speech and writings. Saint Gregory said it well:… Scripture is the kind of water in which a large elephant must swim, but a lamb can walk through on foot. It speaks clearly and brightly enough for the common people but, on the other hand, so profoundly to the wise and very intelligent that they cannot comprehend it” (205-206); “God mingles and mixes things on earth so that those who should by right rejoice must have much suffering and sorrow, while, on the other hand, those who should be sorrowful have joy and good days” (213); “Many people who otherwise are happy with the Gospel,… cannot tolerate or endure the harm and shame which they must bear because of it. Otherwise, the world would have been for a long time full, full of Christians, if the dear holy cross were not laid on them…. But because of it they step back” (216); “We are much more abundantly overwhelmed with good gifts than… with shame and harm” (217); “The Holy Spirit… openly blames… reason and worldly wisdom… for… being unable to teach people how to recognize sin, how to be freed from it, how they are to be helped to righteousness, and how wrong is to be rebuked” (228); “God’s commandment not only demands external conduct and appearances, but it also lays hold of the heart and demands perfect obedience” (229); “The heart always remains hostile to the Law and strives against it with inward disobedience” (230); “It does not help [to reason] that if [we] sinned with works, then [we] will pay for them with works or put away sin and merit God’s grace” (230); “All of this [life] has been ruined by sin and death and will finally come to nothing…. However, in the life to come [righteousness] will completely and perfectly… be found in us” (239); “A good preacher has the ability to take up a matter and briefly grasp it and bring it to a close in two or three words, and then, if it is necessary, also amplify and explain it with sayings and examples, and thus make a whole meadow out of one flower” (246); “The doctrine of faith is very difficult to grasp [since it requires that] a person… step outside of himself – that is out of his own life and works – and cling with all his confidence to what he does not see or feel in himself…. It is a difficult skill to despair so much of himself that he abandons whatever he has of both good and bad life and clings only to the words of Christ” (249, 272, 281); “We should know that we are too insignificant to be able to name, describe, or identify the time, place, manner, measure, and other circumstances for what we ask from God” (262-63, 255); “All the world knows nothing about [salvation through faith in Christ] nor has it” (270); “Faith [is] a fearless, undaunted courage which can with all the heart’s confidence rely on Christ against sin, death, and hell” (281); “Baptism was committed to much less important people than was the preaching office. Christ Himself baptized no one” (286); “As for who believes or does not believe,… that is not in the preacher’s power, but only in the Lord Christ’s power…. He can give it or take it away from whomever He wills” (287); “Drinking and carousing [have] completely become the common custom in the land” (293); “Drunken pigs do not belong among the Christians, nor can they be saved” (295); “To cover our sins before God, a different love is necessary, namely, the love of the Son of God who alone is the Sin-bearer before God, and who… carries on His… shoulders our sins and… takes them away” (300); “It is not against love to become angry and rebuke your neighbor when you see him sinning” (304); “Love… is hostile to vice, and yet loves the person” (305); “It is… necessary among Christians that the truly poor (not lazy beggars and tramps), who are… homeless people, or who cannot support themselves because of weakness and age, be provided for” (305); “[No one should] be permitted to play and juggle with Scripture and God’s Word, so that it must be explained, turned, stretched, and patched, however it may fit, for the sake of people or of peace and unity” (308); “Enmity [toward] the kingdom of Christ [since it opposes the] the kingdom of the world…must always continue;… it remains a… perpetual fight” (317); “Christ is God’s Son, sent by the Father to become the sacrifice and payment for the world’s sins through His own blood, and so take away His wrath and reconcile us, so that we are redeemed from sin and death and obtain eternal righteousness and life through Him. From that it must follow that no one through his own works or holiness can atone for his sins or put away God’s wrath. There is no other way or means to obtain God’s grace and eternal life except through the faith that so takes hold of Christ. That is the true Christ, correctly known” (321); “The true Church is where the little flock is” (324); “It is surely true that Christ has done everything, taken away sins, and conquered everything…. [But this] treasure lies… in a heap, not yet distributed…. Therefore, if we are to have this treasure, the Holy Spirit must come and put it into our hearts” (327); “A good Christian is still flesh and blood, just like other people, except that he fights against sin…. Thus our condition must always be mixed [and] always be that of the sick man who is in the care of a physician and who is to become better” (329); “There must always be trembling if the Holy Spirit is to come and help. No one should get it in his head that it will happen differently” (330); “Christ… is none of those things that people desire on earth; rather, He is such a disagreeable figure that all the world… flees from Him.