Would you turn to Luke 15, verse seven. Luke 15, verse seven. I say unto you, something the Lord Jesus never
said is thus saith the Lord. He said, I say unto you. What authority? I say unto you. That makes this so important.
I say unto you. That likewise, joy shall be in heaven. We just read in Revelation 5
of that heavenly scene. Joy shall be in heaven over one
sinner that repenteth. More than over ninety and nine
just persons which need no repentance. There's no joy for those people. But there's joy in heaven over
one sinner that repented. Look in verse 10. Likewise, I say unto you, there's joy in the presence of
the angels of God. Who is in the presence of the
angels of God? The Lord Jesus. God the Father. The Holy Spirit. There's joy in the presence of
the angels of God, I think of that scripture where the Lord
says, I'll rejoice over thee with singing. That's said of
every believer. There's joy in the presence of
the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Now I can remember, I remember
this very distinctly, at one point listening to a preacher
calling upon the congregation to repent. And I remember thinking
to myself, maybe I would if I knew what that meant. What is repentance? What does
it mean to repent? When the Lord opened his public
ministry, He opened it with these words, repent ye and believe
the gospel. I've entitled this message, What
Does Repentance Look Like? I want to know, don't you? What
does repentance look like? In Luke chapter 15, we have three
parables that go together. The parable of the lost sheep,
the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the lost son. And these three parables give
us the work of the Trinity. Somebody says, what's the Trinity?
God is one God in three distinct persons. Somebody says, explain
that to me. I can't explain that, but the
Bible reveals this. When the Lord Jesus told his
disciples to baptize, he said, baptize them in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You see, the only way
we know that God is one God in three persons is because the
Bible tells us. The Bible is the inspired word
of God. If we don't have that, all we
have is my opinion and your opinion. And what's that worth? Nothing.
Thank God for the scripture. And in this One parable in three
different parts, the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin,
and the lost son were given the work of all three persons of
the Trinity, the work of the son, the work of the spirit,
and the work of the father. After each of these parables,
there's a party. Look in verse five, and when
he'd found it, talking about the lost sheep, he layeth it
on his shoulders rejoicing, and when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. Look in verse
nine, and when she hath found it, She calleth her friends and
her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I found
the peace which I had lost. And look in verse 22 of the same
chapter, the lost son, who has come back to the father. 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 and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat
and be merry. A party. For this My son was
dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and
they began to be merry. Now, I think it's interesting
in the parable of the lost sheep. We don't find where the sheep
repented. Not a word. We read of the shepherd
going after him. and finding him and bringing
him back. But we read of no repentance
on the sheep's part. And then in the parable of the
lost coin, Look at it with me in verse 8.
Either what woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she lose
one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek
diligently till she find it. And when she hath found it, she
calleth her friends and her neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for
I found the peace which I had lost. Likewise I say unto you,
There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repenteth. Now, how can a lost coin repent? It's dead, it's lifeless, it
is covered up with dirt, and the woman comes and finds it.
But we don't read of this lost coin repenting, do we? Yet, both
of these stories end with this glorious statement, there's joy
in heaven. over one sinner that repenteth. And then he uses the parable
of the lost son to teach us what repentance is. And if you want
to know what repentance is, we're going to see this by the grace
of God with this lost son. Now, the Lord gives this story
in response to these people. Verse two, Luke chapter 15. And the Pharisees and scribed
murmured, grumbled, they disagreed, they're showing their disapproval
with what has taken place, saying, this man receiveth sinners and
he eats with them. Something's wrong with this picture.
This man actually receives sinners and eats with them. Do you know
a sinner could come into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ
and not feel threatened and not feel judged? They felt welcome. Now, religious people didn't
feel that way, but sinners did. Look in chapter 14. Verse 35, the last phrase. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Not everybody has ears to hear.
