Wicked Tenants

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 and 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.

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Matthew chapter 21 verses 33 through 46. Jesus said hear another parable there was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it dug a winepress in it build a tower leased it to tenants went into another country when the season for fruit drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit and the tenants took his servants beat one killed another stoned another again he sent other servants more than the first and they did the same to them finally he sent his son to them saying they will respect my son but when the tenants saw the

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Sun they said to themselves this is the heir come let us kill him and have his inheritance and they took him from out of the vineyard and they killed him when therefore the owner of the vineyard comes what will he do to those tenants well they said to him well he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons

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Jesus said to them have you never read in the scriptures the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and this was the

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Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit and the one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces and when it falls on anyone it will crush him and when the chief priests and the

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Pharisees heard this parable they perceived that he was speaking about them and although they were seeking to arrest him they feared the crowds because they held him to be a prophet this is the gospel of the

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Lord in the name of Jesus all right hope you guys are sitting down wait you're sitting down okay good the problem in our texts today is going to hit home for many of us let's kind of talk about what the issue is this is both our gospel text in our epistle text are dealing with the danger and the threat that is posed to the body of Christ in the vineyard that God has planted which is all of Israel saved

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Israel and the threat is from the Pharisees oftentimes when people think of Pharisees or they play what's called the

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Pharisee card they think that Pharisees are those people who are obsessed with sound doctrine so if you were to say to a friend of yours something to the effect of you know

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I'm not sure if you should be listening to that particular popular teacher on Trinity broadcasting network they are likely to tell you oh you're just being a

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Pharisee you see that's not what the Pharisees were about Pharisees were not about sound doctrine ultimately

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Pharisee ism pharisaical ism is a heresy that teaches that you are made right with God either in full or in part by your good works and your keeping of the law or Torah and I've noticed that in our days pharisaical ism falls into two types two stripes there is a liberal form and there is a conservative form and this these forms fall into what would you call liberal ism and conservative ism you have to kind of make these distinctions because there's nothing wrong there's no vice in conserving what is true there is a vice when you legalistically and self -righteously believe that you are saved by your preservation of what is true you see the difference is a slight nuance and there is no vice in having kind of quote a liberal outlook on things and I have to be careful how

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I define that right where you are putting the best construction and you're thinking about love for neighbor and weighing these things out in light of the law and things like that that's that's that's a good and good exercise to go through but when liberal ism takes over all bets are off it's a form of pharisaical ism and let me kind of talk about the two different forms in the liberal form these those who are self -righteous liberally they basically say that you are truly a

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Christian if you do not and you'll notice how they define it kind of negatively if you do not show intolerance towards people if you do not buy sugar from nation states where people indigenous people are oppressed by colonialism and if you've never heard that I've been reprimanded by the way for eating the wrong sugar

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I shouldn't be eating sugar anyway but that's a different story right or you kind of get the idea here so they're all about social justice what we are against we are against oppression we are against colonialism we are against all institutional forms of judgmentalism and bigotry and things like that and this is how they define themselves and you're in if you also are against these things notice they define themselves by what they're not we're not those guys we're not

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Trump supporters we are something different on the other end of the spectrum the flip side of the same self -righteous coin what ends up happening is you have conservatism taking a very negative turn where I have a right standing before God because I don't vote

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Democrat because I don't use tobacco products because I don't drink alcohol because I don't dance because I don't play cards because I don't go to movies that are rated more than PG and you'll notice that in both of its forms they have created a law system keep our man -made laws and you are right with God this is self -righteousness have you ever found yourself in a situation where you've come in contact with somebody who knows somebody who just got out of prison and that person went to prison rightfully so because they they committed some kind of dastardly crime and they needed to pay their debt back to society and that person goes in a rank pagan criminal and comes out believing in Jesus somewhere along the way somebody told them about Jesus and now they're a firm believer in Jesus and you say something to the effect of I wonder if that person's really saved am

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I the only one who thinks this way you see what I'm saying you see the gospel is really scandalous and on both sides the liberalism side and the conservatism side those who believe that they have a right standing by before God by keeping these man -made laws on both sides

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Jesus has no real place in their theology Jesus is scandalous in fact they get really upset when

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Jesus hangs out with sinners forgives sinners I mean you think about this you read in the

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Gospels and you come across gospel text where it says Jesus was at this particular tax collectors house and the

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Pharisees were outside the Pharisees were outside and they were grumbling he eats with sinners and tax collectors he absolves prostitutes who is this guy salvation from God cannot be free it can't be that free there's got to be something that we've got to add into the mix that person can't possibly be saved don't you know what they've done their whole life self -righteousness refuses to recognize its own sinfulness and as a result of it always is standing over people saying

