Now this is chapter John 6. It's
a very familiar passage where the Lord feeds this multitude
and it's recorded in every gospel. It's all four gospels recorded. It's very important. In fact, you can understand what's
taught in this account of this feeding of the multitude by what
the Lord says in the second. half of the chapter. So we will
hear these messages twice really, or maybe more than that, because
this is just so important. And we refer to each part as
we look at the other part. But the Lord here was in control
of everything. And it says, verse 1, after these
things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee which is the Sea of
Tiberias and a great multitude followed Him because they saw
His miracles which He did on them that were diseased. They
weren't believers, they were following Him because they saw
these healings that He did. And Jesus went up into a mountain
and there He sat with His disciples. He is apart from this multitude
of people. There with His true disciples.
And the Passover, a feast of the Jews was now. And it's instructive
here that all these people had come up to the feast of the Jews. It's called that because that's
what it was to them. It was their feast. You know,
people say, this is our church. No, it's the Lord's church. This
is our preacher. He's the Lord's servant. This
is our table. It's the Lord's table. The Lord's
church is his church. And these people that came up
there, they're not going to feast at the feast of the Jews. They're
going to feast at the hand of the Lord Jesus. That's where
they're going to end up feasting. That's instructive. It says,
When Jesus then lifted up His eyes and saw a great company
coming to Him, He said to Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that
these may eat? And this He said to prove Him,
to test Him. for he himself knew what he would
do. And Philip answered him, 200 penny worth of bread's not
sufficient for them, that every one of them may just have a little.
And one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to
him, there's a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two
small fishes, but what are they among so many? And Jesus said,
make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the
place, so the men sat down and numbered about 5,000. And Jesus
took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, distributed
it to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were sat
down. And likewise of the fishes, as
much as they would. And when they were filled, he
said to his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain,
that nothing be lost. And therefore gathered them together,
filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which
remained over above unto them that they had eaten. And then
those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said,
this is of a truth, that prophet that should come into the world.
Now I want to look Let's think about this trial first. We think
of this multitude as 5,000 people, but that was only the men. Another
gospel says there was also women and children. Now, if they only
had one wife, some of them had more than one, but if they only
had one wife and if they only had two children, They had many
more than that usually. But if they only had one wife
and two children, that's at least 20,000 people sitting there.
It's probably more like 30,000 or more. And you want to put
this in perspective. At maximum seating capacity,
Madison Square Gardens holds 18,200 people. So you get a visual of what we're
talking about here, the people that were there. So you're looking
at over 20,000 people who are hungry. They're irritable. And they're looking at these
disciples to feed them. You know what a crowd can turn
into if they become angry, and they can turn into a seriously
dangerous situation here. The Lord Jesus is the Son of
God. This is what John is saying.
He's God. He's one with the Father. That's what he's teaching us
here. He drew them there. He brought these people there.
He's the one that brought them there. The Father brought them
there. The Lord Jesus is one with the Father. He brought them
there. Look down at verse 44. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. That's true spiritually,
brethren. But that is also true in any
regard. These men that came there, they are there because God brought
them there. They are there on purpose. The Lord healed diseases
because He had compassion on His people. He healed diseases
knowing that this multitude is going to follow Him to this place. He taught the multitude to keep
them there. He is teaching them. He had compassion
on them. He went up on this mountain.
He saw them coming. He had compassion on them. He said they were like
a sheep without a shepherd. They're not his people, they're
not believers, but he taught them. And he kept teaching them
all day. So now it's getting evening or
afternoon and it's getting on over toward dark time. It's getting
supper time. He didn't do that by accident.
He kept them there on purpose. He wanted them to get good and
hungry. Good and hungry. This was all worked together
by the Lord on purpose. Every bit of this. But it was
only for His true disciples. Verse 5, When Jesus lifted up
His eyes and saw a great company come to Him, He said to Philip,
When shall we buy bread that they may eat? And this He said
to prove Him, to test Him. And this was not just for Philip,
this was for all His true disciples. He had a lot of disciples at
this time. There have been a lot of things happening up to this
point. He said this to prove him, to test him, for he himself
knew what he'd do. He knew everything he was doing
in this whole thing and he brought all this to pass. He put this
trial in front of him, this test in front of him. He brought him
into it, right where they were. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. Because, why is he working on
it? Because whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And that's
what he's teaching here, that's what he's doing throughout our
lives, is he's teaching us more and more of Christ in every single
thing he's working, in every single trial. Now feeding this
multitude was an impossibility for his disciples. Absolute impossibility. He knew that. He knew this was
gonna be an impossibility for him. The Lord brings His child
to face absolutely impossible things in our lives. On purpose. On purpose. But this impossible task that's
been set before the Lord's true disciples here represents far
more than the various trials that the Lord brings us to in
our lives. It represents far more than that.
