Let me begin tonight with a question,
a question I hope we can honestly deal with. Am I a sinner or a Pharisee? Am I a sinner or a Pharisee? Luke 15 begins with a scene we must not forget
as we read through the 32 verses of this chapter. Our Lord Jesus
is sitting and eating with publicans and
sinners. And standing around the edges,
they wouldn't dare get in the crowd, standing around the edges
are some Pharisees and scribes self-righteous religious legalist,
men who called themselves the children of God, men who presumed
and were confident that they were the objects of God's special
love, who thought themselves holy and righteous and good,
who claimed to be followers of God, people who held the word
of God dearly, cherished it as a book of religious teaching
that they strictly sought to adhere to. And when they saw
this scene, they began to murmur slanderously. And in their murmuring,
cast an accusation that they thought was a slanderous accusation
against the Lord Jesus. This man receiveth sinners and
eats with them. He receives them and eats with
them. Something's got to be wrong with
that man. Where there's smoke, there's fire. He must be one
of them. And the whole chapter, beginning
at verse 3, is a parable by which our Lord Jesus addresses these
self-righteous religious legalists. It is spoken specifically to
them, we're told in verse 3. It is a parable in which our
Lord is saying this, in effect. He says to these good religious
folks, you see me receiving these publicans and sinners and eating
with them, and you think that's an evil thing. But when I receive
publicans and sinners, embrace them, take them for my own, identify
myself with them and them with me, it's like a shepherd who's
got one lost sheep, seeking that sheep, finding it,
laying it on his shoulders and bringing it home. It's like a
woman who has lost a coin. And she sweeps the house until
she finds the coin and rejoices in finding it. It's like a father
who has a rebel son who's been gone a long time and he sees
him coming home and he runs out to embrace his rebel son. And
he falls on his neck and smothers him with kisses. Kisses of total,
complete reconciliation. Absolute forgiveness. Full restoration. That's what all these things
mean. Now, then we get to verse 25. And the parable takes a distinct
turn. It's still the same parable,
but now instead of answering the question why he receives
and eats with publicans and sinners, the Lord Jesus turns this thing
pointedly to the scribes and Pharisees and shows them why
it is that they, self-righteous religious legalists that they
are, refuse to come to him and eat with him. Here's the reason
why. It tells us that a self-righteous
person, a Pharisee, a lost religious legalist, one who is righteous
in his own eyes, simply is too spiritual, too good, too holy
in his own eyes to be saved by grace alone with no effort on
his part. through the merits of a crucified
substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the doctrine of these
verses. The Pharisee will not give up
his own righteousness for the righteousness of another. That's
what our Lord's teaching is. Now I hope you and I find our
place in this parable with the one lost sheep, the one lost
coin, the one lost son. and not with these just persons
who need no repentance. Now, let's look at the chapter,
beginning at verse 25, and let me show you the distinction between
Pharisees, self-righteous religious legalists, and sinners saved
by God's grace as our Lord gives it. First, our Lord shows us
by this elder brother in the parable that the self-righteous
religious hypocrite, the legalist, does not know anything at all
about the grace of God. He doesn't know what grace is. He's totally ignorant of all
things spiritual. Now, you recognize and you know
that the natural man, the unbelieving man, in his natural state is
spiritually ignorant. He cannot see the kingdom of
God, much less enter into it. He cannot understand spiritual
things, their foolishness to it. He can't discern them. The
same is true of the natural man who is a devoted religionist.
The same is true of the natural man, I don't care if he's been
to every Thoroughly, thoroughly Calvinistic seminary and Bible
college there is available. I don't care if he has memorized
the creeds. I don't care if he has memorized
the letter of scripture so that he can recite scripture from
one page to the next, going from Genesis to the end of Revelation
and never miss a pause. That doesn't mean he understands
anything spiritual. You see, the natural man, his
understanding is so darkened that he sees nothing of God in
God. nothing of holiness in holiness, nothing of good in good and nothing
of evil in evil, and he sees nothing of sin in sin. Rather,
the religious person who is without Christ sees good in evil and
evil in good, righteousness in sin and misery in holiness. And
with regard to Christ and his grace and God's salvation, they
are totally without knowledge and without understanding. You
talk to them all you want to, and argue all you want to, debate
all you want to, you're not going to get anywhere, because they
can't see. They just can't see. Let's see
if that's what was learned here. Luke 15, 25. 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,
called one of the preachers, and asked what these things meant.
