They Need Not Depart

Q: What does the Bible say about spiritual sustenance?

The Bible teaches that our ultimate spiritual sustenance comes from Jesus Christ, who is the bread of life. Scripture emphasizes that our greatest need is for spiritual sustenance, which can only be fulfilled by Jesus Christ. In Matthew 14:13-21, Jesus fed the multitudes, demonstrating that He is the source of all sustenance. Just as physical hunger needs to be met, spiritual hunger is paramount, and this is only satisfied through a relationship with Christ, the bread of life (John 6:35). In the same way that physical food nourishes our bodies, Christ nourishes our souls and satisfies our deepest longings.

Q: How do we know that Jesus meets all our needs?

We know Jesus meets all our needs through His sovereign grace, as He demonstrated when He fed the 5,000 with only five loaves and two fish. The assurance that Jesus meets all our needs is consistently portrayed in the Scriptures. In Matthew 14, despite the disciples' concerns about how to feed a massive crowd, Jesus revealed His power by multiplying the loaves and fishes. This miracle illustrates that He alone is capable of meeting every need of our lives, whether physical or spiritual. Philippians 4:19 affirms this truth, stating that God will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Therefore, our confidence is placed in His provision, showcasing His authority as the sovereign provider.

Q: Why is Jesus considered the one thing needful?

Jesus is the one thing needful because He fulfills our deepest spiritual requirements and sustains our souls. In Luke 10:38-42, Jesus emphasizes to Martha that Mary chose the good part by sitting at His feet and listening to His teaching. This illustrates that the one thing needful is a relationship with Him, which sustains and fulfills our spiritual needs. All other needs—emotional, physical, or relational—find their resolution in Christ. Without Him, we are spiritually impoverished, akin to a desert place without sustenance. Therefore, prioritizing time in His presence is essential for spiritual health and growth.

Q: What is the significance of Christ's compassion towards sinners?

Christ's compassion signifies His deep care for human needs, both physical and spiritual, as shown in His miracles. Jesus' compassion is pivotal in understanding His relationship with humanity. As seen in Matthew 14:14, He was moved with compassion for the multitude that followed Him. This act of compassion not only led to physical healing but also exemplified His desire to address spiritual needs. His actions demonstrated that nothing is more important than bringing life and sustenance to those who are spiritually starving. In recognizing Jesus' compassion, believers find comfort knowing that their Savior cares deeply about their struggles and is actively present to meet their needs.

just to see so many of my friends that I haven't seen in a long time. I'm thankful for Brother Todd asking me to come. I'm thankful for y'all having me. And if you would be turning to Matthew chapter 14, just a pleasure to be with you and I'm thankful the Lord has arranged it so. Matthew 14 and verse 13 tonight. By the way, I was thinking we'd be driving my truck over here and so I left my jacket, my suit jacket in my truck and so it's casual Sunday in case y'all didn't know. It's a night to kick off your shoes if you want to, it's fine. If you don't tell Todd, I won't. I know Lynn won't tell him. She won't tell him.

But verse 13 in our text, when Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart. And when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them. and he healed their sick. And when it was evening, his disciples came to him saying, this is a desert place, and the time is now past.

Send the multitude away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, they need not depart. Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, we have here but five loaves and two fishes. And he said, bring them hither to me.

And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and took the five loaves and the two fishes. And looking up to heaven, he blessed and break and gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat. and were filled. And they took up of the fragments that remained 12 baskets full. And they that had eaten were about 5,000 men beside women and children."

This story is playing itself out in this auditorium tonight. There's a group of sinners here, every one of us, who are hungry. Thirsty. This is a desert place that we live in. And we need sustenance. We need fulfillment. We need life. Life sustaining grace from God. And in this simple picture regarding these loaves and these fish, This is an event, as you would see if you read a little bit further back, the way that this begins, when the Lord had heard it.

The passage before describes the beheading of John the Baptist. Once the disciples had collected John's body, and they told the Lord about it, the Lord went out into this desert place, and these multitudes followed him there on foot. And after a time of teaching them and healing their sick, began to be late in the evening, the disciples became concerned. It was time to eat, and it would take this multitude some time to walk back to a place where there'd be somewhere to get food. So they said to the Lord, we'd better send them away. We'd better send them on their way so that they can get something to eat.

