Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that 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 that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:1-10

How important are lost souls to you? When publicans, those who collected taxes for the Roman government and overcharged to make their living, and other sinners came to Jesus to hear Him and learn of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life which He offered to all, the Pharisees and scribes were critical of Jesus for associating with such sinners.

Jesus told the two parables in our Scripture reading to point out that it is perfectly normal for anyone who loses something to seek it until he finds it. A shepherd with one hundred sheep who loses one does not say, “I still have ninety-nine,” and then forget about the one that is lost. Even the scribes and Pharisees would not do such a thing! Nor would a woman with ten silver coins who lost one of them just forget about the one lost coin and be content with the nine. Both the shepherd and the woman in these two parables would seek out and find that which was lost. Then they would rejoice because they had found that lost sheep or that lost coin. Wouldn’t we also act in the same way if we were to lose something of ours?

So also every lost soul is extremely important to the Lord. Our God created man to live for Him and serve Him in eternal righteousness. Because man fell into sin, He sent His only-begotten Son into this world a true man, that He might fulfill the righteous demands of God’s Law and suffer and die for our sins and then rise again on the third day. Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. During His earthly ministry, He sought out all sinners and turned away none who came to hear His saving Gospel.

Since He had come into this world to redeem fallen mankind by His innocent sufferings and death, it gave our Savior great joy, along with the angels of God in heaven, when a lost sinner repented and turned to Him for forgiveness and life everlasting. Our Lord Jesus was not afraid to associate with sinners; He shed His blood to redeem them!

Since Christ died to redeem us, should not we also live in daily repentance, being truly sorry for our sins and trusting in our Savior for forgiveness and eternal salvation? It gives our risen Savior, as well as the angels in heaven, great joy when we hear His Word and live in daily repentance. We certainly should not, as did the scribes and the Pharisees, consider ourselves righteous and in no need of repentance (cf. 1 John 1:8-9; 2:1-2; Prov. 28:13).

Like our Savior, we also should seek out lost souls and rejoice when they are brought to repentance. We should not be satisfied if 99 percent of our members are continuing in the truth and only one is gone astray; we should seek that one until he is found and returns to the fold. The same is true of the lost souls who are not under the care of our congregation. We should, in the love of our Savior, seek out the lost and seek to bring them to the Good Shepherd by sharing with them the saving truths of God’s Word.

Christ Jesus shed His holy, precious blood to redeem them. We also ought to care enough for their souls to share with them the good news of forgiveness and life everlasting through faith in the Savior. Never should we be ashamed to be seen sharing the Gospel with lost sinners, no matter how bad their past reputation!

Knowing Thee and Thy salvation, grateful love dare never cease to proclaim Thy tender mercies, Gracious Lord, Thy heav’nly peace. Sound we forth the Gospel tidings to the earth’s remotest bound that the sinner has been pardoned and forgiveness can be found. Amen. (The Lutheran Hymnal, Hymn #498, Verse 4)

[Scripture quotations are from The ESV® (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

“Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the LORD; let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven.” Lamentations 3:40-41

For the people of Judah and Jerusalem — God’s chosen people and His visible church on earth — this was important because they were under God’s judgment. Jerusalem was besieged by the Babylonians for 1½ years. People died of starvation and hunger. Mothers ate their own children. Many were killed by the Babylonian armies and most of the survivors were carried away into exile. The temple was looted and burned. The walls of Jerusalem were broken down. All appeared to be hopeless! Cf. Jeremiah 52.

The people were urged to test and examine their ways and return to the Lord. They were to lift up their hands to God in repentance and seek His mercy and forgiveness because it was quite obvious that they had “transgressed and rebelled” and the Lord had “not pardoned” (v. 42). They had turned aside from worshiping and serving the true God and had disregarded His commandments, and the judgments which God had said would come upon them were being fulfilled (cf. Deut. 28:15ff.).

But these words certainly have an application to us as well. As believers, we should always “search out and examine our ways,” comparing them with what God has revealed to us in His Word. And, where our lives and how we think, speak and act are not in accord with God’s Word, we repent and return to the Lord, seeking His mercy and pardon. We “lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven….”

The Apostle Paul wrote: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves….” (2 Cor. 13:5). And this is so important because our hearts can easily deceive us into thinking that all is well with our souls when, in fact, it is not (cf. Jer. 17:9; Psalm 32:1-5).

It is for this reason David prayed: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).

