Meditations the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Chapter 14
CHAP. XIV.
Which sheweth, How unserviceable every man, in his natural estate, is to God; from the last Clause of the 13th. Verse, And there wasted his Substance with riotous living.
WE are come now to the last Clause of the 13th. Verse, what this younger Son did, when he came into the far Countrey; There he wasted his substance with riotous living: And the spiritual import of this will teach us many things.
And first, we may observe how this younger Son was worse than that wicked and slothful Servant that hid his Talent, Matth. 25.25. Though he improved not his Masters goods, yet he did not waste them: But this youngster did; He wasted his substance with riotous living: From whence we may observe three several points of Doctrine; the first whereof shall be the subject of this Chapter, viz.
Doct. 1 That a natural man is an unprofitable and an unserviceable Creature to God.
He spoils all that goes through his hands; he pollutes the holy things of God, as those Jews did Mal. 2.7. He ordinarily takes the name of God in vain by his carnal, careless, customary performances, Hos. 7.8.and dough-baked duties; Ephraim is a Cake half-baked. And for the outward good things he hath of God; James 4.3. 1 John 2.16.these he consumes upon his lusts; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Judges 10.6.As the Gentile Nations had their several gods, so have natural men their several lusts; one pleasure, another pride, another covetousness, another intemperance, &c. Corruption of nature in natural men breaks out several ways in several persons, as corruption of the blood and humours of the body, break forth in one disease in one man, and in another disease in another. All natural men have their particular lusts, on which they spend their Father's substance.
They are all like Onesimus before his Conversion, Philem. 11. Rom. 3.12.unprofitable; They are together become unprofitable, or rotten, as the Greek imports, and so good for nothing, as we say of a rotten Apple. It may be written on every natural man's grave, who lives and dies in that estate, Here lieth the man that never did God one days good service in all his life; Nahum 2.10. Zach. 7.5.but empty, and void, and waste: or if he did any good, it was to himself, and not to God.
Other Creatures are more usefull to man than natural men are to God: Isa. 1.3.The Ox knoweth his owner, and the Ass his Master's crib, but Israel doth not know— Balaam's Ass was more serviceable to God, than Balaam himself; Numb. 6.22.what service he did, he did it by force, Exod. 9.27, 28as Pharaoh was forced to desire Moses his prayers, and to confess he had sinned, and to let Israel go.Exod. 12.
It is true, God may, and doth make use of natual men sometimes in some special service: As he made use of Cyrus to do his good pleasure, in releasing the Jews, Isa. 44.28.and returning them into their own Countrey, and in their laying the foundation of the Temple.
So Nebuchadnezzer did the Lord a great peice of service against Tyrus, Ezek. 29.18, 19.20.and he gave him Egypt for his hire: But alas, he intended no such thing as to do God service in the case, but satisfied his own ambition and lust.
As the Assyrian was the rod of God's anger to punish his sinning people; Isa. 10.7.Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so, but it is in his heart to destroy, to serve his own pride and cruelty, and not the will of God. Zenacherib indeed pretended the service of God, when he came up against Jerusalem, and the Cities of Judah; Isa. 36.10.Am I come up without the Lord against this Land to destroy it? The Lord said unto me, go up and destroy it: But alas, his end was to destroy the Jews, and the God of the Jews also, as he had done the Idol gods of other Nations: Vers. 18, 19.Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
All the actions of natural men are from selfprinciples, and to self-ends; and the service they do God, Zach. 7.5.is for and to themselves, as the Jews fasting seventy years was.
And the Reason why natural men are unserviceable and useless Creatures to God is, Reason. because they are branches without a root; they are separated from God; they are in a far Countrey from God, as this Prodigal was from his Father: neither are they in Christ, branches in him. Now when branches are cut off from the Tree, they wither, and bear no fruit. Since the fall all men by nature are separated from God, which was signified by Adam's being thrust out of Paradise, Gen. 3. so that now men by nature are like the fruitless Fig-tree which Jesus cursed: Matth. 21.19.or they are that wild Olive-tree spoken of in Rom. 11.17. If some natural men have the leaves of a Fig-tree, yet only leaves without fruit, as that Fig-tree was which our Lord Jesus cursed. Natural men may have moral vertues, and a profession of Religion; Job 19.but the root of the matter is not in them, as Job's phrase is; that is, true grace, or the grace of sincerity.
As when the earth lost its blessing it was under at first, 2 & 3 Gen.and came under a curse, in the second and third of Genesis, Gen. 3.18.then it brought forth thorns and thistles; Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. Thus is it with men since the fall, and still in a state of nature; they bring forth thorns and thistles to God, as the earth doth to man, whilst uncultivated.
In the Prophet Jeremiah they are compared to fallow ground: Jer. 4.3.The French call it Jash'res from the Latin Jacere, because it lieth idle, and brings not forth grain, but weeds, without the art of man. Thus is it with natural mens hearts till grace alter them; they are fallow or idle ground, and bring not forth fruit to God: They are void and waste ground, as it's said of Nineveh, Nahum 2.10.
Application.
1. This informs us of the excellency of a state of grace; in this state men are useful to God, not in strictness of speech, for God needs no man: Can a man be profitable to God, Job 21.2. & 35.7.as he that is wise may be to himself? If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? Yet God is pleased to accept of his people as a useful people to him, Vessels of honour sanctified, 2 Tim. 2.21.and meet for the master's use, and prepared to every good work.
As its said in Psal. 113.6. that the Lord humbled himself, to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth: so is the Lord pleased to humble himself in owning himself to have need of his people, as our Lord Jesus bad his Disciples (if any asked about their loosing the Ass and the Colt) to say, Matth. 21.3.The Lord hath need of them.
It is true, all they do for him, or give to him, is of his own; Thou hast wrought all our works for us. Isa. 26.12. 1 Chro. 21.14. Psal. 116.16.And of thine own have we given thee. Saints are useful Creatures to God. O Lord, truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant, says David. And as David said thus to God, so God said of David, I have found David a man after mine own heart, Acts 13.22.which shall fulfill all my will. Godliness is profitable to all things, 1 Tim. 4.8. Godly men and women are like those that came to David to Ziklag; 1 Chro. 12.2. Psal. 37.31.they could use both the right hand and the left. When a man hath the Word of God in his heart, 2 Tim. 3.17.as every man in a state of grace hath, he is throughly furnished to every good work.
The Saints are the Lord's Eden, they are his Garden, Cant. 4.16.where he eats his pleasant fruit, and refresheth himself; we have the expression in Exod. 31.17. Take heed therefore, you that have grace, that you fail not in your usefulness to God.
2. This should humble natural men, if they had any sense and feeling of their state, that they should be so unserviceable and useless Creatures to God. Many a godly man, though he do bear fruit unto God; yet not bearing so good, and so much as he would, Isa. 56.3.and thinks he should, he calls himself a dry tree; he cries out, O my leanness, my leanness.
But natural men that are fallow ground, their soul is a wilderness, waste ground, an empty vine, or that bringeth forth fruit only to himself, Hos. 10.1.as it's said of Israel: he is his own Alpha and Omega, beginning and end; and yet he hath no sense of his great sin and disingenuity herein.