Oh the perseverance of grace! “Until he find it.” Never till that moment does the good Shepherd relax His efforts. And how far had He to go after “that which is lost?” To where it was—stripped, and wounded, and half dead. And was this all? Had He not to go into death itself to get the sheep out? “The good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” And has He not suffered this for thee, my reader? “Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
Oh the persevering diligence of grace! “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?” (ver. 8.) Reader, has the stupendous fact ever possessed your mind, that there is a divine Person in Christendom—the Holy Ghost—here for the very object of bringing the piercing rays of convicting light to bear upon the hearts and consciences of dead sinners?
The Son must seek the lost. All is founded on His work, therefore it is put in the first place. It maintained God’s righteousness, and permits Him to justify him that believeth in Jesus. The Son must seek the lost, the Spirit must quicken the dead, before the Father can receive the repentant sinner.
And when He hath found it where does He, the good Shepherd, put the sheep? Back with the ninety and nine? Never. “When he cometh home” not till then does He put the sheep down.
But is there no “wilderness” for the believer? Certainly, but he passes through it on the Shepherd’s shoulders—the place of strength and of security. There are many who think they would not like to make a profession, lest they should not be able to keep it. If believers, they forget that Christ will keep them. There are those who fear lest they should not “hold on.” Do you think the good Shepherd will let go? He says, “None shall pluck them out of my hand.” Will He save sinners and lose saints? Never. “He is able also to save them to the uttermost”—that is all the way through—“that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life”—that is, by His living to intercede for us now:
“I have a Friend; oh such a Friend!
So kind, and true, and tender;
So wise a counselor and guide,
So mighty a defender!
From Him who loves me now so well,
What power my soul shall sever?
Shall life or death, shall earth or hell?
No! I am His forever.”