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Series A – Second Sunday in Lent – Sunday, March 8, 2020 | Pr. Chris Rosebrough

Welcome to the Teaching Ministry of Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Kongsvinger 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 Rosebrough:

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:24	The holy Gospel according to St. John the 3rd
0:31	chapter now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews this man came to Jesus by night and
0:38	said to him rabbi we know that you were a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is
0:44	with him jesus answered him truly truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God
0:50	Nicodemus said to him how can a man be born when he’s old can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born
0:57	jesus answered truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of
1:03	God that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the Spirit is spirit do not marvel that I said to
1:10	you you must be born again the wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound but you do not know where it comes
1:16	from or where it goes so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit Nicodemus said to him how can these
1:23	things be jesus answered him are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things truly truly I
1:29	say to you we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen but you do not receive our testimony if I
1:36	have told you earthly things and you do not believe how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things no one has
1:42	ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven the Son of man and as Jesus lifted up the serpent in the
1:47	wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life for God so
1:54	loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life for God
2:01	did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him this is
2:08	the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus all right this is a great text and I’m going to use the
2:15	occasion of this gospel text combined with our epistle text from Romans 4 to
2:20	do a little weed-whacking regarding misunderstandings as it relates to James chapter 2 because if
2:28	you’ve ever read James chapter 2 it sounds like it stands in direct contradiction to what we heard in our
2:35	epistle text that we are saved by grace through faith apart from works that we
2:41	are justified by faith made right before God and so in order to understand
2:46	something we’ll do a little groundwork here first I want to teach you two concepts two concepts one is a fancy
2:55	Latin phrase and the fancy Latin phrase is coram Deo and it’s awesome it sounds like the kind of thing you would like on
3:00	a tattoo or something right chorim deo that means before God now
3:06	there is another quorum and that has to do kora mundo before the world before
3:13	God before the world so to kind of set it up here if you are saved by grace
3:19	through faith apart from works and God has given you that faith are you justified before God coram Deo all by
3:26	what Christ has done yeah you betcha don’t you know yeah you can say that here now before each other how do we
3:37	know that somebody has faith and I’m not
3:43	talking about her okay okay a little bit of a note here Christ does talk about
3:48	how our good works shine before men this is true this is true and so when we get
3:53	to James we’re going to note that there’s something that James is up to and James is speaking cora mundo because
4:01	some yahoos had crept into the church and they were probably kind of proto Gnostics who really had no problem
4:09	engaging in sexual immorality and things like that because they think that the body doesn’t matter and so they were
4:15	basically making this claim I have faith and I don’t have to do any
4:20	good works at all that’s a weird bird by the way just a weird weird one very exotic very rare
4:27	but unfortunately like the Phoenix they end up burning but we’ll talk about that so what James was addressing was the
4:35	fact you can see faith in somebody by their
4:40	good works and that if you claim that you have faith but you don’t have good
4:46	works well that’s weird that doesn’t make any sense and again it’s a species thing so we’re gonna kind
4:52	of lay this all out those are our framing thoughts so let’s dive into our gospel text because I always love this
4:59	text and we’ll do some work here because if you miss a certain thing you’re gonna miss everything and we’ll talk about how
5:06	evangelicals misunderstand this text as well so in John chapter 3 and says it
5:11	was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews this man came to Jesus by night and he said to
5:17	him rabbi we know you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him so
5:25	far so good that’s a good start because you’re gonna note that John himself says that if they recorded all of the signs
5:31	the miraculous signs that Jesus had performed that probably all the books in the world couldn’t contain them and so
5:38	but he notes then that these signs these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son
5:44	of God and that by believing you might have life in his name so the signs of Jesus are radiating out there and
