Okay, now we're now we're taping
everywhere if you would turn to Luke chapter 15 Luke chapter 15 And I'm going to read the first seven
verses Luke 15 beginning in verse 1
then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners and for
to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto
them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness,
and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he
hath found it, he 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. I say unto you, that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than
over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. My subject today is repentance. Repentance. I was listening to
a sermon by Earl the other day. I have it on my phone and I can
plug it into my car stereo. But in it, he quoted a statement
that he made many, many times in many sermons. He said this,
election is not salvation, but it is a guarantee of it. That's a true statement. That's
a good statement. Election is not salvation. It's
a guarantee of it. Paul said. He has chosen you
to salvation. God chose his people in his son
from before the foundation of the world, at least Paul wrote
in Ephesians 1, that we, those chosen, should be holy and without
blame before him in love. Election is unto salvation. Peter said we were elect through
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience. The election of God has specific
results for every chosen one of God. Election is a guarantee of salvation
if it's God's election. God's election. God's choosing. One of those results is the salvation
of the soul of the chosen one, of every chosen one. But also,
I want to say here today, one of the results of that salvation,
of that election, is the repenting of that saved soul. This is the first part of one
parable. Now there's three sections in
this parable. Walter's talked about this. I've
talked about this. You have the lost sheep, the
lost coin, and the lost son. That's it. Christ said he spake
this parable unto them. Singular. This is one parable. This is the first part of it. And this parable he was telling
to all the publicans and sinners who came to him for to hear. him. They wanted to hear from
Jesus. Now the Pharisees and the scribes
were there and they heard but they were already murmuring before
he got started. The publicans and sinners drew
near for to hear and the Pharisees and scribes came to murmur and
complain. This man receiveth sinners. and eats with them. For them, this was an outrage. These Pharisees and scribes had
this goofy idea in their head that they were righteous, that
they were just. And they thought if you ate,
with publicans and sinners, if you received publicans and sinners,
if you hung out with publicans and sinners, you would defile
yourself. They were wrong. They were dead
wrong. And they were wrong from the
start because they had a false basis for their logic. There
is no just man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not, except
for the one that the publicans and sinners were drawing near
to. That's the only one. Yes, Jesus Christ received sinners. And yes, today, Jesus Christ
receiveth sinners. These publicans, I mean these
Pharisees and scribes, were telling the truth and they didn't know
it. They were saying a wonderful, glorious statement about our
Lord Jesus Christ, the one that's God manifest in the flesh. This
man, this God-man receives sinners. And that's not all, he eats with
them. He eats with them. Here's a blessing from the Lord
God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is so holy,
is so perfect, even in the flesh that He came in. That His holiness,
Christ's holiness, is not affected by our depravity. He's holy. Completely holy. Totally perfect. Sinless. even in his reception of sinners. That's an amazing thing. That's
an amazing thing to me. And how is this shown here? Well,
in this parable, he shows his reception of sinners in the fact
that he owns the sheep. How many of you having 100 sheep? And one is lost. Now, the hundred
sheep are his. It doesn't matter whether they're
lost or found. They're his. He's the owner. He is the master. He declares his possession of
his sheep. When they're lost, they're his
sheep. When they're found, They're his
sheep. And he will find every single
lost sheep. What man of you, having a hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and
nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, what? Until he finds it. Jesus Christ is not coming back
until every one of his sheep come in. Brought in and it says
and when he hath found it. He layeth it on his shoulders
rejoicing There's no hint here for anyone to bring up of any
work of the sheep in being found Sheep so dumb it might not even
know it's lost. I know that's how dumb I was
Mason That's how dead I was. I didn't know I was lost till
he found me. Nobody knows they're lost until he finds them. Because there's no chance of
that sheep finding his owner. The only hope, Mac, for that
sheep is the Good Shepherd. And the Good Shepherd will save
every one of his sheep. That sheep just out there doing
sheep things. That's what he's doing. Eating
grass, drinking water, taking a nap. Well, I used to describe
it as being I was minding my own business, and I was just
fat, dumb, and happy. That's right. I was happy where I was. I wasn't looking for him. I didn't
know I had a shepherd. I didn't know there was a shepherd.
But the good shepherd found me and I realized then my need of
him. And be very clear here, Jesus
says when he hath found it, not if he hath found it. Because
he's going to stay out it says until he find that which is lost. He's not given up on any of his
property. It's when, not if, the sheep
will be found by him. It says, and when he cometh home,
he calleth together his friends and his neighbors, saying unto
them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. This is the conclusion of the
first part of this parable, the lost sheep. When the owner finds
him, and he will find him, and when he brings him home, he rejoices. Our Lord rejoices to finding
and bringing in his chosen people. And you are to rejoice also. For I have found my sheep. This is a reason why. Nothing
else. Nothing else. This is the point
here in this little statement. We are to rejoice, why? Because
he found his sheep. We are to rejoice in that. If you're happy when God brings
in one of his people, that's a good thing. You need to be
happy when God brings in one of his sheep. If you're not,
you might want to look at something else. His finding and his bringing
is a cause for rejoicing by everyone that knows him. He calleth to
his neighbors. He calleth to those that he knows.
