You Can't Clean Up the Old Adam

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. John chapter 6 verses 35 through 51.

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Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.

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Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe.

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All that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

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For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

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For this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life.

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And I will raise him up on the last day. So the Jews grumbled about him because he said,

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I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

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How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves.

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No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

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It is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me.

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Not that anyone has seen the father except he who is from God. He has seen the father. Truly, truly,

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I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.

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Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die.

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I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

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And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. This is the gospel of the

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Lord. In the name of Jesus. Have any of you ever done an outdoor project where at the end of the project, your clothes were covered in muck and mire and smelled so bad that you decided that the best course of action would be to just burn them?

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Is it just me? Maybe it's just me. My wife does say when I work outside that when I come in, I smell like a buffalo.

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But that is neither here nor there. The whole point being this, is that when we think about our sinful nature, we often think that really what

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God wants to do is to take our old sinful Adam and shine him up like as if he's some dirty little penny that you found while walking across the street has maybe some gum on it or something.

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And so God takes it home and shines up that old penny and it's made to look brand new.

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Yeah, no. In fact, last week, as we took a look at our epistle readings to take a look at the therefores of the gospel, how this all plays out in sanctification, we noted last week, in contrast to the

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Apostle Paul, the prisoner of Christ, those who put him in prison were slanderous and murderous.

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They had nothing in them, in their old Adam, that exemplified anything remotely approaching the virtues of Christ or the fruit of the spirit.

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There was no love. There was no mercy. There was no kindness. There was no peace, gentleness, or self -control.

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Only out of control, slander and murder. And we noted then as Christians in the text, that the text calls us to recognize who we are in Christ because we have been united with him in our baptisms.

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That we have a new nature and that that new nature that we possess because of our baptisms, we have been united with Christ and we have been united with each other.

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It is calling us to a reality that requires us to embrace it by faith. As Paul continues in Ephesians four, we're going to note, he's not going to say you need to take off that old self of yours, run it through the washer a few times and put that thing back on.

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It'll be good as new. That's not what he's calling us to do at all. So we'll do a little contrasting work today as well.

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We'll use our Old Testament text to do some contrasting. And I always love the context of this passage because it's one of the most epic stories in all of scripture.

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The great showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.

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It's worth the story, but we're going to note there, there's something that God is doing. Those of you who have attended the conference, then you know that I made a big to do about false narratives.

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And it's important to know that what God is doing through the prophet Elijah is destroying the false narrative of the worshipers of Baal because as their narrative mythology went, it was

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Baal who was responsible for bringing the rains. And because of the fact that he was the

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Lord of the sky, the Lord of the air, he was the one who brought the rains, which then caused the crops to grow.

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But of course, there was always a heavy cost. See, Baal didn't work for free. Baal worked on a sacrificial system.

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You met his sacrificial demands, which may or may not include your children. Then he would bring the rains.

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And so we learn in 1 Kings 17 that God raises up the prophet

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Elijah and God has Elijah say to Ahab, the king of Israel at the time, who happens to be married to a wonderful woman, one we will hear about shortly.

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She's such a lovely lady. Her name is Jezebaal, which means the princess of Baal. Isn't that great?

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Yes. She's so kind and sweet and so Jesus -like. No, actually she's not.

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But Elijah announces, it's not going to rain until I say so.

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Now, nobody should talk this way unless God has actually told them that. And then Elijah disappears.

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He leaves Israel and heads off to who knows where, hanging out with the widow of Zarephath for not one year, not two years, but three.

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You gotta love that three stuff because it has to do with death and resurrection. I'm just saying. So there he is with the widow of Zarephath and finally he heads back to Israel.

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The Lord has told him up, head back. And by this time, a great famine had set in. And we'll pick up in 1

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Kings chapter 18, because this is such a wonderful text. It also blows up some very interesting other false narratives.

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And here's what it says, 1 Kings 18 verse 17. When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel?

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Isn't that amazing? Elijah is a prophet of the one true God. He's not the troubler of Israel.

