The Way of Peace

The Gospel of Luke and the Things That Make for Peace

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

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to.

St. Luke, the 19th chapter. When Jesus.

Drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, O would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies shall set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you.

And they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation. He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of robbers.

And he was teaching daily in the temple and the chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything that they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

This is the Gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Alright, you're going to note here, our Gospel text has all law. That's kind of awkward, but we're going to have to work with that. So what we're going to do today, we're going to work through our Old Testament text first.

We'll weave in a little bit of the Gospel after that, and then we'll take a look at our Epistle text, because that's the only place I can go in our readings today to find anything resembling the Gospel.

So we have to do law and Gospel correctly. So what we're going to do, we'll start with Jeremiah. Jeremiah, you'll note that I've said it before, I'll say it again, the times of Jeremiah were extremely treacherous.

Judah’s Apostasy, Syncretism, and the Lying Pen of the Scribes

Jeremiah was the last of the prophets to prophesy to apostate Judah, who had gone into rank in egregious, over-the-top abominations and sin. Namely, beginning with their syncretism. That's kind of our term for the day.

Syncretism. This belief that somehow all religions are true. And so what they did is they decided they were going to give Yahweh a wife. They set up a false image to the goddess Asherah inside of the Holy of Holies.

They set up incense altars to Baal. They set up incense altars to the starry host of heaven in all places inside of Solomon's temple. And I would note, there's an interesting thing that is happening in our day.

The Gnostics of our day point to that time in Israel's history as if somehow that's real Judaism. As if really this idea that Yahweh doesn't have a wife and that there is only one God who constantly uses only male pronouns.

That somehow that's an aberration brought about by Constantine's thumb and fist down on the Christian church. It's an interesting narrative, but it's false. And unfortunately, there are a lot of people who call themselves Christians who buy into those types of narratives.

And then of course, I always like to point out that something really weird happened at one of the church council meetings there for Solomon's temple because they thought it would be a really good idea not only to worship other gods inside of Solomon's temple, but also to set up a brothel.

A brothel with male cult shrine prostitutes. Work that one out. That one's just strange if you think about it. And so this is the world. This is the apostasy that Jeremiah was preaching against. And God was the one dictating the message and giving him the words.

It says this, You shall say to them, thus says Yahweh, when men fall, do they not rise again? Now this is a good question. Now here in Minnesota, you will note that it depends on what time of the year you fall.

If you happen to be falling during the springtime, I don't mind snow. Snow's fine. Snow is beautiful. It's pretty. It's when we get into March and in the day it melts and at night it turns into a hockey rink.

You'll note that UND hockey actually practices in my driveway during that time of the year. But I'm convinced that ice is out to kill me. So if you fall because you've slipped on ice, you have a good chance of breaking your hip or something to that effect.

So note then, we would put an asterisk here when God asks, when people fall, do they not rise again? It depends on if they're in Minnesota. Okay, that's the answer to the question. But he goes on and says, if one turns away, does he not return?

Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? And here we have to take a look at this word backsliding for a second. Because when I was growing up in the Nazarene church, backsliding meant that you were playing cards.

That you were watching movies that were rated more than PG. That you were, you get the idea, that you were dancing or drinking or smoking. You were backsliding. But that's not what he's referring to. Backsliding here is backsliding into rank idolatry.

And you're going to note here, this is a breaking of the first commandment, you will have no other gods. The breaking of the second commandment, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

This is also going on here. And you have to ask the question, how does one, how does a society that's supposedly based on the Bible believes in the one true God, get to this point? Well, there's some interesting things that are kind of hinted at here and I'll keep going on.

And God says, the reason for all of this is because they hold fast to deceit and they refuse to return. Which means there are people out there who are lying through their teeth about God and what he requires.

And assuring people that it's okay to worship these other deities. Yahweh isn't really that uptight about this kind of stuff, but he is. And so they, because they're holding on to these false teachers and the deceit that's coming from their mouth, they refuse to return.

