Salvation Belongs to Our God
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Date: All Saints’ Day
Text: Matthew 5:1-12
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- Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern
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- Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.
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- And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Rosebrook. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the fifth chapter.
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- Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
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- He opened his mouth, and he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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- Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
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- And blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
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- Blessed are the merciful, they shall receive mercy. And blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
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- God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. And blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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- And blessed are you when others revile you, and persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
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- Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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- This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Weird place to start, but I'm going to do something a little odd today.
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- We're going to start in the book of Exodus. I want to remind you of something from the types and shadows regarding the
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- Passover. And in the Passover, you remember, they were required to sacrifice a lamb, consume it, and then the destroyer was going to be coming through Egypt.
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- Here's how the text goes in Exodus chapter 12. Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be for you the beginning of months.
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- It shall be the first month for the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of the month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household.
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- And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons.
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- According to what each can eat, you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old.
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- You may eat it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
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- Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
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- And they shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.
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- Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roast it, its head with its legs and its inner parts, and you shall let none of it remain until the morning, anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
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- In this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand.
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- You shall eat it in haste. It is Yahweh's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast.
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- And on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am Yahweh. But the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
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- And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will befall you to destroy you, and when
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- I strike the land of Egypt. And then you'll note, as God promised,
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- He sent the destroyer. And then we learn that everybody in Egypt who didn't have blood on their doors, they had somebody dead in their households.
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- It says this in verse 30, Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all of his servants and the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.
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- And so we note then in the types and shadows that when God acts in judgment, He makes a distinction.
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- His distinction between those who believe His words and those who do not believe. Those who hear
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- His word and heed His call and by believing take action, trusting then in Yahweh, God sends the destroyer through and He sees the sign, the token, the blood on the door, the blood is there, the destroyer passes through, nobody dies.
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- Everybody else who says, Bah humbug Yahweh, which is not a good thing to put on your bumper stickers by the way,
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- Bah humbug Yahweh, they end up with dead people in their household. And I would note something here.
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- We just read the commemoration of the roll call of faith.
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- Those who have died in the faith. And I've been at Kongsvinger long enough that I've done a few funerals, right?
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- In fact, always fascinating to me when I talk with other pastors about their experience with funerals because we pastors kind of all are noticing a general change in the culture.
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- And so when I was at the 1517 conference, it was kind of interesting. I was talking with a
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- Missouri Synod pastor from the Illinois district and he was saying, boy, things have really changed in his neck of the woods.
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- Few people want funerals anymore, he said. They all want to do these celebration of life things.
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- And then he noted that something weird happens during these celebration of life things and he's been to a few of them now because people he's known have died and this was their funeral, is that at these events, people try to talk the dead person into the kingdom of heaven based upon all the good things that they did.
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- Oh, Fred here, Fred was a great guy. He served in the Rotary Club and he was somebody who was really a pillar in the community.
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- And I remember one time when I had lost my dog, Fred brought my dog to me. What a great guy
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- Fred was. And we know that Fred is in a greater, in a better place. And they talk and talk and talk about all the good things that the person who's dead had done.
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- And then I kind of laughed, the pastor regaling me with the story. I said, the last four funerals
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- I've done, I've always pointed to the corpse and said the reason why the person's there is because they were a sinner.
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- Think about that for a second. Let that settle in. The wages of sin is death, but yet in the types and shadows when the destroyer comes through, they don't die.
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- Yet I've done a few funerals. So how do we reconcile all of this? Because hasn't the destroyer come to visit us all?
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- And the answer is, yeah. In fact, in the Roseboro family in the last three weeks, we've had two prominent members of our family die.
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- One from cancer and one all of a sudden. She was in her bathroom getting ready for the morning and she just collapsed and died.
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- This just happened last week. And so death, again, comes and visits us all. Every household has dead people.
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- And here's where the first reading for today from the book of Revelation is super helpful.
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- Because in here, in this text, the veil is lifted. Sorry to use that term because I know the psychics and the mediums have taken that over, right?
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- The veil is thin here. Knock that off, right? The veil here is lifted and we can see what happens.
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- Because remember, Christ says in John chapter 11, I am the resurrection and the life.
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- Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live. Anyone who believes in me will never die, he says.
