Ezekiel 34. I just want to read
a few verses of Scripture here, beginning in verse 11 of Ezekiel
34. Here in verse 11, he says, For
thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I, even I, will both search my
sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered,
so will I seek out my sheep and will deliver them out of all
places where they've been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And
I'll bring them out from the people and gather them from the
countries and will bring them to their own land. and feed them
upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers and in all the
inhabited places of the country. I'll feed them in a good pasture,
and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be. There
shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they
feed upon the mountains of Israel. I'll feed my flock. I'll cause
them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was
lost. and bring again that which was
driven away, bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen
that which was sick. But I will destroy the fat and
the strong. I will feed them with judgment. Thus saith the
Lord. He says, I'll feed, I'll feed
my flock. I'll cause them to lie down. I'll seek that which was lost. I'll bring again that which was
driven away. I'll build up that which was
broken. I'll strengthen that which was
sick." Aren't those comforting words? They certainly are for
his sheep, aren't they? He says, I'll do all these things. But listen, he says, I'll destroy
the fat and the strong. I will feed them with judgment."
God's going to punish sin. That's clearly revealed in his
scriptures. He is going to punish sin. His
word says this, the wages of sin is death, death. And it says this, the soul that
sinneth, it shall surely die. God judges the righteous and
he's angry with the wicked every day. Sin is going to be punished,
and how men can read God's Word without being either comforted
or scared to death is beyond me. Not too long ago, me and Abby
and the boys, we were at the beach down in North Carolina.
where we vacation, it's actually between a couple military bases. And we walk out there on the
beach, and every day there's these helicopters that fly over. And some are pretty menacing
looking. I mean, I'm sure they're not
real arms on there. Maybe they are. I think they're
just training, but I tell you, They could be frightening. They
could be frightening looking. And the sound of them, just the
sound of them, you can hear them before you can see them, and
it always gets our attention. You know, as soon as you hear
that sound, you look to the sky, and you just wait, and there
comes that helicopter. And I often think, I often think
when we hear that, what must that sound like in the ears of
the enemy? Boy, it must strike fear in their
hearts. Now, to us, it's comforting. I don't mind that. I don't mind
that sound at all. I love seeing those fellas fly over. Boys,
even when they were young and they still do, they wave at them
when they go by. But I thought, boy, to the enemy,
to the enemy, that must be a dreadful, dreadful, dreadful sound. But you know what? Our problem concerning the gospel
is we don't know we're the enemy until God's pleased to reveal
it to us. By nature, we're enemies. We're enmity with God. God's
holiness, man's sinfulness, these things, they must be revealed.
They must be revealed to us. And seeing that God is absolutely
holy, Habakkuk wrote this, he says, Thou art of purer eyes
than to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity. As we mentioned earlier, even
our best works, the best that we can bring before God are filthy
rags in His sight. So what hope is there, what hope
is there for a sinner like me? What hope is there for a man
that's an enemy, an enemy with Almighty God? We're sinners,
sinners by birth, sinners by choice, sinners by practice.
It's not what we do, it's what we are, sinners. And this morning, I want us to
look here in Luke. Turn over to Luke chapter 15. What hope is there for a sinner? I want us to look at these first
seven verses. of Luke chapter 15. We usually
look at this, all three of these parables together, but I just
want us to just spend a little time on this parable of the lost
sheep this morning. Okay, let's look beginning in
verse one. We read, then drew near unto
him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. Are you a sinner? Has God revealed to you that
you're a sinner without hope, without help, dead in trespasses
and sin? Can you take your place with
that public and of old and say, God, God, be merciful to me. God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
Like David, can you say, against thee and thee only have I sinned. You know, men say we're all, you know,
you hear that, we're all sinners, we're all sinners. But can you
say that? Can you say, it's me, it's me. I've sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. You know, it's not our sin that
keeps us from God, it's our self-righteousness. It's our self-righteousness that
keeps us from going to Him and resting in Him. Are you a sinner?
What's it say here? They drew near to him. They drew
near to him. They drew near, then drew near
to him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes,
verse 2, the Pharisees and scribes, they murmured, saying, this man,
that's all they viewed him as, they said, this man, receive
the sinners, and he eateth with them. Now the title for this
message, I would say it's this. This man, this man receiveth
sinners. This man receiveth sinners. Now the Pharisees, when they
said this, that wasn't a compliment. That was an insult for them.
