2016-04-17 Luke 15:11-24 Two Kinds of Prodigal (5): What God Demands, God Supplies

TWO KINDS OF PRODIGAL (5): WHAT GOD DEMANDS, GOD SUPPLIES (Luke 15:11-24) April 17, 2016 Intro – (Read Lu 15:20-24). In Good Housekeeping in 1991, Oprah Winfrey said: “I didn’t feel worth anything, and certainly not worthy of love, unless I was accomplishing something. I suddenly realized I have never felt I could be loved just for being.” A lot of people feel that way. No one will love me -there is no salvation for me – unless I accomplish something. Religion teaches we must do something to earn God’s approval. But it’s a lie. We’re like the young man who just got his plumber’s license. To celebrate he took his young bride to Niagara Falls. He studied it for a minute and then said, “I think I can fix this!” The truth is, he had more chance of fixing the Falls than we do of earning our way to God. No well-intentioned human effort can ever meet God’s standard of perfection. But there’s good news, the gospel. What God demands, God supplies! That’s what I pray will get firmly fixed in our minds today as we take a 3rd and final look at the father in this parable. Jesus introduces His audience here to a heavenly Father they had never imagined in their wildest dreams. I long for us to have the same reaction. We’ve looked at 5 actions of this father, each showing an attribute of God. I. He Let’s us Go (Patience). He gives us the freedom to live as tho He does not matter, all the while hoping we will discover before it is too late that He is all that matters! II. He longs for our return (Goodness). He is not willing that any should perish, so He gives every chance for repentance. III. He absorbs our shame (Mercy). What we deserve, He takes on Himself. IV. He Lavishes us With Love (Grace). Not because we are loveable. We’re not! But He loves us, not for what He finds in us, but for what He finds in Himself. V. He Cleans Us Up (Forgiveness). A forgiveness that could never be earned He freely grants to those who believe He died for them. Now 3 more great things! VI. God Pays Our Price (Atonement) Beloved, there something we must understand about forgiveness. Without payment, there is no forgiveness. Forgiveness always costs. Someone slams into my car. I forgive him – but either he or I pay for the repair, or I suffer the loss. A price must be paid. Someone insults my character, hits me in the face. There’s no physical price to pay, but if I forgive, there is an emotional price to pay. I must absorb the shame of not getting even. Forgiveness always costs. That’s the principle. So where’s payment in this story? 1 Islam claims that this boy is saved without a savior. He returns. The father forgives. There is no cross, no suffering, no payment, and no savior. Forgiveness is God’s prerogative and if one is good enough, God may show mercy without any incarnation (God becoming man) or payment for sin. But Dr. Kenneth Bailey who lived in the Middle East most of his life takes issue. It’s all here, veiled somewhat; it’s not the main point. But look! Rather than wait at home the father comes down to the street and humiliates himself publicly as he races like a teenager to meet his son. An incarnation, like Jesus coming to earth as a man. The father absorbs the humiliation that the community would have heaped upon the son. He pays the price and bears the shame. And, finally, everything the son receives – the robe, the sandals, the party, his future living – must all be paid for out of the share of the father and the elder brother. He has already squandered his share. He cannot possibly pay for what he is receiving and will receive. Of course, in this case, the elder brother shares only under compulsion. But not our elder brother! Our elder brother, Jesus Christ, willingly took all our shame and paid all our penalty by His death on the cross. God says in I Pet 2: 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” Not our merit, but His wounds! Not our works but His death. Not our penance, but His payment. Our older brother has paid our way into the family. That’s substitutionary atonement. Tim Keller tells the true story of two Chinese brothers who lived in SF in the early 1900’s. The younger brother was rebellious and eventually killed a man one night in a gambling brawl. He fled in bloodied clothing. Arriving home, he hid his clothes, put on some clean ones and ran. But the older brother saw it all and knew the police would be coming soon. So, he put the blood-stained clothes on and when the police came they immediately arrested him. Being similar height and build and looks, being brothers, the older brother was convicted and eventually executed for the crime. But guilt plagued the younger boy. He eventually came forward in great contrition and confessed to authorities what had happened. But they told him, “It’s too late. The crime has been paid for. We can’t arrest you. You’re