The Lost Silver

Let's pray together. Father, we're grateful for today and the beautiful, the beautiful opportunity we have to worship your glorious name. Today, Lord, as we look into the scriptures and understand a little bit more about you and your character and nature, how you pursue relentlessly lost souls, to bring them to yourself that they might embrace, be embraced by you and experience the glorious joy of heaven. May we learn you today, Jesus. We pray in your name. Amen. If you have your Bible, turn to Luke chapter 15 with me, if you would, please.

Luke chapter 15, as we study once again, the parable of lost things and what brings joy to heaven. That's what this parable is about. It's a parable emphasizing three different stories, one about lost sheep, one about lost silver, and one about lost sons and how it is God pursues people and that there is joy in heaven that erupts over one sinner that repents because they have been found by God. Christianity is about the joy of God. It's about the joy of God in the heart and life of an individual.

The Bible says in John chapter 17 in Christ's high priestly prayer, verse number 13, but now I come to thee and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

The prayer of Christ for you, for me, is that his joy would be made full in each and every one of us. That's why John would write in first John 1, 4, these things are written that you might have joy.

Okay. We also know that as we look at the kingdom of God, Romans 14, 17, it says the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but it is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

God is concerned that you experience the joy he himself has because God is joy. So when he came to earth to seek and to save that which was lost, he did so with the joy that was set before him. That's why he was able to endure the cross, Hebrews 12, 2, despising the shame because there was a joy that was set before him because of his finished work at Calvary, souls would be saved. All heaven would erupt over one soul that is saved. And that's where we are in Luke chapter 15. We're going to do three things with you this morning.

We're going to review the setting, resume the story, and then we're going to resolve for saints and sinners what it is God has for us as a result of this study in Luke chapter 15. Verse number eight is where we're at. It says this, Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins, and loses one coin, does not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.

In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. As you review the setting, three things you need to note. One, the sinners were coming, the self-righteous were complaining, but the Savior was convicting. The sinners were coming, the tax gatherers. Verse one, the sinners, the riffraff, they were coming. They were coming to listen to him. Remember he closed out chapter 14 with these words, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Right? Who are the ones who have ears to hear but those who are willing to listen to the words of Jesus?

This is the way it always was. The sinners, the prostitutes, the drunkards, the harlots, the tax gatherers, the riffraff of society, those that were the outcasts of society, those that the religious leaders wanted nothing to do with, they were coming to Jesus because of his compassion, because of his desire to seek after them. He would even eat with them. Now, to eat in those days would mean to demonstrate friendship and fellowship. You just didn't eat with anybody. You ate with people you wanted to build a relationship with.

And Jesus ate with sinners. And that's why the self-righteous were complaining. The Pharisees were always complaining. Back in Matthew chapter nine, it says these words about Matthew when he had given his life to the Lord. He decided to have a dinner and invited sinners and other tax gatherers to come. And it says in verse 11, when the Pharisees saw this, they said to the disciples, why is your teacher eating with the tax gatherers and sinners? But when he heard this, he said, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

But go and learn what this means. I desire compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners. And then over in Matthew chapter 11, it says this. In verse number 19, the son of man came eating and drinking. And they say, behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax gatherers and sinners. That's how they characterized Jesus. He was a friend of sinners. He was a friend of tax gatherers. And they condemned him because of that. They condemned him because he healed on the Sabbath.

They condemned him because he ate with sinners. They condemned him because they believed that his works were of Satan and not of God. But he was a compassionate, compassionate God who came to be with sinners. And even though the self-righteous Pharisees were complaining about what he was doing, he came to seek and to save that which is lost. You see, the reason they were self-righteous is because in Judaism, they did not believe they needed a savior. They were convinced that they were sinners. They were the chosen people of God.

And in the conversations they would have with Jesus, they would say, we are of Abraham, our father. We are descendants of the great and glorious father Abraham. We are in the line of the chosen people. Do you think that the God of heaven would not allow us to enter heaven, having been the chosen people of God? They believed they were going to heaven because of their race, because they were descendants of Abraham, because they were Jewish people. They didn't need a savior to save them from their sin.

