Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 450. 450. There will never be
a sweeter story Story of the Savior's love divine Love that brought him from the
realm of glory Just to save a sinful soul like mine Isn't the love
of Jesus something wonderful? It is wonderful, wonderful, Lord. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Boundless as the universe around
me Reaching to the farthest soul away Saving, keeping love, it
was that found me That is why my heart can truly say Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful, it is wonderful, oh. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Love beyond our human comprehending
Love of God in Christ, how can it be? This will be my theme and never
ending Great redeeming love of Calvary Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful, it is wonderful. Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
67. Number 67. O Savior, as my eyes
behold the wonders of thy might untold, The hymns in glorious
flight array'd The vast creation Thou hast made. And yet to think Thou lovest
me, My heart cries out, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should love us so light Can it be? As at the cross I humbly bow
and gaze upon thy thorn-crowned brow. and view the precious fleeting
form by cruel nails so bruised and torn. Knowing Thy suffering
was for me, in grief I cried, How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should love us so like
Oh, how can it be? How can it be, how can it be,
was ever grace so full and free? From heights of bliss to depths
of woe, in loving kindness From sin and shame to rescue
me O love divine, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? that God should love a soul like
me? Oh, how can it be? If you will, open your Bibles
to Mark, chapter 6. There was a woman talking about
one time about how God saved her, and the fellow said, let
me ask you three questions, okay? Did you choose God or did God
choose you? And answer them scripturally. Don't give me your opinion, just
answer me scripturally. She said, well, the Bible said
God chose me. Well, if he did, when did he
do it? Answer scripturally now. Well,
before the foundation of the world. Why did he do it then? Answer scripturally. According
to the good pleasure of his will. That's right, ain't it? Just
exactly that way. Just exactly that way. I'm thankful it's that way. I
sure am thankful. Had not he chose us, we certainly
would have never chose him. He had to give us the will or
we wouldn't even have come according to the will. All right, let me
start reading together here in Mark chapter 6 and verse 31 down
to verse 44. And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart unto
a desert place, and rest a while. For there were many coming and
going, that they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they departed
into a desert place by ship privately. And the people saw them departing,
and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and
out went them, and came together unto him. And when Jesus, when
he came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion
toward them because they were as sheep, not having a shepherd,
and he began to teach them many things. And when the day was
now far spent, his disciples came unto him and said, This
is a desert place, and now the time is far past. Send them away. that they may go into the country
round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread, for
they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them,
Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall
we go and buy two hundred penny worth of bread, and give them
to eat? He saith unto them, How many
loaves have ye? Go and see. And when they knew,
they say, Five and two fishes, and he commanded them all to
sit down by companies upon the green grass, and they sat down
in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. And when he had taken the five
loaves and the two fishes, he looked up into heaven and blessed,
and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to sit
before them, and the two fishes divided he among them all. And
they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets
full of fragments, and of the fishes. And they that ate of
the loaves were about five thousand men." Our most gracious, blessed God
and Father, by Lord Jesus Christ, how blessed, how blessed Happy
is the people, blessed is the people, has the God of Jacob
for their help. The God of election, the God
of sovereign love, the God of sovereign mercy, the God of promise. Oh, what a blessing to be, have
the God of Jacob to be our God. And Lord, we bless you that you
give us this day. Lord, we got out of bed this
morning, still clothed in a right mind. still have our health,
still able to go. And oh Lord, we understand that
everything we have, you gave us. Everything you know about
the Bible and about the scriptures and about Christ and the gospel,
you taught us. And Lord, we thank you that you
chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, loved
us with an everlasting love, separated us from our mother's
womb and called us by your grace. Oh, Lord, how blessed we are. And, Lord, we ask that you'd
cause the gospel to run well here this morning, that the gospel
go in power, go in liberty, go into the hearts to the understanding. And, Lord, I can't open a heart.
I can't open an understanding. All I can do is stand here and
declare what you give me. But, Lord, you can get the heart.
You can get the mind. You can get the understanding.
