Matthew chapter 15, the name
of the message is The Pandemic of Sin. A couple of questions
I'd like to ask at the start of this message. How far would
you travel for your loved ones if no one could help you, if
no one could help them where you lived, if they had a disease
or an infirmity which no one could help them with in the country
that you live in? How far would you travel if you
heard that there was a doctor that had a cure. How far would
you travel? And how far would your loved
ones travel if you were sick? And they heard that a doctor
had a cure for you, that they heard that a doctor had a cure
for your very sickness, and that he was the only one who could
heal you. How far would you travel? And how far, if you were sick,
would you ask them to travel, or would they travel for you?
Well, I think the answer for all of us And your answer in
your own heart is as far as we had to go. Today, we'll look
at Matthew chapter 15, verses 29 to 39. Let's read this text. Matthew 15, starting in verse
29. And Jesus departed from Thense
and came nigh into the Sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain
and sat down there. And great multitudes came. unto
him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, which
is deaf, maimed, and many others. And cast them down at Jesus'
feet, and he healed them, insomuch that the multitude wondered when
they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame to
walk, and the blind to see. And they glorified the God of
Israel. Then Jesus called his disciples
unto him and said, I have compassion on the multitude because they
continue with me now three days. Take note of that, three days.
And have nothing to eat. And I will not send them away
fasting, lest they faint in the way. And that's hungry. He will
not send them away hungry. And his disciples say unto him,
Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, to fill
so great a multitude? Now the chapter before, he had
just fed five thousand, and they're asking him this question, O ye
of little faith, right? Unbelief's a plague, isn't it?
It's a plague in all of us. And Jesus saith unto them, How
many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few
little fishes. And he commanded the multitude
to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves
and the fishes and gave thanks and break them and gave them
to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude. And they did
all eat and were filled. They didn't just eat. They were
filled. You ever been so filled you just want to have a nap afterwards?
Yeah, they were filled. God's people are filled in Christ,
aren't we? We're filled in Christ. And they took up of the broken
meat that was left seven baskets full. My. So the fragments were
collected and it was seven baskets full. Again, the perfect number,
seven full. And they that did eat were 4,000
men beside women and children. So just 4,000 men alone. Some
commentators estimate that this group was over 20,000 people
with the children, with the women, and with all the maim, all the
people he healed to, over 20,000 people. And he sent away the
multitude, and took ship, and came unto the coast of Magdala."
Oh, what a great miracle we see performed by the Lord here. What
a great miracle. There are three main points that
I'd like us to consider this morning when we look at this
portion of Scripture. Our Lord feeds a multitude of
people. And we see in verse 38 that He
feeds again 4,000 men, and we see here that our Lord's deity
is on full display because He takes some loaves and some fish
and feeds a multitude of people, full. Not one of them went away
hungry, not one of them. And this is how we should come
to church too, like Matt said, we should come hungry for the
word, hungry for the Lord, because only he can feed us, teachable.
Come that way, don't we? We want to grow, we want to learn
in the things of Christ. And here's some things I'd like
us to consider as we look at this text today. Number one,
we see how much more pains people take about the relief of their
body diseases than about their soul diseases. We're going to
see how far, remember I asked you that question, how far would
you go? People go a great length to relieve body pain. Great lengths.
Hospitals are full of people that want to come and have relief. Have relief from things that
ail them. And they take great pains. Find places or people
who can help them. Number two, the second point
I'd like us to consider is how with ease and power our Lord
feeds 4,000 men not including the women and all who He healed,
and the children as well. How with ease He does it, just
with ease. And how with ease He healed all who came to Him.
Because we read that in the text too. All who came to Him, they
were healed with ease for Him. With ease. And the last one I'd
like us to consider is the abundant compassion that the Lord has
upon the multitude. The abundant compassion that
our Lord has on the multitude of people here in our text. And
He is compassionate. He is so compassionate. So let's
consider the first point brought forth here. We see how with much
pain, how far people will go and how much pain they will endure
to go to somewhere to find relief for their bodies. But they have
no care for their soul disease. No care for their soul disease.
