Our text this morning comes from Luke chapter 15, verses 25 to 32. I'm going to read verses 1 and 2, and then I'll skip to verse 11 and read the whole parable of the Progoson to verse 32. Although our text will be focusing on the older son, just verses 25 to 32. Luke chapter 15. It says the word of the Lord. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him, to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. Now verse 11. And he said, There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a foreign country. And there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate. And no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread? But I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.' And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. And put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring the fatted calf and kill it. And let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate. Now our text for this morning, verse 25, Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fetid calf, because he has received him back safe and sound. And he was very angry and refused to go in. His father came out and treated him. But he answered his father, Look, this many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command. Yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him. And he said to his son, son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. Let's ask for a blessing one more time. Dear Holy Spirit, we ask that You fill our hearts and open our hearts and eyes and minds to see and understand Your Word and to apply it in our daily lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. And one of my son's birthday party, we have many children over to celebrate with him. And when it was time to sing happy birthday, we gather all the children and the families around the table, and I read a portion of the scriptures. It was about obedience to parents. I wanted to point them to Jesus Christ and show them that they are not able to obey the law by themselves. They needed someone else to obey for them, which was Jesus Christ. And then I asked the children, who among you are obedient to your parents? And every one of them raised their hands very confidently. And then I asked, Who among them have ever disobeyed their parents at least once? And one of the children just raised her hand and said, I never disobeyed them. I am 100% all the time, in all my life. And I pressed her a little bit more, asking if she was sure about it. And she said, OK, just 1%. I disobeyed once in my whole life, but then I asked for forgiveness, and that's fine, I'm 100% again. This child genuinely believed that she was perfectly obedient to her parents. And even the 1% could not overweight, the 99% could be as put in the balance and overweight the 1% of disobedience. Dear congregation, her perspective about herself is not very different from what we see in this parable with the older son. She's not much different from the scribes and Pharisees who complain about Jesus receiving and eating with sinners and tax collectors. She's not much different from the natural man who naturally believes he's good enough to receive and be worthy of rewards and honor and glory for their supposed obedience. Jesus is telling this parable to show the Pharisees and scribes, and also for us today, that salvation is not a reward for our works. God's blessings do not come to us because we deserve them, or because of our merits, but because of His grace and His mercy. Now we come to verses 25 to 32, the second part of the parable of the prodigal son. And this part of the parable is the heart of the parable. This parable is not so much about the prodigal son who went astray and repented and came back to home, came back to his senses. This parable is not so much about the loving father who receives everyone who turns to him in repentance. But this parable is mainly about the masters of the law, who cannot rejoice at the great salvation that Jesus brings to lost and unclean sinners. Jesus addresses in this parable the self-righteous, the hypocrites, those who cannot rejoice in God's salvation towards sinners and unworthy people. Jesus is using this picture, He's using this story to show the Pharisees and scribes that while Christ is receiving and eating with sinners, they themselves are outside of the kingdom, grumbling and complaining, unable to take pleasure in God's salvation. So in this sermon, I will be focusing on the Older Son, the title of the sermon is The Lost Older Son, who represents the Pharisees and scribes who were grumbling and complaining against Jesus. And he also, this older son, also represents people inside the church, who were raised in the church, but still did not find Jesus Christ, who are still lost in their trespasses and sins. You take a look at this text and there are three topics. We will see the older brother's complaints, older son's complaints. Secondly, his servant mentality. And third, his father's entreaty. His complaint, his servant mentality, and his father's entreaty. The first thing we see in verse 25 is that the older brother is drawing near the house because of what he has heard. The same construction that we have in verses 1 and 2. In verses 1 and 2, we have two different audiences drawing near to hear Jesus. Drawing near to Jesus to hear His words. We find the same construction with the same verbs again in verse 25. He drew near to hear. Both audiences are doing the very same thing. Both groups are drawing near to Christ. Both groups are drawing near to Christ in order to hear Him. However, there is a subtle distinction between those audiences, those groups that make all the difference in the world. The first group