Luke 15.11, it says, And he said,
A certain man had two sons. Now there were two kinds of people
standing before our Savior when He gave this parable. Verse 1 tells us, Then drew near
unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him. There
was publicans and sinners that had drawn near to hear the Word
of the Lord. That was one kind of people that
was standing before him, publicans. They were the most despised and
tax collectors. They were looked down upon by
everybody and sinners, just outwardly known, obvious sinners. And verse 2 says, And the Pharisees
and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. That was the other kind of people
that was there. The other kind of people that were there were
self-righteous. These were self-ascribed holy
men that were murmuring against God. They were murmuring against
God standing right there in front of them, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and accusing Him of eating with sinners. Aren't you glad he does? I'm glad he eats with sinners.
That gives me some hope that he eats with sinners. And they're
murmuring against him. There's only two kinds of men
in this world. Two kinds of people in this world.
Those who are sinners and those who know they're sinners. That's
the only two kinds of people there are. Those who are sinners
and those that God has made to know they are sinners. It's not,
it's not sin that's going to keep us from God as much as our
righteousnesses, so-called righteousnesses, are going to keep us from God.
Look over at Matthew 9.11. Pharisees said this to him at
another time. Matthew 9.11. Let's read verse
10. It came to pass as Jesus said
at in the house. This was in Levi's
house. He was a tax collector. He was
one of those publicans. Many publicans and sinners came
and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees
saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? They didn't own him to be their
master. They said, why your master, Republicans and sinners? And
that word master coming out of their mouths was a derogatory
term. They were considering him just some other teacher come
into their midst. But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that be whole need not a physician. Now, is there anybody whole that
God has not made whole? If God hadn't made them whole,
there's nobody whole. The only ones that need a physician
are those that are sick. Those that are whole need not
a physician, but those that are sick. But go ye, he said, and
learn what that means. I'm sure when he said that to
them, they thought, well, we're whole. We're not sick. Don't
you see how we've served all our life? Don't you see how we've
kept the commandments from our youth up? Don't you see everything
that we have done? And he said, but you need to
learn what this means. You need to learn what I'm teaching
you, what I'm saying. And this is what he said. I will
have mercy. I will have mercy, not sacrifice.
I will have mercy, not sacrifice. He came to save by his grace,
by his mercy. He didn't come to take a payment
from men or a bribe from men, a sacrifice from men. He is the
sacrifice that God sent. He came to save sinners. He's
the mercy and grace God has sent to his people. And he came to
save by mercy, not by sacrifice, not by men's sacrifice, for I'm
not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That's
who he said I came to call. And these men sitting here, back
in our text now, these ones that sit here, these scribes and these
Pharisees, they were learned men. They searched the scriptures.
They were moral outwardly. If you looked at them, you'd
say these are some pious fellows here. But in their heart, in
their heart, they're murmuring against God. They're rejecting,
they appear to be worshiping God, but they're rejecting Him.
They're rejecting Christ right here and saying, what's He doing
eating with sinners and publicans? These were the kinds of fellows
that the Lord said are a stench in my nostrils, that stand apart
and say, you stand over there, I'm holier than you are. Don't
come near me, I'm holier than you are. And so the Lord begins
to give this parable. And our Lord is teaching us that
until we're brought to know what we are, we're brought to know
that we're sinners, that our hearts are full of murmuring,
just like these Pharisees and these scribes, that we don't
have any goodness in us whatsoever to commend us to God whatsoever.
Until God brings us to that place, we don't know what we are. We'll
stand and look down our noses at others and say, You don't
obey God like I do. I've made myself holier than
you are. God makes his people holy. God
makes his people holy. That's just so. There's not a
bit of difference between any of the sons of Adam save for
the difference that the grace of God makes. God the Father
He separated a people and separated them for His holy use when He
put them in Christ Jesus before the world began. Christ Jesus
came into this world and He hath by His one offering perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit of God comes
and He gives a new heart. And the apostle Paul said in
Romans 2, he's not a Jew which is one outwardly. He's a Jew
which is one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart
whose praise is of God, not of men. Paul said to the Galatians,
having begun in the spirit, are you made perfect by the flesh?
Have you made yourself perfect by something you've done in your
flesh? The whole, this is about a new heart that God gives, a
new heart. And when God gives that new heart,
He grants repentance to His people, to turn from everything we thought
was righteousness, everything we thought was holiness, everything
we thought was committing us to God, and we come to God resting
everything in His Son. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
showing us in this parable that God is pleased in a whole heaven
and earth rejoices at one sinner that God brings to repentance,
brings to cast all upon the mercy of God and trust in the Christ
Jesus the Lord by faith. That's what we're going to see
here. 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. It appears to me he gave them
both the portion of his goods. It says, the one came and said,
I want everything I have come to me now. And it says here,
he divided them to them, their portion. Now, there was one of
these sons who was an obvious rebel. And we're going to look
at him. And we might look at this other
one later at another time. But we're going to look at this
one who's the obvious rebel, the younger son. Verse 13. and
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. Now this is an example right
here of every believer that's born in Adam. This is the heart
of every believer that's born in Adam. It's obvious in some
like it is this man right here. It's obvious like it is in some
like this man, but others it's not that as obvious. Others may
be like this older son who stayed at home. and covered up all his
heart with fig leaves and hid in the trees. But this is the
heart of all men. He took all that his father gave
him. He gathered up all that his father
gave him. This is what men want. Men want
all the natural gifts that God gives. We want, by nature, we
want everything naturally that God gives in this earth. And
we'll even take, some men even lay hold of a form of religion
and take some of the things that God gives in the scriptures and
lay hold of that. And all the while, the natural
man, that naturally unregenerate heart, doesn't receive the things
of the Spirit of God. Look over at 1 Corinthians 2.
1 Corinthians 2.14. You have to be made to know that
there's no difference between Jew and Gentile. There's no difference
between rich and poor. There's no difference between
male and female. There's no difference between
bond or free. We're sinners alike. This is
the word of the Lord, the natural man receiveth not the things,
verse 14, 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. That's what Christ Jesus
had come and He's standing there in the midst of everybody and
He's speaking, Christ preached Christ and He's standing there
preaching that the only way to God is to come to Him. and He'll
present you to the Father. That's what He's preaching. But
these men, and the only ones who need Him to present us to
the Father are those that we can't present ourselves to the
Father. But these men sit here and they heard these things that
He was teaching, but they didn't receive them. They didn't receive
them. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness unto
him. Neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned.
That's what, men, we want any gift we can get from God except
for the gift. We want every gift we can get
from God except for Christ His Son. We want to come to God.
A man, a sinner, will do everything. except the one thing God tells
him to do. A sinner will do everything except
stop doing anything. Stop doing anything to bring
yourself to God and rest in Christ. A sinner naturally will do anything
else you tell him to do, but he can't receive that. You can't
receive that. That takes away his will, that
takes away his works, that takes away everything that he thought
he had done, and everything that he thought he had patched up
for himself. Now you tell him Christ just
makes up the difference, he'll take that Christ. You tell him
that he gets to do a little bit and God will do the rest, he'll
take that patchwork, but tell him God's got to do it all. Christ
has got to do it all. And he won't take that. He won't.
It offends what he thinks is his dignity, his self-respect. It makes him like Naaman. When he came there and he was
a leper, he comes there, picture of a sinner. He comes there and
Elias, he didn't even go out to see him. He sent somebody
else out there to see him. And he said, I thought he would
come out to me and that he would, you know, put his hands on me
and call on his God and go through all this great show and he would
heal me. And he don't even come out here
to me. He tells me I gotta go and dip in the Jordan River. And he said, he said, he said all the waters in Damascus
are better than the waters in Israel. You know what he said? You know what he said? He said,
any gospel will do. They're all the same. There's
only one water that's going to cleanse God's people. It's the
water of the Word sent by God Himself. It's the washing of
Christ's blood Himself that He must purchase. And not just any
Savior will do. Not just any so-called gospel
will do. Not just any Word will do. It's
God's Word that He sends sovereignly to His people and He creates
this new heart. And that was not just a standoff
between two men. If that servant of God is going
to be blessed of God, and that sinner is going to be made to
know that he's got to bow to the feet of Christ, that servant
of God, he can't go out and bow down to Him. He can't bring Christ
down to him. That sinner's got to be brought
down to the feet of Christ. That servant's got to do what
he's telling that sinner to do. That servant's got to bow to
the Word of God and trust God to do the work, even as God's
promised. He's got to do that himself.
