Good morning and welcome to the broadcast of the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
To help you follow along, the Order of Worship for today's service is available under the radio tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org.
The Lord bless you today through the hearing of His word.
service.
We're in the sixth Sunday after Trinity.
We'll begin with our opening hymn number 590, baptized into your name most holy.
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Beloved in the Lord, let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God, our Father, besieging him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.
O Almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities, with which I have ever offended you, and justly deserve your temporal and eternal punishment.
But I am heartily sorry for them, and sincerely repent of them.
And I pray you of your boundless mercy, and for the sake of the Holy
Innocent bitter sufferings and death of your beloved son Jesus Christ to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor sinful being.
Upon this, your confession, I by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the word, announce the grace of God unto all of you.
And in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
We turn to the yellow insert and sing together the intro.
Glory be to God on high.
Let us pray.
Lord of all power and might, author and giver of all good things, graft into our hearts the love of your name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of your great mercy, keep us in the same.
Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
I want to keep that handy for your phone.
The Old Testament reading is from Exodus chapter 20.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath's day to keep it holy.
6 days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.
Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's.
This is the word of the Lord.
no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard.
Their measuring blind goes out through all the earth, and there works to the end of the world.
In them she has set the tent for the sun.
Which comes out like a bright room leaving his chamber.
And like a strong hand runs its course with joy.
Its pricing is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of man.
Rejoicing.
you
you.
Let your servant also, from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me.
And I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
acceptable in your sight.
Epistle is from Romans chapter six.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.
Death no longer has dominion over him.
For the death he died, he died to sin.
once for all.
The life he lives, he lives to God.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
This is the word of the Lord.
The Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew chapter five.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
You've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder.
And whoever murders will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you, everyone.
that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.
First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.
Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you're going out, going with him to court,
lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.
Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Together we confess our faith is written in the words of the Nicene Creed.
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light.
very God, a very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried.
And the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.
who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
God is serious about his commandments and when he delivered these, he's speaking directly to his people, Mount Sinai.
They were terrified in his holy presence.
They were terrified at these holy words that were to be taken seriously.
But God was speaking to them as his chosen people, his first words to them.
I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
He is the very one who miraculously delivered them from slavery and brought them out of the land of Egypt.
In other words, he is almighty.
He's the one true God, and he's actively working on their behalf.
He's chosen people with them, and he is for them.
He's speaking to them for their good.
He's revealing to his people the way things are, the way he made them to be, and how they are to live.
And this is good.
He is the ultimate authority, and there is no better way to live.
And since he is the one and only God, why would anyone fear, love, or trust in anyone or anything else?
But they, like us, were not able to.
They were fallen creatures.
They had inherited that rebellious nature of Adam and Eve as have we.
And God's commandments told them what it means to fear love and trust in God above all others.
And he threatened to punish all who broke these commandments so that they would fear his wrath and not do anything against them.
But he promised grace and every blessing to all who keep his commandments.
God wants his people to love and trust in him and gladly do what he commands.
Now there are consequences to following and not following God's commands.
There are consequences in this life.
There's also accountability to God on the day of judgment.
We read, accounts of consequences of sins to...
subsequent generations in the Old Testament and throughout history.
We see evidence of this today to how one generation sins are passed on to subsequent generations.
We also see God's grace and blessing toward his people.
God gave them promises and blessings in the sacrificial worship that he prescribed for them.
to atone for their sins and to keep them in his grace.
God was faithful to forgive those who confessed that they fell short of the demands of his law, who turned to him trusting in the forgiveness that he promised.
These words and promises and practices revealed God's law as well as the promised one who would come to fulfill the law on God's.
on the behalf of God's people.
And so when the promised one came in, the person of Jesus Christ, he wasn't recognized by many, even those who studied God's law, amongst those the scribes and Pharisees considered to be these scholars of the law.
But as much as it seemed that they took his law and God seriously, it turns out that they didn't.
