Lost an Found – Part 2

of the Gospel of Luke. We pick up, as I mentioned we
would two weeks ago, where we left off in what is one long
continuing discourse of Christ. These three parables here in
chapter 15 are A unified whole. They are meant to be together.
They were told on one occasion. There is a very strong thread
of truth woven in and through each one of them. By way of reminder,
if we could, I want to go all the way back to verse one. We’ll
look at the third parable this morning, but I want to go back
to verse one to reestablish the context after having been away
from this passage for two weeks. Verse one, now all the tax gatherers
and the sinners were coming near him to listen to him. And we discussed that and, you
know, whether there’s a degree of hyperbole there, we don’t
know is if in this particular locale, whether every person
who could be identified as a sinner and or a tax gatherer was coming
to him. What I believe the Gospel writer
intends here is that the nature, the tendency was, no matter where
Jesus went, He was drawing out these kinds of people. Everywhere
He went, sinners and tax gatherers, the lowest of low, were coming
to hear Christ. Verse 2, And both the Pharisees
and the scribes began to grumble, saying, This man receives sinners
and eats with them. I have rethought the passage
that I preached to you two weeks ago. If I were to go back, if
the Lord gives me that privilege to one day go back to this, I
will preach on that sentence alone. Because here, these Pharisees,
these scribes, these critics of Christ thought that they were
laying some horrendous charge at his feet. They thought that
they would do him damage in this statement. And it is the most
glorious statement in all of Scripture, isn’t it? This man
receives sinners and eats with them. Doesn’t that bless our
hearts? Aren’t we in that mix? You bet
we are. What glorious words and what
glorious words were never said by such lowly a crowd. And Jesus responds to those words,
and He told them this first parable. Saying what man among you, if
he has a hundred sheep and is lost, one of them does not leave
the ninety nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is
lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he
lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing, you get this intimate picture
of a shepherd finding a lost sheep, putting it up on his shoulders
and carting it home. And when he comes home, he calls
together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, rejoice with
me, for I found my sheep, which was lost. And you get this image
of a gathering party, a great number of people who really have
a mind to celebrate with the host. Unlike what Christ was
facing. And that’s why Christ finishes
with these words, I tell you, in the same way. In the same
way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. There
are no such people. Christ wasn’t confused. His theology
wasn’t off. Christ didn’t forget to read
about the fall of man in Genesis while he was busy in eternity.
He knew that there were no righteous. He knew that there was no 99. What he wanted was the scribes
and the Pharisees to realize it, that there are none who are
righteous. There are none who seek after
God. There are none needing no repentance. None. And it breaks into the second
parable. And the slender thread. winds its way through this parable
as well. Verse 8, what woman, if she has
lost, if she has 10 silver coins and loses one. Now, even though
numerically, as we said last or two weeks ago, even though
numerically there are fewer coins, the value is greater. From 100 sheep down to 10 coins,
if she loses one, does not light a lamp, sweep the house and search
carefully until she finds it. An enduring image from the first
parable of the tenacity of God that when he purposes to save
a sinner, his purposes do not give out. Verse nine, and when
she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying,
Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost. And
Jesus drives the point home again in the same way, I tell you,
there is joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner
who repents. But I told you there were three
parables and three parables that are distinctly linked together. They are linked not only by that
rejoicing that takes place in all three parables, but they
are related by an item or a thing or in the case of the parable
today, a person which is lost. I began to tell you last week,
and I did it just two weeks ago, just in cursory fashion about
the meaning of that word lost. And we really don’t understand
it in our day and age. We tend to speak of things which
are merely misplaced as being lost, and it’s just a matter
of time until they turn up. Remember? But if you’ve ever
truly lost something of value, something precious to you, something
important, If you’ve ever truly lost your keys, lost those expensive
prescription sunglasses, lost your purse, lost your Bible,
then you can begin to understand the meaning, the importance of
this word in the three parables. Because lost, as we saw, means
utterly lost. Gone. Lost and gone and destroyed
forever. In fact, the great number of
times that this word is translated in the New Testament, it’s translated
destroy or destroyed, utterly ruined, lost or to lose or to
be lost. It’s translated 30 times, perish
29 times. The overall import of this word
means that it is gone and it’s not coming back. And there is great biblical imagery
that pertains to the human condition with regards to this very word.
