Alright, if you would, let's
turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. I'm going to
finish this parable, this parable in three parts. We've been looking
at that started with the parable of the shepherd and the sheep,
the shepherd finding the lost sheep, a picture of Christ coming
to earth incarnate, the Word being made flesh, dwelling among
us, going to the cross, and obtaining and getting, redeeming His lost
sheep, the lost sheep that He came to save. And that is redemption. And then the parable of the woman
in the lost coin, which is a picture of the Holy Spirit coming to
find, to get again, obtain the people whom Christ redeemed by
the power of the Spirit and preaching of the gospel. making the gospel,
the power of God into salvation, as Paul wrote of it in Romans
1 and verse 16, and how that new birth drives a sinner from
himself to Christ, exposes our sin, and brings us to Christ
for our salvation. And then this last one, the parable
of what they call the prodigal son, I call it the parable of
the forgiving father. And last week, I dealt with the
prodigal son. Now, this morning, I want to
deal with the elder brother there beginning in verse 25. I've entitled
this message, The Self-Righteous Son. The Self-Righteous Son. And so, remember this man in
this parable had two sons. It says back up here in verse
11, he said, a certain man had two sons. The younger of them
said to his father, Father, give me the portion of my goods. That's
the prodigal. who took his father's inheritance,
even wishing his father was dead, and went out and wasted all of
his substance on righteous living. And you have to understand now
the context of this. Who is Christ speaking these
parables to? This one long parable in three
parts. Go back over to verse 2. It says,
verse 1, Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners,
for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured, complained, saying, this man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. And so he's speaking to all of
them, but this is mainly directed as a lesson to these self-righteous
scribes and Pharisees who were offended that the Lord would
receive sinners and sit down and have a meal with them. That
fellowship, that's what that's indicative of. And my friend,
you know, I'll never forget when I first started coming to 13th
Street Baptist Church, and I'd hear Brother Mayhem preach on
sin. You know, I'll tell you, it was offensive to me. I was
just like the scribe in the Pharisee, how offensive it was, you know.
But then the Lord taught me that the church, the true church,
is not a haven for the righteous. It's a hospital for sinners. That's what it is. That's what
these needed to learn. But let's read the passage here.
Look at verse 25. Now, this is after the Father
had received the prodigal son without any conditions, without
any qualifications. This prodigal didn't deserve
anything that the Father gave. What a picture of salvation.
How God the Father receives us as sinners, not because of who
we are or what we've done or what we plan to do or our performances,
but based on Christ and His blood and righteousness alone, the
grace of God. And that offended the elder son.
It says in verse 25, now his elder son was in the field. He
was working. And it says, and as he came and
drew nigh or near to the house, he heard music and dancing. There
was a party going on here. 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. It means received him
fully. Verse 28 says, the elder brother
was angry and would not go in. I'm not going to go in where
that kind of goings-on are taking place. He says, Therefore came
his father out and entreated him, begged him. And he answering
said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither
transgressed I at any time thy commandment. And yet thou never
gavest me a kid. You know, the father killed the
fatty calf for the prodigal son. He says, you never even give
me a goat. Look how hard I've worked. I've been with you. I've
worked hard. And he says that I might make Mary with my friends.
You didn't even kill a goat for me. He says in verse 30, but
as soon as this thy son, I noticed he didn't say this my brother.
He said, This thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living
with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And
the father said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all
that I have is thine. It was meet, it was appropriate,
right, that we should make merry, and be glad. For this thy brother
was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found. Now I want you to think about
something, and I want you to just think about it, not out
loud. I'm not going to ask you to raise
your hand. But let's say you're in this family situation, and you stay with your father,
and you work hard in the field, and you do what's right, and
you're the model son or daughter, and your brother, your sister,
just takes that inheritance, that third portion that he got,
and goes off and just blows it all on righteous living, and
he comes back, or she comes back, and there's a party, and it gets
the same equal treatment that you get, how would you feel? Be honest. You would feel, and
I'm telling you this right now, I'm bidding you this from this
pulpit, I'd feel just like the elder brother. Wouldn't you? Think about it. If you're honest.
Well, he doesn't deserve that. So how do you reconcile this
with what the Lord's teaching about mercy and grace? Does that
mean that I'm lost, that I'm a self-righteous son too? Well,
I have self-righteousness. We all do. We have to deal with
it. And I want you to listen to the context of this parable
now. I want to offer comfort to the people of God who are
in Christ. And those of you who are not
looking to Christ and resting in Him for all the salvation,
I don't want to offer you any comfort that you don't have.
