A Pharisee In Twenty Four Hours

Glory to God! I never saw a week so full in my life. I want to share with you from Luke 15 this morning. You have your Bible.

And there are spiritual principles which we are basically interested in in order to, as we mentioned last night, this business of spiritual progress. And I've done some work in church history and background of movements and fresh visitations of God, the outpouring of God's Spirit, even as we've experienced it during this week together. And I'd like to read the whole chapter, if I may, just read it with some feeling and perhaps we could get a new grip on this chapter.

And I want you to mark a key word. I just found this recently, a key word through the whole chapter. And the key word is rejoice, rejoicing.

And I'll read. And as we come to that, we'll just make note of it and we'll underline it in our Bible and lay hold of it, please. Luke chapter 15, beginning to read at verse one, Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners, for to hear him.

This is the situation. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. And he spake this parable unto them.

Now, if you can remember, this is the context for the chapter. Something happens immediately in our understanding of the stories that follow. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth on his shoulders rejoicing.

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you likewise, Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety-nine just persons which need no repentance. Either what woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which was lost.

Likewise I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. And he said, A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.

And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him unto his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with a husk that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger.

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father.

And when he was a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight am I no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.

For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field.

And as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of his servants and said, What is going on in there? He said to him, O your brother hath come home, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry and would not go in.

Therefore came his father out, and entreated him. And he answering said unto 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. And he said unto him, Son, Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost and is found.

Amen. Let us pray together. Amen.

Father, we thank you for the quickening of the living word of God. I ask you to help me, Lord, to share the thought that you've put on my heart with this people. Bless us together as we open your word for Jesus' sake.

Amen. I was reading this just devotionally when I was, when this word rejoice, joy, make merry, begin to pop out of the scriptures. And so I went back through the scripture and I just marked it for myself, rejoice and make merry.

And then I think I found the theme that Jesus was speaking when he spoke to the Pharisees and the publicans. I mean, the Pharisees and the, yes, and the scribes when he said they were murmuring at what was going on. Now, what actually was going on was a revolution was happening.

This man, Jesus, had come into their midst and was breaking all of the laws. He was changing things all around. He was upsetting just everything that they had always known.

And so, uh, when the scribes and the Pharisees drew near, he began to teach them these three parables. Now, often we make the emphasis of the parables on that which was lost. And this is very real and very legitimate, but that was not the thrust of what he was saying.

The thrust of what he was saying was what happens when these people who have been lost, when they come into God, when they come back to find Jesus, when they find out what's going on, what are you getting mad about when things began to be rejoiced and to be happy. When I came home from the Navy, I came back to my church where I was saved in. And, uh, I walked into my church and I'd been, I'd been saved about 10 months by this time.

And I'd just received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And I walked into the church and I was full of the joy of the Lord. And I tell you, I thought everybody who spoke in tongues was ready to go to heaven.

And I, I walked in there and I was so happy. And I met one little old ladies at the door, I guess about the second time I had gone to church after I'd been home. She said, Bob, I said, yes, ma'am.

She said, I got news for you. I said, what is that? She said, you know, that joy you have? I said, yes. She said, that doesn't last.

She said, just a little while, you're going to be just like we are. I said, my God, no, Lord, no. All right.

So I said, um, I honestly, I said, Lord, I'd rather die. Just, you know, just, just, you know, hit me with a lightning bolt and take me home. Because I looked around and I thought, dear Lord, what's the matter with these people? Now I'm not saying that to cast aspersion on anyone.

What I say that for is to try to share with you what did happen to those people. See, because I want you to know today and in the, in the height of all that God has been doing for us this week, that you can turn into a Pharisee in 24 hours. Do you know what? Now look, here's the thought.

See, the thrust was this. The thrust was he was going out, finding that which was lost, and he was bringing it home and he was all happy and everyone was happy. Now, what we want to talk about, if we can, was this elder brother for a little while.

Now I don't want to preach on the son. Everyone knows about the son coming home and the father greeting him. But I thought, oh Lord, I sure would like to preach sometime.

I'd like to understand what was wrong with that boy. See, now I, if you let me draw you a little picture, you let me draw you a little picture, I think I can tell you what was wrong with him. See, now this morning, you see, the son had gotten his inheritance and left, and he'd been backslidden, been away from God, and he reckoned up and everything was fine.

