So let's read this parable, beginning
at Luke chapter 15. We looked at the lost son, the
lost and dead son last week, but I want to look at the elder
son, but we need to see the context of it. Verse 11, and he said,
a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his
father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. And
he divided unto them his living. So note that very carefully.
He divided unto these both of the sons his living. And not
many days after, the younger son gathered all together and
took his journey into a far country of their wasty substance with
riotous living. And when he had spent all there,
arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country,
and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain
have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat,
and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself,
he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough
to eat and to spare, and I perish with hunger? I will arise and
go to my father, and I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called
thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his
father. But when he was yet a great while off, his father saw him
and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven
and in my sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the breast robe.
and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his
feet, and bring him the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us
eat, and be merry. For this my son was dead, and
is alive again, was lost, and is found, and they began to be
merry. Now his elder son 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 him, Thy brother
is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because
he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry. and would not go in. Therefore
came his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to
his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed
I at any time thy commandment. Yet thou never gavest me a kid
that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this
thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots,
thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto
him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet, it was right. It
was fitting that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy
brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. So let's follow the journey of
this sad case of the elder brother, the elder son. Verse 25, the
elder son was in the field. He was out there working, wasn't
he? And he came and he drew nigh to the house and he heard the
music and the dancing. Verse 26, and he called one of
the servants and asked, what these things meant? What these
things meant? He was blind. and ignorant as
to what the heavens were rejoicing over. So he was working in the
field. There he was working. He was
the good one. This other one was very evidently the wicked
one and the black sheep of the family. And yet, there's this wicked
one brought back. And the Father receives him.
The Father receives him. and they rejoice. There's rejoicing. As in the earlier parables, there's
rejoicing in the presence of the angels, there's rejoicing
in heaven. One of the remarkable things
about the gospel, one of the remarkable things and one of
the delightful things for sinners is that this parable of salvation,
as does all of the work of the Lord, In all of his journey through
this world and his gathering his sheep to himself, he turns
upside down all natural thoughts of all of Adam's race. The council
has a sign. It ought to be stuck on every brain,
shouldn't it? Caution. This item is broken, do not use. Our natural ways of thinking
about God are always wrong. If you want to find out God's
ways, think of your natural way of thinking and then find what
is the exact opposite of that and then you'll be very, very
close to where God is. There is a really significant
message in this, isn't it, in the Welcoming Back of the Son.
And it's offensive to religious people, and sinners find it delightful. And that is that your favour
with God, the favour of all of God's children with the Father,
has nothing to do with what you do or don't do. God's salvation, as Don Thornton
says, God's salvation affects everything I do, but what I do
has no bearing on my salvation. If salvation is by grace, Romans
11.6 says it cannot be by works. If you know the verses, don't
you, we quote them often, but in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul
describes this salvation, isn't it? For by grace are you saved,
through faith, and that is not of yourselves. And people might
ask, well, is the grace not of ourselves or is the faith not
of ourselves? Neither of them are from yourselves. They're
both the gifts of God. It's not of yourself, it's a
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should bust. For we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Salvation and favour, and welcome
into the presence of the Father is not based on your activities,
brothers and sisters. It's based on someone else's
activities. It's based on the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So many people live in this world,
don't they, like with a dandelion, and he loves me, he loves me
not, he loves me, he loves me not, and they're blowing away
and they're wondering and their understanding of where they stand
with God is, and they look into themselves and they try and find
evidences in their Faith is the evidence. Faith is the evidence. God says, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Our salvation and our relationship
with our Heavenly Father has nothing to do with our good deeds
or our bad deeds. Grace is demerited favour. You have forfeited, like the
younger son, all rights. And he knew it, didn't he? He
sinned against heaven and he sinned against his father and
he's not worthy to be called his son anymore. It's demerited
favour. God can't expect anything from
you. And what God does accept from
you is what God puts in you. It's all of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. And I don't mind if you have
to go into the whale's belly with Jonah to find that out.
