Well, this morning, we come to
Luke chapter 15. And actually, I'm going to be
dealing with this portion of Scripture this morning, this
evening, and then next Lord's Day morning, and next Lord's
Day evening, because I want to bring you four messages from
Luke chapter 15. Now, if you want to understand
any portion of Scripture, That's what we want to do when we open
the Bible and we read, be it a few verses or many verses,
we want to understand what the passage is dealing with and what
it's talking about and what should I be looking for in this portion
of Scripture. And as we come to this portion,
we consider, first of all, who the speaker is. And the speaker
is our Lord Jesus. The Bible says, never a man speak
like this man. And he is the great teacher,
he's speaking here in the parable. This is one parable with three
sections. As most of you are very acquainted
with it, it's the parable of lost things. And the one who
is speaking, the one who is teaching, is the greatest teacher that
ever lived. He is indeed the Prince of Preachers. This is Jesus of Nazareth. He knows the mind of God. He knows the will of God. He
knows the word of God. And he knows what you and I need
to hear today. This is the marvelous thing about
the one who speaks in this passage of scripture. He is the all knowing
God, and yet he is man. He's the God-man. This is the
marvelous truth of the Word of God, that He is at the exact
same time, He's the Son of God, divine, all-knowing, all-powerful,
There's nothing that he can't do. Nothing is impossible with
God, and yet he is also one of us. He's bone of our bone, as
the scripture says, and he's flesh of our flesh. He was born
into this world 2,000 years ago, but that wasn't the beginning
of his existence. He is the eternal God who took
upon himself our flesh. And here he speaks in this passage
of Scripture. And if we would ever listen to
anything that is said, surely we would listen to the Lord Jesus
Christ speak. He's the speaker. So that's the
first thing we need to establish. Who's speaking in this passage
of Scripture? And now you know it is The Son
of God, it is the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus. Now, here's the
second thing that needs to be taken in consideration anytime
you read a passage of Scripture. Remembering this, no portion
of Scripture is to be isolated from other Scripture. What do
you mean by that, preacher? Well, I mean that you always
take Scripture in what we call the context. And we know that
chapter divisions are very beneficial because it'd be very difficult
for us to find this portion of scripture if many years ago it
had not been divided, the book of Luke, had not been divided
up into 24 chapters with all the verses. It's been a big help
to us in kind of locating passages of scripture through the Bible
and that we can go to a specific chapter and we can go to specific
verses. But lots of times that leads
us to think, oh, this is a whole new section here. This has nothing
to do with what went before it and what goes after it, but that's
not the case. It absolutely is not the case
in the passage that is before us here. Look at the very first word of
chapter 15. It is the word then. And immediately, you know, well,
there's something that has just happened, which has led the inspired
writer, who is Luke, who was a physician by trade. There's been some things that
have taken place that has led Luke to say, and then drew near
unto him all the publicans. Who are the publicans? The tax
collectors. Okay, nobody liked them. They're
not much like today and they weren't much like back then either.
All the publicans and the sinners for it to hear him. Then, now
that takes us back in the chapter 14. And I will tell you this
in chapter 14, beginning in verse seven. through the end of the
chapter, our Lord is preaching again and basically his subject
is the cost of discipleship. And it involves this, and really
this is a key to the whole thing. The issue that he's dealing with
is the one issue between God and man. And if you understand
that, then you'll understand the connection between Luke chapter
14 and Luke chapter 15. And it is quite simply this. Who governs? Who reigns? Who is the boss? You see, we get to chapter, Luke
chapter 15. And the Lord Jesus is set before
us, our God is set before us as the one who reigns in salvation. Now let me give you just a very
brief overview of this one parable with three sections. You know
the first part of the parable. It's the shepherd who sees one
lost sheep. The emphasis isn't on the lost
sheep. The emphasis is on the shepherd.
He is the one who goes out. He is in pursuit of a lost sheep. And he goes after it till he
finds it. Well, this speaks to us of our
Lord Jesus. He is the shepherd of the sheep.
And he is the one who governs in this matter of salvation in
that he goes after us, we don't go after him. And what this teaches
us is that the salvation of people is of the Lord. It's the Lord
who seeks and it's the Lord who finds the lost ones. And then we get to the second
part of the parable. And it is about a woman who has
a lost coin. And the emphasis isn't on the
lost coin. It's fallen in the dust and it's
lost and doesn't even know it because it's dead. The emphasis
is on the woman and the woman pictures the Spirit of God who
uses a light that is the light of the Word of God, illumination. It's the Spirit of God who comes
to us in illuminating grace and authority and in power. In the
first section, the shepherd, it's the shepherd who's in charge. It's the shepherd who takes the
action. It's the shepherd who reigns.
