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"I NEVER KNEW YOU" will be spoken by Christ to the unbelieving goats at the Great Judgment. Sinful, ego-centered, prideful and rebellious man is the cause of all his misfortune, temporal and eternal. Mans action brings death no matter how he artfully and religiously "papers over" it and decorates it. Your sinful natures are only capable of hubris. Hell will be filled with those who thought that having their names on church membership rosters was all that mattered. Hell will be littered with the souls of false teaching men of "religion," men of false pagan faiths, and sadly, many men of false and heretical communions that bandy about the name of Jesus as well. Hell will also contain so-called "Lutherans" who tragically thought that having that name stamped on their spiritual passport gave them a "get out of jail free" card.

Mans words do not save. Not every self-protestation or decree by a pope is true. Only Christ is Truth. Not every so-called "authoritative" declaration by an Ecumenical Patriarch is true. Only Christ is the Way. Not every fervent and "oh-so-friendly" emotionally felt pleading by the earnest televangelist (sic) or the much-beloved "stadium-crusader" is true. Only The Word is the Light. Only those who do the "WILL OF THE FATHER" will inherit the Kingdom of God.

The "Will" of the Father is to obey, yes. The "Will" of God is that we love Him perfectly and that we also love our neighbor (everybody else) perfectly as well, yes. But since fallen man cannot do these things, the "Will" of God is that His Word of Law will convict us of our lost condition and drive us to contrition and repentance.... a place where He already is waiting for us to continue His work for us. The "Will" of the Father is that we Trust in His Son. The "Will" of the Father is that we are in His Son. For in this restored and healed condition, not all the demons in hell can keep us from Confessing our Savior!

"I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed." [Ps 119.46] The Great Reformer from Wittenberg turned these inspired words from the Psalter into a victorious shout of Confession as he heard the reports from the momentous meeting at Augsburg, Germany at the end of June 1530. Luther wasn't there in person as he had already been condemned to death by the "synodical authorities" as an "outlaw heretic." The Holy Roman Empire's Charles V had been meeting in Augsburg with all of the troublesome German Princes who had been supporting Luther's preaching and teaching of the Gospel in its purity. The Emperor had thought he could bring them back under Rome's authority with force and intimidation The enemies of the Word of God wanted these "evangelicals" (or as they're now called: "Lutherans") to stop proclaiming the free Grace of God, and instead, to return to the old medieval way of working out ones salvation through the indulgences of the sclerotic Papacy.

That was not an option for the Reformers. Not because they were good men, they weren't, but because Christ and His Holy Spirit was in them, using them to proclaim the Way, the Truth and the Life. This is what Christians do even if it brings scorn, banishments, death warrants, and losses of pension plans. Even if it, (gasp), brings the loss of four golden, precious initials after a parish designation.

You believe, not because of you, but because of God. The Holy Spirit has animated you with a new spirit; a new creation. You believe because Christ has given you something to believe "IN," - Himself. You trust: His Works, His Life, His Merits won on Golgotha, His Love for you. Jesus is your "sun" and you are His "planets" created from Him and sustaining life through Him. You just naturally "orbit" Him by His gravitation. You just naturally "reflect" His light. He is The Light of Light.

On that historic day in the life of God's people, the 25th of June in the Year of Our Lord 1530, the Confessors presented to Charles their Confession. It was their confession, their words, but in reality it was simply the words and teachings of Holy Scripture, of the Church of all ages, of the Apostle Paul, and ultimately of God the Holy Ghost. They were, (and we are), what He made them to be. Ships are built to be sailed. Planes are built to be flown. Fish are created to swim. Hound dogs are born to track and bay. Songbirds are birthed to sing. Little "Christs" are re-born to believe, teach, and confess their Master.

Jesus said: "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father Who is in heaven." [St. Mt. 10.32] Thus it has ever been. Joshua confessed the truth of our Lord before a potentially hostile horde of Israelites. Elijah spoke the truth before the murderous King Ahab and his pack of Baal priests. Both Daniel and his Three Friends spoke God's Confession in the face of sure Government execution. It is the gift that the Redeemer has given us: to boldly speak His Name, and the wonders of His works. You are constrained to speak Christ Crucified.

Peter and John defied the threatening Sanhedrin, put their very lives on the line, and refused to be silent: "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen more to you than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." [Acts 4. 19-20]

There are no hermit-Christians, no solo-practitioners. Canaries sing and Christians confess. Saint Paul informs you what the Holy Ghost has already "hardwired" into you at the day of your + Washing: "For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth Confession is made to salvation." [Rom. 10.10]

The Confessors at Augsburg made it clear that they understood the Lord, for they were repeatedly, making it their very "motto," wrote not "we believe," but rather, "we believe, teach and Confess." That day in Augsburg, Melanchthon and the rest, refused to be a "light placed under a bushel basket," but like you, they were a "lamp placed up on a lamp stand." They, with you and Paul, were moved by the Spirit in Word and Sacrament to "preach Christ Crucified." [1 Cor. 1. 23] It is what Jan Hus had done a century earlier in Bohemia, and had suffered for it, by being burned to death at the stake. It is what Luther himself had done a few years prior at Worms: "Here I stand."

Here we stand. Here you stand. You stand on the rock that is Christ because He has picked you up in your Baptisms and placed you into His glorious red wounds, crimson trophies, scarlet badges, into His very Body and Blood, given and shed for your forgiveness at Calvary. That's what the Presentation of the Auesburg Confession means! That's what it meant then, in 1530, in the face of the fury of Papal works righteousness. And that's what it means today in 2005, in the face of the evil incompetence of synodical bureaucrats and district hacks (and "safe" shepherds who have sold out to self).

The women's ordination movement, R.I.M., contemporary worship proponents who rape the historic Liturgy, pietists who mangle the distinction of Law and Gospel and pervert Christ's gift of Sanctification, the desecration of the Holy Office of the Ministry by satanic oxymorons such as "lay ministry," and the papal pretensions of the synodical praesedium, are every bit as dangerous and septic as were the Romanists of Leo X five hundred years ago. The very Gospel is at stake; not the self-invented Gospel of feeling good, being nice, and trying to fix all the world's political problems, but the real Gospel of Jesus' Blood and Righteousness given freely by faith through the Word of God.

This tiny parish, named "Augsburg," is part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Yes, we are called Lutheran, but by that title, we mean Evangelical, Gospel-filled. To be named Augsburg means that we reflect the truths contained in that document presented; confessed, all those years ago, and still confessed this very morning. We are named for the truths of Christ, for the truths of The Word. We are named for the realities of God the Holy Trinity, Man's fall and God's Grace through His Son Jesus Christ, the gift of forgiveness given by faith created by the Holy Ghost in Word, Baptism, and Supper. To be named Augsburg is to be named Bethlehem or Calvary. To be named Augsburg is like being named: Atonement, Resurrection, Ascension, or Pentecost. Our moniker is the same as if we called ourselves, Baptism, Eucharist, Forgiveness or simply Christ!

To Confess the Augsburg Confession is to Confess Christ Crucified for the forgiveness of sins. We make this confession because Christ is in us. You naturally exhale air out your nose because your lungs have already first breathed the air in. Your spiritual lungs are Spirit and Truth; Christ. Your spiritual lungs have been filled with Word and Water; with Word and Sacrament. So filled with Jesus you cannot but confess Him, even in the face of danger, threat, fear or foe. You confess Christ even in the uncertainty of what lays ahead, worldly speaking, for this little parish "[You] speak His testimonies before kings, and you are not ashamed." His Word has set you free.

In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost