The Parables of 4 Lost Prodigals      Luke 15:1-32

The Third and Fourth Prodigals: the Two Lost Sons. (continued)

Probably the most well-known prodigal son would be the young man Saul of Tarsus, later called the apostle Paul. He tells us about himself in 1 Corinthians 5:9 that he was “the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” This young man was very much like the young prodigal in this parable. In fact he actually hated Christ and His entire house; men, women and children.

Let’s take a brief look at this prodigal son in Acts 7:58-8:4. The Jewish leaders were murdering the deacon Stephen by stoning him to death the prodigal sons murderers are seen casting Stephen “Out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.” This Stephen was one of the first deacons ordained in the first church at Jerusalem, and whose face it is said in Acts 6:15 that all the members of the “council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.”

And as they were in the process of stoning Stephen he prayed for grace and forgiveness for his murderers “calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

Prodigal Saul didn’t stop there, no, in fact “at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”

Later in Acts 9:1-2 this same young prodigal son “Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.”

Let me ask you something, is this a man who you would choose to be the next preacher of the gospel, much less an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ? But Jesus, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son personally went out to meet him on the road as he was travelling to Damascus. Jesus appeared to him as a light that was brighter then the noon day sun, and said to him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? And He said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I Am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts 9:3-5).

Of this man, this persecutor of the church, this prodigal son Saul, later called Paul the apostle, the Lord said “for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake” (Acts 9:15-16).

Luke 15:13 “And took his journey into a far country,…”

He travelled to a country far off from his father’s house. He became an alien in a foreign land. In this state he was an unconverted son. Remember now he is not a dead son! He’s very much alive, but in an unconverted, unbelieving and unthankful condition.

Now he’s living apart from his father’s house in a state of sin. He is afar from God in his thoughts. In his heart. He now has no communion with his father, and no desire for it.

Luke 15:13 “And there wasted his substance in riotous living.”

He took all that his father had given him, i.e. his inheritance and wasted it! The Greek word for “wasted” here is dee-as-kor-pid'-zo which means to squander, throw away, and misapply. And he did so on worldly rioting, drunkenness, in sexual immorality and lewdness with harlots.

Luke 15:14 “And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.”

Luke 15:14 “And when he had spent all,…”

This is a picture of sin! Truly it is our sin that strips us of anything that is good and valuable in our lives. It’s sin that strips God’s children of God’s image by destroying our witness; not it cannot destroy our eternal salvation because there is nothing that is “able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). But sin can, and does remove us from His fellowship and blessings! Sin clouds our vision concerning the knowledge of divine things. It’s sin that robs us of holiness and moral righteousness, of our strength and will to do moral good.

Sin always leaves us in a poor, wretched and miserable condition; it leaves us blind and spiritually naked. There is no good thing that can possibly come from the flesh. The only good that can come must proceed from the grace of God. We have nothing to recommend us to God, or to offer up to Him to lessen our debts to Him!

• John 15:5 “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

• Romans 3:10-18 “As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Luke 15:14 “There arose a mighty famine in that land.”

When the children of Israel were wondering in the wilderness for forty years, (Numbers 14:33, 34; 32:13; Acts 7:23, 36, 42, Hebrews 3:9, 17,) God gave them manna to eat, with the specific instructions that every Israelite was to only gather what they needed for that day, “every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning” (Exodus 16:16-19).

This was confirmed by Jesus to His disciples by His example prayer in Matthew 6:11, He said, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We, just like the children of Israel, are sinful and fallen creatures by nature, and yet we have the blessings of God on a daily basis.

Sin leaves us starving and famished; in a far country, the world, the land of sin, there is a famine of God’s word of truth. The gospel is preached, but not for the unregenerate or natural man (1 Corinthians 2:14), as he has no desire for it, in fact he hates it because it has no place in him; he lives on the bread of this world; of deceit, and labour after that which there can be no satisfaction. But to the born-gain child of grace the gospel is preached, and it is the only thing that satisfies their hunger and thirst for spiritual things.  And added to this is the fact that we today have the blessing of hearing the good news of the gospel on Sunday mornings. And also just like the Children of Israel ate the daily manna in the wilderness, (it only lasted for that day,) then they needed another blessing the next day. We also are blessed to feast on the gospel, and that it does not last, and we hunger for more! Thank God that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!” (Romans 5:20)

Luke 15:14 “And he began to be in want.”

