Now, if you would, let's open
our Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 15. Luke, chapter 15. The title of
the message this morning is The Woman and the Lost Coin. The Woman and the Lost Coin.
And this is the second part of one long parable of our Savior
here in Luke chapter 15. If you recall last Sunday, I
began here in Luke 15. Most people will read this and
they'll consider three different, three separate parables just
strung along together. Where you have the parable of
the shepherd and the lost sheep. And I dealt with that last Sunday. And then you have in verse 8,
look at verse 8. This is my text this morning.
This is the part of the parable of the woman and the lost coin.
And he says, either what woman having ten pieces of silver,
if she lose one piece, does 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 together, saying,
Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. And
then again, as he said in the end of the part of the parable
of the lost sheep. He says, likewise I say unto
you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repenteth. And that's the second part. Now,
if you'll recall, as I said, these three parts of this parable,
they all go together. You can't read them separately
or separate them in your mind, in your understanding. and know
what he's trying to teach here. When I go back over this, these
three go together, here the lost sheep, the shepherd and the lost
sheep, teaches us about the work of the Son of God in our salvation. The leading character in that
story is the shepherd, not the sheep. The shepherd. He has a
hundred sheep and one goes astray. And he said, shall he not leave
the ninety and nine and go and find that lost sheep and get
that lost sheep and bring him back? Puts the sheep on his shoulders
and brings it back home. That's teaching the work of Christ
in the redemption of his people. And you have to always remember
when you see those words find and found, he's not talking about
finding out who they are or finding out where they are. This is not
about location. But to find there literally means
to get them, to obtain them. Christ knows His sheep. Brother
Joe read that in John chapter 10. He said, I know my sheep.
And He knows where they are. And He has come to get them,
to obtain them. And when did He do that? When
He came to this world walked this earth as God's man and went
to the cross and redeemed his people from their sins." That
is the getting of his sheep, the obtaining of them. Now, this
second part of the parable is the woman and the lost coin.
And this is going to speak of the work of the Holy Spirit in
our salvation. The leading character here is
the woman, not the coin, but the woman. And the woman here
represents the Holy Spirit. And we'll talk about that. And
then you have the prodigal son, the lost son, which teaches the
mercy of the Father in our salvation. And we'll get to that two weeks
from today. But the leading character there
is the Father. And, you know, a lot of people call that the
parable of the prodigal son. I prefer to call it the story
of the forgiving Father, because He's the leading character. But
let's look at these verses here, verse 8. The work of the Holy
Spirit in salvation. Now, as I said, keep in mind,
and I don't want to spend time repeating this, overly repeating
it, but it's important now. You've got to understand how
this is set up. Because the work of Christ on
the cross is the foundation and the ground of everything in salvation. The work of Christ on the cross,
to finish that work, the shedding of His blood for the complete
forgiveness of all our sins, The establishment of righteousness
in order that God might be just to justify the ungodly. That
is the crux of redemptive history right there. That is the very
center and ground of eternity and time right there. What Christ
did on that cross. And so that shepherd symbolizing
our Redeemer who came into the world to redeem his lost sheep. That's the foundation. That's
the ground of salvation. And in that, Christ, the Son
of God incarnate, has the preeminence in the salvation of his people.
That's what the Bible is all about. Christ and him crucified
and risen again. That's why Paul said to the Corinthians,
he said, I strive not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ. and him crucified. That's why
he said that the preaching of the cross, that is not a piece
of wood, not something you hang around your neck, but the preaching
of the cross, the finished work of Christ, though it's foolishness
to those who are perishing, it's the power of God to us who are
being saved. It's the wisdom of God right
there. That's why he said in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that
I should glory, boast, have confidence in anything save the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the issue of the gospel. That's the center of the gospel,
the person and the work of Christ. And that's where we must come
to agreement on. That's where our fellowship revolves
around, right there. I was listening to Brother Gary
Shepherd preach Friday night, and he had a tremendous message
on fellowship. He's talking about Christ being
the fellow of God and our fellow. And our fellowship revolves around
that one fellow, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is the crux
of it. Now, the saved in the other part
of this parable, the sheep, the saved are symbolized by the lost
sheep. One who strayed away from his
Master. Remember, I read Isaiah 53, 6. Let me read that to you
again. It says, All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned
every one to his own way. That's what it is to be lost.
