LutheranLectionary.org

Series B – Second Wednesday in Lent – Wednesday, February 25, 2015 | 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
0:27	The holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew chapter 5 verses 17
0:33	through 48. do not think I have come to abolish the
0:39	law or the prophets I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them I tell you the truth until
0:45	Heaven and Earth disappear not the smallest letter not the least stroke of a pen by any means this will disappear
0:52	from the law until everything is accomplished anyone who breaks one of the least of these Commandments and
0:58	teaches others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whoever practices and teaches these
1:05	commands will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven for I tell you unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
1:11	Pharisees and the teachers of the law you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven
1:17	you have heard that it was said to the people long ago do not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment
1:23	but I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment again anyone who says to his
1:30	brother raqqa is answerable to the Sanhedrin but anyone who says you fool
1:36	will be in the danger of the fire of Hell therefore if you’re offering your
1:41	gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you leave the gift there in front of the altar first go and be reconciled to your
1:48	brother then come and offer your gift settle matters quickly with your
1:53	adversary who is taking you to court do it while you’re still with him on the way or he may hand you over to the judge
1:59	and the judge May hand you over to the officer and you may be thrown into prison I tell you the truth you will not
2:05	get out until you have paid the last penny you have heard that it was said do
2:10	not commit adultery but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her
2:17	in his heart if your right eye causes you to sin gouge it out throw it away it’s better for you to lose one part of your body
2:23	than for your whole body to be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off throw it away it’s
2:30	better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell it has been said anyone who divorces his
2:38	wife must give her a certificate of divorce but I tell you anyone who divorces his wife except for marital
2:43	unfaithfulness causes her to become an adulteress and anyone who marries at the divorced woman commits adultery again
2:51	you have heard that it was said to the people long ago do not break your oath but keep the O’s that you have made to
2:57	the Lord but I tell you do not swear at all either by heaven for it is God’s Throne or by the Earth for it is his
3:03	footstool or by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king and do not swear
3:08	by your head for you cannot make even one hair white or black simply let your
3:14	yes be yes and your no we know anything beyond this comes from the evil one
3:19	you have heard that it was said eye for eye tooth for tooth but I tell you do not resist an evil person if someone
3:26	strikes you on the right cheek turn to him the other also and if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic let them
3:33	have your cloak as well if someone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles give to the one who asked you
3:39	and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you you have heard that it was said love your neighbor hate
3:44	your enemy but I tell you love your enemies pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your father in
3:51	Heaven he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the
3:57	righteous and the unrighteous if you love those who love you what reward will you get are not even the tax collectors
4:04	doing that and if you greet only your brothers what are you doing more than others do not even the pagans do that be
4:11	perfect therefore as your father heavenly father is perfect
4:17	in the name of Jesus be perfect is your father in Heaven is perfect
4:25	all right let’s try this for about 10 seconds tell me if any of you pull it off
4:33	nope I already fell fell short okay yeah this law thing is a big deal
4:41	and when we as lutherans as Christians look at what scripture says and properly
4:46	distinguished between the law and the gospel we have to understand its uses as there’s functions that it serves and
4:53	it’s also important for us to understand that nowhere in scripture is one of the functions of God’s law to save you now
5:00	if you want to be saved by God’s law and being a good person well
5:06	I wish you the best of luck the reason I say that is because unlike some college
5:11	courses God does not grade on the curve when it comes to being saved by keeping
5:17	the law you must keep it perfectly from the moment you are conceived until the
5:23	moment you draw your last breath perfectly
5:30	anyone here planning on being graded in that way
5:36	I listen if I’m going to be graded in that way I don’t have a chance but what do we do with the law as Christians how
5:42	do we live as Christians what do we do with God’s law because it’s always accusing us it’s always saying to you
