Let's just begin here in Luke
15, verse 1. It says, Then drew near unto
Christ Jesus our Lord all the publicans and sinners for to
hear Him. Publicans and sinners. These
despised and lowly people that were just all scouring, just
the dregs. They drew near to hear Him. And
the Pharisees and the scribes, these were the religious folks.
These were the folks who had the Scriptures. These were the
folks who searched the Scriptures. These were the folks who were
in the synagogue and walking about and making long prayers
and making sure everybody saw what great things they were doing
for God. They were sitting there and they saw all these sinners
come to Him and they said, this man receiveth sinners and eateth
with them." They murmured this. This is what they thought in
their heart. This was what their heart was.
Christ received those sinners. He received them when they came
to Him. Sat and ate with them. Taught
them the gospel. Received them. That's what He
does. He receives sinners. That's who
our Lord receives. He receives sinners. sinners. And these men, they rejected
Christ and they rejected those sinners. They rejected both.
In verse 3, and he spake this parable unto them. And I know
we're used to thinking of this as like a bunch of different
parables, but really it's just one parable. It's It's one parable
and it's showing us five different aspects of this one truth that
the Lord's teaching. Five aspects of it. I want you
to see this. This will be our divisions. The
first thing the Lord tells us about, we see the shepherd rejoicing. The second thing we see is the
woman rejoicing. The third thing we see is the
son who was dead and made alive, the son who was lost and found. We see him rejoicing. And then
we see, fourthly, the father rejoicing. And then, fifthly,
we see the son who rejoiced not. The son who rejoiced not. Now,
when we look at this, I don't want you to just look at Israel. They were very self-righteous. I don't want you just to look
at self-righteous people in this world. I want you to realize
that we've got two people in us. We've got an old man and
a new man, and that old man's full of what we see here in these
scribes and Pharisees. This is so of religious folks,
self-righteous folks, what we're going to see. But this is so
of me and you and our flesh. It doesn't rain anymore, but
it sure does rear his ugly head far too often, more than we like,
more than we want. But let's look here at first.
Let's see everybody. I've titled this, The Son That
Rejoiced Not. And if you wanted to subtitle
it, we could call it All Happy But One. All Happy But One. All right, let's look here at
this shepherd rejoicing, verse 3. And he spake this parable
unto them, saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep,
if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in
the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it."
Now the whole focus right here is the shepherd, isn't it? The
whole focus is on the shepherd. Christ is the shepherd. He's
the shepherd and those given him of the Father are his sheep.
Let's read 1 Peter. 1 Peter is quoting from Isaiah. Isaiah said, All we like sheep
have gone astray. And Peter said, Christ came and
He, His own self, bear our sins and His own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes you were healed. For you were a sheep going astray,
but now are returned unto the shepherd and bishop of our souls,
the shepherd of our souls. Christ is the shepherd. And He
doesn't come just to seek. He comes to seek and to save
that which is lost. It says here, He sought, in that
parable it says He sought until He found it. He seeks and He
finds all of His. He finds each one. Look at verse
5 now. And when He hath found it, He
lays it on His shoulders rejoicing. He's got much joy. The shepherd
rejoicing, and when he cometh home, he calls together his friends
and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found
my sheep which was lost. Rejoice with me, I found my sheep
which was lost. Now, in the next verse, the Lord
makes a statement of truth about this part of the parable, what
He's teaching right here. Verse 7, I say unto you, that
likewise joy, joy shall be in heaven, in heaven over one sinner
that repenteth, that repents more than over 99 just persons
which need no repentance. Joy in heaven. Christ is in glory. He's in the shepherd. The great
shepherd has gone to glory. And he's in glory. And he rejoices
over one sinner that repented. And he says, and there's joy
throughout heaven. The whole host of heaven there
are all rejoicing with him over this one sinner that repents. One sinner that repents. Who
gets the glory for repentance? Who gets the glory for repentance?