You can open the hearts and the minds and make people to become
believers. You've got the power. And I pray
that this is the day that in the power you make some willing
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Have mercy upon our lost
loved ones. Forgive us of everything that's
unlike you. Bring glory to yourself today through your blessed son. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen. Amen. Let's stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Be still and know that I am God. Rest your weary soul on me. For I have redeemed you in love. When you wake, I'm still with
thee. I am acquainted with your ways. I have laid my hand on you. You shall know that all of your
days my right hand is holding you. O Lord, Thou hast searched me,
known me, Thou understandest my thoughts. O Lord, You know
me completely, I mourn who Thou hast wronged. From Thy spirit
where shall I flee? Even darkness hides not me. If I'm at the uttermost sea,
There thy right hand shall hold me. This is my desire of the Lord. Search me, O God, know my heart. He doth hold me by love's strong
cord, promises him. not depart. I will praise my God who knows
me, marvelous are all His works. He hath saved me and set me free,
done a mourning ? To His Word ? Be seated. Marley, play something
for a minute. ?? My joy is complete when I sit
and listen. Sweet Spirit, sweep o'er my soul. My joy is complete when I stand
at His feet. Here's a 5,000 men that's mentioned here. that our Lord fed way, way up
in the evening, almost dark maybe. And that doesn't, that's just
5,000 men. I wonder how many women were
there, how many children were there. So our Lord Jesus Christ,
he fed this great multitude. But the thing is, is how did
he do it and why did he do it? Let's start here in verse 31,
and let's go down through here and speak about this. You know, let
me tell you this before I start, written in verse 31, is this
story is in all four Gospels. This feeding of the 5,000 is
in all four Gospels. And you read every one of them,
and they all have just a little different thing to say about
it. But the Lord Jesus and His disciples, they departed into
a desert place. There were so many things going
on, and they were so very, very busy, and they had been out preaching
and healing, and He said, Come apart yourselves into a desert
place. And they had worked hard preaching,
healing, and traveling, Herod, our master, beheaded John the
Baptist, and so here we are. He took the disciples apart,
and verse 31, to rest. And the scripture says there
were so many coming and going that they didn't even have time
to eat. There were so many people coming and going, coming to Christ,
coming from Christ to the disciples. There were just people coming
and going all the time that they didn't even have time to sit
down and eat. Didn't even have time to sit down and eat. And
you know, and then it says He took them aside privately, and
then it says there in verse 32, And they departed into a desert
place by ship privately. He just took His disciples with
Him, just the apostles, and He took them alone to be with Him
alone. And I tell you, all of us, all
of us pray that God take us apart privately. We all need to get
along with the Lord Jesus Christ, to be alone with Him and Him
alone, to meditate on Him, think about Him. And there's so much
to think about Him, so much to consider Him, that it's impossible
for us to wear it out. But oh, to meditate on His goodness,
oh, the goodness of God in Christ. There's not, and I've said this
so many times, there's not a soul on this earth that God has not
been good to, not a soul. And I mean the fact that He gets
them out of bed and they can get up and go to work or anything
else and never have Him in their thoughts, yet God is good. He
caused the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. There's
not a soul that'll face God and say, God wasn't good to me, not
a one. And oh, and then His greatness,
oh my, Oh, to meditate and praise Him and get along with Him and
talk to Him about His greatness. You know, the best way in the
world to address God is to start addressing Him as He is. You
talk about getting freedom of speech when you pray and you
just start telling God how great He is, how majestic He is, how
powerful He is, what a great will He has. Oh, you start praising
Him for salvation. You start blessing Him for saving
you. for coming to you and finding you and saving you and separating
you. Oh, listen, and I tell you what,
to all his salvation in us, oh, get along with him to converse
with him, converse with him. This is the thing about it. You
know, you can actually converse with the Lord. You can have a
conversation with him. There's people in the Bible that
had conversations with the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham had a conversation
with the Lord. Abraham did. And all conversed
with him. And all, listen, let me tell
you this. Expose yourself to him. Expose yourself to him. Just lay yourself out to him
the way you are. Not the way you think you are,
not the way you hope you are, but the way you really, really
are. If you've got fears, tell him
about them. You got wants? Tell Him about
them. You got needs? Tell Him about
them. You need to confess something?
