Okay, Mark 6. Mark chapter 6. We'll be looking at verses 30
through 46. Now this passage provides for
us a striking picture of our service in the Lord. We see the
disciples ministering to the people, people that are hungry. And it's a picture of what we
are. It shows us that are starving,
us who are bankrupt and unable to pay the debt that we owe to
God by any works of righteousness which we think that we can do. And we're not able to pay that
debt, but here we see servants of the Lord serving up to the
people, serving the people and declaring and showing to them
the salvation that God the Father has provided in His Son, Jesus
Christ. And it's not that we ourselves
have anything of ourselves whereby we can pay off the debt for others. We don't pay it off. We don't
have anything to give to others. We're poor and bankrupt and hungry
ourselves. but we've been given the glorious
message of Christ, His gospel, His good news of salvation, that
God has provided salvation for you who are sinners and cannot
set yourselves free. God has provided everything necessary
in His Son. And we see here in this scripture
the mercy and the compassion that Christ has for His people
and that He's made provision for the sheep and provided abundantly
for them. The Lord, having given his own
eternal life and that blessed, glorious message, he sends workers
into the vineyard to declare this message of salvation through
the Son, through the Lord Jesus Christ. And our title this morning
is, Give Ye Them to Eat. Give Ye Them to Eat. It's what
Christ says in our text. And we'll have three divisions.
We'll look at Christ's compassion, this gospel food that we have,
and Christ sends out his servants. All right, so when looking at
this passage in Mark, we see that Christ shows much compassion. Just looking at those who serve
Christ in verse 30, Mark 6, 30, it says, and the apostles gathered
themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things, both
what they had done and what they had taught. And the Lord says
to them, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest
a while. For there were many coming and
going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat, and they departed
into a desert place by ship privately. So the Lord knows our frame. He knows what we are. He knows
that we're weak and that we're but dust. It says in Psalm 103,
13 and 14, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he
remembereth that we are dust. And so, It makes it all the more
glorious of His power, of His might, that He should take weak
vessels like us to declare the glories of His name in Christ. Paul said, but we have this treasure,
this treasure of the gospel of Christ our Savior, of what He's
accomplished for His people. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God not of
us. Now in our text we see his compassion
as well, not just for those that are serving him, but even those
that are seeking after him. He has compassion. It says in
Mark 6 verses 33 and 34, And the people saw them departing,
and many knew him, they recognized him, and ran afoot thither out
of all cities, and out ran them, out went them, or out ran the
boat. and came together unto him. And Jesus, when he came
out, saw much people. And rather than being angry and
being frustrated that he was trying to bring some leisure,
some time for his disciples to rest, it says that he was moved
with compassion toward them, because they were as a sheep,
not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. You know, this is exactly why
Christ came into this world, to save sinners, to minister
life to the sinner and to reconcile us who are fallen and corrupt
and bring forth no good thing to, we add nothing to God. And yet in mercy and in compassion,
Christ came into this world to give us life, to give us life
in Him and to set us free from our death and our destruction
and deliver us from the darkness. The scriptures say that this
world, it shall come into judgment. God's going to judge the wicked
of this world. He's going to destroy all these
things, but not before the Lord has saved every one of His chosen
vessels of mercy. In Revelation 7.3, We read of
an angel ascending up out of the east for having the seal
of the living God. That's Christ, the anointed one
of the Father, chosen to be the Christ, to be the one to come
and obtain salvation, to work salvation for his people. And this one, Christ says, hurt
not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed
the servants of our God in their foreheads. They, every one of
His, shall know who Christ is and what He has accomplished
for them. They're going to know and they're
going to glorify Him and worship God and praise Him in the name
of the Son, Jesus Christ. So our Lord is very much moved
with compassion here in our text. As He said in Luke 19, verse
10, He said, The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that
which was lost. That's us. We were lost. We all
fell in Adam in the fall. We all fell. and come forth of
his corrupt seed so that spiritually we're dead. We're dead to the
things of God. We don't know or understand the
things of God. Men by nature, I know this because
I did it myself, we see God in an austere light, which is harsh,
which is severe. He's exacting. He's demanding.