It represents the impossibility of justifying ourselves from
our sins. That's an utter impossibility
for us. It represents the impossibility of making ourselves the righteousness
of God by our obedience to His law. It represents the impossibility
of us overcoming our sin nature. You know what the description
of every sin nature in every believer is? Now listen to this. Every imagination of the thoughts of
our hearts are only evil continually. We'll see that in how these true
believing sanctified saints answered the Lord. Now think about this
now. You know, I don't know that we
see this as the trial it was. I mean, this is a serious trial
they're brought into. You think if you had, we get
concerned when we have a meeting here to feed the amount of people
we have. We're talking about more people than will fit in
Madison Square Garden here. And the Lord brought them there
on purpose. This was an impossibility for them. This was a serious
trial for them. This was not something pleasant
going on. This was a sorrowful, worrisome
event that was taking place. This could turn into a riot. Now who among Adam's fallen race,
you and me, who among us can justify ourselves and overcome
our sin nature? Who among us can do that? I'll show you. Look down at verse
44. No man can. You see that? No man can. No
man can come to me. That's what the Lord is teaching
in this story. No man can come to Me. But though we can do nothing,
He can do all things. He says, except the Father which
sent Me, draw Him. And I'll raise Him up at the
last day. No man except the Father and the Son, He just said there
one. No man except the Father and
the Son can do for us Because all is impossible for us. Look at verse 63. It's the spirit
that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. Now where are we going to get
the strength in that spirit, that new spirit he's put in us,
where are we going to get strength in that spirit? The words that
I speak unto you, their spirit and their life. Now, also this
impossibility of feeding this multitude represents the impossibility
of you and I as God's servants feeding those that the Lord draws. We
can't draw them. We can't feed them. We can't
make them hear. We can't do anything without
the Lord doing and working through us. It's the impossibility of
the Lord's preachers and all His people, His disciples, the
impossibility of us doing anything for the Lord, except the Lord
work in us. Now, the lesson's this. In Matthew
19, 26, the Lord said, with men, this is impossible. What's the
this? Anything and everything. anything and everything. That's
holy, good, and just. Anything and everything. But
with God, all things are possible. Luke 1.37, with God, nothing
shall be impossible. Philippians 4.13, I can do all
things through Christ who strengtheneth me. Now, let's see how we first
fail the test. Let's see how we're going to
fail the test. Back in John 6 verse 7, the Lord's
got them all there and he sees this mighty trial and the Lord
said, how are we going to feed these folks? From where, from
whence means from which source and the word buy means market.
What market are we going to go to buy them bread? Where are
we going to get to? How are we going to do this?
And verse 7, Philip answered him, 200 penny worth of bread. He's saying nearly a year's wages
is not sufficient for them. And that would be for every one
of them just to take a little to eat. This wouldn't even fill
them up if we had over almost a year's wages. This wouldn't
be enough bread to feed these people, even a little. Well,
surely an older disciple who's been around a little longer,
he might be more apt to understand this. So, let's look to the first
apostle the Lord called, Andrew. Now, I realize they weren't called
that far apart, but you get the picture here. He goes to the
younger first, then he goes to the older. Let's see about the
older. One of his disciples, Andrew,
he was The first, if not, he was one of the first, if not
the first, the Lord called. Simon Peter's brother, he said,
there's a lad here which has five barley loaves, two small
fishes, but what are they among so many? Now I want you to think
about this. Think of what they had seen the
Lord do already. Think about it. The apostles
had experienced the power of the Lord's call themselves. They
experienced this themselves. They had seen him purge the temple,
the money changers in the temple. No man touched him. He went up
there and cleaned that place out. Nobody touched him. They saw him turn water into
wine. They watched that. They saw him
turn water into wine. They saw him call the woman at
the well and many more of the Samaritans whom they would have
nothing to do with up to that point. And he went to that place
and called a woman to faith in him. They saw this happen. They
just saw him heal an impotent man who had been lame for over
38 years and told him stand up and walk. They saw him do this. They saw him already at this
point. They had been on that stormy
sea and he came there and spoke and made the sea calm. They had
seen him do that. They saw Him cast devils out
of the gathering already. This man who was in chains and
in bondage and living in a cemetery. And when the Lord got done with
him, the devils ran out, ran into a herd of swine, went off
a cliff. When they left, that man was seized in his right mind.
