Third Sunday in Lent

The Service of Divine Service Setting Two and the Confession of Sins

I would like to welcome you to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Today is the third Sunday in Lent. We'll be following the order of divine service setting two. Opening hymn is 663. For the intro today, we'll be using psalm tone C as in karamba.

C as in karamba. Hi, karamba.

I always like the looks that I get.

OK.

If you are physically present here at Kongsvinger, please rise for the opening hymn. Divine service setting two. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Let us then confess our sins to God our Father. Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.

Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways. To the glory of your holy name, amen. Almighty God, in his mercy, has given his Son to die for you, and for his sake, he forgives you all of your sins.

As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore forgive you all of your sins, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Psalm tone C for our intro today.

My eyes are ever toward the Lord. Turn to me and be gracious to me. To you, oh my God, in you I trust. Let me not be put to shame. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Consider my affliction and my trouble.

Oh, guard my soul and deliver me. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, amen. My eyes are ever toward the Lord. Turn to me and be gracious to me.

In peace, let us pray to the Lord. For the peace from above, and for our salvation, let us pray to the Lord. For the peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the church of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord.

For this holy house, and for all who offer here their worship and praise, let us pray to the Lord. Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord. The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray. Oh God, whose glory it is always to have mercy. Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith, to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your word.

Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for the third Sunday in Lent is taken from the book of Exodus chapter eight. Then the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt.

And they did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. And all the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt.

The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. And then the magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened and he would not listen to them as the Lord had said.

Then the Lord said to Moses, rise up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh as he goes out to the water and say to him, thus says the Lord, let my people go so that they may serve me or else if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you and on your servants and your people and into your houses.

And the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with swarms of flies and also the ground on which they stand. But on that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen where my people dwell so that no swarms of flies shall be there that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.

Thus, I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow, the sign shall happen and the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses throughout all the land of Egypt.

The land was ruined by the swarms of flies. This is the word of the Lord. Let's speak the gradual together. Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail. When my enemies turn back, the epistle is taken from Ephesians chapter five.

Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints.

Let there be no filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking which are out of place, but instead, let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not associate with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light. For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. This is the word of the Lord. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 11th chapter. Now Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute.

When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the people marveled. But some of them said, oh, he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.

But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and a divided household falls. And if Satan is also divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?

For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul, and if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.

Whoever is not with me is against me. Whoever does not gather with me scatters. And when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest and finding none.

It says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits, more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there.

And the last day to that person is worse than the first. As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed.

But he said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. This is the gospel of the Lord. Sermon hymns 659, you may be seated. In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Hearing and Keeping the Word of God

Hear the words of our Lord again from our gospel text. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. You'll know our gospel text here starts off with something that's a wee bit controversial today is because after all, we live in the 21st century.

We are smart people. We just landed something on the moon. Did it fall over or not? It fell over. Well, still, what an accomplishment. Good on us, right? And we're gonna be putting human beings back on the moon in the next couple of years.

So, I mean, aren't we smart people and we've figured out how everything works. Don't you think in the 21st century we can get rid of this idea about demons? Come on, really, demons? Let me remind you what Christ said.

Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Keep here does not mean to just like kind of raw obedience. It's actually more like to guard, to preserve, to hold sacred, things like that. And so I would note, you know, I'm just a parish pastor of a small church in the middle of the sugar beet fields of Oslo, Minnesota.

I mean, I'm not even high ranking as far as pastors go in the AALC. So I think it's a little bit above my pay grade to somehow go and say, let's edit the Bible and take a few things out that we're just not comfortable with anymore.

So we need to talk to management regarding that. And I would note that even the presiding pastor of the AALC, I don't think he has the credentials to do this either. And so maybe we should just trust the Trinity.

Now, you know, I mean, after all, I mean, he created the world and the universe and he says his word is true and it never returns to him void and things like that. So maybe we should just go with it, you know?

Demons, are they real? Well, my opinion, you bet your bippy they're real, okay? Had a few run-ins with them myself over the years and they're not a lot of fun is the best way I could put it. So it would be stupid of us to deny that we have a great horde of demons out there whose whole intent seems to be to destroy Christ's church.

Have you seen the state of the church lately? I mean, I get a front row seat, oftentimes watching and listening to sermons from different churches around the globe and just sit there and marvel at how little God's word makes any appearances and how many times people just teach outright weird things.

In fact, the scriptures prophesied that in the last days that people would be teaching doctrines of demons. I think we're there. And so the demons are real and then we learn in Revelation 12 and 13 that Satan is in a tizzy, he's in a rage and he's waging war against the saints, that's us.

So I think it'd be a good idea for us to take a text like this and just go, yup, that's what's really going on here, there are really demons and yes, Jesus is really stronger than them. That's kind of the point of where this text is going.

