Thank you, John. Thank you, Sherry. I love that
helmet. That's a prayer in the form of
a hymn asking the triune God, the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy
Spirit, to come and help us, help us worship without whom
we cannot worship. And I love that. I love that.
Come, thou incarnate Word, gird on thy mighty sword. Oh, that
the Lord will take that mighty sword and pierce a heart that
has never been pierced. He did it to me. The Lord Jesus
Christ told a parable. Luke 15. Luke chapter 15. This parable is familiar to many
of you. He told this three-part parable
which illustrates the work of salvation by Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. And in this parable with three
parts, all three persons or things have one thing
in common. They're lost. And these three are looking for
them. And they find them. They find
them. The salvations of the Lord belongeth
to him. The Lord told this to the Pharisees.
Sinners heard it, but told this to the Pharisees in verse 2.
The Pharisees and scribes murmured at him, saying, This man receiveth
sinners, and eateth with them. And I am so glad, aren't you?
That's the best news that a person could hear. This is a faithful
saying. Oh, it's worthy of all acceptation that all have sinned. All are sinners though they don't
know it. But those whom God reveals their sin to, this is the best
news they've ever heard. This man receiving sinners. And Edith with them. They're
going to sit down with him. in the end and dying with him,
like one of the king's sons. Well, verse 1, it says, "...then
drew near unto him." And this is why the Lord told this parable.
The publicans and sinners drew near to hear him. I need to hear
from him, don't you? I need to hear of him. Well,
the Pharisees murmured. So the Lord spoke to these murmuring
Pharisees. and said this parable, verse
3. He spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you,
having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave
the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost,
until he find it? And when he hath found 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. I say unto you,"
he's talking to these Pharisees, that likewise, joy shall be in
heaven over one sinner that repented. More than over ninety and nine
just persons which need no repentance. The Lord is not saying that there
are ninety-nine people that don't need repentance. He's telling
these Pharisees, you don't think you're a sinner. You justify
yourselves. You think you're righteous before
God. You don't think you need repentance. But you do. But he said, I didn't come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentant. And so God has a remnant. That's
what this is talking about also. A remnant according to the election
of the great. Every single one that God gave
to Christ to come to find our Great Shepherd, every single
one of them, they find out they're sinners. They are a remnant according
to the election of grace. And that's where it starts. That's
where the message starts. Sinners. Saved by grace. Saved by grace. Our Lord said
to these Pharisees, what man of you, if you had a hundred
sheep, you bought them, you raised them,
they were yours. Okay? They're yours. Our Lord
said, all souls are mine. God said that. All souls are
mine. He said, cannot I do with my
own what I will? Yes. All souls are mine. Romans
9 makes this very clear. That God Almighty of the same
lump formeth all men, but of the same lump maketh one a vessel
of honor for his glory to the praise of the glory of his grace.
He chooses to save one and passes by another a vessel of wrath
fitted for destruction. What do you say to this then?
That's what the scripture says. That's what the scripture says
to Pharaoh. But that's so. God owns them
all. Christ owns them all. He's the
great land owner, the great husband. The earth is the Lord's in the
fullness thereof, the world and the inhabitants thereof. The
God in whose hands all men are, their breath is, and all their
weight. Does as He will, with whom He will, because He will.
That's God. What should that make people
do? Should it make them mad? It won't do any good to be mad.
That makes it worse. Fear. Fear. That should create fear. It does
in God's people, His elect. Now, our Lord has a special people. All souls are His, but He has
an elect people. He says there are sheep and there
are goats. their sheep and their goats.
And our Lord said, My Father gave them to Me, these sheep.
Before the world began, God Almighty chose a number which no man can
number but Him. And He gave them to the Lord
Jesus Christ to come to this earth and redeem them. To come
to this earth as the great shepherd of the sheep and find every single
one of them because they're born dead, they're born lost. And the Lord Jesus Christ had
to come and save them. And that's why He came. He said,
they're mine. The Father which has sent me. And He said, none are lost because
I find them. He said, other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. And there shall
be one shepherd and one fold, and every one in it. is going
to be singing to the praise of the glory of His finding, redeeming
grace. The Lord did that. Christ came. We're lost until found. We're
dead until made alive. We're far off until brought near,
brought home. Our Lord said, I lay down my
life for the sheep. I must bring them. And verse
5 says, when He hath found it. There's no doubt whatsoever.
