Well, I want to speak this morning on Luke chapter 15, with a sermon title of Lost and Found. I suppose if you had to choose one thing that Lord Jesus said, which sums up his mission and his ministry into this world, it would be found in Luke 19, verse 10, where it says, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. And in this 15th chapter of Luke, he records a three-part parable, or I think it really is one parable in three parts. And it illustrates one thing, the seeking and the saving love of God. And that's really what we're going to consider together today. Our Lord tells of a lost sheep, a lost coin, and two lost sons. It's often called the lost son, but I believe both sons were as lost as each other. One of these sons is found and saved. And as far as we can tell, the other remains lost. Charles Dickens said of the story, commonly known as The Prodigal Son, that it is the finest short story ever written. And many literary scholars believe that his novel Great Expectations is an elaborate retelling of the story of The Prodigal Son. I'd never thought of it in that way, but when you think of the story, it is. Peter Williams from Tyndale House has written a book, The Surprising Genius of Jesus. And in that book, he examines the parable of the lost sons and he demonstrates the genius of the storytelling of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he demonstrates the connection between the parable of the lost sons and the Old Testament story of Isaac and his two sons, Jacob and Esau. Well, the main point of this sermon, though, is not the genius storytelling of Jesus, but his genius ability to seek and to save those who were lost. You see, the main point of this parable in Luke 15 is that the actions of the shepherd who lost his sheep, the actions of the woman who lost her coin, and the action of the father who lost his sons are metaphors for what God is doing through the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the fact that the Son of Man is seeking and saving that which was lost. The Lord Jesus Christ went to great lengths to seek and save lost sinners. In fact, it brought him into disrepute with the religious authorities of the day, and that's how this parable was triggered. He was criticized by the scribes and Pharisees. They were murmuring, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. You see, Jesus really did get his hands dirty, as it were, in his seeking and in his saving. He was a preacher. He went from village to village. He preached the gospel, but that's not all he did. He also met with sinners in their homes, ate with them, got to know them, loved them, got to know their problems, and was honest with them. He told them about their sin. And you see, we have a great model here in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so once the Lord Jesus Christ had this negative reaction from the scribes and the Pharisees, he tells them this parable. These three stories, the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coen, and the lost sons. Jesus is effectively saying to these religious types, instead of sneering and criticising, why aren't you rejoicing that sinners are repenting and coming back to God? I know that some of them are prostitutes, some of them are tax collectors, I know that they're the lowest of the low, but they've repented, they've come back to God, and you can't rejoice over that. You see, the climax of this parable, the punchline of this parable, is often not what people think. The punchline of this parable is the story of the older brother, who is as lost as the sheep, he's as lost as the coin, he's as lost as the younger son. But he's the one who misses out on grace, because he has this legalistic spirit that was within these scribes and Pharisees. is the older son who is the main point of this parable. And yet the one character who receives the least attention, and I might be guilty of that probably as well today. But in the older son there is a great warning. the great warning of the danger of missing the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, even in a religious environment, even with religious knowledge, and even with some kind of devotion to the externals of religion. Well, I obviously can't do justice to the whole of this chapter in one sermon, but I just want to very simply share with you four spiritual lessons, four spiritual truths which I notice in this parable. And the first point I want to make, the first thing I observe is the value of lost sinners to God. The value of lost sinners to God. The thing that unites these three stories is that in each story something has been lost. And then there follows a great effort to find the thing or the person that has been lost. And then, after that which was lost is found, there is a great celebration in each of these stories. There's a three-part plot in each one. A sheep becomes lost. Somehow it got separated from the flock. Maybe it got panicked by something. For sheep, sheep are highly social animals. Luke will know more about this. Their home is effectively the flock. That's where their home is, where they belong, where they find security. Well, this sheep, he got lost away from his home. He got lost away from the flock. And then there's a story of a woman who lost one piece of silver. She only