Alright, go with me now to the
Gospel of Luke, chapter 15. Luke 15. Someone once called
that goodness and mercy of the Lord, and the Lord our Shepherd,
goodness and mercy, His faithful watchdogs. He says, goodness
and mercy shall follow me, nipping at my heels, putting me in line. in all the days of my life, while
the Good Shepherd is out in front leading. Surely, goodness and
mercy shall follow me. Luke chapter 15. This is a familiar
passage to nearly everyone, I'm sure. But let's read verses 1
and 2. And then drew near unto Him,
that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, all the publicans and sinners,
for to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. Publicans and sinners, it says,
drew near unto him to hear him. These publicans and sinners as
you know, were out-and-out, lowlife people looked down upon by good,
moral people such as those scribes and Pharisees. It says they came
near. They came close. They couldn't
get near enough. And they wanted to hear the Lord.
They wanted to hear what He had to say. The Pharisees weren't
interested. They weren't sinners. But these
publicans and sinners came near to hear the Lord. Another passage
says, the common people, the everyday, working class, you
know, average Joe. I didn't say that with him in
mind, but the common people heard him gladly, but that's what he
used to say, didn't he? I'm just common. Christ, Scripture
says, came into this world to save sinners. He said, I have
not come to call the righteous. I didn't come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Now, this is good news when you
first heard it, wasn't it? See, when you first heard this
gospel, you felt that you were the chief of sinners. And you
felt unworthy. And you thought, how could this
be for me? But by His mercy and grace, you
laid hold on it. You laid hold in the beginning,
this confidence, this faithful saying that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, even the cheap. You laid hold
of that. And I'm here to tell you that in the end, You're still
going to be a sinner, and it's still going to be good news to
you all the days of your life. And you're going to want to hold
on to this all the day, steadfast unto the end. Ask David. You
know, David went through a pretty good time, and then he took an
awful fall when he was probably in his fifties. Ask him about
this gospel. Ask Peter. Peter, after he'd
been with the Lord a while, he took a terrible fall. So if you
are a sinner, or if there's someone you know, that's a sinner. There's hope. That's who the
Lord Jesus Christ came to save. Verse 2 says, Pharisees murmured,
saying, This man receiveth sinners. This man receiveth sinners. Isn't
that wonderful? over there in Isaiah it says,
this is the acceptable year of the Lord, that the Lord came
preaching the acceptable year of the Lord, meaning He's taking
applications for mercy. He's accepting all who come to
God by Him for mercy. He accepts every single person.
He receiveth every single sinner. It comes unto God by Him. An acceptable year. Well, and
it says He eats with them. He eateth with them. Remember
old Zacchaeus? Publican. Nobody wanted anything
to do with him. Well, the chaplain said the Lord had him up a tree
on purpose. He was up a tree. Well, the Lord
came to that particular tree and looked up and said, Zacchaeus,
come down. Gave command. Come down. And
he came down, he said, I must abide at thy house today. You
see, this is one of those sheep that was not of the fold that
people didn't think, but yet he was. And him, also, he must
bring. He must bring. And he said, I'm
going to your house today. And as they were leaving, the
Pharisees and the scribes, they all said, why, he's going to
be the guest of the sinner. Well, I know one fellow that
was mighty glad. Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus. Well, our Lord, upon
hearing these Pharisees and scribes murmur, He spoke this parable. That's why He spoke this parable. Look at verse 3. It says, He
spake this parable unto them. Unto who? Well, scribes and Pharisees. But they didn't hear it. I'm
quite sure they didn't hear it. They didn't need it. It meant
nothing to them. But I've heard it. And it blessed
myself. That's why I wanted to deal with
it tonight. Now look at this. Verse 4. Here it is. He said,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, What man of you, having an 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." Now, that was the line that caught
my attention. It was Mr. Spurgeon that preached
the message. It's the first you'll find in that book I just gave
you. Until he find it. That caught my eye and I went
over and read this. That is our text. Until he find
it. That is our title. Sam, until
he find us. And that is our salvation. Until
he find us. We will not be saved until he
find us. Now this is the Lord's parable
of the lost sheep. The Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah-Rah-ah. That name ring a bell? Psalm
23. The Lord our Shepherd. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lord our Shepherd. He is the Owner, the Master,
and the Savior of these sheep. They are His sheep. He said,
What man of you having a hundred sheep? Well, our Lord has many
sheep, much more than a hundred. Look with me at John chapter
10, another blessed passage you know well, John chapter 10. They
are His sheep. You read with me over in Ezekiel
34. I kept emphasizing where the
Lord said, My sheep. Remember that? My sheep. Our
Lord, I believe, is quoting or speaking from that all through
John chapter 10. Over there in Ezekiel 34, I quote
to you again. He said, I will seek out My sheep. and will deliver them out of
all places where they have been scattered." My sheep. My sheep. Now look at John chapter 10.
