parable of the prodigal son that comes right before this passage that we read, tells about what the younger brother did. And it's a little hard to understand the outrage and the seriousness of it because we live in an individualistic Western culture. But you have to realize this. Let's try as much as possible to put ourselves in the shoes of that culture, as much as we can do here in five seconds. The young brother comes to the father and says, my slice of the inheritance. Since he was the younger of two brothers, he would have gotten probably 40% or something like that. Give me my part of the inheritance. Liquidate your part of the estate that would go to me. Even though you're not dead, I want your things, but I don't want you. I don't want you involved with my life. I don't want you governing my things. I want your things. I don't want you. Give them to me. I'm leaving." And you have to understand that in that culture, this was an absolute outrage. He had brought tremendous humiliation on the family. He brought tremendous humiliation and shame on his father. He essentially destroyed the family estate by insisting it be liquidated, the land, the cattle, whatever it was, and he goes off and squanders it. This is immense. And yet, we see that when he returns, the father that he betrayed, the father he humiliated, don't forget, those of you who've got any kind of background in Eastern cultures, you know what it means to be shamed, to be publicly shamed by the only father in his entire society that ever had a son do something like this. What kind of father must he be? Here's this man who's been this shamed and this betrayed, and he comes out, and he welcomes him with open arms, and he receives him back in. And when you see that, and you see him kiss his son, he won't even wait until he repents. We looked at this last week. He doesn't kiss him because he repents. His son is able to repent because he's kissed. He goes, and he grabs him, and he lifts him up, and he kisses him, and he hugs him. And if we stop the parable there, and most people do in their memory, in their thinking, and very often in the preaching, if you stop it there, We just kind of get a little moist and weepy-eyed and we get all kind of sentimental and we say, oh. And the moral of the story is be forgiving, be loving, be accepting. Now, I can guarantee you there's not a historian on the face of the earth, there's nobody who understands ancient history, there's nobody who understands this text no matter where they are on the spectrum. There is nobody. who believes that there was anybody listening to that parable who was getting a little moist. Nobody was getting weepy-eyed. Nobody was getting sentimental. The people who heard Jesus' story were utterly thunderstruck. They were utterly outraged. They were absolutely amazed. And the reason is because the story doesn't end there. Now this is a long set of stories. We know that the religious and moral leaders have come, and you see this in verse 1 and 2 of chapter 15. They have come, and they have challenged Jesus, and they say, we don't understand you. Why is it that the moral and religious people are offended by your preaching, and all the sinners and the outcasts flock to you? We don't get it. And Jesus tells three stories, the shepherd going after the lost sheep, the woman going after the lost coin, and then the story about these two brothers, and the climax is not the prodigal son returning, but the dialogue, the debate between the father and the elder brother. If you actually see the whole chapter, if you see the whole story, if you realize this is not the parable of one son, but the parable of two sons, you will come to see this. What Jesus is saying and what outraged the people, Jesus was saying that this whole chapter is not so much about prodigals, it's about Pharisees. And it is not so much at a wonderful assurance that if you had a broken messed up life he would receive you even though of course it is it is that it is that wonderful assurance it is a great assurance but it's not the main point this is not an assurance to prodigal this is not an assurance the bad in a marlin messed up people this is an absolute in your teeth warning to good people the whole chapter in this entire chapter jesus christ is saying nothing comes between you and God like morality and goodness and decency and respectability. And the people who are listening are thunderstruck. You know why? Because the purpose of this parable, this whole chapter I mean, the purpose of this chapter and this parable is not to get us a little bit weepy. It is to blow out all human categories that we already have of who God is and who we are and how we relate to him and morality and religion. And therefore, we've been saying this each week of the three weeks. But today, when you get to this final climax, this is the climax. The climax, this must be the main point. This dialogue must be what the whole thing is about. Don't you see? This is a series of short subjects. But when you get to the end, this is the longest one, and this is the end. This is the climax. And when we actually look at the elder brother, we figure out this point. We see this point. Jesus is giving an incredible warning. to good people, an unbelievable warning to good people. This is the reason why whenever the gospel is recovered, whenever you get into a phase in the church, whether it's the great awakenings of the 1740s, whether it's the great awakenings at various parts of the world in the 1850s and in 1904 and the Reformation, whenever you get to a place where the church gets vital, you always see the same thing. Morality is preached against. to a great degree. Goodness is denounced and warned against, and as a result, in flocks the outcasts, out goes in outrage the good people. That has happened over and over again. I listen to tapes by a guy named Dick Lucas, who preaches at St. Helens Bishop's Gate. St. Helens Bishop's Gate is an Anglican church right in the center city, right near all the various... in the financial center of London. But years ago, in the 1740s, when there was a tremendous awakening, tremendous awakening, and the gospel was being preached in the streets and being preached in the churches, and all sorts of people were becoming converted, coming into the churches. John Wesley preached. in the pulpit of St. Helens Bishopsgate, and on his way down, you know, the steps, came down the steps, wish I had steps to come down from the, but, well, I have steps, I have steps, don't do this to me, on his way down, the Warden of the Vestry, which is like the Secretary of the Board, all right, the Warden of the Vestry came running up and met him at the bottom and said, Sir, you must preach here no more. That's in the Wesley's Journals. What was, why were people so offended? The established people, the middle class people, the moral people, are always offended by the real message of Jesus. And the people who would never darken the doorway of a church when they hear the message of Jesus, they're interested, they come to ask questions. That's the point. How could that be? If you want to understand how that can be, ask this question. Who is the elder brother? what's going on with the Elder Brother. When we look at the Elder Brother, what do we learn? And we learn these things. Number one, first of all, we learn he's lost. The thing that's just astounding, when all the Pharisees and all the religious leaders and all the moral people know doggone well, and every commentator says this, that in the Elder Brother, Jesus Christ is showing moral people their picture. He's holding a mirror up. He's saying, look at this. This is who you are. And the first thing we learn is the elder brother is lost. He's as lost as the younger brother. Now, how do you know that? Well, first of all, don't forget that you have three parables. And in every parable, the whole point is something is where it shouldn't be. The sheep is not where it ought to be. The coin is not where it ought to be. The younger son is not where it ought to be. And in every single situation, you have someone going out to get it back. You have the shepherd going out to get the sheep back. because it's not where it ought to be. You have the woman going out, searching all through the house to get the coin back. You have the father running out to get the prodigal son back. And now what do you have? In verse 28b, he went out to the elder brother. And this is, it is so unmistakable. He's as lost as the prodigal son, as the coin, as the sheep. You see that? Henry Nouwen wrote a book on this called The Parable of the Prodigal Son. And Henry Nouwen just points to that. I'll just right read it. He says, not only did the younger son who left home get lost, but the one who stayed home also became a lost man. Exteriorly, he did all the things a good son is supposed to do, but interiorly, he wandered far from his father. So the point is, a very important point, He is lost. Now, do you realize what this means? Jesus is saying to the religious people and the moral people, you are as alienated from my message and from my heart as this young man is from his father's heart. But now, somebody points out, and this is important, I will only take a second on this. We have to realize that what Jesus is saying here is, it's not the only place he says this, he says it continually. But what is being said here is, you can be with God and be far from God. Because you see, in verse 31, he comes out, and what does he say to the elder brother? When he begins his speech, he's pleading. And by the way, the word pleading does mean tenderly. He says, my son, you have always been with me. Now, somebody says, well, that means he's not lost. No, no, no, no, that means he's so lost. Over and over again, Jesus says this. For example, in 14.9, John 14.9, he says to Philip, Philip says something off the wall, and he says, Philip, you've been with me so long, and you still don't know me. But probably the worst case of this is in Matthew 7.21, where Jesus says, On the last day, people will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do mighty deeds in your name? Didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we do miracles in your name? And Jesus will say, I never knew you. Now the point is, look real carefully. It is possible, Jesus is saying, to never disobey any of God's orders. It is possible to be obeying every one of God's orders and be lost. The people who say, Lord, Lord, the word Lord, Lord, Lord, we've done all these wonderful things for you. This is Matthew chapter 7, 21. These are people who are very religious. These are people who are very busy, and they're also doing it in Jesus' name. They're in the church. They're on the bandwagon. They have the right beliefs. They're obeying everything Jesus says. This is saying, you can obey every order. This isn't a hypocrite. You think, oh, he's a hypocrite. We're not talking about hypocrites. We're not talking about somebody who on the outside says, yes, of course, I obey God's law, I obey all the orders, but on the sly, you know, behind the scenes, he's doing something else. We're not talking about that. He says, I've never disobeyed an order. We have to take him at face value. You can obey all the orders and be utterly lost. Another way to put it, you can just be surrounded by the Father's issues, surrounded by the Father's You can be involved with the father's issues, involved with the father's affairs, involved with the father's business, involved with the father's orders, and not be involved with the father. Because, when it comes right down to it, the elder brother can't even fathom how the father is operating. He doesn't understand what the father is doing. Here is something that is at the very center of the father's heart. Clearly what he is doing, right here, gets to the heart of who the father is. The elder brother can't understand it, which means the elder brother has been with God and doesn't know God a bit. The Elder Brother has been obeying everything, extremely involved, and he's lost. Keep that in mind. That's the first point. You can see right away, everybody's going, what? Okay, that's the first point. The second point, and it gets worse, or better, I'm not sure. The first point is, we learn that the Elder Brother is lost, meaning that you can do everything right. You can be very busy, very active, You can be obeying all the orders and still be lost. But more than that, secondly, it doesn't just say the elder brother is lost as the younger brother. This story is actually telling us the elder brother is more lost. This is telling us the elder brother is more lost than the younger brother. Well, what do you mean by more lost? Well, now, if somebody asked me the question in answer time, what do you mean by more lost? Of course, in one sense, of course, in certain perspectives, you're lost, you're lost. You know, we used to laugh about this. I mean, if a lion mauls you, cuts off your head, screws your body parts all around, you're dead. And if a little black widow spider pricks you, and you'd hardly even know it, but you die that night in your sleep, you're dead. Now, which person is more dead? Well, one person is ugly dead, and one person is pretty dead, but you're just dead. But from another point of view, This is very clear. The Father has got a Jekyll and a Hyde. He's got a Jekyll son, a Hyde son. He's got a disciplined, nice, respectable son, and a Hyde son, undisciplined, unselfish. And in the end, Hyde goes in and Jekyll does not. And what Jesus Christ is getting across here is not just that the elder son is lost in spite of his goodness, What Jesus is getting across here is the elder son is lost because of his goodness. Why isn't he going in? You see why he's not going in? Why doesn't he understand the Father? You see why he doesn't understand the Father? Why is he angry at the Father? You see why he's angry at the Father? Because I obey everything. He says, because I obey, I don't like the way you're treating me. Because I obey, I have a right to say I don't like the way you're running the universe here. Because I obey, it's because he obeys that he's alienated. Now how could that be? But this is definitely one of the main teachings of Jesus Christ. This is one of the things that gets recovered in times of great vitality. This is one of the things that you can go for years and years and maybe even centuries, I mean decades, and never hear in a church. But Jesus over and over says, to the pimps and the prostitutes, about the pimps and the prostitutes, he says to the Pharisees, the pimps and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. And as my friend John Gerstner once put it, and I'll return to this in a second, he says, the thing that really separates us from God is not so much our sins, but our damnable good works. Now, how could that be true? How could your goodness actually make you more blind? Well, I'm giving it away. How could your goodness separate you more from God than badness? And here's, let me give you two answers, and you can see them in the Elder Brother. The two answers are, number one, the reason goodness actually makes you more lost than badness does, number one, is goodness masks your battle with God. Goodness masks it. The Bible defines sin as trying to be your own Savior and Lord. The Bible defines sin in a sense as cosmic treason. The Bible defines sin as overthrowing your rightful Savior and Lord and saying, no, I want to do that. The Bible defines sin as trying to be your own Savior and Lord. And here's the point. Younger brother lostness. In younger brother lostness, you just do it. You're conscious. You say, yes, I'm going to be my own Savior and Lord. I don't need God. I don't need religion. Don't tell me what's right and wrong. I will decide what's right and wrong for me." So, you know, you know you've done it. And therefore, when there's smoke, we know where the fire is in younger brother-lostness. When your life falls apart, you say, maybe I need God. But in elder brother-lostness, the goodness masks the fact that you are also being your own Savior and Lord. Because of your goodness, you're not all that dependent on God. You don't want total salvation. You just want help at certain points. Because of your goodness, you don't pray to Him day and night in dependence on Him. You pray when you're in trouble. Because of your goodness, you don't really make Him your Savior and Lord. You're your own Savior and Lord, but the goodness masks it. And therefore, when your life stops working, when your life falls apart, when there's smoke all over, you can't find the fire. I don't know how many times I've heard people say, I tried Christianity, I tried God, and it didn't work. I don't know what they mean. I tried God and it didn't work. What they mean is, I wanted something, God didn't give it to me. You see, the younger brother of lostness says, I set my heart on these things, and I realize now that those things could never satisfy me. When your life falls apart, you say, I can see those things never satisfy me. But you see, in elder brother lostness, you've set your heart on other things besides God. He's not your Savior and Lord. You're just using Him. And therefore, when your life falls apart because you're not getting the things you really, really want, you blame God and you say it didn't work. In younger brother lostness, when there's smoke, you know where the fire is. In elder brother lostness, when your life is falling apart, you have no idea where it's coming from. And it's because Goodness masks the fact that you're being your own Savior and Lord. But then secondly, the second reason why goodness makes us more lost than badness is goodness doesn't just mask your battle with God. Okay, get this. Goodness is your main weapon. In elder brother lostness, goodness is your main weapon in your battle against God. You use your goodness against him. Can you see the elder brother doing that? See, if the elder brother had felt he hadn't been a good son, He would have come up and said, well, Father, this doesn't make sense. But you know, well, OK, let me hear your side of it. Oh, no. But what he does is he comes up and says, I have obeyed. I have been good. I have done everything just right. And therefore, I demand that you stop treating my inheritance the way you are. The natural human heart, until the Holy Spirit comes in and shows us, until the Holy Spirit comes in and he intervenes, the natural human heart will take goodness and always use it like this, good deeds, moral rectitude, caring for the needy, helping your family, you see, however you define it. What your heart will do with that goodness is you will use it to take control of God and the people around you. You will use your goodness to feel superior to other people and to say, you owe me. But most of all, you will use your goodness to try to get control of God and to say, you owe me. That's what he's saying here. He says, Father, you can't just treat me any old way. You can't just do anything. I am good. Therefore, I have rights. Now, if you want to understand the difference between an elder brother and a Christian, there's practically no better place than that fascinating spot in The Great Divorce. The Great Divorce is a fictional account by C.S. Lewis of a busload of people. This is fictional, by the way. A busload of people from hell who go to the outskirts of heaven. And people who are in hell are met generally by people who they knew from earth who are in heaven. And the people from heaven come on down, and they try to urge the people from hell to come to heaven. Here's an interesting example. What you're going to find is the ghost is a person from hell. The bright man is a person from heaven. Look at me now, said the ghost. This is one of these encounters. Slapping his chest, but the slap made no noise. I've gone straight all my life. I don't say I had no faults. Far from it. But I'd done my best all my life. See, I'd done my best by everybody. That's the sort of chap I was. I never asked for anything that wasn't mine by rights. If I wanted a drink, I paid for it. And if I took my wages, I'd done my job. See, that's the sort I was. The bright man said, It would be much better not to go on about that now. You'll never do it like that. Your feet will never grow hard enough to walk on the grass that way. You'd never get to the mountains. Ghost. Who's going on? I'm not arguing. I'm asking for nothing but my rights. I gotta have my rights. Same as you, see? Oh no, it's not as bad as that. I haven't gotten my rights or I wouldn't be here. You will not get yours either. You'll get something far better. That's just what I say. I haven't got my rights. I've always done my best. I've never done anything wrong. And what I don't see is why I should be down there and a bloody murderer like