Luke chapter 15. The title of
the lesson, the message, Seeking and Saving the Lost. That's what our Lord said He
came to do. He said He came to seek. and
to save the lost. Now, our Lord gave this parable
to explain why He received sinners and He ate with them. If you'll remember, our Lord
said, the whole need not a physician, but the sick. We see in verse 2 where the Pharisees
and the scribes murmured. That's sad, isn't it? Murmured. When He healed on the Sabbath
day, they murmured. Anytime He did anything good,
they murmured. That's the self-righteous, because
He's getting the attention and they are not. So we see in verse
2 where the Pharisees and the scribes murmured at Christ for
receiving such people into His company. You remember over in
Luke chapter 7, that woman who came in and washed His feet with
her tears. Now that's broken. Will you weep
enough to be able to wash someone's feet?" She washed his feet with
her tears, and she dried them with the hair of her head. And
Simon the Pharisee said this, Now when the Pharisee which had
bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, See, the Lord
can read the heart. He said this within himself,
but the Lord had written what's going on in the heart of this
Pharisee. He spake within himself, saying, This man, and he says
that in a derogatory manner, this man, if he were a prophet,
would have known who and what manner of woman this is that
touches him, for she is a sinner, that was as low as you could
be in their estimation as sinner, a harlot, prostitute. If he knew what kind of woman
she was, he knew, didn't he? He knows exactly what kind of
people we are. He delights to show mercy to
sinners. As long as you and I Remain sinners,
we'll enjoy this gospel. We'll enjoy coming here. But
the minute we quit being sinners, we won't enjoy it no more. Sinners are the only people that
welcome Him into their presence. and He welcomes them into His
presence. And you'll notice if you read
through the Gospels, or when you read through the Gospels,
how the sinners felt comfortable in His presence. And He sat down,
and He ate with them, He fellowshiped with them. Now it says in verse 1, Then
drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners
were to hear Him. They wanted to hear Him. They
wanted to hear Him speak. Let us do the same tonight. Lord,
speak to us. Speak to this group of sinners
here tonight, because that's all we are. That's all we are. The gospel is for sinners. It's
for lost sinners and it's for saved sinners. Paul said, for
me to preach the same thing to you, he said, it's not grievous
for me and for you it's safe. To preach the gospel to you over
and over again is the safest thing I can do for you. And there's never a time when
we don't need the gospel and we need to move on to something
else. There's never a time we need something else. Everything
we preach, we preach in the light of Christ and Him crucified. Now there are four pictures given
in this parable. The shepherd seeking his lost
sheep, the woman seeking her lost coin,
the father receiving his prodigal son back home, and the angry
son who stayed home. Now the first three, the lost
sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son, they're all one
person. It's all one person in this parable. And these three parables go together,
the first three, to tell us the story of redemption. So in verse
4 through 7, the shepherd seeks his lost sheep. Christ asks this
question, What man What shepherd? That's what he said. What shepherd?
Having 100 sheep, if he lose one, will not go looking for
it. This shows the character of the
shepherd. Poor would be the shepherd who
did not care enough to go looking for the sheep. That shepherd
would be called a hireling. He's not going to go look for
that one sheep. He's got 99 left. He's not going after that one.
But the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd,
He said, gives His life for the sheep, one by one. He died for us. He died for the
elect of God, all of them, but He died for us individually.
He paid for my sins. He paid for our sins. And He
paid for our sins, each one of them. My sins, your sins. if you believe Him. Here's the lesson, the work of
Christ we see here in saving His sheep. The shepherd is the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the lost sheep is every one of His elect
whom He saves one at a time. Now the shepherd goes into the
wilderness because that's where the sheep is. The sheep went
astray. It says over in Isaiah 43, like
sheep, we have all gone astray. Every one of us. Everyone whom
God saves is lost, is a lost sheep. That's what they are. And the shepherd goes into the
wilderness. This world is a wilderness of sin. It's darkness. And our Lord came into this world
where we are, where the sheep are. We are in this world. And
he came into this world to get his sheep. And you notice, it is his sheep
that went astray. It's his sheep. He's not adding
to his sheep. He's just not going to lose any
of the sheep that he has. He started with a hundred. Guess
how many he's going to end up with? A hundred. That's what
he's going to have. Starts with a hundred, he's going
to end with a hundred. He said in John 6, "...all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out." Christ is going to go into the wilderness.