Confess it. Tell Him how weak you are. Tell
Him about your sin. He knows it. But oh, tell Him,
Lord, I'm a sinner and I need Your salvation. I need You to
save me every moment of every day. I need saving. Oh, my. And then look what happens in
verse 33. They went and walked privately. Oh, we need to get
turned aside privately with our master. And then, look, watch
what it says. The people saw them departing.
They said, they're leaving. They're getting in a boat and
they're going somewhere. And listen to this now. And many
knew him. Many, not all of them, but many
did. Many knew him. Not all of them,
many do Him. What did they know about Him?
You know, to be saved, you got to know Christ. That's what salvation
is, knowing a person. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. It's a person that we know. It's a person that we trust.
And that's why he said, many knew Him. And look what's happened
now. And they started running. They
started running. and they come out of all the
little old cities round about, and they outrun that ship. They
was going someplace, they know where they were going, and they
outrun that ship, and went all the way around that lake, wherever
there's that, and they came together unto Him. They all got to know
Him, and they all run out everywhere, and they outrun that boat, and
got to where He was at before He even got there. And look what
it says, Now these folk, listen, I'd love to see somebody take
after Christ like that. Oh, somebody takes out after
Christ like that, oh, it'd do my heart good. But oh, they just
come out of the cities, went running, took out after him,
took out after him. And look what it says now in
verse 34. Oh my. And when they knew where
he was, look what he did. And Jesus, when he came out,
they was in this desert place now, took that ship and they
got there. And when he came out and saw
much people, much people, much people, look what happened to
him. They said he was moved with compassion
because they were sheep not having a shepherd. And he began to teach
them. And you know it says there, teach
them. And you know in one place it says, in Luke chapter nine,
it says that, He preached unto them the kingdom of God. Everyone
say something. He preached unto them the kingdom
of God. Here it says He began to teach
them. Before He ever done anything
for them, He preached unto them the kingdom of God. And it also
says in Mark, I mean in Matthew and chapter Luke, it also says
there that He healed them in need of healing. So he done more
things than just feed them. They come running to him, and
the first thing he done, he says, y'all need, I need to teach you
some things. You need to learn some things.
And that's what we're here for. We come to learn. Mary said at
the Lord Jesus Christ's feet, and Martha said, Lord, I'm busy
cooking supper. I've got pots all over the stove,
and I've got things, you know, I'm trying to peel potatoes,
I'm trying to get peas, I'm trying to get green beans, I'm trying
to get something fixed to eat. And Mary said, and they're doing
nothing. Oh, our Lord said, Martha, Martha. He was so compassionate
to her. Martha, oh, Martha, you are worried
about so many things. You're just so worried about
more than anything. And listen, and you know, and
he's never chided her for it, but he said, but Mary has chosen
this good part. And I'm not going to tell her
to get up and help you. I should come here to learn of me. And
that's what we do. We get cumbered about many things.
And instead of learning of Christ, we get so taken up with things
and cumbered with things. And oh, what a blessed time that
we can come and let this old world out of it, you know, and
come here and learn and sit at the feet of our master and learn.
Oh my. He spake unto them. They were
learning of him. And that's where rest, that's
where rest comes from, being alone with Him. And like I said,
it said, He healed them who had need of healing. Oh my, those
who receives, those who He receives now, who came to Him, He speaks
to them. And our Lord says, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. Learn of me. What is there to
learn of Christ? What is there to learn of Christ?
