Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
True and False Repentance
Beloved of the Lord......Everywhere around us there is both true and false repentance in this world, and there is also true and false repentance in our own heart. From our youth on up, we here often in church, "Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish" and that scares us. These words are true because they are God's Words, but because of our flesh we often misunderstand them. It is common for us to then struggle deeply with the meaning of repentance. We also struggle deeply within to produce our own repentance, or force the words to come out of our lips, "I'm sorry" without meaning it in our heart. If you at times have struggled with those terrible thoughts, "Am I really a believer? If I die now, will I really go to heaven? I know Christ is my Savior, but have I repented in the right way? Was it sincere? Was it earnest enough? Was I sorry enough? What if I have repented in the wrong way and fooled myself? Will I be saved? I know I should be sorry for my sins, but often I am not. Does that mean I am lost? And even though I have repented and am sorry, I still find myself doing the same sins……does that mean I am not sorry?"
But the answer and solution to all these
hard questions is really Christ and the blood bought forgiveness He achieved
for us on the cross. You can't be saved
from sin by being sorry, nor does God save you because you repent, and who can
be sorry enough for all the sins they have done? Again, the solution for all our sin and evil
is always and ever Christ. Whatever your
sins may be, truly be sorry for them and sincerely confess them, but don't your
salvation on your sorrow, contrition, or repentance….. rest your salvation on
the solid Bedrock of Christ, "the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of
THE WORLD" for "the blood of Jesus Chris His Son cleanses us from ALL
SIN." Thanks be to God then, Romans
11:29 says, "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" and "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of
a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."
I. No greater prophet that John the Baptist. Our Lord
Jesus begins today by highly commending the faithfulness of John the
Baptist. No prophet born of a woman was
greater. Of all those prophets, John was
given the high honor of being last prophet before Christ. His very purpose was to prepare the hearts of
the people to receive Christ joyfully by faith.
John's strange and outward manner of living then represented repentance,
sorrow over sin. His living in the
wilderness represented the barren and unfruitful nature of man's heart, even
emptiness. John likewise ate only
locusts and wild honey, and he wore only rough clothing. This showed he was unworthy of those finer
things in life. Everything then about
John's manner of life represented the broken and contrite heart of a sinner
mourning his sin.
Jesus also said however,
"he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than
John." This seems to point to the
New Testament era, where believers are given the high honor of knowing all
those events which pertained to Christ's live, death, and resurrection. We are not more worthy than John, rather God
placed us in a more glorious time of history, or rather Gospel history. We see that for our salvation, the Son of God
was willing to suffer and die so terribly, yet gloriously to ransom and deliver
us from sin. Not even John the Baptist
witnessed that. Acts 5:32 says, "We
are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom
God hath given to them that obey him."
But how does this
Kingdom of heaven suffer violence as Jesus said, and the violent take it by
force? This is somewhat a picture of a
mob who surrounds and overtakes a castle or fortress. When broken sinners hear the Gospel preached
to them for the first time, they eagerly and joyfully receive it, to the
surprise of all others. Consider then
the self-righteous and holier-than-thou Pharisees of Jesus' day. They had their laws and customs and
ceremonies….the letter of the law was their glory, but they have the Spirit of
Christ, nor did they want His forgiveness.
On the other hand the publicans, the excommunicated, even the harlots happily
received this forgiveness Jesus offered.
With joy they grabbed hold of Christ and wouldn't let go! This is why the Pharisees despised Christ
so. Jesus didn't belong to their
"good ole boys club" where they strutted around like proud peacocks, but
the humble Jesus ate with lowly sinners, even so much He became known as a
Friend of Sinners. This strange verse
then about how the violent take God's kingdom agrees perfectly with Jesus'
words in Matthew 21, to the proud Pharisees.
"Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into
the kingdom of God before you. For John
came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the
publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it,
repented not afterward, that ye might believe him." What a slap in the face this was to the
Pharisees. Whores go into heaven before
they do! The message for us here then is
not to think ourselves more holy than the whores of this world. Repentant whores enter heaven, but proud
Pharisees who don't repent never do. "He
that hath ears to hear, let him hear."
II. The two sins of the Pharisees. This generation then is like children sitting in the marketplace, calling unto their fellows and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. What is interesting here is that Jesus was an observer of the children, just as He was an observer of God's creation. Just as He used the birds of the air, or the lilies in the field, to teach a lesson, so He did with these children at play. When the street-children would dance and sing, tooting and playing their horns, the Pharisees were like those children who would refuse to be play along and be joyful, namely spoilsports. On the other hand, if the street-children would pretend to be in a funeral procession, with their heads cast down, beating their chest and crying, the Pharisees were like children who would not play along and be sad also.
