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Series B – Second Wednesday of Advent – Wednesday, December 9, 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
0:28	our text today is taken from the gospel
0:30	of matthew
0:32	chapter 1 verses 1 to 6. the book of the
0:35	genealogy of Jesus Christ
0:38	the son of david the son of abraham
0:41	abraham was the father of isaac isaac
0:43	the father of jacob
0:45	jacob the father of judah and his
0:47	brothers judah the father of perez
0:50	and zara by tamar and perez the father
0:53	of hezron and hezron the father of ram
0:57	ram the father of aminadab and aminadab
0:59	the father of nashon and nashon the
1:02	father of salman
1:03	and salman the father of boaz by rahab
1:07	and boaz the father of obed by ruth
1:10	and obed the father of jesse and jesse
1:13	the father of david the king
1:15	and david was the follower father of
1:17	solomon by the wife of uriah
1:20	Jesus the son of abraham that is the
1:23	focus of our meditation
1:25	this second mid-week service of
1:29	advent and we considered our gospel text
1:32	which clearly laid out the
1:34	genealogy of our lord Jesus Christ now
1:37	not long ago
1:38	i did one of those dna tests at
1:41	ancestry.com
1:42	and now i can definitively say that i
1:44	that both my dna
1:46	and my family tree prove beyond a shadow
1:49	of a doubt that i am no one special
1:53	there are no highlights to report in
1:56	fact some low lights if
1:57	i’m being honest with you um so uh
2:00	i don’t have any famous people of
2:02	history as my ancestors in fact it looks
2:05	like
2:06	all of my ancestors are your garden
2:08	variety
2:09	hard-working european peasant nobodies
2:12	whose births and deaths were met with
2:15	very
2:16	little if no fanfare at all it just
2:19	you know they kind of came and went and
2:21	nobody even wrote a paragraph about them
2:23	they were lucky if they got their name
2:25	put in the white pages
2:26	when there used to be these things
2:27	called phone books but
2:29	all of that being said i will say this
2:32	and that is is that Christ
2:33	in his genealogy there’s some pretty big
2:36	highlights there
2:38	abraham david
2:43	solomon well he’s kind of getting
2:45	sketchy
2:46	but then well well next week we’ll
2:48	consider some of the scandalous ones in
2:50	his
2:52	in his genealogy but you’ll note that
2:55	in Jesus’s time in fact we’ll take a
2:57	look
2:58	at the preaching of john the baptist
3:00	tonight from the gospel of matthew
3:02	chapter 3.
3:03	in Jesus time and even to this day there
3:05	are some people
3:06	who for some weird reason put their
3:10	faith in the fact that they are
3:11	physical descendants of abraham it’s the
3:15	weirdest
3:16	thing in fact there is one particular
3:18	fellow who i’ve critiqued on my
3:21	on my youtube channel and on fighting
3:23	for the faith who
3:25	claims that he’s half jewish but when i
3:28	checked his ancestry
3:30	family tree which was paid for by a
3:32	professional genealogist
3:34	turns out he’s as jewish as the lucky
3:36	charms leprechaun
3:38	and uh and but that’s a big deal for him
3:40	and there was a lot of people in
3:42	evangelicalism
3:43	that gave him some kind of teaching
3:45	credentials based upon the mythology
3:48	that he is half jewish and so
3:52	there is this big misconception that
3:54	somehow being a physical descendant of
3:56	abraham
3:57	that it gives you street creds with god
3:59	that like you’re born with like
4:02	a certain merits in your favor as it
4:06	relates to
4:06	the favor of god but here again the
4:09	preaching of
4:10	john the baptist the forerunner of
4:12	Christ himself
4:14	and here’s what he says it says in
4:16	matthew
4:17	3 in those days john the baptist came
4:19	preaching in the wilderness of judea
4:22	repent for the kingdom of heaven is at
4:25	hand
