Too Far Gone?

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

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to.

St. Luke, the 15th chapter. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, this man receives sinners and he eats with them. So he told them this parable.

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing.

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Or, what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.

Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. So the experience of being saved by Jesus is one that is disconcerting.

If you think about it this way, Christ has promised us, and we remember our gospel text from just a few weeks ago, that send the Holy Spirit, who will convict us of our sin and our unbelief. And the experience of being convicted of your sin is one that is not fun.

In fact, it's lamentable and quite necessary that we feel the guilt, the fear, that we feel the sorrow for our sin. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. But what the devil then does is he kind of leads us into two potential ditches, if you would.

You've got to stay on the road, you know. And the idea here is that one of these ditches is the ditch where we end up despairing. We sit there being fully cognizant of our sin and go, you know what? I'm just too messed up.

I'm too broken. There's no way that Jesus could really be taking me seriously. I just need to forget this Christianity thing altogether. I'm too far gone. It happens. And when you look at your life in light of the Ten Commandments and you think that you're pulling it off, you're fooling yourself.

And you'll note, week after week after week, we do not stand up and do the Joel Osteen thing where we do these declarations where we say, I am strong. I am rich. I am wealthy. I am healthy. I am wise.

Because he believes that his faith-filled words create reality. Instead, we do a very sober thing. We actually speak the truth about ourselves. We confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We've sinned against God and thought word and deed.

You get the idea. And so the devil comes along, hearing the work of the Holy Spirit in you, and does this judo move. Now, I initially said jujitsu, but I was corrected by somebody who knows a thing or two about martial arts.

It's a judo move. Have you noticed those judo guys? Little guys and a big burly guy comes after somebody who knows some judo and is ready to throw a punch. And next thing you know, that guy's weight and his girth is used against him as a weapon and he finds himself on his back on the floor looking at the clouds, wondering what happened.

That's what the devil does when he causes us to despair. This great strength of the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin and to keep us humble. The devil likes to use a judo move to make us sit there and despair that Christ could ever really take us seriously.

And here's where our epistle text is so helpful. Let me read it out a portion of it. Paul writing to young Pastor Timothy, who was pastor of one of the congregations in the city of Ephesus, and Paul is getting ready to finish his life here.

This is a letter written from prison. Apparently he didn't understand that he was supposed to experience his best life now, but he's in prison for his faith in Christ about ready to be martyred for the Christian faith by having his head lifted off of his shoulders by a Roman sword.

And so he's writing some last letters and he says, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.

And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Overflowed. What a beautiful picture. Now usually when we have overflows it's not a positive thing. Like when your toilet gets backed up and it overflows it means that you're going to have to clean the carpet and stuff like this.

But think of it this way. Paul is saying that the grace of our Lord has overflowed for me. Salvation, the mercy and grace of God won for us by Christ suffering on the cross for our sins is not God piecemealing out a little bit of grace to us.

Instead it is an overflow, an abundance of grace. And Paul here is one to whom he is the recipient of this overflow of God's grace. And then he says these words, the saying is trustworthy and it's deserving of full acceptance.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief or the foremost. Now you'll note we have a tradition in our age where we take these words and we piously say things like this. I've done this many times.

I think this is the only error in scriptures. Paul says that he's the chief of sinners and well I must confess that I think that title belongs to me. And we do that and we think that that's really the right way to handle this text but you're going to note that Paul has very clearly said these words.

This is a trustworthy saying and it's deserving of full acceptance and here's why it's important. Because when you think about Christians who are saved, you have people who've committed very few sins who die early in life, they have been saved by Christ and they don't have this litany of terrible things that they've done or sins that they choose not to want to recall to mind when they were 19 years old living at the university.

Instead so you've got people kind of down here, not too many sins but Paul pegs the meter and let me explain. He says he's the chief of sinners. That's the spectrum. If you take it at face value, it's very comforting and saves us from being tempted by the devil to despair of our own salvation.

