Thank you for your invitation. It's good to renew acquaintances with a number of people that we have known for years and make some connections from long past and make some new connections. I greet you from your brothers and sisters at the Hope Reform Church in Brampton. And some of you know our congregation. Some of you have been connected in the past. Some of you have come and worshipped with us over the course of this past couple of years, it's always good to fellowship together in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I've been privileged over a number of years in my engagement at the ecumenical levels of our churches together to come to know and appreciate the RPCNA very much, have come to know and appreciate Brother Matt Kingswood deeply and Brother Scott Wilkinson and The RPCNA generally is a very kind and generous, gracious group of churches from which we have much to learn. We're a rather young federation of churches, and we seek to honor God, and we rejoice. I rejoice in this opportunity to experience together the privilege of the like and precious faith we share in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. My intention over the opportunities that I will have this weekend to speak to you will be to spend our time in Luke Chapter 15. I invite you to turn with me to Luke Chapter 15. You'll recognize that chapter for its focus on the lost things, the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son. And we are going to be honing in on what the Lord Jesus Christ is revealing to us, particularly in the last component of that threesome, as we focus on the love, the amazing love of God the Father. And I'm of the conviction that we have much more to learn about the deep, deep love of our God and Father in Jesus Christ. We speak of it. regularly, but we haven't begun to understand the depths of it is my conviction, and there's so much more to appreciate. And we'll, of course, only scratch the surface here this evening and in the days to come, but I trust that we'll have our hearts set on the love of God to us in Christ. Luke chapter 15, I'm going to read the whole chapter tonight, and we're going to be returning to this chapter again and again in the course of these addresses I have for you that I have sought to prepare for you. Luke chapter 15 at verse 1. This is the very Word of God. I encourage you to keep your Bibles open if you have them or to have the words before you. We're going to be working our way through the first portion of this third component of this bigger parable that Jesus speaks of that begins at verse 11. And we're going to be seeing how it comes to be fleshed out, particularly coming to sort of the conclusion where we'll rest with this evening at verse 20. So just read verse 20 for you again. He arose and came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, it is indeed a great privilege to seek to speak to you from the word of God with regard to the love of God in Christ, his son, the love of our father. And as I alluded already, it is a common theme among us to speak of the deep, deep love of the Father. But it is also my conviction and my humble confession to you that it is my belief that we have not understood the half of it, or that is to say way too much. It's also my conviction that our Christianity, our witness, our life together as God's people, our church life, would be deeply, deeply blessed if we had a deeper appreciation for the love of God our Father. How do you see God? Do you see Him as Father who loves you deeply? We speak regularly and readily about the grace of God. We speak about the amazing grace of God. And yet again, it is my conviction that we have much to learn about the depths of that grace. And so, I pray that we'll be helped together in our turning to this familiar portion of Scripture. The familiar portion of scripture is known by many of us as the parable of the prodigal son. It's also referred to as the parable of the lost son. Maybe you have read, some of you, a book that came out a number of years ago by author Timothy Keller called The Prodigal God. I see it's on the table in the back. Now when I first saw that title and walked past it, I walked right past it, as perhaps you might be inclined to do. The prodigal God, what are you talking about? I had the same inclination many years before when I first walked past a book called Desiring God, speaking about Christian hedonism. Christian hedonism, what is that all about? Until I picked up these books and was encouraged to do so and realized there is much to be appreciated in them, in this one as well. But prodigal God, what is that all about? Because we perhaps are inclined to say, well, the prodigal son, that's the lost son. And maybe we have thought in our minds, prodigal, that means lost. But it doesn't. It doesn't mean lost. The word prodigal in prodigal son comes out in our translation, the translation at least I read, the ESV in the end of verse 13, We're told that he squandered his property in reckless living, in prodigal living, reckless, riotous, loose living. While we don't want to speak of God as the lost God, we certainly don't want to speak of God as a reckless God. But when we speak of what is reckless here, we speak of something that is, certainly in this young man's case, extravagant and over the top in its sinfulness and riotous looseness, recklessness before God. But the idea of God being a prodigal God is somewhat helpful for us when we understand it in the way of prodigious or extravagant or lavish in the love he lavishes upon us. And that's the thought that I believe needs to come through as we study these things together. Now, I read the whole chapter to have it before us this evening. And the chapter begins with a situation. The Lord Jesus has sat down for