Because more often than not, when this word is used in Scripture,
it’s not used of things. It’s not used of purses. It’s
not used of car keys. It’s used of the human soul. Relax for just a moment while
I take you just on a cursory look at the use of this word
with regard to people. Matthew 28, do not fear those
who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather
fear him who is able to destroy. To take and destroy forever. Both body and soul in hell. Luke 9, from the Gospel which
we’re studying. The Son of Man did not come to
destroy, to utterly ruin forever men’s lives, but to save them. That’s Christ’s purpose. And
so you begin to see that this Word, it’s loaded with meaning. The shepherd with the lost sheep
feared that his sheep was gone and gone forever. The woman with
the coin feared that her coin was gone and gone forever. And
we come to the third parable. And the third parable, the value
is increased just like over the previous parable, we began with
one sheep out of 100. Certainly having value in that
economy, in that day and age, but when you move to one coin
in ten and a silver coin at that, this was likely the woman’s life
savings. And one coin in ten had an infinitely
greater value than one sheep in a hundred. But what must be
the value of one son out of two? If you would, let’s pick up in
verse 11 as Jesus introduces us to this third thought. And he said, a man had two sons,
the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share
of the estate that falls to me. So he divided his wealth between
them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything
together and went on a journey into a distant country. And there
he squandered his estate with loose living. Now, when he had
spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country and
he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself
out to one of the citizens of that country and he sent him
into his fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled
his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating. And no
one was giving anything to him. But, when he came to his senses,
he said, how many of my father’s hired men have more than enough
bread? But I’m dying here with hunger.
I will get up and go to my father and will say to him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer
worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired
men.” So he got up and came to his father. But while he was
still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for
him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said
to him, father, I’ve sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am
no longer worthy to be called your son, but the father. But the father said to his slaves,
quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring
on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fattened calf
and kill it and let us eat and celebrate for this son of mine
was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been
found. And they began to celebrate. You see, once you introduce the
human element, to this, the whole picture becomes crystal clear. Jesus isn’t talking about a lost
thing like a sheep or a lost coin, he’s talking about human
souls. And you don’t get the gist of
that until this one son is introduced. But once you get the import of
that and once you understand the meaning of that word lost,
utterly destroyed, then you begin to understand the human condition,
the theological significance, if you will, of this particular
parable, what he was saying to the Pharisees in their attack.
The bottom line is that when Adam sinned against God’s clearly
revealed command, he lost his innocence. He was created with
that perfect righteous relationship with God. And when he sinned,
it was all destroyed. Having lost their perfect righteousness,
Adam and Eve lost communion with God. They acquired instead the
sentence of death. And since they were completely
representative of us, their sin nature passed to all. The greatest
mistake that people make in coming to the parable of what is called
the parable of the prodigal son is to make the mistake of thinking
that it talks only about a wayward son in his teen years. Because,
you know, the bottom line with this parable, it’s you and it’s
me. Every one of us is in focus in
this parable. That’s sin nature. Along with its deadness left
us completely in able to commend ourselves to God and completely
dependent upon undeserved mercy for salvation. We were lost and
dead and we weren’t coming back. We were in a hopeless condition. It’s exactly how Scripture presents
the human condition. presents those unbelievers in
the world as having no hope and without God in the world. What
could be clearer? As part of the fall, as I’ve
said before, every portion of man’s being was affected by it.
His nature, his affections, what he likes, his understanding,
his will. From that point on, men were
spoken of in Scripture as naturally God’s enemies born into this
world as God’s enemies, not just every young teenage boy, but
every soul that’s ever been born male and female. We are born God’s enemies and
we are naturally incapable of any God pleasing act. We were
lost. and utterly lost and hopeless
and sinners by choice. And when you begin to understand
it in those terms. The parable of the prodigal son
takes on new meaning, it takes on the real and genuine meaning
that it was intended to have. This isn’t just a story that
is to be told to a wandering and wayward Christian. This is
a story that is to be laid at the heart of every individual
that ever lived. What I want to look at this morning,
and I don’t know how far I’ll get, but I want to look at five
glimpses in the life of a lost soul. Five glimpses into the
life of a lost soul. First of all, rebellion. Rebellion. And mind you, to over-literalize
this and to say that this refers only to a Christian who had what
he had at one point and left it is to completely miss the
point of the parable. These sinners and tax gatherers
that Christ was accusing of socializing with in some improper fashion,
they had no salvation. They had nothing that they possessed
that they left behind only to be restored by Christ. It’s talking about the human
condition. It’s talking about what Adam and Eve destroyed and
destroyed on our behalf. Look at verse 11. Jesus began
this parable, Luke records, and He said, A man had two sons.
The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share
of the estate that falls to me. I have no way of quantifying
this, but I don’t know of root or words in all of Scripture
Essentially, the son basically says, I wish you were dead. But
since I’m too impatient to wait around for you to die so I can
have your money, could I just have the money now so I can leave?
Terrible, dreadful words. Essentially, what you have here
is the history of a sinful soul. And it’s the history of us all.
He was this person. He had it all. Just like Adam
did in the garden. He had this communion with God.
He had all the fruits that were entrusted to him. Everything
that his stomach needed. He had fellowship with a perfect
mate. Fellowship with the loving, holy
God. And he squandered it all. It
wasn’t good enough. And every person that’s ever
been born has that same precious gift of God. Think of the testimony
of Scripture. Matthew 5.45 says it this way. He causes the sun to rise on
the evil and the good. He sends the rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous. You know what? Every person that’s ever been
born has this testimony of the goodness of God just in how they’re
cared for. The rains come, they water the
crops, the crops grow, they feed us. And all the while in our
unregenerate state, we are blind and deaf. We never acknowledge
God’s goodness in that. Remember, Paul, in his first
missionary journey, he confronted the heathen in this. He said
it this way in Acts chapter 14, in the generations gone by, he
permitted the nations to go their own ways. God didn’t constrain
you, put you in a box. That’s the accusation of the
heathen so often when you share them Christ, isn’t it? I’m not
a robot. And yet he did not leave himself
without a witness. Well, what witness? Was it merely
the prophets that wandered their heathen nations? No. in that
He did good, and He gave you rains from heaven and fruitful
seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” You
say, well, what kind of a testimony is that? It’s a great testimony.
It’s a glorious testimony. It’s enough for them to know
that there is a God. It’s exactly what Paul was saying
in Romans 1. It’s enough. It’s exactly what
the psalmist said in Psalm 19. The heavens are telling of the
glory of God. The expanse is declaring the
work of his hands. It’s enough. That which is known about God
is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. How?
For since the creation of the world is invisible attributes
as eternal power, his divine nature have been clearly seen
being understood through what has been made so that they are
without excuse. And that’s why I tell you from
time to time, don’t go ask somebody if they believe in God. Don’t
go ask. Go ask them where they worship. And if they say, I don’t have
a place of worship, say, why not come worship with us? Don’t get in, don’t get drawn
into this debate about proving God, you can’t do it. God has already given them enough
data, they have no excuse. It’s a truth we can presuppose. And that’s the image of us, isn’t
it? We knew in our lost condition, we knew there was a God. We knew
there was a God by all the bounties that he had poured out on us.
We knew. And so do they. And so did this son. According to Jewish law, he was
entitled as the younger son to half of what his older brother
got. So in essence, his older brother
got two thirds and he got one third and that’s all he wanted. That was enough for him and to
get him out of the house and on his way. It was the epitome
of rudeness. As I said, I don’t know of a
ruder thought in all of Scripture. It’s the first sign that you’re
headed for trouble. When you begin to yearn for this questionable
freedom, this questionable liberty that you want to spend on your
life. For you children, the desire to be away from parents, the
desire to be outside of the quote-unquote bondage of home life. This young
man desired to be free from that kind of parental restraint. He
was convinced that once he got off by himself and away from
the eyes, the watchful eyes of his parents, he would be able
to do whatever he wanted. Isn’t that the goal? Isn’t that
the yearning of every teenage heart? I just want to do what
I want to do. But it isn’t just teenagers. You know that every
time we sin, that’s exactly what we say, isn’t it? I wish God
weren’t watching. I’m angry at him for watching.
I don’t want to be around God’s people. I don’t want to go to
church. I don’t want to read his word. I don’t want to pray.
