Now here's where I want to begin
my text today, in Luke chapter 15 and verse 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
and asked him what these things meant. And he said unto him,
Thy brother is come, and your father has has 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 answered and said to his
father, Lo, these many years do I serve you, neither transgressed
I at any time your commandment, and yet you never gave me a kid
that I may make marry with my friend. But as soon as this thy
son was come, which hath devoured his living with harlots. You
have killed for him the fatty calf.' And he said unto him,
Son, you are ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It
was meet, therefore, that we should make merry, and be glad. For this your brother was dead,
and is alive again. He was lost, and is found." This
parable, I love parables. I don't know much about really,
to be honest with you, many of the parables. I've studied them,
but I don't know much about many of them. But the one thing I
like about these parables, we're allowed and we're encouraged
and even the nature of the parable is to encourage us to use our
imagination. When we see this shepherd going
after his sheep, We use our imagination, don't we? We see Him going out
into the wild seeking that sheep that was lost. He goes down through
the valleys and up through the hills and through the thickets. The old song says, none of the
ransomed ever knew the depths of the water's cross, nor how
dark the night the Lord passed through, or He found this sheep
that was lost. But we can use our imagination
when this woman that lost a piece of silver. You can just see her. If it represents to us the Spirit
or the Spirit working through the church, can't you just see
this woman? She's so concerned that she's
lost a coin. And she lights a candle and she
begins to sweep, even up into the morning. She gives herself
no rest until she's swept the floor and she finds this piece
of coin that was lost. And the father. Oh, you can just
see the father. He sees his son coming from the
far country. And you wonder why he sees him
afar off. And you can imagine that probably
day after day he gets up and he's always looking down that
road. He's got his eye hoping that
that son is going to come home. And what does he do when he sees
him? Oh, Luther used to say, great
men just don't run. These rich landowners just don't
run. They're too dignified to do things
like that. But this man, he runs and he
falls on the neck of his son and he kisses him. And as we
read these parables, we see the great love of a triune God. We see it in the shepherd, the
son. We see it in the Holy Spirit,
the woman. And we see it in the Father.
And in each case in this parable, it's singular. It's the one sheep
that was lost, the one piece of coin, the one son. And yet
there's rejoicing over each individual that was saved, that was brought
home as if the whole bunch had been lost and saved. The shepherd
rejoiced over this one sheep as though he had found his whole
flock. The one woman rejoiced over this one piece of silver
as though she had found the whole bunch of coins that she had.
And the father as though he had lost his whole household and
had all been brought back. And isn't that the way it is
when the Lord brings one of His home, when the Lord saves one
of His own? He rejoices, the angels rejoice,
those in the presence of the angels rejoice. Oh, what a wonderful
parable this is. The love of a triune God in searching
out His people and saving them. And verse 3 here tells us, that
this parable was spoken to these scribes and these Pharisees. These Pharisees had laid an awful
charge, they thought, against our Lord. They said He received
sinners and each with Him. Well, He couldn't deny that.
He was guilty, wasn't He? He didn't want to deny it. That
was the joy of His heart. But as far as they were concerned,
they'd send the Savior back to heaven empty. They didn't care
to receive him, and they didn't want to be received of him, but
they didn't want anybody else received either. And it offended
them, and they murmured, this man receiveth sinners, and each
with him. So this parable here, we're told
in verse 3, is spoken to them, to these Pharisees and these
scribes. And I tell you, brothers and sisters, The first portion
of this parable didn't apply to these Pharisees. If they couldn't
find themselves as a lost sheep or a lost coin or a lost son
coming home and being found, they sure found themselves in
the last portion of this parable. And that's what I want to look
at with you this morning, some characteristics of self-righteousness. some characteristics of self-righteousness. And since the Lord was speaking
to these Pharisees and scribes who were very, very self-righteous,
I think it's very appropriate this morning that we can bring
these things out. I want to give you five characteristics
from this portion of this parable. Five characteristics of self-righteousness. The first one is found here in
verse 29. Look at this. This is the oldest
son. And he answered and said unto
his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee. This was his
argument that he had never left home. He had never went down
and wasted his substance with riotous linen. He got mad when
his father received the younger brother home, safe and sound. So here's the argument, here
is his complaint, and what a self-righteous complaint it is. These many years
have I served thee. What's the first characteristic
of self-righteousness? It always keeps an account of
its deeds. It always keeps an account of
what it's done. These many years. And you know something? He could
have told his father just how many years he had served him. He'd keep an account. These many
years. Not just a few years, but many
years. He could have told him how many fields he had tended. How many fields he had plowed
and sowed and harvested. How many cattle that he had fed
out? Look at my hands. They have blisters
on them. My back is aching with pain. All of these years, these many
years, I have served you. Look at the money. Look at the
finances I've brought in. Look what I've did for you these
many, many years. Self-righteousness has to keep
an account. of all the good that it does
for this reason. That's where it gets its assurance. That's where it gets its confidence. That's where it gets its boldness
to argue and plead its cause. You remember the Pharisee who
said, I fasted twice a week. I paid tithes of all that I possessed. Why was he bragging about that?
