If you would like to follow in
your Bibles while I bring the message this morning, I invite
you to turn to the 15th chapter of Luke. I'm not going to read
the first 24 verses. That will serve as our context. We'll be speaking from that portion
of Scripture, Luke 15, 1 through 24. But I'm going to refer to
these verses all the way through the message. So if you'd like
to open your Bibles to that portion of Scripture, I would, after
we leave the air, like for you to read it for yourself. In other
words, I want you to be like the noble Bereans. They search
the Scriptures to see if these things be so. I'm not asking
you to receive a message because this is the way I believe it
or the way I preach it. I'm asking you for your own eternal
welfare, to search the scriptures, whether these things be so. Search
the scriptures, Christ said, they are they which testify of
me. He tells us to study, to show ourselves approved unto
God, a workman that need it not be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. Here's what I'm speaking on today.
I'm going to bring, I believe, a teaching message. We're going
to look into the word and study together a little bit, but I
believe God's given me some light on this subject. Three parables
or one parable in three parts. Now, to most people it is three
parables, Luke 15. Most people read this as three
separate parables, but it's not three parables at all. It's one
parable in three parts. Now, you're familiar with the
parables, most of you are. The first one is about the lost
sheep. Our Lord said there was a man who had a hundred sheep,
and one of them was lost. Does he not leave the ninety-nine
in the fold? and go out into the wilderness,
out into the storm or wherever he has to go. He leaves everything,
leaves it all behind, and he goes out personally and seeks
his sheep, and he seeks it till he finds it. And when he finds
his sheep, he puts it on his shoulder, and he brings it home. And when he comes back home with
that lost sheep which he has found and delivered and brought
back, he calls his friends and neighbors together, and he says,
Rejoice with me. Rejoice with me. This my sheep
was lost, and I found him." Likewise, Christ said, there's joy in the
presence of the angel over one sinner that repented. Now, that's
one part of the parable. That's not the end of it. And
he went on to say, and a certain woman had ten silver coins. If she loses one, she lights
a candle and she sweeps the house and searches till she finds that
one lost coin that she lost in the dust. And when she finds
it, she calls her neighbors together, and she says, rejoice with me.
I have found the coin that was lost. Likewise, Christ said,
there's joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that
repented. You see, he's still carrying
forth this story, this one story in three parts, but that's not
the end of it. He said, likewise, there is a man who had two sons,
an older son and a younger son. And the younger son came to the
father, and he said, Father, divide the portion of your goods
that belongs to me. In other words, I want my inheritance
now. I don't want to wait till you die. I want it right now.
So his father gave him the inheritance, turned it over to him. And this
young man went down in a foreign country, and he wasted all of
his money, all of his inheritance. He spent it all. He spent everything. And he was so poor and so ragged
and so destitute and poverty stricken, that he wound up sitting
on the railing of the pig pen and would pain have eaten with
the pigs, the husk that the pigs were eating. And while sitting
there, he said to himself, he came to himself, the scripture
said, and he said, how many hired servants in my father's house
have bread to spare? And here I am with nothing. I'm
going back home and I'm going to say to my father, father,
I've sinned against heaven. and in thy sight am no longer
worthy to be thy son, just make me one of your hired servants.
