What's Wrong With Grumbling & Disputing?

Philippians chapter 2, we have a wonderful statement here that it's so practical and relevant to the church in the world today and our church in particular. Paul writes an application of everything he said so far about the example that Jesus Christ has given us and the mindset that Christ has and the unity we are to have as a bottoming community that's supposed to follow the example of Christ in applying that. The Apostle Paul says in verse 14 of Philippians 2, do all things without grumbling or disputing. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may prove or that you may become blameless and innocent. Children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world holding fast the word of life.

So that in the day of Christ I may have caused a glory because I did not run in vain or toil in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the service and sacrifice of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. And you too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me. You know our assignment as believers, as disciples of Jesus Christ and as the church of Jesus Christ, is to learn to apply all the gospel to all of life. That's really the challenge of the Christian life, is learning to apply the gospel to all of life. If we don't apply the gospel to our life as a church, then we have no business proclaiming the gospel to the world. We won't have integrity.

If the gospel has an impact at our life, if it doesn't impact our life every day in the way we live and especially the way we live together as the body of Christ, then certainly it's not going to have a ring of truth when we proclaim it to the world. And so Paul here is applying the gospel to the life of the church at Philippi and by application to our lives as a local church. The basic command as we saw here in verse 14 that everything else falls from is do all things without grumbling or disputing. What's so bad about grumbling and disputing, murmuring and disputing, whispering and debating? That's so bad about that. All of us have that going on in our homes and on our jobs and in most of the churches we've all been in.

That goes on. Why is Paul telling them if we're going to live consistently in light of who Christ is and what the gospel is, then we are to do everything, all things without grumbling or disputing. What does this mean? Well first of all, notice that it's all inclusive. He says do all things. That means everything that we do in the life of the church. We are to do without grumbling or disputing. So remember that Jesus said in John 13, I give you a new commandment that you love one another. The way I've loved you and by this all men will know that you are my disciples because you love one another. So this is very significant. We're never going to do the work of Christ. We're never going to be what Christ wants us to be in this world if we don't love each other.

If we're not a community that's characterized by loving one another the way Christ has loved us and grumbling and disputing is the primary danger for living that kind of life. In fact, it's the primary weapon that is used against unity and mutual love in the church. Grumbling and disputing. It's a primary way that Satan uses us to undermine what Christ has called us to be. And because we are to be characterized by mutual love, Paul says, do all things without grumbling and disputing. What is grumbling and disputing? The word grumbling means basically what you would do behind somebody's back. It's whispering. In fact, it's really a word picture, kind of like a picture of doves cooling. You know, you hear something going on.

You hear communication, but you can't tell what's actually being said. But it is the idea of complaining, whispering complaints, expressing your displeasure about people and circumstances and things behind their back. You know, you don't like the way they're doing that. You don't like the way this is going. Disputing on the other hand is what you would say to a person's face. It's argumentation. It's disputation. It's the kind of presenting and basically in the book of Philippians, Paul's going to talk about this in the third chapter and he's specifically connecting this to a certain kind of teaching that enters into a church, the kind of teaching that raises doctrinal issues in a way that brings dispute and argumentation.

Heresy, the word heresy, the primary significance of heresy and heretics is the kind of teaching that separates people, the kind of teaching that causes people to have to make a choice against one another. We have this different from all other churches, all other Christians that makes us totally unique and separate. That's heretical. Now, this kind of speech, grumbling and disputing is very dangerous to the life of the church. In fact, Paul talks about this in Galatians chapter 5, this way says, you know, be careful that you, as you bite into power on another that you're not consumed by one another, that you don't actually experience Christian cannibalism, you eat each other up by your words, destroy one another.

You have to be careful about this, it undermines what we are to be. And so we're to abandon all of this, this whispering, complaining and this outright argumentation that tries to divide and separate people. Why is this so important? Well, notice what he says, it's because of who we are and what we have called to be, what we've been called to be and to do in the world, that we are Christ in this world. We are to manifest who Christ really is. And he expresses this in a twofold kind of importance. Notice in verses 15 and 16, the first part is 16, you have the first purpose. This is why it's so important is so that you will prove your subtly so that you might become blameless and innocent. In other words, not blameworthy.