You're going to see what repentance is right here when you look at
this. When you see who gets the glory for repentance, we'll see
something about what real repentance is. Look here. Look here. Who gets repentance? The shepherd,
he said there, the shepherd calls his friends and his neighbors
together. When he's home, when he got home,
he calls all his friends and neighbors and he says unto them,
rejoice with me. For I have found my sheep which
was lost." Now let's think about what repentance is. The shepherd
owned his sheep. He owned the sheep. In eternity,
our Lord Jesus Christ, all his children were given to him of
the Father. His sheep were given to him. He owned them all from
eternity. And we all went astray. Every one of His sheep went astray
in Adam. And we went astray as soon as
we'd be born, speaking lies. And in all our rebellion, we
went astray from Him. What repentance is going to be
brought back home to God? That's repentance to be brought
from where we were to where we are now. To be brought from where
we went to back to presence with Him. Well, who gets the glory
for that? Well, the shepherd sought the
sheep. He came to where the sheep was
in the fullness of time. Christ came right to where we
were. The shepherd came to where His
sheep were. He sought them. The shepherd
found the sheep. He always does. None are lost
in Christ. He's been finding His sheep from
the day this work was put into His hands. He's the one who was
the voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day after
Adam sinned against God. He's the Word. He's the essential
Word. That Word that was made flesh
and dwelt among us, that's the Word that came to Adam in the
garden. He's the one who came to Noah and said, Noah, build
an ark. He's the one who called Abraham
and said, Abraham, come out of Uruk-Haldes. He's the one who
called Peter. and said, Peter, follow me. He's
the one who called the Apostle Paul when he was rioting in his
religion on his road to Damascus trying to kill God's people. He went to him and arrested him,
brought that sheep home. He's the one. He's always been
bringing his sheep home. And the shepherd, he laid the
sheep on his shoulders. When he found it, he laid it
on his shoulders. Christ When He went to the cross,
He took all His sheep on His shoulders. He took all the sin
of all His sheep on Himself. He bore that weight on Himself. And all the government's been
put on His shoulder. And He's the one from the beginning
that's been calling out His sheep, because He's the one who entered
in the surety ship. And even before He did it on
the cross, before God the Father, He'd done it. Because he's the
surety for his people. And then he came and did it. And he bore all that weight.
And now the whole government is his, as it has been since
the father gave it to him. And he's the one bringing all
his sheep. And the shepherd in this illustration carried that
sheep all the way home. Christ came, He took His sheep
upon Himself, went to the cross, the sins of all His sheep, He
bore their sins away, purged them of all their sins, and He
took all His sheep with Him into glory with Him. And that's where
all His sheep are right now, in Christ. Quicken together with
Christ. Even when we're dead, quicken
together with Christ. Raised with Him, according to
Ephesians 2. We're raised with Him already.
Repentance has a lot more to do with what Christ has done
than what you do and I do. It's being carried from the wilderness
where we were back into God's presence. That's what the shepherd
did. Are you among, let me ask you
this, are you among the 99? Are you among the majority who
are just and don't need any repentance? Are you one of these lost sheep
who need to be carried home, who the shepherd had to come
and had to save and to carry home himself? That's who we're
talking about here. These ones that came to him that
were the refuse and the ones that everybody reviled, that
they didn't like, those sinners, that's who he came and saved.
That's who his lost sheep are. The Pharisees thought themselves
just. They thought they didn't need any repentance, and they
couldn't rejoice with Christ. They couldn't rejoice with Him.
Until we're the lost sheep, until we're the lost sheep that's found,
we can't rejoice with Christ over His marvelous works. But,
but, all heaven, He said all heaven, full of His lost sheep
that He's already found, all heaven where He is, He calls
all those when He comes into glory, He called all his neighbors
together when he went home. He called them all together in
heaven, he said, and said, Rejoice with me, I found my lost sheep. I brought them all home. And
every time he brings one, every time he brings one into this
fold, All heaven rejoices with him because he's the one that
brought them there. You see that? So first we see
the shepherd rejoicing. The shepherd rejoicing. Then
look at what we see next. We see the woman rejoicing. Look at verse 8. He says 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 Now here you have first of all you got a woman
What's this? Who's this woman a picture of?
this woman is a picture of the Holy Spirit of God working through
Christ's church in this earth through his gospel. That's what
this woman is a picture of. A picture of God the Holy Spirit
working through Christ's church. His sheep he's already called
and already redeemed through the Spirit of God through this
gospel. You remember woman was given by God. You know how she
was created? You know where she came from?
She came from Adam. She came out of Adam. And she
was given to Adam to be a help me for Adam. You know where Christ's
church comes from? You know where the, I'm talking
about the church in the earth. I'm talking about his saints
in this earth that he draws. You know where we're born from?
