God's Lost and Found Department

Oftentimes people come to me and say, now Spurgeon... You hold off now. Have you read Spurgeon? Well, a little bit. You ever read The Life of Spurgeon? Well, you see, I'm a student of Spurgeon.

And Mr. Spurgeon would not permit in his church a one-sided theology. You see, my friends, there are two sides to salvation. There's God's part.

God initiates it. It's God who loves. It's God who sent his son.

It's God who made the gospel possible. It's God who sends out the call. But God has given to us the privilege of responding.

And the prodigal son said, I will arise and go. Would you believe it? He made a response.

I'm going to read all 32 verses of Luke chapter 15. Then drew near unto him all the tax collectors and sinners to hear him.

And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. And he spoke this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.

I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Either what woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it. And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost.

Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. And he said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

And not many days after that, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And 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 unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But 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 said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring the fatted calf 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. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field.

And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.

And he was angry and would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment.

And yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

It was fitting that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found. The word prodigal means wasteful. It can be used in a good sense or in a bad sense.

In a good sense, God is prodigal. God gives prodigiously. Do you ever stop to think of the millions of flowers that bloom that nobody ever sees, off in mountain places and off in places that nobody ever visits? Here are millions and millions of beautiful things nobody ever sees.

Out there in the universe are billions upon billions of stars that we can't even see. God is prodigious. God is prodigal as he bestows his blessings.

But the word prodigal can also be used in a bad sense of wasting what God does give to us. That's what it means here. He wasted his substance with riotous living.

Now, as I read this chapter, you realize, of course, that all of these stories hang together. The Lord Jesus gave three stories, but they really make up one story. And for several Sunday evenings, we'd like to look into these stories and the story of the prodigal son, in particular, to learn what the Lord might have for us in this business of Christian living.

Someone says, well, pastor, you ought to take that passage and read it in the rescue mission. Well, it's good for the church as well, because there's a lot in here that we need to learn as believers. And certainly there's a lot here that the unbeliever needs to learn.

Now, as you survey this chapter, you make some interesting discoveries. And I want to share some of these discoveries with you tonight by way of preparation for this series. First of all, you discover from this chapter that there's only one message of salvation.

There are not five messages of salvation. There's only one message of salvation. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ was criticized for being friendly with sinners.

You notice that? Then drew near unto him, unto Jesus, all the tax collectors and sinners to hear him. Here is a remarkable thing. Over on this corner, we have the Lord Jesus surrounded by the scum of the earth.

The publicans, of course, were Jews who had sold their souls to Rome. The sinners, of course, were Jewish people who were not keeping the law. They weren't keeping the Pharisaical traditions.

And here they were listening to Jesus. Over on this corner were the scribes and the Pharisees pointing and saying, look at him. He thinks he's somebody important.

Look at him. The publicans and sinners come to hear him. Somehow we have the idea that a man's worth is determined by the kind of people who come to listen to him.

To some degree, this may be true. But our Lord Jesus Christ is in direct contrast to the Pharisees. Because in this chapter, there's only one message of salvation.

That message is that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. That's the whole theme of this chapter. The lost sheep, he came to save.

The lost coin, the lost son, the lost son who stayed home, he came to save. For example, I noticed that Jesus attracted the sinners and the Pharisees repelled them. We aren't told here that the publicans and the sinners said, oh, let's go listen to the scribes and Pharisees.

They stayed away from the scribes and Pharisees. But when it came to the Lord Jesus Christ, the publicans and sinners were attracted to him. Somehow in the church today, we have the idea that the more you become like the Lord Jesus, the less sinners want to have to do with you.

And my friend, that's not true. I notice in my Bible that the people who needed salvation were attracted to Jesus Christ. Now, this doesn't mean that unsaved people understand what we stand for or that they even agree with it.

But I'm inclined to believe that the more we become like the Lord Jesus Christ, the more we are going to attract the kind of people who need what we have to offer. You see, we're the salt of the earth and salt makes people thirsty. We're the light of the world and light guides people.

We have in our churches today a false view of separation. Let me make it very clear that Jesus was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. But separation is not isolation.

And too many Christians today have the idea that the holier you become and the more spiritual you become, the more you isolate yourself and insulate yourself from a lost world. And my friends, this is not true. I think that sometimes we evangelical Christians use separation as an excuse not to get involved.

We don't want to get involved with lost sinners. In fact, some Christians are at the point where they just hate lost sinners. They're like Jonah sitting outside the city waiting for God to condemn them.

