Ezekiel Part 20

All right, let's pray, and we'll get started. Lord Jesus, as we open up your word and consider again the prophet

Ezekiel, by way of the prophet James, the apostle James, we ask, Lord, that you would help us to rightly understand what you've revealed there so that we may truly believe, confess, and do according to your holy word, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, so we are working our way through the book of James.

I'm using this as kind of a commentary on the theme that we were looking at in the book of Ezekiel, and I must remind you all that yes, we

Lutherans believe in the proper distinction of law and gospel. No, we do not believe that James is apocryphal.

That is an apocryphal account of Lutheran belief. We hold firm to the book of James, and we believe rightly what is going on here, but you're gonna note, there is very little gospel in James, and this kind of gets to an important distinction that C .F

.W. Walther made. If you've ever read his book on the proper distinction of law and gospel, Walther points something out that's very interesting, and that is that when we are preaching the gospel to people, we are actually bringing somebody

God's word. If they are in sin, and impenitently so, and they're in grievous error, the only thing they get to hear from us is the law, and they don't get to hear the gospel until they cry uncle.

You'll note that that's the Roseboro paraphrase of what C .F .W. Walther said. I don't think Walther ever said until he cries uncle, but the person who is truly penitent, then we stop preaching the law to them, and then we give them the gospel, and that's the proper way of doing it.

So those who are self -righteous, who are smug, who are arrogant in their self -righteousness, and refuse to acknowledge their sin and things like this, you keep preaching the law until they crack, and then that's a necessary component, and you can't preach the gospel to impenitent sinners, because then you affirm them in their sin.

You'll note that notable mainline denominations with invisible Christianity, this would include the

ELCA, and liberalizing mainstream, yet mainline churches in the Episcopalian church, and some of the

Protestant tradition, that they are telling impenitent sinners that oh,

God loves you. God is, oh, he's completely fine with the things that you are doing.

I saw an ELCA pastor, recently giving a sermon, and she was a guest preacher, and she introduced herself.

She said her name was Ellie, and that her pronouns are she, them, and I'm just sitting here going, what on earth is going on here, okay?

That's the way you're gonna start your sermon, which basically tells you, me, you're in complete rebellion against God's word.

Of course, having a woman preacher is in complete rebellion against the commands of Christ. See 1

Corinthians 14, if you're not convinced on these things. Christ is the one who gave the command that women should be silent in the church, not the

Apostle Paul, and so the idea then is that, in looking then at the book of James, it is 200 proof law in parts, and the reality is that we still need to hear

God's law, because God's law is going to reveal to us our sin, and bring us to a proper repentance, where we can then rightly hear the gospel for those other parts that we need to hear, because you'll note that there isn't a day that goes by that you don't sin.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't sin. That being the case, we need to hear this law. So let me back up just a little bit in our context, and we'll keep working through the book of James, then we'll go back to Ezekiel.

James 4, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

Yes, they are. And I would note this, is that when we talk about passions, we don't need to only focus on a particular stripe of passions.

When the passions that he's talking about here are not merely passions as it relates to sexual sins.

These are passions that really arise from our anxieties and our fears, and oftentimes our anxieties are self -centered to begin with.

You know, it's like, if I don't take care of myself, who's gonna take care of me? And I'm running out of money, and whatever, right?

So this is a broad spectrum of passions here. Your passions are at war within you.

You desire, you do not have, so you murder. Sounds like a completely reasonable solution if you think about it, right?

Yeah, I kill you, all right? So you covet, you cannot obtain, so you fight and you quarrel.

You do not have, because you do not ask, and you ask and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

Last week I noted that this is a great text against the word of faith heresy, which basically teaches that, number one, you don't pray for anything.

You decree and declare. You don't ask God for nothing. I make my prophetic declarations.

I decree, I'm the head, I'm not the tail. I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am wise, I am all these things, right?

It's Stuart Smalley, come on, right? It's that whole self -help culture.

There's Stuart Smalley, who's clearly somebody with a lot of insecurities, looking in the mirror and going,

I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn, people like me, right? You'll know, that's the word of faith heresy to a

T. But the reality is this, is that we need to ask, and God has the right to say no when the thing we're asking for is we want to have it, so we spend it on our passions.

And it says, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us?

