Thought Condemned, Yet Commanded
(No. 2973)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1906.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 6, 1876.
"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall
we drink? Or, What shall we wear? (For after all these things do the
Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all
these things. But seekyou first the Kingdom ofGod, and His
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew
6:31-33.
THESE are soothing words to read, but difficult words to put into
practice. Had anyone except the Lord Jesus Christ uttered them, we
might have quoted to him that ancient saying, "Physician, heal
yourself," for we shall never find any other teacher who is, himself,
absolutely free from care. But Jesus Christ not only gives us the
purest possible precepts, but His own life is the best exposition of
them. If ever you want to know what Christ means by His teaching, look
at His life. You may rest assured that He never gave us a command which
He was not, Himself, prepared to obey. Those of us who have put our
trust in Christ are His servants and He, Himself, condescended to be a
Servant for our sakes. Indeed, He is the real model Servant and the
service which He requires of us, He, Himself, shows us how to perform.
I do not intend, therefore, so much to expound the text by any words of
my own, as to illustrate it by the life of Jesus Christ Himself. I
think that it may be more profitable and certainly it will be more
unusual, if I take these words of Christ and say to you, "If you would
know their meaning, look at the life of Him whom you call Master and
Lord. You can best understand His words by His works."
I see in the text, first, a precept forbidding thought Secondly, a
precept commanding thought And then, in the two precepts, if they are
rightly kept, I see a frame of mind admirably fitted for all Believers
in coming to the Communion Table.
I. First, then, we have here A PRECEPT FORBIDDING THOUGHT–a precept
which says, "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or,
What shall we drink? Or, What shall we wear?" How are we to understand
this precept?
Certainly, we are not to understand it in the sense of the idler, who
says, "God will provide and, therefore, there is no need for me to
labor. God's Providence is my inheritance and, therefore, I may fold my
arms and sit still." The man who talks and acts in that fashion will
have thistles on his land, emptiness in his cupboard, rags on his back
and ruin to his character–and all that will serve him right! Paul
wrote to the Thessalonians, "This we commanded you, that if any would
not work, neither should he eat." And it would, perhaps, be the best
way of treating some men if they were never allowed to eat anything
except what they had themselves earned. Of course, this rule would not
apply in the case of those who are disabled by old age, or laid aside
by sickness, but, in every other case, work is the lot of us all and it
is a benefit to us all–and we ought never, under the pretense of
piety, to endeavor to shirk it! You have heard, perhaps, of the very
pious man who entered a monastery in order that he might spend all his
time in devotion. So, when the time came for the brethren to go into
the fields to work, he did not leave his cell–he was too spiritual to
handle a hoe or a spade, so he continued in communion with angels. He
was very much surprised, however, when the time came for the
brotherhood to assemble in the refectory, that he was not called! And
after waiting till the demands of hunger overcame the claims of his
spiritual being, he went to the prior and asked why he had not been
called to the meal. And he was informed that as he was so spiritual
that he could not work, it was thought that he was probably so
spiritual that he could not eat and, at any rate, the laws of the
monastery did not permit him to eat until he had earned what he needed.
There was much
common sense in that reply and our Lord Jesus Christ was not one of
your lackadaisical, goody-goody sort of people who have nothing at all
to do! Point me to a single wasted hour in our Savior's whole life.
Show me one instance in which He was a sluggard, if you can. There is
His life record before you, written by four truthful men–put your
finger, if you can, upon a single spot where He might be rightly
accused of being sluggish. If he had been so, we might have had a
warrant for interpreting this text according to the lazy man's version
of it, but it is not so. His motto was always, "I must work the works
of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night comes when no man can
work."
Neither did our Lord Jesus Christ intend to inculcate prodigality when
he said, "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?" and so on. This
is what the young spendthrift does when he comes into possession of his
estate. He gathers all he has with both hands. Take thoughts? Not he!
As long as the gold will last, he will spend it without reckoning! All
the proverbs of prudence he despises–he is too free-hearted and
generous to think of them–and so, by his sinful extravagance, he
speedily brings himself to poverty. Our Lord Jesus Christ never meant
that and He never acted like that. With what singular economy did the
Savior always behave! Generous to the last degree, He fed five thousand
men, besides women and children, but, equally economical, He said to
His disciples, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be
lost." Jesus Christ would have us take care of what we have, for we are
only stewards, and a steward must not waste his Lord's goods.
