My subject this morning is the
Gracious Father. The Gracious Father. This chapter
in Luke chapter 15 begins by a statement concerning our Lord
receiving sinners and eating with sinners. The hearers of
this sermon where it was kind of a mixed multitude. There were
sinners, there were people who were anxious to hear his words
of mercy. So part of his congregation was
the sinner's part. The other part was the self-righteous
religionists who didn't consider themselves to be sinners. So
here's a mixed multitude to which our Lord Jesus is preaching.
And make no mistake about it, the preacher is our Savior. It's the Lord Jesus. He's the
one who came from heaven. He is the incarnate God. He's
a man whose spake is never a man's spake. He's the one who's the
Lord of glory, who covered His own deity with our flesh. and who came into this world
to seek and to save that which was lost. And here in Luke chapter
15, our Lord gives a parable. It's a very lengthy parable.
It's perhaps one of the longest parables that our Lord ever gave. It's a story. And a parable was
an earthly story that had a heavenly meaning. Now generally, when
we read the parables and we consider the parables, there's only one
main truth that we're looking for. But there's an exception
to every rule. For in this parable, the truth
that we're looking for is that Christ is the Savior of sinners,
Secondly, the Holy Spirit is the one who enlightens sinners
to see our filthiness and our need before God. And the third
truth to be learned here is the mercy of the Father who receives
the wayward, who receives those who are strangers to grace and
to God. very practical things that can
be learned from this passage of Scripture, and I don't deny
that. But we're looking mainly at the
Son of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Father. Now, our Lord has been criticized
by the Pharisees. The Pharisees were kind of the
goody-two-shoes people. These are the religionists who
thought much of themselves and who looked down on the sinners,
the publicans and the sinners. The Pharisees were angry with
Jesus of Nazareth because he spent time with sinners. He ate
with them. He drank with them. He walked
with them. He talked with them. He spent
time with them. He went to their feasts. He went
to their banquets. He spent a lot of time with sinful
people. But the Pharisees were angry
with him because they didn't think he should be doing that.
He was staying with the wrong crowd. They rather thought that
He should be spending time with them. After all, they considered
themselves to be very holy people. People who were upright before
God. People who never did anything
wrong. And it's interesting in this
parable, one parable with three parts, in each part of the parable,
We see the sinners typified and we see the Pharisees and the
scribes typified. In the first part, the first
part of the parable of the lost sheep and the shepherd. The lost
sheep, that's the sinner. That's the sinner. There were
99 others. They weren't lost in their own
minds and they represent the Pharisees. And then our Lord,
after giving that part of the parable of a hundred sheep and
one was lost, that's the sinner, that's the one who needs help,
that's the one who needs mercy, that's the one who must be sought
out, that's the one who must be found, The 99 just persons,
that is, they considered themselves to be righteous, they didn't
need any repentance. They didn't need a savior. The
second part of the parable is a woman who had 10 coins and
one of them became lost. Of the 10 coins, nine of them
represent the Pharisees and scribes. They didn't consider themselves
to be lost. All anybody had to do was ask
them, are you lost? Are you sinful? They'd say, no.
We're members of the Sanhedrin. We're righteous people. But that
one lost coin falling down in the dust. And the woman takes
a light and searches for that lost coin. And one lost coin,
that's a picture of the sinner. The nine other coins, they're
the Pharisees. That's the scribes. It's a self-righteous
bunch. And then we get to the third
leg of the parable. Here's a father who had two sons.
One of them was wayward. We call him the prodigal because
he's one who wasted everything that he got. The other one was
the elder son and he said, I've been with you all along. I've
never broken any rules. There's the Pharisee. Now you
can see them in this parable. Both groups, the sinners and
the self-righteous, are sitting before the Master. The Teacher
is the Son of God Himself. And He begins to teach them.
In the first part of the parable, He teaches them of Himself. He's the Shepherd. And He goes
after the lost sheep. He's the one who spends time
with those who need Him. And my question to all of you
this morning is, do you need Him? Do you recognize the fact
that you're a sinner? We read in 1 Timothy 1, this
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. There were sinners in this group.
In fact, look at the very first verse. Then drew near unto him
all the publicans and sinners to hear him. to listen to Him,
to listen to His words of mercy, to listen to His words of forgiveness,
to listen to His words of grace. They came to hear Him. In the
last statement of the previous chapter, you'll read these words,
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And the next thing
that comes from the inspired pen of Luke, is that these publican
sinners, they came to hear Him. Will you hear what He has to
say? Will you hear the Word of God?