And here's the reason why. Paul I don't think is speaking in hyperbole. When we consider the conversion of the apostle Paul and the sins that he committed the number of people that he persecuted is probably not a huge number but as a total percentage of those who were alive who actually held the Christian faith, the percentage was really high, not really low.

Let me explain. We'll walk through a few sample passages from the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 6 we begin to hear the narrative of the very first Christian martyr. His name was Stephen and Saul of Tarsus who will become later the apostle Paul was part of this plot to have him killed.

We know this from the later portion of the account. It says that Stephen full of grace and power was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freemen as it was called and of the Cyrenes and the Alexandrians and those from Cilician Asia, they rose up and they disputed with Stephen but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.

So then they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. Ah, false witnesses in a religious context. I mean, all for God. We need people who are going to lie on behalf of God to save us from the scourged Jesus.

So they stirred up all the people and the elders and the scribes and they came upon Stephen and seized him and brought him before the council and they set up false witnesses who said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law.

Ah, slander, false charges. Now pay attention to those words. You're going to hear them again. Paul will be the recipient of similar words later in his life. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs of Moses delivered to us.

And then gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like that of an angel. Now I will not read Stephen's full defense, but this is a beautiful portion of scripture. Take the time to walk yourself through the history of salvation that Stephen lays out as his defense as he from memory just rehearses and rehashes and gives a wonderful synopsis of the promises that were made by God to the people of Israel and how they find their fulfillment of Jesus Christ.

But afterwards when he had finished his defense, it says in chapter 7 verse 54, now when they heard these things they were enraged. Have you noticed that some people when they hear the truth about Christ or they hear the truth about themselves, how's the saying go nowadays?

They become triggered. And they fly off into a towering rage. Well, when you read the words of Stephen and his defense, nothing to be enraged about, yet they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. I recently pointed this out and I'll point it out again. We in the Nicene Creed confess that Christ ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.

But here, Stephen as he's getting ready to have his life taken from him, I recall the words of Christ when he says that everyone who believes in me will never die. And I know that sounds like kind of a highfalutin thing, but it's absolutely true.

They will not taste death. So Stephen is about ready to die and his eyes are open, he sees into heaven, he sees Jesus, but Jesus isn't sitting. The very first Christian martyr, Christ rises and stands to watch.

It's quite notable. Stunning if you consider it. And so Stephen said, behold, I see the heavens opened, the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. So they cried out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears and they rushed together at him and then they cast him out of the city and they stoned him.

And then the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. In other words, Saul was a part of this the entire time. And by them laying their garments at the feet of Saul, he was instrumental in this whole affair.

Saul has the blood of Stephen on his hands. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

And when he had said this, he fell asleep. How amazing. The forgiven sinner Stephen, even when he is being murdered, is crying out that God would forgive those who were sinning against him. And Christ heard his prayer and answered it.

And so we'll note Saul approved of his execution, of course he did, he was instrumental in it. And then there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. They were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea, Samaria, except for the apostles.

Devout men buried Stephen and a great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, entering house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. So as a total percentage of all who believe in Christ, how many were the recipients of Paul's rage and his ravaging of the church?

50 Seems low based on this account. 60? 70? 80? That's feasible. Who in our day can say that they have successfully persecuted 80 of those who confess Christ? We must take Paul's words seriously.

And the reason is this, is because Christ showing mercy to Paul, the chief of sinners, gives us hope for our own salvation in those times when we would despair about our own sin. In Acts chapter 9 we hear the account of Saul's conversion.

It says this, Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord who went to the high priest. And they asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

As he went on his way he approached Damascus and then suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord?

He said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. And it's at this point you'll note that Saul is blinded but at the same time his eyes are opened. And now he has to think hard and long about all of the effort that he has put into snuffing out Christianity and getting rid of the name of Jesus because he has realized that he is in the wrong.