But you see, the fact that he was gone made him to be the most wonderful thing alone in his father's house. See? And he was all by himself, and every morning he'd get up and he'd go through his regular routine and regular ritual. And as he would go through his ritual, this one morning finally, you see, and the house was getting darker and they had the shades pulled down, there was dust in the place, you know.

And every morning he'd get up and go out to the field. Well, you see, in 24 hours, I don't know how long he was out in the field, but while he was out in the field, brother came home. See? And when he was out in the field and he came back and stood in the middle of the field and he heard music and dancing, you know what was wrong with him? He failed to make the spiritual adjustment.

Now listen to me. God is moving on. Do you believe that? See? And every, in every era and in every aspect, the Lord God has been moving in what is called in the scripture progressive revelation.

God is continually opening new things to the church. Now, I love my Roman Catholic friends. I love my Lutheran friends, my Calvinistic friends.

I love my Wesleyan and Methodist friends. But I'll tell you something, church, please don't get left in a revival of the past. See, what happened was when we became Lutherans, we got Luther's writings and we got them all together and we all studied them and we wrote them all down and then we shut the book and we said, that's what we believe.

We're Lutherans. The only trouble is, God kept on moving. See? And then came Calvin.

Then came Wesley. Then came other men. And there's a continual new fresh truth as God is continuing to unfold his purposes in the earth.

Now what happens, what makes you an elder brother is this, the minute that you settle down and say, this is what we believe, we don't believe anything else, in 24 hours you can become a Pharisee. Because there comes a spiritual crystallization in your spirit and the minute you crystallize and become hardened, God begins to move on and you're left in a visitation of the past. 1900, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, what is called the Pentecostal movement.

Now I tell you before God, many of those will stand out in the field and get angry to hear singing and dancing in a CFO meeting. They don't believe that. That couldn't be.

If there's going to be any singing and dancing, it's going to be in my church. But beyond that, here's what happens. You see, we have a strange kind of a thing that operates in us.

We're always afraid what's going to go on in Father's house. Somebody said, well, Brother Mumford, I saw you folks all dancing and swaying and laughing and all carrying on last night. We don't do that in our church.

I said, that's why you're not in your church. Now, what happened was this. The two boys were born together.

They're two sons. This is important now. These two sons were both sons of the same father.

We're going to see something happen in a moment. The one son, now forgive me when I say this and I don't say it with any sense of animosity or injury or hurt. One son became religious.

And the other one took his portion and left. Now, the analogies you can follow through on the analogies. But I often wondered which one was in the greatest danger.

See, I personally feel, and I say this with all the love that I know how, I personally feel it is religion that keeps men from God. The most dangerous thing, one of the most dangerous thing in all the world is to become a Pharisee. It is a greatest miracle in all the world.

When a because I went to all the seminary and all the college and I was, and honestly, as quickly as I knew how, I was becoming an elder brother. Because I was set out to defend my father's house. And I didn't want anything to go on in my father's house that I didn't approve of.

So one day I come back from the field, I'd been out preaching, walk up and see the shades had been lifted and the rugs had been pulled back and they were music and dancing in my father's house. You can't dance in here. I said, where are you supposed to dance? See, religion, listen, religion now, and I'm speaking broadly, religion squeezes out every ounce of emotional, the real emotional, squeezes it all out of our walk with God.

And then we have to go other places to find the emotional joy and the release that we need so badly. Hey, rejoice with me. Rejoice, be merry, make merry.

This is the theme of the whole chapter. When someone comes in from a life of sin and he comes in, like David Hoyt was sharing last night, these young men from Canada, when they come in from a life of sin and they want to express their heart and the joy and all that's been going on. Now, listen to it.

It's so easy to become a Pharisee or to become an elder. Now, let's look at him for a moment. Are you with me now? Verse 25.

We gather how, what time we done here? 1115. What time do we finish? 1115. Okay.

Verse 25. Now look, when the elder son left that morning, everything was decent and in order. Some people, some people get so, some people get so caught up on this decent and in order that they forget it says, let everything be done.

Right? First, you see, if you never want anything to get out of order, go to a graveyard. Nobody ever makes any mistakes. Nothing ever goes wrong.

