to turn back in your Bibles to
Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. We are privileged now to look
at what is our Lord's ultimate aim in these three parables that
essentially are addressing one primary theme with some very
important subordinate themes, and that is God loves to save
sinners. That is the proclamation of the
good news of the gospel. God not only saves sinners, but
he loves to save sinners. And as we are about to embark
upon this portion of the account in Luke 15, you might want to
know that this is one of the most famous parables of all of
our Lord's parables. the world that the parable of
the prodigal son is one of the most utilized parables in all
of literature and history thousands of sermons have been written
and preached out of this portion of scripture which means the
lessons that are inherent in these several verses between
verses 11 and 32. And our Lord reserves the larger
portion of his discourse in these three parables, the parable of
the sheep, the shepherd and the sheep and the woman and the coin.
He reserves the larger portion for the parable of the prodigal
son, as we have come to note it. But the parable of the prodigal
son is filled with lessons, filled with instructions. It must be
for preachers to have preached 12 and 15 and 20 sermons just
on the prodigal son. Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached
12 to 15 sermons on these few verses. He was one of the most
prolific preachers in the 18th, 19th century in Europe. And he
had a great insight into the word of God and he loved the
gospel of God's grace and for him, the parable of the prodigal
son in relationship to the salvation of sinners was key. And I pray
that as we work through this, we will learn some lessons as
well. Our Lord, I imagine, is delighted now to bring forth
the most conspicuous, the most evident aspect of his teaching
in this parable, as he would set forth before his auditors,
the listeners of his day, the right perspective on God the
Father in relationship to dealing with his children. Jesus Christ
is setting before the auditors of his time, those ragtag of
sinners who loved to hear Christ. That multitude of outcasts and
ungodly men and women who loved to hear the preaching of Christ,
Christ now brings them to the place where they need to be.
But He's not only targeting them, the outcasts, the downtrodden,
the real wicked, the famous ungodly people, but he's also targeting
the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians that are there
as well, the rulers of the church. You see, the parable of the prodigal
son is designed to get everybody. Everybody's going to get something
out of this parable. It will be very pointed. It will
be very straightforward. It will be very penetrating.
The goal of Christ in setting forth this parable is to straighten
out the faulty notion of religious men and men in general as they
would think God to be. It is natural for us to believe
God to be so remote and so far away and so distant that he doesn't
care about our plight. That's natural to us. It's natural
to us when we don't know God in a saving way to depict him
as careless. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
is about to straighten out this notion, particularly in relationship
to God the Father. So in the account, you will note
a theme. A certain man had two sons. I call that a theme because we've
learned in theology that the Bible sets forth what we call
patterns in the scripture. A pattern is a model that runs
through the scriptures several times. So a father having two
sons is the way the Genesis account opens up. Adam had two sons. Abraham had two sons. So the
two son parable runs through the scripture so that we can
get a full scope of God's objective in the redemption of sinners.
And so this is where our Lord opens up his discussion on the
parable. So today we're going to deal
with the parable as you have it in your outline of the prodigal. And next week, the Lord willing,
we'll deal with the second portion of this parable, the parable
of the prodigal's father. And then the subsequent week,
we'll deal with the parable of the prodigal's brother. And we'll tie them all together
and try to understand the gospel in its comprehensive nature that
way. If you read carefully what our
Lord said in Luke chapter 15 verse 11, opening these words,
He sets forth what is called a very common, a very normal,
historical, cultural, domestic event that was so common to the
children of Israel that everyone listening to this parable understood
precisely what he was saying when he unfolded the rich narrative
of this particular parable. I'm sure we don't get it today.
So I'm looking forward to expounding on this because we need to understand
very particularly what our Lord is getting at. So as we address
the parable of the prodigal, understand that the prodigal
son is the individual with which Jesus is wanting to raise a mirror
up so we can all see ourselves. I don't know if you know it,
but you are a prodigal. Pastor, what's a prodigal? Well,
go find out and then draw the conclusion. That's what I am. And so today we're gonna get
a chance to look at ourselves a little bit as we unfold this
the parable of the prodigal son listen to verse eleven and twelve
again and he said a certain man had two sons it could be two
daughters but injury there was the patriarchal system and the
patriarchal system was designed order to establish the relationship
between the fathers and the sons so that the coming of that ultimate
son would enter into the world but certainly daughters can be
viewed here those of you who are daughters put yourself in
this place a father had two children and the younger of them said
to his father father I Give me the portion of goods that falleth
to me. And he divided unto them his
living. Verse 13. And not many days after
that. The younger son gathered all
together and took his journey into a far country and there
wasted his substance with riotous living. Now, our Lord is immediately
pulling at the heartstrings of everybody that's listening, because
if they would put their feet in the shoes of this boy, they
would have something with which they can say, I identify with
him. Well, what happened to this boy? What's going on with this
younger boy? that caused him to want to take off from home
and kind of explore the world and do his own thing. What's
going on with him? Well, in our present generation,
in the 21st century, we would just say he's curious. He wants
to be independent and find out life for himself. That would
be a noble attribute were he were being commended by this
present world generation. I think our teachers, and I think
our educators, and I think our psychologists, and I think those
who are in authority over us would suggest that this younger
boy is being the wiser for taking off and leaving his father's
home and going to find out what life is all about for himself. But I'm going to share with you
what I think is going on with this boy. Is that okay? I think
that this boy has lost his mind. I think that he has lost his
cotton-picking mind. I think as young people have
a tendency to do is go insane. Just blow a fuse. Just lose some
synapses that connect the brain in certain places where rational
thinking goes out the window. And I'm going to share with you
just within these two verses why I say that. And I think our
Lord really wants us to understand the insanity The utter insanity
of our depraved nature when we think we can do life without
the blessing of our upline. The insanity of thinking you
can go out and deal with this wicked world and survive it without
mom and dad. The Lord Jesus is speaking to
a people who understand something about covenant and understand
something about the importance of the relationship between parents
and children. So you can follow me in your
outline. This will help you to see what's going on. What did
he do? He lost his mind. He lost his... In fact, we know
that, right? Because one day he came to himself,
didn't he? We'll talk about that. But when
your children leave the house and they're, you know, they're
saying, father, mom, I gotta find my own way in life. I've
got to learn what life is all about. You can't always lead
me and guide me in what I'm gonna do. I need to learn this for
myself. And we'll say, go. We want you to go. Go. Go head
on. Go head on. But we want you to
understand something. When you go, leave everything
behind. Because since now you want to
be autonomous and self-sufficient and independent and an individual
thinker, we want you to survive on your own. Don't be dragging
out of the house when you go. But see, this boy had his whole
mentality discombobulated for what we recognize is that he
inquires of his dad to possessions that he knew were his by virtue
of his relationship with his parents and So he comes in his
request and he says in verse 12 Give me the portion of goods
that falleth out to me. Do you see that? That's pretty
arrogant, isn't it? I mean he's being honest, but
what it's rooted in is selfishness It's selfish It's utterly selfish. Now I'm going to tell you what
happened. He lost his mind and therefore he failed to value
the proper things. His value system was turned all
together upside down. So let's consider point number
one in your outline. The son's demands. Because he
came to his daddy demanding. This is in the imperative. Give
me. In essence, he said, Pops, I
want mine. Now doesn't that sound like our
young people today? I want mine. So in your outline, if you follow
me in your outline, there are five things I want to share with you.
