Alright, John chapter 6. This miracle of the loaves and
fishes is the only miracle that's recorded in all four Gospels.
There are only three events that are recorded in all four Gospels.
Interestingly enough, one of them is not the birth of Christ.
John does not record the birth of Christ. the resurrection of Christ, and
this miracle of the loaves and fishes are the only three events
that are recorded in all three Gospels. There must be something
very important here, don't you think? This miracle is the most
public miracle that our Lord performed. It seems to me like
it's meant to be seen and understood. It's His most public miracle.
And if we're to understand this miracle, we have to understand
this. This miracle shows us the person and the work of Christ
more clearly than all of his other miracles. The other miracles
do show our Lord's power, don't they? But this miracle, it shows
his power, but it also shows us this, that Christ is the bread
of life. And the main question of the
text, and I think that, well, I'm going to, I know what I'm
going to center the whole message around, but I think it's central
to the whole passage. is the question our Lord asked
at the end of verse 5 when he asked Philip, when shall we buy
bread that these may eat? It's interesting, our Lord didn't
say where shall we get bread, did he? He said where shall we
buy bread that these may eat? And that's the question to us.
Who's going to buy salvation? Now this bread is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Who's going to buy it? Who's going to buy salvation? Salvation has to be bought. The
redemption price must be paid or we can't go free. So who's
going to buy it? Who is going to pay the price? Well, either man's going to pay
it or God's going to pay it, one of the two. And that's the
title of the message, Two Ways of Salvation. And the first way
I want to look at is man's way, man's way of salvation. And the
first thing we see in this text about man's way of salvation
is this. People are religious. because they want earthly blessings. And they call those earthly,
physical blessing, blessing. And they even call it salvation.
Look here at verse 2. A great multitude followed him
because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were
diseased. See, these folks were following the Lord for the miracles. They were following him for what
he could give them in this life. And I'm not being too hard on
them. Because I want to tell you, if I had a disease at that
time, I'd have been following Him, too, because He'd have been
my only hope. So I don't really fault them
for following the Lord because of the miracles. Their problem
is this. That's all they were looking
for. All they were looking for was the healing of the flesh.
And after this miracle, they're going to be following Him because
they want a free lunch. And nothing's changed, has it? Today, faith
healers and those who promise, they can show you how to get
God to make you rich and bless you with material blessings.
They get a big following. because that's what people are
interested in, physical, material blessings. Second, man's way
of salvation is shown in this way. Man has devised a way of
salvation, but they've left Christ out of it. In verse 4, And the
Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. John in his Gospel
always describes the Passover as a feast of the Jews. He isn't
called the Lord's Passover, he calls it a feast of the Jews
because that's what it had become. It was not a time anymore to
remember how the Lord passed over all the houses of the Israelites
in Egypt that had the blood on the doorposts and how God killed
the firstborn in every home that didn't have the blood on the
doorposts. They quit remembering and they quit celebrating how
the Lord passed them over and how the Lord set Israel free
from bondage in Egypt through the blood of the Passover land.
There was no worship of Christ the Redeemer in the Passover.
Nobody was looking for a Savior who would save from sin through
his blood. No one was looking for a Savior
who would die so the people could live. No one was looking for
a Savior who would die so that the Lord would pass over them.
All it was was a religious celebration full of flesh without Christ. And that's man's religion. Man
celebrates the flesh. and not Christ. Man has devised
a way of salvation, but they've left Christ out of it. Third,
man's way of salvation is a salvation that man must buy or produce. Look at verse 7. Our Lord asked
Philip, When shall we buy this bread? Philip answered him, Well,
two hundred penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that
every one of them may take a little. Now, Philip had been with our
Lord. longer than all the other disciples. He'd seen all the
miracles so far, hadn't missed one. You'd think he'd say, well,
Lord, I don't know, but you do. Lord, you can feed them if you
want to. It's up to you. If that's your
will, we can feed them all. You just tell me what to do and
I'll do it. Poor old Philip. He didn't say that, did he? And
before we're too hard on Philip, ask yourself, would we do the
same thing? I have. Many times I have. You get an unexpected bill in
the mail. You get an unexpected bill in your daughter's car.
What are you going to do? How are we going to pay for this?
What are we going to do? Where are we going to find something
extra? You get a letter in the mail.
You didn't expect it. It's got bad news in it. You
get a phone call in the middle of the night. Bad news. What
are we going to do now? You get results back from tests
at the doctor's office. It's bad news. What are we going
to do? Is your first reaction to rack
your mind and try to think of some solution that you can draw
from, from your own resources or your own ability? I can do
this. Or is our first thought that
we look to the Lord who's delivered us so many times in the past.
Is our first thought to pray? Go to the Lord. When those things
happen, those phone calls, those letters, those bills, Those are
tests of our faith, just like this is a test of Phil's faith.
The sovereignty of God, that's not just a doctrine that we quote
on Sunday. That's not just a real good doctrine
that Pink wrote a book about. The fact that God is sovereign
affects my everyday life. The fact that God is sovereign
affects how I look at every situation that comes up. Now, if God's
sovereign, Whatever this is that's happening, it doesn't happen
by accident. God's sovereign. He sent it on
purpose for His will. And if God's sovereign, He can
take care of it. So I should look to Him and go
to Him. So our first thought should be
prayer. Go to the Lord in prayer and just tell the Lord what happened.
I touched on this in the lesson this morning. Just go to Him.
And lay out your heart before him. Lay out the situation before
him. He already knows it. Just lay it out before him. And
don't offer him any suggestions. I'm so guilty of this. Now, Lord,
if you'll do this, this situation will be solved. Don't do that.
And you know why? I promise you, he knows a better
way than you and I do. We think far too small. He knows
a much better way. You know, Phil's way is we'll
just give us enough bread and we'll buy enough for everybody
to have a little. Well, that's a very poor compared to what
the Lord's going to do, isn't it? The Lord knows a much better
way. Let's just go to Him in prayer. And Philip's response
is a picture of religion and the way of salvation that's in
the heart of all men. We think we have to buy salvation. We've got to produce some righteousness,
some salvation. That's just our knee-jerk reaction
by nature. We know the price has to be paid.
So what do we think? Well, better get to work. And
work feels good, doesn't it? I mean, it's good. Work will
wear you out, but it just feels good at the end of the day to
be tired, but just know you've had that satisfaction of a job
well done. Just getting up and going to
work every morning is good for you. Roy, it feels good to be
productive, doesn't it? Roy had that heart attack. The
doctor told him, just sit still. He said, well, I can't. It just
feels good to be productive. And in this world, that's a good
thing. But not spiritually. Not in salvation
works not good. See, that's man's way of salvation.
Working for it. Working something that we'll
pay for it. We'll pay for this ourself. I'll pay my own way,
you know. I'm a self-made man. I'm a do-it-myself kind of guy.
Well, that's fine with projects you've got around the house.
But not in salvation. Fourth, man's way of salvation
leaves us empty. And ultimately leaves us damned.
Look at verse 8 in our text. One of his disciples, Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, Well, there's a lad
here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes. But what
are they among so many? Isn't unbelief contagious? Andrew
just caught this right off. Unbelief is just, man, it spreads
like wildfire. And he just said, We just, you
know, we got this little bit here. Maybe everybody have a
crumb. Maybe we give everybody just, you know, a little biscuit
or a few people a little biscuits or something, you know, unbelief.
But that's the way man looks at salvation. It's through eyes
of unbelief. We think, well, I've got this
little bit here. I've saved back, you know. Our hoarded resources
are not enough for everybody to even get a crumb. Not even
a crumb. Are we? leads to starving to
death. You know, Philip mentioned 200
penny worth of bread. Could be he chose that number,
200 penny worth of bread. I don't know how much that is.
Apparently it's not that much. Because that's all the money
that they had. He said if we take everything we got, it's
not good enough that everybody can even have a bite. And that's
salvation. Everything we have. All the obedience
we can muster. All the offering we can gather
up for sin. It's not enough. It's not enough to pay the redemption
price because everything we have, you put it together all at once.
