The Gospel Makes No Sense Without the Law

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Let's pray. Speak, Lord, Your servants are hearing.

00:07

Show us now Your ways so that we may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.

00:18

As Your Word says, Your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. So give us life,

00:24

O Lord, according to Your Word, and we will declare Your greatness to the nations. Amen.

00:33

We are rapidly getting close to wrapping up our study of the

00:40

Ten Commandments. We're now to the part where we're kind of reflecting on the reason why God has given us

00:46

His law and what these commandments teach us and say. Next week in the sermon, and yes,

00:52

I've already begun working on next week's sermon. Next week in the sermon, you're going to hear these words from John talking about the importance of keeping and guarding

01:03

God's commandments. Oftentimes when we hear the word keep the commandments, we think only in terms of mere obedience.

01:13

Mere obedience. That, however, is really not the gist of it. And there was a verse that I mentioned today in the sermon that I would like you to consider in this regard.

01:24

And that is Ecclesiastes 7, specifically verse 20.

01:30

And verse 20 says this, Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

01:41

There is not a righteous person on earth who does good and never sins.

01:48

So remember when we confess our sins at the beginning of each of our church services, we confess that we are what?

01:56

First, by nature, it's a corrupted nature, sinful, unclean, that we have sinned against God by our thoughts, by our words, by our deeds, the things we do, the things we don't do.

02:11

I always like to think of the things we don't do as that final episode of Seinfeld.

02:17

Does anyone remember this? Janet, you're looking at me like I'm crazy. I didn't like that show. You didn't like that show.

02:23

It didn't make any sense. And I know it wasn't supposed to. Okay, so if the punchline is this, the

02:29

Seinfeld series, it was the show that was about nothing.

02:37

But see, the whole point of the show was it was a show about nothing. It was a show about nothing.

02:43

And I remember, I mean, back when it was in production, you know, at the place where I was working, people literally on Friday mornings, because it was a

02:52

Thursday night program, on Friday mornings, they were talking about the things that happened on Seinfeld.

02:58

And a lot of people didn't get the final episode. The final episode, they were arrested.

03:03

And why were they arrested? They were arrested for doing nothing.

03:10

I was right. Yeah, they were arrested for doing nothing. They were witnessing a crime taking place and they did nothing.

03:18

So the idea then is that they end up, so the series, it literally ends with all of them in prison because they did nothing.

03:27

And so when you know the good that you are to do and you do not do it, you are sinning.

03:34

When you do nothing, when God has called you to do something, you are sinning.

03:40

But now coming back to the initial thought then, to keep the commandments is first and foremost beginning with the idea of guarding them.

03:51

And that's what the Hebrew word natsar means when we hear in the Old Testament that we are to keep

03:56

God's commandments. And in the New Testament, the Greek word tereo is used for keeping the commandments.

04:04

And tereo and natsar both have kind of a military concept to it. If you were to post soldiers to keep guard, you would tereo them or you would natsar them.

04:15

That's a bad way of talking about these words, but you get the idea. So a guy standing guard, he's tereoing.

04:23

So we are to keep and to guard God's commandments and in holding them sacred and in guarding them, we then as Christians strive to obey them.

04:35

If you do not keep them, you do not guard them, you do not hold them sacred, do you care whether you break them or not?

04:43

No, not at all. Not at all. If you think God's law is no big deal, you have no desire to obey it at all.

04:49

Well, I don't like what ifs, but when

04:59

I was a young child and if I would rat out the bully, the bully usually beat me up.

05:10

Yeah, the bullies do that. And in order to save myself, I a lot of times would look the other way and keep it to myself.

05:20

Okay, but then that got to be a problem later when the deed, the bad deed was done and nobody knew what was going on.

05:30

I eventually would, but then his friends would come and beat me. Yeah. Okay, so and that's and then we learn those lessons young and that's why sometimes we feel in our own personal selfish life that it's better to say nothing.

05:50

Okay, okay. So again, you know, today in today's life if we see somebody sinning and it's, you know, who cares, you know?

06:05

Who cares? Why should you care? Well, you do and you say it and then you get shunned for saying it.

06:13

And if you stick up for your own belief, you're just an old, you're not with it.

06:19

You're not progressive. And I say, yeah, that's right. I'm not. But now I'm mature enough to say that but a lot of people never reach that maturity.

