We're continuing our study in Luke chapter 15, verses 11 to 24 on the parable of the prodigal son. Let me read the parable for you once again. Then Jesus said, a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, And no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. And I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, 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 fatted calf here 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 well in past studies we've seen that the father in this parable was on the lookout for his wayward son when he was still a great way off his father saw him had compassion on him, ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Why would he do this? Why did the father in the parable act this way when he probably had come to know something about his son misspending his money and acting so simply in the far country? Well, I think we need to understand that the Lord is picturing for us here in this parable, God's love. When the prodigal returned, the first thing that he said to his father was that he was unworthy to be called his son. So that's what we want to try to think about here this morning, at this time, God's love and our unworthiness. It's an amazing thing, isn't it, to see this take place in this parable and Jesus speaking it, teaching us about true conversion, repentance, what it means to go off into the far country and come back to return to the Father. But I want to focus our attention on the prodigal's statement that he was no longer worthy to be called his son. I want to focus on that here during this time that we have together. He was truly sincere in this confession. His father knew that he was unworthy to be called his son, that his father was going to show him mercy. He was not going to reward him according to his sins, but rather bestow upon him unmerited favor and all the blessings which would show to him that he had been forgiven. So the attitude of a true penitent, that is a person repenting and coming back to God, is I don't deserve to be shown mercy and grace. I am unworthy of the least of your mercies. So first of all, I wanna draw your attention to the fact that the prodigal confesses that he's not worthy, and it's twice here in verses 19 And 21, in verse 19, he says, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. When he gets to the father and he immediately starts confessing his sins, his father has shown him so much love already that he's prevented from going any farther in his speech. And he says, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, but the father says to him, bring out the best row. Really an amazing statement that we'll study the next time that we're around this. So the first question that I want to ask you here this morning. is this, in relation to God's love, His mercy, and His kindness towards us who have sinned against Him, what does it mean that we are unworthy of being called His sons? What does that mean? The word unworthy, or unworthy to be called His sons and daughters. Well, that's the truth. That is true. That's very true. It's more than that though. Let's keep going. What else do you think? There's no basis for favor being shown because of the sins that the prodigal committed. Anyone else? In and of themselves, there's nothing that we do or can add to them. It's all mercy and grace on His part. Amen. There's nothing that we can add to Him, nothing we can give to Him that would prove that we are worthy, but it's really all of Him, isn't it? Yeah, that's excellent. I wrote down, it means that we're undeserving of God's treating us as sons and daughters who are, we are unworthy of His favor, and blessings. It means that as we think about ourselves, as we are in ourselves, that we cannot show to God our worth or our worthiness as being blessed, helped, or saved by him. So when we confess that we're unworthy of being his sons and daughters, we're confessing that we know that he should not consider anything that we would say or do or would give to him could prove our value to him, that he should bless us or help us or save us from ourselves or our sins. As sinners, we are worthless in the sight of God in relation to anything we might do to try to please Him by our persons or our works. Anything that we might do to show Him that anything coming from ourselves could please him. He alone can give us worth and make us worthy of having had mercy upon us, his having had mercy upon us, and his having given us grace. That's the first point that I wanna give to you here this morning. The second is God's love. or mankind sinners. That's a term that Thomas Boston coined here about 200 years ago. Mankind sinners. And the reason that he did that was because hyper-Calvinism was beginning to enter the church in the 1730s and it ran rampant for about 70 years. And the church in Scotland and England Thomas Boston wrote a treatise on some of these things. I won't go into all that. But I want you to see that God does have love for mankind sinners. That is, just mankind in general. That God has a general love for all mankind. That's what we want to think about here for the next few minutes. Yes? We are totally depraved. Yes, we are. By total depravity, that's a good thing to bring up, by the way, theologically at this time. By totally depraved, what do we mean exactly? How would you define that if you were going to try to explain it to people? And we should try to explain it to people, by the way, if we can. It wouldn't be as bad as it could be, but that the entirety of our being as faculties is affected by that. That's exactly right. Exactly right. We're not as bad as we could be, but every faculty is affected by Adam's sin. In the fall, passed on from Adam down through all, to all his descendants, except for the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we all have a sinful nature, which has been affected by sin. All of our faculties, our mind, our affections, our will, our desires, our conscience even. All these things have been affected by sin. It's good for us to be able to try to explain that to people if we can. Very good thought that was brought up there. So the way I want to approach this business of mankind, sinners, God loving, mankind sinners is I want to make several statements. The first of which is we as parents should tell our children about the love of God in his essential being. Now, this is really good for us to think about. And I want you to turn with me over to Psalm 145, and we wanna read verses three to nine. Who would like to read that for me? Psalm 145, verses 3 to 9. Alright, go right ahead. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty. Men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts and I will declare your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. slow to anger, and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. All right, thanks for that, David. Now, question number two, let me pose it to you. In what ways, according to these verses, is the Lord gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and great in mercy to all mankind in general? Is He this way in regard to His works only, or is He this way in His essential being? What say you? He sends rain on the just and the unjust. That's good. Good for us to remember that, that God is good in this way, and He is kind in this way. Anyone else? He's watching over the whole world, isn't He? That He's created all the people in it. that he's made for himself. And by the way, it's good for us to be able to share that with other people around us, that all of us were made for God's good pleasure. All things were made for God's good pleasure. I like the way that verse reads in Psalm 145. Let's see here. It is in the NASB, they shall, verse seven, I will eagerly utter the memory of your great goodness. Wow, I think that is good. Now that implies something, I think, to, it should imply something to all of us that as we talk to unsaved people around us, that we ought to be eager to share with them. truths about God's goodness. Could be something as simple as the weather. Could be the fact that God has been good to me personally in some particular way that day or that week or in my life. Could be many things that we could bring up that would be able to speak to the mind of an unbelieving person that we might come into contact with, but in particular trying to show you here that parents should tell their children about the love of God in his essential being. Let me read what I've written down here under that point A. I think that we should conclude from all three of the parables that we have studied here in Luke 15, that God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, has a general love for all mankind sinners that they would return to him. He has a love for those whom he has created, which he demonstrates in the gospel. His great will of desire is that sinners would come to him. He would have them return to him to find that he is willing to receive them. And this is based upon His being a God of love and a God of compassion, in His very nature as God. So we see that here in Psalm 145, verses 3 to 9, very clearly. And I'm trying to say that this is how we ought to speak about the Lord to others around us. Let us learn to speak of His awesome acts. to people around us. Let us learn to speak of His acts of creation, His acts in providence, His act of being gracious and compassionate in sending His Son. into the world in his incarnation, his act in giving his son for us on the cross to be our surety and our substitute and our sacrifice for our sins, his special acts of mercy and grace toward his elect people in causing us to know that his love for us is everlasting. That's the first point, A. Point B, we as parents should tell our children about the love of God in his works. And look at Psalm 145. Once again, verses 15 and 16, the Lord upholds all who fall and raised up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to you. and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing." Wow, is that ever profound language. So question three, how does the Lord uphold all who fall and raise up all who are bowed down? What would you say? These are good questions to ask. Very good. God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. That's a very good point in relation to what we're looking at here. How does the Lord uphold all who fall and raise up all who are bowed down? I've written here, the Lord upholds all who fall through their calling upon his holy name and asking God to save them through the Lord Jesus Christ. He upholds them when they feel the burden of their flesh, striving against their spirit, when they know they cannot prevail by their own strength in learning to do God's will. He raises up all who are bowed down with discouragement because they see themselves as falling short of God's glory in so many ways. Well, that's what the Lord does. He's able to do that with any man, believer or unbeliever. And what I'm trying to get at here with all this that we're studying here is our witness to people around us and to our children in portraying for them and speaking to them of God's love for mankind's sinners so that we will not despise people who are great sinners. You'll recall, this is why at the beginning of this chapter, the Lord Jesus got into so much trouble with the scribes and Pharisees. He was receiving sinners and eating with them. And you remember he caught all kinds of flack from them for doing that. So I'm trying to show us that we should be able to do this with our children and with people around us to tell them about the love of God in his works. And question four, is then God really able to satisfy the desire of every living thing? What say you? Pardon me? Can you go on? And tell us what you think. They don't recognize it's God who's feeding them, and they don't give thanks to Him. Is it important that we pray before our meals? It is, isn't it? And even in public, just so we're not making a show of it to everybody, when we go out to eat. He really does satisfy the desire of every living thing, particularly for food, as it's mentioned in verse 15 of Psalm 145. The apostle Paul says to the people who saw him do a miracle of healing on a lame man, who wanted to offer sacrifices to them, thinking that they were gods, he said, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God who made heaven and earth. the sea