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- Have you noticed this really obstinate thing that happens in the New Testament? It's a fascinating thing altogether that Christians, because of the resurrection, because of this reality that we will never die, they refuse to recognize that Christians are dead.
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- They always refer to them as asleep. Yeah, well, Grandpa Joe, he fell asleep about 10 years ago.
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- He's napping out there in the graveyard. But you'll note that Christians, they don't refer to those who've perished in the faith as perished, but asleep.
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- And in fact, that's exactly what their bodies are doing. They're sleeping there, resting very nicely. And while they're there, their spirit is before the throne of Christ.
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- And here's where we must pay attention to the reality that awaits all of us should Christ continue to tarry.
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- After this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne, before the
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- Lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. It's a glorious picture, if you would.
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- So you'll note that those who are saved, who worship before the throne of Christ, they are from all peoples, tribes, nations, languages, just as Christ said.
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- So we are to continue to be about the business of proclaiming Christ and him crucified for our sins and announcing to the world that in Jesus is the forgiveness of sins.
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- And so the missionary work continues. But here we get this picture that people from all over the world, including the
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- Norwegians, which is kind of weird if you think about it. I'm sorry, I just had to pick on the Norwegians today. Even they are there.
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- And what are they crying out? Listen to what their cry is. Salvation belongs to our
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- God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. What a statement.
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- Work this out for a second. Salvation belongs to our God by saying that these saints are saying that salvation belongs to no other
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- God, only to our God salvation belongs. And you can hear all the woke folks screaming and reaching and all the things that they do.
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- How dare you say such a thing? You bigoted people, you narrow minded folks, how dare you think that salvation only belongs to your
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- God and that there's salvation in no other one than Jesus Christ? Get over it.
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- That's reality. There is salvation in no one else. Salvation belongs to our
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- God and to no other God because no other God exists. And in great love, our God has sent his only begotten son, who then, well, conceived by the
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- Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, he submitted himself in obedience to God.
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- And he was perfect and sinless for you, for me. And by his death on the cross, bleeding and dying for our sins, has reconciled us to God and as a result of it, we do not suffer the wages of our sin as we deserve.
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- Instead, he gives us reconciliation, peace, forgiveness, and eternal life.
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- Indeed, salvation belongs only to our God and to no other God. So salvation belongs to our
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- God who sits on the throne and to his lamb. And all the angels, in response to what the saints, the dearly departed, are proclaiming about Christ, they fall on their faces before the throne and they worship
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- God saying, Amen. You human beings have it right. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our
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- God forever and ever. Amen. This is where Arden is.
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- This is where Reuben is. This is where Walter is.
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- And Arlen Stengram and Peggy Sandberg. All of our dearly departed ones.
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- We lament and we mourn for the loss. But note this, there before Christ's throne, they haven't perished.
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- They didn't die in the truest sense. They were already dead when they were buried with Christ in the waters of baptism, just like you.
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- And the only difference between them and us is that they are the church triumphant.
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- We are still the church militant. There are still battles to be waged. I was noting,
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- I was walking through social media and as we get closer to all saints, there are some Lutheran pastors who like to talk about church history and church art.
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- And so when we confess the communion of the saints, which is the community of believers, we must always understand that this involves two groups.
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- The earth present here, the group here, and the group that is before the throne of Christ, which
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- I think by now is probably the bigger group. But you'll note that in our liturgy we say words like this.
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- Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious name.
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- There is a true sense in which we unite our voices to theirs and together we all worship
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- Christ here on earth and there in heaven. And some of the bigger churches that have the room, they sometimes paint or depict angels and archangels around the altar to remind us that even if there's only three people in Kongsving or Lutheran church on any given divine service, we never worship alone.
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- And it's a beautiful picture. Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our
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- God forever and ever. And so the elder who's taking the apostle
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- John through his trip through heaven, he addressed him saying, so who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come?
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- I hate it when, you know, when somebody asks me a question and I know they have the answer and it's clear
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- I don't, okay. I don't ever have like a really good comeback. I don't really know what to say, but I like what
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- John says here. Well, sir, you know, that's a good way to put it. He's like, I don't know the answer, but you do.
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- So why don't you enlighten me? Right. So he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.
