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The following reading from the CONCORDIA edition of the Book of Concord is for the Ecclesiastes 5:10-20 for the Pentecost 21, series B, October 18, 2015. It is from Solid Declaration, Article II, pages 523-524. The desires of our heart are contrary to God's will and deceitful because they don't give us the lasting happiness we expect. Click here for the reading formatted for the back of a standard CPH bulletin. Pastor Doug May
God's Word testifies that the intellect, heart, and will of the natural, unregenerate person in divine things are turned entirely away from God. Also, a person is not only weak, incapable, unfit, and dead to good, but is also sadly perverted, infected, and corrupted by original sin so that he is entirely evil, perverse, and hostile to God by his nature and disposition. He is very strong, alive, and active in everything that is displeasing and contrary to God. For the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. (Genesis 8:21) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9) For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. (Romans 8:7) For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other. (Galatians 5:17) I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7:22-23) The natural or fleshly free will in St. Paul and in other regenerate people strives against God's Law, even after regeneration. (paragraphs 17-18)
These are excerpts from the Book of Concord.
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