And I guarantee you when Naaman got finished going and God brought
him to Washington at Jordan and he healed him of his leprosy,
I guarantee you Naaman thanked that servant of God for not coming
out and bowing to him. And you know what? Elisha taught
him that. Am I saying, was it Elisha? Am I getting that right?
It was Elisha. He thanked God too, because he
didn't have the sufficiency in himself to bow to that Word of
God and trust God to do the work, unless God gave him the heart
to do it. Is that right? That's so. Otherwise, we'll put
our hand to the ark. And God don't need us putting
our hand to it. He just don't. So, look at the next thing he
did. He took his journey, verse 13, he took his journey into
a far country. That's what all men by nature
want. Men by nature want to be as far
away from God as they can get. Oh, stand up in the middle of
a church building, be right in the middle of religion, be in
the thick of all that. but get away from God. Get us
far away from God. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. And that way won't get
us anywhere, our own way. There's a way that seems right
to man, but the end of that way is death. It's death. Well, when
he got there, he wasted his substance in riotous living. Is there anybody
here, any sinner here that can relate to this man? I spent all my days wasting everything
the Father, I'm talking about my Heavenly Father and my Earthly
Father, everything that God gave me, I spent all my days wasting
it. I spent all my days living for
me, trying to spend and live in pleasure and riotous living
and go my own way. I spent all my days doing that.
And you know what the end of all that is? This is the end
of all of that. You'll end up with nothing. End
up with absolutely nothing. But you know what God does for
his child of grace? He sends what we need right at
the time we need it. Look at this next verse, verse
14. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in
the land, in that land. And he began to be in want. God didn't bring the famine in
the land, and this is a parable, this is a story, I don't know,
but this is so. God let him kick up his heels
and just waste all the substance of his father. And when he got
to where he didn't have anything left from his father, God also
sent a famine in the land and made him to be in want, made
him to be in want. That's a gracious famine. A gracious famine to be brought
to the place to where we're stripped. To be brought to the place where
we're made to know that there's a famine in here. There's a famine
in here. There's a famine of bread in
this land. There's a famine of bread in this land. There's a
famine of the gospel being declared in this land we live in. And
there's a famine in these hearts by nature. There's a famine in
these hearts. The beginning of a sinner's humbling
is when God begins to strip us and make us to walk. Look over
at Hosea. Hosea chapter 2. This is one
of my favorite pictures of God's grace. Hosea chapter 2. I've read this to you many times. Look at verse 9. He's talking
about Homer. And he said of Homer, the Lord
said, Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the
time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will
recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And now
will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and
none shall deliver her out of my hand. Oh, it's good when God
hedges up our way with thorns. What did we just sing? Let me
listen to this second verse. His fairest pretensions must
wholly be waived, and his best resolutions be crossed. This
man said, I'm going to get all my father's substance. I'm going
to go live high on the hog. That's what he thought. and he
wasted it all, and then a famine struck the land. All his best
resolutions must be crossed, nor can he expect to be perfectly
saved till he finds himself utterly lost. That's where we gotta be
brought. But like this poor son in this
parable, we'll try to do what he did. He tried, yet he's gonna
try to save himself. Gonna try to save himself, verse
15. And he went and he joined himself
to a citizen of that country. This was a citizen of that country. God's people are citizens of
a heavenly country. Paul said in Philippians, Three,
our conversation is in heaven. That's our citizenship. It's
in heaven from which we look for the Lord to return who's
able to subdue all things to himself. That's where our citizenship
is. This man went and joined himself to a citizen in that
country, in that foreign country. Well, joining ourselves to a
citizen of this country do us any good? Is it going to do us
any good? It won't do us any good. Look
at verse 15. And he sent him into his fields
to feed swine. This boy went to go, he was going
to go live high on the hog and now he's out feeding the hogs.