But he gives us more grace. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double -minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the

Lord. He will exalt you. And this is the humbling that comes from recognizing that you're not good enough.

You're not smart enough. And it doesn't matter if people like you. What matters is that you do not measure up and you need to look into the law of God and recognize that you fall short daily.

And cry out to God in mercy and mourn and lament your sins. That's what it means to humble yourself in this capacity.

And Christ teaches us to humble ourselves daily when we pray, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Daily we humble ourselves and ask God to forgive. I see Bruce Burns' hands up.

Oh, no. No, no, how do we hear him?

Bruce, you gotta hang on a second here. Joshua has to do some technical, magical work here. Yeah.

Oh, no, a bunny trail within a bunny trail. We're gonna blow up here. No, be quiet.

Okay, let's get you unmuted, Bruce. Can you hear me?

Yes. Okay, I'm sorry for that. So regarding verse 10,

I have recently heard that this is not actually a tangent.

This is about this scripture. I have recently heard Bible scholars say they think that, what is it, 2

Peter 5, 7, humble yourselves under his hands, he will lift you up in due time, is a later addition to the text.

Is it? But as I've been meditating on that, I've been working on the theory that we can reproduce that entire statement out of other statements in the homilogamata, in the universally attested scriptures.

And James 4 .10 is an almost direct quote.

It says almost exactly the same thing as, I keep wanting to say 1

Peter 5 .7. And I just thought this is an excellent example of even in the disputed texts in God's word, because the

Holy God, the Holy Spirit is so consistent that they don't typically ever touch on any theological problem.

That we can see from the rest of God's word that even the disputed texts pretty much are in there teaching exactly what the rest of God's word says.

Right on. It was just a word of encouragement. That's all, nobody, I'm gone.

All right, cool, and I found your cross -references. So it is 1

Peter 5 .6. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.

So Bruce is a little bit more keyed in to the critical scholars and their constant attacks to undermine the scripture.

But you're gonna note that every text in the New Testament, there are variant readings as a result of the different manuscripts that we have.

And so to point out that there's a variant reading in no way denies what the scripture is saying.

Instead, it's a quest to get back to what the original autographs said. And so there's nothing wrong with that.

And even if James 4 .10, humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you, is not part of the original text of James but was somehow added by a scribe or somebody who was copying the manuscript, you'll note that that's the integrity of what's being said here is still quite solid, even if it was not part of the original.

Because James isn't telling us to exalt ourselves, he's telling us to humble ourselves here.

So good point on that part. Now here's the part that folks in Christian congregations should pay attention to.

Do not speak evil against one another. Brothers, the one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law.

But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. And here's the distinction. Funny enough, when you read

Luther on the Eighth Commandment you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Luther makes the same distinction.

And the idea here is that we as Christians, we cannot bear false witness against our neighbor and even if we see our neighbor committing a sin, it's not our job to judge that sin.

When you look at the Old Testament, specifically you'll note that God put people in place, put them into an office whereby they would hear cases and that if they followed the rules that there had to be two or more witnesses, the person's innocent until proven guilty and then once a charge can be established, then they were to make a judgment according to the evidence and that person was found guilty,

God backs their judgment up with his own threats that if you do not acknowledge their judgments then

I am going to punish you because they are judging on my behalf. So the idea then is that in our world today, there are people who

God has established in proper offices within government and their job is to make those judgments.

And so when we see a crime being committed, we report it to the proper authorities and the police do an investigation, they hand it over to the attorney, and the city attorney lodges the criminal charges, right?

And they're the ones who then try it. So the idea then, if you see somebody committing a murder, you don't go on the internet and say,

I saw this person kill everybody and then try the case in the court of public opinion. Instead, your eyewitness testimony has a proper place and that's inside of the courtroom and you don't have the right to judge somebody to be a murderer until the proper steps have gone into place to judge that person as a murderer.

And only then, when the judge says you're guilty and they've been found to be a murderer, can you say they're a murderer.

And you're gonna note that even here in the United States, that many news outlets practice a lot of restraint regarding people who've been arrested and charged with a crime but haven't been found guilty of it.

Because too many of those news outlets have had to pay large amounts of money in defamation suits when that person's trial didn't go the way they thought it would, right?