free to go.” Well, that’s just what our older brother has done, Beloved. He paid our price. Charges can never be brought against believers. Rom 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation. No judgment. No penalty. No guilt. The price has been paid by the Father 2 through the Son. If you think about it, at the heart of this parable is a question. How do you turn a God who is a “consuming fire” of holy intolerance of sin into a loving and forgiving Father? The answer is twofold, His part and our part. First, payment must be made to cover every violation of the Father’ holiness. Jesus did that on the cross. Second, the guilty party must leave the far country and come to the Father – accepting the grace He freely offers. That’s our part. Jesus has done His part. Question: have we done ours? VII. God Dresses Us Up (Imputation) Did you know being forgiven is not enough to get us into heaven? It’s not. That’s one side of a two-sided coin – no sin. The other side Jesus tells us in Mt 5:48, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” You say, “Isn’t sins forgiven, perfect?” No. That just gets us to neutral. Innocent. Like Adam and Eve pre-fall. Not sinners – but not righteous either because they hadn’t been tested. Heaven requires tested righteousness. That’s the clothing. The Father could have told his son, “I forgive you, but go bunk with the slaves.” But He went way beyond that. 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.” He forgave him – and then he clothed him. A beautiful picture of imputation. You say, “Impuwhat?!” Imputation. Imputation means to attribute something to someone they don’t deserve – credit their account. Unseen, this happens the moment one comes to faith in Christ. All the righteousness of Christ is attributed to that person – credited – imputed to them. And all their sin is imputed to Christ on the cross. It’s an amazing transaction. II Cor 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The Father imputed our sin to Him so He could justly impute His righteousness to us. There is no greater verse in the Bible than that one. Picture it this way. The moment we commit our life to Christ, the Father removes the stained and rotten clothing of our own righteousness (just like the prodigal) and replaces it with the perfection of Christ. And thus it stays forevermore. From a judicial standpoint, we are now wearing “the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil 3:9). That doesn’t mean we never sin again. We do. And that sin needs to be confessed and forgiven. I Jn 1:9 says to believers: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Does that mean we get saved and unsaved again and again? 3 Not at all. As Judge, God has already removed our sin “as far as the east is from the west.” But as family, the need for forgiveness is constant. Jesus illustrates in John 13. He’s washing the disciples’ feet. Peter is appalled. 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” You see Jesus’ point. Once saved, you can’t get unsaved. You’re judicially acquitted. God as Judge is forever gone. But God as Father remains. We need confession to continually restore the joy of the family relationship. But the big question is settled. Imputation clothes me forever in the righteousness of Christ. John Stott marvelously describes imputation: “For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that belong to man alone.” That’s the Father that Jesus knows and depicts in His parable. Groucho Marx despised clichés. So he got a letter from his bank once that ended with the cliché: “If I can be of any service to you, do not hesitate to call on me.” Marx returned a letter. “Dear Sir. The best thing you can do to be of service to me is to “borrow” some money from the account of one of your richer clients and credit it to mine.” I don’t imagine he got that help. But we did. If we are in Christ. The Father has removed all the sorry, grudging efforts we ever made to ingratiate ourselves to Him along with the completely selfcentered, self-righteous, self-serving thoughts and actions that comprise our daily lives – He’s removed those from our account. And He has replaced them with the absolutely perfect thoughts and actions and words of our Lord and Savior. And when He looks at us now – that’s what He sees. Beloved, imputation guarantees that not only are sins forgiven, but now you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Every right thing He did is now imputed to you. Remember the hymn: “When He shall come with trumpet sound, / Oh, may I then in Him be found, / Clothed in His righteousness alone, / Faultless to stand before the throne! / On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; / All other ground is sinking sand.” That’s imputation. VIII. God Takes Us In (Adoption) 4 Of course, the prodigal did not need to be adopted. But even as he hopes for nothing more than slave status, his sonship is renewed. 