Sermon - October 27, 2013,  Pentecost 23, by Pastor Paul G. Eckert
Sermon text - Deuteronomy 10:1-2, 12-22
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    Next Thursday is October 31.  That date is well known for
especially two events: Halloween, and the Lutheran Reformation.  One
will be noted by many and the other, the Reformation, by only a few.
We are among the few.  Of both of them - Halloween and the
Reformation - we can say that they have a “From Then To When.”
    With regard to Halloween the “From Then” takes us back to the
past, to the 6th century and an ancient Celtic festival that related to
death.  The “From Then To” takes us to the 8th century when
November 1 was designated by church leaders as All Saints’ Day and
the evening before, October 31, was known as All Hallows’ Eve, a
time to honor all saints and martyrs.  The “From Then To When” is
when Halloween transitioned from a Celtic festival, to All Hallows’
Eve, and finally from All Hallows’ Eve to Halloween when, instead of
thinking of 6th or 8th century events, today many think of costumes,
scary things, tricks or treats. 
    The Reformation, October 31, also has a “From Then To When.”
We’ll say more about that in a short while.  But first we’ll use FROM
THEN TO WHEN  as a theme to cover our entire text, and to see
what we can LEARN FROM THE PAST and how to LIVE IN
THE PRESENT as we LOOK TO THE FUTURE.  
FROM THEN TO WHEN
I  LEARN FROM THE PAST  (1-2, 14-15)
    1. Let’s look at the past in Israel’s history. 
        a) Because of a famine in their land, Israel went to Egypt and
there grew into a large nation.  Then at His right time God brought
about the exodus from Egypt to take them to the Promised Land
where at the fullness of time the Savior was to be born in Bethlehem.
On the way, at Mount Sinai, He gave them the 10 commandments
written on two stone tablets.  Exodus 31 tells us: “When the LORD
finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two
tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the
finger of God.”
        b) How many of you remember what happened then?  Do you
remember the golden calf?  The people became tired waiting for Moses
to come down the mount.  They very quickly deserted God and built a
golden calf to be their god - they had learned that from Egypt.  Then
this is what we are told in Exodus 32: “When Moses approached the
camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he
threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the
foot of the mountain.  And he took the calf they had made and
burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder ---.”
    2. Next, after Israel, let’s look at the past in church history.
        a) God had given His Church His truth to be passed on.  Jesus
had said: “Go and make disciples of all nations --- , teaching them
to obey everything I have commanded you.”  And in the last words
of our Bible He gives a warning about not adding to or subtracting
from His Words of truth.
        b) But over the years such adding and subtracting took place.
And finally not a golden calf was built, but instead a man was elevated
who made new teachings, like inventing a purgatory which says Christ
did not do enough suffering for us with His death on the cross, but
after death we also have to do some suffering before reaching heaven.
And that is not the only false teaching that comes from the papacy of
Rome.
    3. Let’s go back now to God starting over with Israel.  (1-2,15)
At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets
like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain.  Also make
a wooden chest.  I will write on the tablets the words that were on
the first tablets, which you broke.  Then you are to put them in
the chest.”  ---  Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers
and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the
nations, as it is today. 
        a) Etched on tablets of stone God again gave Israel His words.
        b) While they still often rebelled in the future, God saw to it that
what He had promised from that nation  would be fulfilled.  The Son of
David would come born of a virgin, would die as our Substitute to
forgive us, would arise to be our Resurrection and Life.
    4. God also started over with the Reformation.  (14)
To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest
heavens, the earth and everything in it. 
        a) God continued ruling over the years as the visible church fell
into many false teachings that endangered the faith of the people.
        b) But then God in the 16th century went from then, from that
past,  to when He chose to make use of a man named Martin Luther to
reform the church.  That started not with Luther chiseling stone tablets
as Moses did (“Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones”), but
with posting for all to read 95 theses or written statements opposing
some of the false teachings of  the Roman papacy. 
        c) The purpose?  As God brought Israel from then to when the
Savior was born into this world, so God used Martin Luther and the
Reformation to bring the church of the day back from man’s word to
God’s written Word as the only source of God’s revealed truth.  This
is what we can learn from the past as we now go on to
II  LIVE IN THE PRESENT  (12-13, 16-19)
    1. God wants His will lived.  (12-13)
And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but
to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to
serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am
giving you today for your own good?
        a) God’s commandments - God wants them lived, not ignored.
        b) And the purpose?  Not to hurt us, but for our good.
    2. But the commandments are not God’s way to save us.
        a) The man in our Gospel reading earlier said, “All these I have
kept since I was a boy.”  Impossible!  How totally wrong he was!
          b) God gave the commandments not to save us, but to reveal His
will and to show us our sin, to show us how much we needed saving.
    3. God’s way of being saved is freely given.  (16-17)
Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any
longer.  For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of
lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no
partiality and accepts no bribes.
          a) Could we bribe God with deeds or money to get into heaven?
        b) Impossible!  The price for our sins, for our breaking of God’s
commandments, we couldn’t pay that price by bribery or anything else.
God did it!  God paid the wages of our sins!  He so loved the world
that He gave His Son to substitute for us, so that whoever believes in
Him, what He did, His atoning death to pay the wages of our sin, will
not perish but has forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.
    4. Now live in the present reflecting God.  (18-19)
[God] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves
the alien, giving him food and clothing.  And you are to love those
who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. 
        a) Live now, in our daily lives, following God’s commandments -
not to be saved, but to thank God and to show that we are saved!
        b) That means deeds of love that reflect God’s love.
        c) That includes love for aliens.  We can call that mission work -
speaking with relatives and friends, bringing offerings to bring the
Gospel of salvation to others, to aliens in foreign lands.  As we do that
III  LOOK TO THE FUTURE  (20-22)
    1. God did great things for Israel.  (20-21)
Fear the LORD your God and serve him.  Hold fast to him and
take your oaths in his name.  He is your praise; he is your God,
who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw
with your own eyes. 
        a) Were the people of Israel better than others?
        b) No. They often were rebellious - sad to say, just like us.
    2. It was God’s grace that preserved them for a purpose. (22)
Your forefathers who went down into Egypt were seventy in all,
and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the
stars in the sky.
        a) Israel is no longer a special nation as in Old Testament times.
        b) In God’s plan in history their purpose was fulfilled when in
that nation in a specific geographical location a birth took place, when
on a cross God’s Son died to pay the wages of the world’s sins, when
there was a tomb that was empty because Jesus not only took care of
our sins but conquered death itself that we might be forgiven and live.
    3. That purpose includes us.
        a) God loved Israel.  He also loves the world, loves you and me.
        b) When it comes to God and history, it is indeed His story, a
plan with you and me in it, a plan with Heaven as our real home.
    4. For this let us praise our gracious God.
        a) May He strengthen us by His Word of truth to learn from the
past, to appreciate the truth restored by the Reformation - surely to
see that, and not Halloween, as what is really important.
        b)  Then may He move us to live in the present, glorifying Him
with our daily lives that follow His holy will to show Him our thanks.
        c) And may we look to the future in the full confidence
the Apostle Paul expressed in our epistle reading when he said, “The
Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me
safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever.
Amen.”