They saw the Lord do that. They saw Him heal Jeraz's daughter. They saw Him heal the woman with
the issue of blood that no physician could heal. And he healed her. Now listen to this. Right before
this, you know why they're in that desert place? You know why
he brought them there? He brought them there to get
some rest. You know why? He just sent them out preaching.
And gave them power over devils to themselves to be able to cast
devils out. And when he sent them, he said,
don't take any money with you. You won't have any need of it.
And they didn't have any need of it. And they just returned from that
trip. And they just heard Him declare to the Pharisees, He's
the Son of God, one with the Father. They just heard Him declare
this. So, here's what you'd think they'd
say. How are we going to feed these
people? Lord, you know. Lord, you know. The trial comes and And it's
an impossibility and everything looks hopeless and it looks like
this is it. There's no way to get through
this. How are we going to get through this? They judged it to be impossible.
There's no way we can do this. Why? Because it was impossible
for them. Is that not us? We judge something
impossible because it is impossible for us. But after all they had witnessed,
they didn't look to the Lord only. They didn't believe Him,
with all confidence that He could do this, no problem. They told
God, here's what they actually did, listen to this now. In another
gospel, they came to Him, God, this is God, they came to Him
and said, it's getting late, these people are hungry, they're
looking at us, want food, send them into town. So they can get
something to eat, find their food themselves. They're talking
to God, telling Him what to do. That's me, brother. That's me. Is that you? That's me. After the Lord feeds this multitude,
they're going to come to Him. These people He feeds, they're
going to come to Him. He's going to feed this multitude,
20,000, 30,000 people. He's going to feed them. And
they're going to follow Him across the sea, and they're going to
come to Him. And He's going to tell them, this is the work of
God. Believe on Him whom He sent. And you know what these people
are going to say to Him? Why don't you do something to show
us you're who you say you are? Moses fed on bread in the wilderness.
This is after he feeds 30,000 people to them. They're going
to come to the Lord and say, now won't you do something to
show us you're who you say you are. That's unbelief, isn't it? That's unbelief, isn't it? And
we think, what horrid unbelief after so great a miracle. That's
exactly what we see in the Lord's true disciples. That's exactly
what we see in us. I've seen the Lord do far more
than they had seen the Lord do. I've seen the Lord go to Calvary
already. I've seen the Lord put away the sin of His people and
raise to the right hand of God. I've seen what the Lord has done
for me. I've seen all these miracles
the Lord's done and believe Him. But you let the trial come to
me. And I'll start praying, telling
the Lord what He should do. Now we may not see this as sinful. What's going on here is sinful.
But this is evil, this is unbelief, brethren. This is the imagination of the
thoughts of our sin nature. The best thing we're doing, you
sit down to read the Scriptures. Don't you just wish you could
read the Scriptures and not have your thoughts go away to something
else? I get weary. Every, every imagination of the
thoughts of our sinful flesh is only evil continually. That's what Paul meant when he
said, in me, in my flesh dwells nothing good. It's with everything
I do. I never do anything I'm willing
to do in my new man and I always do what I'm not willing to do
for my old man. I'm never perfectly good, I'm
never perfectly evil. It's constant like this. This multitude is hungry, they're
complaining. You know what that is? That's
a picture of the multitudes of our sins and our sin nature.
The apostles can't overcome this crowd, they can't do anything
about this crowd. We can't overcome our sin nature
in the first hour. If we could, it'd be us that
believed on Him, wouldn't it? We'd get the glory. We'd have
to tear out John 6 where it says, no man can come to me except
the Father draw him. Well, after that, we can come
to Him. No, you can't. No, you can't. We don't have
sufficient to pay to give ourselves life. We don't have sufficient
to put down this sin nature in us, nor increase our inner man
any more than they had sufficient to purchase the food of bread
for this multitude and feed this multitude. It was an impossibility
for them. That's what the Lord is teaching
us here. Imagine this irritable crowd
of over 2,000 people looking to you to feed them. That's a
serious trial. And yet the Lord says through
this, or through James, this is what he said, count it all
joy when you come into different kinds of trials. Be rejoicing
in it. Why? It's only for our good. It will in all ways terminate
in our good. Now, do we imagine the Lord's
disciples here could make themselves be full of joy in that situation? It's a bad situation. It's a
time of trouble. Well, they ought to just pull
themselves up by the bootstrap by the power of their will and
be joyful about this. No, their flesh was raining. And they answered in total unbelief. Their answer was murmuring against
God, the same as when they get down here and the Lord tells
this unbelieving group that we obviously know is not His and
says, why are you murmuring? No man can, except my father
drawing. That same murmuring we hear when
they say, a year and a half wages won't do this. Rather than looking
to the Lord and just saying, Lord, you know, we believe you.
