{"id":11513,"date":"2026-07-27T09:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11513"},"modified":"2026-07-27T09:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:49:15","slug":"what-people-really-believe-vs-the-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11513","title":{"rendered":"What people really believe vs. the gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 14:13-21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, a survey was taken of what Lutherans today believe. This survey revealed that 56% of confirmed Lutherans hold that the main thing that God wants is that you live a good life. 60% hold that the gospel is mainly about rules for how to live a good life. 67% of Lutherans hold that one can be saved in all religions, and 66% hold that one is not necessarily saved by Jesus alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrast that with what is said in Romans 8:31-39 (from last week). In these verses Paul is summarizing the whole business of what he has said in chapters 1-8. He writes: \u201cWhat shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us: He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all [good] things with him?\u201d (Romans 8:31-33)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Paul, in a typical fashion, has a couple of lists. He liked to make lists. We see this elsewhere. Here he writes that tribulation and famine and sword are not able to separate us from God\u2019s love. Then at the end, in verses 37-39, there is this fantastic passage which says we are more than conquerors through him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can anyone be more than conquerors? That\u2019s redundant! Paul here creates a new word meaning: \u201cWe are more than conquerors.\u201d Then comes this list: \u201cNeither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, no depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord\u201d (Romans 8:38-39).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All we can say is: \u201cWow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We use this passage often at funerals. But it\u2019s sometimes good to look at a passage in another situation so that we see it what it says. It starts out: \u201cNeither death, nor life.\u201d That\u2019s obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNor angels, nor principalities.\u201d That is, whatever forces or powers that you are caught up in thinking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNor things present, nor things to come.\u201d If you\u2019re worried about the present or worried about the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNor powers.\u201d Whatever the powers might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNor height, nor depth.\u201d Those are technical terms for astrology. And they refer to the common idea among us that there is some kind of fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d Anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrast that with that survey about what people today really believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This passage, Romans 8:31-39, is the most glorious statement about what God is really about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what do people really believe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, they believe: \u201cWell, it really depends on how good you are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At funerals people will say: \u201cHe was a good man.\u201d Or: \u201cShe was a good woman\u201d\u2014 as if that had something to do with it because there really is no free lunch. Someone has to pay. You get what you give. A tooth for a tooth. That\u2019s what it\u2019s really about. So, how do you live? That\u2019s what it\u2019s really about. That\u2019s what people really believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then to go to the flip side of it, if once it is pointed out that God has taken care of things, then people start to play games with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They play games by saying: \u201cAh, ha. Everybody is going to be saved anyway. As long as I go through the rituals, I\u2019ve got it made. It doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why the text about the feeding of the 5,000 is so important. Out there they didn\u2019t have food trucks, so, what were they going to eat?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you know, there was a free lunch. The Lord provided for them out of nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to know what happened. What happened is that they said: \u201cLet\u2019s get a hold of this guy. We can get a free lunch every day. We also can make him into the one who can free us from the Roman government, those oppressors.\u201d So, they tried to capture him, to hold him, thinking: \u201cWe can make this work; we can maneuver this situation.\u201d Of course, they got it all wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We pray: \u201cThy kingdom come,\u201d but in our hearts, we pray: \u201cMy kingdom come.\u201d As soon as we hear the Lord is good to us, we say: \u201cOK, Lord, this is how I want you to build my kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the difficulty we have as we look at life is that we judge, or we presume, that is, we make use of the situation. Judging and presuming are the same here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do this in three ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, we judge others as far as their salvation is concerned. In Matthew 7:1, it says: \u201cJudge not.\u201d We are not to judge anyone else\u2019s situation before God. We\u2019re very hard on others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then comes the second one: We judge ourselves, and of course, we\u2019re very easy on ourselves. Paul writes speaking precisely to this: \u201cI do not even judge myself\u201d (1 Corinthians 4:3). We can\u2019t even judge ourselves. The Lord has pointed out our situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the third thing and most serious of all is that we judge God. That is, we say: \u201cWell, Lord, you\u2019re not running the universe the way you should. You should do it this way. You should do it better, and I don\u2019t like the way you\u2019re doing it. I know you say certain things and have certain promises, but you should do it so I can build my kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remind us of the First Commandment: \u201cYou shall have no other gods before me. I am the Lord your God.\u201d We, of course, want to be God in our own lives. Then we\u2019ve broken all the commandments right there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s not the end of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end of the story is that his great statement of promise still holds. We may try to manipulate God, but that doesn\u2019t work. He still goes ahead and brings about his kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is, of course, a hidden kingdom. It\u2019s not a kingdom we want to build or do build. But what is it then? It\u2019s summed up in: \u201cWe are more than conquerors in him who loved us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then that list: \u201cNeither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 14:13-21<\/p>\n

A Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n

A few years ago, a survey was taken of what Lutherans today believe. This survey revealed that 56% of confirmed Lutherans hold that the main thing that God wants is that you live a good life. 60% hold that the gospel is mainly about rules for how to live a good life. 67% of Lutherans hold that one can be saved in all religions, and 66% hold that one is not necessarily saved by Jesus alone.<\/p>\n

Contrast that with what is said in Romans 8:31-39 (from last week). In these verses Paul is summarizing the whole business of what he has said in chapters 1-8. He writes: \u201cWhat shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us: He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all [good] things with him?\u201d (Romans 8:31-33)<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11513"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11520,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11513\/revisions\/11520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}