It's not enough to satisfy a holy God for the infinite amount of
sin we've committed against him. Henry calls this calculating
without Christ. Calculating what I can do with
my meager resources will always accomplish nothing. We accomplish
something when we look at God's power, not my power. We'll accomplish
something when we look at God's wisdom, not my wisdom. When we
look at God's resources, not my resources. It's true. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengthens me. But it's also true without me,
you can do nothing. Well, let's look to Him. You
know, we should never let unbelief make us talk about salvation
and talk about God's grace in small terms. If we're thinking
in small terms, brethren, we're thinking all wrong. That's stinking
thinking to think about God's grace in small terms. Scripture
talks about redemption in Christ as a plenteous thing. Scripture
talks about abundant grace. Scripture talks about God who's
rich in mercy. When David said, my cup runneth
over, he's talking about salvation. in the Lord Jesus Christ. These
are large terms that tells us the Lord's able. But the problem
with man's way of salvation is Christ is not in it. We want
a miracle worker, we're not looking for a Savior. Man's way of salvation
is a salvation that we have to buy, something we have to produce,
not something we receive from Christ. Man's way of salvation
will leave us starving and empty. Because we're trying to fill
ourselves, but we're trying to fill ourselves with what we've
got instead of seeking to be filled with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's calculating without Christ. And that calculation will always
come up short. Religious man, man is religious
now, but we want salvation. We want religion without Christ. Look back at verse one. After
these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is
Sea of Tiberias. After these things, after the
Lord worked so many miracles and the people rejected him.
He worked many miracles so far. The people rejected him. Not
only did they want to reject him, they're trying to kill him.
They want to do away with him. So what did our Lord do? He just
left. He left them. He gave them what
they wanted and left them alone. They were happy he left. Now
they had their religion without Christ getting in the way. And
that's a warning to us here. This is something I pray about
every day. God's presence is here. God's
blessing His people in Ashland, Kentucky. Let's pray that the
Lord won't let unbelief grow in our hearts and cause the Spirit
to leave us like the Lord left these folks. He left them. That's
my greatest fear. is God would leave us alone.
My greatest fear. But that's the end result of
man's way of salvation. Happily, there's a second way
of salvation. God's salvation. And the first
thing we learn about God's salvation is this. God requires us to stop
working and sit still. In verse 10, John 6, Jesus said,
make the man sit down. Now, there's much grass in the
place, so the men sat down and numbered about 5,000. Now, the
only people that the disciples distributed food to are the ones
that were sat down. The only people that got food
were those who were sitting down. They weren't trying to add to
the meal. They weren't working. They were sitting down. If you're
going to be fed, if you're going to receive the meal, you're going
to receive it. You're not going to produce it. You're not going
to add to it. You're going to receive it by sitting still. Salvation is not in all those
fleshly, physical blessings that the flesh seeks, is it? Salvation,
now we do need those things to live, but I'll tell you what
is much more important than that. We need to realize we're spiritually
bankrupt. We need a powerful spiritual
miracle, much more than we need these fleshly ones. And brethren,
we can't produce it. We can't produce this miracle.
We must stand still. Before we'll ever see the salvation
of the Lord, we just got to be still and quit working. And the
Lord says, sit down. But don't just sit anywhere,
don't sit in the seat of the scornful, don't just sit anywhere.
