Please the Lord to bless us together
this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn to the Gospel
of John chapter 6 and we'll read verse 6. The Gospel of John chapter
6 and verse 6. And this he said to prove him for he himself knew what he would
do. This is a response to the question
that Jesus put to Philip and the question was whence shall
we buy bread that these may eat? We're aware there was a vast
multitude, we're told there were 5,000 men, obviously there were
women and children as well. So there was indeed a vast company
of people. And the question was asked of
Philip, and Philip was a local man, he came from that area,
and therefore no doubt he would have been aware of the situation
which existed, and the Lord put the question to him and said,
when shall we buy bread that these may eat? And we might think,
well, why was that question given? Why was that question put to
Philip? Well, we're told. And this he
said to prove him. That really means it was there.
The question was to test him. To test whether he was blessed
with faith, living faith, and whether the Lord indeed would
do great things. Now we see how Philip responded. He responded in just a natural
way. He said, 200 penny worth of bread
is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a
little." He really did not understand the question. Perhaps sometimes we may not
always understand the question the Lord puts to us. The reality
was that this question had a much deeper significance than just
on the surface. Jesus was testing him with regards
to his faith and whether he just looked in a natural way or whether
he realised that the Lord Jesus could do great and wonderful
things. Surely it's a word which is appropriate
to the generations which have come about since this occurred
these two thousand years or so ago. Because the Lord still comes
and still tests his people. He asks them questions. And so
often we tend to just look at the immediate scene that we can
see. That's just what Philip did here.
He just looked at the immediate scene. He can only think in a
natural way. And sometimes we do the same. We look at the things
that appear naturally and we respond in a natural way and
we seem to forget that we have a great God who is able and does
great and wonderful things and we should never limit our God.
Our tendency is then to look at the immediate things which
exist and to draw a conclusion by looking at natural things.
Well, that's the scene that we have here before us this evening. And the Lord knew, of course,
what he would do. We're told, for he himself knew
what he would do. So we might conclude that in
this instance, Philip failed the test. He hadn't answered in the way
that the Lord Jesus perhaps desired. Well, we know he answered so
that the Lord was able to perform this wonderful miracle. But we
should not always think that the Apostle Philip, of course,
was like that. We remember the case in the Acts
of the Apostles when Philip was called to go to Macedonia, to
that place where he was to find the eunuch. And it was a place
of desert. And we might think, Surely Philip
won't understand and he's going to say, well it's a place of
desert, I'm not going there. But he was given that faith to
believe and we know that that was a wonderful occasion. When
the Lord favoured him much, he went down and he met that eunuch
and he was told to join himself to that chariot and was able
to explain to him the spiritual implication of the 53rd of Isaiah. So he was a spiritual man. Remembering, of course, that
was the Old Testament, which was all they had at that time.
And yet he was able to speak faithfully and to speak to him
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And he commenced and he preached
unto him Jesus. And in the fullness of the Gospel,
he spoke to him about following the Lord and being baptised.
