Our text will come from Luke
chapter 15. Mark Luke 15 and then turn back
to Ezekiel 34. Look beginning with verse 11
of Ezekiel 34. Here we read, Thus saith the
Lord God, Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep and
seek them out, as a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the
day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, So will I
seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where
they've been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. I'll bring
them out from the people, gather them from the countries, and
will bring them to their own land and feed them upon the mountains
of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of
the country. I'll feed them in a good pasture, and upon the
high mountains of Israel shall their fold be. There shall they
lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon
the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock. I will
cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that
which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and
will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which
was sick. But I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will
feed them with judgment. And here in Ezekiel 34, we read
this. Thus saith the Lord. He says,
I'll feed my flock. I'll feed my flock. I will cause
them to lie down. I'll seek that which was lost.
I'll bring again that which was driven away. I'll build up that
which was broken. I'll strengthen that which was
sick. Aren't those comforting words? Aren't those comforting words
for God, sheep? But listen, he says this, he says, I will destroy,
I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them with
judgment. There's a warning there. God's going to punish sin. God
is absolutely going to punish sin. He says, he says the wages
of sin is death. We read in God's Word, the soul
that sinneth, it shall surely die. God judges the righteous
and He's angry with the wicked every day. How men and women
can read God's Word without either being comforted or scared to
death is beyond me. We go to the beach, we go to
the beach, me and Abby and the boys go to the beach it seems
like every year, have for years. Down in North Carolina where
we stay it's close to a military base and every day you hear these
helicopters fly over, walking out there in the ocean and you'll
hear it before you see it, the sound of those the sound of those
rotors, and some of those helicopters are pretty menacing looking. I'm sure these are just practice
drills, but they sure do look pretty intimidating from the
sky. I often think, what did the sound
of those rotors sound like to the enemy? In a hostile country, When they hear the sound of those
roses, it must strike fear in their hearts. For us, no fear for us. It's not frightening
to us. If anything, it's comforting.
It's comforting. The boys, they'll get out there,
and they have since they're kids, look up there and wave at them
as they fly by. But to the enemy, it has to be
a foreboding sound. But you know, our problem concerning
the gospel is this. Until God reveals it to us, we
don't know where the enemy is. We know nothing of God's holiness. We know nothing of our sin until
He's pleased to reveal these things to us. By nature, we don't
need Him to. These things have to be revealed
to us. It has to be revealed to us that
God is absolutely whole. It says this, in Habakkuk, thou
art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. And listen, even the
best that we have to offer, the best that we have to offer is
filthy rags in the sight of Almighty God. Well, then what hope is? What hope is there for a sinner? What hope is there for a sinner
like me? A sinner by birth, a sinner by choice, a sinner by practice. I want us to look here in Luke
15 this morning. Luke 15. Abbey showed me this article
this morning. It goes along with this. It says, an old man testified
that it took him 40 years to learn three things. He couldn't
do anything to save himself, that God didn't expect him to,
and that Christ had done it all. And I believe that's what we
read here in these verses this morning. Look beginning with
verse 1 of Luke chapter 15. Listen to the first three verses
here. It says, then drew near unto him all the publicans and
sinners for to hear him. Are you a sinner? Are you without
hope? Are you without help? Are you
dead in trespasses and sin? If you are, look at this here. Can you take your place as a
publican, fall down at his feet and say, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner? Can you pray as David did? Remember that? He said, against
thee and thee only have I sinned. Have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight? Are you a sinner? Then draw near
to Him. Isn't that what they did here?
They drew near to Him. They drew near unto Him, all
the publicans and sinners. They drew near to Him to hear
Him, to hear what He had to say. And the Pharisees and the scribes,
it says they murmured. They murmured saying, this man,
this man receiveth sinners. And he did. This man, aren't
we thankful that this man receiveth sinners? This man receiveth sinners. And the Pharisees said this not
as a compliment to him. They said this as an insult.
