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Series A – Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Sunday, October 8, 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:

Time Stamp	Transcript
0:22	The holy Gospel
0:29	According to St Matthew the 21st
0:38	chapter Jesus said hear another Parable there was a master of a house who planted a Vineyard and put a fence
0:45	around it dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants
0:50	and went into another country and when the season for fruit Drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to get his
0:56	fruit and the tenants took his servants and beat one one killed another and then
1:01	stoned another again he sent other servants more than the first and they
1:07	did the same to them finally he sent his son to them saying they will respect my son but when the tenants saw the son
1:14	they said to themselves this is the heir come let us kill him and have his inheritance and they took him and threw
1:20	him out of the vineyard and killed him when therefore the owner of the Vineyard comes what will he do to those tenants
1:27	they said to him he will put out those R put those wretches to a miserable end and that let out the vineyard to other
1:33	tenants who will give him the fruits in their season Jesus said to them have you
1:38	never read in the scriptures the stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone this was the Lord’s
1:43	doing and it is marvelous in our eyes therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to
1:50	a people producing its fruit and the one who falls on this Stone will be broken to pieces and when it falls on anyone it
1:57	will crush him when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard this Parable they perceived that he was speaking
2:02	about them and although they were seeking to arrest him they feared the crowds because they held him to be a
2:07	Prophet this is the gospel of the Lord Our Gospel text today um is the context
2:14	is actually last week’s gospel text remember Jesus is teaching in the temple and the Pharisees and scribes are losing
2:20	their mind and they come up by what Authority are you doing these things you mean teaching in the temple what do you
2:26	mean by what Authority right and so that’s the context here and you’re going to note that in that context Jesus tells
2:32	a very thinly veiled Parable which the Pharisees and the scribes figured out
2:38	wait a second that’s about us right and uh what do they want to do they want to arrest Jesus so here’s the important
2:46	part that I want to start out at the beginning of our sermon today and that is is that we must never and I mean
2:52	never lose sight of just how murderously treacherous human beings are after their
2:59	fall fall into sin and that includes us and so this is what we need to repent of
3:05	murderously treacherous uh yesterday in our Women’s Bible study somebody one of the ladies asked a question can you
3:11	define concupisent for me she had heard the word concupisent if you ever read the Lutheran confessions concupisent
3:18	shows up in regards to well a lot of things but most importantly as it relates to original sin and so this is a
3:25	big high futin five Latin term concupisent right and so how do you
3:30	define it um well I Define it the way I was taught it by The Men Who instructed
3:35	me in the Lutheran faith that concupiscence is this idea that now after the fall into sin that human
3:41	beings are bent in on themselves it’s this horrible mangling of human nature
3:48	to where uh if you think of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings you know Gollum just completely tortured character I
3:55	mean just just absolutely wretched to look at and the thing he’s constant
4:00	in obsessed about is his precious right he’s oh my precious my precious right okay but here’s the thing when it comes
4:07	to concupisent the thing that is precious is you you are precious to you it’s kind
4:14	of really narcissistic it’s selflove and you’ll note that there’s a religion that
4:19	goes with that self-love being bent in on yourself and the religion that goes with self-love is
4:26	self-righteousness and believe me when I tell you human beings bear a grudge
4:32	against anybody who would dare contradict their self-righteous
4:37	selfmade self- religion it’s it’s a terrible thing this go goes all the way
4:42	back to the Garden of Eden if you think about it in the Garden of Eden in in um in Genesis CH 4 we have an account
4:51	that’s actually quite terrible you all heard of the word Philadelphia right Philadelphia right right right now
4:57	they’re playing in the playoffs I’m not referring to them them I’m not referring to the baseball team but Philadelphia
5:02	the term what does it mean brotherly love I would note that we human beings we often times have these weird abstract
5:10	standards or things that we look to and and but we look to it like romantically rather than realistically because here’s
5:18	the truth is that Brothers don’t really always love each other I mean my brother
5:23	and I we really don’t get along but then again I think back to our childhood I teased him mercilessly and and I enjoyed