I want you to seek the Lord and run to Him and find Him. That's
my prayer for you. That's my goal. But let's start
this way. I want you to go back up to the
prodigal son first. You know, when he came home,
now he'd gone away and he'd wasted all his living. He was out there
feeding on the husk that the swine would eat. What a place
for a Jew to be. He came to the lowest point that
a person could ever come to, and no man would give him anything.
And he came to himself. We know that based upon the parables
here, the stories here, that that's a picture of how God the
Holy Spirit brings a sinner to conviction. in the new birth,
in regeneration and conversion. That sinner whom God has chosen,
whom Christ redeemed, the Spirit will always regenerate, and you
will come to yourself. You'll come to see your sins.
You'll come to see the holiness of God, just like Isaiah did.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. You'll come to see how you don't
deserve anything good from God, but everything that is just.
The wages of sin is death. I'm going to preach on that tonight,
the wages of sin, the gift of life. We cannot earn salvation
from God. We're in the negative column.
We're in the hole. Paul wrote, he said, all those
things that I thought recommended me unto God, I count but done.
And that's where this prodigal was. And he was brought to himself
by the power of the Spirit. And then he says, look here in
verse 17, he says, and when he came to himself, he said, how
many hired servants of my father's have bread? enough and to spare,
and I perish with hunger." That's what the Spirit does. He makes
us hungry for the bread of life. Thirsty for righteousness. And
He gives it to us in Christ. He shows us how all of the sustenance,
all the salvation we need is in Christ, who is the bread of
life and the water of life. He says in verse 18, "...I will
arise and go to my Father, and will say unto Him..." Now listen
to His language here. He says, "...Father, I sinned
against heaven and before Thee, I'm no more worthy to be called
thy son. I'm not even worthy to be called
your son, let alone to be considered your son. Make me as one of thy
hired servants. I'll hire out to you. I'll work
for you." And he says he arose and came to his father. He said,
I'm going to work for you. I'm going to work my way back
into your good graces. That's what he was saying. I'm
going to work my way back into your blessings. Now I want you
to notice how that is man's natural thought of how God saves sinners. In some way, in some form, to
some degree, man by nature thinks that he can work his way as a
hired servant back into God's favor. earn God's favor, earn
God's blessings. That's legalism, you see. That's
what we are by nature. That's why it takes a work of
the Spirit to convict us, bring us to ourselves, and show us
that we cannot work our way back into God's favor. That salvation
is not by works, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now,
salvation in the legalistic system of Judaism And that's what these
scribes and Pharisees represent over here in verse 2. These Pharisees
and scribes that complain, saying, this man receives sinners and
eats with them. That's the kind of people we
won't associate with. They haven't worked hard enough.
They haven't done enough. We've done way more than what
they've done. We've been faithful. We've been
good. We've worked hard for righteousness. And that salvation that they
had in their minds, in that legalistic system of Judaism, and any other
legalistic system in the world, and listen to me now, all religions
are a form of works salvation, except one, and that's the religion
of grace, true Christianity. All other religions, in some
form or another, are religions of works salvation. And I've
told you this before, what we believe is unique now, it's not
common. It's not common. All those religions
that preach and teach and promote work salvation, they're all actually
the same. You do what you're called on,
commanded to do, and God will accept you. This is the religion
of Cain. You know, boil them all down.
I know it's all complicated when you study them, you look at all
the denominations, all the religions. Boil them all down and it goes
way back to Cain and Abel. Cain bringing the best he can
offer. Abel bringing the blood of the
Lamb. Cain works. Abel, grace. Simple as that. Cain, righteousness by his works.
Abel, righteousness in Christ whom the blood of the Lamb typified. And that's it. And if you do
this long enough and well enough, the legalism will say you'll
get to God and you'll be rewarded based upon your performances.
