Let's take our Bibles once again.
Turn to Luke 15. Luke 15. The Lord in verse 1 and 2 is
speaking to two different groups. Luke 15, 1 and 2. Then drew near
unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them."
Two groups of people. One group that wanted to hear
him, and the other group that wanted to gripe, because he ate
with sinners. Aren't you glad? that he'll have communion with
sinners. Now the Lord taught these two
groups out of parables. There's three parables that's
listed in this 15th chapter. One of them about a lost sheep,
one of them about a lost coin, and then the third one is about
a lost boy, a son, a prodigal that left home. He left home
selfishly, he left home arrogantly, he left home ignorantly, and
was recovered by the grace of God. And with that son's recovery,
the Lord taught something that is totally needful for us to
hear. It's the difference between salvation
by grace, this boy's recovery, and the latter part of this chapter
is man's foolish thoughts concerning salvation by his own works in
the other boy. That's what this whole parable
is about. The Lord, He taught two groups.
A group of sinners, publicans and sinners, and a group of Pharisees. Now I want us to look at this
parable for a few minutes. We've looked at it before, but
that's okay. Let's look at it again, and I
pray the Lord be pleased to bless it. I'm gonna pick up in verse
15, verse 11, I'm sorry, chapter 15, verse 11. And here's the
parable. And he said a certain man had
two sons. Now these two boys belonged to
this certain man, a certain man who is a representative of God
the Father. Now, listen. God owns all souls. Now we know that. He said all
souls are mine. Soul of the Father, soul of the
Son. They're mine. Almighty God has made all of
us. And all souls are going to eventually
be proven to be either the vessels of God's mercy or the vessels
of God's wrath. Now that's, we know that from
scriptures. There's only two different kinds
of people in this world. There's not, you know, black,
white, you know, that's true, but they're all either we're
the Lord's in covenant mercy and grace, chosen in Christ,
or we're left to ourselves. Now we read that in Romans 9.
I won't go back and read it again. And so the scripture says that
this man had two boys. They're his. We're all the Lord's,
if we're not the Lord's in mercy and grace, we're the Lord's in
creation for sure. So I mean we all belong to God.
Well, the scripture says in verse 12 and 13, the younger of them
said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that
falls to me. And he divided unto them his
living. And not many days after the younger
son gathered all together, took his journey into a far country
and there wasted his substance with righteous living. Now here's
the younger boy. Now this is a picture of God's
people, God's elect. All of us coming to this world,
fallen creatures, we're all dead. All of us. You say, well, you
mean God's elect are dead? Yeah. Yeah, we're all born dead
spiritually in trespasses and sins. Ephesians says, children
of wrath even as others. And again, I've told you God's
people have never been under the wrath of God. That means
that we were all born with a wrathful attitude against God. Children
of wrath. And here we are, all of us. Now this is the way we're all
born, presumptuous, believing Satan's lie that we're able to
handle our own life on our own. We believe that. That's how we're
born. We're born arrogant in what Satan
promised that man would have if he would, you know, have if
he'd eat of the fruit. Independent minded, meaning we
hate God's rule over us, thinking that We can handle, we can be
our own God. We're all distrustful of the
Lord's promise of punishment, disobedience, and we all despise
fellowship with God. We say, what do you mean? What
did Adam and Eve do? When Adam ate of the forbidden
fruit, what did they do? They hid. They hid from God. Now that's what we're all going
to do. We all do that. The scripture
reveals that the father of these two boys gave that younger boy
just exactly what he thought he desired. He did, really, but
he thought, this is going to make me happy. You give me everything
that's coming to me. And the scripture says that this
boy, verse 13, he gathered it all together, took his journey
into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous
living. This is the very heart of what
Adam did and all of us that come from Adam have done in the fall. Wasted our substance. What did Adam have before the
fall? Well, he was made upright. He
was made straight. He was moral and he had fellowship
with God. And what happened? It was gone.
