What is our privilege? It's my privilege again this morning to turn with you once again to the Book of Luke, the Gospel of our Savior, the Gospel according to Luke, Chapter 15. Welcome to all of those who are joining us this morning for worship, perhaps who have not been here for the previous addresses from this portion of Scripture. We're going to read the whole chapter. once again, we might have it before us. As I understand it, repetition is the mother of learning or of knowledge. We want to have this Word before us again and again and again. This is the Word of our God. Luke chapter 15 at verse 1. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's been a great privilege to have this opportunity to focus together on the love of our God, the love of our Savior, the tender love and mercy of our gracious Father. It's been a privilege to have our sights set on the depths of this love, on the grace of God and how amazing it is. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, should sti for me. That God has sent his only begotten son and we may enjoy life in his name. I trust by way of a bit of review you are encouraged as I need to be continually in the blessing of having looked at that familiar story of the rebellion, yes, but also then the return, the repentance of that prodigal son, the one who had gone to a far country, the one who had gone a great distance from his father, the one who wished his father dead, the one who wanted to live as though his father was dead, but that it was the love of the father that compelled him to go home and to find love and grace and tender mercy in the embrace of the Father who received him again in love, the Father who welcomed him and who lavished upon him. Wondrous love, exceedingly great and precious promises we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, above and beyond what you ever would have asked or imagined. And a blessing to see as well that the Father rejoices. Come, let us celebrate together. The Father rejoices in the reception of this Son, even as God our Father rejoices over us with loud singing. And now maybe, as we remind ourselves of what we have seen so far, maybe you are inclined, as I often am, to hear some of these things about the return of a prodigal and to be impressed and encouraged about what God can do for sinners. And we immediately think of those sinners them folk out there somewhere. We perhaps are even thinking you know I wish so and so would hear this. Maybe we'll try to buy one of those books that was at the book table on the message of the prodigal son and get that into their hands. Maybe we'll even say you should perhaps listen to this message or to that message. But I trust as we have heard these things together, we are under the conviction, well, I am that prodigal son. All of us have to have that conviction. And by the grace of God, I urge you to have that conviction and come to the Father. But in addition to that conviction that all of us are the prodigal son this morning, we go a little further into the passage. And I would submit to you that many, if not most of us, must also have the conviction that there's more to be said to us, and to us in particular, in this passage. And that if we can identify with the younger brother, the prodigal son, we must certainly also identify with the older brother. the smug, self-righteous son." This is a word that has been given for us to hear. Remember, as this portion of the parable, at verse 11, the Lord Jesus began with these words, there was a man, there was a certain man who had two sons. We tend to focus on the first son, but there were two sons. And in that sense, there is more for us to learn about the amazing love of the father here in this passage. There's more for us to learn about this certain man, our gracious father in heaven. And there is more for us to learn about ourselves. We take up with this portion when the party has begun. There's dancing and singing, and there is the smell of roasted veal. Everyone is rejoicing, but there is one who stays out of the party. There is one who will not go in. There is one who is angry and bitter. We need to take a deep look at what we see here, for what it teaches us further about the amazing love of the Father and what it teaches us about ourselves. I preached to you this morning the amazing love of the Father to the bitter big brother. This is the amazing love of the Father to the bitter big brother. And it's the love of the Father you see, we'll see in the first place, the resentment God the Father exposes in the self-righteous. It's the love of the Father that exposes this resentment. And we want to see there is something of repetition going on here as well in terms of the reaching that we've seen of the Father toward the younger son. There is now reaching toward the older brother. So our second point this morning will focus on the reach of this amazing love of God, the reach it extends to sinners, the reach he extends to sinners. And then finally, again, somewhat by way of repetition of what we've seen already with regard to the first son, the rejoicing he expects us to share. It was fitting. It was good. It was right. It was necessary that we should celebrate your brother. Your brother was dead and is alive. Your brother was lost and he is found. But this is the amazing love of our father. So we consider in the first place, we take up with a time of celebration. And we ask the question, everybody is in celebrating. As I said, there is the sound of music and dancing. There is the smell of roasted veal. Where is older brother? He's out. He's out in the field. We read. We read that of him at verse 25. His older brother, his older son, rather, was in the field where you'd expect him to be. Diligently, ploddingly, serving. I'm