had 10 in the first place. So to lose one piece of silver out of 10 is a big chunk of your wealth. This is serious. Because if a woman says something is lost, then it's lost. If a man was to say it, it might be different. You see, I'm amazed when I lose something at home, I would think I've looked everywhere. And I'll say to Sharon, I've lost it. I can't find it. And Sharon will say, it's not lost. You haven't looked. And then a few seconds later, she'll come back with whatever I've lost. You see, there's a way a man looks, and there's a way a woman looks. And this was a woman who'd lost her coin. It was a really lost coin. And this coin was lost in the home. That's the point Jesus is making here. The sheep was lost away from home. The coin is lost at home. And you know, there's one lesson here. You can be lost in a far country, living a wild, riotous, wicked life, and you can be lost in the home. You can be lost in a Christian home. You can be lost in a religious home just as much. You see, there are different ways of being lost, but you're lost. And this is emphasized in the final story of these two sons. One was lost away from home in the far country, and one was lost who had never left home. The older brother. The younger son demanded his share of the inheritance now and went into a far country, way away from the authority and the presence of his father. And he blew the money on riotous living and ended up so hungry that he envied the pigs, their pig food. Yeah, that guy was lost. But then there's the older brother. Well, we know from the way he reacted to his brother's final return to the family that he was lost as well. In his heart, he was lost. He refused to celebrate. And he spoke to his father in a dreadful way. It showed that his relationship with the father was broken as well. In a less dramatic way, the older son was lost. to the father even though he remained at home. So the first point I want to make here is that in each case, animal, object or human, that which was lost remained highly valuable in the heart of the one who experienced the loss. You see, God views sinners as people lost to him. and they remain valuable to him, even in their lost condition. As a result of sin coming into the world, and the separation that's produced between God and man, God has lost something which he formerly possessed. And this is what Jesus emphasizes here in the first place, and it's only really in Reformed teaching that you'll ever hear this. what Jesus begins with is not the lostness of the object, not the lostness of the son. He begins with the loss sustained by the owner. You see, God, in other words, is is the shepherd whose sheep have wandered off. God is the woman whose coin is lost in the darkness of the house. God is the father whose son has become lost to him. You see, the Lord Jesus came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost to the father, to restore to the father that which belonged to him in the first place. The high value On that which was lost appears obvious, firstly, from the diligent search that is made in each story. You see, the shepherd could have said, well, I've lost one sheep out of 100. That leaves me 99. You always get losses with sheep. It's bound to happen. I'll forget about that one sheep. and I'll concentrate on the 99 that I have left. But he does the complete opposite, doesn't he? He goes out into the wilderness, and he goes after that sheep which was lost until he finds it. And he didn't have a Land Rover. He didn't have a Polaris or a John Deere. He didn't have an ATV. He had to walk. through the dry and dusty wilderness in search of this sheep which was lost. Why did he go to the effort? Because he valued that which was lost. And he finds the silly thing. It must have lost its direction. The silly sheep had gone its own way. And now it's in terrible condition. But it's been found. And the shepherd puts the sheep on his shoulders and rejoices all the way back home. And he's so pleased. He places such importance and value upon finding that sheep which was lost that he calls all his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him. Verse 6, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost. You see, he valued that which was lost so much. And the emphasis is not on the joy of the sheep being found. I expect the sheep, well, sheep don't think, I'm sure, but if a sheep could think, the sheep would be glad that he was found. But that's not the point of this. The point of this is the joy of the owner, the joy of the shepherd finding that which was lost, which belonged to him. We see the same pattern with the lost coin. The woman was not prepared to suffer the loss of one out of her 10 coins. What does she do? She lights a candle. She gets a broom out. And she sweeps the house. And she keeps looking in every nook and cranny of the house until she sees it. It was lost, but now it's found. And what joy fills her heart. She valued that coin so much. that having found it she calls her friends and neighbours together saying rejoice with me for I have found the peace which I had lost. You see she valued that coin which represents a lost sinner. And God values you. If you're lost he values you because you're lost to him. In the case of the youngest son, the father could have written him off. He