One of These Little Ones Who Believe in Me

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 Rosebrook. The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, chapter 9, verses 38 through 15.

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Teacher, said John, we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop because he was not one of us.

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Do not stop him, Jesus said. No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me.

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For whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.

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And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.

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If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell where the fire never goes out.

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And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.

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And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

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Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?

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Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. In the name of Jesus.

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Are you guys awake? Amen. Let's try that again. I just want to make sure we're all here.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen. Oh, so much better. Okay. I had to say that.

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So this is an interesting text. In fact, this is just one of those bizarre texts.

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We all know some of the major feast days in Christianity as far as our church year goes.

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We've got Easter. We've got Christmas. We've got Good Friday. I'm thinking that we need to adopt the amputation

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Sunday. That's what today should be. Apparently, this is all about cutting off particular portions of your body and entering life maimed rather than going to hell.

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Well, there's a context in which that appears, and no, we will not be pulling out the hedge clippers at the end of the service.

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I just want to make you aware of that. Let's take a look at what's going on here. It's easy to kind of miss this.

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Our text begins, John says to Jesus, teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name.

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We tried to stop him because he was not following us or not one of us.

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Now I don't know what it is with the disciples. The casting out of demons thing is all of a sudden become like a football game.

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Okay. Now, if you remember the last time the disciples tried to score with the demonic football, they well fumbled on the one yard line and weren't able to score.

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Okay. Remember they went to cast out the demon and the demon said, no, I'm not going anywhere. And of course

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Jesus had to step in and get rid of that one and said that one only goes out by prayer. So now demons are once again the issue, but now we've got something interesting going on.

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We have a man, an unnamed man at that, who has cast out demons in the name of Jesus.

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And he's not been to seminary new. He's not one of the 12.

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He's not one of the seventies who's authorized this guy to go around casting out demons in the name of Jesus.

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He hasn't appeared before the synodical bureaucracy. He has not been examined.

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How on earth is he doing this? And so we told him to stop. Okay. And notice that Jesus does not say, good job, boys.

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How dare that guy step out in faith, trusting in my name without authorization from headquarters or the

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Pope and cast out demons. That's not what Jesus said, is it? Now by the way, there is another story in the

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Bible in Acts chapter 19 of people who tried to cast out demons in Jesus' name, but they didn't have faith, and which is kind of an important thing.

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How did this guy cast out these demons? Well, he had faith. He had simple childlike faith in Jesus.

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And that's how he was able to cast out the demon. He did it by faith. Jesus did it. But Jesus did it through him because the guy had faith.

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Now let me recount for you the story from Acts chapter 19, starting at verse 11 of some people who tried exorcism without actually believing in Jesus.

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That will never go well for anybody, by the way. And so the context begins at verse 11. Here's what it says. God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hand of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick and their diseases left them and evil spirits came out of them.

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Now a little aside here. There are televangelists today who will sell you a prayer hanky if you send them a seat offering.

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Don't buy that. You know, they say, see, look, it happened right here. So the apostle Paul did this. That means I can do it.

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Yeah, they're not the apostle Paul. You know, prayer hankies are not some kind of a sacrament, some kind of an ongoing thing.

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So the person saying that they'll send you a prayer hanky that they prayed over, yeah, save your money because the theology there is that God's going to bless you if you send them a seat offering.

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See the problem? Nowhere in scripture we're told that God's going to bless us if we send a seat offering to a televangelist.

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That's what we call a Ponzi scheme. All right, back to our text. So here's what it says next.

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Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the

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Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. Now notice it says they're Jewish exorcists. Doesn't say they're

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Jewish converts. They're still guys who don't believe Jesus is the

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Messiah. So they've run into a problem. They have somebody who needs to have a demon exercised from them.

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And so they decided, well, you know, nothing that we're trying is working. Why don't we try casting out this demon in the name of Jesus?

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And here's what happens. They undertook to invoke the name of Jesus over those who had the evil spirits.

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And they said, I adjure you by the name of Jesus, whom Paul proclaims. This is what they said.

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Get out of this guy. So seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.

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But the evil spirit answered them. And this is the big uh -oh moment. Jesus I know,

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Paul I recognize, but who are you? And you can hear the air leaving the room.

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And now here's what happens. So the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them, overpowered them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

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Seven guys just got a licking by a demon -possessed dude. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both

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Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon all of them, and the name of the Lord was extolled.

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So notice here. We have, well, people who don't believe in Jesus trying to cast out demons.

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And that's not going to go well because they don't have faith. But here we hear from our text that there was a guy casting out demons without authorization at that, and was successful in doing so, which tells us this.

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He has faith in Christ. That's it.

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So you know what that makes him? It makes him your brother. It makes him one of us.

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And so Jesus then goes on to say this. He says, Don't stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.

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For the one who is not against us is for us. Now this requires some careful exegesis.

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Jesus is not here saying that it doesn't matter what church you go to, what doctrine they teach, as long as somebody says the name of Jesus somewhere, that that's all that matters.

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That's not what Jesus is saying here. Notice he's saying whoever's not against us. And let me give you a cross -reference then.

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A cross -reference to this would be Luke 11, 23, where Jesus says whoever is not with me is against me.

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Whoever does not gather with me scatters. So here's the idea.

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And this is one that helps us in understanding how do we relate to our Christian brothers and sisters who attend other churches.

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If they have true faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and they trust that Jesus alone saves them, not their works, but Jesus only, they truly believe in him, they're your brother and sister in Christ.

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We are to be at peace with them in that sense. We're not to be against them as long as they're not against us.

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So the idea here is that this is calling for kind of an expansive view of Christian unity, but that also does not negate the importance of sound doctrine.

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Does that make sense? So this guy, you just have to think of him as a baby Christian.

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Has he been trained in all the finer points of Christian doctrine? Absolutely not. But he trusts in Christ.

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And Jesus even goes on to state that he says this, whoever, for truly I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

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Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

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Notice that that's in the context. Jesus' statement there, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, that's in the context of should we stop this guy from casting out demons?

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So notice the sin there that's then being referred to, the sin that Jesus is immediately thinking about is the sin of telling a

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Christian brother or sister, what you're doing is not the work of God. Stop what you're doing.

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You need our permission. You see what I'm saying? That would be to make this guy start to question and doubt his own faith in Christ.

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As if somehow, well I didn't realize I had to be worthy to believe in Jesus and to exercise authority or do a good work in his name.

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You see? You don't want to do that. In fact, Jesus makes that very clear here when he makes it clear that those, whoever believes in him is one of his little ones.

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And by the way, that's you and me. We're all his little ones. And notice how jealously

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Jesus guards and protects and threatens those who would cause his little ones to sin.

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Important thing for us to keep in mind. Now this does not negate the importance of sound doctrine.

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This does not negate what scripture also teaches that we are to not welcome those who preach false doctrine.

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Scripture is very clear on this and let me give you a couple of passages to kind of back this up. So the idea here is this is not saying, well that means it doesn't matter what anybody believes.

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No, no, no, no. That's not what Jesus is saying. Second John. Second John verses 1 through 11.

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The apostle John writes to a lady who is called to the elder and to the elect lady and her children.

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Elect lady here would be, this is a lady who has a church that meets in her home.

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Now back before Christianity was legal, back in the early days of Christianity when the apostles were still on the earth, the

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Roman authorities kind of thought that Christianity was a sect of Judaism. But they didn't have property.

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They didn't have churches like we have today. They didn't have facilities they can go to that were permanent, specifically dedicated for worship space.

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And so the church would meet in the catacombs, they would meet in off places. They would oftentimes, if there was a wealthy benefactor who had a home, who had a courtyard or a big enough place to where a few people can gather, they would meet in their home.

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And so John is writing to a lady where a church meets in her home and he says this, to the elder, to the elect lady and her children whom

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I love in the truth and not only I but also all those who know the truth because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.

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Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the

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Father's Son in true love. I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the

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Father. And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

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And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

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For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.

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Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have worked for but may win a full reward.

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Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have

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God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

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If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house. In this context, that's referring to the church.

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If somebody does not believe this doctrine, you don't receive them in the church. Don't give him a greeting in the church, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

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So the idea is this. Doctrine matters. Those who are bringing false doctrine, we don't welcome them here at our church.

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We don't give them the pulpit. And we have to oppose false doctrine.

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And so you'll notice here that Jesus in Luke 11, like I said, whoever is not with me is against me.

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Whoever does not gather with me scatters. So the one who is against Christ is the one who is against the teaching of Christ.

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For Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep and guard my word. The one who is against Jesus doesn't keep, doesn't guard

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Jesus' words, but throws it off to the side and replaces it with their own words. We are to be careful about these people.

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But that does not mean that we do not recognize that outside of this congregation, outside of the

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AALC, outside of confessional Lutheranism, that there are Christians everywhere in all kinds of churches.

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And oftentimes we refer to those who are Christians, who attend a church where the truth is not clearly taught, we call that, the term we use is we call it the felicitous inconsistency.

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They go to church and they'll say, well, you know, I didn't necessarily agree with what the pastor said.

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I just believe that Jesus bled and died for my sins. That's all I know. I don't know what he was talking about.

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It's this weird thing. And some of you come out of churches that you spent some time in where the truth was not taught.

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No, ultimately you needed to leave. And for us to say you weren't Christians when you were there would have been unchristian of us.

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Because you simply trusted Christ, even in the midst of all the false doctrine you were being taught, you simply trusted

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Christ. So the idea here is that we must recognize that Christians are everywhere, attending good churches, bad churches, and truth matters, and truth divides.

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So on the one hand, paradoxically, we are to preach the truth, rebuke those who teach false doctrine, and at the same time that rebuke should not make that person question whether they are a

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Christian if they're truly trusting Christ. That's to cause a little one of Christ to stumble, and we don't want to do that.

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So our rebukes and our corrections and our challenges doctrinally must be salted with the gospel.

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And that's what Jesus is talking about when he gets to the salt, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So watch what happens.

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Jesus gives kind of a four -fold warning about causing a believer to stumble. He said it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

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Jesus understood how the mafia would operate long before the mafia was around. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

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It's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go into hell to the unquenchable fire. Now notice the context in which

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Jesus is saying this. So here's the idea, if you want to get to it.

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The sin that's being talked about here is control freakiness. Our sinful

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Adam, we're all control freaks. We want to be in control, and we want to even control those who are all claiming to be

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Christians. We want to have control over them and what they're doing, and they have to come seek our approval to do what they're doing.

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Jesus said, eh. That's causing them to stumble. It would be better if you had the mafia kill you in the river.

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It would be better for you to cut off your hands or your feet or gouge out your eyes, which, by the way, cutting off members of your body isn't going to solve the problem.

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It really isn't, and Jesus is really not literally telling you to do this. There was a church father by the name of Origen, and he had, well, a problem with lust.

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He lusted after women that were, well, not his wife. And so his solution to the problem was to take this passage literally, and he made himself into a eunuch.

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And shock of all shocks, it didn't solve the problem. And here's the reason why.

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Because sin doesn't start in your hand, doesn't start in your feet. Sin doesn't begin in your eyeballs.

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Sin begins in your heart. That's the seed of sin. And so each of us,

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Jesus says, everyone will be salted with fire. And what is the salt that he's talking about there?

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It's the salt of the gospel. And the fire here is the fire of the Holy Spirit. It is the gospel that teaches us, despite the fact that our sinful heart causes our hands and feet and eyes to sin, that Christ has bled and died for all of our sins.

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He calls us to repent, to recognize our weakness, to recognize our tendencies towards being a control freak, to try to control even the

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Spirit of God, to repent, to be forgiven, and to see ourselves in all those who confess

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Christ as Lord and Savior, who believe that they are saved by grace through faith alone, to see them as Christ's precious little ones, those who believe in him.

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We are Christ's precious little ones, and so are they, even if their theology is a little off.

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Instead, we are to love them and correct them and teach them the truth. But everyone will be salted with fire, and that's the gospel.

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Salt is good, but if salt is lost, it's saltiness. How will you make it salty again? And the answer is you can't.

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Saltless salt. I think God likes salt, by the way. You'll notice that salt makes everything good.

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Have you ever tried mashed potatoes without salt? What a boring experience that is, right?

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Have you ever tried a hamburger without salt? Salt is an amazing thing. Even God likes salt, by the way, because you read regarding the

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Old Testament sacrifices, all of those animals after they were killed and before they were put on the fire, you know what they had put on them?

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Salt. God likes salt. You know, there's something going on there. So salt is good.

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But if the salt is lost as saltiness, how will you make it salty? So how are we as Christians salty?

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It's because of the gospel, the forgiveness of sins. Christians taste like no other people who are religious.

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Not because of our judgmentalism. Judgmentalism doesn't make you salty. What is it that makes you salty?

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You forgive because you are forgiven. That's what makes you salty. And this is through the

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Holy Spirit that makes you salty. So Jesus says, have salt in yourselves and says, be at peace with one another, which is further proof that this is all about the gospel.

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Because how is it that we can have peace with other people? Quite simply because we have peace with God because of everything that Christ has done for us, bleeding and dying for us, being pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.

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That is what makes us salty, the gospel, and makes it possible for us to be at peace with one another, even those who haven't been to our seminary.

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Even those who don't exactly believe the way we do. Even those who have simple, childlike faith in Christ and say,

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I don't know about all that other stuff. I just believe in Jesus. Somebody who understands the gospel, believes that Christ has bled and died for them is not trying to earn their way to heaven or believing in a false gospel or a false

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Christ or a false God. They're your brother and sister, regardless of which house of worship they're in.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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