Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
070820
Do not love the world or things in the world! if anyone loves the world, the Fathers love isn't in him,
The older brother and the younger brother both received a share of the estate.
All it says is that the Prodigal son squandered his estate with loose living.
Squandering his estate with loose living is the number one priority that causes the Prodigal son to waste his life away.
Squandering is rejecting the calling of God and refusing to stand in the gap; EZE 22:30 "And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.
We do not know what is meant by loose living because all we do know is what his arrogant, legalistic, self-righteous, brother said that he spent it all on "harlots or prostitutes" in verse 30.
Also remember his father also made sure that he was provided for even though he disagreed with what he was about to do.
This means that the father represents Jehovah Jireh which means the Lord provides for His children.
We have two sons who were brothers, one who spent everything he had on loose living, while the other is not using his inheritance for anything including blessing his father.
As the wealthiest King in the ancient world said in ECC 5:10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance {with its} income. This too is vanity.
ECC 7:12 For wisdom is protection {just as} money is protection. But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors.
That's why JAM 4:8 says Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners [rebound]; and purify your hearts [perceive doctrine], you double‑minded.
And whenever a believer goes astray, eventually he will come to a point as the last part of this verse says when he will begin to be in need.
Having forsaken his Father who represents God, he can now find nothing but poverty, misery, and want.
Prin: The human soul is empty if God does not fill it.
And the famine represents the fact that there's a famine in every heart which is no longer nourished by the word of God.
Life was now officially meaningless, filled with boredom -- with no meaning – no purpose – no direction – no personal sense of destiny.
Now, up until this point, he never knew hunger because he was always provided for by his loving father, the one he turned his back upon.
Notice that he had to attach himself to someone because he was living in fear of what his father might do if he found out that his son had lost all his inheritance and was flat broke and looking for the food that the pigs were eating.
You can go as low as you desire but that’s just another walking zombie on planet earth.
Now, as usual, as long as the Lord is involved with you and you have a desire to repent and to rebound and recover, then you have hope.
In this state, he attached himself which is the Greek verb kollao meaning to glue or to closely unite himself to a citizen of that foreign country which represents the devil's children instead of God's.
The further a believer goes from God, the nearer he comes to being a slave to the devil.
No slavery, so nasty, as slavery to the old sin nature and the carnal, shameful, passions of the flesh.
Now, in times of distress we are often led to self-examination and are used by God to bring about changes or repentance in people's lives.
His problem, once again, is that this young man still held on to the belief that he could maintain his self-sufficiency.
He needs to deal with his separation from his Father, even though it meant complete humiliation.
This parable describes the depths to which a prodigal son or a prodigal daughter can sink so low that if they do not deal with their problem of arrogance, then they will keep on sinking away from the Lord.
His emptiness was shown by the job that he had to take, tending pigs.
There could be no worse job for a Jew than feeding pigs who were considered to be unclean animals and expressly forbidden in the Mosaic law, Lev 11:7; Deu 14:8.
He's starving while he's working because pay day only comes after the pigs are sold and marketed.
As 2PE 2:22 says It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A dog returns to its own vomit,"
And, his hunger was so great, his need was so wanting, his memories were so forgotten, and he was hurting so much inwardly, physically, and of course spiritually that he considered taken his life and filling his own belly with the slop. (that’s about the closest he could get from skubula to the pigs).
The food that he was feeding the pigs with were called pods and they made passable livestock food especially for dirty animals like chicken, and pigs, and even rodents.
So that the detestable pigs were now eating better than the prodigal son.
I don't know if you realize it or not, but according to the food that a person eats, it effects their thinking because usually we do our best thinking when our soul is on an empty stomach.
And so, this man finally became honest with himself and looked at his life from a biblical perspective....which means to face up with the situation as it really exists, and then do something about it.
This should be something that the prodigal son would want to teach others about so that he had a chance to recognize his own sins and flaws and do something right for the rest of his life.
