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The Parables

The Parables #45

The parable of the prodigal son, Pt7

Luke 15:11-32 – The Prodigal’s Riotousness and Ruin, 13-16.

HIS RUIN

Remember what it says: “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,” verse 13.

The living that he wasted was that given him by his father. Boys and girls, men and women and young people, when they reject the gospel, waste that which God gives them! This young man would have had nothing to waste had not his father given him his inheritance!

How tragic to think upon the fact that those who defy God does so by the strength that God gives them!

As the prodigal would have had nothing to spend in the far country had not the father given him of his wealth, even so men use the lifde that God gives them to defy and reject Him.
What mercy on God’s part this is!

1. His lifestyle. ‘Riotous living’ – same root as ‘excess’, Eph 5:18. He was as man who had lost his mind and acted drunkenly. He lived in rebellion to the highest law of all. Very wise in men’s eyes but madness in God’s! “But God said unto him, Thou fool,” Luke 12:20. You know this world’s view is the very opposite to that of the Lord. The apostles on the day of Pentecost were considered as drunk men, Acts 2:13-15. Whereas God speaks of sinners as being ‘drunk’!

2. He wasted. The word means ‘to scatter, to winnow’. It is the origin of the phrase ‘to cast to the wind.’

The Parables #44

The parable of the prodigal son, Part 6

Scripture: Luke 15:11-32

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The Prodigal’s Riotousness and Ruin, 13-16.

I. HIS RIOTOUS LIVING
We have considered the restlessness and rebellion of the prodigal and how it lead to him leaving his father’s house for the far country. We continue our study with a look at how things fared for him in the land of his prefers before his father’s house.

1. In the far country, things did not go as expected. He became what he himself most likely never planned to be. “But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,” Hebrews 3:13. He
desired to sin but not to spend all and decline into poverty and utter destitution. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose (destroy) his life for my sake shall find it,” Matt 16:25.

2. But he was not his own master! And neither are you, Christ rejecter. If, instead of seeking Christ, you heed the call of sin then sin will have its way with you. It will control you and not you sin. “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you,” Romans 6:17.

3. Notice that his father let him go. We have commented on this before but it is worth mentioning again. God lets those who would be free of Him have their way.
“So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels,” Ps 81:12. Sin is presently restrained by God in you sinner! But if you seek after sin and God gives you up you will discover its power and your helplessness. How powerful it is that it can allure us away from God! Few have felt its full power for God in mercy shelters us.

Illustrations abound—drugs and alcohol. (Sheltered bay in Lough Erne—no wind until bay is left and open lough is reached) Beware sinner of crossing that line.

The Parables #43

The parable of the prodigal son, Pt 5

The Prodigal’s Restlessness and Rebellion, v11-13.

Stream or download The Parables #43

III. THE SON’S DEPARTURE, continued

2. It is a venture into the unknown. He did not know what lay over the horizon! Here is the irrational attitude that sin produces! The boozer, the drug-taker all indulge in that which is very evidently harmful and dangerous. Who knows what a day will have for us? “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow,” James 4:14.
Not so with the obedient child of God. While we may not know what a day will bring forth we have this assurance: “For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me,” Job 23:14. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,” Romans 8:28. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Thess 5:9. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way,” Ps 37:23. “Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not,” Ps 17:5.
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” 2 Corinthians 5:1. We “know” where we are going! “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day,” 2 Timothy 1:12. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is,” 1 John 3:2.

3. He has no intention of returning. He gathers all together. He will not leave anything behind that might cause his return. What a mind-set the sinner has. He is determined to have nothing to do with God. “But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me,” Psa 81:11 “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit . . . . For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water,” Jeremiah 2:11, 13 “They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof,” Pro 1:30.

4. He puts as much distance between himself and his father as he can. He went to a ‘far’ country. He wishes him out of his sight and out of his mind.
Beware that this is not the spirit that is at work in you.
May God open your eyes and cause you to see and understand the consequences of departing from the Lord.