Well, we're studying here in
Luke chapter 15 this story of lost things. It's a story that
has three portions. or three legs to it, three parts
to it. The Savior speaks this story
or parable in response to what the religious leaders said to
him, mocking him, and they were upset. They murmured, the scripture
says, Here in Luke chapter 15 in verse two, that is, they were
grumbling within themselves that this man received sinners and
he eats with them. And this was one of the things,
of course, that they always found fault with the Savior about.
When our Lord had converted Matthew and he issued to Matthew the
effectual call of grace to follow him back in the book of Matthew,
Matthew then gave a great feast to honor his Savior, and Matthew
invited all of his friends and his co-workers to come and eat
with and meet Jesus of Nazareth. And, of course, these religious
people, they also appeared into this situation, and they were
critical of the Master once again eating and drinking with sinners.
On another occasion he spoke to them about the greatness of
John the Baptist and how he didn't bend over like false prophets. He stood firm for the gospel
of God's grace and he said, but you won't receive him and you
don't receive me either. He said, the son of man comes
eating and drinking and you accuse me of being a gluttonous man
and also of a winebibber. Our Lord was accessible to those
who needed Him. And if there is one or two or
maybe all of us here this evening who need Him, I tell you, He
is accessible. He's full of grace and He's full
of mercy. And this is one of the things
that irritated the Pharisees and the scribes. The Pharisees
were the moralists of the day. They were the ones who lived
by the, they said, the law of Moses, that they were always
obedient to the commandments of God. And of course, the scribes
were the men who copied the scriptures and memorized the scriptures,
and they were the expositors of the scripture. And having
mocked our Savior and murmuring, and the word murmuring means
kind of to growl or fuss about things in a low voice. Our Lord knew exactly their attitude
toward him, and so he begins to speak to them, and he tells
them a story. He often illustrated heavenly
truth, spiritual truth, through a story, and that's what a parable
is. It's an earthly story, it may
be real, it may be something that the speaker has just come
up with, he's invented, but the intention of a parable is to
teach mainly one spiritual truth, a heavenly truth. And so our
Lord then begins to speak to these men, about a parable of
lost things. And as we have been repeating
several times, he begins with the shepherd who seeks his lost
sheep. The shepherd is, of course, our
Lord Jesus Christ, and he comes to rescue those that the Father
gave him in the everlasting covenant of grace. And in order to do
that, he must come where the sheep are. And so we find in
the first leg of the parable, if I may put it that way, here's
the shepherd who goes after the lost sheep. He goes after the
sheep where the sheep is. Well, if our Lord Jesus is the
shepherd of the sheep, if he's going to rescue us, what must
he do? Well, he must come where we are. Behold his incarnation. He comes
into this world, but he doesn't come to this world to do a bunch
of things like setting up, certainly didn't come to set up an earthly
kingdom, but he came on a specific mission. You see, he's sent by
the Father. Tonight we're focusing on the
work of the Father in salvation. Understand this, the Father is
behind it all. It's the Father who chose the
people unto salvation. It's the Father who sent His
Son into this world. And so about 2,000 years ago,
behold, Jesus of Nazareth was born, born of a virgin, but He's
more than a man, He's the God-man. He didn't cease to be all that
he was before, but he did become what he was not before. That
is, he was not accepting the purpose of God. That man, Christ
Jesus, he came, why did he come? To seek and to save that which
was lost. What is his name? His name is
Jesus. What does Jesus mean? He shall
save his people from their sins. Well, how's he going to do that?
How's he going to rescue the lost sheep? Because in the first
part of the parable of the story, a man has, he has a hundred sheep,
which pictures all the people of the world, 99 of them. are in the wilderness where he
leaves them. Those are the self-righteous
religionists. Those are the people who don't
need a savior. They've got a righteousness of
their own. They've got perfection of their
own. They're working themselves into
the good graces of God, and they don't need a savior like Jesus
of Nazareth. They certainly don't need his
bloody sacrifice, and they don't need his righteousness. They're
just fine, thank you very much. That's their attitude. And we
don't need you, Jesus of Nazareth, to tell us anything. We don't
believe you, we hate you. And of course, they gave evidence
of that and that they nailed him to the cross. Well, they
didn't literally, but it was their idea. Of course, back behind
their idea was the purpose of God. They despised him. The shepherd, he came into this
world. He came where the lost sheep
are. He came to where we live. And he came to save us by his
substitutionary death to save the sheep that the father gave
him. He said, as the father knoweth me, even so know I the father,
and I laid down my life for the sheep. Justice demanded death
for sin. Now, we've all sinned. We're
different in many, many ways. There's no question about that.
