Plead Guilty and Be Forgiven

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 Rosebrook. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 18th chapter.

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Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

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Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus,

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God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

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I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying,

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God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Adam knew his wife

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Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man. Here's the issue.

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The Hebrew says, I have gotten a man, the Lord. And I would note, historically the church has always understood this text to mean that Eve believed that she had given birth to the

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Messiah. I know it sounds crazy, but that's exactly how the Hebrew reads. So I think the ESV and some of our modern translations, not all of them, have got this incorrect because this plays into what's happening here.

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I have gotten a man, the Lord. Eve had pretty good theology, if that's the case.

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She believed that the Messiah would be none other than Yahweh himself. But the issue is this. Cain was not the

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Messiah. He was not Christ. In fact, it turns out he's an antichrist. And then the text goes on to say,

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Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. God then gave conception to Eve, and she bore another son.

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And his name, by the way, in Hebrew, Havel, means kind of like worthless.

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What a terrible name to give to your child. Like some kind of a disappointment. Here we have the

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Messiah, Cain, and here we have worthless. What a name, right?

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So that being the case, this information plays into what's going to happen next.

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Now note, you'll note our gospel text deals with the issue of self -righteousness.

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And I believe that the ancient church knew what they were doing when they put this gospel reading with Christ's gospel text from Luke 18 about self -righteousness because I cannot imagine what an absolute, arrogant, self -righteous, facade -pious kind of jerk

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Cain had to be. I mean, could you imagine growing up thinking you're the

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Messiah when you're nothing more than another sinner just like everyone else? Intolerable would be the word.

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I mean, it kind of reminds me of Cusco before he had his great awakening to realize that his groove wasn't all that important, right?

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So that being the case, the text goes on to say that Abel was a keeper of sheep,

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Cain a worker of the ground, and in the course of time, Cain brought to Yahweh an offering of the fruit of the ground.

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Important to note here, Cain is religious. Let that sink in.

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It says he's the one who brought the offering to Yahweh, which means that there's some kind of context.

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There's a worship of God going on with the family of Adam and Eve. Note this is the first nuclear family on planet

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Earth, and have you noticed how absolutely messed up this family is? I would note as somebody who's traveled the world a little bit more than most,

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I've been able to talk with people around the world to worship with them, to minister to them, and the one thing

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I can say is kind of universal, at least in my experience, is that every single person that I have ever met, without exception, has not had exactly the greatest childhood.

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You'll note that childhood is filled with drama. Sometimes it's filled with trauma, right?

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And it's a difficult thing to get through. And you'll note it's a formula for disaster if you think about it.

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There's God in the Garden of Eden cursing everybody for their participation in the sin of Adam and Eve, and Eve, it says of her, that her desire will be contrary to her husband.

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And I sit there and go, amen, yeah, I know what that's all about, right? But he will rule over you. He's in charge.

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Oh boy, what a fun thing God did here. He broke marriage. He made it so that two people become one flesh with completely divided and opposing wills.

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Loads of fun there. And then you bring children into the situation, and it just goes nuclear, right?

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And here, Adam and Eve, they think that Eve has given birth to the Messiah, and so, oh,

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Cain, you're so wonderful. You're the one to save us. But it turns out rather than being the

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Christ, he's actually a type in shadow of the Antichrist. And here's the worthless one.

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Could you imagine growing up with your parents literally like, hey, worthless, would you go and feed the sheep?

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Hey, worthless, would you go and do this and that and the other thing, right? What a horrible thing. This kid was kicked in the teeth every time they called his name.

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And you know what it did? It humbled him. And not only that, it's very clear here that because Abel had faith that he knew full well, knew full well, that Cain wasn't the promised one.

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And he is the one who has faith. Who does Cain have faith in? Himself, right?

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And here's the thing. We've got to remember this. There are two religions in the world. I've said it before. I'll keep saying it.

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And you sit there and go, Pastor, how do you figure, right? I can count higher than two.

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Watch this. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, that's five.

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You're an idiot, Pastor Rose, bro. Oh, no, I am not.

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I may be stupid, but I'm not dumb, all right? That being the case, I would note that every religion with the exception of one has something very common.

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In fact, they have all this in common. Are you ready? It's this belief. You do good things.

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You toe the line. You intentionally set out to obey. You do these things, and then you earn from God blessings and salvation and things like this, right?

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And so your good works become the currency for your blessings and your salvation.

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And who gets all the glory? You do. It's the most satanic form of idolatry on planet

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Earth. And keep this in mind. It was the self -righteous who put

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Christ on the cross. Notice I didn't say the Jews, right? Because Judaism of Christ's day, the

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Judaism of the Pharisees, was part of that big mass religion of self -righteousness.

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It was the self -righteous who put Christ on the cross, not the pious, the humble.

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So there's Cain. And here's the setup, man. All right, we've got some kind of family worship going on.

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There's a congregation. It may not be a big congregation, but the congregation is going to include pretty much all of humanity at this point.

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Cain, Abel, Adam, Eve, they're unmentioned sisters. They have sisters at this point, right?

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They're unmentioned maybe even at this point, well, nieces and nephews, cousins and grandchildren.

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We don't know the exact amount of time that has taken place here. Clearly, they are adults, right?

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And so at this point, they've gathered for family worship, and everybody up to this point thinks that Cain is the bee's knees.

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He is the Messiah. He is the promised one. He is the one. He is the blessed of God, right?

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And so the situation then is this. Cain brings an offering, and there's nothing wrong with his offering.

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He brought an offering of the fruit of the ground. Remember in the Mosaic Covenant, grain offerings, first fruits offerings are totally legit.

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Anybody who tells you, well, God didn't accept his sacrifice because it was a salad, wrong.

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It was a good fruit salad, and God totally would have accepted it except for here's the issue. Cain doesn't have faith.

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Abel does. And so Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the first fruit of the ground. Abel also brought of the first fruit of his flock and of their fat portions.

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And Yahweh, listen to the text, had regard for Abel, for him first, and for his offering.

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But for Cain and his offering, God had no regard. Can you imagine the embarrassment?

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God has two offerings to look at, and he looks at Cain's and goes, hmm.

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He goes to Abel's, and he accepts that. Now here's the thing. We have a wonderful cross -reference here that adds a little bit to the drama.

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Hebrews 11, let me read it in context starting at verse 1. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.

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It is the certainty or the conviction of things that are not seen. What a great definition of faith, right?

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It is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction, the certainty of things not seen. I would note something here.

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This is exactly what faith has to be, because you'll remember at the beginning of the divine service, you all confessed that you were a bunch of sinners, and I agree.

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And I agree. And here's the thing. I'm one too. All of that being said, you heard these words.

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I, as a called, ordained servant of the word, I announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of Christ, I forgive you of all of your sins.

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Now, at that moment, did all of a sudden little halos appear over your head and illuminate?

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And so when you go back into town for lunch today or something like that, and people go, oh, look at that.

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Those people have had their sins forgiven. You can tell by the halo. No. What mark is on you that proves that your sins have been forgiven, that you can visibly see?

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Nope. There ain't one. In fact, I can tell you for all the adults here, you guys already look worse this week than you did last week.

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So do I. So do I. This is the fun part of getting old and dying, right?

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That being the case, there's nothing I can look at that says, oh, yeah, those people, they clearly have had their sins forgiven.

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You can't see it, can you? Faith is the assurance of things that is hoped for, the certainty of things that are not seen.

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But you all know that your sins are forgiven. You all know because God doesn't lie and Christ has bled and died for all of your sins.

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For by faith, the people of old received their commendation. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of the things that are visible.

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By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which

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Abel was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gift.

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And through his faith, though he died, Abel still speaks.

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By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. He was not found because God had taken him.

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Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please

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God, for whoever would ever draw near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

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I would note the self -righteous have that one backwards. Without obedience, it's impossible to please

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God, they say. And then they delusionally think that they're obedient to God. And that's the problem.

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It's not that obedience isn't important, it's critical. Did we not hear in our epistle text that we are

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God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works? Absolutely, we are.

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That being the case, obedience is the necessary thing that comes from true faith.

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Now, it's not perfect obedience because as Ecclesiastes 7, verse 20 says, there isn't a man on earth who doesn't sin.

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There's not a single sinless person on planet earth that does not sin.

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And you'll note that Christ has taught us to pray daily, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

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So note, the issue here is where do you put the emphasis? Is the emphasis on faith, which then through the

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Holy Spirit produces good works? Or is it on obedience, which then earns from God salvation and things like this?

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That's the problem, is that the self -righteous, their trust is in themselves, their trust is in their good works, their trust is in their progress, rather than the one who bled and died for their sins.

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Think of it this way, have y 'all ever thought how absolutely insane it is that people who are charged with a crime, the first thing that they experience after being charged with a crime is the arraignment.

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And the judge asks a very important question, how do you plead?

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Now, we've seen it in the course of our lifetime. Person after person after person who after the trial was found guilty, their plea is this,

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Your Honor, I am not guilty. And you sit there and you go, you idiot, you moron.

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Why are you going through the facade? You know why? Because in part, they actually believe that they are innocent, that they're justified in their crime and in their sin.

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But the other thing is that they know that the system isn't perfect and that by working the system, there's this much chance they might actually be found innocent if they have the right attorneys that paid the amount of money for the right and correct attorneys.

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I think of O .J. Simpson, right? But the thing is that when you stand in the courtroom of heaven and God's law has brought charges against you and the charges that God's law has brought against you is that you have transgressed

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God's holy law. And God says, how do you plead?

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The self -righteous say, not guilty, Your Honor. It's been months since I've sinned.

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Oh, that's impressive. It's a lie. Oh, but that's impressive, right? And so here's the thing.

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It's the person who pleads not guilty. What's next on the docket? The court hearing, the actual trial.

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And then all of a sudden, all of the evidence comes out and you sit there and go, this guy's as guilty as they get, right?

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And they're eventually found guilty by virtue of the evidence. I would note that God's 10 commandments were not given for the purpose of you going on a checklist going, look at all my improvement.

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I'm getting better at not being an idolater. I'm getting better at keeping God's word sacred.

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Oh, and I even gave my mom a hug last week at church. Isn't that great of me?

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It's been a long time since I've really hated somebody, so forget the murder thing. And I'm really working on not lusting after other people.

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Oh, and I haven't stolen anything in a long time, including a paperclip from my boss. And, oh, look at this,

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I'm working on my gossip because I know how wicked my tongue is. Look at all the improvement that I've had, right?

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That's not the purpose of the law. You're supposed to read the law and go, Oy vey,

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I'm in deep trouble here, right? As Paul writes in Romans 3, none is righteous, no, not one.

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No one understands, no one seeks for God. The self -righteous says, yeah, that may have been true about me last week, but this week

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I've really got my act together. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless.

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No one does good, not even one, except for me. Their throat is an open grave.

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They use their tongues to deceive. Well, that used to be me, but I've been in a rehab, right? The venom of asps is under their lips.

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Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and in their paths are ruin and misery.

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The way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Well, I'm working on it, and I'm improving.

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It's getting better. Really? When you say it's getting better, you're tacitly admitting it's still bad, right?

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So that's the issue here. We've got a big problem. And that is that Paul makes it clear that the purpose of the law is to show us that we are sinners.

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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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The self -righteous read the law of God and sit there and go, Man, I'm really doing good.

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Now, with Cain and Abel, Cain's façade of being the promised

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Messiah, the Holy One, well, that façade is now going to come crashing down, and you're going to see the truth about this fellow.

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And here's where I have to note something here. I attended a Christian high school.

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Ah, a Christian high school in which the Nazarene church had a very heavy hand in what was being taught biblically there.

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I was fed a steady diet of you -gotta type of sermons.

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Very rarely ever heard the gospel. In fact, rarely even heard it applied to me. But I was told that I was going to change the world.

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After my graduation, I would go out there, and I would really make a difference because of how holy

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I was. And the thing is is that I wasn't just told that myself.

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My entire graduating class was told that. Every student from freshman to senior, they were told messages like that as well.

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And we were told we're not to listen to secular music. We are not to dance, drink, smoke, or chew or go with girls who do.

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What a boring set of girls. I think the ones who smoke and chew are a little more interesting, right?

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And so we were set up perfectly for failure.

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By the time my wife and I attended our 20 -year high school reunion, and to kind of give you a little bit of an idea of time here, we're two years away from our 40 -year reunion.

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There wasn't a lot of people there. It was a small group. We only had 120 in our graduating class.