You can do everything. We've seen it. How come they
couldn't do that? Surely a man can just do that.
The reason they couldn't is joy is the fruit of the Spirit. Joy
is the fruit of the Spirit. You can't make your face happy
when you're sorrowful. You can't stop mourning when
you're in a trial and somebody that you love has died and you
can't make yourself stop mourning that. Who's going to give you
joy? The Lord can turn you to Him
and set your affections on Him and give you joy right in the
midst of that. But He's going to have to do
it. It's the only way He's going
to get the glory. It's the Spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth
nothing. The words I speak. The Lord said
the words I speak. Their spirit and their life.
That's what he's teaching his true disciples. That's what he's
teaching us. He's going to have to speak.
Does this justify our sin? You're just justifying our sin.
Nope. We don't have sufficiency to justify our sins. for anything
we do. And there's sin with everything
we do. And we can't make ourselves righteous by anything we do. Christ is the Redeemer who paid
it all. They said, we don't have money
to pay. He's the Redeemer that paid it all. The Lord our righteousness
who alone justifies us. But get this, brethren. This
is what's wonderful. Here's the people who don't believe
Him. They just follow Him because of outward things they saw Him
do. But the Lord had compassion on them and said, they're like
sheep without a shepherd. He healed the diseased among
them. Then they come to this mountain.
He had compassion on them again and taught them. And then the
true disciples said, send them out of here, get them. We've
been preaching We've been out preaching, we came here to rest
and now you brought all these people here and we're tired and
they're about to string us up. They're looking for where the
buffet line starts and we've got 30,000 people. We can't do
anything about this." And the Lord had compassion on him and
said, let's feed them. Now if he did that for those
that aren't his, what will he do for those he's everlastingly
loved? How these disciples who are in
this unbelief right here, how are they going to be delivered
from this impossible trial they're in? And delivered from this unbelief
and made to see a little better that Christ is able to do everything.
How are they going to be delivered from this? Well, there's no rebuke from
Him here. He doesn't deal harshly with
them. What's He going to do for them? He's going to speak and
make them willing. He's going to speak and make
them willing. He's going to feed their inner
man with His Word. And He's going to overcome their
flesh. And He's going to teach them He's the true bread who
does it all. And that's what He constantly
does for you and me who He's called. It's the goodness of God feeding
us, Him who is the bread from heaven. that keeps telling us
and teaching us, don't ever put any confidence in you or your
brother or any other. Don't set a man up and elevate
a man. Why? Because he's a sinful maggot
just like you are. Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. That's what he's teaching us.
He could have Well, let's read it here. This trial is to teach
them and us that in our flesh is nothing good, nobility, but
all things of God our Savior, and without Him we can't do anything,
but with Him nothing's impossible. Now, let's see how the Lord works
this. Verse 10. They answer this. Do you get
what I'm saying? This was total unbelief. This
was total unbelief. You know, the old timers used
to call our flesh the reprobate. That's what they call the sin
nature in a believer. The reprobate me. The apostate
me. Because we apostatized in Adam. And we're born with an apostate
in us. And he don't change. God don't
do anything to your sin nature. It don't change. It don't cease
being what it is. It's going to be what it is till
the end. Till the end. And He says to them here, that's
how it starts, the Lord said, Jesus said, verse 10, Jesus said,
He said, it's my voice that's going to speak and it's going
to quicken you. He said, it's all by His Word. Christ is the
bread. He's the bread. He's the power. For of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. And His Word's
going to subdue our flesh and make us sit down in our new hearts
at His feet. That will take care of it. Once
he does that, we won't have his problem again. You going to see this some more? Right up after Peter denied the
Lord and Peter came, he left. He left the ministry and everything.
And the Lord comes to him again and he restores him. He says,
Peter, now feed my lamb. You love me? And Peter said,
he answered just what you think These apostles would answer.
He answered what you think we'd answer. He said, Lord, you know.
He deferred it to him. Lord, you know. You know what
you're going to do. And the Lord said, all right, feed my lambs.
