Alright, let's open our Bibles
back to Matthew chapter 21. The message today is entitled,
A Parable of Two Sons. And it's really a simple message.
It's a very simple parable. It's not very long. But again,
as in all these parables, when we study the Word of God, we
must keep it within its context. And so I want us to take a little
time to read some passages, some of the rest of Matthew 21, and
then we'll be turning to some other scripture. But here in
this occasion, this was probably about three days before the Lord
would go to Gethsemane and be arrested and go through that
time of suffering unto death that he would go through on the
cross. And in this time, he had come into Jerusalem, they had
raised their voices in praise to him, saying, Hosanna, Hosanna,
which has to do with God, the Messiah. Praise the Lord. And having confronted the religious
leaders of his day here, now this is the startling thing,
if you can keep this in your mind in the context of what's
going on and how how many, many people were so offended by the
teaching and the preaching of the gospel of God's grace at
that time. And it's no different today.
It really is. I mean, people will claim to
believe the gospel, claim to believe grace, but don't. And
so in light of that, there are three parables that our Lord
spoke here, recorded here in Matthew 21 and 22. And the issue that gave rise
to these parables is the issue, it may seem strange, but it's
the issue of authority. Authority of Jesus of Nazareth. Look at verse 23 of Matthew 21.
Brother Joe read, when Christ was come into the temple, the
chief priest and the elders of the people, this was a large
bunch now. This wasn't just a few men. This
is the Sanhedrin, probably the high priest. This is all the
the well-known, respected religious leaders in Jerusalem. And it
says, the elders of the people came unto him, and he was teaching,
and they said, By what authority doest thou these things, and
who gave thee this authority? Upon whose authority are you
saying and doing these things, and who gave that authority to
you? So the religious leaders here, in front of the people,
challenge Christ's authority. Now, they did that for two reasons,
and I want you to consider this. Any preacher of the gospel, anyone
who preaches truth as it is in Christ Jesus, will be challenged
in their authority for these same two reasons. And here's
what it is. First of all, they challenge
his authority because of his claim to be the Messiah. He claimed
to be the Messiah. I know teachers, religious teachers,
who say that Jesus of Nazareth never claimed to be God or never
claimed to be the Messiah. That's a lie. He openly claimed to be God in
human flesh. He openly claimed to be the Messiah. And true preachers, every true
preacher, preaches Christ as God in human flesh, God-man. He is God, very God of very God,
and very man of very man. One person with two natures.
And so we preach Him as the Messiah and the only Messiah. There is
one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He said, I am the way, not one
of many ways, but the way, the truth, not one of many truths,
but the truth. and the life, not one way of
life, but the way of life, the only way of life. And he says,
no man cometh unto the Father but by me. He told his disciples,
if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. The Father's
testimony of him, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased, hear ye him. That can only be spoken of one
who is God. And Christ Himself said that.
We looked at it last week in the parable, or two weeks ago,
when He confronted the rich young man. He said, why callest thou
me good if you don't believe I'm God? There's only one that's
good, and that's God. Well, God said, this is my beloved
Son, the second person of the Trinity, in whom I am well pleased. So He claimed to be the Messiah.
Now, they were asking, well, what authority do you have then?
Now, look back at verse 1 of Matthew 21. Look what is happening
here. It says in verse 1 of Matthew
21, And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethsaida,
unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying
unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway,
or immediately ye shall find an ass tied, and a coat with
her. Loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say aught
to you, you shall say, The Lord hath need of them, and straightway
he will send them. Now, look at verse 4, "...all
this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold,
thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and
a coat, the foal of an ass." Now, what prophet is he speaking
of here? This was done so that it be what
the prophet, it was the prophet Zechariah, and who was Zechariah
speaking of? He was speaking of the Messiah.
And that's what Matthew is saying here. It's inspired by the Holy
Spirit. And he says in verse 6, look, "...and the disciples
went and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass and
the coat, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread
their garments in the way, and others cut down branches from
the trees." Do you see what's going on here now? They cut down
branches from the trees and strawed them in the way. That is, they
made like a covered road. And the multitudes that went
before and that follow cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of
David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Hosanna
in the highest. What are they saying? They are
saying the Messiah has come. Blessed is he. This is God in
human flesh. Verse 10, And when he was come
into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?
