We come this evening again to
Luke chapter 15. And I ask you, if you will, to
take your Bibles and turn with me to Luke chapter 15. And permit me to read the first
seven verses to you. Luke 15, and this is a marvelous
chapter which magnifies the rich grace of God. Then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
the scribes, they murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and
eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto
them, saying, What man of you, having in 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
layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I say unto you
that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,
More than over 90 and nine just persons which need no repentance. This evening I want to show you
six things. And I'll go immediately into
this outline that I have for you. First of all, let's look
at the scene. Here's the scene. A large group
of people had gathered around the Savior. This group of people
consisted of religious leaders as well as those who had a bad
reputation, publicans and sinners. Those were people who were looked
down upon by society and especially looked down upon by the Pharisees
and the scribes. The Pharisees, of course, are
the moralists of their day, those who believed in ritualism, those
who believed in salvation by works, who are the scribes. The scribes are the, oftentimes
they're called lawyers in the New Testament. These are the
legal experts, at least. They thought they were experts
on the law of Moses. These are instructors of the
law and also interpreters of the law, as well as those who
made it their practice daily to write the scriptures. not
that they were themselves inspired, but they rather copied the scriptures
so that other generations would also have the word of God. And so you have, on the one hand,
a group of ungodly people and people who were considered by
most of the Jews to be the offscouring of the earth, They had no use
for these publicans and sinners. And then on the other hand, you
have the religious groups. Here are the two groups that
have gathered around the Savior. And I'm trying to set the scene
for you. And the scribes and the Pharisees,
they said, this man, he spends time with these people who are
of the baser sort. I want... I want first of all
for you to notice, and this is a blessing to me, to see that
those who are sinful could approach the Savior. They didn't have any fear of
being rejected, no fear of being turned away. And be reminded
of who this One is. He's the King of kings and He
is the Lord of lords. He's the Creator. He's the Sustainer. He's the Sovereign God. He's
the Son of God. He's the Son of Man. This is
the One that has all authority, all power in heaven and in earth. And this is the one who received
them. And within the word received
is the idea of he has fellowship with them. And this greatly irritated
the religionists of the day, that he would spend time with
people that they would never spend time with. They didn't
wanna have anything to do with this bad class of people. And
yet this man, he receives them into his company, he sits with
them, he speaks with them, he fellowships with them, and he
eats and he drinks with them. And this greatly irritated them.
But they felt that he could be approached. It's a marvelous
thing. You see, great monarchs throughout
history, they could only be approached under the right circumstances.
You remember in reading and studying the book of Esther, Esther, she
wanted to save the nation of Israel. And Haman was very much
opposed to the Jews, to those people who worshiped God by means
of a sacrifice. And so Esther, having learned
of what he was up to, she wanted to go and see the king. Now the
king is her husband. This is a mighty monarch. King
Ahasuerus. to go before such a king, even
though she was his wife, she's Queen Esther. For her to just
go in without being asked for, without being summoned in his
presence, really was to put her life in jeopardy, which she was
willing to do because as was said to her, that she was born for such a
time as that. That's why God raised her up.
And she dared to go before the king. Well, here's the king of
kings. But there's no one guarding the
entrance into his palace. You may, as a needy sinner, come
to him freely. There are no guards at the palace
gate. There are no priests who will
allow you to come in. There are no preachers to give
you permission. There's no Mary to say, well,
I'll speak to him on your behalf. You as a sinful person may feel
free to come to the Savior of sinners. Isn't that a wonderful
thing? And here are these publicans and sinners, and they just walk
right up to the Savior and begin to speak with Him. And He doesn't
shun them like the scribes and the Pharisees. He doesn't say,
I'm sorry, I don't want to have anything to do with you folks.
You're so far beneath me. Don't you know who I am? I'm the monarch of the earth.
