Abide in Christ's Word

The Gospel According to John 8:31-36

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the 8th chapter. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

They answered Him, We are offspring of Abraham, and we've never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Jesus says, If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciple, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

The Reformation Must Continue

Now, as we get into our Reformation Day sermon today, you're going to note I don't like reminiscing about the victories of the past because the Reformation must continue today. So you'll note that the work isn't completed.

But all of that being said, let me kind of frame our sermon this way. I remember like the first iterations of video games. I remember in the 70s being exposed to Pong for the first time and absolutely being floored by the great advances in technology that had taken place.

Shortly after that, we had Asteroids and Pac-Man and things like this. But I remember when the first gaming consoles became available for in-home purchase. And there was a game that was available called Punch-Out.

And Punch-Out was a boxing game. And it was all about you being a boxer, getting better skills, and climbing the ladder. But at the very top of the ladder was Mike Tyson. And in Punch-Out, you would go toe-to-toe in the boxing ring with Mike Tyson.

And let's just say that the first time and the second time and the third and fifth and tenth and twentieth times that you did this, it was a bloodbath. I mean, he would pound you into the ground so fast.

But if you were diligent and worked hard at your button-pressing skills, you could eventually defeat Mike Tyson. And it was gloriously stupid. What is it with humanity that we have these weird delusions regarding having fantasies of doing things way beyond what is humanly possible?

Let me put it this way. If I were to actually have a boxing match with Mike Tyson, the proverbial two hits would take place. He would punch me in the face, I would be knocked out, and then my body would hit the floor.

Same with you, by the way. The only chance I ever have of beating Mike Tyson is if he suffers from osteoporosis in a nursing facility and when he's not looking, then I punch him. But if that happens, I'm going to jail because that's called assault.

Fallen Humanity Cannot Free Itself

So you'll note that when it comes to humanity, we have these weird fantasies, these weird ideas, and they are not based in anything that can be even remotely described as true. And this is the same regarding our condition as fallen creatures, as sinners.

We somehow have this stupid idea that, listen, we don't really need to listen to God's word. I mean, that's kind of an old book. It's a little crusty. I mean, after all, how relevant could it be? These are a bunch of people who were living in a Judean wilderness back in the ancient days before toothbrushes, and they probably all had bad teeth and bad breath.

How much could we really listen to them? And this is how we talk. And so we say, we've got a better way. And always and again, when somebody comes up with a better way, it is ridiculous. The reality is this.

Jesus talks about the need for the Son to set you free, and that's Him. And here's the reason why. Because each and every one of us, like it or not, it's true, we were born dead in trespasses and sins.

We were born under the dominion of darkness, and the devil is real. He's not a pretend mythological creature. This devil is a tyrant, and his desire is to send you to hell. You guys remember the Four Spiritual Laws pamphlet that people used to hand out in evangelism, right?

It begins with the words, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. I think that there's something wrong with this approach, by the way. I think we need to come up with the Four Demonic Spiritual Laws.

Law number one, the devil hates you, and he has a terrible plan for your eternity. And law number two, you are powerless to do anything about this. It doesn't matter how hard you try, how moral you decide that you're going to be.

This year, I'm not going to cheat on my taxes as much as I did last year. Well, good on you. And do you expect to gain heaven from this? Right? Okay. I'm going to call my mom this Mother's Day. Woo-hoo!

Way to go. I'm going to talk to her for 30 whole minutes. Oh, you are so selfless, right? We are utterly delusional in thinking that somehow our paltry, sin-filled good works can somehow free us from the slavery that we are under as it relates to sin, death, and the devil.

We need a true champion to set us free. But our delusion even goes farther than that. We're so deluded, we think we know better than God how God operates. Now, there's this weird thing that happens from time to time in my marriage.

Have you noticed that in marriages that sometimes you disagree with your spouse? It's prone to happen. It just is one of these things. But there's this funny thing that my wife does. And that is that while my wife and I are having a disagreement, my wife starts telling me what I'm thinking and feeling.