And he said to him, the preacher said to him, Thy brother is come,
and thy father hath killed the fatty calf, because he hath received
him safe and sound. Now let's see what this says.
This elder brother was in the field, not in the house, in the
field. The field is the place where
things are worked out. The house is the place where
the benefits are found. The field is the place where
God's providence is accomplished. The house is the place where
God's blessings and his grace are bestowed. Our Lord tells
us plainly in Matthew 13, verse 38, that the field is the world. The world is out in the field.
that place overgrown, uncultivated, thick with briars and thorns,
briars and thorns and a cursed habitation of darkness, full
of evil, ignorant and blind men. The Church of God isn't like
that. The Church of God is a garden
enclosed. distinguished and separated from
the world by the fence of God's grace. It is the house of God. This elder brother, the scribe,
the Pharisee, the religious legalist, is in the world, walking after
the course of the world, after the lust of his own flesh, ruled
by the God of this world, doing that which is natural to him,
whether you're talking about walking after the course of the
world and walking in debauchery and vileness and corruption and
all those things that men look at and say, oh, I'd never do
that. Whether you're talking about walking after the course
of the world, highly educated, refined, polite, socially admirable,
and moral, and religious, and devoted to religion. He still
walks after the course of this world, fulfilling the lust of
his flesh and the desires of the flesh and of the mind, because
he's ruled by the God of this world. Well, what do fellows
do in the world? Out in the field. Brother Oscar back there is a
farmer. And when you go out in the field, you go out to work.
That's what you do in the field. The elder son was in the field
at work, working hard, working for life, working for righteousness,
working for his father's approval, working for salvation. And that
shows his ignorance. If he never opened his mouth,
that's not going to happen. But if he never opened his mouth,
he's working for God's acceptance. And thus, he shows himself totally
ignorant of all things spiritual. You see, to work for righteousness,
I don't care where you put the work in. To work for, not because
of, to work for righteousness, to work for life, to work for
acceptance, to work for salvation is to display utter ignorance
concerning God. More than that, such works righteousness
display a proud, wicked, vile heart. heart of utter rebellion
against God, for it is a denial of Christ and his sacrifice,
a denial of God's grace, it is the trampling underfoot of the
blood of Christ. Indeed, in a word, self-righteous
works, works religion. I've said this many times, it
must be emphasized and it must be heard. is the worst form of
evil men and women can practice in this world. It is the worst
form of evil men and women can practice in this world. I opened
Friday's baker actually didn't have to open it just like some
of you did. And it was about I guess two o'clock in the morning,
Saturday morning. Shelby and I walked home and
I turn the paper open, first thing, headline, in this nice
conservative, sweet little community where everybody's so good, so
religious, you just, oh, it's wonderful, isn't it? In a college
right here in town, center college, a Presbyterian college, owned
and operated with the religious money of good religious folks.
They had a forum, Bobby, on gay marriages. Isn't that sweet?
That's so good. Oh, we're so open-minded. We don't want to be bigoted.
We don't want to be harsh. And you know what? We were just a
guest. And I got to thinking about it.
That ain't the worst of it. The worst of it's the religion.
Self-righteous works religion. and immorality, and the promotion
of immorality in the name of godliness is always the result. Read the first chapter of Romans.
It's always the result. Are you preaching down works?
As hard, as firm, as loud as I can possibly preach them down
everywhere I go, your works won't amount to nothing before God.
Nothing. You mean If a woman's a virtuous, kind, charitable, smiling, lovely,
good lady with a soft tongue, and another woman's a streetwalker,
prostitute, a stumpet with a sharp, razor-acid tongue, one's no better
than the other one, you heard exactly right. Not before God. Not before God. Not before God. Before me, yes. Before you, yes. Not before God. You see, one
form of sin is just sin. And another form of sin, no matter
how highly it may be praised by us, is just sin. That's all. Weary, working, plotting
one, why toil you so? Cease your doing. Cease your
doing. Quit trying to make up with God.