I have paid attention and they've listened. But God says, they haven't spoken rightly. And as a result of this, no man relents of his evil saying, what have I done? You'll note that the expectation is when you rightly handle God's word, when you preach the message of the scriptures, you're going to get two big doctrines.

The law, which condemns us of our sin, and the gospel, which assures us of God's mercy and grace. But it is never a fun experience to look into the law of God, then look at your life, then look at the law of God, and then look at your life.

Because at some point the light bulb goes on and you go, what have I done? This is a good state to be in, by the way, to ask yourself the question, what have I done? But because they're holding fast to deceit, they're not being confronted with their sins.

They're being given false rhetorical arguments that make it sound like Yahweh is okay with this sin when he's not. And as a result of it, the text then says, everyone turns to his own course like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

And there's your problem right there, as my mechanic would say. Well, there's your problem. You followed your own course. You're following your own heart. I assure you, do not follow the advice of the Barbie movie.

Do not follow your own heart. Your own heart will lead you to hell. And don't ask me how I know what the message of the Barbie movie is. I won't even confess it publicly. But just to say that I know. Okay?

The Barbie movie is telling you a lie. But you're going to note that same message is in practically every single Disney movie as well. Follow your heart. Your heart is wicked. Your heart is deceived. Your heart is black and dead.

You follow your heart at your own expense. Well, the expense of your eternal soul. So as a result of this, you'll know that throughout scriptures, every time it talks about people following their own heart, doing what they thought was right in their own eyes, it's never praising them for doing so.

It's always condemning them. And you'll note that one of Paul's big prophecies about the apostasy in the last days, that in the visible church, people will not endure sound doctrine. And instead, they will gather to themselves teachers who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear.

I want to hear how I can give money so that I can become rich. I want to hear how I can be healthy, wealthy, wise, command, decree, declare, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? And so the landscape is filled with a bunch of yahoos like this.

But you're going to note God is no universalist. There is truth and there is error. And so God notes that every one of them, like a horse plunges headlong into battle. But even the stork in the heavens knows her times.

That's a polite way of saying the birds are not as birdbrained as you are. And the turtle dove, the swallow, and the crane, they keep the time of their coming. But my people, they know not the rules of Yahweh.

And that's odd because they actually have the scriptures. So how can you say we are wise and the law of Yahweh is with us? And here's kind of the rub. But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.

Ah, the scribblers. Ah, the book writers. Right? Have you guys ever been to a Bible study where they didn't crack open a Bible? It's a weird experience if you think about it. There we are. We're going to be studying Beth Moore's latest book.

Well, last time I checked, Beth Moore is not an author of Scripture. Weird, right? And you're going to note here that many people who come under the influence of today's Christian books are often the ones who are most vehemently against sound doctrine and oppose it.

I remember the day. I remember the day when Brian McLaren's book, A Generous Orthodoxy, came onto the scene. Are you familiar with this book at all, by the way? A Generous Orthodoxy. Let me take a look at the cover of this thing if I can.

Well, actually, I don't even have it up anymore. Oh, bummer for me. I'll just have to find it because it's so interesting. In Brian McLaren's book, A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren claims, and I kid you not, that somebody can be a Christian and also, well, believe in Jesus or believe in Muhammad or believe the teachings of Buddha or Shiva or Vishnu.

In fact, he kind of puts it this way, that people can be followers of God in the way of Jesus. They can be followers of God in the way of Muhammad. And who are we to judge? And you're going to know there's a term for that, and the term for that is not syncretism but universalism.

And in the cover, hang on a second here, I'm going to pull this up because I had it and then my thing crashed. Orthodoxy. Yes, there we go. Generous Orthodoxy. Listen to the cover of, just the cover of this thing is just stunning in the things that it says.

