All right, turn back with me
to Mark chapter 6. And we were just reading that,
and I thought, boy, if you'd like to have the cliff notes
of this message, that song was it. Let's read over these verses
one more time. Mark chapter 6, beginning with
verse 35. 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. He
answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they
say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred penny worth of
bread and give them to eat? He saith unto them, How many
loaves have you? 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 and they did all eat and were filled. And they
took up twelve baskets full of the fragments and of the fishes. And they that did eat of the
loaves were about five thousand men. Now here is the account
that we have before us. These people are out in a desert
place. Remember from last week, our
Lord said, let's get in this ship and go to the other side
of the Sea of Tiberias, which is also called the Sea of Galilee. And the people followed. They
outran the ship. They were all waiting on him
on the other side. And now they're out in a desert place where there
is nothing. And they have nothing. They brought nothing with them
to eat. It's just nothing. But the Lord in His goodness
and in His mercy and in His grace, His kind, tender compassion,
He took something that was so small. He took something that
was so insufficient. Something that could never in
and of itself feed that crowd. And he blessed it. He just blessed it. And he said,
now I want you to deliver that to the people. You take this
to each and every one of them and you feed them with it. And
every soul, every single soul that reached into that basket,
out of a need, pulled out something that would satisfy his hunger.
Every single soul. It never ran dry. Never. Every soul was fed. Now can we already see the gospel
in that? We can already see the gospel
in that, can't we? Verse 35 says, When the day was now far spent,
his disciples came unto him and said, This is a desert place. And I don't know of a more fearful
truth than that right there. I don't know of a more fearful
truth than that right there. This is a desert place. This right here is a desert place. All of this area, Kingsport,
Tri-Cities, Tennessee, America, this world, it's a desert place. Turn with me over to the book
of Amos. I'm going to give you a minute
to find it because I want everybody to look at it with me. It's at
the end of the Old Testament. If your Bible is like mine, it's
page 1147. We're going to go to Amos chapter
eight. Amos chapter eight. It's after Hosea, it's after
Daniel, it's before Micah, and it's before Habakkuk and all
those other ones we can't find. Amos chapter 8, all right. Verse
11 says, Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord God, and I'll tell you we're in them. He said, the days
are coming and I'm going to tell you, we are in them. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread. You know,
when a famine comes through the land, the crops won't grow. They
don't have any corn, they don't have any wheat, that kind of
stuff. But he said, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from
sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. They shall
run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find
it. That's what the Lord said. Now,
materially speaking, materially speaking, everybody
is doing fine. Everybody's doing fine if we
have floors and not dirt in our houses. We are ahead of oh Man
how much of this world? Everybody's doing fine But I'll
tell you what we do not have anymore I'll tell you what is
not Plentiful anymore it is getting harder and harder to find and
this is the truth. Here's the answer the actual
words of the Lord The actual words of the Lord. Men are not
holding it anymore. They have a Bible. Every hotel,
open a drawer under the lamp, there's a Bible in there. They
have a Bible. But it's a translation of a translation
of a translation. It's not what God said. And when
it goes from English to English to English to English, that's
not a translation, that's an interpretation. I think this
would make it more clear if we would say it this way. They change it and they change
it, trying to make it easier to understand. But I tell you
this, here's the truth. God's Word is easy enough to
understand. God's actual word is as clear
and as plain as it gets. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Why don't we change? Why don't we say it this way? It is as clear as it gets. The
problem is, is men don't like it. They just don't like it. And in the name of trying to
explain it, what they're doing is they're explaining it away.
Just explaining it away. This is a desert place. It really
is. And the truth of that, though,
it goes much deeper. Turn with me over to Matthew
chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4 verse 1 says,
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to
be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty
days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered. And when
the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command
that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It
is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Now our Lord is
not saying that metaphorically. He's not saying that metaphorically.
God has given men three score and ten. Seventy years, maybe
a little more, maybe a little less. But if man does not eat
actual bread, meat, nourishment during that time, he will die. You don't eat, you will not continue
to live. But that's just a physical death.
That's just a physical death. Once man dies physically, if
he does not possess, if he has not received If he has not fed
on and tasted and been nourished by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God, he'll die spiritually forever. That's the
truth. That's the truth of the matter.
Man shall not live. We're talking about eternal life.
This world is so fast, it's going to be over. Eternity is forever. And man shall not live by bread
and water alone. It must be by every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of God. And this is what we need
to all understand. We are not born into this world
naturally possessing this heavenly bread. You know, a little baby
comes into the world, so perfect, it's so cute, smells good. It's not that we had it, oh,
he sinned and lost it. We never had it. We never had
it. This right here, this whole area,
here and here and here, this is a desert place. That's the
truth. This is a desert place. And that's
what our text is telling us. Go with me back over to Mark
6. Verse 35 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. He
answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they
say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred penny worth of
bread and give them to eat? What the disciples are saying
right here is we don't have anything for them.
That's what they're saying. We can't feed them. And I'm going to tell you something.
I know that feeling. I am well acquainted with that
feeling. God gives his ministers a heart
for his sheep. The same way he gives a husband
a heart for his wife and a parent a heart for his or her child. God gives his ministers a heart
for his sheep. They said, Lord, they're hungry.
I can see it in them. They're hungry. They need bread, and
we can't do anything for them. We cannot do anything for them. Should we send them away? Now,
let me tell you my honest heart's desire for you. I promise you
this is a look into my heart and soul. This is my honest heart's
desire for you. Some of you I've known for years
and years and years. Some of you I've had the privilege
of knowing for the last few years. Some of you I just met. But I'm
telling you, this is my heart's desire for you. I want you to
feed on God's Word. That's what I want every time
we come here. Every time we come here. I don't want you to look
at me. I don't want you to pat me on
the back. I don't want you to give a lot of money to this building
so we can compete with the best of them in town. I want you to
be fed on God's Word, truly fed, no matter who you hear the gospel
from. I just want you to hear the gospel, really. No matter
who God uses to open your eyes and my eyes, I just want our
eyes to be open. If I've never seen Christ truly
in His glory, show me today. You know how many preachers God
has saved? Show me today. Open my eyes today. If the day ever comes that the
Word of God is not very clearly set forth here, leave this place. Should we send them away? Go
find it. Go find food. Go find the Word
of God. I'm telling you, there is one
thing needful. We are, we are screaming, we're
drag racing to the end of this life. It's coming up quick and
we don't need anything but this word and the one who spoke it.
That's all we need. That is all we need. There is
one thing needful. Man shall not live We're here
to talk about life, life, eternal life. Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of
God. This is what our Lord said. Buy the truth and sell it not. Don't sell it for anything. Verse 35, 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. He
answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. Don't send
them away. They're here at the feet of Christ.
They're all gathered here at the feet of Christ. They've all
come to the table of the Lord Jesus Christ. They've brought
their need to Him. Don't send them away. You feed
them. You feed them. I love this so much. Turn with
me over to John 21. John 21, look at verse 12. Jesus saith unto them, Come and
dine. And none of the disciples durst
ask him, Who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord? Jesus then
cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them fish likewise. Same
thing, bread and fish. Verse 14 says, This is now the
third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after
that he was risen from the dead. So when they had dined, Jesus
saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these? Simon Peter is the one who just
denied the Lord three times. And in verse 15, when they had
dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord.
And I can envision his answer and his demeanor not being, Yea,
Lord. I can see him going, Yea, Lord. He just cussed him. I don't know
the man. He said in verse 15, Thou knowest
that I love thee. The Lord said unto him, Feed
my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon son of
Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord.
Thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time,
Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, Thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my
sheep. If you love me, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Give them what
will nourish them. Give them what will satisfy them
and sustain them and comfort them. What is that? every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Give them that. Give them that. Go with me back
to Mark 6, verse 37. He answered and said unto them,
Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall
we go and buy two hundred penny worth of bread, and give them
to eat? Now this account is recorded
in all four Gospels. And in John's account of this,
Philip is the one who said, Two hundred penny worth of bread
is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a
little. The Lord said, you give me. So
they reached into their pocket and they said, Lord, we have
200 pennies. It says there were 5,000 men.
And in the other gospels, it says beside the women and children,
you think about a man was married back in those days. How many
children did he have? There could have been 10, 15, 20, 25, 30,000
people sitting there. We have 200 pennies. If we go buy that much bread,
that's not enough for every person here to even get one crumb on
the tip of their tongue. What's that going to do? I'm telling you this this morning.
If this message is left up to me this morning, I want to be
fed and I want you to be fed. That's my heart's desire. But
if this message this morning, if this meal is left up to me,
we're not going to get crumbs this morning. We are not going
to even get crumbs. Verse 38, He said unto them,
the Lord said, How many loaves have you? Go and see. I read
that as if He's saying, O ye of little faith, go get what
you have. How many loaves have you? Go and see. And when they
knew, they say, Five and two fishes. They had this food in
their hand. He said, you go get what you
have. So here they come back and they have this food in their
hand. He said, what do you have? They said, five loaves and two
fishes. And here they are holding this food and they're looking
at it and they're looking at it and they keep looking at it
and they keep looking at each other and then they look at it
and then they look at it and they cannot see how they're going
to feed the people with this. I've been there. Yes, I have some food here. What I personally possess of
it is not enough. I'm telling you, it is not enough. Don't look to me for your spiritual
need. I'm going to disappoint you.
I don't have enough. That's the position that God
puts every true servant of his in. He does not really have a
heart to go out and write another book and put his name on it and
put DR. in front and take out ads on
ABC and, oh man, don't listen to me. If you're not looking
at it in black and white, don't listen to me. I know I have some food here.
I know I do. But what I have to give them
is so insufficient. Who is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient for these things? With man, it's impossible. When
God blesses us, if He sends His Spirit into this place, and we
all, and He allows me to also feed on the Word, and we all
just say, isn't the Lord wonderful? As soon as we walk out of here,
and I get into my car, and I put my key into that ignition, and
I turn that ignition, you know what I think? Well, now what
do I say? Now what? Who is sufficient for these things?
With man, I'm telling you, it's impossible. Lord, what would
you have me to do? Go with me over to Matthew's
account of this. Turn with me to Matthew 14. Matthew 14 verse 15 and when it was evening
the 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. This is all I have. All I have
is your word. He said, You bring it to me. Bring it to me. Get in that study
and you open up that word and you bring it to me. to those who have come out of
great need, those who are gathered, those who see the fact that they
are nothing and they have nothing. And if they stay in the desert
place that they're in, they're going to die in that place. Bring
them to me. Bring them to me. When you open
up that word, you point them to me. You point them to me. If there is a spiritual hunger
in... We're out in that desert place
and I'm hungry. If there's a hunger there, you
bring them to me. You tell them, come to me and they'll never hunger again.
You tell them, I'm the living bread. I'm the eternal living
bread of heaven. You tell them, come to me and
they'll never hunger again. You tell them, if you're hungry,
right there. You all hungry? Yep, right there.
Anybody else? Right there. If they're thirsty, you tell
them, come to me. Take of the water of life freely. If they're weary, if they're
tired, you tell them, come to me. I'll give them rest. I mean, I'll give them eternal
rest. If they're broke, flat broke,
if they are nothing and if they have nothing, you stand up and
cry, he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come buy
wine and milk without money and without price. You just bring
them to me. Just bring them to me. Let me
tell you something that is, we're just going to stop the sermon
and I'm going to just tell you something. Salvation is in a
real man. It's not in a mindset. It's not
in having all this jumbled doctrine. Okay, let's see. Now this piece
goes here and that piece goes there. Oh, had that one wrong.
This one goes up here. Salvation is in a real man. The God-man. I mean a real man. Life is in a real man. The God-man. There's a man sitting
right there. Right now, at this moment, there's
a man sitting right there. And more real than that man is
sitting right there is a man seated in the heavens on his
throne right now. And through his shed blood, because
of the payment of that man's shed blood, you now may come
boldly. right up to the throne of His
grace that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. I can feed on that. Man, a hungry soul can feed on
that. Isn't that satisfying to a soul? Back in Mark 6, verse 38 says, 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. When it comes
to the issue of life, this quickening feeding of the soul, man must
sit down. Don't do anything. I want life. What must I do to be saved? Sit
down and don't do anything. Sit down. God must do it all. It must start in his heart. It
must be by his will, by his work, in his time. God will do it all.
Verse 39, 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. Here we sit in our little company. Everybody's in rows. ready and
waiting. Verse 41 says, And when he had
taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven,
and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples
to set before them. And the two fishes divided he
among them all. And they did all eat, and were
filled. And they took up twelve baskets
full of the fragments and of the fishes. And they that did
eat of the loaves were about five thousand men." Our Lord alone did everything
we just read. He did this. He took it. He said, you bring it to me.
He took it. He looked up to heaven. He blessed
it, and He broke it. And I'm going to tell you, that's
how we inherited life, life, eternal life. He said, A body
hast thou prepared me, and He took it. And for thirty-three
and a half years, He walked this earth perfectly looking up to
heaven. Everything He did was absolute, sinless perfection. And God blessed it. He said,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased, and then He
broke it. Isn't that what he did? He broke
it. He said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And
having said thus, he gave up the ghost. He said, this is my
body which is broken for you. He broke it. I thought about
this. It says they all ate, they were
filled, they took up all these fragments and 5,000 men I thought
about a couple of things in that event. I'm sure they started
feeding people in the front. Our Lord had the bread and the
fish, and he handed them those baskets, handed them to his disciples,
and I'm sure they started feeding people in the front. And I envisioned
quite a few people sitting in the back. 30,000 people or however many people
are back there watching all this here they go around with these
baskets I don't know how big the baskets were But I envision some of them looking
at each other Saying I hope there's something
left for me. I Hope there's something left
for me I'm so hungry. I'm just so empty I I have such
a great need out here in this desert place. Will there be one crumb left
for me? Is the work that I just saw Christ
do right up there, the work that He did, did He do enough for
all who have come, who are hungry with this need? Did He do enough
for all of us? I mean all of us. Is there going
to be enough for me? Philip walks up with this basket
and he asked Philip, is there anything left in there? Philip
said, all you can hold. Take all you want. Here, go back
for more. Reach in again. Would you like
more? Can you hold? That's all I can
hold. Get more anyway. Our Lord said, Open your mouth
wide and I'll fill it. David said, My cup's running
over. I can't hold anymore. Well, I'm not going to stop pouring. I thought about the apostles,
too. Bless their little hearts. I wonder if they thought, I hope
there's enough left over for me. Here they are, walking up
and down these rows, person to person, giving out this food,
this bread, this fish. This is what our Lord said. He
said, And it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together. Twelve apostles passed out all
this food, and when it was all said and done, they had twelve
baskets left over, one for every apostle. I get to eat, too? Yes, you do. All you can hold. You just cannot exhaust the Lord,
can you? You cannot exhaust the Lord. Oh man, His goodness and His
mercy and His grace. Sometimes I think, was there
one drop of blood left for me? There's a fountain filled with
blood, drawn straight from God's veins. When a sinner comes to Christ,
This is what he finds out. When a sinner truly in the heart
comes to Christ, this is what he finds out. Not only is Christ
all I need, He is actually unsearchable riches. Wealth that can never
be told. Once a sinner has Him, that sinner
realizes, I have it all. Man, I have it all. Now let me ask you this question.
I'm going to close with this question. Are you hungry? Man, you stand up. I've taken
it. I've blessed it. I've broken
it. Stand up and ask, is anybody hungry? You go to him. If you're hungry,
you go to him. Don't come to me. Don't come
right down here. That won't do you no good. In
this area, somewhere in this area right here, you go to him.
and He will fill your empty soul, and then He'll fill mine too.
All right, let's stand together.