But we're all just alike in the fact that we're all sinners against
God. And sin, sin is deserving of
death. Not only physical death, and
we're not going to escape that unless the Lord comes back soon.
We're going to die physically, but we're born into this world
spiritually dead, and unless God is pleased to do something
for us through the grace of Christ Jesus, then we're going to die
forever. So our savior came to give us
life. He laid down his life that we
wouldn't die because the wages of sin is death. God will get
death. You can bet on that. He'll get
death. It's like in the book of Exodus,
when the Lord said to the Israelites, when I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. He got death at every house. either the death of a substitute,
that is a lamb, a male of the first year without spot and without
blemish. But if he didn't get that death,
he got the death of the firstborn. Well, you see the Lord Jesus,
he came and died our death. Isn't that wonderful? He took
our place. So he rescues the lost sheep
and of course he rejoices. He rejoices in finding the lost
sheep. He picks the lost sheep up, puts
it on his shoulders in this story and goes home rejoicing and says,
rejoice with me. He says that to his friends,
to all of his associates. Rejoice with me, I found my sheep. And then he finishes up the first
segment of the parable by saying that there's joy in the presence
of the angels over one sinner that repenteth over 99 just persons
which need no repentance. Now, we know that you can't take
every single part of a parable and try to make it mean something
because really there are no just people who need no repentance. Even justified people, we still
sin What he's referring to are these 99, these Pharisees and
scribes. That's who he's picturing there
in verse number seven. They considered themselves to
be just persons who needed no repentance. And then he goes
into the second page or the second part of the parable, the woman
and the lost coin. And we talked about this morning,
this part of the parable. Here's one's got 10 coins. All 10 coins represent all of
mankind. Nine of them, well, they seem
to be okay. The nine of them represent the
Pharisees and the scribes. One of them has fallen in the
dirt. Can't help itself. It's just a dead coin. And there
it is, doesn't even know it's lost. Isn't that our condition
by nature? We're lost and don't know it.
We're filthy and have no idea because we're dead in trespasses
and sins. We have no spiritual feeling. We have no spiritual consciousness. We're dead to the things of God.
We're very much alive to other things. We're alive to the world.
We're alive to our families. But as far as the things of God,
the things of salvation, the things that have to do with the
soul, the things that have to do with eternity, we're dead,
we're lifeless. That's all of us. And the woman
then, she takes out a candle. She lights it. What's that a
picture of? Well, the psalmist said, thy
word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway. The gospel of God's grace is
light. And here we are in darkness and
the spirit of God uses the light. He always uses the truth. Listen,
nobody is ever converted under error. God uses his word. And I know there are people who
mock the Scriptures, who have smart-alecky things to say about
the Word of God, but this is a very unusual book. There has never been another
book like this book, because in this book, God reveals Himself. And God reveals His method of
grace through a substitute and through His death. And God reveals
to us our own condition. And it doesn't paint a pretty
picture of us. It tells us our dilemma, our
wretchedness, our lostness, our spiritual nakedness. We're in
bad, bad shape, folks. We're dead, spiritually dead.
And nobody can help us but he who breathed life into the nostrils
of Adam to begin with. He's got to make us alive. Ezekiel, God said, go out there. Go out there in the desert and
preach to the dry bones. Well, Lord, there's a lot of
bones out there, but there ain't no life out there. I know. But
go preach to them. And there are people who say,
well, what's the use in Ezekiel preaching to a valley of bones
where a great battle had taken place? Well, here's the reason.
God said do it. God said do it. And he went out
and began to preach. But before that, the Lord said,
you see all these bones? Yes, Lord, I see all these bones
out here. There are many of them, aren't
there? Well, there's a lot of them. That's because everybody
died in Adam's fall. Well, can these bones live, preacher? And Ezekiel said, thou knowest. You know what the Lord said to
him? Preach to them. And that's what preachers do.
