In this sermon, the preacher discusses the parable of the prodigal son as a representation of repentance. He highlights the threefold nature of the parable, with each part representing a different person of the Trinity. The first two parts emphasize the sovereign grace of God, as the shepherd finds the lost sheep and the woman finds the lost coin without any effort from them. The last part focuses on the human element of repentance, as the prodigal son realizes his mistakes, repents, and returns to his father. The preacher emphasizes the simplicity of the message of repentance and the joy it brings to heaven.

Keep on, and on, and on. Amen. And he'll always do things that'll make you do it too. He'll always do the things. Sometimes you won't feel all that loving. You'll feel more like weeping. Sometimes because you'll misunderstand some of the things he does. But if you remember that it's always love, and you keep loving him. Amen. You won't always understand that what he's done is for the best. But never mind, just keep believing and loving him. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over. Again, and again, and again, and again. Hallelujah. You just think of eternity going on like this. You're not going to float about on a cloud, you know that, don't you? We are going to go on learning to love the Lord. And when we get there, we'll realize we've only just begun. However deeply we think we've been in love with him while we're on the earth. We're going to be taught more and more. When we really see, plainly, how Father, Son, and Holy Ghost abide in love. And always have. No complaints. They never talk about one another behind their backs. They never stick a knife between each other's shoulders. Or anything like that. They just keep loving one another. Amen. And this is what God says. He wants us to glory in that we know him and understand him. And when you begin to say, oh, I understand now. Lord, why you did this and so on. I understand you, Lord. What a tremendous thing. He wants to be understood. Hallelujah. Do you realize that? There's a verse in Jeremiah, for instance, that you perhaps ought to look at. About this. Chapter 2. I'm sure some of you thought I was going to turn towards the end of the book, didn't you? Because you've saved up a verse there that's been your favorite. I have loved you with an everlasting love. And therefore with a loving kindness have I drawn thee. But you look at this one. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, The love of thine espousals. I wonder if Jesus looks wistfully back upon the day when you really fell in love with him. And says, I can remember that, but it's not like it now. I wonder if he says, it's not like that anymore now, but I still remember it. Amen. That is when Israel, verse 3, was holiness unto the Lord. And you'll never be holiness unto the Lord until you love him with that same glorious, spontaneous realization of love that dawned in your heart about Jesus. That's when you'll be holiness unto the Lord. You will be his holiness. You just won't be made holy. You will be his holiness. He'll refer to you as his holiness. He'll say, do you want to see my holiness to the angels? He'll say, go and look at that person, that's my holiness. You see, holiness and love are quite the same. They're two different ways of speaking of the same thing. My holiness. You love me. And God's really succeeded in his holy work when you love him like that. Isn't that a glorious thing? You know, love is a most holy thing. You understand that, do you? Love is a holy thing. It's so rare. When God finds it, it's exquisite to him. Real love. Oh, praise the name of the Lord. How many of us love him like that? How many? It might be a good idea if you wrote in the flyleaf of your Bible, on such and such a day, such and such a year, I fell in love with Jesus. It might be better than writing a text. I fell in love with Jesus. It might be good if you bought a new Bible that you transferred it to the new flyleaf. For Jesus, God says, I remember thee. I remember the love of thy despise. Amen. If he has a flyleaf in his book, perhaps he's got it written there. Oh, he's got some books. He says he has. I remember when A.B. fell in love with me. I remember that. Listen. He says, I will not remember thy sins against thee any more forever. I'll remember that always. I'll remember when you fell in love with me. Has it ever happened to you? Or is all this talk and singing about love, is it something which makes you fairly cynical, and say, well, I know it's not like that. It's never happened to me. Or, I don't believe in this emotionalism. I'm sorry you feel so dead. And you mustn't judge everybody else's experience by your own. You really mustn't. The people who say it's never worked for me, only prove that they've never believed properly, that's all. And it's a wonderful thing when God brings us there. Amen. It's an amazing thing, is love. It's self-fulfillment, but it's self-forgetfulness in its outworking. And of course, that is it. It's the complete yielding up unto the Lord. In such a way that his heart is absolutely devastated, if you might put it that way. For this is what the bridegroom says to the bride in the Song of Solomon. He says, just one chain of thy neck has got me, he says. Just that. Praise the name of the Lord. To be really in love with the Lord. Are you? Amen. Everything begins there. And I want to say to you, that if you have been in that place of love with the Lord, when you really espoused yourself to him, or you allow the Spirit of God to espouse you to him, whichever way it is, then he remembers that. He remembers it. Isn't that glorious? Events may have tried to stamp it out. The