We're born from Christ, the last Adam. We're born out of him,
through his blood. And we're born and assembled
together, just like Eve was assembled together to be a help meet. to Christ our head, the last
Adam, the last Adam. Now, we don't have any power
in ourselves. We don't have any ability in
ourselves. We don't have anything in ourselves. This woman, this
woman, she needed a light. She needed a light. But she had
a light. She's searching for a lost piece
of silver. That's what it says, for either
woman having 10 pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, she's
looking for one piece of silver. You think about a piece of silver.
It's precious. It's precious. It's lost. It can't do anything. It's lifeless,
dead, just a piece of silver. But it's precious. She wanted
to find it because it's precious. God's people that are called
already, God's elect to His sheep that have already been called,
God's elect are precious to us. They're precious to us. They're
lost. They're dead in trespasses and
sins. And we don't know where they
are. We don't have any way of knowing where they are. We have
no idea where they are. But, we're looking for them.
We're looking for them. Just like this woman was looking
for that lost coin. Just like that shepherd went
and found that sheep. We're looking for that lost coin.
Here, before it was the sheep that was a picture of a sinner.
Here, it's this coin that's a picture of a sinner. But she didn't have
any light to find this. She couldn't see and do it. She
had to have a light to do it. And she had a candle. Our light's
Christ. Our light is Christ. The Holy
Spirit illuminates us. By the Holy Spirit, He illuminates
His house, just like a candle, when you light up a candle. And
the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified is the light. by
which the lost are found. It's the light by which the lost
are found. Look over at 2 Corinthians 4, 3. I just think this verse
illustrates all of that just so clearly. 2 Corinthians 4,
4, 3. Paul says, but if our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. Just like this coin
was lost. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest, here
comes this light of the candle, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them, should shine unto them, just like a candle lighting the
house, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves.
That's not what we're doing. We're not preaching ourselves
here. We're not saying we've got any ability. That's not what
the Lord is saying. We preach not ourselves, but
we preach Christ Jesus the Lord. We're saying He's doing it. He's
the shepherd. He's doing the finding. He's the light. It's
His Spirit that's doing the illuminating. He's the one. It's His gospel.
And because we believe Him, we just set forth the gospel. And
ourselves, you're servants for Jesus' sake. That's all. We're
just serving. for your sake, for Jesus' sake,
for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We have this
treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may
be of God and not of us. Now let me ask you what that
woman did. Did she light this candle She's needing this candle
to see in that house. She's needing this candle to
find that coin. Does she light that candle and
stick it like under this podium right here and then go walking
through the house to see if she could find the coin? That'd be
dumb, wouldn't it? The Lord said, He doesn't light
a candle and put it under a bushel. He said, I didn't give you light.
He said, you're the light of this world. He said, I didn't
give you this light in order for you to hide it. I didn't
give you this gospel of the glorious good news of Christ Jesus for
you to try to dampen the light a little bit, hide the light
a little bit so it doesn't illuminate the room. He said, I gave it
to you for you to just Let it shine, just declare it, just
set it forth. You think when you walk through
a room with a candle, you walk through the room with a candle
behind you and you're leading the candle or you walk through
a room with a candle out front of you and you're walking behind
the candle so you can see. Christ is the light. We're following
Him. We're walking after the Spirit
as children of light, following Him. And He's the light. He's
the light that's going to light up that lost coin. Look here. She had a broom, too.
A broom. And she was sweeping the house
with the broom. You get the picture here? Our Gospel does that. It
sweeps like a broom. The Holy Spirit stirs up a lot
of dust by the Gospel, just like a broom does. This gospel stirs
up just like a broom does. You know why? Because it's what
I said to you in the first hour. This gospel is a gospel of judgment
and it's a gospel of righteousness accomplished. It's a gospel of
judgment and of righteousness accomplished. And when a man
finds out, the man who's self-wise, when he hears this gospel, that
God's wisdom was not to entrust a man with saving himself, but
to entrust his son with it, who is the wisdom of God, when he
hears that, it makes him angry. because he wants to be his own
wisdom. When a self-righteous man hears that it's Christ who
is the righteousness, this thing has to do with righteousness.
And when a self-righteous man hears that, he gets angry. It
stirs him up. When the self-sanctified man
hears that it's Christ who has made his people holy and perfected
forever, that stirs him up because he wants to sanctify himself.
He wants to make himself holy. When there's a man who's trying
to buy his redemption, to purchase his redemption with the corruption
of the corrupt silver and gold of his own works and his own
will and his own way. When he hears our gospel, it
makes him angry. But by this same word, the Holy
Spirit enters in and he strips a man of all his wisdom, of all
his righteousness, of all his holiness, of all of his cankered
silver. And when it strips him, Isaiah
said, he said, I'm going to sweep away the refuge of lies. And that's exactly what he does.
