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The Parables #46

The parable of the prodigal son, Pt  8

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

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HIS RUIN
1. Life can only be gainfully employed under obedience to the gospel. The Prodigal “wasted” his substance. Nothing was gained by him from the time he spent in the far country.

“The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it,” Pro 10:22. I do not mean you cannot make money except you are saved. I mean you can only lay up riches in heaven by obedience to the gospel.

(We were given help of the Lord to explain and illustrate this verse beyond that which we had planned.)

The Saviour tells us how to invest for eternity.

“So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. . . . . Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth,” Luke 12:21, 33.

The Parables #45

The parable of the prodigal son, Pt7

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

 

Stream or download The parables #45

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.