Extravagance, waste–the allowing of anything to perish which ought to
be used–is a wrong thing which cannot be too sternly condemned. And
the Savior never intended, for a single moment, to justify any such
action as that!
Neither did our Lord forbid a certain amount of forethought. One kind
of forethought He certainly did condemn when He said, "Take therefore
no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the
things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." But He,
Himself–and as I have reminded you, He is His own Expositor and the
key to His own teaching–often looked forward. For instance, with
regard to Lazarus, who He might have gone to him at once, He stayed
away a while, looking forward to the time when Lazarus would have been
dead and buried four days as the proper period for displaying His
resurrection power! And as for His own death, He looked forward to that
from the very opening of His earthly ministry and long before. He had a
baptism to be baptized with, and He was straitened until it was
accomplished. He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, not
merely once, but virtually all His life! He did think of His latter end
and His whole life was a preparation for that great offering up of
Himself as a Sacrifice for the sins of men. He did not, therefore,
forbid us to look to the end of life and to the necessary preparation
for that end. He did not forbid us to look towards ends and objectives
which may require futurity to ripen them, for, if we did not do so, our
life would be altogether confusion and certainly could not be
well-directed!
What, then, did the Savior mean when He said, "Take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, What shall we wear?" I
think that He meant, first, "Do not let provision for your temporal
needs be the chief end of your life, for this is what the heathen do.
The heathen Gentiles live to eat, to drink and to clothe themselves."
This is what the savage still does–give him "happy hunting grounds"
where he can get sufficient food, and where the skins of beasts may
cover him from the inclemency of the weather and you have given him all
that he needs. Jesus says, "After all these things do the Gentiles
seek." But you are not to make this search the sole end and aim of your
life–you were created for something nobler and better than that. For
such an objective as this, an ox or an ass may live, but not a
Christian! It is utterly beneath the dignity of your immortal spirit,
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, to be living alone, or
chiefly, for this reason. This is a matter which will require your
careful thought–God has formed you of the dust of the ground and the
appetites of animals are shared in by you–they crave and demand your
attention–but not such attention as would lead you to make these minor
matters the main business of your life! But, alas, how many men there
are who are simply great consumers of bread, meat, wine and such like
things–
"Like brutes they live–like brutes they die." May God convert them, by
His Grace, and so lift them up to something higher! As for all of you
who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, scorn such business as
satisfies the heathen savage!
But the Savior must have meant more than that. When He said, "Take no
thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink," He
meant, as compared with the service of God, and the honor and glory of
His name, which should be the great objective of your life–do not give
any consideration to these other things. Christ elsewhere puts the
matter thus, "He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates
his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." He
means that His disciple is to hate, or to love less, even his own
life–to be prepared to consider that even that is a mere trifle if it
should ever be a hindrance to the Glory of Christ. You remember how the
Apostle Paul said to the Ephesian elders, "Neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the
ministry which I received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of
the Grace of God." Brethren, if it ever comes to this, that you must
lose your business, your employment, your livelihood, or else do
wrong–lose everything sooner than commit the smallest sin! And if it
came to this, that you must lose your liberty and lie in a dungeon, or
else deny the faith–accept the prison, but reject the opportunity of
traitorously forsaking your Lord and Master! And if it came even to
death, itself, remember how bravely the martyrs behaved when they
refused to accept pardon at the price of recantation! They could die,
but they could not deny their Lord! They could burn, but they could not
turn and, therefore, they took no thought as to what they should eat or
what they should drink, or whether they should live or die! They
counted all such things as insignificant trifles to those who were
seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness! And who will
dare to say that they were unwise? If any should even hint that they
were not wise, think of them, as they are now within yonder pearly
portals, amid the white-robed hosts bearing the victor's palm–
"Foremost of the sons of light, Nearest the eternal Throne of God!"
These are they who, for Christ's sake and the Gospel's, took no thought
of minor matters, but followed the Lamb where ever He led the way!