5:31	every minute I savored every moment of psychological anxiety that I was able to
5:37	create in my brother but then he grew taller than me and he started beating me up all right and so you get the idea and
5:45	then of course today Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Love be careful which neighborhoods you’re hanging out in
5:51	right have you seen the the Looting that’s been taking place brotherly love my foot right that’s just not really
5:57	what’s happening so think back with me to to um the first two brothers Cain and
6:02	Abel right and in the account in Genesis 4 it says when Adam knew Eve his wife
6:07	she conceived and bore Cain saying I have gotten a man now I know the ESV
6:13	says with the help of the Lord however the Hebrew reads I have gotten a man the
6:19	Lord that’s just literally how the Hebrew reads and many theologians over the Millennia have basically said you
6:26	know it looks here like Eve believes she’s given birth to the promised one
6:31	who would crush the head of the serpent she’s given birth to the Messiah it’s Cain now can you imagine how horribly
6:38	you’re going to mess your children up if you teach that your your your child if you teach them he’s the Messiah a
6:44	messiah complex in a kid who’s born dead in trespasses and sins and bent in on
6:51	himself wua right that’s not a good thing and then of course she bore another child named Abel Abel was a
6:58	keeper of the sheep he did did all the Dirty Jobs Cain was a worker of the ground and in the course of time Cain
7:05	brought to Yahweh an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock
7:12	and of their fat portions now if you’ve ever heard bad preaching on this that ignores what Hebrews 11 says people sit
7:18	there and go well the reason why God didn’t accept Cain’s offering is because it was a salad wrong okay wrong it’s
7:26	totally fine to give God a salad as long as it doesn’t have Kalin I’m just saying
7:31	okay that would be an Abomination to the Lord thus saith Chris Roseboro right but
7:36	the point is is that in the Old Testament there are grain offerings there are fruit offerings there are even
7:43	drink offerings there’s nothing wrong with an offering of the first fruits of
7:48	your produce because there’s a whole first fruits offering in the scripture what’s the issue here well we read in
7:55	Hebrews 11 that Abel had faith Cain did not and note here murderously
8:04	treacherous bent in on yourself my precious kind of you know distorted
8:10	humanity is what we all are by nature and so the text goes on to say that Cain
8:16	was angry and his face fell I’ve all I’ve seen this happen to my kids you know when their face
8:21	Falls right right and Yahweh said to Cain why are you angry why is your face
8:27	Fallen if you well will you not be accepted if you do not do well sin is
8:33	crouching at the door its desire is contrary to you but you must rule over it and then Cain spoke to Abel his
8:40	brother and Abel had no clue what was coming next and when they were in the
8:45	field Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him and then Yahweh said
8:51	to Cain where is Abel your brother he said I don’t know am I My Brother’s Keeper what a fascinating response
8:59	response if you think about it because you know you look at Humanity right and
9:05	somebody has just been beaten up and left for dead on the street and they’re well i’ I’ve got to get to work it’s no
9:11	business of mine you know people in need we just said well you know I’ve got to look out for number one here and that’s
9:18	the problem with all of us notice he’s just murdered his neighbor and by the
9:23	way this then goes from individuals to Clans to Nations need I remind you of
9:29	the evil that’s taking place in Israel today right oh and by the way the thing that’s going on in Israel has nothing to
9:36	do with the last time the Rapture isn’t next week you don’t have to worry about that okay that’s not one of the signs
9:41	that Christ is imminently returning I just have to say that but all that being said you’ll note treacherous murderous
9:49	concupisent within Humanity when you contradict well everything that goes
9:56	along with that type of self-love that often times people will find themselves
10:01	in trouble is it any wonder that Christianity is persecuted throughout the world is it any Wonder because
10:08	Christians they Proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and say that you cannot save yourself by your good works
10:17	it doesn’t matter that you pay your taxes that you love your wife or your husband that you clothe your kids and
10:23	work hard at work and you get a good glowing review from your employers every year that you’re doing a good job that
10:30	can’t save you and people sit there and go well what do you mean that can’t save me and they notice the anger well the
10:37	problem is you’re a sinner are you saying I’m a sinner I just said it and then they notice the escalation of
10:43	hostilities at this point nobody wants to hear that and then you say something like this and there’s salvation and no
10:48	one else except for Jesus Christ well who are you to say that how can you be so arrogant how can you know that