When he fell, it was gone. Man in Adam's foal wasted his
subsidy, wasted life, he wasted joy, security, peace, comfort,
for what? For an air castle. That's what
he, yeah. The cares of this world, the
cares of this world, at the expense of worshiping
God and obedience to God. This is the way we all are. He gave it all up for something
that's perishing. Well, verse 14, and when he had
spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began
to be in want. Now, when he spent all, Adam
spent all, and we in Adam, this is our attitude. And that one
act of disobedience, stripped of everything that he ever possessed
concerning God's kindness to man, and he just threw it away. That's us. So this boy, he spent it all. There was a mighty famine in
the land. He began to be in war. Now here's this younger boy.
Beloved of his father. Whenever God's people are born
in this world. Now, Jeremiah 31.3 relates how
long God has loved his people. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. How long will it ever be before God will
stop loving his own? And remember, God never changes.
He always loved them. He always loves us. He's always
loved His people in Christ. All that the Father has chosen
and put in the Son. He loved them. He loved them.
And He's always loved them. Now this boy is beloved of his
father, but now he's in a place of famine and want. What does
that mean? That's us. Born into this world
ignorant. Ignorant of our need. We're born
with, I don't know what I need. What do I need to satisfy God? I don't know, and the sad part,
I don't care. I said before, this is the way,
he's in a state, and he doesn't know the depth. I don't know
the depth of my need apart from Christ. I don't know. All I know
is that in Christ, I have all I need. I know that. And I'm
so thankful that God's not looking to me to produce it, Fred. What
would I do? Where would I start? This boy's
in need. All of us, lost in trespasses
and sin, without hope and without God in this world, alienated
from God. No peace, spiritual famine. And verse 15 says, and he went
and he joined himself to a citizen. Now here's something that was
real eye-opening to me when I was reading it again. Joined him
to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields
to feed swine. Now, this boy, he's in a state
of famine. What? But now remember, this
is a picture. This is a picture of us spiritually
by nature. And what he does was he's going
to straighten up and fly right. He's going to reform. His conscience starts bothering
him. Why does anybody want to join themselves to any assembly? Whenever you get in trouble,
I mean, everybody, you know, if you get in jail or something,
it just, always, I got a friend, he was in prison, and he told
me, he said, I tell you what, he said, it's amazing to me how
many people in prison find God while they're in trouble. And
that's, there's a conscience, a man's got a conscience, and
here this younger boy, his son, he realizes that his He's in
trouble. I don't have any more money.
I've spent it. Boy, it was fun for a while.
But now I'm in trouble. And he knows he's wrong. Something is wrong here. But
he does what every depraved heart demands. I'm going to get this. I'm going to turn over a new
leaf. And so he goes and he joins himself to a citizen of that
country, going into a you know, being sent out to feed swine. Now, as I was going over my notes
this morning and reading this passage of scripture, I'm going
to just touch for just a second on my own personal testimony. And I'm just going to tell you,
you know, I'm just going to mention a couple of things about myself.
Not many, not many, but just a couple. I can enter in a little
bit personally to what's going on right here. You find yourself in trouble. You find yourself in need. And the best thing to do, and
this is what I did, I figured the best out for me was to, let's
go ahead and start going to church. That'll help me tremendously.
And found that there was somebody that I admired, somebody that
had a kind of a charismatic spirit about him, not religiously speaking,
but he was just, you know, he was a preacher. And I thought
myself, I thought, you know what, maybe I can Maybe this is a way
to get me out of this mess. So I kind of joined myself with
him. He was a friend to me, and I
was trying to be a friend to him. And this very thing, sent
him into his fields to feed swine. I started preaching. I started
preaching. I was going to preach, and I
preached everything I knew. which was nothing. Never sat
under the gospel, never heard the gospel of God's grace, but
it was a message that, you know, and I was out shawing, feeding,
putting out swine food. That's what I was doing. Doing
just exactly what this, you know, it was a nice guy, upright, moral,
everything, sitting under a false religion, proclaiming A false
gospel. But by the grace of God, being
just exactly in verse 16, fain have filled his belly with the
husk that the swine did eat, no man gave unto him. Here was
a boy doing just exactly what I can relate to, just feigning
to fill my belly with what I thought was the truth. And I meant it, I was sincere,
but the bottom line was this. In my heart, I didn't know the
truth, but I knew that what I was beholding in other people, in
my mind, I'll go ahead and tell you what I'm thinking right now.