All of God's children will find that out. The Lord Jesus Christ
is all. The lesson of the young son being
accepted is a lesson that I pray the Lord would teach us. Stop
looking at your works. Stop looking at your activities
as evidence and a source of salvation, a source of assurance, and stop
looking at other people's works. You won't gain anything by looking
there. Salvation is by grace. And the remarkable thing about
this parable is it's a picture of what happened in the early
church, and it's a picture of what happened in the life of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's a great picture of what happens
throughout time, isn't it? It's really interesting, isn't
it? It's at the disclosure by God of free love and free forgiveness
and free mercy and free acceptance and free welcome into his presence,
not on the basis of anything that's done by people that causes
the religious people to be enraged. These Pharisees that heard this
parable, they went on, they went on. to crucify the Lord Jesus
Christ. May the Lord give us ears to
hear. May he be the teacher of his people. See, he's received
him safe and sound. He's received him. That was what
happened, isn't it? Thy brother, verse 27, thy brother
is come and thy father has killed the fatted calf because he has
received him safe and sound. I love that phrase, isn't it?
I've received him safe and sound. It means that I've received him,
he's in his right mind. It means that he's back. He's back with me where he belongs. That's the big issue, isn't it,
of salvation, is will the father receive him? Imagine the journey
that young man had on his way home, smelling of a pig pen,
Forfeited absolutely everything in any way possible of any right
before God. Forfeited everything. Wasted
it. Will the Father receive him? What amazing words we have from
our Lord Jesus Christ about Him receiving sinners. Him that cometh
to me will I in no wise cast out. All that the Father gives
me shall come to me. They'll all come. They'll all
come. Salvation is not you accepting
Jesus into your heart. It's not you opening your heart
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not you giving Him your
heart. What's He want with your heart? He gives a new heart. and he
gives a new life. Salvation is God accepting you
for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake alone. God accepting you
for Christ's sake entirely. The Father has received him. Did he have any good works to
bring back to the Father? Did he have any good intentions?
He says, make me one of your hired servants. All he wanted
to do was take the lowest place he could possibly find as long
as he was in the father's company. Make me a slave is what he's
saying. Make me a slave. So God loves his people because
he loves them. He loves them because he loves
them. That's the best description I think the scriptures give us
of the love of God. Deuteronomy 7 is a beautiful
description, isn't it? For thou art an holy people,
verse 6, unto the Lord thy God. For the Lord thy God has chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself, above all the people
that are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you, because you are more in number than any
people. For you are the fewest of the
people. But, why did the Lord love you? Because he loved you. Because he loved you, it says.
because he loved you, and because he would keep the oath which
he had sworn unto your fathers, he would keep the promise that
he made to Abraham. He loves his people, and he loves
them with a covenant of faithfulness, and he loves them in his Son.
The love of God cannot be divorced and separated from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 28. Luke 15. What was the young brother's
response? Here there was a party. Here there was rejoicing. Here
was his father rejoicing. Here were the hired servants
rejoicing. And here was his brother rejoicing.
And what was his response? What's the response of someone
who works to free and sovereign grace? He was angry And he wouldn't
go in. He wouldn't go in. We've seen
it again and again in our journey through Acts, haven't we? When
the Lord comes, when He comes and He reveals Himself as saving
by sovereign grace. He reveals Himself in what He
did on Calvary's tree. He reveals the infinite depth
of that eternal love for His people. He reveals that He's
taken away their sins and you're justified from all things. You
couldn't be justified by the law of Moses. You can't be justified
by your works. Yet God justifies sinners. He
declares them to have no sin in His sight on the basis of
the evidence that's before Him. Because their sins are gone,
they've been put on the Lord Jesus Christ and He's taken them
away. And what was the response in
Acts 13? They were enraged. And they chased Paul and his
people around like a rabid dog, didn't they? Again and again. Therefore came his father and
entreated him. The father came out and he called
him to his side, is what that means. He called him to his side. Salvation, as we see in this
parable, is a relationship with the Father. Salvation, as we see in this
parable, and the rejection of that salvation
is 100% the responsibility of those who reject it. So the gospel
is for sinners. Gospel is for real sinners. What's
a sinner? A sinner is someone who can't
do anything but sin. A sinner is someone who has no
righteous deeds. And not for one moment, but when
we speak of repentance and when we speak of confession and when
we speak of the gospel, are we approving or allowing of or winking
at or condoning sin in any way, shape or form. Christ came to
save us from our sins. He saved us from what we are.
