The Lord Jesus Christ receives
sinners. We've sung about that in our
hymns already this afternoon. The Lord Jesus Christ receives
sinners. He accepts sinners. He welcomes sinners. He comforts sinners. You're a sinner and I'm a sinner. There's none of us here can claim
to be anything but sinners. It is an outworking of our natural
inclinations. We were born sinners and we live
out that heritage of sinfulness in our works, our actions, our
thoughts, and our lusts. But the Lord Jesus Christ receives
sinners. And that's well worth knowing. I wonder if you've ever thought
what a publican was. We know what a publican is today.
We call a publican someone who operates and runs, manages perhaps,
a public house, a tavern, a place where people go, a pub. That would be a publican. But
in scriptures, it has another meaning. and it's often spoken
of as the category of people who resorted to the Lord and
who the Lord received. These publicans were originally
tax collectors. They would collect the tax as
people who were given that role They were given that role by
their overlords. In this case, it was the Romans.
And because the Romans wouldn't necessarily know who all was
eligible, they wouldn't, as it were, have a presence on the
streets as far as business and commerce was concerned. They
gave this task to local men and women. And these publicans who
knew the affairs of the local society, would go in and collect
the taxes. Now as a result of that, they
were not popular people. But I guess they made the choice
that they knew the wealth that they could have and the lifestyle
that they could have was worth the disgust that was generated
by those that they taxed. So these publicans became outcasts
in the society. And after a while, the word publican
became applicable to anyone who was an outcast. So those that
were in the margins of society, those that didn't have many friends,
didn't have those to love them, or didn't feel the warmth and
the comfort of a social network around about them, might well
have been called publicans. And these were the people who
found the Lord Jesus Christ most attractive. So when we encounter
this little phrase, publicans and sinners, we're speaking about
the people on the edges of society. We're speaking about the people
who have realized that they don't have much in this world. They've
come to that place in their life's experience when they realize
that it's not about indulging themselves or enjoying themselves. There's something else gnawing
at their souls. Something else troubling them
in their mind. Something else that doesn't sit
peacefully in their heart. They know there's something missing.
They know there's something more. And they have an appetite after
something deeper and more profound. I don't know whether you would
call yourself a publican by that definition or not. I don't know
whether you would call yourself a sinner after that definition
or not. But the Lord Jesus Christ received
publicans and sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ has something
to say to publicans and sinners. and he has something to say to
you today. He speaks to sinners like you
and like me. He speaks words of love and words
of forgiveness. He speaks words of mercy to men
like us, to women like you. And perhaps you have experienced
something of being despised, despised for something you've
done, despised for something you've said, despised for the
person that you are. Perhaps you've felt the coldness
of this world and the coldness of the people around about you.
Perhaps you've begun to feel something of the alienation the
lack of warmth and welcome in this world that it has for its
own. And you're beginning to think
there must be more to life than this. Perhaps there's a word
for you here today. Perhaps like these publicans
and sinners who came to hear Jesus, you will hear him today. And I trust that the words of
love and comfort and encouragement that the Lord spoke in his own
day will be words which will come into your very heart and
soul and give you a glimpse of a savior and a deliverer and
a friend who will be closer than a brother, who will be more loving
than a father, who will be more gracious to you than the best
of friends, and who will call you his very own. Luke, who wrote
this account, this gospel account, was a doctor. He was a medical
doctor and he knew about patients. He knew about people in need. He knew about people that were
looking for something. If he practised at all in his
medicine, He became an evangelist, of course. He went with the Apostle
Paul and he dedicated himself to the ministry. But if he had
practiced his medicine at all, he would have known about people
who came looking for help. Came looking for help for their
bodily ailments. But now he was discovering people
who came for spiritual ailments, people who came in need of spiritual
help, people who came in order to find medicine for their souls
and not just their bodies. He understood people. And here
in Luke 15, the good doctor tells us about needy people who drew
near to Jesus. Publicans and sinners, poor and
miserable, outcasts and downcast. They came to Jesus and he welcomed
them. And note, when Luke's talking
about this, it almost seems as if he's surprised at the Lord's
appeal. He said, they all came to him. He says here in this opening
verse, then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners
for to hear him. You know what that tells me?