Everything is in order. And my, is it quiet? But you see, that's the way it was when the elder brother left that morning. Now he was in the field and I guess he'd been there the morning or maybe the day, probably, uh, he probably stayed the day.

So it's about five o'clock or maybe six o'clock in the evening. How many of you know it's evening time? And listen, God is reaching out and he's bringing in many stray sheep. The harvest time is coming.

And as God brings in people from everywhere, as he brings them in, they come in with a, with a rejoicing and a heart full of joy and a desire to make Mary before the Lord. And so the father says, put the ring on his hand, kill the fathered calf. Glory to God.

Let's have a meeting. So, so he says, so, so father, it was father's permission. It was father's house.

Father said, okay, pull the rugs back. Let's have a dance. Pull the rug back, lift the shades, turn on the lights, kill the fathered calf, clean out the kitchen.

Glory to God. Let's have a meeting. So here comes brother home.

He's out in the field and he looks over there and he sees what's going on. And you know, it just tickles me. Jesus said this.

I didn't. He said, he said, what's going on? He said, your brother came home. What? He said, your brother came home and your father said, kill the calf because he received it.

And verse 28, come on, let's read it together. And he was angry. That's enough.

Let's just read that much again. Come on. And he was angry and would not come in.

I've seen people stand when there was a rejoicing and the dancing and the making Mary, I seen him stand there like that. I said, I slip up beside him. I said, honey, honey, why don't you try it? No, I will not.

Okay. Don't go in, but I love you anyhow. Right.

Because they don't want to go in. Oh, that dancing or making Mary or rejoicing or and I don't want to do that. I said, what do you want to do? I want to go to father's house where everything is quiet.

I said, all right. But you see, the thing was this. Now listen carefully, lest we miss the lesson.

The lesson is this. The minute that God does something new, you're faced with a spiritual adjustment. Is this right? Do you see what I'm saying? See what you remember me telling you when we talk about praise.

I went into a meeting where there was praise church. I didn't know anything about that. That's so foreign from anything I ever knew.

And I went into the meeting and they were all worshiping, lifting their hands and praising God. And I stood there and the Lord said, and I said, Lord, this couldn't be God. You know, I mean, only thing I ever knew was was was my reformed Episcopal background.

And this is the only thing I ever understood. And so so here they are. Everyone's lifting their hands and worshiping God.

And so I walk in. I've just been saved a few months and I walk in. I looked at that.

Now I have at this moment a spiritual adjustment to me. And so the Lord said, why don't you try it? And I said, I'm scared. Try it half-mast.

I said, all right. But see, at least I have enough to make a spiritual adjustment. I thought, well, if God's in it, I'll try it.

So instead of standing out getting mad, we'll get in and dance. And so I thought, well, I'll try it. Now, I've only danced three times in my life.

All three times, I couldn't help it. Three or four, I don't go into all that. But I'm not I am not.

You see, anyone who understands this isn't after some kind of an emotional jag. What they're after is the freedom to enjoy God and enjoy his presence when the spirit of the Lord is moving, that I might have the liberty to make merry and rejoice and hear the music and dancing in my father's house because he is bringing home all of the lost brothers. All right.

Now, here's what we want to I want to show you very quickly. I want to show you what was wrong with him. Four things that was wrong with the elder brother.

Don't let them happen to you. Now you're going to meet many of them. You'll meet many elder brothers.

When you go from this camp, you go home and say, oh, mother, daddy, we had the most wonderful time at camp. We were dancing and singing and worshiping and praising God in church. Oh, all right.

Now, look. Four things was basically wrong. Well, the premise now of what was wrong was he could not make the spiritual adjustment when God moved on into new truth.

When any new thing was coming in God, we wanted to crystallize and harden, get all of our doctrines in a book. And this is what I believe. And I don't believe anything else.

And this goes for the Baptist, too. Charles, Charles and I were laughing. He said, we have a book called What Baptists Believe and Why We Believe It.

But you see, the minute that you shut that back cover, no matter what you write in there, if it's any less than this, you've already excluded yourself from something that God wants to do. What Mumford believes. And as he restores it, as the Lord shows us in the word of God and as he brings it to our attention by God's grace, we want to be in a position to make the adjustments that are necessary quickly.