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- And by the way, read the opening chapter of the book of Revelation and you see that John is making it clear that he's a participant in the tribulation already back 2000 years ago.
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- Tribulation began when Christ ascended into heaven and continues until the day when he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.
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- These are the ones, these are all of those who die in the faith coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes, made them white in the blood of the lamb.
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- And here's where we must take these comforting words and let them come back to us because here's the thing.
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- We have all been baptized and the active ingredient in baptism is always the word of God.
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- But I think that this helps us to understand there's a little bit more than God's word in play in the waters of baptism.
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- There the blood of Christ also resides, the blood of Christ given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins.
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- And when we are washed in the waters of baptism, all of our sins are washed away.
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- And the stain that we have put upon ourselves and the filth and the muck of our own sin, all of that is washed away.
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- And rather than the tattered rags of sin, we are given the perfect sinless righteousness of Christ exemplified here in these glorious white robes, white robes washed in the blood of the lamb.
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- And that's a reality for all of us. And it's important to note that we here on earth who are still part of the church militant, it's difficult for us to see that we are
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- Christians. I know that seems like an odd thing to say, but Luther actually writes to this degree in this idea that Christians have a hard time seeing that they're
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- Christians because every single one of us is buffeted by the temptations of the world, the devil, and our own sinful flesh.
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- And so the experience of being a Christian is becoming even more and more daily aware of just how far short of the glory of God we have fallen and how none of us keeps
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- God's law perfectly. As a result of that, the experience of being a Christian is the experience of having a greater and greater number of sins forgiven by Christ.
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- The new person that you are in Jesus is wrestling and saddled with your old sinful flesh.
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- And so these words are the reality that our faith hangs onto so that we do not lose sight of the goal, where we are heading, the terminus of all of this.
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- Those who have made their robes white in the blood of the lamb, they are before the throne.
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- They serve God day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne, he will shelter them in his presence.
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- They will hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.
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- For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
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- What a beautiful picture. And yes, brothers and sisters, you are the ones who are forgiven. You are the ones who are clothed in this righteousness of Christ.
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- You will see God with your own eyes. You yourself will worship in the presence of Christ and around his throne.
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- And even Christ himself will wipe away every tear from your eyes. Because you'll note that when we arrive, it's going to be both a joyous, and I would even say a heart -saddening experience.
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- Joyous that we are there, sad for who is not. As we continue, we got to keep these things in mind.
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- And so brothers and sisters, don't ever lose sight then of this truth. Though your sins be as scarlet,
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- Christ has washed them all away. Today you heard the words of the absolution. And those were not my words, and it wasn't my forgiveness.
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- That was the forgiveness of Jesus himself. He is the judge in the courts of heaven, and he has declared each and every one of you not guilty by virtue of the fact that he has taken your sins upon himself and justified us and fulfilled the wrath of God and met the justice of God perfectly for each of us.
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- Is it any wonder then that our epistle for all saints is this glorious passage from 1
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- John that reads, See what kind of love the Father has given to us.
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- Emphasis on the word given. You didn't earn this. In fact, salvation belongs to our
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- God. And you know what our God chooses to do with his salvation? He gives it to you for free.
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- You can't pay for it if you try. It is only a gift that can be received. See what kind of love the
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- Father has given to us. That we, these folks, this ragtag misfits here at Kongsvinger Lutheran Church and those of you joining us online,
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- I know you fit that description as well. But think of it. See what kind of love the
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- Father has given to us. That we, the misfit sinners that we are, that we should be called the children of God.
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- It's scandalous, yet it's true. And so we are. You are not hoping someday to be a child of God.
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- You who are hearing me, who believe in Jesus Christ, you are now a child of God.
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- Rest assured, Jesus has bled and died for you. And he has given you faith.
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- So you are a child of God. One of the saddest things I've ever heard and read was maybe about nine, ten -ish years ago.
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- There was kind of a famous evangelical preacher who was talking about the fact that he doesn't know if he's a
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- Christian, but someday he hopes to become one. And he was a pastor. And you just sit there and go, what on earth are you talking about?
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- And he noted then that he doesn't love his neighbor as he should. He doesn't love God as much as he should.
