Let's be turning to Luke, chapter
15. Our text is the chapter of Luke
15. Now, this chapter contains what
are basically three parables that together make up one whole
parable. And we see in these the great
mercy. We see the love of our God for
his people, his chosen, redeemed, regenerated, received people. Now, it begins in verse 1 and
2. I just want to read this with
you here. Then drew near unto Christ all the publicans, and
sinners. Now, publicans are tax collectors
for Rome. They are Jewish. They're Jews
by birth, but they're collecting taxes and handing over that money
that's collected over to Rome. And so you can imagine they were
not very popular among the citizens of Israel. And these publicans
and sinners were drawing near to Christ for this purpose, to
hear him. And these people would be hated
by the religious society of the Jews. They were hated by those
who practiced their religion of Judaism as faithfully as they
thought they could. And they would avoid them. And
so these people are drawn near to Christ. And we see in verse
2, the Pharisees and scribes, these religious ones, murmured.
saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. Now, they
said this to disparage Christ. They said this to knock Christ
down in the eyes of the people. Anyone that would listen to them,
they wanted others to hate Christ as much as they hated Christ.
How could he join themselves with these publicans and sinners.
They're so clearly filthy, vile, wretched sinners. But that's
the purpose here of what our Lord says here. It's showing
us the tenderness, the love of our Savior for sinners. guilty, vile, wretched sinners
who cannot save themselves. He's showing us just how tender,
how warm, how inviting, how gracious God is to His people. Anyone who needs mercy, anyone
who needs the grace of God because they cannot provide a righteousness
for themselves, let them come. Come to the fountain, drink,
drink, eat, feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He's gracious and
merciful to all who come to Him seeking Him because He's the
one who works it in the heart of his people. But we don't know
that. So you that are guilty, vile
sinners who have no righteousness of yourselves, come to Christ.
Go to him, run to him, ask him for mercy. He receives all who
come to him seeking mercy. And while he's speaking tenderly,
so that these publicans and sinners who were cast out by the religious
of the society, while he's speaking tenderly to them, so that they
draw near to him, they want to hear what he's saying. They want
to hear Christ and the words that he's saying. At the same
time, it exposes the hardness of the heart of the Pharisees
and the scribes. You know, religion has a way
of just sucking moisture right out of you, leaving you to be
dry, cold, hard of heart, bitter, cynical, trying to keep people
out. And I know this because I see
the effects of dead letter religion in my own heart and my own mind,
how easy I can judge another. How easy I can despise another
who doesn't line up with what I think they should be doing
or how they should look. I can do it on the road. I can
do it in my house. I can do it at my place of work. I can do it in the church. I
can judge anybody, anywhere, all the time because that's what
I am by nature, a wretched, self-righteous sinner who thinks he's something
when he's nothing. And it's only by the grace of
God that we are humbled and that we hear what the Lord says. And
these parables, which is one parable, shows us how gracious
God is. And when we see what we are in
ourselves, we're very thankful for how gracious and kind our
Lord is. So we'll be covering this whole
chapter, so it won't be a deep, deep dive. But I want us to see
each part of this parable. And it's declaring the mercy
and compassion of the Godhead for sinners, for his people,
for his lost children who need to be found, who need salvation. The Son, the Spirit, and the
Father. In that order. That's how these
parables are come. Declaring the salvation of the
Son, the work of the Spirit, and the receiving of the Father.
So I've titled this, Redeemed. regenerated, received. That's what these three parables
are showing us in the one. So the main teaching of this
first part of the parable shows us the love of Christ who took
upon him flesh and came into this world to save his people
from their sins and the death of their sins and to give them
life. In himself, he gives them life
by himself, by his own work. Now let's read verses three and
four. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, what man of
you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them? one sheep doth not leave the
ninety-nine in the wilderness. He leaves them in the wilderness
to go and find, to go after that which is lost until he find it. Now remember when we're reading
this parable We're not looking for every word to line up, to
match up to some specific doctrinal truth. We're not looking for
every word to be perfectly understood in some doctrinal truth. Rather,
the Lord is making a point. He's teaching us an eternal truth.
He's making a point with the whole of it. He's teaching you
that hear Him, you that are drawn to Christ and want to hear Him,
He's teaching you this truth here. And you'll notice that
in each of these parts of the one parable, in every one of
these, there's always a party who is left to themselves. Whether it's the 99 sheep, whether
it's the lost coin, or whether it's the elder brother, they
are left to themselves and the Lord goes searching till he finds
that one lost one. That is the primary theme in
this whole thing is that there's a party, there's a people left
to themselves because they're not lost. But he goes after that
one who is lost. And when he finds it, there is
great rejoicing, wonderful, great rejoicing in heaven. And so that's
the point that's being driven home here. That's what he's driving
home. So understand this, this world
is full of people who identify with the 99 sheep, who identify
with the nine coins, who identify with the elder brother. How so? They were never lost. In their
minds, in their ways, in their works, they were never lost. They're fine. They're okay. They
have a righteousness for themselves. They don't need to be found.
They are perfectly content in their own works and in their
own way. They need no repentance and Christ
cares not for them. He is not looking for them. He
is going after the one whom He is looking for. He is going after
the lost sinner. The lost sinner who has no righteousness
of their own. Look back in Luke 5. Look at
Luke 5 verse 28. This is after Christ calls Levi
to follow him. Levi is Matthew, one of the apostles,
the writer of the Gospel of Matthew. And we're told that when Christ
called him, Levi left all. He left it. He forsook this world,
everything, and then he rose up and followed Christ. He heard
Christ. He drew near to Christ. And Levi,
verse 29, made Christ a great feast in his own house. And there
was a great company of publicans, others just like Levi. Levi was
one of those tax collectors. And of others, that is sinners.
publicans and sinners that sat down with him. But their scribes
and Pharisees, those in the city, their religious bunch murmured
against his disciples saying, why do ye eat and drink with
publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto
them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. You see that? We know all men
are sinners, but all men don't know that they're sinners. They
don't believe that they're sinners. They're righteous. They're fine. They don't need to be found because
they're not lost. And that's what Christ is building
on here. He's building on this, only this
time we're seeing more deeply the tenderness, the love, the
willingness of God to save sinners who come to him, who come believing
on Christ and calling upon the grace of God in Christ. So the man who leaves the other
99 sheep to themselves and seeks that one lost sheep is the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's who's the one who seeks
after the lost sheep in this parable here. It's Christ. Verse
5 and 6, when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders
rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. What is Christ talking about
here? What has He done? He is describing
what He has done for you that are sinners, who have no righteousness
and cannot save yourselves, when He came into this world, in the
likeness of our sinful flesh, yet without sin, and He faithfully
went to the cross, bearing you, bearing your sin, bearing the
wrath and punishment of God against you for your sin to make a righteousness
for you. And he didn't do this angry about
it or upset. He does it. He did it rejoicing. He put you on his shoulders rejoicing,
rejoicing, every one of his people rejoicing to do it. Isaiah 53
verse 6 describes this very parable in this one verse Isaiah 53 6
says all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone
to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him a the iniquity of
us all. He put us upon the shoulders
of Christ, who bore us on the cursed tree to bear the curse
that was our due, to die the death that was our death, to
pay the debt that was our debt, to put it away. And he did it
rejoicing, happily, gladly, because he loves his people, which were
given to him before the foundation of the world. He rejoices over
his bride. He loves his bride, and we thank
God for his unspeakable gift. We thank God for His unspeakable
gift. Christ tells us in verse 7, back in Luke 15 verse 7, I
say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner
that repenteth more than over 99 just persons which need no
repentance. And there is no one that needs
no repentance, but there's plenty that will never have it. God doesn't ever give them repentance. They are left in the wilderness
to themselves. They're left to themselves and
they will not hear. But this one sheep, this one
sheep is found because Christ sought out that one sheep and
bore that sheep upon his shoulders. And isn't that a rejoicing to
you? It is to me, to us who are sinners,
to know that Christ bore me in my sin, in his own body on the
tree, to put it away forever. And did it rejoicing, and brings
me home rejoicing. I'm so thankful. So that sheep
was born by Christ. while he hung on the tree, shedding
his blood for them. But Christ did not do that for
the other 99 sheep, because they were never lost. That's what's
being driven home here. That's what the Lord is saying.
