and David for that good song. If you would, go to Luke chapter
15 tonight. And once again, I'm warm, so
I'll take my jacket off up here. That's without objection, I assume,
right? Well, today is Father's Day,
and I hope that all fathers have had a really good day. I have. I'm so thankful for our
two children. And our son, David, he called
this morning from Hiroshima. wish me a happy Father's Day
and Susanna had sent me a text and she put some things on Facebook,
pictures and certainly appreciate that and thankful for the two
children God has blessed us with and through them precious grandchildren. And so I've had a good day. I've had an enjoyable day. And
I look forward this evening to worshiping with all of you who
are indeed my family because this spiritual relationship we
have with each other, that's the one that lasts forever. We're
certainly thankful for our earthly families and they bless us and
we enjoy their company. But we have a union in Christ
Jesus, those of us who are his people, that's a bond that can't
be broken. And when this life shall end,
we'll still be family. I was speaking with a lady, Nancy
and I were just the other day, about an individual in her family
who had just passed away. And this lady told us, she said,
my sister had a very peaceful death. She had lost a daughter some
years back. In order to give her some comfort,
someone said, you know, she'll be waiting for you at the gates
of heaven. And this lady said, my sister
got great comfort in that. And she said, I'm ready to go. I don't get any comfort from
that. I'll tell you where I get my comfort. Time comes to die. I'll be welcomed by my Savior. Oh, I believe that I've got some
precious earthly loved ones who've gone on before me in the heaven. My father, my dad, my mother. I baptized my mother. My dad
didn't have an understanding of the gospel until, and he was
a preacher. He established a church there.
in Rocky Mountain, Virginia. But he didn't have an understanding
of the gospel of God's sovereign grace until God was pleased to
put him on his bed of illness with cancer. And then God taught
him the gospel. Ways of God are mysterious, aren't
they? The way he does things. And my dad said to me, Before he died, he said, I think
the Lord would have you to take the church at Central Baptist
Church in Rocky Mountain. Some of you have attended there.
And I said, Dad, we had some real serious differences about
how sinners are saved. And I'm so thankful for this
conversation we had, because he said, not anymore. We don't have any differences.
He said, God has taught me that salvation is of the Lord. And
he said, I didn't have a chance to preach this gospel. But he
said, I believe you will. And so I look forward to seeing
my dad in glory. And my mother will be there. But not as my dad and mother. just as a brother and sister
in Christ Jesus. And I'm not looking for them.
I do believe I'll see them. Scripture says we'll know as
we're known, and it says that. I'll know you in heaven, you'll
know me, and we'll, in fact, we'll know all the saints of
God because we're all family. We'll know Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob and all the rest of the saints of God. We'll know
them in heaven, but they're not the ones we're gonna be looking
for. Everybody's going to have eyes
for Christ Jesus in heaven. He's the one we want to see.
And He's the one we're going to see. And we'll be with Him
forever. While we're thankful for these
earthly relationships, they have got to be severed. That's just
the way it is. That's painful. It does hurt. and causes lots of tears. But
there won't be any more tears in heaven. And we'll rejoice
in Christ Jesus forever and ever. And so anyway, I hope you dads
have had a good day. I certainly have. And as I was
thinking about today being Father's Day, while I was thinking about
this passage of scripture in Luke chapter 15, about a father
and his sons, a father and his sons. And you will immediately
recognize this passage of Scripture. It is a parable, one parable
of lost things. It's about a lost sheep. It's
about a shepherd. who seeks the lost sheep and
finds it and comes home rejoicing. He says to all of his neighbors,
rejoice with me, I found my sheep. And then he says that there's
joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. And then he said
a woman, a woman, She had 10 coins, pieces of silver, and
one of them was lost. Lost in the dust, lost in the
dirt. She just wouldn't stop until
she found it. And she took a light, and she
went looking for it. The first one, of course, a picture
of Christ Jesus, the shepherd of the sheep. at first section
of the parable. He's the good shepherd, the great
shepherd, the chief shepherd, the seeking shepherd. He is the
shepherd of the sheep. The Father gave to him a multitude
of sheep, a great flock. And the Son of God is the very
shepherd. God appointed him to be the shepherd. He accepted full responsibility
for the safety and all of the salvation of the sheep. And he
did that before the world ever began. And he's always been the
shepherd of the sheep. He's always been looking for
the sheep. And he came to this world, the
good shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep. He died
to redeem the sheep, that the sheep are already God's, but
we fell into sin. And the law of God took issue
with us, and the law of God's got to be paid. It's got to be
settled. Justice has got to be satisfied.