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I'm really say but you're probably not you're probably not you're not probably not kind of this two -tiered

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Christianity and so this is what's going this is what's going on in this text and as we look at our gospel text and our epistle text watch how self -righteous pharisaical ism has no place for Jesus whereas those who are saved by grace through faith there's nothing but Jesus it's kind of an interesting contrast let's take a look return to our gospel text first Jesus tells this parable here another parable there was a master of a house who planted a vineyard put a fence around it dug a wine press in it built a tower leased it to tenants and went away into another country

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I'm gonna note something here our Old Testament text makes it very clear that in its pristine form the original hears of this parable would have heard it in relation to Israel Israel is the vineyard the

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God planted but the question comes up because the text itself makes it clear that this is Israel is it spiritual

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Israel or genetic Israel that's being talked about here and I find it fascinating that what can be so easily applied to Israel of Jesus's day and I'm gonna say church can be applied to the church today it almost as if this parable has an ancient application as well as a present -day application if you're paying attention to the motifs in the themes so he dug a wine press in it built a tower leased it to tenants went to another country when

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I hear this description I know nothing really about vineyards but man it sounds a lot like a church to me it has a tower and a wine press you see what

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I'm saying here and he goes off to another country Jesus is returning in glory so there's an application for the church here's what says when the season for fruit drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit the tenants took his servants beat one killed another stoned another

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Jesus himself speaks about these fellows in other parts of the

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Gospels where he makes it clear that these fellows who are being described here are none other the prophets of the

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Old Testament and keep this in mind scriptures very clear that God himself is the one who also sends pastors to the church today you were to think of the church is the vineyard today or this church as you know kind of a small vineyard within the bigger vineyard of God God sends pastors and I will say this

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I have over the past 10 years of doing my radio ministry have received countless and I mean this countless emails from pastors who have been literally driven out of their churches because they preach the truth and they preach the gospel in fact at the

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PCR conference this year there was a fellow from Canada who showed up and I was very excited to see him in a clerical collar because I knew his story years ago

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I met him in Montana and he had just been given the left foot of fellowship for preaching too much about Jesus no joke that was literally the complaint and so they drove him out on a rail and this is a fellow who has a lot of kids small kids at that and he ended up saying well fine

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I'm gonna go to seminary so he went seminary graduated from seminary he changed denominations became a

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Lutheran and he was ordained this year as a Lutheran pastor and he couldn't be thrilled more thrilled the fact that he's now in a congregation where the people want to hear about Jesus rather than themselves but this is a thing that goes on even to this day so it says this finally he sent his son now watch here the tenants despising of the

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Sun if you would he sent his son to them saying they will respect my son do you think these guys are going to respect his son yeah not on your life and so when the tenants saw the

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Sun they said to the Sun themselves this is the air come let us kill him and have his inheritance they say life is cheap right life is cheap if you want to kill somebody do you value their life not at all they care nothing about the owner of the vineyard they care nothing about his son they despise and loathe him and consider his life as worth nothing absolutely nothing and so they took him through him out of the vineyard and killed him now verse 39 there let's pause and consider what's going on here this is the gospel

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Christ is crucified for our sins but the means by which he is taken to the cross and found guilty of a capital crime is at the hands of wicked people the ultimate wickedness

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God works for our salvation and so now the question comes in what's your relationship with this one who was killed so when therefore

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Jesus now asks a question the owner of the vineyard comes what will he do to those tenants to notice

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Jesus now throws the question out to the crowd listening to the parable what do you think is going to happen to those guys who killed this son so the crowd answers he will put those wretches to a miserable death let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons seems like a reasonable answer but watch

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Jesus kind of tweaks the answer a little bit here now he's going to begin to answer the question and it's going to have everything to do with well people's to him and how they view him so Jesus said to them have you never read in the scriptures the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and this was the

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Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes so notice here you have this cornerstone the builders say yeah it's ridiculous we don't want that thing but God says no that's the cornerstone and so one group despises this cornerstone another group marvels that God has made this rejected cornerstone into you know into the cornerstone itself and it's marvelous in their eyes so notice two completely different tracks and because this parable was spoken against the

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Pharisees Jesus is speaking against the self righteous so then he says this therefore

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I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you the self -righteous and it will be given to a people producing its fruits who is it that produces the fruits of the vineyard what are the fruit of the

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Spirit love joy peace patience kindness gentleness self -control these are the fruits of the

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Spirit how are those fruits produced in the life of Christians and lives of people through the means of grace law and gospel rightly rightly divided all focusing and centering in on Christ you can't do this apart from Christ Christ is apart from me you can do nothing the one who abides in me bears good fruit these people not only refuse to abide in Christ they want him dead and that's what the self -righteous do because the self -righteous have no need of a crucified

