Mysterious Meat
(No. 1901)
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 23, 1886,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, Master, eat. But He
said to them, I have meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore the
disciples said to one another, Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?
Jesus said to them, My meat is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to
finish His work Do you not say, There are yet four months, and then
comes harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look at
the fields, for they are already ripe for harvest! And he who reaps
receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who
sows andhe who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the sayingis
true, One sows, and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which
you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into
their labors." John 4:31-38.
THE disciples had gone away into the city to buy meat and for this they
cannot be censured. It was necessary that food should be provided and
it naturally fell to their lot to perform that duty. Do not say that
they were carnal or un-spiritual because of this, for the most
spiritual people must eat to live. When they came back from making
their purchases, they found their Master sitting by the well, as they
had left Him. They naturally expected that He would be as ready to
partake of the provision as they were to offer it to Him, but He made
no movement in that direction. His mind was evidently far away from the
idea of food. He was absorbed in something else and, therefore, His
disciples sought to call Him back to a sense of His need. I do not
suppose that they had, themselves, eaten. It was hardly like them to do
so while their Lord was not with them. They, therefore, wished to eat
and they were all the more struck with the fact that He had no care for
refreshment. Knowing how weary He had been when they left Him–so weary
that He bade them go alone into the city–they were perplexed at His
indifference to food and, perhaps, judged that He was over-fatigued
and, therefore, they urged Him to eat. Importunately, one after another
said, "Good Master, it is long since You have eaten; the way has been
weary, the day is hot, You seem very faint. We pray You, eat a little
that You may be revived. The woman to whom You spoke has gone. Your
good work, for a while, is over, let us eat together."
Again I confess that I do not agree with those who blame these
disciples. If it is true that there is nothing very elevated in
providing food, there is certainly nothing unworthy in the act. I
admire their care for their Master. I praise them for so lovingly
pressing upon Him the supply of His necessities. It is right for the
spiritual man to forget his hunger, but it is equally right for his
true friends to remind him that he ought to eat for his health's sake.
It is commendable for the worker to forget his weakness and press
forward in holy service, but it is proper for the humane and thoughtful
to interpose with a word of caution and to remind the ardent spirit
that his frame is but dust. I think the disciples did well to say,
"Master, eat." What is more, I will hold them up to your imitation!
Jesus has gone from you, now, in actual Person, but His mystical body
is still with you and, if you meet with any part of His body in need,
make it your earnest care. Still pray to Him, saying, "Master, eat." If
you know any of His people in poverty, ask them to partake of your
abundance, lest your Lord should say to you at the last, "I was hungry
and you gave Me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink." Our
Lord's spirituality is not of that visionary sort which despises the
feeding of hungry bodies! Look after His poor and needy ones. How can
you be truly spiritual if you do not? "Pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
There is much in the commonplace attentions of charity–Jesus commands
our consideration of the weaknesses and needs of others–therefore, I
say again, I commend the disciples that they urged Him saying, "Master,
eat."
Having done this justice to the 12, let us do higher honor to the
Divine One about whom they gathered. His mind was, at that time,
absorbed in spiritual matters and, being so, He wished to lead them
into that higher field wherein He was so much at home and, therefore,
He transfigured their common words by giving them a higher meaning.
"You pray Me to eat," He said, but, "I have meat to eat that you know
not of." They did not comprehend what He meant. As the Samaritan woman
did not understand Him, when He spoke of water, neither did His
disciples when He spoke of meat. But you see, the Lord endeavored to
use the lower expression as a ladder to something higher and more
spiritual. This was the Master's way from the beginning to the
end–always to be making similitudes of things seen to set forth the
things unseen–always to take the thing which men had grasped and use
it as the means of helping them to lay hold on some great Truth of God
which, as yet, was out of their reach. Inasmuch as refreshments were
spoken of and His disciples saw the need of those refreshments, the
Master turns that thought into a deeper channel and tells them of other
refreshments which He, Himself, enjoyed and wished them to share with
Him. In effect our Lord's reply to the request, "Master, eat," is
this–"I have eaten, in the best sense, and I wish you, also, to eat
with Me." He would have them enter into that service which had yielded
so intense a satisfaction to Himself–He would have them know His joy
in it!
