In Luke, the fifteenth chapter,
it says in verse one and two, Then drew near unto him, unto
Christ the Lord, the publicans and sinners for the hearing,
and the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man received
sinners, and eateth with them." Now the religious leaders found
everything about Christ to be offensive. His background was
offensive to them. They said, Can any good thing
come out of Nazareth? Is it possible that that That
community could produce anything of any spiritual value. Our Lord's
education, or lack of it, offended them. In the scripture I read
this morning, they said, how does this man know letters having
never learned? Our Lord's vocation. He was a
carpenter. They made fun of that. They said,
he's not just a carpenter. Our Lord's personal habits. They
said he's a winebibber, a gluttonous man. Our Lord's claims. He said, I've done many wonderful,
many works among you, for which of them do you stone me? They
said, we do not stone you for doing a good work, but for what
you claim. You're a man and you claim to
be God. But as much as any other thing
that was offensive to them, our Lord's companions, and the people
that gathered about him, the people that ate with him and
sat with him and talked with him and listened to him, these
were most offensive to the Pharisees. Here in this scripture, this
man received sinners. That offended them. On another
occasion, they said, he's gone to be the guest of a man who's
a sinner. On another occasion, one of them
said, if he were a prophet, He'd know that this woman who bathes
his feet with her tears and dries them with the hair of her head
and kisses his feet, he'd know that she's a sinner. And it was in response to this
spirit and attitude that Christ gave the following parable. All
your life you've heard about the parable of the good shepherd,
the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the lost son.
But I want to say this to you tonight. These are not three
parables. This is one parable in three
parts. And this parable was given in response to this charge. They
said that as the sinners and publicans, the publicans were
among the most hated people in Jerusalem. And as these publicans
and sinners gathered close to Christ to hear him and to eat
with him and to talk with him, to listen to him, the Pharisees
stood off on the edge of the crowd. These were the strongly
religious, strict, moralist, legalist, orthodox Jews. And they said, this man receives
sinners and he eateth with them. And that's when our Lord, in
response to that charge, in response to that spirit, that's when he
spake this parable. We need to learn this, that God,
our Lord Jesus Christ, doth receive sinners. I want you to turn with
me to Matthew 9. Before I go into the parables,
turn to Matthew 9. Now, this is something that needs
to be learned. If we learn it, It'll enable
us to give God all the glory for salvation if we can learn
it. I say very few preachers have
learned it, very few professing Christians or believers, church
members have learned it. If it's learned, it'll enable
us to give God all the glory. If it's learned, it'll enable
us as sinners to flee to Christ and to find in Him mercy, grace,
and eternal life. If it's learned as believers,
we'll never find ourselves depending on our works or our righteousness
or merit for salvation. Mercy is for sinners. Grace reaches
forth to the guilty. Salvation is not by merit, it's
by grace. Unmerited, undeserved, free grace. Free grace. Grace is for the
guilty. When Brother Barnard came to
Ashland years ago, He made a statement that I didn't understand. It
took me a while to understand it and to learn it. He used to
say, God's going to save every lost sinner. Christ is going
to save every lost sinner. And I think to myself, well,
everybody's lost. Everybody's a sinner. God's not
going to save everybody. He's going to save every lost
sinner. Do you know a lost sinner? Are
you a lost sinner? If you are a lost sinner, you'll
be saved. If you know a lost sinner, that
lost sinner will be saved. Scripture teaches that. Christ
said, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.
He's come to seek and to save the lost. Scripture says Christ
died for the ungodly. If you can find anybody that's
ungodly, do you know anybody that's ungodly? Does anybody
here know anybody that's ungodly? Christ died for ungodly people.
This is a true saying, and it's worthy of acceptation by all
men, that Christ came into the world to save sinners. He's going
to save sinners. Do you know one? I know one. He's up here behind the pulpit.
I know one sinner. He's up here. I know one ungodly
man. I know one lost man. I know one man who has nothing.
has nothing, knows nothing, is nothing, and can do nothing.
