Paul says, knowing therefore
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. It's my purpose, my desire by
the power and grace of God the Holy Spirit to persuade you who
are yet without Christ to come to Him. To persuade you to believe
on the Son of God. To persuade you to be reconciled
to God. Give up your fight, you're gonna
lose it. Give up your warfare, God's going to conquer you. Oh,
may He conquer you this day by His grace. And I want to persuade
you who are His to come to Him anew, to fall head over heels
in love with Him all over again, to consecrate yourself to Him
afresh with greater earnestness, greater zeal, greater completion
than ever before. How on earth can I thus persuade
you? Shall I remind you of what you
are by nature, what you were without Him? Look ye to the rock
from which you were hit, to the hole of the pit from which you've
been digged. Don't ever forget. Don't ever
forget what you are without Christ. Just ban it. Less than vanity,
a puff of wind, nothing else. Robert Schuller said years ago,
when he was talking about celebrating the great reformation, he said
500 years ago we had a reformation in which we exalted the dignity
of God. We need now a reformation that
exalts the dignity of man. You don't have any. You don't
have any. No dignity at all before God.
None. Nothing to make you proud. Just
sin, corruption, less than vanity. That's what you are by nature.
That's what you are without Christ. And that's where we were and
what we were when God called us by his grace. Like the prodigal
son, we were in the hog trough trying to fill our belly with
husk fit for hogs, nothing else. Perhaps if we consider what we
are and what we get in Christ, when we come to God by Him, everything
else will appear to be vanity in our eyes and cause us willingly
to turn loose of it. Several years ago, Brother Marvin
Stoniker's dad, Gerald, ran a restaurant down in Tioga, Louisiana, just
outside of Alexandria. And one of these all-you-can-eat
seafood houses, and it was a good place, good place to eat. There's
a kid sitting in there. On a Friday night, the restaurant
was packed. I mean, folks standing in line
trying to get in, and they're standing, and they're taking
up the table, because Mama and Daddy couldn't persuade that
kid to give up a corn cob. He had sucked every bit of the
juice out of it. He had chewed every bit of the corn off of
it, and Daddy was just begging him, like Daddies do these days,
to give him the corn cob. And Gerald losing money every
time that father's sitting there begging that son to give him
some, give him the corn cob so that he'd go home. Finally, Gerald
reached under the counter and stuck something behind his back.
And he said, do you mind if I give it a try? He said, by all means
do. He held him out of Hershey's
candy bar. That kid saw that chocolate candy bar unwrapped,
ready to bite down. He dropped that corn cob like
a hot potato. I want to show you something
better than anything you've got. something better than anything
you can get in this world. And that's Jesus Christ, the Son
of God. Let me show you what you get
when you come to Him. Turn to Luke 15, verse 22. This is the story of the prodigal
son who's come home to his father. And we read here, but the father,
said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes
on his feet and bring hither the fatty calf and kill it and
let us eat and be merry. When poor needy sinners come
home to God When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, not only
does God Almighty rush out to greet the sinner who comes to
him, falling on his neck and smothering him with kisses, but
the Lord God freely gives every repenting sinner all the fullness
of his house. He gives every believing sinner
all the fullness of his infinitely bounteous, superabounding grace. As we look at these two verses,
let me show you four things. First, we see here the intervention
of God's grace. In the opening words of verse
22, The prodigal son came in humiliation, broken, bent, bowing
down to the ground, begging for life, begging just to be allowed
to live as one of his father's hired hands. He said, I'll go to my father
and I'll say, Father, make me like one of your farm hands.
Make me like one of your hired servants. That's more than good
for me. That's indescribably more than
I deserve. But the father wouldn't hear
anything about that. Our text begins with these blessed words.
But the Father said. But the Father. That little three-letter
word, those little one-syllable words are so important in understanding
the Scriptures. That little three-letter word,
but, is expressive of God's indescribable, overflowing, superabounding grace. It's used like that throughout
the New Testament. Listen to this. You turn over to Titus
chapter three. Listen to this. The apostle Paul tells us plainly
that fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate fellows,
abusers of themselves and mankind, thieves, covetous, drunks, revilers,
harlots, extortioners, shall never inherit the kingdom of
God. And that's what you all were. That's what you were. That's what we were. That's what
we are by nature. Not anymore, but that's what
we were. That's where God found us. Listen to this. But, but,
you're washed. But, you're sanctified. But,
you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God. We who were by nature nothing
but corruption now are washed in the blood, sanctified in the
Spirit, justified by the Lord Jesus Christ our God. The Apostle
Paul tells us we were dead in trespasses and in sins. We walked
according to the course of this world, that is, we lived just
like everybody else. Every one of us did, no difference.