Well, we can learn first and foremost that He is God Almighty
before He ever come into this world. And when He did come into
this world, He was God manifest in the flesh, that He existed
before He ever come. And God is so powerful and so
gracious, and because of Adam's sin, He provided a Savior before
Adam ever entered into the Garden of Eden. He provided a Savior
before you and I ever sinned, and bless His holy name, I'm
grateful that He did. And then when He was born, that's
what they told Him, said, Thou shall call His name Jesus, Jehovah
Savior, for He shall save His people from their sins. And oh
my, he speaks to those who learn of him and that says, and then
they have rest. They have rest. He neared them
of healing. And you know what he healed them
of? You know what we need healing of? We need healing of Adam's
sin. By His stripes we're healed.
We need to be healed of our fallen nature. We need to be healed
of an evil heart. We need to be healed of a depraved
nature. We need to be healed of a heart
that's rebellious. We got a heart. We was born with
a hard heart. And Christ has to take that heart
out and put in a heart of flesh. Christ can't take that old darkened
mind. He got to turn on the light in it. And oh my. Well, sin, our sin, and oh, we
confessed, oh my, we confessed because He had an healing. That's
why we come to Him. And when we lead of our Lord's
dealing with people in need, we always see His gentleness,
His condescension. Now here He was, He went away
to be by Himself and His disciples. And next thing you know, there's
this great, great, great crowd. At least 5,000 men, that don't
count the women and the children. And when he come out, he saw
all these people. Instead of saying, why in the
world are you bothering me? Don't you know I need to rest?
Don't you know I need to, my body gets tired? No, no, look
what it says. And was moved with compassion.
Our Savior's not a stoic, mean, hard, cruel person. No, no, He
was moved with compassion. You go through the Bible and
see how many times God's moved with compassion. You know, it
was mercy. He said, I'll have mercy. Thank
God He'll have mercy. And I'll have compassion upon
whom I'll have compassion. Oh, that's what he said about
it. And I tell you, he said, he goes in constant sin. He reads
it says to these people. And then he saw they were a sheep.
They're sheep. That's where he always sees his
people, sheep. He didn't see no goats in this
bunch. Don't talk about no goats there. He said he saw them as
sheep. He didn't say, well, there might
be some goats in this bunch. No, no. He said, I saw them as
sheep. That's what he does. He sees
his sheep. He laid out his life for his sheep. His sheep hear
his voice and know them and they follow him. And then he goes,
look what he goes on to say. And not having a shepherd. Well, they've got him a shepherd
now. Oh, my. So our Lord Jesus Christ,
I tell you, the people followed Him, and, oh, He healed them
that had need of healing, took His disciples apart to rest,
and, oh, in one place it says He healed them that had need
of healing. He doesn't tell them to, you know, come here and be
alone, but He sees them dealing with the people according to
what they deserve. Over in Luke it said, He received
them all, received them all, all, and always moved with compassion. Then there's a serious problem.
They come in, they turn in, a serious problem comes up. Look what happens
now. And when the day was far spent, I mean, it was getting
late in the evening, late, late in the evening, and His disciples
came unto Him, and said, this is a desert place. Ain't nothing
out here, nothing, desert place, desert place. And now the time
is far past. He's wearing away, and listen
to what they tell him. Send them away that they may
go round about into the country and into the villages and buy
themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. Now that's what
religion gives people. Our Lord standing there and these
disciples you know what the first thing he said the Lord said send
them away That's all religion can do send you away. We go send
to send them someplace besides here Send them something tell
them to go buy something Go buy some bread Send them away, Lord,
and they've just seen how compassionate, how merciful it is, but that's
all religion can do. That's all preachers can do,
send somebody to buy something. Buy your salvation, work for
your salvation, give your tithes, pray and do the best you can,
join the church, buy your Bible, learn how to read it, and all
pay attention to it. That's what they said, send them
away. Why would anybody tell anybody
to come away from Christ? You know when they say, you know
what, when preachers say, and listen to, I'm telling you the
truth here now, when Jesus Christ, when preachers come along and
say that Jesus Christ loves everybody, they're sending them away from
Christ. Our Lord taught them different than that. And when
preachers say that Jesus died for everybody, they're sending
them away. When preachers say you need to work, do a work for
Jesus and go out here and start passing out tracts and doing
all that. Listen, if a tract could save
a soul, we'd all be out passing out tracts. And if money giving money could
save a soul, let's give everything we've got and live in, eat on
beans and cornbread until we die and eat on bread and water. So give it all away so we could
buy souls into the kingdom of God. And that's what preachers do.