This man receiveth sinners. They just saw him again. They
saw him as just a man, but he's more. We know that, don't we?
He's more than a man. He's Almighty God. Almighty God
in human flesh. Consider the condescension that
God would roll himself in this flesh and come to this earth
and dwell among men, let alone that he would suffer and die
for his people, but that he would just come to this earth in human
flesh. He receiveth sinners, notorious
sinners. These publicans that, you know,
you think, well, a tax collector, I guess that sounds bad enough,
but they were, and we'll go into detail, they were notorious sinners.
What they would do if a man didn't have his taxes to pay, you just
don't even like to think, but they were notorious sinners. And yet we read. This man receiveth
sinners, and he eateth with them." No need to be discouraged. No need to think, my case is
too miserable. This man receiveth sinners. He said this, he said, all that
the Father hath given me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. Consider the woman with
the issue of blood." She said, if I could just touch his garment.
And we know what happened there, don't we? Huh? Who touched me? And he healed her. He made her
whole. From that time forth, she was
whole. What about blind Bartimaeus?
How miserable was his case? And he's out there by the highway
begging, and the Lord's going to pass by. And he says, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they tried to silence
him. They said, be quiet. And he cried
out the louder, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And God had mercy on him, didn't
he? He had mercy on him. This man
receiveth sinners. Now quickly, let's look at this
parable of the lost sheep here this morning. Let's move on to
verse four. Verse four. What man of you,
having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave
the ninety and nine, the ninety and nine, and he goes out into
the wilderness, and he goes after that which was lost until he
finds it, until he finds it? Now the first thing I believe
we see here in our text is this. He's the shepherd. The Lord Jesus
Christ, He's the shepherd. Throughout the scriptures, He's
referred to as the shepherd. The one who cares for the sheep
and provides for the sheep and protects the sheep and keeps
the sheep. He's called, over in Zechariah, He's called Jehovah's
Shepherd. In other places, He's called
the one shepherd. He's the one shepherd. He's the
good shepherd. He's the great shepherd. He's
the chief shepherd. And I believe my favorite title
is there in Psalm 23, where David says, the Lord is my shepherd. He's my shepherd. He cares for
his sheep. He watches for his sheep. We
read that he knows them by name. He knows each one of his sheep
by name. We read this, that he lays down his life for the sheep. He laid down his life for the
sheep. He preserves and protects and
keeps them. The sheep, they're his sheep,
aren't they? We're his sheep. Our text says
this, what man of you having, having a hundred sheep? They
are his sheep. You know, anything that belongs
to me, I can do with it whatever I want to, right? We're His sheep,
and He can do with us as He will. As the shepherd, He can do with
us as He will. God is sovereign. He does what
He will, when He will, with whom He will, and listen, He can save
me or He can pass me by. He's sovereign. He's sovereign,
and in doing so, Whatever he does is just and it's right. Second, we see the lost sheep. The lost sheep. Now, we are all
by nature lost sheep. That's a good description of
us. Turn over to Isaiah 53. A familiar passage of scripture. Isaiah 53. Look at verse 6 of Isaiah 53. He says, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. We've turned We've turned our
own way, haven't we? There's a way that seemeth right
unto man, and the end thereof are the ways of death. Every
one of us, we've turned our own way. Back in the garden, God
told Adam, he said, of every tree in the garden, thou mayest
freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that ye eat thereof,
thou shalt surely die. And Adam, what'd he do? He turned to his own way, as
we all do, the way of sin, the way of self-righteousness. And
apart from God intervening, we'll continue. We'll be content to
continue in that way. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray. And we've wandered far from the
fold, far from the fold. Thank God. Thank God He doesn't
leave His sheep lost in the wilderness. Turn back to Luke 15. Look at the end of verse 4. It
says here, He goes after that which was lost until He finds
it. Until He finds it. You know,
I don't know about you guys, but when I lose something, I'll
look for a little spell and then, I don't know if it just escapes
my mind or I just lose interest, but we quit looking after a while,
don't we? It says he goes after that which
was lost until he finds it. He's not going to lose one, is
he? He's not going to lose one. The old hymn writer wrote this,
he said, Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the
fold of God. You know, by nature, And by nature,
that's what we do, isn't it? I mean, I can remember as a child,
you know, you do something wrong and you think, well, maybe if
I'm not close to that cookie jar, when mom comes back, everything
will be all right. Go hide under the sink or go
hide out back. Isn't that what Adam did? When
Adam broke God's law, he went and hid. And that's by nature. That's what we do. When we break
the rules, we go and hide. Turn over there to Genesis 3.
