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Man, Luke chapter 15 is a pretty famous chapter and in this chapter we have this collection of parables and they all are connected. They all are on the same theme or the same subject. So when you look at them, you kind of have to look at them as a group when you look at chapter 15. Now it's all introduced to us in the first couple of verses and then we get into the parables. It says in verse number 1 of chapter 15, then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners were to hear him and the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. So right away we see why Jesus gives these different parables and what he's trying to teach because the Pharisees and scribes, they're murmuring, they're groaning, complaining, whining, that's what that means, murmuring. This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. So they think that there's something wrong with the fact that Jesus Christ has all these publicans and sinners coming to hear him. Now a lot of people misunderstand what's being said here and I've heard a lot of people take this verse and just kind of run with it and go crazy with it and teach some really weird things. People often hear people say, well Jesus, he hung around where the worst sinners were. That's how you'll hear this portrayed. He would have been at the bar, he would have been at the drunken party and the party where there's pot smoke everywhere and where everybody's just doing all kinds of wicked things. That's what I've heard. I've sat even in a Baptist youth group and had the youth leaders say, hey, it's okay to go to these parties where they're drinking and smoking pot and everything. That's where Jesus would have been. You got to go amongst the sinners, man. But that's not what happened. You'll notice these people are coming to hear him preach and to hear him teach. It's not him going to the whorehouse and going to the bar and going to the dance club and all these different places. These are people that are coming to hear his preaching, to learn the Bible, to hear the Gospel. And not only that, but as we get into these parables, you'll see the emphasis is on repentance, meaning that these sinful, wicked people aren't just coming to Christ and hanging around with him and just staying in that current condition, but the whole point is that they're coming to him and he's preaching to them right things and they're changing. They're actually cleaning up their lives and that's the whole point of why Jesus Christ is preaching to them so that they could actually clean up those things in their lives and not just stay in the same sinful condition. I remember when that Orlando shooting happened. There were people criticizing me. I remember there was a guy on Infowars that was criticizing me and said, you know, Pastor Anderson is wrong and this and that about the Orlando shooting in a queer bar. And the host said, Jesus would have been at that gay bar. I mean, that's how far people take this weird doctrine. And you wonder, like, where are they getting this from? Well, I'll tell you where they're getting it from. They're getting it from this verse. Or they're getting it from a similar verse over in Matthew Chapter 9 where Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, and he talks about eating with sinful men. So we want to make sure that we don't read something into this passage that isn't there. What the Bible actually says is that all the publicans and sinners came and drew near for to hear him. And that's great, isn't it? I mean, why would we not be happy if our heart's right, if we love the Lord, to see sinful people, the publicans, even the very prostitutes and the drunks and the most wicked people, why would we not rejoice to see them coming to Christ, listening to Christ's word, and even repenting of those things and cleaning up their lives? That should give us great joy and rejoicing. And that's what the Pharisees and scribes are wrong about here because they look at that and just think, well, you know, why does he even have anything to do with those people? Why is he even eating with them? Why are they even invited to the sermon? So he speaks a parable unto them to explain to them why. He spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, did not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. Right? Because they're already living right. He's saying it's more exciting when you see the sinful person getting right with God and cleaning up their life. So we go out and seek the lost sheep. We go out and seek those that are in whatever condition. But we're not going to go to the bar, we're not going to go to the drunken party, we're not going to go to the nightclub, we're not going to go hang out with sinners in their environment. You know, we're going to go to them where they live. At their house. At their apartment. It's not like you have to go to these wicked places. You don't have to go to a casino to get to these people. I mean look, people might spend a lot of time at the casino, but eventually they got to go home. And so, you know, we go out and we find people in the highways and hedges, knocking on their doors in the apartment complex, the houses, the neighborhoods, or at normal places of business, but we don't need to go to these wicked places and hang out with and be buddies with all the worst, most sinful people. That's not what this is teaching and that would contradict a lot of other scripture that warns you not to go to those kind of places and not to hang around with those kind of people. So we go out and we knock on doors and we win people to Christ, or we find people that are already saved, but they're not living for the Lord. And let me tell you something. There are a lot of people out there that are already saved, but they're not living for the Lord. They're living a sinful life. They're not doing any work for the Lord. I mean there's a ton of people like that. I run into them out soul winning virtually every time I go soul winning. I run into somebody who's already saved and they're either not in church at all or they're in a super liberal church that's not doing anything for the Lord. They're completely