John chapter 6. I know you have enjoyed going
through these Old Testament books with me. I sure have. You've
told me so yourself. Lord willing, Sunday morning
we'll look at Ecclesiastes. What a book. And then after that,
you know, the Song of Solomon. What a book. And then Isaiah. We have to look at the whole
book. Jeremiah and on and on it goes. But the Gospel of John,
what a book. In my mind, all that we've already
seen, chapter 1, 3, 6, here all through chapter 6. Oh, there's
so much here. This is the story of the Lord
feeding 5,000, and it's recorded in all four Gospels. That's significant. Most things are not recorded
in all four gospels, but this is. It tells us plainly that
Christ is our great provider of all things. I have many titles
that could have named this, the great provider or our Lord, the
great preacher, teacher, healer, feeder, savior, provider of all
things, but I've titled it the compassionate Lord. and Christ. Oh, the hymn, Give
All the Prophets Witness. Just the other day, my brother
Tommy Parker down in North Carolina, you're listening to this, Tommy,
I appreciate you. He reminded me of Elisha in 2
Kings chapter 4. They brought him some bread and
he said, give it to the people. And they said, there's not enough.
He said, give it to the people. And the Lord fed all the people. What a type that was of Christ.
Ezekiel 34, we could go over there and read all of that, how
he shall feed his sheep, gather them together, feed them in a
high place, like this story. So it begins, verse 1, after
these things, like chapter 5 began that way. After this, after these
things, oh, the many wonderful things our Lord said and did
before this and is doing today and saying to us. We are still
hearing his voice, aren't we? All that he said and did and
does today, most of it is unknown and unacknowledged by most people. But God, so merciful, made himself
known to us, revealed himself to us, and we acknowledge him,
don't we? Thank God. His chosen disciples
heard His voice and saw all that He did, and they were with Him
all the time, and they just stayed constantly amazed. I stand amazed
in the presence, they all would say, of Jesus of Nazarene. Why
He would choose me, love me, a sinner condemned unclean. How
marvelous, how wonderful. All of them heard His voice all
the time and saw His wonderful works and acknowledged Him. Everything He did was an amazement
to them. What manner of man is this? And we are the same. How blessed we are. The Sea of
Galilee, verse 1, He went over the Sea of Galilee. He was in
and around that sea all the time. Do you like the ocean? I do. I like to be in it, around it,
to hear it, to watch it, everything about it. It's so mysterious. It's such a vast thing of God's
creation and full. So two-thirds of the world is
ocean or water and seas and still full. The depths we have not
begun to plow. There are places in the ocean
that man has never been before. Now, that's a picture of our
Lord's depth of wisdom and knowledge of our God, past, present, and
future. Well, the Sea of Galilee was
also a place, Capernaum and Magdala and all these little poor fishing
villages. That's where our Lord spent His
time. That's who He spent His time
with, in and around those little poor villages and up in those
mountains with mountain people. The whole world of people in
Judea were going, those Galileans, those bunch of hicks from the
sticks. That's what they thought. That was the Lord's people. That's
where he stayed. That's who he hung out with. My kind of people, too. See,
in Galilee, verse 2, a great multitude followed him because
they saw his miracles, which he did on them that were diseased. For most people, I'm not going
to say every single person, but most people followed him for
the wrong reason. They did. You and I claim to
be followers of Christ. Why? Most people followed him then
and now for what they can get out of him. Right? Simon summed it up for all of
us in the last part of this chapter. Simon said, you have the words
of life. You've given me life. You've
given me life. You've given me ears to hear,
eyes to see, a heart to need you. Simon followed him, Kelly,
because he loved Christ. He just wanted to be with Him.
Hear His voice and follow Him. He wanted to be just like Him.