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Ahab is, but such is the way our sinful nature works.

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Dead in trespasses and sins, all of us were born. Ahab clearly still is exemplifying that because he's so upside down, backwards and inside out, he thinks the good guy is the bad guy and he thinks he's the good guy.

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Isn't that how it always works with sin, right? And so Elijah says, I've not troubled

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Israel, but you have, in your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of Yahweh and you have followed the

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Baals. So now therefore send and gather all of Israel to me on Mount Carmel, 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.

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Now, a little bit of a note, there is a severe famine in the land. And at some point here, Elijah is going to call for the use of large copious amounts of water.

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Now, the question always arises, where does this water come from? Go to Google Earth, found

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Mount Carmel, and you'll find that this location, less than a mile away from the Mediterranean Sea.

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Okay. So if you want to know where the water came from, that's where it came from. I just say that to correct some other false teaching along this line.

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So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel, gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel, Elijah came near to all the people and he said, how long will you go limping between two different opinions?

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Doesn't sound very kind. If Yahweh is God, follow him, but of Baal, then follow him.

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So the people did not answer him a word. Stubborn. So then

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Elijah said to the people, I, even I, only am left of the prophet of Yahweh, but the

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Baal's prophets are 450 men. So let two bowls be given to us. Let them choose one bowl for themselves, cut it in pieces, lay it on the wood, put no fire on it.

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I will prepare the other bowl, lay it on the wood and put no fire on it. You call upon the name of your

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God. I'll call upon the name of Yahweh. And the God who answers by fire, he is God.

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And all the people answered, well, it's well spoken. So then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, choose for yourselves one bowl, prepare it first, for you are many.

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Call upon the name of your God, but put no fire to it.

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So they took the bowl that was given them. They prepared it, called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying,

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Oh, Baal, answer us. But there was no voice, no one answered.

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Pick up the phone, dial Baal, doo doo doo. We're sorry, but the number that you're trying to reach is no longer in service.

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It's because he's not there. He never was. Baal is a demon

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God that doesn't really exist, you know, through a narrative of demons who would want us to disobey that first commandment that says you will have no other gods before me.

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So it's kind of foolish to believe in a God who's not there. Oh, Baal, answer us.

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No voice. So they limped around the altar. I have no idea what that looks like. It sounds quite silly.

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The altar that they had made and at noon, Elijah mocked them. Yeah, the text says he mocked them. Cry aloud.

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He's a God. Either he's musing and listen to these words or he's relieving himself.

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I am not joking. Elijah is basically saying, where's Baal? Maybe he's in that little room in the house and reading the newspaper.

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Make sure he flushes before he's done. Right. That's literally how Elijah is talking to them.

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Doesn't seem very kind, does it? But the reality is this, if they will not hear the words of the prophet who are ridiculing them for their foolishness to believe in this false

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God. And believe me when I tell you, Elijah, as a prophet of God, he is speaking the word of God.

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This is God's sentiment towards all of our idols. He would mock us and tell us that we are utterly foolish for believing in these things, whether it's a false

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Jesus, Shiva, Vishnu, Buddha, or any other God. Buddha or some deity of your own making who would never do with this, that or the other thing.

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And the thing that your deity would never do is the actual things that the God of the Bible does do, including sending sinners to hell.

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Cry aloud. Maybe he's musing. Maybe he's relieving himself or maybe he's on a journey. Perhaps he's asleep and must be awakened.

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Set his iPhone so that it'll wake him up, would you? So they cried aloud, they cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances.

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And here's the interesting thing. Pay attention to this. False gods demand your blood.

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The one true God shed his blood for you. False religion always gets it backwards, always makes it so that you've got to do certain things in order to appease the deity.

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And so clearly they think the Baal is not appeased. Maybe he's angry with them. We've done something wrong.

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Why isn't he not answering? Let us shed our own blood. But the one true

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God, in his great love and mercy for you and for me, sent his son to die and he shed his blood so that his wrath would be appeased.

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Note how false religion always runs it the opposite way. So they cut themselves until the blood gushed out upon them.

