00A.08 CHAPTER V.—Christ the Friend of Sinners
CHAPTER V CHRIST THE FRIEND OF SINNERS Our theme tonight is, “Christ, The Friend of Sinners”, and the text is found in 1 Timothy 1:15-17:
Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief: howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering, for an ensample of them that should thereafter believe on him unto eternal life. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. This is the language of Paul and he here calls himself the chief of sinners, and says that in saving him the Ford Jesus Christ demonstrated the fact that he can save any one. Paul reckoned himself the chief of sinners and since he had obtained mercy no one else need despair. That is the way he felt about it and that is why he lifted his grateful praises to the God who had saved him. His appreciation of the Ford’s mercy would not have been so great if his sense of guilt had not been so keen.
Paul was never a wicked man in the sense of being immoral. He was never a reprobate. He had been a religious man all his life—zealously endeavoring to serve Odd, but he had persecuted the Church of God and made havoc of it. But he was honest in his madness against the disciples. He thought they were heretics, perverters of the law of Moses and transgressors of the principles of the decalogue, and he felt that it was his duty to exterminate the new heresy. But when he learned that he was in rebellion to God he at once changed his whole course and called upon the Ford for mercy, and when he was told upon what conditions he could obtain mercy and pardon lie, without hesitation, complied with the conditions and rejoiced in the full forgiveness of all his sins. And so may all sinners be saved through the rich provisions of tine Gospel of Christ, who is not only the friend of sinners, but also the Savior of sinners.
Although we have taken Paul’s language as a text for this sermon we shall not confine our study to this text, for we find in the life of Jesus many demonstrations of the fact that he was a friend of sinners; that he had compassion on them and was anxious to help and to save them. But as we begin to speak of Christ as the friend of sinners we must he careful to make you understand that Christ is not a friend of sin. He never endorses the sinner’s wrong doing. He never connives at sin and there can be no terms of peace and amity between Christ and the sinner so long as the sinner is defiant and reliellious and persists in his sins. In order to obtain mercy and to enjoy the friendship of Christ the sinner must be sick of sin and anxious to have relief from its guilt and pollution.
Jesus is ihe friend of sinners and he is ready to save the most depraved man upon the earth tonight, but he can not, consistent with his will—consistent with his plan, save any sinner so long as that sinner loves his sins and desires to remain in them.
Now, there were sinners in the days of Christ’s earthly sojourn, and the sinners who found in Jesus a kind, tender and sympathetic friend were those humble sinners—those outcasts who realized that they were lost and undone; whereas the Pharisees and Scribes, who were sinners, too, the very worst of sinners, were denounced by Jesus in the most scathing and merciless terms that were ever used by any inspired speaker or writer. And yet even these people could have found a friend in Jesus had they realized their need of his pardoning love, but they felt that they were righteous and holy and the true guardians of heaven’s laws. Instead of feeling their need of Christ they felt that he needed them. They were sinners, but they were religious sinners—the worst sort of sinner that any man can be. They represented organized religion in their day. They paid tithes, and fasted, and prayed standing in the street corners; they were very punctilious about observing the traditions, or of living true to the creed of their party, and they were so busy enforcing it upon others, and so blinded by their sectarian zeal and they felt so satisfied and “loyal” in their mad heresy-hunting that they never thought of measuring their own lives by the character of God as revealed in their Scriptures. They were loyal to a theory and thought they were faithful to God. How sad is such a condition! They were sinners, sadly in need of salvation, but they didn’t know it. Jesus told them of their hypocrisy and showed them that they were sure for hell, but they did not believe him; it only angered them and made them hate the Lord. They were selfsatisfied, self-sufficient, self-righteous, self-saving sinners who felt no need of a divine Savior.