And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet. of Nazareth,
of Galilee. He's the Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth
is the Messiah. Look at verse 12 now. Jesus went
into the temple of God. Now here's the temple in Jerusalem. And He cast out all them that
sold and bought in the temple, the money changers, and overthrew
the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold
thus. And He said unto them, now listen to what He said here.
It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer,
that you have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the
lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them." You see
all that's going on here? Who do you think you are, Jesus
of Nazareth? That's what the scribes and the
Pharisees and the religious leaders wanted to know. You come in here
riding on an ass, and they're saying, Hosanna to you. Praise
the Lord, blessed is the Son of David, that's the Messiah,
and you walk into the temple, and where these fellows were
using religion to make money, that's nothing new, is it? And he says, you drive them out.
And then you start healing people. Who can heal but God? Look at
verse 15, when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful
things that he did, not wonderful in their eyes now. This is the
way that they are wonderful, aren't they? And the children
crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David.
He says, they were sore displeased. They didn't like it. And said
unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them,
Yea, have you never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
thou hast perfected praise, completed praise? You see that? Oh, that's out of the Psalms.
So all of this, this is the context now. He claims to be the Messiah. He claims to have authority to
do these things and say these things. Now that's one reason
that they questioned his authority. But here's the second reason.
They questioned his authority because of his message of grace
that exposed them for what they were. Lost, self-righteous, Ignorant
religionists. And that didn't just start here.
Look back over at Matthew chapter 5. Now you think about this. Think
about people of our day. Well respected, highly esteemed
preachers, religionists, who have a great following of people,
who can quote scripture, who spend their time studying Hebrew
and Greek and Aramaic, who write commentaries and write books,
bestsellers, but they don't know Christ. They don't know the reality
of God's grace, how God saves sinners by His free, sovereign
mercy and grace in Christ. How God justifies ungodly sinners
like us through the blood and the righteousness of Christ.
They're good psychologists. They're good counselors. But
they do not know the Lord. That's the situation. And some
preacher like me, or whoever who preaches the gospel, comes
up to them and look at Matthew 5 and verse 20 and makes this
statement. He says, For I say unto you,
that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders, you shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whatever it is about
them that you admire and follow, I'm telling you, you've got to
have a righteousness that exceeds that in order to go to heaven. Why, my soul, that turned the
world upside down, didn't it? Well, if those guys aren't saved,
who is? Even the disciples ask questions
like that, haven't we? Well, I just know he's working
for the Lord. They thought these scribes and
Pharisees were doing the same. These religious leaders over
here in Matthew 21, they thought the same thing of them. Pick
the best of the best without Christ. Accept your righteousness. Exceed theirs. You shall in no
wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, back over here in
Matthew 21 and 22, in these parables, he exposes and confronts this
self-righteous attitude. They say, what authority do you
have to say such things? Now, you can understand why they
would question that. If somebody came to me and said,
now, Bill Parker, I don't believe you're preaching the Gospel.
I simply say, by what authority do you say that? Show me. What
is your foundation? Of course, I say, let's go to
the Word of God. Let's prove it by here. I've
had people say that I don't preach the Gospel. Well, what am I adding
to it or what's missing? And they can't say. I've heard
people say, well, it's what he's not saying. Now I ask, well,
what is he not saying? Well, I don't know. Just listen.
Well, evidently, they're missing it too. That's the only way. You either
add to it or you take away from it. What does God's Word say? This
is my authority. This is our authority. This is
the only authority we have. Now, you can go to some preacher
and get his ideas and his opinions, but I'm going to tell you something
that means nothing compared to this. This Word right here. So they want to know. Now, you're
saying these things. You're claiming to be the Messiah.
This Jesus of Nazareth. Joseph, the carpenter's son.
And you're claiming to be the Messiah. You claim to be God.
John records it. And when Christ was speaking
of Abraham, Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he said. He saw
it and was glad. And they said, well, wait a minute.
He said, you're not even 50 years old, and you claim that you're
as old as Abraham? And he said, before Abraham was,
I am. There's nobody inspired by the
Spirit who can say, I am, but God. That's it. He's God. So you're claiming to be the
Messiah. You're claiming to be God. You're doing these miracles.