The Lord tells this story in which he leaves no doubt as to
whether or not the shepherd will find that lost sheep. David, whom the Lord named his
son after, the son of David. David was a good shepherd. He
was a great shepherd. David never lost a sheep. The
story of David, he was a shepherd from a boy. He was keeping his
father's sheep. One time, a bear and a lion came
and grabbed one little lamb. I don't understand this, but
it happened, I believe. I believe God. One little lamb, not a big
ram with horns, a little lamb, a helpless lamb. David went out
after that bear and that lion and slew them both and brought
that lamb back without a mark on it. He's a great shepherd. I'll tell
you a better story than that. The great, the chief shepherd,
the Lord Jesus Christ, has never lost one sheep or one little
lamb. Not one. He said, if all those
thou hast given me, I've lost nothing. I've kept them all.
to the praise of the glory of His power. He's called Savior. That's His name. If He lost one,
He's not a good Savior. He's the good, He's the great,
He's the chief shepherd. He's going to bring them all
to God in the end to His glory. And yet, they're going to rejoice
like these who rejoice in heaven that says, verse 6, look at it,
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep. That sheep wasn't looking
for Him. Heaven, was it? Huh? It doesn't
say anything about that sheep looking for Him. Were you? Those of you whom the Lord has
found, were you looking for Him? Huh? I'll tell you when you were
looking for Him. That's when you already found.
He said, I have found of them that sought me not. Philip is
a good picture of that in it. The Lord came and found Philip.
Philip wasn't looking for the Lord. He didn't know who he was.
He didn't care who he was. Just like me. I didn't care.
Not interested. The Lord brought me in. His sovereign
providence sat me down in the pew and I began to listen to
the gospel. I was after that girl right there. That's who
I was after. I didn't need saving. I didn't
need mercy. I didn't need grace. I wasn't
interested in this gospel. I was interested in her. I'm
just being honest with you. But God, for long I forgot she
was there. See, I wasn't looking for the Lord,
and I didn't know what He was looking for me. Then I began
to look for Him. I began to seek the Lord. The
Lord said, I am found of them that sought me not. I began to
seek Him. And like Philip, I said, I've
found Him. You didn't find anybody. He found
you. He found you. Rejoice with me. Everybody in heaven rejoices
with the Lord Jesus Christ because He found us. Not the other way
around. I decided for Jesus. I let Him
in my heart. Oh, He was out in the rain. Away
with that. That's another Jesus. This is
all to the praise of His glory. And it says in verse 7, I say
unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner
that repenteth. Repentance, where does that come
from? It's the goodness of God that leads us to repent. We don't
even know we need it. Don't even know we're sinners.
Don't even know we're under wrath. Don't know it. But God is rich
in mercy. He shows you, you're a goner. You're a guilty sinner. You better
start crying for mercy. You better repent. Except you
repent, you'll perish. Oh, Lord, be merciful to me,
the sinner. You have it. Why? Why did they repent? He gave
them right. God be the glory. Okay, look
at the next part of this parable. That's the work of the Son through
the Great Shepherd who came to find us and to redeem us by His
own precious blood on Calvary's tree. Verse 8. And the theme here in all of
these are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together looking
for. They're all looking for the lost
one. Okay? These three are looking
for the lost. You reckon they'll find the three? One time our dog got lost and
so I, Abner, I, oh I love that old dog, mad old man. If I could
find it, I'm going to find that dog. Somebody picked him up. Somebody had him captive. I found
him. I found him. But Mindy was looking. And Hannah was looking. We were
all looking. But we found him. If anybody that God is after,
people say, God's trying to tell me. God doesn't try anything. God does what He purposed to
do. So here's the story. Three. Father, Son, Holy Spirit
looking for the lost. They find them all. Verse 7. Verse 8. Either, he says, what
woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not
light a candle, 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 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 repenteth." This one piece of silver is not
really of much value. I looked it up, and a piece of
silver that they're talking about back then was equivalent of a
Roman penny, 15 cents. Fifteen cents. That's a pretty worthless piece
of money. One piece of silver. Now, this
is another story of how the Holy Spirit of God illuminates. lights the way,
shows us Christ, shows us our sin, reveals our darkness and
so forth, reveals that we're sinners, grants repentance. Now
the Holy Spirit of God, the sovereign Spirit of God, finds His people
through the preaching of the gospel. Every one of them. And the first thing He makes
us to know is that we're not worth finding. Fifteen cents. Most of the time
now, when I go into a store or whatever, and something comes
to $1.98, I give them $2. I say, two cents, keep it. Most of you penny pinchers don't
do that. Those of you who've got a million
dollars in savings, you don't do that. I do it. Keep it. And I kid with them
a second. You just keep it. Don't spend
it all in one place. You just keep it. It's not worth anything. It's not worth keeping. I'm just telling it like it is,
okay? The Scripture says there's none that doeth good, no, not
one. There's not a just man on earth
that sinneth, not. Except from the sole of our feet
to the top of our head, no sound of sin. There's none worth saving. Nobody's worth saving. There's
no real intrinsic, or that is, value within ourselves, something
that God needs, something good in us. There's none good, not
one. None righteous, not one. Not
one. The Lord looked down to see if
there were any. Is there anybody worth saving?