They had.
more fear, love, and trust in others than of God and what God thought.
In the verses leading up to today's Gospel text, Jesus is speaking to the crowd and he states,
Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The scribes and the Pharisees had relaxed the commandments that were teaching others to do the same.
They had convinced others and themselves that they could live up to God's standards, perfect as they are.
Though Jesus clarifies that following God's laws more than a matter of do's and don'ts, it's a matter of the heart.
Explaining the fuller meeting of God's command, you shall not murder Jesus states, everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.
Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel.
And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
You're guilty of murder.
when you have this unrighteous anger against somebody else, when you say or even think a minor insult against someone.
Yes, God meant what he said when he spoke his commandments at Mount Sinai, and he threatens to punish all those who break his commandments.
Knowing there are consequences, they do prevent some from going too far with overt sinful actions.
But not breaking these commandments in any obvious way does not Let us off the hook and this is where God's words are so important Understood rightly we are all guilty of breaking God's commandments and liable to judgment.
This is why we cannot relax the commandments at all Don't want to be deceived into thinking that we have a righteousness of our own We stand before God guilty
guilty of his just laws, but we stand before God who has chosen us to be his own and delivered us from slavery to sin.
He's done this through Jesus who fulfilled the law and all its demands on our behalf.
Jesus, out of his abundant love and mercy, took the full punishment and wrath of God that we deserve for breaking these commandments.
We stand before God guilty and confess that we deserve his punishment.
temporal and eternal punishment.
We repent and we say we repent sincerely because we take God and His commandments seriously.
We pray for His boundless mercy and we appeal to our advocate, the one who stood in on our behalf for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of God's beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
We plead that God be merciful to us.
poor sinful beings.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
The scribes and the Pharisees did not recognize Christ as the fulfillment of the law.
They had relaxed the law in order to make it doable from their point of view.
Once they made it doable, they were trapped in the inability to confess and be forgiven from their sins.
This happens when we relax God's law.
We make it doable from our point of view, but as long as we think we have no sin, don't confess our sins.
We don't receive this forgiveness and we remain trapped in our repentance This can lead to pride pride in your thinking that You're without sin and have no need of repentance You can become arrogant in your attitude towards others as you look down on those who you consider less righteous at least according to your standards But you're fooling yourself because you're not considering the true righteousness of God
A Christ who is the fulfillment of the law and the righteousness of God has set you free to live according to the very law that condemned you.
And the gospel Jesus is not speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees, he's speaking to his disciples.
This is the Sermon on the Mount.
They've received his blessing and is calling in the previous verses.
And Jesus is the one who fills them with the righteousness they hunger for, or his.
righteousness.
And his righteousness does surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees.
He was perfect as God is perfect.
And Jesus did everything the law requires.
Nothing it forbids.
And yet the law condemned Jesus.
He is, after all, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
God made him who knew no sin to be sin for you.
So Jesus allowed the law to do to him what it should have done to you, accuse you, condemn you, sentence you to death in hell.
And the only one who is righteousness and whose righteousness succeeded that of the scribes and Pharisees, the only one who was perfect is God, is perfect.
The divine son of God was condemned and killed in your place.
And Jesus wasn't lying.
For speaking hyperbole when he said, your righteousness must exceed that of scribes and Pharisees to enter the kingdom of heaven.
He wasn't speaking figuratively when he said, be perfect.
Therefore, as your father in heaven is perfect, no perfection, perfect obedience of the law is exactly what's required.
And so in holy baptism, Jesus gave you his perfect obedience, his complete righteousness and all.
your sin, he claims to be his own.
And all of his righteousness, he declares to be yours.
Your righteousness surpasses that it describes in Pharisees.
Your perfection is that of God the Father.
You are forgiven and set free completely.
God does promise grace and every blessing to all who keep his commandments and therefore we should
Also, love and trust him and gladly do what he commands.
When we take God in his command seriously, we recognize our inability to keep these commands and we live in the grace we have in Christ, trusting in His mercy every day.