He sweeps away the refuge of lies. And he makes a man to behold
judgment is accomplished, righteousness accomplished. He's laid it to
the line. He's laid it to the plummet.
It's full. It's done. It's complete. It
all lines up according to God's holiness. And He makes the man
whom He illuminates by the Spirit, He makes that man to rejoice
in that. And now look at this. Verse 9, it says, And when she
hath found it, she calls her friends and her neighbors together. The woman does. And she says,
Rejoice with me. I found the peace which I had
lost. And again, the Lord gives us a word of truth about what
He just said, verse 10. Likewise, I say unto you, there's
joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. When you think of angels of God,
do you think of heaven? That's what normally comes to
our mind first, doesn't it? Well, in that first part of this
parable, the Lord said, when the shepherd has brought his
sheep on, there's rejoicing in heaven. Here, he says, there's
rejoicing in the presence of God's angels. Look over at Galatians
4. I'll just show you one scripture on this. Galatians 4. The church of God in heaven and
in earth. Every believer that makes up
his bride, they're angels of God. And this woman called all
her neighbors and she said, rejoice with me. And when God's done
this amongst believers and called out one of his sheep amongst
us, the angels of God who rejoice are his elect, he's already called,
they're his believers that he's already called. Did you know
that you're an angel of God, you who believe? You're an angel
of God. Look at Galatians 4.14. And my
temptation, which was in my flesh, he despised not, Paul said, nor
rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ
Jesus, ambassador for him." It's one of his angels sent to you.
Every sinner in heaven and earth rejoices in Christ when He calls
out another one of His lost sheep. So now you see, first we got
all of heaven rejoicing. Christ and all of heaven rejoicing
with Him. The host of heavenly angels rejoicing
with Him. And now we got the believers
in the house like this woman who were His church, His people. We got all of us rejoicing together. in the presence of God over this
lost sheep that's found. The woman rejoicing. Heaven and
earth rejoicing in Christ all at one time. Then thirdly, we've
got the son who was lost. He's rejoicing. So far he hasn't
said anything about the sheep that was lost or the coin that
was lost. Now we've got him talking to us about the lost son that's
rejoicing. Again, I'll tell you, we went
over this Thursday night in great detail, so I'm going to kind
of go through this a little quicker. But look at verse 11. He said
a certain man had two sons. Now, we're talking about the
younger of these two sons right now. 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. The father did. And his boy took everything his
father gave him, and he wasted all of it. That's exactly what
you and I did, exactly what we did. Now 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.
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that
land, and he began to be in want." Now this boy is an illustration
of one of those lost sheep of Christ. You know, the sheep actively
went astray. The sheep is an alive thing.
It actively went away from it. The coin's a dead thing. It's
dead. And that's us by nature. We're
alive in sin, actively going away from God, and at the same
time, we're dead in trespass and sin, just as lifeless as
a dead coin. That's what we are. If you join
with the people of this world in riotous living, riotous living,
kicking up your heels with this world and live like in righteous
living. It's going to all be end in waste
and God must intervene. He must cause a mighty famine
in our souls so that we're in want. And then the second thing
is this son tried in vain to save himself, not but joining
with the citizens of his father's country, but of that far country. Look at verse 15. He went and
joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him
into his fields to feed swine. That's what the citizen of that
country did. He sent him to work feeding swine. And he would fain
have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat.
When he went to work for this man, the only thing he had to
eat was the husk that the same food the pigs was eating. That's
all he had to eat. And no man gave anything to him.
That's a good description of what it is to trade righteous
living for a more honorable living. That won't feed you. That just
won't feed you. That will not feed us. That's
what he did. He traded his right to his living.
He turned over a new leaf. He said, I'm going to go get
a job. I'm going to straighten up flour right now. And he did.
And it's a good picture of joining with this world's religion, citizens
of this country. They will send you to work. And
you will eat the same food as swine are eating, just husk.
And you won't get anything out of it. It won't feed you. And
no man will give anything to you. No man can. No man can give
you anything in this world. This bread from heaven's got
to come from God. It's got to come from the shepherd,
through his gospel, through the Holy Spirit, and it's going to
come in truth. And then we see here in that
the Spirit of God must quicken us. He must wake us up. He must
bring us to see. First He brings us to see ourselves,
verse 17, when He came to Himself. He came to, He woke up. God quickened
Him, He made Him wake up. Awake, O thou sleeper! That's
what God says. That's what we are. We're going
through life like we're under some kind of anesthesia. And
God wakes us up. And when He did, He saw the goodness
of His Father and what His Father had provided for His servants.
And He saw His own emptiness. Look at verse And he said, how
many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare? My father is good. My father's
good to his people. That's what he said. He's good
to everybody that he has to charge over. My father's good. It's
the goodness of God that leads sinners to repentance. You know
that? It's the goodness of God that leads sinners to repentance.
And he looked at all the goodness of his father and all the goodness
of his father to his servants and he said, and look at me,
I'm just in hunger. I got nothing. And he saw his
sin. All this was against his father
and it was all before his father. Look at verse 18. I will arise
and go to my father and I'll say unto him, father, I've sinned
against heaven and before thee. That's what we have to be given
a heart to realize. We've sinned against God and
it's all been before him. He's seen it all. He knows it
all. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in your sight. That's what David And this repentance
is not a one time thing. Repentance is a broken heartedness,
contract spirit. It's a state of being brethren. It's where the sinner is all
the time. We constantly repent of ourselves and we constantly
believe on Christ. It's not stopping. It never stops.
Look at verse 19. He saw there wasn't any merit
in himself. I'm not even worthy to be called thy son. That's
where we got to be broad. We don't have any worthiness
in us. He was made willing to ask mercy and was willing to
merely just be a servant. Verse 19. He said, I'm going
to go to him and tell him I'm not even worthy to be your son.
I've sinned against you. Just make me one of your hired
servants. And he's not sure his father would do this. He just
said, I'm just going to go and cast all my mercy on him and
just say, Father, I'm at your mercy. You don't owe me anything. I've sinned against you. I've
done this in your sight. I'm not worthy to even be called
a son. If you would just make me a servant in your house, could
you do that for me, Lord? Just mercy, mercy. All that was done in his heart.
He never moved a muscle yet. First he came to himself, then
he came to his father. Look at verse 20. And he arose
and came to his father. Salvation is a heart work. Do
you understand that? It's a heart work. It's something
that's in this heart. That's where evil proceeds from.
Adulteries and fornications and thefts and all the corruption
of the broken law is in here. The broken law is what we are
in us. What we do outwardly is the fruit
resulting from what we are in our heart. This work has got
to be done in the heart. A new heart has got to be created
that says, that's all I am. Father, just have mercy on me.
Just have mercy. All right? So we see in this
third and fourth point kind of going to go together because
we see this son, he's being brought to rejoice, but now we're going
to see right here God the Father rejoicing. Look here. Christ
is describing the great mercy and goodness of God the Heavenly
Father. Look at verse 20. But when this boy's father was
yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion. and ran and fell on his neck
and kissed him. When God's father's children
were a great way off, he saw us. He saw us from eternity,
from everlasting. He saw us when we were born into
sin and lost and in our rebellion. He's always had an eye on his
child of grace, always has. always have. If you come to God,
it's because God saw you a great way off and did everything necessary
to bring you to yourself and draw you to him. And he had compassion
on him and he ran to him. God loved his children. He loved
every one of his sons, not that we love God. Did this boy have
love for his father? No. He left him and didn't want to
have anything to do with him. God loved us. His father loved
his children, and he ran. He ran to his children. He ran
by Purposing from eternity exactly
how he's going to save his children. He ran by sending his son in
the fullness of time into this earth. He ran in redeeming his
people, being about his father's business. He ran in resurrecting
his son to glory. He ran in bringing his gospel
to his children at this time of his season of his love. He
runs in bringing his people to himself by quickening us by his
spirit and drawing us to himself. Blessed, happy, Rejoicing is
the man that thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee.
That's the gospel. And that's what we're seeing
here. That's the gospel. I know a little boy. I know a little
boy who left his father one time at a parade, at a busy parade,
and he tried to go home by himself. And he went two blocks from Main
Street, all the way to his, trying to get to his own house. He was
gonna go get his bicycle. And he got halfway home to his
house, and he didn't see anybody he knew, and he didn't see anything
he recognized, and anybody that gave anything to him or anything.
And he turned, and he ran back to his father, back to where
his father was. He ran to him. And his father
looked up and saw him coming. And he was crying his eyes out. His heart was broke. His heart
was broke. And he was just contrite in spirit. He was broken in spirit. And
he ran up and he started saying to his father, oh, I'm so sorry
I ran away from you. I'm so sorry I tried to go home
by myself. I'm so sorry I tried to do that.
He ran to him and his heart was broke. And you know what his
father did? His father saw him when he was
a great way off. And his father, he had compassion
on him. And his father ran to him, and
fell on his neck, and kissed him. This was his son. This was his son. This was His
Son. And He kissed Him with kisses
of mercy, not kisses of anger. He kissed Him with kisses of
rejoicing, not kisses of rebuke. And that's how God the Father
receives sinners who come brokenhearted, confessing their sin and begging
His mercy. Look at verse 21. And the son
said unto him, Father, I've sinned against heaven in thy sight.
I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. And he's just about
to ask, can I just be a servant? Would you just have mercy on
me, and I'll be a servant in your house? And the father said,
but? Just stop talking, boy. But the
father said to his servants, you bring forth the best robe
and put it on him. Christ the robe of righteousness.
Bring this robe and put it on Him. Bring and put a ring on
His hand. Look at that ring. See that ring?
They don't have beginning or end. They don't have beginning
or end. He said, bring this ring and
put it on his hand. Give him a token to show him,
to seal him, to make him constantly know that my love for him hadn't
ever had a beginning and it don't ever have an end. It's an everlasting
covenant of grace. It'll never stop. It just keeps
going. It keeps going uninterrupted,
unbroken. And he said, and put shoes on
his feet This is the shoes of the gospel of peace. They beautify
the feet. They strengthen the feet. They
preserve the feet. They guide the feet. They protect
the feet from the stones and thorns in the path. They're shoes
that won't ever wear out. This is the gospel of peace.
This boy was dressed from head to toe. Head to toe. He had a
robe. He had a ring. He had shoes.
He's dressed. And who dressed him? God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and the blood of
Christ Jesus the Lamb. He dressed. You know what He
is? He's complete. He's complete. Verse 24. Oh, and verse 23. Bring here
the fatted calf and kill it. That's the best food that God
provides. The best food. This gospel of
Christ The fullness, the fatness of Christ and Him crucified. Fatness of Christ and Him killed. Crucified. But He's risen again
and we eat of this and this makes us merry. Don't it? It makes
us rejoice. This boy is rejoicing. He said, verse 24, for this my
son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and
they begin to be merry. Now, you see what we've seen
so far? We've got Christ the Shepherd rejoicing, and all of
heaven rejoicing. We've got the woman, by the Holy
Spirit, made to rejoice, all the brethren rejoicing over this lost son
that's been found. We've got the Son rejoicing.
He's eating and feasting and just rejoicing. His Father's
received Him. We've got the Father rejoicing. happy. Everybody's rejoicing. Now we come to the son who didn't
rejoice, the son who rejoiced not. There was one who couldn't
rejoice. Why not? Verse 25, now his elder
son was in the field. He was out there working. He
was being a good boy. He was out there working in that
field. And as he came and drew nigh
to the house, he heard music and dancing. Music and dancing. Everybody's just having a feast.
They're having a big party there. They're just rejoicing. They're
happy. They're happy. Heaven and earth rejoicing over
Christ and what He's accomplished. They're rejoicing. And he called
one of the servants and he asked what these things meant. He didn't
have a clue what was going on. He didn't understand any of this. He'd been out in the field working
And he missed it all. He'd been out working. He missed
it all. Didn't understand any of it.
Look at verse 27. And he said unto him, the servant
said, your brother's come. Now father has killed the fatted
calf because he received him safe and sound. That's our gospel,
brethren. Our brother has come. Christ
has come. And our father has killed the
fatted calf. He's killed him in our place.
And he received him safe and sound, back in the glory with
him. And that's how we're called. That's how we're brought. That's
how these lost sons are brought into His presence. And He's given
us this gospel and He keeps feeding us and we're safe and sound in
Him. Oh, this older brother, he's going to be so happy, isn't
he? He's going to just rejoice. His brother is alive and he's
safe and sound. He's going to be so thrilled
about this. Look at verse 28. And he was
angry. He was angry. And he would not
go into the house. He wouldn't go in. A fine law
keeper like this boy was wouldn't about to go in there and dance
and enjoy some music, good music. He wouldn't dare and do that.
