The Lord may graciously help
me, I turn your prayerful attention to the chapter that we read,
Luke chapter 15, and read together verse 2 for our text today. Luke 15 and verse 2. And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. Luke 15, verse 2. The first verse in this chapter
tells us that the publicans and sinners drew near to hear the
Lord Jesus. These were considered to be those
that were far off from God, those that were openly seen to be ungodly,
and yet they came and listened gladly to the teachings of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the scribes and Pharisees,
they objected to this. And they tried to put a slur
on the Lord Jesus. And it's amazing how many times
in the word of God, Jesus' enemies made a statement to try and damage
Christ, and yet that statement was gloriously true. And actually
was a badge of honor, not a badge of disparagement. So it is in this second verse,
and the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, this man receive
his sinners and eateth with them. They were trying to say that
if this man was the Christ, if this man was a good man, a righteous
man, he would distance himself from these sinners. He would
distance himself from those that were known to be ungodly. But you see the glorious message
of the gospel is this, that it was said to Joseph with Mary, Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. I came not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance. This is the heart of the gospel
and they couldn't understand it. They hated Christ for it
and yet It is a glorious truth and it's a great comfort to us
today to know that this man receives sinners, doesn't push them away.
He receives them. He welcomes them. He loves them. This is the heart of the gospel.
This man receives sinners and eateth with them. Well, then
we have in verse three, I want to go through this chapter, he
spake this parable unto them saying. It's interesting it says
this parable, he doesn't say he spake three parables unto
them, he spake this parable. And that's why I believe that
these three stories are really all different aspects of one
parable that Jesus spoke. And seeking you see to get these
Pharisees and scribes to really think to really think what they
were doing and what they delighted in. And you see, there's a similarity
in all of these parables. There's something lost in each
of the parable. In the first one, it's a lost
sheep. In the second one, it's the lost coin. In the third one,
it's the lost son or sons. And there's a bringing back of
that. And then there's a rejoicing.
And you see, this is the absolute thing that the scribes and Pharisees
did not want to rejoice. They weren't rejoicing in publicans
and sinners finding mercy. They hated it. I ask you this
morning, what do you think of mercy? Do you love it? Or do you hate it? You might
say, nobody hates mercy. Everybody likes mercy. Do they?
The scribes and Pharisees hated it. because it undermined their
self-righteousness. These other sinners could get
into the kingdom without all this up self-righteousness that
they had. They were angry and of course
Saul of Tarsus was one of those that hailed men and women into
prison and did everything he could to kill Christians because
he hated the mercy of God. until he realised he needed it
himself. And then he loved mercy, he preached
mercy, and he preached Christ and him crucified with everything
he had for the rest of his life. So what think ye of Christ? What
think ye of mercy? Do you need it or do you not
need it? In one sense we all need it,
but do we realise we need it? Well if we look first of all
then at this parable of the hundred sheep, or the story of the hundred
sheep. So there's a hundred sheep and one gets lost and we see
here very much more the shepherd is involved here. We don't hear
of the sheep trying to find its way back and doing all it can
to find its way back. It's very much the shepherd,
the shepherd going to seek and to save that which was lost. So the shepherd goes and seeks
this lost sheep. And when he hath found it, he
layeth it on his shoulders. This is the work of the shepherd.
This is not the sheep doing this. This is the shepherd. He layeth
it on his shoulders and he cometh home and calleth his friends
and neighbors and saying, rejoice with me. You see the whole message
that Christ is giving or Jesus is giving in this account of
this These three different stories I believe are one parable is
the joy in heaven over one sinner that repented. If you go and
read in the revelation and you think of the glories of heaven,
the thousands upon thousands of people around the throne and
the lamb in the midst of the throne, I would have thought
what's going on in earth will make little difference up there.
That would be what I would think. But that's not right. We're specifically
told that there's joy in heaven over one sinner that repents
from a life of separation from God. Well, there's a rejoicing,
you see, and that's what we have. For I have found the sheep which
I had lost. And I said, likewise there is
joy in heaven over one sinner that repented. More than over
99 just persons which need no repentance. Well, if all we had
of the word of God was chapter 15 of Luke's gospel, we might
come to the conclusion that there's a class of people, human beings,
that don't need to repent. They're holy in and of themselves.