He's going to honor the law by His obedience. He's going to
die the death that the sheep requires. He's going to rise
the third day for their justification. But he's going to go get the
sheep. The shepherd is not going to lose not one sheep. If he does not go and find his
sheep, it will never find its way back home, because it does
not know where home is. Once it leaves the pasture, it
keeps going, it keeps wandering, it has no clue how to get back.
It's not like a dog that can smell its tracks and follow its
way back. It's just a dumb sheep. It's
out there in the wilderness. He doesn't know where home is. I thought of this verse over
in John 14, 5. Christ said He's going to the
Father, and Thomas said, We don't know the way. There's that dumb
sheep. We don't know the way. Look over
there in John 14. I want you to read this. In John 14, Look at this. Let me just start from verse
1. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, receive
you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And whether
I go, you know, and the way you know. And Thomas said unto him,
Lord, we know not whether thou goest. How can we know the way?
That's a dumb sheep. That's the sheep. That's the
sheep talking. That's sheep talk. We don't know the way. And of
course he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So if
the shepherd doesn't go after the sheep, the sheep is never
going to come back home. He doesn't know the way. He doesn't
know. We are the ones lost. If you
know the way, you're not lost, are you? Not if you know the
way. If you don't know the way, you're lost. You're lost. And that being so, the shepherd
must find us. And notice who does all the saving
here. And when he hath found it, he laith it on his shoulders
rejoicing. He doesn't just put a rope around
his neck and then drag it back to the foal. He actually puts
the sheep on his shoulders and carries it all the way back. Now listen, it's not if he finds
it, it's when he finds it. When he finds it. puts it on
his shoulders, and he puts it on his shoulders rejoicing. There's
no anger here whatsoever. You'll notice the absence of
anger in all of this except for the self-righteous son at the
end. But the shepherd, he's rejoicing. Our Lord was glad to redeem us. Our Lord was glad to come into
this world. Our Lord was glad to become incarnate.
He was glad to go to the cross and die for us. He was glad to
do it. He's not mad, He's glad. When
He finds it, He lays it on His shoulders. You know, our Lord,
and I've said this just recently, our Lord carries us all the way
home. It's not me and him. It's him carrying me all the
way home. I'm not helping him in this at
all. Do you see this sheep helping the shepherd get back to the
fold? No. He's got it up on his shoulders. God the Father said, I have laid
help upon one that is mighty. My Son, God the Son. Our shepherd bears the whole
load of our salvation. He tread the wide press of God's
wrath alone. He carries us all the way home.
He bore our sins in His body on the tree. And when He finds
His lost sheep, this shows ownership. This is His sheep. It's His.
There's great rejoicing. When the lost sheep is found,
listen to this, and when he comes home, he calls together his friends
and neighbors and he says to them, Rejoice with me, for I
have found my sheep. There's ownership. My sheep.
My sheep hear my voice. I have found my sheep. Now listen,
God is not turning goats into sheep. He's after His sheep and we've
always been His sheep. He's not turning goats into sheep. We've always been His sheep.
As you'll see here, the Son has always been the Son of the Father.
For I have found My sheep which was lost. I say unto you that
likewise. Now brethren, here's something
that I really hadn't thought about until today. I say unto
you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth." And I know it's not like these football players,
you know, they say, mom was looking down from heaven when I made
that touchdown. That's not that kind of junk. It's not that kind
of stuff. But we have insight here. There's
actual joy in heaven when God saves a sinner. You know, we
think of it as a total disconnection. Now, I know there's a curtain
here that we can't go past. But I can take this Scripture
and say this, there's joy, there's rejoicing in heaven when God
saves a sinner and that sinner repents. They know what's going on. They
know what's going on. Now, I have to say this, And
I know that when we die and we go to be with the Lord, we have
the mind of Christ. We don't think like we do in
His flesh. We have the mind of Christ. And that's all I can
say. I can't go any further than that
with it, because I don't know. But he says here that there's
rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents more than
over 99 just persons. Those Pharisees, they felt like
they were just persons. They needed no repentance. They said, we'd be not sinners.
