The Father of the Prodigal Son — Gerhard Du Toit

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Examining the Heart Through Scripture

When you come to this service tomorrow night, you will receive a little sheet like this. There are 20 free passages of scripture in these sheets that I would like you to look at because underneath every one of those passages of scripture, there are questions that you and I need to answer.

I have been using this at conferences for men, leadership in places where I've had the privilege of being, and God, just in a wonderful way, has been using this. And so, what I do in my own devotional times and my choir times in the mornings, I take one passage of scripture and then I allow the Spirit of God to search my heart.

And so, we will make copies of this and give it to you and maybe you can take it back to your fellowships. Let me give you just one or two of these. Matthew 6, verses 14 and 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. These are the questions that you and I need to answer. Is there anyone against whom I am holding a grudge and I need to answer yes or no?

Is there anyone that I have not forgiven and I need to answer yes or no? Is there anyone that I do not love and I need to answer yes or no? Are there any misunderstandings that I am unwilling to forget and I need to answer?

Is there any person against whom you are harboring bitterness or resentment or jealousy and I need to answer? Anyone you dislike to hear praise or well spoken of and I need to answer that? Do you allow anything to justify a wrong attitude towards another?

Christian Love as Evidence of Discipleship

Let me give you another one. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. If ye have love one for another, are you secretly pleased over the misfortune of someone else? And I need to answer yes or no.

Are you secretly annoyed over the accomplishments or advancements of another? Are you guilty of any contention or strife? Do you quarrel or argue or engage in heated discussions? Are you a partaker of any divisions or a party spirit?

Are there people whom you deliberately slight and I need to answer? And I would love you to take this and I trust that every one of us have a personal devotional life where you and I spend time alone with God and when we do that I allow God to search my heart in those times.

The Prodigal Son in Luke 15

I want you tonight to turn with me if you will in your Bible to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15 and just for the sake of our time we are going to break into that chapter. Luke chapter 15. Tomorrow night God willing in our time together I want us to look at the subject of Christian growth.

How do you and I grow in our relationships with God as Christian men, as families, as we pray together and as we seek the face of God together when it comes to the responsibility of my Christian life.

But turn with me this evening if you will to Luke chapter 11 or rather Luke chapter 15 and we will begin to read at verse number 11. Luke chapter 15 verse number 11. And he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, Father give me a portion of goods that falleth to me.

And he divided unto them his living. Not many days after that the youngest son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance of righteous living. When he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want.

And he went and he joined himself with a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave it unto him.

When he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father has got bread enough and to spare? And I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and I will say unto him, Father I have sinned against seven and before thee.

I am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and he came to his father, but 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 seven and in thy sight and I am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best rope and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring under the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry.

For this my son was dead and he is alive again. He was lost and he is found. They began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field and he came and drew nigh to the house and he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

And he said unto him, Thy brother has come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because you have received him safe and sound. And he was angry and he would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him.

And the answering man said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee. Neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment. And yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends.

But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

Humility, Prayer, and Spiritual Hunger

It was neat that we should make merry and be glad. For this thy brother was dead and is alive again. And he was lost and is found. O Father, as we bow this evening again in the greatness and in the preciousness of what thy presence has been about, as we have gathered these days simply to be able to humble ourselves again and again under the mighty hand of God, and our God and Father, we are reminded again that thou didst say to us in thy Word, If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

And as we come to thee this night, as we are closing or coming to the close of this and other leadership week in which we as men have come not just to be exposed to the reality of what the Word of God is about, but we have come because we do not just want to be informed by Scripture, but we long in our hearts to be inflamed by the reality of what God is about.

And Father, as we humble ourselves tonight under the mighty hand of God, do we want to say to Thee that there is a longing in our hearts to crawl within the greatness of the presence of God in a way that we have never done it before.

We want to say to Thee tonight afresh, our God and Father, we do not look for fellowships all over this land who will just be full of men and women and children, but we are looking for fellowships that will be full of men and women and children, that will be full of God.

And so tonight we pray that somehow in this gathering, as we expose ourselves under the greatness of the communication of what the Word of God is about, we ask that You will help us this night to somehow draw a circle around ourselves to ask of You that You will pour out Your Spirit within this circle.

Father, we say to Thee this night that we do not want meetings for the sake of meetings, but we long to have meeting places with God. We long to become men that will be intoxicated with the presence of God.

