Pilgrims' Hunger and Pilgrims' Food 2
Back to J. C. Philpot Sermons
III. But there was another lesson which they had to be taught. The Lord had another purpose to make manifest by leading them about those forty years in the wilderness—to prove them, and make manifest what they were. Are not the Lord's dealings continually going on to manifest and prove what his people are? Wherever the Lord implants his grace in a sinner's heart, he will manifest it, he will bring it to light; and wherever there is nothing but nature, the form without the power, profession without reality, he will bring that to light too. We read, "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." (Mal. 3:3.)
The Lord tries the heart and searches the thoughts; and thus he brings to light and makes manifest the counsels of all hearts. Is a man sincere? Is the grace of God in his heart? Is divine life implanted? Does the fear of the Lord dwell in his bosom? That man shall be proved to be one of the Lord's family. On the other hand, has a man taken up religion? Has he begun with God, instead of God beginning with him? Has he a mere name to live among men, while his soul is dead before God? Is hypocrisy, superstition, and self-righteousness the sum and substance of his religion? It shall be made manifest; it shall be proved. The Lord will place the real child of God in those circumstances which shall manifest him; and he will place the hypocrite in those circumstances which shall manifest him. The Lord's dealings with his people in the wilderness are very much to this purpose and to this end—to prove them, and to know what is in their hearts.
Has the Lord implanted life in your soul? Has he touched your conscience with his finger? Has he begun a work of grace upon your heart? If so, in your travels through this wilderness there will be things from time to time to prove the reality of this work upon your soul. You will have temptations. Now, when temptation comes, it will prove whether you have the fear of God in your soul to stand against the temptation, or whether you fall under the temptation; or, if you fall under the temptation, whether you are ever recovered out of it. Or you shall be placed in those circumstances of life that shall prove whether the grace of God be in you or not. The Lord shall give you worldly prosperity, and shall open for you doors in providence in all directions. Your heart shall be caught by it, and if you are not one of God's people, you shall be drawn away from the Lord's saints, and it shall be manifested by these things that the root of the matter was never in your heart.
But on the other hand, if you are a living soul, the Lord will keep bringing circumstance upon circumstance, event upon event, one thing after another; and all these things, as they come upon you, shall be made to prove whether the fear of God be in your soul or not. Now, if the fear of God be not in a man's heart, he must decline, he must fall away. Satan will be more than a match for every one except God's own family; sin will overcome and destroy every one but those whose sins are pardoned through atoning blood and dying love; and the world, sooner or later, will overcome every one who has not the faith of God's elect, by which alone, the world is overcome. Thus the Lord, in his mysterious dealings (and how mysterious his dealings are!) proves the reality of the work of grace in every heart where that work is begun, and proves the hypocrisy of all who have but a name to live while their soul is dead before God.
But more especially, in the case of the Lord's people, are they called upon to look back, and see all the way the Lord has led them these many years in the wilderness, that everything was a means to an end—to prove them, that the Lord might know whether they would keep his commandments or not. Look back. Do you not see, that so many years or months ago, there was a snare spread for you? and do you not see how the Lord delivered you from that snare? By that the Lord proved you, and saw what was in your heart. Look back, and see some strong temptation—temptation to covetousness, to adultery, to fall under the power of some sin. Do you see, or do you not see, how the Lord delivered you from that besetment, and broke to pieces that temptation, which well-near had you in its grasp? Or look back, and see if there was not some sacrifice to be made to pursue the right way of the Lord; by acting up to your profession you must have brought down some persecution upon your head; or greatly have offended some of those to whom you were much obliged; you must have cut off some right hand, plucked out some right eye. Or again, did you, or did you not, overcome that peculiar besetment which conscience at this very moment is speaking of in your bosom?
Now, by these things does the Lord continually make manifest what is in your heart. Is sincerity there? It shall be proved and manifested. Is hypocrisy there? It shall be proved and manifested. Is the grace of God there? Circumstances shall bring it to light. Is nothing but delusion, deceit, self-righteousness, and lies there? They shall be all made manifest; they may be cloaked for a time, but they shall all come to light, for the Lord's purpose is to bring all things to light. Thus, when you look back upon the way the Lord has led you these many years in the wilderness, can you not see how circumstance after circumstance, and event after event arose, to prove what was in you; whether godly fear, whether simplicity and sincerity, whether a desire to fear God, whether a dread to offend him, whether the life and power of vital godliness, or whether little else than an empty profession without the life-giving power of God in the soul?
