The Prodigal's Riotousness and Ruin, 13-16.

HIS RUIN

Remember what it says: "And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living," verse 13.

The living that he wasted was that given him by his father. Boys and girls, men and women and young people, when they reject the gospel, waste that which God gives them! This young man would have had nothing to waste had not his father given him his inheritance!

How tragic to think upon the fact that those who defy God does so by the strength that God gives them!

As the prodigal would have had nothing to spend in the far country had not the father given him of his wealth, even so men use the lifde that God gives them to defy and reject Him.

What mercy on God's part this is!

1. His lifestyle. 'Riotous living' - same root as 'excess', Eph 5:18. He was as man who had lost his mind and acted drunkenly. He lived in rebellion to the highest law of all. Very wise in men's eyes but madness in God's! "But God said unto him, Thou fool," Luke 12:20. You know this world's view is the very opposite to that of the Lord. The apostles on the day of Pentecost were considered as drunk men, Acts 2:13-15. Whereas God speaks of sinners as being 'drunk'!

2. He wasted. The word means 'to scatter, to winnow'. It is the origin of the phrase 'to cast to the wind.'