They don't need repentance. You might come to that conclusion
from verse 7. Over the 99 just persons which
need no repentance. But if we look at the whole of
scripture, it's abundantly clear that no such people exist. Paul
lays the scythe across all of human nature, all of sin, and
comes short of the glory of God. There is no just persons that
need no repentance. Jesus is almost using sarcasm. That's what you think you are,
scribes and Pharisees. You think you're holy. You don't
think you need repentance. And there's no joy in heaven
over that, because you don't think you need repentance. But
really, you do. You do. And it's the Spirit's
work, you see, to show each child of God their need of repentance. Each one to come to that realisation
that I need to repent. There is no, you can't say well
I'm amongst the 99, I don't need to repent, I didn't do that,
that was that way off child that did that. No, we all need repentance. Well, that's the first parable,
that's her story, part of it. The second scene, if you like,
there's three scenes to this one parable. The second scene
is, either what woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she
lose one piece, does not light a candle and sweep the house
and seek diligently till she find it? And when she found it,
she calleth her friends and neighbors and saying, rejoice with me.
You see, a similar one lost coin, and it's the woman that's doing
the seeking. It's not a coin that suddenly
decides that it's going to find itself and come back to the woman. It's the woman doing the work.
And so in the first two, if you like, scenes of this story, we
have very much pictured the work of God. I came to seek and to
save that which was lost, the lost sheep, the lost coin. And yet you see in the last part
of this parable we have much more the experience of a child
of God. who undergoes this experience
of repentance themselves. And from the younger son's point
of view, far off in this far country, it didn't seem as if
any of his thoughts were to do with the father. The father was
a long way away. It's all to do with what he was
thinking. So from his perspective, it was to do with his thoughts
and how he thought about things. But you see, really, It's the
gift of repentance that that younger son was given. And who
gave that gift? The one who came to seek and
to save that which was lost. And so we see the sovereignty
of God in the first two, as it were, scenes of the parable and
the experimental exercise of a child of God as they come to
realize their lostness, to realize their far offness, to realize
the foolishness of sin. And to think, is there a way
back to God? Will God be merciful to me? Will
he? Well, this parable with a different
scene gives us a true answer to that question. We have a God
that is merciful. See when Moses in Exodus 33 says,
I beseech thee, show me thy glory. He asks God to show him his glory. And then in Exodus 34, God does
just that. in verse 6 of Exodus 34, and
the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the
Lord God, merciful and gracious. This is an attribute of God.
The first attribute that God, in giving her self-disclosure
of himself, says that I am a merciful God. And you see, it's something
that we need to grasp hold of, and it's something that the scribes
and Pharisees hated. What do you think of mercy? What
do you think of mercy? You see, in Micah, we have a
beautiful Micah 7, another word that's very precious. In Micah
7, verse 18, it says, who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth
iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger forever. Why? Because he delighteth in
mercy. And this is really the message,
this is the common thing in each of the three stories, is the
delight that there is in mercy. It's not a grudging, I suppose
I'll have to have this son back. There's a delight. There's a joy. And you see, this
is so central to the character of what God is. Satan would constantly
want to misrepresent God and try and say he's a hard task
masker. He said to Eve in the Garden
of Eden, can't you eat of all the fruit of all the trees of
the garden? Trying to say that God is withholding
something from Adam and Eve that if he was a good God he would
allow them to have every tree. Misrepresenting God and Satan
is ever trying to do that. But God is good. His mercy is
great. So the mercy of God is so important. And how we see that. And the
Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, this man receiveth sinners. They hated the fact that he was
merciful. And eateth with them. I just perhaps need to elaborate
on this eateth with them business. What does that mean? Well, in
terms of our text. I understand in the culture of
the Lord Jesus you didn't sit down and eat with somebody unless
you felt a oneness with them. You would keep separate. You
wouldn't eat with them if you didn't, as it were, have the
same views as them. We go to a restaurant and eat
with many people around us and we think it doesn't necessarily
mean that we share the views of the people in the restaurant.
But you see here in their culture they wouldn't have done that,
I understand. And so, this man receiveth sinners and eateth
with them. That means he had an affinity
to them, he had a close bond with them. And you see, this
is what they were throwing at Christ. If you had a close bond
with these notorious sinners, you must be a sinner yourself.
