Amazing Love (Part 6 of 7)

Luke chapter 15 tells a familiar story of a man who had two sons after the young son abandoned the family and squandered his inheritance. To the extent that that may be true, then perhaps it is also true to say that the test of a good sermon is how much is left behind after the teacher has done his studies. And the danger is that in seeking to bring everything that we've learned, we simply bamboozle our listeners.

But given that you are such a thoughtful group, there is something that I want to mention that is sort of a transition from where we were to where we're finishing up. Those of you who have read Luke chapter 15 with frequency, as I have done, and who have grown to love it, as I have done, may well have been struck by something, and that is that there is, although great mention made of the celebration in heaven over one sinner who repents—both in the first story and in the second story and in the third story—there is, however, no mention made of any cost whatsoever to the Father in redeeming the prodigal. Now, liberal scholarship looks at this and says, This is because the message of Jesus was different from the message of the apostles, and that Jesus' message of salvation was a different message of salvation from the one that was invented by the apostle Paul. And, they say, he is the one who inserted all this atonement business into it, all this death of Jesus.

Now, this may strike many of you—I hope it does—by surprise, because you've never even for one second considered such a thing. But to the extent that the day may come when someone says that to you, I want you to know that the way in which it needs to be addressed is by taking everything that we have in the Bible and setting it within the context of all of the unfolding truth of Scripture, so that not in every passage of the Bible is everything mentioned and recorded for us. For example, in Acts chapter 17—it's not uncommon to hear people say that when Paul preached in Athens, his success was meager, because he didn't do in Athens what he so clearly did by the time he got to Corinth, and that by the time he reaches Corinth, so the argument goes, there he was proclaiming Jesus Christ and him crucified. But when you find him back in Athens, what he was doing there was a kind of apologetic—he was dealing with creation, he was quoting the poets, and so on. Well, of course, if anybody thought for more than twenty-five or thirty seconds, they would recognize that we don't have the totality of his sermon in Acts chapter 17. If you read the verses in Acts 17 and read them out loud with an egg timer, you will have finished reading them before all of the salt or the sand has come from one side to the other.

It won't take you more than about two minutes and twenty-five seconds. In the same way, when you come to the story of the prodigal son, to somehow or another suggest that what Jesus is doing here is setting it aside from everything else that is involved in his journey towards Jerusalem is frankly ludicrous. However, that doesn't prevent people from doing so. We need, then, to understand the story of the prodigal in light of what we read in Romans 8, for example, that God did not spare his own son, but he delivered him up for his all. That what we learn elsewhere in the Gospels, that the Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep. That he has made him to be sin—that is, the Father has made Jesus to be sin for us.

That is, he who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That the words of the prophet, surely he has borne our sins and carried our sorrows, are pointing forward to the wonder of what Jesus was to do in the redemption of all the prodigals. That the words of the Father at the time of his baptism, in the time of the transfiguration, This is my beloved Son. That the word from the Father then is the same as the word from the Father in the Old Testament prophets, where it says that it pleased the Lord to bruise him. So when we look at this story, or at these three stories here, we need to keep this in mind. That God delights to forgive sins, that he does so on the basis of the death and resurrection of his Son, that God is intent that sinners should upon conversion become his sons and daughters, and that God has in every instance provided the means whereby this may take place, namely, at Calvary.

Now, I say all of that because it may have been raised in some of your minds. As I've often told you, I am greatly helped, usually, by just going to a hymnbook and looking at the requisite section. And for those of you who have lived long enough, you would find yourself, especially in going to the first of the stories here, back with the famous gospel hymn, There Were Ninety and Nine That Safely Lay in the Shelter of the Fold. And then the question that comes to the shepherd, Lord, you have here the ninety and nine, are they not enough for you?

And then, none of the ransomed ever knew how deep was the water crossed. Or the question that then comes, Lord, whence are those blood drops all the way that mark out the mountain track? And then the final verse, But all through the mountain, thunder-riven, and up from the rocky steep, There arose a cry to the gate of heaven, Rejoice, I have found my sheep! And the angels echoed around the throne, Rejoice, for the LORD brings back his own. So we must bear in mind that when Jesus is telling this story of how the prodigal is redeemed, he is looking forward down the road to Jerusalem, and to the moment when he will cry from the cross, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Now we come to these final verses where Jesus delivers the Scud missile to the grumbling and muttering Pharisees who are identified in the opening section of the chapter. These individuals that were so sure of their own position and were able to look down their noses at everybody else are about to find themselves identified with this other son who'd been mentioned at the beginning but has been offstage for the whole time. You remember, as Jesus began this story in verse 11, he said, there was a man who had two sons, and then immediately begins to speak about the younger son. Every thoughtful person would have been saying to themselves, Well, I wonder what happened to the other boy. I wonder if we're going to find out anything about the other son. Where was he, and what did he do? And he's introduced. He comes back off the wings of the stage and out onto center stage. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field, and he came near the house, and he heard music and dancing. There was a discovery that this young man hated to make. The celebration was taking place, the music was going, and people were dancing. I wonder why I'm not included, he must have said to himself. Why didn't I get an invitation? After all, this is my house.