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And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, three in the afternoon, the evening sacrifice.

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But there was no voice, no answer, no one paid attention. Baal doesn't exist.

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So Elijah said to all the people, come near to me like a good shepherd, like a catechist, come here.

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All the people came near to him. He repaired the altar of the Lord. He wanted them to see this.

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He repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down stone by stone, uncut stone.

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Elijah took 12 stones according to the numbers of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of Yahweh had come, saying,

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Israel shall be your name. And he reminds them of the fact that they are part of these 12 tribes and that they have been named by God with those 12.

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God puts a name on them and says, you are Israel. He reminds them of who they are in reality because they had lost that fact.

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So he took the 12 stones to whom the word of the Lord came. And with the stones, he built an altar in the name of Yahweh.

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He made a trench about the altar as great as it would contain two seers of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, laid it on the wood.

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That sounds a lot like, you know, when Jesus was laid backwards and they nailed him to the cross.

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I'm just saying. And then he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two seers of seed.

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Let's just say that's a lot. He put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, laid it on the wood. He said, fill four jars with water.

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Four jars, four gospels. Now, that can't possibly be something like that. Fill the four jars with water, pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.

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So they did it. He said, do it a second time. And they did it a second time.

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And he said, do it a third time. Notice that the sacrifice is baptized in the name of the

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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. They did it a third time.

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The water ran around the altar, filled the trench also with the water. And at the time of the offering and the oblation, the evening sacrifice, three in the afternoon, the exact time when

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Jesus himself said it is finished. And he gave up his spirit and died for your sins and for mine.

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Elijah, the prophet, came near and said, Oh, Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, Israel, let it be known this day that you are

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God in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things at your word.

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Answer me, oh Yahweh, answer me that this people may know that you, oh Yahweh, are God and that you have turned the hearts back.

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And then the fire of the Lord fell, consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench.

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And this is how sacrifices work. The one true sacrifice, this one points to Christ.

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Elijah didn't cut himself. He didn't shed his own blood. That bull was the substitute for his sins and for the sins of these idolatrous people who could not decide whether or not

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Baal was real or the Lord was real. Points to that, and he receives and accepts the sacrifice and everybody now sees the truth, but notice they didn't see the truth because of the sacrifice.

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They understood the truth because they heard the word of God and the prophet. Who spoke the truth because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

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So then the fire of the Lord fell, consumed, burnt the offering. The wood, the stones, the dust, everything licked up the water that was in the trench.

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And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces. Yahweh, he's God. Yahweh, he's God. The shouts of repentance.

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What a beautiful thing. Repenting of their idolatry, they now confess with their lips the one true

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God. So Elijah said to them and watch how they bear fruit in keeping with repentance for their idolatry.

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Seize the prophets of Baal. Let not one of them escape. They seized them and Elijah brought them down to the

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Brook Kishon, slaughtered them there. Idolatry is a capital crime in God's kingdom.

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So Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink. There's the sound of rushing rain. And see, now he says it.

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The rain will not come until I say so. He said that to Ahab and then skedaddled.

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And now he says it to Ahab. I hear the sound of rain coming. Baal is garbage.

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Baal is a worthless thing. But do you think Ahab is going to repent?

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Do you think that when he goes to report to his wonderful, beautiful bride what has happened, that she's going to fall on her face like the people of Israel and confess that Yahweh, he is

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God? Go up, drink. There's the sound of rushing rain.

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Ahab went to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. He bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees.

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And he said to his servant, go up and look toward the sea. He went up and looked and said, now there's nothing.

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Which, by the way, tells you the Mediterranean Sea is visible from Mount Carmel. Just saying, right? And he went up and looked and said, now there's nothing.

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He said, well, go again. Seven times. And at the seventh time he said, behold, a little cloud like a man's hand is rising from the sea.

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And he said, go up and say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you. And in the little while the heavens grew black with clouds.

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The wind, there was a great rain. Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of Yahweh was on Elijah.

