The Peril of a Critical Spirit

But halfway through seminary,
I had privilege to come home one summer. And I am here neither
to defend the ministry nor criticize the ministry of Billy Graham.
But I came home that summer to the Billy Graham Crusades, which
was all the buzz in Denver. And anybody who was anybody was
going to the Billy Graham Crusade and taking others with them.
And I did likewise. The church that I was attending
at the time particularly prayed for the crusade and was actively
engaged in it. We took a large group of young
people and for three straight, I think it was three straight
days, perhaps more, we took groups in there to the Billy Graham
crusade. And I’ll never forget one afternoon
I was sitting there and one of the people in our group went
forward, a friend of mine. And in time, after they made
it to the front and prayed, I migrated my way in reverse order through
the throngs that were coming back up the steps. I migrated
my way to the field to find my friend. Only to have another
join us just about the same time that I arrived. And I’ll never
forget the scene that here was somebody who at least had just
made a profession of faith in Christ. And our third and mutual
friend immediately said, now you need to receive the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. Immediately heaping on to this
person confusion and difficulty and controversial things. And it reminded me and really
has come to be, if you will, the flagship moment for that
kind of behavior because I’ve seen it a thousand times since
then. the enthusiasm of someone coming to know the basics. That
they are a sinner. That they are lost and damned
without Christ. And then suddenly coming to the
realization that God has done something about our sin. He has
sent a Savior. And they are being drawn to repentance. And in the midst of that, to
have somebody else heap something on them. I’ve seen it with Bible
translations. Well, you’ve made a profession
of faith, but if you’re not using the right Bible translation,
I’ve seen it with denominations. Oh, I know that you’ve made a
profession. I know that you say that you’ve
become a Christian, but have you considered our particular
denomination? That’s why I’ve said in times
past, when you’re sharing Christ, share Christ. Don’t share Providence
Bible Church. And don’t make their attendance
at Providence Bible Church a necessary end to your sharing Christ with
them. If they come to Christ, that’s
the goal. If they happen to come to see our church and visit our
church, so be it. I’ve seen it a thousand times
and so have you. People robbing the pure and simple
joy of coming to Christ that ought to be there in full. And
people, as it were, letting the air out and putting unbiblical
demands and unbiblical standards and unbiblical principles upon
this so-called new professor in Christ. It’s exactly what
we see this morning. That’s exactly what the Pharisees
were showing all along. And I want to take you back to
the beginning of chapter 15 in order to set the context. Jesus had been preaching the
gospel going from town to town, and we pick up the context immediately
there in verse one. Now, all the tax gatherers and
the sinners were coming near him to listen to him. We’ve talked
about that. We don’t know whether it was
hyperbole. We don’t know whether literally every tax gatherer
and every sinner was coming. What we believe is that most
towns that he went to, that was the norm. That was his audience. Those were the ones who were
listening. Those were the ones that were
being drawn to Christ. The tax gatherers, the hated
ones in the society and the sinners, the veritable outcasts, the dregs,
of the Jewish society. All the tax gatherers and the
sinners were coming near him to listen to him, and both the
Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble. They thought that
they had a legitimate complaint before God, and they were murmuring. And they were murmuring against
God Himself in human flesh. Both the Pharisees and the scribes
began to grumble, saying, this man receives sinners. And they thought, even worse
than that, has the audacity to eat with them. They thought that
they had finally narrowed down the chief of all of Jesus’ sins
and indiscretions so that this would be the one thing they could
pin on Him that would take Him to His death. They thought they
had Him. This man received sinners. in
their religious culture, an unthinkable thing to even talk and mingle
with sinful people. And by sinners, conjure up in
your mind the worst sins that society knows of. That’s the
people in view. The drunkards, the adulterers,
all of those kinds of things come immediately into view. And for the religious elite to
be seen in their company was just unthinkable. So they thought
they had Jesus. And as I’ve said in weeks past,
this testimony, if I was to preach one sermon, perhaps if I was
to have one sermon left to preach, this may be the line I would
preach. Their line. This man receives sinners and
eats with them. What a glorious truth. They thought
that they were saying it with disdain and they thought that
they had the goods on Christ. It’s the greatest news that humanity
has ever known. And Jesus immediately began to
explain to them, he told them this parable saying, what man
among you? He puts it back to them. What
man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them,
does not leave the ninety and nine in the open pasture, go
after the one which was lost until he finds it, and when he
has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing?” Again,
that beautiful image of a shepherd picking up this lost little lamb,
hoisting it on his shoulders, carrying it home with his feet
in front of him. The sheep wasn’t crippled. It never says the sheep
was crippled. It’s a picture of intimacy. between the shepherd
and a sheep and the rejoicing that takes place. You can’t miss
it. You can’t miss it. We saw not only in that passage
the earnest pursuit of the shepherd going out and looking, but then
we saw that tender care and not only the earnest pursuit in the
tender care, but the contagious joy because he wasn’t content
to rejoice alone. Remember those times in your
life? There are times when you can’t wait to pick up the phone.
