Maybe some hearers of the gospel are like this. They are ready to worship outwardly, but they won’t enter the kingdom. You don’t realise what is at stake, so you don’t go in. It doesn’t occur to you, that you must come under judgement. This hasn’t penetrated your heart. Some think it is adequate to say, ‘I believe in God’, but they keep tight hold of their own lives. ‘I come to church, that is enough.’ Yes but you don’t walk with him. The Christian church is full of formal people who have never truly been converted. They have never had a personal encounter with God, guidance and assurance from him. You can’t say, ‘I will go’, and then do nothing. You must enter in. One day he will be your judge. Inaction is rejection of God; you must act. This second son is a picture of those who don’t rate the kingdom of God highly. They just want the world around them. They want all for immediate gratification. Are we lightweight towards God, no thought of account?
Also the second son wasn’t even moved by what happened to his brother. He must have been aware of the action of his brother. We hear of others who have come to Christ and been deeply changed. They have said, ‘I have made up my mind, no matter what I thought at first, I am going in now.’ We are aware that some of them were dead set against the gospel previously and there has been a remarkable transformation in them. How do we explain it? Do we look at them as though nothing has happened? We have perhaps tried to turn away from our sin, and know how impossible it is, what a strong grip our sins have on us, and yet we see that these have broken free. Those changed lives are part of God’s message to us that leaves us without excuse.
Are you in the kingdom of heaven? Can you come and worship insincerely for weeks, months, years? Don’t say things to God that you don’t mean; it is an insult. Don’t think, ‘I can say one thing and do another. It doesn’t matter if I reject God – we are all going to heaven.’ This second son didn’t think the vineyard was a place he wanted to be. So many think the Christian life means having to give up this, and give up that, and go about with a long face. You think the kingdom of God is boring. But no, this is the only place you get an explanation of everything – why the world is as it is, an explanation for our existence, a consistent philosophy of life. We have sins that distress us, and he helps us cast them out of our lives. He makes us kinder people, people who know his answers to prayer. You have some pleasures, but a lot of unhappiness and disappointment. Nobody has ever said, ‘The Christian has made me unhappy. I wish I could go back into the world.’