How Dare He Eat With Sinners?!

Alright, grab a Bible, something to write with. We're going to do a little mini -study before we get back into our introduction into the book of Leviticus.

We're going to be talking about what Scripture teaches regarding what repentance is.

I made note of it in the sermon and I want to flesh it out from Scripture because there's a lot of confusion about repentance.

Let's pray and then we will get started. Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide, for round us falls the even tide.

Let Your word, that saving light, shine forth undimmed into the night in these last days of great distress.

Grant us, dear Lord, true steadfastness that we keep pure till life is spent, Your holy word and Your sacraments, we ask in Jesus' name,

Amen. So what is repentance?

What are some of the common ideas about repentance? What is it? Having true remorse for your sins.

That's a good start. Having faith. Yeah, the two go together.

Oftentimes people, when they think of salvation, they think that repentance is the part that we do and then faith is the part that God works in us.

And that's actually a misconception. And then another popular misconception regarding repentance is that people confuse the fruit of repentance with repentance itself.

And here's what I mean, is that repentance oftentimes, and it should, in fact, if it's true, repentance, will result in amendment of life.

So, you know, if you've been entertaining and letting a particular sin overpower you and you're confronted by God's word that what you're doing is wrong, people think repentance is stop doing that thing.

That's actually not repentance, that's the fruit of repentance. That's the thing that follows repentance.

A good way to think about it is we husbands, I don't know if you guys will notice and maybe you'll get mad at me for like ratting on us, we can be a little thick headed at times.

Yeah, I know, I just, maybe it's just me, just me, it's just me. But yeah, we can be a little thick headed sometimes and our wives are telling us, honey, you keep doing this thing and every time you do that thing, it just sends me through the roof, right?

And so, you know, she tells you that kindly and you don't listen, you don't hear a thing. Right, it could be like leaving the seat up.

Right, yeah. Boy, that, see, you see what I was saying about being thick headed?

I'm just, you know, I'm just saying, now you made me mention that in public and I'm blaming you now for it. You're too rigid at this point.

Yes, right, right. And so your wife tells you again and this time she seems more irritated and agitated.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time and nothing changes, right? And eventually this will result in a cataclysmic nuclear meltdown and then you realize, oh my goodness, she was serious, you know, and I better change.

So as part of that whole process, you don't just get to go right to not doing that behavior anymore.

You get to say to your wife, you know, I'm sorry. And saying you're sorry also is a way of saying you were right,

I was wrong. I'm changing my mind about this thing and therefore I will make a concerted effort to not do that thing or to do something different, okay?

Yeah. And you know, aren't you listening to me?

Do they think you're not curious or do they think that you're not obeying them?

Yeah, and sometimes it might help in a conversation to clarify definitions before you move too far because oftentimes we're coming at things with a different set of definitions.

So the idea then is that we want a proper biblical understanding of repentance and I think that this is quite appropriate given the fact that John the

Baptist has showed up in the sermon today and John the Baptist just, you know, again, look at your bulletin cover.

I mean, whoever drew that, actually I know the fellow's name who drew that, but he, you know,

John the Baptist does not look like somebody you would invite over for, you know, lefse and some coffee. You know, it's in fact very different than that.

Yes. Uh -huh.

Yes, you want to change. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing.

We've got to come to grips, first of all, with what scripture teaches us regarding what repentance is, but also regarding what the fruit of it is.

And as Christians, we daily have to, this is the way Lutherans talk about it,

I like the way this is, how they talk this way, is that we need to daily return to our baptismal faith, which includes repentance, forgiveness of sins, and, you know, which causes us to have to be reflective of our own behaviors, our thoughts, words, deeds, things we're doing, not doing, in light of what

God's law says, because the purpose of the law is to convict us of our sin, but it also shows us what a good work is.

And honest, be honest with ourselves, but more importantly, honest with God.

And so ultimately the word repentance, the Greek word is metanoia, and it literally just means to change your mind.

At its simplest form, you could say repentance is saying, God, you're right,

I'm wrong. At its simplest core. And with that, we're gonna flesh it out a little bit from scripture, and we're gonna take a look at a little case study on four people, actually.

We're gonna take a look at King Saul, we're gonna take a look at King David. Both of them had a horrendous fall into sin.

Each of them were confronted by a prophet regarding their sin, and their reactions tell us something about what repentance is and isn't.

And then we will also consider in the mix then, Judas and Peter, both of whom betrayed

Christ. And a lot of people wanna give Peter a pass, but remember that Jesus said, anybody who denies me before men,

I will deny before the Father. So the fact that on Good Friday, we have a parallel track between Judas and Peter tells us a lot.

And we need to pay attention then to how this plays into a proper definition of repentance.

Now, a document we don't look at often enough, but worth looking at is a document called the

Augsburg Confession. The Augsburg Confession is the basic primary summary of the

Christian faith that Lutherans proclaim. And here's how it defines repentance in Article 12.

Properly speaking, repentance is nothing else than to have contrition, sorrow, or even terror on account of sin.

That's a good place to be. To actually have remorse and sorrow and recognize,

God, I have sinned horribly against you. And in saying those words and believing that to be true, oftentimes there are emotions that follow.

The emotions are not the important thing. The important thing is that true contrition oftentimes will result in that sorrow and even terror.

And then here's where it gets a little bit weird. And yet at the same time, simultaneously, believing the gospel and the absolution, namely that sin has been forgiven and that grace has been obtained through Christ and this faith will comfort the heart and set it at rest.

You notice the two seem like they're at odds with each other. Sorrow for sin and yet confidence that I'm forgiven.

But that's exactly how Scripture teaches us what true repentance is.

Now, important to note here. Repentance is not our part. God is the one who grants repentance and he works it through his means.

And we'll talk about what that means. Let me give you a text so you don't think I'm totally out to lunch. Contrition, you can just, you know, you can say sorrow, lament, regret.

You know, those are your synonyms. In Acts chapter 11, in Acts chapter 11, we have the account of Peter regaling his fellow

Jewish believers in Jerusalem about how God had granted faith and repentance to the first Gentile believers which were members of the family of the house of Cornelius, the

Roman centurion. And he got in a little trouble because culturally Jews don't have any dealings with Gentiles and the gospel is gonna require them to get over that is the best way

I could put it. So Peter's kind of called out on the carpet. He's got this great praise report. You're not gonna believe this, Gentiles are believing in Jesus.

And he gets raked over the coals because he ate with Gentiles which is not what you're supposed to do.

But so Simon Peter explains what happens and at the end of it in Acts 11, 18, here's the resolve.

When they heard these things, they fell silent and they glorified

God saying, then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life.

God has granted repentance. He's the one who works repentance in us.

Now another cross -reference here is Luke 15. And in Luke 15,

Jesus tells one parable with three chapters. The parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the, you can say the lost son, the prodigal son.

That's one parable though with three chapters and each of them kind of making the same point over and over again.

And I love how this text begins. Now the tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to hear

Jesus and the Pharisees and the scribes, they grumbled saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

I would argue there was nobody else on planet earth that Jesus could evade with, right?

So you'll note then that kind of building off of the theme of the sermon today, prepare the way of the

Lord. The Pharisees who refused to be baptized by John the Baptist they were not prepared.

And so they were of the mistaken notion that they did not need to repent, that they did not need the forgiveness of sins in the baptismal waters that John was using.

And as a result of it, they were of the blind notion that they were not in the category of human being known as sinner.

There were the Pharisees and then there were the sinners and they were not in that group.

And so Jesus, he would eat with tax collectors. He would eat with sinners.

And here's the important part. He would eat with repentant tax collectors, repentant prostitutes, repentant sinners.