It tells me that there is something that distinguished these people
from others. These people were the publicans
and the sinners. But it also tells me that while
they were particularly distinguished as publicans and sinners, they
were also included in that great all who came to him. There is
room in Jesus. There is access to the Lord. There is in the Lord Jesus Christ
room for you, publican and sinner. There is room and he will hear
you because he receives sinners. They came to listen to the Lord
Jesus Christ. They came to hear him speak. Picture them there if you can,
in your mind's eye. Picture those people, all those
publicans and sinners that came to the Lord. Picture them if
you will. There's the lonely outcast that
nobody really speaks to, who can go for days and maybe weeks
without anyone giving him a kind word. And there's that detested
harlot that the women all speak about because they hate her,
but they fear her because they know that she is a temptation
to their husbands. And there's that violent man,
that man that isn't above lifting his hand or lashing out with
his feet if you get on the wrong side of him. You need to be careful
with him. you might put one on your chin.
And there's that thief. Nobody likes to have him around
their house because they never know but that he's having a little
look to see what he might come back and take when you're not
watching. Misfits, liars, every one of
them. People who were in that society,
ne'er do wells. They had reputations, these people. Nobody liked them much. These
were the lowest of the low. These were the outcasts. These
were the publicans and the sinners. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
received them. They went to him because he had
words to speak that were attractive for their souls. He welcomed
them. He ministered to them. and all
who came to him received these words of help. John chapter six
in verse 37, the apostle there says, all that the Father giveth
me, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is speaking, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. Him that cometh unto me I will
in no wise cast out. Sinner, will you come to Christ? Publican, outcast, will you come
to Christ? Turn with me in your Bibles,
please, to 1 Corinthians chapter six. I just want to show you
a little thing there which I think will just put this in context. 1 Corinthians chapter six. Look at verse nine. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind. nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. But look, and such were some
of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. What a catalogue of sin that
is. Did you find anything in there
that identified you? Did you find anything in that
list of unrighteous activity that identified you? You know,
when the apostle there says to that congregation at Corinth,
such were some of you, That is showing us that no matter how
grievous our sin has been, no matter how bad our conduct, no
matter how alienated we have become from the norms and morality
of our peers and our company and what the church and righteous
people might think is acceptable, there is a way back to God. There is a way of salvation.
and it is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. So these publicans and
sinners came to Jesus. Will you come? Will you come
to Christ? Will you come as a publican?
Will you come as a sinner? Will you come as a needy soul
to Christ? Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, joined with power. Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised
and mangled by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous. Sinners, Jesus came to call. Luke tells us here in this passage
that there is another group present also. Righteous men, self-righteous
men, I should say. The scribes and the Pharisees. And they weren't comers to Christ,
they were spectators. They were observers. They were
the ones that stood on the edges and murmured when they saw what
was happening. And here, as this gathering of
sinners, the publicans and sinners came to the Lord, they murmured
at what they saw happening. For them, Jesus was mixing with
the wrong kind of people. We need to be careful in our
own day, you know, that we don't imagine that we need to close
these doors of our church against the wrong kind of people. Would
we be happy to see the dregs of society coming into our church? I hope so. I hope so. You know, because really, it
wasn't too long ago that many of us were amongst them. But
for the grace of God, there go I. These men murmured against
the Lord. And that despite the fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ had previously explained why he was speaking
to these people. In Luke chapter five, verse 31,
there the gospel writer had said, Jesus answering said unto them,
they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick. See, Luke, the doctor, remembered
that. You see, he thought, ah, physician
and doctors and sickness. He knew what the Lord was saying. And these Pharisees ought to
have heard and ought to have listened and understood. And
yet, these gainsayers still criticized the Savior. But you know, I think
that it's a wonderful thing that the Holy Spirit has done in even
allowing these Opponents of Christ to be present that day when the
Lord was receiving these publicans and sinners. Because had they
not been present, we would not have had the rest of this chapter
to consider this afternoon. It was the fact that these men
murmured against the Lord that these three parables are set
before us in Luke chapter 15. each of them addressing a particular
thing, each of them speaking of something that was lost. In
the first one, it was a sheep. In the second, it was a coin.
