The Lord Hath Need

The Lord Hath Need

"After He had said these things, He was going on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here.”If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' you shall say, 'The Lord has need of it.'" So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They said, "The Lord has need of it." They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road." (Luke 19:28-36)

When Queen Victoria was a middle aged woman she took great pleasure in wandering incognito throughout the streets of the village of Windsor. On one such occasion, during a shower, she stepped into a peasant’s cottage and asked the loan of an umbrella. The peasant woman looked at the Queen doubtfully. At last she said, “I have two umbrellas, one an old shabby one, and one my Sunday umbrella, I shall give you the shabby one, for I never expect to see it again.” The next day a messenger wearing the royal livery brought back the shabby umbrella with a handsome present in money.

The peasant woman was appalled. “O, sir, who is it who barrowed my umbrella?”

“Madam it was your Queen.”

“O my Queen, would to God I had known you, I would so gladly given her my best.”

Her wailings were all in vain; she never again had an opportunity to do a personal favor to her Queen. When your King asks help of you, how do you respond?

When the Master sent His disciples to bring the colt upon which He would make His entry into the city of Jerusalem, the owners of the colt said, “Why loose ye the colt?” and they said, “The Lord hath need of him.” He who could say, “The cattle on a thousand hills are mine,” in infinite grace said that He that created the heavens and earth needed this humblest beast of burden. Even so He needs your life and my life, “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to Him.” As He needed this humble colt to fulfill the prophecy and to bring to pass His eternal purpose so He needs you who have been redeemed by His blood to aid in the accomplishment of His plans.

The Lord needs you. The Lord of lords, the King of kings, the Crown Prince of heaven needs you. What an amazing thought: He who has created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is therein, and who has fashioned men has need of the creature! He who upholds and governs His creation by the Word of His power, He who has the angels of heaven to do His bidding has need of me! Our government of the people, by the people and for the people confronted today with a myriad of problems says to each citizen, “I need you to help solve our mutual problems and to build a better country upon the foundation laid by our fathers.” Trade, businesses, professions lay their hands upon the Christian and says, “I need you to plan and think, to toil and accumulate, to serve and die in my employ.” Society, likewise, asserts its claim saying, “I need you with your wit, your beauty, your talents, your personality to shine in the circle of fashion.” But there comes another voice sounding clarion clear above these voices, it comes floating silently across twenty finished centuries and whispers to the soul of the Christian, “The Lord needs you.”

If while you were away on a business trip with all its duties and obligations, you received a message telling of an illness of a loved one and of her need for you, none of the other varied interest could prevent you from rushing to her bedside. Even so, amid the conflicting interest of this life you cannot escape the conviction that the Lord whom you love needs you, and that His love for you lays first claim upon your devotion and loyalty. He who left the glory of heaven, who endured the wrath of God against sin, who rose from the grave and ever lives to make intercession for you, needs you.

The Lord NEEDS you. You sincerely sang this morning, “I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord.” How truly do we need the Lord! We need His strength in the hour of temptation, His forgiveness in sin, His power in weakness, His grace in trouble. “I need thee, O I need thee, every hour I need thee.” As we confess our need for the Lord there comes echoing back from His lips these words, “I NEED thee O child of faith!” Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in Me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing.” Surely the branches need the vine. It is the source of their life. From it the branches, moment by moment, draw the tiny stream of life-giving sap that feeds and builds up their fabric of leaf, fiber and fruit. Apart from the vine the branch is nothing, it starves, shrivels, and perishes. But with out the vine the branch can bear no fruit. The vine has need of the branch. The Lord NEEDS you. The grape does not grow upon the vine, it hangs from the branch. Christ is the vine, He is the source of our supply. But He bears fruit through us. He needs us for fruit bearing as surely as we need Him for life.

No longer does Jesus stand upon the Galilean shore and preach to the people about “the sower who went forth to sow” but He preaches through His chosen vessel. He does not sit upon the Mount to teach His disciples but He would do it through you. He does not now minister to the sick and afflicted by physical hand, He does not warn the impenitent, comfort the sorrowful, and cheer the faint by words from his lips: He has need of you to do this. “Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye do it unto me.” He needs you His branches to continue to fulfill God’s purposes among men.