5:51	Nicodemus who’s a Pharisee goes this guy has to be from God and so it’s off to a good start and then Jesus says these
5:57	words amen amen that’s actually what the Greek says amen amen I say to you unless one is born and
6:03	I got to stop here because I know the word in your English translation says again but we got a problem and the
6:13	problem is is that the word here in the Greek can have two meanings it’s pretty much one of these words where there’s
6:19	really only two ways to go about it one is again but the other is from above and
6:29	the word is an oath in on Othon so let’s just kind of put on oath in here and you
6:36	guys know that it can mean either again or from above and so listen to what Jesus says truly truly I say to you
6:43	unless one is born on Othon he cannot see the kingdom of God and notice it
6:48	says Warren born so Nicodemus is scratching his head and going how can a man be born
6:55	when he’s old can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born so
7:00	what do you think Nicodemus thought Jesus said again Nicodemus goes how can
7:07	one be born again but Jesus now goes on you’re going to note that what Jesus
7:13	says is not talking about being born again everything he says from this point
7:20	on is pointing to being born from above now as I was reading the church fathers
7:26	in anticipation of this sermon which I’m prone to do from time to time came across kind of an obscure sermon from a
7:32	little-known church father and he noted this that Jesus himself was born from
7:39	above I mean he was born conceived born of the Virgin Mary and as the second
7:45	Adam he’s kind of the first of a new group of people and so he used that
7:51	argument to say Jesus had to mean born from above because he himself was I
7:57	thought that was provocative provocative in a good way and so now listen to what Jesus says all
8:03	men are men I say to you unless warned as that one is born of water and the spirit and that’s what baptism is
8:10	washing of water and the word he cannot enter the kingdom of God that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is
8:17	born of the Spirit is spirit so do not marvel that I said you must be born on Oh then and what’s he arguing
8:25	arguing from above now here’s how the evangelicals read the text you have to
8:31	be born again born again means that you need to make a freewill conscious decision to make Jesus the Lord of your
8:37	life or ask him into your heart or say the printer’s sinner’s prayer and the experience itself is vital because
8:44	unless you’ve had this experience well then you’re not really a Christian and
8:51	it creates all kinds of problems because here’s the issue if you don’t recognize
8:56	that what Christ is arguing here is that you need to be born from above you’re going to start down the track
9:02	of trying to earn your salvation by your works by your repentance by this time I
9:09	mean it Lord I’m really gonna get my act together and I’m I’m gonna get right with you God I’m gonna really do that
9:16	but Jesus isn’t arguing that you need to have a born-again experience by making a
9:22	freewill decision for him because script other passages rule that completely out instead he’s saying you need to be born
9:29	from above good luck on having a freewheel decision for that let me ask you guys you know we’ll go back a
9:36	hundred years how many of you at that time we’re petitioning your grandparents
9:41	#NAME?
9:48	born and then when your parents finally came along how many of you were saying mom dad you need to get married and you
9:55	need to come together so that I can be conceived come on I’m rooting for you I’m pulling for you none of us had any
10:03	say in our birth there was the whole lot
10:08	of human history that you and I weren’t here and then all of a sudden were here and your freewill had nothing to do with
10:16	that and if you were born from above who do you think’s will has to be involved
10:22	for that to happen I would argue gods and this is the thing God is the one
10:28	who’s chosen us and if we’re truly born from above then you’re going to note
10:34	here that means that Christians are at their core different than unbelievers
10:41	that God has done something to them for them that makes them qualitatively
10:48	different than a pagan because what does Paul say in Ephesians 2 you are dead in
10:54	trespasses and sins but God has made you alive in Christ if God is the one who’s
11:00	made you alive in Christ then the idea here is is that everyone who is truly a
11:05	believer in Jesus God is the one who gave them that faith repented them raise
11:11	them from the dead and they are a different species they are already part of the new creation and if
11:19	that’s the case then you can’t do a certain number of works in order to earn
11:26	the right to become born of God and
11:33	that’s where people get off-track are you a Christian well I hope to be one someday doesn’t work that way all right
11:44	that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the Spirit is spirit so don’t marvel that I said to
11:50	you you must be born from above the wind blows where it wishes you hear it sound
11:55	but you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone born of the Spirit and Nicodemus his
12:02	mind is blown in any case how can this be he says are you not the teacher of