Will you hear of the holiness of God, the righteousness of
God? Will you hear what God says about
us being sinful people? Will you hear? Will you listen? Well, they listened. The sinners
listened. They came to hear Him. This man
has the words of life. This man has the words of salvation. This man has the words of God. But that other group, they don't
want to hear Him. They don't want to hear Him. They have religion themselves. They're satisfied with themselves. So they need no instruction from
this man who eats with sinners. So here we have the three sections
of the parable, the shepherd and the lost sheep. And the emphasis
in this first section is not on the lost sheep. It's a poor
sheep that's lost, and we pity the lost sheep. But the emphasis
is not on the lost sheep, the emphasis is on the shepherd. Christ in John chapter 10 said,
I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for
the sheep. He's the shepherd who came to
seek and to save that which was lost. He's the one who came to
lay down his life to give his life in the stead of the guilty
because he recognized that God is a just God and he can only
be pacified, he can only be satisfied with the sacrifice of a perfect
offering. That's the shepherd himself. The emphasis in the first part
of the parable is on the shepherd, not the sheep. What did the sheep
do? the poor thing became lost. It's
not the sheep who said, hey, I'm over here. I'm over, help
me. Won't somebody help me? No, the
sheep is just wayward. It's the shepherd who is active. That's a picture of our Lord
Jesus, the active savior. Then in the second part of the
parable, there's the woman and the ten coins. And the emphasis
in the second part of the parable is not on the lost coin. The emphasis is on the woman.
And the woman pictures the Holy Spirit. She takes a lantern,
a light, What is it that the Holy Spirit uses in finding the
lost? The Holy Spirit uses the Word
of God, the gospel of the grace of God. This is the light that
is made use of in the searching out and finding of the lost coin,
or in this case, the lost sinner. Just as the sheep couldn't come
back to the shepherd, Neither can the lost coin do anything
but just lie there in death, in a state of inactivity. That which Luke focuses on is
the inability of the lost sheep and the inability of the lost
coin to make any contribution to their being found. And know
this, in the salvation of sinners, we make no contribution in our
being found of God. No contribution in our redemption. Christ the Shepherd did that.
He's the Good Shepherd. He's the Great Shepherd. He's
the Triumphant Shepherd. He's the Seeking Shepherd. He's
the Shepherd who actually saves those who are lost. He doesn't
try to find the lost sheep. He does find the lost sheep.
He finds the lost sheep and then puts it up on his shoulders.
He is the active one. He brings it home rejoicing.
And the woman finds the lost coin. She's the one that is active. And she pictures the Holy Spirit
who takes the gospel and the gospel enlightens us to show
us and make us to see, we're lost. We're in the dirt. We're filthy. I can't do anything
about it. I'm estranged from God. I'm alienated
from God. God is pure and righteous and
holy, and I'm anything but that. I'm down here in the dust, helpless,
feeble, dead in trespasses and sins. Once again, the emphasis
is on the shepherd and upon the woman. And then we get to the
part of the parable that I want to focus on from now on. The
father and the two sons. Most of the time when you hear
messages on this part of the parable, The emphasis is on the
son that went away, went on a journey and wasted his money. But really
the emphasis isn't upon him. The emphasis is upon the father
who has been wronged, the father who has been sinned against,
But the father who welcomes, welcomes the sinner back to himself,
the father who does everything necessary to make the sinner
know that he is welcomed in the presence of God. But I'll remind you of this before
I get into this last part of the parable. No part of this
parable should ever be preached or taught or dealt with without
some understanding of all three parts of the parable. Because
you can't do away with the work of Christ the Shepherd. That's
why it starts out this way. He's the Shepherd who seeks and
finds the sheep. He came down from heaven, the
Good Shepherd. He came to make things right
between us and the Holy God by laying down His life. That's
why He died. He died to wash away the sins
of His people, the sins of genuine sinners. And He is the One who
seeks us and finds us. And when He finds us, He doesn't
say, now do better, follow me home. No, He picks us up and
He puts us on His shoulders. This is not a work in which you
make a contribution. In my mind's eye, I can see the
shepherd finding the lost sheep. The lost sheep's there and the
shepherd calls for him, calls him by name because the Lord
calls his sheep by name. And the sheep says, you come
looking for me? You can't from me. I'm here for
you. I'm in the briars and the brambles
here. I don't even know where I'm at.