I found a sheep and I brought it in. And he says, I say unto you that
likewise, this is verse 7, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner
that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons
which need no repentance. That Mason to me was a strange
statement Because here in this first part and actually in the
second part Okay, the end of the second part is verse 10 likewise
I say unto you there's joy in the presence of angel over one
sinner that repenteth and The second section is the lost
coin. A coin's an inanimate object. It has no will. It has nothing. It has no mobility. It has no
thoughts. It has absolutely nothing. Sheep
have thoughts. They're all the wrong ones, but
sheep have them. A lost sheep, particularly. But here, Our Lord, using these two examples,
where the finding, the going out and finding of the coin and
of the sheep, and the bringing in of the sheep and of the coin,
is all the sovereign work of the owner of those objects. And yet, at the end of them,
at the conclusion, he says, there's joy in heaven over a sinner that
repents. Now, you don't see any repentance
of a sheep in that section of that parable. And I don't think
a coin can repent, Mason. I don't think it's capable of
it. Well, that's true. And neither are we, not in and
of ourselves. Now, I'm not adding anything
to what Christ said here. And I do want to get this point
across, which is I pass by myself. my reading and in my studying
Jesus directly and I mean directly and with full intent He directly ties the finding
and bringing in of a lost sheep or a lost coin with the repentance
and with repenting With that concept of repenting
What's he say? Likewise, joy. And in verse 10,
likewise I say unto you. This is what this illustration
is about. What in the world does repentance
have to do with the finding and bringing in of a lost sheep and
a lost coin and bringing joy? Well, the word repenting, repenting
or repentant, a verb. Now it is in the present tense
and it is an active verb. It is something that is done.
There's an action involved. Repenting happens now. It's in
the present tense and it's always in the present tense because
repenting never stops. Repenting is active. It is something
you do. Repenting is not something done
to you. But in contrast, the word repentance,
which he does use in verse seven, about the 99 just persons that
don't need repentance. Repentance is a verb which is
drawn from this, is a noun, excuse me, it's a thing, which is drawn
from this word, the verb. Now that ends the English lesson,
okay? The definition of the word repenting, Literally. Literally,
it means to think differently. To think differently. To reconsider. And the meaning of that, well,
not the literal meaning, but what is it in, I can't even think
of the word now. I've lost it. to morally feel a compunction. A compunction is something you
have no control over. But here's the point. Repenting
starts as an internal action in your mind. Repenting is thinking differently
than you used to. I know that sounds simple, but
boy, it takes a miracle of God for it. Repenting starts as an internal
action on the part of a person that has been found of Christ
and Christ is now bringing to the Father. Repenting is active
first in you. In you. Repentance used to scare
me. I'll be honest about this. When
I was first saved, when God first brought me in, because see, what
you hear about repentance is you did bad, you need to do something
different. Or you need to be sorry for what
you did. And that's true after a man has been, but here's the
thing. It starts in your head. It's in your mind at the beginning. When Christ comes to one of his
lost sheep and Christ finds one of his lost sheep, the Holy Spirit
of God breathes life. And I can tell you this from
personal experience, your thinking does change. All of a sudden
you're concerned with things you never were concerned with
before. And people who have Jesus Christ
say they have Jesus Christ as their Savior and not their Lord. No, He ain't never found them.
Because it's the Lord that finds. Then He saves. He does save. He is our Savior. But it's only
the Lord who saves. Whose arm is not short that He
cannot save. It's the Lord who saves. It's
not just the Savior out there. Then you make him Lord. Oh really.