And were it not for the free, unmerited, undeserved grace of
Almighty God, I'd perish this very moment. I know one sinner. But our problem is, we've never
been stripped, we've never been broken, we've never been humble,
we've never had all our foundations aflesh. We've had some knocked
out from understanding, but not all of them. We've still got
a thread. We've still got a fig leaf, we've
still got one merit, we still in some measure are not plum
lost, totally lost, completely lost, absolutely lost. Christ
is going to save every lost man. Now listen to this. In verse
10 of Matthew 9, Matthew chapter 9, And it came to pass as Jesus
said it me. Now here it is, this is what
we just talked about. In the house, behold, many publicans
and sinners came and sat down with him and with his disciples.
Just the nerve of these people. These harlots and gamblers and
profane swearers and out-and-out open sinners. These non-religious people. These
folks that weren't acceptable in the synagogue and were looked
down upon and were not received by the religious community. Here
they're sitting down, actually came in the presence of and sat
down in the presence of the Son of God. Just think of that. Think
of the nerve of these people. And sat down and listened to
Him. And when the Pharisees saw it, these were the respectable
men. These were the folks that had contended for the theology,
and orthodoxy, and separation, and legalism, and the law, and
truth, and morality. And they had fought to keep the
town dry, and they'd fought to close the movies, and they'd
fought to close the liquor store, and they'd fought to do all these
things, you know, and keep the name of God out in the public.
And here they were on the outskirts, and they said to his disciples,
why does your master eat with folks like that? Why does he
associate with people like that? Why does he eat with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard it, he said
to them, they that behold do not need a physician. And nobody
here tonight who's well and strong, plans to visit the doctor tomorrow.
That's what Christ is saying. Nobody who's whole, who has no
disease, no sickness, no pain, does not plan to go to a doctor.
Who plans to go to the doctor that's here tonight? The man
or woman that has the pain, that has the ache, that has the bore,
that has the breaking out, that has the distress, that has the
need. He plans the first thing tomorrow
to see his physician. He's sick. He needs his physician.
He's sick, but now whole people don't. That's what Christ is
saying. Now turn over the next... Now he said in verse 13, now
you go and learn what this means. Go and learn what I'm talking
about. I will have mercy, mercy. And not all of your sacrifice
and ritualism and ceremonialism and legalism and do's and don'ts
and laws and regulations and all of these things. That does
not please me. I'm not interested in it. My
interest is in mercy, for I am not come to call the righteous."
But there's none righteous, no, not one. But they think they
are. This is what the Lord is saying. If you ask those Pharisees,
they'd tell you that they're righteous, why, they'd reply
to you immediately, I fast and I tithe and I give alms, and
I'm not an adulterer, I'm not an extortioner, I'm not unjust.
No, I'm not unrighteous. Then you're righteous. I hate
to use the word, but yes, I believe I'm good as the next fellow,
or maybe a little better. Well, Christ didn't come to call
you. He came to call sinners, not the righteous. This is what
he's saying. The well don't need the physician, the sick need
the physician, and righteous people don't need a Savior. They
may need a little help or a little assistance, but they don't need
a Savior. They don't need a Redeemer. They
don't need one from start to finish to lift them, to cleanse
them, to clothe them, to give them life. They just need a little
assistance. And this is why he taught this
parable over here in Luke chapter 15. It's, go learn what this
means. Have I learned it? Have you learned
it? It's impossible to preach the
gospel of free grace till you learn it. It's impossible to
embrace the gospel of free grace till you learn it. It's impossible
to totally rest in Christ and depend on Christ and look to
Christ till you've learned it. You just can't do it. And I say
this. I've come to believe it's impossible
to be saved. I mean to be redeemed, to be
saved, unless you can fully rest in Christ. I just cannot see
in this Word anywhere where there's any room for human merit or human
righteousness or human works or human glory to be shared between
us and the Lord. I believe we've got to come to
the place where we absolutely, utterly, totally from our hearts
say unto Him, unto Him, and Him alone. who loved us and gave
himself for us. Unto him be all the glory and
all the praise and all the acclaim and all the preeminence, now
and forever. And only a totally lost man,
a helpless man, a man who knows he's without hope, without help,
without Christ, without God, without strength at his wit's
end. God in His mercy and grace for His own glory reached down
by His own power and lifted that sinner and did all that that
sinner needed done to make him like Christ. The work in its
preparation, the work in its purpose, the work in its execution,
the work in its application, the work in its sustaining power,
the work in its ultimate perfection is of God and of Him only. The
royal banquet of mercy is served up by one host, the Lord of Glory,
and no one helps him or aids him or assists him in any way.
