That's good, isn't it? The Holy
Post with light and power dwell in me. Luke chapter 15. I started to
say, thank you, John. Thank you, John. Thank you, Sally. Luke chapter 15. Let's read the
text. Luke 15. The Lord gave this parable
in three parts. We're taking each part singularly. He gave the part of the shepherd
finding the sheep. That's why he came. And now the
work of the Holy Spirit, verse 8. Either what woman, having
ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, let not light
a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she
find it. And when she had found it, She
calleth her friends and neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with
me, for 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 repented." The Lord gave this parable, as
you know, to illustrate salvation, the work of God, salvations of
the Lord. Nothing could be clearer from
scripture than what he says here, till he find it. And when he
finds it, who found who? Who's looking for who? Nothing
could be clearer than what the Lord said here about the work
of salvation, salvations of the Lord, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. These three are one. These three
are equal in person and power in their work. They're all together
in this work, our salvation. Seeking and finding. This whole
story is about seeking and finding lost sinners. That's how it started. Pharisees tried to dishonor Christ
by saying, this man receiveth sinners. Well, yes, that's why
he came. He came into the world to seek
and to save lost sinners. Not try, but to find them. And when he finds them. He rejoices,
and so do we. So this is, you know, salvation
is the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Election,
we've often summarized it this way. Election by the Father,
redemption by the Son, regeneration by the Holy Spirit. But they're
all equal. Who God, the Father chose, the
Son chose, the Holy Spirit chose, right? Who God loves, the Son
loves, the Holy Spirit loves. It even says that, you know,
Christ died for us, but it says, feed the church of God which
He purchased with His own blood. So, the three are together in
all of this work. The Father seeks, the Son seeks,
the Holy Spirit takes. Christ is the light, the Holy
Spirit takes the light. God is light. You see? And we
want to honor the Holy Spirit like we honor the Father and
the Son, right? They're equal. We worship the
Holy Spirit. Yes, we do. I have to admit,
the Holy Spirit is the most mysterious of the three persons of the Trinity.
Don't you feel that way? I feel like we know something
of the Father. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God. And Jesus Christ. He's come
and given us an understanding that we might know Him as true.
But the Holy Spirit. He's God's Spirit, the Father's
Spirit, or the Holy Spirit's Spirit. I don't understand. Do you? It can't be explained,
but they're three persons, separate yet one. Holy Spirit, mysterious. And yet, our Lord said, in John
14, I believe, He said, the world doesn't know Him, but you know
Him. Remember that, John? Remember when He said that? You
know Him, the world doesn't know Him. You know Him because He
dwells in you. If any man hath not the Spirit of God, he is
not of His. Every child of God is led by the Spirit of God.
He said you know Him. I'm amazed at how much is attributed
to the Holy Spirit. Just listen as I quote some scriptures. In Romans 8, the first 16 verses,
He's mentioned 16 times. And Acts, as I said, 40-some
time. He descended in the form of a
dove on our Lord. He commanded the disciples all
through the book of Acts. Our Lord said, I'm leaving. It's
expedient that I go. If I don't go, the Holy Spirit
won't come. But when He does, He's going to... See, the Holy
Spirit wasn't given while Christ was on this earth. You understand? He said, I'm
going, and when I go, the Comforter will come, and He's going to
be with you always, leading, guiding, directing you. He commanded
the disciples in Acts chapter 1. He's the one that commanded
them. And then, remember Philip in Acts chapter 8, where it says
Philip was led by the Spirit down there to preach to that
eunuch? And it says He carried him away.
The Spirit took him away through the air. I don't know. He sent preachers to the Gentiles.
He spoke in the Revelation. Those letters were from the Spirit. Hear what the Spirit saith unto
the church. Right, John? He searcheth all
things. He teacheth all things. He leads
and guides into all truth. We're born of the Spirit, washed
in His blood. Christ said, You're born of water
and Spirit. He comforts God's people. He restrains. He constrains. We may quench Him. No, don't
quench the Spirit. We're warned not to quench the
Spirit. That is, you need to listen to
what He says. Don't let anything drown Him
out, extinguish Him. We're warned not to grieve Him.
