8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins[a] and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
A. When
this woman realizes that a coin has been lost, she springs into action to see
that it is restored. To her, it is a valuable thing! She lights a light, begins
to move things about and to sweep and search the house until the coin is found.
She had a will to find it, she
worked to find and in the end,
she won because she found
it!
B. That
coin was lost in the darkness
(Houses in that day had no windows), it was lost in the dirt (Houses in that day had dirt
floors), it was lost in disuse(A
lost coin cannot be used), and it was lost in the dwelling (It was lost in the house).
What a picture that coin is of men who do not know the Lord!
1. Lost men are in darkness - They may be
brilliant intellectually speaking, but spiritually, they are blind, 2 Cor. 4:4. They are all lost in the black
darkness of spiritual ignorance! They do not know their condition and they do
not know what they need, until they are sought after by the Lord, Eph. 2:1; John 6:44.
2. Lost men are in the dirt - When a coin
was stamped, it was stamped with the image of the ruler. When a coin was lost in
the dirt, the image of the ruler on that coin would be hidden and marred. So it
is with lost men! They were made in the image of God, but that image has been
marred and they need to be cleansed so that the image of the Lord might be
restored. (Ill. If you don’t think men are dirty, just look at our world!) Man
needs someone to reach into the dirt of his life, lift him out and clean him up!
(Ill. Men tend toward dirt, just fail to bathe for several days and see what I
mean. That is also true spiritually! Men tend toward dirt! They need the
intervention of the Lord to cleanse than and make them whole
again.)
3. Lost men are in disuse - Just as a lost
coin is unusable, so is a lost life. It must be cleansed and restored before the
Lord can use it for His glory.
4.
Lost men are everywhere, even in the
dwelling - I have found lost coins in the car, in the yard and one
the street. I have also found them in the house. The same is true with lost men,
they may be found everywhere, even in the house of the Lord!
C. When
this coin goes missing, this woman sets about the business of finding it. She
makes up her mind to do whatever it takes to find her lost coin. And, that’s
just what she does! She lights a light, moves the furniture, sweeps the floor
and looks everywhere for her lost coin. And, she does not stop until she has
found it!
In this,
she is a picture of God! He has done everything that is necessary for the
salvation of lost people. He loves them, Rom.
5:8; Jer. 31:3; He provided a perfect salvation, Acts 16:31; He gave His Son to pay the
redemption price, 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rev. 1:5; John
3:16; He calls men to come to Him, Matt.
11:28; John 6:44; when they come, He saves them completely and eternally,
John 10:28. He has a perfect plan to save
lost people!
Verse 10 makes the transition to Heaven.
We are told that there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over
one sinner that repents. Heaven gets excited when a lost one is found! Why?
Something of value has been restored to its proper place. God is glorified. A
soul misses Hell. That which was unusable is available for the Master’s use.
That which was dirty and made ugly by sin is clean and beautiful by the grace of
God! It is a glorious day when a lost person is saved by the grace of the Lord
God! Nothing honors Him like a soul being saved!
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