I wanted to sum up something from this morning that I wanted to just mention to you real quickly. The people that are part of this new venture that we call the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ must understand that God is holy, holy, holy, and the whole earth is filled with His glory, right? Secondly, The people who are part of this new venture called the church must learn to say yes to the holy God without reservation, right? Because God says to us, here, say like Isaiah, here am I, send me. Now, what I didn't read to you this morning or didn't point out to you this morning was the end of the chapter six in Isaiah, because when God tells Isaiah what's going to happen, where he's going to go, whom he's going to go be sent to, Did you listen to what that was going to be like? God says, he says, here am I send me and God says, OK, go and tell this people. Keep on listening, but do not perceive. Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, their eyes dim. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and return and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until cities are devastated and without inhabitants, houses are without people, land is utterly destroyed. The Lord has removed men far away and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, and it will be it will again be subject to burning like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is in its stump. Now, you see what he's saying. What he's saying is, I'm going to give you a hard job to do. You said, here am I, send me, and I'm going to send you. But the job's going to be really hard. It's going to be so hard that they're going to close their ears and not listen. It's going to be so hard that they're going to close their eyes and not see. It's going to be so hard that they're going to refuse to listen. It's going to be so hard that cities are going to be devastated. It's going to be so hard that there's not going to be any earthly success. Except at the end, there's always a remnant, because God always keeps a remnant. He said, at the end, there's going to be a remnant, like a little sprout coming out of the sun. Now, it's a good reminder, isn't it, that God doesn't always call us to successful ministries. That Isaiah said, here am I, send me. He didn't go to the first church of 2,000 people. He went to the church where he's beating his head against the wall, and he was suffering, and people were blind, and wouldn't listen, and wouldn't hear. Jeremiah had the same experience, didn't he? A prophet, he goes, but it's not instant success. And you know, we expect often today to see instant success. We say, things are going to happen. This is going to be great. It's going to be wonderful. It's going to be instant success. That doesn't mean we're not being faithful. God calls us to be faithful and to serve him. That's what he called Isaiah. And you know who's going to win in the end. God's going to win in the end because he's going to bring, even when things are bad and the tree gets cut down, there's still that little sprout that's going to come up. There's always the remnant that God saves for himself. There's always that. So, you know, I thought that was an encouraging thing to take from this Isaiah passage and to see where we are. Now. OK, tonight, Luke 15. Luke 15 verses 1 through 7 is where we're going to read. And this is, again, an absolutely familiar passage, because all of us remember that in Luke 15, he tells three stories, the story or the parable of the lost sheep. He tells the story of the parable of the lost coin, and he tells the story or the parable of the two lost sons, the older son that stayed at home lost, The younger son went raising cane, took his father's money and just wasted it in what we call prodigal living. So that's the three stories that Jesus tells. Now tonight, we're just going to focus on one of them. But let me read this passage for you first. Luke 15 verses 1 to 7. Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near him to listen to him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable, saying, 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? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 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. I tell you, in that same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." This is God's Word. You know, when you look at this chapter, did you look at the way it began that first sentence? I'm going to read it to you in the Greek. The translation literally says now they were drawing there were drawing near to him all the tax collectors and the centers to hear. All the tax collectors and all the centers. The people I mean, we can make the categories, couldn't we? We could say the people that were not only stealing money, like the tax collectors, thieves, prostitutes, people that beat their spouses, people that steal from others, liars, adulterers. I mean, we could add all the categories. And notice who's coming to see Jesus. Now, all the tax collectors and the sinners. were coming to hear Jesus. If we stopped right there and realized what it said, those people, not a one of them would go to the synagogue, would they? Not a one of those people