But when he was a great way off, the father saw him, and the father
ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, fell on
his neck and kissed him. And he said, Bring hither the
vest robe, and shoes for his feet, and a ring for his finger,
and kill the fatted calf, for this my son was lost, and now
he is found. how there are three parts to
this one parable. I'm saying that this is not three
parables. This is one parable in three
parts. If you separate any of the parts
and try to preach it and make it stand alone, you're going
to miss the truth of this scripture. You're certainly going to miss
it, because they need one another. Someone said, each one of these
stories is needful to the other. They're like three sides of a
pyramid. There are writings on every side,
and they tell the whole story. And I tell you the story they
tell. The work of the Son, the work of the Spirit, and the work
of the Father in redemption. I know there's a lot of conflict
and debate and discussion about the Trinity. I can't explain
the Trinity. I'll not attempt to explain the
Trinity. I will give you some scriptural references to the
Trinity. I know the Lord our God is one God. That's what scripture
says. But when God created man, He
said, let us make man. And then when our Lord Jesus
Christ was baptized, the Scripture said that the Son was baptized,
the Father spake from heaven and said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. And the Holy Spirit descended
upon Him in the form of a dove. When our Lord was glorified on
the Mount of Transfiguration, the Scripture says that they
saw Christ and the Father spake from heaven and said, this is
my beloved Son, hear ye Him. And then over in 1 John it says
there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Spirit. And then our Lord sent his disciples
forth and told them to go into all the world and baptize in
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Again our
Lord said to the disciples, I will pray the Father, and he will
give you another comforter, even the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive. So what we have in this one parable
are three parts. is the glorious work of the Son,
the Shepherd finding the sheep, the great work of the Holy Spirit
in illuminating, enlightening sinners, and the Father in mercy
and grace receiving all who return home. Now, as in all of our Lord's
parables, and this will help you a great deal in understanding
parables, you can't just lift the parable out and tell the
story and make up a meaning. All of our Lord's parables are
understood according to the occasion for the parable. You get what
I'm saying? The occasion. In other words,
who's speaking? To whom is he speaking? What's
the subject? Now, there are numbers of parables,
15, 16, 17, 18 parables in the New Testament which our Lord
gave. He said, I speak to the people in parables. because they
have eyes and cannot see and ears, they cannot hear in hearts,
and they cannot understand. So I preach to them in parables.
A parable is a common earthly story that has a heavenly meaning. It's an ordinary story about
ordinary people and ordinary events that help us to understand
spiritual truth. And to understand any parable,
you have to find out who's speaking, to whom he's speaking, and the
subject about which he's speaking. Now in this particular case,
in the parable of the lost sheep, lost corn, and lost son. The
Lord Jesus Christ is speaking. That's who gave the parable.
Secondly, to whom is he speaking? He's addressing the Pharisees.
Look at Luke 15, verse 1 through 3. He's addressing the Pharisees
and the scribes. Now, who were the Pharisees and
the scribes? They were religious people, deeply, devotedly religious
people. These were the scribes and Pharisees
who did not believe that they were sinners. They did not believe
that they needed mercy. They did not believe that they
needed saving. They were religious people. They prayed, they fasted,
they tithed, they went to synagogue on the Sabbath day. They were
holy in their lives, moral in their conduct and deportment.
They didn't need a savior. They didn't need mercy. They
were good people. The Pharisees stood in the temple
and he said, I'm not like other men. I'm not an adulterer. I'm
not unjust. I'm not an extortioner. I fast
twice a week, not just once, twice a week. I tithe, I give
alms of all I possess, I'm all these things, I really don't
need any help. These are the people that are going to be speaking.
Now the occasion for the parable, will you listen? In verse 1 it
says, Then drew near unto him, that is to Christ, then drew
near unto him all the publicans and the sinners to hear him. And the religious leaders, the
Pharisees and the scribes murmured, complained, they found And they
said, this man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. Now you
see the occasion? Our Lord Jesus Christ was here
in this town, and sinners, publicans and sinners, noted sinners, well-known
sinners, infamous sinners, wicked people, they gathered around
Him to hear Him, to hear Him. And these Pharisees stood on
the outskirts of the crowd, and they watched these sinners gather
around the Master. And they murmured among themselves.
They said, well, this man receives sinners. This man even eats with
sinners. He socializes with sinners. Sinners
gather around him. That's the occasion for the parable.
To me, it's not surprising that sinners crowded about Christ.