I really am working far too hard these days. Interestingly, he doesn't go in. I don't know if you've ever thought about that.

It would seem the most likely thing for a fellow to go in, wouldn't you? I mean, after all, it's his house. He lives there. He hears the music. He learns of the dancing.

Why not just go in and see what's going on? Perhaps he had a sneaking suspicion that what he really didn't want to see happen had actually happened. He was enjoying the exclusivity of living with his father. He was enjoying taking the high ground and reminding his father, Hey, I'm around again today, Dad. Hey, I did everything you asked me to do today, Dad. Hey, I know you're upset about my younger brother, Dad, but, listen, at least you've got me.

And there was something perverse about the way in which he had really no interest at all in seeing his brother come back. And so he calls one of the servants, and he asks the servants, What's going on? The servant says, It's celebration time.

Come on! Your brother has come. Your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him safe and sound. Now, presumably, the servant was delighted to be the bearer of this news. After all, the father's reaction was so incredible that he assumed that the brother would feel the same way. He must have found it very, very hard to imagine why it was that his older brother would, in verse 28, become angry and refuse to go in.

Now, remember, Jesus has been telling these stories one after another. He says, There was a fellow, and he had ninety-nine in the fold. We lost one. He went to get it, brought it back on his shoulders, and everybody rejoiced, and so there's rejoicing in heaven. Lady lost her coin. She had nine, but she needed the tenth. She got the tenth.

She brought it home. They had a tea party. Everybody rejoiced, and there's rejoicing in heaven. So he's gone from one in ninety-nine to one in ten to one in two. And his listeners are waiting to see how this story's going to end. Is it going to be the same way? Well, there's an inkling of it now, perhaps with the introduction of the brother. Perhaps this is what we're waiting for. And now the news is going to be, and when the older brother found out, he rejoiced as well, and they had the most fantastic party that the family had ever seen in all of their lives.

But it doesn't happen that way. And so their ears must have perked up. The older brother, said Jesus, became angry and refused to go in.

The strains of the Pharisee are beginning to play out. This is the one thing he must have said to himself that I didn't want to have happen. It would have been one thing if he'd come back and just sidled in quietly, but that's just what I expect from him. Useless brother that he is, useless son, useless character altogether. There's no way that I'm going in for a party like that. Perhaps you received the invitation to go to someone's baptism and you refused to go. You couldn't believe that that person could ever be baptized. Useless character, you said. Dreadfully perverse.

Used to have a horrible tongue. Dreadfully selfish. I'm not going to go to that kind of event. Those are not the kind of people who should be getting baptized. Or does the psalm say, You're bringing out the Elvis in me? This guy's bringing out the Pharisee in everybody who's honest for more than half a moment. There's a discovery that he didn't want to make, and there was a sympathy that he certainly didn't want to display. And so his father goes out and pleads with him in verse 28. He sends a servant in, but his father doesn't send a servant out, just as well that God does not treat us the way in which we are tempted to treat him. The father goes out, and he pleads with him, you'll notice, the tenderness and gentleness of his approach. Hey, he says, come on!

What are you doing out here? He might have justifiably rebuked the boy for being petulant, but instead you'll notice that he entreats him. The love of the father extends to both his sons—one who went and got lost, and one who steamed home and lost out. One was lost far away, the other was lost close in.

Both lost. Both in need of the father going out to them. To the one he's run down the road, to the other he comes out and he entreats him. He pleads with him.

He says, come on in! Now, what Jesus is saying to the people here is, God the Father is seeking not only the publicans and the sinners, the people who are really interested in hearing the message, but God is also his Father seeking the Pharisees, who are lost, if you like, in God's own backyard. And the absence of forgiveness in the life of this older brother is simply an indication of the Pharisees' predicament. This man welcomes sinners, remember, and he eats with them.

And the older brother says, I'm not going in. This is a party for a sinner. He doesn't deserve a party.

If anyone deserves a party, I deserve a party. I'm the good kid, remember. I'm the one that didn't leave. I'm the one that did the chores. I'm the one that stayed home. Everyone in the neighborhood knows me.

When I go to the market, they say, it's good that your father got at least one good one out of two. Everyone knows what a wreck this kid is. And now a party?

And now a celebration? A fattened calf? He views himself as a model son. But he's actually not a model son. He's living like a slave. In fact, let's look at exactly how he describes his existence. He says, All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. See, the Pharisees, that was their whole game—slavish in their religious adherence, yet inwardly estranged from God. So he represents them and all who are like him.

At the same time, he's able to boast about himself. I've been slaving for you. I never disobeyed your orders. He blames his father. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

Can I ask you a question just in passing? Do you think God owes you anything? Does God owe any one of us anything that he should repay us? No.