4:26	and you note the text says very clearly
4:28	where he was preaching
4:29	in judea and so he was telling all of
4:32	these
4:33	physical descendants of abraham that
4:35	they needed to repent
4:37	and for this is he who was spoken by the
4:38	prophet isaiah when he said the voice of
4:41	one crying in the wilderness
4:42	prepare the way of the lord make his
4:45	paths straight
4:46	apparently all these descendants of
4:48	abraham had crooked paths that needed
4:50	straightening out
4:52	now john wore a garment of camel’s hair
4:54	leather belt around his waist and his
4:56	food was locus and wild honey
4:58	i still haven’t figured out why somebody
5:00	hasn’t figured out how to package locust
5:02	and wild and
5:03	hunt and wild honey and call it the john
5:05	the baptist bars
5:07	you know could it i mean did that be
5:09	worse than keto anyway
5:11	but uh you know that’s it’s biblical man
5:13	i’m just saying you know
5:15	there’s always somebody trying to make
5:16	money on those things so when jerusalem
5:18	and all judea
5:19	and all the region about the jordan were
5:20	going out to him they were baptized by
5:23	him in the river jordan
5:24	confessing their sins but when he saw
5:27	many of the pharisees and the sadducees
5:29	coming to his baptism he said to them
5:31	you brood of vipers
5:34	i always liked walter martin’s
5:36	explanation of what that particular
5:38	phrase
5:39	means brood of vipers his loose
5:42	translation is
5:43	your mothers are snakes you know
5:47	john the baptist apparently didn’t go to
5:49	political correct
5:50	rhetoric training school and so he was a
5:52	little spicy there
5:54	your mothers are snakes who warned you
5:58	to flee
5:59	from the wrath to come bear fruit in
6:01	keeping with repentance
6:03	and do not presume to say to yourselves
6:06	we have abraham as our father
6:10	for i tell you god is able from these
6:12	stones to raise up children for abraham
6:15	now even the axe is laid at the root of
6:17	the trees every tree therefore that does
6:19	not
6:20	bear good fruit is cut down and thrown
6:23	into the fire in other words being a
6:26	descendant of abraham doesn’t automate
6:28	automatically make you a good tree that
6:30	bears good fruit
6:33	something to consider there but
6:36	Christ is truly one of the descendants
6:38	of abraham and it’s important to note
6:41	that he is prophesied of scripture along
6:44	with
6:44	abraham the man of faith the ones to
6:48	whom the promises were given not one
6:50	person but
6:51	two one person was given the promises
6:53	and that’s abraham and abram believed
6:55	god it was credited to him as
6:57	righteousness
6:58	but as paul points out in the epistles
6:59	of the galatians chapter 3 that the
7:02	promise was not given to abraham unto
7:04	his offsprings
7:05	this is plural but to his offspring
7:09	zara singular and that is Christ
7:12	so in other words having faith that you
7:15	having faith that you have an inside
7:17	track with god because
7:19	you’re descended from abraham is
7:22	if you think about it a foolish faith
7:26	abraham was a sinner just like you and i
7:28	he was not the messiah
7:30	faith in your abrahamic descent is not
7:33	even remotely the same
7:35	as faith in Christ and notice where the
7:39	where
7:39	the focus of the faith is i’ve said it
7:41	many times that faith is like eyesight
7:44	it always has an object to which it
7:46	looks to
7:47	does your faith look to Jesus or does
7:50	your faith look to your great
7:52	pedigree whether it be abraham or some
7:55	other thing the nice thing is
7:57	i don’t have that luxury i come from
8:00	well the salt of the earth you get the
8:02	idea
8:03	but all of that being said faith in your
8:06	ancestry is not
8:07	faith in Christ plus if you pay
8:10	attention to scripture
8:12	abraham was a sinner just like
8:15	you and i um we would note that abraham