If I have ears to hear the gospel, the Lord's given them to me.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And that chapter of
division is man-made. Let's forget chapter 15. He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear. Then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. Now the only way you
and I will be able to hear the gospel is if I hear as a sinner. If I don't hear as a sinner, I'm not gonna hear. I can't hear. Now, let's stop for just a moment
for a definition of terms. What is a sinner? It's a good
question, isn't it? What is a sinner? Do I fit that
description? It was the sinners who drew near
to hear. It was the sinners he received. This man received the
sinners. This was their criticism of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's something wrong with
this. He's making their lifestyle okay. He's putting his stamp
of approval on them. This is wrong. This is what the
Pharisees were saying. Well, what is a sinner? Well,
he's the one who commits the sin. Have you ever heard that
saying, God loves the sinner and he hates his sin? Where's
that in the Bible? It's not there. And as far as
that goes, God doesn't put sins into hell, does he? He puts sinners
into hell. The sinner is the one who commits
the sin. Do you remember when Peter first
saw who the Lord was in Luke chapter five? He found out who
he was, and you know what his cry was? Depart from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. A man full of sin. Now the only way you and I are
gonna see that is if we see who he is. These words are meaningless
until we see who he is. And when we see who he is, we
will see clearly that we are sinful. Men and women. And I'm not talking about the
way I used to be. I'm talking about the way I am right now. Sinful. Full of sin. That means all I
do is sin. I cannot not sin. And it's all my fault. Every
bit of it's my fault. I can't blame Adam. I can't blame
the devil. It's all my fault I'm that way.
And I cannot sit in judgment on any human being for anything. and I have no claim on God. If he passes me by and sends
me to hell, just and holy is his name. Now that's what a sinner
is. Then drew near all the sinners
for to hear him. And notice verse three says,
he spake this parable unto them. Who? The Pharisees and the sinners. They're the two representative
groups. Me and you are in one of those
groups. The Pharisees and the sinners. A Pharisee is one who
thought his works, the word actually means separated ones. I've done
something that separates me from other people, that recommends
me to God. The sinners are what I just said,
and that's how they see themselves to be. He spake this parable
to them, these two representative groups. Now, in verses three
through seven, we have the parable of the shepherd going after the
lost sheep. What man of you, verse four,
having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them? does not leave
the 99 in the wilderness. Now what kind of shepherd would
do that, humanly speaking? Is he going to leave the 99 for
the one? No. Not a human shepherd. I mean,
no. But here the Lord does. These 99 are the sheep who need
no repentance, the scripture says. They're okay. I'm in good shape. They need
no repentance. What does the Lord say? He said,
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. When he hath found it, it wasn't
looking for the shepherd. It was going off and off and
off, farther and farther away. It was a straying sheep. It couldn't find its way back.
It was helpless. It was stupid. It was defenseless.
It was dirty. It was off in the wilderness.
But what does he do when he hath found it? The Lord never looks
for sheep and doesn't find it. He finds his sheep. When he found
it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes
home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying unto them,
rejoice with me for I found my sheep which was lost. I say unto
you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repented. That's the work of the Son in
salvation. And then the woman with the lost
coin, that lost coin was dead, lifeless, unable to respond,
unresponsive, hid in the dirt. This is the work of God the Holy
Spirit after the dead sinner to give him life. Now, we don't
read with this coin repented, do we? And yet this is the way this
ends up. There's joy in heaven over one
sinner that repenteth. You see, when God the Holy Spirit
gives that dead person life, there's repentance. Now, for
the big question, what is repentance? What does it look like? I wanna
know. I desperately wanna know. Now,
the Lord gives the parable of the lost son, and it's interesting,
repentance is not mentioned In this part of the parable, this
third part, remember they all three go together. Repentance
is not as much as mentioned in this part, but repentance is
demonstrated very clearly in this story of the lost son. And
let me say before we go on, you know who the star of this story
is? And I hope I say this reverently, the father, not the son, the
father. Now let's begin reading in verse
11. And 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 him his living. Now, two sons, and these two
sons are just like the Pharisees and the sinners, are representative
men. These two sons are representative men. I'm describing me and you,
any way you look at it. I'm either the younger son or
the older son. I will be describing you and
myself in this passage of scripture. Now, what I see in this younger
son was a strong sense of entitlement. and no respect for his father. None. He had a strong sense of
entitlement. I want my inheritance now. I
know I should wait till you're dead, but I want it now. I wish
you were dead, and since you're not dead, give it to me now.
