I'd like to now invite our speaker for this morning, the Reverend Cody Schwichtenberg to our pulpit. Well, good morning, everybody. It's a pleasure to be back. I think it was a couple years ago I came and preached and did some baptisms and administered the Lord's Supper. And I think it was back in 2015 that I came and did a Mission Fest as well. But if you would, please turn in your Bibles to our first scripture reading, and we're actually gonna have three. But for our Old Testament reading, we are going to read from Deuteronomy chapter seven. So please rise for the reading of God's most holy word. We'll read Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 1 through 8. When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriage with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take the daughter for your son, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. And so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images with fire. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all people. But because the Lord loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." In our next reading, we'll come from Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. And we're actually going to start at verse 10, and we'll read through verse 20. Here now again, the word of our Lord. When he had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, hear and understand, not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. Then his disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? But he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch. Then Peter answered and said to him, explain this parable to us. So Jesus said, are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies, These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man. And then one more, and this will be our focus, Proverbs chapter 27, Proverbs chapter 27, verse 19. Proverbs here says, as in water, face reflects face, so a man's heart reveals the man. As in water, face reflects face, so a man's heart reveals the man. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Amen? Amen. You may be seated. Let us pray. Well, Lord our God, our Heavenly Father, our good and gracious Lord, we come before you today knowing our weakness, knowing that without your grace, we would not understand this message, your word. We would not understand it. We might know facts about it or have head knowledge, but but it is by your Holy Spirit that you apply these things to our hearts, that we might believe them and respond in faith by living thankfully unto you. So Lord, our God, we do ask that you would open our ears, that you'd open our eyes, that you would, once again, remove any distractions that may be upon our hearts. Lord, help us to put the things of this world away for just a moment so that we might give our undivided attention to your word. Lord, help me to speak your word faithfully, clearly, and boldly. And above all things, we pray that you would receive all the glory and honor that is due unto you. In Christ's name we do pray. Amen. Beloved congregation in the Lord Jesus Christ, As our firstborn son, Ezra grows, he's starting to look more like Angie and I every day. He has Angie's complexion and hair and eyes. He has more of my facial features, maybe a pinch of my stubbornness, but there will be a day when Ezra will not only look like us outwardly in appearance, but to some extent he will reflect our behaviors, the good and the bad. And why is that? It's because Ezra is just as sinful as Ange and I are. And as he gets older, that's starting to become more prevalent, but thankfully he's so cute. But if you want to see the certain struggles that you deal with, sometimes all you have to do is look at your children. And to some extent, they do reflect as a mirror of your own sinfulness. I think of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham lied about his wife in order to protect his wife. Then his son Isaac did the very same thing. They were both guilty and responsible for their own sins, but both committed similar sins. And the reason for that is because Abraham and Isaac had the same sinful condition. And when we look at others, When we look at others and we see their sinful actions, it actually reflects the condition which we struggle with. We have new life in the Lord Jesus Christ as Christians, but we still struggle with that old man. And that is what is being taught here in Proverbs 27, verse 19. As in water, face reflects face, so a man's heart reveals the man. So if you were to go outside and look down at a puddle, what would you see? You would see your reflection. What if you went to another puddle? You would yet again see your reflection and another, your reflection. And whoever would look down at this puddle, they would see a reflection of themselves as well. And without something to reflect our appearance, we would not know what we would or what we look like. But what about a blind man? What if a blind man goes over this puddle, what would he see? Well, nothing. And the reason for that, it doesn't mean that there's not a reflection there, but based upon his condition, he is unable to see his face. And the unregenerate man is described as a blind man. The Pharisees were described as blind men. And although their sinful behaviors reflects the conditions of their heart, they will not see nor acknowledge their spiritual blindness or their nature. Consider what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4 and then 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 4, In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. And then from our reading from Matthew 15, Jesus said, for out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual moralities, theft, false witness, slander. So the heart of the man reflects the condition of the man. And the law of God is written upon the hearts of every man. Even if a person has never heard of the Ten Commandments, they have the law of God written upon their hearts. So they know what sin is. They know what is right and what is wrong. But what they end up doing is that they end up holding down that truth, ignoring that truth, trying to cover up that truth and make them feel better about their guilty conscience. If you read Romans 1, it speaks of that. But in Romans 2, it speaks of the fact that the law is written on the hearts of all men. For it says, for when Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them." So let's see how people excuse sin. So a couple weeks ago, I caught two boys stealing money from my car and also some apples from my tree. And