Looking in the book of Mark,
we're in chapter six. I'm again reading there in verse
number 30. It says, and the apostles gathered
themselves together unto Jesus. Now these are, this is, after
he had sent out the twelve apostles and they had come back and the
apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told
him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said unto them, Come ye
yourselves apart unto a desert place, and rest a while. For
there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure such
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 Jesus, when he
came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion toward
them, because they were his 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, we'll give you them to eat. And they said
unto him, shall we go and buy 200 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 to make
all 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 two fishes, he looked up to heaven, he blessed
and break the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set
before them. And the two fishes divided him
among them all. And they did all eat and were
filled. And they took up 12 baskets full of the fragments and of
the fishes. And they that did eat of the loaves were about
5,000 men. And straightway he constrained his disciples to
get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto
Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. And when he had sent
them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. And when even was come,
the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the
land. And he saw them toiling and rowing, for the wind was
contrary unto them. And about the fourth watch of
the night, or about three o'clock in the morning, he cometh unto
them walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. But
when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had
been a spirit. and they cried out. For they
all saw him and were troubled, and immediately he talked with
them and saith unto them, be of good cheer, it is I, be not
afraid. And he went up unto them into
the ship, and the wind ceased, and they were so amazed in themselves,
beyond measure, and wondered. For they considered not the miracle
of the loaves, for their heart was hardened. And when they had
passed over, they came unto the land of Genesaret, and drew to
the shore. And when they were come out of
the ship straightway, they knew him, and ran through that whole
region about, and began to carry about in beds those that were
sick, where they heard he was. And whithersoever he entered
into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in
the streets, and besought him that he might touch, if it were
but the border of his garment. And as many as touched him were
made whole. Now, the apostles came back to
the Lord and told Him what they had done, what they had seen.
You recall in one of the other Gospels, I believe it's in Matthew,
that they came back and said, Lord, this has really been great. I mean, we've been out seeing
all these things taking place, and even the devils were subject
to us. And the Lord said, don't rejoice.
that the devils are subject to you, but rejoice that your names
are written in heaven. So all of the things that transpire
that men sometimes get all worked up over, just like we see these
people coming to him to be physically healed. And that was a glorious
thing. And if a man is sick, There's
nothing that he desires more than to be healed from that sickness. That's just a natural thing,
is it not? I mean, you don't have to ask
a man if he wants to be healed from some disease that's laid
him low. You know that he does. You know
that he doesn't enjoy being sick. The Lord would have us to know
that while all of these things have their place, and it is a
good thing to be healed from a physical disease, but the greater
blessing that comes from the Lord is the gift of grace and
salvation through Jesus Christ, that he has been pleased to minister
unto sinners. And therein ought always to be
our rejoicing, not in the things that we might see with our eyes,
or happy times. Now we all thank God for happy
times and blessings that we receive. But again, those things can pass
away in a moment. But that which the Lord gives
that is eternal, is that which wherein cannot be taken from
us, and only He can give. So they came back. And he said
unto them, come ye yourselves apart to a desert place, and
rest a while. For there was many people thronging
around him, and they were always busy, and they had been on this
journey. And he said, it's time to take
a break. Now, a lot of times we think
that we're iron men and we can just keep on doing stuff and
sometimes, you know, men think they can work seven days a week
and this will help prosper them. But the Lord never made man to
labor seven days a week. He said six days shalt thou labor. And there is a day that is to
be set aside from those things. And you know, while we do not
lay the legal burden of Sabbath-keeping upon the saints of God, because
the Lord never did, and He revealed that in the New Testament, But
the concept of the Sabbath, that is the Lord rested on the seventh
day and he would have his people to do the same. And he has given
us a day that we might come aside, turn aside from the cares of
the world unto the gathering together of God's people to worship
him. And therein is the blessing of
the seventh day. You know, it's not just a day
of physical rest, but it is a day of rest in the Lord, as we're
reminded, one with the other, of the goodness of God and the
fact that it is He alone that causes us to be able to rest
in Him. So it's not good that man should
work seven days a week. And the Lord said to his disciples,
you need to come aside and rest because it's needful that you
do. And they departed into a desert
place by ship privately. In other words, they snuck off.