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- And as a result of that, he has doubts as to whether or not it would be right for him to identify as a
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- Christian. But he's hoping that if he can get his act together, be intentional enough, really, really mean it this time, that someday he might be able to say that he is a
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- Christian. If you are waiting for yourself to get to that point, you will never become a
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- Christian because you can't earn it anyway. Being a Christian is something gifted to us, given to us by God.
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- It is something that we receive and cherish as the great gift that it is.
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- So we are now the children of God. The reason the world doesn't know us is that it did not know
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- Jesus. Beloved, we are God's children now, John writes, and what we will be has not yet appeared.
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- And I would note this, even those before the throne of Christ, what they will be has not yet appeared.
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- Have you noticed the wisdom of our God? He has chosen that we all together will rise from the grave on the same exact day.
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- Peter will not receive his glorified, resurrected body the different day than you receive it.
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- Paul will not receive his glorified body any different than the day that you receive it.
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- You are going to receive it on the exact same day, the same day that we receive it with all of those who've gone before us.
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- We're all going to be resurrected together. And the new time on the new earth will begin with that, with Christ's return and our resurrection.
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- So we are God's children. Now, what we will be has not yet appeared. We know, though, that when he appears, we're going to be like him because we shall see him as he is.
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- And I would note that this is another passage that puts a stake in that vampire doctrine called purgatory.
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- It's nonsense, by the way. We're all transformed in the twinkling of an eye when
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- Christ appears, then we will be like him. We don't have to spend millions of years in purgatory burning off the dross of our sin.
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- It's a nonsensical doctrine that denies great passages like this. So when he appears, we shall be like him.
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- We will see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
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- And we are made pure through the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we are forgiven in him.
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- Is it any wonder, then, that our gospel text, always and again when this text comes around, it's such a wonderful, wonderful Sunday because here again, we can see in Jesus' first sermon, he doesn't declare curses upon those who believe in him.
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- He doesn't curse us and weigh us down with the weight of the law and say, get your act together and maybe, just maybe, you might earn it.
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- Instead, Christ begins his ministry with these words, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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- Let that sink in. When you look in the mirror of God's law, do you see a bright, shiny reflection coming back to you of one who is getting better and better each and every day where somehow by the time you get into your 70s, it'll be so difficult to be in your presence because we'll all have to wear sunglasses?
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- No. No. When we look into the mirror of God's law, what do we see? Poor, weak, miserable, ungodly sinners who despite their best intentions, despite their greatest desires to do godly things, still continue to struggle and wrestle with sin.
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- There isn't a week that goes by that I do not hear you guys confess that you are by nature sinful and unclean, that you've sinned against God and thought word and deed, and that's the point.
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- We, when we confess our sin, we are confessing that we are the poor in spirit, that we are literally the bankrupt.
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- We have nothing to offer to God and Christ says yours is the kingdom of heaven.
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- Only the person who recognizes that they have nothing to offer God can then have their hands empty enough, empty to the point where Christ can put the gift of salvation into their empty hands.
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- And that's the point. And blessed are those who mourn. Again, this is not the mourning of mourning over those who die, who we love and miss.
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- This is the mourning and lamenting of your own sin. Christ assures you that you will be comforted.
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- In fact, you have been comforted today with the assurance that you are forgiven in Christ. Today we will feast on the very body and blood of Jesus.
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- If you want more comfort, you can have it. You come to the altar, you come to the rail, and you hear and hang on to these words, this is the body of Christ given and to tend to death for the forgiveness of your sins.
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- This is the blood of Christ shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. This is the comfort that Christ gives us now.
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- So hold on to it for the comforting thing that it is. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
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- Kind of a funny thing, there's been a resurgence of Nazism lately and it's taken a form within the
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- Missouri Synod, which is a very terrible, awful thing. And I would note, having read about Hitler quite extensively,
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- Hitler hated this verse. Absolutely loathed and despised it.
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- He basically panned it as a Jewish notion. Blessed are the meek, you've got to be kidding.
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- What kind of nonsense is this? What was Hitler all about? Well, Hitler was all about strength and he was going to be the one that was going to be the savior of Deutschland.
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- He was the one who's going to bring them into a millennial thousand -year Reich of victory after victory and success after success.
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- Anybody who thinks that it's about being meek isn't taking their place in our victorious community.
