Seeing Clearly Through Analogies

So, my last message, if you'll remember, was the second message in the figurative language series. I'm calling the Seeing Clearly series. And I talked about seeing clearly through metaphors. Just to recap that briefly for you because it's important to know that there's a difference between metaphors and what I'm going to cover today called analogies.

So if you remember a metaphor says that one thing is another thing. Jesus Christ says I am the door. You know he's not a door. So he's there's something about a door which defines something about him. It's so definitive about him that he is that thing. Now, we know that doors provide access and there's no access to the kingdom of God except through Christ.

Perfect. It's a perfect metaphor. He is that door. He says he is the vine. He says he is the light. These things mean things. There's an element of those that mean something that he literally fulfills. And so, he is that thing in that regard. But it's always that one or two things that you're drawing out of that.

It's something usually one thing that that is that is trying to be illustrated through the metaphor. Analogies are different. They work differently. According to Webster's online dictionary, an analogy is quote a comparison between two things based on their similarity in some respects, especially for the purpose of examination or clarification.

It's comparison between two things. You aren't the thing, you are like the thing. In what way are you like the thing? We have lots of analogies in our Bibles that help us to understand the complexity of a subject. That's the beauty of an analogy. I'm going to walk through four different subjects and we're going to walk through some analogies with regard to those subjects to see how analogies actually help us to see the depth of something, the complexity of something.

And it usually involves things like process, time, um multiple different elements. And it'll do all of those things because you can't create a sentence that would define something as complex as let's say the kingdom or sin or salvation or repentance. There's no single sentence I can say to you that would give you all of the depth of meaning of each of those subjects.

So thankfully God teaches the depth using analogies. So it's important for us to know what is an analogy? How do I know I'm looking at an analogy? And then what do I do with the analogy? That's what I want to go through today. Now, we know that the Bible is complex. God wrote it deliberately. So, I want to start in Isaiah 28.

Isaiah 28:es 9 and 10. Isaiah 28:9 says, "Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk, those just drawn from the breast. From precept must be upon precept. Precept upon precept. Line upon line. Line upon line. here a little and there a little.

Do we take our Bible and we sit down with our youngest and we just explain the deep complexities of the kingdom of God or of who Jesus Christ is, of what his sacrifice means. Are they capable of processing that when they're two? It's like, no, obviously not. There's quite a bit you're not going to understand at 2 years old. And that's literally the point that's being made here in Isaiah.

But God describes then that there is a process, a progressive layered approach to instruction that is in the pages of our Bible. And it does take a spiritually mature mind. Someone who's in the process of conversion. Somebody who understands and can comprehend at a greater than three-year-old level what God is trying to do, what he's trying for to have us learn.

So he will teach us then in a sort of layered manner. And that's what analogies really are. They're they're just the layerings of a complex subject, helping us to see and understand that subject better. So, I want to walk today through these four areas. I'm going to start with the kingdom of God. And then we're going to cover salvation, we're going to cover sin, and we're going to cover repentance.

And I just want to bring out some analogies of these things so that you can see the complexity of each of these subjects. And you begin to see right even with the very first one it's impossible to understand it without without multiple analogies to help us to understand these are complex subjects and this is why God uses analogies to help us to understand the complexity multiple layers of meaning.

So, for example, when you look at what the kingdom of God is, can I tell you in a simple sentence what it is and that you'll fully understand it? If I said it's the it's the it's the place where God reigns, okay? It's his kingdom. Is that sufficient for you? Does that give you the depth of understanding of what the kingdom of God really is? Because we have a lot of analogies about the kingdom of God in our Bibles.

Let's begin here in Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13 I'm going to read verses 31 and 32. So Matthew 13:31 says another parable he put forth to them saying the kingdom of heaven is like. So it's a comparison already. We see a comparison. When something is like something else then that is a comparison between two things.