But you see, that's the wonder of the gospel. became the friend
of these people without becoming one of them, without becoming
tarnished by their sin. He came to rescue them from their
sin, not to condemn them in it. And so this is the nature of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, then we come to the third
scene, if you like, of this one parable in verse 11. And he said, a certain man had
two sons. And the younger of them said
to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth
to me. And he divided unto them his living. So here we're set
the scene now of a, it's not a lost sheep, it's not a lost
coin, it's real people. A son, a father with two sons. And here we're told that what
the younger son says to his father, Father, give me the portion of
goods that falleth to me. This younger son wanted his inheritance
of his father now. Now this was very, very unkind. This is equivalent to going up
to your father and saying, normally the inheritance obviously
would come at the death of your father, but he's really wishing
his father dead. He wants the inheritance now
even though his father's still alive. Give me the portion of
goods that falleth to me. He just wants it now. He doesn't
want to wait. He wants it now. And he wants
it. We find out later what he wants
to do with this money. He wants to blow it. He wants
to use it for wrong ends, for his own selfish ends. Father, give me the portion of
goods that falleth to me. Well, you might wonder, what
is the father going to do here? Is the father going to go ahead
with this request? Well, amazingly, we read, and
he divided unto them his living. He gave, amazingly gave, this
younger son. But interesting, it says, and
he divided unto them his living. That means both sons, not just
the younger son, both sons. And if you look in Deuteronomy
chapter 21, verse 17, it says about how you split the inheritance
with two sons. The elder son in their culture
had a double portion. So if you had two sons you'd
split your estate into three and two thirds of that would
go to the eldest son and one third would go to the younger
son if you had two sons. So the younger of them said unto
his father, father give me the portion of goods that falleth
to me. An incredible request, incredible unkind request. And yet, the father gave him
that request. Gave him this thing, and let
him alone, as it were, to go his own way. And of course, we
think of that in a sense, we have a free will to go our own
way. And yet, you see, with that free
will, we can choose what type of sin we have, but we just choose
sin of some type. And here, this was what this
younger one did, and he divided unto them his living. So the
older son presumably got two-thirds. So all that the father had left
was really, in a sense, the older son's, which is what he says
later. But then we read in verse 13, and not many days after,
the younger son gathered all together. That means he turned
that third of the whole estate into money. so that he could
go off with that money. Not many days after, the younger
son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country
and there wasted his substance with riotous living. So this
is a picture of a reckless son. A son that has no interest in
his father's estate, no interest in his father's love, no interest
in his brother. No interest in those things that
he was brought up in. He wanted to put his back to
it and go his own way and live for the here and now to satisfy
the lust, the pomp, the pride of life. Here is a picture of
the ungodly, as it were, the openly ungodly that don't want
the knowledge of his ways, want to go their own way and live
life to the full. We don't want the shackles of
a Christian upbringing. We want to just live it up. We
want to enjoy all the things now. We want to gratify our lust. The reckless nature of sin. He went into a far country, far
away from his father, far away from his control, far away from
his tender care, as it were. And yet, if we look at the other
two scenes of the story, we see that the father was still involved.
And you see, every child of God that comes back to know the Lord
Jesus Christ, it's because he's been sought by the father. Although, as far as the younger
son was concerned, the father was out of the picture. Out of
the picture, nothing to do with anything. He was on his own,
he had his own control. And there wasted his substance
with riotous living. So living to ourselves. You young
people, you might think, well, when I get older and I'm out
of my parents' control, that's what I'll do. I'll just do what
I want. I won't worry about the rules.
I won't worry about my upbringing. I'll just enjoy myself. Well,
you look how long this poor younger son enjoyed himself. It wasn't
very long, was it? It wasn't very long. Moses said
that the pleasures of sin for a season, and it's a very short
season, you compare it with eternity and it's vanishingly small, wasted his substance with riotous
living. And when he had spent all, you
see, living to ourselves is spending. using our resources, using all
the things that God has given us, our eyes, our ears, our mouths,
our minds, and using them to sin. Very solemn, isn't it? A reckless nature of sin. And
when he'd spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. And here we are. Famine is often,
in the word of God, linked with judgment. You see, this younger
son thought that he could go away and he'd have his money
and he'd enjoy himself and all the time his money was there,
he could buy the friends and buy all the things that he thought
he needed and sinfully wanted. But when he had spent all, there
arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want. You see, the result of sin is
emptiness. Emptiness. The emptiness of sin. You see, Satan says, come with
me and take your fill and fill yourself with all that this world
calls good and great. But it's absolutely empty. Oh, you might say, I know people.
