Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to John chapter 6 and verse 6. And this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. John chapter 6 and verse 6.

We have in this account our Lord on this earth. God manifest in the flesh. We read that he went up a mountain and there sat with his disciples. And we are told that he saw a great company come unto him. And then he says this to Philip, when shall we buy bread that these may eat? What a question for so many, we're told 5,000 men later on.

Now text says the reason why our Lord said this to Philip was to prove or test him And it is stated here that our Lord Jesus Christ knew exactly what He would do, but He was to see whether Philip had a right view of our Lord, a right view of what he was able to do.

You might say in the short term, what the Lord knew, what he was going to do was to multiply these barley loaves and the fishes. It was indeed a remarkable, a wonderful miracle that was performed. But it didn't stop there. This was just the beginning.

is then our Lord sends the disciples way across the sea, they go across the sea, he goes up into the mountain to pray, but then he comes to them over the sea, walking upon the water, and again a wonderful miracle, they're brought to see something of Jesus of Nazareth, as the God-man, the true, eternal God.

But then there were those that came in other boats, and they saw the Lord across the sea, they knew He hadn't gone up into a boat, so they had to ask why, how was it that He came there? But our Lord returns to the very first with the miracle with the loaves and the fishes. He says in verse 26, He seed me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.

Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life. What was done on one day as a literal feeding their bodies was turned on the next day to be the foundation for a very important sermon where our Lord is standing before them that man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

He says in verse 63, It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. He introduced to them that he was that man as seen from heaven. Moses did not give them that manner. God gave them the manner in the wilderness. And the Lord Jesus Christ clearly sets him forth as that manner from heaven.

This is one of those chapters that goes from natural to spiritual. From natural bread to spiritual bread. Chapter four, natural water, the woman in the well of Samaria, to living water. Chapter 3, natural birth, the Nicodemus, to spiritual birth, he must be born again.

The spiritual truths to be received have their counterpart in the natural. But the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And so our Lord starts with the natural, what can be understood, and then he brings to the spiritual.

But the way he first does it is to make it seem an impossible thing in the natural. When he insisted to Nicodemus that he must be born again, Nicodemus has these objections, how can a man that is old be born? How can he return into his mother's womb? But instead of the Lord explaining it even more, he insists more and more, it must be so. There are many things in the Word of God that before ever we understand them, the Lord is insisting of their reality and the truth of them. I know how many of you here, how many of us have seen things that have been set forth in the word of God with absolute clarity has been set forth, certainty, and yet we haven't understood it. But in God's time and way, he has made it to be understood.

Nicodemus at last was brought to know and understand and be partakers of the new birth. But the woman at the well of Samaria as well, whence hast thou that living water? The well is deep. She saw the impossibility of the natural, and so the Lord then brings the living water from heaven, that spiritual life, and of the gospel, and of the reality of himself as that spring of that living water.

Think of the children of Israel in the wilderness, they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. And so in this chapter as well, in John chapter six, our Lord is insisting again and again, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. The many were offended, they walked back, they went no more with Him. but he clarifies it clearly in the verse that he read, verse 63, that the words that I speak are to you. It is the truths of the gospel, Christ and Him crucified, His death, His sufferings, His blood shed. It is the preaching of that gospel, the lifting up of the Lord and the pole of the everlasting gospel that the people of God are to feed upon and is to be their strength and their helm.

And in our text then, the Lord knew what he would do, what he would base this first miracle as to be a base for further teaching and things happening. And it's good for us to realize there's things that may seem insignificant in our lives at first, and yet the Lord has a plan and a use. He does not waste time. He does not waste providences, He does not waste opportunity to teach and instruct His people.

We read the portion in Isaiah because in Isaiah 46 there is, as in many parts of the Word, a contrast between idols and the true and living God. The picture drawn there is idols that have to be carried and borne. They are a burden to the beings that carry them. They cannot do anything of themselves. They are actually a burden to people and not a help. So the Lord gives that comparison And he says of his people that they are born by him. They are carried from the womb. Even to your old age I am he. And even to whore hairs will I carry you. I have made and I will bear. Even I will carry and will deliver you.

And he goes back to the picture. of the other gods, the other idols, a challenge, will there be any equal or like the Lord at all? And in verses 9 and 10, which is a parallel to a verse of our text, remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me. It is establishing what God is like. None is like Him. He is God. And then we have, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.