06:29

They are sheep. They'll go with the crowd. How do we turn that around?

06:35

You ask a great question and I'm going to answer it by asking you a question.

06:42

What is the more loving thing to do to say nothing or to speak up?

06:49

What does love command you to do in a circumstance like that? It doesn't matter if you love your face or not.

06:57

You actually put your finger on it. Do you love your neighbor more than your own life?

07:05

Do you love them more than your own face? Well, today, yes. But to get to this old,

07:11

I had to do the other. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I'll give you an example. You ever, you heard of the magicians

07:18

Penn and Teller? They're pretty famous. They're very famous magicians. And Penn Jillette is an extremely well -known, outspoken atheist.

07:28

And a few years back, he told of a story of the fact that there was a

07:34

Christian fellow who had attended one of his shows and actually had access to him.

07:40

And this fellow had the audacity to actually preach the gospel to Penn Jillette and to tell him that he's a sinner and that Christ has bled and died for him and that he needs to repent, be forgiven, and trust in Jesus.

07:57

A little bit of a summary of what he said. What do you think Penn Jillette's response would have been to that, knowing that he's an outspoken atheist?

08:04

How dare you come to me and say... You would think. You would think that, how dare you judge me and all that kind of stuff.

08:09

No, that's not literally... Literally, it's the exact opposite of that. You know what he said? He said, that guy had the courage of his convictions and loved me enough to tell me what he believed was the truth.

08:22

I disagree with his truth, but I respect him because he stood on his principles.

08:27

And unlike many Christians that I have come in contact with, Penn Jillette even made that point. This guy actually showed that he believed what he believed, so much so that he cared about him to tell him about Jesus.

08:42

If you love your neighbor, the most loving thing you could tell them is, neighbor, you're doing wrong.

08:56

And not only are you doing wrong and hurting yourself and hurting others, you're offending a holy

09:01

God by your actions. Repent. And here's the good news, Christ has bled and died for those sins.

09:11

Now, your neighbor may not invite you to their Christmas party after you tell them that.

09:17

But notice the irony there. They're going to have a Christmas party and you're not invited because you told them about the real Jesus.

09:24

Isn't that strange? But not saying anything, I have to ask you, do you really care about that neighbor of yours if you're not going to tell them about Jesus?

09:37

Yeah, yeah. So it comes down to this. Whom do you fear more, Christ or your neighbor?

09:47

Which do you value more, your faith or your neighbor?

09:55

This is what the commandments teach us. And then you sit there and go, ouch, I don't like what you're saying.

10:03

I know. So, knowing then that each and every one of us, not just you, all of us, we have fallen short in this regard.

10:12

We then pray to Christ, forgive us, Lord. We have not loved our neighbors as we should.

10:20

And we are sorry. Please forgive us. And then you hear again the words of the absolution.

10:26

You are forgiven in Christ. And so the life of a Christian, of a baptized believer, knowing that there isn't going to be a single day that goes by where you're going to keep

10:36

God's law perfectly. Because it demands of us perfect thoughts, perfect deeds, perfect actions in the things that we do and don't do.

10:47

Ecclesiastes 7 again says, there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

10:56

Not in this church. Not in anybody's church. Not on anywhere on planet earth physically at the moment is there anybody who's pulling off God's law perfectly.

11:07

Every one of us needs to be forgiven of our sins. So then how then do we reconcile this and say, okay, how am

11:14

I supposed to keep the commandments knowing I'm not going to keep them? Well, to keep them is to guard them, to hold them sacred, to meditate on them, and to realize that this is a word from God that not merely shows me what my sin is, it shows me what a good work is.

11:33

And so when you wake up in the morning and you say your morning prayers, read your catechism, we get up, we make the sign of the cross, and we thank the

11:44

Lord that He has brought me safely to the beginning of this day, and we ask that we do not sin, and that all of our doings may be pleasing in the sight of God, we wake up and we strive to obey

11:58

God's law. You call somebody out on the street in the eye and say, you hypocrite, and they'll say, yeah, okay.

12:20

But you know what, who are you to judge me? I'm talking about what's going on here.

12:27

And you know what, that catches me off guard, not so much anymore, but it did earlier on.

12:33

And I didn't have nothing more to say. Now I've learned, I've done enough studying,

12:39

I'm also pulled up on the cross part of it, as you know.