backslidden. There are people like that everywhere. And so our goal as Christians in fulfilling the Great Commission, it's not just to win people to Christ, although that's important. It's also to get people baptized and it's also to teach people to observe all things that Christ commanded. So if you can find somebody who's already saved and get that person to actually start coming to church and obeying the word of God and winning souls, you've accomplished something great for the Lord. Stage three of the Great Commission. Now you're not always going to be able to do all three steps on the same person where you get them saved, get them baptized, and teach them. Sometimes you're going to get people saved and it's going to take a long time before they end up getting baptized or observing the things that Christ commanded. Other times you're going to run into people that are already saved but they're not baptized and you can get them baptized. You can run into people that are saved and baptized but they're completely out of church, out of God's will, living a sinful life and you can get them to get on track and serve the Lord. You can turn many people to righteousness in their living and that is a worthy job as well as just winning people to Christ. So when we're out soul winning, we could be doing all those things. If we run into people that are already saved, we could try to get them to come to church. We could try to teach them something from the Bible, try to get them to take the next step in their Christian life. So when we go out and win people to Christ or when we just go out and invite people to church and we bring in all kinds of people, there are going to be some people that we bring in that are some pretty sinful people or people that maybe outwardly seem pretty sinful. They come in and they look pretty rough because they've been living a rough life and they might not be dressed right. You could have, obviously the Bible says it's a shame for a man to have long hair but obviously if we're going out and reaching people and winning them to Christ, we're going to bring in men that have long hair even though the Bible says no, right? Because they might not have even learned that yet or maybe they did learn that but they've gotten backslidden. They've gotten away from the Lord, they got rebellious, they grew out their hair long and everything like that. You're going to bring in the guys with long hair, you're going to bring in the women with short hair even though the Bible said that their hair should be long, you're going to bring in people that are not dressed properly, you're going to bring in people that have all kinds of sin in their life and all kinds of problems. Maybe sometimes you'll bring in people whose face looks like they fell into a fishing tackle box because of just all the radical piercings and body modifications. Maybe the Bible is not for that stuff but you know what though? We should just rejoice to see people coming to church, listening to the preaching of God's Word, getting right with God instead of having the Pharisee attitude of like, well what do we want these people for? These people aren't normal. Well, we've got to make them normal, amen? Let's bring them in and make them normal. You see, there are people out there who have a defeated attitude. It's like they don't want to reach people. They don't want to see people get their lives cleaned up because their heart is not in the right place with God. Now I'll put it to you this way. If I walk into a church and everybody just looks perfect in their Sunday best, everybody's just dressed up nice in church clothes, every man's got the right haircut, every lady is dressed in modest apparel, everybody's got their Bible and everybody's ready for church, everybody knows all the songs, that would lead me to believe that that church is probably not reaching anybody because of the fact that it just seems like these are all mature believers. Well, where's all the new blood? Where are all the sinners that you're bringing in that just got saved or just got right with God or just got in church? But alternately, if I walked into a church where just everybody is dressed wrong, everybody looks wicked, everybody's just completely out of it, well then that tells me, hey, these people are not teaching their people how to grow in the Lord, how to take the next step. So there are mistakes that are being made on both sides of this, okay? Because the new evangelical movement today, the mega church, community church, fun center church, they're saying, yeah, let's bring in the sinners, amen. Except they bring in the sinners and they just remain in the same condition, they remain living with their girlfriend, they remain drunk, they remain a pot smoker, they remain a long haired hippie or whatever, why? Because they're not being called to repentance, you see, it's great to bring in all kinds of people, right? But then we gotta preach and say, look, this is what Christ wants us to do, this is what God commands, here's what the Bible says. And then little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept, people make changes and they repent of those sins in their life one at a time as they grow in the Lord. So come as you are, yes, but don't stay as you came. You should show up, hear the preaching of God's word and make changes, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's the emphasis because it says, I say unto you in verse 7 that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine persons which have no need of repentance. What is he saying here? You notice what he's not saying. There's joy in heaven if we can just get these sinful people to just attend church. Is that what it says? There's joy in heaven if we can just fill up the church with all the most sinful people we can find. No, no, no, it says there's joy over the sinner that repenteth. That's what is exciting. You know, isn't it exciting when we see somebody who's drunk, who's addicted to drugs, smoky cigarettes, whatever, the sin in their life, fornication, living with their girlfriend, living with their boyfriend, whatever. Isn't it great when you can see people like that clean up their lives and get it