That same verse, he repeats those
words again. He is despised. And we esteemed him not. Christ
in the flesh, on the earth, Redeemer of his elect, was despised. Isaiah said it twice. He's despised. and we esteemed him not. You
see, the religious people found everything about him to be offensive. Everything about this Messiah,
this Redeemer, was offensive. His family background was offensive. They said, can any good thing
come out of Nazareth? His education was offensive. He was teaching them one day,
and they said to one another, how does this man know letters,
having never learned? He didn't go to one of our schools.
How does he know these things? How does he know doctrine and
letters? On another occasion, they said,
do you teach us? They despised him. His vocation
was offensive. Is not this the carpenter? as
if a carpenter has nothing to say because of his vocation. He's a carpenter. His lifestyle
was offensive. He violated their Sabbath day. He healed people on the Sabbath
day. He went about doing good on the Sabbath day. They said
he's a winebibber, a gluttonous man. They hated everything about
him, despised him. His doctrine was offensive. He
spoke the truth, and they hated the truth. He said, I and my
father won, and they picked up stones to stone him. And he said,
now many good works have I done among you, for which of these
do you stone me? Why are you stoning me? They
said, for good work we don't stone you. We're not stoning
you for good work. We're stoning you for blasphemy.
You're a man. And you say you're God. That's
offensive. A man can't be God. But one of
the things that offended them, these self-righteous religious
people, and you'll find most religious people are self-righteous. The reason they're self-righteous
is that's their way of redemption, works, their works, and they're
quick to tell you what they've done for God, what they're doing
for God, or what they give to God. And these holier-than-thou
self-righteous religionists also hated his followers. They despised the people who
followed him. They despised those who sat at
his feet and heard his words. They despised those who believed
his gospel. They despised them because they
were what? Sinners. The Pharisees said,
we'd be not sinners. We're not born of fornication.
We've never been in bondage to any man. And they said this. In verse 2, look at Luke 15 now,
our text, in Luke 15. Verse 1 says, "...then drew near
unto him all the publicans and sinners, for to hear him. And the Pharisees, and the scribes,
and the lawyers, and the rulers of the temple, and all these
religious fellows murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners." This man, one of the Pharisees,
concluded that he wasn't a prophet because he let a sinner touch
him. He said, this man is no prophet. If he were a prophet,
he would know what manner of woman it is that kisses his feet. And they said, he receives sinners.
He eats with sinners. In Matthew chapter 9, you're
familiar with it, you don't need to turn to it, but one day our
Lord was eating with some publicans and sinners and the Pharisees
called His disciples off to the side and they said, they were
astonished, they were actually astonished that He would eat
with these people, publicans and sinners. And they said to
His disciples, why does your Master eat with this kind of
people? these publicans and sinners.
Why does he eat with them? Why does he associate with them?
And our Lord knew their thoughts and he said, now listen, he said
to them, where do you generally find a
doctor with sick people? That's where, if you want to
find a good doctor, you'll find him among sick people. See, the
world don't need a doctor, but they that are sick. Now he said,
Go learn this lesson. Go learn what this means. This
is a lesson hard to learn, awful hard to learn. I'm not come,
he said, to call the righteous. I'm not come to identify or associate
with the righteous. I'm not come to save the righteous. I'm come to call sinners to repentance. learn what this means. They couldn't
learn it. They never did learn it. Finally,
when he called Zacchaeus down out of the tree, and he said,
I must have bought at your house, they said, look at that. Look
at that. He's gone to be the guest of
a man that's a sinner. The doctor's going to a sick
man's house. Gracious Lord, what's going on
here? The doctor's going to a sick man's house? And the very best news, the best
news that you and I can hear is found in this same Gospel
of Luke here where it says, this Son of Man is a friend of
the Son of Man. You can't hear any better news
than that. The Son of Man is a friend He's the friend of sinners. Now
this is the lesson that is so difficult to learn. And I'll
tell you, people today, it's always been
this way, people today are so reluctant to admit the one thing
that makes them eligible for God's grace. You know what that
is? They're sinners. They're so reluctant
to admit, confess, openly avow the one thing, the one thing
that makes them eligible for grace. And that's they're sinners. Christ came to save sinners.
