LUKE 15:1-241Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. 2And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. 3And he spake this parable unto them, saying, 4What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? 5And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. 7I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. 8Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? 9And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. 10Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. 11And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12And 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. 13And 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. 14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20And 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. 21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22But 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: 23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. (Luke 15:1‑24)
THIS chapter, from the fourth verse, gives us our Lord's reply to the charge brought against Him by the Pharisees and Scribes—"This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them;" which becomes the occasion of His setting forth the unutterable depths of divine grace.
In this threefold parable, observe that it is only on one sheep, one piece of silver, one son, that there is such joy in heaven. If a whole city were moved to repentance, we can well understand how such an extensive work might be connected with rejoicing; but here it is one sinful, lost sinner over whom there is such gladness. This is a marvelous thought. Each too was lost—a lost sheep, a lost piece of silver, a lost son. So Scripture testifies that God now looks upon man as lost. Hence we read that "the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." There is all the difference between having wandered a little out of the way and being lost, between being an occasional offender toward God and being dead in sins—utterly unclean, irremediably bad—lost. Men and women, however refined or educated, never of themselves find their way back to God. No, they are lost! therefore in the riches of divine mercy Jesus came to seek and to save the LOST!
In this parable, we see the outgoing of the loving heart of the Good Shepherd, the gracious actings of the Holy Spirit, and the marvelous love of the Father toward the lost. In the simplest, and yet the most telling way, the blessed Lord thus proclaims the love of God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—to sinners.
He first tells out the Shepherd's love in seeking and saving one lost sheep. "What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, cloth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” This is what Christ is still doing. He is going after the lost, in the publication of the gospel, till He find it. Do you know, dear friends, that you are lost? Do you see that you can never get back to God by any deeds of your own? that" by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight "? Do think of this precious fact, that Jesus is still calling the lost, seeking and saving the lost. It is not a question of what you are doing, or desiring, or intending—it is one of being lost or saved. If you are not saved, you are lost! You cannot be safe till your heart's trust is in the Lord Jesus, till you are in the loving arms of the Good Shepherd. Have you heard His voice, turned to Him, and fallen into His open arms of perfect love?
Notice Christ's joy in saving, and that He keeps to the end those whom He finds. "When He hath found it, He layeth it on His shoulders, rejoicing." How safe then is the sinner who takes refuge in Christ, and gives Him all the glory of saving him! None can phi& out of His hand. "He layeth it on His shoulders, rejoicing." It does not say that the angels rejoice, though they may; but what we have here is the deep joy of Christ in finding a lost sheep. When He saved the wicked Samaritan woman, He could say, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." How precious this is! And further, "When He cometh home." Oh yes, Christ will never let the sinner go that touches the hem of His garment, until he is landed securely in the glory: He will carry him safe home. And then what endless joy! All the intelligences of heaven will rejoice with Him when we reach home) He will present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
(The second part of the parable is about a lost piece of silver. It is lost. We have here a woman taking a lighted candle, and sweeping the house diligently. Her heart is set on finding the lost piece. She may see a thousand things like it; but the moment the light shines upon the lost piece, it is found; and then, oh what joy! Evangelists sweep the world for the lost pieces. May we sweep diligently! If we took the bright light of divine truth in the power of the Spirit, and swept diligently, should we not be more successful in finding? Oh, to be more diligent seekers of lost souls! Here again we are told of the joy there is in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.
But some may ask, What is repentance? Is it not sorrow for sin? While no doubt those who repent before God are sorrowful at the thought of their having sinned, 'yet many are sorry for sin who do not repent toward God. We find that Judas "repented himself," and threw down the pieces of silver; but we are not told that he repented toward God. Repentance then is not simply sorrow for sin, but a change of mind toward God. Such grieve at the very thoughts they have had of God, and of their wrong conduct toward Him, who in such amazing love gave His only begotten Son to die for them. True repentance, then, toward God is always connected with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is this that fills heaven with such joy.
The third part of the parable opens out to us the heart of God the Father toward a poor, lost, filthy, guilty sinner. It blessedly illustrates the exceeding riches of divine grace. The self-willed man, following the desires of the flesh and of the mind, wandered far away: he was glad of the gifts, but cared nothing for the Giver. To gratify his own lusts was the absorbing object. He went further and further from God. This is where man's will and desires always lead him. He went " into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living." It is a true picture of man every man. He gladly receives God's gifts, but how does he use them? Is it not to please himself? It may be the pleasures of the world, the religiousness or irreligiousness of the world; but gratifying himself is the object, and not God. Nothing can be worse. It is man doing his own will, not God's. It is man pleasing himself, and not caring to please God.
Dear friends, let me affectionately ask, What are you doing? How are you spending your time, your talents, and all the blessings God has entrusted you with? Are you squandering them about yourself in the far country, or have you repented and turned to God? Do lay these searching questions to heart.
The prodigal went on step by step until he "spent all," and "began to be in want." His resources were limited, and came to an end. All his means of self-pleasing were exhausted. What could he do then?
What does man always do when in distress, but turn to his fellow-man? He first of all made man his refuge, not his father. No; man will do anything rather than turn to God. And what did he find? He found that citizens of this world have self for their object. To feed swine was the only use men could make of him for their own profit. And there this once wealthy, jovial, pleasure-seeking wanderer into the far country found himself, in poverty, and hunger, and filth. He found all resources gone, and an aching void occupying his soul. He looked at men around, and no heart throbbed with pity and compassion—"no man gave unto him." The "husks" of this world were all the resources at his command, and poverty and want were painfully pinching him. At last he discovers that he is perishing. What a striking picture of man who is without God, and having no hope. In helplessness and despondency he is forced to the conclusion—"I perish with hunger!”