And I go, wait, wait, time out here. No, this is not how this works. Flag on the play. Wrong. When we have a conversation, here's how this is supposed to go. You have your thoughts, your feelings, your ideas.

I have my thoughts, my feelings, and my ideas. You don't get to play both sides of the conversation. This is just not going to work. And so she says, okay, I'm sorry. Please tell me what you're thinking.

And then the conversation changes. But when it comes to God, we play that same game. We take the Bible and we just put it over here or maybe put it on a shelf over there and it collects dust. But all the while we're very religious and pious in our thinking and all of a sudden these weird ideas creep up and we get this idea we know better than what God has revealed in His Word as to what it is that we need to be doing, what we need to be thinking, what we need to be believing, and what we should be doing.

And always and again it steers us straight into the ditch of God's law. Or man-made law. When I was in Nazarene, there were very important rules that we had to follow. Do not dance, do not drink, do not smoke, do not chew, do not go with girls that do.

And you look in the Bible and you sit there and go, Well, Jesus drank.

Well, yeah, but.

And here's the thing that happens. As soon as you start playing this game where you think you know better than God, when the Bible contradicts what you say we need to be doing, it always is then confronted with the words,.

Yeah, but. Forget the yeah, buts.

Yeah, buts are a bad thing. Yeah, buts show that you don't even have the truth. Christ drank. Yeah, but. No, no yeah, but.

Okay.

So your rule you cannot drink is wrong.

All right.

Well, if you don't drink, then you'll never get drunk. And if you never get drunk, then you're obeying God's law. And then you'll be saved. Oh, you're trying to be saved by your works now, are you?

Right.

And then you'll note that during the time of the Middle Ages. Well, the Bible itself was locked up. Now, I don't mean that it was chained to the altar and no one was allowed to read it. The devil is far more clever of an adversary than that.

People can come to church. They can go to church and they can hear the Bible read. But not in their language. So they go to church and they hear,.

Wa-wa, wa-wa, wa-wa, wa-wa, wa-wa, wa-wa, wa-wa, wa-wa,.

Espiritu Sanctu.

Right.

This is what they hear.

Okay.

Because the Bible's locked up in Latin. And without the Bible, the voice of God, telling us what Christ has done for us,.

Who disappears?

Jesus does.

What also disappears? The gospel itself. But don't think that because the Bible is locked up, that somehow that's the only way to cause people to not hear God's words. Oh, we are awash in Bibles today.

I mean, you go to your local Christian bookstore. Do they even have those anymore? Go to Amazon .com. You can buy Bibles aplenty. You can buy the New Living Translation, the ESV, the NASB. Do you have a hankering for the old NIV?

Oh, what if you like King James? You can buy Bibles aplenty. But here's the thing. Good luck reading it. Good luck understanding it. And if you're prone to watching Trinity Broadcasting Network or imbibing on a lot of Christian programming today, are you going to hear anything substantive about what God's word really says?

Nope, not at all. It's as if we need a suddenly. We need the suddenly of the gospel to come back. Sorry, my apologies for those of you who know what I'm talking about. But here's the thing. We don't know better than God.

The Law Condemns and Exposes Sin

And here's where we have to pay attention to this. Each and every one of us, according to scriptures, has the law of God written on our hearts. And that law of God convicts us, and it rightly condemns us.

Each and every one of us, even if you have never set foot in a Christian church, you know that you're going to stand before Jesus someday and have to give an accounting of your life. It always fascinates me that when I have insomnia, and I go, all right, I'm going to flip through TikTok or something, right?

So I'm flipping through TikTok, and my TikTok stream is bizarre. It's just absolutely bizarre. But I was recently doing this, flipping through TikTok, and there was a woman who was suggesting something that was overtly immoral.

And she said, I kid you not, her aside, she stopped and she paused and she says, man, I can't believe I said that. I really need Jesus. You know you're not wrong. You know you're not wrong when you do that.