right? Isn't it great when that couple that's been living together in their sinful situation, their so-called common law marriage or whatever, where they just live together and they're not really married, isn't it great when you see people like that actually get married? I mean, I find that to be a huge blessing when I see people getting married who've been living in fornication because they're getting it right. That's something to get excited about, seeing people cleaning up their lives. You know, also it's pretty exciting when you see a couple that was divorced and you see them be reunited and be reconciled. You know, that's one of my favorite weddings that I've ever performed was when I performed the ceremony for a couple who had gotten divorced from one another, but then they heard the preaching of God's word and realized, hey, wait a minute, it's till death do us part. And they ended up coming back together and I was able to perform the ceremony for them as they got married a second time, not to a new person, but to each other. And that was exciting. That's a blessing. Why? Because you're seeing people that are the sinners that are repenting of what they've done that was wrong and fixing it. Okay. That's pretty exciting. There's nothing exciting about just bringing thousands of sinful people into a Christian rock concert that you call church with a 15-minute little feel good, good God, good devil, cold hell type sermon. And then, you know, everybody comes as they are and stays as they came. There's nothing exciting about that. And you say, well, you know, it's just about getting people saved. Wrong. It's just about getting people saved. It's also about getting people living a clean life. Look, if it was just all about getting people saved, why do we come here three times a week? Are we that dense that we have to hear the gospel 156 times a year? I mean, who here is already saved? Put up your hand if you know you're saved. All right. Look, we're not here to hear the gospel tonight. We already know we're saved. We all know we're saved here or at least 90 some percent of us. So we're not here to talk about how to get to heaven. We're saved. So what are we talking about then? What's church for? I mean, am I going to sit here and preach on the plan of salvation when 99 percent of the people here already know the plan of salvation? That wouldn't make very much sense. No, I'll tell you why we're here. We're here to learn more. Who's already been baptized? Put up your hand if you've already been. Look around. So, okay, it doesn't really make a lot of sense to focus on baptism tonight either, does it? But I'll tell you what does make sense, to focus on obeying all things that Christ commanded. And you know what? That's going to take 156 sermons a year, right? I mean, Christ commanded a lot. And so I could preach 156 sermons and still not cover everything that God commanded in this great book. So it's going to take a lifetime of going to church and learning the Bible and growing. But you know, there are certain basics, right? Like quit smoking pot. Quit drinking, right? Certain basics. Like don't shack up with somebody you're not married to. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not murder. Okay. These are certain basics today. But in many churches today, they pride themselves on bringing in all the sinners, but they're not even teaching them that they have to be married to have a physical relationship. They're not even teaching them that they need to stop drinking. They're not even teaching them these basic things that a man should wear men's clothing, that a woman should wear women's clothing, because that's just too offensive in 2017 to bring that up, or to bring up the length of your hair, or to bring up whatever about your... That's my personal life. Well, you know, actually, you know, we're here to preach Christ's commands so that you can learn something and so that you can repent so that there could be some changes in your life. Look, we all need to change things about ourselves. None of us is perfect. You know? And so, well, how dare you hit on my issue or my sin? Well, we all have our issues and sins, and eventually, the preacher is going to come around to you. And if he doesn't get on your sin today, he'll get on it tomorrow. And so you need to be willing to come to church and be called unto repentance, to be called to make changes in your life, okay? And God says, hey, we should rejoice that the publicans... What's a publican? These are the tax collectors, right? These are kind of the government workers that are ripping everybody off and taking their money and obviously, the Jews don't like the fact that these Roman government workers are just taxing them to death and everything like that. And these tax collectors are basically an extortioner, you know, ripping everybody off, taking their money. The publicans and sinners, other places it talks about, you know, the harlots even. Even those who are very prostitutes that would come to hear Jesus preach. But you know what? Why wouldn't we be excited to see a prostitute clean up her life and get out of that business and get into a righteous lifestyle? Wouldn't we love to see the drunk sobered up? Wouldn't we love to see the government tax collector quit working for the IRS and go learn to swing a hammer or shovel some dirt somewhere and do some real work? So he spake that parable unto them. Look at verse 8. Either what woman, having 10 pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, did not light the candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it? Even when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Now, some people will take this whole chapter and they'll try to make it about salvation. They'll try to make it about getting to heaven and receiving eternal life, being saved. That's not what this passage is about. This passage is about sinful people cleaning up their life, repenting of their sins. Now, look, you don't have to repent of your sins to be saved or else that would make salvation by works. Because cleaning up your life is works. Turning from your evil way, according to Jonah chapter 3 verse 10, is works. In fact, I'm going to