This is what I'm preaching, is salvation for sinners by free
grace. Now, these three parables are
not repetitious. They're not repetitious. While
they declare the same truth, These three parts of this parable,
while they declare the same truth, they declare a different phase
of it. Each one is needful to the other. I think I can show
you that tonight. Each one is needful to the other. In the first part of this parable,
our Lord talks about the shepherd seeking a lost sheep. Who is
this shepherd? Well, it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the Good Shepherd, He's the Great Shepherd, He's the
Chief Shepherd, and here is the picture of Christ. His sheep
being lost, His love for that sheep, His going out into the
wilderness and finding that sheep, bringing it home. The first part
of this parable, the emphasis is upon the shepherd. The glory
is for the shepherd who finds the lost sheep. In the second
part of the parable is a woman, lost a coin. It's lying in the
dust on the floor. She lights a candle, illumination,
and she hunts that lost coin, she finds it, and she rejoices. That's the Holy Spirit. The light
of the Word, the light of illumination, the Holy Spirit finding that
which is dead, lifeless, helpless, hopeless. The sheep is not—sheep's
lost, but it's not dead. It has feeling. It goes its own
way and will. That coin has no feeling. No
understanding, no life, dead. That's the dead center. And the
Holy Spirit is the woman who seeks the lost corn. The emphasis
in this part of the parable is on the Holy Spirit. And then
this last part of the parable, the glory is for the Father.
The thing is about the Father, really. You have the response
of the Son, you have the awakening of the Son coming to himself
and so forth, but the spotlight of the Word of God is turned
here on the Father who welcomes home the returning Son. Our Lord
put these together, and I don't believe they ought to be separated.
The reason I see that he put them together, first of all,
is one thing, all parts of this parable have in common is that
the lost is found. Now note this, as he talks about
the shepherd in verse 6. And when the shepherd came home,
called together his friends and his neighbors and said, Rejoice
with me, I found my sheep that was lost. You see, the reason
for this teaching, the reason for this message, is they gathered
around our Lord real lost people. Not religious folks, not good
folks, not righteous folks, not marveled, but lost people. People
out yonder, away from God. People who were away from the
kingdom, people who were not part of the kingdom, they were
lost, they were way out there. And our Lord is giving this parable
in response to these Pharisees and religious folks murmuring
over his receiving centers, and he talks about the shepherd who
goes out and finds the sheep that was lost. Now look at verse
9, when he finished talking about the coin. He says in verse 9,
and when she found it, she called her neighbors, her friends, together
and said, Rejoice with me, I found the piece that I had lost. It
was a lost coin. It was a lost sheep that the
shepherd found. It was a lost coin that the woman
found. And then verse 23 and 24. and
bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and
be married. For this my son was dead, and
is alive. He was lost, and he is now found."
What's this all about? Our Lord is saying to the Pharisees,
the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost. The lost. Now, if you take them separately,
This is what is responsible for a lot of false doctrine in this
day. For example, go to the last part
of the parable, and they're going to teach the parable of the lost
son. And a preacher tonight will stand in the pulpit, and he'll
skip the sheep and the shepherd, he'll skip the coin and the light
and the woman, and he'll come to the lost son. And here's a
boy, a rebellious boy, that came to his father and he said, give
me my inheritance or the part of it that comes to me. And the
father does. He goes out yonder into the far countries and he
wastes his money. And this is a picture of Adam's
Paul. God gave him control and dominion
over the world which he created. And Adam did. Adam fell. Adam
wasted the substance and began to be in want. And then he came
to himself. There's no outside influence
exerted upon him. There's no light of illumination.