If you're going to see Christ and be saved by him, there's
a specific place you must sit. In the green pastures of his
word, I have no doubt that's what this much grass in this
place is a picture of. It's the green grass, the green,
lush grass of God's Word. Don't just go sit on the porch
and wait for lightning to strike. Get in God's Word. Seek God in
his Word. That's where he's going to be
found. And this is interesting to me. God's got to make us lie
down. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. It's just not that I see the
green pastures and go lay down in them. God's got to make us
to lie down in green pastures. He told his disciples here, make
the men sit down because that's contrary to our nature. Sit down. Second, God's way of salvation
is going to be received in such a way we give thanks. In verse 11, Jesus took the loaves
and when he had given thanks, Christ won't be received without
thanksgiving. Remember, Christ is this bread
of life that's going to be received. Christ is not going to be received
except through thanksgiving. And of all people on the face
of this earth, we should be a thankful people. Oh, how the Lord blessed
us, just blessed us beyond measure. Oh, it's so wonderful. And the
Lord took the simple. These are just five barley loaves. They're probably not even loaves,
they're just biscuits. He took the simple and he gave
thanks for it. And then he fed a multitude with
it, even though they didn't deserve it. Now think of everyone there
that's going to be fed. This crowd that followed him
for all the wrong reasons and the disciples who just failed
the test of their faith. Not one person there deserves
to be fed, do they? But the Lord fed them. You know
what that is? That's grace. That's grace. You and I are totally dependent. upon the sovereign, saving, powerful
grace of God Almighty. And nothing makes God's people
more thankful than grace. Grace for the guilty. I'm so
thankful God's blessings don't come to us because we deserve
them. Aren't you thankful for that? God's blessings come to
us from His grace, just because He would. Not because I earned
them, but because of His grace. God's grace comes to us despite
everything we are and despite everything we do. And that makes
me thankful. Does that make you thankful?
Oh, this is a wonderful God's grace. And you want to see something? I just came out of my seat in
my study this week. This is going to make you thankful.
Surrounded by all this sin and this unbelief, look at verse
2. A great multitude followed him. They followed him for the
wrong reasons, because they saw his miracles, which he did on
them that were diseased. These folks had rejected the
Lord, they were plotting to kill him, and he went away. But a
big crowd of them followed him for all the wrong reasons. What
was our Lord's attitude when he looked up and saw this multitude
coming to him? Luke says in his account of this,
the Lord healed as many as needed healing. Do you need healing? Do you need spiritual healing
of your sin sick soul? Does it make you thankful to
read the Savior who will heal all that need healing? If you
need healing, He will heal you. That's what that says. Look back
at Mark chapter 6. Here's Mark's account of this. Oh, this makes me so thankful. Verse 34 of Mark chapter 6. And Jesus, when he came out,
saw much people and was moved with compassion. He was moved with compassion
toward them because they are a sheep not having a shepherd.
And he began to teach them many things. That's why back in our
text in verse 3, our Lord sat in that mountain. He sat there
teaching. These folks had all the wrong
motives. Our Lord had compassion on them. Now, when did you first
come here to the gospel? Think about it. When you first
came here to the gospel, you know what I know? Without hearing
everybody's story, this is what I know. You came for the wrong
reasons. You didn't have the right motive. Maybe your parents
brought you and you had to come. They brought you, dragging you
out of the house, throwing you in the car, just dragging you.
Saying, oh, I'm sick. I can't breathe. Whatever. Come
up with every excuse in the world. And they brought you against
your will. Maybe you came because you were dating some sweet girl
or some handsome boy. Whatever. You came in because
it was raining. This is a place to gather rain.
Who knows? You came for the wrong reasons. God had compassion on you. I'm thankful. Thankful for his
compassion for sinners. Compassion means a whole lot
more than just feeling pity. I'm glad the Lord had pity on
me. I'm a pitiful person. I'm glad he still has pity on
me. I'm pitiful. I sit in my study every day and think, my
word, I'm pitiful. Lord, I need your forgiveness.
It's easy to pray for forgiveness. Lord, I need it. your forgiveness. I'm pitiful. How are your people
ever going to be blessed from something that comes out of my
mouth? Lord, you've got to bless. Lord, I'm dependent upon you. Oh, I'm pitiful. Aren't you glad
the Lord has pity on sinners? But compassion is more than pity.
Compassion means to suffer alongside. That's exactly what our Savior
did for His people. He suffered alongside His people. He became what we were. He suffered
living in a body of flesh that we live in. And then He alone
suffered the punishment of His people. Do you need compassion? Do you need the compassion of
the Savior for sinners who would suffer in your room instead? The compassion of the Savior
makes me so thankful. This salvation makes God's people
thankful. Third, God's salvation requires
this, that Christ be broken. In verse 11, back in our text, Jesus took the loaves. Now, remember,
these loaves are a picture of Christ. He's the bread of life.