I know people who have gone away from the things of God and they've
lived a luxurious life all their life. Well, you might know somebody
that's done that. But what happened when they died?
Asaph saw that. Asaph thought, well, these ungodly
people, they're getting on fine. And they get on all their life,
perhaps. But you see, they won't get away with a judgment day.
And then they'll come to want. But it's a wonderful blessing.
It's an unspeakable blessing if before the day of judgment,
you come to be in want, if this is you. Because then you have
time to come and think, to come and consider, and to come and
repent, and to come and return. We read in verse 15, you see,
and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country
and sent him into his fields to feed swine. So we are at a
very low level here. Jews, of course, were not allowed
to deal with pigs. They were considered to be unclean
animals by the ceremonial laws. And to feed pigs was, if you
like, a very low and a very despised thing to be doing. But we read,
and he would feign. So this is his solution. He would
go and work with the pigs. And he would fain have filled
his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man
gave unto him. So this low life of feeding the
pigs still didn't satisfy. And you see, when you come to
realize your need of spiritual things, the world cannot give
it to you. It cannot give those things that
are eternal. It cannot make you right with
God. There's only one way, and that is to return. To return
to the very one you've sinned against, the very one you've
turned your back on, the very one you've despised, the very
one you have not honoured. It's hard. Naturally speaking, you'd like
to go anywhere else apart from there, but you see poverty and
penury and hunger, it gnaws away. And we have to think, well, what's
more important? Am I going to even exist? You see, few if any
come to Jesus, the hymn writer says, till reduced to self-despair. But it's a great blessing if
in that poverty, you have an eye to the mercy of God in Christ. See, this younger son did. So
in verse 17, we have this very, very important part. And when he came to himself,
he said, how many servants of my father's have bread enough
and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I perish with hunger. And he's reasoning and he's saying,
I've despised my father's house, but you see, in those days, you'd
have servants who were part of your normal household, and then
you'd have other ones that you hired in just for occasional
extra busy periods. But those ones, if you like,
the lowest of the people, they had enough. The father paid them
sufficiently to be able to have enough to eat. So he starts to
have a new view of his father. Instead of thinking that he's
a hard man that's unkind and selfish, he has different views. I will arise and go to my father
and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against thee, against
heaven and before thee. So now he's considering his way
and he's considering his resolution to come with repentance. If you were to talk to the younger
son at this stage, what sort of welcome do you think you're
going to get back? Well, he would have just been happy if he could
have just been one of those hired servants. Not sit at his father's
table, not even consider that he was a son, but just be one
of the hired workers. That would have been mercy enough.
And you see, as we come back to God, as we realise something
about lostness. I don't think any lost person
has any idea of the mercy of God in Christ. They have an inclination
of it, but they don't understand the extent of it. They cannot
believe the sort of welcome that he actually got. He would have
been happy with the smallest, a crumb from the master's table.
But like that woman, the Syrophoenician woman, she then had the whole
doors open that she could have what she want, be it unto thee
as thou wilt. You see, she was just happy with
the crumbs. But you see, the nature of God
is he is merciful. And this is a great attribute
that we need to understand, and we need to be encouraged to venture
on. I will arise and go to my father
and say unto him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before
thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Here you see
that he's not trying to check out a good place for himself.
He realizes that he deserves nothing. He's had his share of
the inheritance. Nothing is due to him anymore. And you see, as in Adam and Adam
fell, we have no portion naturally back in heaven. ruined it, we've
fallen. But that's where mercy comes.
We can come back to God, the one that we've sinned against.
And I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one
of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his
father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him.
So here we see that the father was not neutral concerning this
younger son. He hadn't forgotten him. And
you see, just as the shepherd was seeking the sheep that was
lost, and just as the woman was searching for the lost coin,
so God is come to seek and to save that which is lost. But
from the sinner's side, they don't see it like that. They
just see themselves as lost, but yet God, as it were, put
those thoughts of repentance, the gift of repentance. It is
a gift. You see, there's different sorts
of repentance. There can be a repentance like
Judas's. Judas realized he'd done wrong. He gave the money back to the
high priest, the 30 pieces of silver, and he then went out
and hanged himself. In one sense, he was repentant
of what he did, but he didn't behold the mercy of God in Christ. He didn't think he could go back
to God. He needed to go back to God.
