Transcript

The Lord is being criticized, can you imagine such a thing, by the Scribes and the Pharisees because he received sinners and he gives some parables to give understanding. I don’t know why they deserve the attention, they really didn’t but he immersed in grace, keeps giving these malicious, fault-finding, trouble-making, divisive opponents of his, his time and attention. But, of course, also there are a number of other people surrounding around and he wants to teach them as he’s exhorting these Scribes and Pharisees. Luke 15, we’ll go through verses 1-7.

“ 1 Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. 2 Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’ 3 So He told them this parable, saying, 4 ‘What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!” 7 I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’”

The Parable of the Persevering Shepherd. That’s what this is really about. I know your Bible probably says “The Parable of the Lost Sheep,” but really that’s not the emphasis of the parable. The parable is not on the sheep, all the sheep does is get lost. Sheep really don’t do anything important here but it’s this faithful, infallible, determined, unthwartable shepherd that does mighty and wonderful things that we need to look at this morning. So, the Parable of the Persevering Shepherd.

I. A very simple outline this morning, notice his great love for the sheep. That’s why he’s a great persevering shepherd, he first starts with a great love for the sheep, an undeserved love, an unmerited love but a great love for the sheep. We have some preliminary things to talk about and they’ll tie in but let’s look at those first of all. In verse 1 of chapter 15, it says, “Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him.” That’s an interesting word “all” and it doesn’t mean every single one in the whole countryside, it just means a great number of them where coming to him. I think it means all types of tax collectors and sinners. You could call them the irreligious; they had no affiliation to the Jews or anything else. They were just notorious street sinners.

First of all, he says there are tax collectors coming. These tax collectors were those, as you know, they were hated by the Jews. They were Jewish people primarily but they were the subordinates, if you will, of Rome and they came among their own Jewish brethren and they collected taxes and then they could set their own commissions so these folks were extortionists oppressing their own Jewish brethren for their own personal gain and compared to the other folks of their day, they were exceedingly wealthy so they were hated on two or three levels. First of all, nobody loves the tax man. Amen? Secondly, they were considered as the subjects of Rome and they hated the Romans lording over them and holding them in slavery and they were serving Rome in this. And, of course lastly, they were wealthy and very often, if you’re not a spiritual man, you don’t see the providence of God in this and you think somebody wealthier than you has got to be evil in some way. Amen? That’s the common fleshly position. So, on every level they hated these guys and they probably were not good guys. They were classified as the lowest of the low, the tax collectors.

Then also, sinners. These might have been Gentiles in general but more than likely it was just the people of the area who were known and notorious in their sin. They were not like the wicked Pharisees who put on an outward facade of religion and righteousness but inwardly as Jesus said, was full of rottenness and dead men’s bones. They were not like that; they were not hypocrites about it, they were just openly flaunting their immoralities and their wickedness. So these drunkards and harlots and scandalous sinners and the tax collectors are all increasingly and in greater numbers gathering around Jesus and listening to him.

Both of these groups, of course, received serious condemnation, severe criticism and scorn from the religious leaders of the day but these folks, they had begun to hear that Jesus had a different doctrine. They began to hear that this Jesus was teaching that men could come to God through grace and through forgiveness and through mercy, not through the harsh legalism of the present Jewish religious system so they came to Jesus and Jesus was receiving them. By the way, the Bible says that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. We have Mary, the notorious sinner in the gospel who comes to Jesus and he’s received by him, repenting and washing his feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair. We have Jesus hanging on a cross and we have a highway robber, more than likely didn’t just rob men but he robbed them and murdered them. He’s being crucified and he confesses his wrongdoing and the Lord receives him and says, “Today you’re going to be with me in Paradise.” He receives sinners. The Apostle Paul is Saul of Tarsus originally, he’s journeying through the land persecuting, having Christians locked up and even supporting the martyrdom of many believers and God appears to him, Christ appears to him, that is, knocks him down off of his horse with the bright light and Paul repents and becomes a believer in Jesus Christ. Christ receives sinners.