5:49	you’ve fallen short you haven’t done this you’re not doing that I mean I’m sure as we were singing this wonderful Luther hymn you’re all sitting there
5:55	going create lyrics it’s those are the Ten Commandments and well I’m not exactly
6:03	keeping it right every single one of us as we were
6:08	singing those lyrics As I was reading the text you’re all sitting there going
6:14	okay I’m not pulling this off
6:19	what do you do with the law then well some people have come up with this fascinating solution their fascinating solution is this oh we don’t need the
6:26	law the law is bad bad law nope the law is not bad the law is
6:31	wholly pure Right comes from the mind of God but remember what I read in the epistle text that the purpose of the law is to
6:39	show us our sin that’s its primary function but it also serves another function and funny enough that other
6:46	function is seen if you pay real close attention it’s seen in the book of Exodus in chapter 20. let me read to you
6:53	a little bit from here Exodus chapter 20. verse 1. God spoke all these words I am the Lord
7:03	your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery there’s the
7:09	opening now how much law keeping did the children of Israel need to do prior to
7:16	their being set free from slavery to pharaoh and being brought to Mount Sinai
7:23	not none did God save them out of slavery by their works
7:29	nope he didn’t he saved them purely by Grace his love and his mercy and when
7:36	you read the stories of the children of Israel in the wilderness and all of their grumblings
7:41	you find that he saved a whole bunch of people who really for whatever reason really preferred slavery you know they
7:49	were grumblers they didn’t really believe God and so here’s the idea this first verse in Exodus kind of sets it up
7:56	and what I mean is is that the law here is revealed after God’s Mighty Act of
8:03	Deliverance and he delivered them not because of their law keeping he delivered them because of his own word
8:08	because of his own promise he had promised in the Book of Genesis to Israel himself as well as to Israel’s
8:16	son Joseph that they would go and they would be in Egypt for 400 years but God
8:22	would remember them and deliver them out and you know what he did he kept his promise God always keeps his word and so
8:29	he did this because of his own for his own glory for his own word’s sake because he had promised to do so long
8:35	before any of these people were born and so God did what he promised to do he delivered them out of the hand of
8:40	slavery in Egypt and then he brings him to Mount Sinai and this is important why
8:46	is it important because they’re being well set free from slavery
8:52	to sin or slavery to Pharaoh wasn’t because of their good
8:58	works so it wasn’t like God was going to throw them back into Egypt if they didn’t keep these instead we had we got
9:04	to keep the tone in mind so the idea is is as you read The Ten Commandments this is what it
9:12	looks like for people who have been set free by God to live
9:18	this is what it looks like and three of The Commandments have to do with our relationship with God seven of them with
9:24	each other right so you talk about the two tables of the law table one the table with our relationship with God
9:31	table two all horizontal with each other all right and so when God reveals the
9:37	law which Paul tells us in the book of Galatians that was never designed to be the thing that saves us no it was
9:44	designed well in some senses really in a way to be a
9:50	over us as an overseer until the promised seed would come but it was
9:55	never designed to save us and so it reveals what it looks like to live as
10:01	redeemed and set free people that’s that third use of the law so the first the
10:06	first use that we focus on that’s as Christians is called the second use of the law it shows us our sin shows us
10:12	that we fall short and so we can say that God’s law is always accusing us but
10:17	because we are in Christ because we have been set free from slavery to sin death in the devil the law cannot ultimately
10:25	accuse us it could say that you’re falling short but it can’t say go to hell and the reason why is because Christ has
10:32	suffered for all of your transgressions and you are in him so now the law
10:38	has been silenced and we as Christians can look at this and say this is what it looks like to be
10:45	free this is what it looks like to live a life of Freedom this is why James in his
10:52	epistle describes the law as the law of perfect freedom
10:58	right and so let me read from Luther’s small
11:04	catechism and we’ll take a look at what Luther did with these commands it’s rather fascinating as redeemed people so
11:10	the first commandment you shall have no other gods and then Luther asks us that German question am I allowed to do
11:17	German in a Norwegian church he says vasastas right and he says that we
11:23	should fear love and trust in God above all things
11:29	that’s freedom it’s not slavery that’s freedom to truly fear love and trust in
11:35	God above all things and you ask well what what is a God then well see back in
11:42	the day people who were idolaters they were hardy people they were very