I'm the king of kings. Oh, no, not at all. Not at all. He has time for the sinful. He even has time for me. And
He has time for you. You can approach Him. He is approachable. He is a Savior who is readily
accessible to the needy. to the needy. Thank God he is
approachable. One songwriter, hymn writer,
many years ago, 1787, in fact, Edmund Jones says, he said, he
wrote, I'll to the gracious king approach, whose scepter mercy
gives. Perhaps he may receive my touch. And then this sinner lives. He's the king. I'm a pauper. I have nothing to offer, but
that's good. Because if you think you do have
something to offer, you won't be received. What is the right
way to come to Him? As she played that first song,
Rock of Ages. In my hands no price I bring. Don't bring anything. Simply
to thy cross I cling. And these sinners were glad to
hear Him. You'll notice the last two verses
of chapter 14. He talks about salt that has
lost its usefulness. He says in verse 34 of chapter
14, salt is good. But if the salt have lost his
savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for
the land, nor yet for the dunghill. but men cast it out. And then
he says, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Verse one,
then drew near unto him all the publicans and the sinners for
to hear him. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. And they approached him and said,
we have approached you to hear you. We want to listen to what
you have to say. Our mouths are shut. Our ears
are open. And that is just the opposite
of the scribes and the Pharisees. Their mouths were always open
and their ears were absolutely closed to all that he had to
say. Ah, this is a king who sets no
guard at his gate. The only thing necessary is to
need him. Do you need him? Totally need him. The scripture says, everyone
that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it
shall be opened unto him. Our Lord allowed these sinful
people to come near to him. And really, I shouldn't even
use the word allow, because he drew them. He drew them unto
himself. He didn't stand aloof. He spent time with them and he
received them. To the Pharisees and the scribes,
these publicans and sinners, as far as they were concerned,
they didn't have any claims on the promises of Abraham. They
had no hope of participating in the renewal of the kingdom
of Israel. The scribes and the Pharisees
considered themselves only to be worthy to enter into the kingdom,
and certainly not these people. And yet it's these people that
the Savior spends time with. Understand this, these Pharisees
and scribes, They were themselves the friends of self-righteousness,
but they were the enemies of imputed righteousness. Yes, they
were the friends of salvation by works, but they were the enemies
of salvation by sovereign grace. They were the friends of those
who believed in acceptance with God based on your merits, and
they were the enemies of those who believed acceptance with
God through the merits of Jesus Christ only. These people needed
no Savior. They needed no righteousness.
They needed no sacrifice. And to put it in the words of
our Savior, these were people who in their own minds, they
needed no repentance. They were just people who need
not repent. They had nothing to repent over. And they were certainly aggravated
with this man, this man. But what they didn't understand
was this man is the only mediator between God and man. He's the
man Christ Jesus. There is no coming to God. There
is no approaching God. There is no praying to God, as
Brandon indicated in his prayer, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the one who takes us to the Father. It's by him we have
access into the Holy of Holies. He is everything to God. And
when he becomes everything to us, then through him, we approach
God and God receives us. And the Pharisees and the scribes
didn't comprehend that. This man is the only savior. Peter preached on the day of
Pentecost, some months after this portion of scripture. And
as he preached, he said, God has made this same Jesus whom
you crucified, this same Jesus whom you despised, this same
Jesus whom you rejected, God has made him both Lord and Christ. That's what Peter said. He's
the one who died, but he arose again. God has exalted him. This
man, he's the only savior. Later, one out of their own ranks,
Saul of Tarsus, who had the greatest of the Jewish rabbis for a personal
tutor, Gamaliel taught him. God taught him the true gospel
though. And then the scripture says that
Peter or Paul preaching in Antioch, he said, there's no forgiveness
except in this man, in this man. Be it known unto you, he said,
men and brethren, that through this man, this man, this man,
he could say whom I despised, this man whom I didn't believe,
this man whom I abhorred, this man who anybody believed on him,
I was trying to put him in prison, but I preach to you now that
forgiveness is only through this man. And there's no forgiveness,
there's no justification by the law of God. You see, here's what the Jews,
this is what they couldn't stomach. This is what they stumbled over. That Jesus of Nazareth, while
being a man, he claimed to be God. This is what upset them. Later in John chapter 10, Brandon
read to us first few verses, 18 verses out of John 10. Later
in John chapter 10 and a little bit later time-wise, The Lord talked about the sheep
and how my sheep hear my voice and I know them, they follow
me and I give them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave
them me is greater than all and no man's able to pluck them out
of my father's hand. And then he said, I and my father
are one. Then the Jews picked up stones
to stone him. And he said, well, for which
of my works do you stone me? And they said, for a good work,
we stone thee not. But you being a man, you blasphemed
and said you're God. That's what tore them all to
pieces. This is what upset them, is that he insisted he was the
son of God. And he never backed off from
that. He wasn't of the opinion, well, let's put aside some things
so we can all be at peace in religion. He didn't subscribe
to that. He didn't believe, well, let's
lay aside doctrine and we'll just love one another. He didn't
subscribe to that. He knew who he was, contrary
to what some of the charlatan preachers say today. He knew
who he was and he knew why he came. He came to save his people. He came to redeem. He came to
reconcile. He came to be our substitute
and be the sacrifice. He knew exactly who he was and
what his mission was. He came to finish the work that
the father gave him to do. And he knew he's the son of God,
of course he knew. No wonder, therefore, when you
get to the book of Hebrews, which is written to Hebrew believers,
this is a subject, the deity of Jesus of Nazareth, this is
a subject that is dealt with. In fact, let me just take a few
minutes. Go to the book of Hebrews. Look
at Hebrews chapter three. Let me show you this. And many
people, most people probably, the apostle Paul wrote the book
of Hebrews. Listen to what he has to say
under divine inspiration. And since the deity of Jesus
of Nazareth was a truth that the Jews consistently had difficulty
with, It isn't surprising that the
writer of the book of Hebrews, the epistle to the Hebrews, he
deals with this. You see, what Jesus of Nazareth
did by way of his death is fully dependent upon who he is. Is he God? Well, no, he's not
God. Well, then what he did availed
nobody anything. If he's not God. Now, if he's
the God-man as God, he satisfied God as man, he died to honor
God's law, the penalty of the law. This is a truth they had
difficulty with. Look at Hebrews chapter three.