When the born again child of God sins, he always feels to be in want. Sin is rebellion against God; it is a desire to be independent apart from God. Notice that “Not many days after” in verse 13 tells us that it is a short space between sin and separation from fellowship with his father and his house or family. 

How absurd it is to believe that we can do without God; to shake off His control, and to live independently in the world.

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

The only thing that we gain is the power to misuse God’s wonderful gifts. When Pharaoh said to Moses in Exodus 5:2 “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD; neither will I let Israel go.” The tongue that Pharaoh used to utter these words was given to him by the God that he rejected!

If we should desire to enjoy worldly things without reference to God, we will quickly push away all thoughts of Him. You see because we are sinners by nature (Ephesians 2:3) the “far county” of sin is easily reached by us. Yes it is far, (not in distance, but from the communion of God,) even though it only takes one step of sin to get us there. Sin takes us far away from the blessings of God! Far away from any sense of the presence of His strength and comfort that comes from His peace in our lives. The root of this sin is the desire to live to one’s self which began the prodigal son’s evil course.

Luke 15:15 “And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.”

Luke 15:15 “And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country.”

Being in the “far country” of sin, away from his father’s house, the young man having now wasted or spent away all of his blessing from his father’s house; no, his wealth wasn’t exhausted immediately, but it certainly didn’t last him for very long. So there came a day when it was finally gone. And now with his wealth now gone, he quickly discovered that his new found friends deserted him. He lost his nice penthouse apartment, and now he is destitute and totally without even the basic necessities of life.

Contrast this with the fact that while he was at home with his father, he had all that he needed. Where (having everything he needed) it was so very easy to take those blessing for granted. Thus he neglect his duty to honour his father, and now he is removed from his father and living in the “far country” of sin. Now he is far removed from the rich blessings that he had previously enjoyed, (of which he had spent it all,) and the famine of that land of sin came and he began to feel his great need.

By a “citizen” it is certain that it is meant a native or an inhabitant of the land which he now resides: the “far country” is the world of sin. The citizen here is understood to not be among the saints in the household of God, instead it is a citizen of this present fallen wicked world.

God’s people, and this is especially true concerning the “very elect” (Matthew 24:24) live in the world, but they are not “citizens” of the world. The “very elect” are those who have chosen to follow after Jesus Christ as His disciples. They are not citizens of the far country of sin; instead they are citizens of the church kingdom of God here on earth, and of heaven above.

Ephesians 2:19 “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.”

The truth is that carnal men will not keep company with citizens of God’s kingdom: they are hated by Satan. Satan is not a citizen of the world, he is in fact much, much more than a citizen; he is more than an inhabitant; he is the king and ruler, he is “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2)! Satan is “the god of this world” who “hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Sadly joining oneself to “a citizen of that country” is the attitude of many of God’s people in the world today. They, like this young prodigal son, rebel against their Father. They willingly chose to not “retain God in their knowledge,” and after which God gives “them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28).

Does this imply that such a prodigal son will not see God in heaven? No, not at all! How do we know this to be true? Because Jesus died to pay for all of the sin debt of all God’s elect, once and for all eternity! But here in this timely world, if we give in to the carnal nature of the flesh, and live in rebellion against the will of God for our lives, God will at some point (in time) give us “over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.”

What is a reprobate mind? The word reprobate comes from the Greek word ad-ok'-ee-mos, which means to be worthless, useless and counterproductive; put simply it’s a mind that cannot make a sound judgment or decision. And it is clear that this is the case of many today.

And let me say there are many so-called religious leaders of worldly religions who are ready, willing, and able help us fall into the same evil and worldly situation. Today there are many Pharisaical or legalistic so-called preachers how will preach the doctrine of working oneself into eternal salvation. They declare, “If you will only exercise your will and accept Christ, you will be saved.” Theirs is a “God will, if you will” doctrine that comes from the pits of hell. It gives “a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” and of such we must “turn away” from (2 Timothy 3:5).

Having “a form of godliness” means that they that proclaim such doctrine of works for eternal salvation appear to be men of God; but they deny God’s sovereign power in salvation, and interject man’s so-called free will into the equitation. Having only a form of godliness means that they limit the power of God to the will of man; they are all about doing and maintaining good works, as were the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They put men under legal convictions, and they starve themselves and those that follow after their teachings for true the imputed righteousness of Christ in their lives.

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