Isaiah's Prayer of Judgement

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the 11th chapter.

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Glory to you, O Lord. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the

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Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat.

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Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? Say, The Lord has need of it, and will send it back here immediately.

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And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it.

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And some of those standing there said to them, What are you doing, untying the colt? And they told them what

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Jesus had said, and they let him go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it.

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And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.

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And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the

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Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David! Hosanna in the highest! This is the gospel of the

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Lord, in the name of Jesus. A little bit of background history.

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Weather is a big deal. But I grew up in Southern California, raised my kids in Southern California, and Southern Californians don't really get much weather.

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The best way I can put it is that when it dips down into the 50s, out come the parkas.

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I'm not making this up, I know it sounds crazy to you all. And we would get the occasional thunderstorm, but the one thing

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I never experienced until I moved to the Midwest, moved my family to Indiana, was a good rip -roaring

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Midwest supercell thunderstorm. You know what I'm talking about, right? The ones that roll in on those hot afternoons, and when you can see them coming, it's like a freight train.

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And it's roiling and broiling, and it's just tempestuous, and these things tower up in the sky, you get these wall clouds, and then when they get overhead, they get that sickening green color, and you sit there and go, oh my goodness, the aliens are going to land, the mothership is hiding inside of there, right?

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Think of it this way. Supercell thunderstorms are kind of the closest thing that I can think of, visually, of what it would be like if God came in power and might and decided that he was going to give us all what we deserve.

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Frightening, right? And one of the things I absolutely hate is when those things start rolling in, the winds come in, and have you ever noticed that being a

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Christian doesn't give you an inside track with God as far as the destruction that happens because of these things? I remember a few years back,

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Barb and I were getting ready to go to church, I had just finished putting the bulletins together, it was a

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Sunday morning, and right after I had taken my shower and was getting dressed, a big supercell came rushing in in the morning, and the winds were so out of control,

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I was looking outside, it was raining, not cats and dogs, those are too small, it was raining rats and sheep,

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I mean, and there were horses and cows and monkeys, everything was falling out of the sky, and the winds were so strong that one of my trees got knocked down into my neighbor's yard.

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And you're sitting there going, really, God, right before church? But this is the picture.

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We're going to take a look at Isaiah's prayer here in Isaiah 64, and we're going to note something here, that this prayer is an interesting prayer because it begins on one note, but ends on a completely different one, one that is more in accord with the gospel itself.

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And so Isaiah, Isaiah 64, in this prayer that he offers up to Yahweh, he says,

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O that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence, as when fire kindles brushwood, and fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations might tremble at your presence.

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A couple of thoughts about this, I mean, that's quite the picture here, that's quite the thing you pray for. Now, be careful what you pray for.

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I remember years and years ago, I had a pastor who said, be sure that you don't pray that God come and destroy all the evildoers, because if he were to do that, you would get caught up in the melee.

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Not bad advice. But you'll note here, here, he begins by praying that God would come and shake and tremble his adversaries, that they would tremble at his presence, and it's a frightening thing when you consider it, because this is the picture of God's wrath that we can kind of relate to, and deep down in your conscience, in fact, maybe not even that deep at all, just scratch the surface a little bit, this is what you expect

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God to do when you stand before him, to make you shake and to quake, kind of like the Wizard of Oz, you know, there's the wizard,

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I am the great and powerful and mighty Oz, right? That's what we expect

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God to be like. But then this prayer takes an interesting turn.

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In verse three, you begin to see a little bit of a change, and I'll explain it here, it's very subtle, but the turn definitely takes place here in verse three.

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When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

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What is he referring to here? Because this is a different thing altogether. Yes, the mountains are quaking at the presence of God, but here

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Isaiah is noting that God is going to do awesome things that we did not look for. Consider our gospel text in this context then, because you'll note that here we again start the year off with this

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Palm Sunday text of Jesus Christ, the Son of God in human flesh.

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His presence is here on earth, and you'll note that in this triumphal entry, he's not riding a war horse, he's not wearing military camo and fatigues, he does not have an

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AR -15 slung on his back, he doesn't have an army following him with swords, bayonets, or machine guns or anything like this, the tanks aren't rolling in, you would expect that to be kind of the case, right?

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I mean, Jesus is going to come and he's going to conquer, he's going to establish his kingdom, and the way you establish your kingdom is by getting rid of evil.