This is who he ate with. And they were scandalized by this. How dare you have a meal with that person?

Don't you know what that person has done? Makes me wonder if Jesus sat there and thought in his mind, well,

I know what you've done. And so you note that the law is the great leveler. And so Jesus gives this one parable with three chapters about what repentance looks like.

And remember, we must recognize God is the one who works it. So Jesus told him this parable.

So what man of you having a hundred sheep, if he's lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

I'm not a shepherd, but I've been told in commentaries that this is not a common practice. This is one that Jesus sounds kind of like he doesn't know anything about shepherding, but yet this is the parable.

So when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. When he comes home, he calls together his friends, his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me.

I have found my lost sheep that was lost. Just so I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

So you know, this parable is about repentance. So there's the lost sheep.

There's the good shepherd. Which one are you? Sheep, right?

Jesus is the good shepherd. So repentance looks like an errant sheep who's left the flock.

It looks like this. Jesus goes and finds that sheep, picks it up, throws it on his shoulders and walks it back to the flock.

And so while it's in transit, you could say to that sheep that's up there on the shepherd's shoulders, hey sheep, what are you doing?

Look at me, I'm repenting. That's what he's doing.

He's repenting. You'll note the passive nature of repentance. Oh, he ain't following.

He's being carried. Yeah. Yeah. Well, even if he were, it wouldn't make a difference.

He's being brought back to the flock. So repentance looks like the good shepherd going and finding the lost sheep.

The next chapter in this one parable is the parable of the lost coin. Coins don't have legs.

They don't have minds of their own. And so repentance looks like when somebody finds a coin that they've lost.

That's what it looks like. So you know that God is the active agent then in repentance. And this makes sense because the definition of repentance then is contrition and sorrow for sin and at the same time confidence that you are forgiven for the sake of Christ.

Which then is gonna require in order for God to work that in a person, they're gonna have to hear two words from God.

They're gonna have to hear the law in all of its sternness like we heard from John the Baptist this morning.

And they're gonna have to hear the gospel in all of its sweetness. That Christ has bled and died for all of our sins.

And so you'll note then God works sorrow and terror through the preaching of the law.

God works comfort and faith in us through the good news that Christ has died for our sins.

And the two have to stay together. To unbuckle them is to commit a great error.

I mean a huge error. So on the one hand where the gospel is not preached and the law is only preached, there isn't true repentance.

Because there's only terror for sin and the solution is not faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

The solution is I gotta try harder. I gotta do more. I gotta pull myself up by my righteous bootstraps and try to measure up.

That's not repentance. Faith and grace comes in the other part of repentance.

Confidence that you're forgiven for the sake of Christ. So the point I'm making though is if all you're preaching is the law and not law and gospel, you end up tearing things apart in a way that doesn't create real repentance.

Does that make sense? So then if you only preach the gospel or kind of this vaguish, weird message that you hear a lot nowadays that God loves you, you're the apple of his eye, you just gotta recognize that you are just so special, you're unique, you're the bee's knees, you have a special dream, destiny, purpose and oh

God just wants to see you fulfill your potential. Is there any sorrow for sin?

No. There is some kind of confidence in the goodness of God or God's love, but it's not anchored in the cross.

So when you tear them apart, you can't really create in the here's or God doesn't create in the here's true repentance.

True repentance requires both terror and confidence. Sorrow and faith.

It's all packaged. Yeah. Yes.

Yes. And so you'll note then that we must follow the example and the commands given us by Christ and the apostles in the example that they've left us.

Peter literally blamed the people he was preaching to for murdering

God. You killed the Lord of creation,

Peter says. Peter, when he preaches that great sermon on Pentecost, he blames the listeners.

They're the ones guilty of crucifying Christ, of handing him over to be killed and destroyed.

And they come undone. Brothers, what shall we do? We cannot skip that step, but here's the thing.

That's not the message that's going to draw a large crowd. It's not gonna make people feel good about themselves.