This morning the run of my subject will be just this–first, there are
refreshments for our hearts which are but little known–"I have meat to
eat that you know not of." Secondly, these refreshments satisfied our
Lord–so satisfied Him that He forgot to eat! And thirdly, and a very
practical thirdly, I hope it will be, let us seek these refreshments at
once, that we, too, may forget our earthly needs in a heavenly
enthusiasm. O blessed Spirit of all Grace, give us secret, sacred food
this morning while meditating upon this theme!
I. First, THERE ARE REFRESHMENTS WHICH ARE LITTLE KNOWN. Generally men
know enough about refreshments of the body. Those questions–What shall
we eat, and what shall we drink?–have been long and carefully studied.
It seems obvious to all men that if we are to be restored and lifted
above fatigue or weakness, it must be by corporeal food. Yet there is,
in the Word of God, an intimation of another principle. As we read,
"Man shall not live by bread, alone, but by every Word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God shall man live." The Lord has been pleased to
make it generally necessary that the body should be sustained with
food, but that is only because the body is to be destroyed, for it is
written, "Meats for the body, and the body for meats, but God shall
destroy both it and them." That new body, which will never be
destroyed, will probably need no meats. If God so willed it, this frame
might be sustained without visible food. There is no absolute necessity
that the order of Nature or of Providence should be just as it is. Even
now we know that there are many ways by which waste can be suspended
and the need of food greatly lessened. And there are conditions under
which life has been sustained upon an almost incredibly small portion
of food. If God willed it, He could secretly infuse strength into the
system, keeping the lamp of life burning by means of a subtle,
invisible oil. We are not so absolutely dependent upon the bread we eat
as, at first sight, seems–food is but the vehicle of sustenance–God
could sustain us without it.
Now, Brothers and Sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ found for Himself a
sustenance other than that of food–a food superior to the ordinary
meat of men. But these refreshments were not known to His disciples.
The common throng of mankind have no idea of spiritual food, but the
disciples were not of the common throng–they were chosen out of the
world and they had been with their Lord for some little time! And yet
they had not grasped the idea of a man being fed and strengthened by an
influence upon his spiritual nature which could raise him above the
dragging down of his bodily needs. They could not yet enter into their
Lord's secret–He had a meat to eat which even they knew not of.
The reason for His knowing what they knew not was, in part, the fact
that this nourishment was enjoyed upon a higher plane than these
servants of Christ had yet reached. They were spiritual men in some
degree, but they were not highly spiritual–they were mere babes in
Grace, though men in physical development. They had not yet reached to
the height of letting their spirits rule the rest of their nature, nor
had they yet learned the proper occupation of their spirits. They could
not yet enjoy spiritual meat to the fullest because they were so little
spiritual. Our Savior was full of the Holy Spirit and, in His inmost
Nature, He was deeply and intensely spiritual. He lived in constant
communion with invisible things and, therefore, it was that He
perceived that "meat to eat" which they knew not of. Oh, that we may
not miss the delicacies of Heaven from lack of a purified taste! It is
a sad ignorance which comes of lack of spirituality. The Lord lift us
out of it!
Further, these refreshments were unknown to the Apostles, as yet,
because they implied a greater sinking of self than they as yet knew.