We see in verses 30 and 31 here that great multitudes of people
came to our Lord. Let's look at that again. And
great multitudes came unto him. They come unto Christ. They had
heard about him. They had heard about what he
could do. And don't forget too, God by his almighty power and
will is bringing these people to Christ. Never forget that.
Because God's gonna be glorified through these healings. He's
going to be glorified. And it says here, in great multitudes
came unto him, heaven with them, those that were lame. Now we're
lame from a fall, aren't we? We fell in Adam. We're lame.
We're gonna see a picture of us here. Those who were lame.
Blind. Well we're blind to spiritual
things, aren't we? In our natural state, we're totally
blind. I was thinking about this this
morning. And we can all relate to this. We can all relate to
this. You don't turn on the light in the middle of the night and
your curtains are drawn or your blinds are turned. It's black,
right? It's dark. Have you ever tried
to get up and maybe go to the bathroom during that time and
you hit something? Because why? You're blind. Sometimes
you even close your eyes to let your eyes adjust, but they're
still. When it's that pitch black, we used to have blackout curtains
in our room. I had to leave a light on so
I didn't run into things. because it blows blackout curtains,
make everything so dark that no light can come in. That's
how we are in our natural state. We are blind. We cannot see anything. Somebody may tell us about God
and about spiritual things, but we are blind. We cannot see. We're groping around in the dark.
Look at these people. They were blind. They could not
see. Now, they may have been able to hear, but they couldn't
even see. And then we see the dumb, which is the deaf, mute. They couldn't speak about the
great things of God. Did we speak of the great things
of God before the Lord saved us? No. We were blind, we were
lame, and we were mute about the things of God. Weren't we? Yeah? And then maimed. Oh, we
can't help ourselves, can we? Can't help ourselves. These folks
couldn't help themselves. They're maimed. And then many
others. Anything, any sickness related to our soul is covered. My, we are infected with the
pandemic of sin, beloved. But these people had real ailments. They were really lame. They were
really blind. They were really deaf, mute,
and they were really maimed. And many others that the text
doesn't tell us about. And they cast them down at Jesus'
feet. And what did he do? It says he healed them. He healed
them. We see the text here proclaims that this was a great multitude
of people and they came to Him. How far some of them traveled
we don't know but obviously some of them traveled a long way.
Look even just where our Lord traveled and we know these folks
followed Him. Our Lord traveled near the Sea
of Galilee in verse 29 and then went up into a mountain, and
then he sat there. And this great multitude came
to him. How'd they come to him? Well, they'd heard. They'd heard
about the great physician. Maybe one of those lame man or
woman's children heard about great physician, heard about
Christ who could heal the lame, who could make the blind to see.
And they came to them. They came to him. Again, this
great crowd of people is estimated to be 20,000 or more strong. And they were so taken up by
Christ. They were so taken up by His
miraculous power. They were so taken up with His
infinite goodness. They were so taken up with His
gracious words that they lost track of all other things. And
then they followed Him and bought to them those who were lame,
blind, deaf, maimed, and many others. And we see in verse 32
that they'd been with the Lord for three days. They got so carried
away with what the Lord was doing. Could you imagine being there
and seeing the deaf able to speak? Seeing the lame get up? A whole
healing too? They don't have to go through
no physical therapy or anything like that? They're healed. The
blind can see? Could you imagine if a child
had been blind most of his life and to see his parents? Or to
see brothers and sisters who he'd heard their voices but he'd
never seen them? Could you imagine what that would have been like?
My oh my, they lost track of time, beloved. They were so carried
away with the great things the Lord was doing that they lost
track of time. Having received great, great
mercies and great blessings, one on top of another, they were
yet still in a great need. They needed food and strength.