How is it like something else? It says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and swed in his field." Okay, so you should start already by seeing something really clear here. The analogy is not saying that the that the kingdom of God is like the mustard seed alone. You see, it's it's it's given to us as a complex idea.

It's like a mustard seed which a man took and swed in his field. All of that together then it adds which indeed is the least of all the seeds. So now we get a clue as to why this is being used this particular item is being used but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.

So, as we did with metaphors, we need to stop and meditate. Think about what do we know about what this process looks like of planting a seed in a field. Something happens, it grows. We know that this is being described as the least of all the herbs. Some of you probably know this. I had to look it up. I don't know much about mustard seed.

I know what mustard is. I like mustard, but I couldn't tell you how how we get mustard. It's just never been a passion of mine to look that up. So, I decided I might want to look that up. So, a mustard, it's a herb. It's a small plant. You know, these you plant a bunch of them and then they grow up as an herb. It's a small plant.

Does this read like that? It says it's the least of all the seeds, but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree. Does a mustard herb plant become a tree? No. So, this is a different mustard seed that's being described. There is a kind of tree, a mustard tree that grows over in the Palestine region.

It's unique to that area actually, it turns out, and it's big. One uh scholar said that it is he compared its height to the height of a of a horse with a rider. So, that's pretty tall and and it's big. It says that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. Well, you're not going to do that on on a on a small mustard herb. I can tell you that.

And so, this is a much bigger picture giving us a much greater and much more complex understanding of what the kingdom of God is like. This tiny little thing, this seed grows into this massive tree. And that's being used as a as an analogy of the kingdom of God. So, what does that teach us? that the kingdom of God must have started small and grown into something much larger or will grow into something much larger.

So we learn that there's time that there's process. This is why an analogy helps us to understand something about the kingdom of God. It's not instantaneous. The pulpit commentary says, "The central thought of the parable is the growth of the kingdom of heaven considered externally. Although it has small beginnings, it is to have a marvelous expansion.

" So this parable then corrects the false expectation of an immediate dominance. Christ did not come to this earth to establish the kingdom when he came. He's bringing that kingdom when he comes the second time. He will bring God's kingdom to this earth then. But will the kingdom be in its fullest even in that? No.

All the vast majority of mankind has still not been resurrected at the end of the millennium. And after all of that, after the great white throne judgment, then what we read in Revelation 21 and 22 is about what? God finally coming. He's not been here. The father hasn't been here. He has still been in the third heaven.

And so he comes with his kingdom. And it's described in dimensions as being even larger than the world really. So this is why this analogy is necessary. A metaphor could declare what the kingdom is in its essence, but only an analogy can teach how it works over time. A second analogy, Matthew 13. We're here in Matthew 13.

Let's drop down to verse 44. Verse 44 he says again the kingdom of heaven is like analogy we're going to compare two things the kingdom of heaven with something it is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. So again we want to stop and think that through.

Is that an instantaneous thing? He finds this imag this this this treasure whatever this is. And again the treasure this is an analogy. So whatever the treasure is it represents the kingdom of God in this analogy. And yet it's not just the treasure is it? It's the whole image that we were just presented which is complex. If if you were going to go home right now and sell all you have to buy a field, how long would that take? Well, I know Star Winter Winder does did those those yard sales and she still has a whole bunch of stuff. So, even if you

did a you know an estate sale, you're not selling everything in one day. Becca put one of we have an old desk and she was trying to get rid of it. She put it on Facebook Marketplace. I think it took her two weeks to sell it. So what does that tell us from experience that it would take him time to do these things? The kingdom is not an instantaneous thing that you will achieve immediately.

But it also illustrates choice, doesn't it? The man finds the treasure. He understands what it is. He understands its value. So from that, he begins to make choices. I'm going to go and I'm going to sell all my stuff. This is so important to me. Then I'm going to buy this field. Then I'll own the field that has the treasure. That's how important it is.