What a sense of entitlement, thinking his father owed him
this. It's amazing the father gave
it to him, isn't it? But he did. It's part of the story. He had
no respect for his father. He wanted out. He wanted to leave. He wanted out of his father's
presence. He had a low view of his father. He wanted out. Verse 13, His father gave him
his living, and he not many days after the young son gathered
all together, took his journey into a far country and there
wasted his substance with riotous living. In just a few days, he
cashed all of this in and went into a far country. You ever gone off into a far
country? He went off into a far country
away from his father. And the scripture says he wasted
this inheritance, this probably vast sum of money. He wasted
it on riotous living. And this word riotous comes from
the word which means unsavedness. That can take so many directions. Unsavedness. And with this man,
it was Let's have fun, let's have a good time, let's party,
let's whine women's song. Wasted his money with riotous
living. Verse 14, and when he had spent
all. Now, he might've had hundreds
of thousands of dollars. I don't know whether this lasted
for weeks or days or months or even a few years. He had this
big inheritance and he had a good time. He was enjoying himself. But there came a time when he
had spent all. A fool and his money, soon go
separate ways, don't they? And this man spent all. A stupid, irresponsible, short-sighted,
immoral, young man. He spent everything. And the scripture says in verse
14, there arose a mighty famine in that land. Who sent that famine? God sent that famine, and he
began to be in want. in need. All of a sudden, this
fellow who hadn't been enjoying life so much, everything changed. And he began to be in want, in
need. What a blessed place to be. He began to be in want. He thought he had everything,
but now he sees he has nothing. So what does he do? He went and
joined himself to a citizen of that country. He joined a church.
I'm needy. I need to do something to help
myself. He went and joined a church of that country. Man's religion. And what did they do? They put
him to work. They put him to work. Work. Make things better for yourself.
Provide for yourself. And ironically enough, where
did they put him to work? The most horrible place a Jew
could be sent to feed swine. He was sent to feed swine. He went and joined himself into
a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to
feed swine, and he would fain have filled his belly with the
husks that the swine did eat. The swine could eat them, but
he couldn't. He couldn't get any nutrition
from these husks. He couldn't get any good from
these husks, and here's nothing to satisfy him, and here's the
point. If you're seeking to be saved
by what you do, It's never going to be enough. You will never
find satisfaction in that. You try, but you're always going
to be a day late and a dollar short. It's never going to be
enough. No satisfaction. You see, the
only thing that you'll ever find any real satisfaction in is that
hymn we just sang. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Now, the only thing that my soul
finds satisfaction in is that all God requires of me, everything,
The blood of Christ answers. I need nothing else. I need no
other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough
that Jesus died. You know, I find satisfaction
in that. God's satisfied with what His Son did. You see, here's
where my satisfaction is. God is satisfied with what His
Son did. That's what the resurrection
means. God sent His Son to accomplish salvation. He did it. By His
bloody death on the cross, my sins were paid for. God took
my sins and put them on His Son. His Son bore them, His Son died.
Guilty as charged when my sins were made by Him. When He was
raised from the dead, God said, I'm satisfied with what He did.
And you know what? I'm satisfied too. I'm completely
satisfied with what God is satisfied with. Now let's go on reading.
He couldn't find any satisfaction. No man gave him to eat. Verse
17. And when he came to himself. Now here is repentance. When he came to himself. And God brought him there. Understand
this. If you and I are brought into
repentance, God caused it to take place. You will never repent. I will never repent. We'll go
on our merry way to hell unless God stops us, gives us faith,
gives us repentance, gives us a new heart to believe, does
something for us. He came to Himself. And you know
what happened when He came to Himself? He saw His Father in
a completely different light. And He saw Himself. in a completely
different light. Now, he wanted to get out of
his father's presence. He didn't like his father. But now, all of a sudden, look
what he says about his father. When he came to himself, he said,
how many hired servants? That's the lowest kind of servants.
These are not the one who live there all the time. These are
the ones that would just come in barefooted, and these were
the worst servants. How many hired servants of my
father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. My father's so good. Now he didn't
think that when he left, did he? He wanted out of there. But
now he has a completely different attitude towards his father. He saw the goodness of his father. Now when I repent, I'm given
a completely different view of God than what I had before I
was granted repentance. You see, before I was granted
repentance, I didn't love God. I didn't like
God. I thought He was unfair. I thought
it was unfair of Him to choose some to be saved and pass by
others. How could that be fair? Sense of entitlement is what
that is. I thought it was unfair for Christ to die for the elect
and only the elect. What about the other people?
