The parable of the prodigal son
comes in Luke. In the beginning of Luke, Jesus
is beginning to have conversations with people of the town. The
Pharisees and scribes are beginning to put a little bit of pressure
to him. He's feeling the wrenches and the pliers of what they're
saying. It is one of 46 parables in the Bible. What father in
their right mind would say to their kid, here's one third of
your inheritance? I wouldn't. There's a reason
why his father gives it to him. Because the illustration is this,
it shows us the reflection of the amazing indulgence that God
shows towards us. You want to know why? Because
even when we are sitting directly against him, he allows us to
fail and to fail miserably. Look at the indulgence that God
even grants us once we've made a profession of faith. Unbelievable
to think that he's so long-suffering towards us. So there's a reflection
of exactly what the father represents in letting this kid have his
indulgence. Now, this is what I find interesting. Five particular
things, maybe six particular things about the father. Number
one, he sees the boy coming home from afar. Two things with that. Number one, does it mean he was
looking for him? Yeah, man, it was this kid. Now,
I don't know when my boy's coming home from college, but if he
calls me up and says, yeah, I'll be home, I start looking at my
watch about the time I think he needs to be home. I want to
look from a near to when his car pulls in the driveway. I'm
not looking for my 96. The father, it says, was looking
for him from afar. Now, I find that to be really
nice because I know a God that has written my name in the Lamb's
Book of Life and has seen me from afar. How far? Before the very foundation of
the world, He knew my name would be written in that Lamb's Book
of Life. How about this one right here? Depart from me, you workers
of iniquity. I never knew your name from afar. Man, that's catastrophic. That's
eternally catastrophic. I don't want to do that. I don't
want to have God say to me, depart from me, you workers. But Lord,
we did all these great things in your name. Depart from me, you workers
of iniquity. I never knew your name. I was never intimate with
your name. I was never writing your name
in the Lamb's book of life from afar. Number two, he runs to
the boy. Isn't it God's upside-down economy
that God would run to us? That he's out there chasing us? Pastor Clark likes to use the
word, the hound of heaven is chasing us, right? Once he gets
on your side, he's chasing us. Because the scripture is very
plain when it says, no one seeketh after God. So now we have the
upside down economy of a Jewish father who's in robes running
to his prodigal son. Not a very distinguished look
for a Jewish father. Number three, he hugs and kisses
his son all over in celebration. I still hug and kiss my kids
hello and goodbye. It doesn't matter. They're my kids. They'll
be my kids forever. They're the third greatest gift
that God's ever given me, my wife being number one. And I
love to hug and kiss her hello and goodbye. She's mine. God
gave her to me, and I'm with her. And my kids, God gave those
kids to me. And God gave me to them. I'm
going to hug and kiss them every chance I get, because there will
be a day when there's no more of that. This is what blows my
mind. He doesn't admonish the boy.
with I told you so's. There's no interrogation, no
denigration, no investigation. When my kids go to the mailbox,
I say, where are you going? Who are you going with? How long
are you going to be gone? What are you going to do out
there? Dad, I'm just going to the mailbox. It's right over
there. But the father doesn't do that, does he? When we come
to our loving Father's arm, does he say, okay, Kyle, now, where
were you back in, where were you back in 85, Kyle? Okay, he
doesn't do any of that at all. He accepts us with an open arm
because the sin debt has been paid in full. Do you really think
God needs to ask a rhetorical question like, hey, where you
been? He knows where we've been. That's why His Son went to the
cross, because He knows where we've been, and He knows what
we're doing, He knows what we're thinking, and He knows where
we're going. That's the crazy part. So, where's the money I
gave you, by the way? Do you have an Excel spreadsheet
with the details and receipts? Yeah. Doesn't do any of that.
Nor does our Heavenly Father say that to us. He puts a robe
on Him. Are we not robed in the righteousness
of Christ? He puts a ring on him to signify
royalty and an acceptance and a replacement back into the family. Do we not have the ring of Christ?
Because what more? We're children of the king. That
means we're royalty. We can never be removed from
that. God is our heavenly father, which means we're a child of
the king. And if he gave his only begotten
son, what more can he give to us but eternal life and love
and acceptance unconditionally? This is the best part. He puts
sandals on the boy. The Pharisees would know what
this means the sandals represent he was no longer a slave by having
no sandals on his feet he's a taken person and We're having the sandals
that Christ because we're accepted into the family of Christ from
the very foundation of the world our sandals our robe and our
rings are all there and telling the world, we have a Heavenly
Father, we have a double imputation. My unrighteousness gets cast
onto Christ. His righteousness gets put onto
me. That's the robe of righteousness. My feet are covered by the sandals
of the shed blood of Christ. I'm off the slave market of sin. And now I'm a bond servant. I'm
a bond slave to Christ. Think about the kid. Think about
his lostness. Think about what the father does
in accepting him back. He's running. He's indistinguished.
He's breaking these rules. He's kissing his kid. He's making
sure that everybody knows, Hey, this is my boy. My boy has come
home. My boy, not your, I don't care
about your boy. My boy has come home. And that's
what he's saying. He orders a celebration. My son
was once dead. Now he's alive again. There isn't
a parent here who wouldn't love to proclaim that my son is alive
again. He was lost and now he's alive. My boy has come home. My lineage, my love, my everything
has come home in my boy. My namesake, my genetics, my
past, my future. He has come home. He's come home
to a welcoming Father with open arms, just like we can come home
to the open arms of Christ in our Father. J.C. Rye once said,
one single soul saved shall outlive and outweigh all the kingdoms
of this modern world. So now let's turn to the fatted
calf. Not usually people talk about the fatted calf in this
story, but it's actually the best part of the story. There
is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. And what
does he do? He takes not just the calf, he
takes the fatted calf, the prized calf. God doesn't just use any
bull and goat. He takes his only son and sheds
his blood for the remission of our sins. That is the fatted
calf in the story. It is Christ and him crucified,
a celebration of a sinner coming home to the Lord. God did not
spare his only son for the remission of our sins. We are the sinner,
that is me. We are saved, that is through
Jesus. The sacrifice was Calvary and the celebration is eternal
security. All in one line that says, kill
the fatted calf, the prized calf. It wasn't that he had a choice
of how many calves. There was one calf. It wasn't
like God said, well, let's get him. No, no, no. He had one son. It wasn't like he could pick
one. One, I love my boy, man. I love my daughter. I don't know
if I want to give up my daughter. I don't want to know if I want
to give up my son. It's tough. One, he had to give it up.