Turn with me, if you would, back
to John 6. John 6. In thinking on what to bring
for this message, I thought about our fellowship dinner. And it
made me think of another dinner in the scripture, a very well-known
meal where our Lord fed 5,000 men, not counting the women and
children. So I turned over here to John
6, and I read this, and this is the first thought that came
to my mind. Our Lord was so kind and generous to do this. He was so kind and so generous
to do this, and there's a real reason why. There's a real reason
why I felt that and thought that in my heart. And we're gonna
see what that is. And that's what I've titled this
message. That's what we're gonna see,
the kindness and generosity of the Lord. the kindness and generosity
of the Lord. We're gonna see that physically
in this story, and that will reveal something spiritually
to us. By the physical details of this
story, we're gonna see that all the glory for everything that
happened here goes to our Lord. All the praise, it goes to our
Lord. This story very much glorifies
him. Glorifies, it exposes his kindness,
his generosity. And that's all I want us to focus
on for this message. I feel like I have a very, very
straightforward, very simple, we're just gonna this morning
focus on his kindness and generosity. When it comes to salvation, when
it comes to a sinner's salvation, it is all because of the Lord's
kindness and generosity. I mean, that's it. It's all because
of that. It has nothing to do with the
sinner. It's nothing in the sinner. There's no reason coming from
the sinner. It's all because of the kindness
and generosity of the Lord. Let's look at this physical story,
okay? Chapter 6, verse 1, it says, after these things, these
things that happened in chapter 5, and let me just tell you,
we'll read a couple of verses here, but it starts with our
Lord healing a man on the Sabbath day. And he was reprimanded by the
church, by the Pharisees for that. And he declared to them
who he truly was. He declared who he really was.
If you look at chapter 5, verse 20, this is what he said to them.
He said, the father loveth the son and showeth him all things
that himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these
that you may marvel. For as the father raiseth up
the dead and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth whom
he will sovereignly, individually. Verse 22, for the Father judgeth
no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son. We're all
gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ. That all men
should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that
honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent
him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word
and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. and
shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto
life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and
now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God,
and they that hear shall live. What an awesome verse that is. The dead are gonna hear that
voice. They're dead, and all of a sudden,
boom. Verse 26, for as the Father hath
life in himself, So hath he given to the son to have life in himself
and hath given him authority to execute judgment also because
he's the son of man. Marvel not at this for the hour
is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear
his voice and shall come forth. They that have done good unto
the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto
the resurrection of damnation. He spelled it all out for them.
He spelled it all out for them. And they didn't believe him. They mocked him. And in verse 39, he said, you
spend all of your time searching the scriptures because you think
you have life in them, but you don't because you've missed me. Verse 39, search the scriptures
for in them you think you have life, and they are they which
testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. I receive not honor from men."
You hear everything he's saying here and what's going on here.
Verse 42, he said, I know you that you have not the love of
God in you. I thought about, while I was
studying this, I thought, what if the Lord Jesus Christ was
standing on the earth right now? Wouldn't it be amazing to just
hear what he would say to people? Shocking things. Shocking things. He would literally look at somebody
and say, I know you. I can see your heart and your
mind right now. And you don't have the love of
God in you. To his people, that would pierce them. But to a soul
that's still dead, it would have no reaction. Verse 43, I'm coming
in my father's name and you receive me not. If another shall come
in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe
which receive honor of one of another and seek not the honor
that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse
you to the father. There's one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom you trust. This word. Or had you believed
Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy said it's all about
me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe
my words? He was ridiculed, he was mocked,
he was dishonored, he was disbelieved. And chapter six, verse one says,
after all those things happened, 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. You know, he healed someone on
the Sabbath day. This big crowd gathered not because
they were interested in him, but interested in his miracles. That is the draw of men and women
today. It's not about him. It's about
what they can get out of him. It really is. It's about what
they can get out of him. Look at John chapter 2 verse
23. John 2, 23, now when he was in
Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed
in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. They didn't believe on him, they
believed in him. When they saw the miracles which
he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he
knew all men. And they did not that any should
testify of man, for he knew what was in man. He could look directly
into their hearts. And he didn't commit himself
to them. Because all they were interested in was what they could
get out of him. And that's still the case today.
Unless the father specifically draws a sinner to Christ, unless
the father opens a sinner's eyes to Christ, that sinner will come
to religion for all the wrong reasons. Every reason under the
sun, but the reason of Christ himself. And it takes God to
do that. I have a very simple message. I'm literally just gonna read
the story to you and make a couple of comments and we're gonna be
done. And I thought this is one of the simplest messages maybe
I've ever preached. And the thing that goes through
my mind is I want somebody to have life given to them. Somebody
who's never had life before, somebody who has had life before.
I want more life to be given. But I can't do it. I can't do
it. And even if I had this big, powerful
crescendo message, I still couldn't do it. We're gonna read these
words and if God would be willing, God's spirit will take God's
own word and he'll apply it to his own child and he'll feed. And unless God does that for
somebody, it's never gonna happen. People can only come to religion
for the wrong reason. That's all they can do. Go back to John 6, 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. And Jesus went up into
a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. He saw this
great multitude coming to him. Okay, here they all come, they're
coming to him. And he withdrew from them. He saw them come and he turned
and went up into a mountain. He withdrew from all of their
unbelief, the unbelief of this crowd, the self-righteousness
of this crowd, empty traditions of this crowd, and he went up
into a quiet place. And that's what happens to all
of God's people when salvation comes to them. That's what happens. He draws them away. They grow up in religion. They
grow up in the chaos of religion. They grow up in the blindness
and the lostness. Religion is so lost. They're
the most lost people. Those who are not in religion
know exactly what they want out of this life. So lost. And our Lord draws them
away. He separates them apart from
all the noise of false religion. False religion is noise. All the noise of error and all
the noise of lies and all the noise of idolatry, our Lord pulled
his disciples apart alone with himself. And that's what will
happen when salvation comes. A sinner will find himself or
herself alone with God. You say, what does that mean?
Well, I don't know how to put it into words really, but you'll
know. You'll know. You'll be alone
with Christ in your mind, in your heart, in your soul. It'll
be nothing else but Christ. That's when the wrong turns right. That's when the lies turn to
truth. That's when the idolatry turns
to worship, true worship. When a man or a woman gets alone
with Christ, I pray God would pull us apart and get us alone
with Christ. If that's gonna happen, a man or woman's gonna have to
be drawn to that place. A man or woman is gonna have
to be led to that place, and that's what happened here. Verse
three, Jesus went up, he led him up, into a mountain, and
there he sat with his disciples. Verse four says, and the Passover,
a feast of the Jews, was nigh. That's an amazing verse right
there. The Passover, a feast of the Jews, that's what it became. That's what it became. That's
what it turned into. Religion has a way of ruining
and tainting everything that God has given to man to point
him to Christ. The Passover lamb was a picture
of Jesus Christ. Moses wrote of it. Moses witnessed
it. And it was a picture of Jesus
Christ, that blood substitute for the sin of God's people.
Death had to come to every house. But God provided a lamb. He provided
a blood substitute lamb. And that blood substitute lamb
that God actually provided was actually standing right there
with them. in the flesh, not in type, not
in picture, in the flesh, and they couldn't see Him. They couldn't see Him. You know,
if our Lord came to earth right now and walked into a house of
false religion, they couldn't see Him. God's people could. because he's revealed himself
to God's people. But they would not be able to
see him. They could not see the actual Passover himself because
they were blinded by the feasts of their tradition. And that's
the one thing I would warn people of in religion. Get rid of your
traditions. Get rid of your traditions. That's
what's going on with men and women today. They can't see Christ
because they're so blinded by their religious traditions. Verse
five, when Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company
come unto him, he saith unto Philip, whence shall we buy bread
that these may eat? And this he said to prove Philip,
for the Lord himself knew what he would do. I love that verse. This multitude is blind and ignorant
to who he is, so the Lord asked one of his disciples, where do
you think their help is? Philip, where do you think their
help is? They're gonna have a need. Where do you think their need
could be supplied? Verse five, when Jesus then lifted up his
eyes and saw a great company coming to him, he said unto Philip,
whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said
to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. It was prophesied in the scriptures
what he would do. And I was gonna have you turn