And then it says in Isaiah 53, 6, it says, And the Lord hath
laid on him, that is on Christ, the iniquity of us all. And that
symbolizes our fall and our ruination in Adam, our bondage to sin,
And that in Adam we owed a debt to God's law and justice? The
Bible teaches that. Romans 5 and verse 12, Wherefore,
as by one man Adam's sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Adam is a representative of the
human race. But the shepherd, the good shepherd,
the great shepherd, the chief shepherd, he goes to find his
lost sheep. He goes to, again, not to locate
them. He knows where they are. Not
to find out who they are. You know, there's a lot of people,
they preach that way. Christ doesn't really know who
He redeemed until they respond or they do something. And then
He rejoices. He just, you know, that kind
of language where, and our preacher actually say this, that He's
just hanging over the banister of heaven, just worried and wringing
His hand, just hoping that you'll do something. to respond. That's not it. The Good Shepherd
gave His life for the sheep, and that means He went to find
them. That means He went to get them.
He went to obtain them. He redeemed them. Salvation by
redemption. The redemptive blood of Christ.
And so He must go get them. He has no choice in that matter.
He can't just say, well, I redeemed them, but I'm not going to go
down there and find them. No. He must go get them. That's
what the scripture teaches. Look over at John chapter 6. And I wish I had time to turn
to all the scriptures that I have listed up here, but I don't. John chapter 6. Look at verse
37. Listen to the language of the Bible. Not to the language
of theologians. Not to the language of people
who are giving their opinion. But here's what he says. Look
at John 6. Look at verse 37 of John chapter 6. He says, "...all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me." And then he says,
"...and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
And somebody might say, well now, how do I know I'm one of
those who were given to him? You don't have to know that.
All you need to do is come to Him. That's what the Scripture
here says. If you come to Him, He won't
cast you out. But go on. Now he says in verse 38, For
I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the
will of him that sent me. That's speaking of the subservience
of the Son to the Father for the purpose of redemption. Not
in any quality of persons, they're equal. The Father and the Son
are equal in every attribute of deity. But there was a subservience
of the Son to the Father for the purpose of redemption. He
had to do a work. He had to be made under the law,
Galatians 4 says. made of a woman. He had to come
in our name and in our nature, yet he was without sin to redeem
us. And so he says in verse 39, And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I should lose what there? Do you see that word?
That's a good translation from the original language. Nothing. I should lose nothing, but raise
it up again at the last day. That's his lost sheep. He didn't
lose nothing. That's what we are by nature,
nothings. But He didn't lose nothing. Because He's going to
find His lost sheep. And He says in verse 40, And
this is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone would
seeeth the Son. That's what we're going to talk
about today in this lost coin. All whom He finds, all whom He
has redeemed, that the cross is going to see the Son. Not
just see a picture or see an image, but they're going to see
Him with the eye of faith. Seeeth the Son. And believeth
on him, that's what the parable of the lost coin is about, believing
on him, may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up
at the last day. And then go back to John 10,
the passage that Brother Joe read. You see, this is how this one
parable in three parts flows. You start with the work of the
Son. That's the ground of our salvation. And then we come to
the fruit of it, the effects of it. In other words, what proceeds
or what is the fruit of the death of Christ, the death, burial
and resurrection of Christ on the cross? What did He actually
accomplish and what comes from it? Well, that's what the parable
of the woman and the part of the parable of the woman and
the lost coin teaches us. You see, she's going to find
that coin. And that's showing how God sends the Holy Spirit
into the world. to find those lost coins and
finds them. But look at John chapter 10,
when he says, he says in verse 11, I'm the good shepherd. The
good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. That's the work
of the son on the cross, dying for his people. And then down
in verse 14, he says, I'm the good shepherd and know my sheep.