That's why Christ came. He's the shepherd who laid down
his life for the sheep. And then having satisfied infinite
justice for God, doing something for God, then he comes seeking
for the lost sheep. That's us. The Son of Man has
come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's what the
scripture says. So that's what the first part
of the parable is about, he finds the lost sheep. He leaves the
99, and I made reference to that this morning, he leaves them
in the wilderness. He didn't leave them in the fold.
He leaves them in the wilderness. Because those folks, they picture
those 99 sheep that he leaves in the wilderness, they picture
the Pharisees. They picture those who are self-righteous.
He says, they're just in their own estimation. They're just,
they didn't need any repentance. And that, well, that sure was
a Pharisee. So he finds the one lost sheep. Then the woman, she's a picture
of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God searches us. We fell into the dust, the dirt
of sin, corruption, misery. We're lost. We're lost. We're
dead. A coin doesn't have any life.
It doesn't have any ability. And that's the way we are spiritually.
We don't have any spiritual life. We don't have any spiritual abilities.
We're lost. We don't even know it. We're
lost in the dust. We're lost in the dirt. We're
lost in all the filthiness and the miriness of our own sinfulness. and rottenness, and it's the
Spirit of God who uses the Word of God, the light, and He finds
us. He finds us. The Spirit of God
finds us. He brings us to the Savior. The woman, having found
the lost coin, she calls her neighbors and all of her friends,
and she says, rejoice with me. I found the peace, which I lost. Likewise, there's joy in the
presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Well, in whose presence are the angels of God? They're in God's
presence. This doesn't mean the angels
are rejoicing, though I'm sure there is a degree of rejoicing
among the angels when the Lord brings another one of his lost
sinners to faith in Christ Jesus and robes him in his righteousness
washes them in his blood, but this is rejoicing of the Lord
himself. And I'm sure the angels are absolutely
astounded as they see the Lord rejoicing. In the book of Zephaniah
chapter one to three, we see the Lord, we read of him singing
and rejoicing. And you know what it has to do?
You know what that's singing and rejoicing? You know what
it has to do with? Our salvation. This is God's
joy. This is what delights the Father
and the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. Saving us, that's what
brings Him joy. That's His greatest glory. Saving
sinners like us. And then we get to the next section
of the parable, the third section of the parable, and that's about
the father. It isn't about the prodigal son
per se. Usually this part of the parable
is entitled the parable of the prodigal son. That's only one third of the
parable. If you leave out the other two
thirds of the parable, you have an incomplete parable. This is
three parts that make up the whole. He's a prodigal son. Prodigal means he wasted all
of his goods, he lived an extravagant life, he spent his money, he
spent his resources recklessly. That's what the word prodigal
means, but actually that isn't the title that the Lord gave
to this passage of Scripture. And while men would put the emphasis
upon the prodigal son, really the emphasis ought to be upon
the merciful father. Because it's the father who's
been wronged. It's the father who's against
whom this prodigal has committed great sins. The father gave him
whatever he wanted, blessed him every day. And all that the father
gave him, he just wasted it. And yet, we don't find that the
father washed his hands of him. When the man comes back to the
father, the father didn't say, you made your bed, now lie in
it. The father rushed out to meet
him and he welcomed him, he embraced him. He kissed him. No wonder the Song of Solomon
said, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Ever been
kissed by the Lord? Now that's a kiss of mercy and
grace right there. And here's the father. He runs
out to meet the man. He's covered with filth. He's
been in the hog pen. And I've slopped hogs. You ever
slopped hogs? You ever fed the hogs? I guarantee
some of you have. That's not the best smelling
place to be, in the hog pen. Well, this man, he didn't slop
the hogs. He was eating with the hogs.
He's starving to death. And he came to himself and said,
I'm absolutely a fool. My daddy, his servants, they
eat good every day. And here I am, I'm eating with
these pigs. I'm going to go home. And he
goes home, and the father sees him afar off and runs out to
meet him. Oh, the mercy of God. See, this
is all about the magnificent riches of God's grace. And here
the father rushes out to meet him and he embraces him, and
as we shall see, the man, he's got his speech all memorized.