So it says this. Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute and when the demon had gone out of the mute man, the mute man spoke and the people marveled. But some of them said, oh, he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.

Hmm, there's an eighth commandment violation occurring here. You would think that they would know the 10 commandments and the 10 commandments, the eighth one says, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

And so here, you'll note that Jesus's opponents, they can't deny that Jesus is performing miracles. Sick people are brought to him, they leave healed. Paralytics are brought to him, they are walking and leaping.

Mute people possessed by demons that make the mute have the demons cast out of them and now they're speaking and glorifying God and so they can't deny the miracles are taking place. So what do you do in a situation like that if you don't believe in Jesus?

You just create a false narrative, right?

Ah, yeah, we know what's really going on here.

I mean, after all, we're the rabbis in the synagogue and we're the scribes and the Pharisees and we know better than you common folk what's really going on here because, I mean, after all, when you look at Jesus and the things he's teaching, it doesn't square with the Talmud.

Talmud's not biblical, by the way. It doesn't square with the Mishnah and our oral tradition and stuff like that. Maybe it squares with the written Torah, but we know that the old written Torah is not enough, right?

So we know that Jesus isn't really from God. Therefore, all of this is just theater. Jesus is just engaging in theater. He's really working for Satan himself and so when a demon comes up to him and says, you get out of him, the demon goes, okay, I'll leave.

Right?

What a horrible Eighth Commandment violation this is. In fact, I would note in the cross-reference when you read Matthew chapter 12, this is the passage that also covers this in Matthew's account. This is where Jesus talks about blaspheming the Holy Spirit, the unforgivable sin.

It was undeniable that God was among them and that God was working powerfully in their midst and yet they attributed it to the demons and the demonic. How many people today do the same thing when it comes to Christianity and the real Jesus?

All people say, oh, I believe in Jesus. He's the most wonderful thing ever and then you ask them about the Jesus they believe in and it sounds a lot like precious moments Jesus. I mean, the Jesus who's into butterflies and rainbows and unicorns and strange things like this, but who would never, ever, ever, even for the slightest moment ever consider rebuking somebody for doing something wrong or telling them they've made bad life choices because, I mean, we know that in our day and age the worst thing that you could do is offend somebody and tell them that they've made a bad life choice.

I mean, you know what would happen if you do that? You get canceled, right? That's how this works, but you'll note, let me come back to our epistle text. Remember what it said. The sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints and I can hear a bunch of people going,.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but.

Don't you think that it's the 21st century and we've gotta get past this idea that there's only two genders? Don't we need to just embrace the times and the new developments that have occurred within the psyche and the zeitgeist of humanity?

Don't you think we need to put away this idea that there's sexual sins and things that are wrong and stuff like this? No, remember what Jesus said? Again, let me remind you. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

And so even if the entire world in large portions of the visible church have decided that they're going to embrace the new morality, whatever that is. The new morality, by the way, is just nothing but the old morality, the immorality with a new veneer on it.

It's like, I saw this YouTube channel that I thought was absolutely fascinating. The guy's entire shtick on YouTube is he takes junk food, like legitimate junk food, and he rebrands it as something healthy.

And it is the most amazing channel ever where at the end of it, you're thinking, you know, maybe Twinkies are good for me, okay? That's what's happening today is that people are taking the old immorality, rebranding it and saying, no, sexual immorality is good for you.

I mean, don't you think that you deserve whatever you want to do and have and think? It's just nonsense, right? But again, Christ says, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. So here they've committed an eighth commandment violation, come up with a false narrative about Jesus.

And then Jesus decides that he's going to, knowing their thoughts, explain a few things to them about how things operate because they clearly don't understand how this warfare works. So Jesus said, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste.

A divided house falls. You know, all the rumblings of civil war in the United States here. We've seen that happen before. Boy, do you think the United States would be at its greatest if civil war broke out or again at its weakest?

Think about it. You know, if we ever go to war with ourselves, expect other countries to engage in all kinds of weird things while we're fighting amongst ourselves. You'll know that the house is not strong when it's divided against itself.

And so Christ goes on. He says, if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? So Christ is basically pointing out, listen, Satan doesn't let go of his victims. He will not willingly do so.

If Satan has got you in his grips, you are incapable of freeing yourself from the situation. You need one stronger than Satan to come in and free you. That's kind of the point. You'll note that nobody cast demons out of themselves, which by the way, a little bit of a side note, one of those YouTube hucksters that I cover who claims that he's a demon slayer, kid you not.

He has a video on how to cast demons out of yourself. And it's just an absolute joke. It's like, really? Seriously? What are you even thinking, right? So Jesus then says this. You say I cast out demons by Beelzebul.

Well, if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

And here Jesus is invoking those words from our Old Testament text. Now, you'll know something about me if you've ever listened to any of my sermons or you've watched me on YouTube. And that is that context is a big thing for me, right?