in the field, Dad. Of course I'm out in the field, Dad. I'm working hard, Dad. Sorry about that younger son of yours, Dad. At least I'm not like that schlep, Dad. I'm still working hard, Dad. I'm still here, Dad. Look at me, Dad." But apparently when he was out in the field working, he smelled the smell of roasted veal and he heard the sound of feasting. What in the world is going on? Here I am working my fingers to the bone. Nobody told me about any feast. Why didn't anybody tell me? And rather than going with a sense of excitement to what must have excited his dear father, he from a distance sends for the servants to find out what's going on. What's going on? And they tell him, your brother has come home. Your father has killed the fattened calf. Your brother has come home. Aren't you excited? The one we've been praying for, the one we've been so deeply concerned for, he's come home. Won't you come and join the feast? No, he was angry. It makes him mad. and he refused to go in. He was out. They were in, celebrating. He was out in the field. He refuses to go in. What I want to expose here, what I hope the Word of God exposes in us here, is the fact that the love of God lavished on the sinner the younger brother, exposes the heart of the older brother, exposes this bitterness and resentment that he has within him, exposes the fact that he is out. He's on the farm. He'd been in the house, but he's nowhere near to his father. He's nowhere near to the heart of his father. And everything he'll say as he interacts with his father in the in the verses that follow make that very plain. He answers his father, look, verse 29, look, these many years I have served you. You understand what he's talking about there is that spirit of slavery, that spirit of servitude. I've served you. It's as though his father had been a harsh taskmaster to him. And we know better than that of the father. But this is the spirit with which this son has done the work. I've served you. I've worked my fingers to the bone. And what notice have I received? He's resentful. His heart is being exposed. I never disobeyed your command. He sees his father not as a loving father, but as an army general. I've never disobeyed your command. Now, there are a number of things going on here that we need to see in terms of the spirit, the heart being exposed of this older brother. First of all, he's deluded. The heart of man is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah 17 verse 9, and he's giving... Never disobeyed your command. I've been such a good boy. You ought to be impressed with me. Obviously, he's been keeping track. He's a scorekeeper. I have been so much better than that lousy, no good, sinning son of yours. He's deluded he's been keeping track and evidently as he sees his father as a brigadier general rather than a loving tender father. He has no idea. About the blessing of the law. He would not be able to sing with the psalmist Oh Lord how I love thy law. He hated this law. He had no idea what it was to love the father in loving tender thankful service. This is love. First John five verse three that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. He wouldn't get what the Lord Jesus had said when he said Come on to me all you are weary and heavy laden I'll give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. No this law I've kept your commandments every one of them. There was that resentfulness being exposed in him. He was resentful, we see further, because of missed opportunities. You never even gave me a goat. You killed a fattened calf, which was the height of celebration and blessing. That was something that happened very, very infrequently. And you haven't even given me a goat that I could celebrate with my friends. And you see here, in terms of what he's saying, that he's now speaking about what he would have missed out on. If I would have known, if I would have known I could have gone off and slept with prostitutes and still come back and everything be okay, I would have gone for that. There is this sense in which you recognize he had been keeping his nose clean, so to speak, out of drudgery and grim duty. Think of the psalmist Asaph in Psalm 73. His wonderment about the fact that the wicked prosper and his acknowledging he was like a brute beast and he was sort of attracted to that and confused by that and frustrated by that. You ought to have the sense that that's what has gone on in the life of this elder brother I could have gotten away with that? Nobody told me that. Over against Moses, who would rather suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, he has this sense. You know, I could have celebrated with my friends with a goat. I could have gotten away with murder, so to speak. I could have gotten away with all kinds of things. The pleasures of sin would have been something I would have imbibed if I would have known that. He's resentful of missed opportunities. But the worst thing is he's resentful about grace. He's resentful about grace. There's a celebration going on because of the return and the restoration of this son who was dead and is now alive, who is lost and now found, and he's angry. And he makes that plain to his father. Look, he says, and what does it come down to? It comes down to this. When this son of yours, verse 30, came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him, this son of yours. I think perhaps to appreciate the way this would come off, this son of yours, No brother of mine, this son of yours. We can relate to that somewhat in the way we do that, don't we? As husbands and wives sometimes. Maybe our son has disobeyed in an egregious way, or maybe he's shown himself to be a little bit too much like his father in some ways. And you might be inclined to say this