Still further to open up the meaning of this injunction, let me remind
you that this is just what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself did. You
cannot say that Jesus Christ ever troubled His head about what He
should eat, or what He should drink–His meat and His drink consisted
in doing His Father's will! Even life itself was as nothing to Him, for
He cheerfully laid it down for our sakes. When the devil offered Him
all the kingdoms of the world, you know how He answered him. And when,
afterwards, Peter began to rebuke Him for talking about dying, He
seemed to think that He was in the same position as when He was with
the devil in the wilderness, for He said to Peter, "Get you behind Me,
Satan; for you savor not the things that are of God, but those that are
of man." He counted nothing that He had as being worth preserving and,
in this sense, taking no thought of anything, He surrendered all to God
to be used for the good of His people!
And, dear Friends, we shall further see the meaning of the text if we
note that we are not to take such thought about eating, drinking and so
on, as to make ourselves slaves to work and worry. I know some
professing Christians who seem as if they needed to grasp the whole
world. They already have plenty of business, yet they are craving for
more. The days are not long enough for them–they would like to be up
before the larks, or not to go to bed at all if they could do without
sleep! They stretch out their arms like huge encompassing seas seeking
to swallow all the shore. They have what ought to be enough–they have
long had enough and a great deal more than enough for their needs–yet
they have not enough, nor is it probable that they ever will have
enough to satisfy their cravings unless the Grace of God should exert
its gracious influence over their hearts! And see how worried they
always are! I have seen a poor man with only a crust of dry bread to
eat, yet he was perfectly happy. And I have seen a rich man with an
abundance of wealth–and he was utterly miserable! The one could
rejoice in God, though he had little of this world's goods. But the
other could not rejoice notwithstanding all that he possessed!
A Christian should not be one of those who are full of worry, those who
rise up early, sit up late and eat the bread of carefulness and devote
all their time to secular and secondary things, so that they have no
leisure for private devotion, or for the service of God. God ought not
to have the clippings and the odds and ends of life. He ought not to
come in for the cheese-parings and the candle ends as He seems to do in
some men's houses. But the chief part of our time, yes, all our time
should, in some respects, be consecrated to Him. While it is right for
you to be diligent in business, yet you should always let everything be
done for God's Glory–and that cannot be the case if you become the
slave of Mammon and if the signs of fretting and worrying are plainly
visible upon your very face! Think for a moment–when did your Lord
ever fret and worry about gold and silver? Did anyone ever see upon
that blessed brow of His any cloud because of His lack of these things?
Enough was given to Him for His daily maintenance and that, He
entrusted to Judas, the treasurer of His little band of disciples. But
He made no request for it, nor did He levy any tithe or tax for the
support of Himself
and His followers. Nor was He ever anxious about ways and means. He
took all things calmly and quietly and He would have you do the same.
And He meant too, dear Friends, that no Christian ought to be very
anxious about anything. Henever was. I know some Christians and some of
them are here now, who will not enjoy the service, or the Communion
because they are so anxious about what is possibly going to happen.
They say that they believe in Providence, but they really disbelieve in
it. They say that they are trusting in God, but they do not truly trust
Him. They know that they ought to cast all their care upon Him who
cares for them, but they do not do anything of the kind! They continue
to care for themselves and they are almost worn out with anxiety. Look
even at the mother of our Lord when the supply of wine at the
wedding-feast ran short–she was, apparently, all in a fret, so she
went to Jesus and said, "They have no wine." But Jesus said to her,
"Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come." His time
would come in due course and then He would give them what they needed
for that wedding feast. But until the right moment came, He remained
calm and quiet. And that is how we should be, leaving everything in
God's hands. Having done all that we can do by honest labor and earnest
prayer, let us leave the rest with God, for He would not have His
children cumbered with much serving, nor have them vexed with earthly
cares.
