DIVINE MOVEMENTS IN BLESSING
I want to make some application of the movements that the Lord speaks of here to how God comes out to bless. When sin came into the world through man, what man sought to do was to hide himself; he tried fig leaves, and man might have been content to leave things like that, but it was God who raised the question, “Where art thou?”, Gen 3: 9. He would raise that with you—Where are you? Where are you in relation to God, who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, see Rom 8: 32. Where are you in your soul’s history with God? Perhaps you are trying to hide, maybe not too far away, maybe far away; however great the distance the sheep went, the shepherd covered it. So divine love is going out to find you—wherever you are. I do not know what kind of a hiding place Adam had but God found him. I do not know what kind of a hiding place you may have; the world is full of them, bolt holes they call them; they think they are safe from all that may happen. God will find you; He can find you out wherever you are, perhaps by just a word in your conscience.
This sheep went away, it maybe did not mean to go too far, it just saw a green field and went there, then it saw another field and went there. The world has many ways of appealing to you, it could be your work or maybe sport; different things appeal to you from what appeals to me. You do not mean to go far away, but you just go after something that you like, something that appeals to you, and it soon becomes your all absorbing object. Now, friend, if you do not feel you have got away from God, let me tell you this, He misses you. The shepherd missed this sheep before the sheep missed the shepherd. You may go into circumstances where you can surround yourself with friends and fill your time, but God misses you and He is prepared to go after you, as it says of this shepherd, that he went after it until he found it. May He find you tonight. Do not put up any more barricades; may you allow the charm of the glad tidings and the appeal of divine grace to come into your heart tonight—Come to the Saviour! Come to know something of that grace that has gone so far; what a journey He has taken. Think of Him coming from heaven! It is not only that Jesus went a journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. He came from heaven: He came from glory, from conditions that the mind of man can never penetrate or fathom as the hymn says—
From heav’n the Saviour came. (Hymn 245)
Think of His coming here as Luke would present Him. O, what He brought in, the angels saw it; they saw there in that Babe a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. He had to take that condition if He was going to find you. He had to come into circumstances of flesh and blood if He was going to reach you where you are. I would say again, the journey was not only from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, it was from the glory to the cross. What a journey! What steps that shepherd took to find that sheep. It involved for him a condition that was, may I say, strange to him. It involved circumstances that were not His home. What feelings He felt as He trod that way. He said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven roosting-places; but the Son of man has not where he may lay his head”, Matt 8: 20. He is the Saviour, the Saviour of sinners, treading His way through this world; putting up with those circumstances where there was nothing here in which He could find His home or minister to Him, that He may find you, as the sheep that was lost. Was it worth it? He made that calculation. That is the value He placed on the sheep. You may say, well there are ninety and nine there, that may do. No, my friend, He wants you. Perhaps all in your family have trusted the Saviour, but He wants you. Where are you? Again I ask, are you lost? May the appeal of the journey of the Shepherd come home to you. Open your heart, my friend, to the charm of His grace and allow the love of Jesus to fill it—Oh come to the Saviour! This sheep, I believe, became weary. You will get weary, if you have not proved it already. One who leaves the circle of divine love will get weary but the Saviour would seek you. Oh, allow the wealth of grace to lift you, as it says, “he lays it upon his own shoulders, rejoicing”, and brings it back to the house. How great that journey, but Oh, the strength of the Saviour! The Shepherd is able to carry you on His shoulders in the strength of love that has been proved in the journey He took. It says that we who partake of blood and flesh through fear of death were all our lifetime subject to bondage, Heb 2: 15. But He, that blessed glorious Man, came into these conditions that He might break that bondage, that He may lift you on to His shoulders beyond what death could do. The fear of death holds man in bondage, sin holds man in bondage; but He, that blessed Man on the cross has broken the power of Satan, He has broken the power of death. We preach a risen glorious Saviour able to save. Has He found you? Are you still making it difficult? Are you still seeking to find something to appease your conscience? Oh allow the charm of the Saviour’s love to come into your heart!
This piece of silver had got out of the way, but it had some value. The Lord values every one. The valuation is measured by the journey that He took. So there is this coin but it is lost. It was out of circulation; it was not available. He wants you to be in circulation. So, it says the woman lights a lamp and sweeps the house and seeks carefully until she find it. Maybe there is sweeping tonight for you. The lamp has been lit, the light of the gospel of the glorious risen Saviour is shining in all its lustre, and the sweeping is going on. Often when you lose something it goes into an awkward corner, maybe under a piece of furniture where the cleaner does not reach. Maybe you do not miss it this week, but there comes a time when you miss the article, and you say, Where is it? Perhaps we have to move the furniture and sweep carefully. Oh, how diligently He is searching for you tonight. It is an individual matter, one coin. There it is in an awkward corner. Maybe you have got into a corner that is not often looked at. He is searching tonight to bring you in, to realise your full value. Oh, the Lord will make use of you. He is seeking tonight to bring you into circulation among the others. Why remain away? What a circle He would bring you into.