What a solemn conclusion, " I perish” Does not this shew us that men have got so far away from God, and are so sunken and depraved, that they go on seeking to please self and fulfill the lusts of the flesh, until it may be they come to the end of these things, and find themselves perishing with hunger. And, dear friends, if some of you were to die to-night, or the Lord Jesus should come, do you not know that you would forever be banished from God's happy presence? A thousand ages might roll on, and still there would be the blackness of darlings forever. Do you say, " I am not a great sinner” I reply, what can be worse, what sin can be blacker, than living all your days, seeking happiness apart from God and Christ-using the very blessings God in His providence has blessed you with, to lead your heart and energies further and further from Him? What can be worse than this? You have been living in the rejection of Christ, saying in your heart, He shall not reign over me?' Can anything be more sinful? Oh, my friends, God is a just God; but He is now a Savior, and His message to you is, that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, hut have everlasting life." Do you say, I have sinned and shall perish forever? Then God says to you, "'Believe on my Son, who died for sinners, and you shall not perish, but have everlasting life." What love! The Lord Jesus not only made peace by the blood of the Cross as to sins, but, in that work, He so infinitely glorified God, that because of the infinite merit of that work, God is just in justifying the sinner that believes.
The prodigal's thought was to escape from perishing. "I perish with hunger." His need led him to think of the Father. We are told that he "came to himself," and what then? He thought of the father's home, and that the servants there were far better off than he. "How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare." His mind, resting on the father's home, and love, and resources, not only shewed him more and more his own poverty and wretchedness, but so attracted his heart, until he exclaimed, "I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants." Surely this, was the only true and honest place he could take. The whole question now was, how the father would meet this sinful one in his ruin and degradation. Does He receive such sinners? Ah, that is the question. And are we not taught that the need and misery of this ungodly one served to draw forth the rich mercy which was deep down in the father's heart? And so God loves sinners, though he hates sin. He delights in mercy. His whole heart pours forth its richest, warmest love to the utterly unclean and helpless. For we are told that when he did actually arise to come to his father, while he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and (without one upbraiding word) fell on his neck, and kissed him. I Can anything exceed the depth and perfectness of such love? God only could so love. It needs an unworthy object on which to manifest itself. It indeed passes knowledge. We think of it, taste and enjoy it, and adore and worship, but we lack capacity to measure its divine and infinite depths. The father saw him in his filth, had compassion on him in his ruined state, kissed him in his rags, and when under the sense of his guilty, perishing condition, the son said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son," it only brought out yet more of the deep resources of grace that were in the father's heart. It strikingly tells us that it is worthy of God to love, to save, and bless lost and ruined sinners. “The father said unto his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him," The father did not point to his rags and say, I must have them mended; no, God can use nothing of the flesh, with its affections and lusts.
God's way is not to mend up the flesh, but to give a new nature, and bring the sinner into a new standing and position before Him. He could not use any part of the old, filthy, worn-out, tattered garment, but he adorned him with the best robe. The richest blessings that God has to give are lovingly bestowed upon repentant sinners. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. "Put a ring on his hand," in token of the everlasting love and relationship subsisting between the Father and the repentant one, on whose face he had printed the kiss of reconciliation. Put also "shoes on his feet," and thus fit him for the path of service which he may have to tread; and then, that he might feel happy and at home in his father's presence, it is further said, " Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry." Let us eat—the father and the son—for" our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." “Let us eat, and be merry." What a wondrous place of blessing! Can anything exceed it? The lost one brought back into the Father's presence, fitted for it by the Father himself, and there called to share the Father's thoughts and joy, in the infinite worth and finished work of the slain Lamb.
“He saw us ruin'd in the fall,
And loved us notwithstanding all;
He saved us from our lost estate;
His lovingkindness, O how great!”
Thus, through divine mercy, the believer in Jesus is redeemed to God, made nigh, and has liberty now to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus; he has peace with God, rest in God, joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost makes this known to our hearts. What a wondrous salvation—"made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." What rest and joy this gives us! How it puts us at once on the ground of thanksgiving and worship, especially when we enter into the Father's delight to have us near Himself, and in the enjoyment of His own love. "Let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." It is added, "and they began to be merry." Yes, it was only the beginning of the joy; for ages upon ages may roll on, and this wondrous joy will be in no degree lessened. In God's presence there is fullness of joy, and at His right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
It is surely, dear friends, not a light thing to hear the glad tidings of this marvelous love of God. How few seem to think of the eternal consequences of it. We are told that it is to God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. But O how very solemn! to the one we are a savor of death unto death, and to the other of life unto life.
Have you, dear friends, believed God's message, and received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Can you, do you now, look up to Him at God's right hand, and praise Him for having saved you by His death upon the cross? Is He precious to you? Do you know the blessedness of the Father's presence, and of holy joy with Him about Jesus the slain Lamb? Soon He will come forth, and every knee will bow to Him, every tongue confess that He is Lord. Can you, dear friends, look forward to His glorious appearing to judge the living and the dead in peacefulness of spirit, knowing full well that before that you will hear His voice, be changed, and caught up to meet Him in the air? The true friends of Jesus cannot but rejoice at His being manifested as "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords," for they know how worthy He is that everything should be put under His feet.
Now Christ is saving to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. Still His loving arms are wide open, and the gracious utterance of His heart to lost and ruined sinners is, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out;" that is, He will receive and keep secure those who come to Him. May this love attract your hearts, dear friends, and draw you into the open arms of divine, saving mercy.