Going back to John chapter six. John chapter six. The one statement
that really stands out, and I'm gonna use it as a title, it's
in verse nine. But what are they among so many? In my hands it's not enough.
In His hands is more than enough. Whatever I have is more than
enough in His hands. We use that as the title. Why
are they among so many? You know, everything that our
Lord did when He walked on this earth in the flesh, every healing
He performed, had its purpose. It was on purpose and had its
purpose. It had its spiritual teaching.
Remember, these things are written for our learning, not our entertainment,
not to satisfy curiosity, written for our learning, that we may
learn of Him, that we may know Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. When
our Lord healed the lame man back in chapter five, it was
not just for the lame man, it was for him, for his salvation. The Lord, I believe, saved that
man, not just healed his body, but I believe he saved him. But
it's for us also. You see, in the healing of this
lame man, we see the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only God
can tell a man to get up and walk. Nobody else can do that.
So we see his deity, we see his power to heal our bodies if he
will. I know that, I know in any sickness
I have, the Lord is able to heal me if he will. Now he may use
medicine, or he may just speak a word, I mean he just may heal
me. But I know that he has the power over my body, our bodies,
I know that. And then we see also in this
lame man that God's children suffer from the effects of sin.
They suffer greatly from the effects of sin. You know, this bronchitis I've
got right now, it's the effects of sin. That's what it is. I
know that. I know it's the effects of sin.
And we see in his healing, that lame man, his sovereign right
to heal and to save whom he will and whom he will pass by. It
says there were many impotent folks there and those five porches
and they were filled with these people. He walks up to one man,
heals one man and leaves. He has the right to do that.
But thank God he does show mercy. He does show mercy. He's shown
mercy to several in here this morning. The Lord shows mercy,
but it's sovereign mercy. It's sovereign mercy. And then
we see the strict demands of the law in the Pharisee's anger
at him for healing on the Sabbath day. The law is very strict. The law says, you know, if the
law says keep the Sabbath, it doesn't matter if you die or
not. The law says keep it. But now God supersedes that law. He is the law. And he says mercy
rejoices, rejoices against sacrifice. It rejoices against judgment.
Mercy does. They didn't rejoice. The law
doesn't rejoice in a rebel, but the Lord rejoices to show mercy
to rebels. He delights and says to show
mercy. And then we see his healing by this, his oneness with the
father, because he said, my father worketh too, hitherto, and I
work. We're in this together. Our Lord
does nothing of himself. He said that. I do nothing by
myself. And then we see the natural enmity in man toward God in those
Pharisees. The religious, I tell you, you
know, I've said this many times, religion without Christ is just
flat mean. It's just mean. And we see that
right here, we get an example of it. And then we come to chapter
six and we see Christ's ability to feed 5,000 with five loaves
of bread and two small, he didn't just say two fish, it's two small
ones, two small fishes. And what we see here is his ability,
his power to provide. The Lord will provide. Is that
what Abraham said? The Lord will provide. And here
he is with this multitude, 5,000 men, not counting the women and
children. There might be 10,000 there.
That's a crowd now. That's a crowd. You know, we
get concerned. We have a conference if we're
going to have enough food for, what, 75 people or 100 people
or something. We get concerned with that. There's
10,000 people standing in front of him, and he's not the least
concerned. And he's going to show something to his disciples.
He's going to teach them something, and he's going to teach us again
this morning. He's going to teach us again.
And by this miracle, here's something that we have to understand also.
These miracles were never, they were never to prove, it's not
to prove anything. The miracles were never to entertain. God never entertained sinners
on their way to hell. They're not for our curiosity.
They're for the benefit of the ones he's doing it for. But there's
a great spiritual lesson in all of them because if you'll notice,
if you'll notice here that when he feeds this 5,000 and he takes
this bread and what follows after is the sermon, the message on
him being what? The bread of life. He takes this
bread and he feeds them with it. And they follow him because
of this. And then later on, they go across
the sea. They make a real effort. And
he says, you follow me, not because you saw the miracle, but because
it fed you. You ate of the loaves and the fishes. And from there,
we get a real spiritual lesson in the rest of this chapter.
And that's what this is for. It's for this. So it says here, after these
things, I'm just going to cover just a few verses here. After
these things, Jesus went over the sea of Galilee. which is
the Sea of Tiberias. Now after the healing of this
impotent man, and after the persecution, and after the Jews had persecuted
him over breaking their Sabbath, and after him telling them about
who he is, and his equality with the Father, he left them. They turned on him, they hated
him, they hated the message, and he left them. He left the
unbelieving Jews. And this ought to be a warning.
