{"id":2782,"date":"2021-04-26T17:21:25","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T17:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=2782"},"modified":"2025-05-14T15:15:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T15:15:21","slug":"sin-righteous-and-judgment-who-is-right-and-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/04\/26\/sin-righteous-and-judgment-who-is-right-and-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Sin, Righteous, and Judgment: Who is Right and Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Cantate Sunday| Rev. <strong>Rolf D. Preus<\/strong><\/strong>| <strong>May 2, 2010<\/strong>| <strong>St. John 16, 7-11<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment: Who is Right and Wrong: Rolf Preus Cantate Sermon 2010\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/4l1v3ZplHmJUcL5i9xOked?si=7768e05e2c3a450c&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;I tell you the truth.&nbsp; It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. St. John 16, 7-11&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Comforter is the Holy Spirit.&nbsp; He is the Spirit of truth.&nbsp; We confess him as the Lord and giver of life.&nbsp; He takes what belongs to Christ and reveals it to us.&nbsp; He opens our hearts and our minds to receive God\u2019s gifts.&nbsp; He works inside of us to change us.&nbsp; He converts us.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He finds us unwilling.&nbsp; Our will is bound.&nbsp; We are held in spiritual bondage to the powers of darkness.&nbsp; We have no true peace and no genuine comfort.&nbsp; The Comforter makes the unwilling willing.&nbsp; He changes the cold and stony heart into a believing heart that joyfully receives Jesus Christ and all the treasure he has to give.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Comforter doesn\u2019t send himself.&nbsp; Jesus sends him.&nbsp; But before Jesus can send him Jesus must go to the cross.&nbsp; There is no other way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s what Jesus said.&nbsp; He said:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I tell you the truth.&nbsp; It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus has to go away.&nbsp; He has to depart.&nbsp; Where?&nbsp; Jesus was going to the cross.&nbsp; He would be betrayed and handed over to the Romans who would whip him, mock him, and crucify him.&nbsp; This was to be to the advantage of Jesus\u2019 disciples and indeed of all Christians of all time.&nbsp; Only by going to the cross can Jesus send the Holy Spirit.&nbsp; That\u2019s what Jesus said and Jesus speaks the truth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God and the world have a difference of opinion.&nbsp; It is a threefold difference of opinion.&nbsp; They hold to different opinions about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment.&nbsp; It is the Holy Spirit who sets forth God\u2019s argument.&nbsp; He shows us that God is right and the world is wrong.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What God says about sin is right.&nbsp; What the world says about sin is wrong.&nbsp; The world says that sin is merely the outward act you do that breaks the moral code.&nbsp; God says that sin is the inward desire you have that turns you away from God.&nbsp; The world says that sin is something sinners can overcome if they know how to do it.&nbsp; God says the soul that sins shall die, the wages of sin is death, and the one who sins is a slave to sin and will remain in bondage until he is set free by Jesus Christ.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The world says that sin is breaking the rules.&nbsp; Then the world makes rules it can obey.&nbsp; Inventing your own rules, attributing them to God, and claiming a reward from God for obeying them is a neat trick if you can get away with it.&nbsp; But you can\u2019t.&nbsp; The Holy Spirit convicts you.&nbsp; He shows you are wrong.&nbsp; He exposes the lie.&nbsp; We cannot avoid sin by obeying rules.&nbsp; We cannot free ourselves from sin by following any sort of spiritual regimen or discipline.&nbsp; Only the sin-bearer can take sin away.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We must want what God wants.&nbsp; We must desire what God desires.&nbsp; Our will must conform to his.&nbsp; Love demands it.&nbsp; God is love.&nbsp; We must fear, love, and trust in him above all things.&nbsp; If we do not, we have not yet begun to obey him and everything we do is sin.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus says, \u201c[The Comforter] will convict the word of sin . . . because they do not believe in me.\u201d&nbsp; Unbelief is the root sin and everything that grows up out of unbelief is sin no matter how holy it looks on the outside.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Universalists teach that everyone with any kind of religion can be saved and go to heaven even if they do not believe in Jesus Christ.&nbsp; We are often told of heroic deeds \u2013 religious deeds \u2013 done by adherents of non-Christian religions as evidence that one need not believe in Jesus to be good and to do good.&nbsp; But these are the arguments of the spiritually blind.&nbsp; They do not trust in God.&nbsp; They trust in their own reason.&nbsp; They wish to reason their way to God and to eternal life.&nbsp; It cannot be done.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not believing in Jesus is sin because Jesus is God.&nbsp; The First Commandment says, \u201cThou shalt have no other gods before me.\u201d&nbsp; Those who do not believe in Jesus set up a false god \u2013 a god of their own making \u2013 and replace the true God with their idol.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not believing in Jesus is sin because only Jesus can take away sin.&nbsp; Unbelief is the root sin because it is only through faith in Jesus that we receive forgiveness of sins.&nbsp; God does not forgive sins piecemeal, as if he will forgive this sin but not that sin.&nbsp; God forgives sinners and if you are not forgiven of all your sins you are not forgiven of any of your sins.&nbsp; We are forgiven of all our sins through faith in Jesus the sin-bearer who took our sins away on the cross.&nbsp; Those who do not believe in Jesus do not have forgiveness for any of their sins and therefore everything they do is sin.