Let me give you the words of Luke 15, verses 8 to 10. Jesus says, Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, For I have found the peace which I lost. Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. So we've been looking at this parable which Jesus gave to the scribes and Pharisees to teach them that they ought to care for perishing sinners. They ought to have been seeking for the lost, but they were not. And the reason that they were not was because they wrongly thought that all Jewish persons were in favor with God when they tried to keep the ceremonial law and tried to do good works. So Jesus is saying here that they ought to have known and understood his mission, that he had not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. He had not come to minister to those who thought of themselves as well spiritually, but rather those who knew themselves to be sin-sick sinners. And in this case, lost people. These men did not want to be seen as sinners who needed repentance, nor did they want to recognize Jesus's ministry and mission from the Father. So our conclusion thus far has been that all in the local church, and this is my first point by way of review, all in the local church should be helping our Lord in seeking to find the one silver coin which has been lost. The one silver coin that the woman lost is something of great value to her, I've said to you, because she knows that every person is created in the image and likeness of God. In this, she feels that she has something in common with them. It's in this sense that all 10 silver coins belong to her. She knows that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. She knows that even one lost sinner that God intends to save does have value. So even though the image of God is marred in people around us, yet this is what makes their souls valuable to God and should be to us. as well. And then we've also seen what it means for the woman to light a lamp. That's what we studied this past Sunday together. We looked at Matthew 5, verses 14 to 16, and we found and saw that our light is found coming to us from Christ himself. Christ is the light of the world, but he says to us, we are the light of the world. And so we need to see that as a responsibility that we have to shine our light, the knowledge of salvation that we have. We shine this light and we pray for people around us, sinful people. We tell them to pray for themselves so that they might be found by Christ himself and they might find him for themselves. We've also seen the 10 silver coins represent lost sinners in the house of Israel in Jesus' day, but they can also represent lost sinners in the broader house of the world and every generation, and also that I've been trying to show you in the church, the New Testament house of the local church. They are the children of believers or regular attenders at a local church, but there's also many lost silver coins. I'm trying to show you in the broader house of the world who need to be searched for. Jesus says, go and preach the gospel to every creature, Mark 16, 16. So in our last study, we looked at Acts 16, 25 to 34. We saw that Paul and Silas, who were seeking more broadly to preach the gospel in the house of the world, they found a lost coin even in this most unlikely place, that is, a jailhouse. And the jailer knew that he was lost because God brought an earthquake, released all the prisoners from their chains, And he thought to commit suicide, but instead, we find that Paul said to him, we're all here. Be calm, we're all here. And he said, he ran in and threw himself before them and said, what must I do to be saved? So we see from that that God does work in mighty ways in unbelieving persons' lives. And for those whom He intends to save, He will most certainly bring them. But that doesn't mean that we don't have responsibility. We most certainly do. As Paul and Silas did, and we looked at that last Sunday, how they were worshiping the Lord even though they were hurting. from the beating that they had received. They were praising the Lord, they were singing and praying to God, and it says the prisoners were listening. So it's up to us to have a good witness to people around us. So this woman in our parable represents any Christian person who would seek to tell all sinners around her of their need of Jesus Christ. But in order to find them, We saw last Sunday that she must light a lamp. She must light a lamp. She must shine the light that has been given to her personally. Today we want to talk about what it means to sweep the room. Another thing that she did here, where is the lost coin, she wonders. Where is the lost sinner that I care about and value? I will light a lamp to find them, and I will sweep the room, and maybe it will turn up. So the first question that I have for you here this morning on the paper that was handed out to you is, what does it mean for the woman to sweep the house? And this may not be apparent to you at all. when you read this parable, when you first think about it. And so I want you to turn with me over to Romans chapter three and verses 19 and 20. Paul says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." So, what would you think that the sweeping of the house would be then, if you're thinking about these verses that I just read to you, because I do think that they're pertinent to our study. Yeah, go ahead, David. I think there's at least two parts to it. In the sweeping, the sweeping is like cleaning away things so that she can see better. And in that case, maybe along the lines of pointing out sin. And then the other is, in the sweeping, it's declaring the gospel as it's being cleaned up, the mess that's being cleaned up. Yeah, that's good. That's really good. I appreciate your saying that. I've written down here, the woman sweeping the house shows her love for God, for his law, and her desire to see a sinner brought to conviction of their sins, and believe in Jesus Christ. The woman sweeping the house is a picture of her attempting to find the lost sinner using both the law and the gospel of Jesus Christ. She uses the broom of the law to attempt to show the sinner what sin is. and why that person needs to be saved with the law she will sweep to bring conviction of sin. But as it says here, by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. So it's really only by the washing of water with the word of the gospel, that is the only way the sinner can really be brought out of their lost condition and find grace and peace. and salvation. So these verses really are quite pertinent to our study. I need to have us read one other set of verses, and they're found in this same chapter of Romans 3. It's in verses 21 to 31. Let me read these verses for you. But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is through faith. in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation by his blood through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting done? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also. Since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith, do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law. So my second question to you is when Paul says here that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, is he speaking only to Jews or is he speaking to all men? What do you think? by these verses that we've read in 3, 19, and 20. We're going to go on to talk about 21 to 31 here in just a minute of chapter 3. That's right. Amen. That's exactly right, Brian. That's exactly what he does. He distinguishes them, the Jews having been formally given the law as a nation and a people on Mount Sinai. And in a peculiar sense, in a particular sense, in the whole Old Covenant time period up until when Christ came, they were the only people of God. on the face of the earth. And even those who were saved who were Gentiles were those who were sort of brought into to Israel's at least their dominion or the pale of their teaching and instruction through the law. But the interesting thing about the wording here in Romans 3, 19 and 20 is when it says here that every mouth may be stopped. and all the world may become guilty before God. So that includes everyone. So we are all under the law in that sense, not formally like the Jews were, but in the sense that the moral law of God, it pertains to all men in terms of their keeping the commandments of God. This is the expectation of God. to them, that they would keep his moral law, which is why, by the way, when we're preaching the gospel, we should also teach people the commandments of God so that they will understand where they have sinned and fall short of God's glory. Sometimes people never hear the Ten Commandments, or never hear even the two greatest commandments of loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. And so they really don't understand that they are sinners until they hear the law of God, because it's by the law that the knowledge of sin comes. So this is what I'm trying to show you and what our parable is showing us in terms of the woman sweeping the house. Paul concludes here, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. However, by the knowledge of the law does not appear how we who are sinners can become righteous in the sight of the Holy God, which is why I read for you Romans 3, 21 to 31. And so let me ask question three. What is the righteousness of God apart from the law, according to verse 22? Amen. That's exactly right. It's the righteousness of faith, and faith in Jesus Christ. To all and on all who believe, for there is no difference in that sense between Jew and Gentile, as Brian was telling us. We all need the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the righteousness of God apart from the law. And so when it says apart from the law, it means apart from anything that we can do to keep the law. Do you see that? Because we don't and we can't keep the law perfectly. And so that's why we need this righteousness, which is apart from the law, what we can do or what we think we can do to find favoring with God. This is what the problem was with the scribes and the Pharisees, and really with all of Israel of that day. They really thought that they were pretty good people because they were Jews. That's the way they looked at it. And so since they were Jews and since they were in covenant with God as a nation, they falsely assumed that every one of them knew the Lord if they just were trying to observe the ceremonial law, you see, and trying to keep the works of the law by their own wisdom and strength. So they were all falling short in many different ways. The apostle Paul in, in Philippians chapter 3, and I'll discuss this later on in my message. One of my sermons today, he says, as to the righteousness of the law, he thought himself to be blameless. He really did. He looked at himself and he thought that that's the way he was. And there's an awful lot of people out there that are like that. I can remember going down to the Rock Island Rescue Mission years ago, and when I did, I would ask questions about the law to see how much they knew. And how many of you think that you keep the Ten Commandments? And people at the rescue mission, some of them would be raising their hands. They really thought that they were keeping the commandments. So we really have to think about the meaning of the commandments of God in detail to really understand just how much we fall short of God's glory. Well, what did, question four, what did God have to do then through Jesus Christ to completely fulfill his own moral law on behalf of sinners, on our behalf, according to verses 24, and 25 of Romans 3. What did God have to do in order that we might be justified freely? What is it? You have to provide redemption that is outside of ourselves. Yeah, that's good. It's really true, isn't it? Those verses are so comprehensive, 24-25, being justified freely by His grace, but how do we find grace and how can we be justified freely? It's, as Brian's saying, through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. And God, then in verse 25, setting him forth to be a propitiation. I didn't ask this as a question. I probably should have. But what does the word propitiation mean? Can you tell me? This is one of the most amazing words, I think, in the whole New Testament. It means that there was an enmity between God and me but because of what Christ did, God sees that as the enmity is taken away. Alright, well that's good. Yes, and that brings the reconciliation that you're talking about, but the propitiation is a wrath-removing, or in this case, diverting, sacrifice to Christ, and the wrath of God falls upon Him, and then we, believing in Him, are justified freely, no cost to us, but to Christ everything, having to lay down His life for us. The cost that we have to calculate then when we become a believer, of course, is if we're willing to take up our cross and follow Him. But that's not in particular what these verses are talking about here. What they're talking about here is that Paul is trying to show us that the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed by God Himself. It's witnessed by the law and the prophets. That is, all the scriptures bearing witness to Christ, the one who came to fulfill the whole law of God, did fulfill all the law of God, both moral and ceremonial, and kept all of God's commandments perfectly. So that is the basis, then, of our being justified freely by faith, it says here, which is such a tremendous thing here. where it says, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by Christ's blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance he'd passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness. In other words, that there were people justified in Old Testament times, but even theirs was by faith, looking forward, and God passing