A Candle And A Broom

Q: What does the Bible say about God's search for the lost?

The Bible teaches that God actively seeks out the lost, just as illustrated in Jesus' parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. In Luke 15, Jesus uses parables to show how valuable each individual is to God, emphasizing His commitment to seek out those who are lost. The parable of the lost coin, where a woman diligently searches for a missing piece of silver, illustrates God's unwavering devotion to each of His people. Just as the woman would not rest until the coin was found, so God actively pursues His chosen ones, ensuring that none of them are left behind. This reveals His love and faithfulness to individuals, affirming that every soul is precious in His sight.

Q: How do we know God will not lose any of His chosen people?

We know God will not lose any of His chosen people because His love and faithfulness ensure that He will seek and save the lost. The assurance that God will not lose any of His chosen people is rooted in His character and the doctrine of election. Jesus emphasizes in Luke 15 that He came to seek and save the lost, indicating His personal commitment to every individual whom He calls. As illustrated in the parable of the lost coin, the woman’s relentless pursuit mirrors God's commitment to His elect. If God has chosen a person unto salvation, He will ensure they are drawn to Himself, demonstrating His sovereignty and perfect will in gathering His church without fail.

Q: Why is the joy of salvation important for Christians?

The joy of salvation is important for Christians because it reflects the profound change and relationship with God established through faith in Christ. Joy is an essential aspect of the Christian faith, as it signifies the transformative power of salvation. In the parable of the lost coin, the woman rejoices upon finding what was lost, which symbolizes the joy found not only in personal salvation but also in the collective rejoicing of God's people when sinners return to Him. This joy extends beyond mere happiness; it is a deep-seated gratitude and celebration of God's grace. The angels in heaven rejoice over every sinner who repents, reinforcing the community aspect of salvation where all are united in this joyous occasion. Therefore, Christians are called to share in and express this joy as a testimony to others of God's redeeming love.

Luke's Gospel, chapter 15 and verse 8. And we're just going to read verses 8, 9 and 10. This is the word of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking. It's a parable. He is speaking probably on a Sabbath day and he says this. 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? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece 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. Amen.

So here is another parable from the Lord concerning something that is lost. Previously we have thought of the one sheep that was lost from a hundred. Now it is one piece of silver lost from ten. Next week, God willing, it will be one sun lost from two. Now I'm not sure if there's any great significance in this pattern.

But at the very least, it reminds us that the Lord deals with individuals and the Lord values individuals. We often remark that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save his people, to save his church. but we delight to see that very often when salvation is brought, it is brought to individuals and we are the Lord's people, we are bound together in a union with him and yet we each have those individual personalities and characteristics and peculiarities which the Lord knows about as well and he will not let one of his own remain lost for whom he has died.

Not one of his redeemed church will be left behind when he gathers his jewels. He will never say, for example, I've got 99, that'll do. Or I've got nine, that'll be enough. It's a mark of God's faithfulness and it's a proof of our Saviour's love that he comes to seek and to save every last one of that which was lost.

Indeed, as we have mentioned, I think last week I made a point of this and I'll make it again because I think it's pertinent in the study of these parables. The whole thrust of the passage is not so much the number of the secure group, but the need of the lost, the individual that was lost. And I really, again, today, have very little to say about the nine unlost pieces of silver. As little, in fact, as I had to say about the 99 sheep safely in the fold. The lesson is about the lost ones. It's about the devotion to that which is lost. It is about the commitment expended for its recovery.

Now, some writers understand the 99 and the 9 as being the Jewish nation of history, whom God had blessed with many great spiritual and temporal blessings. If you try to think along that process, the lost things would then be the elect within the Jewish nation for whom Christ had come, had come exclusively.

And it may be that there is some support to that idea by the Lord's words to the Syrophoenician woman who brought her daughter to him, seeking help, when he says in Matthew 15, 24, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But be that as it may, He then went on graciously to help her and her daughter. And it is the lost things that principally ought to take our attention in these parables, I believe.