But the Lord says to him, rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do. Even with those words, Christ is showing mercy. In answer to Stephen's prayer that Christ not hold these sins against them, Saul's sins have not been held against him and Christ is now showing mercy to the chief persecutor of the Christian faith.

The men who were traveling with him stood speechless. Hearing the voice but seeing no one, Saul rose from the ground and although his eyes were open he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

A little time to consider his life's decisions and ponder what exactly had gone wrong. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, here I am Lord.

Look at that. I mean Ananias recognized the voice of the Lord and he didn't even have to pay 300 bucks to Jennifer LeClaire for a prophetic activation. Who knew? When Christ speaks people know who's talking.

So the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called Straight and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold he is praying and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias.

Come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. Ananias answered, Lord I have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.

But the Lord said to him, go. He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel and I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

It's as if Jesus at the time took a look at all of the humanity and said who's the worst? Who's the most far gone? I want that guy. And not only am I going to bring him into the Christian faith, I'm going to make him one of my apostles.

That's what I'm going to do. So looking into the rubbish heap he found some terrible orange that was fungus filled and just not good for anything. He couldn't even compost. It was so disgusting and smelly and running with yuck.

He said yeah this is a good candidate. This is the one. I have chosen him as an instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

So Ananias departed, entered the house and laying his hands on him he said brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and you may be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. And then he rose and he was baptized and taking food he was strengthened and for some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

And you'll note that Paul, the Apostle Paul received the same baptism you've received. Baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Had his sins washed away. Was united with Christ in his death and his resurrection.

And he too was filled with the Holy Spirit as you are. And when you kind of consider what happens next, Paul goes on well a different kind of rampage. From city to city, town to town, from trip to trip he goes all over the Roman Empire entering synagogues and pagan towns and proclaiming Christ Jesus risen from the dead and that forgiveness and life are in him saying that he is the one promised by God in all of the Old Testament and in him there is forgiveness and life and calling people to repent and believe in Jesus.

It's a wonderful book and it's an amazing turnaround. The only thing I could compare it to, Paul's conversion would be had Adolf Hitler decided near the end of his life that he was going to convert to Judaism.

That's how big the conversion was, right? Now a little bit of a note. I said pay attention to the words that Stephen was falsely accused of. Those words kind of come full circle. Later in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 21, Paul has made a journey to Jerusalem and was in the actual temple complex and it says when seven days were almost completed the Jews from Asia, seeing Paul in the temple, they stirred up the whole crowd, laid hands on him, crying out, men of Israel help!

This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law in this place. Moreover, he's even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place. False charges. False charges.

But you note the charges leveled against him at the time by the crowd were eerily identical to the very charges that were trumped up against Stephen. And so we note then, Paul in our epistle text says this saying is trustworthy.

It's deserving of full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. By the way, you qualify. I do too. He came into the world to save sinners and Paul says of whom I am the foremost. God the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write these words so that we would not despair of our own salvation.

A good way to think of it is this, is if Christ can forgive the apostle Paul, the chief of sinners, I think there's a good chance he can forgive me. And he does. And that's why he says this. The very reason why Christ chose him is given by Paul in our text.

I receive mercy for this reason, so that in me as the chief of sinners Jesus might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. That's the whole point.

He is the chief of sinners. You are not. And Christ has taken the worst from among us, the most active in persecuting the church, the one who has done the most damage percentage wise, and any other person in human history and he's forgiven him and pardoned him and he now stands as an example of the forgiveness that is available to each and every one of us.

It's in this vein then we consider a portion of our gospel text. I mentioned that there are two ditches that we can fall into. One is despair. This is where the devil takes the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting us of our sin and we despair of ever being forgiven.

That's one ditch. The other ditch is just like completely being blind to the fact that we're even sinners at all. John puts it this way, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Have a conversation with the average unbeliever out there.

Are you a good person? Oh yes, I'm a good person. Really? How do you know? Well, I pay my taxes and I've never been to prison. Uh-huh. That's not the sign. Reviewing the Ten Commandments would be helpful at that point.

