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16 - Lost and Is Found - Christ's Object Lessons · Philosophy and Faith

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Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, Lost and Is Found. The parables of the
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Speaker 1: Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son bring
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Speaker 1: out in distinct lines God's pitying love for those who
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Speaker 1: are straying from Him. Although they have turned away from God,
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Speaker 1: he does not leave them in their misery. He is
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Speaker 1: full of kindness and tender pity toward all who are
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Speaker 1: exposed to the temptations of the artful foe. In the
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Speaker 1: parable of the Prodigal Son is presented the Lord's dealing
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Speaker 1: with those who have once known the Father's love, but
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Speaker 1: who have allowed the tempter to lead them captive at
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Speaker 1: his will. A certain man had two sons, and the
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Speaker 1: younger of them said to his father, Father, give me
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Speaker 1: the portion of goods that falleth to me, and he
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Speaker 1: divided unto them his living, And not many days after,
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Speaker 1: the younger son gathered altogether and took his journey into
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Speaker 1: a far country. This younger son had become weary of
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Speaker 1: the restraint of his father's house. He thought that his
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Speaker 1: liberty was restricted. His father's love and care for him
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Speaker 1: were misinterpreted, and he determined to follow the dictates of
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Speaker 1: his own inclination. The youth acknowledges no obligation to his
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Speaker 1: father and expresses no gratitude. Yet he claims the privilege
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Speaker 1: of a child in sharing his father's goods. The inheritance
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Speaker 1: that would fall to him at his father's death he
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Speaker 1: desires to receive. Now. He is bent on present enjoyment
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Speaker 1: and cares not for the future. Having obtained his patrimony,
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Speaker 1: he goes into a far country, away from his father's home,
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Speaker 1: with money and plenty and liberty to do as he likes.
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Speaker 1: He flatters himself that the desire of his heart is reached.
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Speaker 1: There is no one to say, do not do this,
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Speaker 1: for it will be an injury to yourself, or do
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Speaker 1: this because it is right. Evil companions help him to
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Speaker 1: plunge ever deeper into sin, and he wastes his substance
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Speaker 1: with riotous living. The Bible tells of men who, professing
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Speaker 1: themselves to be wise, became fools. And this is the
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Speaker 1: history of the young man of the parable. The wealth
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Speaker 1: which he has selfishly claimed from his father he Squanderson Harlot's.
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Speaker 1: The treasure of his young manhood is wasted, the precious
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Speaker 1: years of life, the strength of intellect, the bright visions
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Speaker 1: of youth, the spiritual aspirations, all are consumed in the
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Speaker 1: fires of lust. A great famine arises. He begins to
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Speaker 1: be in want, and he joins himself to a citizen
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Speaker 1: of the country, who sends him into the field to
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Speaker 1: feed swine to a jew. This was the most menial
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Speaker 1: and degrading of employments. The youth, who has boasted of
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Speaker 1: his liberty now finds himself a slave. He is in
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Speaker 1: the worst of bondage, holding with the cords of his sins.
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Speaker 1: The glitter and tinsel that enticed him have disappeared, and
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Speaker 1: he feels the burden of his chain. Sitting upon the
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Speaker 1: ground in that desolate and famine stricken land, with no
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Speaker 1: companions but the swine, he is fain to fill himselves
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Speaker 1: with the husks on which the beasts are fed. Of
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Speaker 1: the gay companions who flocked about him in his prosperous days,
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Speaker 1: and ate and drank at his expense, there is not
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Speaker 1: one left to befriend him. Where now is his riotous
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Speaker 1: joy still in his conscience, benumbing his sensibilities. He thought
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Speaker 1: himself happy, but now with money spent with hunger, unsatisfied
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Speaker 1: with pride, humbled with his moral nature, dwarf with his will,
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Speaker 1: weak and untrustworthy, with his finer feelings seemingly dead, he
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Speaker 1: is the most wretched of mortals. What a picture here
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Speaker 1: of the sinner's state. Although surrounded with the blessings of
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Speaker 1: his love, there is nothing that the sinner, bent on
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Speaker 1: self indulgence and sinful pleasure, desires so much as separation
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Speaker 1: from God. Like the ungrateful son, he claims the good
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Speaker 1: things of God as his by right, He takes them
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Speaker 1: as a matter of course, and makes no return of gratitude,
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Speaker 1: renders no service of love. As Cain went out from
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Speaker 1: the presence of the Lord to seek his home, as
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Speaker 1: the prodigal wandered into the far country, so do sinners
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Speaker 1: seek happiness and forgetfulness of God. Whatever the appearance may be,
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Speaker 1: every life centered in self is squandered. Whoever attempts to
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Speaker 1: live apart from God is well wasting his substance. He
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Speaker 1: is squandering the precious years, squandering the powers of mind
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Speaker 1: and heart and soul, and working to make himself bankrupt
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Speaker 1: for eternity. The man who separates from God that he
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Speaker 1: may serve himself as the slave of Mammon, the mind
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Speaker 1: that God created for the companionship of angels, has become
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Speaker 1: degraded to the service of that which is earthly and bestial.