And in the third one, it was the sun, the parable of the story
of what we call now the prodigal son. The Lord Jesus Christ, he
came to seek and to save. These great truths that we have
in this passage are an encouragement for each of us, I trust, to realize
that the Lord Jesus Christ is approachable, he is accessible,
and he is able and willing to hear from us today that prayer,
that request for help and for salvation. These three parables are gems
in the revelation of Scripture to us. They show us how God has
gone forth in love and gentleness to recover that which was lost. Together they form a masterpiece,
a beautiful picture upon a canvas that teaches us of the ways of
redemption and recovery. Each story is profitable in itself
to be considered and might make a suitable subject for a sermon
in its own right. But I want just briefly to take
it as a whole and to show how these things are true in the
lives of men and women like us today. The Lord Jesus Christ is, as
it were, saying to these Pharisees, let me tell you what this is
all about. Let me show you what I'm doing
here. Let me explain to you something
that you obviously don't understand. And let me do it in the simplest
way possible. Let me bring to you these three
stories that anyone can understand, the simplest, the youngest amongst
us. The children can hear these stories
and understand something about what is being taught here. I
don't need to go into these stories and give you a blow-by-blow analysis
of them, but taken in the round, we can see that this is a picture
of Christ coming to seek and to save. Robert Hawker was an
Anglican minister down on the south coast of England and he, in his Poor Man's Commentary,
he is of the view that the three parables linked together as closely
as they are and so purposefully bound up together are a reference
to the three persons of the Godhead. When we think about the shepherd
who lost the sheep, that is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is often described in Scripture as the good shepherd, and the
good shepherd that goes and looks for the lost sheep. When we think
about the lady, the householder, who lost that coin, he pictures
that in his commentary as being a picture of the Holy Spirit,
going forth to seek and to search for those who are lost. And then, of course, the father
in the third parable of the lost son, speaking there about God's
love and how God welcomes and receives those who come to him
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Be that as it may, it's a lovely
picture, I think, that that faithful preacher of old has set before
us. But it is true, surely, that
we can see In these parables, something of the fullness of
the salvation that the triune God has for those that are lost,
those that are the publicans and the sinners, the strangers
and the outcasts, the lost and the weary in this world. The Lord Jesus Christ, he is
seen as that one who goes forth just as our Saviour came forth
from heaven, sent of the Father to accomplish the great salvation. He went forth into the wilderness
seeking out that wayward sheep, that lost sheep, and finding
it, he places it upon his shoulders and he carries it home. I love
the picture of the Lord carrying that sheep home. The Lord didn't,
which is what I would do. I would have got that sheep and
I would have tied a rope around its neck and I would have dragged
it all the way back. I would have said, you naughty
sheep, bringing me out here into the wilderness. Or I would have
got a stick and I would have whipped it all the way home.
But that's not what the Lord does with his people. He gathered
his sheep onto his shoulders. He doesn't even cause us to walk
back home. He carries us. And that's something
of the rest that we find in Christ when we come to him. That speaks
something of the fact that we no longer are bound to duties
and obligations and wearisome law works. as if that is going
to make us fitter for the presence of God. It is Christ's work of
gathering. It is His work of coming and
laying down His life, shedding His blood for the atonement of
sinners. That job is done. We rest in
Him and He carries us all the way to glory. We are God's little
flock. We are precious to him. And in
this picture that we have of the good shepherd going forth,
we can see that the elect people of God are often called his sheep. A little flock, a beautiful flock,
and yet all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone
to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of our souls. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
good shepherd, that great shepherd, the one who cares, the one who
protects, the one who provides, the one who in the midst of the
storm gathers in his coat and steps out into the rain and the
wind and seeks out that lost sheep. I used to live in Teesdale
in County Durham, and those of you who have any farming or country
knowledge will know that a sheep will hide itself away in at the
corner of a wall or under a cliff in the midst of a storm. And
they're very, very difficult to see. And so that search has
to be complete. It has to be exhaustive. It has