In fact, it's on purpose, God making sure that you don't feel good about yourself because that's the first step in being ready to hear the gospel that Christ has died for your sins.

You cannot, if you tear the two apart, you are doing violence to the Christian message.

And even Jesus himself, when in Luke's version of the Great Commission, he says that repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed in his name to all nations, starting with Jerusalem.

Repentance and the forgiveness of sins, law and gospel, sin, grace, repentance, forgiveness of sins.

It's all a package and they seem to be conflicting. And oftentimes we get a little squeamish because preaching the law part, whoa boy, that could get somebody upset.

Oh yeah, yeah. I think there's a way in which you can show grace without giving him an absolution right away.

And what I mean by being, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. By lovingly, firmly telling them the truth that they need to hear, which is not easy.

And the reality is all of us, me included, daily, we need to have these things preached and told to us.

Yep, yep. Now I wanna point something out here in the Augsburg Confession. So repentance is contrition, sorrow, and belief in the gospel.

Amendment of life and the forsaking of sin then follows. These must be the fruits of repentance as John says, bear fruit that befits repentance.

So then amendment of life follows repentance. God, you're right, I'm wrong, I feel horrible.

Please forgive me. Thank you for sending Jesus, for bleeding and dying for my sins. And I trust that I am forgiven for his sake.

And now after the absolution, you look at your life and you go, I got some cleaning up to do.

But you're cleaning up because you're forgiven, not in order to be forgiven. You see the difference?

Yeah, yes. In fact, we are born in the dominion of darkness and we are enslaved to sin, death, and the devil.

We cannot free ourself by our efforts and our self -righteousness and we remain slaves.

And it's only the gospel that unlocks the key so that we are no longer slaves to sin. And so without the gospel, we are still enslaved to sin and a struggle against those chains as much as you want, you cannot free yourself.

Christ is the one who frees you. And so you can only begin to experience true bearing fruit and keeping with repentance and true amendment of life only with both law and gospel.

You separate the two, you're not helping nobody. The two must stay together.

Now I'm gonna give some examples from the scriptures about examples where people have really messed it up.

And there's two parallel stories, Saul and David, Judas and Peter.

And we're gonna start with King Saul. In 1 Samuel 15,

Saul has been king for a while and God is going to give him an assignment. He's gonna give him an assignment and it has very explicit instructions.

And we're gonna watch how he disobeys the word of God. He's going to be confronted by the prophet

Samuel for not obeying God's word and watch his reaction.

His reaction is gonna tell us a lot about why is it that he dies in disgrace, whereas David dies and it is said of David that he was a man after God's own heart.

Two totally different outcomes and watch how the repentance plays into it. So Samuel said to Saul, Yahweh sent me to anoint you king over his people

Israel. Now therefore, listen to the words of Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh of hosts.

Sabaoth, you can actually translate that as armies. So Yahweh Sabaoth, the

God of armies. I think it's a little more closer to what that means because we hear the word hosts and we're thinking like dinner party, you know, cheese and wine.

You know, that's not what this is referring to. So Yahweh Sabaoth, I have noted what

Amalek did to Israel and opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike

Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have.

This is going to be akin to what God did with the city of Jericho. So everything, everybody, the whole nine yards devoted to destruction.

There is no booty. There is nothing to take from this. You'll leave it all as a sign to those who partake of the sins of Amalek that this is what

God does to them. And this is a call for the pagans in that area to repent. Do not spare them.

Kill both man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey.

Consider the message that this sends. Back in those days, you sack a town.

The reason you're sacking that town is for the purpose of getting their resources, their grain, their sheep, their cattle, their gold, their silver.

And by God's saying, you devote them to destruction, the people who would come in afterwards would say, they killed everything.

They took nothing. What kind of a raid was this? This was a raid to show

God's judgment and wrath against the impenitent sin of the Amalekites. And by not obeying what

God told him to do, his message wasn't properly delivered to those around this area.

