Alright, we'll start again. Welcome
to our Bible study in Luke this morning. If you join me in Luke
chapter 15, really it's just a continuation
of where we were in Luke 14. other than they said, here's
a good place to mark a chapter. But we had parables in Luke chapter
14. Now we're in Chapter 15, and
we're just going to cover the first seven verses, although
Chapter 15 is comprised of three parables, but they all deal with
the same thing that we've been dealing with through the end
of Chapter 14, and particularly these first two verses in Chapter
15. So we'll read these seven verses,
and then we'll take a look at it. Luke 15.1, then drew near
unto him all the publicans and sinners for it here. And remember,
this all started, he had that breakfast with the Pharisees,
and then the crowds kind of flocked after him. And he said, you should
count the cost of being my disciple. And then he says, salt is good,
but you might look like salt, but if you don't have any of
the properties of salt, it's no good. So then drew near unto
him all the publicans and sinners, for to hear him. And the Pharisees
and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and
eateth with them. And 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 it, he laith 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 that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than
over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance." So there's
some very telling words in this parable. Christ, He was accused, you receive
sinners. It's interesting that these three
parables, it's kind of like an onion, it's layered. He has this
one parable that He talks about, and then the next one adds a
little bit more information, and then the next one adds a
little bit more information. really deals primarily with these
two sentences there at the beginning of the chapter. The Pharisees
murmuring about him being in association with sinners
and publicans. And not only that, he eats with
them. After I read it a few times,
it kind of struck me that he addresses Here's how the Pharisees thought
about this. He receiveth sinners. And then
he gives a parable that says, I'm going after. I don't just
receive them, I go after my sheep." So he kind of corrects, he gives
a correction there, but the Pharisees are like, what's this got to
do with sheep? I don't understand. And, you
know, we looked at the fact that what hope was there for sinners
and publicans with the Pharisees and the religious folks and the
lawyers and the scribes. They didn't want anything to
do with them other than they used them from time to time to
try to lay a trap for the Lord, like the woman caught in adultery
and those kind of things, and they used them for nefarious
purposes. They didn't want anything to do with them socially or religiously
or anything. They went out of their way to
avoid contact with them. So what hope was there for sinners
and publicans? But yet we found in Luke 5 that
there was a woman who was a sinner. Again, he was at a Pharisee's
house at a meal, and this woman came in and anointed him. And then Luke chapter 7, we found
that he called Matthew Levi, who was a publican. And you know,
it's kind of like Paul the Apostle. Well, if the Lord can save that
guy, there's nobody that he can't take care of. And so it would
be natural that publicans and sinners would be drawn near to
him. with whom there was hope. They certainly didn't get it
from the religious orthodoxy of the period. They didn't offer
anything but ridicule and despising and rejection. This view of the Pharisees had,
it's summed up so many times in Scriptures, he eats with sinners and publicans. You know, in Chapter 18 of Luke, He's speaking with them again,
and he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. That's kind
of what their position was. We're righteous, and we hate
everybody else. We despise them. Two men went
to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a Republican
again. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,
God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are. I'm pretty
clean. I'm pretty righteous. I'm pretty
good. I'm not an extortioner, unjust, adulterer, or even as
this publican. I fast twice a week. I give tithes
of all that I possess. And the publican, standing far
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote on his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And someone brought that to his
heart. Someone changed him to view himself
like that. Before, they were just what the
Pharisees said they were. They were unjust. They were extortioners. They taxed everybody. You remember
the publicans were just the tax collectors for the Roman Empire.
And the Romans said, well, this is how much revenue we expect.
Whatever you get above that, you can keep. And so they were
fairly liberal. in their taxation formulas, we'll
call it. And everybody hated them, because
they were taking money from them and giving it to the darned Romans. So this comparison that we have
here, the one had the view that they weren't sinners, and they
wanted absolutely nothing to do with sinners. And that's really
a fatally flawed view of sin and ourselves that we have from
our nature, that we're not really sinners. We haven't really done
anything worthy of any judgment. And I've done enough good stuff
in the balance to overcome that, so I'm good. But one viewed themselves
correctly as a sinner, and that just only comes from being born
again, from having a regenerated heart, like we read so many times
in Ezekiel. He said, after I clean you up,
give you a new heart, Then you're going to look at yourself and
see yourself as a sinner, but you're going to see yourself
as one that the Lord has had mercy on. I love that scripture
where he says, I'm going to give them the oil of joy for mourning. He turns all those, when we have
that view of ourselves, and he says, I pay double. You're good.
