So let's turn over to Luke chapter 15. What we're talking about is how the scriptures show, in teaching us how God saves a sinner, the scriptures show man's perspective, God's when a man when the Lord turns the light on in your heart and you can see the Lord Jesus Christ as he is when you see him as the Son of God as the invincible Savior as the full and complete Savior Somebody that can save even you When you see him in his infinite grace and in his in learning from God how God can be just and yet justify a sinner like you through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.

The light just comes on for you. You see what you could not before. You've heard these verses likely, maybe you've sat in church for a while and you've heard, you know, the scripture taught and the gospel taught. But when the Lord reveals his son to you, It's not just teachings anymore. It's a relationship with a person. Then you come to yourself. You're sitting in clothes and in your right mind all of a sudden.

You see the infinite unsearchable riches of Christ and you abandon everything else. like the merchant man, like Paul, like Saul of Tarsus, like everybody that comes to know the Savior. You count everything else but done that you may win Christ. And you want to confess Him before men. You want to show in baptism how that Christ is your all.

He's your very life. That you were dead to God and alive unto sin, and now you're alive unto God and dead to sin. And that's the experience of man. But nobody that has experienced that will deny the truth that it was God that did the saving. It was God that first came where you are before you came to Him. Because He tells us the truth about it, and not some sentimental Baptist preacher's version of it, trying to coax people into doing something.

So Luke 15.4 Let's see the parable of the sheep, the coin and the son. And I just want to read it, we won't expound on it, but I want us to see in all the scripture. You know, the Lord said.

All that the father giveth me shall come to me. Now, that's sure salvation, that's certain. In the covenant of grace, when the father gave a people to his son, called the elect, called his sheep, called those that you gave me, in John 17, over and over, and elsewhere in Scripture, identified as those who are in Christ from the foundation of the world. All that the Father giveth me shall come. All of John chapter 10 teaches that truth with a little different within the analogy of the shepherd and the sheep.

My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. It's not that the voice of the shepherd goes out and somebody does something about it and somebody doesn't. It's a certain thing. It's not an availability. He said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. There are those who will hear and will follow. And it's because of their nature. It's because God gave them a new nature, their sheep. And so they hear the shepherd's voice.

And then there are those who will not. That are not his sheep. And so again, John chapter 10. They don't believe on it. You believe not because you're not my sheep. This is not a gamble. It's not a venture. It's a sure and certain purpose of salvation. And we see both sides of it in these parables. Luke 15, 4.

What man of you, having 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 neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. The shepherd had to go out and find the sheep.

We know that's true. The Lord Jesus said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. He came down here looking for us. He came down here to find us. He came down here to bring us home. And he says, rejoice with me.

I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it. The Lord is not satisfied with some of His people being saved. This lady having 10 pieces of silver, she might have lost one of them and said, Oh, well, you know, I still got, I still got nine, you know, it's just such is life.

No, no. The Lord said, I'm not going to lose any of them. I'm not going to lose any of my sheep. All of those that the Father gave me, all of them will come to me." And he prayed in his high priestly prayer, I have given them eternal life and none of them is lost. None of them is lost. And when she had found it, she called her friends and her neighbors together saying, rejoice with me for I have found the peace which I had lost.

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. And he said, a certain man had two sons. The prodigal and the son who stayed home. Beautiful gospel message. Beautiful gospel message. But we see salvation from man's point of view. That prodigal son was sitting there in a pig pen eating husks that the swine did eat.

And what did he set out for in the beginning? Oh, I want my inheritance. He wanted, he needed, he wanted, he desired, he coveted, but he ended up bankrupt. And when you covet the things of this world, when you desire satisfaction from this world and fulfillment from this world, and then if the Lord ever brings you to yourself, you're going to see you're spiritually bankrupt.