would go to the synagogue or to the temple, because if they did, the people in the synagogue or the temple would make them feel low, wouldn't they? They'd look at them and say, what are you doing here? Or if they didn't say it, they'd look at them in a way in which that's how they would feel. They wouldn't dare go to the synagogue or the temple because people would look down their noses and say, you know, acts superior to them like, what are you people doing here? You know, who let you in the door? What do you want? Tax collectors, drunks, adulterers, prostitutes, thieves, the immoral people. They wouldn't dare go to the church. They wouldn't dare go to the synagogue. They wouldn't dare go to the temple because they wouldn't feel welcome. But what really gets you here at the beginning of this chapter is that they all felt welcome with Jesus. They all felt welcome when they came to Jesus. Every one of them, even though they'd be looked down on if they went to the synagogue, they knew they wouldn't be looked down on. if they went to hear Jesus. They came to Jesus because He wouldn't spurn them. He wouldn't think He was superior to them. He wouldn't reject them. They came to Jesus because He would give them the words of life and because they were glad to hear Him speak. You know, people can't tell that you're glad they're there. I mean, you know how it is to go somewhere and you don't feel welcome. You know, you feel like you're out of place. You remember on the movie Titanic? You remember the boy from steerage? You know, he gets the invitation to come because he saves that girl's life. He gets the invitation to come and to sit with all the first class people. And so he finds him, you know, one of the ladies gives him that suit, you know, he puts on his suit, and he gets to looking nice, and he walks in there like he belongs. But instantly, those people say, well, we're doing this as a charity case to let this poor guy in here, this guy that was in the steerage, he doesn't belong here, but we're going to let him come in just for the night so he can eat dinner with us, and then we'll Hand him a few dollars and get him out the door. He doesn't belong. That's how the people that were coming to Jesus felt if they would go into the temple or into the synagogue. They knew they wouldn't be welcome. But if they went to hear Jesus, they knew they would be welcome because Jesus would bring them in. He would talk to them. You remember he would touch the little children even though they're dirty. Even though they had snotty noses, you know, no diapers changed. Jesus said, don't forbid those little children to come to me. Let them come to me for such is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus received them and they knew it. They knew they could go to see Jesus. People can tell. When Susan and I were in Mary in North Carolina and I was pastoring the church over there at Story, it's called Story Presbyterian. I was over there, we'd have people come to town, and this is the story they'd tell me. They'd say, well, we moved to town, and we went to such and such a church, but the only one that spoke to us at the end of the service was the pastor. We didn't feel well. Or sometimes they would say, the people were nice, and they'd say hello to us, and then they'd turn their back on us and go talk to their friends. Because you see, they had enough friends and they didn't need any movements. They weren't interested in us. They were glad we came, that they had enough friends, and that was it. A lot of those people came to our church because the church family opened the doors of their hearts to them, not just let them in the door to worship. You see, people can tell when you want them there. People can tell when they're welcome. People can tell that you care about them. You know, that's one of the things that we all love about the visitation time when we all stand up and greet each other is because there's a genuine concern. You know, I see y'all go back and talk to those people that sneak in the back door, you know, and don't know where they are or don't know very many of us. And y'all go back and welcome them. That's a wonderful thing. Keep that up. Because that's what wins hearts, and that's what we're supposed to do. Many times when you see things like this, you know that if people don't feel welcomed, they're not going to come back. They're not going to be part of the synagogue, the temple, or the church. The tax collectors and the sinners and all those people in that category felt that they could come hear Jesus because they knew He would welcome them. They knew He cared about them. They knew that He would welcome them to be near Him and that He would speak the truth to them and not look down on them. Jesus spoke the truth to them and didn't look down on them. One of the problems that we have in the church today is people say, this is my church. And we want it this way. I've run into that in churches in North Carolina. They say, this is my church, and we want it this way, and we don't want it this way. If it goes that way, we're not going to be happy. This is not working. This is not good. And people sense that. They sense there's no real walk of faith there