Isn’t that right? The news is so good and so glorious and so
joyful, you can’t wait to share it with someone. And when he comes home, verse
six, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to
them, rejoice with me, for I found my sheep, which was lost. And
we looked at that word. And that little word lost is
what puts everything in context. We tend to think of something
that’s lost as something that maybe is misplaced. But this
word lost means utterly gone, destroyed with no hope of return. The shepherd went looking out
of duty. He went looking because he was a shepherd. That was his
duty by nature. But he knew that a little lost
lamb in the rocky landscape with all the wolves and the foxes
and all the calamity that a sheep could fall into, the hopes of
finding this little lost lamb were almost impossible. Jesus concludes this way in verse
7. I tell you, in the same way,
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.
That was his point. That was his point not only to
this parable, but also to the parable about the coin and the
parable about the son. That was his point. There is
joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. The very reason
for which Christ had come was being fulfilled. People were
coming to faith. They were falling on knees of
repentance and forsaking their sin and placing their faith in
Almighty God. in his plan of redemption. Verse
8, he tells a second parable. The second of three. What woman,
if she has ten coins, loses, utterly loses one coin? With no hope of finding that
coin, doesn’t light a lamp and at least look and search and
sweep the house. Search carefully until she finds
it. When she has found it, she calls
together her friends and neighbors. Again, that contagious joy. saying,
rejoice with me for I found the coin which I had lost. And Jesus’
conclusion, driving home again to the Pharisees and scribes
that were so dogmatically critical of him. There is joy in the presence
of the angels over one sinner who repents. What glorious truth. But then in order to drive the
point home, He narrows it down from one sheep out of a hundred
and one coin out of ten to one son out of two. Look back at verse 11. For the
third parable, Jesus said, a man had two sons. The younger of
them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate
that falls to me. There’s the heart of his rebellion.
The core of his being is a desire to go off and do as he pleases. We saw that it was literally
one of the most harsh, horrible statements in all of Scripture.
It almost has the equivalent of saying to his father, I wish
you were dead so that I could have your money. Give me the share of the estate
that falls to me. So he divided his wealth between
them. And not many days later, and here comes the rebuke. Not
many days later, the younger son gathered everything together,
went on a distant journey. journey into a distant country,
and there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now, when
he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country
and he began to be impoverished.” There is the gracious and glorious
rebuke of God that he’s used in many of our lives. Perhaps
not famine, but some difficulty ordained by God to bring you
to knees of repentance. That’s exactly what happened
to him. First, he had to hit rock bottom in verse 15. He went
and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country
and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have
gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were
eating and no one was giving anything to him. I told you then,
I think that means that the landowner, the swine owner, wasn’t even
allowing him to eat the pig’s food, which wasn’t even nourishment. It was just something to fill
his stomach. No wonder, verse 17, when he came to his senses,
and here is where repentance begins. He said, how many of
my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying
here with hunger. I will get up and go to my father. I will say to him, Father, I
have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer
worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired
men. Great speech. And it would have been a great
speech merely if he hadn’t actually gotten up and done something
about it. That’s true repentance. He truly
repented of his sin. He got up, verse 20 says, and
came to his father. See, a lot of people stop at
the end of verse 19. They purpose to do a lot of things
and they never really practically repent. They never really practically
walk away from their sin. They never really, truly returned
to their father. So he got up and came to his
father. And here we begin to see the restoration. But while
he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion
for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son
said to him, Father, I’ve sinned. And here he starts his speech,
doesn’t he? He’s got it all rehearsed, perhaps scribbled out on a three
by five card. Father, I’ve sinned against heaven
and in your sight, I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.
And the father cuts him off in mid sentence. The father said
to his slaves quickly, bring out the best robe and put it
on him, put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring
the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate.