11:47	creative people they were hard-working people they would go and they’d cut down a tree and then they’d carve it into an
11:53	idol right and you know or they’d take a big Stone and they chisel and they turn it into some kind of an image that they
12:00	would bow down to took a lot of work to be an idolater back in the day but nowadays people are well they’re not
12:06	nearly as creative and they don’t nearly as skilled as the idolaters of the of
12:11	years past so idolaters today well what they generally do
12:17	is they invent their own Gods but they’re too lazy to go and make an
12:23	idol so what they do is they just kind of imagine what their God would be like have you ever heard somebody say the god
12:29	I believe in would never do this that or the other thing you ever have you ever have you ever
12:35	said anything like that think about that sentence the god I believe in would not
12:40	do this or wouldn’t do that or The God I believe in would bless same-sex marriage you know things like this well here’s
12:47	the problem the God you are saying you believe in is not The God Who is
12:54	that’s a god of your own making and unfortunately what people do nowadays is
13:00	they are so lazy then do they not only not make you know a stone image or a
13:06	wooden image or anything like that they invent these mental deities these false
13:11	gods if you would and they always name their God Jesus it’s the weirdest thing
13:16	so we have all these false gods running around all with the name Jesus
13:22	but how do you know the difference between the true Jesus and the and the and these false jesuses well it’s real
13:28	simple it’s all in the details what does your Jesus do for you what do you believe he’s good for well
13:35	my Jesus is there to help make me Healthy and Wealthy and wise okay that
13:41	doesn’t quite sound like the real Jesus to me my Jesus is going to make me a god when I die someday I’m going to have a
13:47	planet and on all these wives well that’s not the real Jesus either okay so
13:54	you pay attention to the Jesus and if you’re going well how do I know who the real Jesus is you read your Bible
14:00	you pay attention to the details because the real Jesus is God the son second
14:05	person of the Trinity who was born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius
14:10	Pilate was crucified for your sins died and was buried and raised again on the third day that’s the real Jesus so you
14:18	have to be careful regarding those Idols so how do we fulfill this fear love and
14:23	trust in God above all things because if you think about it even though we have the right Jesus and we believe in the
14:29	true Jesus unfortunately so many times in our lives we don’t always obey him and our
14:35	Disobedience shows that we don’t love him with our whole heart right well here’s the good news
14:42	put it in at this point Christ has loved God perfectly for you
14:47	he has and he’s bled and died for your sins and so the way we fulfill this commandment
14:53	Here and Now is by believing in the gospel by believing that he has died for
14:59	us that is the fulfilling of all of the law is by grace through faith so every time
15:06	you hear these Commandments and you go oh Pastor Roseboro I’ve fallen short I
15:12	mean you’re in good company me too like every day I couldn’t even make it seven seconds when I was trying to be perfect
15:17	for 10 right so the good news is that Christ has died for all of your
15:22	transgressions and so by trusting in his promise of grace and mercy this is truly
15:28	the fulfilling of the law because Christ has fulfilled it for you second commandment you shall not misuse the
15:34	name of the Lord your God we should fear and love God so that we do not curse swear use satanic art lie
15:43	or deceive by his name but call upon it in every trouble pray praise and give
15:49	thanks ah so when you turn on the television and you’re flipping channels and you come across that Christian
15:55	Network and there’s the guy with the fancy suit and the Rolex watch saying send in your seed offering and make it
16:02	big send in the thousand dollar seed offering is God’s Gonna multiply it a hundred fold oh sign me up I want a
16:09	hundred fold so you start counting the money in your head what’s 100 fold with a thousand bucks yeah I’m gonna be rich
16:17	you know what that man’s doing he’s breaking this commandment he’s deceiving
16:23	by using the name of God that’s how you break this commandment
16:28	but we should fear and love God so we don’t deceive we don’t tell lies and
16:35	fables in his name or teach for shameful gain things that we ought not to teach
16:41	or Worse send your money into those who are right
16:46	Third Commandment remember the Sabbath day keeping it holy what does this mean we should fear and love God so that we
16:52	do not despise preaching in his word I’m glad to see you here tonight
16:57	you’re not despising preaching in his word because you’re here to hear it to learn it
17:02	to hold it sacred right hold it sacred gladly hear and learn it so and since Christ has fulfilled the
17:10	law the Sabbath day is not any it could be any day it’s a day of rest can be any
17:15	day of the week take some rest too but it doesn’t have to be on Saturday but you know keep that in mind so but the
