Would you turn back to Luke chapter
15? In the last phrase of the 35th
verse of Luke chapter 14, we read, he that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. Then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. They're the ones who
had ears to hear. And I pray that God will give
me and you, even tonight, ears to hear, the gift of his grace. And the Pharisees and the scribes
murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. This was a slam. Yet what a glorious
statement it tells us regarding our Redeemer. And he spake this
parable unto them. This parable was addressed to
the public, I mean, the scribes and Pharisees. Now, this is one
parable in Luke chapter 15, in three different parts. And in
this parable, we're given the work of the son, the shepherd
seeking the lost sheep. We're given the work of God,
the Holy Spirit, the woman seeking the lost coin. were given the
work of the father, the great father, in receiving his lost
son. We have three lost things, the
sheep, the coin, and the son. And the sheep emphasize the stupidity
of the lost sinner in going astray, so easily going astray. The coin
represents the inability of the sinner to do anything to find
itself. It's an inanimate dead object. It talks about the man or woman
dead in sins who could do nothing to facilitate it being found.
I mean the sheep may bleat and the Shepherd hears it, or it
may accidentally wander into the right place, purely by accident.
The lost son does come to himself, but the lost coin can do nothing. The lost son demonstrates the
willful wickedness of us being lost. If we're lost, it's our
fault. It's an act of great sin, just
like this man was wicked in leaving his father. And I'll tell you
what, I can't wait to get to the prodigal son next week. It's one of my favorite stories
in the Bible. But the church is depicted in
scripture as a woman. the Bride of Christ. Remember
the Spirit and the Bride say, come. The church is depicted
as a woman, and the church's one reason to be here on earth
is to seek that lost coin, that lost sheep, that lost son. That's our purpose for being
here, to be seeking. And oh, the joy that is in heaven
when one lost sinner, when one lost sheep, when one lost son
comes home, there's a party, there's joy in heaven. And this
is the great work of the church, seeking that which was lost.
The 10 pieces of silver were the woman's wedding dowry. Now,
these pieces of silver really were not worth much, but they
were worth a lot to her. If you had a diamond ring with
10 diamonds in it that was your wedding ring, and you lost one
of those diamonds, you'd be upset because that was special to you.
This woman had a wedding dowry, and she lost one of her diamonds,
and there was great sentimental value for these diamonds that
she had. I guess it would be like losing
one of the diamonds out of your wedding ring. She sought diligently
to find this. Now, this one piece that we just
read about was part of a whole. The lost sinner that's going
to be saved is a part of a whole already, isn't he? He's a part
of the great company of God's people, God's elect. Now, that
lost sheep belonged to the shepherd before it was lost, and he wouldn't
have found it. That lost coin belonged to the
woman before it was lost, and she went and found it. And the
lost son was still the son of the father before he was ever
lost, and he was looking for him to return. Now, in an Eastern
home at that time, you usually only had one room with one window. and this coin was covered with
dust from the dirt floor, it couldn't be seen and it couldn't
do anything to enable it to be found. Now, like I said, the
sheep could accidentally wander in, couldn't he? The lost son
did come to himself by the grace of God, and I think this is interesting.
If all we had was the parable of the prodigal, and we didn't
have the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin, we would
make that man's salvation the fact that he came to himself.
But we're given information previously about the lost shepherd and the
lost coin about what was done before he came to himself, and
that's why he did, in fact, come to himself. But that lost coin
represents someone who is dead in sins. It can't do anything. It can't cry out. It can't seek. It is lost. It is dead. It is
an inanimate object. There's nothing it can do to
facilitate it being found. It can't cry for help. And this
represents the condition we are in by nature. Dead. dead, dead in trespasses and
sins, without the ability to do anything to facilitate us
being found. Just dead, can't cry out, can't
cry for mercy. And this is wicked. This is not
like a block of wood, like this thing's dead. No, there's evil
involved in this. This is a wickedness. It's our
fault we're lost. But this is a lostness that we
can't do anything about. In Romans chapter eight, verses
six through eight, we read that the carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither indeed can be. It lacks the ability. If God
leaves me and you to ourselves, you know what we'll do? We'll
go to hell. and we'll do so willingly. And we won't call upon his name,
we won't seek his face, or we might be religious, but that's
just part of being dead. I mean, seeking the living God,
we will not do it. John chapter 6, verse 44, the
Lord said, no man can come to me, except the Father which has
sent me draw him, draw him invincibly and irresistibly. Now there's
two responses to that. One is, well, nothing I can do
about it, therefore I won't worry about it. What can I do? I mean, it's a fruitless endeavor.