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And everybody under their breath would ask a question of each other. Are you still a

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Christian? That was the question. And when you had conversations with some of the people who no longer believed that Jesus had died for their sins and they no longer confessed

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Christ, the stories that they would tell you were stories of sin.

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I followed Jesus until I got to college, and then when I slept with 12 different guys,

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I figured, what's the point? Somebody said. I got pregnant out of wedlock.

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I became an alcoholic. My marriage fell apart, and they're no longer

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Christians. When you preach self -righteousness, you are setting people up for a great failure because here's the thing.

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Every single one of us is capable of going full Walter White.

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And if you don't know what I mean, you're blessed. But the reality is this.

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That story of breaking bad is all of our stories. We have that sin within us, each and every one of us.

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Because we are born, as Scripture says, dead in trespasses and sins, we can go full

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Walter White. And if it weren't for the grace of God, we might. And here's the thing.

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If you think for a second that going full Walter White basically means going down the path of being as demonic as he is, you're wrong.

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Doctrines of demons tell us that we're okay in sins that are accepted by society.

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But when you go down the path of sins that are accepted by society, you're already Walter White. You're already at the last season of breaking bad, whether you acknowledge it or not.

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That's the truth of sin. So here, Cain, he's upset. He's embarrassed.

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God has accepted worthless's sacrifice.

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I'm the Messiah. And so I've been insulted. Not only has he been insulted, he's been insulted in front of God because God's the one who's insulted him.

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He bears God a grudge, believe me. And I've been insulted in our entire worship congregation.

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And so he's mad, really mad.

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And so the text says Cain was very angry, not kind of angry.

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He was a little perturbed. He was just a little ticked off. No, he was really angry, and his face had fallen.

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And he doesn't even have a poker face. He can't hide what's going on, and God knows this.

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So he says, why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?

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Now, the self -righteous point here, well, take a look. It says here, if you do well, will you not be accepted?

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Here's the problem, is that Cain wasn't obedient to God. Wrong. Hebrews 11 makes it clear he didn't have faith, and worthless had faith, which is interesting, right?

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So what's the problem here? How are we to understand if you do well, will you not be accepted?

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The answer is found in an interesting place. In the Book of John, Gospel of John 5, listen to the words of Jesus.

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These are great words. John 5, verse 24. Amen, amen.

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Lego humen. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

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He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. What a great sentence.

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What an amazing promise. You mean that if I believe in Christ, and I trust in the one who sent him, the

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Father, that I will never come into judgment, but I have already passed from death to life.

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Yup, that's what it takes. That's what it says. That's what happens. That being the case, you'll note that we

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Christians, when we stand before the law of God, which is brought and charges against us and say, how do you plead?

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The answer is guilty. I plead guilty. I have transgressed

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God's holy law, but I believe in the one who bled and died for my sins, who satisfied the justice of God and was condemned by God's judgment in my place, and I believe the words of Jesus that because I have been gifted with this faith that he has given me, that I will never come into judgment, that I've already passed from death to life.

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That's a pretty good promise. You can take that one to the bank, and that's the thing.

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The reason why we're here is because we do. Right? The day of judgment, don't sweat it.

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You will not come into judgment. You have already passed from death to life.

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Do you believe this? Absolutely. Then Christ goes on. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the

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Son of God, and those who hear, that would be all of them, will live. For as the

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Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the

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Son of Man. So do not marvel at this. For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

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Notice, Christ says, those who have done good to the resurrection of life. Aren't those the words that we use at the end of the

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Athanasian Creed? Those who have done good. Right. To do good is to first believe, first trust in the one whom the

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Father has sent, and you will never come into judgment. That being the case, all of your sins have been accounted for.

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There isn't a single one of them missing, like a puzzle piece. Have you ever put together like a thousand -piece puzzle and there's like five different pieces missing, and it's because the cat stole them and put them in their litter box?

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Cats should be killed for that, but I'm saying, remember, they have nine lives, okay? Okay.

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It's terrible. You sit there and go, ah! Okay. The thing is this, is that when it comes to our salvation, every single sin has been accounted for by Christ.

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That's why we do not come into judgment, because he was judged for us. There are no outliers.

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There are no missing pieces. All of your sins are atoned for. Therefore, the only thing that God sees when he opens the book on the last day are all the good works that you've done, from changing diapers to cleaning up vomit -filled carpets, to changing litter boxes, to feeding your children, to working hard at work, to praying for the sick and being there for those who are dying, visiting those in prison.