And that would to the degree that you worked, if you worked
harder than one person, you'll get more than that person. Now,
you know, that's that's legalistic, false, damning religion. And
I've also described to you economics and world economics, we hope. I know the world has a tendency
to go to a welfare system now, but we still have it in our minds
that you work and you get what you work for. And we carry that
over into religion by nature because we're so proud. Now this
prodigal son was saying, I'm going back and I'm going to humble
myself and I'm going to earn the favor of my father, I'm going
to earn my salvation. I'm going to do whatever it takes
for as long as it takes to get my way back into my father's
house and into his treasures and into his heaven. And that's
legalism. That's why we have to be convicted
by the spirit of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Well, notice
what happened. Verse 20. It says, He arose, he came to
his father, but when his father was yet a great way off, his
father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck
and gave him a big hug, kissed him. The son said unto him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more
worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants,"
listen, he didn't even talk to the son here. He said to his
servants, bring forth the best robe. That's a picture of the
righteousness of Christ. And put it on him. And put a
ring on his hand. That's the ring of sonship. We're
adopted into the family of God by the blood of Christ, by the
righteousness of Christ, and we can say, Abba, Father, Papa,
and shoes on His feet. Now we have the responsibility
of grace. We have the obligation not to
work to save ourselves, but to glorify God for His mercy and
His grace in our lives. Working not to earn salvation,
but because we already are saved. He said, bring hither the fatted
calf and kill it. Let's eat and be merry. The fellowship
of God through Christ. Our fellowship is with the Father
and the Son as the Spirit leads us to Christ in whom dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Well, you know what that picture
is. That's grace, grace, grace. That's how God saves sinners.
Now, let me tell you something. Grace is how God saves sinners. Grace is not how your boss pays
you your paycheck. That's not grace. Now, some people might act like
it's grace, but it's not. You go out and you work a day,
and you get a day's wage, and you work for it. That's economics.
That's not salvation. And what I'm telling you on this
parable, Christ is not talking about economics. how you earn
your living on earth. He's talking about salvation.
And that's where you have to keep it. You remember what they
said? Remember their complaint? This
man, what man? Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. The one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. God our Savior. This man receives
who? Sinners, those who don't deserve
to be received. And then he sits down and has
a meal with them. They didn't earn it. They don't deserve it.
You're right, Pharisee and scribe. You're exactly right. They don't
deserve it. But here's the problem. Neither
do you. Neither do I. We don't deserve
it either. What about my religion? Your
religion dishonors God. What about my works and my efforts,
my performances, my zeal, my dedication? What about that?
Your works, your religion, your zeal, your dedication all dishonor
God if it's aimed towards saving you or making you righteous before
God. It's self-righteousness. You
see, Christ isn't talking about economics here. Yes, I would
feel the same way the elder brother did in this life if it were talking
about economics, and you'd be right to do so. But that's not
his subject here. His subject is salvation. His
subject is not how you relate to your earthly father or your
earthly boss. His subject is how you relate
to the Heavenly Father in salvation. And that's what he's talking
about. Now, when it comes to standing before God, when it comes to having a righteousness
before God, and you see the Lord of Glory receiving sinners, how
do you feel then? You say, wait a minute, I've
worked, is that how you feel? Well, you're like the elder brother
then, self-righteousness. You see, all this is based on
and earned by the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. Every bit of it. Every bit of it. The shepherd
finding that lost sheep who didn't know the way, who went astray.
All this is applied in the powerful, sovereign, regenerating work
of the Holy Spirit, the woman in the lost coin. And here the
Father receives. the Son who went astray. This
young prodigal would not have come to himself, his senses,
unless he had been redeemed by the blood and regenerated by
the Spirit. We read that in John chapter 6. No man can come to
me except the Father which has sent me drawing. The prodigal
learned of the Father when he was taught that salvation was
totally a matter of grace and mercy in Christ. Don't you know
that when that Father looked at that prodigal son, And he
said, bring the best robe, bring the ring, and bring the shoes. Don't you know that that prodigal
son was standing there, I mean, wait a minute, what in the world
is happening? How about you? When you realize one day, by
the power of the Holy Spirit, what you really deserved and
what you've earned, but that God in Christ had provided for
you the best robe, the ring of sonship, and the shoes of grace. You stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner,
condemned and unclaimed. How marvelous, how wonderful.
Amazing grace, that's what that is. I mean, this grace is amazing,
but here's the sad thing. There are some who are not amazed
at all, but resentful, like the scribes and the Pharisees. Listening
to this, seeing the Lord have a conversation, being friendly
towards a publican, a harlot, One day he let a harlot stoop
down and wash his feet with her hair. What shame! Would you want
to be seen with such people out in the community here? Our Lord
didn't mind. That's right. He didn't mind
at all. And I hear them say, well, avoid
the very appearance of evil. You know what that's become?