We'll look at that later in this message. No doubt, some of them
traveled a long way. Some of them may have traveled
the whole way with our king, too. Because we know a multitude
of people follow them, too. They follow them. But obviously,
others bought people who were lame, bought people who were
deaf to him, bought people who were blind to him. That's what
the text proclaims. And think of how much pain and
suffering it would take to carry a lame man, even three or four
miles, yet up a mountain. We don't know how big the mountain
was, but yet up a mountain. People will take all kinds of
pain and suffering for the relief of their body, but they will
have no care, absolutely no care for their soul. Look at verse
30 again. And great multitudes came. They came to him. They
came unto him. having with them those that were
lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down
at Jesus' feet, and He healed them. Now see the word there,
and cast them down at Jesus' feet? This is very graphic in
the Greek. This is a very graphic word.
It literally means to fling them down. They didn't fling them
down, but that's what it literally means. They flung them down,
but they bought them, put them right in front of them. And this
was not in a careless way, but in haste. They probably thronged
just to get to Him. Could you imagine bringing your
loved one? You'd want to get to him so quickly. Or if you
were sick with the malady that you only knew he could heal,
get me there, get me there, get me there. Oh my. And there was
a great multitude of them and they were all coming. Those who
were bringing the sick were all coming with the same errand,
weren't they? We want to get our loved one or our friend to
the feet of Christ. Remember, I love that narrative
we looked at a few weeks ago about the guys, and we chuckle
about it. I saw Jim and Barb chuckle about
it when I was preaching on it. Remember, they were ripping open
the rooftop, they were dropping them down in there. That's amazing
how far they went to bring that man to the feet of Christ. The
same haste is what these people are doing. They're coming to
Christ with the same haste. Must get them there. And so many
came with their loved ones and friends that were lame, blind,
deaf, and maimed, but they sought quickly to come to Christ as
he healed them. And again, no doubt, many of
them came many miles and went through much trouble, much trouble. Nothing, again, is more troublesome
as to move sick people. So think of how hard it was to
bring them to Christ. to leave the home that they were
in, or the place that they were in, and they didn't have taxis
and ambulances like we have now. You either carry them by hand,
or you put them on a cart and follow the road, which was probably
bumpy, so you imagine the pain that's coming from that, or you
may just take your loved one by the arm, put your arm around
me, carry them even if you had to, right? You go through great
pains to get them there. And the people who were sick
would endure a long journey if they knew they were going to
be healed. They'd endure a lot if they knew they were going
to be healed. And their loved ones would do all that was in
their power to get them to the physician. These folks were doing
all that was in their power to get their loved ones or friends
to the great physician. People feel that health is one
of the greatest blessings on this earth and it's true. Pain
is sometimes the hardest trial to bear, isn't it? Pain is hard
to bear because usually we don't verbalize it and we suffer with
it on our own. We sometimes don't even tell
our loved ones about it. We just suffer alone with it,
praying to the Lord, asking him to put a healing hand upon us
or just relieve the suffering a little bit. So pain is something
hard to endure. But if a man or a woman received
a diagnosis and they knew that they need help, you tell them
of a doctor, and what do they do? They go to the doctor, don't
they? They go to the doctor. They go to the doctor, if it's
really serious, they go to the doctor as soon as they can, as
soon as they can. They will find a doctor within reach who will
help them with that situation. And if they can't go themselves,
they'll get family or friends to help them out. Go to that
doctor. And those who were lame, deaf, blind, and maimed in our
text had to be literally carried to the Savior, taken to the Savior.
But again, they would endure much because the hope of them
being healed was in sight, wasn't it? They'd heard about this great
physician. They'd heard about this miracle
doer. And such a hope that Christ could heal them inspired these
needy souls and those who cared for them that no obstacle was
going to stop them. No cost was considered too much.