It's the shepherd who is in pursuit of the lost sheep. And in the
second phase or the second part of the parable, it's the woman.
It's the woman. She has 10 coins and one of them
is lost. And she goes after that lost
coin. She is looking, she has a searchlight. She's looking and she will not
cease in her pursuit until she finds it. That's the Spirit of
God. The Spirit of God, you see, goes after all of the lost ones
of God. People who are dead and trespasses
and sins. People have no ability to help
themselves. It's the Spirit of God who illuminates
us using the Word of God. And then we get to the third
section of the parable. And once again, the focus is
not on that which was lost, though we tend to put the focus on the
prodigal son. But that's not really where the
focus should be. It's on the father. It's the
father. Because you see, and you know
the story of the prodigal son. He had anything he wanted, but
he went to his father and said, I want my inheritance early.
Well, the father loved him then. The father loved him when he
was an obedient son. The father loved him when he
did anything his father told him to do. But then this rebellious
son, he said, I want my inheritance now. The father gave it to him. And then the man goes out and
he wastes all of his money. But guess what? All along, there's
still the father who loves him. It's the father who waits for
him. It's the father who sits out on the front porch in his
rocking chair, always looking and waiting, anxiously anticipating
that he'll see his son again. The emphasis isn't upon the prodigal
son, the emphasis is on the father, whose attitude, whose love toward
this son, this wayward son, it never changes. Not one iota. He loves him just as much. He's
just as dear to him when he's way off living righteously, the
scripture says. He's still just as dear to the
father. And when He comes back, the Father
runs out and embraces Him, and the Father orders a feast. This
is a time of celebration. This is a picture of God the
Father. God the Father who ordained salvation from the beginning.
God who loved all of His people in Christ Jesus before we ever
fell. But God who loved us notwithstanding
our fall, notwithstanding our sinfulness, Despite the fact
that we erred in Adam and we fell in Adam, the father's attitude
toward us, it never changed. You see that? It never wavered. And he arranges things in order
to bring that wayward son back to him. And all of these three
go together. and they picture that salvation
is of God. That's what it pictures. It's
of the Son of God, it's of the Holy Spirit, and it is of God
the Father. So here's what this parable teaches
us, that salvation is under the authority of God. It's God who
gives salvation, and he alone receives glory. in the recovery
of sinners, He is the Lord. And He exerts His will in the
deliverance of sinners. Now, in the whole context, going
back to chapter 14 and verse 25, and going all the way to
the end of chapter 15, in the whole passage of Scripture, the
issue is the authority of God, the kingship of God, the Lordship
of Jesus Christ. This has always been the issue. Let me see if I can reel your
attention in here. This has always been the issue,
who will reign? Who will govern? In Eden's garden, what was it
that Satan said to Eve? Ye shall be as gods. it shall
be as God's. You won't have any authority
over you. You won't have anybody to have
dominion over you. You will be as God's. That was
the temptation to Eve. And Eve ate of the forbidden
fruit and then she gave it to Adam and she said, see, nothing
has happened to me. And in the day that we eat of
it, in the day you eat of it, honey, we'll be as God's. And
we don't answer to anybody then. We're the master of our own fate.
We'll be in charge ourselves. And Adam, he took the fruit and
he did eat and he fell. But the issue back then was who
has the authority? Who governs ultimately? This was the issue that led to
the cross of Calvary. The people said, and our Lord
Jesus used this in a parable. The people said, we will not
have this man rule over us. Not this man. We're not gonna
have him rule over us. Jesus of Nazareth did all things
perfectly. But that which they despised
about him was the fact that he was divine, that he was deity,
that he being a man professed to be the Lord of glory. And
he spoke to them of his own authority and dominion over all things.
And this was the issue that they had difficulty with. And this is the issue in conversion. Who's going to govern you? You were Jesus Christ. I heard Brother Barnard tell
this story. I heard it on tape. I suspect
that Brother Mahan shared this story with you. He told about
a young preacher who had just started a church with nine families. And in a little while, a relatively
short time, the congregation grew in number and caused the
city where they lived to kind of set up and take notice. And
here's what Barnard said about that church. He said, quote,
it was a fellowship of men and women who lived in the power
of the resurrection life of the risen Lord. And when Brother
Barnard asked the preacher the secret to his ministry, this is what the young preacher
said, quote, Brother Barnard, there isn't but one message to
be preached. And that is God's eternal purpose
in Jesus Christ. And that is upon the basis of
his life laid down. God has purposed to set up his
rule in the hearts of men. What a message. This is what
salvation is. And I know you listen to evangelists
on TV and you know, they make it so simple. It's like, I had
a fellow tell me one time, he said, you know, getting saved
is as easy as falling off a log. Well, no. being saved God's way,
it involves a resurrection. That's a whole lot different
than falling off a log. It involves a resurrection and
it involves a realization that the one who saves is the Lord
of glory. He's the king. And you believe
him, you bow to his way of saving. You see, salvation, are you interested
in salvation? I am. Are you interested in forgiveness? I am. Well, listen, this is not
based upon something you do. This is not, in fact, it's not
up to you. And this is what we've got to
come to grips with. It isn't you making a decision. It isn't you making a choice.