Nobody else. And that's the one thing that
makes me eligible for grace is the fact that I'm a sinner. Christ
died for the ungodly. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, I came to call sinners. So that's the one thing,
Terry, that makes me eligible for grace, is I'm lost. And that's, folks, you can't
find a genuine, bona fide, self-confessed sinner. They're hard to find,
did you know that? You won't find one down at the
plant where you work. Find me a sinner, a genuine sinner. Somebody says, yes, yes, born
in Adam, I'm a sinner. Yes, by choice, birth, nature,
in every respect, I'm a sinner. A sinner, hell-deserving, undeserving,
ill-deserving, sinner, chief of sinners. Somebody said to Spurgeon one
time, oh, Mr. Spurgeon, People are always trying
to impress preachers, but always the wrong way. They're trying
to impress them with their godliness and goodliness instead of their
guilt. And he said to Mr. Spurgeon,
he thought he'd impressed the old gentleman. He said, ah, Mr. Spurgeon, our greatest problem
is our sinful self. Wouldn't you agree? He said,
no, sir. No, sir. Your greatest problem
is not your sinful self, it's your righteous self. That's your
greatest problem. Your sins won't keep you from
Christ. Christ came to save sinners. Your righteousness will keep
you from Christ. That's your greatest problem,
is that which keeps you from the Son of God. The people in Matthew 7, our Lord said, Not everyone that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Many
shall say unto me in that day, Lord, we preached in your name,
cast out devils in your name, did many wonderful works in your
name. He said, depart from me, I never
knew you. Now these people were turned
away from the Lord, turned away from heaven, turned away from
the judgment, turned away from mercy. They weren't turned away
because they were sinners. They were turned away because
they were religious. They were not turned away because
they were sinners. Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm not worthy
to enter your heaven. I'm not worthy of your grace
and mercy. I've sinned unto heaven and in thy sight, not worthy
to be called a son. I don't know what to say. If
they said that, they'd come in. But they said, we did this, that,
and the other. And they were turned away because
of what they did. And he called it workers of iniquity. Let me show you another illustration.
The Pharisee in the temple, listen to this. This is so hard to learn. The Pharisee in the temple went
home condemned. law-abiding, tithing, synagogue-going
teacher of Scripture went to his home condemned because, as
he said, he was not like other men. He's a shade better. Isn't that what he said? I'm not like other men. The publican standing in the
back would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, but smote
upon his breast and cried, O God, be merciful, let thy blood be
propitiation for me on the mercy seat, be merciful to me a sinner,
went home justified, because he was like other men, a sinner." So you don't want to be different from other sons of
Adam. in this regard, you're a sinner. A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. The Lord's going to save every sinner without question. He said he came to save sinners. He's not going to leave any out.
The Lord's going to save every lost man and woman, young person,
every one of them. He said, I came to seek and to
save the lost. If God ever gets a man lost,
God intends to save him. If God ever reveals to a man
his sin, a woman her sin, He intends to save that person.
If He ever delivers us from our self-righteousness, He'll clothe
us in the righteousness of Christ. That's right. But the difficult
task, Brother Jim, is to deliver men from their self-righteousness.
That's a lesson that's so awful. Hard to learn, but I tell you,
once you learn it, listen to me, three things, once you learn
that Christ came to save sinners, He died for sinners, He redeemed
sinners, He seeks to save the lost, once that dawns upon your
soul, you look to Him as your Savior
God, you look to Him as your sacrifice, you look to Him as
your mercy seat, you look to Him as your high priest, you
wouldn't dare look to anything else, because you don't have
anything else. That's what Peter said. He said,
will you go away? He said, to whom? To what? To where? You have the words
of life. I believe that you're the Son
of God, the Savior. I don't have anywhere else to
go. And when you don't have anywhere to go, you'll go to Him. But
you won't go to Him, and I won't go to Him, and no one else will,
as long as they've got somewhere to go that gives them some glory. Once we learn it, we'll go to
Him. Secondly, once we learn it, we'll
give God all the glory. And that's what we've got to
do now. That's like Mike was singing, a sinner like me, I
was once far away from the Savior. foul as a sinner could be, and
the thought filled my heart with sadness. There's no hope for
a sinner like me. Then in that dark, lonely hour,
a voice sweetly whispered to me, saying, Christ, Jesus has
power to save a sinner like me. I listened, and lo, it was the
Savior who was speaking so kindly to me. I cried, I'm the chiefest
of sinners. save a sinner like me." And he
did. And I give him all the glory.