dinner. The tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Him. And the Pharisees, we read, and the scribes were grumbling. They couldn't believe it. He eats with sinners. He receives sinners and He eats with them. Can you believe it? They grumbled. But you understand what they were doing. They were grumbling about the gospel. The gospel that Jesus Christ has come into this world to save sinners like you and me. Sinners like the Apostle Paul who says, of those I am the chief, I am the foremost. And I trust we would want to say the same thing. I trust as we have opened this familiar passage together this evening, we would be able to say, as I say and acknowledge to you, I am the prodigal son. And I trust that many of you would also be able to say, I am the older brother, as I can say of myself. And so you need to see that this passage here is not ultimately about the lost things. There is an intensification. I'm just going to cover very quickly to get us to the third part. that you see unfolding before your eyes. The first situation, the first scenario is that shepherd having a hundred sheep and one goes lost. If you have a hundred sheep and one goes lost, that is a pretty significant loss. So we read here, this particular shepherd leaves the ninety and nine and he goes after and he finds that sheep. And when he finds that sheep, he hoists it over his shoulders and he brings it home rejoicing. Jesus ups it a little bit. He ramps it up as he goes further in this explanation. And now he's talking about a woman with ten coins. And now, one of the ten coins has gone lost. One of ten coins. This is of more value, of more concern than one in ninety-nine or one in a hundred sheep. And she sweeps her whole house. And she calls others to help her and she finds the coin and she wants others to come and rejoice with her. And we're told about the joy before the angels in heaven over one sinner who repents. And then finally you come down to two men, two sons, and one goes lost. Or should we say they're both lost? All of that just to get us to the point where we recognize this is something of intense significance. If that one sheep was valuable to that shepherd, if that one coin was valuable to that woman, how valuable these lost sons to a loving father. You see the focus is not the lost son or the grumpy older brother. The focus throughout this whole chapter from beginning to end is the love of the Father, the amazing love of the Father. Now, just to lay it out for you a little bit over the course of the four times we hope to spend together, I want to focus in an introductory way on the first set of verses after verse 11, heading up to about verse 20, on how we see the amazing love of the Father to the wayward son, the amazing love of the Father for wayward sinners, wasteful, wretched, wayward sinners like us. And then we hope to see tomorrow morning the amazing love of the Father in welcoming and receiving sinners. We hope to see the Lord's Day morning, the Lord willing, the amazing love of the Father also for the whining brother or the bitter big brother and the Lord willing Lord's Day evening seeing the amazing love of the Father in all of this in sending the better big brother our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well this evening we want to look at the love of the Father for wayward sinners. And we don't have to look that hard at the unfolding of Jesus' parable here to see the wretchedness, the recklessness of the younger brother. He's wayward. He's wicked. But we again want to see that playing in the background of all of this is the love of the father. I want us to hear that undertone. I want that to be ringing in our ears. I want that to be the thing that that has our hope that our sights remain set on that. So we'll see the amazing love of the father for wayward sinners for his wayward son. We'll see it first of all In the Son's rebellion, in the context of this Son's rebellion, we'll see the love of the Father. It's a wounded love. It's the love of a heart cut to the quick. It's grieving, but it's love, the love of the Father. But we'll see as we go on this evening, the Lord willing, the blessing of the amazing love of the Father in the Son's return. He gets up. and he goes home. And we'll touch a little bit before we close this evening on the amazing love of the Father in the reception of this wayward sinner, receiving his son home again. And we'll flesh that out, Lord willing, more tomorrow. The amazing love of the Father playing in the background. The passage at verse 11 Then he said, there was a man. That's the focus of this whole teaching of Jesus Christ. That's where there is a man, a certain man, His Father. He has to have our attention. Because Jesus is speaking to us of the love of His Father, who so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son. There was a man who had two sons. And then we read right away how this all unfolds. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. Father, gimme. That's what he says. Boys and girls, you know the expression, right? Gimme, gimme, never gets. Don't you know your manners yet? So the younger son goes to his father and says, gimme. Give me what's coming to me. Give me my share of the inheritance. I want it now. I want it for me. I want to do my own thing. I want to be my own person. I want to go my own way. Give it to me. Now you hear the selfishness in the request, don't you? And we ought to appreciate, if we know anything about the love of our Father and the way the Lord Jesus Christ lays this out for us in the parable, there would have been nothing about the Father's love and care for His sons that would have justified this kind of request. Gimme! I want my inheritance now. When do you usually get an inheritance? When dad dies, what's the son saying? Dad, I wish you were dead. Dad, you're as good as dead to me. Dad, I'm not interested in you, I just want your stuff. What we need to appreciate from the way the Lord Jesus Christ is laying out the rebellion of this son, is how this is a picture for us of the rebellion in our own lives. Is that not effectively what sin is? It holds up its fists to the God who made us, who holds us, who holds our breath. Gimme! I wish you were dead. The fool says in his heart there is no God. And that's the way of sin. I just want your stuff. I want life and health and strength. I want possessions. I want a good time. I want to eat, drink, and be merry. But I don't want you. I want you dead. So the father gives the son what he asks. Now, be careful to appreciate this story is not about a soft, lazy, indulgent father. This story is about what sinners like us get when we ask for what we think we deserve. And the father gives them over. But I want you to understand as well that this Father has done so in great love. You can understand the grief on the heart of this Father, this wounded love of the Father. His son, not many days later as he receives his inheritance, and I should mention, there are two sons. This is the younger of the two. You could imagine and understand from Old Testament teaching that his son would have received one-third of the inheritance because the older brother, the firstborn, would have received the double portion. It's divided. The elder gets the one-third and the younger the one-third. Did I say that right? Two-thirds to the older brother, one-third to the younger. What does he do? He goes off to a far country. I'm out of here. I'm out of here. In the context of Jesus speaking this parable to those who were recipients of the covenants and promises, going to a far country is tantamount to leaving the privileges of the promised land. It's like leaving the fellowship of the church, the fellowship of God's people, It's like going your own way. It's getting as far away from God as you possibly can. And again, a picture for us of the reality of our sinfulness. I just want you dead. I just want you out of here. I'm not interested in being anywhere near your loving gaze. So he goes to a far country and he squandered his property in reckless living. He wastes it all. And this is the way of sin, the deceitfulness of sin. It's like a black hole that sucks you in. One follows another. And He wastes it all in reckless living. He scratched every itch in wild parties and with prostitutes. We could imagine in terms of the way Jesus lays out the story for us. Anything that was worth trying, He did. And He blew it. He blew everything. When He'd spent everything, we read in verse 14, a severe famine arose in that country. Now again, in the context of the whole Bible, context of the Old Testament upon which the hearers of Jesus would have been standing, you need to know something about when famines are mentioned We're being told here, that's not good. Famine, as Deuteronomy chapter 28 tells us, is something you can expect when God is not honored. This is not the way of blessing. This is the way of the covenant curse. This is the absence of God. Maybe boys and girls, you know the story of Ruth, the book of Ruth, and of Naomi and Elimelech who were in Bethlehem. They lived in Bethlehem in the promised land. Bethlehem means what? The house of bread. What was going on at the beginning of the book of Ruth? There was a famine in the land. A famine there at the house of bread. Why was that? God's people were living in reckless, sinful disobedience. There was a famine in the land. Now there's a famine. He'd squandered everything and now there's a famine. So you'd think, you'd think at this point he would say, I need to go home. But he doesn't. He doesn't. Verse 15, he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the fields, his fields to feed pigs. Pigs. Stinking pigs. No offense if there are any pig farmers here. It's a perfectly legitimate occupation in this New Testament era. But this wasn't yet that time when this was written. Peter had not yet seen the big screen come down from from heaven in Acts chapter 10 with all of the animals on it and being told take up and eat. Don't call what I call clean unclean. Which of course has to do with the gospel going to all the nations as well. But he was there feeding pigs. He hired himself out to a citizen of that country. Just another picture of the deceitfulness and the sinfulness of sin and the wicked web, the deep pit, the black hole it becomes. And his first inclination after all is said and done, after all is gone, he's squandered everything, there's nothing left, all of his partying had squandered everything that he had, he says, well, I'll fix it myself. And he hires himself out to a citizen of that country. Literally, he joins himself, he glues himself, he binds himself to a citizen of that country. That's like a covenant commitment. That's effectively like saying, this is where my life comes from. This is the life. But it was no life. He had made for himself with all that he had amassed to himself for himself in a sinful, selfish way. He had tried to create for himself a place he could call home, a place where he could really live. But this is no home and he's not living. He's dying. He's feeding pigs and he's to the point where he wishes He could eat of the pods of the pigs and he doesn't even get that. Look at how verse 16 ends. And no one gave him anything. And here is again a graphic picture of what Jesus is teaching us about the reality of sin and where it leads. And I hope Is there any of us here who are living in sin at a far distance, in a far country from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Or I hope that any of us who have any sort of appreciation