We're triply warned not to blaspheme Him. He said, they will not be
forgiven. The Holy Spirit is God. He's called the Spirit
of God. He's called the Spirit of Christ.
At the incarnation of Christ, listen to this, that seed, that
holy thing was put in her womb by the Spirit. Explain that. At Christ's ministry, when Christ
came, the Holy Spirit, as I said, anointed Him and filled Him. He was filled with the Spirit. I'm speaking things too wonderful
for you right now. Things I don't really understand.
But it's amazing. At the sacrifice of Christ, it
says, through the eternal Spirit, He offered Himself to God. What
does that mean, John? At his resurrection, he was quickened
by the Spirit, raised by the Spirit. The apostles
were filled with the Spirit, gifted by the Spirit, empowered
by the Spirit, and on and on it goes. I could keep going.
The salvation of every person. We're quickened by the Spirit.
We're called by the Spirit. We're made alive. We're born
of the Spirit. We're convinced of sin. We're convicted of sin
by the Spirit. Of righteousness and judgment.
We're given repentance. We're sealed by the Spirit. Indwelled by the Spirit. Sanctified
by the Spirit. You say, I thought we were sanctified
by Christ. We are. Well, you just said the Spirit.
Yes. He's the Spirit of Truth. And I've just given the whole
thing away. It's not something you didn't already know. In John
14 and 16, you know, it says the Comforter will come and what
He's going to do is take the things of mine and
show them unto you. The light that He gives is Christ. Alright, now let's look at this
parable, this brief parable. And the Holy Spirit is in the
form of a woman here. Not because of weakness. Oh,
no. Not inferiority. Oh, no. Oh, no. But as a woman who gives
birth, raises children, and a keeper of the house. Keeper and sweeper. Alright, look here. Either what
woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she'd lose one piece, Let's
not light a candle, sweep the house and seek diligently till
she finds him. This woman, the Holy Spirit is
given here as in a type of a woman. As I said, a woman gives birth
and raises children and leads them and guides them and keeper
of the home. And also we're going to see the woman
represent in the church. And the Holy Spirit does His
work in the context of the church. We read Proverbs 3, 3, 4, 8, wisdom is a female. I thought
wisdom was Christ. It is. But the wisdom, where
do you hear of Christ? Where did you first see Christ?
Where did the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Christ appear to you? When did the Son of Righteousness
arise with healing in His wings? To you. When the Gospel was preached. The illuminating power of the
Holy Spirit took the Gospel and opened it to you. So that's the
sense of this woman here. Silver. All right, what woman
having ten pieces of silver? Now, this woman had ten pieces. They were all hers, but she lost
one of them. Scripture says, all souls are
mine. That's what God said. All souls
are mine, but especially the souls of His saints who have
been redeemed with a precious price. And you know what I'm
going to quote in a little bit. But silver throughout the Scriptures
has been used extensively. In the Old Testament, shekel,
silver was the price of redemption of God's people. Throughout. And here's the point. What is the value of a human
soul? A human life? I'm not talking right now to
God, the value to God, but to us. What is your soul worth to
you? What is the soul of that woman
you love? What is that life worth? God
has given that. It's an invaluable thing. So one old preacher wrote that
no man can adequately or truly understand the worth of a human
soul. I quoted this to a preacher who
was bemoaning that he had very few people to preach to. And
I quoted, I remember reading this when I first started. An
old preacher I was talking to a young man, and the young man
wanted more people. And the old man said, how many
are you preaching to? He said, ten or fifteen. He said,
that's ten or fifteen more souls than you want to give an account
for in a day of judgment. John Newton said, a man would
greatly overestimate his own worth if he did not feel it worth
his time. to give 10,000 years for the
salvation of one soul. If that soul is that man sitting
beside you, it's invaluable. You have one soul. You're a living
soul, each of you. What would you give in exchange
for your soul? That's what the Lord asked. And mankind has no regard for
his soul. None. No value. A human life,
really, or the life of others, but his own soul, he doesn't
think about his soul, he thinks about his body. Lust of the flesh,
lust of the eye, that's what man is all about. He would, if
man valued his soul or his eternal, his soul is eternal. Body dies,