talk about the book of Jonah because this chapter is pretty similar to the book of Jonah in a lot of ways toward the end. What you see here in this passage is first a parable about a man who owns sheep and then there's a lost sheep and he goes and finds the lost sheep and brings it back. The other parable has to do with a woman who has some money, some coins, and she loses a coin and gets it back. If you stop and just think about the parable, the sheep already belong to the owner in the first place. The coin already belong to the woman. And then when we get into the story of the prodigal son, he's already a son. Once you're God's child, you're born again, you're a child of God. You don't need to get saved, you're already saved if you're a born again child of God. So the son is already saved, the coin already belongs to its owner, the sheep is a sheep, not a goat. The sheep is already the property of its owner. This is talking about not how to get to heaven. And a lot of people, they just think everything in the Bible is about getting to heaven. Very little of the Bible is directly telling you how to get to heaven because most of the Bible is written to the saved because most of the people that are reading it every day are people that already know how to be saved and they're just learning everything else. It'd be a bummer if 90% of the Bible was about getting saved and were already saved. That'd be boring to just keep reading about salvation. It's like, okay, I get it, I get it, I get it. But the great thing about the Bible is even after we're saved, there's so much more to learn continually, so much more to learn. And this is something that's applicable to us. So the woman has 10 pieces of silver. She loses one piece. She lights a candle, sweeps the house, seeks diligently till she finds it. And when she had found it, she called her friends and her neighbors together saying, rejoice with me for I found the peace which I had lost. Likewise I say to you, there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repented. Another thing we can learn from this, other than the fact that we should rejoice when we see people getting right with God, cleaning up their lives, we should rejoice when the backslidden get right with God, we should rejoice when that person who quit the church comes back and we should treat them well. We shouldn't say to them, well, where have you been for the last three months? Oh, well, you know, no, you know, look, if somebody quits the church and they're gone for months and then they show up again, it should just be, hey, great to see you. Not what? Just come in here like nothing happened. Just gone for six months and then you just come back and just think you can just walk in. You know, the great thing is that, you know what, when you do get away from the Lord, when you do quit the church, when you do get backslidden, when you do fall back into your drinking habit or fall back into drug use or fall back into whatever the sin, you know what, you can come back, you can get right with God anytime you want to. You can always push a, look, if you're God's child, he loves you. Nothing could separate us from the love of God and he's always ready like the father of the prodigal son in this story to invite you back. You're welcome to come home. And so it's exciting when people get right with God and come back. Well, I'll get to that later in the sermon, the bad attitude that the brother exhibits. But not only that, but we see here that the phrase that's coming up over and over again is this idea of diligently seeking. Do you see that at the end of verse number 8? It says, either what woman having 10 pieces of silver, she lose one piece, does not light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it. That tells us that not only should we go out and diligently seek people that are not saved to get them saved, you know, we should also diligently seek the lost sheep. We should diligently seek the brother in Christ or the sister in Christ that has fallen away and try to bring them back, try to restore. The Bible says, if any of you brethren be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted. So what he's saying, don't go all the way into the gutter to get them. You know, don't go to the bar and sit down and say, hey, look, I'm trying to restore you brother. He's saying, you better consider yourself that you're not tempted. But you which are spiritual, if somebody's overtaken in a fault, seek to restore them. Because you know what? If you can convert the sinner from the error of his way, you can save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins. I mean, think about it. If you can actually get somebody who was a faithful member of Faithful Word Baptist Church, for example, or some other church, and that person went astray, got backslidden, got away from the Lord. You know, if you could go to that person, actually restore that person, you've actually accomplished a lot for God by bringing that person back into the fold. So there's nothing in the world wrong with diligently seeking those that have fallen away. And this is also reminiscent of what Joseph said in the book of Genesis when his brethren are out with the sheep and he says, I seek my brethren. And that's sort of different than what Cain said, right? Am I my brother's keeper? So we have Cain saying, am I my brother's keeper? And then we have Joseph, the godly example later in the book of Genesis, who says, I seek my brethren. And so we ought to seek our brethren. We ought to seek and diligently look for people that have gone astray, bring them back to the fold, get them back in church. If you know somebody in church, if you have a friend in church and you notice that they're not coming to church anymore, you notice them going down a dark path, then meekly, humbly, gently, try to get that person back. Try to get that person to see the error of their way. Try to get that sinner to come back to the fold and to be restored to fellowship. That's a great thing that you've accomplished if you can do that. So now we get into the main parable that this chapter is known for. This is one of the most famous parables in the whole Bible. In fact, if you ask