Innocent means harmless. You're not destructive to people's lives. You don't cause people to stumble as a church. You have God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Now, the generation that they lived in was not any worse than ours. In fact, perhaps it wasn't as perverse and crooked as the one we live in now. But he says, you're to live in such a way above reproach as children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Why? Because God has placed you there among whom you appear as lights in the world holding fast the word of life. In other words, living out the gospel, holding to the gospel, and living it out in all the areas of your life, every relationship, every area of life, so that you'll be lights that truly display the life of Jesus Christ.

And then the second part of the purpose is, beginning in the middle of verse 16, that in the day of Christ, I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain, nor toil in vain, but even if I am being poured out as a drink offering, even if my suffering, the things that I'm suffering, as long as it is a part of God's good purpose in your lives, then I can rejoice. I rejoice and share my joy with all of you. And then in verse 18, he says, now, all of you, rejoice along with me. So this is a very high calling. And at the base of it, he says, if we're going to be lights in this world, if we're going to be a witness in this world, if we're not going to be a stumbling block to the world, then we have to do everything without grumbling and disputing.

Now, what I'd like to do is for you to turn to Luke chapter 16, Luke 15, rather. Luke 15, and I want us to look at just a portion of this passage because I think here we have an explanation of why is it that we are prone to grumbling and disputation. Why were the Philippians drawn to this? Why had they gotten off track? And why is this a great temptation to us? The church at Philippi was 10 years old. We're three years old as a church. But it's a common pitfall that churches face. We can get off track. We can get off base. We get off the path that God has placed us on. This last wind storm that, when the wind was really blowing bad at our place, we have one of the outbuildings there, like a triple car garage.

It's a big shed and it's on pears. And after that was over, I was walking over to the barn. I looked over there and the building looked like it was falling down and the walls are kicked out and it's just kind of, it looks like it's about to fall down. And I walked over and looked at what happened was that wind came along and the force of the wind was like a sail in a building and the walls just moved out off of the pears. And one side is like 10 inches off of the pears. In other words, it's off the foundation. You know, that can happen real quick in the life of a church. It's really easy for that to happen. And what I want us to do is I want us to look at Luke 15 and see in this context, why grumbling and disputing raises its ugly life of churches.

You notice the beginning of this chapter. This is the context of it. Jesus finds himself, as he often did, always did, in disfavor with the religious leaders, the spiritual leaders in Jerusalem and in Judea. The Pharisees didn't like what they saw, what wasn't they didn't like about Jesus and His ministry. Well, listen to what it says. The tax gathers in the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. That expression, the tax gathers in sinners is like saying, the pimps and prostitutes. The lolliest sinners in the culture were coming to listen to Jesus and notice the reaction. Both the Pharisees and the scribes begin to grumble. Here's our word. They begin to murmur against Jesus. This man receives sinners and eats with them.

They didn't like it. Now, here you have a picture of what grumblers do in the life of the kingdom of God. I think you have a characteristic. Now, Jesus gives these three parables in response to this. And all three parables are about something being lost and a person going out to seek what is lost and finding it. And then the great rejoicing that follows because that which was lost has been found. The shepherd goes out to find the sheep. The woman goes out to find the coin and the father goes out to find the son. Now, the son's on his way home, but the story, if you listen to the story, the father goes out and he sees the son of long ways off and he runs to him and he rejoices and he's overwhelmed with the joy of finding that which was lost through what I want you to notice.

And this is really the point of the story is that Jesus is trying to drive home to the heart of these Pharisees, something they don't want to hear. These grumbling Pharisees, and this is the main point, it is an absolute in your teeth warning to good people. Nothing comes between you and God like your goodness, your morality, your respectability. They were offended that Jesus found joy in the fact that these sinners were coming to him. And Jesus purposes to just to totally blow out all human categories regarding the basis of our acceptance and relationship with God. Unbelievable warning to good people like you and me, good clean cut people like us who follow the rules and live like we should.