were drawn in here to Christ to receive life from Him. To receive His spiritual nourishment from the Lord. They are the sinners and tax collectors. Needy people, people that were despised by the society because of their sins, because of their lives, because of their historical background. but now they are seeking the Father through the Lord Jesus. And Jesus pictures them as the prodigal son in the parable, the lost sheep of Israel who lived a sinful life but now are repenting and believing in Jesus. The second group that draws near to Jesus to hear Him is coming to grumble, only to murmur. This is what the Pharisees and scribes are doing. Their external actions are the same as the first group. Drawing near and to hear Jesus. But their motivation in doing so is completely different from the first group. And Jesus pictures them as the older son in this parable. So my first question for you this morning. Why have you been drawing near to hear Jesus? What are your intentions in coming to church to hear the Word of God being preached? You need to search your heart in this matter. Why do you come to church regularly, if indeed you do so, to hear the words of Jesus? Why? And this is a quite ambitious question because I'm just assuming that every one of you here are coming here to hear the Word of Jesus. which probably might not be true. Some of you come to church for many reasons except to truly listen to the Word of God. Maybe you are here just for the benefits that it brings to you. A good fellowship, sometimes good friendship, maybe a respectable status before men, before the world. Maybe you are here just because you don't have any other place to go on a Sunday morning. Or just because it's been a tradition in your life for so many years. Or maybe you are here just because someone forced you to be here, which probably is the case for almost every children here in the pews. And there could be countless other reasons for you to come here this morning to hear the Word of Jesus. And even if you answer me positively saying, okay, I'm here, I came here to hear the Word of Jesus, I'm drawing near to the throne of God to hear the Word of Jesus. My question is, is that enough? Do you think that this is enough? Because this is exactly what the Pharisees and scribes were doing here. They were drawing near to hear Jesus, to hear His words. The question is, why do you want to hear His words? Some of you just not even think about it. You just come here and just sit in the pill and just hear. Maybe you come here just to feel acceptable by God, by doing good works, by coming to church. Maybe you come here just to add more knowledge and to boast in the knowledge of the Scriptures by itself. If you claim to draw near to God, to Jesus, to hear His Word, why do you do so? Some people just Pay close attention to what the pastor will say just to see if he will slip in anything or commit any error. Then afterward, just correct him. This is not how we should come to hear God's Word. When you draw near to Christ to hear Him, you need to come with the right motivations. You need to come with your heart open to believe in the Word and practice it in your life. This is what Westminster Shorter Catechism question 90 says. How is the Word should be read and heard that it might become effectual to salvation? And the answer is that the Word might become effectual to our salvation. We must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer. And I wonder how many of us here pray for the preaching of the Word before we come here. And the Shulker Catechism continues with diligence, preparation, and prayer, receiving it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives. That's how we listen and we hear and we read the Word of God. How have you been listening to Jesus and His Word? If you hear the Word of God, the words of Jesus for any other reason, it would be more like the Pharisees and the scribes who were just hearing Jesus to grumble and to complain. And this is what the older son, the older brother is doing in verses 25 to 30. He's complaining. He became very angry and even refused to come into the house to participate in the feast. His own brother had returned and he could not be glad at all. On the contrary, he was grumbling and complaining because he never had the same celebration for his works or his behavior or for his obedience or for his service. He was angry, the text says. It was a sinful anger. An anger because his loving father was receiving and eating with the sinner. And again, look how directly Jesus is addressing the Pharisees and the scribes in this parable. In the same way they were grumbling about Jesus receiving and eating with sinners in text collectors in verse 2, the older brother, who is a picture of those masters of the law at Jesus' time, he is also complaining because the father had received his brother. and is eating with them, with him and with his friends, rejoicing in him, celebrating with all his friends because this prodigal son had come back. The older brother was very angry and could not rejoice in his brother's salvation. And this is the first sign that this older son is as lost as his prodigal brother was before returning home. He cannot be glad about the fact that sinners are being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. And it is easy for us today to say that we are not like this older brother. We also rejoice in sinners coming to Christ. We pray for this, maybe every week, sometimes, maybe every day in our daily devotions. We pray for missions around the world. We support those missions. either individually or as a church. So it's easy to say that we are not like this older son. But let us be honest. Do you really rejoice