The Sinner's Savior

Q: What does the Bible say about the parable of the prodigal son?

The Bible describes the parable as one parable with three parts that illustrates God's mercy towards sinners. The parable traditionally known as the prodigal son is better understood as a single parable with three parts, all found in Luke 15. It reveals profound truths about God’s mercy, depicting the roles of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the redemption of sinners. Each story within the parable illustrates the joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, emphasizing God's grace and love for His people, who were lost but are now found.

Q: How do we know that God's grace is sufficient for sinners?

God’s grace is sufficient as demonstrated in the parable of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son, emphasizing His active pursuit of those He loves. The sufficiency of God's grace is vividly illustrated in the parable of the lost sheep, where the shepherd searches for his lost sheep, highlighting God's initiative in seeking the lost. Similarly, the lost coin represents how the Holy Spirit diligently works to illuminate the truth, leading the lost to repentance. Finally, the lost son depicts the Father’s unconditional love and acceptance, showing that God welcomes repentant sinners back with open arms. This grace is grounded in God's eternal purpose to redeem a chosen people through Christ.

Q: Why is the concept of repentance important for Christians?

Repentance is vital as it signifies a sinner’s return to God and acknowledges their need for His grace. Repentance is crucial in the Christian faith as it marks a sinner's recognition of their lost condition and their earnest desire to return to the Father. In the parable, the lost son comes to the realization of his need and willingly decides to return home, demonstrating that true repentance is marked by a genuine acknowledgment of sin and an active desire for reconciliation with God. This aligns with the total work of grace that involves the Holy Spirit illuminating one's understanding of sin and the need for a Savior, ensuring the sinner's return to God is both voluntary and heartfelt.

Q: What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the parable of the lost coin?

The Holy Spirit's role is illustrated through the woman who seeks the lost coin, symbolizing the Spirit's work of illuminating and awakening sinners to their need for God. In the parable of the lost coin, the woman represents the Holy Spirit, who actively seeks out the lost, illuminating their condition through the light of God's Word. Just as the woman lights a lamp to search for her lost coin, the Holy Spirit brings understanding and revelation, leading sinners to recognize their need for Christ. This illustrates a critical aspect of sovereign grace theology, as it emphasizes that the Holy Spirit's work is essential in bringing about regeneration and awakening a dead heart to the truth of the Gospel.