And that's kind of the point. So Saul summoned the people, numbered them in Telaim, 200 ,000 men on foot, 10 ,000 men of Judah.

Saul came to the city of Amalek, lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, go depart. Go down from among the

Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of the

Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt.

And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword.

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them.

All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. Is that what

God said to do? Not even close. The word of the

Lord came to Samuel. And you'll note, there's that formula we heard regarding John the Baptist today. The word of the

Lord came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. The word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I have made

Saul king for he has not turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.

And Samuel was angry and he cried to Yahweh. All night. Isn't it interesting that somebody else's sin could cause you to lose sleep, right?

So Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told to Samuel.

Samuel came to Carmel and behold, he set up a monument for himself and Saul set up a monument to himself and passed on and went down to Gilgal.

What? So not only did he disobey God's voice, Saul took some time to set up a monument to himself.

Yeah, we really got rid of the Malachites. I am amazing, aren't I? This goes down in the book of my exploits.

What a great king I am. Let's put a monument up and let everybody know how great

I am. It's best to let monuments be made to people after they die. They're gonna remember them.

Yeah, it's interesting. So Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told to Samuel.

We got that part, he built a monument to himself at Gilgal. So Samuel said to Saul and Saul said to him, blessed be you to Yahweh.

I have performed the commandment of Yahweh. And Samuel said, well, what then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen that I hear?

Saul said, yeah.

Pay attention if somebody's objectively pointing out that there's a problem. Don't turn your mind off at this point.

It's time to pay attention. What is this lowing of sheep and oxen that I hear? So Saul said, oh, well, they've brought them from the

Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to Yahweh your

God. And the rest we have devoted to destruction. And now you'll note

Saul confronted with his sin now comes up with a pious sounding justification for his sinfulness.

This is akin to Aaron saying, well, I took the gold, threw it in the fire and poof, out came this calf, right?

It was a miracle. Oh, we saved the best to sacrifice to God.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a sacrifice, right? And you'll note when confronted with his sin, what is he doing?

Deflecting, lying. He's gonna switch and lay blame on other people.

But you'll note here, all of his attempts are to basically make him look to be a totally innocent victim of the circumstances that went down when the buck stops with him.

He's the one responsible and he's gonna blame everybody else and everything else and come up with every excuse under the sun to justify his sin.

Do we not all do the same thing? Yeah, that, yeah, yeah.

Projection is, by the way, one of the behaviors of, let's just say, those who are abusive.

It's one of the key, yeah, narcissists are, they engage in gaslighting and projection.

These are major red flags. And so the idea then here is pay attention here because he's been given a real opportunity for repentance.

The word of God is being spoken by Samuel the prophet. He is being confronted with his sin. He is clearly in the wrong and he's gonna basically say,

I've done nothing wrong. And then he'll say, okay, I sinned but.

And always remember when you talk like that, I sinned but, the but erases everything before it.

So watch how this works. So Samuel said to Saul, stop.

I will tell you what Yahweh said to me this night. And he said, all right, speak. Samuel said, though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?

Yahweh anointed you king over Israel and Yahweh sent you on a mission and said, go devote to destruction the sinners, the

Amalekites and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of Yahweh?

Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of Yahweh.

I have gone on the mission that you, on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek and I have devoted the

Amalekites to destruction. But the people, the people, they took the spoil, the sheep and the oxen and the best of the things devoted to destruction to sacrifice to Yahweh, your

God and Gilgal. It was the people. Samuel, it's the people.

Now, repentance, sorrow for sin. And by the way, it has to actually be sin.

Okay, so sorrow for sin, trust in God for the forgiveness of sins.

Is there even the remotest example or evidence that you can see in Saul of any sorrow whatsoever regarding the sin that he has committed?

No, he's blaming everybody else and coming up with all of these excuses as to why what he did was perfectly fine and okay.