Just as the shepherd had done with the lost sheep. Just as
the woman had done with the lost coin, it was only fitting and
right that a lost son produce much joy upon his return. And that’s exactly what the father
concludes in verse 24. For this son of mine was dead. That’s the sense in which he
was lost. The father had given him up literally
for dead. He was dead and he has come back
to life again. He was lost and has been found.
And they began to celebrate. What great words, what great
and accurate words those are. Because the celebration really
will last through eternity, won’t it? The celebration started the
day that you fell on knees, repented of your sin and placed your faith
in Christ. And it won’t stop for all time. It won’t stop. What a glorious thought is that
they began to celebrate. And the form of that verb says
that they began with no view to an end. except one. And that’s where
we want to start this morning. Verse 25, Now his older son was
in the field. And as you see, where else might
you expect to find this older son but in the field? He was
working. His whole life, his whole heart was wrapped up in
work. It wasn’t wrapped up in relationship, even with his precious
father. who had shown himself already
to be a good and merciful man, a patient man. Now, his 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
and began inquiring what these things could be. And he said
to him, your brother has come and your father has killed the
fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.
But he became angry and was not willing to go in. And his father
came out and began pleading with him. But he answered and said
to his father, Look, for so many years I have been serving you
and I have never neglected a command of yours. And yet you have never
given me a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.
But when this son of yours who has devoured your wealth with
prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. He said to him, son, you have
always been with me and all that is mine is yours. But we had
to celebrate and rejoice. For this brother of yours was
dead and has begun to live and was lost and has been found.”
This passage at hand regarding the older brother is really the
ultimate thought, the ultimate point of this whole chapter.
Remember, it started with those critical Pharisees saying that
this man receives sinners and eats with them. And Jesus set
about to turn the tables and to call them to repentance for
their harshness and hardness of heart. And that’s why I said
at the outset, it isn’t so much an evangelistic message, It certainly
isn’t the message that should be just crunched down and limited
to our teenage and wayward, rebellious children. It’s a message for
all. And it is evangelistic. It has
been called in times past the gospel within the gospel. And
that’s true. It’s certainly accurate. But rather, the whole point of
the chapter is instructive regarding the all too common attitude that
is seen in the older brother’s reaction. And it wasn’t just
in the Pharisees. People, I would present to you
today, just like I did at the outset, that it is seen too often
in the church. This attitude, what I would call
the peril of a critical spirit. I see three dangers here in this
little passage that are brought on by that fault-finding attitude,
that critical, suspicious, harsh attitude that questions everything
that a new believer does, that wants to bring a new believer
on to where they are immediately, remake them after our image, There’s three dangers brought
on by this critical spirit. First of all, a sound follower
of our Lord Jesus Christ will seek to avoid a joyless suspicion,
a joyless suspicion. Don’t you know people like that?
I’ve said it before, they look like they go around like they’re
weaned on a dill pickle. And they’re just, they’re critical
of everybody. They’re suspicious of everybody.
Somebody prays and they think that he’s putting on a show.
Somebody serves somebody and they say, well, there must be
something in it for him. Nobody can do anything legitimate
in their sight. They are cynical and critical.
They are terrible. They’re cancerous to be around. Joyless suspicion. Look at verse
25 at the older brother and his model. His older brother was
in the field. That’s where he lived. As you
will see, he took no enjoyment from life. He took no enjoyment
from the relationship with his father. No enjoyment of life
whatsoever. His life was in the field. Where
else could we expect to find him? It’s one of the greatest
understatements in all of Scripture. Now, his older son was in the
field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and
dancing, which has given Baptists shivers for hundreds of years. This self-righteousness that
this man is engaged in is sin just as much as his brother’s
unrighteousness. He was so smug. In fact, in essence,
the way that this whole thing plays itself out, it may even
be a worse sin than his younger brothers. When he doesn’t go
in immediately, immediately what you can conclude from that is
he was suspicious. He was questioning whether what
his father was doing was good and right and proper. He was
doubting his own father. He was suspicious even of his
own father. clearly an indication of his
bad attitude. And in so doing, Jesus presents
in this parable the clear picture of the foolishness of the Pharisees
for criticizing Him. Remember, that’s the point of
this whole parable, is to put it back into their face and to
say, look at the way that you’re behaving. The Jewish religious
leaders Jesus said, we’re manifesting a spirit that was out of harmony
with God Himself. God was elated at the repentance
of a sinner. God loves sinners and was drawing
them to Himself. But not these. And isn’t it so
typical? This envious, suspicious nature
that we have. It’s so typical. One said that
envy is found in our hearts by nature to the spiritual good
and advantage of others. As soon as we begin to see someone
else manifesting gifts that we long for, we’re angry at them. We’re critical and envious of
them. As soon as we see that they own some benefit that we
lack, we’re suspicious. We’re suspicious of their motives.