Now, if you'll open your Bibles
with me again to the Gospel of Luke, the Book of Luke. Now, what started me to prepare to speak today from
this 15th chapter of Luke, what motivated this thing, and I brought
a message this morning. Most of you were here on the
Sinner's Savior from Luke 2, 1 and 2. And I'll continue tonight,
the Lord willing, for the rest of the parable. But what motivated
me to study this more carefully and closely is I heard the other
night, I don't remember what night it was, but one night this
week I heard a notable I started to say notorious, but notable
is a better word, I guess, preacher. One quite popular preaching on
television using what he called the parable of the prodigal son.
Some of you may have heard the message, the parable of the prodigal
son. Now, I don't mean to be contentious,
and I don't mean to be disagreeable, and I don't mean to engage in
negative preaching. I think the best preaching is
positive preaching. But without being contentious,
I say very carefully and very positively though, there is no
parable of the prodigal son. There is no such thing in the
Word of God. There's the story within the parable of the prodigal
son. But the parable of the prodigal
son was not taught alone, it cannot stand alone. It was taught
by our Lord Jesus Christ as a part of a parable. And you find it
here in Luke chapter 15. These are not three parables.
You don't have the parable of the lost sheep and the parable
of the lost coin and the parable of the lost son. You have one
parable with three parts. I tell you that, now that's so.
And if you're not careful, you'll take the parable of the prodigal
son and present things that just aren't true. You have this boy
off in a foreign country. There's no seeking. of him, there's
no Holy Spirit conviction, there's no blood, there's no cross, there's
no word preached, he just comes to himself. Without any aid or
help or assistance or motivation, he just comes to himself and
says, I'd be better off at home. And he heads home. And it's just
not that way. You see, this whole thing began
in Luke chapter 15. when verse 1, then drew near
unto him publicans and sinners for to hear him. These sinners
gathered around the master, the Lord Jesus Christ. The sinners
came. They felt welcome. And it's not surprising to find
sinners coming to Christ. That's what sinners ought to
do, come to Christ. It's not surprising to find sinners seeking
the Lord. It's not surprising to find sinners
coming to him for help. For they know only in him they
can find hope and help. But in the next verse, the Pharisees,
the religious leaders and the scribes, murmured. They murmured
against him. They saw the Lord Jesus Christ,
whom many said is that prophet, and the priest of God, and the
King of Israel. They saw him, whom many said
is the Messiah, they saw him receiving and associating with
sinful people. And they were offended. They
were greatly offended. And they said, this man receives
sinners, and this man eats with sinners and associates with sinners.
Now, it's not surprising to find sinners coming to Christ, and
it's not surprising to find the religious offended by sinners
coming to Christ, because they said, we be not sinners. We be
not sinners. verse 3, it says, He spake this
parable unto them, unto those who murmured and found fault
with him receiving sinners. He spake this parable, not these
parables, this parable. He spake this parable unto them
who had muttered and murmured against his receiving sinners. And this parable is divided into
three stories, and it shows the mercy of the Father, the love
of the Father, the love and mercy of the Son, and the love and
mercy and work of the Holy Spirit in redeeming sinners. That's
what it's all about. And each part of the parable,
each story, ends with joy over the sinner that repents. When
he told the story of the lost sheep, verse 7, look at verse
7, he said, I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven
over one sinner that repented, more than over 99 just persons
who need no repentance. Now here he's been talking about
a sheep, not a person, a sheep. But God's persons are sheep.
See what I'm saying? He's been talking about a sheep.
A fellow had some sheep, and one of them was lost, and he
went out and found it and brought it home. He said, hey, come in
here and rejoice with me. My sheep was lost. I found it,
and our Christ, our Lord said, there's joy in the presence of
the angels over one person that repents. And then he tells about
a woman who lost a coin. She had ten. She lost one. She
began looking for it. And when he finished that part,
he said, likewise I say unto you, Same thing. There's joy
in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repented.
He didn't talk about a sinner, he didn't talk about a coin.
He didn't talk about a coin. But we are lost and the Holy
Spirit lights the candle of the Word and finds us. You see, there's
the work of the Son, the Shepherd, the Holy Spirit, the woman, using
the Word of God, finding the coin. And there's joy over sinners.
And then he talks about the Son. Here's a man who had two sons.
And one of them asked for his inheritance, and so he divided
it with both of them. The younger son got one-third,
and the older son got two-thirds. But he divided their inheritance,
and the younger son headed out, wasted it, and came to himself
and came home. And down here in verse 24, verse
23, it ends the same way, this part of the parable. "...Bring
hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.
This my son was dead, and is alive. He was lost, he's found,
and they began to be merry." One parable in three parts. And one part of it talks about
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the second
part of it talks about the ministry of the Holy Ghost, effectual
ministry of the Holy Ghost. And the third part of it talks
about the father to whom the son belonged. The father to whom
the son belonged, and it never was, he was lost, but he was
still my son. And the father who loved him
when he was home, and loved him when he was lost, and loved him
when he was on his way home, and loved him when he came home.
And the father went out and fell on his neck, embraced him, and
kissed him, and received him, and said, let's rejoice. My son
was lost, and now he's back. You cannot tell this parable
without telling all of it, all three parts of it. Spurgeon said,