the soul goes back to the God it made. And it's going to live
on somewhere. Either in agony or ecstasy. Cast out or brought in. If man valued his soul, he wouldn't
sell it so cheaply. He wouldn't risk it. He wouldn't
ignore it. He wouldn't starve it. I thought about a woman with
an unborn child, you know, it's unseen, but she, you know, if
she's a good mother and been given this child, you remember
when you were pregnant, you remember that, don't you? I remember Mindy
telling me how much she enjoyed being pregnant, trying to explain
to me what, I couldn't let her into that. Why would you enjoy
that? She did. this life in her. Oh, she cherished it. But you
don't even know, oh, it's life, all right. Is that first flutter,
Tammy Jo? Ooh. Margaret, you wouldn't have
given anything, would you? And you labored and travailed
until the birth of that child was born. Precious. Precious. What would you give
those babies now? Grandbabies. Oh my. But now the sinful soul. Man became a sinner. God made
man a living soul. He breathed into him, Adam, and
he became a living soul. But that soul of man died. Rebelled against God willingly. Rebelled against God. And so
the sinful soul of man is of no value to God Almighty whatsoever. Useless. He's against God. We saw that. The carnal mind
is against God. Inmate against God. No, God doesn't
value every soul. In fact, God has. God does right
now and ever shall destroy millions of souls. It's not because he's mean or
hateful. God has let sinful souls, rebel
souls against God have no value to God. Do you understand? How can a soul be of any value
to God? Somebody's got to pay the price.
You're bought with a price. Not by corruptible things, such
as silver and gold, and your own vain tradition or conversation
or life, a tradition received from the elders and so on and
so forth. Not by anything you've done,
but with the precious blood of the Lamb. You know, all through
the Old Testament, silver represents the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're the temple of God, okay? At the temple of God, there were
fence posts. And all these curtains surrounding
the courtyard. I don't forget how many there
were. How many there were, somebody can tell me. But there were many. And every one of those fence
posts was set in sockets of silver. The foundation, you know silver
is heavier than iron ore? It conducts more heat than anything
else. It reflects. What's behind the
mirror? What reflects light best, better
than anything? Silver. You, if you've been redeemed
by Christ, are a precious piece of silver. Your soul is of infinite
value to God Almighty. He's not going to lose one. He's not going to lose one that
Christ died for. No, sir. The price is too high. Do you understand? So he sends
the Holy Spirit. Find it. Find that lost piece
of silver. Oh, my. Silver. This too. Silver. Where is silver found
in its original state? No. In the earth. In the dirt. Hidden, buried. What has to happen? Get out of
there. Then what do you do? Refine it. Remove the dross. Adornments. Jewelry. Use silver. Every child of God is redeemed
by the blood of Christ, bought with a price, and I'm here to
tell you from God's Word, if you've been redeemed by Christ,
you're loved by God, You've been given to Christ, and you're of
great value to God. He's not going to lose you. He's not going to lose you. Now,
this value is not in and of ourselves. God doesn't need gold or silver. He doesn't need human beings.
He didn't need Adam. Why did He create Adam? For His
glory. For His glory. Well, what good
is God going to get out of us? We're going to give Him glory.
When we're lost, we're of no use to God. But if He finds us,
we're going to give Him glory. Are you with me? The sheep, the coin, and the
son were all lost, dead. So they weren't any good in that
state. But after found, the shepherd gets the glory, The woman gets
the glory and the Father gets the glory. They bring Him glory
for finding them when they were lost. And God does all of this
to the praise of the glory of His grace. This is our only value
really to God, is to give Him praise and honor and glory for
finding and saving us. He didn't need us. We needed
Him. But we're going to give Him glory.
And look at verse 8. So she takes, if she loses this
pig, it's the work of the Holy Spirit that gets you lost. You
say, I don't understand. Yeah, you do. I don't have to
explain it. But if anybody doesn't understand,
there's an old poem in Gatsby's hymnal that says that a sinner
is a sacred thing the Holy Spirit has made Himself. Meaning? You
can't find a sinner out there. Can you? Go out there and look
for one. Ask people for a sinner. I mean, a hell deserving, one
God deserves to hate, and cast out of His presence. Find one.
You can't find one. What do you think about yourself?