13:16

Now words mean things. What is a hypocrite? Somebody who doesn't practice what they preach.

13:30

Right? So a hypocrite is a person who wears a mask. Now if you were to say to your neighbor, neighbor,

13:38

I've got my act together, why don't you get yours so that you can be like me?

13:44

Then you'd be a hypocrite. And the reason I know that is because I hear you every

13:51

Sunday say, I am a sinner, that I've sinned against God.

13:56

I know that you look at God's law and you say, I fall short, and it condemns me.

14:03

And you telling God's law to your neighbor to show him his sin and need for his sin is not you saying,

14:10

I've got my stuff together, why don't you pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get yourself in line like I have.

14:17

That's not what you're saying to them. What you're saying is, yeah, you're a sinner just like me.

14:25

You are in need of a savior just like me. Now, are you practicing what you're preaching?

14:35

Yes. You see, when you properly sort out God's law and gospel, and you understand its functions properly, but so many people get stopped at that crossroads where I spoke of just a minute ago.

14:54

And not a lot of people would, they get stopped there, okay, without the confidence.

15:02

Now, thank you for saying what you did. I do believe with all my heart what you say is true, okay?

15:10

But when you're first confronted with that, you have a little bit of a doubt and some self -examination going on.

15:17

They've won the war. They've won the battle. Have you ever seen those diagrams?

15:24

It's called a decision tree or something like that. You know, we used to have a book that, in fact, it's probably still somewhere in our house somewhere, that when our kids were small, you know when your kids are small, they suffer from all kinds of different things and you're worried to death that they've got the sniffles and really that means they have terminal cancer and they're going to die next week.

15:45

And so the decision tree would start off with, you know, the symptoms. Symptom number one is this, are you seeing this?

15:53

Yes, I'm seeing this. If yes, then this. If no, then the other thing.

16:00

So here's the idea. You know what they're going to say. And so here's the thing.

16:06

When I tell my neighbor, they have sinned against God. If they say this, now you have to have a response.

16:15

Think it out ahead of time. And so they say, you're a hypocrite. You say, brother, I know that that's what you think.

16:22

But I'm not saying I need you to be like me. I'm saying that God's law condemns us both. We both need to recognize that we're sinners together.

16:30

So you can kind of sort that out because people are going to put up resistance.

16:36

And so what does Peter write in his epistle? Always be ready to give an answer and a reason for the hope that lies within you.

16:46

This is where we get the, you know, in that text, always be ready to give an answer or an apologetic, an apologia.

16:53

So the idea that as Christians, we recognize that the one offensive weapon we have is what?

17:01

The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So be ready to give an answer.

17:06

So when somebody comes at you with a really terrible argument, I don't need to repent because you're a hypocrite.

17:12

That's silly. So what you do is you take that argument, you neutralize it and you keep moving ahead.

17:19

And so the idea then learning how to use the sword means you learn how to parry and to thrust and to deal with the different types of things that they do.

17:27

And oftentimes bad arguments show up with consistency and being ready to neutralize that so that you can tell somebody the truth is part of what we're called to do as Christians.

17:42

This is a good. This is a good discipline. I affirm you in this endeavor.

17:49

Go for it. Yes, start thinking before you speak. In fact,

17:54

I might even know some biblical passages that may encourage you. All depends on how you accuse your neighbor.

18:03

You accuse him and send you away and you don't sin. Yeah, if you include yourself in there, that's how you do it.

18:10

Exactly. So this kind of gets then to the basics of law and gospel.

18:17

Last time when we were doing Sunday school, we were talking about God's alien work and his proper work.

18:26

God's alien work. God is by nature loving and it's his alien work to punish sin and he's extremely long suffering in dealing with us and we thank

18:39

God for his patience and steadfast love and forgiveness and mercy and not first coming at us and just wiping us off the face of the earth as the the line from the movie

18:51

Aliens goes. We're going to nuke the site from orbit. God doesn't do that to us and we are thankful for what was that?

19:01

Yes, God thinks. In fact, he is very patient in sending prophets and people and pastors and Christians to call people to repentance.

19:10

That's and so his his proper work is to love us and to forgive us is alien work is to act in wrath.

