Services/Sermon in Minneapolis 28.08.2019

May the peace of God, which passes all human understanding, secure your hearts and your souls in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Let us join in opening prayer.

Our dear Heavenly Father, we humbly draw an eye on to you in prayer, asking that you would be with us this evening at these services. That you would bless our services for the honor and the glory of your name and for the edification and refreshment of the faith of each one of your children. We pray, Father, that you would allow that glorious light which shines from the face of your Son to so enlighten us that we could see and understand the way that he prepared which leads to the glory of heaven.

Father, you know what make we are, how sinful, corrupt, and weak. And so you also know what we have need of, that we would be able to continue this journey to the glory of heaven. We pray, Father, that you would still call those who are without, cause them to seek for the peace that pertains to their own undying souls' salvation, that they could come knocking on the doors of your kingdom where they could hear that life-saving gospel message.

We pray, Father, in behalf of our nation and its leaders, give them wisdom and understanding to so lead and guide that we could continue together and freely worship your holy name. And we include all of the petitions that we have both voiced and left unsaid in the prayer that your Son has taught us.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

This theme in our church calendar for next Sunday is examining oneself. So I will read the epistle text that is assigned for this. And it's found in the third chapter of Romans. And I will read from verse 20 to the end.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith.

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law. Amen.

This topic or thought of self-examination puts every single person to think of what is it that my life is, has been and what is it that God requires of me. Each one of us is before God as an open book. He knows every single person. He knows the thoughts, the lusts, the innermost of every single person, every single one of us. No one can hide from the face of God.

So, since we are all open books before God, then it requires of us, of every person, to recognize that I need the righteousness of Christ. That I cannot, it is not possible for me to come before God and claim anything, any merits, any justification that to say that God accept me as your child. Take me to heaven. We have nothing. We are too sin corrupt. Our carnal portion, our flesh and blood is too prone to sin. We have been souls, as Scripture says, under sin.

So, under such conditions, every single person, every single person in this world needs to seek for forgiveness for a gracious God. To seek for the place where they can have their sins forgiven.

Paul, in this letter to the Roman believers, goes through a very extensive description how there is no one, not one that does good. No, not one. These all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That is why, of course, the Son of God promised to come into this world to suffer and die, to give his life, shed his blood, so that he could take us to heaven. And without that work of righteousness, none of us would make it.

So he loved man, loved us so much that it kept him on the cross. He wouldn't have had to stay there. Could have come down, but then we wouldn't have any chance to get to heaven.

It's sometimes said that the picture of the sacrifice that the children of God did in the Old Testament times when they roasted the lamb. They had to find a lamb that was completely clean of blemishes. It was a perfect little lamb. And they roasted it with fire. And when they set up the first Passover and Moses instructed the children of Israel how to do it, he said, you will roast it completely, fully, the whole animal.

So if they actually roasted that lamb with the fur on it, the wool still on it, it seems to me it would have stuck pretty bad. Burning wool is not a pleasant scent. So we don't know those kinds of particulars, but it just points out that use of fire to prepare that sacrifice.

In it, they were looking at the promise that God gave that the seed of the woman would come to crush the head of the serpent. And John writes in Revelations about the Lamb of God that he's been slain since the foundations of the world.

In other words, when a believer sacrificed that animal, they were looking at, in that sacrifice, the eventual fulfillment of the promise of God.

God.

So then Jesus is there hanging on the cross, and what kept him there, as I already said, it was his great love for us. He loved us so much that he wouldn't come down.

So in one sense, he's being roasted by the fire of love, as that lamb was roasted. And on the other side, of course, there was the hatred of the world that put him there.

So there's two fires, the fire of hatred of the world, and the fire of the love of God, love of his own love for sin-fallen mankind.

So God had to darken the sun. The sun was dark for many hours. I don't know if you've ever gone to see an eclipse of the moon when it's the sun becomes darkened because of the sun. The moon goes between the sun and the earth. It's a very brief time. I think it's less than two minutes that the sun, the moon is fully covering the sun, and then, of course, it starts to move off. And the moon comes, and the light of the sun comes back.

But God darkened the sun for many hours on Good Friday when his son died. Because God was, of course, setting up in his son the mercy seat, the place of atonement, of redemption, to pay for the sin debt of all mankind.

So, because the sun is part of the triune God, it actually means that God, through his son, paid for the sin debt of the world, paid for that debt.

In other words, the appeasement was of himself, God the Father, through the works of his son.

And so Jesus suffered and died and became that perfect sacrifice, never having sinned, tempted in all ways like as we, but without sin.