The Lord needs you child of weakness. For that triumphant entry into the Holy City He might of chosen a splendid chariot drawn by magnificent charges, for He who created all things was worthy of earth’s richest and best. But He chose the lowest and humblest of all, and said of that insignificant beast of burden, “The Lord hath need of him.” He did not use the colt for lack of something better, but He chose it. And so, too, “hath He chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty things; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yes, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are.” (1 Corinthians 1:26) When our Lord was on the earth He did not chose the high and mighty to go into the world to do His bidding but He chose the despised publican, the lowly fisherman. He chose men of few talents and developed them until they became men of many talents.

Today, the Lord needs you. You, who have only one talent; you, who feel all others are fitted for the Lord’s service except you. The Lord needs you. The vine needs every branch no matter how small or how big, each is needed that the branch might show forth its full beauty and symmetry, Paul in his writings tells us that Christians are members of one body of which Christ is the head. “We are the body of Christ and members in particular.” As the human body needs the performance of all its members so Christ, your Lord needs you to perform your function in His body.

The Lord needs you regardless of your inability or limitations. “Nobody seems to want me,” said the youngest girl of a large family. “I’m a cripple and in everybody’s way.” As she spoke she was passing a bookseller’s shop, and her eye fell upon the words, “The Lord hath need of him.” She carefully remembered the reference, and searched it out at home. “Jesus once needed a donkey,” she thought, “so perhaps He wants me – a cripple. I’ll ask Him.” Forty years later a lame Bible woman died, beloved by hundreds and blessed by God in her work. The Bible woman was once the crippled girl. Samson had the jawbone of an ox, David a sling, the widow a curse of oil, the little boy two loaves and five fish, but given to the Lord He used them for His honor. Perhaps you wonder what you have that He can use, what else you can do in the Lord’s work. Next Sunday morning I want in a very practical manner to show you fields that are white and ready for harvest in this portion of the Lord’s vineyard and what part you can have in reaping that harvest. But for the present I am intent on laying upon your heart this message, “The Lord needs you for the furtherance of His purpose and plans.”

One morning this past week a man came to our door asking for something to eat. While my wife was preparing it, I sat and talked with him concerning the One who said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” I did not have to tell the plan of salvation, he knew it as well as I. He sat there cold and indifferent, unmoved and un-yielded. I couldn’t understand it, as I can never understand how people can spurn the love of Jesus that passeth knowledge. Then as I thought of this and similar experiences this verse came to mind, “art thou not inexcusable, whosoever that judges, for wherein thou judges another thou condemns thyself?’ why is it that we who live in the fullness of the love of God in Christ refuse to heed the Master when He beseeches, “I have need of thee.” We have been saved from a horrible doom by a dying Savior. He has opened the door of heaven with all of its bliss unto us. If the refusal of a sinner to give up his sins is a solemn responsibility, is not the refusal of a saved one also a sad and solemn thing. How can we condemn the one who refuses the gift of salvation when we resist the Christ who saved us and who now wants to use our lives for His glory and for the salvation of others. The Lord needs you. Take your life and lay it at the feet of “Him that loved us, washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us Kings and priest unto God His Father.”

An art gallery had been closed for some repairs. A young carpenter had been called to do this work, and, as it was his first time to visit an art gallery, he was very much interested in the famous paintings that covered the walls. His interest was especially attracted to a painting by Hoffman, “The Head of Christ.” When the young carpenter would eat his dinner, he would sit near the famous painting that he might gaze into the matchless face of Christ. He continued this until his work had been completed, and it was his last day in the art gallery. He would soon leave for some other job, and did not know when he would have an opportunity to again see the picture of Christ. So when he finished his meal, he arose, and lifting his hand, pointed to the picture and said, “Jesus Christ, you can count on me.”

Can Christ count on you to make Him known in this needy world of ours?

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

First Presbyterian Church, Saint Albins W VA, October 14, 1945