Okay, turn to Mark Chapter 8.
Mark Chapter 8, and we're going to look at the first nine verses.
In our text, we're going to look at the first four verses right
now. And our Lord makes a very dangerous situation or issue
known to his disciples, and so that they became aware that there
was an issue and a concern when the Lord made it known to them. And then they understood the
true peril that these people were in, but they didn't know
how to take care of it. They didn't know how to fix or
resolve the issue. So let's look at the first four
verses in our text, Mark 8, 1 through 4. In those days, the multitude
being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples
unto him and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude,
because they have now been with me three days and have nothing
to eat. And if I send them away fasting
to their own houses, they will faint by the way, for diverse
of them came from far. And his disciples answered him,
From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in
the wilderness? So the multitude here, they're
in danger because they're far away from home. They're out in
the wilderness and they have no food to make it home without
fainting and dying or coming under harsh conditions and problems. But what we'll see this morning
is that there's a similarity in our great danger in this life
because we find ourselves in a wilderness that is not a good
host for us, if you will, and the journey is too great for
us. We're too far away, but as Christ
provides for this people, so we see him providing for his
people. bring them through the wilderness,
and what he does is he fills us with grace so that we feed
upon him, upon his mercy, his provision, what he has done for
us, and so that through his provision we are brought safely home. And our title is Food for the
Journey. food for the journey. Let's begin
looking at this wilderness first. Christ in our text desires to
feed this multitude of people that have been with them now
for three days. And he says there, and when he
makes this known to the disciples, they respond in verse four saying,
from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in
the wilderness? Well, they rightly observed that
they were in the wilderness. And a wilderness can be quite
a harsh environment. It can be harsh and it can be
hard to survive. And not everyone who gets lost
in the wilderness is able to survive. There are people that
die out in wildernesses. And if you've grown up in nothing
but a city, I grew up in a city and I didn't go out hunting and
spending hours and days out in the woods. I didn't even camp.
I didn't do those things. And if you're like me and you
grew up in a city and all your food was gotten from a grocery
store and that's all you knew, and you knew nice cleaned eggs
and nice clean things if that's all you've ever known well suddenly
being lost in the wilderness could be a very dangerous and
a scary place to be because while there may be an abundance of
food and water there in the wilderness if you know what you're looking
for if you're if you're not from there if that's not what you're
used to then you could definitely die in such a place. It makes me think of Bear Grylls,
who's an ex-UK Special Forces guy. He's made lots of shows
and lots of money just doing expeditions out there in very
unhospitable places and taking people out on these little expeditions
and showing them how they could survive. in situations and it's
pretty entertaining to watch that but this world that we live
in is a spiritual wilderness. It's a spiritual wilderness and
it's void of spiritual wisdom and knowledge and so that we
all are ignorant. We're like that person who doesn't
know what's there in the wilderness and we're ignorant of the spiritual
wisdom and knowledge of God, even though He's right there.
As Paul said to the heathens, he said, you know, we ought to
feel our way through because God's right there, but we don't
find Him. And God's right there, but we
have no knowledge of Him because He's sustaining, He's created
and sustains all things. But just as this body requires
food and water so We need life, we need provision spiritually,
and only Christ can provide that. God provides that through Christ
that we perish, not eternally. Because that's what we're going
to do if the Lord doesn't intervene and save us. So naturally, we
don't understand our spiritual needs, and that's because we
all come forth naturally spiritually dead, that is dead in trespasses
and sins. We've got nothing, no goodness
to hang our hope on that God will receive us and bring us
into his kingdom and accept us to dwell among our God. So this fact means that we don't
worship God, we don't know how to worship him, and we don't
know how to approach him or please him or find acceptance with God. Now naturally when we hear of
religious things, of godly things, when we're in that state of deadness
and darkness, all we think of are things that are very carnal
and very fleshly interpretations about religion. We just hear
with the natural ear and we then interpret what we're hearing
in a very carnal, sensual, natural way. Things that we're familiar
with and things that we know. It's like that woman at the well
in John 4, verse 13. When Christ said unto her, Whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst again. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternal
life. And what was her reply? Her reply
was, Sir, give me this water that I won't thirst again, Neither
come hither to draw." Her interpretation was, oh, I'm going to get some
water that I don't grow thirsty and I don't even have to come
back to this well to draw up any more water because I'll have
that provision with me all the time. Or it's like those Jews
in John 6.51 when Christ said, I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever, and the bread that I will give is my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." And then
we read, the Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, how
can this man give us his flesh to eat? It was just a very carnal
thing. That's how we are naturally. That's how all people are in
religion. They're looking for something
to do because they think that worshiping God, that being a
Christian means that I'm out doing other religious things.
