God feeds

Let us turn together please to the book of Proverbs chapter 30. Proverbs chapter 30 and verse 7. Two things have I required of thee. Deny me them not before I die.

Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me.

Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steel and take the name of my God in vain. Particularly that last statement in verse 8 I wish to notice a little with you this evening. Feed me with food convenient for me.

This 30th proverb is a very interesting proverb and it is for men. Chapter 31 is for ladies, for women. But chapter 30 is taken up with a man and it's very difficult to determine who these individuals are in verse 1. But what I would like you to notice is if you were to read this chapter yourself looking down at you're going to find a little history is involved from beginning until we come to the point that we read in verse 7, when I die.

And what he wants to have, which I find very very beautiful in this little verse, is two things he says I really want to get a hold of, and this is what I'd like to have when I die. I want to be able, as he says in verse 8, to be removed from those things that are vanity and lies, the emptiness of the world and of a life and a fleshliness which is so empty, so godless, and don't give me poverty nor riches. I want to be able to be fed with food from heaven.

Now I realize that is the prayers of our beloved brethren and sisters for this weekend, that's the reason we have conferences, and conferences are really very important times. They're important for the fact of fellowship between assemblies, very important. Important for the fact of younger people with the older people, that's important.

And it's important as well that we should be at conference because of the time and the culture in which we are living. We need times to get together with one object before us as our beloved brethren have arranged for us here this weekend. Feed me with food convenient for me.

So I would like to notice with you, just on five different occasions in the Scriptures, where we find God feeding individuals conveniently. Interestingly, that word convenient, if you look in your margin, it has a double meaning, really. The margin is going to say, according to my inheritance.

That's a good one, I like that. Feed me with food according to my inheritance. That's what we have in our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

And so therefore we're going to be feeding upon the Word as our inheritance. But the other idea in this word convenient is according to circumstances. Feed me with food according to my circumstances.

And we do require that, and I trust that every meeting that we gather for with God's Word in our hand, we're going to receive food. Food according to our circumstances and food that comes from our inheritance. The first one, of course, that logically and quickly comes to our minds is God feeding the people of Israel, Manna, in the wilderness.

But I would like to take you to John chapter 6 in your thinking and remember how the Lord Jesus interprets that for us. And immediately when we read John chapter 6, we are taught a lesson about feeding. The Lord Jesus says, I am the living bread.

And twice over he speaks about eating even my flesh, drinking my blood. It's food, there's something so intimate with his person, something so definite about really getting a hold of Christ, the person of our Lord Jesus. First of all by faith, but then daily as well as we read in that passage.

But I want to try and notice with you a little of how he speaks to the people to seek to draw them away from an older system to that which is going to be established in Acts chapter 2, and that is the new thing, the new creation. And in doing that he's telling the disciples and telling the people, you need to feed on me. That's what's going to draw you away from that which is sterile and ancient and past and lifeless.

Take you away from that to the reality. And dear brethren and sisters, we do need teaching on typical things, typical teaching concerning the person of the Lord Jesus and doctrine. The Lord Jesus is going to introduce doctrine in this passage, which I wish to notice with you very quickly, but I do trust that it will give us to see the kind of food that he wants us to feed upon.

Now the manna that was given to Israel, the Lord Jesus interprets for us in John 6, he says, I am the bread of God which came down from heaven. So we need teaching on the incarnation. The doctrine of the incarnation of the Son of God is vital to our faith.

That's the person we have put our faith in. We need to know that doctrine, because the doctrine of the incarnation is furthermore vital to the gospel that we're preaching. Because the person of our Lord Jesus in incarnation, his sinlessness is the credential for mediatorial work.

We must learn that. And even for those beloved younger brethren who are here tonight, you're going to be responsible gospel preachers. You need to have that doctrine, because the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus, and that's the important thing, it's a virgin birth of the person of our Lord Jesus into our world, is fundamental to the character of teaching as to the offers of grace, as to the fullness of the satisfying work of the Lord Jesus in propitiation.

It's all dependent on the incarnation. So we need teaching, even at a conference like this, we need to receive doctrine. And dear brethren and sisters, I trust that as our beloved brethren will minister to us, we will get fresh glimpses of the foundation upon which we rest our faith, even that which is built upon the doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But as I mentioned already, the Lord Jesus is teaching the people that they need to be students of typology. What he's going to say to Moses, Moses didn't give you that bread. It wasn't Moses.