You come in here on an ass and they say, Hosanna, Son of David. And you're talking about us like
we're lost. Now, by what authority do you
do that? What authority? Over here, look back at Matthew
21. You see what he's doing? He's
telling the people that these religious leaders, are like those
people of whom Isaiah spoke, of whom he spoke of back earlier. As recorded in Matthew 15 and
verse 8, he said, This people draw nigh unto me with their
mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far
from me. And he illustrates that. Look
here. Look at verse 17 of Matthew 21. Now listen to this. He says,
He left them and went out of the city into Bethany, and He
lodged there. Now, in the morning, as he returned
into the city, he hungered, and when he saw a fig tree in the
way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only. And he said unto it, Let no fruit
grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree
withered away." It's kind of strange to put that in this middle
of this, isn't it? Well, it's an illustration of
the very truth that the parables are teaching here. Here's a fig
tree that only had leaves, but there were no figs. In other
words, it had a show of growth, but no real growth, no life.
Fruitless fig tree. One old preacher called it the
episode of the braggart fig tree. Showing forth those leaves. Like
men in religion, men and women in religion, they love to look
clean in the outside of the cup. looking good, make sure we put
on a good front, a game face, wear their religion on their
sleeves and on their cars and everywhere else. But inside,
there's no fruit. There's no work of the Spirit. There's no life. And that's what
he's showing there. That fruitless fig tree was a
perfect picture of these religious leaders. And so he goes on and
he tells the disciples, when the disciples saw verse 20, they
marveled saying, how soon is the fig tree withered away? And
Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
if you have faith, and doubt not, you shall not only do that
which is done to the fig tree, but also, if you shall say unto
this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,
it shall be done. And all things whatsoever you
shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive." He's talking
about praying in the will of God. In other words, the power
of God shown through Christ. He showed it to them in the withering
of that fig tree. Well, He showed it to them before,
hadn't He? I mean, this wasn't the first miracle he performed.
But he shows it to us through prayer, too. Not because you
get everything you ask for, or I get everything we ask for,
but because the power is in Christ. And so then, here he comes, and
he's speaking to the people. He's preaching the gospel of
God's grace. He's preaching that God saves
sinners by His grace. through His blood that He was
about to shed and establish the righteousness by which God could
justify the ungodly. That's how God saves a sinner.
It's not by works. It's not by pedigree. It's not
by circumcision. The law of Moses won't do it.
The blood of animals won't do it. It takes the blood of the
Son of God to put away our sins. And that's the only way that
God's going to save a sinner. That's the only way God can be
just. and justify. It's the only way he can be both
a righteous judge and a loving, gracious, merciful father. So they ask him, well, what's
your authority? Do you do these things and make
these claims and say these things? Well, look here. Look at verse
24. Now, knowing their wicked hearts and their agenda, they
had an agenda. You know, that's the thing about
lost religious folks. They have an agenda. They have
a goal they want to reach. And they really Most of them
don't really care how they achieve it. They're certainly not going
to go to the Word of God and do what the Word of God says,
because that would destroy their agenda. And so he knew their
wicked hearts, he knew their agenda, and he turned the tables
on them and he asked them a question. Now look here at verse 24. And
Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one
thing, which if you will tell me, I likewise will tell you
by what authority I do these things." And then here's the
question, look at it. He says, the baptism of John,
whence was it, from heaven or of men? The baptism of John,
where did it come from? Did it come from God or did it
come from men? Now, first of all, I want you
to understand, he's not evading their question at all. In fact,
if they would answer his question right about John the Baptist,
they would also get their answer from him about who his authority
was. And I'll show you why. Well,
what's the point here? Well, here's the first thing
you need to see about this and to understand this parable, all
three parables actually. Consider John's message. Consider
John's baptism. What did John preach? I'll tell
you exactly what John preached. He preached Christ and Him crucified. He pointed sinners to the Messiah
sent of God who was none other than Jesus who came out of Nazareth. That's what John said. When Christ
says the baptism of John, He's not just talking about the water
baptism of John, even though that's included. It was the baptism
of repentance. But He's talking about the whole
ministry of John, which was symbolized by that baptism of repentance.
In other words, those who believed John's gospel, John's message
of grace in Christ, were baptized, they were testifying of their
repentance of their lost religion, their works, their efforts. And
so when they identified with John, they were identifying with
Christ. So he turns the tables on them.
He said, what about John? Where did his baptism come from?