in the audience. Because you see, it's not our church. This is not our church. It doesn't belong to the Presbytery. Strangely enough, as the Presbytery may think. It doesn't belong to the General Assembly. This church belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, first and foremost. First and foremost, we belong. We are the church. And we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our head. He is the one that gives us our orders. And so we are to obey Him. And we are to welcome all those that He would welcome. Doesn't mean it's easy. But it means that God has called us to be, to recognize His Lordship. It's His rules that we live by. In verse 2 of Luke 15 it says, But the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble. And they said, this man receives sinners and eats with them. Now isn't it interesting that the church leaders are the ones that want to toss these people that are lost out. The church leaders don't want the lost people in the synagogue or the temple. The church leaders, the religious elite, come in and they say, Why is he inviting these people to be around him? These people are sinners. He doesn't want them. And all they did was grumble. You know, they murmured among themselves. They grumbled and murmured among themselves. And they said, this man receives sinners and eats with them. To eat in that culture with somebody was to was more than just hospitality. Now, you and I, if we wanted to be friendly and have a hospitable home, we would open up our home and invite somebody to come in and eat with us. Somebody new that we met in the grocery store or at church or, you know, in the community. We would welcome them, say, they're new. I'm going to invite them to my home and we'll sit down and eat a meal together and visit. But in Jesus' day, when you did that, it meant that You wanted to build a connection with that person. You wanted to have a relationship with that person. So the scribes and the Pharisees say, Jesus, we don't like him at all because he not only receives these people and teaches them, but he wants to build a relationship with them. He wants to build a relationship with all these lost people. This man eats with sinners, that was their big That was their big complaint. So you see, the religious leaders were complaining against Jesus because he wanted to build a relationship with sinful people who needed it. And you remember, Jesus said, I didn't come for the healthy people. I came for the sick people. He kept telling them over and over that they didn't get it. Jesus received such people. He ate with them. Luke tells us the scribes and the Pharisees were murmuring about this. They kept gossiping about Jesus and complaining bitterly about him because of who came to hear him. You remember when Jesus walked into town in Luke chapter 19, he looks up in the tree and sees that little guy up there, Zacchaeus. He says, Zacchaeus, get out of that tree and come down here. I'm going to home with you today. And they said, Zacchaeus? The man that steals money from every single one of us, the man that multiplies our taxes, the IRS agent, you're going to go eat with him? Jesus said, Zacchaeus, come down, I must eat in your house today. That's why they were mad. That's why they were mad at Jesus, because Jesus did what they would not do. Jesus did what they would not do. They would not invite lost people. to have a relationship with them or with God. And Jesus was doing that every day. Jesus is teaching the Jewish religious leaders and ultimately us about the new community that we call the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, where did Jesus come from? Jesus comes from heaven. In heaven, there's this wonderful, perfect community. In heaven, there's the perfect community of the redeemed. In heaven, there's the perfect community of those that have put their faith in God in the past that have come there. In heaven, there's the angels, there's the seraphim, there's the cherubim, all these people giving praise to God. He came from a perfect community. But Jesus comes down here to establish a community on earth where it's not perfect. And he comes to establish a community with people that need him. Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. He came from heaven to be the Savior of sinners and to start a new community that we call the community of the redeemed. It's the community of the redeemed who are redeemed in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Redeemer. Jesus is teaching us that this new community is made up of people who are sinners. The new community is made up of sinners, which is what we all are. We all acknowledge it. Jesus didn't come for the people who thought they were righteous already. The people that thought they were righteous already didn't see any reason to come and be saved, did they? Every time Jesus showed up, they said, let's get out our notebooks and write down every wrong thing he says. And you remember how the scribes and the Pharisees did that? They said, good night. Think of all these things that he's saying. This is outrageous. And look at who he's with. This is outrageous. And look who he calls as his servants. Fishermen. Tax collectors. Outrageous. They