Or as the writers to the Hebrews says of it, we don't have that kind of a high priest who wouldn't understand us, but rather he was tempted in all things like as we are, but without sin.

And that is why we can come boldly to the throne of grace, to this mercy seat, to ask for help in time of need, to ask for the gospel, to ask for the forgiveness of our sins, because he understands us, and he loves us, and knows that by this way, the weakest child of God will make it to glory.

For the children of God are not described as massive, strong beasts of prey, but rather they are weak lambs of Jesus, who need the care of their shepherd.

But Paul started out this portion that I read by saying that by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

So Paul knew this so precisely and personally that he thought that he was righteous by the law. According to the Pharisee tradition as he had been taught it, he thought he had fulfilled the law of God.

And of course this is not anything as to anything with the laws of our time, of this world, or of men. This is a spiritual law. The law of God which as Paul when he was Saul of Tarsus experienced, he said, when the law came, it killed me.

Because the law said, you shall not lust. And he said, I found myself full of all manner of evil lusts. And so is every person in this world, of course. We carry this sin corrupt flesh.

That's rather interesting to think that the apostle Paul would have thought that he hadn't had lusts before. Whatever his thinking was on it, however he justified or rationalized his way around that, when the light that shone from the face of Christ enlightened his heart, it showed him that he was full of evil lusts, and he knew under such conditions, because he had broken the law of God at one part, he was therefore guilty of the entire law, and the way that he thought he was traveling to get to heaven was now closed.

He now knew that on the way that he was going, he would end up in eternal condemnation in hell, that he had no chance in that way of ever getting to heaven.

So he was three days fasting. He didn't eat, praying, he was blind, in Damascus, waiting for someone to come to him. He was told that someone would come. Ananias came unto him, laid his hands upon him, and said, Brother Saul, Lord Jesus who appeared unto you on the way has sent me that you may receive your sight. And be filled with the Holy Ghost.

So now Paul comprehended that there was only one way, the only name given under heaven by which man can be saved, the name of Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be that point of the old King James says propitiation, salvation, which simply means the point of where sins are paid for, where there's redemption, salvation, the mercy seat.

God.

So Paul says because by the words of the law there is only the knowledge of sin, there's no salvation there, and that's what he experienced, that's what the law is supposed to do, awaken someone to knowledge of their sin, and cause them to seek for a gracious God, a loving God, for the congregation of God.

So then he continues and says but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

So the righteousness that God demands of man, it's manifest, it's proclaimed, it's made forth, it's obvious to everyone.

This is what God has set forth, his son came into this world, suffered and died, and rose again on the third day. And it's outside of the law. It's completely without law. Christ fulfilled the law so that those who believe in him would not have to, would not be under the law.

But Paul knows that it's exactly as the law itself, Moses, written by Moses as God gave it to him, and the prophets proclaimed it to be.

In other words, from the very first pages of the Bible until the end, the red thread, the connecting thread that goes through all of that, is Jesus Christ. He is there, is the message of the scriptures from the very beginning pages of the Bible as Moses recorded for us until the end.

And the last book of the Bible, Revelation, says John recorded. And Jesus asked him to so record.

So this is the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference.

So Paul wanted to make sure it's very clear. It doesn't make any difference. It makes no difference who is in question. Is it an adult or a child? Is it a man or a woman? It doesn't make a difference even on language and culture and background and race and anything else. There is no difference.

Every single person born into this world is born having two lives. They have a temporal life and they have a spiritual life. At the same time God gives physical life, he gives spiritual life.

Every child born into this world is born as a child of God.

But what happens if that child's parents are not themselves believing? They can't feed and nourish the soul, the life of faith of that child. So eventually because of sin, that life, spiritual life, dies out. Life needs nourishment. So spiritual life needs nourishment, needs the nourishment of the gospel.

So then, for all people who have fallen out of faith that they had as a baby, what is necessary? It's necessary to come to hear, to believe. Hear the gospel as preached.

Paul, in a later chapter of this same letter to the Romans, deals with that question of how does it happen? How does it work? He says that the scripture, and the scripture uses that portion from the prophet about how beautiful are the feet of them that proclaim the message of peace.

For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

For the scripture says, whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that bring glad tidings, good things.

Faith is not something that is out there on the shelf, okay, today I'll go out there, I'll take my portion of faith and believe.

Faith is a heavenly gift. God causes the word to go forth from his congregation out into this world to call men on to repentance, call them to seek for peace, for light, for salvation, for righteousness, so that they can believe their sins forgiven.

So faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God preached, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The office of preaching is not an office of the word. One said a discussion with a man who claimed that. And that's fine if that was in the old days when the scriptures were so difficult to copy because they were all hand written.

