In those verses that we read together out of Luke's Gospel earlier on, we have what is usually referred to as the parable of the prodigal son. That young man who goes to his father and asks his father for that part of the family inheritance that would belong to him and he would eventually come into. And having received his inheritance from his father, then he went off into a far country, as our Lord Jesus Christ puts it. When he gets there, says the Savior, he sets about spending his inheritance until he is brought to that point where he has nothing left at all and is brought into a terrible state of emptiness and woe. Eventually he comes to see that, and in the light of what he sees, he resolves that he will go back to his father, that his father will receive him when he goes back to him with the words that he's going to present before him. He does that very thing of course and in the second part of the parable we are told about the father's reception of the prodigal son once he does come back to him. Now very often the parable of the prodigal son is looked upon as being a parable for young men or young women. not to misspend their life. Now it is that, but of course in reality it's a parable for everyone, young or old, not to misspend their life, but to use their life by the grace of God to the glory and the honor of the Lord our God. But also even when a person has failed to do that, the parable assures us that there is a way back to God, there is a way to remedy that, and there is a way whereby God will receive us once again. A parable, and I'm sure you all know this, is usually referred to as being an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And what I want us to do then is to look at this particular earthly story that our Lord Jesus Christ told, and of course with the heavenly meaning that we're to understand out of the earthly story. So three very broad points. And the first point is this, how easy it is to get away from God. How easy it is to get away from God. And you see the absolute simplicity with which our Lord relates the events of the parable in verse 11. And he said a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. The young man comes to his father and asks for his inheritance, the portion of the goods that would have belonged to him. And having received the portion of the goods, then he goes away, that which he demanded as rightly being his, he goes away into that far country. Off he went into that country and in that country, of course, he wanted to get as far away as possible from his father, from the influence of his father. And so he takes up bag and baggage and off he goes into the far country. Now we're not told where the far country was, we're not even told where the near country was for that matter. In all probability our Lord preaching in Israel, it would have been the land of Israel. So the far country might have been the land of Babylon or Assyria or Syria or Egypt or whatever. All that is left unspecified of course because the all important point is this, the far country is that distance that the human heart wants to put between itself and the Lord God of heaven and earth. That's what the far country is in the parable as our Lord relates the parable. It's that desire of the human heart to put a tremendous distance between God, the Lord God with whom we have to do and itself lest there should be that influence on the human heart which the human heart doesn't want in any way whatsoever. Give me the portion of the goods that falleth to me. and he gathered together, were told all those things, and took his journey into a far country. He wanted his inheritance, but he wanted to spend his inheritance without the influence or the interference of his father. And so off he went, putting that distance between himself and the father's house, and he wanted to do what he wanted to do without let or hindrance in any way whatsoever. As I say, that's each and every one of us by nature and by practice, untouched by the grace of God in our life. And each and every one of us, my friends, has a rich inheritance from the Lord our God in heaven above. But the big question arises, how do we use or how are we using that rich inheritance that the Lord has granted us to have? the air that we breathe, the clothes that we wear, the food that we eat, the brains that we possess, the enjoyments that we enjoy. How do we use those things which God so richly gives as an inheritance in that sense to each and every man and woman and young person and boy and girl. There's an old hymn that says ten thousand thousand precious gifts my daily thanks employ. But perhaps, perhaps we should read that like this, ten thousand thousand precious gifts my daily thanks should employ. But the problem is our daily thanks aren't employed in thanking God for all that he gives and all the gifts that he gives. Because, as I say, by nature and by practice, the last thing that the human heart wants to do is to attribute the life that we have been given to live as a life that has been given from God to live to the glory and the honor of the Lord our God. And so, the Savior puts it in the parable, and he puts it very, very vividly. He says the young man wasted his substance on riotous living. He took his journey into the far country and there wasted his substance, wasted the inheritance that had been given to him in riotous living. And once again, the Saviour doesn't specify what the riotous living consisted of because the whole point is this, the whole point is that he wasted what his father had given him to have. He wasted his inheritance. He wasted that which he demanded of the Father. If only he had used what the Father had given to him, then assuredly he would have increased that inheritance and enjoyed that inheritance in the way that the Father had let up that inheritance fully for him. But he didn't use it. He abused it. He took what the Father gave and instead of using it in the Father's house to the glory and the good of all around him, he abused what the Father gave him. And again, that's how it is with the human heart. According to the Bible. Not according to the human heart. The human heart's got a completely different view of itself than the