This is another marvelous story
of our Lord feeding the multitude. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lord, is Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. That's who this is. Psalm 104
says this, that all wait upon Him, and He gives them their
meat in due season. Thou givest them, they gather. Thou openest Thine hand, and
they are filled with good." That's who this is who's going to feed
them and hopefully this morning feed us. Look at verse 32. Then Jesus called His disciples
unto Him and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they
continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And
I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way."
He said, I have compassion on them. This is the Lord whom Scripture
says is full of compassion, gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous
in mercy and truth. Plenty to go around. The Lord
who can have compassion on the ignorant and them that are out
of the way because, himself was compassed with infirmity. And
so he has compassion. The Lord whose tender mercies
are over all his works. And he said, I have compassion
on them. They have continued with me these
three days. Who this was that continued or
followed him, continued with him, was verse 30. The great
multitude came to him having with them the lame, the blind,
the dumb, and the maimed. And they sat down, and he healed
them. The dumb spake, the maimed were
whole, the lame walked, and the blind were made to see. These
were those that were following him. The blind now saw his glory,
and they couldn't take their eyes off of him. The deaf heard
his blessed voice, and now they followed him everywhere, waiting
for a word from him. They followed him. We're singing
his praises, the maimed. And now they're walking and following
with the Lord Jesus Christ, and they won't go away. He said,
they're with me. They're like the importunate
widow who would not go away. So the Lord blessed her. They're
like the Canaanite woman, though the Lord called her a dog and
ignored her, she wouldn't go away. And the Lord said, anyone
who won't go away, I'll not send them away for any reason. And he will not have his people
to faint, those who follow him. He said, I will not let them
faint. Listen to Isaiah 40. Listen to
this. It says in Isaiah 40, hast thou
not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the
Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither
is weary. I'm always amazed when I think
about how many people were following Him and asking Him and begging
Him and pleading with Him and trying to touch Him. Thousands
upon thousands upon thousands every waking hour of His day,
they wanted Him. They wanted Him to do something
for them. And yet he never grew weary of
that. He never grew tired. He was never impatient. Never impatient with anybody.
How about us? When so many people look to us
or depend upon us, or we're not in the right mood or something,
we get irritable and we cross with somebody. Not our Lord.
Ever. Not ever. And he never turned
one person away. Never. For any reason. I'm too
tired. I can't see you now. Never. He
never grew weary of showing mercy. Listen in. And he says, he gives
power to the faint, and them that have no might, he increases
strength. He says, they that wait upon
the Lord shall renew their strength. That is, those who come and sit
and wait on a word from Him, like you're doing now. If you
come to hear from Him, you will. If you come to hear a word from
Him, you will. If you come hungry to be fed,
you will go away full. It says, They shall mount up
with wings as eagles. They may crawl in like worms,
but they'll go away flying. They shall run and not be weary. They'll run this race set before
them. They shall walk by faith and not faint. The Lord said,
I will not turn them away, lest they faint in the way. Come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. I won't turn you
away. I'll give you rest. And you sit
and you listen to me and you feed and you won't faint. If you don't, you will. You will,
because this is our necessary food. All right. Verse 33. Well,
his disciples said unto him, Whence or where should we have
so much bread in the wilderness? That's to fill so great a multitude. Where are we going to get enough
bread to feed all these people out here in the middle of nowhere
in the wilderness? Go with me to Psalm 78. Psalm
78. Could they have forgotten so
soon? Do you recall that it was chapter
14 that he fed 5,000 men, besides women and children, which meant
10,000 to 12,000 people with five loaves and two fishes? Do
you remember that? Maybe you forgot that story.
It wasn't too long ago. Well, they did. How? How could they have forgotten
that so soon? Their own mouths condemned them.
Where are we going to get so much bread? It looks like one
of them would have said, how could we be so foolish? Bread? How did he feed us before? Have
we forgotten? Have we forgotten so soon? His
disciples saw miracle after miracle after miracle after wonder after
wonder every day Every hour. They didn't work any job. They
never provided for themselves one meal. Not one did they ever. They didn't hoe gardens. They
didn't plant. The Lord gave them. They were
like the sparrows. They were like the ants. And
the Lord said, consider them. And they lived completely from
His hand to their mouth. And they never missed a meal
for people. Neither have we. Neither have
we. Not one of us. Has he been so
long time with us, and yet we don't know him? That he will
not. David said, I've been young and
I'm old. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken, turned away. They leave. They come back. And he never turns away. He said,
I'll not cast you out for any reason. I've never seen God's
seed baking bread, David said, ever. Oh, we of little faith. Where are we going to get our
next house paper? Where did you get the last one?
Where are we going to get there? How are we going to get through
this? How did you get through it before? You didn't. But he brought you through. Look
at Psalm 78. Verse 12, marvelous things he
did in the sight of our fathers in the land of Egypt. Verse 13,
he divided the sea and they all passed through it. Made the waters
stand as a heap. Stand still, Moses said. Quit rushing around and bustling
and worrying. It's just your strength is to
sit still and see or hear one more time the salvation of the
Lord. If you don't, you're going to be full of anxiety and trouble. If you come and sit and commune
with your heart and listen to His Word, where He reminds us
over and over again, I fed you, and I fed you, and I will continue
to do so all the day. From the cradle to your hoary
head, I have carried you and will carry you, and I will never
put you down. We just don't believe Him, do
we? We think He's like us. Look at Psalm 78, it says he
clad the rocks, verse 15, gave them drink. Where are we going
to get something to drink? Well, here's a rock. Brought
streams out of it. How many people, do you know
how many people were watered by one rock? How many people? Eight. Verse 21. Verse 22, they believed not,
they trusted not in his salvation. Though he commanded the clouds
from above, opened the doors of heaven, rained down manna
upon them, giving them the corn of heaven, they ate angels' food." Now go back to our text. And
then, you know, this is sin. This is the sin that does so
easily beset us. Unbelief. The children of Israel
entered not in because of unbelief. It dishonors our God. And it
fills us full of worry and trouble. Unbelievable. And here's the
worst thing, though. Some of them began to loathe
the light bread. They took it for granted. They
didn't deserve to eat this bread. And the Lord kept raining it
down. And they got tired of it. How could they? How can we? You know, this message is the
same as it was before. This is the exact same story
as before. Why did the Lord do this again? To show us that He keeps feeding
us and feeding us, though we forget and though we take it
for granted like the children of Israel. This is the same story,
but we have the same need. Same Lord, same faithful Lord,
same food, same desperate daily need of this bread that we don't
deserve and we take for granted. This is another display of the
Lord's wonderful mercy and compassion like the gospel you're hearing
this morning. Again, again, that some people don't hear. Same preacher. A lot of people
got tired of Moses. Well, he's all they had. And
they were in the wilderness. There's a reason the Lord calls
it the wilderness. They weren't out in a desert
place. That is, there were nothing, no trees and none of that, but
the world. They were in the world, the wilderness,
a wild place. Wilderness, wilderness. And so
are we, though it seems like A nice place. It is hostile. It's the hostile environment
we live in. And He prepares us a table in the presence of our
enemy. What mercy if we are hungry? What mercy if we don't grow tired
of this? Listen to Mary's song, Mary the
former virgin, in Luke chapter 1. Mary, who was pregnant with
Christ, who was full of Christ, whom Christ dwelled in. She said,
He hath filled the hungry with good things, and hath sent the
rich away empty. Are you hungry? Well, what do
you have? Same old, same old. Bread. Look at verse 34. The Lord said
to the disciples, He said to them, How many loaves have you? How many loaves have you? He
said this to the disciples. Once again, the people are going
to be fed through these men. The people are going to be fed
through these men. It goes from the Lord's hand
to the disciples' hand to the people's mouth. That's the way
the Lord did it, and that's the way the Lord does it. That's
the way He does it. Look, verse 32 says, He called
His disciples. He saw the people, had compassion
on the people, and would not turn them away, but would feed
them with bread and would not send them away without it lest
they faint. And so He called these men. He
called twelve men and said, You're going to feed my people. You're
going to feed my people. Isaiah 40. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Our Lord said in Matthew 24,
he said, Blessed is the servant who is feeding my people. When the Lord comes, he finds
them feeding his people. Peter, Simon, lovest thou me? More than me, that is, more than
the world, these things. It is. If the Lord's called a
man to preach, he loves that more than anything else. He said,
well, feed my lamb. Feed my sheep. Oh, I will, Lord,
I will. But I don't have much. How am I going to feed them?
He says, well, what do you have? Look at that verse 34. How many
loaves have you? How many loaves have you? In other words, their food was
bread. Their constant staple was bread. How relevant is this in our modern society, who all
of a sudden thinks bread is not good for you? And this is all they had. What
do you have? We've got bread here. We eat
it every day. That's what they ate every day.
Bread. Their principal food. That's indicative too, you know,
of preaching doesn't have the bread of life in it. Preaching. Oh my. Well, they said we have
seven loaves. How many have you had? Seven
loaves. Oh, seven. Seven has always been
the number in Scripture of perfection, of completeness. Seven. What do you have? We have bread.
Seven loaves. What I have this morning, what
you have in your lap this morning is the whole counsel of God. Whole food. Bread from heaven. Complete. This is the story of
our complete salvation in Jesus Christ, the bread of life. What
do you have there? Bread. Seven loaves. The perfect Word of God. Able
to make wise unto salvation. Able to save our soul. What else do we need? Well, can
all these people eat from that? Oh yes, they did before. Look
at it, it says the last time they asked him, or the last time
he asked them, what do you have there? They said there's a lad
here, there's a young fellow there. He has five loaves and
two fishes. All right? Now how many do you
have? Seven loaves and three fishes. So it's multiplied. So you have
more now than you had in the beginning. Does not this word grow on you
and grow in you? Do you not have more than you
had in the beginning? Materially speaking, physically
speaking, if I were to ask you, what did you have in the very
beginning, you husbands and wives, what did you start out with?
And you would say, well, we had food. And we had raiment. And
we had love. We lived on love. What do you
have now? How much food? How much raiment? How many children? How many grandchildren? Don't you have more than he had
to begin with? Why would you worry? Why would you doubt him? Why? Twice, we have a hundredfold
than what we began with. We didn't have anything to begin
with. We had things necessary. Now we have all of these things. Well, they said, but what are
these among so many? They said that in another place,
of the five and the two. And they said to him, but how
is this going to feed so many people? Seven and a few little
fishes. A few little fishes. If I had
a title to this, it would be that. A few little fishes. What
do you have there? Seven loaves of precious, life-sustaining
bread and just a few little fishes. What are a few little fishes?
After this is over, they'll never look at a few little fishes the
same again. A few little fishes. What do
we have here in this little building here, this little building? A
few little people. People, every one of us in here
are a miracle of God's marvelous saving grace, if you know the
Lord, and hopefully you will. A few little people. One person saved by grace is
a marvelous miracle of God. A few little fishes. Few little
people. Members of the body of Christ.
Members of the vast kingdom of God. A few? A little? Nothing
little about that. And this is not just a little
sermon. You know that? This is the wisdom and the power
of God, able to save to the uttermost. This is not just a little sermon. And little faith. If you have
a little faith. Do you have a little faith? Do
you believe the Lord? Do you trust Christ? Do you believe
His Word? Do you believe His truth? Do
you? There's nothing little about that. That's saving faith. He said,
"...a faithful grave of mustard seeds and blue mountains." Little
faith? A little faith? Folks, don't
ever look at the faith that the Lord has given you as being little
ever again. It's a marvelous miracle. It's
a miracle. The fact that I believe, let
alone standing up here and preaching, is amazing. The fact that you
sit here right now, whereas at one time you didn't
give a thought, didn't want anything to do with this, and the fact
that you sit here right now and love what you're hearing is amazing,
amazing grace. A few little fishes? Is that
all you have? Where do fish come from? Fish are amazing. You don't catch fish because
you're a good fisherman, Ron, John, Kelly, whoever. No, you
don't. That's the disciples. How many
times have we done that? Fished all night and caught nothing. And then we'd catch a little
bluegill and we'd take a picture of it and send it back to him.
That's what I did. Shoot! You didn't catch nothing. The Lord put that fish on your
hook. That's Simon Peter. A few little fish. Fish come
from the Lord. Fish come from the sea. It's
amazing, isn't it? And fish give their lives. to
sustain ours. The Lord gives their life. Substitution. A few little pieces. What do
you have there? A few little pieces. What do
you have there? Well, we've got an amazing providence of the
Lord, provision of the Lord here. The Lord has bountifully blessed
us and provided us with a thousand times more than we deserve. A
few little pieces. We don't deserve anything, but
the Lord has blessed us with a little bit of faith. and a
little congregation, and a little preacher. Few little fishes. Well, He commanded
them, verse 35, He commanded the multitude to sit down on
the ground. Salvation is by command. He maketh us to lie down in green
pasture. You would not come. I would not
come if the Lord didn't give the command. Come. Sit. Listen. Open your mouth. Unless he digs the ear, we won't
hear a thing. We'll go away hungry. But blessed
be His name, He gives commandment to save us. And this Word saves
us again and again and again and again. If we don't eat, we'll
die of hunger, die of lack of food. And the Lord makes us hungry
and brings us, commands them to sit down on the ground. Not the chief seat. Sit on the
ground. Take the lowest seat. He that
is abased shall be exalted. He that abases himself, humbles
himself, shall be exalted. Where were they all sitting?
On the ground at his feet. That's a good place to be. Ask
Mary. Mary chose the best part, and
the Lord said, He will not be taken from her. This is the good
part. And she went away full. Not like
Martha, she was too busy. She didn't hear it. Well, he
said, command him to sit down, verse 36, and he took the seven
loaves and the fishes and he gave thanks and break them and
gave to the disciples and the disciples to the milk. He took
the bread and he blessed it. Unless the Lord takes this word
that I'm attempting to preach this morning, Unless the Lord
blesses it, you won't be blessed. We won't be blessed. Unless the
Lord takes it in hand, takes us in hand, takes our heart in
His hand, opens our ears, lets us receive it, we won't
hear it. And He gave thanks. Before they
ate, He gave thanks. We should get all of our traditions
from the Word of God, not from man. Why do we give thanks before
we eat? That's what the Lord did. That's
where that came from. Before the Lord broke that bread,
before He distributed, before anyone got anything, they were
hungry, they didn't have anything, but they gave thanks. Like the woman came to our Lord
before He answered her, before she received mercy, Before the
Lord healed her daughter, she worshiped Him. The leper, before
the Lord healed him, he worshiped the Lord. Everybody that worships
Him will be fed. Everyone that worships Him first,
that gives thanks first. You see, we don't deserve anything
more. And let's give thanks for what
He's given us. And let's repent of taking that for granted. Why
should he feed us again? Oh, thank you, Lord, for the
food you've given me up to this point. If you never fed me again,
thank you. And watch the windows of heaven
open. Delights to show mercy on them that need it. Those that
need mercy, not the expectant, not the demanding. And look at
mercy. It gave it to the disciples,
and the disciples to the multitude. They fed the people and they
did all eat and were filled. Of His fullness have we all received,
grace for grace. They all ate the same thing.
They all ate the same food, same gospel for everybody. You know
how many people there were? Down in verse 38, 4,000 besides
women and children. Eight to 10,000 persons ate the same food. They were people of all walks
of life. They were professional people,
and blue-collar people, and doctors maybe, and dishwashers, and lawyers,
and laborers, and people that were noble. Not many, not many
noble, but people that were criminals. And he fed them all with the
same food. They all had the same thing,
because they all had one need. And we all had need of one thing.
Jesus Christ is all and in all. He meets the need of all of us.
All of us. And they were filled. God had
put in Christ all the fullness of God in Him. In Christ. He is the fullness of God. And
you partake of Him, you won't be empty or hungry. Verse 38,
there were 4,000, 8,000 to 10,000 people. And then he sent away the multitude
and took ship, came into the coast of Magdalene. He left them. He sent them away. Why? They couldn't just sit on
that mountain all day, could they? Forever. They had families,
they had jobs, they had responsibilities, and he sent them back to their
respective places, like he sends us. If you could, would you stay
here and build three tabernacles like Peter wanted to? Let's not
go down off this mountain, Lord. I don't want to leave here."
No, he must. They sent them away, back out
into the wilderness, back out into the world. And he left.
But did he leave them? Did he forget about them? All
right, they're going to go to work, they're going to earn some
money, and they're going to buy their bread at the store. Don't you forget now where you
got that. Don't you forget. You didn't
provide that. The Lord did. Don't you forget.
Don't you forget. Okay.