Walking As Children of Light

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.

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John chapter 6 verses 51 through 69. I am the living bread that came down from heaven if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.

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This bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. Well then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves.

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How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth unless you eat the flesh of the

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Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

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For my flesh is real food, my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.

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Just as the Living Father sent me and I live because of the Father so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

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This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.

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He said this while teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. On hearing it many of his disciples said this is a hard teaching and who can accept it.

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Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this Jesus said to them, does this offend you? What if you see the

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Son of Man ascend to where he was before? The Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing.

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The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.

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For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, this is why

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I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him. And from this time many of his disciples turned back and they no longer followed him.

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Do you want to leave too? Jesus asked the twelve. Simon Peter answered him,

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Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the

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Holy One of God. In the name of Jesus. Alright so our text starts in an awkward spot.

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We're gonna be looking at our epistle text today. Two weeks ago we preached on the Lord's Supper, last week we preached on our Old Testament text, filled it in with a little bit of the backstory and noted the fact that the journey is too difficult for Elijah and the journey is way too difficult for us as well and Christ cares for us and feeds us.

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Today we're going to be talking about something that in some Lutheran circles oddly enough is not discussed.

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It's a weird thing and I wish I could say I understand why it is not discussed but it's the issue of what is a good work?

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How do we as Christians live now that we are in Christ? And it might be due to the fact that there's a lot of really bad preaching on good works and bad preaching mixes

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God's law with the gospel and you don't want to mix the two. You can't mix them because you get something different.

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Just like if you were a painter, you know, you got the color blue, you got the color yellow, they're wonderful colors, but as soon as you mix them you have neither blue nor yellow, you have green.

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We have God's law, we have the gospel, and when you mix them together you no longer have the gospel or the law, you have galospel and there's a bad, toxic, poisonous substance.

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And galospel sounds something like this, if you are a Christian, if you don't think that you should be doing good works, well

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I've got news for you, you're not even going to heaven unless you good works, do good works because they're necessary for salvation.

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And you sit there and you do this with that kind of preaching. You sit there and you take an inventory of your life and you sit there and go,

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I don't know if I've done enough. I don't know if I'm good enough. I don't know if I've...

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how many good works do I need to do? 10 a day? 15? 20? What's gonna make

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God happy? I don't want to have to stand before God and go, ah, I don't have enough good works, because then he's gonna say, well, to hell with you.

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Don't want to hear God say that. And see, what happens is if you make it so that your right standing before God is dependent upon your good works, you're confusing law and gospel.

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The law can't save you. Now, it could if, and there's a big if there, huge if, may

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I take the letter if, like Sesame Street size, big foam if, right? Over here.

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You could be saved by the law if you, from the moment you were conceived until the moment you drew your last breath, never sinned once.

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Anyone here done that? Yeah, okay.

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For the rest of us, there's plan B. Plan B is this. Christ is conceived and born of the

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Virgin Mary, and he lives a sinless life under the law in your place.

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And your sin is placed on him, on the cross, and when you're brought to penitent faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, his perfect, sinless, righteous life is imputed to you as if you lived it.

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Do you like plan B? Yeah, plan B sounds pretty good. Now, here's the thing about plan B. It's 100 % gift.

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How many of you, at Christmastime, after opening up your presents, go and find the receipts and say,

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Mom, how much do I owe you for all of this? It looks like that came to 300. Whoa, 300 this year. Mom, here's a check, you know.

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Any of you pay your parents back for the Christmas gifts you get from them? Of course not. It's a gift.

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So here's the thing. If you're gonna rightly understand good works, you first and foremost must get this.

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The law doesn't save you. The law shows you your sin, but the law also shows you what a good work is.

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If you are in Christ, then you are a new creation. You truly have a new nature, and it is

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God's will for you to do good works. Not so that you can be saved, you do good works because you are saved.

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Does that make sense? If we're gonna talk about good works, we're going to put them in the right categories. We're not gonna mix law and gospel and like I said, that's a toxic substance, and it kills souls.

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So let's take a look at the beginning portion of our Epistle text, which starts in an odd place.

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Here's what it says, Ephesians chapter 5, verse 6. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

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And all of you should be saying, what things? What things is he talking about?

