or mind, a man in his bed, sleeping in the upstairs of his house. Now, downstairs in his kitchen, a fire starts. And as the man is sleeping upstairs, the fire slowly begins to climb up the stairs to the second floor of the house. It spreads through the hallway and begins to curl underneath the bedroom door and climb up that door and the man wakens and realizes that his house is on fire. Now, as you imagine this scene, the man in his bed with his eyes awake and he comes to the realization that his house is on fire, what is the next scene that you would imagine? Certainly, you don't imagine him closing his eyes, turning over and nestling himself back into his bed. The next scene, whatever it is, will involve this man doing something. He's going to reach over to the phone on his bed stand and dial 911. He's going to get up and he's going to take a blanket from his bed and he's going to stuff it underneath the doorway to prevent the fire from coming into his room. He's going to go and open the window and attempt to get out of his house. But whatever the next scene is, once that man awakens from his sleep to the realization that his house is on fire, every one of us rightly imagines that that is someone who is going to do something because a fire has broke out in his home. Many of the people who heard John the Baptist preach were awakened from the sleep of their sin. So, the realization that the fire of God's judgment had already started. It was ignited. And it was already burning. And they came to the realization that they had to do something. They were being called to repent and to produce the fruit of that repentance. When you turn in your Bibles this morning again to the third chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we realize that the people who heard the things that Luke summarizes in Luke 3, verses 7-9, came to the realization that the house of their life was on fire and they had to do something about it. Luke tells us that John preached along these lines. He therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham for our father, for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham and also the axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. In verses 10 through 14, Luke presents us with three groups of people, and each of them come and ask the question, what shall we do? The response to this question is recorded as John gives definite descriptions of the nature of the fruit of repentance. John's response to the question, what shall we do, can be summed up in one word. Justice. Social justice. Not the social justice of the communist. Not the social justice of the socialist. Not the social justice of the capitalist. But the social justice of the Old Testament prophets. The justice of God. A justice that is moved by compassion as a reflection of the character of the God of Israel. We're learning something about Luke's writing style. Verses 7-9 is a summary of the kinds of themes that John the Baptist preached. Then verse 10-14 is An example, a specific application of how this preaching met with specific people. In verse 10-11, which is our focus this morning, we see this specific application given to the multitudes in general. And then in verse 12-14, next Lord's Day, we'll see how that narrowed down into these tax gatherers and soldiers who come with this burning question. What do you want us to do? How do we respond to the fact that the fire has broke out and we're awake now to the reality of God's impending wrath? Well, our focus today is upon verse 10 and 11. And the multitudes were questioning him, saying, Then what shall we do? And he would answer and say to them, Let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise." In this we see, first of all, the fruit of repentance generally described. I say that this is a general description, because of the imperfect verbs that Luke uses to describe this activity of John's preaching. He's telling us something that happened in general and constantly and somewhat frequently. The multitudes were questioning him. The verbal action is something that's constant and repetitious. and he would answer them and say to them, is again, this activity. This is not just one singular event. This is the ongoing kind of thing that John would respond to the question, well, what shall we do? How do you want us to act? What's the nature of this fruit of repentance that you're summoning us to bring forth? Because they've heard John's emphasis upon doing, upon bringing forth, upon bearing the fruit. And they come to him then and ask, give us some practical direction to what it is you want us to do in response to your preaching. Your preaching has generated a desire within us. We have a response that needs to be brought out into the practical demonstration of our lives. And notice that baptism is not what John was calling them to do. They were already being baptized because baptism was integral to John's preaching ministry. He was preaching a baptism. You see, the prophets often enacted their message. Their message was not only verbally communicated, it was physically enacted. And baptism was not the fruit to which he was calling them. Baptism was the message. that he was proclaiming. It was an enactment of his message. It was a demonstration of the message of repentance. The message of eschatological judgment. The message of the coming of the Christ. Baptism was not the response that John was seeking from the people. Baptism was the message that John was preaching to the people. He did not call them to participate in a religious ritual, but He called those who received this message enacted in this ritual to then act upon that message and in their