There's a necessity. There's a basic elemental need that must be met. And that's expressed here, a need that's so important that everything else has got to be placed on hold. However important, it's got to be set aside. The need to eat and have something to drink was seen as such a necessity that even the Lord's teaching would be interrupted here. Lord, we can't continue this. We can't go on here. We've got to put a halt to it because there's a need that needs to be met.

Does that sound like us in our unbelief? We trust the Lord so far and then we lean on the arm of the flesh and we worry. We begin to fret. We become afraid. the Lord had healed their sicknesses. Right in front of these disciples' faces, he had performed miracles, miracles of his grace and goodness towards sinners.

And yet, hold on a second, there's a need more important. There's something that's gotta take place here that we've gotta interrupt this in order to make sure this need gets met. And there we are again. That's us again. That which is vital, we consider it to be second place to that which is not.

This whole passage, this whole message, every thought that we have in our heads tonight, I pray God would direct it toward this one truth. Everything we need is a person, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's earthly needs, that's health needs, that's relationship needs, that's the worry and the fear and the trouble that we face all the time. You either just got out of a trial or you're in a trial or you're fixing to go into a trial. And that's our very soul's security before God.

Everything. We think there's things more important when the only need that we have is Christ, the Son of God. He made us. He made us out of the dust of this earth. He breathed into our soul the breath of life and created us a soul. And everything we have's gonna come from Him anyway.

Whether we worry about it and stress about it and figure out ways to get it, He still just gave it to you. You know, you worry about your job and you work hard, and that's good, work hard. Do what the Lord gave you to do. And do it with all your heart. But we're gonna have to fall on our face when all is said and done and say, thank you, Lord, for giving me what I need.

When the armies of Israel won a victory, King David led them to great victory, the Lord told him he was gonna give it to him. And we'll see this later, but the Lord didn't say, I've given you the victory so you can just stay home. He said, I gave you the victory, so put your sword on and go get it. But he gave the victory. And then when they were done, David said, look what God did. Look what God did.

We're gonna say that anyway. We can say it with a lot of worry and fear and distress and trouble and what am I gonna do? You know, we could be 80 years old and saying how am I gonna, man, my medication went up, how am I gonna afford to, the Lord's been taking care of you for 80 years. And you're wondering, Lord's been taking care of me for 62 years. Am I stupid enough to sit here and think how am I gonna make it from here on out? Yes. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, that's why the Lord teaches us. That's why he reminds us who he is. That's all you needed to know here, to not worry, to not fret, to not interrupt him. Just sit at his feet and hear him. Don't bother about the things of this earth. Quit fretting over it.

All these things he said will be added to you. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. And this kingdom of God consists of the king and his subjects. He's the kingdom. They've got to eat. We're gonna have to break this thing up. This is a gospel message. The Lord does take care of all of our earthly needs, too, and there's no use worrying about it. What good is that gonna do?

Is it gonna benefit you more to worry and fret over it or hold your hand up to God? They tried to give Abraham the spoils of war, and he said, if you do that, you'll say, look what I did for Abraham. I hold my hand up to the living God. And if you get it for yourself, you're gonna say, look what I did.

We've got to come to the place where we give it up, where we quit, depending on this flesh, leaning up on the arm of the flesh, and look to the Savior. That doesn't mean we don't do the things, the common sense things that he's given us to do. But we do those things understanding that with or without the means, the Lord is all of our need. All of it. He's all of it now. All they had was Christ. And all of them ate. And all of them were filled. They were filled.

This is a picture of the one basic and most vital need of every sinner. We're a human being and as human beings, we have needs, we have to have food, we have to have water, we have to have rest, but we're a sinful human being. And as a sinner, we have even deeper, more basic needs and more consequential needs than we do as physical human beings. If you don't eat, you will soon die. You will eventually die. If your spiritual needs are not satisfied, then you'll really die. You'll really die. Eternally die.

So the clear point of this entire passage is simply what our Lord said to Martha. One thing is needful. One thing is needful. And let's clear that up. You and I only have really one need, that's it. And we can, you know, reason beyond that. You never have had but one need. And right now you have just one need.

We talk about spiritual needs and they can be described in many different ways, right? We need righteousness, we need a sin offering, we need a lamb, we need to satisfy God, We need rest. We need spiritual rest. We need wisdom. We need redemption. We need love. How are you gonna live without love? We need joy. Joy is necessary, did you know that? That's necessary. Eternal life, but all of these needs are met in one person. So you can call them different things, but our one and only need is Christ himself. Look at the text, verse 15. The disciples said, this is a desert place.