None of them. That's a fact. Do you know yourself? You know, everybody in glory
is speaking of the worth of one person. They all know that they
were worthless, not worth saving. And they know He's the only one.
There's a story of the children of Israel when David was their
king. They said to him, David was going
to go out and they didn't want anything to happen to him. And
they said, here's what they all said. You're worth ten thousand
of us. The fairest of ten thousand.
A bright and morning star. The altogether lovely sun. We're Gomer. We're not worth
anything. We're not worth him coming to
save and to marry, are we, Nancy? No, we're not worth anything.
And the only thing that gives us any value. I've showed you
this. I don't have anything new to
show you. The only thing that gives us any value. How much
value is that right there? Can you see that? How much value
is that? Somebody say. Zero. Well, you know, well, let's put
some more there. Okay? Now we've got all of them together.
Surely, in vast numbers, they're worth something. How much is
that worth? Now, how much are they worth? You put a one in front of them.
In front of them. You put them in that one, now
what are they worth? They're going to tell you, I'm
a zero. I'm not worth saving. But God
says, now that they're in my Son, because He owns them, they're
His. That's what makes them worthwhile,
doesn't it? That's what makes them worth
something, because they're His. They're bought with a price,
an infinite price, the blood of God's Son. Now God says the
world's not worthy of them. And he's not going to lose one
of them. They're just worth 15 cents, no less than that. Nothing. Weigh them into balance. They're
all found wanting. But God says, they're of infinite
value to me. The value of my glory, my honor,
my son's blood was shed for them. Oh, I'm not going to lose one
of them. Not one. And so God Almighty sends the
Holy Spirit through the preacher of the gospel, that great illuminator,
The great Spirit of truth, the light. It's the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the person, the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ in the heart of every dark sinner. It says
he searches diligently. Sheep. Verse 8. Sheep. Sheep. Why is it a sheep? Because he does this through
the church, through the preaching of the gospel. That's why. My
sheep hear my voice. That's the shepherd. The Holy
Spirit, whom the Comforter I'll send, and He'll enlighten you. He'll show you, take the things
of mine and show them to you. Where does He do that, Brother
Calvin? He does it right here. Didn't He say to the Spirit and
the Bride in Revelation 22? The Spirit and the Bride say
come. And this is what we do. If there's
any success, if anybody's found, if anybody's saved, it'll be
by Christ being lifted up. It'll be by the Holy Spirit taking
the things of Christ, showing them to us. It'll be by the Holy
Spirit opening our hearts and revealing to us our need of Christ. It'll be by the preaching of
that gospel. This is what we do. Please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save. To save the lost. And it's all
to His glory. It says, likewise in heaven there
is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth. So we give glory to the Great
Shepherd. We give glory to the Great Spirit
of God, the Holy Spirit of God who quickens us. Reveals Christ
to us. Says He seeks diligently. Searches
diligently. Knows the thoughts and intents
of the heart. Reveals all the sin, corruption. Makes us cry out to Christ. Then there's this third story. About the Father, the love, the
mercy, the grace, the long-suffering, the compassion of the head and
the Father. Who is sufficient to tell you?