And what I mean by that is, what about me? What about me? It's
a sense of entitlement. That's what this young man had.
He no longer has this sense of entitlement. He sees God is good. Everything God does is good.
Every one of his attributes are good. Before I repented, I didn't
like him. I've been given a change of mind
concerning God. And he was given a change of
mind concerning himself. He no longer had this sense of
entitlement. Look what he says in verse 18. I will arise and go to my father,
and will say unto him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and
before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. I wouldn't
dare expect to be received as a son. Let me be one of those
hired servants. I'm not looking for anything
other than that. You see this different view he
had of himself. Father, I've sinned. I've sinned. David said against thee, and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that
thou mightest be justified when you speak and clear when you
judge. David was saying, I sinned against
you. If you send me to hell, you're
just in doing it. You're righteous in doing it. A change of mind. His sense of entitlement is gone. I'm not worthy to be called thy
son. And oh, how he sees the goodness
of his father. The hired servants are better
off than me. I am perishing with hunger. Now, that's what repentance is.
It means a change of mind. That's what the word means. Understand
this. You know, I've heard preachers say, repent of your sins. You know the Bible doesn't say
that one time. Not once. Not once. Now, I would never
sin again if God gives me the grace. I'm not talking about...
But I am saying this. Repentance is a change of mind
about God. Repentance toward God. And it's
a change of mind about yourself. You see, God is holy and you're
nothing but sin. Somebody says, I just can't see
this. Believe it anyway. Believe it because it's what
God says. This is God's testimony with regard to me and you. God
saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. When God looks in my heart and
your heart. That's what he sees. Believe it. I'm not asking you
to understand it, but I'm asking you to believe it. It's God's
testimony with regard to me and you. And in this thing of repentance,
there's a change of mind with regard to God and a change of
mind with regard to self. Verse 20. And he arose and came
to his father. But when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him. He was looking for him. You see,
he had ordained that this was going to take place. I think
of the father. He knew he was going to come
back that very day. He was looking for him, and he saw him. And
what did he do? When he was yet a great way off,
his father saw him, and I can imagine he says he ran. He ran
toward him. And what do you think? Is he
going to come and kill me? Is he going to come and beat
me up? Is he going to come and punish me? After all, look what
all I've done. I've wasted all of his money.
It's all gone. What's he going to do? I'm sure
he was pretty nervous when he saw his father running toward
him. But it was yet a great way off,
his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck
and kissed him. That is the reception of every
son coming home. He ran, excited to see him, fell
on his neck, and kissed him. He didn't say, you're going to
have to go through a probationary period, and let's see if there's
anything to you. Nothing like that. He didn't hold him off.
He didn't say, well, you're going to have to be a servant for a
while. No, there was complete and immediate acceptance. No
probationary period. Listen, there's no probationary
period for you. You come like this man did, there's complete,
immediate acceptance by the God of glory. His father came and
saw him, had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed
him. Now the son says, father, I've
sinned against heaven in thy sight. and am no more worthy
to be called thy son. 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. Now here I see the work
of the Trinity in salvation. You take the best robe, the righteousness
and merits of my son, his perfect obedience, and you put it on
him. Don't hand it to him, put it
on him. And you take the ring. Well, what do we think of when
we think of a ring? It's a covenant, an eternal covenant.
When I get married and I give a ring, I'm saying I'm yours
forever. I mean, there's no, it's the seal of the covenant.
This is talking about the Father's eternal love. Shoes. To walk in the gospel, the work
of God the Holy Spirit causing me to walk looking to Christ
only. That is the life of the believer,
looking to Christ only. That's the shoes of the Holy
Spirit given to walk in the gospel. We walk by faith and not by sight. So we see the entire work of
the Trinity in the robe, the ring, and the shoes to walk in
the gospel. And bring, verse 23, bring hither
the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry. For
this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found
and they began to be merry. Oh, a party was taking place. This is a time of joy. Parable's
not over. Verse 25. Now, his elder son was in the
field. Remember, this is a story of
two sons. Now we're gonna talk about the elder son. His elder son was in the field.
