But before I get there, we're
going to read 11 down through 332. That's the passages that
I'd like to look at this morning. Known to many as the parable
of the prodigal son, or the lost son. I can't remember the last time
if I've even preached on this since I've been here. But I kind
of see this verse in a little bit of a different light than
I used to. But before we get there, I'd
like to at least kind of get us into the context of where
Jesus is at, what Jesus is doing. If you notice before this 11th
verse, Jesus has been given some other parables. He's given the
parable just right before this. He was given the parable of the
lost coin. Before that, he'd given the parable
of the lost sheep. He'd given the parable of the
great supper. And he had healed a man on the
Sabbath. Those are kind of all the things that was leading up
to what we're fixing to look at here in the 15th chapter and
11th verse down. But if you'll go back to Luke
chapter 14, this is kind of where this whole thing begins. It's
in Luke 14 and verse 1. I want you to pay close attention
to the environment, the surrounding, where Jesus is at, what Jesus
is doing, who all's involved in the discussions and who all's
being talked about and how they're reacting, how they're not reacting. And let's kind of look at a few
things here before we get into the meat of our passage. In verse 1 of chapter 14, it
says, "...and it came to pass..." I really hadn't even planned
to talk about this, but I can't pass this up. "...and it came
to pass..." Whenever you see, "...and it came to pass..." in
the Scriptures, always be mindful of the fact that what is happening
or the transactions that are going on at that moment, what
is particularly coming up and being manifested in the lives
of these people, in the speech that is being made, in whatever
activity has happened. If something comes to pass, that
means that it was already declared beforehand and is now coming
to pass. If something comes to pass, okay
yesterday our plan whenever we got up was to watch OU play football
at 2.30 whenever it came on. Well whenever 2.30 came and the
game started and it came to pass that the game began. Well the
game had already been planned at 2.30. We had already planned
to watch that was only what was already predetermined
before the thing even started, of the plan that was set into
motion even before it even happened. Okay? Now, we're not absolute
like God is absolute. That could have easily changed.
Our plans could have changed, right? The Bible even says that
man devises his ways, but God directs His steps, right? We
devised our ways yesterday, and it so happened that that's what
happened. But, whenever the Bible says, and it came to pass, That
means that what is happening at this point is exactly what
God had determined to happen. This wasn't just some random
occasion. This wasn't just some coincidence. All of us are here today, and
it's not by coincidence, and it's not by any of our wills
that we came. God determined that this would
be, and He put it within our hearts to direct our steps to
be here today. And so, as we go into this, know
that everybody that is here, everybody that is listening and
all the words and exchange that is happening in all these parables
and all the reactions to these parables are just as God had
determined that they would be. Therefore, it came to pass. And
that's all prophecy is, brethren. Prophecy isn't somebody telling
the future of what's going to happen. prophecy is foretelling
what God has said is His decree that will happen. Everything
that God declares will come to pass. It may come to pass today. It may come to pass tomorrow.
It may come to pass in ten years. Whatever the case, when God says
He's going to do something or declares that He's going to do
something, it will come to pass and nothing is going to stop
that. And so what we see here in this exchange of of teaching
with Jesus and all these people is God-ordained. He said, and
it came to pass as He went into the house of one, now that's
Jesus, as Jesus came into the house of one of the chief Pharisees
to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched Him. The Pharisees. The people. They were watching
to see what He was going to do, right? Now, we see here that Jesus healed
this man. There was a man with gyropsy
that came in and Jesus healed him on the Sabbath day. And the
people wanted to know, hey, why are you healing this man on the
Sabbath day? You're not supposed to be doing stuff on the Sabbath
day. Jesus, you know, told him there in verse 5, you know, if
any of y'all have an ass or an ox that falls into the ditch
on the Sabbath, why don't you go on there immediately and get
it out? Okay? But look at verse 7. He says,
and he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when
he marked how they chose out the chief rooms, saying unto
them," and he goes into a parable about how they choose people
to sit in high esteem. Some that are rich, they sit
in high esteem, or the poor, they push to the back. Tell them,
you go sit back there, you nice people, well clothed people,
rich people, prominent people, you'd come sit up here, right?
But notice if you would here, he said, Jesus began to mark
how they chose out the chief rooms. So these people are starting
to make distinctions. And they're looking at people
based upon the outward appearances. They're making estimates about
people and giving esteem to them based upon their prominence,
upon their wealth, among their stature, their status, their
influence, who they are, their name, whatever it might be. And they were exalting them to
a place of prominence based upon who they were outwardly. And
that they were neglecting those who in their estimation were
of lower esteem. Then look, if you would, down
at verse 15. After talking about... Maybe
I should read verse 12 down. He said also to them that bade
him, Would thou make us to dinner or supper? Call not thy friends,
nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors,
lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee.