He gets a little bit of it out, but he don't get all of it out,
because the father, this is the father's joy. Just like the shepherd
found his joy in finding the lost sheep. Just like the woman
found her joy in discovering the lost coin, so the father
has his joy in receiving this, his other son, because he had
two sons. And he says toward the end of
the passage of scripture, this my son was dead, but he's alive. He was lost and now he's found. Rejoice with me. Our Lord tells
his story. So that's what it is, the story.
Our Lord was a master storyteller. Now, these words were spoken after our Lord had spent the
better part of the three years of his public ministry, in other
words, Most of his public ministry is behind him now. He's set his
sights on the cross. He's on his way to Mount Calvary
where he'll lay down his life and give his life a ransom for
his people. He dies so we won't die. All the iniquities of all of
his people of all of the ages are made to meet on him. The wrath of God sought him out
and found him. And all of the wages that our
sinfulness deserved, our Lord Jesus paid them all. He paid
it in full. And he's on his way to do that. But before he gets there, before
he gets to the cross, He has this story that he wants to tell
to these people who listen to him. Now, as his public ministry
developed, our Lord Jesus developed, he got a great big following. Lots of people were following
him, but in addition to those who followed him what we might
call a favorable way, favorable toward him. He also attracted
some relentless enemies, the Pharisees and the scribes. And
they were basically the architects of the religion of Judaism at
the time. They had great influence, of
course, in the temple and in all of the synagogues that were
scattered throughout the nation of Israel. They were very legalistic. They were very corrupt inwardly. They were hypocritical and very
hostile to Jesus of Nazareth. They couldn't stand him. They
hated him. Now, why did they resent him? Why so much hatred? Well, because
he directly confronted them. He confronted them about their
self-righteousness and about their hypocrisy. He identified
them for what they were. They were enemies of God. To
others, to the other people, these men represented the ideal
religious individual. But our Lord Jesus, He saw the
blackness of their hearts. He saw all this was a facade. All this was a veneer. Their
religion, it didn't go down to the heart. They honored God with
their lips, but their hearts, far from God. All of their religion
was outward. Rituals. They did things so that
men would brag on them. They didn't know God. They didn't
know the scriptures. Oh, they professed to know the
scriptures, but they didn't know the God of the scriptures. They
knew the letter of the law. They had memorized and they could
recite many of the statutes of the Old Testament laws, but they
didn't know God. If they had known God, if they
had really known the Scriptures, they had known the One that He
had sent into the world. They would have recognized Him,
Jesus of Nazareth, He's the One that that He fit every typology
and every picture. That's what James sang to us
a little bit ago. Pictures of Christ. The serpent
had to be and the ark had to be. David feeding Mephibosheth,
bringing him in, fetching him all these pictures of Christ.
But these Pharisees, they couldn't see the pictures. They couldn't
see that the One who was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament
prophecies and pictures and types and offerings and sacrifices,
they refused to see that He was there right before them. That's
how blind they were. And he said to them, you will
not come to me that you might have life. He said, you search
the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And these are they which testify,
he said, of me. That's what you miss. You miss
me. You miss me. Oh, you talk about loving Moses
and loving the law and loving the commandments, but you don't
love me. And that's where salvation is. That's where everlasting life
is. That's where righteousness is. You've got to have righteousness,
and it's only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. You need salvation. It's only in the Lord Jesus Christ. You need forgiveness, and it's
only in the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of those folks said,
this is what we think of Jesus of Nazareth. Thumbs down on him. Let's kill him. That's what they
said. And our Lord Jesus, He directed
these words right toward them. Right toward them. Now basically, they had two issues
with him. That is the Pharisees and the
scribes. Here are the two big issues, two big things that they
brought up against Jesus of Nazareth. They couldn't deny the reality
of his miracles. We've been studying those in
Sunday school class. They couldn't deny the fact that
he healed people. So here's what they did. Number
one, they said to the people, everything he does, he does by
the power of the devil. That's what they said. He does
by the power of Beelzebub, the dung healed God, the God of the
flies, the God of the philistines. the dunghill God, the devil himself. He works for the devil. He is
empowered by the devil. That's what they said of the
loveless son of God. And then they said to the multitudes,
here's the second thing. They said, you wanna know what
kind of man he is? Look at his followers. Look at his followers. He receives into His company. He receives into His fellowship prostitutes, tax collectors, and all other
filthy people, we'll just call them sinners. And they said, He can't be from
God for those two reasons. All that he does is by the power
of the devil. And number two, all he will associate
with and fellowship with are sinful people. He won't fellowship
with us. He won't have any communion with
us. You know why he didn't have any
communion with them? You know why he didn't have any
fellowship with them? Well, Amos chapter three and
verse three answers that question. Can two walk together except
they be agreed? There was no agreement. So they were at odds with each
other. And notice how chapter 15 of
Luke begins. Then drew near unto him all the
publicans and the sinners. And this is what that means,
especially wicked sinners. Oh, notorious sinners, that's
what this means. Then drew near to him the publicans
and all these notorious sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees
and scribes, they murmured. And they said, this man, this
man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. Now, here's the multitude
that he kind of hung with, publicans and sinners. And you know what
they did? They heard him. They listened
to him. Now remember this, and you know
this well, chapter divisions are not inspired. Very helpful,
but not inspired. Look at the last two verses of
chapter 14 of Luke, okay? Last two verses. He's speaking,
he says, salt is good, but if the salt have lost its savor,
Wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land,
nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out. And this is
what he had to say then. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Now, just keep on reading now.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Then, then, immediately,
then, right then, drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners
for to do what? To hear him. To hear him. But the Pharisees and scribes,
they're not interested in hearing anything. They know everything
already. He can't teach them anything.