I'm doing enough good things to outweigh the bad things so
that God is indebted to me and now God will owe me something
because I've earned it. I've earned his favor for me,
for my goodness. And that's how it is when you're
dead spiritually. Everything's just carnal, everything
is natural and sensual. And all of us have a serious
problem. We all have a very serious problem.
We've all offended and sinned against God, who is our creator,
he's our judge, and he's holy. And he does not dwell in the
midst of sin. He can't look upon sin because
he hates it. He hates sin, and sin must be
punished. And so, our problem is that we
don't even know that he's angry, we don't know what angers him,
and we don't know how to please him. We don't know how to fix
this problem that we're in, that we're in because we ourselves
are sinners and enmity against God. In John 4.24 it says that
God is the Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth. And except we are given life
spiritually, we're going to continue, if we're religious, we're going
to continue to do religious things all the while offending God and
angering Him more and more, thinking that we're doing something to
please Him. So unless the Spirit gives us
life, we don't even understand. We're like Israel in Psalm 78
verse 40 that says, How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness
and grieve Him in the desert. and to all those that would come
before God and seek to please Him and call upon the name of
the Lord, were warned of Israel. In Psalm 95, verses 8-11, it
says, Harden not your heart as in the provocation and as in
the day of temptation in the wilderness. Right? Where they
had this attitude of, well, what's God done for me lately? We're
out here. We've forsaken our homes and
we're out here doing this and that. What's God done for me?
And they had a hard heart and they were always expecting God
to do something for them just when they felt like it. And they
didn't want to suffer or go through any pain or any sorrows. They just expected God's just
going to be at their beck and call. And it says, When your
fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work, forty years
long was I grieved with this generation and said, It is a
people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways,
unto whom I swear my wrath, that they should not enter into my
rest." So this wilderness, it's not a place where the foolish,
the spiritually dead survive. They won't survive. They're not
going to come to that day of eternal mourn in gladness and
in joy in the warmth of the face of Christ. They're going to be
proved and they're going to come up short and they're going to
perish in the way. There's nothing that we have
to help us through this spiritual wilderness. So spiritually, we're
all, we're all And we all have a spiritual problem. We're all
dead. And the problem is that man actually
thinks he's wise in the things of God. He thinks he's clever
and he thinks he's figured it out and he thinks he knows how
to manipulate God and just turn a tough situation around when
he feels like God's angry with him. He just makes a few adjustments
and fixes the situation and gets things straight again with God. If he's left to himself, he's
dead. He's a dead man. He's worthy
of hell. And he's like Esau. If God doesn't intervene, we're
all like Esau, who are left to our own devices, left to ourselves
to know God and to know how to worship him. And while we may
prosper in this world's eyes, in this world's ways, We're bankrupt
in the world to come. We have nothing in the world
to come. Nothing that will speak well for us and we'll stand before
God in our own works and find that we are ashamed for our nakedness. And man is very religious. If you notice, everyone claims
Most everyone claims to believe in Christ, especially around
here, or some form of a religion, or something that they do, but
it all comes down to some fleshly confidence, some carnal confidence
that they're looking to for their hope to stand before God. It's
like today's supermarket, where religion is just like the supermarkets
today. You can go to your favorite supermarket
and you can pick up any prepackaged fully processed meal and you
can take that and eat it and it's just stuffed with all the
religious fortified vitamins of man and you think you're getting
something good and all it is is a bunch of garbage and if
you eat that stuff continually you'll get sick and die and perish
from that stuff because you're not Religion doesn't teach you
anything that pleases God and that gains you acceptance with
God. It's just your works and that angers God because our works
are filthy, our hands are filthy, and it doesn't please God. It
doesn't bring forth that which we think it is. As Isaiah said
in Isaiah 64 verses 6 and 7, but we are all as an unclean
thing and our righteousness is. Get that, our righteousnesses,
not our bad works, but our righteous works, our good works, that we
say, this is the best of the best of the best that I have,
Lord. Look at this. He says, our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away. And there's none that calleth
upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee,
and thou hast hid thy face from us. and has consumed us because
of our iniquities. So the problem for man is that
he's looking to his own flesh to provide for himself, to bring
forth food and to bring forth drink for himself to sustain
himself. But we can't. We can't just eat
the flesh of our own arm. We need food from without ourselves. We need that which only God can
provide and which he provides in Christ. Man naturally is depending
on himself for wisdom, he's depending on himself for righteousness.
