This morning I'm going to try
to do something I've never done before. I want to preach a message
to a person. He's not here. This message this
morning goes out to Jorge Gonzales. He's a citizen of Honduras. And I send it to him and all
of those who seek the forgiveness of their sins. It is my prayer
that God would speak to their hearts and cause you to call
upon the name of our Lord and ask for mercy. This morning I
would like to ask you if you would turn with me in the New
Testament to Luke, with Luke's gospel in chapter 15. And we're
going to read our text this morning. It starts in verse number 11. So in the New Testament, in the
book of Luke, I ask you now to turn to chapter 15 and verse
number 11. May God bless us this day. And he said, a certain man had
two sons, And the younger of them said to his father, Father,
give me thy portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided
unto them his living. And not many days after the younger
son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country,
and there wasted his substance in riotous living. And when he
had spent all, there rose a mighty famine in the land. And he began
to be in want. And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into the field
to feed swine. And when he would faint, having
filled his belly with the husk of the swine did eat, and no
man gave unto him. And when he came to himself,
he said, how many hard servants of my father have bread enough
to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father. I will say unto him, father,
I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and I am no
more worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy hired
servants. And he arose and came to his
father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and
had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And
the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven
and in thy sight. I am no more worthy to be called
thy son. And the father said to the servants,
bring forth the best robe and put on him and put a ring on
his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf
and kill it and let us eat. and be merry. Reading of the
scripture this morning in Luke chapter 15 verses 11 through
verses 24. The parable before us this day
is a parable of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not like many of
the parables of our Lord where there is one single message being
taught. In this parable there are many
messages and truths for us to see. Every part of it tells us
of God's tender mercy that is extended toward those whom he
draws nigh unto him. In John chapter six, in verse
number 44, the word of God says, no man can come to me except
the Father, which have sent him draw him, and I will raise him
up in the last day." There are five things now, five things
that I want you to remember about this text and about the prodigal
son. We see first of all today a young
man following his natural heart. Our Lord shows us a young son
making haste to leave his father's house, going far away and wasting
his substance. Isn't this like all sinners before
God? Isn't this like today, ourselves,
how we came into this world and immediately we began to ask for
our portion and leave the very God who brought us into this
life. A small child being born into
this life, the first thing it'll do is cry. The first act of its
little self is to cry. And from that moment on, they
will seek to leave the God who brought them into this world.
Like sheep, we are all naturally going astray. and turned every
way to our own. It is the nature of every person
to defy the will and the supremacy of Almighty God. For every natural
man, he has no direction other than to walk contrary to the
will of Almighty God. This young man in this parable
this morning is spiritually blind. He is a character of everyone
that is not born of God. He is spiritually blind. His
eyes of his understanding needs to be open. In the book of Psalms,
the book of Psalms speaks of the mind of a natural man. In
Psalm 72 and verse 5, We read, they know not, neither
will they understand, they walk in darkness. This is a picture
of you this morning. We came into the world and we
began immediately to walk contrary to the will of God. This is every
man, not just you, but every man that's ever come into this
world, this is where they're at, contrary to the will and
the purpose of God. Now I said there were five things.