We also recognize the inability of our brothers and sisters to keep these commands.
There is a temptation to relax them or to excuse them for ourselves and for others and we're tempted to say, well, nobody's perfect and
Everybody does it or no big deal works to that effect But this doesn't help our brother or sister They also need to take God and his command seriously.
They need to know their sin as consequences They also need to be set free through forgiveness in Christ One way to demonstrate that you take God and his command seriously is by going to those who have something against you and being reconciled to them
Confess your sin to them Ask them for their forgiveness and be willing to forgive them for anything that they might have against you might have against them When we take seriously the forgiveness we have in Christ we readily ask forgiveness from others and forgive those who sin against us So we walk in the grace of our Lord Amen, I mean the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
Please stand.
Take love thy calling spirit from thee.
Restore unto thee.
In peace, let us pray to the Lord, Lord of mercy.
For Christian people, as they ponder all truth, goodness, and beauty, that they would learn the truth of God's word, be filled with virtue and righteousness, and be inspired to adore the glory of the Lord, and so always be one with him.
Let us pray to the Lord, Lord of mercy.
For our Senate, its leaders, its organizations, and our congregation, that we may honor and follow God in
dwell in him from everlasting to everlasting.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For all Christians, that God would increase in them true fear, love, and trust in his saving name, and that we may have no other gods but him.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For all fathers and mothers, pastors, and teachers,
that God would guide and bless them as they bring up children in the discipline and knowledge of the true faith.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For Donald, our president, Tony, our governor, our legislators and judges, our local leaders, and all who serve in our armed forces, that God will grant peace graciously in our time, since there is no other who fights for us but the Lord.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For ourselves and all who call to God in any need, especially the families of Bertha Janky and Marge Thorson, for Vicki, Lynn, Anita, Daryl, Lois, Louis, Marlis, Kim, Greg, Grant, Doris, Matthew, Megan, Mark, Ethel, Dave, Peter, Fred, Harold, Joan, Jaden, Rick, Thorfinn, Lacey, Marilyn, Marlene.
George, Anne, gone, and Florence.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For all who commune, that we would believe firmly that our God does not desire the death of sinners, but rather that they would turn from their evil way and live, and that in such faith we would worthily go to his altar to receive the very body and blood that Christ gave for our redemption.
And so, praise, serve, and honor him always.
Let us pray to the Lord.
in thanksgiving for joy in the Lord's gift of eternal life, that we with the faithful dead who rest
so corrupted by sin that we are never without sinful desires in this life.
Therefore,
our hearts that we would love your word, abide by it, and by your grace be saved forever through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
The Lord be with you.
Lift up your hearts.
Let us give thanks unto the Lord.
It is truly good right and salutary that we should at all times and at all places give thanks to you, Holy Lord, Almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who on this day overcame death and the grave and by his glorious resurrection, opened to us the way of everlasting life.
Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious name, ever more praising you and saying.
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 for ever and ever.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat.
This is my body, which is given for you.
This do, it remembers of me.
In the same way also, he took the cup after supper.
When he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink of it all of you This cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins This do as often as you drink it and remembrance of me The peace of the Lord be with you always
you
you
Thank you for tuning in to the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
May the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
If you have any prayer requests, please let us know.
You may call us at 715-723-6380 or stop by and visit 110 East Grand Avenue in Chippewa Falls.
If you're looking for a church home, we'll gladly tell you more about Zion or help you find a congregation near you.
These broadcasts are paid for by generous gifts made to our radio fund.
If you'd like to contribute, click the Give tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org, or send a check to Zion Lutheran Church Radio Fund, 110 East Grand Avenue, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, 54729.
Zion is a member of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.
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Good morning and welcome to the broadcast of the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
To help you follow along, the Order of Worship for today's service is available under the radio tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org.
The Lord bless you today through the hearing of His word.
We're in the sixth Sunday after Trinity.