Do you not find it to be so? Does this world, and we were talking about it a while ago, just a few minutes ago. You know, when you're young, this world has a lot to offer, doesn't it? And not necessarily in a bad way, not in a sinful way, if you use this world as not abusing it, as the Lord teaches us to. Have dreams, have goals and accomplish them. Work hard and do what you want and what you're able to do with your youth. But when you get a little bit older, This world has less to offer, and less and less as you get older. And we begin to see what was true all along. You know, we talk about times of great need, and I mentioned this this morning in Danville.

We came to a place that I'll never forget in our church there in Tennessee, where we were gathered in a waiting room at a hospital, and we were falling on our faces before God. We were asking God to spare a life, to heal, to do what only he can do, give life, preserve life.

And we were utterly dependent upon him. There was nothing we could do about it. We cast our souls upon him, because to whom else would we go? And we talked about that later, and we understood that that day, we needed him, but you know what? The day before that, we needed him just as much. He just reminded us that day how badly we needed him. We forget, don't we? We forget. We forget, we can start thinking that we're something, that we can accomplish something in this flesh that we kind of control.

Remember, we still think we're God. Ye shall be as God says not. It still echoes in our fleshly ears. We still think we're the, you know, the king of our little domain. Until the Lord reminds us that we're not. We're not the king of anything. We're failures, we're losers, we're weak, We're helpless, we're hopeless. We have no strength.

You know what we can do without him? He made that pretty plain, didn't he? No thing. No thing. That's our text. This is a desert place, too. This is a desert place. These people had a vital, urgent need, and they're in a place where there's no way that need can be met. This world has nothing for you.

Judas took 30 pieces of silver from this world in order to betray the Son of God. And he went out and hanged himself and said, I betrayed the innocent blood. He went to the world. He left the Son of God and went to the world and said, what will you give me?

Is that us? Is that us? I'm thankful for what the Lord said to Simon. I've prayed for you. I've prayed for you. that your faith fail not. What does that say is gonna happen if he doesn't pray for us? Amos 8, 11, behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing of the words of the Lord.

This is a desert place. This world is full of so-called churches, and yet it is a desert place spiritually. No gospel, no water of life, no bread. That's where old, my mind's a blank, but who was it that said, who am I that you'd look upon such a dead dog? Mephibosheth. That's where Mephibosheth lived in Lodibar, no bread. No breath, that's where we live.

A lot of entertainment, but no exposition of scripture. A lot of talk about what man needs to do, and not a word about what Christ did for sinners. A lot of begging people to do something for God, but no preaching of that gospel, whereby God does something for sinners.

It pleased him by the foolishness of this right here, to save them that believe. Turn with me to Psalm 19, if you would, verse seven. Psalm 19, seven, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. A lot of decisions made in religion. But there can be no conversion of the soul apart from the truth of God, the gospel of Christ and him crucified.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. How is an absolute blithering fool gonna know who God is without being taught from the word of God? How will they know their true helpless position and condition before God? How will they know how God can be just and justify sinners like themselves? Here's how the statutes of the Lord are right.

Rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. That's the bread, isn't it? Christ is the bread. He's the word.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. The good news is that though this world has absolutely nothing that can meet our need, there is a person in this world who is the fulfillment of every need, the solution to every problem, the answer to every question worth asking, and who is himself the salvation of sinners. He's still in the saving business, you reckon? You think he'd save somebody tonight? If he was pleased to do so, Lord, if you will, if you will, you can.

We're in a desert place, and yet there's water right in front of us, if you have eyes to see. The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thine heart. But Jesus said unto them, verse 16, You know, it'd be real hard to pick out something that the Lord Jesus ever said that was your favorite thing he ever said, and I love this so much.

I love this so much. Thank God. There's something important, Lord. There's something more important even than this. Your teaching and healing, and this is miraculous and wonderful, but there's something else that's got to take our attention, really? Is there? Chris, we have to work, we have to have a job.

Yeah, if the Lord lets this world, if the sun rises tomorrow, I recommend you go to work. You don't need to. You should, but you don't need to. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ, You don't ever need to work another lick in your life. You say, well, we gotta eat. No, you don't. No, if you never, if another piece of food never goes in your mouth, if you have Christ, you'll be just fine. They come to that. They come to that. Water, do you need water? Well, for this body to live, we do. Does this body need to live if you know Christ?

