Sermon in Ishpeming 20.06.2010

Grace, mercy, and peace be with us now and always. Let us thank and pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we have come before Thy holy face and into the light of Thy Word. And we pray to Thee that Thou would give us Thy service blessing, that Thou would open Thy Word to us, that we might be strengthened and encouraged to continue in this begun faith.

Dear Father, Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest our needs, our cares, our trials, and adversities. But we ask that Thou would speak unto us, dear Father, through Thy holy and precious Word, that we would be comforted by the comfort that can be found only in the Gospel.

Many are the petitions. Many are the cares of life. But we know that Thou carest for us as a dear Father cares for His children. And Thou hast provided for us the way of salvation through Thy dear Son, so that even at this time we have the hope of eternal life through that grace and redemption work that He has done.

We pray, dear Father, that this same blessing would be extended unto our children, those who have fallen away from faith, to our relatives, to our next of kin, to our neighbors and friends who are not partakers of this holy calling. Thou hast provided a day of grace, a day of forgiveness, a day in which Thy holy Word is proclaimed unto this world. And we ask that Thou would open the hearts of listeners everywhere, that they could find the kingdom and that forgiveness of sins that so many long for.

Dear Father, we thank Thee for the many temporal blessings that Thou hast given us, those things that we need in this life. But the greatest of gifts always is Thy dear Son, who has suffered and died and risen again, that we have the hope of eternal life.

We pray, dear Father, even as Thy dear Son has taught us, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

We shall read the gospel text that is appointed for this Sunday that has that theme of the lost and the found. It is found in the gospel of St. Luke, chapter 15. We read in Jesus' name, verses 1 through 10.

Then drew near him all the publicans and sinners to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.

I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over the ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance.

Either that woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently, till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost.

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Amen.

Before we would study this text, I would want to bring many greetings to you from the various congregations in Africa that I was able to visit with our brother, Ilka Hakulinen. It was a time of refreshment, I think even for those of us that served there, that we were able to be witnesses of many people who sought for a gracious God and were able to find His kingdom.

As I related to some of the brothers last week, the question was not that they were sinners in need of grace or that they wanted to hear the gospel personally for themselves, but they were not sure how it is that one repents of their sins. So, we helped them with that matter.

It is such a basic thing for us who have been at God's kingdom for some time to know when we are troubled with sin how it is that we find that release for sin. When we go to someone and request that, does that gospel belong to me? And we are able to hear that even our sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and blood.

So, God blessed our trip and many were able to find His kingdom. One of the places that we visited had a name in the Ewe language that meant the hope for a better future. So, we talked about that even in that area that certainly with the coming of the gospel of the forgiveness of sins, a new day had dawned in that distant village, a day that they had looked for perhaps in a different way but had come to them.

The text that we have read is a familiar one for us. The scriptures speak in many places of a sheep and sheepfold. God's kingdom is likened unto a sheepfold that has a shepherd that watches over it.

In the text that we have read, we might at first think that the sheepfold that is mentioned here is speaking directly of the kingdom of God. But we are probably wiser to think of it in this way: that there are many sheepfolds in the world today and there have always been. And there are such sheepfolds that are not the kingdom of God or the sheepfold that we think of.

So Jesus speaks of this portion and this parable in that hope that the Pharisees and scribes might understand what was taking place in that time of visitation that they were witnesses of but blind to spiritually.

We read that publicans and sinners came to hear him. We know that the publicans were those Roman tax collectors who oftentimes were dishonest and took more than what was their rightful portion. They had a right by the Roman law to take a certain percentage of that tax that they collected but many of them abused it and so they were in fact many of them thieves.

But so it was that such kind of people wanted to hear the message of the Lord Jesus. Publicans and sinners who sought for something that was missing in their life.

But we read also that there were those observers, the Pharisees and scribes, who noticed that Jesus received sinners and that he ate with them. They understood that this was a sure sign that Jesus was not of God neither was he a true teacher but he was perhaps an imposter of types.