First of all, he was utterly and totally selfish. Now that
does not surprise us. Those of you who are parents
today, one day you were just like that. Am I telling the truth? There was a day when we had lost
our mind and we really didn't think that we had a mama and
a daddy who brought us into this world. Nurtured us cared for
us provided for us raised us up to the point that we were
and by the time we hit 16 17 years old We kind of thought
that we just popped on the scene on our own and can just live
life like we want to But in fact the matter what had happened
was this and I want you guys to hear this I remember when
God revealed this to me. I was about 19 years old. He
revealed to me how selfish I was as a teenager. Well, that was
after he converted me and But he revealed to me how selfish
I was. I remember distinctly at a certain age, about 15 years
old, having privileges that I probably shouldn't have had, but I was
part of this fallen culture, so was my parents. And as part
of this fallen culture, we are far more permissive to our children
than we ought to be, than it is for their good. Now, I know
this is backwards, and I know some of you parents are getting
ready to pay the price with your children for this message, but
let's just hope God uses it, okay? Can we hope that God will
use what I'm about to say? It is not healthy for us to be
permissive with our children. It is not healthy for us to think
that the way to have the best relationship with your children
is to give them anything they want. That is not good. That
is not good. It is not good for them. It's
not good for our relationship. But it does cater to the spirit
of this generation. And I think that there's an underlying
phobia and an underlying fear that emerges from the authorities
with which you and I are all affected, that if we would act
otherwise, then we would be guilty of abuse and guilty of other
kinds of crimes of selfishness and not respecting the individuality
of our children. But I'm here to tell you if the
parable is right, and it is, our children are to be instructed
by their parents and prepared to deal with life when they leave
and not before. And that to merely just let them
go, to just let them go, to just let them go is for us to be derelict
in our duty. So, you know, I've only got a
couple of kids left and I'm really, I got a tension in me. because I've got a couple of
kids left and I really want to engage my children very much
on a fundamental level the way I did with all the rest of them
but I'm already paying the price for having taught them the gospel
and raised them up under the nurture and fear of the Lord
I'm already paying that price so I have to be a little bit
more judicious and wise as I deal with the last few because in
a minute it will be a legitimate crime for us to raise our children
up under the gospel in a minute in a minute. The rhetoric and
propaganda that will dominate the airwaves will be that Christianity
through and through is an abusive gospel. It's already targeting
him who loved us and gave himself for us. The whole doctrine of
the atonement of the propitiatory work of Christ, his propitiation,
is held out as abuse on the part of the psychologist. Why on earth
would a father do what he did to his son like God did to Christ
and that not be called abuse? Do you see how they are targeting
the heart of the gospel? heart of the gospel. So the notion
of discipline and correction and chastisement is something
that is going to be so unpopular in a few years that some of us
will be spending our spending time behind bars because we loved
our children. You see how they're calling evil
good and good evil today? I'm just saying I'm happy to
preach it to you today and I won't go to jail today but a few years
from now I'm going to jail for this. Because I can tell you
why. The parable of the prodigal son
tells me that even after I train my children right, they will
still act in a way that will just about send them to hell. Our children will still act in
a way that will just about send them to hell. Because they will
know that there's a time in which they can break away from the
relationship of their parents and do what they want. And they'll
do what they want because they will want to prove in their ignorance
that they're wiser than us. It's just true. So I want to
show you five things in the son's demands that are worth meditating
on. First, he was utterly selfish. Give me mine. We have to tolerate
that. Give me mine. In that selfishness,
however, was another malady, another attribute, another characteristic
that's often not too far from young people in relationships
to their parents. And that was his demand was hateful. It was
utterly hateful. I'm going to help you with this.
I want you to understand the difference between anger and
bitterness and selfishness and egotism and hatefulness are so
narrow that it's hard to distinguish. One will become hateful when
the most important thing to themselves is themselves. The hatefulness,
however, that emerged out of this boy, you don't see it in
our text, but you would understand it inherently if you knew the
Bible. When he says to his father, give me the portion that falls
out to me, what he knew was that his dad would have to go through
what is another one of the points in our first point is a troublesome
task to have to divide up the inheritance and give the younger
child his portion now that in order for that young boy to get
his inheritance because that's what he's asking for that the
father would have to take that which was given to him by his
father and then bring in all the officials and divvy up the
lot that was given to him. Not only the lot that was given
to him by inheritance, divinely laid out to him by God Almighty,
but the fruit and benefits of his labors that made that family
prosperous as well. The boy now wants his slice of
the pie, which means dad has to divide up everything right
now. That's troublesome. And that's
why our Lord in the narrative made it very clear that what
the father had to do in acquiescing to the response and demand of
the boy was to divide unto both of the boys all his living right
now. That's a lot of trouble. Land,
livestock, homes, trees, fruit, all of the stuff that was given
to him by inheritance from his father, he has to now divvy it
up. The courts have to get involved.
The officials have to get involved. It has to be divided up The boy
discovers the younger boy discovers what his father actually had
in store for him And the other portion is left to his big brother
in the law. It tells us in the book of deuteronomy
chapter 21 You don't have to go there that a double portion
was to be given to the firstborn and then Appropriate portions
are to given to all the other children because there were only
two sons the The last boy, the younger boy knows that he would
get one third. Well, this is quite interesting
as we will be making our way to the older boy. He now knows
what his inheritance is. He didn't know it before, but
he now knows it, which is going to be also remarkable to consider
on a psychological level down the line. But the younger the
younger boy has told his daddy, I want mine. But listen to me,
children of God, for him to make that request, essentially to
say to his father, I wish that you were dead. That's in Jewish
law. Because the division of the property
was to only take place when the father died. We've been learning
that in the book of Hebrew. Hebrews chapter 9 teaches us
that the testament or the will wherein the inheritance lie.
stipulations and precepts and Appropriations is to only be
given after the death of the testator So that what the boy
was saying is I wish you were dead So what's mine can be given
to me now so I could go on about my business You see how offensive
this request was to the father He was selfish He created trouble
in the family behind this because everybody in the family now has
to deal with the business aspect of the home. Now, come on, Saints.