"My meat," said Jesus, "is to do the will of Him that sent Me." How
condescendingly does our Lord sink Himself in this expression! He does
not even say, "My meat is to do My Father's will." He takes a lower
position than that of sonship and dwells chiefly upon His mission, its
service and the absorption in the will of God which it involved. He
finds His refreshment in being the commissioned officer of God and in
carrying out that commission. In being a Servant obeying the will and
doing the work of Another, He feels Himself so much at home that it
revives Him to think of it! Others have been refreshed by gaining honor
for themselves–our Lord is refreshed by laying that honor aside! The
carnal mind finds its meat and drink in self-will, but Christ, in doing
the will of God! Doing his own work and carrying out his own purpose is
the meat and drink of the natural man–the very opposite was the joy of
our Lord Jesus!
Is it so with you, my Hearer, that you will have your own way and be
your own lord and master? You feed upon wind! You seek after emptiness
and, in the end, your hunger shall devour you! But oh, Believer, have
you ever tried your Lord's plan? Have you taken your Lord's yoke upon
you and learned of Him? Thus it is that you shall find rest unto your
soul! Not in self, but in self-surrender, is there fullness for the
heart! You are no longer to live unto yourself, for you are not your
own, but you are the servant of Him who has bought you with a
price–you will find peace in taking up your proper place. Your
lifework is, from this day on, not to be one of your own selecting, but
the work which your great Lord and Master has chosen for you. Servants
lay their wills aside and do what they are bid. When a man gets fully
into this condition, I bear witness that he will be refreshed by it! If
I felt that my calling were of my own choosing and that my message were
of my own inventing, I should have no rest–the responsibility would
crush me! But now that I feel that I am doing the will of Him who sent
me and know that I am committed wholly to the work of the Lord, I pluck
up courage and put my shoulder to the wheel without misgiving!
In the name of Him who has sent me to do this work, I find a fountain
of fresh strength! But, Brothers, we must get low down. We must come
right away from the idea of being original and inventing something and
carrying out a novel purpose of our own–we must act only upon
commission–we must say only our Lord's Words and do only His work! And
then we shall eat of that same loaf on which Jesus fed when He had food
to eat which even the 12 knew not of. When we get to know that we are
sent of the Most High, there is nourishment in that very fact! We need
to feel that as the Father has sent Christ into the work, even so has
Christ sent us into the world–and if we do not so feel, we shall miss
a choice form of spiritual meat.
Further, our Lord not only lived on a higher plane and felt a greater
sinking of Self, but He was in fuller harmony with God than His
disciples. He says. "My meat is to do the will of Him who sent Me and
to finish His work." God's will was His will, not only passively, but
actively, so that He wished to do it. God's work was His work
completely, so that He wished to finish it. He longed to go all the
length of God's eternal purpose and carry it out as far as that purpose
concerned Himself. Now, when a man feels, "My one desire is that I may
do God's will. I have no other will but His will. My own will has
fallen into God's will as a brook falls into a river"–then he is at
peace! It is a blessed thing to rejoice in being crossed in our own
purpose in order that the purpose of the Lord may be more completely
fulfilled. When a man wants to do God's work and to get through with
it, whatever it may cost, he is sure to feel strength in his heart. He
who will glorify God, whatever it may cost him, is a happy man! He that
serves God in body, soul and spirit to the utmost of his power, finds
new power given to him hour by hour, for God opens to him fresh
springs!
Perhaps you do not see this truth, but if you have ever experienced
what it is to lay your whole soul on the altar and feel that for Christ
you live and for Christ you would die, why then you will know, by
experience, that I speak the truth! If your heart's desires were as
ravenous as that of the young lions when they howl for their prey, they
would be abundantly satisfied by your soul's being tamed into complete
submission to the will of God! When your will is God's will, you will
have your will! When your will rings out in harmony with the will of
God, there must be sweet music all around your steps! Our chief sorrows
spring from the roots of our selfishness. Hang up self before the face
of the sun, as Joshua hung up the Canaanite kings, and your soul will
no longer be consumed with the hunger and thirst of discontent. When
you are tuned to perfect harmony with God, you begin your Heaven upon
earth, even though your lot is cast in the hut of poverty, or on the
bed of sickness. I know by experience that the way to renew your
strength for suffering or for service is to become more and more at one
with the will and the purpose of the Most High. As God's Glory becomes
the one objective of life, we find in Him our All in All!
