Gospel—Jim Hyland
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I.
Like to begin the Gospel Meeting this evening with Hymn #2 on the Gospel Hymn Shape.
Secularity. Thinking of verse 2. Come the father's house stands open with its love and light and song, and returning to that father all to you may now belong from sins distant land of famine, toiling Neath the midday sun to a father's House of plenty and a father's welcome. Come hymn #2, if someone could please start it.
And I will give you a rest.
Why don't you understand me? You want to have suffered.
On the crowns of word, What time?
And the word I love. Now what's your to read?
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Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessing.
To a very familiar portion in the Word of God in Luke's Gospel, chapter 15.
We're going to start with the 1St 2 verses of the chapter and then drop down further in the chapter.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 15 verses one and two to begin with, then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them, and then drop down to the 11Th verse. And he said, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.
And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be in want.
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. And no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my Father's?
Have bred enough, and despair, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say unto him, Father.
I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son.
Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the sun said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight.
And I'm no more worthy to be called thy son, but the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hit her the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing.
And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is common. Thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound, and he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore came his father out, and entreated him.
Any answering said unto his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee.
Neither transgress diet anytime thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends.
But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine it was meat that we should make merry, and be glad For this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found. Well, I realize this is a story that has often been taken up on an occasion like this.
I have no doubt it is a story that most of us in this room heard from the very early days of our childhood, perhaps from our parents, perhaps at Sunday school, sitting in gospel meetings like this. But I believe this story has a very, very important message for us.
In connection with the Gospel, before we take up this story specifically, we read the 1St 2 verses of this chapter because it gives the context for what we have in three stories that follow this one that we read being the third of those 3.
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And that is that there came to the Lord Jesus with opened ears those that had a felt need.
There were those in the days of the Lord Jesus called the scribes, and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and others who had no time to listen to what the Lord had to say because they were what we often refer to as self-righteous. They thought that what they could do in their good works and their religious piety would gain them favor with God, and so they had no time for the Lord Jesus because they did not have a felt need.
But there were those who had a felt need. Or you can just picture the scorn of these self-righteous men as they said this man receiveth sinners and Edith with them. You know, it's remarkable to go through the Gospels and see the things that the enemy said about the Lord Jesus.
The things that were really said in mockery and derision, but were gloriously true in themselves. He saved others himself He could not save. They said that in mockery and derision. But oh, what a wonderful truth that portrays no, he couldn't save himself, as we sometimes think he on the cross must die. And so here they say in mockery this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. But I am so thankful that tonight we can proclaim in the gospel.
That this man, the Lord Jesus, is still receiving sinners. He still desires to bring into blessing and fellowship with himself those who are lost and afar off. And so there were those who drew near to hear him. They were the publicans and thinners, those who had a felt need. And let me stress at the beginning of this meeting, it's more than just recognizing that we are sinners. I think if we were to go out on the streets of Perrystown tonight.
Or any other town or city in North America, and interview passers by on some busy street corner and ask them if they're sinners. I think even today people will still admit for the most part that they've done wrong things, but to recognize that there's nothing they can do?
To get rid of their sins or to better themselves before God is quite another matter.
And it's not just recognizing that we're sinners, but it is to recognize that we are sinners, helpless, and rotten to the very core, that there is nothing we can do to get rid of one sin. There's none no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must.
Be saved. And so we find they drew near and the Lord Jesus told three stories.
It was mentioned today in one of the reading meetings that the Lord Jesus often spoke in parables, and I want to make it very clear that a parable is not a fairy tale, nor was it a fable. The Lord never told fairy tales and he never told fables. I know when we were growing up we had a book of what was called Esop's fables, and they were made-up stories to make them some point to illustrate, some to be kind or to be honest or whatever it was.
Some attribute of humanity. But the Lord Jesus spoke in parables and parables were stories that he told to make clear some moral point or some application of the truth he was seeking to press upon the heart and conscience of the hearers. And so he tells first of all the story of the lost sheep, and then he tells the story of a lifeless coin, and then he tells the story of a lawless son.
