The Soul's Best Food
(No. 2786)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 6, 1902.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE
13, 1878.
"Eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Isaiah
55:2.
ALL life here below needs to be sustained from without by food of some
kind or other. We know not how the angels live, yet the Psalmist's
expression, "Man did eat angels' food," might lead us to imagine that
even the/need to be supplied with nourishment from without, but,
certainly, all earthly life requires appropriate nutriment. The
physical life of man cannot be sustained unless he has bread to eat.
His mental life, too, though that is often forgotten, cannot be in a
healthy condition without an adequate supply of understanding and
knowledge. The poor creatures which have been confined in prison cells,
year after year, with nothing to read or to think upon, have come forth
to liberty as imbeciles– quite unfit to go into society because the
mind has wasted away in starvation. You must feed the mental, as well
as the physical man, if it is to be in a right and healthy state.
And this is pre-eminently true of the spiritual nature which God has
implanted within His people at the time of their regeneration. That
higher nature must be nourished–God has been pleased to give us an
ordinance on purpose to remind us of this great fact. Baptism is the
symbol of the entrance upon the new life by passing through death in
the type of the Savior's tomb–"buried with Him by baptism into death."
And then, when that life is once obtained, there follows the sacred
feast of the Lord's Supper wherein, under the emblems of the bread and
the wine, we are taught that Jesus Christ must be, in a spiritual
sense, both meat and drink to our souls. We derive our life from Him
and He must sustain it. We receive spiritual life by hearing concerning
Him and that life is to be sustained by our still hearing the truth
concerning Him. Our spiritual life must have spiritual food–it cannot
possibly do without it.
The great mercy is that, according to our text, there is abundant
provision for sustaining the life of our souls. The Lord would not have
said to us, "Listen diligently unto Me," if He had not had something
good to say to us. He would not have said, "Eat what is good," in such
a connection as this, if He had not provided it! Nor would He have
said, "Let your soul delight itself in fatness," if that "fatness" had
not been already prepared by the great Host of the Gospel feast! So we
are taught two things on the very threshold of our subject–first, that
our soul must be fed and, next, that God has provided the best food for
our soul.
When God creates the beasts of the field, "he causes the grass to grow
for the cattle." He does not make a single bird without providing the
seeds or the insects upon which that bird shall live. There is not a
tiny minnow in the brook but has its own special provision–while the
great leviathan, that "makes the deep to boil like a pot," through his
terrific and powerful activity, has all that he needs to feed his vast
bulk, for God simply opens His hands and so satisfies the desire of
every living thing. As this is so manifestly the case, it would not be
conceivable that He should make spiritual life, which is the nearest
akin to His own, in that it is the life of God in man, and yet not
provide that it should continue to exist, expand, develop and become
perfected! So, while the truth of our necessity can never be shaken off
from our consciousness, the other great Truth of God of the Divine
provision, which is the counterpart of it, must never be forgotten by
us.
To stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, I am going to speak
about the soul's best food. First, let us note the reason for the
exhortation of our text Then, secondly, let us note the benefits which
will flow from our obedience to that exhortation.
I. First, then, LET US NOTE THE REASON FOR THE EXHORTATION IN OUR
TEXT–"Eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."
The first reason which I shall mention is the exceeding bountifulness
of God in Christ Jesus. The invitation here given is in accordance with
the Character of the God who gives it. He is not stingy–He never
stints His guests, or keeps His children on a low diet. He is so good
that He delights to give to them of His goodness and to give of it
freely. As it is of the very essence of the sun that it should not only
be bright, but that it should scatter its beams far and wide, so is it
of the very Essence of God that He should not only be Goodness
intrinsically, but that He should generously bestow His goodness upon
us. He delights to give out of His fullness and, in the Person of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that fullness is stored up on purpose that there
might be human receivers of it. Blessed be His holy name, "of His
fullness have all we received, and Grace for Grace." The invitation in
our text seems to me to come naturally from the very Nature of our
Covenant God. He delights not in starving His creatures, nor in seeing
them pining in need–but He rejoices in their being filled to the
utmost fullness of satisfaction and, therefore, He says to us, "Eat
what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."