That's all about choice. That's about discerning the value of this treasure. It's about understanding the cost of this treasure. And it's about understanding the choice you make to get that treasure, to have that treasure. You have to reorder your life around it. And this is an analogy about the kingdom. So, we can begin to see, oh, well, now that makes some sense.

I'm all in on this thing called the kingdom of God. That might mean I'm going to have to change my life and build my life around that treasure I've been offered, which is salvation. Funny, we're going to cover salvation after this. Okay, let's notice another analogy of the kingdom of God. Let's go over to Mark 4 26- 29. Mark 4.

Okay. Mark 4:es 26- 29. It says, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground." An analogy. But whoever wh uh scatter seed on the ground, sorry. Verse 27, it says, "And and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow." He himself does not know how. For the earth yields its crops by itself.

First the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens immediately, he puts it in. He puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. How much of that do we really know about that's what [snorts] I was thinking about about that like I understand process. This is process, isn't it? You plant a seed.

In this case, you plant many seeds and a crop grows out of the ground. Do we know how exactly? I think probably there's some people that probably know something about that, but I don't. Most people don't. We know that if we plant something, we water that thing, we need fertile ground for it to grow.

That if we, you know, fertilize it, we're going to get a better result. We know these things. We didn't invent these things. We just know that they exist as a part of the process and that we can trust that process because it works every time. But notice that it says that he doesn't know what happens. So he plants the seed, the seed does its thing and he gets a crop.

Then he does his thing with that and he reaps that crop. But what did he really do? Did he make the seed grow? Did he convert it into the blade? Did he convert that into the head? Did he convert that into the grain? No. God did all that. God did all of that. So we see that the farmer participates but he does not have or cause the increase itself.

And that teaches us that we have to have patience and trust in God's timing. God's kingdom isn't here yet. It's coming. Do we trust that the seed was planted? Jesus Christ came and he died for our sins. That opened the path for us to be in that kingdom. It's coming. Do we trust that? Have we reordered our life around that idea? So, this is why an analogy like this helps us to see we're going to need to have some patience because you plant the seed and it doesn't come up right now.

It comes up in due time. Have patience. So we might find a sentence that tells us what the kingdom of God is. But this these analogies teach us how the kingdom works and how we are to prioritize it in our lives. Order our lives around that truth. Each of the kingdom analogies that Christ uses addresses a different dimension of the same governing reality.

And together they prevent us from really misunderstanding what the kingdom is. They help us to have a better understanding of the complexity of the kingdom. The seed and growth analogies that explains development. Treasure and value analogies explain priority. Field labor and stewardship that explains responsibility.

And harvest and timing analogies explain the certainty of the outcome because God's the boss of it. His kingdom's coming. So analogies train us how to think about the kingdom and that's why God uses analogies. Let's look at salvation. Again, salvation is a very complex subject and I can tell you salvation means you're going to be in the kingdom of God. Okay, that's a simple statement.

It's true. Does that reveal everything that you should know about salvation? You feel like, "Oh, I've got that now. I know what to do now that I know what it's defined as. Like there's a lot of complexity behind what is salvation really. I'll give you just a few analogies the Bible gives to us.

One of the most consistent analogies is justification drawn in a courtroom environment. Notice Romans chapter 5 to help us to see Romans 5. Uh hang on, let me double check if I'm going to read. Yeah, Romans 5:1. It says, "Therefore, having been justified, how? By faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

" This justification is the legal term that your sins have been forgiven. So that tells us something also. You you were in a status before that has changed because you were justified. Did you justify yourself? No. We can't justify ourself. This is a legal declaration because in ancient uh times legal especially in a legal context to justify means to declare someone to be in the right.

We cannot declare ourselves to be in the right with God. He tells us what the standard is. We obey. That's how we become right with God. But he is the one who declares that you are right. We don't do that for ourselves. And even being declared right with God isn't about being flawless because none of us is getting out of this life flawless.