Now, second. come to the Spirit. So having
accomplished this work of redemption now we are given a view of the
regeneration of the Holy Spirit who seeks out that which is precious
to Christ that which is precious to the Father. Let's look at
verse 8 and 9. Either what woman, having ten
pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle,
and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she
calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with
me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. So what is
this candle light? It's the good news of the gospel,
brethren. It is the good news of the gospel. Our Lord declares to you that
the atonement has been made. The sin of God's people has been
put away. The debt that we owed, that we
could not satisfy God, that we could not satisfy the law and
the justice of the law, By our works, by our righteousness,
Christ has come and paid the debt as the shorty of his people,
as their substitute, as the mediator between God and men. Christ came
and for his people, he stood in the gap and bore that which
we owe. And that's the good news. That's
good news. Come to Christ. Look to Christ.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. God
receives all who come to the Father through the Son, having
no righteousness of their own, having no hope of their own works,
of their own righteousness, of their own goodness, but trust
and believe the promise of God that all who come to Him in the
Son have eternal life. He gives that faith to His people
and the Good News declares what Christ has done, that salvation
is obtained. And the father is well pleased.
He raised him from the dead. Christ is not still dead in the
grave. He's raised from the dead, declaring that God is satisfied. God is pleased with the son and
all in him. In whom he is well pleased. All
that are in Christ are received of the father. And so the spear
comes and lights that candle. and looks for his people. And
the spirit comes and sweeps up the place. He sweeps the house. How does he sweep the house?
With the preaching of the word and the spirit Convicts. The Spirit reproves his people. Because there's a lot of people
that hear the gospel. Many are called, but few are
chosen. But the Holy Spirit is sweeping
up the house with the preaching of the gospel. And he's shining
that light. He's going into dark places.
And he's seeking. He's looking. He's calling to
the lost diligently. Diligently till he find it. Think
of what your God is going through, doing for you, accomplishing
for you to deliver you from darkness, to take you out of the house
of the strong man and to bring you to himself. Diligently, diligently
he's doing this for his people. He's reproving them, reproving
them, the world, right? His people scatter throughout
the world. He's covering the whole globe,
the whole world to reprove his people of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. That's Holy Spirit conviction.
That's what he does for his people. Holy Spirit conviction of sin
so that we know I'm the sinner and I have no righteousness of
my own. My works stink. God doesn't receive
them. He's not pleased with what I'm
doing. And of righteousness to show me that Christ is all the
righteousness that I need. and of judgment, that judgment
is satisfied. I am free, free in Christ, delivered
from the bondage that is shackled upon man. in all his sin and
death, I have been set free by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
the spirit shines the light of the gospel into darkness, and
he sweeps the place with Holy Spirit conviction, a true work
of grace done in the heart of each one of his lost people,
in their heart. And through regeneration, the
regeneration of the Holy Spirit, the coin is found, the coin is
found. And Christ tells us in verse
10 likewise I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the
angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. That turns from
dead works that cannot save to the one who does save the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so that lost coin has been
found under the blood of Christ. But the Holy Spirit did not do
that for the other nine. Why not? They weren't lost. Now we come to the final parable
of the whole and we see that redeemed, regenerated sinners
are received by the Father. They are received by the Father.
Let's pick up 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. You can think of what our God
does for all peoples. He makes the sun to rise and
the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Everyone around
this world, they have land, they have water, they have the sun,
they have all these things which God has provided for us to live
in and live upon and have that inheritance that's divided unto
every man. We have governments and industry
and work and all kinds of things, right? Everyone has it. It's
spread out among all. 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. He wasted
it. That's what prodigal means. I
always thought it meant the returning son. Nope. It means you're a
waster. You wasted what God has given
to you. And that's what we are. We're
wasters. We waste our time. We waste our
energy. We waste our money. We just waste
everything on riotous living with no thought of God who gave
it to us. That's how we are by nature.
And so that's what is being described here, that all of us in Adam
are born dead sinners, dead in trespasses and sins. We waste
that which God's given us, but we're gonna see that this one,
this one, this younger son here, God has set his love upon. And God will be merciful. And
God did something for this one that he does not do for the rest,
for the elder son. There's even a picture in there
of the flesh and the new man. But it's just showing here that
God has his people that he will bless. And he brings them under
conviction. He brings them under conviction. Look at verse 14.
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that
land, and he began to be in want. Now, this seems hard on this
sinner. God is being gracious to him,
he's bringing him into dire straits, he's shutting him up so that
he can find no peace in this world. And so he finds no rest,
no peace from the dead things of this world. And he's not going
to find any peace or rest in dead religion either. That's
what we come to here. He seeks it. He's looking for
rest. He's looking for peace. He's looking for satisfaction.
