Let's begin this morning in Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 5. I want to talk to you today about
the grace of God. That which is recorded here in
the last five verses of this verse is the universal testimony
of Holy Scripture. By grace ye are saved. Salvation is by grace alone. All who are saved are saved by
grace. All who are justified are justified
freely by the grace of God through the redemption that's in Christ
Jesus. Now I understand that everyone
who claims to believe the Bible claims to believe in salvation
by grace. Everyone says we preach salvation
by grace. But the fact is there are very,
very few people in this world who have even a slight understanding
of what the Word of God teaches about grace. Whenever you hear
or read the word grace, always think of it in biblical terms,
not in the terms of human religion and human understanding. The
Apostle here tells us by divine inspiration, by grace, You are
saved. The word by refers to the source
of grace. It is God Almighty. The source
of salvation is the grace of God. The method by which God
saves sinners. is not the church, it is not
the confessional booth, it is not sacramentalism, it is not
your works, but the method by which God saves sinners is grace,
grace alone without works. The means of salvation is God's
grace. The vehicle through which salvation
comes to sinners is the grace of God and the grace of God alone. The Apostle says, by grace, that
is by God's free favor, by God's unmerited mercy, by God's unconditional
goodness, by God's abounding mercy, love, and grace alone,
salvation comes to sinners. By grace are you, you who believe. You who are born of God, you
who now are redeemed by his blood, justified by his grace, walking
in his Spirit, you are saved. By grace you are presently, right
now, permanently, forever, everlastingly, no matter what comes down the
road. By grace you are saved. In the totality of the work,
Ron, salvation is God's work of grace. In the totality of
it. That means there is nothing about
God's salvation which in any way depends upon you or is determined
by you. It does not depend upon and it
is not determined by what you do, by what you will, or by anything
in you. Salvation is by grace. Now that can't be any plainer
stated than it is stated universally in scripture. The grace of God,
as it is revealed in scripture, is in Christ. All grace is in
Christ. All grace flows to sinners through
Christ. All grace is found by sinners
in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This grace
of God by which we are saved is eternal, everlasting grace. That is, it is grace without
beginning and it is grace without end. It's unconditional, free
grace. It is grace that is in no way
dependent upon or determined by something that's in you or
something that God foresaw would be in you or something that might
be in you. Grace is determined by God's
purpose alone. It is both the attribute of God
and the act of God. This grace of God is sovereign,
discriminating grace. Now let men hoot and holler all
they want to, the fact still stands. God has mercy on whom
he will have mercy. It's not up to you whether God
saves you or not. It is not up to me whether God
saves you or not. It is not up to mom or dad whether
God saves you or not. It's up to God alone. He has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. It is not determined by your
parents. It is not determined by your
pedigree. It is not determined by your
profession. Grace comes according to God's
purpose, God's grace. This grace so freely bestowed
upon sinners according to God's sovereign will is immutable,
unchanging, unchangeable grace. Now this is what that means,
Bill. God did not have grace upon us. He was not induced to
be gracious to us because of anything he foresaw good in us. Nor was his grace repelled by
all the evil that's in us. And all the evil that arises
in us cannot and will not cause God to cease to be gracious. People all the time think, well,
God's gracious and saves you, but now somehow, somehow God's
continuing in a gracious attitude, God's keeping you in grace, God's
continued favor must be dependent upon you. It must be determined
somehow, to some degree, by something you do. Oh, no. No, no. God's
grace is immutable. It never varies. It never changes. It never rises in intensity,
nor does it ever diminish in intensity. This grace of God,
the grace of God which pitched upon chosen sinners in Christ
from eternity, is irresistible, effectual grace. It is the purpose
of God to save His people according to His grace, and God will effectually,
absolutely bring to pass His purpose of grace. His grace cannot
fail. We're not talking about the grace
of a man. We're not talking about the grace of an angel. We're
talking about the grace of God. God's grace is irresistible.
Well, what does that mean? Just exactly what you think it
does. You can't resist it. It means that God, when he has
set his heart upon you, will have you. It means that God,
when he stretches out his hand to save a rebel, will save the
rebel, irregardless of the forces of that rebel's heart, or even
the forces of hell. God will be gracious to whom
he will be gracious. Now, there are many, many beautiful
pictures and illustrations of grace found in the Word of God.
