“And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing...
“He found me, the lost and the wandering,
The sinful, the sad and the lone;
He said, ‘I have found thee, beloved,
Forever thou art Mine own.
O soul, I will show thee the wonder,
The worth of My precious blood,
art whiter than snow on the mountains,
Thou’rt fair in the eyes of God.”
“It was Thyself, O Lord, that sought
With tender yearnings, deep,
The loveless soul that sought not Thee,
The worthless, wandering sheep.”
THE Lord had more to say. His heart was full of the word He had brought from heaven and He cried, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” He did not ask for hands that could work, or purses that could pay, or brains that could solve great problems, but ears that could hear, for “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” and every word from His lips was the word of God. What a crowd gathered in response I Publicans and sinners, the scum of the city, men and women with empty hearts and blasted lives, all pressing about Him. What drew them there? They knew well that He had no sympathy with their sins, then why did they come? They came because they felt that He loved them, that He cared for them, that He would not spurn them, sinners though they were. And those Pharisees and scribes that stood scornfully on the outer ring, why were they there? They were there to carp and criticize and condemn; and now they see their opportunity and seize it. “This man,” they say, “receiveth sinners.” They could think of nothing worse than that to say of Him, and they said it with venom. He was despicable in their eyes with that mob around Him when He might have had their honorable company. How they hated Him! But they spoke the truth in spite of their hatred. That which degraded Him in their eyes was His glory; and they then and there gave to the evangelist a most blessed text. I take up their words and strip them of the scorn with which they clothed them, and sound them forth with eager lips as the very gospel of God. “This Man receiveth sinners.” Thank God 1 and again, Thank God! And that countless multitude that will yet fill God’s home on high will be there, every one of them, because “This Man receiveth sinners”
The sneers of these scornful and self-righteous men became the occasion for the unfolding of the very heart of God, and from those lips that spake as never man spake there flowed this three-fold parable, which has been the wonder and joy of multitudes. It is truly one―three in one. The Shepherd who seeks the sheep is the Son; the woman who seeks the silver is the Spirit, and the father who welcomes the prodigal is the Father―Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Triune God―concerned and active, not in the spreading of the great Supper only, but in filling it with guests, in the salvation of the lost―these very publicans and sinners despised by the Pharisees―and in your salvation and mine. It is as though the Lord said to them, You are grieved and offended because I receive sinners, but I receive them because the Father receives them, I am here to show you the Father, “he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
But if the Father was to welcome and pardon prodigal sinners, the Shepherd must first seek the wandering sheep, and I need not quote that Old Testament word, “All we like sheep have gone astray” to prove that the sheep that the Shepherd seeks are sinful men, such as you and me.
So it is that I must speak of the Shepherd and His search for the sheep before I reach the supreme parable of the Father’s love, the one is indispensable to the other.
It is the persistence of His love for the lost that He unfolds in these few words. “He goeth after that which is lost until He find it.” He does not tell all that this would cost Him ere He could lift it safely to His shoulders, we must go to other of His words for that. But these other words were plainly spoken and we learn that His love was a suffering love as well as a persistent love. A great foe claimed the wanderer, and judgment threatened it, it was in imminent danger of perishing, and if it was to be rescued and saved the foe must be defeated, the judgment must be borne, the danger faced. There was no other way; if there had been, God would have found it. “If it be possible” Jesus prayed, “let this cup pass from me.” It was not possible; the Shepherd must be smitten for the sake of the sheep. “I am the good Shepherd” He said, “the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth ... I am the good Shepherd and know My sheep... and I lay down My life for the sheep.” John 10.
“He tasted death’s waters, offensive and bitter,
Yet dared He to drink, for the lost He would save;
His great love; upheld Him, strong, infinite, quenchless,
And for His lost sheep He went down to the grave.”
But having laid down His life to ransom His sheep, He lives again to keep them. He holds them in everlasting security in the hands that destroyed the power of death, and upon His shoulders He has placed them; they are carried home by omnipotent ability, and not one of them shall perish; no power on earth or in hell can change His word; they shall dwell in the house of the house of the Lord for ever.
“His own He has rescued from ruin eternal,
His blood He has shed for the life of His sheep;
What creature on earth or in hades can challenge
His right His redeemed ones in safety to keep?”
There is one word that stands out brightly in this three-fold story, it is “I have FOUND.” The Shepherd found the sheep; the woman found the silver; the Father found the son. The sheep, the silver and the son were saved; no one will question that, but it is not that that the Lord is showing here, but that they were lost and found. They were lost; to whom were they lost? To the Shepherd, the woman and the Father. But we do not talk of a thing as lost that has no value. We do not seek for that that is worth nothing; and when we have found that that we had lost, ours is the joy. It is the joy of the finders that thrills through this three-fold parable, it is the joy of the Triune God. “Rejoice with Me,” says the Shepherd Son. “Rejoice with Me,” says the Holy Ghost; “It is meet that we should make merry and be glad,” says the Father.
It is a wonderful thing that sinners should be so precious to God, that He should so.t such a value on them as to give His Son for their salvation; and that His Son should have come from heaven and gone down into the depths of judgment and death that they might be saved, and that the Holy Spirit of God should have come from heaven to labor with them to bring them to repentance. It is wonderful, but it is true, for nothing less than this is the teaching of this parable. And twice the Lord tells us that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. Empires may rise and fall, kings abdicate or be crowned, these are things that shake the world and fill the chief pages of our newspapers, but they do not move heaven; but if one sinner repents and turns to God, if the Shepherd finds one sheep, there is joy in heaven. Incredible! Yes, we would have said that if Jesus had not told us, but He knows surely what heaven values and He said, “Likewise I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”
I have read a story told by an Englishman who went deerstalking in the Highlands of Scotland. One day the old gillie, who was his attendant said, “Turn your glasses on that spot on the mountain side, sir, and you will see a lost sheep.” And sure enough he was able to discern the poor creature on a ledge of rock, above it unscalable crags, and beneath it a precipice dipping sheer down 500 feet. “However could it have got there without flying?” he exclaimed. “Do you see a few yards down from the top of the cliff a narrow ledge of rock from which all the grass has been eaten, and again to the right another, and lower down another, and still another just above the one upon which the sheep is now?” asked the gillie. “Well, that silly creature, tempted by those green looking ledges, has scrambled from one to another, and can’t get back.” “But can’t anything be done to save it?” asked the tourist. “Nothing” was the answer. “Even if anybody was foolish enough to risk his life in trying, the poor beast is in such a nervous condition now that at the sound of anyone approaching, it would leap over the precipice, and there’s an eagle just waiting for its prey. Nothing can save it.” I borrow and repeat the story, because I want to say that if your soul is in as great and imminent danger as that sheep was, JESUS CAN REACH YOU AND SAVE YOU!