One Puritan said it this way, this man, impatient of divine
control, desiring to be independent of God, seeking to be his own
master. That sin of sins in which all
subsequent sins are included. You remember that beautiful imagery
that Paul gives in 1 Thessalonians 1? You turned from idols to God. And you know what? The opposite
is exactly true. You cannot turn back to the idols
without turning your back on God. You can’t do it. One old pastor said it this way,
this man following the natural bend of his heart, We have in
these words a faithful portrait of the mind with which we are
all born. This is our likeness. We are
naturally proud and self-willed. We have no pleasure in fellowship
with God. We depart from Him and go far
off. We spend our time, our strength,
our faculties, our affections on things that cannot profit.
The covetous man does it in one fashion, the slave of lusts and
passions in another, the lover of pleasure in another. The bottom
line, this is a picture of us. It’s a picture of any person
ever born. Verse 13, not many days later.
He takes this improper freedom, this ill gotten gain of of all
time, and he gathers everything together, verse 13 says, and
went on a journey into a distant country. You get this image that
he couldn’t desire to be any further from his father. And there he squandered his estate
with loose living. It’s translated in so many different
ways depending on what version you have. Literally, to live
ruinously. It’s a graphic word that expresses
almost a complete abandonment of all character. He just flat
out let his hair down and lived it up and sinned it up in the
process. The Greek word Dioscorpizo is
the very opposite of gathering together. He just was. Have you
ever known somebody like that? Somebody gives them ten dollars
and they won’t have a penny by the end of the day. They just
spend it every which way they can. He scattered his property, literally,
he scattered this money that was so easily gained by him.
It’s the same word that’s used of winnowing grain. You know
what they do with grain? They take a pitchfork and they toss
it up in the air and the wind blows the chaff away. That’s
what was happening to his money. Just tossing it about. But it
wasn’t just his money, it was his life. It’s literally spoken
of one who does not save a little bit. One who’s a spendthrift. That’s the problem with us, isn’t
it? When we have an abundance, when
God has given us an abundance, so often the human heart’s tendency
is to forget the God who gave it. Right? To play the self-made
man. Look what I’ve done. And to forget
the God who gave you the means to make that money. To forget
the God that gave you eyes. Gave you a mind. Gave you opportunity. Gave you a free country in which
to exercise your business. One Puritan said it this way,
sinful men, when they are supplied this way by God, quickly take
their journey into a far country and are more alienated and estranged
by God, by lewd and sinful practices than they were by nature. They
waste their substance, their health, their bodies, the time
of their life, their estates, their great and honorable capacities
by giving themselves up to sin. And what a dreary picture this
is. But you know what? It gets worse. It gets worse. Wait until you hear the loving
rebuke. I want you to look at the glimpses
into a lost soul. We saw the rebellion of that
soul. Look at the rebuke beginning in verse 14. In verse 14, it says, now, when
he had spent everything, if you’ve ever been in my how to study
the Bible class, you know, I say pay attention to those time clauses
because sooner or later, they’re going to be important. And here we have one. No sooner,
that’s the image you get, no sooner did he slap his last dollar
down on his last means of entertainment, the stock market tubed. And there
he stood with his pockets pulled out. Now, when he had spent everything,
a severe famine occurred in that country and he began to be impoverished. This is a man who saved nothing. He lived, as we saw just a moment
ago, unsavingly. He didn’t save even a penny for
a rainy day. He lived only for the moment
and now the moment is evil. The working of God’s providence,
we might call it coincidence from a human standpoint, but
what a gracious and merciful God to rebuke him in the very
thing that he thought was a freedom to him. He thought he was going
to make this money last forever and ride this wave of hedonism
the rest of his life. And now we see the loving hand
of God beginning to pull the reins back on him and to bring
him to knees of repentance. Just about the time he had spent
everything, that famine, the severe famine occurred, in the
very place. It doesn’t say it was a worldwide
famine. It says it was a localized thing.
And in that very place, the frowning providence of God,
as the Puritans used to call it, came. Leanness. Difficulty. A bad economy. And you know what? Isn’t that just like God? In
fact, I had written it down. Flip over to Romans chapter 8.
