That Nothing Be Lost - Glenn Conjurske

That Nothing Be Lost

Abstract of a Sermon Preached on June 8, 1997

by Glenn Conjurske

“And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” John 6:11-12.

I have often remarked that we ought to carefully observe which things the Holy Ghost has chosen to include in the Scriptures. Many small and apparently trivial things in the lives of the saints are included—-such as Peter putting on his coat—-where a thousand greater things are passed over in complete silence. The Bible tells us what kind of clothes John the Baptist wore, and tells us almost nothing else about him, aside from a few glimpses of his public ministry. But every one of those apparently trivial things which are scattered up and down the Holy Book are of some significance. They are included in the Bible for a reason, and it may be nearly an education in itself merely to observe which things the Holy Ghost has chosen to tell us.

But many overlook the apparently insignificant things in the Bible, and thus they miss half their spiritual education. I should perhaps observe that—-as always—-there is an error on the other side also. Some insignificant matters are included in the Bible merely because they are necessary for the setting. This is especially true in parables. It is a good rule not to make a parable go on all fours, but some folks will make it go on all fifteens, and so spin out of their own brains a dozen things which the Spirit of God never intended. The same is true in interpreting types. Take that which is obvious, and be done with it. If you look for more, you will find only your own vagaries, and attribute those to God.

The same is true in historical accounts. Some things are simply necessary for the setting, and that is all they are there for. To look for some deep spiritual significance in them betrays a lack of common sense, and common sense is by all means one of the most important qualifications in the interpretation of Scripture. It will not conduct us to the spiritual depths, but it will keep us from a thousand errors and vagaries.

But on. One of those apparently insignificant things in the Bible is this command of the Lord to gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost. I have heard sermons on the feeding of the five thousand, but never a word on this. Yet it is full of meat and marrow, both practical and doctrinal.

To take the practical first, I observe that in times of plenty men tend to become careless. They become wasteful. It was in a time of great plenty that the Lord spoke these words. He had just multiplied a few loaves and fishes, so that all this great multitude had eaten and were filled, and there were fragments lying all around. In such a time of plenty, men are generally wasteful, and therefore the Lord tells them to gather up the fragments, “that nothing be lost.”

Now the fact is, we live in a time of great plenty. The poorest of us generally have a great plenty. And the result of this time of great plenty is that America has become a nation of great wasters. Some years ago I heard or read—-don’t remember which—-the account of a man from India who visited and toured America. At the end of his tour, when he was about to leave America and return to India, someone asked him what had impressed him most about America. He said, “The size of the garbage cans.” A missionary in Peru once told me, “We don’t throw away anything here, not even a scrap of paper.” But the great plenty which prevails in America has created a whole nation of great wasters. Garbage cans are no more sufficient, and most businesses must have large dumpsters for their garbage, and a good deal of what they throw away is not garbage at all. I built my little cabin on wheels almost entirely out of what others had thrown away. What to do with the garbage has become a national problem. “Landfills” are everywhere, and filling up too fast for comfort. There is too much garbage, and not enough land to fill. Some years ago when a certain city’s landfill was filled, some bright heads determined to just keep dumping there, and build a mountain of the trash. The inhabitants of the place promptly dubbed it “Mount Trashmore,” and those who do much travelling will find these Mount Trashmores scattered all around this country. America is a nation of wasters. Modern plenty and modern wastefulness have given a new meaning to the word “disposable.” This used to mean “capable of being disposed of,” (where “disposed of” usually meant no more than used or applied), but now “disposable” means “made to be thrown away,” and this applies not only to the containers in which the goods are sold, but to the goods themselves. No one thinks any more of applying the word “disposable” to the containers. It is taken for granted that they are to be thrown away. All of this reflects the great plenty and the great wastefulness of modern America.

Yet the Son of God was not a waster. “Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.” And how telling is this word “nothing.” “That nothing be lost.” What was it which the Lord thus concerned himself about? Fragments of bread! How many Americans—-and Christians too—-throw them away every day. Years ago when I was preaching in Colorado, there was one woman in the church who was very appreciative of my ministry, and I generally went to her house every Monday morning, and we spent the time in spiritual conversation. She had a little daughter five years old, and one Monday morning this little girl got up rather late and began to eat her breakfast. She had a piece of toast, and after nibbling at it a little, she decided she didn’t want it, and began to feed it to the dog. I—-aiming to awaken something in her conscience about this—-said to her, “What would you do if you didn’t have a dog?” She looked up as cute and innocent as could be, smiled, and said, “Then I wouldn’t be feeding him!” My question was entirely lost upon her young innocence. I had been aiming deeper. My concern was, “What would you do with the bread, if you didn’t have a dog?” The plain fact is, she would have thrown it away. It is altogether too convenient for wasters to have a dog or cat or chickens to feed, so that they can practically throw their food away, and yet save their conscience. The plain fact is, if they didn’t have the dog, the food would go to the garbage can, and parents who allow their children to give the food they don’t want to the animals may be saving the food, but they are spoiling the child. They are ruining the character of the child—-teaching him that his own whims are more important than it is to deal faithfully with God’s provisions—-teaching him that the only important consideration is whether he wants it or likes it. And really, the child, or the man, who has such a viewpoint has very little character. The time will come when he has no dog or chickens to feed, and then he will manifest his character by throwing the food he doesn’t want in the garbage can.

