The Word of the Lord to a rebellious, bewitched, and smug people of God.

A believer must be pious and must lead a good outward life. But the first part, faith, is the more essential. The second is never the equal of faith, although it is more highly prized by the world, which ranks good works above faith. How does the Lord receive the believer? He surely lays him low at first, for his hope and opinion of himself must be crushed and must vanish. Even Nicodemus was pious enough and abounded in good works, but the Lord crushed him with confusion: "You must be born anew."

Everyone must admit that one can do nothing until one has life. Therefore all works, however precious and fine they may be, are absolutely nothing if performed apart from faith. Nicodemus thought Christ a queer preacher with an odd message—rebirth by means of nothing but water and the Spirit sounds ridiculous. You mean worship style counts for nothing but dung?

The believer must not be willful with the Word of God. It is better to say: "I do not understand the words," than to alter them. It is better to leave your hands off and to commend it to God than to add to or detract from God's words. Holy Writ must be treated with veneration and profound awe, not like the Baptists and all the other sects do, with contemptuous exaltation of their reason above the Word. Or like the Lutherans who profess with their mouth but are far from God with their heart.

Now that Christ has come, believers must listen to Him! "Come to Me and be baptized with water and the Holy Spirit, a Baptism that will give you a new birth and transform you into a new person, that will cause a regeneration or renewal of your being. For the Holy Spirit works faith in you, and through this faith you regain the image of God which you lost in Paradise. If you are baptized and believe that I died for you, you will increase from day to day in faith as well as in good works," so says Christ.

Christ says that flesh and spirit have nothing at all in common; man is either flesh, or he is spirit. This implies a condemnation of all that is exalted and precious in the world, call it by whatever name you will. We become spirit only by the new birth. This birth is in invisible and intangible; it is only believed. It is not created by zeal, knowledge, reason, or excitement.

Christ gave Nicodemus a clear illustration of the wind to lead him into the new birth. There are many things we do not understand in the physical world, which is to perish. We live with this confusion. We must accept confusion even more if we are to live in the spiritual world. We must believe that faith contains all things spiritual and necessary. Our victory is in the gift of faith. The Church will again be pure and virtuous only through faith, not our ingenuity.

Do not imagine that you can comprehend this matter. You must stick to the sound and the wind, that is, to the Word. In all Christendom we have nothing greater or more sublime than the Word of God. We hear the sound of the wind; Holy Scripture presents the Word to us everywhere; for instance, in Baptism, where the Word is the principal item. One hears the Word and feels the water, and without the Word Baptism is nothing. Likewise in Holy Communion bread and wine are of no effect without the Word. But when the Word is attached to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, that does it; then one feels it, as the rushing of the wind is felt. When the Word is heard, then we feel its sound before our ears.

There are limits of God's revelation of Himself, and we must not believe anything else. We must simply believe and be sure that what we are teaching truly happens. We cannot see and understand it, just as we cannot ascertain whence the wind comes. The believer cannot see or feel how he is delivered from death and sin. The saints of God are still encumbered with many sins; like other people, they feel in both body and soul the resistance to both Table of Moses, especially to the first; impatience with God and a questioning of His acts and judgments. Christians experience this as much as anyone. But it is wrong! You must not see, feel, know, or recognize anything. You must only listen and cling to the Word, basing everything on the Word of God alone.

A Christian is not guided by what he sees or feels; he follows what he does not see or feel. He remains with the testimony of Christ. A believer knows and believes that Christ will judge His Church in righteousness; and on Christ's example, the Church also judges Itself. There is no feeling here, there is only belief and practice based on the truth of the Word. The believer fears that Christ may spew him forth from His mouth because of lukewarmness, smugness, and disbelief.

The Devil always elevates some people; them, as soon as they believe, they will be lured away from the faith and will seize upon matters not recorded in God's Word, They will take issue with God and brood over the question why God does not bring the entire world to faith and salvation. But the Christian does not want to know what God has not revealed in His Word.

These people have the effrontery to try to rise higher than faith. The believer remains on the correct path, on the blazed trail where there is no swerving to the right or to the left. But the devil places many obstacles in our way to keep us from understanding. Even after we understand it, the devil is still reluctant to leave us undisturbed. He sends us physical and spiritual temptations—physical ones to make us greedy, unchaste, and sensual; spiritual ones, to make us frivolous and indifferent to the words of God that are addressed to us in Baptism, in Holy Communion, and in absolution. Is it not despicable for anyone to be indifferent to words like "I baptize you" or "I forgive you your sins" or "Christ gives us His body and blood in the Lord's Supper"? The wiseacres and schismatic spirits suppose: "God really should present something more imposing!" Because of its plainness they also despise true worship.