That's why Simon followed Him. How about you? I believe you
do. Most people, you know, believe
in Jesus for what they can get out of Him. Well, he went up
into a mountain, verse 3. He went up into a mountain and
there he sat with his disciples. And what a significant and prophetic
and telling verse that is. He was always going up into a
mountain, wasn't he? Right after this, he did the
same. And while the disciples went down into the ship. But
I've always loved this verse in Mark 3. Listen to this. He
goeth up into a mountain, Mark 3, 13. He goeth up into a mountain
and calleth unto him whom he would. And they came to him. This is Mount Zion, where the
Lord dwells with his people. And if you're here and love to
be here, oh, blessed is the man, the woman, whom God has chosen
and caused to approach unto him. Mount Zion, the Church of the
Living God. So he went up into a mountain,
and there he sat with his disciples. And here we sit. Is the Lord
in our midst? He promised to be. That's why
we come here. Remember that. Passover, a feast,
verse 4. The Passover, a feast of the
Jews, was nigh. The Passover used to be called
the Lord's Passover, but now it had degenerated into the Jews'
Passover. Little did they know that the
Lord, the Passover Lamb, was really nigh. He was there. He
was right in their midst. We know it. Do you know how blessed
we are to know that our greatest need is a Lamb? Most people think that that old
Passover story is just that, an old Jewish story. Don't they? Oh, God's people all know we
need a lamb. Like Isaac, we all know. We all
ask the question, where is the lamb? And we all know, we all
have heard the answer from, like Abraham, my son, God will provide
himself a lamb for Barnabas. Verse 5, when Jesus then lifted
up his eyes and saw a great company coming to him, he said to Philip,
he said something to Philip, our Lord lifted up his eyes and
saw a great multitude, a great company coming to him. Zechariah
4.10 says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole
earth. Psalm 11 verse 4 says, His eyes
behold, His eyelids try the children of men. God looks upon everyone
and everything. He knows everyone and everything. Some, He says, He knows far off. He hears all things. He sees
all things. Now, this should produce fear,
the fear of the Lord. Hagar thought she was going to
die. Hagar thought Ishmael, her son,
was going to die. And here was her plea, Thou,
Lord, seest me. Because the Lord looked upon
her, had compassion upon her, mercy upon her. And Ishmael,
though Ishmael was not his chosen, he had compassion on him. He
saved his physical life right then and there. And the Lord
is the Savior. We're going to see this. He's
the Savior of the world. He's the giver of life and the
Savior of it. As long as people live, it's
the Lord sustaining their life. He sees mercy. We're going to
see this. But He saw this great crowd coming unto Him, great
company coming unto Him. Now, they saw the miracles, it
said. They saw the miracles. And verse 26 here in chapter
6, look at it. He says this, he rebukes them.
He said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because
you saw the miracle. Some did follow him because of
the miracle, but after he fed these, he said, you seek me because
you did eat of the loaves in her field. And that sums up most
people, doesn't it? I mean, I knew a couple with
a young daughter, two daughters, but one of them went to school
with our daughter. I knew them well, and we liked them well
enough. We never could get them to come
hear the gospel, but they weren't religious at first, but then
their daughter almost drowned. Their daughter drowned. They
had to resuscitate her. They thought she was dead. They
had to resuscitate her. Now, boy, they're religious now.
A real religion. And that's the basis of their
religion. That Jesus saved their daughter's life. It's not forgiveness
of sin. Not what he did on Calvary's
tree. But what he did for their daughter. I don't know if she
knows the Lord or not. I don't think she does. But there's
millions all over the world that claim to believe in Jesus for
the miracles. And for the things, you know, everybody's got a thank
you Jesus sign in their yard. You know, what's the name of the office
supply? Virginia office supply sells them for $1.98. It's a
blast for them. Thank you, Jesus, for what? Feeding
me and doing all this. Well, we do, but that's not our
chief cause for thanking Him, is it? Christ came into this
world for this principal reason. Somebody tell me why He came
into this world. To save sinners. It's a faithful
say. Christ came into this world to
save sinners. And if you're the chief, that's
your chief reason for thanking Him. For being here. Right? That's why we're... And the world...
You know, they don't mention sin. I don't want to offend anybody. God just loves everybody anyway.
