Parable Of The Wayward Child

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Luke 15:11-24
Psalters: 179, 304, 294, 387
  1. The son’s folly.
    1. Two brothers raised in the church, given the outward privileges of the proclamation of the truth concerning God.
      1. The elder son was apparently faithful to his father.
      2. The younger son was unhappy with everything.
    2. The wayward son is a picture of every believer who knows he falls into sin repeatedly, who strays from faithfulness.
    3. God sent troubles as consequences of sin.
  2. Over against man’s faithless sinfulness, the father displayed unchanging and unconditional love.
    1. The father is pictured as waiting watchfully for his foolish son to back home.
    2. God’s love is unchangeable because it is eternal.
      1. That it is eternal is because it is rooted in God’s own being.
      2. It is not dependent on the objects (for they are unlovely), for then it would change.
      3. But God loves Himself and His Son, and His love for us is an extension of this.
    3. God’s love is also sovereign, i.e., it accomplishes.
      1. His love is first (always) and it reaches us wherever we are, follows us wherever we wander.
      2. It is God’s love which brings the chastisement, so we deplete our inheritance and experience famine (Heb. 12:6; Rev. 3:19).
      3. God’s love shows us the emptiness of sin and it reminds us of the blessings we have in our Father’s house.
  3. Assurance of God’s love.
    1. God’s sinful children need assurance of God’s love.
      1. The son determined to return home with a confession of his sin (19,21).
      2. Then why did he know his Father would receive him after having sinned so against Him? Despair in hopelessness!
    2. The Father’s love always receives us (don’t judge God by what we do or would do).
      1. God constantly proclaims His grace!
      2. The fact that His love works our confession assures us that He will receive us.
      3. The father was waiting and watching, recognized his son, and without restraint ran to meet him.
      4. Forgiveness is given while we were yet sinners.
    3. And the Father’s love restores us to the full rights of His children (22,23).
      1. When we wander from our Father’s house, then we only experience His displeasure.
      2. But when we return, then we experience that His love is eternal and unchangeable.