We were playing baseball one day, had a bunch of these fellas
that I always, you know, I was going to church You know, we
had a church team, and here was one of them, and buddy, he was,
you know, we'd gotten the other team out, and he was running
in from the outfield just like me, and I can still see him right
now. And he was just, you know, he said, praise the Lord, bless
the Lord. Oh, amen, brother. How about
you? And I thought, I don't feel that. I don't feel
that. I would desire if I did feel
that, but I didn't. There was no fire in my heart. It was fake. It was all fake. And I'm just sharing with you
me. It was nothing. It was nothing.
It was all show. And this boy, he went out into
the fields to feed swine. He would fain have filled his
belly with a husk that the swine did eat. And no man gave unto
Him. I didn't have any hope. I didn't
have any peace. I didn't have any comfort. What
I was hearing did absolutely nothing for me. But it was all
I knew. I didn't know anything. I'm in trouble, but I don't know. Religion's got to be it. And
the scripture says in verse 17, And when He came to Himself,
Now I'll tell you, in the time of love, and here's the Lord
speaking, in the time of love, that little baby, his navel wasn't
cut over in Ezekiel, he wasn't supple, there was no pity, and
the Lord walked by and He said, live. When it pleased God to
come to this self-righteous sinner and show mercy, this boy came
to himself not because there was anything in him that caused
him to come to himself, but Almighty God was pleased to cross his
path with the Spirit of God and impart
life to Him. Now here's when a man or woman
starts to think differently. Whenever God Almighty comes to
him and when He says, Ezekiel 36, a new heart also will I give
you and a new spirit will I put in you. There, that boy began
to truly see Not just his physical condition. I'm out of money.
Nobody likes me. I'm just out of here. All I got
to eat is this. He was in trouble. But when God
Almighty showed him his true condition, spiritually, before
God, there that boy sees his condition and separation from
the one that he knew loved him. Truly loved him. Wasn't trying
to just see what he'd get out of him. He knew and remembered,
came to himself, and said, how many hired servants of my father's
have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. A vessel of God's mercy, according
to the timing and purpose of Almighty God, begins to realize
the fruitlessness of hearing that which is not scriptural,
which doesn't honor God. He realizes this. And he knows
now that what he's been doing has been feeding others nothing
more than husk, swine, pig food. And now he, in regenerating grace
and power, desires the true bread of heaven. Now he knows that
this glorious gospel of God's free grace that honors the Son,
honors God, and it gives God all the glory and honor and praise.
And what he does when he comes to himself, you know what he
says? I can't stay here anymore. I
can't do this anymore. Look at 18 to 20, I will arise
and go to my father and I will say unto him, now he didn't leave
like this. He left in an arrogant, disrespectful,
self-righteous, haughty, I will go to my father and I will say
unto him, father, I've sinned against heaven and before thee
and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy
hired servants. And he arose and he came to his
father But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him,
had compassion, ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. Now
here's the evidence of God's grace. A new heart made willing
in the day of God's power. A boy that's now willing to say,
I can't stay. I can't listen to this anymore.
I can't do this anymore. I'm going back. I'm going to
where... Here's the rescue. Here's the
recovery we looked at in the first message of Jacob. This
is the recovery. All born lost. And he comes back
and he's honest. Now he's honest. I have sinned
against heaven. And I've done it before you.