to be comprehensive. And so the picture of the householder
comes to mind. For that one who loses what is
precious will leave no stone unturned, no corner unexamined. She will call for a light to
be brought. She looks for it all day, and
in the fading light of evening, she lights up a lantern and she
continues to seek. No one can run so far from the
Lord that they will not be discovered by God the Holy Spirit. How long
have you been running, sinner? How long have you been away from
the Lord? But yet the Lord has brought
you to this place today. This is the Holy Spirit's broom
that is at work. This is God the Holy Spirit that
has brought you here. This isn't just the randomness
of circumstance. This is a word that is tailored
for you because God the Holy Spirit is seeking out a people
for himself. It is a beautiful picture that
is before us. And here we find that in salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ comes. Our Savior came to the cross. He satisfied every demand. And that makes this message good
news for you. Good news for your soul. If there was one outstanding
duty that was required still to be done after Jesus had done
everything else, then it's that one outstanding
duty that would have all the attention, it would have all
the focus, it would have all the prominence and all the priority. And all that the Lord Jesus Christ
had done short of that, as it were, would simply be taken for
granted in the hope that this last one thing, this last duty
that was incumbent upon the sinner, fell upon the weak sinner, might
perhaps be done. But which of us can rise to such
a duty of pleasing God? In our thoughts, in our actions,
in our way of life, in our decisions, in our choices? It had to be everything, or it's
nothing. It had to be all, or it would
never be accomplished, because this weak flesh would never allow
it to be so. Perhaps you've heard the phrases
hyper-Calvinist and antinomian. These two words are very often
locked together, and people that use them as kind of accusations
against Christians or people of a particular theological understanding,
they use the two words together because they know that the people
who they are talking about, they insist that grace is both free
and sovereign, that everything that is necessary for the salvation
of a sinner has been done, everything. Not only do they insist that
everything has been done, which is the hyper-Calvinist part of
it, but they insist that there's nothing that needs to be added
to it subsequently, which is the antinomian part of it. Because
that is what distinguishes us in our theological understanding,
in our scriptural theology. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
has done everything. That Good Shepherd did everything. He laid down his life for the
sheep. He carries us home. And all that
is needful has been satisfied. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
our all in all. We can neither save ourselves
prior to conversion, nor keep ourselves subsequent to conversion. but we look to the Lord Jesus
Christ, both as our deliverer and as our sustainer, and we
see in Him all that we require. That is why we call this a rest. That is why we rest in Him. He is all our redemption, and
He is all our righteousness. Christ is the Lord, our righteousness. And there are no law works, and
there are no duties, and there are no moral codes, and there
is no lifestyle requirements, and there's no dress, and there's
no food laws, and there's no things that have to be done in
order to keep us in this way. because he has done everything
that is needful. What of that lost coin then?
Well, there's no hiding from the Lord. There's no escape from
the Lord. That Spirit of His, remember
we've spoken about the promises that come, and those promises
that were made in the everlasting covenant to God the Son by God
the Father to say that this people of His choice, these elect people,
this sheep, this flock of His love would be given to Him. That
flock has to be gathered. That wandering flock has to be
gathered in. And while the good shepherd has
come and laid down his life for that flock, now the work of the
Holy Spirit is to go abroad. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke to
Nicodemus, that leader of the Jews who came to the Lord by
night. And the Lord said to him, the
Holy Spirit is like the wind. You don't know where it's come
from and you don't know where it's going. but you can see its
effects. And when a sinner comes to Christ,
we can see the effects of God the Holy Spirit. We can, as it
were, see what this woman in her house who lost the coin has
been about, searching out every nook and cranny, every corner,
every dark place in order to find those sinners and publicans
and draw them to himself. A brush, a light, a determined
sweeper. You can never hide from God. You can never be like Adam in
the garden and cover yourself up with the leaves of the trees
and think that God's not going to know all about you. You can
never be like Jonah in the ship and get down into the hold and
try and hide there. God'll snap that ship in two.