He knows them. He's not coming down here trying
to locate you and find out who you are. He knows exactly who
his sheep are. And then he says, and am known
of mine. Now, he knows his sheep. And
he died for his sheep. Scripture teaches. And as a result
of that, they're going to know him. And we read it in John 17
there, in the beginning of his high priestly prayer, this is
life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. They're going to know him. And look at verse 16. He says,
and other sheep I have which are not of this foe, that is,
of this Jewish foe, them also I what? Must bring. I've got to bring them. And you
know why he has to bring them? Because he redeemed them. They're
his. They belong to him by redemption. I must bring, he says, and they
shall hear my voice. Now there's the result. There's
the result of, there's the fruit of. They're going to hear His
voice with the spiritual ear, and there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. You see that? That's a glorious
truth, you see. Back over here in this section
of the parable in Luke chapter 15, here's this woman symbolizing
the Holy Spirit who comes to give life to those for whom Christ
died, whom he has redeemed." You see, you've got to understand,
this is a basic, an ABC, a 1-2-3 foundational truth of the Scripture. From the death of Christ comes
life, spiritual life, eternal life, every kind of life in every
kind of way. Immortality comes from His death. Now listen to me. You cannot
say from scripture now that from his death comes just the mere
possibility of life. Because if you say it that way,
that dooms everybody. It's not just the mere possibility
of life. It is life everlasting that comes
from his death. He said in John chapter 12, remember
when he was using a metaphor of a seed that you plant, a seed
of wheat. He called it, the King James
Version translates it, a corn of wheat. That's a kernel. A
seed of wheat. And he said, except you take
that seed of wheat and plant it in the ground and it dies,
then there's no fruit that springs up. But if you put it in the
ground and it dies, then there's fruit that springs up. And then
it says later on in John chapter 12 that what he was talking about
there was his death on the cross. And then he says, he said, if
I be lifted up, talking about on the cross, I will what? Draw
all unto me. All who? All his sheep. I'm going
to draw them unto me. That's the result. So here's
the Holy Spirit, this woman. Ten pieces of silver. If she
loses one piece, what does she do? She lights a candle, sweeps
the house, and seeks diligently until she finds it. And again,
that word find, it's not locate or find out who they are. It's
to bring them in, this time by regeneration. As the Son found
them by redemption, the Holy Spirit, as a result, proceeding
from the Father and the Son, finds them by regeneration. That's
the new birth. What does it mean, regeneration?
It means giving life where there was no life. There was life at
one time in Adam, but we failed. Remember what God told Adam in
the day that you eat thereof, dying you shall die? That's spiritual
death. And every other kind of death.
But from his death, he sends his Spirit to give life. And
so understand this. Mark this down. The work of the
Holy Spirit in us to give us life, spiritual life and knowledge,
faith, repentance, all the graces and gifts of the Spirit, The
work of the Holy Spirit in us in the new birth is the fruit
and the result of the work of Christ for us on the cross. And
do not confuse the two. Many do today. Now, this work
of the Holy Spirit, this finding the lost coin, you might say
it that way, is necessary for two reasons. And here are the
two reasons. Number one, because just as sin
demands death, and it does, Righteousness demands life. Now understand
that. Sin demands death. Righteousness
demands life. Now let me show you that. Turn
to Romans chapter 5. Book of Romans chapter 5. You see, where there is sin charged
accounted, that's death. The wages of sin is death. The
soul that sinneth must surely die. That's the only just, just
wage of sin is death. That's why the psalmist said,
O Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, charge me with
sin, who would stand? We'd all die. Our only hope of
salvation is to have that sin problem taken care of and removed.
