Go with me, if you would, back
to Matthew chapter 14. May the Lord bless us tonight.
That's my prayer. Matthew 14, let's read these
verses again, beginning in verse 15. And when it was evening, his
disciples came to him saying, this is a desert place and the
time is now past. Send the multitude away that
they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals.
But Jesus said unto them, they need not depart, give ye them
to eat. And they say unto him, we have
here but five loaves and two fishes. He said, bring them hither
to me. And he commanded the multitude
to sit down on the grass and took the five loaves and the
two fishes. And looking up to heaven, he
blessed and break and gave the loaves to his disciples and the
disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat and were
filled. And they took up of the fragments
that remained 12 baskets full. And they that had eaten were
about 5,000 men beside women and children." I have something tonight that
I believe is very relevant to where we are in this life that
we live right now on this earth. This most definitely applies
to me. I know for a fact that this applies
to me. I believe this applies to you. I strongly believe that, meaning
I know that. But I pray the Lord will let
me convey this properly. I pray he will. I believe this
will be an honest reminder of where our source and our relief
of everything is. Reading this story, this account,
this particular time, I have preached from this account many
times. You have heard the account of
the Lord feeding the multitudes many times. But when I read it this time,
I saw an honesty in this. I saw an honesty that met me
right where I was. And I needed it. And I believe it's gonna meet
you right where you are. I sincerely do. Let's see if
the wording of this account will illustrate to us where we are
and what we desperately need as God's people right now, tonight. I've titled this message, A Wednesday Night Dilemma. Now I'm gonna show you why I've
titled it that. If you look at verse 15, it says, And when it was evening," here we are this evening, "'When
it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, "'This is
a desert place, and the time is now past. "'Send the multitude
away, that they may go into the villages "'and buy themselves
food.'" Victuals means food. These disciples represent God's
preachers who come to the Lord on behalf
of God's people. And this is what God's preachers
say, and this is what they plead on their behalf. And I'm speaking
from experience here. This is what God's preachers
say and plead and beg on behalf of God's people. Lord, they are
hungry. They're hungry. I can't tell you how much I'm
entering into this, how much I did enter into this and do
enter into this. There's just an honesty from
me, and I believe there's going to be from all of us tonight.
My study begins every time with me thinking about you, every
time. It honestly does every time I
think about the ones I'm going to be preaching to every single
time. And I think about the fact that
you need to be fed. That's what I'm thinking about.
You need to be fed. I need to be fed. I'm one of
you. And I think of myself in both ways,
I think of myself as the distributor and receiver. I honestly do.
We need to be fed. That's what we need. In a completely
different account over in the book of Mark, our Lord fed another
great multitude of people. Because it says, He had compassion
on them because they had been with Him for three days and had
not had any food. Nothing to eat for three days.
I think about that especially on Wednesday, every Wednesday. It has now been Monday, Tuesday,
and all day Wednesday since we've had a spiritual meal together
last Sunday night. And I know that we still have
three more days. We have Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday before we will meet together again on Sunday morning.
But Sunday morning is different. It's just different. You wake
up Sunday morning knowing we're gonna go worship the Lord today.
It's the first thing on your mind Sunday morning. We're gonna
go worship the Lord today. You wake up with a different
mindset. You wake up with a different heart. You wake up with a different
outlook. But on Wednesday, you've been working all day. You've been out in the world
all day. You have been burdened all day. You are tired. You are distressed by things. You are distracted by things. And the one thing that I desperately
want for you, and I'm always included in you, is we need to
be fed. We need to be fed. I do not,
I am not interested in coming here, spending our time, going
through our motions. We all know how we do the songs.
We know how to do it. Every now and then we'll surprise
it with a special. I don't want to go through all
that, give the outline. You know, we did Calvinism and
now we'll go home. I don't want to do, I'm not interested
in that. We need to be fed. That's what we need. We need
to be fed. And here's the thing about it.
I know that this is a desert place. And I know that this is a desert
place. You are a desert place. I know
that I'm a desert place. Do you ever know that you're
a desert place? Do you ever feel like a desert? Dry, parched,
empty. I know that this is a desert
place. Here is my and your and all of
our dilemma. This is our dilemma. In myself,
I have nothing to provide to you. I have nothing to provide to you.
