Chapel - Friday, January 24, 2025

Order of Service: - Prelude: "If Thou Be Near," by J.S. Bach - Responsive Reading: P: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Gen. 1:1 C: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” Gen. 1:26-28 In His infinite wisdom, God has chosen to create the human race with specific gender distinctions and the ability to procreate by the gift of sexual intimacy. He has created a unique complimentary nature to the roles of men and women. As Dr. Martin Luther writes, “God established marriage as the first of all institutions, and with it in view He did not create man and woman to be like each other.” Our human sexuality is by God’s design. The chromosomal make-up of man and woman is part of this order from God. The believer acknowledges this: He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still preserves them. Luther’s Small Catechism Likewise, marriage between man and woman is not a human invention. It is a gift from God which He has stamped into nature itself, and has been recognized and practiced throughout time in all lands and cultures. All of society rests upon the foundation of marriage in God’s order. He who finds a wife finds what is good, and receives favor from the Lord. Prov. 18:22 Due to the Fall into Sin by our first parents, marriage and human sexuality suffered under the curse of sin, which continues to plague mankind today. Satan recognizes the great significance of God’s design for marriage for both the temporal and spiritual kingdoms. He continues to rage against it, knowing that when he spoils marriage, he undermines all order of society. In order to protect and preserve this gift, God has inscribed the sixth commandment on the hearts of all people: You shall not commit adultery. Ex. 20:14 We should fear and love God so that we lead a chaste and decent life in word and deed, and that husband and wife should love and honor the other. Luther’s Small Catechism Because of the corruption of our human nature, Man continues to pervert the wonderful gift of human sexuality in a variety of ways: fornication, adultery, the use of pornography, co-habitation outside of marriage, homosexuality and living under the pretense of another gender. Though our culture may give approval to such sin, God’s Word remains steadfast: Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Heb. 13:4 Jesus said, “I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matt. 5:28 Paul explains that, due to man’s depravity in sin, “God gave men over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another… their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” Rom. 1 However, God chose not to throw humanity aside forever. Despite man’s fallen condition, God in His mercy sent His Son to redeem humanity back to Himself. By His sacrifice on the cross, God Himself took the punishment for all sin, granting us full forgiveness and grace through Christ. As Isaiah writes, “The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Our Savior used the setting of the wedding at Cana to enact His first public miracle displaying His divine nature. God continues to bless marriage and through this institution provides the gifts of mutual love, companionship, the procreation of children, and a way of restraint for the sins of lust. Along with marriage He has established the Christian home as Heaven’s embassy for handing down the true faith from one generation to the next. - Hymn 190 - O Blest the House, Whate'er Befall: vv. 1, 2, 3 - Responsive Reading: Through the gift of faith in Christ, God the Holy Ghost claims the heart, mind and body of those He has called into the Kingdom of Light, and sets them apart from the unbelieving world. By the “washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Ghost,” we have been claimed by God as His own dear children through Christ. Paul encourages the Christian to now live as a redeemed child of God, when he writes, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” 1 Cor. 6:18-20 Even to those who once were previously living in such sins, St. Paul writes, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Cor. 6:9 By faith we have now been made members of the flock of the Good Shepherd, who says, “My sheep hear My voice, I know them and they follow Me, and I give them eternal life.” It has been challenging for believers of all time to live in a culture and society that embraces and encourages sin, which poses a great danger to our faith. God desires that we use our influence not to encourage sin, but rather to help those who are trapped in it to turn to God in repentance and be restored by His grace, through a spirit of humility and Christian love. I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will. Rom. 12:1-2 * Prayer Let us pray: Almighty God, who has created man and woman, and joins them together in marriage, thereby symbolizing the mystery of the union between Your Son, Jesus Christ, and His bride, the Church; we humbly pray: Do not let this blessed work and ordinance be set aside and brought to nothing in our day, but graciously protect and preserve it. Especially we ask that your blessing would rest upon those who are united at Your altar. So rule them by Your Holy Spirit that they may live together to Your glory and their own welfare in this life, and in the Life which is to come. Keep all of us in Your grace, and finally bring us to our eternal home, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. - Hymn 190 - O Blest the House, Whate'er Befall: vv. 4, 5 - Blessing - Postlude: "La Réjouissance" by G.F. Handel Service Participants: Chaplain Don Moldstad (Preacher), Prof. Ben Faugstad (Director), BLC Chamber Orchestra (Instrumental Group)