This man, they've just seen him as nothing more than a man. Oh, he's so much more. He's very
God. He's God in human flesh. He's
the God-man. Consider the condescension that
Almighty God would come to this earth, that He would robe Himself. It's one thing that He would
come to this earth, but the fact that He would robe Himself in human
flesh, that He would take upon Himself our nature, that He would
take upon Himself our sin. This man receives sinners, and
not just any sinners. These were notorious sinners. These publicans were just wicked,
wicked men. You read about them, but they
were notorious sinners. This man receiveth sinners, and
he eateth wicked. You know, there's no need, no
need to be discouraged. No need to be discouraged. Come to Him. No matter how unworthy,
come to Him. and rest and rest in him. This
man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. He said this, come
unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give
you rest. We read this, all that the father
hath given to me shall come to me and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise, no wise cast out. The woman Remember that
woman with the issue of blood? How unworthy was she? And she
said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment. Blind Bartimaeus, a beggar, sitting
there beside the roadside begging. And the Lord's going to pass
by and he cries out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. He must have been a miserable
case because the people around him, they tried to silence him,
didn't they? Huh? Be quiet. This is the master
pastor. He cried out even louder, didn't he? Jesus, thou son of
David, have mercy on me. He had mercy on him, didn't he? He had mercy. This man, this
man received the sinners. Now quickly, I know usually we
look at all three of these parables here, but I want us to just look
at this one this morning for our Sunday school lesson. Look
at verse 4. He says, Our Lord is speaking
here. What man of you, having a hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, does he not leave the nine and
nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until
he finds it? Now, the first thing I believe
we see here in this text is He is the Shepherd. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, He's the Shepherd. In Zechariah 13, 7, we read this,
He's Jehovah's Shepherd. And throughout God's Word, He's
referred to as the Shepherd. He's the one Shepherd. We read
that He's the Good Shepherd. He's the Great Shepherd. He's
the chief shepherd. And I believe my favorite title
that he bears is this one. And David spoke of it. He's my
shepherd. Now, what David said to the Lord
is, he's my shepherd. Listen, and as the shepherd,
he cares for his sheep. He watches over his sheep. He
knows them by name. Each one, he knows his sheep
by name. He lays down his life for the
sheep. He preserves and protects. and keeps His sheep. These sheep,
they're His sheep. We're His sheep. Our text says,
what man of you have Him? Having a hundred sheep. They're
His sheep and as that, He can do with them, He can do with
them what He will. He can do with them as He will.
God is sovereign. And He does what He will, when He will, with
whom He will. He's sovereign in all things.
He can save us. He can save us or He can pass
us by. As Almighty God, He's sovereign in all things. And
whatever He does, He's just and right in doing it. Second, we see the lost sheep,
the lost sheep. And that's what we are all. Every
last one of us are by nature, lost sheep. Isaiah said this,
turn over to Isaiah 53. Look at verse six of Isaiah 53,
just the first part there. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone, everyone
to his own, to his own way. We read there's a way that seems
right unto man. The end thereof are the ways
Ways of death. Back there in the garden, God
told Adam, he said, of every tree in the garden thou mayest
freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
don't eat of it. Don't eat of it, for in the day
you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. And Adam, what did he do? He turned, he turned to his own,
he turned to his own way, just as we all do. Just the way of
self-righteousness, the way of sin, and apart from God intervening,
we'll continue in that way. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. And listen, we've wandered far
from the fold, haven't we? Thank God. Thank God He doesn't
leave His sheep in the wilderness. Turn back to Luke 15. Here it
says, In the end of verse 4, it says,
he goes after that which was lost until he finds it. The old hymn writer wrote this,
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God. By nature, we'll run. We'll run and hide from Him.
Isn't that what our kids do when they're in trouble? Maybe run
up and hide in the room or go hide under the sink when they'll
still fit under the sink. But isn't that what we run and
hide? And Adam tried that, didn't he? Isn't
that what Adam tried to do? Look back there in Genesis 3.
Genesis 3, look at beginning with verse 6. Genesis 3, verse 6. And when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was pleasant
to the eyes and the tree was desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof and did eat, gave also to her husband
with her and he did eat. And the eyes of both of them
were open and they knew that they were naked and they sowed
fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard
the voice of the Lord God in the garden in the cool of the
day and Adam and his wife hid themselves. They tried to hide
themselves. They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. We run for fear of judgment
or we run because we just don't need Him. Over in the Psalm,
the fool has said in his heart, no God, no God for me. You know, these Pharisees, These
Pharisees that he was taught, they didn't need him, did they?
They had their self-righteousness. They had their works. They didn't
need him. And I don't know much about sheep,
but I did work on a farm for a while. And I know this, I know
this, when those calves, when they get out of the barn, they
never go just to the edge of the barn. They go as far away,
or at least it seemed like it, they always go as far away as
they could. whatever the farthest place in the most miserable conditions
to. Must be something about their
nature. Must be something about our nature. Remember the prodigal
son? He said he went to his father.
He said, give me that which is mine. And he took his journey. He didn't go to the town next
door. He said he took his journey into
a far country. We've wandered far, far from
the fold of God. Prone to wander, Lord I feel
it, prone to leave the God I love. But what's our, what do we read
here in verse four? Look at that, it says this. He goes after that which is lost
until he finds it. until he finds it. I lose something,
and I'll look for a little bit, and then I'm usually asking Avery,
the boys, where is this? We look until we lose interest,
and then move on to something else. But it says here, he goes
after that which is lost until he finds it. This is the Father's
will which has sent me. that of all which he hath given
me, I should lose nothing." He's not going to lose one of his
sheep. He said, I'll lose nothing and
I'll raise it up again in the last day. Consider Mephibosheth
all the way down there in Lodomar. Who's going to find him down
there? Who's going to find him? David sends his servant and he
says, you go down there and you find him. You bring him back
to me. What about that prison guard
over there in Acts 16? Paul and Silas end up in jail,
cast into the innermost part of the prison. For what purpose? What good could be served from
that? Paul and Silas being thrown in jail? What good? Can you imagine
what people had to say about that? About Paul and Silas being
cast in jail? What's the purpose of it? There's
a prison guard down there and his family that are going to
hear the gospel as a result of that. Wherever God's sheep are,
he goes and he seeks after them until he finds them. And we read this, my sheep, my
sheep hear my voice and they follow me. He goes and seeks
until he finds them. Look at verse five, when he finds
it. Now look, it doesn't say here if he finds it, does it?
If by some chance, it says when, when he finds it. When he finds
it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. A couple of things
here. It says he puts that sheep up
there on his shoulders. Men have created a pretty unrealistic
image of this. It's always a man in a glowing
white robe and a perfectly white sheep. And from what I read, again, I've
been around cattle and I know they're pretty filthy. And from
what I read, sheep are about ten times dirtier than any calf. And usually, that animal that's
wandered away from the foal, it's covered in mud. It's covered
in, if it's been injured, it's covered in blood. And typically,
when you put that thing up on its shoulder, whatever's on it
is going to be on you, isn't it? That mud, that blood, and
Sam, I don't, You've probably, you little ones, you've picked
up a frog every now and then. You know what happens when you
pick up an animal? Your hand usually ends up getting wet or
dirty, and that animal wasn't wet or dirty when you picked
it up. Imagine that, okay? From an animal. Whatever it is,
whoever's carrying it is covered in it. And that's, isn't that
what our Lord did at Calvary? Huh? All that, my filth, my guilt,
my shame, it's on Him. He bore it. He bore the sins
of His people on His body, in His body on the tree. Over in
Isaiah we read this, surely He hath borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. Jesus Christ bore the sin of
His people. and he made satisfaction. As
our surety, he bore our sins. As a representative of his people,
he bore our sins. Isaiah goes on to say he was
wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes
we're healed. He bore, he bore our sins. And this man, this man, receiveth
sinners. He had appeared to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself. The scriptures declare this.
He was made sin. He was absolutely made sin. The
angel said, call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sin. So he identifies with his people.
He takes them up and he puts them up on his shoulder. And
listen, when he When that sheep's put up there on his shoulders,
he bears the sin of it. He bears the shame of it, the
reproach of it. He bears the weight of it. He bears it all. You know, if, Jonathan, you pick
your boy up and you throw him up, put Gavin up on your shoulder,
you're bearing all of his weight. He's contributed nothing to that,
is he? When our Lord put us on his shoulders,
This wasn't a 50-50 proposition. It wasn't a, you take the first
step and I'll do the rest. It was Christ and Christ alone. He bears it. The weight of my
sin, the guilt of my sin, the shame of my sin, He bears it.
He bears it all. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. He must carry us. And if, listen,
if He were to, if He were to lay us down, if He were to put
us down for a minute, we'd do just like one of those animals
do. We'd just take off, take off right back out in the wilderness.
It says here that He, He delivers them. That's the fifth point.
He delivers us home. He delivers us home. Look at
verse six. When, when He come, When he cometh
home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, and saith
unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep, which
was lost." Almighty God purposed to save a people. He chose us
in Christ. Chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. Made the Lord Jesus Christ our
surety. Suffered and died on the cross as a sinner's substitute. died for our sins and clothed
us in His very righteousness. And He gives us assurance in
this that He raised Him. He raised Him from the dead.
Look at Hebrews 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Look beginning in verse 12 of
Hebrews 10. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. He brings that sheep home. And
listen, he presents it faultless. Faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy. Holy, unblameable, and unapprovable
in His sight. Isn't that reason to rejoice?
We have much to be thankful for. Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord? And then let's
read on here. Look at verse 6. It says, When
he cometh home, he called together his friends and his neighbors,
saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep
which was lost. I say unto you that likewise
there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repented
more than over ninety and nine just persons which have no need
of repentance. Do you need Him? Do I need Him? You know, those Pharisees, they
were convinced they needed nothing but themselves. But He said He
receives sinners. They had a need, didn't they?
They had a need of Him. Turn again. Turn again with me
to Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34. Just want to read these verses
again. Begin with verse 11. For thus saith the Lord God,
behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them
out. As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he's among the sheep that are scattered,
so will I seek out my sheep and deliver them out of all places
where they've been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. I'll
bring them out from the people. I'll gather them from the countries.
We'll bring them to their own land and feed them upon the mountains
of Israel by the rivers and all the inhabited places of the country.
I'll feed them in a good pasture on the high mountains of Israel.
Shall their fold be in there? Shall they lie in a good fold
in a fat pasture? They shall feed upon the mountains
of Israel. I'll feed my flock. I'll cause them to lie down,
saith the Lord God. I'll seek. that which was lost.
I'll bring again that which was driven away. I'll bind up that
which was broken. I'll strengthen that which was
sick. But don't forget, he says, I'll
destroy the fat and the strong. I'll feed them with judgment. Do I need him? Do I need him? Am I completely resting in the
Lord Jesus Christ? Or am I resting? Would you rest
in your own righteousness? What's he say there? He says,
I'll destroy the fat and strong. I'll feed them with judgment. I'll rest in Christ. Christ in
Christ. He who goes out finds that which
was lost. Seeks till he finds it. He puts
it up on his shoulder. He carries it home. That's our
hope, isn't it? That's our comfort, that's our
grace. Christ, Christ. Amen.