Bible has of the human heart. And that doesn't mean, of course, that we waste our life entirely with regards to many, many things as we live among our neighbours and our friends and our families. But with regards to God, the human heart, not given over to God, is wasted in the sight of God. That other old hymn that says, only one life shall soon be passed, and only what's done for Jesus. will last. In the Old Testament there is an infamous king, he was called King Belshazzar. He lived and reigned in the days of Daniel the prophet and he did many evil things against the Lord. One of the evil things that he did against the Lord was this, he took the holy vessels that were normally used for the temple worship And in a drunken orgy one night he used those vessels to drink strong drink and wine out of those vessels. And in the midst of that feast that they were having, that orgy in fact that they were having, a bit of Han writing appeared on the wall of the room where they were having their feast. And the writing said this in fact, you're wed in the balances and found wanting. You're wed in the balances and found wanting. That's what the writing said. But there's another bit of writing prior to that which tells us why he was weighed in the balances and found wanting. And it's when God speaks through Daniel the prophet and he tells Belshazzar, the God in whose hand your breath is, have you not glorified? The God in whose hand your breath is, have you not glorified? and he had taken everything and given nothing back whatsoever. God had given him the breath of life but he hadn't taken and glorified the God who had given that breath of life to him. That was Belshazzar way back in those Old Testament days in his palace that evening. That was the prodigal son in the parable that our Lord Jesus Christ told And it's the case with countless millions in this world this very night. And the question, my dear friend, that has to be asked and answered, is it me? Is it me? Is it me that Christ is speaking about in the parable of the prodigal son? Have I used my life the inheritance of life, the gift of God given to me in so many ways, have I used it or have I abused it? Have I taken all that God gives so freely and yet put this tremendous gulf and distance between me and the Lord God of heaven and earth? And as I say, simply reading the Saviour's words, how easy it is to get away from God. Nothing more easy when it comes to the behaviour of the heart. And Jesus said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, Father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided on to them his inheritance. That's all. That's how it goes. And off he went then into the far country and he wasted that inheritance in the way that he did. Now that's the dark side of the parable as you might say but of course generally speaking in a gospel message there has to be a dark side in order that we come to see the bright side. And there is another side namely that although we do go away from God we may come back to God just as the prodigal son came back to his father. You see how that came about for the prodigal and our Lord Jesus Christ simply says he came to himself, came to himself. In verse 17 of the chapter, and when he had come to himself he said, how many hard servants of my father have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger. He came to himself, that is He came to his senses. That's simply all that it means. In the preceding verses of the chapter, our Lord tells us what made him come to his senses in that sense. He got to the far country. He wasted every penny of what had been given to him. A mighty famine arose in the land, says the Saviour. This young man was reduced. He hadn't a penny of his inheritance left. and he was sent into a field to feed swine and it says he would have eaten the husks that the swine were fed with. All of that has gone before in the Saviour's words and then he came to his senses. Now again you can read those circumstances that brought the young man to his senses And you can read into that many, many circumstances in the lives of men and women and young people that bring them to their senses. But the all important thing is he came to his senses. When our Lord speaks about him going out into the field to feed swine, now that's not an insult to those who would be engaged in pig farming, which I'm sure is a very legitimate occupation. But you see, our Lord was speaking to Jews, and speaking in fact here in the portion of the Word of God that we read together to scribes and Pharisees, the very elite of the Jewish nation. And for a Jew, even to look at a pig, to feed swine, that was the lowest of the low. And can't you picture this young man coming to his senses and saying, What have I come to? What have I come to? Imagine feeding swine and imagine wanting to eat the husks that the swine are being fed with. He came to the realization that he had wasted everything that his father had graciously given to him and when he comes to see where he's brought himself to Then he comes to speak with himself in the light of that realisation. And you see how the Saviour relates that in verse 17. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hard servants of my Father have bread enough unto spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my Father, and I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. First came the realization, and then came the resolve, what he would do in the light of the realization. And that, my friends, is pure, unadulterated gospel. That's the gospel as clearly as you could have it presented anywhere on the pages of the Word of God. He comes and sees what he's brought himself to and then he says, I'm going to go and I'm going to say something to my Father. And the Word of God tells us or directs us in so many ways, bring with you words and come to me. And if we want to know what kind of words we bring with us in coming to God, you'll not do much better than these words that the prodigal son was going to bring to his father. Father, he is going to say, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. You see what the realization brought him to? it brought him to a sense of repentance of what he had