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the
lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense
thee. For thou shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just." So he's saying here, again, whenever
you take stock of anybody or whenever you minister to others,
He said, don't take stock of what's on the outward appearance.
Look at the lowly. Look at the base things. Look
at those who are in need. Those who are here, he says,
those who the poor, the lame, the lame, the blind. Now, a lot
of people has taken that and run with it and put on social
gospel feet on it and said that it's the church's responsibility
to go out and take care of all these people that's in the world
and everything. And that's why we have soup kitchens
and homeless shelters all this sort of stuff and people call
our church number all the time, want money and handouts and things
like that. They think that that's the responsibility of the church,
but that's not what Jesus is teaching here. Remember what
a parable is? A parable, number one, first
and foremost, is not a story to make something sound more
understandable. Okay? I grew up all my life being told
that a parable is a earthly story of a heavenly meaning and it
was given to us so that it might make it easier for us to understand. That's actually the complete
opposite of what Jesus said the parables were for. If you remember,
whenever He was speaking in parables, His disciples asked Him, hey,
why do you speak to people in parables? And He told them, He
said, it is given unto you to know these things, but not to
them. See, there was truth that was
being hidden to the wise and the prudent, but it was being
revealed unto the babes. In other words, it was being
hidden from the religious people of the world, the self-righteous
people of the world. It's being hidden from the natural
man, the Adamic man, who we are, born in Adam, this natural man. It's hidden from us, and only
until God reveals that unto us, Do we understand these things?
And so Jesus spoke in these parables to actually hide and confuse
those who are not his people. That's the purpose of a completely
opposite of what we're being told in most modern churches
today. And so the parable is given for
us and while it has a natural understanding applied to it,
It has a natural connotation to
it. It has a spiritual understanding applied to it. It's to bring
out a spiritual teaching, a spiritual truth. And here Jesus is taking
the natural things like a wedding or a supper and he's taken people
coming in to your service and how they're being treated and
he's taken this man in a physical way who had dropsy and it was
the Sabbath, the high holy day for the Jews and these religious
leaders who thought that you shouldn't do anything and they
did everything that they could to make sure that they were trying
to keep the law they were going to not have compassion on one
who needed compassion but yet was going to keep their holy
day. And Jesus here said, listen, it's not about that. And he disregarded
those religious leaders to have compassion upon the one who was
in need. So it's the ones who are in need, the ones who are
blind and lame and deaf and sick, those who are wanting that Jesus
is saying, these are the ones who are being ministered to.
These are the ones who are seeing the kingdom. These are the ones
who are coming to me. All those out there are not coming
to me. Why? Because they have a righteousness
of their own. They think they don't need me.
They have the law. They have the prophets. They
have their lineage back to Abraham. They're well off. They don't
need me. So we're beginning to see what
these parables are teaching. Jesus is teaching a spiritual
truth that those who are made to know and understand their
need for Christ, their brokenness, their sinfulness, their inability
for spiritual things, those people are the ones who come looking
to be ministered by Christ. The other ones are looking for,
how can I do it? How can I do it? And that's kind
of what we're seeing. Well, after Jesus speaks about
this, and He speaks about these people coming in, And he says
in verse 14, And thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense
thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection. He said,
whenever you minister to these people like this, you may not
get anything out of it. You won't get anything out of
it. He said, but listen, in the resurrection,
you will be recompensed. You will receive your reward
whenever everything is all said and done. Your reward is Christ.
That's the reward. See, our reward in this life
isn't more members in the church, more money in the box, more status in this world, a
bigger building or all this kind of stuff. That's not what our
reward is. It isn't how many people we baptize
or add it to the ministry or anything like that. That's not
where we recompense. We're recompensed with the fact
that in the end, We will be resurrected unto life and we will have Christ
as our reward. And so Jesus is saying there
is a spiritual thing that supersedes the natural. And in verse 15
we see that it becomes plain to some that were there. Look
at verse 15. And when one of them that sat at meat with him
heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall
eat bread in the kingdom of God. See, he went from the natural
supper that Jesus was just talking about and went to that spiritual
supper that Jesus speaks of. The kingdom of God is not a natural
kingdom. It is not a physical kingdom.
It is a spiritual kingdom. And that food that we eat in
that spiritual kingdom at that spiritual supper is not physical
food. It is spiritual food. And so
this man is beginning to see that this is a spiritual thing
that Jesus is talking about. It's a spiritual kingdom and
we will be fed on spiritual things and not just natural things.
