Grace to You Weekend

John MacArthur: And you and I, in the same way, are children of God, all of us in terms of creation, in terms of the physical. We've all been created by God. We all come under the umbrella of His Providence. But some are wayward sons. And when those wayward sons come back in loving, concerned repentance, He embraces them.

Phil Johnson: Welcome to Grace to You Weekend, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

It's been said, God has created each of us with a thirst that only He can quench. That's to say, we can find true joy and satisfaction only when we find our ultimate enjoyment in God. The question is, how do you enjoy God? What practical steps can you take to cultivate deeper pleasure in your relationship with your Creator?

John MacArthur unpacks that issue today from a story in the Bible that you might not expect. It's the parable of the prodigal son. Find out how that story relates to your enjoyment of the Lord as John continues his study, titled, "Enjoying God." Here's today's lesson.

John MacArthur: I believe, without a doubt, this is the single greatest statement on the character of God, and it's in Luke 15. Luke 15. Let me read it to you, verse 11.

And he said, a certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me." And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after that, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would feign have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, but no man gave unto him.

And when he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.'"

And he arose and came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no more worthy to be called your son."

But the father said to his servants, "Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found." And they began to be merry.

Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, "Your brother is come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him safe and sound."

And he was angry and wouldn't go in. Therefore, came his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, "Look, these many years do I serve you, neither transgressed I at any time your commandment, and yet you never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this your son was come, who has devoured your living with harlots, you have killed for him the fatted calf."

And he said unto him, "Son, you are ever with me, and all that I have is yours. It was fitting that we should make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found."

What a great story. Listen, people, that is not the story of a lost son. That is the story of a loving father. And listen to me, a loving father who loved two sons under two different conditions with the same love, the very same love.

Now listen, the younger son had a right to part of the inheritance. The older son got two-thirds, and if there were only two, that would mean a third of the inheritance was his. But it was always the case that he waited till his father died, and then received a third of the estate. But he wants it and he wants it now, which means the father in responding to his request would have to literally liquidate his estate and convert it into enough cash to give this son what he asked for. And the son got what he asked for, at the end of verse 12, "He divided unto them his living."

He liquidated everything he had and put it in the care of his sons. He bestowed upon them all that he possessed. Verse 13, "Not many days after that, the younger son gathered all together, took his journey into a far country, and wasted his substance with asotos, dissipation." And then he faced a double disaster. Verse 14, "He had spent everything, and there arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be in want."

It isn't bad enough that he wasted his substance, but now there's a famine in the land. Food is at a premium. He can't get a job and nobody's going to give him anything. He's out of money and the famine has hit. Food is scarce, food is high priced, nobody's giving it away, and nobody's offering jobs because there's no money for anything but food.

In verse 15, "He went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine." A Jew feeding pigs? I mean, you can't get any lower than that. How degrading. Leviticus 11:7 says they were unclean. What's he doing feeding them? The old saying among the Jews was, "May a curse come upon the man who cares for swine."

That's how low it is, that he has stooped. He would have feigned filled his belly, verse 16 says, "with the husks." Literally, the word is carob pods. He would have filled his belly with the carob pods that were the food for the pigs, but nobody would give him the pig food because you couldn't eat a human, so you fed a pig because you could eat a pig.

Humans drained the resources. Pigs were the resources. Pigs are more valuable than people. So nobody gave him anything. Verse 17, "He came to himself." Disillusionment began to set in and he finally came to his senses.

And he began to reason, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I'm perishing with hunger?" By the way, the word hired servant is most interesting. It doesn't mean a household slave. It doesn't mean a contracted servant. It means a day laborer. He says, "Even the people passing down the road that my father hired for one day's work have food to eat."

Even the day laborers. Even the guys that just hook on for the spare days. Verse 18, "I will arise and go to my father, and say to him," and he rehearses his little speech, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your day laborers, just treat me like a guy who hooks on for a day so I have something to eat."

Now, some people have said that he had an ill-advised motive because his motive was food. But listen, it went much deeper than that. He didn't just go with the plan to say, "I'm hungry." He went with the plan to say, "I have what? I have sinned." I believe it's a classic confession. I believe he really expressed the sorrow in his heart.

And it wasn't the sorrow that he lost his fortune, and it wasn't the sorrow that he didn't have any food. He wasn't sorrowful for what he lost. He was sorrowful for what he had done. And that's classic confession.

When you're only sorry that you got caught, or you're only sorry that your resources are gone, that's not true repentance. But when you're sorry because you've sinned against heaven, a Jewish euphemism for God because they wouldn't speak His name, when you've sinned against God and you're sorry, that's classic confession.