Once more–our dear Savior was sustained by these secret refreshments
because He understood the art of seeing much in little. Our Master had
been feasting. He had partaken of a more than royal banquet. How? He
had been made a blessing to a woman–an ill-famed, very sinful woman.
He had led her up to the point at which she could perceive that He was
the Messiah–this was, to Him, a festival! Some would have thought it a
trifle, but, as a wise man sees a forest in an acorn, so did Jesus see
grand results in this little incident. Many a man would say, "I could
easily forget hunger and a thousand other inconveniences if called to
preach to a vast congregation like that which assembles in the
Tabernacle. It ought to inspirit a man to see so many faces." But note
well that it inspirited your Master to see only one face and that the
common face of a villager of mournful character who had come forth from
Sychar with her water pot upon her head. It was not an oration that He
delivered–He had not even preached a sermon which would command
admiration as a masterpiece of eloquence–His whole soul was absorbed
in what He had done! It was only a talk such as a city missionary would
have at any door, or such as would naturally fall from a Bible-woman in
her calls from room to room. Yet our Divine Exemplar saw so much in one
soul and so much valued one opportunity of enlightening it, that He
felt a sacred satisfaction in His simple conversation! He saw in the
woman the seed-corn of a harvest and, therefore, drew a large
refreshment from her conversion.
We do not usually measure things rightly. I am persuaded that our
weights and scales are out of order. We think we are doing a great deal
when we get into a big controversy, or write an article that is read
all over the nation, or create a sensation which startles thousands.
But, indeed, it is not so! The Lord is not in the wind, nor in the
tempest–we must go on with the still small voice of loving instruction
and persuasion. You must go on talking with your little children in
your classes; you must go on speaking to the few sick persons you are
able to visit; you must try and preach Jesus Christ in little rooms, or
to dozens and scores in the street corner or on the village green. It
is the old-fashioned, quiet personal work which is effective! If we get
to think that everything must be big to be good, we shall get into a
sorry state of mind. In the little bit of work thoroughly done, God is
glorified much more than in the great scheme that is superficial. That
word, superficial, gives a true description of very much Christian work
nowadays. A huge piece of moral architecture is carried out by
jerry-builders to whom appearance is everything and reality is nothing!
It tumbles down before long and then its authors begin, again, in the
same wretched manner, with the same flourish of trumpets and bragging
of what is going to be done!
It is worthwhile to spend a year upon the conversion of a single woman,
yes, worthwhile to spend a lifetime on the conversion of a single
child, if it is soundly done. And there might more come of the true
conversion of that woman or child than of all your noise and shouting
over a hundred supposed conversions, forced by excitement like
mushrooms in a hotbed! We need real work, not noisy work–work done in
the center of the soul of man, such as Jesus did upon the well! This
sort of work will bring refreshment to our spirit, but any other will
end in bitter disappointment. I am sure if we are content to do little
things in the power of the great God, we shall find our meat in it.
Someone here gets up and says, "I see, I see! I always thought that
ministers and other workers who are always before the public would have
most joy, but now I see that there is a reward for the obscure and
hidden worker." The Lord Jesus Christ was satisfied to sit by a well
and talk to one–be you satisfied, from this day on, to keep on with
your mother's meeting, or your tract district, or your Bible class, or
your family of little ones. Plod away, for infinite possibilities lie
concealed within the least work done for Jesus in the power of the Holy
Spirit by a sincere heart! Perfume which may fill the halls of princes
lies asleep within a tiny rosebud–despise no little service–but be
grateful for permission to render it.
Thus the Master found satisfying meat–meat little known, even by His
disciples and, therefore, He said, "I have meat to eat that you know
not of."