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And he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. And see, you see right here that Elijah was the very first bionic man.

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So you just hear the Steve Austin. Anyway, a little miracle there.

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Interesting. So Ahab, and this is our text now. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done.

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How he killed all the prophets with a sword. Now, I think it's kind of fascinating that the emphasis is all, you're not going to believe this, honey.

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Your favorite prophets who eat at our table every day. Well, they're not coming to dinner tonight.

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The emphasis was on, they're all dead. And Elijah is the one who killed them. You know that God we've been worshiping?

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The one you're actually named the princess of? He didn't actually show up. But Yahweh did.

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So everyone thinks that Yahweh's real and our God's false. We might want to rethink this.

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Notice that's not what's going on here. Because the sinful Adam has nothing to do with God.

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Will have nothing to do with God. Hates God. Hates his ways. Is not kind.

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Is not loving. Is utterly murderous. And just wants, as Pastor Richard pointed out, what's what it wants.

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And it wants it now. So Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done.

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Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so may the gods, notice her stubborn persistence in idolatry.

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Gods is only one true God. So may the gods do to me and more so also if I don't make your life as a life of one of them by this time tomorrow.

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So much for the glorious victory parade. Being given the keys to the city. So he was afraid.

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And he rose and he ran for his life. And he came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

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Ministry and the proclamation of God's word is not something that's going to get you the keys to the city. Most likely to get you killed.

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The words of God and his kind care for Elijah are helpful. He himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, came and sat down under a broom tree.

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He asked that he might die saying, this is enough. Now, Lord, take away my life for I am no better than my father's.

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Notice he confesses his own sinfulness. Elijah recognizes that he is a sinner every bit as much as Ahab and Jezebel.

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He recognizes that there's nothing in him that is good. He recognizes his own unworth.

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And rather than die at the hand of Jezebel, which would embolden the

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Lord's enemies, he confesses, I deserve to die as they did. So kill me,

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Lord. It's a great confession. So he laid down and he slept under a broom tree.

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And you know, God doesn't kill him, although he deserves that. An angel touched him and said, arise, eat.

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And he looked and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones in a jar of water.

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And he ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time and touched him and said, arise and eat.

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The journey is too great for you. He rose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, Mount Sinai, the mountain of God.

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The words, the journey is too great for you also applies to each and every one of us.

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Confessing our own unworthiness, recognizing that we are every bit as wretched as the prophets of Baal, every bit as evil as Jezebel, our sinful atoms.

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And it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman here. We all have a sinful atom. Our sinful atoms are as defiant and wicked and evil every bit as hers.

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And it is wise for us to recognize that the journey to the new earth is too great for us as well.

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Far too great. There's no way we could make it. To journey to the mount of God, and we're not journeying to Horeb, we're journeying to Zion.

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God himself would have to feed us and strengthen us. And I would remind you today, we have a wonderful gift, the bread of heaven, the bread of life, the body and blood of Christ, to strengthen us on our journey, the journey that is too, too much for us.

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What does this all then have to do with our epistle text? I think it has a lot to do with it.

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We see too much of Jezebel in ourselves. We live in the now and the not yet.

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Each and every one of us, born dead in trespasses and sins, we learn from Titus chapter three that we in the waters of our baptisms were united with Christ in his death and resurrection.

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And here are the words of Paul written in Titus three. We ourselves who were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, just like Jezebel.

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Hated by others and hating one another, just like Jezebel. You see, but when the goodness and the loving kindness of God, our

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Savior appeared. He saved us. He didn't take our old

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Jezebels and clean them up. He did something different. He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

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Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

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You see, when we were united with Christ in our baptismal waters, we were regenerated.

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There is a new self created perfectly like Christ. And that new self does dwell within you.

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And at the same time, your old sinful Adam is still there as well. Has anyone ever noticed that the

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Christian life just feels like constantly being at war with yourself? Wanting to do good and hating to do good, and that struggle constantly knocking up inside of your own psyche.

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And see, that's the reason why. And so Paul, then, in our epistle text says this.

