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Repentance

 

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

 Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

Luke 15:1-7

 

1 Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.

2 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

3 And he spake this parable unto them, saying,

4 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?

5 And when he hath found it , he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

7 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.

 

 

Jesus was teaching and preaching here, but when we get to chapter 15 it says:

 

1 “Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.”

 

When you look at what the writer here is saying, many followed Jesus for different reasons.  Some followed Him because of the loaves and fishes because they ate and were filled.  Others followed Him to try to trap Him in His Words or discredit Him. 

 

The religious crowd looked upon these two classes of people and hated them.  The publicans were tax collectors.  Most of us, this time of year especially, do not like tax collectors very well.  That has not changed much in the last 2000 years. 

 

The Bible tells us to render unto Caesar those things that are Caesar’s and those things unto God that are God's.  Sometimes, I think that Caesar is getting more than his share. 

 

The religious crowd despised the publicans and sinners.  They use the words here, "publicans and sinners." 

 

Publicans were tax collectors.  They were Jewish people that were working for Rome and they were taking taxes from the Jewish people and giving it to Rome.  They were a hated people. 

 

The writer here uses the word "sinners."  Sinners were people that did things that the religious crowd did not approve of. 

 

The Pharisees, scribes and Sadducees were very religious, but they knew nothing about Salvation.  They knew nothing about being born again.  They knew nothing about living a Holy righteous life.  They knew nothing about that. 

 

They had all kinds of rules and regulations that they had written and re-written from the books of Moses.  They wrote the law to suit themselves.  It reminds me of the religious people today; who do not like the King James Bible. 

 

They want the modern version.  Many of them take out the blood and take out where it speaks about God being our creator and so forth. 

 

I was reading about Thomas Jefferson, (I think it was) who had his writers to take the King James Version—the 1611 version—to take everything in it that had to do with miracles out. 

 

We think that we can take these things out, or maybe we do not want to believe these things.  We think that taking them out changes the Word of God, but that does not change the Word of God.  That does not change God's mind or attitude towards sin.  We can take all the scripture about blood out if we want to, but that does not change the fact that it takes the shedding of blood for remission of sin.  We can take everything about living an immoral life out of it and throw it all aside if we want to, but that does not change the fact that God hates sin.  We need to understand that.

 

When these scribes and Pharisees see what is going on here, they murmur.  Before we continue, notice that the scribes and Pharisees were religious. 

 

They were the ones that should have been leading the nation in revival and leading the people into a right relationship with God.  They knew nothing about Him.  These publicans’ and sinners, when Jesus was preaching and teaching, wanted to hear Him.   They were common people.  Yet, they were hated people.  No one liked these folks.  Yet, when Jesus Christ preached and taught, they wanted to come and hear Him. 

 

Jesus Christ was and had no respect for men's persons.  When He looked at us, He knew that all mankind needed to be saved.  He did not ‘pick and choose’ who was going to be saved and who was not going to be saved.  He did not ‘pick and choose’ who was going to be in His group and who was not going to be in His group.  He did not do that.  The world does that today. 

 

When they heard Jesus preach, and they heard the message that He preached, it touched them.  It made them feel like they were somebody.  In our messages today and our preaching today, we want to exclude many people.  When we do that, we run people off.  We do not need to do that because we are all sinners.  Every one of us are sinners today.  Some of us are saved and some of us are not saved, but we are all sinners.  We all have been born into sin and we all need to repent.  The sinners and the outcasts wanted to hear Him. 

 

Do you remember back when you first heard the gospel message preached? 

 

Do you know what it did?  We saw that we needed something.  We recognized that we needed to be saved.  If we were interested in what we heard, then we would continue to come back because we wanted to hear more about a man that loved us and died for us.

 

These guys recognized something that I hope that we can recognize today.  The scribes and Pharisees could not see what the publicans and sinners saw.  The publicans and sinners saw that they were separated from God.  The publicans and sinners saw that they needed help.  They saw that they were lost and they needed help.  They saw that.  However, the scribes and Pharisees they could not see that. 