But you'll note in our gospel text, the Pharisees and the scribes, they had fallen into that exact ditch. In the Gospel of Luke, it says the tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus.

This is a good thing. And by the way, I said you are a sinner. You would qualify to be in this group. So do I. But the Pharisees and the scribes, they grumbled saying, well, this man receives sinners and he eats with them.

Of course, Jesus would have to eat by himself if he didn't eat with sinners. Can you imagine poor Jesus, junior high kid, during school lunch break. And off he goes to sit by himself. Where are you going, Jesus?

Well, I can't eat with sinners. All by his lonesome, right? But the sad bit here is that the Pharisees and scribes are so self-deceived, they don't even see themselves as being in that category. Despair and self-righteousness are the two things we must, must get away from.

Both of them are forms of idolatry, breaking of the first commandment that you shall have no other gods. Let me explain. When you despair, you are saying your sins are greater than Christ and his mercy and his shed blood on the cross.

That is to basically make your sins to be unconquerable, to be like God. And on the other hand, self-righteousness, that's idolatry too. That's idolatry of self, where you think that you are the bee's knees and you got your act all together and you do not understand the proper function of the law to drive us to our knees in despair of our own righteousness.

In fact, Jesus has the Apostle John write a letter to the church at Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3. It kind of gets at that same issue. The Laodicean church sounds like something you would hear from like Joel Osteen's Houston, Texas kind of church.

Let me explain. Jesus in Revelation 3 says, to the angel of the church at Laodicea, write the words of the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of God's creation. I know your works, and you are neither cold nor hot.

Oh, would that you were either cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, and listen to this proclamation, I am rich. I have prospered.

I need nothing. Huh. The only thing missing is the southern accent, right? Hmm, that sounds like Joel Osteen's Lakewood. I am rich. I have prospered. I need nothing. But here's Jesus' judgment on them.

He says, you don't realize that you are, in fact, wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. That's reality. Christ is speaking truth here. There is no deception like self-deception. Self-righteousness is the ultimate form of self-deception.

So Christ counsels the church at Laodicea, I counsel you to buy gold from me, refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may finally be able to see.

Scathing words from Christ, if you consider it. So, again, we want to not despair of Christ's mercy, and we do want to despair of our own self-righteousness. This is what Scripture teaches us to do. And so Jesus, in his kind rebuke, is a beautiful rebuke of the scribes and the Pharisees and their self-righteousness, and their grumbling that he receives sinners and eats with them.

He tells them this parable. So what man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and then go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?

And here's the best bit of all of this. Christ is describing what he has done for each and every one of us. You were once a lost sheep, and Christ has searched and found you. He has had the gospel preached to you, the good news that he has bled and died on the cross for all of your sins.

He has washed away the sin and filth and muck that you had put on yourself by your rebellion against God, and he has rejoicingly laid you on his shoulders and brought you back into the fold. In fact, that's the whole point of this parable.

When he had found the sheep, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. The Scripture says that for the joy set before him, Christ endured the cross, despising the shame, the joy of being reconciled to you, the joy of finding you, his lost sheep.

And when he, Jesus, comes home, he calls together his friends, the angels if you would, and his neighbors saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. What a sad thing that the Pharisees were not rejoicing at the fact that sinners were coming to hear Christ and having their sins forgiven, but they took offense that Christ would even eat with them or hang out with them.

Do they not realize that there was a big party going on in heaven at the time for each and every one of those sinners brought to repentance by Christ? How sad that they were blind to this reality. And it's in this regard, then, we consider our Old Testament text.

I said before the service that it's like each and every one of these texts is just dripping with the gospel. Listen to the words of the prophet Micah, and should you be tempted to despair and think, I just don't have my act together enough to really truly be a Christian, that's exactly the qualifications that you need to have in order to be one.

You are a sinner? Great! Christ died for sinners. You're in that group. Micah says this, Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity, passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? God does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.