You can't do it. You can't do it. Cease your doing. All was done long, long ago. Till to Jesus' work you cling
by a simple faith, doing is a deadly thing. Doing ends in death. So cast your deadly doing down,
down at Jesus' feet. Stand in Him. In him alone, gloriously
complete. Next we read that this good,
hard-working elder son came near the house. He approached the
house. I can almost see. He's got a
mixture of mud and manure caked on his boots. He'd been out kicking
cow pies all day. His hands are dirty, grimy, his
face is black, sweat holding the dirt to his face. He's tired. He worked a hard, long, 12-hour
day and he's coming up to the house. I put in my time now. He's coming
to the house to collect his reward. And he hears something. Oh, it must have galloped the
daylights out of him. He heard folks partying. He heard
music and dancing. And he stops dead in his chair.
I've been out working. Six, twelve hour days. I've been
out here in this field working. And folks are in the house partying?
That ain't fair. That's not fair. And he just
stopped. And he said, Doug, you preacher
man, come here. What's going on? I told you he
was ignorant. I told you he was ignorant. Totally
ignorant. What's going on in there? What
was it he heard? Music and dancing. It was strange
to him. I just had to put this in. Maybe
because I'm a little mean. It may have been that he was
like the righteous over much folks of our day and he heard
folks in there dancing and he wouldn't, he's so good he wouldn't
dare go into a place where folks danced and played music. Oh no,
I couldn't do that. Oh, what would people think? The fact is he came here to hear
himself praised and rewarded for his good work. Instead, he
heard music and dancing. The music and dancing of people
who were praising God for his goodness and grace, that they
were like David. They were strumming the harp
and they were dancing before the ark of the Lord, dancing
before God's slain sacrifice, rejoicing in blood atonement.
John Gill said this, What he heard was the preaching of the
gospel by a gospel preacher, the servant setting forth the
love of God, the righteousness of Christ, setting forth the
rich mercy, grace of God, the liberty, reconciliation, forgiveness,
and righteousness, and eternal life that's had by free grace.
And when he heard this sweet sound of free grace, when he
heard the sound of imputed righteousness in Christ, He said, what's that? What's
that? I can't tell you how many times
over the years I've had folks who make comments
with regard to the preaching of the gospel and say, well,
we know that. We're interested in better things, deeper things. We want to know something else.
We want to hear something else. What's that? What's so great about grace?
What's so wonderful about that? What's going on? As I said in
the beginning, self-righteous religious legalists don't understand
the things of God. They're baffled by them. They
can understand Arminianism. They can understand Romanism. They can understand Islam. They
can understand Judaism. They can understand what passes
for Christianity. They can't understand grace.
It baffles them. They can't grasp unconditional,
free, sovereign election. They just can't grasp God's everlasting,
unconditional, free, distinguishing love for His people. They can't
understand limited atonement, effectual, special redemption.
You talk to them about God's irresistible grace and you preach
about God's effectual, almighty, omnipotent mercy, calling sinners,
and the sinner who's been called, oh, great! Thank God, Mr. Newton! Why is he so happy? What's going
on? I don't understand. They can't
understand complete, absolute, irrevocable, righteousness and
forgiveness. They just can't get it. The joyful
gospel sound, the sound of the jubilee trumpet is a strange
thing to them. They just don't have ears for
it. The only rejoicing they know is in themselves and in their
works. On a picture that's a little
hard. I'll tell you what you do. You take your son or your
daughter your brother or your sister, your mother or your father,
your husband or your wife, your neighbor or your friend, and
just listen to them, and let's see if they don't rejoice in
I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. That's all they talk about. It's all they rejoice in, what
I did, what I experienced, what I felt, what I hoped for, what
I planned to do, I, I. Talk to them about grace and
What's the weather like outside? If you wonder, maybe if I'm a
little, stretching this a little bit, the meaning of verses 25
and 26, read verse 27. The Lord's servant, the preacher
who spoke to this elder son, told him plainly the meaning
of the music and dancing in the house. He said to him, thy brother
is come. Your brother come home. You remember
Joe? Yeah, I remember him. Well, he's
home now. He's come home, and thy father hath killed the fatty
calf. Your father said to him, everything's
alright, because Christ died. Your father said to him, your
sins are all forgiven, because Christ died. Your father said
to him, pardon is free, because Christ died. Your father said
to him, don't say a word about the past, because Christ died.
He's killed the fatty calf, because he hath received him safe. and sound. The prodigal has come
home. The father has received him,
and Christ crucified has preached to him, and the house is full
of joy because Christ has received your fallen brother, and your
father, because Christ died, has received him too. He who
was lost and ruined is now both safe and sound. He's complete and nothing's ever
going to change it. He's absolutely safe, absolutely
secure. Now I ask you, do you enjoy and
understand the gospel? The self-righteous religious
legalist just can't. He just can't get it. He may
try, but he just can't get it. He just can't understand it.
He only understands. He only rejoices. in that which
irritates us. He only understands and rejoices
in the sound that is just dull and clanging and loud and grating
to the ears of those who know God. Let me see if I can illustrate
it for you. Shelby and I bought Will a set of electronic drums
for Christmas. Their house. And that boy takes
those two sticks and turns that thing up as loud as he can turn
it up. Now to my ears it's pretty sweet because it's his noise.
But it is just a bunch of noise. And he'll beat on those things
and just smile. Just smile. I mean, it's a wonderful
sound. You turn on a piece of classical
music and see how long it sits there. Go play ball. He's not interested. So it is with the religious legalist. Look at verse 28. Our Lord tells
us something else about this legalist. He was angry. He may pretend to be happy. He
may pretend to be loving and kind. Always smiling. But he's angry. Always angry. Angry at God. Angry at the gospel. Angry at himself. Angry especially
at those poor publicans and sinners so much beneath him who rejoice
in free grace, who walk in liberty. I've got a lot of these elder
brothers scattered around the world. I see them a lot. They're
angry because the fatty calf has been killed. The preaching
of Christ crucifies an offense to them. They're angry because
the gospel of God's grace is just that, a gospel of pure,
free grace. They're angry because salvation
is in Christ alone. They're angry because in Christ
there is full, free, complete, secure, irrevocable salvation
for sinners. Get real angry because redemption
is altogether in Christ, accomplished by Christ, and they don't contribute
one thing. Okay, stand there. Don't tell
me my faith doesn't count for something for God. Don't tell
me my faith doesn't make a difference in me. Some are angry because
justification is absolutely in Christ, only in Christ, without
our works. Don't tell me that God won't
accept my works. Some are angry because our safety,
is in Christ alone. Perseverance, preservation of
God's saints, eternal security of the believer. And if they
happen to say the word security, if it happens to just slip out,
I didn't mean to get that breezy word out of there. Let me explain
what I mean. I don't mean that you're absolutely secure. I mean
you've got to hold on and hold out and persevere and work. You mean if a sinner is saved,
he's saved forever? Don't you say no matter what.
Don't you say that. And I can see the look on their
face. As a matter of fact, I see them sometimes sit on the edge of the seat.
The edge of the seat says that he's fixing to say no matter
what. And I always say no matter what.
No matter what. Salvation's forever. And some
are angry because the soundness of the prodigal is altogether
by grace. His perfect sanctification is
God's work and not the work of a man. Let me see if I can illustrate
it for you. I have been in places and circumstances
where I have seen preachers. I'm not talking about just folks
who don't know anything at all, but I've seen preachers. When
Romans 9 or Ephesians 1 is just read, no comment, just read it,
I've seen their faces start to flush. Veins begin to pop out. Mad enough to kill. Because they
can't stand it. They can't stand it. Betty Burge
is not here. She won't mind me telling you
this. When your sister called and wanted me to baptize her, she sat down and talked to me,
just bawling. And she said, I've been attending
church out there, every how many years it was, just called Bobby
and Judy went out there. But she said, I hated you. And
I'd grit my teeth every time I'd hear you preach. And she
smiled doing it. Just as sweet as she could be.
She never said a word to me. She was angry. Angry. Because I was killing her God.
Angry. Because I was stripping away
her righteousness. Angry. Because the gospel of
God's grace left no room for her to boast in all the religion
she had ever known. gave her something to boast in.
Are you angry with God and His grace? Christ and His salvation? I'm not asking now. I'm not asking,
do you show your anger? I'm asking, are you angry? Saved
sinners rejoice in grace. They can't get too much of it.
