No Other Word Than This

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
JAMES 4:7
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No Other Word Than This
When you hear the Word of Christ, therefore, you must listen to it as nothing else than the Word of God, and look at it as though there were no other word in heaven or on earth than this. The sweet and delightful Word that is pronounced over me on earth is spoken over me also in heaven. Therefore I must not suppose that God is angry with me. For here I hear His Word, which speaks of nothing but grace, love, consolation, help, and bliss, to preserve me from despair and fear. This serves not only to afford me the comforting assurance that I am safe before God and that there is nothing but grace with Him; it also enables me to resist the devil when he wants to tempt and try me with terror and sorrow or perhaps with a different doctrine. Then I can tell him to shut his lying and blasphemous mouth, and I can say: "Here I have the Word God speaks in heaven before all the angels and on earth before all creatures and men; to this I will hold, and I will listen to no other word." . . . Such a conviction helps immeasurably to produce cheerfulness, boldness, and courage over against all sorts of trials as well as against the devil and the world.

From Sermons on the Gospel of John, Chapters 14-16 (Luther's Works 24:166)
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