As we know, when they came to water, the eunuch said, here
is water, won't it hinder me to be baptised? And Philip said,
if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And so he
baptised him. And then the Spirit of God caught
Philip away. He saw him no more. The work
was done. The work was done. So we should
not think that Philip was not a spiritual man. But here we
see him being asked a question, and really coming up with a natural
answer. And therefore we are to be aware
of such a situation in our lives, when the Lord may come, when
we have a crisis. There was a crisis here, wasn't
there? A great multitude of people and no food. What was going to
happen? How were they going to be provided
for? And therefore the question was
put to Philip, when shall we buy bread that these may eat? And when he wasn't able to answer
it in the way the Lord perhaps designed, he just gave a natural
answer. But we know that reading on, that Andrew, one of the disciples,
came and told the Lord that there was a young lad who had five
loaves and two fishes. And we see that he didn't possess
the faith either because he said, but what are they among so many? They limited the Lord. Perhaps we ought to remember
that in our lives because we do tend, I'm sure it's true,
to limit the Lord. We so often put a natural view
upon things instead of looking beyond. to realise how great
and how glorious and how able and willing is our God. The Lord
has said He will be inquired over the house of Israel to do
these things for them. And so therefore there is this
testing time, a testing time that the Lord brings into our
lives to alert us to the situation. In the previous chapter in John,
we read the words about the Lord
Jesus speaking. He said, But I have greater witness
than that of John. We know what John the Baptist
was able to do. For the works which the Father
hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness
of me that the Father hath sent me." Now the Lord Jesus was to
do a great glorious work of salvation. And in this chapter we have a
leading up to this great and wonderful truth and the Lord
uses the illustration of spiritual food. As the Lord said, he was
indeed the bread of life. He spoke to the people and addressed
them, because they again looked at it in a natural way. We often look and think in a
natural way. They could only visualise natural
bread. They couldn't really understand
the scripture, the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
Jesus spoke and said, Verily I say unto you, Moses gave you
not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true
bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the worlds. Then said
thou unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus
said to them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me
shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. We're reminded, are we not, of
that occasion recorded in the fourth chapter, when the Lord
Jesus must needs go through Samaria. And he came into Samaria, and
he sat on a well. And that woman came, that Samaritan
woman came. And the Lord spoke to her and
addressed her, and spoke to her about drinking water. And he
spoke to her and he told her that he was the water of life.
And she said, give me that water that I may drink and not thirst. Well, the Lord very graciously
came and convinced her of her need, so that she realised that
he was the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. and that he could
give her that true water of life, that spiritual water of life.
What a blessing it is then, for us today, in our lives, as we
have these most blessed and glorious examples in the word of God,
that the Lord himself may come and apply his word to our hearts,
so that we may have the evidence that these things are true, and
that we are blessed with this spiritual food and this spiritual
water of life. And the Lord Jesus had to speak
to these people. And they murmured. They couldn't
understand. Perhaps we murmur when we can't
understand. We don't believe. That's really
what it comes down to. The Jews then murmured at him
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
He could only look at it with the natural eyes. He didn't understand. My friends, we're the same, you
know, by nature. Until the Lord, as it were, takes away the veil,
as it were, removes those scales from our eyes. So we're blessed
with spiritual sight. The Lord does these things to
prove us, to prove whether we do possess spiritual sight or
spiritual hunger. It's a wonderful blessing. to
have dealings with our God. You see, Philip had dealings
with his God. And so, the Lord Jesus spoke
to these people and he said, murmur not among yourselves.
Well, perhaps we murmur. We murmur. What does that mean?
We are really speaking against God. Israel often murmured in
the wilderness. It wasn't great shouting, but
as it were, under their breath, they were complaining about the
way that the Lord was leading them. Complaining. Well, I believe
the Lord, in our lives today, He brings situations into our
lives to prove us, to prove whether we possess the life of God in
our soul, and if it's real and if our faith is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Lord spoke wonderfully
really to these people and he informed them the wonderful truth,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. Again, that's something we have
to learn. We are drawn by God. He draws us to himself. And it's
amazing to think that the Lord God should condescend to look
upon us and draw us to himself. Indeed, we have to say, what
was there in me that could merit esteem or give my Creator delight? We might think of the Lord here,
you see, addressing Philip in this way. It's a blessing to
be addressed. It's a blessing to have our religion
tested, to have questions answered, asked rather. We don't want to
just go on in our little life glibly, do we? Without any evidence
of the life of God in our soul. If God is working in our hearts,
we shall really want to know that the Lord is with us. And we have a strange vision
very often. Sometimes we expect the Lord
to direct us in a certain way and that way is very often not
in a way of testing. We expect the Lord to come and
drop in a wonderful word so that we can go on our way rejoicing
and everything is wonderful and comfortable and smooth. Generally
speaking, we find the Lord tests his people with regard to the
reality of their religion. He tests their faith, whether
they are coming, whether they really believe. or whether they
are just false and not really true. Well, if the Lord comes
therefore and perhaps asks us a question, sometimes those questions
are uncomfortable and sometimes those questions are very testing
to our faith. This question here was to prove
whether Philip indeed had that faith to believe. Well we know
he did, but in this particular instance he wasn't able to see
beyond those natural things. But we have some wonderful accounts
in the Word of God where the Lord came to test faith. We think, go back to the book
of Genesis and go back to Abraham, that man of God. And we might
think that Well, now surely Abraham would have an easy path. Surely
Abraham had obeyed the Lord and left Ur of the Chaldees, that
comfortable place where he was living amidst all his friends
and brethren. The Lord told him to leave and
to go across the Canaan many, many miles away, right across
the desert, and we might think, well now, Abraham, you've passed
the test, and there won't be any more questions, and you'll
carry on your journey very gently. Well, Abraham in his life, as
you well know, had many testing times. One of the greatest times,
of course, when he was called to offer up his son, his only
son. Give him up. And again, ponder that, because
it was the son of promise. The Lord attested Abraham's faith
to give him this son. He'd waited for this son. It hadn't been an immediate thing.