And as a result of it, that person was found innocent rather than guilty. And when the news media was saying that that person was guilty of this crime, they were actually defaming them.

So you'll note James is making that same distinction. And last week,

I talked about the fact that with heretics, people who are teaching falsely, they get public rebukes because what they're teaching is public.

And then you'll note when somebody sins against you, Matthew 18 is the order of the day, when somebody sins against you.

Notice it doesn't say when you sin against somebody else. It says when somebody sins against you, what do you do?

Get on Facebook, get on Twitter, make a TikTok about it, right? No, what do you do?

You go to that person privately. For the purpose of what? Their repentance and reconciliation.

And so you go to them and you say, you've sinned against me. And if they say, well, you're wrong,

I didn't. Well, you did and they're not listening to you. What do you do then? You grab some more witnesses so the charge may be properly established.

And then two or three of you go and you visit him and you call him to repentance. And if he doesn't repent, then what do you do?

Then you go to social media. No, then you bring it up to the church.

The church has to have a meeting. And the purpose of the meeting is to do what? To let everybody know what the charges are so that the whole church could then go to that person and say, brother, you need to repent, right?

And if he won't listen to the whole church, then we go all Burger King on him. And if you don't know what the

Burger King verdict is, that means we're gonna let the person have it their way. Listen, if you don't want to be forgiven, you don't have to be, okay?

Yeah, Christ bled and died for your sins, but if you don't want to be forgiven, okay. That's between you and Jesus.

But when excommunication happens, the only thing that the church is doing is basically saying, this guy doesn't want to be forgiven, so we're not gonna forgive you, right?

That's how that works. Ultimately, the decision lies in excommunication, not on a congregation, but on the one being excommunicated, right?

So it's a sad but tragic fact, and that's the case. Now, James continues.

So come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town, spend a year there, and trade, and make a profit.

Okay, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life?

For you are amissed. Boy, that's a consistent theme in scripture, isn't it? In the first Aletheia service,

I actually began a teaching on the book of Ecclesiastes. Vanity of vanities, it says.

But actually, in the Hebrew, it says vapor. You know, hevel in Hebrew is vapor.

Our lives are vapors, they're mists, right? You are amissed that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Boy, isn't it fascinating that James here is picking up on a common way in which people would talk.

Okay, hey, yeah, we're gonna go on a trip, we're gonna speculate, we're gonna buy this, we're gonna buy that, we're gonna go, and we're gonna trade, and we're gonna come back, we'll be gone for a year, and wish us luck, and all that kind of stuff.

And James, every human being who hears another human being talk this way would basically say,

Godspeed, and I hope you come back safely. And James is looking at this and saying, you're arrogant.

You're arrogant because you're not in charge of your life. You don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring.

And so, by speaking so confidently about the thing that you're going to do rather than saying, if the

Lord permits it, he sees that as a form of arrogance. Are we that contingent on God?

Yeah, actually we are. And so you'll note there's a layer of arrogance that so many of us engage in that we aren't even aware of.

We just don't, it's just not even registering as something that we're doing wrong.

Okay, so Josh has pointed out that there are those in the Visible Church who accuse

Christians of being arrogant for saying what the Bible says, stating what the Bible states.

This is a point that I think makes a big difference.

We were talking about this in the men's Bible study yesterday. That confessional Lutherans are technically not cessationists.

And we don't embrace the term cessationism as many of the Reformed do.

Although we have so much in common with many of the Reformed cessationists that it requires us to give a distinction as to why we don't use the term.

And the reason why we don't use the term is because we never believe that the Holy Spirit ceased to work.

Or the Holy Spirit ceased to be given. The true cessationists historically were actually the first Pentecostals.

They had a narrative that said that the Holy Spirit stopped working altogether. And the Holy Spirit left the church because the

Holy Spirit was offended by the fact that the church got organized. And apparently the Holy Spirit only operates in disorganization, which is weird.

But read Frank Bartleman's book and his eyewitness account to the

Azusa Street revival, the last chapter, he kind of bears that out. But here's the thing, is that what's really funny is that we

Lutherans get accused of all kinds of arrogance and presumption when we actually prophetically proclaim what the word says.

