Take your Bibles and turn with
me to John chapter 4. We've been going through the
book of John in our Sunday school for quite some time now. And
for the past several weeks, we've been looking at our Lord's discourse
with the Samaritan woman and looking at the different lessons
that He taught, lesson of true worship, the value of a hungry
soul, the importance of the purpose of God that took him to Samaria. I must needs, he said, go through
Samaria. And then as he winds this thing
up, his disciples come to him and try to get him to eat. in John 4.32. But he said unto them, I have
meat to eat that you know not of. Therefore said the disciples
one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? They
didn't understand what he was talking about. Jesus saith unto
them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish
the work. That's my meat." And he said,
you don't know anything at all about it. Now, the subject of
the lesson this morning is this, the meat of Christ. The meat
of Christ. And this is a word we find often
in the Scriptures, both naturally and spiritually. It talks about
meat, meat offered unto idols. Not to offend your brother over
meat. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink. And he also uses
this term in the spiritual sense. He told those who called themselves disciples
that gathered around him, they were getting offended at what
he said. And he said, except you eat my flesh and drink my
blood, you have no life in you. And they were offended at that.
They said, this is a hard say. That's why it's called meat.
It's a hard say. Who can hear it? And they turned
away and left, and He turned to the few that were there, and
He said, will you go too? And they said, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. That's the meat.
That's the meat. And He's teaching His disciples.
He is showing them the mysteries of the kingdom of God. And he
said, I have meat to eat that you know not of. And they said, did somebody bring
him some meat? Back in verse 8 of the same chapter
it says, For the disciples were gone away unto the city to buy
meat. That's where he sent them, to
go buy meat. And that word meat, I want you
to look at that for a few minutes. I'm not altogether certain that
he's talking about meat. Now, we understand what meat
is. We eat hamburger and roast beef
and fish and different kinds of meat. But I'm not altogether
sure that's what he's talking about, although it does have
a great part of the meaning of what he's talking about. But
I think as a whole, he's talking about something substantial to
eat is what he's talking about. Now, my wife and I, we left to
go up to Ashland, and when we travel any kind of a distance,
we like to pack some snacks in the car. And she says I have
a weight problem. I don't understand why she would
say that, but she decided this time that we needed to put some
fruit and some water and things like that in there to snack on.
And I ate fruit all the way to Dyersburg, and it didn't satisfy
me. I was still hungry when I got
to Dyersburg. Six hours on the road and I'm
starved to death because fruit is not substantial to satisfy
hunger. He sent his disciples into town
to buy something substantial. You know, they had bread with
them, had a little bit of bread to eat, but that's not substantial. They need something to satisfy,
something to satisfy the soul, satisfy that hunger. And I'm
telling you, you can snack all you want to, but it won't satisfy
hunger. And this is what the Lord is
teaching His disciples. And He said, what satisfied the
hunger of His soul, His meat, what satisfied the hunger of
His soul was to do what His Father sent Him to do. He said, that's
My meat. Now a while back I made reference
to Revelations chapter 6 And I told you that that white horse
in Revelation chapter 6 stood for the will of God. That horse
could be the love of God. That horse could be the holiness
of God, that white horse. That white horse could be many
things in picture, and that's what it is there. It's set up
before us as a picture. But throughout the Scriptures,
The Christ, the Son of God, the Promised One, was depicted as
He who would come and fulfill the will of God. And so that's
what I was talking about that evening, and that's why I depicted
that horse. He who went forth to conquer
was He that sat upon the will of God. It's the will of God
that brought Him. It's the will of God that carried
Him where He was. And that's what He's telling
His disciples. This is my means. I have meat that you don't know
anything about." They expected him to be starved to death when
they got back. And they had groceries. They
had meat and potatoes. They had whatever they had, whatever
the substantial meal of the East is, they had it. And he wasn't
interested. He was busy dealing with this
woman and dealing with the things of God. And he said, I have meat. I have meat. And my meat is to
do the will of Him that sent me and to finish that work. Turn with me to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. Now, in Hebrews,
the Apostle Paul is showing us the spiritual value of the priesthood
and the sacrifices. Now, I don't know where you went
to church when you were a child or how you were raised, The church
I went to totally ignored the book of Hebrews. They didn't
read it at all. I don't know of a single thing that I can
remember from my childhood that came from the book of Hebrews
or the book of Ephesians or the book of Colossians. We stayed
in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. That's pretty much where they
went. Sometimes into the book of Revelation. Sometimes we go
back to Genesis and talk about Noah and talk about the Tower
of Babel and talk about these things. but always just in a
picture, Daniel in a lion's den and these types of things. But
into the plain teaching of the New Testament epistles, they
never made reference. They never dealt with those things.