That's what I'm doing, preaching. And I'm preaching to people who
are likened unto those dry bones, likened unto that coin that's
down in the dust. It's dirty, it's filthy, it's
lost, and doesn't even know it's lost. It's in bad shape, but
doesn't know it's in bad shape. You see, this is the condition
of all mankind. We're in a horrible condition
and have no idea about it. And so God does something. Now,
if God waits for us to make a movement toward him, well, we're just
dry bones. These bones are not gonna make
any movement toward God. And the Lord said to Ezekiel,
prophesy to the Spirit, to the wind, breathe on these bones. And God the Spirit breathed upon
them. And then the bones began to come
together and then God covered them with flesh. And then God
breathed into them life and they became a mighty army. And that's
regeneration there. That's the quickening power of
the Spirit of God. He comes to people who are dead
in trespasses and sins, who are dead to the things of God. And
God, through His Spirit, breathes life into a sinner. And God says,
live. It's like in Ezekiel chapter
16. The Lord said, when I saw you, you were like the infant
that had been cast out, hadn't been washed. The cord hadn't
been cut. You were just ready to die. And God said, and I passed by
thee and I said, live, because it was a time of love. Live. And this is our great need, is
for God the Spirit to cause us to live, to live to the glory
of God, to live. And when He gives us life, that's
when we repent, that's when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's when we receive Him. And so the woman pictures the
Spirit of God, the minister of the Spirit of God, she sweeps
the house, that picture's convincing, the convincing grace of God,
the sweeping of our hearts, the washing of the heart by the washing
of the word, regeneration. We're made alive. And the woman goes home and says,
rejoice with me, I found my coin. Even so, there's joy in the presence
of the angels. Not necessarily the angels themselves
rejoicing, though I'm sure that they do, but they're in the presence
of God. God rejoices. Now, don't you
believe there's always joy in heaven? There's nothing but joy
in heaven, but there's something about when a sinner chosen unto
salvation, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, justified
by God's grace, and then they're called by the Spirit of God,
and they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's like all of
heaven erupts. and celebration and in joy, an
unusual joy. And the joy mostly is in the
heart of God. And then we get to the third
part of the parable, the father and the two sons. And this is
the portion that Bill read to us just a little bit ago. Both
of these sons, They belong to the same father. And the Lord says specifically
that he gave to them, notice in verse 12, the younger of them
said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that
fall to me. And he divided unto them his
living. So he gave to both of them. And
we know what the prodigal did. The word prodigal means one who
wastes his money, lives a wild and reckless life. And so the
prodigal, he gets his money and he rebels against the father.
He leaves home. He's gone. That's what we did
in Adam. You see, Adam was a representative
man. He's the federal head. Words
that you do well to remember, especially as you read books
today, but Adam was the federal head. He was the representative
of all the human race. And in Adam, we felt, in Adam,
we rebelled against God. We walked off from God. We left
God. We left God and we're not gonna
come back unless the shepherd seeks us. And the Spirit of God
comes after us and finds us in the dirt. You see, you can't
take this last part of the parable and just isolate it from the
first two parts. Because if you do that, you're
going to arrive at wrong doctrine. And wrong doctrine concerning
salvation is deadly. That's right, it's deadly. Well, here's the young man and
he asked for his inheritance and he gets it. Here's his rebellion
in verses 11 through 13. He's got a rebellious heart.
That's all of us. We rebelled against God. We rebelled
against the authority of God. The very thing that is God's
glory, His sovereign grace, that He says, I'll be gracious to
whom I'll be gracious, I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful,
I'll be compassionate to whom I'll be compassionate, and whom
I will I harden. God's sovereign right to do as
He pleases with all of the creatures that He has made, that's where
men kind of get choked, they get choked on that. They can't
handle that. But that's who God is. And we're
not gonna make any apologies for God. Well, I think God ought
to give everybody a chance. But salvation's not by chance. Salvation's on purpose. And God
had his gifts. He has his gifts. The gift of
salvation, the gift of his son, the gift of the riches of his
grace. And he has the right to give
these gifts to whoever he wants to. And he purposed that he would
give them to his chosen people of people he knew before the
world ever began. But even those people in Adam
rebelled. We rebelled. and we left God. But the Spirit of God is doing
the work within the heart of this man. You say, well, I don't
read that in that portion of scripture Brother Parker read
to us. Well, that's because that's already been set forth in the
second portion of the parable, the woman. who lights a candle
and seeks after a lost coin. We've already had that, so there
need not be the repetition of that. Here's what we find in
this part in the parable. After the rebellion, the man
begins to recognize his condition in verses 14 through 19. There's
first of all rebellion and then recognition. Well, what is the
source of this recognition of this man in his own heart? He
says, I'm in trouble. What's that due to? It's due
to the grace of God. It's due to the mercy of the
Lord. It's due to the work of the Holy Spirit. I'm in trouble. There's recognition here. Look
at verse 14. When he had spent all. Now that's
us. When he had spent all. There
arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in wants.