lives to produce the evidence of the repentance that was professed in the rite of baptism. Baptism is but a demonstration of what is said to be a spiritual reality in the heart of those being baptized. And John is now saying, now make that reality evident in your life. And John's general and most prominent description for the fruit of repentance is what I'm calling compassionate justice. Compassionate justice. the duty of meeting the basic necessities of life for those who are in need. Daryl Bach comments, John does not call the crowd to his ascetic lifestyle, nor does he call for a commitment to a series of ritual religious acts, nor does he point to the sacrifices associated with the Jewish faith. Rather, He points to meeting the needs of others. He gives to them an assignment. He says, go to your closet and take a spare garment and give it to someone who does not have a garment. And then do likewise and go to your cupboard and take spare food and give to the hungry. When he says, let a man who has two tunics, a tunic was the undergarment that was worn in the day. It was the most basic article of clothing. It's not the outer garment with which you would make your fashion statement. It was the undergarment. the most essential and basic need of clothing. Likewise, the word that he uses here for food is a very generic term, not describing any kind of food in particular, but as the English word, it would be food. That encompasses about everything you could eat. And it's a very general term, nondescript, a term used to describe the basic necessities. It's what Paul refers to In 1 Timothy 6.8, if we have food and covering with these, we shall be content. Now, notice that John assumes that his hearers in general have surplus goods. They have two tunics, if not more. And they have surplus food stocks. Surplus is not wrong. Surplus is privileged opportunity. William Hendrickson comments, quote, note, however, that John does not say that the state should step in and deprive the rich person of his property, though the state does indeed have a duty with respect to the poor and destitute, nor does he tell the man without a tunic that he must help himself to the property of his neighbor, Nor does he in any way condone refusal to work in order to earn money with which to purchase life's necessities. What he is advocating is voluntary sharing. Again, Doro Bach, the call to share is voluntary. But it is also a reflection of a morally appropriate concern for one's neighbor. Refusing the call reveals what is in the heart." You see, the issue for John, and the issue we need to see, is not merely the distribution of material goods, but it is the heart that wells up with compassion when it sees a brother in need. And it is this compassionate justice that is promoted in the Old Testament. I abominate this thinking that's so prevalent in our day that somehow the God of the Old Testament was a God of anger and war and a God of... He's not at all. He's the same. He's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He's a God of love. He's a God of compassion. And He was constantly, continually concerned that His people learn of Him and become like Him in their social dealings one with another as a nation. That they would be given to the meeting of the needs of the poor and the hungry and the homeless and the naked round about them. I could take you to portions of the Old Covenant civil law where God in His establishment of the Old Covenant judicial system legally makes provision for the poor, for the orphans, for the widows, and for the foreigners. Those who were socially disadvantaged. And that justice that is made available for them in the judicial system of the Old Covenant was motivated by the God whose heart was filled with compassion for the needy. And in your notes, I made reference to several passages that you can look at and consider that God did not allow, by law, God did not allow His people to live in a disregard of the needy in their community. But John is not speaking so much as a second Moses legislating new law, Although that's part of the expectation people had for him. But John is speaking in the profile of an Old Testament prophet. And he's calling the people to repentance. He's calling them to covenant fidelity, to be like the God of their covenant. And so, he stands in the midst of them, like many of the voices in the Old Testament, summoning the true people of God to be like God and demonstrate that likeness with acts of compassionate justice. Let's look at some of those Old Testament voices. One of the more ancient voices in our Bible, the voice and testimony of Job. In chapter 31 of Job, as Job asserts his integrity, as Job asserts his godliness, one of the things that he brings into his personal profile is his compassion for the needy. Reading from verse 16 of Job 31. If I have kept the poor from their desire, or caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the orphan has not shared it, but from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and from infancy I guided her, and if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or that the needy have no covering, if his loins have not thanked me, and if he has not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep, if I have lifted up my hand against the orphan, because I saw I had support in the gate, let my shoulder fall from the socket, and my arm be broken off at the elbow. For calamity from God is a terror to me, and because of his majesty I can do nothing." How does your shoulder feel? Still intact. Job says, my shoulder has been bearing the burdens of the needy. And it's part of his defense of his godliness. We move into the testimony of the prophets who call the people to this very kind of godliness in Isaiah 1. Isaiah 1. Verse 16 to 20. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Reprove the ruthless. Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow. Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured but with the sword. Truly the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The context is the context of a lot of religious activity in verses 10 through 15. A lot of religious activity, but God says, listen, I want you to be cleansed. I want you to be white as snow. I want you to be cleansed with the wool of grace. And evidence that Not in religious ritual, but in the way you demonstrate compassionate justice. Later in chapter 58, again, this whole issue of religiosity set in the context of heartlessness. God abominates it. He does not at all delight in a people who are given to religiosity with heartlessness and the absence of caring and feeling and compassion. So we read in Isaiah 58, verse 6, Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth and your righteousness will go before you. The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry and He will say, here I am. If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday. And the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places and give strength to your bones. And you will be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." Want your prayers to be answered? Want to cry and God say, here I am? To have a life that is fruitful and satisfying? A garden that bears fruit? That's what John's all about, isn't it? Bear the fruit. What's he saying? You want to have a life like that? Give yourself to compassionate justice. This is the true religious fast. This is the kind of piety that God is seeking. Ezekiel, likewise, in chapter 18, Ezekiel 18, reading from verse 5-9, But if a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness, and does not eat at the mountain shrines or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor's wife, or approach a woman during her menstrual period, If a man does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing, if he does not lend money on interest or take increase, if he keeps his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between man and man, if he walks in my statutes and my ordinances so as to deal faithfully, he is righteous and will surely live. declares the Lord God. Notice verse 5. Do it. That's John's emphasis. Do it. Practice it. Bring it to practical demonstration. What shall we do? Was the question burning in the listeners of John the Baptist. And John said, do compassionate justice. And in so doing, he's standing in line with the ancient prophets. He's standing with that summary statement found in Micah 6, verse 8. He has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. You see how the Spirit is orchestrating a coordinating ministry between our Sunday school studying the Micah Mandate and with our morning service in the study of the Gospel of Luke. You see, John stands in the line of these Old Testament prophets and he calls the people of God to compassionate justice, to a social justice, that mixes in with it the proverbial wisdom of Solomon, using illustrations from rocks and snakes and desert fires and stones. And he brings this wisdom and connects it with the social justice concerns of the old covenant prophets by injecting it with an eschatological edge. The wrath of God is broken out. The fire has already been ignited. And God is coming. The Messiah is coming. And it's a time now for the people of God to assume a lifestyle. A lifestyle of authentic sonship. True sons of Abraham. Don't tell me your bloodline. Show me your fruit. The sons of Abraham bear the fruit. And it's a fruit that is seen in a lifestyle that puts value and practical expression to compassionate justice. This is the lifestyle, says John, that will prove to be the way of escape from the impending fire of wrath. It is a lifestyle of generosity and mercy motivated by compassion and justice." That brings us to applications. When you're considering a passage that's emphasizing do, do, do, you get to applications relatively quickly. First of all, compassionate justice is not optional, but necessary. We cannot dodge John's summons. We may not like it. Brethren, the truth is, if we are not actively demonstrating compassionate justice, we are vulnerable to the wrath of God. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus teaches concerning the second coming and the execution of judgment by Himself the King. And notice what the concern is. The question is not going to be, did you understand and grab intellectual hold on the doctrine of election? That's not the question. Notice what the concern is reading from verse 31 of Matthew 25. But when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him then he will sit on his glorious throne and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate them from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. Naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and invite you in or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the King will answer and say to them, truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me. Then He will also say to those on His left, depart from Me. accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in naked, and you did not clothe me sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. Then they themselves also will answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you? Then he will answer them saying, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Now can you read that passage and