Today, however, I want us to look at just one. You'll find
it in Luke chapter 15, verses 11 through 24. Let me talk to
you about God's grace by showing you one more time the parable
of the prodigal son. Someone called this parable the
pearl of parables. Certainly it is such to me. None
of our Master's parables speak more pointedly, more plainly,
or with greater application to my own experience than the parable
of the prodigal son. Actually, though, when you read
this 15th chapter of Luke, understand that our Lord is here giving
us one parable in three parts. In the first part, he talks about
the lost sheep, which he has come to save, and then the lost
coin, which he restores to the treasury of heaven. and then
the lost son reconciled by God's grace. The purpose of the parable,
always remember this when you read parables, the purpose of
the parable is to show us the grace of God in saving sinners. Every parable is intended to
teach just one thing. Now if you try to make it teach
two or twenty, you're going to mess up. The purpose of the parable
is to teach just one thing. Invariably, when I preach on
this parable of the prodigal son, someone comes up to me and
says, well, who is the elder brother? I don't know. I don't
care. I'm not interested. In fact,
everything I've ever read about the elder brother implies to
me nobody knows who he is. I think maybe he's one of those
stumbling stones the Lord put in the way for unbelievers to
stumble over on their way to hell. But I do know the message
of the parable. The parable is designed to teach
us the grace of God in saving sinners. God the Son, our Good
Shepherd, seeks the lost sheep and fetches it home. God the
Holy Spirit, like a woman sweeping her house, sweeps through the
earth to find the lost coins of Heaven's treasury and restores
them to the treasury. And God the Father, our Heavenly
Father, gladly receives wayward sinners coming to Him by faith
in Christ, because as it is written, He delighteth in mercy. All right, let's look at the
parable. The whole thing is a picture of grace. It shows us the great
delight our God has in the exercise of his saving grace. Three times
over in this parable, we're told of the joy there is in heaven
because of one sinner repenting. Now imagine that, Bob. There
is joy in heaven when lost sinners come to God, trusting his side. Joy in the presence of the angels,
joy among the angels, joy in the heart of God himself whenever
sinners come to Christ. If God the Holy Spirit will graciously
speak, I want to show you five things clearly revealed in this
parable. If you can remember five words, you can remember
my outline. First, wisdom and goodness, and
then the method, and then the reception. and then the joy of
grace. The first thing I want us to
see here is the wisdom of God's grace. The whole scheme of salvation
displays the infinite heavenly wisdom of God our Father. I will not attempt to satisfy
the curiosity of proud, unbelieving men who dare call into question
God's absolute sovereignty But I do want us to see that there
is an act of God's great wisdom in ordaining the fall of our
father Adam and the ruin of our race by Adam. It was not accidental
that Adam fell. The Lord God did not say, if
you eat of the fruit of the tree. He said, in the day you eat thereof,
you shall surely die. Yes, Adam's sin and Adam's transgression
and the fall of the race by Adam's sin and transgression was ordained
by God. Someone says, but you then make
God the author of sin. God forbid. Oh no. Oh no. So how can you explain that?
Don't even try. I don't even try. But this I
know. Adam's transgression did not
sneak up on God's blind side and take him by surprise. The
Lord God Almighty ordained all things that come to pass in absolute
wisdom and goodness to show forth the exceeding greatness of His
grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. To show forth, as the Apostle
says three times in the first chapter of Ephesians, the glory
of His grace. So a pastor, how can it be for
the greater glory of God that man should fall into sin rather
than God keeping man from sin as he did the angels who fell?
He did, didn't he? We're told that he reserved two-thirds
of the heavenly host when Satan tempted the other third and led
them astray. Did not the Lord God keep Abimelech from sinning
with Sarah when it was in his heart to do so? Then certainly,
had it been his purpose, he could easily have kept Adam from the
fall. But it was not his purpose to do so. Well, what's his purpose
then? It is to show us something more
of the glory of His grace than ever we could have known, than
ever we could have seen, than ever we could have experienced
without the fall. You see, had there been no fall,
we would never have known the wonder of redeeming blood. We would never have known the
joy of blood atonement. Had there been no fall, we would
never have known the blessedness and the glory of God in forgiving
sin. Had there been no fall, we would
never have experienced the joy of reconciliation to our God.
Those things alone show us his wisdom in this. You see, the
angels visit us today. Read Ephesians chapter 3. The
angels of God have gathered with us, Ron, as we sing his praise,
as we worship him, as we give instructions concerning his word,
gathered with us seeking to know the mystery of redemption. That they can never know. They
can only know it by word and by theory, never by experience. They know the wonder of God keeping
them from evil, but they know nothing of the wonder of God
saving them from evil. That's reserved only for fallen
sinners saved by his grace. I stress this because I want
you to understand that the Lord God purposed the fall of Adam. so that he might show us the
exceeding riches of his grace in Christ against the black backdrop
of human sin and depravity. And he shows us his great wisdom
in showing forth his glory in saving sinners from the pit of
destruction. He lifted me out of the deep,
mighty clay, settled my feet in the straight, narrow way.