you, which he was, should be up here. Well, who knows whether you will stay down there. Maybe you will be put above me up there. Just be happy and come. What do you keep arguing for?" said the ghost. I only want my rights. I'm not asking for anybody's bleeding charity. Oh, then do, at once, ask for the bleeding charity. Everything is here for the asking, and nothing can be bought. That may be all right for you if they choose to let a bloody murderer in, all because he makes a poor mouth at the last minute. That's their lookout. But I don't want charity. I'm a decent man. And if I had my rights, I'd have been here long ago, and you can tell him I said so. The ghost was almost happy now that it could, in a sense, threaten. Yes, that's what I'll do. I'll go home. I didn't come here to be treated like a dog. I'll go home. Damn and blast the whole pack of you, and still grumbling, but whimpering a little as it picked its way over the sharp grasses the ghost made off. Now, this is exactly only a much more powerful picture than I can get across. This is a perfect picture of the elder brother. I just want my rights. When your goodness becomes a way for you to get leverage over everybody else, so instead of looking at what comes to you from other people and what comes to you from God as a gift, when you use your goodness to demand your rights everywhere, all over the place, you're as miserable as this young man is, this older brother is, and you are utterly alienated from the Father's heart. Now, that's the second point. The goodness makes them further away, and here's the reason why. When you become a Christian, the first thing you know a little bit about is you have to repent of your badness, the things you've done wrong. But many, many, many people think they've become Christians only because they've repented of their badness, and they haven't repented of their goodness. Well, you say, how in the world can I repent of my goodness? If you only repent of your badness, here's what'll happen. You think you've become a Christian, but what you've actually done is you're continuing to say, if I'm really good, if I try really hard, if I work really well, if I'm a good husband or good wife or good child or good son or good daughter or good father or good mother, if I do all these things well, you know what would happen? You're still an elder brother. You still are. And you will have these same marks in your life that he's got that are signs of elder brother lostness. What are those signs? OK, let me just give you a quick rundown. It's frightening to see them, but take a look at the signs of elder brother lostness. He's not in a pigsty. You can't find it that way. He's not cursing God. You can't find it that way. He's not doing things wrong. He's not breaking all the laws of God. You can't find him that way. He's not outside of church. You can't find him. You can't just, you know, you say, I know how to find non-Christians. 11 o'clock Sunday morning, I'll just see who's walking out there on the street. Then I know who a non-Christian is. Well, see, the problem is you can't find him that way. He's not out there on the street 11 o'clock on Sunday morning. Well, how do we know if you have elder brother lostness in your life? Well, here it is. Number one, let's take a look real quick. First of all, he is very, very angry about how his life goes and he compares himself to others. He says, I never got a goat and he gets a calf. What's a murderer like him up here and me down there? I am a better person. I deserve this. Now, listen, this is a sign of Elder Brother Lossness. You're always looking around and saying, other people are having a better life than me who don't deserve it as much as I do. And you're, why? Because you feel like, God owes me. That's self-righteousness. That's Elder Brother Lossness. And your misery, your deep misery, comes from the fact, not because your life isn't going the way you want. That's not it. It's how you're interpreting it. The reason you're so miserable is not because of the circumstances. Stop telling yourself, ah, the reason I'm so cynical and so angry and so bitter and so cold inside is because my life hasn't gone very well. That's not it. It's how you're looking at your life. Nobody's life goes that well. You know, from the outside, you think their life goes better. You don't know. See, that's the self-righteousness that says, I know better and God owes me. And that's the first sign. Anger. Tremendous anger at the way everything you know, has to happen. You see, the problem is, elder... Oh, by the way, there's actually two kinds of anger when things go wrong. See, elder brothers have two kinds of anger, because elder brothers believe that either I'm good and I'm valuable, or I'm sinful and I'm worthless. But the gospel says you're sinful and incredibly valuable. See, elder brothers say, if I'm living up and I'm obeying all the rules and I'm doing it right, then I'm good and I'm valuable. And then when things go wrong, the anger is toward God. I hate you. How can you do this to me? But if you're not living up, if you aren't living up to your standards, if you're not making it the way you want to, then you feel sinful and worthless. And then when things go wrong, you get angry, but you don't get angry at God, you get angry at you. You say, what an idiot. How did I do this? Why is my life going wrong? It's all my fault. You're going to be filled with anger. But the gospel, which is a completely different grid, it takes you completely out of the elder brother religion. It takes you completely out of this. The gospel doesn't say you're either good and valuable or sinful and worthless, but you are very sinful and absolutely valuable in Christ. And because you know you're sinful when bad things happen, you don't complain. But because you know you're valuable when bad things happen, you know it's not a punishment. Did you hear that? You see, if you're a Christian and you understand the gospel, because you know you're sinful, you don't complain when bad things happen, but because you know you're valuable, you know it's not a punishment. You know it's because of some other broader and bigger plan. You know it's because God isn't going to take out of your hide something he took out of Jesus' hide. You see, the anger, when anything goes wrong, that's a sign of elder brotherness. Secondly, now look carefully, He hates the law of God that he's obeying. It's a dead giveaway in verse 28. What does he say? I have slave for you. And even the word orders is a giveaway, don't you think? But I'm so glad his slip is completely showing. His slip is a little showing there with orders. He says, I followed your orders, not even your commands. not even your directions, not even your guidance, he says, your orders. But then he says, slave, and he uses a word that means just what it sounds like in English. And here's what's so strange. The people who believe they're saved by obeying the law, always, if you, on the top, right, they're law-abiding, but underneath, they're law-hating. They hate it. They despise it. They're just using it. It's a slavery. It's a taskmaster. They're not lawless in their behavior, but they're lawless in their heart. And the lawlessness of their heart is shown in their utter moral scrupulosity. That's how they're trying to beat the law. That's how they're trying to win. They hate it, and they're trying to win. They're trying to kill it. They're trying to get rid of it. And I'll put it another way. Now, this is very, very important. This is the difference between an elder brother and a Christian. Both the elder brother and a Christian do the will of God. Generally speaking, I must say that elder brothers sometimes do a little better job of it when it comes to moral scrupulosity. But there's a big difference in why they're doing it. What makes you a Christian or not a Christian is not so much whether you're obeying the will of God, but why you're obeying the will of God. Let me give you a quick illustration. When I was in college, I had a music appreciation course and I had to listen to Mozart so I could pass the test. So I had to listen to Mozart so I could pass the test. I had to pass the test so I could get a good grade in the course. I had to get a good grade in the course so I could get a degree. I had to get a good degree so I could get into a good grad school. I had to get into grad school so I could get a white-collar job. Now, I used Mozart to get money. basically. But something's happened to me in Mozart over the years. Now I use money to get Mozart. Now I spend the money that I make with my something kind of collar job. And why do I do it? Now what does Mozart give me? Mozart just gives me Mozart. Now here's the difference. When you find something beautiful, it is its own reward. When you find something beautiful, it's just itself. When you find something beautiful, you look at it, or you have it, or you listen to it, or you're with it just for what it is. And if, on the other hand, you listen to it, or you look at it, or you have it in order to get something else, you see, then you're not doing it out of aesthetic joy. You're not doing it out of just a sense of beauty. You're not doing it for itself. A Christian can speak like the psalmist in Psalm 1. What does it say is the mark of a godly man? It doesn't say a godly man is someone who preaches day and night, someone who reads the Bible day and night. It doesn't even say that. Or someone who prays day and night, someone who's busy in church day and night. It says, his delight is in the law of the Lord and on it he meditates day and night. Psalm 119, it says, I love thy law, it's sweeter than honey to my mouth. That is utterly impossible for the Elder Brothers to say, because they obey God to get something that they find beautiful. And a Christian is somebody who says, because you have saved me, and because... Here's the thing. Why does God love me? In the Elder Brothers' mind, God loves me to get worshipers. God loves me to get adherence. God loves me to get constituents, I guess. But when you see the gospel, why did Jesus Christ die for me? He can get nothing out of it. Nothing, nothing, nothing. He died for me because He died for you because He died for us because He must find us beautiful. He must actually love us for who we are. And when you recognize that, that you're a sinner saved by grace, what ends up happening is you begin