it's kind of comical how I caught them, but I'm not going to talk about that. But how would someone make light of these boys that are about maybe 9 or 10 stealing money or apples from my tree? Well, people would say, oh, boys will be boys. They're only human. Stealing apples and a few quarters, that's not a big deal. Well, what does the Bible say about our sinful condition? And by the way, just a comment here is Although I was upset that they were doing that, I have to realize that if it were not for the grace of God, I would be doing the exact same thing as these boys. But this is what Romans 3 says about our sinful condition, starting at verse 10. As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of vipers is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. So we cannot sugarcoat not simply our sinful actions, but also the sinful condition which we have and what all people are born with. Man is sinful from head to toe, mind, heart, will. That's why you see the different references to body parts, the eyes, the tongue, the feet, the hands. That's saying we're not as bad as we could be, but every aspect of us is tainted with sin. And if we are left in that condition, then the judgment of God is upon us. And when we see other sin, The last thing we should do is pat ourselves on the back and say, you know what, I'm pretty good compared to that guy. No, but rather it should cause us to reflect upon our own hearts. What comes out of our hearts? Once again, you were born with the same sinful heart condition. And without the grace of God, you would be under that same judgment. One of my favorite phrases that has helped me when this in general is the phrase, if it were not for the grace of God, there go I. If it were not for the grace of God, there go I. So let's tackle a phrase that people use to make light of sin. And this comes in different iterations, but this is what some people say. They say, people aren't perfect, everyone has a little bit of good in them. People aren't perfect, everybody has a little bit of good in them. Now, I'm not gonna deal with common grace in the sense that unbelievers can do nice things, But without faith, no one can please God, right? So even the nice things that they do, and on the outward, they're not bad. If they help a little old lady cross the street, you could consider it an evil work in the sense that it is not pleasing to the Lord. But the reason I use this phrase is that to some extent, people are expressing this fact that there is some sort of universal goodness. So the question we need to ask is, is that the reality? Does everybody have a little bit of good in them, or do we follow what scripture says that says, no one does good, not even one. So let's just look at some of the things which we see in our world today. Since it's election season, I'm sure many of you may have spent a lot of time watching the news and sometimes get too consumed by it. But what do you see on the news? Do you see Democrats and Republicans singing Kumbaya? Are they giving one another compliments? Is 80% of news random acts of kindness? wish it was, but are people worried about other people's reputations? And the answer is no. One of the things like, to me it's just, sometimes you gotta turn it off because it's so disgusting, that you see these talking heads or these political commentators twisting the words of people and taking it out of the context And if you want to see what it looks like to break the ninth commandment, to bear false witness, all you have to do is watch five minutes of the news. So you do not see universal goodness on Fox News or MSNBC or CNN. Rather, you see the universal sinfulness of man. whether you're watching TV or listening to the radio or on your computer or simply just watching people in your everyday life, you see a reflection of the sinful human condition. I want to make a comment that at first you might say it's a little bit shocking, but if you ask the question, what's the greatest evidence that God exists besides creation and besides the scriptures, although this is tied to the scriptures. I think one of the greatest evidence for the existence of God is sin. I think one of the greatest evidence of the existence of God is sin. So what do I mean by that? I mean that people do exactly what the Bible says, exactly what the Bible says. God's description of man is so accurate. Consider 1 Timothy 3, verses one through five, and consider if this sounds like our day and age, right? Sinful people are in the first century and beyond, and people who are sinful in the 21st century, they do wicked things. But this is what the Apostle Paul says. But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, Lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power, avoid such people. So I encourage you this week to read 1st Timothy 3 and then just observe people. Observe them. See if what the Apostle Paul says here is true and what you'll find is it's very true. But what if, what if you left Minot and you move to the mountains of Colorado, you removed all electronics, you went off the grid from civilization, you became a mountain man monk, would you be able to escape sin and evil? And the answer is no. If you would go and you'd look down at a Colorado spring, what would you see? you would see a sinful person, the one sinful person that you cannot get away from. You cannot escape your own sinfulness. And I think this is important that, because we gotta be careful that we don't act like Adam and blame Eve or be like Eve and blame Satan, but rather we have to realize that people really are not our problem. Our main problem is us. Because if you could remove every person from your life on this planet, you would still have lustful desires. If you could remove every person that makes you angry in this life, you would still have angry desires. Consider what James chapter four verses one and two says. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder, you covet and cannot obtain. so you fight and quarrel." So although we might project a lust and anger upon other people, the main problem is the root that brings forth the sinful fruit. But as we consider the sinfulness of man, we do have to realize that we are Christians. That although we have a sinful nature, an old man, we are no longer under the power of sin. We are no longer dead in our sins. We are no longer slaves. And though we don't always see our sins as we should, we are no longer blind to the reality of the fact that we sin. Put it this way, we are not good people, we are grace-filled people. We are not good people, we are grace-filled people. A phrase that I always hated, but I had a family member that would say it. They would say, well, we might not be good Christians. And I just, I don't like that phrase because Like what scripture says, no one does good, not even one. And it'd be better to say being a faithful Christian or a God-honoring Christian, but I don't think we should say we're good Christians. Because if we looked at our lives, we would say that we're not perfectly good. But God has given us new life in Jesus Christ. We have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And though you do sin, you do not have to give into that desire to sin. I like to put it this way, is that you can say no to sin and you can say yes to righteousness. You can say no to sin and yes to righteousness. And so you have now been given the power of the Holy Spirit to live onto the glory of God. And in order to live onto the glory of God, to live this Christian life, we have to know our identity in Christ. Another thing I encourage you to do is read, read like all the, or maybe you can do some of them, but if you want to, read all the epistles that Paul wrote. And just notice that before he gets to the application section, so the first section, like Ephesians, Ephesians one through three is the, The doctrine four through six is the application. But before you get the application in every single one of those epistles, it starts with our union with Christ. And we see this in the book of Romans, where Paul says this, starting at verse nine. We know that Christ, having been 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, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider or reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So you are freed from the power of sin, so that you might live onto the glory of God. Now, there's still the presence of sin, but the power no longer, it has no power over you in the sense that you just can't say no, you can. But what you have been saved from, which is the power of sin and judgment of God, it should affect the way you view and interact with unbelievers. And this is where, with Mission Fest, we talk about missions and evangelism, and this aspect, I think, applies to that. Because, let me ask you, how do you view unbelievers? How do you view them? Well, one way you shouldn't view them is in a condescending way. You shouldn't look down on them. Rather, you should have compassion upon them, or pity upon them. I'll give you one example from a pastor that made a Facebook post, Reverend Matt Powell. He was talking about the Olympics and the opening ceremony where a group of transgender people mocked God by recreating Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. And this is what Reverend Matt Powell says. He says, pagans are going to pagan. The Paris Olympic Opening Ceremony was, of course, offensive, of course, intended to mock Christianity, and it was intended to mock all of God's standards of truth and reality. Our reaction really doesn't need to be outrage, something more like pity. When a child weakly kicks at the shin of the king, does it make the followers of the king look strong to beat that child? If not for God's grace, we'd all be doing the very same thing. Let God be as merciful and gracious as he wishes to be, and don't feel any need to be more punitive and wrathful than Jesus himself is. And we know that judgment will come upon those who do not repent, do not turn to Christ. But I do think there's wisdom here with what Reverend Paul says, Because as Christians, we are not better than unbelievers, we're better off. And what makes us better off is that we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. This is what the Geneva Bible says about our passage in Proverbs 27, verse 19. It says, there is no difference between men by nature Only the grace of God makes the difference. Now consider the Israelites. They were never prideful, were they? They were always humble, no. The Israelites were often tempted to think that because God had elected them to be His chosen people in the Old Testament, they thought that they were better than the Gentiles. But clearly, God choosing the Israelites was not because of their greatness, not because of their goodness, not because of anything within them, because in Deuteronomy 7, which we read, verses 7 and 8, this is what God says. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord has set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And as Christians, we can have the same temptation, right? We can think that we're better than others. And it can happen too, especially in reform circles. You learn of the doctrines of grace and God's sovereignty. You get in what's called the cage stage. The reason they call it the cage stage is because you need to be put in a cage because you're gonna end up hurting somebody. And when we look at others and we think we're better than them, it comes in, I would say, a subtle form that almost seems righteous a little bit. Well, it is righteous, self-righteousness. It is played through criticism and comparison. You look at the couple that fights and you say, you know, our marriage is pretty great compared to them. You look at other people's children and you think, well, the way we discipline, we do it better than them because our kids are more well-behaved. Or we look at the failures of other people and we think how we would have done it differently and how that would have turned out better. And when we see the sins of others, the first response should not be criticism, but rather reflection, reflection. And these are the type of questions that we should ask ourselves. Where do I sin in my marriage? Where do I fall short in teaching and disciplining my children? Where do I fail to serve God and give glory unto him in my life? Remember what Jesus says. Now, people twist this phrase, judge not lest you also be judged. And they use it to say, well, you can't say anything. Well, that's not what it's saying. But it's saying that we need to deal with the potential logs in our own eyes before we deal with the specks in our brother's eyes. Now that doesn't mean that we'd never confront sin, it doesn't mean that we never call out sin, but what it means is that before we go to our brothers and sisters in Christ who are sinning, that it's always good to have a proper self-examination to see if, one, if we're doing the very same thing, and also just in general consider our own struggles. Consider what Galatians 6 says, The Apostle Paul says, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. When