I know Lutherans who do this. In fact, we all do this. This is a human thing.

This starts back in the Garden of Eden. Remember when God confronts Adam and Eve, confronts

Adam and Adam said, the woman you gave me, God. He was blaming not only

Eve, Eve was blaming God for his sin. We do this all the time. This is the natural inclination of our sinful nature.

We are terrified to speak the truth about ourselves.

You speak the truth about yourself and then all of the notions that you are a good person, that you are an okay person, that you're relatively religious and stuff like that and everything's gonna be okay, that all goes out the window as soon as you say, oh boy,

I'm a sinner. No, I've really sinned. I've, wow. Uh -huh, yeah.

Isn't that fascinating? Pay attention to the pronouns. Yeah, your God. Where's my

God in that, right? So you can see how this is playing out. When confronted with a sin, there is no contrition.

There's no owning of it at all. Just deflect, deflect, deflect, deflect, deflect, shift blame and then come up with this pious fiction.

Oh, they wanted to sacrifice to Yahweh. I said it was okay, so it's no big deal. No, it really is a big deal.

And so you'll note how that goes. Now by comparison, let me see if I've got this right.

Hold on a second here. Okay, 12.

All right. First 2 Samuel 12. Go forward one book. Almost to the exact spot.

But now 2 Samuel 12. We all know the details of what happened with David.

David's out on his balcony. The army's at war. He looks out his balcony and sees her.

And he talks, invites her. The next thing you know, her and him are together. And next thing you know, she's pregnant.

And of course she's married. And so we've got a real way of getting rid of him.

He'll just have him killed in battle. And she'll be a widow and I'll marry her and nobody will be able to figure out how the math works on why that child was born seven months after the marriage began rather than nine.

And no one will be able to figure it all out. And so adultery, murder, this is the kind of stuff that would be splashed across the pages of People Magazine, the

National Enquirer. I mean, everybody would be talking about this, right? And so he thinks he's gotten away with it at this point.

Bathsheba's safely now married to him. And what he did displeased

God. And so God sends Nathan, the prophet, to confront David regarding his adultery and murder.

Compare the difference. So Yahweh sent Nathan to David.

He came to him and said to him, there were two men in a certain city, one rich, the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one ewe lamb, which he had bought.

And he brought it up and grew up with him, with his children. He used to eat of the morsels and drink from his cup and lie in his arms.

And it was like a daughter to him. You know, you just think a parable like this that Nathan's telling would have tugged at the heartstrings of the shepherd,

David, because that's what his occupation was before this. Now there came a traveler to the rich man and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him.

But he took the poor man's lamb, prepared it for the man who had come to him. And then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man.

And he said to Nathan, as Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

And now the trap gets sprung. And Nathan said to David, you are the man.

You're the man. Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel. I anointed you king over Israel.

I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms, gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of Yahweh to do what is evil in his sight?

You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the

Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the

Hittite to be your wife. Thus says Yahweh, behold, I will raise up evil against you and out of your own house,

I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. And he shall lie with your wives inside of the sun.

For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all of Israel and before the sun.

Now, watch the response. He's confronted with his sins just the same way

Saul was. David's only response, I have sinned against Yahweh. Full stop, full stop.

Notice he does not say, yeah, but she was bathing right in the side of my balcony, man.

What was I supposed to do? She's hot. None of that. Full stop,

I have sinned against Yahweh. I'm guilty.

I'm not gonna plead innocent. There's no need for a trial. I'm guilty. End of story.

So Nathan said to David, the Lord has put away your sin. You shall not die. He confesses his sins.

And what does he immediately receive from Nathan the prophet? Absolution. Now, let's take a look at what

David writes that same day, Psalm 51. To the choir master, a

Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. So no sooner does

Nathan the prophet leave, David having received an absolution after admitting his guilt, not shifting blame, not blaming

Bathsheba, blaming only himself, we read this Psalm. And watch what's intertwined in this.