Every single one of us the moment Jesus Christ returns would still have to say we were a sinner. We're only not a sinner because Christ died for us, paid that eternal penalty for us. That's a judgment that God does for us. So this analogy teaches that salvation begins with God's judgment. He has to decide that we are right with him and grant us salvation.

So a person moves from being condemned to being accepted because God does that for us. Now you understand the a little more of the complexity of what salvation is. You don't instantly become right with God. So the analogy matters for us because it clarifies responsibility and authority. A verdict cannot be self-issued.

You cannot you do not sit in judgment of yourself in the sense of you can't declare yourself innocent redeemed. Only God can do that. Salvation is also explained through the analogy of redemption which comes from the marketplace and the experience of slavery. Something well understood at the time. Galatians chapter 4.

Galatians chapter 4. I'm going to begin here. Uh I'm going to read from verses 1-5. So, Galatians 4 1-5, it says, "Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.

Even so, we when we were children were in bondage, so that's slavery. under the elements of the world. That's the world around us, which is another way of saying sin, right? Because we can be and have been in bondage to sin before we're called. It says in verse four, "But when the fullness of of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to do something, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

" This is an analogy using terms like slavery and adoption to help us understand something greater about salvation. So redemption assumes prior bondage. It implies cost, ownership, freedom, [snorts] or the lack thereof in bondage. So again, in the ancient world, redemption required payment sufficient to transfer a person from one authority to another.

If you were to reclaim a slave, you'd have to pay the owner for the slave for him to become yours or her to become yours as an analogy. So then that this analogy teaches that salvation is not merely about forgiveness. It is, but it is not merely about that. It's also about freedom, being liberated from our slavery to sin.

In this analogy, the former master loses his claim. Sin no longer rules us and a new authority is established. We're now ruled by God. But notice that it moved as we get to the bottom of verse 5 to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. He began with talking about an heir versus a slave.

And then he moves from heir and slave to the subject of adoption. Why? Why would he do that? What do we know about adoption? Well, we know that if you're going to adopt somebody in our world today, we certainly know what that means. It means to take somebody who's not your child and make them your child legally.

It doesn't mean that they come from your blood. They're not your offspring. But you can declare them through that process, a legal process. You can adopt that child and make them an heir. I wasn't born of the spirit. None of you were born of the spirit. We're not God. We didn't come down as God in the flesh.

We didn't make ourselves even. We are all subject to the creator. So, how do we become a part of that spiritual family? Paul here tells us how God is going to adopt us as sons and daughters, taking us as the slaves we were and making us hes with his son Jesus Christ. So adoption explains what redemption alone cannot explain.

A redeemed slave could be freed and left on his own. God could have done that to us. Well, I've rescued you from sla the slavery of sin. Now go forth and do good and then just that's it. Where is where's our salvation if that's where it ends? An adopted son is given identity. He's given a new name. He's given an inheritance and he's given responsibilities.

All of that all those all of that complexity explained about salvation through this analogy. That's what analogies help us to see, isn't it? The complexity, the depth of of meaning of something. And that's why God uses them as a teaching tool. The scripture also uses the analogy of cleansing, which explains another aspect of salvation.

1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. And I'm going to start here in verse 9 and we'll read through verse 11. It says, ' Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolattors, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, or sodomites, or thieves, or covetous, or drunkards, or revilers, or extortioners.

None of them are going to inherit the kingdom of God if they practice that way of life. Right? Because he says, "Such were some of us sinners." We don't sit on the holy hill here. We are all sinners coming out and repenting of those sins. Because he says exactly that. And such were some of you except you were washed.

You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. So now we're told exactly how that happens. That sanctification, that setting apart, that cleansing that happened through us is through the spirit. When did we receive the spirit? At baptism. But I remember when I was baptized and there wasn't any soap, there weren't any brushes.

There wasn't any wash rags or anything like that. I just went under. Thankfully, it was only a few seconds. Came right back up and out. So, you could Was I bathed? No. Were you bathed if you were baptized? No. So, this is obviously a spiritual concept. But God wants us to understand that we are filthy spiritually because of our sins.