We all recognize that we're going to stand before the throne of Christ someday, whether you attend church or not. And you'll note that that thought doesn't generally result in people feeling comfort. It doesn't result in them feeling like, I have a peace in my heart.

I just know that things are going to go so well on the day of judgment. That's not where you're going to find your peace regarding that. And it's in this regard, I think we should consider the assigned psalm for today.

Now, I didn't read it out, but the assigned psalm for the Reformation Sunday is Psalm 46. And it begins with words that we are all very familiar with. You may have even seen this on a Christian bumper sticker, or maybe heard Joel Osteen take these words and try to weave it into an entire sermon, but out of context.

Here are the words. God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in times of trouble. Now, we've all heard these words, but I want you to consider this, that those words are spoken in the context of looking forward to the day when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.

And God being a refuge and a strength and a very present help in trouble is not talking about, necessarily here in this context, the difficulties and the struggles that we go through in this life, but the trouble that comes upon planet Earth on the last day when Jesus returns and he's riding a horse, swinging a sword, and the world is being judged by him and brought to an end.

It's a fearful thing. And so God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble, Psalm 46 says. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

You'll note the cross references to Psalm 46 in this portion of verses 2 and 3. This is talking about the day when Christ returns. It is a day of darkness, not light. It is a day of terror. And I think about some of the natural disasters we've witnessed in our lifetime, and you'll note that as big as those were, I remember the earthquake that took place in the late 80s in California during the World Series, and watching the destruction, the bridges that fell and the buildings that collapsed and the people who died and the fires that were started because of that large earthquake that happened.

And we were watching the World Series when that all went down. But what is described here in Psalm 46, 2 and 3, makes those natural disasters seem like nothing. And the reality is that those natural disasters that we experience oftentimes create within us fear and anxiety.

What if something like that were to happen here? Are we capable of having an earthquake here in Minnesota? I don't know, but you get the idea. But God is a present help, and he's our refuge and strength on the day of his return.

And then these words, comforting, says, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. And you'll note he says God will help her, his church, his bride, when the morning dawns.

And here the psalmist picks up some of the same themes that are revealed in the book of Ezekiel when Ezekiel is out measuring the temple of God there in Jerusalem. And there's a river flowing from the throne of God and flowing down into the Jordan.

And even the Dead Sea with this river flowing in it is no longer a dead sea but a living sea. The picture is quite comforting, but this is a picture then of the Eschaton. And so God is there to help us when the morning dawns and gives us shelter and a fortress in order to withstand the storm.

We recognize that the wrath of God is something that we all need to soberly really consider. Yes, it's true, God acts in wrath. He does so when provoked. He does so when he is slow to anger, patient, abounding in steadfast love, and he continues to endure provocation after provocation after provocation while men continue to take his word, cast it behind them, and then continue on with their sin and iniquity without ever repenting.

At some point God's patience wears out and he says, fine, you don't want to be forgiven, I'm going to give you what you want. Because if you don't want to be forgiven by God, there is only one other option, and that's his wrath.

But God is there to help his church, the scripture says. The nations rage, the psalmist continues. The kingdoms, they totter. God utters his voice, the earth melts. What is coming is terrifying. God's true, true wrath against sin.

Him finally settling accounts, and basically when God settles accounts with people who do not want to be forgiven, it's a terrifying thing. And even Peter in 2 Peter talks about how the earth itself will melt and the atoms and the material of the universe will come to a cataclysmic end as God destroys our present earth with fire.

It is a terrifying picture. But here in the midst of this terrifying picture we again hear words of comfort. The Lord of hosts, he is with us. The God of Jacob, he is our fortress. And here if we could pull on an old theme in the scriptures, there's the theme when God acts in judgment, that he always finds a way to shelter, to protect, to hide, if you would, his believers from his wrath.

You think all the way back to the children of Israel in slavery in Egypt. They weren't able to save themselves, and God sent Moses, and God delivered them from slavery. And the final act of God's judgment against Egypt and against Egypt's false god was the curse of the killing of the firstborn.