Now, verse twenty nine, the first one. Now, these were the misconceptions. This is Luke fifteen twenty nine.

Now, there were four misconceptions that the elder brother had in his mind. And now these may be these may be something that will help you personally and help you to help others. The first one was this.

He thought the spiritual life was service, saved to serve, saved to serve. You weren't saved to serve. You were saved to be.

Now, the minute that we make Christianity to be some kind of service, we're missing the whole implication. My father does not hire his work to be done. He only lets his work be done by his children.

Is that right? He never. I suppose tomorrow in the Atlanta Times, there was a big ad, a whole page ad that says that says wanted preachers of the gospel, ten dollars an hour. Oh, no, father doesn't have any service.

In fact, he said, I call you friends. Don't call you servants. I call you friends.

You are blood of my blood, bone of my bone. You are my children. This is a family affair.

And when anyone gets hung up in this business of service, see here he was working for God. Quit working for God. Start working with him.

Amen. The Bible says the Bible says these words, and God worked with them with signs following. Now, I've met many people.

I said, I said, my young lady came to me. Some of you heard me share this. Young lady came to me when I was pastoring.

We had a, we were building a new church and the place was full and everything was great. And I thought I was a very successful pastor. And this young lady, about 19, come up to me and she said, pastor, are you in the move of God? I said, certainly I'm in the move of God.

Then I went home, got all my study in my study. And I said, Lord, what's the move of God? I didn't know God was moving, but I wouldn't let her know that. So I said, Lord, if you're moving in the earth anywhere, I sure would like to know about it.

Brother, that's expensive. But I tell you what happened from that moment. God began to show me that I was not serving him.

I was his son. And that the joy of serving or working with God is the joy of a father and son relationship, not like a servant in that sense of the word. All right.

The second one was this, and this is a wonderful testimony. Neither transgressed I at any time. What do you see in there a little bit? Little self-righteousness, maybe? Said, Lord, I've never really needed your grace.

I've been so good. Oh, now look, he didn't understand that Christianity or the genuine walk with God was something born in his grace. You see, when he said, neither transgressed I at any time, how many have ever gone to someone for help or counsel or sharing, and you begin to pour out your heart before them? They said, oh, you nasty man.

How could you ever get in such a jam? Because of a self-righteous attitude. Listen, when God sent Jesus into the world, he sent him for the sinners. Do you believe that? He sent him to those who have been in the gutter of life.

And when we stand and say, I've never done anything wrong. What a testimony to the glory of God. But you see, all right, the third one was this.

You never gave me a kid. Now, here's one of the reactions from the denominational churches and others who do not believe in any of the joy or the merry or anything. They said, well, if the Lord was going to do anything, he would do it in our church.

And I said, boy, I wish he would. I wish he would. But you see, the truth is this.

And Jesus corrected it right there. Verse 31, he said, son, all I have is love. Listen, there is not a church, there is not a group, there is not an individual in all of God's kingdom that cannot have and enjoy the merrymaking, the joy, the fatted calf and all that God has provided.

It is not a possession of any particular group. It is God's provision for his whole family. Do you think all are going to enter into it? No, they're not.

But its provision is there. All right. The fourth one is this.

I've got to hurry along. Verse 30, and it's very interesting, he said this. He had a wrong relationship to his brother.

Verse 30, he said, as soon as this thy son. Whose son is it? Come on, whose son is it? The father's son. Then who is it? Who is it as far as his relationship? His brother.

But he didn't want that. You know, I had five sisters and no brothers. I was raised under petticoat government.

And I used to be able to beat them all up, you see, until one day they ganged up on me. But I was the only boy, and I used to carry frogs in my pocket, and little grass snakes. In fact, I remember once tearing the pockets out of my knickers so that I could put green apples all down in the knickers, so the whole knickers was full of apples.

And my sisters were all sort of prissy, you know, and they used to say, you know, and I'd come in all sweaty and dirty from playing at the creek. And they'd say, little boy, go home. They didn't want to identify with me.

They said, boy, go home to your daddy. And I said, it's not my daddy, it's your daddy. Oh, they said, don't say that.