done. And with that repentance bearing in upon his soul, he made his resolve that he would go to the one against whom he had sinned. You see, in that realization that the prodigal comes to, in the way that he eventually comes to that realization, in reality That's the way that his father had seen him all along from the very first day that he had left the father's house and gone away into the far country. If you look at verse 22 where he has come back and then you get the father's reactions to that verse 22. But the father said to his servants bring forth the best robe and put it on him. and put a ring in his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found. You ask the young man in the far country when he first got there, and his wallet was laden with plenty of money. If he thought he was dead, I have never been more alive in my life. Are you lost? Lost? I'm at absolute liberty. That's how he would have thought about himself. That's not how the father thought about him. He says, this my son was dead and was lost. And my dear friend, he's dead and he's lost and it's only when the prodigal comes to himself Then he begins to see himself as the Father had seen him. And that's crucial gospel application. Even the Lord's Apostle Paul, you know, was like the prodigal son at one point in his life. And here's how he puts it. He says, for I was alive without the law once. I was alive. That was when he was Saul of Tarsus and Saul of Tarsus, he thought there was nobody like him in the land of Israel, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, of the stock of Israel. Nobody quite like Saul of Tarsus in Saul of Tarsus' eyes, until something happened. And he began to see himself as God sees him. And he says the commandment the law of God which is to tell each and every one of us what we're like. He says the commandment came and sin revived and I died. He thought he was alive but he was dead all along in the sight of God. And those words that our Savior puts into the mouth of the Father in the parable In those words you have two of the great descriptions of us by nature and practice. As Paul the Apostle writes to the Ephesians, and he says you hath he quickened, he has made you alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. And as the Lord Jesus Christ explains his mission into this world to the disciples, he says, The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. Dead and lost, lost and dead. That's what we're like in God's sight. It's irrelevant how we think of ourselves in our own sight. The prodigal son didn't think of himself as being dead or lost in those earlier stages of his life. And you see, what had happened to him is what happens to the human heart again. There's that confusion between the subjective and the objective. Subjectively, the human heart thinks it's doing fine and everything is well. Objectively, the Word of God tells us what we're like. And it's when we come to see the truth of the Word of God concerning our sinnership and our lostness and our deadness, then we're coming to our senses. And one dear old writer of another day, he says, consideration is the first step towards conversion. And the young man sat down and he began to consider his state. How many servants of my Father's house have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. And then, as I say his resolve, I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Now that's all he needed to do. That's all he needed to do. He didn't have to go out to a charity shop in the far country and buy himself some better clothes to wear and dress himself up a bit. Didn't have to write ahead and say, Father, I'm thinking of coming home. He didn't have to do that. He only needed to come to his senses and in the realization of the position that he got himself in to make his resolve I will rise and return to my Father and say, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight. And don't miss the order in which the Lord puts those words into the prodigal's mouth because again within the parable it is pure unadulterated gospel. He will go to the Father, he says, and I will say, Father, I have sinned against heaven that's against God and before thee. He had sinned against his father, indeed he had, but he had sinned against God and that's what he had to get fixed up first and foremost. Like the Lord's servant David when he had committed that terrible sin with Uriah and indeed he acknowledged it and knew it But when he comes on to the hand of the Holy Spirit to write his great penitential psalm, the 51st Psalm, he says, Against thee the only have I sinned, in thy sight done this ill. And the prodigal will acknowledge, I have sinned before thee, Father. But first of all, he begins with his sin against God. Do you know that? Have you acknowledged your sin against God? Plenty of sins to acknowledge against one another. But you start with your sin against Almighty God. And as I say, even within the parable you see our Lord spells out the steps that we take in coming back to the Lord our God. And first and foremost, it is retentance toward God and faith. in our Lord Jesus Christ, repent and believe the gospel. So easy, my friends, to get away from God, but we may come back to God when we come in the way appointed in the gospel of God's only begotten Son. I give thee back the life I owe. God gave it to us And He gave it to us for the glory and the honor of His name. And even this night, if you're at that point where you're beginning to realize you've wasted what God has given to you, there's a way back to God. The way of repentance and faith. Repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, His beloved Son. And in the third part of the parable, of course, You have this blessed fact that when we come to God then God receives us. In verse 20 where the young man makes his resolve and he arose and said I will come to my father and in verse 20 and he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Now, I don't think we should miss out on one extremely vital, important point in what that young man does, and it's this. Quite obviously, you see, he knew enough about the Father that he knew that the Father would receive him. when he came back to him. He