I've done it in your sight. And I'm not worthy. Just make
me to be found among those that don't have any wealth. Make me
as one of your servants. Those that can't take care of
themselves that's got to be provided for by their master. You know? But the scripture says while
he was a great way off, how far off did the Lord see
his people? He's always seen them. He saw
them in the fall. He saw them in the rebellion. Oh my! I could write a book. I know
you could do. He fell a great way off and this
boy, he's coming and now he's going to start going ahead and
just be honest about it. Just tell his daddy, this is
what I've done. This is what a sinner rescued
from the pit, despair of his sin does. He gets honest. He
doesn't start talking about all that he's done and he's righteous.
What? I have sinned against you. He's
broken. That boy starts to rehearse his
story. He wants to get it out. And his
daddy won't even let him. The father had compassion on
him. He ran. He fell on his neck and kissed
him. Oh, the love of God to his own. Those found to be in his only
begotten son. And what zeal the Lord sets forth
concerning the return of His people. That boy, here again,
verse 21, he keeps talking, I've sinned against heaven, I've done
it in your sight, I'm not worthy to be called thy son. This is
the lot of every rescued sinner. Saved by the grace of God. Lord,
I don't want to stop telling you what I am. This is what I
am. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And the Scripture
says while He's talking, His daddy says in verse 22, He said
to the servants, you bring forth the best robe. You put it on
Him. And put a ring on His hand and you put some shoes on His
feet. This boy right here, this is my son. It's my boy. And you put that symbol, you
put that ring on his finger, of the crest of this family,
sealed by the Spirit of God, the household of faith, the emblem
of the marriage between Christ and his bride. Glenn and I was gonna get married,
I bought him this, y'all all did this too, but that's okay. I get to say it. I bought her
a ring. I asked her, I said, you marry
me? She said, yeah. Gave her a ring. That ring's a symbol. It's a
symbol. It's a symbol of my love and
commitment to her. You put a ring on this boy's
feet. You put some shoes on his feet. Here he is barefooted,
but you cover his feet with the preparation of the gospel of
peace This boy is going to walk like my son. This is my son. He'll walk as a child of God. And the foundation of that mercy
that was shown to him, look at verse 23-24, And you bring hither
the fatty calf, you kill it, let us eat and be merry. This
my son was dead, he's alive again, he was lost, he's found, and
they began to be merry. You know there's joy in heaven.
over the recovery of one sinner. Look, we're in Luke 15. Look at verse 7. I say unto you that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than
over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance. Can you
imagine? When God Almighty calls out one
of his elect, the scripture says there's joy in heaven over that.
Oh, may the Lord give me a heart to realize. Somebody comes up,
tells me, said, I hear what you're saying. I want to confess the
Lord you're preaching. My heart rejoices. They rejoice
in heaven. Oh, but there was two groups. Now that's how God saves his
people from their sins. But the Lord was talking in closing
to two groups. He was talking to some publicans
and sinners that wanted to hear him. And this is what a sinner
wants to do. You tell me one more time how
God put away my sin. You tell me that again. I know
I heard it before, but tell me again. I want to hear it one
more time. Tell me one more time. But he had another boy, and now
he's talking to these Pharisees. These Pharisees, you know the
Pharisees that trusted in themselves, that they were righteous. Verse
25 to 32, and I'll close. Now his elder son was in the
field. And he came and drew nigh to the house. He heard the music,
dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these
things meant. And he said unto him, thy brother
is come. Thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath
received him safe and sound. And he was angry. It would not
go in. Therefore came his father out
and treated him and answered and said to his father, lo, these
many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy
commandment. And yet thou never gavest me
a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon
as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with
harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatty calf. And he said
unto him, son, thou art ever with me and all that I have is
thine. It was me that we should make
merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive
again and was lost and is found." Now here's again, remember I
told you, all souls are the Lord's. Some in grace, some in creation,
but they're all the Lord's. And here's one that by his actions
is a son only in creation. Not a son in mercy. He's like all of us that once
were religiously found to be having a profession only, but
didn't possess a nature of adoption and joy in the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace. Here was a boy that pictured
the Pharisees. They were murmurers and complainers
against God showing mercy and grace to whomsoever He will.