And the shepherd comes in and hoists that sheep up on his shoulders
right near his heart. He says, you're mine. I bought
you. I paid for you. Your days of
wandering are over. You're mine. And he goes, he
heads home with the sheep, rejoicing, rejoicing. And the woman, don't
leave out the ministry of the Holy Spirit now. You see, it's
the Holy Spirit who shows us we're dirty and we have no ability. As long
as you think you are somebody, and you're clever, and you're
smart, and you're wise, you're intelligent, and you understand
a lot of... I can quote John 3.16, preacher,
well, good for you. That don't mean you have a knowledge
of the Bible. I'm not saying John 3.16 is unimportant,
but I'm saying just because you have a working knowledge of the
facts of the Bible, as the Pharisees did, That doesn't mean you know
God. The fact of the matter is, when
the word of God comes and shines the light in your heart, you
begin to see your filth. You begin to see what an awful
shape you're in. And then that brings us to the
third part of the parable. So both sons actually received
their inheritance. I'm sure you picked up on that.
But one of them went out and wasted his portion. He went far away from the father. You'll notice, look again here
in chapter 15 of Luke. Notice in verse 13, and not many
days after the younger son had gathered all together, he took
his journey into a far country. I'm going away. And this reminds me of Adam,
because it was Adam who went away from God. God didn't forsake
Adam. Adam forsook God. Well, the only
thing is, however, Adam was a representative man of the whole human race.
So when he said, I want my inheritance and I'm leaving, we all left
with him. We all have gone on a journey
away from God. And that is a tragic thing. But
that's what happened in the garden. We left the Lord. We left everything
that is good and holy and righteous. We forsook the Lord. And in that state, this prodigal
would remain, wandering away from God, worried not for the
fact. Now you begin to put part one
and part two into this part three. He wanders away and now you see
the necessity of a seeking shepherd. And now you see the necessity
of the work of the Holy Spirit. This young man goes out and he
wanders away. This is his departure from the
Father. He says to his Father, Give me,
give me, give me. That's the way we are by nature.
We're covetous by nature. I read that somebody asked J.P. Morgan. Some of you young people maybe
never heard of him. If you have a Chase banking account
or a Chase credit card, that's J.P. Morgan. It goes back to
him. But somebody asked him, said,
you have more money than you could ever count. What else do
you want? He said, just give me a little
bit more. Just give me a little bit more.
And that's the way this prodigal, that's the way he was. Just give
me, give me. And you know, sometimes, now
let's bring it back to us. Sometimes God in his infinite
wisdom, he hears all things. He hears us sometimes say, give
me, And there are times when He's pleased to give us, even
though He knows it won't be good for us. He will give us what
we ask for. So I would say to all of you,
be careful what you ask for. He might give it to you, and
then you live to regret it. You see, when we say give, we're
showing our covetousness. But if we would change our thinking
and change our language from, give me the things that I want. And if that were changed into,
Lord, give me the mercy that I need. Give me the salvation
that I require. Give me the Lord Jesus Christ.
Give me everlasting life. It's never wrong to ask for that.
Give me righteousness that is equal to the righteousness, Lord,
that you demand. Lord, grant that request. This
young man wanted to be independent of the Father. Too many rules. Too many regulations. I don't
want to have to answer to anybody anymore. And you know something?
That's exactly the thinking of Adam in the garden. I want to
be independent. And the temptation of Satan to
the woman was, if you eat of this forbidden fruit, you will
answer to nobody, not even God. You'll be God yourself. And Adam, hearing that, he decided,
I want to be independent of God. And this is the young man in
the parable. I wanna be independent of God. I don't need the father. I don't need my dad. You give me and I'll be on my
way. I'm going on a long journey. And he did. And when we sinned
in Adam, we went on a long journey. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord has laid on Christ
Jesus the iniquity of us all. Psalm 119 and 150 says we're
far away from the word of God, from the law of God, from the
truth of God. Adam left the gospel. We lift in Adam and it says in
Isaiah 46.12, we're far from righteousness. And Lamentations 3.17, we're
far from peace. And Psalm 100 and 19.155 says,
salvation is far from the wicked. We tried to get away from God. And I'll tell you this, if you
persist in your rebellion and your unbelief toward the Lord
Jesus Christ, you will one day be far off from God in hell. That's as far as you can get
away from God. No life, no light. You see, the
Bible says God is the Father of lights. Hell is outer darkness. You want to get away from God?
