I ask you that you turn with me this morning to Ezekiel chapter 34, Ezekiel 34, I had put it incorrectly in the bulletin as 24, but Ezekiel 34, as we read that in connection with Luke chapter 15, verses 4 through 7. In Luke chapter 15, the beginning of that chapter there, we find three parables that go together. Parables of the lost sheep, of the lost coin, and of the lost or the prodigal son. The Lord willing, as we consider the lost sheep today, the lost coin, next Sunday the Lord willing, and then the two Sundays just prior to Christmas Sunday, we will consider in those two Sundays, we'll consider the parable of the prodigal son, but the three do go together. So, in that sense, we want to consider them together. Ezekiel chapter 34, there we find what the Word of the Lord says through Ezekiel regarding the shepherds and the sheep and the misuse of the sheep by the shepherds, the religious leaders, and then comforting words of what God will do for His sheep. We read verses 1 through 16 of Ezekiel chapter 34. Hear now the Word of God. The word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says. Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves. Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock, but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says. I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue My flock from their mouths and it will no longer be food for them. For this is what the Sovereign Lord says, I Myself will search for My sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after My sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will gather them out from the nations and gather them from the countries and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend to them in a good pasture and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. But the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. In Luke chapter 15, reading verses 1 through 7. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Then Jesus told them this parable. Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me! I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, we come before You. We thank You, O Lord, for Your most holy Word. And we confess before You, Father, that Your Word means nothing to us apart from the power of Your Holy Spirit. And therefore, we pray that in this hour You would bless us, that You would illumine us by Your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds that we might hear Your Word, that we might receive it and believe it and be obedient to it, O Lord. We pray, Father, that You would strengthen us through Your Word, by the power of Your Spirit. And may You indeed receive all the praise and the honor and the glory. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray these things. Amen. Dear people of God, we are a people of priority, aren't we? Prioritizing is a good thing we're taught. Putting our priorities in order from most important to least important. Well, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, also known as scribes, they also were men of priority. However, their priority was always self, themselves, and they looked down upon and they despised those who were not of their kind or did not live up to the standards which they had determined one must live up to. In this case, in our text, they despised the tax collectors and those labeled as sinners because as so-called men of God, these Pharisees and scribes, they were sure. They were sure that God had abandoned these sinners. They were confident that God wanted no part of these sinners. You see, the tax collectors were Jews who worked for Caesar, the Roman emperor, collecting taxes from and also often extorting more money from their fellow countrymen, their fellow Jews. And therefore, these tax collectors, they were really no friend of the Jews. The others were other people of bad reputation who violated the holy law of God such as adulterers and prostitutes and thieves and beggars and the like. And if one associated with people like this, that one was considered to be contaminated. Contaminated. And to eat with them. To take time to eat with people like this. Well, come on, that wasn't heard of. But that's exactly what the Lord was doing. How could He? How could He? These religious leaders, of God's people no less, who claim to uphold the law of God, the same law that says be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. The same law that says, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. These who were supposed to be ministers of God's heart of love to sinners. They expose their own heartlessness. They expose their own hatred. You see, to them, God had no time for these sinners until, until they repented of their sin. Then and only then, and not a moment before, only when they repented of their sin, then would they be rewarded with the wages of divine mercy and with God's acceptance. But until they repented, they were to be ignored, they were to be despised, one was to have nothing to do with them. And it's for that reason, beloved, it's because of that attitude that Jesus tells these three parables about the lost. The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost or prodigal son as we know it. And in doing so, our Lord teaches of the heart of God. And He teaches of God's priority to seek and to save lost sinners. In these three parables, we are taught of God's restoration of His lost chosen ones. And