for what we've been saved from, or I hope that all of us who have a strong desire to see those who are in a far country, at a far distance from God, brought to the knowledge of this Savior, I hope this language rings in your ears. No one gave Him anything. That speaks to us of the reality of the emptiness that we're left with if we seek to go it on our own, if we seek to do it our own way, if we seek to live apart from God. A life apart from God is death. No one gave Him anything. Imagine all the friends that partied with Him. Spent his money. Now he's got nothing. No one gave him anything. The way of the transgressor is hard. The way of sin leads to death. There's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads only to death. This is the rebellion of the Son, and this is where it leads Him. Remember. Remember. When He was sent out, you could just imagine the Father who had doled out His inheritance to His Son, allowed His Son to leave with tears. You could imagine as well that there wasn't smashing of doors, there wasn't a yelling at him, if you leave now, you rotten son of mine, don't you ever set foot in this house again. The son, in his reckless emptiness, Here's the love of the Father playing in the background. It's what he remembers. Let's come to that. The second thing that we see here is the amazing love of the Father in the return of the Son. He's going to go home. As he recognizes the emptiness he's been left with as a result of all his own decisions, We read in verse 17, he came to himself. He came to his senses. Other translations have said he came to the realization, you could say, you know what? It's me. I'm the problem. I'm the issue. And he's thinking about these things because he can't get his father out of his head. The father who had done nothing but love him. How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I'm dying here. Literally, what you could hear that he has said here when he says, I perish here, I'm dying here, is I have destroyed myself. I've done it. He came to his senses. This is what I've done. I've destroyed myself. I'm finished. I will arise and I will go to my father. Why do you think he came to that conclusion? That he should go home. Now again, this is not about a lazy, soft, indulgent father who enables his son. And the idea is not, I'll go back to Dad and see if he's got more money I can waste. No, I'm going to go back and I'm going to confess, I've destroyed myself. I've sinned against you, Father. I've sinned against heaven. I'm not worthy to be your servant. He's going home. That's a good description for us of repentance, isn't it? You turn around from the way of sin into far country and you return, you go home to Father. It's what He's going to do. And the whole passage, if it's about the love of the Father, is about the love of the Father and the joy that He has in the repentance of sinners. And so there is a strong emphasis, isn't there, on repentance. He's going home repentant. then we ought to be encouraged about that repentance. In the way that we've seen it, it's me. I've destroyed myself. Father, I've sinned against you. It's sin. Father, I've sinned against heaven. I am not worthy. And that's the way that he's going to go home. Why do you think he can do it? because the love of the father has been playing in the background. The love of the father is what he's been left with. He could have seen the wounded love in his father's eyes as he turned tail and went off to a far country. But he knows, because of the love of this father, that he can go home. Now this parable about the love of the father is not so much about our needing to be good fathers like he's a good father in heaven, but our thinking about this father in the beauty of his love and graciousness and loyalty and faithfulness to all that he's promised should teach us a thing or two about being parents, about the way life ought to go in our homes, about the way life should go in the church, There ought to be that sense of grace that abounds. There ought to be that sense among our children, among the community of our churches, and among our neighbors who don't know the Lord yet. You can come home. You can come home. Have you messed up severely? You can come home. I don't know if I speak to anyone who can identify with this in particular, but certainly many of us have had these thoughts over the course of our lives. I have ruined everything. I've been such a jerk. I've gone so far. I'm living in such sin and the message here by virtue of the love of the Father is, you can come home. Maybe it's kind of like we would say to our children, if you get drunk, you can come home. Give me a call, I'll pick you up. Don't drive. Now that's not enabling them. That's not suggesting go and get drunk. But the grace of God ought to be that which is oozing from us. There's room for sinners. There's always room for sinners to come home. Have you had an abortion? You can come home. Whatever it is you fill in the blank, and whatever it is perhaps you're struggling with, I don't care what you've done. I don't care where you were last night. I don't care what it is you've been struggling with. The love of the Father, the kindness of the Father is this. The Lord Jesus speaks of it. All those who come to me I will in no wise cast out. Come home. This is the love this son knew about. Do our kids know that from us in our homes? Do we know that of one another in our churches? Are our neighbors hearing that from us? You can come home. Because that's what the love of the Father is like. So the Father is on the mind of this son, and that's interesting, isn't it? Because he wanted nothing more than to get away from dad. To go to a far country, effectively having said, I want you dead. But he won't get away from the father's