If the Lord's pleased, but you know what Paul said, I'd rather it not. I'd rather go on. I'd rather, it'd be far greater for the Lord to take me now than to ever eat or drink or work or do anything again that we call necessities. And look, I'm not for, let's all quit our jobs and go up on a mountaintop and sing, you know, pass it on.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just saying we just have one need. And we need to understand that. We need to understand that. All things being equal, we will work, we'll eat, and we'll drink, and we'll go on about our lives for a little while until the Lord wraps this thing up.

But we don't need any of that. It'd be just fine if we didn't have any of that ever again. They need not depart. There is no other need. You're saying there is, there's something that needs to happen, Lord. It's not happening here. No, there's not. No, there's not. What was Mary doing when the Lord said one thing is needful?

She was sitting at his feet, hearing his voice. When the Lord's earthly family came around and said, we need to talk to him, and somebody came in and said, Lord, your family needs to talk to you, he said, who is my family? You know who they were? Those that were sitting, hearing his word.

Because he was there, he was with them. They didn't need to go anywhere. God teach us that tonight, teach us that tonight. They didn't have any food right then, but the one that made every bite of food and every drink of water that ever has been was right there with them. And he'd been showing them the whole time they were there that he's God. Where would they go? Where would they go? Well, there's a market I know about where a man sells some food. It's probably the closest place. Let's just all meet there.

Yeah, but the one who's standing in your midst and teaching you, he made the food that that man sells. That man has food to sell because without the Lord Jesus was not anything made that was made. And this is the clear spiritual lesson that we need to be taught. Christ is the word made flesh. We need to see God, we need to see, and the Lord Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, you've seen God. We need spiritual life. The Lord said, I give life to whomsoever I will. Every true need of the soul, Christ is. Well, you need your sins forgiven.

Christ said, I do what I do, that you might know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. I need to be holy and spotless before God. Who are these who are arrayed in white? They've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. One thing is needful. Turn with me to Luke 10, 38. Luke 10, 38.

Now it came to pass as they went that the Lord entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. What a clear, simple picture it is. She sat at his feet and listened to every word he spoke. But Martha was cumbered about much serving.

There was something else that needed to be done. and came to him and said, Lord, does thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha. Would that get your attention if the Lord spoke your name like that twice?

He's looking in her eyes and he's saying, Martha, you're cumbered about. You've got too much to do. And think about this, now there was not a thing in the world wrong with what she was doing, all things being equal. If I knew the Lord was coming to my house, you know, Vicki would go crazy. She'd say, you invited the Lord over? Look, there's stuff all over the place.

But when he's there, cumbered about, you're careful and troubled. about many things, does that describe us? Troubled. We're worried about a lot of things, aren't we? But one thing is needful. If the need of your soul has been met by the Savior, if he is to you eternal life, if he is to you the perfect sin offering that satisfied all of God's justice and wrath against you, If he is your substitute and he bore your guilt and shame on Calvary and suffered under God's wrath in your place, if he is your peace, your rock, your fortress, if he is all in all to you, what are you worried about? What are you worried about? You're cumbered about, you're careful and troubled about many things. That's okay to do things, to be faithful in things, but don't be troubled about it.

He said to Simon, and think about the circumstances in which he said this to Simon. Simon said, Lord, these other 11 guys, I don't know about them, but I will never deny you. I will stand with you, I will die with you. And the Lord told him flat out, you will not. You're not gonna do it. But I will. I will go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, Simon, I will come again. You won't, but I will.

That's the gospel. We didn't, he did. We can't, he did. What the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God sent his son and did it. Accomplished salvation for his people, finished it, You're careful in trouble, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her.

Moth and rust will corrupt everything else. Oh, but that'll never be taken away. If they had left the Son of God to get something to eat, would that have been the right thing to do? Well, if we stay here, we're gonna starve to death. No, you're not. And if you did, you would die at the feet of Christ hearing his word. That'd be a pretty good death. That'd be a good place to starve to death right there.

But I don't have any money. I don't have anything. We can't reimburse you. We don't have anything. We have nothing to buy with. Come ye buy without money and without price. I didn't even bring a scrap of bread with me. I can't contribute anything to it even. You need not depart. I'm so weak, I can't even get up and come get anything. That's all right, we're gonna bring it to you. It'll come right where you are. Nobody's going hungry tonight. Nobody, may that be true here.