had grounds, of course, to expel him from the family. Deuteronomy would have given him the law to expel him, to dismiss him as a son. And he could have said, I still have one son with me. I'll just try and forget about my youngest son. But he does the complete opposite, doesn't he? The youngest son had gone far, far away to another far country. But the father sought him, verse 20, but when he was a great way off, notice that, he was a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him, a great way off. I think he must have been lost for a long time and he must have been a long way away. If one of our If one of our teenage children went out and was an hour late for their tea, we might be a little bit anxious. We might be a little bit annoyed with them. But I don't think that when they came back, we would fall on their neck and kiss them and put the best robe on them. We wouldn't put a ring on their finger and new shoes on their feet. We probably wouldn't kill the turkey and have a great celebration, because it was only an hour. We wouldn't say, thank you so much for coming back from the end of the lane. You see, the point is that this younger brother was really lost, far away, and he's come home. But if we had a teenager, and I've known many, well not many, I've known quite a few, and had to work with the police to try and locate them. If we had a teenager who had gone off the rails and disappeared to London, and there had been no contact for years and years, and they'd been on the missing persons register for years and years, endless meetings had been held about them, And then, suddenly, they made contact with us and they said, we want to come home. We would then. There'd be great rejoicing, wouldn't there? Everybody and every friend would be rejoicing. Everybody apart from the turkey or the fatty calf, I suppose they wouldn't rejoice, because they would be on the dinner table, wouldn't they? When the child came home, there would be this great rejoicing. It would be like this, Father, for my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Of course, the Lord Jesus is saying all these things to emphasise the point that He, Jesus, loves sinners. And that He was sent by the Father to seek and to save that which was lost. And he says, when he finds one, when a lost person is found by the Lord Jesus, in the same way the shepherd rejoiced, in the same way the woman rejoiced, in the same way the father rejoiced, the angels in heaven rejoice over one lost sinner that is found. That's how much value heaven places upon a lost sinner's soul. And you know, there's great hope There's great gospel hope for anyone here who doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their saviour in this, because the Lord values sinners so much that he sent his only begotten son into the world to save sinners. to seek and to save that which was lost. In a way, he performed the greatest search and rescue mission the world has ever known. He came into the world to find us and to save us. And in fact, Jesus paid the ultimate price. He gave his own life in order to find us. not by some accident but by the deliberate plan of God. The hymn says, from heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died. Jesus died on the cross to deal with the one thing that separates you and I from God outside of Christ. Christ, that is sin. Sin is the thing which is the barrier, the wall between man and God. And the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to smash that wall down and to create an access to the Father through him. The Hebrew says he came to make a new and living way. And he did this by dying in our place. by bearing on our behalf the just punishment for our sin. That's how valuable sinners are to the Lord Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God so loved the world There's emotion in that so, isn't there? God so loved the world. He so loved you and loves you that he wants to seek you. He's seeking you now and he wants to save you. That's the message of this parable. I know this is not deep, but this is the one thing we need to understand. The truth is that God, in your lost condition, seeks you because you are lost to him. He's the owner who's lost you, not through any fault of his own. And he's done everything that's possible to find you and to make a way back to him. From wherever you are, whether it's in the home or in a far country, he's made a way back. through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord never put you out of his mind. That's the message here. That woman was obsessed with this coin. I know I've got nine, but I can't think about the nine now. I'm just obsessed with this one. I've got two sons, but I just can't stop thinking about the one that's lost, that's in that far country, so far away. That's what God's like with you. He loves you and wants you to return to him. And all over the world, millions of lost sinners, all over the world with millions of lost sinners, God is grieving. God is seeking, God is finding, God is saving, and all heaven is rejoicing. We don't see it so much here, but in some parts of the world, there are countless people being saved and saved and saved day after day, and that every time one is saved, there's a new round of singing in heaven. And it's true also of lost sinners