10:55	there’s no other there’s salvation only in Jesus right and now we’re off to the races and
11:02	this is what happens you know when people bring up religion during their Thanksgiving meals so you we’ve all
11:07	experienced this we know full well and the thing is is that in some cases it
11:14	leads to flat out murder in the case of Abel he was slain by his brother so the
11:21	Lord then said to Cain where is Abel your brother I don’t know where am I My Brother’s Keeper so Yahweh said to him
11:26	what have you done the voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground and now you are cursed from the
11:35	ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand when you work the ground it shall
11:42	no longer yield to you its strength you shall be a fugitive and a Wanderer on the earth and Cain said to Yahweh My
11:49	Punishment is greater than I can bear behold you’ve driven me today away from the ground and from the fa from your
11:55	face I shall be hidden now all of a sudden you you know the chickens have come to roost he recognizes the the
12:03	grave seriousness of his sin and the worst bit is that he’s no longer going
12:08	to see the face of God but God has Mercy on him God has literal Mercy on him Cain
12:14	worries that being a fugitive that people that somebody if they find him will want to kill him and Yahweh said to
12:20	him not so if anyone kills Cain Vengeance shall be taken on him Sevenfold and so the Lord put a mark on
12:25	Cain lest any who found him should attack him that’s Mercy in the face of
12:33	undeserved Mercy he deserved God’s greatest punishment now gred he was punished but even in his punishment God
12:40	was showing him grace and mercy even to Cain so when we take a look at our gospel text today not there’s kind of
12:47	similar themes going on here and consider just the Oddity of what’s going on so Jesus tells another Parable there
12:54	was a master of a house who planted a Vineyard put a fence around it dug a wine press in it built a tower leased it
13:01	to tenants and then went into another country and here except for that last
13:07	part everything is invoking a story that all of these Jews would have known and have heard from Isaiah chapter 5 but now
13:16	Christ adds kind of his own spin to it okay let me sing the Love Song of my V
13:21	of my beloved’s Vineyard but here we now we have tenants who are supposed to be
13:27	managing this well this wonderful Vineyard and I would note here I don’t know much about
13:33	farming but one of the things I’ve noticed about the farming up here is that there are some people who own land
13:40	that’s being farmed by other people and so the people who are farming the land
13:45	for somebody else I would tell you it would make the front page of the Grand Forks Herald if somebody you know if
13:52	there was a group of guys who were doing farming for other people who decided they were going to keep the crop for themselves and not give to the owner his
13:59	part of the share of uh of the prophets right that that that would that would
14:04	make a good movie right just one of those things if you kind of think about it it would scandalize everybody people
14:12	would take sides they’d be talking about it in the cafes and in the restaurants around town here and it it would be all
14:18	the buzz of Oslo wouldn’t it not so same thing going on here and you’re going to
14:24	note that this this um owner of the vineyard did what is exactly what they
14:30	agreed to when the season for fruit Drew near he sent his servants to the tenants
14:35	to get his fruit and the tenants took his servants beat one killed another
14:42	stoned another well that’s no way to treat the Servants of the guy who owns the
14:48	property that you’re farming what’s going on here and then again he sent
14:55	other servants more than the first and they did the same name to them now who’s
15:00	Christ referring to here the prophets and you’ll note that here this is an
15:06	appeal to them to basically wake up and see what’s really going on here and when it says that God is looking for fruit
15:14	what exactly does that mean is he looking for fruit is that is he looking for apples and oranges and sugar beets
15:20	and things like no it’s the fruit of the spirit right that’s the thing he’s looking for and we know this from our
15:26	Isaiah text because at the very end of our Isaiah text it says this uh the
15:32	vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are
15:37	his Pleasant planting he looked for justice but behold Bloodshed he looked
15:45	for righteousness but behold an outcry and so Christ here is preaching a parable
15:54	against the religious leaders of Israel at the time
16:00	and we already know from the punchline that after telling this Parable they wanted to arrest him obviously these
16:07	were the days before freedom of speech and fre freedom of religion right you can get in trouble if you run a foul of
16:14	the authorities so Christ here these prophets of old that is are being
16:19	referred to in this Parable they are looking for the fruit of the spirit they’re looking for a people who hear
16:25	the word of God recognize their sin cry out to God for forgiveness and mercy
16:32	and then bear fruit in keeping with repentance by walking in God’s commands
16:38	now granted not a single one of us walks in God’s commands perfectly in fact the scriptures make it clear that there
16:44	isn’t a single human being on planet Earth at this time or even back in the ancient world that can do such a thing
16:50	and I like one of my favorite theologians uh you know peeper he’s the one who wrote the the Christian
16:56	dogmatics that is used by the Missouri Senate in I read it when I was in seminary he says that as Christians We
17:02	should strive this to do this when we wake up in the morning we say the prayer that Luther has given us in our
17:08	catechism that God would help us that that we not fall into sin this day and that we intend to live perfectly on On
17:16	Any Given morning when we wake up then knowing full well but when we get to bed and it’s time for our evening prayers we
17:23	pray the Lord’s Prayer and we say forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us right and
17:31	of course the Wesleyan go no you’re supposed to achieve sinless Perfection
17:36	anybody who says that they’re doing that is lying how do I know scripture says if we say we have no sin we deceive
17:42	ourselves and the truth is not in us and there was a heresy in the ancient church called the pelagian heresy Pelagius was
17:50	a a rogue monk from of all places the United Kingdom at least it wasn’t called the United Kingdom but batania at the
17:56	time right and and he came teach teaching this idea of sinless perfection and that children when they were born
18:01	they were born tabularasa you know with a blank slate completely sinless and just perfectly pure right and of course
18:09	I’ve had three kids and none of them came out that way they came out screaming and demanding and all this
18:17	kind of stuff right there’s nothing worse than teaching an infant child it’s time for you to now sleep through the
18:22	night okay have you ever have you ever done this right so there’s there’s my
18:29	11-month-old infant and it’s time for my infant to learn how to sleep through the night and of course they can stand and
18:35	stuff like this so when it comes time for their normal feeding they’re ready to do this the doctor has assured us
18:41	they will not die by morning because they’ve hit the weight where it’s safe to do this so what do they do they stand
18:47	up in their crib and they go
18:52	right and you and your spouse do this
18:58	right right and the child is
19:04	upset right and then they’re in a panic wait they’re not obeying my scream and they
19:11	hit this pitch that I can’t even hit it’s like almost like so high that only dogs can hear it right and this goes on
19:19	for minutes that feel like hours right by the way those of you
19:26	looking to get married this is what you get to look forward to all the more reason why seek
19:31	pre-marriage counseling you need to have some realistic expectations put into about what you’re going to experience
19:37	but all that being said we are by Nature Sinners treacherously so and we need to
19:45	hear God’s real words confronting us with our real Sin and diagnosing the sin
19:51	not giving us this well you know you got a little bit of sin here just take take
19:56	some pepid and you’ll be fine in the morning right that’s not how this works and there are many people who
20:02	delusionally think in their self-righteousness that they don’t really need much of God’s forgiveness in
20:08	fact those under the pelagian heresy the way the church were able to flesh them out ask them one simple question one
20:18	when we pray the prayer that Christ taught us to pray daily forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
20:25	trespass against us why did christ teach us to pray these words every day that
20:30	was the question and if you were under the delusion of the self-righteousness of the pelagian heresy you would say
20:36	something like this well I’m not praying it because I need any sins forgiven because I rarely need that that rarely
20:42	ever happens instead the reason why I pray that as Christ taught me is so that it keeps me
20:49	humble I am not making this up they would go pelagian heretic that’s that’s
20:56	the sign right because we delusionally think that we can somehow pull it off so
21:02	Christ sends his prophets to us to call us to repent to see the magnitude of our
21:07	sin to cry out to God for mercy and he promises to forgive us our sins but when
21:14	when these people tell us to repent we don’t like that and so we bear them a grudge and so Christ goes on to say that
21:21	but when the tenants saw finally the the owner said I’m going to send my son to them and they will respect my son but
21:28	when the tenants saw the sun they said to themselves ah this is the air come let us kill him and have his
21:36	inheritance what a bunch of wicked tenants and here’s the here’s kind of
21:41	the weird weird gospel irony in all of this and I love the fact that it was one of the women in the women’s Bible study
21:48	who pointed this out yesterday they did Kill the
21:54	son and by killing the son we have received the inheritance
21:59	isn’t that the irony of this is that that’s just how merciful and kind Christ
22:07	is and God is as we sung in our opening hymn God so loved the world that he gave
22:13	his only begotten son legitimately gave that whoever believes in him will not
22:18	perish but have eternal life and although we are all guilty of
22:23	participating in this murderous plot against the owner of the Earth
22:28	right think of it that way I love the fact that in the Hebrew when it talks about the
22:34	landit right that can actually refer to like you know Israel or it can refer to
22:40	the Earth itself are are we not tenants here on God’s good green earth does he
22:47	not have a right to come and take a look at our fruit he does but you’re going to note
22:55	that daily weekly we take a look at the yield of the fruit of the spirit in our
23:01	lives and daily we confess to God that we are by Nature sinful and unclean
23:07	we’ve sinned against God and thought word Deed by what we’ve done and by what we’ve left undone and it is through the
23:13	death of Christ that we do receive the inheritance all as a gift that was God’s plan in the first place and so the text
23:21	goes on to say Jesus said and they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and they killed him when therefore the
23:26	owner of the vineyard come comes what will he do to those tenants now here’s kind of a trick question since we’re all
23:33	culpable when it comes to the death of Christ note that what we deserve is what
23:39	the crowd then speaks well they said we will he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard
23:45	to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their season and here then this is then talking about Israel’s
23:52	specifically and I would note something this is something we have to keep in mind that being a genetic IC descendant
23:58	of Abraham through his son Isaac does not give you an inside track with
24:05	God we are children of Abraham because
24:10	Isaac was the child of the promise and we also are children of the Promise by
24:15	grace through faith so today that nation that exists in the Mediterranean between
24:21	Egypt and Lebanon and Syria and you know with Jordan on the other side that’s not
24:27	the kingdom of God it’s not it’s just one of the nations of the earth and granted it’s a nation in turmoil and we
24:32	should pray that God would restore peace to that region indeed but that’s not the
24:38	kingdom of God God has taken the kingdom of God away from those who refuse to
24:43	bear fruit in keeping with repentance and he’s given it to those who will actually give him his share of the fruit
24:51	and so the kingdom of God today is found in places like Oslo Minnesota in a small
24:56	little church like kongsvinger it’s found at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Radium Minnesota and other faithful
25:02	congregations throughout the world where Christ is preached crucified for our sins risen from the grave for our
25:09	justification where God’s law is preached to confront us and show us how deep the sin is and show us that we like
25:18	Gollum are bent in on ourselves and we are wretched and miserable and in need
25:23	of forgiveness mercy and Grace and so we now have the words of God we can join
25:31	our voices to the prophets of old who were stoned for preaching such a gospel and we can Proclaim Christ and him
25:38	crucified for our sins so that others can hear of the mercy that exists in Christ so yes it’s true he will put
25:45	those wretches to a miserable death that’s what we all deserve but God rather than giving us that death allows
25:51	Christ’s death instead to be done in our place so that we can be forgiven and now
25:56	we are doing the work in Christ Vineyard of sharing the gospel and spreading the good news to our brothers and sisters
26:04	and neighbors and friends that Christ has died for them too Christ goes on to say have you never read in the
26:10	scriptures the stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone this
26:16	was the Lord’s doing and it’s marvelous in our eyes this this scripture that Christ is referring to the stone the
26:22	builders has rejected we all recognize that it’s referring to Christ he is the stone that the Builders has have
26:28	rejected and you’ll note that the world in its self-righteous religion in its
26:34	self-righteousness and philosophy and the way the world thinks looks at Jesus and
26:40	goes I don’t need that get me a real Cornerstone would
26:45	you but you’ll note the stone the builders have rejected has become the
26:51	Cornerstone Christ is the center this is God’s doing and for us who’ve been
26:56	brought to penitent faith faith in Christ this is marvelous in our eyes and so he says therefore I tell you the
27:01	kingdom of God will be taken away from them and given to a people who will produce its fruits and the one who falls
27:09	on the stone will be broken to pieces and when it falls on anyone it will crush him uh two different outcomes here
27:15	this is kind of a an enigmatic statement on the part of Christ a little hard to interpret but some of the best ways I’ve
27:22	seen this text worked kind of goes with this idea there are two different out comes if you would the one who falls on