And the bread that our Lord took was barley bread. Now, barley
is what poor people ate. Not only do you have to be still
in order to see God's salvation. You've got to be poor in spirit
to be saved. Are you too good for barley bread?
Barley bread is for poor people. This area where our Lord was,
this is the house of bread. This is where the best wheat
in the world was grown. The best wheat bread in the world
is found in this place. But the Lord didn't give them
wheat bread. He gave them barley bread. Barley for poor folks.
Are you poor? Are you too good for barley bread?
Are you too good to be saved by Christ? That must be the worst
thing a human being can be. Too good to be saved by Christ. Because we just saw what happens
now. I pray that's not the case for you. Because we just saw
what happens with man's way of salvation. It leaves you empty.
It leaves you damned. It leaves you without Christ.
Christ is this bread. Well, then Christ must be broken. The other accounts of this miracle
say the Lord broke the bread. He didn't cut it up in pieces.
He broke the bread and he gave it to his disciples. Well, this
is a picture of the body of Christ broken for sin, broken for the
poor in spirit. When our Lord instituted the
first Lord's table, it wasn't barley bread, it was unleavened
bread. The picture is his body without sin. He said, take eat. This is my body. broken for you,
broken for poor people. And as the Lord broke the bread,
he gave it to his disciples, he just kept breaking it. As
the Lord broke the bread, as he divided it, bread was created. He just kept breaking off pieces
of that biscuit. And he broke off enough pieces
off that biscuit to feed 5,000. That's 5,000 men. They didn't count women and children
in that time. This is probably a crowd the
size of 10 to 15,000 people when you count women and children.
Our Lord took a couple of biscuits of barley and broke off enough
bread to feed all those people, to fill them. This miracle involves
creation, creation of biscuit, creation of matter, creation
of bread that did not exist before. Food was there that wasn't there
before it was in God's hands, before it was in the Savior's
hands. That salvation, in verse 6, here in our text, our Lord
asked Philip, when shall we buy bread that these may eat? And
this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would
do. You know what that word do is? It means make. In other places
it's actually translated make. It means make. He knew what himself
would make. That salvation. What the Savior
makes. Salvation is what Christ does.
He makes his people righteous. He creates a new man. He creates
a new heart and puts in his people. He creates righteousness. He
produces righteousness that saves his people. He produces, he makes
everything God requires of a sinner. In salvation, God creates a new
man. A man who never was there before,
just like he created bread that was never there before. When
God saved me, I was made to be what I'm not. And I can tell
you what, I was not righteous. The furthest thing from it. God
made me righteous in Christ because Christ was made to be sin for
me. That's the great exchange. He
was made to be my sin and I was made to be his righteousness.
That's the great exchange. And Christ was made to be what
he was not. In two ways. First, Christ was
made to be flesh. Well, Son of God's not flesh.
God's spirit. He's not flesh. But he was made
to be what he was not. He was made to be flesh. Flesh
that could be broken for sin. Flesh like our flesh, so he could
be our substitute. He is made to be flesh. Second,
Christ was made to be sin. He was made to be what he was
not so that his people could be made righteous. And our Lord
took in his hands a child's lunch. This is just a little boy. It's
a child's lunch. Can that boy's lunch feed all these people? In the hands of Christ it can.
The Lord Jesus Christ, he's one man. Can he save a multitude
that no man can number? Hell, he can if he's made to
be sin for us. He can if he makes us the righteousness
of God in him. Andrew said, what's this boy's
logic, Monsignor Manning? Well, you could ask, what is
one man's righteousness in the midst of all this multitude of
unrighteous sinners? Well, I can tell you. What's
his righteousness? It's the righteousness of God.
This is the blood of God. This is the body of the God-man. He will satisfy, not can, he
will satisfy the need of every hungry sinner. And this is the
message that God's servants distribute. It's Christ and him crucified.
