The Call to True Repentance
The King is Coming: Jesus in the Temple • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 21 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Consider the story of John Newton,
the former slave trader who became a Christian minister and wrote the hymn
'Amazing Grace.' In his early days, he was faced with the darkest of choices,
but it was never too late for him. In fact, it was in his later years that he
found true redemption. His life acts as a reminder that no matter how far one
drifts from grace, there is always a chance to return and make a lasting
impact, even if it comes late in life.
Amazing grace (how sweet the sound)
that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but
now I see.
What caused such a change in this
man’s life?
Context
Context
·
This is a continuation of
the confrontation between Jesus and the Chief Priests and the elders of the
people in the temple court.
·
Last week, we saw Jesus
establish His personal authority against the assumed and pretended authority of
the Jewish leaders.
·
I want to note at the
outset of this message something which should be a cause for great comfort to a
sinner.
·
Jesus continues to confront
the Jewish leaders and this is an example of His grace towards them.
·
He would have been
justified by rejecting leaders’ pretensions to authority and proclaiming
judgment upon them.
·
Yet he continues in the
conversation to bring them to a recognition of their failure and sinfulness.
·
We should always be
thankful about God’s patience with sinners, pursuing and calling them to
repentance and faith.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count
slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but
that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, ESV)
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
· We celebrate that Jesus
is patiently bearing with his opponents, giving them every opportunity.
Rest assured, no one will go to judgment because they didn’t
have every chance to get right with God.
· Second, we see Jesus
begin to engage in His most famous form of teaching: parable.
· Parables are short
moral stories that express a spiritual reality.
· They are used by Jesus
as a way of exposing the faithful from the blind.
· Because the meaning of
a parable is spiritual, the true meaning is only discerned through the work of
the Holy Spirit in revealing it to the heart.
· Jesus will often have
to explain the meaning of the parable, and even then, the meaning is often lost
on the hearer until after He is resurrected and the Holy Spirit is given.
· This parable is
directly following upon Jesus’s statement about John in the last passage.
Because they would not give an answer about John, they have
forfeited the right to challenge Jesus’s authority. Now, Jesus will use John’s
ministry as evidence that the Jewish leaders
Repentance Revealed in Response (21:28-29)
Repentance Revealed in Response (21:28-29)
“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went
to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he
answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went.
You could emphasize the importance of actions over words by examining
the son's initial refusal and subsequent obedience. This illustrates how true
repentance leads to a change in behavior, encouraging believers to reflect on
areas where they have said "no" to God, and to turn those into
"yes" moments. Highlighting Jesus as the paragon of obedience,
this point can challenge listeners to align their deeds with their declarations
of faith.
·
The first thing I’d like to
draw your attention to is the setting of the story.
·
The father commands his son
to go and work in the vineyard.
·
Vineyards have an important
place in the Old Testament.
·
Consider this passage from
Isaiah 5:1-7
“Let me sing for my beloved my love song
concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He
dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a
watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked
for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of
Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was
there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it
to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I
will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I
will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a
waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I
will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard
of the Lord of hosts is the house
of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for
justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!”
(Isaiah 5:1–7, ESV)
1 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
·
The vineyard represents
Israel and God’s purposes for it.
·
It was to be the apple of
God’s eye, producing fruit for wine.
·
He faithfully kept it and
guarded it.
·
Man was supposed to serve
God by working and keeping God’s world.
·
To be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth.
·
To exercise dominion over
the earth.
·
After the fall, this work
is ultimately passed to Israel through Abraham.
·
Its failure to bear fruit
is a judgment upon Israel for its disobedience and evil.
·
The first son was unwilling
to go and work the vineyard for the father.
·
Yet we see that he later
changed his mind.
·
This word, metamelomai, is
closely related to the word metanoia, which means repentance.
·
The son reconsidered his
choice and, recognizing his wrongness, moved to do what was right.
·
He went to work that very
day.
·
There was an urgency and a
change evidenced by immediate action.
·
This is a picture of
repentance.
·
The first son represents
the mass of humanity that descends from Adam.
·
They rebel against the
command of God.
·
Yet, in this parable, they
repent and obey.
True faith is shown in obedience to God’s command.
Promises Void Without Practice
(21:30-31a)
Promises Void Without Practice
(21:30-31a)
And he went to the other son and said the same.
And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of
his father?” They said, “The first.”
Perhaps you can explore the contrast between the second son who said
"yes" but did not obey. This shows that mere verbal assent without
action is meaningless. Encourage the congregation to examine their lives for
discrepancies between what they profess and what they practice. Through
Christ, who perfectly obeyed God, we find both the example to follow and the
grace to amend our ways.
· Continuing on, the father
goes to his other son and gives the same command.
· This son expresses a
firm promise of obedience, “I go!”