And so, in other passages as well, in the Old Testament, and of course in every promise that God has given, or promises to Abraham that then came to pass, is showing that God already knows what He's going to do. He's planning, He's purposing these things. And then we have the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth. And these miracles, these things he was doing, is proving that he is God. We know, of course, from the first chapter, the opening of the Gospel according to John, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

From the things that the Jews rose up against Jesus of Nazareth, made Himself God. When we come to John's epistles, we have at the end of the first epistle of John, we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

And so those things that our Lord did upon earth, He was doing in effect to replicate what God had done through the ages. So men would look at the works of the Lord Jesus and say, this is the work of God. This is the same God that gave manna in the wilderness. This is the same God that divided the sea and brought the children through the Red Sea. This is the same God that beforehand has shown that He knows what He will do, and has foretold it and prophesied it, and here He is as a man, manifest in the flesh, and He is doing the same thing. He knows what He's going to do, He's telling it beforehand. And in the prophecies of His death, His sufferings, all of those He foretold beforehand.

We have another parallel, of course, when our Lord ascended up into heaven and he said to the disciples that because I go away that ye shall do greater signs or miracles than these because I go to the Father. The Jews who had seen Jesus of Nazareth crucified, who had worked all of these miracles and these signs, suddenly we have his disciples, those that had been with him working the same miracles, raising the dead, healing those that were sick, doing greater miracles in preaching the word and many thousands, instead of partaking of literal bread, They were partaking of spiritual bread. They were converted. 3,000 at Pentecost. Acts 2. 5,000 when the lame man was healed. So many thousands, not just partaking of loaves, fishes, but partaking of grace and new birth and really converted and believing.

And so we have that link from the God of the Old Testament to the Lord Jesus Christ. his disciples and to the ministers of the Gospel. And we always remember that the Lord Jesus Christ truly is God, God and man, God manifest in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us.

I want to then look this afternoon at this word that is said of the Lord. When he is asked this question to Philip, when shall we buy bread that these may eat? And we read this, he said, to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. So there's three things I want to cover with the Lord's help this afternoon.

The first is a God that proves his people. Our text says, and this He said to prove Him. We mustn't think that this is the only occasion that God will prove His people.

The second thing is, a God that knows and purposes. These words in our text, for He Himself knew. He knew. He was purposing what He was doing.

And then lastly, a God that does what He would do. He wasn't one that just purposed but had no power to do. As God, He was able to bring about what He wanted to bring about.

I want to look at these three things. But firstly, a God that proves His people. Now we must make it clear right at the start that God doesn't look upon a people and is looking for something good in them so that he brings them into testing times and see if they will pass this test and then say It is the Lord that instigates salvation. He saves His people. He begins the work of grace. He which hath begun a good work will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.

Philip had been called by the Lord. All of God's children they are called by His grace. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He first began His ministry and when He was baptised, immediately after He was baptised He was driven of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

We could put it another way. that after he had been baptized he was driven into the wilderness to be proved. Satan came to him, if thou be the Son of God. And do this, command these stones that they might be made brand. Our Lord is not the servant of Satan. Our Lord then quoted that word from Deuteronomy, Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, in innocency were tempted by Satan and fell. They had the whole garden to eat of, and yet they were tempted in their fullness of their provision with one tree that they were forbidden. and they took of that tree. Our Lord had fasted for 40 days. He was in hunger, and He was tempted in the matter of food. Was He a fallen man? Was He like Adam, even in innocency, when not fallen? Or was He the eternal Son of God? that could not be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man. It is impossible for him to fall, impossible for him to be a servant of Satan.

And our Lord stood that test not once, but three times. It was not proving to the Lord who He was. but it was sending forth to the Church and to His people who He was. And so it is also with God's people, when the Lord calls them, when He works the work of grace in their heart, He knows who His people are, that's why He has died for them, He shed His blood for them, He has known them for eternity, He has chosen them in Christ, their names are in the Lamb's Book of Life, they have been brought in God's time into this world, and then in His time they have been brought to be born again in the Spirit.

The Lord knows all of that. But for their benefit, for their good, they are brought to be proved. so that they can see that what God has brought in them is not just natural, it is His power, His work, His saving work. How we need before we come to a dying day to know that what the Lord has put in us is real saving grace. that we truly are His people, and He gives, as the Apostle Paul was given, grace to help in time of need. My grace is sufficient for thee. He was to prove it and was to know it.