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Well, I'm glad you asked. And so, with your permission, I'd like to go backwards into the text a little bit, grab some context, and move forward so we can see what these things are.

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And you'll see how Paul here in Ephesians, he's speaking to Christians.

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He's not speaking to people who hope to someday become a Christian by their good works. He's speaking to people who are already in Christ, and as a result of it, they now are learning that it is

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God's will for them to do good works. And this, we're in chapter 4, starting at verse 17.

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Here's what it says. Paul writes, now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the

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Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

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So when you see that word Gentiles, think unbelievers here, pagan unbelievers.

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And we all know that pagan unbelievers, well, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, and they have a hard heart towards God.

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I mean, we see this with the pagans today in our own country, who think it's a great idea, wonderful idea, to create a new law making it possible for, you know, homosexuals to get married.

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That is not God's will, and yet they think this is a great idea. Why? Well, you know, pagans do what pagans do.

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Cows moo, dogs woof. Pagans sin. That's what they do. They're darkened in their hardness of heart.

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They're darkened in their minds. We don't expect unbelievers to bear the fruit of the Spirit, do we? How can they?

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Verse 19, they have become callous, they have given themselves up to sensuality, and they are greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

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And you sit there and go, there's been times in my life when this has described me.

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We'll get to that. Keep that thought. That's not the way you learn Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, and here's what it says, watch, put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.

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Sitting there going, okay, what's going on here? Now, this leads us to one of the important doctrines of Christianity, and that is, as a

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Christian, let me ask you the question, are you a saint? Say yes.

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Yes, I'm a saint. You are. Are you also a sinner? Yes, you are sinner too.

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So notice here, Paul, writing to Christians, says to Christians, put off your old self, which assumes that you have an old self that needs to be put off.

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As a Christian, that means you are both sinner and saint. Now, the highfalutin fancy Latin phrase for this, by the way, if you want to write this down, is simul justus et peccator, simultaneously justified, that means you're declared righteous, and sinner, all at the same time.

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In other words, being a Christian feels a lot like being at war with yourself. It really does, because on the one hand, you have your old sinful nature, and your sinful nature does what sinful natures want to do, and that is they want to sin, and at the same time, you also have a new nature, the new self, created in perfect righteousness, and this new self wants to do good works, and guess what happens?

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The new you and the old you, they do this daily, hourly, minute by minute.

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They're tussling, if you would. Not a good thing. So here, Paul recognizes this, and he says to you

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Christians, put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds.

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Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness.

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So there you have it. You Christians, you have an old self and a new self, all in one happy package, which explains why we as Christians must, and should, and are exhorted by Scripture to do good works, because, well, our old nature is the thing that we have to do our good works through, and our old nature is like a stubborn mule, all right?

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And if you ever had to, like, use a stubborn mule to carry a load or do something, how do you get a stubborn mule to do something?

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Got little one of those crops in you, you know, let it have it. Yeah, mule, get going.

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And so the law, in this sense, is acting like a writing crop, getting our stubborn mule to do what it doesn't want to do.

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And here's what it says. Now, because of this, what does it look like to put off your old self and to put on the new self?

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Well, the new self, there's certain things that are not appropriate for it to be doing. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

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Yep, lying is no good. Bearing false witness about your neighbor, gossiping, slandering, getting that sizzling piece of juicy gossip on the phone, and passing it along.

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Those are all the sins of your old self, and these are not to be how we as Christians behave.

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So put off falsehood. Speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another.

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Be angry. Do not sin. That's an important thing. Now, sometimes people have this mistaken idea that anger in and of itself is sinful.

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Well, if that's the case, then Jesus sinned. Because you think about, was Jesus a happy camper when he got into the temple and the money changers were there?

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And he made that little cord of, you know, that whip out of cords and drove them off and threw over through the table. He seemed pretty upset, you know what

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I'm saying? So anger in and of itself is not a sin, but there's a point at which anger crosses the line and becomes a sin, when it's a blind rage.

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And so he says, be angry and do not sin, and do not let the sun go down on your anger. I don't know if you've noticed this, but if you've ever been angry at somebody, it takes a while to cool off.