in order to shake you out. And he will disrupt your life,
he will break your relationships, he will cause you all manner
of trouble. You know it's an interesting
thing in life, we wish the best for our children. We want our
children to have good lives, we want them to have a good education,
we want them to have peace in their life, we want them not
to have illnesses, not to have sadnesses, not to have broken
relationships, not to have troubles in this world. but we want them
to come to Christ as well. And sometimes God will take,
that's what we sang in our opening hymn. What if it's a cross that
takes us closer to the Lord? What if the cost of disrupting
our lives is that all of these hardships and trials have to
be brought into our experience? so that we will have rid of everything
that is a distraction to us and only the Lord before us. The Lord Jesus Christ was slain
for his people. The Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed
his people. And that people will be brought
out of every kindred, the book of Revelation says, every tongue
every people and every nation, and the work of God the Holy
Spirit in the preaching of the gospel is to go forth and gather
in God's elect. So the Holy Spirit sends forth
the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth,
to every nation and kinred and tongue and people, to the same
end of discovering the lost and gathering in that which will
glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. And the word that is preached
by the Spirit is made life unto life. And I note too that This gospel
preaching that we see pictured in this picture of the lady with
her broom and her light searching in the darkness for that precious
coin, that gospel preaching that is spoken of in that picture
is a careful and a serious matter. That woman wasn't kidding about
finding that coin. She would do anything and everything
because it was precious to her. And so preachers of the gospel
seek diligently to bring that message to the ears of hearers,
as the Lord Jesus Christ himself did. and was attractive to those
publicans and sinners. We look for opportunity for that
message to go forth to the hearing of those that the Holy Spirit
is bringing under the sound of our voices. God enables that
word to go forth in power. He makes it lively. He makes
it sharper than a two-edged sword. It pierces even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. And what a beautiful picture
we have with the lost son. There was a boy who was wayward,
a boy who decided that he knew better than everyone around him,
a boy who, we would say, had his own mind about things. Ah,
but all he was doing was following the lusts of his own fallen nature. At one level, that's a cautionary
tale of our weak human flesh. And I don't think in some respects
this story has any character in it that is without reproach. because the father surely was
overindulgent in giving this boy so much of that money that
he requested. He gave him a half of all that
he possessed and allowed him to go and make all those mistakes. The other brother, again, there's
very little attractive about him. And so this picture shows
us something about the follies, even of those who have the best
principles at heart. But of course, the beauty of
the parable is that it goes beyond the immediate natural narrative,
and it gives us a spiritual kernel of truth. And that's what we
are drawn to see here. Two features, I think, stand
out here when we consider these things spiritually. First, we
compare the actions of this young man to that of the sinner. Yes, he was a sinner, and yet
he had gone down to that very rock bottom. Sometimes we call
it skid row. He was on skid row. He'd got
to the very lowest of the low. There was a hopelessness about
this young man. Such a hopelessness that he was
willing to give himself over to a stranger in order to find some sort of employment. And that stranger sent him out
into his fields to feed pigs. The young man, we are told, was
so hungry that he would have eaten the food that was set aside
for the pigs. I'm sure that the Lord Jesus
Christ, knowing that he was speaking largely to Jews on that occasion,
chose the elements of his story purposefully. There's nothing
more repulsive to the Jews than such an idea as this. but the
picture is painted in order to show us how low this young man
had come. And I think there's some comfort
there for us, because no matter whether we're speaking about
ourselves or perhaps those that we love or perhaps those that
we pray for, there is nothing that will stop the work of God
accomplishing his purpose, even the very lowest of the low. This young man had opportunities
to confess his sin. But it's interesting that he
was willing to go to such an extent rather than go back to
his father, probably because he knew all that he had done
and his pride was too much. What a terrible thing if we let
our pride get between us and salvation. What an awful thing
if we forgo eternal life because we're too proud to admit that
we're sinners and that we're in need of a savior and that
that savior can provide all that we require. But I just can't
take it because it means me going and confessing humbly that I'm
a sinner before a holy God. Would you lose all that God can
give you for that? It is only when we come to ourselves. Matthew chapter seven, verse
seven says, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall
find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. But maybe rather than
asking, maybe rather than seeking, maybe rather than knocking, you
would prefer to eat pig swill. It's just your pride, just your
pride. Come to ourselves, to an end
of ourselves, is another way of putting that. Come to get
over yourself. Come to an end of yourself. Come
to yourself. Realize that what you are is
what you are. And what you need is a forgiveness
and a cleansing and a redemption and a salvation. It is only when
we are shown the hopelessness and helplessness of our state,
only when we see ourselves truly as we are, as publicans and sinners,
that we will find that attractiveness in Christ. We will seek that
way of forgiveness and mercy. And no matter what that providence,
no matter what those circumstances might be that empties us of self,
it is a gracious providence if it leads us to the Savior. Second thing that I want to notice
from that story is this, that the older brother is like those
who have a profession of faith. but they have no possession of
Christ. That's what I take him to represent. They have an outward profession. I've done all the commandments. I've lived faithfully. I've done
all that you asked. I've been here. When he went
away, I was here. I was the solid one. I was the
one that kept the church going. I was the one that kept on opening
the door. I was the one that kept on doing
what was necessary. And there are many, many people
today in churches, and they are so self-righteous. They think
that they're doing all the commandments of God, living holy upright lives,
and they are just like this elder brother. There's no pity in them. There's no love in them. There's
no grace in them. There's no forgiveness in them.