And that's seen here in verse 15. And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country. Not God's country, this world. This is the religion of man. That's what he joined himself
to, this country, and he sent, that guy sends him into his fields
to feed swine. He's throwing out things that
are garbage, that cannot save, that are just dead letter religion,
that have no sustenance, no value, nothing to save, to save us.
And people think that if I just get a little religion, if I just
give a little religion to my kids, it'll be good for them.
At least I'm setting myself up to be saved. I'm putting myself
in a good position. No, you're not. You're making
yourself twice the son of hell as you were before. And dead
works religion have nothing to do with it. It's the religion
of Babylon. It's just dead works. And so this describes the religion
of man and its works, which God has cursed. They are cursed works.
They are just thorns, thistles, briars, bramble bushes. It's
things that do not save. Now, swine here is, swine is
a picture of hypocrisy. It's a type of hypocrisy. How
so? Well, when God gave the Israelites,
the clean animals that they could eat, they were described in two
ways, right? They had the clove and hoof, and they chewed the
cud. And the swine, the pig, has the clove and hoof. From
the outward appearance, they look like they're a clean animal.
They are of God, but inwardly, they do not chew the cud. They don't chew the cud. They
don't receive the word of God. They do not hear it, they do
not believe it, and so the swine is an unclean animal, and they
picture hypocrisy. And it says in verse 16 that,
he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the
swine did eat. I looked that up. I wanted to
better understand what that was saying. And what it's saying
is he was lusting for the same satisfaction in these things
that they found. The pigs loved it. They were
well satisfied. They were happy as pigs in mud.
They were just rolling around and enjoying this food and seemed
so happy. And that's how it is when the
Lord stirs up a sinner, sweeps up that dust and kicks it up,
and they're troubled. And they're seeking for the true
religion. But they find no peace, no rest
for their souls in dead works religion. The work of Pharisees,
the religion of Pharisees, the salvation of the self-righteous. They find no satisfaction. God's
people won't find satisfaction there. They'll still be troubled.
And it says that he was lusting to have that same satisfaction.
Why can't I be at peace? They're so happy. I'm not happy
with this garbage. It's not filling my belly. I'm
not satisfied. Why can't I be like them? And
he was just getting more and more troubled and worried that
it's not for him. God doesn't love him. He's cast
out. That's how he sees it. It says
that no man gave unto him. Everything he surrounded himself
with in religion gave him no satisfaction, nothing to fill
his hungry belly. Why? Because God will not allow
it. He won't allow his child to sink down into the mire and
be satisfied with death. God's people do not love the
things that the swine love, that the hypocrite loves and is satisfied
with. We must have the true and living
God. He seeks for those that worship
Him in spirit and in truth. And God's going to have that
in His child. He's going to work that in His people. And so Christ
doesn't spell out every single detail here in this parable. It's a parable. He's not spelling
out every detail. But this man is delivered from
dead religion by the redemption of Christ and the regeneration
of the Holy Spirit. And therefore, he comes out from
among them. He is brought out of the Church
of Babylon. That's no church at all. It's
just a synagogue of Satan. And he's brought out. God delivers
his people from dead religion. If anyone hears this online and
you're just sitting in a church just to sit in church but you
know it's death and not the truth, it's just husks of swine, come
out from among them. Move if you have to and go to
where the gospel's preached and sit under the gospel that you
may be fed, well fed, and satisfied by the Lord Jesus Christ. and
so he comes under this conviction and therefore he returns to the
father he goes to the father being born again a humbled sinner
believing God look at verse 17 through 19 and when he came to
himself right when the Lord stirred him up, brought him under Holy
Spirit conviction, stirred him up so that he wasn't satisfied
there and kept on looking, kept on going back to the father.
He said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough
and to spare and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to
my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called
thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants." And so we see
here the effect of God who is able to take a proud, arrogant
sinner and to humble him. to bring us low in ourselves,
to put our face in the dust, our mouth in the dust, and to
own that we're the sinner. I'm the sinner. I have nothing
to give to God. And that's how he comes to God.