Now he's wasted all of his money, all of his inheritance, he's
wasted it all. He's wasted it on worldly things. And maybe I should even visit
this for just a little bit. Beware the world. Beware of the
things of the world. You can't love the world and
love the Lord also. The world is an enemy of grace.
The world, it will promise you pleasure, but it will give you
great pain. The world will promise you joy. It will give you great heartache.
The world will promise you fullness. What it'll give you is emptiness.
The world will promise you you'll have lots of friends. But when your friends are finished
using all that you've got, all that the world gives you is loneliness. The world promises liberty! Leave
home! Take your inheritance! You're
free! You're free! Liberty! And what the world gives is bondage. The world says you'll get satisfaction. We'll satisfy you. No, because
it'll give you disappointment. And the world and the things
of the world, it will promise you life. Oh, you'll really be
living. But when it finishes with you,
it'll give you death. And you see this young man, prodigal
son, in his rebellion, he wastes all. And then he finds out these
weren't my friends after all. They didn't care about me. There's
only one who really cares about me. That's the father. And I'm telling you, the only
one who cares about poor, perishing, wayward, dead dog sinners is
a gracious God who purposed the salvation of His people. He cares,
and the Son of God cares. Once in a while we'll sing that
song, Does Jesus Care? Oh yes he cares. I know he cares. He cares for his own. I know
he cared for me because he came and died for me. I know he cares
for me. He was raised again because of
my justification. I know He cares for me because
He reigns in glory, working the Father's will and working all
things together in my life for my good. I know He cares. And I know the Spirit of God
cares because He quickened me. He made me alive. He gave me
a new heart of faith. to believe the Lord Jesus, and
He indwells me. He leads me. He leads me. He directs my pathway. He guides
me. And when I can't pray, and I
don't know what to pray, and I'm at a loss for words, He takes
my groans, my groans to God. and he interprets
them to the father. Oh, he cares. Even in our rebellion,
he cares. So this father, he didn't stop
caring for the prodigal once he left home. He never stopped loving him.
Never stopped being concerned about it. It's just like your
kids. And our kids, when they leave home, you stop loving them?
No. You stop caring about them? No.
Do you stop worrying about them? No. We got a son in Japan. I'm concerned about him, love
him. Got a grandson in the Middle
East in the army. Missiles fired at the base where
he's stationed. Am I concerned about him? Well,
of course I'm concerned about him. The mileage makes no difference. If you really love somebody,
you care about them no matter where they are in the world.
And our God, our gracious God, who has loved us with an everlasting
love, he loves us no matter what kind of mess we have got ourselves
into. He never stopped loving. And
the father never stopped loving this boy. Rebellion, number two,
I said is recognition. Look at verse 14. After he's
wasted his substance with riotous living, verse 14, when he had
spent all. He's broke now. Where are your friends? Hey,
don't have any friends. Thank God there's a friend who
sticks closer than a brother. What a friend we have in Jesus.