Go buy. They're selling Jesus this morning. Selling Him. Go buy Him. How do I buy Him? Well, make a decision. Come up
here to the front. Pray the sinner's prayer. You're
a sinner, ain't you? Yes, I am. Jesus died for sinners,
didn't He? Yes, He did. You want to go to
heaven, don't you? Yes, I do. Don't want to go to
hell? No, I don't. Well, you know,
all you got to do is just confess that you're a sinner and Jesus
is Savior, just like that. And that's what these fellas
do. Tell them to go buy. I don't care where you send them.
Send them to this village. Send them to that town. Send them
over here. Send them over there. Send them anywhere. Send them anywhere. And that's
what happens when you ain't got nothing to feed. When you ain't
got no sheep, you ain't got nothing to feed them with. If you ain't
got no shepherds, you can't feed sheep. And that's what's going
on in this world today. It's very, very troubling. Very
troubling. You know, you go to these places
where they have two services, and they're having all kinds
of rigmarole going on. They got a five or six piece
band just of women and a baman and having the biggest time at
all, you know. And people give Jesus this shit,
all that, there we go. Send them away. Send them somewhere
where they can have a big time. Send them somewhere where they
can give Jesus a big hand clap. Send them somewhere where Jesus
is standing over the banister of heaven saying, oh, he's crying,
he's crying, please, please, please open your heart and let
me in. But no, our Lord, you know, look
what our Lord said. They said they have nothing to
eat. What do you mean they have nothing
to eat? Well, they're hungry. They're hungry. I mean, they've
been at it all day long and ain't had nothing to eat. Oh, they
run into a serious problem. Oh, they got to get, send them
away and they can buy themselves a bread to have nothing to eat.
We're in a desert place. That's what the law puts us in,
a very, very, very, very, very desert place. But look what our
master said in verse 37. He answered, said unto them,
give you them to eat. You give them to eat. They just
told him, go buy. Get out of here. He said, you
give them something to eat. You feed them. Oh, how in the world do you know
Jeff? And look what he says, and this
is what it said over in John 6, it says this, Shall we go
and buy two hundred penny worth of bread, and give them to eat? Philip said that, he asked Philip,
said, How much money you got? He said, We got two hundred penny
worth. He said, We'll go buy bread for these, but that won't
be enough for all these people. And I told him, he said, To do
that, I said, Jesus knowing what he was going to do. Look what
he says now. You give them date. You give
them date. Oh my. Well, if we go buy all
the bread that this money will buy, it ain't gonna even begin
to feed all these people. There ain't no way in the world
it can feed these people. There's not enough bread. We
can't buy enough bread to feed these people. Not with just 200
penny worth. And that's a pile of money in
them days. Pile of money. And oh my. How in the world we
gonna feed them? And oh my, look what our Lord
said. Look what He said, you give them to eat. And He saith
unto them, how many loaves have you had? And over in Matthew
it says there was a young lad. They said, this young lad here
has got five loaves of bread and he's got two little fishes.