· As if the obedience is
already done, “I’m already there”
· TO further ground the
point, the son enhances the honor that he is showing his father by calling him
“Lord.”
· This makes his ultimate
disobedience all the worse.
· As it turns out, his
promises of obedience are empty because he did not take the step of obeying.
· Further, as we do not
see any evidence that he changed his mind, he remained in an unrepentant state.
· In this parable, we can
recognize that Jesus is associating this second son with Israel; its leaders in
particular.
· They had promised to
obey their Lord with full-throated and passionate promises.
· Yet, time and again,
they failed to perform that which they had promised.
· Their continued
pretension to honoring the Lord with their lips was deeply offensive to the
Lord.
· Their fallen state is
finally illustrated in their ability to discern the truly obedient son, yet not
recognizing that it was a judgment upon them.
· Jesus asks them which had
done the father’s will.
· This is an important
teaching of the Lord Jesus through his ministry in Matthew’s gospel.
· It recalls the Sermon
on the Mount, and the proper prayer:
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth
as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10, ESV)
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
· Further, Jesus
indicates that those who enter the kingdom of heaven are only those that
perform the Father’s will:
““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father
who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21, ESV)
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
·
Finally, true fellowship
and kinship with Jesus is only on the basis of obedience to do the Father’s
will:
“For whoever does the will of my Father in
heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”” (Matthew 12:50, ESV)
50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
The Jewish leaders have presumed upon fellowship and kinship
with God through Abraham, yet Jesus says it is proved in obedience.
Past Transgressions, Present
Transformation (21:31b-32)
Past Transgressions, Present
Transformation (21:31b-32)
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax
collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John
came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the
tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you
did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
Maybe focus on Jesus' declaration that tax collectors and prostitutes
enter the Kingdom before the religious leaders. This illustrates God's delight
in genuine repentance over religious facade. Encourage believers that no matter
their past, turning to Christ in true repentance aligns us with God's will.
Jesus, the obedient Son, extends the invitation of forgiveness and
transformation.
· To drive the point
home, Jesus will explain the meaning of the parable to the Jewish leaders.
· He indicates that the
two sons represent two groups.
· The first son
represents tax collectors and prostitutes.
· Inveterate sinners.
· Representing the
absolute lowest and most notorious sinners.
· Tax collectors had
turned their back upon their own people, extorting money from them on behalf of
their conquerors, the Roman Empire and their mongrel king, Herod.
o
They were treated as traitors
· Prostitutes existed on
the fringes of Jewish society.
o
Their work left them with no way of bringing offering to the temple.
o
A prostitute’s wages were prohibited from being used according to the
Law of Moses:
“You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or
the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord
your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 23:18,
ESV)
18 You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.
·
Opinions had not changed by
the time of Jesus.
·
The Jewish historian Josephus
is recorded as saying:
“You are not to offer sacrifices out of the hire of a
woman who is a harlot for the Deity is not pleased with any thing that arises
from such abuses of nature; of which sort none can be worse than this
prostitution of the body.”
·
In this, they were not
wrong about the great sin of prostitution or tax collection.
·
Yet, Jesus was known for
his open association with such people:
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man
called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And
he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold,
many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his
disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why
does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it,
he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:9–13, ESV)
9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
·
Now, Jesus is saying
something amazing.
·
These notorious sinners are
entering the kingdom of heaven ahead of the Chief Priests and the elders of the
people.
·
His statement indicates
that this is a present reality.
·
It’s not a matter of the
tortoise about to beat the hare.
·
They have already won the
race.
·
They have one because they
repented and received mercy.
The worst sinner will enter the kingdom at the place where they
come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
·
Meanwhile, the Jewish
leaders will find that their presumptions of righteousness before God leave
them without mercy before a holy and righteous judge.
·
Jesus has actually identified
this problem to them before in Matthew 9:13
13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
“Those
who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Matthew
9:12, ESV)
·
Ironically, the Jewish
leaders are desperately sick, yet they are convinced that they are well and do
not seek health.
o Sadly, there is strong evidence that they would never come to
recognize their sickness.
·
Some priests would come to
repentance in Acts 6:7
“And the word of God continued to increase, and
the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many
of the priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7, ESV)
7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
·
Yet the chief priests do
not seem to have ever repented, having given authority to Saul to arrest
Christians.
·
Indeed, even now, they have
not perceived that Jesus was talking about them.
o This is the spiritual blindness that keeps sinners from seeking
Christ in repentance and faith.
·
Jesus’s proof of His claim
is the fact of their rejection of John.
·
John came proclaiming the
coming of the kingdom of God and calling people to repentance and faith.
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet
Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the
way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” (Matthew 3:3; cf. Isaiah 40:3, ESV)
3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ”
·
He directly confronted
these Jewish leaders, and they rejected his message.