He's expecting me to do things that I can't do and I don't want
to do them in the flesh. And that's how man naturally
sees God. If you turn over to Luke 19,
Luke 19 verses 20 through 23, the Lord likens himself to a
nobleman who is going into a far country that he might receive
a kingdom to himself. And once he's received it, he
returns back and it says in Luke 19 verse 20, another came saying,
so he's dealing now with those whom he left with talents. He
gave them all talents and and and now he's coming to collect
that which he's given to them collect upon what he's given
them and we come to that third one right who has nothing who
is nothing but but nature's light and he has no spirit of Christ
he has just nature's light and and he says in verse 20 Lord
behold here is thy pound which I have kept laid up in a napkin
in my dusty dead body I've just laid it up and and and here's
why I have nothing else to give you but what you gave me back
And it says, verse 21, for I feared thee, because thou art an austere
man, thou takest up that thou layest not down, and reapest
that thou didst not sow. And the Lord said unto him, out
of thine own mouth will I judge thee. He's not saying, that's
exactly right, I am an austere man, and I'm like that, but he's
saying, that's how you perceive me, that's how you see me, I'll
judge you according to that, that's fine. And he said, Thou
knewest that I was an austere man. This is what you said. You
said I'm an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and
reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore then gavest not thou
my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have acquired
mine own withusery? In other words, you're not going
to blame this on God. You're not going to blame it
on the Lord. You're wicked. And look, if you know I'm austere,
if that's how you think I am, why didn't you labor hard to
bring forth something back to me and to gain a righteousness?
Because you don't care. You don't love the Lord. None
of us by nature loves the Lord and seeks Him and wants to worship
God in spirit and in truth because there is no spirit. We don't
even understand that. So all we have is a very natural
understanding of God. And so our ideas about God are
very darkened and they're not right concerning the Lord. But
don't lose sight of the Lord's compassion for his people. He's
very gracious and very merciful and very kind to us. In John
3.19, it's men that love darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil. It's men that are like that.
Men are the ones, we're the ones who sinned against God. We're
the ones who corrupted ourselves. We're the ones who plunged ourselves
into darkness. and it's being shown to us in
the scriptures over and over again. He's making it known that
our hearts will be broken, that our hard, cold, stony hearts
will be broken and see, Lord, I'm the sinner. You're nothing
but merciful and compassionate. You're gracious and kind. You've
provided salvation your son because I can't save myself you've provided
it that it should break our hearts and bring us to see that God
is is wonderful and kind and gracious he he brings the Sun
up and the rain upon the the just and the unjust alike he's
very very kind and merciful so in our passage in verse 34 it
says Jesus was moved with compassion toward them because they were
a sheep not having a shepherd and he began to teach them many
things. So these sheep are without a
shepherd. That is, they have no one to
feed them. No one's telling them the truth of God. No one's declaring
to them how God can be merciful, be both just and yet merciful
and gracious and kind to a sinner, to forgive them of their sin,
to put their sin away, and to bring them into the family of
God. No one's telling them No one's bringing them to these
green pastures where the waters run softly and cool and the weary
ones can bathe in those refreshing waters of God's salvation, of
His mercy. Jeremiah 10.21 says, For the
pastors are become brutish and have not sought the Lord, therefore
they shall not prosper. and all their flocks shall be
scattered." So those who are claiming to speak in the name
of God, they're telling things that are turning people away
from the salvation of God and to look to the works of their
own hands, to be scattered off into either works, dead letter
religion, or to be scattered off into the wicked lusts of
their own flesh. They're just sealing those that
are in darkness. They're just sealing them over
with death. They're just telling them death. Nothing that's profitable
or good for their souls. In John 3.10, Jesus answered
and said unto one named Nicodemus, Art thou a master of Israel,
and knowest not these things? So that by nature, those who
would speak in the name of Christ, they don't even know the truth.