II. Advance with me, dear Friends, to our second theme–THESE SECRET
REFRESHMENTS SATISFIED OUR LORD. I bring this forward to remind you
that where He found refreshment, we, also, should find it. Why did it
satisfy our Lord to be doing the will of Him that sent Him and to be
finishing His work?
Well, first, because He had so long hungered to be at it. For thousands
of years the Christ had longed to be here among men. He said, "My
delights were with the sons of men." Before He actually appeared in
human flesh and blood, our Lord made many appearances in different
forms because He was eager to be at His work. And when He was born,
while He was yet a Boy, He said, "Know you not that I must be about My
Father's business?" This was the spirit of Him all His life. "I have a
baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened until it is
accomplished!" He longed to be at
work saving men. He hungered to perform His chosen deeds of mercy. Read
in the second chapter of John at the 17th verse. He went into the
Temple and He purged it and, then we read, "His disciples remembered
that it was written of Him, the zeal of Your house has eaten Me up."
That was before He had told them that it was His meat to do the will of
Him that sent Him. Our Lord was so full of such zeal to be serving God
and blessing men that when He did get at it, He was so joyful that
everything else fell into the background as if it were not worth a
thought! If you and I felt our Lord's anxiety to be serving God and
winning souls, we should find refreshment in the service, itself, even
as He did.
When our Lord did get at His work, He gave Himself wholly up to it–He
went in for soul-winning, heart and soul. There was a wonderful
concentration of purpose about our Savior. His face was always
steadfastly set to His work. He was instant and constant in it–He was
all there and always there. Time was–and I hope the time has gone
forever– when there were professed ministers of Jesus Christ whose
hearts were in the hunting field. Do you wonder that their ministry was
a scandal? Others have been naturalists, first, and divines afterwards!
Do you wonder that their ministry proved to be a failure? Time was and
time is, I am sorry to say, when many professed ministers of Christ
have their hearts more set upon criticizing the Gospel than preaching
it! They are more at home in scattering doubts than in promoting faith!
They preach what they are not sure of and what they have no interest
in. It is not their meat to do the Lord's will, for He never sent them!
They get their meat by preaching, but it is not their meat to preach.
Surely it must be misery to them to have to tell out an old tale which,
in their souls, they despise. Wretches that they are! I cannot call
them better than that. It seems an awful thing, to me, that a man
should profess to be a servant of Christ and not put his heart into the
Redeemer's service. You may go and sell your calicoes and your teas and
your sugars, if you like, half-heartedly–it will not spoil your
calicoes or your teas! But if you preach the Gospel half-heartedly,
that is another matter! You will spoil every bit of what you preach.
What good can come of half-hearted preaching?
And you, good Friends, who teach in the school or do any work for
Jesus, remember you spoil with that touch of yours all the work you do
if your hand is numbed with a cold indifference. If your soul is not in
what you do, you had better leave it undone–you will do mischief
rather than service unless your heart is in it! When Jesus talks with
that woman, He is, every bit of Him, there. He avails Himself of every
opportunity and catches up every chance. He converses like a master of
the art of teaching because teaching is the master passion of His soul!
Now, Brothers, when we get to work like that, we, too, shall be
refreshed by it. If you do what you do not like to do, it will be
weariness to you. But if your work is the joy of your heart, you will
find in the doing of it that you have meat to eat that idlers know
nothing of!
Our Lord found great joy in the work itself. I believe it was an
intense delight to Him to be telling about that Living Water to a
thirsty soul. It was a high pleasure to Him to be liberating a spirit
which had so long been shut up in prison–to be creating new thoughts
in a mind which had long groveled in the mire of sin. How pleased He
was to hear the woman say to Him, "Why, then, have You that Living
Water?" What a host of thoughts it stirred up in His own soul! The
woman had given Him to drink, though she had not let her water pot down
into the well. It was such glad, such happy work to Him to be doing
good that it was its own reward!
