She would turn with me to Luke
chapter 15. Last week, when Jan and I were
at her mother's, I read this chapter. And I really can't even tell
you how much it thrilled my heart. And I determined that the first
possible opportunity I would preach from it And I pray the
Lord will bless it to your heart as He did to mine. The title
of the message is Lost and Found. I don't think that there is anything
more frustrating than hearing preaching that says God loves
people, but He can't save them unless they love Him. That's
so frustrating. That makes the love of God meaningless. It makes the character of God
absolutely meaningless. It makes the death of Christ
meaningless. The love of God means something. It's valuable. The love of God is not only eternal,
it's powerful. It's effectual. It always reaches
the objects of God's affection. Almighty God will never, never
allow anyone who he loves to perish. It's an impossibility
because the love of God means something. Now, the people that
God loves They're lost in sin. There's nothing lovable about
them. They're lost in sin. But Almighty
God's going to find them. He's going to bring them home.
The people who God loves are born with a rebellious nature.
They've got the rebellious nature of Adam. But God in His love
and in His providence, He's going to give them a new nature. He's
going to give them a nature that is made willing in the day of
God's power and comes to Him in loving submission. And that's
what this chapter, Luke 15, is all about. Our Lord gives us
this parable that shows us how the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit are all involved in this matter of saving a sinner.
And the love of all three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, means something. The love of God guarantees this. That God Himself will do everything
that's necessary to save those people that He loves. Now this
parable our Lord gives is not three parables, it's one parable
in three different parts. And this one parable shows us
three facets of how God saves sinners. And we really should
look at them all together. So let's attempt to do that this
evening. Verse one, Luke 15. Then drew
near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
And the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, this man receive
the sinners and eateth with them. Now, all of Scripture that the
public or that the scribes and Pharisees should have been very
familiar with, all of Scripture makes it plain. Christ Jesus
came into this world to save sinners. He saved sinners. Then it ought not be surprising
to find the Savior surrounded by sinners. It ought not be surprising
to find out this man, this Savior, he receives sinners. He sits
down and eats with them. He has fellowship with sinners.
Sinners have always felt comfortable in the presence of the Savior.
During our Lord's earthly ministry, when His bodily presence was
here, sinners were comfortable in His presence. And sinners
are always comfortable in the presence of His gospel. Always. You know why? Because He loves
sinners. Christ loves sinners. He loved
sinners so much He died for them to take their sin away. Now,
the self-righteous person doesn't like that. But that's okay. Christ didn't come to call the
righteous. He came to call sinners to repentance. And that's what
we're going to see in this parable. Here's the first part of the
parable beginning in verse 3. And he spake this parable unto
them, saying, What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness,
and go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he
hath found it, he laith it on his shoulders rejoicing. And
when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors,
saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep
which was lost. I say unto you that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repented, more than
over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. Now
this part of the parable shows us the work of God the Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, and the redemption of God's elect. This shepherd
can picture no one except Christ, the Good Shepherd. the great
shepherd. And the great shepherd came to this earth on a mission
to save the lost. And he did just that. He came,
he accomplished what he came to do. He sought and found and
saved the lost. Now, who are these 99 in the
wilderness? Well, there are 99 just persons
that don't need repentance. They're the self-righteous people,
the scribes and the Pharisees that began this whole conversation
in the first place. They're in the wilderness of
false religion. They're in the wilderness of their own self-righteousness.
They're in a spiritual wilderness where there is no life. Well,
was it right for the Lord to leave them alone then in that
wilderness? Well, sure it was. They didn't want him, did they?
They didn't think they needed him. They were lost. And Christ
only came to seek and to save the lost. So he left them alone.
A Christ the Good Shepherd, He did leave the comforts of glory.
He came to earth as a man. And as a man, He came to seek
and to save His lost sheep. They were always His sheep. They
belonged to Him. They're His sheep. He knows them
by name. They're His. And He knows when
one's lost. He knows where they're all at.
That one sheep that's out there wandering lost, He knows where
it's at. It's lost to everybody else, but not to Him. He knows
where that sheep is. It's His. It belongs to Him.
Now the shepherd obviously is our Lord Jesus Christ and the
sheep obviously are God's elect. But that sheep is lost. And you
know what? It's the sheep's fault. It's
not the shepherd's fault. It's the sheep's fault. He wanted
off. And that's the nature of a sheep. They're not right bright.
They'll wander off and leave the shepherd. And that's not
smart to wander off and leave the shepherd. But you know that
sheep did it on purpose. He left the shepherd on purpose.
That sheep is ignorant. It's wandered off and now it
can't find its way back. It's impossible. But worse than
that, a sheep is kind of stubborn and rebellious. He won't go back
to the shepherd. I mean, he couldn't find his
way back to the shepherd anyway, but more than that, he won't go back to
the shepherd. He just keeps going on, you know, just following
his own tail or something, I reckon, going the wrong way. And as he
goes out there, that sheep is utterly defenseless against the
predators that are out there. He ought not have left the shepherd,
should he? But he did, and he did it willingly. And there he
is out there. He's hurt. He's cut. He's bleeding. He's starving. He's dehydrated. He don't look like much. But
Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, went after that sheep. Himself. He didn't send an angel
to go get it. He didn't send an under shepherd
to go get it. He himself sought that sheep. And he found that sheep. And
He brought that sheep home. And it has to be that way. If
that lost sheep is going to be saved, only the Son of God can
do it. Only the Son of God in human
flesh can do it. Only the Lord Jesus Christ, the
God-Man, can do what's necessary to save that sheep. Only the
Good Shepherd, the God-Man, can lay down His life for that sheep.
To redeem Him. To save Him from His sin. Nobody
else is capable of saving the lost. Only Christ. Because Christ
has the nature of both God and man. He's got the nature of God. He's got deity to satisfy God. And he's got the nature of a
man. So he can be our representative. So he can be our sacrifice. Christ
the shepherd himself went after that sheep. And he searched until
he found it. He didn't stop searching until
he found it. Well, you know, after he went a little ways,
after he went so far he started getting tired or started getting
far from home, why didn't he just give up? You know, after
he climbed over a lot of difficult trails and rocks and limbs, why
didn't he just quit? You know, why go through all
that? That's a lot of trouble. That one little sheep surely
can't be worth all this trouble, can it? It is to Christ, the Savior.
Because he loves that sheep and because he loves that sheep,
he will do everything that's necessary to find him and save
him and to bring him home. And when he finds that sheep
and he lays it on his shoulders and he brings it home, the Lord
of Glory, the Great Shepherd rejoices with all of heaven. He rejoices. This part of the
parable teaches us this, that the son is going to have everybody
he died for. He's not going to lose one of
them. His blood purchased their salvation and his love guarantees
he won't let them go. Now the next part, verse eight,
either what woman having 10 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 had found it, she
called her friends and her neighbors together saying, rejoice with
me, for I found the peace which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto
you, there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repented. Now this part of the parable
tells us about the work of the Holy Spirit and the salvation
of God's left. Now remember the sheep in the
first part of the parable. That sheep was alive, wasn't
it? Physically alive, but it was going the wrong way. And
that's a picture of all of us. We're sitting here, we're physically
alive. But if God leaves us to our nature,
we're going the wrong way. We'll always go away from God. The flesh, the nature of the
flesh will always go the wrong way, away from God. But now in
this second part, there's a coin. And the coin's dead. I mean,
it's dead as a doornail. And that's another picture of
us. How we're dead in trespasses and sins. And you know, just
like that coin, that coin's lost in the dust. That's how we're
laying. We're dead, laying in the dust.
We're laying in the dust of this world. We're laying in the dust
and the filth of sin. We're laying in the dust and
the filth of our own righteousness. And the sad thing is, is the
coin doesn't even know it. The coin doesn't know anything
because it's dead. And that's the way we come into
this world. We don't know anything. Because we're dead. And here's
something else the coin doesn't know though. The coin doesn't
know. It always belonged to the woman
that owned the house. Even though it didn't know it. That coin always belonged to
the woman. Now the woman is a picture of
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes searching
for all of God's elect. And when the Holy Spirit searches
for God's elect, He always uses the light of the gospel. He always
uses the light of the Word of God. And he does that, he comes
seeking for it. He comes with the light, bringing
the light to the darkness because that dead sinner laying down
there in the field has always belonged to God. He's going to
get it back. He's going to take possession
of it. The Holy Spirit comes and sweeps away all the dust.
The Holy Spirit comes and knocks down the refuge of lies. The
Holy Spirit removes every obstacle that's been put up. And he finds
that sinner and he sheds light on him. The Holy Spirit gives
life to that dead sinner. And that dead sinner suddenly
finds himself believing Christ. He finds himself coming to Christ.
The Holy Spirit gives light, spiritual light to that sinner.
So now he can see. When he's in darkness, he can't
see. But when he's in light, he sees. Now he sees himself
for what he is. He sees Christ for who He is.
Well, then naturally, he runs to Christ, doesn't he? To find
mercy and forgiveness. Now he sees. Now he sees how
it is God can be just and still have mercy on a dead sinner like
me. Now he sees. And when that lost,
dead sinner is found and he's brought to Christ, the Holy Spirit
rejoices with all of heaven. Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
the angels, they all rejoice over that one seemingly insignificant
sinner who repented, who was found. Why is it that the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit rejoice over this one lost sinner that
was found? Because God loves sinners. He
rejoices. His love guarantees their salvation. And God loves that sinner. And
their salvation brings Him joy. Think of that. And the only reason
for it is He loves sinners. Now the next part of the parable
shows us the work of the Father in the salvation of the elect.
Verse 11. And He said a certain man had
two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Give me the
portion of goods that falleth to me.' And he divided unto them
his living. But not many days after, the
younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far
country, and there wasted his substance with righteous living.
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that
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 his fields
to feed swans. And he would fain have filled
his belly with the husk that the swine did eat. And no man
gave unto him. Now this younger son is another
picture of God's elect. The sheep, he was dumb. He's
defenseless. He's wandering. The coin's dead. This younger son is an open rebel. That's all of us. That's what
we are by nature. We're rebellious sinners. We
have sinned. We've rebelled against God on
purpose, with malice in our heart toward God. And this younger
son, he said, give me everything that's coming to me. Give me
my inheritance. And the father gave it to him.
But in open rebellion, despite the generosity of his father,
you don't get an inheritance until the testator dies. Despite
his father's generosity. He took everything his father
gave him and he went as far away from his father as he possibly
could. Describe anybody you know? Isn't
that us by nature? Left our own devices. We've gone
as far away from the father as we could. And when he got there,
he went as far away from his father as he could. And when
he got there, he did everything his father stood against. He
wasted everything his father gave him on riotous living. He
just wasted it all in as much open sin filth as he could find. Now don't be looking down your
nose at him because he's us. Remember, this is us. That's
what we do by nature. We're reveling in sin. We choose
the pleasures of sin for a season. But here's the thing about fools.
Soon enough a fool is going to lose everything. And this foolish,
rebellious son lost it all. His father made him a wealthy
young man and he lost it all. And when he lost everything,
the economy, the bottom fell out. A great famine came in the
land. And that famine is a picture
of the spiritual famine that's in our heart. It's in the world
that we live in. A spiritual famine of the Word
of God. The son's got nothing. He's got
no means to support himself, so he goes looking to get him
a job. He joins himself to a citizen of that country. He's trying
to get something to eat, just anything, you know, just give
me enough to start and stay alive. And this citizen of the country,
it may represent a worldly man, a worldly man of the flesh saying,
I can tell you how to get ahead, you know. But you young people,
now you listen to me, you mark my words. Don't you listen to
them? These people are so wise in the
world, think they know everything, show you how to get ahead in
this world by operating the ways of the world. Don't you listen
to them? Not only is it crooked to begin with, there's no spiritual
life there. There's nothing that will sustain
your soul. There's nothing that will bring
you pleasure there. I promise you. That citizen could
be a worldly man of the flesh. I tell you who I think primarily
he is. I think this citizen is a picture of the false preacher.
What does a false preacher do? As soon as he can get his claws
on somebody. Oh, they put him to work. Give
him a job. Do something, you know. Give him a job. Put him
to work. And boy, they put you to work. You've got to work the
rest of your days. Just constantly working to keep your righteousness,
to keep your salvation. And there's no life there. There
can be no life in our works. All we do is sin and the wages
of sin is not life, it's death. And there's that poor boy. I'm
sure he's working up a storm, but he's not getting anything
for it. That citizen of that country thought so little of
that young man, he put him to work feeding pigs. That's the
worst, the lowest, most offensive job you could give a Jew. But
there he was trying to feed the pigs. And that's our own righteousness. Our own righteousness is just
the disgusting, unclean works of the flesh that we ought to
be ashamed of. Just like that Jew ought to have
been ashamed of being in the pig pen. We ought to be ashamed
of being clothed in our own works. There he is, trying to feed the
pigs. And nobody was giving him anything. He's working, but nobody's
giving him wages, were they? The situation got so bad. He
sunk so low. He got so hungry, he was going
to eat pig food. He's going to eat the husk that
they fed the pigs. Now, pigs can survive on that.
They can survive on pig food. A human being can't survive on
husk. And that clearly is a picture of false religion. The self-righteous
man thinks he can survive just fine on his own with his own
words, with his own righteousness. He thinks he can survive on that.
He thinks he can get along with that. But a child of God can't. Not for long he can't. But God
won't allow it. God won't let him. Now remember
our theme. The theme is the love of God
means something. God is not going to allow the
child that he loves to eat pig food. John, have you ever fed
your kid pig food? I already know the answer. You love him. How much more? Because God loved His children.
He's not going to let them eat pig food for long. Not the pig
food of their husks of their own righteousness. Now, the Father
in our story. You all know this story well.
He is a picture of God the Father. But now, don't confuse His love
for the love of our Heavenly Father. It's not a good representation
of God's love. Now you know that Father loved
that boy. He was rebellious. He disappointed
him. He shamed him. Oh, but he loved
that boy. Oh, how he loved him. And more than anything in this
world, he wanted to get that boy out of Big Ben. But Wayne, he couldn't do it.
Not by his love alone, he couldn't. But God can. He does. I'll give you a few pigpens we
might find ourselves in before God finds us and brings us out.
It may be the pigpen of open sin. If you love someone in that
pigpen of open sin, you long to get them out of it, don't
you? And if you try to get them out, this is what you found.
By the power of your love alone, you can't get them out of it.
You just can't do it. Our love alone is not enough.
but God in His love does. God's elect were servants of
sin, but now they're sons and daughters. They were in the pigpen,
they were in the dung heap, but God lifted them from the dung
heap, set them at His table among the princes. God's love can do
it. He can bring His child out of
the pigpen of open sin. Second, it may be the pigpen
of, I don't have a good title for it, but it'll all be all
right in the end. We all know people like, well,
just whatever. It'll all be all right in the end. And when you're
in that big pen, there's no awareness of God. There's no awareness
of sin. There's no awareness of eternity. There's no awareness
of mercy and love and grace. You're just like the coin. You're
just unaware because you're dead. Dead people aren't aware of anything
going on around them. And if you love someone like
that, how you long to Shake them and wake them up. Wake up and
look around. This is dangerous. We're facing
eternity. And your love alone cannot wake
them up. Your love alone can't give them
light so they see. But God and His love can. And He does follow His people.
I just bet you that Philippian jailer, he felt like everything
just going along just fine. Done a good job. Everything's
going good, you know, and everything's going along just fine. He had those apostles, those
preachers there in that prison. They had me thinking. He couldn't
see. God and His love woke him up,
didn't He? He sent an earthquake to wake him up. God can bring,
He will bring His people out of that pigpen. Third, it may
be the pigpen of false religion. False religion that says man's
works are enough to please God. It's just your own works are
enough to give you life or keep your life, you know. Maybe God
has to save you, but you've got to keep it, you know, by your
own works. And if you love someone like
that, and we all do, your heart breaks, doesn't it? And what
you found out is your love alone, the power of your love, as much
as you love them, the power of your love alone cannot get them
out of the mire of their own self-righteousness, out of that
pig pen. But God's love can, and He does. Do you know anybody more deeply
entrenched in the pink pen of self-righteousness and soft hearts.
Don't believe I do. And the Apostle Paul said, brethren,
I'll tell you what, I was alive without the law once. I thought
I was alive without the law once. I thought all my righteousness
was real good. But God came, he had to slay
me. He took that law and he slayed me. He showed me I was dead in
sin and made me run to Christ for life. God and His love will
take His children out of that pigpen. Here's the fourth pigpen. This is a dangerous, dangerous
pigpen. It may be that we find ourselves
in the pigpen of right doctrinal knowledge without Christ. And
I'll tell you where you find that pigpen. Right here in these
chairs. The pew is a deceptive thinking,
because you think you're clean, but you're not. Listen to me. Salvation does
not come from you attending the right place, the place where
the right doctrine is preached. Salvation is in Christ. Now,
you will only hear Christ in a place where the gospel is preached
and true. But salvation is not in attending
Salvation is not being in this auditorium. Salvation is being
in Christ. So you seek Christ with all you've
got. You seek Him. He's the only one
that can make you clean. He's the only one that can save
you. And right doctrinal knowledge, that can be a deceptive pigpen. At least in my head, I cannot
remember a time that I did not believe right doctrinal theology. You can think you know all the
right things and not have life. Because salvation, spiritual
life, does not come from our knowledge of right spiritual
truths. Salvation is knowing Christ. Salvation is a vital living union
with Christ. So you seek Him. If you're in
Him, if you find Him, you'll not find yourself in a pig pen.
You find Him. And if you love someone who's
in that pigpen of right doctrinal knowledge, the force of your love alone
can't get them out of it. They're just so straight and
strict. And you can't get them to take
their eyes off that doctrine and look at Christ. The force
of your love alone will never make it happen. But God's love
can. And he does. I bet you young
Timothy, he was just like all of our young people. They grow
up under the sound of the gospel. Just like Timothy, his mother
and grandmother taught him the scriptures, which are able to
make him wise to salvation. They began teaching him those
things as soon as that boy could understand language. And I'm
just confident that little fellow believed everything his mother
and grandmother told him. I'm just confident that he did.
He didn't know the Lord. He wasn't saved. And one day,
Timothy thought, you know, Christ is all my hope. You know, I believe this gospel. He's all my hope. What happened? It wasn't the power of his mother's
love. It wasn't the power of his grandmother's love. It was
the power of the love of God Almighty that gave life to that
dead sheep. That's what happened. God was
faithful to bless his word that was taught to that boy. Faith
cometh by hearing. And hearing by the word of God,
by all means we ought to be teaching our children scriptures. Faith
cometh by hearing. But if our loved ones are going
to be saved, God's going to have to be the one to do all the saving.
And if he loves them, you bank on this. He will. He absolutely
will. Now read on, verse 17. There
that boy is in the pigpen. And when he came to himself,
he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough
and to spare? And I perish with hunger. Now,
how did this young man, how did he come to himself? How did he
find himself in his right mind? The Holy Spirit came and gave
him light, gave him life, just like he did to the coin. He gave
light to that boy in the pigpen. Here he is in the pigpen. I don't
know how long he was there. And finally he looked around
and said, what on earth am I doing in a pig pen? Think of the quarters
my father's servants had. They were a palace compared to
this. I believe I'll go home. Now the father in our story,
oh, how he loved this boy. And he longed for him to come
home. I just bet you, I bet you, that
boy left home. And every day that father looked
down the road to see if he's coming back. And he just almost
was just trying to reach out with his love and pull him back
home. He couldn't do it. He could not do it. That's not
God's love. God, with the power of his love,
irresistibly draws his people to himself by the power of his
love. Verse 18. When he came to himself,
he said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'll arise and go
to my father and I'll say unto him, father, I've sinned against
heaven and before thee, and I'm not worthy to be called by son.
Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his
father, but it was yet a great way off. His father saw him and
he had compassion and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed
him. And the son said unto him, father, I've sinned against heaven
in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the
father said to his servants, bring forth the best of hope
and put it 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. For this my son was
dead and is alive again. He's lost and now he's found. They began to be merry. Now the
father in our story, like I said, he kept looking down that road
to see if his son was coming home. But you know God our Father
never one time took His eyes off His child. As much as we
erred, as much as we wandered, as much as deep in the muck of
the pigpen we were, He never took His eye off His child. And He never loved Him less when
He was in the pigpen. Then can you explain to me why
it is God allows His children to suffer so much in the pigpen. Why do we have to go through
all the pain and the suffering that our sin causes? Why? I don't
know. I don't know. That's God's business. And I do know this. What I don't
know is why God allows it. This is what I do know. What
God does is always best. And it's always right. I don't
know why the Lord allows that to happen. The pain and the suffering
and the time in the pigpen. But it could be. It could be
this. It could be He allows it. So
the end of the story of grace is so sweet. The clean sheets that boy slept
on that night felt a whole lot better than they ever did. Because
he'd been sleeping in the pigpen. end of the story, Grace, is so
sweet. And I bet you this boy, he had spent a good deal of time
walking home, I'd imagine. And I just bet you, as he was
walking, he was practicing his speech. He was, you know, shining
his speech up, making sure he said it just right, because he's
afraid, if I don't say everything just right, my dad's going to
kick me to the curb. And when he got to his father,
did you notice this? His father let him confess his
sin, didn't he? But he stopped him right there.
He wouldn't even let his son talk about becoming a hired servant. God's children are children and
they're never hired help. Never. You never earn your keep
in God's house. It's always because of his grace.
It's always because we're children. God's children serve God out
of the love of a child, not a desire to get a raise like a hired servant
does. And the father says, This is my son. He didn't look like
much at that time, but he said, this is my son. And before he
comes into the house, he's going to have to be cleaned up. Get
your best clothes and put it on. You know what that is. That's a robe of Christ's perfect
righteousness. Put it on him. He don't have
a choice. You put it on him. Get a ring
and put it on his hand. What's that mean? Well, the ring
was a sign of sonship. King had a ring. Rich man had
a ring. He sealed important documents
and things with. When they put that ring on somebody's
hand, that was the sign of sonship. He's wearing the ring of the
king. Everybody knows this is the king's
son. Put the best shoes on his feet.
Now his feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel. The
feet that will follow Christ. And the father said, now let's
kill the fatted calf. When he said, let's kill the
fatted calf, you know what he's saying? He's saying, let's do
what we're doing right now. Let's rejoice around the sacrifice
of Christ, the Lamb of God. The sacrifice of Christ gave
life to that dead sinner because Christ died in his place and
gave him life. Once I was lost, now I'm found. Once I was dead, now I'm alive. Now I kind of want to end there,
but that's not the rest of the story. Remember, our Lord began
talking to the Pharisees and the scribes. Let's look here
at verse 25. Now his elder son was in the
field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music
and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what
these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brothers
come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath
received him safe and sound. And he was angry. and would not
go in. Therefore came his father out
and entreated him. And he answering, said to his
father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed
I at any time thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me
a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon
as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with
harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said
unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have
is thine. It was me. It's right that we should make
Mary be glad for this. Thy brother was dead and is alive
again. He's lost and now he's found. This older son's a picture of
the Pharisee, just like the 99 who needed no repentance. He
didn't need any repentance, did he? What did he have to repent
of? He always did everything right.
Just ask him, he'll tell you. See, he represents the scribes
and the Pharisees whose attitude began this whole parable in the
first place. A Pharisee will never rejoice in free grace. A Pharisee will never rejoice
in just the unmerited love of God for sinners. The Pharisee
says, I want to be blessed because I've always worked for you. I've
always done everything your law requires. That's what the Pharisee
says. The Pharisee says, you never sacrificed a lamb for me.
You never sacrificed your son for me. Well, that's true. But you didn't want it. You didn't
want it. You wanted your own merit. You
didn't want free grace in Christ. You didn't want his sacrifice.
You wanted your own merit. So the Pharisee will always hate
this story of the love of God for sinners. But the ignorant
sheep and the dead coin and the wandering son, rebellious son,
are always going to love the story of free grace. Now I'm
going to get into where I started. The love of God mean something. The love of God for his people
guarantees their salvation. No one that God loves can ever
perish. That lost sheep is going to wander,
but he's not going to wander forever. Christ died for that
sheep so he wouldn't be alone. Christ died for that sheep so
he could be with Christ forever. Then Christ is going to have
it. He's going to find him and he's going to bring him to himself.
Because the Savior Loves that lost sheep. His eyes on him.
He knows he's in misery out there. He knows he's cut and bleeding
and malnourished and dehydrated. The Savior loves that sheep too
much to leave that sheep in his misery forever. He's going to
go get him. He's going to go get him and
bring him home. He's going to fetch him just like David fetched
Mephibosheth. And that lost coin is going to
be lost. Eric is going to be down there in the dust. It's
not staying there forever. The Holy Spirit loves him too
much to leave him. He's not going to do it. He's going to seek
him until he finds him. He's going to give him light.
He's going to pick him up and going to rejoice. That rebellious
son, he's going to show his rebellion. He's going to leave home, but
he's not going to stay gone forever. Because the father who always
works his will, who always does his will, loves that rebel too
much to leave him in the pigpen. God's going to bring all of his
rebellious sons and daughters home. He's going to give them
a new heart, a new nature, a new attitude. And that's our confidence. You know, I told you about we
all have loved ones in those different pig pens. Well, you
want to give up on them? No. Our confidence in preaching
to the lost is this parable. It's our confidence to continue
to pray for them. It's our confidence to continue
to hand out CDs, give messages and things to our lost loved
ones, because if they belong to God, they cannot perish. God won't allow it. If they belong
to God, God's going to bring them to himself through the preaching
of the gospel. That's why we keep preaching
to them. That's why we keep giving them CDs. That's why I keep giving
a link to sermon audio, because if they belong to God, he's going
to call them to himself through the preaching of the gospel.
Isn't that a comfort? I read that down there in charity. That just thrilled my soul. I
hope it's a comfort to you. It is a comfort to you. If you're
a wandering sheep, a dead coin, or a rebellious sinner, that
story of the love of God for sinners will comfort you. Let's bow in prayer. Father, our Heavenly Father,
how we delight to be able to call you our Father. Rebellious,
wicked sons and daughters. Wandering sheep, dead coins,
dead in our own trespasses and sins. Oh, but how we thank you
for your love. That you love sinners. How we
thank you you sent your Son to seek and to save that which was
lost. That you'd save sinners through
the sacrifice, the awful bloody sacrifice that fully absorbed
all the justice of your wrath against the sin of your people
and put it away by His blood. Father, we're thankful. Now we
thank You. Father, bless Your Word, we pray.
Bless Your Word to Your glory. Bless Your Word to the hearts
of Your people to comfort us, strengthen us. Bless Your Word
to the heart. of one lost sheep here this evening,
one who's wandering, one who's dead, one who's in the pigpen
of his own rebellion. Father, cause your word to powerfully
go to the heart of that rebel that you love. Give him life
and call him to the Lord Jesus Christ. For your glory, for the
glory of your son, we