They must go to Christ. Now there's something that every
believer in Christ knows and that most people do not know. Every believer in Christ knows
this truth, that our souls are affected with a malady far more
deep-seated and far more complicated and far more hard to cure than
any ailment of the flesh. The believer in Christ knows
that there has been a pandemic with humanity since the fall
of Adam. And there really has been. And
this pandemic has permanated through every human being, from
the top of our head, bottom of our feet. We're all born with
this. And you know what? It has 100% kill rate. We're
born with this plague, this leprosy called sin. And there's nothing
that we can do on our own to cure ourselves. And there's no
other human being who can help us to be cured or cure themselves. And this plague is called sin. We are all plague stricken with
sin. It has affected our hearts. It
has affected our minds. It has affected our bodies. And
we must be healed and healed effectually or we'll perish forever. Are we alive to the spiritual
disease? Do we know about it? If so, it
is by the grace of God that you truly know about this plague,
because the bulk of mankind have no idea. They do not feel it
even a little. Their eyes are blinded. They're
deaf to the things of God. They say, I'm fine. I'm fine. They make fun of those who tell
of the great physician, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who
can heal our soul's disease. the only one who can heal us
from this pandemic called sin. Have you found out your soul's
disease? Have you found it out? Have you
saw that you're infected with this deadly plague called sin
that has a 100% kill rate? The soul that sinneth it must
die, the scriptures declare. If you've seen your desperate
need for Christ, you will never rest until you've found the only
cure for this deadly plague, this deadly plague called sin.
And the only cure for this deadly plague is the Lord Jesus Christ
in him alone. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. Amen. All sin, all of it. Isn't that wonderful? So wonderful. Great physician is the only one
who can heal us. Turn if you would to Philippians
chapter three. And if he reveals himself to
you, you see your need for Him, if you're drawn to Him, then
you're fit right into this passage right here. You're fit right
into this passage. Philippians chapter 3 verses
8 to 11. Yea, doubtless Paul's writing this. Church at Philippi.
Paul was a very learned man, but he counted all that he had
learned before the Lord saved him as nothing. He calls it dung
in this verse here. Nothing Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things. Paul had prestige. He had honor among men. He was
a Pharisee of Pharisees. Some thought maybe he might become
the next high priest. We don't know that, but people
have speculated that. He lost it all. But he's not
crying in the corner, is he? No, he says these words here. whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ. His eyes on the great physician,
his eyes on Christ, and be found in who? In him. Not in ourselves,
not in our own righteousness, but to be found in him, in Christ. Look what he says, not having
mine own righteousness, because he knows that with his own righteousness,
there's no acceptance with God. But he knows that all those who
are clothed in the royal garment, the royal wedding garment of
the bride of Christ, which is the righteousness of Christ,
are accepted by God. He says here, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. The righteousness which is of
God by faith. What's revealed in the preaching
of the gospel? The righteousness of God. Who is the righteousness
of God? The Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says
it here. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, which is of his own doing, which is of
the flesh, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, the righteousness
robe which Christ wove when he was in perfect obedience to the
law of God as our substitute, that I may know him. Oh, Paul
had a desire to know him. He didn't think He had arrived.
He wants to know Him, that I may know Him in the power of His
resurrection, in the fellowship of His sufferance, being made
conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead. Christ is the only one, beloved,
who has all power and all might. He's the only one. He's the only
one who's called the Great Physician. And he's the one who willingly
came to this earth. The great physician willingly
came to this earth. Willingly. Why? To save his people
from this plague called sin. The sinless one goes to the cross
and dies for sinners. The godly one, the holy one,
dies in the place of the ungodly. That's me. And if you're a believer,
that's you. If you do not know Christ, I
pray that the Lord would show you your desperate need for him.