How do you do that? You gonna crown him? Yeah, I
don't think so No, no, no your thinking is wrong It may be different
Unfortunately, it's not different from the world's Because that's
what the world thinks and that's what's in all these churches
all around us. They're making Christ King You don't make Christ
King God declared him king of kings and lord of lords, and
he was that at the beginning, he's that right now, and he'll
be that at the end unto all eternity. Nobody makes Jesus Christ lord. He is lord. Repenting is the
active part of a changed mind, heart, and understanding, whatever
you want to call it. And repenting is what we do because
of what? Repentance. That's the noun. And it also can be a description
of the results of repenting. Because with this change of mind,
with this change of thoughts, with this way of thinking differently,
comes a different way of walking. Comes a different way of talking. What does Earl say? He won't
compel you to go against your will, but he can make you willing
to go. Well, he can make you willing to walk. He'll put in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And where
does he put it in first? He puts it in your mind. That's
where we talk about the seed of thought. They used to say
the heart. He'll take out the stony heart and give you a heart
of flesh. Because that's where they said
the thoughts resided. This is where repenting is. Begins in your mind, but it does
result in outward actions. Now the world out there, they
concentrate on the outward actions and don't tell you anything about
thinking differently. Second Corinthians tells us But
we have the mind of Christ. That part kind of bothered me,
too, until I got to looking at it. What that said, we have the
understanding of Christ. When he told those disciples,
when it says in there, those disciples in Luke 24, 25, it
says, he opened their understanding of the scriptures, that's the
same word that we have the mind of Christ. We have the understanding
of Christ. Why? Because He gives it. That spirit that comes in and
dwells in you when He finds you and gives you life, you begin
to understand some things you never understood before. You
begin to ask questions you didn't even know there were questions.
Looking for answers for things you didn't even know there were
questions about. And we see a perfect illustration
of this in this third part. of this parable. Verse 17, this
is the lost son after everything, and he's out there feeding the
hogs. And he would have feigned, filled his belly with the stuff
that was in there. Verse 17 says, and when he came to himself,
he said, how many servants of my father's have bread enough
to spare, and I perish with hunger. That is repenting. when he came to himself. And we already told the first
two parts of this parable, the lost sheep and the lost coin.
And here we're talking about the lost son. You're going to
see some action. But first of all, the action
starts in his head, in his mind. This is where repenting is. And
this is where repentance begins. inside you. Turn thou me and I shall be turned. Now He doesn't say turn my ways. He didn't say turn my sins, turn
my anything. No, turn thou be. And if you
turn me, I'll be turned. Repenting starts in the mind,
but it doesn't just stay there. I will arise and go to my father. This is a parable of repentance
and Christ set it up with the lost sheep and the lost coin
just to make sure you understand Finding and the bringing of the
object is the work of the owner of the object And when you get
to the repentance shown here in verse 17 of that lost son
Understand this and still remember this the finding and the bringing
this is the work of God It's a change in your mind This
lost son, his circumstances hadn't changed. Mason, he was still
with them hogs right there. He was still there. But he had changed. His physical form hadn't changed.
He was still in rags, dirty and dusty. No shoes. But he had changed. You'll see yourself as you have
never seen yourself before. And you'll see him. You'll see that hope, Mac. You'll
see that hope. I will arise and go to my father. I don't know how long he'd been
there. He wasn't thinking of dad while he was feeding the
hogs, not at first. His father had always had servants
that could feed him But no it took this point right here says
and when he came to himself Christ makes clear here in those
first two illustrations That the cause of repenting the cause
of this action in your mind is a gift and Because he gives no hint in the first two illustrations
of this parable, he says it at the end. Likewise, there's joy
in heaven among a sinner that repents. Acts 5 and 31 puts it
this way. Speaking of Christ, him hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior. that order If God peradventure
what I'm sorry I dropped the verse for excuse me God hath
exalted him with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for
for the express purpose of to give repentance to Israel and
forgiveness of sins 2nd Timothy 2 and verse 25 says,
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. This
is what preachers are to do. If God peradventure will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. We preach the gospel
if per adventures God would give someone repentance what to the
acknowledging of the truth of his gospel to the truth of Christ
to the truth of the father the son and the Holy Spirit to the
truth of the work of God in saving a sinner There's a purpose for repentance
There's a purpose for the change of mind of thoughts of of the understanding to acknowledge
the truth. I didn't even know what the truth
was and I was denying it my whole life. I know now, but I didn't know
then. I didn't know the gospel of God's
sovereign grace. I didn't think God was sovereign,
Mason. I didn't think God knew who I
was, Jack. I sure didn't know who he was. But he knew. He knew. Election is unto salvation. And election is also unto repentance,
which is also the gift of the Son. acknowledging of the truth
requires a Reversal of your mind and your understanding because
your mind and your understanding before the spirit comes is wrong
At best it's dead whether it's dead accurately or inaccurately
You can be born and raised in the Sovereign Grace Church and
still Not know about this repentant It's happened before, it'll happen
again. This truth used to be a lot more prevalent than it