And then he goes down, look at verse 25. That's whenever he
goes to the parable of the great supper. About sending people
out. And you notice there that he
sends out and he says that to go tell them to come in, and
nobody responded, or they did respond, but they had excuses
on why not to be there. And then he went out and he brought
some in, and then they brought some more in that was not from
that area. And in verse 25 he said, and
there went great multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto
them. So we're still at the same place.
We're in the Pharisees' house. We're gathered with the religious
leaders. We're gathered with the disciples. We're gathered
with a multitude of people who have come to hear Jesus speak.
They're watching Him. They're seeing what He's going
to do. Of course, the Pharisees are
watching Him and trapping Him. That's what their whole entire
mission was, through the whole entire time He was here, is to
watch Him and to try to find a way to trap Him and to convict
Him so that they could get rid of Him. But here they are, all
watching Him, all seeing what He would do. And now he goes
into the parable of the lost sheep, where 99 stay and one
is lost. He goes and receives the one.
Now look at chapter 15 in the very first here. We're still
at the same place, but look what he says. He says, then drew near
unto him all the publicans, which are tax collectors. Publicans
are tax collectors. Near unto him all the publicans
and sinners to hear him. And the Pharisees, the Pharisees
were the religious leaders of the day. He said, and the Pharisees
and scribes murmured, complained, saying, this man receiveth sinners
and eateth with them. So see, the religious man said,
this guy's a lettin' sinners come among him and eat with him,
and he's teaching them. They complained about that. And
so Jesus goes right into speaking a parable unto them, saying,
and He goes into the parable of the lost sheep. There was
a hundred sheep. Ninety-nine stayed. One was lost.
He left all the ninety-nine to go find the one. He brought it
back on His shoulders. And then He moves into the parable
that we want to look at today, verse 11. And I believe there is some cohesion
between all these parables. Jesus is teaching the same thing,
but He's doing it in different ways through these different
parables. 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 falleth
to me. And he divided unto them his
living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all
together, he took his journey into a far country, and there
wasted his substance with righteous living. And when he had spent
all, there arose a mighty famine in the 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 went fain, and he would
fain have filled his belly with the husk 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
and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to
my father and 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 way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran
and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto his
father, 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, bring forth the best robe and put it on him
and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither
the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be married. For
this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be married.
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 transgress
I at any time thy commandment, and 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, thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine. It was meet 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 brother, I don't know about
you, but this is a blessed, blessed parable that the Lord has told
us. It just, warms my heart whenever
I read how the Father responded to this Son coming back home.
Now, I said that I see this passage in a different light than I have
in the past. In the past, I've seen this as
a Christian who, both these brothers were Christians, and both these
men had all the privileges of being a Christian, being the
Son of God, And yet one of them became unfaithful and went away.
He backslid. Went back into the world. Went
back into seeking after his own self. And the one who stayed
was the faithful Christian who stays and does what the Lord
wants and all these things. But I'm kind of thinking this
might be showing us a little something different here than
that. Number one, whenever you get to the end of this, you see
that the brother that stayed was angry. whenever the other
brother came back in. A true Christian, whenever we
see one who has strayed and went away and went off into sin, whenever
he is reconciled back, that they rejoice. They rejoice with those
who rejoice. They weep with those who weep.
They love them. They bring them back into fellowship. They bring
them back into communion with them. They bring them back in
love and cherish them as a brother or sister. Those are the things
that happen whenever we are a true Christian. Right? But we see
this brother becomes haughty. He becomes angry. He doesn't
want to go in and fellowship with the brother that has been
brought back. He doesn't rejoice in the repentance and the coming
back of the brother. He doesn't rejoice in the father's
making Mary over the son who had returned. He becomes angered
at that thing and the first thing he does is he begins to put up
His righteous works and how He has been faithful. How He has
kept all of the commands. Look at verse 25. It says, Now
his eldest son was in the field as he came. He drew nigh to the
house and he heard the music and dance and he called to the
servant and asked, What these things meant? And he said, Thy
brother is come and thy father has killed the fatted calf because
he hath received him safe and sound. and he was angry and would
not go in. He refused to go in and even
be a part of it. Therefore, his father came out
and then treated him. And he answered and said to his
father, over these many years, do I serve thee? Look what I've
done. I've been here all along. And now you're going out and
getting this man a fatted calf? You're giving this man who was
living with the harlots This man who was living in riotous
living, who squandered all his things that you had given him,
all the blessings that you had given him, and he just squandered
them away, and now you're going to do all this for him whenever?
I've been faithful all along. I've been doing all the things
that you've required of me. He said, neither transgressed
I at any time thy commandment. So you see this elder brother, is the self-righteous man. The
elder brother is the one who is the Pharisee that is here
looking at Jesus and saying, this man eats with publicans
and sinners. This is the religious leader who is here saying, hey,
this man healeth on the Sabbath day. This man here is fellowshipping
with all these baser and lower people. and everything, and not
giving the good seat to us who have status. We've been here
all along. We're the religious leaders.