And their loaves of bread was big round, they called it barley
loaves, big old round loaves. and they had two fishes. Somebody
said that's probably sardines because they're so small. I don't
know. But they were small fish. Small fish. And oh my! What have you got? Five loaves
and two fishes. We can't feed them all unless
we go buy something for them. Oh my! That's the way the natural
man thinks. That's the way the natural man
thinks. Oh my! They reason naturally. And all
that means is it's unbelief. Our Lord gave them something
to do, and the first thing they began to do said, we ain't got
enough money. We got too many people. We ain't
got enough bread. All we got is five loaves of
bread and just two little old fishes. How in the world we gonna
feed this bunch with that? How we gonna do it? How we gonna
do it? Oh, my. There were 5,000 men. That's not counting the women
and the children. And oh, these men were occupied, and this is
what happens with us most of the time, they were occupied
with the circumstances, on the things that they seen with the
eye. They wasn't looking at Christ, they wasn't looking at the power
that Christ had, the willingness of Christ, the compassion of
Christ, and His teaching, they didn't remember, they wasn't
paying attention to what He was teaching them. And oh my, they
had just seen it, they themselves had went out and performed miracles,
They themselves had healed people. And oh my. And what are these? And this is the first thing they
said. What are five loaves and two fishes among so many? What
are they among so many? Oh my. Israel asked God this
when they was in the wilderness. They said, can God furnish a
table for us out here in the wilderness? Yes, he did. He certainly did. He sent them
angels' food. He sent them angels' food. Bread,
manna, come down from heaven. Christ, our manna. And he fed
them with the bread. And then when they got some meat,
he said, I'll send you some quails. And he sent them quails. He said,
we're thirsty. He said, hit that rock, and there'd
be water coming out of that rock. Oh, he furnished a table for
them in the wilderness. Can he not furnish a table? Has
he not furnished a table for us countless times? And oh my,
I tell you what. And oh, what matters how many? It don't matter how many anything
is when the Lord Jesus is there. It's like that woman with the
meal barrel. When Elijah come to her and told
her this, he said, now listen, fix me something to eat. I've
just been traveling and fix me something to eat. She said, all
I've got is a little piece of meal and a little bit of oil,
and a couple of sticks to burn it with, and I'm gonna fix that
for me and my son, and we ain't got nothing else to eat, and
we're gonna sit here and starve to death, and we're gonna die.
He said, fix me the, fix it to me, give it to me. So she did,
and you know, every time she went to that mirror bath after
that, she had enough food for him, his child, and Elijah, every
single time they went there. He makes the empty barrel, every
time you reach in it, there's something in it. Huh? Something
in it. Something in it. Oh, what did
He, why did He say give you them? Oh, they were so quick to shake
off their responsibility. Send them away. Send them away. You remember when our Lord Jesus
Christ That woman that came following after him with the daughter that
had the devil, and she kept coming. My daughter's grievously begged,
my daughter's sick, and the disciples said, send her away, send her
away. She just cries after us. And you know what? Our Lord finally
said, what will you that I do that you heal my daughter, that
you heal my daughter? He said, I will. They said send
her away, but Christ, he wouldn't send nobody away that's in need.
And old Bartimaeus, he's crying out, crying out, shut up, Bartimaeus,
be quiet. And the more they told him to
be quiet, the louder he got. He said, Jesus, shut up, Jesus. Hush, Jesus,
thou son of David. He said, wilt thou have mercy
on me? And when he cried mercy, our
Lord Jesus stopped dead in his tracks. And you know what he
said? Go get him, bring him over here. He was blind, he couldn't
find his way. And the Lord said, command him,
bring him over here, commanded him to be brought. What do you
want from me? I want to see. Okay. When his eyes was opened, you
know the first person he saw was the Lord Jesus Christ. And
when God opens our eyes, you know the first person we see,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first person we see. Oh my. When little this woman
these women were bringing their baby to the Lord Jesus Christ
bringing their children and and and the disciples rebuked him
and said oh, no, don't don't do that and I Lord Jesus said
He said you leave these children alone You leave them alone. He said they're coming to me
They're coming to me And and he took one up in his arm said
blessed are these children you be like a child you'll live in
the kingdom of God And oh my, their attitude was, don't bother
us and don't bother the master. Then look what our Lord said,
He said, when they knew in verse 38, He saith unto them, how many
loaves have you? And He said, they knew five loaves and two,
now watch what He says. He commanded them to make all
of them set down by companies upon the green grass. Now here
s the difference between what Christ does and what most people
do. Christ COMMANDED them to sit down, and He told them to
sit down on green grass. He leadeth me beside the still
waters, He maketh me to lie down in the green grass. He said,
Sit down on this green grass right here. And He COMMANDED
them, MAKETH them to sit down. Ain t that what it says? He COMMANDED
them to MAKE all sit down upon the green grass. Oh, my. Why is there nothing to feed
them with? Why do you want them to sit down?