If we were called upon to name tonight the one thing that the present day world needs more than anything else, we should say, a sense of sin. The reason that people do not come to the Lord is because that they do not feel that they are sinners and therefore they do not believe that they need the Lord. When we present to the people of today the story of the cross it becomes a stumbling block to them, because it is not complimentary to men. It does not compliment man to say that he had gone down into the depths of depravity to the extent that God had to send Jesus Christ from the heavenly world to save him; that Jesus must shed his innocent blood upon the cruel cross for man’s redemption. As we told you last Sunday night, the whole gospel picture —a picture of God’s infinite love- -is painted on a background of despair. For if the world bad not been lost we would not have needed redemption. But the world was lost and it needed a redeemer. The world is lost— it still needs a redeemer, but the redeemer is here if the world will only recognize him and come down at the foot of the cross and depend upon the merit of its atoning blood for salvation, Hence, we repeat, the world needs a sense of sin. We must know that we are sinners all; we must feel the burden of sin; we must know that we are heavily involved and we have nothing wherewith to pay; that we are hopelessly insolvent—completely bankrupt. Then will we come unto him who is able to pay the debt and who offers to do so freely? That is the attitude into which we must come before we are ready to receive the gospel. The reason we are not better and more grateful Christians is that we have not felt that we were lost sinners and have therefore been snatched as brands from the burning.
We have simply inherited our religion and many of us have no personal convictions. We have not known the guilt of our own sins and sought and found relief in the glorious gospel. Many of the churches today gain more by generation than they do by regeneration. So many people are born to their belief. Like Rachel, they have stolen their father’s gods and are carrying them as luggage through life. It is no wonder that they are only nominal Christians. No wonder such people do not feel grateful to God and do not rejoice in the privilege of serving him. No wonder they do what little they do with an irksome sense of duty and then limit those duties to a certain set number of commands or to a few specific, acts, like going to church for one hour on the Lord’s day. When we are made to realize that we are lost, hopeless and helpless, and Jesus has fled to our relief and that in him alone do we have hope, then will we come to him as we would rush out of a building that is burning and ready to fall in upon us. Can you imagine yourself having to be begged and coaxed to leave such a building ? Surely not, if you knew your danger. Nor will we have to beg you to come to Christ when you see that you are forever lost without him. A generation ago men were more sensible of their lost condition than we are today, hence the Christians of that day were more grateful, more zealous and more earnest than we are. Where, today, do you hear Christians singing as though they meant it—singing from their redeemed and grateful souls—such exultant hytnns as Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me;
I once was lost, but now I’m found, Was blind but now I see? In order to appreciate the fact that we are saved we must know what it means to be lost. In order to know the joy of spiritual vision we must remember that once we were blind. Then would we serve God out of a sense of gratitude and not from a sense of duty or fear. It may be that service rendered from a motive of duty or fear is acceptable, but it is certainly not the highest order of service. The very highest order of service that we can render to our heavenly Father is a service of gratitude and love. That sort of service is not a burden, but a pleasure and those who are thus moved to serve God do not divide his commandments into essential and non-essential classes and make the essential class as small as possible. They do not keep books with God and claim his blessings as a reward for the works they have done. Who would think of a mother as she watches by the bedside of her sick babe, keeping her eyes upon the clock and counting the hours till she can go off duty? A hired nurse might do that, but a mother will not. She is serving from a sense of love and she forgets her own personal needs in her anxiety for her child and she continues through the weary, anxious hours of the days and the long, sleepless hours of the night until she is exhausted. The limit of her service is the limit of her ability. And that would be the limit of our service to God if we served him from a motive of love. Not only do we need a sense of sin today, but we actually need to learn that the gospel is meant for sinners; that Jesus is a Savior of sinners. The churches today do not want the outcast, for whom Jesus died, in their communion. They withhold the gospel from the abandoned sinners and many professed Christians would be scandalized if such a sinner were to enter the congregation and walk down to the front in response to the gospel invitation. Such church members are only seeking recruits to their congregation and are hot seeking the salvation of souls. They want members that will add wealth, influence and respectability to the church and there is more joy among such church members over one respectable (?) sinner who walks down the aisles, stiffnecked and unconverted, with a diamond in his shirt front, than over a hundred and ninety-nine real outcast sinners who are truly converted. And this attitude of church members not only causes the poor, humble, bankrupt sinner to hate and avoid the church, which should be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, but it also causes the rich, influential sinner to remain impenitent. It makes him think that his money and influence will commend him to God and gain his blessings just because it gains him favor with church members and causes them to fawn upon him.