Then we come to the son, he had gone away as well, gone away maybe further. It brings it very much closer home to us, but he was never out of the father’s thoughts. Perhaps you have not prayed very much lately. Maybe you were brought up to pray, but you felt you could get along without it. God has missed hearing your voice. You may have thought that it has not made much difference to your life that you have not prayed. I will tell you this, He has missed hearing your prayers. He has missed hearing what you would have to say. This son, I suppose, began that he did not pray and his father missed him every day. The father would be saying, every time he went home, ‘Has he made any contact?’ If the son did not feel it, how the father felt it! Well, friend, what has the world got to offer you? He began to be awakened with some remembrance of the father’s house and the father’s grace, and he says, “I will rise up and go to my father”. He is making his way back. Will you make the first step now? Do not wait until the end of the meeting; resolve to make the first step now—“I will rise up and go to my father”. He is still his father. His father’s love never waned towards him, he was longing to enfold him in his arms; his love was still there for him although he was in the far country. So he comes to prove the blessedness of that father’s love. He says, “I will rise up”, I say again, Rise up now! Take these simple words into your heart—‘I have been hiding long enough; I have been out of circulation long enough’. Come to the Saviour! Come to know the fulness of divine grace that is shining. I tell you this, the son came into blessings beyond his imagination; he came into a place of favour beyond whatever he was worthy of, beyond whatever he could have expected, he came into the father’s embrace and the wealth of the father’s house. The journey was not so long because the father covered it. What a journey Christ has covered; what a price He paid on the cross. That holy, perfect, sinless One, His blood was shed, as the hymn says—
Shed for rebels, shed for sinners,
Shed for me. (Hymn 167)
Can you say that—‘Shed for me’? God fully values that blood and on account of it can righteously forgive repentant sinners. The work has been done, the price has been paid. The blood can atone for all that has come in in your history, it has satisfied the just claims of God’s throne. Now through confessing and believing in the name of Jesus you can be saved—“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved”, Rom 10: 9.
May the verity of these words ring in your ears if you are still at a distance from God. May they ring in your ears if you have not yet come into the joy and blessedness of God’s house. As I said, the blood of Jesus enables God righteously to cover the distance. It enabled Him righteously to say, Bring out the best robe. You say the son had not said enough; you need to say less than you think—“if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart”, is all in one verse. The son here would have made a speech; that is all part of the devil’s schemes, it is all part of what is drawn up as a hiding place. You are not worthy—of course you are not—but the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son is my standing. The hymn writer says—
I stand upon His merit, I know no other stand.
That is the ground for God to bring out the best robe and clothe the repenting sinner. Oh, the father’s joy as he said, “Bring out the best robe”. It is there waiting for you, my friend, you do not have to be measured. The work has been done by Jesus and He has been raised from among the dead; the work has been done, and the best robe is ready for you. Come into the circumstances where you can wear it. You cannot wear the best robe in the far country; you cannot wear a ring on your hand and shoes on your feet in circumstances of debauchery and sin, what use would they be? Come into the blessing through confessing Jesus as Lord, into the wealth of divine resources. Oh, I would have liked to have heard the father saying it! He said it with exultation, there was not a voice of dissent. The prayers are answered, “Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it”. You like to think of the son’s feelings as he saw that robe. He might have said, I am not worthy of this, but he would only have to look at the father’s face to know that everything depended on and was flowing from the father. The father’s joy was in the son clothed with the robe. That was not only for the son, although it assured him undoubtedly of the father’s changeless love and favour, but the robe, and the ring, and the shoes were for the father too. God wants to see you at your best, not in those circumstances of sin and what sin may do to you. He has provided everything that you may be seen at your best. I do not go into what these things speak of, they are very beautiful in their meaning, I just say this, they speak of Christ. When God sees a sinner having confessed his sins, what He sees is your appreciation of Jesus. Oh what a change from being lost! The father says, “put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry—for this my son ... was lost and has been found”. The whole of heaven is ready tonight to praise the Lord for every soul that comes to Him.
Oh, what a Saviour! What a God! What joy there is in hearing of a soul coming to Christ. Would it be for a poor sinner coming back?—No, He says, “for this my son”—Oh, what He thinks about a repenting sinner! What God thinks about you is more than ever you could think about yourself. You do not work up to it, but allow the wealth of divine grace to arrest and come into your heart. He does not say anything about his being a sinner, he says, “this my son was dead”. How unresponsive he was. How far from God we were, dead in trespasses and sins, but He would bring us into blessing—“this my son was dead and has come to life, was lost and has been found. And they began to make merry”. God does not just forgive our sins. The sheep, the piece of silver, and the son, were all left in the house. He brings a repenting sinner into what He has provided. He does not say, ‘Well your sins are forgiven, go and do better’. No, He says, ‘Come and enjoy what I have provided and stay in it’. Friend, come into divine blessing and enjoy it, in the name of the Lord Jesus.
MALVERN
1st September 1991