for the first time to treat God aesthetically. For the first time, you find that you love him for who he is, you obey him not for what he's giving you, and as a result, your obedience becomes personal, aesthetic, and absolutely unconditional. See, elder brothers say, I've just about had it. I've obeyed you, and I've obeyed you, and I've obeyed you, and I haven't gotten what? Well, I haven't gotten what? I haven't gotten the real things that I love, the real things that I think would give me meaning. If you have a condition on your obedience, if you say, if God doesn't answer that prayer, if God lets that happen, then what good is being a Christian? And see, that is the elder brother, because the elder brother has not examined his premise, and you haven't examined yours either. And the premise is, God is not the thing I need. God is not the ultimate beauty. God is not the thing that my heart's really after. You see, your obedience is unconditional because now you obey God for who He is. You obey Him out of love. You're not a slave anymore. Quick, let's go on. First of all, we see elder brother lostness, always angry at what's going on in your life, either at yourself or God, back and forth, one or the other, or both sometimes. Secondly, you don't really love the law of God at all. You don't meditate on it. You don't find it beautiful. You know, you're not after the character of Christ. You don't meditate on the law of God. You knuckle onto it. You hate it. You're using it, but you don't love it. You're lawless in your heart, even though you're very lawful in your life. Thirdly, there's a combination here of a lack of joyful assurance and a tremendously judgmental spirit toward others. On the one hand, a lack of assurance. There's a very funny thing that the commentators say. He says, you never even gave me a goat. Now, goats are very cheap compared to fatted calves. So what he's saying is, you never gave me a goat to have a party with. And in verse 31, what does the father say? All I have is yours. You've always been with me. And commentators say, the father's actually saying, but son, you never asked me. Now the point is this. There is no dance in the heart of this elder brother about his relationship with the father. He's never had a party. He's never asked for a party. Because underneath it, he not only doesn't love the father, he's not really sure where he stands with him. He's got to know his hostility. He's got to know how much he, just as much as the younger brother. The younger brother tried to get control of the father's things without the father by going away. And the older brother tried to get control of the father's things without the father by staying. He knows that deep in his heart. And as a result, there is no joyful assurance. There's no sense of joy. See, when you ask a Christian, are you a Christian? It doesn't take long. The reflection happens, and immediately there's a dance. You say, this is incredible. I'm a Christian, and it's astounding. It's amazing. How could it be? But elder brothers, if you ask them if they're Christians, they say, of course I'm a Christian. Why are you asking? What are you up to? What are you thinking about? How dare you ask a question like that? There's never a party in the elder brother's relationship with the father. There's never a party. But with Christians, we lose it, but it doesn't take long. If you do a little reflection, your eyes start to dance, your heart starts to dance. He's got no assurance. He has no wellspring of joyful assurance. And yet, he is very quick to refuse to admit that this young man is really back in the family. He doesn't call him my brother. What does he call him? The son of yours. He doesn't even say your son. Your son would be the son of yours. Now, this is very, very typical. Here's a sign of being an elder brother as opposed to being a Christian. When you're an elder brother, you're never sure where you stand with God. You're always nervous. You're always insecure. There's never a joy. There's never a dance. However, you are very sure about other people where they stand. Because since you believe you're saved by being good, if you see somebody doing something wrong, you say, that person can't be a Christian. Look at her do that. Christians don't do that. Well, that's true. But that doesn't mean she's not a Christian, because maybe she's saved by grace. Well, I don't think like that. You see, the point is, if you are an elder brother, you're very unsure of yourself, and you're very sure of everybody else. You've got them all pegged. But if you're a sinner saved by grace, if you understand the gospel, first of all, you become incredibly sure about yourself. Because, see, now when you look in your own heart, sure you see things that are bad and wrong, but you know what Jesus has done for you. You were able to relax about yourself, but when you look at other people, you're very, very charitable. You start to say, well, you know, that person's not living right, but after all, you're not saved by living right. You see, suddenly what happens is you become the most unjudgmental people in the world. There's an exclusivity about the elder brother, always. The elder brother says, I, if I was going to have a party, I'd only invite my friends. But the commentators will tell you a fatted calf was way, way, way too much for a family to eat. Even if you can invite all the servants. The one commentator I read said, there's no way you kill a fatted calf unless you want everybody in town to come. No matter who they are. You don't think all those people out there in town thought the father was a terrible father? And don't you think there's an awful lot of people out there that probably think the father's an idiot for letting this guy back in? But you see, the difference between a Christian and an elder brother is elder brothers are always, always judging and looking down. And they're saying, oh boy, You see, elder brothers are always judging people. Christians are the least judgmental people in the world. Christians are even saying to people who don't believe what they believe, I would like you, as much as you're willing, to feast with me. Maybe I can't convert you. Maybe I can't get you to see what I see. That doesn't mean I don't want to eat with you. See, that was the whole point. Jesus was eating with sinners. Eating with sinners. And so Jesus puts himself here as the father, killing the fatted calf, saying, even the people who I'm sure not only thought that I must be a terrible father who have lost my younger son, but even the ones who probably think that's incredible. I mean, in Eastern and Oriental societies, what he did is probably what many people would be offended by. They think it's ridiculous. The whole town's invited. There's an exclusivity about the elder brother. There's an incredible inclusivity about grace. Well, there's a lot of other things we could say. For example, the elder brother can't forgive. Why not? If you think you're saved by your works, you always feel superior. You say, I would never do that. If you can't forgive a sin against you, you know what you're thinking in your heart of hearts? If today you're having trouble forgiving somebody, you know what you're saying in your heart of hearts? You have to be saying, I would never do that. I would never do something like that. Well, that's elder brotherness. I'm not saying you're an elder brother through and through, but you've got a little elder brother in there or you wouldn't be in that. Don't you see, it's the self-righteousness that's really screwing up your life. It's not your badness. It's your goodness that makes you angry. It's your goodness that makes you bitter. It's your goodness that makes you worried. It's your goodness that makes you hate. Obedience. It's your goodness that makes you look and see these rules and say, oh gosh, I guess I have to do it, but boy, it's better than going to hell. It's your goodness that makes you miserable. It's your goodness which is at the heart of all the problems. It's your self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is the cause of racism. It's the cause of classism. It's the cause of so much of the family breakdown. It's the goodness. And here's how you know it. One last thing. Somebody's saying, gee, all you're doing is bashing conservative people. All you're doing is bashing conservative people. You're bashing people who feel like morals are important and doing the right thing is important. Okay, let me just point one thing out. Elder brothers are not just conservative people. A moralist doesn't have to be a conservative people. One last thing. The elder brother hates evangelism. One of the ways you can tell an elder brother is they hate evangelism or they might give lip service to it, but they're terrible at it. And I don't know how many times I've talked to people, and they're very liberal, but they're very moralistic. I don't know how many times I've talked to people who say, hey, dancing, raising your hands, Talking about people being lost and found? Well, yes, of course, the poor people, the uneducated people, they like that kind of religion, but you're a college graduate. Grow up. There is nothing more absolutely paternalistic toward poor people. There is nothing more hidebound and proud as to sneer at the only kind of religion that younger brothers, that outcasts, that poor people, that broken people have ever embraced in any kind of main way, you see. The only kind of religion that's ever spread among the people that Jesus loves so much has always been supernatural religion, has always been religion that said, once I was lost, now I'm found. That's the only kind of religion. It's the nice people, it's the moral people, the respectful people, and the liberal people who they want religion that's very rational, very ethical, you know, very non-committal in some ways, not much doctrine, And of course, they'll put up with the fact that those uneducated people, they dance, see? They sing with the Father. They say, hallelujah, a younger brother has come back. Hallelujah. You say, well, OK for them. Not for you. What an elder brother. You don't have to be a conservative to be an elder brother. You don't have to be a conservative to be a moralist. You don't have to be religious to be a moralist. You can be an incredibly secular moralist. And New York's really filled with a lot of them. One last thing. Some of you