The believer gladly suffers in body and mind to have both brought into conformity. We are to preach this daily in order to inculcate respect for the Word of God, which is despised everywhere today. The Word is hardly taught or understood. Instead, there is a deep contempt for the divine Word in virtually every church. The devil loves to snatch God's Word away from us. Once it is gone, the devil is content to let us do as we fancy.

The devil seduces man in two ways. He either lures him to the left, so that he believes nothing at all; or he entices him to the right, where he plagues him with holiness and human wisdom. In the latter case people may believe something or other, but they always want to improve on God and soar higher than God Himself. This has always been the mark of heretics—many of whom have infiltrated and overcome even the true church with their devilish views of worship management methods, and a works-sanctification.

God is pleased with this: That you be baptized, believe in Christ, partake of Holy Communion, be subject to temporal government, obey your father and mother, and do whatever else God has commanded and instituted. Christ wants everyone to take reason captive and to obey only the sound of the wind. For we are not save through reason. No, we must become spiritual and believe. Our way to salvation and spirituality is vain and devilish. Whoever strays from the Word of God, either to the right or to the left, will break his neck. The Baptists and other sects have already broken their necks, and the Lutherans are laying their necks on the block like stupid sheep being led to slaughter.

When the believer's faith is in the God-man Christ, the Only One to be in Heaven, descending from Heaven and ascending to Heaven at the same time, then all is well. If a Christian preserves this article of faith in its truth and purity, it will be easy for him to ward off all false teachers and deceivers as well as his own whims and notions. Yes, he who holds fast to this has a mainstay for life; and he will also be saved in death through this one faith in Christ, that is, if he believes that Christ alone ascended into heaven. Many believe in word only, though. Beware lest you be deceived as to which road you are on.

The devil attacks this article most of all. Those who once fall away from Christ go further and further away until they perish completely. But you take hold of the gem and remember: "Only Christ ascended to Heaven." Don't be offended that your feelings and ears are not tickled and enticed, or that this worship is so unpretentious. We worship better in suffering and need. Take Solomon's advice and go to the house or morning and do much to refrain from the house of laughter.

Whoever takes hold of Christ by faith is not terrified by the devil; nor is he cowed by sin and death. Even though he feels his sins and is frightened and saddened by them, he nevertheless overcomes this feeling and is not subdued; for he will be quick to say: "I believe in the Son of God and of Mary. He is the devil's venom and death; but at the same time He is my salvation, my remedy, and my life,"

Be on your guard against that devil whose name is Enthusiasm. People who follow him disparage the oral Word and declare: "The Spirit must do it!" Don't be drowned in the stupor of your own good works and zeal that you do not see and understand. But if you want to find God, then inscribe these words in your heart. Don't sleep, but be vigilant. Learn and ponder these words diligently: "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." Let him who can write, write these words. Furthermore, read them, discuss them, meditate and reflect on them in the morning and in the evening, whether awake or asleep! For the devil will sorely assail your faith in an effort to make you doubt that Christ is the Son of God and that your faith alone is pleasing to God. He will torture you with thoughts of predestination, with the wrath and judgment of God. Then you must say: "I don't want to hear or know anything else about God than that He loves me. I don't want to know anything about a wrathful God, about His judgment and anger, about hell, about death, and about damnation. But if I do see God's wrath, I know that this drives me to the Son, where I find refuge; and if I come to the Son, I also have a merciful Father."

Let anyone who does not share this faith pray God that it may be imparted also to him. But see to it that you do not resist this faith or violate and blaspheme it. Faith is not a paltry and petty matter. It is a heartfelt confidence in God through Christ that Christ's suffering and death pertain to you and should belong to you. The pope, the sects, and the devil have a faith too, but it is only a "historical faith." True faith does not doubt; it yields its whole heart to the conviction that the Son of God was given into death for us, that sin is remitted, that deaths destroyed, and that these evils have been done away with—but more than this, that eternal life, salvation, and glory, yes, God Himself have been restored to us, and that through the Son God has made us His children.

It is very strange that the world is so mad and foolish as to be averse to the message of salvation, that it cannot hear the proclamation that it is to attain eternal life and to be redeemed from sin and death, through Christ, the Son of God, and that it need not fear the Last Judgment. How does it happen that we prize our salvation so little? Even many become evangelical because we preach gently to them but are taken aback and become mad and foolish when they hear or see something displeasing and are told that their good works are rejected. Their anger, wrangling, and hatred stem from the fact that we are saved through the Son, whom God has sent, and not through our worship or any of our good works.

As soon as people hear that their own efforts count for nothing, all is forgotten. They insist that their own method must be and remain right. By God, let heaven and earth crash down upon this attitude! The world cannot stand reproof. Even in the church, if you tell them to guard against fornication, arrogance, and smugness, they will promptly become angry and reject God's Word and teaching. When they are told: "If you do this or that, you are not Christians," they call such a chastening sermon slanderous and libelous, and they accuse the preachers of defaming the people. They demand that a sermon confine itself to the words: "God so loved the world that He gave His Son," and "whoever believes in the Son shall have eternal life." Such a sermon is fine! But they insist that the preacher ignore the sequel; that the world hates and rejects the light. They do not want to have anyone rebuked for loving the darkness.

The preachers, though, must remain faithful. If a preacher holds back, he makes himself guilty of the sins of the people. Why should a preacher go to hell for you? The people might say: "Well, I am not asking you to do this; I am not forcing you." Yes, this may be true. Still you do not want your preacher to reprove you, and you refuse to let him upbraid you for your vices. You expect him to hold his peace, although he occupies an office which requires him to reprove sin, as the prophet Ezekiel does in chapters three and thirty-three.

Preachers should not keep silence in the presence of sin, or should they themselves sin. For if the preacher sees adultery or other sins in people and neglects to take the sinners to task, God will visit their sins on him. Preachers have been ordered to punish wrongdoing. But no one does so. What is going to become of teachers in the church, who hear and see so much crime and sin but hush it up and do not punish it? Thus many people go to hell for the sins of others.

Do you consider it a good evangelical sermon if the preacher keeps silence and lets you do as you please? Why should you encumber the minister with your sins? The preacher should not permit them to oppress him. Bear them yourself! Don't you understand that because of the preacher's office he will not and dare not keep his peace? How can you compensate your preacher for being damned on your account, for partaking of the guilt of your sin? The devil makes you refuse to tolerate his rebuke. In fact, most preachers know you will tolerate it so little that they do not even bother speaking the truth to you. They know if they were honest with you and your sins they would lose their retirement and means to feed their families. May God forgive us this heinous sin.

But this is a terrible day, when we hear the proclamation of the Gospel which brings remission of sin and release from death, maligned as heresy and to see Christ persecuted. We preach this every day, and that is what goes on. I did not suck these words out of my finger; you hear that this is spoken by Christ Himself—"men love darkness more than light." Nevertheless, it is decried as heresy. Should our God not become angry? Should He not dispatch pestilence, famine, pope, Moslem, Sacramentarians, Baptists, and all sorts of sectaries to plague us? Our refusal to accept the Son surely deserves such punishment.

Are you surprised that the spirit of the age is growing apace today and that false teachers are making such inroads? We find an explanation for this in 2 Thess. 2:10, where St Paul tells us that this is what happens when people refuse to love the truth that would save them. When people do not want the truth and the grace of God, God gives them what they actually desire, namely, strong errors and penalties, also teachers who tickle their ears and preach lies they are prone to believe (2 Tim. 4:3). Then what Moses referred to in Deuteronomy 32 comes to pass; that he who has drunk shall lead the thirsty, that one will thirst for strange doctrine and, when surfeited, will spew it out. Thus he who is disinclined to listen to the truth and to Christ will be inclined to listen to lies.

The doctrine of the Gospel was abandoned even before Luther died, and even his own people continue to abandon It. Spirits now proclaim such nonsensical things that Luther would be ashamed of and would refuse to listen to. Luther was right when he said that this (devilishness) will be revered and accepted as something sacred.

The world marches on to wrack and ruin, and again, Luther's words are prophetic: After our death you will find that you will be visited by even greater darkness. Many schismatic spirits, sectaries, and fluttering spirits will arise to confuse you so that you will not know which way to turn. God is well able to send us darkness. Hell will also be made hotter for us if we love such darkness more than the Light. We will share in the verdict which the Lord Christ pronounced upon the cities Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum: "Woe to you." It is too late for us to even be on our guard. The day of darkness is upon us. Have no doubt, the judgment will come swiftly; and those who despise the Light will be plunged into hell. For Christ declares: "This is the judgment which has come over the world and over this city because they love false doctrine and a sinful life. Therefore they will perish more ignominiously than Sodom and Gommorah."

This Word of the Lord was taken from Luther's Works, volume 22, pp. 260-290. Let no preacher or layman tell me that I don't understand "modern Lutheranism." May God have mercy on such a fool!