You know, like I know, whenever money comes up in the family,
the vultures and the jackals and the dragons and the vampires
and the werewolf start just coming out. The fangs come out. Relatives
get mad, ugly and mean and vicious when that occurs. That's why
we don't talk about money in the church, which is an abomination
to most churches. But money, as I heard one guy
said the other night, money is demonic in nature if you don't
keep it in its proper place. It's demonic. Money is demonic
in nature. This is why you find people doing
some of the most hideous things for it. This boy is governed
by a very dark spirit right now. A very dark spirit right now.
I wish you were dead! Which goes into what I call the
contemporary thought of young people who have been deceived
by the insidious doctrine of this present world system that
it's wrong for you to have parents who exercise authority over you.
I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you the truth. Daddy,
I wish you were dead. I wish you were dead. The other
thing that this boy's demands do is demonstrate his own foolishness. What do I mean by that? Listen
to what it says in verse 13, part A. And not many days after
that, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey
into a far country. Do you see that? What do you
mean foolishness, pastor? Well, he wasn't even wise enough
to understand that you save a portion for a rainy day. No, he cashed all of his in,
got all his money. Now he took all of it and cashed
it in so as to leave the household with not one dime left at home,
which means he was saying to his parents, are you ready? I
don't care about this home at all. I'm leaving and I'm leaving
for good. I'm not coming back. And I need
you to understand that because that's where Christ is in the
development of the attitude and character of the prodigal son.
The prodigal here has just cut himself off from the whole family.
He has demonstrated himself to be dead to his family and his
family dead to him. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is why in Middle Eastern cultures, ladies and
gentlemen, when children leave the family, and particularly
leave the religion of that family, the family counts them as dead.
Of course, isn't that what the father said? My boy was lost. And my boy was what? Dead. The son basically said, I don't
have any need for dad. I don't have any need for my
family. I'm wise enough. I'm prudent
enough. I'm sound enough in my own rationale
to be able to make my way in life. And he was foolish enough
to think that the resources that he had acquired from the inheritance,
which he didn't earn, would sustain him in his life, which he knew
nothing about. That's foolishness. foolishness. And it was also destructive.
Now, by way of typology, here's what God did. I want to show
you a gospel truth before we go on to the next point. God
told the family, that the parents are to store up for the children
and not the children for the parents. Isn't that what God
said? That the role of the parents is to provide an inheritance
for the children. I want you to learn something
right here. The inheritance that God called us to store up for
our children is not material goods, it's not land, it's not
property, though that might be the case. but to store up for
the children an eternal inheritance, an eternal wealth, an eternal
resource, so that what we are to pass to our children of any
significance is the gospel of the glory of God in Christ. That
our children should be the beneficiaries of parents who know God and know
Christ and pass to them the resources of eternal life. Am I making
some sense? Now watch this, God had stated
in the law, Numbers chapter 36 and Numbers 27, that within each
family, this is how much of a closed-loop system this was supposed to be.
That within each family, the father would receive an inheritance
from his father, he would pass it to his sons, and his sons
would pass it to their sons, or daughters, and it was to stay
in the family. In other words, as I told you
before, the gospel never starts with you, and it never ends with
you. That the gospel has always been
designed to look two and three and four generations down. Therefore,
you know what this boy was doing when he cut himself off from
his parents? He was so selfish that he wasn't even providing
an inheritance for his possibly soon-to-be children. See, for
him, the gospel terminated with him. The message of redemption
ended with him. He had no plans since he took
all his resources to be ready to raise a family and then in
turn pass the inheritance to his own children. Now, saints,
do you know what that is? That's being dead in trespasses
and sins. That's being lost to God. And
therefore, what I want you to hear in this first portion of
our message, the boy that is left home is not a saved Christian
who then somehow backslid. He's a lost man. He's dead in
trespasses and sins. He's blinded to the riches of
the gospel. And he has, like Esau did, sold
his birthright. It's the same thing. Remember
Esau? Hungry, sold his birthright. At least he sold it to his brother.
But he sold it when he didn't really have the right to sell
it. And so this younger boy takes all his resources, turns it into
cash so that there's nothing left for the downline. And he
heads on off to a far country. Now, before we deal with the
far country, I want to share with you the father's five fold
response. I want you to mark this because
our master does this. He does this intentionally. Are
you ready? As he sets forth the parable of the prodigal son,
he depicts the father as being sane, as being reasonable, as
being thoughtful, as being wise, and unmoved. As being sane, reasonable,
thoughtful, wise, and unmoved. By the time we get to the prodigal's
father, You and I will come to understand that those attributes
means that he loved his boy. He was sane. He was wise. He was unmoved. In other words,
here's what I want you to see. There are five responses. I'm
going to share four with you now. The fifth one will emerge
throughout the text and we'll deal with it next week. The first
thing that you know is that when the boy comes to his father to
make the request that his father does not argue with him. There's
no back and forth. His father is not engaging with
him to try to reason with him to get the boy to understand
the unwise decisions that he's trying to make. Don't get me
wrong, that would be okay to do, I suppose. But the fact that
in the narrative we do not find the father toiling to reason
with this boy is because the father understands precisely
at the moment the way the boy is thinking. Now, sometimes we
will be charged as fathers because the whole depiction in our secular
culture is that we're dumb and stupid as an ox. It's just the
way that is depicted. You're a buffoon and you don't
know which way is up and you definitely don't know what the
kids are thinking. That's just generally the way things go in our present
culture. This is really an anti-father culture. You do know that, right?