They got into the ship and took off. But guess what? The people
saw them departing. And they were eager to listen. to the things that the Lord Jesus
was teaching. And so they followed him. And
they ran to the other side of the, or wherever the destination
was. The scripture says that they
outwent them and came together. In other words, they were there,
I don't know if they were there as soon as they got there, when
they got out of the ship they were there, or if it means that
after a little bit they came and they were all there and knew
where they were. But nonetheless, I would comment
on this. The Lord told the disciples to
rest, but notice that the rest that he gave them, was not the
rest necessarily physically that they anticipated. Now, they had
rest with him on the journey, did they not? But he would show
them that in the ministry of the word of God, there is the
rest for the saints of God. I mean, where else are the saints
of God encouraged more? than when they gather together
one with the other. And the Lord pours out his blessing. I mean, is that not a great rest? I mean, is that not better than
the best night's sleep you ever had? Of course it is. And so, when Jesus came and he
saw much people and he was moved with compassion. He was moved
with compassion, why? Because he had compassion in
his heart as a man. Now indeed, he had compassion
on those whom he loved with an everlasting love, but he had
compassion on men in general. being a man, even as we're taught
to love our neighbors as ourself, and who is our neighbor? Our
neighbor, we don't pick and choose who they are, but they are those
whom the Lord brings in our way and puts before us, and we are
to love, minister to them as best we can, whatever we can
do to help others, because he had compassion on them because
they were a sheep not having a shepherd. They didn't have
any direction. He was concerned about them. And you know, when
we look around us and we see men walking in this world, men
are walking just in blindness. They're walking in darkness.
They're walking towards their own destruction. And they have
no knowledge of it. I mean, can we sit idly by and
let them go? Or will we not declare unto them
the glories of Christ? I mean, there's no other solution
to their problem. And so 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 the time has passed. It's getting late. And we're
out here in the middle of nowhere. Send these people away because
they got to have something to eat. Now they're coming to the
Lord telling him that These people need some need as if he didn't
know. Maybe they forgot who he was
or didn't know really clearly at the time. They said, Lord,
we gotta do something. We've got to do something. Isn't
that what the normal way of men is when we get anxious? Well,
we got to do something. I mean, we got to do something,
but the Lord said, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew
their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk
and not faint. Oh, what a glorious thing. And
so they said, Lord, we got to do something. Said, these people
don't have anything to eat. Now listen to what he said. Well,
give them something to eat. And I'm sure they looked at each
other and they said, what in the world? is he telling us to
do this? Well, Lord, if 200 penny worth
of bread, I don't know how much money that would be, but it was
a great sum of money. They were saying, we couldn't
feed these people if we could buy it. Now, the Lord tells us
to do things that we can't do. Does he not? He told the woman
that was taking in adultery, he said, go and sin no more. Now do you suppose that she never
sinned again? Do you think that he thought
she would never sin again? No. The Lord tells us to do things
we can't do. And why does he do that? Because
he'll show us. You see, he would teach us who
it is that can do these things. He'll teach us by what power
we can do these things. He said, feed these people. They
said, Lord, we can't do it. Because you see, that was exactly
what he wanted them to come to, the place to come to, was to
realize, hey, we can't do it. There's not a thing in the world
we can do to help these people. And that's the place the Lord
would bring a man, to show him that he cannot do it. It's impossible. The law says, do this and live.
And we look at the law and we say, we can't do it. The Lord
said to do it. So what is the solution? He saith to them, how many loaves
do you have? Go and see. And when they knew,
they said five and two fishes. Now John recounts that there
was a young lad there that had the five loaves and two fishes.