It is not necessary to tell you that all this is entirely contrary to the gospel of our blessed Lord, who came to call—not the righteous but—sinners to repentance. Then we should not hold the gospel back from the plague spots of earth, from the segregated districts, from the vagabonds that tramp our railroads or the prisoners that people our penal institutions, Jesus loved them and died upon the cross to. redeem them, and they can be transformed and made new creatures and prepared for heaven and immortal glory through the precious gospel which we have the privilege of preaching. In the life of Christ we have several stories which illustrate the fact that he was the friend of sinners. We will tell you these stories tonight to impress some of the points that have already been made, as well as to bring out some additional lessons. You are acquainted with these incidents in the gospels, but the more you think of them the more beautiful and tender they become. In John 8:1-59 we have the story of the woman who was taken in adultery and brought before the Lord. Now Moses had said that a person guilty of adultery should be put to death by stoning. He didn’t say women—he said both men and women should be put to death when guilty of this sin. So the Pharisees had found a woman who was guilty and they brought her before the Lord. And why did they bring her before him? Was it because they hated the sin and wanted to see a wicked woman put away from among the people? No, no, that was not it. They brought her before the Lord because they wanted to get him into trouble. They thought that if he released the woman from this sentence of the law he would be guilty of setting at naught the law of Moses and they would have a charge against him upon which they could put him to death. On the other hand, if he sentenced her to death and commanded them to stone her, he would violate the Roman law, for the Roman government had taken away from the Jews the privilege of inflicting capital punishment. Hence you see these wicked, scheming Pharisees thought they would put our Lord in a dilemma and either way he should go would be fatal. The sinister motive of these Pharisees is further seen in the fact that they did not bring the guilty man along, too. They said the woman had been, taken in the very act of adultery. If that was true, then, of course, there was a man there. Why was he allowed to go free? He was just as guilty as she was and should have suffered the same penalty. But you see enforcing the law was not their purpose. You may have wondered where that man was; did you ever imagine that he was back there in that crowd with a rock in his hand ready to help stone the woman to death? Jesus did not, of course, condone this sin. He did not say that the woman was not guilty of a capital offense, but he knew that the sin in the hearts of those men was greater than the sin the woman had committed The fact is there is evidence to show that these men were not only sinners, but that they were guilty of the same sir,—and may be guilty with this very woman. They knew her and they were going to make her the victim in their wicked scheme to entrap the Lord.
Artists have painted pictures of this scene and they represent the woman as cowering, humiliated and disgraced, at the feet of her accusers. Perhaps the artists can see more in this than the rest of us can, but that is not the picture that suggests itself to us. We see the woman standing up, brazen, defiant and unrepentant, Why? Because she knew these men were as guilty as she was and therefore she did not feel ready to humble herself before them. She would the more probably defy them and challenge them to do their worst. After awhile, when she addressed the Lord she seems to be humble and respectful because she recognizes in him a man very different from the others. But these Pharisees presented her to the Lord and told him of her sin and reminded him of what Moses had said in the law and asked: "What then, sayest thou of her?”