He didn't have to. He wasn't obligated to. He didn't
owe me anything but hell, but he gave me heaven. And he gets
all the glory. He of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that he that
gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. People say, have trouble with pride. If you
ever find out who he is and who you are, you won't have any trouble
with pride. No, I promise you. Because he'll never let you forget
who you are. He told Paul that. He said, lest
you be exalted above measure, I'll whittle you down a little
bit. I'll keep you informed. You can't stay in this word and
have pride. No, so you can't do it. You can't
do it. You can't do it. As long as you
know who you are and who He is and who Christ is, He gets the
glory. And then thirdly, we sinners
never, no never, never will be put to shame. Never, never. And never will we ever rejoice
in anything but Christ. Never. Now, here in this story
is a parable, but it's one parable. It's a parable with three parts.
The best word that I have concerning this parable, you see verse 2
says, "...the Pharisees said, and the scribes murmured, saying,
This man received sinners and eats with them, and he spake
this parable, not these parables, this parable unto them. In response
to that statement, this man received sinners, and each with them.
And he spake this parable to them who didn't know this lesson. And this virgin said this. Now, these three stories are one parable. And these three
stories are like three sides of a great pyramid. Pyramid has
three sides. And these three stories are three
sides of a great pyramid of gospel truth, and there's a distinct
inscription on each side which tells one great truth. The eternal
God, the eternal Father receives sinners. The eternal Spirit receive
sinners. The eternal Savior receives sinners. That's right, that's what it's
saying. The eternal God, Father, Son, Spirit, saves sinners and
delights to show mercy. And each one of these stories
is needful to the other. Now, when they are received together,
It's a clear exposition of God's mercy to sinners. Read them separately
all you want to. Preach from them if you'd like
to separately, but our Lord preached them together. Now remember,
the Pharisees murmured. They said, this man received
sinners, common, ordinary, everyday sinners, and eats with them. And then he said the following,
verse 4, Which man of you having a hundred sheep, If he lose one
of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after
that which is lost. His sheep is lost. Valuable. One he loves is lost. And when
he finds it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when
he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying,
Oh, rejoice with me. have found my sheep which was
lost." Now then, who's the chief character
in this story? Well, the shepherd. No question
about it. The shepherd. The shepherd has
a lost sheep. The sheep belongs to him. It's
his sheep. And his sheep is lost. And he
is not willing that that sheep remain lost. He doesn't say,
well, that's just one sheep. I've got others. No, that one
sheep is worth his leaving his comfortable surroundings and
going out into the wilderness as our Lord Jesus Christ. And
he's the good shepherd. He's the chief shepherd. He's
the great shepherd. He's the one he's talking about
here. And our Lord Jesus Christ left heaven's glories and came
into this world. For he said, I'm the good shepherd,
I laid down my life for the sheep. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my
voice and shall be one fold and one shepherd. I'll seek them,
I'll find them, put them on my shoulders, bring them home. He suffered for sin, the just
for the unjust, that he might bring us home, bring us to God. And I'll tell you this about
this shepherd and his sheep. When one of them is lost, it's
a persevering, successful search. Listen to what it says here.
It says in verse 4, the latter part, he does not leave the 99
in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he finds
it. Until he finds it. It's a persevering
search He goes up to that which is lost and he finds it And he
puts that sheep on his shoulders and verse 6 says when he comes
home He calls together all of his friends and his neighbors
saying unto them now rejoice with me. I found my sheep I Found
my sheep which was lost And this is talking about lost sinners
because in the next verse it says, I say unto you that likewise,
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner, that repentant, more
than over 99 just persons which need no repentance. Now let's
don't deal with the 99 and the elder son. Let's deal with what
our Lord is talking about here. This man received sinners, sinners,
lost sinners. And then our Lord said, the good
shepherd, the chief shepherd, the great shepherd, had lost
sheep. And he left heaven's glory. The
sheep didn't know he was lost. He was out there wandering around.
He didn't care if he was lost. He wasn't looking for the way
home. He didn't particularly care. But the shepherd loved him and
wouldn't let him stay lost. And he came down and went through
the wilderness. the wilderness of sin, and found his sheep. He found the sheep. He suffered.
He lifted the sheep. He put it on his shoulder. He
brought it home. He rejoiced, and all of heaven
rejoices with him." All right? Then he said, "...either..."
Now, see, this is not a new story, a new parable. It's another part
of the war. "...either what woman having
ten pieces of silver. If she lose one piece, does not
light a candle, sweep the house, seek diligently till she finds
it. And when she has found it, she
calls her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with
me, I have found the piece which I had lost." Now, it was her
coin. The sheep was the shepherd's
sheep. This was her coin. She wasn't just looking for coins.