He wouldn't dare do that. A man that's trying to bring
himself to God by his own righteous won't dare dance to the music
I'm playing for you this morning. He won't dare drink of this wine
I'm setting for you this morning. He won't dare feast in this feast
I'm setting for you today. He'll get angry about it and
he won't even go in the house where this feasting is going
on. Why not? Why not? The Father went out,
it says. came His Father out and treated
Him. I hope right now that the Father comes out. I hope God
the Father comes right now to everybody listening and I hope
He speaks in clear terms that we can hear and brings us to
ourselves. Listen to this. Why didn't He
rejoice with everybody? Because His heart was evil. His heart was full of self-righteousness. He thought He made Himself righteous. Look, verse 29, he answering
said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee. That's what I've done for you.
That's the first thing he said. Look at what I've done for you.
Look at how long I've done this for you. And then the second
thing he said, and neither Neither transgressed I at any time thy
commandment. I've never disobeyed you once.
Let me ask you, let's just see, do we have some honest children
here? Is there any child here just before your mother and your
father sitting right here right now? You don't have to raise
your hand or anything. I'm just asking you to be honest
about this. Is there any one of you, just
naturally speaking, just naturally in your house that could say,
I have never once disobeyed my father? Any of us? Any of us? I'm a child, too. I'm a son,
too, of a father. Just naturally speaking, I can't
say that. I never obeyed Him and not transgressed
His command. Can we say that about God the
Father? We think we kept His commandments?
Kept His commandments? Look at this, and He said, and
yet you never gave me a kid. You never gave me a kid that
I might make merry with my friends. Look at the different spirit
in this boy and in the younger boy. Look back at verse 18. That repentant son spoke of his
sin being against his father and his unworthiness. I will
arise and go to my father and say unto him, Father, I have
sinned against heaven and before thee and am not worthy to be
called thy son. Just make me a hired servant.
Just show me mercy, Father. Just please have mercy on me."
Look at what this older son did. He boasted what he had done for
his father. He said, these many years I've
served you. And he said, and neither have
I transgressed at any time your commandment. Do you see? Do you
see a difference in how these two boys are coming to the Father? This boy thought he had made
himself just because of all his serving and what he had done.
And this boy thought that he didn't need any repentance because
he never transgressed against his Father. In his heart, he
thought he was just and needed no repentance. He said, Just persons who need no repentance.
There's what we see, and this is a boy who thought he was just
by his serving and didn't need any repentance because he hadn't
transgressed at all. That other boy said, Father,
I'm not just. You're just. All I've ever done
is transgress against you. You see the difference? The difference? And this boy thought his father
owed him. Verse 29, he said, Yet you've never given me a kid.
You've never given me a kid. God looks on the heart, even
though this boy appeared to serve outwardly. Just like a man will
be religious, he'll go in and join a church, he'll do all the
different things, and he'll try to keep the law and try to do
all these things, just like the Pharisees and the scribes were
doing. The problem where the law breaking comes from, the
problem where the sin and the rebellion comes from is the heart. And this boy right here looked
outwardly like he was serving his father and not transgressing
against his father, wouldn't dare let his father see him do
anything but good. Anytime he's out in the field
sitting under the shade tree, cussing his old man and saying,
oh man, I'm tired of serving for that old rascal. Every time
he's sitting out there to do that, if he looked up and saw
his father coming, he'd jump up, boy, and he'd start working.
So when his father showed up, it looked like he was just doing
everything his father told him to do. That's exactly what sinful
men do. That's what me and you do in
our flesh, still. God looks on the heart. This
boy was just as riotous in his heart as that boy who was outwardly
riotous, as that other boy. Just as the riot was in the heart,
In both of them, in both of them, we have to have a heart that
owns our sin, knows we're nothing to God, casts all mercy on God. Look, and a self-righteous heart's
not serving God at all. Verse 29, he said, And yet thou
never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. You
know what he just said? You know what he just said? All
this time I've been serving you, all this time I've been doing
this, I've really been wanting to make merry with my friends.