It's a horrible curse if you think about it. And yet God made it very clear that he was not going to make any distinction between Egypt or Israelite. The only thing that will distinguish those who perish from those who survive would be whether or not they listened to his words and slaughtered a lamb and put the blood of that lamb over the doorpost of their home.

God, acting then in judgment against Egypt, sent the destroyer in to kill the firstborn of man and beast. And when the destroyer came to a door and found the blood of a lamb over it, the destroyer passed over and went to the next house.

And if the destroyer found a home where there was no blood over it, these were those who did not trust the words of Yahweh, who did not heed his command, who would not listen and bend the knee or believe and obey.

And as a result of it, the destroyer went in, and all the firstborn of man and beast in that house perished in a moment. You can think of that particular plague as the first fruits of the judgment that is to come.

But in the judgment that is to come, it is not merely the firstborn that will perish. It is all of humanity, male, female, firstborn, secondborn, tenth, twelfth. It doesn't matter. Christ is bringing it all to an end.

How then can we survive? Well, God himself is our fortress, and he has hidden us inside of Christ. And this is why we must listen to Jesus' words. We must be attentive to the words of Scripture so that we are not deceived by our own sinful nature and our own high opinions of our religious piety, but instead that we would listen to the voice of Christ and heed his word and obey as he has called us to obey.

But in this type of obeying, the obedience that saves us is not like the obedience of the law. The obedience that saves us is the obedience of the gospel, which calls us to trust, to have faith in Jesus, to believe that he has won our salvation for us in its totality, and that he is our fortress, he is our salvation, he is our rock, he is our deliverer.

Christ Alone Is Our Refuge

And here's the thing. You can't find that message anywhere else. If you were to read the holy books, and I put air quotes there, of all the religions of the world, you read the holy book of Islam, the Koran, there is no gospel there.

In fact, an overt denial of Christ's crucifixion is in the Koran. And an overt denial that he is the actual son of God who bled and died for the sins of the world. You will not find it, the gospel, in the Baha 'i Gita.

You will not find it in the Zohar or the Kabbalah. You will not find the gospel in any other place than in the Scriptures that God's Holy Spirit caused men to write, and Jesus' apostles also contributed.

This is the only place where we can hear of God's great love for sinners like you and like me. Even though each of us have earned God's wrath, and rightly should fear his wrath on the last day, we as Christians have confidence, we have peace and mercy, not because of a feeling, not because we believe that we've done enough, but because the Scriptures reveal that God has done enough for us.

And this is the gospel that got lost during the Middle Ages, but God had mercy on us all and allowed that papered-over gospel to be again brought to the forefront. And we need that good news now more than ever, more than we can possibly imagine.

Justification by Faith Apart from Works

And it's in this context, then, that we consider our Epistle text. Paul, in Romans 3, says this,. Now, we know that whatever the law says, the Torah of God, 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.

The law was written by God. God is the common author of the law, the prophets, the histories of the Old Testament, as well as the writings of all the apostles found in the New. And God speaks to us through His law, and we do not like what it says about us.

In the world we live in, the greatest sin that you can commit against a person is to offend them. Well, go ahead. Be offended. It doesn't change the fact you are a sinner. You are ungodly. You are incapable of saving yourself.

When we look at God's Holy Ten Commandments, you haven't kept any of them. And you sit there and go, well, I haven't committed adultery. I haven't murdered a person. Really? Really? You think that? You say, well, I haven't plunged a knife into someone's back.

Oh, really? That's as if that's the standard, right? Have you hated your brother? Been so angry at him you wanted to pinch his head off? Yeah, you're a murderer. And what about that hot chick that you saw walking down the street or at Walmart the other day, right?

Had lustful thoughts towards her or some hot guy?

You're an adulterer.