We long to become men that will be drenched in the life of Christ. We long to become men that will be saturated in the holiness of God. And we want to be the fathers that You want us to be. We want to be the husbands that God wants us to be.

And Father, we confess tonight in the greatness of Thy presence that it will cost us absolutely everything. And so we ask in these days that once more that You will come and pour out upon us Your Spirit.

You have said unto us in Your Word, You have said unto us, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. I will pour floods upon the dry ground. Jesus stood up and said, If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me.

He that believeth into Me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water shall flow from the innermost of his being. Lord, we are amazed tonight what will be able to happen in our fellowships all over the country when God will come and visit the men, when God will pour out His Spirit upon us, when we will be in the midst of the greatness of conviction as sin, when we will be exposed to the beauty of the glory and the holiness and the majesty of the omnipotence, of the omnipresence, of the omniscience of the God who has given unto us His Son.

So tonight we pray somehow that You will come to break in our hearts. Father, we cannot break ourselves. God, we cannot work the power of the Spirit of God up. We cannot bring it down into our midst, but we can come and sit in the very dust before Thee, and we can ask that Thou would have mercy upon us.

And so we pray in the midst of the years, that Thou would have mercy, that Thou would remember us these days, so that we could become a men, a group of men and women saturated with the greatness of the conviction of God, the Holy Ghost.

We thank Thee tonight for Thy great word. Lord, we love this book. Thou didst say to us in Thy word, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word abideth forever. Thou didst say to us, Is my word not like a hammer that breaketh a rock?

Is my word not sharper than any twisted sword cutting through, dividing asunder a soul and spirit? Thou didst say unto us, Study to show thyself a proof unto God. Worth may not need it to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Father, we confess tonight in the beauty of Thy presence that the Spirit of God is but nothing else to witness to, but the infallibleness of Scripture and the efficacy of the precious blood. And so we ask, we look upon Thy word.

Oh, we pray that the Spirit of God through the word would come and melt us in the beauty of Thy presence. We know tonight for us as men, as fathers, as husbands, as mothers, as children, as young people, it is going to cost us absolutely, absolutely everything to walk with this God who has given unto us His Son.

The Parable’s Three Central Figures

Bless Thy word to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. It is amazing when you and I begin to study the New Testament that you will discover that the Lord Jesus Christ gave us something like 38 beautiful parables in the four Gospels.

And the reasons why He gave unto us these parables was simply to be able to explain unto us some of those great riches of what the kingdom of God was all about. So often when you and I as a Christian look upon this, what we would refer to as the parable of the prodigal son, is there the possibility that we would look upon this passage and we spend so much of our time looking upon what I would refer to as the spiritual richest son.

I want to say to you tonight, my brother and my sister, as you study these verses and I trust this first night that there is still a hunger and a longing in your heart for the greatness of the Word of God, and that it is still in the process of becoming part of your life, but when you study these verses, will you discover that the Bible is not just speaking to us about what I would refer to as the spiritual richest son, but the Bible is speaking to us also about His brother.

The Bible is speaking to us about a third person and that was the Father. If you and I would look at the life of the spiritual or rather the prodigal son, is it amazing when we study his life and we study what we would refer to as the biblical doctrine of the unfolding of the conviction of sin and the life of someone who has been enlightened by God, will you discover amazing things that compare them one with another?

You say, brother Gerard, why do you say that? I am saying that because you see, the moment when this prodigal or rather the spiritual richest son came to the place where he said or he made his statement, and he went into the presence of his father, and he said to his father, give me the portion of my inheritance, that moment was God the Holy Spirit in the totality of Scripture there saying to him what he was planning in the presence of his father was wrong.

As he was leaving towards the far country, God the Holy Spirit in the totality of Scripture would have been there to say, you are stepping outside of the will of your father. It was only by God the Holy Spirit that he was able to come to the place where he could say, how many hired servants of my father has got bread enough to spare and I perish with hunger.

It was by the Spirit of God that he would have been able to come to the place where he said, I will arise and I will go to my father, and I will say to my father, father, I sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son.

But my brother and my sister, the Bible is not just speaking to us about what I would refer to as the life of a spiritual wretched son. The Bible is speaking to us about the spiritual weary son. You see this son had a brother.

I want to say to you tonight as a husband and as a father, I want to say to you tonight as a Christian, there is the possibility that you can sit here this Thursday night and you say, I've never gone to the far country.

