ALL THE PEOPLE AT WORK FOR JESUS I HAVE – Charles Spurgeon
ALL THE PEOPLE AT WORK FOR JESUS I HAVE
Introduction
Taken from two successive chapters of the book of Joshua, I present the following thoughts. The first passage is from Joshua 7:3, where the spies who were sent to Ai returned to Joshua and said to him, “Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai.” This policy led to a disastrous defeat. The second passage is from Joshua 8:1, where the Lord commands a new attack: “The Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be dismayed: take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.” The two texts can be condensed into: first, the advice of the spies to employ only part of the people in the assault on Ai, and second, the command of God to take every fighting man to war.
Brethren, like Israel, we are called to war, and we have a greater than Joshua at our head, in whose name we conquer! There is an inheritance that has been held by the adversary, and in the name of God, we must drive him out. We may experience difficulties similar to those faced by the tribes of Israel, and I believe their history (written for our learning) will prove to be exceedingly interesting to us if we consider it. We will face the same defeats if we fall into the same sins and will win similar victories if we are obedient to the commands God gave, which are not unlike those addressed to Israel of old.
As in a mirror, we see ourselves in the twelve tribes, from the first day until now. In the texts before us, there is a lesson for us that may God, by His grace, enable us to learn. I pray the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds while we read in the book of the wars of the Lord and, as soldiers of Christ, learn from the warriors of old time.
I. THE ADVICE OF THE SPIES WHICH LED TO A SHAMEFUL DEFEAT
Let us consider the advice of the spies which led to such a shameful defeat. Here, we deal with the error of assuming that only part of the Church can perform the work of the whole—that a large proportion may be idle—and that the rest will be enough to fight the Lord’s battles. This error, though not necessarily held theoretically by any of us, is practically seen abroad in our Churches and needs to be addressed and corrected.
In Joshua’s day, this error arose because, due to their sins, God was displeased with Israel. The chapter begins by telling us that the Lord God was angry because the children of Israel had committed a trespass in the accursed thing. Because of the sin of Achan, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people. This was the true reason for their defeat at Ai. But from that secret cause came a more visible source of defeat: because God was displeased, He left them to their own devices, and they adopted a fatal policy.
When God is in the midst of a Church, He guides its counsels and directs the hearts of men to go about His work in the wisest manner. Is it not an old saying that “Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad”? Is not this a shadow of the fact that men become foolish when they have broken the commands of God? Thus, they are chastened for one fault by being allowed to fall into another. Even upon the Lord’s own people, a measure of judicial blindness may come.
We can be certain that when it becomes doctrine that only special classes of people are expected to work in the Church, there is some great wrong in the background! It is that Church which most of all has fallen into this fallacy and drawn the sharpest line between the clergy and the laymen. In such a Church, the deadliest errors have found a home! We, too, may take it for granted that when we begin to leave Christian work to be performed by a minister or a paid missionary, there is an Achan in the camp with an accursed thing hidden in his tent.
There must be some great wrong, be it worldliness, lukewarmness, or love of ease, that has caused us to fall into such folly. It is not God’s will that this should be so, and He has evidently left us to ourselves when this method is adopted. When the Holy Spirit rests upon the Church, this folly is avoided and, in fact, never even thought of!
God grant that the Churches represented here today may walk in sound doctrine and possess spirituality of life, being full of the Divine Presence and never imagining that only a portion of their members should go out to war while the rest sit still. We cannot leave the battles of our Lord to be fought by mercenary troops! The whole army, made willing in the day of the Lord’s power, must go forth under the command of our Divine Joshua to meet the foe!
Furthermore, this evil policy arose out of presumption engendered by past success. Just a little while ago, Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and on the seventh day, the city walls fell to the ground. Perhaps they began to think, “Did the walls fall when we marched around? O Israel, you are a great nation! And did they fall with nothing but a shout? Then the rest of our enemies shall flee before us like chaff before the wind! Why, should we carry all our baggage to Ai? What need to march so many men? Two or three thousand will be enough to take that small city!”