One little child out of all his multitude, 5,000 men brought
something to eat. But you see, the Lord doesn't
need anything. He doesn't need the five loaves and two fishes,
but He used the five loaves and two fishes. And you know, that
morning when that little boy left home, his mama probably
put in his sack or bowl or whatever he had, five loaves and two fishes. Because that's what the Lord
was going to use, five loaves and two fishes. And so that's
what happened. And so when they knew they said
it, and he commanded them all to sit down by company upon the
green grass. And I can just think what must
have been going through their minds that he has lost his mind. There's no way that we're gonna
feed these people with five loaves and two fishes. It's not gonna
happen. And he commanded them to make
all sit down by countenance upon the green grass. And they sat
down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. And when he had taken
the five loaves and two fishes, he looked up to heaven and blessed
and break 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. Oh, what a glorious thing. Now I'm not sure exactly how
this occurred, I don't know if the Lord just kept breaking that
bread and handing it to his disciples. I'm not sure exactly how it was. But I know this, whatever happened,
there was more left over when they got through than when they
started. Such is the ability of the Lord. And all that men can do is sit
back and gather up the fragments. That's all we can do. But what
a glorious thing. Think what a glorious thing it
was to gather up those fragments. When they knew that he started
off with five loaves and two fishes. Like those servants at
the wedding feast. See, nobody at the wedding feast
knew what happened. They just thought that the master
of the feast had kept some wine back. But the servants, see they
were blessed to see what happened. The Lord told the servants, fill
these jugs with water. And then go draw it out. And
they saw these men drink this wine that the Lord made. Oh the
Lord is blessed. Now see these people. The people
that were sitting there, but the multitudes, they never knew
what the Lord did, did they? They just figured that he had
this bowl, this, you know, this abundance of food and he fed
them. But the disciples knew. Because when they got through,
there was more than when they started. Oh, what a blessing
the Lord brings upon his people to see his hand of mercy and
kindness. And they that did eat of the
loaves were 5,000 men. Besides the women and children,
5,000 men. That's incredible. That's a story
that can't be believed, is it? I mean, the wise and the prudent
don't believe that. They said, oh, well, he was a
magician. He just kind of faked it out,
you know, like somebody draws a rabbit out of the hat. They
had the food all the time, and he just wanted to make it look
like that he fed 5,000 people. I mean, how many truckloads of
food do you think it would take to feed 5,000 people? Quite a
bit. You wouldn't come there in a
little boat, I'm sure, and feed 5,000. Straightway he constrained his
disciples to get into the ship and go to the other side before
unto Bethsaida while he sent away the people. Now, you'll
notice that it doesn't say that the people just came where it
was. Now, he went to a certain place
because he knew that was the place he was gonna feed those
people. Now nobody else knew that. See he wanted to get them
out into a desert place where there wasn't anything so he could
show them what he was going to do. So he calls those people
to come around there to the desert place. They wouldn't have went
around there otherwise. But that's where he went. And
because he went there, they went. But when the time, when he was
finished, he sent them away. And they were as glad to go as
they were to come. Because you see, when the Lord
makes a man satisfied, he'll be satisfied. And not otherwise. You can't ever be happy if the
Lord doesn't make you happy. Because the things of this world
will not make you happy. You know, it cannot be. And when even was come, and when
he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. Oh, what we ought to learn from
that, the Lord of glory, the one who had all power in heaven
and earth, turned aside and spent time in prayer. A place of private prayer is
a needful thing for all of God's people. Nothing will substitute
for it. You know, you can't be benefited
from the prayers of others as you can be from the place of
private prayer. And that is a place God calls
us to. Now, we are blessed in praying together, but that's
not our, we see by the example of the Lord that he departed
into a mountain to pray, and when even was come, the ship
was in the midst of the sea, he alone owned the land. He waited
until it was dark. It was about three o'clock in
the morning. And he saw them toiling and rowing. Now they
had started off from the shore, but they were close enough to
the shore that he could see them. So they had worked all night
trying to row this boat across the Sea of Galilee there. And
the storm, the wind was so heavy that they'd only made it just
a ways out into the water. And in the fourth watch of the
night he cometh unto them walking upon the sea, and would have
passed by them, as they thought, or as it would appear to men,
he's just walking along. He's not coming necessarily to
them, he's just passing by. And is that not the way that
the Lord draws his people unto himself? Does he not pass by
his people? Did he not pass by blind Bartimaeus
as he sat by the wayside, did he not pass by the place where
the woman who had the issue of blood lay? Does he not pass by the place where sinners are in
need? And when they saw him walking
upon the sea, They had never seen him walk on the sea. Why