there are three stories here that make up one parable. And
these three stories are three sides of a great pyramid of gospel
truth. There is a distinct inscription
on each side of the pyramid. It's one parable, one parable
with three stories or three parts, and on each side of the pyramid
there is an inscription, an inscription that tells one great truth, the
eternal Father, purpose, and planned to redeem a people and
gave them to Christ. And he loved them with an everlasting
love that's everlasting, that's infinite, that's unchanging.
And he receives them that way. The Son came to this earth for
the sheep. God made him their surety, gave
them to him before the world began, and he found them. He
suffered and found them and brought them home. The Holy Spirit, we're
going to see in just a moment, is the third person of the Blessed
Trinity. And the Holy Spirit comes and
illuminates, regenerates, awakens, and reveals the Word of God to
the sinner whom the father gave to the son, whom the son purchased
by his own blood. And each one of these stories,
Spurgeon continued, is needful to the other. And when they're
preached together and received together, They form a clear exposition
of God's mercies to sinners. That's what it's all about. But
now remember, as we look at it tonight, remember this is a parable. Someone may say, well, preacher,
what's a parable? Well, a parable is an earthly story. And don't
forget, it is an earthly story. This is where a lot of preachers
get in trouble. And instead of finding, instead
of seeing what the Lord is saying, and receiving the application,
they spend all their time trying to find out who's the 99? Who's
the elder brother? What did he mean by this? You
see, let's don't miss what he's teaching, trying to find out.
Someone said one time about a parable, it's an earthly story with a
spiritual meaning and lesson. Don't try to exhaust it. Don't
try to exhaust it. Everything may have a meaning,
but it may not too. It's still an earthly story.
It's still an earthly story. He's speaking to us. What our
Lord is doing, He's speaking to us with an illustration, with
an analogy. And you just can't make a parable
walk on four legs. You just can't do it. Find out
what He's saying and receive that and rejoice in it. And if
you want to look into the other, fine. But don't spend your time
over here eating briars when you could eat hay. And then secondly, remember who
speaks. It's the Lord Jesus. And don't forget the occasion
for the parable. Our Lord was surrounded by sinners.
He was surrounded by sinners, guilty people, sinful people,
who saw in Him hope and mercy and grace. And the religious
folks over there, the works people, the self-righteous people, were
offended because He received, associated with, and welcomed
sinners. So He turned and spake this parable
to them. Well, let's look at the lost
sheep. Verse 4, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness,
and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he
found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he
comes home with his sheep, he calls together his friends and
neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, I have found
my sheep which was lost. Now who's the leading character
in this part of the parable? Who's the leading character in
this story? Is the sheep? No, sir. The 99? No, sir. The neighbors? No, sir. There's
one leading character in this part of the parable. The shepherd.
Is that right, Bob? The shepherd's the leading character.
The shepherd loved the sheep. The shepherd searched for the
sheep. Is his sheep? Turn to John Keegan. Our Lord talks about us being
his sheep. Why don't you listen to what
he says? The shepherd loved the sheep. The sheep was his. He
was not looking for stray sheep that belonged to somebody else.
His sheep was lost. It was his sheep when it was
lost. It was his sheep when he found it. Had his brand on it. In John chapter 10, listen, he
calls himself the good shepherd. Verse 11. I'm the good shepherd.
The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But he that's
a hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not,
seeth the wolf cometh, coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeing,
and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling
fleeth because he's a hireling. He doesn't care for the sheep.
I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep. I'm known of
mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father. And
I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have. They're
mine. Which are not of this foal, them also I must bring. And they'll
hear my voice, and there'll be one foal and one shepherd. Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may
take it again." Now read on down here in verse 23, And later Jesus
walked in the temple in Solomon's porch, and the Jews came round
about him and said to him, How long are you going to make us
doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered,
I told you, and you didn't believe me. The works that I do in my
Father's name, they bear witness of me, but you don't believe
me because you're not of my sheep. You see, my sheep, you're not
of my sheep, my sheep, hear my voice, they're my sheep. I know them, I know them by name,
I call them by name. Where did he get his sheep? The
Father gave him these sheep from all eternity. And he said, I
know these sheep, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. And here in our story, our Lord
Jesus Christ is saying, the shepherd loves the sheep. The sheep aren't
seeking the shepherd, the shepherd's seeking the sheep. The sheep
didn't find the shepherd, the shepherd found the sheep. And
he put the sheep on his shoulder and he brought it home. This
search was personal. He went out and found the sheep
himself. It was a personal search. Our Lord came into this world
to save his people. And it was an all-absorbing...
What he said when he has 99, he left the 99. Maybe our Lord's
talking about he left He left heaven. He left all of the heavenly
hosts. He left all of the things where
he was before the world began. He left those things. He came
down to earth. It was a personal search. It
was an all-absorbing search. He left these things. He left
all and went out into the wilderness, went into the world, went into
the desert, came into this world in human flesh. gave himself