Why? Because it was the meat that
they knew not of. That's why. That's why. And here
in Hebrews, Paul is showing these Jews who went through these ceremonies
and kept these sacrifices and attended this temple, who had
a priesthood, who one of their tribes embodied the priesthood. They had all these things, but
they didn't understand their spiritual value. They had no
spiritual value to them. They didn't teach them what they
were intended to teach. And so he goes through here,
and he takes these things one at a time, And shows you the
value of them. Shows you where Christ came and
fulfilled those things. All these things that made up
what they call worship. And he's showing us that these
things were preliminary. They were pictures and types
and figures. Things he describes in chapter
9 and chapter 10 as figures for the time then present. He uses
that phrase. and pictures of things in heaven,
patterns and shadows of good things to come. And in chapter
10, he shows us that these things in and of themselves can never
satisfy God or effectively take away our sins. And he gives us
several reasons. First, because they weren't meant
to. That's not why they were given.
They were shadows. They were pictures. They were
patterns. They were never the actual thing. They were never
that thing that would take away sin. They were shadows. And then
secondly, because they were offered again and again. If something
is effectual, he said, then you wouldn't do it again next year,
would you? If my sins were put away, I wouldn't come back again
the next year with a high priest and an offering and stand outside
and wait to see the results. My sins are gone. But they weren't
effectual because they were offered again and again. And then thirdly,
because the priest died. This one who represented me,
who came before the tabernacle and entered in with the sacrifice,
who alone was allowed to go in, he died. He couldn't continue
by reason of death. That's what he says in the book
of Hebrews. He couldn't continue. There was only one priest in
all the Bible who set forth And his name was Melchizedek. Now
you read in the book of Hebrews, you'll find out Melchizedek is
Christ. He's Christ. He had neither beginning
of days nor end of time. He had an unchangeable priesthood.
And he was the only priest in all of Scripture that was both
a priest and a king. Melchizedek. You see the picture? And then fourthly, because God
took no pleasure in the blood of bulls and goats, it didn't
satisfy God. I don't care how many sheep and
lambs. Sometimes you read through the
Old Testament and you think that we're not talking about four
or five people out here in the wilderness, we're talking about
millions. Millions of people. To try to
get a picture in your mind, just try to maybe vision I don't even
know what city that be. What city? New York? Everybody
in New York bringing a lamb to be slain. Everybody in New York
bringing that heifer, that goat. That place flowed rivers of blood
through that wilderness. God never satisfied with any
of it. That's what He said. That's what He said. Look here
in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 4. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he saith..." Now, he didn't say
this in his voice. It wasn't a literal voice that
said this. What he's talking about here
is by his appearance. He appeared once in the end of
the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, to
take them away. He is talking about in that appearance,
in that necessity of that appearance. In that babe that was born and
laid in Bethlehem's manger, in His appearance, when He cometh
into the world, His coming saith to us, Sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings, verse 6, and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written
of me, to do thy will, O God. Do you see what I'm saying? And
Christ tells his disciples, here's my meat, to do the will of him
that sent me. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm in Samaria. That's
why I'm talking to this woman. That's why I'm leading you. And
that's why we're going to leave this place and go somewhere else.
That's why these people for whom this woman has went and testified
are gathered to hear me because I have meat to eat that you're
ignorant of. You don't know. You don't know. I've got an article in the bulletin
by Joe Terrell. I suggest you read it. Think
about it. Pray and ask God to give you
an understanding of what he is talking about. But when a person
has need of Christ, need, then he is satisfied with Christ.
Then he looks and he sees. Then he falls down and worships. Then he sees the meat when he
has a need. God has to give you a need. He
came and sat down with this woman and showed her her need. And
then he told her who he was. And the need was taken care of.
She was satisfied. She was satisfied. Look over
here in Ephesians chapter 1. The meat of Christ, what satisfied
the hunger of his soul was to do the will of the Father. And
you're going to find this throughout the Scriptures. You won't find
him doing what folks say that he's doing. He's making attempts
and he's making all these types of foolishness. He came to do
the will of the Father. The will of the Father. Look
here in Ephesians 1, verse 9. And this is what he makes known
to his disciples. This is what he was doing. Listen
to this. having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good
pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him. And if you care to read the Scriptures
carefully, especially this first chapter of Ephesians, you're
going to find out what God put in him. Everything. Everything. I mean everything
in his Son. And what's this mystery of God's
will? That He's gathering those things
that He put in him. He's gathering those things unto
that last day in which all things will be gathered unto Him, both
which are in heaven, earth, and under the earth. All are going
to be gathered to Him because that's where God put them. That's
where God purposed to fulfill them. He said, I came to do the
will of my Father. And in discovering Him, we discover
the will of God. Isn't that so? I didn't know
anything at all about the will of God. till I discovered Christ. I discovered God's sovereignty
in Him. I discovered election in Him,
predestination in Him, justification, righteousness, sanctification.
It's all in Him. It's all in Him. That's where
you'll discover it. In Him, He said, we have obtained
an inheritance. And in discovering him, we discover
that God the Father has first trusted Christ. Now that's what
he goes on to teach here in Ephesians chapter 1. Sink or swim. Win or lose. God put all his eggs, old Ralph
Barnard said, in one basket. Put them in Christ. There it
is. Here it is. Well, what does this
will of God commit to Christ? Well, first and foremost, the
glory of His name. That's what this whole thing
is all about. You see, it's not about God feeling sorry for sinners. This thing is about the glory
of God, the glory of His name. God purposed before the foundation
of the world to manifest His glory. That's what it's about. And he's not going to do anything
that don't manifest that glory. His name, what is his name? His
name is his reputation. We're going to have a fellow
come put some gutters on the church. And this fellow's done
some work for Winston, and I asked him about him, and he said, well,
as far as I know, he's got a good reputation. That's his name.
That's his name. Some folks have a bad name. Some folks do. God don't. God
don't. He has a glorious name. His name
is wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God, the
everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. His name is His character. Sovereign, holy, just, righteous,
merciful, kind. And God is love, but not to the
doing away of His justice. God is merciful, but not at the
expense of His righteousness. God is gracious, but not at the
expense of His holiness. God has a wonderful harmony in
His name. All of His attributes, all of
His perfections are in harmony. If you see the one, they glorify
the whole. If you see this, it glorifies
this. So if you're talking about justice,
it glorifies His mercy. If you're talking about mercy,
it glorifies His justice. Now you tell me, you hear these
people talking today, you tell me, is there a harmony in the
character of God with what they preach? There's not. They're
telling lies on God. His name, it's about His name. God is merciful. God is gracious. But God is holy and God is just. And that's the glory. That's
the glory of His name. It's the harmony of His character.