There's no mercy in their soul. They have a profession without
a possession. And in this world, there are
those who are broken, and there are those who are recovered,
redeemed children in the family of God. These two are set opposite one
another. Notice the folly of judging by
outward appearance. This older brother, to all intents
and purposes, looked as if he was a faithful, obedient, parent-honoring
son. He would be a credit to any congregation. Just the kind of person that
you would want in your church. Just the kind of solid, dependable
person that you would want to have. One who's always there.
One who, when it gets to night time, is making sure that all
the gates in the field are locked and all the animals are safely
in their stables. Not away chasing after the harlots
in the town. That's what we would judge from
an outward appearance. That's what we would discern
from looking on the outside. But his heart was hard and his
awareness of grace was nil. There was no grace in him. Outwardly
obedient, inwardly hard as nails. And that is a contrast to the
broken, contrite, humbled, full of grace prodigal that returns
to their father and confesses their sin before God. Lord Jesus
Christ is here set before us, the great work of salvation.
And whether it is as that lost sheep for whom the shepherd had
to go out into the wilderness, or that lost coin for whom the
householder had to search in the dimness of twilight by candle,
or whether it is this son that is brought home from the pigsty
in order to be reunited with his father and experience that
joy of a father's love, this is a statement of salvation. But notice in all three of these
parables, it is a salvation that is wrought upon that which is
lost by that which is able. The shepherd, the woman, the
father, they all speak of receiving that which is lost. And here the triune God in all
of his glory is manifested to us, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
in the recovery of a lost sinner. It is a going out of grace by
the coming in of a redeemer, of the Lord Jesus Christ being
received in the heart of a sinner. That Saviour, that Redeemer,
that One who atoned for our sins died upon Calvary as One who
gave His own life for the lives of His people. This work of ingathering
by the Holy Spirit, this recovery of the flock that was loved before
time, that has been sought out in the world through the preaching
of the gospel, that is discovered by gospel light and its illumination
in this dark world, is a picture of God's working salvation in
the life of a sinner. The ragged, shoeless, Prodigal
son had sold his coat. I bet it was a good coat. I bet
it was the finest coat that a father could provide for his son. That ragged prodigal had sold
that coat long ago to try and stave off the emptiness in his
belly. But he had just consumed all
that he'd got for it. and still he was empty and still
he was hungry. He did not have any longer that
signet ring on his finger, that too undoubtedly had been pawned
long ago. But now he wears a fine robe,
the best robe. Now he wears his father's ring, His father's ring would have
his father's initials upon it. He carried it around to show
that he wasn't a servant, he was a son. A son that was lost
and now he is found. A son that was dead, but now
he is alive. And that son no longer has to
feed himself with pigswill, for he sits at the father's table
in a position of prominence. and he eats the finest meat from
the fatted calf and he dines on sumptuous fare. These are
the blessings that come to sinners, come to the lost, come to the
weary who come to Christ. Every gift is God's to give. His righteousness as a garment
to cover our nakedness. His name as a ring upon our finger,
His enduring sustenance to nourish our souls and lead us into His
presence. The publicans and the sinners,
they came to Jesus because Jesus came for them, because the Father
loved them, and because the Holy Spirit drew them. It isn't any
different today. When the gospel is preached,
it falls on various kinds of soil. And somewhere along the
line, when that gospel is preached, it will fall on good ground.
And that good ground will be the heart of those who long to
hear the good news of the gospel and discover something of the
Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal savior. Are you a sinner? Jesus receives sinners. Are you
an outcast and a wanderer? Jesus receives outcasts and wanderers. These publicans and sinners came
to Jesus. They were strangers in this world
and they were strangers to this world. But they came and they
found friendship and fellowship and family in the living Christ. Holy Father, do what is needful
to bring us to an end of ourselves. Send a famine if that's what
is needed. Break our bank if that's what
it takes. Smash our pride if that will
lead us to thyself. Do whatever it takes but draw
us to Thee and nourish us with Thyself, we pray. Amen.