That he would draw you to him. Christ is the only one who has
all power and might. Now these times that we live
in, they're very uncertain times right now. They are. They're
uncertain. And they're uncertain times for us. Now granted, when
the believers lived here in the Roman Empire, there was uncertain
times for them too, wasn't there? See? We all go through these
things, but for us in this generation, these are uncertain times. There's
things happening that we haven't seen, but none of it catches
our God by surprise. No, none of it, none of it at
all. And we're living in uncertain times with this virus, which
has come our way and has really changed things, really changed
things in our lives, hasn't it? But we take great comfort, we
can take great comfort as God's people, knowing that when it
fulfills God's purpose, it'll pass. It'll pass. We don't know. We're not privy to that information,
are we? No. But when this virus, when
this situation fulfills God's purpose, it'll be gone. He may
allow it to stay. We don't know. We have no idea. We just wait on the Lord, don't
we? No matter what comes. We have to wait upon Him. Every
day in our lives we wait upon Him, don't we? Do you know people
are more afraid of this virus than they are of God? You know
that we're living right now in a pandemic of fear as well? People
are terrified. But God's people, we have a peace,
don't we? We have a peace during this.
Now granted, do we get worked up sometimes about stuff? Of
course we do. We're fleshy people, aren't we? Of course we do. Anyone
who says they don't, they're lying. We're just lying. Of course
we get worked up about things. But our constant stay is Christ,
isn't it? The one who never changes in
our lives is Christ amidst all that happens in this world. And
when the Lord's purpose in this virus is fulfilled, it'll be
done. During times like this, we often have ups and downs,
don't we? We do, let's be honest. You know, I remember being in
religion, everything was all mountain, all the, how you doing?
Oh, I'm fantastic, praise the Lord. Meanwhile, you're down
here, dragging yourself around. So we as believers, we have ups
and downs, don't we? We have hills and valleys. We
go through dark woods sometimes. My, do, but thankfully, Believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ again have a constant, unchanging God. And His power is on display in
what we've read today. His power is on display in what
we've read today. So amidst all, think of this
too, amidst all the changes in this world, He is the same yesterday,
today, and forever, right? Everything that happened yesterday,
He was the same, right? Everything that's happening today,
He's the same, isn't He? If He tarries, everything that
happens from there, He's the same, isn't He? So he's a constant,
unchanging, as the scriptures say, he's a nail in a sure place. You put a nail in a sure place,
that nail's put there to hold some stuff, because it's sure.
It's not going to bend, it's sure. He's a nail in a sure place,
beloved. Oh, he's one you can trust your
eternal soul on. no matter what. And we don't
even know what's coming this afternoon, do we? We don't even
know what's coming this week. But thankfully, the one who has
saved his people from their sins knows the end from the beginning.
He knows the end from the beginning. And you know what? By him, all
things consist. The very breath we breathe each
day comes from him. Oh, what a great God we have.
So take comfort in these uncertain times if you're a believer in
Christ. The same one who upholds the worlds. The same one who
upholds the stars. The same one who holds all the
universe together. It's the same one who is keeping
you. It's the same one who's keeping you. No matter what you're
going through, he's keeping you. And by what power? By his almighty
power. Isn't that comforting? By his
almighty power. The same power that was exercised
in his great miracles, the healing of all them sick folks, and the
feeding of all that great multitude is the same power that keeps
us every single day. What comfort we can glean that
Elohim, the Mighty One, God incarnate in the flesh, rules and reigns
right now amidst all these uncertain times which we are going through.
The next point I'd like us to consider is the ease and power
it took our Lord to feed the 4,000 men. Consider with how
much ease and power the Lord healed all those who were bought
to Him. He who was God incarnate in the flesh manifested his almighty
deity by the ease in which he healed those who were bought
to him. We know from the scriptures, he healed some with just a touch,
didn't he? He healed some with just a word. One of my favorite narratives
is the leper, and he says, be thou, he says, the leper says,
Lord, if thou will, thou can make me clean. And he says, I
will be thou clean. Oh my, with a word, with just
a word. My, it's incredible. It's absolutely
incredible, absolutely incredible. With a touch, with a word, he
heals whom he wills. And we see all that came to him
here were healed. And they glorified God as a result.