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All of those good works are the only thing that remains. So those who have done good, to the resurrection of life.

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Those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. You see, you have to let the

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Scripture interpret the Scripture. And so when God, Yahweh, when Jesus says to Cain, If you do well, will you not be accepted?

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That's a call for Cain to have faith and to recognize that his life is not what atones for the sins of the world.

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But the one that was promised, the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, he's the one who will set us free.

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Abel believes that promise. Cain believes he's the fulfillment of it. And as a result of it, he's as self -righteous as he gets.

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If you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.

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So at this point, Cain is nursing a murderous grudge. Who's his grudge really against?

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God. That's who he's really angry at.

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So Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother

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Abel, and he killed him. And then Yahweh said to Cain, Where is Abel, your brother? He said,

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I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? Let me rephrase this. That's your problem, not mine,

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God. I don't care. You'll note that the opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy.

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Let that one sink in. I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?

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So Yahweh said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

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Keep in mind this. There are still, many times, temporal consequences to sin.

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You'll note that there are plenty of Christians in prison who are serving their sentences rightly so.

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And although Christ has forgiven them of their sins and their crimes, they still have consequences.

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Cain is now given consequences. But God is not content to just give him consequences.

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You're going to note that God does something really offensive here. He shows mercy to Cain.

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Isn't it eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for life? Isn't God obligated here to give

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Cain the death penalty? He could. But you're going to note the judge has the right to determine what the punishment is going to be.

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And rather than give Cain what he deserves, You killed Abel? Goodbye, Cain.

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God instead decides to use Cain's sin to point us to the forgiveness of our sins in Christ.

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And here's the thing. I want you to think about this. Cain, being the first Antichrist, the imagery of the mark that he receives absolutely has everything to do with what you read about the mark of the beast in Revelation 13.

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Satan is still seething about what happened with Cain. Still.

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That's the reason why he's going to take the mark. The mark of the beast is the satanic flipping of what

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God did for Cain. So, behold, the earth will no longer yield its strength to you.

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You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to Yahweh, my punishment is greater than I can bear.

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Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden.

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I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. But I would note this. Note the words.

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Behold, you have driven me today from the ground, and from your face I will be hidden. He recognizes at this point the magnitude of his sin, but he still hasn't said, what have

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I done? And he, seeing the consequences, can kind of see this out. I will no longer see the face of God.

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But isn't that exactly what happened to Christ when he was on the cross? Isn't that exactly it?

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There's Jesus, suffering for the sins of the world. Your sins, my sins, Cain's sins,

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Abel's sins, Adam and Eve's sins, Moses' sins, Joshua's sins, everybody's sins.

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He's bleeding, suffering, dying, and what happens? He cries out, my

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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The cry of dereliction on the cross echoes the cry from Cain, from your face

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I shall be hidden. Christ, he was hidden from the face of God so that we can see

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God face to face finally. In a good way, not a bad. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.

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Whoever finds me, they will kill me. And rightly so. I want you to think about this.

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At this point, nobody believes that Cain is the Messiah. Everybody believes he is a demon.

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And he's as wicked and evil as they get. And there's a sense when people sit and they're going, well if God's not going to punish him,

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I will. And so that vigilante justice is a real thing. Because you'll note that many people are very offended when

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God gives mercy rather than judgment. And so they take matters into their own hands.

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And Cain knows this full well. So whoever finds me is going to kill me. So then Yahweh said to him, not so.

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If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.

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So God threatens to punish sevenfold anyone who takes vengeance on Cain. And to ensure that Cain is protected,

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Yahweh put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Look at that. The mark placed on Cain, the mark of God, was to give him life.

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To assure him of life. To guarantee life. The mark of the beast in Revelation 13 is to guarantee death to anyone who doesn't worship the

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Antichrist. Complete flipping of things, right? But you're going to note here, let this play out.

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Note that in the Scriptures it is clearly stated that when you were baptized in the name of the

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Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, God placed His name on you.

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You were marked by God. So when the law finds you and says,

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Kill him! Kill him! You sit there and go, cool your jets, brah.

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Cool your jets. I have been marked, united with Christ in His death and His resurrection.

