Sermons – Law, Gospel and the Work of Making Disciples

The world is perishing in the open. That is not a slogan. It is the plain reading of Scripture. Men and women live as if God has not spoken. Churches live as if the pulpit exists to keep people comfortable. And then we act surprised when the culture grows darker and our children grow thinner in the faith.

If the church will not tell a man he is a sinner, he will not know why Christ had to die. If the church will not preach Christ crucified and risen, he will try to save himself with moral effort, therapy, politics, or a nicer version of his old life. If the church will not call him to follow Jesus as a disciple, he will sit in the pew, call himself a Christian, and watch his neighbors die without a word.

We need to return to sermons that teach the Law and the Gospel. Every Lord’s Day should remind us of our sin and our need of Christ. Then it should send us out to make disciples—not as a slogan, but as the ordinary life of people who have been pardoned. If we will not do that, we will keep our meetings and watch neighbors die without a word. That is not faithfulness. It is neglect dressed up as kindness.

The Law is not a Problem

The Law of God is holy, righteous, and good. It is not our enemy. Our sin is. The Law does not invent guilt. It exposes it.

Paul says, “through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). A man can feel vaguely unhappy without the Law. He cannot see that he has offended the living God. He cannot see that his lust, his sloth, his cowardice, his bitterness, and his unbelief are not personality quirks. They are rebellion.

This is why so much modern preaching leaves people unchanged. It talks about anxiety, loneliness, “brokenness,” and “your journey,” and never says, “You have broken the commandments of God.” It will not say, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” It will not say that the heart is deceitful and desperately sick.

But hear this carefully. The Law is not a club for pastors who enjoy bruising sheep. It is a gift. It is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It shuts the proud mouth. It also gives language to the already-wounded conscience. Some of you do not need to be convinced that you are sinners. You already walk into worship carrying last week’s failure like a stone. The Law is still for you—not to grind you into despair, but to keep you from treating your sin as a vague fog. Named sin can be confessed. Vague shame only festers.

The Reformers understood both uses. The Law slays self-righteousness. It also teaches the redeemed what a holy life looks like. We should not be ashamed of either. Soft churches hide the commandments because they fear losing people. That is not pastoral care. Pastoral care refuses to lie, even gently. If telling people what God requires means some will not come, so be it. Better an honest room than a full room that never meets God.

Still, the aim is not an empty room. The aim is living souls.

The Gospel is Not a Mood

The Gospel is not “God loves you and has a wonderful plan.” It is not a tone of voice. It is news. God the Son took flesh. He kept the Law we broke. He died under the wrath our sins deserved. He rose from the dead. He reigns. All who repent and believe are justified freely by His grace, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

That is the only hope of a condemned man. It is also the only rest of a weary saint.

If you preach Law without Gospel, you produce despair or Pharisees. If you preach Gospel without Law, you produce presumption. Men will hear “grace” as permission. They will treat the blood of Christ as a cover for remaining what they are. That is not Protestant Christianity.

The Westminster Confession is plain. Believers are not under the Law as a covenant of works, to be justified or condemned by it. Yet the Law remains of great use as a rule of life. It shows us the will of God. It binds us to walk accordingly. The Gospel does not abolish holiness. The Gospel creates it.

Christ does not save us so we can remain useful to the world in our sins. He saves us to make a people for His own possession, zealous for good works. Justification is by faith alone. The faith that justifies is never alone.

Every service should press both truths until they hurt and then heal. You are worse than you admitted. Christ is better than you hoped. Now walk.

If you are crushed already, do not hear this as one more demand. Hear it as an invitation. Come to the Table. Come to the fountain. Come to the Christ who does not despise a broken and contrite heart. The same Word that wounds the proud binds up the contrite.

The Blessing of the Lord’s Day

Corporate worship is not a weekly talk with better lighting. It is not a brand experience. It is the assembled people of God coming under the Word, receiving the sacraments, confessing sin, singing truth, and being sent.

That means the service should do the same work the Word does.

We should hear what God commands. We should hear that we have not kept it. We should hear that Christ has kept it and died for those who believe. We should hear that the Spirit is given to make dead men alive and lazy men obedient. Then we should go home and live as if that were true.

A church that never wounds the conscience cannot heal the soul. A church that never announces free pardon in Christ will only add burdens. A church that never calls for discipleship will baptize spectators and call it growth.

This is not novelty. It is the old pattern: guilt, grace, gratitude. Law that kills self-righteousness. Gospel that raises the dead. Then the thankful life of obedience under the King.

I don’t want more services focused on trying to make it relevant to “us”, make it the Word of God that is faithful and true, not our faulty machinations. We must be a people who will plant and strengthen churches that proclaim the whole counsel of God, guard the sacraments, shepherd souls, and stand against the idols of the age.

At Christ the King we have said the same thing in our own commitments: preach the Scriptures, administer the sacraments, instruct the church in holiness, and actually pastor people—house visits, prayer with families, catechizing, personal guidance. A thunderous sermon with no aftercare is not Reformed zeal. It is noise. A gentle presence with no Word is not care. It is sentiment.

Discipleship Is Not a Program

Jesus did not say, “Go and run events.” He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them… teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20).

That work does not happen only from a pulpit. The pulpit leads. The people must follow through.

Again, the pulpit leads. The people must follow through. That work is rarely dramatic. It looks like a father opening a catechism after supper when everyone is tired. It looks like a husband speaking the Word to his wife instead of only managing the house. It looks like a member who will not let a brother drift because “it’s awkward.” It looks like a student on this campus who finally opens his mouth, not because he feels brave, but because Christ is worthy.

We have trained Christians to outsource the hard parts. “That’s the pastor’s job.” “That’s for the professionals.” “I’m not gifted in evangelism.” Scripture does not give that excuse. The church is Christ’s offensive work against the gates of hell. Gates do not charge anyone. They sit there until someone walks toward them with the Word.

If you will not speak of sin, you cannot speak of a Savior. If you will not call a man to repent, you cannot call him to life. If you will not walk with him after he believes, you have treated conversion like a transaction instead of the beginning of a new creation.

Discipleship is slow. It is house to house. It is correction. It is prayer. It is showing a younger man how to keep his word, kill his lust, work with his hands, and sit under preaching without shopping for a more flattering voice. It is teaching a woman to hope in God rather than in the applause of a dying culture. It is ordinary faithfulness that does not trend.

It is also the only thing that keeps a church from becoming a religious club while the town perishes around it.

What Happens When We Refuse

When the Law is muted, people stay proud. When the Gospel is thinned, people stay lost. When discipleship is optional, the next generation inherits a name without a faith.

Nominalism loves a church that never gets specific. Moralism loves a church that gives advice without a crucified Christ. Sentimentality loves a church that talks about love and never mentions judgment. All three are harming places like ours.

Houghton County does not need another institution that baptizes the status quo. It needs the living God revealed by the preaching of Scripture, the administration of the sacraments, and instruction in holiness. That is not a branding line. It is the mission. If we abandon it, we can keep the building and lose the church.

The world does not perish because Christians lack cleverness. It perishes because men remain in their sins, and too many churches will not tell them so, will not offer them Christ, and will not stay long enough to teach them to obey. That should put a lump in our throats. These are not abstractions. They are classmates, coworkers, children, and parents.

For the Love of God

Preachers: Stop hiding, and stop performing. Open the text. Let the commandments land. Then hold out Christ as the only righteousness God accepts. Do not soothe men God intends to slay. Do not slay men God intends to bind up. Distinguish Law and Gospel, then bind them together in the one Christ who is both Savior and Lord. After you preach, go after the sheep. Sit in kitchens. Hear confessions. Pray. That is part of the sermon.

Hearers: Stop coming only to be confirmed in what you already are. Come to be told the truth. If the Word exposes you, do not leave offended. Leave to Christ. Believe. Be baptized if you have not. Submit to the church. If you are already thin and tired, come anyway. Feeble faith is still faith when it lays hold of a strong Savior.

Parents: The service on Sunday is not a substitute for discipleship in the home. It is fuel for it. You do not need a perfect household to begin. You need an open Bible and a willingness to say, “I need this as much as you do.”

Saints: The harvest is still white. Nineveh still stands. Jonah still flees. The question is not whether the world deserves mercy. It does not. Neither did you. The question is whether we will open our mouths and then stay with people long enough for the Word to do its work.

Christ will build His church. The gates of hell will not prevail. That promise is not an excuse for silence. It is the reason we can speak without fear.

Return to Law and Gospel. Remind the gathered church, every week, that we are sinners and that Christ is enough. Then go make disciples. If we will not, we will keep our meetings and watch the world perish. If we will, God may yet grant repentance in this place, and the Word will not return void.

May the Lord give us courage to say what we believe, tenderness for the wounded conscience, and zeal to see sinners made into saints.