here today, there's a way back to God through Jesus Christ. And those of us who know him, what's this place here? We're just a sheep pen, aren't we? We're a sheep pen of sheep that got lost, that were found, and we've been gathered together under one shepherd, and we've been made one flock. This is just a local representation of a much bigger flock, but all we are, We're just found sheep. We're no better than the sheep that are lost. We just happen to be found and saved and we're brought back home on the shoulders of our Saviour. Well that's the first lesson that I noticed is the value of a lost sinner to God. The second thing I notice is that there is no sinner who is beyond the reach of God. We've got to be careful with parables not to over-interpret them. But surely in this parable, particularly through the story of the younger brother, that there is no depth of degradation and sin into which you can sink, which excludes you from salvation. The Lord Jesus can save anyone. This is part of the rebuke to the scribes and the Pharisees. You religious leaders are supposed to preach salvation to sinners. That was their job. But instead, they wrote them off. Well, the Lord Jesus paints the story of a man. We always think of him as a young man. There's nothing in the story to say he was young, but we, in our minds, we always think of a young person. He paints the story of a man who's made himself completely vile in the eyes of his family and everyone in the community. He's sunk to the lowest depths of depravity that you can imagine. And I don't need to repeat the story, because you all know it. But surely there, in that story, there are some parallels with the effect that sin can have upon a person's life. is the record of this younger son's spiral downwards. And in it we see the picture of the terrible problem of sin in the human heart. As I say, we see it in the older son too. The sins of the younger son are external public sins. Sins that go before him, as it were. The sins of the older son are internal, prideful, jealous. resentful hatred. The spirit within the oldest son was the spirit that was in the scribes and the Pharisees, of course. And despite their emphasis on separate living and their knowledge of scripture, it was the spirit in them, actually, that led to the Lord Jesus Christ being crucified. The problem with both sons, and this is the heart of the human condition to this day, is that their relationship with the father was broken. The younger son rebelled against his father. And in a desire for total independence, he wanted the things of the father, but he didn't want the father himself. He rebelled against God and desired to be free from his law. And that's the story of man right from the beginning of Genesis, isn't it? And it's wreaked havoc in human life ever since. Verse 12, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of the goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them the living. Well, it's been well said by others, not an original thought of mine at all, but that what effectively this younger son is saying to his father is that I want you dead because I want that which comes to me after your death to come to me now while you're still alive. And I want to live as if you're not my father, I want to live Independent from your authority, I want to go my own way. I'm off. I don't recognize your authority over me. I want to discover the world and no longer live under the restrictions of your roof. I don't want you, but I want my food and shelter and good health. And if things go wrong, I'll still blame you, God. I mean, this isn't in the story, but this is how people think. And even when they say they don't believe in God, and then something happens, they blame God for it. Why can you blame God for something you don't believe in? It's because they do believe in him, really. I want everything that's good in life now. I don't want to wait for some inheritance in heaven. I want it all now. But I want it all without you, God. That's the spirit in man, isn't it? Well, the father in this story gives his youngest son what he asks for. It's an amazing thing. And in the end, that's what God does. If you keep saying to God, Leave me alone. I want to go my own way. I don't want to hear your voice. In the end, he'll let you go. And I've used the illustration before. It's a bit like a teenager who will refuse to stop smoking. And you grab him by the collar, and you make him smoke pack after pack after pack until he never wants to smoke a cigarette again. God will give you all the sin you want, and you'll be sick of it. because he's seeking and searching after you. Romans 1.28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are convenient. God will do that. And that's what happens here, this younger son with wads of cash in his pocket. and a desire to taste the pleasures of this world, took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance on riotous living. He got drunk with wine and drunk with pleasure. He gave no thought to the father who loved him and missed him. He gave no thought to the terrible hurt and injury that he caused his beloved father. No doubt many so-called friends appeared. If you go off away from God and from a Christian home with wads of cash, you'll have plenty of friends, so-called, and they'll