I've never wasted my life away from God. And yet, my brother and my sister, when this prodigal was coming back into the presence of his brother, you will discover that his brother was in a spiritual weary state.

You say, why do you say that? Let me explain to you. There was his own self-realization. There was a radical change in his attitude. You see, when the prodigal was coming back from the far country, the Bible makes a statement about him.

The Bible says he refused to go in. There was a self-righteousness that came from the lips of his brother, because when the Father came into his presence and the Father said to him, your brother has come, and the Bible says he said to his father, he said, how many years have I served thee?

He said, you never gave me a kiss so that I could be merry with my friends. And I wonder this Thursday night if I would be allowed to ask you, because I am so confident that you are sitting here and you say, brother Gerard, I am not the prodigal who has gone to the far country.

I've given my life to Christ, as we have heard in this testimony. But if you are absolutely honest with yourself, is there a leanness? Is there an emptiness in the depth of your relationship with God?

You see, my brother and my sister, why have we come together this week? We did not just come together to sit under the greatness of what the teaching of the Word of God is about, but we have come so that God and the greatness of His Spirit will be able to break into our hearts and into our lives.

And I wonder tonight if I would be allowed to ask you. You see, you dare not go back to your fellowship on Saturday or Sunday or Monday, unless you have met with God. There was the brother. I want to suggest to you tonight, there was not just the prodigal, the spiritual, wretched son.

There was not just the spiritual, weary son. But, ah, brother and sister, there was the father. You see, so often what you and I do as a Christian, we focus so much of our attention upon the lives of these two sons.

I wonder tonight if you have ever looked at the life of the father. You see, sometimes we sit in gatherings like this, brother and sister, and we are so concerned about those areas of our lives where we need the greatness of the conviction of God, the Holy Ghost upon our lives.

But can I ask you this Thursday night, have you ever asked yourselves, how does God feel in His heart about my walk with Him? So you say, what happened to the father of these two sons? You know what I've discovered in the heart of the father?

There was a number of great tears in the heart of the father. My brother and my sister, there was a tear of amazement when the son came into the presence of his father, and he said to his father, give unto me the portion of my inheritance.

There was a tear of compassion in the heart of the father. If you look at this passage in the Greek New Testament, you will discover that there is the structure of the tense that is saying to us that day after day, it seems to us that the father was going towards the gate and he was looking for the day that the son is going to come back to the father.

The Father’s Compassion and Joy

But there was another tear in the heart of the father, and I want to speak about that tear this evening. You see, brother Gerard, which tear was it? It was the tear of joy. You see, there was a moment when the son said, I will arise and I will go to my father and I will say to my father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son.

But you know what the Bible is saying to us? The Bible says, and he arose, and he went to his father, and when he was set a great way off, his father ran towards him, and his father fell on his neck and he kissed him.

And the Bible says his father had compassion about him and he kissed him. And what did the father say? He turned to the servants and he said to the servants, Bring unto my son the best rope. He said, Bring unto my son the ring.

He said, Bring unto my son the shoes. Ah, you say, brother Gerard, what did the father do? My brother, my sister, the father did three things. First of all, the father clothed the son. Secondly, the father completed his work in the heart of his son.

And thirdly, the father commissioned the son. Ah, you say, why can you say this evening that the father clothed the son? You remember, he said to the servants, Bring unto my son the best rope. I wonder this Thursday night if you would allow me to suggest to you that it seems to me that when you and I begin to study this rope in the Scriptures, that my brother and my sister, the rope is speaking unto us about the greatness and the righteousness of God.

I think in that wonderful little verse, that statement that we come across in the Old Testament, and this is what the prophet Isaiah said, he said, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. He said, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and He hath covered me with the rope of righteousness.

Listen to what Job is saying unto us. He said, I put on the righteousness. He said, and it clothed me. He said, my judgment was like a rope. I want to say to you this evening, my brother and my sister, if you sit here tonight and you say, Brother Gerard, I remember there was a time in my life when I was born of the Spirit of God.

Every one of us tonight, we are sitting here with a rope that God has given unto us. And so I want us to look upon that rope this evening. What about the rope of my testimony as a Christian? Because as Paul said, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.

He said, all things have passed away. He said, behold, all things have become new. Tomorrow night when we look at this great reality of Christian growth, one of the things that I want us to look at is this understanding that God, when it comes to the demands of Christian growth, that God wants us to protect it and God wants us to promote it.