Now the second one is this. We see secondly in this parable,
the young man finds out that the ways of sin is hard with
bitter experiences. Our Lord shows us the young son
spending all of his property and reducing to want, obligated
to make service to serve another and to feed swine within a field,
so hungry that he now eats the very substance that the pigs
would eat. The end of all sin comes here. Sin destroys everything about
us in this life. We come into this world a beautiful
child and from that time on we become less and less according
to the will and the purpose of God. This young man in our parable
this morning falls in great destitute. He came with money. I suppose he came with great
substance. but he ends up with absolutely
nothing. And the scripture says that no
one gave anything to him. This is the natural state that
we all fall into outside of the grace of the living God. We come
into this world, we might prosper, but sooner or later, all of our
substance will do us no good when we stand before God. We will stand naked before him
without any substance, without a name, without a country. But yet, with the grace of God,
we can enter into the presence of God with his mercy. This young
man has followed the same that every one of us will experience. He spends all. In the book of
Psalms speaks again of what this young man has experienced. Then
we find in Isaiah 57 verse 21, there is no peace, saith my God
to the wicked. When a person comes and he is
totally depraved, his life is a downward spiral. and will continue
to be a downward spiral in this life. The scripture says again,
there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked. Let this truth
sink down into our hearts, it is the truth. However loudly
man may be denying it. In Proverbs 13 in verse five,
the scripture says, the way of the transgressor is hard. And
Paul says in Romans 6 and 21, He that soweth to the flesh shall
of the flesh reap corruption. All of our life is a life of
destruction. Every natural man is headed for
destruction in this life. Paul says again in Galatians
6 and verse 8, What profit hath you in those things whereof ye
are now ashamed." All of our life we look back and we are
truly ashamed. We are ashamed of what we've
done and what we have accomplished. But the greater truth this morning
is this. It is not what you've done, but
it's who you are that is the transgression against Almighty
God. It's not whether you've stolen,
you've robbed, or whatever you've done within your life. That is
not the problem. Men perish not because of sins,
but they perish because they're a sinner. The third thing that
I would have you to remember about the prodigal son is this,
that in this parable, the young man awakens to a sense of our
natural state are resolving to repent. I will arise, he says,
and go to the Father and say unto him, Father, I have sinned. The thoughts of thousands are
painted in these words. Thousands have reasoned in their
way and are saying such things to themselves every day. And we must be thankful that
we see such thoughts arise Thanking this afternoon is not a change
of heart, but it is the beginning of it. Conviction is not conversion,
but it is one step ahead in the right direction. The ruin of
many people's souls is simply this, that they fail to thank
at all. They never come to the place
in their life where they are faced of who and what they are. They continue to walk throughout
life without any knowledge or understanding of what has happened
to them in their entire life. He will arise and go to His Father
and say unto Him, Father, I have sinned. I would like to say maybe
that this is the best intention I've ever heard come from any
person. I will arise and I'll go to my
father and I'll confess to him. That's a good intention. But
you know, so many times the very best intentions fall by the wayside. It is in need that everyone go
further than just a desire. Not go further than just a plan,
but to go on to the father and confess your sins and ask forgiveness. The fourth thing I would have
you to remember about this parable is that the man truly turning
to God. With true repentance, our Lord
shows us the young son quitting the far country. Where he was
and was going back to his father's house, caring and to the practice,
the intention they had formed. You see, He not only desired
to go, but now he's actually going to the Father. It's more
important what we do than what we always say. He goes to the
Father. The scripture says again, he
rose, he rose and went unto the Father. These words of true repentance
and conversion, the man who has been touched by the grace of
God will never be content with thanking and resolving. So many resolve to go to God
sooner or later. For some reason or another, they
fail to come and to come before God. But one who has truly been
touched by the Spirit of God will never stop. until He has
come before the Father and asked for forgiveness. True repentance,
we will find, will cause us to break off from sin. It will cease. We will cease to do evil. We
will come out from the fellowship of those who are of sin. We will confess our iniquity. We will not attempt to excuse
our sin. He will say with the publican
of old, have mercy upon me. Have mercy upon me, a sinner. Let us be aware of any repentance
which is not of the character. Action is the very life of repentance
and salvation. Feeling and tears and remorse
and wishes and resolves are all useless when it comes to the
place of coming before the Lord. Coming before the Lord is coming
and confessing oneself before Him. All the tears and all of
the fears and the remorse and the wishes of man will not bring
you to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It might
point you in the right direction, but without God pulling and drawing
you into himself, you will never come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. The fifth thing that I would