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Savior that's they say basically to Jesus we don't need your forgiveness we got this no problem get out of our face stop upsetting our apple cart we've been making progress we're almost there we're right at the cusp the breakthrough is behold is just around the corner and they're lying to themselves so then

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Jesus says this the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces this is a picture of repentance every true penitent believer in Jesus Christ who recognizes their utter sinfulness and inability to meet the standard of God's law falls on Christ and is broken to pieces and that breaking to pieces is critical because Christ himself puts us back together in his grace and mercy but when it falls on anyone it'll crush him utterly destroy him and so you see the difference then between the self -righteous and those who have no righteousness of their own but who trust in the mercy of Christ and so the text says when the chief priests in the

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Pharisees heard this parable they perceived that Jesus was speaking about them to which we say winner winner chicken dinner you finally figured it out right and you'll note that Jesus speaks against self -righteousness but he's not the only one who speaks against self -righteousness all of Scripture preaches against it which then takes us to our epistle text and we need to pick up just a little bit of context because you'll note that our epistle text today begins with the idea of not putting confidence in the flesh but there is an actual warning here that we must hear against the self -righteous

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Paul writing in Philippians chapter 3 verse 2 says this look out for the dogs look out for the evildoers look out for those who mutilate the flesh now the people specifically he's speaking against are the

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Pharisees turned Christian who have been then become the Judaizers these are people who do not plant churches these are people who come in and disrupt churches where there is unity they create discord where there is clarity they create confusion where there is confidence in Christ's mercy and forgiveness they create anxiety and uncertainty regarding our standing before God why because these are fellows who despise

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Christ reject the free gift of salvation are incensed that Jesus would forgive that person and put people on literally the rat wheel of good works in the hopes that they will someday attain salvation through their striving and their human efforts and in the case of the

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Judaizers they would come in behind Paul after he would plant a church and preach the gospel and begin the work of discipling put a pastor in place and the

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Judaizers would show up and say that apostle Paul he lied to you he didn't tell you the whole truth you

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Gentiles here and what did they call the Gentiles what did the

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Pharisees and the Judaizers call the Gentiles dogs that's what they called them one of their favorite terms for the

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Gentiles they'd come in and say you Gentiles under their breath saying you dogs you can't be saved unless you're circumcised and you keep

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Torah but knows what Paul says they're the ones who are the dogs yes he called them names they are evil doers and their circumcision is not a circumcision it is nothing more and nothing less than a mutilation of the flesh that's what it is and he says this regarding true

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Christians we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God who glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh how much confidence do we put in the flesh new confidence zero

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I think it's fascinating that you know we've been paying attention to what happened historically during the time of the

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Reformation and when Martin Luther translated the Bible into German for the first time the

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Roman Church took issue with the fact that in the book of Romans he added this word alone we are saved by grace through faith alone and they said you added to scripture and he said no that's actually the gist of the text let me ask you if we are to put no confidence in the flesh are we saved by grace through faith alone or we saved by grace plus works we're not saved by grace plus works it is by grace through faith alone and then

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Paul pulls out his ultimate trump card if you would the Judaizers basically believe that they were saved by their well keeping of Torah pharisaically so their self -righteousness so Paul pulls out his trump card and says

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I have all of the credentials that they have he says all right though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh if anyone else thinks he has confidence reason for confidence in the flesh

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I have more I was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel yeah that's right the

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Apostle Paul was not a convert to Judaism in his later life he was born into it circumcised on the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin a

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Hebrew of the Hebrews now keep in mind what was his name before he became a Christian Saul so keep in mind this kind of idea the people of the tribe of Benjamin their big claim to fame among the other tribes is that it was from Benjamin that the first king of Israel came so Saul Paul was named after the first king of Israel he's a

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Hebrew of the Hebrews as to the law he was a Pharisee as to zeal a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law blameless now

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I want you to consider a historical parallel here today we heard about Martin Luther entering the Augustinian monastery and Luther made it very clear that he was trying to save himself by his good works and one historian said this of Martin Luther if there was anybody who was going to be saved by his monkery it would have been

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Martin Luther but Martin Luther as rigorous as he was at his monkery wearing out five or six confessors a day applying himself to monkery with 100 % zeal denying himself such creaturely comforts as blankets at night in order to to basically punish his body and things of this nature all of the works he did as a monk did they give him any confidence or certainty of his salvation no not at all so you know that Martin Luther and the

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Apostle Paul have some similarities here in their lives there's a little bit of a track if anyone was going to be saved by monkery it would have been

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Martin Luther if anyone was going to be saved by the pharisaical system of self -righteousness it was the

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Apostle Paul he was completely blameless under the law he was as to a zeal he was a persecutor of the church he hated

