Sermon Transcript – It Will Cost You Your Self-Righteousness

Series A – Ninth Sunday After Pentecost – Sunday, July 30, 2023 | 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:
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Time StampTranscript
0:22The holy Gospel
0:29According to Saint Matthew the 13th chapter [Music]
0:35thank you Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like
0:42treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up then in his Joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys
0:49that field again the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who on finding one pearl of Great
0:56Value went and sold all that he had and bought it again the Kingdom of Heaven is
1:01like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered the fish of every kind and when it was full men drew it ashore and
1:06sat down and sorted the good into containers but through the away the bad so it’ll be at the close of the age the
1:13angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace in that place
1:19there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth have you understood all these things they said to him yes and he said to them
1:26therefore every scribe who has been trained for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a master of a house who brings out
1:32of his treasure what is new and what is old this is the gospel of the Lord in
1:38the name of Jesus so Jesus caps off this chapter in Matthew Matthew 13 with
1:47three quick short Parables and at the end of The Parables he asks his
1:52disciples do you understand all these things and so you’ll know Jesus in
1:57Chapter 13 is giving us a master class on how to understand his Parables it’s necessary because Christ hasn’t
2:05withdrawn his word he’s just made his word to be impossible to understand
2:10unless you apply yourself to it unless you have faith and so he who has ears to
2:16hear Let Him hear but do not be stubborn and stiff-necked and do not despise
2:22God’s word but I would note here I’m still a recovering Nazarene and
2:29recovering California and I think that’s a also a thing also but all of that being said I think I still have some
2:36PTSD from receiving all kinds of law la la la la law preaching and not hearing
2:43the gospel for me as a Christian that being the case I can distinctly remember horrifying terrifying sermons
2:50on these particular Parables especially the first two and being told things like
2:56well the kingdom of Heaven’s like a treasure hidden in the field so have you sold out for Jesus a hundred percent are
3:03you on fire for the Lord right and uh and and of course are you willing to lay
3:09down your life for Christ and and I’m we’re not talking about just persecution we’re talking about laying down your
3:15life every single if if you are not willing to do that then you’re not even
3:20worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven why should you even call yourself a Christian
3:26and you preach like that and eventually somebody’s going to sit there and go you know that’s a good point that’s a good question why should I call myself a
3:32Christian Asta I’m out of here you know on to the next thing you don’t know all
3:38law preaching doesn’t bring us peace with Christ it brings us Terrors and uh and and somebody can only sit under that
3:44kind of Terror for so long but here’s where we’re going to apply
3:50some very important rules number one rule context context context but there’s
3:55another rule when it comes to sound exegesis and that is you let scripture
4:01interpret scripture I assure you that there is a cost to being a disciple of
4:08Jesus Christ and as we sang in the opening hymn Jesus is indeed our
4:15Priceless treasure but I think you would be surprised to find out how the
4:20scriptures interpret that cost when it comes to what we need to get rid of and
4:26consider to be worthless so that we might gain Jesus our Priceless treasure so we’ll do a little bit of work on that
4:32second Parable I kind of set it up this way you’re in there but not where you
4:38would expect you know let’s just kind of put it that way and then the third Parable super easy to kind of understand
4:44The Parables regarding the Judgment Day always seem to be pretty straightforward so with that we’ll do a little bit of
4:51work here first Parable the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a
4:57field which a man found and covered up we there’s lots of stories of hidden
5:02treasure right you know isn’t that what being a pirate’s all about right it’s all about hiding treasure but I would
5:08note something here in the days before banking okay we can we can put our money
5:14safely in the bank at least we think it’s safe right I mean you know FDIC insured up to a particular amount of
5:20money that I never seem to get any closer to but uh but all that being said the bank seems to be a safe place to do
5:26but before there were Banks what would you do with your money so I did a little research this week yeah what did people
5:31do with their money back in the day turns out that in Jesus’s day it was common practice for people to take to
5:38divvy up their money and put it into three places in order to protect it place number one legitimately putting it
5:46in a chest and burying it somewhere maybe in a garden or somewhere out in a field that was a common practice this
5:54was to avoid becoming bankrupt Third Way in which p a second and I jumped over the second second way in which people
6:01you know kind of hid their money is they would invest it in jewels and wear it as
