The Heart of the Lesson By T . C, HORTON
Lesson IV—April 26, 1914 G olden T ext .— Luke 15:10; "There is joy in the presence of God over one sinner that repenteth!' To understand this golden text you must be able to see the three parables—The lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. They are a part of one parable!- in which the triune work of the Godhead in behalf of the backslider is plainly taught. The sheep is the most foolish of all animals. Why does it stray away, and when it does why is it that it has not sense to return? A pearl slips from the string of thé necklace, but it cannot find itself nor restore itself to its place. The sheep has a shepherd and the shep herd loves the sheep and leaves the ninety and nine in the wilderness fold and goes out after the foolish sheep. He never comes back until he finds it. The sheep can never find its own way back. It had its own way when it went astray. The love of the Lord is not only manifested in His death for us but in His care for us. No man shall be able to pluck us out of His hand. The wo man misses the one coin and sweeps until she finds. The Holy Ghost is the light by which the coin is discovered and restored. Ten pieces of silver and only one missing. Yet ten is the number of completeness and the necklace is incomplete—defective—with out the one. The key words are in both instances, lost and found. We are nothing but poor, lost sheep, but the Lord loves us and He will never be satisfied until He has us with Himself in the fold. We are but one of ten, but one is precious and must be brought back. What a precious lesson concerning the backslider. He may stray away from the family of the Lord, and alas so many do, but the Lord has pledged us that He will bring us back. What joy there is when the poor, sinning saint is brought back. The bringing back process is often attend ed with much sorrow to the Lord Jesus
and to the Holy Spirit, but it is all swal lowed up in the joy of the reunion. Every child of God must be brought back for He seeks until He finds and she sweeps until she finds. Lesson V—May 3, 1914 G olden T ext . —Luke 15:18. “I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven in thy sight.” This third aspect of the three parables, which are one, gives us the heart of the father for his lost son. Notice that it is a son who goes out from the father’s house and breaks his father’s heart by his wilful ness. He is a son, but he wants his own way and he takes it, but something back in the home appeals to his stubborn heart and we find him going home. Our eyes have always been upon the son in this part of the parable and that breaks the harmony. The Shepherd is the chief thing in the first parable. The Light which discloses the coin is the chief thing in the second and the Father is the chief thing in the third. Surely the prodigal son is the backslider. The backslider knows the Fath er, knows the joys of fellowship in the Father’s home. He knows the way back and the constraining love of the Father draws him. “I will go to the Father.” There is no more beautiful picture of the heart of our Father God in all the Bible. He saw the boy a great way off. He knew he would come back. He was waiting for him. The best robe, the ring and the shoes were waiting for him, and there was joy and a feast and a merry-making over a poor, lost, depraved, wandering, back sliding son. The three parables viewed together reveal the work of the triune God in the restora tion of a backslider. The Lord Jesus never leaves them. He follows everywhere, al ways. The Holy Spirit abides in the back slider and brings the truth to bear upon
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