He'd waited many years for it. and it had come to pass. And
now the Lord says, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom
thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer
him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which
I will tell thee of." Abraham was being proved. We might think in our lives,
well, I've got some tests and I'm being proved. Perhaps not
to this degree. Often think in the Word of God
we get extreme situations. so that we cannot think that
we are tested more than anyone else. We may think perhaps that
in the lines of the hymn writer, none is so tried as we are. It's because we don't look more
carefully into the word of God. And you know, you'll realise
then that there were those saints of old who were greatly tested
and so was Abraham here. And I think it's very glorious
The response of Abraham. The response. We can almost imagine
him arguing and saying, well, surely this can't be so. Surely
this is the son of promise. Surely I haven't got to do this. But what did he do? And it's lovely to read, isn't
it? He obeyed his God. No question. Next day, early
in the morning, up he gets, saddles his ass, and took two of his
men with him and Isaac, his son, and the wood for the burnt offering
and rose up and went. It wasn't a short journey, three
days journey. And then he said to his young
men, abide here, And I and the lad will go yonder and worship
and come again to you." You should not forget that. Here was faith,
wasn't it? He says, and come again to you. But Abraham, you're going to
offer up your son. And come again to you. And Abraham then goes on and
his son asks him a question. Behold the fire and the wood,
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham responds, my
son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went, both of them together.
Let us not lose sight of the wonderful significance here,
that God did provide a lamb, his only begotten son, to be
offered up for the sins of his people. We see that in these
testing times, when our faith is being proved, the Lord sometimes
blesses abundantly with living faith, so that we believe the
Lord will appear. He did appear for Abraham. They came to the place, Abraham
built an altar, laid the wood thereon, bound Isaac and his
son, stretched forth his hand, put the knife to slay his son. And then the angel of the Lord
called unto Abraham out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And
he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand
upon the land, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I
know. Thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son,
thine only Son, from me." What a wonderful picture we have of
Abraham's obedience. Really, it comes like this, doesn't
it? Nothing is too hard for the Lord. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. You know, it's good if we today
can be encouraged by such a word as that. And so the Lord did
provide a sacrifice. He knew what he would do. This
word is so appropriate, is it not? And this he said to prove
him, for he himself knew what he would do. So true here. The Lord knew what he would do.
Abraham's faith was being proved. The Lord knew what he would do.
