A 297 The Prodigals Assurance

Well, there isn't much I can say after all, this is a, you can't leave dad on his own I'm afraid. But I'm just average, average man of the world, learnt about the Lord when I first went to school, they taught religion when I went to school, both thought about it, nothing drastic, got older, unfortunately went into the army, thought there was a Lord because of the things that were around me, you know, the trees, the bare leaf, the flowers, thought there was a Lord. As I say, when in the army, during the war, used to call on the Lord and especially when I was frightened, which many of us were in those days.

Used to smoke, found comfort in smoking, over 45 years of smoking and couldn't get rid of it, couldn't give it up. Would like to have done, they tell me it's bad for the lungs, also bad for the pocket. No, two or three days but back on the weed again.

Anyway, as I say, I thought there was a Lord, but he didn't get me anywhere, still did the things that Mr. Everyman does, swore, cursed, did me own thing. Had a good family, loved them really, didn't show it, but I did, I loved them. Anyway, until about three months ago, perhaps four months, not quite sure about this, and I hear that the family have received something, so I'm interested.

As I look on the world each day, and as many of us do, we read the papers and we hear the news and things are getting worse all the time, so we know that there's something afoot. And if we stop to think, we can get frightened, I'm sure we can, but how many of us stop to think? Anyway, I asked, I think it was my daughter-in-law, Vicky, if she would have words with her friend, I would like to have words with him. So he came round with his wife one evening, and he sat down and we talked, started off very nice, first time I'd ever met the man, was very interesting, never said anything about religion or anything like that to start with, worked it round he did.

LAUGHTER Spoke to me about some of the scriptures. Now, I've never had a Bible, well that's not quite true, I did have a Bible, but I never read it, so I wouldn't be able to know what was in the Bible. I had been to church as a youngster, but the people have read from books, I didn't understand what they said, but anyway, he took one part from the Bible and he spoke to me about it, and it's about this time of the year, where the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified.

Now I'd heard that the Lord Jesus Christ had been crucified many times, but that didn't mean much to me, but then he showed me what it really did mean. It meant that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins, all of us, mine, yours, everybody's sins, he died for our sins, that they may be forgiven. And if we in turn was to turn to the Lord Jesus and ask forgiveness of our sins, ask him into our heart and show him that we were truly repentant of all the things that we had done, which was wrong in his sight, then the Bible tells us we will be saved and have everlasting life.

Now I thought on this, and I did just that. I went down on my knees and I asked the Lord into my life, asking forgiveness of all my sins. I also, about two or three weeks later, because I've got a Bible now, I've got three.

If there's anyone here that has just come in and hasn't got a Bible, I'd be only too pleased to let them have one. But I read a small portion, and don't ask me the name where I read it, but it said about the body, that the body was the temple of the Lord God. And that started me thinking, smoking is not good for the body.

And praise the Lord, I've not smoked for three months. Sucked a mint, but not smoked. And so brethren, I'm here tonight, in obedience to my Lord God, to be baptised.

Thank you. Now we're going to read from God's Word, from St Luke's Gospel. If you'd like to turn to that please, St Luke chapter 15.

St Luke chapter 15, and starting to read from verse 11. The wonderful account of the prodigal son. And he said, a certain man had two sons.

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, 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 the 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 hired servants of my father's have bread enough to eat and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise, and I'll go to my father, and I'll 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 so 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 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. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.

Bring hither 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.

May God bless those words to each one of us this evening. Now I want to draw your attention just for a moment or so to a verse in the Old Testament which helps us to realize just what God can do for you and also for me as we put our trust and our confidence in God. In him we find that Moses was talking to the Israelites and he was looking forward into the future.

The Israelites were just about to reenter the promised land. Moses is an old man and he knows because God has revealed it that he won't be able to go into the land of Canaan. The sands of time have run through the glass and the day has come when Moses will be brought into the presence of God when he will die.