Remorse for his sin and confidence in the mercy of God. The two are both present.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.

According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.

Cleanse me from my sin. I know my transgressions. My sin is ever before me.

And against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words, blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. And so you'll note that as part of his lament, he takes a sounding of his own life and finds that there's nothing sound in him, going all the way back to his conception in his mother's womb.

But behold, you delight in truth and the inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

Note, he's confident of the mercy of God. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your

Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit and then

I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, oh

God, oh God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.

You see how they're interwoven? Sorrow, lament, true contrition for his sin and confidence in God's forgiveness and mercy.

David is exemplifying true repentance. All of the important component parts are present and amendment of life followed.

Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting? Now, consider

Judas. This might take me just a second.

Okay, we'll go to Luke 22. Hang on a second here. We'll start at verse 47.

While Jesus was still speaking, this is at the Mount of Olives, there came a crowd and the man called

Judas, one of the 12, was leading them. Remember, he had agreed to betray Christ for 30 pieces of silver.

He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus said to him, Judas, would you betray the son of man with a kiss? And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said,

Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, no more of this.

He attached his ear and healed him. And then Jesus said to the chief priests and the officers of the temple and the elders who had come out against him, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs?

When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me, but this is your hour, the power of darkness.

So they seized him and led him away to the high priest. Now, I'll fast forward just a little bit.

And let me find this real quick. Let me see, is it 23? Oh, where is it?

Hang on a second here. I just lost it. I knew

I was gonna do this. This getting old thing is for the birds. Oh boy, hang on.

Okay, I'm gonna go to Matthew 27 for this. Okay, Matthew 27, because that's where I know where this takes place.

So when the morning came, all the chief priests and the elders, the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death, and they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate, the governor.

And when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind.

Now note here, repentance involves changing your mind. Judas, for real, believed that what he had done was wrong, that he was in the wrong, that he had done something terrible.

And you're gonna note that he's even gonna have contrition. He's going to have sorrow for his sin.

But true repentance involves contrition and sorrow, as well as confidence in the mercy of Christ.

And for the forgiveness of his sins. So he changed his mind. So he brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders saying,

I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. Notice, even a confession of sin. And by the way, who'd he go to?

The chief priests. No, these are the fellows who are supposed to give him an absolution, who are supposed to say to him, yeah, you're right, you've sinned.

Let's talk, let's take a look at what sacrifices are necessary here for you to be forgiven by God.

And the chief priests basically say to him, what's that to us? See to it yourself.

Who should he have gone to for forgiveness? Christ. That's who he should have gone to.

Instead he goes to his co -conspirators who murdered Jesus, expecting to receive an absolution from them. And so he's gonna offer a sacrifice for his sins.

Watch what his sacrifice is. So they said, what is that to us? See to it yourself. So throwing down the pieces of silver, he went into the temple.

He departed and went and hanged himself. He basically laid down his own life.

But is Judas' death of himself at his own hands the proper sacrifice for the forgiveness of his sins?

No, not at all. So in this situation, unlike Saul, Judas recognizes that what he did was sinful, but he doesn't have confidence that he can be forgiven.

So he doesn't have true repentance. True repentance involves both. So he despairs and commits suicide.

He's lost. He's lost. And Jesus says of him, it would have been better had he never been born.

Now, what about Peter? What about Peter? Well, let me find this real quick.

I think that's in the Luke in text, but I wanna make sure. Peter, and I'm gonna just do a quick search, and faith.

No verses in the gospel. Prayed. Yes, it's

Luke 22. And I'll start around the 30s. Luke 22.

I'll start at 31. So it's the night Jesus is gonna be betrayed.

And here's what Jesus says to Peter. Simon, Simon, behold,

Satan has demanded to have you so that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. So we learn from Jesus' words here,

Peter has faith. He has confidence in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins.

We can show example, example, example of this from other passages within the gospels, but here it's definitive.