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Ever notice that? Okay. Say a sharp word to your wife, husbands, and it's gonna get frigid in your house for a couple of days.

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Doghouse is looking pretty good, right? Everyone laughs because we all know what I'm talking about here.

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But here's the idea. Paul says, don't let the sun go down on your anger.

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Doesn't say don't ever get angry, don't let the sun go down on your anger. And here's the reason why. He says this, because by doing so you give an opportunity to the devil.

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The devil works through anger in that sense. When you are unforgiving, when there is no absolution to the one who has hurt you, the devil comes in and starts creating all kinds of mental chaos of the type where unforgiveness turns into resentment, resentment turns into constant friction and anger, and eventually the parting of the ways.

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But because we are forgiven, we forgive. And everything we do as Christians is in light of the cross.

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Does that make sense? So it is not, it is not appropriate for Christians to hold a grudge.

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It is not appropriate for Christians to let the sun go down on their anger. If somebody is angry at you, you go to them and seek reconciliation.

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If somebody, if you're angry at somebody else, go and seek them out.

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Let them know that you're angry, let them know why. Give that person the opportunity to apologize, and when they apologize, here's what you say,

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I forgive you. And when you forgive somebody, that means what they've done is erased off the ticket.

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Okay? Or as Paul says in 1st Corinthians, love keeps no record of wrongs.

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Now, not to rat on my wife, because I've done this too. Early in our marriage, my wife kept a very stringent and accurate record of all the wrongs that I committed about her.

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And she could, probably still to this day, take you back in chronological order all of the rotten things that I did to her.

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Right? Okay? Any of you wives know this? As a husband, you sit there and go, I did that 20 years ago!

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Right? I know, but it still, it upset me. Okay? This is the opposite of forgiving.

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Forgiving is keeping no records of wrongs. When somebody sins against you and you're angry, because you are forgiven in Christ, and your sins have been blotted out, and God Himself has taken your sins and cast them as far as the east is from the west.

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You tell me where that is. Where is that place? Where it is as far as the east is from the west.

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He remembers your sins no more. And so because we are in Christ and we are forgiven, we too forgive and they get expunged.

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They are no longer on the record. And this, by the way, is one of the most critical things in a marriage, in any relationship, the ability to absolve and forgive.

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And here we learn here that when you do not forgive, when your anger persists, you give the devil a foothold and all kinds of mischief then takes place.

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Let the thief no longer steal. That's right. I don't know anybody who says, yeah, you know,

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I'm a Christian and what do you do for a living? Oh, I rob banks. It doesn't make it.

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I don't know anybody. Bank robbers for Jesus. You know, I don't know anybody who has this group, right?

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And it doesn't make any sense, right? But you think about this though, we're laughing at this, but unfortunately there are people out there who say

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God blesses same sex marriage or God doesn't have a problem if you're formal caboodling and things like that.

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That makes about as much sense as bank robbers for Jesus. It doesn't make any sense. You are forgiven in Christ.

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You are set free from sin and then we bear fruit in keeping with repentance. If when you were a pagan, you were a bank robber, you are now the senior vice president of the bank and protecting the money and making a living, right?

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This is what you do. So he should no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands.

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You mean you have to work? Yes. Calluses are important so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

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Notice the difference. You do your good works to provide for yourself and also make sure that others are taken care of.

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Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.

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Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Oh yes, you can do that Christians by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

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Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you.

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Along with all malice, be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

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So you notice all of our good works, everything is informed by and flows from Christ's forgiveness to us because you are forgiven, because you are in Christ, because you have a right standing.

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Now you take that forgiveness that you've received and it permeates into everything you do.

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Everything is through Christ's mercy and grace and forgiveness and all of your good works are tempered by that wonderful forgiveness of God.

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And then Paul continues, and this is the immediate context for our epistle, therefore be imitators of God.

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This is what God wills for you to do. This by the way is freedom. Sin is slavery.

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And as Christians when we get ensnared by sins, do we feel good about ourselves?

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I don't. I generally feel awful. But when you are doing the things that Christ has called you to do, you generally feel pretty good.