My brother and my sister, I want to tell you something tonight. The most precious thing that God has entrusted to me is the beauty of my testimony. Do you remember when the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, he said, therefore, if any man is in Christ, he should be old.

He said, therefore, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creature. He said, behold, all things have passed away and all things thus become new. Do you know that wonderful word, brother and sister, it's exactly the same word in the Greek language when John the Baptist saw the Lord Jesus Christ and the moment when he saw Him, he made the statement, he said, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

You see, every one of us tonight, we have a garment. And you know, my brother and my sister, in our little fellowships, some of them larger fellowships, one of the great burdens upon my heart, because I know that this movement is in the process of growing and I was so excited tonight as we were coming towards this gathering, found out that there's maybe something like 50 to 60 fellowships all over the country.

And I remember, was it six or seven or eight years ago, when I had the privilege of being here realizing the possibility of what God is able to do. But He has given unto us a rope. It's the rope of righteousness.

Christian Testimony in Marriage and Family

Can I ask you tonight as a husband, my brother, how is it going with that rope that God has given to you and the relationship of the beauty of your precious wife that God has entrusted to you as a leader?

Can I ask you this first tonight in those moments of the godly, sanctified, broken, saturated, baptized responsibility as a husband, when I take responsibility for every aspect of the needs of my precious wife?

The Apostle Paul came to us, and you know what he said. Ephesians 5 He said, You be not drunk of wine wherein there is an excess. But he said, Be full to the Spirit. He said, Redeem the time, because the days are evil.

That means God wants us to analyze time. God wants us to utilize time. Brother and sister, God wants us to maximize time. Time is a piece of eternity. And then He's coming to the men later on, and do you know what He said?

He said, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved a church. He said, Brother Gerard, what is that? It's sacrificial love. I do a lot of traveling. The last year I probably spent 60 or 80 days in airports and in planes and delays and all kinds of things.

And about four times a year I have this wonderful privilege to have my wife with me when I'm in a conference. I just came out of the city of New York and was in what they told me the largest Spanish church in the country.

And Sunday morning, free morning services amongst these Spanish people, the Spirit of God. And Sunday morning came and broke into our midst in the most amazing way. And at the end of that second service, I just got behind the pulpit and God just came and just washed afresh through my own life.

This last week was one of those weeks that I had the privilege of having my precious wife with me. And when I said goodbye to her at the airport because she needs to go back to our daughter out in Western Canada, I said, My darling, I want you to phone me from Montreal.

And when she phoned me from Montreal, I turned to her and I said, I just want to tell you that I really love you and it's been wonderful for you to be with me. I want to ask you a question tonight as a husband.

Are you taking your wife for granted? Brother, can I ask you tonight in this meeting, when last have you been broken in the presence of your wife? Listen to what the Scripture says. It says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.

Listen to the Apostle John. He said, Here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us, and that He gave His Son as a propitiation for our sins. You see, we are speaking about sacrificial love.

The garment of that beautiful relationship. The garment of our relationships with our children. Oh, you sit here this Thursday night and you say, Brother Gerard, I spend time with my wife and my children.

You know what's my great concern? Because I want us later to look at this garment of consecration to God. You see, brother and sister, listen. We are here this evening and we believe in separation. We are taking God upon His Word when the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6, he said, Come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.

And he said, I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and my daughters. Now, chapter 7, verse 1 says, Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

And you sit here and you say, Brother Gerard, I believe in separation. But you know what? It's possible for you this Thursday night as a husband and as a father to be separated from this world and not being separated unto God.

And you are caught between these two. And you sit here tonight and you say, Brother Gerard, I'm not living a spirit-filled life. I find myself in the wilderness of sin. I don't go out and commit those brutal sins that the world is speaking about, but deep in my heart and in my mind and my emotions as a husband and as a father, there in the realm of my secrecy, I find myself struggling with sin.

Prayer, Revival, and Meeting God

So God has given unto us this card. I will never be able not to remember this. I think it's about, I don't know, maybe four or five years ago now, and one of the fellowships that was done in Idaho got in touch and said, is it possible to come for a weekend of meetings?

And I was able to go down. We lived out in British Columbia and Western Canada, and I was able to go down. And it was always a great blessing to drive down there. It took me 14 hours to drive down. And I listened through the whole New Testament on my way down.

I tell you, if you ever want to keep a speed limit, you listen to the word of God when you drive. And I listened through the whole New Testament on my way down. And then I arrived there on a Friday night, quite often at 8 o 'clock.