Is this truth not put on display here, listen, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. They came out there on foot to sit and hear the son of God preach the gospel to them. And all these things will be added unto you. God give us grace to live that, not just say amen to it, but to live it. These folks had gathered to hear Christ's word, the gospel, and to be healed by him, some of them.

You reckon he's gonna let them starve to death? Seek ye first, seek ye first. Now they didn't need to depart for one reason, because he was with them, because he is the fulfillment of every need, and there's nothing else, there's nothing else. But notice how the Lord fulfilled their need. He said to the disciples, you feed them. You feed them. Now, do you think the one who caused bread and fish to come into reality out of nothing needed the disciples to hand out the food? What a great blessing of his grace that he included him. Isn't it a blessing that he includes us? You feed him. You feed him. But Lord, we don't have anything. Bring it to me. Bring it to me. He could have caused the food to appear in everybody's lap. He didn't need them.

He fed them the same way that he feeds his spiritual family today. He commands his disciples, his servants, feed my sheep. What a privilege, what a blessing that is. What a blessing that is. Why didn't the Lord arrange this event so that they didn't have anything? They didn't have any bread or fish, none, zero.

Because the Lord provides means to accomplish His ends. And He teaches that all through His word. Came from Him. Nobody's getting any glory but Him. But He provided the means. And He said, you feed them. Where did those loaves and fishes come from? He made them, He provided them. But we know right from the start that the means are insufficient without the blessing. He blessed it. He blessed it. That's what made the means worth something. He blessed it.

We have here but five loaves of fish. That's all we got. That's all we got. And Paul said concerning the preaching of the gospel and its consequences, who is sufficient for these things? We have but the weak, the foolish, the things that are not, to bring to naught the things that are.

And he said, bring them to me. And God help me and your pastor and all those who are his servants by his grace. If we're ever gonna have anything for you, we're gonna have to get it from him. We're gonna have to get it from him. When these disciples told this story later, do you suppose they said, you know, we fed a multitude today. The Lord helped us and we fed a multitude. Do you think that's how they told it? Or do you think maybe it was more like this, the Lord fed the multitude and we got to see him do it.

We saw, what manner of man is this? He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and he took the five loaves and the two fishes and looking up to heaven, he blessed and break and gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude. Think what a beautiful arrangement this is, the worship of God. May it become more precious to us every day we grow older.

The way that the Lord has arranged to feed his people And does anybody here need him less today than they did when they first met him? Does anybody need him to perform a miracle for you any less today than you did when you first met him? Philip asked the Ethiopian eunuch, do you understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I accept some man should guide me? Just some man. It doesn't matter who the man is, does it?

Because it's the Lord's word, it's the Lord's gospel, it's the Lord's truth, it's the Lord's salvation. Acts chapter eight. And they did all eat and were filled, and they took up the fragments that remained 12 baskets full. Where the need abounded, grace did much more abound. They all did eat. Nobody went home hungry that night. Were every one of those people in that crowd one of God's elect? You ever wonder about that? Was that a group, every one of them, did he save every one of them? I don't know, do you? I don't have any idea. But this is a spiritual picture, this is a spiritual lesson. And I know this, spiritually speaking, I know why every mouth here was fed.

Look again at verse 14. And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them. And he healed their sick because of the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every mouth was fed. And this multitude all had several things in common. They all heard the word of the Lord. He preached the gospel to them. They witnessed his miraculous power to save.

They were all in the presence of the almighty, sovereign, gracious son of God, and every one of them was hungry. Every one of them was hungry. Our Lord said, blessed are they that hunger. Blessed are they that hunger, because I'll fill them. I'll give them what they need.

The whole scene begins with this word. the Lord Jesus had compassion on them. Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Be compassionate, be propitious to me on the mercy seat. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Lord, have compassion on our loved ones. Reveal yourself to them in saving love and mercy, and even in this desert place, give life to their souls.

They Need Not Depart

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about spiritual sustenance?

How do we know that Jesus meets all our needs?

Why is Jesus considered the one thing needful?

What is the significance of Christ's compassion towards sinners?

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They Need Not Depart

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about spiritual sustenance?

How do we know that Jesus meets all our needs?

Why is Jesus considered the one thing needful?

What is the significance of Christ's compassion towards sinners?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

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