in a persevering way, and he searched for his sheep until
he found it. And I barely believe this with
all my heart. I believe the Lord will find
every one of his sheep, every one of them. There's a man down
there in Mexico who listens to Milton Howard, a man named Roberto,
a coffee grower, a rancher, And he was out with Milton in the
truck one day, and they were driving along, and Milton said,
well, the man said to Milton, he said, some time ago I heard
you say that the Lord has a people. And you came down here to Mexico
to find those people. Now, you came down here to preach
the gospel, to preach the gospel and find those people. He said,
do you reckon I might be one of them? Do you believe that? That's the truth, whether we
believe it or not. The Lord has a sheep. You see, this is all
of grace. The Lord has a sheep. He has
a people. The Father gave them to Him.
And He came down here to this earth to redeem them. He found
them. He redeemed them. He put them
on His shoulders. He brought them home. It's all
of grace. He didn't go find the sheep and rebuke them and say,
It's not good pasture out here in the wilderness. You just come
on, make your decision, follow me, and I'll meet you at home."
Thus he picked him up and put him on his shoulders and brought
him home. That's what our Lord is saying. And he's saying it
was a lost sheep. And he says there's joy in heaven,
joy in heaven over one sinner that repented, over one sinner
that repented. All right, let's look at the
next part of the parable, next stovet. And verse 8 begins with,
either. What woman, having ten pieces
of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and
sweep the house, and search diligently till she finds it? And when she
ever, see this sheep was lost, this coin's lost. And this part
of the parable is exactly where it ought to be, right in the
middle. The Lord Jesus comes, and through
his suffering, and blood, and death, he redeems his people.
And then the Holy Spirit comes, and this woman is a picture of
the Holy Spirit. And this coin, it's her coin.
It belongs to her. But it's a lost coin. And we're
God's sheep, but in Adam we're lost. And we're in the dust. This coin was in the dust. And
let me tell you something about it. The coin was ignorant of
the fact that it was lost. The coin didn't know it was lost.
The coin wasn't saying, I'm down here. I'm down here at the table. You don't see me, but I'm here.
And I'm dirty, and I want to be clean. Now, the coin was ignorant
of the fact that it was lost, and it was just as content to
lie in the dust as to be in the pocketbook. That's us. But the woman, the woman wanted
her coin. It was her coin, and God's going
to have his sheep. And maybe in Mexico, God's going to have
his coins. Every one of them. He makes up
his jewels. He's not a one going to be missing
in his crackle. Not a one. And so what does she
do? She lights a candle. You've got
to have light. And the Holy Spirit lighting the candle, the woman
lighting the candle is a picture of the Holy Spirit taking this
word, which is the light, and bringing it. The word is the
light of life. The word reveals our lost condition. And she took this light and she
searched and she found it. And you see, the Ethiopian eunuch
was a child of God. He belonged to Christ. There
he was down in Ethiopia. He was in a dark country, in
a pagan, Gentile country, but he belonged to God. He's one
of the sheep, he's one of the coins, he's a lost son. He went up to
Jerusalem. God put a hunger in his heart
for knowledge of the true God. He went up to Jerusalem, and
while he was there, he got hold of the Scriptures. And on his
way home, he was reading from the book of Isaiah. And God sent
a preacher. And that preacher, Philip, came
and joined himself with the chariot. And there was the eunuch up there
in the chariot reading the scriptures. And Philip said, Do you understand
what you're reading? He said, No. How can I? He said, Some
man show me. And Philip got up in the chariot.
And Philip began at the same scripture and preached Christ
to him. And light came in his heart. See, that's light. Light
to show him his lost condition. Light to show him his need of
Christ. Light to show him who Christ
is. That's the light. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
And the Heavenly Father, this is true now, the Heavenly Father
has given to the Son of people. They're pictured here as sheep,
they're pictured here as a coin. And the Son came down here in
the wilderness and gave his life to find his sheep. But here the
Holy Spirit comes and the Holy Spirit brings light and revelation
and knowledge that the sheep and the coen might be found.
Now here will help us even more. And then our Lord said, and he
said there's joy over one sinner that repented. Now verse 11.
And he said a certain man had two sons. Let me ask you, who
was the leading character in the second story? The woman. Not the coen, the woman. Not
the neighbors that came in. The woman's a leading character.
In the first one, it's a shepherd, Christ. In the second, it's a
woman with the light. That's the Holy Spirit. Now in
this third thing here, look at this. And a certain man had two
sons. Well, let me just tell you the
story at the same time. One of the sons asked, give me
my portion of inheritance. And the father divided it for
both of them. Gave the younger son his and
the other son his. Who is the elder brother? I don't know.
We'll work on that sometime. But he's not the leading character.
He's not the one upon whom our attention must be focused. The
leading character is this boy left home and went down there
in a pagan foreign country and lived like a rebel and spent
everything he had. Everything he had. And he came
to himself. He realized, he said, I'm starving
and how many hired servants in my father's house have plenty
of bread and spare and here I am starving. I'm going to go home,
and I'm going to say to my father, I've sinned against heaven and
in your sight, and I'm not worthy to be called your son. Make me
as a hired servant." So he started home. And evidently that father,
since that boy left, had spent much time standing, looking through
a window or leaning on a rail fence with a broken heart, loving
that boy, watching for him. This is the love of the father.
You see, the leading character in this part of the parable is
the Father. It's not that boy, it's the Father.