Hang on a second. It says, here we go. Generous Orthodoxy. Brian McLaren says, Why I am a missional, evangelical, post-Protestant, liberal, conservative, mystical, poetic, biblical, charismatic, contemplative, fundamentalist, Calvinist, Anabaptist, Anglican Methodist, Catholic, green, incarnational, depressed, yet hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian.

Let that one sink in for a second. What on earth is he saying? Is he saying that he believes in flaming snowflakes? Does he believe in round squares? Or does he believe in square triangles? What are we to make of this nonsense?

And here's where I'm going to note something. And that is, is that this so-called Generous Orthodoxy is the same kind of syncretism and universalism that we saw Judah being judged for by God in Jeremiah.

And I'm going to say something very unpopular here, but it needs to be said. Over the past year and a half, I have done a deep-dive study into initiatic secret societies. Not just one, but many of them.

And the one thing I found in common with all of them is that there is a kind of a core group that all believes this same kind of universalism. Now, that doesn't mean that everybody in these initiatic societies believes this, because a lot of them really kind of just consider these societies to be like fraternal orders or community organizations.

But I would note that there are those who are core within them that are full-blown Gnostics. Most notably is a fellow by the name of Manly P. Hall. If you're familiar with him, he was a Freemason. And he wrote in his book called The Lost Keys of Freemasonry.

Listen to this. He says, That's an interesting statement. Have you ever heard somebody talk about how Jesus is, well, he is one of the Christs or the Christ came upon him. He's not the light. He's the bearer of the light.

Yeah, now you're getting into Gnosticism. And he says, He recognizes not only the light, but not the light bearer. And that's kind of the thing. He says, With these initiatic societies, it's all about the light.

Ever more increasing light. You're trying to become more and more illumined. And you have these aha moments where you realize you can't trust what the Bible says on its face. It has a deeper, more spiritual, esoteric meaning that you've got to follow.

And that that's the thing that's really true. So he says, He says, Now I would note, not all Masons believe this. And the reason why he wrote this book, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, is because Manly Hall, who is a Freemason, not some kind of secret society guy who's claiming that conspiracy theories, he was embedded in all of this.

He was claiming that the Lodge needs to get back to this universalism. That was his appeal. And this esoteric understanding. But this is exactly what Brian McLaren is promoting. That same kind of concept.

That's exactly what Jeremiah was preaching against. That same kind of universal syncretism. And so he goes on. God says, Behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh. So what wisdom then is in them? And that's the point.

If you claim to be wise, yet reject the words of God, you are a fool. Because the beginning of wisdom requires you to confess that God is Lord and that He is the one who is the truth, not you. He is the one who decides what truth is, not you.

And by the way, there is salvation in no other than in Jesus Christ. Full stop. Period. End of sentence. The end. In fact, if you are trying to save yourself by your good works, by your community service, by worshipping a different God or worshipping many gods, you will perish eternally, Scripture says, for salvation is only in Christ.

And you sit there and go, but that's so negative. That's so bigoted. That's so closed-minded. Yeah, get over it. It is all of that. Narrow is the path that leads to eternal life. Broad is the road that leads to eternal destruction.

Those are the words of Christ. Jesus was no universalist. And you'll note that even Christ notes that on the last day, the charismatics will say to Him, Lord, did we not cast out demons in Your name? Did we not perform great signs and wonders in Your name?

Did we not? Yeah, right? He's away from me. I never knew You. Christ is no universalist, and false Jesuses and false doctrine cannot save you. False esoteric interpretations are just that, false. These are deceitful concepts that undermine the truth, and unfortunately we're awash in this kind of thinking.

Have you noticed how intolerant the tolerance crowd is? Oh, the irony. Oh, the irony, right? But God then says this, their wise men will be put to shame, they will be dismayed, and they will be taken.

Behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh, so what wisdom is in them? Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest, everyone is greedy for unjust gain.

From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. And there it is. The whole system had gone to seed. Those who should be preaching the truth and calling others to repentance, priests and prophets alike, they're all greedy for unjust gain, and nobody's speaking the truth.