This invitation, too, seems to me to come naturally from God when we
remember the abundant provision that He has made for the supply of our
needs. If any of you prepared a feast, it would be very grievous to you
if your friends did not eat what you had provided. What host or
hostess, with a bountiful heart and a liberal hand, ever felt pleased
to see food remaining on the table untouched? It is an insult to us if
we have taken care to provide fit provision for our guests and then
that dish after dish should be brought in and carried back
again–nobody caring, even, to taste it. And the great Lord of All has,
in the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, made such plentiful provision for
our needs that He cannot bear the idea that it should be left neglected
and that none should partake of it. So He says, "Eat what is good, and
let your soul delight itself in fatness." It is the very heart of God
speaking in these words–and it is the provision of God's Grace
claiming to be consumed–God's love pleading that what He has provided
so bountifully should not be lost or wasted! Blessed be His name, it
cannot be!
It seems to me to also be an expression of the Divine desire for
fellowship, for, almost always, when fellowship is spoken of in
relation to God, expressions which concern eating are used. Fellowship
begins, as it were, at the Passover, at the eating of the lamb. In the
tabernacle in the wilderness, the offerings were not all burnt upon the
altar–many of them were partaken of by both the offerer and the
priest–and by God as represented by the devouring flame. Fellowship
was thus established in eating and drinking and so, when Jesus
instituted that blessed memorial Supper, He said to His disciples
concerning the bread, "Take, eat." And, concerning the cup, "Drink you
all of it." When, in the Revelation, He said to the angel of the church
in Laodicea, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," you know how He
goes on to say, "If any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will
come in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me." This appears to
be God's favorite image to express fellowship.
So, when I read, "Eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in
fatness," I understand our great Father in Heaven to mean, "Come, My
children, come into close communion with Me–come and eat with Me." I
also understand the blessed Son of God to be saying to us, "Come, My
Brothers and Sisters, and let our hearts be linked together in choicest
fellowship, and let us feast together." I understand the Holy Spirit,
too, as saying here, "Enter into the secret chamber of communion, shut
the door and let your fellowship be with the Father and with His Son,
Jesus Christ." That seems to me to be the drift of the expression, "Eat
what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." So, you
see, the exhortation is given to us for these reasons–it comes from
the bountiful heart of God and is congruous with the provision made for
us by Him and with the inward desire for fellowship which the great
Father always feels towards His children.
A further reason for the exhortation is found in our exceedingly great
necessities. You must eat, so "eat that which is good." Your soul needs
the best food, so "let your soul delight itself in fatness"–in the fat
and dainty morsels which the great God, who understands us even better
than we understand ourselves, has so generously provided for us. He
sees the present and the future necessities of His children and He
knows that the main supply for those necessities must come
through their inward partaking of the abundant provision made for them
in His Everlasting Covenant. Yes, Brothers and Sisters, we must eat, or
else hunger of soul will come upon us and we shall have a gnawing at
the heart which will be insatiable. There will be the daughters of the
horseleech within us crying, "Give, give," and they will make their
voices heard–and their craving will become more and more intolerable!
A true Believer, when he loses the company of his Lord, seems to have
in his soul a wolf that is hungry to the last degree, and howls and
cries after its food. Yes, Beloved, you must have spiritual food to
satisfy your soul's hunger! No, I may go further than that and say that
you will pine away unless your spiritual nature receives suitable
nutriment. Need of food is the cause and the nurse of many diseases.
When the constitution is not sustained by proper nourishment, the
famished flesh becomes fit soil for disease to grow upon. And we,
Beloved, shall soon be filled with all manner of inward doubts and
fears if we do not fall into outward sin. Unless our spiritual
constitution is kept strong and our inner man is built up with
spiritual meat, we shall become like Pharaoh's lean cattle and who
among us wishes to be in that condition? When the body is kept without
food for a long time, it is liable to faint and swoon. Many a man has
fallen into unconsciousness upon the very threshold of black death
simply for lack of bread and, in like manner, and for a similar reason,
the child of God may get into a state of spiritual coma, in which he
will be insensible, indifferent, incapable. Prayer, even in its
simplest form, and all spiritual exercises may become almost impossible
to his fainting spirit. We must have food for our souls!
It is not enough for the minister to come into the pulpit and tell the
child of God to do this and to do that–God's people must have suitable
food, or they can do nothing of the kind. A farmer is always wise when
he puts his whip in the barn–that is to say, when he makes his horses
able to work by feeding them well–and this is the way in which God
enables His children to perform their spiritual duties–by giving them
spiritual meat.