That's become a watchword of the Pharisees. Because nine times
out of ten, what they're even talking about isn't even evil.
It's just what they see as evil. And somebody says, well, if they
see it as evil, we ought to accommodate it. The Lord did not. And we're followers of Him. When
they said it's a sin to pick corn on the Sabbath, He didn't
say, well, fellas, you better stop. No, He said, pick more.
When they said it's a sin to wash ceremonially, to each with
ceremonially unwashing hands, he didn't say, well, let's go
wash, you know, we don't want to upset the, no. He said, you
go ahead and eat and don't you wash your hands. He didn't accommodate
Pharisaism. Now, I know we're to be gentle
and we're to be kind with brethren who are young and immature. But we are never to promote self-righteousness
and Pharisaism in anything we say or do. If it offends them,
it offends them. We don't want to be offensive.
That's not our goal. That's not our motive. But if
it offends, let it be the offense of the cross. Don't let it be
my personality or my bad behavior that offends. Let it be the offense
of the cross. And that's what's going on here
with this elder brother. He's offended. He's highly offended. At what? Well, they're in there
making Mary. He heard music and dancing. I'll
give you an illustration of that. It's like the preaching of the
gospel. It's good news to a sinner. It's like music and dancing to
a sinner when he hears of who he is and who Christ is and that
God will save me for Christ's sake. That's music and dancing.
And when the Pharisee hears that, wait a minute, Wait a minute,
I've worked in the field all day. I've been with you all the time. You're giving him that he doesn't
deserve it. I wouldn't be around that kind of person. I'm too
holy for him. That's what's going on here.
There are some who say this elder son was a Christian who stayed
at home and did what he was supposed to. Oh, no. This elder son brought
the same charge and complaint that the scribes and the Pharisees
brought back here in verse 2. You're receiving a sinner, Dad. And you're sitting down and eating
with him. And I'm not like him. I don't deserve this kind of
treatment. Notice that the father didn't
even tell him about his brother's return. Did you notice that as
we went through here? He didn't say, go out and get
the elder brother. Why not? I'll tell you why, because he
really had no relationship with the father. He also took his
portion of the inheritance gladly, never defending his father's
honor when the younger son came and said, give it to me. It says
here he divided it, divided unto them his living in verse 12.
Well, he took his two thirds. That's what the elder brother
would get. The elder son represents the
Pharisees and the scribes who think that God will save them
based on their works. That's what he's talking about.
He's not talking about how you relate in your earthly family
or your earthly work. He's talking about salvation.
Keep it there. That's what this parable is about.
These Pharisees and scribes, they had their own standard of
righteousness and sin, their own rules and regulations. That's
what Brother Jim, they wore on their phylacteries and on their
hems of their garments, scriptures and rules and sayings. They liked
to wear their religion on their sleeve. They wanted everybody
to know what they believed. They believed themselves to be
honorable leaders of the Jewish religion. They believed themselves
to be righteous and they despised others. They had concluded that
Jesus was a shameful false Messiah. That he was, in fact, not of
God at all, but of Satan. They said the worst about him
that it could be said. They said he did what he did
by the power of Satan. That's what they said. And their
evidence is this. Now here's their evidence. Well,
look at the kind of people he associates with. Sounds like
religion today, doesn't it? Because if he were a prophet
of God, he wouldn't let a harlot wash his feet with her hair.
He wouldn't do that. If he were a prophet of God,
he wouldn't consort with publicans and harlots and sinners. He wouldn't
do that. You know what his reply to him
was? He said, the whole need not a
physician. I came to seek and to save that which was lost.
He attracted the worst element of society, the outcasts, the
scum, the nobodies, the lowlifes, those who had been excommunicated
from the synagogue, sociably untouchable. People that the
Pharisees wouldn't go near, lest their supposed purity be somehow
polluted. You know what Christ called them?
He called them hypocrites. You go back sometime and read
that whole passage that Brother Jim just started there in Matthew
23. Let's look at just one passage
here, verse 13. He's talking about the Pharisees
sat in Moses' seat, and he told them, he said, what they bid
you to do, observe that, observe and do. In other words, you're
to follow the law of Moses, you're under the old covenant. But they
twist it and they pervert it, and he says in verse 13, listen
to this, he says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for you neither
go in yourselves, neither suffer or allow you them that are entering
to go in. Now, you remember the elder son?