Christ has spoken. Sit down. God has spoken. That's enough. He commands we
obey. Well, why wasn't Adam supposed
to eat of the tree of garden and the forbidden fruit in the
garden? Because God told him not to. Why should Noah build
an ark when there hadn't been any rain? Because God told him
to. And our Lord said, make them sit down. And we're gonna have
to sit down, sit down to be fed from Christ. Quit moving about,
quit rushing about, quit hurrying about. Sit down, sit down and
be fed. The activities of the flesh gotta
stop. Be still, be quiet. And here's something about all
of us, we have to be made to sit down. know that? It s not
our nature to sit still, not our nature. And then look what
happens, and it says, They all sat down in ranks, and by hundreds
and by fifties, and when he had taken the five loaves and the
two fishes, look what happens, he looked up to heaven. Now,
that s something men you can t do. He looked, actually looked
into heaven. John 17, he looked up into heaven. He can see into heaven, we can
t. He can see up there in heaven. He looked up to heaven, And look
what he did now. And he blessed, looked up into
heaven, and blessed, and break the loaves, and gave them to
his disciples, and set them before them, and two fishes divided
him among them. Now wait a minute now. Here s
what happens. He takes five loaves of bread,
two fishes, And He puts them in baskets,
and He hands them to them twelve men. Here's your loaf of bread,
here's your fish, here's your fish. And He puts them in all
them baskets. And they start through there.
And our Lord takes five loaves of bread and two fishes. And
you know what He does? He begins to create. What did
He create? Enough bread to feed five thousand
people, plus men and women. He created bread. Why would you
think that's strange? He made the world and everything
that's in it. He can take two loaves of bread
and turn it into 10,000 loaves and that's pretty much what happened
right here. You know, they went out there passing out that bread,
and every time somebody reached in there to get a piece of bread,
THERE'S ANOTHER PIECE! And every time they went by,
THERE'S ANOTHER PIECE, AND ANOTHER PIECE! And they walked back and
forth between all them people, and you know, had them in rows,
and those disciples, you know, there's twelve of them. Down
through there, they went with their baskets, reached in there,
THERE'S A FISH, GIVE ME ONE OF THEM! And every time they went
by, somebody had a fish, somebody had a piece of bread. HOW IN
THE WORLD DOES THAT HAPPEN? because Christ created bread
and he created fish. You remember in John 20 where
our Lord sent those fellows out fishing, caught anything, nothing. And they got to land and there
was a fire and there was fish on the fire. Where'd that fire
come from? Where'd those fish come from?
Christ sitting on the shore. He was the burning bush in the
wilderness. Don't think it's strange that
he started a fire. Where'd he get those fish? He
owns all the fish in the sea. He'd get them. Oh, my. He created that. He said, oh,
my. It's so simple. It's so simple
for our Lord. The solution looks so little,
but oh, for so many. He took the bread and the fishes,
blessed them and break them into pieces and gave them. You know,
he could have rained manna down from heaven. and fed every one
of those people. He could have done that. But
you know what he did? He used what was there. That's
what our Lord does. He used what's there. We want
some miraculous thing. We want something big to happen.
He uses what's there. And you know what he's using
right now for bread? This right here. His blessed
book. What gave this bread and fish value Christ What made them useful Christ
what made the baskets full Christ? and all my He gave them to disciples
set for the multitude and all my and look when he divided them
among them and look what happens here in verse 42 and They did
all eat Every one of them had a meal. Every one of them had a meal. How in the world does that happen?