We’re suspicious of their success. Well, maybe they stole to get
where they are. We’re critical. We’re critical
by nature, critical at heart. Even the best of God’s people,
he goes on, says, who, if they narrowly search their own hearts,
will find something of pride and envy remaining even in the
best of them. Are you exempted from that? Even
the best of God’s people? You know that that’s at the core
of our being. That suspiciousness. That joylessness that looks so
critically at everybody else. He concludes by saying, as the
former prompts them to judge themselves as much deserving
the favor of God, so the latter inclines them to complain of
the way that God dispenses His grace. We’ll come back to that
thought in a moment. But that’s what’s at the core.
We don’t like to walk up to music and dancing. Because for us,
life has too often become a drudgery. A joyless drudgery. We’ve lost joy long since. The
effort, the labor, the toil remains. The joy is long gone. There is
no relationship. We haven’t cultivated the relationship. And because of it, we’re empty.
And when we hear music and dancing, we come apart. We don’t think the best of others
all the time. We have what is called in so
many circles a critical spirit. Suspicious of everybody and everything. We’re sour. That was true of the Pharisees.
And it was true of Peter. Mark took us right up to the
edge today, and I was so afraid that he was going to start preaching
my sermon. Turn back to John chapter 21.
You can do that any time if you want, by the way, Mark. Turn back to John chapter 21.
Essentially, what Jesus was doing there in John 21, if you think
back to John 19, Peter had just denied the Lord three times.
He essentially, in John chapter 21, chucks the ministry. And
when he says, I’m going fishing, another profound understatement,
Peter was going back to his trade. He was chucking the ministry.
And Jesus will have none of it. And that’s the interchange that
takes place there in John chapter 21. Jesus reestablishing Peter
in the ministry. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. That’s what you have been called
to do. Not to catch fish. Look at verse 18. Jesus continues
his exhortation to Peter when he says with apologies to whoever
is doing this reading next week, I’m going to steal it all. Truly,
truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird
yourself and walk wherever you wished. But when you grew old,
when you grow old, you will outstretch your hands and someone else will
gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. In other
words, Jesus tells Peter and he lets Peter know, look, I’m
putting you back into the ministry and it’s not all going to be
rosy. It’s going to be a very difficult road. Look at verse
19. This he said, signifying by what
kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
he said to him, follow me. And I love this. Peter turning around, saw the
disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who leaned back on his bosom
at supper, it’s John. leaned back on his bosom at supper
and said, Lord, who is the one who betrays you? So Peter, seeing
him, said to Jesus, Lord, don’t we do that? Don’t you do that? You know you do. Somebody gets
something. Somebody receives some kind of
an award. Somebody receives some kind of
blessing of God. Lord, did you forget that maybe
they, Lord, He says, what about this man?
How come he doesn’t have to go around drawn by the hands where
he doesn’t want to go? What about this man? That’s what
Peter’s saying. And that’s what we do. We have
lost our joy. We’ve lost the relationship with
God. And now we’re critical of everything that God does. We’re
critical of the way that He dispenses His grace. That same tendency. of some to live in this sour
and lifeless world, critical of anyone who would enthusiastically
enjoy life and God’s blessings. We have such a tendency to be
critical of them. But there’s a second peril here
in this passage. Not only the peril of a joyless
suspicion, but secondly, the sound follower of our Lord Jesus
Christ will seek to avoid an angry isolation. Angry isolation. Look down at verse 27. This is
the adult version of pouting. He said to him, the servant,
your brother has come, which should have been enough right
there. Oh, that’s enough. My brother. My brother. My brother’s
come. He’s come back. He’s alive. That
should have been enough right there. The older brother should
have done some sanctified interruption of his own. That’s enough. That’s all I need. My brother
has come. Your brother has come. Your father
has killed the fattened calf. Something that the father shouldn’t
have had to explain himself in. But the servant offers the explanation. Your father has your brother
has come. Your father has killed the fattened
calf because he has received him back safe and sound. He didn’t lose His life. He didn’t
destroy His life. He’s not marred for life by His
sinful experience. He is safe and He is sound and
He is back inside with our Father. But, which is always a difficult
word to swallow after a message like that. What a glorious truth.