The Lord Jesus Christ, when he was here on earth, attracted the sinners, but the cold, heartless Pharisees repelled them. I notice a second contrast here. Jesus understood these sinners.

The Pharisees criticized them. See, the Pharisees looked in the outward appearance. We do this.

Let's be very honest about it. When strangers walk into Moody Church and we look them over, we go by the outward appearance. I've had people complain to me because of folks who have come in because of the way they dress, as though we should stand at the door and say, I'm sorry, you can't come into Moody Church.

You aren't dressed properly. Or the length of hair. Or the absence or the presence of a beard.

Or perhaps they've had a little bit of alcohol. Now, of course, we don't want anybody to come in here and upset the services. But I've noticed there's been a sign out in front of the Moody Church ever since Mr. Moody established the church that says, always welcome to this house of God are strangers and the poor.

But sometimes we let them feel very strange. We won't have anything to do with them because we look at the outward appearance. You see, when Jesus looked at these people, he didn't look at the outward appearance.

He saw the heart. He didn't look at their past. He saw their future.

He saw what Matthew, the publican, could become. He saw what Peter, the fisherman, could become. He saw what Zacchaeus, the crooked politician, could become.

And so when these people flocked around him, the Lord Jesus didn't deal with them on the basis of their past. Do you want the Lord to deal with you on the basis of your past? I don't think you do. No, the Lord Jesus dealt with them on the basis of their future, what they could become.

I don't know how many of you have read a good biography of Mr. Moody, one that deals with the early days of the Illinois Street Church and the other ministries that Mr. Moody established. But I tell you, he got around him a motley crew of people. Here's some former drunk who'd get saved and Moody would hand him a stack of tracts and say, go out there and pass out tracts.

We'd keep him on ice for six or eight years. Mr. Moody doesn't do that. Jesus didn't do that.

He led someone to salvation. He said, now go on off and start witnessing, start serving. Jesus attracted them because he saw their potential.

The Pharisees repelled them because they didn't fit into their preconceived molds. Jesus loved them. The Pharisees despised them.

There was just no question about it. The Pharisees looked down their nose at this riffraff and said, we want nothing to do with them. Remember the story Jesus told that must have made somebody angry.

Behold, two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee prayed thus with himself saying, oh God, I thank you. I'm not like other men.

I fast twice a week and I give alms of all that I possess. I'm not like this publican here. That was the attitude of the Pharisees, holier than thou.

The Pharisees despised sinners. Jesus loved them. And I would think that the more you and I become like the Lord Jesus Christ, the more we would attract them, the more we would understand them, and the more we'd love them.

Something else I noticed, Jesus forgave them. The Pharisees condemned them. You know, it's not my job to condemn anybody.

It's not my responsibility, my privilege, or my prerogative to condemn anybody. Only God can do this. My responsibility and privilege is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, to let them know that they can be saved, to forgive.

You see, the elder brother in this story is the Pharisee. The prodigal son is the publican. Doesn't take much training to know that.

And here's the elder brother. If you want to know what a Pharisee is like, just read what the elder brother did. He wouldn't go in.

I don't want to touch him. He hung all of his dirty linen out in public. This thy son, not even my brother, thy son, he's wasted your inheritance with harlots.

That's the Pharisee condemning, repelling, despising, criticizing. But here's the Lord Jesus attracting, understanding, loving, and forgiving. I think sometimes we need to spend a little more time in the book of Acts to find out the kind of people that made up the early church.

I hear pastors who say, oh, I wish I had more of the upper class in my church. Wasn't much upper class in the early church. They perceived that they were ignorant and unlearned men.

Silver and gold have I none. You see, the ideal church, the New Testament church, has every class, upper, middle, lower, whatever that may mean, because the church is a family of God's people. There's one message of salvation here, and that one message is this.

Jesus loves sinners. Jesus died for sinners. Jesus invites sinners.

Jesus understands sinners, and Jesus forgives sinners. There's one message of salvation. Secondly, there are two aspects of salvation in this chapter.

If you take the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin, you get one side of salvation, what God does. The lost sheep, the shepherd went out and searched for the one sheep. The sheep could not find his way back home.

The lost coin, the woman got the light and searched until she found the coin. Each of these parables illustrates for us God's side of salvation. It is God who searches.

It is God who finds. It is God who values. But if you stop there, you'd get the idea that salvation is only from God's point of view.