God's law condemns us, but don't let that condemnation fool you. We need to hear these words of God's condemning law because through works of the law, not one single person will be justified or declared righteous in the sight of God.

It is through the law comes the knowledge of sin, and that knowledge is necessary. You are not ready to hear the gospel until you have heard the law, and it has undone you. In Romans 4, it says, Christ died for the ungodly, and until you see that you are in that group, you're not ready to hear the gospel.

But when the gospel comes, it gives us true comfort and peace despite the condemning and rightly condemning word of God's law. You see, by the law comes the knowledge of sin. And always and again, I love where the Scripture puts the buts.

The buts always erase the thing in front of it. And here's the but. But now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets, they bear witness to it.

Paul knew full well that the Scriptures are the voice of God, and that the law and the prophets, they all bore witness to the righteousness that was going to come to each of us, and that is God's righteousness.

It's Christ's righteousness. The thing that he clothes, well, sinners like you and I who have taken our robes and, well, mucked them up with the filth of sin. God takes our sin, puts it on Christ. He bears our iniquity on the cross.

He suffers in your place. He is your Passover lamb so that the wrath of God will not sweep you away. He, Jesus, is your fortress to protect you in the day of trouble, the day of Christ's return, because you have received from God the gift of Christ's righteousness.

But the righteousness of God, it has been manifested apart from the law, and the law and the prophets, they bear witness to it. This is the righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus Christ. It is for all who believe.

There is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And if you say, yeah, but here, you need to be quiet. Yeah, but I'm not that bad. Silence, please. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That includes you. And sinners, then, are justified, declared righteous by God's grace as a gift. Let the law condemn you. Let the law rail against you. It is speaking the truth about you. You are wise to say, yep, that law is right.

I stand guilty before God, but, but God has given me salvation and justified me as a gift. Rather than give me what I deserve, giving you what you deserve, so that we are swept away in the deluge of God's wrath, God has given us the gift of full pardon and peace, all for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, God himself put Jesus forward as an atoning sacrifice, so that his blood is then to be received by faith. And this is to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over the former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So then, what becomes of our boasting?

It's excluded.

By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. And you'll note, then, these words that I just read are found only in the Bible.

And you ignore these words to the peril of your own soul. If you seem to think that you know better than God how you can be saved, then you, well, you might as well think that you can beat Mike Tyson in the boxing ring.

It ain't gonna work. But Jesus says these words, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. It is through God's living, active word that is sharper than a double-edged sword. It is through his words, inspired by God the Holy Spirit, whom the Holy Spirit carried along men as they wrote what God wanted them to write, from Moses through the prophets to the apostles.

It is God's word. It is Christ's word that speaks to us. And God wants us to know the truth. And it is only the truth that will set us free. False doctrine, false piety, false pretenses and nonsense will not set us free.

These are the tricks of the devil to give us a false hope rather than the true hope that we have that is in Christ. So put away your speculations. Put away your pious opinions. Put away this idea that somehow you can placate the wrath of God with your good works and your obedience.

You are delusional if you think so. It is only through the word of Christ that we hear the gospel. And then through that word, abiding in it, we then know the truth. And it is the truth that sets us free because Jesus says, I am the truth.

Truly, Jesus says, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. Only the Son remains. But if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. So brothers and sisters, this Reformation day, the work continues.

The lies of the devil continue to be poured into the visible church and so many people have been led astray and are deceived. But we all need to hear these words of Christ. So repent. Come back to the Scriptures.

Hear the word of God. Abide in Christ's word. Here is the words of comfort and peace and the forgiveness of all of your sins. And nowhere else will you find these words. And these words are the truth and it is through the truth that they bear witness to the death and resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

It is through these words that the truth then sets us free. These are good words. As we will sing in our closing hymn, Lord, keep us steadfast in your word. Let those who bite a cedar sword, let them not have sway over us.

Curb those who bite a cedar sword would wrest the kingdom from your Son and bring to naught all he has done. Let that be your prayer and hear the words of Christ and listen to none other. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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