There's no shepherd out in the wilderness being cut with briars,
shedding his blood, walking with his weary feet, finding, nobody
searching for him, nobody awakening. Awakening him, nobody quickened
him, he just came to himself. All of his own volition, by his
own will, he came to himself and got to thinking about where
he was. Well, here I am out here and there's plenty to eat in
my father's house, why don't I just go home? And they base
this doctrine of the recovery of a sinner by his own free will
on just such things as that. Joe, a part of a parable. You
don't have any work of Christ in that lost Son at all. You
don't have any work of the Holy Spirit in that lost Son at all.
But if you take this one parable in three parts as our Lord taught
it, and the reason why he taught it, As he was sitting here at
meat, and these sinners and publicans came around him and sat down
beside him and ate with him, and he talked with them and preached
to them and ministered to them, and the religious folks on the
outskirts got all upset about it, and they said, why does he
eat with sinners? Why does he associate with those
kind of people, unrighteous people? And that's when Christ gave them
this one parable. One parable. And in the first
one, He says this, which man of you having a hundred sheep,
if he lose one, the one he lost, first of all, it belonged to
him. It was his sheep. It was his sheep. Turn to John
chapter 10. That's the first thing we know
about the sheep. It belonged to him. It wasn't
somebody else's sheep. Our Lord wasn't out looking for
sheep that he could add to his fold. He was looking for his
sheep. He has lost sheep. It belonged to him. In John chapter
10, in verse 24, the Jews came round about him. They said, How
long do you make us doubt? If you be the Christ, tell us
plainly. And Jesus answered and said, I told you, and you believe
not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you're
not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. And that gives
them eternal life. Now listen to me. Our Lord has
a people. A people given Him by the Father
from all eternity. He has a sheep. This is so. And we're going out preaching
the gospel. We're ambassadors of Christ.
Paul said, I beseech you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
And I expect that His sheep to whom I preach will hear the gospel
and will believe it. and they'll receive Christ. So
the shepherd over here, the first thing that Christ says is this
man had a hundred sheep, if he lose one, does not leave the
ninety and nine, and go out into the wilderness. What is that?
Christ came into the world to find his sheep. He came here
to redeem them. It's a persevering search. And
he goeth after that sheep which is lost until he finds it. He
does all that is necessary for the redemption of that sheep.
The wilderness is the world, and you have in that persevering
search, in that loving search, in that willing search, you have
the Lord suffering, agonizing for that one lost sheep. And
not only is that search a willing search and a loving search and
a persevering search, but it's a successful search. It says,
when he found it, He laid it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
He found it. You see, the whole thing here,
the focus, the searchlight here is not on the sheep, although
the sheep is lost. The sheep willingly left the
fold. The sheep willingly left the
fold. And I don't know what the sheep
went after, but it left the fold and wandered away and went out
there in the wilderness and was lost, had no power to come back.
But the spotlight here, Christ is putting the spotlight on that
shepherd who loves that sheep, who owns that sheep, who loves
that sheep, who was willing to go out there into the wilderness
and suffer and perseveringly, willingly, lovingly hunt that
sheep until he found it. And it was a successful search. And when he found that sheep,
he put that sheep on his shoulder and brought it back. Now then,
if you take that part of the parable by itself, and this will
lead to hardshellism and fatalism, and this is what they say. Well,
if you want to guard sheep, you don't have to go preach to them,
you don't have to read the Bible, you don't have to pray, You don't
have to call on God, you don't have to awaken or come to yourself
or make a decision to return to God. Just sit out there in
the wilderness and if you're one of his own, he'll find you
and he'll pick you up and he'll put you on his shoulder and he'll
take you home. And therefore the sinner does nothing, believes
nothing, receives nothing, gives nothing. It won't stand alone. This part of the parable is to
declare the glory of the shepherd. And that's what it's all about,
the shepherd's love for the sheep, his possession of the sheep,
his willingness to come and do whatever's necessary to find
that sheep, to secure its safety, and to bring it all the way back
home. I'm going to turn to Isaiah 53
a minute. This is so important, what I'm dealing with tonight.