Look at verse 14. The Lord said this, I am the
good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. Verse 15,
As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay
down my life. Christ died for The sheep. What sheep? His sheep. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save His people. Call His name
Jesus. He shall save His people. He
calls them My sheep. There are sheep and there are
goats. And the Lord Jesus Christ came to save every single one
of His sheep. Verse 16. He said, Other sheep
I have which are not of this fold. Aren't you glad? And them
also I must bring. I must bring. They shall hear
my voice. There shall be one fold and one
shepherd. I must bring them, he said. They
are mine and I must bring them. I must go find them. They are
all lost. I must save them. I must redeem them. I must pay
for them." Now where did he get these sheep? Look at verse 29. He said, which gave them me is greater
than all. Did he not say over in John chapter
6, verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me? The Father gave Christ those
sheep in a covenant before the world began. All that the Father
gave me, he said. They don't make themselves sheep.
We don't make ourselves sheep. They don't come of their own
free will. They're chosen, they're called, they're bought with a
price, and therefore they're not their own from then on. They're
brought by His power, and they are His sheep. Look at verse
26 there of John 10. He says to some, ye believe not,
because ye are not my sheep, as I said unto you. That's plain.
All men, all women, all people are not His sheep, but everyone
given to Christ by the Father, all whom Christ died for, shall
be found and shall come. You see, Christ is called, and
I'll go back to the text, He is the Savior of sinners. He's not the loser, He's the
Savior. He said, Of all which the Father
hath given me. In the end, after it's all over,
in that great prayer of our high priest, he said, All which thou
hast given me, I have lost nothing. Not one of them. He never has,
and he never shall. And that's our hope. Because
his glory, his power, his promises are all at stake. Now he said
here in verse 4, he said, What man of you having an hundred
sheep? if he lose one of them, does
not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after
that which he lost, which is lost until he find it. If you
own something, if it is dear to you, and you're just a man,
what man among you, he said, would not leave everything and
go and find that? Tell me. And I ask you, have
you ever lost something that was dear to you? Sure you have. Everybody in here has lost something.
And you went out and searched for it until you found it? That's what it means to search.
That's when the Lord says, Seek. Seek Me. Seek diligently. He
said, You'll find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Well, does our Lord do any less? No. He searches until He finds
it. And if you lost something that
was dear unto you, You will not give up until you find it. You
won't be happy until you find it, will you? You remember those
coal miners in Colorado? Well, the authorities and the
mine owners and so forth, those people, they gave up, didn't
they? Well, what about the families?
They didn't want to give up, did they? If it was left up to
them, they'd still be looking, wouldn't they? Our Lord said, if you be an evil,
what about the Lord? Till he find it. Till he find
it. That's the hope. You see, people,
that election is not just a doctrine, but this is the glory of God.
