September 9, 2012
Let’s turn to John 1:29. We were reminded earlier of the man who bought the field: a picture of the world; we were the treasure. How precious to realize that we are that treasure! We are here remembering His work on the cross, which extends to the whole world (not that every one will be saved). And when He comes, we will be reigning with Him, because of His love that was stronger than death. May our hearts respond and say, “We love Him because He first loved us.”
Hymn 139 - What can wash away my sin
Prayer
While in Rockway last weekend, I gave a gospel message. I spoke about Naaman, and how Elijah healed him of his leprosy. Today, we will read a story in which Jesus healed a man with leprosy.
Matthew 8:1 - 8
Upon descending from the mountain, Jesus met a man with leprosy. This man knew that Jesus was able to heal him, but he wondered if Jesus was willing to heal him. The leprous man didn’t know Jesus’s heart! Jesus was more than willing to heal him.
To heal this man, Jesus reached out and touched him. According to the law, you were not supposed to touch someone with leprosy or you would be unclean. But once Jesus touched him, he was healed immediately. When we get saved, it doesn’t take any time: once we have placed our faith in Jesus, we are saved.
Jesus told the man to go show himself to the Priest. Read Leviticus 14:2 - 7. When he got there, the Priest would check him out and if he had been healed, there was a sacrifice which needed to be performed. They would get two birds: one they would kill and the other they would let go, after covering it with the other bird’s blood. This is an Old Testament picture of what the Lord did for us.
This leper came to Jesus to be healed and Jesus was able and willing to heal him. He is willing to save us, too!
Luke 15:11-32
We’ve had the lost sheep and the lost coin, and now we have the parable of the lost son, or rather, the parable of the Father’s heart. With the sheep, we had one in a hundred. The coin was one of ten. You might expect a single son in this parable, but instead we have two. In each of these parables, the lost item is found with joy, but the elder son here is a picture of Israel, offended at grace.
The younger of these two sons asked his father for his inheritance. The father gave it to him, and the son left home. He sought a portion apart from God and his father. The world here is pictured as “a far country”. When we’re young, the world doesn’t look that far away. But when we try to come back; it’s farther than we realized.
There was a young man who used to be in fellowship with us at Tupper Street. He fell into sin, was put out of fellowship, and stopped coming to meeting. His life and marriage started to fall apart. One day he came into Brother Norm’s office. In the course of their talk he told Brother Norm, “I’d like to come back, but it’s a long way.” Brother Norm prayed with and did what he could for this young man, and the young man left. Soon after he lost his house and had to live out of his car. One winter night he slept with the car running. His exhaust system wasn’t good and he died from asphyxiation. Stay away from that kind of lifestyle!
The younger son looked like a millionaire when he left home: he had money, and soon that money made him many friends. He had everything he could want. But it didn’t last long. His money began to dwindle, and therefore so did his friends. He wasted his substance. This happens too often in life. Homeless people don’t plan to become homeless, but they waste what they have. This young man “spent all” and it’s a warning to us. To make ends meet, he hired on with a pig farmer.
V16. Generally, a human wouldn’t eat husks, but this young man grew so hungry that he wanted to eat them. Nobody gave to him. This whole story can remind us of children who have been raised in a godly home where the Bible was reverenced, but grew up and left it all to have “fun”. You can thank God if you grew up in such a home, continued in the right way, and were saved from learning about the pain of a wrong life experimentally. Young people, stay away from wrong ways! It’s too easy to slip into them. Don’t think, “It won’t happen to me”.
Look how low this young man had to go before he realized his error. He didn’t turn from his ways when he ran out of money, but when he was reduced to eating husks. But then come those blessed words, “he came to himself” (v.17). The father’s house began to look good. People today think that they’re good enough, but they have to realize what this young man realized: “I have sinned”. This is what we have to do: wake up to our condition!
First this son came to himself, and then he came to his father. In children’s meeting we had the leper who knew the Lord’s power, but not His heart. This son didn’t know his father’s heart. He didn’t understand grace. As an employee he thought, “Maybe I could be a servant. Working for Dad wouldn’t be so bad. His servants always have enough to eat; all I have is pig food.”
So the son resolved to go back to his father, and that took courage. His fancied position was typical of Jewish society: Israel was a servant to God and to the Law. They were constantly doing things: offering sacrifices, keeping feasts, etc. This son learned the difference of serving as a servant, and being served as a son. He had lost his position as son and wandered far. Likewise, God found us in the far country and drew us back to Himself.
Hymn 149 - Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
Prayer