Brethren, many dangers surround success! The full sail needs much ballast lest the boat is swamped. When the Church sees many converts as the fruit of her labor, there is a temptation to think the work has been easily done and needs no further effort. We must avoid the presumption that success means no need for continued work.
We must believe in the need for earnest work for God and put forth all our strength. We must learn that our great Leader means for us to employ all the strength of every man in our ranks for His glorious cause.
II. THE COMMAND THAT ALL ISRAEL SHOULD GO FORTH TO THE FIGHT
Secondly, we must recognize the command that all Israel should go forth to the fight. God said, “Take all the men of war with you.” Brothers and Sisters, we must have all our Church members go to war. I know this is our theory, but in practice, we do not always accomplish it. The baggage of our army is too heavy, and the camp followers are too many. We need to turn out the drones and increase the number of true working bees.
We must be deeply impressed with the evil brought upon idle Christians by their idleness, and the harm they cause to the rest of the Church. If a Christian lives an idle life, he becomes morbid with introspection, quarrelsome, or dishonors Christ through sin. David fell with Bathsheba when he tarried at home while the kings went to battle. Indolence is temptation!
Some of our Churches suffer from unsound teaching, but they also suffer from a lack of work. The moss is growing upon them, the rust is eating them up, and the gold is losing its brightness for lack of use. We must be too charitable to indulge in such fatal charity when we have Church members who are excellent in many ways but cumberers of the ground. These members bear no fruit, and they are subject to the Lord’s judgment. Let us be impressed with the mischief idlers cause to others, for one sickly sheep infects the flock!
May God help us to mobilize every member of the Church for active service and remind us of our high calling to serve Him in unity and strength. Let us labor together, as one, to fulfill the Lord’s command!
One Member Who Does Nothing Lowers the Tone of the Whole Body!
The indolence of prominent professors is not merely the waste of their own labor, but of that of scores of others. Leading persons are looked upon as a sort of model for the rest, and if someone is content merely to fill his place in the pew and subscribe so much, or rather so little, per annum, then others will say, “We shall be up to the standard if we do the same.” Every man in an army who is not efficient and really serviceable is on the enemy’s side. What can the enemy desire more than for the opposite army to be encumbered with the sick? What could be better news for them than to hear that the hospitals are crowded, for then they know that a large number of men are occupied with the sick and detained from the fight? The enemy claps his hands and cries, “These sick men are worth many a gun to us.” Oh, useless professor! You cannot serve the devil better than by joining a Church and doing nothing!
I want my Brothers to feel all this most keenly. I doubt not they do feel it, but I want to feel it more vividly myself. When we get into a truly sensitive condition—when we, who are ministers, are alive to this point—we shall stir up the people of God, all of them, and we shall see greater things than these! Moreover, Brothers, we must hunt out the sin which leads to the evil against which we contend, and I believe it is the lack of vital godliness in many cases. I do not know how my friend, Mr. Newman Hall, finds it—I suppose he does not suffer much from it. But I know pastors who say they have very respectable members, but nothing can be done with them.
In some cases, Prayer Meetings are given up because the rich members come home from the city and dine at the hour which is usually selected for the Prayer Meeting, and so they cannot attend. Dining is a most important business—it would seem to be more important than praying! Businessmen are so fatigued! It is a fact that we find carpenters, bricklayers, and other workmen delighting in our Prayer Meetings. Is this because they do not work as hard as your city men? In some quarters, it is found impossible to carry on Church work effectively because the very persons who should be workers and officers are resolved that their liberal giving and Sunday worship shall be the whole of their assistance to the cause of Christ. As to laying themselves out for holy work, they look in your face with wonder—as if they thought you had lost your senses when you propose any very arduous service to them!
Now, this shirking of prayer and service is to be exposed and denounced in all faithfulness! It is often the sin that grows out of too much ease, self-indulgence, and luxurious living. It seems as if the more God gives a man, the less return he is inclined to offer. Whatever the secret sin of the Church may be, let us try to discover it and, then, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, endeavor to educate all our members to work for the Lord. There must be a continual insistence upon the personal obligations of Christians.