In yourself, you have nothing to provide for you. I come in just wanting to be
blessed and fed. And I believe that you have times
where you're in that frame of mind, where you come in just
begging to be fed. And if I could do it for you,
I would. And if you could do it for yourself,
you would. But I have nothing that I can
do and you have nothing that you can do in this world has
nothing that it can do. This is a desert place. I'm faced
with this every single week. Tonight, I'm just I'm going to
just tell you what it's like to be a pastor, OK? I'm faced
with it every single week. But we must be fed. We must be
fed. God's preachers know and they
acknowledge, Lord, this meal is going to have to come from
somewhere else than this right here. It's going to have to. I don't have it in me, I don't
have anything in me. As empty as you come to the table,
that's how empty I come to the table. You know, well, the preacher,
he's just, you know, he's just always in the spirit and then
he just got the message. And no, we don't. As soon as
we deliver it, we don't have a message again until God gives
us one. Every week, every service, God's
preachers know their calling. They know what they've been called
to do. They know that the lot is cast into their lap. They
know woe is unto them if they don't feed God's sheep. They
hear the voice of the Master in His Word to them. You feed
them. You feed them. Look at verse
16. Verse 15, they said, Send them away. They need to eat.
Look at verse 16. But Jesus said unto them, They
need not depart. Give ye them to eat. You feed
them. I've called you to this task. So every service, Bible study,
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, every service,
God's preachers find themselves wondering and asking, what are
we going to eat? What are we gonna eat? This is
our constant dilemma. What are we gonna eat? You mothers
and you wives who faithfully put food on your tables for your
families, whether you cook it or buy it, it doesn't matter
either way. You feel like you're constantly asking yourselves,
what are we gonna eat? If that response, and we're talking
about cornbread in the study, you men do it too, okay? Whoever's
task it is, whoever the lot is cast in your lap, you constantly
find yourself asking, what are we gonna eat? You decide to have
company over and you ask yourself, what are we gonna eat? What are
we gonna eat? You know it's going to be food. Doesn't that seem like a silly
thought that it would be anything other than food? You know that
you're not going to serve sticks and rocks to your company and
say, well, there you go. You're not going to make mud
pies like we used to do as kids. You know, you take water and
put it in dirt and you make mud and you know, well, there you
go. You're not asking yourself, am
I going to feed them food or not? You know you're going to feed
them food. True food. And here's the thing
about it. The gospel preacher knows it's
going to be Christ. He knows that. Every time, he knows that. He
knows it's going to be Christ. He knows that it's not going
to be wood, hay, or stubble. He knows it's not going to be
law. He knows it's going to be grace. The people know it too. You didn't come here tonight
expecting me to preach works. You didn't. Those of you who
have eaten here before, spiritually speaking. You didn't come here
tonight expecting me to preach man's works for our salvation. What are we going to eat tonight?
Well, how about man's works for salvation? We haven't eaten that
in a long time. We don't wonder that. We know what the food is. But what portion of Scripture
is it going to come from? What light are we going to see
it in? Will we approach it from a learning point of view, a declaring
point of view, a comforting point of view? We know, but we don't
know. Verse 17 says, And they say unto Him, We have
here but five loaves and two fishes." They were holding the
food. They didn't bring it, it was
provided for them. The Lord put a lad there and said, look, behold,
a lad has five loaves and two fishes. The Lord did not take what they
were holding and turn it into something completely different
and serve that to the people. They were holding in their hands
the very thing that the people ate. That bread and those fish. That represents Christ. Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Bread
of Heaven. The sustaining sustenance of
God. The preacher knows it's Christ. The preacher holds the very Word
of Christ in his hands. But here's his dilemma. How? And I'm telling you, this
is not play on words, this is not cute. This is the preacher's
dilemma. How do I feed God's people when
I personally in my flesh retain so little of it? Here's what I know I have. Okay,
this is what I know I have. God's free and sovereign grace. God's gift to his people. Blood. A brother just read Leviticus 17
for us. Thank God for the blood. Oh,
the life is in the blood. I was thinking about that as
you read that. The life is in the blood. The blood that God shed to cover
sins, the blood that washes away sins, truly washes away our sins. Mercy. Freedom from judgment because
of that blood. Mercy. Sparing of condemnation from
God because of His grace in giving the blood. Forgiveness. Forgiveness with God. Redemption
to God. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I know I have that. But how could I possibly take
what limited amount my flesh is able to hold on to of this and make it so that God's people
leave this place feeling so full? I know I've got it in my hands.