over in that sense to lay his wrath on Christ in the fullness of time when Christ would come. and offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. So we see here then that God the Father had to redeem sinners by Christ purchasing them by His blood, and so He sets them forth as a propitiation, a wrath-removing sacrifice. Whoever then believes in Him will be justified. Now, I think I've got just enough time for this. But I want you to understand a little bit more about the sweeping here that's in this. And I am linking this with what's found in Pilgrim's Progress, in Pilgrim's Conversation in the House of Interpreter. I don't know if you remember this, on his journey to the Celestial City. I'm going to read this for you. It's pretty short. It says, then he took him by the hand, that is Christian, and led him into a very large parlor that was full of dust, because never swept. The witch, after he had reviewed it a little while, the interpreter called for a man to sweep. Now when he began to sweep, the dust began so abundantly to fly about that the Christian had almost therewith been choked. Then said the interpreter to a damsel that stood by, bring hither water and sprinkle the room. The witch, when she had done, it was swept and cleansed with pleasure. Then said Christian, what means this? The interpreter answered, the parlor is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel, the dust of his original sin and inward corruptions that have defiled the whole man. He that began to sweep at first is the law, but she that brought water and did sprinkle it is the gospel. Now, whereas thou sawest that as soon as the first began to sweep, the dust did so fly about the room, could not by him be cleansed, but that thou wast almost choked therewith, this is to show thee, that the law, instead of cleansing the heart by its working from sin, doth revive, put strength into it, and increase it in the soul, even as it doth discover and forbid it, for it doth not give power to subdue. Again, as thou saw'st the damsel Sprinkle the room with water upon which it was cleansed with pleasure. This is to show thee that when the gospel comes, in the sweet and gracious influences thereof to the heart. Then I say, even as thou sawest the damsel lay the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin vanquished and subdued and the soul made clean through the faith of it and consequently fit for the King of glory to inhabit." Wow, is that ever a neat, picture. Isn't that going along so well with our parable that we're studying? I think it helps explain our parable actually very well. So the question number five that I have for you is what does interpreters say the parlor represents in this picture? That's right. The heart of a man never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel. I want you to notice that wording, the sweet grace of the gospel. So question six, is it possible for a person, either a young person or an older person, to go to church for years and appear to be a Christian and yet still not be sanctified by believing in the sweet grace of the gospel? And why would that be? If they weren't, I would say, yeah, it's entirely possible. But question seven, why would this be? Well, it may be for a number of reasons. It might not be at all apparent to either that person or others who care very much for their soul. But we can say this. It may be that their parents or others have placed too much confidence in their ability to keep the law or to do what is right on their own. Now, I'm just using that as a suggestion. It may not be the case, but it's what comes to my mind. It may be that their expectations, the parents' expectations of their children, have been very great in this regard, in regard to the law, And it could simply be that they have not explained, that is to their children, the whole concept of grace to them in a way that they were able to see it and to receive it. They still thought that they were being saved by their own doing certain things which would please either God or their parents. And finally, after some years then they gave up, And they walked away from the faith, their profession of faith. So question eight, what does the interpreter say that the dust represents in this picture? Well, the dust represents the person's original sin in Bunyan's explanation and the inward corruptions that have defiled the whole person's heart. So what happens then when the law is preached? Sin revives and dies. The dust flies all over the place and it's just hard to cleanse the room at all, isn't it? So, that's right though, Matt, that's exactly right. And then, what happens, question 10, when the woman brings the water and sprinkles it on the dust? What happens then? That's exactly right, with pleasure. It says here, so there's a principle here that I think that we need to think about in relation to this woman, why the coin might have been lost in the first place. This is the explanation, I believe, of how the woman lost the coin in the first place. It was simply that the coin that she lost fell out of her hand. It was lost in the darkness. as a result of the woman's not explaining well enough the sweet grace of the gospel of Christ. So that those whom she loved, those who she was trying to win and see become faithful members of the church and remain in the local church as believers, that they would grow up to maturity. That was what the parent wanted. Now, perhaps the reason for losing the coin I'm trying to say to you was, and is, and may be, a parent's not sharing the sweetness of the love of Christ to her loved ones and others. Because it does need to be conveyed to your children, and in fact, to all people that you witness to, it needs to be conveyed, the sweetness of the gospel of Christ. Taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed a thing it is to come to know the Lord and to have the Lord in your heart and to walk with you day by day and to teach you his good and right and holy way. But it's all done out of his love for you, dear sinner. That's the thing that we need to stay. And I think that's what really wonderful here in the parable that even though the coin slipped out of the woman's hand and her grasp on it was lost, at least for that time, it rolled away and she couldn't find it. For a time, I believe that there's still good news for the woman who has lost the coin because it says that she sought for it carefully. And the next phrase that we'll look at, until she found it. And we'll find that there's great hope in those words, and we'll study that the next time that we're together around these verses. Well, let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this study, and we pray that we would benefit from it, each and every one of us, and that we would understand the sweetness of the gospel and convey that to others around us. We pray these things in your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.