had every complaint in the book written down about Jesus because everything he did they saw was wrong. They were the community of the righteous already and they didn't have any use for sinners. They didn't want Jesus around. In fact, it didn't long before what they want with Jesus is to kill him. You remember Jesus several times had to say, well, you're just making plans to kill me. And they said, we wouldn't do that. And then three sentences later, it says after he left, they decided how they could kill him. You go back, look, that's exactly what happens. Jesus had to tell the religious elite that he came to set up a new community. that would be different from any of the world had ever seen. But they wanted no part of it. The new community would be made up of lost people. And look at the lost people that are delighted to come to hear Jesus. Tax collectors, sinners, liars, thieves, adulterers, immoral. Just go down the list. Crooked politicians. Everything. Jesus. For Jesus to say such things. That he would even welcome such people and eat with them made the religious leaders furious. They were so angry with Jesus. So Jesus decides to tell them three stories. Now, you see, this is the context, remember? Everything comes out of the context, doesn't it? The tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus, verse one. The Pharisees were grumbling. Verse two, this man receives sinners and eats with them. Verse three, so he told them a parable. In other words, because of what they were saying, because they were rejecting the very people that they should have been trying to reach, Jesus is going to tell them three parables back to back. And these three parables are hard hitting. These three parables, he's going to take this parable. OK, that one. Did you get it? How about this parable? Did you get it this time? Then one more. Did you get it with this parable? He's going to take three hard hitting parables and lay them right straight in their face to the scribes and the Pharisees. The first parable, you know what it is. There was a man who had 100 sheep and he got home at night to the sheep pen and he put them all in there and he counted them and there's only 99. One was missing. So he shuts the gate to the sheep pen and he goes out and he looks for that one lost sheep. The shepherd goes looking for the one lost one. Now, it's interesting, the shepherds, I was reminded by a story from The man that wrote this book, A Shepherd on Psalm 23, maybe you've seen that book, is a man who was a shepherd before he became a pastor. And he wrote a book on sheep. And he said, one thing about lost sheep is when they get lost, brother, they can't find their way home at all. When they're lost, they're just lost. When they're out there, they're just out there. That's why Jesus says the good shepherd has to go out and find the sheep and grab it and pick it up on his shoulders and carry it literally home. because they're so dumb that they can't find their way home. Now, I think many of you will remember, you remember watching Disney, the old Disney television shows? On the Disney shows, they did two or three of these movies about these dogs or cats that were somehow dropped off hundreds of miles, if not thousands of miles away from home, and they eventually made their way back home. You remember those? I can't remember. Wonderful Journey or something like that was the name of some of those Disney pictures. Incredible Journey. Thank you. Those were stories about animals that could find their way home. But you know what? These guys, these sheep, when they get lost, I mean, they're just lost and have no clue where they're going. So the good shepherd has to go get them, pick them up, put them on his shoulder, and bring them home. When it gets home, what does he do? Look at verse six. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I found my sheep, which was lost. So the shepherd, when he comes home, he takes that last missing sheep. He puts it in a sheep pen. He closes the door and he goes in and calls all of his neighbors and friends together. And he says, Rejoice with me, for I found the sheep which was lost. Now what's important is Jesus' commentary on that story. Listen to what He says. I tell you that there will be so much joy in heaven over one sinner who repents that it will be greater than over the 99 righteous people who have no need of repentance. There will be more joy over one sinner that comes in and repents than over 99 supposedly righteous people who didn't think they had any sins and were unwilling to repent. Because, you see, there aren't any righteous people in reality, are there? There's unrighteous, not one, the Bible tells us. The only righteousness we ever get is the righteousness of Christ. So the people that thought they were righteous, there's no rejoicing over them because they don't see any need to repent. They say, I'm fine. I've seen this bumper sticker, I see it repeatedly over here, not far from here. I see that bumper sticker parked, and it says, born right the first time. In other words, I don't need to be born again, I was born right the first time. You people, if you need to be born again, there's something wrong with you. I don't