You know, Satan is always trying to disrupt the ministry of the gospel of grace. Look at verse 2, so while the Lord is welcoming these to come around him, these despised tax collectors and notorious sinners, here we have the Jewish religious authorities of the day, verse 2, “Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.” You know, as Satan always tries to derail and disrupt and discredit the gospel of grace, he always wants to try to put something with it and Satan has no better ally than cold religious legalism to try to come against the true gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ and here these Pharisees are murmuring, as one translation says, are grumbling. In their elite arrogance, they look with scorn upon all the downtrodden of the culture. They held themselves up and they had most of the money and they thought everybody else was beneath them both spiritually, morally and economically and they certainly were economically because they kept them there. And they did not only hold with scorning the downtrodden, they held with scorning anyone who showed kindness to the downtrodden. This was a harsh and cold environment that religion had come to in this day.

So, they’re grumbling against Jesus because he received sinners but what an irony this is that the glorious truths of grace that they opposed, they really unconsciously uttered the truth of, “he eats with sinners.” He welcomes sinners. They’re seeing it as a criticism but it’s a glorious affirmation of what his Father called him to do. That’s exactly what he does. They condemn the thing that is his special delight. You know, the sinful mind always turns evil in the good and the good into evil. It always does. You find true genuinely perfect to honor God, Bible believing Christians and you’ll find particularly as our culture is plunging into unbiblical and godless liberalism, that those who are trying to do good from a God-defined perspective, will be defined as those who are evil. And those who promote and exalt them and celebrate wickedness are applauded and patted on the back as those who do good. That’s what’s happening here. They condemn Jesus because he’ll receive sinners. That’s really a good thing. He’s not just receiving them and we’ll talk about this more in a moment, he’s calling them to repentance which, again, we don’t want to let the liberals put their own twist on how Jesus received sinners because they’re really trying to do that in our day, but he did receive them.

The beautiful thing is, not only does Jesus receive sinners and saves them, he allows sinners to receive him. He’s their source of eternal salvation and both of these truths were held in the highest of contempt by the religious leaders of the day. He received all kinds of sinners: he received the rich, Joseph of Arimathea; he received the poor, Lazarus the beggar; he received the learned, Dionysius the Areopagite; he received physicians, Luke was a physician; he received soldiers, the Roman centurion at the cross; he received common fishermen, Peter and his brother; he received extortioners, Zacchias and other tax collectors; he received thieves, the dying robber; he received harlots, the woman who was a sinner who repented and washed his feet with her hair; he received adulterers, the woman at the well in Samaria; he received persecutors and murderers like Saul of Tarsus; he received those possessed of devils and we have many examples of that; he received backsliders back, the Apostle Peter; he received executives and business folks like Lydia, the seller of purple and on and on we can go. Jesus received sinners.

They condemn him for it, he glories with it. They add on there: he actually eats with them. Now, the culture of this day was such that we just came out of a Pharisee’s dinner party and it was a very special and honored thing to recline at the table with someone, it showed you had favor with them and you were one with them and you honored them, so when Jesus would actually eat with this crowd, the tax collectors and the notorious sinners of the community, they really had bitter irritation against him for doing that. I mean, the Jewish religious authorities would teach you could not touch such a person or you’re defiled before God and they would say Jesus, this prophet from Nazareth that all these people are clamoring around, he has the audacity not only to touch them but to recline in honor at the table with them. They really had a big problem with them.

It’s interesting that legalistic religion nor the boasting philosophers have never had a remedy for the wretched sinner. You just name the roll of all the religions of works and legalism down through the ages, they have nothing to give the wretched sinner, the one that’s broken and down and lost and weary and has no hope and they come to him and say, “Here’s some rules you need to do.” How are they going to help the wretched sinner? And then the boasted philosophers of the day come with their romantic allusions and utopian concepts of how we’re going to fix everything with man’s wisdom and man’s strength, no hope for the wretched sinner. The legalist condemns him and the liberal philosopher confirms him but neither of those can convert him, only God’s grace through Jesus Christ can do that. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice.” Anyone, tax collectors. Anyone, notorious sinners. “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me.”

Now we get to the contrast of these guys, these Pharisees, a loving Savior in verse 3 and 4. Jesus says, “Okay, you’re grumbling because I’m receiving these notorious sinners and these despised and hated tax collectors,” verse 3, “but let me tell you this parable. What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” When he says “what man,” the “man” here, of course, in this parable is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s interesting that the Old Testament, of course, is full of types and shadows and pictures of Christ and the most famous, the most prominent picture of Christ in the Old Testament is King David. He’s a type of Christ and he was a shepherd.