If she was looking for coins, she'd been out in the street
somewhere. But she had a lost coin. It was hers to begin with. It was hers when it became lost.
It was hers lying there in the dust, wherever it is. It's hers.
And it's in her house. It's in her house. It was lost
in her house in darkness. So she took a light. She found
a candle. And she went, she had to have
some light to dispel the darkness. And she began to look for that.
She moved furniture. She got a broom and swept all
around. And she kept looking and persevered
until she found that lost coin. And when she found it, she called
everybody together. She said, rejoice with me. I
found my lost coin. What does this story say? The
Holy Spirit, the chief character in this part of the parable,
is the woman. Not the coin. The coin is dead,
lifeless, makes no move. The woman. And the woman represents
the Holy Spirit and the sinners, lost sinners of the lost coin.
You and I are lost. We're His coins, but we're lost.
In Adam we became lost. in darkness, in dust, in the
dirt, filth. And we're dead to our condition.
That coin will lie there forever if she doesn't find it. Isn't
that right? And I'll tell you this, dead
sinners will remain dead until He gives them life. That's right. You better hear His voice. We're
dead, we're ignorant of it, and could care less. But we're lost,
but we're not forgotten. There's one who loves us. There's
one who cares. There's one to whom we belong.
We're here, and He's not going to let us stay lost. I'm telling
you the truth. This is what my Lord said. We're
lost. As far as we're concerned, hopeless. But we're in His house. We're
lost in His universe. This coin was lost in this woman's
house, over which she had dominion and control. It's her house.
That's her sofa she's moving. That's her chair she's moving.
That's her broom she's sweeping. That's her candle she's lighting. And my Lord has authority over
all flesh in His universe. Whatever He has to move to find
His sheep, He'll move her. Because it's his. Now come on,
I've told Daniel the truth. It's his coin, lost in his universe. And he said, I have all authority
over all flesh, that I should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given me. Pharaoh, I raised you up for
one purpose, to accomplish my purpose, and save my people. It's her house. Hey, you can't
move that. Yes, I can. I'm looking for my
coin. I'll move whatever I want to
move. I'll change whatever I want to change. I'll sweep wherever
I want to sweep. This is my father's world. And
he's got some sheep lost. He's going to find them. That's
what makes the ministry a joy. I'm not trying to convince anybody
of anything. I can't convince anybody of anything.
I can't find lost sheep. I don't know who they are or
where they are. But I can sure light a candle That's the gospel. That's the light of Christ. We bring the light of the gospel.
And the gospel finds the lost coin. The gospel, the light of
the gospel. And let me show you this. She
sought till she found it. It's no accident. She found it
herself because she determined it. And He's determined to call
His sheep and to take the gospel light. He has shined in our hearts
with the glorious gospel of Christ to give us the light of the knowledge
of Christ, of God, in the face of Christ. The Holy Spirit quickens,
calls, finds, receives dead sinners. The shepherd cries, and the Holy
Spirit rejoices. He receives sinners. This man
received sinners. That's what he said. The chief
shepherd. receives his lost sheep. The
woman, the Holy Spirit, receives the lost coin. All right, the
son. Let's look at the son. You read
the story. Don't let me read it again. There
are two main characters in this study, in this story here. Who's
the chief character? The chief character is the father. That's right. The two main characters
and both of them are essential to the story. But I'd have to
say in regard to our Lord's message, what the Lord is saying, they
said this man received sinners. That's right. The shepherd finds
his sheep and rejoices. The woman finds her coin and
rejoices. The father has restored to him
his son. And he embraces him and receives
him. This man received sinners. You see, this father received
this wayward, rebellious, sinful son and kisses him. The father,
picture the father here, he allowed this son to have his way. You
see, he said, Father, give me what's coming to me when you
die. All right. All right. The father permitted
Adam to have his way. The Heavenly Father permitted
men to fall. He never ceased to love him,
but when the son went out and rebelled and wasted his substance
on righteous living, the Father still loved him. The Father still
yearned for his return. And when the son returned broken,
hungry, homesick, bankrupt, filthy clothes, repentant, the father
rushed to receive him, ran up to meet him, hugged his neck,
and kissed him. This man received sinners. Can
you believe that? Why is that so hard to learn?
The Son came to seek and to save the Lord. The Spirit of God comes
where we are and awakens and quickens because He delights
to show mercy to sinners. The Father, when a sinner is
brought home, when the Savior redeems a sinner, there's joy
in heaven. And listen, did you notice this?