And so the Lord brings one of our hymns, says, Grace though the smallest shall surely be tried. tested as to what it is. If we were given what looked like a gold ring, but we think, is that really a gold ring? We would prove it, we would test it. We know that gold is nearly twice as heavy in its natural state as what lead is. And so there is nothing that you could put the same volume in that would balance against it, unless it be really gold. If we were to put it in the fire, and if it was another metal, or if it was plastic or something, it would just burn up.

Years ago, when I was in my teens, with my mother, we used to bake bread. And we did it the old fashioned way. not like the bread making we've got at home now. And so we'd do usually three loaves at a time and we'd make it up with liquid yeast and we'd have a great big metal basin and we'd have that big lump of dough and we'd put it in front of the fire, just where it was warm. And the first part would be to prove it, prove whether that yeast was really working. And that small lung of dough, it would just grow, and it'd grow, and it'd grow, until it filled the bowl. And then we'd take it, and we'd squash it all down again, break it up into three parts, and put it into tins, and then let it to rise again, and it'd rise up again. It was living yeast, and it was proving that it was a living yeast. You'd try to crush it down, and you'd squash it all down, and it'd come up again. And it would keep doing that until it was filled in the oven when you went to bake it. And so you were proving it.

And the Lord does that with His people for their comfort and for their good. Each trial that we are brought into and brought through and out of there is a proof of the Lord being our God and the grace that He has given faith that he is given, the help that he is given.

Another aspect of that proving is very humbling for man. Peter had found this, the Lord said to him that Satan hath desired to have you, to sift you as wheat, but I pray for thee that thy faith fail not. When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren, when thou art restored. Well, Peter was left to deny his Lord and Master. We might say he didn't prove very well. Or no, his natural, own strength that he boasted, though all men forsake thee, yet will not I. It proved that he did not have strength himself. It proved that pride was only just off flesh. But he proved at last the effectiveness of the Lord's prayer, that his faith didn't fail. He came out of that trial still as a believer, still as one that loved his Lord. He wasn't cast away. He proved the Lord's love could go through that time of trial. When he had miserably failed, the Lord did not fail him.

The Lord proves His people, sometimes in situations like the context here, where we have things before us that seem impossible, that are naturally. We think of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90. She is past bearing age. He is an old man. And Sarah laughs in the tent behind Abraham when the Lord said that she should bear a child. Is anything too hard for the Lord? And we read in Hebrews 11 that they believed even though Sarah laughed. The Scriptures are very kind in that. They said that by faith she did conceive. she did bear Isaac. But the Lord brings to these times that man does not have help and He in effect asks His people, can we do this? Can this be done? Is this possible? Will God be able to work in this way or not? It's really a test of do we believe in God? Do we trust in God? Do we really understand that He can do things that men cannot? That nothing is impossible with Him? He gives the grace and wisdom and help and then He proves it and then He tests it.

How vital it is that this side of the grave We have proved the Lord to be faithful and true in what he has wrought in us. You know, that man, the man that was born blind, the Lord opened his eyes and he gave him not only opened eyes naturally, but spiritually. And it was proved. The Jews came to him again and again, questioning him. The one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. And then concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, if he were not of God, he could do nothing. My hearing is a marvelous thing. He has opened my eyes. Was it ever known since the beginning of the world that one who is born blind could have his eyes opened? And that dear man was able to stand against those who were trying to take away the reality of what was done.

It's a good thing to have those things taught us and done that we truly know and that they are proved to really be of the Lord. I used to have this many times in engineering, in drawing and designing machines. Machines that had to work first go, and had to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And I know there were some times, well just before I came over here actually, and my boss was really, really worried because it wasn't long and I was going to go over to here. And there was this major design job I'd done, and this part of machinery was supposed to lift 2 tons. And they tested it in the workshop, and it wouldn't lift it. And he thought I'd made my calculations wrong. But I knew I hadn't. I looked through them, I said, no, there's another reason why. And the reason was, was because the electric motor that was working, the electricians had wired it up wrong. And the brake was on the electric motor, so the poor motor was trying to go against its own brake, and lift two tons at the same time. It seems they lifted the brake off the way it went, it's fine. And yet sometimes it is, it was a, in one way an anxious time, were my calculations right? Was it right or not?