I remember when I was a young man and working with my hands
and I was talking to somebody, I was a professing believer at
that time and I didn't know much of anything at the time, but
I was very vocal and bold to talk to people about Christ,
at least the Christ of my own imagination. I just remember
this one guy who despised the Lord, but said, I thought about
being a pastor. Maybe in a couple years I'll
become a pastor. And I thought, wow. That's just because he was
a good talker and he liked to comfort people. He was more of
a motivational speaker type person and so he thought he would be
a pastor. And that's really what is out
there. There's a lot of people. Don't
be fooled. There's a lot of hucksters out there and go into religion
because money can be made, because you can manipulate people. in
an evil way and get them to give you what's theirs over to you
and then you can go and live luxuriously. But the Lord doesn't
do that. He's not calling his pastors
to have a soft, easy life and to lay up for themselves at the
expense of other hard-working people. He brings us to labor
with the brethren, among the brethren, and to serve the Lord
because it's His sheep, it's His pasture. They don't know
the truth. They don't have the spirit of
Christ, so they can't speak of Christ. They can't declare that
which is truly comforting to the people of God, because they
don't know the comfort of God. They don't have it themselves.
They don't understand. They think it's in their works of the flesh,
and that's what they turn people to. So they give them husks,
you know, the dead husks of dead letter religion, and swine are
happy to feed on husks. They don't care. They like that,
because it's husks. It's the garbage that they eat
and are happy. But the sheep of God they starve
they don't eat that stuff They don't they don't that doesn't
feed them and so they go hungry until the Lord brings them out
from underneath that that wickedness Turn over to Ezekiel 34 Ezekiel
34 in verse 4 the Lord charges his pastors and he says this
in Ezekiel 34 for He says, the diseased have ye not strengthened,
neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound
up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which
was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost,
but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they
were scattered, because there is no shepherd, and they became
meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.
My sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every
high hill, Yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of
the earth, and none did search or seek after them. And because
there was none to do this work, because there was none that were
declaring the truth and the comfort of God and the Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord says in verse 12, chapter 34, 12, as
a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his
sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep and
will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered
in the cloudy dark day and so the Lord he sends forth this
gospel now we're in a day of grace and mercy and he's sending
out this gospel in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by his
preachers and his pastors as he says as Jeremiah says in 315
I will give you pastors according to mine heart which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding And what they're declaring, what
they're feeding the people, is we're declaring the Lord Jesus
Christ. That salvation is in Him. That He has obtained for
His people full, free, abundance of pardon with the Father. He's
merciful. He's gracious. rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He laid down his life to obtain
your salvation, to obtain your comfort, to give you the spirits
that you might know him and rejoice in him and walk in him by his
spirit. He's not being harsh and cruel
and mean to you. He's giving you a spirit and
he'll deal with things that you need to be dealt with, but rest
in him. There's no work that you or I
can do to improve upon what Christ has done for his people. this work and he sends you pastors
and it says that you know we're proclaiming Christ just like
the Lord it says that in Mark 634 it says he began to teach
them many things he began to teach them many things and that's
the church's ministry right we speak of and declare Christ not
just the pastors but even you when you're talking with people
realize is this an opportunity is this a door that the Lord's
opening that I might declare and with compassion and mercy
declare what God has done for me and his son Jesus Christ. You who know and believe him
were to pray that his word would have success among the people,
that the sheep would hear it and be called out of their darkness,
that that that his word would go forth and that his word would
discover and draw out the sheep and bring them into his fold
where they are fed and comforted and not starving out there on
the mountaintops and being scattered. So when you speak, pray that
he gives you light, that you know what to say. And we often
don't know what to say. We're often taken off guard and
surprised. And I'm thankful the Lord is
able to still take that word, even though oftentimes you're
going to go away there thinking, Man, I should have said this
or I could have said that. And we're never happy with what
we've done. But thankfully, the Lord is able
to take something. Surprisingly, you wouldn't even
think and and and lay it to their heart and put that seed there
that that it might take years, but trust the Lord is able to
apply it. And in his time, he'll draw them
out of that spiritual darkness and bring them into the kingdom
of light in his mercy. And here's how it's done in verse
30. It says, So that we see here a great picture of how we're
to live. They went to Jesus, to the Lord, before during and after we go to Christ
and say, Lord, have mercy. Like you meant before the message,
we pray that the spirit of God would be here among us, that
he would fall upon us and help us to hear the word and that
He would bless the Word and give it success. And as you're thinking
about it, even sitting here, when you find yourself distracted
and you realize, Lord, help me just to listen and to hear what's
being said. Teach me, Lord. Help me. Give
me a crumb of mercy that I might have something to feed upon and
remember you in this day. And afterwards, we pray that
the Lord would give His Word success. It's the same way even
when you're speaking to people. When you get up in the morning
and you don't know who you're going to meet, Because you don't
know who you're going to meet and who you're going to run into
or what might come up that we're ready and that the Lord would
help us. Because oftentimes we're speaking
out of season, but wouldn't it be nice to speak in season? A
timely word that the Lord's laid on our heart. And that's what
we see in the prayer that the Lord taught the disciples. Our
Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. I will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. We want the Lord's kingdom to
be done, because especially when you look at things in the world,
we don't understand what's going on and what's really happening.