19:17

But when you exhaust all of his mercy and his attempts to bring you to repentance, then he goes full

19:24

Burger King on you and gives you gives it to you your way. You don't want to be forgiven fine.

19:30

You can be a grilled Whopper for ever. It's a euphemism for hell, but you get the idea but said that we have to then recognize kind of one of the basics of the

19:40

Christian faith is a proper distinction between God's law and the gospel because every time we hear the law,

19:48

I don't know if you've noticed this about yourself, but I see it in me when I hear God's law.

19:54

It always has this really bad habit of making my self -esteem

20:00

Just be obliterated and destroyed and me thinking that I'm a sinner. That's it's proper work.

20:07

By the way, let's take a look at a text on this by the way Romans chapter 3 we've been through this before good to review it the

20:14

Apostle Paul at the tail end of an argument that begins in chapter one where he talks about the wrath of God being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who in their unrighteousness suppress the truth he concludes his concluding thought here with the fact that we all are sinners

20:37

Jews and Gentiles alike. Don't think that somehow your genetics gives you an inside track with God and I understand that when it comes to genetic ancestry

20:47

Norwegians are right up there is the apple of God's eye. I get that and I recognize this is truly good right and salutary but being a

20:55

Norwegian will not get you into heaven. So we must keep this in mind and here's what Paul writes then in Romans 3 9, so he's asked this question.

21:04

What then are we Jews any better off talking to Jewish Christians now if there was ever a group of people on planet

21:13

Earth who were thinking, you know, my genetic heritage is going to give me an inside track with God.

21:20

It would be those who are the descendants of Abraham those who are genetically related to Abraham and their heritage as they received the covenant of God on Mount Sinai.

21:32

They were participants in the nation state of Israel. They saw the Red Sea part in their relatives walked on the dry ground.

21:40

There's anybody that's going to like have a genetic inside track. It would be that group Norwegian second, but those guys first but that being said watch what he says.

21:50

He says this not at all. We Jews are not better off. For we have already charged that all both

22:00

Jews and Greeks and in the ancient Jewish way of thinking there's really only two groups on planet

22:06

Earth. There are Jews and there are Gentiles. That's it. So this is talking about everybody on planet

22:13

Earth that all all Jews and Greeks everybody they are under sin as it is written and now he quotes the psalmist.

22:23

He quotes the psalm psalm 14 and 53 none is righteous.

22:31

No, not one. No one understands.

22:37

No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together.

22:43

They have all become worthless. No one does good not even one the throat is an open grave.

22:52

They use their tongue to deceive the venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

22:59

Their feet are swift to shed blood and in their paths are ruin and misery the way of peace.

23:05

They have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes.

23:10

That's a flattering description and notice it's describing. All of us.

23:18

Now, we know that whatever the law says and then watch what the purpose of the lies whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped.

23:34

So here's the idea the purpose of God's law. Let me put it in unflattering terms is to shut you up.

23:43

I've said it before I'll make the point again. You tell somebody God's law says you should be doing this and you're not or you should not be doing that and you are

23:53

God has said and they had the law written on their hearts. So they already know what you're saying is true, which is very helpful and they say yeah, but you're a hypocrite the purpose of the law is to shut them up.

24:10

No brother, you're guilty and I'm guilty both we need to be silent before God and recognize that we both are guilty.

24:20

You're guilty. I'm guilty. We're all guilty. We fall short in so many ways and God's law reveals it and that's the whole purpose.

24:31

It's to show you your sin and to get you to be quiet. Yeah, but I had a good reason for breaking that law.

24:39

Please be quiet but but but but but but zip it. But but but but but zip it good.

24:49

Nevermind. I write my own material. So I'll be here.

25:01

Children of a contentious man. Okay. So every mouth may be stopped and listen the whole world held accountable to God and I want you to consider silence them and to hold them accountable to God.

25:17

Is that a feel -good proposition? You're telling me that God's law is going to shut me up and hold me accountable to God to to God.

25:27

It's humbling and it's it's terrifying and all at the same time. The reason why is because what is God's law saying to me?

25:35

Shut up, shut up and you're guilty. You are not innocent.

25:42

You are guilty and the thing we all fear when you get down to it is standing before God in our guilt.