I mean, as far as they're in their own estimation. And our Lord Jesus then, well, let me back up and say
this. Look again at verse two. This man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. That was the accusation leveled
against him. I said this morning there from
Revelation chapter 17, it's an amazing thing that men would
be against the Lamb of God? Listen, everybody ought to receive
Christ Jesus. Isn't that right? Why? He's the
Lamb of God. He's the Son of God. He's that
one who was born of a virgin. He's the one who came into this
world to save folks like us. He lived for sinners. He died
for sinners. He arose for sinners. He represents
sinners. Everybody ought to receive Him.
There's no reason why you should not receive Christ Jesus. And
thanks being to God, there are many who do receive Him. but
as many as receive him, to them gave he the power or the authority,
the privilege to become the sons of God, even to them which believe
on his name, which were born, not of blood, you don't inherit
grace, nor the will of the flesh, it's not of your will, it's not
of the will of man, it's not somebody else willing you into
the kingdom of God, you're born of God. There are people who
receive Christ, and Christ Jesus ought to be received. And you
should receive Him as prophet, priest, and king. There's every
reason to receive Him, and no reason not to receive Him. But here's the amazing thing.
Not that we receive Him, though that is a work of grace. But
the amazing thing is, He receives us. And this is what the Pharisees,
they couldn't get over this. They said, this man receives
sinners. And he eats with them, he communes
with them, he fellowships with sinners. And that just irked them all
the more. Isn't it a wonder of grace that
he receives us? He receives even me. Now that's
got to be a salvation. All of God in all of grace. If
He receives me, and you know what? I got a real sneaking feeling. You're just like me. So it's
amazing grace that He'd receive you as well. That He'd receive
any of us. No wonder, no wonder that the
Bible talks about the riches of God's grace. The riches of
His mercy as He read in Ephesians the second chapter. For by grace
are you saved through faith is what Aaron read there in Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 8. For by grace he is saved through
faith, and that not of yourself, it's a gift of God, not of words,
lest any man should boast, that he would receive us, that he
would save us, that he would reconcile us to the Father, that
he would make us righteous, that he would forgive us. It's a wonderful
thing that he would receive us and eat with us, that is, commune
with us. And so here's what verse three
says. He spake this parable unto them. Unto them. We now know when he
spoke this parable, last few months of his life. And we know
who he directs these words to, the Pharisees and the scribes. And in this story, in this three-part
story, He's going to expose them, and He's going to once again
magnify His own grace. He exposes them in the first
part of the parable, for they are the ninety and nine who are
left in the wilderness. He leaves them in the wilderness.
Watch verse four. What man of you having a hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and
nine in the wilderness? He leaves them in the wilderness.
He left them alone. Didn't he say earlier in the
book of Matthew to his disciples, when the disciples said, Lord,
these Pharisees are offended at you, what you said. He said,
leave them alone. Leave them where? In the wilderness.