They needed a king to rescue them from Rome. That's what they needed. That's how they perceived themselves. So they were very self-righteous, believing that they were not sinners like these other people were. They were better. They were different. And as the sinners were coming and the self-righteous were complaining, the savior was convicting. He was so convicting as he would open his mouth and begin to speak the words of God, the truth of what it means to be saved. He would be greatly convicting to all those who listened.

The Pharisees and scribes are the people who needed to hear the parable of lost things. It's directed to them. And he does it through the first two stories in a kind of roundabout way where he introduces a story by what one of you men, okay, aligning them with shepherds.

And today he's going to align them with, of all people, women. And then in the next story, he's going to put them into the story as the oldest son. They are the oldest son. They are the self-righteous. And that's what the parable of the lost sons is about. There are two lost sons, not one that's lost. Both are lost. One is saved and one is not. And that is the sinner represented by the younger son is saved. The older son, he is representative of the Pharisees and scribes, the self-righteous, the hypocrites.

But he puts them into the story. That's why his words are so convicting. And he wants them to understand what it is he's saying. And so he says, what man, which one of you as men would not go out as a shepherd? And if you were a woman, which one of you would not search for the lost coin? So that's the setting. That's where we're at. And that's what Jesus is saying. So let's resume the story by looking at three things. Number one, the question.

Number two, the jubilation. And number three, the application. It's a story of, it's the most unfamiliar of the three stories. It's the woman who loses her silver coin. So it begins with this question, he says, or what woman? Now, when he says that, go back to verse number four. He says, what man among you, if he has a hundred sheep, making them into shepherds? The same phraseology is used by now.

It's all about making them women. Now understand this. The Pharisees and scribes despised shepherds because they were the lowest of the employed. They were the polluted. They were the perverted. They were the ones that Israel never wanted to be like, but you needed shepherds to tend for the sheep, right? So they understood shepherding and they even understood that the Messiah, when he came, he would be a shepherd all throughout the old Testament, specifically in the book of Isaiah. God is pictured as sending his shepherd to take care of his flock because the priests were unable to do that.

So they understood that the Messiah would be a shepherd to the nation of Israel. They just didn't want to be associated with shepherds. But now he says, what woman, that is, which one of you, if you were a woman, wouldn't do this? Now that's very degrading to a Pharisee because they prayed three times a day. God, I thank you that I'm not a woman because women were the lowest of low. In fact, from 200 BC to 200 AD, women were never taught the law of God. They could not be privileged enough to be taught the law of God.

They were disdained by the men of Judaism. They didn't want to be a woman. But you see, he incorporates them into the story by helping them understand that if you were a woman, this is what you would do. And they would understand that. So he asked the question, what woman, she has 10 silver coins, loses one, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? That's the question. Now understand in a poor peasant village in the Middle East, these homes were built without windows.

Okay. You might have a slit in the door, okay, that you might be able to look through the door when someone came to visit you, but there were no windows in these homes. And these homes were dirt floors. They had dirt floors. They weren't carpeted. They weren't tiled. They were dirt floors. And in that hard dirt floor, there were cracks. And this woman loses one of her silver coins. She has 10 of them. She loses one. Which one of you, if you were a woman and lost one of these, wouldn't light the lamp, sweep the floor, and search diligently until you found it?

Now we read that and we think, well, you know what? So you lose a silver coin. What's the big deal? I can always get another silver coin, right? Well, it was a drachma. So it was worth one day's wage, but she had 10 of them. But note this, if I'm a Jewish woman, when I get married, I receive 10 silver coins, equivalent to a wedding ring. And I wear them either around my neck or around my head. They're strung together and I wear them to symbolize that now I am married. You have to understand that if I'm a Jewish woman in the time of Christ, I'm not looking to further my education to become a lawyer, to become a businesswoman.