They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Boy, that sounds familiar. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, Paul talking about in the last days, before the return of Christ, people would be saying peace, peace, when destruction would come on them suddenly.

And so you're going to note here, the peace that is being referred to by Jeremiah is not the peace that we currently as the United States enjoy with like the United Kingdom, or the European Union, or Australia.

It's true, we're not lobbing bombs at them, nor are we pointing missiles at them. We don't ever have anyone talking about how we could potentially get into a shooting war with Australia. We'd win that one, by the way.

But nothing against the Aussies, I've seen their military, it's a joke. But all of that being said, that's not the kind of peace that's being talked about here. This is the kind of peace that we all need.

The peace that we have that comes from God. Peace with God. You'll note that each and every one of us were born dead in trespasses and sins, and we were hostile to God. None of us gets to claim that we were born good as a blank slate.

No. Each and every one of us were born as belligerent rebels who wanted to do God in. And as a result of it, God wants peace with His creatures. He wants peace with you and with me. But that calls us to lay down our arms, to surrender, and to recognize that we were in the wrong, and that we have sinned grievously against God.

So people were saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. And were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed at all. They didn't even know how to blush. And you can just see it, all the way back then, because it happens now today.

Some nice Jewish lady in Jerusalem was hearing the new in vogue doctrines that, as they were putting in the Asherah pole and the incense altars and stuff like this, saying, is it really true that I can worship Baal in Yahweh's temple?

That doesn't seem to make sense. And they were saying, Yahweh isn't really upset with this kind of stuff. You just need to be more open-minded and more tolerant. And, well, I don't want to be wrong. And of course, we know that Rabbi Shiva, he said that this is okay.

So who are you to say that you know better than Rabbi Shiva? Well, now that you put it that way, right? This is how this works. And then you'll know in our day, I'm going to point to a person that I know personally, Nadia Bowles Weber.

I'm going to hold her up as an example of somebody who was incapable of blushing or ashamed. In her latest book, she openly talks about the adultery she committed against her husband. Her marriage, by the way, failed.

And she was committing adultery with somebody who she had a romantic tryst with prior to getting married. So one of her older boyfriends. And in her book, she describes her adulterous intercourse with her old lover while she was married as a cleansing experience.

It was like having the bad skin rubbed off your body with a loofah sponge. It was very therapeutic. And reading that, I thought, do you not have any shame at all? Do you not have any shame? Were they not ashamed when they committed abomination?

No, they weren't ashamed at all. They didn't even know how to blush. And that's where false doctrine leads. Rank sin is excused. It's winked at. It's no big deal. I remember back in the day, you guys remember long ago, it seems like a really long time ago when it was actually a debated issue as to whether or not same-sex marriages even were a thing.

And the ELCA kind of led the way in basically organizing the blessing of same-sex marriages. Now it's so long ago since they've done that, there's nothing to it. But I remember at the time, I actually confronted Nadia Bowles Weber in public.

She was speaking in public at an emergent conference. And I asked her straight up. I said, Nadia, you see where the ELCA is going. They're just on the cusp of getting ready to bless same-sex marriages.

I said, what's next? Polyamory? And she said, I don't see any reason why that should be a problem. At the time, she refused to speak out against even that. And by the way, when she committed adultery, was she defrocked by the ELCA?

No. She's still considered to be a rostered pastor. This is where false doctrine takes us. This is where this universalism takes us. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed at all.

They didn't even know how to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among the fallen. When I punish them, they shall be overthrown. Note, God makes it clear where the end of this goes, and it's not a good end.

Christ Weeps Over Jerusalem and Announces Judgment

In Jesus now, in our gospel text, Jesus, he draws near to Jerusalem. He's a week out now from being crucified. And when he gets to the city, he sees it and he weeps over it, heart torn in two. And he says of Jerusalem, would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace.

But they don't. They didn't know the things that make for peace. Do you know the things that make for peace? The kind of peace that Christ is talking about? But no. But now they're hidden from your eyes.

