SERMON NOTES

                  The Twenty Third Sunday after Trinity

                                      Mission Sunday

                                   November 10, 1996

 

                           Word/Spirit Welded Together

"On the other hand, the practical result of the acceptance of the Scriptural doctrine that the Holy Spirit is inseparably united with the Word is the absolute subjection of every thought to the Word of God, as this is set forth in the Bible, 2 Corinthians 10:5.  In this case every doctrine which is opposed to Scripture is rejected as false, no matter to what source it may be attributed, whether it be the 'spirit,' the 'inner word,' the 'inner light,' 'reason,' 'science,' 'the Church,' 'the Pope,' and the like.  Unless we fully accept the Scriptural doctrine that the Holy Spirit is indissolubly united with the Word of Scripture, we cannot regard this precious Book of God as the only source and standard of faith.  It was for this reason that our Lutheran theologians so strenuously defended the inseparable unity of the Word and the Spirit."

            John Theodore Mueller, Christian Dogmatics, A Handbook of Doctrinal Theology, St. Louis:  Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 135. 2 Corinthians 10:5.    

 

"In their controversy with the enthusiasts (Reformed) the Lutheran theologians averred that Holy Scripture is efficacious also extra usum.  By this phrase they meant to say that the Holy Spirit is perpetually connected with the Word, so that it retains its power even when not in use."

            John Theodore Mueller, Christian Dogmatics,  p. 136. Romans 1:16.

 

                                   The Law is Spiritual

"The Holy Spirit thus uses the Law to bring us to despair; it is a despair of ourselves and our own righteousness before God; and then through the Gospel He shows us Christ."         George Tiefel, Jr., "God the Holy Spirit Acts in Both Law and Gospel," God The Holy Spirit Acts, Milwaukee:  Northwestern Publishing House, 1972, p. 50.  

 

                                "Inner Word" - An Error

"On the contrary, with the Anabaptists and the Reformed Church in general, the Mennonites are Enthusiasts, lay great stress on the immediate working of the Holy Ghost, who is said to 'guide the saints into all truth.'  In his Geschichte der Mennoniten-gemeinden John Horsch, a prominent Mennonite, states that the Holy Spirit is the 'inner word,' who enables Christians to understand the Scriptures.  Without the inner word, or the light, the Scripture is a dead letter and a dark lantern."

            The. Engelder, W. Arndt, Th. Graebner, F. E. Mayer, Popular Symbolics, St. Louis:  Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 260.  

                                   God Moves the Will             

"The will does nothing.  It is rather the substance (causa materialis) in which the Holy Spirit works also in those who resist, as in Paul. But working on the will of him who resists He moves the will to consent."          What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., St. Louis:  Concordia Publishing House, 1959, I, p. 347.