son of yours, not my son, your son. That's what the brother is doing. He's distancing himself from both his father and this brother. The father would have none of that, of course. I think it's very interesting, just a quick note, to note the way in which the celebration is called for at verse 24. This, my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found, they began to celebrate. This son of mine, verse 25. But the parallel in verse 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this brother of yours was dead and is alive was lost and is found. There's no distancing to be taking place there. He didn't get grace. He didn't see his need for grace. He thought he had arrived. Now you might say that in terms of the way Jesus was compelled to speak this parable, the occasion for this parable to have been spoken, Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners and the scribes and the Pharisees were grumbling. You might make the parallel between the younger son and the tax collectors and sinners and the Pharisees and scribes or the unbelieving covenant people with the elder brother. But I trust, as we look at the Elder Brother, we can say there may well be a sense in which that does apply to us. More than maybe. More than might. We are the covenant people. We have been given good and precious promises. We've sought to raise our families in a way pleasing to God. But is there ever a sense in which we begin to have for ourselves a sense of accomplishment, or a sense of entitlement, or a sense of proud distinction? At least we're not like that. At least I never slept with a prostitute. Oh, we sin, but not like that. We don't do those bad things. You see, this older brother, he had become completely curved in on himself. Church Father Augustine used to speak of curvitas inse, being curved in on himself. And he was sort of twisted up into himself. And the father now, in speaking, or in showing love for the younger son in the reception of a wayward sinner is exposing the ugliness of the heart of this proud, self-righteous son. Is there any of that in us? Is there any of that sense? Father, I've obeyed your commands. Is there ever a sense in which it can be said that it's done without a heart of love for the father? I've kept all your laws. I have done what I could to make a good impression. And to make a good impression, I've done what I could to restrain myself from doing those things that might have been kind of neat to try. Without a heart of love for the Father. You see what the grace of God does in exposing our hearts? You ever have that sense in which you see God working in an amazing way to someone who has lived a very rebellious life and you ever have the sense that you're a little bit jealous? What's that exposing about your heart? Do you not have the A sense of awe and appreciation that God has lavished his love upon you. Don't you need to be reminded of that? I hope this word this morning is exposing that about ourselves. It exposes that about me. But this is the love of God that does that. And I would encourage you that that's not where we're left either. Remember we made the the distinction in terms of who was in at the party and who stayed out, out in the field. What does the father do? He goes out to the older brother. He's still reaching. The reach he continues to extend to sinners. And when we speak about sinners, we're not speaking merely about those who've lived debauched lives. You may be speaking to self-righteous covenant people who've grown up in the faith, but He comes to reach us too. He's coming to us now in the context of the blessing and privilege of worship. He's coming to us now. He's coming to you now through the Word as we have that Word open. And that word directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ as our only Savior. He comes seeking. God the Father has not merely sent salvation. He comes out to get us. Praise be to God. So this is the reach He extends to sinners. And He came out and He entreats His Son. And His Son responds in the resentful way that He does, Look at all I've done. Look at the way you've treated this other son, this son of yours. And how does the father respond? Son, verse 31, he said to him, my son, you're always with me. All that I have is yours. If we must apply this to the scribes, the Pharisees that Jesus is addressing with this parable and must apply this to ourselves who can become arrogant, proud, self-righteous with a sense of accomplishment in the Christian life, in the covenant community, in the Christian faith. Understand that God is saying to us, my sons and my daughters, all that I have is yours. I was thrilled to see that t-shirt yesterday. Tobias was wearing. Baptism. Jesus' claim on you. All that I have is yours. I promise to be your God. You shall be my people. I'm your God. Trust me. I think as we recognize the Lord Jesus Christ is addressing those who were His who received Him not. Those who have been given good and precious promises that it's right for us to appeal to the language of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 9. Theirs were the covenants. Theirs were the promises. Theirs was the law. All I have is yours. And that's how He addresses us this morning. In the blessing and privilege of having been raised in a covenant family. Everything is yours. You're my sons. You are my daughters. Come home. The older brother in the story was out. Out in the field. Not in. in the presence of his father. He lived on the farm. He lived in the house, but it was not home. We can sit in a pew. We can be raised in a covenant family and still be at a great distance from our Heavenly Father. And the father entreats you, all these things are yours. Come home. Come home to father. A loving and gracious father who's