I may go even further and say that if the child of God did not have
spiritual meat, he would absolutely die. We must be fed upon Divine
food, or else the life within us will expire. Will it ever expire? No,
never, because we shall be fed. But, still, we must be fed, we must
have the Word of God which lives and abides forever, to nourish our
souls. I do not say that we may have it, but that we must have it–we
must feed or die, depend upon that! The branch that is in the vine must
have sap rising from the root and flowing to it through the stem or it
will wither–so is it with us. We must have spiritual food, or
spiritually we must cease to be–but that shall never come to pass.
"The Lord is my Shepherd" and, therefore, "I shall not want. He makes
me to lie down in green pastures." He will not suffer the soul of the
righteous to famish, but He will give us our portion of meat in due
season, and so we shall be fed. The Bread of Heaven will continue to
feed us until we need no more. Now, Brothers and Sisters, you see, at
least in some measure, what are your spiritual necessities and the
reason why the Lord says so emphatically, "Eat what is good, and let
your soul delight itself in fatness."
Another reason for the exhortation before us is our extreme
foolishness. What a stupid animal man must be to need to be told to eat
and be urged to eat that which is good! The little lamb in the meadow
has scarcely come into the world before it finds out where its mother's
milk is and very soon it begins to crop the tender herbage and to find
food for itself. Most creatures, by what we call, instinct, discover
their own natural food, but here is man, so foolish, so mad, so much
more wild than the wild ass's colt, that he needs to be told to eat,
spiritually–and he will never eat until the Lord puts the bread into
his mouth–and He never will, by any kind of discernment, eat that
which is good unless the Lord shall teach Him to discern between the
good and the evil and give him a spiritual appetite and taste by which
he shall distinguish the wholesome from the poisonous!
One part of human foolishness lies in the fact that we so often seek
that which is not good for us, so that the Lord has to say to us, "Why
do you spend money for that which is not bread?" Man is described in
Scripture as feeding upon ashes. That is strange food for a human
being! We have heard of cases of insanity in which persons have
swallowed ashes, eaten earth, devoured pins and needles and all sorts
of strange things. That is only a feeble example of the absolute
insanity of the unregenerate heart! You remember that the Prophet Hosea
said, "Ephraim feeds on wind." He opens his mouth to eat nothing at all
and thinks himself to be filled when there is nothing whatever that can
satisfy his hunger. O strange bewilderment of man, who was made in
God's image and once ate the fruits that grew in the paradise of the
Most High! Yet, by nature, we choose the husks that the swine eat and
would gladly fill our bellies with them if we could! But God's Grace
will not let His people act so foolishly as that.
Then, again, it is not only that we are willing to eat that which is
evil, but that we are unwilling to eat that which is good! Many persons
will hear that which is good and will even assent to our declaration
that it is good–yet they do not eat it. What is spiritual eating? It
is the inward reception of the Truth of God into the soul. To hear the
Truth is, as it were, to seethe bread. To thinkupon the Truth is, as it
were, to cut the bread and put it on the plate. But this will never
nourish any man–he must take the bread into his inward parts and
digest and assimilate it. And so, by faith, a man must take the Truth
of God into his inmost soul and make that which was outward become
inward to him till his soul eats it, drinks it and so absorbs it into
its own self that it lives upon it. The most of mankind never do this
with the sermons they hear. They criticize the preacher's manner of
expression and mode of utterance, but they do not feed upon the Truths
of God he sets before them. I like the Hearer who can say, "My soul was
fed by that sermon. There was real spiritual nourishment in it for me,
for that is the true way in which to receive the Word of the Lord. It
is "bread for the eater" as well as "seed for the sower," and we must
eat it, otherwise we do not put it to its proper use. God grant us
Grace to be willing to feed upon the Word! But man, by nature, will not
eat spiritual food.
Then, Brothers and Sisters, there is this folly about even God's own
children, that they do not eat that which is good according to the
lavish inexhaustible fullness provided by God–"Let your soul delight
itself in fatness." How very few minutes in a day most of us spend in
feeding our soul! There are some countries in which the people eat
quickly–they bolt their food, instead of properly masticating and
digesting it and, in consequence, they are easily angered and suffer
greatly from indigestion. And there are some people who act in a
similar fashion with regard to spiritual meat–they seem to bolt their
food. They have two or three minutes for their morning prayer and just
a few verses of Scripture. There are some who go all day without any
spiritual meat at all! But among those of the better sort who feed
their souls, how very little time is given to real feeding upon the
Word of God–very little reading and much less meditation!