And there arose a mighty famine in the land. Like there's a religious
famine in our land. There's a famine for the word
of God. Famine for the gospel. But there are places here and
there where God raises up a faithful voice to set forth his word. And he began to be in want. Oh,
do you see what's happening? He began to be in want. He began
to realize, I'm a needy, beggarly son. You see, this is the spirit
of God doing the work now. He's like that coin lost in the
dust. Oh, but wait. There's a woman
who's got a candle lit. It's the Spirit of God who's
looking for him and puts it within his heart. I'm a needy man. You needy? You need righteousness? You need forgiveness? You need
a Savior? You need a mediator? Say, I'm
needy. Oh, that's good. I'm glad you
recognize that. That's an indication the Lord
might be doing something for you. Well, look at verse 15. He went and joined himself to
a citizen of that country and he sent him into the fields to
feed swine. Oh, a Jew feeding swine. Boy,
I tell you, he's bottomed out, hadn't he? He can't even eat the animals
that he's feeding. Bless his heart. Because verse
16 says, he would feign and filled his belly with the husk that
the swine did eat. And no man gave to him. No man gave to him. When he came
to himself, he said, here's his recognition. That many hired servants of my
father's have bread enough and despair and I perish with hunger,
I perish. I will arise and go to my father
and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven
and before thee. and am no more worthy to be called
thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and he came to the
father. But when he was yet a great,
a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran
and fell on his neck and kissed him. Well, he recognized his
need. And there must be a rec, there's
got to be a recognition that you need the savior. But it's
the Lord who stirs that up within you. Which brings me to... his return and repentance, return
and repentance. And I've already read verse 20,
but it's also verse 21. Let me read verse 20 again. And
he arose and came to the father, but when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on
his neck and kissed him. And his son said unto him, father,
I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more
worthy to be called thy son. Now there's that repentance. I've sinned against heaven. I'm
not worthy to be called your son." Here he returns. But then we see a reception. He thought when he got back,
he's just gonna have to beg the Father for mercy. But the Father
is merciful. You don't have to beg Him to
be merciful. He is merciful. And it's the
only place I know of in the Bible where we see God running. The Lord ran. He ran. He's anxious to show mercy. Do
you know what I read about the Lord? He's in a hurry to show
mercy, but the scripture says he's slow to anger. I like that. And here comes a poor old prodigal
back to him. The father runs out. Boy, what
a reception. And you know, the poor boy, he's
got his little speech memorized. He's been working on it. He's
smitten in his heart. And of course, as the Pharisees
and the scribes were listening to this, in my mind, if the Lord
had been pleased to develop the story even further, the scribes
and the Pharisees would have been pictured also by the people
of the city saying, stone him, stone him. He's not worthy to
be your son. He's not even worthy to be your
servant. He ought to be executed for what
he's done. See, that's that legalistic mind. Whip him, whip him. But that's
not the father's attitude at all because the father loves
him. The father, just picture the
father on the front porch waiting on this boy. He just knows he's
coming back. And of course, God, the father
knows when we're coming because he sends his spirit to draw us.
And then the father's sitting on a rocking chair on the front
porch. He sees a familiar face and he jumps up and he starts
a running. and he grabs hold of that boy
and he kisses him because when it says he ran and fell on his
neck and kissed, he just kissed, just covered him with kisses.
He loves him so much. Have you ever been kissed by
God? That's the sweetest kiss there
is, to be kissed by the Lord. to know you're an object of his
love. He's not gonna fuss at you. I
shouldn't have done that. Well, the boy knows that. You
made your bed, now lie in it. Well, the boy already feels that
way. Father doesn't treat him that
way. No, the father receives him.
And he says in verse 22, the father said to his servants,
bring forth the best robe. Now what do you think that is?
This is the righteousness of all righteousnesses, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the best robe. It's the robe of honor. In the parable, the robe that
the father was referring to when he told the servants to bring
forth the best robe was the robe that the father would wear to
real important gatherings and festivals and meetings and that
sort of thing. Bring it in, put the very best
robe on this boy. And I'll tell you, the Lord clothes
us with the garments of salvation. Isn't that something? And then
he says, put it on him. He doesn't say, you wanna put
this on? No. Put it on him. That's what the father, that's
effectual grace. And then he says, put a ring on his hand. That
signet ring. That ring would be used to seal
official documents. And it was used to verify even
financial things. What the father is saying, you
got all the rights and privileges to everything in this family.
Because you see, we have the riches of God's grace. It's all
ours. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And then he
said, put shoes on his feet. Now, slaves didn't wear shoes.