It isn't you walking down an aisle in some church or some
arena somewhere and then saying yes to a few questions. It's
a matter of God working in your heart and establishing the throne
of Jesus Christ there. And you see He's the Lord and
you bow to His way of salvation. His way of salvation is by grace
alone. He will not tolerate you believing
anything else. His way of salvation is by His
death, by His doing, by His dying, by His substitutionary sacrifice,
not by something you do. And we have got to bow to this
fact that His way is the only way. You understand? His way is the only way. Well,
preacher, I just believe there's good in all religions. You're
wrong. You're wrong. All man-made religion
is wrong. The only religion that is right
is the religion of God. And God says that the way to
Him is through the substitutionary sacrifice of His Son. And you'll bow to that or you'll
perish. That's the truth. You see, it's
a matter of who governs. Who governs in salvation? Who
reigns in salvation? And I say again, the one issue
between God and man is the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ. It always has been, and it always
will be. The issue is not, please listen
to me, and those of you who are watching by way of the internet,
give me your full attention. The issue is not, do you wanna
go to heaven or do you wanna go to hell? That's not the issue,
okay? That's not the issue. Everybody
wants to go to heaven, at least whatever their ideas of heaven. The issue is not, do you wanna
have peace or do you wanna have turmoil? Well, who doesn't wanna
have peace? That's not the issue. The issue
is not, do you wanna be healthy and wealthy? See, this is much
of religion today. Wanna be healthy? Well, yeah. Want to be wealthy? Well, I wouldn't
mind that. Well, I'd like to try it for
a while anyway. You want to be healthy and wealthy?
Just believe on Jesus. That's all you got to do. That's not the issue. Religion
today, I'd like to shout it from a mountaintop, religion today
is all wrong. It's all corrupt. It's no good. The issue is, will you or will
you not bow to Jesus Christ the Lord and bow and submit to his
way of salvation? You see, everybody's gonna bow
to him sooner or later. And I know that's right. You'll
either bow now, and we call that salvation, or you'll bow at the
judgment. But bow to Jesus Christ, you
will. because God has purposed it. Your thoughts about Jesus Christ
and the things of God, it may be, your mind may be trying to
wander way away from here. But no matter who you are, who
you are, He is still the Lord. And this is a matter you need
to deal with. Will you bow to Him or will you
not? He is your Lord. Even if He sends you to hell,
He is still your Lord. This has always been the issue.
It's still the issue today. Does the Lord have the right
to do whatever He wants to do? Or is his purpose somehow or
another hindered by the unwillingness of men to let him have his way?
What is our message? Let me give you three things
real quick. What is our message today? Number one, the message
today is that of the absolute authority of God. And this is
where we've rebelled against the Lord. This is where men have
hated God. You see, this is the way we naturally
want God. We want God to heal us when we're
sick, right? Somebody gets sick with cancer
and they call every church in the city. I want you all to be
praying, pray that God will be good to me and merciful to me
and to heal me of sickness. We want God to heal us. We want God to provide for us.