The Lord knew that he would provide a way of escape. So he did. Abraham lifted up his eyes and
looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a
thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. Abraham called the name of that
place, Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day, in
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. It was seen, wasn't
it? And what was seen? The beautiful
picture of substitution. The Lord causes, as it were,
His glory to appear in these situations of testing and being
proved. It was the same here in this
account. We read, and this he said to
prove him for he himself knew what he would do. And of course
the Lord did appear and he blessed them with a wonderful appearance
when those few loaves and fishes were multiplied so tremendously
so that all those people were able to satisfy their hunger. And then there were those 12
baskets taken up. The evidence of an abundance. My friends, the Lord does bless
us abundantly. How wonderful it is to think
of that. The Lord doesn't deal with us
as Our sins deserve. We may think sometimes that we
deserve more. My friends, we deserve nothing
at all. But it's wonderful that the Lord
looks upon us and is gracious to us. Moses wanted to remind
Israel of the Lord's faithfulness. How we want to be reminded of
that in our lives today. Sometimes we may become very
doubtful. We may suffer from an evil heart
of unbelief. Moses has seen the Lord appear
so wonderfully on so many occasions. And he comes and says when he
was writing to Israel and speaking to them just a short time before
he was to die, and he said, And thou shalt remember all the way
which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble thee and to prove thee. So it was, wasn't it? Humbled
and proved. The Lord today works in the same
way. He humbles us. He brings us down. Humbles us to prove us. To prove His goodness. and where
to prove ourselves before our God, to humble thee and to prove
thee to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep
his commandments or no. How often we find our heart disbelieving. Blessed with so many wonderful
evidences that we have in the Word of God. And yet we find,
we lack, we seem to lack that living faith. The Lord does give
faith. And he gives that faith to believe. And it's like this, faith laughs
at impossibilities and says, it shall be done. Those things
which appear impossible. We have so many positions, don't
we? And if we think indeed of the
Lord Jesus Christ himself, and we see him crucified upon that
cross at Calvary, oh, what a test of faith there was for those
disciples and those people who had been blessed by him. And
they thought that this Jesus was to be the Messiah. And now,
he died. Oh, their faith was tested, wasn't
it? They couldn't really give up.
They couldn't really forget the words that the Lord Jesus said.
And yet, there hadn't been that revelation to them. But oh, how their heart rejoiced
when the Lord appeared. Mary Magdalene, who cried out,
Master. The Lord spoke, and what joy
there was. Those two on the Emmaus Road, the Lord drew near and
went with them. They were sorrowful when the
Lord appeared. What was he doing? He was proving
them. He questioned them, you know, as he went along on that
journey. Their eyes were holding. When
they came to break that bread, oh, their eyes were open. Yes,
and they saw Jesus. How the disciples rejoiced when
the Lord came into that room and it was revealed to them. Oh, what a time of blessing it
was. It had been a proving time. A
testing time, this same Jesus. It will be so, my friends, I
believe in our life. We don't get to heaven without
our faith being tested, being tried. And it's a blessing because
we don't want to carry on with a false faith. We want to be
blessed with a real faith. wonderful thing it is that the
Lord is gracious and brings us into these situations so that
we do believe because the Spirit of God applies his work into
our hearts so that we do believe and we rejoice indeed in what
the Lord has done. And so we read, and he said to
him, and this he said to prove him. I wonder tonight whether
we look into our hearts and we can find evidence of our spiritual
life being proved. Now, just remember, the Lord
said, for he himself knew what he would do. The Lord knows what's
going to happen. We're being tested. We're being
proved. Hezekiah was tested in his life. Yes, when the Lord said he would
take his life from him when he was sick. He prayed to the Lord. The Lord added to his life 15
years. And what do we read? He tells
us, by these things men live. That's the whole truth of it.
If we had no proving times and no testing times in our religion,
it might not be real. Because the Lord does prove and
the Lord does test his children. Think of the many occasions recorded
in the 11th of Hebrews. Not only Abraham, we have Joseph,
don't we? How his faith was tested, how
he was proved, wasn't he? In that prison house, the Lord
had spoken to him, told him what would occur. And now, it seemed
as though there was no hope. It seemed as though that vision
was false. And we're told, until the word
of the Lord came, it tried him. Yes, he was being tested in a
prison house. His life must have seemed very
strange. We should be encouraged to read
the life of Joseph. Yes, because on the surface,
and probably true, he'd walked an upright life. He'd done that
which was God-honouring and right. And yet, the Lord saw fit to
place him in that prison, far off from his family, and in irons,
not an easy position. Much affliction. Poor old Joseph
was there. The butler forgot about him.
Yes, and he was probably the worst part of it all was. His
religion was being tried and tested. But at the appointed time, deliverance
came, not before time, and not too late, and in a remarkable
way. He could never have envisaged
such a deliverance. It may be so in our lives. We
only look around there. It looks dark. It looks impossible. How can I ever come out of this
situation? He was in prison, wasn't he?
How could I ever come out of it? Well, I believe he didn't give
up. No, he still was blessed with
faith. Faith to believe that they would come. when he would
be delivered. And so it was. Of course, we
have other examples, don't we, in that 11th chapter, which are
very instructive and very encouraging. But what was it in all those
cases? Proving times. Proving times. Testing times.