need to be born again, I'm fine. That's exactly what they mean by that bumper sticker. That's self-righteousness. That's exactly what the Pharisees are saying. I'm fine. We don't need a thing. I keep the law. I fast twice a week. I give this. I even tithe of the littlest things in the garden, the little herbs. I tithe of the smallest things in the garden. I don't need to repent of anything as far as I know. That's what they said. And Jesus says there'll be more joy in heaven over one sinner who knows he's a sinner and really repents than over ninety nine people who think they're righteous and that they don't need to repent. Jesus looked at the crowd of murmurs and he said, God does not rejoice over you. That's what he was saying. God does not rejoice over you because you have no heart for all these people that are out there that have come to hear me. Jesus looked at the crowd of murmurs and he said, God does not rejoice over you because you have no heart for these people. But there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents. There's no joy in heaven over the self-righteous who've deluded themselves into thinking that they don't need to repent. But Jesus said, I didn't come to call healthy people, I came to call sinners. Jesus came to start a new community of lost people, of lost sheep, who knew they were sinners. The people that Jesus came to reach were the alcoholics, the thieves, the liars, the adulterers, the immoral, the tax collectors, and everybody else we can think of in that category. Everybody that was a sinner. To them, the message of the gospel was sweet. You know, if you're a self-righteous person, if you were born alright the first time, The message of the gospel is sweet. Why? I don't need a savior. I'm fine. I don't need a savior. Why? Goodness, I don't cheat on my wife. I don't beat my kids. I work the full time. I don't cheat on my taxes. I'm fine. But they don't know their heart, do they? They don't know the inside. They're not willing to look in there and see their own sinfulness. Jesus came to start a new community of lost people, of lost sheep, who knew they were really lost. The people that Jesus came to reach were the alcoholics and the thieves and all those people. To them, the message of the gospel was sweet. And it ought to be sweet to us, shouldn't it? No matter how many times we've heard it, it ought to be sweet to us. It ought to be sweet to us because it's about a Savior who came for us. It's about a Savior who gave everything for us. Can you imagine coming here from Heaven? Can you imagine being born in this table when what you've known before is the glories of the King and being in Heaven forever? The glory of that Kingdom which we can't even take in until we get there. The glories of this time to be with His Father who loved Him. To be with the Holy Spirit with whom He had perfect fellowship. No matter how many times we hear the gospel, we ought to be excited and thankful because God has done so much for us. God has loved us with an everlasting love. He's reached out to us when we were going the other way. He's grabbed us and pulled us into the kingdom. He's given us not only salvation, but he says you are now adopted into my family. And I'm never going to kick you out. You're adopted in the family. And in fact, you get the same inheritance as my only son gets. You get that inheritance. And that's what he's given to all of us. What a wonderful thing to be in the family, be in the family of God. And it's a joy. And that's why those people came to hear Jesus in it, because they understood that there was grace, that there was forgiveness, that there was love, that there was mercy. And see, with the scribes and the Pharisees, they walked into the door and those people said, what are you doing here? They were ready for him to leave the minute they came in, but when Jesus came, he took the little children and pulled them to himself, didn't he? And he prayed for them, laid his hands on them, prayed for them. When Jesus saw the leper, you know, everybody else yelled unclean and covered their face and ran the other way. And Jesus walks right up to the leper, touches him, prays for him, and says, you're healed. And he healed him. No wonder they loved him. Because that's the Savior we have. Until we see ourselves, until we see the Gospel like that, you know, we won't want to give it away as much. But when we understand, when we're reminded how good the Gospel is, We love to give it away. We love to give it away to somebody else. Do you know my Savior? Do you know Jesus? What was it, Andy's story that he told us about the guy that comes in the church and gets converted and he finds out it wasn't the wonderful sermon that the preacher preached, but it was the little lady on the steps that said to him, do you know my Jesus? You see, that's what the answer is, isn't it? The answer is, That when we understand the grace of the gospel that's been extended to us, how wonderful it is. It's wonderful to give it away. It's wonderful to just give it away to everybody we meet. The grace of God, if it's real to us, then we praise the Savior and welcome Him and we join Him in this new venture that He calls His church. Let's pray.