11-32. <\/strong> The Son lost and found.<\/p>\n 11<\/strong>. had tzuo sons<\/em> ] The primary applications of this divine parable, which is peculiar to St Luke, and would alone have added inestimable value to his Gospel are (1) to the Pharisees and the ‘sinners’ i.e. to the professedly religious, and the openly irreligious classes; and (2) to the Jews and Gentiles. This latter application however only lies indirectly in the parable, and it is doubtful whether it would have occurred consciously to those who heard it. This is the Evangelium in Evangelio.<\/em> How much it soars above the conceptions of Christians, even after hundreds of years of Christianity, is shewn by the ‘elder- brotherly spirit’ which has so often been manifested (e.g. by Tertullian and all like him) in narrowing its interpretation.<\/p>\n And he said – <\/B>Jesus, to illustrate still farther the sentiment which he had uttered, and to show that it was proper to rejoice over repenting sinners, proceeds to show it by a most beautiful and instructive parable. We shall see its beauty and propriety by remembering that the design of it was simply to justify his conduct in receiving sinners, and to show that to rejoice over their return was proper. This he shows by the feelings of a father rejoicing over the return of an ungrateful and dissipated son.<\/P> <\/p>\n Luk 15:11-32<\/span><\/p>\n A certain man had two sons.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The prodigal and his brother<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> The alienation of the heart from God. <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> Homelessness. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Worldly happiness is unsatisfying. Husks are not food. <\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> Degradation. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> The period of repentance. <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> The first fact of religious experience which this parable suggests to us is that common truth–men desert the world when the world deserts them. The renegade came to himself when there were no more husks to eat. He would have remained away if he could have got them, but it is written, no man gave unto him. And this is the record of our shame. Invitation is not enough; we must be driven to God. And the famine comes not by chance. God sends the famine into the soul–the hunger, and thirst, and the disappointment–to bring back his erring child again. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> There is another truth contained in this section of the parable. After a life of wild sinfulness religion is servitude at first, not freedom. Observe, he went back to duty with the feelings of a slave: I am no more worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants. Any one who has lived in the excitement of the world, and then tried to settle down at once to quiet duty, knows how true that is. To borrow a metaphor from Israels desert life, it is a tasteless thing to live on manna after you have been feasting upon quails. It is a dull cold drudgery to find pleasure in simple occupation when life has been a succession of strong emotions. Sonship it is not; it is slavery. A son obeys in love, entering heartily into his fathers meaning. A servant obeys mechanically, rising early because he must; doing, it may be, his duty well, but feeling in all its force the irksomeness of the service. Sonship does not come all at once. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> The reception which a sinner meets with on his return to God. The banquet represents to us two things. <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> It tells of the fathers gladness on his sons return. That represents Gods joy on the reformation of a sinner. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> It tells of a banquet and a dance given to the long lost son. That represents the sinners gladness when he first understood that God was reconciled to him in Christ. There is a strange, almost wild, rapture, a strong gush of love and happiness in those days which are called the days of first conversion. When a man who has sinned much–a profligate–turns to God, and it becomes first clear to his apprehension that there is love instead of spurning for him, there is a luxury of emotion–a banquet of tumultuous blessedness in the moment of first love to God, which stands alone in life, nothing before and nothing after like it. And, brethren, let us observe–This forgiveness is a thing granted while a man is yet afar off. <\/p>\n A mirror of mercy<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> First, then, in that he is called a young man, there is noted in him want of knowledge and experience as the ground and fountain of all his folly, he knew not as yet what his father was worth unto him. And, therefore, he is not afraid to forsake him. This is to teach us that none forsakes the Lord, but such as do know Him not, and understand not that in so doing they forsake their own mercy. As beasts that know not the value of pearls care not to trample them under their feet, or as young children laugh at the death of their parents, because they know not for the present what they lose thereby, but afterwards remember it with grief; so blinded man without remorse runs away from God, not knowing what he lost by departing from the Lord, for He is light, and they go into utter darkness that go from Him. He is life, and they are but dead who abide not in fellowship with Him. One example of this we have in the elect angels; they are never weary to behold His excellent Majesty; they find ever new matter of joy in His face. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Secondly, in this prodigal child is noted here, that natural rebellion which is in all men; that they will not submit themselves to the will of God their Heavenly Father, but will follow their own wills. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> The third evil noted here in this prodigal is his hypocrisy; he calls him in word father, but in deed did not so account of him; he carried not toward him the heart of a child; this is a part of that poison wherewith Satan hath infected our nature. Is there any comparison between that which thou givest the Lord and that which thou gettest from Him? <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> That he seeks a portion of his fathers goods, but not his fathers favour and blessing, represents to us the earthly minds of naturalists, who prefer the gifts of God to God Himself. (Bishop Cowper.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The parable of the prodigal<\/strong><\/p>\n Captain Sir W.E. Parry observes, There is nothing even in the whole compass of Scripture more calculated to awaken contrition in the hardest heart than the parable of the Prodigal Son. I knew a convict in New South Wales, in whom there appeared no symptoms of repentance in other respects, but who could never hear a sermon or comment on this parable without bursting into an agony of tears, which I witnessed on several occasions. Truly He who spoke it knew what was in man. It is the prince of parables, a gospel within the gospel, a mirror of man, an artless yet profound little drama of human ruin and recovery. Wonderful, indeed, is its power to touch the sensibilities. I have wept but once these forty years, said a veteran military officer, and that was when I heard Jesse Bushyhead, the Cherokee preacher, address his countrymen from the parable of the Prodigal Son, the tears flowing faster than he could wipe them away. (A. G. Thomson, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The parable of fatherhood<\/strong><\/p>\n (1) <\/strong>SIN IS VICIOUS IN PRINCIPLE. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> What is the unexpressed but fundamental axiom of all sin? A human being exists to pursue his own gratification, without regard to the will of God. That is it. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> The younger son acts out the rule of life ascribed to him. For observe, the employment of the resources of existence for self-indulgence he claims as a right. Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Now definite plans for self-indulgence follow. His notions of life and felicity are not a theory, but meant to be a practice; and he does his best to be ready for it. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Notice, next, the haste of sin. Not many days after, the younger son gathered all together. It might have been the most sublime and hallowed enterprise in the world. The rapidity of his movements must not be attributed exclusively to the impetuosity of youth, but to the precipitancy of all sinful passion. <\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> Remark, finally, here, the presence of God is unfriendly to sin. And took his journey into a far country. Banishment from home would have been accounted a great hardship, if it had been enjoined as a duty. The toils and perils of the road would have occasioned no little murmuring, if his hard travail had contemplated any other end than selfenjoyment. He is eager to swallow his indulgences, and equally anxious to be beyond his fathers eye and all the restraints of home. Let me alone is the impatient cry of sin to all remonstrance. A far country is always the coveted paradise of fools. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Instead of attaining to happiness, he is overtaken by poverty. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Now Providence fights against him. Nature is in the universal league against transgression. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> He is already feeling the pinch of wrong-doing. And he began to be in want. The fruit of evil deeds is revealing its poison. He finds himself in the grasp of premonitory pangs. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Observe next, that the old principle is to be worked in new ways. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. You see that he has not become a citizen himself. He is still a stranger. He cannot absolutely settle down out there. No. A man cannot find entire satisfaction in a life of self-enjoyment without God. With nothing but worldly things he cannot attain to rest. <\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> He now sinks to a lower level of degradation. A swine-herd! <\/p>\n 6.<\/strong> Take notice, further, that the swine-herd is prepared to accept his shame. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks which the swine did eat. Ever since he left his fathers house his inclinations have descended lower and lower. He tried to fill, to satisfy himself with them, but he could not. They merely stayed his hunger. There was a bitterness in their flavour which something in his palate nauseated. The pleasure of eating was gone. The food of a beast cannot satisfy the soul of a man. <\/p>\n 7.