And I'll just take some, a few verses here. And once again,
I'm working on that, this man, like I did this morning. Look
at verse one, Hebrews three, wherefore holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that
appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house,
for this man This Savior, this Jesus of Nazareth, He was counted
worthy of more glory than Moses, insomuch as he who hath built
the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is
built by some man, but he that built all things is God. You
take a building is built by some man, a noted architect, builder,
whatever. The building is not greater than
the man who built it. who designed it. He knew how
to lay out all the measurements. He knew how to do it. He has
all the tools to do it with. And he gets the glory for the
building. It's not, my, what a building. And you don't even mention the
building. You say, my, what a building so and so has built. Oh, what
a master architect he was, what a master carpenter he was, and
all the things that are involved in building a building. And you
see our Lord Jesus, he's building his church. He said, I will build
my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And all the glory goes to the builder, not to the church. We
wouldn't exist were it not for the builder, were it not for
the savior. And here, the writer emphasizes
this man, this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses. Now you talk about somebody who
gloried in Moses, it was the Pharisees and the scribes. Oh,
No, he's left in the dust. We're talking about Moses' Lord.
We're talking about Moses' Savior. Well, here's another reference.
Look here in Hebrews 7. I've got to go quickly because
I want to get to the shepherd and the sheep, but this needs
to be emphasized. Look at Hebrews chapter 7, verses
24 through 27. In fact, back up to verse 23,
and truly were there many priests because they were not suffered
to continue by reason of death. How come they didn't have perpetual
priesthood? Because they died, that's why.
They died. But this man, verse 24, but this
man, because he continueth ever. Why is that? Because he's God.
hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest
became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners
and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then
for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. He didn't offer up any sacrifice
for his own sins, he didn't have any, he's God. The sacrifice
he offered up was for the sins of his people, all those the
father gave him. You see, the writer of the Hebrews,
again, he didn't subscribe to the idea that if a truth offends
somebody, would just back off. No, he knew. The apostle Paul,
we assume, wrote this. He knew the truth that the Jews
stumbled over. The identity of Jesus of Nazareth. He's just a man. And he emphasizes
over and over again, he's more than just a man. He's God. I think I've told you this before.
Many years ago, I was sitting on a platform before
the service began in another state, of course. And it was
just a little bit before the service there started at 11.
One of the men came up and motioned to me and said, can I talk to
you? And it was like two minutes till, and I'm kind of a stickler
about starting on time, pretty much anyway. And I said, well,
it's time to start. He said, I just got to talk to
you. And so I stepped off the platform. He said, can we go
back to your office? I said, it's got to be quick.
And I called him by name. I said, it's time to start. He
went back there. He said, I just want you to know
my wife's here this morning. I said, well, that's good. Oh,
he said, you don't understand. I've been trying to get her to
come to church for years. She finally came this morning.
I said, well, I'm thankful she's here. And I started to go back
and said, no, wait. She's a member of the Church
of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. And he said, whatever
you preach this morning, please don't mention the deity of Jesus. And I said, I know exactly what
to do. Because he has all of a sudden
backed me in a corner. I've got to say it now. Because
I know there's somebody in the congregation who stumbles over
this. And it may be because you know,
in a message, in every message, you don't necessarily stress
that particular point, at least, you know, we do in a general
way, but there are times when there are other things that we're
mentioning, but once that is put to you as a preacher of the
gospel, don't mention it because it'll offend her. Well, I had
to set forth the deity of Christ and she never came back. And
it wasn't many months after that before she died. We don't hold back the truth
because someone might get offended, someone might not come back.
