1 Peter 5:10-11 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

1. When we encounter God's word we hear God having two things to say to us:

a. __________ - Here God tells us how He has __________ us to live and He reveals our __________.

b. __________ - Here God tells us that He __________ and __________ us for Jesus sake.

2. Too often we turn the beatitudes into ______________ (law) when in reality they are purely a __________ from God (gospel).

3. The gospel in this text is that those who are found ______ ____________ are those who are __________.

Scripture Readings
Micah 6:1-8
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12

Take It With You!

Here we will offer thoughts and meditations on the message to help us as we contemplate and discuss and wrestle with what we are hearing.

1. We believe, teach, and confess that the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is to be maintained in the Church with great diligence as an especially brilliant light, by which, according to the admonition of St. Paul, the Word of God is rightly divided.

2. We believe, teach, and confess that the Law is properly a divine doctrine, which teaches what is right and pleasing to God, and reproves everything that is sin and contrary to God's will.

3. For this reason, then, everything that reproves sin is, and belongs to, the preaching of the Law.

4. But the Gospel is properly such a doctrine as teaches what man who has not observed the Law, and therefore is condemned by it, is to believe, namely, that Christ has expiated and made satisfaction for all sins, and has obtained and acquired for him, without any merit of his [no merit of the sinner intervening], forgiveness of sins, righteousness that avails before God, and eternal life.

Formula of Concord: The Epitome, Article V, Concerning Law and Gospel