You see man depending on himself for sanctification. He turns
to the law to supplement the righteousness of Christ because
it's not enough. He needs to be doing something
too, otherwise it's not genuine. He needs to be adding and proving
that he is a Christian, otherwise it's not genuine as far as he's
concerned. And he's looking to himself for redemption, which
is another way of saying justification, because we are justified before
God because of the blood redemption, the blood purchase that Christ
made to make us his own so that we are fit, justified to say
we're his. We're just to say that because
he purchased us with his own blood. But man looks to his own
works to purchase, to redeem himself back from all the wicked
things he did. He tries to make up for it in
his own works, which is another way of saying he's redeemed his
name. He's redeemed himself so that
now he's in good favor and good standing with the people after
he did some horrible thing. So that's what man looks to. But the scriptures reveal that
God himself has provided the salvation in full. So that as
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1.30, he says, but of him, of God are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. Christ has made all those things
to the believer so that all our hope, all our religious standing
is completely outside of us and our works and what we do and
what we think and what we feel. And it's all in Christ. And we're
satisfied because God is satisfied with him. So when we look at
ourselves, we say, I don't like what I see. But when we look
at Christ, we say, there's all my hope and my confidence. And
I'm staying right there, trusting him because that's who God provided
to save me and to put away my sin and my iniquity. And this
work of salvation is what Christ came to do, not because we are
righteous. Don't you hear people talk like
that? They're trying to get themselves to a state of being good, because
they think God saves good people, that God's saving righteous people.
But Christ said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. Because if you really are good,
then what need do you have of being saved? You don't need a
savior. You're good if you saved yourself. And so that's the foolishness
of man. He's thinking, he's looking and
thinking, I've got to get myself good and straighten this stuff
out so that God will save me. Well then he's not saving you.
You just saved yourself. But he's looking for those that are
bad and evil and wicked. and fools, and the worthless
ones that have nothing to boast in, no claim upon God because
of something they did, they're sinners. They're sinners in need
of His grace. There's no mixing of the two. We don't get ourselves good enough
to be saved. He saves sinners, not good enough
and not good people, but those that are weak and weary in their
well-doing, whose righteousness, when they look at their righteous
work, says, I'm a complete failure. I've failed. I've come up short,
and I can't do this work. And when they look at their pile
of good works, they're ashamed. And they say, that's not good
enough. That's not good enough before God. And until the Lord
gives them light, their prayer is, Lord have mercy upon me,
be patient with me and I'll repay it all. And yet they tremble
because they know that if God were to give them a thousand
years, or even ten thousand years to get it right, not only would
they not be able to do it, but they'd actually be worse than
if they just lived sixty years. And so we don't want to live
1,000 or 10,000 years to get it right, because we'd only be
more wicked and more crooked and more clever in our hypocrisies
and lies. So Christ came to those who have
no confidence in the flesh. That's who Paul, the Apostle
Paul, who we look up to, that's who he associated with and fellowshiped
with. He wrote that in Philippians.
He said, those who have no confidence in the flesh. That's what the
Lord has gathered. Those people who see, I'm nothing,
Lord. I can't save myself. Thanks be
to God who provided His salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ, because
I have nothing in this flesh. So that's very good news to you
and I who are sinners and can't get it together and can't muster
up any good works and therefore have no confidence in the flesh.