Out feeding the hogs. Now I want you to think about
this. He sent him to work. That's what this picture is here. This man he went to, to try to
find some relief. This man sent him to work. This
man said, you go out in my fields now and you go work. Go feed
swine. You know how offensive this story
was when the Lord's telling us? You know how offensive this story
would have been to those Jewish Pharisees and scribes sitting
there? You know how offensive it was?
Here's an unclean man who to them just appears so outwardly
immoral, just this man out living and riotous living, this unclean
and he ends up and he's feeding on unclean swine. This man, they look at him and
they're thinking, yeah, this man is exactly like these people
that you're dealing with. This man is just like these people
you're sitting with and dining with and eating with. Don't you
know what these people are? That's what they're thinking
in their hearts and they're thinking, look at us. We've kept that law
from our youth. We don't eat swine. We don't
have anything to do with swine. We've washed ourselves. We're
clean from head to toe. And here you are talking about
this man that's gone out and they're thinking to themselves,
you're proving our point for us. That's exactly what we're
saying. We're the clean ones. Those sinners
and publicans are. They're like that fellow you're
talking about. And that's exactly what the Lord was teaching them.
That's exact, and that's the kind of people God saves. You're
not gonna join yourself with a citizen of this country. Gil
said this was like a religious, self-righteous preacher. I don't
know about all that, but that is a good picture. We're not
going to join ourselves with anybody in this world, try to
turn over a new leaf and take part in religion and find any
kind of food for ourselves whatsoever. They're going to send you to
work. They're going to send you to work. The Lord said to the
Pharisees, you accomplish land and sea trying to make proselytes. And when you do, you made him
twofold more a child of hell than when you found him. We want
to promote the Gospel. We want the Gospel to go into
the world, but we want God to save His people through His Gospel,
by His Word, by His grace, by His Spirit, not by us going and
trying to set tail men. Now, come and go and witness,
and if you witness enough, or if you go jump in the baptismal
waters, or if you keep this law and that law and do all this,
you can be saved. We don't want to tell sinners
a lie. That won't save anybody. That's
just a hog farmer feeding hogs. That's all that is. Let's look at Romans 10. This
is the case, brethren. Romans 10 verse 3. Or let's just read verse 1. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Now, here he's talking about
his kinsmen after the flesh, or those that were in Israel. And he said, for I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God. These Pharisees and scribes
that were standing, they had a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness." You know who God's righteousness is. He was
standing right there in front of them. The Lord our righteousness. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness. And this is the name wherewith
he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. And this is
the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. His name is our name. This is
God's righteousness. They going about to establish
their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." He's everyone
that believeth. All right, go back, let's look.
Verse 16. And he would fain have filled
his belly with the husk that the swine did eat, and no man
gave unto him. This is what we'll get if we
try to come to God with self-salvation by our will, by our works, by
our law keeping, by what we've done and try to pull ourselves
up by our bootstraps. We're gonna get husks. It won't
be any nourishment in it. It won't ever satisfy. It just
won't. And no man gave unto him. No man's able to. No man, I can't
give you this. And no other man can give you
this. This has got to be given to a sinner by the Spirit of
God. It's got to be enwraught. It's
got to become to us in spirit and in truth. Christ has got
to be formed in you. That's what Paul said to the
Galatians. Go through the scriptures sometime
and read man's except-g's. Except-g, except-g. Man always
wants to put an exception to the grace of God. Yeah, but Paul
said to the Galatians, if you turn to that, you're going to
bite and devour one another because you'll be like these scribes,
these Pharisees. There'll never be another man that measures
up to how well you measure up. And when that man's stumbling
and falling, you'll break out that law on him and you'll whip
him and you'll bind him and you'll bite and devour him. Beware of
the circumcision, Paul said. We're the circumcision who worship
God in spirit and have all our confidence in
Christ the Lord and have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in
the flesh. All those things that were gain
to me, I got them lost now. They're not gain at all, Paul
said. And he said, and I travail to Christ be formed in you. That's
when we made a new creature, a new creation. That's when we
start truly, truly walking with God and worshiping God and God's
pleased with his people. All right, let's go look now
at this next thing. When God gives repentance, It's a radical change brought
in a sinner. It's a whole change of direction. When the Spirit of God makes
us to come to ourselves, we see ourselves and what we are. Look
at verse 17. And when he came to himself,
he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough
and to spare, and I perish with hunger. When he came to himself,
he saw himself. And he saw himself as he was. He saw the servants in my father's
house have bread. And here I am sitting out here,
and I'm perishing in hunger. I'm not able to feed myself.