We're the ones that he should be rejoicing in, and we're the
ones he should be teaching and giving the truth to, but yet
he's doing this with the baser people, the lower people. See,
it's the self-righteous man here that is in view here. I believe
what is being shown here is the true child of grace in both,
not only, and I think there's several levels that we can look
at this at. We can look at this as the old man and the new man
being seen here. But we're also seeing the Jew
and the Gentile. For the Jew is all about the
law and the keeping of the commandments and the righteousness that they
thought that they were gaining by being a son of the Father,
Abraham, and being a keeper of the commandments, being given
all the ordinances, being given all the oracles of God, and that
they were blessed by that and that they stayed faithful to
God, even though they didn't. They weren't faithful to God.
They were ever increasingly unfaithful to God. And especially at this
time when Jesus was here, those religious leaders had no resemblance
of what God had given them in the mount as far as a religious
service to Him. They weren't keeping the law.
They weren't keeping the laws of Moses. They weren't keeping
the ordinances of Moses as Moses had given it to them. They had
added laws upon laws to keep laws. They thought that their
lineage from Abraham was their salvation and their law keeping
was salvation to them. And so they are depicted in this
elder man, this elder son, who thinks that
he deserves everything that he has earned. I deserve the fatted
calf because I've been the one who's been here all along. And
just like the other son, he was given the same things. He was
given the natural things of life. This man here was given the natural
things of life. He may have even been given the
religious things of life, just like the Jews were given all
these oracles. But yet, out of that Jewish people, there was
an elect of God who, even though they've been given natural things
and physical things by God, They've seen and believed upon the Messiah.
They looked towards the Messiah. They hoped in the Messiah. But
it wasn't until God brought them to that understanding, it wasn't
until God brought them to understand and know that they cannot keep
this law, that they cannot keep the things that God had given
them to do and that they were not worthy. And so out of that
one lump, there is a people that is being brought out to know
they are wretched, that they are lame, that they are blind,
that they are poor, that they are halt. that they are without
any ability at all, and then there's the other people that
are left to their own self-righteousness. So we see a picture here of those
that God has given and they had taken what God has given, and
in their natural self, this is this younger brother, in his
natural self, he took the things that God had given him, the natural
things, the blessings of life, the things of life, and he squandered
those things. He went away, but because he
was a child of grace, because he was his father's son, he was
given to understand after he went off into the far country.
after he went out and did all the things that he thought was
going to be food to his soul, he began to see, in verse 14,
when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the
land, and he began to be in want. And brother, I just apply this,
and I think about my life and how the experience that I've
had, how that I had grown up under preaching, under teaching
in a quote-unquote church my whole entire life, under religious
things. And hey, I took those things
and I was going to go out. I was going to be a preacher.
I was a singer. I was going to go out and sing.
I was going to go out and do all these marvelous things. And I took what God had given
me. And at the time, it was just
natural things that God had given me. And it was my self-righteousness
that thought, hey, I'm going to take all these things that
God has given me and brought me into and where He's placed
me. I'm going to take those things and I'm going to go out and I'm
going to do everything with it. And listen, I did. I went out and
I did all those things. I preached in lots of places. I sung in
lots of places. I had opportunity to share and
minister to all these people in what I thought was the truth
and what I thought was the way God wanted things done. And I
did all that stuff and I read and I studied and I preached
and all that stuff. But all of a sudden, there came
a change in my heart where those things was no longer what was
feeding my soul. I began to see that this is not
the truth. This is not the way God does
things. This is not the way that God works. This is not how things
are supposed to be done. And all of a sudden, I was left
in a place in between being zealous in my good works and before God
had brought me into the truth, He left me in a place where I
was in between and I didn't know. I was still confused about my
past. Is it still this way? Or is God
taking me somewhere? I don't even know where I'm going.
I don't even know what I'm doing. I don't even know what's right
or wrong anymore. What all I've been taught growing
up, what I've heard, what I've learned, what I've committed
to memory, what I've exercised in my experience, everything
that I'm doing is now turned against me. to my conscience,
to my heart, to my soul. Everything is turned against
me, it seems. And now, all of a sudden, I see
I am nothing. You guys have remembered, I've
told you that not long before the Lord brought me into the
doctrines of grace and began to show me how we gain right,
how we get righteousness through imputation and not through good
works or not through a choice that we make or through our own
wills. that I preached a revival in Oklahoma City one time, and
I preached this revival, and I spent weeks preparing all my
messages for that whole week, and I thought, man, this is,
man, I thought I had how meticulously I made this thing to run through
one night after the other, after the other, after the other, led
to each other, connected together, but had this beautiful, and by
the time I got to the end, I was gonna reveal something at the
end that made everything else just open right up. And man,
I had spent all this time, and I thought, man, this is gonna
be an amazing week, and there's gonna be people saved, and there's,
you know, all this stuff. And if you remember, I told you,
I said I spent that whole entire week preaching, and I preached
my heart out. What I thought I was preaching
was truth. Whenever I was preaching, I truly, from my heart, was being
zealous for the Lord, I thought. I wasn't trying to deceive anybody,
or I wasn't trying to do anything. Now, I was deceived. I was being
deceived in my own mind, because I thought what I was teaching
was the gospel, what I thought was the truth. But I did all
that each night. Not one person ever came down
to the front, prayed, asked to be saved. Nobody did anything.