Now the elder brother here illustrates the nature and cause of grumbling and disputing that can raise its ugly head in the life of the church and notice two things about this elder brother, if you will. Let me just read from verse 25 to kind of jog your memory, you heard it read this morning, but listen, verse 25 of Luke 15, now his elder, his older son was in the field. This is the son who stayed home and was faithful and followed the rules and did what was right. Stay with the father. The older son was in the field and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants to begin inquiring what these things might be. In other words, it's very unusual for there to be singing and dancing in this house.

And he said to him, your brother has come and your father has killed a fat and calf because he has perceived him, he has received him back safe and sound, but he became angry and he was not willing to go in. And his father came out, here we go, the father came out to find the lost son. The father came out and began in treating him, begging him, appealing to him, talking to his heart. But he answered and he said to his father, look, for so many years I have been serving, I've been slaving for you and I have never neglected a command of yours. And you have never given me so much as a kid, a goat, let alone a fat and calf that I might be married with my friends. But when this son of yours came who has devoured your wealth with harlots, you killed a fat and calf for him and he said to him, my child, you've always been with me and all that is mine is yours, but we had to be married and rejoice for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live and he was lost and he has been found.

Notice a couple of things about this son, this elder son, first of all, even though he's at home, he's lost. Now we know this because this is the pattern of the parables and every parable that which is lost is outside and the one who's seeking it goes out to find him. And the father goes out to find the older son and verse 28, the last part of verse 28, the father goes out and he finds his son, the good son, but this good son is lost. How in the world is he lost if he's been home the whole time? The younger son is abandoned his father, taken his goods, demanded that his, basically what the younger son said to the father was, look, I don't want you anymore, I don't want you ruling over my life, I can't wait until you die, I want my inheritance now, I want control of it now, I want what you can give me but I don't want you.

And so the father, which is an unusual thing in that culture and no doubt the Pharisees were quite offended by this story, it didn't touch their hearts. But this father to sell his, to, to take his wealth and to divide up this wealth between his sons at this point in life, to give the younger son his share, which may have been thirty, may have been forty percent. The younger son takes his wealth, goes off to the far country and squanders the wealth. But once he squandered the wealth, he realizes that what he really wants is the father. And he comes back to the father, but the, the older son has stayed home. Externally, the older son did what he should do. But in his heart, it's obvious from the story that his heart is far from the father.

Jesus is saying to the, to the Pharisees, you're as alienated from the father and from my message and from me as this man is from his father, who stayed home, but his heart is far from him. Notice in verse 31, you see, you can be in as possible to be with the father. He says, my child, you've always been with me and all that is mine is yours. You can be with the father and yet it's far from him. He was at home, but he was far from the father. Now Jesus has said this in so many ways times, John 14, verse 90 says to Philip, Philip, you've been so long with me and yet you don't know me. You can be around the things of God and not know God. In fact, Jesus said in the final judge with Matthew 7 that there are going to be those who say, Lord, Lord, we prophesied for you, we cast out demons in your name, we perform miracles in your name.

And Jesus is going to say, depart from me, I never knew you. So Jesus has given in this message as possible to be obeying all of God's orders and yet be lost, apparently obeying all of his orders. You can be in the church, you can be on the bandwagon, you can be doing everything you're supposed to be doing and yet your heart can be far from the father. You can be involved in the father's business. You can be involved in the father's issues, you can be involved in the father's affairs, you can be involved in the father's orders and not be involved with the father. See that was the problem with the older son. The older son, the older brother didn't have a heart involvement with the father. The proof of that is when it comes down to it, he didn't understand the father's heart.

He's offended by the father's joy. He's offended by the dancing. He's offended by the music, he's offended by the party. He's offended by the father's heart. He's extremely involved, but he's as lost as the younger son was lost. That's Jesus' message to the Pharisees. The second thing about this elder son is that he's lost because of his goodness, not in spite of his goodness, but because of his goodness. The older son is lost because of his goodness. Why do we say that? Well, notice something. Why is it that he's not going in and joining the party? Why is it that he doesn't understand the father's heart? Why is it that he's angry at the father? Well, he tells you in verse 29 it's because he's good and he's not getting what he deserves.