I'll just wait and see what happens. Well, okay. You can do that if
you want. You'll end up in hell. You know
what somebody else's response is? Draw me. Draw me to yourself. When I hear that, Lord, draw
me. That's what the little Shulamite
woman said. She said, draw us and we'll run after thee. I want to be drawn, don't you?
I don't want to be left to myself. I want him to draw me with invincible
and irresistible grace. We read in 1 Corinthians 2, verse
14, that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither indeed can he know them. He can't even receive.
Can't even receive. Because they're spiritually...
I can't even receive the truth unless God causes me to do it.
Now this is this lost coin. Dead. Dead in trespasses and
sin. Unable. Lost in the dirt. And
there's absolutely nothing it can do to be found. Now, what this coin teaches us
of is the absolute necessity of sovereign grace. You know
what this coin needs? This coin needs to be elected
by the Father, doesn't it? This coin needs to be redeemed
by the Son. This coin needs to be given life,
regenerated by God the Holy Spirit. This coin, this sinner dead in
sins is absolutely dependent upon the sovereign grace of God
because it's dead. Now this thing of total depravity,
Doesn't mean everybody's practicing the most debauched crimes imaginable,
although you would, and I would, apart from the grace of God.
It means every faculty is under the dominion of sin. Every faculty.
The intellect. You might be real smart. You
might have a real high IQ. But your intellect is under the
dominion. My intellect is under the dominion of sin. We're naturally
prejudiced. We naturally have these preconceived
notions, these wrong thoughts of God that we can't get away
from. The heart, the affections are corrupted by sin. We love
what we ought to hate, and we hate what we ought to love. The
will is chained to sin. There's no such thing as free
will. The will is chained to sin, and that's what's so bad
about it. Dead in trespasses and sins, totally depraved. Now that's what this silver coin
illustrates to us. It can't do anything to help
save itself or help be found, can it? There it is in the dust,
totally dependent on the woman to find it. Now this woman's
search is the irresistible, invincible work of God the Holy Spirit and
he won't stop, she won't stop, he won't stop, the church won't
stop, God the Holy Spirit won't stop until that lost sinner is
found. Never stop. She searched until
she found it. Now what was needed in this search?
Like I said, these eastern homes had one window, dark, dirty,
what was needed in this church? Light. Light. Now think of the importance of
light. You can be in a room that's dark. Think if you were in a room where
there was no light at all, complete darkness. And there could be
all kinds of loathsome, disgusting creatures in that room, hideous
looking insects. If they bite you, they hurt you.
There could be all kinds of stuff in that room. And you wouldn't
know it if you didn't have light. You might have a sense of something
going on, but you wouldn't know it. But what if somebody turned
on the light and then you could see all that? What a sight that
would be. The coin doesn't know it's lost,
and the woman uses light to find it. Now, what I need as a dead
sinner is light. Light from God. You can't see
without light. And when the Holy Spirit gives
life, He gives light. That's what happens. A man can't
see until he's given life. except a man be born again, born
from above, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. God is light,
and in him there is no darkness at all." And I love to think
of light, just the properties of light. Light has both Particles
and waves. That's the only thing we know
of that has both particles and waves. And that represents the
two natures of Christ, deity, humanity, light. You think about
this light is warm. It's it's cheering. What a blessing
light is. You know, people always get so
depressed when it's real dark. You know, some people, oh, when
it's light, it just cheers your soul. And light has the property
that it can actually touch that which is filthy and come into
contact with that which is filthy and never contract any of the
filthiness itself. Isn't that glorious about light
and Christ? It's the light of the world. Oh, For light, I can't see without
light. You know, light really is the
first thing in the food chain. Huh, think of that. The process
of photosynthesis. It's the first thing in the food
chain. We can't really eat. We can't live without light. What came in the first creation?
Let there be what? Light. What comes first in the second
creation? Let there be light. And when you're given light,
you can see. You can see things that you never
saw before. The world is a new place. When did Paul's conversion experience
begin? What happened when God met him
on the road to Damascus? A great light above the shining
of the sun. And all of a sudden, you see
things you never saw before. Now there's so much scriptures
I could quote on this, but I kind of want to confine myself to
Isaiah chapter 6, if you'll turn there. Now you and I can judge whether
or not we have light from the Lord from this passage of scripture,
Isaiah chapter 6. Now I want to know if the light
I have, it's one thing to be raised up under the sound of
the gospel. And I just said, this is what
I believe. It's what I've always been taught. This is what I know.
