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Parable of the Prodigal Son (13)

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Parable of the Prodigal Son (13)

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“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 gavest 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 hast killed for him the fatted calf’ (Luke 15:29-30).

The elder son stood there, outside in the yard, in his blindness and enmity. He pushed away the friendly entreaties of his father. He had no need of the father. The servant had said, “Thy brother came home,” and the elder son did not like it at all. That is something: out there in the yard, in sight of his father’s house, hearing what came out of the house, knowing the father who had come to entreat him — and yet he remained unmoved. Even after the loving entreaty of the father, he remained unmoved. He was unmoved because he had no desire to enter into his father’s house. He was unmoved even though the Father said, “Although your sins be red as crimson, they shall be white as snow.”

“Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.” The elder son stood there, outside, in his loathsome self-righteousness. He did not need the fatted calf nor the table of his father. Elder sons do not need that. They need only a little something from the Father to make merry with their friends.

What would the younger son have said, when coming home, if you had asked him, “Do you want a kid to go and make merry with your friends?”

He would have said, “No, no, I need only one thing, only one thing: that is, that I may confess before my father that I have sinned.” Stop and tell that younger son, “I will give you another inheritance, so large that it will feed and give you much pleasure in the midst of the world.” “No, never.” “I will take that sorrow away, get you away from the place where you sorrow after God, and give you the world.” What would he say? “No, I cannot miss this place anymore. When the Lord gives my soul a kid from the herd, then I may make merry with God.”

Is it not true, people of God, that the Lord many times gives a kid from the herd, that we may make merry with the Lord? Can you lay your heart next to this? “A kid from the Lord?” you ask. “Oh, I wrestle all night, and it seems as if there is never anything for me. It seems as if the Lord never has a word for me, for my soul. Do you think that I have sinned so greatly and so deeply that God will never speak to me? Do you think that it is all lost for my soul?” The Lord is giving you something. He is giving you something that is more precious than you have eyes to see at this moment. You say, “What is God then giving?” He is telling you that you must remain in that place where you have to cry unto Him. He is giving a soul concern that must lie at His gate, crying unto Him, “Lord, have mercy upon me.” The Lord is giving something precious when you cannot remove yourself from His footstool. That is more than the kid that the elder son desired, because it comes from the Lord.

The elder son did not need the communion of the Father as a lost sinner, as an undone sinner. He did not need to be brought through the door where sinners may pass to enter through the blood of Jesus Christ. He wanted to spend time away from his father. God does not give us things to make merry with the world. You may receive that from the devil and from the world, but never from God.

With God’s people it is different. They do not say, “Thou hast never given me a kid to make merry with my friends.” God’s people know, although they are often bowed down, often a missing people, that what they have received is from the Lord. They do not want to make merry with their friends, because that kid is good only for them. It only tastes wonderful for them when they may have it in the communion of the Lord. Only then does it become so precious to them. They may eat it with Him who is the Giver of all these things.


A self-righteous person always points away from himself


But, you say, it is my concern that everything is of myself. Is not my sorrow all of myself? Are not my desires something that comes from fear, because I do not want to go to hell? No, no, the Lord makes a missing people. It is true that the conscience can open up for a time. The conscience can open up, and the elder sons can wring their hands with fear and anguish, knowing that they have to meet God and go lost forever. But, by and by, the conscience closes again, and the self-righteous one stands there with nothing but himself. On the other hand, the Lord never leaves those in whose hearts He has begun that good work of grace. He brings them all the way from that far country to the Father’s house. God brings His people to Jesus Christ.

The elder son, in his own eyes, never did anything wrong. Always he did everything right. Do you know what he missed? He had never seen his own image, his own picture. He had never really read Romans 3:1213, “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre.” He had never seen that, this elder son. God had never opened his eyes for that. He could not blame the Lord, either, because he lived upon the yard, upon the field of the church. He was a son of the Father, but he never wanted to look into the mirror. Never had he any desire to see what he was by nature. It was his loathsome self-righteousness that came to the foreground. He never did anything wrong. “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).

“As soon as this thy son was come.” Notice that he did not say, “My brother,” but, “This thy son.” The Lord Jesus was speaking this parable to the Pharisees, who hated the publicans. They pointed to Jesus, saying, “He eateth with publicans and sinners.” They stood there in their self-righteousness. A selfrighteous person always points away from himself. He says, “Look at that man who is crying in church. You should have seen him last month! You should know a little about his life.”

Do we have just an outward religion? Are we still standing outside the Father’s house? Can we stand in the presence of God with our own self-righteousness? It will be a bitter disappointment if we have never lost our self-righteousness. If we have never lost what we possess by nature, and have never become a sinner before God, it will be a bitter disappointment in the Day of days.

— to be continued —

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Bekijk de hele uitgave van vrijdag 1 mei 1998

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Parable of the Prodigal Son (13)

Bekijk de hele uitgave van vrijdag 1 mei 1998

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's