My text tonight is found in the book of Luke, 1st chapter 19, and then chapter 15. My subject is loss. The text, Luke 19, verse number 10. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. I would like for you to say that aloud, please, with me. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now in Luke chapter 15, verse 1. Then drew near unto Christ all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees, this was the religious crowd, and the scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. He hobnobbed with the down and out. And Jesus said, Wait a minute, boys. Let's get something very straight. I came not to save the righteous. I've come to call sinners to repentance. They that are whole don't need a physician. They that are well don't need to be healed. They that are perfect don't need forgiveness. They that are clean don't need cleansing. They that are down and out. They that are sinners. They that are lost. They're the ones I've come for. And when a man goes around in his own righteousness and his own intellectual snobbery, Jesus says, I don't have time for you. I'm not interested in the scribes and the Pharisees. He said, I'm interested in people that realize they're lost and need to be saved. He said, The very purpose for my coming is this. For this cause came I into the world. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus said, Go out in the highway. Go out in the hedges. Compel them to come in. Now sometimes people say to me, Well, if the down and out, if the poor, if the unlearned, if certain classes of people want to come, let them come, but don't go after them. That's not what Christ said. He said, Go out in the highway. Go out in the hedges. Now what kind of people live in the highways and the hedges? What kind of people have to hide in trees and caves and alongside the roads? The up and out? The rich? The affluent? No. Jesus said, Go to the rich and the poor. He said, Go to the highways and the hedges and compel them. And if there's anything the church ought to be doing, it ought to be redoubling its efforts to love the unlawed. To care for the uncared for. He said, Compel them to come in. Why? That my house may be filled. God wants the house full. He's honored when the house is filled. And he said, Go to those that are sick and lost, the hope, the maimed, the poor, the sinful, the discards, the rejects, those that nobody knows and nobody loves and nobody cares, and zero in on them and fill the house with God because those folks realize they need Christ. The people oftentimes who are very affluent, the up and out, are very satisfied. And to be sure, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ reaches all kinds of people. But Jesus Christ said, Hold it here. Just a minute, boys. You're off the track. Let's remember for whom I have come into this world. The loss. It was the focal point of his ministry. It was the object of his intention in the world. It was the purpose for his coming. And now having so said, he gives three parables to give impetus and impact that they would never forget. They say that one illustration is better than a hundred sermons. Illustrations are the windows of the mind that open the heart to let God's truth come in. And so lest they never forget, in one of the rare cases of the Bible, he gives three illustrations, one after the other, to make sure that they get the point that Christ came to save men that were lost. And here they are. Verse 3. He spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he finds it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice for me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. Now here's the second parable. What woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, does not light a candle and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it. And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Now here's his third story. A certain man had two sons. All of these stories illustrating one thing, Christ's interest in the lost. A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Give me the portion of goods that befalleth me. And he divided them unto him, his living. And not many days since, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. Mark that word, waste. And when he had spit off, and there does come a time when the opportunities of God and the provisions of God run out. Payday Sunday. When he had spit off, there arose a famine in the land. And he began to be in what? You that are sailing high, white, and handsome, in ignorance and rebellion and rejection of the will of God? Going your way, hell -bent for leather, discording and rejecting God's rights of the sovereignty of your life? Remember, one day salmon's coming. It'll come. It'll come. God doesn't always pray on Saturday night, but he always says it's coming. And so he went and joined himself to a citizen of that land, and he sent him into the field to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat, but no man gave to him. And when he came to himself, thank God, he woke up. He said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before thee. And he did so. And the Bible says the father greeted him when he was a long way off. Verse 21. And the son said unto him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. And so his father greeted him and met him and rejoiced. And the 24th verse says, This my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost. And it's past. And they began to be merry and to celebrate. Now his elder brother was in the field. And as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto them, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he, the elder brother, pompously, filled with pride, swelled up like a pompous, pious pig, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and entreated him or begged him to come. But he still would not. We as Christians believe, if we believe anything, that we have positive answers from a positive message to negative problems in the world. The slogan that says Christ in the answer is not poetry, friend. It's truth. It's