And so he comes to his father, verse 20. "And he arose and came to his father." Oh, I love that. Jesus didn't say he went to his home. He returned to his farm. He came to his village. He says he went to his what? Father. It was the relationship Jesus was emphasizing, not the location.

And what happened? I love this. Here's the main character in the story. "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." You know what happened? The son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no more worthy to be called your son."

And before he could even say, "Make me as one of your day laborers," the father set the party in motion. You want to know what God's like? That's what God's like. Now listen, I want to stop at the story at verse 24. I'm going to wind it up, but I want you to get these points. Now listen.

As I read this story this week, it dawned on me like a bolt out of the sky, that the same five truths I saw in John 5 are illustrated right here. That Jesus is giving here the illustration for the theological statement of John 5. What was the first great truth that Jesus uttered in John 5? The Father is what? One with his Son. The Father is one with his Son.

Look at verse 19. He says, "I'm no more worthy to be called your son, make me as one of your hired servants." That's going to be my speech. I'm going to go and just ask to be a servant. But he gets there, and in verse 21, before he can even get it out of his mouth, the father embraces him and loves him and gets the feast going and says, "This my son," verse 24.

The father sees the relationship restored. He sees his dead son alive, his lost son found. And so does Jesus say in John 14, "I go to prepare a place for you because in my Father's house are many dwelling places." It doesn't say mansions in the Greek. Heaven isn't a bunch of mansions down this street and four blocks over there and six to the right is yours. It says this: "In my Father's house are many rooms." I'm not living six blocks to the right and down the block, I'm living in the Father's house. I'm one of His family.

That's the kind of God I have. He's one with His sons. Tremendous truth. Secondly, the Father loves His Son. Verse 20, "But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him." How do you think he saw him? You know why he saw him? Guess what the father had been doing since he went away? What? Watching for him. Watching for him.

God is the initiator. God is the one who in love embraces and carries us along. That's the kind of love He has. And so when he was a long way off, he saw him. And he didn't wait for his speech and he didn't say, "Well, I wonder what he's going to say when he gets here. How's he going to handle this?" He doesn't wait for a speech. He has compassion. He was moved with pity in his bowels. The Greek says his stomach began to churn and the emotion turned over in his stomach and he was feeling deeply the love of his son.

And he ran, old man that he was, and he ran because God is always the runner after men. He is always the initiator of salvation. And the Bible says he fell on his neck, a passionate embrace. And then it says he kissed him and it uses a term in the Greek that means he kissed him repeatedly and fervently, just kissed him and kept on kissing him and kissing him and kissing.

That's God. See, that's God, people. Listen, people, that's what God's like. He makes his children one with him and he loves his children. There's a third thing I saw here, the same Jesus talked about in John 5. The Father blesses His children. And even if you're a penitent sinner who deserves nothing and you come back, what does he say? Verse 22, "Bring the best robe and put it on him. Shoes on his feet."

Why the best robe? Listen to me, folks. You know what the best robe meant? That was the sign of belonging in the family. When you wore the robe, the family robe, that was your identity. He's one of us. Shoes on his feet, what is that? Slaves went barefoot. Free men wore shoes. Free men wore shoes. Slaves go barefoot. "You put on your shoes. I've set you free. You're a son, not a slave."

And he blessed him. And then he called for the fatted calf. And he called for a feast, and he called for merriment, and they sang, and they made music, and they celebrated, and they danced. The father blesses his son. You say, "But the boy didn't deserve it." That's not the point. It's the nature of the Father that is the issue. If God gave us what we deserve, we could pack up the world and just forget it.

Fourthly, He gave authority to His Son. You'll notice in verse 22 very quickly he says, "Put a ring on his hand." This is a signet ring and symbolizes family authority. When anything was done officially by the family, it was sealed in the signet ring of the family, was impressed in the seal. And that was authority. If you had that ring, you could literally sign with the seal of the family.

And just as God committed all authority to the Son, so marvelously, when you become a child of God, does God commit His authority to you. You can act in His behalf. Acts 1, "After the spirit has come upon you, you shall be my witnesses." You will act in my behalf. "Whoever sins you remit shall be remitted. Whoever sins you retain shall be retained." Here are the keys to the kingdom. Go to it. You are my emissaries. You are an ambassador of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 5.

Beloved, think of it. God has made us one with Him. God has loved us. God has blessed us. God has given us authority to act in His behalf in the world. And even put His Son in us so that we may manifest Christ.

Finally, we said that in John 5 Jesus said that God honored His Son. And surely we see that here, don't we? He said, at the end of verse 23, "Let us eat and be merry." He commanded everybody to celebrate, everybody to honor that son that had been dead and was now alive.

But there's another alternative too, and that's the second son and we close with this, just briefly. Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. Now listen, get the picture. This is the son that never went anywhere. You know who this is? The Pharisees.