people to name the parables of Jesus, I bet a lot of people this would be the first thing they'd say, the prodigal son. They'd probably say the parable of the sower, and then maybe the prodigal of the son would be the second thing that they would say. So it says here in this passage, verse 11, and he said, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that fall to me, and he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. So this is a classic story. I've probably heard a hundred sermons about this if I've heard one. And there's a lot of great preaching that has come out of this passage for centuries as people have preached this great parable. There's so much meaning here. But we see here that there are two sons, and one of them says, give me the portion of the inheritance that falleth to me now. I want to have my inheritance now. I want to leave home. And he takes all that inheritance that was supposed to be his birthright that he would use to have a livelihood. Instead, he just goes out and just wastes it all, just parties, riotous living, partying. He blows it all. Then there's a great famine in the land. Times get tough. There's a recession. He runs out of money. No man gave unto him. His old partying buddies apparently don't want to help him out. He's already burned his dad and his brother and everybody else. He's in a far country. He has no money. So he ends up joining himself to a citizen of that country, verse 15, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. So this guy's job, you can tell he's in a far country because the Jews, they're not dealing with swine at this time because they're under the Mosaic law. But he's in a far country. He's in a heathen country. And so he's feeding the swine for his job. That's not a good job. This is just a very menial, unskilled, low-paying job. And he's doing this job, and he gets so hungry that he actually just wants to fill his belly with what the swine are eating, the husks. Pigs are basically eating trash, food trash, just leftovers. And these husks are the part that, it's not food. It's what the humans have discarded as not being food. It's just kind of roughage. And he basically just wants to fill his belly with that fiber, even though it's not going to give him nutrition, just to give him a full feeling. He wants to eat those husks, just to fill his belly. And when he gets to that point where he starts desiring to eat those husks, that's when he came to himself. That's when he wakes up, right? Now let me ask you this, according to this story. Do you think he would have woken up if everything kept going good for him? What if the party would have just kept on going, and then he won the lottery, or he won big at the casino, and he just had tons of money? And what if he just kept going, and everything's going good, and the famine never came? What do you think would have happened in this story? He probably would have partied until the bitter end. Because what did it take for him to come to himself? It took him losing everything, literally starving. And I don't know about you, I've never been that hungry where I started desiring to eat things that are not food. But you know, people get that hungry. You read survival stories where people are eating things like pine needles, just to fill up their stomach. People are just eating whatever bark, or people eating the leather off of shoes. And just people going crazy and eating things that are not even food. Now I've been hungry enough to where I started to desire foods that I hated. But I've never been so hungry where I would have desired to eat these husks that are not even food, just fiber, just roughage that's not even food. That's what it took. He had to lose all his friends, have the worst possible job, and have no food to eat, and be starving. That's when he came to himself. Now listen, that's the point sometimes that people need to get to. It's too often that we interfere with that sometimes. And we think we're doing the prodigal son of Faber by just giving him everything, even as he continues in sin. Even as he continues in rebellion against his father. You're not helping him, because you're just prolonging the period until he hits rock bottom. Just remember this, sometimes people need to hit rock bottom. Remember that. People need to hit rock bottom sometimes. What do you not see in this? You don't see the father here wire transferring money into the far country so that he can keep up his cocaine snorting, partying life, or whatever the guy was into. You don't see him going and running after the guy saying, hey, well, we're still going to be buddies. He says, no, son, get out then. Fine. Here's the money. Get out. Now, he's ready to receive him when he's ready to come home. You don't see him chasing after the son and financing his wicked lifestyle, because that wouldn't have helped anything. So he goes there and he comes to himself and he says, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough, verse 17, and to spare? And I perish with hunger. He starts to realize how good he had it back when he was living for the Lord. Back when he was obedient to his parents. And I will rise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of the hired servants. What is he doing? He's getting right with God. He's getting right with his parents. This is great. This is a great cause of rejoicing. And he rose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry. Look, here's a lesson as well. That when you come back, it's easier to come back than you think. He thought it was going to be hard. He probably thought he was really going to have to beg his dad. He prepared a certain speech that he's going to give, and he only gets partway through the speech before the dad is already letting it go. And the dad's happy to see him, and he doesn't even get through everything. People think it's going to be really hard to eat crow and admit that they're wrong and humble themselves, come back to church or get right with their parents or tell their mom and dad, I'm sorry, mom and dad, or to tell their husband I'm sorry or tell their wife I'm sorry or tell whoever they burn I'm sorry. But you know what? The Bible is showing us here that it's easier to come back to the Lord than you think. You just have to be willing to humble yourself and do it. And so he comes back, and he's received with open arms, and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to be married. Now obviously he's exaggerating because his son wasn't really dead, right? He's just saying he's dead, he's alive, he's lost, he's found. But here's the thing. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 5 of elder women, it's talking about the widows, if they live in pleasure, it says, she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. Even if you're physically alive, the Bible says that if you're living the party life, it's like you're dead in that sense. She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth, the Bible says. And so he says, let's kill the fatted calf, let's eat. My son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to be married. Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, thy brothers come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he had received him safe and sound. He was angry and would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time, thy commandment. And yet thou never gave us me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou has killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. Now think about this scenario. People get away from the Lord, they're a prodigal son, and then they come back and people have a bad attitude about it perhaps. Now why would that happen? Well let's say you're just faithful to church, maybe you're even raised in the church, and you've never really gone off the deep end, you've never gone out and partied and done these things, and let's say you're not getting a lot of attention, you're just kind of Joe church member, but you're faithful. I mean week in, week out, you're there. You're at soul winning, you're at church, but you're not really the star. You're not really a mover and shaker as it were. Well then compare that to there could be somebody who maybe went out and lived a really sinful life and then they come back to the Lord and then next thing you know maybe they're preaching. Maybe they're training to be a pastor if they haven't disqualified themselves. Maybe they're leading a ministry or doing something that's a little bit more prominent. Maybe they're leading the singing. They're in the limelight as it were. You could see how somebody could look at that and say, why is everybody so happy about this guy? You know what he's been doing? I mean think about how wicked it would be to hang someone's past over their head after they get it right. That's what we see in this passage. I mean the elder brother is saying, he was with harlots. And here's the thing. Should he really be bringing that up when the brothers got it right now? You know, okay he's been with harlots, but he's not with harlots now. He's left that behind. He's admitted what he did. I've sinned against heaven. I've sinned against thee. I'm no longer worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of the hired servants. You know it's wickedness to bring up that person's sins and to throw it in their face. It's wicked. And you know what? There's a time where people will pull out something that somebody did ten years ago, five years ago. They'll pull out some old photograph or some old, you know, now in the electronic age, I mean this stuff just never goes away. Now look, if somebody's actually living in drunkenness, yeah, you know, that's an issue that needs to be dealt with. If somebody's living in fornication, that's an issue that needs to be dealt with. But if we have an audio Bible playing somewhere, these machines all have a mind of their own. So the point is that once someone gets right with God and says, hey, I'm sorry, we shouldn't throw their past in their face. Well what about when you were drinking a year ago? You used to live with your girlfriend. You, you know, committed fornication. You committed adultery. And look, if it's been repented of and they're right with God, it's a non-issue. It should never be brought up. It should never come up. It shouldn't matter. Now again, people will sometimes take this too far and say, well how dare you bring up the fact that that guy's living with his girlfriend. It's like, well, that's an issue that needs to be dealt with. But if that's what he used to do and now he's married to her, then it's time to let it go. You know, if people are continuing in sin, that's a big difference than people who have a past. Okay. So it's very, we just need to realize it's always going to be wicked when somebody says, you know what, I did that and I'm sorry. And then you just want to keep bringing it up. You know, whatever about their past, whatever job they used to have, whatever sins they used to commit, photos, videos from their past. If they say I was wrong back then, you know, and not like that anymore. Okay. But then that should just be end of story. Should never be brought out again. And that's what we see in this past. Now what's interesting, though, is how much this parable resembles the book of Jonah in certain ways. Because if you think about the way that Jonah ends, it kind of ends exactly the same way that this parable ends. Okay. Because if you remember, Jonah goes and preaches to the very wicked city of Nineveh. And they actually get right with God. They clean up their act. They turn from their evil way. And then God decides not to destroy the city because they turn from their evil way. It says in Jonah 3.10, and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way. And God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not. Well then you have a whole chapter, chapter four, which is sort of like this elder brother. Where in chapter four, because at the end of chapter three, it's like a big happy ending. But Jonah chapter four is all about Jonah's bad attitude. So Jonah goes there and preaches. Now put yourself in Jonah's shoes. You go to a city and preach to them and they all get right with God and the whole city is spared. Wouldn't you consider that like the most glorious moment in your life or the greatest work that you've ever done and just what an