I'd be here with you all this
morning. What I'd like us to look at, if you would, is open
your Bibles to Luke chapter 13. Let's read these first five verses
together. There were present at that season
some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled
with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto
them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans,
because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay, but except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish. For the eighteen, upon
whom the tyrant Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that
they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell
you, nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. So as we can see here this morning,
our subject is going to be repentance. What is it? And more importantly,
what does it take for a man or woman to be able to repent? Does this mean that we stop sinning? Because I believe that's what
most of this world looks at when they see and hear the word repentance. You've heard them say, I've repented
of my sins. Well, that's not even found in
scripture. So what does repentance mean? Because it certainly doesn't
mean that. Because if it means that we have to stop sinning,
there's nobody in here that's going to be saved. So that can't
be what it means. To this world, it might mean
something like you're trying to change your life, trying to
get back on straight and narrow. I've repented of these things
I've done. They were wrong. They've got
me in a mess. I repent to those things. Could
it be that you've fallen into calamity? I've done it this time. I'm in a bad straight. I've done
some really bad things and it's messed things up. I repent. When the trial's gone, so is
repentance. It's not a repentance that lasts.
I'm interested in a repentance that lasts. To some people it
even means getting religion. So I'm going to repent of all
this sinful life I've been living. I'm going to get some religion.
That's going to do something for me. This is outward at best,
but it doesn't expose the inward corruptions in my heart. So what
does repentance mean? What is repentance? Repentance
simply means change your mind. You change your mind about something
that you thought before was, change my mind. I don't think
that anymore. So if you'll turn over a couple pages to Luke chapter
15, this is where we're going to restrict our entire time to
this chapter. I've got written in my Bible
right beside the word chapter 15, the word repentance. Because
that's what this entire chapter is about. And so we're going
to look at the work of repentance and what it takes for a man or
woman to repent. It takes the full counsel of
God for a man or woman to repent. The work of the Son, the work
of the Holy Spirit, and the work of the Father. We're going to
look at these three works of God here to see what it takes
for a man or woman to repent. So let's read these first two
verses. Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners
for to hear him. So the publicans and sinners,
you know, the publicans were hated. They were the tax collectors.
They were despised by the Jews because they worked for the Roman
government to collect taxes, which often meant extracting
more than what was actually due. So they were hated. And the sinners,
it says also, they were hated by the Pharisees. That's who
was with them in verse 2. And the Pharisees and scribes, The
people who were outwardly religious, who studied the scriptures, knew
and could quote more of it than you and I could. They murmured
and said, this man received the sinners and he eats with them. That is to say, the inference
being, they're still sinning and we're not. This man received
the sinners. It's somehow to say, they're
somehow different. They don't fit into that, what
they do. So they're saying because they're still sinning, they can't
be saved, is another way to say it. So let's keep on reading
here, and this is what we'll find here. This is the work of
Christ, the Son, in repentance. And He spake this parable unto
them, saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he
should lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine
in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost until he find
it. And when he hath found it, he
lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls
together his friends and his neighbors, saying unto them,
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. And
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one
sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons
which need no repentance. So we see here, who are the characters
in our story? So we see a shepherd and we see
some sheep that are lost. Well, you know the shepherd here
is the work of Christ the Son. This represents the Son of God. Now what does a shepherd do?
Shepherd's job is to protect the sheep. His job is also to
lead the sheep to food, so he gives them their food, but he
also guides the way. And as long as those sheep are
following the shepherd, then they're not going to get lost.
We also see the sheep is a character in here. This represents the
sinner, which is lost. And what happened to the sheep?
When they quit following the shepherd, they became lost. He went his own way. So you see,
when we take our eyes off Christ, and stop looking to Him for guidance,
and looking to Him for direction, to looking to Him to show us
the way, Lord, we become lost. Now there's two things to consider
when you're lost. First, you don't always know
it. Often when you're lost, you don't even know that you're lost.
The second thing about being lost is you often can't find
your way back or else you wouldn't be lost. Lost means you don't
know that you're lost and you're so lost you can't find your way
back. This is what it means in some
respect to be a sinner. I'm lost. I don't even know how
lost I am until God revealed himself to me. I saw his face.