not fiction. It's reality. Why then you say, preacher, begin a revival on a negative subject? Why not talk about something positive? Simply this. Because men are lost. And rich and poor and black and white and illiterate and educated and good and bad and socialite and down and out will never be safe. The Methodist, the Episcopal, the Lutheran, the Baptist, the church member, the non -church member will never be saved until they realize they're lost. I want us tonight to see that there is a strong line of demarcation in this congregation. Not the rich and the poor, not the famous and the infamous, the saved and the lost. I have noticed in recent days, in recent years, that we have tried to change the words of the Bible. It's no longer considered popular in theological circles to use the word lost. Men aren't lost anymore. They're unreached. They're unloved. They're unchurched. They're the unenlisted. They're the undiscovered. They're the uncared for. They're the overlooked. They're suffering from a downward stumble on an upward path. It's a problem of psychological reversal. It's a problem of a temporary lag in the evolutionary process. Everything but lost. Likewise, men aren't saved anymore. I find it very hard in asking a person about his experience to get him to use the word S -A -V -E -D. Tell me about your faith in Christ. Tell me of your decision. Oh, I went up when I was so -and -so. I prayed when I was so -and -so. I went in. I went up. I professed. I joined. I was baptized. Everything but got saved. Now, Jesus Christ never cut corners. I have come to save the lost. Tonight, you're either saved or lost. You have either responded to God's will and your life has been gloriously transformed. You've been changed and you are saved or you're still lost and damned in your sins. There are no exceptions. He said, I've come to seek and save those which were lost. Dr. George W. Truett, the great pastor for many years, 47 to be exact, of the First Baptist Church of Dallas said, one day in the early days when they did such things, he was riding on a train and he went into a certain little car and he saw a man chained to the back of the seat. A woman was distraught. In her tears, she called him into the next car and said, Doctor, I wish you would pray for my husband. He has lost his mom. I knelt in prayer beside a man who wept with the pastor and I as his business had burned to the ground in St. Louis. And he said, Oh, preachers, pray for me. Pray for me. I have lost my fortune. A girl knelt in my office in Oklahoma City one day and said, Preacher, you must never tell, but I must get the burden of guilt and sin off of my heart. I have lost my virtue and I cannot live with myself. A man said to me, whose life had been eaten up, whose body and brain and spinal system had been infected by both disease and dope and venereal disease, Preacher, there's no future for me. I am becoming abasteful. I have lost my health. It's an awful thing to lose your virtue. It's an awful thing to lose your health. It's an awful thing to lose your fortune. it's an awful thing to lose your job an awful thing to lose your home and your health and your mind there is nothing nothing, nothing, nothing in this world like being spiritually lost and separated from God in this life and in the next life and wasting your life and fulfilling and being absolutely nothing of what God created you above the animal kingdom than the dignity and image of God to be a human being, nothing lost, lost lost what an awful word it is it is the word that robbed heaven ever fairest jewel, it is the word that caused angels to bow as Jesus Christ laid aside the regal robes of royalty and stand in stark amazement as he stepped from the heaven to the womb of the virgin to the earth to become a man to be despised and spat upon rejected a man because they were lost it is the word that broke the heart of God and caused him to look away from that awful scene on God when his own son was bleeding for the world because the world was lost it is the word that destroys young lives in the bloom and potential when Satan ripped from them all of what God intended and created them to be it is the word that destroys homes it is the word that breaks up lives it is the word that wrecks hearts it is the word that damns and blinds and dooms men to hell lost, lost, lost how awful it is for a man to be lost Late in the 16th century, Sir Isaac Newton discovered the Law of Opposites, which says simply that for every forward thrust, there is the reverse power. That everything that moves one direction has an opposite thrust. For every life, a death. For every tear, a smile. For every birth, a funeral. For every pain, a moment of pleasure. For every moment of pleasure without God. A moment of payment and suffering. Loss, loss, loss. Tonight we stand as opposite. The saved and the lost. Should ye be called, as Napoleon once said, to preach to a pit full of kings or an assembly of murder, there is one message that we are bound to preach, and that is that God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And yet, I am painfully conscious of the fact that in spite of the positive aspects of the gospel, whether we preach to the Arapagites on Mars Hill, or to the Philippian jailer, the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, or whether it be to barbarian or bond or free, or to those in the Roman Empire, or to the king or the president, or to men today, we are bound by God, with a holy call of God, or God as Christians, to warn people to repent of the wrath to come, of the awfulness of being lost. We must be chargers as well as changers, convictors as well as converters, dividers as well as builders, for we are dealers of men where they are, and men are in their sins, bound irrevocably without the power of God in the damning, blinding, dooming, grinding, quicksand of sin. Well, universally, men are lost in the despot of sin. Sin, sin, sin that are hoary with age. Sins that damn the soul. Sins that break the heart of God. Sins that make men lost. You say, preacher, what are you talking about? What do you mean lost? Just this. When God created you, He made you a spiritual being inhabiting a physical body to have divine, superb relationship with the King of Kings, a child of God. But He didn't wind you up like a robot and say, you have to serve me. He made manna free morally. He gave you the choice, the free choice, serving Him because you would, serving Him because you wish, of serving Him because you will. The Bible says, all we, like sheep, have gone astray. There is none righteous, no, not one. And as surely as you and I had been in the Garden of Eden, as surely as you and I had stood at the bridge, as sure as you and I had stood at the cross, we would have done, for we do daily what they did, and that is to go our own way. We have turned everyone to his own way. And this condition of a life that basically goes from God rather than to God is in a condition the Bible calls being lost. but Jesus Christ came from heaven to seek, to find, and to save the lost. That through faith in Him, through a divine, life -transforming experience, when God comes into our life by faith in Christ, we become saved. And without that experience, you can be baptized, you can go to church, you can give to the PTA and the Red Feather Drive, but you will still be without God forever. Lost. Now the essence of lostness is not goodness nor badness. Some people say, I'm not so bad. I'm not bad. To be lost is not a degree of goodness or righteousness. It is a way -ness. It is a way -ness. It is separated from its intended purpose. The sheep was lost because he was away from the foes. The coin was lost because it was away from the collection. The brother, the younger son, was lost because he was afraid he was away from his father. I want to say four brief closing words to you. That sheep was lost because it was careless. It was careless. I have yet to have a man say to me in the honest integrity of his own life and heart, I hate God, I don't want to be saved, I've made up my mind to be in this world and the next world without God, I shall live and die lost. And yet the Bible says, few there be that find the way of salvation and broad is the way that lead us under destruction. Yet most people will end up ultimately lost. Why? Because of carelessness. I don't think one day that sheep just said, I think I'll go out and get lost. I believe I'll just go away from the foe. So I had to begin to nibble on the green grass and then there was the next bit, next pasture and on and on and on until in its carelessness it found itself lost and separated from the foe. Every day you spend without God. Every night you stay away from Christ. Every service you reject the will of God. Every invitation you refuse to come to Christ, you just nibble away farther and farther and farther and farther and fleetingly eventually get so far away from God, you are hopeless. And the Bible says God gave them up, God gave them up, God gave them up three times in the first chapter of Romans. Careless. The coin was lost because it was useless. It was round and so it rose. It was hard and so it fell. It was flat and so it just laid. And it was lost. Now there is a very good possibility that this woman was saving for a dowry because ten pieces of silver was a part of what was required for the dowry. Our heart must have broken as she sought for that one piece that stood between her and the ability of Christian Mary. And she wanted it. She looked for it. But had it been ten billion dollars or a half broken. It was absolutely useless. It could not be spent. It could not purchase. It could not accomplish that purpose for which it was intended. I think the worst part of being lost is the waste, the waste, the abject waste of a life that God intended to have fulfillment and beauty through Jesus Christ. You may be the President of the United States or the richest man in the city. My friend, unless you have that spiritual dimension in your life, unless you have God in you who created you for himself, your life is useless, wasted, wasted, because you are not fulfilling the purpose for which God created you. The prodigal was lost because he was godless. He was godless. In his pompous arrogance, in his pious audacity, he simply said to his father, give me. When a young person starts to demand of their parents, give me what's mine, and usurp their authority that they really don't have, flagrantly defy their parents and say, I'll do my thing and my way, in a godless attitude of life which fails to recognize the faith and the authority of the heavenly father over your life, to make something out of your life, to make life real and wholesome and wonderful and genuine. That young person is on dangerous ground. He just one day decided to get lost. He said, give me what's mine. I shall henceforth live my life in my way. In my time, I'll do my own thing. He was godless. Now listen very closely. The fourth word is this. I suggest to you that there were four illustrations of lostness here in this chapter. That the elder brother was likewise lost because he was loveless, loveless. His brother that was lost and was saved did not cause him to rejoice but had his pompous pride to swell up and say, you never gave me a party. You never did anything in me and he swelled up and stomped off in his own arrogance and independence he was proud love lovelessness and pride you can only know and experience real love when you have god's love in your life ah but there's an ending to the story the sheep is found and there is rejoicing for it is saved the coin is discovered and there is happiness because it is now spit unusable the prodigal returns to his father and in humility is converted and there is rejoicing in heaven and in the family of god but the story closes with one of the four still lost the elder son who was to come and say oh god be merciful to me a sinner on somebody to pride a professor to a college student a wise old christian in a counseling interview before enrollment in the story son what is your purpose in coming to school he said well sir i would study