I think the Lord forgot to eat bread that day partly because of the
enthusiasm which filled Him in the pursuit of that soul. The chamois
hunter quits his couch long before the sun is up and climbs the
mountains. He watches from the first gray light for the creature which
is the object of his pursuit. Ask him how it is when he returns late in
the evening that he has had nothing to eat all day long. He answers, "I
never thought of it. I saw a chamois on a distant crag and I hastened
after it. I leaped the ravines, I climbed the steep faces of the rocks,
I sprang down again. I was almost on my prey, but it was gone. I crept
up within range again, holding my breath lest my scent should alarm the
watchful chamois. I thought of nothing but my sport and I never knew
what hunger meant until my bullet found its mark in the heart of my
prey and I had drawn out my hunting knife. It was not until I began to
lift the game to my shoulder that I thought that I had neither eaten
nor drunk that day."
You understand what this enthusiasm means and how it refreshes the
hunter. Some of you have been salmon fishing in the Scot rivers. You
have fished on and on until you have hooked a huge fish and, by the
time you have landed him, on taking out your watch, you discover that
it is long past your dinner hour and you are surprised that you had not
noticed that you were almost faint! Your excitement kept you
going–only when it was over did you begin to hunger. Thus the Master
was so taken up with soul-saving that He had meat to eat that others
knew not of. I hope we sometimes get into this state of entire
absorption under the influence of a burning desire to bring sinners
away from sin to their Savior and
lead them to put their trust in Him who is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by Him. I see the riddle all solved.
They said, "Master, eat," but I see that He had meat to eat that they
knew not of, for the enthusiasm of soul-winning was strong upon Him!
Moreover, the Master had not only felt the enthusiasm of pursuit but He
was moved greatly by the sympathy of pity. The man that hunts the
chamois has no sympathy with his prey. The man who would take his
salmon has no pity for the creature. But he that labors to bless souls
is full of tenderness. Many noble women love nursing the sick. Their
hearts are at home at the bedside of the suffering. They do not sleep
at night while pain needs relief and cold sweat needs to be wiped away.
Their tender pity gives them a more than ordinary power of endurance.
They watch and wait hour after hour. Exhaustion comes, at last, to them
and then they begin to enquire of themselves, "How was it I held out so
long?" Generous sympathy conquered fatigue! How mothers can and do
endure with sick children! They feel that they cannot sleep while the
dear one tosses to and fro in fever, or moans in pain. They have lost
all care for eating while they guard the brittle thread which threatens
so soon to snap. Real sympathy seems as if it swallowed up everything
else, as Aaron's rod swallowed up all the other rods! Sometimes you
have seen suffering which you could not help and you have come away
forgetful of all else but the dreadful scene. You loathed the sight of
food. You were sick at heart. The sorrow had become your own! You
started in your sleep weeks afterwards for the person wounded in the
accident had come before you. Thus was our Savior carried away with
pity for lost souls–He knew the danger of that Samaritan city–and
that thought caused Him to forget to eat.
More than that–it was not only sympathy–He felt great joy in present
success. He delighted to see that He had led a soul into life and
light. He had the bliss of seeing a sinful woman believe in the Messiah
and of knowing that her heart and life would thus be purified. I do not
know anything that can make a man forget his pain and weariness like
grasping the hand of a sinner saved. "Oh," says the saved one, "God
Almighty bless you! You have brought me to Jesus." This nerves us to
new effort! I speak, here, from experience, for yesterday evening, when
I was thinking of this subject, I was myself somewhat dull through pain
and weakness and, as God would have it, I took up the Report of the
Baptist Missionary Society which will be issued to you on the 1st of
June. And as I glanced over it, I saw my own name. It seems that our
missionary in San Domingo has had a discouraging year, but it was
lighted up with one most pleasing incident. A man had come down from
the interior of Haiti to ask for Baptism. Finding him to be a most
intelligent Christian, well instructed in the Gospel, the missionary
asked how he came to know anything about it. In reply he told him that
he had fallen in with a sermon translated into the French language
which was preached by Mr. Spurgeon.
