The lesson this morning will
be taken from Luke chapter 15, verses 11 through 24. The subject of these verses is
about God looking for a lost son. Let's read these verses together.
Luke chapter 15, beginning with verse 11. And he, that is Christ, said,
a certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said
to his father, father, give me the portion of good that falleth
to me. And he divided then 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 with riotous living. And when he'd 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 swine. And he would fain have filled
his belly with the husk that 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's have bread enough
and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to
my father. And I say to him, Father, I've
sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to
be called thy son. Make me 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've sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more
worthy to be called thy son. He had his little memorized speech,
and he said it. But the father said unto his
servants, bring forth the best robe 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 married.
For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost,
and he's found, and they begin to be married. Now this is the
third parable given in answer as to why our Lord received and
ate with publicans and sinners. He's talking to these Pharisees
who were murmuring because he was hanging out with that crowd
and not with them. The first was a parable of the
lost sheep, illustrating the work of the Son of God coming
into this world to save his sheep. And then the second one, the
second parable was about a lost coin, a token of benevolence
lost in a filthy dark house. This is the work of the Holy
Ghost in us. And this morning is the parable
of the lost son. And this is a parable showing
the work of the Father in the salvation of chosen sinners.
That's what this is about. Our Lord's telling them a threefold
salvation accomplished by God the Son, God the Holy Spirit,
and God the Father. And it's all in answer as to
why are you going down there instead of over here? And he's
telling them why. Now let me point out five things
this morning concerning the work of the father and the salvation
of his sons. First of all, it's the father's
purpose in giving his son a token of his living. When did God begin
to provide for his sons? After we profess faith? Uh-uh. Uh-uh. Long before you was ever
born, he made provision for us. After we was born, did he not
by his grace feed us, take care of us? What have you gotten that
you haven't received? And if you received it, why do
you go on like you didn't? We love to talk about what we
earned and what we're worth and what we're worthy of. Truth is,
God gave it all to you. It's a gift of God. And so this
was a token of benevolence. The father gave him a portion. Actually, it wasn't
his portion that he gave him. It was a portion of his own that
he gave him. It's the father's purpose in
giving his son a token of his living to prove to him and in
him what he truly is by motive and by choice and by practice.
Our Lord told these same self-righteous men in John chapter 6, verse
44, they were murmuring. They said, he said, he's the
bread of God come down from heaven. And he said, don't murmur. Murmur
not. No man can come to me except
the Father which sent me draw him. I raise him up at the last
day. Written in the prophets, they
shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
learned, hath heard and hath learned of the Father, he comes
to me. Father was not ignorant of what
lie out there where his son was going. He knew what was out there.
I told my children, Cynthia in particular, I said, I've been
down this road, and I know where every pothole is. And I think
I fell in every one of them. And if you'll listen to me, I'll
tell you where the holes are. But if you don't want to listen,
there's the road. Go fall in them yourself. The
father knew what was out there. He knew where his son was going.
He knew what would befall his son. He wasn't ignorant of what
lie out there, where his son went, or how he'd be treated.
But it is necessary for him to learn it firsthand. And there's no part of our lives
that God's providence has not laid out in detail. Now, what
this boy's father must have known was just general. But what God
the Father knows is precise, because he orders it. And everything
in our lives. God has purposed in his providence
and brought it to pass. So here's a sinner being taught
of God about his sin. Secondly, here's a sinner contemplating
the goodness of his father to all that were in his house. He
begins to look at himself and look where he's at and look what
he's going through and look what he's up. And he said, boy, it
ain't this way in dad's house. His servants had bread to give
away. They had bread enough and to
spare. They could give bread away. And I'm out here looking at raw
corn cobs, thinking about eating them. Looked pretty good, didn't
it? Even the hired servants in his
father's house. had bread enough and despair.