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Speaker 1: This is the end to which self serving tends. If
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Speaker 1: you have chosen such a life, you know that you
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Speaker 1: are spending money for that which is not bread and
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Speaker 1: labor for that which satisfieth. Not there come to you
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Speaker 1: hours when you realize your degradation. Alone in the far country,
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Speaker 1: you feel your misery, and in despair you cry, O,
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Speaker 1: wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
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Speaker 1: the body of this death. It is the statement of
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Speaker 1: the universal truth which is contained in the prophet's words.
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Speaker 1: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh
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Speaker 1: flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
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Speaker 1: For he shall be like a heath in the day dear,
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Speaker 1: and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit
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Speaker 1: the parched places in the wilderness, in as salt land,
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Speaker 1: and not inhabit it. God maketh his son to rise
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Speaker 1: on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain
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Speaker 1: on the jest and on the unjust. But men have
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Speaker 1: the power to shut themselves away from sunshine and shower.
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Speaker 1: So while the sun of righteousness shines and the showers
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Speaker 1: of grace fall freely for all we may, by separating
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Speaker 1: ourselves from God still inhabit the parched places in the wilderness.
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Speaker 1: The love of God still yearns over the one who
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Speaker 1: has chosen to separate from him, and he sets in
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Speaker 1: operation influences to bring him back to the father's house.
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Speaker 1: The prodigal son, in his wretchedness, came to himself. The
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Speaker 1: deceptive power that Satan had exercised over him was broken.
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Speaker 1: He saw that his suffering was the result of his
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Speaker 1: own folly, and he said, how many hired servants of
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Speaker 1: my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I
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Speaker 1: perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father.
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Speaker 1: Miserable as he was, the prodigal found hope in the
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Speaker 1: conviction of his father's love. It was that love which
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Speaker 1: was drawing him toward home. So it is the assurance
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Speaker 1: of God's love that constrains the sinner to return to God.
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Speaker 1: The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. A golden chain,
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Speaker 1: the mercy and compassion of divine love is passed around
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Speaker 1: every imperiled soul. The Lord declares, I have loved THEE
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Speaker 1: with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, have I
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Speaker 1: drawn thee? The son determines to confess his guilt. He
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Speaker 1: will go to his father, saying, I have sinned against
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Speaker 1: heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to
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Speaker 1: be called thy son. But he adds, showing how stinted
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Speaker 1: is his conception of his father's love, Make me as
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Speaker 1: one of thy hired servants. The young man turns from
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Speaker 1: the swineherds and the husks, and sets his face toward home.
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Speaker 1: Trembling with weakness and faint from hunger, he presses eagerly
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Speaker 1: on his way. He has no coring to conceal his rags,
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Speaker 1: but his misery has conquered pride, and he hurries on
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Speaker 1: to beg a servant's place, where he was once a child.
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Speaker 1: Little did the gay, thoughtless youth, as he went out
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Speaker 1: from his father's gait, dream of the ache and longing
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Speaker 1: left in that father's heart when he danced and feasted
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Speaker 1: with his wild companions. Little did he think of the
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Speaker 1: shadow that had fallen on his home. And now, as
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Speaker 1: with weary and painful steps, he pursues the homeward way.
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Speaker 1: He knows not that one is watching for his return.
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Speaker 1: But while he is yet a great way off. The
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Speaker 1: father diserns his form. Love is of quick sight. Not
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Speaker 1: even the degradation of the years of sin can conceal
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Speaker 1: the son from the father's eyes. He had compassion, and
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Speaker 1: ran and fell on his neck in a long, clinging,
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Speaker 1: tender embrace. The father will permit no contemptuous eye to
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Speaker 1: mock at his son's misery and tatters. He takes from
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Speaker 1: his own shoulders the broad rich mantle and wraps it
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Speaker 1: around the son's wasted form, And the youth sobs out
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Speaker 1: his repentance, saying, Father, I have sinned against heaven and
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Speaker 1: in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be
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Speaker 1: called thy son. The father holds him close to his
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Speaker 1: side and brings him home. No opportunity is given him
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Speaker 1: to ask a servant's place. He is a son who
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Speaker 1: shall be honored with the best the house affords, and
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Speaker 1: whom the waiting men and women shall respect and serve.