But salvation is a relationship with the Father and not a reward
for our good deeds. And salvation is a revelation
of the character of our God. Our God reveals His glory in
the salvation of sinners in a way that He could never reveal it
to Adam and Eve in the garden. If there had been no fall, we
would have known that God was powerful. We would have known
that God was big. We would have known that God
was remarkably intelligent. We would have known that God
was unbelievably creative. The wonder of this creation just
keeps blowing your mind. It should. It is just amazing,
this creation. You would know all of those things,
and you'd know nothing. Without the four, you would know
nothing of grace. You would know nothing of love. You would know nothing of mercy. You would know nothing of justice. In the salvation of sinners,
God is revealing His glory. See, it's His love. It's His
mercy. It's His grace. He delights to
show mercy. And He delights to show mercy
to hell-deserving sinners who, like this prodigal son, are 100%
responsible for their sin. They are and they have destroyed
themselves. And this made this young man
angry, and it makes all the religious people who have any righteousness
of their own whatsoever, it doesn't matter if it's a skerrick of
righteousness, and it doesn't matter if it's righteousness
that they might be able to do in the future, if they have any
righteousness. If you have any righteousness,
this elder son is you. The elder son is revealed. And one of the remarkable things
that happen in the Gospel is that the hearts of people are
revealed. And here we have God unveiling
the heart of this sinner. And nothing like the Gospel unveils
the heart of people. It would appear from the story
that this young man had worked hard and been obedient and been
diligent and all the world would have patted him on the back and
he would have patted himself on the back and saying how wonderful
I am. And look how I honour my father,
look how obedient I am." And now we get to see the elder
brother's heart. And what's revealed is that he
was just as wretched as his brother. And what was hiding the wretchedness
was the good deeds on the outside. It's amazing how many people
you meet and the first thing they want to do when they know
that you're involved in religion somehow is tell you something
of their good deeds. As if somehow they can sort of
put up this little barrier in front of them of all of their
good deeds so you can't see behind it. And immediately their defence
is to tell you what they've done. I have encountered it so many
hundred times, hundreds of times, that it's now almost repetitious
and boring. But it's out of your heart, it's
out of your heart that sins come. And when Mark 7, the Lord describes
all of those sins, 15 sins are listed there coming out of the
heart. And what's it begin with? It begins with evil thoughts.
It begins with evil thoughts. Out of the heart. Did this man,
did this working man, this Pharisee is the picture in, this religious
working man, did he have any love for his brother? Did he have any love for his
father? What mattered to him? What mattered
to him? One thing mattered to him, himself. So the younger brother
was self-destructive in turning away from his father and saying,
I'll run my life my own way. This older brother was standing
outside and there was a party going on. They were having a
barbecue. And he was standing outside angry. He was a self-destructive
of his brother. And the father went out and entreated
him. The Jews had the most remarkable privileges, didn't they? Romans
2 lists their privileges. They had the very oracles of
God and the world didn't have it. They had pictures of salvation
through all of their history. They had a temple. They had all
of the word of God and all of what it said about the Messiah.
They had the promises of God. They had the covenants of God. They had the character of God
revealed to them and it was hidden from the rest of the world. The Father had spoken. And here is this man in his pride
and his selfishness and his self-righteousness destroying himself. God had borne witness. and does
bear witness to the self-righteous working people. See, pride and
self-righteousness is so destructive. Luther said that he preached
against self-righteousness in every sermon he ever preached,
and he never was able to preach it down. Your defence mechanism
in almost every situation is to go to your own righteousness.
Maybe yours isn't, but mine is. What did this young fellow have?
You see there in verse 12, it says, he divided unto them his
living. This young fellow had been given
everything. He heard his father. There he
was, living in the house the father had built. There he was,
working in the fields, with clothes on his back, the air he breathed,
everything, all of his life, all of it, all of it came from
his father. And he, answering, said to his
father, he heard his father and he understood him, and he says,
this is this young man, this self-righteous man, lo, these
many years do I serve thee. It served him, and he never loved
him. Neither transgressed I at any
time like a man." Does anyone believe that? Does anyone believe
that? There's a fellow in this town
that's got to the stage some years ago, he had one left. He'd
got rid of the rest of his sins, he'd worked so hard and diligently
at his progressive sanctification, he got one left. Another fellow
got rid of so many that he only just had the occasional slip
up. neither transgressed I any of
thy commandments. And yet thou nevest gavest me
a kid that I make merry with my friends." The Father had called
him to his side. In the Scriptures, God says,
doesn't he, let us reason together. invitation from God, let us reason
together, even though your sins are scarlet, they can be as white
as snow, Isaiah chapter 1. This son is called to his side
and the father comes and says, listen to me, this is a story,
this is a picture of what you are, this is a picture of salvation,
this is a picture of the glory of me and the glory of my Christ
in salvation. The son is angry because the
father is kind. The son is angry because the
father is gracious. The son is angry because the
father is merciful and accepts him. There he is, telling the father
that he obeys him. and he's there living in rebellion
against him. The father says, this is a party.
And the son says, the father is not doing the right thing.
The father has killed the fatted
calf for his son. There is a death. There is a killing that brings
a celebration into the house of God. What can wash away my
sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Isn't it wonderful when the father
comes back and the son comes back to the father? There's not
a single mention, there's not a single mention of the sin of
the son, the prodigal son. And yet, in this self-righteous
man's defense of himself and his anger against his father,
he reveals extraordinary wickedness. Your sins need to be covered,
brothers and sisters, in the blood of a lamb. Our God. Our God reveals himself. in grace and mercy and love,
and yet the self-righteous find it offensive. Look what he says,
neither have I transgressed. The self-righteous people are
keeping score, and when you meet with them, they want you to know
how they're tallying up at the time. They do, don't they? That's what Galatians says, isn't
it? Paul said to the Galatians, he says, as many as desire to
make a fair show on the flesh, this guy made an extraordinarily
fair show on the flesh, so did the Galatian false teachers.
They constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. Anyone that puts people
under a bondage of works is a hypocrite themselves and they're lying
to people. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised,
and you can read in there for circumcised, any works whatsoever. They desire that they'll have
you working. That's what religion does, isn't
it? Has you working. that they may glory in your flesh,
Galatians 6.13. But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. This elder
son is on a path of self-destruction, isn't he? I'm not getting what
I deserve. I'm not getting the reward for
all the things that I have done. It's not fair. It's not fair. We see in this parable that this
elder brother had no love for the father. Isn't it remarkable? He says, I've served you. I've
labored here like a slave these many years. He owned the place.
He'd been given everything. And it seemed like there was
plenty there and plenty of servants. He said, I've served you these
many years. It was a burden to him. You might
remember the story of Jacob, had to work for Laban for seven
years to get his beautiful bride. And what did he say at the end
of the seven years? She was so beautiful. What a
picture of the Lord Jesus and the church. He says it's just
a few days. It was just a few days, seven
years passed like that because of love. This man is serving,
serving, serving. The prodigal had lost everything,
hadn't he? He'd lost all of his possessions,
he'd lost what he thought was his sonship, he'd lost his inheritance,
he'd lost all of his treasures, and he just wants one thing.
Just make me a servant. Just let me be in your company.
This elder brother, this old elder brother, is so hardworking, he's so hardworking
that he can't see, he can't even see the joy of his father, and
he can't even have any care for his brother. The hard-working,
self-righteous, religious person is told on that extraordinary
day the most shocking words that will echo through all eternity.
You turn up to God with your works, and God will deal with
you on the basis of your works. Matthew 7 says, you turn up there
with your works. And what do they describe them?
They describe them in Matthew 7. They are many wonderful works. Many. There's a great quantity
of them. We've prophesied in your name,
in thy name cast out demons, in your name done many. And look at the quality of them.
They're wonderful works. Everyone else thought they were
wonderful. And then these words of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
sees the hearts of people, then I will profess unto them, I never
knew you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity, you lawless ones. See, love is the fulfilment of
the law. God will not accept anything
except the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
has before him in heaven right now a perfect sacrifice and a
perfect offering to God. And as Hebrews 10 says, where
God accepts these, I just love that verse in Hebrews 10. I need
to read it again and again. He says, this is the covenant,
verse 16, this is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, sayeth the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts
and in their minds when I write them. That's repentance. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now, where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. Don't offer God anything. He's got his son, and he's perfectly
happy with his son. And if you're happy with the
same thing that God's happy, then happy are you. The younger brother, the prodigal
son just wanted to be back in his company. You just make me,
you just make me. I can't make myself anything,
but you can make me. So the evidence of the new creation
is love. And the evidence of the new creation
is love and fellowship. And it comes from treasuring.
treasuring he who is your exceeding great reward. I've served you. I've served
you many years. You owe me, is what he's saying.