have you to know today The fifth thing is this, that the penitent
man receives pardon freely and completely accepted of God. Our Lord shows us this in the
part of the young son's history in the most touching manner we
read. When he was yet a long way off,
his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck
and kissed him. And the son said unto him, father,
I have sinned against heaven and in earth and in thy sight
and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said
unto the servants, and this is the real message now I have for
you. He said, bring the best robe
and put on him. What would you think the best
robe would be? what would be the best robe that
the father would have? Don't you think it might be the
robe that the father wore himself? He calls for what is the very
best that the father had to be brought and to be placed upon
the son. And in this analogy, It speaks
of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You need the righteousness
of Christ today. And in this parable, it speaks
of the goodness and the mercy of God in doing so. He calls
for that robe. This robe is going to cover all
of your blemishes. It's going to cover all of your
sin. I thought this morning about
a big marker that I have, about size of a quarter or better,
and it has a big end on it, and it'll make a huge mark across
paper. And once you take that marker
and rub it over a word, you can no longer see that word on paper. When we receive the grace of
God and receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is symbolically
set forth as the road, all of our sins are blotted out before
God. Those sins will never be said
of, will never be spoken of, will never be remembered of because
of the mercy and the grace of Almighty God. And then he calls
for the servants to put a ring upon his finger. And they bring
a ring, and they put the ring upon the boy's hand. This ring
represents the possession of the father. It represents ownership. It represents the family name. As long he carries the ring,
everyone knows that he is an heir of the father. This morning, A ring represents
something wonderful. You might think this morning,
and I think of young people, how that a young person, the
most important time of his life is when he goes down and takes
his driving test and gets a driver's license. It's the most important
day of a young boy's life. That driver's license gives you
identity. It's your ID. It's something
precious. to you. This ring that was placed
upon this young man's hand gave him identity. We have several
different kinds of identification in our country. We have a driver's
license, we have a ID, and then we have a passport. All of those
denote who we are. All of this ring speaks of, in
this parable, is identity. You are identified to the family
of God, to the Lord Jesus Christ as being the one that has cared
for you and loved you and will speak for you when you stand
before God. and then the father calls for
shoes to be placed upon his feet. These shoes represent something
precious too. No servant wore shoes. This boy has shoes placed on
his feet. This represented that he was
of the family of the father. He was a member of the family. The most important thing in life
is to have a family relationship where that family cares for one
another. The relationship that a child
of God has with God is this, that you are among the family
of God continually. You are of God and God is of
you. And everyone that knows the Lord
is your brother or your sister. And we all work together for
the common good of one another. It's the truth. that is taught
within the Word of God. Those are those things. But there
is one more. There is one more thing that
the Father calls for. He calls for the servants to
bring forth the fatted calf and to kill it and let us eat and
be merry. For this my son was dead and
is alive again and was lost and is found. And the scripture says
they began to be merry. When one child of God comes home
to the Father, there is great rejoicing in heaven. Every child
that comes back to the Father is received with great fanfare,
we might say. You're greeted with great joy
because God has found his person and he's brought him back safely
and to the fold. They show us in great broad letters
these things of the great love that Jesus has towards sinners. They teach us the willingness
of God to receive those who come unto him. How complete and full
is the pardon which we receive from the hand of Almighty God. Acts 13 in verse three, 39 says,
by him all that believe are justified from all things. Psalm 76 in
verse 5 says, he is plenteous in mercy. Let this boundless
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ be engraved deeply upon our memory
and sink deep into our minds. Let us never forget today that
he is the one that receiveth sinners. With him and his mercy,
sinners ought to begin and desire the salvation of Almighty God. On him and his mercy, saints
live, and when they have been taught to repent and believe,
they do. Paul said, in Galatians 2 and
verse number 20. The life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I now will end this message today. I commend you. I commend you
today to the Lord Jesus Christ. I ask not that you confess to
me but confess to God. When the woman that was taken
into adultery and the very act of adultery was brought to our
Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord asked the woman, where art thou accusers? And the woman turned to our Lord
and said, none Lord. And then the Lord responded back
to her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. This day, this hour, the Lord
Jesus Christ is the receiver of sinners. And if we come to
him in faith and confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins. May God bless you and that he
might speak peace to your hearts today. team.