was, or than it is now, a lot more. But that doesn't mean everybody
that went there was a believer. Election is not salvation, but
it is a guarantee of it. And I'll add this, election is
not repentance, But it's a guarantee of that too. It is. Now these people going around
talking about, well, I might be the elect, or I might not
be the elect, or maybe they're elect. I got nothing. I got nothing for you. Election
is not salvation. Election is not repentance. But
it is a guarantee of it. And repenting is a changed mind,
changing the way you've thought, but you're changing it to what? The acknowledging of the truth
of God. If you don't hear the gospel,
if you won't hear the gospel, if you don't like the gospel,
you're not repenting. God hasn't given you repentance
because that is what repentance is to. the acknowledging of the
truth. The salvation, the calling out,
and the bringing in of the lost souls who were chosen in Christ
from before the foundation of the world results in repentance,
which is given to them by the Holy Spirit of God. There is
no salvation without repentance and repenting. There is no proof of election
or salvation without repentance. If you look through the scriptures,
and I started to, you'll see how many times the
Lord uses the word repenting, or repentance, or repentance. It's everywhere. It's in there. It's in there. The change of
mind, the change of thoughts, which comes from the outside,
from the Holy Spirit, into the child of God, is a requirement. And God gives it, just like He
does every other requirement. He requires life. I didn't have
any. He had to give it to me. He requires
faith. I didn't have any. He had to
give it to me. And he requires repentance. And I didn't have any. He had
to give it to me. But here, Paul says this. Paul
gave this as a reason for believing the Thessalonians were elect. First Thessalonians 1 and verse
4, he says, knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God For our gospel that Gospels in
everywhere Came not unto you in word only but also in power
and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as Ye know what
manner of men we were among you for your sake Excuse me and ye became And ye
became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the
word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. So that
ye were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the
word of the Lord. Not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place, your faith to God, word is spread
abroad so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you. How ye, and here
it is, Turn to God from idols. That's repentance. That's repentance. But it didn't leave it there.
You turn to God from idols. What? To serve the living and
the true God. It starts in here. But it doesn't
just stay in here. OK? Theology is a wonderful thing,
if it's correct. Doctrine is a wonderful thing,
if it's correct. But technically, doctrine is
sound teaching. Where did you get your doctrine?
Right here. It's right here. It's in this book. Thus saith
the Lord. This is all we got. If you aren't serving in some
manner, some form, the true and the living God, you haven't turned
to him. How ye turn to God from idols
to serve the living and the true God, and to wait for his son
from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. They turned to God for miles,
but that wasn't all of it. They served the true and the
living God. That is true repentance. And that is true repenting. It
never stops. It's part of that eternal life,
that perpetual life. Repenting never stops. If you
go back to thinking the way you used to, something's wrong with
you. Ain't nothing wrong with God.
Ain't nothing wrong with the scriptures. Ain't nothing wrong with Christ
or the Spirit. The problem is within you. We go forward. Now we go haltingly,
stumbling. We may fall. Well, we will fall. But we are not utterly cast down.
Christ said it. If you continue in my word, Then
are ye my disciples indeed. You become followers of God and
those who walk with Christ, who walk in the Spirit. You like
being around people who believe God. I never thought I'd be there. Most religious people annoyed
the dickens out of me. They did. Well, now I guess that's
still true. Most religious people do. But
the people who know this God, the people who love this God,
the people who want to serve this God, of this book, those
are the people I like hanging around now. Those are the people
I want to talk to. Your conversation changes and
that means and that in the biblical context is the way you talk and
the way you walk God has created us in Christ
Jesus his workmanship in Christ Jesus Unto good works what that
we should walk in them That's repentance. That's repenting. And this is why Paul had the
confidence of the election of these Thessalonian believers,
knowing, brethren, your election of God, beloved. They had repented, and they were
continuing to repent. Because there is a walk, and
there is a talk, but it all starts in the mind. Christ in you, the hope of glory. I've been asked that question,
what's your hope? Yeah, I got a standard answer for that. My
hope's not a what, it's a who. My hope is Christ. He is my hope. And I didn't come up with that
on my own. It's in the book, but now it's in my head. And
I can't get it out. That's OK. I don't want it out.
Well, this is the thing. You ever stop to think about
this? This is goofy logic that some people talk about. If you
have faith, how do you not believe? That's the definition of faith. If you've got faith, you're going
to believe. may not believe it all, you won't believe what you've
read. It's not a question of quantity. It's not even a question
of quality. It's a question of who do you
believe? We are to believe Him. And that's the way it is. And
we are to continue to believe Him. And that will influence
your thoughts. It will influence your talk.
And it will influence your walk. And if it doesn't, it's when
you got to kind of ask about making your calling and election
sure. It's his work. It's his will. And it's his way.
And he's put it in you. Or it's not there. Our Heavenly
Father, we're thankful again, this place this time. Thank you
for your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. who gave himself a ransom
for many, who has made sin for us, took
upon our sins. You made him to be sin. And he
willingly gave his life for his sheep. Thank you, Lord. In Christ's
name, we pray. Amen.