When we read and study God’s Word, the Holy Spirit, who knows all and sees all that is in our hearts, reveals to us our sinfulness and our shortcomings in regard to God’s holy will, and He directs us to the crucified and risen Christ Jesus — to His holy life in our stead, to His atoning sacrifice on the cross for our sins and the sins of the entire world and to His victorious resurrection (cf. John 3:14-15; 1 John 1:7 — 2:2; Heb. 2:14-17; Rom. 4:23-25).

God’s Word urges us to compare our lives with what God says in His Word and to repent of all that is sinful and evil, looking to Jesus and His cross for pardon and forgiveness and then seeking, with God’s help, to amend our erring ways and to walk in His way, continuing in the true and saving faith unto life everlasting!

The Catechism (“An Explanation of the Small Catechism,” Copyright© 2017, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo., Question 371) offers us this guidance in examining ourselves before we come to the Lord’s Supper: “We are to examine ourselves in light of God’s Word to see whether — A. we are aware of our sins and are sorry for them; B. we believe in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and in His words in the Sacrament; [and] C. we intend, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to live as forgiven sinners, resisting the devil, saying no to sinful desires, and walking in the newness of life.”

And so, I ask you: “How do you measure up to what God requires in His holy commandments? Do you see and acknowledge that you have sinned and come short of what God demands? Do you see the hopelessness of your situation under God’s law and look to Christ alone — to His cross — for pardon, forgiveness and life everlasting? And, as a fruit of your faith, do you desire, with the help of God’s Spirit who dwells in you and has given us the Holy Scriptures, to amend your life and live it in accord with God’s will which is revealed to us in His Word?”

If indeed you are sorry for your sins and look to Christ and His cross for pardon and forgiveness, I announce unto you the grace and mercy of God for Christ’s sake and His forgiveness for all your sins and His promise of life everlasting? If you are not truly sorry for your sins, if you do not trust in Christ alone for pardon and forgiveness, or if you do not desire and intend to seek God’s help and strength to amend your ways and live in accord with God’s Word, I must announce unto you that you do not have God’s pardon and forgiveness and you remain under God’s eternal wrath and condemnation until you repent! Cf. John 3:18; Romans 6.

Reveal to me my sinful and erring ways, O Lord, and move me to repentance and true faith in Christ Jesus, my Savior. And, by Your Spirit, lead and guide me in the way everlasting. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9

The human heart (not the muscle which pumps blood throughout our body, but the center of our being, our mind) — as it is after the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3) — is deceitful above all things, so deceitful, in fact, that we don’t really know and understand it. Even though it is our own heart, it deceives us and seeks to hide and cover up our sins because of sin’s corruption.

It is also “desperately sick” — and incurably so (from the Hebrew word “anash”). We can’t fix it and make it good and wholesome or righteous. Sin and sinful longings and desires flow from it.

Jesus describes it by saying, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Matthew 15:19-20). And don’t these things come from your heart — if not in actions, in thoughts and sometimes words?

We may not like to hear of the deceitfulness and wickedness of our hearts, but God’s Word is true. Out of our hearts “come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” We are all guilty and defiled before God. We are infected by sin and evil. It permeates all we think and say and do.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

And it is an incurable evil. Try as we may, we cannot cleanse our hearts and minds of sin. If we think we can, our hearts have deceived us once again. God’s Word is true when it describes our hearts by saying: “The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21).

The plain and simple truth is that we are a mess. Our hearts are sick. We are sinful and unclean, and we can’t cure ourselves!

In the confession and absolution in Sunday’s service (Divine Service, Setting Four, in the Lutheran Service Book, Page 203), we are admonished with these words: “Let us first consider our unworthiness and confess before God and one another that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed, and that we cannot free ourselves from our sinful condition” (emphasis mine).

What is the solution? How can our incurably sinful hearts be cleansed? As the (above mentioned) Divine Service liturgy states, “Together as His people let us take refuge in the infinite mercy of God, our heavenly Father, seeking His grace for the sake of Christ, and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’”

The Apostle John writes: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness … we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 1:9; 2:1,2).

We flee to the throne of God’s grace and fall upon our knees begging God to have mercy upon us for Jesus’ sake! And, because Christ Jesus lived a holy and sinless life in our stead and suffered and died upon the cross to bear our punishment and then rose again on the third day, we can be assured that God’s wrath against our sins has been satisfied. He offers and gives to us through faith in Christ forgiveness for all our sins and a place in His everlasting kingdom!

My heart is sick with sin, O God, and I cannot cure it. Have mercy upon me, forgive my sins and cleanse my heart in the blood of Christ Jesus, shed for me upon the cross. In His name, I pray. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from The ESV® (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]