8:20	flat out lied about his marriage to
8:23	sarah and told his wife
8:26	because he was afraid that he was going
8:28	to be murdered because
8:29	she was a beautiful woman that if they
8:32	knew that he was married to her that
8:34	they would kill him
8:35	and so he got her to go along with his
8:38	idea let’s just lie and say that we
8:41	are siblings brother and sister and in
8:44	one particular text in genesis
8:46	this particular lie of abraham’s nearly
8:50	resulted in her being sexually
8:52	violated by another man who took
8:55	her to be his wife and then
8:59	remember when abraham’s wife sarah
9:03	got impatient waiting for god’s promise
9:06	of a son
9:07	she came up with this brilliant idea and
9:09	said to abraham
9:11	you should sleep with hagar my
9:13	maidservant
9:14	and abraham went sure that sounds like a
9:17	great idea
9:18	and let’s just say there’s been trouble
9:20	in humanity ever
9:22	since sons of ishmael and the sons of
9:24	isaac continue to
9:26	argue and quarrel to this day
9:30	so if we’re talking about abraham let’s
9:33	make this clear
9:34	scripture is very clear that abraham
9:37	was saved by faith not
9:41	by his good works in fact if you’re
9:43	trying to be saved by your good works
9:45	you had better be 100 percent positive
9:49	that you are sin less because that’s
9:52	about the only way you’re going to make
9:54	it
9:54	but romans 4 helps us out in this regard
9:57	reminding us of the faith of abraham
10:00	romans 4 verse 1 begins with these words
10:02	what then shall we say was gained by
10:05	abraham
10:05	our forefather according to the flesh
10:09	if abraham was justified by works then
10:12	he has something to boast about but not
10:14	before god
10:15	for what does the scripture say abraham
10:18	believed
10:18	god and it was counted or credited to
10:22	him as righteousness
10:24	now to the one who works his wages are
10:27	not counted as a gift
10:28	but as his due and to the one who does
10:31	not
10:32	work but believes in him who justifies
10:34	the ungodly
10:36	his faith is counted as righteousness
10:40	just as david also speaks of the
10:42	blessing of the one
10:44	to whom god counts righteous apart from
10:47	works
10:48	blessed are those whose lawless deeds
10:50	are forgiven
10:51	and whose sins are covered blessed is
10:54	the man against whom the lord will not
10:57	count his sin and that is truly a
11:00	blessing
11:01	indeed because on the face of planet
11:04	earth
11:04	right now we’re looking at somewhere
11:07	between 7 billion and 7.5 billion
11:10	people on the planet it’s a little tough
11:12	to keep up with the count because it
11:14	keeps going
11:15	up and of the seven billion plus people
11:19	on planet earth right now how many of
11:21	them
11:22	are numbered among the godly
11:26	by nature not one of them
11:30	not me not you not anybody
11:34	regardless of the highlights that may
11:36	exist in your ancestral
11:38	tree we are all sinners and so you’ll
11:42	note the blessing that
11:44	abraham experienced was the blessing of
11:46	the forgiveness of his sins
11:48	abraham believed god regarding the
11:50	promises and god credited to him as
11:53	righteousness and these same promises
11:55	now come to us the blessing of abraham
11:58	is more to do with the arrival and the
12:01	birth of his
12:04	great great great great great great
12:05	grandson Jesus
12:07	the one who would be sinless
12:10	sinless in our place perfectly keeping
12:13	all the law of god
12:15	who never compromised to the point of
12:18	sinning
12:18	even once neither in thought
12:22	nor word nor indeed in fact
12:25	Christ kept the law perfectly and so it
12:29	is
12:29	in him that we receive the promises the
12:32	promises
12:33	of full pardon forgiveness of sins these
12:35	are only for the ungodly
12:37	and life eternal and peace with god