It very much is across the board. And the sentiment sips into even
Christians where the Christians sort of tacitly approve of disdaining
their father, disdaining the wisdom of the father, disdaining
the prudence of the father, disdaining the way the father works because
the father is not catering to their fallenness or their weakness. But he's doing that because he
loves them. But they don't interpret it as love. The father doesn't
move. He doesn't argue. He listens,
but he doesn't argue because he knows that the moment that
he raises an objection, because the boy is driven by his passion,
all it's going to do is create more argument. And the wise father
understands arguing tip for tat would be for him to relegate
his authority and become equal with his son and just argue and
banter back and forth. And a father doesn't need to
know that. The second thing the father knows is when the boy
opened his mouth and made the request that he did, he knows
that that boy fully thought through what he wanted. And that the
best thing for him to do when his boy had come to him with
the demands that he did was to let him have what he wanted. We understand that ultimately
and regrettably that the best teacher in the world experience
we would love for them to vicariously live through the errors that
we have made but they don't they choose to carve out their own
path and you have to bite your tongue and simply say okay here
we go am I telling the truth so he doesn't argue But also
what you will not find in the text is that he does not confirm
this boy in his dream. It fascinates me. I use the word
dream advisedly. It fascinates me how today really
there's an idol that dominates the whole world and it's called
the idol of youth. It's a youth idol. I want you
to hear me now. It's a youth idol. The youth are being lifted
up because they're dumb enough to be deceived by this dialectical
process. This propaganda scheme that dominates
the whole world They're dumb enough. And then they're also
dumb enough to actually do the bidding of this world system.
This is called in Marxism, just being a useful idiot. Am I telling
the truth? So that the enemy knows that
the goal is to get the children. This is fascinating. This is
utterly fascinating. When Adam and Eve failed, and
it was Eve who was in the transgression, we talked about that at length,
the devil came in, turning the whole model upside down, speaking
through a snake to deceive the woman. First of all, the woman
should have never talked to a snake that put her on the level of
the animals But that's the culture we live in today, right human
beings are animal and animals are on the same part She should
have saw the devil coming But once he got in through denying
God his sovereignty and man his preeminence over creation Then
the thing got flipped upside down and the goal of the devil
is to go after the children. It's always the case It's always
the case And God has to work wisely to set up institutions,
particularly in the family and the home, in order to safeguard
the children and give them what is necessary so that when they're
on their own, they can at least stand half a chance in this battle.
I'm making some sense. I'm making some sense. And so
he didn't argue with it. Neither did he confirm him in
his dream. Listen to me, Saints, the children of God who have
gone through troubles and difficulties and understands the nature of
this world. We don't delight in evil. I don't
delight in carnality. I don't take any pleasure in
the world's agenda. I don't listen. Listen very carefully.
I am fearful. of how free men and women are
living today. My soul is vexed by the lack
of fear of God in our culture. And my soul is vexed and troubled
by the boldness with which men and women venture into things
that tells me, as David said, do you know the transgression
of the wicked instructs my heart and tells me there's no fear
of God before their eyes. No fear of God. And so I cannot
endorse or sign on to a dream that amounts to self-destruction. I can't do it. I'm sorry. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? Sure. Obtain a vocation. Acquire
a skill set. Get some tools. Make an honest
living. But be noble about it. Be principled
about your life. Don't take on an occupation or
a lifestyle that's going to bring ignominy and shame to your family.
Don't do it. Don't take on some of these more
scandalous occupations. Don't do it. If you do, we may
let you go. But listen, I'm not going to
rejoice in iniquity and those things that promote it. I'm not.
I already see the whole world headed to hell. Daddy you're backwards. I know
I know I'm backwards and I'm stuck in my backwardsness because
I have a prism of Interpretation that I see through the Word of
God that tells me we have already started calling evil good and
good evil And I know the wages of sin is death and I see the
destruction at noonday. This is why he's called a prodigal.
I See it I see it. And you know what else I see?
I see that parents don't have the ability to actually even
influence their children no more, anymore, even with sound doctrine. This boy failed to value the
proper things. Let me enumerate some of this
before we go on to our third point. Here's what he failed
to do. He wanted power. Everybody wants power. He wanted
authority. He wanted to be self-determining.
He wanted resources. Who doesn't want resources? but
he wanted it without relationship. He wanted all those things without
a relationship, and therefore he detached himself from his
father. He thought that the inheritance would be enough to satisfy him. Now listen to this, saints. Living
life without God is the chief mark of human depravity. Living
life without God is an evidence that you are dead. And I want
to make this very clear. It doesn't mean that you have
to be going out and our daughters don't have to be, you know, dancers
at a strip club. And our boys don't have to be
out selling drugs. All they have to do is live life
without God. And you're dead. You're dead. See, what he did was leave the
home and go into a far country. So now I want you to mark this,
here it is, watch this. He would learn that liberty without virtue
is what? A curse. What the boy would learn,
I've learned it, I don't know about you, but liberty, give
me mine, give me my freedom, without virtue is a curse. that none of us need to be given
the privilege or right to be free if we don't have also with
it the principles of virtue and character by which we can live
a productive life in our freedom. And what else he would learn?
He would learn that he doesn't have intrinsic to himself the
natural wisdom, the skill set, the prudence, the discretion,
the discernment to make right decisions in those difficult
tasks. When he got out there in that
far country, he made a mess of his life, didn't he? Because
wisdom and prudence and discretion and character and principles
are not something intrinsic to us. We have to be taught these
things. God has to teach you how to be wise. God has to teach
you how to be prudent. God has to teach you discretion.
God has to teach you right and wrong. God has to teach you to
see good and evil. God has to teach you to see the
evil afar and make the right decision. God has to teach you
that. But this boy cut himself off from God. He was assuming
that he had within himself the ability to make it on his own.
He found otherwise. Like so many people today tragically
find out they can't even straighten out their checkbook. The father's five-four response,
he didn't argue, he didn't confirm him in his dream, and he did
not go after him. How pathetic it is when you see
parents running all over planet earth trying to catch up with
their children and help them every time they slip and fall
in their dreams. Isn't that wacky? Every time you turn around, mom
and daddy right there trying to deliver them from their mess. The father in this text does
not do that. Now, who's giving this parable? Remind me again,
who's given us this parable? Jesus. Oh, OK. All right. So
if you have any question with the way the narrative is unfolding,
talk to Jesus. See, because I know I'm going
to get some hits, but I'm going to let you know. No, I didn't
write this narrative up. So I see the father not arguing
with his son. I see him not confirming him
in his dream because I know dad in this context is aware that
his dream is a nightmare. He didn't go after him. But he
also did not deny him. He also did not deny him. In
other words, he understood that ultimately. Every one of us has
to find out for ourselves that God is right and we are wrong. So he let him go. And you know
what he found out? That boy was a fool. Now, a fool
in the Bible is an individual whose whole objective... This
is what the Bible says. The fool in the Bible is the individual
whose whole objective is that their heart might be discovered. I want you to hear me now. A
fool in the Bible spends all their life trying to find out
what's in their heart. Don't you understand that's what
makes you a fool? Because the heart is wicked. It's deceitful, it's devious
and it's wild. And many women that say, you
know, I'm getting ready to go find out who I am, who I am,
who I really am. I need to know who I am. Well, you're going to find out
that all you are is a fool. Please listen to me. You're getting
ready to find out that you don't know anything, and you don't
have any virtue, and that you're filled with lust, and you'll
make the wrong decision every time. And especially if you dare
to live without Christ, you will make a fool of yourself eventually.