6:06jewelry and here was the thinking you know if you lived back in the day Roman soldiers would come through or Greek
6:12soldiers would come through the Syrian Army would come through and if you there was a good chance that back in the day
6:18that you would find yourself at least one or two times in your life being a war Refugee and having to be on the run
6:24and go somewhere else in order to survive a conflict and then come back when things have settled down and the
6:30whole point of converting part of your assets into Jewels was you can wear it on your way out and then when you arrive
6:37where you’re going you can trade you can sell those jewels and then have the money that you need to live on that’s a
6:43pretty smart way of thinking and then the third is you hide it in the proverbial mattress parts of it go into the proverbial mattress this is your
6:50day-to-day operating expenses so it wouldn’t be uncommon if somebody hid a
6:56treasure in a field which is not an uncommon place to put it that that person might die and nobody knows where
7:03it is where’s cousin Vito’s treasure we have no idea he dug up somewhere and hit
7:10it while he was drunk and he can’t even remember where it was so this is kind of the thing so it Jesus legitimately is
7:17referring to something that people would understand long before the days before there were Pirates of the Caribbean
7:23so here’s the fellow he finds this treasure and what does he do he covers
7:31it up and then in his Joy he goes and sells all that he has to buy that field
7:38now If This Were Me and The Sinner that I am I’m not interested in buying a field I just want
7:45the treasure right so I would take one of my you know my flashlights or go into
7:51stealth mode maybe get get myself some kind of a device where I can see in the dark and then I would go and dig that
7:57treasure up while nobody was looking so there were no Witnesses and I would just slink away with it into the dark of the
8:03night and enjoy the joys of the treasure but that’s not the parable that Jesus
8:09told which then begs the question why does he need to sell all that he has
8:14in order to buy it and here’s where we need to note something here this is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven this
8:21is talking about Christianity this is talking about eternal life this is talking about Jesus Christ Our Priceless
8:28treasure and you’ll know good luck stealing him and good luck stealing the kingdom that ain’t going to work there
8:35is always a cost for being a Christian you cannot possess the treasures of
8:43heaven and something else and let me explain with that something else is and here’s where we’ll do a little
8:49cross-reference work think along with me if you want to flip over to Philippians chapter 3 if you
8:54have a Bible open you are welcome to do that I’m going to start at verse two a passage that I come to with some
9:00frequency in my sermons and let’s look at this text in light of this idea of
9:06those things that are worthless and those things that have such value that
9:11you’d be willing to forsake them for that right and here’s what Paul says
9:16Philippians 3 2. look out for the dogs look out for the evil doers look out for
9:24those who mutilate the flesh he’s writing this against the self-righteous and you’ll know that each and every one
9:29of us still has an old sinful adamant let me tell you that guy is a self-righteous as they come right your
9:37old sinful Adam is every bit as much as the Pharisees a dog and a mutilator of
9:43the flesh seeking to bargain with God well God I should be given blessings
9:49from you because I did these things right I’m a good person I did some good
9:55things therefore I should receive blessings from God right why is it that I’m not getting what I deserve God
10:03and what do we do we’re exchanging our good works
10:08thinking that there’s they have some kind of a cash value right in order to receive blessings or maybe even
10:14salvation from God Paul says this we we Christians we are
10:20the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and we
10:26glory in Christ Jesus and we put no confidence in the flesh though I myself
10:31I have reason for confidence in the flesh also so he’s now going to list out
10:36his pedigree it’s a good pedigree if you were to think of like the Torah and God’s law if anyone else thinks he has
10:42reasons for confidence in the flesh well listen I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the
10:47people of Israel of The Tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of the Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee as to Zeal a
10:54persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law blameless
11:00and what are the lists of people you used when I was growing up well I never went to any R-rated movies only went to
11:07movies rated G and PG didn’t drink a drop of alcohol no Never Smoke never chewed or dated any girls who did yeah
11:15all that kind of stuff and so you think ah I’m really really really holy
11:21but here’s note the words whatever gain I had
11:27I counted as a loss for the sake of Christ indeed I count everything as lost
11:34because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his
11:41sake I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish in order that I might be I might gain
11:47Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through
11:54faith in Christ the righteousness that is from God and that depends on faith
12:00huh same theme right and that’s really the point the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure
12:07hidden in a field you see that is exactly what Jesus is he’s treasure
