Repentance from prodigal son & Rejoicing of the father (Luke 15)

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 And  in this last parable of Luke 15, we often call the prodigal, this young man in this parable, the prodigal son.  We find in detail the work of the Spirit of God  that worked in your life and mine  to bring us back to the Father's house. 

Enjoy this short message on the parable of the prodigal son edited from Steve Stewart's address given on Luke 15 (2025) found on www.BibleConferenceRecordings.com.

Submit questions and comments to www.ThoughtsofChrist.com

Episode Transcript

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Gospel of Luke chapter 15.

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Then drew near unto Him all thepublicans and sinners for it to
hear Him.
And the Pharisees and thescribes murmured saying, this
Man receive a sinners and eatethwith them.
Then the Lord gives threeparables in chapter 15 to
illustrate the the heart of God.

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God the Father, God the Son, andGod the Holy Spirit in seeking
lost sinners.
A beautiful picture of the graceof God that has been showed to
each one of us here that knowsthe Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
And in this last parable, weoften call the prodigal, this

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young man in this parable, theprodigal son.
We find in detail the work ofthe Spirit of God that worked in
your life and mine to bring usback to the Father's house.
We get it here in this chapter,I think probably the most
beautiful illustration of thathouse that we get in the Word of

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God.
But how does it begin?
Begins with this young man wecall the prodigal.
Do you know what prodigal means?
I used to think it meant likewandering or runaway.
It means a waster, anexceedingly, recklessly wasteful

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person.
Luke brings before us a numberof different wasters.
There's a rich man in chapter 12who wasted what God had given to
him on himself, and he builtgreater barns to store
everything in.
His life was required of him.
We find in the next chapter arich man that has a steward who

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wasted his goods.
We find different wasters.
There's a rich man with Lazarusat his gate.
He's a respectable wasterdressed in purple, respected in
the community, but he's awaster.
He wastes everything on himself.
And this young man is a waster.
Verse 11, he said, A certain manhad two sons, and the younger of

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them said to his father,"Father,give me the portion of goods
that falleth to me", and hedivided unto them his living.
And not many days after, theyounger son gathered all
together and took his journeyinto a far country.
And there wasted his substancewith riotous living.
And when he had spent all, therearose a mighty famine in the

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land, and he began to be inwant.
And he went and joined himselfto a citizen of that country,
and he sent him into his fieldsto feed swine, and he would fain
have filled his belly with thehusk that the swine did eat.
And no man gave unto him.

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This young man wanted what wascoming to him.
He wanted to use it for himself,and he wanted to use it for
himself without any reproachfrom his father.
And so he wants to take it,waste it on himself as far away
from his father as he can get.

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And that's just what you and Iwere as lost sinners in this
world.
We wanted to take every goodthing that God might give us,
use it for ourselves, as faraway from God as we could be,
that there'd be no reproachplaced upon us, of thinking of
God looking down upon us in thisworld.

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His desire that way took him farfrom his father, but his want
and his need took him evenfurther, and his direction was
heading away from his father'shouse.
In verse 17 it says, And when hecame to himself.

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When he came to himself.
This is the first step, youmight say.
The first action in the life ofone who is lost and God is
intent on bringing back toHimself.
This is a picture of whatscripture calls new birth.

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We have in John's Gospel,chapter 3, Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, hecannot see, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God Or what Paultakes up in Ephesians chapter
two, when we were dead andtrespasses and sins, He
quickened us together withChrist.

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There's an imparting of a lifewhere there had been no life
before, otherwise his path wouldhave continued away from his
father and never ended until hewas dead.
He comes to himself.
It's that first awakening of asoul when God, by the Spirit of

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God, imparts a life where therewas no life before.
And what is the first thing thathe sees?
How many, he says, How manyhired servants of my fathers
have bread enough and to spareand I perish with hunger!

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There's an exclamation point atthe end of that verse.
He's afraid.
He's woken up for the firsttime.
And he would fain would havefilled his belly with the husk
that the swine did eat, but nowhe realizes he's dying.
He is dying! And he knows it.