Now all who are healed from the pandemic of sin by the precious
blood of Christ, what do we do? We glorify God, don't we? Look
at this in verse 31. And so much that the multitude
wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to behold. Again, no six-month recovery,
instantaneous. That's why when the Lord healed
that leper, he said, go and see the priest right away, because
the priest would have to examine that leper to see if he had any
leprosy in him. And if he didn't, the law had
no claim on him. Oh my! Leprosy is a picture of sin,
isn't it? Law has no claim on us, beloved. We who are in Christ,
we are healed. Look at this. And so much that
the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed
to behold, the lame to walk, and the blind to see. And they
glorified the God of Israel. They glorified the true and living
God, beloved. And that's what God's people
do. They glorify God. And we see our all-powerful God
at work here. God incarnate in the flesh. He
alone has all power and all might. And behold Christ's power to
heal sin-diseased bodies. And He can do the same with our
eternal soul with a word from Him. He can save you without
you moving a muscle. The fever of lust, the palsy
of love of the world, the consumption and disease of unbelief all give
way when he sends his spirit forth. They all give way. And
he puts a new song. He puts a new song in the born-again
blood-washed believer's mouth. Puts a new song in her mouth.
In the sinner's mouth. And he makes the blood-washed
saint of God speak with love. With love of the gospel which
he once ridiculed or she once ridiculed. Now we speak of it
with love. Love for the Savior. Love for
our great God. And he can open the eyes of a
man or woman's understanding and make them see the kingdom
of God. And he can open the ears of a
man or woman and make them willing to hear his voice. And he can
make them follow him all by a sovereign almighty power which we see on
display in this passage which we've looked at today. He can
make hands that were once instruments of sin serve him. He alone can
calm the sinner's heart just as He did the sea. Remember when
the Lord was drawing you to Christ and it was like a great storm
in our lives? You saw your sinfulness, didn't
you? You saw your hopelessness without Christ. And did He not,
by the shedding of His precious blood, when you found out He
died for you, when He saved you, when you were born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, was it not like He said, peace be still?
When He spoke to that storm and the waves, peace be still. And a believer has a peace that
passes all understanding. Our boat may be rocked in the
waves, just like a boat in the ocean. We may be rocked in the
waves of this life, right? Oh yeah, up and down. We have
a peace, don't we, that passes all understanding, that keeps
our hearts and minds on Christ Jesus. It's all the storms of
life. There's that underlying peace,
that underlying peace. And what happened when he said,
peace be still? Those waves were calm, right?
It was like glass. I remember going up north in
Canada. And one day, there'd be a storm. And the lakes we
used to go fishing on, they were big lakes, too, part of a waterway
for going from one great lake to another. And sometimes, a
storm would come in. And even though it's just a little
waterway or a lake, there used to be some pretty good-sized
waves on there, enough to capsize you if you go out in a little
boat. But then there was other days we went out, and it was
like glass. And you'd see the Canadian geese
flying, and their wings would just tip the water. Beautiful
just take your breath away. That's how God does with our
souls when he saves us just peace be still peace be still oh What
a great God we have and he does it just by the word of his power
Don't me some say the times of miracles are past, but you know
what every conversion is a miracle of grace every conversion is
a miracle of grace. It's a miracle of God's mercy.
It's a miracle of God's grace. And it comes from the hand of
the almighty one, the hand of the almighty. What must we do
to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shall be saved. Oh, we just go to Christ by faith
and plea for him to save us. Again, he's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He still receives sinners. He
still receives sinners today who come to him. Praise his mighty
name. Our Lord's not like these modern
false healers of our day. No, he healed people with real
infirmities. He healed people with real infirmities.
The word maim there means mutilated or cut off in the Greek. Mutilated
or cut off. People who had limbs missing.
Maybe they lost a limb in an accident. My. So what a tremendous
picture we have of our Lord's power to heal, to heal sinners,
to heal sin-sick souls. And there is no plague of the
heart that He cannot cure. There's no plague of the heart
that He cannot cure. There's no deformity of the soul
that He cannot overcome. There's no fever of lust that
He cannot stop. There's no palsy of worldliness
that He cannot heal. No cancer of laziness that He
cannot remove. And when the Son of God sends
His Spirit, His all-powerful Spirit, by His grace and mercy,
He opens the blind's eyes. He causes the deaf to hear. He causes the mute to sing praises
to Him. The lame walk. And how do they
walk? In paths of His righteousness.