How many of you would suspect that you have some spiritual brothers and sisters that you wouldn't want to identify with? Are you there? I said, soon as this thy son. God said, wait a minute, that's not my son, that's your brother. He said, that's what I was afraid you were going to say.

See, because he says, for this, look at verse 32. See, he says, for this thy brother. Now, this is important because one of the things that makes you, one of the things that makes you to be a Pharisee is wrong relationship to your brother.

Now, if you have in your mind that walking with God is service, get it out. It will come, Ephesians 2, 9, 10, and 11, it'll show you that good works comes out of a whole new creation in Christ. Number two, if your problem is that you've never thought you've ever transgressed, what you need is a good shot of divine grace.

Luther used to say, we ought to sin once in a while just to prove to the devil we're saved by grace. Well, I don't think that's good doctrine, but I tell you, it's better than becoming a Pharisee. Number three, don't you ever misconceive your father's provision.

I don't care who you are or who it is that we were looking at this tape, I'm saying to you on the authority of God's word, the music, the rejoicing, the joy, and all that God provided for you is your provision, and you can have it in your church and in your group. Right. All right.

Now, let's just very quickly. The new person created envy. How many of you know that we can get envious awfully easy? See, I've been the organ player for the camp for 20 years, see, and in comes a new ministry.

See, he said, you know, Bob Mumford's here who plays in Carnegie Hall. Could you let him play the organ? But that envy, that thing, see, so when brother came home and they began to rejoice, envy started to work in his spirit. Second thing that really got him was this.

There was a new program. How many of you ever been to the weekly prayer meeting? W-E-A-K-L-Y. I went into my church one time.

I said, church, let's do something different, even if it's wrong. Dear God, let's break up this thing. I know this isn't the way it's supposed to be done, but you see, we get into a rut.

Now, listen, if you're around Georgia, you know what wagon ruts are. See, wagon ruts, that's right, that old red clay, when you get ruts in that, you see, and your wagon wants to go to the Jones farm and the ruts go to the Smith farm, you usually wind up going to the Smith's farm. If you get in the rut, your wagon just keeps running.

I said, well, then we're in there. But see, our idea is to get up out of the rut and then move into that program, which God is restoring to the church for this day. Don't get upset when people rejoice and laugh and dance, even if they kick their shoes off.

Like Derek. Yeah. But see, this is, this is Father's house.

This is the place where the rejoicing should be. Now, the third thing was this, they had the fatted calf was killed. What is the fatted calf? It's simply this, it's meat.

Good, solid Bible teaching. How many of you have been hungry for good, solid Bible teaching? Just let me see. Amen.

You know why? Listen, when I come to your house, I'm a meat eater. I really am. When I come to visit you, don't give me tuna fish casserole.

Don't give me the fancy old jello salads all piled up. Just meat and potatoes, corn on the cob. Amen.

Because you see, I'm hungry. When that son came back from a far country, spiritually, he was famished. And Father saw that and he said, you know what? As my children come in, I have some real meat in here.

Amen. Kill the fatted calf. Send Charles Simpson up there or Derek or Don Basham or one of these men, Jim Jones.

Send these men in there with some meat. Put some meat on the table. But I'll tell you where the meat is.

The meat is where there is music and dancing. See? And so he run all around looking for meat and get dried beef on toast. I said, oh, what I would give for a spiritual steak, two inches thick, medium rare.

I said, well, come on over to Father's house. I said, okay, I'll come with you. And they get, just get up to the front walk and they hear the music and dancing.

I can't go in there. I said, well, stay out and starve. I can't go in there.

I said, well, that's where the meat is. I don't mean, and I think you have observed during this week that it's not some kind of a rank emotionalism, but it is emotional. Rejoicing, joy, love, making merry, music and dancing are all emotional experiences.

And I need them. And you need them. And God has supplied our needs this week.

Has he not? Amen. Supplied our needs. Glory to God.

Glory. And, and the reason is because we have made many of you, I know many of you have made some very drastic spiritual adjustments during this week. That's right.

Yeah. And, and I just, listen, I have never been so impressed with the people as I have with this crowd this week, as I watched you come, hear the word, obey it, respond to it, and then watch God confirm it by power and signs and wonders. We, this is not, this is not the end.

This is only the beginning.