and make good grades and do the best i can he said a noble aspiration lad but uh go on go on what's that he said i'll graduate someday and hopefully with honors and go into business and prosper fine boy that's good what's that i don't know what you mean i don't know about the future i'll marry have a family perhaps uh i'll run for the judge of a great uh court or maybe be a politician or be a famous man and have everything fine go on go on what's that he said i don't know what you mean i suppose that someday i'll have a family move out in the country enjoy my wealth my family and retire good go on go on what's that what's that i don't know what you mean he said no go on what should i suppose someday like everybody i'll die all right when the bugle has made its last sounding and the soldiers have made their last day when the captain shall give his last order and the sun sets forever what then when the banker has made his last dollar and the merchant no more opens the door when the heavens no more shall be shining and the skies are placid indoors when the actor's all through with his rehearsing and the poet has made his last time his last ride when the god that made all creation shall say tis the end of all times when the choir has sung his last anthem and the church bells forever shall see when god is the god of anger no more of blessing when the preacher has preached his last sermon and eternity forever begin and the world that rejected its savior is asked for a reason with this i close my friend hugh bumpus for several years the pastor of capitol hill baptist church of oklahoma city said to me that one day having visited and witnessed and tried to win to christ a man in dallas texas where he was the pastor of the victory baptist church time after time again a man now approaching 80 would not respond to christ someday someday someday i'll put it off tomorrow not today someday someday the bible warns if you put him off too long one day he'll put you off and leave you alone he said before he got ready to move to oklahoma city 27 years ago he went by and said frank for one last time i would like to tell you about christ and urge you as a lost man to repent of your sins receive Christ, and turn to God and be saved tonight. He said, Preacher, not today. Not today. Someday. He said he went back home. The moving van was closing up the house. They were just coming to take out the telephone. They were just getting ready to leave his home. The door, the phone rang. He said, Hello? This is Brother Bumpus. They said, Brother Bumpus, there's been an emergency. Come to the hospital. Quickly, hurry! He raced down there to the hospital. There was the man who tried to win to Christ 20 minutes ago. He was standing in the back of his car, and a drunk had run into him and hit him and severed both of his legs at the knee. He said they were holding him down and giving him shots, and he was screaming, I'm lost! I'm lost! And he said, Man, pray. Pray. He was dying. Ask God to see you. He said, I can't. I can't. I'm lost. I'm lost. He said, Man, pray. He said, Just say, God, save me! He said, I can't. I'm lost. They're coming after me. They're coming after me. And he said, Great drops of sweat burst on his brow. And he said, Man, pray. And he said, I can't. I'm lost. I'm lost. Bumpus said he put his arm on his hands, on his shoulders, and looked right into his face. And holding his face, he said, Frank, just say, God! He'll save you. Just say, God! He'll save you. I'm lost. I'm lost. I'm lost. God had taken him up and walked out. And he was left in his end. He did not have the power left to pray, God save me. And died lost. Lost. Lost. If there was, I'm not mean joining a church. If there was a time when you, in amazing grace, somewhere, somehow, standing, sitting, kneeling, have prayed, Oh, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Come into my life. Forgive my sins. Save me. Come into my heart. Lord, I receive you, Christ. I receive you for the forgiveness of my sins, for new life, now and for eternity. My friend, you are saved. But if not, church member, religious, visitor, the good and bad and worst and best among you, then you are lost. Lost. You need not join our church. You want to find, if not find. The issue, the invitation is exclusively for you to be saved. I say to you, if you will be honest and admit that God is laying your pride, laying everything on the altar. Dear Lord, I am lost. I am lost. I've never been saved, and I want to be saved. For Christ's sake, Oh, God save me. You will but come down these aisles to this altar. We are waiting, trained, praying, prepared, and ready to help you to give your heart to Jesus. He will come in. You can go out of here saying, away lost, lost. The decision is yours. God votes for you. He died on the cross. The devil votes against you. He hates God and the church. He hates preaching. He hates the blood. He hates revivals. He hates you. The way you vote determines the election. You can come, say yes, or reject and say no. I implore you. I entreat you in Jesus' name. Child, teenager, from the farthest corner to the front row. You've never been saved. Or listen, if you do not know for dead sure whether you've ever been saved or not, come, let us help you and talk to you and pray with you. You can be saved tonight. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. May we pray. Oh, our God, in that precious name that is above everything, even that of Christ our Lord, we would speak of tomorrow. We would preach of another opportunity. We would think of another day. We would pray for another chance. For thou hast said, today is the day of salvation. Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for no man knows what a day may bring forth. Every one of us has a friend, a relative, a loved one, who was lost and who has been saved and who's changed life and bright appearance and joy and testimony is convicting and speaking to them. Oh, God, may the Spirit of God tug at hearts and may those who are lost be saved in Jesus' name. Heads or bow. Let every eye be closed.