God is no man's debtor. You can't put him under an obligation
of debt. It's all his. The earth is his
and the fullness thereof. You can't obligate God by what
you do. God responds to mercy. What did you have that you didn't
receive? All you have is from God, and
all you do is God's doing, isn't it? It's God who works in you
to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Salvation is God serving us,
not us talking about our service to him. The issue of course in
all of salvation is who gets the glory. God's not sharing
his glory with another. This elder son, I need recognition. I need recognition for my good
behaviour. I need recognition for my talents. I need to be rewarded and to
be honoured. Neither transgressed I at any
time like a marmot. I love what Henry Mayne said,
no honest person goes to hell. No truthful person goes to hell.
There's a lot in that, isn't there? Those who are honest about
who they are, and made to be honest about who they are, will be those who are caused
to delight in who the Lord Jesus Christ. The rich young ruler
turned up, he says, I've kept all those commandments. I've
kept them all from my youth up. And the Lord said, you throw
them all away, you throw your wealth away, and you come and
follow me. You would think it'd be easy, wouldn't you? And he
couldn't. Only a miracle of grace brings
people back into fellowship with God. So the eldest son was self-destructive,
but he was blind to his very condition. His own words in the
presence of his father condemned him. There he was, standing before
his father, who came out to entreat him. And there he was dishonouring
his father. He's saying, I've never dishonoured
you. And yet he's saying to the father, you don't run things
well. You're not fair. You don't recognise and you don't
reward by goodness. And it's all your fault. My pain
and my discomfort and my not being rewarded is all your fault.
And he says, I'll never disobeyed you. And yet there he is standing
before his father and he's openly disobeying him. He's openly disobeying
him. He never gave me a kid. The father
gave him everything. He says, all that I have is yours.
He's had everything from his birth. Do you see yourself? Do you see
yourself in the elder brother? You won't see yourself as the
prodigal until you see yourself as the elder brother. We're all elder brothers. We're
all elder brothers in Adam. It's only God's grace, his killing,
his stripping, his revealing of himself brings us to see what
we really are. You see, people are blind to
what they are. are blind to their condition.
If they think that their righteous deeds will put them in a good
standing with God and that somehow they can add their righteous
deeds to the righteous deeds of the Lord Jesus Christ and
God will be a little bit more pleased with them and they will
give them rewards in heaven and you can progressively sanctify
yourself until you get to be a ripe fruit that is picked by
God and there it is Displayed by God in heaven with all of
its glory, all the extra jewels. We were told so many times, you've
gone to India, you're gonna have all these extra jewels. Salvation's by grace. The crown
that Paul got, brothers and sisters, is the same crown that every
believer gets. Isaiah 26 tells us what the crown,
the crown is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've got him, you've got
everything. You've got everything for this life and you've got
everything for eternity. You've got the lot. There's no
more to get. You never gave me a kid. You never gave me a kid. That's what Satan said to Eve,
didn't he, in the garden. God's mistreating you. He's withholding
some good from you that you can get by taking and holding to
yourself. He never so much gave me a kid
that I might make merry with my friends. He doesn't say he
wants to make merry with his father, he says he wants to make
merry with his friends. Just like the younger brother,
just like the younger brother. See the same rebellious heart
beats in both of them. He never mentions his father's
name once. There's no love for his father. But this, this thy son, that
as soon as this thy son was come, not my brother, which has devoured
thy living with harlot. There seemed to be plenty of
living left in the house, and thou hast killed for him the
fatted calf. There they are all rejoicing,
the father and the son and all of the hired servants. Getting
mad at free grace for sinners is a terrible, terrible indictment
and a terrible picture of the fall and the darkness of the
hearts of man, isn't it? In the Gospels preached, there
are two reactions from people out there. People either get
glad or they get mad. And where the gospel is hidden,
there is just this ambivalence about it. He hasn't got a clue
what's going on, even after it's all been explained to him. He
still didn't understand. He was still as dark and as blind
and as lost as the prodigal son in the pig pen. And he hadn't
had a famine. He hadn't had a famine to bring
him down. He knew what was done now, and
he knew why it was done. And he saw the revelation of
his father's character, and he saw the wonder of free and absolute
forgiveness, and he hated it. And he hated it all the more. He had no understanding and he
saw no beauty. In this remarkable story of grace,
he saw no beauty. The Pharisees sitting there beside
the Lord Jesus Christ, looking down their long noses at those
publicans and sinners, saw no beauty in forgiveness of sins. They saw no beauty in grace. They saw no beauty in mercy. They saw no beauty in love. In free love, self-righteousness, and particularly
self-righteousness in religion, is the most blinding thing in
this creation. It blinds people. It blinds people
to who they are. It blinds people to the feelings
and the understandings of those around them. It blinds people. And they say they're doing God's
law and obeying God's law, and they hate it, really. It's a
burden to them. I've served you these many years,
and they hate grace. They hate free and sovereign
grace because it's unfair to me, because I deserve, I've earned,
I've served. And the response is, I'm not
going in there. The response we read again and
again in Acts is that they were hardened and they believed not.