Context, context, context. And I gotta admit, on a first reading of the Old Testament text for this Sunday, every fiber of my being went context, right? Because you'll note our Old Testament text begins with the third of 10 plays.

Why start there?

It's so annoying.

It just drives me nuts. But I think I knew what they were doing. They were trying to key in on something very important. But let me provide a little bit of the context because it's gonna be helpful in unpacking what Christ says.

It says here in Exodus 8 that the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth so that it may become gnats in all the land of Egypt. This is the third plague.

First plague was when Moses and Aaron showed up at the Nile. There was Pharaoh getting ready to get into a boat. I don't know what he was gonna do. And they struck the Nile with the staff and the whole Nile and all the water in Egypt turned to blood.

Plague number one. Plague number two was, I think, one of the most interesting ones. And that was is that they caused frogs. Frogs to come up on the land of Egypt. Frogs everywhere. In fact, if you were to ask the question, how many frogs were there?

There were so many, they were knee deep in them. So, yeah.

Thank you.

Even the Canadians are chuckling. Okay, good to know. That's right, there were that many frogs. They were knee deep in them. That being the case, that was the second plague. And here's the interesting thing.

When you read the account in the earlier chapters in Exodus, the two magicians of Pharaoh. Now, in Exodus, it doesn't say that there were two. We learn that there are two from the New Testament. The New Testament tells us there were two magicians and they happen to have names and their names are Janus and Jambres.

Those are the names of the magicians of Pharaoh. So Janus and Jambres, at the first plague, they were able to reproduce the miracle. I think probably through sleight of hand and magic. And the second plague, they were able to also reproduce.

Which then made it so that Pharaoh was not very impressed with what was going on when it came to these plagues. Third plague rolls around and when Janus and Jambres try it, they couldn't accomplish it.

Which, you have to sit there and go, what on earth were they thinking here? Work with me here. The text says, so Aaron struck the staff and striked the dust of the earth so there might become gnats. They did so.

Aaron stretched out his hand with a staff and struck the dust of the earth. And there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land. And the magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not.

What kind of morons do this? Wouldn't it be a greater miracle to figure out how to get rid of the gnats? Why would you want to add gnats to gnats? I mean, that's just stupid. But they couldn't pull it off.

They grabbed some dust, couldn't make gnats out of it. And then they said this. The magician said to Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. God's hand is here doing this. And they're basically saying to Pharaoh, listen dude, you need to just, this is where you gotta cut it off, man.

You gotta let those people go. They're gonna ruin us. You're fighting against God himself. And we can't do what they're doing. And you need to heed our advice. Did Pharaoh listen? No, he did not listen, not at all.

And so Christ invokes those same words from Exodus, our text in Exodus 8. And he says, regarding his ability to cast demons out, he says, if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

And that's the point that he's making. And that is that Jesus isn't operating by the power of Beelzebul. Just like God was operating in the 10 plagues, and it was clear that it was God operating, and it was the finger of God himself that was acting, Jesus, by casting out the demons, is saying here, I am doing so by the finger of God, the same finger of God that brought the 10 plagues.

And then he uses this analogy. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. Here in verse 21, the initial strong man is Satan, or a demon. And you'll note they are described as strong.

But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. So Christ is describing himself then as the stronger of the strong men, who comes and kicks Satan out of his palace, takes his armor, tosses him ingloriously out the window, leaves him outside of the place, and now the strong man can't come back in because the stronger man has taken over.

That's the point. Christ is the stronger of the strong men. Remember a few weeks ago, when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he was at his weakest, and he defeated Satan in three rounds, using only the book of Deuteronomy, which is impressive.

All of that being said here, you're gonna note that Christ is the one who legitimately conquers Satan. Stronger than him, mightier than him. And this then leads to kind of a little bit of a side note, and that is this.

I can hear somebody saying, well, Pastor Rosebrew, why aren't you being consistent then? If casting out Satan is the act of God and it's done by the finger of God, shouldn't you be acknowledging all those demon slayers out there who are casting demons out of Christians?

Did you catch the last part, by the way? All right, let's talk about them, shall we? So we live in a day where, about a year ago, there was a movie that came out called Come Out in Jesus' Name. And all the charismatics, God, think this, this is the bee's knees.

What's the movie about? It's about casting out demons out of Christians. And their big call is that if your pastor is not casting demons out of the members of your congregation, then he's doing you wrong.

He is denying the power of Satan and his work among you, and you need to do something about that. Maybe get rid of that turkey of a pastor who's so backwards, he's even denying the work of Satan among you.

And so I have been putting out basic challenges and critiques of this theology. And doing so biblically based upon this text and another. And let me explain. Is a Christian the same as an unbeliever? No, not even close.