Who is sufficient? How many times have you preached
this, Pastor? Have you ever felt like you've
preached it? Greater love hath no man than
him. The love of God, who can tell it? Well, I'm going to try. It says
in verse 11, a certain man had two sons. A younger of them said
to his father, Father, give me. the portion of goods that followed
to me, and the Father divided unto them both his living. Not
many days after, the younger son gathered all together, took
his journey into a far country, went as far as he could get from
the Father, and there he wasted his substance with riotous living." Riotous living. Once again, all belong to God. Not all are not sons of God.
Romans 9 tells us that plainly. Neither are all Israel of Israel. God has a special people. They are sons by adoption, people
whom He loves. God loves a people out of every
tribe, kindred, nation and tongue. He doesn't love every single
individual, but a people out of every tribe and kindred in this world. But God Almighty, His tender
mercies are over all His work. God Almighty gives all flesh,
all things, everything that everybody can want. Isaiah 1, God said,
I've nourished and raised up a children, as it were, like
a father, raised up a children, and they've rebelled against
me. I fed them, I clothed them, and they don't know me. And they're
not thankful. They're worse than that. They're expectant. They
make demands of me, God said. Act like I owe it to them. Just
like this son. Give me! Give me what's coming
to me. Oh, you don't want what's coming
to you. But God who is so merciful, even
to the wicked, God sends His rain on the unjust as well as
the just. His Son and everything. The whole
world is a recipient of the mercy of God Almighty. Don't mistake
that for love. The love of God is in salvation. All souls are mine. And if left
to ourselves, we'll go, and we do. Every one of us. All we like
sheep have gone astray. All go far from God, like this
son, this demanding son. Give me what's coming to me.
And he took his journey. This boy, and this is my story. This is my story. I'm the product. There's two people right there
that will attest to it. Give me. I just couldn't wait to get
out of the house. Get away. Just get as far as
I can away from it. Be my own man. Be on my own. Boy, you don't want left on your
own. You don't want God Almighty to
leave you on your own. Because you know what you will
do? Every time, everyone whom God leaves to themselves, they
waste themselves. And they will perish unless God
brings them back. That was me. And it's still me. I'm still prone to wander. Lord,
I feel it. I'm still the prodigal son. I
still play the prodigal son. But God doesn't change. He brings
his sons home every time. Well, he left. It says he wasted
his substance. Man consists of a mind, a body,
and a soul. And people waste themselves.
They waste away. Ironically, that was a saying
we used to use in the 60's. Let's get wasted. Isn't that
ironic? Do you remember that saying?
In the 70's. Let's get wasted. That's what
we were. Riotous living. Do you know what
riotous living is? It takes more than one to be
in a riot. Takes a crowd. Get one or two together, might
be alright. Like dogs. Get three together,
trouble's brewing. You get a pack of them, and there
ain't nothing but trouble that's going to happen. It's going to
end up in a riot. And I was right in the middle
of that. Right in the middle of it. And they would say about
me, he's a riot. Good old boy. Everybody loves
him. Until everything runs out. Until you can't get anything
out of him. Until all that they can get out of him is gone. He was spent. Spent all he had.
And there arose a famine in the land. Verse 14, he began to be
in want. Oh, that's the best place a human
being can be, is to begin to be in want. This nation is rich and increased
with goods. Our children are born with silver
spoons in their mouth, every single one of them, mine included. That's right. It's the most demanding
generation in the history of the planet, isn't it? They want
it all. Rich and increased with goods,
have need of nothing. Don't know that the poor, miserable,
blind, naked, without God, without Christ,
without hope, without help, have all that the world has to offer,
but going to perish with it. Oh, how rich is the man who is
rich in faith, rich in knowledge, rich in understanding, rich in
repentance. Hmm. My, my. Who understands,
who knows and understands. But to be in want. People get in want, and mostly
that's for things. Begin to want mostly things.