amazing thing to be a part of? But that wasn't his attitude. He had an attitude like this elder brother where he gets mad that God doesn't want to destroy the city anymore. He wanted the city to get destroyed. So he actually makes himself a little booth. Like he sets up a place where he's going to sit here and he's like, God said he's going to destroy it. I'm going to sit here and wait until he destroys it. After God has repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, he's not going to do it. But Jonah just camps out outside Nineveh, just I'm not leaving until this place is destroyed. So then God confronts him and says to him, Jonah, doest thou well to be angry? And Jonah says, I do well to be angry even unto death. I mean, he's mad. Now if you would flip back to Jonah, because I want to show you something interesting about this. Go back to the book of Jonah. And it's one of the little tiny books toward the end of the Old Testament. Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, you'll find it in there if you look around right before Micah there. Look at Jonah chapter 4. And you can see why Jonah's mad here. It kind of explains why. Verse 1, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he was very angry and he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, for it's better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord, doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of that city. He wants to watch and see what happens. Is it going to get destroyed or not? Now why is he mad? Here's what I believe he's saying here. Different people have different interpretations of this. I think that what he's saying is that back when he was in his country, he says, I knew that you're a merciful and gracious God. That's why I fled to Tarshish. I think what he's saying there is, I thought you were going to go easy on me, God, because I've been this righteous, godly prophet. Yeah, I made one mistake. I went to Tarshish. And then what do you do? It caused me to be thrown into the water, swallowed by a whale, three days and three nights of torment inside the belly of a whale, being tortured for three days and three nights. And then these people, who are way more wicked, and have done way more wicked things than I've ever done, they just get a free pass. So this is similar to the older brother's attitude, like, well, I've served you and done everything right, and you didn't even give me a goat barbecue. You didn't even give me a kid to make merry with my friends. And for him, it's the fatted calf. He's having the filet mignon served at his coming home party. Well, I never left. I don't even get to party with my friends. So what's he saying? It's a double standard. It's not fair. And that's kind of, I think, how Jonah feels. The other interpretation would be that Jonah just hated the Ninevites so much, and he knew they were going to repent. And that's why he didn't want to go and preach to them, because he wanted them to get wiped out. You know, obviously, he did hate the Ninevites. There's no question about that. Obviously, he does want the city to get wiped out. There's no question about that. But I think he's also whining about the fact that God was so strict on him and so lenient with the others. Why? Because unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required. So anyway, God then does the saying where he makes the gourd. And I'm not going to go into that for the sake of time. But in verse 9, it says, and God said to Jonah, doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death. And said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored. Neither mayest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle? Here's what's interesting, is that both Luke 15 and Jonah chapter 4, they both end the same way. Because they both end with, the brother's mad, and then the dad explains to him why he shouldn't be mad, and then the chapter just abruptly ends. We don't know how the son responded to that. Well Jonah ends the same way. Jonah's mad, God explains to Jonah why he shouldn't be mad, and then the chapter just abruptly ends. Where we don't know what Jonah does, does Jonah just, how long does he camp there? Does he ever change his mind? Does he ever get it right? Did the elder brother ever get it right? Does it tell us? Is there any record of Jonah saying, you're right, God? No. Is there any record of the elder brother saying, okay God, you're right? No. They both end with what? Anger on the part of Jonah and the elder brother respectively, and God telling them that they're wrong. Okay. Now think about what this could symbolize as well. Basically we know the classic interpretation, which is I believe the primary interpretation in Luke chapter 15, but what about the fact that this also is symbolic of the Jews and the Gentiles? Because remember, Jonah's one of the children of Israel. He had no problem preaching to the Israelites, because he had a whole ministry preaching to the Israelites for years and years and years. He loved preaching to them. What did he not want to do? Preach to the heathen. He didn't want to preach to the Nineveh. He doesn't care about them. He only cares about the Israelites. Okay. Wasn't that kind of how the Jews are in the New Testament? They hate it when anybody preaches to the Gentiles, nuts to the Gentiles, right? So they have the same attitude that Jonah had, and the elder brother has that same attitude toward the younger brother, because you could look at it as the elder brother represents the Jews, because they could say like, we've stayed with the Lord all along. We've been worshiping the Lord for centuries. Now all of a sudden we're going to get excited about a bunch of Greeks getting saved. They don't want to hear that. They don't want the Greeks to get saved. They don't care about that, right? So this is basically prophetic in Jonah of the fact that the Jews are not going to want to see the Gentiles get saved. They're going to want the Gentiles to be destroyed, and that's what we see all throughout the Book of Acts. Even amongst saved Christians in the Book of Acts, they're saying, you know, what in the world? You went in and preached to the Gentiles? You