He's been with the father, he's obeyed the father's commands. He's slayed for the father. In other words, his goodness separated him from the father. And you know that's one of the main themes of the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels? Is that your goodness can separate you from God? That your goodness can keep you from coming to God and knowing the father's heart? John Gersner used to say the things that really separates us from God is not our sins, but our damnable good works. John 16, Jesus said when he sent the Holy Spirit that the Spirit would come and he would convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now some take it that the righteousness there in John 16 that the Spirit convicts of is the righteousness of Christ, but in the context I believe what he's saying is, the Spirit convicts you of your righteousness.

It is a filthy rags. The goodness that you depend upon to find acceptance with God is his filthy rags and you must be saved from your righteousness. And so Jesus says to these Pharisees who kept the law, sometimes Pharisees, well these are hypocrites, these Pharisees. No, they're not hypocrites. They actually kept the law. Externally. In other words, these weren't people who said you shouldn't do it, but then they were doing it secretly. They were really obeying the commands externally. And yet Jesus says to them, the pimps and the prostitutes go into the kingdom before you and they're quite offended by that and you would be too, wouldn't you? And I would be too. How can your goodness separate you from God?

I think you ought to really think about this. I've really thought about this because I've got some elder brotherism in me. I always have and I wasn't unaware of it for a long, long time and then I became aware of it, but now what I've become aware of it is it's so easy to drift into this path of elder brother religion and no longer enjoy the party and no longer enjoy the music and the dancing and the hallelujahs, but to be miserable just like this elder brother. Well, how can your goodness separate you from God? Two ways. First of all, your goodness masks your war with God. You see what the Bible teaches is that we are at war with God until we come to have peace through Jesus Christ. There are many people in this world, most people in our culture are at war with God, but they don't know it and they would deny it.

If you were to tell them, guess what? The war is over. God has declared peace through Jesus Christ. You're not at war anymore. They'd say, I'm not at war with God. You know why? Because their goodness masks their battle with God. Let me explain what I mean. Sin, according to Scripture, is this. Sin is trying to be your own Savior and Lord. That's what sin is. Sin at its heart is trying to be your own Savior and Lord. You're throwing the real Savior and Lord, denying the real Savior and Lord. That is the essence and heart of sin. You're attempting to be your own Savior and your own Lord. Now the younger brother and younger brother, Lawsonus, is this way. Younger brother, Lawsonus, is the kind of Lawsonus that there is just this open and outright and conscious rejection of the Savior and Lord.

No bones about it. I don't believe it. I don't want Christ. I don't want anything to do with Christ. But then when life falls apart like it did with the younger brother and things go very badly, then the person may be able to see that his problem is that he has rejected the true Savior and Lord and that he has usurped that place and that now he sees he needs the Father and returns to the Father. But the elder brother, Lawsonus, the elder brother kind of Lawsonus, it stays at home. He masks his war with God, his desire to be his own Savior and Lord through his goodness. And because of his goodness, he does not even perceive in his own heart that he's at war with God, that he has made himself his own Savior and his own Lord.

If you use goodness to mask this enmity, your life will be characterized like this. You won't be totally dependent upon God. You need God at certain points in your life, but you live independently of Him. You don't live in utter and total dependence upon Him because you can do what you need to do in your own strength except at certain points. You don't pray night and day desperately for God to help you and to strengthen you and to empower you and to keep you. But only when you really get in trouble you may call upon Him. You don't make Him your Savior and Lord, you're your own Savior and Lord, but your goodness masks this rejection of the true Savior and Lord. Because you're not an outright open, clearly seen rebellion.

You live according to the rules. And then when life falls apart, you can understand why. Because you've done it the right way. And so then you say, well, I tried Christianity and it doesn't work. You know what that means, don't you? When people say that I tried God and it didn't work, it means I asked God for something and He didn't give it to me. That's what elder brotherism produces. The second way you're goodness separates you from God is not only does it mask your war with Him, but it also is your main weapon in your battle against God. This is your weapon. This is your machine gun, your goodness. This is how you want to control God. Listen to the elder brother in verses 29 and 30 again. He says to the father, but he says the father, look, for so many years I've been serving you.