And, more than that, dear Friends, we ought never to take such thought
as to get to murmuring, repining and complaining of our lot, as though
it had not been fixed by Infinite Love and Wisdom! Some people wish
that they were almost anything rather than what they are, albeit there
are others who would be glad enough to be just what those very people
are! You think, my Brother, that your cross is heavier to bear than
mine? I would not, however, recommend you change with me, as I
certainly would not change with you! If we could all lay our crosses
down in this Tabernacle and each man could take another one's cross
which he liked better than his own–within 24 hours we should all be
back here crying for our own crosses to be given to us again–for each
man's cross fits his shoulders better than anybody else's cross would
fit them! Besides, we can have Grace given to us to endure the trial
which God has sent us–but if we had a trial of our own choosing we
could not expect that Divine Grace would be given to support us under
that, so what would we do then? Never murmur, my Brothers and Sisters,
until you find Christ murmuring. Read all the records of His life and
see when He ever complained. Foxes had holes and the birds of the air
had nests, but He had nowhere to lay His head. Yet He did not mention
that fact in any spirit of complaining. He was a poor Man. His garment
was like the common robe of the country. His food did not consist of
delicacies and dainties, neither was His drink selected from the
choicest liquids in the world. Yet He was a joyous man–"a Man of
Sorrows" for our sakes, but, as far as He, Himself, was personally
concerned, the noblest, the calmest and the happiest of mankind!
And, Brothers and Sisters, we must never let thought about temporal
things drive us to despair. Possibly, in this large audience, there is
a man who says, "I have struggled very hard and everything seems to go
against me–I am inclined to throw it all away." But, my Brother, when
did your Lord throw away all His work, or throw anyof His work away? He
never did! And if you will take to God that portion of your care which
you ought not to attempt to carry, you will find that the part of the
load which you ought to carry is not too heavy for your shoulders when
the Lord strengthens you with His Grace! The wear and tear of life
comes not out of the Providential trials which we have to endure, but
out of the unbelieving cares and burdens which we make for ourselves!
You can carry easily enough the load that God appoints for you, my
Brothers and Sisters, but if you let the devil sit on the top of it in
the form of your own anxieties, doubts and fears, then the burden will
crush you to the earth! Imitate your blessed Lord and Master, and never
despair, but hope on, hope always and even if God, Himself, should seem
to forsake you, yet cry, "My God, my God," even as Jesus did when God
had forsaken Him!
I will only say one other thing upon this point, which is that we are
not to think about temporal things so as to get into the habit of
hoarding, as some do. They scarcely spend enough to provide for their
own necessities. The poor ask nothing from them. And God's Church–I
was about to say gets less than nothing–and I might truly say that
though it appears to be impossible, for there are some who give a good
deal less than nothing to the Lord's cause, for they occupy a place in
the building where services are held which has been erected, and is
still kept up by others at an expense which these misers never attempt
to share–so that, as far as God's House is concerned, they absolutely
take from that House instead of giving to it, albeit that they have
superabundant substance of their own from which they ought to
contribute to the work of the Lord! Saving is well, but the first thing
that a man has to do is to see to the saving of his soul! And
there are some who always look so much to the saving of their wealth
that their soul stands very little chance of being saved! To get and to
holdseems to be the great end-all and be-all of some men's being–but
it can never be so with a true Christian. He, by Divine Grace, is like
His Master, who, "though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor."
His riches consisted in giving and, therefore, He was the richest man
who ever lived, for He gave more than anyone else when He gave Himself
that He might redeem His people!
I have thus explained to you the thought that is forbidden. May God's
Grace enable us to obey our Lord's injunction. And the secret–the only
secret by which we can learn how to obey it is this–somebody must
think and care for us and, as we are not to think and care for
ourselves, we must cease all sinful caring by believing that our
Heavenly Father cares for us! If Jesus cares for me, I may get rid of
care about myself. And I urge all my dear Brothers and Sisters in
Christ, by the wounds that were given Him for our sake, and by all the
many tokens of His love that He has given to us, never to doubt that He
cares for us in anything–in the little things as much as in the great
ones, counting even the hairs of our head and bearing all our
afflictions, according to that gracious Word of God, "In all their
affliction He was afflicted." Cast your care, then, on Him, for so you
may cease to care for yourselves!
II. But now, secondly, we have in the text A PRECEPT COMMANDING
THOUGHT–"Seek you first the
Kingdom of God, and His righteousness."