I've covered it. You know, mercy, this one, this
publican that said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Mercy requires
a knowledge of guilt. You don't really ask for mercy
if you don't believe that you're guilty of something. Innocents don't really request
mercy. And the Pharisees, they really viewed Jesus as an unrighteous
person. He kept doing stuff on the Sabbath
day. And he kept doing stuff they
didn't like mostly was the problem. But they even considered him
sinful himself for not only exposing himself to these publicans and
sinners, but actually eating with them. They just had this terrible view
of it. So what caused that difference in view of the Pharisees who
mistakenly believed that they needed no help, that they were
righteous, that they trusted in themselves that they were
righteous and despised others? They needed no help. They needed
no mercy. We're already righteous, so we're good. And the ones who
saw themselves as sinners in need of a Savior, it just takes
nothing less than a work of grace. So as we begin this parable and
we look at, we always need to remember the rule of parables
that Jesus, the disciples, why are you telling parables? He
said, because unto you it's given to know, but unto them it is
not given. Unto you it's given to understand
the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to them it's not
given. That seeing they might see and hearing they might hear,
that was his rule, that he would speak in parables. And then he
would give understanding to his church, but to the others, not
so much. So these Pharisees are sitting
there, and he's telling them this parable about what's sheep
got to do with you eating with publicans? What does that mean? That makes no sense. Just another
more crazy talk. So what we really have though is
a, it's a spiritual picture here that he gives. And as we look
at these three parables in a row, they kind of, this parable reveals
a little bit of grace. And the next parable reveals
a little bit more of grace. And the third parable, it's called
the prodigal son. The prodigal isn't really a word
found in the Bible. It's just a, it's a Latin word
that came into use in the 1400s in England that meant Wasteful spending, riotous living. So it kind of describes what this one son did, but you
don't really find that in the Bible. Anyway, back to our text here. What we have is really a correction
of what the Pharisees stated and thought. Remember from our
lesson on launch out into the deep, there's just always so
much more in what the Lord says and what He does than we can
really comprehend. The more we delve into it, the
more we find, and the deeper we go, the more we find, and
the more wonderful it is. So really he's telling him, you think I receive sinners,
I just accept them. And really in our vernacular,
when we think about receiving something, we think of it as
a kind of a passive activity. But we find that the parable
shows just the exact opposite. He actively goes after the sheep. So it's kind of a correction
for them that they won't get. But to the church, oh, it's a
wonderful thing, because we're like sheep. We've all gone astray.
And of our own, we don't come back. We just keep wandering
farther and farther down the wrong road. And unless somebody
fetches us back, we just don't come. And it tells us a little bit
about God's sovereignty. You know, it says, a man has
a hundred sheep. And back to our text there in
Luke 15, for what man of you having a hundred sheep, if he,
if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine
in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find
it. So he owns all the sheep. He owns everything. He created all things and all
things were created by him and for him and for his purpose.
And so I think there's a couple of commentators say, well, the
sheep just means it's the rest of his flock that are secure
in him. But he says he leaves them in the wilderness, and the
wilderness always describes a world place. It always describes a place outside of the church is
separated from. They are not of the world I am
in. a church in the wilderness. It
exists in this wilderness, this world that's flawed and affected
by sin in such a horrible way. So I think it kind of more correctly
pictures all those ones that were following after him, that
looked like Christians, that looked like salt, but they didn't
really have any of the character of salt. They didn't have any
character of fruit of the Spirit or grace, but they just wanted
to be called by His name. They just wanted to follow along,
see the show, and be part of it in a physical way. So, I think that's probably more
the way to view that because we find this application through
these three parables here. Like when he talks about the
elder son in the prodigal son. Well, the prodigal son, he's
just like that Pharisee that said, I've done everything. I've obeyed all the rules. I've
done this and I've done that. So I think really it's a reflection
of that. So this sheep that's missing
though is a shadow type, a picture of the church, and it's an individual
picture. Kind of tells us that the Lord
has an individual interest in each one of his sheep, every
single one of his sheep. He knows them. He calls them
by name. He says the very hairs of your
head are numbered. That's how intimately he knows
you. He foreknew them. He loved them with an everlasting
love and with loving kindness draws them in. John 17, this
great prayer of the Lord in John 17, in verse 6, He says, And they've kept thy word. So
it's a statement that says that they were the possession of the
Lord from eternity. And then he gave them to Christ
for the purpose of redemption. And in time, he calls them out
by the gospel. The Holy Spirit brings them the
new birth, and we're all familiar with that application of the
gospel. So, thine they were, thou gavest
them me, and they've kept thy word. And that kind of comes
from Isaiah 8, 18, where it's written, Behold, I and the children
whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and wonders. in Israel
from the Lord of Hosts which dwells in Mount Zion. So this
parable gives us a view of the individual nature of God's relationship
with each individual of His elect. He goes out and finds that sheep,
and when He finds it, He lays it on His shoulders, picks it
up and carries it. And then he takes it home. He
turns around and takes it back where it should have been. And isn't that a picture, kind
of a representation of repentance? Isn't that a picture of what
the Lord does for us? But it all happens after his
activity in John 10, 3. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name,
and leadeth them out. So he knows every detail of his
sheep. You know, the 90 and 9 it talks
about here, they're his because he's the sovereign king. But
as we mentioned, they seem to be more representative of those
ones that we read about at the close of chapter 14 that were
just followers. Yet He leaves them and goes after
His sheep. And again, all men, they really
fall into this category before the new birth where all we like
sheep have gone astray in Isaiah 53, 6. We've turned everyone
to His own way. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. That's what those sheep do when
they get out. I was telling Norm the other day, when I was in
high school, 50 some years back, I was in FFA and I had a sheep
for my project one year. And it was hard to keep that
thing. We had good fence and everything, but it managed to
find a way out occasionally and never came back by itself, not
once. One time it went off across a
hay field and fell into an irrigation canal and the farmer that owned
that hay field spotted it when he was out working and went over
there and grabbed it by the wool and yarded it out and knew that
I had a sheep so he brought it back to me in a soggy condition. But it wasn't coming back by
itself. And it says, oh, that looks good over there. I think
I'll go over there. And it's kind of like that prodigal son.