love. He can't stop thinking about the father. He said at verse 18, I will arise and go to father. At verse 20, and so he arose. He came to his Father. You have to imagine again the way the Lord Jesus is laying this out, this teaching, this parable. So we're working to our third point this evening, the amazing love of the Father and the reception of the Son. The Son, He's put it all together. It's like he's on his way and every step of the way he's rehearsing his speech. Father, I've sinned. Father, I've destroyed myself. I've sinned against you and against heaven. I'm not worthy to be your servant. Please treat me as a hired servant. Father, I've sinned. Father, I've destroyed myself. Father, I've sinned against you and against heaven. Again and again he rehearses his speech. Now I mentioned that in this passage there is an emphasis on repentance. And this is not ultimately about a lazy soft indulgent father. And that without repentance there is no coming to the father. But let me do something that you may find a little odd. And let's look a little further at his repentance and ask the question, was there anything wrong with his repentance? Why did he go home in the first place? We have already said it was something about the love of the Father that was compelling him. Thanks be to God. Yes, indeed. Romans 2 verse 4. It's your kindness that leads us to repentance. I believe your Westminster standards speak to us about how repentance begins with an apprehension of mercy. You know you're going to get mercy. But if we look at This son, can we not also say, well, he had an empty belly. He needed resources. He had an empty wallet. He needed stuff. True enough. He's acknowledging that he's a sinner. Yes. He's going with an apprehension of the love of his father Is He going in love for His Father? Or is He going with a full understanding? He still has a pretty low view of His Father, doesn't He? I'll fix it, Dad. I'll pay you back. I'll be one of your servants. He has no idea, does He, how deep is the love of His Father. His Father doesn't want Him as a servant. He wants Him as His Son. So I would submit to you that though his repentance was true, it wasn't perfect. And why would I spend time saying that? Would you say, why would you pick on this poor guy's repentance? Are you suggesting we should send him back? Well, that's not what happens, is it? The Father doesn't send him back. The Father receives him with open arms. But let me ask you, How deep is your repentance? How deep is your understanding of how much your sin hurts your God and Father? And I would submit to you it's not deep enough. What am I saying? You're not a Christian? Absolutely not. What I'm saying is, if we would get turned in on ourselves saying, is my repentance good enough? Is my repentance strong enough? We're looking in the wrong place. We're not saved by the merit of our repentance as though it were a work we offered to God. The repentance of this younger son was true repentance. It wasn't perfect, but it was true because it was looking to the Father. And so while the Son is trotting along, trudging every step of the way, not knowing exactly what He's going to get, because He doesn't know the depth of the Father's love, rehearsing His speech, I've sinned, I've sinned against you, I've sinned against heaven, I'm not worthy. He's rehearsing His speech. But as He's doing so with His head down, there is the Father who sees Him in a distance. From a long way off, He sees Him. He's been looking for Him. He's been longing for Him because He loves Him. Now, again, you may think this little analogy a little strange. I just can't help it as I come out to this part of the world feeling almost back home again, also thinking about time spent here around lakes, here in this area at the cottage of my parents, and a time when we brought our dog there. Our dog is named Bronte. Bronte's a bit of a pain. But when we brought Bronte to the cottage, And we left her at the cottage for a while. We noticed that when we went up the hill and over into the dale, we looked behind and there was Bronte sitting diligently, loyally, faithfully, watching us go. We were gone for like eight hours. We came home eight hours later, up over the hill, crested the hill, And there was Bronte sitting, waiting for us to come back. Did she stay there the whole time? Probably not. But she had an eye out for us because of her loyalty, because of her faithfulness. We're speaking about the covenant loyalty that has said the loving kindness of our God. Now, it's a strange illustration. God is far better than a puppy. But he's faithful, and he's loving, and he's been looking, and he's been longing for his son to come home. And his son finally sees him, and his dad runs to him and embraces him, and his son is about to utter his rehearsed speech, and the father says, And that's what I'm talking about in terms of if we get turned in on ourselves. Is my repentance strong enough? God is not asking you to impress Him with your repentance. He's asking you to come to Him for your salvation. Stop looking at yourself and look to Me. We'll delve a little further into the way the Father receives the Son. puts the best robe on him, puts sandals on his feet, puts a ring on his finger, kills the fatted calf. What is he saying? I don't want you to be my slave. I want you. I want you to be my son. You are my son. What manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God. That's what he wants. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He delights in mercy. Is that your sense of the fatherhood of God? Is that the message you have for the world? Is that the way we live out of that love? Is that expressed in the way we love one another? What a loving God. What a gracious God to encourage us in that. Let's pray.