And they walk for His name's sake now. Oh, again, every conversion
is a miracle of God's almighty power. One may ask, again, how
can I be saved? You don't know what I've done.
Go to Christ by faith. Cast yourself upon Him. Cast
yourself upon him, call upon him for relief. He's still the
same as he was 2,000 years ago, beloved. Sinner friend, he's
still the same as he was 2,000 years ago. He's still the great
physician. He still receives sinners even today. He still
does. He's still mighty to save. Now
let's look in verses 32 and 38. In our last point, we'll see
the abundant compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ, clearly brought
forth here in verses 32 to 38. Then Jesus called his disciples
unto him and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they
continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat, and
I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way. And
his disciples say unto him, whence should we have so much bread
in the wilderness as to fill so great a multitude? And Jesus
saith unto them, how many loaves have ye? And they said, seven,
and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude
to sit down on the ground And he took the seven loaves and
fishes and gave thanks and break them and gave to his disciples
and his disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat and were
filled. And they took up of the broken meat that was left seven
baskets full. And they that did eat were 4,000
men besides women and children. Now there's a little nugget of
gold in verse 32. A little nugget of gold just
tucked away in that verse. Look at these wonderful words.
And if you're a sinner who has come to Christ or a sinner who's
being shown you need of Christ, look at these wonderful words
tucked into verse 32. It says, I will not send them
away. I will not send them away. That's
a nugget of gold, isn't it? Isn't that wonderful? I will
not send them away. The great crowd of people of
more than 20,000 strong was so taken up with Christ and his
miraculous powers, his infinite goodness, his gracious words,
that they lost track of all their doings. Three days had passed
before they knew it. Now they're hungry and faint.
They had received great mercy and blessings, one on top of
another again. And we see that they were yet
in great need still, as they needed food and strength. And
notice our Lord's response. He says to the disciples, I will
not send them away. Let these wonderful words of
compassion, and that's what they are. These are wonderful words
of compassion from our Lord Jesus Christ. Let them seek deep into
your redeemed soul, if you're a believer. If you're a child
of God, how wonderful are these words falling from the lips of
our master? I will not send them away. Have you come to Christ? Are
you coming to Christ? Is He drawing you? He says, I
will not send them away. What does our Lord say in John
6, 37? Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. I'll
not send them away. How encouraging this is to one
who's been showing their need for Christ as well. This means
that there's nothing in a sinner in all the world that will keep
Christ from receiving him if he does but come to Him. Look
at that. Come to Christ. Come just as
you are. Don't bring anything. Don't bring
your so-called righteousness, because you don't have any. Don't
bring your so-called goodness, because you don't have any. Just
come to Christ. Just come to him, and he will
receive you. He says again, him that cometh
unto me, I will no wise cast out. He said about this whole
multitude, I'll not send them away. Not send them away. When Christ was on this earth,
his joy, sorrow, thankfulness, wonder, and zeal are all mentioned,
but his compassion is mentioned more than them all, and it's
connected to the word move. Turn, if you would, one chapter
over, Matthew 14. One chapter over, we see that
our Lord was moved with compassion. We saw it mentioned in the text
that we've looked at today, and we see it here, too, Matthew
14, 14. He feeds the 5,000. And he had compassion on them
just as he has compassion on the folks we've read about in
our text. Matthew 14, 14. And Jesus went
forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with what? Compassion
toward them. And he healed their sick. Now
this is pointed out here for our learning too by the Holy
Spirit of God. This is one of Christ's distinguishing
features. He had compassion on people.
And no doubt this is for our learning and for our prophet.