knew that his father, against whom he had sinned and done wrong, still with all, he knew his father was kind and good. And he knew that if he came to his father with those words, his father would receive him. I will arise and go to my father. And he knew enough about his father that the father would receive him. And my dear friends you see we are to know the God that the gospel calls us to and this God will receive those who come to him. The devil will tell you a lot of things about God but one thing he'll never tell you about God he'll never tell you about the goodness of God that leads to repentance. Never tell you those kind of things. And here in the parable of the prodigal that Christ told, the young man knew enough about his father so that although he had been a fool, he wasn't going on a fool's errand when he was returning to his father. And if you have a look at the whole picture that the Savior paints, I will arise, he says, and go to my father, and he arose, and came to his father, and when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. He wasn't disappointed when he came to the father. But not only that, he never changed his attitude regarding himself when he came to the father and found the father in the way that he did. Can you picture it? He comes and his father runs out and meets him and falls on his neck and kisses him. How easy it would have been for the prodigal son to say, well, I don't have to do any of this repenting now or acknowledging my sin against my father and against the Lord God of heaven and earth. I'll just forget about that resolve that I made back in the far country. Nothing like that. He's a true penitent. And he said, I will go to my father and I will acknowledge my sin against God and my father. And when he comes to his father, that hasn't changed. And when he sees the goodness of his father, he just pours out all of those penitential words once again. There's a lovely portion of scripture that tells us that it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. And let me say this, my friend. You can think about hell and damnation and the judgment to come from now to doomsday. And in and of itself, it will never bring you to Christ. And what you need to say is the grace and the goodness of God in the gospel for those who come through Christ. confessing their sins to Almighty God. And the prodigal obviously knew that he could return to his father and he did that very thing. And when he returns to the father and receives the reception from the father, then he pours out his penitent words once again. But then you have the father's actions, indeed the father's reactions 20. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. Now something that we are to fully appreciate of course as you read this parable or listen to the parable, that when the Lord Jesus Christ describes the actions of the prodigal's They are not a bona fide description of how God receives sinners. Don't get away from that. This is a description by God, of God, in the business of receiving penitent sinners. It's a picture of God the Father, given by God the Son, concerning not only the sinner who repents, but the Father who receives. And it's the whole of that, my friends, and what a lovely picture it is of our God in heaven above. And He arose and came to His Father and when He was yet a great way off, His Father saw Him and had compassion and ran and fell on His neck and kissed Him. The Father saw Him and He saw Him in all of that bedraggled, hopeless, helpless state And when he saw him in that state, he had compassion and he ran out to meet him and fell on his neck and kissed him. When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him. And dear old Matthew Henry has a great deal to say on that part of the description. And he says, before any other members of the family were aware of him, that's a prodigal as if from the top of some high tower the father had been looking that way that his son had gone, oh that I could see yonder wretched son of mine coming home. So says dear old Matthew, God looketh on men when they are gone astray from him and he is aware of their first inclinations towards him. And again the psalmist says, he from his holy place looked down the earth he viewed from heaven and high to hear the prisoners mourning groan and free them that are doomed to die. God looks and sees and you can't do any better than go on with that description of that dear old believer of another day as he breaks down all those individual parts He saw him. There were eyes of mercy, says old Matthew Henry. He had compassion on him. There were bowels of mercy. He ran. There were legs of mercy. He fell on his neck. There were arms of mercy. He kissed him. There were kisses of mercy. All mercy, he says. What a God of mercy we have. Don't let the devil tell you anything else. Be assured, my friends, that God punishes all repentant sinners, but God receives repentant sinners. So you have the Father's actions and then you have the Father's reactions, as it were. In verse 20, the Lord is giving us a description of how the Father acted towards the penitent son coming back but then he goes on to give a description of how the father reacted once the prodigal began to pour out his repentance and once again a priceless piece of behaviour on the part of the father. Now you remember that resolve that the prodigal son made in the far country in verse 18 I will arise and go to my father and say unto him father I have sinned against heaven and before thee And I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. Now, when he comes to the father and begins to repeat that over again, in reality, you don't have the full text, as it were, of what he said in the far country. So you get in verse 20, he arose and came, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servant, Bring forth the best robe and so on. What happened to that part of the resolve that he was going to say to his father? I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. What happened to that part of the resolve? Did the prodigal decide to drop that out of his resolve? No, no. Not if you read the spirit of the prodigal aright. But the father stopped him at that point. Because