I've been slaving for you. I've been doing the right thing and I've never neglected a command of yours. You have never given me a kid. You owe me. I've done what's right. I've been good. I've done the right thing. And you owe me and you haven't been giving me what you owe me. Use your goodness to take control of God and to take control of people around you. How could they do this to me after everything I've done? How could God let me go after the way I've lived? I've been faithful. I've been sacrificial. I've got a good giving record. I've always done the right thing. I'm not out there running around in my wife. I don't get drunk. I've been doing the right thing. How could God let me go through this?

And your weapon is your goodness. And it's the way you manipulate God or try to. It's the way that you manipulate people. You see what he's saying? You can't treat me just any old way. I'm the son who stayed home and did what was right. You owe me. Have you ever read The Great Divorce? You've never read that. You've never read it. C.S. Lewis's book, it's just a little small work. The Great Divorce. It's a really wonderful story. It's a story about some people in hell. We take a bus ride and go meet some people from heaven. They have an opportunity if they want you to leave hell and go to heaven. And they're not really, it isn't really clear to them that they're in hell. But when they meet these people from heaven, they're like ghosts, you see.

And they meet these people of brightness who are from heaven. And they come in hand that seems so strange. The ground is so beautiful, but they can't relate to it. The ground is so hard, they can't stand to walk on it. Everything they try to do, they can't get it done. And then they start to interact. I wish I had the book with me, I actually meant to bring it and I forgot, ran off without it. But in one of the interactions, there is a man from hell who runs into a man who used to work for him on earth. This man who worked for him had committed a murder. He had murdered one of the other workers on the job. And so this man who's been down in hell says to him, what in the world are you doing in heaven?

And he begins to talk to him, he says, you know what I don't like about this is, I'm not, I'm not getting my rights. I've always done the right thing. I always paid my bill. I wasn't a religious man, but I always did what was right. And I'm not getting what I deserve. All I want is what I deserve. And he says, well, it doesn't work that way. You don't want what you deserve. I didn't get what I deserved. And he's talked to him about grace. All the man from below keeps on saying, all I want is my rights. I just want what I deserve. I don't want any bleeding charity. And then the man from heaven says, but that's exactly what you need. You need bleeding charity. And it's in capital letters now. You need this bleeding charity.

You need grace. This man goes on and describes himself as always doing what's right. And God owes it. What's a murder doing up there and I'm down here. What is a good man doing in hell and a murder doing in heaven? You see the older brother, that's elder brother religion. Your goodness becomes a way to get leverage over everyone else instead of looking at what you get from God and from people as a gift. You're looking to see if you're getting what you deserve. You use your goodness to the man your rights. And you're as miserable as this man. And you are utterly alienated from the Father's heart. Because you won't take his bleeding charity. It's amazing phenomena, but your goodness alienates you.

And here's why. Because everyone knows that to become a Christian, I have to repent of my badness. You're all aware of that. Nobody denies that. Everybody knows that if you want to become a Christian, you have to repent of your badness. But what a lot of people don't understand, they don't know is in order to become a Christian, you also must repent of your goodness. You have to repent of your goodness because God says your righteousness is as filthy rags. This man from below is talking to this being of light began to rehearse his life that he had always treated his wife right and his children right and his workers right. This man from above began to tell him, no, you didn't. In fact, the murder that I committed wasn't my greatest crime.

My greatest crime was I constantly thought in my heart how I could get rid of you. I hated you so much. And I came here to ask your forgiveness because you were not a righteous man. In anybody's eyes but yourself. Sometimes people only repent of their badness and they think they've become Christians. When all they've really done is turned over a new leaf. They've made some resolutions. If I'm a good husband, if I'm a good son, a good daughter, if I'm a good person, if I start to live right, then I can expect that God will. What's happened? A person like that is still just as lost as the elder brother. He's far from the father's heart because of his goodness. Now let me give you three signs from this text in Luke 15.

