Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity - October 19, 2025

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

There are two parts to our Holy Gospel for today, and they are both unified.

They belong together. The first part speaks about love, love toward God and

love toward one another.

The second part speaks about faith,

faith in Jesus as David's son and David's Lord, the promised Savior, the Son of God.

So today we will learn that God the Father loves us.

He sent His only Beotten Son to be our Savior. He rescued us from sin, death, and the devil.

Faith believes in what God in Christ Jesus did for us, and from that faith flows love.

Love for God and love for one another. True love for God and neighbor springs

or comes out of our heart of faith.

So faith and love go together.

How did God love Israel? He loved her by redeeming her from slavery in Egypt.

God sent 10 plagues upon Pharaoh in Egypt, and in the end, Pharaoh let the Israelites go free.

God parted the Red Sea so that they were able to cross over on dry ground,

and then God used that water to destroy Pharaoh's army.

And it was on the east side of the Red Sea, the Israelites gave thanks to God

for his gift of salvation.

They rejoiced in God's grace and mercy.

They were thankful that God redeemed them from the slavery of Egypt.

God rescued them because from them will come the promised Savior.

When the Israelites got to Mount Sinai, God reminded them of what he had done for them.

He said, quote, I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of

Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Then God gave them the Ten Commandments.

God didn't give them the Ten Commandments while they were in Egypt.

And he didn't say, if you do this law and fulfill this law, then I will rescue you from Egypt. No.

Rather, he set them free from Egypt purely by grace.

And then he gave them the Ten Commandments to show them how to live and how

to have faith in him and how to have love toward one another.

And so the Ten Commandments can be summarized in two tables.

Love God and love the neighbor.

In response, the Israelites gladly feared the Lord their God,

walked according to his ways, and served him with their heart, soul, and mind.

God's love toward them motivated them to have faith toward him and love him in return as well.

Yet, since they still possessed a sinful nature, they did not live according

to the Ten Commandments perfectly.

They still sinned. And yet, because of the animal sacrifices,

their sins were forgiven.

God forgave them because of that sacrifice.

And as a forgiven people, they served God, clung to him, walked in his ways,

and joyfully worshipped him.

As time went on, God told King David that the promised Savior will come from

his line, 2 Samuel chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

And then David confessed as he wrote Psalm 110 that the Savior will be his Lord.

The Savior who will come from his line will be David's Lord.

And David goes on to say in this psalm that the Savior will sit at the right hand of God.

A beautiful confession. this promise

was fulfilled in Jesus

Jesus is the son of

God Jesus is God in human flesh he came from the line of David and Jesus is

David's Lord so Jesus asked the Pharisees if then David calls him Lord how is

he he his son and they should have said Jesus you are David's son, and you are his Lord.

But they refused to acknowledge this, and they remained silent.

Did the Pharisees love God? No, they did not.

If they had loved God, then they would have loved Jesus.

For Jesus is God in human flesh.

And since they refused to believe that Jesus is David's Lord and the promise

of the Savior, they do not love God.

By rejecting Jesus, they were rejecting the one true God.

And since they did not love Jesus, they also did not love their neighbor.

For Jesus is their neighbor among them.

Where there is no faith in Jesus, there can be no true love for God or the neighbor.

And so also for us, if there is no faith in Christ, there can be no real true

love for God or the neighbor.

What about you? What about me? How does God love us?

God the Father so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son to be our Savior.

When the Son of God came down from heaven, he was born of the Virgin Mary.

Jesus was born from the line of David.

And throughout his life and ministry, Jesus truly loved his heavenly Father

with all his heart, soul, and mind.

Jesus never committed idolatry. He was never selfish or self-centered He never

worried But often he would pray to his Heavenly Father He never complained Furthermore,

Jesus loved his neighbor He was respectful toward Mary and Joseph He never harbored

hatred in his heart toward anyone He fed the hungry,

he healed the sick He never gossiped or lied but he always spoke the truth.

Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly for us and in our place.

Jesus loved you. He is your brother. He is your neighbor.

And he loved you so much that he willingly went to the cross in your place and for your sake.

And since we sin in thought, word, and deed, we were the ones who deserve to

be cursed. But Jesus was cursed in our place.

Jesus hung on the cross before God's wrath because of our sin.

This is love. The cross defines God's love for you, that Christ died for you.

He laid down his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

And he did this out of love for you.

And three days later, he rose from the dead and he lives forevermore.