What a mercy for you to be able to look back and see how the Lord appeared for you, when without him you must have sunk; when you can feel, to your soul's comfort, that the Lord did uphold you in the trying hour, did appear for you in distressing circumstances, did make bare his right arm when you had no strength of your own, did guide you when you had lost all clue, did bring you safely through all when, without his help, you must have been utterly lost. What a mercy it is to be able, by the actings of living faith (and sure I am, there must be faith in exercise), to look back upon the way, and believe that indeed the grace of God was in your heart, that the Lord proved it, and showed it to be genuine by every circumstance that has taken place.
IV. "Whether you would keep his commandments, or not;" which you loved most, God or the world; which your heart cleaved to in earnest, the things of Christ, or the things of time and sense; whether the word of God was your rule, or of man; whether the fear of God was your motive, or the good opinion of the creature; whether to serve God in sincerity and godly simplicity, to obey God's precepts, to keep God's word, was the desire of your heart; or whether a little outside religion, just enough to please man, was your object, while within there was little else but dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
V. "And allowed you to hunger." What is this? Another memorial of the forty years' pilgrimage. It is true literally of some of the Lord's pilgrims. While the wicked in this world eat their full, so that their eyes stand out with fatness and they have more than heart can wish, how many of the Lord's poor are allowed to hunger, even in a literal sense! But it is true of all spiritually, though not true of all literally, "he allowed them to hunger." What is it to allow a soul to hunger? Is it not the denial of food to it? It is so literally, is it not? If a man has food denied him, he must hunger. And so it is with God's people. There is in them an appetite after spiritual food, a desire after living bread. There is that in their souls which God himself alone can supply. There is a guilty conscience, which nothing but blood can appease; a dark heart, which nothing but light can cure; a dead, unfeeling soul, which nothing but the sweet revivings of the Lord can restore and comfort. There are trials which need deliverances, sorrows which need consolations, castings down which need liftings up, griefs which need the healing balm. Thus there is in their hearts an appetite, a desire, a hungering after living food, such as the Lord himself alone can supply.
But "he allowed them to hunger." How piercing must be the feelings of a parent to hear his child cry for bread! And yet the Lord often leaves his children to cry for the bread of heaven, leaves them hungry. When perhaps you could not bear that your child should be hungry half an hour, the Lord allows his people to be hungry for days. Why is this? It is to give them a keener relish for food; to wean their appetite from worldly sweets; to bring them off that unwholesome feeding of which they have contracted a habit, and make them long after heavenly food. Was it not so with the children of Israel? They came out of Egypt fat and glutted with Egyptian food, the leeks, the onions, the garlic, and the flesh, when they sat by the flesh-pots. They had then to be cleansed from the unwholesome cravings which infected their body. Egyptian air and Egyptian diet had made them so loathsome, that they needed a course of fasting to remove out of their bodies the corrupt cravings. The Lord therefore allowed them to hunger, that there might be a keener appetite for spiritual food; that they might be brought down to the fasting point, a healthy appetite, which nothing could appease or allay but a shower of bread from heaven.
Is it not so with God's people? What loathsome appetites we have by nature, swallowing sin by mouthfuls! No thirsty horse ever plunged his throat into a bucket of water with more eagerness than we, in times past, have plunged headlong into every sin. Was there not some need to be brought off this unwholesome feeding? How could we relish heavenly manna, the love and blood of Jesus, sweet love visits from his heavenly presence, pure love tokens from his precious hands, without being well purged from this Egyptian food on which we had been nurtured from our very cradle? And therefore the Lord allows his people to hunger, that they may have an appetite for something more than what nature can give, that they may long for those supplies of heavenly food which the Lord alone can supply.
Is it not this keen hunger which creates an appetite for heavenly food? Surely. But after the Lord has given his people a taste for heavenly food, they still have to hunger, that they may relish it the more. There are times and seasons when, like the children of Israel, after we have tasted manna, we want the quail, we long for flesh; and the Lord, perhaps, answers our request, as he did theirs, but sends leanness withal into our souls. The quail came, and fell round about the camp three days' journey; but while the meat was in their mouth, the anger of God was manifested, and they loathed the very flesh for which they had so idolatrously longed.
Is it not so with you? There is some sin that you are longing to enjoy, some lust you want to gratify. The Lord may permit you to go great lengths in this matter; but what would be the consequence? Why, no sooner would the meat be in your mouth, than the wrath of God would come into your conscience; and you would loathe the very meat that your wicked heart has been lusting after. Thus we are allowed to hunger, in order that this loathsome Egyptian habit may be purged away, and there may be given a pure appetite for pure food, a heavenly appetite for heavenly provision; that hungering, that thirsting, that inward desire, which nothing but the love and blood of the Lamb can supply!
