Think Wink.

As I was preparing for Sunday’s sermon, I was reading Luther’s comments on Romans 1:21-23. They were very interesting and stirring to my soul. Luther said concerning the text itself,

Notice the steps or stages of (heathen) perversion. The first step of their idolatry is ingratitude: they were not thankful…Whoever enjoys God’s gifts as though he had not graciously received them, forgetting the Donor, will soon find himself filled with self-complacency. The next step is vanity…In this stage men delight in themselves and in creatures, enjoying what is profitable to them…The third step is blindness; for, deprived of truth and steeped in vanity, man of necessity becomes blind in his whole feeling and thinking, since now he has turned entirely away from God. The fourth step or stage is man’s total departure from God, and is the worst; for when he has lost God there remains nothing else for God to do than to give him up to all manner of shame and vice according to the will of Satan.

To summarize his thoughts on ingratitude Luther further comments,

Ingratitude and love of vanity (love of one’s wisdom, or righteousness, or as it is commonly said, of one’ “good intention”) pervert a man so thoroughly that he refuses to be reproved, for now he thinks that his conduct is good and pleasing to God…Oh how great an evil ingratitude is! It produces desire for vain things, and again produces blindness; and blindness produces idolatry, and idolatry leads to a whole deluge of vices. Conversely, gratitude preserves love for God and the heart remains attached to him and is enlightened. Filled with the light, he worships only the living God and such true worship is followed immediately by a whole host of virtues.

I found this very interesting and it helped me much in my sermon preparation. It was also very convicting of me for I can be very ungrateful for the blessings I have. Many times I forget that all that I have has been given to me. The job with which I have by which I get the money to purchase things was given to me. Life was given to me, both physical and spiritual, by my Maker and Creator, Jesus Christ. Reading Luther’s comments showed me how terrible ingratitude can be and how devastating it is. Madame Blueberry never made so much sense and never appealed to me more than it does now after meditating upon Luther’s words.

Lord Jesus, thank you for you word that you inspired Paul to write. Thank you for such a penatrating word that you have for me this week in sermon preparation. Father I pray that you will bless my message in the pulpit as much as I have been blessed by it in preparation. Father I thank you for your servant Martin Luther. Thank you for the words you showed him in Paul’s letter to Rome. Thank you for inspiring him to write them down and for preserving them throughout the centuries. Thank you for all of the blessings you have given me in my twenty-two years of life. Thank you Father and I bless your name for them. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

This Thanks Giving

Luther and Piper on the Biblical Languages

A Wonderful Non-Shocker.