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Your conscience is clean and you know you've helped somebody. So therefore be imitators of God as beloved children.

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Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

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Notice, you can't even begin to do a good work in the truest sense until you understand what it means to be forgiven.

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You can't because it's the forgiveness and mercy and grace and love of God that is the engine that drives all of our good works.

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And then we get to verse 3, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints.

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And the Greek word there for sexual immorality is pornea. It is a large word and this word includes a lot of things.

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It includes fornication, adultery, it includes all kinds of perversions, it also includes homosexuality.

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Pornea is an umbrella term on which everything kind of falls under because sexual sins take on shall we say different flavors if you would.

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And let me give you a cross reference to this passage so that you can see what's going on here. Remember verse 6 says let no one deceive you.

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The cross reference, Paul speaks exactly this way in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 starting at verse 9 and here's what he says.

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Or do you not know that the unrighteous, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived.

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Notice those words. Do not be deceived. Same from our epistle text in Ephesians.

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Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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It's a big list. Includes a lot of people. And so you'll notice that the cross reference here in 1 Corinthians gives us a little bit more of an expansive list so we understand what's going on with the sexual immorality.

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But watch what Paul says here. He said, notice he says, do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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And you sit there and go, okay, yeah, but the problem is some of the things you've mentioned in that list kind of hit home.

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But see, remember, you don't mix law and gospel. You are declared righteous. You are covered in the righteousness of Christ.

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You are by grace through faith righteous. And this is why Paul then says this, and such were some of you, were, past tense.

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But you were washed, referring to your baptism. You were sanctified. You were justified.

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That means to be declared righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. So you kind of get the idea now what's going on.

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When you take a look at the cross reference, it fleshes out the rest of the context. So sexual immorality, back in Ephesians 5 .3,

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sexual immorality in all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints.

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Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, or even crude joking, which are out of place.

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Instead, let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetousness, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

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And now we get to our opening verse for our lesson today, verse 6. Let no one deceive you with empty words.

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Why is Paul saying here, let no one deceive you with empty words? Because Paul, in his day, had to contend with people who we have to also contend with in our day.

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People who call themselves Christians and who turn the grace of God into a license for sin.

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And Paul here is saying that they are deceivers and they are speaking with empty words. The perfect example of that today, and I don't mean to be harping on it, but it fits with our text, are those pastors or pastrixes who are out there saying that God blesses same -sex marriage.

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These are empty words. These are the very empty words that Paul is warning us about and he says, don't let anyone deceive you.

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It's because of these things that the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. So when somebody says,

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I'm a Christian and I affirm homosexuality and believe that same -sex couples should be allowed to get married, they are not believing the truth.

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They have believed deceptive and empty words. And Paul here is warning us. Christians, people who claim to be

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Christians who speak in this way, who wink at sin and basically say, it's okay, just go right ahead.

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God doesn't have a problem with that. God is love. Love is God. These are empty and deceptive words.

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Don't let anyone deceive you. We are not free in Christ to be slaves to sin. That doesn't make any sense.

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It makes as much sense as bank robbers for Jesus. So we continue. So let no one deceive you with empty words because of these things, because of sexual immorality, covetousness, and all those things.

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The wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not become partners with them.

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For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the

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Lord. Notice the assumption here is you are a Christian. You are not doing these things in order to gain a right standing before God.

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You are doing your good works because you have a right standing before God. Walk as children of light.

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Why? Because you are. For the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.

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Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

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For it's shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.

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For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

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So look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise.

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Now, I'm going to point this out here. This verse, Ephesians 5, 15, walk not as unwise, but as wise, gives you the key to understanding the entire book of Proverbs.

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Have any of you read the book of Proverbs and go, wow, that is amazing. I wish I lived like that.

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Don't you guys love women here, that Proverbs woman at the end of the book? A lot of people don't like her.

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But you'll notice that the interplay is between foolishness and wisdom.

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And because you are in Christ, you now are set free to pursue wisdom and abandon folly.

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Because you are in Christ, you can do this. And we learned from this verse that Proverbs is all about a blueprint for what it looks like to walk and to live as God wills for you to live in wisdom and in freedom, freedom from sin.