This makes sense to me. I see this in the scripture and
so on. That's not necessarily light from the Lord. That's light.
It is some kind of light, but it's not necessarily light from
the Lord. I want to make sure I have light from the Lord, don't
you? That divine light. Now, look here in Isaiah chapter
six, verse one. And in the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord. Now, there's something very significant
to the year that King Uzziah died. You can read about this
in 2 Chronicles chapter 26. King Uzziah was a good king.
He served the Lord. But when he became lifted up
in his own eyes, you know what he did? He came into the temple,
which he was forbidden to come into. He came in with a censer,
with incense, and he thought, I can offer incense to the Lord.
He bypassed the priest. And the priest said, Stay out
of here, Uzziah. This appertains not to you. You
don't have any business coming in here. But he got mad, and
he came in anyway. And you know what happened to
him? The Lord smote him with leprosy right then. He became
a leper, and he died. And Isaiah loved Uzziah. And he said, oh, in the year
that King Uzziah died, that's when I really saw the Lord. I
saw His holiness, His unapproachableness. You couldn't come into His presence
on your own. I saw His greatness, His glory,
His majesty. That's when I saw the Lord, when
King Uzziah died. Now, how did he see the Lord?
In the year the King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, what? Sitting. Now what's the significance
of this sitting? In the tabernacle, you know what
there was not, as far as furniture? A chair. There wasn't any chairs. You know why? The priest's work
was never done. But if you and I ever see the
Lord, we're going to see him sitting, because his work has
been done. Not fretting. Not working. sitting, having
finished the work. Nothing to do. It's all been
done. And if I ever see the Lord, I'll
see him who has sat down at the right hand of the Father. Hebrews
1.3 says, when he had by himself purged our sins, he what? He
sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. We'll see
him sitting. Where will we see him sitting?
Verse one, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord
setting upon a throne. Now what's the significance to
this? He was ruling and reigning, sitting
on a throne in absolute control. Now, if I ever see the Lord,
this is the Lord I'll see. I'll see one who's sitting, having
finished his work, but that doesn't mean he's doing nothing. He's
ruling and reigning, sitting on his throne, controlling everybody
and everything. I love to think of the Lord like
that, don't you? That's who He is. He's undisturbed by opposition,
sitting in regal splendor, controlling everything. You know, right now,
he's controlling the very thoughts that go through my mind. Boy,
that's something, isn't it? He's controlling the thoughts
that are going through my mind. That's how much control he has. Sitting on a throne, how? High
and lifted up. Now, one thing that we can't
do, we can't preach Christ too high, can we? We see Him sitting
high and lifted up. Oh, we have such a high view
of the Lord Jesus Christ. high and lifted up. And the scripture
says his train filled the temple. Now, what is a train? You know
what it is when a woman gets married and she's coming down
the aisle, she's got a train behind her on that wedding garment. But in the kings back then, the
more honor and the more glory you had, the longer your train
was. The train had to do with the
glory of the king. Now, in his temple, his glory
fills the temple. There's not room for anything
else. And when you see Him high and
lifted up, you're going to understand that the only thing that matters
is His glory. You really believe that. That's
not just something you've been taught. You really believe that.
His train filled the temple, the glory of His train. And look
what it says next in verse 2, above it. stood the seraphims
above this throne that the Lord was sitting on. Above it had
the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered
his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did
fly. Now, I've heard people say that those seraphims represent
gospel preachers. I don't think so. I mean, I just,
I don't think so. I know that they didn't represent
gospel preachers when in the garden where they were twirling
around the sword to keep everybody out of the garden. They didn't
mean that. And I know they didn't mean gospel preachers when they
were facing one another over the mercy seat. But you can tell
something about the preaching of the gospel from these people,
these seraphims, these living creatures, whatever they are.
They covered their face. He's unapproachable in holiness.
We can't look on him. They covered their feet. They
were ashamed of their walk. They were ashamed of it. Well,
did they sin? No, but they knew they could.
They knew apart from God's grace they would, and they were ashamed
of themselves. And with twain they did fly,
ready to carry out his command. And what was their message? Verse
three, and one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. God's holy. Every attribute is
holy. He's got a holy justice. He's
got a holy love, holy grace, holy wisdom, holy power. Everything regarding the living
God is holy. How much do you understand about
what that means? Very little. Very little. I love one man's definition of
holiness. Holy means other. It means you
do not like me in you. Verse 4, And the posts of the
door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was
filled with smoke. You couldn't see. You couldn't
see, and don't you understand that everything you know, you
don't know much, do you? You don't see much. We see a
little. We see through a glass darkly.