when lost sinners come to Christ? Do you really rejoice when lost sinners come to Jesus? I feel like the church today is so lukewarm about souls being brought to Jesus. And I say this because few people in the church are really involved and engaged and committed to evangelism. And evangelism is a result or a fruit of this joy in Christ and in His salvation. Rejoicing in salvation will always result in a fervent evangelistic lifestyle. If you really care about reconciliation, if you really care about souls coming to Jesus Christ, why don't we commit ourselves to evangelism? And I'm not necessarily talking about street evangelism or knocking the doors in your neighborhood, although this might be very good too. I'm talking more about daily things, like sharing the gospel in your workplace, or in your school. Finding a way to speak about eternal matters with your relatives who do not know Christ. Or having unbelievers, your neighbors, your unbelieving neighbors over for a meal where you can share the gospel, read the Word, pray for them. This is one of the reasons why Jesus was called a sinner. Because he was all the time with sinners and people who were unworthy, unbelievers, preaching to them, walking with them, eating with them, receiving them. And what about you? Sometimes we are so close in our reformed circles that we do not remember of those lost souls that need to hear the words of Christ. If we have no concern for lost souls or how to reach them, we might be as lost as they are. If we claim to be God's children, His joy must be our joy. His mission must be our mission. Dear friend, I'm going to ask you again, do you really care about salvation and reconciliation? If you don't, this could be a sign that you are not in the kingdom yet. If you claim to be God's son or daughter, your will and your joy must be the same as God's. Notice that this is not the case between the elder son and the father. The elder son and his father do not share the same affections. They are two worlds apart. For the very same reason, one is glad and the other is angry. One is rejoicing and the other is grumbling. For the very same reason. There's no common ground here. And this is because the older son is lost. He and his father don't share the same feelings about lost people. And not only His reactions affirm this by being angry and refusing to come in. But he actually saves this with his words. Look at verse 29 and 30 and notice his words and the pronouns he uses. Verse 29 says, But he answered his father, Look, this many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command. Yet you never gave me a goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has a valuable property with prostitutes, you killed a fetid calf for him. Now he puts completely outside of the family. He does not consider himself as part of the family. All his father's friends are not his friends. And even his own brother is not his brother, but this son of yours. He received the same problem as the prodigal son. If you remember in the beginning of the story, the prodigal son asked his father for a share of his inheritance. He wanted the blessings of his father without the presence of his father. And now this is exactly what the older son is telling his father. He also wanted the celebration, the gifts, the rejoicing, the fatted calf. but to enjoy this with his friends. It is the same problem as the prodigal son, when he was lost. The older son also wanted all the blessings of the father, of his father, but without the presence of his father. It shows how disconnected from the family this older brother was. His mentality was not the same as his father's. And now we come to our second point, his servant mentality. I just read in verses 29 and 30 how the older son thought about himself in relation to the family. He puts himself outside of his own family. He doesn't share the same affections or the same goals as his father and all his friends in the celebration. And this is because he feels himself not as part of the family, but as a servant. He has a servant mindset. And notice the irony in the text, because in verse 19 we read about the prodigal son. He said that, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. This is what the prodigal son said about himself. But now the older son is saying that this is exactly how he viewed himself all those years. Not as a son, but as a servant, as a slave to his father. Like an employee who works to an employer and expects to receive a salary. He has a merit-based relationship with his father, with his loving father. In his own mind, he was the one who deserved the celebration and the fatted calf for all those years of labor and obedience. Your congregation, Jesus is portraying this picture of the older son to show the Pharisees and scribes how legalistic they were. Jesus is showing them that they did not understand the grace of God at all. They did not understand that salvation is not by works, by obedience, but it is by grace alone. It doesn't matter how obedient you were all your life. You cannot earn your own salvation. But this is not true only for the Pharisees and the scribes at that time. Our churches today are filled with older sons. Our churches are filled with people who really believe that they are good enough to deserve something from God. That they are obedient enough to deserve God's favor in some sense. Our churches today are filled with nominal Christians. Especially here in America, where you have this Christian culture, which is very good in one sense, but in the other way, can bring a lot of nominalism. Those who profess to be Christians, but are not, they are called the nominal Christians. But they are, in fact, they were never been