Eventually. So I'm getting ready to get into
the dynamic here. The Son intuitively knows. that if he's going to
even remotely attempt to be successful at his scheme, he cannot move
three blocks away from mom and daddy. So the text says he went into
a far country like leaving California and going to Venezuela or Italy
or Russia are grilling some remote part of the world where it would
take some time for the news report to get back to my house, what
kind of fool you're acting. And even once it gets to me,
I can't do anything about it. Cause you know, I am not spending
any money to get on a plane to come down there to deal with
you. Now people leave home with the
intention of not having to bear in mind what mama and daddy will
tell them about their decisions. So the text says, and after many
days, not many days later, as soon as he got the inheritance,
not many days later, he gathered together to everything and he
took his journey into a far, far, far country. Now watch this
next construction. We're getting ready to develop
this. And there wasted his substance with riotous living. There, that's
the location, that's the scene of the crime. It's called the
far country. He wasted. That's our verb for
the adjective that goes with the son. He was a prodigal. The word prodigal means to waste.
To waste. To waste. He was a prodigal. He wasted. He was a wasteful
son. We're going to develop that.
He went there and all he could do with his resources was to
waste them. To waste them. To waste them. Where did he go? He went to the
far country. The far country of what? Of darkness.
Point number three in your outline. Are you there? The far country
of darkness. In the Bible, the far country,
the language of far country means a separation between two entities
far enough to make those two entities at odds with each other. For instance, you and I, when
we are lost and in sin, we are far from God. You who are afar
off, afar off, far from God. That's the condition of the Gentiles. And the Bible describes that
in Ephesians 4 as being separated from God, separated from His
covenant, separated from the promises of God, without the
life of God. That means unregenerate. It means
dead. It means to be given over to
the vile passions of our fallen nature in a greedy way because
we are far from God. Now, you guys following me? Jesus
came from a far country when he came to redeem us. He came
from glory. He came from the place where
life is, where righteousness is, holiness is, hope is in order
to redeem us. He had to come from a far place
because we were in a far condition. And what the boy was demonstrating
by leaving his father's home and going where he went was that
he was lost. He was dead spiritually. And
his life was filled with his primal nature, his fallen nature,
and all that he wanted to do was fulfill the lust of his flesh. Therefore, what we're getting
ready to talk about now, I want you to grasp. Please do not make
the mistake of romanticizing sin. Do not make the mistake. See,
here's the problem. It's bad enough that sin deceives
us, doesn't it? And sin will tell you that this
is just a little thing. But that's what the Bible says.
Be careful of the deceitfulness of sin because it will harden
your heart and it will strap you with cords. It will bind
you and then it will punish you. But it first will allure you,
seduce you, and then it also will give you pleasures. This
boy had left his parents' home and all he discovered was that
he was a sinner by practice because he was a sinner by nature. The
only thing he could do with his resources was sin. Now, why?
Because he was foolish enough to think that his resources,
without being connected to the source, would sustain him. And nothing could be further
from the truth. He was in the far, far, far country of sin. Saints, you know what the Bible
says in John chapter 3 verse 19? Are you ready? Men love darkness
rather than light. In a fallen, unregenerate state,
you will not come to the light. God will not be the source of
your determining factor. When you are unsaved, you get
as far away from God as you possibly can. Because the light will shine
on you and expose your motives. And when we don't want God running
anything, we run from God. We run from God. The boy ran
from his father. He ran from his father's home
because of what his father's home represented. And out there
in that dark world of sin and deceitfulness, he gave himself
over to, listen to what it says, the wasting of his substance
with riotous living. Do you see that? Riotous living. Riotous living. The deeds of
the son here, the quintessential act of making provision for the
flesh in Galatians chapter 5 verse 13 Paul says brethren we've been
called to liberty but do not use your liberty as an occasion
for the what flesh to fulfill the desires there so now watch
this the boy uses liberty for nothing but an occasion for the
flesh now he's in the far country follow me for a moment in the
far country The far country is not a geographically far country
for us. It's just leaving one group of
people who think one way and joining ranks with another group
of people who think another way. Can I say something? You can
live in the same city with the people of God and be in a far
country. You can be in a far country with
that group of people and that association of people who do
not know God, who do not love God, and in many ways are just
like you. They came up under the Word and
left the Word because they didn't love the Word, and now they're
developing their own culture. And so can you imagine this boy
in this far country? And in the Jewish mindset, they
know where this far country is. You know what they call it? Gentile
country, where people are not under covenant, do not follow
biblical principles, don't have the order of God. Gentile country.
And Gentile country is called the unclean country. The unclean
country. In Gentile country, there's no
right or wrong, no morals. fornication, adultery, homosexuality,
lesbianism, pedophilia, uh, greed and lust and idolatry and all
of these things, these are not moral issues for them. This is
just however you want to do it. That's the far country. Now imagine
with me for a moment in the far country, what the dialogue is.
Are you ready? Well, the dialogue is, you know, I'm planning on
doing this and if the universe helps me out, I'll accomplish
this goal. You know, they're personifying the universe these
days, right? If the universe what you think the universe gonna
do for you, but throw you in hell on judgment day But the
universe now now when they use the term universe now follow
this when they use the term universe They're denying God the revelation
of who he is His personhood and their accountability to him.
See we really all want God not to exist when we're unsaved and
So I'm hoping the universe will work a thing out for brother.
I'm I'm guaranteeing you the universe ain't gonna do nothing
but let the law of providence work So this boy is out in this far
country and I know what's going on in his head He's thinking
this is this is cool because he's got resources, right? So
he can pay for the nightclub. He can pay for this. He can pay
for that. He can go gamble He can go get high he can do this
because he's got resources, right? And then every now and then,
because everybody in the far country originally had their
initial standing with God. Remember, all men have a conscience.