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The first thing when God impartsa life where there is no life is
that soul wakes up to thereality of its need in the sight
of God.
I'm a sinner, and I'm on my wayto a lost eternity.
I'm responsible before God, andthis is where I'm headed.
Before that, there's no thoughtthat way.

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He thinks he can live off thehusk that the swine did eat.
But now he awakes to his truecondition, and he's afraid.
If we looked at Acts chapter 2,when Peter preached on the day
of Pentecost, and he broughtbefore the Jews their guilt of
crucifying their own Messiah,they said,"men and brethren,

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what shall we do?" They'reafraid.
They're afraid.
What shall we do?
And of course, Peter bringsbefore them that need for
repentance.
That need for repentance as towhat they had done for
salvation.
He comes to himself and hethinks of his father's house and

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he says,"I perish with hunger."And that is the work of
repentance in the soul.
Repentance is seeing myself asGod sees me.
He sees himself as God sees himfor the first time.
That's to change your thoughts.

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Repent,"to pent" is to think, Ibelieve, and re is to"rethink."
To change your thoughts.
Repentance isn't just a one-time thing.
It goes on for our wholelifelong.
It begins at this wonderfulmoment when the Savior seeks us

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and finds us.
But it continues our wholelifelong.
To have God's thoughts aboutwhat your true condition is.
And so there's repentance.
I'm not going to turn to all thescriptures, but Peter said to
the Lord told Peter aboutforgiving his brother that
trespassed against him.
He said,"how often shall Iforgive my brother if he

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trespassed against me?" Seventimes?
The Lord says 70 times seven.
That many times?
He might repent.
Yeah, we might need to repentquite often in our lives.
Repentance is something thathappens more than just once,
even after believers.
We do things that we need torepent for.
But here it's in the work ofsalvation.

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And he says, I will arise and goto my father.
He had been heading away fromhis father.
Now he turns around a hundredeighty degrees, and he's going
to go the opposite direction.
That's what scripture calls"conversion.

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In Acts, where Peter preachedchapter three and verse 19,
Peter says,"repent ye thereforeand be converted." Turn around.
We tend to take all of theseexpressions and lump them all as
if they're saying the samething, but they're not.

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There is repentance that seeinghimself as God sees him.
And now there is a turningaround in his pathway.
Conversion is something thathappens more than one time in
our lives.
Let's look at James, I believeit is.

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Epistle of James.
In the last chapter 5, verse 19.
Brethren, if any of you do errfrom the truth in one, convert
him.
Let him know that he whichconverteth the sinner from the
error of his ways shall save asoul from death and shall hide a
multitude of sins.
How is that?
Because if he kept going thedirection he was going, he'd

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keep sinning and sinning.
But in being turned around,going the other way, a multitude
of sins is prevented- iscovered.
Repentance, may need to occuragain and again in our Christian
pathway.
There's often we might getturned in the wrong direction
and need to be turned backaround and what a happy work it

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is if someone comes up and I'mgoing the wrong direction and
they convert me.
They turned me around to headthe right direction.
I need it.
Conversion- he's turned aroundand going the right way.
And he says in his heart"I willrise and go to my father.
I will say unto him father Ihave sinned against heaven." If

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we confess our sins, he'sfaithful and just to forgive us
our sins and cleanse us from alliniquity.
Confession is something that notonly happens at salvation, but
we find in John's epistle firstchapter that we need that as
believers to sometimes we sin-and we need to confess it when
we do.
He's faithful and just toforgive.

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But there's another thing thathappens when we're first saved,
but may need to happen again.
He has this confession that heprepares in his heart, and he's
going to say to his father,"I amno more worthy to be called thy
son.
Make me as one of thy hiredservants." That's as far as his

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heart rose up to with hisfather, that he hoped that his
father would accept him at leastlike one of the servants.
And it would be very graciousfor his father- this son of his,
having taken half of his livingand wasted it and coming back
now in rags.

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And to his father, it would begracious if he said"yeah, I'll
take you on." I'll take you onas one of the servants.
You can sleep out there in thebunkhouse.
Oh, I'll be the best servant yougot.
I'll work really hard.
I'll do I'll be up before allthe rest and I'll be the best
one to bed and I'll work hardall day.