I'm not doing that. My only fame in life is to get married and have children. That's it. That's all I have. I have nothing else. And so to be married, that's why they were betrothed at such a young age, at 12, 13, 14 years of age. And they were married at such a young age because that's all they had to look forward to. They were baby factories, basically, as all women were back in those days. And they would have children. And that's all they had to look forward to. So to get married and to be able to wear these 10 silver coins symbolized everybody, I'm married.

This is it. The highlight of my life. If I lose this, if I lose one of them, this has sentimental value, but it also has, it has monetary value. If my husband dies, I must somehow stay alive. Well, how am I going to do that? I have 10 days of wages wrapped around my neck or through my hair to help me through the, the next couple of days of my life. See, so this becomes very important to them. It's not like us. We drop a dime. Ah, no big deal. I got another dime. Okay. Drop a nickel. No big deal. I got another nickel.

This was the big deal. See, this is what they lived for. This is who they were. Their identity was wrapped up in their marriage and their marriage ceremony and all that would take place in their lives from that day forward. And this symbolized that she was married and she had a man and that man had a woman and she was in, she loses it. So what does she do? She sweeps the floor, looking at every crack and every crevice. And it's a dark home. It's not a lighted room. Maybe she would open the door to get some light in, but she would, she would light the lamp.

And if you've been to Israel, you've seen those little oil lamps, they're not very big at all. And to be able to take that little thing and move it around on the dirt and get down on your hands and knees and search and search and search and search until you finally find it.

Until you finally find it. She had to search every crevice, under every piece of debris, under every leg of a table or a chair. She was looking until she finally found it.

And what she did, what did she do? She rejoices. Great jubilation. Great jubilation. And absolutely astounding joy. So what does she do? She calls her friends. This is the jubilation. She calls her friends. Now her friends are not like the friends in the first story.

Why? In those days, men didn't associate with women and women didn't associate with men. Women just had women friends. So these are our lady friends that she would call and they would all come and they would, they would celebrate with her. Why? Because they know the value of the 10, the 10 silver coins. They understand the value of what that means to that woman. And when she found it, she would rejoice. She would be ecstatic and they would celebrate it with her. Sounds a little over the top, doesn't it?

Lose a silver coin and you gather your friends together and you, you kind of celebrate. You found a silver coin. Big deal. Big whoop. You know what I'm saying? Are you kidding me? Really? You lose a silver coin. You're sad about it. So you go and search for it. You find it. You call your friends and you throw a party. It sounds a little bit over the top. And that's exactly what Jesus wants you to understand in heaven. It's over the top when the center is saved. It's over the top. It's, it's, it's almost like it's too much.

See? And what Jesus does is so, so unique because he knows he's a shepherd. Psalm 43, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, right? He puts the Pharisees in the realm of shepherds. Oh, notice what else it says.

He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies. No man, no Jewish man ever prepared a table. Wouldn't do that. But God, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the chief shepherd, does not mind, does not mind adopting the characteristics of a woman. He prepares the table for me in the presence of my enemies. See, they would despise the analogy. The Jews would despise the analogy. But Jesus said, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I would want to gather you together as a mother hen would gather her chicks.

See? He would associate himself with a, with a mother hen and the analogy of how she would gather them all together. Because you see, it didn't bother God to do that, but it would bother the Pharisees to be associated with a shepherd or to be associated with a woman. See, He's very convicting. He puts them right into the story. He makes them understand the analogy. And they, they get the fact that this woman had what is equivalent to what we call our wedding ring. You know, He understands that. He gets that.

They get that. And I don't know if you've ever lost a wedding ring or not. My wife has lost two of them. Okay. She's on her third one.

Okay. And, and I told her she loses this one. It's over. There is no more marriage. Okay. You know, I can't afford to buy another ring. Now, not really. I lost one. She lost the other. That's the truth of the story. And so she's, she, she has freedom to lose at least one more ring before, you know, she goes on to be with the Lord. But the bottom line is that, you know, we understand that when, when she lost her ring or I lost the ring, we searched high and low to find that ring. Cause it symbolized our, our wedding, symbolized our marriage.

