Okay, Matthew 21. Matthew 21. I'm taking a title for the message
from what is said in verse 32. Matthew 21, verse 32. For John came unto you in the
way of righteousness. Now, whenever you see the way,
what do you think of when you see the way? Christ the way. Whenever you see the way of righteousness,
what do you think of? Christ, our righteousness. So
John came unto you in the way of Christ, who is our righteousness. And it says there, you did not
believe him. Now remember, he's addressing
these self-righteous scribes and Pharisees. And you believed
him not. But the publicans and the harlots,
they believed him. The sinners, the most sinful
people, who the Pharisees wouldn't even have anything to do with,
the publicans in the heart believed him, and when you had seen, you
repented not. You repented not afterward that
you might believe him. They said away with him. We do not want anything to do
with the Lord Jesus Christ or the way of grace. So I'm taking
the title for the message from what is said in verse 32. Our Lord brings out in this parable
the importance and necessity of repentance and faith which
leads to obedience and submission to his lordship. Now, he mentions
that several times in this parable of those two sons. We know that
John, in Matthew chapter 3, he came preaching, repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. That was his message. He pointed out and identified
the Lord Jesus Christ as, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away
our sin. When the Lord Jesus Christ began
His public ministry, we studied in Matthew chapter 4 verse 17,
the Lord Jesus Christ also preached these same words, repent for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then we read just a moment
ago in Acts chapter 20 verse 21, Paul said, I kept back nothing
profitable unto you, and I've showed you and I've taught you
publicly from house to house. testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ. So there is faith and repentance,
repentance and faith. Now remember from last week,
while the Lord Jesus Christ was back in the temple, teaching
and preaching the gospel, the religious Jews rudely, rudely
interrupted him and asked the Lord Jesus Christ about his authority
and power by which he acted. Remember, look at verse 23, Matthew
21, verse 23, when he was coming to the temple, the chief priests
and elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching and
preaching the gospel and said, by what authority does thou these
things, that you do these things, and who gave you this power?
Who gave you this authority? And then in verse 25, the Jews
asked the Lord about his authority and power. And then in verse
25, the Lord asked them a question about the ministry of John. He
said, the baptism of John He said, I'll ask you one thing,
verse 24, if you tell me, I'll likewise tell you by what authority
I do these things. And here's his question, the
baptism of John, was it from heaven or was it of man? Was it from Almighty God or did
John put himself in the ministry? Did John originate baptism or
was that by the Lord's wise decree? They answered and said to him,
verse 27, we cannot tell. We don't know by what authority
that John is acting. They said, we cannot tell. They really meant we will not
tell. And the Lord said to them, well,
neither do I tell you, verse 27, the last part. They answered
and said, we cannot tell. And the Lord said, neither tell
I you by what authority I do these things. Now, verse 28.
Our Lord says this, what think ye? What think ye? What do you think? What do you
think about this? A certain man had two sons. He came to the
first and said, son, go work today in my vineyard. And he
answered and said, I will not. But afterward, he repented, changed
his mind, and went. And he came to the second son
and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go. and went not, whether of them
of the two did the will of his father. And they said unto him,
well, the first. And the Lord said unto them, verily I say
unto you, that the publicans and harlots will go into the
kingdom of God before you, before you. Now, here's a parable. of a father having two sons.
Now, I'm a father. I have two sons. I have two sons. And I can relate to a father
having two sons. We know these parables are earthly
stories that represent a spiritual truth. These two sons in this
parable represent two sorts of people. Notorious sinners, publicans
and harlots, and then the self-righteous religious Jews the scribes and
the Pharisees. Both sons were commanded to go
into the vineyard and work. And verse 29, son number one
said, I will not go and work for you. But later he had a change
of heart. He had a change of mind. He had
a change of will. He repented and was obedient.