12:08	Israel yet you don’t understand these things amen amen I say to you we speak of what we know we bear witness of what
12:14	we have seen but you don’t receive our testimony if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe can you
12:20	believe if I tell you heavenly things and then listen to these next words because this really helps because this
12:25	is one of those sayings of Jesus that you sit there and you scratch your head and go what’s he getting at but listen to the words no one has ascended into
12:33	heaven except he who descended from heaven the Son of man let me translate
12:39	that for you nobody by their good works has climbed the ladder up to heaven and
12:45	earned their salvation earn the right to stand before God because of their good
12:51	works no one has ascended into heaven nobody can so what does God do he sends
12:59	his son down to us salvation is not me working my way up to heaven salvation is
13:05	God the son being born of the Virgin Mary coming down to us coming down to
13:11	you coming down to me and I’ll kind of leave it there at that for a second now
13:17	let’s take a look at our epistle text because this is quite helpful our epistle Tex references our Old
13:24	Testament text from Genesis chapter 12 as well as 15 and Paul asked this
13:31	question so what shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh for if Abraham was justified
13:38	now that means to be declared righteous if he was justified by works he has
13:44	something to boast about but not before God so let me ask you this question in
13:49	Romans 4 are we talking about justification coram Deo or are we talking about justification coram mundo
13:58	it’s coram Deo before God so if he if he
14:05	was justified by works well he had something to boast about but not before God but what does the scripture say
14:10	abraham believed god and it was counted to him as righteousness those are great
14:19	words wait a second you meet what abraham believed God’s words and God credited it
14:25	to him as righteousness yeah exactly and
14:30	by the way that’s how it works for all of us because that’s Paul’s point here all right so now to the one who works
14:37	his wages are not counted as a gift but as his do you know I’ll pick on my son
14:44	here for a second every couple of weeks you like I have to do a paycheck for you yeah all right now
14:51	have I ever gifted you your paycheck no
14:56	that would be weird wouldn’t it gifting you your page you earn it yeah I see if
15:02	we we have this agreement and the way the agreement goes he does particular video video editing work for me
15:09	and I in return for his work and his skills I give him money but it’s called
15:17	a wage and the thing is is that there isn’t a single penny that he’s received via these paychecks that were given to
15:24	him as a gift I don’t give I don’t write when we do is his paychecks they don’t put a bow on it all right
15:31	no Merry Christmas son it just it doesn’t work that way right and that’s the point that Paul’s
15:38	making – the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift but as is due but
15:43	what is salvation it is a gift you didn’t earn it God is giving it to you
15:49	so the – the one who does not work let me emphasize the word the one who does
15:56	not work I am on strike I refuse to work
16:02	for my salvation Oh pastor Roseboro that’s some pretty scary words right
16:07	there listen to what it says the one who does not work but trusts has faith in
16:15	Him who justifies declares righteous the ungodly and I got to point this out I
16:22	keep pointing it out every time this text comes up the ungodly if you don’t see yourself in that group you don’t
16:29	need Jesus but if you don’t see yourself in that group as part of the ungodly you are completely self deceived Christ died
16:38	for the ungodly that’s me that’s you so god justifies he declares righteous who
16:45	the ungodly how by faith his faith is counted as righteousness
16:52	just like abraham believed god and it was credited to him as righteousness the ungodly who believed that jesus bled and
16:59	died for all their sins God counts that faith as righteousness the text says so
17:04	right here I seem a little animated I apologize but this is some good stuff
17:13	it’s just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteous apart from works blessed are
17:22	those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is
17:28	the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin for the promised Abraham
17:35	and to his offspring that he would be the heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith and if the
17:41	adherents of the law if it is the adherence of the law who are to be heirs well then faith is null and the promise
17:48	is void for the law brings wrath but where there is no law there is no transgression that
17:53	is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be
17:58	guaranteed to all his offspring whose offspring here
18:06	Abraham’s now remember what Jesus said everyone who’s born from above you got
18:12	to be born from above this text right here says something really weird hang on a second here y’all look kind of like
18:19	Norwegian German European dish to me except for the back row yeah yeah yeah
18:28	the back row we clam you girls definitely look like you come from the east you have from China and places like