12:41	all because of what this son of abraham
12:44	accomplished
12:45	the very things that abraham himself
12:48	could not
12:48	accomplish and so paul asked the
12:51	question then is this blessing only then
12:52	for the circumcised
12:54	the ones who are the physical
12:56	descendants of abraham
12:58	or are these promises not only also for
13:00	the uncircumcised
13:02	for we say that that faith was counted
13:04	to abraham
13:06	as righteousness so how then was it
13:09	counted to him
13:11	was it before or was it after he had
13:13	been circumcised
13:15	and if you know your genesis well then
13:18	you’ll note that
13:18	paul is correct when he notes it was not
13:21	after but it was before he was
13:22	circumcised
13:24	abraham received the sign of
13:25	circumcision as a seal of the
13:27	righteousness
13:28	that he had by faith while he was still
13:31	uncircumcised so the purpose then was to
13:34	make him the father
13:35	of all who believe without being
13:39	circumcised
13:40	so that righteousness would be counted
13:42	to them as well
13:44	and this is the great mystery the great
13:46	amazing thing
13:48	about being a Christian about being
13:51	united with Christ in his death and his
13:54	resurrection
13:54	of having all of our sins washed away of
13:58	trusting and having the same faith as
14:00	abraham
14:01	that god then numbers us
14:04	among the children of abraham
14:09	those who have the same faith as abraham
14:12	are also the children of abraham and he
14:14	is truly then
14:16	by dissent one of their fathers
14:19	even if their dna says otherwise
14:24	so the purpose was then to make him the
14:25	father of all who believe
14:27	without being circumcised so that he
14:28	might be so that righteousness would be
14:30	counted to them as well
14:32	and make him the father of also the
14:35	circumcised who are not
14:37	merely circumcised in the flesh
14:40	but had before that uh circumcised let’s
14:44	see i lost my place
14:46	small text
14:47	[Music]
14:52	ah here it is and make him the father of
14:54	the circumcised who are not merely
14:55	circumcised but also who walk in the
14:57	footsteps of the faith
14:59	that our father abraham had before he
15:02	was circumcised
15:03	for the promise to abraham and to his
15:05	offspring
15:06	singular that he would be the heir of
15:09	the world did not come through the law
15:12	it came through the righteousness of
15:14	faith if it is the adherence of the
15:16	torah who are to be heirs
15:18	then faith itself is null and the
15:20	promise
15:21	has been voided for the law brings wrath
15:24	but where there is no law there is no
15:25	transgression that is why it depends on
15:28	faith in order that the promise may rest
15:30	on grace
15:31	and be guaranteed to all of his
15:33	offspring you and me
15:34	included not only to the adherent of the
15:37	law but also to the one who shares the
15:39	faith of abraham
15:40	who is the father of us all
15:43	and with a text like that from romans 4
15:46	16
15:46	it says so clearly that everyone who
15:49	shares the faith of abraham that abraham
15:51	is the father of
15:52	all who have that faith it makes no
15:55	sense then that somebody would want to
15:57	fake their dna fake their heritage
16:01	and claim to be a physical descendant of
16:03	abraham
16:04	when they are not because in Christ
16:07	abraham
16:08	is truly according to this text the
16:10	father of us all
16:11	it’s one of the weird things that when
16:13	somebody does something like that they
16:14	clearly do not
16:15	understand how dissent works regarding
16:19	abraham it’s not according to the flesh
16:21	it’s according to the promise
16:23	that was the whole point of ishmael
16:26	versus
16:26	isaac the son of promise versus the son
16:29	of the slave woman and paul bears that
16:31	out in galatians 4.
