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This podcast takes listeners through Luther’s Small Catechism in order to educate, encourage, equip, and strengthen you in your Christian faith and for all your callings in life. No matter who you are, Luther’s Catechism Podcast is a place for you to grow!
Hello, and welcome to episode 2 of Luther’s Catechism Podcast – brought to you by The Way Church.
I’m Pastor Matt Rothe.
Luther’s Catechism Podcast takes, you, the listener through Luther’s Small Catechism in order to educate, encourage, and equip, you in your Christian faith and for all your callings in life.
In this second of 3 introductory episodes, we are answering the most important question a person can ask: How can I be confident that I am enough? How can I be confident that I am good enough to go to heaven after death?
Now, this is another introductory episode because it covers transitional material before we dive into the actual content of the Small Catechism.
The title for this episode is “The Bible – The Truth About God and Us,” for it is in the Bible, in Scripture alone, where we find the answer to that all-important question: How can I be confident that I am good enough to go to heaven after death?
If you are following along in your own Luther’s Catechism book, we are on page 26.
If you do not have a copy of this edition, you can purchase yours at the following web address: online.nph.net.
Let’s begin:
Intro:
• Just read it
#1 -#2:
• Psalm 19:1-2
• Romans 1:20
How can Paul know that it’s plain to them? Because “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
People have a natural knowledge of God written in their hearts, and this knowledge is supplemented and reinforced by what Paul now adds, namely, proof gained by looking around at the created world. Anyone can see that the world was brought into being by something far greater than mere chance, by someone with “eternal power and divine nature.” Only the fool says, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1). All people have information about God, “so that men are without excuse.”
Now, what we have been talking about in these sections is something called NATURAL REVLALTION.
And natural revelation has two parts:
There is a second part in addition to nature…. Everyone, naturally, has a conscience and what does that tell us?
#3:
• READ Romans 2:14-15
• A CLOSER LOOK…
Paul is dividing them into two groups because of the different circumstances surrounding the two groups—one of them Jewish; the other, gentile. The Jews had the benefit of God’s revealed law, notably in the Mosaic Law given to them through Moses on Mount Sinai. The Gentiles were “apart from the law” in the sense that they didn’t have that specific set of God-given regulations.
But the Gentiles still sinned and therefore are subject to God’s wrath and punishment. Paul is expecting an objection at this point: How can it be fair for God to punish the Gentiles if they didn’t have the benefit of the law’s guidance?
Paul now addresses this complaint in the two-verse aside (verses 14, 15) we called attention to earlier. Paul points out that although the Gentiles didn’t have the Mosaic regulations, they were not without “law,” information about God’s holy and unchangeable will.
“By nature” pagans do things required by God’s law. Guided by the natural knowledge of God written in their hearts, they know and decide that it is wrong to kill, to steal, to dishonor authority, and the like. This does not mean that they know the whole will of God; to the extent that they have a natural impulse to do things in a moral way, “they are a law for themselves.”
A related way in which Gentiles show that they have “the requirements of the law … written on their hearts” is the activity of conscience.
Conscience operates on the innate feeling that there are certain natural rules of conduct to be followed, certain things that should be done and others that should not be done. When a person’s conscience judges that his actions are in conformity with the rules, then he is inclined to defend himself. On the other hand, there are times when the person knows he’s going against the law written in his heart. He’s doing what he knows he shouldn’t be doing. Then there comes a voice from within him that rightly accuses him and convicts him of sin. Such a person may have sinned “apart from [God’s written, revealed] law,” but he is still guilty before God, because he has consciously and intentionally defied God and rebelled against the natural knowledge of God’s law, as reinforced by conscience.
As he has sinned “apart from the law,” so he will “perish apart from the law.”
God is serious about having his will done and having his law kept. Relative goodness will not do. Recall that this section has been addressed to the moralist, the person who feels that because he isn’t as bad as the coarse gentile sinners, he is acceptable to God. Paul makes it unmistakably clear that such a moralist, either Jew or Gentile, has been disobedient to God and deserves eternal punishment. The moralist has no righteousness upon which he can stand before God and therefore is just as bad off as the gross gentile sinners he looks down on.
#4:
From the created world around us, we can learn that a powerful being created everything. From the morality we find within our hearts (what we call our consciences), we learn that this powerful creator wants us to act a certain way. This natural revelation of God is available to everyone, why there are so many religions that teach people they must act a certain way to have a relationship with God. But there are some things about God we can never learn from natural knowledge.
Only through the Bible (or God’s special revelation) can we learn of God’s love. That is, only in Scripture do we learn that we will never be able to fix our relationship with God, and that only through his gracious gift of Jesus’ life and death can we be saved. When it comes to our salvation, God wishes to deal with us only through his Word.
• READ 1 Cor 2:9.10
• Romans 10:14
Ok… I kinda gave it away but NOW we are going to talk about what the Bible reveals Or SPECIAL Revelation:
Law (Which we will look at much more in-depth in our next episode)
And Gospel.
The first we look at LAW…
#5:
• READ ALL!
• Commentary: I am sinful, I do sin, I am completely sinful…
#6:
• READ Is 59, Romans 6, Eph 2
• Summarize and THEN… A CLOSER LOOK…
Ok… I I said that what the Bible reveals Or SPECIAL Revelation:
BOTH Law AND Gospel.
Now look at Gospel…
#7:
• Read 1 Tim 2:4… First, GOD’s DESIRE, HIS DEEP LONGING is for all people. So what did he do?
• Read John 3:16… He sent his son. What did that give us!
• A GIFT… Romans 6:23…
Gosepl… It is a term that comes from
gospel
εὐαγγέλιον11
euangelion
euangelion
It means: good news… God’s good news to humans,
Ok, this sounds too Good to be true
So… #8…
#8:
• Read 2 Peter 1:16… Peter = EYE WITTNESSES…
• Peter in 2 Peter 1:16-19
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” i 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
• Paul said REEAD 1 Cor 2 = These words were revealed to us us by the Spirit.
• And then Jesus himself PROMISED: Matthew 24:35 …
#9- People will say, “Yea but …
#9:
• JESUS promised… HOLY SPIRIT
• 2 Tim…
• Read 2 Peter 1:21
#10… We should KNOW BY NOW, why the Bible is SO, SO important, but let’s summaerze…
#10 Why is the Bible So important…
• 2 Time… It gives us salvation. It makes us wise…
o Compare to natural knowledge. Scriptural revelation tells us about salvation.
• The Ending of John’s gospel… so poignantly
Ending with a Warning…
#11.
• READ ALL…
• Don’t add.
• Don’t subtract.
• Don’t multiply… make uo rules.
A Closer Look: A summary.
CONNECTION SECTION:
• CLOSING DEVOTION:
• Read the Intro:
Acts 17:10–12
10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
• Summarize the Devotion:
• Read the Luther quote.
• Pray out
Luther’s Catechism Podcast takes, you, the listener through Luther’s Small Catechism in order to educate, encourage, and equip, you in your Christian faith and for all your callings in life.