Call back your thoughts from the pursuit of the tidings of this life
and when you have recalled them, send them forth in pursuit of the
blessings of the life that is to come! What ought a Christian to care
for? What did Christ care for? Christ's great care was for His Father's
Glory. For this He lived and for this He died. There is no single
action of His life that had not God's Glory as its end. O beloved
Brothers and Sisters who are bought with the blood of Christ, we
cannot, any of us, say this about our own lives! Yet we ought to be
able to say it and we ought now to pray God's blessed Spirit to enable
us to concentrate all our thoughts, powers and energies upon this one
objective–that we might, in all things, glorify God! This is, as the
Catechism says, "man's chief end"–especially the chief end of redeemed
man–to do everything, whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does,
to do all to the Glory of God–to make the most common acts of daily
life, as well as the higher acts of service and devotion, subservient
to God's Glory. God help you to attain to this ideal Christian life!
Next to that, Christ's great care was to do the particular work which
God had given Him to do. When He had been sitting by the well, talking
to that poor woman of Samaria, His disciples wondered why He did not
ask for meat. But He said to them, "My meat is to do the will of Him
that sent Me, and to finish His work." He was completely absorbed in
that one thing–the finishing of the work which God had given Him to
do. And how early He began that work! What a bright example He has set
before you young lads and lasses! When He was 12 years of ago, after He
had been "in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both
hearing them, and asking them questions," and Joseph and Mary had
sorrowed because they could not find Him, He said to them, in answer to
His mother's question of reproof, "Did you not know that I must be
about My Father's business?" And He might have finished His life with
the same enquiry. When wicked men led Him away to crucify Him and He
willingly went as a sheep to the slaughter, He might have said, "I am
still about My Father's business." He never sought to save Himself–He
always served His Father who had sent Him. There were no by-ends with
Christ. You never find Him seeking personal honor. On the contrary, He
hid Himself away from men when they sought to thrust honor upon Him.
You never find Him seeking personal pleasure–His life was a life of
self-denial. You never find Him seeking riches. Among all the poor,
there were none poorer than He was. But He always delighted to do what
God had given Him to do!
O Brothers and Sisters, if we were to live as He did, we would make our
lives to be grand lives, and happy lives, too, albeit that we would
probably multiply our sorrows, even as Christ did. Yet, as I have
already reminded you, there was a deep happiness underneath the
surface, in Christ's inmost soul, which abundantly recompensed Him for
all the trials He had to endure. Let us labor to do as He did so that
we shall be able to say, "This one thing I do–the one thing which God
has given me to do." Short of this, let us never be content. I long to
be able to say with the Apostle Paul, "For to me to live is Christ." I
should like to be a thunderbolt, hurled from the right hand of God, and
to go crashing through every obstacle till it had reached the mark at
which God had aimed me! I pray that the love of Christ may thus
constrain me, and drive me on towards the great objective of my
being–the Glory of my God! So may it be with you too, dear Friends
and, to that end, "gird up the loins of your mind," "lay aside every
weight" and the clinging garments which would entangle you and impede
you in running to the goal which lies before you–the finishing of the
work which God has given you to do!
What else did Christ care for? Well, I might truly say that He cared
for nothing else. For these two things–to glorify God and to finish
His work–comprehend His whole life. Yet, as a matter of detail, I may
remind you that Christ lived to care for His people. He was free from
care about Himself, yet full of care for His people. From the very
first day when He had disciples around Him, till the hour in which He
was taken up from them, He was always thinking about them. Read any one
of the Gospels through, with this thought in your mind, and you will be
struck with the tender care of Jesus Christ towards those who followed
Him. There is Peter, for instance. Christ knows that Satan desires to
have him, that he may sift him as wheat, but He means to be before the
devil, so He says to Peter, "I have prayed for you, that your faith
fail not." He did not say, "I will pray for you when you get into
Satan's sieve" but, "I have prayed for you already. I have anticipated
the temptation by My supplication for you." When Judas and the band of
men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees came to arrest
our Lord in Gethsemane, what did He say? "If, therefore, you seek Me,
let these go their way." His only thought was about His disciples, not
about Himself! Just as, after instituting the Last Supper, when He was
going out to be betrayed and needed all the comfort, humbly speaking,
that His disciples could give Him, He never asked them for comfort, but
He began comforting them by saying to them, "Let not your heart be
troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me! In My Father's house
are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you
may be also." You see that all His care was for you, not for Himself!