He's got it now, don't he? He's not going to have to struggle
with this sinful flesh anymore. And Lord, what about John? What
are you going to do with him? Didn't get it, did he? Lord said
to him, essentially, John's my business, Peter. You mind your
own business. You worried about John? Feed
my lambs. Feed him. Feed him. I'll take
care of him. What I'm saying is, it don't stop. It don't stop. It's going to keep going. It's
going to keep going. It's going to keep going. Well,
he's going to speak. We've got to all be taught of
God. That's what he says later. They should all be taught of
God. He don't ever stop teaching us. He's going to keep speaking.
He didn't make them sit in a dry thirsty desert. He made them
sit in the green grass. There's much grass there. He
brought them right there to a place where there's a bunch of green
grass. Enough for 20 or 30,000 people. He led them there on
purpose so they sit down right there. Christ is the shepherd.
You know what? You know what that means? It
means he is the pastor who is God. And he led them right there. My shepherd
leads me and makes me lie down in green pastures. He brought
them right there. And later we are going to see
down in verse 59 when he gives the commentary on this whole
trial. It says everything I am saying
to you right here, right now. We are going to see he does this,
verse 59, these things said he in the synagogue as He taught
in Capernaum. The green pasture is typifying
where He has assembled His people, where He is speaking, and where
He is speaking into the heart, comforting us and feeding us
with Him the bread by the Word. That is the green pastures. He
is going to make us lay down and sit down in the green pasture.
But look now, that is where it starts. Sit down. Sit down. We are going to have to sit down.
Not just outwardly, physically, in here, in the new man. We've
got to be seated. Seated. And the men sat down in number
about 5,000. That doesn't say everybody sat
down. It says 5,000 men sat down. He doesn't work this for everybody.
Some are not going to sit down. He didn't sit the Pharisees down.
You know why? To show when they rebelled against
Him, to show He's ruling them too. He's ruling them too. But He's going to make His people
sit down in our heart and He's going to feed us. And then it's verse 11. And Jesus
took the loaves. Now somebody that's always overlooked
in this story, the best I've ever heard on it, is this lad.
This lad, he had five loaves and two fish. He had a pretty
good meal. This was a child. He had a pretty
good meal for himself. The Lord said, take that from
him. You see his child? But the child
gave it to him. At the Lord's command, he gave
it all up. The Lord's multiplication to us is first be by subtraction. He's going to take away what
we have that we think we can live upon and sustain us and
be self-sufficient. He's got to take that all away
from us and make us willing to let go
of it. Completely let go of it. That's our wisdom. That's our
righteousness. That's our self-sanctifying abilities. That's our redeeming works. We're
going to have to let go of all of that. But by making this lad
obey, the Lord fed this child what Christ created. That's what's
amazing about this miracle. With everything else, he made
something out of something. He healed what was there. He
made water out of wine. With this miracle, He took five
loaves and two fish and He created food to feed. He created some
food that wasn't there. Something out of nothing. And
everything that Lord does in the new creation, in His salvation
of His people, is all His creation. It's all His power, all His blood,
all His righteousness, all His doing. So He gets all the glory
for it. Every bit of it. Every bit of
it. And he said to us, except you
become his little children. Cain entered the kingdom. This
was a lad, this was a little child. He said, I'm taking it
from you. And you know what the little
child did? He said, here it is. In the hearts of his people,
he gonna make us give up self-sufficiency. And by this subtraction, He is
going to multiply unto us, making us a feast of Christ the bread
alone. This lad is going to end up having
far more than he had with just his five loaves and two fish.
How did he get it? He gave it up. And the Lord gave
him more. We don't lose anything by losing
ourselves. He gives you more. And it is
all His creation. Now verse 11, And when he had
given thanks, You get there. He gave the Father the glory
here. He gave thanks to the Father, acknowledging the Father working
all of this. And everything that we are talking
about here, Christ is working it. He is one with the Father
working it. So we have to give Him all the glory. In fact, this
is so important. Later, whenever John talks about
where the boats landed, he defines where the boats landed as the
place where the Lord gave thanks. He doesn't say it's the place
where he made this multitude of food. He says it's where he
gave things. where he gave glory to God. That's what he was doing
in all this, he was glorifying God and that's what he's doing
in the whole work he's doing for us, he's glorifying God.