We'll begin with our opening hymn number 590 baptized into your name most holy.
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Beloved in the Lord, let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God, our Father, besieging him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.
O Almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities, with which I have ever offended you, and justly deserve your temporal and eternal punishment.
But I am heartily sorry for them, and sincerely repent of them, and I pray you of your boundless mercy, and for the sake of the Holy
Innocent bitter sufferings and death of your beloved son, Jesus Christ.
Be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.
Upon this, your confession, I by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the word, announce the grace of God unto all of you.
And in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
We turn to the yellow insert and sing together the intro.
Yeah.
Yeah.
for help when I lift up my hands to
Thanks to him.
and give her of all good things, graft into our hearts the love of your name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of your great mercy, keep us in the same through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
You want to keep that handy for your own.
The Old Testament reading is from Exodus chapter 20.
And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself a curved image or any likeness of
of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath's day to keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
On it you shall not do any work.
You are your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth.
the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day.
Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbors.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
We sing together the psalm printed in your yellow insert.
Whose voice is not heard.
Their measuring line goes up through all the earth, and their words to
end of the world.
In them she has sent a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bright room.
And like a strong man runs his horse with joy.
Its pricing is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them.
And there is nothing hidden from his seed.
It's perfect.
The fear of the Lord is clean.
In keeping them
It falls.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.
Let them not path to me over me.
Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
The precepts of the Lord.
The
epistle is from Romans chapter 6.
we too might walk in newness of life.
Or if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.
Death no longer has dominion over him.
For the death he died, he died to sin once for all.
The life he lives, he lives to God.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
The Holy Gospel according to St.
Matthew chapter 5.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you, everyone,
that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.
First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.
Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you're going out, going with him to court,
lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.
Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Together we confess our faith is written in the words of the Nicene Creed.
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light.
very God, a very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made known, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried.
And the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.
who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
God is serious about his commandments and when he delivered these, he's speaking directly to his people, Mount Sinai.
They were terrified in his holy presence.
They were terrified at these holy words that were to be taken seriously.
But God was speaking to them as his chosen people, his first words to them.
I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
He is the very one who miraculously delivered them from slavery and brought them out of the land of Egypt.
In other words, he is almighty.
He's the one true God and he's actively working on their behalf.
He's chosen people with them and he is for them.
He's speaking to them for their good.
He's revealing to his people the way things are, the way he made them to be, and how they are to live.
And this is good.
He is the ultimate authority, and there is no better way to live.
And since he is the one and only God, why would anyone fear, love, or trust in anyone or anything else?
But they, like us, were not able to.
They were fallen creatures.
They had inherited that rebellious nature of Adam and Eve as have we.
And God's commandments told them what it means to fear love and trust in God above all others.
And he threatened to punish all who broke these commandments so that they would fear his wrath and not do anything against them.
But he promised grace and every blessing to all who keep his commandments.
God wants his people to love and trust in him and gladly do what he commands.
Now there are consequences to following and not following God's commands.
There are consequences in this life.
There's also accountability to God on the day of judgment.
You read accounts of consequences of sins to...
subsequent generations in the Old Testament and throughout history.
We see evidence of this today to how one generation sins are passed on to subsequent generations.
We also see God's grace and blessing toward his people.
God gave them promises and blessings in the sacrificial worship that he prescribed for them.
to atone for their sins and to keep them in his grace.
God was faithful to forgive those who confessed that they fell short of the demands of his law, who turned to him trusting in the forgiveness that he promised.
These words and promises and practices revealed God's law as well as the promised one who would come to fulfill the law on God's.
on the behalf of God's people.
And so when the promised one came in, the person of Jesus Christ, he wasn't recognized by many, even those who studied God's law, amongst those the scribes and Pharisees considered to be these scholars of the law.
But as much as it seemed that they took his law and God seriously, it turns out that they didn't.
They had.
more fear, love, and trust in others than of God and what God thought.