in this particular parable before us, we are instructed that God doesn't wait for His children to seek Him. Because that will never be. That will never take place. But His priority, beloved, is that in His mercy, God doesn't leave His people lost and alone, but He graciously seeks them. Jesus Christ was a visible demonstration of the heart of God doing what the earthly shepherds of Israel were neglecting to do. And He made it clear that this was His purpose for coming when He said in Luke chapter 5, Those who are well have no need of a position, but those who are sick, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Congregation, Jesus Christ is the seeking shepherd who restores the lost to the kingdom. And in that connection with this parable, we want to consider the desperately lost, the rescue mission, and then finally the joyful celebration. Against the grumbling and the complaining of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, Jesus, in this parable, He explains His relationship with the tax collectors and the sinners in such a way that the Pharisees and the scribes could understand. In a way, really, that they themselves could identify with. You see, sheep herding was an important part of the business of the day. And when Jesus asked the question in verse 4, suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, Does He not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until He finds it? Jesus asks that question in such a way that as He asks it, He's answering it for them. Yes. Indeed, yes. They would all go after the lost sheep. Not one of them would just forget about it. And with this analogy, beloved, Jesus was teaching what He was doing. Looking for God's lost sheep. Those talked about in Ezekiel 34. Why would they go after the lost sheep? Because a sheep that is lost, plain and simple, is desperately lost. You see, when a sheep wanders away from the safety of the flock, that's a foolish thing to do. What we know about sheep as we have considered from time to time, especially earlier in the year as we considered together Psalm 23, what we know about them is that they depend upon the shepherd for everything. They depend upon the shepherd for their very life. The shepherd leads them to food and water. The shepherd makes sure that the pastures and the fields are safe for the sheep to graze in. The shepherd is the one who fights off dangerous predators that attack. The shepherd simply is their everything, unlike certain other animals like dogs and horses that are able to instinctively find their way back home, a sheep, once it wanders off, it keeps on wandering. It gets more and more lost. It is not able to find its way back. And when it is lost, it is desperately lost because it cannot find food. It does not know enough to stay away from mountain cliffs and rocky places of danger. It cannot fight off dangerous predators. A sheep on its own is a recipe for deadly danger. And the lost sheep in this parable is a picture of the elect child of God who is by nature lost in sin and death. And the tax collectors and the sinners represent the desperately lost condition of man apart from God. You see, as slaves to sin, we ignore God. We shut out His voice. We forsake Him. We walk in our own way. We place ourselves in constant spiritual danger. As slaves to sin, we think that we can find our own way. We think that we can find our own food for our souls. We think that we can find our own shelter in time of the storm. We think that we know what's best for us. But the truth is, none of that is true. The truth is, we can't do any of these things. We become lost without being able to find our way back home to God. And because we are hopelessly entangled in sin and in the darkness of our own foolishness, we are ignorant and we are oblivious to the danger that surrounds us. We don't even notice it. Sometimes like a child that is walking into danger and you and I as parents can see it, but our children are oblivious to it. Away from the green pastures of the Word of God We starve spiritually, and Satan is all set to devour us. Beloved, lost in sin, mankind is desperately lost, headed for deadly, eternal danger. And this includes God's elect people. Those chosen from before the foundation of the world. You see, apart from Jesus Christ, we are no different from anyone else. We wander aimlessly further and further from our shepherd. We cannot find our way home, and indeed, we won't even want to seek to find our way home. Do you see the wisdom of God in calling His people sheep? Isaiah said, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to His own way. We are foolish and helpless and in constant need of care and protection and attention. This desperately lost sheep that Jesus speaks of here is a picture of you and me. Apart from the saving grace of God. And this desperate situation then shows us the necessity of the rescue mission. In His question, Jesus implies that the owner of the sheep Himself leaves the 99 in the open country and goes after the lost sheep until He finds it. And the owner doesn't waste any time. He knows that every single minute counts, and that with each passing minute, the lost sheep is closer to danger than the minute before. Again, we know that's true of our children. We hear about that all the time, that when children, when a child becomes lost or abducted, every single minute counts. Every minute that child is gone is a minute that that child is closer to not being found. Now we might wonder, well, here we're talking about sheep. We're talking about those four-legged creatures with wool. What's the big deal? Losing one out of a hundred. He's still got 99. What's the big deal? But to answer this, we need to look at this in the context of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and beloved. When we do, the picture of the heart of God, which our Lord demonstrates, shines bright with divine comfort. That lost sheep is the property of the owner. The one who goes searching is not a hired hand who cares nothing for the sheep, but the owner himself. He knows his sheep. He cares for it. He cares for its safety. He has compassion for this sheep, knowing what kind of destructive end it will find if he doesn't find it. Because it is defenseless. He is the shepherd and owner of each and every sheep. He counts them at night. He doesn't want to lose even one. See, here we see what God's people are to Him. Jesus Christ is the good shepherd. He said, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and am known by my own. And they follow me. They are His personal property. He says, you are mine. You belong to Me. Why? Because He redeemed them with His own precious blood and every single one for whom He gave His life, He will seek and He will save. Guaranteed. We read in Ezekiel chapter 34 these words, for this is what the Sovereign Lord says, I Myself will search for My sheep and look after them as a shepherd looks after His scattered flock when He is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. And again, the verse is following that. So very comforting for you and me. As we know that our Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Ezekiel. Beloved, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ looks at His hands, at the nail scars in His hands, and He sees the marks of His purchase. And he looks at his side and the spear scar on his side and he sees the token of the redemption of his own sheep and he confidently says, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. Our Lord has great compassion for His people, beloved, because He knows. He knows the eternal misery that lies in the path of those who are lost forever. He knows it because He experienced it. And therefore, it's impossible that even one sheep for whom Jesus died, it's impossible that even one will not be found. Satan will never be able to accuse our Lord of allowing even one of his sheep to perish. Jesus says that the man searches until he finds it. He gives up everything. He forgets about his own interest for the sake of the lost sheep. He may become weary because of sleepless nights. He may have to endure the dangers of rough and rugged country and the anxiety of a desperate search, but he puts his life on the line in order to restore that which is lost. And when he finds the sheep, beloved, notice, he is merciful. Not like the shepherds Ezekiel was talking about. Our shepherd, our great shepherd is merciful. He doesn't beat the sheep. He doesn't whip it and mercilessly drive it back to the fold. Instead, he gently picks it up. He lays it on his shoulders. And with rejoicing in his heart, he carries it home. He cannot help but to rejoice when he finds the lost sheep. In an instant, all the fear and the anxiousness is gone as joy floods his heart. Parents, if you've ever had a child who wandered off at the beach or in the mall or in some busy place, you can identify with this a little bit. Whether it was for five minutes or two minutes or even for one minute, you can identify with the fear and the anxiousness, but also once you saw your child and held your child in your arms and that child was safe, you can identify with the fact that the fear and the anxiousness is driven away as joy floods your heart. Congregation, this is a powerful picture of the work of Christ. He went all the way to restore His lost sheep. He gave up the glory of heaven and He took upon Himself the shame of the cross with the eternal wrath and punishment of God. He did what He had to do, what we needed Him to do in order to secure the safe homecoming and restoration of His people. And our comfort must be that even if you or I was the only child of God that was lost, Jesus would have done no less. He would have done the exact same. And in His love and strength, our Lord carries His sheep back to the fold of God and He restores us gently. He carries us over the rough places. He leads us around temptations. He holds us in the grip of His Spirit. He alone gives rest and refreshment. The psalmist says, I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my steps. Our God seeks His own by means of His Spirit and His Word. And He does so, beloved, through the situations and the circumstances of life through which He leads. He reveals Himself to His sheep through the regenerating power of His Holy Spirit and brings them to repentance and faith as He shows them the horror and the hopelessness of their sin and that without Jesus Christ, they can do nothing. Apart from Jesus Christ, we remain desperately lost. In fact, we don't even want to return to the full. but through His Spirit God works within us beloved to show us just how good it is in the house of our God and what a blessing it is to be freed from sin's power and from the dominion of unrighteousness through His irresistible grace God brings His people to repentance