born again. They're not Christians at all. They lived their whole life in the church, or most part of their life in the church, and they never went astray. They don't have the same problem as the prodigal son, who turned his back to the gospel and lived a life sinfully and openly to everyone to see. They never did this. They were always present in the church, like you and I. Well behaved. keeping their status, going to church regularly, Sunday after Sunday, week after week, living the life of the church, going to Bible studies, to youth group, and whatever programs of the church they have, they go to, they are there every single day. And because they are obeying and keeping all those external commandments, They see themselves as worthy of salvation or worthy of something from God. And they develop this distorted relationship with God as if He is a master who owns them something. But this is not the teaching of the Scriptures. The reality about you and I and anyone else is that we were born in sins and trespasses. And unless God does anything to change this, we will perish forever. And even when God reaches us and transforms our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, we still have no merit whatsoever. All our righteousness are from Christ. All our merits are not ours, but His merits that He granted to us by grace. Dear church family, if you are here sitting in this field this morning, and not in the world, it's not because of your efforts or because you've been doing a good job as a Christian. But it is because God has chosen you and strengthened you to keep persevering in His ways. Or maybe you were here this morning to hear how lost you are, even though you are still in the church. And that you also need salvation as much as those sinners and tax collectors do. This servant mentality is nothing more than a religion of works. Where you try to perform obedience, external obedience. When you fake godliness and piety and expect to be rewarded for your good works. When you think that your life can be acceptable to God by itself. This is not how God relates to His covenant children. This is not how one earns salvation. Salvation is not about us earning righteousness from the law, but from Jesus Christ through faith in Him alone. But this servant mentality is not only among nominal Christians. It is also among real Christians. Even as regenerated people with new hearts, regenerated hearts, with a sincere desire of Christ, sometimes we can display this servant mentality as well. And this is revealed by a simple question that we often ask ourselves, which is, why them and not me? Or the other way around, what me and not them? Oh Lord, I've been faithful for so many years. I've been praying. I got married in the right way. Way to have intimacy with my wife. We're doing everything right praying. We are having difficulties to have a baby. But this my cousin who live an immoral life. Just got pregnant for the first time to try. And he's thinking about abortion. Why God? Why her and not me? I've been doing everything right. I've been taking care of my body, exercising myself, eating healthy, healthy food. And this friend of mine who uses all kinds of substance is doing very well with his health and I am here with this cancer. Why, oh Lord? I've been studying so hard for all these years, and now this friend of mine who is cheating on all his exams has been accepted in a better college than I was? Why, Lord? I have been working so hard to raise my children according to Your ways, O Lord, disciplining them according to Your Word, praying for them, doing family worship. And this neighbor who doesn't care about their children going to church or not, have all their children in the church, and I don't. Why? It's God. This, brothers and sisters, is the older son's mentality. And we think that we deserve God's blessings just because of our obedience, just because of our lives. And we... Think that other people don't deserve God's blessings because they are wicked. They are apart from God. This is a snare from Satan that makes us feel unsatisfied with what God has prepared for us. This is a snare from Satan. that make us feel ourselves worthy of God's favor as if He owns something for us, for our obedience and service to Him. Even if we are covered by the grace of God, even if we are new creatures in Christ, we can be dominated by this servant mentality that thinks that we should be rewarded by our obedience. that this is not how our relationship with our Heavenly Father works. He's not a Father who gives us what we deserve. If we expect God to give us what we deserve, you have only condemnation. This is the wage of sin. It's death and condemnation. God does not owe you anything except for condemnation. And finally, your church family, this servant mentality can also hinder others from coming to Christ. Servant mentality can also hinder others from coming to Christ. This work-based religion, this servant mindset will always see the grace of God as something too easy to be achieved. People like the older son in the parable tend to think that when pastors preach the gospel freely to others, or a free offer of the gospel, they are throwing the door of the gospel too wide open. They think that the gospel cannot be that free. Just repent and believe, that is so easy. So they will add works. Oh, you need to feel this first in order to come to Christ. You need to experience this first in order to come to Christ. You need to do this first. You need to be this first in order to come to Christ. And this becomes a heavy burden to people. Unsustainable, unbearable. And they will never go to Christ. And this is exactly what Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. He