Well, what did John do? He pointed sinners to Jesus of
Nazareth as the Messiah, the Son of God incarnate. He told
them, he said, I'm not the light, the light of the world. He said,
there's one coming after me who is the light. He said, I baptize
with water. That's all I can do. I can't
do any more than that. But there's one coming who will
baptize with fire, the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the
new birth. You see, John could baptize them
in water, I can do the same thing, but I can't change your heart.
I can't even change my own heart. It takes a powerful work of the
Holy Spirit to do that in the new birth. And then when Christ,
when Jesus of Nazareth arose on the scene, what did John say?
He said, look at Him, behold, the Lamb of God which beareth
away the sins of the world. There He is. There's the one. There's the woman seed of Genesis
3.15. There's the one who created the
world. There's the one who was represented and typified in all
the blood of all the animals that were slain in the Old Covenant
before, and all the righteousness. There He is. There's the Jehovah
Sidkenu. There He is. That's what John
said. John said, I'm not the Messiah. He's the Messiah. He
said, I'm not worthy to baptize him. I'm not even worthy to stoop
down and tie his shoes. Boy, that's something. And here's
what John did. When John preached, his disciples
did what? They followed Christ. See that? You can't separate the ministry
of John's baptism from the preaching of Christ and God's grace of
salvation in Christ. That's how God saved sinners.
When the Pharisees came out to see John, He told them, you know
what he called them? He called them poisonous snakes.
He says, you vipers, hindering men from the kingdom of God.
And he said this, he said, don't think to say I'm your Abraham
seed. He said, the acts will be laid
to that root. Just because you're Abraham's
fleshly descendants does not mean you're children of God,
that you're saved, that you're righteous in God's sight. Don't
even think about that. Bring forth fruit to meet for
repentance. Repent of your religion. Repent
of your works. Run to Christ and rest in Him. Plead His blood and His righteousness
alone for all of salvation." That was John's message. That's
John's baptism. And those who were baptized in
water by John identified with that message. Just like we identify
in believer's baptism with Christ who died, was buried, and rose
again the third day because of our justification. So that's
what he was doing. The multitudes went out to hear
John and believed him. What was John's authority to
do that? Well, how did the religious leaders
respond to John's message? Well, look back at verse 25.
Now, look at it again. He says, "...the baptism of John,
whence was it? Where did it come from? Was it
from God, or of men? From heaven, or of men? And they
responded with themselves, saying..." Now, here they're having a conference
among themselves. And they said, now, if we say
John's baptism was from heaven, was from God, had the authority
of God behind it, He will say unto us, well, why didn't you
believe Him? Hey, if I've got God's authority
behind me and His Word, what are you to do? You're to believe
it. God said it. I believe it. Huh? God said it. That settles it. I believe it.
And they knew that, well, if we say this, he's going to say,
well, why didn't you believe John? Because they didn't believe John.
But look at verse 26. He says, but if we shall say
of men, it came from men, therefore it's no good, we fear the people
for all hold John as a prophet. All the multitudes who keep us
going in what we're going. They called John a prophet. So,
if he's a prophet, he's sent from God, has the authority of
God. If we say he's just of men, what are the people going to
do? Now, let me show you what's happening. Well, men, by nature,
reason upon their own agenda and self-promotion. That's what
it's all about. Not upon the truth of God's Word.
They feared the people, but they didn't fear God. That's the problem. Two things that drive lost religionists,
fear of the people or praise of the people. Let me show you
that. Look over at John chapter 12. This passage, I'm sure you've
seen it many times, but look here. Look at John 12, verse
42. This is a perfect example of
what this little parable teaches. He says in verse 42, John 12, Nevertheless, among the chief
rulers, also many believed on him." Now, what he means there
is they claimed to believe on him. But because of the Pharisees,
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue. They were afraid of the Pharisees. They were afraid
they'd be thrown out of their churches. if they would confess
Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah, that salvation was by God's grace
and not by works of righteousness which we've done? Verse 43, For
they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. That's
exactly the problem over here. We fear the people in Matthew
21. They love themselves more than
the truth or God Himself. Ungodly fear. You know that kind
of fear? Unreasonable fear? It causes
people to do some strange, strange things, doesn't it? You know,
you can travel all over this country and probably all over
the world and go into motels or hotels and go into the elevator
and push the button looking for the 13th floor and you won't
find it. In many of them. You'll find
12, you'll find 14. But 13's gone. That's true. Do
you know that? In many of these hotels. Why
is that? Because people have a fear of the number 13. Incidentally,
you young people, if you ever get a test question, that's called
Triskaidekaphobia. Now, the fear of the number 13
is as crazy and weird as the name of the fear. The people
do it. It doesn't matter. If you ever
get on an elevator and you're wanting to avoid the 13th floor,
don't push 14 because that's the 13th floor, my friend. That's
truth. You can believe it, something else. See, that's what it is.