I know I do. It's right here. But how can
I Make it so that God's people leave here feeling so full, they're
just going out and going, oh, my cup is running over. I'm just so, I just was so fed. How? This is a desert place. I'm a
desert place. You're a desert place and we
both know it. How? Look at verse 18. I'm telling
you, oh my goodness. I've been reading this verse
all week long. He said, bring them to me. The remedy for our dilemma. There's the remedy for a Wednesday
night dilemma. and a Sunday morning dilemma
and a Sunday night dilemma. As empty, deserted vessels, there's
our remedy. He said, bring them hither to
me. The words of nourishment, the ones who need to be nourished,
He said, bring them to me. They were saying, Lord, What
do we do? How? What do we do? Bring them to me. Just point them to me. You just look at them and then
look at me and just tell them right there. Our Lord said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. He said, my sheep will hear my
voice and they'll follow me. He said, if any man thirst, let
him come to me. In Isaiah 44, he said, I have
blotted out as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a
cloud thy sins return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. Isaiah
45, he said, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth, for I am God and there is none else. I have sworn by
myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return. that unto me every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say, in the
Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall men
come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall
glory. Go to him. Go to Him. Eat ye that which
is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. How? If you sit there right now saying,
I'm a desert place, how? Hearken diligently unto Him. Go to Him. Just go to Him. He said, this is my body broken
for you, and this is my blood shed for you. That is our meat
and our drink indeed. He said, if I be lifted up, and
he was, he said, I will draw all to me. You just bring them to me." They
were in just such distress and he said, you just bring them
to me. As soon as they heard that, they placed that small
amount of food in his hands. And they told all those precious
people, right this way, You just go right past me, come this way
and here's what you do. Just bypass me. You don't need
to stop at me. Don't even look at me. You're
going to that man right there. You just go to him. Are you hungry? Go to him. I can't do anything
for you. Don't look at me. Don't stop
at me. Go to him. Just go to him. Verse 19 says, And He commanded
the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five
loaves and the two fishes. God took Christ. And looking up to heaven, He
blessed. And He break. He blessed Christ. He broke Christ. And he gave
the loaves to his disciples and the disciples gave it to the
multitude. And how relieved they were and
how thankful they were, he took it, he blessed it, he broke it,
he handed it back to his servants and he said, you just pass it
along. Just pass it along. And they said, gladly, we will
gladly do that. I will gladly just pass along
to you what God Almighty has done for His people. Verse 20,
And they did all eat, and were filled, and they took up of the
fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had
eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. If the Lord blesses it, it will
be blessed. If the Lord provides, we'll be
provided for. I want to say two things about
this and I'll close. Number one, not one crumb was left on
the ground to be trampled on by man. Not one crumb was wasted. Not one ounce of it was given
in Bain. All that remained was taken up.
It was all taken up. I wonder what happened to all
that food that was taken up. Have you ever wondered that?
You've envisioned all of this and they took all that up. I
wonder what really happened to all that food that they took
up. Based on the specifics given,
I believe I have a pretty good idea. It doesn't say. but based on
the specifics given, I believe I have a pretty good idea. Verse
15 says, when it was evening, His disciples. You see that? His disciples. Verse 19 says,
down toward the end of it, it says, He gave the loaves to His
disciples. What can we know about His disciples? Let's look at Matthew 10. Matthew 10. Verse 1 says, And when He had
called unto Him His twelve disciples, What can we know about them?
There were 12 of them. After they finished passing out
all of that food to the point that everybody there was stuffed
to the gills, when they took up all of the
food that remained, there were 12 whole baskets left, one for
every disciple. You know they were hungry, too. All that food they were giving
out, you know they were thinking, I need to feed on this, too.
They were doling it out, and they were doling it out, and
they were thinking, I'd love to feed on this, too. I hope
some is going to be left. Lord, I'm so happy that all of
my brethren are being fed. I really am. That's what I want
for them. But will there be any left for me? Our Lord said, give and it'll
be given unto you. Press down, shaken together. I'm telling you, I have so many
times, honestly, so many times I have come here to do the task
that has been laid on me. And I've come here so deserted. I'll have notes, I'll have this
thing of notes. And I think, what in the world
do I even have here? And I'm trying to get my mind
around it, my brain around it. I'm saying, please, Lord, please
just feed everybody in spite of me. Even if you don't feed
me, just feed them. And I've had times that after
just doling out the meal that the Lord has provided, I have
walked out of this place feeling so full. Just so full. I've walked out
of this place thanking God. He fed me too. Thank you, Lord. My cup runs
over too. It's all because of what our
God continually does for us, His people. And that's what I
want us to come to the end of this dilemma, realizing every
time it's a dilemma. Every time it's a dilemma. But
our God is so good to us. He's so faithful to us. He's
so supplies to us. And every time, to the servant
and to the one being served, I can only imagine that 25 that
they had big families back then, women and children, you know,
how many thousands and thousands and thousands of people? And
they said, everybody sit down. We're about to serve dinner.
And they looked at those five loaves and two fishes and thought,
how? How am I going to be fed? The
servants were saying, how am I going to feed them? And they
were saying, how am I going to be fed? Every single time, every
time we come to that dilemma, here's the answer. Bring them
to me. Bring them to me. If we can just
get to Christ, we'll be fed. To Him be glory forever. Amen. Stand together with me.