devil surely tried to do it. But God says no. It's fragrant. It's real. He feels it in his heart. To this very day. What a marvelous thing then, to realize what God does. Talking recently with someone about coming to the Lord. I was using that marvelous parable, as we call it, although it's only a third of a parable, of the Good Samaritan. You will know that the whole chapter is the parable, and that part of the Prodigal Son is only a third. Although it takes up more than half of the chapter. It's only a third of the parable. Now, it's a parable, as you know, on repentance. Jesus tells the marvelous parable, and of course it's a parable of the Trinity. In the beginning you have the Good Shepherd going out for the sheep. That's Jesus. In the middle you have the woman hunting for the piece of silver. That's the Holy Ghost. And in the end you have the Father coming to receive the Son. And so it's one parable, threefold, each one a little cameo of one of the persons of the Trinity. And it's a precious thing. In the first two parts of the parable, that's the Son, that's the Shepherd, I mean, and the sheep, and the woman, and the coin, the great word repentance is used. You know, there's repentance in the presence of the angels, or more joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth, and so on. And yet when you read those parables, you'll find that one's about a sheep and the other one's about a coin. And I've never known a sheep show any signs of repentance. And as for a bit of silver showing signs of repentance, none. You see, the first two parts of the parable speak of the sovereign grace of God. The sheep did not have to do anything. The Shepherd found it. The silver piece didn't do anything, made no response, couldn't even say, Nah! Just lay there. The woman went and found it. Sovereignty, that's the sovereign grace of God. That's absolutely the Calvinist's delight. The greater part of the chapter is taken up with the story of the prodigal son. Now that's Arminian, if you want. And it's the classic on human repentance, and yet the word repentance is never used in it. The word repentance is only used where the sovereignty of God is shown. And the last part, well, the son repented. Amen. He repented. And he went back to his father. Hallelujah. What a tremendous thing it is. You got this quite clear, haven't you? Hmm? I hope you have. So you see the human element in this. The human element in this. In this, the father's not doing anything. It's all the son, the son, the son. The son comes to himself. The son says this. The son says, I'll arise and go to my father. He doesn't say, I feel repentant. He simply gets up and goes to his father. Then the father comes. What a glorious thing it is to know this. That two-thirds of the time, if I may put it this way, you're being sought by God. A third of it, you've got to come. You've got to move to God. Absolutely. You've got to do it. It's no good sitting there like a lump of dough and saying, well, God's sovereign if he wants me, he can come and get me, or something like that. You should say, I'm human and I want God and I'm going. That's right. Whoever comes to Jesus is never cast out. No one that comes to Jesus is cast out. But Jesus often goes to people and is cast out from them. You never need be worried that Jesus will cast you out. You can take death for granted. No one that comes will ever be refused or cast out. No one that sought Jesus went away unheeded. No one that asked the Lord for anything was ever refused, except the fellow that came and said, Lord, speak to my brother. Divide under me the inheritance. And he said, who made me a judge or a divider over you? I'm not bothered whether you get a halfpenny or whether you get a million pounds. That's not what I've come into the world for. Amen. He didn't deal in that realm at all. You understand that? That's not what he's concerned about. You come to the Lord, you'll never be cast out. The tragedy is that the Lord comes to people and they cast him out. You rise and go to the Father. He's waiting to receive you. That's the marvelous truth. Isn't it wonderful? The Bible testifies it right throughout the length of the New Testament. These things are written that we might know the love of God. You're to go. Rise up. Hallelujah. Praise the name of the Lord. If I ask him to receive me, will he say me nay? Not till earth and not till heaven pass away. That's what someone wrote. How true that is. And may God galvanize all our hearts. Move us into this blessed position. For everything that you contribute, God has already contributed to. That's what the parable tells us. Twice as much as you. Measure the marvelous thing. Lord, I long with all my heart. God says, I long twice as much. Lord, I want to receive. He says, I'm more willing to give than you are to receive. That's what he says. Praise. And when we rise to God. Hallelujah. Don't you feel that stirring in you? These simple, lovely things of God. This my son, he says, was dead. And is alive again. Was lost. And is found. If you're dead, you're lost. If you're alive, you're found. That's right. If you're dead, you're lost. If you're alive, you're found. Isn't the Bible simple? How can we know? As simple as that. And we're alive under him. Amen. Glory be to the name of the Lord. My Jesus, I love thee. I know thou art mine. Can you sing that? Well, we will sing it, shall we? What's the number? Let's stand and sing, shall we? My Jesus, I love thee. My gracious Redeemer. Love thee before thou hast died. I love thee in life. I will love thee in death. Jesus lives in mansions of glory again. Never alone in heaven so bright. I'll sing with the heavenly choir. My Jesus, he's mine. Hallelujah.