I don't have anything to pay my way with. I don't have anything
to No man's giving anything to me, and I'm just out here starving. That's what this man saw, and
he saw this is what he'd done to himself. Our sin's all our
own fault, brethren. It's our fault. It's our fault. We sold ourselves for nothing.
We did. We sold ourselves and got nothing
in return. That's so. but to see that we're
just sin, that's what we are, and to see that we're just perishing
in our famine, in our hunger, wasting away in our flesh, and
to see that all our hope is Christ. Look at verse 18. He said, I
will arise and go to my Father. And I'll 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. See, he, this is all, he hadn't
moved a muscle yet. This boy ain't moved a muscle.
And he's already repented and believed God. He ain't even moved
a muscle. This happens in the hearts where this starts out.
He said, he said, everybody in my father's house got it better
than I do. And he said, I'm going to arise and I'm going to go
to my father and I'm going to say, Father, I've sinned against
heaven. I've sinned against you. Can
you realize this? This is what repentance from
our sin, our righteousnesses, our filthy rags, brethren, is
being turned completely from everything about us and seeing
I want to go to my father, and I want to confess to my father,
I've sinned against you. Against thee and thee only, David
said, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. I've
sinned against you. That's what the repentant sinner
said. It's confess your sin to God. And know this, he said this
there, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son." You see,
before he thought he was worthy to be called his son. And that's
what we really think. We think we're worthy to be called
a child of God. And now you come to realize,
there's no worthiness in me to be called a child of God. That's the picture here. And
he said, now look at this other thing he said here. He's going
to go and just say, Father, make me one of thy hired servants.
Let me tell you something. You can read this in Philippians
chapter 2, but you know what God esteems as true greatness? True greatness. It's to be willing
to just be a servant. Not to be ministered to. not
to be put up on a pedestal, not to have everything showered upon
us, but to be willing to be a servant. The one who is the greatest in
the kingdom of God is the one who made himself least in the
kingdom of God. And that's Christ the Lord. He
didn't... He was equal with the Father.
He's God. And he had nothing to, he thought
it not robbery to be with God, but he made himself of no reputation
and he took upon himself the form of a servant, a willing
servant. And he came in the likeness of
this sinful flesh. He humbled himself and he became
obedient unto God. All through his life, even until
the death of the cross, even when it came to the point where
it looked like It looked like by the natural eye, to everybody
that looks upon what Christ endured, it looks like there was no hope
for Him. It looked like there was no,
that everybody had turned against Him. They took Him and they drug
Him before a false judgment seat and a mock trial, and they took
Him out and they nailed Him to a cursed tree. And then God poured
out justice upon Him. This one who knew no sin, this
one who served God, this one who was righteous before his
father, proved himself perfectly righteous within and without,
in heart, in body, in spirit, just completely righteous. This
one, he then goes and willingly submits to being made sin for
his people and having all the being forsaken, to being left
there, being forsaken by God. And yet at the same time, in
the midst of that, I mean, he's making himself absolutely the
least. I've always preached tonight,
I'm basically preaching this message, I tell you now, but
I always preach tonight out of Isaiah 45. Let's just look at
it, go to Isaiah 45. Look at verse 13. This is prophetically was talking
about Cyrus, but the true fulfillment of this is Christ Jesus. The
Lord said, I've raised him up in righteousness. I'll direct
all his ways. He shall build my city. He shall
let go my captives. Look at this last word, not for
price nor reward, said the Lord of hosts. Now, I want you to
think about that. Not for price, not for money,
not for robbery. And really, he didn't even serve
God for what God gave him. He's equal with God. He's God
the Son. And when he finished the work
in John 17, he said, Father, glorify thy Son with the glory
I had with you before the world began. He served God for his
own glory. The God-man mediator came and
served God for his own glory. And this was his desire. I will
that they, those that you've given me, be one, be where I
am and be one with us. That's his portion. That's his
inheritance. That's what he served for. And
when God brings us to the point where we're willing to be a servant,
Not to be ministered unto, but to give, as the Lord did, He
said, even as the Son of God came, not to be ministered unto,
but to minister and give His life a ransom for others. The
disciples, the apostles, they were always struggling with this.