 

Many folk that you talk to have no clue that they need to make things right with Lord.  The publicans and sinners here knew that did need to make things right with the Lord.  They were hungry.  They wanted to hear the Word of God.  They were interested in hearing the Word of God.  They acknowledged that they had a need.  They acknowledged that they needed to have a right relationship with God.  They were not coming to hear Him for the same reason that the scribes and Pharisees were. 

 

The scribes and Pharisees were coming to hear what He was saying in order to trip Him up.  The publicans and sinners were coming to hear something that would change their lives.  These are totally two different things. 

 

These guys here they wanted to hear. 

 

2 “And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”

 

That is an awesome statement to say about Jesus Christ.  It is great that He was that kind of a Savior.  If He was not that kind of a Savior then we would be lost.  If He did not love sinners, then we could not be saved. 

 

Jesus Christ, even though that He goes and He eats with publicans and sinners, did not participate in this world and its sin.  If you read the Bible, in II Corinthians 6:17:

 

17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing ; and I will receive you,

 

We know that.  If you go and look in Mark 16:15:

 

15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

 

When Jesus was going to eat with publicans and sinners, He was going there, He was with them, but He was not participating in their sin.  He was going there preaching and teaching to them that they needed to have a right relationship with God.  That should be a lesson for you and me today. 

 

We cannot get away from the world.  We are in the world.  We are here.  We cannot get away from sin.  It is all around us.  Even though that is the case, even though I am in this world, I am around sin everyday; I do not have to participate in the sin that is here.  We do not have to do that.  Instead of participating in sin, we need to be spreading the gospel.  That is what Jesus was doing.  He was not loafing with them and committing their sins that they were committing and drinking at their parties.  He was not doing that.  He was telling men that they needed to make things right with God. 

 

If there is ever a day that we need to do that, that is today.  Our people are dying lost.  People are dying lost; your family, my family, people that we visit, and people that we went to church with are dying lost. 

 

Somebody called me about a dear old fellow that is dying lost.  He is well up in years and has never repented.  How much do we really care about people that are dying lost? 

 

We say that we are so busy that we do not have time to do anything, but we have time to do exactly what we want to do.  Do you know what we do?  We do exactly what we want to do.  Do not tell me how busy you are.  Do not tell me that you do not have time to take the gospel message to people.  Do not tell me that because I know better.  We choose what is important to us in our lives.  We choose the things that we follow and do.

 

He speaks a parable in verse three.  A parable means that He is laying something along side of something to make comparisons from it or to draw comparisons from it. 

 

4 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?

 

The first thing that I want you to notice here is that a fellow here has a hundred sheep.  Jesus makes the statement, that if you had a hundred sheep and you lose one of them; would not you leave the 99 that are safe and go look for the one that is lost. 

 

The sheep that He is talking about, the one that is lost; He is talking about an un-saved individual.  These are people that are lost and do not know the Lord. 

 

As you look at this, I want you to see something about what sheep do.  Some sheep are very dedicated sheep; some sheep will become attached to other sheep.  Others want to be loners.   There are sheep that pay no attention to the shepherd.  There are sheep that pays much attention to the shepherd. 

 

However, the particular sheep that He is talking about here, wanders off.  What makes sheep wander off?  There are a hundred of them here.  That is a good flock of sheep.  There is a shepherd here.  What makes sheep wander off?

 

Several things make sheep wander off.  Even though a shepherd will lead sheep to a pasture, where there is green grass, sometimes, there is a sheep or two that think that the grass is better over there. 

 

If you read about sheep in different countries, they would build enclosures.  They would put up, what we would call fences, to keep their sheep in a certain area.  They would bring the sheep in here today and the grass would be just as green here as it was over here.  However, there was always a sheep or two that wanted to go over on the other side.  There was something over there that was attracting them.  There was something over there that was catching there eye and they start wandering off. 