He will again have compassion on us. And here's the false idea that we often have about God, and it comes by only focusing in on the law. And the law tells us that we have sinned, that we have transgressed, that we are guilty, and that we do not measure up, and the experience is quite awful.

If you think about it like one of my favorite movies, A Christmas Story, there's an interesting account in The Christmas Story where Ralphie actually takes on his bully, Scud Farkas, who has yellow eyes, and beats the snot out of him.

It's a great little turnaround. This Scud Farkas kid is like two heads taller than poor Ralphie, and Ralphie's had enough of his bullying, and he just lets him have it in the nose, in the face, gets the best of him, gets on top of him, and he's just wailing on Scud Farkas, and then, and then, well, out comes this river of profanities from his mouth while he's wailing on Scud Farkas, and all the kids are standing by going, quite uncomfortable.

And somebody has enough sense to go get Ralphie's mother, and Ralphie's mother shows up, and Ralphie sees his mom there, and all of a sudden he realizes what's going on, and out come the tears. And so they head home, and there's tension in the house, and Ralphie's little brother is so terrified about what's coming next because, wait till father gets home, right?

I remember when I was growing up, there was an actual cartoon on KTLA Channel 11, it was called Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. Terrifying words, right? And so, Ralphie's kid brother, he's under the kitchen sink, he's hiding, and his mom opens up the door, what's wrong?

He says, dad's gonna kill Ralphie, right? That's what we think is gonna happen to us. We know how far we've transgressed, we know how much we don't measure up, and our expectation is that Jesus' return is like, wait till your father gets home.

Now, if you wanna know what happens to Ralphie, just go watch the movie, right? Alright, his mother showed him grace. And that's one of the beautiful parts of the movie itself. She showed him grace and didn't even mention what had happened or what she'd seen or heard.

In fact, kind of talked Ralphie up a little bit to kind of help his deflated ego and his fear. But note then, our God pardons iniquity, he passes over our transgressions, all for the sake of Christ. Christ has borne your sins in his body on the tree.

God has laid on Jesus your iniquity and mine because he delights in steadfast love. And because of this he has compassion on us. And as Micah says, he will tread our iniquities underfoot. Ah, that's a picture of Christ crushing the head of Satan.

And it's a beautiful picture. And he casts all of our sins into the depths of the sea. A baptismal reference, if you would. All of our sins being cast into the depths of the sea, sinking down, down, down, down, gone forever.

And Christ puts a no fishing sign up. You don't need to recall them. God does not. And our psalm today, which we did not read, is Psalm 103, verses 1 to 13. Listen to these words. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.

Bless his holy name. Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. Who forgives all your iniquity. Who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit. And that's exactly what Christ has done.

He has redeemed you from the pit of hell so that you do not have to spend eternity there, but you can spend eternity with him in the new earth. He is the one who crowns you with steadfast love and with mercy.

Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. I can't wait for that to happen. It's taking too long. Yahweh works righteousness, his justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.

And the Lord is merciful and gracious. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And he will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor does he repay us according to our iniquities.

Again, the right liturgical response here is from Napoleon Dynamite. Yes. Right? It's absolutely good right and salutary. God does not deal with us according to our sins. He does not repay us according to our iniquities.

And as far as the heavens are above the earth, so great is God's steadfast love towards those who fear him. And listen to these words. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Now the temptation again is to say I'm too far gone. I haven't got my act together enough. But I would note this Psalm says your sins are too far gone for them to be counted against you. Christ has removed them from you, placed him on himself, bled and died for them on a Friday afternoon on a cross outside the gates of Jerusalem.

He removed your transgressions from you. And now having been forgiven, he's cast them as far as the east is from the west. You are not too far gone. Your sins are. And this is the good news of the cross.

So do not despair. Repent. Trust Christ. He has forgiven you. Your transgressions will bother you no more, nor will they be recalled to the mind of our Lord and Savior. Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

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