18:34	that but anyone here Jewish no huh that’s weird because this text just said
18:41	that all of y’all me included that all of all all of us that we’re the offspring of Abraham as Mike II would
18:49	say Mazel Tov all right we can celebrate now all of us are the offspring of
18:55	Abraham every single one of us even if you don’t have a drop of Jewish DNA in
19:02	your blood how can that be so note here
19:08	even Paul is pointing to a fact that everybody who is a Christian is born
19:13	from above and everybody who is a Christian regardless of whether or not they are Jewish or part of the
19:20	they are the offspring of Abraham because there’s a reality to being a
19:26	Christian so he says not only to the adherent of the law but also the one who shares the faith of Abraham ah see if
19:33	you have the same faith as Abraham you are Abraham’s offspring how by virtue of the fact that you’ve been born from
19:38	above because everybody who’s been born from above is the descendant true descendant of Abraham and he’s the
19:45	father of us all as it is written I’ve made you the father of many nations in
19:50	the presence of God and whom he believed who gives life to the dead and calls
19:55	into existence the things that do not exist and there’s more consistent theology right here God is the one who
20:02	gives life to the dead and that was every one of us born dead in trespasses and sins we have now been born from above we are
20:10	all now the sons and daughters the offspring of Abraham and God has called
20:15	us out of non existence into existence brought us from death to life all as a
20:21	gift there’s some good stuff but somebody sits there and goes oh
20:27	pastor Roseboro this is too good to be true you are deceiving everybody because
20:33	James says that faith without works is dead so you are wrong you have to earn
20:40	your salvation by your works because that’s what it says in James chapter 2 no don’t it don’t say that at all all
20:49	right and the person who says that is having some exegetical issues and that’s the best construction on it so listen to
20:56	the words of James from James chapter 2 verse 14 what good is it my brother’s if someone says he has faith but does not
21:02	have works does that thing exist that
21:08	this is nuts that species of animal does not exist and you’re gonna note there’s
21:14	a there’s a metaphor he’s going to use at the end of this section which is quite helpful here so how do you guys
21:20	know I’m alive I mean there’s kind of signs you kind of know that I’m alive
21:27	here I’m moving I’m breathing but let’s say that yeah we were in downtown Grand
21:32	Forks maybe having some nice coffee or maybe visiting the gun shop there you know right you know the next to the
21:39	bridge and as we walk out a construction truck is driving by and a board flies
21:45	off and hits me smack in the head and there I am laid out flat on the sidewalk
21:51	and I mean it was a good thud – at this point how do you know whether I’m alive
21:57	or not now those of you with at least a modicum of medical training you immediately go for the wrist and you do
22:03	this kind of thing to see if you’ve that if I have a pulse but if you don’t know how to do that there’s another way by
22:09	the way there is another way you what you do is you grab a mirror hey lady do you have a mirror yeah I do and what you
22:16	do is you hold it up to my nostrils and if I can fog a mirror I’m
22:22	alive and if I can’t fog the mirror start planning the funeral okay
22:29	this is this is real simple all right that’s his overarching point here is
22:35	that if you can’t fog a mirror spiritually you’re dead still you’re
22:42	dead dead dead Dubi Dubi dead all right it not partly dead or mostly dead
22:49	totally dead how do we know cuz you can’t fog a mirror how do you fog a mirror by faith because faith alone
22:56	saves but saving faith is never alone so I know y’all have faith because I can
23:03	see that you can fog a mirror spiritually with your good works so that’s his point and now we’re not
23:10	talking coram Deo we’re talking coram mundo so what good is it my brothers if
23:15	someone says he has faith but doesn’t have works what is that thing can that
23:20	faith save him if a brother or sisters poorly clothed and lacking in daily food
23:26	and one of you says to him go in peace be warm and be filled it was really cold
23:31	outside you’ll probably die and then don’t give them the things they need for their body what good is that so faith by
23:39	itself if it does not have works is dead and this is exactly what Paul says in
23:46	Ephesians 2 for by grace you have been saved through faith this is not your own doing it is the gift of God so that no
23:53	one may boast for we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for
23:58	good works so if you ain’t got good works you still dead now I want to make
24:05	something very clear here this does not mean that you’re sinless this does not mean that your good works earn salvation
24:13	no your good works show that you are already of a different species that you
24:18	are born from above that you’re a child of Abraham and as a result of that if somebody says sango’s well I’m the good
24:24	works oh good work I just believe in Jesus what that’s dead so notice we says faith by