When he heard the music and the dancing, he wouldn't what? He
wouldn't go in. I'm not going into heaven that
way. That's what they're saying. By grace. By mercy. Through a substitute. As a sinner
who doesn't deserve it and doesn't earn it. I'm not going in that
way. And I'm going to preach my message
to everybody who will listen. Salvation by works. Earn your
way into God's favor. Earn your rewards in heaven.
Earn your blessings. So you won't allow other people
to go in. That's what he's saying here. He says in verse 14, Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows'
houses for a pretense. Make long prayer. Therefore you
shall receive the greater damnation. What he's talking about is taking
money from the poor. He says, verse 15, Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass surround, that
is, sea and land, to make one proselyte, one convert. And when
he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. It's sealed in false, self-righteous
religion. You know, when our Lord first
came on the scene in His public ministry, in the Sermon on the
Mount, He made this statement, Matthew 5 and verse 20, let me
read it to you. He says, For I say unto you that
except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Now go back to this elder's son.
Now he knew, he knew that his fallen brother deserved and earned
nothing from his father. But he thought he himself had
earned everything and deserved everything. He didn't understand
the concepts of mercy and grace and compassion. Let me read you
this from Matthew 23. Look at verse 23. It says, Woe
unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay tithe of
mint and anise and cumin, paying their tithes, and have omitted
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done
and not to leave the other undone." Mercy, judgment, faith hadn't
entered into their mind. It was just doing the deed, paying
the time, cleaning up the outside. That's all it was about. This
elder brother, just like the Pharisees, he hated the sound
of grace. Hated the sound of mercy and
compassion. He hated the sound of the gospel.
That's what John chapter 3 and verse 19 says. This is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world and men love darkness. They hate the light. Why? Because
their deeds were evil. It exposed them for what they
are. Now, as I told you at the beginning,
somebody may say, well, if I'd worked hard for what I had and
someone squandered away everything and came back and received everything,
I'd be angry and resentful too. You know, the Bible tells you
in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 that if a man don't work, he don't
eat. You've got to earn your living. You've got to earn your
way in this life. That's what we teach our children
growing up. We don't want them to be leeches. We want them to work for what,
that we want them to earn what they have. But my friend, when
it comes to salvation, when it comes to salvation and a right
relationship with God, where are we then? We're sent, we're
prodigals. That's what we are. We're lost
sheep. We're lost coins. We're prodigals. And the very
fact that we can ever think that we could earn God's grace is
an abomination of self-righteousness and pride. You see, this parable
is speaking of how God saves sinners. And salvation, justification
for a sinner before a holy God is not a matter of debt, Paul
wrote in Romans 4, but it's to him that worketh not. I can't
work for it. You can't either. Ephesians 2. Verse 8, for by grace are you
saved through faith, and that's not of yourself. You didn't even
earn that. You didn't even muster that up in yourself. It's the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And if
God saves us, what are we? Verse 10, we are His workmanship,
created how? In Christ Jesus. Not because
of good works, but unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. That's it. Products of grace. Look back at Luke 15, look at
verse 27. He said unto him, thy brother is come, this is
what the servants say, thy brother is come and thy father hath killed
the fatted calf because he hath received him safe and sound. That term safe and sound means
received him whole and complete, not halfway. I mean, this prodigal
son now has a full-fledged, eternal, unchangeable position in the
household of his father. Because you know why? John chapter
8. If the Son, Jesus Christ, makes you free, you're free not
halfway, but indeed, you're really free. He's able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto the Father by Him. That's right. To the uttermost. Not just halfway. You know, this elder brother,
he would have probably been content to receive his brother as a hired
servant, but not as safe and sound, not as a fully, wholly
restored son of his father with all the rights and privileges
and blessings that a father could give to a son. You know, that's
why most people talk about rewards in heaven. Now you think about
that. They just cannot grasp that concept
that I've been saved 20 years and somebody who was saved today
has everything in Christ fully, wholly, completely, 100% as I
do right now. But you want to know something?
That's exactly the way it is. I'm telling you this. I'll never
forget Brother Mahan saying this. It like to bowl me over at the
time. That the thief on the cross who
was converted in his last hour on earth was just as righteous
and holy and blessed and rewarded as the Apostle Paul. And you
want to know why? Because they were both sinners
saved by the grace of God. And that's what this elder brother
can't take. He just can't stomach that. No,
not so. I've worked hard. I just can't
be. And when the gospel sound comes
along and says, now listen, all your working hard is dung in
the sight of God. Loss. When you compare it to
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think
about it. Don't compare it. Listen. Elder
Brother, don't compare yourself to the prodigal. Compare yourself
to Christ. God has appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
and is not the prodigal." Who is it? "...in that he hath given
assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."