Jesus stooped down and wrote upon the ground with his finger. We do not know what he wrote—nor do we know why he wrote. But when he arose he threw the responsibility right back upon them. “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her,” said Jesus. And then he again stooped to write upon the ground; this time he probably did it in order to give them a chance to find their sinless man or to get away without his watching them. When they understood what he said they began to leave one by one, beginning with the oldest and continuing down to the youngest. Sometimes you may have wondered why the oldest man slipped out first. Don’t you suppose that when this challenge from the Lord was thrown at them that each knew he was a sinner, but he looked to some other in the crowd to meet the challenge and cast the first stone? In such a situation, naturally all eyes would turn upon the oldest man in the company expectantly. When he therefore saw himself expected to answer the inquiry’ of their gaze, and his conscience told him he could not meet the demand, he sneaked out. All the others followed in rapid succession and soon Jesus was left alone with the woman. He said, “Woman where are they? did no man condemn thee?” She answered, “No man, Lord.” “Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more.”
Sometimes people seem to think that Christ here excused or palliated this sin. He did not. He merely released her from judicial sentence. They had made him the judge. They had called upon him to dispose of her case according to the law of Moses. But the law required the witnesses who testified against the guilty person to cast the first stone. No witness in this case was willing to declare himself worthy according to the Lord’s demand. There was therefore nothing to do but to release the woman with the charge to sin no more.
What a just Judge we have here! Who shall lay anything to the charge of his elect when before him we stand at the last day?
There is another story in the life of our Lord that shows that he was a friend of sinners. It also shows the gratitude of a sinner whose load has been lifted. In Luke 7:1-50 we read the story of a Pharisee by the name of Simon, who invited Jesus to come into his home and eat with him. It seems strange that he would invite the Lord into his home as a guest and then not treat him with the courtesy due a guest, but that is exactly what he did. It was customary in that day and country for the host to meet his guest at the door with a kiss on the cheek. Then to bring a basin of water and wash the guest’s feet and anoint his head with oil. Simon did none of these tilings for Jesus. He didn’t even bring the water that Jesus might wash his own feet.
Why did he invite him at all? He had heard of Christ and he probably wanted to talk with him and decide whether or not he is a prophet and as great and good a man as some had reported him to be.
There is another story in literature that is very similar to this incident in the life of our Lord and with your pardon we will relate it just here for the sake of the similarity as well as for our interest in the story itself.
During the life of Bobbie Burns, the plowman poet of Scotland, a lord of that land—an aristocrat, a member of the nobility—who had been reading some of Burns’ poetry, conceived the idea that it would be an interesting, not to say amusing, diversion to have this peasant poet to come into his home and read s^me of his poetry for the other guests. Accordingly this lord invited Burns to be a guest at a dinner that he was to give. But when the guests were invited to the table poor Burns was left to stand in the hall with the servants. While thus waiting with the servants Burns wrote a poem which he thought would be specially appropriate to read to the lord and his guests after dinner. That poem is now one of the most famous poems in all our literature You are acquainted with it. It is entitled “A Man’s A Man for A’ That.” Do you remember the stanza that says Ye see you birdie, called a lord, Who struts, and stares, and all that;
Tho’ hundreds worship at hi word, He’s but a fool for all that?
Try to imagine how that lord felt when Burns pointed to him and read this. But to get back to Christ and the Pharisee: Christ was in Simon’s home by invitation and was reclining at the table when a woman who was a sinner—a known sinner, a scarlet woman—entered the room and bowed down at the feet of our Lord and began to kiss his feet. Her copious tears began to wet his feet, but she dried them with the hair of her head. She also broke an ala-baster box of ointment and anointed his feet.
Now, Simon, the Pharisee, sitting at the table decided that he had found out what he wanted,to know. He reasoned thus: “If this man were a prophet he would know that this woman is a sinner. If he doesn’t know it, he is not a prophet. If he does know it and still permitted her to touch him, he is not a righteous man. So which way we look at this doesn’t matter, it has ruined the claim that is made for him.” The Pharisees would not allow this sort of sinner to touch them. Four feet was the regulation distance for them to keep between them and such a sinner. But Jesus knew Simon’s thoughts and he said to him: “Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.’"
Simon said, “Teacher, say on.”
