Actually speaking on the subject
of the elder brother and our text here is found in Luke 15
look at verse 11 and 12 and a certain man had two sons and The younger
of them said to his father father Give me the portion of goods
that falleth to me and he divided Unto him them his living now
jump down to verse 25 and Now, his elder son was in the field,
and as he came near 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, thy father hath killed for him 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 the answering said to his
father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgress
I at any time thy commandment, yet you never gave me a kid.
that I might make merry with my friend. But as soon as this
thy son was come, which has devoured your living with harlots, thy
was killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son,
Thou art ever with me. All that I have is thine. It was me that we should make
merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive
again and was lost and is found. This part of the parable has
come to be known as the parable of the prodigal son, and it has
often been used. Many have preached on this man,
this young son, as a Christian, but a backslider, one that got
away from the Lord. But that does not answer the
purpose of the Lord in giving the parable, nor does it relate
to the second or the elder son as well. Now, it answers through
things that are given in the beginning of the chapter. There
are three things that were lost here. Number one, there was lost
a sheep. Out of the 100, 90, and nine,
in the full one lost, he's gone after by the shepherd and brought
in. And then a woman loses a part of her precious possession. She
has 10 coins. She loses one. She literally
turns the house upside down until she finds that one coin. And
then she greatly rejoices because she has found her coin and calls
her friends together. Now, why did the Lord speak this
parable? Well, you'll find it in verse
1, verse 2 of the chapter. Because of the self-righteous
Pharisees who came and accused and criticized and condemned
our Lord because he received sinners and he allowed them in
his company and in his presence. And they thought this not wise
of a good man or of a righteous man. And so the Lord gives unto
them this three-parted parable that we have in this chapter.
Now, there were two kinds of people that were gathered themselves
there before and hearing the Lord on this particular occasion.
There were some of those old publicans who had sold themselves
to the Roman government that they might gather taxes of their
Jewish brethren and turned them over unto Caesar. And these were
famous for being crooks and cheats and overtaxing and enriching
themselves. True politician in every sense
of the word. Then there were the Pharisees
and the scribes who were there hearing our Lord. When they saw
the great teacher allowing such characters to have three in full
access unto him. They became a threatening audience
unto our Lord and critical of him. Now, let's go back to the
second verse a moment. This man received sinners and
each with them. And he thinks that J.C. Ryle
had a valid point when he wrote that these words here are the
key to the whole chapter and the understanding of the parable. It is never lost sight of in
all of the chapter. And the Lord confirms his words
in chapter 5 In verse 32, I am not come to call the righteous
to repentance, but I am come that I might call sinners unto
repentance. And the parable of the prodigal
showed one great thing for which we are glad, And that is that
great and notable sinners may be converted. They may be called. They may be brought unto the
Lord. Their lives completely change, and they become a servant
and a worshiper of the Lord God. Now, we notice those two sorts
of people. Now, we have two brothers in
this parable that we want to look at this evening. Most of
the time, all of the attention falls upon the younger, the one
who demanded his inheritance. the one who left home, the one
who went into a foreign country, the one who fell into ill circumstances
and wasted his substance in riotous living, finally coming to feed
hogs and swine and pigs and such like. This was the bottom, as
it were, for a Jew in that day. And yet, our Lord is giving this
parable to show that one like that, may yet come to himself
as he did, may be given a new heart, may be turned about, may
be granted repentance, and might come unto the Lord and worship
him. So that the elder son is a symbol
then of the Pharisee and of the scribe, self-righteous men they
were, who thought that they were okay in themselves. Now, we know
about the younger son coming in, the great confession that
he made. But we want to focus our attention
this evening on the elder brother. What about the elder son, for
the man had two sons? How will he react? when the father
so freely receives his younger brother in, as we say, from the
fields of sin? Will he join in that happy chorus
with the father and the servants, glad, rejoicing that the young