We do. We see through a glass darkly, but oh, the smoke that's
filled the house when we talk about the character of the living
God. Now, what was Isaiah's response to this vision? And here's how
I can know. Please listen carefully. Here's
how I can know if my sight is a spiritual sight, if it's God-given
light and not just something I learned from my mom and dad
or the preacher. Here's how I can know. Then said I, woe is me. I think it's interesting in the
previous chapter five times he said, woe unto them, woe unto
them, woe unto them. And now he says, Woe unto me. I'm undone, I'm cut off, because
I'm a man of unclean lips. Everything I say is unclean because
I said it. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts. Now this is what happens when
somebody really sees the Lord. Somebody says, oh, that's just
so morose, talking about sinfulness and depravity and so on. The
only reason you say that is because you haven't seen. If you've seen,
this is what you'll say about yourself every time. I'm not
talking about the way you used to be. I'm talking about the
way you are right now, present tense. You can't see the Lord
and have any other response but this. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with his tongs from off the altar, where the sacrifice was made. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away. And thy sin is purged. You know,
everybody who finds out that they're undone and unclean, they
find out their iniquity has been taken away. And their sin's been
purged by what took place on the altar, the sacrifice of Christ.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?
And who will bear forth? And then said I, Here am I. Send
me. Whom shall I send? You don't
send yourself. Whom shall I send? Who shall go for us? Who will
volunteer? Both of those aspects are true.
Here am I, Lord. Send me. That's what happens
when you see. When we are given life, we see
God. And we see most especially in
the light of the cross. Here the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ reveals every attribute that God has been pleased to
make known about himself. We see in light of the cross. Turn with me to John chapter
3. What does the Holy Spirit use?
Light. You know, I want to say this
in a, I want to say this the way it ought to be said. I don't
know if I'm saying it the way it ought to be said, but I don't
want to grovel in my sinfulness and inability. I don't want to
do that. I don't want to use it as an
excuse for sin. Nothing I can do about it. But
I want to stay right here. Woe is me. I'm undone. I don't want to leave that. You
know why? Because it is easy. It is so
easy to trust Christ as my only righteousness before God when
I'm right there. But when I graduate past that,
I can't see Christ. I can't hear the gospel. I can't
see myself. So I want to stay right here,
don't you? I want to stay as a sinner. And I'm not using that
as an excuse for sin in any way, but I want to stay a sinner because
when I'm a sinner, and nothing but a sinner, how easy it is
to trust my Savior is all. It's a good place to be, isn't
it? Look at John chapter three. I love this passage of scripture. Verse 19, and this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather
than light. because their deeds were evil,
and the light exposed their deeds as evil. For everyone that doeth
evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they're
wrought in God. You see, if you have faith, you
know God did it, and you bring that to the light. If you have
repentance, you know God worked it in you, and you bring that
to the light. If you have love for Christ, you know that's His
work. You know that's the work of God. God wrought it in you,
and you bring it to the light. You know, I'm not ashamed to
bring anything to the light that He did. I bring my faith to the
light because I know it's His faith. It's His faithfulness.
I bring my repentance. I bring my love to the light
because I know it's His work. I wouldn't bring anything that
had my fingerprints on it because I know what would happen then.
But thank God for the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll
come to the light. We're not afraid to come to the
light. Because we know that whatever we have is wrought in God. He did it, not us. And we'll
come into his presence with that. Turn with me to John chapter
eight. This is what this woman uses
as light. This is one of my favorite stories,
is that woman taken in adultery. But after that, we read about
that. We read in verse 12, then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. Now this was spoken immediately
after he said to that woman. Let's look at the first of this
chapter. Verse one, Jesus went into the
Mount of Olives and early in the morning, he came again into
the temple and all the people came unto him and he sat down
and taught them. I want him to teach me, don't
you? And the scribes and Pharisees
brought unto him a woman. taken in adultery. And when they'd
set her in the midst, they said unto him, master, this woman
was taken in adultery in the very act. There's no question
about her guilt at all. We caught her and we brought
her to you. Now, Moses in the law commanded
us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou? You know, it's almost humorous
how these fellas brought the woman and didn't bring the man.
