The God Who Does Everything For Us

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Date: Fourth Sunday in Advent Text: Luke 1:26-38

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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. Luke, the first chapter.
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In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was
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Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said,
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Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
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And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name
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Jesus, and he will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the
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Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
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And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her,
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The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called
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Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son.
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And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God.
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And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.
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And the angel departed from her. This is the Gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.
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When I was a lot younger, I was required to take a class on world religions.
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So I actually took some time to study up on Buddhism, Hinduism, I don't know if you've ever heard of Jainism, that's another major religion in the world, then you've got
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Taoism, and don't forget Islam, and then all the animistic religions. And the one thing I can say after having studied all of these other religions is that there is one thing that they all have in common.
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And the one thing that they all have in common is that it's up to you, it's up to your obedience and your sacrifices to placate the anger and the displeasure of whatever deity or concept of deity that they have created.
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It's up to you. So all the world religions fall into kind of the same bucket, if you would.
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In fact, many Lutheran theologians argue that there really are only two religions in the whole world. First religion is the one
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I've described, the one that it's up to you. Your works, your obedience becomes currency, currency that you then exchange with the deity in order to receive from the deity the things that you want, his favor, his pleasure, his blessings.
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And then there's Christianity. In fact, the Bible from beginning to end, from its very first sentence, in the beginning
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God created the heavens and the earth to the closing sentences of the book of Revelation. Everything is consistent with this idea that God is the one who saves us.
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He has provided us with everything that we need to be saved and himself has provided the sacrifice and the obedience that is necessary to placate his wrath and for us to be reconciled to him and enjoy his favor again.
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All provided because of his great love, his kindness, and his mercy. In that regard, we're going to see if we can weave together all three of our texts today.
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And we're going to begin with our Old Testament texts. And this is an interesting text because here we see
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David very piously wanting to do something for God.
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What does he want to do? Well, he's a little bit embarrassed by that ugly thing, that tent that's been around for a few hundred years that moves around from place to place in Israel.
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The tabernacle that God had Moses create. Let's just say it's a little bit long in the tooth right now.
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The fabric is wearing out. It was never really that pretty to begin with. The covering for this thing is kind of an ugly brown sand color, which
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I'm sure the sands of the Judean wilderness haven't added much to it. It's just all just this bland kind of thing.
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But what David doesn't recognize and realize at this point is that that tabernacle itself, in all of its humility, in all of its non -splendor, in all of its just ordinariness, is a type and shadow of Christ.
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Let me explain. In the Gospel of John chapter 1, we hear these words in the beginning of this chapter.
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In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him.
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And without him was not anything made that was made. And then it goes on to talk about how Christ is the light.
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And then in verse 14, we get these words in the Gospel of John chapter 1. And the
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Word became flesh and, well, interesting thing here. The Greek could be translated tabernacled among us.
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The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And so we recognize that that tabernacle, as humble and, well, non -glamorous as it is, is really a picture of Christ himself, the
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Son of God clothed in human flesh. The two natures coming together in the one
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Jesus Christ. In fact, think of it this way. We are getting ready to celebrate Christmas and what is it that we need?
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We need a Savior. We need a hero. We need a champion to come and defeat the devil, to defeat the world, to defeat sin and death.
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And what does God send us? A baby whose diapers need to be changed, right?
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What is God thinking? Ah, but see, that's kind of how it all works. So let's kind of work through our text here.
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So it says this in 2 Samuel chapter 7. Now, when King David lived in his house and Yahweh had given him rest from all of his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet,
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See, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.
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And Nathan said to the king, Go and do all that is in your heart, for Yahweh is with you. And Nathan at this point kind of is on board, thinking this is a pious thing.
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But God's response is one that we should take careful note of.
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Because had this gone the other way and David and his pious inclinations had been permitted by God to build the temple, then oh man, the sermons that would be coming out today pointing us to our need to build our own temples to God would be abounding and everything would be turned on its head and people would actually have an argument for salvation by works.
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Now I want to make something clear here at the outset that there is a place for obedience in Christianity.
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In fact, not only a place, obedience is absolutely necessary within Christianity.
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But it has its place and there's a way in which it comes and there is a way in which it is produced.