That's what Christ did on the cross for his people. Behold
the Lamb of God, John the Baptist said, who beareth away, literally,
take us away, beareth away the sins of the world. That means
they're born away. That doesn't mean that he just made a stab at it,
or he just made an attempt at it. He actually bore the sins
of his sheep all over the world away. Look at Romans 5 and verse
21. Talking about how sin overflows
us like a flood. That's what we are. We've all
sinned and come short of the glory of God. We don't deserve
anything but death. And we haven't earned anything
but death. But it says in verse 21, that as sin hath reigned
unto death, that's what sin brings, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life. Now whose righteousness is it?
By Jesus Christ our Lord. There it is. Look across the
page to Romans 6 and verse 23. Quote a part of this. He says,
for the wages of sin is death. Now if you want to talk about
what you can earn from God, just quote Romans 6, 23, the first
part there all the time. The wages of sin is death. But now notice the last part
of it. But the gift of God. Now, it doesn't say the wages
here, does it? It says the gift of God. This
is something you cannot earn. This is something you can't work
for. This is a gift, you see. You can work for death because
you're a sinner. I can work for death because I'm a sinner. And
that's what I'll get if I'm trying to work my way into God's favor.
If I'm trying to work my way into salvation. If I'm trying
to earn my rewards in heaven. That's what I can earn, the wages
of sin. Because nothing I do is perfect, you see. Everything
I do is contaminated with sin. And sin deserves death. So the
wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life. Now how is that possible? Through
Jesus Christ our Lord. That's how. He did the work,
you see. He earned our salvation. He's
the only one who deserved it because he kept the law perfectly.
He bore the sins of all his sheep made to meet on him, on Calvary,
and he drank damnation dry. He satisfied the justice of God. So that's the gift of God. So that's the first reason that
this work of the Holy Spirit to give life is necessary. I
tell you, because Christ died, was buried, and rose again the
third day. His resurrection, the Bible says, is the first
fruits of his people. His life. He died, was buried,
but he didn't stay dead. Why? Because he satisfied law
and justice. He brought forth everlasting
righteousness, and righteousness demands life. And as it demanded
his life in his resurrection from the dead, it demands the
life of all his sheep in the new birth and ultimately in the
last resurrection. Isn't that something? And then
the next reason, look at Ephesians chapter 2, the next reason why
the new birth is necessary, this giving of life, this woman finding
the lost coin, the Holy Spirit finding the sheep, the coin,
and giving it life, is because by nature we are all spiritually
dead. By nature we are all spiritually
dead. Look at verse 1 of Ephesians chapter 2. And you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins." That's us by nature. Dead in trespasses and sins.
Now, there's a lot of argument amongst theologians about spiritual
death. I don't really believe we can
understand everything about what spiritual death is. But I know
this. There are people who hear what
I'm saying when I preach the gospel. and other preachers who
preach the gospel. They hear exactly what I'm saying.
So we know that spiritual death doesn't mean that you don't have
physical ears to hear. You've got physical ears. You
can hear the words. And you can even know what the
person is saying. I heard a preacher one time say,
well, you can't even know what they're saying unless you're
spiritual. That's not true. You know exactly what I'm saying.
If I say I'm a sinner and you're a sinner, you know that. You
can hear that. But what is spiritual death?
When you hear these things, you don't believe them. You don't
love it. You don't submit to it. That's
spiritual death. You have a rebellious nature,
fallen human nature, which will not believe and love and submit
to that truth. That's what spiritual death is.
That's the best way I can describe it. There are a lot of people
who read the Bible, but they don't know what it says. They
don't know the main message. They turn it into a system of
self-righteous works, religion. That's spiritual death. I can
tell you about Christ. I can tell you who He is and
what He did and why He did it. But until the Holy Spirit gives
you spiritual ears to hear and spiritual eyes to see and a heart
to understand and know and love Christ, what are you? Spiritually dead. That's what
it is. You may be able to take it or
leave it. That's spiritual death, isn't it? If you take it or leave
it, that's spiritual death. If you don't feed upon the Word
of God in Christ, what happens to a human being if they don't
eat physically? They're dying. And ultimately,
they're dead. What happens to a person who
claims to be a Christian but doesn't feed upon the Word of
God? There's something wrong. They're either spiritually sick
or they're just lying. They're spiritually dead. Isn't
that right? That's what spiritual death is.