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I am forgiven. You cannot kill me. You see how it all works.

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It's beautiful when you put it all together. Which then makes our Gospel text all the more ridiculous. Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves.

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The one who trusts in himself trusts in a fool, by the way. That they were righteous and so they treated others with contempt.

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Isn't that always the way it goes? The one who believes that they are righteous in themselves, they treat everybody with contempt.

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So here's what happens. Two men went up into the temple to pray. It's three in the afternoon, the time of the evening sacrifice.

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One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. And at this point when Jesus is telling the parable, everyone listening to Him will go,

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Yay! Pharisee! Boo! Tax collector, right? And it's real simple because the

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Pharisees were people who were very religious, striving really hard to keep

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God's commandments. These are people that your children would be safe with if you decided to go out to the movies, right?

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They are people who are pillars in the church. But here's the problem.

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They trust in themselves. And so the Pharisee standing by himself, he prayed thus,

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God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. What kind of prayer is this?

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Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector, I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.

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Oh, I just hurt my arm patting myself on the back. Let me ask you a question.

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Is it a good work to not be an extortioner? Yeah, it's a good work to not be an extortioner.

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Extortioners are breakers of the seventh commandment, right? All right, is it a good work to be just, to show no partiality, and to absolutely not be swayed by public opinion, but to do what's right?

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That's a good work. Is it a good work to be faithful to your spouse?

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Yes, that's a good work. Is it a good work to fast?

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Yes. Is it a good work to support the work of the church with your finances? Yes. This guy's full of good works.

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What's the problem here? Here's the problem. If you're trusting in yourself and your own righteousness, then all of your good works are going to damn you, and they don't count for nothing.

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Without faith, it's impossible. Not difficult, not challenging, not hard.

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It's impossible to please God. Who's this guy's faith in? Himself. And I gotta tell you, when you run into church people where they've got this problem, they are intolerable.

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They are insufferable to be around, right? So you'll note, nothing in his list is an evil work.

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He's full of what would be considered good works, but he has no faith, so they don't count. Rather than read

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God's law and recognize that he himself is also a sinner, I would note here, you know what's missing is a little bit more meditation on the 9th and the 10th commandments.

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Because what is the 9th commandment? You should not covet your neighbor's wife, or his house, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

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You will not covet these things. Where does coveting take place? Right here in the heart.

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You'll note that sin comes out of the heart. So this guy is sitting there going, look at all the things

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I don't do. Rather than looking in his heart that desires to do all the things that he's not doing.

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If he had had a more careful study of the Word of God, he would have recognized that he's a sinner, and he wouldn't have trusted in his own righteousness.

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He would have called out for mercy. But there's a tax collector, an absolute moral swine.

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A man who is a complete turncoat, who has ingratiated himself, enriched himself by extorting money from others, who has mistreated them, turncoat on his own people, and this guy is wicked, wicked, wicked.

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Nothing to love in a tax collector. They are slime balls extraordinaire.

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And somehow this fellow has heard the law.

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He's heard the commandments, and he recognizes that they rightly condemn him.

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So the tax collector, standing far off, he couldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast. Kind of as if to say, it's out of my own heart that I did these things.

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These are not accidents. These are not slipsies and oopsie -doos. These are not missteps or mistakes.

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He legitimately committed these sins. And there on the altar is the evening sacrifice.

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That lamb that is ordered to be sacrificed at the very same time that Christ is crucified and dies on the cross.

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And he points to that sacrifice and he says, be merciful to me, I am a sinner. I plead guilty.

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I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.

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The one who humbles himself will be exalted. Brothers and sisters, the scriptures are clear.

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None is righteous. No, not one. God's law is designed to not give us 10 easy steps to earning salvation.

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God's law is given to hold us accountable to God. May God ever continue to grant to us that when we hear his law, that we recognize that we daily sin against him in thought, word, and deed.

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And we sin against him much. But Christ has gone to the cross for us and his promises are sure and certain.

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Anyone who believes in him will not, does not come into judgment, but has already passed from death to life because he was judged in our place.

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So plead guilty. Continue to plead guilty because you are. And note this, that Christ has declared you not guilty.

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All because of what he has done for his sake, for his glory, because of his great love, his grace, his mercy and compassion for you.

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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 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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