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And that way is the way of utter dependence, of non -self -reliance.
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And so God here decides he's going to have a chat with Nathan overnight because Nathan spoke a little presumptuously.
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So that same night, the word of Yahweh came to Nathan, you go and you tell my servant David, thus says
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Yahweh, would you build me a house to dwell in? Boy, when
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God asks a question in that kind of tone of voice, you sit there and go, you know, that may not be exactly the smartest way of thinking this through, right?
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The theology seems to be a little bit off. And God then goes on to say, I have not lived in a house since the day
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I brought the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. And watch how the verbs work. Who brought the people of Israel up out of Egypt?
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God brought the people of Israel up out of Egypt. But I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling, and in all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did
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I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people
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Israel, saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar? And when he puts it that way, it kind of seems a little out of place.
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Have you ever noticed that God is really kind and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love?
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And it's really kind of the false gods that demand, oh, you had better build me a house, and you had better make your sacrifice big, and it had better really be a sacrifice, one that really hurts your pocketbook.
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Otherwise, it's not really a sacrifice. And so what does these false religions demand?
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Oh, your best, and if your best isn't up to snuff, you had better make your best even better.
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And God says, yeah, I've never complained. Yeah, it's all right. I've never said to anyone, why have you not built me a house of cedar?
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Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says Yahweh Sabaoth, the
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God of armies, I took you from the pasture. Oh, who did the what?
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God took David from the pasture. I took you from following the sheep that you should be prince over my people
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Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went, and I have cut off all of your enemies from before you.
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Oh boy, who's been doing all the work the entire time in the life of David? God, right?
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And so he then says to him, and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones on the earth.
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And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more, and violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly, from the time that I have appointed judges over my people
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Israel. This seems to have, you smell that? That's like a hint.
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Yeah, that's the aroma of the new earth kind of wafting through this text. And you can see here the promise here of being disturbed no more by violent men.
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Oh, this is a great promise. Now we're shooting way past all of us on into the new earth.
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And you'll note that this is an amazing thing. Have you ever noticed that we human beings have this really, really boneheaded proclivity for putting tyrants in control over us?
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Have you ever noticed that human history is just, has example after example after example?
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Please enslave us. Please take away all of our freedoms. Please oppress us and punish us and murder us and kill us.
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Please. Please. And you sit there going, why on earth are we like this? There's a real simple reason.
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There's a really simple reason and it's, well, it's not very flattering. The reason is this, Christ says to those who do not believe in him, you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's will.
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What is the devil like? He is the ultimate tyrant ever. He makes Darth Vader look like a school girl.
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And what is it that we, the children of the devil want? Oh, we want a father like that.
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And so we put men like Hitler and Stalin and Castro and Pol Pot and Mousy Tongue and, oh, name the tyrants, right?
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And what do they do to us? They murder us. They kill us.
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They abuse us. They persecute us. They cause us to live in terror.
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But note the promise here that God is giving to David because the promise is something very different.
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Have you ever noticed that Jesus is nothing like Hitler or Stalin or even like me or like you?
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Christ is kind. He's not demanding. What he demands, he provides.
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He is merciful, gracious, loving, slow to anger, man, nothing like that.
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And so when I hear a text like this talking about no longer being disturbed by violent men, that's something that my heart yearns for.
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Even the violence of my old sinful Adam within me, I would like to see no more.
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So from the time that I appointed judges, God says over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all of your enemies.
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Moreover, Yahweh declares to you that Yahweh will make you a house. This is not what
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David was asking for. He says this, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers,
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I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.
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He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
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Now on a first glance, you might say, well, of course, you know, after David dies, Solomon, his son takes the throne and Solomon builds the temple.
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That ain't what God's referring to here. He's not referring to Solomon's temple.
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Listen again to the details. I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body.
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I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
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Is the throne of Solomon still a thing? No. We know the history of Israel.
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Solomon, who started off well, whom God gave miraculous wisdom to, people came from all over the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
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What did he do? He had 700 wives, 300 concubines, and most of them were pagan idolatrous women.
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And what did he do? He steered himself, his whole family, and Israel into idolatry.