And Moses realizes the possibility, the dread possibility that the way the Hebrews have behaved in the years of their wilderness wandering might be repeated when they go into the promised land. And they may because of their sinfulness come under therefore the condemnation and judgment of God. And they may be scattered as a people around the globe.

And then the possibility might be that they would come back to their senses and want to seek for the Lord and renew the relationship which once they had. And this is the verse of Scripture which was very much upon my heart that Moses offers to the Hebrews centuries ago. If from thence, from the land of exile you shall seek the Lord your God, you shall find him.

If you seek for him with all your heart and with all your soul when you are in tribulation and all these things that come upon you even in the latter days, if you turn to the Lord your God and shall be obedient unto his voice for the Lord your God is a merciful God he will not forsake you, neither destroy you nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swear unto them. I want to talk to you just for a few moments in underpinning all that you've heard so far this evening on the thought of the prodigal and the guarantee which God gives in his word to those who will return to him and mend their ways as they respond to the redemptive love which God offers to convicted sinners. And you may feel, well you've got the wrong passage of Scripture.

Mr. Land was reading from Luke's gospel and the parable of the prodigal son. And here you are in one of the first five books of the Old Testament books which are often referred to as the book of law hard books, granite like in their teaching. But my friend, do you not understand that the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament and the grace which is exhibited in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is anticipated in the experience of men and women who lived yesteryear, who lived in the days before the Savior.

There's one common authorship of this book. There's only one gospel. There's only one mighty covenant which will last throughout eternity to which all other covenants were pointing.

And so Moses, centuries before Jesus, told the story of the prodigal son, anticipates a prodigal people and suggests the course that is open to them by the grace of God if they fall foul of all the obligations that they made to the Lord God in the youth of the nation when she returned to Canaan. But it's not my concern this evening merely to deal with the historicity of this story or indeed to relate the context of the story of the prodigal. What I want to do by the grace of God is to lift the teaching of both testaments and to placard it in front of you.

Because it could be that some of you are in the same situation as Chris and Stan were, whose testimonies you have heard. They were informed about God in the earlier days of their lives, in tender years. But they never acknowledged that Jesus was Lord.

They never committed themselves to Him and the salvation that He extends. And if that is your situation right now, then take this word as your own, direct from God. Because it's addressed to people in a variety of circumstances.

People who, like the Israelites, are cast into spiritual exile. They went to Babylon and to Persia as a result of their sinfulness and their disobedience. But God said if the Hebrews confessed Him and repented of their sins, He'd bring them back from the land of bondage.

As He brings men and women back from the land of the far country where they have journeyed to as they have turned away from the Lord. I'll bring you back from thence, says God. And if your circumstances are such that they can be described in terms of tribulation, we'll hearken to the Gospel because that message is directed to people who are under pressure.

You heard of the tribulation of Mrs. Francis, of that great depression that came upon her that she attributed to Satan himself. Yours may not have been as drastic or as dramatic, but nonetheless, you felt pressurized in life. You've been like someone in the maze at Hampton Court and every turning that you took you thought might get you out of your problem, but it didn't.

It got you more and more lost. And you confess the lostness that there is in your situation. Well, the Gospel, my friend, is addressed to people in every circumstance, in every country.

And when you're in tribulation and you think about the Lord your God, you'll find that He's gone before you and He's thinking of you. Moses speaking to the people says, And all these things that have come upon thee, even in the latter days, what he means historically by the latter days is not too certain on the part of the commentators, but let's take it this evening because there are those here in this situation that latter days refers to the even tide of life and what better description. And you've had the misapprehension for a long time that the Gospel message and this business of baptism is restricted to the young people.

You know, it's track one through to track six at the tabernacle and that sort of person who's really involved in the Gospel message and responding to the Gospel message, not a bit. The Gospel is addressed to prodigals in their teens and prodigals in their seventies. And the message of the Lord God is to every man and every woman in every nationality and directed to each experience.

When you're in tribulation, when you're in the far country, when you're in the latter days, if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him. If thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. What are the steps back? What pointers along the road can we lift from this particular chapter of Scripture and say, these are the stepping stones that you are to take to find yourself in the redeemed community.