So the example I like to give is that if you've been to a Kongsvinger funeral, then you'll note that at Kongsvinger funerals

I usually make a point, and that is that the person who's in the casket is there because they were a sinner. Which oftentimes gets some pretty interesting looks.

But the more fun bit is to be able to say and say it so confidently that the man or the woman in the casket is going to rise on the day that Jesus returns in glory.

To say with confidence that they are presently worshiping the presence of Christ with that great multitude that we see in the book of Revelation.

And people sometimes bristle at such a thing, and they go, how can you be so sure?

And it's like, because the word says so? You know, it's like, they died in the faith?

I mean, where do you think they are, in limbo? You know, in purgatory? You know, and so, and then you'll note that the other thing that is really jarring is when somebody hears a

Lutheran pastor for the first time say these words. I, as a called, ordained servant of the word, I announce the grace of God unto all of you in the stead and by the command of my

Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all of your sins. And then you go, you can't do that!

Well, actually, I can. Let me give you a text to back it up. And you'll note that what's really interesting is that in churches where they really don't rightly understand the word of God, they have arrogance and confidence in things that are completely speculative, and they have zero confidence in the things that actually are said in the scriptures.

It's a weird thing. But, you know, so coming back to like John chapter 20, always and again, this is the text to go to on the office of the keys and how it's used by the church.

In John chapter 20, on the day of Jesus' resurrection, it says, when he said this to them, he breathed on them and said, receive the

Holy Spirit. So this is in the upper room. On the day of the resurrection, if you forgive, note the you there, if you forgive the sins of any, they are already forgiven them.

That's how the Greek verb tense works. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. This just goes back to the

Jewish practice of the law of binding and loosing. And this goes back to that idea that God had established judges, and he backs up their verdicts.

But ultimately, when a judge, here's how this works then. When a judge on planet Earth says to a murderer, you're guilty, the judge is acting in God's command, in God's stead, and God is the one who's already declared him to be guilty.

God has established government to punish the evildoer on his behalf.

So the idea then is that, you know, when somebody hears the judge say, you're guilty, that's not the judge saying it, it's

God who says it. So when I say, you're forgiven of all of your sins, I'm not the one forgiving you,

Christ is, because you're already forgiven. I just get to be the schlub to announce it, right?

So if you forgive the sins of any, they are already forgiven them. That's how the verb tense works.

If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is already withheld. So the idea then is that, so I can prophetically say to every one of you,

Sunday after Sunday, I forgive you all of your sins, and your sins are truly forgiven. Not because I said so, because Christ said so.

He just gave me the ability to say that to you prophetically and you'll note that when we finish reading the scripture lessons,

I say, this is the word of the Lord, okay? Is there any doubt as to whose word it is?

And you all say, thanks be to God, okay? Now if I were to get up and say, I'm receiving a download from the

Spirit, and I feel that in this season, that God is going to be releasing breakthroughs and suddenlies, and I said, and this is the word of the

Lord, you'd all stone me, right? That ain't the word of the Lord. Yeah, oh, tar and feathered before the stoning, got it.

Yeah, right. We had to take Pastor Roseborough out behind the woodshed and had to shoot him, so you know.

We can bury the body so quick though, there'll be no evidence. Yeah. Yeah, they will, they will.

But you get the idea, so we must speak prophetically by forth telling what

God's word says, and have absolute confidence that what we're saying is true, and have zero confidence on all the rest of the nonsense.

The rest of the nonsense is pure speculation, we should have no confidence, we should have suspicion regarding other words than the words of Scripture.

You know, because we're supposed to test them, by the way. You know, which means that every prophetic word that comes to us from outside of the

Scripture must be assumed to be incorrect until proven correct. We're not to have anything to do with them.

Mark and avoid, yeah. We are not under the theocracy of Israel, so there will be no stonings here at Kongsvinger.

But. Oh yeah, absolutely, we call them false, we mark and avoid, and we banish them from the fellowship until they repent, you know.

There was a case in the time of Luther where one of the pastors that had converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism, he thought he cracked what he called a

Bible code. And he predicted, based upon his numerological mathematics, that Christ was going to return on a particular day, and Luther confronted him and told him, this is fanaticism.

And when that day came and went and Jesus didn't show up, he was brought into discipline and defrocked, okay?