help you spend it. Every time this younger son went to the pub, it always seemed to be his round, never anybody else's round. And he spent this life on riotous living. Everyone disappeared when it was time to pay. And over time, he wasted his substance with riotous living. And that's typical of the way sin operates in most people, I would say. Sin will rob you of your wealth and of your health and it will rob you of your most precious commodity, your time. A life of sin is a waste of time. It's prodigal, it's a waste. And how sad to come to the end of your life and think, I've wasted my life. I've wasted my life on myself. I've wasted my life on drinking at the fountain of sin when I could have been drinking at the fountain of life in the Lord Jesus Christ. He got to the point in verse 14 where he had spent it all and he fell into desperate need. Well, all the money had gone. Suddenly all his friends no longer answered the phone. I know they didn't have a phone then, I suppose. All his friends disappeared. Suddenly they were uncontactable. They were so friendly with him before. Loved to spend time with him before, but now they're all gone. Now he's rock bottom. He's on his own, abandoned. And his troubles get even worse. A mighty famine, the scripture says, not just a famine, a mighty famine hit that land. And he began to be in want. And he hired himself out to a pig farmer. And his job was to go into the field with buckets of pods for the pigs. And he was to feed the swine, which for a Jew was the lowest job you could imagine. and he was in danger of starvation. I believe even before we become a Christian, we can look back on things in our non-Christian life and see that God providentially brought troubles into our life, that he brought some kind of famine. It may not be a famine, but some other problem, trial, was not really a trial, it's some kind of providential push to the Father. And you see, because this lost son was loved, because a sinner is loved, because a God is seeking to save you, He will bring things into your life to bring you to your senses. You see, in the end, this guy got so low, But the scripture says he came to himself. He came to himself. He got so low that he came to the end of his own resources. know what the Lord Jesus is saying here. He's saying to the Pharisees here, you can get that low, you can be that sinful, you can be that lost and still be saved. And that's what I want to say to you this morning. For anyone that hears this sermon, I don't care what sin or depth of sin you've got yourself into, or what troubles you've got yourself into. You may have to repair things with other people, but God can forgive you. And I'll show you in a second how that happens. But it's not the sin that's keeping you from God. It's your refusal to come to the Father that's keeping you from God. The third spiritual truth that I want to highlight in this parable is that there is a way back to God. There is a way back to God. At least in part, the story of the younger brother illustrates the way back to the father. I'm not saying this parable includes everything we need to know about Christian salvation. It doesn't say anything much about the cross and things like that. This isn't sufficient to say the whole thing about the gospel, but there are some spiritual truths in this parable. And one is that there is a way back to God. You see the scriptures teach the sovereignty of God in salvation. And equally the scriptures teach the responsibility of man in salvation. It doesn't preach, it doesn't teach the ability of man. It teaches the responsibility of man. And this parable of the younger son and the older brother emphasize the responsibility of man in salvation. The other two stories, I believe, emphasize more the sovereignty of God in salvation. Sheep and coins, of course, can't repent. So that's why the emphasis is on human responsibility with the two sons. To be saved. How do we be saved? Can we be saved? What are the steps back to God? We've seen the steps away from God. This younger son took. What are the steps back to God? Well, I think they're here. First of all, I've already said it. To be saved, we must wake up to our true condition. Reality has to dawn. Because the reality is most people are under a great misapprehension that all is well with their lives. A lot of people are, to some degree, happy. Even when bad times come, most people will say, well, this will pass. I've lost my job, but I'll get another. The good times will return. To be saved, there has to be a time when reality dawns on you. And this dawned, as I say, on the youngest son in verse 17, when he came to himself and said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger. The first step back to the father is to recognise your need. to recognize your condition. You know, if you read search and rescue advice on Dartmoor Expo, nearly always the first thing or one of the first things that will be said in the advice is, stop, recognize you are lost, stay still. Because the more you keep wandering around, the more lost you get. The first step in being found is to recognize you're lost, to admit to yourself you are lost. And sometimes, I'm good at getting, I got terribly lost on a walk not long ago, and I'm good at getting people lost on walks. And there's a