conclude that compassionate justice is optional? Can you see the man lying in his bed and seeing a fire lick at his bedroom door and say, I don't really have to respond to that. I've got some options here. No, you don't. If you don't do something, you're going to fry. And that's what John is telling us. This is not optional. This is a very urgent matter because the judgment, as we saw last week, has already begun. We live in Sodom. Yes? We live in Sodom. And the fire of God's judgment is gathering in the clouds over our heads. We live in a society on the brink of the explosion of the fire of God's wrath. And we are liable to Sodom's sins. If you look at Ezekiel 16 49 and 50, you'll see that although Sodom was famous for the sins of homosexuality, and rightly so, And that sin is prominent in what brought about the judgment of God. But as a culture, it was a heartless society. It was a society without compassion. Notice the description of Sodom in Ezekiel 16, verse 49 and 50. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus, they were haughty and committed abominations before me. Therefore, I removed them when I saw it." Now, dear people, our sin is not our affluence. It's taken me years to dodge the bony little fingers of those who want to press my guilt button Because I live in the West and because relative to global economics, we are affluent. We are. In two weeks, I can tell you, when I'm packing at the end of this week to go to Pakistan, I pick clothes that are not my best clothes. Because try as I might, I'm going to walk into a room and what I've got on my back is worth three times as much as what these people make in a year. And there's nothing I can do about that. And I'm not guilty for that. I'm not guilty. Our guilt is not our affluence. In many ways, our affluence is a righteous reward for our diligence, dear people. Because in all labor there is profit. says Solomon in Proverbs 14.23. And when I've been in Pakistan and preached to a church in a Christian ghetto in Islamabad, I have challenged those people and said, if you are the people who worship the God who is the Creator, the God of order, the God who put man in the garden to work, don't sit around afternoon after afternoon smoking your hot gauze. Get to work and clean the street up. Your garbage is piled four to five feet high on either side of the road. Don't live like that if you bear the name of God. Get to work and clean the place up. That's not Western. That's theology. That's biblical. That's not Western. That's Bible. Our affluence is not our sin. Our sin is our pride in it. Our sin is our self-centered indulgence in it. Our sin is our preoccupation with it that makes us culpably blind to seeing the poor and the needy. Our sin is our indulgence with our pleasures that calcify and harden our conscience and deaden compassion within us. That's the problem. And it leads, in the language of our passage in Ezekiel, to abominations. Children, abominations is a key word that means idolatries. Things that are done in the name of God that He abominates. False worship. False sacrifices. Taking His name in vain. Violating the principles of His worship. And what is being worshipped in the society of Sodom is self. Self. Magazines. We. Self. It's right in front of us. Self-worship. And God says, that's why I put it away. And that's what homosexuality is. It's just a self-centered, a self-indulgent, adolescent, juvenile immaturity that is perverse and it's just selfishness in a sexually perverse way. And God puts it away. At the root of it, it's the worship of self. And dear people, get used to it. At this rate, get used to it for like the next decade because we're going to be in loop for a long time. And loop is not going to allow us to be comfortable with a life that doesn't bear the fruit of compassion and justice. The writer Verhey, quoted in Craig Bloomberg's book, Neither Poverty Nor Riches, says, There is no repentance in Luke that does not practice sympathy toward the poor and outcast. No welcoming the saving act of God in Christ Jesus that does not do justice and kindness. No waiting for His return that does not expect and anticipate God's vindication of the humble poor. No participation in His community that does not give alms or share one's goods or practice hospitality." Compassionate justice is not optional. It's necessary. Secondly, compassionate justice must be evident in the church. I can't tell you how deeply I feel about these things, nor for how long I've wrestled with these issues and attempting to get a balanced understanding of how to bring these practical issues into my expression as a Christian man and as a pastor in the life of this church. I have spent a lot of time, and I confess in confusion, with guilt and distortion coupled with genuine efforts trying to sort out in my understanding and in my practical living how to make these issues that are evidently necessary real in my life. And I've been exposed to some things in my life that has challenged me on these issues. I worked and lived for a few months when I was in my early 20s on a kibbutz in Israel. The kibbutz is the epitome experiment in communism. When I was at the kibbutz, the kibbutz bought 80 televisions. And the next 80 people who were in line all got TVs distributed to them. Because the principle of that culture, that society was communism. Everybody is the same. We all wore the same clothes when we worked. Well, I ate in the cafeteria the same way. The kids didn't grow up in families. The state grew the kids. The state tended to the kids. The kids were raised in little groups. Little gangs is what they were. Undisciplined. Little gangs. The community raised. Takes a village. The community raised a child. It was an experiment in communism, communal communism. In my days in seminary, I ministered amongst the urban poor in Boston. I felt the tug of beggars upon my pant legs in Pakistan. I interface in the ministry with brethren from the third world and contend with the obvious disparity in our economic standings. I missed an F. by three points in Christian social action in my seminary class. Only D in my entire graduate studies. I learned more in that class than I did in others because it was a class that engaged me with argument and debate and issues. The first day of that class in seminary, the professor showed a movie. Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast, it was called. Right? Guest was coming to dinner, right? You know, right? Cindy Poitier, remember? Well, guest was coming to breakfast was about a man from Puerto Rico who worked in the sugar canes. And at the end of the week, he didn't have enough money to buy sugar for his family. Anybody recognize what that is? The man works in the sugar canes and he doesn't have enough money to buy sugar. What's that the concern of? I'll take answers. Begins with an M. Marxism. It's called worker alienation. The man is alienated from the product of his own hands. It's worker alienation. So at the end of that movie, the first class, the lights turn off and he goes, well, any observations? So wanting to make an impression, I asked him, so are you a closet Marxist or are you going to come right out in the open and tell us about this? You know, lined me right up and I said, okay, well, let's have a conversation and we did. I got a D and he got the privilege of being the only professor in my two graduate programs that gave me anything less than a B. Talk about that some other time. Found it interesting that on the cover of World Magazine, July 19th, 2003, is a picture of Karl himself. Karl Marx. And one of the articles by Marvin Olasky in that magazine was, Marx isn't dead. Marxism turned the world upside down in the 20th century. Not only in the realm of economics and politics, but also in the realm of theology. I had to study what was called liberation theology back in the latter 70s. It was a theology that was embraced by and large in the Latin, South American, Roman Catholic theological circles. A theology that embraced Marxism and tried to Christianize it give theological validation to social revolution so as to rise up with theological mandate to create an economic utopia of a classless society in which everyone was given an equal distribution of goods. Anybody remember the Marxist mantra? You recall the Marxist axiom A little banner, bumper sticker statement of Marxism that made the whole thing work? Probably not. If I say it, you'll remember it. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. Remember that? Anybody? Have you heard that before? From each, thank you, thank you. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. That was the phrase. That was the marching banner. That's the flag under which Marxism worked. Why were those words so powerful? Why are those words so powerful? From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. You want to know why they're so powerful? Because they're not Marx's words. They're God's words. They're God's words. But they're God's words twisted and broken and disconnected from the context and turned into a demonic deception of a most marvelous truth. From each according to his ability. Acts 11, 29. And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, Each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea, from each according to his ability. To each according to his need, Acts 2.45. And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. To each according to his need. It's what you call a conflation of texts. You take a bit out of one passage, and a bit out of the other passage, and you connect them together in a way that doesn't exist in the passage, and you conflate the passage. Sometimes you can do that and say truth. In this case, Marx did that and says truth, but my friends, he robs it from you in order to say it, because Marxism is a pillaging of the church. It's a pillaging of the society that is to be characterized by compassionate justice. And the power that Marxism had in the 20th century should be an encouragement for the kind of influence a church can have when it would rise up and be a compassionate and just people the way God calls us to be. Satan wants to distort the church. He wants to rob from the church. Marxism is a demonic attack upon the church. We must demonstrate compassionate justice in the church to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine. Even the least of them, you did it to me. There must be a focus upon the brothers of Christ. 1 John 3 16-18 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's good and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. For the brethren, for his brother in need, and brethren, I commend you. Even in recent days, I have discovered that many of you do things of compassion to meet the needs of one another in this church. And I don't get wind of it. Money is given. Help is given. Aid is given. And every now and then, I get a little word of it. And I commend you for it. I believe you are a generous people. We've had opportunities to give. We have contributed above and beyond what would be normally expected for a group our size. And I brag about you for your generosity. But I want to see the fruit, I want to see the branches of your lives weighed down with 30, 60, 100-fold fruit. I want to see more fruit. I want to catch up to you in another thousand years and