Tell me more. Amazing grace. How sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. Look at verse 28 again. The
self-righteous legalist refuses to be saved by grace alone. He
will not go into the house of salvation if he has to enter
in by the straight gate of substitution, by the door Christ Jesus and
him crucified. He was angry and would not go
in. Any other door is acceptable. Any other door. Take some beads and rub them
around and recite words that God will have mercy. Oh, I can
do that. I can do that. You mean if I devote myself to
sacrificial service in a leper colony serving men, God will
accept that? I can do that. You mean if I'll follow Mohammed,
I'll be saved? I can do that. You mean if I
sacrifice my life in the religious cause, I'll be accepted? I can
do that! You mean if I'll sign a decision
card? You mean if I'll come down to the front and recite a prayer
after you? You mean if I'll start living right? Even if I quit
smoking and drinking and gambling and cussing? None of the folks
who do, I can be accepted with God? I can do that? I can do
that? Oh no. The only way you can ever have
God's salvation is to do nothing. Nothing. Preacher, tell me what
I can do to be saved. I'll do it. I know you would.
Would you do nothing? Do nothing. Cast yourself on
the merit of the crucified Christ. Yet there is hope, even for the
self-righteous, until the sinner is in hell. He's not beyond hope. Not even the most notoriously
wicked, self-righteous religionist. I know that because the next
line of our text says this, therefore, therefore, because he was angry
and would not come in, his father came out and entreated him. He said, son, come on in. Come
on in. What mercy, what goodness. Though you've long withstood
his face and despised his grace, the Lord God himself comes to
sinners, self-righteous sinners, and entreats them by the preaching
of the gospel. We pray you in Christ's name,
come on in, be reconciled to God. And the man who wrote those
words was himself. Saul of Tarsus, a self-righteous,
religious legalist, moral as all get-out, who was totally
ignorant of God. Totally ignorant of God. He said,
I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly. Look at verse
29. And you'll see why this other
son was so angry, and why he refused to be saved by grace. He was too good. It's too good. Too good. I've actually had folks
say to me, I guess I'm just too good. Too good. Too good. No, you ain't near
as good as you think you are. Too good. And he answering said
to the 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. I make me merry with my friends.
I've been out in the fields kicking cow pies all day long. I've been
out there chasing the cattle and weeding the fields. I come
home and you're throwing a party for this scoundrel. You've never
did anything like it for me. And I've always served you. The
fact is his religion was galling and he hated it. He hated it. Usually when people are exceptionally
mean, now this doesn't excuse it, but usually when they're
exceptionally mean, exceptionally rude, something's happened, something's
going on in their lives that they just hate it. And they take
it out wherever they can. Oh, these many years, he said,
these many years of denial and labor and drudgery, When I wish
I'd have been doing something else, when I wanted to be doing
something else, do I serve? Let me give you a literal translation. These many years do I slave,
work like a slave under the whip for you. Now, there's the heart
of the matter. That's why religious folks are
so confounded mean. Meanest people I've met in my
life, religious folks. They'll say and do things a fellow
on death row wouldn't say and do. Meanest people I ever met
in my life. Mean. Got razor-sharp teeth,
tongues dipped in acid. Mean folks. Now I know why they're
angry. They're zealous in performing
good works. They attend church all the time.
They give their money, read their Bibles, say their prayers. They'll tithe on the gross, not
the net. They're strict. They do all those things, but
the fact is they hate it. They hate it. They hate the religion
that holds them in bondage. They hate it. How do you know? I guess I have some of the experiences
I have just so I can come back here and help you. I've traveled
a lot of places and preached to a lot of people. Over the years, I've had folks
say this to me so many times, I can't begin to keep count.
In other words, preach free grace to unconditional free grace. In other words, I can go out
and live like I want to. You mean you'd rather live a
different way? They wouldn't dare say it, but
it cats out of the bag now. They're religious, but they don't
want to be. They're moral, but they don't want to be. They act
good, but they don't want to, because they hate the religion.
It's drudgery, slavery to them. This elder son was fully confident
that he deserved his father's approval. fully confident that
he deserved God's acceptance and God's salvation, because
he wasn't like his particle brother sinner. Need to transgress thine
at any time by commandment. He thinks nothing's too good
for him. He deserves God's favor. Now, he wouldn't say that. He
wouldn't say that. No, he's not that dumb. He wouldn't
say that. But he says these other things
which reveal that. Because out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. You see, if you just listen to
him, almost every conversation he has, almost every conversation
he has, he'll tell you one way or another, Ron, nobody ever
treats me the way I ought to be treated. The world has been
so unfair to me. Unfair to me, unfair to my children,
unfair to, unfair, oh, well, we deserve better than that.