Now, we have some of that today. The young theologians, who always know much more than the old theologians, like to get together and discuss this matter of predestination, election, free will, human responsibility, and it's good to discuss these things. But I have seen whole denominations and churches have their evangelistic and missionary zeal completely ruined by a one-sided theology.

Oftentimes, people come to me and say, now Spurgeon, you hold off now. Have you read Spurgeon? Well, a little bit. You ever read the Life of Spurgeon? Well, see, I'm a student of Spurgeon.

And Mr. Spurgeon would not permit in his church a one-sided theology. There are some people who have the idea that God does everything and man does not have to respond. But you better move into the last parable, the parable of the prodigal son.

The father didn't go searching for the boy. The boy said, I'm miserable. I used to be sick of home and now I'm homesick.

I'm hungry. These pigs are in better shape than I am. They got something to eat.

Nobody's feeding me. I will arise and go. And at that point, some theologians say, shh, don't say that.

You never say I will. Jesus said it. You see, my friends, there are two sides to salvation.

There's God's part. God initiates it. It's God who loves.

It's God who sent his son. It's God who made the gospel possible. It's God who sends out the call.

But God has given to us the privilege of responding. And the prodigal son said, I will arise and go. Would you believe it? He made a response.

To what? To the love of his father. Sitting out there in the far country, the prodigal son said, you know what? My father is a good father. The servants at home are in better shape than I am.

It's the goodness of God that leads people to repentance. What made him repent? My father is a good man. My father is generous and kind.

What is it that should make sinners repent? The goodness of God. Paul tells us that in Romans. It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.

Now, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation begins with the Lord. He's the Alpha.

Salvation ends with the Lord. He's the Omega. But God has ordained that men shall respond to his call.

Jesus said, how oft and ye would not. Now, let's not have an unbalanced theology. There are those who so emphasize the human side of the of salvation that it looks as though you're saved by human works.

No, there are those who so emphasize the divine side that God does everything and man just sits there like a robot. No. My Bible puts the two of them together.

All that the father giveth me shall come to me, said Jesus. That's God's part. But don't stop there.

And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. That's man's part. They're all in the same verse.

John 6, 37. So you have two aspects of salvation here. Our God is the God who seeks the sinner.

Our God is the God who searches. Our God is the God who lovingly waits. And when the sinner begins to move, he runs and meets him more than halfway.

But God has ordained that men shall respond to his gospel. This is why over and over again you find the apostles saying, repent, believe, repent, believe. They weren't talking to dead posts.

They were talking to people with minds to think with and hearts to feel with and wills to decide with. Now, you and I know that salvation is something like, I guess, something like getting married. You make a choice, then you discover you've been chosen.

Dr. Ironside used to say salvation is like standing outside of a great big door that says, whosoever will, let him come. You say, well, I'm a whosoever, so I'll come. And you walk in, turn around, and it says, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

You see, as far as God the Father is concerned, I was saved when he chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world. That didn't save me. As far as God the Son is concerned, I was saved when he died for me on the cross, but he died for the whole world.

As far as God the Holy Spirit is concerned, I was saved when on May the 12th, 1945, at about 20 after eight in the evening, I responded to the call of Jesus Christ. And when I said yes to Jesus Christ, all three came together. So there are two aspects to salvation, the human and the divine.

It begins with God, it ends with God, but God has ordained that men shall respond to his gospel. Now, you try to explain that and you may lose your mind, but you try to explain it away, you may lose your soul. I'm glad that there's some things that God knows that I don't.

There's one message of salvation, there are two aspects to salvation. There are three pictures of salvation in this chapter. I'm going to ramble just a little bit and then come back if you'll let me.

I was preaching at Word of Life up at Scroon Lake some years ago, and they asked me to speak one evening to a group of college students who were there. And so we gathered together in one of the buildings and I thought I'd talk to them about the Prodigal Son. And I said to them, if you were going to name the three men in secular history whose ideas have most affected society, what three men would you name? These were a smart bunch of kids, and they pondered, and one of them put his hand up and said, Charles Darwin.

I said, I think that's true. Charles Darwin came up with the theory. Anybody else? And the girl raised her hand and said, Sigmund Freud.

I said, you're probably right, because Freud was the founder and the father of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, and our educational system today is based on this, whether we like it or not. Many things are based upon this, even though we don't agree with it. Here are three men, and you named them.

I didn't. You named them. Charles Darwin, organic evolution.

Karl Marx, economics, communism. Sigmund Freud, psychiatry. I said, if you had to put in one word what each of these men said about mankind, what would you say? And we came up with this conclusion.