He came to seek and to save the lost. Paul said he came into
the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. He offered them
some hope. He offered them help. Our Lord Jesus Christ offered
them mercy. They could find in him Forgiveness. The Pharisees
didn't offer them anything. Offered them law, the whip of
the law, the discouragements of the law. It's not surprising
to find these self-righteous religionists finding fault with
Christ for receiving sinners, because they didn't feel like
they were sinners. Everything he did irritated them. Everything
he did made them angry. You take his background. They
said, where's he from? Somebody said Nazareth. Well,
they said nothing good can come out of Nazareth. They found fault
with his education. They said, how does this fellow
know letters, having never learned? Well, they found fault with his
personal habits. They said, why, he's a winebibber and a gluttonous
man. They found fault with his vocation.
They said, well, this is the carpenter. They found fault with
his claims to deity. They said, well, you're a man.
You can't be God. And they resented his compassion for sinners. But
I'm telling you this. He came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repent. The well don't need a physician,
but they that are sick. Mercy is for the miserable. It
reaches out to the miserable. Grace is for the guilty. Love
came to save the lost, and salvation is for sinners. And this is the
occasion, now this is the picture. These sinners all gathered about
our Lord. They were listening to it. And these religious fellows
were out here on the outskirts murmuring and finding fault.
They said, this man receives sinners, this man eats with sinners,
this man's the friend of sinners. I tell you this, the worst thing
they could think to say about him is the best news you ever
heard, and the best news I ever heard. And this is when our Lord
spake this parable. This is when he spake this parable.
Now this is so vital in understanding the parables of our Lord. Who's
speaking, to whom is he speaking, and what's he talking about?
And these sinners gathered about him, and he was offering them
mercy and hope and help and calling them to repentance and faith.
And the Pharisees began to murmur and say, well, this man received
sinners. And that's when our Lord Jesus Christ spake these
parables. Did you notice they all ended
practically the same way, these three parts of the story? In
verse 7, after he finished talking about the lost sheep, he said,
there's joy in heaven over one sinner, sinner that repented. After he finished the story of
the lost coin, he said there's joy in the presence of angels
over one sinner that repented. Verse 24, the father said, come
rejoice with me, my son was dead, my son is alive, my son was lost,
now he's found, and they began to make merry. That's the reason
I'm saying it's the work of the son, the work of the spirit,
and the work of the father. The redeeming work of the son,
the redeeming work of the spirit, and the welcoming or receptive
work of the Father. Now, let's take the first part
of the parable. The lost sheep, I'm saying, is
indicative or reveals the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, let's look at it. Which man of you having a hundred
sheep? Now, our Lord is a shepherd.
He calls himself our shepherd. He is called in the scripture
the good shepherd. He is called the chief shepherd.
He is called the great shepherd. In John 10, he says, I lay down
my life for my sheep. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring. He said in verse 27, and
my sheep will hear my voice, and they'll follow me, and I
give them eternal life. Well, what man of you having
a hundred sheep? Our Lord has sheep. His Father
gave them to him. The Holy Spirit draws them to
him. He died on the cross to redeem them. But one of his sheep
is lost, lost. And that's the picture of every
one of us. Lost. You know, I don't know much about
the 99. I hear a lot of people who preach on this part of the
parable and they spend a lot of time on the 99. I don't know
much about it. But I do know what lost means.
I know lost means your sins have separated you from God. I know
lost means away from God, without God, without hope, without help,
without Christ. And here this lost sheep, here's
the emphasis of this story, it's on that lost sheep. and the care
and concern and compassion of that shepherd for that lost sheep.
And the scripture says that the shepherd left all. Our Lord Jesus
Christ left loath and went out into the wilderness. He came
down into this world. He was made of a woman, made
under the law. He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh. He came here into this world
to find his sheep. He came to die for sinners. He
came to redeem his own. And then he searched for his
sheep, the scripture says here, until he found it. He said, all
that my Father giveth me will come to me. And him that cometh
to me I'll in no wise cast out. I came down from heaven, not
to do my will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is
the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath given
me I'll lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. And this
is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth
the sun, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and
I raise him up at the last day." And it said he searched till
he found his sheep. He put it on his shoulders and
brought it home. He cannot fail. Our Lord Jesus
Christ cannot fail. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. All of his redemptive works,
all of his redeeming efforts, will be crowned with success.