And only in Christ can God be just and justify guilty sinners. Read Romans chapter 3. God set
Him forth. He justified us freely by His
grace. Set Him forth to be a propitiation
for our sins, to declare His righteousness that God might
be just and justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Now,
ain't that right? That's why He did it. Glimpses
of His glory can be seen in the conscience. They can be seen
in creation. But only in redemption can the
full glory of God be seen. And the only place you can see
it is in His face. In His face. What's involved with this will
of God? The glory of His name. Secondly, the covenant blessings
of God. Salvation is not God reacting
to what Adam did in the garden. God didn't sit around pleased
and satisfied with everything that He did, and we're going
to get into that. We're right about that place in our midweek
studies. He didn't sit around all satisfied
and then one day go, what in the world did you do? What kind
of God do people worship? God is God. He knew Adam was
going to fall. He put him on the ground where
he couldn't fall. It's not God reacting to what
Adam did in the garden. Salvation is not an effort of
God to undo what Adam did. Salvation is not God attempting
something in desperation that the will of man prevents him
from doing. Salvation is the accomplishing
of the covenant blessings given to Christ for men. Now that's
what it is. Read Ephesians chapter 1. God
put all the blessings in him. And what's He going to do with
it? Well, He made known the mystery of His will. He made known what
He's going to do with it. He's going to gather it all together
in Christ. That's exactly what He's going to do with it. He
said, My meat is to finish the work My Father sent Me to do. To finish it. Let that ring. To finish the
work. He don't start it and then give
it to you to finish. He doesn't attempt it and wait
on you to do something with it. He said, I was sent to finish
the work and to do the will of God. Now, I'm going to tell you
something. The only way that you can stand before God with
a righteousness according to His law is to do it. You read
in the book of Galatians, Paul said, you that seek to be under
the law. He said, do you hear what the
law says? It only says blessed if you do all that it says. Not if you attempt it. Not if
you give it your best effort. If you do. Cursed is everyone
who continueth not in all things of the book of the law to do
them. That's what you have to do. Huh? Well, who do you know that kept
the law? Christ. Why? Because He said, I come
to do the will of God and to finish the work that He gave
me to do. Finished it. Kept it. Honored
it. Exalted it. And anything I do
toward that law, I diminish it. I bring it down. I bring it down. The thing to do with that law
is to see it in Christ fulfilled, finished, glorified, and fall
down before Him and rejoice in it. Now that's how you're going
to honor the law. To finish it. That means to accomplish
it, to complete it. Covenant blessings. His blood
in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 is called the blood of the everlasting
covenant. He is called in Hebrews 9, verse
15, the mediator of the new covenant. In Hebrews 7, verse 22, as a
priest like Melchizedek, he becomes the surety of a better covenant. There is an everlasting covenant,
the dying words of the man after God's own heart, the sweet psalmist
of Israel. was although my house be not
sold with God, yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure, and this is all my salvation
and all my desire." Christ came, His meat was to accomplish and
give the covenant blessings that were purposed in Him of the Father
before the foundation of the world. Paul understood that. The apostles understood this.
All of them. Peter, all of them. They all
preached this. And Paul said, Bless God who has blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Do you see that? Covenant blessings. That's why He came. That's His
meat. And I'll tell you this. The meat
of Christ, that meat that was given to Him by the Father, is
to hold and exercise all authority. Boy, I tell you, we're living
in bad times today. We are. You can't even believe
the news. I have a friend of mine that
went up on one of these tea parties up to Washington, D.C., a member
of the church up in Danville. And you don't like these things
about health care and all these things, and he went up there
to participate in it and to lobby against it. That's okay. That's
our right as citizens of this country. We can go do that. And
so he was up there, and we didn't know what was going on. And one
of the families up there wanted to know. They don't get Fox News,
so they turned on MSNBC. And they're a little biased this
direction. Fox is a little biased the other direction. But between
two of them, you get a balance. And on MSNBC, they played this
thing up like there's hardly anybody in Washington. Rex called
home and he said, let me tell you something, you can't step
on the street for the people. He said, Washington, D.C. is
as full as it's ever been with people. You can't even believe
the news. Huh? Can't even believe the news. And these times are shaky and
they cause us fear. These things are serious. I make
light of them, but they are serious things. They are things that
are going to affect us for years to come. Where is my hope? How can I have comfort in a time
like this? How could these apostles have
comfort when all Israel was against them and all the world was against
them? How could they have comfort in that time when they were under
that Tyranny of Rome. How could they find comfort under
all that? Because they knew in whose hands
the power lay. That's why. This is His meat. He said, Father, glorify Thou
me now with the glory I had with Thee before the world was. Think
about that. He said, As Thou hast given me
power over all flesh, How did he get it? God gave it to him.