Hired servants didn't wear shoes. The masters wore shoes, put shoes
on his feet. Our feet are shod with the gospel
of peace. And then he said, bring forth,
bring hither the fatted calf, kill it. Let us eat and be merry. Here's rejoicing. What is this
fatted calf? Well, I believe that picture's
the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we feast on him. He's a banquet in and of himself. We feed on the Lord Jesus. He's
the bread of life. That's what he said. I'm the
bread come down from heaven. Eat my flesh and drink my blood. What does that mean? Believe
him. receive him, take him in. This my son was dead, but he's alive again. He was
lost and he's found and they began to be merry. But just a little bit more to
the story now. Because the father had two sons. The other son, he pictures the
Pharisees and the scribes. Here's rejection. Look at verse 25. Now his elder
son was in the field. The field is the world. He's
in the world of religion. And as they came and drew nigh
to the house, he heard music and dancing. Here it's celebration. The sounds of joy. He called
one of the servants and asked what these things meant. This
servant is a sovereign grace preacher. That's what I think.
He pictures a sovereign grace preacher and the sovereign grace
preacher said unto him, thy brother is come and thy father hath killed
the fatted calf. because he hath received him
safe and sound. You remember the accusation against
our Savior right back in the second verse? Pharisees and scribes
murmured saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. And now the preacher says, your
father has received him. And I like this. Safe and sound. You know how we are tonight?
Amidst all the turmoil in the world, in the middle of a pandemic,
in the middle of vileness gone amok, we're safe and sound. What do you think about that?
We're safe and sound. Ah, look at verse 28. He's angry. See, just like those Pharisees
and scribes back in verse two who murmured, he's angry. Watch this. He would not go in. There's your free will at work.
Right there. He would not go in. But they're in there eating the
fatted calf. They're feasting on effectual
grace. They're feasting on particular
redemption. They're feasting on unconditional
election. They're feasting on predestination
to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. They're
feasting on regeneration. They're feasting on all these
things. I'm not going in. You'll never find me in there.
That's his attitude. Angry. He would not go in. He's not gonna feast on Christ.
He wants no part of Christ. That's the Pharisees and the
scribes right there. They don't need a savior. And he answered this preacher.
He said, or he answering said to his father, he said, lo these
many years do I serve thee. Now watch it, he's a legalist
now. Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment. I kept
the commandments. You see to these Pharisees and
scribes who are listening to this story, while they're thinking,
well, he finally got to our hero now. Our hero, he keeps all the
commandments because that's what they thought they did. We keep
all the commandments. He said, you never gave me a
kid, never did anything for me that
I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this, thy son,"
doesn't even say my brother. Thy son, he actually doesn't
even address the father as father. As soon as this, thy son was
come, which has devoured thy living with harlot. He's a sinner. Don't you know what he is? He's
a sinner. You killed for him the fatted
calf. The father said, son, thou art ever with me and all
that I have is thine." Just part of the story. Remember, it's
just a story. It was only right that we should
make merry and be glad. For this thy brother was dead
and is alive again and was lost and is found. And you see, our Lord gave these
earthly stories But he gave these earthly stories in order that
the Pharisees and the scribes wouldn't understand what he's
talking about. In fact, our Lord gave a parable
back in Matthew chapter 13, right at the beginning, parable of
the sower. Most of you remember that. And
you know, his disciples said, Lord, why do you speak in parables? Why do you conceal truth in these
stories like you do? He said, so it'd be hidden from
these. But blessed are your eyes if you see. You see? You see what this parable in
Luke 15 is all about? Salvation of the Lord, that's
what it's all about. You see that? He said, blessed are your
eyes for they see and blessed are your ears for they hear. So I would just ask you, do you
see? You see what this parable is
all about? Do you hear? Do you hear the message of the
parable? And the message of the parable
is this, salvation is of the Lord and he gets all the glory. That's closing prayer. It is with thanksgiving that
we come to you at the end of this day, Father. And oh, so
many of us in here tonight can relate to this poor prodigal
in his dilemma. And we can see the hand of sovereign
mercy that rescued us and welcomed us. and drew us to the banquet
table of your grace. Oh, how we bless you, how we
praise you, and how we thank you. Give to each of us, oh Lord,
an understanding of our dilemma by nature, and Lord, give us
life in Christ. Without Him, we surely will perish. Oh, thank you. Thank you for
putting on us the best robe. Thank you for giving to us the
ring of sonship. Being circular, it indicates
the everlasting love of God to us. And thank you, Father, for giving
us shoes. You've shot us with the gospel
of peace. We're the children of God. Oh,
what a blessed thing, how we praise you and thank you tonight.
Bless us as we go our separate ways. Give us safety. Watch over us. and our families. And keep us ever looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. In his name we
ask these things. Amen.