Well, first of all, you've got to mean business with God. If from thence you will seek the Lord your God. And there's a double emphasis here, seeking with all your heart and with all your soul.

It's amazing how people get bogged down with anxieties in this life which stem from things which are secondary really. A business going broke or health that is decaying. You say you call those things secondary? Yes, I do.

They've been related to the priority of one's spiritual condition. If I was a businessman and my business was going broke, I'd be straight to the accountant, straight to the solicitor, straight to someone who was experienced in the area of commerce who could help me. I'd go with my heart, I'd go with my soul, and I'd get the best advice possible.

And the Bible says this, that if you're smitten with a condition of spiritual lostness and you seek the Lord your God sincerely from the depths of your being, then you'll find Him. It says also in the 30th verse, if you turn to the Lord thy God, that means turning round. The prodigal had to turn round and go back home.

He did an about turn on his lifestyle. He moved to the place where he believed that he'd get help in his father's household. But to do that, he had to eat humble pie.

He had to confess that he'd been wrong, absurdly, ridiculously wrong. And the Christian, my friend, par excellence, is a person who realizes at some time in their life or other, they made an absolute mess. They went in the wrong direction.

And they stopped. And in a moment of conviction or utter despair, they turned around. Turn me, Lord, says the prophet, and I shall be turned.

It's impossible to become a Christian without moving around in your circumstances and facing not manward but Godward, not earthbound but heavenbound. And when you do this, it says the Lord through Moses, when you turn around, when you seek God with all your heart, and when the last part of verse 30, you're utterly obedient unto his voice, then you're in a position where salvation is readily available. But you see, it's the obedience thing that bugs us all.

It's bugged men and women ever since the beginning of the human race. What went wrong in the garden of Gethsemane was disobedience on the part of Adam and Eve. What's gone wrong throughout the whole story of the human saga is the declaration of UDI.

We can go at it on our own. We can arrange our own lifestyle. We can do our own thing.

And the Bible says that you've got to abandon your disobedience. You've got to come humbly before the Word of God, and you have to confess that its precepts and its principles are orders from the throne room of God, from the heavenly manufacturer who has given you these regulations, not to curb your happiness or your sense of fulfillment, but rather to bring it to its zenith, as your life and your lifestyle is brought under the obedience and the captivity of scriptural revelation. And God says if you do these things, you come as an old person, you come from varied nationalities, you come in your tribulation and your worry, and you take your steps, you seek the Lord doubly with your heart and your soul, you're prepared to turn right around, you admit that you've been disobedient and you repent of your disobedience, then these things follow.

Verse 31, The Lord thy God shall be a merciful God. I read a striking comment from Charles Spurgeon, that great preacher, only this afternoon, when he says that judgment is an uncommon thing to God. The natural reaction of God to the sinner is to forgive sin.

He wishes not the death of men and women, but rather would have all to come to a knowledge of the truth. His mercy endureth forever and ever. He's a merciful God.

I say thank God for that. Thank God he was merciful to the family whose testimony we have heard. Thank God that he was merciful to me in my early years back in the North Midlands.

Thank God, say three or four hundred people in this tabernacle this evening, that he was merciful toward us, or else we could never have been reconciled to him through his son. The Lord thy God is a merciful God. He treats with generosity and compassion the prodigal.

He will not forsake thee. It's not within the disposition of God to turn on one side those who cry to him for forgiveness. He will not destroy you.

He will not forget the covenant of thy fathers which he swore unto them. As says Moses, and he's got in mind the covenant that God made with the Hebrews at Sinai. God won't forget that he made you his special people, that he wrote his law on tablets of stone to help you improve your life and to get greater satisfaction from it.

But Moses penned these words and preached this address before Jesus came into the world. And the reason why Jesus Christ came to this globe was to enact the fulfillment of the Sinai covenant. And on the cross of Calvary with his own blood and by the breaking of his own body, he offers his life as an atonement for the sins of believing mankind.