So, just keep that in mind, all right. There's really nothing new under the sun. There is, no, there really, in fact, that's one of the themes of Ecclesiastes, there's nothing new under the sun.

Yes. In the 1890s at Kongsvinger?

Oh no. Wow, so 1890.

Okay, so for those of you online, in the 1890s there was a fellow member, there was a member at Kongsvinger Lutheran Church who claimed that he had found documents in Rome that disproved parts of the scripture, and the church council at the time brought him up on charges and called him to repentance, he wouldn't repent, so they removed him from the membership of Kongsvinger.

So did he ever repent later, or did he? We don't know. Okay, so he's not even buried in our cemetery, he's buried in my, he fell way short, so.

Interesting. Who's to say, wow, that's interesting.

But yeah, there's nothing new under the sun, you know. Yeah, the things that have happened in the past are happening today, and they're just happening with more frequency, it seems like nowadays.

All right, so you'll know, the arrogance of saying that you know what's gonna happen tomorrow,

James says that's arrogance, we should instead say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

That's kind of the reason why I always say at the end of class, Lord willing, we'll see you next week. I have no idea if I'm gonna be breathing next week, you know, and by the way, if I'm not,

I'm in a better place, leave me be, okay. It's just, it's the same.

This is kind of like a verbal DNR, right. You know, it's like, just let me go, okay. So, as it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil.

Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Oh, zinger there, okay.

This is the whole concept of the sin of omission. You know the right thing to do, and you don't do it.

Yeah, I don't need to relish that one anymore. And now, here comes another one of these strong rebukes of the rich.

I thought the rich were blessed of God. You know, Ken Copeland in his billions, right. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.

And all the Norwegians said, oofta. Your riches have rotted, your garments are moth -eaten, your gold and your silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you, and you will eat your flesh like fire.

That's an allusion to hell. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Does that sound like a good thing for Christians to do?

No. Behold, the wages of your laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the

Lord of hosts. Nothing new under the sun, is there? Rich people exploiting other people, not paying them their due, right?

Huh, that was a thing back in the time of the apostles? Yeah, it's a thing today, too.

You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self -indulgence. You have fattened your heart in a day of slaughter.

That doesn't sound like a smart thing to do, right? Okay. That's like booking a passage on the

Titanic and enjoying first class, only to see the whole ship sink beneath you.

You've condemned, you've murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

And then we got this admonition. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. You want me to do what?

Be patient. But I'm suffering right now. Be patient. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains.

You also, be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Hmm, James sounds a lot like Paul, sounds a lot like Peter. This constant emphasis on anchoring your thoughts, your hopes, and everything, not in this life, but at the return of Christ and the world to come.

Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door.

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.

You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the

Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath.

Let your yes be yes and your no be no. I know a guy who'd talk like that. That would be

Jesus, wouldn't it? Yeah, yeah. So that you may not fall under condemnation. Now, we always note here that this is not saying that we cannot take certain oaths.

Like, for instance, okay, when you guys get married, you younger kids, you have this to look forward to in the future.

There will be a day when you go to the altar with that person that you're in love with, right? And I'll ask you questions like, do you therefore swear, do you promise to love, honor, and cherish, and things like this, right?

In sickness and in health, till death do us part. That's an okay oath, that's fine. That's not what this is forbidding.

This is forbidding that person who sits there and goes, I'm telling you the truth, I swear by God, you know?

Uh -huh, right, okay. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. So is anyone among you suffering?

Yeah, that happens a lot in a church, doesn't it? Uh -huh, let him pray. Is anyone cheerful?

Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, that would be the pastor, and let them pray over him, anointing him with the oil in the name of the

Lord, and that's part of the reason why we practice that. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the

Lord will raise him up. Note it says the Lord will raise him up. It's not a promise that God's gonna give you perfect health and he's gonna always say yes to your prayers and petitions regarding healing, but the

Lord will ultimately say yes to all of your prayers and petitions regarding healing when

Jesus raises you from the dead on the last day. So you'll note that there are some folks at Kongsvingers in the 10 years that I've been here whom

I have prayed for healing for them, and they are in the graveyard, right?

Boy, what a good prayer you are, Roseboro, you pray for people and they die, right?

And there's a few people notably I've prayed for and God has heard our prayers on their behalf and they have healed them. With all that being said, it doesn't matter if I pray for someone's healing and they die because I know that Christ will raise them up on the last day and give them perfect health.