In Romans chapter 8, the very image comes to mind of a God who is constantly bringing
difficulty Get this in verse 18. I consider
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
to the glory that is to be revealed to us for the anxious longing
of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons
of God. For the creation was subjected
to futility. There’s no doubt about it that
those things are true. Matthew 5, Acts 14, that God
sends rain. But he also sends leanness. He
sends difficulty and he sends it for the purpose of bringing
people to repentance. Look again. The creation was
subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected
it in hope that creation itself will be set free from its slavery
to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children
of God. What a loving God. This is no accident. This is
no cyclical economy that happens to strike this. It is the pure
and loving mercy of God that sends this providence. And look
what happens to the man. Verse 15, So he went and he hired
himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent
him into his fields to feed swine. Now, the presumption throughout
this parable is that this is a Jew. This is a young Jewish
boy who went to his Jewish father and took out their money and
went on this lifestyle. This could be no lower place
for a Jewish boy. Look at that word that he went
and hired himself out. Literally, he attached himself
to him. You ever had somebody like that?
They just attached themselves to you. And you try as you might
to end the conversation, they move with you. And when you move,
they move, right? And you back up and they come
forward and they follow you and move with your every move and
you cannot get rid of them. The verb is used literally in
Matthew 19 of the husband-wife relationship in pleading together. This man became utterly dependent
upon this man, this earthly employer. But the intensity could have
only been felt by those Jews that were listening to Christ
tell this story. Because even to be around swine, even to see
them was considered, you know, a detestable sight. You know,
they wouldn’t even name the name of swine. They didn’t even call
them swine or pigs. They called it that other thing.
Now, I don’t know what the one thing is, but the other thing
must be really bad. It was a degrading deployment
for anybody, but especially for a Jew. But it gets worse for him. J.C. Ryle said of this scene, Sin
is a hard task, Master, and the servants of sin always find it
out. Unconverted people are never
really happy. Under a profession of cheerfulness,
they often are ill at ease within. Thousands of them are sick at
heart, dissatisfied with themselves, weary in their own ways, and
thoroughly uncomfortable. Now, they’re not going to tell
you that. They’re not going to wear it on their sleeves because
that’s their religion. Their religion is to be happy
in their sin. But deep down, they know. They
know they’re paying a price. They know there’s a mighty cost.
They know the reality of Proverbs 13.15. Proverbs 13.15 says, good
understanding produces favor, but the way of the treacherous
is hard. Don’t be fooled. I see young people from time
to time living it up, sinning it up, thinking, you know, ultimately,
I know, you know. Some of us were saved out of
that. You know, the way of the treacherous is hard. There is
no true joy in living like that. And it wasn’t for him. Look at
how bad it gets. Verse 16, He would have gladly
filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating. You know what, people? These
are carob pods. They’re a lot like what dangles
from the honey locust trees in our midst. Those long pods with
seeds inside. Not exactly, you know, snacking
fair. Not exactly what you might call
nutritious. And neither does the Bible. The
Bible doesn’t say that he longed to make a meal of it merely to
fill his stomach. To take care of that gnawing
pain in his stomach that was brought on by hunger, brought
on by his sinful lifestyle. A rebuke for his sin. You know what I take it in this
passage? He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the
swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. And
I believe that anything encompasses those little pods. In other words,
his employer perhaps gave him some kind of a pittance, but
he’s not allowing him to eat the pig’s food. He’s not going
to allow him even to eat these husks. He had reached the lowest of
low. He’s preparing to perish unpitied, alone in the world
and disappear from the world unmissed. But in the midst of
this dark cloud, just like this past week, you know, then the
past week seemed like there had been this cloud all week long,
but I saw the sun. Between clouds, this bright ray
of sun came. And I’ll tell you, just like
in that, Next week, we’ll see the sun burst forth because the
man comes to repentance and it’s a real repentance and it’s a
real restoration. And in the end, there is real
rejoicing. You can fill in the blanks if
you want. But we’ll take up the matter next week about what God
does with the wayward and lost soul. Let’s pray. Our merciful God, we do see in some people’s lives
more graphic than others. We see ourselves in this passage.
Lord, we know that everyone who’s ever been born is considered
to be a sinner in need of a Savior. The Lord, for some, this passage
takes on a very literal meaning. As we have seen ourselves wander
from home, embrace all that the world has to offer and find it
empty. Lord, all the more we rejoice
in the salvation that we enjoy. Lord God, even as the children
were a focus in today’s service, we pray. We pray that they would
be mindful of this passage to see themselves in it and to see
their own rebelliousness, however minor, as being severe in the
eyes of God. And Father, might You bring them
to repentance before further rebellion that they would be
spared. Lord God, we thank You for revealing
us in the parable of this lost son. And we thank You for Christ,
the only hope for sinners. Grant us Your grace for this
week. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray, Amen.