Christ is showing the compassion and mercy and love of the Father
for his lost son. And he stood there by that fence
or in that window or doorway and watched. And one day, one
afternoon, that old man saw a familiar figure top of the hill, a ragged
bum. And he knew the walk. And he
didn't stand there in the window and say, well, the little rabble
left. I'll just wait and see what he's
got to say. I'm going to wait and see if he's repented enough
or broken enough. I don't know where I'm going
to take him. No. He literally ran. Can you picture the Heavenly
Father running? But that's what we have here.
He ran. He ran for joy. He ran with compassion. He ran with affection as his
boy. And he loved that boy, regardless of who he was, or what he was,
or what he had done. Now you see where this parable
is born, these sinners, these fallen men and women were around
our Lord, and these religious fellows said, what are you doing
associating with those folks? And our Lord talked to them about
it. You see there? That sheep was lost, but that shepherd loved
him enough to go find him at any cost. That coin was lost,
that woman lit a candle and hunted it. at any cost. That father
stood and looked for that boy. He's his boy. He loves him. He's
not somebody else's boy. His boy. He waited when he just
saw that man coming over that hill. He literally ran out there,
just charged out there on the top of that hill. And the Scripture
said he grabbed that boy and kissed him. And the boy backed
off and he said, Father, he said, I sinned against you. I sinned
against heaven and in your sight and I'm not worthy. Just make
me a servant, just make me a hired servant." And his daddy didn't
even pay any attention to all these objections. He began to call him, kill the
fatted calf, kill that calf I've been saving for months and months
and months and call my friends in, put shoes on his feet and
a robe on his back and a ring on his finger, my son's alive,
he was dead. And he kissed him again. And he kissed him again. That's the
Father. But you see, our Lord, oh, I
love His Word, I'm so overjoyed with His Word. There's a work
of grace here, it's so beautiful, which the sheep cannot betray.
The sheep is an animal. Our Lord Jesus Christ is illustrating
His love and His sacrifice and His work to redeem His people.
He goes and finds the sheep. A sheep that makes no contribution,
a sheep that has no understanding, a sheep that's just there. And he goes, does it all, every
bit of it. He loved it. He sought it. He
sacrificed. He suffered. He found it. He
found it. No response. He found it. Picked
it up. He put it on his shoulder. He
brought it home. That's the Savior. And if he has no rival, he has
no competitor, he does it all. The woman is the Holy Spirit.
And the coin's lost. It's in the dust. It doesn't
move. It's there in the dirt. It also
has no response. And the light comes, and the
coin is found. But that sheep and that coin
cannot properly illustrate God's people. You see, that's what
a parable is. It can't do it. You can't make
it stand alone. Can't do it. Because with a sheep,
there's no repentance. There's no remorse. There's no
plea for help. With a coin, same thing. Let
me tell you something. The work of the Holy Spirit of
God in the heart of a sinner produces a realization of sin,
and that's why you've got to have this lost son. This lost
son is no robot. This lost son is no dumb animal.
This lost son is a man who's lost, but he's still got a mind
and an ear and an eye and a heart and some thoughts. And he's got
to come back home. He's got to come willingly. He's
got to come lovingly. He's got to come so that he ain't
going to leave again. He's got to come thankfully,
John. He's got to. So we've got to have this son
in this stuff. And so the son out there comes to a realization
of his lost condition, of his unhappy condition, and he repents. He said, I've sinned. I've sinned
against heaven. When he came back to his father,
he said, I'm going home. I tell you, people who come to
Christ, they're not drugged to Christ. You don't take them and
drag them to Christ. They come willingly. They come
willingly. They come because they don't
want to be anywhere else but home. They don't want to be with anybody
else but Him. They don't want to look to anybody
else but Him. And this son came to a realization of what he was,
what he had done, he repented of it, I've sinned, and he willingly
said, I'm going home. And when he came home, he uttered
the first words out of his mouth, I'm not worthy of your love.
or your kindness, and I'm willing to be a servant, not even a servant. I'm willing to labor in the backyard.
I'm willing to feed the pig. I'm willing to do anything. Just
let me be at home with you." See that? You see that? And that's the reason I say to
you, this parable cannot be divided. It cannot be divided. It's our
Lord Jesus Christ. saying to these critics, this
is why I came. I have some sheep. I have some
people. My father has some sons. They're
all coming. I'm going to find them. I came
down here to save them. And they're every one going to
repent. They're every one going to see who they are and what
they are and what they've done. They're coming home with a plea
for mercy and a confession of sin. And I'll tell you, when
they get home, they won't be rebuked. They'll be received. And the father loves them. The
son loves them. The Holy Spirit loves them, and the Father loves
them, and He calls them, and He receives them. And there's
joy and glory when one of His sheep come home. All right, Mike,
you come lead us in a song, and we're going to have a baptismal
service.

The Sinner's Savior

What does the Bible say about the parable of the prodigal son?

How do we know that God's grace is sufficient for sinners?

Why is the concept of repentance important for Christians?

What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the parable of the lost coin?

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The Sinner's Savior

What does the Bible say about the parable of the prodigal son?

How do we know that God's grace is sufficient for sinners?

Why is the concept of repentance important for Christians?

What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the parable of the lost coin?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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