And I would note that, by the way, if you guys haven't figured this out, in the new earth, you guys are all wealthy and legitimately over the top, insanely wealthy, okay?

So, and the thing is, because those promises are sure, you might as well just consider yourself already wealthy now and note that you will eventually have perfect health.

So is your body failing? Do your knees start to detect weather changes? I have an ankle that can now detect weather changes thanks to the broken ankle that I inflicted on myself on Easter this year.

Man, whenever there's a barometric pressure change, it's like, have you ever had a headache in your ankle?

Oh, it throbs, it goes, it's like, oh, it hurts so bad.

Anyway, so just things you can look forward to. But here's the thing, all this suffering is, it's all gonna go away.

The Lord is gonna raise us up. If the person has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Oh, that sounds like an absolution, doesn't it?

Mm -hmm, therefore, confess your sins to one another. Do what?

You want me to do what? Confess your sins to one another. When I was in Nazarene, there was no way anyone would do this.

No way, okay? What people did with their sin is they got really good at putting a fresh coat of paint over it and said, no, no, no, no, that's not sin.

That's something else. That picture of Christ that he gives of the

Pharisees, of them whitewashing tombs and sepulchers and things like that, I was really good at that when

I was at Nazarene, taking stinky, rotting corpses of sin and putting them in this wonderful sepulcher and putting the best paint job on it.

They were beautiful, beautiful. No, no, no, we confess our sins to one another. Pray for one another that you may be healed.

The prayer of the righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah, hang on a second here,

I gotta work this out. The prayer of what person has great power as it is working? All right.

Do you believe that? Are you that person? In Christ, yeah.

See, that's the point. We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Paul says in Philippians three, not having a righteousness of my own that comes by works, but that which is by faith.

Each and every one of us, not only have we been forgiven of our sins, remember that our sin was imputed to Christ.

God laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus became the sinner, the unrighteous one of humanity, the ungodly one, and he drags the full fury of the wrath of God in your place.

And then now as a Christian, you are gifted by God, not only forgiveness and pardon, but you are clothed in Christ's righteousness.

So that being the case, the prayer, and that's asking petitions of a righteous person, has great power as it is working.

Man, I'll make this point again. Every single aberrant, heretical sect within the visible church, once Satan really has his hooks into a group, the one thing he goes after is he corrupts their prayers.

Okay, just think about this for a second. Within the Roman Catholic Church, who are they praying to?

The Virgin Mary, St. Teresa, you know, if you're trying to sell a home, you're praying to St.

Joseph, right? They're not praying to the person they should be praying to.

They're not praying to God. When Satan really has his hooks on you, it's like, you ever see like a horror movie like where you've got this couple that are spending the weekend at a cabin up in the woods, right, and it's got an old one of those landlines in it, you know, like one of those green phones that like weighs like two pounds, and you know what

I'm talking about, right? Not one of these things, right? And of course, they have no cell service, and so you've got some maniacal murderer on the loose, and he's decided that he's going to target that couple in that cabin.

What's the first thing he does? Cuts the landline, right? You see, it only takes a few frames.

There's a pair of pliers or whatever, wire cutters, cuts the landline so they can't call for help.

Satan does the same thing in false religion. He cuts off communication with God.

If you're praying to the Virgin Mary, you're not praying to the Virgin Mary, you're praying to a demon in drag, okay?

This is how this works, and then in the word of faith churches, they aren't asking for nothing. They're decreeing and declaring and commanding and controlling and all this nonsense, right?

The communication's been cut off, but the scripture says the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Satan knows this. This is why we are taught to see prayer as like nothing, prayer as an annoyance, prayer as not that big a deal, prayer as the thing you do as a last resort.

I think we should pray for Sister Bertha. She's going into surgery and somebody says, oh my goodness, has it really come to that?

We're gonna have to pray for her? You know. But the scripture has a completely different view of prayer.

One of the apostles, who has the name of James, who was not the author of this text, he was one of the first Christian martyrs.

He wasn't the first, but he was one of the first martyrs of the apostles, and he was beheaded, and the name that the church gave him for, they called him

Old Camel Knees. They called James Old Camel Knees.