We are defiled because of our sins. And the only way to get clean is by the spirit as the scripture said, by the spirit of our God. Each of these analogies addresses a different dimension of the same reality. We've been looking at salvation through these analogies. Justification explains our standing before God. I was just reading in in the news here uh I think it was yesterday or the day before that the Supreme Court was ruling on a case um involving a congressman who was who wanted to sue the state over some election law. and it goes all the

way to the Supreme Court. The reason it went to the Supreme Court wasn't because of what he was doing, but because of whether he had standing. That's a legal position before the courts. You have to have standing to bring a suit. You have to be an affected party to bring a suit. So, I can't randomly go out there and sue some state that I'm not even a part of for some issue that has nothing to do with me. No one can do that.

So, that's the issue of standing. We are given standing before God. Remember justification is a legal term but God places us with standing before him on the issue so that we can be judged by him. Redemption explains our freedom from bondage of sin. We are redeemed. Christ paid the price for us. Adoption explains our new relationship being brought into the family of God.

adopted in to become hes, future heirs. When Jesus Christ returns and we become spirit sons and daughters in the family of God, cleansing explains our fi our fitness for use by God. He's cleaned us up. He's given us his spirit. We are no longer living the life of the sinner. Even when we make mistakes in sin, we repent.

We keep living that life that that God has called us to live. So you see no single definition can carry all of that weight. That's why scripture uses analogy rather than just metaphors to explain things for for us. So these analogies protect us from misunderstanding the depth and complexity of what salvation really is. And they do that for every subject.

Let's look at sin. analogies that cover the subject of sin. If I said sin, I'll give you the definition. John gives it to us. Sin is the transgression of the law. Do you know everything you need to know about sin when I say that? You know, not even close. That's a way too simple. It's true. There's no question that is true.

That is the definition of what sin is. But do you understand the complexity of sin by that definition? The answer is no. There's a lot more to it than that. Let's turn over here to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. Here's an issue that here's an analogy that helps us to understand the complexity of what sin is. Uh Romans 6:16.

It says, "Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or obedience leading to righteous." So the context here then again is slavery and that sin is the slave master. We see the analogy. Sin puts us in bondage.

Now, is this talking about a simple mistake, an error in judgment, some momentary lapse? No. You will wake up in the middle of that and realize, "Oh, I've made a mistake and I'm going to repent." And you repent and you turn from that. What's the difference between what we would call making a mistake, which is a sin, but living in sin? What's the difference between those two things? Yeah.

One is what you practice and it becomes your slave master. So you can only have one master. Pick your master. Either it's going to be sin leading to death or it's going to be obedience. Obedience to who? Well, we know that's to God. So he offers the counter way of life to sin. And if we obey that way of life, we no longer have sin as our master.

And so it ties back into the analogies we read about salvation. So this does not suggest occasional influence. This actually describes submission and control. That's who the slave master is to you when you are practicing sin. It has control. Slavery in the ancient world involved ownership, direction, and loss of self-ruule. you're no longer free.

So this analogy teaches that sin is not a passive influence on us. It's a master in control of us if we allow it. One does not simply commit sin in this sense. One comes under sin's authority. It becomes the master. And that's what we have to understand about this layer of complexity about the subject of sin.

Another analogy of sin uses the concept of debt which emphasizes things like obligation and consequence over we're let's see let's go back to Matthew chapter 6 Matthew 6 get there here uh this is in the middle of the Lord's prayer where Christ says I'm going to I'm going to start here in verse 9.

It says, "In this manner, therefore, pray, Our Father in heaven, hallowed is your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Do you think he's talking about your home mortgage, the loan you've got on your car, the credit card that you have a balance on? Obviously not.

This is a prayer to our heavenly father. And the debt is what we owe because of our sins. Eternal death. We're asking God to forgive that debt that we owe. God does forgive the debt. How is that debt paid? The debt is owed. It must be paid. Each and every one of us has earned the wages of death for our sins. It has to be paid. That's why Christ came.

