The Reformation is Not Over

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, Chapter 11, verses 12 through 19.

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From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence. And the violent take it by force.

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For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the

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Elijah who is to come. He who has ears, let him hear. But to what shall I compare this generation?

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It's like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, we played the flute for you and you did not dance.

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We sang a dirge and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating nor drinking and they say he has a demon.

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The son of man came eating and drinking and they say look at him, a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

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Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

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So today we recognize and we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the

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Reformation. The posting of the 95 theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg.

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And let me say if you were hoping to hear a really long history lesson on the Reformation today, then

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I must say that I'm going to disappoint you. My job is to preach the word.

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And if we're going to honor the Reformation, we must honor God's word and recognize that we celebrate not

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Martin Luther. But what we celebrate is that God miraculously chose to have mercy on us by allowing once again the gospel to break forth into the church where it had been covered up by all kinds of manmade doctrines and traditions that obscured the glory of Christ and confused salvation and turned it into a work that something that we somehow had to accomplish by our moralizing life, our prayers to saints and things of that nature.

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So we must again return then and study God's word and the very text that led to this outbreak of the gospel 500 years ago, which we celebrate as the

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Reformation. And so we're going to return then to our epistle text to Romans chapter three.

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And we're going to back up in the context just a little bit, starting at verse nine so that we can see what this amazing text teaches regarding the fact that we are saved not by our works, but that we are saved purely by God's grace because of what

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Christ has done for us and his grace and his mercy. Now in order to help frame our sermon today,

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I have to give you two slight anecdotal stories just to kind of set up a little bit of a frame and we'll work with both of them throughout the sermon.

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I don't know if any of you noticed this, but Christmas was all gospel when we were children.

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It turned into law when we had children. Let me explain. When we were children,

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Christmas was like the best thing ever. In fact, I loved Christmas because these magical things would happen, decorations would go up and basically that time from about Thanksgiving Eve until Christmas took about 10 years.

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At least it felt like it took 10 years with all of the anticipation, with all of the light lights, the glitter, the songs, the

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Christmas specials on television. Oh man, I loved it. And of course, going and visiting

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Santa while I still believed in Santa and telling him all that I wanted for Christmas and it magically appearing under the tree, right?

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Oh, I loved sitting underneath the Christmas tree, looking at the presents, shaking the boxes and stuff like it was all gift.

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Then, then I had kids and it became all law because the

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Christmas bill showed up on my bank account. All right? I'm just saying. And then these terrible things happened as my daughters got older.

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They would get gifts that were large boxes and on the box were these words, some assembly required.

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Now, I don't know if any of you have experienced this particular form of torture, okay? But oh man, the worst one ever was the

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Barbie dream house. I still am in therapy to this day because that one, some assembly required hogwash.

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You practically needed a building permit to get that thing going. And you can tell that by the end of the many hours that I put into constructing the

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Barbie dream house, I was at, I was just gone. And because the stickers at the very end, peeling those little things off and putting them in their proper places and looking on those instruction written in French, you know, to put them in the right places was a mess.

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Okay. And it got so bad that I was just kind of going, putting them anywhere. And I heard these words, dad, right?

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That's not where they go. Now I want you to think of it this way. Many people think that salvation is like the

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Barbie dream house, some assembly required. It takes effort on our part in order to be saved.

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Scripture teaches something completely different. So that's anecdotal story number one.

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Anecdotal story number two to help us frame our text is something I have not publicly spoken about ever.

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But I think it bears discussing at this point because it fits perfectly with a very important portion of our text.

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When I was a youth, I used to attend a summer camp put on by an organization known as the

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Care Youth League. And I played football with them, played baseball with this group. And when

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I went to their summer camps, these were Christian summer camps. And I need to tell you that this was one of the places where it was reinforced in my mind and I was taught explicitly that salvation is my doing, that I had to show

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God that I was serious about him through my moral life and things like this.

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And the way they had the camp set up, when you would show up the first day, everybody at the campfire time was given a neckerchief of the same color.

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And if you were good and you demonstrated to the camp counselors that you were serious about your walk with Jesus, during the campfire time every night, they would either promote you or demote you.

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And the goal was to get the golden neckerchief. Right below the golden neckerchief was the blue neckerchief.

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Now I got to tell you, I applied myself rigorously to achieving the gold neckerchief.

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I really tried. I made sure that when I was reading my Bible, I was reading my Bible in places where the camp counselors can see me reading my

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Bible. That whenever it became time for somebody to pray, I was always the first to volunteer and pray out loud.

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That I was always helping out with the dishes. Don't talk to me about this. I was trying to get the gold neckerchief.