He set me on Christ Jesus, the rock, and built my soul on him. Now, I'm here to tell you of
his free grace. This ought to also give some
comfort and peace to you believing moms and dads with regard to
your wayward rebel sons and daughters. I never read this parable. I
never think of this parable. I never think of rebel children. But what I acknowledge and recognize
and endeavor to to believe it is better to lose any foreseason
and gain them forever than to keep them all the days of their
lives in this world and lose them forever. We don't want to experience the
pain We don't want to experience the heartache. We don't want
our children, our sons and daughters to experience the misery we have
brought upon ourselves by our rebellion and ungodliness. But
God's wiser than we are. He knows the right way better
than we do. He knows what He's doing. And
God Almighty will bring his chosen ones to himself by whatever path
he deems best for the glory of his name and the everlasting
good of their souls. And Father, we bow to your will. Do as seemeth good to you. And he always does. All right,
secondly, this parable displays something to us of the goodness
of God's grace. Nothing more displays the great
goodness of God's grace than what the old preachers used to
call prevenient grace. The word prevenient we don't
much use anymore. It comes from the word from which
we get our word prevent. It means grace which prevents
or goes before or goes ahead of grace. Prevenient grace is
that grace, that secret working of God's grace. that pursues
the heels of God's elect through this world, indeed, that walks
in advance of their heels. It is the grace of God that directs
them, protects them, and provides for them in all the affairs of
their lives, even in their rebellion, until the day that he brings
them to the appointed place of mercy, at the appointed time
of love, when he says, I will be gracious to them. Oh, how
I thank God for prevenient grace. Oh, how my soul relishes in the
knowledge of God's prevenient grace. Pastor, what are you talking
about? Here we see the grace of God,
His prevenient grace in the provision made for the prodigal son. He divided to this prodigal all
his living. I've told you many times about
the passage in Hosea chapter 2. Hosea found Gomer. She was in the arms of another.
She's going to play the harlot. But Hosea loved her with a love
like God has for his people. He says, I found her. I found
her. By law, he could have had her
killed. By law, he could have brought
her back at any time. She was his property. But he
wouldn't have her until he had her heart. And so it says, she
did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied
her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. She'd go to
bed with a stranger at night, and when she got out of bed in
the morning, the stranger was gone, and there'd be a bag of
groceries sitting by her door, and she'd say, look what my lovers
gave me. Just exactly like you and I in our rebellion. Look
what my ungodliness has gotten me! Look what my hands have won
for me! Not knowing all the while. Bobby,
it's our Hosea who provides for us, who cares for us. If you
read this parable carefully, you won't have to read between
the lines to spot the fact that the angel of God was sent here
to watch over this boy. Do we see the protection of God
upon him as he sends his servant to watch over his wayward son?
Well, pastor, how do you know that? Because when he came home,
the elder boy knew everything that was going on. The elder
son had had a constant report. There was constant report at
the house, what was going on with the prodigal, though the
prodigal thought, no, I was older. Now, this is what I'm telling
you. God, in his marvelous grace, created a host of angels to be
ministering spirits to watch over those who shall be ministers,
or who shall be heirs of his salvation." They watch over us now. I can't tell you how many times
we drive down a road and something happens. Shelby usually responds
better than I do. I think, man, I've got this thing
under control, I can handle this. And she says, thank God for angels
riding on the fenders. They watch over and protect us,
but listen now. They rode on the fenders of our
cars in our drunken rebellion, in our utter ungodliness, watched
over us and protected us when we knew nothing about the heavenly
angels keeping us until the day of God's grace. How we live with our fist in
God's face! He sends his angels to watch
over his own and protect them. Like this father, I can almost
hear the charge he gave to his servant. He says, now you go watch over my son Don. He's a rebel. He'll destroy himself. He'll bring himself to utter
ruin. He'll bring himself down to hell. But I'm sending you
to watch over it. You go ahead and let him, you
let him fall just as far as he can fall, only don't let him
fall into hell. You keep it. And thus the Lord God gives charge
to his angels to watch over his chosen, and they do. We see the
Father's goodness, the grace of our God in his wonderful providence. Let's look at this thing in verse
11. A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said
to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth
me. Give me my rights. Give me what I've got coming.
After all, I'm a man. Give me what I've got coming.
After all, I'm your son. Give me that which is due me. And he divided to them his living. Oh, what selfishness rules the hearts of rebel sinners. Utter selfishness. No need for
us to wonder that lost, ruined sinners are selfish creatures,
living to themselves, wanting all things for themselves. No
wonder that the philosophy of the age centers on self, because
every man lives for himself until he's taught to live for God.