That's where he got his assurance. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not
a fornicator. I'm not an extortioner like this
publican is. I think very well of myself.
And because I've done all of these good things, and I tell
you, I can take you back 25 years. I can take you back 30 years.
I remember all of these good things that I've done." That's
the attitude of the Pharisee. And you know what he did? You
know what the Pharisee did? He kept that attitude and took
it with him to the very gates of heaven. And there he said, let me in.
On what grounds should I let you in? This is my Father's house. This is my Father's heaven. On
what ground should I let you in? I've done many wonderful
works in your name." And don't you think he could start naming
them? Oh, he could. He could go back years and years
and name all the things that he's done. There are people,
brothers and sisters, if you have the time and the patience,
you can talk to them and they can tell you just about every
good deed they've done all the days of their profession. Why? They don't need a book to write
it in. They have it written in their minds. And when people
are confronted with any conscious and serious thoughts about death
and about eternity and about the spiritual condition of their
soul, they go open this little account book and they say, oh,
there it is. Each day I've done a golden bead. By helping those who are in need. Nothing wrong with that. Until
you start trusting in these things. Until you keep account of them.
And you bring it up as this man did and say, for these many,
many years, I have served you. You know, even a child of God
can be afflicted with this sin of self-righteousness. Did you
ever go to prayer before you go to bed? And you remember that
you didn't forget to pray that morning. And now you feel much
better about praying tonight because you remember you prayed
this morning. You ever do that? Did you ever read the Bible and
trust in your reading the Bible? Did you ever do a religious deed
and trust in doing that religious deed? That's self-righteousness,
is it? These many years, I tell you
what self-righteousness cannot do. It cannot come to God wholly
on the merits of another. It has to bring these many years
have I served thee. It cannot come lost to be found. It cannot come filthy to be washed. It cannot come empty to be filled,
or guilty to be forgiven, or ruined to be pitied. Oh, I don't want your pity, boy,
I do. I want God to pity me. I want Him to pity me. Don't
you? Oh, self-righteousness, these many years have I served
thee, all my soul. And look here else at this in
verse 29. Here's another. The second characteristic of
self-righteousness is this. It denies the reality of its
sin. It has no knowledge of its sin. Look what he said in verse 29.
Neither transgressed I at any time. Any time? You mean no time? I've never
one time transgressed your commandments. It sounds like that rich young
ruler that came to the Lord Jesus and said, What must I do to have
eternal life? And the Lord said, You know the
commandments. Keep them. Honor your father
and mother. Don't bear false witness. Don't
steal and don't kill. And remember what that man said.
All these things have I kept. from my youth? All of them? Ever since you was a baby? Every
one of them? Come on now, wait a minute. It
sounds like somebody don't have a heart to understand that they're
sinners. Never at any time have I transgressed
your commandment. Our Lord said there in verse
7 of this chapter that the just persons Need no repentance. Is there anybody here this morning
that needs no repentance? There's people like that, but
it's in their own mind. They need it. They just don't
know it. Because that's the attitude of
self-righteousness. Our Lord Jesus said this, and
this is the way you and I are to pray. Give us this day our
daily bread and forgive us our sins. Don't you have to pray
that daily? And it's not because you're getting
drunk. It's not because you're living in fornication or adultery. How about the sin of unbelief?
How about the sin of pride? How about the sin of murmuring
because God's providence has brought you into some trials?
You have trouble with that. There's no one in here this morning
that is not indeed daily in need of repentance. But this man didn't
need it. Neither at any time transgressed
I Thy commandments. My goodness. At any time. I found my own self and in my
own experience that those who walk nearest to the light are
the very ones that seize themselves with the most darkness. And it's
those who walk in darkness that do not see themselves there.
And here was a man that had no knowledge that he had sinned
at any time. Is there people like that in
this world? Yes. Yes, there is. This older brother
had no idea of what was going on. Look here in verse 25 and
verse 26. 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. He heard the music and the dancing,
and he said, What does this mean? Well, self-righteousness knows
nothing about the sweet music of pardon. It can't dance to
the tune of sins forgiven. It knows nothing about that.