Leave them in that dry, barren, spiritual desert where there's
no bread, there's no water, there's no gospel, there's no life. Leave
them! That's what he said. And our
Lord Jesus here, remember, He spoke in parables so that these
men wouldn't understand what He was saying. And boy, He For those of us who
have eyes to understand, eyes that can see, and minds to receive
the Word of God, we now know what He's saying is, you men,
you men, you think you got all the answers? You're in the wilderness,
I'm leaving you, because I got a sheep to find. I got a work
of grace to do. All you want to do is quibble
about me being the savior of sinners. Well, I did come into
this world to save sinners, and since you say you're not sinners,
you're just disqualified. I'm going after somebody who
needs me. So he goes after the lost sheep
till he finds it. A woman, she seeks the lost coin,
the coin that was lost. She has 10 pieces of silver,
one of them's lost. Nothing's ever said about the
other nine. And then we get to the part of the parable about
the father and his sons. Verse 11 says a certain man had
two sons. Most people, when they read this
part of the parable, they say, well, one was a good man, one
was a good boy, and one was a bad boy. He had a good one and a
bad one. No, he had two bad ones. That's
what he had. He had two bad ones. The prodigal,
what we call the prodigal, he was bad, Because he wanted his
inheritance early, and then he went away and wasted all of it.
We say the other son, he was a good one. No, he wasn't good.
He wasn't good. Because he never addressed his
dad as father. In fact, this is what he said.
Look at verse 29, because the father welcomed the prodigal
back, and we'll get into that a little bit here a little later.
But look at verse 26. Let me just read verse 26, because
here's a lot, and I'm assuming all of you know this story, so
I don't have to read every single verse to it, but you know, The
son comes home and the father greets him. They have a big celebration,
right? They have a big feast, big festival, and everybody's
happy. Everybody's happy except one.
Verse 26, he called this boy, the eldest son, verse 25, the
eldest son was in the field. The field is the world. He's
out in the world. And as he came and drew nigh
to the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of
the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to
him, thy brother is come, thy father's killed the fatted calf
because he hath received him. Remember verse two. Gotta keep this in the context.
Look at verse two. The Pharisees and scribes murmured
saying, this man receiveth sinners. That's the whole thing is about
him receiving sinners. And you know what the older son,
the other son, what's he upset about? The father's receiving,
he's receiving this wayward son. So now you know the elder son,
the other son, he's the Pharisee. He pictures the Pharisee. He
pictures the self-righteous person. What's he upset about? The father
receiving a wayward son. Just like the Pharisees were
upset that the Savior received sinful people. So verse 28, he
was angry. Just like the Pharisees were
angry and he would not go in. He would not go in. They wouldn't
go in. Remember, the Lord Jesus said
about the Pharisees, they won't go into the kingdom of God and
they try to keep everybody else from going in too. They don't
have any interest in the gospel of grace and they don't want
anybody else to have an interest either. Therefore the father
came out and he entreated him and he answered and said to his
father, Lo, he didn't call him father, he said, Lo, these many
years do I serve thee? You know what the word serve
means? I slaved, I have slaved for you. I've been a slave for you. and
I haven't transgressed at any time by commandment." Boy, there's
the Pharisee. And I'll bet you, when the Pharisees
heard that part of the story, they said, that's our hero right
there. That's one of his, he's the good son. I've served you. All these years
I've never transgressed thy commandment." And the Pharisees would have
said, Amen, Amen. And they didn't understand the
fact that he's talking about them. This elder's son, he pictures
the Pharisee. And he said, Yet thou gavest,
thou never gavest me a kid. that I might make merry with
my friends. He didn't say make merry with
you, father. No, with my friends. But as soon
as this, not my brother, but thy son was come, which hath
devoured thy living with harlots, you've killed for him the fatted
calf. He's a bad son too. See, the fact of the matter is
neither one of them are any good. That's what we take away, that's
one of the things we take away from them, they're both bad. But one has shown mercy. And that's what just scalded
the Pharisees, that Christ Jesus would show mercy to sinners.
But isn't that why he came into the world? This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners is what Paul said, of whom I'm chief. Well, the son, the wayward son,
verse 17, he came to himself. This is when it's like the spirit
of God dealing with a man. and it makes him miserable. Where am I gonna find any help?
This man, he stinks, he's broke, he's hungry, he's needy. He's hit rock bottom. And I'll
tell you this, before God shows us mercy, he'll make sure we
hit rock bottom. And boy, he bottoms out. He's
with the pigs. He said, this is what I'm gonna
do. Verse 18, he said, I will arise
and go to my father. And I'm gonna say to him, father,
I've sinned, watch it, against heaven and before thee. And I'm not worthy. Reminds you
of Jacob's words, I'm not worthy of the least of your mercies.