Then Jesus said, “A certain lender had two debtors: the one owed five hundred shillings, and the other fifty. When they had not wherewith to pay he forgave them both.” They were both utterly insolvent, completely bankrupt, and the lender forgave them both. “Which of them therefore will love him most?”
Simon answered, “He, I suppose”—and that expression, “I suppose” shows a sort of supercilious irony, as though Simon considered this a simple question—“to whom he forgave the most.”
Jesus said, “Thou hast rightly judged.” And now Jesus directs Simon’s attention to the woman; he is going to reveal two things to him. First, he is going to prove to Simon that he is a prophet, for he had read Simon’s thoughts and he did know that the woman was a sinner. Second, he is going to show Simon that he is above the smug self-righteousness of the Pharisees and their ceremonial regulations in that he is a friend of sinners, willing to show them kindness, mercy and forgiveness. Incidentally we have here also an illustration of the attitude of heart in the two classes of sinners which we mentioned a few moments ago. The woman who felt her guilt and was grateful for forgiveness, and the man who did not feel any guilt and did not desire any forgiveness, but rather felt himself superior to the Lord. And turning to the woman, he said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath wetted my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. Thou gavest me no kiss: but she, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but she hath anointed my feet with ointment.
There is a keen contrast here between the customary basin of water which the courteous host would supply, and the woman’s tears: between the kiss of greeting on the cheek and the woman’s continuous kissing of the feet: between oil for the head and the woman’s ointment for the feet. And yet Simon had left off those trivial amenities, but the woman had gone to the extreme limit in her expressions of gratitude and love.
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
There is our point again:
There is another story that we must bring into this sermon tonight. It is perhaps the best known parable in all the Bible and yet the lesson that it teaches seems to be hard for the people to learn. The parable of the prodigal son illustrates at least two vital points. The first is the attitude that the sinner must have in coming to God, and the second is God’s readiness to receive and forgive the sinner when he comes—the joy that is occasioned in heaven by the sinner’s repentance. In Luke 15:1-32 we have three parables, and they were all uttered by our Lord in answer to a criticism from the scribes and Pharisees to the effect that “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them”. Answering this critisicm Jesus gave us the parables of the lost coin, of the lost lamb and of the lost boy. The conclusion from each parable is the same, but in the details of the parable of the prodigal boy we have a severe rebuke to these Pharisees and also some wonderful lessons.
Let us look at that story again. “ A certain man had two sons, and one day the younger son said unto his father, Father give me that portion of the estate that falleth to me. And the father divided unto them his living.” Not many days after this the younger son gathered all his part of the inheritance together—turned it all into money no doubt—and took his journey into a far country and there he began to spend his money with ruthless prodigality in riotous living. And before long his money was all gone, a famine had also struck that country and the thoughtless and improvident young man began to be in want. And he went and joined himself, or hired himself, to a citizen of that country and he sent him out to feed swine.
You must bear in mind, beloved, that Jesus was speaking to Jews and, of course, they thought of a Jewish household—a Jewish father and his two sons. Therefore when this boy went into a far country he went away from among the Jews to a Gentile country and now he is hired to a Gentile as a servant. That was reducing him to a pretty lowly condition in the mind of the Jews —that was humiliation enough. But Jesus did not stop with simply making him the servant of a Gentile, but he made his task that of feeding swine. The swine were unclean in the eyes of the Jews; they did not raise them or have any use for them. Surely this was a shamefully pathetic predicament into which this scion of Abraham had fallen. But our Lord did not leave him with even that description. He reduces him still further—he brings him to the extreme limit of want and of shame and disgrace. Even as a servant of a Gentile with the task of feeding swine the young man did not make a living. He ’ id not have food to satisfy his hunger. He was perishing with hunger—mark that—and he actually de-sired to eat the shucks which the hogs themselves refused and trampled into the mud of the pig pen. When he reached this condition, he came to himself. He remembered who he was, what he had done and now he saw the result of his folly. His mind went back to his father’s house and he no doubt wanted to return. But he reflected that he had already received his portion of the father’s estate and wasted it. He had no further claim on his father’s property, and he was not worthy to be called his son. What right had he to return home? Ah, he remembered that his father employed servants and his father’s servants had plenty of food and clothing. They were well taken care of. His course was now clear, he would go home and become a servant in his father’s house, go home and ask his father for a job.