would they have expected it would be him? I mean, they had never
seen anybody walk on the sea. They supposed it had been a spirit
and they cried, I said, it's a ghost. I mean, you know, people
are naturally superstitious, are we not? You know, and, you
know, men don't, you don't really ever outgrow that. There's a
lot of things that'll scare you, you know, and you'll think, you
know, when you, something happens, you hear this noise or something,
and you automatically think something is, you know, weird is going
on. What was that? Of course, you
know, as kids, we used to really like that. I mean, we'd like
somebody to tell us a scary story or something so we could, you
know, be scared about it. But they weren't scared, they
were troubled. They said, man, what in the world
is this? And they cried out, for they
all saw him were troubled and immediately he talked with them
and he said, be of good cheer. It is I, be not afraid. Now in
Matthew, he gives a little fuller account of some things that happened
there. One was that Peter said, Lord, if it really is you, bid
me to come to you out of the boat. Now, you don't set conditions
to the Lord. as to what will happen, you know,
but Peter, he said, well, he said, if it's really you, Lord,
let me get out of the boat and walk to you. The Lord said, well,
come on. Now, when Peter got out of the
boat, Peter was a bold man, was he
not? And the scripture says he walked on the water. Now, I've
seen pictures where it pictures him, you know, he's walking out
here going towards the Lord, but I don't believe that's what
happened. I believe that he got outside the boat and maybe he
stood up and then he began to sink. And the reason why the
Lord had him to come out of the boat was not so that he would
show that Peter could walk on water. But surely he would show
that Peter couldn't walk on water. Because Peter, he said, Lord,
I mean, he looked around and he said, look at this. He says,
what am I doing? And immediately he began to sink. Why? Because he couldn't walk
on water. God's people can't walk on water.
The Lord can walk on water. And the Lord can deliver men
who are sinking in the water And that's what he did with Peter.
Said, oh, how little faith. I've heard, you know, when I
was a kid in Sunday school, they used to teach this. They said,
yeah, look at old Peter. If he'd have just had faith,
he could have walked. That wasn't what the Lord was
teaching him. The Lord taught him what true faith was. Because
what did Peter do? When he began to sink, he said,
Lord, save me or I'll perish. See, that's faith. Faith's not
believing you can do something. Faith's understanding that Christ
alone can deliver you. See, that's what saving faith's
about. And so it is. And they were so amazed in themselves,
beyond measure, and wondered, because when he came into the
ship, the wind ceased, and he said, peace be still. Well, they
considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was
hardened. They'd already forgot about the miraculous things. See, miracles don't last. People
say, oh, if I'd have been there, I'd believed. Oh, man, I'd never
doubt if I could have seen something. Yeah, you would. You'd forget
it next week. The disciples saw this stuff
every day, and their heart was hardened. They forgot all about
that. They were worried about something else. And so it is,
these miracles and things that people do, they may call attention,
the Lord used miracles to call attention to what he was saying.
Not so everybody could be, ooh, come see the miracles. See, he
wasn't interested in the miracles. But he did those things that
he might prove who he was. And when they had passed over,
came to the land of Gennesaret, and drew near to the shore. And
when they were come out of the ship straightway, they knew him."
See, the people already had heard about him. And they ran through
that whole region round about and began to carry about in beds
those that were sick, where they heard he was. And whether so
ever he entered into villages or cities or country, they laid
the sick in the streets and besought him that they might touch, if
it were but the hem of the border of his garment, and as many as
touched him were made whole. Now again, this is a sign of
two things. One is that men will seek the
Lord for loaves and fishes, and for physical healings, and for
all of these things. But when those things are done, they'll turn aside and not walk
with Him. How do we know that? Because
just a short time later, the Lord turned to His disciples
and He said, will you also go away? Because the multitudes
had quit coming. So they'd had enough, they'd
gotten their sickness healed, and they'd seen all these things,
and it was time for them to go on. And Peter said, and here
again, Peter declared true faith. The Lord said, will ye also go
away? And Peter said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. See, that's the place that the
Lord is pleased to bring his people. And there are many in
this world who receive and are blessed by the mercy of God,
the compassion of Jesus Christ, in showing mercy to men in natural
things. Men don't often give God praise
for the blessings of this life. But I'm telling you, every blessing,
everything that every day, that a man lives is a blessing from
almighty God. I mean every man, there's not
a man on the face of the earth that does not owe his every breath
unto the Lord. But oh what great compassion
that he shows unto his people to draw them unto himself, to
cause them to give him praise. See, the Lord will have praise
from all things, but he specifically has blessed His people to enjoy
and rejoice in praising His name. Oh, that the people of God might
praise Him. He's worthy to be praised because He's the Savior
of sinners and He saves such as come unto Him.