There's something far more important than somebody getting their feelings
hurt and that's glorifying God. Well, we got to tell the truth.
If people get upset with me and they have got upset with me,
that's okay. I'm not much to get upset with
because you don't answer to me. But if you get upset with the
truth that I proclaim out of the Word of God, then you got
much bigger problems than dealing with me. Jesus of Nazareth is God. He is God. He's the Son of God.
He's the eternal God. If He isn't, we're all doomed.
If He isn't, what He did at Calvary's cross means nothing. But if he
is God, then whatever he did at Calvary satisfied the Godhead
and saved his people from their sins. Go over to Hebrews chapter
10. Go a little bit further, Hebrews
chapter 10. Look at verses 11 and 12. So that's why the writer
of the Hebrews, he's writing to Jews and this was, they choked
on this. Oh, they just couldn't get past
this. Hebrews 10 verse 11, and every
priest, every priest, standeth daily ministering and offering
oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
But this man, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand of God from
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. And the Jews grumbled over this.
They grumbled over it. And they said back over here
in our text, this man, this man receiveth sinners and eateth
with them. And under this, in this scenario,
under this scene, under this situation, then he breaks out
in this lengthy parable with three parts. The first part is
about the shepherd and the lost sheep. So the first point we
had was the scene. Now the second point is the shepherd. In the parable, our Lord Jesus
portrays himself as the shepherd. He's not a hireling shepherd. someone who cares nothing for
the sheep. He's the owner shepherd. He's the owner shepherd. He's
the one who both owns the sheep, loves the sheep, loves the sheep,
and cares for the sheep. One of the most beautiful descriptions
of our Savior in all the Word of God is that he's the shepherd. You know, as you look through
the Old Testament, the first man who is identified as being
a shepherd, and though the word shepherd isn't used, it is the
Hebrew word that is most often translated shepherd, but in Hebrew
or in Genesis chapter four, it's translated as keeper. Abel was
a keeper of the sheep. He's the first shepherd. And
he died. He was murdered. Which reminds
us of our great shepherd who was murdered. He was killed. He's the shepherd who's appointed
by God. He's Jehovah's shepherd. Read
again at your leisure in Zechariah chapter 13. The sword of God's justice was
drawn, plunged into the heart of the shepherd of the sheep.
And so Zacharias says, smite the shepherd, smite the shepherd. That's what God did. He smoked
the shepherd for the sheep's sake, for the sheep's sake. Jacob, He used the word shepherd. In Genesis 49, he's busy blessing
his sons and he gets to Joseph and he speaks of Joseph and he
says, his hands were made strong by the mighty God of Jacob. And
then parentheses, from thence is the shepherd, the stone of
Israel, the shepherd and the stone coming from Jacob. That's who our savior is. He's
the Lord who is our shepherd and all of us have benefited
and been blessed by the reading of Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. That's what David says. And that's
what all of God's Davids say. The Lord is my shepherd. Jehovah
who saves is my shepherd. Therefore I shall not want. The
reason I shall not want for anything is because of whom a shepherd
is. None of his sheep will ever go wanting for that which he
needs. and that which she needs. Need
forgiveness? In the shepherd, you got it.