Christ has told us that Peter has the thing that we cannot see, and that Peter has faith.

So as the story progresses then, remember what Jesus said, the one who denies me before men,

I will deny before the Father. And so we learn this then about Peter, not only does he deny

Jesus once, he denies him three times, thrice. And here's why.

It was because of a girl. So they seized him, led Jesus away, bringing him into the high priest's house.

Yeah, Jesus was put on trial in one of the houses of the high priest. Peter was following at a distance when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together.

Peter sat down among them. And then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him said, this man also was with him.

But he denied it saying, woman, I don't know him. That's one.

If you deny me before men, I will deny you before the Father, Christ says. That's once. A little later, someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them.

Peter said, man, I am not. And after that, in an interval of about an hour, still another insisted saying, certainly this man is also with him for he too is a

Galilean. So Peter said, man, I don't know what you're talking about. And immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed and the

Lord turned and looked at Peter. Man.

Whoa. And Peter remembered the saying of the

Lord, how he had said before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times. And he went out and he wept bitterly.

Now what's the difference between Judas and Peter? There's only one difference.

Both of them lament their sins. Both of them exhibit true sorrow, true contrition, true remorse for their sin.

The only difference between Peter and Judas, Peter had faith, which makes it so that Christ can restore him later because he goes to the cross to bleed and to die for him.

So then when you have a proper understanding, what is repentance?

You can see that God is the one who works it in us. And each of us need this worked in us by God through his word, his law telling us and showing us our sin.

And you are foolish like Saul when God's law comes to you and says you've sinned.

And you said, yeah, it's not that bad. I'm not that bad. Yeah, but it was her fault or it was his fault, or maybe it was them.

See, I'm justified. It was them. You're foolish to do that.

When God's law says you're guilty, you will be much wiser to say with David, I have sinned against the

Lord. I have sinned. And like David and Peter have confidence then in the forgiveness of your sins, one by Christ.

That's the idea. And this is a good advent thing for us to consider.

You'll note that advent itself is a penitential season. That's the reason why

John the Baptist makes appearances every year at this time of the year. Because you are not well prepared for the birth of Christ until you have first examined your own life in light of God's law.

And understand this. Human relationships are complicated. And when there's breakdowns in those relationships and there's fighting or arguing or drama or nonsense, rarely, and I mean this, rarely, is it only one person and not both or one party and not both that have blame in the breakdown.

And so oftentimes, one of the things that drives me nuts as a pastor is when

I preach the law, when I see the elbow, you know,

I see the elbow as if to say, are you paying attention, Fred? When the elbow needs to come down.

And understand that in the moment when you hear God's law preached, it doesn't matter what your neighbor is hearing.

It matters what you are hearing. Because your relationship with God is one -to -one.

Our relationship with each other is that we are all united to Christ.

And so it is best when you examine your life in light of God's law to not be thinking of other people's sins.

Instead, be examining your own. Because there is enough sin in this place from the pastor all the way down to the youngest infant who we just baptized today that we must examine our lives in light of God's law and come to grips with the fact that we are all individually guilty before God.

And it is not a mere flesh wound. It runs all the way down from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes.

It's body and soul. You are corrupted by sin. And the reason why we are here is to hear the good news that Christ has bled and died for our sins.

And you are not prepared to hear that if you do not recognize your complete and utter need for it.

You don't need Jesus a little bit. In fact, you don't even recognize,

I don't even recognize how much we need Christ. And when you recognize how much you have been forgiven, then you can love and forgive and serve others.

But the way sin is dealt with in scripture is not by shoving it off into a corner, denying it, blaming everybody else.

The way sin is dealt with is by confessing it, being forgiven, and then the fruit of repentance is the amendment of life.

And it's not for somebody else, it's for you. It comes to you individually.

It's a no more this, okay? All right, we'll leave there. We'll pick up in Leviticus next week.