Christ, that's all you can say, Christ. Oh my, they did all eat
and were filled. I can't eat no more. I've had
all the bread and fish I can eat. I can't eat no more. And
oh my. And listen to this, and show
you that our Lord don't even waste anything. Our Lord does
not waste. And this ought to teach us something
right here. And they did eat of the loaves were about 5,000
men. That just says men. Don't say
nothing about the women, don't say nothing about children. One
place it talks about the women and children, 4,000. And oh my,
they did all eat and were filled. And then they took up 12 baskets twelve baskets, there were twelve
disciples putting out, all of them had a basket, and there
were twelve baskets full of the fragments and of the fish, and
there was still bread and fish in the baskets, twelve of them,
twelve of them. Oh, listen, let me tell
you what, the disciples gave them only what the Lord had given
them, And if God don't bless it, it ain't gonna amount to
nothin'. They'd all starve to death if
it'd been left up to them disciples. They'd all starve to death if
it'd been left up to them apostles. But when it's left up to Christ,
ain't nobody gonna starve to death. Ain't gonna do it. Oh
my. That's all we can do and what
we must do. They received from Him and He gave to them. They
did eat. Who ate people that was hungry? Who ate the people that were
there? Who ate those who were in need? And all were filled,
all were satisfied. And all because our Lord had
compassion on them. All because our Lord saw them
as sheep without a shepherd. Oh my, here's what happens. They
were first divided, then they were multiplied. Now how do you,
he divided five loaves and two fishes, he divided them among
twelve. Then he multiplied them, and
multiplied them, and multiplied them, and fed over 5,000 people. I have a hard time dividing and
multiplying myself, but he don't have no problem with it. He that
calls the stars by name and numbers them all, oh my, the Lord Jesus could have
gave them just enough but He filled them up, He filled them
up. He gives generously, He always
gives abundantly. Christ don't give in little bitty
things, He gives bunches, bunches. Dave and I was talking the other
day over in Ephesians 2.20, it says that God is exceeding, exceeding
abundantly, able to do more then we can ask,
we can ask awful big, and exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask
or think. We can think big and we can ask
big, but he does exceedingly, ask and he'll give you a heapsight
more than you ask for. Huh? Oh, what a Savior is Jesus our
Lord. What a Savior is Jesus our Lord. Oh Lord Jesus, oh my master,
my Lord, my God. How blessed is your holy name.
How full of mercy, how full of grace, how full of compassion. How exceedingly abundantly you
do more. Oh, this man didn't know what
to ask for, didn't know what to thank. And Lord, you took
just a little, just a little. And oh Lord, gave to so many.
And Lord, we thank you that we stand with our hands out for
you to fill them. Our mouths open for you to fill
it. Our hearts open for you to fill
it. Everything about us, oh Lord Jesus Christ, do for us what
we can't do for ourselves. Thank you for what you've done.
Thank you for your blessed gospel. Thank you for the grace of God
given us in Christ. Thank you for feeding us. Oh,
Lord, thank you for feeding us. Oh, you set the table for us,
Lord, so many times, over and over and over again. Thank you,
Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Amen, amen. Let's sing a verse or two of
that. What a wonderful Savior. I think that's 258, yeah. Let's stand together and
we'll sing a couple of verses of this, and then you'll be at
liberty. I know I want to mention this.
We're going to have cake and ice cream tonight, after the
service tonight. Cake and ice cream. And if you
like cake and you like ice cream, come back tonight. You know,
I'll try to feed you before you go back there, but... A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord A wonderful Savior to me life in the cliff to the rock
where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cliff
to the rock that hideth ? Thy thirsty land ? He hideth my life ? In the depths
of His love ? And covers me there with His hand ? And covers me
there with His hand ? Let's do number three and that'll be our
last one. ? With numberless blessings each ? ? And filled with His fullness divine ? I sing in my rapture. Oh, glory to God. For such a redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock. ? That shadows a dry, thirsty
land ? He hideth my life in the depths
of His love ? And covers me there with His hand ? And covers me there with his
hand ? See you tonight, six o'clock, God willing.