And it's the goodness of God, my friend, that leadeth you to
repentance. God begins to reveal in his gospel
his goodness. His goodness. His Father was
good to the servants. They owed the Father. They were... Some of them sold
themselves into servitude. Some of them volunteered into
it. But either way, they weren't
worthy of anything. It's just the goodness of his
father that took care of them. This man went into servitude. His son did. And that man treated
him like dirt. He put him out there feeding
the swine. Put him out there with the hogs, It's the goodness of God that
leadeth thee to repentance. Of all those under sin, it says
there's none good. You remember the rich young ruler
came to our Lord, and he said, good master, and Christ stopped
him right there, dead in his track. And he said, why callest
thou me good? There's none good but God. You
saying I'm God? Goodness is not an attribute
of the sinner. And when a sinner sees the goodness
of God, he does not see it in its purest form, only in the
context of his present situation. What was this man seeing? He
was seeing something better. Something better. And then thirdly,
here's a sinner, yet in his ignorance, preparing to confront his father,
of whom he was still ignorant. And he said, here's what I'm
going to do. I know how my father, you know, he thought he knew
a lot about his father. He didn't know anything about
his father. But he thought he did. And he said, here's what
I'm going to do. I'm going to go to him. He's a godly man.
So I'm going to confess my sin. I'm a sinner against heaven.
I've sinned against you. I'm not worthy to be your son.
If you could just let me have a position as a servant, I'd
be happy. So he made up this little speech. And he said, I'll rise and go
to my father, and I'm going to say all these things to him. He had no visions of grandeur
when he got there, no sights of taking charge of anything,
just a servant hoping to get a little bread. And these sinners being received
by Christ were all people with a need. They were needy. This son was needy. He was starving
to death. He was needy. A great famine
had arose in the land. That famine, he tells us, is
not of bread. But it's hearing the Word of
God. That's the famine. And the prodigal boy, he was
desperate. He was desperate, and he was
a man shut up to his father. He had nowhere else to turn. And he was a man whose free will
had led him to obscurity. A man insists on his free will,
and that's where his will take. I know you. You will not. It's
a will not, as far as God's concerned. You will not come unto me that
you might have life. But God uses the will. Man doesn't
have a free will, that's a soap bubble that religions put over
on the world. But God does use the will. Man has a will, and God works
in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure. All his
people are willing in the day of his power. And God exerts
power in your soul, power over you. You will. You will. And the prodigal said
to himself, I will. I will. Well, you will, too,
in the day of God's power. You will. And then, fourthly,
here's the heart of the parable. Not so much the sins of the prodigal. Every time I hear somebody preach
on the prodigal, they make big of the sins of the prodigal.
This message is not about the sins of the prodigal so much
as it is the benevolence of the Father. That's what this is about. It's the character of the Father.
And when he was yet a great way off, his Father saw him. Now
let me ask you something. How far can God see? When does God see His Son? How
far can God see? He can see plumb back in eternity. And He can see the end from the
beginning. He sees all things. God sees
the thoughts and intents of the heart and there's no creature
that's not manifest in His sight. He said all things are naked
and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. His
father saw him a great way off. How did he see him? Returning
to him. The father saw him coming home. God sees his elect in Christ,
predestinated under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself. Because your sons, he said, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. God has ordained all the means
to recover His banished, and there's no chance of any of them
not coming home to Him. They're all coming home. All
coming home. Paul said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb to reveal His Son in me. When did He do it? When it pleased
God. Wouldn't it please God? Here's a loving father watching
for his son, waiting to be gracious. All provision laid back, all
his servants ready to obey, waiting for the command. And the father
sees his son returning pitiful, ashamed, broken, bankrupt. And his father, it says, had
compassion. He saw him a great way off and
he had compassion. Compassion is a word that means
a sympathetic pity. But this is the definition I
want you to take home with you. Showing favor to one that is
needy. He was ready to show favor to
a needy son. And all God's children come home
needy. Listen to this, Psalm 72, 13.