In verse 11, Jesus took the loaves and when he given thanks, he
distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that
were set down. And likewise are the fishes as
much as they would. God's preachers take exactly
what the Lord gives us and give it to the people. We don't try
to fix it up. We don't try to dress it up.
We don't try to make it more appealing to the flesh. We just
give what God's given us to God's people. We don't try to make
a wheat bread instead of barley bread. We give out the barley
bread to poor folk. That's exactly what God's given
us. Just what he's given to us from his word, and we don't try
to make it effectual. The disciples didn't have to
try to make this spread enough to feed 5,000, did they? They
just took what the Lord gave them. In his hands, in his power,
it was enough for everyone who was hungry. We just, if God's
going to give the increase through his power, and if he gives the
increase, it'll be enough. Because Christ is enough. It'll
be enough. Fourth, God's salvation fills
the sinner. So we're satisfied with Christ.
In verse 12, when they were filled, when they were filled, this is
the greatness of salvation in Christ, the greatness of God's
salvation. Everyone there was filled. If they were hungry, they were
filled, just like every sinner is filled with the Lord Jesus
Christ. so that they're satisfied. Verse
11 says they had of the bread and likewise of the fishes as
much as they would. They see this over and over again.
If you're not filled, it's not because you can't eat. It's because
you won't. If you're not saved, it's not
because God can't save you. It's because you won't. You will
not. Whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. They all had as much as they
would. If they went home hungry, it
was their fault. Wasn't it? There were 12 baskets
left over. If they went hungry, it's their fault. Now, we never
sin that grace may abound. But you don't ever have to worry
about exhausting God's grace for sinners. Remember when Joseph
opened the storehouses after the seven years of plenty? He
opened up the storehouses during the beginning of those seven
years of famine. Joseph had enough grain to feed the world For seven
years. Here's Joseph opening up the
storehouses. There's a little mouse running in. Grabbing two
or three grains of corn. Did Joseph stomp on him and kill
him? Didn't do that. He said, go ahead little mouse.
Eat all you want. I got plenty. You're not going
to exhaust this storehouse. Little minnow swimming through
the ocean. That minnow doesn't have to worry. Is there enough
water here in this ocean for me? Will it run dry because of
me? No. Little manna, drink all you
want. Swim around all you want. You're
never going to exhaust that ocean. Sinner, there's plenty of grace
for you. You're not going to exhaust God's
grace. It's not going to go dry on your account. Drink all you
would. All you want. Our Lord said,
My grace is sufficient for you. Take all you want. And I'll tell
you when you've had enough. When you're satisfied is when
you've had enough. When you don't need anything
else, then you're satisfied. Now, that's a difficult place
for a human being to come to. Can you really say I've had enough?
I mean, our nature just always wants more, more, more, more,
more, more, you know. Some fellas were telling me in Lexington
about being at a fish fry Friday night. I said, I ain't till I
got sick. I mean, it's just, you know, I guess that's when
you've had enough. When you're sick, I mean, I don't
know. I tell you, when you're satisfied, the only thing that
will ever completely satisfy a sinner, it's not food, because
you think you've had enough, wait about four hours, you'll
want more. You know when you never want more? When you have
the Lord Jesus Christ. If He fills you, you'll say,
I'm satisfied. I don't want anything else. I
don't need anything else. He's all. You're satisfied. When you see Christ, who He is
and what He's done for you, you're completing Him. You're just filled
up. You cannot hold any more. You
can't hold any more righteousness. You can't be made any more righteous
than you are right now. If you believe Christ, you can't
be made any more saved than you are at this moment that you grow
in grace and knowledge of Christ. Oh, but you won't get any more
saved because you're filled with the Lord Jesus Christ because
of who He is. There's nothing lacking to anyone
in him because of who he is. They had as much as they would.
