How does that end, don't you?
Pardon for sin, and peace, and endurance. And thine own dear
presence, to cheer and to guide. Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings. This is all mine,
with 10,000 more than that. Luke chapter 9, Gospel of Luke
chapter 9. This is not a story just of a
miracle for us to marvel at, but it's a story of our merciful
Lord and great provider, you know, so we might worship Him. All that I have needed, Thy hand
hath provided. We're going to see that. You
remember the disciples, He took them into a private place, deserted,
no one was there, just him and them near the ocean at the site
of the fishing village. And oh my, what he must have
told them and showed them how blessed they were. But then the
people heard he was there, and they popped it. Vast multitude, thousands, and
it says he received them. Everybody that needed him, he
received them all, and healed all that had Now let's read down
through here, verses 12 to 18. And when the day began to wear
away, then came the twelve and said unto him, send the multitude
away that they may go into the towns and country round about
and lodge and get victuals. They're here in a deserted place.
But, he said unto them, get ye them to eat. You feed them. We have no more but five loaves
and two fishes." He said, we should go buy meat for all his
people. There were about 5,000 men. That
means at least that many women, weren't there? So it could have
been 10 or 12,000 people counting children. He said to his disciples,
make them sit down, like fiddlers, in a company. And they did so. They made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves
and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them
and break that bread. Gave to the disciples to sit
before the multitude, and lo and behold, they did eat and
were all filled. And it was taken up with fragments
that remained, and then twelve baskets full. This book, we often
call it a hymn book, don't we? Because every single, especially
the gospels, all of them, but the gospels in particular are
everything he said and everything he did, our Lord. It's a hymn
book from beginning to end. The gospels, the story of our
wonderful, amazing, merciful Lord and Master and Redeemer
and Provider. Every waking hour of every single
day. He was doing, doing, doing, doing,
working, feeding, preaching, healing, teaching, leading, guiding,
providing, receiving. He came to, for his own, to serve. And this same Christ is the same
yesterday and today, right now. Right now. Providing, keeping,
saving. healing, helping, preaching,
teaching. His people provide for all things. He's the same. I've got five
points if you're taking notes. If you're not taking notes, here's
my five points. Number one, our sovereign Lord.
Number two, our merciful Lord. Number three, our need. Number
four, our company. Number five, our joy and rejoicing.
Our sovereign Lord, verse 12, when the day began to wear away.
Stop right there. Our day is wearing away isn't
it? We are wearing away. When I came here 30 years ago,
John didn't have a gray hair in his head. Not a gray hair. I didn't. I had hair on my head
back then. Wearing away isn't it? The almond
tree is flourishing. Scripture says, what is your
life but a neighbor that appears for a little while and is gone?
Psalm 9, it says, it's a sleep in the night, a dream, a watch,
a tale that is told. We're here a little while and
gone, and then the place will know it no more. You need to
keep that in mind, don't you? Keep that in mind. The day began
to wear away. Man is born of woman a few days,
full of trouble, weary and wet. Then came the Twelve, verse 12,
and said unto him, Send them off to the way, that they may
go into the town and the country, to buy round about a lodge and
get victuals. We're here in this deserted place.
There were thousands here. Disciples came and said, Lord,
you've got to do something. They came to him as if he didn't
know what they needed. As if he wasn't thinking about
all those people, their food, their lodgings, all that. He
was thinking about them a long time before it entered their
minds. Lord, you need to do something
here. One time David said, Lord, it's
time for you to work. They're making void your Lord.
Lord, it's time to do something. Just wait. Wait on the Lord. And they were trying to tell
the Lord what He needed to do. Look at all these people. You
need to do something. He sees, His eyes behold, His eyelids
try, all the Son of Man. He knows what things we have
needed before we ask. Scripture says, we're so impatient,
so impulsive, I need something, I need it now. The Lord knows
what we need now. Five thousand men, men let alone
women and children, he saw every single one of them. He knew every single one of them. one of them. He knew their thoughts
far off. There wasn't a word in their
mouth. He knew it all together. Is that right? That's what Scripture
says. Thou, Lord, seest me, as I behold. What that should create
in us is two things. In all people it should create
fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord. And in His
people. And his people used to give us
great comfort. His eyes behold, so many, and he saw them all. His eyes, the scripture says,
behold the sparrow. There is not a bird, a little
worthless sparrow that sold for a pardon, that falls to the ground
without her heavenly father. People say, I don't believe that.
Well, I do. Because that's the Lord. How can he? Because he's not just a man.
He's God, that's how. He's God. Psalm 8, listen to
this, Psalm 8 says this of our Lord, O Lord, how excellent is
thy name in all the earth, who sent thy glory above the heavens.
Verse 3, when I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man
that thou art mindful of him? The Son of Man that thou would
visit Him. God made Christ a little lower
than the angels down here, but has crowned Him with glory and
honor. It's all made. That wonderful, put all things
under His feet. Everything. Oh, He's the Lord.
Our Provider. That's who this is speaking of.
Our Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 104. Go back there. Wasn't
that a blessing for even that? Quite often. If the Lord blesses
the reading of his word, I think, let's just go home. It's already
been blessed. Psalm 104 says in verse 10, he
sends the springs into the valley to run among the hills and give
drink to every beast of the field. Notice how the first part of
this talked about water, water, water. Talked about the flood.
Talked about creation. Isn't that what Peter talked
about in 2 Peter 3? The world's ignorant of creation. The water's separate and in the
flood. God's goodness. God's judgment. Romans says, Paul says, Behold
the goodness and severity of the Lord. We see that, don't
we? We know that. How? By His Word. And He's revealed these things
too. But God provides for all. Look at verse 21. Young lions
roar after their prey where they get it from God. Even the strongest,
the king of the jungle, depends on the king of all the earth.
Look at verse 24. Oh Lord, how manifold are thy
works. God made everything, and God
didn't make it to be self-sufficient, or that is to go on its own. This is what religion believes.
This is what the world believes. That God made this earth, and
now he just sits back and watches it go, and hopes everything turns
out alright. You know what they say? Gave
man a free will, and boy, he sure hopes he accepts him, and
hopes everything turns. Oh look, man's ruining the earth.
What am I going to do? No, the earth is the Lord's and
the fullness thereof. The world and the inhabitants
thereof. He's still working all things. He predestined all things,
purposed all things, known unto God are all his works for the
foundation of the world. And everything Barnard used to
say that rhymes or wriggles, God does it. Controls it. Oh, this is fear and this is
comforted. This is worship. You won't worship
a God that's not sovereign. You won't fear a God that's not
sovereign. You won't call on a God who doesn't
do all things and provide all things. If you think you're self-sufficient,
if you think that you can do something, you won't call on
God for it. But when you realize without Him, you can do nothing,
you have nothing, know nothing, can't do anything, that of His
hand you perceive everything, you'll call on Him, won't you?
That's man. Independent, self-sufficient.
Boy, isn't He showing man right now, just a little bit, when
He's wrapped His Kindle, just a little bit. You can do nothing! You totally depend on me. Your
breath is in my hand. I can take it with me. This is our great sovereign Lord. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? We wouldn't know this if he hadn't
made himself known. Verse 28 of Psalm 104, that thou
givest them that gather, ye open your hand, they are filled with
good, ye hide your face, they are troubled. With the God we
were locked up like that all the time. He's a God that hides
Himself. He hides His face from us sometimes. His people are troubled. When
we meet them, we take away their breath and they die. That's our sovereign Lord. Secondly,
our merciful Lord. Go back to the text. They told
the Lord what he needed to do. Send them out to the way. Go
into town. Go into town, the country round
about. Go into town where the people
are, where the victuals are, where the lodging is. Go in there
so that the people can dwell there and get victuals. We're
out here in a deserted place. There's nothing out here. There's nothing out here. Seriously. He's there. He's all in all. In Him dwelleth
all fullness. You're not going to find anything
in town. You don't go to man. Bane is the help of Egypt. They
say go into town, that's where all the food is. Seriously. Somebody told someone recently,
they were talking to them about water, and this person lived
in an apartment in town, and they said, what do you mean where's
the water come from? Turn on the spigot. You turn on it, they don't say
spigot in New York. They say tap, bow, something. Where does water come from? The
city. Well, city water. Where does
that come from? This old man worships the creature
rather than the Creator. As if we produce water. Food. Send them away. Look at Psalm
145. Psalm 145. Speaking of our merciful
Lord. Our sovereign Lord, our merciful
Lord. The multitudes followed Him and
He received them all, Scripture says. In another gospel it says
He had compassion on the multitudes. He looked on them with compassion.
Now don't mistake that for love. Lots of people take that word
and try to use it as God loves everyone. No, no, no. His tender
mercy is over all the world. He has compassion. I've used
this illustration before. I love dogs. I love dogs. But
what is a dog? Why would I even be mindful of
a dog? Huh? What I do, I love dogs as
a species or whatever. I love all dogs. Some of them
ain't worth shooting. None of them worth much. But,
and you know the dog that I love, I really love? My dog. My dog. I was merciful and kind
to other dogs. My neighbor had a dog and came
up and I had already had two dogs. My neighbor had a dog and
come up on our property and eat the food of my dogs and want
to play with my dog and I ran her off. I don't need three dogs. Don't get mad at me yet, Tracy.
Hang on. She went, what's wrong with you? No, I'm merciful. But if she would keep coming,
I'd run her off. I don't need another dog. She kept wanting to come. You
know what? Finally, I said, oh, come on.
And I started treating her like my dog. I think my dog told her,
he's merciful. You keep coming. He won't run
you off. That isn't all that the Father
gives us. Come. Oh, everyone's thirsty. Psalm 145, verse 5, I will speak
of the glorious honor of thy majesty and thy wondrous works,
and men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts. I will
declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the
memory of thy great goodness, shall sing of thy righteousness.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. Slow to anger,
great mercy, the Lord is good to all. His tender mercies are
over all His works. Isn't that right? Whatever anyone has, God gave
it to them. He maketh His rain. Here's how
merciful. His rain falls on the unjust
as well as the just. He feedeth, He clotheth, He houses
the unthankful. That Psalm, Proverbs 1, nobody
can blame God for anything. Everybody ought to be thanking
God for everything. And nobody can blame God for
anything. Proverbs 1, he said, I called
and you refused. So, why should I answer you when
you call? Right? And that was me. But God. He's got to sovereignly
call, to effectually call. He's got to choose you. He's
got to make you call, or you won't call. You won't come. You
won't thank Him. You won't glorify Him. You won't
want to come here and worship. You won't. It'd be like pulling
teeth. Brother Kelly and I were talking
about the grace of God to bring us here to hear the gospel. He
has to make us, bring us, Make us willing the day of His power.
Change our hearts and minds. Then there was a time when nobody
could get you to come. And now, you don't want to leave. Now who did that? That's a miracle isn't it? God's
grace. Romans 1 says they didn't glorify,
they weren't thankful, they changed the glory of God into a lie,
they changed the truth of God, weren't thankful, God wasn't
in any of their thoughts, professing themselves wise and became fools.
So, God said, okay, I'm going to give you over, completely
give you over to those things that you, and then I'm going to destroy
you. Right? Why shouldn't he? But God. Everyone that perishes deserves
to. Everyone that saves knows he deserves the glory and honor. Sovereign mercy is what we're
talking about. Sovereign mercy. Mercy means
not getting what we deserve. And it's always sovereign. If
it's something you don't deserve, somebody doesn't have to give
it to you. It's that person's prerogative.
It's their choice, isn't it? It's to be their goodness, if
they show mercy. God says, I will be merciful.
To whom I will be merciful. I will be gracious. Well, we
have, we have received. To whom I will be gracious. That
no flesh should go over His presence. It's not of him that willeth,
or him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
None deserve it, but God is rich in mercy. He doesn't just show
mercy to one, or two, or three, but three trillion. Because He's
merciful, full of compassion. I wouldn't have saved Adam and
Eve. None with you. I'll create another one. But
God, that's our mercy, sovereign Lord, merciful Lord. Look at
our need. Our need. Verse 12, they said,
send them into town to get victuals and lodging. Lodging and victuals. Necessities. The Lord said, make
them go into town. Town. Cities. That's where the
water is. That's where the food is. You
know it, isn't it? In Him we live and move and have our being.
They received everything from Him. And remember the Lord one
time said, have Him food and rain be contained. Well, they said, let them go
in there and find a place to stay and food and drink. But no, what this is, the Lord
is showing us that in Him we live and move and have our being.
He's our abiding place, Psalm 90. Doubt it, Lord, doubt it,
it's been our dwelling place in all generations. We have here
no continuing city. The houses we live in are tents,
which we've driven the stakes way too deep. This tabernacle
we live in right here is a tent and a frail one at that, and
the wind's going to blow on it real soon and it's going to thaw.
These Lord's showing us that this is not our dwelling place.
He is. And where does he abide? Not
in town. Outside the camp, Hebrews 13 says. Let's go on to him,
therefore unto him, outside the camp bearing his reproach. All of the children of Israel
passed through the wilderness. They didn't have a permanent
dwelling place. Where are they going? To the
city of God. That's us. And we're going to
feed on Him the whole time. We're going to feed on Him the
whole time. We dwell in Him, we live off
of Him, and we feed on Him. They say go into town. I bought
some acreage years ago. What year was it? Ninety-five. Ninety-five. Bought some acreage.
You know, I had the same thing in mind that most do. If times
get real hard, you know, I've got some land. I'll live off
the land and I won't be dependent on Yeah, right. My well ran on electricity. One time it went dry. I laid
by that gauge, Kelly. I let the water run it on. Have
you ever done that? Laid down on the ground beside
that gauge. Lord, move that needle. If I run out of water, I can't
live. Where's water come from? Not
in town, not in the country. From him. What about people that live in
the city? Is somebody out in the country safer? Somebody out
in the country going to provide for themselves? People in town,
they're going to depend on the government? The government's
on his shoulders as well. Everything's in his hands. It's
safe. It's just as safe in town as you are in the country. You
know that? Why? Because He is our Provider. He's our Provider. Man doesn't
provide anything. I quickly learned that. Well,
look at this. The disciples, they lived on
Him. They fed off of Him. In John 15, our Lord said, Abide
in Me. He said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. Everything you see is from Me. And now verse
13, he said to them, you give to me, give ye them to eat. You
feed them. The Lord uses men to feed his sheep. You know that? He raised up these
apostles and the prophets before them and pastors and teachers
to do what? want that, feed my sheep." What
do they feed them? What the Lord provides, His Word. And that's the purpose of the
preachers. When the Lord, after He arose
from the grave, remember, they were sitting around by the fire,
and He looked at Simon Peter and said, Simon Peter, Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And what was it he said? feed my lambs. First thing he said was, lambs,
preach simply, preach clearly to the little ones. Except we
become little children. You see, I hear so much preaching
of scribes and Pharisees, it makes my head hurt. It doesn't
touch my heart. a reason, and words of man's
wisdom, and persuasible words of man's wisdom, and intellectual
thing, and it makes my head hurt, and it doesn't heal my heart. Our Lord said, preach to the
little lambs. My father used to say, preach
in such a way, find you a 15 year old boy out there and preach
to him. You're not there to try to convince doctors and lawyers.
You're there to preach to my little lambs, my sheep. Dumb, ignorant, dirty. That's
who you preach to. Feed, feed. When you sit down at a table
to eat food, do you dissect it and go through it and think about
all the ingredients of it? You can't. No, you dive in. And you eat it. It tastes good. It makes you feel good. You don't
dissect it. That's not eating it. That's
dissecting it. Feed. Hunger, thirst, enjoyment,
need. One thing needful. One thing
needful. He said, you give them to him.
The Lord feeds his people his word through his preacher. What
did they have? Verse 13. We have nothing here
but five loaves Except if we go into town and
buy some more, and we can't, and other gospels say, we don't
have, 200 penny worth won't be enough. Lord, we don't have any
money. We don't have much. This is,
these fellows were Armenians, but at this time. They don't
have enough money, they don't have enough food. The Lord has all the food, cattle
on a thousand hills. He said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't
ask you. Psalm 50. And they say, God needs you,
God needs you. What an ignoramus. God doesn't
need you. God doesn't need anybody. Everybody
needs God. All right? Well, we don't have
enough money. You don't have any money. He
said, the gold and the silver and the mines is mine. Every
dime you give, He gives to you. Right? Promotion doesn't come
from here or there. It comes from the Lord. Money.
The Lord showed them that time and time again. They never earned
a dollar in a whole three and a half years. One time they said,
Lord, we got to pay our taxes. They're going to come get us.
We'll go fishing. Go fishing? Yeah. Look over there. Where'd that come from? The Lord. Where'd everything come from? We have nothing but five loaves
and two fishes. Go over to Luke 24. What are
these five loaves and two fishes? You know what it is. It's what
we're eating right now. Five loaves and two fishes. They
all ate the same thing. Listen to me. Everybody ate the
same thing. The Lord provided it. This is
what they ate. The same thing. Five loaves and
two fishes. Look at Luke 24. And I love this. You know, you'll never find the
Lord doing anything for himself. It doesn't even say that he ate
any of that food that he provided everybody else with. When it
came to the well, he never took a drink of that water. He doesn't say he ate any of
that food. What is he doing? Providing for others. He's giving
himself. He would thirst. When he hung
on that cross, he said, I thirst to the fiery wrath of God. Why? So that we won't. He lived by faith. Why? Because
we don't do much of that. He did, by faith. He provided
everything, everybody. But Luke 24, verse 3, 42, they
gave him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb. He took it,
he didn't eat before then. Where'd they get that? He gave
it to him. To them, and they gave it to
him. What do we have? We haven't received. And he said
unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while
I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which
were written in the law of Moses. Now how many books are there
in the law of Moses? Somebody tell him. Five. Hmm. Five loaves. Five loaves, David said thy word. Oh, he said how I love thy laws,
what I feed upon. How many books, David, Isaiah
was after David. What did David have? Probably
five books. He fed on it, feasted on it,
five loaves. And look at verse 44. The book of the law of Moses
and in the prophets and in the psalm, two fishes. Prophet Jonah,
which happened to speak of a large fish, and so on. Oh, my! Now, God, Christ is the
bread of life. He fed them with His Word. We feed off of Him, to Him give
all the prophets witness in the psalm. Everything in God's Word
speaks of Him, from Him, of Him, to Him, through Him. Bread, Christ
is the bread from heaven. What about these two fishes?
They're the God-man. who gave fish in their lives. If you're going to eat a fish,
he sacrificed his life. God gave you that fish. You be
sure to tell Ron that. You and Ron, those fish you caught
we ate the other night, you didn't catch them. The Lord gave them
to you. You know that so don't you? How many times have we gone
fishing and caught nothing? And then next time a boat loaded. Why? Well, you did. You did. Well, you should have done it.
You shared it. You gave it to others. And we ate it. But those fish give their lives.
Don't they? The God man. God man. Hold that Luke 24. Hurry with
me back to the text. Luke 9. It says in verse 14,
there are about 5,000 men. He said to his disciples, make
them sit down. Make them sit down. Can you imagine
this wild crowd that's scurrying about, talking, that's not like
this earth, and madness and confusion. Oh, he maketh us to lie down
in green pastures. Why? To restore our soul. Lead us beside the still waters.
He said their strength is to sit still. In returning and rest,
thou shalt be saved. In quietness and comfort. In
whom? In whom? In what? In Him. Where
are we going to get this? From His Word. The five loaves
and two fish. From Him. Let's come. Let's sit
down. And He's got to make us do that.
Sit. Be still. Sit down. Shut up. And listen. I'm going to feed you. Open your
mouth wide. But don't say anything. I'm going
to feed you. Make them sit down. This is the
one thing needful. Everybody ate the same thing.
Every, all these thousand people ate the same thing. The Lord
provided it. And all of God's people eat and
feast on Him. Our Lord said in John 6, except
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in it.
That all that do. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst. Are you getting something out of that? Does it taste good? It's starting to fill you with
some amazement at Him, and some wonder, and some marvel, and
some appreciation, and some thankfulness, and some sense of His glory,
and His power, and some sense of our own dependence, and some
sense of His faithfulness. It's filling us up with His Word. And it says, He said, make them
sit down by fifties in a company. Together. Divide them in fifties. Nobody really knows why he did
this. Murchin said, prophetically, and it's true, he said, after
this assembly is gone, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he said, I believe
that the churches will consist of no more than little groups
of fifty all over the land. That's pretty much what it is.
If that many. Look, ten. I told somebody yesterday, we
have the highest attendance ratio right now of anybody from the
county. We have more people in attendance here than anybody.
They always ask, how many have you got? More than you. Exact numbers. That's an exact
number, it said 50. Remember when they caught all
those fish? The Lord said, have a number. By company. Now there's your
company. Sit over there with those 49
people. That's your company. Your companions. Isn't that a blessing? Our little
group. I'm not supposed to touch your
face. and hide our faces. But David
said, I'm a companion of them that fear Thee. And there aren't
that many that do. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. But bless God, if you can find 49 others like you
that fear the Lord, go there and sit down, join yourself to
them, and worship the Lord and feast on a table that He spreads
in the midst of your enemies. Hmm, 50. Make them sit down. They took the five loaves and
two fishes. He did. He took it. He took it. And looking up to heaven, he
blessed them. Thank you, Father, for this bread,
for this fish. Thank you, Lord. He blessed them.
He blessed them. And he broke them. And he gave
again. Again, he gave it to his disciples.
Now you feed them. Who's doing the feeding? He is. But what's the means? They are. Are they feeding them? No, they
don't get any glory. They're just distributed. They're
just a voice, like John said. They're not the blesser. He is.
They're not the blessing. He is. And they don't feed people
themselves. Paul said we don't preach ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. John, what's your name? My name's
not important. You don't need to know my name.
You need to know Him. That's who I'm here to declare.
He it is. That's what John says. He must eat Christ. I must... He must eat Christ. I must eat
Christ. You feed Him now. Bread that
He provides. Fish, flesh. His body. His blood. You feed Him. And
they did eat. Oh, don't we say... Now we pray,
Lord, break this bread and fill us this day. Now here it is. That was our company and here's
my last point. Their joy and rejoicing. Verse 17. And they
did eat. And were filled. They were all filled. Have you
ever been so hungry? My dad used to say she's an appetite
waiting to be seated. That's a good thing. Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst. Have you ever been so hungry
you thought, I'm going to die? She says this all the time. If
I don't get something to eat, I'm going to die. No, you're not. You're
not going to die. But that's hunger. Have you ever
been that way? Oh, I've got to have something.
I've got to have some food. And you're so hungry, you just
cook, cook, cook, cook. There are times when I think,
I wish I weighed 300 pounds, because I could keep eating this. It's so good. I can't hold another vice. I can't hold any more. Oh my, the Lord sometimes He
fills us with a sense of His glory. They were filled with
good food, weren't they? Is not this our joy and rejoicing? Really. Our Lord admonished everyone
in Isaiah 55. Why do you spend money for that
which is not bread, that which is satisfied? Come, he says,
buy wine and milk without money, without a price. Here your soul
lives. This is bread. This is a piece
of fat thing for your soul. Wine on the leaves, well refined.
That's His blood and His righteousness. Oh, and if He feeds us, we'll
be filled with really good food, filled with joy, filled with
gladness, filled with wonder and amazement, filled by Him,
on Him, from Him. To Him is honor and glory, because
it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. It all came from Him. It was
Him. And to Him is glory and honor. Don't you know, everybody's going,
where's this coming from? Where'd you get this? Him. James
and the disciples were like, look at Him. It's like the woman,
the winter woman, you know, the barrel of meal never wasted every
day. She went, look, look! It's going to run dry. I don't
want to die. Hey, look! As I dazed, I straightened,
and they started feeding this baby. And those disciples, what
do you think those disciples said? Oh, this is wonderful! Who did this? Thank you, thank
you, preacher, for this food. I didn't give it! I am a receiver like you. He
did it! Every one of them, John, did
that, didn't they? Oh, thank you, Peter. Don't thank
me. I'm a nobody. I'm just holding
a basket. He's filling it. Him, Him, Him. Of His fullness have we all received
grace for grace. His grace. His gift. Everything
comes from Him. Now, look at this. This is wonderful.
And they did eat, and were all filled. And they were taken up,
they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets.
You think it was a half a basket? Twelve baskets. Twelve baskets. Now here's a few things. You remember Samuel, the Lord
sent his word through a man, Samuel. And it said the Lord
didn't let one word of his fall to the ground. Not one word of his is
going to fail. His word will never fail. There's not one word
of God, of Christ that falls to the ground. It's wasted. It's
all on purpose. It's all for his people. It's
all for his glory. Everywhere he said, the word
shall not return, avoid it. It will accomplish that whereunto
I said this. Now those people right there,
they fed by Him, on Him, of Him, through Him, to Him. And they
took up twelve baskets. Twelve? Hmm. That's the apostles,
isn't it? Fragments. Baskets full. What was that for? What are they
going to do with that? The people are going to take that into town
and give it to their families. and feed them on the same time
they fed off of it. Right? You take these baskets
into town, and you feed it, go and feed your children. And you
be sure and tell them where you got it. Like Deuteronomy 6. He said, when you talk of these
things, it's Word. Deuteronomy 32 says it's not
a vain thing, it's your life, the Word. And take it, he said,
as you sit in your houses, as you walk by the way, tell it
to your children. Feed them. He told his apostles,
go into all the world, preach the gospel. What is the gospel?
It's him. It's him. Tell them about him,
the great provider, the great savior. Fragments. We preach in part. We know in
part. That's what Paul, the apostle,
said. In part. Oh, but when that one
has come, the fullness comes. Take this basket and feed your loved ones. Stay with us.