Sermon-hearing we attend to rather better–some of us even come out on
a wet weeknight, which is something to our credit– yet we do not feed
enough, we do not go in for the fatness of which our text speaks. "Let
your soul delight itself in fatness."
I have known some Christians pick a sermon over, and eat nothing except
the gristle–not a morsel of that "fatness" which is the very part that
God's finger points out. It is too rich for them. They leave the fat
doctrines for those whom they call "the high-doctrine people." But that
is not the right way to feed–everything that God puts on His table is
good to eat and it is a point of spiritual etiquette for everyone at
the table of the Lord to eat all that Christ puts on his plate! You
never do right unless you take it all, for it is all yours and
especially that part which seems even too good for you! You are to be
sure not to miss that–"Eat what is good, and let your soul delight
itself in fatness." There is something of the touch of a gourmet about
this verse. I wish that we would all learn how, spiritually, to be
connoisseurs, for, if we were to go to that length, we would not go
further than the emphatic expression of our text warrants. Go in for a
thorough hearty meal and keep on eating! Devour the Word of God! Feast
upon it and feed again and again and again– "Eat what is good, and let
your soul delight itself in fatness."
I must tell you one other reason why this exhortation is given in the
text, and that is, because of our fears. There is many a dear child of
God who longs for spiritual food, but he is afraid that he would be
guilty of presumption if he ate it. So, when there is a very fat piece
that is just going into his mouth, he says, "No, that cannot be for
me," and he draws back from it. Now, just look at the text–"Let your
soul delight itself in fatness." Do not restrain yourself from taking
that to which you have a perfect right. Believe the message that the
preacher brings you from his Master! When you hear it, do not say, "Oh,
that I could believe that the eternal love of God were mine! Oh, that I
could know that my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life and
engraved on His hands and heart!" Do not say that, but believe that it
is so if you have really trusted in Jesus. "Let your soul delight
itself in fatness." Do not say, "Oh, that He would keep me to the end,
even me!" A fat morsel is that precious Doctrine of unchanging love and
final preservation–do not hold back from feeding upon it! "Let your
soul delight itself in fatness." You are like a flock of sheep close to
a clover field, with the gate set wide open. Go in, go in! You cannot
eat too much of that which is before you. It will not hurt you–you may
lie down in the pastures of tender grass and eat to the full.
I know that Satan, your own unbelief and especially that natural fear
of presumption will combine to make you say, "But I dare not claim a
share in such a privilege as that. I am afraid I have no right to it."
Then, listen to the exhortation of the text, "Let your soul delight
itself in fatness." Do not even the dogs under the table eat of the
crumbs that fall where
the children are feeding? They ask nobody's leave, but they eat what
they find. So, surely you, who are the children sitting at the table,
ought to take as much liberty as the dogs! Eat what the Master gives
you, just as the little dogs under the table eat what their masters
(the children) give to them, for that is really the meaning of that
passage. Be bold enough and trustful enough to take what your Lord so
freely offers you! It is foolish to be poor when He invites you to be
rich! It is a pity for you to starve when He entreats you to feast!
With such an exhortation as this, it is sad, indeed, that any of us
should not eat that which is good and let our soul delight itself in
fatness.
II. Now, secondly, LET US NOTE THE BENEFITS OF OBEYING THE COMMAND OF
THE TEXT. The first benefit is the pleasure of it–"Eat what is good,
and let your soul delight itself in fatness." I remember the time when
I used to look upon the precious things of God as many a poor street
Arab has gazed at the dainties in a confectioner's window, wishing that
he could get a taste and feeling all the more hungry because of that
which was stored behind the glass out of his reach. But when the Master
takes us into His banqueting house and His banner over us is LOVE–and
when He says to us, "Eat, Friends. Drink, yes, drink abundantly, O
Beloved," then we have a grand time of it and we feel almost as if
Heaven had begun below! Have we not, sometimes, on a Sabbath, when the
great King of Glory has feasted us to the full, felt so happy that we
did not think we could be any happier unless we went straight away to
Heaven? Each of us has been ready to sing, at such a time as that–
"My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this,
And sit and sing herself away
To everlasting bliss."
dear Friends, search out one of the exceeding great and precious
promises of the Word–feed upon it, get it right into your soul and
then you may feel that your soul can no more be troubled, for you
believe in God and you believe in Christ and, therefore, you are full
of gladness! "Let your soul delight itself in fatness." There is this
joy as one of the benefits of obedience to the exhortation of the text.