And this boy, this young son, got down pretty low. You know,
we have sons and daughters that get in that shape, and we don't
want them to get like that, do we? We don't want them to get
so low like that. But it might be the best thing
to ever happen to them. They get so low. that they had
to come crawling back. Hopefully, it's God Almighty
beginning to deal with them, showing them that you got yourself
into this bed and you don't deserve mercy and grace at the hands
of anybody. You've procured this under your
sins of separating you from your God, from your parents. You've
brought this upon yourself. Hopefully, that's God bringing
them to that point. Well, he began to be in want,
so he went, verse 15, and joined himself to a citizen of that
country. And that fellow sent him into his fields to feed swine. And you know, he joined himself
to a citizen of that country. This reminds me of so many who
began to get in want. Know they want something. Need
something. Don't know what they want. They
don't know yet that they need the mercy of God. They need Christ. They need forgiveness of sin. They need the gospel. They don't
know that. They begin to be in want and look for things. They
don't have any peace. They begin to have troubles and
this and that and the other and lose their job or get sick or
whatever and they get religion. It happens all the time. Somebody
dies or they get sick and they get real sober and serious all
of a sudden, and they get religion. They've joined themselves to
a citizen of that country. To some false prophet, some false
preacher. The place is full of them. The
woods are full of them. And what does he do? See, he's
feeding swine, not sheep. Remember when our Lord said,
don't cast your pearls before swine. You're going to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. Sheep. Not gov, sheep. Swine. Well, this man got religion,
and the fellow, in order to keep him in his church, he gave him
something to do. It happens all the time, doesn't
it? Doesn't it, Dad? Happens all the time. Happened
to you. Made you song leader. John Will brought you up. Didn't
it? Didn't it, Mom? It happened. In order to keep
people. See, they don't have the power
of God. They don't have the gospel that keeps people. They don't
have the truth that what people are seeking. If you have what
people need, they'll keep coming back. Sinners need this gospel.
So what am I doing? Preaching this gospel. Those
who need this gospel keep coming. I don't have to do anything else.
Such a relief to me. But these other places had to
keep coming up with something new to hold people. Hold people.
Now look, this week we're going to do this. It's telling them
to do some new thing. A fellow's about to leave. Don't
leave. You can be our Sunday school
teacher. Here, feed the people. That's a fact. Isn't it, John?
Isn't that what you did? They did that to you, didn't
they, Brother John? And for a while you tried to Feign fill your
belly. Didn't he? This is John's story.
He got religion, and the fellow made him Sunday school teacher
in a few months. Can you imagine Brother Sammy S. doing that? Well, he did. Verse 16, he would
feign have filled his belly with husk that the swine did eat.
He pretended that he was getting something out of it. Feign fill.
Faith-filling. Oh, I've got peace. There is no peace. Oh, I've got
comfort now. I'm trusting Jesus. Oh, how I
love Jesus. Oh, no. Anybody? In religion? Brother
Joe did that. Your husband did it, Nancy. One
day, finally, he said, it's got to be something better than this.
He was in religion. John Sheasley, you were right
there, weren't you? All of you in together. Earlene, you were
right there, weren't you? Feigning filling your belly with husks,
externals of religion, not meat, which is Christ. And when He came to Himself, when He came to Himself, A man, a woman, a young person's
got to come to themselves. The Lord's got to bring them
to see themselves. The Lord's the only one that
can do that. The Lord's got to bring us to see ourselves for
what we really are. Not what we think we are. Not
what others say about us. But what we know ourselves to
be. And the way He'll do that is through this mirror. The mirror
of God's Word is the only way you'll do it. Only way that the
Lord will bring you to yourself. Bring me to myself. Because this
book doesn't say anything good about man. Nothing. And to take
a good honest look into this mirror of God's Word, all you'll
see is spots and bruises and wounds and sickness. And from
the sole of your feet, from the way you walk to the way you talk
to the way you think, your heart will prick you. Oh my, in my
flesh dwelleth no good thing. That's what this book says. And
as face answers to face in the water, to the heart of God, to
the heart of man. And you come to yourself to see
yourself for what you are. Listen to Jeremiah. Jeremiah said, after I was turned,
I repented. After I was instructed, I smoked
my thigh. And I was ashamed, even confounded. Look at you. We're like the publicans. And you know, a person can be
in the hog pen sitting in a pew in a church house, filling up
the husk, all that stuff. That's wickedness to God where
Christ is not exalted and free, where the truth is not. That's
wickedness to God. That's a hog pen to God Almighty. A person can be in the hog pen
sitting in a church pew as well as sitting on the bar stool or
in the gutter. Oh yeah. And many of you were there sitting
on a pew until God Almighty brought you to yourself and you said,
I'm not getting anything out of this. The man in the gutter, what are
you doing here? What are you doing? Look at yourself.