Darwin would say man is an animal. Karl Marx would say man is an economic factor. Freud would say man is a spoiled brat.

And I said, you know, the interesting thing is Jesus said this 2,000 years ago. He said man is an animal, a lost sheep. Man is an economic factor, a lost coin.

Man is a spoiled brat, a lost son. And then we dove into Luke 15 and began to examine some of these things. You see, Jesus is always ahead of everybody else.

The next time you talk to a Darwinian, you say, sure, I have no problem with that. Man's an animal. As long as he doesn't know Jesus as his savior, yeah, he's a lost animal.

He's a sheep. The next time you talk to a Marxian, you say, no problem at all. Man's an economic factor.

He's like a coin. He has the image of God stamped on him. Just as Caesar took and stamped his image on his coins.

Sure, man's like an economic factor. He's got the image of God stamped on him. That's what makes him valuable.

Next time you talk to a psychiatrist, say I have no problem with that. Man is a runaway son. Man is a rebel.

Man is a spoiled brat. Jesus said he was a prodigal son. You see, we have here three pictures of salvation, and they answer the question, what is man? A lost sheep, a lost coin with God's image on it, a lost son.

This doesn't mean that Jesus agrees with either evolution or communism or that he agrees with Freudian psychology. It simply means that he's using the same pictures that men have borrowed. So the next time you see somebody who's not a Christian, some unbeliever, you don't look at him and say, oh, you know, he's a lost sheep.

Somebody's got to find him. He's a lost coin. Somebody's got to rescue him.

A lost son. Somebody's got to love him back home again. These three pictures answer the question, what is man? They also answer the question, what is sin? Over and over again in this chapter, lost, found, lost, found, lost.

What's it mean to be lost? Now, a little child would say, well, to be lost would mean you don't know where you are. And there's a lot of truth to that. What did it mean for the sheep to be lost? It meant that he was out of the place of safety.

That's what it means to be lost, in the place of danger. And so anybody here who's never been born again, you're in the place of danger, like the lost sheep. What's it mean to be lost? Well, like the coin, it means to be out of service.

Here's a coin, and this coin has the image of the emperor on it. Okay, here is a human being with the image of God. The coin is lost.

The image has been lost. And when a coin is lost, it's out of circulation. It's doing nobody any good.

When a soul is lost, it's out of circulation. It's doing nobody any good. Psalm 1 compares the unsaved person to chaff.

He shall be like the chaff, which the wind driveth away. What's it mean to be lost? Well, the lost son, away from the place of love and blessing. You see, the sheep was away from the flock in danger.

The coin was away from the necklace that the woman wore around her neck, out of the place of safety, out of the place of usefulness. The son was away from the family, out of the place of love, out of the place where he could grow and become all that he ought to become. This is the tragedy of being lost.

I think sometimes we evangelical Christians don't feel the heartbeat of what it means for people to be lost. We see missionary pictures and we say, oh, those terrible people, they're lost. They're just as many lost people in Chicago as there are down there.

The difference is up here, they've had more light and therefore they're going to have more judgment. It's a terrible thing to be lost, to be away from the place of service, away from the place of safety, away from the place of satisfaction. These three pictures also answer the question, why are people lost? You ever ask yourself the question, why are people lost? Why would anybody in the city of Chicago with gospel preaching churches, religious radio, religious publishers, people passing out tracts, you can walk in the drugstore or the dime store and buy a Bible, or if you don't want to buy it, somebody will give you one.

Why are people lost? Why was the sheep lost? Thoughtlessness. The sheep are stupid. And when a sheep gets away from the flock and the shepherd, he just stupidly keeps going.

Sheep are dumb. You know why people are lost? They're dumb. They really are.

They're lost because of thoughtlessness. They just wander away. Why was the coin lost? Carelessness.

By the way, I want to point out to you that the coin was lost because of the carelessness of another at home. I wonder how many souls are lost at home because of the carelessness of a mother or a dad or a big brother or sister. And so the sheep was lost because of thoughtlessness, stupidity.

The coin was lost because of carelessness. The son was lost because of willfulness. Father, give me.

I'm going to the far country. Where is the far country? Anyplace out of God's love, out of God's will. The far country was in this boy's heart long before he ever left home.

But he was lost because of willfulness. And I have met sinners who have been lost because of stupidity, thoughtlessness. I've met sinners who have been lost because of carelessness.