Right? After all it was a diamond. It wasn't a silver coin. It was a diamond. Okay. It might not have been a very big diamond, but for me, it was a big diamond. It costed me a lot of money. And so we would search high and low to find that they couldn't find it. So when I bought another one, then we bought another one. Okay. But the point of the matter is, is this, is that when this woman found it, she was over the top of joy. And Christ says, that's the way heaven is.

It's over the top. Now, somebody says in terms of application, he says this, in the same way, I tell you, who's that? That's Pharisees. That's a scribes. It's very emphatic. He says, I tell you in a similar way, this is the way heaven is. Heaven is over the top. It goes overboard when a sinner is saved. I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. The joy is God's, but there's joy in the presence of the angels because of God's joy. See, there is joy in heaven with the lost sheep is found.

There is joy in the presence of the angels when the lost coin is found because he wants you to understand that all heaven erupts when one sinner repents. That's important. You need to understand that the Pharisees needed to get that because you see, they didn't care about what God was joyous about. They only cared about their rituals. They only cared about their laws. They only cared about their self-righteousness. That's all they cared about. They didn't care about anybody else. They didn't care about lost souls, but the Lord God did.

He cared about lost souls. And therefore, they were so far away from the heart of God. Folks, this is important because we need to care about lost souls. We need to realize the importance that what lost souls, once won, bring to heaven when they're found. And so we begin to understand the heart of God as he begins to spill out what's happening in heaven when a sinner repents. See, the angels in heaven always behold the face of God. That's why Matthew 18 says that when they behold his face, his concern on his face, they are dispatched to help children in the family of God who are in need.

Children are involved at the birth of Christ, and when he was born, they were involved at the creation of the world. Angels were involved. In fact, in 1 Peter 1.12 says they look with great intensity upon the salvation of lost souls because they don't get it. They can't be redeemed, but you can. I can. They can't. And so they look with great, great intensity upon what happens at salvation because it's, it exemplifies the character and nature of their God. So when one sinner repents, they go ballistic because God goes ballistic.

That is, in a good way, not a bad way, in a good way, because he's overjoyed with one sinner who repents. Now, how do you resolve that? If you're a saint or a sinner. If you're a saint, you sin, but you're not a sinner. If you're a sinner, you're not a saint, because the Bible never calls saints sinners. It only calls them saints. They happen to sin because that's part of our old nature, but if you're a saint, you must understand your responsibility involved in sharing Christ with the lost world.

We must understand that. We are ministers of reconciliation. We are involved in what brings the ultimate joy to heaven. Listen, as a child growing up, don't you want to bring joy to your father? Of course you do. You always want to bring joy to your dad. See a smile on your dad's face? It brings self-satisfaction to you because you've brought joy to your father's face. What brings joy to your heavenly father? One sinner who repents. Well, if we want to bring joy to our father's face, so it causes heaven to erupt, then we're involved in the ministry of reconciliation.

We are ambassadors for Christ. We are the ones who, as the Father has sent me, so send I you, John 20, 21, right? As saints, we are involved in that great responsibility of sharing Christ with lost souls, and one of the reasons Christians don't experience joy today is because they don't involve themselves with that which brings joy to Christ. If someone comes to me and says, I have no joy, my very first question is, you're not sharing Christ with anybody, are you?

You're not telling them about Jesus. You've been robbed of your joy because of your self-absorption. You want to start experiencing heaven's joy? Start sharing Christ with other people. Start preaching the gospel to those who need to hear, and you'll see joy erupt in your soul because that's what brings joy to heaven, see? And as redeemed people, as saints in the kingdom of God, we have a responsibility to tell others about Christ. On the flip side of that, if you're a sinner, you need to repent from your iniquity.

You need to repent from your iniquity. In both of the first two stories, Christ says, there is joy in heaven.