It's inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. We know that he received
sinners graciously. Here, forgive them freely. Here,
remember their iniquities no more. Oh, it's wonderful. Doesn't
get any better than that, does it? And here, supply our need
abundantly. And as Brother Matt prayed, we're
needy people. We're needy people. You probably
find yourself more needy now than you ever felt needy before.
And you know what? The more the Lord reveals to
you himself, the more needy you feel. It's true. Christ's mercy
is a deep well, and no one has ever found the bottom. You know
that? No one's ever found the bottom of the well of the mercy
of God. No one's ever found the bottom
of it. You could live thousands of years, if the Lord allowed
it, and you'd never find the bottom to the well of the mercy
of God. Never. And we, as the people
of God, ought to find comfort in His compassion, in Christ's
compassion. He knows what the world's like that we live in
right now. He's governing over it all. He knows. He knows the
body of man. He knows all of our frailties.
He knows them all. There's nothing hid from him.
He knows how frail we are. And yet, what does he do with
us? He has compassion on us, doesn't he? Great compassion.
He's long-suffering with his people. Very long-suffering with
us. The Lord pities his people. He
does not let us be cast down, does he? Now, we may go down,
but he doesn't let us be utterly cast away, does he? No, he keeps
us. Sometimes he humbles us. Sometimes
he rebukes us. Sometimes he puts that crook
of the shepherd's staff around our neck and just brings us back
over to him. But it's all done in love. It's not done in judgment.
It's not done in wrath. It's done with great compassion.
And remember what lamentations say. His compassions, they fail
not. They fail not, beloved. Lastly,
let us consider the feeding of the 4,000, 20,000 with the women
and children and those who've been healed. Let's read our text
again, just verses 33 to 38. And his disciples said unto him,
whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness as to
fill so great a multitude? Verse 34. And Jesus saith unto
them, how many loaves have ye? And they said, seven, and a few
little fishes. And he commanded the multitude
to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves
and the fishes and gave thanks. and break them, gave to his disciples,
and the disciples to the multitude. And they did eat, and were filled.
And they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets
full. And they that did eat were 4,000
men beside women and children." So we see clearly illustrated
here before us. And let us remember this in these
times that we're going through, these uncertain times, these
times for our generation like we've never seen before, just
like the Generation who grew up in the Great Depression, they
saw how that was. That was very uncertain times
for them. Generation who grew up during
the war, that was very uncertain times for them. In the 50s with
the Korean War and in the 60s with the Vietnam War, lots of
uncertainty in the world, right? And now in our generation, uncertainties. See, we're not in control of
these things, are we? We humans like to be in control of our
environments. But as a believer, we realize we're not in control
of things, that one greater than us is in control. So let all
we who call upon the name of Christ cast all our spiritual
needs and all our cares upon he who careth for us, upon he
who rules the winds and the waves, and think also upon It says,
much bread was eaten, but much remained, it says in our text,
right? You catch that, too? The more we feed upon our great
Savior, who is the bread of life, the more we have of Him, and
there's more, and there's more, and there's more. It's an everlasting
supply. Our Lord brings out seven loaves
and small fishes and give it all away. Now, they may have
had fear among them. Perhaps they would need these
things themselves later on, but our Lord tells them to hand it
all out. Hand it all out. Verse 36, he gives thanks to
God. The Lord gives thanks to God for the food. And may we,
who are the people of God, learn that the giving of thanks is
a blessing each day. Thank the Lord for what he's
done for you every day. Just be thankful to him. I know many
of us wake up in the morning and say, thank you, Lord, for
another day. Thank you. But always remember, our Lord
loves and cares and watches over his born-again blood-washed people.
And lastly, in this text, I want us to go away from this, is the
Lord did it all. The Lord did it all, didn't He?
He healed those who were bought to Him. He fed all that multitude. He did it all. He did it all. He performed this wonderful miracle
of feeding 4,000 or 20,000, as some commentators said, just
as He's done in our salvation. He does it all. Ye are complete
in Him. Praise His mighty name.