So when you are a Christian, do you have the Holy Spirit or not? And this is where we have to make a distinction. Because, for instance, in Ephesians chapter one, verse 13, Paul writing to the church in Ephesus says, in Christ you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and you believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

When you were baptized, you received the Holy Spirit. You get the idea here. Peter says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit.

So do Christians, or when it comes to being a Christian, is your house empty? Or is your house occupied? Every time I use that word, I cannot help but think about what I see on the laboratory doors on the airplane.

Occupied, right? It says occupied, occupied. You can't go into the laboratory when the occupied sign is on, because otherwise you'll be arrested. You get the idea, bad things will happen. And it's always in two languages, occupied, occupado, you get the idea here.

All that being said, are you occupied? The scripture says that we Christians, collectively, we are the temple of the living God. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Scripture also describes you individually as temples of the Holy Spirit.

So if you, before you were a Christian, and you were demonized, and now that you are a believer in Christ, Satan has gone, if Satan comes back, is Satan able to occupy you again? No, not at all. To say so would be to say that the Holy Spirit is weaker than Satan.

And now, I understand that the Holy Spirit that a lot of people believe in is actually really weak, but that's not the real Holy Spirit. Can you imagine the Holy Spirit inside of you going, oh, hi, there's a demon at the door.

Nobody told me I was gonna be getting a roommate. This is a little uncomfortable. This is nonsense, okay? The third person of the Holy Trinity is not weaker than demons. And so Christ is our exorcist.

He is the one who has exorcised Satan out of each and every one of us. And as a result of it, we have been united with Christ in his death and in his resurrection, and we are children of God, and God, the Holy Spirit, is the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance in the world to come.

There is no such thing as a Christian that isn't filled with the Holy Spirit, full stop. Well, does that mean we all speak in tongues? No, read 1 Corinthians 12, right? You get the point. That being the case, then, Christ here is making a very strong case against the idea that people can be possessed by demons as Christians.

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, that's Satan, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and he divides the spoil.

That being the case, Christ is the stronger of the strong men, and then consider the cross-reference, then, here, in Matthew chapter 12, starting at verse 43. Jesus uses similar words, then, when he describes what happens to a demon when it goes out of a person.

In verse 43 of Matthew 12, it says, when an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came, and when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.

But note the word used there. It finds the house empty. No Christian is empty. All believers in Jesus Christ, all penitent believers who've trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, having been regenerated through the preaching of the gospel, through the waters of baptism, filled with the Holy Spirit, each and every one of them is not empty, but full, and if Satan is gonna come back and bring more demons with him, he first has to find the house empty.

So, if you're listening to any of these yahoos who call themselves demon slayers, and that's what they call themselves, don't listen to them, because they're the ones who are literally engaging in demonic theatrics.

In fact, hate to say this, but I've documented this already on my channel, that several of them have been caught using the same actors. So, how are they casting out demons? Because you know, you go on YouTube and you follow these people.

They go, well, we were at the park, and the apostle Catherine Crick, there was a lady there who was demonized, and she had a demon cast out of her. Well, she had a demon cast out of her that week, and then if you look at the video the next week, it was the same lady, and if you look the next week, it was the same lady, and then that lady also appeared on Bob Larson's channel, having a demon cast out of her.

Are you starting to catch the point here? So, no, we need to hear Christ's words. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it, who guard it. Christ has made it clear that Satan is not stronger than God or Christ, and Satan is the one who gets his palace and his kingdom basically plundered by Christ, and that's what he does.

He's the stronger one. He has attacked Satan. He has overcome him. How has he done that? By coming to earth, born of the Virgin Mary, going to the cross, bleeding and dying under Pontius Pilate for your sins and mine, rising victorious from the grave, and then ascending into heaven, where he now sits as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Jesus is way stronger than any demonic force, and the kingdom of Satan has no chance of winning. In fact, it's already defeated. So all of that being said, the demons are real. We have to be aware of them, and we have to be aware of the schemes of Satan, but we don't need to cower.

We don't need to focus on it. We don't need to even have any anxiety about it. When the evil day shows up and it feels like you're under a demonic attack, say that you're under a demonic attack. What do you do then?

Pray.

That's, if you read Ephesians 6 regarding the armor of God, it tells us to stand, stand, and stand, to persevere, and to pray. Pray like there's no tomorrow. That's kind of the point. So when we are under attack, we need not worry about commanding demons to do this or casting them out to do that.

We need to get on our knees and petition our God and pray that he would get rid of the demons. Christ is our exorcist. He is the stronger of the strong men, and we can trust him, and so we do. And then as a final note here, as a final note, you'll note that when we get to the point where Christ says, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it, a friend of mine, a pastor friend of mine, pointed out that this woman who shouted out to Jesus, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast which nursed you, that he legitimately thinks that this is the first Roman Catholic.