Another time with a great big, large hopper, 25 tons of copper in it, very tall, and I told them right at the start, it needs to be tied back to the building. But anyway, when it was built, it swayed, They said, 10 engineers crawling all over it, you'd better check your calculations. And I said to them, no, I told you what it needed, it's strong, it's OK. And they came back, all it needs is a tie back to the building if your calculations are right. But they were testing times, so times you had to think, well, I was properly trained, I knew what it was doing, I've applied these things, and I can rely on it.

But they are testing times. And the Lord will bring those things into our lives in providence. He will bring it in things that happen. He will bring it so that what He has taught us is really reinforced. It has been taught. You have learnt that lesson. It is a real profit. Of course those at schools where you're taught things at the end of the year, you have an exam. And really what it is doing is proving have you really learned what has been taught through the year. And we read the promise that all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. Great shall be the peace of thy children. He shall teach his people line upon line, here a little, there a little, precept upon precept, And we read of the Lord, He taught them as they were able to bear Him, for the important thing He was teaching.

And we may ask ourselves this afternoon, what has the Lord taught us? Since the Lord, if the Lord has opened our eyes, and He's opened our ears, and we've been brought to see His work, have there been things that we've been taught? about our own heart, about men in general, about the things of God, the doctrines of grace, and where these things are taught. Don't be surprised where we find them tested and tried. May it be an encouragement to each one of you to put the Lord on in open profession. Don't be surprised if the Lord brings you into providences or situations where what you thought or what you made profession of is actually tested and tried. The Lord doesn't do it to crush you, doesn't do it to destroy you, but for another token for good, another token of love. And even if it shows, like dear Peter, that you fail, Maybe there are things you haven't properly learned, yet the Lord even in that is teaching you. Peter never ever forgot that humbling experience that he had.

God proves his people. Maybe you remember that. Peter puts it in a different way. The trial of your faith be much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, shall be found unto praise and honour and glory at that last day. So may we be encouraged, this he said, to prove him. It may be perhaps an interpretation of some things that one is going through here, I'm going through these things, the Lord is saying it, the Lord is doing it, to prove that which he has brought within.

a God that knows and purposes, He Himself knew. The Old Testament is full of examples in this way. When the Lord says to Abraham, thy seed shall be a stranger in a strange land, They shall be afflicted for a hundred years, and in the fourth generation they shall come hither." He knew. He knew how they would go into Egypt. He didn't tell Abraham how, that it would be through Joseph, and Saul was a servant. He didn't tell them how they'd be brought out of Egypt. but that they would, that they would come out, and they did. There's so many abundant evidences of where God brings his people through things, and he doesn't tell them, like he doesn't tell Jacob, Jacob, your son Joseph is alive. He doesn't, he's gotta walk it through.

And with you and I, we walk through things that we don't know what is going to happen in the next hour or tomorrow. We do not know. You as a church and congregation going through this time, when the Lord's servant, Graham Tottenham, is doing the probation period at Bethel, to have an effect upon you here, if they move as a family there. They don't know what the Lord is doing. You do not know, but the Lord does know. And Providence unfolds the book and makes His counsel shine. It is a good thing for us to really realize that, to rest in that, that the Lord does know, He Himself knew.

And as we said at the beginning, it wasn't just in the short term, it wasn't just one thing, there was many things I know when I was exercised on the ministry and of course part of that and my whole call by grace and everything in Australia was bound up with my father emigrating when I was four and a half. My father reminded me of that when I got married over here and we went back to Australia. It needed to be as clear, cool, and exercised back here as what there was to go over there, which there was. But with all of these things, the Lord knows every step, and what is a vital step. And these things are hidden from us. This is a precious truth. He himself knew what he would do. And yet he's asking these questions. You might say, in your mind, in my mind, I've got questions. What is gonna happen here?

We read in Psalm 105 with Joseph, until his time came, the word of the Lord tried him. He had big dreams. He had the expectation of what would happen. And it wasn't until the end he was able to say, He meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. You think of the book of Esther. What was the reason for Vashti to be put out from being the Queen? What was the reason for Esther to be appointed? In the time of her appointment there was no hint, as it were, of what trial was going to come. through Haman, seeking to destroy the Jews that God had already put Esther there. And Mordecai, he says, who knoweth that thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

We do not know the steps. When we're driving along, we have a hindrance. When we're held up, We don't know the reason why the Lord has made that adjustment in our journey so that we're not at a particular place at a particular time. Many times like that, you can see those adjustments.