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And after his death, God tore the kingdom of Israel into two parts. And the part that his sons still had reign over,
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Judah, the southern kingdom, well, Zedekiah was the last of their kings, and that kingdom came to an end, put to an abrupt end by Nebuchadnezzar and the
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Babylonian exile, and there has never been a descendant of David or of Solomon sitting on the throne of David in human history to this day.
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So it can't be him that he's referring to. I will raise up your offspring, God says, who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.
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He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
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This can only be referring to Christ. Only be referring to Christ. And so the question then is, well, what is this house that Jesus is supposed to build then?
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Well, I'm looking at it right here, y 'all are stones in this house that God, that Christ is building.
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The temple of God is the body of Christ, each and every one of us living stones in it.
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We together are part of this house that Christ, the son of David, is building.
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And then God goes on to say interesting words, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.
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Are you confused as to who this is referring to now? It's becoming quite clear. But then very confusing words, when he commits iniquity,
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I will discipline him with the rod of men and the stripes of the son of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom
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I put away from before you. When did Christ commit iniquity?
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Doesn't the scripture say that he was tempted in every way as we are and yet without sin?
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Well, this is most certainly true, but here this text, a prophecy of Christ says that when he commits iniquity, he will be disciplined with the rod and the stripes of the sons of men.
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And this now gets into that great doctrine, the doctrine of imputation. You see,
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Isaiah the prophet says that God laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. God did the grim, ugly, mucky task.
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Have you ever seen that television show, Dirty Jobs? And it's always fascinating to me when you watch an episode of Dirty Jobs, you think, oh my goodness, somebody actually does that?
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Well, God the Father did something even muckier than the muckiest of the dirty jobs. He went through all of humanity and all of human history and he gathered up our sin.
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Gathered it up into one big, muck, filthy, stinking, pus -filled ball and placed it on Christ.
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God has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And when that iniquity, our iniquity, your iniquity, my sin, your sin, every one of our idolatries, every one of our murderous thoughts, all of our dishonoring of our parents and our authorities, every adulterous action, thought, word, deed, every theft, every murder, every lie and slanderous gossip piece that we've slandered and murdered our neighbor with, everything that we've coveted that God has given to somebody else, every one of the breaking of God's commandments,
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God the Father has taken all of that, put it on Christ, and when it was on him, God said, you're guilty when he commits iniquity.
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And that's the thing. When our iniquity is placed on him, God saw him as the sinner.
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And he was disciplined with the rod of men and the stripes of the son of men.
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Christ's sufferings begin with punches to the face, a rod on his back, being strapped to a pole while they take out a cat of nine tails and open up the back of him with it.
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And the stripes he did receive, the forty lashes less one, all of this because God counted him to be the sinner.
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It was his obedience, perfect obedience, active and passive, that won our salvation, not yours, not mine.
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It's his blood, his obedience that is the currency of our salvation. God says of this
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Christ who loves us so much that he did that, and see that's the thing, he did that so that we can be clothed in his righteousness, so that we would not have to be disciplined by God in eternity.
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He says of him, my steadfast love will not depart from him. And then he says, and your house, your kingdom, shall be made sure forever before me.
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Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words, in accordance with this vision,
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Nathan spoke to David. And what could David do at this point but to respond in utter gratitude?
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This is not what he expected. He wanted to do something for God, and often times we want to too, but God says no, that's not how it works.
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I'm going to do something for you. You cannot build a house for me. I will raise up a son who will build a house.
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And he is my son. So David then went on, sat before the Lord, who am
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I, oh Lord? And what is my house that you have brought me thus far? And yet, this was a small thing in your eyes, oh
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Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this instruction is for all of mankind, oh
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Lord God. And so even David recognizes that in this prophecy that he received from Nathan, that this was not merely for him, that this was instruction for me and for you, for all of us here today, all of mankind on the earth.
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And what more can David say to you, for you know your servant, oh Lord God, because of your promise and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness to make your servant to know it.
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Therefore you are great, oh Lord God. And that's the thing, isn't it?
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You see, because over and again we learn that salvation is by grace through faith, and Paul asked then, where is the ground for boasting?
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Do any of you boast? Oh, I was so amazing this year. I got the best Christmas present ever because I'm such a good boy.