He died to pay my debt and your debt. That's the complexity we need to see also about sin. What it does to us, the obligation it placed us placed upon us, the obligation of paying eternal death for our sins. Scripture also explains sin through the analogy of defilement. Now, that's especially true in the context of worship and service.

Over in Isaiah 59:2, we note how God describes what our sins do. They defile us. Isaiah 59 verse two, you know, because it's so close to verse one, I have to read that, right? You notetakers out there, you're starting to catch on, right? Like if I see like it's that close to verse one, let's just start there.

[snorts] It says, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities, your sins have separated you from God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he shall not or will not hear." This is the consequence of defiling oursel.

That's the language of defilement. And it teaches us that our sins separate us from God. Now obviously something unclean could not enter sacred spaces. They weren't allowed to offer a unclean animal as a sacrifice. God takes this cleanliness issue pretty seriously. So this analogy shows that sin disrupts the relationship that we have with God.

Obviously we separate ourselves from God when we sin. Did you know that that's what happens when I simply read to you or told you what the definition of sin is? It's the transgression of God's law. Did you know that a part of that means that you've separated yourself from God when you did that? Because you can't get that out of the definition, can you? You need the complexity of some analogies to help understand it.

There's another analogy which we're very familiar with. It's the analogy of leaven, which we'll be dealing with coming up soon. During the days of unleven bread, over in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the Apostle Paul talks about leaven. 1 Corinthians 5:6. Now, obviously, this is the case where Paul writes, he finds out that there's been some misbehavior going on.

And there's a young man who's been having a inappropriate relationship with his stepmother. People come to Paul where he's at and tell him about all the things that are going on in Corinth. And Paul gets kind of grumpy about that and writes a letter. And in dealing with that issue, he comes down here and in verse six, he says, "Your glorying is not good.

" Well, what glory is that? Well, he said they're puffed up, arrogant, because they would they were accepting tolerating the sin. And he says, "You're puffed up." Here he says, "Your gloring is not good. Do you not know that a little levan leavenvens the whole lump? Levan is an analogy here of sin. Do you not know a little sin fills you all the way up? A little sin is all it takes for eternal death.

A little sin does it. That's why he's saying a little sin, a little leaven leavenvens the whole lump. It spreads and permeates the whole lump. So this analogy teaches that sin rarely remains isolated. It's going to spread. If you do something one time and then you do it again and you do it again and you know how many times in a row before this is starting to look like a habit.

So whatever we tolerate like that, like we're we continue to tolerate a sin that we've been doing, we're just going to enesticize ourselves against, turning, changing, obeying. Scripture uses this imagery to warn against complacency, not necessarily talking about dramatic rebellion or something like that.

It's just about how we can slip and slide. So each of these analogies highlights different aspects of the same reality. So bondage, well that explains the loss of freedom we have when we are under sin and its influence, right? Debt explains that we're accountable for our choices. Defilement explains what happens when we sin and our relationship with the father. We are separated from him.

Levan explains the progression and the spread of sin in our lives. All of these form this complex understanding of what sin really is. It's not just the transgression of God's law. There's more to it than that. And no simple statement like this is what sin is gets us there. We need to flesh out the greater meaning of that.

And God uses many different analogies to help us to do that. The last one I want to cover is repentance. You know, it's one of the most misunderstood subjects in scripture because precisely it is often reduced to a single idea. Regret, sorrow, confession. If I said, "What is repentance?" The simplest definition would be turn, right? Would you agree? Turn or returning.

Let's look over here in uh Ezekiel 18:30. Ezekiel 18 and verse 30 where we where we see these two ideas are directly connected to one another. So he's talking to the house of Israel and he we get to verse 30. He's there. He says, "Therefore I will judge you, oh house of Israel, everyone according to his ways.