Now, Bobby, if you think I treat you unfair, what you're saying is God Almighty
treats me unfair. I deserve better than I get from
God. I deserve better than this. You see, the legalist prides
himself in his service. He said, look what I've done,
look how faithful I've been compared to me. He's a washout. Some folks, you see, think of
God as a master in need of help. But the fact is the Lord Jesus
didn't come into this world to hang out a help-wanted sign.
He died on the cursed tree and sits on the throne of glory and
holds out a help-available sign. And there's a huge difference.
The legalist not only prides himself in what he does, he's
real good at exaggerating it. Never once have I transgressed
your commandment. I've always been obedient. Well, I've never
done that. No, not me. I've never done that. The Son never speaks of his goodness. Not a poor prodigal. He never
speaks of his goodness. He talks about his father's goodness.
He talks about his savior's goodness. And he looks upon the privilege of
washing his master's feet or washing the feet of one of his
disciples. as the highest honor he could ever have. Look what
my father's done for me. This elder brother is a picture
of the fellow who gets angry with God and others. He's angry
with people because he thinks the sinners get off too easy.
They're too flippant. And he's angry with God because
he thinks God's not fair. And he refuses to be saved by
Christ. I won't have it. You talk to
me about God's grace and God's sovereignty and Christ's sacrifice
and Christ's redemption. I wouldn't have such a God. And
then he gets mad as hell because you don't have him. You never sacrificed a fat cat
for me. There was no joy, but only misery
in his religious activity. His meaning seems to be this.
He never received anything from God or anybody else in proportion
to what he deserved. Tell you something else about
him. The legalist loves gossip. He loves to slander. He loves
it. Look at verse 30. But this thy son, As soon as
this thy son, not my brother, thy son, I ain't about to call
him my brother, was come, which hath devoured thy living with
harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatty calf." I'll tell
you what you do. You read this parable real close
and tell me where there was any report of him devouring the father's
living with harlots. Now it may have been true. Matter
of fact, as the story is told, I realize it's just a story.
It's a reasonable conclusion to say that it was true. But
if it's absolutely true, it's still slander. You see, slander
is not a false report. It's an evil report. Did you
hear me? Slander is not just a false report.
It's an evil report. It is intended to give an ill
reputation to somebody else. to represent someone as ill in
the eyes of another. The father against whom he had
sinned forgave everything, not me. I won't forgive him. The father received him as a
son. I won't receive him as a brother,
he says. The father charged nothing against him. The brother charges
everything against him. The father received him and embraced
him and refused to Charge him with any of his past, or even
let it be mentioned. But the older son, he wants everybody
to know how evil that fellow is. Look at that. Perhaps more
than anything else, he was enraged by the fact that the free forgiveness
of sin was fully proclaimed to this prodigal. You said to him, Everything's
alright because Christ died. And I can't take that! And besides all that, in this
whole thing, all that's going on, that preacher came out and
talked to him. The father entreated him. Do
you know what nobody ever did? Nobody ever said a word about
him. Never said a word about him. What about me? What about
me? The legalist, in his own opinion,
just can't ever have anything that measures up to his goodness. Not in this world, nor in the
world to come. In verse 31, our Lord tells us
that they're without excuse. He said to him, the Father said
to him, Son, thou art ever with me. All that I have is thine.
He's a son of God by creation. He claims to be a son of God
by profession. He wears the name of God. And the father has put
him out here in the field where everything he is is. And he entreats
him to come into the house. And he says, son, everything
I have is yours for the taking. But you won't have it. Because
you won't give up your righteousness. You won't give up your goodness. You won't give up your religion.
And the fact is, that's always what keeps sinners from Christ.
That's always what keeps sinners from Christ. Just too good to
be saved. And then in verse 32, our Lord tells us that the salvation
of sinners is a reason for joy and celebration. Legalism requires
accountability. Grace says celebrate. Look at
this. It was meet, the father says.
It was just right that we should make merry and be glad for this
thy brother was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.