And it says here in verse 11, and then he distributed to the
disciples, and the disciples to them they were set down, and
then likewise the fishes as much as they would. And when they
were filled, he said to the disciples, gather up the fragments. So they
gathered up twelve baskets. of fragments that all came from
those five barley loaves which remained over. This was over
and above that which they had all eaten. Now let me ask you
this. Couldn't Christ have spoken and
just fed these people? He spoke and healed that impotent
man. He could have done that. But the Lord chose to save through
the foolishness of preaching. So he used these disciples as
a picture of that. five loaves and two fish that
appear to be nothing and worthless, and some disciples that are powerless
and worthless. And he worked this, gave to them,
and they gave to the others. And that's how he fed this whole
group. Christ distributed the bread.
He's the one that made it, he's the one that distributed it,
and he's the one that gives it to each of his children. And
He has decided by His purpose and grace He would use nobodies
like us. But He is going to keep us nobodies.
And they ate all they would eat. They ate everything all they
would eat. Not only did the lad eat the
bread Christ created, he ate far more than he would have.
And they gathered up twelve basketfuls. Maybe that twelve baskets is
for those twelve apostles. to show them, why'd you doubt?
Why'd you doubt me? Here's your 12 baskets of that
which was impossible. Here's your 12 baskets. Christ
is all sufficiency and his grace is all sufficient and his grace
never runs out. The little mouse that came to
Joseph's storehouse, all those storehouses full of corn in Egypt,
he didn't have to worry. Joseph didn't have, with no concern
this little mouse gonna eat up all the corn from Egypt. And
a little minute that's in the ocean, there's no worry that
he gonna drink up all the ocean. And there's no worry that you
and I are gonna ever exhaust the grace and sufficiency that
Christ the bread is, Christ the life is. He keeps giving, he
keeps giving, he keeps giving. And here's the end result right
here, verse 14. Those men, when they saw the
miracle Jesus did, said, this is of a truth, that prophet that
should come into the world. That wasn't faith. That was not
faith. They had their belly filled,
and they saw a man do something nobody had ever done, and they
later on are going to come to him and say, now Moses, he gave
our fathers bread. And really what they're saying
is, he fed them 40 years. You only fed us once. That's
unbelief, isn't it? But here's the end, and those
Christ's going to make a partake of this bread. And this is the
end right here. It's going to be the end, the
next time when He comes to them, and right after that, they fix
and get on the sea, and they're going to be scared and afraid,
and they're going to look up and see Him, and He's going to
say, it's high, don't be afraid. It's just over and over and over,
Him saying, having to subdue the flesh and teach His people. Verse 67, this is the end. Then
Jesus said to the twelve, those people heard it. He said, I'm
the bread, if you don't eat me and drink my blood, you don't
have any life in you. That's what the whole thing is
showing. He's the bread. And they said, we can't hear
that. It's too hard. That was as impossible
for them to hear as it was for those true apostles to look at
that multitude and really believe there was some way that they
could feed them. Because both of them did not believe in Christ. So they went away. All that bunch
he fed left, plus a bunch more that had come. They all left.
They all left. And so verse 67, Jesus said to
the twelve, will you also go away? Things are looking hard
now. You had all this multitude here
that just increased our church so much, now our church is dwindled. You want to go away with them?
He said. They said, Lord, it's your church. Simon Peter answered, Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. You spoke this. You have the
words of eternal life. We believe and are sure you are
that Christ, the Son of the living God. We're sure. We start out every trial, looking
at every trial, murmuring, murmuring, saying things like, well, the
Lord sent this trial for some reason. The Lord sent this trial for
you if you're His. He sent it for me if I'm His.
He sent it for His people all over. Everything He's working,
He's working for His child. And we don't know what the Lord
knows. We don't know what He's doing. We don't know. But the
Lord knew, didn't He? He knows. He knows. And He shuts you up to say, Lord,
you know. You know. You're able. And when it's over and He's proven
us that we're only sinful unbelief with no ability, and then He makes you feast on
Christ the bread, He makes you say, Lord to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life and we believe We believe. Now that's the new man speaking.
We believe. We're sure. You're the Christ,
the Son of the Living God. Why didn't they say that a while
ago? Why do we sin? Huh? Surely we can all just quit
that. Let's all just be joyful right
now. Whenever trial comes, let's just not even be turned around
sideways by it. Let's just say, Lord, you know,
why can't we do that? We really can't get too upset
with one another because we can't do that. And that's the reason
he brings the trial to show with man it's impossible, but with
God nothing's impossible. We can't do anything without
Him. I think that's whatever trial
is going to be. At the end, we're going to say, Lord, you showed
us. With you, you're able. I know the only way that he's
going to bring that to pass, he said, the only way you're
going to see this glory is believe him. Trust him. Wait on him. That's where he's going to bring
his people. All right, brethren. Thank you.