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And I actually achieved blue. I achieved the blue neckerchief.

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And I got to tell you, that when I had that blue neckerchief, oh man, was my ego inflated beyond all reason.

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I was strutting around going, I've got a blue neckerchief. I'm holier than you are.

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Right? Because take a look. It's blue. I'm only one step away from gold. That's what

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I was saying inside of my heart. Awful, isn't it?

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I should have been given a black one. Keep that in mind. Let's go back to our text.

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Romans chapter 3, verse 9. Paul writing to Christians who are genetically

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Jewish, descendants of Abraham, who are in the church in Rome. He says this, what then, are we

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Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we've already charged that all, by the way, all here means all, both

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Jews and Greeks are under sin, as it is written. And here Paul then quotes

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Psalm 14 and Psalm 53. None is righteous.

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No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.

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All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. There is no one who does good.

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Not even one. That's me. That's you.

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This is the law's verdict about all of us. It's a very unflattering picture.

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But the reality is it's true. Paul then continues. Their throat is an open grave.

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

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Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they have not known.

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There is no fear of God before their eyes. This is the law's verdict about all of us.

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Verse 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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You see, we look at God's law. We look at the Ten Commandments. And they condemn us and show that we are not measuring up.

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And we think the solution to silencing the condemnation of the law is for us to try harder, to do gooder, to be better.

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You cannot... Yeah, it was bad grammar on purpose. I'm making a point. Right? You cannot silence the law in this way.

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In fact, this text makes it very clear what the purpose of the law is. Now, I remember years ago, there was a time my kids broke the

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Fourth Commandment, you know, the honor of your father and mother. And I was saying something. Of course, I was pontificating and just being silly.

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When my son turns to me and he says, Dad, zip. What's zip?

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Why are you doing zip to me? Right? He says, I'll zip it. And I said, but, but, zip. Now, it was kind of funny at the time.

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Right? We all kind of get the idea. It's a little cute thing. But see, here's the thing.

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That's what the law is doing to us. You sit there and you say, God, but I'm a good person.

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Zip. I really meant well. Zip. My intentions were good.

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Zip. Right? This is what the law is doing to us, telling us to be quiet.

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And it's hard for us to do because we know that the law is condemning us. We know that we are nailed to the wall.

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There's no way of getting out of this. And so we're trying to kind of creatively figure out how we can use our words to wiggle out in this situation.

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But the law won't let you do that. So this is why he says, we know whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God, which is an extremely uncomfortable space to be in.

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And so here's the reason why. Verse 20. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in God's sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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If you plan on standing before God on the day of judgment and say to him,

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I should be led into heaven because I paid my taxes, I never went to prison, and I burned my

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Beatles White album and listened only to Christian music, you will not be saved.

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By works of the law, no human being, not one, will be justified.

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Big word in the Greek, dikayao, it means to be declared righteous.

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It is a judge term. Our equivalent is when the gavel slaps down and the judge says, not guilty.

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That's what dikayao is. No human being will be declared righteous, declared not guilty in God's sight by works of the law.

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The purpose of the law is not to save you. The purpose of the law is to condemn you.

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It is to show you your sin. And so we human beings, being the idolaters that we are, we hear the law's condemnation, and it resonates in our hearts because God's word says, the law of God is written in our hearts.

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Look around. When you watch the news at night, which I've given up on.

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It makes me depressed. But when you watch the news, everything assumed on the news assumes

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God's law, that there's a standard, that the bad news you're hearing about that bad guy who did that bad thing or that bad woman who did that terrible thing or that egregious politician who said that outrageous thing, all of it assumes

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God's law. Otherwise, none of the things we see on the news would scandalize us.

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And the reason for that is because we have God's law written on our hearts. And we feel a little bit better about ourselves when we see just how screwed up somebody else is.

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I mean, I'm guilty of this. Have you ever watched reality TV and say, well, after watching how screwed up they are,

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I kind of feel normal. Right? I think that's the purpose of reality

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TV. But see, God's law condemns us all, and that anxiety that we feel from God's law, we all feel it in our hearts.

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Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, literally kind of woken up with a start going, I'm going to die someday and stand before God.

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What am I going to say? That's your sinful flesh going, I know

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I've screwed up, and I haven't worked out my angle yet. There's no angle to work.

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And trying harder and doing good will not save you. By works of the law, no human being will be justified in God's sight.

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And this is the great doctrine of the Reformation. Verse 21, But now the righteousness of God, it's

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His righteousness, not yours, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

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Although the law and the prophets, they bear witness to it. This is the righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

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Good way to think of this verse, it is literally promising that God's righteousness is given to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

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Doesn't get any better than God's righteousness, does it? And that's given to us as a gift. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift.