In the verses leading up to today's Gospel text, Jesus is speaking to the crowd and he states,
Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The scribes and the Pharisees had relaxed the commandments that were teaching others to do the same.
They convinced others and themselves that they could live up to God's standards, perfect as they are.
Though Jesus clarifies that following God's laws more than a matter of do's and don'ts, it's a matter of the heart.
Explaining the fuller meeting of God's command, you shall not murder Jesus states, everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.
Whoever insults his brother will be liable to counsel.
And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
You're guilty of murder.
when you have this unrighteous anger against somebody else, when you say or even think a minor insult against someone.
Yes, God meant what He said when He spoke His commandments at Mount Sinai, and He threatens to punish all those who break His commandments.
Knowing there are consequences, they do prevent some from going too far with overt sinful actions.
But not breaking these commandments in any obvious way does not let us off the hook.
And this is where God's words are so important.
Understood rightly, we are all guilty of breaking God's commandments and liable to judgment.
This is why we cannot relax the commandments at all.
Don't want to be deceived into thinking that we have a righteousness of our own.
We stand before God guilty.
guilty of his just laws, but we stand before God who has chosen us to be his own and delivered us from slavery to sin.
He's done this through Jesus who fulfilled the law and all its demands on our behalf.
Jesus out of his abundant love and mercy took the full punishment and wrath of God that we deserve for breaking these commandments.
We stand before God guilty and confess that we deserve his punishment.
temporal and eternal punishment.
We repent and we say we repent sincerely because we take God and His commandments seriously.
We pray for His boundless mercy and we appeal to our advocate, the one who stood in on our behalf for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of God's beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
We plead that God be merciful to us.
poor sinful beings.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
The scribes and the Pharisees did not recognize Christ as the fulfillment of the law.
They had relaxed the law in order to make it doable from their point of view.
But once they made it doable, they were trapped in the inability to confess and be forgiven from their sins.
This happens when we relax God's law.
We make it doable from our point of view.
But as long as we think we have no sin, don't confess our sins.
We don't receive this forgiveness and we remain trapped in our repentance This can lead to pride pride in your thinking that You're without sin and have no need of repentance You can become arrogant in your attitude towards others as you look down on those who you consider less righteous at least according to your standards But you're fooling yourself because you're not considering the true righteousness of God
But Christ who is the fulfillment of the law and the righteousness of God has set you free to live according to the very law that condemned you.
And the gospel Jesus is not speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees, he's speaking to his disciples.
This is the Sermon on the Mount.
They've received his blessing and is calling in the previous verses.
And Jesus is the one who fills them with the righteousness they hunger for, or his.
righteousness.
And his righteousness does surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees.
He was perfect as God is perfect.
And Jesus did everything the law requires.
Nothing it forbids.
And yet the law condemned Jesus.
He is after all the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
God made him who knew no sin to be sin for you.
So Jesus allowed the law to do to him what it should have done to you, accuse you, condemn you, sentence you to death in hell.
And the only one who is righteousness and whose righteousness succeeded that of the scribes and Pharisees, the only one who was perfect is God, is perfect.
The divine son of God was condemned and killed in your place.
And Jesus wasn't lying.
For speaking hyperbole when he said your righteousness must exceed that of scribes and Pharisees to enter the kingdom of heaven He wasn't speaking figuratively when he said be perfect therefore as your father and heaven is perfect No perfection perfect obedience of the law is exactly what's required and so in holy baptism Jesus gave you his perfect obedience his complete righteousness and all your sin
He claims to be his own.
In all of his righteousness, he declares to be yours.
Your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees.
Your perfection is that of God the Father.
You are forgiven and set free completely.
God does promise grace and every blessing to all who keep his commandments and therefore we should also love and trust him and gladly do what he commands.
When we take God in His command seriously, we recognize our inability to keep these commands, and we live in the grace we have in Christ, trusting in His mercy every day.