man has come to himself, has left that way of life, and has
come again? Will he embrace him? Will he
be glad? Will he thrill at the thought
of what has occurred in his younger brother's life? And the answer
is no on all of those accounts. We read when he heard of it,
verse 25 through verse 27, we see his reaction in verse 28. He was angry. He refused to have
any part of it. He would not enter into the house
to see and to embrace his brother. He resented what he heard. He
was very indignant at the action of his father and the graciousness
of his father to one who had been so recently in riotous living. He was offended that the fatted
Kay was slain and was served in honor of the younger son upon
his return home. He thought that his father had
erred, he thought that his father had wasted the fatted calf, he
thought that the merriment was misplaced, and he thought that
a prize animal on a prodigal was not a good swap indeed. So let's see how closely his
attitude, that is the elder brother, and his conduct mirrored that
of the scribes and the Pharisees in the first and the second verses. They murmured in the first two
verses of Luke chapter 15. Another word rendered murmured,
as in Matthew chapter 20, verse 11, Luke 5, 30, John 6, 41. It
just means to grumble, to grumble even maybe under the breath or
maybe even out loud. And the word here in Luke 15,
verse 2, Luke 19, and verse 7 seems stronger It means to greatly
murmur, to turn it up a bit, to carry it even to a higher
pitch. And so the elder brother murmured. And notice the murmuring of the
Pharisees, or of the elder brother, was directed toward the ones
that they Looked down upon rather than the Pharisees direct their
murmuring toward the Lord For he tolerated the presence of
sinner and the elder brother Directed his murmuring against
the father in verse 29 He spoke directly into the face in the
hearing of the father now what the Pharisees say the Pharisees
said this man received sinners and and eats with them. And the
elder brother lays the same charge unto his father, saying in verse
30, he has come and you have received one that has devoured
your living with harlot. You have received and eaten and
feted and honored one that is a sinner. You have welcomed such
a one not only into your house but also at your table. Now this
is the first time that we read of the younger son or brother
actually having kept company with harlots. And it may be true,
as we read in verse 13, of riotous living. Now, the NIV has it,
loose living. My Marshall's interlinear has
it, living prodigiously, or prodigally, I'm sorry. Living prodigally
is how he is described. Berry's interlinear has it, living
dissolutely, living that kind of life. And the elder brother
means this by way of heaping contempt upon the head of his
brother. At the same time, blaming his
father for receiving and honoring one who had been a prodigal. We see this in familiar contrition
in the younger son, but not in the elder. Now, let's keep in
mind the confession of the prodigal in verses 18 through verse 21,
which we did not read, but it reads like this. I have sinned
against heaven and against you. Oh father, I have sinned in the
sight of heaven and in thy sight. Then he goes on, I'm not worthy
of the title of a son. I'm not worthy of the title or
the blessing or the position. Just make me a slave. Send me
out into the field to be a menial servant. Put me among thy servant. Send me to the menial tasks that
are performed by your servant. Now contrast the words of the
elder brother who said to the father, I have never transgressed
thy commandment. Not at any time have I ever transgressed
thy command. I have rendered unto you all
that you have asked. I have given unto you perfect
obedience and all of that in verse 29. So now it is time to
ask ourselves the question, What is the spiritual state of the
elder brother? We have already decided the younger
brother, that he was in the fields of sin, had no heart for the
things of God or reverence unto his father. But the older brother,
who stayed home, who worked in the field, who did what the father
had said unto him. Must we take this one to be a
saved man? albeit a very proud one, if saved
indeed. Was he a Christian with an attitude
problem? Perhaps some would diagnose him
in that way. Or does the parable expose for
us to understand the sad state of affair of a self-righteous
individual like the Pharisee and like the scribe? Yes, I think
that's the kind of character that is described here. Of the
latter, J.C. Ryle and others have pointed
out that this elder brother is an exact type of the scribe and
of the Pharisee in our Lord's time. Those he met with and dealt
with, he and John and the apostle. In that Luke 18 and verse 9,
They trusted in themselves that they were righteous. Remember
the parable of the publican and the Pharisee who went up into
the temple to pray? Remember the prayer of the publican? God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Be propitious unto me. And the other one prayed. The
Pharisee prayed, I thank thee, Lord, I'm not like other men.