But the rejoicing is over a sinner that's brought to repentance.
You know, we don't usually think of God as rejoicing over a sinner. But listen to the Scriptures
in Isaiah 62.5, As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall
your God rejoice over you. God rejoices over you. It says in Zephaniah 3.17, The
Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, God's in our
midst, the Mighty One, will save. He will rejoice over you with
gladness. He will quiet you with His love.
He will rejoice over you with singing." God rejoices over me? That's what it says. Here's the second parable. We
see in this second parable, starting in verse 8, the work of the Holy
Spirit. This woman represents the Holy
Spirit. Now, one thing about a parable, don't try to make
it stand on four legs. It's a story. It's a story to
convey a heavenly message. We had the shepherd. Now we have
the Holy Spirit. It's as low as it can go. And
there's something else about this coin. Unlike the sheep,
it has no life. A coin has no life. You see,
the sheep is lost. Now the coin is dead. Now we've
got dead. And we've got in the dust, in
the dirt, as low as you can get. So anyway, she lights this candle,
she sweeps the house, and she seeks diligently till she finds
it. She doesn't give, just like the
shepherd, doesn't give up on the sheep. The Holy Spirit doesn't
give up on those for whom Christ died. He does not give up on
them. It's not like, back in Arminianism,
it's like the Holy Spirit is trying to convince you to accept
Jesus as your personal Savior, and you resist Him, and you don't
do it, and you leave. It doesn't happen like that.
The Holy Spirit does not, like the shepherd, does not give up.
Like this woman who lost this piece of coin, he does not give
up at all. You'll notice it says that she
seeks the lost coin until she finds it. The Holy Spirit goes
after those for whom the Lord died, and He seeks them until
He finds them. He knows where they are, but
He's speaking in our language, languages you and I can grasp.
Now listen, she started out with 10 pieces, and she's gonna end
up with 10 pieces. No more, no less. They say that,
I was reading in my readings, it said that one of the reasons
it's so important to her, back in that day, that these coins
that have 10 pieces of these silver coins on a band or something
she'd wear it on her head, and it showed that she was betrothed.
That she was to be married. And it was very important to
her. She didn't want to lose one of those coins. It really
meant something to her. Well, you really mean something
to the Holy Spirit. You are betrothed to Christ.
He's not going to lose... If you and I are members of the
body of Christ, and He does not save one of the members, then
the body can't be complete. Can it? No, it can't. The lost coin, now listen, the
lost coin is dead, it's in the dust, and it can't find the woman,
it's not going to go looking for the woman, it's dead. It
has no life, a coin has no life. She must find it. You and I are
dead in trespasses and sins, and He must find us where we
are, in the dust. And listen, listen, She takes
a candle and lights it, and she sweeps the house, she's sweeping
the house, but at the same time, she's got this candle. That's
the gospel. The Holy Spirit takes the gospel
and shines it, and He shines it, and He shines it into the
heart of that sinner whom the Lord died for. And for the first
time, That sinner sees the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The light that the Holy Spirit
uses is the gospel. We are illuminated by the gospel
in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Now, He's a God of means. He
uses preachers like myself standing here preaching. The church witnessing,
you're the light of the world. He uses us, but He's the agent. He's the one who quickens, He's
the one who gives life. Not one coin that was given to
the woman will be lost. And notice what she does. In
Luke 15 verse 9, And when she hath found it, she calls her
friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me! I have
found the peace which I had lost. Likewise I say unto you, There
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repents. There is joy in heaven over you. That's amazing. We're glad. We do rejoice. We do rejoice when the Lord saves
someone and they want to confess Christ. We do rejoice. But nothing
like they do in heaven. Nothing like they do in heaven.
Now we come to the prodigal. He has the longest part of the
parable. And this is the third picture.
in verse 11, and he said, A certain man had two sons. In this parable,
we will see the father receiving the son with open arms. When you usually hear someone
preach from this, especially, I mean, if someone says it's
in Arminianism, where do they put the emphasis on that prodigal? On that prodigal. You know where
the emphasis should be on? The father. The Father, let's
look at this. The Father and the Son, listen,
have always had that relationship. The sheep belong to the shepherd,
the coin belong to the woman, and the Son belong to the Father.
