A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus] went on His way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to Him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in t...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make My people forget My name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has My Word speak My Word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. Is not My Word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:23-29). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The prophet Jeremiah lived in an era not t...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Epistle lesson, Hebrews 11:1-16, which has already been read. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! As Christians, we don’t worship the saints; yet we can look at those who have gone before us and marvel at what they did—or, better, what the Lord accomplished through them. Our epistle gives us a list of saints to ponder today. We begin with Abel. Our text tells us that he “offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” Why was it more excellent? Because it was offered by faith . Rather than believe that his sacrifice earned God’s favor, Abel offered it because he believed that the Savior would be born to save him from sin—thus Abel was commended as righteous for the sake of Jesus who was to come. We also know that Abel suffered for his sacrifice. Cain took him out into the field and killed him. Thus, the first shepherd was also the first to die because of sin, pointing toward t...