That's who Christ shed his blood for, and draws to himself sweetly
with love and kindness and forgiveness and forbearance for your sins,
because he put them all away." So Christ is full of compassion
here. and he's out seeking what the
Father seeks. As he said in John 6.23, the
true worshipers shall worship the Father, that's gotta be John
4.23, the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. So Christ seeks out sinners and
He gives them spiritual life and He delights to cleanse them
with His precious blood. He delights to do that. He delights
to cleanse you sinners, to make you clean and make you whole
and make you the very righteousness of God as His very own epistle
testifying that God has done this work, not me myself. This
is God's work in spite of me and He's delivered me from my
sins. What he's doing is he's giving us food for the journey. He's giving us food for the journey
so that we might be brought to himself lest we faint in the
way and perish in the way before we come home. So in Matthew 15.30, which is the parallel passage
to this passage in Mark 8, but in Matthew 15, go there and just
look at this. because Matthew sums it up really
well what's going on here. So right before he's going to
feed them, this is what was going on. We saw it last week when
we looked at the one man who was given hearing and whose tongue
was loose so that he could speak the things of God. But Matthew
15, verse 30 says, great multitudes came unto him,
having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and
many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed
them, insomuch that the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb
to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame to walk and the blind
to see, and they glorified the God of Israel. And then it says
there, this parallel passage says in verse 32, Then Jesus
called his disciples unto him and said, I have compassion on
the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have
nothing to eat, and I will not send them away fasting lest they
faint in the way. So the Lord's been healing many,
and now he's going to show them compassion in giving them carnal
food for their flesh to get home. But now turn over to Isaiah 35
because I want you to see what Isaiah is writing of this time.
He's writing of this time here in the wilderness where Christ
is. Isaiah 35, go to verse 1. Isaiah 35 1 the wilderness and
the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert shall
rejoice and blossom as the rose right this is the wilderness
he's writing up just where the Lord is now in the wilderness
with these people that is healing it shall blossom abundantly and
rejoice even with joy and singing go to verse 3 Strengthen ye the
weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of
a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come
with vengeance. Even God with a recompense, He
will come and save you. He's going to deliver you from
all your enemies. The enemies of Satan, the enemies
of sin, the enemies of death. He's delivering you from that.
He's going to do that work. And look, verse 5. Notice the
comparison. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then
shall the lame man leap as in heart, and the tongue of the
dumb sing. For in the wilderness shall waters
break out, and streams in the desert." And so Isaiah is comparing
the healing of the people to water gushing out in the wilderness
and going forth and watering all the land. He's making that
comparison. He's showing that this healing
of the people is like a refreshing, a time of refreshing in which
the Lord sends forth that gospel and he heals his people and he
gives them joy and comfort and gladness even though they're
there in the wilderness and they're rejoicing and praising God because
they've never seen anything like this, that God would just pour
forth all this water into a wilderness place like this, and that's what
he's doing. He's sending forth that living
water into your hearts. And it says, verse 7, the parched
ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water,
and the habitation of dragons, where each lay shall be grass
with reeds and rushes. And so the Lord is showing these
people, He's showing them much mercy and compassion In that
first he cleansed them of their infirmities and their sicknesses,
which is like living water which flows there in the desert. And now he's going to feed them
even with earthly food, which again we see his goodness and
his compassion in this. Don't think for a moment that
it's a mixed multitude. There's a mixed multitude of
people there. Not every one of them. Ultimately,
it's for the blessing of the elect. But even in the elect
being fed and hearing what they've heard, the voice of Christ, and
being healed, there were some there that didn't believe, that
were just there to be healed or see their loved ones healed
and have their bellies filled. It's definitely a mixed multitude. The reason why I make that point
is because it's good for us to see the kindness and the generosity
and the compassion of the Lord. You look at the Pharisees, and
these were exactors. These were people that were excessive
in their study maybe not the study, but they were excessive
in their understanding of the meaning of the word, and they
had an airtight system of theology, they had a pristine system of
theology, and we need to be careful ourselves, because you can see
how in that pursuit for this pristine understanding of doctrine,
as we interpret it, And as we look at it, we can get so closed
off and provide excuses for ourselves why we're being hard to people
that we don't know. I don't know if they're a child
of God, so I'm not going to help them or think about them or do
anything for them. If I knew they were a child of
God, well, I'm obligated then to show them compassion. But
here Christ is showing them all compassion. He's showing them
all mercy. And we're to be like that. I always think now of Mark
2, what we saw Mark 2 at the very end there, when the disciples
are going through the field on the Sabbath day, and they pick
the heads of grain, and they had to rub them in their hands
to get the chaff off and then they were eating. So they're
working on the Sabbath day for their food and that was forbidden
in the law. And so the Pharisees came and
they wanted the Lord to rebuke them for doing that. And the
Lord brings up David and Abithar, remember? And you look at that
story and if you love the law, if you're a law monger and you
love the law and you think that's my sanctification if not my justification,
If you're looking at that law for your righteousness in some
way, you go to that story, you see that, and you go, oh man,
you've got a problem. Because you go to that story, and you
see David, and David's justifying why he can have bread. He's hungry,
and he needs bread. And so he's justifying, well,
the bread is... You know, it's a day old. You've already replaced
it with the fresh bread. So it is technically a day old.