Therefore, you are loved by God,

forgiven in Christ, and reconciled to the Father on account of Christ.

You are given the gift of faith. It's a gift.

And you believe that God is your creator and your redeemer.

And you believe in Christ as your one and only Savior. And you are saved through

faith in Christ. You are not saved by fulfilling the law.

Therefore, we love God because he first loved us.

Our love toward God is a response of his love that was first shown to us.

The gospel, not the law, gives us the desire and the strength to follow him.

We love God freely, not out of fear or coercion. We willingly and joyfully love

God with our whole being.

We love God. To love God is to walk in his ways, and it's not a burden.

It is a joy, a joy to follow Christ.

How do we love God?

Well, let's look at the first three commandments. We love God by not worshiping

idols, but by having a fear, love, and trust in him.

We love God by not misusing his name, but calling upon it in every trouble,

pray, praise, and give thanks.

We love God by not despising his word, but by gladly hearing it and attending

worship on a regular basis and receiving his gifts of salvation.

We do not love God so that he will bless us materially.

We are content with all that he has given to us. We do not love God.

We do not take the first move and love him first so that he then will love us in return.

No, he loves us unconditionally.

And we do not love God in order to earn some kind of favor with him.

There's no favor to earn.

He already is gracious and merciful toward us in Christ.

We are called not only to love God, we are also called to love one another.

God's love toward us motivates us to love one another.

And how do we love our neighbor?

Well, we can summarize commandments 4-10.

We love our neighbor by honoring parents and other authorities,

by helping our neighbor in his body, by supporting life, marriage, and family.

By helping our neighbor to protect

his property and income. We love our neighbor by speaking well of him.

We love one another by visiting the sick in the hospital or the lonely.

By praying for them. By helping them in times of need. And your closest neighbors are your family.

Your church family and then friends and those in the community.

Love toward God and love toward the neighbor go hand in hand.

You cannot have one without the other. These two tables go together.

The Pharisee thought that there's only one great commandment.

And he asked Jesus, what is the greatest commandment?

And Jesus basically said, well, there's not one great commandment.

There are two that go together and you can't separate them.

Love God and love one another. The one is like the other,

Our sinful flesh does not like the Ten Commandments But

they are good for us The commandments summarize God's

will for our lives And the well-being of others The commandments keep order

in family and society They are given for our safety and our protection They

teach us what to do and what not to do They teach us what is right and what

is wrong and what is true and what is false.

The unbelieving world wants no moral restrictions. They hate God and his law

and will do everything to persecute the Christian.

Deep down they are filled with hatred and evil. They refuse to see their own

sin and their need for a savior.

Pray for your enemies that they may be converted someday to faith in Christ.

God doesn't ask us to do the best we can. He doesn't grade on a curve.

He demands perfection. The standard is pretty high.

And because of our sinful nature, we are not able to keep God's law perfectly.

God's law then is a mirror that shows us our sin.

And we say, yes, that is what I have not done.

The truth is that because we have a sinful nature, we have failed to love our

Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and we have failed to love

our neighbor as ourselves.

We rebel against God's law. We want to do what we want to do regardless of what God says.

Dearly beloved in the Lord, we should always repent of our sins and seek God's forgiveness in Christ.

We should always confess our

sins and receive the forgiveness that God in Christ freely gives to us.

And the good news is that you were baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ.

You were given saving faith in Christ.

You could not do this by your own reason or strength. You could not believe

in Jesus Christ by your own reason or strength. but the Holy Spirit has called

you by the gospel and given you that free gift of faith.

You look to Christ alone as your Savior.

You trust in him as your refuge and strength. In Christ, you are forgiven.

And because Jesus lives, you

too shall live. And eternal life is yours through faith in Christ alone.

You have been given God's love and mercy in Christ. And this gospel is preached

into your ears, and it's also fed to you from this altar.

And from this altar, you receive, touch, and taste the very body and blood of

Christ for the forgiveness of all your sins.

As forgiven sinners, we delight in following God's word.

We love God because he first loved us.

We also gladly help the neighbor who is in

need Our love toward God and our love toward the neighbor Flows out of our heart

of faith We love not in order to be saved But we love because of the salvation

Which has been freely given to us in Christ When we love others We are reflecting God who is love,

So faith in Christ And love toward

God and one another Go together Faith believes in God's love for us,

and then this faith shows forth a love toward God and toward one another.

Thanks be to God. Amen.