12:12hidden in a field uh I would note he was hidden inside of a tomb right and the
12:18the does the world consider Jesus to be a treasure No in fact it’s fascinating that God
12:27takes The Treasure of the eternal life offered in Jesus Christ and he hides it
12:34he hides it in Bread and Wine and the Waters of baptism he hides it in Jesus’s
12:41death for you and I on the cross and him being put into a rich man’s tomb he
12:48hides it in the scriptures the Bible of all things and boy is that book being despised more and more today and of all
12:55places places that call themselves Christian churches and so you’ll know ordinary place a field that’s where God
13:02places this great treasure and I would note that this fellow who found this treasure
13:10was he looking for it no that’s kind of the thing we we’ve all
13:17heard stories of some fellow who some farmer who decided that he was going to dig up part of his you know part of his
13:23plot of land because he was going to do something different and next thing you know his backhoe gets into the dirt and
13:29he digs up like the keys to Atlantis or something like this you know some buried
13:34treasure from ancient times what do we say about that fellow that guy’s the luckiest guy on planet Earth it was just
13:40dumb luck right but the reality is this
13:46is that that treasure found that guy just like an eternal life and The Treasure of Jesus Christ he has found
13:53you and although you were not looking for it
13:59you have found it in him and as a result of it we recognize that
14:04there is a cost that must be paid in order for us to possess this treasure we
14:09cannot steal it and it requires us to sell all of our works of
14:14self-righteousness all of those deeds that we thought that we had done in order to earn salvation just put them
14:22all away and instead by the field and if you don’t have any money good news the whole
14:28thing’s free anyway that’s the point because you cannot even afford this field
14:33and then he possesses it you possess it so you’ll know the Kingdom of Heaven is
14:39indeed like a hidden treasure and it’s going to cost you every single one of your Deeds of self-righteousness
14:46they will cut they will get you nowhere instead trust in Christ and receive this
14:53treasure that you so clumsily just stumbled upon as the gift that it is Parable number
15:00two I said it’s really not about you and it isn’t and a good way to think of it
15:06is this people hear it this way the Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl of great price wrong that is a wrong way of
15:15reading this the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls
15:21that’s the point of the text right and so we must note something here in
15:27Scripture scripture in Romans chapter 3 says of all of us none is righteous no not one
15:36no one seeks for God
15:42now Pop Quiz reading comprehension time here how many people seek for God
15:48according to Romans 3. none huh all right but I know a guy who seeks
15:55I know a guy right didn’t Jesus say that he came to what seek and save the Lost
16:03so Jesus is this Merchant the Kingdom of Heaven is like a Merchants like Jesus in
16:09search of fine pearls and who on finding one pearl of Great Value went and sold
16:16all that he had and bought it let me kind of give you a common way of putting
16:22it this Merchant went and bought the farm so that he can purchase this Pearl and
16:28what is the Pearl it’s the church it’s you it’s me and he bought it with his own precious blood that’s the point of
16:35this text let me give you some cross references so that you don’t think I’m totally out of whack here at least just
16:41you know partially out of whack would be okay but here’s what it says in Ephesians chapter five we’ll use this as
16:46kind of an anchor text husbands love your wives as Christ loved the
16:52church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her having
16:58cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor
17:06without spots or wrinkle or any such thing so that she might be holy and
17:11without blemish now the scripture is clear this passage goes on to say that
17:19therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh he’s
17:25quoting from Genesis and then he says this this mystery is profound and I’m
17:31saying that it it refers to Christ and the church What refers to Christ in the church
17:37Genesis chapter 2. a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two will
17:43become one flesh that text is pointing us to Jesus in other words every single
17:50marriage every wedding is a type and Shadow of Jesus’s relationship with you
17:57his bride now think back to this we’ve all been to a wedding or two right has anyone not
18:02been to a wedding all right the the Pinnacle moment of every wedding is not
18:08when the the pastor says to the to the groom you may now kiss the bride that is
18:14not the Pinnacle moment the Pinnacle moment in every single wedding is when
18:20the music changes and we know that the bride is about to make her entrance
18:25right I always get teared up every single time I see it everybody stands up everybody
18:32turns around and ah there she is
18:37and she’s wearing her wedding dress and she’s beautiful
18:43your breath is taken away and she starts coming in right
18:51that’s the Pinnacle moment that is you’ll note that here it
18:57legitimately says that Christ has taken his bride you and I as sinful and as we
19:04are scripture says together we have all become worth less because of sin but
19:11Christ in his great love for his bride sanctifies her cleanses her by the