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Jesus as to righteousness under the law blameless but then he says this whatever gain

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I had I counted as a loss for the sake of Christ let me translate it this way all of the stock that I had in the pharisaical system well it's like having stock in Enron bad investment won't pay off he says indeed

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I count everything as a loss because the surpassing worth of watch knowing

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Christ on the one hand he was a persecutor of the church and when Jesus confronts the

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Apostle Paul on the roads Damascus what does Jesus say to him why do you persecute me

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Jesus says the self -righteous hate Christ and that's what he was he was a self -righteous hater of Christ but now watch this

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I count all of this these the self -righteous confidence in my flesh I consider that as a loss for the surpassing worth of what knowing

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Christ Jesus it's all about him it's for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them as in your translation probably says rubbish

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I count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ the them there is all of his good works under the self -righteous system of the

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Pharisees and the Greek word for rubbish is a lot stronger than rubbish you know

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I think of rubbish and I think of you know my wife on a daily basis putting stuff into the kitchen trash and then at the end of the day

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I've got this nice tidy little white bag with a tie on it and I take it out to the trash can and it disappears that's what we think about when we think about rubbish wrong image rubbish here is the

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Greek word is actually think of it this way have you ever been on a farm where they have cows or horses right and when the horses do their business and it's fresh and smelly you have a big stinking hot pile of that that's what this word is he says

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I consider all of my self -righteous works that I was doing in order to save myself

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I consider them to be that that's what he's saying why so that he might gain

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Christ it's all about him it's about him and that I might be found in Jesus and here are these important words not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law and this is the text that teaches this amazing doctrine it's called imputation and it kind of works two ways remember

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Jesus is there hanging dead on the cross what did God do with our sins

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God took all of our sins and put them on Christ God has laid on him the iniquity of us all

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Isaiah says that's imputation number one God imputes our sin to Jesus he bleeds and dies for our sins you are washed in the waters of baptism you're brought to penitent faith in Christ you are made new by the working of the

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Holy Spirit through the means of grace and regenerated what does God then do he takes

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Jesus's righteousness and he places it on you double imputation so that I might be found in Christ not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ I want you to think of it this way even the uniform of your pastor visually represents what is true here in this text regarding all of us black for my sin white what robed in the righteousness of Jesus which covers my sin what

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I'm wearing visually you you see here you are having this exact same thing done to you your black dark sin is covered by the righteous robe of Christ you don't have a righteousness of your own you have the righteousness of Jesus given to you as a gift and that's the idea so not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ and it is a righteousness that is from God and it depends on faith so that I might know him notice again the focus that I might know him the power of his resurrection may share in his sufferings and this is not the sharing of Christ's sufferings as if somehow our sufferings participate in the forgiveness of sins but more or less because Jesus was despised and hated now we too get to experience that same joyful experience and Paul does describe it in joyful terms

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I have just found my lack of joy in when I'm under the midst of it

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I have to work to the joy part out it's terrible that I do not receive my sufferings with joy

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I'm still working on that right so I might know him the power of his resurrection may share in his sufferings becoming like him in his death you see remember what

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Jesus said this cornerstone that the builders rejected God has made it the cornerstone and it's marvelous in our eyes and the one who falls on it is broken to pieces and this is where Paul is he's fallen on this cornerstone and he has been broken to pieces and he considers this cornerstone marvelous but everyone who is self -righteous this

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Jesus falls right on them and crushes them that's the difference that you see in this this this text so that by any means possible

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I might attain the resurrection of the dead not that I've already obtained it or I'm already perfect but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own so what does it all mean you're gonna note here then that both

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Christ and the Apostle Paul are firmly sternly warning us against self -righteousness firmly and sternly warning us that when it comes to our justification and our right standing before God do not add your good works in to the equation

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Christ has made you his own it's all about him and what he has done for you in bleeding and dying for your sins and recognize that you are a sinner that all of your good works if your good works are for the purpose of you having a right standing before God they are there and instead let your faith be on Christ who he is what he has done and I find it amazing that our text the text of our hymn for the sermon says for us by wickedness he was betrayed for us in crown of thorns arrayed for us he bore the shameful cross and death for us he gave his dying breath ultimately salvation is all about Christ and what he has done for us and for you you cannot add to it

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Christ does not share his glory with another including you now this does not mean that there is not a place for good works there is but remember we do our good works because we are saved not in order to be saved and if you're doing them in order to be saved these texts make it clear you despise and you hate

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Jesus but if you do your good works because you are saved then the stone the builders has rejected has become the cornerstone and God has done this and it is truly marvelous in our eyes in the name of Jesus amen 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 Northwest Oslo Minnesota 56744 and again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th