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Now, this I say to you. You must no longer walk as the

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Gentiles do. And so Paul, in saying this, recognizes that Christians struggle with this.

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If we didn't struggle with this, he wouldn't have to write this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to constantly remind you of who you are in Christ and your identity in the same way that Elijah had to remind these idolatrous

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Israelites, who were in covenant with God, who they were, the name that God had given them.

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Same way. You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

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You've got to remember who you are, what you are. They are darkened in their understanding.

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They're alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

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They've become callous. They've given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

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We all recognize that in Jezebel. But at the same time, we must recognize we are tempted in the same ways that she was.

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And where she gave in to her sinful nature, in fact, she was consumed by it because there was no new nature in her.

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She played her role perfectly because of what she was. Callous, malice, ignorance, futility, lusting after doing what is wrong, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

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But then Paul says, that's not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and you were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus.

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So listen to this. Put off your old self.

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Notice what this assumes. This assumes you have a new self. If I were to come in after doing some yard work and my wife says, you march yourself upstairs, you take a shower and burn those clothes out in the yard when you're done, would you?

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Now, by her saying that, we all are assuming that when I'm all done with this and I'm not walking around the house naked, that I've got a clean set of clothes.

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Could you imagine? I would be arrested and it would hit the papers. I'm just saying. The idea then here is this, is that Paul is reminding you, yes, you have a sinful

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Adam, but you have been given the righteous robes of Christ. You are a new creation in him.

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So when you have that temptation, what will I wear today? Stinky old

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Adam or will I put on the new self? He's reminding you of who you are and you're going to note there's not even a hint here of taking those old clothes and cleaning them up.

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This is not an option. Take them off, burn them, drown them, do whatever is necessary.

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This is the daily exercise of the Christian. There's no way I'm putting that thing back on. No way.

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And this is because of who you are already, not so that you can become a Christian. So put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life.

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And it's corrupt, totally corrupt through deceitful desires. And be renewed, passive voice, be renewed in the spirit of your minds.

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How is that happening? By faith, by believing the gospel, believing that you are forgiven.

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And put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness.

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Paul puts it this way in Galatians 5. It is for freedom that brothers, that Christ has set us free.

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So do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

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For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

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You see, you can tell when somebody is giving into their sinful flesh, and it's in the driver's seat, and they're wearing those putrid, smelling, pussy, filth ridden clothes.

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The only person they care about is themselves. And so they're breaking the commandments all over the place.

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They don't care about their neighbor's reputation. They don't care about their neighbor's needs. The only thing they care about is themselves.

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And so they're biting, consuming, devouring, gossiping, slandering. They reek of the old

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Adam. Why did you put that thing back on? Take that off.

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You are baptized into Christ. So if you bite and devour one another, watch out.

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But I say to you, walk by the spirit. Believe the truth. Believe that you are forgiven and that you are in Christ.

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That you have been united with him, regenerated because you have been. These are not pipe dreams. This is the truth of who you are.

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He put his name on you. Walk by the spirit, and you'll not gratify the desires of the flesh.

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The desires of the flesh, they're against the spirit. The desires of the spirit, they're against the flesh. These are opposed to each other in order to keep you from doing the things you want.

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But if you are led by the spirit and you believe that you are saved, you're not under the law. The works of the flesh, now they're evident.

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Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, ah

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Jezebel, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, all the stuff they like showing us on nighttime

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TV, right? And things like these.

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That is the old clothing. That's the old

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Adam. If you're unsure of whether or not the thing you're doing or want to do is a part of the new clothing or the old clothing, check the list.

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What does it smell like? Got some enmity and strife and some jealousy and fits of anger on that.

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Yes, horrifying. Burn that thing in the yard. But the fruit of the spirit, and it's his fruit, not yours.

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He bears this in you by faith. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

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Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus, Paul says, have already, past tense, crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires.

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Are you in Christ? Have you been baptized?

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Do you believe? Then you've already crucified in the waters of your baptisms, your sinful flesh and all of its desires.