There is joy in the presence of the angels when one sinner repents, repents. Folks, that is the missing ingredient in today's evangelism, repentance. Our message of the gospel is flawed tremendously by what we don't say. We leave out that aspect, and you can't do it. Why? Because in the New Testament, repentance is the essential ingredient to salvation. It's the sinner's response, okay, to the Savior's searching and rescuing. It's the sinner's response to the God who comes after him, searching high and low through every crevice and every dark area.

Their response is repentance. There's no joy over the 99 who need no repentance. No joy over them. Why? Because He's referring to the Pharisees in that situation that they believe themselves to be righteous. Well, there's no joy in heaven over those who claim to be self-righteous. It's a sarcastic statement that Christ makes to the Pharisees to help them understand there's no joy in heaven over you guys. Nothing in heaven is rejoicing over you 99 who think you need no repentance. The joy comes with the sinner who recognizes his need to repent from his sin.

That's what the joy is. And so what he does is he declares the need for repentance in the first two stories, and then he demonstrates the character of repentance in the third story.

He's setting them up by telling them as he declares, listen, there's one, over one sinner that repents, there's great joy in heaven. It's over the top in heaven. So he declares the fact that unless you repent, there is no joy in heaven or in your life. And then he demonstrates what repentance is in the story of the two sons, because one is willing to repent and the other is not. This is very important. Luke 15 becomes the classic illustration of what happens in the soul of an individual who realizes what God has done and who he is and how it is he just turns from his sin to follow the living God.

Folks, this is so important. You can go all the way back to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter one. You can read Psalm 32, Psalm 51, Jonah chapter three. You can read the book of Ezekiel. In fact, in Ezekiel chapter 18, verse number 30, the Lord God says this, Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct, declares the Lord God.

Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you. Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. Therefore, repent and live. Folks, that is the gospel. Repent and live. No repentance, no life. You leave repentance out of your gospel presentation, your gospel presentation is fatally flawed, and those who hear it will never come to saving faith, because they don't understand first Thessalonians 1.9, to turn from your sin to serve the true and living God.

That's what salvation is, turning from sin to serve the true and living God. When Jesus made the declaration in Luke chapter 24, with these words, he said these words, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem.

There is no forgiveness without repentance, none. So you preach repentance, so that people will be able to understand what forgiveness really is, so they can experience the forgiveness of God. You must preach repentance. That is the gospel message, and yet it has been left out of so many messages today. And Christ is telling us that the joy in heaven comes because a sinner repents, a sinner repents. And now let me show you what that repentance looks like in the story of the two sons, the two lost sons, because you need to understand the character and nature of repentance, what it looks like.

Now, let me remind you in Acts chapter 2, Peter, James, John, being in Luke chapter 24, understanding what Christ said about repentance being preached.

In Luke chapter 2, verse number 37, I'm sorry, Acts chapter 2, verse number 37, on the day of Pentecost. Now, when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 3, verse number 19, repent therefore and return that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come in the presence of the Lord and that they, that he may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you.

Chapter 5, verse number 31, 5, verse number 31 says this, beginning verse number 30, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as a prince and savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. No repentance, no forgiveness. Chapter 8, verse number 22, Philip is preaching. He says, therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours and pray the Lord that if possible the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.

Chapter 11, verse number 18, says this, and when they heard this they quieted down and glorified God saying, well then God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. Chapter 20, verse number 21. Chapter 20, verse number 21, Paul says, I solemnly testify to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That was the message of Peter. That was the message of Paul. That was the message of the apostles. It's a message of repentance. Chapter 26 of Acts.

Acts chapter 26. Paul says this, consequently, verse number 19 of chapter 26, King Agrippa, I do not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea and even to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God performing deeds appropriate to repentance.

And then back in Acts chapter 17, verse number 30, it says this, Acts 17, verse number 30, therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent. Folks, that is the gospel. If you leave out repentance, you haven't preached the gospel of Jesus. You haven't preached the apostles. You haven't preached the truth of the gospel. And what Jesus does is he lets these Pharisees know they are in need of repentance because they didn't see themselves as sinners needing to repent.