He doesn't know right or wrong. He just loves you like you are.
You can be a... You've got to be in Christ for God to love
you. You've got to love His Son for
Him to love you. Anyway, they follow Him for the
miracles and they get their belly filled. And if you follow Christ
and love Him for what He did for you on Calvary's tree, you
are of all men most blessed. And you're one of His. You're
one of His true disciples. His true disciples followed Him
for His sake, for His Word. And boy, did they ever follow
Him after He died and rose from then on. In Genesis chapter 5,
verse 40, now the people were all around Him. He said, You
will not come to Me. They were there. He said, You
will not come to Me. He was surrounded by them. that you might have life. Like I said, Simon Peter said,
you have words of life, words of eternal life. That woman,
Marianne Lethbert, break thou the bread of life. Thou art the
bread of life. We know, you know, those whom
he had quickened, those who were dead, That's what they give thanks
for, life, eternal life. It's incredible. So he lifted up his eyes and
saw this great company coming to him, most of them for the
wrong reason. And I bet you say, you did, you came for the wrong
reason first. Every one of us did. I didn't
start coming back. This prodigal didn't come back
to church. to worship God. I came back to get a job because
there was a contractor there who I thought would give me a
job. And then there was a pretty young girl there. I thought I'd
get the girl and get a job. Boy, I got it made. That's it. That's all I wanted. But God. He lifted up his eyes. We all
come for the wrong reasons. Oh, the Lord has to change us,
doesn't He? Give us a new heart. But in Matthew's
Gospel and Mark, they both say that the Lord saw the multitude
and was moved with compassion toward them. All of them. We read with me in Psalm 104,
what all the Lord does for everything that moves, fish, birds, people,
things. Listen to Psalm 145. I love this. It says, The Lord is gracious
and full of compassion. That means pity. He felt pity. He feels pity. The Lord is very
pitiful. Slow to anger and of great mercy,
the Lord is good to all, and His tender mercy is over all
His works. The Lord is very merciful and
compassionate. Now, don't confuse compassion
with love. God's love is sovereign. He loves
His own, His people. But He's compassionate. He feels
pity. I want you to turn with me to
Ezekiel 18. The Lord is very pitiful. The
Lord is merciful. The Lord is full of compassion.
He has tender mercies over all His work. He feeds everybody
and everything. And you know, the last verse
in the Psalms, they're all songs of praise and prayer to God.
You know how many of them say, Praise ye the Lord. Well, the
last verse in Psalm 150 says, Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. Why? Because He's given us this
breath. He's been feeding us all this
year. We don't need another reason to come here but to thank God
for all that He's done for us. Unworthy creatures that we are.
And it says, Praise ye the Lord. If they won't, you do it. Ezekiel, I didn't turn that.
Where is Ezekiel? There it is. Ezekiel 18. Ezekiel
18. This is our Lord, unless people accuse us of making our Lord
hard and unreasonable. He says in verse 21, If the wicked
will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all
my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall
surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions he hath
committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him. And his righteousness
that he hath done, he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that
the wicked should die, saith the Lord God? No. And not that he should return
from his ways and live? Look at verse 31. Cast away from
me all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed. Make ye
a new heart, a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of
Israel? I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,
saith the Lord. Turn yourselves and live. You see that? I know you've read this. Lamentations
3. Turn there. Lamentations right
after Jeremiah. Look at this. Our Lord is compassionate
and very pitiful. Lamentations chapter 3. Look
at this. Thirty-two. You have it? Though he cause
grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of
his mercies. He doth not afflict willingly, or that is, just really
enjoys afflicting people. No. Nor grieve the children of
men to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. No. No, he's full of compassion.
Doesn't mean he loves everybody, but our God is compassionate. You see, no human being can blame
God for his damnation. In Proverbs 1, he says, I called
and you refused. He said, you hated knowledge.
You hated instruction. That's what God said. He said,
you hated instruction. He said, there, turn from your
sin and I'll forget them all. They'll never be brought up again.
I'll put them all away. Just turn from them. Well, that's impossible then. Can the leopard change his spot?
Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Neither can we do good
or accustomed to doing evil. But God. This is why He has to
choose. This is why He has to elect people.
This is why you have to be born again. We can't turn from our
sin. He turns us. And Christ was made
sin, you see. And our sins are gone. So we
didn't have anything to do with it. This is why everybody that's
saved is going to give God all the glory for their salvation. Everybody in hell is going to
have to blame themselves for it. Every single person. Not
one person is going to be able to say, well, God, you know,
couldn't save me, right? It wasn't my fault. God said, I called, and you refused. He's compassionate. He said,
you will not come unto me. And he said, but no man can.
Is that confusing you? It shouldn't, if you know yourself. There was a time I would not
come, and now I have. Why? Because the Father heard
me. All given to him, that's in chapter
6. The whole counsel of God is in
John 6. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Can't wait to get to that verse.
I didn't. So we came to the wrong reason,
didn't we? Maybe you're religious, but what, you know, whatever. All right, go back to John 5,
John 6, I'm sorry. All right, so, he lifted up his
eyes and saw this great company and he was, he purposed to feed
them. He said to Philip, Philip, Philip later on was going
to say, Lord, show us a father. Christ is going to show him so
many things, and yet Philip's still. He said to Philip, when shall we
buy bread that these may eat? This he said to prove Philip.
He knew what he was going to do. This is the Lord in Acts
15, 18. Known unto God. God? Yes, this
is God. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. He knew exactly what he was going
to do on this day. He was going to feed 5,000 men
and double that, women and children, maybe as many as 12, 15,000. He knew it. He did this to prove
Philip, okay? John proved John, Jane, all of
them, Tom, us. He said this to prove us. And now they heard and they saw
wonders and miracles already up to this point, time and again,
yet they were still faithless. What about us? What all has the
Lord done for us? And we still doubt Him. We still
worry. If we really believed Him, we
really believed Him and trusted Him, we wouldn't have a worry.
We wouldn't have a care. We wouldn't have a fear. We wouldn't
fear anyone or anything. We wouldn't think about tomorrow.
And it doesn't matter what was happening. The raging storm,
we'd fall asleep like our Lord did in the ship. We'd just fall
asleep. Not worry. He'll take care of
it. Right? He knew about that. He was a
man. He was in that ship. That ship
goes down. He does too. If we really trusted Him, believed
Him, we would not think about tomorrow, not worry about it.
Give no thought for tomorrow. He's going to take care of it.
We could walk on water. Meaning, above this world, it
drowns everybody else. Everybody in this world, going
through the Red Sea, is saved to do so, and it drowns them.
They drown in perdition. How are we going to overcome
this world? What is it that overcomes the world? Faith. Amen. Thank God He knows our frame.
He knew these disciples. He was going to try them, but
they failed. Peter Philips said, well, two hundred? $200 wouldn't
feed all these people. 200 pennies. Bread has gone way up him. That's
not sufficient. We don't have enough money, Lord.
He had just sent them out without gold, without script, without
purse. Really, right before this, he
said, go, all of you, go out there preaching. Don't take any
gold. Don't take any silver. Don't
take a purse. Don't take two coats. Go. But go! And they came back a little while
later and said, we can't believe how... Everybody invited us in
their house. We never lacked a place to sleep.
They had houses. They had families. They had children.
They never missed a payment on their house. John Chapman told me that, well,
years ago he worked as a machinist, had a good job, and he got laid
off. And many of us know that feeling. He got laid off from his job,
and he said he was laid off a long time. And he told me later, he
said, to this day I don't understand it. He said, while I was laid
off, I paid my house off. We made less payment on my house. Two hundred penny worth, Lord,
is not sufficient to feed all these people. that every one
of them will take a little bit. A little bit. We can't even give them crumbs.
The Lord has never given crumbs to His people. Do you understand
that? Have you ever fed on eating crumbs? No, that's not the Lord. We don't have enough money, Lord.
My, my, my. How soon we forget? That's Psalm
107. They forget. They forget His
mercy. They forget, forget, forget.
Don't... Kelly and I love the one verse
that says, He remembered for them. He remembered His covenant. He can't forget. What we can't
remember, He can't forget. His mercies, His covenant. What we can't forget, our sins,
He can't remember. Now explain that. Oh, no. Do we not yet know, most
of us are getting up in years, do we not yet know that that
barrel of meal is not going to run out? That that cruise of
oil is not going to run dry? Do you know that by now? Do you?
Go to sleep. Oh, we don't have enough. His
grace is always sufficient. Philip, like us, I don't know
how we're going to do it. I don't know how. Listen, let
me give you a few. I'm running out of time, but
you'll love them. The Lord spoke of Leviathan,
and there's a reason for that. Job
41, the whole chapter is devoted to the whale, and I don't know
why. The whole chapter is the Lord
speaking about the whale to Job. how he controls it, what he does
for it. Can you do it? He says, can you
draw him out with a hook? Can you do this? Can you do that?
The greatest animal on earth is a whale in a bite, okay? And David said, there he goes.
The Lord feeds him. One humpback whale, one, eats 2.5 tons of fish a day. There are 135,000 humpback whales. If 35,000 are babies and 100,000
are adults, that's 250,000 tons a day of fish. That's just whales. That's just humpback whales.
Who feeds them? The world eats 1.5 billion tons
of wheat a year, 1 billion tons of corn, half a million tons
or 500 million tons of rice, not counting milk, Meat, fish,
vegetables, cattle, the hay that takes the... Who's feeding all
this? Our great Provider. Our great
Lord. He feeds Leviathan, every single
Leviathan and every little sparrow. And He said, aren't you worth
much more than that? Oh, ye of little faith. But Philip said, well, we can't,
we don't have enough to give everybody a little bit, just
a little bit. No, they're not going to eat a little, they're
going to eat a lot. And it's going to be left over. Verse
8, one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. Now, Simon
and Andrew and James and John, before this, when he called them
from being fishermen, they saw him, all those fish in their
boat. Did they forget that? They filled
up both boats full of fish because the Lord said, there they are,
right there. What I'm trying to show us is
how faithless we are and how faithful our Lord is, if we just
trust Him for everything. Well, Simon Peter's brother said,
there's a lad here, there's a little lad here, Five barley loaves,
two small fishies, what's that among so many? What's that? Little
bit. There's a little fella here with some little fish and a little
bit of bread. What's that? Doesn't the scripture say, who
hath to despise a day of small things? Our Lord shall grow up
as a root out of dry ground, a tender plant. Oh, what came
out of that? Like the mustard seed, a little
bit, the smallest of all things. It grew into a great tree, the
Kingdom of God. Everything dwells in its branches.
What a picture that is of our Lord. The Kingdom of God with
little beginnings grew into the greatest Kingdom of all. And he said, well, this lad here,
and had five barley loaves and two small fish. Barley? Huh?
He's got barley? Does barley ring a bell to you? He has spoken of more than the
book of Ruth and the other. It's all about barley. Boaz was
a barley farmer. And Ruth landed in his field.
Just happened to land in Boaz's barley field. And when Boaz started
wooing her, he pressed her a little barley corn. It's poor man's
bread. That's barley. Poor man's bread. Five barley loaves. Two fishes.
Two fishes. Five and two. Five and two. Luke
24. We've been reading that. We've been studying that. Luke
24. The Lord beginning in the books of Moses. 5 books of Moses, 5 loaves, 2 fish. Everything that the Lord feeds
is always a reference to the Word of God. Any food substance
in this Bible that we eat is Christ. Do you hear me? Wine,
bread, meat. He said, my body is made in that.
Milk, sincere milk of the word. Butter, honey, you name it. Name something. Fishes, bread. The next part of this whole chapter,
Christ said, I am the bread of life. Five loaves, God's Word. Two
fishes. Bread, bread from heaven. Fishes
from the deep. Oh, the depth, the riches of
the wisdom and the knowledge of God. Two fishes. Wisdom and
knowledge. Righteousness and peace. Ed read
that tonight, Psalm 85. Mercy and truth. Righteousness
and peace met together. Christ is God and man. Oh, the
depths of this. Fish is a living creature. Fish
has got to die for you to live. five loaves, two fish. What are they amongst so many?
Can that feed everyone? Yes, it does. And it's going
to. And it always has and it always
will. God's Word. They're all going to eat the
same food. It's going to feed them all. It's going to be left
over for people to come to eat. Verse 10. Jesus said, make the
men sit down. Now there was much grass in the
place. Make them sit down in the green
pastures. I just had a feeling there was
still waters nearby. Don't you? Let me read to you
in Ezekiel 34. It says, I will feed them, I
will bring them out from the people and gather them from the
country, bring them to their own land, feed them upon the
mountains of Israel, by the rivers. and all inhabited places of...
I will feed them in a good pasture. Upon the high mountains of Israel
shall their foe be. They'll lie in a good fold in
a fat pasture. They'll feed upon the mountains
of Israel. I will feed my flock. I will cause them to lie down,
saith the Lord God. The Lord is my shepherd. He maketh
me to lie down. Sit down. Just sit down. I love reading this. I never
get tired of reading this. In Isaiah 30, has this been a
memory verse? I'm sure it has. It needs to
be. He said, their strength is to
sit still. Now brethren, He's raised us
up and made us sit together in heavenly places. This is a heavenly
place. This is the church. This is what
God has always done for his people. Gather them out from among the
heathen. quicken them by his grace, or
dead in sin, brought them together, and made them to sit down, clothed
in their right mind like the demoniac, at his feet, listening
to his word, and he feeds them this bread of life, and they
just live on it. Nothing's changed. The church
is still the same. Acts chapter 2 is a model for
the church. It hasn't changed. It's a place
where God's people meet and God called, God sent preacher of
the gospel with this bread of life in his hand and a people
sitting, listening, singing praises. They broke bread and they met
together and they heard the Word. This is the church. It hasn't
changed. It never will. Worship is not virtual. It's not casual. It's formed
to it. It's exactly the way the Lord
says to do it, a certain way. And it's not convenient. It takes sacrifice. Go where
the gospel is. If not, you're not going to be
blessed. It hasn't changed. The church
hasn't changed. Make the men sit down. Come on now, gather
up here. This is where Christ is. Now
sit down. I'm going to feed you, all of
you. That changed. I don't care what
anybody says. It doesn't matter the circumstances.
The church is always gathered together and sat down in a place
and heard the Word of God prayed. God hasn't changed, the truth
hasn't changed. No matter the danger, no matter the affliction,
He prepares us a table in the midst of our enemies. We didn't
stop worshipping when the plague hit. By God's grace, we never
will. Make them sit down. I'm going
to feed them, all of them together. Okay? Aren't you glad? Isn't
this a poor taste of glory to God? But we're going to be doing
it glory. We're all going to sit down at His feet together.
The show won't be virtual then. Brother David and I were talking
about this internet and all that, how we almost wish it had never
been invented. And people are substituting that for true worship.
You can't do it. You won't be blessed. I know
there are circumstances, but very few. It's sad. It's sad. Where am I? John 5, 6. It says
in verse 11, so they sat down, verse 10, much grass, they sat
down and numbered about 5,000. And the Lord took the loaves. They were in his hand. He's the
one that's providing. And when he'd given thanks, always,
he gave thanks. That's why we do. It says he
looked up to heaven and Matthew and Mark looked up. He didn't have a place to lay
his head. He didn't have a garden that he grew. He depended on
every meal that he got from the Father. Didn't he? Didn't he? He gave thanks and he blessed
it. Here's what he said, Father in heaven, hallowed be
thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is
in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Amen. And that bread started multiplying. And it says, He gave the bread,
the disciples, He gave it to the disciples. Disciples to them
that were sat down, and they gave it to the disciples, and
the disciples gave it to the people. Do you see? It's the
Lord's bread, it's the Lord's Word, but how does He administer
it? How does He distribute it? Who is it that feeds the people?
The Lord. But He feeds through a man. Doesn't He? All four Gospels say that. He
gave it to the disciples and said, You give unto Me. He's
going back. He's going back to glory. And
they're going to keep feeding. But right before he went, he
said, Simon Peter, do you love me? Simon, son of Jonah, do you
love us thou may? He said, yea, Lord, feed my lambs. Blessed is the man when the Lord
comes who will find him so good, feeding my sheep. Do you love to feed your animals?
I know you do. I've seen your animals. They're
all fat. The Lord loves to feed His people.
Oh, my. I love it. Love it. Love, love,
love. Because I'm eating too. He says
in verse 11, He says, Give to them of the fishes as much as
they would. Give to them as much as they
want. Now, Philip was worried about,
we'd just feed him a little bit. And he said, you give them as
much as they want. Tell them to open their mouth
wide and we'll fill it. How hungry are you? If somebody
came there, I'm starving. Give him five helpings. Give
him a whole loaf of bread. Give him five loaves of bread.
Right? Open your mouth. Blessed are
they that hunger and thirst, they'll be fat and flourishing. Somebody surely hadn't heard
this. I love it. It's a great illustration. Our oldest granddaughter, when
she was about four years old, she had a voracious appetite. And her mother, she kept grabbing
potatoes, great big old spoons of potatoes, two or three biscuits. Her mother said, that's too much.
Stop, that's too much. Well, the next time she sat down,
she said, Mama, I want too much. I'm hungry, I want too much.
You can't ask for too much mercy. You need mercy? How much do you
need? How much do you have? She said, do it ever. The ocean
of His fullness. Of His fullness have we received?
Has anybody emptied Him yet? No. How much grace do you need? He giveth and giveth and giveth
more grace. What do you need? Wisdom? James said, Anybody that
lack wisdom? Oh, my. We ought to know something
by now, shouldn't we? Don't you feel like often that
you still obey Him? Well, if any man lack wisdom,
let him ask. The Lord giveth liberally. He upbraideth not.
He never says, What did you do with the grace I gave you yesterday?
Why didn't you use that wisdom I gave you yesterday? No. You
need more? I sure do. I want too much. I need a lot. I need more than
anybody. Do you now? Give it to me. All that he asks. All that you
would. Be it done unto you, even as you would. Isn't he merciful? And it says,
when they were filled, verse 12, they were filled. Who filled
them? The Lord did. And of his fullness
hath all we receive happened. He emptied himself that we might
be full. And he said unto his disciples, now gather up the
fragments that remain. Let nothing be lost. Isaiah 55 says, why do you spend
money for that which is not bread? Here in your soul shall live.
Eat, and you'll be fat. And it goes on down to say, my
word will not return void. Not one word will pass away.
Not one word will fall to the ground. Every word is a living
word, you see. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but not one word of His will fail. Nothing will be lost. It
will accomplish that whereunto He sends it. Nothing be lost. And they gathered up twelve baskets. Twelve. Twelve apostles that went out
preaching. And their words were God's Word. Their words were the words of
Christ. And what did they do with these
bags of fragments? Well, they distributed it. Anybody
hungry? They went everywhere. Anybody
hungry? Went home. Distributed. They kept bread home with them,
distributed. And it remained over and above
them that had eaten. The men that saw this miracle,
they said, this is of a truth, that prophet, that should come
into the world. Oh, my. He's so much more than
that. He is indeed that prophet. But
he's our great prophet, priest, king, lord, savior, redeemer,
provider, heaver, husband, father, friend, intercessor, mediator. He's all in all of it. All right,
stand with me.