So every now and then, you got to have a conversation with one
of the far country folks about God. You didn't really want to,
but here we go. You're at the club, sipping martinis,
and the guy next to you, his conscience is vexing him, so
he starts talking about God. And you know what you find yourself
having to do while you're in the club, going to hell just
like him? You have to find yourself starting
to defend your daddy. Yeah, I know the Lord. And so
you start talking Bible and you pretend that you have a relationship
with God while you're in the club. But the reality is you
haven't given God a call in a long time. You haven't even sent him
an email or a text. You haven't engaged in serious
communion with God for years. But you pretend that you really
know the Lord. Now see, this is the tragic part
for which I am saying, do not romanticize sin. Do not do like
this culture and make it all right for you to live in a far
country. Because that's blatant hypocrisy. It doesn't help anybody to be
on the precipice of hell to be told that they're all right walking
the precipice of hell. You are not all right walking
the precipice of hell. You're about to fall over into
the pit. But while you're in the club,
you can talk about Bible verses and how you trust in the Lord
and all that. That's what the boy was doing.
Yeah, me and my daddy cool. He's lying. You and your daddy
are not cool. You and daddy are not cool. You
are far from God. Point number four, how did he
live? He lived in conflict. See, the privilege of growing
up in a gospel home. is the privilege of you being
told before you can say no. Haven't you noticed when you
raise children that the first thing that they say once they
get a little power in them is no, no, no, no, no. Those cute little babies that
you teach to say words, they turn to you and say no. little bitty vipers and theological
diapers. Little bitty vipers and theological. My baby going to grow up to be.
No, your baby's a sinner. And he hates you, especially
when you try to rule over him. Don't they try to snatch your
face off? and they take everything and throw it. Right there, they're
showing you that they're profligate. They've never set the tablecloth,
never lined up the napkins, never placed the dishes in there. Everything
comes down, doesn't it? Doesn't it all come down? That's
a little cute baby that you love. How did he live? He lived in
conflict. Why? Because he had been taught the truth of God's
Word. But now, having left the truth, having abandoned the truth,
he's in the midst of people who love darkness, but he can't shake
biblical truth. That's your job and mine. Your
job and mine is to sow the Word into their heart. It might be
that that Word is an anchor to their soul, like a tow truck,
letting them get out there as far as God wants them to go,
and then stopping them in their tracks. Am I telling the truth?
That's why, that's exactly why father did not go after the boy. We're going to see that next
Sunday. The confidence of a father who taught his children the truth. And so in our next point, Deny
romantic perceptions of vanity and lust go with me in your Bible
to Proverbs chapter 18 I want to show you just a few verses
before we move on to our last two points the reason why I say
this the children of God deny a Romantic perception of vanity
and lust is because I'm like Jeremiah right now Jeremiah said
in the book of Jeremiah I hearkened that is I listened and here's
what I heard I that no man spake a right, that no man told the
truth, that no man, listen to me, was valiant for God, and
he was listening to religious people. Jeremiah said, I hearkened
and I heard, and this is what I heard, that even religious
people who should know the truth did not tell the truth when it
was time to tell the truth. But they were just led by the
culture and they accommodated the culture with cultural responses. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? See, it requires a divine love in the midst of a conversation
with an ungodly crowd for you to tell the truth and represent
God rightly. It requires the grace of God
for you to not to simply say, hey, that's cool when you know
it's not cool at all. And when you and I put a construct
on vanity and lust that basically romanticizes it, what we do is
we set people up to want to go and pursue it. Listen to what
Proverbs 18 verses 1 through 3 says. I'll share with you a
few points and we'll make it on to our last two points. Through,
what's the word? Desire. The word can be translated
lust. Curiosity. Intrigued a man having
what? Separated himself. Is that our
account? Is that the account we're dealing
with? Is that what happened when sin gets ahold of you? Doesn't
sin separate you? Sin separates you from God. Sin
separates you from people. Every time sin has its way, the
result is separation. Can you guys bear under what
I'm talking about today? Can I keep talking? Every see this is how
I know I'm seeing When it separates me from God and it separates
me from others. That's what sin does the goal
of sin is to draw you away That's what temptation does draws you
away to get you by itself and this objective is to kill you
to kill you and so through lust and A man having separated himself,
seeketh and intermedleth with all wisdom. Now this is exactly
what happened at the fall, when Father God told son Adam and
Eve, all you need I have provided for you. You don't need anything
and if there's something you really do need, come to me and
I'll give it to you. Isn't that what he said? The
objective of God with his first son and daughter was to have
a relationship with them so that whatever knowledge they would
have needed on top of the knowledge that they already had would have
come through relationship. God would have been immediately
obliged to share with Adam everything he needed for him to do his job
as the vicar of God on this earth. But what did Adam and Eve choose?
They chose to find out about wisdom apart from a relationship. So they ate the tree at the proposition
of the devil, and out the garden they went. Proverbs chapter 18,
verse 1. And look at verse 2. This is
what I meant by a fool. Are you there? A fool hath no delight
understanding. See it? When you try to help
people understand the truth, if they have a fool's heart,
they don't delight in it. Watch this. But that he may discover
his self. See what I'm telling you? Now,
now leave me alone because I got to find out who I am. Well, I'm
telling you the book has already told you who you are. If the fear of the Lord isn't
governing every decision you make, you are a fool. what's
going to be manifested that you are seeking to discover is that
you are desperately hell-bound sinner and that your choices
are going to always be contrary to God can I go on to my next
point this boy go back to our text
this boy is Has went out to a far country and in our lord's narrative. He doesn't really work through
Exactly how it was done other than to say to us that he wasted
wasted That's our word the word waste there means to scatter
abroad indiscriminately Without purpose and without design and
what that means is it's like having holes in your pocket that
when you put money in it It just falls right out To be a proplicant
is to be a person who just gives out their resources without a
plan, without a purpose, without a scheme. It's just to be wasteful.
And wherever the word wasted is used, both in the Old and
the New Testament, it's always coupled with destruction. Destruction. Destruction. God describes the
ravages of a war as a wasteland. When an enemy comes through and
destroys a culture, a land, a people, everything's in disarray, isn't
it? It's wasted. The word is used in the New Testament
to scatter. Smite the shepherd and the sheep
shall be what? And the idea is if sheep have
lost their shepherd, then they've lost their guide, they've lost
their way, and the only thing you can expect for scattered
sheep is what? Destruction. Destruction. And the Lord knows that that's
the depiction in our account. Listen to it again as we work
our way through these last few points. And not many days thereafter,
the younger son gathered all together, took his journey into
the far country, and there wasted his substance with what? Riotous
living. Now I have to just touch on that
briefly, because that there too is sort of elliptical to us.