When I was six, seven, seven years of age, we moved schools. Why was it? The school made a mistake when we changed. Because my brother and I were 11 months different. I said, these two can't be in the same class. We'll put Roland in the next class. So I went into grade three. My brother was in grade one. Well, grade one and two were in the one classroom. But I should have been in grade two. It wasn't through half the years I realized the mistake. And I said, oh, he's doing all right leaving that. God made that adjustment. One year in my life. It's had a profound effect right through my life. Absolute vital adjustment. Nothing would have fitted without that. But at the time it was made, as a child I was not called, I didn't know the reason, I didn't know why it was happening.

But we should observe these things and know that nothing happens by chance. Those of you here not yet called by God, and I hope one day you will be. The things that happen in your lives happen still for a purpose. Watch those things. God that knows and purposes, He Himself knew.

Sometimes it's very comforting, us being called when we do know the Lord, to look back through our unregeneracy, like I mentioned with that time adjustment, And that's a very comforting thing. The Lord knew me, but I did not know Him. The Lord was taking care of me, but I did not even praise Him. I didn't even acknowledge Him. And yet He knew what He would do later on.

On to look lastly at a God that does what He would do. In this case, He multiplied the loaves and fishes Then over the other side of the sea and after the miracle of going on the water, then he preached that sermon to them. He knew what he would do and all that, but much further beyond that, he knew what he would do at Calvary.

If it was said of Abraham that Abraham was justified by works, Abraham didn't just say, that I know that God is able to raise Isaac from the dead. If I slew him, I would stay in my place. He actually went, took the knife, and was to do it. And our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world, was made man and dwelt among us. He became flesh, made under the law and made of a woman. He walked this world. as a real man, laid down his Godhead, voluntarily became ignorant as it were, dependent upon the Father, revealing to him that which he was to know, and living a life of faith and prayer, whole nights in prayer.

But he was to do, he was to go to Calvary, and when he started to show the disciples what he was to do, Peter, he resisted him, he said, Be not that unto thee, Lord. And our Lord said, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou savour'st not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

May be very careful in kind of saying to someone that's got an illness or trial, Oh, God wouldn't do that. That won't happen to you. Because There are those times God does will and bring his people through fiery trials and afflictions. And it's not a comfort to say, well, God wouldn't do that. It is a comfort when you say, if God has willed that you should go through that way, he will be with you. He will give you grace. He will not forsake you in that.

The great difference between these idols and the true living God is that God is able to do. Always remember that when we come before the Lord in prayer, asking for things, that the Lord is able to do that. We're not looking at our own willpower. Yes, sometimes the Lord uses means, many times He does, but it is the Lord that does it, changing the course of history, changing the course of our lives, to working those things that he wills to happen, he causes them to happen, he causes them to come.

And so in a sense in this verse, we have these three things that really are strengthening to the people of God. When the Lord proves us and we can see that those things that we've been through have shown the reality of God's work in our souls, that's a comfort for us. When He has made it known that He knew what was gonna come in front of us when we did not know, and He prepared us and He moved providence and He did things so that we were prepared for what we were to walk through later in life, and many instances I could give of that for myself. It's very comforting to look back, think the Lord himself knew, and then when we see the Lord has actually worked and done things,

So this is the Lord's doing, and it's marvellous in our eyes. Who's he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? The Lord is a doer for his people. He comes in for them, he helps them, he strengthens them, he blesses them. He is not like the idols that need to be carried and set down. is able to perform that which is impossible.

May we really remember that and of course remembering the greatest performance, the greatest thing that He actually did and said He would do, foretold that He would do, that He would lay down His life and take it again. That He would ascend up into heaven And He would ask the Father to send the Spirit, and He did send the Spirit, and the Spirit came, and the fruits and effects of that. The Scriptures are full. We're not only the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, but God manifest in the flesh, our Lord, who told those things that were going to happen, and they did happen. He performed them, they were done.

So when we're given that expectation of the Lord's second coming, and the Lord preparing a place for us in heaven, and that we shall be with Him. That's a wonderful prospect to have that. On the basis of what the Lord has done for us here below, we can have that assurance. He will bring us safe hope to be with Him in glory at last. He will do it, a God that does what He said He will do. I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there he may be also.

The Lord has his blessing. Amen.