And so he declares to them, there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. That's why when John the Baptist came in John chapter three, it says this, John three, verse number three, and he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

Every ravine shall be filled up and every mountain hill should be brought low and the crooked shall become straight and the rough road smooth and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Listen, unless you clear the pathway of your heart, you will never see the salvation of God. And people say, well, that means that repentance must somehow be a work. No, we read it earlier in Acts 11, verse number 18, that God had granted repentance to Israel. Second Timothy two, verse number 25, it's called the gift of repentance.

Repentance is a gift like faith and grace is a gift. See God is at work in people's hearts. And when God's at work, he grants them the gift to believe the gift to have faith and the gift to turn from their sin to follow the true and living God. Folks, this becomes absolutely crucial because in the story of the two sons, the two lost sons, the issue is repentance. And we're going to give you seven characteristics of a repentant heart that demonstrates when one turns from their sin, what does they look like?

Because that's what the story of the two sons portrays. A loving father, a rebellious son, or two rebellious sons, but one who repents and one who doesn't. He declares the need to repent and now he demonstrates what repentance is like. Turn to me in second Corinthians chapter seven before a moment, please.

Second Corinthians chapter seven. Remember Jesus said in Luke five, I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to what? To repentance. That's why he came. In Luke chapter 13, he says, unless you repent, you will likewise perish. Twice he says that. Unless you repent, you will likewise perish because the issue in the gospel is repentance, turning from sin to serve the true and living God. So what does Paul do? Paul defines for us repentance in second Corinthians chapter seven.

And you can measure your life against this because this is what biblical repentance looks like. Second Corinthians seven, verse number nine.

Paul says, I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of what? Repentance. There are people that are sorry for their sin because they got caught. There are others who are sorry that they sinned against God. One's a godly sorrow and one's an ungodly sorrow. If you are sad because you got caught in your sin, that's not repentance. That's an ungodly sorrow. There are many people who cry. Judas cried when he betrayed Christ. He went out and hung himself, but his repentance wasn't a godly sorrow.

He was just sad that he did what he did, not because he offended the living God. And Paul says that you're sorrowful produce repentance. He says, for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God in order that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret. Somebody who has repented, listen, never regrets that they've repented. And they never renege on their repentance. It's a repentance without regret.

You never go back and say, oh man, I can't believe I did this. I can't believe I gave my life to Jesus. I can't believe I gave up all this for Jesus. Godly repentance never does that. It's a repentance without regret. And then he says this. He says, but the sorrow of the world produces death. The sorrow that's without regret leads, as he says, to salvation. But the sorrow of the world always leads to death. And then he says, this is how he defines repentance. For behold, what earnestness, what earnestness, this very thing, this Godly sorrow.

So this sorrow that you have that leads you to repentance is earnest. It's eager. It's aggressive. There is no complacency in your repentance. You want to be rescued from the power of sin. You want to be rescued from the penalty of sin. You are so eager to get away from that. You will do whatever Jesus says.

That's repentance. That's true biblical repentance. He says, for behold, what earnestness, this very thing, this Godly sorrow has produced in you, what vindication of yourselves. In other words, you want to be vindicated. That is, you don't want to be associated with the way you were anymore. People who have repented don't want to be associated with their past life, their past relationships, their past sin. They want vindication. They want away from all that. Somebody who says, I've repented, but wants to live in their sin has never repented.

It's a worldly sorrow that produces death, not a Godly sorrow without regret. See? You need to understand this. Because if you go to Russia, they don't ask you if you're saved. They don't ask you if you're a Christian. They don't ask you if you're a disciple. They ask you if you've repented. And so they ask at the end, does anybody here want to repent of their sins? Does anybody here want to repent? Not does anybody want to become a Christian. Do you want to be a follower of Jesus? Do you want to repent?