And then I saw who I was. But until he revealed who he
was, I couldn't see who I was. I couldn't see how bad that I
was and how unable to do anything to please him. I was lost. But I didn't know it until I
saw him. So, how is repentance described here? We see it in
verse 7. He says, Likewise, joy shall
be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over
ninety-nine just persons, this is the key here, which need no
repentance. When you're lost, you don't know
that you need found. or else you would be crying out
that I'm lost, I need to be found. These sheep, they didn't know
this, that they were lost, but they still needed to be found.
When was he found? When was the sheep found? When
Christ the Shepherd came looking for him and he found him. And
he wasn't found before that. And that's our experience in
terms of being in this life in terms of salvation. I was lost. And apart from Christ the Shepherd
seeking me out and finding me, I'd still be lost. And this is
my only hope and this is my only means by which I can be found
is if He, the Shepherd, finds me. Where did the Shepherd find
you? Where were you? I consider this
as why did He find me at all? I can look at myself and see
in terms of my life and what I've done. There's nothing that
He could look to me and say, there's a reason to save this
one. There's a reason to go after this one that's lost, because
you got the 99 over here. But I can never know that, but
we will one day, won't we? We'll one day know and see why
the Lord sought us out. Because He loved us. Because
we were put in Christ before the foundation of the world.
That's why He sought us out. Because He loved us. Now my mind
has been changed on how I came to Christ. If He didn't seek
me out and find me first, I never would have found Him. I never
would have sought Him and I never would have even known that I
was lost in the first place. So I repent of this thinking.
I've changed my mind. How does repentance come about?
It requires the work of the Son. So now we're going to look at
the work of the Holy Spirit. Let's keep reading in verse 8.
So another parable. Now, what woman, having ten pieces
of silver, if she should lose one piece, does not light a candle
and seek diligently until she find it? And when she had found
it, she called her friends and her neighbors together, saying,
Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost. Likewise,
I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels
of God over one sinner that repenteth." For how does repentance come
about? It requires the work of God, the Holy Spirit. And that's
what this one is about. And there are two characters,
if you will, to this story. There's the Holy Spirit and there's
also the coin. And I want to look at how the
coin and the Holy Spirit have different attributes here. So
if we look at the coin first, Did the coin know that it was
lost? Because she had said she had 10 pieces of silver, 10 coins
that were lost. Coin, as we saw in the first
parable, these things don't even know that they're lost. There
was no life in the coin. It just laid there. Could the
coin have prevented being lost? No. It couldn't have prevented
being lost. It was lost. Was the coin looking
to be found? No. It just laid there, lifeless. What did it take to find the
coin? Look back in our text here. It's the lit candle. It requires
the lit candle. So what does the lit candle represent? The lit candle represents the
illuminating work of God the Holy Spirit. You've read scriptures
before. God has revealed himself to you
at some point in your life. And during that point in your
life, you may have not have seen Christ in the Word. But when
God the Holy Spirit brings His presence, and that's what we
ask here this morning. Our brother asked for the Lord to be present
here with us this morning. We need His Spirit. It's the
only way that we can worship, and it's the only way that we
can see Christ in the Word. But it takes the illuminating
work of God the Holy Spirit for us to be able to see him in the
word I've read and I've read for years, but then suddenly
BAM there it is I see but I couldn't have seen him apart from God
the Holy Spirit spirit not illuminating through through the candle here
so without without the candle could the coin have been found
and No. Coin couldn't have been found
apart from the illuminating work. It was content to be in the dark
and be lost. And that describes us as men
and women in our state apart from being born again. We're
content to be in the dark. We don't even know we're lost.
We're not being asked to be found. And we won't want anything differently
because we don't know anything different. It takes the work
of the candle to illuminate God the Holy Spirit illuminates what
could not be seen. First of all, you couldn't see
God apart from belief. God has to birth you again to
even see who He is. Believing and being born again
occur at the precise same moment. You don't believe and then you're
born again and you're not born again and then you believe. It
occurs at the precise same moment. And when this happens, God reveals
to me who He is. I see that He's holy. He's far
above me, and there's nothing that He can accept that I can
bring. And upon seeing who He is, I then see who I am. I see that what Isaiah saw, remember
in chapter 6 of Isaiah? He said, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up. What's the first thing He said?
Woe is me. And he spent all of chapter 5,
5 or 6 times saying, woe is you, woe unto you, woe unto you scribes
and pharisees, woe unto you, oh islands, woe unto you. But
then he saw who the Lord was. That's when he said, woe is me.