He shall spare the poor and needy. Who's he going to spare? The
poor and needy. And shall save the souls of who? The needy. And all God's children come home
to their father needy. And the rest of what our Lord
pictures ought to thrill the hearts of needy sinners. It says
in verse 20 of our text that he saw his son a great way off. He saw him coming, and he had
compassion. He was ready to show favor to
that needy son. Now watch this. We wonder sometimes,
will God have mercy on me? Could God show favor to me? It says in verse 20 of our text
that the father ran out to meet the prodigal. You can't picture
in your head God running to meet you, can you? But he did. He
did. I don't know what the distance
was, between the two, but I'm telling you, the father covered
more distance than the son. He did. The father ran out to meet the
wayward son, and nothing more breaks the heart of the sinner
than knowing he sinned against the love of God. He cannot picture God ready to
save him, ready to forgive him, ready to restore him, ready to
receive him, into full sonship. Now remember, the father saw
the returning prodigal far off, long before the wayward son saw
him, and he ran to him. Now watch this. And he fell on
his neck and kissed him. He kissed him. I'm a father,
and I have a wayward son. And I can only pray that one
day God will make him hungry enough to come home. And if he does, if he does, I
hope I love him enough to run out and fall on his neck. Oh, sinner, this is talking about
God. This is talking about God. Seeing his son suffering in a
cruel world, suffering under the curse of sin, misused, lied
to, taken advantage of. And now is the time, the time
waited for, God's time. And he runs out to meet him,
and the son goes into this rehearsed and memorized thing, I'm a sinner,
and he spits it all out just like he purposed to do. I've sinned against heaven and
against you. I'm not worthy to be called thy
son. He couldn't imagine, not his
wildest imagination, he could not imagine a total restoration
as a sinner. Do you ever remember a day when
God was working with you that you could sit back and say, well,
he's going to restore me to full something? No, you're just hoping
to get in the door. Huh? He couldn't imagine a total restoration. He could not imagine a perfect
reconciliation. He could not imagine a complete
and perfect standing before his Father. Can you? Can I? But totally contrary to reason,
it says But the father, he didn't talk to the son, the son spoke
his little piece, and the father turned and looked at his servants.
And he said, bring forth the best robe and give it to him. Uh-uh, that ain't what it says. You read it again. It said, bring
forth the best robe, he's talking to his servants now, and put
it on him. You don't give it to him and
he puts it. You put it on him. How does a man acquire the perfect
righteousness of Christ? He puts it on him. That's how
he gets it. The robe made special for the
sinner. The royal robe. The son's robe. His name clearly embroidered
on the robe. And put it on him. Strip him
of them old rags and put my robe on him. Under the authority of
the Father, the servants do what they're commanded to do. And
the preaching of the gospel in the power of God's Spirit strips
the sinner of his old rags and puts the robe of righteousness
on him through the gift of faith. And now watch this. And give
him the ring. And what's this? Put the ring
on his finger. You put it on him. Now we ain't talking about just
a ring. We're talking about the family crest. We're talking about
the seal. He could take that ring and put
it in a wax seal on a document and it was secure. He said put
the ring on him. Put the seal on him. You wore
that ring. You were his son. Oh, my soul. A seal of my name, a family seal,
if you will. And don't ask him if he wants
it. Don't offer it to him. Put it on him. Put it on him. Are you listening? And shoes
on his feet. Don't tell him where the shoe
store is. Take the shoes. I've already provided the shoes.
You take the shoes of my provision, and you put them on his feet. You kneel down before him, because
he's my son. And you wash his feet, and you
put my shoes on him. Shod with the preparation of
the gospel. Shoes of stability, shoes to
stand in the grace and mercy of God. Verse 23, and bring hither the
fatted calf. They'd set a calf aside. They
didn't know why. The master said, go take that
calf and put him up in the stall and feed him. And he said, you bring forth
that fatty calf and let's eat and be merry. This was a calf
set apart for eating, a calf of four prepared for feasting. And every wayward son of God
coming home has a slain sacrifice to feed on, doesn't he? Huh? This is talking about feeding
on Christ. That's what this is talking about. He eats the flesh
of the Son of God and spiritually drinks his blood. And the father
then makes a toast. He makes an announcement to everybody. And he said, for this my son
was dead and is alive again. And he was lost and is found. And they all begin to be merry.
Who was merry? Was these Pharisees merry? No,
they were murmuring. They were complaining. They were
disgusted because he was down there eating with these sinners.
But those sinners down there were sons, and they weren't. And he tells all his servants
and everybody, he said, we're going to eat and be merry. And
they said, and they were. Why does this man receive and
eat with sinners? Because they're all lost sheep. Because they're all searching
for a token of God's love and because they're all wayward sins
coming home in repentance and humility. And they begin to be
merry. Oh, may the Lord enable us to
see these things and be merry.