Some of us, Merle, took what men call the high road, but it's
just as low as the low road. Some lived in the road of respectability
and morality and religious goodness, so mama and daddy so proud of
them and so happy with them and brag on them all the time, pat
them on the back, everybody looks at them and says, my, my, my,
that's the kind of fella I want my daughter to marry. That's
the kind of girl I want my son to marry. And some of us lived
in the low road, drunkenness, adultery, fornication, that's
serious. But it's the same road. It's
the same road. Ain't a speck of difference.
Not before God. Not before God. We were like everybody else.
Men and women who lived according to the prince of the power of
the air. The course of this world was the course we lived in. among
whom we all had our conversation in time past in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace are you
saved. Paul said I was a blasphemer,
a persecutor, injurious, but I obtained ourselves. Now look
here in Titus chapter three, verse three. For we ourselves
also were sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lust
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. That's a pretty good description
of your neighbor, isn't it? And it's a pretty good description
of his neighbor too. hating one another but after
that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared
not by works of righteousness which we have done but according
to his mercy he saved us that's God's grace and you mark this
down you mark this down until God Almighty steps in your way
and stops you from going to hell. You're a lost sinner. I know this day folks say, well,
God won't interfere with man's will. God loves you too much
to interfere with your free will. You better pray God will interfere
with your will. You better pray God will keep
you from having what you choose. You better pray God will keep
you from having what you desire. God saves sinners by putting
himself in their way. But the father said, thank God
for intervening grace. Thank God he stepped in my way
and stopped me in my mad rush to hell and saved me by his grace. All right, now look at the father's
servants. The father said to his servants, who are these servants? These servants who are commanded
by the Father and given the privilege of bringing out the best robe
and putting it on the prodigal's back. Fetching the family ring
and putting it on his hand, bringing out the shoes he needs for his
feet and spreading the feast of the fatted calf slain for
the prodigal son. Who are these servants? Were
the word servant given in the singular, I would conclude immediately
and declare to you the servant here is God the Holy Spirit. For it is the work of God the
Holy Spirit to take the things of Christ and effectually apply
them to the hearts of chosen sinners. Only God the Holy Spirit
can give you faith in Christ. Only God the Holy Spirit can
speak peace to your heart. And yet, the word servants here
is in the plural. These servants, then, are someone
other than God the Holy Spirit, though they are certainly those
who work by the Spirit. These servants are those men
called and sent of God to serve the interest of His kingdom,
the interest of His glory, and the interest of your immortal
soul. These servants serve you by the ministry of the Word through
the preaching of the gospel. You see, God never bypasses the
use of his specifically ordained means in saving his people. God never bypasses the use of
specifically ordained means in the salvation of sinners. Never.
Never. People say, well, when you talk
about the necessity of gospel preaching, then you make salvation
somehow to depend on works. Nothing of the kind. I'm just
telling you, God never gets in a bind. I make plans, I say I
want to do this this way, this time, this certain place, and
I get in a bind sometimes. I have to shift around, say,
no, I have to do it this way. I was going to do that, but I
don't have the means, I don't have the ability, I don't have
the time, I don't have the strength, I don't have nowhere. I can't
do it that way, I've got to do it another way. That's not God.
God didn't ever change his mind. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And that's the only
way God saves sinners, through the preaching of the gospel.
The word of God is that which is here declared to be the means
by which he saves sinners. The work is God's work, yes,
but the instruments by which he works are gospel preachers. Well, boy, that makes preachers
something special. Well, yes and no. Special to
the folks by whom the word of grace is received, but not special
in themselves. And I'd go out once in a while
and try to help Shelby with her plants. And I'd take the hose,
I was up there the other night, late at night, before I went
inside, I took that hose and squirted water all over those
things. Squirted water all over them. And those thirsty flats,
if they could have spoke, if they could have acted, they'd
have reached out with both arms and hugged that hose and kissed
it right square on the nozzle. Because that hose was the means
by which water came to them. But the hose didn't have a thing
to give them. It was just a conduit pipe through
which the water of life flowed. And that's what gospel preachers
are. Instruments in the hands of God
by whom he confers his grace and his salvation upon chosen
sinners. Gospel preachers are the servants
of the Most High God. Preachers are not priests, but
preachers are not useless. Those, they're useless in themselves,
but not useless because they're servants of God. Not useless
because they're instruments of God. The preaching of the gospel
then is by divine arrangement. Indispensable to the salvation
of God's elect. And indispensable for the edification
of your souls. It is the preacher's business.