God chose any sinners is amazing. but that He chose a number as
the sands of the sea is His glory. And it's our salvation. The fact that God chose us, and
He will not lose one of His sheep, but will go after that which
He has chosen, which He has given to Christ. He will go after it,
that which is lost, until He finds it. You see, that's the
hope for our children, our lost children. Isn't it? That's our hope. We
live, we have this hope. And it's all wrong the way the
world sees it. They say, well, if you believe
only elect will be saved, then why this or why that? But that's
our comfort, you see. We believe that if our children
are one of God's elect, He's going to have them. Doesn't that
give you hope? If it's left up to you, you'll
despair, right? You said you've talked to them.
You've prayed for them. You've done all you can do. But
with man, it's impossible. With God, nothing's impossible.
There's nobody too far. There's nobody too low. That's
the prodigal. There's nobody too sinful. And
if they're one of his elect, he's going to have them. Isn't
that good news? So what we pray is, Lord, oh,
I hope they're one of your elect, because if they are, they're
coming, like me, like you, right? Oh, my, don't you love that old
poem, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, Lord, that could not be,
for if thou hadst not chosen me, I would never have chosen
thee." left up to our own so-called free will, we would not come. But he goes and he finds them.
That's our hope. Hope for our children, hope for
our lost parents, hope for our lost spouses, hope for our lost
neighbors and friends and so forth, that they are one of his
elect. And they'll hear his voice. And
that's this gospel. That's what we believe. We're
not hard-shelled. We're not hyper-Calvinist. Primitive Baptist in that sense.
We believe the Lord has chosen or uses the means of preaching
the gospel. They must hear the gospel. And
they will. They will. He said, My sheep
will hear my voice. Verse four, he says, Now what
man of you having a hundred sheep if he lose one of them? Now,
this sheep, these sheep, as we said, were the Lord's from the
beginning. They were given to Christ in
that covenant before the world began. He said, the foundation
of God stands assured, having this sealed, the Lord knoweth
them that are His. How does he know it? He chose
them. He wrote their names in the Lamb's
Book of Life and sealed it. He chose them. Predestinated
them under the adoption of children. Predestinated them to be conformed
to the image of Christ. and then sent Christ in time
to redeem them and the Holy Spirit in time to preach the gospel
to them and draw them and so on and so forth and give them
life and give them faith and repentance and bring them to
Christ and so on. But they were His from the beginning,
but they got lost. Now, how did the shepherd lose
them? Well, it wasn't through negligence.
It wasn't through negligence. Providence. Purpose is what it
was. The sheep wandered off. Sheep
are to blame. They wandered off, he said. Don't
blame the shepherd for them being lost. They wandered off. That's
the nature of sheep. That's what sheep are prone to
do. Is that one of your favorite lines? Is your favorite hymn
prone to wander? Lord, I feel it. Well, that's
what sheep are prone to do. And they'll do it all the days
of their life. Scripture says in Isaiah 53, all we, like sheep,
have strayed, have gone astray, lost. Old David, over there,
was it Psalm 119, the very last verse? I want to quote it right. The
very last verse of Psalm 119. David says this. He said, I have
gone astray like a lost sheep. You mean still, David? Still?
Yeah, still. Seek thy servants. Seek me, or
I won't be found. So they're all prone to wander. That's the nature of sheep. And
they become lost. You see, all his sheep are lost
when he finds them. May I say this? All his sheep
are black sheep until he washes them white as snow. All his sons
He said all of God's people were sons. They always have been sons.
Yeah. Predestinated. Christ is the
firstborn among many brethren. And all his sheeps start out
as prodigals. All of them start out as prodigals. And bless the Lord, he finds
them all, and every one of them come home to study, like old
Onesimus. Every one of them brought home
to study. But notice it says, notice these words, Brother Spurgeon,
I'm going to quote him in a minute on this. It says that last line
in our title, "...until he findeth..." That sheep is lost, and he goes
after that which is lost, "...until he findeth." Go back there to
Ezekiel 34 that we read. Ezekiel 34, quickly. "...until
he findeth." While these sheep are lost, it's not a good time.