The shepherd personally went out. He went on a given mission
and task to find his sheep. He searched for it till he found
it. He put it on his shoulders and brought it home. And he called
his friends and said, Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep."
There's joy in heaven over the repentance of one sinner. So
you see the work of the Son. That's the redemptive work of
the Lord Jesus Christ in this first part of the parable. Now
then, we don't leave it there. Our Lord moves on to the next
part. And he says in the next few verses, a lost coin. And what do we see here in the
lost coin? We see the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. Now
there was a woman, Christ said. She had ten silver coins. She
lost one. It fell in the dust. A dead,
lifeless coin fell in the dust. The woman got a candle. She lit
the candle and she hunted. and swept all over the house
with that candle till she found that lost coin. When she found
it, she called her friends, and she says, I found my coin. I
found my coin. Rejoice with me. Now, what's
missing in this? If we're going to talk about
salvation, if we're going to talk about forgiveness, if we're going
to talk about redemption, what's missing? There's no suffering.
There's no sacrifice. There's no bloodshed. You see
what I'm saying? There's no willingly straying
away. In the first parable, when we
talk about the redemptive work of Christ, the sheep is alive,
and the sheep strayed away and became lost, helpless to do anything
about it, not knowing the way back, unable to come back by
itself or on its own. And the shepherd left and went
out in the cold and the suffering and the wilderness. and probably
shed his blood and went through the thorns and the thickets and
battled the beast to find that sheep and put it on his shoulder
and bring it back. That's suffering and sacrifice
and substitution. That's the work of Christ. But
here's the coin. Lifeless dead in the dust. Now that's the picture of the
sinner. We're dead in trespasses and sin. We're in the dust of
the earth. We're without any hope. We're lying there unaware
of our lost state, just like this coin. But here's the key
to this part of the parable. in revealing to me that it is
the work of the Holy Spirit in finding God's people. She lighted
a candle. The house was dark. The floor
was dark. Where the coin was was dark. The woman lighted a
candle and made light in the room. And it was not so much
the woman's suffering or the woman's agony or the woman's
sacrifice that revealed the concealed coin or the lost coin. It was
the light. It was the light that found the
candle. Without the light that found the coin, without the light,
without the candle, the coin there would have been found.
So this candle is the Word of God. The Holy Spirit takes the
Word of God and convicts men of sin. The Holy Spirit takes
the Word of God and reveals Christ to the sinner. The Holy Spirit
takes the Word of God. David said, Thy Word is a lamp
unto my feet, a light unto my path. The Holy Spirit takes the
Word of God. That's the instrument or means
that he uses to find God's sheep. The candle is the Word of God.
The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God for several things, to
reveal to us our sins, to reveal to us our Savior, to bring us
to repentance and faith, to teach us the gospel of Christ. Now,
my friends, look at the third part of the parable. There is
the lost son. I told you the story. This younger
son came to his father, and he said, Father, give to me the
portion of goods that belong to me. And the young man got
the inheritance and went down to the foreign country, and there
he wasted it and used it up on the sinful living, and he became
very poor, poverty-stricken, in want. He came to himself,
and he said, I'm going home. And back in my father's house,
the servants have better than I have. They had bread to spare,
and so on his own, he got up and started home. Now what's
missing here? Well, there's no suffering. If
you're going to preach the gospel from the prodigal son, how are
you going to do it? The whole gospel. There's no suffering,
there's no sacrifice. You see that? And secondly, he
came to himself. How did he just figure this out
all by himself? Does the sinner not need the Holy Spirit? Does
the sinner not need the Word of God? Does the sinner not need
the seeking spirit and the wooing and calling of God Almighty?
The Lord Jesus Christ said, you will not come to me that you
might have life. If left alone, this young man, as a picture
of the sinner, never would have come home. He'd have stayed down
there. He'd have enjoyed it down there. He called bittersweet
and sweet bitter. The natural man does. He doesn't
understand the things of God. There was no sacrifice, no sin
offering, no revelation. He just came to himself. We know
that none seek the Lord. We know unless he calls us, we'll
not call on him. Unless he seeks us, we'll not
seek him. Herein is love, not that we love God. God loved us.