Nobody gets upset and God's up in heaven and he's dishing out
the blessings. Ain't nobody mad at a God like
that. He'd given out all these presents to people. Isn't the
Lord good? But wait, wait. The message of the Bible is the
absolute authority of God. And you see men will have God
to be anywhere and everywhere except upon the throne of His
sovereignty, dispensing His grace and His mercy according to the
good pleasure of His will. In the news today, the issue is discrimination. Let's don't discriminate. Well,
let me tell you something, God discriminates. God makes a difference. All men
are not created equal. No, God discriminates and he
gives his grace, he gives his salvation, he gives his mercy,
he gives his forgiveness to whomever he wants to. He discriminates
and this is what upset that crowd in Luke chapter four. When our
Lord Jesus said there were many widows in the days of Elijah
the prophet, well, you know, for God to be fair, he's got
to send his prophet to all of them. Really? He just sent his
prophet to one widow woman and she was a Gentile. And the Jews
said, that's not fair. And you just see them begin to
steam as he continued to speak. And he said, furthermore, in
the days of Elisha, there were many lepers in Israel, but the
Lord didn't send Elisha to any of the lepers of Israel at all. He sent Elisha the prophet to
a leper who was a Syrian, who was a Gentile. That was too much
for the Jews. They just exploded. And they
said, we gonna kill you. That's what they said. Because
he taught discriminating grace. Now you listen to the word of
God. God's grace is his grace. And he said, I'll be gracious
to whom I'll be gracious. I'll show compassion to whom
I'll show compassion. He's only obligated to do what
he's purposed to do. That's all he's obligated to
do, to fulfill his purpose. The gospel you see is the story
of God's purpose of grace. His determination to save a people
to the glory of his free grace. That's our message. And our message
is secondly, it's the message of accomplished redemption by
God sending his son to die in the stead of lost sinners to
bring them back to God. It's a message of substitution.
It's a message of satisfaction. It's not a message of you, you,
you. It's a message of him, him, him. It's not a message of you doing.
It's a message of him dying. It's not a message of you putting
forth a good effort, it's a message of him finishing the work that
God gave him to do. That's the message. When He was
dying there upon the cross of Calvary, don't feel sorry for
Him. That's what He told the women
as He made His way toward the cross. They're standing along
the side of the road and they're weeping, getting their handkerchiefs
out and their kerchiefs out or whatever and wiping their tears.
And He said, don't weep for Me. Don't weep for Me. The son of
man goeth as he was determined. He's on the path God would have
him to be on, the path of divine determination. He must die to
save his people. Who's in charge at Calvary? The Roman soldiers? No. What
about Herod or Pontius Pilate? No. The Jews, the Sanhedrin? No. Who's in charge at Calvary? God is. God's bringing to pass his redemptive
will. This is God at work. In all things,
see God at work. That's our message. Our message
is God was at work at the cross of Calvary in the substitutionary
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And thirdly, the message is of
God's rule restored in the heart of sinners. I know God rules
everywhere. There's no question about that.
But when the Holy Spirit quickens us and He gives us spiritual
life, with that life comes a willingness to be saved God's way. God's
way. by grace through the bloody sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a willingness to commit yourself
lock, stock, and barrel to this Savior. And you cease to govern
yourself. And when you pray, when I pray,
we pray this way, Lord, not my will, but thy will be done. What we want is our will to be
lost in His will. That's what we want. Let me illustrate
it this way. When Saul of Tarsus was on the
war path, he wanted to arrest and imprison anybody who believed
in the way, the way of grace, the way of Christ Jesus. Our
Lord interrupted his rebellious designs and our Lord broke him. He unhorsed him. And he revealed
himself to this Pharisee. And he said, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? And Saul said, who art thou,
Lord? And the Lord said, I'm Jesus
whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. And he trembling and astonished,
this is what he said, Lord, what will you have me to do? He bowed
to his Lordship, what will you have me to do? He said, arise,
go into the city, I got a preacher there and he'll take it. I always try to be honest with
you, and I am honest with you, but I just don't believe many
people have experienced true conversion. I don't. In a conversion
that results in a person bowing to King Jesus, and he runs up
in his own heart, he runs up the white flag of surrender.
He does what Brother Scott Richardson used to say, stack your shotguns
in a corner. You give up. You bow to the authority,
you bow to King Jesus. In the latter part of chapter
14, the issue is this, who's in charge? Who's in charge? Will you bow to Christ Jesus? Remember I said there are three
things important who's the speaker Christ is, what's the connection
between chapter 14 and chapter 15, the sovereign reign of Jesus
Christ, number three, to whom is he speaking? Well, he's got
two groups there. The first group's a group of
sinful people, the publicans and sinners. But there's another group, and
they're the religious folks, and they're upset with him. And look what they say in verse
two. And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. This man. Let me just work on
that for just a few minutes. This man. And I'll begin this
part of the message by making a necessary statement, this man,
is no ordinary man. This man is God incarnate. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father full of grace and truth. This man is one with the
Father. Our Lord said, he that had seen
me has seen the Father. This man is the brightness of
the Father's glory. This man is the express image
of his person. This man upholds all things by
the word of his power. This man by himself purged our
sins. This man went back to heaven
and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on a high. This
man is wonderful. This man is counselor. This man
is the mighty God. This man is the mighty Father,
the everlasting Father. This man is the Prince of Peace.