I've met sinners who have been lost because of willfulness, and they're out away from the place of safety. And we have to do something about it. These three pictures also answer the question, what does God do for the lost? Here's a lost sheep, here's a lost coin, here's a lost son.

What's God going to do about that? Well, of course, ultimately, he sent his son to die. But immediately, what does he do? The shepherd goes and seeks the sheep. I wonder if this isn't a picture of God the son.

He said, I'm the good shepherd. When Mr. Moody went over to England to preach, he took Mr. Sankey with him, with his little organ. We have one of Sankey's organs there in Woolley Hall.

And the dear Scottish people called this his chest full of whistles. And of course, the Scottish people did not allow many of the musical instruments in their churches. And they were greatly offended when Mr. Sankey sat down at his organ and began to sing.

You remember that night when Mr. Moody preached on the good shepherd, and he turned to Sankey and said, sing something appropriate. And he wrote as he sang the ninety and nine. One of the great stories in history, in church history, he propped up the poem.

He'd cut out the newspaper and began to sing. There were ninety and nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fool. But one was lost in the fields away, away from the gates of gold.

But none of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed, or how dark was the night that the Lord passed through, ere he found his sheep that was lost. This shepherd going out for the sheep is Jesus. I like the way he says he put the sheep on his shoulders, plural.

He got the front legs here and the back legs here and he held on to him. Because he wasn't going to get away again. Jesus, the son, God, the son goes to seek the lost sheep.

I think that the woman in the house with the light is a picture of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God takes the word of God and goes looking for the lost. And of course, in the prodigal son, the father is a picture of God the Father, who runs to welcome the sinner when he comes home.

The Pharisees had nothing they could do for a repentant sinner. But when God the Father sees a repentant sinner coming, he runs and welcomes him. So God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are in one business tonight.

The business of seeking and saving the lost. If we are in any other business, we're not in God's business. Which leads me to the fourth discovery in this chapter.

And you've been very patient with me. There's one message of salvation. There are two aspects to salvation.

Man's part in God's. Man responding to God's invitation. There are three pictures of salvation and there are four joys of salvation.

I'll just name them for you. This whole chapter is full of joy. Because the happiest people in the world are people who win souls to Christ.

Now, I don't believe everybody has the same gift of soul winning. I want to go on record as saying that some of my friends say, if you haven't personally won someone to the Lord at least once a week, you're backslidden. Well, they can say that I can't find scripture for that.

Everybody ought to be a witness. Don't you think so? Each one of us ought to be a witness. And those who do have that special ability, that gift, they've developed it with God's help of leading people to Christ.

They ought to use it. But not everybody has that. In fact, we had one man in one of my church.

I used to beg him not to go out witnessing. Everybody he called on quit coming to church. That's right.

I begged him, please don't, please don't go visiting. But everybody ought to be a witness. We can all be praying for souls.

It doesn't take much skill to hand somebody a tract in love or to say a word for the Lord. But I notice there are four joys here that are involved in salvation. First, there's the joy of the finder.

In verses five and nine, when he found the sheep, he rejoiced. When she found the coin, she rejoiced. When the son came home, no longer lost, but found, they rejoiced.

The joy of the finder. I remember when I was pastoring back at Calvary in Covington, we were going through a building program and it was rough. As you folks know, I can't even read a blueprint, let alone build a building.

Fortunately, we had marvelous people, as we do here, who could handle all of that. Oh, it was rough. I don't know why it is that when a church family starts to build a building, it just opens up all the problems that people have.

And there were some days I was just thoroughly discouraged. I remember sitting down one day with the architect and with the engineer and we had some problems and I was just ready to throw in the towel and the trowel and everything else. I went to the hospital to make some hospital visits because I've learned that when you're discouraged, go out and do something for somebody.

If you sit and look in the mirror and nourish yourself and feed all your self-pity, the devil will move in. So I'm going to go to the hospital to visit some people, visit a young man. As I was walking out of the hospital room, feeling a little better but still somewhat discouraged, I saw a young teenager lying in the bed.

I said, hi, how are you doing? He said, I'm not so good. I said, what's your name? He said, Daniel. Well, of course, there's your opportunity right here.

I said, that's a good Bible name. You know what it means? He said, no. I said, it means God is my judge.

And I said, are you like Daniel in the Bible? He said, boy, I'm not like anybody in the Bible. And I had the privilege of leading that kid to Christ. Right there, you know, it was just a beautiful thing.

The Lord prepared the way and led him to the Lord, you know, and I want you to know something. When I walked out of that hospital, I didn't care about the building. I didn't care about the architect.