25:55

We all know you stand before God on the day of judgment having been pronounced guilty your

26:02

Eternity is sealed and it's not eternal life. It's eternal damnation, but that's what

26:08

God's law does. It says you're guilty. You're a sinner. And you're going to be held accountable to God and you sit there go.

26:18

Yeah, this is a very uncomfortable thing, but it's necessary. And here's the reason why for by works of the law obedience all of that stuff.

26:32

Not one human being not one. No one will be justified and that again is a legal term.

26:43

You can say the closest thing to it is in court when the judge slaps his gavel down and he announces not guilty.

26:50

That's what justification is. It's the gavel coming down and the judge saying not guilty. That's what justified means no one will be justified declared not guilty in God's sight by works of the law since through the law comes the knowledge of sin a most necessary thing.

27:11

Do you think you need a Savior if you don't recognize you're a sinner? No, the gospel makes no sense at all without first the recognition.

27:23

I need me one of them. I need me a Savior in the worst possible way.

27:31

So then he goes on but now the righteousness of God, let me ask you a question.

27:38

Whose righteousness is this? Is it yours? It's God's the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets they bear witness to it.

27:55

This is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction.

28:05

All have sinned Jews and Norwegians Swedes and Poles.

28:11

Everybody has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and they are justified by his grace.

28:20

Listen to the word as a gift. And so now you see this distinction the law.

28:29

Says you're a sinner it shows you you are a sinner through the law comes the recognition of your sin and the law cannot save you so many of us.

28:41

We hear God's law do this don't do that and we say I'm going to get busy doing those things and not doing those other things because I don't want to stand before God on the day of judgment and have him say depart from me.

28:57

I never knew you so their solution is keeping the law obeying it perfectly.

29:03

You can't do it. The text just said by works of the law, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight.

29:12

So then we have to recognize basics of the Christian faith. The law has a function. It is a word given by God.

29:21

Its primary purpose is to show you you are not measuring up as uncomfortable as that is it is most necessary.

29:33

In fact, the greater recognition that you have of just how far short you fall the greater

29:42

Christ is as a Savior to you the greater so we have to preach the law.

29:54

As uncomfortable as it is and we have to tell people. Yeah, I understand. This is making you uncomfortable, but you can't make it a

30:02

New Year's resolution to keep this thing and somehow be saved. It ain't going to work try as you might you are not going to keep this perfectly

30:12

Ecclesiastes 720. There is no one. Who lives perfectly righteous and does not sin not one of us the best among us still falls terribly short.

30:27

Now, I would remind you just a few weeks ago Billy Graham died. And I'm pretty sure everybody who's a

30:35

Christian in this country would recognize that Billy Graham in our lifetime was a man who was exemplary in his evangelism exemplary in setting a model of what it means to be a

30:49

Christian. You know if evangelicals had Saints Saint Billy Graham would be like our

30:56

Saint right and yet the last video that he had produced that he lent his voice to talked about what a great sinner he was and that his only comfort was in the shed blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins going into eternity.

31:15

He didn't want you to know about him. He wanted you to know about Jesus because you can't save yourself.

31:25

Only Christ can save you. You are not saved by your good works.

31:30

You are not saved by how well you fit on the bell curve of you know, well this person's

31:37

Holy and I'm a little holier than they are and that person's really wretched. Yeah, I know. The standard is perfection.

31:45

God's law demands that you keep and obey God's commandments perfectly in thought in word indeed by what you do and you don't do we're doomed if we were to be saved by the law, none of us would be saved but it is necessary that God's law be preached.

32:08

So we recognize how far short we fall now. That is not the only function of the law.

32:16

That's its primary use the other use for Christians and it's only for Christians.

32:22

It shows you what a good work is. So that you don't have to like invent your own because I've noticed this about Christians because we still have a sinful nature.

32:34

We have this really bad habit of like making up our own good works. It's ridiculous. So, you know you during the medieval period like, you know, what's a good work going on a pilgrimage to Rome and climbing what are called the

32:50

Scalia you get on your knees. These are supposedly the steps that Christ was put on trial on that used to be in Jerusalem and they brought them to Rome and so you climb the

33:01

Scalia you're on your knees and every time you climb one of the steps you say the

33:06

Lord's prayer and you climb your way all the way up saying the Lord's prayer for each step and you climb your way all the way down saying the

33:14

Lord's prayer. For each time you descend step. Is that a good work?