And so, the reason that the work of the Holy Spirit in us is necessary
is because we have to be made spiritually alive. We have to
be given spiritual life. Now, I can't really explain that
spiritual life to you. And the nature of it, I don't
have a, you know, we used to in biology class, they'd have
that Gray's Anatomy, where you'd open that book and you could
see the anatomy and the physiologic, what is it? Physiology, I got
it, of the human body. Well, I can't do that for you
in spiritual life. I can't do that. Some try now,
and they'll talk about how you're a black dog and a white dog,
and the one that you feed the most is the one who's going over
all that junk. You know, that didn't come out
of the Bible. That came from the American Indians. That kind
of thinking. You know, like you're Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde. And whoever, you know, you fight
it out. Well, there is a spiritual struggle. There's a spiritual
warfare. Flesh and the Spirit is what the Scripture calls it.
But I can't describe to you the anatomy of it. But I know this.
Look over at John chapter 3. Now, here's what the Lord said
about it. Spiritual life. And here's what I'm saying now.
You cannot enter heaven's glory as a spiritually dead sinner.
You can't do it. Some preachers said one time,
if you could, you wouldn't enjoy it. And I guess that's a good
way to put it. But only those whom Christ redeemed
and who've been made spiritually alive in the new birth are going
to heaven. And that's what the scripture
teaches. But look at chapter 3 of the book of John. He says,
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews. And the same came to Jesus by
night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. In other words, without
being born again, you're not going to see it. Now, that word
see there has to do with the understanding. And it has to
do with a person who sees the glory of it. Who sees the value
of it. You understand what I'm saying? He sees in light of his own sinfulness
and depravity. It's like if you're a cancer
patient and you see the cure. What do you want then? What is
your desire? You see, right now, and I may
have a cancer in me that I don't know about right now, but right
now, I'm not really reaching for a cancer cure. Now, I go
have a checkup, which I had one last week, and if he tells me
I've got cancer, I'll be looking for that cure. That's all I want
to find, a cure. But see, that's the way it is
with seeing the Kingdom of God. If God ever shows you, by the
power of the Spirit in the new birth, your sinfulness and your
depravity, mine too, the only thing we're going to be interested
in is finding that one cure. And there's only one, and that's
Christ and Him crucified and risen again. And that's what
Christ is telling Nicodemus. Look at verse 4. Nicodemus didn't
understand this now. He says, Nicodemus saith unto
him, How can a man be born when he is old? See, he's thinking
of physical birth. Can he enter into the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except the man be born of water
and of the Spirit." Now, I believe what the water there refers to
is the Word of God. And I'm going to show you that
in just a moment. And of the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit
who empowers the Word of God to make it the power of God unto
salvation. He cannot enter the Kingdom of
God. You see, it's necessary. And
then he says in verse 6, now here's why it has to be this
way, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. The flesh cannot
produce anything good or alive spiritually. You see, we have
physical life through the flesh, but spiritual life doesn't come
through the flesh. And that which is born of the
spirit, the Holy Spirit, is spirit. That's spiritual life. And so
he says, don't be amazed that I said unto you, you must be
born again. And this is how he describes
it. Now, listen to this. Like I said, I can't give you
the anatomy of it. I can't dissect it for you. But
he says, verse 8, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and
whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. It may be here today, this morning.