As I said, we've always been His sheep. If we are the Father's
sons, if we are His sons and daughters, First of all, we are
begotten of God, that's the reason. And we've always had that relationship.
That relationship is that with Father and Son. Chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Now you'll notice in this parable,
who owns everything? The Father. Who is rich? The Father. Who leaves? The Son. When Adam fell, he left
God. He changed. But now, God didn't
change. God didn't leave. He's the same. He's in the same place. On the
throne. Same place. Where does the Son
go when He leaves His Father? He goes into a far country. Far away from God. He goes into
riotous living. The prodigal went after the lust
of his flesh to a far country, far away from God, into a world
of darkness and death, outside of Christ. I wish I could tell
this to every lost person out there that's in this world. Outside
of Christ, you're in a world of darkness and death. And when
the world gets done with you, They're going to chew you up,
and it's going to spit you out. You'll see what happens to this
prodigal. But that's what it's going to do with you. You know,
I know several years ago, back in Ashland, a lot of these companies
started downsizing. And they started taking men that
was 50 years old, 55 years old, and older, and they started kicking
them out. They started forcing them into retirement. A lot of
them were the couple companies that I know back in Ashland.
They forced them into retirement. They wanted to bring younger
youth in. They already squeezed out of them all they was going
to get out of them. And they just pushed them out. That's
the world. That's the world for you. He goes into this far country
into a world of darkness and death and debauchery. He took
all the blessings and wasted it on His lust. Have we not done
the same things? Have we not taken the blessings
of God and wasted them on ourselves? How many times have we done that?
I thought about that today. Look back over my years and my
youth and how merciful our Father is. And
after He wasted all that He was given, It says there arose a
famine, a great famine in the land. God knows. Now listen. God knows how to
bring us to the end of ourselves. He knows how to shut us down.
He knows. He knows how to bring us home
empty. He's got to empty us first. He's
got to break us first. He's got to do it. And He began
to be in want. That's spiritual want for the
true prodigal. We must be brought to hunger
and thirst after righteousness. We must be brought to the point
of just being broke, spiritually bankrupt, at the end of ourselves. Have you ever really been at
the end of yourself? Not many have. Not many have. God must empty us of ourselves
before he can fill us with himself. We've got to be emptied of ourselves.
We are so full of ourselves. Notice what that young man said.
He said, Father, give me the inheritance that I've got coming. And he gave it to him. And he
went out and said, after a while, it didn't take very long, and
he left his father's house. He went out and just riotously,
with the harlots and the prostitutes. That's what the older son is
so mad about. And notice how he tries to fix
things, as we all do. When he was brought to the end
of himself, God brought him to the end of himself. Notice what
he tries to do in verse 15. And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his field
to feed swine. He went and he joined himself.
Most people, I realize this, most whom God saves, most of
all those whom the Lord saves, try to fix things first, don't
they? They join a church. Most of them do. Most people
whom the Lord saves comes out of false religion. They do. They
come out of false religion. Not many of them just walk in
off the street. You know, they didn't have any kind of religious
background or anything. Most come out of false religion.
because they try to fix things. Just like this young man, he
went and joined himself to the citizen of that country. Most
make a false profession. They join up with the wrong crowd,
with the wrong country, the wrong citizen. They're trying to fix
this. And for a while, the Lord lets
them do it to teach them a lesson. They learn something about false
religion as well as about sin and their sinfulness. If you
notice here, the employment he was given, his citizen that he
joined himself up to, sent him into his field to feed the swine. This man's a Jew, and he's sent
to feed the swine. He was sent to feed the unclean.
It's like, could it get any worse? I mean, he's broke, he's busted,
he wasted his living, he wasted his inheritance. And he joins
himself up to this false religion and he's sent to feed swine because
that's all false religion produces. The only thing that a false gospel
will produce is a swine. It will not produce a son. It
will produce a pig. False religion will have you
feeding their swine. The Lord told Peter, He said,
Feed my sheep. And what did he say also? Don't cast your pearls
before swine. But this prodigal son had to
learn a lesson. God's going to teach, All that
hath heard and learned of the Father comes to me. They're all
taught of God. All thy children shall be taught
of God. This is a teaching process. It's
a teaching process going on here. And notice how this left him.