24:31	itself if it doesn’t have works is dead well someone will say well you have faith I have worse show me your faith
24:38	apart from your works and I’ll show you my faith by my works is that coram Deo
24:43	or is it Koren mundo core mundo this is all an argument based upon how we view
24:51	each other and then you’ll note that the the quintessential last bit that Paul
24:58	throws in here in verse 26 is the part that frames it all for just as the body that is not breathing is dead so faith
25:07	apart from works is dead he’s not saying if you want to be alive
25:13	in Christ you better get busy Jesus is coming back soon he’s saying saying if
25:20	you don’t have good works you still don’t have faith the two go together as
25:26	I always point out cows Moo cuz they’re cows cats meow because they’re cats
25:32	Christians do good works cuz they’re Christians full stop so James doesn’t
25:39	take away the fact that salvation is a gift is a gift given by God and the very
25:46	faith that the gospel demands God gives it to you that’s what Paul says in
25:54	Ephesians 2 by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own
26:00	doing it is the gift of God everything that the gospel demands the
26:06	gospel provides and when Christ breathes in you and you are brought to life and
26:13	you are a child of Abraham and you are born from above you immediately get busy
26:21	with the good works and these are not hard things it doesn’t require you to go climb the Scalia and Rome on your knees
26:28	and say that they are father at every stop on the way the good works are done
26:33	here in your family in your community your good works are done by loving your
26:40	spouse by caring for your children by putting
26:46	in a hard day at work these are the works that God’s Word says are the ones
26:52	that please him and sit there go well I’m already doing that of course of
26:59	course that’s the point so let me finish
27:04	then our Bible study of sorts with the words of Christ from the back end of our
27:10	gospel text because these are the best words ever as Moses lifted up the
27:16	serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up you see Jesus is going to the cross and
27:25	in the Lenten season we are always keeping our eyes on that fact and brothers and sisters he goes to the
27:31	cross to bear your sin and mine in the Book of Numbers you have that account of the people of Israel once again
27:38	grumbling against God and him sending these these desert adders his bronzed desert adders in to bite them and people
27:45	were dying and they recognize their sin and they prayed that God would forgive
27:50	them and take away the Serpent’s but rather than take them away Moses was commanded to fashion a bronze serpent
27:56	put it on a pole and promised was this anyone who is bitten may look to that
28:02	bronze Serpent and live and all of that is the type in shadow because we all know that we each and every one of us we
28:08	have already been bitten by the serpent the words of the serpent spoken to our first person first parents Adam and Eve
28:15	that venom is still working through every one of us and you’re going to note that Jesus takes that bronze serpent and
28:21	he applies it to himself just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up so
28:27	that whoever believes in him it doesn’t say whoever works for it strives for it
28:32	earns it does enough then he maybe have eternal life know whoever believes in
28:37	Him may have eternal life so recognize that you it our snakebit I am snakebit
28:43	but Christ has taken the venom of sin in himself and his blood now is the
28:48	anti-venom and it was shed so that you and I can be forgiven
28:54	so that whoever believes in him should have eternal life another note here and
29:01	that is if you really believe that you have to earn your salvation by your works by the things that you do by your
29:08	obedience your sinlessness or anything else it’s pretty hard to view God as loving at some point you wear out and
29:18	you throw your fists up at God kind of an anger and frustration and you might
29:24	say something to the effect of what do I have to do to please you when is it
29:30	gonna be enough god yeah the problem is not God here the problem is that you
29:36	think that you have to earn his favor but see God has had mercy on us and then Jesus says these words for God so loved
29:43	the world he loved you he loves me he so loved us that He gave His only Son he
29:51	bled and died for us was scourge beaten nailed to the cross lifted up between
29:57	heaven and earth so that we can be pardoned and forgiven of all of our sins not just some of it He gave His only
30:03	begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal
30:10	life you see God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but in
30:15	order that the world might be saved through him you me all of us so repent
30:23	of your wickedness repent of your week good works repent of your striving put
30:28	it all away and rest rest and believe that what God here says what God and
30:35	human flesh says is true whoever believes in Him will not perish and that he didn’t send his son to condemn you
30:41	but that you might be saved he wills for your salvation so much so that he paid
30:46	the whole price and he gives it away as a gift in the name of Jesus amen

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