Why would they call him that? Because he had such calluses on his knees because he was constantly on his knees in prayer.

Fascinating stuff when you think about it. And you see something like this, and you start to kind of work it all out, and then you realize that I have been guilty, you all have been guilty of grossly underestimating the importance of prayer.

I mean, grossly. Was there a day that Jesus didn't pray?

Huh. If I can make a suggestion, as we're getting ready to go into the

Lenten season, maybe this would be a good focus. That you ask

God to bring you to repentance for your tepid, infrequent, lack of belief in the power of prayers, and that God would grant you true repentance so that you see prayer for the great, powerful gift that it is, and employ it.

I get so many emails from people who say something like this. Pastor Rosebrook, you've helped me so much.

I'm not able to financially help you at this time, but we're praying for you.

I always write them back, thank you. That means more to me than any money that you can send. Now granted, we still have to pay the bills, but the point is is that it's not nothing when people are emailing me and saying that they are praying for me, because I need those prayers, because I, like anybody else, am capable of grievous sins, and I am capable of being deceived by my own flesh and by the schemes of the devil, and I cannot on my own strength stand.

I can only stand by the strength of God, and the more people that I know that are praying for me, the more

I know that God hears those prayers and he answers them in the positive on their behalf, so when we should be praying for each other.

So James points to Elijah. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

He prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth.

Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. Yeah, if James hadn't pointed that out,

I think that would be kind of a lost detail of what happened in the story of Elijah, but Elijah did pray, and it didn't rain.

He did, then he prayed, and then it did rain again. That is absolutely true.

Hmm, my brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

That's the last two verses of James, and I want you to pay attention to how perfectly they fit with where we were in Ezekiel.

Listen again, my brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and I have wandered from the truth, and many of you have that same story.

You all have wandered from the truth, but God has brought you back. Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

That should encourage us when we speak to those who we know are erring, who are following after the spirit of the age, or some doctrine of demons, or whatever, and believe that they're following Christ.

Note, then, the scriptures tell us that when we help somebody who's wandering from the truth and bring them back, that their sins are forgiven, and that we have saved their souls from death itself.

Eternal death. So back, then, to Ezekiel, okay? I forgot to put this other one on.

Hang on a second. Let me get this. I'm gonna pull this up. By the way, my Greek students, that is pronounced logos.

It is not logos. Anybody who says that's logo software, I want to, it's not.

No, it's not logos. Logos. Logos.

It's omicron, omicron. It is not omega. If it was, if it was logos, it would be omega, omega.

So just, you know, it's one of my pet peeves. It's like, every now and then, you know,

I'll see somebody, you know, on these Christian channels on YouTube, and they pull up, and they'll say, well, let's pull this up in logos, and it's like, you hurt me.

Okay, so note, then, how what James said now fits perfectly with what

Ezekiel is writing. And you'll note, there is no contradiction. The word of Yahweh came to me.

What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel? The fathers have eaten sour grapes.

The children's teeth are set on edge. This was a proverb that was spoken among the exiles in Babylon, which is basically speaking to the bitterness of their captivity.

So, as I live, declares the Lord Yahweh, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel.

Behold, all souls are mine. The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins shall die.

If a man is righteous and does what is just and right, note here, if a man is righteous and does what is just and right, a person who is righteous is declared righteous by grace through faith.

Does what is just and right is the fruit of their faith. It is not the cause of their righteousness.

It is the effect of their righteousness. You see the difference? If he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor's wife or approach a woman in her time of her menstrual impurity, does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry, covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, keeps my rules by acting faithfully, he is righteous.

So note, he's declared righteous and he's proven righteous then by what? His works.

Didn't James say the same thing? Just as the body that is not breathing is dead, so faith without works is dead, he shall surely live, declares the

Lord Yahweh. Okay? Hmm, all right.

So you're starting to see it. The works are the effect. In fact, let me do this real quick.

Nancy, I see your hand raised. I'll get to that, I'll get to you in just a minute. I wanna see if I can pull this up real quick.

All right. Uno momento. Remember that really long hymn I made you guys sing today?

Yeah, let's see here. You had a good, I don't know,

I guess it wasn't this one. One of the hymns today summed up James nicely. Okay. One of the verses. What did it say?