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And he would have to work hardevery day to make sure he was
accepted by his father.
That's what we get in Romanschapter 7.
There is a soul that is stillunder law before God laboring
hard to be accepted by God.
And every day worrying,concerned, I'm not good enough,

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I'm not doing everything, andthat's just the spirit that this
young man has, and that's ashigh as his heart can rise up
to.
Is that what God wants to bringyou into?
No.
In Romans 7, that man finallycries out for deliverance from

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that condition of things.
No, you can't work to beaccepted by God in that way.
You can't be accepted in theplace of a hired servant.
He has no intention to bring youinto that place.
He has as many servants as Heneeds.
If He wants more, He can makemore.
He wants to bring you in as ason.

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And so he comes back to hisfather in verse 20.
He rose, came to his father.
But when he was yet a great wayoff, his father saw him and had
compassion and ran and fell onhis neck and kissed him.
It says of Joseph's brethren,when they saw him a great way
off, they conspired against himto slay him.

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But hear the father, when hesees the son a great way off, he
runs, falls on his neck,embraces him, kisses him.
And the son says,"Father, I havesinned against heaven, and in
thy sight am no more worthy tobe called thy son." And his
father doesn't let him say anymore.
He needed to confess, and hedid.
But he he's not gonna let himsay,"Take me in as one of the

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hired servants." He just brushesthat away with his kisses.
I believe this is a picture ofsalvation.
And, as the father embraces him,It's forgiveness of sins, and he
kisses away that what thatprodigal was going to say to

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him.
He doesn't let him get it out.
And I think of that kiss as thesealing of the Spirit.
When you believe the gospel ofyour salvation, then we sealed
with that Holy Spirit ofpromise.

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13.
But also we find in that samechapter that the Spirit of God
is not only.
The seal, but he's the earnestof the inheritance that we have
been brought into because we'reheirs of God as His own sons.
And so he goes on and he says,bring forth the best robe and

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put it on and put a ring on hisfeet and shoes on his hand.
I think of that best robe as therighteousness of God that we are
clothed with.
His righteousness, not ours.
Nothing we can present to Him.
Not the place of a hired servantbut His righteousness.

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We have been made therighteousness of God in him, and
he puts that ring on his finger.
I think of that as the spirit ofGod, as the earnest of the
inheritance.
Only the suns would have a ringlike that, and then shoes on his

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feet, only a son or shoes.
The walk of dignity of a sonthrough this world, all the
marks of a son.
And that's what we get in Romanseight that the Holy Spirit of
God is the spirit of sonshipwhereby we cry Abba, Father.
And so he has been brought nowwelcomed into his father's house

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in the place of a son.
The Lord said, I go to prepare aplace for you.
What place?
The place of a son.
And that's what we have beenbrought into before God and soon
to be brought into His veryhouse.
And he says, bring hither thefatted calf and kill it, let us
eat and be merry.
For this my son was dead and isalive again, was lost and is

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found, and they began to bemerry.
In that far country when he cameto himself, he said, I perish
with hunger.
But now he hears his father say,"my son was dead." And that's
what we learned, too, fromEphesians, when we were dead in
trespasses and sins.
We didn't know we were dead, butwe hear that afterwards.

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Once we're saved and we pick upthe Word of God, that's when we
find out what our true conditionwas in the sight of God.
We don't learn it down in theditch.
We don't learn it in the farcountry.
We learn it in communion andfellowship with Him, what our
true condition was.
This, my son, was dead and isalive again.

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"And they begin to be merry,bring hither the fatted calf and
kill it." Oh, I think that takesus on to the subject of eternal
life and that fellowship that wehave with the Father and the Son
that we have been brought intothat divine circle of fellowship
where we enjoy with the Father,together with Him, his beloved

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Son, that Good Shepherd thatsought and found us.
For his Father's glory, for thesatisfaction of his Father's
heart, we enter into divinecommunion and enjoyment together
with the Father of his wellbeloved Son.