he wasn't going to be a hired servant in the house. He was going to be a son. And in the gospel, my friends, we are told quite plainly that those whom God receives and those who receive Christ, they also receive the right to be called the sons and daughters of the living God. He'll serve his Father, of course he will. Those who come to Christ and are made sons and daughters of the living God, they serve the Lord. Indeed, says the Bible, we'll serve him day and night in his temple forever and ever. But here We're being told about the status that's given to those who come to God in the appointed way. And in the parable, of course, as the father reacts and calls for all of those marks and ornaments, they're the marks and ornaments of sonship. And the father said to the servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him. and put a ring in his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry. My son has come back, and he's going to be in the Father's house, not as a hired servant. He's going to be there as a son indeed. And if you take the whole of the setting in which our Lord told this particular parable, the parable of the prodigal son is one of three parables that our Lord told. And it all starts in the opening verses of this chapter 15 of Luke's Gospel. It says, Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. All these sinners were coming to listen to Christ And the self-righteous Pharisees, they couldn't get their head round what they were saying. You see, a self-righteous person can't understand that it's sinners that God receives. Not the self-righteous. It's sinners. And these self-righteous Pharisees, they just couldn't come to terms. This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And so our Lord begins to tell three parables. The parable about the man who lost one of his hundred sheep and he went out and sought for it and found it and brought it back. The parable of the woman who lost a coin and swept every corner of her house until she found it again. And about this father who lost his son to a far country but who fell on his neck and kissed him when he came back again. And you see what our Lord is pointing out to these people. If a shepherd lost a sheep, what would you expect him to do but go and find the sheep? If a woman lost a coin, what would you expect her to do but sweep the house and find the coin? If a prodigal son returns to a father in the way that this prodigal would return, what would you expect him to do but receive him back? And what would you expect a saviour to do but seek and save that which was lost? They didn't understand why he had come into the world. He had come so that sinners might be received indeed. As I've said already, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And you get that one lovely common feature in all of the parables when the shepherd comes back with his lost sheep and he gathers his friends around and he says rejoice with me I found the sheep that was lost and our Lord applies that and I say unto you likewise there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth and when the woman finds her coin and goes out and tells her neighbours rejoice with me I've found my coin And again the Lord says, likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repented. And now when the prodigal who was dead and lost comes back again, the Father says, let's eat and be merry. And that's the keynote of the gospel, my friends, that there is rejoicing in heaven. Surely if there's one word that should strike our hearts, it's that word compassion. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion. Saw him coming in all of that hopeless, helpless state and he had compassion upon him. Let me tell you a story and then we're finished. It concerns an artist and a painter. and this particular artist one day he was walking down by the embankment on the River Thames in the city of London and he saw a tramp, a man who was a down and out who slept down there in the open air and the artist went to the tramp and he said if you come to my studio tomorrow I want to paint your portrait and I'll give you twenty pound, thirty five dollars or whatever the rate of exchange is, he said you come to my studio tomorrow and I'll give you £20 if you sit for me." And the next day a knock came in the door and the artist opened the door of the studio and this man was standing there clean shaven and relatively well tidied up and dressed and the artist said, who are you? He said, I'm the tramp that you spoke to yesterday. You said if I would come you'd give me £20. You wanted to paint my picture. I said, the artist, You're no good to me like that. I wanted to paint a Trump. God wants sinners, sinners, self-acknowledged, repentant, coming to Him, acknowledging indeed that they have wasted the life that He has given them to live. But now by His grace and mercy, They come to receive the right to be called sons and daughters of the living God and be in the house of the Lord forever and ever. How is it with you? I don't know you. I don't know hardly any of you. How is it with you? Are you a believer? Have you repented? Have you come to God through Jesus Christ as Son? Then all is well. And if not, you're still in a far country. And then you'll be in that eternal far country, away from God forever and ever and evermore. And God gives you grace, my friends, to repent and believe. Amen. Now let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we do thank Thee for every particle of Thy Word We do thank thee for those places where thou hast condescended to show us thyself in so many ways, and we thank thee for those words that thy beloved Son spoke at that time. We ask thee that we might be able to hear them by faith, and know indeed that they draw that accurate picture of what we are in our nature and in our practice, but what we can be. when we come to thee through that same beloved Son trusting in thy mercy and thy goodness. Bless each one of us and continue to be with us this night and all the days and all the nights of our life until in thy goodness we are able to stand before thee and know that we stand in Christ and complete forevermore. Hear us and accept our worship this night in his name. Amen.