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That means getting rid of the evildoer. But here's the thing, Scripture admonishes us in light of the gospel to overcome evil with good.

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And so you'll note the thing we didn't expect, the thing we didn't see coming, the thing that we didn't understand would happen is that God, rather than rolling in with the angel armies and subduing and getting rid of all the evil in the world, instead

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Jesus rolls in quietly, confidently, receiving praise and hosannas, riding a colt the foal of a donkey, and make no mistake about it, he is going into the devil's lair at this point, and nothing is keeping him back.

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And in less than a week, he will be nailed to a cross, and there he will bleed, languish, and die.

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But remember when Christ cried out from the cross, it is finished. What happened? There was a great earthquake.

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The earth shook at his presence. And I think this is what Isaiah is really hinting at here in verse 3, when you did awesome things that we did not look for.

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We didn't look for a king to come in riding lowly on a colt the foal of a donkey, instead we look for something else.

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When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down and the mountains quaked at your presence, indeed they did while Christ bled for your sins on the cross.

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From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear. No eye has seen a God besides you.

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And listen to these comforting words, a God who acts for those who wait for him.

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And that's what we are all doing now, waiting, waiting for his second advent while we remember his first.

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Verse 5, you meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways, behold you were angry and we sinned, and in our sins we have been a long time, shall we be saved?

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I can say this with certainty, I've been alive for 52 years, and all 52 years

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I've been sinning. All 52. And you say, well Pastor Rosebro, didn't you stop sinning when you were installed here in 2014?

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Far from it. And so it's a great question. How old are you?

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Some of you guys are just way too young, I feel like you haven't suffered enough. Those of you who have been around for a while, you can say along with me, yeah,

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I've been sinning a long time. And the question is, shall we be saved?

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We've gotten good at sinning, haven't we? We make excuses for it, we perfect our skill at it, we think about it in the morning, we think about it in the evening, we think about it throughout the day.

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And the question is, shall we be saved? Or shall we instead have God come and have us quake at His presence?

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But the question is answered throughout all the scriptures, yeah, we shall be saved. Not because of anything that we have done, but because of everything that Christ has done for us.

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Again, salvation is a gift, and it is the glory of God to forgive our sins. It is really, truly

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His glory to do so. And then, in this context then, one of the things that Isaiah does, and I'm going to say this up front, he does this very graphically in the

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Hebrew. And I always scratch my head when I get to an English translation like this, knowing what the

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Hebrew is behind it, and saying, what were the English translators thinking? Are they somehow trying to keep people from being scandalized by how blunt

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God's word is? But it is extremely graphic and blunt, so all

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I can say in advance is, since you're all English speakers, brace yourself. I don't think you're ready for this, but we'll see.

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Isaiah then takes away any pretenses of self -righteousness.

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Oftentimes we as human beings think that we can bargain with God. Well, God, if you help me out of this scrape this time,

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God, then I promise that I'm going to pray two times a week and that I'm going to give at least $5 in the kettle for the

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Salvation Army this year when I walk out of Walmart. Or maybe you say, I'm going to read my

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Bible mostly every day in the year 2021. I promise, God, I'm going to really do all of this.

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And when you say things like this, you somehow think that your good works are a currency, that they have certain specific value to God, that you can exchange them for things and favors from God.

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What a foolish thing to do. What a foolish, utterly foolish, nonsensical thing to do.

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Do you really think that your works have that kind of value?

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Let's take a look at what Isaiah says, verse 6. We have all, that includes

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Isaiah, includes me and you, we have all become like one who is unclean. All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

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What a completely sanitary and safe translation. Let me give you what the

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Hebrew says here. All of our righteous deeds are like used women's feminine napkins, maxi pads, used up ones.

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That's what our good works are like. And I assure you, no one's paying for those things.

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So you think you can save yourself by your good deeds? And here's the thing, even as Christians, we still have our sinful nature and our best good works on our holiest day are still tainted with sin and still have that blood on them.

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Do you think that you can save yourself by your good works? No. I told you it was graphic, and indeed it is.

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So don't think for a second that you can, because you can't. And then he goes on. We all fade like a leaf.

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Our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. And that's what our iniquities do.