Oh, the grass is always greener over the septic tank, I think
they say, over there. And so we all gone astray. And if it wasn't for the Lord
coming and fetching us back and laying us on his shoulders, We
just keep going. You know, it's interesting that
as we often find in the New Testament, as Norm's always bringing out,
and we try to bring out in most of our Bible classes, that all
this just comes straight out of the Old Testament. He's saying
things to these Pharisees who claim to know the Word of God, It was just words on paper to
them, or words on a scroll, or whatever they were reading it
on. But it really had no spiritual meaning. But in Ezekiel chapter
34, 11, it says, For thus saith the Lord God, Ezekiel 34, 11,
Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them
out. Isn't that an amazing verse? I will both search my sheep and
seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he's among his sheep that are scattered,
so will I seek out my sheep. And I will deliver them out of
all places where they've been scattered in the cloudy and dark
day. And I will bring them out from the people and gather them
from the countries and will bring them to their own land and feed
them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers and in all the
inhabited places in the countries. I will feed them in a good pasture."
This is another one of those sections where you could just
go highlight all the I wills, I will, I will, I will that God
says, and just say, thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll feed
them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel
shall their fold be, and there shall they lie in a good fold.
And in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
I will feed my flock, I will cause them to lie down, saith
the Lord God, I will seek that which was lost. and bring again
that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken,
and will strengthen that which was sick. But I will destroy
the fat and the strong, and I will feed them with judgment." So
it's interesting that we have this scripture, and we have this
very picture of the ones that think that they're fat, think
that they're strong, these Pharisees, these religious folks. I fast
twice a week. I do this. I do that. I'm righteous. I'm not in any need of any help.
But it's not a good end for that. He goes after his own sheep,
and in truth, all of them are lost or gone astray, the Scripture
said. And they have no ability to find
their way back and no desire. They just keep going like my
sheep, just keep going the wrong way. Their compass, spiritual
compass is not functional in this condition. So the shepherd
must and does go after them and fetches them back. And so an
important truth is taught in this parable that Jesus just
doesn't merely receive sinners, but in actuality, he actively
searches out He said, I will search them out, I will seek
them, and I will find them and bring them back. He searches
them out and calls them by His Gospel. And we can read about
that in various Scriptures, but I call your attention to Romans
8, 28 through 30. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. And we have that words
and close of that hymn we sang today. to them who are the called
according to His purpose, for whom, that's the sheep that we're
talking about, whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified." Kind of a past
tense thing of the I wills of God. This is, I did, I did, I
did. I foreknew them. I predestinated
them. I called them. I justified them
and glorified them. And in Ephesians 1 10, in the
dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together
in one all things in Christ. Well, so what we're focusing
on in that sentence is he gathers together. He goes out and gathers
the sheep and gathers them together. gathered together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on
earth, even in Him." But you know, religion keeps pounding
the same old incorrect formula. You've got to get right before
you can come, before He'll receive you. repent and go through this stage
of sorrowfulness. And then when you weeped enough,
and it's like that Top Lady hymn, Could my tears forever flow?
These for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. So in that hymn, he was bringing
attention to the fact that those things do not, They're evidence
of what a work of Christ has done in you, just like that in
Ezekiel where he says, after I give you a new heart, you're
going to look at yourself and you're going to see that it was
not good. You're going to loathe yourself. And you'll be like
Paul says, wretched man that I am. And like Jacob, few and
evil have been the days of the years of my life. And Job says,
I saw the Lord, now I repent in dust and ashes." And Isaiah,
I'm a man of unclean lips in the middle of a bunch of people
with unclean lips. They all say the same thing.