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Speaker 1: The father said to his servants, bring forth the best
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Speaker 1: robe and put it on him, and put a ring
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Speaker 1: on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring
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Speaker 1: hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us
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Speaker 1: eat and be merry. For this my son was dead
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Speaker 1: and is alive again. He was lost and is found,
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Speaker 1: and they began to be merry. In his restless youth,
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Speaker 1: the prodigal looked upon his father as stern and severe.
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Speaker 1: How different his conception of him now, So those who
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Speaker 1: are deceived by Satan look upon God as hard and exacting.
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Speaker 1: They regard him as watching to denounce and condemn, as
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Speaker 1: unwilling to receive the sinner so long as there is
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Speaker 1: legal excuse for not helping him. His law they regard
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Speaker 1: as a restriction upon men's happiness, a burdensome yoke from
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Speaker 1: which they are glad to escape. That he whose eyes
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Speaker 1: have been opened by the love of Christ will behold
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Speaker 1: God as full of compassion. He does not appear as
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Speaker 1: a tyrannical, relentless being, but as a father longing to
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Speaker 1: embrace his repenting son. The sinner will exclaim with the psalmist,
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Speaker 1: like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
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Speaker 1: pitieth them that fear him. In the parable, there is
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Speaker 1: no taunting, no casting up to the prodigal of his
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Speaker 1: evil course. The son feels that the past is forgiven
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Speaker 1: and forgotten, blotted out forever. And so God says to
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Speaker 1: the sinner, I have blotted out as a thick cloud
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Speaker 1: thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. I will
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Speaker 1: forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin. No more.
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Speaker 1: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man
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Speaker 1: his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and
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Speaker 1: he will have mercy upon him and to our God,
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Speaker 1: for he will abundantly part in those days. And in
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Speaker 1: that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
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Speaker 1: be sought for, and there shall be none and the
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Speaker 1: sins of Judah, and they shall not be found. What
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Speaker 1: assurance here of God's willingness to receive the repenting sinner?
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Speaker 1: Have you, reader, chosen your own way? Have you wandered
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Speaker 1: far from God? Have you sought to feast upon the
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Speaker 1: fruits of transgression, only to find them turned to ashes
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Speaker 1: upon your lips? And now your substance spent, your life,
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Speaker 1: plans thwarted, and your hopes dead. Do you sit alone
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Speaker 1: and desolate? Now that voice which has long been speaking
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Speaker 1: to your heart, but to which you would not listen,
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Speaker 1: comes to you distinct and clear. Arise ye and depart,
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Speaker 1: for this is not your rest, because it is polluted.
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Speaker 1: It shall destroy you even with a sore destruction. Return
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Speaker 1: to your father's house, he invites you, saying, return unto me,
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Speaker 1: for I have redeemed thee. Do not listen to the
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Speaker 1: enemy's suggestion to stay away from Christ until you have
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Speaker 1: made yourself back, until you are good enough to come
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Speaker 1: to God. If you wait until then, you will never come.
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Speaker 1: When Satan points to your filthy garments, repeat the promise
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Speaker 1: of Jesus, him that cometh to me, I will in
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Speaker 1: no wise cast out. Tell the enemy that the blood
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Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. Make the prayer
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Speaker 1: of David your own. Purge me with hissop and I
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Speaker 1: shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
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Speaker 1: than snow. Arise and go to your father. He will
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Speaker 1: meet you a great way off. If you take even
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Speaker 1: one step toward him in repentance, he will hasten to
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Speaker 1: infold you in his arms of infinite love. His ear
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Speaker 1: is open to the cry of the contrite soul. The
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Speaker 1: very first reaching out of the heart after God is
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Speaker 1: known to him. Never a prayer is offered, however faltering,
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Speaker 1: Never a tear is shed, however secret, Never a sincere
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Speaker 1: desire after God is cherished, however feeble, but the spirit
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Speaker 1: of God goes forth to meet it. Even before the
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Speaker 1: prayer is uttered, or the yearning of the heart made known,
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Speaker 1: Grace from Christ goes forth to meet the grace that
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Speaker 1: is working upon the human soul. Your heavenly Father will
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Speaker 1: take from you the garments defiled by sin. In the
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Speaker 1: beautiful parabolic prophecy of Zechariah, the high Priest Joshua, standing
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Speaker 1: clothed in filthy garments before the Angel of the Lord,
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Speaker 1: represents the sinner, and the word is spoken by the Lord,
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Speaker 1: take away the filthy garments from him, and unto him,
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Speaker 1: he said, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass
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Speaker 1: from thee, and I will clothe thee with change raiment.