And Abiathar's like, well, if the people haven't slept with
any women in the last few days, then I guess it's okay. The flesh
is justifying it. And that's what law mongers want
to do. They want to justify it. They're looking for some reason,
for an excuse. But Christ says it was not lawful. Period. The law doesn't make
justifications and excuses. He said it just like it is. Christ
said it wasn't lawful for them to have that bread. And yet they
lived. And yet they had the bread. Why?
Because they needed mercy. They needed mercy. And so remember
that, brethren. Mercy. Remember mercy. We don't
want to be like exactors and Pharisees that are always judging
and have such an airtight system that there's just hatred that's
worked out and despising people who are sinners and weak and
stumbling and need mercy. Remember that. We need mercy.
Still to this day we need mercy. So show mercy. And there are,
as you meet people, you'll see there's people that will separate
from very brethren over some issue because the scriptures
seem to say, well, this is how it's done, but somebody says,
well, they see other scriptures, and they think, well, I believe
God. I'm not talking about the gospel, but I'm saying there's
these things where people are splitting over things that we
ought not to split over, and remember mercy. Just remember
mercy is the point there. Christ said in Matthew 5, Matthew
5.43-48, He said, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto
you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven. For he maketh the sun to rise
on the evil and on the good. and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love
you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the
same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect. And we see that the apostles,
they heard that and they lived that. They taught that as well.
Paul said, being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we suffer
it. Being defamed, we entreat. So there's mercy there because
We are interested in the Lord calling out his people. And there
are people, a lot of people that are saved that people have said,
don't bother, don't waste your time with them. They'll never
hear you. They'll never believe what you believe. They won't
hear you. Well, that's what the Lord says all the time. He brings
out unworthy sinners who had no interest in Him. He doesn't
save people because they're good. He saves sinners and draws them
out to the praise and the glory of His name. That is what we're
hoping for, but we don't want to be callous and hard and indifferent
to the needs of what appears to be common people. You don't
know, right? You look at that jailer, you
know, if Paul and Silas who were thrown in jail were just bitter
and angry, why am I here? I've been mistreated. Why am
I here? The jailer would have never heard
them singing praise to their God. And when the bars fell in
and they didn't run, the jailer, he then heard and they were kind
to him. And that man, that jailer and
his family, was joined with Lydia and her household and they were
the beginning, the seed of the church at Philippi. It was the
jailer and Lydia that became that body of brethren there in
Philippi. Remember that, to be merciful.
Right? The grace of God, Paul wrote
to Titus, the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared
to all men. And then he wrote to Timothy,
similarly, for there is one God and one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. Right? There's only one way of
salvation, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due
time. So it'll become clear who Christ
died for, who he shed his blood for, they'll be testified in
that they will hear and they shall come out of their works
of darkness and they shall believe. And so he said to Titus again,
Paul did, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify us unto himself. a peculiar people, zealous
of good works. And so the Lord does have a chosen
people. That's clear in the scriptures.