And really that's the core meaning of the word repentance is to
change, to change. In verse 30, son number two said,
I will go. And then he had a change of mind
too. He didn't go at all. He was disobedient to his father's
command. Now the Lord's important question
to the Pharisees, which son did the will of his father? And they
said in him, well, son, the first son did. They said unto him, verse 31,
the first. And the Lord said to them, Verily
I say unto you, that the publicans and harlots go unto the kingdom
of God before you. For John came unto you in the
way of righteousness, and you believed him not. The publicans
and harlots believed him. And when you saw what happened,
you repented not afterward that you might believe him. As the
Lord applies this parable to them, the publicans and harlots
will be justified, and those who justify themselves, the publicans
and harlots will be justified, and those who justify themselves
will be condemned. You remember the parable the
Lord gives of the two men who went to the temple to pray? The
one was a Pharisee, The other was a publican representing these
two groups of people again. You remember the Pharisee prayed
with himself and said, ah, God, I thank you. I've done this,
I've done this, I've done that. I'm not like that guy over there.
The publican smote upon his breast and said, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. You remember? So these two men
went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee bragged on himself. justified himself and was condemned. The publican condemned himself
and was justified. He said, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. Now, that's a very important
lesson for us. And here's what we need to know,
what we need to realize. This is going to shock some of
you. Your sin will never keep you from Christ. but your self-righteousness will.
The most deadly and damning sin of all is that of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. The Lord
had the sharpest rebuke for those self-righteous Pharisees. We
must never make the fatal mistake of thinking that our morality
counts for righteousness before God. They say, well that just makes
sense. I tell you what, the average
religious person thinks that his self morality, his work and
good deeds and good doing counts for righteousness before God.
It's nothing but filthy rags in God's sight. If righteousness
comes by what we do, we don't need Christ to die for our sin
upon the cross. All of our righteousnesses are
filthy rags. When Paul writes to those Roman
believers, and he talks about the Jews, he said, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is they might be saved,
because they are going back to establish the righteousness of
their own, and they're ignorant of the righteousness of God,
His holy character. They're ignorant of the righteousness
that's established in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they go about to establish a righteousness of their own and have not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God which is in the gospel.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. Blessed is that man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed
is that man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. Now
that's a blessed man. We know from the testimony of
scripture that the Lord Jesus Christ came to save Sinners. He didn't come to call the righteous.
You remember? Turn back. Hold your place there.
Look back here at Matthew, the book of Matthew, right where
you're at, chapter 9. He called the publican, who was
a tax collector named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of customs,
Matthew 9, 9. And it came to pass that Jesus
said, meet in his house. Remember, he's in the house of
a publican now, a notorious sinner. Behold, many publicans and sinners
came and sat down with Him and His disciples. Here's the Lord
in glory sitting with these sinful publicans and sinners. And the
Pharisees saw it, and they said unto His disciples, Why eateth
your master with publicans and sinners? And the Lord heard it
and said, They that behold don't need a physician, but they are
sick. Go ye and learn what that means. I will have mercy, not
sacrifice, for I'm not come to call the righteous. Sinners! Sinners to repentance. The Lord
called Zacchaeus down out of that tree. Remember in Luke 19? And He said, the Son of Man has
come to seek and to save that which is lost. Zacchaeus, make
haste and come down. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. This is a faithful saying. Are
you a sinner? I mean really, a bona fide, genuine
sinner? I was laid out in the dental
chair the other day and we were talking about the sinful flesh
and sickness and I told the dental assistant, I looked her right
dead in the eye and I said, you're looking at evil. She said, you're not an evil
man. I said, I'm a sinful man. I'm godly. I said, you are too. About that time the doctor walked
in. Well, it got to be an interesting conversation. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all the acceptation, the Lord Jesus Christ
came to save sinners. We also know from the testimony
of Scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ strongly, harshly condemned
the self-righteous Jews. Luke 16, 15. He said, You are
they that justify yourselves before God. Justify yourselves
before men. God knows your heart. That which
is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight
of God. Do you remember the conversation
that's recorded in John chapter 8? Between the Lord Jesus Christ
and those self-righteous Jews. And they bragged, Abraham is
our father. And the Lord said, if Abraham
were your father, you would believe me. Abraham, believe me. And
then the Lord went on to say, you are of your father, the devil. And the works of your father
will you do. He was a murderer and a liar
from the beginning. Wow, that went over well, didn't
it? They picked up stones to stone him. When Paul, giving his farewell
words to the faithful elders at Ephesus that we read just
a moment ago, he reminded them of his ministry when he came
among them. saying, serving the Lord with
humility of mind, keeping back nothing that was profitable,
preaching to the Jew and to the Gentile repentance toward God
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I shall not
declare unto you all the counsel of God. Our Lord said to these Jews,
you repented not. You repented not that you might
believe. Now, here's where I'm going with this. I want us to
consider for a moment how important faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and repentance toward the Lord
Jesus Christ is. Now, everybody uses those terms,
faith and repentance, don't they? That's in religious circles.
Now what do we know about faith? We know faith is a gift of God.
Our Lord said this, Seek Him. He that heareth my
word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto
life." So how important is faith? Without faith, we don't have
Christ. It's impossible to please God
without the Lord Jesus Christ. So we
know that faith is very important. Without faith we're not saved.
Faith lays hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ. How about repentance? How important is that? Our Lord
said this in Mark 13, except you repent, you'll perish. You'll perish. I'd say that's
pretty important, wouldn't you? And remember this, it's always
the goodness of God revealed in the gospel that leads us to
true repentance of heart and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 2 verse 4, despises now the riches of his goodness and
forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance. It's his goodness, the goodness
of God revealed in the gospel that draws us and leads us and
gives us repentance. The wrath of God does not cause
men to repent. Now this religious world is all
up in arms about trying to scare people into making some kind
of decision or confession. But the wrath of God does not
bring repentance. It does not bring faith. Now
I can make good on that. I want you to turn and read this
with me. Revelation chapter 6. When that
sixth seal was opened, Revelation 6 verse 12, When the sixth seal
was opened, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became
black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and
the stars of heaven fell upon the earth, as a fig casteth Fig
tree catches her untimely figs when she's shaken of a mighty
wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it was rolled
together and every mountain and island were moved out of their
places. And the kings of the earth and
the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and mighty
men and every bondman, every free man hid themselves in the
rocks and the mountains and said to the mountains and the rocks,
fall on us, hide us from the face of Him that sits on the
throne, from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His
wrath is come." The wrath of God was falling on them and they
didn't cry out for mercy, did they? They did not repent, they
did not believe, they tried to hide from the wrath of God. One
other scripture I want you to turn to, Revelation 16, Verse 8, Revelation 16, verse
8, The fourth angel poured out his vial upon the son, and the
power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched
with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which had power
over these plagues. And they repented not to give
him the glory. See where I'm going with that?
It's not the wrath of God that leads us to repentance and faith,
it's His goodness of God revealed in the Gospel. Both faith and
repentance come through the means, the means the Lord has ordained,
and that means is hearing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the Word of the Lord. You remember 1 Thessalonians,
Chapter 1, verse 4 and 5, where he says, knowing, brethren, beloved,
your election of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word
only, but in power, the power of God the Holy Spirit. He still
has pleased God through preaching to call out his people. Now,
what does the scripture teach about faith and repentance? Can
we put everything behind us that we thought we once knew or once
heard? Put all that behind us and let's
start new. What does the Scripture teach
about faith and repentance? I'll give you seven things. I
won't wear you out here. I've got about 12 or 13 minutes here. Seven things. Seven things. Number
one is this, both faith and repentance, I'll put these in the bulletin
next week. Both faith and repentance are sovereign gifts of God given
to the sinner. They're sovereign gifts of God.
Faith and repentance are both gifts of God. Acts chapter five,
where it says that Christ is exalted to give repentance unto
Israel. And then Acts chapter 11, verse
18, where it says God grants repentance unto Gentile sinners. So repentance is a grant, repentance
is a gift. And we know that faith, everybody
knows Ephesians 2, right? Verse 8 and 9. For by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It's the
gift of God, not of work that any man should boast. It's given
to you on the behalf of Christ to believe the gospel. So we
know from what the scriptures teach, and that's the only information
we have, that faith and repentance are both sovereign gifts of God,
and he gives it to whom he will through the means he has ordained.
Secondly, both faith and repentance are the commands of God. His command is, look unto me. We had it on the radio this morning,
Isaiah 45, 22, look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of
the earth, I am God, beside me there is no other. Both faith
and repentance are commands of God. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that the power of God and the salvation is not some
weak offer. It's not a simple invitation. Or it's not some decision you
make. You think the greatest atoning
work of the Lord Jesus Christ is successful or not upon your
puny decision? That makes salvation not based
upon the purpose of God, but the will of the sinner. That's
not so. That's not so. Faith and repentance
are the sovereign commands of God. Now here's the scripture,
Acts 17, 31. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. This is a work of God that you
might believe on Him whom He had sent. We only believe according
to the working of His mighty power, Ephesians 1, 19. And whenever
you see faith, repentance is also there. Faith and repentance
come together by the command of God. This is His commandment
that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ
and love one another as He gave commandment. So it's not just
a... The Gospel is not an invitation.
It's a declaration that salvation is of the Lord. Here's the third
thing. You with me? Here's the third
thing. Both faith and repentance own,
bow, believe, and submit to the true Lord Jesus Christ, to the
true and living God and his gospel, that's the power of God and the
salvation. Faith and repentance both own
the record of scripture that God is God. They believe the
truth about the God of the Bible, who is absolutely holy, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. He's absolutely sovereign. Whatsoever
the Lord is pleased to do, that's what He does. He's sovereign
in creation, providence, and salvation. Now let me show you
two scriptures on this. I think it's very important.
Two scriptures. Find the book of Titus. The book
of Titus, right before the revelation, excuse me, right before the book
of Hebrews. right before the book of Hebrews, after 2nd Timothy,
Titus chapter 1 verse 1. Titus chapter 1 verse 1. I'm
saying that faith and repentance, own true faith, true repentance,
own, bow, and believe, and submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, the
true and living God that's revealed in scripture. Titus, you got
it? Chapter 1, verse 1, Paul, a servant
and apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's
elect. There's the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of
the truth. The faith of God's elect acknowledges
the truth about God who is God. In hope of eternal life, which
God that cannot lie promised before the world began, perhaps
in due time manifested his word through preaching, which is committed
unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. So the faith
of God's elect loves the truth about God. Now turn back one
page. So there's faith. Faith acknowledges,
bows, and submits, receives, loves the truth. 2 Timothy chapter
2, a little verse 23. But foolish and unlearned questions
avoid, knowing that they do gender strife. And the servant of the
Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach,
patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves,
if peradventure, If God, perventure, will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth. There it is again. What does
faith do? Acknowledges the truth. What
does repentance do? Acknowledges the truth of God.
That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil
who are taken captive by him at his will. So they acknowledge
the truth about the God of the Bible. They acknowledge the truth
about who they are. Sinners, none righteous, no,
not one, none that understand it, none that seek it after God,
none that do it good, no, not one. So true faith receives,
believes, loves the truth of God and the truth about who we
are, sinful. faith and repentance, receive
and believe the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, that He's
God our Savior, God manifest in the flesh, and the truth about
salvation, it's all of God's grace. It's all of God's grace. If you truly believe the gospel,
and God's given you faith and repentance, faith in Christ,
toward Christ, in Christ, and toward Him, and repentance toward
the Lord Jesus Christ, you know that salvation is accomplished
by what He has done. Not what we have done. You understand
that, don't you? It's not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to His mercy He saved us. Here's
the fourth thing. Faith and repentance are not
isolated experiences of the believer, but rather a lifelong state of
being that is both powerful, permanent, perpetual. Believers
die in faith. were kept by the power of God.
Both faith and repentance are not some isolated experience
of the past. I have believed, I am believing,
and by his grace I will continue to believe. Believers die in faith, looking,
looking. Remember when Paul describes
Faith, in Hebrews chapter 12, he says, looking unto Jesus,
who is the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising his shame,
and is set down on the right hand of God. Saving faith and
true repentance. I have repented. I am repenting. I will repent. It's a state of
being. It's not an isolated experience. It's a state of being. We're
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter writes about this.
To whom? Coming. We're always coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Always coming to Him. Here's the fifth thing. Both
faith and repentance are not... Now, get a hold of this. This
rubs... You tell a religionist this and
he'll get upset. Both faith and repentance are
not the ground or cause or reason of our salvation. It's the fruit of salvation.
The fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, meekness, temperance, faith. It's the fruit of the
Spirit. Both faith and repentance are
not the cause of our salvation, salvation is of the Lord. Faith
and repentance are the result of God saving us by His grace. Here's the Scripture, 1 John
5, verse 1. He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, he's born of God. We do not believe to be born. We believe because we have been
born. That baby. And here's a simple,
homely illustration. That baby that is born. He doesn't
cry to be born, does He? He cries because He has been
born. He has been born. We're born
not of the will of flesh, not of the will of man, but we're
born of God. So, here's the sixth thing. Both
faith and repentance come together, at the same time, not apart.
When you find a broken, contrite spirit convicted over its sin,
true repentance, When you find that, you also find the believing
heart. They come at the same time. They
come at the same time. Not apart from each other. They
come at the same time. One old preacher of the past
said this. Repentance is like a piece of paper. Repentance
and faith are like a piece of paper. Has two sides, doesn't it? Faith and repentance, like a
piece of paper, have two sides. They come at the same time. from
the same hand of God who is sovereign and He grants and He gives faith
and repentance in our Lord Jesus Christ and toward the true and
living God. They come at the same time where you find a broken,
repentant heart, you'll find a believing heart, a believing
heart. As Paul said, I count everything
lost, dung, and ruined that I may win Christ and be found in Him. Not having a righteousness of
my own, but the righteousness which is of God by faith, by
faith in Christ alone. Count everything else, lost,
dumb, ruined. Here's the last thing, number
seven. As repentance and faith grow,
as repentance grows, so does faith. We grow in grace and the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. As faith grows, so does repentance. The deeper our conviction of
sin, the greater esteem we have of the Lord Jesus Christ who
put away our sin. You see what I'm saying? The
more we're convicted in our heart that we are sinners, the greater
our appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ who came to put
away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. His blood cleanses
us from all our sin. The deeper our faith and repentance
grows in Christ, the more we see of His beauty. He's altogether
lovely. to you who believe he is precious,
and the more we see how repulsive our own sinfulness and depravity
is. That's growing in grace. We grow
in esteem of him, and we think more of him and less of us. We have no confidence in the
flesh. One old preacher of the past said this, when you've grown
too big for repentance, you've also grown too proud for faith. When faith is tempted to climb
to presumption, repentance brings it back to sit at the Lord's
feet as a little child. I thought that was good. When
we've grown too big for repentance, you've also grown too proud for
faith. When faith is tempted to climb
to presumption, repentance brings it back down to sit at the Lord's
feet. as His little children. Remember
we studied in Matthew 18, except ye be converted and become as
a little child, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God.
Now, do I have real, true repentance that leads to faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ? Paul writes this, they themselves
showing us what manner of entering in we had into you, how you turn
to God, you turn to God, that's repentance. You turn to God from
your idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for
his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus,
who delivered us from the wrath to come. So we've been turned
to God, that's repentance. And we turn to God, what do we
turn away from? Our idols. Self-righteousness. Now, do I have real faith? The
faith of God's elect that leads to true, valid repentance? That
acknowledges the truth, loves the truth, believes the truth,
receives the truth? We're told in Scripture to examine
ourselves, whether we be in the faith. Prove your own self. Know you not your own self, how
that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be a reprobate. Don't
be afraid to examine yourself by what God says in his word.
Go home and see if these things be so. May God be pleased to
grant us faith, faith of God's elect toward our Lord Jesus Christ. May God be pleased to grant us
true repentance toward the true and living God. And I close with
this. 1 John chapter 5. This is the record that God has
given to us eternal life. And this life is in His Son.
He that hath the Son hath life. He that believeth not the Son
hath not life. He that believeth not the Son
of God hath not life. He that believeth on the Son
hath eternal life. Salvation is in a person. Look
to Christ. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what a repentant heart does. That's what saving faith
does. Always coming, coming, looking to our Lord Jesus Christ.