I have always been poor, even in the midst of American plenty, and I have always been scandalized to see food wasted. When I was a student at Bible school I was scandalized to see my fellow students throw their food in the garbage can. I have always been some sort of a reformer or a crusader, and I didn’t always have the good grace to keep my mouth shut. Sometimes I would walk up to one of those fellow students, who was scraping his food into the garbage can, and say, “Did you thank God for that food?” A little startled, he would say, “Well….., ah……….., um………, yes.” And I would say, “Then why are you throwing it away?”

Well, you know, there is a reason why he was throwing it away. His parents never taught him any better. They let him give it to the dog or the chickens—-mighty expensive chicken feed, by the way—-when he was little, and so he never learned any better. He was deficient in character. Remember, now, it was just fragments of bread of which the Lord said, “Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.” Here was the eternal Son of God, who had just fed a multitude with five barley loaves, and who could speak a word and make another universe, careful about fragments of bread, careful that nothing be lost. And we his impotent creatures, who could not create one crumb of bread if our heaven depended on it, throw them away. Do you not suppose that God is scandalized by this? I know an old man who used to refer to oat meal as “pig food.” He once told me that when he was a boy his mother required him to eat his oat meal. She made him sit at the table until it was gone. But she was too soft, and she would go in the other room while he sat at the table, and he would get up and throw the oat meal away—-and she, kind soul, would just “look the other way.” But I wouldn’t count on God doing so. I am not so sure that God will be content always to look the other way when we waste what he has given us. I would rather expect the contrary.

The plain fact is, our character is manifested in such things. The Lord says, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” (Luke 16:10). “That which is least.” Fragments of bread. The Lord is careful about them, and we have no right to be careless. Parents ought to teach their children to be careful even of fragments of bread. It ought to be understood that what goes on your plate goes into your mouth, not to the garbage can or the cat. No child should be allowed to throw away his food. Now if his Daddy throws away his food also—-if he eats the toast and throws away the crust—-you will have to leave it to God to discipline him. And you need not be surprised if God does so. When God looks down and sees one of his children eating his bread and throwing away the crust, he may say, I will bring that man to the place where he will be happy to have a crust of bread.

But you don’t believe God will do that. Perhaps in Africa, but not in America. Americans take their plenty for granted. That is precisely why they are so wasteful. They do not believe it possible for the present affluence to cease. We may throw away our food and our goods today, for there is always more coming tomorrow. Perhaps so. I am no prophet, and I cannot pretend to say that the present plenty will not last till the day of judgement. Nevertheless, God certainly regards our character. You want to be used of God to do great things? Then be faithful in that which is least. Don’t waste your fragments of bread, and God may give you greater things. The Son of God was careful of fragments of bread, even in a time of great plenty, “that nothing be lost,” and you have no right to be otherwise.

But I turn from the practical to the doctrinal. Understand, these fragments of bread had just been created by the miraculous power of God. The Son of God had brought them into being, to meet the need of the hour. But there would be another need tomorrow, and Christ would not work another miracle then. If there had been another miracle coming tomorrow, it would have been needless to gather up the fragments today. Though he wrought a notable miracle today to meet their pressing need, he would not work another tomorrow, but casts them upon their own care and resources.

It may be none of our business to understand why God does so. It may be enough to know that he does. Though the children of God are frequently troubled with pressing needs, and though God is always able to work miracles to meet those needs, yet it is seldom that he will do so. He is very sparing of miracles. This is the plain doctrine of the Bible. Even in the midst of the great profusion of miracles which characterized the earthly ministry of the Son of God, he gave men to understand that they need not expect a miracle for every need. Such an expectation could only serve to make men careless. It would teach them to disregard natural means and to be careless of personal responsibilities. But in this scripture, within a few minutes after he had wrought this notable miracle, the Lord teaches them to be careful about mere fragments of bread. He casts them upon their own care and their own resources for their needs for tomorrow, for there would be no miracle then.

I believe in miracles. I do not believe the age of miracles is past, nor that they were confined to the apostolic age. No one who has read church history as I have could believe that. I am not foolish enough to deny plain facts in order to sustain bad doctrine. I believe in the promises of God.