were younger brothers. And when you became Christians, you were very excited to see, when you read the Bible, that Jesus is always harder on Pharisees than pimps and prostitutes. That he's always harder on elder brothers than younger brothers. And as a result, you hate elder brothers now. You think, I can love everybody but Pharisees. I can love everybody but moralists. I can embrace everybody but those kinds of people that have ruined Christianity. Don't you realize what's happened? You were a younger brother, but now your own heart, with a little help from the devil, is turning you into an elder brother toward elder brothers. And the one way that you will be able to really see that your Christianity is not just one more flip-flop through your life, is that your judgmentalism is even destroyed against judgmental people, and therefore, Take a look. Jesus comes out in the Father and basically pleads with him. He says, come home. Come in. My son. He doesn't say, you fool, you rebellious, you prig, you Pharisee. My son. OK? How can the elder brother be recovered? Well, we talked about it last week. I'll just say it this way. It's fascinating that the end of this sermon, in every other parable, you've got a shepherd going out to get the sheep, right? You've got the woman going out to get the coin. You even really have this father dramatically going on out. But you see, at the very end, we actually have a failure by one of the searchers. What do you mean a failure? OK, it shouldn't have been the father to go out. Here's what should have happened. Jesus Christ is showing us in the bad elder brother what a true elder brother would have done. Years ago, believe it or not, this is a Time magazine article, During the Vietnam War, a young man was shot down behind enemy lines and he was a MIA. He was missing in action. And his American brother sold most of what he had, put most of it on his back, went into the jungles of Vietnam and for months, I think years, I can't remember the article, I have to go find it, wandered around behind enemy lines looking for his brother. And what's so fascinating is the villagers and even the enemy soldiers, they so respected that. You know, Eastern people, Oriental people very often are much bigger on family than us. They so respected that, that they let him pass, and the word spread in the jungle, and they just called him the brother. Now here's a real brother. Jesus Christ is saying, if this was a true elder brother, what would he have done when his younger brother was off in the pigsty? What would he have done? I'll tell you what he would have done. to the passage on which our teaching is based this morning. It's there in your bulletin. I'm going to read a little past the part we have printed, even though our concern this morning is going to be on the first part of the parable of the prodigal son. So it's Luke chapter 15, and we'll start with verse 11, and I'll read through, actually I'll read through the end of the chapter. And Jesus continued. There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth and wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his field to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. To the passage on which our teaching is based this morning, it's there in your bulletin. I'm going to read a little past the part we have printed, even though the Uh, our concern this morning is going to be on the first part of the parable of the prodigal son. So it's Luke chapter 15 and we'll start with verse 11 and I'll read through, actually I'll read through the end of the chapter. And Jesus continued, there was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth and wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his field to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. But no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired men have food to spare? And here I am starving to death. Will I set out and go back? I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired men. So he got up. and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring a fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found." So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing, so he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come, he replied, and your father killed a fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. And the older brother was angry and refused to go in, so his father came out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, Look, all these years I've been slaving for you, never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours, who has squandered your property with prostitutes, comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him. My son, the father said, you are always with me and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. This is God's word. We're spending three weeks on this tremendous chapter, Luke 15, and today and next week we look at the parable that's been called the Parable of the Prodigal Son. This is very, very famous. However, the story is so sentimentalized usually, and what we're trying to do is get a sense of how amazed the hearers would have been. This would have been an absolutely astonishing and an amazing thing to hear. The purpose of this parable in particular, the parable of the prodigal son, was to blow out the existing paradigms, the existing categories that human beings had for their understanding of their relationship with God. You see, some people have what you might call a moralistic grid, a moralistic view of life. And the moralistic view of life says, the problem with the world is not me, it's them, those immoral types. And these kinds of people usually stay home, they stay near where they were raised, and they live very good lives. Then you have another kind of person. And the other kind of worldview is what we could call not a moralistic grid of view of life, but let's call it the relativistic grid. or view of life. And the relativistic people are the ones who say, the problem with the world isn't me, it's them, those condemning types. You see, the moralistic say the problem is those immoral types, and the relativistic type says it's those condemning types. I need to get away from them. I need to go out and find myself. Now, generally, the relativistic types, not the elder brother types, the moralistic, but the relativistic, the younger brother types, they tend to move. They tend to go away. They tend to go to New York City. And when we see what Jesus Christ tells us about these two brothers, We see that he is coming at us and he's saying, neither, neither of these paradigms, neither of these grids. Now, these are the only grids anybody ever knows about. Whenever you read an article about the religious scene today, these two are always pitted against each other. And everybody always says, who's going to win? What's going to happen? But instead, Jesus says, and this is what is so astounding, and this is where it blows out the paradigms. Jesus Christ says, look at these two brothers. Look carefully. They are both lost. They are both alienated from the Father's heart. Do you see? In both cases, they will not come in, and the Father has to come out to bring them in. Jesus Christ lays bare the flaws of both of these paradigms. Now, and the most startling way I can put it is this. The Father has two sons, a Jekyll and a Hyde. And in the end, the Edward Hyde comes in and the Dr. Jekyll stays out. And what this is telling us is that both a moralistic and a relativistic, both a moral person and an immoral person are equally alienated from the Father. And if anything, and this is something we will not get to until next week, I'm just warning you to try to get your back. If anything, this story is telling us, if anything, it's the moralistic, it's the good person, who's more alienated, less, more impervious, less able to understand Jesus' new gospel paradigm than the immoral. Now what's so absolutely complete about this incredible story is it not only blows out and says there's another way, the gospel is a whole different way, It's not something any human being ever came up with. You're not going to read about it. You have to get it from Jesus. You're not going to make it up yourself. You're going to have to get it from Jesus. Not only that, but it's so wonderful because basically everybody is either a Pharisee or a prodigal, except those of us who are kind of both. So there's a Pharisee kind of person who's alienated from God, and there's a prodigal kind of person who's alienated from God. But then in almost every person, when we look in our own hearts, we see both a Pharisee and a prodigal. Now this week what we want to do is we want to see Jesus' paradigm as, in particular, it's applied to prodigals. And I think when we do that, next week we'll get to the Pharisee, next week we'll get to the elder brother, but this week to the prodigal. And when we do that, I think here's what we see. Jesus is telling us here something that, boy, everybody wants to know nowadays. He's talking to us about experience of God. The kiss of the Father. How do you get that? See, it's one thing to know your Father loves you. It's another thing to have Him kiss you. What is a kiss? What's the difference? Well, when you're kissed, you're experiencing the love. How do you experience God? How do you have an experience of the Father? How do you get the Father's kiss? Verse 20. And this text tells us there's three things, three things that absolutely have to happen if you're going to have not just a general religion, but an experience of God. These three things. I'm not going to, you know, I usually tell you the headings ahead of time. I'm not. I'm going to keep you guessing. First of all, first thing you've got to do, first thing you have to have is you have to come to your senses. You have to come to your senses. That's what it says here in verse 17. When he came to his senses, he said, now, first of all, something general. What is that? That is repentance. In 2nd Timothy, I'm not sure, but I suppose when Paul wrote this he could have easily had this story in mind. 2nd Timothy, Paul writes, those who oppose you gently instruct in the hope that God will grant them repentance and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap. See, repentance, coming to your senses, that's what we're talking about. And right away we learn something. Before I try to break it down, right away we learn