Now, I'm sure that you don't mind me saying that I'm glad the Lord used a woman in this parable. It may have been simply because it is a domestic scene that he has in mind, that he is using to convey his lesson, but it shows that men and women were both of interest to the Lord. There was a man with his sheep and now here is a woman with her silver coins. So all those who were listening to the Lord as he was speaking would be able to identify, would be able to join in with a sense of the importance and the priority and the emotion, the feeling of the situation that was being set before them.

And let us, for the sake of me not making too many mistakes with my words, let us assume that the silver pieces are coins. They're called silver pieces, they're never called coins, but in truth, they're coins in my mind's eye, rightly or wrongly. But here this woman loses a piece of silver, a silver coin, and she knows it's missing, and she cannot rest until what is lost is recovered. So she lights a candle, she sweeps the house, she seeks diligently.

And these three descriptions of the woman's activity have gospel parallels and I don't think that we will be guilty of over-spiritualising by allowing ourselves to consider how they might correspond to the work of the Lord in gathering his church and seeking out that which is precious to him. We noted before that just because the Lord is teaching about lost things does not mean that he is in some measure denying his omniscience. The scriptures often employ a notion of things that are lost, lost sheep, lost donkeys, lost children, but nothing is ever truly lost to God. The lostness is a sense experienced by those who are spiritually convicted and who, for perhaps the first time in their lives, realise that they're not in control of their destiny, but separated from God and incapable of doing anything by themselves, for themselves, to manage or mend their state and condition. We speak a lot, actually. I speak a lot because I do most of the speaking. I speak a lot about lost sinners.

But actually, that's not a Bible phrase. It's maybe a Bible idea, but it's not a Bible phrase. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 3, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. But I think the implication in there, while it may include those who are lost who will yet be found, I think the implication is that it's really speaking about the reprobate, those who are not of the elect of God. Now, I'm not denying that lost isn't a good description of one of the Lord's unconverted elect. I'm simply making the point, let us not imagine the Lord has lost or indeed can lose any of his chosen people.

On the contrary, he is ordering the world and the affairs of the world. as huge and unimaginable as every single circumstance in the world might appear to be. He is ordering every single one to ensure that all of his elect are arrested in their flight, gathered to himself and brought into his church. One great source of encouragement for preachers is knowing that it is the message of the gospel that discovers, apprehends, and brings fleeing sinners to their knees. And that gives us the confidence to go where we're sent and to preach to whom we are sent, knowing that the gospel is the Lord's means of drawing his people to himself.

Now again, for the sake of applying the themes of the parable, this woman does these three things. She lights a candle, she sweeps the house, and she seeks diligently. Now, first, of course, the Lord lit a candle when he gave the gospel commission to his apostles to take to the ends of the earth. But let us also acknowledge the lady here. Let us also acknowledge the femininity of this woman.

And perhaps we might think of the church lighting a candle when it sends out its preachers or her preachers and her missionaries. The gospel is a candle lit in search of the lost elect and by this candle dark corners in the world can be probed and shadowy areas illuminated. This is surely what the early church did when Paul and Barnabas were sent to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And I think this tells us that the gospel can reach anywhere that an elect sinner may be hiding.

But also, it reminds us that the candle also attracts. And we speak of moths to a light and or moths to a candle. And when the elect sinner is regenerated by God the Holy Spirit, the gospel candle is a light in a dark place that draws the enlightened sinner to have hope that there might be forgiveness even for me.

The next thing this woman did was swept the floor. And it's another interesting image. Sweeping. In fact, it's very interesting. Let me finish the sentence. Sweeping disturbs the dirt and the dust that might conceal the hidden coin. Very often when you find yourself sweeping on a day when the sunlight might be streaming through the window, there's a vast amount of that dust that is swept up that ends up back in the air and in the atmosphere. But that's what sweeping does. It disturbs the dirt and the dust.

And again, we may attribute this work to the Lord principally. whose ordained purposes frequently have the world reeling in confusion and bewilderment. Remember that nothing happens outside of God's will in this world, so that even the wars and the diseases and the earthquakes and the climate change and the global chaos that happens in the world may be likened to the Lord sweeping this world with a broom. He causes all that dirt and dust just to go back into the atmosphere in the pursuit of that which is precious to him. The Lord thereby unearths his precious stones. He is seeking for those diamonds in the dust.

So too, the Church disturbs this world with its claims of Christ. The Gospel intrudes upon men's self-contentment. and it annoys the men and women of this world with its assertions of accountability and its claims concerning the urgent need of salvation and deliverance from judgment to come. The Gospel is a two-edged sword. And it brings some to salvation, but it cuts and hurts and annoys and upsets others also.

And I think there's the two elements to the sweeping motion of this woman as well. Yes, she is uncovering the dirt on the ground that will reveal her lost coin if there it is to be found. but it is also disturbing and provoking that dirt in the world as well.

The third thing that the woman did was to seek diligently, and that can also refer to the Lord who's coming into this world, living and dying, certainly satisfy every aspect and element of diligence. as far as his work is concerned under the terms of the everlasting covenant for the salvation of his people.

The Lord was diligent if he was in any way active at all. And when we look at his life, I think we actually made reference to this last week, the sheer amount of activity On this single Sabbath day is an example of the Lord's workload and his diligence. We remember that the Lord could fall asleep in the middle of a storm in the middle of the sea. Such was the weariness that often beset him. And he would sometimes pray well into the night, if not all night, because of his burden for his people.

So as far as the Lord's work was concerned in the gospel, there is no denying that he was diligent. And we also think of the fact that there can be no greater motivation to diligence than love. And there is no greater love than that a man lays down his life for his friends. equally there is a call here for the woman in the parable to be diligent. The church is diligent when it takes seriously its duty to preach the word in season and out of season. It is possible more than possible.

It is always a temptation for churches to become distracted in this task and that is a great mistake. Let us be careful never to expect of a church to do what is not appropriate for a church to do. By all means let us be aware of our responsibilities and duties to each other. and to the world around about us, but by far the greatest obligation we carry as believers and as the Church of Jesus Christ in this world is to preach the Gospel with all diligence. It is the Gospel that nourishes the saints. It is the Gospel that saves the sinner.

When this lady found her coin, she rejoiced. It was a great relief to her. It was a great relief and it was a great source of happiness. Now we can't easily employ words like relief to the Lord, whose knowledge of all things and timings are perfect. And yet he too rejoices, as do the angels, when one of his little ones is brought to conversion and is welcomed into the family of God. Just as with the shepherd who found his sheep, there is a desire by this woman to extend the joy that she feels to her friends and extend her celebration with her friends and her neighbours. And the church rejoices when a sinner is saved and the angels rejoice to see another saint recovered, another citizen brought into the kingdom of God, another trophy plucked from the bondage of Satan and brought into the family of God.

I think we can all share in some personal sense with the idea of being lost and found as those who are sinners saved by grace. And it's good for us to think that we were found when we were set apart by God in the eternal councils of grace. That we were found when we were chosen in eternal election from amongst the fallen people in Adam. That we were found when we were redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and he carried our sins and he carried our sorrows. that we are found when we were adopted into God's family, quickened by His Holy Spirit, converted by His Gospel, and we are found when we walk in truth according to that Gospel. And finally, we shall be found waiting and watching when He comes for us on the last day or calls for us in time.

And we shall be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless. In closing, just a verse without any comment. Paul says in Romans 10 20, but Elias is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. And that is the That is the word of Christ in the gospel. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us today. Amen.

A Candle And A Broom

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's search for the lost?

How do we know God will not lose any of His chosen people?

Why is the joy of salvation important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Peter L. Meney

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A Candle And A Broom

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's search for the lost?

How do we know God will not lose any of His chosen people?

Why is the joy of salvation important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Peter L. Meney

Comments

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