you see another brother and sister sinning, don't look at them and say, well, I would never do that. I would never commit that sin. Well, be careful. because you can be tempted by that sin and you can give in to that sin. I know of one person, a good friend of mine that was a pastor and sadly passed away not too long ago, but he was part of dealing with another pastor that was dealing with alcoholism. And he was kind of the head of directing that and he ended up struggling with alcoholism himself. And ultimately, led to his death because of the effects of it. So watch out. Proverbs 27 verse 19, as in water face reflects face, so a man's heart reveals the man. So God is working in you by the power of the spirit that you would reflect less like the sinful world around you and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Every day you are being transformed more and more into the likeness of his son. You may not realize it, but that transformation is happening right now as you're hearing this message. The Spirit is working within you. And one way God helps us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is to see where we do not look like Jesus Christ. Maybe you use your mouth more to curse than to praise God. Maybe you gossip more than speaking the truth. Maybe you use more of your energy to complain rather than to give thanks unto God. Maybe you use your Sunday mornings more to be focused on worldly things rather than worship God. So this part is very important and we're drawing near to the end here. But Christ died, not so that you would look like the world, but that you would reflect his likeness to a world that is perishing. I think of the Heidelberg Catechism, where it says, I'm sure you guys dealt with that, you dealt with that just recently, looking at question 86, but it says in the answer, it is by our godly walk that we win others to Christ. So when it comes to evangelism, it's important to walk like Christ as well as to speak about Christ. We need to have a Christ-like walk and a Christ-like talk. And there's a gospel song that I heard when I was looking at this passage. And by the way, the song's not perfect. There's some theological issues with it. It does make a good point that our words and our deeds matter when it comes to extending the gospel to our neighbors. And this is how it goes. You know your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks. Your behavior toward your neighbor is really how you feel about your Savior. When you exemplify and shine the light of Christ, you know the number in the kingdom will be multiplied. Yes, your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks. And if you don't like that, consider what John Calvin says in his Institutes about the Christian life. He says, being a Christian is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It is not apprehended by the understanding and memory alone as other disciplines are. but it is received only when it possesses the whole soul and finds its seat and resting place in the innermost affections of the heart. So when we are affected by the truths of the gospel, it will affect our speech, it will affect our thoughts, but it will also affect our lives. So beloved in Christ, And I like the Heidelberg Catechism, the outline, guilt, grace, and gratitude, or you could say sin, salvation, service. And I always think about that. Because without knowing our sinfulness, we would not know our need for our Savior. And if we didn't know both our sin and our need of our Savior, we would not serve God. They're all interconnected, they're tied together. So sugarcoating your sin, nor elevating the sins of others will help you grow in grace. It actually fuels pride. It is knowing our need of Christ and what he has done for us that helps us grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Consider Heidelberg Catechism 115. This comes after going through the exposition of the Ten Commandments. It says, why then does God so strictly enjoin the Ten Commandments upon us, since in this life no one can keep them? And answer, first, that as long as we live, we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature. And so the more earnestly seek forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ, Second, that without seizing, we diligently ask God for the grace of the Holy Spirit that we be renewed more and more after the image of God until we attain the goal of perfection in this life. Or after this life, not in this life. Because in this life, there's still gonna be aspects of us that are broken. And by the Holy Spirit, we are being sanctified. The image that has been distorted will be repaired. But it's when Christ returns that that restoration will be complete. That is when our perfect reflection will show. because we will reflect Christ. As the Apostle John says, when Christ returns, for we will see him as he is, for we will be like him. And we should long for that day. And where we fall short, where the mirror is still broken or ugly, we should look for the grace of God to help us to see our need for Christ, or to see our sinfulness, see our need for Christ, and repent and believe on him once again. Because just one other comment, the Christian life doesn't begin with faith and then the rest is just good works. No, the entire Christian life is of faith and repentance and it's through faith and repentance or through repentance that we can live the Christian life. Faith, faith, we have to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ because without faith, we cannot please God but when we look to the Lord Jesus Christ, then we will live thankfully unto our Lord and extend that to our neighbors. For we pray all these things, or we say all these things of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us now pray. Oh Lord our God, our Heavenly Father, we we realize that we do fall short of your glory. We don't always do what is good, and even the good that we do is tainted with sin, those filthy rags. And Lord, We pray that although we may be humbled by this passage, this message, we pray that it would not crush us, that it would not lead us to despair, but rather that it would draw us more and more to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because although we do fall short, Lord, we long for the day of when Christ shall return. and that we will be made like him perfectly, and that there will be no more sin, that there'll be no more sorrow, there'll be no more taint of that, but we will be like him as we see him. For now we pray all these things in Christ's name for his sake, amen.