And as he came nigh and drew nigh to the house, he heard music
and dancing. Remember, this is a story of
joy. The joy that's in heaven over the sinner that repented,
that comes like this lost son by the grace of God. Joy, oh
the joy of God. He delights in mercy. And he called, verse 26, and
called one of the servants and asked, what these things meant?
And he said unto him, thy brother is come, that no count brother
of yours. that wasted all your substance
and riotous living. I mean, he was just, he's worthless. He's come and thy father killed
the fatted calf because he received him safe and sound. And he was
angry. He was angry. This is not right. You mean there's no consequences
to his actions? You mean he's just received completely,
fully, freely, after all he's done, after he's wasted everything? How can this be? There's nothing
right about this. You know, that's the Pharisees. attitude toward the gospel. They
hear of the freeness of God's grace, how it doesn't take your
works to be saved, it only takes the righteousness of Christ.
I don't say only, I mean, it costs the Son of God His life,
but that's all that brings me into His presence? What can wash
away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness? Nothing but the, why? What about
good works? What about your life? You need
to straighten up. He didn't like this. He said,
well, this will lead people to indifference. This will lead
people to a wrong attitude about good works and obedience. This
is not good. He was angry. This is not right. I don't like this. Therefore
came his father out and treated him. And he answering said to
his father, verse 29, lo, these many years do I serve thee. Neither transgressed I at any
time thy commandment. Does anybody believe that? It's
a lie. You see, human religion is all
lies. Big talk. Neither transgressed
I at any time thy commandment. Yeah, you did. You're a lying
hypocrite. That's all you did was transgress
his commandment. But this guy comes up with this
big pronouncement. I didn't. I've been good. I've
done. And he said, and yet thou never
gave me a kid that I might make marry with my friends. You gave
him a fatted calf. You won't even give me a goat.
I mean, this is wrong. There's nothing good about this.
But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy
living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
There's nothing right about this. I don't agree with this. He was
mad. He wouldn't go into the party. Verse 31, and he said unto him,
Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. Now
some people, does that mean the older son represents a believer
too? The story would be skewed if
he would say to the younger son, come on in, you're mine. And
if he said to the older son, you're out the door, jerk. You
know, acting that way. This is talking about the goodness
and the graciousness of the father. No, this other son doesn't represent
a believer that just has a different point of view. It's just going
with the story of the graciousness of the father. And it would have
messed the story up if he would have said, out the door, you
self-righteous. No, not that. That he's receiving
these boys. But look what he says. He said
in him, son, thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine.
It was meet that we should make merry and be glad. For this thy
brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. Now, what I think is very interesting
about this story, and isn't this a glorious story? I just love
it. What is interesting, we don't
know what the older brother did. We're left hanging. He doesn't
say, well, the older brother repented and forgave him and
received him, and doesn't say the older brother remained in
anger. We're not told. Now there is
a reason for that. There's a reason. The way this story ends is which
way would you treat him? Here's what I mean. God will
meet you on the grounds that you come to him. If you come
for pure, free mercy, He'll meet you there. If you come on the
footing of your works, He'll meet you there too. And it won't
be good, I'll assure you. What did this boy do? Well, we don't know. But I do
know this, God will meet me on the ground that I come to him.
And if I come to him for mercy, you know what, I'm gonna be merciful
to my brother. If I come to him for justice, fairness, I'm gonna
stay mad at my brother. But God will meet me and you
on the ground we come. If you come like this younger
son, Father, I've sinned. Oh, would to God that me and
you would know something about that kind of confession. I've
sinned. You know, so many people are
worried about other people's sins and sins of society and
so on. Just forget other people. I have
sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Father, I've sinned.
I'm not worthy to be called thy son. I'm evil. I confess that. Make me as one
of thy hired servants. You know what you're going to
get? You're going to get the best robe. You're going to have the
ring of eternal love. You're going to have the shoes
to walk in the gospel given by the Holy Spirit. You come. This is not right. This is not
fair. I want fairness. God will give you what's fair.
And you don't want that. You don't want that, because
if God gives you exactly what you deserve, there's only one
place for me and you, eternal hell. Now, you and I end this
story. Which son are you? Amen.