Now, may we be allowed to leave this story just long enough to moralize a little? Aside from the gospel story two lessons are suggested just at this point in the parable. One is suggested by the fact that the boy’s thoughts went back to his old home. When our boys and girls go away from home today, if they leave with a mother’s kiss warm upon their lips and a father’s benediction fresh in their hearts, they are far better armed against temptation than the boy or the girl who has never known the sweetness of a happy home. And if they fall into sin and even go down to the brink of ruin, as long as there remains in the background of their minds the memory of a sacred home circle there is hope. There will come moments of rational reflection when they will think of that home with its family altar and its hallowed associations; they will remember the father’s counsel and the mother’s anxious warnings, and perhaps they will be saved through the memory of these early influences. But God pity the boys and girls whose homes have been wrecked by divorce, and whose mothers have been jazz- mad flappers or bridge playing society climbers, and whose fathers have been so busy making money they have had no time to make a home. Their lives have been spent swinging like a clock pendulum from the home to the office. Or if they have had leisure hours they with the Sundays have been spent on the golf links. God pity the children of such parents. The second lesson is suggested by the fact that the prodigal boy had reached the lowest possible depths before he came to himself. When people today get into a similar condition, and then repent, we have church members who are ready to say, “Yes, it is time to repent now. I don’t have any confidence in him. Why didn’t he repent before he was caught? Why didn’t he repent before he had to?”
Beloved, you do not reason correctly, and you do not manifest a spirit of sympathy and forgiveness. Be careful that you do not act like the older son of the parable People sometimes have to hit the bottom before they come to themselves. The boy of the parable did not come to himself while he had money and clothing and friends. He had to be reduced to the direst straits before he was sensible of his sin. Remember this when you are inclined to be censorious and Pharisaical.
Before we tell the rest of the story of the lost boy as Jesus gave it to us, let us tell it as it did not happen. Let us suppose that when he came to himself he said: “If I haven’t played the fool! Here I am a son of Abraham working for a Gentile—feeding swine! I was reared in a good home and I once had money and friends. Now look at me in rags and hunger, with my money wasted and my friends gone! Is there nothing better for me? Yes, by the blood of my fathers, by the power of my own will, by the cleverness of my own wits I will get out of this. I will leave this place and find some better employment and when I can buy some decent clothing I will move on into another community where my former life is not known, and there I will get into some office or bank and there I will live a respectable life and make friends and finally establish a home.” Then just suppose that the young man did that. Suppose he carried out that plan, what would you say of him? Ah, says the average man, I would say that was a noble resolve and a wonderful achievement. It was bad to sin and waste his money, but was noble to reform his life and become an honest, upright man after all. Yes, but what about the dear old father? .The boy has corrected his mistakes so far as his own interest goes, but he has shown no regard for his father’s aching heart. He has never gone home or written home to tell his father of his change of conduct.
We can see that old father at home yearning for his boy to come home. Daily he prays for God to guide him and send him home. We see him in the late afternoon walking on the lawn with his hands crossed behind him and his head bowed as he meditates. Now we see him as he places one hand up above his eyes to shade them from the lowering rays of setting sun, and looks longingly down the road in the hope that he may see his boy coming. We see him in the long winter evening as he sits before his fire and meditates in sorrow. He recalls the years when his two little boys stood by his knees and listened with wide-eyed wonder as he told them the stories of Hebrew history—the stories of Abraham and Moses, of Joshua and David. He remembers how his heart then beat high with hope that his boys would become great and good men. Then he recalls the changes that came as the boys grew up and how the younger—a restless and adventurous youth—had finally taken all his interests out of the old home and gone away. But he had continued to hope that the boy would tire of roaming and come back. He had thought he would learn his lesson and come home and settle down. But that ungrateful boy has not gone home. He is only interested in recovering his lost fortune and making a new record for himself, while the old father goes down to the grave disappointed and broken hearted.