It's only when we see who He is that we can see who we are
before Him. You see, because compared to
other men and women, We can justify ourselves. We can say, you know,
I'm a little better than this person over here. You know, look
at the way they're living. We can compare ourselves to each
other and maybe wind up on top, but not before God. Romans 3
says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So
this requires the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, some things
about the Holy Spirit. In verse 8, what does it say? It says she swept the house.
Seek diligently until found. The Holy Spirit seeks with urgency. The Holy Spirit has a mark. It
has a target. It doesn't float around the land.
It has a target, a specific person, at a specific time, in a specific
place, when he lights on. I can do nothing to call him.
He's described in John chapter 3 as like the wind. The wind
bloweth where it listed, but you don't know where it's coming
from, and you don't know where it's going, but where it stops,
that's where the work's done. So what the picture here is,
the lighting of the candle, the illuminating work, she swept
the whole house. She's looking for that coin.
swept the house and she won't quit until it's found its target.
And this is a blessing here. How many pieces were lost? Says
she had 10. You know what that means? That
means that there's a specific number. This gives me confidence
because when I consider as to has the Lord revealed Himself
to me, am I going to miss out? There's no way I can't because
He knows how many He gave unto His Son, how many of them in
eternal election were put into His Son that He came to save. And through the course of time,
The Holy Spirit is still here doing the work in the process
of salvation for us in terms of our experience. Not one is
going to be lost. She didn't quit searching that
house until that last coin was found. And then when she found
it, she said, there's going to be rejoicing. They're happy.
This is a blessing. It's not that, you know, a reluctant,
there's that stupid coin I lost. No, no. This was rejoicing. There's happiness over this.
And so the coin had to be sought out with the illuminating work
of the Holy Spirit. There were a specific number
to be found. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. And it had to occur by this manner. God knows and only
one, not one, will be lost. Now my mind has been changed
on my ability to come to Christ. You see, because apart from the
work of the Holy Spirit, I can't come to Christ. I won't want
to. Because He has to change something in me. If He didn't
seek me out, and if He didn't birth in me the new man, Christ
in you, I wouldn't have eyes to see. I wouldn't have ears
to hear. I wouldn't have a heart that
believes. I must have this. And apart from the work of the
Holy Spirit, I won't. I won't have a new nature because
I've not had this work birthed in me. So He must work this in
me for me to be able to believe, to see Him in His Word. I would be content to be in the
dark and to be lost, just like these coins apart from this work.
How does repentance come about? This is a familiar story to us.
It requires the work of the Father. Let's pick up in verse 11. And he said, a certain man had
two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father,
give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided
unto them his living. And not many days after, the
younger son gathered all together, and he took his journey into
a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that
land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields
to feed swine. And he would fain to have filled
his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man
gave unto him. And when he came to himself,
he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough
to spare, and I perish with hunger. will arise and I'll go to my
father and I'll say unto him father I've sinned against heaven
and before thee and I'm no worthy no more worthy to be called thy
son Make me as one of the hired servants now We are to have this
confidence, the same confidence here the son had, believing that
what we ask for, we will be given. He had the confidence in knowing
he could come to his father and ask for something, and know that
his father would give it to him. But be careful, because you might
just get what you ask for. The son got what he asked for
here, didn't he? He said, give me all these things. His father
said, OK, I'll give you these things. So we can ask the father
for many things. And I would ask that we lean
not to our own understanding, as the scripture said, because
if I get what I want, who knows where it would lead me? I pray
for the Lord to not give me what I want. Lord, give me what I
need. I pray for the Lord to give me wisdom. I pray for His
direction. I pray for His will to be done.
Lord, not what I want, but let Your will be done. This is what
I'm asking for, but Lord, if it's not Your will for this,
I don't want it. Because who knows where it might lead me?
Who knows where it might lead you if you got exactly what you
wanted? Most people in here could say, you know, I wish I won the
lottery, you know, had enough money not to worry about. What
good would that do you? So what if you did have this
world's goods and you lost Christ? What good would it do you? So
I want whatever the Father will give me that's by His will. The
son here got just what he asked for. And what did it do to him?
It says he fell very low. In verse 15, he went and joined
himself to a citizen, a Gentile, in another country. And a Jew,
he was sent to the fields to feed swine. I'm not sure that
a Jew could go any lower. It was an unclean animal at this
time. God hadn't given his revelation that all things have been made
clean unto you. So this was an unclean animal
working for a gentile dog. Somebody that the Jews believed
beneath them. And he was doing unclean work
and he didn't even have enough to eat. He wanted to eat what
the unclean swine were having but he couldn't even have that.
