Sharper Iron from KFUO Radio

The LORD calls His people to look to the rock from which they were hewn, recalling how the LORD their Rock brought a great nation from the dead rock Abraham. Therefore, Israel must listen to the LORD’s Word, as His righteousness and salvation come near to them. He works this salvation through His holy arm, which is awakened to deliver His people yet again. The LORD is the One who comforts His peop...

The LORD’s Servant speaks again; He does so as One whose tongue and ear have been taught by the LORD. As the Servant speaks faithfully, His Word sustains those who are weary. As the Servant remains faithful to the LORD, He begins to suffer physical pain and public shame. Because He knows that the LORD will vindicate Him, the Servant does not fear. The LORD’s people are called to respond to the wor...

When the LORD’s people claim that He has forgotten them, He proclaims that His memory of them is even greater than that of a mother for her child. He has even engraved them on the palms of His hands. He promises to enlarge the people of Israel so that they will need more room for everyone; this is His doing to draw the nations to Himself through the signal of His Son’s cross. The LORD is able to r...

The Servant of the LORD speaks to the ends of the earth, for He is the One set apart by the LORD from the womb to speak His Word faithfully. Even as He laments in the midst of the suffering He endures, the Servant trusts the LORD to vindicate Him. The LORD commissions His servant not only to bring back the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but also to be a light to all nations. The LORD declares...

This glorious Palm Sunday hymn places us in the procession of palms to sing praises to Jesus, who entered into Jerusalem as the King of Israel. As we worship Him on earth, we join in the worship of the angels in heaven and the song of all creation that is offered to Christ as the Redeemer of all. As we sing the same songs as the Palm Sunday crowds so long ago, this is more than a historical reenac...

The LORD again calls His people to listen. Although Israel has not lived up to her name, the LORD has lived up to His; He is faithful to His promises. No idols can do what He has done. Although His people have not heard in the past, He speaks to them again so that they will listen. The LORD promises that He will bring a deliverer to rescue Israel from Babylon. However, when that Deliverer speaks,...

Babylon will receive the same judgment as its idols; Babylon will be brought low. Their earthly glory will be turned to shame at the hand of the LORD, who is the Redeemer of His people Israel. Though the LORD had made use of Babylon to carry out His righteous anger against His people, Babylon went too far. Babylon became proud and considered herself a god above all others. The LORD dares Babylon t...

The idols of Babylon are powerless to deliver anyone from their burdens. Instead, the idols of Babylon must be carried around as burdens themselves. Therefore, the LORD calls to His people to listen to Him who has carried them from their beginning to their end. No god can be compared to the LORD; idols cannot move or answer any prayer. Therefore, Israel must remember the LORD and stand firm in fai...

The LORD has repeatedly declared that He alone knows and accomplishes what will come in the future. He provides further evidence of that reality by naming the Persian king, Cyrus, over one hundred years ahead of time. Through Cyrus, the LORD will deliver His people from Babylon, so that all would know that the LORD alone is God. He is the One who guides and directs all things, even when His ways a...

This marvelous hymn helps us to rejoice in the reality of God's love for us sinners. Through Christ's death, God loves us to the uttermost, even though we were loveless and undeserving. The hymn traces the way that Jesus humbled Himself by taking on our humanity and suffering at the hands of the very people He had come to save. Though Jesus did not deserve such treatment, He willingly endured His...

The LORD tells His people to listen, for He has formed them from the womb. They need not fear, as the LORD brings even Gentiles to faith in Him so that they see along with Israel that the LORD is the only God who declares and accomplishes what is to come. Isaiah exposes the foolishness of idolatry, as if a statue fashioned by a man could ever be worshiped as almighty. Those who worship idols are l...

The LORD calls out to His people to take away their fear. Even in exile, He is with them as their God and King; He will gather His people together whom He has formed and created. The nations are put on trial, but the LORD brings forth Israel as the witness to His saving acts. Their very existence proves that He is the only Savior and that idols must fail. As He once made a way through the sea to d...