that the wind of the Spirit may blow and give you eyes to see
and ears to hear. And you don't know where it comes
from, and you don't know where it's going. All you know is the
effects of it. You see the evidence of it. What
are those? Faith in Christ. Repentance of
dead works. Now I'll let these other fellas
dissect it and analyze it all they want, but I'm not going
there. I'm just telling you we must
be born again. We must be given spiritual life because Christ
died and he was buried and he arose again. Let me read you
a couple of scriptures from the Old Testament just to show you
that same doctrine, the same truth is right there. Psalm 22
verse 30. You just mark this down. I'll
read it to you. You know, Psalm 22 is talking about the death
of Christ on the cross. That's the one that begins, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And Christ quoted that on
the cross to show that David was not speaking ultimately of
himself, but of the Lord of glory. At the end of that chapter, at
the end of that Psalm, verse 30, it says this, a seed shall
serve him. That's an offspring. That's his
spiritual children. They're going to serve him. And
it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation, that's
his generation, that's all his people, from the first one that
was ever brought into the kingdom to the last one that will be
brought into the kingdom. And it says here, they shall
come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be,
what? Born. That he hath done this. Psalm 22, 30-31. So when you're born again, whose
righteousness do you declare? His! Who do you declare it to? To a people that shall be born.
Lost sinners, lost coins, you might say. He has done this. And then, let me read you Isaiah
45. This is the end of that. Isaiah 45 is talking about the
salvation. That's where he says, look unto
me and be ye saved. For I am God, there is none else. At the
end of that chapter. Verse 24 of Isaiah 45, it says
this, Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness
and strength. I don't have any righteousness
or power in me. In the Lord have I righteousness
and strength. Even to Him shall men come, and
all that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed. That's
the ones who are not born again. They don't believe. But he says
this, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and
shall glory. Who's the seed of Israel there?
That's every believing sinner. Everyone who calls upon the name
of the Lord, like that publican, God be merciful to me the sinner. Look back at the parable just
for a moment. Here's this woman, she has ten
coins. She loses one. Somebody asked,
well, what about the other nine? Well, the other nine, I believe,
represent the world, the unbelieving world, just like here back when
he says he's talking to the Pharisees and the scribes who didn't believe
him. They thought they didn't need
any justification. They were already justified by
their works. They thought they didn't need mercy. They thought
they were already saved because they had done enough. And so
they said, your master eats with publicans and sinners. Why would
he associate with such people? The riffraff of society. And
what the Lord is teaching them through this parable in three
parts is, listen, fellas, that's the kind of folks Christ came
to save. Sinners. And you, ninety and
nine, or in the parable of the part of the coin, you nine who
don't need any repentance, who don't need any salvation, who
don't need mercy, you're on your own. That's what he's saying.
But here's this woman, she has ten coins, she loses that one.
That one coin. And that symbolizes every sinner
that God has chosen before the foundation of the world. Every
sinner he's justified by the blood of Christ. Every sinner
who was redeemed. Every sinner who was dead in
trespasses and sins who's going to be given spiritual life. They
have no spiritual life in themselves. People say, well, everybody's
got a spark of good, we just have to fan it. No sir, you fan
it, you put it out, it's already out. Here they are, this lost coin.
This lost coin has no life, has no awareness of its situation,
it's dead. Spiritually. So what does the
woman do? She lights a candle. What is
that telling us? That's the Holy Spirit shining
forth the light of the Gospel. How is the Holy Spirit going
to find those whom Christ redeemed? By the preaching of the gospel.
That's it. Remember in 2 Corinthians chapter
4 it says, For if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not. But in verse 6 there he says,
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts. to give unto us the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That is where the Holy Spirit
is going to find the sheep, the coin. Where Christ is lifted
up in the preaching of the gospel, where his Truth is told about
ourselves, that we're nothing, that we don't deserve any of
the least of God's blessings and cannot earn them. We're sinners,
depraved, dead in trespasses and sin. And our only hope is
to fall at the feet of Christ and beg for mercy. That's it. He's going to give that life.
And then she sweeps the house. You notice there in Luke 15,
it says, she lit a candle. and swept the house. Now, I believe
that has two applications. Turn to John chapter 3 again. Let me show you this. This sweeping of the house. And look at verse 19. It says, And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. Now what it is, their
deeds there are their efforts to be saved by their works. Their
deeds there are their efforts to establish their own righteousness.