something very important. If you want experience with God, at the very heart of it is repentance. In the moralistic grid and in the relativistic grid, you don't see that. The mark of Jesus' grid is the centrality of repentance. See, in the moralistic grid, repentance is abnormal. In the relativistic grid, repentance is unnecessary. In the moralistic grid, repentance is abnormal. It only happens when you screw up. But you see, the moralistic grid has no kiss. They have good feelings. There are good feelings in the moralistic grid. But the moralistic grid are the Pharisees. These are the people who come and say, I'm okay, you're not okay, you're immoral, I'm moral, and the reason I know God likes me and loves me and will answer my prayers is because I'm a good person. Now, there's a certain good feeling about that. It's a feeling of superiority. But it's not the kiss. In a sense, the love of God in the moralistic paradigm, you talk about the love of God to a person in that paradigm, and what do they say? Of course he loves me. I'm very good. Of course. There's no kiss. There's no explosion. There's no transformation. Because repentance is peripheral. It's abnormal. What they mistake for experience of God is that sense of superiority. If you go over to the relativistic grid. In the relativistic grid, repentance is unnecessary. Why? Because the relativistic grid says God embraces everybody just as we are. He loves us all just as we are. Only the condemners is the unhappier. He just loves us as we are. Now, there's a certain good feeling that goes along with that. To be told, you know, just the way you are, you're just fine. God embraces everybody. God loves everybody. God's that way. But when you talk to a person in the relativistic grid about the love of God, it's just a sentiment. It's just an idea. It's a kind of good feeling. But again, if you say God loves you, what a person in the relativistic grid says, of course. Of course. There's no kiss. There's no transformation. It's not galvanizing. It doesn't change you. The difference between Christ's paradigm and the other two is the centrality of repentance. And even the way he describes it, look at this, comes to your senses. That's not what happens in the other two. I mean, there's a repentance that most of us think of when we think about the word repentance. But generally what we mean is, I'm sorry. But look, if the guy does not say, oh, I should never have spent all that money on prostitutes. Prostitutes, oh my word, I knew it was wrong, but now I'm so sorry. That's not coming to your senses. Coming to your senses mean you feel like you're becoming sane. It's like looking at the whole world, in other words, looking at the whole world differently, coming to your senses means repentance is entering the new paradigm. Repentance is coming to look at everything differently. The language of repentance is, how could I have been so blind? How could I have been so ungrateful? How could I have missed the obvious? That's repentance, always. It's to see everything differently. But let's break it down here for a second. What does it mean to come to your senses? He saw two things. Two things he realized. All right. Now, the first thing he realized is the nature of sin, that it is essentially running from God in order to control his life. Now, we touched on this last week, but let's open it up. He begins to understand what sin is. It's not so much a violation of a rule. It's running from God in order to get control of your life. That's the reason why he says, I will go back to my father. That's the reason why he says, when I repent, I will say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and your sight. Bear with me for a second. There is no emphasis on the rules. Why not? Sin is underneath everything else a desire, not so much to break the rules, to use the rules either breaking them Or keeping them. Or keeping some and breaking some. You're using the rules. You're breaking or keeping. There's really, really no difference. But sin is to do whatever it takes to be able to say, God, I'm in charge of my life. I'm my own judge and my own master. You cannot tell me how to live my life. If you go back, take a look at the younger brother. Now, it's taken me a few years to figure out just how the early hearers, the people who listen to Jesus, parable felt when they heard this. In verse 12 it says, a man had two sons, verse 11, and the younger son says, give me my share of the inheritance. And I now think it's pretty clear that there's a consensus of commentators that when the younger son did that, the younger son said, there's two of us. When you die, I will get my part. He will get his part. Probably the older brother's got a little more than half of the estate. The younger brother, a little less than half. But the point is, he comes and he says, I want my part of the estate now. I would like you to liquidate the percentage of the estate that belongs to me. I want it now. Now here's what's so interesting. Of all the things Jesus Christ could have possibly done, all the stories he could have possibly come up with in order to show us the essence of sin, didn't come up with a murderer or a rapist or a thief. He came up with somebody who says, Father, give me my life and just leave me the heck alone. What's going on is the hearers, on the one hand, would have known that what he was asking for was technically OK. There was nothing actually illegal about it. It was his. It literally was his 40 percent or whatever, 40 percent of all the father's assets were his. It wasn't illegal. He wasn't breaking a rule. He wasn't violating a law. However, We know that it was unbelievable that he would ask that. It was outrageous he would ask that. You know why? It was not a violation of the law. It was a relational enormity. What he was saying to the father is, I wish you were dead. I can't wait for you to be dead. I want to live as if you're dead. Give me my part." In other words, he's saying, I want your things, Father, but I don't want my father. I want your things, I don't want my father. He had his things. He had access to his money. He could have gone out and bought the things he wanted to do. What changed when he asked for his inheritance? Not access to the money, independence. He didn't have the father to tell him what to do. Now, the reason that this is so critical Unless you understand that the essence of sin is it's not breaking a law, it's breaking a law or keeping a law in order to say, I got control. Now you say, what do you mean keeping a law? Well, what's so fascinating is, listen to what one commentator says. At the end, we have the elder brother who comes and sees what the father is doing with the property. He's giving some to the son, the younger son, he's bringing it back in and he will not come in. And one, a commentator says, it's astounding. Here's what, this is what essentially is going on. He says, when the elder brother will not come in, what is that doing? What is he doing there? And he says, well, what the elder brother is doing, here's a quote from one British scholar. The elder brother also is shaming the father by quarreling with him in public. And in his turn, he is also saying that he wished the father was dead so he could use the property as he wished. Now, Here's the point. The elder brother says to the father, I have obeyed you. And because I've obeyed you, I want to control the property my way. And this younger brother, see the younger brother was trying to get control by leaving and disobeying. And the elder brother was trying to get control by staying and obeying. And they're both lost. And they're both alienated from the father. And they're both trying to say, They're both saying, I would like your things, but I don't want you. And that's the essence of what sin is. The essence of sin is saying, I want to be my own master. I want to be my own judge. I want to be my own savior. I wish he was dead. Now you begin to see now, this is next week's sermon, but you begin to see why the elder brother in the end is more alienated from God than the younger brother. Why? Because the elder brother couldn't possibly see that. The elder brother couldn't possibly believe that if you came and said, you're trying to get complete control. He says, what do you mean? I slay for that man. I'm obeying that man. The Bible says, I don't care if you are the most religious and the most obedient, the most moral person in the world. I want to know why are you doing it? Your entire personality. Look, he is condemning of other people. He is self-righteous of other people. He's angry at life. He's angry at the way his life is going. Look at the other brother. He's miserable. Why? Not because he's obeying God's law. Everything's fine. You should obey God's law. Why? Why? It's all in the motive. This lays bare the radically profound analysis of what sin is. This blows out the moralistic paradigm completely. It says the elder brother is trying to get control, but it blows out the relativistic too. In fact, listen, is there anybody here who says, look, I'm not an immoral person. I'm a pretty good person. Oh, I'm not. I don't pray. I don't know if there's a God. What you've done is you've taken the things of God and you're just living without reference to him. What are you doing? You're saying, are you living as if he was dead? You're living as if you hoped he was dead if he is there. It's the same thing. So the essence of sin, he comes to his senses when he realizes basically what David says in Psalm 51. against thee and thee only have I sinned." First of all, he comes to his senses when he sees that sin is basically a relational thing. It's your relationship with God. It's what you're trying to do. It's laid bare not by looking at how many rules you keep and how many rules you break, but why you're doing anything at all. And it's much more laid bare, well, by your attitude. When God asks you to do things you don't want to do, or brings into your life things you don't want to have. When God asks you to do things you don't want to do, or brings things into your life you don't want to have, then look at your heart. Then look at what happens. Then look at your attitude. Do you go ballistic? It's because, just like the other brother, I have a right to a life that's run this way because I'm good. So first of all, coming to your senses means seeing that you're running from God trying to control