<\/strong> Last of all, his schemes of felicity and methods of relief are all overturned together. And no man gave unto him. It does not mean, that no man gave him swines food. The swine-herd had the care of the husks, and ate plenty of them, but he could not enjoy them. No man gave unto him what could satisfy and bless a human soul. Man is the highest creature in the world; but if you seek your happiness or your deliverance from misery at his hands, you must end in failure. Citizens out in that country, far from God, could not surround a prodigal with the good which a fathers love at home can alone supply. No man gave unto him, because no man had anything to give. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> REFLECTION. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare! Sin creates a sort of moral insanity. While spurred by appetite and in the race after indulgence, the mind is actuated by a species of frenzy. I perish with hunger! There is the memory of a better past in that exclamation. This same recalling of brighter hours bows the spirit into the dust. <\/p>\n This is truth the poet sings,<\/p>\n That a sorrows crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.<\/p>\n Bygone years to a sinner, however in his beginning, is a glance up an ascending incline towards sunnier days. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> RESOLUTION. I will arise and go to my father. He no sooner discerns his hapless state, than he determines to leave it. You are to imagine him prostrate, brooding in indecision or despair. But he will lie no longer in inaction. He protests, I will arise, and he rises. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> RECOGNITION OF GUILT. His resolution, while unenfeebled by hesitation, was not formed in insensibility to his evil. He sees most distinctly the relation of sin towards God and towards himself. <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> The relation of sin towards God. I have sinned against heaven. Evil insults the purity and despises the love of God. It destroys His moral order, and spurns the felicity which He offers. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> The relation of sin towards himself. And am no more worthy, etc. His sense of ill-desert is real and deep. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> RETURN TO GOD. His was no empty vow. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> NOTICE GODS RECOGNITION OF THE EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF PENITENCE. When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him. He had not seen his father, but his father saw him. Unconsciously to the son, the love of the father has been drawing him all the way. If he had lost the image of his father from his memory, he would never have attempted to return. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> OBSERVE GODS WELCOME TO THE REPENTING. <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> The tenderness of God is wonderful, He had compassion. Great reason had God to be angry with that sinful creature, with me, with you; but He had compassion. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> How willing God is to succour! His father saw him, and had compassion, and ran to welcome him. Ran,–willingness is too feeble an epithet to denote the impulse. There is eagerness in ran. God is hasting to save and bless. <\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> Pray do not overlook Gods readiness to accept and pardon just as you are. Saw, had compassion, ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> NOW TURN TO BEHOLD HOW GOD LAVISHES HIS AFFECTION ON THE ACCEPTED PENITENT. The father is not going to treat his son as an hired servant. Gods forgiveness must be God-like. Gods love is always greater in experience than in our most sanguine wishes and brightest hopes. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> LISTEN TO GODS EXHORTATION TO HIS UNIVERSE TO SHARE HIS JOY. Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and be merry. Merry is an old Saxon word. Its meaning has somewhat narrowed and lowered in our later tongue. Be merry, here, in the original is rejoice. A feast betokens gladness among all nations. The occasion is great, and great is to be the exultation. Let us eat and rejoice. The father does not ask his household to be glad and he himself remain only a spectator of the universal delight. It is, Let us eat and rejoice. It is Gods own joy that He would have His creatures share and proclaim. (Bishop Alexander.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The prodigal son<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Absence of gratitude, or any sense of obligation to his father. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Impatience of his fathers government. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Breaking away from his fathers control. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Squandering his fathers property contrary to his fathers intention. <\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> But his schemes all failed to make him happy. <\/p>\n The efficacy and joy of repentance<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> The prodigals sin. <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> In its origin it is selfishness. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> In its progress it is dissipation. <\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> In its result, sin is famine and degradation: in action, the life of the stye, which is sensuality; in thought, the system of the stye, which is materialism. One of the citizens of that country sends him into the fields to feed swine. <\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> But the essence of his sin is the miserable determination to remove as far as possible from his fathers presence. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> The prodigals repentance. He came to Himself. He had been outside his true self before. When a man finds himself, he finds God. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> The reception of the lost son. For every step the sinner takes towards God, God takes ten towards him. We will not dwell upon the particulars of that great reception. Enough to mention the first stole; the ring of honour; the shoes forbidden to slaves; the sacrificial feast; the fathers voice passing into the chant of a wondrous liturgy; and seen and heard across the darkening fields by the elder brother as he unwillingly faces homeward the long line of festal light, the symphony of instruments, and the choirs of dancers. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Its efficacy. Not in the nature of things; not inherent in it. The sinner is in an awful land, where every rock is literally a rock of ages; where the facts which some men call spiritual are bound by a fatal succession quite as much as the facts which all men call material; where God is frozen into an icicle, and no tender touch of miracle can come from His law-stiffened fingers; where two and two always make four, and your sin always finds you out. To remove this impotence and inefficacy of repentance, Jesus lived and died. Repentance is His indulgence, flung down from the balcony by our great High Priest. Repentance is His gift; the efficacy of repentance is His secret. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Its joy. <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> There are two considerations which have always been urged by masters of the spiritual life. <\/p>\n (a) <\/strong>To judge the inner life only by the joy of which it is conscious is a sort of spiritual epicureanism. The tears of penitents are the wine of angels; but they were not intended to intoxicate those who shed them. <\/p>\n (b) <\/strong>Past sin, even when its guilt is pardoned, has penal consequences upon the inner life. It continues in the memory with its poisoned springs and in the imagination with its perilous susceptibilities. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Yet they know not the mind of God to whom penitence is only bitter. There are <\/p>\n Tears that sweeter far<\/p>\n Than the worlds mad laughter are. <\/p>\n There is a triumphant, a victorious delight, which leads the will along the narrow way, and will not be gainsaid. It is a mutilated Miserere <\/em>which omits the verse Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the hones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. By one of those apparent contradictions which lies at the root of the Christian life, a perpetual yearning after pardon is consistent with a perpetual serenity of hope. God would mould His penitents that they may combine sorrow with joy; that they may hear at once a sigh in the depths of their souls, and a music far away. There must be in the renewed nature something of the iron that has been moulded in His furnace, and something of the rose which has been expanded in His sunshine. The life of Frederick the Great, by a writer of transcendent genius, contains incidentally a record of the death of an English general defeated in Canada. Twice only did the unhappy officer rouse himself out of the mortal stupor into which he fell from a broken heart. Once he sighed heavily–Who would have thought it? Many days after he said with more animation–Another time we will do better. And then the cataracts of soft, sweet sleep rushed down upon the weary man. Do not these two sentences give us this view of the twofold aspect of repentance?–the first, the humiliation of the beaten soldier as he comes to himself;the second, his hope through Christ as he catches the music of the march of victory. (Bishop Wm. Alexander.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The pearl of parables<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> He was estranged from all love for his father. His affections had been soured and turned before he made this abrupt demand. He addressed his father as to a division of his estate in a cool, technical way. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> He was away from his home (see Luk 15:13<\/span>). His fathers residence which he had left is pictured in the parable, with the family life in it, by two or three strokes of a master hand. Even the servants had enough and to spare. Feasts were not unknown. Music and dancing were part of the entertainment. But it is plain that the old father meant to be master there; and that was precisely the condition of life this impulsive youth resolved to escape. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> He had fallen into poverty (see Luk 15:14<\/span>). Removed from influences which had hitherto kept him in check, he began the career of a profligate and debauchee. A little time spent in this voluptuous folly sufficed to run through his fortune. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> At last he sank to the lowest, and became a servant. He went and offered himself to a master. The citizen of that country put him at the very worst business he had for any menial to do. <\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> At this moment the young man was actually hungering in the presence of his beasts (see Luk 15:16<\/span>). So far from having the right to despise the lowly creatures of his charge, the prodigal began the rather to envy them. The picture must be turned now to show just how it illustrates the condition of a sinner alienated from his Father in heaven. His own pride of heart lies at the bottom of his departure; he wants to be master of himself. Gathering together all his resources of time, talent, energy–all his powers of mind and body–he rushes away into the world of dissipation and lust. Now he goes to the devil directly and hires himself out, and Satan accepts him at his own valuation, and puts him among the swine. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> First of all, he began to think I thought upon my ways and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies. The expression here is as singular as it is strong–When he came to himself. A sort of madness was in his heart. He seeswhere he is, and what he is, and what he has so long been doing. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Then he began to remember. That is Scripture counsel for us in these later times–Remember from whence thou art fallen. The prodigal recollected the kindness of his home in the days gone by. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Then he began to regret. His grief over the wickedness of his career is shown by the softness and gentleness of his forms of meditation. We discover no demonstrations of spite. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Then he began to hate. Abruptly, but for ever, he throws up his engagement with his cruel master. He renounces absolutely all the associations of his life in this far country. <\/p>\n 5.<\/strong> Then he began to resolve (see Luk 15:18-19<\/span>). So critical is this as a point in his experience, that we must analyze it step by step to the end. <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> He resolved he would arise. If he was actually bent on making a change, he must be up on the instant and out of this. Nothing could be gained by delay. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> He resolved he would go to his father. To whom else could he go? Drudgery was here, freedom was yonder. Shame was here, honour was yonder. Slavery was here, duty was yonder. Starving was here plenty and to spare were yonder. <\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> He resolved to speak to his father. Observe, in this little speech he says over and over again to himself there is not one word about food or raiment, or future fortune. He is going to get the awful past right before he begins on anything else. He decides that he will confess before he begins to plead; what he wants is pardon. <\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> He resolved to be obedient to his father. Unworthy of sonship, he will ask for a servants place. Indeed, now he has come to see that the lowest position in his fathers house is higher than the highest he ever discovered in all these reckless, wicked days since he left it. Here, again, we must pause to turn the story, so as to see in all plainness how it illustrates the process of mind and behaviour through which a contrite sinner returns to his Father in heaven in the hour of his resolve. These steps are all homeward steps. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> He carried out his purpose of arising and going to his father (see Luk 15:20<\/span>). It would have done no good just to resolve and then sit still there among the swine. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> He carried out his purpose of confessing his sin to his father (see Luk 15:21<\/span>). Perhaps he had been fainting with hunger; but hope would tell him of comfort by and by. Perhaps he would meet a train of travellers, who would laugh at his sorry look and condition; but he would think of help coming before long. Perhaps his heart wholly sank at the moment when from the last hill he saw his home; but he would be sure to fall back on his sure faith in his fathers affection. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> He carried out his purpose of full obedience of his father. To be sure, not a word was said about his being a servant any more. He was a sou now, and all the old honour had come with the robe and the ring. But the unspoken resolve still remained in his heart (see Heb 5:8<\/span>). (C. S.Robinson, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The prodigal son<\/strong><\/p>\n The reformed prodigal<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> We see that extravagance and licentiousness are usually followed by want. Whoever, then, practices these vices, cannot plead ignorance of their natural and unavoidable consequences. Nor do evil effects belong to these vices alone; for every other vice has its peculiar evil consequences which accompany its train, as uniformly as a shadow goes along with a moving substance when the sun shines. Thus, even truth from the mouth of a known liar is usually received with incredulity, and always with suspicion. Pride is incessantly exposed to imaginary affronts and real mortifications, which cause to the unhappy victim many agonizing moments. The vain man is miserable when he is doomed to negligence and contempt, instead of receiving the coveted and expected praise. The gratification of revenge, in reality, consists of the pains of the rack. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> As the evil consequences of sin are thus so evident to all, we ought to be convinced that this knowledge was intended to lead us to amendment. Such, indeed, is represented as the effect produced on the young man in the parable. His sufferings occasioned not only that repentance which consists in strong feelings, but that reformation which consists in a change of conduct. This is exhibited as genuine and sincere; it was speedy, nor was it partial but universal. <\/p>\n The prodigal son<\/strong><\/p>\nFuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>GODS TREATMENT OF THE PENITENT. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>GODS EXPOSTULATION WITH A SAINT. The true interpretation seems to be that this elder brother represents a real Christian perplexed with Gods mysterious dealings. We have before us the description of one of those happy persons who have been filled with the Holy Ghost from their mothers womb, and on the whole (with imperfections of course) remained Gods servant all his life. For this is his own account of himself, which the father does not contradict. Lo! these many years do I serve thee. We observe then: The objection made to the reception of a notorious sinner–Thou never gavest me a kid. Now, in this we have a fact true to Christian experience. Joy seems to be felt more vividly and more exuberantly by men who have sinned much, than by men who have grown up consistently from childhood with religious education. Rapture belongs to him whose sins, which are forgiven, are many. In the perplexity which this fact occasions, there is a feeling which is partly right and partly wrong. There is a surprise which is natural. There is a resentful jealousy which is to be rebuked. And now mark the fathers answer. It does not account for this strange dealing by Gods sovereignty. It does not cut the knot of the difficulty, instead of untying it, by saying, God has a right <\/em>to do what He will. He does not urge, God has a right to act on favouritism if He please. But it assigns two reasons. The first reason is, It was meet, <\/em>right that we should make merry. It is meet that God should be glad on the reclamation of a sinner. It is meet that that sinner, looking down into the dreadful chasm over which he had been tottering, should feel a shudder of delight through all his frame on thinking of his escape. And it is meet that religious men should not feel jealous of one another, but freely and generously join in thanking God that others have got happiness, even if they have not. The spirit of religious exclusiveness, which looks down contemptuously instead of tenderly on worldly men, and banishes a man for ever from the circle of its joys because he has sinned notoriously, is a bad spirit. Lastly, the reason given for this dealing is, Son, thou art always with Me, and all that I have is thine. By which Christ seems to tell us that the disproportion between man and man is much less than we suppose. The profligate had had one hour of ecstasy–the other had had a whole life of peace. A consistent Christian may not have rapture; but he has that which is much better than rapture: calmness–Gods serene and perpetual presence. And after all, brethren, that is the best. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>LET US FOLLOW THE SINNER IN HIS REBELLION. In this part of the picture we shall perceive that sin is vicious in principle, ruinous in operation, and ever multiplying its destructive issues. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>SIN IS RUINOUS IN OPERATION. And there wasted his substance in riotous living. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>SIN IS EVER MULTIPLYING ITS DESTRUCTIVE ISSUES. There is no standing still in good or evil. The wheels of human progress never rest on their axles. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>LET US WATCH THE SINNER IN HIS REPENTANCE. There are four elements of repentance here requiring analysis. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>LET US BEHOLD THE SINNER IN HIS RESTORATION. <\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>AN EXHIBITION OF THE CONDITION AND THE CONDUCT OF MAN IN HIS NATURAL AND SINFUL STATE. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>WHEN MEN BEGIN TO FEEL THEIR WANT, THEY TAKE ERRONEOUS COURSES TO DELIVER THEMSELVES. One flies to his worldly companions; another to scepticism; another to business; another to pleasure; another to some external reformation; another determines to read his Bible a little more, and to pray a little more–not meaning by prayer his heart really coming back to God, but the utterance of some words and going more frequently on his knees. That is not prayer. Prayer is the child coming back to his Father; prayer is the heart meeting God; prayer is the heart delighting in God, pouring out its desires into the bosom of infinite Love, and feeling that God is there. You must get back to God through the mediation, the merit, and the sacrifice of the Lord our Righteousness and our Redeemer. All other refuges will fail: all other processes will fail: you may have convictions, and then you may do this, that, or the other that I have described; still you are in want. Husks, husks, husks are all you have received by staying away from your Fathers house. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>THE NATURE OF REPENTANCE AND SUBMISSION–the way to get home to our Father. The young man is said to have come to himself: that means that he was beside himself before. Hence you find that the Word of God denominates sinners fools: and because they are practically so foolish, they would rather remain undisturbed in their sins for a few days, than go through the bitterness of repentance and the self-denial of religion now, that they may wear an eternal crown, and live in immortal peace. There is another proof of the derangement of the human heart. It is the feeling which men have, that they can be happy away from God, and that they know more about the secret of happiness than the God who made them. So repentance is turning to our right mind. Repentance is beginning to look at things aright–beginning to reason, and feel, and purpose, and act aright. The young man determines to come home, to confess his sin without any palliation. The willingness to humble ourselves, that is coming home. Look for a moment at this young man, and see how difficult it was for him to come home, and how impossible it would have been, if he had not humbled his pride. In the first place he had to go back in his rags. There is not a child in the village but will see me; and they will say, That is the young man who went out in such splendid style; and they will point the finger at me and mock me: and yet says be, I will arise and go. <\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>GODS RECEPTION OF THE RETURNING SINNER. (E. N. Kirk.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>THE PARABLE. It can stand the two tests which Byron declared to be decisive upon the merit of literary creations. It pleases immediately, and it pleases permanently. The rose needs no essay to prove that it is a rose. This is fragrant with the breath of Christ, and coloured with the summer of His touch. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>CHARACTERISTICS OF REPENTANCE. <\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>WE SHALL NEED TO GROUP TOGETHER AT THE OUTSET THE PARTICULARS WHICH SHOW THIS YOUNG MANS ALIENATED CONDITION AT THE MOMENT WHEN THE STORY GIVES HIM INTRODUCTION. (see Luk 15:11-12<\/span>). <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>LET US NOW SEEK FOR THE PARTICULARS WHICH DISPLAY THIS PRODIGALS ENTIRE CHANGE IN PURPOSE AND FEELING BY WHICH HE WAS AT LAST LED BACK TO HIS HOME IN PENITENCE AND PEACE. (see Luk 15:17<\/span>). <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>There remains for our study now only one more grouping of particulars which show THIS PRODIGALS RECEPTION WHEN AT THE LAST HE ARRIVED IN HIS OWN COUNTRY, AND CAME TO HIS FATHERS HOUSE. <\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>THE SONS FORTUNE, AND HIS WAY OF SPENDING IT. What, then, was his fortune? Man is gifted with health, by which he is able to enjoy life–strength, to provide for its necessities–faculties (such as common sense, reason, the understanding), to guide him to God as his true happiness–affections, to endear him to others, and others to him. Appetites of various and valuable sorts. The appetite of eating and drinking, which affords legitimate pleasure and real advantage when moderately indulged; the appetite for seeing, which opens a door to much useful discovery and delight, which enables us to admire on every hand the infinite wisdom, power, and goodness of our Creator and our God; the appetite for hearing, by which Divine knowledge gets admittance into the soul, by which the agreeable converse of our friends, and the delightful strains of heavenly melody, may be enjoyed and indulged in. These, and many others are precious items in the portion which God bountifully bestows upon His children. They should be enjoyed at His discretion, according to His command, and for His glory. Not so, however, the sinner. Like the prodigal, he gathers his riches, and takes his journey into a far country–that is to say, he wanders far from God and heaven. The prodigal becomes a worldling; he carries his portion into the unregenerate world, and there wastes his substance in riotous living. His gifts are debauched and misused; they are all made the servants of sin. Hunger eaters to gluttony; thirst to drunkenness; the eye administers to lust; it reads wicked looks, delights in wanton shows, in pomp, and vanity, and folly. The ear drinks in blasphemy, irreligion, and indecency. The heart is made the residence of evil affections; the head and understanding, of wicked, ungodly, infidel principles. The summer of life is spent in bringing to maturity the seeds of evil which were scattered in its spring–the autumn, in the neglect of what is good, and in the ingathering of what is bad, the poisoned fruits of a debauched manhood. The winter of life comes on, and in its train sharp disease, racking pains–a bloated, enfeebled, disordered carcase–a foolish head, an unregenerate heart, a guilty conscience. There is now no more capacity for enjoying pleasure; the sight is gone, the hearing lost, the appetite vanished, the strength decayed, the health squandered, the affections debased, the faculties degraded–the whole substance wasted in riotous living. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>HIS DESTITUTION AND REPENTANCE. And when he had spent all there began to be a mighty famine in that land. So it is with sinners. They derive their pleasure from sensual enjoyments–the indulgences of the flesh; but, when they spend their strength, there is an end of these indulgences. The eye refuses to see, the ear to hear, the members to stir, in obedience to the miserable slave of sin. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. It is among the miseries of sinners that the appetite for wicked indulgence increases as the capacity for gratifying it decays. The longer the heart has been exercised in iniquity, the deeper will be the corruption with which it is tainted. And no man gave unto him. Be assured, sinner, this is a true picture of the world. While you can treat them–while you have anything that they can devour, they will praise andflatter you; but, when your substance is gone, you will find it true that no man will give unto you–none of your sinful companions. They have their own devouring lusts, their filthy lusts, to gratify. Do you think that they will deny themselves for your necessities? And when he came to himself–mark the expression, as though he had been in a fit of madness. It isthus the sinner is here spoken of; yea, and elsewhere the Holy Ghost says, Madness is in their hearts while they live. I will arise, etc. Here, then, were no excuses, no palliations–no saying others were in fault, I was led astray, I have not been as bad as some–no promises of great things for the future–no saying, I will devote myself to thy service, I will fight thy battles, I will do wonders for thy cause; but a simple declaration of guilt and wretchedness: I have sinned, I am unworthy; I do not deserve the character of thy son; make me as one of thy servants; regard me as one of them. He resolves to plead, not his merit, but his misery, and he puts his resolve into execution. For–<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>HE AROSE AND CAME TO HIS FATHER. He arose and came: it is important that you should mark this–he did not rest content with mere resolutions of repentance. He did not say, I will arise and return, and all the while stay where he was, desiring still to feed on husks. This too many do. And while he was yet a great way off, etc. Oh, the melting tenderness of our God and Saviour! He watches the very first movements towards repentance. (T. D. Gregg, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>LET US INQUIRE WHO THE YOUNGER SON IS INTENDED TO REPRESENT. The parable is addressed to the scribes and Pharisees; but there was nothing in their character which resembled what is ascribed to the younger son, or that could admit a comparison with him. But, as we are told, it was delivered in the presence of publicans and sinners, who had assembled in crowds to hear Jesus, it cannot be doubted that it was that class who are portrayed by the younger son. The publicans and sinners are never represented in the Gospels as influenced by the religious opinions which prevailed among the Jews, but rather as led by their feelings; just as the younger son is exhibited in the parable. They are, however, drawn as more easily instructed, and more susceptible of repentance and reformation. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>LET US NEXT POINT OUT WHAT USEFUL INSTRUCTION WE MAY DERIVE FROM THE CONDUCT OF THE YOUNGER BROTHER. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>OUR ATTENTION IS NEXT CALLED TO THE ELDER BROTHER. We have concluded that the younger brother was designed to represent the publicans and sinners. Nor can we have any doubt that, under the similitude of the elder brother, the scribes and Pharisees are intended. It is true the character given of the elder brother is good–that he had served his father many years, and never transgressed his commands. But we must not overlook the circumstance that this favourable character is given by himself, while his conduct exhibits an opposite picture, bearing a close resemblance to the scribes and Pharisees; for they deemed themselves not only faultless but meritorious, as they are represented by the Pharisee in the parable, who thanked God for his superiority to others, and plumed himself because he fasted twice in the week, and gave tithes of all his possessions. Like the great body of the Pharisees, the elder brother is selfish and indifferent about others. He is angry at the fond reception given to his penitent brother, envious of the marks of favour conferred on him, and mortified at the supposed preference to himself by his noble-minded father. Had he possessed any natural affection he would have cordially testified his delight at the return of his long-lost brother. Had he felt as he ought to have done, he would have learned that his own happiness was highly enhanced; for there is no joy so elevated and refined as that which a good man feels at the return of a son, or a brother, or a friend, to God and duty. <\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>Lastly, THE CONDUCT OF THE FATHER IN THE PARABLE IS EVIDENTLY INTENDED TO REPRESENT THE GOODNESS OF OUR ALMIGHTY FATHER. (J. Thomson, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n