Verse 13, and not many days after, the younger son gathered all
together and took his journey into a far country. He said,
I've had enough of this business of doing what Dad tells me to
do. I've had enough of living under authority. I've had enough
of living under law. I've had enough of living by
somebody telling me what to do. I'll take my journey and there
I'm going to go live. Boy, I've got it now. Man, I've
got it now! I've got the world by the tail
on a downhill pull!" And wasted his substance with riotous living. Oh, we've been there, haven't
we? I wish I could get the attention
of everybody here, you who are yet without Christ. A life of rebellion to God is
a wasted life. All the imaginary pleasure you
think you get ministers but to your destruction. It's a waste. A life without Christ is an utter
waste. An utter waste. and when he had spent all, all his money and all his character, all his training and all his
respect, there arose a mighty famine in that land. Oh, I pray that God will create
a famine in your Maybe if God will stir up a famine in your
soul, maybe if God will, in his providence and grace, cause you
to see that you've lost everything, maybe then you'll begin to be
in want. But the natural response, as
Lindsay was telling us this morning, is always, well, boy, I've messed
myself up, I can straighten myself out. I've wasted everything,
I can recover everything. I've ruined everything, I can
restore everything. And so we see in verse 15, he
went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. Now remember,
we're talking about God's providence. Bobby, this too was no accident.
You did the same thing. Went and joined himself to a
citizen of that country. What do you mean? I think John
Gill was exactly right. He said this citizen in this
country, he represents the Pharisaic legal preacher. He went and joined
himself up with this fellow and he said, now son, I realize you've
made a mess of things. Boy, you sure goofed up. You
sure ruined your life, but the things aren't so bad as you might
imagine. I'll tell you what you do. You can straighten this out. You can wash yourself off. You
can mend your tattered garments. You can make yourself presentable
to your Father. You can get yourself back in
His good graces. I'll tell you what you do. I've got a herd
of hogs over here. You go tend my hogs and you can soon work
your way back into your Father's good favor. That's what religion
is without Christ. It's just feeding swine. That's
all. Empty, empty religion. Legal
efforts are all empty efforts. Legal religion is all empty religion. Legal religion is all hog trough
religion. Nothing else. You shouldn't say
that. I wish I could say it so everybody
in the world would hear me. It's just swine's religion, not
sheep's religion. Look at verse 16. And he would
fain. He would have if he could have. filled his belly with the husk
that the swine did eat. Not the corn they ate, just the
husk. And there's nothing in the husk
to fill your belly, nothing in the husk of sacraments, nothing
in the husk of devotion, nothing in the husk of baptism, nothing
in the husk of religious ceremony, nothing to fill your belly. He
would fill his belly with the husk the swine did eat and no
man gave him anything. All right, thirdly, in verses
17, 18, and 19, we're given a picture of the method of God's grace. And he came to himself. Oh, blessed is that sinner who
in God's good providence is made to come to himself. You see, the fact is you who
yet live in rebellion to God are beside yourself. When he
came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my Father's
house have bread enough and to spare, and not perish with hunger? O sinner, hear me, in the Father's house there is
bread enough and to spare. Why do you perish with hunger?
I will arise and go to my Father. He makes a noble resolution.
And I will say to my father, Father, I have sinned against
heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy
son. Make me as one of your hired
hands." Now look at verse 20. Here the Lord Jesus gives us
a delightful picture of the reception of God's grace. And when he arose
and came to his father, and when he was yet a great way off, his
father saw him. had compassion, ran, fell on
his neck, and kissed him. That's the way God is, ladies
and gentlemen. That's the way he is. And the
son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in
thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. And the
father said to his Notice it's in the plural. Preachers can't
do anything, but oh, if God speaks by his servant this day, oh,
if God speaks by the power of his spirit by his servant this
day, he'll do something for you through the voice of his servant.
He said, bring here the bestrow, bring the garment of my son's
perfect righteousness. Put it on him. Righteousness
is not something you get, it's something put on you by God's
grace. Bring the ring, the ring of covenant faithfulness. Put
it on his finger. Bring the shoes, the gospel of
the grace of God, the gospel of peace, and give him something
to walk in through this world. And bring the fatty calf. Bring
forth Jesus Christ, Christ crucified. Kill it and eat! This is what
preachers do. This is the business of gospel
preachers. Bring forth Christ crucified and call sinners to
feast upon him. We've come here today to the
marriage supper of the great King, Jesus Christ the Lord. All things prepared, feast upon
him and make merry. Now then look at verse 24. Here's
the joy of God's grace. God Almighty says this my son
was dead but now he's alive again he was
lost but now he's found and they began to be married the forgiven sinner began to
be married his forgiven brothers and sisters began to be married
God the Father began to be merry. God the Son began to be merry.
God the Holy Spirit began to be merry. All the heavenly angels
began to be merry because God saved the sinner by his matchless
grace. Amen.