He had no money. And there was nothing that he could do to change
his circumstances. He got himself in a mess. It's
already been done. Have you ever been here yourself?
You got yourself in a mess. Everything that I wanted to do
and that I asked for, that I wanted, it's got me in a mess. And there's
nothing I can do about it. And I can't get out of it. There's
no amount of apologizing. There's no amount of trying to
fix it. There's nothing that I can do to fix my situation.
If the Lord doesn't dig me out of this hole, I'm going to be
left in it. This is right where he was. He got himself in a mess.
But in verse 17 it says, He came to himself. When did he come
to himself? He came to himself when he remembered
his father. When He remembered His Father,
God so loved the world that He gave unto us His Son. His Son who was made in the flesh. God made His Son flesh for us. There is a man standing in glory
right now. God in the flesh. God's Son,
who was perfect before the law. He did everything that you and
I couldn't. You know, we haven't kept one
law one time. Not one commandment, one time.
God kept it completely perfect. His entire existence here on
the earth, something we could never do. His Son, who was rejected
of men. After He did all this for us,
We rejected him and we nailed him to a tree to bleed out and
die. His death on the cross, but now he's risen again. So
he remembered the work of his father. We know nothing of love. Can you imagine this? Most people
in here at some point know or have had children. I have two
sons that are six and three years old. I can't imagine sending
my son to go die for somebody else. My two sons, sending them
to die, I couldn't imagine that. Nothing in this world, in terms
of my worldly goods, is worth more to me than my sons. Yet
God, while we were yet sinners, He sent His Son to die for us,
to live in this world, to do the things that we couldn't do.
All these things for us, we know nothing of love. He gave all.
He truly gave all. And the beauty of this is He's
ordered all things, everything that happens in this world, that
we perceive as good, the things that we perceive as bad, all
things are ordered around the salvation of His people. And
you can take comfort in that. Things that seem like they're
so bad, like I can't get out, how is there good in this, Lord?
What are you doing? I don't understand, Lord. But
yet everything is for our good and for His glory if we're His
sheep, if we're His people. My mind has been changed on my
views that I hold of God. I'm no longer His judge for the
things that I perceive that He's done, did, or is not doing for
me in my life. I've been shut up to His love.
Because apart from Him doing anything for me, I'd have nothing.
I'd be lost, and I'd be blind, and I'd be in the dark. My mind
has been changed. I repent of this thinking. Now,
when repentance, there's always three things present. We're going
to look at these. First, you have confession of
sin. Find that in verse 18. I will
rise and go to my father and say unto him, Father, I've sinned
against heaven and before thee complete confession of sin. It's
all my fault There's nothing I can do. There's nothing I can
say. All I can say is it's my fault
the second thing There's going to be no claims on God. Verse
19, And I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as
one of thy hired servants. I've got nothing to recommend
myself to God where He should do something for me because I
did anything. He's saying, I'm not even worthy
to be called your son anymore. Would you just make me as a hired
servant for you? The lowest person in your house?
Would you do that for me? You don't have to. Confession of sin, no claims
on God, and this whole thing that we read just here, this
is a cry for mercy. This is a cry for mercy, something
that if you don't give it to me, I won't have it. I must have
mercy. If you don't help me, it is over
for me, is what the son is saying here. Just please make me as
one of your hired servants. I've sinned. I've got nothing
at this point. I've spent it all. I've wasted all. You're
probably angry with me. And what do we find in verse
20? And he arose and came to his
father. But when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him and had compassion, and he ran and fell
on his neck and kissed him." What do we find here? The father
was ready and willing to show mercy. And what do we see in
this? The son couldn't even get out
his confession. You remember all this that he had said, I'm
going to say all this to my father. The Father showed him mercy before
that confession even happened. So he's trying to say it here,
and the son said unto him, after all this, I've sinned against
heaven, and in that I sight, and I'm no more worthy to be
called thy son. He had some more to say. He wanted to say, make
me as one of the hired servants. He didn't even get it out. The
Father's compassion was there before the confession was made. How can this be? Because His
compassion for me is not founded in my confession. His compassion
and love for me is found because of who His Son is. His compassion
for me can be found because of His Son. It's found in His Son. That's where love's found. That's
where forgiveness is found. It's found in His Son because
of who He is to the Father. Does the Father love the Son?
