I. The last time I used a cooking illustration I ended up with several dozen tollhouse cookies.
A. With a little bit of in trepidation I use another cooking example.
1. Suppose we get together this afternoon and we try to make those tollhouse cookies but we look in the cupboard and find we have no chocolate chips?
a. So we decide to make raisin cookies but we do not have any raisins.
b. But then we determine to make bread but we find out we have no yeast or baking soda.
2. Why have we been thwarted from each of these recipes? - Right because we lacked a necessary ingredient.
3. Becoming a Christian and growing in our Christian faith requires some necessary ingredients and one in particular is missing from many sermons and many Christian lives today.
B. Salvation implies being saved from something.
1. Too often today wrong actions are explained away by a person’s upbringing.
2. Preachers are looking for numbers just like the investment broker, the business tycoon, and the athletic superstar.
a. Too often we are looking to appeal to our congregation and the public at large with only soothing and complimentary messages.
b. We do not want to ruffle anyone’s feathers.
3. Some will say “O please preach convicting sermons.”
a. But I find that convicting sermons people like as long as it does not convict them.
b. You see, how well we like a sermon depends on whose ox is being gored.
4. I am reminded of the cartoon of two persons coming out of the church.
a. The one says to the other, “Great sermon, I wonder who he was trying to repent today?”
II. 16 "The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned."
A. The word in the Greek for darkness means to be in the shadow, in obscurity, or in the life of error.
1. Our lives without Christ are truly in the Shadow lands.
a. We do not know God and we do not truly know ourselves as we ought.
b. Life does not make sense.
2. Psalm 107:10-11
There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in misery and chains, Because they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
3. But the light brings everything into perspective and clarity. Psalm 107:12-14
Therefore, He humbled their heart with labor; they stumbled and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bands apart. (NAS)
4. Coming to the light of the Gospel means we first realize we are in the darkness of our own sin which makes our life incomprehensible and deathly.
B. Without this awareness of sin and turning from it, God can have no part in us.
1. Romans 1
a. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
b. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
2. Those that are without Christ, are in the dark, nay, they are darkness itself.
C. We cannot receive the Gospel which literally means “Good News” until we realize we are living with bad news.
1. The bad news begins with realization we are sinners.
2. Modern psychology and anthropology begin with the notion that good and bad are relative terms.
D. For instance, society deemed homosexuality for a long time as sinful and abnormal.
1. In the late 1970's a pro-homosexual group called “Act-Up” had massive demonstrations outside the American Psychological Associations Convention.
a. They disrupted the proceeding on several occasions. Why? Because the American Psychological Association had defined homosexual behavior as abnormal.
b. Following those upsetting pickets the American Psychological Association set up a committee to determine whether they should call homosexual behavior deviant.
c. In order to appease “Act-Up” the President of the Association appointed homosexuals to the committee.
2. Without any further empirical research, the committee recommended at the next year’s convention that homosexuality be removed from their list of aberrant behaviors.
a. The recommendation passed by the narrowest of margins.
b. But today it is assumed by the media and the public that homosexuality is normal because the American Psychological Association says so.
3. Thousands of years of societal norms, research studies that show the destructive nature of homosexual behavior on individuals, families, children, and society, and the Biblical instruction were simply ignore because of the vote of a simple majority.
E. Let us consider a simple illustration.
1. We buy a used snow thrower.
a. We run it the way we think it ought to be run.
b. But it becomes hard to start, there are times it loses power, it sputters often.
2. What are we going to do?
a. How about we tinker with the carburetor, or the electrical ignition or the tighten the chain drive?
b. When we are done with these things seem to be working better for a while but then more things go wrong.
3. Then one day there is this huge snow storm which has our driveway totally blocked.
a. We go out to the garage and try to start the snow blower and nothing happens.
b. We are in a crisis.
c. Who is to blame? Is the stupid snow blower? Is it the former owner? Is it the manufacturer of this cockamamie gadget?
d. No, the blame lies with us for not reading and following the manufacturer’s manual.
F. God created us. He knows how we were made and how best we are to live.
1. Adam and Eve sinned, they knew exactly how God wanted them to live.
a. But they sinned which simply defined means doing things our way independently.
b. Adam and Eve ignored God and His manual.
c. With sin came blindness to God and His will.
2. So what did God do?
a. He sent messengers like Moses and the prophets and they brought into writing exactly who God is, who we are and how we are to live.
b. Finally God comes Himself and makes a living demonstration so all humanity can see right living.
c. God speaks directly to men and women and tells them who He is, who they are, and how we are to live.