I've done this and that and the other you remember their prayer
Paul wrote in Romans chapter 10 and verse 3 of some Jew being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves under
the righteousness of God this was the state of so many Jew
in that day and Pharisee and and scribes particularly, going
about to establish their own righteousness, not submitting
to the righteousness of God. Consequently, they had no real
righteousness before God. at least not any justifying righteousness. All they had was self-righteousness
and their works of the law. And the Lord severely condemned
that during the course of his ministry. And the prophet Isaiah,
speaking of the same thing, found that Isaiah chapter 64 and verse
4 likens our Righteousnesses on the filthy rags filthy rags
and you ought to check out the Hebrew on that such was the elder
brother in this particular parable of as he pleads the merit of
his obedience. He would lay before the Father
the merit of his works and of his obedience, saying here, I
have served you all these years without even or ever Transgressing
so much as a single one of your commandment like the Pharisee
in Luke chapter 19 and verse 20 All these things have I kept
from my youth up that man said unto the Lord And when the elder
brother complained that he had not been properly rewarded, he
had not been properly recognized or been properly honored for
his obedience, as in verse 29 and the last part. You never
gave me so much as a kid, so much as a young and a tender
goat, so I could celebrate and make merry with my friends and
have a joyful time. There's something here for us
not to overlook, and that favor shown to the younger brother,
who had been a great sinner, aroused a deep animosity in the
self-righteous older brother. that when the father graciously
received the younger one who had been a great sinner and in
the fields of sin, it was an offense unto the elder brother,
and he considered it a waste at all, saying in verse 30, as
soon as this thy son. Notice he never says my brother,
thy son, as if he would disown him as a brother. While I never
had so much as a young goat, you have killed for him the fatted
calf and therefore wasted that. Now this shows a self-righteous
moralist. And those who believe in legal
works and have lived what we might call a moral or a civil
life, there are people like that in the world, do not look well. They do not look with favor upon
free and gratuitous unmerited grace of God. The elder staked
his claim to his having been an obedient one, a being a keeper
of the law. Not like many today who think
of themselves as being, who do not think of themselves, I mean,
as being a great sinner. They'd have to think a while
to think of something they've done that might be a sin against
God. And the world is full of people
like that, thanks to humanism, as we were speaking the other
Sunday, without blinking an eye, declare themselves fit for heaven.
deserving of that city not made with hand. They were raised in
church, perhaps, brought up by parents who had Christian principles
and morals, never been a prodigal, they never been out in sin, they
never stole like the man Bragg, never did this, never did that,
never did the other, never been drunk in my life, never have
been an adulterer, Never been a gambler, never been a spin
thrift. Been honest and a good steward with all of my money.
Been a good neighbor, help people out. whenever they need it, and
on that, there are those who would stake the salvation of
their soul. But on the contrary, they have
been brought up in church, they have learned the creeds, they've
memorized the Bible, they've moved well among people, they've
married well, have a good family and all of that, and again, they
stake their right to heaven upon that thought. To expand upon
an earlier thought, of the animosity of the self-righteous against
free, pardoning grace. I came across this quote of a
certain commentator, and I'd like to share it with you. Quote,
he, that is the elder brother, is a type of the self-righteous,
ignorant moralist who cannot bear the doctrine of salvation
by grace or endure the idea of a great sinner being completely
pardoned and put on a level with himself." Unquote. We have another
fault to point out here in the elder brother as we look, in
that he disowned, as I said, his very own brother, thy son,
in verse 30. So it is not my brother, but
your son. Though the servants, verse 27
said, thy brother is come thy brother has come and thy father
hath received him safe and sound and the father in verse 32 refers
to him also as this thy brother has come safe and sound but he
cannot bring himself to embrace him as a brother and see him
on a level with him but also notice something else about this
pouting elder brother. He does not confine his discontent
to the younger brother. He faults the father as well. As to say, you have received
a sinner. You have even set him at the
table and eaten with him, again in the second verse, as soon