"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they
say, He hath a devil." From their
youth up the Pharisees were taught above all things not to sin and instead live
a holy and godly life. They didn't focus
on the Messiah their Savior, they focused on not sinning and doing good. They were
also taught to mourn their sin. At times
they would tear their clothes apart and beat on their chest, and even disfigure
their faces as if they had not eaten in such a long time. But it was all a big show, false repentance
and not sincere. Nor were they afraid of
God's wrath and punishment because of their sin. They were filled with themselves and Jesus
knew it. The irony of the matter then is
the outward manner of John's life agreed perfectly with their outward
repentance, yet they rejected him.
Why? Because John was preaching
that they too were sinners just the same as everybody else. They too merited God's wrath and punishment,
even hell, the same as all prostitutes and notorious sinners. John said to them, "O generation of
vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" They just couldn't stomach the thought that
they were just as wicked and vile as everybody else. They had a "laser focus" on not
sinning, but most of the time they focused on the sins of others saying,
"God I thank Thee I am not as other men are!"
Quite unlike the Pharisees, there were
those happy children in the marketplace who joyfully "piped", singing
and dancing. These knew their sins well,
yet they found free grace in Christ. The
Gospel message which Christ preached brought true joy and happiness to their
hearts so they danced and sang. They
were merry and happy knowing "God sent not His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." Jesus had healed their broken hearts, and God
and man were one in Jesus, so much soJesus ate and drank with them so that
Jesus was called a Friend of Sinners. O
how the Pharisees hated that! Rather
than receiving Jesus as their Savior they chose to condemn Jesus as a glutton
and drunkard.
Beloved of the Lord, the Pharisees in
our lesson today are you and me. We are
all Pharisees by nature, and it is in our nature to think ourselves as good
keepers of God's commandments rather than disobedient drunkards and gluttons
and whores. Drunkards and gluttons and
whores are those who indulge and gratify the flesh. We do the same when we gratify our pride,
holding ourselves high at the expense of others, adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals
and drunkards saying, "I am not as other men are." This pride of our heart is just as vile in
God's sight, as adultery, homosexuality, or any other sin. In a manner of speaking I would rather be a
fornicator or adulterer, than a Pharisee… for at least fornicators and adulterers
cannot hide their sin. Our pride hides
all our own sins and joyfully looks at the sins of all others, and it keeps
Christ our Savior far from our heart.
Hence "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before
the fall."
The Greek meaning then behind the word
"repent" means a "change of mind". The law of God, His wrath against our sin,
breaks and crushes our stony hearts so we despair of this vain thought we can
save ourselves by works. The contrite
heart is a crushed, broken, and empty heart which will readily hear Christ if
only they hear the Gospel, for "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of
a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." Jesus
knew well our lost condition, but as we said last week, He did not come to
judge the world, but save the world. By
making full atonement for our sins by His own shed blood on the cross, God's
forgiveness of all our sins is free and we need only believe it. This is why it is never the case God forgives
us because we repent or are sorry or have empty hearts, rather we are forgiven
because "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son"
and "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all
sin." While repentance in the
narrow sense is a change of mind so we understand our desperate condition,
repentance in the broad sense includes faith in that forgiveness of sins which
Christ freely gives to all. This is why
the Bible says, "the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance", and yet Jesus Himself said, "Repent ye and believe the
Gospel."
The
preaching then of repentance is the preaching of faith, saving faith in Jesus
Christ whose forgiveness is free. And so
while we need the law to empty us of self-righteousness, the Gospel is always
the key to our salvation. That is why we
should always come to church, not as Pharisees, but as sinners who feast as
gluttons at the rich table of God's grace.
We drink here as drunkards, the living waters of Christ and are
satisfied. The holy blood of Christ
erases and wipes clean the guilty record of all notorious sinners, and even our
sins of pride, doubt and unbelief are all forgiven, for "the blood of
Jesus Chris His Son cleanses us from all sin." When you therefore think of repentance,
simply acknowledge your sins with sorry to God, confessing your sin, but always
rejoice you are not forgiven because you repented or confessed, for "the
gifts and calling of God are without repentance: rather God forgives you freely
for Jesus sake, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood. Amen.
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