and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless, he did not leave them without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. So God does this amazing thing, opening up his hand to satisfy the desire of every living thing, whether they know it or not, whether men know it or not. But you and I, I'm saying, as a good witness to them, can remind them of these things, that all that we have in food, more clothing, more shelter, more anything that's good that we have is from God. And we can confess him in that good way that we're thinking about here. So, let's go a little bit further here. We want to look thirdly at prayer on the part of God's people for the unsaved. It's a very good thing. And I want you to turn with me over to 1 Timothy 2, verses 5 to 7. Let me just read the first seven verses here for you of chapter two. Therefore I exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and all who are in authority. that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." So question seven, should we as Christian parents be able to tell our children that Christ gave himself a ransom for sinners like them? What say you? The answer is yes. We should be able to tell our children about the person of Christ as a mediator and the work of Christ paying a ransom for all who will come to Him. Let me read you a little bit from Matthew Henry's commentary. You know, Matthew Henry's commentary in the latter part of it after the middle of the book of Romans was written by other men. Perhaps you're not aware of that. But there were other men who completed Matthew Henry's commentary. One of them was Benjamin Andrews Atkinson. And he says this on the verses that I just read to you. There is one mediator, and that mediator gave himself a ransom for all. As the mercy of God extends itself to all his works, So the mediation of Christ extends itself thus far to all the children of men that he paid a price sufficient for the salvation of all mankind. He brought mankind to stand upon new terms with God so that they are not now under the law as a covenant of works, but as a rule of life. They are under grace, not under the covenant of innocence, But under a new covenant, he gave himself a ransom. He says, observe, the death of Christ was a ransom, a counter price. We deserved to have died. Christ died for us to save us from death and hell. He gave himself a ransom voluntarily, a ransom for all so that all mankind are put in a better condition than that of devils He died to work out a common salvation in order here unto he put himself into the office of mediator between God and man. A mediator supposes a controversy. Sin had made a quarrel. between us and God. Jesus Christ is a mediator who undertakes to make peace, to bring God and man together in the nature of an umpire or an arbiter, arbitrator, a dazement who lays his hand upon us both. He is a ransom that was to be testified in due time. He says, he goes on to say, that is in the Old Testament times, his sufferings and the glory that should follow were spoken of as things to be revealed in the last times. And they are accordingly revealed. Paul himself, having been ordained a preacher and an apostle to publish to the Gentiles, the glad tidings of redemption to every creature he was appointed. to be a teacher of the Gentiles besides his general call to the apostleship, he was commissioned particularly to preach to the Gentiles in faith and truth, or faithfully and truly. And let me give you one short paragraph here. Note first, it is good and acceptable in the sight of God and our Savior that we pray for kings and all men. and also that we lead a peaceable and quiet life. And this is a very good reason why we should do the one as well as the other. God has a good will. to the salvation of all, so that it is not so much the want of a will in God to save them as it is a want of will in themselves to be saved in God's way. Here our blessed Lord charges the fault. You will not come unto me that you may have life. I would have gathered you, but you would not." So that's what our study is. for this morning. Do you have any comment or question? Yeah. Go ahead, Johnny. Yeah, I think all of this hinges on our unworthiness. Your estimation of fault is estimation of yourself, is that just what? Unworthy. The chief of sinners. The chief of sinners, yeah. And there's a sense in which that even post-conversion, that doesn't change. Having that posture, that mindset, allows you comes alongside and sees that rather than to be. And the posture in which you approach others is side-by-side. We're coming alongside them. A lost sinner, you come alongside. Oftentimes we forget what our estimation of ourselves ought to be, so we come and we talk down. We come and look down on the sinner. We come and look down on our children. It's coming alongside. Because I know the misery that you're in. Even as a redeemed sinner, Even though God has exalted us, our estimation of ourselves is not such. So it's amazing the way that if you get that off, then all of that, your acknowledgement of God's goodness and love towards His creation, the fact that God is out to seek and save, that was awesome. The fact that you can come alongside your children and proclaim the good news for them, that was beyond that. Amen. Thank you for that. Thank you. Well, let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for this study. We realize that there are many things that could be said even beyond this, but we pray that we would take this in so that we might be able to show our children, teach our children and others around us of your love Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for lost sinners. Even though we know that you have your elect people and you've chosen them from the foundation of the world, yet the free offer of the gospel is always there, always there for the dynamic interaction between you and any sinner. if they will come to you. These are mysteries, Lord, that we do not fully understand, but we praise you and we thank you that you show your goodness in so many ways to all of us day by day that we can speak of you and tell others around us of your love for them as well as for ourselves. We pray that we would do that in Jesus' name, amen.