He joined up to this This citizen, it left him empty and hungry. That's exactly how false religion
will leave you. I remember so well of telling
a person, when I was in that Armenianism, I said, there's
something missing. Something. And it was Christ. It was the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was missing. And while he's sitting there
feeding his hogs, His employer's swine, he's sitting there feeding
them. And it says here, he would have fain filled his belly with
the husk that the swine did eat. He was so hungry. God brought
him down so low. That's exactly what God will
do. That's exactly what he'll do when he saves a sinner. He's
going to bring him into the dust. He's going to empty him, strip
him, take everything from him until Christ is all and in all. That's what's going to happen. He was left hungry, so hungry
that he'd eat the slop that the hogs were eating. He emptied
the hogs. He thought the hogs were better than him. And they
were at that time. He's feeding them and he's hungry.
They're getting fat and he's starving. The world, listen here, and it
says, no man gave unto him. Nobody helped him. The world and false religion
are takers, not givers. That's a hard lesson to learn.
Usually you learn it about the time you're about to drop into
the grave. But no man gave unto him. Our
God knows how to hedge us in. I've got to read this. I know
I'm going to be a little long with this, but that's all right. Hosea, chapter 2. Let me read
you something. In verse 5 it says, For their
mother hath played the harlot. She that conceived them hath
done shamefully. For she said, I will go after
my lovers that give me my bread, and my water, and my wool, and
my flax, and my oil, and my drink. Therefore, this is the Lord speaking,
Behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall,
that she shall not find her pass." That's exactly what he's doing
to that prodigal. He's hedged up his way, no man helped him.
And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake
them. She shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then shall
she say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then
was it better with me than now. Well, she did not know that I
gave her corn and wine and oil, multiplied her silver and gold,
which they prepared for Baal. But I'm gonna hedge up her way.
Everyone here in this room that God has saved, God hedged up
your way. He hedged up your way. You were going down a road to
hell, and God stopped you. He hedged up your way. He said,
I'm not going to let you go that way. I'm going to take everything
from you. All the things you enjoy, all
the things that give you happiness, I'm going to turn them into sour. I'm going to make them bitter.
That's what He did to this young man. And then it says in verse
17, He came to Himself. He was awakened by the Spirit
of God. This is the sinner being awakened
by the Spirit of God. For the first time, he realized
that it was better off in his father's house, that the servants
in his father's house had plenty to spare. Our Father has plenty. Our Father owns it all. And here's the spiritual awakening
in verse 17. He said, How many hired servants
of my father's have bread enough to eat, and I perish with hunger?
What am I doing? This is spiritual awakening. You finally see the emptiness
of this world and the nothingness of this world, and nothing fills
you. It's all husk. That's all it
is. You realize, that everything
you need, your heavenly Father has. And so the prodigal son,
in verse 18, he said, I'll rise, go to my Father, here's repentance. And I'm going to say to my Father,
I've sinned against heaven and against thee. David said in Psalm
51, I acknowledge my transgressions and my sins ever before me. Has
it ever dawned on you and me who we've sinned against? That's
when true repentance happens. That's true repentance. Now,
God may use some sin that you and I have done to convict us,
but in that, He brings us to the point of seeing that we are
sin and we've sinned against Him. And note He says here, "...and
I am no more worthy to be called a son." Are you worthy to be
called a son? Make me one of your hired servants.
Let me be a doorkeeper in the house of God. And He arose, and He came to
His Father. This is the Holy Spirit bringing
Him. And notice here, it was the Father who saw Him coming
first. But when He was yet a great way off, He's way off, here He
is, ragged, tagged, no shoes on His feet, and the Father sees
Him coming way off, and His Father saw Him and He had compassion
on Him. This is how God sees you and me. This is how He's
had compassion on us. And He ran and fell on His neck
and He kissed Him. Our Heavenly Father saw us coming
before the world began afar off. He saw us coming when He called
us by His grace. He saw us coming when we were
born again. And notice the joy that He has over bringing us
home. when He sees us coming. He's
saying here that He has great joy. And He's saying, when the
Son sees Him, He said, I'm not worthy to be called your Son.