Oh, Mary, Mary, bless her name, she said this, My soul doeth
magnify the Lord. My soul magnifies the Lord. My
spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior." Why, Mary? Because He
hath regarded the low estate of His handmaid. He that is mighty
hath done for me great things, and holy is His name. He hath
put down the mighty from their seats, and He hath exalted them
of low degree. He's filled the hungry with good
things. He sends the empty away. And
she said, I magnify Him. I praise Him for it. But you
know, the self-righteous know nothing about that. They can't relate to forgiveness
and mercy because they don't feel their need of it. Some people don't rejoice over
poor sinners at all. They don't seek their salvation.
They wouldn't give a dime. You know there's people that
wouldn't give a dime to see a poor sinner saved. They wouldn't give
a prayer. They wouldn't give a visit. They
wouldn't give a testimony of God's grace. And you know why? Self-righteousness don't love
its own soul. And if you don't love your own
soul, you can't love the souls of others. And that's this brother's
problem. He was so self-righteous, he
didn't care that his father received his wayward brother safe and
sound. He didn't care that he had forgiven
him and shown him mercy, and it's because he didn't love him.
And he didn't love him because he didn't love his own soul.
Oh, self-righteousness. Self-righteousness. Oh, the sweet
music. What does this mean? A self-righteousness
don't know. It's never experienced it, brothers
and sisters. Oh, people say, let us go on
to something else. Let us go on to something better.
Have you found anything better than forgiveness and mercy? Let's talk about the gifts. Get
away from this stuff. We want to talk about the giver.
We can't get over the giver, can we? Oh, I've never transgressed at
any time by commandment. Well, no wonder you don't understand
what's happening around here. You can't understand if that's
your attitude. Self-righteousness. Oh, my. It's
an awful sin, isn't it? And thirdly, here in that same
verse, we have another characteristic of self-righteousness. And look
at this. It always makes God deader and
a cheapskate. Look what he said in verse 29.
He said, And he answered and said unto his father, Lo, these
many years do I serve thee, neither have I transgressed thy commandments
at any time. And yet you never gave me a kid,
that I may make merry with my friends. You never gave me a
kid. You never gave me a kid. You
gave it to him, but you never gave it to me. I deserve it much
more than he did. Ain't that what he's saying?
You gave it to him, and you didn't give me one, and look at the
difference between me and him. He don't deserve it, but I do.
You owe me that, and you've never paid me. I've worked my, look
at the blisters on my hand. Don't you realize that I have
worn myself out in your service? I have pains in my back. My feet
are swollen. I've taken care of your place.
I deserved you. And I resent the fact that you
never paid me what you owe me." That's what he's telling his
father. You say, Bruce, surely, surely
there's nobody in this world that thinks God owes them. Brothers
and sisters, there is. And you know, everybody thinks
that, except those whom grace has taught better. We cast contempt
upon our pride, don't we? We know better because God's
taught us better. But there's a host of people
in this world that thinks God owes them things. Lord, open
to us. Why should I open to you? What
grounds do you have of being here in my Father's heaven? The
cause. You owe us. We did these wonderful things
for you on earth, and now you owe us. We prophesied in your
name. We cast out devils. We've done
many wonderful things. Now you have to open the door
of heaven. You owe us that much. Do you
and I realize what a self-righteous, blasphemous statement that is
to say God owes us a chance. Have you ever heard anybody say,
God owes us a chance to be saved? Then everything else is mercy. Have you ever heard of that?
I've had I don't know how many people tell me, you're saying
that God don't owe us a chance? God owes everybody a chance. God owes us all right. Yeah,
God owes us all right. And if He pays us what He owes
us, He'll damn us. The wages of sin is death, and
that's what He owes us. He don't owe us mercy. If He
owes us mercy, it's not mercy. If He owes us grace, it's not
grace. You never gave me what you owed
to me. I've told you so many times about
the old dying preacher. There in London that had preached
for many, many years, and he was on his deathbed, and a dear
friend went to him and said, Dear brother, you're going to
receive your reward. And the dear old preacher looked
up at him and he said, Brother, I'm going to receive mercy. I'm going to receive mercy. You and I pray. We're careful
to maintain good works. We watch against sin. We keep
ourselves in the love of God. But I tell you, when everything's
said and done, we glory in free grace, don't we? We trust in
covenant mercies. And we cast contempt upon our
tribe and everything and anything that we would trust in. And this
awful attitude of coming before God and saying, you've not given
me what I deserve from you. The fourth thing is this. The
fourth characteristic of self-righteousness is this. Self-righteousness is
a filthy heart hid under the rags of pretended morality. It's a grave full of dead men's
bones beneath a painted headstone. That's all it is. It's a reservoir
of black sewer hid behind a whited wall. It looks good outwardly. It pretends to be good, but boy,
inside it's filthy. It's filthy. It's miserable. Look what he said here in verse
29. He's going to tell us something about his heart. And he tells
us without even knowing, he's letting us in on what he himself
really wanted. In verse 29 again, look at it.