This younger son needed to go back to God, go back to his father. But it's interesting, you see,
another point. I have sinned against heaven and before thee.
And this is a very important point. David picks it up in Psalm
51, the penitential psalm. Against thee, thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. You say, but you've
sinned against Bathsheba. You've sinned against Uriah.
against thee the only have I sinned. Fundamentally when we sin, first
of all we sin against the law giver. The one who gave the law
we sin against. And then we sin against all the
others that are around us. So he had sinned against Bathsheba,
he had sinned against the others. But primarily we sin against
God. And this is what the younger
son picks up here. I have sinned against heaven,
against God. and before thee as my father
but he and he arose and came to his father so this resolution
that he had in the land that the land that was far in a far
country he then put into practice he didn't just think about it
and then just do nothing he he returned you see Jesus draws
the chosen race by his sweet resistless grace. He draws this
one. He couldn't see it. This younger
son, he couldn't see that he was being drawn. All he felt
were his hunger pangs. All he felt was his lameness. He hadn't got the shoes on his
feet and all the stinking from the pigs. That's all he could
see. And yet he was being drawn, you see. And the father was out
looking for him. You see here, the heart of the
father was towards towards this son. But when he was yet a great way
off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on
his neck and kissed him. So this is now he's showing his
approval and I understand that for a father, for as it were
a more mature man to run was seen to be undignified in that
culture. You move slowly and graciously
as it were, you didn't run. That was seen to be not proper. But you see here the father as
it were, he's happy, you see, to make himself of no reputation,
that this son who had no reputation, who had blown his reputation,
should be welcomed. And how we see there's a picture
of the gospel, you see, he made himself of no reputation, that
his church should have a reputation. should be sinners saved by grace. And how, you see, we don't read
it in this parable, we can't read every aspect of the Gospel
in this parable, but how could the Father receive him like that?
We know from the rest of Scripture that the only reason the Father
could act towards this wayward son was because the blame, the
sin, the curse had been transferred to another. had been transferred
to his only begotten son, so that the Lord Jesus had took
the sin of his church, his people, his wayward people, his backsliding
people, and there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. And his son said unto him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more
worthy to be called thy son. But he's interrupted in the end
of verse 21. He's not able to say, he's not
given time to say, make me as one of thy hired servants. The
father is giving commands to his servants. But the father
said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him. And put a ring on his hand and
shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and
let us eat and be merry. Here is a celebration. The father
has been looking for this day for years. And here you see We
don't know, from what we've read so far of the older son, we don't
know. He was, it seems, dutifully caring
in the fields for his father's farm. We don't know what the
heart of the older brother was at this stage. But sadly, later
on, we see that he didn't share, he didn't share his father's
love for mercy. He wasn't praying for his younger
son to come back. It's clear he wasn't. But the
father was. But the father said to his servants,
bring forth the best robe and put it on him. The best robe. Well, you see, we're reminded
here of what does the Lord Jesus do to his people? He puts a robe
of righteousness upon them that he has worked out so that they
are seen to be beautiful. Not in their own beauty, not
in their own pig's clothes, defiled by the pigs, but he puts, you
see, the best robe upon him. A ring on his hand that denotes
the eternal love of the father to the son. love, you see, and
shoes on his feet. If we want to run, we want to
walk. Yesterday on the stones, it's
difficult to walk fast on stones. Some people manage to, but most
people find it very difficult to walk on stones. But you see,
if we're going to walk and run in the ways of God's commandment,
we're going to need some shoes on our feet. Shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. Well, this younger son never
expected this welcome. So Jesus is saying, you Pharisees and scribes, you see
these sinners that you consider need to come with repentance,
they are coming with repentance and I will receive them. That
is the nature of my mercy, the nature of the merciful nature
of God. But the father said to the servants,
bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Put the ring on
his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf
and kill it. See here, there was going to
be a feast now. We think of when the returning
prodigal comes back. There's a feasting, isn't there?
John 6, Jesus speaks specifically that there is a feasting on Christ.