Need righteousness? In the shepherd, you got it. Need acceptance with God? In
the shepherd, you got it. In fact, in the shepherd, you
have everything a holy God can give. to any of his sheep, you
got everything. Because you're blessed with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He's the good shepherd who laid
down his life for the sheep. He laid it down. He said, no
man takes it from me. I'll lay it down and I'll take
it again. He's the great shepherd who arose
in victory and triumph from the dead according to the purpose
of God set forth in the covenant of grace. He frees the prisoners
by the blood of the covenant. And then he's the chief shepherd
who will someday appear the second time without sin unto salvation. And he's the shepherd of our
souls He preserves us. Oh, you who are his lambs, you who are his sheep, the shepherd
has never taken his eyes off you, not for a second, even from
old eternity. He's always borne you upon his
heart. You've never been out of his
mind. You've never been out of his thoughts. He's the shepherd and the bishop
of our souls. And he's our nourishing shepherd. How many times have you who are
his lambs, been hurting, grieving, suffering. And you've gone to
your shepherd and you know what he does. He just picked you up
in his arms and he caresses you. And you feel the presence of
his grace. You feel the strength of his
might. And you know, He's the one who's
getting you through this. He's the nourishing shepherd. He's the shepherd who received
us as a gift. And he's the shepherd who bought
us with his blood. And he knows us. He knows all
about us now, of the wicked, of those who persist in their
Phariseeism, their ritualism, their moralist view that if they're
good, God will accept them. To them, he will someday say,
I never knew you. But of his own, he says, the
Lord knoweth them that are his. He knows us, he loves us. He's the shepherd, and then there's
the sheep, thirdly. Now, let me give this to you
as I understand this. This is a parable. Now, we're
in a parable. You're not looking to make everything
in a parable stand for something spiritual. A parable basically
sets forth one thing. That's what a parable does. There
may be other things that you can draw from the parable, but
you don't learn doctrine from a parable. You learn doctrine
from very plain, clear passages of scripture, and then you take
that doctrine that you've learned, and then you apply it to a parable. But you don't take a parable
to establish doctrine. Everything in this part of the
parable doesn't stand for any particular thing. That which
is stressed in this part of the parable is the shepherd seeking
and finding the lost sheep. Beyond that, be careful lest
you stretch it completely out of shape. You see, normally as we study
the scriptures, we know that the sheep all belong to the Lord. They're all his people. That
is not the case in this parable. Because in this parable, the
sheep stand for something else. 100 sheep stands for all mankind. All mankind. And then there are
the 99 sheep. Who do they represent? They represent
the Pharisees and the scribes. Because if you'll notice this,
he does say this in verse four, we can kind of pick up on this.
What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,
doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness? In the
wilderness. In other words, these are sheep
that don't belong to him, they're of no value to him. They only
belong to our Lord in the sense that he owns everything. Only
in that sense. The 99 represent false religionists. And then the one lost sheep,
that represents God's elect. His elect. His people. His people are lost. We're lost
due to the fall of our father, Adam. We went astray as soon
as we were born, speaking lies. if left to ourselves would perish. And then there's the search.
It says that in verse four, toward the end of it, he goes after
that which is lost until he finds it. The pursuit of this sheep
is going to take the shepherd. And there's some very hazardous
situations. With our Savior, in order to
find his lost sheep, it will take him all the way to the cross. It will take him to death. That's
what it takes to save his sheep. It takes the blood of the covenant.
It takes the death of the Son of God. This is an all-absorbing search. This is a search in which the
whole heart of the shepherd is involved. He loves the sheep. He knows
the pitfalls into which sheep tend to plunge. He knows the
sheep is defenseless and senseless. And he's responsible for the
sheep. His honor is bound up. Listen to this. His honor, the
honor of the shepherd is bound up in the safety of the sheep. He purposed before the world
began. He pledged himself to take care
of the sheep the father gave him. He's responsible for them. He's gonna bring them home. It's a search that is so intense
and so necessary that he will do whatever needs to be done
to find them. This is the search. He will,
if I could put it this way, leave no stone unturned to find his
sheep. No precipice is too rocky. No distance is too far. No situation
is too dangerous, but what the shepherd just goes right in because
he loves the sheep. They can't perish. And he'll do whatever is necessary
to find the sheep. Boy, I tell you, and he meets
them in some unusual places. The Lord who ordains all things. Now you think about it. Here's
a man who grows up in Israel and he becomes a ruthless robber. A very outwardly ungodly man. Society doesn't want him anymore. He has been arrested and now
the verdict is you're guilty of all kinds of transgressions. You're a murderer, most likely
a rapist, and we sentence you to die. But the Lord back behind the
scenes ordains that that man is going to die on the exact
same day at the same time virtually as the Lord of glory. You don't
think as an accident, do you? That that thief would be hanging
beside the Savior? Who do you think arranged that?
He did. just like he arranged meeting
a woman at a well, Jacob's well. He knew when she'd be there because
he had purposed when she would be there. Before he ever made
the world, he ordained she had come to Jacob's well on that
day at noontime when the sun was up and hot and wouldn't be
anybody else there. But to her great surprise, she
met the shepherd. He's sitting there waiting on
her. This is just the fulfillment of God. And it's like the life
of Saul of Tarsus. And I'm gonna put everybody out
of business who loves Jesus of Nazareth, and I'm going to Damascus
with papers giving me the authority to arrest them. Yeah, I know
you are. But you know who arranged that meeting, Saul of Tarsus?
Your shepherd arranges that meeting. And on and on, I could go right
on down to you and you and all of us who are believers. He set the stage when he would
cross our paths. And I know he uses preachers
and I'm thankful he does. But it's not the preacher who
finds the lost sheep, it's the shepherd. He uses preachers,
he uses preaching, of course. He uses gospel tracts. But make no mistake about it.
It's the shepherd who has arranged everything in pursuit, in his search to
bring the sheep to himself. And then there's the salvation.
I see salvation here because it says in verse five, when he
hath found it. Well, is there any possibility
that he wouldn't find it? There's no possibility there
because he shall not fail. He finds it. He may find the sheep and false
religion. May find the lost sheep in open
vileness and wickedness and ungodliness. Might find his lost sheep being
a chief of the publicans. He arranged that meeting too.
He purposed the exact time he'd be going through Jericho. And
he had ordained that a man by the name of Zacchaeus would be
short of stature. I bet you Zacchaeus went through
his life said, man, I wish I was taller. I sure do wish I was
a bigger man. Well, hang on now. Lord made
you short for a reason. Because one day out of curiosity,
You're gonna hear that Jesus of Nazareth is coming by, and
you'll wanna see him, but because you're short, you can't just
stand among the crowd. So you're gonna have to climb
up a tree. You see, whatever it takes, he'll
even get one of his sheep to climb up a tree. Well, you know
about that. And he's up there just watching.
And here comes Jesus of Nazareth, and Zacchaeus up there. And Jesus
of Nazareth stops right up on that tree and he looks up with
eyes of love. Oh, there's the shepherd coming
after another lost sheep. He always gets his sheep. Always. He won't fail. You ever watch
that movie, Apollo 13? And that guy, Gene, back who
was running stuff back at NASA, he said to the guys, he said,
failure is not an option. And I'll guarantee you with the
Lord Jesus Christ, failure is not an option. He shall not fail
because who is, he's God. God can't fail. So here's salvation. And he picks
the sheep up and he puts him on his shoulders and he takes
him home. Home, where's home? Well, you
could say, if you want to stretch the parable a little bit, which
I've already cautioned you about doing it, but you could say it
brings him home to a local assembly. But certainly it means he carries
him home to God. And then lastly, there's the
satisfaction. both of the shepherd and the
sheep. The shepherd is satisfied. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, Isaiah chapter 53, verse 11, and shall be satisfied. He's happy about it. And the sheep's happy about it.
The sheep is satisfied. The father is satisfied. And
all of heaven is satisfied. There's joy in the presence of
the angels. Whose joy is that? Well, in whose
presence are the angels? They're in the presence of God.
God rejoices. This is the fulfillment of his
purpose of grace. All of heaven is satisfied. Lost sheep's family. I know. The Pharisees and the scribes,
they're not too happy about it, but you ask lost sheep how happy
he is, he's just deliriously happy. He's just so happy he
can't stand it. And one of these days the Lord's
gonna say, it's time you'd come on home. And the sheep goes home
and he or she's so thrilled. Home with God, home with God. the shepherd and the lost sheep.
He's never lost one of his sheep yet. He always brings them to
himself and takes them home to God. Let's close in prayer. Oh Lord, receive our thanksgiving. the gratitude of our hearts for
such a marvelous, glorious, omnipotent, full of compassion shepherd who out of love for us came into
this world to seek and to save that which was lost. And oh God, thank you that he
did not leave us to ourselves. He did not leave us in our ignorance.
For having redeemed us, he set out by his spirit through the
word of God to reveal himself to us. And it matters not where we were
or even when it was that he revealed himself to us. It's the fact
that he did. It may be that some here can't
remember the exact day or hour or time when they first saw the
glory of Christ. Those things are not necessary.
But we could make an idol out of those things. That which is
vital is And we love the shepherd. We love him now. We believe him
now. We look to him now. And we're
thankful that he's carrying us on his mighty shoulders. This
is the shoulders of him upon whom the governments rest. And he carries us too. He carries
us next to his heart. And one of these blessed days
he'll carry us into his immediate glorious presence. Lord, bless
your sheep, the sheep of your pasture. Bless your struggling
little lambs. Give grace, grant mercy, grant
strength according to your will. And oh, Father, it has been our
delight and our joy to focus for a little bit upon this marvelous
shepherd, Christ Jesus our Lord. Send us
home the benediction of love and grace and mercy may it be
upon the hearts of those who know him. those who are known
of you and redeemed by the blood of the shepherd. For Jesus' sake,
amen.