" This is saying each and every individual is going to be judged for his own choices and own decisions says the Lord God. Repent is the answer [clears throat] and turn from all your transgressions. [snorts] Repent and turn from all your transgressions so that iniquity will not be your ruin. So repentance here is not described as a feeling. Notice that it's described as a change of direction.

So it means not just to feel differently. It means to act differently. That's what repentance is. That's not that one time event that you did before you got baptized and you're all done repenting. It's like that's what we do the rest of our lives. We repent. We live a repentant life. And that's about direction.

I'm supposed to be headed to the kingdom of God. And so are you. And if we're headed in that direction and we get diverted because we slip, we fall, we make a mistake, we get back up and do we just make a 90° turn and we start heading the opposite direction. We're supposed to be going to the kingdom. So we get back up and we start going back towards the kingdom.

Wherever I was going that I got off, I got to go back and get myself back on track to the kingdom. That's what this analogy helps us to see about the reality of what repentance is. It's actual change. So, you can't turn without leaving a former path. And that's what this analogy teaches, that repentance addresses where you're going, not merely your intention to get there.

It's that you're actually zero. You're zeroed in on the destination. And that's your whole focus, getting to God's kingdom, doing what he says we must do for salvation. >> [snorts] >> So scripture also explains repentance through cleansing imagery. Now that's interesting to me because now this will be the third time we've talked about cleansing and defilement as an analogy of something.

We saw it as an analogy during salvation. We saw it as an analogy of sin and now we see it as an analogy of repentance because these things are complex issues. And we need a complex description or way of understanding it. And analogies give that to us. Isaiah chapter 1 Isaiah 1.

And I think I'm going to read Boy, you're so close, Kent. here. All right. Isaiah chapter 1. Let me quick double check myself. Verses 16 and 17. It says, "Wash yourself." In verse 16, "Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice.

Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Verse 18 says, "Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." So this washing imagery teaches that repentance deals with defilement.

When we sin, we defile ourselves. But we just walked through that, didn't we? returning is the only way. Turning from that, washing ourselves through repentance. We've been given the spirit when we were baptized. And it is through that power that we are able to be forgiven. Right? It's repentance, living in that repentant state of mind that enables us to stay right with God.

turning constantly back towards God, being cleansed by his spirit as we repent. When we make another mistake, we make commit another sin. We repent before our heavenly father, we acknowledge our sins and we ask for forgiveness. And it is that symbolism there that you see of us of being washed in this analogy.

We are therefore being washed by God, of the defilement of the sin through our repentance. So another powerful analogy used about repentance is returning to one's rightful place or going where one should go. Let's notice Luke. You'll remember probably the story of the prodigal son. Let's notice Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15.

I'm not going to read the whole parable, but let's pick it up in verse 14. Chapter 15 of Luke verse 14. It says, "But when he, that is the son who had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

and he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate and no one gave him anything. So, he's been living the sinful life. He's finally now at the bottom of that and he's paying heavy consequences. This is a parable, by the way, so we can envision what's going on here. But we know this is a parable about our heavenly father and us.

It says when he came to himself. It's >> probably one of the great my favorite phrases in the Bible. Somebody comes to themsself. You wake up. You were going the wrong direction. You finally realize it. I need to wake up. You come to yourself. It says he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough to to spare and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father.

I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. What is that? This isn't a literal story. This is this is a parable. And this parable is about you and I. This is the moment of real repentance. We go to the father and we say, "Father, I have sinned against you." That's what this story says.

I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. Isn't that where we are when we're truly repentant? I'm unworthy of the kingdom. I'm unworthy of the gift of Christ sacrificing himself for my sins. And when I repent and I acknowledge that, I turn to God.

And maybe even I feel that I have no place in the kingdom of God because I have committed sins. Some feel that bad about their sins that they do not even have a place there. This this parable is there for a reason for us to see the depth of feeling that can come with repentance when you fully recognize what you've done against our heavenly father when we've s sinned.

