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In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Dear saints, our Lord would teach us repentance as He taught the sinners and tax collectors and the scribes and the Pharisees gathered together on this day so many years ago in Luke 15. He wanted to teach them all the gift of repentance, and so He also wants to teach us this gift of repentance. And it’s important for us to consider because repentance is salvation. Repentance is enlightenment. To to to be given the gift of repentance is to be turned from from death and and darkness to light and joy and life and peace. And that’s what the Lord intends for all of us.
Now it’s it’s maybe important to start with the idea of what repentance is not. And I don’t I don’t know if this is the case for you, but I was taught when I was growing up that repentance means doing a U-turn in your life. Maybe some of you were taught this as well—that you’re doing this all this wrong stuff, and you got to stop doing the wrong stuff and start doing the right stuff. It does mean to turn. Repentance means to turn. But in the Greek, and it’s really helpful—it doesn’t mean to turn your life or to turn your deeds or to turn your works, but rather it means to turn or to change your mind.
And I want to I want to suggest to you all this morning that there’s two ways that in fact the Lord wants to change our mind, two things that He wants to change our mind about. And the first is ourselves, and the second is Him. That the Lord wants to change the way that we think about ourselves, and He wants to change the way that we think about Him. But if this is true, if our minds need to be changed, that means that they are wrong to begin with.
And and I want to think just a little bit about the the way that our minds are wrong. I think. That almost everybody has these two wrong ideas about themselves and about God. It goes something like this: I’m pretty good, and God’s kind of nice. In fact, I think if you wanted to have a kind of creed of where our flesh sort of sits, I think this would be it. You ask people if how they think of themselves. Well, I’m pretty good. I’m not perfect, but nobody’s perfect. I don’t do everything right, but to err is human. But I’m pretty good. I’m pretty good.
And when you ask people what they think about God, this is also what they say. Well, God is pretty nice. He’s or kind of nice, or he probably doesn’t. Trouble that much about sin. I want to make sure, actually. Just sit here for just a little bit. I want to make sure that we do not mistake faith in the gospel for the idea that God is kind of nice. It just that won’t will not hold up. When we open the scriptures, we see something else, something entirely different.
We see God who is love and wrath both burning. He’s involved. He’s interested. He’s holy. He’s acting. He’s punishing sin. He’s he’s forgiving sins. He’s he is anything but nice. He’s great. He’s wonderful, he’s powerful, he’s good, but nice just won’t cut it. So the Lord has to change our mind first, and and He has to change our mind about ourselves. He has to convince us that we in fact are sinners.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit through the law. Now that work can begin apart from the Holy Spirit. In fact, I think natural revelation can convince us of that we’re sinners. It can convince us that there’s something wrong. We can just look out in the world and and we we can see that God made everything and that it’s ordered and that we’re not. So that natural revelation remembers this. Remember, this natural revelation concludes that God is is big and good and mad, and that’s as far as we can get.
In fact, we look at ourselves and we see our own conscience, and it determines the same thing: that God is big and good and mad at me. But then the law comes along and presses that even further. Jesus says it like this: The Holy Spirit will convince the world of sin because they do not believe in me. So that God sends the law, sends the preaching of Moses, to convince us that we, in fact, are not good and that we deserve, in fact, God’s anger, His wrath, His punishment.
That we are—remember how Paul says it, quoting the Psalms: “No one is good.” And then, if we missed it, he says, “No, not one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All of us have deserved, as we confessed already, and this is a quite amazing thing that we said this together in the confessions of sins. That we’ve deserved God’s punishment, His temporal punishment—that means that He should punish us in this life—and His eternal punishment—that means that He should send us condemned to hell.
We we have deserved that, and the law of God shows us these things. It shows us that we have not loved like we ought to have loved, that we have not thanked God for all of His gifts, that we have not kept His commandments. That not only have we done the wrong thing, but we’ve over and over failed to do the right thing, and so we stand before God condemned.
Now, what happens? And here’s the interesting thing about repentance, because remember that’s only the first part of repentance—the preaching of the law, the knowledge of our own sin. Now the Lord has to change our our mind about Himself. But watch what happens when when I realize that that I am a sinner, then I I have to conclude—I have no other choice but to conclude that God will condemn me, a sinner; that God will punish me, a sinner; that God will cast me, a sinner, away.
It’s like, can you imagine if you’re watching a trial, like you go to court and you’re watching the trial, and the and the accused comes into the courtroom and and they’re asked. Remember the very first question that you’re asked in the courtroom: How do you plead? And they say guilty is charged. And then you think, well, it’s over. They’re they’ve admitted their guilt, and now all that’s left is for the judge to condemn them.
But look at what happens in church. This is the astonishing thing: we come in here like we’re coming to God’s courtroom, and we say that we’re guilty as charged, that we’re poor miserable sinners, that we deserve your temporal and eternal punishment. And the Lord doesn’t respond to our confession of guilt with His condemnation, but rather with His mercy, with His love, with His kindness, with His Son on the cross.