I don't want to have anything to do with that. Free forgiveness
without a condition. I'm not having any of that. Free
acceptance with the Father without any works of mine. I'm not going
in there. Love accepting me back into the
family and into fellowship. I'm not gonna have a part of
that. The Father says, it's right. It's just for the Father to do
this. It's just for God to have his
people back in fellowship with him. It was meet. It was meet, he
says, that we should make merry and be glad. It was right. It's right for God to rejoice. It's right for God to rejoice
over the work of his son. It's right for God to be joyful
over what's happened. And it's right for God, and just
for God, to rejoice over all those who have been made to be
like his dear and darling son. For this thy brother was dead
and is alive again, was lost and is found. As I said earlier,
this is a picture of repentance. The father found him. The father
found him. There's a great lesson, isn't
it? The way up in God's kingdom is
to go down. The way of comfort in God's kingdom
is to be brought down. Down. How do you get Joseph to
be the prime minister of Egypt and run that empire? You sell him as a slave, betrayed
by his brothers, and you stick him in jail. Innocent. How did he get Job? How did he get Job, who ultimately
was pushed by his miserable comforters, to feel and defend his own righteousness? You bring him down, I've seen
him, I've seen him now. And I despise myself and I repent
in dust and ash. He says I'm vile. And then God
restored him twice over. How do you get David to be the
king of Israel? How do you raise up that great
king? You start with the shepherd boy. And then you send him in the
wilderness to be despised by the religious people of his day.
How do you get Isaiah to be a preacher of the gospel and bring us those
glorious words? I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord
high and lifted up. What did Isaiah say? I'm undone. It meant that he's unraveled
completely as a person. All of what he thought was righteousness
is gone altogether. Daniel. My comeliness has turned
to corruption. The Lord Jesus Christ humbled
himself and became as a servant. He became as a servant. This
prodigal wanted to be a servant. My servant just says, make me
yours. Make me your bonded slave. Paul wrote his letters in the,
a slave of Jesus Christ. A slave who has no rights. The
slave who's owned. And if you're owned by this master,
and if you have this father drawing you back to himself, you'll just
say, thy will be done. Make me a hired servant. Thy
will be done. Rejoicing and repenting. The elder brother says, I've
made myself, I'm a self-made man. The younger brother says,
you make me. I'm in your hands, I'm in your
company and you can do with me whatever you like because all
you do is good all the time. What a great God we have, let's
pray. Our Heavenly Father we praise you for the revelation
of the way you save sinners. By the doing and the dying of
your dear and precious Son. And we pray, Heavenly Father,
that you might strip us of our filthy rags, of us having spent
our time in the pig pen, and you might fall upon us and kiss
us and robe us with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
put upon us that ring that has no beginning or end, a picture
of the eternal and everlasting covenant in the blood of your
dear son, and put shoes on our feet, Heavenly Father, that we
might walk in this world in your ways. We do pray, Heavenly Father,
that you'd make us like hard servants, that we might be just
rejoiced and rejoicing to be in your company. to be known
as your son, to live with you. But Father, make us to rejoice
in the glory of this wonderful salvation that cost your dear
and precious son, his life's blood and his broken body. By his stripes, we are healed. and He has by Himself purged
our sins. It is right for the Father to
have all of His children in His company, because it was right
for the Son to suffer and die in their steadfast place. Please
make us, Heavenly Father, make us hired servants. make us to
be in your company. We thank you that this is the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ and we pray, Heavenly Father,
you'd cause him to be honoured in our lives by granting us simple
faith, trust, reliance, and rest upon him. For we pray in his
name and for his glory. Amen.