Turn to Genesis 3. Look at verse, beginning with
verse 6 of Genesis chapter 3. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and
the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her,
and he did eat. And the eyes of both of them
were opened, they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
among the trees of the garden. They ran and hid. They ran and
hid. And how foolish of us to try
to run and hide from God who knows all things, who sees all
things, but they tried to run for fear of judgment. or run for this reason because
I just don't need him. Think about that. Over in Psalm
we read, the fool hath said in his heart, no God, no God for
me. Men think they have no need of
God. They have no place. No God, no
God for me. I don't know much about sheep,
but I know this. I worked on a farm for a little
while as a kid, and when calves went astray, when they left the
barn, it always seemed like they went as far away as they possibly
could, far from the foal, and in the worst weather. They run
away when it's raining or snowing, but it was as far away as they
could get. We read of that prodigal son,
and it says this, that he gathered all of his things together and
he took his journey into a far country, get as far away from
dad as I possibly can, prone to wonder. Lord, I feel prone
to leave the God I love, the old hymn writer wrote. But listen,
what's verse four say? It says, he goes after that which
is lost until he finds it, until he finds it. John 6.39 says, this is the Father's
will which has sent me that all which he hath given me, I'll
lose nothing, which should raise it up again in the last day. What about Mephibosheth? He's
all the way down there in Lodabar. How's Mephibosheth gonna make
it back? Mephibosheth, who's an enemy
of the king, David takes his servant and he says, you go down
there and you get him and you bring him back to me. Is there
anywhere that a man can hide from God? Not his sheep. He says, he goes, he goes, And
he'll find him. Remember that prison guard? How's
the Word of God going to get inside of a prison to a hardened
old prison guard? Paul and Silas. Paul and Silas
cast into prison. I wonder what people thought
about that. These men had been cast into
prison, into the innermost part of the prison, but yet we read,
That's how that old guard and his family heard the gospel. God sends his messengers wherever
his sheep are. They're gonna hear his word.
They're gonna believe it. He says he'll go until he finds
them, until he finds them. And listen, he says, my sheep,
my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. He
goes and seeks him until he finds him. Now let's look here back
in our text. Verse 5. Verse 5. And when he hath found him, when
he hath found him, he lays him on his shoulders rejoicing. Rejoice. Not scolding him. Rejoicing. Rejoicing. And notice there it
doesn't say if he finds them. It says when he finds them. He absolutely is going to find
every last one. And when he finds them, he lays
it on his shoulder rejoicing. Now a couple things here. He
says he puts that sheep up on his shoulder. He puts that sheep
up on his shoulder. men that create these idols,
they've come up with this picture of a man in a beautiful white
garment and a perfectly white sheep laying up there on his
shoulders. And that's just not what that
looks like. And again, I'm going to speak
from a little bit of experience here. From what I understand,
a sheep is, cattle are pretty dirty. But sheep are far more
filthy than a cow or a calf. And I think I read somewhere,
and I don't know how they come up with this, but that sheep
are ten times dirtier than a calf. But I can tell you this. When
those calves would wander away, they usually were muddy. And
a lot of times they were injured and had maybe a little bit of
blood on them. And without fail, Dickie, you've probably experienced
this, when you put those things up on your shoulder, it's kind
of like when you're a kid and you pick up a frog and your hand ends
up wet or dirty. Well, think about that. Think
about that, okay? So there's that mud and that
blood and whatever else is going to come out of that sheep up
there on the shoulders. And I say that to say this. Whatever's on that sheep is going
to end up on the person carrying it. He's going to bear it. He's going to bear it on himself,
the filth of it, the guilt of it, the shame of it. And when
our Lord, when He bears His sheep, when He bears His elect up on
His shoulder, My guilt, my shame, my filth, He bears it. And it's
not down around His feet, it's right up there on the shoulders,
isn't it? He bears that shame, He bears that guilt, He bears
that filth. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. Turn over to Isaiah 53 again,
Isaiah 53. Here we read, Surely He hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He bore them. You see that? Jesus Christ bore
the sins of His people and He made satisfaction for them. As
the surety of His people, He bore our sins. And as the representative
head of His people, He bore our sins. And Isaiah goes on to say,
He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. He bore it. And with His stripes,
we're healed. This man receiveth sinners. And we read this, that he hath
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. The scriptures declare this,
he was made sin. He was made sin. The angel said
this, call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sin. He identifies with his people. He takes them up. He puts them
on his shoulder. And listen, here's another thing. When he
puts them up on his shoulder, I don't think I can do this now,
but when Isaac was a little bit smaller and his little brother,
I'd put him up on my shoulder. I'd carry him around. You know
what? When you're carrying him around,
you bear all the weight of him. They're not helping in any way. When He puts us up on His shoulder,
when He puts us up, He bears it all. He bears the weight of
my sin. He bears the guilt of my sin.
