God allows us to witness the wilderness, the barren desert, of our lack of faith. To see the fruitlessness, the barrenness. And when we finally come to the end of our road . . . when we finally come to the sad realization that we are dead without Him . . . He forgives. He heals. He restores.

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In every way possible, King Jesus embodies the promises of Isaiah. In His person. In His rule. He is, in fact, the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. His rule in eternity will be, for us and all of creation, a rule completely characterized by peace. By harmony. By joy.

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This mountain—the mountain of God's holiness— is without doubt the most important mountain in the world. And Isaiah sees that in the latter days its preeminence among all other mountains will be established, its glory will be made firm.

It is here on this mountain we learn what both of our sin and His mercy. When God judges our sin, does He do so rightly? Without a doubt, and we who let His word have its way with us know that we have no recourse, no plea to make, but must simply agree that the very cause of all our strife and quarrels lies not in our hands, but in our hearts.

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To look upon Jesus' suffering and weep without repentance, without faith, is to miss entirely who He is. To miss what He does. Such weeping is mere sentimentality. And sentimentality saves no one. It denies that His suffering is necessary, as though we could find salvation some other way.

What is necessary is to see Jesus rightly. Not to deny suffering and attempt too take Him down off the cross, but to leave Him there and believe upon it. What is necessary is to see Him numbered among the sinners, to recognize that He takes that label upon Himself, and in that He offers you His peace, His Kingdom, His forgiveness.

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Jesus points out something that should be obvious, but was not to the Sadducees: there is a difference between this life and the next.

In saying that "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage," Jesus reminds us that God does indeed give us good gifts in this life, but that it would be wrong to cling to them, to believe that those gifts are so important that they are all Jesus gives, that He has nothing greater prepared for us.

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The saints John sees are those who followed Jesus in this life and who bore the brunt of the world's refusal to acknowledge Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The saints that John sees are those who have passed through death from this life to the life that is to come. The saints John sees are all those who have clung fervently to Christ, trusting in Him and His grace to carry them through to eternity. The saints John sees, then, are you . . . me . . . everyone who will die in the faith . . . everyone who has died in the faith. What John sees is the ones—all of the ones—who by the time eternity comes will have died in Christ.

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For the pastor this means but one thing: he has but one thing to preach. The pastor speaks not from worldly wisdom, he speaks not from philosophy nor from psychology, but he speaks as the very voice of God speaking to the world. The pastor speaks the word, and he speaks it at all times. In season and out of season; a harsh word of rebuke when necessary, an encouraging word of exhortation when needed. The pastor speaks only the word of God, for he has been given nothing else to give.

But for the people this means two things. The first is a charge as solemn and serious as the pastor's: the charge to the people is to expect—and even demand—that their pastor speak nothing but God's word. Your task as the people of God is to expect nothing but the word of God from me, and to stop your ears should I—or any pastor—preach anything else.

But the second is even greater. The task of the people is to hear the word of God and believe upon it. To lean upon it as you lean upon nothing else, to hunger and thirst for God's word to the extent that nothing else satisfies, that nothing else is even desired.

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It is not your work by which the church stands or falls. It is not your faithfulness that gives the church her life. And it is not your efforts that keeps you firmly in Christ's kingdom. The glory belongs solely to Christ.

This podcast can never be a substitute for in-person attendance at a local church. Click here to find a local church you can connect with! Find a Lutheran church near you!