I put, this ought to be a warning to everyone who sits under the
gospel. We have it for a time. We have
it for a time. I hope and pray that it's here
for a long time, but we have it for a time. But the reason
he left him, first of all, he had other sheep that he must
save, but he also left them because of their unbelief. It says about
Capernaum, he did not many mighty works there because of what?
Their unbelief. They didn't believe him. They
didn't believe him. And it says here in verse two,
that great multitudes followed him. And the reason they followed
him is because they saw the miracle. They didn't see him. Listen,
They didn't see Him. And what I mean by that, they
didn't see this is the Messiah. This is the Son of God. This
is the one we've been waiting for. This is the Lamb of God.
They saw the miracles. That's what they saw, the miracles.
They were drawn to Him, just like people today are drawn to
miracle workers. If you wanna feel, you know,
if I wanted to really feel this building up, just promote miracles. Just promote miracles. We'll
have miracle service today. And people will just come out
of the woodwork. They want to see miracles. But they didn't
see, they didn't see God. They didn't see the Son of God,
God in human flesh. They didn't see who he was and
who he is, still is. And things haven't changed, have
they? Things haven't changed, it's
still the same. People wanna be entertained, they wanna see,
show us a sign, show us a mirror, but they don't wanna see him. You who believe, you are interested
in him this morning. That's what you're interested
in. You're not interested in history, you're interested in
him. His story, that's what you're
interested in. His story. You want me to stand here and
preach to you Christ in all His glory, in all His offices, in
all His person. You want to hear of Him. Christ
is sheep food. He is sheep food. And the multitude, great multitudes
followed Him. They didn't see Him, but they
followed Him. They followed after what they saw more than Him.
And our Lord in verse three or four, he went up into a mountain and there he sat with his disciples. He brought his disciples with
him and he sat down and he's going, they don't know this yet,
but he's going to teach them a great lesson about the bread
of life. They're going to learn a great
lesson. We can learn a great lesson this morning. If our,
if the Lord is our teacher, if we want to be taught, if we want
to be taught. You know, you who teach, those
who are the easiest to teach, those who are teachable, are
the ones who want to learn. Isn't it? It's the ones who want
to learn. They just absorb what you're
saying. And he sat down with his disciples
And the Passover, it says, the Feast of the Jews. This is what
degenerated into it went from the Lord's Passover to a Feast
of the Jew. We've got a feast coming up this
week called the Passover, and they're going to go through the
rituals. They're going to go through the motion, but their heart's not
going to be in it. I pray, God, we never do that
here in this service. Our hearts never in this. We
just do this because it's Sunday. We're here because we're here
because the Lord's here. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
By his spirit, he's in the midst of us. And what they didn't realize
this Passover here, that the true Passover lamb has come. This is the Passover that all
those Passovers that they had been waiting for, that they'd
been keeping. All those Passovers have now
met their end. They've met their purpose in
the Lamb of God. Paul calls Him Christ, our Passover,
who sacrificed for us. Here is the true Passover. God's Passover. Now this is the
Lord's Passover. Now when Jesus, he said in verse
five and six, when he lifted up his eyes and he saw a great company come
unto him, he said unto Philip, now the lesson is class is in
session. Class is in session. He now speaks
to Philip. He picks one of them out to instruct
the whole the whole group, all of his disciples, and us, too.
When I say the whole group, I mean us, too, to teach us, too. And
he said to Philip, when, sir, where shall we buy bread that
these may eat? And you know Philip had a look
out there. I mean, it's a sea of people here, six, eight, 10,000
people, counting the women and children. And Philip looks out
there, and he's like, I don't know. When shall we buy bread that
these may eat? And this he said to prove him,
to test his faith, to try him. For he himself, the Lord himself,
he knew what he would do. He knew what he was going to
do. He knew what he was going to do before he created the heavens
and the earth. He knew this, what he was going to do this
hour before any hour was ever created. He knew what he was
going to do. God knows what he's going to do. God is a God of
order. He never does anything that he, that, you know, like
you and I do, we, we do things like, Ooh, I wouldn't expect
to do that today. You know, I get up and do something
maybe tomorrow that I hadn't even thought about today. That
doesn't happen with God. That doesn't happen with almighty
God. God's a God of order. God is a God of purpose. And
everything that he does, he knows what he's going to do. He knows
what he's going to do with you this morning. He knows. Our Lord came down from the mountain
and that great multitude that followed him was there and he
saw them in Matthew, it says he had compassion on them. He
had compassion. Our Lord is never indifferent
to need. I read to you Thursday night
that his mercy is over all his works. It's over all his works. He feeds the birds. He feeds the animals. He feeds
every human being on this earth every day. He does that. He's
not indifferent to the need of his creation. He looked up on
him and he had compassion, it says, on them. But what we're
going to see here is the trial of Philip's faith and the trial
of the faith of his disciples and the trial of our faith as
we go through this life. Christ knew what he was going
to do, it says there. But Philip didn't know that.