You've got to get beyond Moses. There's something else in this manna. And then he reveals, I am that bread.

And so typology needs to be studied. The most obvious one, of course, that we do well to look at is to remember the tabernacle. God says about the tabernacle and about the temple, every whit of it magnifies the glory of the person of Christ.

We need that kind of teaching, that we might see how God is unfolding for us from Old Testament types of the person of the Lord Jesus that leads us into a deeper appreciation of his personal glories. Now the effectiveness and the value of seeing the person of the Lord Jesus in typology, brethren, is not only to make us intelligent as to the Scriptures, but it is intended to give to us an understanding of the basis for worship. Because the idea of typology is to look at all that God has given in the Old Testament in personalities, in the laws of Leviticus, and likewise even the laws of Deuteronomy, and we're going to see in there how he weaves in the person of the Lord Jesus.

And what he's wanting to show us is, that's how I'm weaving him into your life. That's one of the great effects of studying typology. So we need that type of teaching.

And I trust the Spirit of God indeed will feed us with food convenient for us, that which will teach us to be students of his person and indeed will affect again and the ground of our foundation of faith. And I cannot look at the detail with you of John chapter 6, but can I leave a little bit of homework with you? In John chapter 6, the Lord Jesus speaks of himself as the bread of God, he speaks of himself as the bread of life, he's speaking himself as the bread that came down from heaven. In those three statements, the Lord Jesus is revealing truth about himself that is sustaining for his people.

Sustaining us. It's going to give to us fresh grip, give to us fresh courage, give to us a better intimacy with himself. And that's what's going to sustain us as we move through your work every day, down at the office you go, down to the school you are going, home with the children you are, and there you are brother at your work and sister as well, what is God, what's going to sustain us? It's that manna.

It's the bread of God, the bread which came down from heaven, the bread which is the person of the Lord Jesus. Let me remind you there are three men in the Old Testament that ate manna every day for 40 years and never got tired of it. Moses, Joshua, and Caleb.

Three mighty men for God, and every day for 40 years they ate manna. Beloved, that should indeed entice our hearts, and I trust that the unfolding of the scriptures this weekend will give us to feed upon the person of the Lord Jesus, both in doctrine and in typology. But there's another one I want you to notice, it is in Joshua, when the people of Israel came into the land of Canaan, it says on the morning, that morning the manna ceased.

What morning? When did the manna stop? God puts it this way, when they had eaten of the old corn of the land, the manna ceased. Now the old corn of the land is very interesting because it's not corn that they planted. Here's something that they had nothing to do.

Here's a harvest that they hadn't been eaten for 40 years. They've been eating manna in the wilderness, and now they're eating cornbread. God is giving to them the food of the land of promise.

When I turn to the book of Joshua, which of course takes us to the epistle to the Ephesians, we're looking at that old corn of the land. And there are three things that I want to leave with you that I hope will help you, brethren, that the type of food that is convenient for us in Ephesians, because Ephesians is linking me with the heavenlies. And brethren, we really do need to discipline ourselves to think more of the heavenlies.

Don't ever believe the idea that you could be so heavenly minded you're no earthly use. That is... don't ever say a thing like that. The more heavenly minded we become, the more earthly use we are for God.

We need to look into the heavens, and that is what we have in Canaan. That's the old corn. There's one little statement I'm going to leave with you that's used three times in Ephesians, and it says because being in Canaan is being in Christ, and that's where our inheritance is.

Everything that is linked with the Lord Jesus and our state and condition, position rather, in him is ours. All that is linked with him is our inheritance. We read these three statements.

We are quickened together with him. You know, that word quickened is a very interesting word. Generally speaking, very quickly we interpret it to mean he's given us life.

Really, brethren, just stop and think of the word. Look it up if you wish, and you will find that it's a far better meaning than that. The idea is it's life that's living.

It's alive. See, it's not only I have life, but I'm living, and that's what's in that word. We are made to live together with Christ.

Our brethren, we're praying for that tonight. I trust, oh God, I trust that my heart and yours tonight in this weekend will be touched to realize the life that I have is the life of Christ. That's what should be seen.