What do you mean, Pastor, riotous living? Well, when we get to
chapter 16, and we develop the doctrine of hell, where Jesus
addresses Lazarus and the rich man, we will understand that
the rich man was a riotous liver. But Romans chapter 13 verse 13
says that you and I, having now put on the armor of light, have
ceased or put away or ceased the life of riotousness and drunkenness
and debauchery. In other words, riotous living
hallmarks not believers, but the ungodly, the unsaved. The literal translation of the
word riotous is the word to be unsaved. The prefix A, or what
we call the negative prefix A, ah, is like our word un-cola,
or unclean. And the root word, soter, is
from which we get the term salvation. And he lived an unsaved life. Now, ladies and gentlemen, listen
to me. An unsaved life is a life of destruction. It's an aimless
life. It's an unprincipled life. It's
a life without purpose. It's a life without goal. It's
a wasteful life. It's a prodigal life. And now
you can examine, when you observe people who call themselves Christians,
and see what they are doing and how they spend the bulk of their
time and how they waste their time and how they engage in this
and that. And if it amounts to riotous
living, living just like this world system, not even regarding
the fact that tomorrow they will die. Not regarding the fact that
if they call themselves children of God, they have a preeminent
purpose to exalt Christ and to serve Christ and to honor Christ.
But because they are living for themselves 24-7, they are riotous
livers. Living riotously is to be unsaved. The boy was lost. He was unsaved. That's simply what our Master
is saying. He wasted his substance. riotous
living and when he has spent all There arose a mighty famine
in the land. Do you guys see that? Now watch
this and he began to be what in want how did he live? He lived a life of dissipation
a wasteful empty life a What do we say about that? Don't ever
romanticize it. Do you know the ways of a transgressor
are hard? Do you know that, children of
God? And that the ways for life, somehow this world can paint
a facade that life without Christ is wonderful. It is a massive
deception, isn't it? Do you know the pain, the agony,
the trouble, the difficulty, all of the difficulty that goes
into living without Christ? Do you know it? Do you know the
kind of conflict that goes on in the soul, the treachery in
relationships that take place when you don't live for God?
Do you understand what it means to live without Christ? It's
destruction by and by. Well, that's what was happening
in this account. And why would we lie to people and tell them
that kind of world is all right? This boy came to find that out.
Two things. Here it is. Watch this. First, the famine
hit the land. You know what that means? When you are living part
of this world system, you have no guarantee that things are
going to stay normative all the days of your life. God has cursed
this earth. He's cursed this world. We are
cursed. And so all hell breaks loose
from time to time without even giving you a 30-day notice. Am
I making some sense? And see, this is the problem.
I was driving home. two Sundays ago and as I was
headed up the the I was headed up Castro Valley Boulevard going
up past John George up the hill a young man and a young woman
young teenagers and you could tell their uh their lifestyle
because they were in all the black with the chains and the
knobbies and all that and and and earrings in their forehead
and their nose and 50 places in their face right no this I'm
just telling you what was going on okay I'm not judging, I'm just observing.
Somehow in their foolishness, they were speeding down the hill
while I'm driving up the hill and they lost control and the
next thing you know, that little Honda was wrapped around a tree. And some of us got out of our
cars to go help. We knew we were getting ready
to see something ugly. And the young lady that was in
the car with the young boy, the young foolish boy, was pinned
up, pinned up. The car was wrapped around her
in the driver's seat. Wrapped around her. She's bleeding,
bloody, just disoriented. And I'm looking at her and I'm
saying, she did not see it coming. She did not see it coming. That's
what sin does. It blinds you. It blinds you
her boyfriend thinking he loved her is speeding down the hill.
He didn't care for her himself or no one else They could have
wiped out other people. You see how foolish sin is and
it'll catch you. This is what job says I'm almost
done watching job says in the sufficiency of their strengths
They will be in strange at the moment that they are blossoming
into their full flower God cuts them off and this is what happens
when you are ungodly God cuts off people every day. You have
no guarantee. You're gonna live to get old
Right now what's happening with this prodigal is in God's mercy
I'm telling you this is God's mercy to send reverses in his
life a famine has come into the land a Famine has come into the
land and all of his resources are dried up. You guys see that
right the boy broke now But in his pride he will not
call home for help and So what he thinks is that the people
that were so kind and so generous and so free in relationship with
him With whom he was able to spend all his substance Would
be there to help him like our world talks about today Only
to come to find out that in a famine everybody is running for the
hills You better get yours I'm getting mine and the text says
he found himself wanting want. Are you with me so far? That's
why my next point is afflictions are angels of mercy from God. The best thing that can happen
to a sinner that has lost his mind is for God to send trouble
and affliction as angels of mercy. Look at verse 14 and 15. And
when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the
land, and he began to be in want. Look at verse 15. And he went
and joined himself to a citizen of that country. Do you notice
what he did? Rather than saying, I might go
home, it didn't even enter his thought to go home. I'm going
to talk about that next week. This is what human depravity is. He
is in this country and he's thinking now he's going to join himself
to them. See, his resources allowed him to live independently for
a season. But once they were gone, now he has to commit himself
to them lock, stock and barrel. You know what he's becoming now?