And, Brothers and Sisters, let us have something like this care for the
Church of God! Let us be mindful of the Lord's people and let us watch
for opportunities of doing good to others. If we hear of any who are
seeking the Lord, let us try to guide them to Him. If we know any among
our Brothers and Sisters who have backslidden, let us seek to be the
means of restoring them. If any are sad at heart, let us endeavor to
comfort them. Having given up all sinful cares, let the welfare of the
people of God be our one and only care!
And then, again, Christ had a care for those who had no care for Him.
That is a beautiful simile which He used concerning guilty Jerusalem,
"How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen
gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not!" That is a
beautiful emblem of what Christianity should be. The mother bird seems
utterly oblivious of herself altogether. If she can but spread her
wings over those little chicks that nestle down close to her bosom, she
will give away her own warmth for them and sacrifice her own life in
their defense. Christ looked upon that city, which He knew would perish
with an overwhelming destruction, but His big heart was palpitating in
His bosom and He was longing to cover even those great sinners with His
wings of love! He manifested His care for the sons of men very
practically. When a crowd gathers to hear anyone preach, surely it is
not the preacher's business to feed his congregation as well as teach
them! Yet Jesus thought it was His duty to do so. They were hungry,
weary and ready to faint–and the gracious Savior was concerned about
them, though He had no care about Himself. And He especially cared for
those poor pale-faced women and children who had come so far, and
looked so weak. And He said to His disciples, "I have compassion on the
multitude because they continue with Me now three days and have nothing
to eat. And I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint on the
way."
And then, like a prince who makes a great feast, He fed them all with
loaves and fishes! And, Christian men and women, if God enables you to
get rid of care on your own account, you will begin to care for the
poor and needy, and to care for sinners. Yes, and you will learn to
love your neighbor as yourself. And when you meet with a case that
needs your help, you will be careful in attending to it. And if you
cannot tell whether it is a good case or not, you will be like Job, who
said, "The cause which I knew not I searched out." That man is like
Christ who lives, not for himself, but for others. It has been all too
truly said that there are some people whose first care is for
themselves, and whose second care is for themselves, and whose third
care is for themselves, and whose fourth care is for themselves, and so
on as many times as you like to repeat it! Possibly somewhere down in
the millions, there is a little care for somebody else, but it is too
low down ever to come to anything practical. I am afraid it is often so
with some professing Christians! But let it not be so among you. The
heathen care for themselves. The brute beasts care for themselves. But
the Christian should care for others, with a view to the Glory of God.
For this reason he should live, even as Jesus lived.
III. Now, thirdly, IN THE SPIRIT OF THESE TWO PRECEPTS, IT WILL BE WELL
FOR ALL CHRISTIANS TO COME TO THEIR LORD'S TABLE.
Come first, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, without care about
temporal things. Did you come in here heavily burdened, my Sister? Then
you had forgotten that the Lord loved you and that He knew all about
your needs. Now that I remind you of these facts, leave your burden in
the pew where you are sitting–it will not bother anybody else–and
come to the Table without it. "O Sir!" you say, "I have worked very
hard all week." Then, my dear Sister, do not go on working or worrying
today. "I have had a crushing burden to carry the last six months,"
says a Brother. Then, my dear Brother, do not carry it any
longer–there is no need that you should. The Jews, when they ate the
Passover, stood with their loins girded and each man had his staff in
his hand. They were allowed to carry a burden, for they were going on a
long journey and they were thrust out in haste. So we read that "the
people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs
being bound up in their clothes, upon their shoulders." But the
Christian, at the Lord's Table, does not stand. What ought to be our
posture at the Communion Table? In Matthew 26:20, we read, "When the
even was come, He sat down with the twelve." No doubt, according to the
Oriental custom, they reclined in such a position that John even leaned
his head upon the bosom of Christ. They sat, or reclined, perfectly at
their ease, as if to remind us that when we believe in Jesus Christ, we
enter into rest. What is the teaching of the emblems upon the
Table–the bread and the wine? What do they mean? They are to remind us
of the broken body of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His shed blood, of
which we are, symbolically, to eat and to drink. Paul says, "He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He
not, with Him, also freely give us all things?" What? Will He deny you
bread for your body after He has given you Christ, the Bread of Heaven,
for your soul? Will He deny you clothes for your body after He has
clothed your soul with the robe of Christ's perfect righteousness? Will
He deny you a sufficient store of earthly goods that you may get
through this world when He has already given you a mansion in the skies
and a crown of life that fades not? If we should forget our cares
anywhere–surely we should do so at the Communion Table!