Look at yourself. And it says that he, after that,
it says he, in our text, verse 17, he came to himself, he said,
How many hired servants of my Father's have bread enough to
spare? And I perish with hunger. This is what I'll do. I will
arise and go to my Father, and I'll say unto him, Father, I've
sinned against heaven. This is repentance. This is where
a man must come. A young person must come to see
it's God that you've sinned against. God! David said in Psalm 51,
"...against Thee, and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in Thy sight." And that repentance always stays there. God has done
this against you, against your goodness, against your kind,
against your Word, in your faith, in your sight. And men, men suffer the consequences
of our actions, don't they? And we admit that. He said, this is what I'm going
to do. I'm going to say unto my Father,
I have sinned against heaven and before Thee. And Paul said,
I preach unto you repentance toward God. We don't repent to
men, but toward God. Because it's against God that
we've sinned. And faith for the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to him. But he said, I've sinned against
heaven and before thee, verse 19, and I'm not worthy to be
called thy son. Make me one of the hired servants.
I am this man's son here. And I've had one of the finest
fathers boy could ever have. You know him. One of the finest
fathers a young man could ever have, and mother. But this is
my father. I don't deserve to be called
his son. Trying to make amends, but there's
too much rebellion. Too much rebellion. I don't deserve
it. How much less? be called a son
of God. A lifetime spent won't make amends.
One of the old writers said, though, just as soon as you acknowledge
the debt, he crosses it out. One of them said, just as soon
as you confess, amends are made. I remember going back to him
saying, I did that, and he said, I don't remember. Well, I can't
forget! How much more? The heavenly Father,
who can't forget anything. He said, there are sins and iniquity.
I remember no more. They'll look for them. They won't
be found. As soon as a confession is made,
as soon as the dead is acknowledged, Lots of that. Ah, boy. And he said, I perish. This is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to go. I am resolved no longer to linger. I will but
perish if I don't try. I'm going to go home. I'm going
to go home. I don't know if Dad will take me, but I'm going to
go home. He said, I'm not worthy to be
called a son. Maybe He'll just let me work, just let me be a
servant. Well, we'll see about that. You need
to be a servant. You need to see that. It's the
lowest of the low, but that's not what sons get. Boy, you know, change has come
over this fellow. A miraculous change. Before he's demanding, now he's
asking, he's begging. Before he's independent, now
he's so dependent, now he knows if I don't get some help, I'm
going to die. If somebody doesn't do it for
me, I can't make it. Before he was self-assured, I
can do it all. Now he says, I've done it all
alright. I've wasted myself. Before he's rich and increased
with good, now he's poor and needy. Before he said, I need
to be served. Gimme, gimme, gimme. I want somebody
to do it for me. You realize this is me? Now he
just wants to be a servant. What a change. It would have
changed. And he arose and he came. Now
look at this. Verse 20. When he was yet a great way off,
his father saw him. The father evidently was looking
for him. Every day he would go out. Every
day the father would go out, such is the father's love. Right, Mac? If that girl was
lost, and here's any hope, would you keep looking for her? Every
day he went out. Now, you understand this is a
parable. It's not like God's hoping people will come home.
No, no, no, no. You remember the whole purpose of this is
to show that the Savior went to find Him. The shepherd went
to find Him. The woman found the coin. Same
here. God's not hoping His children
will come home, wringing His hands, walking the streets of
heaven. God sees it. He knows they're coming home,
okay? But the point is to show the love of the Father, that
He will not let them go until they're brought home. But this
Father, this earthly Father, goes out every day and He's looking.
And maybe His servants say, what are you looking for? He says,
My son. What are you looking for him for? He's no good. You
don't need him. Look what he did to you. That's
my son. And he went out every day. He
may not be worth anything to you, but he is to me. And I'm
not going to rest till he's home. So he went out every day looking
for him, as if he knew he was coming. For whom He did foreknow."