That's what should be known for my own personal enjoyment, but for my testimony for the name of the one who has asked me to bear his name before the world. Together with him. The second statement in that same chapter, it says we are raised up together.

Now the word for raised up there is a strong word. It's looking back to chapter 1 where it says God raised him up, and the idea there is not only that he brought him out of the tomb, but he brought him out in triumph. And brethren, our blessed God has raised you up in triumph.

He has given to you, he has given to me, the triumph of our life and association with the Lord Jesus. That's going to provoke a true spiritual joy, but furthermore it's that which is going to help us to be the overcomers as we move through the world, overcomers by faith. That's how we move, because we are linked with our blessed Lord.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Romans begins, but you know where it ends? You know where God takes us down that beautiful chapter after he has quickened us together with Christ? He has raised us up together with Christ, and in that chapter he says all things work together for good to them that love God. That's triumph.

So whether it be in the time of trial, or whether it be in our daily experience, which seems so mundane at times, brethren, we are a triumphant people. God wants us to see that together with him. That's the food that he has put into our hand, that's the old corn of the land.

You don't go around with your head in your hands and your chin down to your knees, and it isn't a false Pentecostal sort of a thing that God has in mind, it's reality. He hath raised us up together with Christ. And then he adds the third one, and he says, and he hath seated us together with him in the heavenlies.

And beloved, we are seated together with the Lord Jesus already. Marvelous, beautiful truth, the Ephesian epistle, as he unfolds to us the bread which is convenient for us according to our need in experience and in knowledge, and as well in triumph. But the third one I want to mention to you is in Leviticus, and I will close very quickly in the, I think you said maybe five minutes after, didn't you? Thank you.

So I have ten minutes. In Leviticus chapter 7 we have the priest's food. What kind of food did the priest see? It's a very beautiful study.

I love to look at the priesthood in the time of Aaron. But let me just notice with you that the three very distinct things God said to the priests, this is what you are to eat in my presence, in the holy place, and you take some home and you eat the same thing there. That's nice, brethren.

What I feed upon when I am together with my beloved brethren in the meetings God wants me to feed on when I get home. Same food. The first thing is the meal offering, and of course the meal offering is the character of the person of Jesus.

Beautiful. The Lord Jesus Christ. Handle the meal offering, brother, will you? Take the fine flour in your hand.

It's such a beautiful thing. The idea of being fine flour is a deliberate word in this sense. There's not one particle of what was in the sea that's not in that flour.

Never put through a sieve. No need for it, of course. Our blessed Lord required no sieve.

Peter dead, says the Lord, but not him. And therefore we're looking, we're looking at the vital character and nature of the man who is pleasing God. And when we take those little broken cakes in the meal offering, I cannot linger with you only to mention to you beloved, that's what you are to feed on in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

We're looking at the fine flour mingled with oil and anointed with oil, Matthew 4, Spirit of God like a dove, the dove that left the ark never found a resting place until Matthew 4, and it rested on him. Ah, the beauty of that teaching! God is filling our little cup with food convenient for us as it teaches to us the food that priests require. Because, brother, if you and I are not feeding upon the meal offering, we're just going to say the same things we said last week on Sunday morning.

You've got to do some feeding, because on Lord's Day morning when we come together to remember him, you're taking a handful of broken cookies of the meal offering, and he wants you to present that to the altar as a sweet savor unto God. But there's a second thing that the priest is to eat, and that's the parts of the peace offering. The priest has a part, the offerer has a part, and God has a part.

Do you know what part the priest has? He's got the best of all. He has the breast, the breast of the offering, the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, brethren, we need to feed upon that love.

Let it saturate our hearts. Just sit there and let him love you. The love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me emphasize that for you as you read through John's Gospel. In John's Gospel, the Lord Jesus says, I love the Father. Five times he loves the Father.

Then he speaks of the Father's love for him. He says, My Father loveth me because, and it's that because that I want to reach my heart in these meetings. I want to be able to give to my Father a reason to love me more.

I know, brethren, he loves me fully. I know he loves you with all his heart. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

But all that because love, that's the extra, to give to him a reason to be able to with joy accept that which you and I would seek to give to him, he loves me because. And so we're looking at the breast of the peace offering. But then he takes apart of the sin offering.