And I would meet Brother Denny there and we'd get on our knees and we'd spend time in prayer. And then about 4 o 'clock in the morning we were back at it again. And 9 o 'clock the meetings start. And what a great time those were.

And I would never forget, I was asked to go down there a number of years ago. And about two weeks before I went down, I had a call from a church in the city of Spokane. And so they passed me the phone and he said, will you tell me about these prayer conferences?

We are doing prayer conferences. Because Brother insisted if you can't get through to God in prayer, you're not going to get through to people. I mean, you can't separate the answer to prayer from what God is doing in your life.

And so I began to talk to him on the phone about prayer. And so he turned to me and he said, well, if you come to my church to do a prayer conference, he said, what is it going to cost us? And I just turned to him and said, it's going to cost you absolutely everything.

Oh, he said, no, no, I'm thinking of money. I said, no, no, no, no. It's not a question of money. It's a question of meeting with God. Well, I tell you, we were talking and I could sense this man, you know, he didn't know where we are going here.

And I just got to a place where I said, well, you know, I think you need to pray about this. But God began to create a hunger in his heart. And as we were talking, he said to me, when are you coming from Spokane?

And I just turned to him and I said, well, I'm coming through there in the next few weeks. And he said, what day of the week is it? I said, well, as a matter of fact, I said, it's on a Sunday afternoon.

And he said, where will you be? I said, I will be coming out of Idaho. I said, can you speak in my church Sunday night? And I said, no, I can't. And he said, why not? I said, you don't know those people down in Idaho.

I said, when you begin to pray with them and you pour your heart out, I said, you know, when you finish there, you feel you need a week of holidays just to recover again. And he said, I said, I'm not interested in speaking in your church.

But you know, he just kept on. He said, I want you to come to my church. He said, I want to know about prayer. And brother and sister, I just said, no, I won't do that. And I put the phone down. And the moment when I put the phone down, God got a hold of my life.

God said, just as we heard our brother saying earlier tonight, God just convicted me and said, no, you're going to go to that church. And I just picked up the phone and I phoned him. And I said to him, listen, I'm willing to come and spend Sunday night in your church.

And I really didn't want to preach, to be honest with you. But that Sunday night, I was with brother Denny and with brothers down, sisters down in Idaho. And I was coming into Spokane. The service started about 6 .30 that night.

And 6 o 'clock, I drove and stopped at the church, got into the pastor's study. And he said to me, ah, we've got about 30 minutes. Let's have a little bit of fellowship and get to know one another. I said, no, don't do that.

He said, what do you mean? I said, let's get on, I need to pray. I said, listen, we pray for 5 minutes and you know where I am. And I know where you are with God. Well, that night, you know, it's wonderful, brother and sister.

God don't need us, you know. Ah, you laugh. Wait till God get a hold of your life. I want to tell you something tonight. God can do His work far better without us. He gives us this great privilege to be involved in this marvelous work.

And that Sunday night, I got up and I could hardly speak. And I just tried to share with them about prayer. And God did something in that Sunday night service. That pastor made 50 copies and he circulated through the city of Spokane.

And when he got in touch, he said, we need a prayer conference. And we prayed about it. And I will never forget, I went to this independent Baptist church. I mean, it was so independent, it was just about independent of God.

Well, I'll tell you what happened. We started with the meetings. God began to work, brother and sister. Not because I was there, but you know why? Because for hours, we climbed underneath the burden of God in the place of prayer.

People said, why do we spend these many hours in prayer? You know why, brother and sister? Because we want to get out of the way so that God can do something. It was a Tuesday morning, and he came to me that Tuesday morning and he said, you know, brother Gerard?

He said, I don't know what's going on. I said, what? He said, my wife has been crying hour after hour. Tuesday night he came. He said, I don't know what's going on. He said, my wife has been crying. And I realized God was breaking her heart.

Wednesday morning, the same thing. Wednesday night he came to me at the service and he said, you know, brother Gerard? He said, I don't know what's going on. He said, God, my wife has been crying all day.

Thursday morning, he came into the morning of prayer and he was standing behind his desk and he just looked at me and he said, I can't understand this. I said, what do you mean? He said, my wife has been crying through the night.

I've been talking to her till 3 o 'clock in the morning and I knew that God was giving unto her a broken heart. And I stood there and he was standing behind his desk and I didn't say this to him, but in my heart I just said, brother, wait till he teaches you.