His people feast upon him. They have a new object, they
didn't feast on it before, but now they do. The lamb as it had
been slain is the centrepiece of glory. Well, if you think
of a lamb as it had been slain, naturally it doesn't seem that
attractive to the natural mind. But when you think that that
lamb is in your place. That lamb has been put to death
so that you could be received. You could have your names, as
it were, restored from that which had been lost. Then you start
to love mercy. You start to have a new view
of what mercy means and how precious it is. And you see, then there
is a love to God. So this younger son no doubt
had that deep love to the father. He never appreciated his father
in this way before but now he sees his father as being really
kind, really merciful and he loves his father. We spoke this
morning of the The great principle of the Ten Commandments of the
law of God, that it was to love the Lord your God. This is the
deep sense of it. And as we, God willing, this
evening, as we want to look at the oldest son. You see, he didn't
love the father. He served the father. You say,
how do you know he didn't love him? Well, you see what he says
about the father later. He basically calls him a cruel
taskmaster that just makes him slave away all the time. Is that
how you see the things of God? You see, really I think these
two sons picture the one who went away
and found his portion in this life and just was an ungodly
son and the other one was a religious son. He did everything that he
was meant to do outwardly and yet he also did not have a heart
of love for the father. We can't say that from the beginning
of the parable but by the end we can see that. He did not love
the father. And the beginning of the law
is thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Yes,
you might serve him, but you need to love him. You see, we
can try and keep those 10 commandments. And of course, Saul of Tarsus
was a classic example of that. I think last time I was with
you, I read with you Philippians 3, where Paul makes this statement
as touching the law blameless. That's what he thought. He kept,
he could tick all of those 10 commandments and say, done, done,
done, done. Kept. And yet, when Jesus, and
indeed in Deuteronomy, when it says that the heart of the law
is to love the Lord, he didn't. Because God loves mercy. And
Paul didn't. Saul of Tarsus didn't love mercy.
They fought against it because it made all their righteous self-righteousness
crumble down. So I ask you as we come to a
close this morning, two sons, man with two sons, I believe
both those sons needed God's mercy. And actually as we go
through the second account, you'll see that there was a great kindness
of the father to the older son too. It can be preached that
the younger son, yes, he was received, but the Pharisees and
the sinners, oh, we don't like those, and Jesus didn't like
those. Well, yes, he didn't like their
self-righteousness, but they were sinners in a different way
than the publicans and sinners. But he came to seek and to save
that which was lost. Jew, Gentile, openly profane,
particularly godly. outwardly in an outward sense.
So really that incorporates everyone in this chapel in that sense.
You see this father, you might say but surely how are you taking
that word father, a real father? Well I'm taking it in this way,
if you look in Acts 17 when Paul was on speaking at Athens, he
makes this statement. in Acts 17 verse 26 and hath
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face
of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and
the bounds of their habitation that they should seek the Lord
if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be
not far from every one of us for in him we live and move and
have our being As certain of our own poets have said, for
we are also his offspring, for as much then as we are the offspring
of God. Paul here, preaching our things,
used the whole race of humanity as the offspring of God. I realise
there's different views of the fatherhood, but in one sense
he is the father of all humanity. And in that sense, I think the
father here is, he has those two sons you see. Ones that are
far off in a worldly sense and others in a religious sense.
And all of them need to come to realize that they need repentance.
They need repentance from going away from the things of God and
going out into the world. They need to come back. But if
God opens the eyes of those people who have spent their life going
to church, and yet feel that they're gaining salvation by
going to church. Just like that older brother,
he's gaining salvation by farming that field. And he feels his
father is a hard taskmaster that doesn't really pay him very well
back. Is that how you see coming to chapel? We do it, but it doesn't
really pay very well. Not really very good wages, but
we do it anyway. Or do we love the Lord our God?
Do we seek to love him and to walk in his ways? You see, there's
such a difference in love. If we love somebody, we do it
willingly. And you see, the Ten Commandments,
the right keeping of that law, the right is to do it in love,
out of the one we love. And this, you see, is the great
thing that is so important. This man receives sinners and
eateth with them. Have you, whether you're more
like the older son or the younger son, have you become that sinner
that Jesus is willing to receive and willing to eat with? Whether
you've always gone to chapel and always done what you're supposed
to do, or whether you've gone far off from God, you all need
to have that clean heart. so that you know the Lord and
love the Lord and live for him. So there is no 99 just persons
that need no repentance. They don't exist. We all have come short of the
glory of God and we all need to come back and realise that
the mercy of God in Christ is everything for time and for eternity. May we repent and believe the
gospel. Amen.