WEBVTT
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Grace to you in peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior,
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Jesus the Christ.
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I'm not sure an exegete is allowed to do this, but our text this
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morning is the hymn that we just sang.
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And to be a little bit more bold, open up your hymnal and turn one
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more page to the text and tune that I grew up with 657.
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So if you want to be able to follow along with the words and you have
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the old TLH memorized, you need to be on page 657 to work with the
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text, as I'm going to work with it. Now, don't fear, we will certainly
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feature Matthew four.
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And I'm going to reference Genesis three that you probably heard on
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Sunday.
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And I'll also bring up Romans five that we heard a few moments ago.
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Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, we're a week into this long
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journey of Lent.
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The white paraments are gone, replaced with Penitential purple.
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We didn't sing the alleluia before the Gospel.
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We didn't sing a hymn of praise.
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We sang a piece
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instead of the alleluia, we sang a piece that reflects the season.
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Return to the Lord your God repent because he's gracious and merciful,
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slow to anger, abounding and steadfast love.
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All of these changes, meaningful changes as we move into this
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Penitential season and its ponderings.
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And then we sang this hymn.
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A triumphant hymn.
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A Mighty Fortress is Our God, a triumphant and stirring hymn.
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That seems a little bit out of place as we're walking through this
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somber season, doesn't it?
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But it's not a mistake.
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It's not like Dr.
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Vieker got a wild hair and decided already one week in we needed to do
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something a bit more up
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beat.
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No, it is the suggested hymn for week one, the first Sunday in
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Lent.
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But why?
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Why A Mighty Fortress on a day like today?
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Well, that's what we're going to explore.
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And so I invite you, if you haven't already, to have your hymnal open
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to 657.
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The words that begin this hymn might seem a bit out of place so early
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in lent.
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A mighty fortress is our God, a sword and shield
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victorious he breaks the cruel oppressor's rod and wins salvation
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glorious.
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But as we travel into the verse, maybe these next words seem seem more
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fitting.
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The old Satanic
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foe has sworn to work us woe. With craft and dreadful might
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he arms himself to fight on earth
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he has no equal.
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And that's exactly what we hear in Genesis chapter three.
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And hopefully you heard this text on Sunday. From the very early
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chapters of Genesis
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we know how God lovingly created Adam and Eve how he provided for all
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of their needs, reserving for himself just one tree by which they
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could honor, obey and worship him.
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They had everything they could possibly need.
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But then the old Satanic foe came slithering into the garden and with
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his tricky tongue he introduced doubt and greed.
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He caused them to desire more for themselves than God had given them.
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Though they had everything they needed.
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And being deceived, they were disobedient.
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They took, they ate.
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And you know the result.
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Our epistle lesson today makes it very clear.
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Sin entered the world through this one man and death through sin and
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death came to all.
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The result of one trespass was condemnation for all of mankind.
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You, me, everyone.
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Since that time, we've all been embattled by the deceiver.
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Each and every day we're attacked by Satan as we are beset with his
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temptations enticements to go against the good and gracious will of
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our creator.
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Each and every one of us faces these temptations daily that are placed
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in our path by the old Satanic foe, the devil the deceiver.
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He deceived Adam and Eve and brought ruin upon us all.
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And now he and his hordes continue to work their ruination that has
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begun.
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What are the temptations in your life?
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How are you being enticed away from the good and perfect will of your
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God and Father?
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So much of the world around us, so much of what this world would have
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us believe is being used.
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It's nothing more than temptations by the devil that we might depart
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from God's goodwill for our lives.
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It feels like the corrupted creation is on his side.
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He can be cunning, he can be crafting.
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He can be very patient as he tries to lead us astray.
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He leads us into conversations or situations that call into question
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all that we've learned to be good and right from God's Word.
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He does his best to make us think there are more gray areas out there
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than there really are.
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He shows us the apparent pleasures and glory that come when we do what
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we want, where we want, when we want, with whomever we want,
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effectively worshipping ourselves.
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Satan is for tolerance, because if we tolerate his errors, his errors
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will multiply and entrap more and more.
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He certainly does not want us living and delving into and breathing
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the word of God, trying to apply it to our lives, trying to apply it
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to our present day situations.
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He'd rather we thought of it as some old, worn out book, socially
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conditioned, according to the times in which it was written.
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Whenever that might have been. No longer relevant for enlightened women
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and men like us.
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But God, through Peter, says, be alert, be self controlled.
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Your enemy, the Devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking
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someone to devour.
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Yes, he's on the prowl, and he wants you and his den.
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But take a look at verse two.
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Stanza two of the hymn.
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Luther says no strength of ours can match his might.
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We would be lost, rejected.
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And we know that's true.
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That's our condition on our own.
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But that's not the end of the verse.
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Once again, Luther continues but now a champion comes to fight whom
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God himself elected.
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You ask who this may be?
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The Lord of Hosts
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is He.
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Christ Jesus.
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Mighty Lord, God's only Son
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adored, He holds the field victorious.
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Yes, apart from Jesus, you and I would be doomed to Satan's deceptive
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power.
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But God does not leave us in that deceiver's power.
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Instead, he sends His Son into our flesh to be obedient, to do what we
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don't and really can't do on our own.
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And this is what we see in Matthew's gospel. Just before our text
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for today, we see the baptism of Jesus.
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John is out calling people to repentance and administering a baptism
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of repentance.