Why does God know anything? Because He brings it to pass.
Because He purposes it. He went out looking for that
boy. And it says, long before the boy saw Him, He saw Him. Long before we were looking for
God, God was looking for us. Long before we saw Him, He saw
us. Long before we started coming,
He started drawing. No man can come except the Father
draw him. And what does it say? His Father
saw him and had compassion and ran. Ran! Well, I'll just make him
wait. I'll sit here, that old good-for-nothing
boy, and I'll make him feel how worthless he is. I'll just make
him scrub the floor. No, he ran! Scripture says, our God is ready
to pardon. He slurred a wrath and slipped
to mercy. He ran. What did He do when He
found Him? Fell on His neck and kissed Him. One of the old writers
said, He should have kicked Him, but He kissed Him. That son maybe
saw his father coming. He's going to beat me. Oh, I
deserve it. If he hits me, I'll deserve it. What did the father
do? Kissed Him. That boy knew right there. It's
all forgotten, all forgiven. Kissed him. One writer said,
should have killed him. And he kissed him. God killed his son. Then they'd kiss up. That's why. Spared not his own
son for these rebels. Greater love hath no man than
this. Oh, that's not the way a man is. That's the way of God.
The Father kissed him. Well, the son tried to get his
little confession out, you see. He had this plan. And he said to him, Father, I
sinned against heaven and in Thy sight and am not worthy to
be called a son. And before he could get it out, Scripture says, Before they called,
I'll hear them. Before he could get it out, the
father said to his servant, verse 22, bring forth the best robe.
You see, that boy was in rags. Maybe naked. And that's the way we are. Naked
before God. The first thing God says to His
Son, cover him up. Bring out that robe. Cover him
up. That passive righteousness. Put it on him. Don't offer it
to him. Salvation ain't an offer. It's
an act. Grace is not an offer of amnesty. It's a full pardon bestowed. Put it on him. Robe him. Put a ring on his hand. What's a ring? That's ownership.
That right there. Somebody owns me. I mean that
in a good way. A good way. Honestly. I'm yours,
you're mine. Put a ring on your hand, right?
Own me. Ownership. This boy felt like he didn't
belong. I'm not a son. I'm just a servant. God said,
the Father said, put that ring on him so he may know he's mine. That's a betrothal of my love.
What's a ring? Christ. The Gospel. Put this hope in him, on him.
Christ in him. And it says, put shoes on his
feet. Shoes on his feet. Oh, my. That's this gospel we're shod
with. "...and bring hither the fatted calf." That father had
a calf, John, ready and waiting for the Son to come home. Fatted
a calf. They said to him, what are you
going to do with that? What are you doing with that calf? Killing
it for the Son when He returns. He ain't coming back. Oh, yes,
he is. Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. And before man was created, the angels may have said, what's
this Lamb slain? That's for the Son, the prodigal. Kill the fatted calf. Let us
eat and be merry, for this my Son was dead and is alive again.
He was lost and He is found. And they began to be merry. We haven't known Mary until we
get there. I haven't seen her or heard of
her. Every sinner. Every prodigal. Whom the Lord
saves with this great salvation. It's going to be so merry. Eat,
drink and be merry with Christ. be singing unto the praise of
Him that loved us and washed us from our sin in His own blood. Unto Him that found us, unto
Him that sought us, bought us, brought us, taught us, kept us,
saved us, redeemed us. Unto Him, unto Him. And that
story, don't have time for it. That other son, he got mad. He heard this commotion and said,
what's this going on? See, he didn't know anything
about joy over mercy and grace. And that's a self-righteous Pharisee. Remember, that's who he's telling
this story to. Self-righteous Pharisee. They don't know anything
about the joy of forgiveness of sins and sovereign mercy and
sovereign seeking grace. They don't know anything about
power. They don't know anything about that. And they hear, oh, what
are you all getting so excited about? What did you do down at
church today? We heard Christ lifted up. Oh, well, we heard
a choir. Oh, you should have heard the
choir. Amen. And he got mad. He got mad. That son got mad. And notice, later he says, you
never gave me a calf. That's right. Christ didn't die
for them. God doesn't give them Christ to see their need of Him. Let's sing in closing, number
474.