17:22	idea is God has given us a day when we can take a day off kick up our heels a little bit rest come and rest here at
17:28	church come and rest in the good news that Christ has died for you there’s no
17:33	work to be done here it’s all to be received fourth Commandment this is the one my
17:39	children did not like honor your father and your mother
17:45	now there’s a lot going on in this one what does this mean we should fear and love God so we do not despise or anger
17:52	our parents and listen to this and other authorities
17:57	and here’s the basis of it think of it this way is that in our society
18:04	the nuclear family father mother children
18:10	That’s the basis of society that’s the brick if you would and when you have a community you have a community of
18:16	families and God has placed Fathers as the head of each of those families and so when
18:23	the fathers come together in com in their Community to take care of the needs of their families
18:30	together by working together we need to we need to educate our kids we need a
18:36	police officer we need a Post Office right you think of it this way all of these things arise out of the needs of
18:44	that come up through these families so when you go and you work in your community you’re helping the community
18:50	of families and so as a result of it honor your father and mother still
18:56	applies even when it’s your boss because he your boss is working to serve
19:04	the families in his community does that make sense so as a result of that you know honoring
19:10	your father and mother also means not despising or angering your boss
19:16	you’re thinking but my boss is a jerk I know I know
19:23	love and serve him anyway there’s no caveat here and that says unless your boss is a jerk
19:30	right so honor them serve and Obey them love
19:35	and cherish them this is what it looks like to walk in Freedom as those who’ve been set free from bondage to sin death
19:42	and the devil you shall not murder and thinking any murderers in the room here
19:47	no no okay good this is good well wait a second have any of you ever
19:52	been angry so angry at your brother or sister that you called them a fool or
19:58	anything like that oh we’re all murderers
20:04	so what does it mean to not murder we should fear and love God so we do not hurt or harm our neighbor that’s a good
20:11	thing but now this is that so you don’t want to hurt or harm your neighbor but it’s more than that listen to this but
20:17	you help him help your neighbor and support him in every physical need so if Hard Times
20:23	come to your neighbor and your neighbor doesn’t have the ability to put food on the table and clothes on his children
20:29	you know what you do because it says do not murder oh you take him in you clothe them and
20:37	you feed them and you take care of your brother who’s in need not murdering is not just not killing their body instead
20:45	protecting and loving your neighbor and making sure that they are fine that’s what it means to not murder
20:51	and that’s all Freedom you shall not commit adultery what does this mean we should fear and love God so that we lead
20:58	a sexually pure and decent life and what we say and do husband and wife love and
21:03	honor each other do I need to go into detail here there
21:10	are so many different ways in which people go wrong on this the internet has provided all kinds of
21:15	alternative ways in which we could um commit adultery
21:23	and this happens in the heart it happens with Deeds it happens and all kinds of things
21:28	but that’s slavery Freedom true freedom is loving and
21:34	honoring your spouse and being faithful seventh commandment you shall not steal
21:39	similar to the one about not murdering what does this mean we should fear and love God so we do not take our
21:44	neighbor’s money or his possessions you know that’s good I don’t think any of you are in the habit of taking people’s
21:50	stuff right and you’ve got like the five finger discount going on when you go and visit your neighbors right I hope not
21:57	if you do we need to talk um so rather than doing that
22:02	rather than taking our neighbor’s stuff we are instead Let’s see we should fear and love God so we do not take our
22:08	neighbors money possessions or get them in any dishonest way but help your neighbor to improve himself
22:15	and protect his possessions and income
22:20	in other words that question that God asked you know of Cain after he killed Abel
22:27	you know where’s your brother and Cain said am I My Brother’s Keeper
22:33	right that’s what Cain said the answer to that question is yes you are so when you find your neighbor in need
22:39	you help him and even if he’s doing well you make sure to protect you got your
22:45	neighbors back that’s what it means to not steal so that nobody else is taking advantage of him you stand up for your
22:51	neighbor you stand up for those who are who may be taken advantage of eighth commandment you should not give
22:57	false testimony against your neighbor this is a big one what does it mean
23:02	we should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor
23:08	now I’m going to be blunt and I hope you will not hate me for it I’ve noticed out
23:14	here in rural Minnesota that there is a habit among people out here to talk