So they noticed these things in their critical mind and so he spake this parable to them.

But we might perhaps wonder why there would have been such a criticism that he would eat with these people. And we know that the Pharisees and the self-righteous of that time were mindful of the dietary laws and commands that were found in the law of Moses and the ritual that had to be followed even when eating food so that one was clean as far as hygiene.

They had to wash their hands in a certain way and they had to let the water run down their arms in a certain way before they were fit to eat any food. And they knew that the sinners and the publicans did not practice this. And so they were concerned.

But it gives us a larger picture of how the Pharisees were concerned with those external matters to abide by the rules of the civil law and the customary law that Moses had given. But they were blind to this: that there was a greater matter at stake.

There was the matter of the undying soul. The matter of the cleansing of the heart from sin. This was all blind to them or they were blind to it and they could not see that they were in need of God's grace or forgiveness.

So Jesus spoke this parable of a shepherd who had a hundred sheep and one of them was lost in the wilderness and he left the ninety and nine and went to look for the one that was lost and he was able to find that one.

And it gives a picture of Israel at that time of such kind as the Pharisees and the self-righteous of the ninety and nine who had no reason to repent, had no sorrow over sin, could not find that they needed anything in themselves.

But yet there were in Israel those, even as there are today in our land, as there are in Africa and Ecuador and so many other places, there are individuals that seek for a gracious God, those that are troubled over their sins, those that feel the weight and the guilt of sin.

And that is the mission purpose that we have heard of many times of God's kingdom: that we go forth to seek those individual people that are troubled who want to be reconciled unto God, want to receive the forgiveness of sins, peace.

When we made this most recent trip, and it comes to mind now, we made this kind of comparison that when we were in the country of Ghana, which has a population of 23 million people, that we were looking for even one person that longed for a gracious God. One out of 23 million would have been enough to cause much rejoicing even as we read in the text that we have.

And that is a picture of the work of God's kingdom even today. It is not that many repent, as that question was asked of Jesus: that are there many that be saved? And Jesus did not say yes or no but he said to seek to enter in at the straight gate.

In other words, most important of all was that the hearer, the word that was in need of repentance, would be the one that would enter into God's kingdom through the door of the Lord Jesus.

We, dear brothers and sisters, cannot fully comprehend, at least I cannot, what it means when a sinner repents of their sins, when one comes from the way of this world.

Even though we are certainly joyful and happy and it warms our hearts, yet it is because we carry this fleshly portion that we cannot understand what a great miracle has happened, what a great gift of God has been given to that individual that has found the kingdom of God.

Because it is a matter that goes beyond our carnal understanding and being, that one has been plucked from the certainty of hell and brought into the kingdom of God.

I oftentimes think of that Old Testament passage where the high priest Joshua repented of his sins and that comparison is made of him that he was as a firebrand or as a coal.

We all know that when we gather around the campfires or burn some wood and if we stay there long enough that eventually that log begins to disintegrate and breaks into coals, and if it is allowed to burn long enough that it will completely become dust and ashes.

Joshua's situation was very much the same: that he had undergone some sort of disintegration to that point that his end was certain and he would not have salvation.

But he was plucked from that fire as a firebrand and he was brought from that certainty of perdition to be a member of the kingdom of God.

And so when Jesus speaks this parable or illustration to the public or to the Pharisees and scribes, he speaks of that joy that the shepherd had when one that was lost was found and he was laid upon the shoulders of the shepherd.

And when he got home back to his house, he called everyone together and said, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.

I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance.

So we have such times of joy even in our congregation and wherever the kingdom of God is found, where there are still found those that come from the way of this world that seek for God and seek for forgiveness.

And when they are able to find that gracious God and find the forgiveness of sins, there is much joy in the kingdom of God.

And although we don't see it, it is likewise in heaven. We have that testimony that there shall be joy over one sinner that repenteth.