·
However, the tax collectors
had repented:
Tax collectors also came to be baptized and
said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” (Luke 3:12, ESV)
12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”
·
We see in Matthew 9 that
prostitutes were also among the repentant people, joining Jesus at the table.
The leaders were witnesses of these things.
·
This illustrates that there
was an important spiritual change occurring in them.
“As it is, I rejoice, not because you were
grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly
grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a
repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief
produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:9–10, ESV)
9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
·
The public and evident
change of heart should have been evidence of the truth of John’s message.
·
Repentance is a radical
event.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the
leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. (Jeremiah
13:23, ESV)
·
By repentance, a person
becomes what he is not.
·
Yet sadly, they remained
unmoved and unbelieving, and thus, unrepentant.
·
They missed the lesson that
God would teach them and became like the Jews in Romans 2:1-5
“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of
you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself,
because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the
judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you
suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them
yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the
riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s
kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and
impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when
God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” (Romans 2:1–5, ESV)
1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.
3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
·
Charles Haddon Spurgeon had
this to say:
Repentance and faith are distasteful to the unregenerate; they would sooner repeat a thousand formal prayers than shed a solitary tear of true repentance.
The Necessity of Regeneration, Volume 54,
Sermon #3121 - John 3:7
Application
Application
· Before we go too hard
on the Jewish leaders, let’s address the first son.
· Rebellion against the
Father is no joke.
· Rebellion was treated
with the utmost seriousness in the Old Testament
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who
will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though
they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother
shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate
of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city,
‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a
glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death
with stones. So, you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall
hear, and fear.” (Deuteronomy 21:18–21, ESV)
18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them,
19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives,
20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’
21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
· God is holy, and His
people are to be holy.
· Yet, this is precisely
what God is saying that Israel became.
“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I
reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its
owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people
do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of
Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why
will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but
bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or
softened with oil.” (Isaiah 1:1–6, ESV)
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”
4 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.
5 Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.
·
God is heartbroken over
their rebelliousness which inevitably leads to destruction
· Israel persisted in
their rebellion and became worthy of destruction.
· Yet, there remains
hope.
· Anyone may come to
Jesus through repentance and faith.
· But, it’s never enough
to make promises to God of future obedience.
o
To profess faith.
o
To come to the altar.
o
To recite a creed.
· Devotion to God is what
counts.
o
Love of God
o
Heartfelt worship.
o
Loving service to others.
o
The fulfillment of the great commandment.
· We must reckon with the
reality that there will be pretenders as in the days of Jesus.
o
So, don’t be a pretender!
o
If you don’t believe, don’t fake it. Own it.
o
God hates lip-service.
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no
delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt
offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings
of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the
noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let
justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
(Amos 5:21–24, ESV)
21 “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
· We must not come to
think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.
o
We are, all of us, sinners.
o
And we may only be saved by grace through faith and repentance.
VIII. Of Repentance and Faith.—We believe that repentance and faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God; whereby, being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger, and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication for mercy; at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King, and relying on him alone as the only and all-sufficient Saviour.[1]
· The gospel of Jesus
Christ is a call to repent.
o
Repent of pridefulness and deceit.
o
It’s a call to turn to God and live.
· Ezekiel outlines the
promises of God regarding sin and repentance.
“But if a wicked person turns away from all his
sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and
right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that
he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he
has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked,
declares the Lord God, and not
rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous person
turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same
abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous
deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is
guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:21–24, ESV)
21 “But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
22 None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live.
23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?
24 But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.
“Again, when a wicked person turns away from
the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save
his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions
that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.” (Ezekiel 18:27–28, ESV)
27 Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life.
28 Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
“Cast away from you all the transgressions that
you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will
you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone,
declares the Lord God; so turn,
and live.” (Ezekiel 18:31–32, ESV)
31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
· Highlighting Jesus
as the paragon of obedience, this point can challenge listeners to align their
deeds with their declarations of faith.
· Encourage the
congregation to examine their lives for discrepancies between what they
profess and what they practice. Through Christ, who perfectly obeyed God,
we find both the example to follow and the grace to amend our ways.
· When we find areas
where we are not conformed to the pattern of Jesus, we must repent, and turn
away from them.
o
Turn to Jesus Christ in faith.
· We must treat the call
urgently.
o
There may never be a better time than now.
· In the same way, let us
guard ourselves against the hardness of heart that the Priests and Elders
exhibited.
o
May there never come a day when we witness a sinner repent of their sin
and remain cold about it.
§ I fear that would mean that
we have forgotten the grace that saved us in the day of our need.
[1] William
Cathcart, ed., The Baptist Encyclopædia
(Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), 1322.