This is the new covenant. It's a better covenant. It's the enduring covenant.

Its consequences will never come to an end. They'll live on in the future of the human race however long the story is yet to be. They'll penetrate into eternity.

Men and women shall be saved and enjoy the splendors of the blessings of the heavenly dimension as a result of God not forgetting the covenant that his son made with him on the cross of Calvary. Jesus interceded for the world. He prayed for those whom the father would give to him.

And the father still hears that prayer. And this is the message that I want to send you away with this evening my friend. That no man has sunk into the position of prodigal and gone astray from God to the extent that he is unrecoverable.

That he is beyond redemption. The gospel message is addressed to the whosoever. It delights the heart of God to forgive men and women.

To reassemble them after they have smashed their lives sometimes terribly as a result of their disobedience. The message of the evangel is available to men and women. Who will do what? Who will come to the Lord and seek him? Who will do an about turn on the lifestyle that they have adopted thus far? Who will bow their knee before the cross and with the pressure of their own guilt plaguing their souls? Who will say, Lord Jesus, I believe you died there to save me from my sin.

To erase my iniquity. I believe that the father has entered into a contract with believing mankind. And that those who trust you shall be forgiven in time and on through eternity.

This is a blessed message that God who related to the Hebrews centuries ago is prepared to be reconciled to you this very night. If you will turn. If you will acknowledge that you were wrong.

If you will get off the pedestal of your stubborn pride and say, Lord God, I know I've made a mess. And if I had a heart attack this evening. Or if I were robbed of my life in some other tragic circumstance.

I would not go to be with you throughout eternity. And so because of your uncommon mercy through Jesus. I get my priorities in order.

I'm concerned about my spiritual well-being. I'm concerned about your holiness. I'm concerned about your love.

I won't turn away. Rather I'll turn towards you. And I'll walk as the prodigal did.

Back to my father's house. Passing the cross. And standing there for a while.

And acknowledging my indebtedness to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what these friends have done. And now they have twinned their obedience.

Having confessed Jesus as Lord verbally. They have done it publicly. By submitting to the ordinance of baptism.

I ask you. Has there been that double obedience in your life? Have you acknowledged who you are? And what you need saving from? And having been saved. Have you come under the authority.

The Lordship of Jesus in every area of your life. And confessed through water baptism. That your salvation has come to you.

Because Jesus died on the cross of Calvary to save you. If you seek me. Says the Lord.

You shall find me. If you search for me. With all your heart.

The gospel of the prodigal. From the book of Deuteronomy. Let us pray.

And now we wait for God to evoke from our own hearts. That response which is due. To what you've heard.

Not only the message of the gospel. Rapidly and in brief preached. But the illustration of its effects in the life of a family circle.

That we're extending to you in the name of God. Praying that God's grace may open your heart. The benefits of that gospel.

Acting as ambassadors for Jesus. Who wishes all. To come unto him.

And find rest. If you've done that. Those of you in your latter years.

Those of you in middle years. Those in prime of life. Have you said to that.

Yes Lord. I believe. And submit to your authority.

And are you saying. Yes Lord. And I acknowledge my need.

To be baptized. And to show. That I love you.

As you demonstrated your love for me. On Calvary's cross. We pause a moment.

Not to unduly prolong this service. But to give you the opportunity. To respond in the privacy of your own heart.

To what God. Offers you. Through Jesus.

And I'm going to ask you when. We sing the last hymn. If it's your concern to.

Know more about this gospel or to. Be informed about. Baptism.

Just to leave wherever you are in the gallery or down here in the. Main part of the sanctuary and walk to the front. And then you'll be taken to my vestry and we'll have some moments of.

Conversation together. Not easy to do that in front of a crowd of people. But necessary sometimes to.

Show public assent. To what God. Offers us.

And. To what we wish to do. As a result of God's teaching in his word.

Father will you hear our prayer. And will you continue to work out your purposes in our life. And we thank you this night for the privilege of being here.

In Jesus name. Amen.