So what greater comfort than to just say, Lord, you know what's
going on. I pray your kingdom would be established here in
the earth and your will would be done in the midst of your
people. So prayer, when we pray, it reveals
I know when I haven't been praying for a while, it comes to my mind
and I realize, wow, that's pretty bold and presumptuous of me not
to even be thinking of the Lord because prayer shows a dependence
on the Lord. We know when you're weak and
you stumble and you fall and the Lord brings you to yourself,
you probably pray a lot more and you're a lot more thoughtful
of it, but when things start going well, that thought gets
distant, more and more distant, and that's just what we see in
ourselves. So prayer shows, it reveals to
us, our need and dependence on the Lord, and that's where we
want to be. We want to be thinking of Him and not thinking more
highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Here's another good
prayer in Ezekiel 37.9, it says, then said he unto me, prophesy
unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind,
thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these slain that they may live. Isn't that
a good prayer? When you're talking to somebody,
oh, Spirit of God, breathe upon them that these slain, these
dead ones might live, that they might know and hear and rejoice
in what you've given to me to rejoice in, to rejoice in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because we want the sheep to
be brought under the shepherd, under his voice, and to be led
by him. So that brings us to our next
point, gospel food. Our message is Christ. The sheep
feed upon Christ. We don't feed upon the husks
of dead fleshly religion. We all have been there and it's
no satisfaction. It doesn't help us or give us
any comfort. And we find that even the apostles
here, they're just men, and they say this in our text in verse
35 and 36. Here they're leaning upon their
own understanding. It says, and when the day was now far spent,
his disciples came unto him and said, this is a desert place,
and now the time is far past. Send them away that they may
go into the country round about and into the villages and buy
themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. And that sounds
pretty logical, and that's natural for us. We tend to be pretty
naturally minded in our thought and the things that we say. What
we're seeing here in this passage is that the Lord knows how to
shepherd his people. He feeds his people. He's not
going to turn them away out to be scattered out into every hillside
and country, but he's going to gather them. He's going to feed
them. He's going to make sure that
they're fed, and so he has compassion upon the people. here, and he's
made provision for the people for this purpose. Our Lord has
come. He is the high priest. He's the faithful one who made
sacrifice of his own life. He laid down his own precious
life, spilling his own precious blood to cleanse us, to put away
our sin, that we might stand before God in comfort and in
peace and reconciliation, knowing that he receives us. Not because
our works are righteous, but because Christ is righteous and
he did this for us. He's our standing of mercy and
hope before a holy and a just God. It says in Hebrews 2.17,
Wherefore in all things it behooved him, Christ, to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people. So that Christ humbled himself.
When he took upon him flesh, he stepped down. He became like
us in the weakness and the humility of this flesh, and he did that.
That's compassion and love for his people, and he did it willingly.
Micah 7, 18 says, who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth
iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant, right? Rather
than destroying us because we are sinners, he passes by in
peace and in mercy and in kindness. He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy. Do you believe it? That your
God delights to show you mercy, brethren. Mercy. He's a merciful
God. This one, our merciful high priest,
has made atonement for the people, to put away their sins. And he says to us who serve him
and rejoice in him, he says in John 12, 32, If I be lifted up,
will draw all men unto me. Think about your Lord and the
mercy that he's shown you and lift them up. Have a heart and
a desire to lift them up before those whom you meet. Because
he says, I'll draw them to me. I'll do the work. I'll draw them
to myself. Even so, the Lord instructs the
disciples here in this passage in verse 37. He answers them
and says, give ye them to eat. He says, you give them something
to eat. Don't turn them away. But as a pastor, as a preacher,
as being faithful, you give them something to eat. So as we said
before, when speaking to sinners, we often don't know what to say. So I just want to give you three
points just to be thinking about, just three truths to let flavor
and season your words with grace, with the salt of grace, to season
what it is that you're saying when you're speaking to them.
And those three points are our ruin by the fall, the redemption
by Christ's blood, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. You don't
always remember every scripture or what to say, but remember
those points. Ruined, redemption, regeneration. And let that color, let that
flavor how you speak to them. Remember those truths and don't
betray those truths, that we are ruined, that there's not
anything that we can do to save ourselves. but Christ laid down
his life. He shed his blood to obtain eternal
salvation, to obtain our forgiveness by his own blood, and that he
gives us his spirit. He gives us life in the spirit
that we might know him and walk in him and grow in him and serve
him faithfully. So that's what I mean. So ruin,
we'll break it down a little bit more, but just remember that.
Ruin, redemption, regeneration. So the people They were there
with the Lord in a desert place, verse 36, and they have nothing
to eat. And that's a good picture of
us, where we are naturally. We have nothing to satisfy ourselves. We don't have the ability to
provide food for us. And the scriptures show us that.
We were ruined in the fall. In Adam, we all sinned. We all
died. And we come forth of Adam's corrupt
seed. And that account there of what
occurred there in the garden is not just a fairy tale about
creation so that we would understand a nice little story about how
we all got started. But all scripture is given by
inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness. And so in Adam,
we understand that we died spiritually. So when we're talking to others,
we're conveying to them. We're letting them know there's
nothing good that we can do. There's no righteous work that
we can work which God will be pleased with and say, you know
what? That's good enough. Come on into the kingdom of God.
It's not by our work. So we don't talk like that. And
so when you're speaking to others, we're not giving them that idea
that there's something that we can do to be saved. But Paul
teaches us in Romans 5.12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. And he says in Romans 3.23, all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none
of us that can boast and say, I've got it down, I've done well.
We've all fallen short of the glory of God. So when we're speaking,
we're not acting or setting ourselves up in some high, pompous light,
in some pompous air that we're somebody and something, but in
humility and in sincerity, we speak the truth in love, and
we declare, I need the salvation of God, and I'm declaring to
you the salvation of God and his son, Jesus Christ. Isaiah
59.2 says, your iniquities have separated between you and your
God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not
hear. So that's the problem that we
have. We're ruined in the fall. God has separated from us because
we ourselves are sinners. But He is merciful and compassionate. And the way He is, is through
the Son. And that brings us to redemption. God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That though we're sinners and
undeserving of His grace and mercy, He provided freely, willingly. He sent the Son to lay down His
life, to shed His blood, to put away our sins. Now we see that
back in the text in mark six thirty eight through forty four
he saith unto them how many loaves have ye go and see and when they
knew they say five and two fishes and he commanded them to make
all sit down by companies upon the green grass and they sat
down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties and when he had taken
the five loaves and the two fishes he looked up to heaven and blessed
and break the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set
before them and the two fishes divided he among them all. Just remember this, as you are
speaking to others, you have little. I have very little, nothing. There's really nothing. We have
this treasure in an earthen vessel, which is but dust and weak and
poor and stumbling, and we have nothing. But we see how the Lord
takes that which is base and weak among us, as you read in
1 Corinthians 1, where we see the Lord takes those things that
are not wise. and despised and based things of the world and
he uses that. He took five loaves and two fishes