For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you, surround you, hem you in on every side, tear you down to the ground. You and your children within, and this is God's judgment, God exacting the last punishment clauses of the Mosaic Covenant upon them.

And they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation. So brothers and sisters, I would note here, pay attention to Christ's words, that we need to make heed of what the day is.

Note today is the day of our visitation. Today is the day of grace, and I cannot promise that tomorrow will be. Because we do not know when Christ will return. The days of grace are coming to an end. Very abruptly, maybe soon.

That being the case, oh would that you had even known on this day the things that make for peace. And the peace here we're talking about is the peace with God. And unfortunately the Jews decided they wanted to kill Christ, couldn't figure out how to do it in our gospel text.

They said they were seeking to destroy him, but they didn't find anything that they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. But they succeeded a week later. And as odd as this sounds, thank God they did.

I know that sounds weird. Because Christ came to Jerusalem in order to make peace with God. Christ through his blood makes peace with God for you. Christ because he bore your sins on the cross, he has taken away the enmity and has given us the true peace that reconciles us to God the Father.

And so you'll note then that we here have gathered in the name of Jesus, and where two or more are gathered, he is truly present. Today is the day of our visitation, and peace with God is the thing that we need.

We need to abandon all of our idolatry. We need to abandon every vestige of our blasphemies and false doctrines that we have held on to, and know that there is salvation only in Christ. He is the one who makes peace with God for us, and gives us that peace as a gift by grace through faith.

Righteousness by Faith and the Stumbling Stone

And so you'll note then in our epistle text, and here's where the gospel really shines through. Paul points out that unbelieving Jews of his day, he really laments the fact that they are not believing in Christ.

And he does not pull any punches. He makes it very clear that they stand outside of salvation by rejecting Jesus as the Messiah. Paul says, what shall we say then? That Gentiles who didn't even pursue righteousness, that they have attained it?

That is the righteousness that is by faith? Yeah. So you'll note that Paul here is writing to Gentiles and Jews in Rome and noting that the Gentiles who were born rank pagans, didn't know anything about the covenants of Israel, that when they heard the gospel and were brought to repentance and trusted in Christ, that they had received then from God the righteousness that is given by grace through faith.

They attained it, not by striving for it as if somehow it depended upon their morality. They attained it by faith as a gift. But Israel, Jews, they pursued a law that would lead to righteousness. They didn't succeed in reaching that law.

Why? Because they didn't pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have then stumbled over the stumbling stone. That is Christ, by the way. As it is written, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense.

But whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Brian McLaren is wrong. There are no followers of God in the way of Islam. There are no followers of God in the way of Buddha, Shiva, Vishnu, Ashtaroth, or whatever.

There are only followers of God who are believers in Christ, the stumbling stone who gives us righteousness as a gift, righteousness that we need desperately because only the righteous will stand before God.

So behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. But whoever believes in him, you, me, Jew, Gentile, Greek, slave, free, old, young, whoever trusts in Christ will never be put to shame because he is peace.

He is the way of peace. He is the one who gives us peace with God. So brothers and sisters, stop listening to the scribblers. Stop listening to the people who opine with their opinions and exalt their opinions above the Scripture.

There is salvation only in Christ, and I know that sounds narrow, but that's what the Scripture says, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar and a deceiver. Do not hold fast to their deceit or you will suffer the same fate that those of the time of Jeremiah suffered when God finally acted in judgment.

But in Christ, because he has bled and died for your sins and all of your idolatry, all of your blasphemies, all of your despising of his word, there is forgiveness in him, life, and hope because what Christ gives, he gives in abundance, and only the ungodly who trust in him are saved.

Recognize that that is you. Ask yourself the question, what have I done? Because let that sink in. You have done evil, and you have believed evil, participated in evil, but Christ, he has borne all of that in his body so that you can be forgiven, reconciled, and truly have peace with God.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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