loved us so much he sent his son. Now we're not actually told in this parable The Lord Jesus is such a master storyteller, what the elder brother does. I'll leave that for you to make application for yourself, for your own life, for your own place. Are you in the house but not home? Are you in the pew? Are you merely drudgingly going through the Christian life as a grim duty because you want to make a good impression but you find it burdensome and there's no heart for the father? You need to come home. The impression we're given is that this older brother would remain outside and stay at a distance because there would be the recognition if I'm going to come home, I can't walk in there with my head held high, standing tall and proud, as though everybody would have to clap when I walked in the room. I'd have to come in on my knees in the humble acknowledgement of my need. It could well be that Each of us who can be elder brother-ish in our lives, in our sense of accomplishment, in our pride. Look what I've done. Look at my family. Look at the way things are going so well for me. I have to come to the humble recognition that this story is not about one who was a sinner and the other who was not. The story as we have it before us is about a penitent sinner who was indeed a grave sinner, a very wicked sinner, and another sinner who we might say on the other hand didn't look to be such a wicked sinner but was far from God as a sinner because of his self-righteousness. And we're encouraged challenged here this morning to acknowledge the spirit of the Elder Brother in our lives, even as Christians, as those who call ourselves Christians, and say, Father, I've been self-righteous and proud. I've lived as a slave in your house. Please forgive me. And he does. And he will. He would effectively say to us who've lived in but out, he'll say, come on, come home. There's room for you too. And we come in the same way. We come in humble dependence upon God and his grace. And the Lord willing, at the very least, there would be for us who have known the blessing of knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and having come to the Father through Him, the recognition that as long as I've lived this Christian life, for as many years as I've lived in the joy of knowing these blessings, the blessing of forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ, I have never I have never accomplished anything that has earned me anything before the face of God. I will never get over my need for the righteousness that is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's always grace. It's always God. It's only in Christ. And so we are reminded at those times when we have become smug and we have looked down our noses at those who are outside or at those who were outside and have been brought in. Why am I in? Is it not the case for me that the Father has embraced me, laid his arms around me, hugged and kissed me and showed me tokens of his favor? in the fullness of His grace in Jesus Christ? Can I not be encouraged there's room for me, the likes of me? And if there's room for me, there's room for you. No, I never slept with a prostitute, but I've been self-righteous and proud. Father, forgive me. And He says, come home. and recognize that as much as he rejoices in the return of the prodigal, he rejoices with shouts and loud singing over you and me. Maybe we don't have a conversion story that ranks up there with that of the prodigal son. But what do we have that we haven't received? It's all grace. So as we are looking here in rejoicing, he expects us to share. He wants his older son, to whom he'd given all the promises, all these blessings are yours. He wants us all as covenant children as well to rejoice in the wonder. God put me in this home. And we are not in this place. God put me in this church. We're not here because we've accomplished great things. We're not here because we are so upright in and of ourselves. It's only the grace of God. These blessings are yours. Now trust me and rejoice in the blessing that you have in Jesus Christ. Share in this blessing. and share it with others. It was good and fitting that we should celebrate. I want you to share in this blessing too. I want you to speak of that blessing to others. I want you to recognize that if you miss this, it's going to be evident in your life in a lack of rejoicing. It's going to be evident in your life in a spirit of the elder brother, a spirit of pride, a spirit of accomplishment, a spirit of competitiveness, a spirit of self-confidence, a spirit of self-interest, a spirit of the desire to be exalted rather than a desire to be glad together in the joy and blessing that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's going to be seen in our pride. It's going to be seen in our lack of ability to forgive. It's going to be seen in our desire to stay on the outs rather than to go out with reaching arms to those who need to know this blessing as much as we do. The only way we will be reaching like our loving and heavenly Father is to be amazed and enthusiastic about the fact that His love has reached us. In His mercy, He has reached you. He has reached me. He reaches crusty curmudgeons like me who can be inclined to forget and to think we've done it ourselves. He reaches and there's blessing in life for us in him to remind ourselves of the fact that we come in the very same way as those who humbly acknowledge we have nothing. We are nothing. We have sinned this way or that but we have sinned. And we need the love of the Father. And be encouraged. Your father says to you this morning, and if you've been raised in a covenant home and if you've been baptized, your father says to you, my sons and my daughters, all these things are yours. Come home. Amen.