What do you say now of that boy? In supposing that this boy treated his father thus, we have given you a description of the way many people treat God, our heavenly Father. They sin until they realize they have ruined their lives. They see they have lost the respect of men and the hope of success. Then they correct their lives; they reform and we say that is a noble thing to do. Yes, it is noble for a man to quit anything that is bad, but you may reform and not repent. A reformation may be brought about by self-interest, by a sorrow of the world, but repentance is toward God. (Acts 20:21.) All sin is against God and we must be moved by godly sorrow in our repentance—must be sorry we have offended God and grieved his great heart, and we must go back to him and ask for forgiveness—if our repentance is to bring salvation, (2 Corinthians 7:10.) But we told the story of the prodigal as it did not happen. We will now finish it as it did happen. This young man came to himself and remembered his father’s house and he said, “I will arise and go to my father and say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight: I am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.”
He didn’t say, I will arise and go to my father and say unto him, Father, I see now that I have been a fool. I should never have left home, but I did and I have wasted all my money; but father, I am through now. I’ve learned my lesson and I am ready to come back home and be your son again and inherit with my brother. Of course you are glad to see me, but, father, you will have to get me new clothes right away. You see these are in bad condition. And father, you will have to be pretty careful about referring to mv mistakes you know, for I’m sensitive on that point. Oh, no, he didn’t say that either. No real penitent sinner will say any of these things. He will not hesitate to obey the gospel because he is not good enough. He will not fear what others may say or think. He will not claim anything because of his repentance and try to dictate to God or to God’s people as to how he is to he treated.
Now, having seen the son’s attitude, let us see the father’s attitude toward the son. The boy did arise and come home. And surely enough the father must have been out on the lawn looking for him, for when he was yet a great way off he saw him and ran to meet him. The boy began to make his confession and intended to ask for a servant’s place, but he never did finish that speech. The father fell upon his neck and stopped his mouth with kisses. He shouted to a servant to bring the best robe and put it upon him; to put shoes upon his feet and a ring upon his hand. He commanded that the fatted calf be killed and a feast be made in honor of the son’s return. This represents the manner in which God receives the penitent, home-coming prodigal and tells us of the joy that is in heaven when a sinner repents. Next, let us see how the older son behaved on this occasion. Who is this elder son? He represents these Pharisees to whom Jesus was talking.
Now, this son was in the field when his brother came home and the feast and the merry making were well under way when he came in. He saw that something unusual was happening and called a servant and inquired about it. When the servant told him of his brother’s return and of the welcome the father was giving him, this older son was highly offended. He went off and sulked. He would not go into the house and the father had to come out and entreat him. Listen to that son as he talks to the father: “I have always been with you and I never transgressed a commandment of thine”—There is your true Pharisee. “And yet you never gave me a kid to make merry with my friends, but when this thy son”— notice that expression, “thy son”—“who has wasted thy substance with harlots is come you kill for him the fatted calf.” . Now, listen to the father, he did not deny the son’s claim for himself, nor did Jesus here deny the Pharisees’ claim for themselves. He reasoned with them as though they were as righteous as they claimed to be. Said the father:
“My son, thou art ever with me, and all that is mine is thine, but it is meet that we should make merry and be glad: for this thy brother”—the father reminds him that this is still his brother, the son said “thy son,” the father said “thy brother”—“was dead, and is alive again; and was lost and is found.” This brings us to the close of our sermon. You have seen that Jesus was a friend of sinners and we can assure you that he is no less a friend of sinners tonight He is calling them now to come and find rest. He is rich in mercy and the terms of salvation are simple and easy—in reach of all. “