The Father went out to meet Him. He didn't sit on His easy chair
at home and wait until the boy knocked. See, there's no rebuke. No rebuke. This young man's been
arrogant, arrogant, sinful. Admits it. He said, I've sinned
against heaven and in your sight. No rebuke. No restitution. He didn't say to this boy, now,
you going to straighten up? You going to do this anymore?
No restitution. Well, you have to work out what
you lost. Now, I let you have, you know,
so many hundreds and thousands of dollars. You're going to have
to pay it. No payback. You notice that? No restitution. No rebuke. No payback. No probation. I'm going to watch you. No probation. He just kissed him. And when
he kissed him, he was all forgiven. When he kissed him, when he didn't
shake hands with him, he didn't stand back and look at him, he
ran and grabbed him and kissed him. No rebuke, no restitution,
no probation. Rather, he called to his servant
and said, get the best robe and put it on him. That's the robe
of Christ's righteousness. Get a ring and put it on his
finger. That's union, sonship, heir. The king's ring is put on the
son's finger. Bring the shoes and put on his
feet, because I know he's going to walk a different road now.
I know it. Just go ahead and put them on
him. Go ahead and put them on him. I know where he's going.
I know how he's going to walk, no doubt about it. Just put the
shoes on him. and then kill the fatted calf.
They kept one calf. The guild says, this is Christ.
This is the Passover lamb that they had put up for four days,
fattened it, took care of it, made sure it's perfect. This
is the fatted calf. That's what he said, kill the
fatted calf. And let's listen. And he says,
with that in mind, let me find my verse here now. In verse 22,
the Father said, bring the best, the best robe. Any robe won't
do. The best. That's Christ's righteousness.
Put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes
on his feet and bring him the beef-added calf and kill it!
And let's eat! And let's be merry. This, my
son, my son, was dead. He's alive. He was lost, but
He's found. They began to make merry. Let me read you something. And
I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the
voice of many waters, as the voice of mighty thunder, and
saying, Hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. And
let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him, for the marriage
of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted she should be arrayed in white linen, fine
linen, clean and white, for the linen is the righteousness of
saints. And he said, Blessed are they
which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." That's what
they ate in there, the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now let me close with, in conclusion,
with one thing. To illustrate the necessity,
now listen to me, of these stories, three stories in one parable. Our Lord, the Savior, the Spirit, and the
Father received sinners. I doubt that you can preach the
gospel of Christ Clearly, plainly, just using one part of this paragraph. Because in the prodigal son,
there's no seeking of the lost one. There's no one seeking him. There's no sacrifice. There's
no substitute. There's no bloodshed. There's
no savior. There's no bringing him home. He came home. There's no dead coin. There's
no dead condition. There's no light of the gospel
by the Spirit. It would appear, if you just
read the prodigal son, that he was out there and he sat down
and reasoned this thing out. Purely a materialistic thing.
He says, I don't have anything to eat. My servants in my daddy's
house are eating. I don't have anything to wear.
They've got good clothes. I don't have a bed to sleep in.
They've got a nice place to sleep. I think I'll go home. Did the sheep decide to go home?
Did the coin say, I'm tired of the dust and darkness, I want
to get back in the purse? No. And the son didn't either. Every sinner that comes to himself
is because God the Holy Spirit with the light of the gospel
brings him to himself. And every sheep that comes home
is brought home. You see that? And that's the
reason. that these stories are together.
A valuable, beloved lost sheep is sought and found by the shepherd
who went into the wilderness and found him, and he rejoiced. A lifeless coin is found through
the use of a light in the hands of an almighty God. And a son,
a sinner, is enlightened to his condition and repents and comes
home. He's brought home just as much
as that sheep, and he's found just like that coin. But what
our Lord's illustrating here is an answer to those people.
He receives sinners. You're right. He sure does. He sure does. The Savior came
to save sinners. The Holy Spirit was sent to quicken
sinners. And when those sinners are quickened
and saved and brought home, the Father welcomes him. And he tells all of heaven, set
the table. It's time for the marriage supper
of the Lamb. All my sons are home now. And there's no rebuke,
and there's no restitution, and there's no probation. It's the
best robe in the fatted cave. I've learned it, I believe. I
believe you have to. I believe you've got to look
into your faces and tell it. If that's true, then we've got
a good hope. If it's not true, we don't have a prayer.