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And I need to note here, this gift is completely assembled for you.

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No assembly required. It is given, all are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

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And you notice what's going to be at the very heart and center of this. It's the cross. The cross is literally the beating heart of our salvation.

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And here's what He says, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom

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God put forward as a propitiation. You can say atoning sacrifice by His blood to be received by faith.

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You see, brothers and sisters, the cross demands salvation by grace through faith. If you're trying to save yourself, you don't need a crucified and risen

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Savior. If you're trying to save yourself, you just need a good plan to figure out how to keep

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God's law. And best of luck to you. Because Scripture says no one's going to be saved that way.

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But you're going to see, it's the cross that makes all the difference. Because on that cross,

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Jesus took all of our sin upon Himself. And He bled and died for your sins and mine.

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Even the sin of trying to save yourself by your own good works.

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So God put Him forward as an atoning sacrifice through His blood to be received by faith. This was to show

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God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance He had passed over the former sins. It was to show

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His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith.

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The one who simply trusts in Jesus. So then the question comes up next.

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Think of it this way. If all have sinned and fall short and anyone who is saved is saved purely by grace as a gift, is there any room for boasting in that way of thinking?

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No. We're all equal before God as sinners. And anybody who is saved has been saved because of God's grace,

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God's mercy, God's love, which He demonstrated by bleeding and dying for sinful rebels like you and like me.

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You deserve hell and I'm going to give you heaven instead as a gift. There's no room for boasting in that scheme, is there?

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So then the question comes up. So what then becomes of our boasting? Let's go back to CARE Youth League summer camp.

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So there I was. We're more than halfway through and I had a blue neckerchief.

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And my internal self -righteousness and arrogance was literally pegging on the extreme end of the needle, right?

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Next night, I was expecting I was going to win that gold neckerchief.

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I didn't. I still kept the blue one. And I was angry because I was doing everything

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I knew to get their attention to show them what a good boy that I was. And I felt bad for one poor fellow that particular day because as we were on a day hike, he had his green neckerchief taken away from him and he was given a black neckerchief because while we were on a day hike, he was singing a

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Rolling Stones song. No! You can't do that!

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Black neckerchief for you. On the spot. I'm thinking, well, at least I'm not like that guy.

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I don't even listen to the Stones. All right? Next day, campfire time.

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I didn't get a gold neckerchief. It stayed blue. I was furious.

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And in anger and disgust, I stood up, took my blue neckerchief off, threw it on the ground, and smushed it and stomped it and said, what do

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I need to do in order to get a gold neckerchief? And there it was. You self -righteous little jerk.

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Right? To which I was demoted and got a black one. And rightfully so. All right?

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So you'll notice that when we're judging each other based upon our righteousness, it creates a pecking order.

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And the people at the top of the pecking order are absolutely arrogant and boastful, which is one of the reasons why they hate the gospel.

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Because the gospel makes everybody equal. Sinners.

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So what then becomes of our boasting, Paul asks. It's excluded.

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By what kind of law? By a law of works? No. By the law of faith.

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For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. There is no boasting in Christianity.

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None whatsoever. And our hymn that we opened up with, Amazing Grace How Sweet the

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Sound, you all know the story of the fellow who wrote that, right? He was a slave trader.

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He literally was a captain on a slave ship. He was responsible, literally, for taking thousands of Africans from Africa and transporting them across the

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Atlantic to the Americas to be sold on the slave block. Many of them didn't make the crossing.

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Many of them died, and he threw their carcasses over the ship. Treated them as if they were animals.

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Some music people actually speculate, and they've made the case that the tune itself,

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Mm -hmm, mm -hmm, mm -hmm, mm -hmm, was not a tune that he wrote, but that was a tune that he heard the

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Africans singing in mourning for them being enslaved and being transferred against their will across the

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Atlantic, and many of them dying and being sick. So he takes that slave tune that he heard, and after he hears the gospel, he repents, and he recognizes that he is not righteous and what he has done is sinful beyond measure and that he truly deserves hell.

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And that's the gospel. That's the law, at least a portion of it, that we deserve hell.

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And he eventually becomes a pastor, and he writes the tune. And what are the opening words?

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Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch.

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I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now

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I see. Don't ever sing those words without saying, that's me.

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That's what the Reformation is all about. That's the gospel that was recovered 500 years ago, and that's what we all need to hear.

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The good news, that none is righteous, all have sinned and fall short, that none be justified in God's sight by works of the law, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are saved purely by His grace and His mercy as a gift.

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No assembly required. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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