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Speaker 1: So they set a fair miter upon his head and
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Speaker 1: clothed him with garments. Even so God will clothe you
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Speaker 1: with the garments of salvation and cover you with the
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Speaker 1: robe of righteousness. Though ye have lien among the pots,
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Speaker 1: yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove
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Speaker 1: covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. He
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Speaker 1: will bring you into his banqueting house, and his banner
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Speaker 1: over you shall be love. If thou wilt walk in
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Speaker 1: my ways he declares, I will give thee play to
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Speaker 1: walk among these that stand by, even among the holy
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Speaker 1: angels that surround his throne. As the bridegrew, rejoiceth over
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Speaker 1: the bride. So shall thy God rejoice over thee he
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Speaker 1: will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy. He
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Speaker 1: will rest in his love. He will joy over thee
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Speaker 1: with singing, and Heaven and Earth shall unite in the
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Speaker 1: Father's song of rejoicing. For this, my son was dead
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Speaker 1: and is alive again. He was lost and is found.
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Speaker 1: Thus far in the Saviour's parable there is no discordant
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Speaker 1: note to jar the harmony of the scene of joy.
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Speaker 1: But now Christ introduces another element. When the prodigal came home,
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Speaker 1: the elder son was in the field, and as he
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Speaker 1: came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music
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Speaker 1: and dancing. And he called one of the servants and
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Speaker 1: asked what these things meant. And he said, unto him,
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Speaker 1: thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the
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Speaker 1: fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.
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Speaker 1: And he was angry and would not go in. This
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Speaker 1: brother has not been sharing in his father's anxiety and
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Speaker 1: watching for the one that was lost. He shares not therefore,
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Speaker 1: in the father's joy. At the wanderer's return, the sounds
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Speaker 1: of rejoicing kindle no gladness in his heart. He inquires
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Speaker 1: of a servant the reason of the festivity, and the
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Speaker 1: answer excites his jealousy. He will not go in to
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Speaker 1: welcome his lost brother. The favor shown to the prodigal
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Speaker 1: he regards as an insult to himself. When the father
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Speaker 1: comes out to remonstrate with him, the pride and malignity
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Speaker 1: of his nature are revealed. He dwells upon his own
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Speaker 1: life in his father's house as a round of unrequited service,
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Speaker 1: and then places in mean contrasts the favor shown to
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Speaker 1: the son just returned. He makes it plain that his
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Speaker 1: own service has been that of a servant rather than
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Speaker 1: a son, when he should have found an abiding joy
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Speaker 1: in his father's presence. His mind has rested upon the
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Speaker 1: prophet to accrue from his circumspect life. His words show
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Speaker 1: that it is for this he has forgote the pleasures
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Speaker 1: of sin. So if this brother is to share in
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Speaker 1: the father's gifts, the elder son counts that he himself
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Speaker 1: has been wronged. He grudges his brother the favor shown him.
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Speaker 1: He plainly shows that had he been in the father's place,
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Speaker 1: he would not have received the prodigal He does not
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Speaker 1: even acknowledge him as a brother, but coldly speaks of
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Speaker 1: him as thy son. Yet the father deals tenderly with him. Son,
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Speaker 1: He says, thou art ever with me, and all that
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Speaker 1: I have is thine. Through all these years of your
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Speaker 1: brother's outcast life, have you not had the privilege of
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Speaker 1: companionship with me? Everything that could minister to the happiness
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Speaker 1: of his children is freely theirs. The son need have
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Speaker 1: no question of gift or reward. All that I have
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Speaker 1: is thine. You have only to believe my love and
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Speaker 1: take the gift that is freely bestowed. One son had
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Speaker 1: for a time cut himself off from the household, not
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Speaker 1: discerning the father's love. But now he has returned, and
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Speaker 1: the tide of joy sweeps away every disturbing thought. This
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Speaker 1: thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was
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Speaker 1: lost and found? Was the elder brother brought to see
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Speaker 1: his own mean, ungrateful spirit. Did he come to see
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Speaker 1: that though his brother had done wickedly, he was his brother.