He was supposed to be stoned too, wasn't he? One wonders if
this was a setup. I kind of think it was, but what
they were thinking was, we've got the Lord in an impossible
situation. If he says, stoner, we'll say,
thought you were merciful and gracious towards sinner. If he
says, let her go, where's your respect for God's law? He says
to Stoner, they thought they had him. And I think that's almost
funny that these Pharisees were in front of omniscience and they
thought they could trick him. Well, let's go on reading. Verse six, this they said, tempting
him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and
with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them
not. I love that. Don't you hear us? Nope. Nope. Not interested in
what you have to say. So when they continued asking
him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, he that is without
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And I believe he's talking about
this particular sin. And he stooped down and wrote
on the ground, and when they heard, being convicted by their
own conscience, not the Holy Spirit, they went out one by
one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. You see,
if they would have been convicted by the Holy Spirit, They wouldn't
have left him. They would have come to him as
the only hope they had. And Jesus was left alone and
the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself
and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are
those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? They
were all gone, weren't they? There wasn't anyone to bring
accusation. No one. You see, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that can condemn? It's Christ that died. What other
answer do you need? Yea, rather that's risen again,
who's even at the right hand of God. Hath no man condemned
thee? She said, no man, Lord. And Jesus
said unto her, neither do I condemn thee. with regarding to every sin you've
ever committed and ones you haven't committed yet. He says, neither
do I condemn thee. Now is he saying sin's okay?
Of course not. There's no sin to condemn. He put it away. And that's why
He doesn't condemn me. There's nothing to condemn me
for. Open up the books! They're all clean. There's no
sin. Everything I did was right. I
never did anything wrong. Nothing to condemn me for. And
Jesus Christ is the light as to how that can be. There's no
way you can understand that without him as the light. Neither do
I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. One other
passage of scripture with regard to light. Turn to 1 John chapter
5. I'm sorry, chapter 1. fellowship of light. Verse 5
of chapter 1, this then is the message which we've heard of
him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. Now if we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie. We don't do the truth. Now I remember reading that passage
of scripture and thinking, well, I, I sin in the dark. Nobody knows anything about it,
but him. Does that mean, and that's a horrible thing. I'm
not, any, any sin you commit, you ought not ever sin again.
I really believe, I mean, we ought not. He said, go and sin
no more. But is he talking about, you
know, you sin in the dark and, and so you can talk about having
fellowship with God, but it's all a lie and it's all hypocrisy.
No, he's not saying that at all. If we say we have fellowship
with Him and walk in the darkness of salvation by works. That's
what that means. We lie. I pray. I speak to God. He speaks to me. We have fellowship
with one another. No, you don't. There's no fellowship
with God apart from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
the light of John 8, 12, the light of how he can say, I don't
condemn you. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us. from all sin. Now she seeks diligently till
she finds it and you know the Holy Spirit never fails. He finds that sinner who's dead
in sins and he gives him life and he gives him light. Those
are two things that go together. Life and light. Now light without
life, nothing to it is there? Life Without light is impossible. He gives life and he gives light. And when she has found it, not
if, but when, she throws a party. I love this language of the scripture.
There's joy expressed. You know, if somebody repents
tonight, there's joy going to be in heaven. Joy. Back to our text in Luke 15. And when, verse 9, when she hath
found it, and calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying,
Rejoice with me, for I found the peace which I had lost. Isn't
it great when you lose something valuable and you find it? I've
got a lot of experience in this thing of losing stuff. You can
ask Lynn. I mean, I've got, I know something
about it. I never really end up finding
it either, it seems like. But boy, when you do, have you
ever lost a wallet or that had important papers or lost your
ring or whatever? And boy, how good it feels when
you find it. Oh, it's such a blessing. And she says, Rejoice with me,
for I found that peace which was lost. Verse 10, Likewise,
I say unto you that there's joy in the presence of the angels
of God over one sinner that repenteth. Now, here's what happens when
you're found. Here's what happens when you're given life and when
you're given light. You repent. You change your mind. You don't think what you were
formerly thinking. You think differently. Your mind
has been changed about God, about yourself, about His salvation,
about His people. Your mind has been changed. And
you know what? When your mind is changed, there's
joy in the very presence of the angels of God. Now, who is in
the presence of the angels of God? Jesus Christ, the Lord. And when one sinner repents,
he rejoices. It makes him happy. He joys in
that. That is the response of Christ
to this thing of repentance. And let me tell you this, when
you, when you repent, what you do more than anything else, you
agree with God. That's what repentance is. You
agree with God. You take sides with God against
yourself. You're on his side. Whatever
he says is right. And oh, when someone repents, there's joy in heaven. And I pray that somebody's repenting
right now. You know who I most especially
pray is repenting right now? Me. Oh, I want you to as well. Don't think I'm indifferent about
you. but what joy there is in true repentance. May God grant
us that for Christ's sake. Let's pray.