I've been really wanting to go into the city and live like my
brother. That's what I really... And you
know what he'd been doing all along? Exactly what his brother
had been doing. He'd been living righteously,
right in his heart, while he pretended to serve his father
the whole time. Verse 30. He said, But as soon
as this thy son was come, which had devoured thy living with
harlots, I always want to point out sin. I always want to be
critical. I always want to be hateful. I always want to show
the sin of somebody else and point out everything that's wrong
and everything that's done and never rejoice in the grace of
God. That's the natural heart. He
said, You kill for him the fatted calf. He just keeps on bringing
out this fatted calf. He keeps saying, you didn't give
me a fatted calf and yet you gave him a fatted calf. You didn't
give it to me, you gave it to him. I've been serving you all
this time, you ain't giving me a fatted calf. God the Father
has not kept anything from those who reject Him. Nothing. Look
at this, listen to this Father, verse 31. And He said unto him,
Son, thou art ever with Me. And all that I have is yours.
Look back at verse 12. At the end there, He divided
unto them His living. And this boy's older. This boy
got a double portion of everything. You know what that's telling
us? You know what we see here? What advantage did the Jews have?
Much in every way. They were given the oracles of
God. They were given the gospel of God. They were given everything. And so is everybody sitting in
this room right now. And so is everybody in this world
right now. Given the same advantage that
the Jews were given. Exact same advantage. Just like
this boy was given everything, this older boy, everything that
the younger boy was given. Gave it all to him. God, Acts
17.27 says, Paul said, God is not far from every one of us.
He said, Son, you are ever with me. God's not far from anybody. He's not far from anybody. Christ
is in the midst of His people. Wherever He sends forth His gospel,
He's near to His people. Happily, if happily, with rejoicing. You just turn and feel after
Him. He's right there. This Father proved Himself to
be merciful and delighting in mercy, delighting to show it.
This fatted calf pictured in the gospel, it's going forth
into all the world now. He's given Jew and Gentile the
same advantage. He set forth this word to everybody
sitting right here, right now. Every one of us. He hadn't kept
back anything from anybody. Have I, as I've been preaching
to you today, have I like just gone over here to this side of
the room and said, alright, now let me just talk to y'all about
this. Let's just leave this side of
the room out. Or did I go over here and say, now let's just
talk to y'all. Let's leave that side out. No. And that's what God
has done. He set forth this thing publicly. He set it forth to everybody.
And He said, there's nothing keeping you from rejoicing in
Christ and worshiping Him. except your own righteousness. You can't come with that. This
way's too narrow for you to get through with any of that baggage.
You can't bring any of that. You got to be stripped and come
absolutely naked, absolutely empty-handed, absolutely broken,
absolutely just depending on God to save you in Christ Jesus
by His mercy, having faith that He will do so, that He rejoices
to do so, that He delights to do so. That's how you've got
to come. There's nothing, nothing. If
a sinner gets angry at the Gospel, the only thing that's keeping
him from God is himself. That's all. But you see what
else we see here? If a sinner comes to the Shepherd,
if he comes to God the Father, if he comes and rejoices, who
gets all the glory for that? The Shepherd did everything.
The Father did everything. The boy that was brought did
nothing. If we stay away from God and
reject God, it's only us to blame. And if we're brought to bow to
Christ, we rejoice and He gets all the glory because He did
all the work. Every bit of it. Every bit of it. Well, let me
just end with this. I'll just give you three or four
things here to take on with you. Don't take advantage of it. Don't
take advantage of what God's given you. Give yourself to hear Him. He's given you the fatted calf.
Brought it right here. Everybody in the house is rejoicing.
Everybody in heaven and earth is rejoicing. Will you not go
in the house? Will you not enter in? Will you
not rejoice with everybody? Will you say, well, you never
gave me anything. I've been serving you, and you
never gave me anything. And remember, this is a heart
matter. God looks on the heart. He looks on the heart. And remember
this, only God makes the difference. Only God makes the difference.
Shepherd finds a sheep. He finds his dead, lost child. He revives him and he brings
him home. He says, rejoice with me. That's who everybody's rejoicing
in. All heaven and all earth, brethren
above, brethren below, God the Father, God the Son, God the
Holy Spirit. Everybody's rejoicing. in Christ
our Lord, what He's accomplished, what God's accomplished, God
our Savior has accomplished. That's who everybody's rejoicing
in, in heaven and among all His saints in the earth. That's who
we're all rejoicing. Why do we rejoice? Why do we? Well, is
it? Should we be dancing? Should
we be feasting? Should we be drinking of this
wine and rejoicing in this? Should we be? Should we be merry
about this? Should we? Absolutely. Absolutely. Look at verse 32.
Why? Because it's fit. It's meet. It was meet that we should make
merry and be glad. Why? For this thy brother was
dead. He's alive again. He was lost
and he's found. That's why we can rejoice. God make us rejoice. Amen.