They hung around the temple all the time. They hung around God's skirts, as it were, all the time. They were always involved in the religious stuff. They never drifted away. They kept the letter of the law. Look what it says down there in verse 29. "These many years have I served you. I have never transgressed your commandment, and you never gave me any feast."

You know why? Because you never knew you were a sinner. And so you have the year religious man embraced, and the religious man turned away. And they prove the falseness of their religion. Their whole attitude shows that their obedience was out of a grim duty, not love. The attitude of an utter lack of sympathy. They treat their brother in such a horrible way. Self-righteous.

Why is my father doing this for him? He's a sinner. Remember the story of the publican and the sinner? When in the corner, "Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner." The Pharisee said, "I thank you that I'm not like this dirty sinner." That's the older brother. Well, how did the father treat the older brother? Oh, I love this. Verse 31. He said, "Son. Son."

The Pharisees were within the purview of the Abrahamic covenant. They had received the physical seed of Abraham. They were the recipients of the covenants and the adoptions and the promises, as Romans 9:4 and 5 tells. They had it all there. And he says, "Son, you're ever with me, and all that I have is yours." It's all yours for the taking, and you've always hung around and it's yours.

Oh, what a loving father. He loves even the legalist. He loves even the Pharisee. But it was so fitting that we should make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive, was lost and found. Listen, do you see the love of God there? See what kind of father he is? He loved so much the one who came back, and he loved no less the one who didn't. Even though he stayed around the religious things, he never knew God and never tapped his resources.

The story never ends. It never tells what happened to the older brother. You know why? Because when Jesus preached this message, the story hadn't been told. We know how it ended. The Pharisees cried for his blood. And if the story had run full course, the elder brother would have turned his back on his father. What is God like? Do you know what he's like?

I'll tell you what he's like. He can see in the worst sinner, the vilest sinner, something glorious and magnificent. And he wants to set his affection on it, make it one with himself, love, bless, give authority to and honor that individual. No wonder Jesus said, "Have faith in God." If that's the kind of God, we can have faith in. Amen. Let's pray.

Thank you, Father. Thank you for the joy that's in our hearts because you ran one day and threw your arms around us when we weren't worthy, when we didn't deserve it, but you loved us anyway. Thank you for being such a Father to us that you are to Jesus Christ. For making us one with you, loving us, blessing us, giving us authority and honor. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Phil Johnson: You're listening to Grace to You Weekend, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is called "Enjoying God." Now, the parable of the prodigal son that we looked at today, it's good to be reminded as John explained, that that story is not so much about the rebellious son, but the loving Father. The parable holds a memorable place in John's ministry.

In fact, the only time I recall hearing an audible gasp from the congregation was when John preached on this parable. Here were some of John's thoughts on this amazing and shocking story.

John MacArthur: The parable clearly is about the Father, because he is the hero in the parable. I think people know generally about the story of the prodigal son. Some people think it's a story illustrating bad parenting and how to fix your parenting. It really has nothing to do with that.

But it is one of the greatest of all the parables, and it particularly brings honor to our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is the loving Father in the parable who forgives the repentant son. The book that I wrote on this called "The Prodigal Son" was previously titled "A Tale of Two Sons." And it is a tale of two sons, but that title didn't really identify with the familiar story, so we changed it to "The Prodigal Son."

It's the story of the prodigal that holds richer truth than most people would ever realize. Everybody knows the story, but what they don't seem to understand is this is one of the greatest of all biblical revelations on salvation, on forgiveness, on redemption. And it's about the Father and two kinds of sinners, the kind that will be forgiven and redeemed and the kind that will not.

This is a shocking story. As most of our Lord's parables do, this has a shock at the end that is the reason people gasped when I came to the end of this parable when I was preaching it. The book, "The Prodigal Son," pulls you into this most famous of Jesus' parables. And it also pulls you into Middle Eastern culture and challenges your thinking, shows you the practical implications of this story for your life.

Phil Johnson: That's right, friend. This book is an ideal complement to John's lesson today. It's also a helpful evangelism tool, a great resource to put into the hands of an unbeliever that you know. To order John's book called "The Prodigal Son," contact us today.

Call during our regular business hours. That's Monday through Friday, 7:30 to 4:00 Pacific time, at 800-55-GRACE. Or you can visit our website at any time, GTY.org.

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Just search by topic or specific verse or book of the Bible. If you're not sure where to start, log on to Grace Stream. That's a continual broadcast of John's teaching, beginning in Matthew and going all the way through the book of Revelation. All of that and much more is available at GTY.org. Now, for our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for joining us today.

Remember to watch Grace to You Television Sundays on DirecTV Channel 378. And then be back next week as John MacArthur begins a study called "Restoring Marriage." It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to You Weekend.