Now, can you not look upon the path the Lord has led you in the wilderness, and see how you were allowed to hunger? Perhaps you went months without any personal dealings with God. You come to hear the word Sunday after Sunday, but there was nothing for you. You went down upon your knees time after time, but no testimony, no whispers, no smiles. You read chapters, and turn the leaves of the Bible over and over; but nothing for you! nothing for you! nothing to touch your heart, nothing to meet your case, nothing to dissolve, to break, to melt you. So you went on, moping and moaning, and fearing your case was altogether desperate. Is not this allowing you to hunger? Can you not look back and see how, again and again, the Lord thus allowed you to hunger? You could not, as hundreds do, feed upon ashes, satisfy yourselves with going through religious forms. Sermons and doctrines did not content you. You must have feeling and power, the smiles of God, and the whispers of his love, or you are not satisfied. And therefore you can see (at least, I can) how good it is that the Lord should sometimes allow us to hunger. It is a very painful thing; but how sweet it makes food when the food comes! How it weans a man from going after those things which never can profit, which never have profited us.
VI. "And fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know." How this follows their suffering from hunger! See the connection. Here are the three steps–
1. Egyptian food.
2. Wilderness hunger.
3. Heavenly manna.
Egyptian onions and heavenly manna did not come at the same time; they were separated by an interval, and that interval was hunger. Is it not so experimentally? When your heart is going out after idols, when you spiritually are traveling the same path as the children of Israel in the wilderness, lusting in your affections after Egypt, have you any appetite for spiritual food? None, none! The shop, the business, the wife, the husband, the child, the world—these are all you care about.
But when the Lord begins to deal with your conscience more powerfully, is not this the effect that, like the prodigal of old, you feel an aching void in the very bottom of your heart, which neither farm, nor shop, nor house, nor business, nor family, nor the things of time and sense, can satisfy? Then, you begin to long after something from God, dropped down from the Lord's own lips into your heart.
"And fed you with manna, which you knew not, neither did your fathers know." What is this MANNA? Is it not the bread from heaven, of which the Lord has given us an explanation in the sixth chapter of John's gospel?—"I am the bread of life." This manna, spiritually, is the flesh and blood of Jesus—embracing him in the arms of living faith, as a crucified Savior; feeling the application of his atoning blood to the conscience; enjoying the manifestations of his dying love to the heart; and receiving him as a blessed Mediator between God and our souls. And when the Lord is pleased to unfold his glory, to bring a sense of his dying love into our hearts, and give us to look upon him as the crucified Man of Sorrows—this is manna, such as the children of Israel never tasted—this is the bread of life, that fits the soul for heaven, and takes the soul to heaven!
But who are to eat this manna? Who can come unto a bleeding Jesus? Who can look unto a crucified Man of Sorrows? Who can feel the application of atoning blood to the conscience? Who can feed upon the sufferings of Jesus by living faith? The unexercised, the untried, the unperplexed, the undistressed? They cannot, they cannot! They must have the 'Egyptian diet' purged off by painful exercises, by wandering in the wilderness, by sharp temptations, by keen and cutting sorrows, before they have an appetite for heavenly food! But when the Lord is pleased to give them this appetite, and then begins to drop a little sensation of his goodness, mercy, and love into their soul—this is heavenly manna, which neither they nor their fathers knew.
VII. And WHY is all this? The Lord sums it all up in those words—"to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." What a spiritual light these words cast upon the whole!
"Man does not live on bread alone." There is heavenly food to support his soul, as well as natural food to support his body. If man is supported spiritually by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, if this be the only food the Lord's people enjoy, how little they have! How strong and striking these words are!—"Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Now, if you have no more food than that which proceeds out of the mouth of God into your heart, how much have you? If you take away all your religion that does not stand in this, into what a small compass is it all crushed up! It takes your religion, which, in your vain thoughts sometimes might almost fill this chapel, and puts it all into a nutshell. If you and I have no more religion than that which comes from what God has spoken into our soul; if that be the bread we are to live upon—if that be the strength of our heart; if that be our living portion and our dying sufficiency—how it narrows up our religion into so small a compass, that sometimes we seem to require a microscope to see whether we have any or not!