Yes. Does the Father see Him as completely
acceptable in His sight? Yes. then the confession needed
not even be made here. So the father was looking and
ready to show mercy. The son couldn't even get out
the confession. What does he say in verse 22? But the father
said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him,
and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. So what does
this mean, bring out the best robe? If you're one of those
who will be found in Christ, You will be clothed with nothing
less than the righteousness of Christ. This is the best robe. This is that which is the Father
pleased with the righteousness that Christ has presented Him.
It's the only righteousness there is. It's the only righteousness
by which anyone can be accepted. And He says, bring forth the
best robe. This is what every believer,
all those who are going to be found in Christ, are going to
get. The righteousness of Christ. And what does He say? Put it
on Him. You don't put on the righteousness
of Christ, He puts it on you. When He says in 2 Corinthians
5.21, for Hemath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God which is in Him. He puts it on you. So He puts
on you the very righteousness of Christ. Everything that He
finds acceptable and good about the Son, that's what we get.
And he says, put a ring on his hand. Now what does a ring represent?
A ring is something that is enduring. Now you consider this. your sins
are paid for. And that's never going to change.
If Christ died for you and paid your sins, those sins are paid
for. Have you ever tried to pay a
bill twice? What happens? They're not going to accept your
money. Nothing's owed. I've tried that before. I remember
when I was, I've said this many times to I had a car, my first
car when I first had a job. I got a loan and was paying on
it. I had paid on the internet. For some reason, I thought I
had paid the last payment, but I wasn't sure. This was three
or four months later. I thought, oh no, there's going
to be all these charges on my account because I didn't pay
that last payment. It's going to hurt my credit. I was trying
to get some credit together because I eventually wanted to buy a
house and all that stuff. So I just sent a payment in.
You know what happened when I logged in there? It said no account. You know why? Because my account
had been paid for. And not only did I owe no money,
your sins have been paid for, forgiven. But God says they've
also been forgotten. This is the beauty of what our
Lord has done for us. So not only is it paid for, no
account or representation that I send exists. Because God says,
I've forgotten it. Your sins and your iniquities
will I remember no more. So when we're standing before
God, if we're called by the Holy Spirit, Christ has died for us,
we're standing before God. There's something in me that's
always said, and this is foolish, but this is the way I think in
this world. I think He begrudgingly will
let me in, but He and I both know what I've done in this life.
He and I both know that. But that's not so here. He says,
I'm not only going to forgive you, but it's going to be forgotten
what you did. So this is what our Lord has
done for us. What wisdom and what love that
we can look to that he's done for us, that forgiven and forgotten.
And he also says, and you also put shoes on his feet. What does
that represent? Well, that represents the new
nature that allows me to have a walk that's acceptable before
God. Now, I was thinking about this this morning, just in going
over my notes. When I look at myself and what
I would say I've done, can I look at myself and see anything that
God can say I can accept that? I can find nothing. When I see
myself, all I see is sin. So what does he mean by that?
Well, he says, remember when he's talking to the people who
did good works and he said, you fed me when I was naked or you
fed me when I was hungry, you gave me a drink when I was thirsty,
you put clothes on me when I was naked. And they said, Lord, when
would we do any of those things at all? They had no knowledge
of it. But yet, They were enabled by
the new nature to believe, to do good works of kindness. These
are not things that they were in any way saying that we could
claim before God, but God can look on it. He can look in the
work and the fruits of that work that are done in us. So this
is shoes on his feet represent the new nature, the new birth
that we're given by God, the Holy Spirit. And in verse 23
he says, bring the fatted calf, kill it, let us eat, and be merry.
For this, my son, he was dead, but now he's alive again. He
was lost, but now he's found, and they began to be merry. My
son was dead and alive again. He's lost, but now he's been
found. The Lord said, except you repent,
you shall all perish. Has your mind been changed? Has
your mind been changed in terms of how you can be saved by God? How you came to Him? How you
must be found? Repentance has nothing to do
with stopping sinning. As long as you're in your life,
you won't stop sinning. But it has something to do with
changing our mind towards God and how a man or woman can be
saved. I'm content. My mind has been changed. I'm
content to let Him do it all and to let Him have all the glory
for it in my salvation.