The purpose, of course, of that is to remind the priest that he could fall too. He's eating someone else's sin offering. And, brethren, we do need ministry that will preserve us.

The psalmist said, keep my foot from slipping. God preserve all our feet, brethren, and we will require ministry of God's Word that will preserve us. Let me just say this in passing, scolding is not correcting.

If there's any scolding, it's the father that does it with the parent at home. You do that with your family. You don't scold God's people.

You have no right to. If the father wants to do the scolding, that's his work. The word for correction, and the word that is in view here that I want to notice with you concerning the sin offering, and the part of the sin offering that they did eat was the shoulder.

Interesting. That is, the dependable part of that animal that made his steps sure, dependable. That's what the feet are.

That corrects. See, that corrects in the sin offering. There's the individual who was guilty, but correction, and we need teaching that corrects.

What correction is doing is taking my feet from the path they shouldn't be in and putting them in the right path. That's correcting. It's the same thing when you're driving a car.

You don't sit there and scold the car. You correct, and that's exactly what teaching is doing, and we need that type of teaching, and I hope the Lord will touch my heart and graciously help me. I want my hands to be put back in the right place, a refocus of heart and mind and teaching, and that is found very explicitly in the Philippian Epistle.

In the Philippian Epistle, there's a problem. Two sisters have been on the outs. The Philippian Epistle is written for two reasons.

One of the reasons was the Apostle had received a gift from the assembly, and he's thanking them for it, but the real corrective purpose of the Epistle is to help those two sisters and a brother. The brother had been tripped up by probably listening to both sides of these two women, whatever their problem was. You know what the remedy is? In every chapter he touches two things, the mind and Christ.

Brethren, that's the remedy. That's corrective ministry, touching the mind, refocusing our thinking, getting a fresh look at divine things, and occupied with the person of the Lord Jesus. In chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4, he touches the mind and he touches the person of the Lord Jesus, and I am sure when that Epistle was read, those two dear sisters had their mouths were quiet.

They had nothing more to say. They likely maybe shed a few tears, I hope, and embraced one another and thanked God for his word that corrected. That's the food convenient for us.

In Genesis chapter 43, Joseph has his brothers before him, and I love that passage. There's Joseph's brethren and he seats them all in front of him at his table, and this is what it says, he sent to them portions from his table. For the first time in their life, they were eating the food that was the diet of Joseph.

They'd never eaten like this before. They always ate what was their custom to eat back home, but now they're eating food from the table of Joseph. Beloved brethren, I ask myself, what does my Lord feed on? He wants me to have a portion of that.

What does he feed on? I remember one thing he said one time when he is writing about it, he says, my meat, in John chapter 4, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. That's what he feeds on. That's what he wants me to feed on.

I hope indeed that we will receive ministry that will give us to see what the Lord Jesus is feeding on as he is doing the will of his Father. Beautiful. That he should feed.

Now he says, Smith, I want you to feed on the same thing. Last of all, let me notice with you Daniel. In the book of Daniel, we have a young man, and he denied food, and then he desired food.

He denied food that belonged to the gods of the world. And sometimes we address ourselves to younger believers to try and help them to make sure that you don't allow into the discipline of your life materials from whatever source they may come from, be it the Internet or your television or your reading, whatever you're required to read even, to make sure that you do not put into your diet the world's diet. Daniel said no.

But let me notice what he said about what he desired to eat. What he really desired was food. He said, really vegetarian, it was called Pulse.

He became a vegetarian, he didn't eat any meat. But it's food of conviction. He's only a young man, 17 or 18 years of age, and he's a boy with conviction.

We need food that creates convictions, that'll help us to say no, and that's what I want. And he went in for it. God used it, and the great result of it was the purposes of God for Daniel in his life were fulfilled because he took a stand as to the food that he was eating.

Brethren, it's right at the foundation for us, and I hope this weekend, as we have spoken and our beloved brethren have mentioned in prayer, we sang it from the beginning. Feed me with food convenient for me, my circumstances, Lord, the inheritance is mine. Brethren, he's gonna fill our baskets.

May the Lord help us to take it home and feed upon it for his name's sake.