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What God says about righteousness is right and what the world says about righteousness is wrong.&nbsp; The Holy Spirit shows this through the gospel.&nbsp; The world is wrong about righteousness, Jesus says, \u201cBecause I go to the Father and you see me no more.\u201d&nbsp; What does Jesus going to the Father have to do with righteousness?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How did Jesus go to the Father?&nbsp; What route did he take?&nbsp; Did he simply ascend into heaven?&nbsp; Did he get on a fiery chariot like Elijah?&nbsp; No, he went to the Father by way of the cross.&nbsp; There is where true righteousness is to be found and nowhere else.&nbsp; It is in Jesus\u2019 obedient suffering and death.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is another kind of righteousness that is good enough for its purposes.&nbsp; It is the righteousness that works for the world.&nbsp; It is not the righteousness that makes you righteous before God and brings you to heaven.&nbsp; It\u2019s a righteousness that makes you righteous before the world.&nbsp; It is a successful living kind of goodness.&nbsp; Do this and you\u2019ll succeed in life.&nbsp; Here\u2019s how to overcome this problem.&nbsp; Here\u2019s how to avoid that pitfall.&nbsp; Most of what passes for Christian preaching is of this variety: common sense advice on how to live successful lives by following tried and true principles.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it\u2019s not true righteousness.&nbsp; It doesn\u2019t pass the divine test.&nbsp; To stand righteous before God requires of you what you have not done and cannot do.&nbsp; It requires a righteousness that is flawless.&nbsp; It requires a perfect heart, pure motives, and a love untainted by selfishness.&nbsp; Only the obedience of Christ is truly righteous.&nbsp; In going to the Father Jesus has provided us with his righteousness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, he offers it to the Father.&nbsp; Then, he pleads it before the Father.&nbsp; He offered his righteousness to the Father in going to the cross.&nbsp; This was the ultimate act of righteousness.&nbsp; It was pure and holy obedience.&nbsp; It was love.&nbsp; He suffered, died, was buried, and rose on the third day.&nbsp; He ascended into heaven.&nbsp; Now he pleads his righteousness before the Father.&nbsp; He pleads for you and for me.&nbsp; He intercedes.&nbsp; He sets before our God and Father his righteousness as our righteousness.&nbsp; The Father looks at what Jesus did and he credits it to us.&nbsp; He reckons it to us.&nbsp; He imputes it to us.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We don\u2019t see this happening.&nbsp; It is hidden from our sight.&nbsp; The outward works of the self-righteous are far more impressive looking than a righteousness that cannot even be seen.&nbsp; But we know that Jesus intercedes for us.&nbsp; We know that his obedience replaces our sin.&nbsp; We know that as surely as our sin became his on the cross, his righteousness is now ours.&nbsp; We know this through faith.&nbsp; God gives us Christ\u2019s righteousness.&nbsp; We receive it through faith.&nbsp; As St. Paul declares:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.&nbsp; For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, \u201cThe just shall live by faith.\u201d Romans 1, 16-17&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>True righteousness is always hidden under faith and the cross.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What God says about judgment is right.&nbsp; What the world says about judgment is wrong.&nbsp; The world judges according to the flesh.&nbsp; It judges according to its own self-righteousness.&nbsp; It judges the gospel.&nbsp; The gospel reveals to us the righteousness by which we are justified by God himself.&nbsp; This is the most precious teaching in the whole world.&nbsp; This is priceless knowledge.&nbsp; And the world passes judgment on this gospel.&nbsp; It is foolishness, says the world.&nbsp; It is an offense to human pride.&nbsp; It is despised, just as Christ was despised when he was suffering for us all on the cross.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the ruler of this world has been judged.&nbsp; Satan\u2019s head was crushed when Jesus\u2019 heel was bruised because by that bruising the flawless obedience of Jesus was offered up to God to replace the sin of the world.&nbsp; Righteousness defeated sin and this is what cast the devil down into hell.&nbsp; This is what shut his mouth forever.&nbsp; This is what judged the accuser of the saints, silencing his lies, and setting Christians free.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The comfort of the Comforter comes from Jesus.&nbsp; Jesus sends him.&nbsp; He takes what belongs to Christ and makes it known to us.&nbsp; Christ is glorified as the Holy Spirit draws us to faith and sustains us in the true faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God and the world have a disagreement about sin, righteousness, and judgment.&nbsp; God is right.&nbsp; The world is wrong.&nbsp; We Christians take God\u2019s side in his argument against the religion of the world.&nbsp; We need deliverance from our sin and we find it only through faith in Jesus.&nbsp; We need true righteousness, and nothing but Christ\u2019s obedience and suffering will do.&nbsp; We need to be delivered from judgment, and we are.&nbsp; This is the comfort we have from the Comforter Jesus sent.&nbsp; Amen&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/CantateSunday2010.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cantate Sunday| Rev. Rolf D. Preus| May 2, 2010| St. John 16, 7-11 &nbsp;I tell you the truth.&nbsp; It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/04\/26\/sin-righteous-and-judgment-who-is-right-and-wrong\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,8,17,4],"tags":[197,478,238],"class_list":["post-2782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easter-5","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","tag-easter-5","tag-john-16","tag-rolf-preus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2782"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6496,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2782\/revisions\/6496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}