And yet it says in verse 20 and he and he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. That that's our father. What has separated us from him? He's living in his sins. And where is he? He is separated from his father.

That's why this power this is a powerful analogy. Just like us, separated when we commit sins. He turns to his father. He prays to his father. He asks him for forgiveness and he returns and he starts heading in that direction. What's the destination? Where the father is. That's where he goes. He's afraid the father won't even accept him.

But the story tells us that God is ready and waiting to accept us when we really repent. Can you get that out of sin is the transgression of the law? Can you get that out of any other understanding? Do you understand the depth of of what repentance is and what it means? If I just said it means to turn. No, it's far more complex subject than that.

Turn when? One time, the first time only after you've sinned once, after every single sin, every single minute of every single day? Or are you looking in your life? Are you constantly staying in prayer with God? Are you actually paying attention to what you're doing and making sure you're not separating yourself from God? And when you see that you have, you repent.

You ask God to forgive you and you turn right back to that kingdom and you keep going. That's the depth. Now, one more one more analogy for you here. Matthew chapter 3 on this subject of repentance. It's it's important. Matthew chapter 3 verse 8. Now, this is John the Baptist, and he sees all of these uh Pharisees coming to him, and and you know, he's he's his baptism, as the scripture says, is a baptism of repentance.

But these people weren't repentant. And he says here in verse 8, to these people, therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance. What do we learn from that about repentance? that if repentance is real, there's fruit in your life and it should be visible. What is faith? You remember we some of you weren't here when I gave the message, but the simplest definition of faith that it is to believe in God to do what God says.

That's your behavior. And trust in God. Okay, that's faith. If it became illegal to believe what we believe, to keep the Sabbath, to keep the holy days, tithe, clean and unclean, if that became illegal, could you be prosecuted for breaking that law, so to speak? Does that make sense? If it were illegal to live the way we live, could you be prosecuted? Prosecuted for living the way we live.

How would they prosecute you? Any decent attorney is going to hire people to get to dig into your life. And if they don't find evidence that you keep the Sabbath, that you keep the holy days, that you tithe, that you don't eat pork, if they don't find the evidence in your life, what's your testimony? I said, I believe, but did you? Do you? We're looking for fruit.

That's the thing. And that fruit should be something that if it were illegal, would convict us. It's the evidence that what I say I believe is in fact what I believe. and I could be prosecuted for it if it was illegal to believe what I believe. So, as with all of these, we now see that there's complexity and so many spiritual concepts that God uses analogies to help us to understand that complexity with regard to whatever that subject is.

That's why we have analogies. That's why they're different from metaphors. Metaphors give us a simple understanding of something that's direct that can be proclaimed about something else. I am the door. I am the vine. I am the light. Definitive. You know exactly what he means by those things. But there's a lot of depth that's missing even in that, isn't there? We would need some analogies to see and have a better understanding of who Jesus Christ is and what he did in his sacrifice.

We need a lot of we need a lot more to understand fullness of the truth of God. Scripture uses metaphors and analogies intentionally and they're not interchangeable. A metaphor identifies a defining function so essential that scripture speaks in terms of it being that thing. An analogy doesn't establish something as an identity.

It actually preserves distinction and draws out similarities across multiple points so that we can understand process, behavior, growth, responsibility, consequences, outcomes. When scripture says the kingdom of God is like a seed, salvation is explained through redemption and adoption or sin is shown as bondage and debt.

Repentance is illustrated by turning and cleansing. God isn't redefining any of that. He's just helping us to understand it more clearly. Figurative language is not a barrier to clear understanding is a tool for depth of knowledge. God uses it because human understanding matures through what? are when we reflect on things, when we meditate on things that God is trying to get us to understand at a deeper level, it requires us to meditate and to think and to ponder to mull over the truth, enhance our understanding and build

strength in us with regard to the calling and staying that [music] on that narrow path that leads to the kingdom.