I believe that God answers prayer. And though I believe in the rarity of miracles, I surely believe in their existence. Miracles are seldom necessary, but where we have a pressing need, and a plain promise of God, and faith in that promise, and where nothing but a miracle will do, God surely works miracles. But understand, if God works a miracle to heal your body today, he casts you upon your own care and resources to maintain your health tomorrow. If by a miracle God raises Lazarus from the dead today, yet Lazarus must eat and drink, and avoid disease and danger, if he would live tomorrow. We know that the same villains who sought the death of Christ took counsel to put Lazarus to death also. What was Lazarus to do? Avoid them, by all means. Suppose now that he had gone to their council and said, “The Lord has chosen that I should live, and has proved it by performing a miracle to raise me from the dead. Now who are you to resist the will of the Lord? You have no power to put me to death, for the Lord can work miracles to keep me alive, as well as to raise me from the dead.” All this may be technically true, yet it would have been the short road back to the grave for Lazarus.

The Bible almost everywhere casts us upon our own resources to meet our own necessities. “When they persecute you in one city, flee to another.” Paul did not expect any miracles in such cases. When they shut up the city to take him, he was let down in a basket over the wall. When the Jews swore to kill him, he sent a young man to tell the governor. When God teaches us to be “wise as serpents,” he casts us precisely upon our own care and resources for our own well-being, when he has sent us forth as sheep among the wolves. He thus teaches us not to depend upon miracles. To depend upon miracles is not faith, but fanaticism, and it will not make men faithful, but careless and foolish. Men will waste and squander their goods and their health, and then cry to God for a miracle when their ways have brought them into desperate straits. This is neither faith nor faithfulness.

And the fact is, the church today is generally unfit to receive miracles. Miracles put the stamp of divine approval upon men as scarcely anything else can do, and I believe that one of the reasons why miracles are rare in any age is that there are so few men upon whom God is willing to put such a seal of approval. The miracles in apostolic times served to authenticate the gospel of Christ, the apostles, and the true church of God. But where is the church of God today? Miracles today would generally be used to authenticate our own sect or our own sectarian peculiarities, but where is the sect which God is willing thus to authenticate? There are Baptists enough who claim to be the only true churches, and I read not long ago in a Baptist periodical, “None but the Baptists are even trying to do the will of God.” Now for God to give miracles to such men would serve only to increase their sectarian pride and bigotry.

The Lord has something to say about the scarcity of miracles in Luke 4:25-27. “But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land, but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.” The fact is, though God was willing to put his stamp of approval upon Elijah and Elisha, he had a controversy with Israel. He cleansed but one leper, and he not an Israelite. He sustained but one widow, and she a Sidonian.

But I wish to turn again to the practical side. Though I believe there is deep doctrinal significance in the Lord’s command to gather up the fragments that nothing be lost, yet the practical lesson lies nearer the surface. We have no right or business to waste what we have today, for there will not necessarily be any new supply coming tomorrow. Whether my health, my time, or my goods, I have a solemn responsibility to the God who gave them to me to conserve and use them to the best advantage. The charge against the unjust steward was that he wasted his master’s goods. This is a great sin. In reality it is tempting God, and we have no right to expect God to restore to us tomorrow what we have wasted today. We have no right to waste even fragments of bread.

But understand, I am not unreasonable, and I do not believe God is. If it is really intolerable, God will hardly expect us to eat it. Though my wife has usually baked our bread, when we first moved to Madison we bought some bread and meat at the store, and I took sandwiches to work for my lunch. But when I began to eat them, I found that this was not bread at all, but only bread dough. It really was intolerable. I ate the meat and threw the bread away—-though at that time we were so poor we probably could not have bought another loaf. It may be excusable to throw away what is really intolerable. But it is certainly only excusable once—-and you may be sure I never bought that brand of bread again. If I had continued to buy that same bread, and continued to throw it away, there would have been no excuse for that. The man who eats toast every day, or once a week, and throws away the crust every time, has no excuse at all. He only manifests his lack of character. He only proves that his whims and lusts are more important to him than it is to do right. If the crust is really intolerable and inedible, he has no right to eat toast, for every time he determines to eat toast, he purposes to waste part of it. This is as much sin as it would have been for the disciples to leave the fragments where they lay, instead of gathering them up.

The book of Proverbs says, “The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is precious.” (Prov. 12:27). That is, it is precious to himself, and he takes good care of it. The worthless man wastes it. He loves to hunt or fish, and take the game, for he loves the sport, but he wastes it after he has it. To the good man, his substance is precious. He will not waste it, and neither will he ruin it or wear it out by the careless use of it. I never cease to marvel at how fast some folks can wear out and ruin a book. Give some people a new Bible or hymn book, and in a few months’ time it will be a disgrace to look at. Through mere carelessness, they will wear out a book more in a few months’ time than it ought to be worn in twenty years. What is the difference between this and wasting our goods by throwing them away? We certainly cannot please God after this fashion. God is careful of mere fragments of bread. He commands us to be careful about them, and we have no right to be otherwise.

Glenn Conjurske