It's an ungodly, unreasonable fear that causes people to act
crazy. And that's exactly what's going
on here. They don't fear God, but they fear men. What they'll
do to me. What I believe. What I have in
my mind, you see. Well, look at the parable now.
Here's what he says. They answer, their answer is,
well, we can't tell. That's a cop-out. Well, we just don't know. We're
going to take the fifth on this one. We'll plead the fifth. And
they say, we cannot tell. And he says, well, I'm not going
to tell you about what authority I'll do. I do these things. But
here's what I want you to think about. But what thinking? Now,
think about this. If the Lord Jesus Christ was
standing in front of you today and He looked at you and He said,
think about what I'm going to say right now, would you do it?
Well, He is, and it's not me. He's here in His Word. And He
says, think about this. He says, here it is. A certain
man had two sons. And he came to the first and
said, son, go work today in my vineyard. You see that? Now,
the vineyard is the kingdom of God. All these parables concerning
the kingdom of God. Back down here, or on down in
verse 31, he proves that. He says, the publicans and harlots
go into the kingdom of God before you. So the vineyard here is
the kingdom of God. That's the rule and reign of
Christ on this earth between the time of His first coming
and His second coming, through His church, and His church made
up of all kinds of hearers. You have the good ground hearers,
the stony ground hearers, Thorny ground hearers, the wayside hearers,
in the world of weed and tears, you have false professors and
you have true believers. So this is the vineyard. And
he says, go work in my vineyard. Now, in verse 29, and he answered,
now this first son, he said, go today and work in my vineyard.
He answered and he said, I will not. But afterward, he repented
and went. Now, what brought that man to
repentance, that sundry? God did. That's how repentance
comes. Repentance is like faith. It's
the gift of God. It's not of the free will of
man. If God left it up to us to repent
of our own free will, we wouldn't do it. That's what the Scripture
teaches. You will not. And if you would,
and your repentance is what saves you, then you can honestly boast
that you're better than the rest of us. Because you repented and
we did. You see, it's not by the will
of man. But the point is, this son said first, I will not. That's
man by nature. That's us by nature. We will
not. We're rebels by nature. Born to dead and trespasses in.
Fallen in Adam. Just like Adam rebelled against
God. We rebel by nature. And until
God brings us to repentance of dead works and faith in Christ,
we will not repent. But this fellow come to repentance.
He had a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of attitude,
a change of affections, a change of will brought on by God. Now look at verse 30. It says,
to the second, he came to the second son and said, likewise,
and he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not. Now remember
the first one said, I will not, and then he repented. This second
one says, I will, and he didn't go. Well, what's he talking about? Look at verse 31. "...whether of the twain, which
of the two, did the will of his father?" Well, they knew. That's obvious. That's simple.
They say unto him, the first. The one who said first, I will
not, but then repented. He did the will of his father.
But the second one who said, I will and did not go, he didn't. And Jesus saith unto them, Verily..."
Now listen to this. Get this right now. Think about
somebody standing right there before these religious leaders,
these well-respected men. He says that, verily I say unto
you, truthfully I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots
go into the kingdom of God before you. Wow! Did you hear what he said? Publicans? You know who the publicans were?
They were the traitors. They were the most hated men
of that day. collecting taxes for the Roman
government, collecting taxes from their own nation for the
heathen, godless, invading Roman government, Caesar, and all of
them skimmed off the top to line their own pockets. Publicans? And then harlots? That's a whore,
that's what that is, a woman who sells herself for money.
The harlots, he said, they'll go. Verse 32, now he connects
it back with John the Baptist. Look here. For John came unto
you in the way of righteousness. What is the way of righteousness?