And it's so instructive if we can learn it, if we can just
get a hold of this thing. Now watch this in Isaiah 53,
in verse 10, talking about our Savior, our Shepherd. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him, to put him to grief. When thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, his
sheep, his people, whatever, call them what you will, his
church, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in his hand. I know this. I know that our
Lord has a sheep, lost sheep, mind you, and he came to save
them. He came into the wilderness of
this world to redeem them, to seek and to find. I came to seek
and to save that which is lost. And he's going to have all that
the Father gave him. He said, all that my Father gave
of me shall come to me. He said, this is the will of
him that sent me, that of all he hath given me I'll lose nothing
but raise him up at the last day. And we see verse 11, look
at Isaiah 53, 11, "...he shall see of the travail of his soul,
and be satisfied by his righteous knowledge. By his knowledge shall
my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities." And that's so. "...them other sheep I have which
are not of this foal, them I must bring." But now he didn't quit,
and he said in verse 8, "...either." What woman, having ten pieces
of silver, if she lose one piece, does not light a candle, and
sweep the house, and search diligently till she find it? This is the
Holy Spirit. What is this coin like? Well,
this coin describes us turned to a Fijian's tooth. You think
about a piece of coal. Drop it over there in the dust. The coin is lackless. It doesn't even know it's lost.
It's not even aware that it's lost. It's not even troubled
about its loss. Both the sheep and the lost son
knew they were lost, were troubled because they were lost, were
in pain and suffering because they were lost, but not the coin. It's dead, lifeless. There's no feeling. You know,
understanding, it's a dead, lifeless piece of metal. And it's just
as lost as the sheep in, just as lost as the sun is, and there
it is in the dust. Look at chapter two of Ephesians.
And you have be quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. Now, there's a sense in which
this coin reveals you and me and our lost condition, because
Totally dead, lifeless, without any hope, without any hope at
all. Dead, dead, dead. The shepherd
seeks a sheep who's willingly gone astray. The woman seeks
a coin that did not willingly go astray. It's just lost. No suggestion is made of sin,
no suggestion is made of departure from the fold, no suggestion
is made of wandering from God. Not like the sheep. The shepherd
seeks a stupid, suffering, weary sheep. The coin the woman seeks
is lifeless, dead, and unresponding. The shepherd suffers and pays
a terrible price to reclaim his sheep. He goes out into the wilderness
and there fights the darkness and thirst and weariness and
pain and suffering. The woman pays no price at all.
All the woman does is light a candle, and look for the coin. There's
no suffering. There's no price to be paid.
She lights the coin, she searches, and she finds the lost coin. And this is a picture of the
spirit of the living God. The whole focus here on this
part of the parable is on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
fills fields and applies what Christ has purchased. The Lord
Jesus Christ sought the sheep, paid its price, full redemption,
and reclaimed it. And the Holy Spirit lights the
candle of the Word of God, the light of the Word of God, and
fills the house with light until the coin can be found. That's
the work of the Holy Spirit, awakening, quickening, finding,
calling, redeeming from the dust. All right, the third part of
this parable now. But here is the father who welcomes a returning
son. And as I said before, this part
of the parable, if taken by itself, will be misunderstood, because
there is no price paid for this boy's redemption. There is no
light, or there's no revelation, and there's no teaching, and
there's no illumination by the Holy Spirit. The Father simply
waits at home for this young man to return, all right? He
comes to himself. There's no hint of any outside
power exercised upon him to influence his decision. It looks like he
just decided all by himself to come home. No need to repeat
what's already been said, though the Holy Spirit's already taught
us through the Word of God that Christ is the shepherd. He pays the price and seeks the
sheep. The Holy Spirit illuminates and the Father welcomes. Let's
read the last part of this parable. It says in verse 18, I will arise
and go to my Father. And the sinner does. Now listen
to me. Every sinner who returns home, returns home willingly.