Let me just be a servant. I'll tell you this, Lord, let
me be a true servant of yours. And note here how the Father
doesn't even answer Him, does He? He doesn't answer. He said,
let me just be a servant. And the Father just turns and
He speaks to His servants. His servants, all are His servants.
The angels are His servants. The preachers, the ministers
are His servants. The church, His servants. And He says, here,
bring forth the best robe. Well, you know. Take that rag-taggedy,
old stinking pig. You ever walk in a pig pen? Take
that thing off Him. And put the best robe. You know,
that's the robe of His Son. The robe of His righteousness.
Put that on Him. Bring forth the best robe, put
it on him, and put a ring on his hand that shows he's mine,
shoes on his feet, and bring here the fatty calf, and kill
it, and let's eat, and let's be married. Let's not talk about
that. Aren't you glad God forgets your
sins? Aren't you glad He forgets our sins? Let's not even bring
it up. He's not even going to bring
up His living, His righteous living, like the elder son's
going to. The father doesn't bring it up.
That's over with. Paul said, forgetting those things
which are behind, God's forgotten our sins. That's over with. And the father says, for this
my son was dead. Brethren, we were dead. Rolf
Barnard called it Graveyard Dead. That's the way he would speak
of it. Graveyard Dead. And he's alive
again. He was lost. Far country. Out there in a far country. And
he's found. And they began to be merry. And then that oldest
son, he heard that, he went near the house, he heard all this
merriment going on. He said, what's going on? He called the
sermons over. What's going on? He said, your brother, your brother's
come home and your father's killed a fatted calf and they're making
merry. And he was mad. What was it in
the beginning of this story? Who was mad? The scribes and
the Pharisees. We've been here all along, we've
kept your commandments. That's what that young man said,
I've kept these from my youth up. And you never threw a party
for me." That's what they were mad at. Here's what he's mad
at. He got to go out here and lay with all these prostitutes.
Well, I had to stay home and I had to be a good boy. And I
had to stay home because I would like to go out there. That's why he's mad. He's mad
because that's what he'd like to have done, but he didn't.
He stayed home. And the prodigal went out and he did what he wanted
to do. And the father's treating him like that. He feels like
the father ought to kick him through the wall. But instead,
he's having a party. He said he was dead, son. Don't
you understand? Your brother was dead. Now he's
back home. He's back home. I know I left home one time and
I come back home. My dad never said a word about
the difference that was between us. Not a word was ever said. He's home. He was dead, now he's
alive. And that young man, he said,
look at verse 30, "...as soon as this thy..." Now listen, he
doesn't say, as soon as my brother came back. You know what he says?
As soon as your son... He wouldn't even own him as a
brother. Those Jews wouldn't own us as brothers. In Adam,
we are. They stopped with Abraham, but
they stopped too soon. They needed to take the brakes off and go
on back to Adam. Because we all go back to Adam. We're brothers
in Adam. But as soon as this thy son was
come, which hath devoured... And hey boys, he got a barb in
this. He's probably saying, Dad, and he devoured, he devoured
thy living, not his inheritance, he said, thy living, Dad, what
you worked so hard for, he devoured it, leaving with whores, harlots,
prostitutes. And you killed a fatted calf
for it. I can't believe that. But here's what he's really mad
about. He's really mad about the fact that he stayed home
and did all this, and you never killed a fatted calf and threw
a party for me. Boo-hoo. But I tell you, that just gets
me. But that would be us. That is
the spirit of self-righteousness. And that was broken in that son,
that prodigal. He came back broke, broken, broken
heart and a contrite spirit. Oh God, thou will not despise.
But self-righteousness, self-righteousness. I heard Henry say he would rather
be guilty of murder than self-righteousness. Nothing robs God more than self-righteousness. Here's the story. All are lost. All are found. And there's great
rejoicing over one sinner that repents. Isn't that a good story? You know who rejoiced in that?
Those publicans and sinners that came to hear Him. And those Pharisees
out there, just mad as could be. And they don't even realize
that elder son, that ugly son, is them.