He says “a man’s got a hundred sheep” and there’s been some ideas about what does the hundred sheep represent here. Some will say, “Well, that’s the nation of Israel who, although they’re unrighteous, they think they’re safely in the fold because they’re so self- righteous.” Others say, “Well, I think the lost sheep are all of those who are already saved in the fold,” and I think that’s the best interpretation and the best understanding. The sheep that are safe in the pasture, that have not wandered away, represent the saints of God of old that are already in glory and saved and all those who are presently saved and in the fold and there are some, remember the Lord said it another place that he had sheep of other groups, that he’s got to go and find them too. So, this faithful shepherd has 99 sheep but one has wandered away.

You know, sheep are noted first of all, for their stupidity. Now, I don’t say that to be humorous, I say it because it’s true. Sheep are noted for their stupidity; they’re just not clever. They’re noted for their innocence. They are noted for their ignorance of danger; they’ll just wander right into the mouths of a wolf. They just don’t have any, if you will, street smarts. They’re just vulnerable like that and when sheep wander from the fold, they almost never find their way back on their own. No wonder the Lord said “my lost ones are like sheep.”

Here we have in verse 4 that the text clearly says here that there are 99 safe in the open pasture. Your King James says in the wilderness and that’s not a good translation. It means the open pasture land where the shepherds had them feeding right before nightfall. And the hireling would look at this and the hireling would say, “Well, wait a minute, you have 99, let it go. It’s of no real consequence. You can afford to lose one of them.” But Jesus is not the hireling. Look, Jesus loses not one of his sheep. Not one. He’s the persevering shepherd. He will persevere in his immutable omnipotence until every sheep is home. He’s not a hireling. In John 10:11, he says, “I’m the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” In John 10:14, “I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me.” In John 6:38-39, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all,” listen, “that of all,” not most, not 98%, not 99 out of 100, “that He,” the Father, “has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” That’s why we unashamedly celebrate and glory in the biblical doctrine of the perseverance of the saints that once a person has truly come to faith in Christ, Christ will bring them all the way home. “Pastor, why do you believe so strongly in Once Saved Always Saved? Why do you believe so emphatically in the eternal security of the believer? Why do you believe in that old doctrine our Baptist forefathers penned as they studied sacred Scripture of the perseverance of the saints that everyone truly saved will persevere and make it home to glorification?” There is one simple overwhelming reason why I believe that and that is the persevering of the Shepherd who comes after the sheep. I have no faith in the sheep, I have faith in the persevering Shepherd who will not lose any of his sheep. That’s going to sink into some of you and you’re going to run through the wall here in a minute just shouting “Glory!”

In verse 4, it says he goes after them. He says, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” Wow. He doesn’t send an angel, he comes after him. He doesn’t send an assistant shepherd, the Chief Shepherd goes after them. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to follow me.” All the weight, all the responsibility fell on Jesus, the faithful Shepherd. Christ’s love is an active, seeking and effectual love. The effectual meaning it accomplished the purpose for which it set out to achieve. This was his life’s work. In John 4:34, Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” What was the Father’s work? The Father’s work was: we’ve got some sheep, you’ve got to go and get them. “Jesus, my Son, I’m commissioning you to the pasture, go and righteously redeem and bring home to glory all of our sheep.” The mighty, immutable, unthwartable, ultimately faithful, persevering Jesus says, “Father, I’ll get it done. I’ll get every one of them all the way home.”

He never rested until he secured our redemption and he did that on the cross. That’s why he said back in Luke 12:50, “I have a baptism to undergo and how distressed I am until it’s accomplished.” You know what the Lord was saying? The Lord was saying, “On my heart are my sheep and I am not resting until I go to the cross and redeem every one of them and bring them back home.” Christ’s love is deep. Christ’s love is powerful. Christ’s love is everlasting. And had he not come to seek us, we would have never sought him. We love him because he first loved us. Some of you sitting there, you’ve had your seasons, haven’t you? You’ve had your wondering times, haven’t you? You’ve had your moments of doubt, haven’t you? You’ve toyed with the world, you’ve been lured astray, you’ve lusted at things, you’ve been a spiritual adulterer but your Shepherd has not let go of you. He drew you back. He wooed you back. You saw his love. You saw his sacrifice. You saw the price he paid and it broke your heart and you said, “Oh Christ, I return again.” He has his arms out wide and says, “I told my Father when I left heaven I was getting you all the way home.” Why can’t you quit? Just quit. Go ahead and quit. Go find you a fun, goof-off place to go to church. Do you know why you can’t quit? Because somebody’s got a hold of you. I don’t want anybody attending this church that it’s your preference, I want you to say, “I’m under a compulsion, the Spirit of God has drawn me here. He has placed me in the sheepfold.” I’m so glad you’re coming here doesn’t depend on my personality, Amen? “Well, the Pastor’s like this. Well, the Pastor’s like that. Well, the Pastor’s like this.” I quit that game years ago and just decided I would try to be a faithful under-shepherd to the true Shepherd and if that’s not enough, then go somewhere else. I love you, it would break my heart but I can’t keep you. It’s got to be Christ, Christ, Christ that keeps you!