Jesus also gave a second parable which is very similar to the one that we have read of a widow or a woman having ten pieces of silver who lost one of them and lit a candle and swept the house and looked everywhere till she was able to find it.

And she was able to find it and it was a cause of great joy for her so that she too called her friends together and said, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost.

We think of a woman in the terms of the scripture: it often speaks unto us of the kingdom of God, our mother here upon earth and that work that she does.

And I know that there are with me today others that have prodigal children and we know what kind of sorrow that is that a prodigal one would leave from God's kingdom, go into the ways of this world.

It is a source of sorrow and sleepless nights. It is a point of countless prayers and intercessions that such a one would again find grace to enter into God's kingdom.

But it's that picture really of the kingdom of God who is again searching for that wayward one and one who has been lost to the ways of this world, who has begun in the spirit but has been lost unto the flesh and the deceit of sin.

One thing that comes to mind even on the recent trip and privilege that to go into those countries was this very simple matter of the forgiveness of sins.

It is lost in this world and the spiritualities of this world. Many of the people that receive the grace of repentance when we preach this gospel of the forgiveness of sins, they are members of some other flock, some other church.

And they have been there perhaps a long time but they have not found that answer to that basic question of being reconciled unto God: that how does it happen?

Through the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name and blood.

Many people seek to find God but for whatever reason have not found the kingdom of God.

First, we oftentimes remember that passage of scripture that Jesus said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And we could think of it this way: that he did not say that seek me first or call upon me, but I think that there is something very special in those words that in order to find the Lord Jesus one must find his kingdom first.

So that he spoke those words, Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

Many in this world, many in this world do seek but that is hidden from them. It is a mystery.

We cannot, we cannot, dear brothers and sisters, be too thankful for the kingdom of God, for that we are able to see God's kingdom with the eyes of faith and to understand that it is here and we are living members of it.

It is a great gift and blessing beyond carnal comprehension that we are the children of God.

One of the brothers had asked at the fathers and sons camp, I think it was, or maybe it was at a different time, but he asked of all the things that are occurring in the earth today and one in particular was the signs, the earthquakes and the other type of natural phenomena that happened and wondered if it was the sign of that time that we live in.

And I personally think that it is, but we know that God will speak unto us through such signs and through his word as we approach the end of time, which seems to be a time that is not so far away for us anymore.

Where there are those that have risen against God and his word and people have fallen away from the basic understanding of scripture and do not hold the word of God as sacred.

But yet on the other hand there are those that God is calling from these far away lands and wilderness places that still seek for him.

So we do not know the day or the hour or the year, not even the decade, but we sense in our spirit that it is a time of turmoil, turmoil in a time of distress of nations that Jesus spoke of.

And it is actually similar, we can say, to that time when the New Testament began where there was much turmoil and much difficulty.

But we have the comfort of the gospel, dear brothers and sisters. We have that very core message that son and daughter be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.

That is good to hear that message, is it not, brothers and sisters? It is the very essence of the gospel.

There is a certain congregation that we visit when we go to Africa and it is made up of mostly children. There are adults there, but if you go to the services there are many boys and girls. I would say 80% are not even 10 or 12 years old.

And when it comes to that time of services, they fill the church that they have built for themselves.

And when it comes to that point that the gospel is offered as an assurance and a comfort to those that are present, it is amazing that all of those little boys and girls want to hear the gospel of the forgiveness of sins personally.

They personally raise their hands and wait until they are blessed with that gospel.

I think that here you boys and girls, even though maybe you are more timid than those brothers and sisters you have in Africa, yet you are longing too for that same gospel.

You desire to be reassured at the services and at home by your parents that your sins are forgiven.

So dear boys and girls, you can even at this time uplift your heart to believe the forgiveness of all sins and errors of the way.

And so also mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters, I know that this is always something that feels good to my heart and good to yours also that you are included in that blessing.

So uplift your heart to believe the forgiveness of all sins and errors of the way.

I desire too to hear this for my own part: may I believe, I promise to believe in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.