And yet what do we hear customarily throughout every day of our lives? He didn't deserve to have that happen. She deserved better than that from God. He deserved more than that from God. Listen, if we got what we deserve from God, none of us would be in existence.

We would be banished from his presence forever. The mystery is that we do not get what we deserve. What this young man in the party received, he didn't deserve. That's the whole point! And that's the point that this son cannot get his head around. I deserve something, and I don't get it.

He doesn't deserve anything, and he does get it. What's going on here? And do you expect me to come into this chicanery of a party? Father, you're asking too much. All the years that he'd been in his father's house, all his years of obedience, were just grim duty. And suddenly his long-standing secret alienation becomes apparent.

Eventually something will bring it to light. A man or a woman may live as a slave of religious orthodoxy for all through their days, but eventually something will show it up for the reality that it is. And in this man's life, it happens here. You see, the contrast in the story that Jesus is telling is not a contrast between a profligate son who went away and made a hash of it and another son who stayed home and made a great job of it. The contrast is between the penitent prodigal who understood his need of the Father's grace and the impenitent older brother who saw in himself no such need at all. He could understand why this messed-up brother of his would need intervention.

But not him. And that's the contrast. Because the younger son is now bound to his father in a relationship of grace. He came back up the road saying, I prepared to be a slave in your house.

And he has given his bedroom back, and it's all redecorated for him, as it were. The elder son has actually been living as a slave in the house. The younger brother is united to his father by grace. The older brother is united to his father in a relationship of legal obligation. In fact, if we had longer, we could go through this.

You could put two columns down and we could write in them if we had time. On the prodigal side, he is a son by grace. On the older brother's side, he is a son by law. On the prodigal side, he's done nothing to merit God's kindness.

On the older brother's side, he's done everything to earn it. On the prodigal side, this is salvation by the sheer mercy of God. On the older brother's side, this is an attempt at salvation by obedience and the keeping of the commandments.

Now, this isn't to say that son number two wasn't at least outwardly a good, steady, faithful son. Jesus is not here saying that the Pharisees were all rotten. Oh, sure, they had hypocrisy that was part of their existence, but they weren't the sort of archetypal hypocrite on two legs. These people had given their lives to religion. These people were concerned to know God.

These people stayed up late in the night, reading the Torah, searching it out, telling others how they can also live by these obligations. So it's not that this older brother represents some kind of pathetic creature. No, we should think of him exactly as he's described—as a good, steady, faithful son. But you see, when the Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that does not eradicate the degrees of difference that exist amongst men and women.

Right? Not all of us have committed murder. We have all sinned. Not all of us have violated every command in the way another has. So that there is a distinction—not a distinction in terms of whether a man is a sinner or not a sinner.

But all are sinners, but the sense of sin and the expression of sin works itself out in different ways and in different people's lives. So there is a vast difference between these two brothers. But it is a relative difference.

Right? One of them definitely lived better. You can't argue that. He lived better. He stayed home, he shined his shoes, he went to work, he did his business. His life, from one perspective, was a better and a more constructive life than his brothers who made a hash of it. But the difference is relative, because they were both equally sinners, both equally in need of mercy. And it was this fact that the elder brother couldn't understand, because he represents the Pharisees. You see, the Pharisees despised the publicans and the sinners, because they'd given up on the law. They'd said to themselves, Listen, we have broken so much of this law. I mean, we are so messed up.

We have so many tickets in our glove box that there is no way in heaven that we're gonna be able to get ourselves out of this mess by going down this particular avenue. The law for them was a useless avenue to God. And consequently, the Pharisees said, You are not the people of the law. Therefore, you are rejected by God.

Therefore, you have no prospect of eternity in the welcome of the Father. They saw sin in quantitative terms. Therefore, they regarded salvation as the rendering of sufficient obedience to the law in order to build up enough credit in their account so that when push came to shove in the matter of the judgment, they would be able to say, Yes, we did this and this and this in the debit side, but we did this and this and this in the plus column. And they believed that they were going to be welcomed into heaven on the strength of that. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend with Alistair Begg, with a reminder that every one of us is in need of God's grace and his mercy.

Our series is called Amazing Love. If you'd like to share this message with a friend or catch up on a message that you've missed, let me remind you all of Alistair's teaching is available to download for free on our website or in the Truth for Life app. The prodigal son in today's story returned to his father empty. The older brother experienced a different kind of emptiness.

Maybe you can relate to those feelings. For some of us, it's our own foolish choices and mistakes that have left us empty. For others, it may be the trials or hardships of life.

Well, today I want to tell you about a new book recommendation that addresses this topic. The book is called God Does His Best Work with Empty, and it's written by Nancy Guthrie. This book reminds us that emptiness never has been and never will be a problem to God. Each chapter in this book explores various Bible passages to demonstrate how God uses suffering or disappointment or loss to draw us back to himself. As a result, you'll find refreshment and a good dose of encouragement as you read the book God Does His Best Work with Empty. To find out more, visit our website truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Be sure to join us next weekend to discover if the older brother's predicament could be one that we share. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.