of their sins and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ He brings us to heed the call of Jesus come to me All you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? A lecture? An earful? A good chewing out? No. I will give you rest. And beloved, one is found when Jesus Christ is found on His side through repentance and faith. That's how you know if you've been found, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God. And when our Lord finds one of His sheep, that sheep is saved forever. The psalmist says in Psalm 55, Cast your burden on the Lord and He shall sustain you. He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. Our Lord effectively searches and finds His sheep because He bore their burden on the cross as the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And we must understand that He finds and saves us who didn't even want to be found. saved. And He gives to us, beloved, that which we didn't even know that we needed. The truth for each and every believer, you and me included, is that God has found them. I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him seeking me. We sing the tender love a father has for all his children dear Jesus Christ is a demonstration of that tender love and he continues to and he will continue to seek and save the lost of his chosen people until every last one has been brought safely home and it's no wonder then that the text also includes the joyful celebration then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says rejoice with me I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent. What a difference between the heart of God and the heart of these Pharisees and scribes. God doesn't deal with his lost children in the same way these religious leaders dealt with those that they considered to be wayward and lost, those they considered to be too far beyond hope. They ignored them. They neglected them. They despised them. And worst of all, beloved, they would let them stay lost. But not God. God saves His people. And this is a reason for rejoicing, for celebration. This joyful celebration, you see, is set in opposition to the grumbling of the Pharisees and the scribes in verse 2. The man in the bearable calls his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him because life has been saved, it's been preserved, it's been restored. And in that way, these Pharisees and scribes should have rejoiced with the tax collectors and sinners that the Savior had come. Instead, it's clear that they did not care at all about the salvation of the lost. Now, a question we need to consider is this, who are the 99 righteous persons who need no repentance? Well, as you can imagine, there is a difference of opinion here, but I believe that the best and the most accurate answer based on Scripture interpreting Scripture is that they refer to the Pharisees and the scribes. Those who thought they were safe like the 99. Those who thought that they were already in the fold by their own righteousness. Again, this rejoicing is set against their grumbling. In other places in Scripture, when Jesus is facing His opponents, He refers to them in one way, but in actuality, He is speaking, as we might say, tongue-in-cheek, a bit sarcastically. In John 9, verse 39, Jesus speaks of the Pharisees as those who see, meaning that they understand the truth. But the context shows us that He really means they think they see. They think they understand the truth. We quoted earlier from Luke 5 when Jesus says that those who are well don't need a physician. And He adds that He did not come to call the righteous to repentance. And again, the context shows us that Jesus was talking about those who thought they were righteous. Those who had fooled themselves into thinking they were righteous. Now, we know that the Pharisees and the scribes were known for their self-righteousness. They built their hopes and their dreams on the foundation of their own self-righteousness. They credited themselves with being righteous according to the letter of the law, but they failed to see their unrighteousness according to the spirit of the law. In Jesus Christ, the highest righteousness was embodied and stood right before their eyes. And what did they do? They rejected Him. They wanted no part of Him. In truth, they saw no need for repentance in themselves. With regard to them, there is no reason to rejoice. Only those who know themselves to be lost and in need of a Savior will be saved. Beloved, we need to reflect on the truth that is taught here. What is it? What is it that brings joy in heaven? Not the great works of man. That is not God's priority. Again, contrary to what the world might believe. A few years back when I did a lot of singing, did a lot of special music and services, I did a particular song many times over and over again in the worship service. sometime later came to understand how heretical that song was. It was a popular contemporary Christian song. But that song talked about a person who died and went to heaven and all these people who were already there came up to Him and started thanking Him for all that He had done for them. Giving of His money, helping them out, whatever. And the song culminates with Jesus Himself coming to this man with tears in his eyes thanking him for what he did for Christ. How wrong? That's not God's priority. The greatest works of men cause no jubilation in heaven. Only repentance