The second benefit is the great preserving power of good spiritual
food. It helps to keep us out of temptation. I do not think a man is
ever so likely to be tempted as when he has neglected to eat his
spiritual meat. We have this Truth of God in a parable, in Christ's own
life on earth. Of course it is only a parable, for in Him there was no
lack of spiritual meat, but, after He had fasted, when He was hungry,
then it was that He was tempted of the devil. And if your soul has
been, for a long time, without spiritual food, you are very likely to
meet the devil. I have known men go away for a holiday on the Continent
and when they have been away, there has been no hearing of the Word,
and, possibly, no private reading of the Word. Or they may have gone to
live in a country town where the Gospel was not faithfully preached and
they have made a terrible shipwreck of character because their inward
strength was not sustained by spiritual meat–and then the Tempter fell
upon them!
There is a rather interesting remark that someone makes, though I do
not vouch for the truth of it. You know that when the Lord put Adam in
the Garden of Eden, He said to him, "Of every tree of the garden you
may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you
shall not eat of it." And, says one, "If Eve had availed herself of
that gracious permission on that fatal day, and if she had eaten freely
of all the other trees in the garden, of which she might have eaten,
she would not have been so likely to wish to eat of that which was
forbidden." I know this–when my soul is full of Christ, I can defy the
devil, himself, for what can he bring me when I need nothing? He puts
down poisoned meat to tempt us to eat, but when we are filled with all
the fullness of Christ, we do not need his meat and we will not touch
it except to fling it far from us! He who has Christ, has all things
and abounds, and he is, by this Divine strengthening of his spirit,
made strong to resist temptation!
1 have heard people say that if they have to go through a feverish part
of the city, there is nothing like having a good coating inside, well
lining the interior–and I am sure it is so spiritually. Line your soul
well with spiritual meat and, then, if you have to go through the most
feverish parts of the earth where temptations fill the very air, you
will be preserved from them by Divine Grace! Remember what happened
when King Saul, in his folly, ordained that anyone who ate food would
be accursed? The soldiers were not able to smite the Philistines as
they might have done if they had not been so faint and, then, as soon
as the sun went down, "the people flew upon the spoil, and took sheep,
and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground," and devoured them
raw, "with the blood," so breaking the commandment of the Jewish Law
and bringing severe condemnation upon themselves. Hungry men will do
such things as that, for hunger
makes them break through stone walls and through God's Laws, too. But
he who is filled with good things walks in the way of God's
commandments.
A third blessing is this. Spiritual food comforts mourners. The analogy
of this will be found in the Book of Nehe-miah, the 8th Chapter and the
9th and 10th verses, where we read that Nehemiah said to the people,
"This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep…Go your
way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for
whom nothing is prepared." A feast is a good way of breaking a fast. He
that eats forgets his former misery and remembers his sorrow no more,
especially if he eats the mystic meat which God provides so abundantly
for His sorrowing children. It was of this that Mary sang, "He has
filled the hungry with good things."
Spiritual meat has another excellence. It revives the fainting ones.
Did you ever study the sermon that was once preached by an angel to a
desponding Prophet? It consisted of only three words and he preached it
twice. The Prophet was Elijah, who, after the wondrous victory and
excitement on the top of Carmel, fainted in spirit and was afraid of
Jezebel and said, "Let me die." And so he fled from the field of battle
and longed to expire. In his weariness and sorrow, he fell asleep and
an angel came and awoke him. And this was the sermon he preached to
him, "Arise and eat." And when he opened his eyes, he saw that "there
was a cake baking on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And
he did eat and drink and laid him down again." The very best thing he
could do. But the angel awoke him the second time and preached the same
sermon to him, "Arise and eat." And I pass on that little sermon to
some of you who feel faint in heart just now. You do not know how it
is, but you are very low-spirited–here is a message for you–"Arise
and eat." I will not prescribe you any medicine, but I say, "Arise and
eat." Get to the Bible and study it–search out the promises and feed
upon them. Get away to Christ and feed upon Him! "Arise and eat."