They were always talking about who's going to be greatest in
the kingdom of heaven. The sons of Zebedee, they wanted Grant. She said, Grant, one of my sons
sit on one side, one sit on the other. What's our reward, brethren? Are we serving God for price? to try to, we trying to give,
pay God something? We trying to bribe God? Are we
trying to earn something and think we're going to have some
better spot in glory than another sinner that's saved by His grace? I know it's hard for us to enter
into this, but grace makes everybody equal. Grace makes everybody
one. Everybody one. I don't care about
anything in glory but awaking with His likeness and seeing
Him as He is. That's my reward. I want to walk
with God in this world for His glory and the good of His people.
And when we get to glory, brethren, this is the cake. When we get
to glory, we're going to be one with Him. So much one with Him
that this One who is the greatest in the kingdom, Christ Jesus
the Lord, who made himself the least, he said, you're going
to sit at my table in my kingdom, and I'm going to serve you. We
can't gather that. We can't enter into that. We
can't understand there being no competition, can we? We can't
understand that. Those that went out he hired
into the field the first hour got the same wage as those that
that served in the last hour. The Apostle Paul who served more
than they all is in glory rejoicing with Christ at his table with
the thief on the cross who knew him that day and went to glory
with him. Why? Grace doesn't set some above
others. Grace takes us all off of the
dung hill and dung heap of our flesh and makes us one in Christ
Jesus our Lord. It doesn't create competition.
And that's what works does. That's what a hireling does.
This man come to the place where he said, Lord, I'm willing just
to be a servant in your house, not to be served. Now let's,
we'll finish this up. Let's see now his great delight. But he didn't stop there. I want
you to see this now. James said faith is manifest
by works. It's manifest by works. And you
know those two examples he gave? Rahab the harlot. Rahab the harlot
and Abraham. Remember those two examples he
gave? Abraham believed God, counting that God was able to raise up
his son from the dead. That's the work. That's the work
God says Do you believe God? Are you willing to lay down everything?
He was called to lay down his son, Abraham was. And he said,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb. God has. He's provided
himself the lamb. And he shall provide himself
for us, brethren. He'll provide everything. And
so he didn't just believe this and have this in his heart. The
Lord says, verse 20, and he arose and came to his father. He got up and went to him. He
got up and went to him. God never denied a sinner who
came seeking mercy from him. You know that? He never did.
God's more willing to show mercy than we are to seek mercy. But I want you to see the delight
of God pictured here in this parable, verse 20. But when he
was yet a great way off, his father saw him. How far off did
his father see? How far off does God our father
see us? He sees us from eternity. Before as yet he made a grain
of sand, he saw his people. He saw in Christ Jesus the Lord.
In all our days of rebellion, when we took all the gifts he
gave us and we went into another country and tried to get as far
away from God as we could get, he saw us. He saw us. And when God sees his people,
when he makes you to seek his mercy like this man did, it's
because he's already sought you and found you. He's already sought
you and found you. Jude 1 says, Jude, the servant
of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified
by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and God. He saw him a great way off. And
look at the next word, and he had compassion. He had compassion. This is why we're saying, not
that we love God, but that He loved us. He had compassion on
us and ran, and ran. I think the picture here is this. In the appointed time, in the
fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law. He ran, as it were, to save his
people. And the Savior came, and he said,
I must be about my father's business. My meat is to do the will of
him that sent me. And he never stopped. He continued going. Wherever there was one of his,
he said, I must need to go through Samaria. I must need to go to
this place. He had one there, and he ran
to them. And God's, it may not seem like
God's running to his people, to us, to our viewpoint of it.
We may not think he is because it doesn't seem like things are
working on our timetable. But God is, he's hastening to
his salvation. He's bringing his salvation right
along in his time on his schedule, not on the sinner's schedule.