The way of Christ. It's the way of Christ and Him
crucified. It's the way of the cross. It's
the way of His obedience unto death. It's the way of God. It's
the way of grace. It's the way of mercy. It's not
the way of self-righteous works, religion. For by grace are you
saved. Through faith. That not of yourself. It's the
gift of God. Not of works lest any man should
boast. It's the way of sovereign mercy. Sovereign grace in Christ. That's the way of right. It's
the gospel. Remember what John preached now? The way of righteousness.
Go back and read what John said. That's the way of righteousness.
What did he do? He pointed sinners to Christ. He didn't point to
himself. He pointed to Christ for all salvation. His blood.
His righteousness alone. And so, he said, John came unto
you in the way of righteousness, verse 32, and you believed him
not. You didn't believe him. You said he has no authority
to preach what he's preaching. That's what you said. When you
don't believe him, that's what you're saying. He has no authority
from God to do that. But the publicans and the harlots
believed him. Now, listen, this is a parable. Do you think he means all the
publicans without exception? And all the harlots without exception? Of course not. No. He's using them as a symbol.
Many of the publicans did. Let me show you. Look over at
Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. And look at
verse 9. There were many publicans who
did. Many who didn't. But look at
verse 9. He says, And as Jesus passed
forth from thence, traveling now, he passed forth from thence,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom. And
he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. That's Matthew. You know what
Matthew was? He was a publican. He was standing
there doing his dirty work when Christ passed by. Follow me. You know what he did? He followed.
Somebody said, what was going through the mind of Matthew?
I don't know. And you don't either. And unless
you can find it written down in this word, I'd say just keep
quiet about that. I just know he followed him. Followed him. Look on, verse
10. Came to pass, as Jesus sat at me in the house, behold, many
publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples,
why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? They wouldn't even
stoop that low to have dinner, have supper with him. But when
Jesus heard that, He said to them, they that behold need not
a physician, but they that are sick. Jesus Christ came into
the world to save who? Sinners, of whom I am chief.
You know what Paul means by that? He said, I'm no better off than
the publicans and the harlots when it comes to a right standing
before God, how God saves a sinner. Verse 13 of Matthew 9, But go
ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Look over with me at Luke 13. You see that? Luke 13. I tell you, people need to get
it in their heads. And I know, as I say that, I
know it's by work of God. that Christ came to save sinners. That's who He came to save. And
if you're offended, or if I'm offended at the fact that He
saves any particular sinner or kind of sinner, my friend, we
don't know anything about grace and mercy. Look at Luke 13. Look at verse 1. There were present at that season
some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled
with their sacrifices. That was a historical event where
Pilate dishonored God and his people. Jesus answering said
of them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above
all the Galileans because they suffered such things? Verse 3,
I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise
perish. Who's he talking to there? The
Pharisees. you need to come to repentance. And then let me show
you one more. Look at Luke 18. Here's the Pharisee and the publican. Verse 9 of Luke 18. He spake this parable unto certain
which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised
others. They said, we're saved and they're lost because they're
sinners. Well, two men went up to the temple to pray, the one
a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men
are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast
twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the
publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as
his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God,
be merciful to me, the sinner." God saves sinners. Our Lord asked
this question. He said, Why call ye me, Lord,
Lord, and do not the things which I say? Look back at Matthew 21,
32. Let me close with this. He said,
John came unto you in the way of righteousness. What does that
mean? Follow Christ, rest in Him as
the author and finisher of our faith. See Him, believe Him,
trust in Him as the Lord, our righteousness. I have none but
Him. And you believed Him not. But the publicans and the harlots
believed him. God had brought many publicans,
many harlots, to see the Lord. But you know what? He brought
some Pharisees to see it too. I know of at least one, Saul
of Tarsus. And when Saul of Tarsus saw the
Lord of Glory, he said, all those things that I counted as profit
and gain and righteousness before God that I did, or wasn't able
to do, I counted but lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord." And Christ went on here. He said,
"...and you, when you had seen it, repented not afterward, that
you might believe in Him." Don't be found among those who have
a profession of faith without true repentance. That's what
he's talking about. Don't say, I believe in Christ.
I'll go and don't go. Don't say, I love Him, but not
do what He says. Not love His Word. Not come to
repentance and obedience out of love and gratitude and grace.
Don't be like that. Don't be like that second son
who said, I'll go, but don't go. For a long time, many of
you here said, I will not go. And then God brought you to repentance.
If you haven't yet done that, I pray the Lord will bring you.
to saving faith and repentance.