33:24

Yeah, I think it's something like that. Yeah. Well, they're pretty well worn out now because of all the people doing that and they've been told that if they do that they receive a plenary indulgence from the

33:37

Pope. Yeah. Yeah, something like that.

33:44

Let's see. Here's the thing if I'm you invent good works if you invent these good works, who are you serving in these good works always and again, you're serving yourself.

33:54

Good works are done for your neighbor to your neighbor for your neighbor's sake not yours and when you recognize that you are already saved you are already forgiven you are in Christ.

34:08

You have a right standing with God. You don't have to do your good works in order to be saved.

34:13

You are already saved. So now knowing this you have the freedom to serve your neighbor for your neighbor's sake not so that you can get the requisite amount of stars on your star charts or Christian merit badges so that you can earn your

34:29

Eagle Scout status with God. But in real life, I mean,

34:34

I'm not disagreeing with you like we are brought up in this world.

34:46

We all strive for that. Perfect recognition whether it be mean as you're saying that I'm just thinking at home.

34:57

I have this little pin that has all these little bars on it because I had perfect attendance for Sunday school.

35:04

Okay, so I strive for that because I was going to be a better person because Luann she missed a lot and she didn't get them.

35:14

Okay, so all the way through our lives. We are told that we need to strive so that we can be better than that.

35:23

We can accomplish more than you know, so when you think about it, if we can not do any of these sins or if we can follow the law in all our lives, that's what we've been taught or told or influenced to do.

35:44

Mm -hmm, but only for ourselves, right? Only for ourselves.

35:49

I got that Luann didn't get all those bars. I have nine of those bars. That's right. In fact,

35:55

Luann needs to probably sit here when she comes to church because you have perfect attendance. She never came.

36:00

You can be closer to God than she can. She didn't come except for certain days, but I always showed her because I wore them every

36:06

Sunday. You know, so I mean as little kids we are taught to strive for ourselves so that we can show everybody else how great we are.

36:15

Uh -huh. I would like to remind you. I would like to remind you of what you heard in the sermon.

36:23

I understand that's a little gratuitous of me to do this, but listen again to the words that John writes.

36:30

Do not love the world or the things in the world and what you've described is one of the quintessential core elements of how the world thinks.

36:39

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and what's this last one?

36:48

The pride of life. What you said, yeah, you said it's all about me and recognition.

36:58

Yes. Recognition. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

37:06

Because I'm better than life. Yeah, you remember that terrible story I told about myself when I was at youth camp?

37:12

This comes into play here and let me remind you of how the story went. The youth camp I went to when

37:17

I was in junior high, it was called Care Youth League and they had this extended multi -day thing up in the mountains that are just north of Southern California and they had a whole system set up of different colored neckerchiefs and the goal was to get that gold one.

37:38

But in order to get that gold one, you had to exemplify to the camp counselors that you were the best

37:46

Christian kid ever. Ever. And boy,

37:51

I sat out to show them how pious I was.

37:58

Oh man, it was just, it was terrible. So I was make sure that I would be up a little bit earlier than the rest of the guys.

38:05

And of course, the thing I was doing being up early, I was reading my Bible and praying and making sure that the camp counselors could see me reading my

38:14

Bible and praying. They tied you up with those scarves, didn't they? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

38:21

Strategically placed myself and made sure that when it came time after our chapel service or worship time that they said does anyone want to pray or lead us in prayer?

38:32

Oh, me. I'll lead us in prayer and I'll do all these things. I was the biggest jerk ever. Because it was all, it was all about me.

38:40

We were all brought up to be there then. Uh -huh. So and then we had this whole pecking order.

38:47

Whole pecking order based upon colored neckerchiefs. And of course, I earned my way all the way to the blue one, which was the blue one was right below gold.

38:56

And of course, we got special privileges. We know when we would go on hiking trips, we were near the front. The pagan guys who were backslidden

39:04

Christians, they were in the back. And I again, I told the story about some poor fellow who had worked his way up a little bit.

39:10

But while we were on a hike, he was singing the lyrics to a Rolling Stones song.

39:16

I can't get no. And the camp counselor heard him and literally busted him back down to black.

39:23

I mean, Here's the thing.

39:30

Is it a good work to read God's word? Yes. Yes. Is it good work to pray? It ceases to be a good work when the reason why you're doing it is to basically make yourself better than the rest.