So again, we have a lost sheep. We have a lifeless coin because we're dead and trespasses and sins. If we don't aren't the possessors of eternal life. We're lost. We're helpless. We're guilty. But then he illustrates it again in connection with this lawless son. It's the story we often refer to as the story of the Prodigal Son.
If we were to go back to the Old Testament, I believe it's the 21St chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, we would find a contrast there. Because a prodigal son, a rebellious son in the Old Testament under the law, was to be brought by his parents, if you can imagine such a thing, brought by his parents to the gate of the city and he was to be stoned by the elders of the city. Pretty severe, wasn't it? Pretty harsh under the letter of the law.
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But here we have a prodigal son, and now we're coming into the age of grace here as the Lord is introducing it. And in grace there was mercy, there was welcome back, there was position and relationship for the repentant prodigal who returned. And this is the story of the gospel.
It's the Father's heart we want to seek to present to you tonight. In the first parable, the parable of the lost sheep, we have particularly brought before us the Lord Jesus, the shepherd seeking the sheep. In the second parable, it's the woman with the light sweeping and looking for the lifeless coin. It's the work of the Spirit of God. But here, more particularly, it's the Father, the Father desiring the blessing of the prodigal.
The father waiting for the that turn around, and the Father who welcomes back, and the Father who provides everything so that the son can come back into the home in all the dignity of sonship. And so we find, as this story opens, a certain man had two sons.
I used to struggle with this a little bit because both of these boys were the sons of the Father. But I think you have to take it in the context of realizing that we are all the children of God by creation. It tells us in the book of Malachi hath not we all have we are not all one father. Hath not one God created us. It tells us in the book of Ephesians there's one God and Father of all.
It also tells us in the 17th chapter of Acts, we are all the offspring of God, and whether we realize it or not, we are responsible to God. In that way, we're going to find that the son who went off and wasted his substance with riotous living.
And then came back in repentance, enjoyed a relationship with the Father that had never been enjoyed previously, and he enjoyed a relationship with the Father that the older son, the older brother, never came to enjoy because of his spirit and and attitude. But nevertheless they were both the sons of the Father. And we have come forth from the hand of God in creation, and sad to say, there are many who go on their way tonight.
And they refuse to recognize it. They refuse to recognize their responsibility to God. That's why man tries to tell himself that when it's all over, he just dies and it's complete oblivion, complete annihilation, that there's nothing left beyond this life. If man could convince himself of that, then he convinces himself that he has no responsibility to guard his father as creator. But all scripture teachers are still very different.
Because God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And these two boys in the story, they were both responsible to their father. But the story unfolds in of two very different ways.
So we find the younger one. He comes to his father and notice what he says. He says, father, give me. Isn't that the spirit of the age we live in today? This is a selfish age. This is a me first, a me only age. I deserve it. Give it to me. You know man today wants all the mercies and blessings that the Creator can give him without the company.
Of God the Father. They'll we. They're willing to take everything. This this Son he wanted everything that he felt was his due that he felt he deserved as the Son of the Father. But he wanted to go his own way. He did not want the blessing of the Father's company. He did not want to walk in communion with the Father and obedience to the Father on the Father's estate. And so he says, Father, give me.
You know, it's true that everything man enjoys comes from the hand of a giving God. In fact, Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, looking at things from a natural standpoint twice, he says for a man to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of all his labor, it is the gift of God. But you just look around in a restaurant when meals are served and note how many people actually pause for a moment to recognize.
That those that food they're partaking of is a gift from God. How many people stop at the end of the day and thank God for the mercies that he has bestowed upon them and the health and strength that they've had to get through the day? Oh, I know we're coming up on Canadian Thanksgiving, but, you know, it's not enough just to be thankful one day of the year. No man is unthankful today. In fact, it's one of the characteristics of the last days.
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Men are unthankful. Ingratitude is that which characterizes the day in which we live.