Verse 4 says he went after the one that was lost. This is a definite article: it’s not the sheep that are lost, it’s the one that’s lost; it’s a personal thing. He’s after that sheep that’s lost. It’s the sheep that’s well-known but it’s now gone from the fold. 1 Peter 2:25, “ For you were continually straying like sheep,” continually straying like sheep and we do. That’s love right there; that’s the great love of the Shepherd. Secondly, let’s look at the great determination to find his sheep. Verse 4, in the very last phrase simply says he will leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and he’ll go out into the wilderness and find the one which is lost and he’ll look for it – listen – until he finds it. He will not rest until the job is done. God does not wait for the wandering one to come to him, he first comes after us with pursuing active love way before we loved him. He labors for our salvation while we have no care for our own souls and no care for eternity. Once again, we believe in the perseverance of the saints but we believe more in the perseverance of the Shepherd.

And he’ll go out after it, verse 5 says, and when he has found it, Jesus’ entire life and entire ministry of perfect obedience which included great suffering was the searching for his stray sheep. Though he grew tired and he suffered greatly, he did not tire of the task itself. He cried in anguish over our lost condition. Hebrews says he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and with tears. Who was this Shepherd wailing over and weeping over? It was his sheep that he dearly loved back in eternity past and he said, “O Father, I will not rest and I will grieve and I will yearn until I get them all saved, until I get them all home.” He followed us to the depth of our misery. He followed us to the extreme length of the curse that we were under. He sought endearingly. He sought us lovingly. He sought us until he found us and he found us when he died on the cross. He crossed the plains. He fought through the tangling valley. He climbed the steep. He withstood the wind and the rain and the stormy blast. He crossed the waters deep and found his sheep that was lost and when he found it, when he found it, perfectly fulfilling the Father’s will with his arms stretched out, he cries out a thunderous roar that sealed the deal for heaven and earth and for all eternity, “Father, it is finished.”

“There were ninety and nine that safely lay In the shelter of the fold. But one was out on the hills far away, Far off from the gates of gold. Away on the mountains wild and bare. Away from the tender Shepherd’s care.

“Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine; Are they not enough for Thee? But the Shepherd made answer: This of Mine Has wandered away from Me; And although the road be rough and steep, I go to the desert to find My sheep.

“But none of the ransomed ever knew How deep were the waters crossed; Nor how dark was the night the Lord passed through Ere He found His sheep that was lost. Out in the desert He heard its cry, Sick and helpless and ready to die.

“Lord, what are those blood drops all along the way That mark out the mountain’s track? They were shed for the one who had gone astray Ere the Shepherd could bring him back. Lord, why are Thy hands so rent torn? They are pierced tonight by many a thorn.

“And all through the mountains, thunder riven And up from the rocky steep, There arose a glad cry from the gates of heaven, Rejoice! I found My sheep! And the angels echoed around the throne, Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!

“But none of the ransomed ever knew How deep were the waters crossed; Nor how dark was the night the Lord passed through Ere He found His sheep that was lost.”

The Bible says when that Shepherd finds that lost sheep, he lays it on his shoulders. That’s a picture of substitutionary atonement. It’s the image of saving and sustaining grace. God didn’t just find you weak and weary and ready to die, he lifted you up and placed you on his strong shoulders and he began to carry you all the way home. All we like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. When he finds that lost sheep, he does not strike the sheep or he doesn’t attempt to drive it back to the fold. You might do a cow that way but not sheep. He knows the sheep is weak and sick and ready to die and even if it was in the best of health and even if it was the strongest of sheep, it could not survive the travail he has endured in order to find it and it could not withstand the journey back to the fold unless the strong Shepherd carries it there. So in love in places it on his shoulders and the sheep rests in his strength. The Shepherd now having found him, will not allow anything to keep him from getting that sheep all the way home. Isaiah prophesied of our Lord in Isaiah 40:11. He said, “Like a shepherd he will tend his flock, in his arms he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom.” Again, the perseverance of the saints because of the persevering Shepherd.

III. Notice his great joy now, his great joy over finding and returning the sheep. Not just finding them but returning them. We see this in verses 5 and 6. As we continue, verse 5, it says, “When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” Rejoicing. Do you know Jesus is exceedingly happy? Do you know why? Because every time Jesus looks at his work, it’s so perfect he just gets tickled about it. When Jesus looks at what he’s performed by the utmost justice of the Holy God he’s performed it and he just rejoices over it. Hebrews 12:2, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of faith who for the joy set before him,” the joy that was going to come to him by having his people redeemed and cleansed and justified and brought to himself and glorified with him forever. “For that joy, he endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Isaiah 53:2, “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,” that’s Jesus in his childhood and early ministry, just a tender shoot, nothing special about him, “And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.” There was nothing really special humanly speaking but from God’s perspective. Christ has great, great joy that he came and became this meek and humble one and labored through the persecution and the slander and the scorn and the spinning and twisting of his ministry and the opposition and the doubting and all the res but he has a great, great joy that in the end, he perfectly achieved the Father’s will.

In verse 6 it says, “And when he comes home,” comes home, that’s a picture of Christ’s arrival in heaven after his ascension, when he’s come home, there is going to be great, great rejoicing. Ephesians 1:20, “which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 2:6, “and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” That’s the homecoming. Christ is seated in heaven, a place of great joy and great rejoicing. There is great joy at your conversion in heaven, that is. Of course, you have great joy. Those around you that love you have great joy. But there’s great joy at your conversion that’s going to be even greater joy when all the sheep are finally all home.

The Bible says in verse 6, “he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’” Then Jesus gives the translation of that parable, verse 7, “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” So this is the great accomplishment the great salvation and it must be shared. The great joy is just so wonderful all the realms of the unfallen must rejoice with him. He tells them to rejoice with him as if it’s too much for him to take in and to bear alone. Christ can’t hold it in. He finds great relief, though, in sharing that joy and rejoicing with others. I believe Jesus has greater joy in our salvation than we have in our salvation. Do you know why? Now listen to me: you don’t know the depth of your wickedness, he does; you don’t know the depth of your lostness, he does; you don’t know the depth of your despair and woe, you know something of it because the Spirit of God comes and convicts you of it but you don’t know the depth of it. When he went to the cross, he plunged the depth of it and in holy wisdom, he sees things you can’t see so he understands the glories, the majesty, the power, the wonder of the salvation you have and he’s thrilled in rejoicing over it. Now, when we get to heaven, we will not have infinite minds but perfect minds and for infinity we will keep taking in the depths, the wonders, the glories, the joys, the happiness of all that he wrought for us so it will be a place of increasing joy for all eternity. That’s a pretty good place to be, Amen? Increasing joy for all eternity.

So we find this deep, deep joy of heaven, this deep, deep rejoicing over what Christ has accomplished and what Christ has done. 1 Peter 1:12 gives us a little insight into this. The Scripture says, “It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things into which angels long to look.” The picture there means that angels with these brilliant minds, peer out of heaven and watch Jesus redeeming his sheep and they’re astonished at the wonder of it. Listen to me – listen to me – listen to me: if you had a million lifetimes with the perfect brain and could study the Scriptures in the Greek and Hebrew and dive into every aspect of it to the greatest extent of your ability, you would only be touching the hem of the garment of the glories and the amazement of redemption. Angelic beings who have never sinned and have perfect and glorified intelligence, are astonished and amazed at what Christ accomplished in saving you.