your life. But secondly, and more briefly, but very important, the second thing is he doesn't just see the things he's doing wrong as violations. He also sees that sin is seeking a home where there is no home. He says, guess what? What does he say? He says, in my father's house, there's bread to spare and I'm starving here. Now, this is fairly simple. But it's very, very, very profound. What is home? Home is not a place. See, that's the reason why both the elder brother and the younger brother are away from home. That's the reason the elder brother doesn't know it, because he's in a place. But he's away from home. Why? What is home? Home is a relationship. You know, one psychiatrist, I read this years ago, one psychiatrist that said, said children who don't experience a home live all their lives with a fundamental inability of attachment. What I mean by home is a place where I belong and where I'm accepted. This young man said, if I go out and do these great things, then I'll know I'm accepted. He went out and he had sex. He went out and did many, many other things we're not sure about. The only one we know about is the elder brother, prostitutes. We don't know what else happened out there. You know, the elder brother is a tattletale. He tells us a little bit about that. There's all sorts of other things. But the point is, he says, you know, I realized I was trying to go home. I left home to find home. I was trying to find a place where I really felt accepted, where I really belonged. And I realized that the only home is back with the Father. And so you see, you're not repenting. You're not repenting if all you recognize is what I'm doing is wrong. See, it says here, when he went off, he squandered his money in riotous living or wild living. You see that little verse? Wild living. And we look at that and we laugh. It seems very quaint. But the word wild means out of control. Do you know why he's out of control? Here's the great irony. Whenever you try to get control of your life by going away from God, you end up giving control of your life to other things. You see, in other words, put it another way, Henry Nowen wrote a really interesting book some years ago on the parable the prodigal son And he makes a very very he does a wonderful job of explaining What is actually happening to the prodigal son where he's going and where he's trying to run from? And he says this is page 5 so this yes, he says this he says home is the center of my being where I can hear the voice that says you are my beloved and in whom I'm well pleased. Jesus made it clear that the same voice that he heard in the Jordan River and on Mount Tabor can be heard by me. He makes it clear that there's a home with the Father. But if I decide to keep control, if I go out into the world, I will keep running around asking everything. Do you really love me? Do you really love me? I give all the power to the voices of the world. It's the world that defines me then. The world's love is full of ifs. Yes, I love you if you're good looking, if you're intelligent, if you're well off, if you're educated, if you have connections, if you're productive, endless ifs. And it is not too hard to know when I have left home spiritually. Resentment, jealousy, desire for revenge, lust, greed, ambition, rivalry are all obvious signs that I have left home, that I'm letting the world define me with its love full of ifs. But when I'm home with a father, When I know I'm the beloved, I can confront and console and admonish and encourage without any fear of rejection or need for affirmation. I can suffer persecution without desire for revenge or receive praise without using it as proof of my goodness. You see, if you try to give, get away from God to get control of your life, you will give total control of your life to something else. That's why he was out of control. That's why he was wild. And that's why he said, I'm starving. There's bread at home. How in the world did I miss that? Coming to your senses is not just feeling sorry for this or that violation. Coming to your senses is to see that I've been running from the Father and trying to make other things home. And that's the reason why they've got me. See, Henry Nowin says anger, worry, resentment, like worry. How could he say that? How could he say anxiety means you've left home spiritually? Anxiety means you're a prodigal. Anxiety means you tried to find bread somewhere else. How can he say that? was very simple. Why are you just eaten up with anxiety? Because there's something out there. You say, if I have that, if I'm intelligent, but I may get bad grades, if I'm good looking, but I'm putting on weight, if I have a really sharp looking spouse, but I don't know he or she's going to want to marry me. If I have these, that's the world's love. I've left home. And as a result, those things that you have gone to instead of God, because you want to have control of your life, you've ceded control to them. And worry is the way it controls you. Or bitterness is the way these things control you. Repentance is not just to look at the violations, but to look underneath, to see why I'm doing what I'm doing. And it's not till he comes to his senses that he's on his way back to his father. That's the first thing you need. The second thing you need, the first thing you need to experience the father's kiss is you have to have, you have to come to your senses. The second thing you need to experience, God, is you need what? You need a love that's prior to repentance. Now, if you look carefully, you'll see what happens. As the young man's coming home, we see verse 20. And in verse 20, we read these absolutely remarkable words. It says, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and he was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. And the son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him." Now, what did we see here? Here's what we see. Look carefully. Look very carefully. Many people say this is a very different picture than the sheep and the coin. Because you see, in the parable of the lost sheep, the sheep is out there, wandering away, and the shepherd takes the initiative and comes. And the lost coin, of course, the coin is down there somewhere, and the woman takes the initiative and comes. But it looks like, in this parable, which come right after those other two parables, it looks like it's saying that, no, no, no, it's not God that comes after us, we have to seek Him. That's not true. First of all, the commentators say, that almost any other Middle Eastern father, and certainly the hearers of this parable, would have listened to this story about the younger son saying, give me my inheritance, I wish you were dead. And any other father they knew would have done this, would have hit him, beaten him, and thrown him out without a cent. He probably would have died. He probably would have been absolutely penniless. Or he would have said, if I got my money, if I got those things, if I could sleep with whoever I wanted to, there'd be no repentance in that man's life. But this father is different. This father, by not beating him, but by responding to him gently and by saying, OK, here it is, because of his mercy, because of his love, because of his gentleness, he brought this young man time. This young man would not be coming to his senses unless the father had already loved him. But now look carefully. When's the kiss? Before the speech? Or after the speech? It's before the speech. Here's a father. Now this is totally undignified. You know, venerable people would stand there on the porch and wait to hear the speech. Not this one. He rushes off the porch. He's not tapping his foot. He's not saying, this better be good. An old man, he runs down the path, he cuts across the field, he sees a gap, let's say, in the hedge, and he jumps on him. And what does he do? He's hugging him, he's kissing him, and he hasn't said a word. He hasn't said a word. As a matter of fact, surely you can imagine this young man is just scared to death on the way back. What am I going to say? How am I going to say it? It's a little easier to say something to a person who's already jumped on you, already hugged you, already kissed you. already slobbered all over you and stands back about six inches with the biggest smile you've ever seen. Then you don't mind asking for something. Listen. The love of God was not caused by the repentance. The repentance was caused by the love of God. The welcome of the father did not start at that moment. It started way back when he first came and said, give me my inheritance. And now, don't you see? The father jumps on him, not because he's beautiful, he's ugly. Have you ever seen somebody come back from a famine? But you see, the father doesn't say, oh my gosh, look how ugly he is, oh my gosh, I better do something nice, I better be kind to him, after all, he's my son. No. His love completely overwhelms the ugliness of the son. See, beauty kisses the beast. And here he comes. And he throws himself on his son. And he says, I love you. In fact, the other thing you see is that he never finishes the speech. He lets him do the speech. That's great. It's got to be there. But notice he says, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. And he doesn't let him get to the hired self. He says, just make me a hired hand. You don't understand, says the father. You are not coming in as a hired hand. You are my son. Bring a robe, bring a ring, kill the fatted calf. And they began to celebrate. Now, don't you see? You've got to have not just a repentant heart, but you've got to have a father like this. Why? Because his repentance wasn't right. His repentance was probably, you know, when he says, I only come in as a hired hand, you see that? We'll talk about this next week again. But he was starting to say, maybe I had to do it like my older brother's done it. Listen, whenever you start to come back, God, You've been away from him for a long time. Almost immediately, the first thing you do is exactly what this young man did. You don't really believe he's the God of grace. You don't really believe the gospel yet. You say, I'm going to clean myself up. I'm really going to get myself ready. If I work as a hired hand, then maybe then God, my father, will do things for me and give me these sorts of things. We always do that to start with. I will be mighty good now. I will clean up. His repentance is absolutely