He bears the shame of my sin. It's all on Him. We can't even
give 1%, can we? He bears it. He bears it all. He bears it all. It's not us
taking the first step, it's Christ and it's Christ alone that bears
it. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that, that's not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. He must He must carry us. He must. And you know what? If
He were to put us down, I've seen this happen. You carry an
animal on your shoulder and you put it down, He don't take off
running to the barn. He goes right back out in the
woods. He bears us. And He brings us.
Look here at the fifth point. Verse 6. He delivers us home. Okay? Look at verse 6. When he
cometh home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbors,
and he says unto them, Rejoice with me, for I found my sheep
which was lost. Almighty God purposed to save
a people. CHOSE US IN CHRIST BEFORE THE
FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, MADE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST OUR SURETY,
SUFFERED AND DIED ON THE CROSS AS A SINNER'S SUBSTITUTE, SUFFERED
AND DIED IN OUR PLACE, DIED FOR OUR SINS, CLOTHED US, EVERY LAST
ONE OF HIS SHEEP, CLOTHED IN HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND HE'S GIVEN
US ASSURANCE IN THIS THAT HE RAISED HIM, THAT HE RAISED HIM
FROM THE DEAD. LOOK AT HEBREWS 10. HEBREWS 10. beginning with verse 12 of Hebrews
10. This man, this man, after he
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the
right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever. them that are sanctified, them
that are set apart. He presents His people faultless,
faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
holy, unblameable, unapprovable in His sight. That's reason to rejoice, isn't
it? Isn't that reason to rejoice?
Who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. And when he cometh home, let's
look at verse six here. When he cometh home, he calls
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. I say unto you,
that likewise joy shall be in heaven, over one sinner that
repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need
no repentance." Turn with me one more time, and we'll close
here, but turn with me to Ezekiel 34. Turn back to Ezekiel 34.
Let's listen to these words just one more time. One more time. Look at Ezekiel 34 beginning
with verse 11. For thus saith the Lord God,
behold, I, even I, will search my sheep, and I'll seek them
out. As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he's among his sheep that are scattered,
I'll seek out my sheep, and I'll deliver them out of all places
where they've been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. I'll
bring them out from the people. and gather them from the countries
and will bring them to their own land and feed them upon the
mountains of Israel by the rivers and in all inhabited places of
the country. I'll feed them in a good pasture and upon the high
mountains of Israel shall their fold be. There shall they lie
in a good fold and in a fat pasture and shall feed upon the mountains
of Israel. I'll feed my flock." I'll cause
them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I'll seek that which was
lost." He said, I will seek that which was lost. I'll bring again
that which was driven away. I'll bind up that which was broken
and will strengthen that which was sick. I'll do these things. You notice that? He's the one
doing the work there. He's the one who gets all the
glory. But now listen, I'll destroy
the fat and strong. And I'll feed them with judgment."
But he says, for my sheep, I'll seek them out. I'll find them. I'll bring them to myself. I'll
feed them. I'll deliver them. Who gets the glory in that? Huh? God gets the glory, doesn't he?
All right.