God called us. So this is what we have in this
part of the story. When this young man was far off,
a great way off, the Scripture says, the Father saw him and
ran to meet him. In other words, the Father loved
him when he was home. The Father loved him when he
was down there in that foreign country. The Father loved him
when he came back, and the Father went out and welcomed him. And
this is a picture of the Father's welcoming grace, the Father's
welcoming mercy. What is the chief glory of the
shepherd? Now, when is the shepherd in his greatest glory? When he's
standing there in green pastures, watching over the sheep, walking
by still waters, there are no wild beasts or animals, all the
sheep are present and accounted for, and he's watching them graze.
Is that his greatest glory? Or when you see the shepherd
coming back from that quest? having found his lost sheep,
and his clothes are torn, and his forehead is bleeding, and
blood is streaming down his arms and his back where he's fought
the beast and where he's gone through the thorns and the thistles
and the briars and the wooded areas and over the desert, and
his mouth is dry and he's thirsty and weary, but he's victoriously
returning with his sheep. That's the shepherd's greatest
glory. What is the father's greatest glory? When the spoiled boy comes
to him and he's issuing out of his arm houses all that this
young man wants, giving him whatever he wants, a doting father, a
loving father, just shoveling out all that the boy wants, when
is he in his greatest glory? I tell you, when that boy who
sinned against heaven in the father's sight, who has wasted
the father's inheritance, who has brought shame upon the father's
name, who has disgraced his parents and his friends and his family,
who's lived in the worst kind of life in a foreign country.
Here he comes back dirty, filthy, ragged, unshaven, and the Father
runs out there and falls on his neck and kisses him. That's the
Father's greatest glory. And I'm saying unto you, this
is what this parable is all about. The first part of it is the work
of the Son in redemption, suffering, sacrifice, the shepherd leaving
all And going out to find his sheep, and searching till he
finds it, and giving himself, Christ suffered for our sins.
He paid our debt, and he brought us home. And the way that we
are called to faith in him is the Holy Spirit using the Word
of God. Of his own will begat he us with the Word of truth.
We are begotten again unto a living hope, not with corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible seed, the Word of God that liveth and abideth
forever. And the Holy Spirit uses the light of the Word, the
candle of the Word, to find God's sheep. And through the light
of the word, we have revealed to us what we are and where we
are and what we need and who can meet that need for his glory. And then we see in that latter
part of the parable, the father, he's looking for the returning
son. He's been standing there a long time waiting for that
son to be brought home. And he sees him coming and he
goes out to meet him and falls upon his neck and kisses him
and bestows upon him the best fatted calf, shoes for his feet,
ring for his finger, and robe for his back. Everything that
he needs through his grace. Now I would like for you to take
the book of Ephesians, turn with me to chapter 1 of the book of
Ephesians. And in the first chapter of the
book of Ephesians, you have this very truth taught as the Apostle
Paul opens this epistle to the Ephesians. Beginning with verse
3, down through verse 7, You have the work of the Father in
redemption. It says, God blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in Christ, according as he chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before him, in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he made us accepted in the beloved. Now,
there's the Father's work. He chose us, he blessed us, he
received us, he accepted us. Now you start with verse 7, and
you have the Son's work, in whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sin. In other words, Christ redeemed
us. And then it says he enlightened us. And then it says in the next
verse, he enriched us by bringing to us an inheritance, undefiled,
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. That's the
inheritance. And this all to the praise of the glory of his
grace. And then in the next two verses, verse 13 and 14, you
have the work of the Holy Spirit. in whom you trusted after you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in
whom you believed, and after you believed, you were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise. My friends, this is one parable
in three parts, the glorious redemptive work of the Son, the
revealing power of the Spirit, and the welcoming embrace of
the Heavenly Father for those who come.