And Christ laid down his life for those people, those his brethren,
his people. And they are a peculiar people.
And like Abraham, who is the father of faith, they are made
strangers and pilgrims in this world. This world becomes a wilderness.
to us and we go off there and the only way we're going to survive
is through the compassion and the grace and the goodness of
the Lord Jesus Christ who feeds us. You think about it, we are
weak and we are a pitiful and a peculiar bunch of people whom
the Lord blesses and we have a treasure, a blessed precious
treasure, it's the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Him and
what He's done for us, and we carry that treasure forth in
these bodies, these earthen vessels that are but dust and brittle
clay pots that fall apart and are very weak, but it pleases
the Lord so that we look at our brethren before us and it says,
these all before us. died in faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded
of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth, For they that say such things declare
plainly that they seek a country." And that's sweet. That's a sweet
testimony. We're looking for a country,
not made with hands, these carnal hands, but which God has made
and which Christ has prepared through his own, the shedding
of his blood. So remember that in compassion. Christ fed this mixed multitude
because what we see in that is that Christ never sends away
anyone who looks to Him for bread. He provides all who look to Him. So look to Him and be kind and
gentle because the Lord's calling out His tender and weak and brittle
sheep and He's revealing the Gospel to them through you who's
an epistle of the Lord Jesus Christ in the hope that we have
in him." All right now, our last point. Let's look at verse four
and five. And his disciples answered him,
from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in
the wilderness? And he asked them, how many loaves
have ye? And they said, seven. Now, we
see right here the mercy and the gentleness of Christ for
these brethren. He's very gentle, right? Because it was probably
only a few weeks earlier, maybe a couple months earlier, that
they saw him feed 5,000 out of a little bit of bread and two
fishes. And now they're saying, how is
anybody going to be fed here out in the wilderness. And so
we see there, we see this because we're the same way. Don't think
that we're any different. We're no better. We're very dull
and hard of hearing. We forget the Lord shows us great
mercy. We rejoice in it and we're wowed
and amazed by it. And then the very next trial
that comes, we just fall apart and we become a puddle and think
this is it. Finally, the hammer of justice is coming down. and
it's all over for me now. We get that way, and yet the
Lord is very tender to us, and very gentle and gracious, and
He doesn't destroy us. Think about that. Go to Psalm
78. Notice who these men sound like in Psalm 78. This is Israel
here talking, and they sound like these dead Israelites who
had no spiritual life in them when they say this. Psalm 78,
and look at verse 19. And here's what Israel, who God
was angry with in the wilderness, this is what they said. Yea,
they spake against God and they said, can God furnish a table
in the wilderness? Can God do that for his people?
This is still them now in verse 20. Behold, he smote the rock
that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed, which
we saw in Isaiah 35.6, which pictured what? God healing his
people. They saw miracles done by the
Lord. They saw these things when it
was described as healing of the multitude, the blind, the deaf,
the mute, and the lame. And yet they ask, can he give
bread also? Can he provide flesh for his
people? And so therefore, it says there
in Psalm 78 verse 21, therefore the Lord heard this. He heard
this that was spoken there under Moses' rule. Under Moses' rule
there, and he was angry, he was wroth, so a fire was kindled
against Jacob. And anger also came up against
Israel because they believed not in God and trusted not in
his salvation. Now, here's Christ, and these
men say the same things. Who's going to feed these people
in the wilderness with enough bread to feed everyone that's
here? Can God do that? Can God feed all these people
in the wilderness? But does the Lord destroy them?
No, the Lord has mercy upon them, because we're not under the law
now, we're under grace in Christ. or under him. So Christ doesn't
destroy them. Christ was our peace between
God and man. Now God is not angry with us. for our unbelief and our weakness
and our frailty. It says in Romans 3.25, whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past through the forbearance of God. So, in grace, because
Christ would put away their sins completely and entirely, rather
than destroying them for their hard hearts, we read in verse
6, And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground. And
he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks and break, and gave
to his disciples to set before them. And they did set them before
the people. And they had a few small fishes,
and he blessed and commanded to set them also before them.