Because a Godly sorrow produces an eagerness for righteousness, an eagerness to embrace the forgiveness of sins, which produces a vindication that I don't want to be, I don't want to have that stigma attached to my life anymore. I want to be vindicated. And then he says, what indignation. This Godly sorrow produces an indignation. It produces a hatred for sin. It produces a desire to love God and to love what He loves and to hate what God hates. That's true biblical repentance. There's an eagerness.

There's a vindication. There is an indignation about sin. And then he says, what fear. There's a fear that repentance produces. Remember, there's no fear of God before the eye of the unbeliever, right? Romans chapter three. But for the believer, there is fear. There's a reverence for God, a desire to honor God, to respect His name, to glorify His name. That's what repentance looks like. And then he says, a longing. What longing? What's the longing for? It's a longing to be like God. Everybody who has repented wants to be like God.

If you don't want to be like God, you haven't repented. Don't fool yourself. Don't delude yourself. You want to be like God. You hate sin. You love God. You want to vindicate your life from its past sin and past association, because you are eager to live a righteous, holy life. That's true biblical repentance. And then he says, what zeal. There's a zealousness for holiness. But here's the cleanser. Ready? He says, what avenging of wrong. In other words, a true repentant spirit makes things right with everybody they've sinned against.

And they don't stop doing it until it's done. There is an avenging of all wrong. I have sinned against God. I have sinned against heaven. And therefore I have sinned against you. And I want to make it right. If you don't have a desire to make it right with the people you sinned against, you haven't repented of your sin. You have not. No matter what you say, you haven't. There is an avenging of all wrongs that says, you know what? I sinned against God. I've sinned against heaven. I've sinned against you.

I am here to say, please forgive me for my sin because I was wrong. And I need to ask and beg your forgiveness. That's a repentant spirit. If you don't have that folks, you haven't repented of your sin. You're still in your sin. You have a sorrow into death. You're going to die in your sins. You need to know what the Bible says.

Stop deluding ourselves. Stop looking at what the world says. And what does the Bible say about true biblical repentance? That's what it looks like. And Paul defines it for us in one simple verse. And Jesus uses a whole story to exemplify it for us. So we understand this is what biblical repentance looks like. And you can measure your life against that to say, you know what? Is this me? Is there an eagerness for righteousness? Is there a desire to avenge all wrongs? Is there a desire for holiness, a longing to be like Christ?

Is there a zeal to follow after Christ? Is there a desire to vindicate all past wrongs and to remove the stigma from my life? Is this me? If it's not me, then you haven't repented of your sin. You haven't. You might think you have, but you haven't. That's why Jesus says, narrows the gate and few there be that find it.

Because most people don't want to do that. But if God's called you, guess what? He's granted you the gift of repentance. You'll do that. You do it because he empowers you to do it. You do it because you've recognized who he is and you have experienced the joy of heaven and you realize what's happening in heaven because one sinner has repented and you want to be involved in telling other people about what it means to bring joy to your father in heaven by repenting of your sin and turning to him and following him.

Folks, this is a crucial message for the church of Jesus Christ. People need to understand the truth about biblical repentance, what it looks like, how it's defined, how Christ declares it, how it's demonstrated that we might understand this is our measuring stick. My measuring stick is not what society says. My measuring stick is what the scriptures say. What is the holy truth say? What does God's word say? So I ask you today, if you're a saint, have you realized your responsibility to tell other people about Christ, that they might experience the joy that you've experienced because you're a part of the kingdom of God, the forgiveness of sins, the holiness of God, the righteousness of God imparted to you.

But if you're a sinner, are you ready to repent from your iniquity? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today in your word that speaks so clearly to the heart of man. I pray that those who among us today who think they have repented but have not followed what 2 Corinthians 7 10 says, that they would truly turn from their sin and follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Those of us who have, may we engage in that beautiful responsibility of being ambassadors for Jesus Christ, representing the kingdom of God to a lost world, that they might experience the joy of heaven.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.