And so he says, Father, give me. And he was so happy to take what the Father had for him.
But he soon went his own way, and he lived for himself. You know, man today features this world as a playground in which to indulge himself. There's only one life, and we've got to make the best of it. Let's have fun. If it feels good, do it. Live for the moment, whatever slogans they use. And man doesn't live in view of eternity. Man is living for the moment. Man lives to please himself.
And so he wasted his substance with riotous living. But it didn't last long because, you know, there is pleasure in sin. Scripture recognizes that there's pleasure in sin, but it's pleasure in sin for a season. And there have been many who have gone their own way and lived for themselves and found that they've only reaped to themselves sorrow and corruption. You know, I realize I'm looking into the faces of many who are being brought up in Christian homes.
Those who have parents who are praying for you, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior? Or are you seeking to squander, like this young man here, the truth of God and the privileges and blessings that have been brought before you? Have you tasted of those good things, but you haven't taken them in and made them your own? Well, we find He begins to be in want because, you know, sin does not satisfy.
Oh, there's pleasure in the act. There's pleasure for a moment, but sin does not satisfy. And so we find he begins to be in want because there's a famine in the land. Now, this is a story about a literal situation to make a spiritual point. We're not talking about a physical famine. In fact, the good things we've enjoyed here today in a temporal way downstairs, show there's really no famine in this land today.
There's really no want amongst those of us who are here in this room. I'm not saying there isn't poverty, not saying there aren't those right here in Canada who go to bed hungry at night. But generally speaking, there's plenty if man is willing to work for it or to reach out and take it. And so he began to be in want. And if you are living in sin, if you do not know Christ as your Savior, tonight you as much as you may enjoy sin in the act, you have a hunger.
That cannot be satisfied except by your God. You know, the human heart, though, is too big for the world to fill, but it is only God and Christ that can fill the human heart. And So what does this man do? He has a longing. He has a hunger. And so he goes, and he joins himself to a citizen of that country. And you know, that's what people do today. They have some hunger in their soul. They have some need. And what do they do?
Well, they join up with some of the humanitarian causes that go on. And I'm not saying those things aren't wrong. I'm glad for charities and I'm glad for societies that feed the hungry. I'm glad for the Red Cross and societies that go in to disaster areas and so on. And I've seen in disaster areas in other parts of the world, some of these organizations at work. And it's wonderful. You're thankful for it, But that doesn't satisfy the soul's hunger.
And people are joining all kinds of causes today, thinking it's going to satisfy them, doing some good deeds, thinking perhaps that it's going to merit them favor before God. But all our righteousness is before we're saved. All the good things we do are about a pile of filthy rags.
And so he joins himself to a citizen of that country, and he sends him into his field to feed swine. Now this is about as low as a Jewish young man could go. And those to whom the Lord Jesus was speaking at this time understood this. You know, there are those that I know.
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Who raised pigs raise hogs and it's a very respectable living. It's a good living and there's nothing, nothing, no shame about it for But for a Jewish young man to go down and feed that which was unclean under the Jewish order of things, I say, that was about as low as he could go.
And as he sat there amongst the pigs, amongst the swine, it says he Fain would have filled his belly with the food that the swine did eat. Now I suggest that there was no shortage of pig food for him to eat. That's not the point. He could have eaten all the pig food he wanted, but it didn't satisfy his hunger. And we can feed on the things of this world and try to satisfy our souls by going deeper and deeper into the things of this world.
But I want to tell you, it's not going to satisfy your soul. You can eat us where all the pig foods you want, and you'll still go to bed at night hungry in your soul. And so this young man, he found that that which the citizen of the country provided for his swine could not satisfy his hunger. But thank God, as he sat there, he begins to think, oh, would tonight, that if there's someone here who's not saved, you'd start to think about these things.