You know what you're worthy of? You know what I'm worthy of?
You know what you're deserving of? You know what I'm deserving
of? Death and judgment and hell, that's all. That's the wages
we've earned. I'm not worthy to be called thy
son, just make me a hired servant. I'd be happy to be a slave for
you. And so he arose and came to his
father, verse 20, but when he was yet a great way off, effectual grace is drawing him. His father saw him. And I'll
tell you, our heavenly father, he's seen us all along. He saw
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He saw us united
to his son. He saw us falling in at him.
He saw what's gonna happen to us. And though we fell in Adam,
we never fell out of his love, and we never fell out of his
grace, and we never fell out of union with Christ Jesus. We
just fell into sin. The father saw, and he had compassion,
and he ran. He ran. I tell you, the Lord, He's ready to show mercy. He's
willing to show mercy. I made this statement many years
ago. I was in Lookout, West Virginia
preaching when Don Fortner passed through there. And I made this
statement. This is in 78, I guess it was,
something like that. And I had a preacher come up
to me after, Scott Richardson, said, boy, that's the truth.
I said, God is more willing to show mercy than you're willing
to receive it. And he come up, he said, that's
the truth right there. And I'm gonna tell you something,
if he wasn't more willing to show mercy than you were willing
to receive it, you wouldn't get it. If it's left up to your will,
you wouldn't get it. Wouldn't get it. Here's the father,
he had compassion. He ran, fell, and he kissed him.
A stinking sinner, and the Lord He kisses us with the kisses
of His mouth. Oh, I tell you, the gospel of
God's grace in Christ Jesus to us is so sweet. He kisses us
with the kisses of His mouth. He just heaps love on us. He's
always full of love. He ain't never mad at us. Can
you imagine that? The Lord never mad at us. He's always full of
love towards us. Always forgiven, and well, the
son had prepared his speech, and so he starts to give it out
there in verse 21. The son said to him, father.
That other boy wouldn't even call him father. It's several
times this boy calls him, father, I have sinned. First of all,
against heaven, all sins against God, first and foremost, right?
And in thy sight, I'm not worthy to be called thy son. But the
father just interrupts, and he says to his servants, Bring forth
the best robe. You know what the best robe was?
That's the robe the father wore. It's the robe that he wore representing
the family to every official function. It was the robe of
dignity. It was the robe that indicated
exactly who he was. And the father says, Give it
to him. And boy, that's the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. What's the best, what is the
best robe God has got to give, huh? What is the best robe? It's the righteousness of the
Son of God freely imputed to us, that righteousness established
by His death. And the Lord says, put the best
robe on Him. Man, you can go to every official
function in that robe. You can even appear before God
in that robe. In fact, that's the only way
you can appear before God is in that robe. Yeah. And then he says, put a ring
on his hand. You know what that is? Signet
ring. You know what the signet ring
was? You conduct some business. You had a signet ring and you
dipped it in some wax or something and you put the seal on it. It's
the seal of sonship. That's what the ring is. It's
a sign of sonship. You know what the Father is saying?
Everything I've got is yours. You can transact business again.
What? The Pharisees said, what? He
wasted everything you gave him the first time around and now
you're giving him everything all over again and more. Yeah,
that's grace for you. That's what mercy is all about.
He's got the signet ring. He can conduct business for the
family. And I tell you, we have the riches
of God's mercy in Christ Jesus. And he said, put shoes on his
feet. You know who didn't wear shoes? Slaves, hired workers,
they didn't wear shoes. No. Aristocrats wore shoes. Fathers wore shoes. Their sons
wore shoes. Our feet are shod with the gospel
of peace. Ephesians chapter six. And then
the father said, and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it. Kill it. There's gonna be bloodshed. and
then we're gonna feast together. And I'm telling you, Christ Jesus,
the father brought forth the calf, brought forth his son,
he killed him. And now every time we get together,
we feast on the lamb of God. Our souls are fattened. You can
eat too much at every other table, but you can't eat too much at
the spiritual table. You just eat and eat and drink
and drink of the wine of the gospel all you want to. Because
he said this, for this my son was dead. He's alive again. He's lost. He's found. They began to be
merry. This is a time of merriment.
It's a time of rejoicing. And the happiest one of all is
the Lord God of glory. He's the one who saves sinners.
And let's rejoice in His mercy and rejoice in His wonderful
grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.