And he answered and said to his father, these many years do I
serve you? Neither transgressed I at any
time, yet you never gave me a kid," and look at this, "...that I
might make merry with my friends." He wanted to do the same things. I wanted to party. It was in
my heart. But I never did. You didn't give
me the kid that I could go party with my friends. Now we're getting
into the heart of what he really wanted, aren't we? He stayed
home. He looked like the moral son.
He looked like the good fella. But what did he want in his heart? He wanted to be doing the same
thing his brother was doing. Oh, he stayed home in his body,
but where was his heart? He was down there in the far
country. He looked good and moral in his body. But I'm telling
you, his heart was living just like his brother was living. You and I have heard of these
preachers. We heard of one preacher a few years ago in particular
that his pet sin to preach against was pornography. Remember that
fellow down in Louisiana that used to preach on pornography?
That's all he preached on, pornography. And come to find out he was right
in the midst of it. Caught up in it himself. But he cried out against it,
how awful it was, how terrible it was, how shameful, how abominable
it was. And he in his heart was there
all alone. The Lord Jesus said this about
these fellows. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you,
you hypocrites. You honor me with your limbs.
You draw near to me with your mouth, but your heart is far
from me. Far. from me, the heart. But you know, that's what self-righteousness
will do. Self-righteousness will cover
up a heart full of lust by morality and talk. You never gave me a kid that
I may party with my friends. I've seen free willers and men
who lived for years with their hearts full of lust. And boy, they had
gathered it there and they had caged it in and hemmed it in
and they bound all of this lust up in their hearts and it raged
there and burned there until finally they could take it no
more. And what did they do? Man, they backslid and they went
back to the world in shame and open and profane sins. And you
know something? That was there in their hearts
all along. My dad was a Free Will Baptist
preacher. And I don't tell this on him to shame him. He knows
it. I've talked with him about it.
He was a Free Will Baptist all the time when I was growing up.
He preached in the Free Will Baptist church there, a local church.
And little did I know what was in my dad's heart until my mother
died. And boy, when my mother died,
I saw what had been in his heart all along. He had all this lust. Caged up. And he just went crazy. He went wild. Just like this
man wanted to do. You can take an old sow out of
the mud, Peter said. You can wash her up really good
and put a pink ribbon on her. Give her a nice little house
to live in. Feed her well. But you better
keep an eye on her. Because you know what she's going
to do the first chance she gets. She's going back to the butthole.
Why would she do that? Because she's a sow. She's a
hog. Ain't that it? And why do men
live and why do they preach and talk about how good they are?
And they condemn everybody else. And they preach against every
sin in the world. But after a while, they go to
it themselves. It was there all along. They
just hid it for self-righteous purposes. Hid it behind the rags
of pretended human morality. And boy, it ain't long. You talk
to people. You talk to people like Brother Larry was talking
about talking to that lady. You sit and talk with people
just a few minutes and sometime it starts coming out, don't it? Self-righteousness. Fifthly and
lastly is this. Self-righteousness is a hateful
thing. It's a vindictive thing. It's
an unforgiving attitude. Judgmental attitude. Here in this whole parable, there
was everybody that was rejoicing. It was such a joyful occasion. The shepherd was rejoicing. The
woman was rejoicing. This father was rejoicing. The
servant was rejoicing. Everybody was rejoicing but this
one fellow. And he was the only self-righteous
person in this whole bunch. And he was the most miserable
one and the most hateful one in the whole outfit. He said here in verse 28, look
what he said in verse 28, and he was angry. His father received
his younger brother safe and sound, and he was angry and would
not go in. He says, I'm not going in the
house. I'm not going to be a party to this. I don't want nothing
to do with it. I'm not going to countenance
it with my presence. You know, he never one time spoke
to his dad in a way of reverence. Never called him father. I wonder
if he ever read that commandment, honor your father. I've never
transgressed your commandments. Well, what about honoring your
father? But that's the way self-righteousness
is. Oh, it's mean, ain't it? It's
a mean thing. Look here what he did. Look here
what he did in verse 30. As soon as this thy son, this
thy son. That's your brother. No, it's
his son. It's his son. As soon as he was
come, which had devoured thy living with harlots. But wait
a minute. We weren't told that in the parable,
was we? We're told he wasted his substance
with rowdy slaving, but who said anything about harlots? The servants probably knew it.
Did they say anything about it? The dad, no doubt, did he say
anything about it? No, the only one that exposed
that shameful lifestyle was his brother. And I wonder why he
didn't. That's what self-righteousness
does, isn't it? It finds fault with other people. It's got all
these big beans in its own eyes, and it finds these little moats
in somebody else's eye, and say, look at that guy. Did you hear
about old so-and-so, how he fell into sin, and he did that and
he did this? No, I didn't know that until
you told me. And I wonder why you did. You
know what self-righteousness seeks to do is make myself look
good. And if I can expose the sin and
uncover the crimes of other people, it makes me look real good. Peter
said love covers a multitude of sins, didn't it? Love covers
a multitude of sins. Self-righteousness doesn't cover
anything, brothers and sisters. It tells everything. It seeks
to divide chief friends. Why don't you love those folks
over there? Why are you so unkind to them? Why won't you talk to
them? Well, a few years ago, they did something to me, and
I just can't get over it. Have you ever heard of mercy?
Have you ever heard of forgiveness? This man never has. Oh, self-righteousness is sick, it's
selfish, and it just don't know itself. It's full of itself. And it stays angry and mad and
vindictive, unforgiving, unmerciful, ungracious. Let me say these
things in closing. Self-righteousness will destroy
a soul as sure as open and profane sin will. There's many roads
leads to hell, and I imagine self-righteousness is the most
traveled. A man asked Spurgeon one time,
he said, Mr. Spurgeon, don't you think our
badness keeps us from Christ? He said, sir, not as much as
our goodness. The publicans came to Christ and was forgiven of their badness. The Pharisees never came to Him
to be forgiven of their self-righteousness. The heart is deceitful above
all things, and one way it deceives people is convincing them of
its goodness. Every man will speak of his own
goodness, but a faithful man who confides. You and I must
judge ourselves in the light of God's Word. We must hold the
same opinions and reach the same conclusions of ourselves as God
does. Honest people do not go to hell,
but self-righteousness is not honest. It is dishonest. It is deceitful. God cannot abide
us to come into His presence with any confidence in our flesh. The sweetest incense that flesh
can produce is a stench in God's holy nostrils. He cannot smell
it. He says, away with it. Your hands
are full of blood. I will hide my face from you.
Brothers and sisters, every time we come to the Lord, we should
come as though it's the first time we've come to Him. We have
nothing more in the way of marriage to bring with us after 25 or
30 years than we had when we first came to Him. We bring no
price in our hands. We come cleaving and believing
and trusting in the marriage of another after 39 years. I do not come with anything in
my hands to commend me to God. I still come through the mediator.
I still come through the blood and the goodness and the grace
and the mercy of a covenant God. And I tell him so, and you tell
him so. You tell him, Lord, I'd never
come to you if I had to bring anything to commend myself. I
come to you because of your grace and your mercy and goodness that
is given me in the mediator. That's why I come. And you tell
Him that's why you come. Don't bring a thing with you
to commend yourself. Don't dare come to Him and remind
Him what all you've done for His glory. Examine our hearts, lastly, to
see if it's one with Jesus Christ. Bruce, what do you mean? See
this. Examine our hearts and see this.
See if what pleases Him and rejoices His heart also pleases us and
rejoices our hearts. These men weren't in agreement
with Christ, were they? These Pharisees weren't in agreement
with Him. But boy, those publicans were. The angels were. May God bless this message. And
I'm preaching to the choir probably this morning, aren't I? To the most extent, I'm preaching
to the choir. You know. You know yourself. God has taught
you yourself. And when I preached this message
this morning on self-righteousness, you saw a lot of it in yourself,
did you not? But here's the difference between
you and those that trust in their self-righteousness. You abhor
it. You can't stand yourself because
of it. And you see that it's enough
in and of itself to damn your soul. And you spend as much time
repenting of your self-righteousness as you do anything else. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Go ahead
and repent of it. And watch over your heart until
someday He'll rid you. He'll rid you of this miserable,
old, self-righteous self. And in that day, when He brings
you into His presence, when you see Him with undimmed eyes and
an unsinning heart, you can worship Him then without this miserable
flesh trying to take credit for something. You'll be free. You'll be free. Let's pray.