But when the printing press was invented, then the Bible was cheap enough that everyone could own one.

So therefore they could be saved by reading the scriptures.

And it's a sort of acute rationalization that a person could come up with.

But of course it's contrary to the way God has set his grace.

Faith doesn't come by reading, but faith comes by hearing the proclamation of the gospel, the forgiveness of sins.

That is God's order of salvation.

So the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Everybody has sinned. No one can claim that I have not sinned after the same manner as that other great sinner over there.

Yeah, he's a lousy sinner. Man, is he bad. I'm not like him.

Before God, it doesn't make any difference.

Even self-righteousness, somebody thinking that, that I'm better than the other guy, is sin.

Or somebody thinking that, because I've done this great deed, I gave all my money, therefore God has to accept me as his child.

It's obviously done for self-righteousness and it is also sin.

It's a good deed. We thank people who generously give to charities and help each other out and it's necessary that we have such good people in this world and that we do participate.

But not before God.

Paul says in his next chapter, if Abraham had such works of which he could boast, and he was a pretty mighty man, just think he was 75 years old when he was called.

He left from his home area and congregation with his nephew Lot, all of their cattle and their servants, families.

He didn't know where he was going. He was going where God sent him to the promised land.

But he had to go fight against the three kings that had captured his nephew.

And he went with his servants into war.

I don't know how old he was then. He was certainly probably in his 80s already. A pretty strong man.

So Paul says, yeah, maybe he had something to boast about, but not before God.

Before God we are all sinners. We have all come short of the glory of the righteousness that he requires.

So then he writes, being justified or being accepted, being made righteous before God freely by grace.

The prophet in the Old Testament said, come and buy. Oh, everyone that is a thirst, come ye to the waters.

He that has no money, come, buy, eat.

Come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

This is the message of the kingdom of God.

Come buy, come participate, come eat.

Fill your soul with the treasures of the kingdom of God, of the gospel of God.

And all it requires is recognition of one's sinfulness and a desire for peace with God.

Our brother commented from his mission trip to Rwanda that those who receive the grace of repentance and had their sins forgiven, when they were discussing, because somebody asked, how do you know if you have the Holy Spirit?

And he told them that, well, the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and we have peace with God.

And he said it was just so heartwarming to see those other heads nodding.

That is what they experienced.

When they wanted to believe their sins forgiven, God gave them peace.

Or as Luke recorded for us in the Acts of the Apostles, when Peter was preaching in the house of Cornelius, and he there preached that the of Jesus, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Ghost, and with power.

God and he commanded us to preach unto the people and testify that is he which was ordained of God to be judge of the quick, in other words, the living and the dead.

To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins.

So then Luke records that while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

The word was preached by Peter and the listeners, Cornelius, the centurion in all his household, soldiers, family, servants, whoever was there, they heard that message, believed it, and the peace of God descended into their hearts.

God cleansed their hearts because they believed now on that message and the Holy Ghost filled their hearts and they rejoiced, began to speak with tongues.

And the disciples, the apostles were just amazed that on these Gentiles, these people who had no knowledge of the law, that the Holy Ghost could fill their hearts, that they could be righteous before God.

Because they had, all of the disciples were of the Jewish nation. They all knew the law. They all knew the prophets. They all knew the promises of the Messiah.

But it required that they also would be in the school of God and the Holy Ghost that God through the power of the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit of God, would lead them, as Jesus promised, into all truth.

So God showed them his power.

So God shows us his power during our day.

How he still today calls, calls those who are outside to come in.

He gathers all of his children into one fellowship, fellowship and a unity of love, love which is a heavenly gift of God to those who believe.

So we are given free access by his grace through the redemption that God, that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be the propitiation or the mercy seat or the atonement through faith in his blood.

It's in the blood of Christ.

John wrote in Revelations that it's this blood of Christ which washes us from sin.

John said that this blood that Christ shed on the cross of Golgotha washes everyone who believes of their sins.

So we record it in Revelations that this is what Christ gave to his own.

And from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.

And then later when John sees that white robe throng one of the elders answered saying unto me what are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they and I said unto him sir thou knowest and he said unto me these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So we wash our robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So this washing and regeneration is a washing of the water by the word by the preached gospel as the apostles have written for us.

So when we believe that God has set Jesus to be this mercy seat that we believe that in his blood he is declaring or preaching his righteousness his way to make men righteous to make people righteous before him for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God.

Remission of sins that are past.

What does God require of his children?

Isn't it so dear brothers and sisters that we don't know if we're going to have it tomorrow.

None of us knows if God gives us tomorrow.