And as the Lord brings us through these trying and testing times,
our faith is strengthened. We are encouraged because we
have the evidence that our religion is real. It's not false. The Lord has fulfilled that which
he has promised and that which he has spoken to us. So we have
the wonderful outworking in this account here, how the Lord did
wonderful things. Wonderful things, great things,
blessed things. David in the Psalms asks the
Lord, and he says this, and I wonder if we do this sometimes, well
it's not a bad thing to do. Examine me, O Lord, and prove
me. What was David's concern? His
concern was that his religion wasn't false. He wanted to be
examined. We may not want to be examined.
It may not be easy, but it's best to be examined while we're
on this earth and know that we have a religion than to come
to the end of our life and have not been examined and find we've
got a false religion. An examination by our God, approving
by our God, will only do one thing, it will get rid of the
rubbish, and we'll be left with that which comes from God, that
which is good. Examine me, O Lord, and approve
me, try my reins and my heart, for thy lovingkindness is before
mine eyes, and I have walked in thy truth. He was a believer
in the Lord God. Well, it's a good testimony,
isn't it? A good testimony for us tonight. If, as we think of
these words, the Lord Jesus spoke to Philip, and the reason was
to prove him. The Lord asks us a question.
Perhaps we're not able to answer it very adequately. We may even
answer it in a false way. But it's a blessing if God asks
us a question to prove us, to prove the reality of our religion. And if that is so, to realise
that the Lord knows the answer. He knows what He would do. He
knows what He would do with us, and how He would deal with us,
and how He would direct us. And I believe this, if the Lord
is proving us, it's this, to look as of ourselves to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We may be looking to ourselves,
or to that monster pride. The Lord may prove us by showing
us perhaps our inadequacy. We thought perhaps we were better
than we should have thought ourselves. Maybe the Lord has to bring us
down again to humble us and to prove us what's in our heart,
whether it's from God or not. And he knew, he himself knew
what he would do. Might that be an encouragement
to us? to know the Lord Jesus is over us and He knows what
He will do. And we can believe this. If the Lord is testing
us, if the Lord is proving us, it will be to show us ourselves
and to show us Himself. It won't be one-sided. He won't
leave us bereft. Because He's taking us in hand
and He's dealing us, with us, as His children. and he's weakening
our strength in the way. We may have thought we were strong
because we were relying upon ourselves. He weakens our strength
in the way so that we prove our strength is in him. He's our strength, dependence
upon him and that will mean dependence upon what he has done, dependence
upon his finished work, and we would be led to Calvary. Ah, you see, that's the blessing.
And my friends, that's where we need to come. We need to come
to Calvary, because there, by faith, we view the Lord Jesus
Christ suffering and dying to take away all our sins. to atone for us. What a blessing
it is. Oh, it's a place of comfort then,
to feel we have an interest in the shed blood of the Saviour.
And to think how the Lord has been gracious to us, to prove
to us our inadequacy in ourselves, and to show to us His complete
adequacy on our behalf. And He has done all things well.
All things well. I believe God's people never
complain when they come to the end of their journey. They're
able to say, yes, He has done all things well. We didn't always realise it.
We didn't always see it. But as the Lord leads us on,
we're able to come and say, yes, I was so foolish, I was so ignorant.
But, bless God, he has done all things well, because he has prepared
me to enter in to that eternal habitation. And it's all his
work. I had to leave all my work, all
myself behind, and I've had to come, simply, to the right cross,
right cling. What does that mean? It means
clinging to Christ as our only hope of salvation. Now that's
a good place. And if the Lord God brings us
there, we shall rejoice and be thankful that our religion has
been proved, has been attesting, as it were, there's been a winnowing.
We've had to get rid of all the husk, all the outside, which
all appeared at one time also very nice and cosy and pleasant. get rid of it all, until we came
down to just that real grain, Christ. That's the reality. My friends then tonight, as we
may know what in some measure perhaps, what this is, and if
we don't, if we're the children of God, we will know what it
is, to be tested and proved. But remember, From this he set
to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. Amen.