He ran, he ran to him and fell on his neck and kissed him. kisses of electing grace, kisses
of redeeming grace, kisses of preserving grace, kisses of regenerating
grace, kisses of drawing grace, kisses of full forgiveness. He kissed him, you know. And
look at verse 21. And the son said unto him, Father,
I've sinned against heaven and in Thy sight. I'm no more worthy
to be called Thy son." He didn't just say in his heart, this is
what I'm going to do. He did it, didn't he? He did
it. This is not between you and a
priest. This is not between you and a
preacher. This is not between you and another man. This is
between you and the God of glory, the God of mercy. He said if we confess our sins,
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. He come there, look now, He said
all this. He said, I know I've sinned against
you, Father. I'm not worthy to be called your
son. I've done all this in your sight.
I'm not worthy to be your son. But look at this next word, but. But. He wasn't. He wasn't worthy. He wasn't worthy of anything.
All he'd done is sin. But. But. The Lord says, notice
what's missing here. When he came to him, the Lord
didn't whip him, the Lord didn't scold him, the Lord didn't rebuke
him. James said, he upbraideth not. You know, this is all the
Lord requires of a sinner. Come to Him empty. Come to Him
naked. Come to Him not looking for any
merit in yourself, any worthiness in yourself. Come to Him confessing
what you are before Him and say, Lord, do with me as you will. I'm not worthy of the least of
your mercies. And God said, but, but that's
somebody that I've made worthy. God, that's somebody God's made
worthy. He said, but the father said to his servants, bring forth
the best robe and put on him. You know what the best robe is?
The robe of Christ's righteousness. The perfect robe of his righteousness. The imputed righteousness of
Christ, decked out in the finest garments that heaven and earth
can make. Woven by God's own son, stitched
by his own hand, by his own making. put together with the glorious
riches of his cunning craftiness and his handiwork. He said, and
bring the ring and put it on his hand. Put the signet on his
hand. This is my son. He's got the
signet on his hand. This is the king's ring. They would stamp the signet with
their ring and say, this is sealed. He said, put his ring on his
hand. To me, it's a picture of being
sealed, being sealed by the spirit of God's grace. sealed, preserved,
kept forever, and shoes on his feet, the preparation of the
gospel of peace. He said, and bring hither the
fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and let us be merry. This boy is not going to be hungry
anymore. He's not going to be hungry anymore.
I'm going to feed him. And we're going to rejoice and
we're going to be merry. For this my son was dead and
is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. You
know what the Lord said? The Lord said up there in verse
6. He said verse 7, I say unto you,
that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. More than over 99 just persons
who need no repentance. And I think he's talking about
here those folks like these scribes and Pharisees who didn't think
they needed any repentance. They didn't think that those
had come like this boy and this story came. Likewise, verse 10,
likewise I say unto you there's joy in the presence of the angels
of God over one sinner that repenteth. You think about that. You think
about that. Everybody delighting. Everybody. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Christ in all his glory rejoicing
over his people. All the saints in heaven. All
the angels in heaven. All those in earth rejoicing.
All the brethren together rejoicing with his people. all because
a sinner's been saved by grace. You know what everybody's rejoicing
in? You know what everybody's rejoicing in when this happens? Is everybody looking at that
sinner? Is everybody looking at that sinner and saying, oh,
we're so glad that he came. We're just, oh, praise him. everyone
is doing in heaven and earth. This is what your mothers and
fathers did when God that you believe in mothers and fathers
who got called your children by his grace and and our mothers
and fathers who believed to cause prayer and those saints in heaven
and those angels in heaven. This is who everybody was rejoicing
in. That one seated in the midst
of the throne. That's what we're going to do
when we get there. We're going to all take our crowns and throw them
down at his feet and say, Thou art worthy. You shed your blood
and you've redeemed us from every kindred, tongue, tribe, nation
under heaven. You've made us accepted by your
word. They are all praising him. All
praising him. Justified freely by his grace. David described the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without work, saying,
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Let me ask you this. You reckon
that boy ever said, demanded of his father to give him anything
again. You think he ever said, left
and went off and tried to say, I'm going to a foreign country
and get as far away from you as I can. His heart was, I don't want to
ever leave you. I don't want to ever, Lord, don't
leave me to myself. Don't ever let me stray from
you. Keep me right here. And I'll
tell you what, that's when a man starts walking with God and starts
serving God with his whole heart, soul, and body. And that's what
God's done. Amen.