It was, oh, I have to find it now. But it was basically what James said about our works are shown.

Here it is. It stands in nine. Faith clings to Jesus' cross alone.

This is what we sang today. And rests on him unceasing. And by its fruit, true faith is known, with love and hope increasing.

For faith alone can justify. Works serve our neighbor and supply the proof that faith is living.

Right? So don't let anyone ever accuse you or us of somehow not preaching good works.

Baloney. We preach good works in abundance and we basically say there is no such thing as a

Christian that doesn't do good works. That beast doesn't exist. I mean, you might as well believe in unicorns.

I know some of you might, but you get the idea here, right? Yeah, in fact, you're more likely to spot a unicorn than you are a true

Christian that doesn't have good works. The two go hand in hand, but the works are caused by the faith.

Works are not the thing that justifies us before God. One of the most tragic things I ever heard any

Christian pastor say was that he hoped someday to aspire to be a

Christian. He said it from the pulpit. And it's like I'm sitting there going, oh no.

And his thinking was this, is that there isn't a day that goes by where he doesn't fall short, where by his sin, he denies

God. We all deny God by our sin, by the way. But he said because of that, he says,

I dare not call myself a Christian. I hope to be one someday. And what's he looking at?

He's looking at his works. He's looking at his sanctification. And my sanctification at times is just spotty.

Other times it's more intense and wonderful. And other times it just feels like I've fallen off the turnip truck and I'm lying on my back in the dirt looking up at God going, what just happened here, right?

But my sanctification is not the cause of my justification. I am a

Christian because Christ has made me his. Same with you. And my good works, then, are for my neighbor.

And they do supply proof that faith is living, for sure. But it's not the only proof, but it is proof. All right, now

Nancy, I see that, let's get you unmuted so that we can hear you. Let's see here,

I'm gonna click that button. Can you hear me?

I can hear you. So, I feel really bad now because I thought that, like when we were in court to testify, and I thought it was good to put your hand on the

Bible and swear to God that you're helping God. And I think you just said, that's totally wrong.

No, no, the two oaths that we can take is the oath to tell the truth, for sure, and the oath that we take when we're standing before God when we're getting married.

Those types of oaths are totally fine. The oath that is not okay is when you tell somebody,

I'm gonna give you 500 bucks, and as God is my witness, I swear what I'm telling you is the truth. That kind of, that's the kind of, that rash oath -taking that people give where they invoke

God, that's what's forbidden. Okay, and the only other thing,

Jan had a question that she posted. Oh, Jan, okay, hang on a second here. Let me check my, check the chat real quick here.

All right, let's see here. Okay, hang on.

Bruce Burns pointed out, in Luther's large catechism points out that public teachers are not covered by the

Eighth Commandment, but that we have the active duty to compare their false teachings with scripture and avoid them. That is true.

And then the Bennets, isn't Jesus talking directly to the apostles? How does this apply to pastors?

How is this prescriptive? Just curious. Which text in particular was the one,

Jan, that Dana had the question, which is the text that specifically

John 20, 23? Oh, okay, okay. Ah, so I see, great question, by the way.

I'm glad you asked it. John 20, coming back to this, in John 20, verse 23.

Okay, let's see here, backing up. Okay, if, okay. So he breathed on and said, receive the

Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. That is not merely for the apostles.

In this particular case, the apostles here are representatives of the whole church.

And this is how Lutheran exegetes have understood this and even how the ancient church understood this, that the power to forgive and retain sins was not a power that resided only within the apostles, but it resides within the church itself.

So it's an apostolic authority given to the church by Christ but it doesn't merely apply to the apostles.

The sins that y 'all forgive are forgiven and here they are representative of the church in its entirety.

And this, by the way, is the text then that Lutherans use against the Roman Catholics who claim that it's only

Peter who has the office of the keys. Because the sins y 'all forgive will be forgiven, right?

And so the idea here is this isn't just merely the apostles. This is them representative of the whole church.

And so this authority to forgive and retain sins continues to exist within the church, which is why historically the church has given absolutions.

Great question, by the way, Dana, great. Great question. All right, here's where we're going to jump off.

We'll come back then in our study of Ezekiel. We're done with James and our hiatus through Ezekiel and our walk through the book of James and we'll continue next week properly,