23:21	poorly of their neighbors and when there’s a juicy piece of Gossip boy the
23:28	phone is ringing that’s slavery
23:34	and that is not helping your neighbor that’s working against your neighbor your neighbor’s name and character is
23:40	important for you to protect and so when your phone rings and there’s
23:45	that juicy this piece of gossip and you can hear it sizzling as soon as you pick up the phone
23:53	right tell the person no
23:59	defend your neighbor don’t listen to the gossip don’t spread
24:05	the gossip tell the person telling you the gossip to knock it off and they’re sinning so you don’t give false testimony
24:12	against your neighbor you don’t slander him or hurt his reputation instead
24:17	defend your neighbor speak well of him explain everything in the kindest way
24:26	this is what God wants us to do and since we’ve been set free from slavery to sin death in the devil this is what
24:32	freedom is this is true freedom ninth commandment you not shall not covet your neighbor’s house coveting is
24:40	a bad thing we should fear and love God so we do not scheme to get our neighbors inheritance or house or Farm or tractor
24:49	or anything like that right or get it in a way which only appears right oh that’s
24:55	the fun thing yeah those of those people who are really clever in the corporate world they are capable of writing an
25:02	Ambiguously worded contract and all you got to do is sign on the dotted line and
25:09	singing they’ve got you and you say but that’s not what you said
25:14	oh but that’s what you signed right
25:21	that is a way of coveting somebody else’s stuff and then trying to steal it under a pretense
25:28	of legality so we should fear and love God so we do
25:34	not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance our house or get in a way which only appears right but instead
25:40	help and be of service to your neighbor and helping him keep his things you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife
25:46	or his man’s servant or his maidservant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor what does this
25:53	mean we should fear and love God so we do not entice or Force away our neighbor’s wife or his employees or his
26:00	animals or turn them against him but urge them all to stay and to do their Duty
26:08	this is freedom this is what we have been set free to do
26:16	and you all know this is true because when you don’t do these things and you act contrary to it
26:23	your conscience just kills you sit there and you go I know I should
26:28	have done something and I didn’t or worse you say I knew I shouldn’t have done that and I did
26:33	right we all know this and not only that we we all know that
26:40	these things are so wrong that when we practice them and harbor them in our
26:46	hearts we do a behind closed doors or with the lights off or with whispered
26:52	hushes because we all know these things are wrong we know it
27:00	but those of us all of us who’ve been set free in Christ we’ve been to the fount
27:07	Christ has washed away our sins we’ve been buried with Christ and raised with Christ we Feast on his body and blood we
27:15	are absolved of our sins and here that we have been forgiven each and every one of our shortcomings
27:21	and our trespasses has been laid on Christ and we are clothed in his righteousness
27:28	and so you’ll see the Christian life then is this daily
27:34	living in our baptism daily repenting of our sins daily
27:41	putting off the old man and putting on the new created in Christ to do good
27:47	works and daily at the end of the day praying once again Our Father Who Art in
27:54	Heaven hallowed holy is your name your kingdom come and when you say that
27:59	you’re praying for his kingdom to come even to you your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven
28:04	you say give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses
28:10	see your heavenly father knew that you would need to confess your
28:16	sins daily knowing that you wouldn’t measure up he
28:22	measured up for you in Christ God becomes man and he takes all of your
28:30	sin upon himself so the Christian Life is one of daily repentance daily
28:36	receiving the Forgiveness of sins daily struggling with our sinful flesh and
28:42	then knowing that we have a right standing with God going and loving and
28:47	serving our neighbor and when you do that I guarantee you
28:52	know what I’m talking about when you do that those are the days you feel your best
28:58	there is no condemnation there is no law against doing these good
29:04	works and you say to yourself why am I not doing this every day
29:09	right well I can’t exactly answer that question for each and every one of us
29:15	but I do know we all have a sinful nature continue to live in Repentance continue
29:20	to focus on the fact that you are baptized forgiven and now walk in Freedom because Christ has given you
29:25	these great things to do to serve your neighbor and all you got to do is open up your eyes and when you see your
29:32	neighbor in need just go help
29:39	Freedom that’s what it looks like to live as redeemed forgiven
29:45	forgiven children of God in the name of Jesus Amen
29:52	[Music]

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