This is exactly what Jesus is pointing out to the Pharisees.
Exactly what they were doing. But he became angry and he was
not willing to go in. The problem resided in his heart. It wasn’t that he wasn’t invited.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t expected. He became angry and was not willing
to go in. And his father came out and began
pleading with him. First of all, note how unkind
and ill-natured the self-righteous man can be. I mean, here is a
person who was rescued from the teeth of death itself. And all
he can think about is his own feelings. One characterized it this way
and said that the older brother is an exact picture of the Jews
of our Lord’s time. They could not bear the idea
of their Gentile younger brother being made partaker of their
privileges. You see, they thought that there
was somehow a measure of God’s grace. And that if it was dispensed
far and wide, if it was dispensed to these sinners, that somehow
they were going to get a decreased measure. The older brother is
an image of the scribes and the Pharisees, but also an image
of a large class of the church of Christ in the present day.
Those are hard words to hear, aren’t they? But they’re true.
There are often times when we are improper isolationists. We are separatists with a bad
spirit. There’s nothing wrong with being
separated from sin and we are commanded to do so. But Paul
said in the world, but not of the world, he, in essence, said
in First Corinthians, if you wanted to avoid all sin, you’d
have to leave the world. He didn’t call us to that. And
Paul takes great pains to try to clarify what he means there.
We are supposed to be involved with sinners. We are supposed
to be involved with their lives. They are supposed to be in our
home. We are supposed to give them rides in our carpools. Sometimes we withdraw so far
from the world, what kind of influence do we think that we
could have? What influence do we really think
that we could have on this fallen and darkened world? That was the feeling of the Jews
toward the Gentiles. They wanted absolutely nothing
to do with them. They would pick their times in
the marketplace so that they were uncrowded, so they wouldn’t
even have to walk on the same street. Certainly, not to brush
up alongside of one of them. And for Jesus to receive them
and then to sit down and eat with them was so repugnant to
the Jew You know what? We’re not that
far removed. We’re just not. I don’t like the behavior of
some of the college kids in this town any more than the rest of
us. But you know what? They’re lost and they need Christ
in so many cases. I don’t like the behavior of
some of the people that I work with. I don’t like their language.
I don’t like their attitudes. which is just a constant reminder
to me of their desperate need of Christ. One pastor characterized it this
way, he said, self-righteousness and exclusiveness are sinful
and may be as fatal as extravagance and sinfulness. Did you get that? This attitude that you have that
somehow now you are above interacting with sinners That is an even
more fatal attitude than the sin itself. Because now somehow
you think you’ve arrived. You’ve forgotten the grace that
came to you. You’ve forgotten the grace that
saved you. I know of a man who pastored
a church in a little town whose policy it was not to invite the
unsaved to church. That was their policy. That’s
what had been taught for the pulpit for 20 years. And the
attitude in the town was that they were second class citizens.
The explanation went like this. We’re supposed to do our evangelization
out there and we’re supposed to do our fellowship and worship
in here. We don’t invite unbelievers into our church. It would have taken years. If
ever you could have changed the mentality of the church, then
it would have taken many, many, many more years to change the
attitude of the townspeople. The whole town knew of the church’s
attitude. They were kept at arm’s length.
They were second class citizens because of this, you know, Arminian
mindset that thought that we had contributed. We had embraced
Christ. The rest have not. And so they
are outcasts. Sad. One Puritan said it this
way. He said, men begin by not seeing
their own sinfulness and unworthiness. That’s what was happening with
the Pharisees. They thought they had arrived. The last thing they
thought they needed was repentance. Men begin by not seeing their
own sinfulness and unworthiness, and then they fancy that they
are much better than others. Haven’t you seen that? And the
sad thing is, haven’t you seen that in yourself? and that nobody
is worthy to be put by their side. It arises from a lack of
love. People are lacking in kind feeling
towards others and then are unable to take pleasure when others
are saved. The man who really feels that we all stand by grace
and that are all debtors and that all of the best of us have
nothing to boast of us and have nothing which he has not received,
only this man will be found talking like the older brother. Such
a man will not be found talking like this older brother.” Did
you get his point? If we really believe that we
are saved by grace alone, in Christ alone, then how on earth
could we be so proud as to hold a sinner, no matter how filthy,
no matter how sinful, How could we hold Him at bay? How could
we keep from loving and embracing Him? There’s a third peril.