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Does that make sense? So if you're looking for ideas on how to be even better at your good works and walk in wisdom, embrace the

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Proverbs because you are in Christ. So we make the best use of the time because the days are evil, verse 16.

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Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.

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Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the

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Lord in your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

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And if you'll look back at our psalm, we'll end there today. I want to point out how even long gospel is here in our psalm that we read.

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Psalm 34, verse 12. What man is there who desires life and love many days that he may see good?

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In other words, the question is who wants to live long and see many days? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

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Notice the same thing of what we read in our epistle. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.

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The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. And notice righteous, there it is.

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If you are unrighteous, you will not stand on the day of judgment. But because you are washed, because your sins have been washed away in the waters of your baptism, because as Christ has said, his flesh and blood are true food, you've had the

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Lord's supper here. Because you've heard the words of the absolution and your faith trusts in these promises of God of the forgiveness of sins, you are in Christ and you are declared righteous.

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And this is a promise then, the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous. That's you. And the Lord hears your cries.

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The face of the Lord is against those who do evil and cut off the memory of them from the earth.

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When the righteous cry for help, that's you. The Lord hears and he delivers them out of all of their troubles.

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The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. This is an important verse.

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The reason for this is simple. You sit there and go, well, I know that when

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I hear God's law preached, it crushes me because I don't keep it. Right. This is the crushing of the law.

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The preaching of the law that exposes our sins and makes us realize that we do not keep what

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God has told us to do. And that we are worthy of his wrath. And because the law has done its work, you are then ready to hear the gospel, the good news that you are forgiven because of what

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Christ has done. So this is the broken heartedness that comes from knowing that you haven't kept the law perfectly and that you're guilty.

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But this then leads to faith and trust that clings to the promises of the forgiveness of sins.

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Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all of his bones.

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Not one of them is broken. That's talking about Jesus. Affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned and the

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Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

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So as I read what it sounds like and what it looks like for us as children of the light to walk in the light and not in darkness.

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If you are like me and like every other person on this planet, then you heard things that condemned you.

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Because any time you preach the law, the law is always going to condemn. This is what it's going to do. But at the same time, you also heard things and you went,

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I could be doing that. And the reason why you're hearing and responding and kind of feeling both things is because you have that old man in you and you also have the new man.

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The old man, when he hears the law, hears the condemnation and knows that it's guilty.

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But the new man, when he hears the law, says, ah, that's what freedom is. That's what it means to live.

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And because you are in Christ, you have both of these things tussling inside of you. And so know this, that because you are in Christ, the condemnations of God's law for not doing all of these things are silenced.

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You will not be judged by God and sent to hell because our right standing before God is not based on our works.

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It's based upon faith. So believe the promises of the forgiveness of sins and trust that scripture is telling you the truth that you are now a child of light and have been set free from the dominion of darkness.

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And now look to the law and don't listen to its barking anymore. See it for what it is, the will of God for how you're to live.

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And know this then also, there is in a sense an eschatological promise in the law.

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Think ahead to the last day. Think ahead to that great day when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.

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And the books are open and there's a new heaven and a new earth. And we are all called out of our graves, raised up to new life.

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Will there ever be a day in your life where you will sin or be angry in sin?

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Will there ever be a day when you are drunk? Will there ever be a day when you have a sinful sexual thought or do a sinful sexual deed?

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When you covet other people's stuff and steal from them? Will there ever be anything like that in the new earth? Of course not.

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All of that goes away. And so when we look into God's law and begin to live as God wills for us to live, we are getting a foretaste of the life to come.

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You're getting a picture, a glimpse of what is coming. And in the days ahead, when

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Christ returns, there will never be a day that sin will raise its ugly head that we have to deal with it.

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There will never be a day when you will be feeling guilty because of a sin that you've committed.

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All of that is gone. From that day forward, every day of your eternal life, you will always perfectly do the will of God.

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So think of it this way. In the law, we see a glimpse and a promise of what is to come.

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And so let us practice now and let us put aside the works of darkness because all of these things are futile.

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And it's because of the works of darkness that the wrath of God is coming upon humanity. Let us walk as children of the light because we are children of the light because God has made us so.

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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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All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.