Oh Friends, I was dull no longer! I had meat to eat! Had an angel stood
in the study, I could not have felt more delighted with his visit than
I did when I read of a sinner saved! Here was a sermon translated into
French, which was carried far away to Haiti, I do not know how, and
there was read by a Romanist who found salvation by it! God bless him!
You cannot faint after such a success, can you? As for myself, despite
my sickness I resolve to go on again, preach with all my might and
print more sermons! And send them out to the ends of the earth!
Brethren, never say die! Never dream of giving up! Let God's blessing
on your work refresh you!
To complete the list, the blessed Master had something else which made
Him forget hunger–it was that He saw the prospect of better things.
Enquirers were coming out of the city–that one female missionary had
gone back and told her story and the men were coming to hear what Jesus
had to say! Our Lord, also, with prescient eyes, beheld the day when
Philip the Evangelist would go down to Samaria and when many Samaritans
would be brought to the knowledge of the Truth of God. O Friends, let
us open our eyes and find refreshment in what God is about to do! Let
us have bright views of the future! The Gospel which has saved 20 can
save twenty thousand! The same kind of preaching which has blessed this
one congregation can bless all congregations! We have only to exercise
more faith in it and proclaim it with greater confidence–and make it
more our lifework to proclaim it–and the world shall yet come to
Jesus' feet and the old, old Gospel now despised shall yet again be had
in honor! Let us be of good cheer. If we do but serve God as Jesus
served Him, we shall have meat to eat that will fully satisfy us as it
did our Lord!
III. Thirdly, LET US AT ONCE SEEK THIS REFRESHMENT. That is our
practical business. If there is meat to eat that we know not of, let us
try to know of it at once. I am speaking, of course, only to you who
are converted and are thus saved by faith in Jesus Christ. You who are
not yet Believers cannot eat of this secret meat, for you are not alive
unto God–you need to be quickened by the Spirit of our God–you must
be born again before you can eat the Bread of
Heaven. May the Lord lead you to saving faith in Jesus Christ at once!
But I speak to you that know the Lord, you who labor for Him and need
to be refreshed this day. Look you to the right place for nourishment.
Are we weary? Then let us seek refreshment by following out the
directions of our Lord in the text before us.
First, let us remember that we are sent of God. Do not forget that. Say
with your Lord, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." Each
redeemed one is sent forth by his Redeemer. I do not know what the Lord
has sent you to do. I hope you know that, each man for himself, but
when you know what work you are called to do, do not be held back by
anyone! Wait for no man's consent, patronage, or help. Strengthen your
soul upon the persuasion that God has sent you and then go forward. If
God has sent you, who can stand against you? A Queen's messenger
insists that we clear the road for him. An officer who bears the
Queen's authority is authorized to lay all persons under orders to help
him. He who rides on royal business has precedence over all others. Get
to feel, Christian Friend, that Jesus has sent you and herein will lie
food for your courage! Know that you have a mission and go for it–and
let it be unsafe for anyone to stand in your way! Let opposers know
that somebody will have to clear out, for if God sent you, in that
sending there is a force and an energy which nothing can safely resist!
Do not make a noise. Forbear all blustering, but quietly set yourself
to work. If God has sent you, you will be like the greater Sent One, of
whom we read, "He shall not strive, nor cry, nor cause His voice to be
heard in the streets," but at the same time, "He shall not fail, nor be
discouraged."
Next, if we desire to be refreshed, let us find joy at once in God's
work and will. You have been trying to find joy and refreshment in your
own work and your own will–and you have failed. Come, then, and sail
in another direction. But upon this I have already spoken. If all the
work you and I have to do can be made to be God's work. If we will do
all things for His Glory, whether it be mending of shoes, or making
garments, or preaching sermons, or plowing of fields, then shall we be
happy in God and our souls shall be fed upon the finest of the wheat!