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- Right, this is the way he taught. And how long did his thousand -year Reich last exactly?
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- 12 years, eight months, something like that. So much for that, right?
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- But I would note, Hitler has now been humbled, but not in a way that brings about his salvation.
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- So blessed are the meek. When you recognize that you have nothing to offer God and you mourn and lament your sin, do you think for a second you're going to be the opposite of meek before God?
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- Indeed, having God's law do its work in us, we cannot help but be meek and come to God in weakness.
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- But God, Christ assures us, we will inherit the earth. Not the strong.
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- Not the mighty. Not the powerful. Not the resourceful. Not those with the greatest military might.
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- No, it is the meek, the Christians who on their knees daily pray to God, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
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- These are the ones who will inherit the earth. And indeed, the earth is already yours.
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- We're just waiting for the deed to be passed to us. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
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- They shall be satisfied. Again, I keep pointing it out. I say it like almost every week now.
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- Have you noticed how crazy the world has gotten? Have you noticed how awful our politicians are?
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- Completely inept, immoral, corrupt. Just full of nonsense.
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- I feel like anybody who spends a lot of time reading the political news, listen, watch
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- Major League Baseball instead. At least the Twins won half of their games this past year, right?
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- But when you're reading politics, it's like a daily march of complete failure, moral failure, more failure on top of failure.
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- And if your hope is in the Republican Party, how many weeks did it take them to pick a Speaker of the House? Right?
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- Is your hope in the politicians? Instead, we hunger and thirst for righteousness.
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- King Jesus, when he returns, is going to establish his kingdom and it's going to consume the whole earth.
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- There will not be a place on planet earth where there is an inept, immoral, stupid, ignoramus, incompetent politician.
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- King Jesus is the complete opposite of all of that. Do you yearn for that world?
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- Do you lament the brokenness of our own glorious country? Then you are legitimately hungering and thirsting for that righteousness.
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- For our King of Kings and Lord of Lords to establish his throne over the earth visibly forever and to be done with the kingdoms of men.
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- Blessed are the merciful, they shall receive mercy. This is why we pray daily, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
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- And blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. And I can hear some of you going, well, there it is, there's the bit that doesn't apply to me.
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- Baloney, it applies to all of us. Because you'll note in the waters of baptism, Christ replaced your heart of stone with the heart of flesh.
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- And that heart that he has given you is pure in him and has only pure desires.
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- It is your sinful flesh that wars against the desires of the pure heart that Christ gave you.
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- But note this, you who have been baptized, who trust in Christ's promises, you will see
- 30:22
- God. Not in a terrifying way, but in a way where God, where Christ himself will say to you, well done, good and faithful servant.
- 30:33
- And blessed are the peacemakers, those who go and preach the gospel and proclaim to people that there is peace and reconciliation in Christ and that God has sent his son to bleed and to die for them.
- 30:45
- Those who preach this gospel and make peace between God and men, they shall be called the sons of God.
- 30:51
- And who of us has not shared the good news of Christ and him crucified with our neighbors, our friends, our family members, and those whom we love.
- 31:00
- And blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You preach
- 31:06
- Christ, you will be despised by the world. You preach Christ, you're going to be despised by a lot of people who call themselves
- 31:11
- Christians. Persecution comes in all kinds of forms. In fact, Christ goes on to say, and blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
- 31:25
- I know a thing or two about that. I'm supposed to be a cult leader here in Oslo. All right?
- 31:32
- But those who speak such words, they're persecuting me and reviling me with all kinds of false words.
- 31:39
- And also you, by extension, by the way. Note then, rejoice and be glad, your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- 31:48
- Brothers and sisters, I have no bad news to announce to you. None whatsoever today. Only the good news that what is coming will arrive.
- 31:56
- You will stand before the throne of Christ. You will worship in His presence. You have been forgiven.
- 32:03
- Salvation belongs to our God, and He has given it to you. I think
- 32:11
- I should just end there. That's a good place to stop. There's nothing more to be said. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
- 32:34
- 470th Avenue NW, Oslo, MN, 56744.
- 32:40
- And again, that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950, 470th
- 32:49
- Avenue NW, Oslo, MN, 56744. We thank you for your support.
- 32:56
- All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.