Three signs of elder brother religion. If we begin to drift into this or maybe you've never, that's all you've ever had. It could be that you're here this morning and you consider yourself a Christian but all you really are is an elder brother who's never experienced a grace of God. You've never accepted his bleeding charity. Three signs, anger, alice obedience and judgmental insecurity. This is the characteristic of elder brother religion. It's the thing that we must avoid like the plague in the Church of Jesus Christ. First of all, anger. Notice the elder brother says, I never even got a goat. I didn't even get a little kid so that I could have a party with my friends. Or the man in C.S. Lewis's book, what's a murderer doing up there and me down here?

He's angry. When things go badly for the elder brother, he's either angry with God or he's angry with himself. The elder brother, if things go badly for him and he's really been living up to his standards and keeping the rules and living like he thinks he should and things go bad, he's angry at God. How could you do this to me? If he's not living up to his standards, he's blowing it and he's failing and then things go bad, he's angry at himself. You know, I'm an idiot, I'm worthless, I'm no good, I'm getting what I deserve. The gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, the good news about reconciliation with God through faith and choice, justification by faith, renewal, adoption, the good news of Jesus Christ takes you totally and completely out of elder brother religion.

Because the gospel says this, cheer up your worst than you ever imagined. Your estimation of your evil and your sin isn't even close to how bad you are. You are more valuable to the father than you could ever in your wildest dreams, dream up. You are worth a son. You are worth to him, him sending his only begotten son to die for you. But you have to keep those two things, both those truths have to be in your heart. You have to understand that you are a far greater sinner than you think. You are far more valuable than the father than you could ever imagine. The effect is very important. I mean, I really want you to get this, jot these two things down. The effect when bad things happen to a person who understands the gospel, when bad things happen to a person who understands that they are worse than they ever thought, but they're more valuable to God than anything else because when bad things happen in your life, things don't go right.

You crash. People turn on you. You have financial ruin. Your health goes. Your friends leave you whatever. If you believe the gospel, if you understand the gospel because you know you're sinful, you don't complain. You don't say, I'm not, this isn't fair. This isn't fair for God to allow me to go through this. When you understand that you're truly sinful, you'll never say that. When you understand if you actually got what you deserved, what you're going through now is nothing in comparison to what you deserve. So you won't complain about injustice. But secondly, because you know you're valuable, you know it's not punishment. If you understand the gospel, you know that the bad things that happen in your life are not punishment.

I wish I could drive this home to your heart because some of you still think that's true. The Bible says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That means that never, ever, ever when bad things happen to you is it the judgment of God on your life or the bad things you've done. If he has taken it out of Jesus' hide, he will never take it out of your hide if you've believed on Jesus. In fact, an illustration of that is the fact that in the church of Jesus Christ, when people blow it, when they break the rules, the church is never called on to punish sinners. Now, some people think that it is, but it's not. The worst thing that the church has ever called on to do in regards to people who are living and rebelling against Christ but claim his name is to put them out of the church.

That's not a punishment. Paul says what that is is that's taking people who will not hear the shepherd and putting them outside the flock to wake them up. It's like putting your kid out of 30 degrees weather for a minute and a half to say, wait a minute. You need to wake up in here so you put him out there to wake up. That's what excommunication is. It's not punishment because there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. When bad things happen to you, if you understand the gospel, you will understand that you cannot complain because it's not injustice. You're not getting what you deserve. You're getting grace. But God's promised you is the worst things in life that could happen to you are still a part of His gracious plan of conforming you into the image of Christ and making you more like Jesus.

You will never have a useless, meaningless trial if you're following Christ, if you're a believer, if you believe the gospel and it's never punishment. Grumbling and disputing when things go wrong is a sign of elder, brother, religion. When we understand the gospel, there's no place for grumbling and disputing. The second characteristic, that's the first characteristic, anger. Second characteristic of an elder brother, an elder brother, religion is joyless obedience. Listen to the sun. I have slaved for you. I've never neglected one of your orders. We see the elder's son and the person who has elder son, elder brother, religion, serves like a slave. Romans 8, Paul says, we have received a spirit.