God gave it to him. The mediator. All power. This
is his meat. This is his meat. And I tell
you, I just get so tired and people start talking. It's not
in the Bible. You won't find it. It's a false
statement. When folks are told to Accept
this and to let Jesus do that. Won't you let Jesus come in?
Brother, if He wants you in your heart, He'll kick the door down,
bolt, bar and jam. He'll come in. That's what He
said. That's not what I said. He said
the strong man keepeth his goods and they're at peace until one
stronger than he comes in and wrestles him down and kicks him
out. and takes the spoils that he
had. That's Christ. That's Christ. You're not going to let Jesus...
He's seated at the right hand of God. When David ascended and took
the throne, brother, nobody came at Israel. Nobody. They all laid
down there and shivered. Because God was with Israel and
they knew it. God was with David. How many
thousands fell at his sword? Read the account. David is a
picture of Christ who, after that resurrection, ascended to
the throne. He's seated at the right hand
of God, having all authority. All authority, he said, in heaven
and earth given unto me. Go ye therefore and preach. Boy,
have I got to be scared of. Scared of you? I'm not scared
of you. I'm not scared of this government. I'm not scared of
these times. I'm not really scared of Satan. Because the one whom I represent
is seated at the right hand of God with all authority. This
is His meat. This is His meat. He's God. I don't even have words
to begin to tell you how absurd it is when men talk about making
Him their Lord. He's God. He thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. Ain't that what it says? In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He's God. He's the Creator. He picked up the dust and blew
in it and made man. Paul looked at a bunch of folks
down there throwing out their accusations, and he said, Who
art thou, O man, that replies against God? Shall the thing
formed say unto him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Do we even understand when we kick and rebel against the things
of God that that's what we're doing? You're calling the Creator
into question. You're calling Him with all authority
into question? Oh, my soul. He's the Creator. He's God. And I'll tell you this,
He rules over providence. He said, the heart of the King
is in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever He wants
it to go. One of these days, we'll get
to ask Nebuchadnezzar about that. He'll tell us the truth on it. I guarantee you, what he's going
to tell you is what he told us back in Daniel. He rules. In the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, none can stay his hand or even
question what he does. He's God. He's God. And I don't care if you're the
king of Babylon or a janitor down here in Taylor School. It
doesn't make any difference. Listen to this in Isaiah, and
I'll close. In Isaiah 46.10, it says, He declares the end
from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I'll do all
My pleasure. Verse 11, Calling a ravenous bird from the east,
the man who executes My counsel from a far country, yea, I have
spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I purposed it, I
also would do it. I don't sound like poor little
Jesus boy to me. Sounds to me like somebody with
all authority. All authority. And He's the head
of the body, the church. That in all things, He might
have the preeminence. How come? Because it pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. Now that's
the meat. That's the meat. He's talking
to His disciples about meat that you know not of. if they knew
who He was. And they did eventually. Eventually
He opened their eyes that they might see who He was. And that's
why I preach. That's my hope. That's my hope.
He'll open your eyes that you see who He is. When you do, you
lay hold of Him just like that. You'll fall down His feet like
John. Your comeliness like Daniel just melt into corruption. All
your arguments, lay them aside. He'll answer every question.
For God has made him to be unto us wisdom. Wisdom. God give you those eyes and those
ears.