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No, that's not how it works. When we receive a great Christmas present, all we can say is thank you.
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And that is it. Here in this text, we get
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God's promise of the coming Christmas present of the Savior.
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The first hints, the very, very first faint wasps heard on the air of those
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Christmas carols proclaiming the glory of God who has provided to us a Savior. Here you can begin just in the distance to hear the melodies of Christmas begin to play and sing.
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Oh Lord God, there is none like you. There is no God besides you. According to all that we have heard with our ears.
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And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem, to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its
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God. And indeed we have been grafted into Israel and it's our God who has done great things for us, awesome deeds, by driving out the devil before us, conquering him and crushing his head with his own feet, rising victorious from the grave and taking the spoils of war and what it is that he purchased with his blood and now giving out to free, free to all of us the gift of salvation.
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What a mighty God we have. You established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever and you oh
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Lord God became their God and now oh Lord God confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house and do as you have spoken and your name will be magnified forever saying
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Yahweh Sabaoth is God over Israel and the house of your servant David will be established before you for you oh
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Lord of hosts the God of Israel have made this revelation to your servant saying that I will build you a house.
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Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you and now oh Lord God you are
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God. Your words are true and you have promised this good thing to your servant.
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Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you.
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For you oh Lord have spoken and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.
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And then we know we've already made reference to the history that follows the kings of Judah generation after generation slip lower and lower and lower into apostasy and finally
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God snuffs out the kingdom of Israel altogether. The last king Zedekiah marched off into exile in Babylon.
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In fact his sons were slaughtered before his eyes and then his eyes were gouged out by Nebuchadnezzar because of his evil, his refusal to bend the knee to God.
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But then we come to our gospel text today. Centuries later, centuries later
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God's word doesn't rest, it waits. It waits until it's appointed time and at the appointed time six months after God had sent the angel
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Gabriel to speak to Zechariah, a priest in the temple of God to let him know that his barren wife was going to bear a son and that he would be the forerunner of Christ, the fulfillment of the prophet of Malachi talking about the one who would make straight the ways of the
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Lord before the coming Messiah. Now six months after Elizabeth has conceived John the
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Baptist in her womb, the angel Gabriel now shows up in a backwoods town off in an obscure district of the
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Roman Empire, a little village called Nazareth. And you'll note that the house of David, well it's slipped into complete obscurity.
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People know who the descendants of David are, but rather than sitting on a throne, rather than wearing a crown, rather than wearing royal robes, the house of David, the heir to the throne, a man named
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Joseph, he's a day laborer, a construction guy, he's got calloused hands, he's good with a hammer, nails and a saw, he works in drywall and stucco.
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That's what he does for a living. Ah, the mighty have fallen, right? So in the sixth month the angel
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Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was
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Joseph. They were planning a wedding. He was of the house of David and now that Christmas song that began centuries earlier that you can just hear off in the distance, quite can't make out the lyrics yet, can now be heard for the first time and the lyrics start coming.
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He came to her and he said, greetings oh favored one, Yahweh is with you.
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She was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be and the angel said to her, do not be afraid
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Mary for you have found favor with God. Oh, she's a woman of faith. How does one find favor with God?
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Scripture is so clear on this, don't be confused. Without faith it's impossible to please
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God. So in this humble town of Nazareth, this little virgin girl, probably in her mid -teens, betrothed to get married to a day laborer who was technically the heir to the throne of David, she has found favor with God because she believes the promises of God.
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She believes the promises of the forgiveness of sins of the Messiah who would come. God has reckoned to her righteousness because she believes.
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So he said to her, do not be afraid Mary, you have found favor with God. Behold you will conceive in your womb and you will bear a son and you shall call his name
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Yeshua. Yahweh saves. He will be great.
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He will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father
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David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end.
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The first strains of Handel's Messiah start to come through. And he shall reign forever and ever.
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Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? The angel answered her, the
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Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you.
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Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God and behold your relative
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Elizabeth in her old age has conceived a son and this is the sixth month with her who is called barren for nothing will be impossible with God.
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And Mary said, behold, I am a servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.