He's now becoming a slave to that system. He's now becoming
a slave to that system. He's ready now to work two or
three jobs to keep his lifestyle going in that system. Are you
with me so far? Let me go on. And so what he does is he begins
to compromise his soul. Now let me show you how they
work. When he came to them, Wanting to get some help so he can keep
his lifestyle going they gave him the lowest most despicable
job on planet Earth They made him an ambassador of Phil an Apostle of wickedness He became
a servant of vile uncleanness You want to work for us? You're
going to have to prove yourself. We're going to put you in the
lowest rung of our culture. We want to really see if through
and through you are one of us. The text says, and they sent
him out into the field to feed swine. Now for the Jewish culture
of which this is the first application, they would clearly understand
that that is detestable. It is the ultimate act of uncleanness,
Leviticus 11 7. The swine are the ungodly of
this world, and now he's feeding them. You know what that means? You become an entertainer in
this world. You become a solicitor now in this world. Now you are
being used to entertain this world, giving your body over
to entertain this world, using your gifts to entertain this
world. This world now is prostituting you. Am I making some sense? It's prostituting you. And now
you're being distracted to the lowest of your fallen nature. Only God was merciful to this
boy. But let me say this as I get
to this point. since I've got you. Prodigals don't always come
home. I talked about this in our Monday
show a couple weeks ago and I want to drive this home to you. This
is why I don't want you to romanticize sin. Most prodigals end up in
hell. Solomon said, I see the wicked
who have come and gone from the house of the holy, the place
of the holy, and their names were forgotten from which they
had come. The vast majority of people's experience in church
is that they come, they go, and they go to hell. And so when the church makes
it that it's easy for people to go out and live like hell
and it's easy to come back to the church, you are romanticizing
sin. I think about all of the products
of the church way, way, way, way, way back. And we can talk
about them in different ethnic groups and what have you, among
the Caucasians, Elvis Presley, among the African-Americans,
people like Sammy Davis Jr., James Brown, male and female
artists, all of them. Recently, what's her name? Whitney
Houston. Whitney Houston. And listen to
me, they all die horrific deaths. Proverbs chapter 37 verse, I'm
not Proverbs, Psalm 37 verse 37, mark the righteous man or
woman. Consider their lifestyle the
end of that man or that woman is peace But there will be trouble
for the wicked and here's what I'm saying The vast majority
of people who think they can come get a little Jesus and then
go live as whores for the world End up being deceived until they
perish under the wrath of God And you know what's an even greater
atrocity? It's religious folk go to their
funerals and make as if they are going to glory, as if they're
saved. Because of a misunderstanding
of what redemption is, what salvation is, conversion is, when a man
or woman is born of God. No, it's not that the vast majority
make it back and only one or two fail. It's the other way
around. The vast majority end up in hell and one or two make
it back if God is merciful. Now notice God dried up his situation. God dried up his wages. God allowed
him to see how low he would go. And then God showed him that
this world does not love him. and then all of a sudden he found
himself about to do something which God kept him from doing.
Are you ready? God kept that boy from actually
eating, ingesting, feeding on the same diabolical sin that
the world does. He began to be in want and he
was hungry and he fain would have eaten the food of the swine
of which he was serving out. which tells me something about
the grace of God when he has chosen a sinner in Christ. There
is a level of sin that you and I will be inclined to commit,
but because God had put his finger on you before the world began.
He watched you and marked you out before you could give yourself
over totally. And while your flesh was being
satiated, your soul was hungering, hungering, hungering. And that was God, the Holy Ghost,
drying up your soul, making you hungry for God, for God, for
God, for God. The soul got hungry. It got hungry
and it would not eat the things of the world. That only tells
me that God had his hands on that boy. And then God began
to teach him what the real issue was. Repentance. Repentance, which is the story,
right? The repentance of sinners brings joy to God. Point number
seven, repentance. Is the gift. Of seeing yourself
as God sees you. Repentance is the gift of seeing
yourself as God sees you. I know that we don't rightly
assess our wickedness. I know we don't. Every man is
right in his own eyes, but a faithful person who can find even among
Christians, to simply tell the truth about how wicked you are,
it'd be hard to find one that would just tell the truth. Am
I telling the truth? But when God brings about repentance in
your life, and repentance is a gift from God, God grants repentance
unto life. God causes you to turn from your
sin. He causes you to turn from your
false notions and to see yourself. That's the beginning of your
salvation. The beginning of your salvation is when God reveals
to you that you are the guilty one. You are the sinner. Now
watch this. When God's bringing about repentance
in the life of a person, you know what they stop doing? Are
you ready? They stop blaming everybody else. They stopped blaming everybody
else. They stopped blaming the culture. They stopped blaming
the system. They stopped blaming the man.
They stopped blaming their parents. They stopped blaming the church.
They stopped blaming the preacher. Do you know this boy didn't blame
anybody but himself? He blamed himself. He came to
himself. And then God opened his eyes
to the reality of the mercy of God. Look at it. Look at it. Look at what he says
over in verse 16 of verse 17. And when he had come to himself,
he said, how many hired servants of my father have bread enough
to spare? And I perish with hunger. See what happened. He had now
a revelation. the bounty of grace that was
back there that he had despised long ago it's amazing when God
grants you repentance how the thing that you hate you now love
and the thing you once loved you now hate and that all of
a sudden it ain't bad as it was that's God's mercy to you that's
God's mercy to you to turn you around so that you can see things
the way God sees it it's God's mercy And only God can do that. If you watch his confession,
I'm going to take this up more next week because I want to expand
on what repentance does. You'll know that the thing that
he does now is become conscious of his sin. Against his father. And that leads him to his conscious
awareness of his sin. Against God. Look at it. I will arise. And go to my father
And I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against what? See it. And before you. Do you see it? Watch this. He
didn't make this a social thing, a domestic thing, a personal
thing. When we are taught about sin, we are taught about sin
from a theological perspective. We're not taught about sin from
a psychological, emotional perspective. When we're taught about sin,
ladies and gentlemen, we are taught that our sin ultimately is against
God. It can be against people, but
it's against God. See, this is the difference between psychology
and theology. Are you ready? Psychology will
address your needs. Theology will address your loss. Theology will teach you what
you lost. Theology will tell you you lost
something. Psychology will say you need
something. That's right. But it's only half
right. Theology will tell you you lost something. And salvation
is the recovery of what was lost. Now, that's an important doctrine
for you to learn, and it will actually safeguard every other
doctrine in Scripture. As our master said, except you
be born again, you'll never enter the kingdom, which means you
lost something. You lost something that does not allow you into
the blessing of the kingdom. Until that's recovered, you're
lost. But repentance, when it's of
God, not only gets you right in your thinking and reprioritizes
where the offense is, it's before the people whom you scandalized,
and it's before your Heavenly Father, but it also graces you
to get up and move in the proper direction. See there's a lot
of repentance that's just talk. Do you know at the heart of what
this boy said was, I will arise and go to my father. Do you see
that? I will arise and go to my father. In other words, I'm not going
to sit here and pine away and moan and complain about my bad
decisions. I will arise, Anastasia, that's
the word for resurrection, and I will go to my father. He didn't go to the church. He
didn't go to the preacher. He didn't go to any other institution. He went directly to God. He went
to his heavenly father. He went to his father. And you
know what's so joyful about that in terms of the one who gave
this parable? The Lord Jesus knows that He is the mediator
by which that prodigal was able to come back to the Father. For
the Son teaches us very clearly, no man can come unto the Father
but by Me. It was the preaching of Christ,
the presence of Christ, the work of Messiah that had Him so joyful
at sinners coming to Him. For the sinners coming to Christ
sinners coming to the Father. Sinners coming to Christ. Sinners
coming to the Father. Those people, therefore, as we
close, we're privileged to hear the mind of the triune God as
God is teaching them how he actually saves sinners. The prodigal is
on his way back home and next week we get to learn about the
character and nature of the Father. Amen.