Matter of fact, through the whole entire week, there wasn't even
hardly anybody that would even shake my hand afterwards. Nobody
told me, hey, I appreciate that message. That was a good message.
And listen, my pride was so destroyed at the end of that week. I went
to the Lord and I said, Lord, if I preached all that this week
and nobody got saved, I need to get out of this business.
I need to get out of this business because if they're not safe from
listening to all that, I don't know what else to tell them.
I don't know what else to do. I can't do anything. And that's
whenever the Lord hit me. You're right. And that's the
reason that this happened the way that it happened is to show
you you can't do anything. This is what I believe is happening
to this younger brother. This younger brother is, this
is my father. This is all the things that my
Father has. He's going to give me the things.
I want the things that belong to me, and I'm going to go out
and take those things that you have given to me, and I'm going
to make use of them, and I'm going to go out and make my way
in this world with those things that are mine. Me, me, me, me. me, and so he goes out into the
world and he does all those things and all that it does, and we
read about righteous living, we read about getting in the
hogs' pens. Rather, these are just pictures
of things showing how this man got into the things that are
not good, and it doesn't necessarily mean, it doesn't necessarily
mean that in the spiritual application of these things, that we are
doing wicked and evil things. It's just meaning that we are
taking these base things. We are taking the things that
we think are going to make us pleasurable, or that are going
to be pleasurable for us. We are taking these things and
we are applying them thinking that it's going to be satisfying
to us, that it's going to fulfill our life, that it's going to
be something that's going to make us joyful. But yet, at the end of the day,
it's just as if we've been out to a harlot. We've taken the
things that God has given us and we've squandered them. And
it's just as if we've been out with a harlot. It's just as if
we've been out in the pigsty with the unclean. It is just
that. And why did God do that? Because,
listen, and it came to pass. Now, yes, this is a parable,
but in the parable, Jesus is saying this came to pass, this
young man, Whenever he went out with everything that he thought
he needed, or had need of, to do what he wanted to do, once
he got out of there, he just began to see, no matter what
I did, life came down on me. Whatever I did, hey, the famine
came. I couldn't provide for myself.
I couldn't even eat. I couldn't do nothing. There
was nothing there to sustain me. There was nothing there to
help me. There was nothing that I could do. And so what does
he do? and he attaches himself to a man from that country. From
where all this stuff goes on, he goes and attaches himself.
How many times have us, whenever we think, hey, we're going to
go out here and we're going to win the world for Jesus, and
we go out there, what's the first thing we do? We start attaching
ourselves to theologians. We start attaching ourselves
to seminaries. We start attaching ourselves
to colleges. We start attaching ourselves to different ministries. the cliches of the religious
world, our witness wear, our t-shirts, our hats, our bracelets,
our bumper stickers, our posters, our signs. We start attaching
ourselves to the way that men think that people are saved. We attach ourselves to the things
of this world and use the wisdom of this world and the mentality
of this world to try to win the lost when all along the father
has his sons. The Father has His and has blessed
them with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. And it's
not the blessings that He gives them and they take and make means
of, but it's the blessings that only He can give and only they
can enjoy. You see, the true blessing that
the Father had for that son was whenever that son came to the
end of himself and realized, I am no good. I am worthless. And listen, my father's hired
servants have it better than I do. It wasn't until he was brought
to the end of himself and he was blessed to come back to his
right mind, he was blessed to come to the end of himself to
know he was worthy. Listen, brethren, it's a blessing
from God whenever He gives you to know that you're a sinner.
It's a blessing of God to give you the understanding that you
cannot keep God's law. That is a blessing that God has
given you in a spiritual way. God has spiritually given you
eyes to see your inability to keep His law, to be holy, to
obey Him, and therefore, since you cannot keep the law, you
cannot obey Him, and you are not holy, your only hope is in
Christ who He Himself obeyed for you. He Himself suffered
the penalty for your sins that you deserved. He Himself is alive
and that life is given to you that you did not deserve and
you can't earn. You can't ask for it. You can't
witness for it. You can't preach it. You can't
do anything. It's freely given. that the Father was ready to
freely give Him that He didn't give Him in that first round
of blessing. See, what He gave Him was material things. What
He gave Him was worldly things. What He gave Him was natural
things. But what was the thing that He was given? When the man
came to the end of himself and seen he was worthless and could
not do anything, and that he would go back and beg to his
Father to at least bring him back as a hired servant, What did the Father do? The Father
showed Him His love. The Father showed Him His compassion.