The work of the Servant of the LORD brings singing. The choir grows throughout creation and to the ends of the earth as praises resound for what God has done. He shouts aloud in victory like a mighty warrior or a woman in labor, for His deliverance is here. He guides those who are blind and opens their eyes who have been blinded by idolatry. The shocking reality is that it is God’s own people Isra...

The LORD brings forth His chosen and beloved servant. Although Israel and others have been called the LORD’s servants, the Servant described here is finally Jesus. St. Matthew and the other evangelists quote from this text and allude to it so that we might see Jesus fulfilling it in His Baptism, in His ministry of healing and preaching, in His crucifixion, and in His resurrection. As the One who b...

This Lenten hymn helps us to give thanks for all of the benefits that Jesus has won for us by His suffering and death in our place. Throughout the hymn, numerous pictures are used to help us see the fullness of the Gospel. Christ has accomplished the great exchange for us in so many ways. He was bound to set us free. He was wounded to heal us. He took our curse to give us His blessing. He received...

The LORD calls the nations and their idols into the courtroom and challenges to bring forth any compelling testimony. Can idols tell what things will happen in the future and bring those things to be? Can idols correctly interpret all of history? Can idols do anything at all? The LORD gives the answer: “No! Idols are nothing, and all who trust in them are an abomination.” The LORD then provides te...

The nations have not heeded the LORD’s call to repentance over idolatry, and so He turns to strengthen His people Israel as His servant. They need not fear, because the LORD is their God who defeats the enemies who strive against them. Though Israel has been a helpless worm, the LORD promises His help and deliverance. He will answer His people’s prayers and will not forsake them, so that they will...

The LORD calls even the coastlands to hear the testimony of who He is. As evidence, the LORD presents Himself as the One who stirs up someone from the east who will be victorious at every turn. Although Cyrus of Persia will fulfill this promise in part, ultimately, the LORD speaks here of Jesus Christ, our Savior. He is the first and the last who rules over all nations in every generation. The nat...

The LORD makes it plain that He alone has created and sustains all things. No one showed Him how to do His work. The nations are nothing before the LORD, and idols are human creations that have no power to move. The LORD alone rules over all creation and over all human empires; no one can compare to Him. Therefore, His people must not think that He is unaware of their way. He is the everlasting Go...

This Lenten hymn helps us to meditate on the magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice for us in fulfillment of all the Old Testament sacrifices. The blood of bulls and goats all alone could not atone for human sin; only the divine blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, can give us peace. For that reason, we go to Christ in repentance and lay our hands on Him as the scapegoat so that He takes our sins away...

To the Babylonian exiles, the LORD has a word of double comfort. Their warfare is over; their sins are forgiven. A voice crying in the wilderness first announces this good news, preparing the way for the LORD to come to His repentant people. This good news is ultimately for all flesh, so that they would see the LORD’s glory revealed. Although people are here today and gone tomorrow, the LORD’s Wor...

Isaiah had an extensive ministry as a prophet to the people of Judah, proclaiming God’s Word under the reigns of four kings. He was called into the heavenly throne room of the Holy One of Israel. There, the LORD absolved Isaiah of his sin and sent him as a proclaimer of His Word. Isaiah’s preaching spanned key historical events, as he proclaimed God’s Word in the midst of Assyrian dominance of his...

"The Fifth Evangelist” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through Isaiah 40-66. Though Isaiah lived one hundred years beforehand, he writes to the people of God in exile in Babylon to assure them that their God reigns and will rescue them through the work of His servant. These promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, whose work Isaiah proclaims vividly seven hundred years beforehand. Sharper Iro...

Although most of the letter to the Galatians was physically written down by a scribe according to St. Paul’s dictation, the Apostle now picks up the pen himself to write the conclusion of the letter. His large letters authenticate the letter as coming from him, as he emphasizes once more to the Galatians the necessity of holding onto the true Gospel. Those who insist upon circumcision only want to...

St. Paul calls the Galatians to care for each other when sin rears its head within the congregation. The goal of calling a brother to repentance is restoration. Those who exercise such care for others should exercise appropriate care themselves, lest they deceive themselves and fall into their own unrepentant sin. The standard for the whole congregation is the Law of God, not sinful comparisons to...