It's bad. Things look real bad. for the
sheep. And you see, you know, we preach
the gospel. We don't tell people when we first preach the gospel,
we don't tell everybody God loves you. We don't tell everybody
you're the children of God. We don't tell everybody God loves
you and Jesus died. No, no, no, no. As far as we
know, they're all under the wrath of God. Right? Until they're brought
into the fold, we're telling them, You're under the judgment
and wrath of God. And when they're finally brought
into fold, we can say, hey, you must have been one of His sheep
all along. A son. All along. But while they're
lost, it's a bad time. It's a terrible time. It says,
until. Until He finds it, that sheep
is in bad circumstances. Look at verse 6. Ezekiel 34. My sheep, verse 5, He said, they
were scattered, they became meat, all the beasts of the field.
Verse 6, they were scattered upon every mountain, wandering
everywhere. Verse 7, verse 8, they became
meat, there was no shepherd, they became prey. They'd fall
for anything and everything. And they did. Down in verse 12
it says, they are scattered, and the last line says they have
been scattered in a cloudy and dark day. They are in darkness
even as others. They are in the gutter just like
everybody else. They are down and out, low life,
no good, unworthy, far from God, without hope, without
God, without Christ in this world. Spurgeon said that on this until. He said the sheep, until he finds
it, is apt to wander further and further away as sinners go
on from one sin to another. It's like decaying fruit. They
grow more and more rotten. They don't get sweeter. They
get more and more rotten. And that man, he said, who's
bad today, he'll just certainly get worse tomorrow. You can count
on it. He went on to say, if restraining
grace is not brought to bear upon that man, that woman, that
young person, they will certainly go to unutterable lengths of
depravity, infamy, and sin. Until he finds it. Until he finds it. Look at verse 5. Go back to Luke
15. Now, here's the good news. He
will find it. Until he finds it, it looks bad.
But verse 5 says, and when he hath found it. When he hath found
it. Don't you love the, he hath,
he shall, he will, he hath. That's Scripture. He hath, he
doth, he shall find all his lost sheep. He finds them because
he foreknew them, predestinated them, and he finds them through
the gospel call. What I'm doing right now. What
the world calls foolishness. We keep doing it. It's like old
Joshua's ram's horn. It keeps sounding the same message. I've heard this message many
times. I've preached this message many times. Well, this was the
message that called me. The old lost sheep. The old prodigal
son. This is the message that called
me. One long blast of this ram's horn will call the sheep. Gospel call. This is the gospel
net. The gospel is called a net. The
Kingdom of God is like a net. Gospel call is not an invitation. It is a command that the Lord
sends forth with power. He said, My sheep will hear My
voice and they will follow Me. They shall. The gospel is called
a net. A net. Our gospel, we don't use
lures. You men go fishing. And this
is what modern religion thinks preaching is. Is you use lures. You use baits, bait. Man-made,
artificial baits to try to lure them in, you know. Try to trick
them. Isn't that what lures are doing? Isn't that what you do
with a lure? You try to trick them into thinking this is something
they really want and something they need. Right? And people swallow them hook
lines. Well, the Scriptures say, our
Lord said, the gospel is a net. You don't bribe, trick, lure,
promise anything with a net. You capture. The Lord sends out this net.
And just like that day, the Lord told the disciples, He said,
I'm going to make you fishers of men. And He proved it. He
said they toiled all night and caught nothing with their own
methods and means, but the Lord said, now, give up, you can't
catch one fish, can you? You thought you was a fisherman,
didn't you? Yeah, we did. Now, cast your net right there. We've tried there. Right there. I've got every one of them numbered.