Often, the best possible cure for a poor, dispirited, fainting soul is
a good meal of Gospel food! Your bright spirits will, in that way, come
back to you. You will not be afraid of Jezebel and you will not say,
"Let me die," but you will go, in the strength of that food, for many a
day according to the will of God. So I give this as God's message to
any discouraged, dispirited ones whom I may now be addressing, "Arise
and eat."
This spiritual eating is also a great strength for service, for he who
eats that which is good and lets his soul delight itself in fatness
will be strong to run in the way of the Divine commands, or to perform
any work that may be required of him. You recollect what Jonathan said,
concerning that long day of fasting to which I have already alluded?
Jonathan said, "My eyes have been enlightened because I tasted a little
of this honey. How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely
today of the spoil of their enemies which they found? For had there not
been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?" Quite right,
Jonathan–as the old proverb puts it, "Prayer and provender hinder no
man's journey." And, for a soul to wait upon God to be fed is to gather
such strength thereby that it can do much more work than it could
otherwise have done! Sunday school teachers are apt to think, "We
cannot attend a weeknight service–we must be thinking about the lesson
of our class." Your soul must be fed, my dear Brother! Young men are
very apt to think that they can begin preaching and they have no need
to stay even a few months after conversion to learn from those who
might instruct them. You will be wrong, Brother, you will be wrong if
you do so! He who begins to run a race and who thinks that it is a
waste of time to pull on his boots, will make a great mistake! You had
better not begin your journey till you are properly shod. You had
better not go to the battle till you have put on all your armor. All
the time that is taken to fit that armor on properly is time
wonderfully well spent! It will be true economy in the long run. To
keep men always working like slaves and to give them little to eat
would be a very wretched, as well as a very cruel, policy. Eat well,
that you may work well. "Eat what is good," that you may be able to do
good to others. "Let your soul delight itself in fatness," that you may
have the delight of being useful in the service of your Lord!
I must very rapidly mention other blessings which result from our
partaking of spiritual food. One is that it fits us to feed others.
Ezekiel had to go and speak to the house of Israel in the name of the
Lord. Do you remember his preparation for that task–the college to
which he went? Well, he saw a hand which held a roll of a book–and a
Voice said to him, "Son of man, eat what you find; eat this roll, and
go speak unto the house of Israel." He cannot preach till he has eaten
the roll! I believe that in the courts of law young men have to eat
themselves into the profession–beside all other qualifications, they
must eat a certain number of dinners before they can be fully
certified. It is a strange regulation with regard to earthly courts,
but it is a right and proper thing in the courts of Heaven.
Young Brothers in the College, you must eat your way into the ministry!
You will never be able to say to others, "Eat what is good," unless you
have feasted upon those things yourselves! Unless you have an inward
appreciation of their sweetness and have sucked them into your very
being, you will never be able to talk with power to others concerning
them. Paul wrote to Timothy, "The husbandman that labors, must first be
partaker of the fruits," so Christian ministers, Sunday school
teachers, and all workers for Christ must eat that which is good if
they are to be used in feeding others with spiritual food!
And, then, as I have already said–but I must mention it again to make
my recapitulation complete–this is the best mode of fellowship.
Christ's Word to you, Beloved, when He would most show His love is,
"Take, eat." And your risen Master, when He spoke most familiarly to
His disciples, said, "Children, have you any meat?" And then gave to
them the invitation, "Come and dine." And again I repeat that gracious
message to the lukewarm Laodiceans. "If any man hears My voice, and
opens the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he
with Me." Even throughout eternity this is to be the fashion of
fellowship, for the glorified are to sit down at the marriage supper of
the Lamb. So, Beloved, feed on the Word of God–especially feed on the
Incarnate Word, Christ Himself–otherwise, you cannot possibly enter
into true spiritual fellowship with God.
There is just this one more remark that I must make upon this point.
Feeding upon the Word of God is the best way of promoting praise. You
know how the 103rd Psalm begins–"Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all
that is within me, bless His holy name." Then, a little further on, the
Psalmist says, "Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your
youth is renewed like the eagle's." A hungry soul cannot sing well–the
soul that best sings the praises of God is the one that has delighted
itself with the fatness of the Divine provision and, therefore, has its
mouth filled with the praises of its God.