We who are known as Baptists are of the opinion that Baptism, as the personal act of a Believer, is a good lesson to our people as to their personal responsibilities. But I will not, for a moment, suppose that my Paedobaptist Brethren are less earnest in enforcing the same Truth of God. You, also, believe firmly in the personality of true religion. You teach the need for personal faith and consecration. Then we are agreed upon the great benefit of urging upon each man the duty of personal work for Christ. “What are you doing for Christ?” is a question to be asked of all!
We must make every Believer feel that he is not his own, but bought with a price—that no amount of giving can compensate for personal labor for his Lord—that even he who, by sickness and infirmity, cannot actually work should render his contribution to the general effort by continual prayer. No one must appear before the Lord empty, but either by active or passive service must prove his gratitude to God! And then, while each is responsible, neglect by one is injurious to the common service of the whole. I saw a cart standing this morning on the roadside with one wheel chained—there was no fear of its moving with that one wheel fast. Sometimes one chained wheel in a Church will hinder all. We are all parts of a great machine, and the stopping of one part does not simply mean the one stoppage, but the hindering of the whole organization! If a piece of bone in the body becomes dead, it is not simply useless, but it becomes the focus of mischief and the cause of pain. It begins to decay, disease forms, and serious evil comes from it to the entire frame.
A dead professor who is content to enjoy the doctrines without fulfilling the precepts of the Gospel becomes a source of serious danger in the Church of Jesus Christ—and we know it, indeed, to be so! My Brothers, dwell upon the importance of the enterprise in which we are engaged and so act as to make others feel its importance. Why take all that trouble about furbishing up a doubtful point of divinity, which is of no earthly use when it is furbished up? Why all that Sunday morning spent in discussing far-fetched points of belief? What is this but sheer trifling? Some are greatly given to what they call “thinking”—“dreaming” is the truer word! Better by half, plunge the old Gospel sword at once into men’s hearts and slay their sins in the name of the Lord, than stand quibbling about certain characters on the hilt of the weapon!
One sermon about nothing will do more harm than all your speculations will do good! Men come to forget that the Gospel is meant to save souls and look upon it as a mass of interesting subjects. Certain sermons are said to be “intellectual treats”—I think that is what I have heard them called. Our religion does not mean that! It means fighting with sin! It is, if anything at all, one of real, downright practical work for Jesus Christ, and we must show that it is so. Our teaching nothing in elaborate language will make our people think that practical godliness is a small matter and that intellect is better than piety! We must make men feel that to save a soul is better than to possess all knowledge, or even to gain the whole world!
While others are making a new gospel with a little “g,” let us labor to save souls by the old one. May God enable us to preach in awful earnest, and by this means, God the Holy Spirit quickening us, we shall get all our people to march forward to the battle of their God! Above all, let us pray for more Divine Grace. We must never read the story of old times and say, “What a splendid denomination ours has been! Can we not rest on our laurels?” Impossible! You must win fresh ones! Napoleon used to say, “Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest must maintain me.” And it is so with Christians. You must advance! You must outdo the exploits of the past and eclipse the deeds of your sires, or you will show yourselves unworthy of them.
The battle thickens, and how shall we meet the growing demands upon us except by seeking for sevenfold Grace? Our spiritual stamina needs to be increased! If we were to collect a number of men all wheezing and coughing and only fit for the Consumption Hospital, and set them to work upon a railway, we might commend them for their diligence, but they would never accomplish much. On the other hand, gather together a company of burly, brawny men, and they will say, “Who are you, O strong mountain?” and, before it can answer, it will be turned to a plain! See how they use the pick and the shovel! Vital strength is their motive force. O God, strengthen us! We are willing, some of us, but our strokes are feeble! Grant us, we beseech You, more of Your Holy Spirit, and we shall accomplish great things! Strength delights in work, feebleness is afraid of it. Spiritual strength will produce universal spiritual service for the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have done when I have looked into the future for a moment. If it should ever come to pass that the minister and all his people went forth to the war for King Jesus, what would happen? I seem to be in Paradise when I think of it! If all, without exception, who name the name of Jesus, went earnestly into His vineyard, what life there would be and what unity in all the Churches! There would be no longer a name to live, but real living! There would be no divisions if all were, alike, zealous for the Glory of the common Master! You would not hear of Church meetings which are scenes of disturbance and Churches where pastors are unhappy—such things would be regarded as extinct animals of the ages gone by!