19:17washing of water with the word he then presents her to himself in splendor
19:24without spot or wrinkle or any such thing so that she might be holy and
19:30without blemish so every time you go to a wedding and
19:37you see the bride coming in in her dress that is a picture
19:43of y’all me and you as the bride of Christ but that’s our foundation text
19:49here’s the next one in Revelation chapter 21 listen carefully to the
19:55revelation of the New Jerusalem John is still getting his Cooks tour of the
20:02Heavenly Kingdom and seeing visions of Heaven that are just too marvelous for us to ponder completely he says then I
20:09saw a new Heaven so I knew Earth for the first Heaven and the first Earth had passed away the sea
20:15was no more and I saw the holy city the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven
20:22from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband
20:28New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven Here Comes the Bride right you have to
20:34think of it that way prepared as a bride I heard a loud voice from the throne saying Behold The Dwelling Place of God
20:41is with man he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself
20:47will be them be with them as their god well isn’t that how it works right
20:52couples are not supposed to cohabitate before they get married right does Jesus
20:58cohabitate with his people before he gets married to them no okay we do not
21:03have Jesus here face to face but there is a day coming when God’s Dwelling
21:09Place will be with us after the wedding right so Jesus doesn’t Forno kabutilate
21:15he’s he’s properly engaging in the right behaviors regarding his bride so Behold
21:21The Dwelling Place of God is with man he will dwell with him they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God he will wipe away every
21:29tear from their eyes Death Shall be no more neither shall there be mourning haza or crying or pain anymore amen and
21:36amen the former things have passed away and then he who is Seated on the throne
21:41said behold I am making all things new
21:49it’s great picture right great text much comfort here so he also said write this
21:55down for these are these words are trustworthy and they are true he said to me it is finished I am it is done I am
22:01the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end to the Thirsty I will give from the spring of the Water of Life
22:07without payment and by the way when somebody gives you a
22:15free meal is it a free meal
22:22doesn’t it cost somebody something whenever whenever somebody takes me out
22:28to dinner or takes me out to lunch and says I’ll pick that up for you right
22:33for me it’s free they still have to pay the tab and you’ll know that’s the same with
22:40eternal life salvation is free to us but it’s not free to Christ
22:46he is the one who picked up the tab and so you’ll note that all of these things are given to all of us for free
22:53without cost to us but at Great cost to him he laid down
22:59his very life bled and died so that you and I can live he is the one who
23:05experienced thirst on the cross right didn’t Jesus say I thirst
23:10extreme suffering and pain as he bled and died for your sins and mine and he is the one who thirsted on the cross so
23:18that he can give us of the Springs of the Water of Life without payment
23:24so that we would never thirst the one who conquers will have this Heritage and I will be his God and he
23:30will be my son as for the Cowardly the faithless the detestable as for the murderers this
23:36actually immoral the sorcerers the idolaters and all liars their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire
23:42and sulfur which is the second death but then that Vision continues that then came one of the Seven Angels who had the
23:48seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and he spoke to me saying come I will show you the bride the wife of the
23:57lamb now my immediate question in hearing a statement like this is how do you plan on doing that okay because the
24:05church is the bride of Christ are we going to see a montage of all of the faces of all of those who were saved I
24:13think that would be a little tedious don’t you instead think of it this way
24:18when you travel to the east coast maybe you land in Newark right right across
24:24from Newark Airport what do you see the Manhattan skyline you see New York
24:30and you can say I’ve seen New York have you yes you have seen it now in all
24:38of its microcosm Detail no but that’s kind of the picture here you want to see what the bride of Christ looks like well
24:45we can’t show you all the faces so let’s show you where she lives right so here’s what happens next
24:52so he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and he showed me the Holy City Jerusalem coming down out of
24:59Heaven from God remember this is the bride of Christ having the glory of God
25:07she’s Decked Out it’s Radiance like a most rare Jewel
25:12like a Jasper clear as Crystal it had a great high wall 12 gates and at the
25:20gates 12 angels and on the gates the names of the Twelve Tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed
25:27on the East three gates on the north three gates on the south three gates on
25:32the west three gates and the wall of the city had 12 foundations and on them were
25:37the 12 names of The Twelve Apostles of the Lamb and the one who spoke with me had a measuring Rod of gold to measure
25:45the city and its Gates and its walls man all I’ve got is a tape measure made of