Philip didn't know it. And that's why the Lord said
to him, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? And Philip
answered him, 200 penny worth of bread. That may
be what they had in their bag, their money bag. That may be
what they had in their treasure. 200 penny worth of bread is not
sufficient for them. No doubt he's probably looking
at that, and he's looking at that crowd, and he's saying, this
is not enough. This is not enough. This is not
enough that every one of them may take a little, not even a
little. It's not enough to even buy a
crumb for this whole crowd. If you just gave them a crumb,
it wouldn't be enough. We don't have enough money to
buy what they need. That's right. You don't have
enough, but the Lord does. Christ is sufficient. Is he not
sufficient? Is the blood of Christ not sufficient
to put away our sins? Is his righteousness not sufficient
to cover us, to cover our nakedness? Is he not sufficient? Is his
wisdom not sufficient to teach us? He's sufficient. You're right. What you have is
not enough, but what I have is enough. God demands of me no
more than what I have in Jesus Christ. God demands no more than
what's provided in Christ. He has made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, and we need no more. I need no
more than what I have in Jesus Christ. What a lesson. I tell you what, if God saves
you, you're gonna learn that lesson. And he's teaching them
here, first of all, their weakness of faith, it really shines out.
He looks in there and he said, well, that's not enough. But
he doesn't say to the Lord, but Lord, you're enough. He doesn't
say, well, Lord, you healed that lame man. I saw you heal that
lame man. You know, this period of time,
is it after these things? You know that this is almost
a year later than when he healed the lame man, the Passover. It'll
come around again. This is nearly a year later. In that year, he healed many. He healed many diseases. He cast
out devils. They saw him do a lot of work. They saw him do a lot of miracles.
They watched it firsthand, every one of them firsthand. And then
here they come up to this and they don't even say, Lord, you
can do it. Isn't that us? How many times
has God delivered us? How many times has he taken care
of us? And the next one comes along and we say, this is not
enough. This is not enough. We get worried. Of all people on this earth,
This is true. Of all people on this earth,
we should not have one worry. Cast all your cares on him, for
he careth for you. The problem is we drag him around
until we have to cast them on him. We try to drag him everywhere
we go. Instead of casting them on him
and leaving it there. Take your burden to the Lord
and what? Leave it there. The problem is we don't want
to leave it there. We have a real problem trusting the Lord to
provide, to trust him to work it out. Whatever the situation
is, we trust him to work it out. And he shows here in Philip,
and he just uses Philip because he represents all of us, all
his disciples. He represents here the lack of
faith. He saw the Lord turn water into
wine. Why can't he take bread and make
more of it? He saw him heal the hopeless
and the impotent, and yet here he is. Here he is. 200 penny
worth of bread is not enough, he says here. Well, it just depends
on whose hands it's in. Here he is saying, now listen,
here he is standing in the presence of infinite power, of infinite power, and saying,
this is not enough. Someone said this, what is our
feebleness compared to his power? What is our emptiness compared
to His fullness? What is it? The problem is we're
looking in the bag. We're looking at the bank account
and saying, this is not enough. Oh, yes, it is. Yes, it is. And one of his disciples, there
in verse 8 and 9, one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's
brother, said unto him, Well, there's a lad here which hath
five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among
so many? You see, this is not enough,
and what are they among so many? It's like they don't even see
who's standing in front of them. It's like they completely forgot
everything that they had witnessed him doing. We do the same thing,
we do the same thing. Unbelief, let me tell you something
about unbelief. It is infectious. It's infectious. You see one
person, you see this, one person will get scared and then scare
the whole crowd. Isn't that right? One person
will get real, become a Debbie Downer and then the whole group
becomes a Debbie Downer. It's infectious. Andrew, like Philip, forgot about
what he had seen and witnessed. He forgot that. Andrew said, there's a lad here
with five loaves and two fishes, but what are these among so many? What are these? But you listen
to Psalm 78, verse 19 through 22. Yeah, they spake against God.
They said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Can God do
that? Behold, he smoked the rock that
the water gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can he give
bread also? Can God give bread also? I mean, this is the people he brought
across the Red Sea on dry ground. Took him out of Egypt. Can he give bread also? Can he
provide flesh for his people? Can God provide for his people? Therefore, the Lord heard this
and 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. It is written
in Genesis 18, 14, the Lord said this, remember when he said,
Sarah's gonna have a son? And what did Sarah do? She laughed. She laughed. And she lied about
it. And he said, why is Sarah laughing? She goes, I didn't laugh. I didn't
laugh. Oh, I tell you, may God be true
and every man a liar. I didn't laugh, but he says here,
is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed,
I'll return to thee and according to the time of life, Sarah shall
have a son. Is anything too hard for God? You know, the Lord said this,
he said that how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven, that rich man walked away and left. And he said, how
hardly shall they have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven?
Easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a
rich man to enter into heaven. Do you know what he did next?
He saved a rich man. He saved Zacchaeus, I believe
it was. He saved a rich man. What he says is impossible is possible with him. Possible with him. I tell you
what, since God saved me, and if God saved you, we should never
think anything's impossible. We should never believe anything's
impossible. And Jesus said, make the men sit down now. Make the men sit down now. There
was much grass in that place. So the men sat down, in number,
about 5,000. You know, our Lord never, He
never upbraided His disciples when they said that. He didn't
say, you don't remember all this? He didn't upbraid them. How tender He is. David calls
it so many times in the scriptures, tender mercies, tender mercies. He's so tender, He didn't point
it out. He didn't point it out at all. Like as a father, it
says in the scripture, like as a father pities his children,
so the Lord pities them that fear him. For he knoweth our
frame. He remembers our dust. He's looking
at them. He knows who they are. He knows.
But he told them to make the men sit down. Mark said they
sat down in rank by hundreds and by fifties. But they had
to sit down because here's, I think, the number one reason. God's
a God of order. He's not going to go through
here and all these people reaching out. He makes everybody sit down,
just like you're doing this morning. Before they are fed bread, as
you are fed the bread of life, you're going to sit down and
you're going to listen. You're going to sit down and
listen. Not going to be all this commotion going on. You're going
to sit down and listen. I let a man listen to a message
one time preached by Henry. And he's a religious man. I gave
him the tape. And the next morning, he came
to me. And he said, was there anybody
there? I said, yeah, about 400 people. He said, well, I couldn't hear
anybody. All I heard was him. All I heard was him. I said,
there's 400 people there. Order. Order in God's service. It's not chaotic. You know, this
is not a service to service the flesh and excite the flesh. This
is to worship God. This is to honor God. This is
to preach Christ. That's what it's for. The activities
of this flesh has to stop. Be still. and know that I am
God. You will not know God is God
until you shut up, until I shut up. And then Jesus took the bread
in verse 11 to 12, and I'm gonna wind this up. And Jesus took
the loaves, and when he had given thanks, here's why we give thanks. Our Lord gave thanks. Thank you,
Lord, for the food today. Thank you. Always give him thanks. And when he had given thanks,
he distributed to the disciples and the disciples of them that
were set down and likewise of the fishes as they would. And when they were filled, he
said to his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain
that nothing be lost. But he took those loaves and
he gave thanks to God. And then he gave it to his disciples.
And then they went out and gave it to the people. That's exactly
what's going on this morning. That's what's happening right
now. He has given me the message to give to you. And he's the
message. He is the message. He took the loaves and he blessed
them and he gave it to his disciples and he said, now you tell the
people to sit down and you give them the loaves and the fishes. That's what you do. It's amazing that God is pleased
to use men. He's pleased to use us. to deliver
such a message, to use us to feed his sheep. Peter, feed my
sheep, feed my lambs. He gave it to them, and they
gave it to the people. And I like what it says here, and it just
hit me when you all were singing. I was listening to you sing,
but my mind was also racing. But this thought hit me here.
It says, he told them to gather up the fragments that remain,
that nothing be lost. Over here, let me find it. In verse 39, and this is the
father's will that which has sent me that of all which he
had given me, I should lose nothing. I should lose nothing. They gathered
up all that bread and put it in the basket. Nothing was lost.
Our Lord loses nothing. No one will perish for whom Jesus
Christ died. I'll lose nothing. And he said,
you gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Nothing be lost. Therefore, and
I close, therefore they gathered, in verse 13, they gathered them
together, as they were told to. They filled 12 baskets with the
fragments of the five barley loaves. It doesn't say anything
about the fishes, they ate up those fishes. but they couldn't
eat up all the bread. You know why? Because Jesus Christ
is more than enough. He's more than enough. You remember back in Exodus,
they were to get a lamb, and if the family couldn't eat it
all, they'd get the next family. It was never if the lamb was
too small. or if the land was not enough,
there was always enough there. He said, you call in others to
eat it. Christ is enough. Christ is enough. Maybe that's what I ought to
title it. Christ is enough. It took up those, you know, they
started out, You know, five pennies worth here is not enough. We
don't have enough money. And what they do, they took up
12 baskets full, full of bread, of bread. And now what's going
to follow is his message on being the bread of life. He is enough. Christ is enough. All right.