Every preacher's business, I stress that. to set forth in the ministry
of the word the righteousness of Christ and the everlasting
love of God. It is the preacher's business,
every preacher's business, to direct believing sinners to a
life and conversation, a manner of life, becoming to the gospel,
and to set before men the rich provisions of grace for the nourishment,
joy, and comfort of our souls. Now, these servants, you'll notice,
Look at the text. They are not ordered. You know,
if you were trying to interpret this text or write it from the
religious perspective of today, these servants would have been
given other orders. But they are not ordered to take the poor
prodigal away from the Father's presence as one who was rejected,
a rejected suppliant, who could not, because of his past now,
be accepted of God. They're not told to terrify and
frighten this poor child with the curse and condemnation of
the law. They're not commanded to fill his mind with wrath and
terror because of his past corruption and sin. They're not told to
put guilt and bondage upon him. These servants are not told to
chastise the prodigal. They're not told to correct the
prodigal for his former manner of life. They're not even required
of God. to put guards around the prodigal.
Now you gotta guard him. Gotta watch him. He might go
back. They're not commanded to fence him in. They're not commanded
to put shackles on his feet and chains on his wrist. Oh no. The father tells these servants
to confer upon his son all the honor and all the high favors
and all the blessings that he of his mercy, love, and grace
could give to any sinner. Bring hither the fatted calf. Bring hither the bestrow. Bring
hither the ring. Bring hither the shoes. Give
him everything. Give him everything. Will you
hear me now? You come to Jesus Christ and
God Almighty gives you everything irrevocably. This is what gospel
preachers are supposed to do. We can't confer grace, but we
can proclaim it. We can't give you peace, pardon,
and righteousness, but we must bring it out before you. And
as I'll show you in a moment, if God gives you these things,
if God the Holy Spirit gives you faith in Christ, We can and
must put the blessings of grace upon believing sinners. The Lord
God says to his servants, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Speak ye comfortably. Speak to
the heart of Jerusalem. Tell her her warfare is over,
her iniquities pardoned, for she hath received to the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. And I look at the rest of verse
22, and I'll show you the provisions of the father's house. Oh, what provisions they are. Being the father of a daughter, I had some desires for my daughter. I wanted my daughter to be well-dressed,
I wanted my daughter to be well-wed. I wanted my daughter to be well-protected. That's what I wanted for her.
And I want her well-fed. But look here. Here are the provisions
of the Father's house. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you are now reconciled to God, if you now confess your
sin before the throne of grace, The Lord God, if he has brought
you down in repentance, if he's revealed Christ in you right
now, if you are made to trust Jesus Christ alone as your everlasting
righteousness and salvation, if you right now look to Christ
alone for acceptance with God, I care not who you are, where
you are, what you've been. Come on now, come here. The Father
himself has sent me to put on your back the best robe of his
house. It's yours. It's yours. It's
yours. I'm declaring to you, it's yours.
If you believe on the Son of God, the Father says to his servants,
go, go to the wardrobe of heaven, go to the closet of glory and
fetch out the best robe and put it on him. It's yours right now. It's yours. Oh, he didn't send me here to
put you on some good, put on you some good robe. There are
lots of robes that look good to men. Adam's fig leaves look
pretty good to him because he didn't have any eyes to see any
better. Good robes are morality. Boy, if we could just If we could
just get that fella to quit being a drunk. If we could just get
him to quit snorting coke. If we could just get him to quit
going down to the brothel. If we could just get her to get
out of the gutter. If we could just get him to quit behaving
so bad. That's what religion's all about.
That's what religion's all about. It's nothing but social reform.
Social reform that cleans up the outside of the cup and platter,
the social reform that paints the sepulcher, but inside you're
still dead men bones. What do you do, God? Well, what's
his best robe? It is the robe of perfect righteousness
in Jesus Christ the Lord. Now, that's a better robe than
Adam had in the garden. That's a better robe than the
angels have in glory. That's a better robe than the
robe of good works, which men adorn themselves with. This best
robe is the robe of Christ's perfect righteousness. I will
greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. This best robe is the first robe. That's really what the word implies.