But today today is a day of salvation.

Scripture says today if you hear his voice the voice of God sounds in your heart don't harden your heart don't allow Satan to harden your heart but come on to repentance.

In other words today you can be a child of God.

You can believe your sins forgiven.

And it doesn't mean of course for a believer that one falls out of faith but rather that we need the refreshing of the gospel because we are so weak.

In Jesus' name and blood all sins are forgiven.

In Jesus' name and blood all sins are forgiven.

In Jesus' name and blood all sins are forgiven.

Believe unto peace and freedom and joy.

That is where God gives his peace, his righteousness to any who wants to hear.

And so if you hear that voice, accept it, believe it, and God will give you a peace that goes behind anything you can comprehend.

But he says for sins that are past, sins being forgiven even into the future.

And Christ of course prepared complete redemption for all sins of the world from the very first human pair until the last person ever born into this world.

The complete scan of human history, the billions of people and the huge amounts of sin.

His sacrifice is perfect.

It covers it all.

But it is to be believed day by day, moment by moment if necessary.

That is how God keeps his own on this way of life.

For if we reject that, man, we have fallen from the simplicity of childlike faith, fallen from that which is scriptural and the way that God justifies man.

But just think, so someone has had a misunderstanding and taught wrong, thought wrong, tried to justify themselves in a wrong way before God.

That is sin.

But what is the practice of the kingdom of God?

Sin is recognized.

And when one wants to repent of sin, it's forgiven.

Sins can be believed, forgiven, even such sins of wrong doctrine and wrong teaching.

We preach the forgiveness of all sins in the name and in the blood of Jesus.

It is therein that is the power of God and not the power of man.

So that is why Paul says that God wishes to proclaim, to declare at this time his righteousness that he is just but he will justify or make righteous those who believe in Jesus.

Then he says, where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law of works? Nay, but by the law of faith.

Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

There were people during Paul's time who tried to claim and teach that a person had to be circumcised in order to be a child of God.

And Paul rejected that.

The act of circumcision was that which pertained to the Old Testament time.

But Christ established baptism as the way that covenant is made with God in the New Testament time.

Circumcision if it is an event where one attempts to make a covenant with God is sin.

It is wrong.

Paul wrote to the Galatians that if that is what you are trying to do, now you are a debtor of the full law of God.

You have rejected the way of faith.

So that is what he is pointing to here that it is by faith without the deeds of the law.

So is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.

So we admit, don't we, we are not Jewish people, we are not of the Jewish race by blood.

But Paul says, those who are of faith are the true children of Abraham.

That Abraham, when he looked at the starry sky, and was told to count the sand grains on the shore, God said, that will be your seed.

And Paul's point is that Abraham looked at those signs to say that his seed would be people throughout the whole world who believe, not just those of the Jewish nation.

And we thank God that he has preserved his gospel and his kingdom until our day, so that we can be its members and rejoice over our own personal and our mutual salvation, seeing it as one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith.

So in other words, it doesn't make any difference.

If a person was a Jew, was circumcised, but they want to believe in Jesus, that's fine.

God will accept such if they believe, or if someone is of the Gentiles, as we are, not of the Jewish race, God accepts us by faith.

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law.

Paul wishes to make sure that the law of God is kept in its proper place.

It is holy.

It is necessary.

It says, as we started out with, now we know that what things over the law says, it says to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

That is the purpose of the law, to teach that anyone who is thinking that they can be justified by the law would be found instead to be sinful and guilty.

And it would cause them to seek for a gracious God.

Our forefather in faith, Luther, Martin Luther in Germany in the 1500s, and he was teaching, preaching about that.

He said, the purpose of the law is, the law is preached to someone who is outside of faith, as if there is no grace.

In other words, it's taken to show such a one that this demanding law of God is so perfect and holy that you can't fulfill it.

It's not possible.

And when it's preached in that way, then it awakens a person to seek for a gracious God, seek for the kingdom of God.

Where is it that I can have peace with God, that I can have my sins forgiven?

So, dear brothers and sisters, this is where God has taken care of you to this day.

And he has kept you as his child, promised you, that as he gives days, so he will also give grace so that you can continue on the narrow way of life until he calls you home.

And so then, whether it's a personal call, home, when the angels come to get you, or our mutuality departure from this world, it doesn't make any difference.

It's a great victory we can lay down the cross and pick up the crown to rejoice forever in the glory of heaven.

Believe that all of your sins are forgiven, in Jesus' name of blood, unto peace and freedom and joy.

Can I also believe my sins are forgiven? I desire to believe together with you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

The Lord bless us and keep us.

The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us his eternal peace.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Amen.