Now, dear Friends, I am sure that the topic on which I have been
speaking is a very important one, yet it is a very neglected one. A
great many young Christians and, I am afraid, some old Christian
people, especially women, read no end of tales and novels. That is not
eating that which is good–it is doing that which is worse than
useless! There is no spiritual nutriment and little if any mental food
in most of the stories that come out nowadays. We used to keep our
tales for our children–our babies–but, now, the stories are written
for grown-up people–and newspapers and magazines sell best if they
contain pretty stories for the great babies of the present day. Nothing
will suit them but stories. "Eat what is good." But they eat ashes!
They feed upon the wind–that is their spiritual meat. Sometimes we
complain of present-day Christians that they have no backbone, no
stamina, no strength compared with the Christians of past ages. I
should think so–they do not eat the food out of which spiritual
manhood can grow. They eat what would not nourish a mouse and then hope
that they may be "strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."
And, then, how common is the neglect of reading the Word of God itself!
A great many persons take all their religion secondhand. They never go
to the good old Book themselves. Years ago it was a very difficult
thing to get milk–it was not milk that was called by that name. The
only way to be sure of having milk was to keep a cow–and I recommend
everybody to ensure getting the unadulterated milk of the Word of God
by keeping his own cow, that is, by reading the Bible for himself. If
you want to get pure water, go to the fountainhead. I was once going
over the mountains in Northern Italy and I wanted to drink from a
little stream, but my guide would not allow me to taste of it. I did
not understand why, but he went on some considerable distance and then
he allowed me to drink as much as I liked. And I noticed that I was
drinking at a spring just where the water flowed out, but, the time
before the stream had been running down the mountainside and was full
of all sorts of impurities and, besides, it had lost its freshness and
sweetness by travelling over the earth in the warm sun. The guide
wanted me to have water that was worth drinking–to drink that which
was good.
And so I would advise you, my Friends, to take no notice of anything I
say that is not according to the Word of God! Put it away among the
lumber, for it is good for nothing–and whoever it is that preaches and
whatever book you read–if it is not according to this Book, say to
yourself, "Well, I have not any time to try experiments. If I do eat, I
want to eat that which is good. And if I do delight myself, I want to
delight myself in what God calls fatness." There is plenty of carrion
about–plenty of religious carrion, I mean–tainted through and through
with false doctrine. And unhappy is that man who has a taste for it–it
looks as if he were no true child of God.
Dear Friends, what we need is to feed on the Gospel and nothing but the
Gospel! To feed on the Scriptures and to keep to them alone! To feed on
the promises–to get a promise and turn it over and over–to read,
mark, learn and in-
wardly digest! To feed upon the teachings of the Holy Spirit within our
own soul and to feed upon Christ Himself, for His flesh is meat,
indeed, and His blood is drink, indeed! I would to God that some here
present, who have never known what spiritual life is and, therefore,
cannot know what spiritual feeding is, might be quickened, this
evening, by the Divine Spirit! And if they are, the first thing that
they will do will be to listen to Christ that they may live! "Incline
your ears," He says, "and come unto Me. Hear, and your soul shall
live." And as soon as you have heard His life-giving Word, then go on
to hear it again and yet again! "Hearken diligently unto Me and eat
that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."
And listen to this. If you believe in Christ Jesus, within a short time
that head of yours shall wear a coronet of glory that shall outshine
the stars of Heaven! Your feet shall be in sandals with light and your
whole being shall be full of indescribable ecstasy. Then, though you
deserve to be cast into the lowest Hell, you shall have a place above
the angels, where the white-robed host forever chant their hallelujahs
to the redeeming Lamb. Yes, as surely as that you now live, you shall
be there! Now what say you with such a prospect before you? Will you
walk any longer in the ways of dishonesty? Will you go home to your
cups and be found among the drunks? Will you take upon you that dear
name by which you are to be called in Heaven and yet be found among the
ungodly? I know that you would sooner die than that should be the case,
for your heart cries out to your Lord, "Deliver me from sin, O my
gracious God! This great love of Yours which promises me Heaven and
gives me a nature fit to live in Glory–how can I rebel against it? No,
let it hold me fast, with golden chains, to obey You, my Lord, and to
keep Your commandments from now and forever." The Lord grant it, for
His dear Son's sake! Amen.