That you'd start to consider your condition. And he begins to think not only of his condition, but what he left back when he left the father and the father's estate. And more than that, he begins to realize that he has wronged his father. He begins to realize that he has sinned, and as he sits there in the filth of the pig pen, he realizes that he needs to turn around.
Because that's really what repentance is. It's repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that saves the soul. And repentance is simply to turn around. It's to have a change of thought. And so as he sits there, he starts to realize what he's done. He doesn't know the Father's heart in the pig pen. He's not going to find out that until he gets back in the company of the Father. But he does realize that he's a Sinner. And maybe tonight you don't realize the love that's in the heart of God the Father.
But if you can just first of all realize you're a Sinner and that you need to repent and turn around, that's going to be the beginning. Or you'll get to know the heart of the father as you turn around and so to speak, make that journey back. And so he realizes he sinned, and he makes up this little speech that he's going to say when he gets back to the father, and he turns around and he starts back down the road.
Now, I don't want to read more into this story than this year, but the father was evidently watching.
The Father was longing for the return of the prodigal, and I want to just make this simple suggestion, at least an application that I don't think this man got very far out of the pig pen before the Father was running down the road to meet him. And that's the way it is with the Sinner. If you simply realize you're a Sinner tonight and you come to God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, why his arms are open wide tonight. He's bending low from heaven tonight.
To hear one Sinner whisper and confess that they have a need.
And come to him. He's ready. He's willing to pardon tonight. He's waiting on the very threshold of heaven, as it were, to receive sinners. Oh God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And what I'd like to do for the rest of our time here this evening is to note that when the sun returned, there were seven things that were supplied to him by the Father. There was no use of telling the Son to do this or that. No, the Father now is going to do everything. And these seven things, I believe, are seven things that the God the Father is waiting to bestow.
On the Sinner who comes to him tonight, the first one is in the end of verse 20.
He runs and he kisses him. Or if you notice another translation, he covered him with kisses. Oh, I like that. You know, the kiss was the confirmation of the Father's love for the son. Now he's going to start to learn not only his great need as a Sinner, but he's going to learn the great heart of the Father that he had sinned against. In fact, he never gets his speech wholly out.
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The little speech he made-up in the pig pen, he never gets that holy out, because the Father intervenes and the Father runs and he covers him with kisses to confirm to the Son himself his love.
You know there's a solemn contrast to this verse in connection with Judas, because when Judas came to betray the Lord Jesus in the garden, again, if you notice another translation, it's the same word. He covered him with kisses and that solemn to think about you know, Judas.
Went about with the Lord Jesus during his public ministry. He saw this the miracles. He heard the same words that the other disciples heard. He saw the same love extended to them.
And he remained an unregenerate man to the end. And when it came to betraying the Lord, so determined was the enemy through Judas. To make sure that there was no mistake as to who this person was, he covered him with kisses. But here we find the Father comes, and he covers the repentant prodigal with kisses. I say this had to be first, because he had to understand the heart of the Father.
Before he could really come into the father's house and enjoy all the other things that are listed here.
He had to have an appreciation, at least in some measure, a confirmation of the Father's love and all. If you only knew how much God loved you tonight. You wouldn't stay away. If you could just get one taste, one inkling of the love of God the Father. I say you'd come tonight. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. I'm going to repeat a little story I know probably all of you have heard me tell before, but it touched my heart. Some years ago, Brother Garvin Seymour from Saint Vincent and I were visiting in Trinidad.
And we have opportunity to go from school to school, often from classroom to classroom, and to have a few minutes with the students present a simple gospel message, sometimes sing a gospel chorus, and then to leave a Sunday school paper or a calendar or some little message on each desk.
And we were in a classroom of seven and eight-year olds one day, and Brother Garvin was giving a simple gospel message to the boys and girls, and he was seeking to impress upon them the love of God for them.
And so he asked the boys and girls to put up their hand and to tell him when asked someone that they knew loved them. And so a number of those children raised their hands and some of them said mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, friend. Most of them had somebody that they knew for sure loved them.