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In fact, Christ did it for you. So then coming back to our epistle text.

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So therefore, having put away falsehood, you put away falsehood because it reeks. It smells like that dead

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Adam. Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. We're all members of one another.

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He reminds us again that we are all one, together and one in Christ. So be angry and do not sin.

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Yes, it's possible to be angry and not sin. That's a little bit difficult to do.

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Be angry and do not sin. But there are many, when they're putting on the old self, they're angry.

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Oh, and they sin in their anger. That's fits of anger part, right? And don't let the sun go down on your anger.

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In other words, if you have something against each other or there's conflict or unresolved issues, you don't let it dry out day after day, week after week, unresolved.

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Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Unresolved anger is the open door for the devil to tear apart a church.

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If somebody has an issue against you or you have an issue against them, seek them out and do not let the sun go down another day.

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Cast the devil out of this church by taking off your old sinful nature and putting on the new one that you've been given in your baptism.

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Let the thief no longer steal. Let him labor doing honest work.

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Stealing's the old Adam. If you're in Christ, working hard with your hands is what you do because you've been baptized so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

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Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.

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Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed, sealed in the waters of your baptism for the day of redemption.

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Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice.

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Be kind to one another, tender -hearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you.

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So be imitators of God as beloved children, walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.

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As I pointed out last week, a text like this nails us all. God's law always accuses.

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Each and every one of us after hearing this must confess that we have been, well, putting on that stinky old man and doing the works in accordance with that stinky old man's desires.

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We're all guilty, and yet we must also recognize that part of the reason why we're guilty of this is because we have not yet fully grasped or understood our true identity as baptized believers in Christ.

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Given the gift of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, children of God. And you're going to note how the text says that we are to be imitators of God.

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And the picture here is beautiful. I loved it how somebody came up to me yesterday, somebody I had never met, and they said to me, your son is your son, and there's no denying it.

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Why would he say that? I have no idea. He said he had a conversation with him, and he just thought, oh my goodness, that is totally your son.

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Well, you know why? Because he grew up in my house. I taught him the values that I believe.

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He has some of my idiosyncrasies because he's been in my house. I'm his dad.

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Now, if he were to behave like somebody else, if they were to say to me, that's your son?

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Really? He doesn't have a sense of humor. He hates British comedy. What is this?

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How could you say that he's your son? See, there would be a disconnect. And so note here, Paul says be imitators of God because you are already beloved children.

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We pray, our Father who art in heaven. And we are called just as God is to be kind, merciful, tenderhearted, forgiving.

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Not in order to be his children. You see, that's like trying to clean up that old Adam. No, because you are already his children.

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I know this is a rough text for us all, and it should be. So let me remind you again of what

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Christ said, because when we hear texts like this, our old Adam freaks out.

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I gotta get busier. I gotta try harder. I've gotta clean myself up. Does anybody have any soap?

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Because I gotta get, I gotta, I can't do this. Shut up, old

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Adam. Why on earth would I want to clean you up? You're going into the grave and you ain't ever coming out.

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And so we recognize in our old sinful Adam, freaking out, triggered now in a complete state of panic, worried that somehow he's gonna be thrown into the fires of hell as he deserves.

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And he does deserve that. Jesus says in our gospel text, all that the

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Father gives me will come to me. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. Never.

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We're awful at this sanctification thing, because we still have a sinful nature.

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The gospel tells us to live by the Spirit is to believe these words. Whoever comes to me,

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I will never cast out. And we heard Jesus says that no one can come to him unless the

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Father who sent me draws him. And I would remind you that you have been drawn by the

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Father to Christ in the waters of your baptism. He draws you today to this altar to receive his body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

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He draws you to come and hear again that you are forgiven and pardoned and bear fruit in keeping with repentance because you are already his dearly beloved children.

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And just like our children need training and well, they have times when we must instruct them and discipline them.

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In the same way, we being his children, he disciplines us for when we act out and calls us back again to remember who we are in Christ.

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So be assured of this, baptized children of God. You are his children.

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You are forgiven in Christ. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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

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