ate with Gentiles? I mean, Jesus gets up and says, go teach all nations, and they're like, yeah, all right, let's go to Jerusalem. Let's go to Judea. They don't get it. Even the apostles, most of them didn't even get it. They had to be forced through persecution to go to these places, just like Jonah had to be forced to go to the Ninevites. So this is a foreshadowing in Jonah of the fact that the Jews are not going to love the Gentiles and not going to want them to be saved. Okay. And then saved and unsaved Jews alike. And then also in the prodigal son story, it's the same thing, the same attitude. The Jews are like that elder brother not wanting to see the Gentiles come to the Lord and get right. Just trying to bring up their past and throw that in their face. And let me ask you this, did the Jews ever change? Just as there's no record of Jonah changing his attitude, just as there's no record of the elder brother changing his attitude, there's no record of the Jews ever changing their attitude. They still have that attitude that they're better than everybody else. They never change that attitude. So anyway, that's kind of a symbolic meaning, looking at it as nations. But the way that we would apply this to our lives though is that we need to realize lessons from both brothers. Okay. First of all, if we're that prodigal son and you're all here tonight in church, but what about six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, you might fall away for a while and go back to the old habits, go back to the old life. You know what? You need to realize that you can always come home again and that God's ready to welcome you with open arms and that the church is ready to welcome you with open arms. Just come back. It'll be easier than you think to come back. I mean, so many people, they write me emails, you know, I'm so sorry. I've been out of church. I got back. Is it okay if I come back and you know, I'm so ashamed. I'm just like, come on back. What are you going to pause? And they're like, I'm so sorry about what I said and I'm like, I don't even remember what you said. Just come back. You know, people try to like apologize to me for stuff like three years later and I'm like, I don't even know what you're talking about. Just come back. Now, look, if you're still living in fornication and drunkenness, then don't come back. But listen, when you're ready to live for the Lord, and obviously none of us is perfect, the Bible specifically states that we can't have fornicators and drunks as members of our church. But look, come back. And then the other lesson is that those of us who stay with the Lord, maybe we've grown up in church our whole lives, we shouldn't look down on people who didn't grow up that way. Look, I was born and raised an independent fundamental Baptist. I was in church from the week that I was born. Okay, but should I look down on somebody because they came from a rough background? No, because we're both even playing field, right? Because we're both, you know, if we're both in church now, we're both living for the Lord now, it's not like, well, I didn't live the wicked past as you lived. That doesn't matter. So don't get that elder brother attitude where you look down on other people because they got backslidden, because they fell away. Welcome them back with open arms. But one quick other lesson we could learn is we can also learn from the Father. He let his son hit rock bottom. You know, if we ever, God forbid, have a prodigal son, don't just finance their drug addiction. Don't just finance their fornicating lifestyle. Don't just finance their wicked lifestyle. Tell them, hey, you're on your own, buddy, until you're ready to get right. You know, because sometimes the most gracious thing you can do, sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is to let someone hit rock bottom. It's like we were just in Kayenta on the Navajo reservation, there was a big sign up at the Burger King there, because the Burger King is sort of the center of that town. It all centers around that Burger King. You got the Code Talker Museum and the Burger King, and it's kind of like everybody who's passing through, they pretty much get gas there, they get their burger, they check out the Code Talker exhibit, it's kind of a hub there. And so there are just all kinds of people just begging for money, just, hey, man, can I get some, you know, all these big, there are big signs in the parking lot that say, do not give money to panhandlers. Do not give them food or money. Big signs up. You say, oh, that's so cruel. No, because they know that these people need to get a job. They need to hit rock bottom, because you know what? After a couple of days of wanting to eat the husks, they'll show up at the day labor place. They'll show up at the menial job, and all of a sudden, they can wake up at five in the morning and get to work all of a sudden. When you're hungry enough, you'll wake up at five in the morning. And we think we're helping people by just throw money at them and throw food at them and oh, I've helped everybody, I'm a good Christian. You've got to use your brain a little bit. Some people, if they're living in wickedness, need to hit rock bottom. So we need to use our brains and discern between the time to help people and show charity, which is often appropriate, and the time to say, hey, listen, buddy, you need to go to work, and if you're not ready to get off the drugs, and if you're not ready to quit drinking, and if you're not ready to go to work, and if you're not ready to join the church, then you know, maybe you just need to hit rock bottom, buddy. Go spend a little more time in the pig pen, and then we'll talk when your attitude's right. Oh, how dare you. But that's what the Bible says. If a man will not work, neither should he eat, the Bible says. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord. It's a classic chapter, and if we've been in church, we've probably heard it many times, Lord, but there are always new things that we can learn and new little gems and nuggets to find in your word, Lord. Help us to apply what we've learned tonight and make it a part of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.