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Speaker 1: Still did the elder brother repent of his jealousy and
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Speaker 1: hard heartedness. Concerning this, Christ was silent, for the Parable
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Speaker 1: was still enacting, and it rested with his hearers to
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Speaker 1: determine what the outcome should be. By the elder Son
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Speaker 1: were represented the unrepenting Jews of Christ's day, and also
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Speaker 1: the Pharisees in every age, who look with contempt upon
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Speaker 1: those whom they regard as publicans and sinners, because they
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Speaker 1: themselves have not gone to great excesses and vice, they
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Speaker 1: are filled with self righteousness. Christ met these cavillers on
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Speaker 1: their own ground. Like the elder son in the Parable,
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Speaker 1: they had enjoyed special privileges from God. They claimed to
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Speaker 1: be sons in God's house, but they had the spirit
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Speaker 1: of the hireling. They were working not from love, but
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Speaker 1: from hope of reward. In their eyes, God was an
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Speaker 1: exacting taskmaster. They saw Christ inviting publicans and sinners to
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Speaker 1: receive freely the gift of his grace, the gift which
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Speaker 1: the rabbis hoped to secure only by toil and penance,
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Speaker 1: and they were offended. The prodigal's return, which filled the
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Speaker 1: father's heart with joy, only stirred them to jealousy. In
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Speaker 1: the parable, the father's remonstrance with the elder Son was
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Speaker 1: Heaven's tender appeal to the Pharisees. All that I have
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Speaker 1: is Thine, not as wages, but as a gift. Like
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Speaker 1: the prodigal, you can receive it only as the unmerited
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Speaker 1: bestowal of the Father's love. Self Righteousness not only leads
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Speaker 1: men to misrepresent God, but makes the cold hearted and
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Speaker 1: critical toward their brethren. The elder Son, in his selfishness
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Speaker 1: and jealousy, stood ready to watch his brother, to criticize
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Speaker 1: every action and to accuse him for the least efficiency.
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Speaker 1: He would detect every mistake and make the most of
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Speaker 1: every wrong act. Thus he would seek to justify his
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Speaker 1: own unforgiving spirit. Many to day are doing the same thing.
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Speaker 1: While the soul is making its very first struggles against
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Speaker 1: a flood of temptations, they stand by, stubborn, self willed, complaining, accusing.
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Speaker 1: They may claim to be children of God, but they
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Speaker 1: are acting out the spirit of Satan by their attitude
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Speaker 1: towards their brethren. These accusers place themselves where God cannot
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Speaker 1: give them the light of his countenance. Many are constantly questioning,
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Speaker 1: wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself
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Speaker 1: before the High God. Shall I come before him with
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Speaker 1: burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the
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Speaker 1: Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten
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Speaker 1: thousands of rivers of oil? But He hath shown thee,
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Speaker 1: O man, what is good? And what doth the Lord
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Speaker 1: require of thee But to do justly, and to love mercy,
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Speaker 1: and to walk homebly with Thy God. This is the
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Speaker 1: service that God has chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness,
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Speaker 1: to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed
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Speaker 1: go free. And that ye break every yoke, and that
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Speaker 1: thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh. When you
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Speaker 1: see yourselves as sinners, saved only by the love of
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Speaker 1: your heavenly Father, you will have tender pity for others
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Speaker 1: who are suffering in sin. You will no longer meet
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Speaker 1: misery and repentance with jealousy and censure. When the ice
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Speaker 1: of selfishness is melted from your hearts, you will be
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Speaker 1: in sympathy with God and will share his joy in
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Speaker 1: the saving of the lost. It is true that you
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Speaker 1: claim to be a child of God. But if this
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Speaker 1: claim be true, it is thy brother that was dead
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Speaker 1: and is alive again and was lost and is found.
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Speaker 1: He is bound to you by the closest ties, for
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Speaker 1: God recognizes him as a son. Deny your relationship to him,
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Speaker 1: and you show that you are but a hireling in
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Speaker 1: the household, not a child in the family of God.
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Speaker 1: Though you will not join in the greeting to the lost,
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Speaker 1: the joy will go on. The restored one will have
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Speaker 1: his place by the father's side and in the father's work.
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Speaker 1: He that is forgiven much the same loves much. But
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Speaker 1: you will be in the darkness without, for he that
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Speaker 1: loveth not knoweth not God. For God is love. End
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Speaker 1: of Chapter sixteen.