No drudgery remains when the lowliest labor is seen to be part of a
priestly service. When the meanest work glows with the Glory of a
Divine call, there is refreshment in it! I am sure I am directing you
in the right way to find sweet morsels for your heart when I urge you
to have joy in God's work rather than in your own.
Next, let us get to work. The Master says to His Apostles, "Do you not
say, There are yet four months and then comes harvest"? This was a
common saying among the lazy. The time for work was never come–they
always found reason for delay–the harvest was always four months off.
Many are going to do a lot of work one of these days. Just now they
take things easy, but in four months they will let you see how they can
labor! We have too many Christian people around us who find no joyful
satisfaction in Divine things because they do not, at once, spend
themselves for Christ. One enquires, What is the best way to do good?
Our answer is, do it! I cannot give you any better recommendation. The
best way to serve Christ is to serve Him! A man who was hungry, when he
was asked what was the best way to dine, said, "Give me a knife and
fork. Give me a chance and I will soon show you." When asked how you
can serve God, reply by seizing the first opportunity and doing it! For
our joy and comfort, be it remembered that opportunities are many and
present. "Do you not say, There are yet four months and then comes
harvest? Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already
ripe for harvest!"
Further, if we want to have joy and refreshment in our own Christian
life, let us leap into our place at once. These disciples were not to
be sowers, but reapers. Many others are not to be reapers, but sowers.
You must get to work in the place into which the Lord puts you–there
must be no picking of positions–you must jump into the saddle and be
off! It may be that you say, "I should like to begin an altogether new
work," but if the Lord appoints you to go on with the work that someone
else has carried on for years, do not hesitate. Perhaps you say, "I
would like to labor where the first rough work is done," but if your
Lord directs you to commence on the uncleared forest, do not raise an
objection. It may be you wish to carry up the last load of bricks to
put on the chimney, but if the house has not reached that condition
yet, be quite as willing to dig out the cellar. We must be willing to
hook on anywhere. Be leader or shaft-horse! Be first or last. Be sower
or reaper, as the Lord ordains! Dear Friends, you will never get
refreshment in Christ's service if you bring a dainty self-will into
the field and set it to make a selection, for this is contrary to the
true spirit of service. Have no choice and then you will find
satisfaction.
If we are to get refreshment for our souls we may also anticipate the
wages. There is to be a time when workers together with Christ are to
receive wages. The text says, "He that reaps, receives wages." In our
own country agricultural laborers have been paid so little that we
could hardly call it receiving wages. But when harvest time comes, then
the
reaper is paid and truly receives wages. The hardest-fisted churl must
pay for reaping, must he not? Even the most grudging miser must pay his
reapers. There must be special money for mower and reaper. Let us work
on, for our Master speaks to us of wages and He always pays liberally.
Your reward is not what you get at present–it lies in the glorious
future! When the Lord Jesus comes, He will reward all His stewards and
servants. No Truth of God is more plain in the four Gospels than this
fact, that when Jesus returns to this earth, He will distribute
recompense in proportion to work done. Herein is meat for us to eat
which may well sustain us under the burden and heat of the day.
Then comes the end. If any of you wish to be refreshed, remember the
end. What is the end of sowing and the end of reaping? Is it not the
completed harvest? See you not the last wagon loaded with grain? See
the children on the top there! Listen how the servants shout their joy
as they bring in the precious fruits of the earth! And there is a
supper at night. The master has been killing his fatlings and he
invites all his laborers to supper. How they feast with him! Sow on!
Work on! Reap on, for there will come a day when Heaven and earth shall
be moved with joyous acclamations because the Lord's purpose is
accomplished and His work is finished! Then shall we sit down at the
supper of the Lamb and rejoice together, as many of us as have had a
hand in the blessed work and service in which our Master laid down His
life! Therefore gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and hope to
the end. Be encouraged and refreshed this morning. Feed upon the
eternal dainties which are provided for you by your Lord and be glad in
His name!