The Father showed Him acceptance. The Father showed Him that the
fatted calf would be given for Him. Now brethren, I see in all
that, the Bible says that God has loved us with an everlasting
love. The Bible says that God has compassion
upon His people. I will have compassion on those
whom I will have compassion, and I will harden those whom
I will harden. God has made a distinction between
His people and the reprobate. He has made a distinction between
His, that He is loved with an everlasting love, by showing
them compassion, granting them repentance, granting them forgiveness. Listen, the Bible says that whenever
He saw that son from afar off, He didn't wait for the son to
get himself all the way back. He didn't wait for the son to
make of himself something to get himself back to repent. No,
the father ran, he said, and fell on his neck and kissed him
and welcomed him back. It was the father that showed
compassion. The father didn't come down on him. Why? Because
the father knew what kind of child he was. The father knew
that he was just dust. The father knew he was just a
natural man. But that whenever repentance
was granted, whenever the understanding of our inability was granted,
He came back to the Father. And it wasn't because He came
back. It wasn't because He had learned His lesson. It wasn't
because that Son had done anything. It was because of the Father's
love and compassion on the Son that He blessed Him with the
fatty calf. And what was the fatty calf?
The fatty calf is the Lord Jesus Christ, brethren. Our Father has given us the slain
lamb. He has slain the Lamb in our
honor, in our behalf, because of His love for us. That's what
John 3.16 tells us. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. John said, Behold the Lamb of
God who taketh away the sins of the world. Now, of course,
we know through the rest of Scripture that the world that is being
talked about there is the world of His elect, the world of His
children that He has chosen before the foundation of the world.
for the love that He had loved them with an everlasting love,
and that love cannot be broken, that love cannot be lost, that
love will never go away, no matter how sinful we are, no matter
how far we run away from Him, and I'm not encouraging people
to do that, but no matter how bad it gets, that love will always
be constant towards us, and the compassion of God will always
be consistent with us. And listen, though He chastises
us, like this young man was chastised, though He chastises us, that
proves His love for us. You notice He didn't chastise
the brother that stayed at home? We know for a fact that that
brother that stayed at home didn't keep all the commands of the
Father. We know that that elder man that stayed at home did not
do everything that was required of him. Because no man can. No man can keep the laws of God.
No man can keep them. The Father didn't chastise that
son. He continued to let that son
live in his unbelief. He continued to let that son
go. You say, well, how can you say that both of them are sons
then? Aren't just the spiritual children
of God the sons? Well, naturally speaking, we're
all children of God, right? Spiritually speaking, only the
elect are children of God in a spiritual way. Was not Ishmael
also the son of Abraham, just as much as Isaac was? Wasn't
Esau as much a son of Isaac as Jacob was? See, we have a natural son, we
have a spiritual son. We have two seeds. We have a
spiritual seed and we have a natural seed. And that natural seed continues
on in its self-righteousness thinking it's owed something.
Thinking that it deserves something. Thinking that it can do something
to gain favor with the Father. that it can do something to merit
its standing with the Father. And this is the whole thing that
Jesus was talking about. You men think that because of
your standing, because of your status, because of your religious
activity, because of your astuteness in the Old Testament, because
of your keeping what you think are keeping the law, that you
deserve something. Yet, as Jesus said, listen, there
are prostitutes coming into the kingdom before you. See, this whole entire group
of parables in this sitting down in this man's house was to teach
a lesson that it isn't the wise, it isn't the prudent, it isn't
the religious, it isn't those who think they're keeping God's
law. No, it's the ones who have, by God's grace, have been humbled
to know their sin, their sinfulness, their inescapableness from that
sin, their inability for anything spiritual, their non-acceptance
through natural ways to God, and that the only acceptance
that they can have before God is in the righteousness of Jesus
Christ alone. It's only whenever we see that
we can do nothing and that all of our hope is in Christ alone
that shows forth that we're the true children of God. The true children of God is not
out there trying to build the kingdom of God for Christ. The
children of God recognizes that the kingdom of God will never
end. It is a kingdom that is forever. And He is the King of
the kingdom and He is building His tabernacle. He is building
His church. He is building that which is
there. He is the God and the Maker and the King and the Governor
of all of it. And just as this young man learned
his lesson that there was nothing that he could do no matter how
much he was blessed, there was nothing that he could do, and
it all ended in famine. Nothing fed him. But the bread
of the Father was what drew him back. See, there's a lot of times,
brother, we fall back into these ways thinking that we deserve
something. We fall back into these ways thinking that our
self-righteousness is going to be accepted by God. But all of
a sudden, we begin to feel the famine. Whenever I hear preaching,
listen, a lot of times I'm driving around to work, and I'll turn
on the radio, trying to find stuff to listen to on the radio,
and you get down on the left end of the radio, and that's
where all the preaching is, right? You hear all the Christian radio
stations. Most of the preaching that you
hear on there is not all of it. It's just a bunch of garbage.