The gospel light exposes that as being wicked and evil. It
denies the glory of God, it denies the work of Christ, it lifts
up the sinner in pride. And that's the kind of deeds
that the gospel exposes. You see, it doesn't take the
gospel for you to know that somebody goes out here and murders somebody.
You don't have to hear the gospel to know that that's evil. Now,
it takes the gospel to show us that we ourselves are murderers,
spiritually speaking, it doesn't. But what is evil in light of
the gospel? Those who are trying to save
themselves by their best efforts to keep the law. That's evil
in the sight of God. It's a denial of God. Denies
His glory. And so therefore, those who are
spiritually dead, what do they do? They love darkness. The darkness
that lifts them up in their pride. The darkness that allows them
to take pride in their works, their experiences, their doing,
their dying, their suffering. and takes away from Christ. And
it says in verse 20, for everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved,
discovered, uncovered. All right, that's the nine coins,
the 99 sheep. But look at verse 21. But he
that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be
manifest, that they are wrought in God. Literally, they are the
work of God. That's the new birth. That's
the light shining on that. And what happens there is the
house is swept. It is possible that this gives
a separation between those who are false professors and those
who are true believers. But then there's another way
that this sweeping of the house comes about. Look at Philippians
chapter 3. In the book of Philippians chapter
3, the Apostle Paul is describing his conversion. And the Holy
Spirit swept his house, swept his heart. I want to show you
how he did it. Look at verse 3. Philippians
3. For we are the circumcision.
Now that's the new birth there. Spiritual circumcision. Which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice, have confidence in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Now I want you
to look at the dirt that was laying on the floor of Saul of
Tarsus' heart. Verse 4, Though I might have
confidence in the flesh. Confidence in the flesh. That's
confidence in anything that comes from me. That's got to be swept
out. He said, if any other man thinketh
that he hath whereof that he might trust in the flesh, I more.
Verse 5, circumcise the eighth day. You think circumcision will
recommend you unto God? Physical circumcision? That's
got to be swept out. Of the stock of Israel. You think
because you're a Jew physically that that's going to recommend
you unto God? Sweep it out. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
You won't sweep that out on your own. Of your own will. The woman did the sweeping here,
not the coin. You see that? And he says, of
the tribe of Benjamin, an honored tribe. You think that recommends
you to God? Sweep it out. A Hebrew of Hebrews,
a full-blooded, pure-bred Hebrew. You think that's your righteousness
before God? Oh, God, sweep it out. As touching
the law of Pharisee, that is a zealot in the religion, concerning
zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blame us. The Holy Spirit will sweep that
out. And how does he do it? Look at verse 7. But what things
were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Now anything
that's lost, you know what you do? You throw it away. In biblical
terms, we say we repent of it. I used to think that was my righteousness
before God, but now it's not. It's loss. I used to think that
that benefited me before, but now it's lost. And he said, what
showed you that? Verse 8, Yea, doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. There's the light. There's the
broom that sweeps it out. For whom I suffered the loss
of all things and do count them but dumb that I may win Christ. And be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness of God, which
is by faith. That's a house cleaning that
we all need, isn't it? And you know what happens when
that house cleaning goes on? She finds the coin. And she calls
her neighbors and friends again. She says, Rejoice with me, verse
9 of Luke 15, for I have found the peace, the coin which I had
lost. And then he said, likewise, I
say unto you, this is joy. There is joy in the presence
of the angels over one sinner. Now what? Repentance. You see,
we need our house swept, don't we? By the Holy Spirit. And I'll tell you what, once
he sweeps it out in the preaching of the gospel, you know, that's
an everyday thing. He continues to sweep it out
because we continue to have these struggles with the flesh. between
the flesh and the spirit, and he continually sweeps it out
with his word. What a great, great, blessed
passage of scripture.