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And Jesus, the virgin born sinless, son of David's, son of God, comes
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to that baptism.
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He doesn't need to be baptized.
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He has nothing
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to repent, but associating Himself with us and with our sin.
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He submits himself and insists on being baptized by John.
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And immediately he comes up out of the water and the heavens are rent
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asunder.
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And he sees the Spirit coming upon him and the Father's voice,
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declaring, this is my beloved Son in who I am well pleased.
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And straight away, Jesus is taken up by the Spirit.
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This is God's plan, taken by the Spirit into the wilderness in order
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to be tempted.
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Tempted by Satan.
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Centuries before, Israel had passed through the waters.
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God had brought them out of the waters and into the wilderness.
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But there, like Adam and Eve before them, they succumbed to all sorts
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of temptation, even though God provided them with all that they could
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want or need.
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And now the very Son of God is in the wilderness for the expressed
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purpose of being tempted by Satan.
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40 days and 40 nights of fasting.
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Jesus is hungry, and the tempter comes tempting him to turn stones to
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bread.
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And next, the deceiver does what he did all the way back in Genesis
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three.
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He twists the words of God and tries to deceive Jesus into testing God
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the Father's care for him.
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And finally, the temper attempts to tempt the submissive Son of God
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into claiming for himself all the glory and kingdoms of the world if
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he would just bow down and worship Satan.
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In all of this, the deceiver is attempting to derail Jesus from his
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very mission.
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You see, Satan knows who Jesus is.
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Satan knows why Jesus has come.
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And if he can just get Jesus off track. If he can just get Jesus to
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deny who he is and why he's come. If he can get Jesus to give in to
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temptation, then he's won.
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But Jesus resists the temptations of the evil one.
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Jesus is obedient where others have not been.
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Jesus backs his obedience, quoting the very word of God.
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And in this way, Jesus is victorious.
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He remains on track, on the path the Father has set out for him.
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A path not to glory, at least not yet, but a path to more temptation.
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You can see that again at the end of Matthew's gospel.
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A path to suffering and death and the grave.
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In the place of Adam and Eve, in the place of rebellious and sinful
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Israel in the place of rebellious and sinful
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you and me. Would have been easier for Jesus just to give in, wouldn't
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it?
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To satisfy his hunger, using his power. To test his Father, or to grab
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onto and change allegiances for kingdoms and for glory.
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But Jesus was obedient.
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Jesus resisted.
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Jesus was victorious.
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And so we sing with Luther.
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You ask who this may be?
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The Lord of hosts is Hhe Jesus Christ, mighty Lord, God's only Son
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adored, He holds the field victorious.
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So what does that mean for you
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for me?
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That takes us into stanza three.
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The hordes of devils fill the land, all threatening to devour us.
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We tremble not
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unmoved we stand.
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They cannot overpower us.
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Let this world's tyrant rage in battle
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we'll engage.
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His might is doomed to fail God's judgment what must prevail.
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One little word subdues him.
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We are subjected to so many temptations of the deceiver. Hordes of
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devils all around us even if we don't recognize and see them.
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They fill the land threatening to devour us, wanting to deceive us
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away from the good and gracious will of our God and Father into the
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hands of the devil. Trying to get us to think the things of men rather
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than the things of our Father.
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And yet we don't have to fear.
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We can stand unmoved assured that the devil and his minions cannot
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overpower us.
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Let the tyrant rage.
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Luther says, in battle will engage his might is doomed to fail.
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God's judgment must prevail.
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One little word
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subdues him.
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One little word.
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We often misread Matthew four
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I think. We misread it thinking that somehow you and I have to learn
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all sorts of Bible passages so that, like Jesus, somehow we can throw
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them back at the devil as we face temptation.
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Now, don't get me wrong.
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You should know the scriptures.
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It should be in your head, it should be in your heart, it should be on
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the tip of your tongue.
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But one little word subdues him.
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Jesus.
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Jesus the obedient one.
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Jesus the victor.
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Jesus the one who gives the victory
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to those who are His.
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As our Romans passage says today, through one man's obedience, the
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many are made righteous.
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By his obedience, righteousness comes to you.
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Water and word, body and blood, the one man Jesus.
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Luther ends stanza three with that one little word, the word
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incarnate.
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But then as you look at the beginning of stanza four, he's back at the
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word, the word that abides.
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And we have to ask ourselves, is this Jesus?
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Is this the written word, the Scriptures?
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Is this the Lutheran answer?
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Yes.
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I think here Luther has switched to the written and proclaimed word,
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for it is feared by some, for it is the sword of the Spirit.
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Truly, God is fighting by our side,
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Luther says. He's so confident about these words that he penned these
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words. Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child, spouse.
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Though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day.
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The kingdom ours remains. On either side of the baptism and temptation
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in Matthew's gospel, in close proximity, we hear John and we hear
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Jesus repent.
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They both say, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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In this penitential season we enter it, we continue through it with
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both of these thoughts in mind.
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Yes, we're called to consider our sins and to repent, but we're also
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reminded, reminded that the kingdom is at hand.
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And the King is Jesus, the obedient Son, the obedient victor, who
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gives to you His victory.
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And if His victory is yours, His kingdom is yours.
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The kingdom is ours forever.
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So in a somber season of reflection, let's sing A Mighty Fortress, for
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the kingdom is ours forever.
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In the name of Jesus.
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Amen.
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Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our
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hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, the obedient victor, now until life
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everlasting.
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Amen.