But there was 1 little boy and he had his hand up and one brother. Garvin asked him who is it that loved loves you? With the saddest look I've ever seen on a child's face, He said Nobody loves me and that's sad to think that no, he felt that nobody loved him. But we told the boys and girls that though there might not be someone on earth that they felt loved them. That though you might feel forsaken and alone. Just look up, there's someone who loves us and someone who loved us enough to send his son.
The Lord Jesus the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So the first thing is he covered him with kisses. But then when we dropped down to verse 2022, we find some other things. The next thing is he says bring forth the best robe and put him on it. Put it on him. You know those rags from the pig pen?
We're not worthy attire for the presence of the Father or the Father's house. And I think we see very quickly that the robe speaks perhaps of several things. And we have in Scripture the robe of righteousness that which he has provided us, provided for the Sinner, to make him fit and worthy for, for his presence. In ancient times, when someone was invited to a function or a wedding, often the wealthy person who had invited them would provide.
Robes or garments for the guests, that which they felt was fitting and suitable for their estate and for their for their banquet. And there was a man one time who came into a feast the Lord told about, and he didn't put on the wedding garment. He tried to come in that which he himself had provided.
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And we know that from the story, the illustration that he was taken out.
And he was cast into outer darkness. And so it is only as we have that which is provided by God the Father. Through Christ we've been made the righteousness of God in him. You say, I'm not worthy to come to the Lord Jesus. I'm too bad a Sinner. But that's the kind of material that he can save to realize that we aren't worthy, that we are bad, that we're rotten through and through, That the natural man is an enmity with God.
Oh, I say. That's the kind of material he can save. And he can bring the best robe and put it on him.
But let me just say this too, about the robe. The robe marked him out as the Son of the Father as he moved about the Father's estate from that time on. Because robes often speak of character, they speak of our deportment.
Again, I have opportunity each year to be in the Bahamas and to go from island to island and school to school.
And to preach the gospel. And after many years you get to recognize the students by their uniform. It's the old British system and each school has a certain pattern and color of uniform. And after the children and young people are let out in the afternoon.
On the streets of Nassau or some other town or city, I can pick out the students and tell which school they they attend. I know that a the boys who wear Gray flannels, a white shirt and blue Blazers, they come from a certain school, the girls with green blouses and Plaid skirts. Well, that's from another school. You get to know the students by their uniform and where they fit in. And so as the sun moved about the estate, he was dressed in that which the father.
Had provided for him, and for those of us who know Christ, there ought to be, as we move about this world and give testimony to who we belong. There ought to be that character, that which marks us as the sons and daughters of God the Father. Then we find in that same verse there was the ring on his finger.
Now the kiss was the confirmation of the father's love in receiving him back.
But the ring was the testimony as again as he moved about the father's estate was the testimony of the father's love, continuous love for the son. Many of us wear a wedding ring, and that wedding ring takes us back to the day when the one who officiated our wedding said you may kiss your bride. That was the steal of our of our vows, so to speak. That was the confirmation of love at the time.
But then there was a ring slipped on our finger. And as we've gone about for the years we've been married, why, everybody sees that there was one who promised to love us till death do us part or the Lord comes. And so there was that testimony as the sun walked about of his the Father's eternal love and all. How wonderful He loves us with an everlasting love. And if you come to know the Lord Jesus as your savior tonight, you'll experience a love that's eternal.
You know, we hear about the breakdown of love and the family and relationships today on every hand seems like every week we hear something that shocks us. Marriage breakups and children abused and families being torn apart and all that kind of thing.
But always, isn't it wonderful that we can speak of a divine eternal love? And so a ring in Scripture speaks of that never ending.
Eternal love. And then there were shoes on his feet. This brought him into again into the place of dignity as a son. And shoes speak of our walk through this world. Because maybe there's someone here and you say, well, if I get saved, I don't think I could ever live to please the Lord. None of us could ever live to please the Lord on our own strength. But their spiritual shoes provided for us, you know, it says in the book of Deuteronomy in connection with the blessing of Asher. Thy shoes shall be as iron that's brought the iron speaks of.