as he has come, as soon as he has arrived, without making trial,
without putting to the test. As soon as he has come, you have
received him, have honored him. Gill said the elder thought such
rejoicing and celebrating was unbecoming to the father, even
as legalists believe that only law-abiding people can be considered
the children of God. There is no easy and forgiveness
for great sinners. They must do something great
and charismatic. Giltz also said the elder brother
would prefer another method to be taken with the younger one,
such as send him away perhaps. disowning, send him to the slave's
tent, let him be beaten with many stripes by the law, let
him work and obey until he has merited the right to have some
kind of honor and position. What a contrast between the view
of themselves by these two brothers, The elder saw himself being perfect
obedience to all of the father's commandment. Did not the Jew,
did not Paul say that he was blameless before the law at one
time? The younger thought very differently. He was rebellious and he knew
it. He came to himself. He saw himself to be a great
sinner. unworthy of the Father's kiss
and humbling himself when he came into his sight and willing
to be made a slave if it pleased the Father. And old Puritan wrote
of the difficulty of convincing men like the older brother of
the fact that they are sinners in the sight of God. It is a
hard thing to do. In fact, only God can do it. Only the Spirit of God taking
the Word of God could do it. To which I might add, they remove
themselves from the church where the depravity of the race is
strongly emphasized. These kind of moral people, they
don't like to hear the depravity of man. They don't believe it,
and they don't accept it. It's an insult unto them and
to what they perceive as their morality. So where they hear
depravity preached, they do not linger. They exit themselves. They stop their ears at hearing
of the wrath of God. Why, God is a God of love. don't
speak to me of the wrath of God. They close their eyes to the
truth of the gospel that Christ died to save sinners. They're
self-deceived and perhaps deceived by God as well in some things. They're like that deaf adder
that we read about in the scripture in Psalm 58, 4 and 5. They stop
their ears to the tune of the charmer, charming ever so sweetly,
so wisely, and so beautiful, yet their ears are stopped. God
hates self-righteousness. It is odious in His holy sight. It is a stench in the nostrils
of Almighty God. It is contrary to His word. For
he has said, there is none righteous, no, not one. We learn from this
from the younger and the older, too, that none will ever sue
for the mercy and the pardon and the forgiveness of God through
Christ until they are shown and understand that they are a sinner
in the sight of God. God will bring us to that. He
will strip us of our righteousness. He will take away every vestige
of our goodness that we thought that we had to possess to present
unto him. And all those who see themselves
as righteous in his sight will go on their blinded way. It is
an insult to all, like the elder brother, to be told that they
are sinners worthy of everlasting damnation. Oh, no, not me. And in a huff, go on their way. In closing, see the scene in
Luke 18. 9 through 14 when the Holy Lord
Jesus Christ spake this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous. We mentioned it, a publican and
a Pharisee. The first confessed his sin and
his worthlessness, sued for mercy, bowed his head, and no pride
did he bring before the throne of grace. And he went away justified. The other, thank God for his
goodness, presented his righteousness, went away unjustified. The Lord
is very clear about those two in that particular instance and
parable. One more thing and then I'm done.
The publicans and sinners, our Lord said on one occasion, go
into the kingdom of God before the Pharisees and the scribes.
The worst of men go in before the best. The scribes and the
Pharisees were supposed to be paragons of virtue in that day,
keepers of the law, zealous of it, even to an excess. And yet
here our Lord, given this parable, said, publicans and harlots will
sooner enter the kingdom of God than Pharisees and scribes and
self-righteous. We need to remember that. Publicans
and sinners go into the kingdom of God before you, not because
of what they are, but because of what they come to be before
Almighty God. One repentant, suing for mercy,
help me, save me or I perish. And the other, Lord, I thank
you that I am fit like I am for heaven. I could not tell you
the time, the funerals that I've had, when I hear people talk
about worldly people who are passed away, didn't ever go to
church, I have heard the family and friends say, well, I'll tell
you what, if anybody's ready for heaven, it was him, it was
Joe, it was Barbara, so and so. If anybody would go to heaven,
it would be them. And that's the way some people
think. But it's wrong thinking. Only
sinners are brought into the kingdom of God by the death of
our Lord Jesus Christ.