Now, let me ask you, how much do you need? How much do you
need? Isn't that a contrast to man's
way of salvation? Philip would have left everybody
starving. Christ filled every person there with as much as
they would. as much as they needed. The way
of the flesh, the way of unbelief, leaves us empty. The way of grace
fills every empty sinner with the Lord Jesus Christ. Fifth,
God's way of salvation leaves nothing wasted. Verse 12, And
when they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up
the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they
gathered them together, and they filled twelve baskets. with the
fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and
above unto them that eaten." Nothing was wasted, and that's
a picture of salvation. That's more than just not littering
on the green grass. This is a picture of salvation.
Not a drop of the blood of Christ fell to the ground in vain. Not
a drop. He shed his blood to pay the
sin debt of his people, and he didn't die in vain. He didn't
die to make salvation possible so that some of his blood was
wasted because somebody rejected it. No. He died to save his people
from their sins. God's Son did not die in vain.
If Christ died for someone and then they went to hell anyway
because they refused to believe him or they refused to accept
him, well, he died in vain. Christ didn't die in vain. He
saved his people from their sins. And not one for whom Christ died
will be lost. Not one. Nothing about our Lord
is wasted. He has plenteous grace. Plenteous grace. But none of
it will be wasted. None of it. And last, God's salvation
reveals a sovereign Savior. Sovereign Savior. It's not up
to you and me. Salvation is up to Him. It is. It's all in his, we're in his
hands. Verse 14. Then those men, when they'd seen
the miracle that Jesus did, they saw the miracle. They said, this
is of truth, that prophet that should come into the world. When
Jesus therefore perceived that they would come, it was, this
is their will. They're going to come and take him by force
to make him a king. He departed again into a mountain
himself alone. They saw the miracle. But they
didn't see who Christ is. They didn't see, did they? You
know how I know they didn't see? Because they still thought they
could take the Lord Jesus Christ by force and make him something. But they couldn't make him king.
Christ is already king. God's anointed him king. God's
appointed him king. We don't make Christ king. He
is king. What we do, you and me, we bow
to him as king. We bow to the king. who does
with us as he pleases. That's why I say salvation is
not up to you and me. Salvation is up to him. Salvation
is not our will. It's his will. He'll do with
us as he pleases. So what's the wise thing to do? Bow to him. Bow to him. And say, Lord, if you will, you
save me. If you will. Nobody else can,
but you can. These folks would have had an
earthly to replace, you know, the Roman king, the Roman Caesar,
but they wouldn't have a savior sacrificed for sin. So the Lord
departed from them. And these folks, all they're
looking for is a free lunch. They're looking for someone who,
you know, set them free from Rome. And you know what they'll
eventually do? Every one of them, every last
one of these people, apart from the disciples, that was fed by
these loaves and fishes, Every one of them left the Lord. Every
one of them. This is a hard saying. Who can
hear it? They left and didn't follow Him anymore. Are you satisfied with the Lord
Jesus Christ? Is Christ enough for you? Honestly,
is He enough or do you need to hear some law? Do you need to
hear whatever? Or is Christ enough? Is He enough
to save your soul by himself, or do you have to contribute
something? Do you have to kick in some boot? Do you need the Lord
Jesus Christ? Do you? If you do, come and eat. Sit down and eat all that you
would. All that you would. All right,
let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we do thank Thee
for Thy Word. We thank Thee that Thou art King,
Your Sovereign over all things, and we do bow Thy feet. We bow,
begging Thy mercy, begging Thy grace, that from Thy sovereign will
and sovereign grace, You would save our sinful souls. We beg
of Thee, Father, that you would take the bread that's been preached
this morning to the Lord Jesus Christ and fill our souls with
thy Son. Fill us with Him. Let us go home
rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Rejoicing in who He is and what
He's done for us. Let us be a thankful people.
Rejoicing in God our Savior. How we thank Thee that You didn't
leave us alone. That's what we deserved. But
out of Your mercy and grace, You didn't leave us alone. You
didn't leave us to our way of salvation. But You revealed to
us salvation in and by and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
do give You thanks. For in His precious name, we
give thanks and ask Your blessing on the Word that's preached.
Amen.