stubbornness, isn't there? And it's, I will find my way back, I'll work it out. And what we do is we get more and more lost. We have to, to say to us, yes, Lord, I'm lost, and I need to be found. The next step on the way back to God, illustrated in the younger brother, was that there was an honest confession of sin. He acknowledged his and says in verse 18, I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me like one of thy hired servants. Reminds me of King David who prayed, against thee the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. That's an essential part of the process of coming back to God, too. You recognize your need, yes, but you have to confess that you're a sinner, that you have sinned, that I have sinned. You can't blame others. You can't blame your upbringing. You can't blame your parents. You can't blame your poverty. You can't blame the famine. You can't blame the pigs. You have to say, I have sinned. And all of us outside of Christ are in fact guilty, whether we admit it or not, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But to be saved, you have to confess yourself that you are the guilty one. I am the guilty one. I am a sinner in need of a savior. I have sinned in the first place against heaven and in thy sight. You know, unless you come to that, you can never be saved. But then there's a third part, and I'm not going to be able to finish all of this today. Then there's this third step in the story of this youngest son, and an aspect of salvation which is so vital. And I wonder whether this is always followed. You see, wallowing in our sin and misery and telling ourselves and others what miserable sinners we are does not get us back to the Father. There's a certain kind of Christian literature which seems to be stuck in that place where religion just seems to be wallowing in my own sin and my own failure and saying what a sinner I am. That doesn't get you saved either. you actually have to return to the father. Verse 20, and he arose and came to his father. That's the bit that so many people never do. He actually left his old life in the faraway country and returned to his father. And have you done that? Have you ever? really come to the Father that loves you. And what will you find if you return to your heavenly Father? You'll find a welcome like the youngest son found a welcome. 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 son didn't even get to finish his prepared speech. He was going to offer himself up as a hired servant. But before he could finish his speech, the father says, bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry. I'm going to close with this and maybe finish the rest of the sermon next time I speak, perhaps. I just want you to get this across before I finish. You only really get saved. This is the message from this parable. You only really get saved. Your sinful heart only really changes in the arms of the father. The younger son had plans to repay his father for all the hurt he had caused. I'll work off my debt. I'll make it up to you by being a hired servant. But in the embrace of a father's forgiving love, he knew that he was a truly forgiven son. I hope you know what I'm talking about. Because this is something that you have to know inside. This is where true repentance happens. The deep, deep repentance of knowing that I am loved with an everlasting love. You see, the repentance wasn't when the younger son said, I'm going to go, I'm going to, I'm fed up with this life and I want to go back to the father. The real repentance happened when he was being embraced by his father. Because in the presence of such love as that, the youngest son felt more vile than he'd ever felt in the pigsty. He felt more dirty in the embrace of the father's love than he had ever done in the field. True repentance occurs in the father's arms. Romans 2.4, the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Salvation is not found in the resolve to put things right. It's not found in a long pilgrimage back to God. It's personally being held in the Father's arms. Knowing a love that will not let me go. knowing a status as a true son or daughter of God, whose inheritance is not things, but God himself. Have you ever known that, dear friends? You can know an awful lot of theology, but not know that. But that's true salvation. This is something the Pharisees knew nothing about. but which the forgiven prostitute, the forgiven tax collector, they knew everything about it because they had much forgiven and they loved much. The Pharisees knew the theory, the sinners knew the person. Being a Christian is not knowing a lot about God, it's about knowing God. Dear friends, I just want to exhort you this morning to come wherever you are, whether you're lost at home or lost far away. Arise and go to the Father. And in his embrace, truly repent. Turn from an old life to a new life in him. I wanted to talk about the great danger of missing out on salvation, which I'll maybe complete next time. But I pray that the Lord will have spoken to our hearts today through his word. In Jesus' name, amen. Feel free to contact us at Sovereign Grace Church in Tiverton. Email us at grace2seekers at gmail.com. That's grace2seekers at gmail.com. Alternatively, you can visit our website at www.sovereigngracereformedchurch.co.uk.