How do I compare to Christ? That's the issue. He wouldn't go in because he
hated the idea of grace. He was essentially saying, if
I can't bring my works in with me, I won't go in. Well, it's
a narrow way. It's a straight gate and a narrow
way. There's only room for one thing. That is a starving, thirsty,
naked sinner. That's it. There's no room for
your works. There's no room for your righteousness.
You don't have any. There's no room for what you
had to offer God. It's everything about Him in
Christ. Everything that God requires of me for salvation and eternity
and glory, I find complete in Christ. For in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are what? Complete in
Him." Now, this father entreated him.
Look here at verse 28. He was angry he wouldn't go in,
therefore came his father out and entreated him. You see, the
problem with these Pharisees and scribes was not that Christ
was keeping them out or barring them. They heard the Gospel.
They were entreated. You remember, He said, Oh, Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how oft I would have gathered you together. But you
would not. And then you think of the privileges
and the light that the Jewish nation had under the Old Covenant.
The prophets, the Word of God, the tabernacle. And then the
apostles who came along, they had the testimony of God, but
they refused the light. Christ told them one time, the
light that they have, they've turned to darkness. So the Father
entreated them, we preach the gospel to everybody who will
listen and beg. Paul said that. He said, we beseech
you be reconciled. The word beseech means beg. I'm
not portraying Christ as a beggar. He's not a beggar. He's not standing
over the banister of heaven begging anybody. You know what He does? He goes and gets His lost sheep.
He did it on the cross, and then He sends His Spirit to go get
them. But He sends us out as ambassadors to beseech sinners,
come to Christ. Stop trying to work your way
into God's favor and God's heaven. Just bow. Come to Christ. And here, this elder son boasted
of what he had earned and deserved. He accuses his father of being
unrighteous and unjust and unfair. That's a common accusation. He
resented his brother. He said, my son has come back.
He never even recognized him as his brother. All of these
issues. Let me tell you something. The
rebellious son. Now, let me tell you what the
rebellious son deserved under the law of Moses. You know what
he deserved? He deserved death. The prodigal
son did deserve death. That elder brother had that right.
These scribes and Pharisees, when they looked at sinners that
Christ was receiving and eating with, they said, those fellows
deserve to be dead. They deserve hell. You know what? They were right. Where did they
go wrong? They missed the boat on themselves.
That's what we deserve, too. The elder son had all the privileges
and advantages and possessions that the younger son had, but
what was his attitude towards all that he had? It was pride.
It was self-righteousness. It was resentfulness. No mercy,
no compassion, no charity. If he really understood the reality
of who God is and who he was, his attitude would have been
different. Do you know what would have to happen for him to do
that? He'd have to come to himself by the power of the Spirit. So
here's an illustration of the Jewish legalist who had been
so privileged under the old covenant, but who rejected Christ. Salvation
by grace. And they rejected the salvation
of the Gentiles. That's what this means here,
verse 31. He said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all
that I have is thine. He's not talking about eternal
life there. He's talking about the privileges that they had.
Think about it. Paul writes about it in Romans
chapter 9. Salvation was theirs for the taking. But what was
the problem? They didn't want it. They didn't
want it. They didn't want it God's way
in Christ. They wanted it their way that exalted their flesh. I'm going to tell you something.
Salvation is for any sinner who wants it. I'm telling you the
truth. God's way in Christ. You'll never be able to stand
before God and say, God, I wanted salvation your way, but you wouldn't
give it to me. No, sir. Any sinner who wants
it by grace, mercy and Christ will have. And you know what
that brings about? Verse 32. It's only right that
we should make Mary. And be glad. For this thy brother
was dead and is alive again and was lost in his family. Oh, my
friend, listen, when God saves any sinner, what should we do? Rejoice. There's more joy in
heaven over one sinner that cometh to repentance. You say, well,
I don't like that fellow. That has nothing to do with that.
That fellow's a great sinner. I am too. You are too. Make merry. Rejoice and be glad. One who was dead is now alive.
One who was lost is now found. to the glory and praise of God's
grace.