But every now and then, I'll turn it on just to listen to
see what's being said and everything. And I listen to it, and I hear
all these platitudes. I hear all this brashness in
some people's voices and how they're doing stuff, and what
they're doing, and all this. Brother Larry was saying a while
ago, the mentality of most people is that 90% of the Bible is how
to live. When it's not, is to tell us
that we can't live. The Bible is overwhelmingly a
Bible that is telling us, you can't do this. But yet we hear
the preachers that are out there, the churches that are out there
that are telling us what we can do, what we should be doing,
how we should be doing it, and all like that. And to the child
of grace, because the child of grace is one who has been made
to know their inability. To the child of grace, they hear
that, and they say, I hear what you're saying, preacher. I hear
what you're admonishing, preacher. I hear what you're exhorting,
preacher. I hear what you're telling us we ought to be doing
and should be doing, and you're telling me that if I'm not doing
it, then I'm not His. All I can say is I must not be
His because I know that within myself, dwelleth no good thing. That I am a wretched man that
I have tried and cannot keep. And that preaching becomes husks
like this man was trying to eat. The outer husk. It wasn't even
the good corn inside, it was the outer husk. Has anybody ever
ate a husk off of a corn cob? Now I love corn on the cob. I'll
eat that all day long. I don't care how much it gets
in my teeth. I'll eat that all day long. I ain't going to eat
them husks. And here he was eating these
husks and he was moaning, this isn't filling. This isn't nourishing. This isn't satisfying. Why? Because his soul was made to
know I cannot do it. I'm not worthy. His soul was
made. And whenever we hear the preaching
out there telling us how good we can do it, what's the little
phrase that Joel Osteen starts his whole services with? It's
like daily affirmations on Saturday Night Live. I'm loved, I'm good,
I'm a wonderful person, and everybody likes me. Ridiculous. The Bible tells us just the opposite. The Bible says that all the intent
of our heart was only evil continually. The Bible says that our heart
is desperately wicked above all things and who can know it? The
Bible tells us that in ourselves is no good thing. It says that
there is none righteous, no not one. And when preachers are out
there telling you to get out there and do this righteous stuff
so that God will be pleased with you and that God will keep you
and that you will be taken to heaven whenever you die, that
is a bunch of hogwash. And that hogwash doesn't feed
the saints. That hogwash doesn't feed the child of grace who has
been given to know that that is not what God requires, that
is not what God wants because I've tried it and it don't work. But what does? There's been a
fatted calf killed for me. There is fellowship with my Father
and it's not based on what I've done. Good or bad. The father didn't base the fellowship
and the being married and dancing and the food and the wine and
all the stuff that he did at this supper for his son. He didn't
do any of that. He didn't do it because that
son had done something good. And he surely didn't do it because
he did it bad. He did it because he loved his
son. Brethren, God loves His people.
and before any of the boys had done anything good or bad, that
the purpose of God according to election might stand, he said
to one, I love Jacob, and I hate Esau. He hates Ishmael. He hates Esau. He hates the man
of the flesh. He hates the one who thinks that
they can gain acceptance through their own merit, through their
own work, through their own self-righteousness. He hates that man. He will not
accept that man. And at the end of time, all those
who try to stand in their own righteousness will be shown to
be found wanting because God's law will crush them God's law
will prove that they were unable, and the only ones that will be
left standing in that day will be the elect of God, whose righteousness
was imputed unto them by Christ alone, who Christ's obedience
was given to them for their obedience, whose Christ's death was the
wages that they owed that Christ paid for them, and therefore
they have paid every wage of sin that they owed God, It was
paid in the death of Christ on their behalf. And there will
be merriment. There will be rejoicing. There
will be eating and drinking. There will be fellowship with
their Father. Verse 32 says, It was meet that
we should make merry and be glad. For this thy brother was dead,
See, that young man was dead to spiritual things. As long
as he was there at home with all the natural, physical provisions
that was given to him, he was dead. Whenever we're born into
this world in Adam, all we have is natural understanding, natural
wisdom, the physical things of this life. Yes, God causes it
to rain on us. Some may have money, some may
have wealth and fame and things like that. We might be given
all those types of things. But brother, we're dead to spiritual
things. And that's all that matters.