Now, dear Friends, let me, ask–why do you still carry your caress Have
they ever done you any good? Which one of you, who has been the most
full of care, has ever put a sixpence into his pocket thereby? With all
your fretting and worrying, have you ever obtained any comfort? It is
sorry music that you make with your moaning over your anxieties! I am
sure that you have never enjoyed the tune yourself, nor has anyone
else. And as for you who have been the greatest money-grubbers, I can
tell you that you will die poorer than you were when you were born!
"No," you say "that cannot be, for naked came we into this world." But
you will die poorer than that, for when you came into this world you
had both soul and body–but when you go out of this world, you will
have to leave your body behind, so that you will die poorer than you
were born! You may save as much as you like and you may struggle, and
wrestle, and fret, and fume, and worry, but it will come to that in the
end! The man who will carry fifty staves, or a hundred, or who will not
be satisfied till he gets many hundred staves and tries to travel along
with all that bundle of sticks–well, he may do it if he likes, but if
you will give me one good stout stick to walk with, I will be satisfied
and I think that is the wise thing to do! He who has what he really
needs and who is content, is the truly rich man!
So, Brothers and Sisters, put aside all cares about temporal things as
you come to the Table of your Lord. But come to His Table with your
heart full of care about your God. Come with this care–that you may
not come as a mere form! Or with this care–that you may truly discern
the Lord's body! Or with this care–that, through the outward signs,
you may behold your Lord and Master crucified for you! Come with this
care–that you may really feed upon Christ after a spiritual fashion.
And with this care–that, when you go away from the Table, you may not
lose what you have gained here, but may show by your life that you have
really been strengthened by feeding upon Jesus Christ! Concentrate all
your thoughts into this one desire–
"Nearer, my God, to You! Nearer to You"–
and partake of the emblems of His body and His shed blood with this
sole objective, that you may get nearer and yet nearer to Him and that
you may afterwards live like He did. Come to the Communion in this
spirit and God's blessing will surely reap upon you!
Before I close my discourse, I have a few words to say to those of you
who have no part nor lot in the matter of which I have been speaking. I
am addressing many persons who are not Christians. They are full of
care about the things of the
world and, very likely some of them will say to me, "You might let us
care about the things of the world, for we have nothing else to care
for." Some persons say, "It is a dreadful thing that these unconverted
people should have such-and-such amusements." So it is, but there is
another aspect of the case. Whenever I see a pig in a sty and the
farmer is going to give him some slop from the house, I say, "Let the
creature have it. He likes it and it is the proper food for him." I do
not envy him and if I were to see a man of my acquaintance go and drink
the hog's food, I would be shocked, indeed! So, when I see a man who
professes to be a Christian, taking delight in the pleasures of the
world, I am shocked–but such things are suited to the poor creatures
that like them. Only remember, my Friend, if you are going to be
content with this world, you are thereby giving up Heaven and giving up
the joys of eternity! And in taking the good things, as you call them,
of sin, and the pleasures of the flesh, you take the devil and all his
works–and all that involves your being cast away from the Presence of
God forever!
Oh, if you only knew your true condition, you who are without God, and
without Christ, you would want to get away to your houses and to fall
on your knees and cry unto the Lord to have mercy upon you! And if you
were wise, you would not even wait till you reached your homes, but in
this very place you would cry, "What must we do to be saved?" If your
heart really utters that cry, let me give you the Scriptural answer,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Trust that
Savior whose teaching I have tried to explain. Trust Him who did more
than teach, for He lived! Trust Him who did more than live, for He
died! Trust Him who did more than die, for He rose again and ever lives
at His Father's right hand on high! Trust Him and you shall be saved
forever! The Lord bless you, for His dear Son's sake! Amen.