said, But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. And they do this by tying up heavy burdens on people's shoulders. Your congregation, this servant mentality will dam not only your soul, but others around you as well, forever. This servant mindset can be the reason for your eternal condemnation. If you want to have a real relationship with God, it must be through Jesus Christ, and not through your obedience, through your merits. In verse 28, we read that his father came out and entreated him. This is our third and last point, his father's entreaty. This is again the figure of the father doing what he does best, to seek sinners, to seek reconciliation. He himself comes out to plead with his son. He's earnestly urging his son to come to his senses, to come to himself as the younger brother did. His father is loving and compassionate, even with this older son who has been serving him for so many years in a servant and evil motivation. This is what our Father in Heaven does with sinners. He leaves everything behind to get his lost sheep. He swept all over the house to find his lost coin. He left the joy, the celebration, the feast for this older son who was lost. This is what Jesus is doing here by telling the Pharisees and the scribes this parable. They were drawing near to Christ to hear Him and to murmur and to complain, but Jesus lovingly tells this parable not only to confront them in their sins, but also to entreat them, to call them to repentance, to make them think and understand that the grace of God is not a merited reward, but is a free gift from God. Jesus is showing them that He was sent by His Father to accomplish His mission, to bring many to salvation. Not only the prodigals as sinners and tax collectors, but also self-righteous, also legalistic, or well-behaved sons who never went astray. This is the heart of this Father, of this triune God. A heart full of love for all of those who are lost. And how does this Father show this same love for us today? By giving us His Word. By giving us all the means of grace regularly. The main way that God seeks sinners today is by the preaching of His Word. This is how God is calling you this morning, through the preaching. This is how God calls people inside the church, people who are lost inside the church. As the older son of this parable was lost inside his father's house. If you, my dear friend, are a nominal Christian, a regular church attendant, Whoever came to Christ truly, this call is for you. You are the older son who needs to be entreated by this loving Father. You need to come to your senses. You need to turn to God, to turn to Christ in real repentance. You have been given all the benefits of the covenant community, and you're not taking advantage of it. This is what we read in verse 31 as the father answers his son. He said, son, you are always with me. And all that is mine is yours. The older son never faced starvation. He never had to suffer the consequences of a prodigal life, a disordered life as his younger brother. He always had his father with him. All his wealth and his food and everything. But while he was with his father, his heart was not his father's. He was only there to fulfill his desires, his own necessity to be accepted, or for approval, or for status, or whatever. The blessings the prodigal son desperately sought to regain were always within the reach of the older son. but he could not fully embrace them, because his heart was not one with his father. He was inside his house, but his heart was in foreign lands, immersed in the sin of self-righteousness. The same way with many of us here tonight, this morning. We have all that could ask for from God, We have the promises, we have the worship, we have this church, we have the sacraments, we have the Bible, the preaching of the Word, and many other things. And what are we doing with this? Are we taking advantage of what our Father has in His house? Dear friend, the Lord is entreating you this morning to forsake your merits. God is calling you to trust in Him alone for your salvation. God is urging you to give up on yourself and your achievements and your merits and to cling to Jesus Christ and to His righteousness, to His merits, to His grace, to His free gospel. What will you choose? To come and enjoy reconciliation within the house with your Father? Or you'll be angry outside the house. We are running out of time. Jesus is coming back. Your life is coming to an end. Now is the time for repentance. Now the door is open. But there will be a time when you will be unable to enter through this narrow gate. Where are you going to choose? Life or death? Will you trust in your 90-90% obedience? Or will you trust in Christ's obedience? In this parable, Jesus prompts His listeners to ponder about the same questions within themselves. Because in the text, we do know what happened with the prodigal son. He returned home. He repented. He was received with joy, with celebration. But Jesus doesn't tell what happened with the older son. It's kind of like an open question for His listeners at that time and even today. Now it's up to you, to each one of you. Are you willing to join your Father's celebration for lost souls in His house? Or will you be angry about God's grace and mercy outside the house? Let us pray. Oh God, what a marvelous salvation. And how evil we are, oh Lord, when we consider our obedience, when we consider our merits, when we consider our keeping of the law, We boast in ourselves, oh Lord. Oh, how evil we are. Help us, oh Lord, to throw all of this in the trash, oh Lord, and to cling to your cross, and to love you, and to love lost souls. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.