Welcome to Our Savior Muscatine’s weekly Matins Service. The Scripture verse for the day is 2Peter 2:1-22 on false prophets and teachers. The catechetical lesson a reading from the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord article XI paragraphs 39-42 about the effectiveness of God’s Word. In Christ, Pastor Pautz.

The Order of Matins

Lutheran Service Book (LSB) hymnal

You may purchase a copy here.or stop in for a copy to borrow.

The Order of Matins p. 219

The Psalmody p.220

The Reading 2 Peter 2:1-21  

The Responsory p. 221

The Catechetical Instruction

The Canticle - Te Deum  p.223

The Prayer p. 227

Benedicamus p. 228

Benediction         

The Catechetical Writing from the Formula of Concord Solid Declaration XI 39-42

The Holy Spirit most certainly wills to be present, effective, and active through the Word as it is preached, heard, and considered. Therefore, there is no basis at all for the opinion described above, that those who have contempt for the Word of God, push it away, slander it, or persecute it can be considered to be the elect (Matt. 22[:5*, 6*]; Acts 15 [= 13:40–41*, 45*]), or those who harden their hearts when they hear the Word (Heb. 4[:2*, 7*]), or those who resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 7[:51*]), or those who persist in sin without repentance (Luke 14[:18*, 24*]), or those who do not truly believe in Christ (Mark 16[:16*]), or those who present only an external appearance of being believers (Matt. 7[:15*] and 22[:12*]), or those who seek another way to righteousness and salvation apart from Christ (Rom. 9[:31*]). [40] crOn the contrary, as God preordained in his counsel that the Holy Spirit would call, enlighten, and convert the elect through the Word and that he would justify and save all those who accept Christ through true faith, so also he concluded in his counsel that he would harden, reject, and condemn all those whom he called through the Word when they spurn the Word and resist and persist in resisting the Holy Spirit, who wants to exercise his power in them and be efficacious through the Word. This is why “many are called and few are chosen” [Matt. 22:14*].

[41] cFor few accept the Word and follow it. Most have contempt for the Word and do not want to come to the wedding [Matt. 22:1–6*; Luke 14:18–20*]. God’s foreknowledge is not the cause of such contempt for the Word; the cause is instead the perverted human will, which rejects or perverts the means and instruments of the Holy Spirit that God presents to the will when he calls: it then resists the Holy Spirit, who wants to exercise his power and be efficacious through the Word, as Christ said, “How often have I desired to gather you, and you were not willing” (Matt. 23[:37*]).

[42] crThus, many accept the Word “with joy,” but thereafter they “fall away” (Luke 8[:13*]). The cause for this, however, is not that God did not want to give the grace of perseverance to those in whom he had “begun the good work,” for that is contrary to St. Paul in Philippians 1[:6*]. Rather, the cause is that they willfully turn themselves away again from God’s holy command and grieve and embitter the Holy Spirit; they entangle themselves once again in the defilements of the world and redecorate their hearts as a haven for the devil, so that their last state is worst than their first (2 Peter 2[:10*, 20*]; Luke 11[:24*, 25*]; Heb. 10[:26*; cf. Eph. 4:30*]).

Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 647–648.