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And the angel departed from her. Is it any wonder that Martin Luther said that Mary conceived
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Christ in her womb through her ears, through the words spoken by the angel
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Gabriel. The Holy Spirit worked in her womb. The conception of our
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Savior. So as we consider these texts,
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I made a big to do about the fact that scripture clearly says we cannot earn salvation by our works and our obedience.
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But our epistle text mentions obedience. So let me frame it this way. We've looked at this amazing
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God of ours, whose name is great, who rather than requiring us to build him a house, he is building a house and including us in it.
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Here's what scripture says in Galatians 3. All who rely on works of the law.
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Note this. Scripture is clear. We are to obey God's commands. And if you're not sure what the standard is, the standard is actually quite simple.
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It's called perfection. That's the standard. Okay. That's what's required of me.
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I don't do it. This is the reason why scripture says all who rely on works of the law, they're under a curse.
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If you are relying on your works and on your obedience, on your piety, on your prayers, on your
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Bible reading, if you're relying on all of that in order to save yourself, you are delusional.
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Because you do not keep God's commands perfectly. All who rely on works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and continue to keep on, keep on doing them.
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Now it's evident that no one is justified, declared righteous before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith.
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The law is not of faith. Rather the one who does them shall live by them. So Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, which is its condemning power, by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.
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So that in Christ the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit, how?
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Through faith. And here's those words again. We might receive the promised spirit through faith.
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What spirit is the spirit that is promised to all who believe in Christ? It's the
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Holy Spirit. And so now consider then our epistle text in this regard, because our epistle text ends with these words, according to the command of the eternal
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God to bring about the obedience of faith.
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So let me ask you, what did you do to earn your salvation? Nothing. Now here's the question.
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Do you believe the promises, not just regarding your salvation, but also the fact that God has sent his spirit, the one he promised, the
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Holy Spirit, into our hearts? Indeed. Have you ever noticed that when you try really hard to kind of gut it out and decide this time
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I'm really going to get my act together, God, I'm going to pull myself up by my bootstraps and you're going to be so pleased with my obedience, it's going to be awesome.
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How long does that usually last? A couple of days? A week?
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Oh, those who can really, really muster up some really good old -fashioned fortitude, maybe a month or two.
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But then what happens? You wear out and you fall flat on your face.
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The obedience of faith is different than obedience. When you think that you can muster up your obedience from within yourself, you are fooling yourself.
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Instead, the obedience of faith flows from this idea. You recognize that God's law demands that you obey him and obey him perfectly.
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And you do not shave off the hard edges. You just say that's the fact. And so you say to God, God, I know that you will for me to not do those things or me to do that thing.
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I know that you will it. But I see within myself my own sinful flesh working against me to try to get me to do what
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I don't want to do and what it is that you do not command of me. So I humbly come before you and I ask through the power of the
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Holy Spirit that you have given me and the promise that you have given me that I would not be tempted beyond my ability, that you would grant to me the strength and the power from the
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Holy Spirit in order to obey you. Augustine lays this out in his book on the letter and the spirit.
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This is how the church of the past understood these things. The work of the Holy Spirit is to produce the fruit of the
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Spirit in us. And so the obedience of faith is that obedience that comes and says I'm fully dependent upon you
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Lord for my salvation and I'm dependent upon your Holy Spirit to produce in me the fruit of the
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Spirit. I cannot produce that fruit in and of myself. And you'll note the humility that is there.
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And I would even argue that you could say, Lord, may it be done to me according to the word that you have given us in scripture, that your
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Holy Spirit would produce in me holiness and that you would give me the strength necessary to mortify my sinful flesh, to take off the old self and by the power of the
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Spirit put on the new person that I am in Christ. It all works together and requires complete humility and a recognition of utter dependence on God for everything because our
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God is the one who gives us everything that we need for life and salvation because he's nothing like the violent.
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He's kind, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.
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And he is the one who has sent us what we need. And what we need most is a
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Savior. And we will celebrate his advent and his birth in the days ahead.
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In the name of Jesus, Amen. Oslo, Minnesota, 56744
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And again that address is Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th
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Avenue NW, Oslo, Minnesota, 56744 We thank you for your support.
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All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.
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And again, thank you for listening. Amen.