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They take us away from God. They take us away from each other. You'll note that the two great commands of Scripture are to love the

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Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. But when you are sinning, who are you thinking about?

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You're thinking about old number one. You're thinking about me, me, myself, and I, the unholy trinity, right?

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And that's the thing. Your sin is slavery. It's bondage to the devil, bondage to death, bondage to yourself.

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And iniquities are not something that are kind. They drag you away.

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Always marvel at the person who says, so Chris, you think that you can be totally saved by what

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Jesus has done and not by your good works? Well, if the gospel is that free, then you're saying I can go and sin all

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I want. You moron. You think sin is freedom? It's not freedom at all.

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Our iniquities take us away. And then he goes on. There's no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you.

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You have hidden your face from us. You've made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

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Sin is its own punishment at times. And now here comes the great conjunction.

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Conjunction, junction, what's that function, right? But, but now, oh

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Lord, you are our father. We are the clay. You are our potter.

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And we are the work of your hand. How is this possible? By the way, this is a description that the very thing that the

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Apostle Paul is getting at in Ephesians chapter two. What does Paul say? He says that we are saved by grace through faith.

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It is not our own doing. It is the gift of God so that no one may boast.

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And then he goes on to say this. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

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And so even Isaiah understands this simple fact that when it comes to self -righteousness, you cannot bargain with God with your good works.

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But because God now is our father, because we have received in Christ the spirit of adoption, and again, the verb there is received.

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We have received the spirit of adoption. Now we can cry out to God as our father, knowing that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works and God is the one who then skillfully, like a master potter, forms us into what we are to be so that we may do the works that God has created us in Christ Jesus to do.

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And all of this is by grace through faith. Here again, portions of our epistle text where Paul says to the church in Corinth, he says,

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Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You've probably read it a hundred times, maybe a thousand times in scripture.

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You've heard it from this pulpit many times from the epistle readings. Grace to you and peace. But that's the thing.

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That's what we receive from God because of Christ. We receive grace.

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We receive mercy. And because of that, we now have shalom. We have peace with God and we have peace with God our father and the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul goes on to then describe that what we are doing as Christians is we are waiting now for the revealing of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. But in the waiting, then watch how the verbs work. Christ will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. See, God in his mercy has not only sent Christ to bleed and die for you, but he's also through the

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Holy Spirit sustaining us as guiltless, even though we are as guilt ridden as they get.

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But the reason we are guiltless is because Christ, when he entered into Jerusalem, he eventually that same week went to the cross and died so that we can become guiltless.

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He became the guilty sinner and in him we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and rather than being guilty sinners in dire, dire risk of experiencing

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God's judgment and wrath. Instead, God sees us as guiltless, as forgiven, pardoned, reconciled.

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So that he then sustains us as guiltless until Christ returns. In fact, it says, God is faithful.

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He is the one by whom you were called into the fellowship of the son Jesus Christ our Lord. So then coming back to this great prayer of judgment of Isaiah, note where he goes next.

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Verse 9. So be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever.

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Behold, please look, we are all your people. And it is only somebody who trusts in Jesus who can pray such a bold prayer.

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If you do not believe in Jesus, then how dare you call God your father? You're still under the works and the dominion of darkness.

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But we who are in Christ know this then. We are now the children of God. God is truly our father and we can boldly and humbly pray.

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Please God, be not so terribly angry and do not remember our iniquity forever. In fact,

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God not only doesn't remember our iniquity forever, he doesn't remember it now. All who are in Christ, scripture says,

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God has taken your sin and he has cast it as far away as the east is from the west. I don't know how far that is, but it sounds like it's really far.

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Like really, really, really far. And so note then we can trust this

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God that he does not remember our iniquity and we can say to him, we are truly your people.

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Why? Because you've made us your people. So as we begin this penitential season, the season of advent, the season where we remember

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Christ has come in human flesh to bleed and to die for our sins, to reconcile us to God so that we can be adopted as a son set free from the dominion of darkness and have and receive eternal life as a gift.

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Let us again consider the prayer that we prayed earlier today. Let me read it again. Stir up your power,

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O Lord, and come so that by your protection, we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins.

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And that's the point. Our sins really do put us in deep peril. So please,

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God, rescue us from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by your mighty hand of deliverance.

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For you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever in the name of Jesus.

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Amen. Oslo, Minnesota, 56744.

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