He heard the music and the rejoicing. You know, many hear the glorious
gospel of God's free grace, but when He asked His servant, what's
going on? He told him, He said, well, your brother, that brother
that went off, remember him? He went off, now he's come back,
and your daddy killed a fatty calf, and he was mad. That fatty
calf that pictured the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And he would not go in. And he started accusing his daddy. What are you doing? All these
many years I've served you. And he started listing all the
things, the reasons why his daddy ought to look at him and have
some respect for him. I tell you what he did, he kept
a good record of all of his righteousnesses. Like those in Matthew 7, stand
before the Lord. I've done this and this. You
know, I've been faithful. I've never transgressed in word
or deed. I've deserved everything because
of my faithfulness. And you never did this for me. You never gave a sacrifice for
me, but as soon as this, not my brother, but as soon as your
son, who wants to have nothing to do with it, and you showed
him mercy and compassion, and he wasted everything, and you're
going to show mercy to him? You're going to receive him back?
After what he's done? Man by nature hates God's sovereign
mercy hates it. And listen to this scathing rebuke,
verse 31. He said unto him, Son, thou art
ever with me and all that I have is thine. Now what in the world
can that mean? Well, let me read these two scriptures
for a minute and I'll hush. In Genesis chapter 27, the scripture
declares Genesis 27, that Jacob, one of the boys of Isaac, was
blessed. And then Esau, the other son
of Isaac, was blessed. And they both received a blessing.
And whenever this daddy told him, he said, son, all I got's
yours. All I got's yours. Listen to these two blessings.
Genesis 27, and in verse 26, this is when Isaac blessed Jacob. Jacob received, he received the
blessing by God's grace. Genesis 27-26. Now, the scripture
says, his father Isaac said unto him, you remember when Jacob
came before him, he's got on his brother Esau's clothes, you
know, Isaac smells him. He said, You Esau, right? Yeah, yeah. The scripture says,
And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss
me, my son. He came near, kissed him, he
smelled the smell of his raiment, blessed him, said, See the smell
of my son, it is the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.
Therefore, now listen to the blessing that Jacob got. Therefore
God give thee of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth,
the plenty of corn and wine. Let people serve Thee, and nations
shall bow down to Thee. Be Lord over Thy brethren. Here he is. Jacob is a picture
of Christ. Be Lord over Thy brethren. Let
Thy mother's sons bow down to Thee. Cursed is everyone that
curses Thee, and blessed is he that blesseth Thee. Now that's
the blessing. That picture right there of Jacob's
blessing, that was that blessing. Recovered son God, but now this
father had also told the other one. He said everything I got
yours What did he mean? in creation in creation The scripture
says in Genesis 27 38 to 41 that Esau not Jacob have I loved and
Esau have I say hated but Esau got a blessing listen what he
got Genesis 27 verse 38 Esau said unto his father, hast thou
but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my
father. And Esau lifted up his voice
and wept. And Isaac his father answered
and said unto him, behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness
of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above. And by thy
sword shalt thou live and shalt serve thy brother. And it shall
come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, thou shalt
break his yoke from off thy back. hated Jacob because of the blessing
wherewith his father blessed him, and he saw set in his heart
the days of mourning for my father at hand, and then will I slay
my brother Jacob." Now, this boy and his daddy, he told his
daddy, he said, I'm not going in. That mercy that you've shown my brother,
your son, I ain't going in. And his daddy told him, he said,
boy, everything I got is yours. Men outside of Christ, women
outside of Christ, they have the blessing of this time right
here, the blessing of this earth. This is the dew, the rain, the
sun shines on the evil and the wicked. All men are going to
have a blessing, but only those found in Christ are going to
receive the blessing of God's mercy, grace, and compassion.
This boy that would not go in, he didn't go in because he didn't
want to go in. I pray that the Lord teach us afresh. God saves sinners. Sinners. Those that do nothing
but sin. That's all they can do. May the
Lord have mercy on this sinner. For his glory, my good.