We also recognize the inability of our brothers and sisters to keep these commands.
There is a temptation to relax them or to excuse them for ourselves and for others, and we're tempted to say, well, nobody's perfect and everybody does it or no big deal.
Words to that effect.
But this doesn't help our brother or sister.
They also need to take God in his command seriously.
They need to know that their sin has consequences.
They also need to be set free through forgiveness in Christ.
One way to demonstrate that you take God in his command seriously is by going to those who have something against you and being reconciled to them.
Confess your sin to them.
Ask them for their forgiveness.
and be willing to forgive them for anything that you might have against them.
When we take seriously the forgiveness we have in Christ, we readily ask forgiveness from others and forgive those who sin against us.
So we walk in the grace of our Lord.
Amen.
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Please stand.
In peace, let us pray to the Lord, Lord of mercy.
For Christian people as they ponder all truth, goodness, and beauty, that they would learn the truth of God's word, be filled with virtue and righteousness, and be inspired to adore the glory of the Lord, and so always be one with him.
Let us pray to the Lord, Lord of mercy.
For our Senate, its leaders, its organizations, and our congregation, that we may honor and follow God and dwell in
him from everlasting to everlasting.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For all Christians, that God would increase in them true fear, love, and trust in his saving name, and that we may have no other gods but him.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For all fathers and mothers, pastors, and teachers, that God would guide and bless them as they bring up children.
in the discipline and knowledge of the true faith.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For Donald, our president, Tony, our governor, our legislators and judges, our local leaders, and all who served in our armed forces, that God would grant peace graciously in our time.
Since there is no other who fights for us but the Lord, let us pray to the Lord.
for ourselves and all who call to God in any need, especially the families of Bertha Janky and Marge Thorson, for Vicki, Lynn, Anita, Daryl, Lois, Lewis, Marlis, Kim, Greg, Grant, Doris, Matthew, Megan, Mark, Ethel, Dave, Peter, Fred, Harold, Joan, Jaden, Rick, Thorfinn, Lacey, Marilyn, Marlene, George, Ann, Dawn, and Florence.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For all who commune, that we would believe firmly that our God does not desire the death of sinners, but rather that they would turn from their evil way and live, and that in such faith we would worthily go to his altar to receive the very body and blood that Christ gave for our redemption.
And so, praise, serve, and honor him always.
Let us pray to the Lord.
in thanksgiving for joy in the Lord's gift of eternal life, that we, with the faithful dead who rest in the hope of the resurrection, may dwell in the Lord throughout all generations.
Let us pray to the Lord.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, we confess that we are poor miserable sinners and with no good in us.
Our hearts and our flesh and blood are so corrupted by sin that we are never without sinful desires in this life.
Therefore, we implore you, forgive us our sins.
Let your Holy Spirit so cleanse our hearts that we would love your word, abide by it, and by your grace be saved forever through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
The Lord be with you.
And with thy spirit.
Lift up your hearts.
Lord.
Let us give thanks unto the Lord our God.
It is truly good right and salutary that we should at all times and at all places give thanks to you, Holy Lord, Almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who on this day overcame death and the grave and by his glorious resurrection, opened to us the way of everlasting life.
Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious name, ever more praising you and
saying.
I would 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 we thus not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat.
This is my body, which is given for you.
This do it remembrance of me.
In the same way also, he took the cup after supper.
When he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink of it all of you.
This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
The peace of the Lord be with you always.
Thank you for tuning in to the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
May the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
If you have any prayer requests, please let us know.
You may call us at 715-723-6380 or stop by and visit 110 East Grand Avenue in Chippewa Falls.
If you're looking for a church home, we'll gladly tell you more about Zion or help you find a congregation near you.
These broadcasts are paid for by generous gifts made to our radio fund
If you'd like to contribute, click the Give tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org, or send a check to Zion Lutheran Church Radio Fund, 110 East Grand Avenue, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, 54729.
Zion is a member of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.
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