27:30	Christ is broken to pieces in fact that’s every one of us right but the one
27:35	who will not fall on Christ and be broken to Pieces Christ will fall on him and crush him a good way to think about
27:41	it there’s kind of there’s no way around it there’s only one of two outcomes when it comes to Christ you either trust in
27:48	him and call on him for forgiveness and mercy which he will gladly and richly give to you and in so doing you know you
27:55	are broken to Pieces because I’m primary Ary component of repentance is that undoing of yourself it is that taking of
28:03	yourself and recognizing that all of that bent in on your sness that we all have that concupisent makes you wretched
28:11	and evil and it’s causes you to lament to cry out to God in true sorrow and
28:19	Contrition because of just how much evil you are guilty of but if you refuse to
28:24	repent and be broken to Pieces by God’s law and then comforted by the gospel
28:29	then Christ indeed will crush you and that’s the case so do not for a second
28:36	and I mean this do not for a second underestimate just how murderously treacherous you are I’m not talking
28:43	about people out there I’m talking about you I’m talking about me and note how
28:48	far Christ has brought us and it’s still true that our sinful nature like Gollum
28:53	loves to look in the mirror and go oh my precious right this is true but note
28:59	then that by the power of the Holy Spirit through his word through the sacraments through the good news that
29:05	Christ has bled and died for your sins that he has set us free from slavery to our own self and our own love for
29:14	ourselves and set us free from our self-righteousness that God the holy spirit is now doing a work in us where
29:21	he’s taking human beings who are bent in on themselves and finally straightening
29:26	them out out so they can see something other than themselves so they can see
29:32	their savior so they can see their neighbor and recognize that yeah I am My
29:38	Brother’s Keeper this is the fruit that Christ is looking for this is the fruit the father is looking for and God the
29:45	Holy Spirit works that in us through his means and for this we are thankful
29:51	because in our sinful State we are as wretched and miserable and treacherous and murderous as Cain
29:59	that’s you that’s you and I and you’ll note then that in our epistle text kind
30:04	of a little bit of a side note here in our epistle text the Apostle Paul takes
30:09	on the false religion of the self-righteous and you’ll note the part
30:14	that the U the lectionary took out put it back in put it back in
30:21	because it provides the context let let me just read a portion of it Paul warning about the self righteous and
30:28	that’s exactly who the judaizers were remember self-righteous those who are
30:34	bent in on themselves are murderously treacherous and they’re not satisfied with merely killing your body they
30:41	desire to destroy your soul as well and put you under bondage to them so Paul in
30:48	the missing context of our epistle says look out for the dogs look out for the
30:53	evildoers and look out for those who mutilate the Flesh and of course in the 21st century where everybody’s
30:59	politically correct we all sit there and go did Paul just call the judaizers dogs
31:06	and evildoers and just say that their circumcision was a mere mutilation of the flesh yes he did oh toxic patriarchy
31:16	toxic patriarchy down with the patriarchy get over it grow
31:21	up right he’s speaking words of truth under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
31:27	let that sink in look out he says we are the ones who are the circumcision we are
31:34	the ones who worship by the spirit of God and we glory in Christ Jesus and we
31:40	put no confidence in the flesh none
31:45	brothers and sisters if you still think that somehow it’s up to you to save yourself by your good works by your
31:53	really wise decisions by your impressive uh well growth in your
32:00	sanctification you’re still like Cain you don’t have faith put it away put it
32:07	to death salvation is a gift so we as Christians we put no confidence in the
32:13	flesh I can look in the mirror and go ain’t nothing there what does Christ say in the opening statements of The Sermon
32:20	on the Mount blessed of the poor in spirit poverty stricken in the spirit they got nothing to offer God not a
32:27	single Euro not a penny nothing they got nothing to offer to God and I look in
32:32	the mirror and go yep that’s me I sit there and go well what are you going to do about it
32:37	nothing I’m not going to do a darn thing about it because there’s not a darn thing I can
32:46	do so we put no confidence in the flesh now Paul goes on and gives his pedigree here he says listen I myself I have
32:54	reason for confidence in the flesh if any anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh listen I have
33:00	more and then he gets this wonderful list circumcised on the eth day of the people of Israel A Tribe of Benjamin a
33:05	Hebrew of the Hebrews as to the law a Pharisee as to Zeal a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law