25:51aluminum right you know I like the sound that it makes so when you bring it in from after it’s like out 11 people you
25:57know ah never mind that’s a that’s a whole other story so the city lies Foursquare
26:03its length the same as its width and he measured the city with his Rod 12 000 stadia its length and width and height
26:09are equal he also measured his walls 144 cubits by human measurement which also
26:14is an angel’s measurement the wall was built of Jasper while the city was of pure gold like clear glass remember he’s
26:23describing the bride of Christ this is where she lives this is the
26:30glory that she is decked out with because he has given this to her the
26:36foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of Jewel the first was Jasper the second Sapphire
26:41then Agate and emerald and Onyx and Carnelian chrysolite and Barrel and
26:46topaz and crucifras they and then jacketh and Amethyst the 12 gates and
26:52the 12 gates were 12 pearls each of the gates made of a single Pearl
27:00in the city the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass
27:06pearls show up again is it any wonder that in our Old Testament text that it
27:12was assigned for today the the people who put this lectionary Together made sure to use Deuteronomy 7. listen again
27:19to the words of Deuteronomy 7 you are a people holy to Yahweh your God Yahweh
27:27your god he has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out
27:34of all the peoples who are on the face of the Earth he sit there and go I’m not
27:39Jewish you’ve been grafted into Israel of
27:44course this is talking about you how could it not the bride of Christ is truly God’s
27:50treasured possession it was not because you were more in number than any other people of that the Lord set his love on
27:57you and I would note that Kongs of Inger is far from a mega church right right did God choose y’all because this was
28:04such a big mega church no not at all it was not because you were more in number than any other people that Yahweh has
28:11set his love on you and chose you for you were the fewest of all peoples but it is because Yahweh he loves you
28:18and he is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand he has
28:25redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of the king of Egypt Pharaoh so know therefore that Yahweh
28:33your God he is God he is the faithful God who keeps Covenant and steadfast love with those
28:40who love him and keep his Commandments to a thousand Generations you’ll note that God has done this all because of
28:46his faithfulness his kindness his love his keeping of his promises and he’s
28:52assuring you that he is saving you purely by his love mercy and Grace
28:57all is a gift hmm that second parable
29:04now resonates pretty pretty well the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who on finding one
29:11pearl of Great Value his treasured possession his bride he went and sold all that he had bled and died for her
29:19purchased and won her by his own blood now all of this then leads somewhere
29:25third Parable a little straightforward the kingdom of Heavens like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered
29:31fish of every kind when it was full men drew it ashore sat down and sorted the good into containers and threw away the
29:38bad you could think of this as either the gospel maybe even better like the day of judgment on the day of judgment
29:44will God selectively pick some people to be raised from the dead While others stay dead oh when Jesus returns in glory
29:50to judge the living and the dead he’s going to raise everybody up and the angels are going to do some sorting work
29:56and of course we hear this kind of parable and anxiety Rises up within our
30:03hearts rightfully so too because we all know that we heard what the angel said
30:10and that what Christ said that the cowards and the adulterers and the idolaters and the liars and the just the
30:18list goes on right they will never inherit the Kingdom of Heaven
30:23but such were some of you
30:28Christ has washed that all away he is forgiven you he has clothed you in
30:34his own righteousness is that not what Paul said not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but the
30:41righteousness that is by faith and we have all been bedecked in
30:47Christ’s righteousness so on that day when the Angels come and Christ returns
30:52and all of humanity is sorted out one group over in that bucket another group
30:57over there right sorted out into two different groups so it’ll be at the End of the Age the angels will come and
31:03separate the evil from the righteous but you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ you are his treasured possession
31:09he has bled and died for you and washed away all of your sins and clothed you in
31:16the Splendor of his glory and righteousness so you can figure out which bucket you’re
31:23going into right but the rest they will be thrown into the fiery furnace and yes Christ talks
31:30about a fiery furnace invokes Daniel chapter 3. but there is a fiery furnace that Christ
31:35has saved us all from and that’s the fires of Hell by clothing Us in his righteousness in that place there will
31:42be weeping and gnashing of teeth so have you understood all of these things
31:48Christ asked that of his disciples back in the day and he asked us of all of this all of us now do we understand
31:54these things do we get these Parables now do we understand what he meant by
32:00them and what they mean and how they Comfort us indeed we do
32:06he who has ears to hear let him hear in the name of Jesus Amen
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