But thus we learn this lesson, "that man does not live by bread alone." He cannot live by doctrines in the head. He cannot live by religious forms. He cannot live by rites and ceremonies. He cannot live by anything that springs from the creature. His life is first given by God, and his life is maintained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. What the Lord teaches, he knows; what the Lord works, he feels; what the Lord gives, he possesses; what the Lord speaks to his heart, he has in his soul, as from the lips of the sovereign Majesty himself.
But into what a narrow spot this brings the living family! In your trials, can you take any comfort (I cannot) except from what the Lord speaks to your soul? Can you believe anything that the Lord does not bring with power into your heart? Can you take any promise that does not come accompanied by divine unction to your conscience? Can you believe your own saving interest in the love and blood of the Lamb, except God tells you so with his own mouth? You cannot, you cannot, if the fear of God is in exercise.
But how this cuts to pieces all man-made religion! and the sooner and more completely it is cut to pieces, the better. Why need I deceive myself by thinking I have a religion, which will not stand the trying hour, which will not give me comfort on a death-bed, nor land me safe in eternity? Now, the only religion that will give my soul comfort on a death-bed, and that will take my soul into eternity, is what God is pleased to work in my heart with his own almighty hand, the word he is pleased to speak with his own lips to my soul, and the manifestations of his mercy and love which he alone can bring down with convincing power into my heart.
But what a narrow path is this! How it cuts up all creature righteousness! How it lays the creature low in the dust of abasement! With all your religion, you have none but what God gives, nor can you procure a grain; for you have to live, not by bread alone in your natural life, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. How then are you spiritually to live, except from time to time the Lord speak a word to your soul?
Now, this is a mark of the Lord's family. When they come to hear the word, they do not come in a criticizing mood, as though they were great people, and would pass some very decisive judgment on those who stand up in the Lord's name. Not but what they will have their discernment, not but what they will have their judgment. But thus—'O that the Lordwould speak a word to my soul! O that the Lord would apply his precious truth to my heart! O that the Lord would shine upon me, and give me some testimony that I am safe for eternity!' Why are these prayers going up out of their bosom? Why, as they come to chapel, are they looking down upon the pavement, and their heart going up from time to time that the Lord would bless them? Because they feel that nothing but the Lord's blessing can nourish their soul; and that nothing but the Lord's own words, proceeding from the Lord's own mouth into their heart, can raise up in their soul that faith, hope, and love, and those sweet testimonies and blessed evidences, which alone can satisfy them.
Now, if you can do with any religion short of this, I cannot. I tell you honestly, I cannot. I have seen an end of all other. No other religion will ease a guilty conscience; no other speak peace to a troubled heart; no other banish doubt and fear; no other bless me here, nor take me safe to glory hereafter. But I am sure that that religion which is God's gift and God's work, which stands not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God—that will bless me here, and take me to glory hereafter. I am sure that what God speaks to my soul, will stand when the world is in a blaze. What man may speak, will be driven away by the first gust of wind. The smoke out of the chimney, the chaff out of the threshing-floor, are not more transitory than the mere word of man.
So that the Lord's people stand distinguished by this one mark, if they have no more—that they must have those testimonies which the Lord alone can give them, those words which the Lord alone can speak, and those smiles which the Lord alone can bestow. But what a mercy if the Lord has humbled you thus—to raise you up; if the Lord has made you hunger thus—to feed your soul with heavenly manna; if the Lord has raised up this cry and sigh in your heart—that he himself would speak with power to your soul, and you can listen to no other voice but that of the good Shepherd. You have a mark and testimony that the Lord's hand is at work in your soul, and that he is dealing with you as his child.
May this be our religion. I want no more; and I would sooner have none at all, if not this. I would sooner on a Sunday take a walk in the park, or go to Hampton Court, and be a worldly man altogether—than come to chapel, and never feel life and power in my soul.
To put on religion, and yet be devoid of that in which the very life of God consists!—O what a wretched state to be in! to be a professor, to go among God's people, to hear God's truth, to listen to the most heart-searching appeals, and then to be dead in sin or dead in a profession, and cloak over all your wickedness with the mask of hypocrisy! I, for my part, would sooner be a worldly man altogether, than have a religion that does not stand in the power of God. Though I may have my doubts and fears (as no doubt you have sometimes) and am often plagued and pestered with sin morning, noon, and night; yet this is my deliberate opinion—I would sooner be a worldly man altogether, making no profession, but living like other men in the world, than have a name to live while dead—the form without the power. Such is the feeling of my heart, and such the verdict of my conscience.
Back to J. C. Philpot Sermons