3. The Bible is God’s perfect manual for living.
a. The Bible defines sin and clearly tells us what is right and wrong.
b. But we ignore God and His manual.
III. 17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."(NAS)
A. The word “REPENT” has come to mean many things to many people over the years.
1. For hundreds of years the word "repent" had been construed to mean "do penance and feel miserable about it."
a. Young Martin Luther certainly did more than his share of penance and felt more miserable about it than almost anyone.
b. Said Luther: "I kept the rules of penance so strictly that I many say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his sheer mockery, it was I. Had I kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, readings, and other works."
2. Luther's astounding discovery was that "repent" did not really mean to do penance but rather, as the Greek METANOIA indicates, to change your mind, to think again or in a new way, to look at everything differently.
a. He noted also that when Jesus used the word, it was always linked with belief: repent and believe.
b. Repenting and believing, however, are not two distinct steps to take, one after the other.
c. They are two aspects of a single process. To repent is, in effect, to believe.
B. Repentance is simply turning from sin to God and His way.
1. Repentance is not feeling sorrowful only.
a. Judas did penance, and went and hanged himself; Peter repented and wept bitterly.
b. Sorrow about our sin is an important part of repentance.
2. Donald Grey Barnhouse
a. “A Sunday School teacher once asked a class what was meant by the word ‘repentance.’”
b. “A little boy put up his hand and said, ‘It is being sorry for your sins.’”
c. “A little girl also raised her hand and said, ‘It is being sorry enough to quit.’”
3. Repentance is a decision of the will to unchoose sin in our hearts and in our behavior.
C. We can not acquire the saving grace of the cross while still holding on to sin and the world’s standards.
1. Repentance is apart of coming to know Christ for the first time and it is apart of the ongoing process of sanctification.
2. When we commit acts of sin, it is because our old sinful self had dominance for the time of that sin.
a. We must not simple acknowledge and feel sorrow about our act of sin to God.
b. We must also truly repent by surrendering our hearts and that area of our lives to God once again.
c. It is a pledge of allegiance to God and a new reliance upon Him and His strength.
d. A recent bumper sticker conveys what repentance means: "Headed in the wrong direction? God allows U-turns"
D. What we say is Christ died so we can choose to turn from our own destructive live to the new and glorious life of following Him.
1. Dr. Clarence Macartney the former minister of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh used to tell this story to illustrate the power of repentance.
2. Two brothers were once convicted of stealing sheep and, in accordance with the brutal punishment of that day, were branded on the forehead with the letters S.T. which stood for sheep thief.
a. One of the brothers, unable to bear the stigma, tried to hide his sin by living in a foreign land.
b. But people would ask him about the letters on his brow, and what they meant.
c. Thus he wandered from land to land, and at length, full of bitterness, he died and was buried in a forgotten grave.
3. But the other brother, repented publicly of his misdeed, did not go away from his home.
a. He said to himself, "I can't run away from the fact that I stole sheep, but I know God has forgiven me and I will live my life following Him.”
b. As the years passed he established a reputation for respectability and integrity.
4. One day a stranger in the town saw the old man with the letters "S.T." branded on his forehead and asked a native what they signified.
a. After thinking for a little time the villager said:
b. "It all happened a great while ago, and I have forgotten the particulars, but I think the letters are an abbreviation S.T. stand for Saint."
IV. We help unbelievers come to Christ first by letting Jesus shining through us.
A. We all sin, Christian and Non-Christian, It is what we decide to do with sin in our lives whether Christ lives in us.
1. A visitor at a fishing dock asked an old fisherman who was sitting there, "If I were to fall into this water, would I drown?"
2. It was a queer way of asking how deep the water was, but the fisherman had a good answer.
3. "Naw," he said. "Fallin' into the water doesn't drown anybody. It's staying under it that does."
4. Falling into sin doesn't condemn anybody, but staying in it does.
B. An Old Jewish Rabbi was asked by a non-believer, "When should I repent?"
1. To which the rabbi replied, "The last day of your life."
2. The non-believer asked, "But when is my last day?"
3. "No one knows but God." said the rabbi.
4. And quickly he retorted, "Then repent now!"
C. We cannot cause another to be convicted of the darkness of their sin.
1. Instead we are to share the truth of God’s Word in love and let Christ so live in us that others see the light of Christ.
2. Charles Spurgeon the great preacher once said:
a. I would not give anything for your profession of faith unless it can be seen.
b. Lamps do not talk, but they shine.
c. A lighthouse sounds no drums, it beats no gong, and yet its guiding beams are seen by imperiled mariners