39:44

So they know just how holy you are and how sinful they are. That's where hypocrisy comes into play.

39:52

And I got real frustrated because night after night, I would night at the neckerchief ceremony.

39:58

I wasn't progressing. I didn't go from blue to gold and I was really striving to get that gold thing.

40:07

One of the ceremonies after I didn't get the gold one. I took my blue neckerchief off.

40:13

I threw it on the ground stomped on and said, what does a guy have to do in order to get that gold neckerchief?

40:20

Anyway, and there was I was doing all of this for me.

40:27

And see that's the thing self -righteousness creates a caste system in Christianity.

40:33

And here's how the caste system works. You've got your on fire Christians. You have your backslidden

40:38

Christians. You have the people who are in the middle. And of course those people who are really on fire. They're the ones who get up and they tell everybody

40:45

I have figured out how to conquer sin. It's a lot easier than you think just apply yourself to the technique that I did and you can be as holy as I am.

40:55

It is but when God's law is preached properly, you know what it does it levels every single one of us brings all busts us down to the lowest level of all which is its purpose.

41:11

To show us we are not measuring up so that then we can hear this

41:17

Christ has bled and died for your sins and God promises in Christ and for Christ's sake to clothe you in his own righteousness.

41:26

All of this is a gift. And if it's a gift, is there any place for boasting in Christianity?

41:37

No. I've heard it said it's a great way of describing it.

41:43

Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where the free food is.

41:51

We're all beggars. We're all beggars. Yes.

42:02

Now, here's the thing now that I've been set free in Christ set free from the condemnation of the law and I been given salvation as a free gift

42:11

God's law shows me what a good work is and all of God's law what it's summarized in what two words love the

42:18

Lord your God with all your heart love your neighbor as yourself. So it's love for the neighbor's sake.

42:24

So now if you understand God's law perfectly, yes, it condemns me, but it shows me what a good work is and because I'm forgiven because I've been made alive in Christ now,

42:34

I can do my good works for you for your sake and I don't care. About myself in this my life becomes a living sacrifice.

42:45

You see Christ has sacrificed himself for our sins and in Hebrews.

42:52

We are told actually Romans 12. We are told to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.

42:59

So my job now and I'm free to do this. This is real freedom is to lay down my life for you for your sake.

43:08

To serve you for your sake and I'm going to strive to do it better and better every day.

43:15

I'm going to wake up and I'm going to seek to do this perfectly and yet still at the end of the day

43:21

Ecclesiastes 720 is true. And so I will pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, but no worries.

43:30

There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So tomorrow I'm going to wake up and I'm going to strive to serve and to love you guys and you strive to love each other not in order to earn something from God, but because you've already been given everything as a gift already.

43:49

And see this is really the whole point then of Ephesians 2 8 9 and 10 Ephesians 2 verses 8 9 and 10 summarize it this way for by grace.

44:04

You have been notice the past tense. You have been saved. You have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing.

44:15

It's what? The gift of God. It's not a result of works and here's this so because of that so that no one can boast for we are

44:27

God's workmanship. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

44:36

It's a gift given by grace because of God's great love for us.

44:42

He has had mercy and pity upon us and sent a Savior to reconcile us to the father.

44:48

All of this is a gift. There's no boasting in any of this. And we then are created in Christ Jesus for good works because real freedom is to love your neighbor.

45:01

That's freedom. Slavery is to love yourself and to serve yourself and look after your own self -interest and make sure that everybody knows just how great you are.

45:13

I am at my worst when I am thinking that way not my best. I am most enslaved to sin when

45:20

I am thinking about I want everybody to recognize how great I am. That's my worst.

45:26

That's my ugliest. That's my most sinful. Most satanic to most like Christ.

45:35

He is the one who humbles himself considers other better others is better than himself and like Christ obeys in obscurity.

45:47

Who cares if anyone on this planet recognizes you? God sees your good works.

45:55

God sees you. You see it and this is the basics of the

46:00

Christian faith. So as Christians then we do not eschew the Ten Commandments and God's law.