Once they have a view of God and they've been born again,
they have the same view of themselves as, oh. But, you know, the next
view they get is like Isaiah, where he said, I've touched you,
and you're clean now. You're okay." And so we rejoice
in that. And God commended His love toward
us. And while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. So the reality is that He searches
us out and calls us with His gospel. He gives us this new
birth by where we believe, and He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, even when we were dead in trespasses and
sin. And not only does He search us
out and find us, He carries us back because we don't have any
strength in ourselves. Romans 5, 6 says, when we were
yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. No ability. When He find it, He layeth it
on His shoulders rejoicing. And isn't that a wonderful thing?
When we think about that, We're at enmity with him. We're
going our way. We're like the sheep that's gone
astray and doesn't think about the shepherd or where it was. It just wants to go and wander
and do and get into trouble. In a picture of us when we're
in our natural state, we don't want anything to do with Christ.
We want to have our own way. We want to do what we want to
do, and we don't want anybody telling us, well, you shouldn't
do this, or you shouldn't do that, or you need to do this,
or you need to do that. My way is good enough, and if
God doesn't like it, then that's His problem, not mine. You probably
hear that all the time. I'm okay. But you know, in spite
of all that, when He brings us back, He rejoices. He just rejoices. Just what a
wonderful, wonderful term that is. He rejoices every time he
brings in one of his sheep, even though they don't desire to come
in. And he has to compel them to come in, as we learned in
one of our previous chapters. And no man can come unto me except
the Father which sent me. Drag him, I think that's what
the right word is for that drawing. Lest the Father drag him, he
won't come. So, thank God that he does that. And he rejoices because he's
loved you with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness
has drawn us and returned us to the fold. He always has this
view of his sheep through Christ. And in spite of our going astray
and all of our iniquity, He says, we drink iniquity like water. What a description. So He rejoices whenever He brings
in one of His sheep, and He rejoices because He's eternally loved
us. In 1 Peter 2, verse 25 says, For you were a sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. What a wonderful scripture that
is. We're all like that. Another
passage kind of taken from the Old Testament. We were all like sheep going
astray, but the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,
and He paid for it. Zephaniah 3, verse 17 says, The
Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save,
and He will rejoice over thee with joy. And He will rest in
His love, and He will joy over thee with singing. What a wonderful
way for the church to see that's how God views us and thinks about
us, and works all things for good so that we become connected
with the Gospel, and hear the Gospel of His Son that while
we were yet sinners, He died for us. While we were without
strength, Christ died for the ungodly. What a wonderful thing. He rejoices, rests, and enjoys
in singing over us. What a wonderful picture that
He presents to His sheep, and even when we don't want anything
to do with it. And so, in Luke, the last couple
of verses here, it says, And when he hath found it, when he
hath found that sheep, verse 5, he layeth 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. And I say unto
you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need
no repentance. Well, it's interesting that that
sheep didn't repent. He had to go track it down, search
it out and find it and pick it up and lay it on his shoulders.
Then he turned it around and brought it back. So that sheep
was on its way to a more wrong way when the Lord apprehended
it. Just like Paul going that road
to Damascus. He was on his way to more wrong
way when the Lord stopped him, searched him out, found him,
shined that light on him. We get into a little bit of that
on the next parable where the lost coin says, you have to light
a candle and then sweep the floor. So the Lord searched it out,
found it, picked it up, brought it back. A turning must have
occurred. In Jeremiah chapter 31, I read
two verses there in 31, 18, and 19. I have surely heard Ephraim
bemoaning himself thus. Thou hast chastised me and I
was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou me and
I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God. He wasn't going to turn of his
own, but he says, turn thou me and I will be turned. Surely
after that I was turned, I repented. And after that, I was instructed,
and I smote upon my thigh, and I was ashamed. Isn't that another
one of those verses that we just mentioned a little bit ago about
Isaiah and Jacob and Paul and all those ones that said, after
the Lord got done with me, I looked at myself and said, man, I was
way worse than I thought. And I thought sin was much worse. The fall was much greater than
I ever anticipated. I was instructed. And then I
smote upon my thigh, and I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Boy, I'm sure every
one of us could say that. Boy, I look back at my life and
say, look at all the stuff I did and the places I went. He came and fetched me back out
of all that and brought us out of Lodibar, I think Norm says
from time to time. So we see this truth brought
out again in a parable later in Luke 15 in this prodigal son
that we mentioned. When he came to himself, something had to happen that
made that happen. So, we'll look at that when we
get to that portion of Luke chapter 15, but for now, we'll close
with this parable and rejoicing in grace that He searches out
His sheep and lays them on His shoulders and brings them back,
and then He rejoices over it. And we rejoice in Him doing that
for us, where before we didn't want anything to do with Him.
So, with that, we'll stop. Be free. And next time, we'll
have another layer of this parable of grace and more deep things
revealed to the sheep, the lit candle. So, until next time,
be free.