that some little boy had and he prospered that. He sent that
word out. It prospered. It fed every single
one of the people there to full satisfaction. It was enough and
in that light, We speak, even though our tongues get fat and
don't say things as eloquently and as nicely as we like to say
them and we're weak and stumbling, but trust that the Lord is able
to take that word and to send it into the hearts of his people
with power and to bring them satisfaction in the Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. It says in verse 42, and they
did all eat and were filled. So that when we're declaring,
we're speaking of Christ and His satisfaction and His death,
we can declare with confidence that He is a successful Savior. He saved His people. Declare
what He's accomplished for His people in the death of Himself. And it says, they took up 12
baskets full of the fragments and of the fishes. And they that
did eat of the loaves were about 5,000 men, which means it's probably
about 20,000 people. all and and so we just see how
the Lord is able to take that which is small that little you
know don't despise the day of small things and he's able to
take that and prosper it and bless it to the hearts of his
people our Lord on the cross when he When he was there, he
paid our sin debt. He paid that debt off in full
by pouring out his own precious blood. He took the debt that
we owed to God and he paid the price with his own life so that
We who have nothing to pay, we look to the Lord Jesus Christ
because he freely paid it all. And so that's what we're declaring,
that it's finished, it's done, there's nothing more for us to
do, there's nothing more for us to give to earn favor with
God. And he gives us his spirit and
he leads us and guides us. In John 6.33, for the bread of
God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the
world. So, in that grace and mercy of
God, He sent His Son to be the sacrifice to put away the sins
of His people by the death. himself and John says 1st John
4 10 here in his love not that we loved God but that he loved
us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins and
that propitiation simply means that Christ is the means of our
forgiveness he's why God forgives us it's because of the Son Jesus
Christ he that's why we have confidence to stand before God
because the Christ laid down his life for his people. So with
that understanding we read scriptures like Ephesians 2 verse 4 where
it says, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us
together with Christ by grace he are saved and and hath raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So we're
declaring that he's done everything, even to the point of our faith,
which is necessary, that we might know our standing before God
in Christ. He gives us that. He gives all
things necessary for our salvation. And then having purchased us
with His blood, not only will we live with Him in the ages
to come, but even now we know Him, as it says in 2 Thessalonians
2, 13 and 14. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit. The Spirit's going to separate
us and give us life to hear this declaration of Christ and belief
of the truth. So he brings his people to hear
it and to receive it and to believe this truth. Whereunto he called
you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. So, the Lord gives us life in
Him. He gives us the Spirit so that
we will walk in Him and trust Him and seek to grow in Him and
what He's provided. As the Lord said to Nicodemus,
except the man be born again, he cannot see the King of God.
So for us to hear these things in truth, we were given life. Peter said, seeing ye have purified
your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure
heart fervently. So believers do, they will be,
they will believe, they will be believers. They hear it and
they receive that word, being born again not of corruptible
seed, which we came forth from Adam, corrupted, but of incorruptible
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, which we
know is Christ's seed. He gives us life. We're now born
of him and we have life in him and that's why we grow and walk
in him and seek to know him more and more because that's what
he works in his people. And so this regeneration is declared
in verses 34 and 36 of our text, Mark 6, 34 and 36. And Jesus,
when he came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion
toward them because they were a sheep not having a shepherd,
and he began to teach them many things. The Spirit begins to
teach us many things about the Lord. And then we see in verse
36, when they were getting ready to send them away, it says, let
them go and get bread because they have nothing to eat. they
were getting hungry. And it's a picture to show us
that under the teaching of the Lord, as the Lord teaches us,
and we hear his word, and we see what we are by nature, we
hear the redemption that he's accomplished with his own blood,
we hear of the life that he gives by his spirit, that they hear
these things, he makes us hungry, hungry for Christ. He gives us
a hunger that can only be satisfied by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so What we see here is that
spiritual truth that, well, just naturally, dead people don't
get hungry and thirsty, right? No one that is dead is hungering
and thirsting anymore because they're dead. Living people,
people who are alive, get hungry and they thirst. And that's a
picture spiritually as well. When we're dead spiritually,
we don't hunger and thirst after the Lord. We could care less
about Him. We think very little of Christ when we're dead spiritually.
But when He gives us life, when He works life in us, that's when
we begin to get hungry and thirsty for the Lord. That's when we
begin to say, Lord, I want to know more. Lord, help me. Have
mercy upon me. Draw me to yourself. Give me
your spirit. I want to know you, Lord. And so he works that in
us. That's a living soul that's living and breathing and desiring
for the Lord to do a work for them, to have mercy upon them.
Lord, help me, the sinner says. I see that you do it for others.
Help me, have mercy upon me, Lord. Don't pass me by. So he
gives us that hunger and that thirst. And that's why he says
in Matthew 5, 6, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
for righteousness, for they shall be filled. He gives us that life
in him. All right. Now, finally, Christ
sends out his servants. So our ministry is one of reconciliation. God has reconciled us to Christ.
We want to see others, others of his children, being reconciled
to Christ. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.18,
All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. And then he said a little before
that in 2 Corinthians 4, 1 and 2, seeing we have this ministry,
as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty. not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God." So we're just speaking honestly with people. We're not
trying to set ourselves up as something that we're not. We're
sinners, too, who are saved by grace. We have been saved by
Christ. And so it's not about making ourselves out to be something
that we're not and that we're something special. It's that
we're sinners saved by grace, and we're declaring that same
word to sinners who need His grace and mercy. And if they're
His, it's been done, the work's been done, and He'll give them
life, they'll hear it, they'll receive it, and they'll be joined
with the Lord's people. And so in our text, our Lord
sends his disciples away in a ship. Now, we won't look at it, but
they go off into a very contrary wind. He sends them into a storm. And that's what we're being sent
out into a storm. We're being sent into a world
that is contrary to us, contrary to our doctrine, contrary to
the Lord. Naturally, we don't love the
Lord. We hate the Lord. But straightway we see that he
constrained his disciples to get into a ship in verse 45 and
to go to the other side before and to Bethsaida while he sent
away the people. But notice, after he sent them
away in verse 46, Christ departed into a mountain to pray. And
that's our comfort, is that the Lord still does that. He still
intercedes for us, brethren. Yes, we're going into contrary
waters and contrary wind in a world that hates his gospel, but he's
interceding for us. He's going with us. Hebrews 7.25,
wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them." And so Matthew 28, 19, and 20 says, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you. And lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. And what has he commanded us?
As we saw today, he commands us, give ye them to eat. Give ye them to eat. So we're
to preach and to declare and feed feed others with Christ
to declare what Christ has done that that we're sinners he's
gracious and has bought his people with his own blood and he gives
them life in him and they grow and desire him and walk in him
so I pray the Lord will bless that word to our hearts and help
us give us a heart to serve him and to know him all right let's
pray and then we'll we'll take the Lord's Supper our gracious
Lord Father, we thank you for the view that we see of your
mercy and compassion. Lord, help us to to see this,
to not see you as a harsh and austere man who's demanding and
exacting. Lord, if we meet you outside
of Christ, that's exactly how you would be, because we are
not righteous in ourselves and we don't do those things that
please you. But Lord, We look to Christ and we come to you
in the name of the Son of God, your Son, Jesus Christ, Lord,
trusting in his blood, knowing that, Lord, we're sinners and
not able to work a righteousness for ourselves, but that you sent
the Son for this very purpose, to shed his blood, to cover us
and to cleanse us from our sin. Lord, we thank you for your spirit
that gives us life And enables us to see the kingdom of God
Lord draw us with your cords of love and mercy in Christ and
Lord help us to To speak of these things with others as we see
your leading make us sensitive to your To your leading of the
Spirit Lord and help us to remember to speak with these words seasoning
our conversation of the ruin of man, the redemption of the
blood of Christ by His blood, and the regeneration that we
have, life by the Spirit. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.