33:12	blameless that’s a pretty good list it’s way more impressive than the list that I had when I was a Nazarene I don’t drink
33:17	dance smoke or chew which by the way wasn’t true you know uh that’s the worst
33:23	bit about it you know the the Creed that tells me I’m truly a Christian I Don’t Dance drink smoke or do or chew I did
33:31	dance I even went to an illegal dance that was put on by parents at marinan
33:36	because we weren’t allowed to have a a dance we weren’t allowed to have a prom so the parents got together they rented
33:41	some Hotel you know venue down in Huntington Beach far away from where we
33:48	lived so that we can have our own prom and you know what I went and we
33:54	danced it’s true it’s true okay and it is also true that on several occasions
34:02	while I was a Nazarene people offered me cigarettes and you know what I did I smoked them and unlike Bill Clinton I
34:10	inhaled okay it’s true SC this is scandalous right did I drink oh yeah
34:18	okay my parents would offer me sips of their wine and their whiskey and things like this and I would drink too so a
34:26	whole time knowing this about myself I still put on that stupid facade I Don’t
34:32	Dance drink smoke or chew you know what they call that
34:37	hypocrite I didn’t even the standard that I was judging everybody else by I
34:43	was breaking left and right the only thing I didn’t do was chew because that’s is gross okay this is nasty okay
34:50	but you know if it weren’t so nasty I probably would have given that a try too
34:55	right so Paul’s list is way more impressive than mine and in his case he
35:02	legitimately followed through on all of this stuff but listen to what he says whatever gain I had thinking about all
35:09	of his works that he did I count that as a loss for the sake of Christ indeed I count everything as a loss because of
35:15	the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and for his sake I’ve suffered the loss of all things and I
35:22	count them as again the Greek word is excrement I count count them as excrement all of the things that I did
35:29	that I thought were to my benefit I count them as excrement so that I might gain Christ and be found in him not
35:37	having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the
35:43	righteousness from God that depends on faith you see brothers and sisters you don’t have enough righteousness to get
35:49	into heaven and good news Christ does and he gives it to you as a gift I don’t
35:55	have enough righteousness to get into heaven far from it and if any even spend any time in my house this just takes
36:00	five minutes to go you know Pastor Roseboro is a sinner no kidding right I
36:06	confess my sins along with you but here’s the thing this being bent in on
36:11	yourselves blinds you to the truth and you’ll note that in our Parable today Our Gospel text that after the chief
36:17	priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’s Parable rather than repent and say you know what Jesus is right they instead
36:25	perceived that he was speaking about them and were seeking to arrest him how
36:30	dare you how dare you make me out to be a
36:35	sinner in front of all these people that you’re preaching in front of we’re going to arrest you Jesus and we’re going to
36:41	kill you and they did they legitimately
36:47	did and it’s marvelous in our sight because it’s by Christ’s death the very
36:53	thing that they did that was evil that then is the means by which you and I are
36:58	forgiven of all of our transgressions and it’s that very Act of
37:04	murdering the Son of God that shows just how Wicked we are for real and that’s
37:10	all of us and at the same time just how bent in on ourselves we truly are and
37:15	that indeed we are but it’s also one of those sobering moments when we realize oh my goodness what have we
37:23	done where we can finally hear the gospel and that what we intended to
37:29	destroy the Son of God so that we can Seize The Inheritance resulted in our forgiveness so that the inheritance is
37:36	given to us by grace through Faith H so rather than arresting Jesus
37:43	and silencing him we need to arrest our sinful natures and silence him with the
37:50	good news that he will never be good enough he is not smart enough he is not
37:55	strong enough there’s not a thing he can do to save himself and if he doesn’t like being called a sinner well that’s
38:01	just tough turkey because that’s what he is but Christ speaks a different word to
38:07	us from the cross that we are forgiven and pardoned and through his blood we have our sins and iniquities washed away
38:15	so that rather than hear the word that we are sinner Christ speaks words of Grace so much that he says of us you are
38:22	Saints you are made Holy by my blood what a great Jesus we have let us repent
38:30	yet again of our Gollum of our self-righteous murderous treachery and
38:37	humbly come to Jesus who will richly forgive us he does so today as we take the Lord’s Supper pardoning us of all of
38:45	our transgression transgressions and assuring us that his flesh and blood was given and shed for the Forgiveness of
38:51	all of our sins and indeed it was in the name of Jesus Amen

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