I want to be out from under the restraints of God? God's not
going to tell me what to do? I'm just going further and further?
Well, here's where you'll wind up, in the land of the damned.
And there is no light there. There is no truth there. This young man, give me what's
coming to me. And he spent all. You see, sin
strips us of everything. While this young man, he went
out full and he comes back empty. He went out, he probably, if
he lived today, he would have had the finest clothes on. I mean, he, boy, where'd you
go shopping at, you know, one of these high-dollar stores?
Whoo, look at these shoes you got on. Look what a coat you
got on. He went out full and came back
empty. He went out rich, and now he's
broke. Broke. And he gets to where he's hungry.
So he goes to a citizen of the country and he says, can you
help me? And the citizen of the country,
I believe, represents a false preacher. Yeah, I'll give you something
to do. Go out here and work among the swine. False preachers tell you, you
need to do something. That's what you need. You need
to serve. You need to serve. And he starts serving, and he's
going hungry. And then he begins to think,
this is the searchlight of the Holy Spirit shining in his heart. And I'm in bad shape here. I
am really a fool. There's no bigger fool in the
world than me. I had it all. And in Adam, we
had it all. Do you see? We had it all in
Adam. What do we have now? Oh, we got
a few toys in this life, but they're not going to last long. May God show us all we're broke.
We got nothing. That's what the Lord said in
the book of Revelation chapter 3 to the church at Laodicea.
You said we're rich and increased with goods. I got everything
I need. He said, you're a fool. You got nothing. You don't have
any righteousness. You have no blood atonement.
You have no saving grace. You have no mercy from the Lord. So then he decides, I'm going
home. Prepared his little speech, you
know. Probably had it on note card. He memorized it. And so he starts heading home.
But here's what he didn't realize. The father back home never forgot
about him. Never wrote him off. The father
never said, well, you made your bed, now lie in it. No. And the father's looking
for him. And here comes this poor, Raggedy
son, hair's all messed up, needs a shave, needs a bath. He's just dragging along, head
down. I'm so ashamed. And the father
sees him, and the father runs out. And the boy's got his little
speech memorized, you know. Look what he says in verse, I
want you to compare two things. In verse 19, the son, he's thinking
to himself, that's what I'm gonna tell my father. I'm no more worthy
to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. I'm gonna serve you. Now look
at verse 21. And the son said unto him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more
worthy to be called thy son. But before he could get to that
part about I'll be your servant, He's forbidden to say that because
now you're entering in the legalism. That's like a sinner going, Lord,
show me mercy and I'll serve you. No, he don't make bargains. That's what this young man, he
thinks this is going to be a good bargain. Father, make me like
your hired servant. Show me mercy and I'll serve
you. Show me mercy and the Father
cuts him off. Forget about that works part.
That's what false religion will do for you. False religion will
tell you, go to the Lord for mercy and you promise Him that
you'll serve Him the rest of the days of your life. God won't
have anything to do with that because that's works. You see?
You understand what I'm saying? That's works. And the father
interrupts him. But the father said to his servants,
bring the best robe. That's the righteousness of Christ.
Take that old tattered, stinky smelling garment off my son. And put that robe of sonship
on him. and put a ring on his hand. A
ring. It's without beginning and without
end. That's the love of God towards sinners. And put shoes on his feet. Feet shod with the shoes of the
gospel. And bring hither the fatted calf
and kill it. Christ, Christ is like the fatted
calf who was killed according to the justice of God, and we
feed on Him. And the Father said, let us eat
and be merry. Lord, show us mercy for Christ's
sake. I make you no promises, because
God does not make deals with anybody. You can forget about
that part. Will you serve Him? You will. He'll make you want to serve
Him. But that's not in the salvation equation. You understand what
I'm saying? That's just not part of it. It's
got nothing to do with the washing away of your sins. Salvation
is all of God. The Shepherd, the Holy Spirit,
and the Father, the Father who is delighted to save. He delights
to show mercy. The Bible says He's plenteous
in mercy. He's the Father of mercies. He's
the Father of comforts. He's the Father of light. He's
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be thankful God shows mercy to
sinners and don't be ashamed to acknowledge that you are one. And I'll tell you this, the more
you can tell me and convince me, preacher, you are a sinner,
the more I'm entitled to the mercy of God. That's good news. It's good news. There's mercy
with the Lord. Well, let's sing a closing song. And we'll sing 310.