16:33	so in hope abraham believed against hope
16:36	that he would become the father of many
16:38	nations as he had been told
16:39	so shall your offspring be and you’ll
16:42	note that we
16:43	in Christ we hope against hope that we
16:46	would be declared
16:47	righteous by god by grace through faith
16:50	apart from our works
16:51	all because of the mercy and merit won
16:54	by Christ
16:55	on the cross for ungodly and miserable
16:59	sinners like you and i
17:00	so he did not weaken in faith when he
17:02	considered his own body which was as
17:04	good as dead
17:05	since he was about a hundred years old
17:07	or when he considered the barrenness of
17:09	sarah’s womb
17:10	no unbelief made him waver concerning
17:13	the promise of god
17:14	but he grew strong in his faith as he
17:16	gave glory to god
17:18	and you’ll note we too them by the power
17:20	of the holy spirit
17:22	even though the reflection that comes
17:25	back to us from the mirror of god’s law
17:27	says that we are sinners we trust by
17:30	faith in the promises of god and we do
17:32	not waver in unbelief we believe what
17:34	Christ has spoken to us
17:36	that we are forgiven that we are
17:38	pardoned that we are absolved
17:40	that we are reconciled to god and that
17:42	we truly have
17:43	peace with him so no unbelief made
17:46	abraham waver
17:47	and through the working of the holy
17:48	spirit our faith doesn’t waver either in
17:51	the promises
17:52	that have been given to us so fully
17:54	convinced that god was able to do what
17:56	he had promised
17:57	we also are fully convinced that god is
17:59	able to do what he has promised to us
18:01	to save even us to bring us safely
18:05	across
18:06	the final jordan into the real promised
18:09	land of the new earth
18:10	he is fully able to do what he has
18:12	promised and there is no reason for us
18:14	to cower and fear before god
18:16	because of what our brother Jesus has
18:18	done that is why
18:20	abraham’s faith was counted to him as
18:22	righteousness and
18:23	paul then says but the words that was
18:25	counted to him were not written for
18:27	abraham’s sake alone
18:28	but they were also written for our sake
18:30	and see
18:31	it is our faith that will be counted to
18:33	us who believe in him
18:35	who raised Christ from the dead our lord
18:38	who was delivered up for our trespasses
18:41	and
18:41	also raised for our justification
18:44	and isn’t it amazing that abraham trusts
18:47	the promises of god
18:48	and we too are counted as children of
18:50	abraham
18:51	trusting in the promises of god now god
18:54	has not promised us in this life
18:56	you know descendants as multitudinous as
18:59	the sands on the seashore
19:01	but what he has promised us is full
19:04	pardon
19:05	and peace full forgiveness and grace
19:08	and an inheritance given as a gift so we
19:11	do not waver just like he doesn’t waver
19:14	and so note then romans 9 then goes on
19:16	to say but it is not as though the word
19:17	of god had failed talking about those
19:20	who are true physical descendants of
19:22	abraham yet who do not
19:24	believe in Jesus for not all who are
19:26	descended from israel belong to israel
19:28	and not all are children of abraham
19:30	because they are his physical
19:32	offspring but it is through isaac shall
19:34	your offspring be named
19:36	and this means that it is not the
19:38	children of the flesh who are the
19:39	children of god
19:40	it is the children of the promise that
19:42	are counted as offspring
19:44	and the children of the promise that’s
19:47	us
19:49	and it’s amazing when you think about it
19:51	so know then paul writes in galatians 3
19:54	that is those of faith who are the sons
19:56	of abraham
19:57	and the scripture foreseeing that david
19:59	would justify the gentiles by faith
20:01	preached the gospel beforehand to
20:03	abraham saying in you
20:05	shall all the nations be blessed so then
20:07	those who are of faith
20:09	are blessed along with abraham the man
20:12	of faith
20:13	so let us cast aside the works of
20:16	darkness
20:16	and all pretenses that our genealogy our
20:19	heritage or good upbringing
20:21	can somehow merit favor with god
20:24	and let us recognize then that we by
20:27	faith have something in common
20:29	with Jesus all who have faith
20:33	in Christ abraham is their father
20:36	and so when it says Jesus the son of
20:39	abraham
20:41	we can by faith regardless if we are
20:43	norwegian
20:44	or german or polish or japanese or
20:47	korean or australian or irish
20:50	it doesn’t matter all of us because of
20:52	our faith in Christ
20:54	we can say that along with Jesus
20:57	that abraham is our father in the name
21:00	of Jesus
21:01	amen

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