This man is Emmanuel, God with us. This man is Jehovah who saves. This is a very unique man. There's
not another man like this man. This man. And the Jews, most of the time
when they use those words, this man, it was a derogatory thing. One time, our Lord Jesus, he
was teaching in a house and it was crowded. And four dear men
had a good friend who was sick of the posse. He was lame. And they go up on the roof and
tear the roof up. And they lower the man down in
front of the Savior. And the scripture says, when
the Lord saw their faith, he said to the man, son, be of good
cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the
scribes and Pharisees sitting nearby and they reasoned in their
hearts, why doth this man speak blasphemies? This man speaks
blasphemy because who can forgive sin but God? You're right, who
can forgive sin but God? He's God. In John 7, our Lord went up to
the middle of the feast of Tappernacles and he was teaching and people
were listening. They were learning. And the Jews
came around and said, well, how knoweth this man letters? He
didn't go to any of our schools. Later at the same feast, the
temple police were summoned by the Sanhedrin to go forth and
arrest him. And those men heard Jesus of
Nazareth say, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink,
and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And they
just, they couldn't arrest him. And they go back to the Sanhedrin,
and the officer said, well, where is he? How come you didn't arrest
him? And the police said, Because
never a man spake like this man, this man. When our Lord Jesus was hanging
on the cross of Calvary, there was a man in all of that crowd
who was right up close. He saw everything that happened.
He oversaw the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth on behalf of
the Roman government. He was the centurion. And he had seen lots of men die
on Roman crosses, but never a death like this one. Not a death like
this man's death. He heard this man pray for those
who crucify him. Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. He heard this man speak to another
man he was dying with, which that never happened because most
men who were up there say, I'm innocent, I'm innocent. Get me
down from here. No, he heard this man speak to
another man he's dying with and saying, today you'll be with
me in paradise. He heard this man offer words
of affection to a woman committing her care to John. And this centurion, he saw the
sun blotted out. In all his years, I don't know
how old he was, it took him a long time to climb the ladder of success
to be where he was. He'd seen lots of men crucified,
but he'd never seen a total eclipse of the sun. When God put his
hand over the sun, and then he heard this man making blood-curdling
cry. I was a cry he'd never forget.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's what this
man cried. And then this man was heard to say, which
proved he was really a man, the centurion heard him cry, I thirst. And later the same centurion
heard words which he didn't understand, but they kind of like sound like
the words of a conqueror, the words of a victor. This man cried,
it is finished. And then this man issued these
words into thy hands, I commend my spirit. And then this old
centurion, he felt the ground shaking beneath his feet. It
was an earthquake. And he looked around and graves
were bursting open. And then he said, this man is the son
of God. That's what he said. of a truth,
this man is the Son of God. And you see, this man was the
one the scribes and Pharisees hated. And this particular, this
man receiveth sinners. He welcomes sinners. They have
access to him. We can't believe it. He eats
and drinks with them. And what they said as severe
criticism is to us a wonderful truth. This man, this man, this man
who is God and man, this man receiveth sinners like you and
me, who come to him not bargaining not making promises, but bowing. You're coming before the King. You're coming before the Lord. This religious world has heard
so much error about Jesus Christ, they don't have the foggiest
idea of who He is. He doesn't need your sympathy. In fact, he don't need you at
all. Well, I'm not gonna believe him.
Okay. His purpose of grace will just
run right on over you and there won't be anything left of you
in a few years. You won't even be a memory. And
his purpose of grace just keep on going. I tell you, this man,
he's the Lord of Glory, and this man, he's the Savior you need.
This is the Savior I need. Somebody who can actually save
me. Somebody who can actually rescue me. Somebody who can preserve
me all the days of my life, and then when my time comes, the
end of my day, to take me right on home to glory and receive
me unto himself. This man. Oh, there's something
about this man. Well, this evening, I'm gonna
go back to Luke 15, and we'll talk about the shepherd and the
one lost sheep. I hope you have a good afternoon.
May God bless each of you. And I'll ask after I pray, Marty
will play and give me a chance to get to the vestibule. And
I'll greet as many of you as go out. As you exit, please try
to practice social distancing. We have a good attendance this
morning. And it's good to see some folks coming back. We're
thankful for that. Mask up. Be careful. Sanitize as you go out. What's
even more important is to be sanitized in here. May the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanse us from all sin. The only sanitization that works
is his blood. That's all. Lord, take the things
that have been spoken today Honor yourself. Give glory to your
dear son. Oh, this man, this man, this
man is the savior we need. This man is the Lord of glory. This man delights to show mercy. But this man is not a doormat
to heaven. This man is the sovereign king
and we bow to him. and we worship Him, and we adore
Him, and we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. In His name I pray, amen.