46:07

No, we keep it when we guard it. We guard it because it shows us our sin and by showing us our sin is shows us our need for a

46:15

Savior and we keep and we guard it so that we do not offend God so that we can go through a day and thank

46:21

God that through his Commandments. He has steered us away from great shame and vice and we also thank

46:28

God that he has given us a vocation to serve each other in this so we keep and we guard them.

46:35

Those who hate God's law cannot possibly love the gospel because they don't understand what the gospel is.

46:42

You cannot apart from the law the to work together. All right, any questions there?

46:49

Went off on a tangent, but I always seem to do that coming then back. To our study then as we wrap up these thoughts we were talking about God's grace.

47:00

So what then is our proper response then to God's warnings from the law and to his promises in the gospel.

47:10

First of all, we need to remember that we are to reject all other gods.

47:18

Now as simple as that might sound you sit there and go well Roseboro, you know, it's not like I worship molek, you know, when was the last time

47:26

I bent the knee to but all. Idolatry is a lot more prevalent than you might think.

47:32

A lot more prevalent and here's what I mean over and again.

47:40

We hear words from people to this effect. The God I believe in would never and then fill in the blank.

47:50

The God I believe in would never condemn somebody for loving another person of the same sex.

48:01

The God I believe in would never condemn me for being holier than you.

48:09

You see how this kind of works right fill in the blank when somebody says the God I believe in would never now.

48:16

The question is what exactly is the God you believe in? You see our sinful hearts.

48:24

Are constantly breaking that first commandment. You will have no other gods besides me which then begs the question.

48:35

What is it that the one true God has revealed? What has he said? Does the one true

48:42

God who truly exist as he blessed same -sex marriages? Yes or no? No.

48:49

So you sit there and you go how dare you condemn me that God I believe in would never condemn somebody for loving another person of the same sex and I just so happen to attend the same church you do.

49:00

So now what are you going to do about it? Actually, they're right.

49:06

The God you believe in is like that. Yeah. Let's see. Here's the thing. You got to recognize this that within visible

49:12

Christianity. Is everybody who shows up to church a

49:17

Christian? Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the tares.

49:23

So now we got an issue. There are people who call themselves Lutheran. Who affirm same -sex marriage?

49:33

And they'll say the God I believe in would never condemn this. In fact, he blesses it. What does

49:39

God's Word say? They are idolaters. It doesn't matter that the name of the deity you believe in that you've named him

49:48

Jesus. If the Jesus you believe in. Isn't saying the same thing as the biblical

49:55

Jesus. Your Jesus is an idol. So we have to recognize idolatry for what it is.

50:04

Idolatry is creating your own God in your own image. In fact, as the saying goes, it says in Genesis that God created us in his image and since then we've been trying to return the favor.

50:18

So idolatry requires us to recognize that there are things that we believe about God that are not true and where those things that we believe about God that are not true.

50:33

That is a sin of idolatry that is believing in a different God. So the only place

50:40

I can tell you anything about the God who exists is found in the only place

50:45

I know of to go to where we can definitively say he is spoken and it isn't in here.

50:52

It's in his word, which is why we always come back to an objective standard. It doesn't matter what you feel about God.

51:02

Well, I feel he's this way who cares what you feel your feelings are wrong here.

51:09

Your feelings have to be judged according to an objective standard and that standard is scripture.

51:15

So if you feel that God is this way when God's word says he's that way then your feelings are wrong.

51:21

Those are idolatrous feelings. You have to repent. And repenting means recognizing that you are committing idolatry.

51:31

Asking Christ to forgive you trusting he has forgiven you for it and then bearing fruit in keeping with repentance means believing the truth about God.

51:43

As he is revealed himself to be. Yeah, that's how that's the thing about the law.

51:55

We should also and we talked about this turn in repentance trusting in his mercy for the sake of our

52:03

Lord Jesus Christ. So idolatry requires confessing it rejecting other gods even when the

52:08

God is one of your own making and then seeking Christ in his mercy and trusting that he has forgiven you and we should eagerly then seek to know

52:18

God's will and gladly do what he commands and the only place to know what his will is and to know what he commands is found in scripture.

52:29

Plain and simple. It's like what John said in our epistle today that I preached on you're always as Christians returning to the basics back to your baptism back to the

52:41

Lord's Supper back to the absolution back to the word of God as originally taught not as it has been recently twisted.

52:52

The faith has been once delivered to the Saints be on your guard. All right, we'll pick this up later next week.