and faith. No matter how much good Oprah or Dr. Phil might do, for people in this life. Apart from repentance and faith, it means nothing. It is the repentance of one miserable sinner found by God that causes heaven to break out in joyful celebration. Heaven rejoices because of the effective work not of you, not of me, but of Jesus Christ. When God lays His hand on a lost child and that child is brought under the conviction of his sin and need for a Savior and therefore acknowledges that God has a right to his life. This is a reason to celebrate. Salvation is the reason to celebrate. Boys and girls and young people, we celebrate many things, don't we? Like birthdays and Christmas and graduations and proms and weddings and the last day of school and some the first day of school. We celebrate many things. But apart from the gift of salvation, all of these mean absolutely nothing. Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ rejoices because this is His body, the church. He is gathering. And each one that is gathered, beloved, finds their place in Him. And His glory will be complete only in the full salvation of all those who belong to Him. beloved, heaven rejoices because the restoration of God's people is the fruit of Christ's suffering and death. That was His purpose. That is the priority of heaven. The completion of Christ's church. The angels rejoice as they see God glorified as His work of salvation is effectively applied to sinner after sinner after sinner chosen by God. We must remember that angels are ministers of God who serve the well-being of the saints and their joy is the final salvation of the church. Beloved, our Lord and the angels in heaven rejoiced when our seeking shepherd found and restored through repentance and faith each of us who believes. Did you know that? When you came to faith by the grace of God, there was a celebration in heaven. for you, for me. And if salvation causes this kind of a response in heaven, what must our attitude be toward the saving grace of God for us, for ourselves, and for others? You see, this is eternal, not temporary, eternal salvation, being rescued from eternal death and restored, delivered to eternal life. This is the work of God totally undeserved by you or me. In humility, we are to praise Him for His amazing grace that saved a wretch like me and we are called as well to respond with lives of thankfulness before Him. And, this must be our desire for those who do not yet believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That they too may be the reason for great rejoicing in heaven. Beloved, may we not ever write off anyone in this life. No one is too lost to be saved. While it is still today, whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. May we never stop praying for our loved ones who have not yet turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, thinking, well, the older they get, the more stubborn they're going to be, which may be true, but they're never going to change. Never underestimate the power of God. Again, we find so many things to celebrate, even meaningless things, but do we really rejoice? When one has been rescued by our Lord from the clutches of hell and turned to Him in repentance and faith, do we really rejoice? I had to ask myself that question while I was working on this sermon and a matter came before me of this very thing, the openness of someone. And I had to ask myself, do I really care? Shame on me for asking that question. Do we as a congregation really rejoice when one of our young people stands before you as a congregation and God to say, I believe all that you have taught me in the church by God's grace. I believe it's for me too. Beloved, it warms my heart. There was the picture in the Sharon Care, I think it was of Hank Hauptman's profession of faith. Afterward, when he was a congregation, the aisle was full of the congregation coming forward to celebrate with Him. There can be no greater joy than this, beloved, and it must be our desire, the desire of those found by the Savior to be used of Him to seek and find those still lost. The truth is those who don't feel joy and the desire to rejoice in the repentance of lost sinners are out of harmony with the inhabitants of heaven. They don't sing the same tune as the angels. And those who remain lost will not share in the joyful celebration of heaven, but will be forever lost in the place of hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, but not so those who turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. And our comfort is that salvation comes from the hand of God. He seeks. He finds. He saves. And when His face shines upon His people, beloved, there is restoration. There is salvation. So that our comfort might be, and may this be your comfort, that once found by the Lord, always safe with the Lord. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, may it be that every day of our lives with every bit of our being we would praise You for finding us. For saving us. For setting Your love upon us. And may we never ever take that for granted, O Lord. And even as we even try to understand the celebration in heaven when You brought us to repentance and faith, help us too to know that that same celebration is for all those You bring to Yourself. And may it be our desire, Father, that many come to know You and believe on You for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you.