to Isaiah 55, but I'm not going to. It says, ho, everyone that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that has no money, come, buy,
eat. Come buy milk, wine, without
money, without price. Why are you buying bread that
doesn't satisfy you? Hearken unto me diligently. Seek ye that which is good. There's
none good but God. Let your soul delight itself
in fatness. It was prophesied. He knew what
he would do. Our Lord knew that he was going
to show kindness and pity and compassion, but he asked one
of his disciples that question to prove that no man naturally
knows that unless he reveals it. The truth of His grace has to
be revealed. The truth of His mercy has to
be revealed. The truth of His kindness and
generosity, it has to be revealed. Lord, reveal it to us. The Lord said, Philip, where
can you buy bread that will fill these people and satisfy these
people? Verse 7, Philip answered Him,
200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every
one of them may take a little. He said, we only have 200 pennies. $2, that's all we have is $2. We're about to have a fellowship
dinner downstairs. Can you imagine if we had provided
$2 worth of food down there? What if we had provided $2 worth
of food? What'd we get? What'd we get
down there? Whatever $2 would buy. Everybody's just going to only
be able to take a little crumb of that. Crumb is not sufficient
to fill a man or a woman. Verse 7, Philip answered him,
200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every
one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother, said unto him, there's a lad here which
hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they
among so many? Oh, the doubt and unbelief. Don't
you wish you didn't doubt the Lord so much? Don't you wish you didn't doubt
the Lord so much? It ran not only in the Lord's enemies, but
it also ran in His disciples. Our Lord's about to teach them,
and He's about to teach us that we don't need to look to anything
but Him. Just look to Him. Verse 10, And Jesus said, Make
the men sit down. Oh, how patient our Lord is.
He's so patient. He didn't say, What in the world
is wrong with you all? He didn't reprimand them. He didn't reprimand them at all.
He didn't reprimand His disciples for their lack of faith. He didn't
reprimand the crowd for their ignorance and their error. Not
only did He not reprimand them, Matthew's account says He healed
all their sick. It says He had compassion on
the multitude and healed their sick. The first thing He did
is He healed them. Whoever had an ache, He healed them. This
is how kind and generous our Lord is to those who don't know
him for who he is. This is who he has stretched
forth his hand to, those who don't know him and don't love
him for who he really is. That was all of us. That was
all of us. That's who the elect of God are. That's who he chose to save.
In spite of him, he had compassion on him. And he healed him and
he fed him. That's what he did for us. That's what God does for every
single one of his sinful people in salvation. In his kindness,
in his generosity, to unworthy, ungodly sinners, he has compassion,
he heals, he feeds. I was gonna have you turn to
Psalm 103. Well, you think you want to go
or not? Let's go. Go to Psalm 103. You know, we could spend all
our time this morning focusing on the simpleness of man. We're
talking about it a lot, but the focus here is the kindness and
generosity of the Lord. He's just so kind. Aren't you
so glad this God is our God? He's so kind. Psalm 103 verse
1 says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within
me, bless his holy name. You think about David, the life
of David. Don't you think this man was
so thankful for the Lord, for who he is? Verse two, bless the
Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. who redeemeth
thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness
and tender mercies, who satisfies thy mouth with good so that thy
youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executeth righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his
ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. Watch
this, the Lord is merciful and gracious, and slow to anger,
and plenty us in mercy. That's the kind of Lord I need.
He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities. Proved it in John 6, didn't he?
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy
toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. 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. As for man, his days are as grass
as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind
passeth over it, it's gone, and the place thereof shall know
it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting
to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness
unto children's children. That's good news, isn't it? The
Lord our God is so kind and generous, he's merciful, he's compassionate,
and he's all of those things for Christ's sake. He's all of
those things because of the blood of Jesus Christ. If it were not
for the cross of Christ, no soul could be treated with this kindness
and favor from God. But because of the complete,
total redemption that's in Christ's blood, it's nothing but kindness
and generosity to every soul the Father chose to give it to.