That's what you think about yourself. Who told you that? Who convinced
you of sin, Christ said? When He comes, He'll convince
you of sin. What sin? Sin in the world? No. Conviction of sin. Righteousness. Who told you you needed a righteousness
as good as God's? Who told you that? The Holy Spirit.
Judgment. Who told you that you'll either
be judged by God on your own merits or the merits of another?
Who told you that? The Spirit of God. You didn't figure that out. Flesh
and blood didn't reveal that to you. The Spirit of God, He'll
lead you and guide you into all truth, the way, the truth and
the life. What's that? Right. Alright, look at this. Like I
said, who told you you were lost? The Holy Spirit. He said, this
woman will take, if she lose her peace, she'll not light a
candle, and sweep the house and seek
diligently till she find light a candle." Oh my, candle? Silver? Where do you first hear of candle
in the Scripture? Candlestick. In the tabernacle,
in the temple. What's that? That's the illuminating
work of the Holy Spirit. That's Christ. Candle. I want you to turn to Psalm 18.
While you're turning, I'm going to quote. several scriptures
to you, okay? Psalm 18, go there. Psalm 27
says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Who? The Lord Jesus
Christ. Who told you that? The Holy Spirit
did. Listen to this. In thy light
shall we see light. And light, the knowledge, the
glory of God. Who told you that? The Holy Spirit.
Listen to this, He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the
light. Your righteousness? What is your
righteousness? Christ. What does 1 Corinthians
1.30 say? He's made unto us. Who told you
that? The Holy Spirit did. Psalm 43.3, O send out thy light
and thy truth. Look at Psalm 18. This is the
psalm of the cross. Verse 2, the Lord is my rock,
my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will
trust, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
Is He really? Who taught you that? The Spirit
of God. I will call upon the Lord who
is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemy. By
who? How? Christ crucified. Read it. Here's Christ. The sorrows of
death encompassed me. The floods of ungodly men made
me afraid. The sorrows of hell encompassed
me about. The snares of death prevented
me. In my distress I called upon the Lord. My God, my God. That's Christ on the cross. He
heard my voice out of His temple. My cry came before Him into His
ears. The earth shook and trembled.
The foundation of the hills moved. It was shaking. He was wroth.
Smoke went out of His nostrils. Fire out of His mouth. Coals
were kindled by Him. He bowed the heavens also, came
down darkness under His feet, rode upon a cherub and did fly.
He did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness His
secret place. His pavilion around about Him
were dark waters, thick clouds of sky. Look at verse 28. But Thou wilt
light my candle. The Lord my God will enlighten
my darkness. Do you not see clearly that that
psalm was about Christ on the cross crucified? Darkness of
death and hell and judgment out of the belly of hell. Like Jonah. You know what Jonah and the whale
is all about, don't you? It's Christ crucified. You know
that. Out of the belly of hell. That's where Christ went. But,
he lit his candle. Enlightened his darkness. The
Holy Spirit brought him out of that tomb. I believe it was the
Holy Spirit that said, go back at door. Come on out. Someone once said, listen, I
love this thought, that if you've been put in prison for a crime
and you pay the crime, you can't just walk out on your own. You've
got to be, if the law is satisfied, then the law must come. and open
that door and demand that you go free, thus showing everyone
it's been satisfied. So do you see? God said, send
His Holy Spirit, go open that door. It's been fulfilled. Ordinances have been nailed to
the cross. Payments have been made just
to satisfy. Bring Him out of there. Amen. We came out with him quickened
by the Spirit. That's what that means. Christ,
of his own accord, rose, but he was quickened by the Spirit,
showing that he's satisfied. Does that make sense? Paul, one
time, was wrongly accused, and they came and said, it was going
out. He said, no, I demand that the
judges set me free. I haven't done anything. So this candle is Christ. Go
back to the text. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God is seen in the face, the person, and the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this. The people that
walked in darkness have seen a great light. If you look to
the earth, all you'll see is darkness, dimness, and anguish,
and be driven to darkness. But some people like us, that
walked in darkness, We were in darkness even as others, but
we've seen a great light. Who showed us the light? The
Spirit of God. Like this woman. Alright, look at our text. It
says she takes a candle and lightens the house. What's the house?