So that the the Lord’s response to our sin is not anger. It’s not condemnation, but it’s to send His Son to suffer in our place. This is what Jesus is getting after in these parables. We have two of the three parables in Luke 15, and it starts first with the lost sheep and the lost coin. And this is also for us. We have to know that we are lost.
We have to know that we’re not good people with a kind of nice, friendly God. That we are lost and condemned sinners. We have to know that’s first. But then look what happens. I don’t know if you had if you had a hundred sheep and one wandered off. I don’t know if you would go after it. I’m not sure I would, especially if he kept wandering off over and over and over again. But even if I did go after that one sheep, here’s what I can guarantee you: is that I would not come back rejoicing.
I’ve I’ve told you the story about our little dog that used to run away, Teddy, and I can so this happened, and here goes the dog, and here I say, well, goodbye, dog. Until the until the children’s tears force me to go do this begrudging task of tracking this thing down, and I promise you that when when I got home with Teddy after running around for an hour to try to find her, and you know this thing where you get right there and then she lets you get two feet and then runs off again.
This is not a description of me on that day. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. No. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, and he says to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” There was no joy. It was just anger and frustration and sweat.
But Jesus is different. Now, here’s the point: you are a sinner that deserves God’s wrath, but He does not give it to you. He does not come to you in anger, in frustration, in bitterness. He does not give you what you deserve. He comes and finds you lost, condemned, an enemy. He takes your sin upon himself so that he can forgive you and welcome you and take you up on his shoulders and carry you home rejoicing.
And not only is he pleased to do this, but he’s pleased to have all of heaven itself rejoice in this work of finding you. In other words, we stand before the Lord and we say, “Lord, I’m guilty,” and He says, “Never mind that. I’ve taken care of that.” I’ve I’ve poured out all of the wrath that you deserve already on my son.
That’s the business of the crucifixion, where he was enduring all that you should endure, so that I can give you everything that I want to give you: eternal life and joy and peace and the Spirit, and I can make you new and make you mine and rescue and deliver you. And this is the second part of repentance—to change our mind about God. He is not nice, but he is also not mad. He is holy and merciful and kind and gracious, and he loves you.
And he even likes you; he delights in you. It’s so amazing in the parable that we have no idea how the sheep feels about being rescued. Doesn’t say a thing about him. But you know who’s happy about it? You know who’s happy about saving you? You know who’s happy about rescuing you and delivering you? Jesus is.
This is comforting to me, at least. I don’t know if it’s comforting to you. I hope it is, but to me, because it always—it always seems to me, it always has—seems to me like the—I know the Lord saves me, but it—but it all—I always think, well, He must do it somewhat reluctantly. Like He saves me because He has to, because He’s the Savior. That’s what He does.
But that is not the case. It’s not the case for me. It’s not the case for you. Jesus doesn’t save you because He has to. He saves you because He loves you. Because he can’t imagine his flock without you in it, he can’t imagine his home without you there. He can’t imagine the eternal life and the new heavens and the new earth without you in it. He cannot imagine it, and so he takes on your flesh, and he takes on your sin, and he takes on your guilt, and he takes on your shame, and he takes on the wrath of God in your place and lays down in your grave so that he can lift you up out of yours and keep you with him forever.
The good shepherd is pleased to go after that lost sheep. The woman is is so happy. To sweep and light the lamp until she finds the coin, the father is so anxious to welcome back the wandering son and to embrace him and to bring the fatted calf and to put the robe on him and to welcome him to his family that that the Lord Jesus loves you that much that he he wants to have you as his own and he’s done it all.
I don’t know if if you’re happy to be here in church. I’m looking at your faces. I think some of you are. But I don’t know. But I’ll tell you who’s happy that you’re here is Jesus. He wants He wants you to hear this word. I don’t know how how how your heart will leap for joy when when you have in on your lips the body and the blood of Jesus.
But Jesus loves to feed you His body and blood. The Holy Spirit loves to press into your ears and into your heart the forgiveness of sins, and the angels are rejoicing at this salvation that they can’t even partake in, that the Lord is making you a partaker of.
And this, dear saints, is repentance: that we change our minds first about ourselves. I I am a poor miserable sinner, and then that the Holy Spirit changes our mind about God. That He is the Savior, the Savior of all sinners, the One who’s rescued us, who’s redeemed us, who’s paid the price for us, and is bringing us through all the difficulties of life into the joy of the life to come.
So may God grant us this enlightenment of repentance, that that we would know these two things that cannot be known apart from the Word and the Spirit, but that we would rejoice in them. That we are saved sinners; that Jesus is the Savior of sinners; that He is ours. And we are His. May God grant us this comfort and peace in the name of Jesus. Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.