So they did eat, and were filled, and they took up of the broken
meat that was left, seven baskets. And they that had eaten were
about four thousand, and he sent them away. So our Savior has
promised us eternal life. He's made provision for us, and
his promise is that by his own blood he entered in once into
the holy place, having obtained eternal life. eternal redemption
for us. And if we had to cross through
this wilderness under the law and the rule of Moses, like Israel
back there recorded in Psalm 78 and 95, we would have perished
in a way. And the promise we would have
heard is unto them whom God swore in His wrath that they should
not enter into my rest. If we had to go through this
wilderness, By Moses' law, we perish as well, and we'd be under
the wrath of God. But for Christ's sake, this is
the promise we hear in Hebrews 4, 14 through 16, seeing then
that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Don't
be moved away. This is the hope that we have,
is his blood is put away our sin. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched, with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Because Christ said, I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. So having this life that we have
in Christ, we continually feed upon him as we're going through
the wilderness. We keep looking to him for his provision, his
mercy, because he keeps us forever and he provides for us lest we
faint in the way. We're not going to fall away.
We're going to be kept by the sustenance, by the food and provision
of Christ. And so the disciples, they didn't
know what to do for the people. at first, but now we know. We know now what it is. We know
that Christ is able to provide for his people in the wilderness.
So when you see those that are weary and weak, you preach Christ. You declare what Christ has done
for you and delivering you and providing for you, because he
is the propitiation for his people. And that's how weary sinners
make it through this wilderness. That's how we're going to be
brought home. is by the provision, the blood, the cleansing of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So, praise God for that. Let's
pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your mercy and compassion toward us. That you didn't destroy
us in anger, when we doubt, when we fear, when we're afraid, when
we question and say things foolishly and ignorantly. Lord, we thank
you for your gentleness toward us. And Lord, because you have
saved us in mercy and in compassion, give us that heart as well, to
be merciful and compassionate, patient and gracious toward others. Lord, because we don't know who
your people are. And even so, you're kind and
merciful to the good and the bad, to the just and the unjust,
Lord. You show yourself kind. And so, Lord, help us to be like
you, Lord, following your example and being patient and kind with
others and doing good unto others. Lord, that your name would be
glorified among the heathen, that they would see and glorify
your name for the work that you've done in your people in the day
when Christ comes to the earth and returns to bless his people
and to bring them home to himself. Lord, keep us, keep providing
for this body here. Feed us, grow us in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, our
confidence is in you, not our works. Keep us looking to Christ
and we pray that you would pour out your Spirit upon us abundantly.
That you would call out your people from this part of the
country. Draw them out of the works of
darkness into the light of your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray for
your people here that are suffering and have trials or or procedures
coming up, Lord, that you would protect your people, keep them
safe, provide for us, Lord. And we pray especially for Steve
as he has this procedure coming up that you would keep him healthy
and well and have no infection and that the doctors would see
what they need to see and be able to adjust his treatment
appropriately. And Lord, we pray for the brethren
in need of more work that you would pour out your spirit in
bringing in work, Lord, that they may have to provide for
their needs. And Lord, we think of Kathy and
Darvin. We pray, Lord, that you would
bless them, comfort them, strengthen Kathy's heart in looking to Christ,
that you would appear sweetly to her, that she would lay her
head down and sleep in sweet rest, trusting in you, and that
she would awake to see your beautiful face, and that she would awake
to be clothed in your righteousness. We pray this for our other brethren
with six spouses, Lord, like Jo Crabtree, that you would strengthen
her and strengthen both Darwin and Bruce to know how to minister
to their wives and to be loving and kind and helpful in every
way they can. And bring out your people, give
them a heart in the congregations to love them as well and to provide
for them as they are able, Lord, and even to go above and beyond
what they think is possible. We pray this in our blessed Lord's
name, Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. Our closing hymn is going to
be 354, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. If you can stand, we'll
sing that. 354. What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and grief to bear What a privilege to carry Everything
to God in prayer Oh, what peace we often forfeit What needless pain we bear, All
because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer. Heav'nly trials and temptations,
Is there trouble anywhere? be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden,
Comforted with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our rest,
Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise forsake
thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In His arms He'll take and shield
thee. Thou wilt find a solace there.