He needs to deal with his failures and mistakes and not be occupied with the failures and mistakes of others or lust after the food that others have filled their stomach with.
To be restored and healed spiritually means to stop rationalizing or justifying yourself mentally and get back to thinking spiritually with a healthy mental attitude.
Stop blaming others or accusing others for the condition that you are under, change your diet, get some exercise, and follow up with a healthier diet.
And remember, this is not a parable about what happens to a believer when he sins, this is a parable about what happens to a believer when he changes his lifestyle and refuses to rebound and recover.
He knew that the hired servants in his Father's household were far better off than he was.
Self-realization of the hopeless and useless predicament of the evil sinful life is the first step towards true repentance.
The believer must see that his own actions have led him away from our loving Father.
You must realize that the seeming pleasures of the sinful life are vanishing away and un-satisfying, while life with the Father is full and rich.
The believer must understand that a life of sin offers only destruction, while life with the Father offers prosperity and happiness.
Until a person can be convicted of the reality that he travels a dead-end road, true repentance cannot come to pass.
He figured that his Father's servants were better off than he was and so he was going to go home to see if the father would take him in as his servant and let him live with them, (servants).
He's going to add a lot of emotional nonsense that merely shows his emotionalism and guilt but that will be dealt with.
This is just sheer unadulterated asininity and exactly the way people think in the cosmic system……they think like fools.
He knew that billions and billions of years ago that you were not worthy.
His big problem now isn't loose living, it's arrogance.
The doctrine of eternal security says we are the sons of God and we will always be a son; Gal 3:26-28.
Whether we are worthy or unworthy doesn't change our sonship.
Prin: None of us have ever been worthy to be called a son or daughter.
The prodigal son said treat me like one of your servants, one of those hired hands, which by the way is an insult to his Father.
His Father has no character and no integrity to forgive, and He is not the forgiving type.
His Father saw him while he was a long way off.
The Father's not interested in some asinine speech like "I'm no longer worthy to be called your son!"
The Father was filled with compassion and his Father ran to him.
This is a picture of what happens in rebound as we are restored to have the opportunity to produce experiential righteousness.
The best robe represents restoration to full experiential righteousness.
This was a signet ring representing withdrawing from the Father's resources, logistical grace.
LUK 15:22.......and sandals on his feet, which means that once again you're getting the opportunity of service and production.
The fattened calf represents fellowship in the word, feeding on divine truth or Bible doctrine.
This is the divine attitude of grace when you're brought back into fellowship with God.
He wanted to make it up to the Father or to compensate for his wrong decisions.
“This boy needs a lesson, so I'll give him some lessons starting with the nasty jobs like cleaning the stables for the pigs.”
While the prodigal son was expecting the worse…..instead, the father was putting a Celebration Ceremony together in His own heart to thank the Lord for all that he had done to save his younger prodigal son.
The father’s attitude was to bring the best robe and put it on his son.
This was his son who he thought had died and so he wanted to prepare a feast for his son's life and to make sure that the prodigal son doesn’t walk around with a guilt complex.
None of the servants went out and told the older brother that a party was going on.
The believer who is arrogant hates to see other believers become successful.
The believer who is humble and has true humility is delighted to see other people successful and make it.
LUK 15:28 "But he became angry, he went from self-righteous arrogance to mental arrogance.
At this very moment the older brother took his own journey into a far country.
The Father had the right to treat his children as he thought best and that's why we have no right to get angry at the way that our Father treats another believer in grace.
The older brother was jealous, and he became angry because his Father had treated his younger brother in grace and therefore he sulked and would not go into the house.
God's attitude when believers have rebounded is to forgive them.
If we do try to penalize people for their failures and their mistakes, then we are the most arrogant of creatures.
God the Father entreats us to have compassion on other believers, that's grace orientation.
This is transference arrogance which is accusing others of things you would do or have done!