I have nothing. If I go to my father, I'll have everything. Then, of course, the father runs to meet him. That's the beautiful experience of salvation from our point of view. Thank God for the light. But from God's point of view, we're lost sheep that aren't coming home. The shepherd went after the sheep because he knows sheep. He knows his sheep. And he knows the only way they're coming home is if he goes and gets them. The flesh doesn't like that, but that's the offense of the cross.

And if there's a lost coin, God's not set. God can't be satisfied with anything less than every sinner bought by the precious blood of his son. Not one shall be lost in man's gospel. A whole bunch are lost because he tried to save everybody. He died to try in his best attempt to save everybody. Oh no. Oh no, not one that he shed his precious blood for will ever be lost. And on the day that our Lord spake that parable of the pearl of great price, those weren't the first words he spoke, and they weren't the last words he spoke.

Look back in Matthew 13 with me again, verses 47 through 50. Matthew 13, verse 47. Again, and he's talking about the kingdom of heaven. He's talking about salvation. He's talking about the spiritual kingdom, the spiritual world in which We live as his subjects, subjects of the king, servants of the king.

He said, it's like a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind. Which when it was full, they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. Somebody decided who was going to be kept and who was going to be thrown away. So shall it be at the end of the world, the angel shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. So the merchant man is seeking goodly pearls and he finds one and he buys it.

But when the net is thrown into the sea, the fish isn't looking for the net. He's not seeking a net. He's not trying to get into a net. He'll do everything he can to escape the net. He's going to flop and kick all the way to the boat. And then when he gets in the boat, he's going to still be flopping and kicking, trying to get away. You remember what the Lord said to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus? Is it hard for you to kick? Are you tired of kicking? Saul was flopping to get out of the net, but there's no getting out of his net. He cast it into the sea and there's good fish and there's bad fish.

And our Lord, we don't have to sit there and speculate, well, what does that mean? He told us what it means. There's His sheep and there's the goats. And that great division is going to be made at the end of time in the last day. How can the kingdom of heaven be likened to both? How can we be a merchant man who wants the pearl of great price more than anything in the world and also a fish? that the last thing we want is to be pulled out of our refuge, our zone, our ocean, our comfort zone, our world, and into His.

Did we find Christ and count Him to be indispensable? Or did He find us and bring us home? Both for Christ to save us, He must come where we are, find us and put us on His shoulder and bring us home. Like in the story of the Good Samaritan, we're not going anywhere, we're goners. He must come where we are. He must come where we are and do everything for us. Pour in the medicine, lift us up, carry us to the end and pay our way. What did we do? We just lay there, like the man at the pool of Bethesda. And the Lord asked him, would you be saved? Would you be healed? Would you be whole? And he didn't even say yes, and the Lord gave it to him anyway. He made excuses. It'd be nice, but I don't have any help.

You do now. In every miracle that the Lord ever performed, all of which picture the saving of a sinner by his grace, we are helpless to do anything for ourselves. You're not getting better on your own in these parables. You're not getting better on your own when these miracles are performed. lame, leprous, four days stinky dead. Your case is hopeless. You're a goner.

But once Christ comes where we are and by his irresistible and almighty power says, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus didn't decide to come forth. We as sinners come to Christ because of the power of His Word. Let there be light. It's not by accident or coincidence that Paul used that very illustration to show how God saved him. He said, God, who said, let there be light, and there was light, shined in my heart. He commanded it. He commandeth the blessing. And there's one word that attributes all the glory to God in this.

Do we come to Christ? Yes, we do. Does he come to us? Yes, he does. You know which word though is vital in all that? First. We love him because he first loved us. We've got to hear his voice. And if we're going to hear his voice, he's got to give us ears to hear.

The hearing ear and the seeing eye, both of them are of the Lord. Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. My sheep hear! Blessed of God are they. When Simon Peter said, Lord, you're the Christ, you're the son of the living God. The Lord made sure that Simon knew where all the glory belonged. You didn't learn this from men. My heavenly father revealed that to you. No man knoweth the father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him.

And when he does reveal God, all of his glory and majesty and saving free grace the light comes on we come to ourselves we're in our right mind all of a sudden grace is encapsulated in that word first we see him as precious we realize we must have him Because he first saw us lost and wandering and helpless and hopeless and said, I must bring my sheep home. He counted us precious a long time before we counted him precious. And he didn't count us precious because we were worth anything. He counted us precious because he loved us. It's so precious that He gave Himself for us.

But here's both sides of it. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Why are they coming? Because they were given to Christ by the Father before eternity began, before the world began. And this is the Father's will, which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. All that the Father gaveth his Son are all those who are saved, and not one is lost.

But I should raise it up again at the last day. And notice those words in that passage, I should have had you turn there, but he said, I came down from heaven and then they come to me. He came and then we came. We come because he came. And the Holy Spirit must first come where we are if we're to come to Christ. John 3, 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That word born again means born from above. You're going to see. You're going to see the pearl. You're going to value it above everything. You're going to fall in love with it. You're going to come to the place where you got to have it.

But not until you're born from above. And you have a new nature from God himself. So how does God draw us in? How does he bring us to himself? By giving you faith. He just opens your eyes. Christ isn't any more lovely after you see him than he was before you saw him. You just can see him now.

He doesn't save sinners contrary to their will, but by means of it. There is a sense in which it's contrary to our will, because look what Saul was doing when the Lord saved him. He saved him in spite of him. But the Lord changes our will. Psalm 1103, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, not when they make up their mind. Not when they decide, but when God exerts His power, all of a sudden we want what we never wanted before. Moses chose the reproach of Christ over the treasures of Egypt, but before that, God found him in the desert, running from Him and revealed Himself to him that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to him from the burning bush, and he chose the reproach of Christ over all the treasures of Egypt.

You don't do that naturally. You do that supernaturally by the grace of God. Second Thessalonians 2.13, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. We believe the truth. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. But first he chose us to salvation and the means by which he saved us was the Spirit singling us out. He goes where He wants to. John 3, He goes where He wants to. He singled us out. He showed us the things of Christ, and we believed.

Before He ever caused us to love him, he loved us. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Before Jacob or Esau were ever born, or had done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand, God said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. here in his love. God loved us. And I love this last verse in our text. Let's close with this.

Jesus saith unto them, have you understood all these things? The Lord knew. He knew when they got it because they got it when he decided they'd get it. When he gave it to them, they got it, right? But I love what they said, yea Lord. After all the doubt and they were still, they still didn't know anything as they ought to know just like us. But they weren't afraid to ask questions until they knew they were shameful. There was a couple of times when they shied away from it, didn't much want to. But they asked openly, what does this mean, Lord? What does this mean? What does this mean? And he taught them as he didn't others. He taught his disciples. He taught those that were interested. He taught those whom he had drawn to himself and who followed him.

And then he confirmed to them, have you understood all these things? That wasn't for his sake, that was for their sake. He wanted them to recall all these things, these parables, and confirm in their heart, I believe I know what this is. I believe I know what He's saying. I believe I understand that He drew me and caused me to come. I believe I understand something of His free and matchless grace that chose me and determined to have me, loved me with an everlasting love and with loving kindness, drew me to himself.

The question comes to us from our Savior this morning, have we understood all these things? Do you see how that in salvation we're just like an inanimate coin, not participating in any way in being found? Our only part in it is that we're lost. And also how that once Christ finds us and reveals himself to us, we are like the prodigal who says, I'll do anything to be with my father one more time. Have you understood how that we are the merchant man and he is the priceless pearl?

And also how that we are the fish and he is the fisherman. And most important of all, have we understood what both pictures mean? What does it say that Christ came where I was and found his helpless sheep? It says that he loves me and that in the saving of my soul, Christ is all. What does it say that a sinner would give everything would say with Paul, I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them but done that I may win Christ. It says that we love him because he first loved us. And it says that in the saving of my soul, Christ is all. Amen, let's pray.