27. The Danger of Seeking Material Things
27
The Danger of Seeking Material Things1
Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.
—Luke 15:12
You heard the substance of the young man’s [the prodigal son’s] prayer: “Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.” There is no word of his asking that his father would bless him or that he seeks his father’s favor and goodwill to the purpose that he is upon, but rather he says, “Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.” The meaning is, “Give me my own will to follow my way with something of this life”; there is the sinner’s heart-wish morning and evening. All that the sinner seeks here is something divided from God, that he may get some created perishing thing out of his Father’s hand. That is all that a sinner can seek who is left and forsaken of God—the world, the glory thereof, or something to satisfy the lawless desire of his heart and lusts. That is all the divinity the natural man has.
In a word, it is only this life that the natural man seeks, even that which our Lord reproves, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” He tells them what to seek and what not to seek: “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you” (John 6:26–27). That is only reason from our darkened judgments that do not see things rightly, and from this, the sinner is always at something that he believes to be heaven and happiness, when indeed it is not so, for there is nothing in the creature can do so.
But is there nothing at all in the creature that is good or can make a man good and happy? Yes, all the creatures of God in their own kind are good. But when we make any of the creatures an idol and make them a god, when we trust in the creature and place our happiness and heaven in them, then all the creatures are nothing else but vanity and vexation of spirit. When we do so, then there is nothing good at all that is under the sun. When the creature is in any way divided from God, then it is not good. Whatever you would rest upon without God or beside Him is evil. The creature as a creature is good; but the creature as an idol and a god is evil.
May we not, then, seek after the creature? Yes, but if you seek it right, it must be sought in God, the Creator. Seek ourselves in God, and we shall certainly find ourselves there. Seek yourselves and seek the creature for God, and then you shall find God and the creature and yourselves. But if you seek God outside of God, and seek the creature outside of God, then you are seeking fire under you. And all natural men, thus, are seeking fire under them. They seek their good things outside of God, and so they never get satisfaction to the soul. They seek a good thing that is like themselves. As it is in Psalm 4:6, “Many…say, Who will shew us any good?” But the next verse tells us what the natural man’s good things are—to have his corn, wine, and oil abound. His thought is how his house may be built up, and yet leave enough to his children behind him, as it is in Psalm 49:11. And when they have gotten what their hearts are after, they are not a whit more happy, but rather further from happiness than before.
1. Quaint Sermons, 219–21.