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe (“a robe, the foremost one” -- what the patriarch would have worn to the party he is about to throw – he gives to his son), and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand (the father’s signet ring with which he stamped documents. It is a sign of authority bestowing all the rights and privileges of sonship to this young man), and shoes on his feet. Thus the old slave spiritual – “All God’s chillun got shoes. Only family got shoes. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. The calf kept ready for a very special occasion – a wedding feast or visiting dignitary. It could feed 200. You didn’t kill the fatted calf for slaves. This father is pulling all the stops to celebrate his repentant son. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. He was dead to the father – gone and out of his life. But now here he is, not a son returned as a slave – but a son who was lost and is now found. What a picture of our heavenly Father. Is it hard to imagine God being this excited about you. But He is! That’s what Jesus is doing here. He is giving us a glimpse of the Father’s joy over every believer. There is a difference. Of course, we are not children being renewed to family status. Rather we are those lost from birth, turning to God and being adopted into the family of God. Are you a believer? Well, here’s how you got there! Eph 1:5, he predestined us for adoption as sons Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” How did that happen? Gal 4:5, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” And what’s the result of all that? Rom 8:15-16, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And perhaps best of all, Heb 2:11 tells us, For he who sanctifies (Jesus) and those who are sanctified (believers) all have one source (God the Father). That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. Before God the Father, Jesus proudly calls you and me His brothers and sisters. Contemplate that for the next week. Adoption. What a special relationship with the Father that implies. Most of us have no idea the treasure we have been given in Christ. And adoption is a major facet of that treasure. J. I. Packer in Knowing God, certainly one of the Top 10 books of the 20th century, says this, “What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is 5 that a Christian is one who has God as Father. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption. The truth of our adoption gives us the deepest insights that the New Testament affords into the greatness of God's love. Were I asked to focus the New Testament message in three words, my proposal would be adoption through propitiation [the appeasement of God’s wrath against sin thru Christ’s death]." How special is adoption? Can you imagine? God has stepped into the world of fallen human beings; He has pointed His mighty finger your direction and said, “I want you. I choose you. I adopt you. Welcome to the family.” Conc – Let’s conclude. Jesus has shown the Father provides atonement for sin, clothes us in the righteousness of His own Son, Jesus, and throws a monstrous party to celebrate our becoming His children! Because we deserve it? No. Because, like Oprah, we accomplished it? No. So why? Just because, Beloved, “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4). It doesn’t get any better than that, assuming we choose Him back! David Platt, who wrote Radical, tells in Follow Me how he plays a game with his son. He points to him across the room and yells, “I love Caleb!” and the boy yells back, “I love Daddy!” But one day Caleb stopped laughing, looked at his dad and said, “You really love me?” David answered, “Yeah, buddy, I do.” Then came the dreaded question: “Why?” “Because you’re my son.” And then another, “Why?” That caused Platt to think for a moment of all the factors that had led he and his wife Heather to Kazakhstan; all the ups and downs of the adoption process; the agony of wondering if they were ever going to have children. He teared up as he thought of all that and then said to Caleb, "You’re our son because we wanted you. And we came to get you so that you could have a mommy and daddy." Beloved, we can’t fix the Niagara Falls of our failures. It’s way beyond us to do. But we can have a Father who can – if we will choose Him. Doesn’t it take your breath away for a moment to hear God say, "I love you"? To which we, in our sinfulness, must certainly respond, "Why?" And then to hear him answer, "Because you're my child." To which we ask the obvious question, "Why would I, a hopeless sinner, now be called your cherished child?" Only to hear him say, "Because I wanted you, and I came to get you so that you might know me as Father." Atonement. Imputation. Adoption. We can’t do any of that. But -- What God demands, God supplies for those who choose Him. Let’s pray. 6