 

I want you to notice something.  Many times, in our lives, things that catch our attention or may attract us may not be good things.  They may be things that might make us wander off.  They might separate us from the other sheep and from our shepherd.  When we are separated from our shepherd then we are in grave danger.  We have no help.  A sheep cannot fight and does not know how to fight.  When we separate from the shepherd and wander off, we get lost. 

 

The word lost means to perish, to be destroyed, to lose, to lose eternal life, to be spiritually destitute, or to be cut off.  

 

Here is a sheep that has been a part of the flock, but for whatever reason, he wanders off.  He is attracted or looking at something else while the other sheep and the shepherd are going on.  This one sheep gets distracted and goes his own way. 

 

It is scary for us when we do that.  We are a lot like sheep in that we do not know that we are lost until we are lost.  There is no process.  We are not going down the road, wake up and say, "Maybe, I am lost."  We do not know that we are lost until we get to the place that we are lost.  That is a scary place to be. 

 

The reason many times that we wander off is that we have no goals.  We are completely aimless.  We do not have any goals in our life.  We do not want to accomplish anything in our life so we just wander off.  We are paying no attention to what is going on around us.  We can see jobs, cars, houses and we can see all kinds of pleasures.  While all the time that we are looking at those pleasures we do not have any idea that we are wondering off.  We are attracted and we are attaching ourselves to things that are making us wander off.  If we are not careful, we will end up being lost.  That is a dangerous place to be.

 

Sometimes we think that we are stronger than that.  We put up a big front sometimes, but if you are going to go to heaven, it is because you followed Jesus Christ.  You are not going to make it by yourself.  You are not strong enough to get there by yourself.  You do not know where heaven is.  I do not either. 

 

If you are going to go, it is going to be because you stayed close to the shepherd.  He is the One that is leading the way.  Not only do we get attached to things that we should not; not only do we wander around and pay no attention to what is going on; but also, many times we refuse to take heed to the warnings that are given to us. 

 

There are many warning signs that God gives to people when they start going down the wrong road.  God will do everything that God can do to keep me and keep us from going to hell.  God calls men to preach so that we can hear and so that we do not have to go to hell.  If we go to hell, it will be because we did not heed the warning of the gospel. 

 

We have people who pray for us.  Many of you have had moms and dads that have prayed for you.  If we reject God and we do not get to heaven we will have to say, it was not because of mom and dad, because they have prayed for me.  Many times God puts up warning signs for you and me.  God tells us clearly, where we are going and what the result is, but we just keep on going and pay no attention to the signs.  Men are bad for that. 

 

The warning signs are there and we wander off.  It is not because God does not warn and not because the shepherd does not warn us, but simply because we are not paying attention.  We have other things are on our minds.  Other things are more important to us than our relationship with God.  We just wander off. 

 

Many times, we do not trust the shepherd.  Many times sheep are so into self that they do not trust the shepherd.  There are animals that are loners.  You can take a hundred cattle and out of the hundred cattle, they can get along with one another, but sometimes, you will get one that cannot get along with anyone.  It gets around them and it will buck, kick and bite.  However, most of the time it wants to go off by itself and do its own thing. 

 

When we as sheep do that, when we get too far away from the shepherd, when we get too far away from the flock, we lose the security of the flock and of the shepherd.  When we get to that place, it is a bad place to be.  The sheep is not in Las Vegas.  He is not some place where he can get help.  He is in the wilderness. 

 

That is where we go when we wander off.  We do not go to a better place when we wander off.  We do not go to a place of greater security.  We go to a place of less security.  The hills are very steep and the cliffs are very high.  There are all kinds of predators there.  We are lost in the wilderness.  We are separated.  When we realize that we are lost, it scares us.  When we realize where we are at, and that we are separated, we become scared.  I hope that when we get in that place, that it does scare us because there is danger out there. 

 

Why does sin appeal to us when we wander off?  Most generally, it is because we get too far from the shepherd.  The farther we get away from God, the better the world looks to us.  When I am doing that, then I am already lost in the wilderness.  I am already separated from the sheep.  Sin may look good to you.  Sin will catch our eyes, our ears and smells good sometimes.  We think that we can get by with things, but we do not get by with it.  I am glad that God forgives us for our sins when we ask Him.  People that want to live in the wilderness never wants to ask for forgiveness and that is a sad place to be.

 

The Bible says:

 

"...doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?"

 

The Lord will go to His furthest extent when I sin, when I separate myself from Him, whatever it may be, God will go to His furthest extent to see that I am brought back into the fold.  He searches until he finds his sheep. 

 

Do you think that God loves you?

 

He demanded His own Son to die.  That is how much that He wants you to go to heaven.  He will look and He will search until He finds you.  Sometimes sheep do not want to come back.  Sometimes, sheep likes it in the wilderness.  Sometimes sheep like it away from the shepherd because there are no rules in the wilderness.  There are no restrictions in the wilderness.  You can live as you want to in the wilderness and do your own thing.  No body cares. 

 

People think that somewhere down the road, I am going to make it back.  However, many folks never get back.  Some predator gets them in the wilderness and they die there.  That is a sad thing. 

 

A young man was called to preach.  He did a great job preaching revivals all over the south.  He got married and goes overseas, preaches over there and does a great job.  A few years pass and when he comes back to the area that he was at, the pastor that was his pastor before noticed that he did not have the fire that he used to have.  He was not nearly as dedicated as he used to be.  The pastor would ask, “What is wrong.”  What is wrong?  The young man would say, "Don't worry about me.  I'm fine."  He continued to live in the wilderness.  He continued to do things that many folks did not know.  Then one night, they found him lying outside of a nightclub, located just outside of Charlotte with a gunshot in his head because he stayed gone too long.  There is nothing but heartache and hardships there and it never gets any better. 

 

Jesus will hunt us.  He will search.  He will do all that He can and when He finds us; He will ask us to come on home.  The ninety and nine are over here waiting for you.  Come on home to a place of security.  Come on home to where that you can live in peace.  Come on home to where you can live in happiness.  Sometimes sheep do that, but sometimes sheep do not do that.  Sometimes sheep decide that they do not want to follow the shepherd.  Even though they are found, even though the Lord comes and does everything He can to get them to come back, they continue to live in the wilderness then after awhile they get into trouble.

 

5 And when he hath found it , he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

 

I do not know how long it took him to find it. I do not know how long he looked.  When he does find it, he picks up the sheep, puts it on his shoulder, and there is no doubt that he going back towards the flock singing and rejoicing.  He is happy because he has found the sheep that was lost.

 

6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

 

That sounds just like our Savior.  He goes and searches diligently.  He looks until He finds the sheep, which is lost.  He puts the sheep on His shoulder and carries it back home.  He is rejoicing as He is coming back.  When he gets home, he calls everybody and says come on over and rejoice with me because this is my sheep that was lost and we found it. 

 

God loves us.  God loves us with a love that I do not think we will ever understand until we get to heaven. 

 

He will go to His furthest extent for you and for me to go to heaven.  Many times when He finds people that used to be safe, that used be in the fold; many of them say, Lord I am not coming back.  I like where I am.

 

This particular sheep, he carried back on his shoulder.

 

7 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.

 

Do you think that heaven is a happy place when people repent?  When people repent, there is a high hallelujah time in heaven.  Even the angels’ rejoice when humans repent.  That should tell us something.  God loves us so much that He would go to His furthest extent to keep us from being lost. 

 

When he finds you, it is up to you whether you want to go back with Him or not. 

 

He finds his sheep, puts it on his shoulder, and goes home rejoicing.

 

Sin will take a toll on you and me.  When Jesus Christ comes, finds us, and says come on back; He is not worried about all those other things.  He will forgive you and there will be rejoicing in heaven.

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