I didn't care about that. I was on cloud nine. You know why? I had the joy of a finder.

I'd found a lost sheep and helped to bring him home. That's a great joy. There's the joy of the finder.

There's also here the joy of the found. Now, that sheep was very happy to be found. Sheep are stupid.

He was about ready to go over into that precipice, you know, and here comes the shepherd and gets him. That sheep was happy to be back in the fold again. That shepherd poured the oil on the sheep's snout and on his eyes and washed, took away all the little stickers and he took care of all the wounds.

That sheep was glad to be found. If that coin could have spoken, it would have said, praise the Lord, I'm found. Man, I want to be out in circulation.

I want to do some good in this. I'm not going to lie here under the phonograph, you know, I want to be found. And certainly that son was glad to be found.

Oh, the joy of the found. I noticed thirdly, the joy of the friends. Every time they found it, they said, come on and share with us.

What do you share with people? I know what some church members share, complaints and criticisms. I don't want to be the kind of a person that people find it easy to spread gossip with. Now, if you find that you're attracting that kind of thing, be careful.

Be careful. What do you share with others? When they, when the shepherd found the sheep, he got, he said, come on over and rejoice. I found my sheep.

It's only one. Ah, but one is important. The girl, the lady found her coin.

Rejoice with me. Boy, they had a coffee clutch there and she'd bake some pies and they rejoiced. And of course, when the son came home, this made all the difference in the world.

The father said, Hey, let's, let's get the string band out here and get some books and some, some music. And let's just rejoice the joy of the friends. Do you share with others? The joy of sharing Christ.

There's a fourth joy here. I noticed there's a joy up in heaven. Verse seven and verse 10.

There's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one center that repents there's joy in heaven. Uh, why would the angels rejoice when a center gets saved? They've never experienced God's grace. Ooh, the angels rejoice when a center gets saved because they know what we were created for.

When man fell, the angels knew how great a fall that was. And they rejoice to see that we're back where we ought to be. They know what we were saved from angels know what hell is like.

They've not been there, but some of their kind have been condemned to that. And so the angels rejoice because they know what we've been saved from and what we've been created for and what we're saved to. They, they see the face of God.

They share in the enjoyment of the glory of God. They hear the praises, the harmonies of heaven, and they know that we're going to be there someday. No wonder they rejoice.

I think another reason they rejoice is they see the joy of the Lord Jesus. Hebrews chapter 12, verse two says about Jesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. So every time we win someone to Christ, there's the joy of the finder and there's the joy of the found and there's the joy of the friends and there's the joy of heaven, the angels and the Lord Jesus rejoicing.

I may be wrong, but there's only one person in this whole chapter who's not happy. That's the elder brother. He's the only one that's not happy.

He's mad. He's angry. He's standing there with a good evangelical scowl on his face and he doesn't want to go in.

He wants to stay outside. See, he wasn't even looking for his brother to come home. He didn't want him to come home.

I'm going to have occasion during these evenings to talk a little more about this fellow because he has a tendency to show us ourselves. He knew everybody else's sin, didn't know his own. The sad thing was he missed the joy of the whole thing.

Well, it's a terrible thing to be lost. It's a wonderful thing to be found. There's only one message of salvation.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, sinners, not righteous people, sinners. You know why Jesus didn't come to save righteous people. There weren't any.

There are two aspects to salvation. God purchases it, God plans it, and God presents it, and God's spirit works in your heart. And I trust that somebody will say, I will arise and go.

There are three pictures of salvation showing us what it means to be lost, in danger, out of safety, out of circulation, out of usefulness, away from the joy of home. There are four wonderful joys to salvation. We're going to have a good time, I think, wallowing around in this chapter during these Sunday evenings.

But right now, I just want to ask you one question. Are you rejoicing tonight because you've been found, or are you lost? Because if you're lost, you have no joy. You have no joy now, you'll have no joy for all eternity.

But if you're saved, if you're found, if you're one of his sheep, if you've come home and said, I want to come to my father, then you have that joy down inside. You can have that joy, that forgiveness. Jesus came to save sinners, and he can save you.

Let's pray. And make no delay. Just respond to him.

And Lord, help us to be a part of the finding. As witnesses, as pastors out of tracks, as prayer warriors, whatever it is we do, help us to be a part of the finding. May we not be guilty of causing someone to stray away and be lost.

Blessed tonight, we pray, cause that heart shall be open for Jesus' sake. Amen.