That's God's house. It's a church. That's your soul. Temple of God. And then she sweeps
the house. We're going to finish by singing
that. She sweeps the house. You see, diligently searches
and sweeps. The Holy Spirit sweeps away all
refuges of lies. The Holy Spirit sweeps away all
superstition. When He comes and finds us, what
He does is He finds all sorts of garbage in this wicked, sinful
soul, especially in religion. Our Lord told the story of a
devil living in the soul, an unregenerate soul. He left. He
came back and found it swept and garnished, decorated, but
not by the Spirit of God. And he brought seven more spirits
more by than himself. Now religion won't get rid of
all this stuff. It brings more in. But He sweeps
away all these refuges of lies, superstitions, tradition. When
the Holy Spirit comes, He sweeps away everything, every opinion
of man, all your excuses for your sin. He exposes you. He
finds out your sins. In the white light of His truth,
He leaves you naked, open, bare, guilty, lost, undone, unclean,
wretched, violent, miserable, hopeless, and helpless. So that
you have no help whatsoever in yourself. You swept everything
clean away. And all you are is naked and
exposed. How does he do that? By the Word
of God. By the light of His Word. Hebrews 4.12. And then what does
he show you? Your covering. Your sin pavement. Crying. Now look at verse 9. And when she had found it, Not
if, but when. Not if, but when. As said, the coin didn't find
a woman, the sheep didn't find the shepherd. They weren't even looking, but
the shepherd was looking for the sheep and the woman for the
coin. Nothing clearer from Scripture than salvation of the Lord. And
verse 9 says, When she hath found it, she calls her friends and
her neighbors together. They get together, like where
we are now. Our Lord in God's Gospel said,
I call you friends because I show you everything. And when they find out that the
Lord has found another sinner, he says, Rejoice with me. Don't
we meet together to worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in
the Lord Jesus Christ? Rejoice with me. Rejoice in me. Rejoice in the Lord. And again
I say, Rejoice, Paul said. Why? Because I have found the
peace which is love. Rejoice in what I've done. We
talk about Christ's work every time we meet, don't we? Why is
that? Because it's our joy in rejoicing.
When we tell people what great things the Lord has done for
us, what has He done for us? I was lost, now I'm found. I was blind,
now I see. I was lame, now I walk. I was
deaf, now I hear. I was outcast, now I'm incast,
brought in. I was an enemy, now I'm a friend,
a neighbor, a fellow citizen of the household of God. I'm
dead, now I'm alive. That's my story, isn't it your
story? That's what we do. If that's what the Lord's done
for you, you'll never get tired of it. And you won't want to
hear a man say anything else. And look at this. This is a mystery.
And he says this in the first and second part. Likewise, I
say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner that repented. That's amazing. Isn't that amazing? I don't believe, based on Scripture,
I don't believe the saints and brethren in glory are aware of
what's going on on earth. I don't believe that. In fact, Scripture says that
former things will not be remembered or brought to mind. Isaiah 65.
But somehow the angels are. They are. They're giving charge
over everyone about the people. So they're actively involved
in the lives of every one of God's people. And I love the thought of the
angels when Christ came to earth. Maybe the Lord did not tell them
what He was doing. He didn't have to. But they watched
and they did all of this. Didn't they minister to Christ
when He was bleeding in the garden? Alright? He gives charge over
every one of God's people. And here they are in the depths
of sin and depravity. And angels, according to God's
purpose and will, let so much go on and restrain the rest. Don't kill anybody like Job. And all of a sudden, they see
God working. Now, I'm getting way over my
head here. But then when the Holy Spirit
sends and starts doing this work in them and starts this change,
this life-giving change in this dead sinner, and then all of
a sudden, you know, God gave God a thought. Now they're thinking
about God. Now all of a sudden, like Saul
of Tarsus who hated the church, Don't you know that angels wonder,
won't you let us kill him? He's one of mine. Watch. And all of a sudden, they repent. God be merciful to me, a sinner. Yes! Now we know why we're sinners.
Now we know why we're washed over there. Now we know this
is one of His. I don't know, that's a sanctified
imagination, but you can't refute it. It says there's joy in presence
of the angel over one sinner that repents. Now you want to tell me that
God's people are not valuable to Him? Goes in glory, don't know who's
coming in. The angels do. The Lord do. Stand with me.