Not only is it the best, but it's the first. You see, this
robe of righteousness was designed and wrought out in the purpose
of God before the world began. It was woven in the council chambers
of eternity. This robe covers our nakedness. This robe covers all our sins
from the eye of divine justice. This robe protects us from all
injury, saves us from wrath to come. And this robe, when it's
put on you, this robe is something more than what you wear. Ron,
this robe doesn't just make you appear more beautiful, it makes
you beautiful. That's what our Lord said in
Ezekiel 16. He said, you become beautiful. through my comeliness
that I put on them. This robe beautifies us. This
is that robe of which we read, all thy garments smell of myrrh
and aloe and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have
made thee glad. This robe causes us to smell
good. makes us beautiful. The splendid robe of Christ-imputed
righteousness exceeds all others. It's the best robe, it's the
righteousness of Christ, which I hold before you. It's sure,
it's perfect, spotless, immaculate righteousness, even in the eyes
of God. It is the righteousness that
is brought in by the perfect obedience of a man, a man worthy
of God's acceptance, a man of infinite merit, the substitute
man, Jesus Christ. It's the righteousness of infinite
satisfaction made by His atonement in His death upon the tree. This
robe, however, must be put on you. Before you can put it on yourself,
it's got to be put on you. Before I can put it on you, it's
got to be put on you. It has to be put on you by the
imputation of grace. Just as our sin was made to be
Christ's sin, His righteousness is made to be ours by divine
imputation. Without anything we do, it is
put on you by the proclamation of the gospel. It's put on you
by the gift of the Spirit in giving you faith. There's something
special implied in this word here. It comes out clearly in
the original language, though it doesn't so much in our English
text. The robe of Christ's righteousness
is to be put on the believing sinner without delay. Without delay. The text might be translated
this way. The father said to his servants, hurry, go get the
best robe and put it on him right now. Why is that? Why? The Lord God would have us to
understand the immediacy of his grace and his forgiveness. You see, grace doesn't put us
on probation. Grace puts you in salvation.
There's a huge difference. Grace doesn't hold you out here
in limbo and wait to see how things are gonna turn out. When
I first trusted the Savior in my
weak, ignorant faith, looking to Him, Satan rattled my mind
and rattled my heart constantly He said you're not gonna hold
out. You're not gonna hold it. You're not gonna last. You're
not gonna last And the Lord God gave me Special
word you quoted it this morning He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ People think, well, you gotta
live it down. You gotta live down in the past. You have to
for the world, but not for God. Boy, he's been so bad. We'll
wait and see. No, put the best robe on him.
Put the best robe on him. Put the best robe on him. What? The robe of perfect righteousness
and full forgiveness. God has sent me here with a ring
to put on your hand. The hand of faith that receives
Christ, God puts a ring on it. There it is. You know what that ring means?
That means I belong to somebody. Eat your heart out, girls, I'm
takin'. I belong to that lady right yonder. Belong to her. That ring is a
declaration of somebody's love. That ring is a covenant seal. Oh, it is. That ring is God's
declaration. I'm his and he's mine. That's what it is. The Lord God
has sent me here with shoes for your feet. The Holy Spirit tells
us plainly that these shoes are the preparation of the gospel
of peace in Ephesians 6, 15. The gospel of God, the doctrines
of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ are shoes for our feet.
Shoes which beautify our feet. Listen to this. I never noticed
this particularly before in the Song of Solomon, chapter 7. The
Lord Jesus says, how beautiful are thy feet with shoes. old prince's daughter. These
shoes cause us to walk in a straight path and uprightly. These shoes
are those things which keep our feet from slipping and falling
into ruin and destruction. The shoes protect us, protect
us from injury and harm. And blessed be God, they're shoes
that will never wear out. Has God given you faith in Christ? Has God caused you to confess
your sin to Him? Has God made you a suppliant
at the throne of grace? Then this day I declare to you,
Christ's perfect righteousness is yours. All the love of God All the covenant of His grace,
all the promises of His goodness are yours. The gospel, why, it's
yours. It's yours. Come every soul,
by sin oppressed there's mercy with the Lord. and he will give
you rest by trusting in his word. God help you now to come to him. Rod, let's sing number 252, Only
Trust Him.