Of power. What power? To walk. For Christ He provides the power, and thy shoes shall be His brass. That's endurance, so that we can run with endurance the race that is set before us. And so if you're thinking, well, I'd like to get saved, but I could never walk like a Christian. Oh, don't worry about that. Everything will be provided for you so that you can walk with power. As a Christian. None of us could live the Christian life apart from what God the Father provides for us through the Lord Jesus.
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And then in verse 23, and this is really the crux of the whole matter, there was the fatted calf provided, And I think very clearly we see that the fatted calf killed and enjoyed together, is a picture of the death and the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because God has always taught from the very beginning of time that the way a blessing for the Sinner must be on the basis of the death and the bloodshed.
Of an innocent victim. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, immediately God provided coats of skin, which necessitated the death of innocent and innocent animal or animals Cain brought. I'm sorry. Abel brought a more excellent sacrifice than Cain because there was the shedding of blood. He brought something from the flock. Those sacrifices in the Old Testament. So many of them. And they were all pale reflections and feeble foreshadows of what was in the heart and mind of God.
When his Son the Lord Jesus would go to the cross of Calvary, and there give himself as that supreme sacrifice, there shed His precious Blood, of which blood we read, the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanseth us from all sin, and so we find that He sits down at a feast.
Communion with the Father. There was a feast because a feast speaks in Scripture of being happy.
There's joy, there's happiness. And the happiness wasn't just with the prodigal return, the happiness, in fact, probably the greatest happiness was with the Father. You know, earlier it says there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over 1 Sinner. That repents if you get saved tonight.
There'll be greater joy in heaven than here in this room, I can guarantee you that. Oh, there's joy and salvation, but there's great joy in heaven. Heaven is stirred every time a soul repents. And so there was a feast. This fatted calf, I say it speaks of Christ.
And the prodigal was able to sit down in full communion with the Father.
You know, when we get saved, we're brought into communion with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, and with one another too. But the basis of it is the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanses us from all sin, and so they feed together on the fatted calf. All his hunger is finally satisfied. He must have been starving by the time he sat down at the Father's table.
He couldn't fill his belly with the pig food. In the far country. He'd had a journey home. Now I imagine he's pretty well famished, pretty well starved, and maybe there's someone here and you're starved, spiritually speaking. Oh, you can come to the Father's table and you can enjoy the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's going to satisfy your soul. But I want to notice two more things that were provided there in the end of verse 25.
When the older son drew near the house, he heard these two things. First of all, he heard music. Now, as I say, these are physical things, actual things to illustrate a spiritual point, and we find that music in Scripture speaks of the joy of communion.
I say that because you remember in Second Kings, when there was a question arose as to a certain battle that Israel was facing.
Elisha called for a minstrel, and when the minstrel played, the spirit of the Lord came upon him.
And gave him words to speak prophetic, prophetic message as to how to take up and handle the matter.
You remember 2 with King Saul when the evil spirit came and troubled him. David was brought into his presence and played on the heart, and the evil spirit left him for a time. Again, I say it speaks of the joy of communion because God wants to save us not just from the just penalty of our sins, that's true, but he wants to save us, to have fellowship and communion with himself, that which was severed or broken in the Garden of Eden.
Adam enjoyed fellowship with his God before sin came in. But sin came in and it separated because sin separates. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Sin has separated but oh, there's a wonderful provision through the Lord Jesus and the work of Calvary through as what is illustrated here is the fatted calf, so that we can be brought back into a place of fellowship and communion. We're brought nigh by the blood of Christ, it tells us.
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In the book of Ephesians. And so after they sit down and have the fatted calf, now there's the music, there's the joy of communion.
But there's the dancing as well. Because if music speaks of the joy of communion, dancing speaks in scripture of the joy of victory. You remember when there was a victory in Davide life and Goliath was killed and there was a great victory over the Philistines? Why the ladies came out of the city dancing and singing.
Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands. You remember when the ark of the Lord was later recovered from the Philistines? David danced mightily before the Lord. There was a sign of victory. And oh, tonight there's been a great victory. A victory at Calvary Cross.
They and I recently were in Europe again, and we visited some of those battle sites. And over the years we visited a number of those battle sites in Western Europe and those memorials that remember the victories that took place. We stood just the other night at the Men in gate once again, as we've often done. And there, every night at the Mening Gate there is a ceremony. They've missed two nights since the First World War.
And it was two nights where there was fighting so close to the Men and Gate, which is in Ebers, France, on the Belgian French border, that they couldn't have that ceremony for safety sake. But every night there's a ceremony to remember those who gave themselves in that in the great two great wars.
To remember those victories, and it's very solemn and there is usually night after night, hundreds and hundreds of people. I don't know how many people were there the other night, but there were.
Hundreds and hundreds of people and there are 56,000 names engraved in tablets at the menengate, 56,000 names of men and women who were whose bodies were never found to bury in Flanders fields.
And then you go out in that area and you drive around Flanders Fields, and after an hour you haven't even driven around all the graveyards and the crosses and the markers for miles and miles of those who gave their life for victory in connection with our freedom here in this world.
But oh, there's been a far greater victory won in this world than any victory over some natural enemy. A far greater victory won than was ever won on the on the hillsides in the fields of Western Europe. It was a victory at Calvary Cross.
It was when the Lord Jesus went there and he gave his life. He bore my sins in his own body. On the tree he died for me. He shed his precious blood and we sometimes sing a hymn his be the victors name who fought the fight alone. Triumphant Saints no honor claim is their conquest, while his conquest was his own. And so there was the the dancing, the joy of victory. Well, I would just say before we close that there was blessing for this young man.
Because he came in repentance. But there was another man. There was his older brother. You know, he never came in to enjoy what the younger brother enjoyed. He was the son of the father. He was the father's son. But he never was brought into the place of communion. He never had an appreciation for what the father could provide because he was self-righteous. Oh, he thought I've always done good. You know, there's two people on the two kinds of people on the Broad Rd. that leads to hell.
There's the down and outers and the up and outers. The prodigal was the down and outer, and he realized that and he got the blessing.
There was there's the up and outers too. They think they're pretty good. They think they're on the clean side of the Broad Rd. But it all leads to a lost eternity. And sad to say though the servants servant pleaded, though the father pleaded, he never came in and received the blessing. We're going to conclude this meeting in a moment, but you know, you fall into one of these two categories tonight. You're either the younger son who has returned and come in repentance and received all that the father can give them.
And a home in heaven, saved from hell and on your way to the Father's house. Or you're like this older brother, and you're going to go out that door and you're going to go out just as lost as you came in. Oh, how sad, the Father pleaded with the older brother. He wanted him to come in. He wanted him to enjoy all that had been provided at his good hand. But we never read that he came in and received the blessing. And wouldn't it be sad if you went out into a lost eternity tonight?
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If you drew your last breath and we had to stand by your coffin and say you know, he never came in, as far as we know, He never came back as far as we know. Or if the Lord Jesus came to night, and he might, the coming of the Lord draws near, and he may come to night, and if he comes to night.
Will you be ready? Will you be one who goes into the Father's house to enjoy, in a fuller and deeper way, all of the Fathers provided?
Or will you be like the older brother, left outside to go to a lost eternity, Eternal separation from God? Oh, I say tonight, God loves you, the Father loves you. And I'd like to sing in closing, just again the second verse of hymn #2 That we started with. And I want us to really think about this. And if you're not saved, oh, as we sing this come as a repentance Sinner, receive the Lord Jesus and come to know God as your Father.
In a far more intimate way than you could ever know before him. Hymn #2, Just verse two if someone will start it.
On the Father's house stands of life with his glowing light and strong.
And returning to the father.
I'll see you.