This is not a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but a spirit of adoption by which we cry out continually, dear Father. We don't serve Him as a slave. We serve Him as sons and daughters of God. In difference between a Christian and an elder brother, and you know what the difference is? It's motive. Why do you do what you do? Elder brother, religion sometimes can produce much better results when it comes to externalism than the gospel. We see people struggling all the time. They believe the gospel and they struggle to obey Christ. They disobey them all the time. They fall flat on their face. They come back to Him. They go through these cycles up and down and out. Look at an elder brother, a guy who's got elder brother, religion, who lives this nice steady life, always does what's right.

You know what the difference is? The difference is motive. Why? Why do you obey the commands? The Christian, the person who's believed the gospel, he obeys because God is his father. You see, the elder brother can say, I obey the commandments, but he cannot say I delight in the law of God. The elder brother cannot say I loved, I law, oh God. The elder brother cannot say your commandments are not burdensome to me. I delight to do your will because you're my father. You see the difference? Between the elder brother, religion, and real Christianity, the gospel opens my eyes to the fact that God is what I want and desire and need. I want God. That's why I obey him because he's already given himself to me and a response I want him and I want to obey him.

Third characteristic, and listen to this, third characteristic of the elder son, elder brother religion is judgmental insecurity. What I mean by that, two things. First of all, the person with elder brother religion is insecure about his own relationship with God, but he is absolutely sure about everybody else's. He's insecure about his standing with God. The son says to the father, you never gave me a goat and the father says, son, you've been with me all this time, all you had to do was ask. You don't understand my heart. You see the father was more than willing to give the son the desires of his heart, but the son was insecure in his relationship with his father. He was totally insecure. And yet he was judgmental of his father, this son of yours, not this brother of mine, this son of yours, who's devoured your wealth with prostitutes.

You see, he knew for sure that the other son didn't deserve a relationship with the father, but he was totally insecure about his own relationship. You ask a Christian, you ask an elder brother, are you a Christian? He goes, what do you mean by that? Why would you ask me that? Of course I am. You ask a Christian, are you a Christian? And if that person thinks about that question for very long, something begins to happen to him, because there's a well down deep inside. You remember John 7, 37, Jesus said, if anyone's thirsty, let him come to me and drink, he who believes in me, he who is believing in me, the believer, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. So you ask the Christian, are you a Christian?

Ask Steve that today, are you a Christian? And let him think about it for a minute. What happens is the well begins to well up, begins to come up with inside of him and he begins to remember and he begins to music starts to play. And there's dancing and there's a party and there's rejoicing. You see the reason for this is. The reason that the elder brother has no security is there's no well. When you believe you're saved by doing good and you look at other people, you always say, they're not good enough because they're not. But the gospel believer is very sure about himself because he's not depending on his goodness. In fact, he knows he really doesn't have any goodness in himself, apart from the work of God.

And so he can be very honest about his own shortcomings. He doesn't have to hide him, he doesn't have to pretend he doesn't have him. He can be honest about his shortcomings because he knows he's not saved by works. He's not saved by his goodness and he can be charitable to other people because he knows they can't be saved by their goodness either. So he can actually be charitable to bad people who don't have any goodness. He can actually share the gospel with pimps and prostitutes. He can actually come alongside of someone who doesn't believe like he does and say to him, I want you to listen. I want you to see if you can't come to see what I'm seeing. And even if you don't agree with me, I still want to eat with you.

You see, that's what was wrong here. They were hostile, the Pharisees, they were absolutely angry because Jesus was eating with the tax gathers and sinners. They were mad at him, they were angry with him. The elder brother is inclusive or rather exclusive. He wants to have a party with a few friends and he's angry that the father has killed a fatted calf. Now you have to understand that the significance of the father killing the fatted calf is that thing was so big he had to invite the whole community in order to eat it. That's the point. He invited everyone in and you know what? Many of those people in that community thought this father was an idiot. They thought he was a total fool. He sold his property and gave his younger son his inheritance.