look at you just dripping rich in heaven. Because you've made such wise investments in the Kingdom of God. Compassion, interest and involvement with one another's lives. We face the social obstacles of Sodom. The calcified limbs and the bad sockets of bad habits and encased attitudes. But I'll tell you, my friends, God makes stones into suns and He can make us, His sons, into fruitful trees. I want you to look at each other with compassion. Look for ways to do among yourselves. to produce fruit, to invest in each other's lives, even if it's just a little, but a meaningful investment motivated out of a love for Christ. To get next to someone who's lonely. To help a struggling mother. To give a couple with kids a night out and babysit for them. To clean somebody's basement. To buy something for a student at school. Treat each other like you're family. Get into one another's lives with compassion. Thirdly, compassionate justice must be produced in the world. Galatians 6, verses 9 and 10. Galatians 6, verses 9 and 10. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all men. And especially to those who are of the household of faith. Yes, the priority is upon these, my brethren, but my friends, do good to all men when you have the opportunity. And I submit to you, here is our method of evangelism. Recent conversations, I've been told that the way to get them in is through the music. The way to get them in is through mercy. Because I'm not interested in getting them through the doors. I'm interested in getting them into Christ. Getting them connected with the God of compassion and the God of grace. Ours is a very needy world. People all around us are in dire need. And the way to touch them is to touch them the way Jesus touched them. With compassion and justice. We'll be meeting with this application time and time again through the Gospel of Luke throughout the New Testament itself. It is necessary. It is of the very essence of biblical religion. Compassion is explained only through the justice of the cross of Christ. Fourthly, compassionate justice evidences a heart like God's heart. In Luke chapter 6 and verse 36, Jesus tells us that we are to be like God. In what way? Be merciful as your Father is merciful. He says in Matthew 9.13, go and learn what this means. I desire compassion and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. A life that repents of sin, you see, is reoriented toward God and it's lived in a Godward thrust. It's concerned with the worship of God. We've been concerned with the worship of God. We know something of the historic tradition and privilege of the regulative principle. But God says, look, you've got to keep it in balance. I desire compassion. I desire that my worship be biblically ordered. That's true. but not by a heartless people. If you know Me, then you'll do what I do. And I delight in mercy. I delight in compassion. We read from 1 John 3, 16-18, you see, the thing is built upon the demonstration that He laid down His life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. motivated out of a love that God shows us and out of a love for God. It issues into a life of deeds done because we ourselves know the heart of God. Why? How do we know it? Because we've received mercy. We've received compassion. Tim Keller writes in his book, Ministries of Mercy, quote, mercy is spontaneous. Superabounding love, which comes from an experience of the grace of God. The deeper the experience of free grace of God, the more generous we must become. This is why Robert Murray McShane could say, there are many hearing me who now know well that they are not Christians because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudging at all, requires a new heart." Do you want to know if you're a Christian? Do you love to give? Do you love to share? Do you want to know if you're a Christian, child? Do you share your toys? Do you share to those who have, who do not have what you have? Fifthly, compassionate justice is the fruit of repentance from selfishness. See, what does the mercy of God affect? It affects repentance. That's what mercy does. It brings you to repent. Repent from what? What is churned from in order to produce this compassionate justice? Well, what is John the Baptist calling for, basically? when he says, give one of your two tunics away. He's calling for repentance from selfishness. Bach says, John the Baptist's fundamental ethic involves an unselfish approach to life, which sees a person in basic need and gives a spare possession to meet it. You see, the last thing God is, is selfish. The Father glorifies the Son, the Son glorifies the Father, the Spirit glorifies the Son, and applies God's salvation to the elect. The God that we serve is constantly giving and glorifying the others within the Godhead to bring us into the sharing of the glory of Christ. The Gospel is a revelation of the heart of God. It is the heart of compassion. It is the heart of selfless giving. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which also was in Christ Jesus." Philippians 2, 3 to 5. Keller makes a very profound statement. If you take a note, you could write this down. This is a good one. True humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less. True humility is not browbeating yourself. That's just pride in disguise. True humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's just thinking of yourself less so that you might think of others more. Would we produce the fruit of repentance? Would we demonstrate that we have received the mercy of God? Would we prepare for the coming judgment? Let us repent of our selfishness. Let us do the deeds of compassionate justice. Amen.