With nothing in his hands, he comes to the Father. Lord, have
mercy on me. Save me. Let me feed upon that
bread which you give to your citizens in your kingdom. Lord, receive me. And so he came
seeking satisfaction, the satisfaction that all God's people have in
the Lord Jesus Christ. So he arose, verse 20, and he
came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his
father saw him. You know, that makes me think,
and this is when we're in religion, and we would be hard and cold
and distant and bitter and cynical to anyone who seems to have any
smoke, or any of the spoken flacks or a bruised reed, the father
says, well, he's yet a great way off. Doesn't know nothing. Knows very little. All he knows
is that Christ is the truth. And he's trying to get to him.
He wants to know him. The father sees him a far, a far way off. That's how we're to be. That's
how we're to be. Don't be so quick. to cut people
off. Be patient with one another.
As God is patient with us, with me, with you. Be patient with
them because we know what we are. We know the thoughts we
think. We know the folly we get ourselves into and the foolish
things we do. And yet God didn't cut us off.
He doesn't smack us in the face and push us away. He comes to
us while we're yet a far way off and receives us. And so the
father had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed
him, and kissed him. And so that's why the publicans
and sinners came to Christ, because he didn't push them away. He
ran to them. He went to where they were, in
the filthy places that they were in, and spoke the truth to them,
tender, truthfully, honestly, saying the things that they needed
to hear. And so the scriptures tell us
that same thing, that whosoever believeth on him shall never
be ashamed. You that are sinners, you that have no righteousness,
no goodness, go to Christ. He's gracious. He will not rebuke. He will not cast off. He will
not turn you away and send you away empty. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. They shall be saved. And so the son comes and he begins
to make his appeal to the father and the father just shuts it
down. He's come. Come on in. Just come
in and let's feast. Let's feast. The father said
in verse 22 to his servants, you preachers of the gospel,
bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring
on his hand and shoes on his feet. You preach the gospel. You tell them Christ, what Christ
has done. Bring it. Bring it all. Put it
all on them. Just lay it out for them. Let
them hear it. Let them hear what's been done.
And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and
be merry. Preach Christ crucified to the
people. That's what they need. They need
Christ. For this, my son was dead and
is alive again. He was lost and is found. And
they began to be merry. All these things that the Father
had done by His servants for this Son are all types and pictures
of the spiritual blessings that God gives to us in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1.3. These are all
spiritual blessings. The kisses are His love. That robe is to cover them with
the blood of Christ, His righteousness. That ring speaks of the adoption
that we have as sons and daughters brought into the family of God. were his children. The shoes,
that is, ground them in the gospel of peace. Let their feet be shod
with the gospel of peace. And so the father slew Christ,
pictured in that fatted calf, upon whom his people feed. That's
what we eat. The swine don't care for it.
They don't eat it. They're happy with the husks. They're not lost. They're happy in their filth
and in their mud. But for you, for you that believe,
for you that are lost, for you that have no righteousness of
your own, Christ was slain for you, for you. And that's who
we feed upon, and we are satisfied with him. We feed upon him each
time we come. We are satisfied with him, and
we make merry in fellowship with our God, rejoicing in what God
has done for us in Christ for all eternity. And now, just to
close up, these things were never done for the elder brother. He
never entered the house and came into the feast himself. He stood
out in the field where the swine were feeding. with the citizen
of this world and that field. That's where he stood and he
was bitter and upset and complained about the mercy of God for sinners. And so the point here of this
parable shows us just how gracious and merciful God is to receive
sinners who come to him with nothing in their hand seeking
the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. The one whom God sent to save
his people, the lost sinner from their sins. And so you sinners
let nothing stop you. You come to Christ, draw near
to him to hear him just as these publicans and sinners did. Because
we see the grace and mercy of God for lost sinners. We see
his abundance and his care and his tenderness. to do everything
necessary for them. All who come to the Father through
Jesus Christ, the Son, shall be richly, warmly, blessedly
received in him through Christ. I pray he bless that word and
warm your heart in Christ your Savior. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you for your grace and mercy displayed here in these
three words, this one parable, showing us the tenderness, the
love of Christ for his lost people, for the seeking, the diligence
of the Holy Spirit in finding us who are lost and for bringing
us to ourselves to come. to come in the blood of Christ,
seeking him, to feed upon him, not being satisfied with the
religion of this world. Lord, we pray that you would
bless this word to our hearts. Let it not be taken away by the
birds of the air. Let it fall on the ground where
it gains root in Christ and is not choked out by the weeds and
cares of this world. but it is in good ground that
bears fruit some hundred, some sixty, some thirty-fold to the
praise and glory and honor of your holy blessed name. Bless
your people. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen.