Once again, it is a wonderful
delight to be with you. I'm thankful. I'm thankful for
you. I'm thankful for the service
you gave to our country. And it's a blessing to be here
and do a little service in return. I am going to be using a passage
of scripture found in the book of John in the New Testament
for our lesson today, the book of John chapter six. And some
of those songs just go hand-in-glove with what our message is today.
In the book of John chapter 6, we're going to have several verses
to read, but it shares a lot about our Savior, the Lord Jesus.
Now, John is just chocked full of verses of Scripture that share
with us that he is God the Son, the Son of God. He is God the
very God, but he's also the Son of Man. And in this passage of
scripture, we find that he is going to do something that only
a God could do, only he could do. Nobody can multiply food
like he did. And nobody could feed so many
people as he did and have food left over from so little. But
one of the verses in that passage of scripture, I want to read
first because it kind of sets the tone. And that is in verse
six of John chapter six, We have here, he's asked Philip a question
in verse five, and then in verse six he says, and this he said
to prove him. For he, Jesus Christ, himself
knew what he would do. Now, never was a time in the
life of the ministry of the Lord Jesus that he was at question
on what to do next. And here, he is going to demonstrate
that very thing. He always knew what he was going
to do. In fact, we find out that he
had a plan made before the foundation of the world. So he's working
off an old script. He's working off of an old line. He had what he planned to do
before the foundation of the world, and now in time he is
carrying that out, and he brings that out to us here in this verse
of Scripture. He himself knew what he would
do. No question. He knew how he's
going to deal with this. In fact, he knew how many people
were going to be there that needed to be fed, how many hungry people.
So let's back up here to verse one of John chapter six. And
the Bible tells us this, after these things, Jesus, now that's
what the book's about. Mike taught a lesson this morning.
He brought up one of the things I really liked. The Old Testament
tells us someone's coming. All through the prophecies of
the Old Testament, someone is coming. And Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John tell us someone is here. And we know who that is. That
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Acts to Revelation is
someone's coming back. You know, he promised that when
he left, he would return just like he left. So we have someone
is here, and that person is Christ. He says in the books about him,
after these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, that
is the Sea of Tiberias, and a great multitude followed him. Now this
is why they followed him. because they saw his miracles,
because they saw his miracles, which he did on them that were
diseased. Jesus went up into a mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples, and the Passover,
a feast of the Jews, was nigh. Now, if we go to the Old Testament,
we can read in Exodus chapter 12 about the Passover, that there
was a lamb without spot and without blemish. and the blood of that
lamb was going to deliver the people that were inside of that
household. Figuratively, Christ is going
to deliver his household by his own blood. He is truly the Passover
lamb. So this feast is brought to our attention. Verse five,
when Jesus then lifted up his eyes, he saw a great company. Now, you know, the Lord didn't
have to raise his eyes up. He knew exactly who was there,
but he also knew all their names. And he also knew all their children's
names and all their parents' names. This God that we read
about in the Bible is an all-knowing God. He knows everything about
everything. He is omniscient, we use that
word. So he knew everybody that was going to be there, and he
knew that everybody that was going to be there was hungry,
and he also knew that the only reason that they were all there,
they were following him because of his miracles. Now it wasn't
because of his teachings that they liked him. They liked him
because of his miracles and probably some of their family had been
healed by him. And it goes on to tell us here in verse five,
he lifted up, saw a great company come unto him. He said unto Philip,
whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? How are we going
to buy bread for all these folks? Now we're going to find out there's
5,000 men not counting women and children,
5,000 men. Now, I don't know about you,
but that's a big gob of people to feed. 5,000 men plus women and children.
And he asked one of his disciples, Philip, he said, how can we do
this? And we read this verse, the verse
six just earlier, and this he said to prove him, Philip, I've
got a question. Now what's your answer going
to be? Because Jesus already knew what he would do. It's not
going to be a mystery to him. There is nothing that catches
God short. Nothing stops him. He is absolutely
all knowledgeable about everything, about everything about each of
us. He knows all about us. And then he goes on to say, and
Philip answered him, 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient
for them that every one of them may take a little. 200 pennyworth. Now I looked that phrase up because
this is an English translation of a Roman or a Greek term. And the 200 here speaks of about a day's wages in their
time. So 200 days wages wouldn't be
a sufficient to feed this many people and everybody just get
a scrap of bread. You know, my mother used to feed
a lot of people and she always made too much. Why? She said, I'd rather have stuff
left over than be short and have somebody hungry. Well, the Lord's
going to make sure that there's nobody going to be hungry here.
There's going to be plenty for everybody. He knew what he would
do. Now, there's a young man that
is there. Now, he's not there by chance.
He's there on purpose. The Lord appointed a young man
to come. He's the only one with a sack
lunch. The only one, everybody else
is, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? What
are we going to do? Well, one of his disciples, Andrew, verse
eight, Simon Peter's brother saith unto him, there is a lad
here which have five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what
are they among so many? What can we do with five barley
loaves and two fishes? Cause that's the meal for the
lad. That's what he brought it for
was his own meal, but that there's just not enough. We have one
land. All right. Now the Lord says, make the men
sit down. Now there was much grass in the
place. So the men sat down a number
about 5,000. Now, if that's all that was there,
that's still a pretty good gob of people. Now, if they brought
their wives and their children along with them, we have a greater
number of people. So the Lord is going to do something
that you and I find an impossibility to do, but nothing is too hard
for God. The disciples asked one time,
says, Lord, who then can be saved? Because he's already told them,
hardly a rich man can enter into the kingdom of heaven. And they
said, Who then can be saved? And he said, it is easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter into the kingdom of God. And then he uses the illustration. Camel, you know what that is.
Over here at Shriners, they got a bunch of camels. My younger
son was working down what is now Ace Hardware downtown, and
they brought in a baby camel that was going to the veterinary,
and I have a picture of my son standing by that camel. You know
what? That baby camel would still be
an impossibility to put through the eye of a needle. Doesn't
matter how small they are. Now I've read where the eye of
a needle was one of the doors of the walls of Jerusalem and
you had to take the whole load off of the camel and he squatted
down and went through the door and got inside. You know what?
That guy's lying to us when he wrote that because Jesus goes
on to say, with men it is impossible. It's impossible. But with God,
all things are possible. Now we have the God of all possibilities
dealing with five loaves and two fishes. Now, he could have
done this without anything, but he chose to use the smallest
portion by one young lad to demonstrate that he is the Lord God Almighty. Now, we depend on him for our
food and our daily sustenance. That's who takes care of the
crops. You know, we complain about the weather. The weather's
God's weather. The ground is the Lord's ground. And he's going
to take care of us as he sees fit. And I'm thankful I live
in a place where I sat down at lunch and my wife made me a wonderful
roast with carrots and potatoes and some gravy, and I feasted
out. But not every place in the world
is that way. Here is 5,000 people that if something doesn't happen,
they're going to have to leave or they're going to get grumbly.
Grumbly, you know what that is when you're hungry, just, I'm
grumbly hungry. Well, Jesus took the loaves and the fish. He did not leave that material
in the hands of his disciples, and he didn't leave it in the
hands of the little boy. He took that food. Jesus took the loaves,
and when he had given thanks, he distributed it to the disciples.
Now, we're witnessing here, in the word of God, a tremendous
miracle. Five little barley loaves and
two fishes. are going to feed 5,000 men and
we're going to find out that there were baskets full left
over. He didn't have to do one of those
Spartan meals. You take one little piece of
bread and one little fish and be gone. He fed them till they
were full. He fed them till they could eat
no more. They had a meal that they hadn't
had in a long time, and that was everything they wanted to
eat. Jesus took and distributed to
the disciples, the disciples to them that sat down, and likewise
the fishes as much as they would. Jesus blessed it. He put his
blessing on this. Here's a miracle of Almighty
God in the face of Jesus Christ, serving, doing. You know, Jesus
said this, I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. He came
to be the servant. He's the servant. He didn't ask
anybody to serve him. He said, I'll be the servant
that, and then I will give my life a ransom for many. So here
he is. When they had filled, when they
were filled, now that word means up to here. My grandmother used
to say, would you like some more? And we'd say, if we ate another
bite, we'd pop. They were at the point, if they
ate another bite, they would pop. They were full and full
and full. All right. Gather up the fragments
that remain, that nothing be lost. And verse 13, therefore
they gathered them together and filled 12 baskets with the fragments
of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above them
that had eaten. More than sufficient. More than
enough. Here we have the Lord Jesus taking
care of business in such a manner that only God could have done
this. He's the only one who could have multiplied that bread and
those fishes and make it so that everybody got to eat to their
fill and have everything left over that was left over. A gigantic
amount is left over. Then those men, when they had
seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, this is of the truth that
prophets come into the world. Now, the next thing they want
to do, it tells us they wanted to make him king. You know, I've
had a lot of people say that Jesus came to be king, but nobody
would let him be king, so he had to go to the cross. You know,
there's nothing worse than that. In the world, Jesus Christ came
to go to the cross. He never came down to set up
an earthly kingdom. He came here to go to the cross,
to lay down his life for ransom for many. Here it says they would
make him Jesus, when Jesus therefore perceived that they would come
and take him by force, Now, I've had preachers tell me in listening,
they say they wanted to make him their bread king. As long
as he feeds us, we'll stay with him. We're going to find out
that every one of those folks left him. Nobody stuck around
when he got to talking about serious things. You know, people
want his blessings, but when it comes to his word and there
is only one way that anybody will ever be saved, and that's
his way. They start to raise their hands
and say, oh, that's a little too tough for me. Well, it says
there, they wouldn't, he left. Now, if we follow this down into
the latter part of this chapter, chapter six of the book of John,
it says here in beginning with verse 61. That's the same group
of people. When Jesus knew in himself, his
disciples murmured at it. Now he started teaching them.
There's no greater opportunity to teach somebody than with a
full stomach. We used to have a Bible camp
out here in the Forest Service camp. And one of the speakers
we had or a couple of them said, you know, it's very easy. to
preach to people that have been given good food. If it is real
sparse, then they're fidgety, but if they have good food, they'll
sit and listen to you. Well, we had good food, so people
stuck around and listened. Well, Jesus fed them to the full,
and then he began teaching them about him and his gospel, and
that his gospel is the only gospel. There's not a hundred roads to
Rome. Oh, there might be a hundred roads to Rome. There's only one
road to heaven, and that's Jesus Christ and him crucified. So
he began to teach them, and it says there, they murmured at
him, does this offend you? What if you shall see the Son
of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that
quickeneth. No, he's talking about being
made alive. It's the spirit that quickeneth.
You know, it takes the grace of God for us to ever realize
that by nature we're dead in trespasses and sin, that we have
no capabilities of ourself of ever doing anything good for
God to warrant salvation. And he says it's the spirit that
quickens that gives life. Uh-oh. We got one mark against
you, Jesus. We don't like that word. And
then the flesh prophet is nothing. What are you telling me? Are
you telling me that my works is of no value? That's exactly
what he said. The flesh prophet is nothing.
So you got two marks against you, Jesus. We're just not having
a good day right here. Thanks for the food, but we're
not having a good day. And then it tells us here, and the words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. There's
only one way that people will ever be saved and that's through
the blood of Jesus Christ. But there was some of you that
believed not. Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and should betray him. You know,
this is a marvelous thing about the word of God. Jesus Christ
knew everything that was going on. In fact, it was written in
the Old Testament that a man by the name of, doesn't give
his name, but everything about him was given, Judas would betray
him. There's no surprise here. People may say, well, if I'd
have been there, I'd have stopped that. Oh, no, no, no. God had
a purpose. That's the way it's going to
happen. So therefore said I unto you that no man can come to me
except we're given unto him of my father. Uh-oh. Three strikes
against him. We don't like what you're preaching.
Thank you for the food. We're leaving. Because in the
very next verse, from that time, many of his disciples went back
and walked no more with him. Why? Well, he said, it is the
spirit that quickeneth. The spirit gives life. It is
the flesh profiteth nothing. There's nothing about your flesh
that will profit you in salvation. And nobody can come to me except
the father which hath sent me. Draw him." And they said, that's
enough. We're filled up with that. And
then he asked his 12, will ye also go away? And I like what
Simon Peter had to say. So often we find that Peter answers
for the whole group. And he answers for the church
today. Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life. Where can we go? There's nowhere
else where we can hear this message. There's nowhere else where we
can hear about salvation alone in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nowhere else. Anybody can give
us bread. We can buy bread. Lord, help
us not, but we can steal bread. But nobody can give us what you
have, the words of eternal life. That is so valuable to have someone
tell us about the Jesus that can give us the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ. You're the Messiah, the son of
the living God. What a blessing. We've just taken
a few verses out of a fairly long chapter, and we brought
up a point here about the Lord Jesus. He says, I already know
what's going to happen. I've got it all planned. It's all
worked out. He wanted to know what we would do in the case.
And he said, as he himself knew what he would do, young man says,
it's going to take 200 days of labor, money-wise, to feed this
host. Another one says, well, we got
a lad here, but it's hardly anything, five loaves and two fishes. But
what is that? And when it was over, 12 baskets
full of food was taken up. Everybody was filled. And then
he started preaching. and the crowd got disinterested
and left. You know, it takes more than
just having some physical blessings. It takes the spirit of God to
quicken us, to quicken us. It's the flesh prophet of nothing.
It is he, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Let's go to the Lord in prayer
and we'll be dismissed.