All the rest of the stuff, the only thing that matters is spiritual
things because everything else is going to vanish away. Riches
are going to be gone. Houses are going to be gone.
Family connections are going to be gone. My status Whatever
it might be is going to be gone. Listen, this body is going to
be gone. It's going to return to dust.
Everything is going to be gone. The only thing that matters is
what's spiritual. And here, this young man, the Lord says this
man was dead to the things that were spiritual. But now he is
alive again to those things that are spiritual. He's alive to
the spiritual things He was lost, but now he's found. So he rejoices. Who didn't rejoice? The Pharisees. Who didn't rejoice that Jesus
was ministering to these people on the Sabbath? Who didn't rejoice
when Jesus was eating with thieves of lower esteem? Who didn't rejoice
when Jesus was giving mercy to those who knew they were of no
reputation and had nothing to gain for themselves and had no
merit before the world? The religious leaders. Because
the religious leaders said, I did it for myself. I am owed this. And brethren, though you may
not think it, If you think that by your own religious efforts,
God is going to give you something, you're saying the same thing
as the Pharisees said. We deserve what we get. We deserve
these things. We are of Abraham's children.
Well, they didn't understand spiritual things because the
spiritual doctrine of Christ says that those who are Abraham's
children are not the children of the flesh, but the children
that are the children of the promise, who are the children
of the Spirit. It is not those who are circumcised in the flesh,
but those who are circumcised in heart. A Jew is not a Jew
who is one outwardly, but one who is one inwardly. And that
is one from every nation, every tribe, every tongue. There is
no more Jew and Gentile. but there is one in Christ Jesus.
And listen, that didn't start in Bethlehem. It didn't start
at the cross. It didn't start on the day of
Pentecost. That children that is from Jew
and Gentile was talked about in the Old Testament and that
group of people that was one people in the Lord was elected
before the foundation of the world. Irregardless of who they
were. Matter of fact, when they were
elected before the foundation of the world, there was no such
thing as Jew and Gentile. Matter of fact, when Adam was
created, there was no Jew and Gentile. It wasn't until the
Tower of Babel that there became separation of the nations, and
it wasn't until Abraham was called out of the Chaldeans, and left
his idolatry, and God called him out, that the Hebrew people
even began to move. Then there was Jew and Gentile.
But God had a people way before that. And those people, brethren,
the fatty calf is being killed. The rejoicing, the love and the
compassion is being shed and brought out because of the love
that God has for His people. Alright, that's all I have to
say about that. Anybody got anything you want
to add or comments or corrections? Rebukes? Alright, let's go. Father, again,
we come to You thanking You for Your love and grace and Your
mercy that we have through the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're
so thankful that we have Christ as our substitute who's lived
perfectly the law on our behalf and that that perfect obedience
has been imputed to us. Lord, we know that we don't deserve
it. We know that we could never gain
it, earn it. But Father, that You have graciously
giving it to each one of your children. Father, we know that
your salvation is going forth across this world and that every
child of grace that Christ died for will be brought to you, will
come to know you, will believe upon you, will trust upon you,
will love you. Lord, that you will not lose
one that the Father has given you. Our hope is not in ourself. Our hope is not in our own merit. Our hope is not in our own deeds,
but our hope is solely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're
thankful today. Lord, we thank You for this time
that we've had together and the Word that You've given us. We
thank You for these parables that You've given to us, the
recording of them in the Bible. Lord, we're grateful that You've
given to them. And we pray that the Spirit gives
us understanding of these things. Because we know that unless the
Spirit gives us revelation, gives us understanding, All we're going
to be able to do is to surmise what these things mean in our
natural mind, with natural wisdom, with carnal understanding, but
we won't know what the spiritual application of those things are
to our lives and to the doctrine that you have given us. We know,
Father, that all things is to always point to Christ Jesus,
and it's never centered upon us. Although we are the recipients
of grace and we're grateful, although we know that we are
the center of the salvation and redemptive plan and work of Christ,
it's still not about us. It's about Christ. And so, Lord,
we want to exalt Him today. Lord, we want to give Him the
glory that is due His name. And Lord, we just pray that You'd
be with us as we leave this place, that You might keep us in Your
Word. You might keep us in the faith.
Lord, that You might Protect us and keep us from error. Lord,
I pray if anything that I've said today has been in error
or outside of your Word, Lord, I pray that you might correct
me, that you might safeguard these brethren from falling after
my error. Lord, that you might teach them
the truth by your Spirit. And Lord, we again want to give
all glory and honor to Christ Jesus and it's in His name that
we pray these things. Amen.