Every sinner who turns to Christ, turns to Christ by faith. Every
man who receives the gospel, receives the gospel intelligently.
This young man, this is a picture of the sinner's response. Suppose
there's somebody here this very night whom is a sheep of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You belong to him. God gave you
to him in eternity past. And he's paid the price. He's
come into the wilderness and suffered and redeemed you and
paid the price. The law's been satisfied and
justice has been satisfied. And the Holy Spirit comes tonight
with the illumination of the Spirit and the Word of God. And
you're sitting there and you're saying, Why am I in this dreadful
condition? Here I am without God. Here I
am in sin, lost. I'm going to call on God to save
me. I'm going to turn from this way
of rebellion and this way of self-will and this way of seeing. I'm going to forsake this way,
and I'm going to call on God, and I'm going to say, God, I've
sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I'm not worthy
to be a son or a child. But I'd like to have, like the
thief on the cross, I'd like to be remembered. I'd like for
you to give me some mercy, some grace. Now listen to this. He
said in verse 18, I'll arise and go to my father, and I'll
say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before thee,
and I'm not worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy
hired servants. And he did arise, and he came
to the father. And that's what the sinner will
do. He will seek the Lord. He will seek the grace of God.
He will seek the mercy of God. But when he was yet a great way
off, the father saw him, and the father had compassion And
the father ran and fell on his neck and kissed him, and the
son said, he still has that broken heart and that humble spirit,
and he's not worthy of God's mercy, and he knows that. And
he said, Father, I've sinned against you and in your sight,
and I'm not worthy to be a son. But the father said to the servants,
bring the best robe, the very best we've got. and put it on
him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring
hither the fatted calf, and kill it, let us eat and be married.
This my son." And notice every part of this parable, it's my
sheep, my coen, and my son. My son was lost. He's found,
my son was dead, and he's alive again, and they began to be married. The emphasis on this last part
of the parable, is on the mercy and grace of God that receives
every repenting sinner, every believing sinner, every lost
son into full fellowship, into full sonship, into the full glory
of his eternal kingdom. The lost is found. God's mercy
and God's grace is for the guilty. And when the guilty is brought
to repentance and brought to faith, and brought to willingly,
lovingly return home, he'll find the Father, the gracious Father,
with a full welcome. Our Father enable us tonight
to learn what this means. Oh, that we might study to show
ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to
be shamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Grant, O Lord,
as we approach this book, that we'll not come in to study this
book with our minds already made up and our theology established,
that we might open this book and be taught of the Holy Spirit,
that we might see those things which are taught by our Master
that bring glory to Him and good to our own hearts and teach us.
Teach us, O Lord, but mainly and primarily teach us this gospel
of redeeming grace. We know we'll learn nothing else
till we learn the gospel. We'll receive nothing else till
we receive Christ. We can't grow in grace till we
receive grace. There's no way for us to mature
in Christ till we're in Christ. And there's no way to be in Christ
except as a helpless, undeserving sinner, receiving His mercy and
His grace freely given. Take this message tonight and
use it to accomplish Thy purpose for Thy glory, O Lord, and for
the good of these who've heard it. We praise Thee and thank
Thee for Thy amazing grace, grace for the guilty. We thank Thee
for the love of Christ, our Great Shepherd, We thank Thee for the
illuminating work of Thy Holy Spirit. Our blessed Father, we
thank Thee for Thy loving grace and tender mercy. In the precious
name of Christ we pray, amen.