God made man upright when he created him in the Garden and there he lived in innocence and purity but man fell from that position, he’s wandered from the fold and in redemption God sought us and redeemed us through the precious blood of Christ. In glorification, God bears us in his shoulders back to the fold, even his own home and he’s faithful to the task until we share in this heavenly joy and in the happiness of angels. Not only are we restored to our true home but we are restored to true joy. You see, God loves you too much – now you listen to what I’m telling you – God loves you too much to let the Alabama football team be your joy or the Tennessee football team be your joy or the silly Auburn football team be your joy. He loves you too much. He says, “I want you to start tasting real joy.” If you’ve been down to MacDonald’s getting quick serve ice cream, check out this home-made stuff Momma makes. You haven’t tasted it yet. When you get to heaven, you’re going to say, “Everything I thought was wonderful and a blessing and a joy, it’s ridiculous compared to the joy my Savior has waiting for me.” Jesus said, “What I’ve accomplished is just so great, it’s so joy inspiring, it’s just so rejoiceful, it’s just so wonderful, I’ve got to have all the redeemed up here to glory in it forever.”

Is this not good stuff? There is nothing in the Koran like this. There is nothing in the teachings of Mohammed like this. There’s nothing in Confucius like this. There is nothing in Buddha like this. There is nothing that’s come out of Barack Obama’s mouth like this. There is nothing on earth in any realm, nothing like this. Nothing like this.

So he looks at the Scribes and Pharisees in verse 7 and he says, “I tell you,” he’s talking to the grumblers. They’re grumbling because he’s receiving these sinners and he says, “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” You know, there’s no greater loss than that of an eternal soul and no cost too great to save that eternal soul and no joy so great as the salvation of an eternal soul. Now, don’t miss verse 7. Don’t miss it. I’ve got to stay here for just a minute. Some of you will miss it. There’s joy in heaven over one sinner. No, no, no, no, don’t you let the liberal theologians and the liberal pastors and the liberal secular progressives they call themselves now, don’t you let them pervert the word of God. He is not rejoicing over sinners, there’s more joy over one sinner who repents. Repents. They seem to leave that out, don’t they? I am so sick of them perverting and marring the holiness of my Savior, telling me Jesus would do this and Jesus would favor that and Jesus would welcome this lifestyle and Jesus would rejoice over this wickedness and this ungodliness because he welcomes everybody. You’re perverting the word of God!

There is rejoicing over a sinner that repents, not the sin in the sinner. He can’t rejoice over that because he’s holy. He can rejoice over his capacity in holy justice to convert that sinner and make him holy but he does not rejoice in that sinner’s wickedness. Don’t you be duped by the liberal theologians and the liberal pastors and the liberal secular progressives of our age who tell us that Jesus receives sinners as if he’s accepting and rejoicing over their wickedness. Jesus received the adulterous woman and he told her, “Look, these guys aren’t going to stone you but now you go and sin no more.” Amen? You go and sin no more. They leave that out, don’t they? The woman at the well, he showed her kindness and compassion and then he said, “And the man you’re living with right now is not your husband. You’ve had several more already too.” He dealt with their sin. He called her to repentance. He dined with these Scribes and Pharisees, the most vile men of the day though they prayed to themselves in outward self-righteousness but what does he do? Like he does here again, he calls them to openly and publicly to repent and shows them the error of their way. The harlot was welcomed by him but she repented and wept with tears at his feet. The dying thief confessed he was a highway robber on the cross and Jesus saved him and took him to Paradise that day. He fellowshiped with Matthew but Matthew left his past life in repentance and came and followed Jesus. And he looked to the multitudes just a few weeks ago in Luke and he said, “All the people, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” But be it known and be it settled and be it resolved forevermore that all that he seeks he finds and all that he finds repents and returns to him and with him all the way home. Bill Stafford used to say, “I’m so saved it’s pitiful.” It’s true, isn’t it?

One last phrase just for clarification. He says, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” When Jesus says “those who need no repentance” we know the Scriptures are very, very clear, Jesus is not violating the balance of biblical truth when he says some need no repentance. I think what he’s saying is, “Okay, for the sake of argument, I’m going to take the Jewish religious leaders’ position that they need no repentance,” so he doesn’t offer them any salvation because if you’re going to be saved, the one prerequisite is that you must have, that you must know you need to be saved, you must know you are the unrighteous, you must know you are a sinner before this just and true and holy God. But these Scribes and Pharisees didn’t believe that. They held themselves up to be righteous and he said, “Okay, then there’ll be no saving of you and there’ll be no rejoicing over your salvation because you don’t even think you need salvation to start with.”

The Parable of the Persevering Shepherd.

Let’s stand together in prayer.