Go back to John 6. Verse 10, and Jesus said, make the men
sit down. Now there was much grass in the
place. So the men sat down in number about 5,000. If the Lord
is going to truly do something for a man or a woman, the first
thing he's going to do is make that man or woman sit down. First,
it's the first thing. The first thing he will say to
them is, stop all your work. Stop all your labor. If we're
gonna be fed the bread of life, all activity has to stop. It
has to stop. It's that way every time. David
said, he makes me lie down in green pasture. He makes me do
it. Verse 10, Jesus said, make the
men sit down. Now there was much grass in the
place. So the men sat down in number
about 5,000 and Jesus took the loaves. And when he had given
thanks, he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to
them that were sat down and likewise of the fishes as much as they
would. If the Lord is going to truly
feed one of his own, he's going to use an instrument to do it,
a messenger. It says, he took the loaves,
he gave the thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and he told
the disciples to give it to the people. And he said, you give
them as much as they want. the end of verse 11, as much
as they would. If they want more, keep giving
it. And keep, if you need to do round two, round three, you
keep going. I always had it in my mind, one
round, okay, did you get your, you know, your ration? Okay,
that's your portion. I can only, I know me, in just
a minute, I'm probably gonna get seconds. I shouldn't, I'm
miserable every time. My cup runs over every time we
have one of these. Round two, anybody for round
three? There's plenty. Would anybody like round three?
As much as they want. You give them as much as they
want. You know, that's how it is in salvation. That's how it
is in salvation. Our Lord feeds his people and
feeds his people and feeds his people. And it's so good, it's so delicious,
it's so satisfying. He said, you open your mouth
wide and I'll fill it. I'll fill it with the bread of
heaven, the bread of life. What is this bread of life? Look
at verse 48 right here in John six. Our Lord said, I am the
bread of life. I'm the bread of life. Your fathers
did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread
which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and
not die. I'm the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. I'll
give myself to live on. God's people feed on Christ.
They feed on him freely. They feed on the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, think about this. In
the Old Testament Passover, you remember when it was given, they
were coming out of Egypt. One more plague. Death's coming
through the land. You lay hold of a lamb. Slay
that lamb, apply the blood. All right, in the Old Testament
Passover, when that lamb was slain and roast with fire, you
know what the people were to do with it? Eat it. Eat it. That lamb is Christ. He's the
bread of his people's life. Eat it. He's the only bread they need.
If you had to make a choice between physical bread or Jesus Christ,
which one would you take? He's the only bread his people
need. Verse 11, and Jesus took the loaves, and when they had
given things, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples
to them that were set down, and likewise of the fishes as much
as they would. When they were filled, when they
were filled with bread. Let me ask you a question. Does
Christ fill you? Is he the fullness of life to
you, the fullness of him that filleth all in all? Do you feel
complete in him? You are. Can you say, I'm satisfied
with him? I'm satisfied with him. I don't
think I'm going to go back to that church. I need something
more than Christ. All they have there is Christ.
That's not enough for me. I'm not satisfied with Christ
alone. God's people are. Christ is enough. I'm complete in him. Verse 12,
when they were filled, he said unto his disciples, gather up
the fragments that remain that nothing be lost. Nothing is wasted
when it comes to Christ. Not one word of his will return
void. Nothing concerning Christ will ever be lost. Nothing. Verse
12, when they were filled, he said unto his disciples, gather
up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore
they gathered them together and filled 12 baskets with the fragments
of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto
them that had eaten. Is Christ sufficient? Is he sufficient? Ask any soul who was sitting
there that day, is Christ sufficient? Is what he did sufficient? Was
that sufficient? Every one of them would say,
exceeding abundantly above. What he did, was that enough?
Exceeding abundantly above. You can ask any child of God
who has tasted Christ and has truly fed on the bread of Christ,
is Christ sufficient? Every one of them will say, exceeding
abundantly above. Verse 13, therefore they gathered
them together and filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five
barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that
had eaten. The disciples fed the people
and each one of them ended up with a whole basket for himself
to take home. 12 baskets, 12 disciples, 12 baskets. Usually, that's how I feel it
goes. Most of my begging on Sunday
morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night is, Lord, please help them
to enter in and feed on what you allowed me to enter in and
feed on. Don't let me mess it up. As the
server, as the servant here, don't let me trip or stumble. feed them, normally I give you
one meal and I end up with a whole basket full in the process. And that's how kind and generous
our Lord is. That's how kind and generous
our Lord is. He's so kind. The kindness and the generosity
of the cross that has made Christ to be the bread of life. Lord,
fill us with the bread. Fill us with Christ. Let us feed
on Christ. Satisfy our souls with Christ. Now, through all of eternity. You know, we're never, ever going
to stop feeding on Jesus Christ. For all of eternity, we're going
to say, Lord, give me Christ. And before we ask, we'll have
a table set. Amen.