Then we should hear no complaints of our not being strong enough to do the work of our great cities and scattered hamlets. The most feeble Church, if everyone did his share, would be strong enough for its position. Moreover, there would be no lack of funds for any holy enterprise. Ah, if God’s treasure received from all as it receives from some, we should almost have to tell the people to stay their hands because we should scarcely know how to use all their gifts! But the wealth which belongs to Christ and the service kept back from Him canker in men’s coffers—and the amount of which the Lord is robbed is almost beyond computation! The Missionary Societies, very well sustained on the whole, do not receive more than a tenth or a hundredth part of what God’s people ought to give to so wonderful a work!
If the merchant prince who contributes what is thought to be a handsome sum to Christ, only gave in the same proportion as many a pious girl who has to earn her living at so many stitches for a penny—and if all gave as the few are giving—we should soon supply all nations with missionaries! And if this were the case, what enterprises would be undertaken? What overflowing of Christian zeal should we perceive? We should be sending out messengers to discover every region which remained unconquered, and we should at once be up and doing it, too! Then the mission field would be strong with men of most noble fitness.
I do not know what you think about it, but it seems strange to me that we, here in this little island, are so closely packed together, and yet a few scores or hundreds only go into the mission field. “Some of us have large spheres here and we cannot be expected to go, can we?” I answer, the ablest preacher that ever lived is not too good for missionary work! The most useful man at home is probably the fittest for the foreign field. Let us each question his own heart as to the claims of the heathen. For my own part, I dare not sleep till I have honestly considered whether I ought to go or not. We tell our young men in the College that they must prove that they have not to go, or else their duty is clear. If some of the men of Israel had said to Joshua, “We cannot go to Ai,” Joshua would have replied, “You must prove that you cannot go, or you may not be excused.” All other things being equal, ministers should take it for granted that it is their duty to invade new territory unless they can prove to the contrary.
When I think of the number of young men who are well-educated and can read a capital paper at the Mechanics’ Institution and profess to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, it grieves me to see their talents dedicated so largely to meaner ends! Oh, bleeding Lamb, it does seem strange that we have a greater passion for literature than for You! We care more for fleeting than for enduring things! France is needing the Gospel. See what one beloved Brother in Paris has been able to do—are there none who can do the same for other cities in that neighboring country? Here and there a good man can say, “I have made a competency”—why not live and employ it where you can lay it out personally for the spread of the Redeemer’s Kingdom? Such a thing is being done by a few—it is not, therefore, impossible—and you who follow the grand example shall have your reward. Look what Pastor Harms did in the village of Hermansburg, how he stirred up all the people until they gave themselves and their property to the Lord and built a ship for the mission and went forth in it to Africa—company after company—to evangelize!
Should it not be the ambition of a minister to feel that if he stays at home, he will at least, by the Holy Spirit’s help, produce missionaries by the scores in the village where he labors! I know the day comes that he will be thought most happy who suffered and labored most for Christ. When this great fight is over, he who is most scarred will be most honored, and he who dwelt at home at ease will think himself but sparsely blessed because he did not do his share in the war. Let us be all at work for Christ and His redeemed Church! All at work, at all times and in all ways for Christ! It is for that I plead—and then we will take another motto and say—The world for Christ and Christ for every nation under Heaven! This will be accomplished when the Spirit has awakened us all. O blessed Spirit, convert the Church and it will convert the world!