impure. It's filled with ambiguities. It's cockeyed. It doesn't matter. God's love for you is not a response to your performance. It's not a response, it's not a function of your perfection. It's a response, a function of His perfection. It's not a function of your loveliness. It's a function of His loveliness. If you've got to put your makeup on before facing Him, you're not really sure He loves you. And you can't anyway. So the second thing you've got to have, if you're going to experience the kiss of the Father, is you have to have a God like this. And there are no gods like this. There's not a single religion anywhere in the world that even claims to have a god like this. You must realize that. The moralistic grid doesn't have a god like this. The relativistic grid doesn't really have a god like this. Oh, no. Because, you see, the relativistic grid doesn't have a god whose love counts. And that brings us to our third point. One of the things I said, which is so important for us to understand this text, is to realize how it hit the original hearers. And we said already, the original hearers were astounded when it showed both the sons alienated from the father. And we also saw that they are astounded that the father is this loving. They just don't know a father like this. But here's the thing that's most astounding to the hearers, and that is, when they listen to this thing go along, especially when they get to verse 24, especially when they get to verse 24, The hearers are about to say, aha, aha, I knew it. He's soft on sin. You know why? There is no cost. The Jewish hearers would have said, all right, maybe God is that loving. Maybe he's that accepting. Maybe, maybe. But if that father really believed in the God we know, the God of holiness, the God of justice, he would have taken that son, they would have gone to the temple, and they would have had a sin offering. There has to be a cost. Somebody's got to pay. It has to be there. And you see, the moralists who are listening to Jesus, you know what they're doing at this point? When they get to verse 24, they say, aha, I knew it, a relativist. I knew it. That's the reason why all these sinners like to flock around Jesus. That's what he's telling me. He's saying everything's fine. You can just come. It doesn't matter. No cost, no payment. See, the moralists are saying when sinners come to our places of worship, we make them grovel. We make them feel bad like they should. We make them pay. We don't say, oh, God loves you right now. He said, maybe if you work hard, we make them hired servants, see? But obviously, he must be a relativist. Look, there's no cost. There's no cost. Oh, yes, there is. There is no more perfect and no more wonderful story that gives us the whole meaning of the gospel than this. There certainly is a cost. You don't just need to come to your senses if you want to experience the kiss of the Father. And you don't just need a father who is this welcoming and loving. You also need an elder brother who will foot your bill. Now, here's what I want you to see. Look carefully. When the father brings the son in, is it really free? That's what the relativist says. It's free. The moralist says, no, salvation is costly. You've got to pay. You've got to earn it. And of course, the relativist says, no, it's free. God just accepts everybody. Well, what is it? Is it free or is it costly? Which is it? Well, if we look carefully, we'll see the father brings him in, but wait a minute, wait a minute. This is not free, and here's the reason why. 40% of the father or whatever, we're not totally sure, but about 40%, the younger brother's inheritance had already been liquidated and had been taken away. And what does this mean? Who does every robe belong to? Who does every fatted calf belong to? Who does every ring belong to? In verse 31, which we didn't print, but I read, at the very, very, very end, which may be the most significant verse I'm beginning to think in the whole story, the father says to the elder brother, son, everything I have is yours. Now, you know, sometimes we can talk like that by hyperbole. I suppose if I'm really feeling moved, I have three sons, and it would be very easy for me to say, and I probably have said, son, everything I have is yours. Well, legally, that's not really true. There's three sons, so actually, I should be saying it's son, a third of everything I have is yours. What I should really be, I mean, I mean, that's just, I want to sell, I want to do all these things, but let's face it, legally, legally, that's going to be divided three ways. That's the way the will goes. And in this case, The will's been divided. The younger son has taken away everything that he had a right to, and now absolutely everything the father has belongs to the elder brother. That's why he's so mad. See, the father says, bring a rope, but it's the elder brother's rope. Bring a ring, but it's the elder brother's ring. Kill the fatted calf. It's the elder brother's fatted calf. There is no way for the younger son to just come back in. The father can't just say, let's bygones be bygones. Here's what Jesus is doing. He is showing us that there is an incredible cost and yet it's free. And he's also leaves out the temple. He leaves out the tabernacle. Why? You know what he's pointing to? What he's saying is this poor old prodigal, this poor younger brother, the only way back into the father's heart is through the expense of the elder brother. And he has a stingy elder brother and he has a terribly you know, condescending elder brother, and he has a selfish other brother, but you don't. There's another elder brother. There's a true elder brother. There's one who did obey the father completely, never disobeyed him, who came to earth and loved God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind, and loved his neighbor as himself, and earned everything, earned the robe, earned the ring, earned everything that you would get if you live that perfectly obedient life. But at the very end of his life, what happened? He was stripped and they cast lots for his robe. He didn't get the fatted calf, he got vinegar. And this true elder brother comes to you and says, the only way for you to be clothed is for me to be stripped. The only way for you to get the robe and the ring is for me to lose them. They're mine. I've done them. I've obeyed them. They're mine. I've earned them. I freely give them to you. Don't you see? This is astounding. This is not relativistic. This is not moralistic. In other words, salvation is absolutely free, but it's unbelievably costly. It's far costlier than the moralist could ever believe. But it's absolutely much more free than the relativist could ever believe. Because the relativist would have freedom without costliness. So why get excited about that? And the moralists have costliness without freedom. And so why get excited about that? The Marlis said, I slave for you. And that's exactly how you have to relate to God in that way. But look, Jesus says, come home because I will not be angry. Come home. I'll strip my own coat off and give it to you. I will strip my own ring off and give it to you. Come home and I will go in and I will dance. If there is no dance, if there is no music, if there is no joy in your life, It's because either, like the prodigal, you're letting your badness get in the way of God, or like the Pharisee, you're letting your goodness get in the way. You're trying to control them one way or the other. I don't care how religious you are. If there's no joy and there's no dance, you still don't get it. Let's conclude this way. Prodigals, come home. Are you a A confident prodigal, you say, hey, I come to New York City and I've done all these things and I don't feel any need for God. There's a famine coming. I can guarantee you there's a famine coming. There's always a famine coming. And you will see that you will be in need. These things, work, romance, these things, they're not home. They are not home. There are voices that say, I love you if, and at some point a famine will come along and you won't be able to fulfill the if. And you know what? You'll be dead in the water. Come home now. Don't wait. Some of you are in the middle of the famine. You're suffering. We talked about this last week. Remember that beautiful story of the sheep and the shepherd bringing the sheep home, you know, over his shoulders and rejoicing? But one thing you've got to always remember, he's rejoicing, but the sheep is not. Because the reason that a shepherd has to put a sheep over his shoulders to bring it home is the sheep is so freaked out when you find, when the sheep is in danger, it's happy. When the sheep is being saved, it's terrified. You have to grab the sheep, you have to throw it down, you have to tie the front and the back, and you have to stick it over, and you have to bring it home, and you're rejoicing because the sheep is saved, and the sheep is going to be safe, and the sheep is soon going to eat, and the sheep is crying and screaming and all that. The famine comes. Tying your feet up is a loving thing to do for the shepherd. The famine shows up. It's a loving thing to do for a father who's trying to get you back. If you're in the midst of suffering right now, don't say, how can he do this to me? He's he's trying to get you. He's trying to get you to come to your senses. Don't you see? And if you're a Pharisee, if you are condescending to other people or mad at God for how he's running your life, are you like the Pharisee who says, I have tried to live a good life I don't like the way in which you're running things. You still haven't gotten it either. Whether you're a prodigal, whether you're a Pharisee, come home. There's a true elder brother, and he won't be grumpy. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask that you would just show us how we can avoid those grids, avoid those other paradigms, and really come home. Help us to see that the other things that we have are not home. Help us to see that the reason we're unhappy today and are broken up and messed up is because these things that we thought were home are not home. And help us to see that the only way back is not just to be sorry for our sins and just to think God will love us, but to just be filled with joy at the thought of an elder brother who is not angry to lose everything, that we can be clothed. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.