Cast it. And it says they took a boatload. That's the gospel man. And it's
the gospel. The gospel is the rod and staff
of our great shepherd in it. Rod and the staff. Oh, my. It comforts me. The rod and the
staff. Doesn't it, you? This rod and
this staff. You've looked at this with me
before. I brought one down here. You remember when I brought that
down, Steve, that great big old Staff, shepherd's staff with
a crook on the end of it. You've seen them. Got a crook
on the end of it. Just the shape of a sheep's neck. And what's
it for? To ring their necks. They need
it. Or to bring them in. Bring them in. Rod and the staff of the gospel
call. You can't help but come when
He calls you by His power. The gospel cord says that they'll
be drawn with cords. Cords of love? Yes, but cords. Cords. When I was training my
dog, Abner, whom I love, what I trained him with was a leash. That's how you train them. Ask
the dog whisperer. Well, ask me. It's a cord. That's what it is. And it's a
good thing. It'll save his life. It'll keep
him, it'll bring him to you. And I couldn't help but think
about Rahab's red line. Okay, it's not a matter of if. The Lord said, now, if he find
it. No, no, no, no. It's not a matter of if, only
when. He's a good shepherd. He will
find his sheep. Great shepherd, chief shepherd.
And verse 7 says, oh, look at this in closing. Verse 5, when
he hath found it, verse 5 says, he layeth it on his shoulders. When he hath found it, he layeth
it on his shoulders. Shoulders so big that every single
sheep can lay on, rest on, every single sheet. He puts us on His
shoulder and carries us all the way. Isn't that good news? Nancy, that's one of your favorite
verses. Isaiah 46, even to your hoary
head shall I carry you. There's always been just one
set of footprints, people. Never has been two. We haven't
walked on our own one step of the way. He's carried us all
the way. If He sets us down, what does
He do? If He sets us down for a minute? No, He puts them on
His broad shoulders, and every one of them can rest on those
broad shoulders. And it says in verse 5, He lays
it on His shoulders, verse 5, rejoicing. Oh, that word just jumped out
at me. Rejoicing. Scripture says, Hebrews
12, who for the joy sat before Him. One time it says Christ
rejoiced in spirit. He said, I thank Thee, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed it unto babe. They were taught of the Father,
and they had come to Christ the Good Shepherd, and he rejoiced.
And he put them on his broad shoulders and rejoiced. And verse
6 says, 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. He brought them all home. Doesn't
the Scripture say that he will say in the end, Here they are,
I and the children which thou hast given me? Unlocked. All
here. He carries them all the way,
rejoicing all the way. Then he throws a party and gathers
all his friends and neighbors and says, rejoice with me. I have found my sheep. So he
said in closing, I say unto you, verse 7, that likewise, now get
a load of this, likewise, joy shall be in heaven There's feasting,
there's a party that goes on over one center, that repentance. One center. Now, I can just hear
somebody like that eldest son complaining about the prodigal
getting that party. Remember the father threw a big
party for the prodigal? I can just hear somebody like
him saying, why, that prodigal's not worth throwing a party over. He is to a father, isn't He? Huh? A father? If a prodigal
son comes home to stay, a new person, would you not throw a
party? Huh? You'd kill a fatted calf. That's
exactly what the heavenly Father did. I can hear somebody saying
about a harlot. That harlot's not worth saving. Let alone throwing a party. If
that harlot's your sister, she is. Huh, Barbara? What if the Lord saved your sister?
Would you throw a party? Huh? Jeanette? If the Lord saved
your sister, wouldn't you throw a party? Anybody else? He said, who among you? If you've
lost a loved one, would not go after that which is lost until
you find it. And how much more to our Heavenly
Father. So that's our hope. That's our
hope. And that's the hope for our children. All is not lost
until it's over. And it's not over. It's not over. until He says it's open. Until
the door is shut and the door of the ark is still open. The
gospel is still being preached. We're not seeing large numbers
come in. That's the reason I know that
it's the very last of the last day. Nobody is seeing large numbers
come in. It's the latter part of the latter
harvest. That's the plan. But He is bringing
a few in here and there, isn't He? And I just believe that it
brings some more in. Maybe one of our children, huh?
And we're going to keep just preaching this same message that
captured us, that found us, and in hopes that the Lord, that
they're one of His elect. All right, stand with me.