The younger son went out and squandered and comes home and the father receives him and throws a party. And so he invites everybody, even those people thought he was a fool. Come and rejoice with me. You see the difference between the elder brother and the father? Can you see Jesus' attitude? That Jesus says, come unto me all of you. We're weary and heavy laden and I'll give you rest. The elder brother is unforgiving because if you think you're being saved by works, you always feel superior. You look at sinners and you say, I would never do that. You know, if you have trouble forgiving people, you know why? It's because in your heart you're saying, I would never do that. Whatever somebody's done to you and you cannot forgive him, it's because you think I could never do that.

Let me assure you, yes you could. I have learned that. Yes you could. You could do it. And you're to forgive them. Paul says, because the father's forgiven you in Christ and you can forgive them. Not only is unforgiving, he's unwelcoming. He doesn't like free grace. He doesn't like dancing. He doesn't like raising hands and rejoicing. And the loss being found because they don't deserve it. His brother doesn't deserve it. And the elder brother religion is like that. Now it's paternalistic. You want to tell down and out people how to get up and out of the mess there and you want to get things on how to live. But you don't like the supernaturalistic kind of religion where people say I was lost and now I'm found.

I was blind and now I see it's supernatural. God did this. May I be so bold as to say to you in closing that in many cases it is your, it's not your sinfulness that's causing you all of your problems in life. It is your self righteousness. It's not your badness but it's your goodness that makes you bitter and angry and worry and hate obedience and look at Christ's commandments and think and feel I hate this but I'm going to do it because the only way I can get what I want. The father, you don't want the father wants. The father wants us to abandon murmuring and disputing and join the party and rejoice at the gospel, rejoicing the father, rejoicing the fact that what was lost is being found all over the world and all around us.

You know there are lost people all around us and there's somebody seeking them and when they get found he wants us to rejoice with him. That's what Christianity is all about. It's not about a bunch of people who know how to be good and congregate together and have a little club and we all do good things just like each other. It is about real sinners like us who need a real savior like Jesus and who rejoice in our salvation because we know about all this stuff out there that the liberals and the sinners are doing is exactly what we are guilty of in our hearts. See that's what Jesus said in the servant on the mount. He said some of you think because you've never crawled in bed with another woman that your heart's pure but I want to tell you that when a man looks on a woman to lust after he has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

You think you haven't committed murder because you've never shed any blood but I want to tell you that when you have vilifying anger against a brother and you'd like to eliminate him, destroy him, getting out of your life, you are guilty of murder in your heart. And you know what God forgives that kind of sin. We're forgiven. See we're really sinners but we're really forgiven. He's given us forgiveness and that's what we rejoice and that's what we sing. That's what we rejoice. That's why we say hallelujah. Can you say hallelujah? Hallelujah. We're saved. We're forgiven. We're free. It's wonderful. Let's stand together and pray. Father, we do thank you that we are forgiven. We thank you, Father, through the ministry of the Spirit, you've come into our lives and you've opened our eyes to the reality of how lost we really are.

You empowered us to reach out by faith and take hold of Jesus. We pray that we'd believe the gospel every day. I pray that we'd preach the gospel to our own hearts every day. It's Father when we are surrounded by sinners and sometimes we want to insulate ourselves and isolate ourselves and run from them and get away from them and we forget that that's what we are. We're sinners who've been saved by grace and just like you rejoice, like the angels and heaven rejoiced when we came into the fold. They're waiting to rejoice when these sinners all around us come, repent of their mess and their goodness and put their faith in Jesus Christ and come to really rejoice in true salvation in Christ. We thank you for salvation.

We thank you, Father, that it thrills your heart to save people. I thank you that you're happier about our salvation than we are. It would be so boring in heaven if heaven was like our church service most of the time. I'm so glad there's laughter and there's singing and there's rejoicing and there's shouting and there's dancing. I pray, oh God, that you'd be give to just inject in our lives, in our worship services, in our homes, the joy of heaven. Open our eyes to the great work of grace we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah.