Matthew chapter 14. The title
of this message is Bring Them to Me. I had three different titles
for this. Bring Them to Me, They Need Not Depart, and Christ Feeds
the Multitude. But we will settle on Bring Them
to Me. Now chapter 14 starts out with
the story of John the Baptist. and Herod and what Herod did
to him. He beheaded him. Herod used to
hear John gladly until one day John pointed out Herod's sin. He made it personal. Somebody
said to me one time, if you ever want to minister, you stay out
of their personal lives. Well, John, you should have stayed
out of it. But he didn't. He pointed to
Herod the king. And he said, it is not right
for you to have your brother's wife. And it really ticked off
his wife Herodias. It made her mad and she pushed
him. She pushed him into putting John
in prison. And then she's the culprit behind
having him beheaded. Over here in Mark chapter 6,
let me read you something. This is the same story in verse
20. For Herod feared John. He respected
John. He had a healthy fear of John.
Knowing, listen, he was a just man. He said, this man is just.
He's a just man. And he's a holy man. He's the
Son of God. And he observed Him. kept him
or saved him. Protected him. Observed him.
And when he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly. Heard him gladly. But boy, when
John pointed out, Herod, you are a wicked man. It is not right
for you to have your brother's wife. People will hear the truth
Until it becomes personal. Until it becomes personal. And
when it touches their lives and pricks their conscience, this
old wicked king still had a little conscience left. Not much, but
he had a little conscience left. Then they hate the messenger. They hate the message. And so Herod put him in prison. This is how God's servants are
treated by the world. So on Herod's birthday, his wife's
daughter, she's willing to prostitute her daughter to fulfill her evil
means. She goes out and she danced before
Herod the king and all those who were with him. No doubt it
was a lewd dance. Solomon says, by the whorish
ways of a woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread. Herod was
brought to a piece of bread. There, after that dance, he made
a foolish statement. After drinking and living it
up and acting like he was somebody, he makes this foolish statement.
He says, I'll give you whatever you want to the half of my kingdom. Be careful what you say. And she goes to Mama. And Mama
says, here's what you're going to ask for. Forget the kingdom. Forget that, honey. We have that.
We rule the kingdom through Him. She ruled the roost. I want the
head of that prophet. I want the head of God's man. And so she went and asked for
it. kept his word instead of repenting,
instead of embarrassing himself. He couldn't go back on his word.
He put himself in a corner. He was checkmated. So he sent
and had God's servant, the man whom he said was just and holy,
had him beheaded. Yes, God's servant was beheaded.
This is how God's servant was treated. We are not immune to
trouble. We're not immune to it. does
not make us immune to trouble. Not at all. It seems that the
Lord's servants, as Paul said, as I read to you earlier, they
are made a spectacle, put on display. And when they went to
behead John, he did not recant. He did not hold back. He did
not say, whoa. No, he just went to the guillotine. He died. But now think where
he is. Now think where he is. He's with
the Lord of glory. It was worth losing his head
over. A gospel that does not bring trouble is not the gospel
at all. The gospel is offensive to all
who are lost, and it always will be. I read this to you earlier,
beware when all men Speak well of you. Speak well of you. You must hide it well. With all
men, speak well of you. Look at the early church over
in Hebrews. They were hiding in caves and
rocks and dens. They were chased all over the
place. That's the early church. That's the way they were treated.
And when our Lord, in verse 13, when He heard of this, when He
heard of this, He got into a ship and he went into a desert place
to pray. It affected him. This is our
high priest who fills our infirmities. And I have no doubt, I doubt
what all he prayed, or I don't know what all he prayed, but
I have no doubt that he prayed for John's followers. Those who
were following John, he no doubt prayed for them because they
were his. And it says here that when the
multitude heard of him, that they went out of all those cities
and they followed him. They followed him on foot. He
got in a ship, went, and they followed him around the shorelines.
Watching that ship, no doubt some of them watched where that
ship was going and they were going around that shoreline trying
to get to Him. He didn't make it easy. He did
not make it easy for them to follow Him. Following Christ
in this life will never be easy. If you ever find it easy, you've
missed the path. It will never, ever be easy. But those who followed Him were fed. They were fed. He took care of them. Sinners
are fed when they are most hungry after Him. If you came hungry,
you'll be fed. You will not eat. I'm not hungry. I'm not hungry. Those who are
hungry, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
they shall be what? Fed. You'll have it. You'll have
it. And they followed Him and He
fed them. We'll see this here in a little
bit. Sinners who are hungry after
the Lord Jesus Christ, After His mercy, after His forgiveness,
after Him, sinners who are hungry for Him will follow Him, no matter
how difficult it is. No matter how difficult it is,
they will follow Him. They will not quit until they
have Him. They won't do it. He's their
bread. He's their life. He's their hope. And when our
Lord Looked at that multitude. He looked at that multitude with
compassion. Compassion. Oh, I hope he looks
at this group here this morning with compassion. I hope he does. This describes his character.
And this ought to encourage any brokenhearted sinner to come
to him. Compassionate. Merciful. Jesus the merciful. Merciful. And the first thing
He did, you see there in verse 14, was this. He healed their
sick. All day long, He healed. Remember, there's 5,000 men plus
women and children. The first thing He did was heal
their sick. There's no need trying to feed
a sinner until he's healed. Until God gives spiritual life
and spiritual healing to a sinner, there's no need to feast. He's
not going to eat. He healed their sick, and at the end of the day,
he feasted. He feasted. And we see another
part of his character here. In verse 15, it says, And when
it was evening, I thought there's his long-suffering. Like us, we look for lunchtime,
don't we? I know the guys at work. It's almost lunchtime or break
time. We never miss a break. We do. We don't miss a break.
We don't miss lunchtime. But all day long, they didn't
take a break. They did not take lunch. All day long, he dealt
with this crowd. He dealt with sick people. I
said to someone the other day, I said, I really, I would not
want to be a doctor and have to deal with next, next all day
long. But our Lord does. All day long. Next. He deals with the sick. Long suffering. He puts up with us, puts up with
us so much. And the disciples here, though,
look at this. And when it was evening, his
disciples came to him. I'm sure they were wore out.
I'm sure they were wore out. And they said to him, this is
a desert place. There's nothing here. This is
an absolute desert place. And that's where every lost sinner
has to come to, isn't it? A desert place. And the time
has now passed. It's late. It's late. Send the
multitude away. Send them away that they may
go into the villages and buy themselves some food. Send them
away. It's late. The day is gone. It's time to rest. This is a
desert place. We don't have anything to give
them. The Lord of glory standing in their midst. We don't have
anything to give them. Well, there's the bread of life
in your midst. This shows how sad even saved
men are in their thoughts of Christ. We don't have anything
to give them. Send them away. Send them away. What they really wanted was the
crowd to leave so they could rest and sit down and take a
break and eat and have lunch. But our Lord, our Lord always
thinks of others. He always thinks of His children
first. And here is a demonstration of
sovereign mercy. The disciple says, send them
away so that they may go someplace else and find something to eat.
But he said, no, we're not going to do that. Here's an act of
sovereign mercy. He did not owe them a meal. God
does not owe us a blessing this morning. He doesn't owe it to
us. I hope he's compassionate and
I hope he does. He doesn't know it to us. Not
at all. And our Lord looked at His disciples
and He said, they need not depart. Well, this is a desert place.
There's nothing here. Well, the Lord of Glory is here.
Oh, that we would learn Christ. They need not depart. They need
not leave hungry. We don't need to leave hungry
this morning. No one. Not if you came hungry. You don't need to leave hungry.
I'm talking about so hungry. So hungry. Whatever your need
is, He can meet it. I promise you. He can do it.
And He proves His disciples here. He's going to prove His preachers,
His ministers, His servants. He says they don't need to depart.
Give them something to eat. And they are going to recognize,
and the sooner the better, they are going to recognize their
inabilities. They are going to recognize their insufficiency
to do this. You give them something to eat. You give it to them. You know,
our Lord provides a blessing. However, He does use means. He
does use men. He uses preachers and pastors
and teachers. He uses us all to be a blessing. He uses means, but He provides
the blessing. This also shows our responsibility
as preachers to feed the people. I'm not here conducting a service
this morning. It really just hit me. I'm not
here to conduct a service. I'm here to feed the flock. Feed
the sheep. Peter, feed my sheep. Do you love me? That's the first
thing we get settled. Let's settle this first. Do you
love me? He said, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you.
Well, then feed my sheep and feed my lambs. That's your responsibility. And feed them with that which
He provides and which He blesses. But they look at these five loaves
and these two fishes. See, if the Corinthians had this
kind of spirit and attitude, they wouldn't have been lifted
up with pride. They looked at these five loaves and these two
fishes and they said, what are these? What are my talents? What are my abilities? What are
these among so many? David said, who am I and what
is my house? They looked at that lunch that
they had and they said, but we only have five loaves
and two fishes. I know that. I know exactly what
you have. I know exactly what you are.
I know that. See, man's butts are always negative.
God's butts are always positive. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us. I thought, how sad
when those who follow Christ still doubt His power and His
grace to feed. Oh, we're not going to make it. Oh, yes you are. Every last one
of us needs to be brought to that place where we think we're
not going to make it. Because that's when we fall on
him. They said, what are these? We only have five loaves and
two fishes. That's all we have. They looked
at the crowd. Then they looked at that lunch.
And they knew they were not able to do it. They knew it. You'll never be able to witness
and I'll never be able to preach until we realize that we can't
do this. It's all in His hands. They said,
we can't do this. Look at that crowd. Look at this
crowd. Thousands. Can you imagine me
standing up here with a brown lunch bag and 5,000 men, plus
the women and children, probably 10,000 people? And the Lord says,
feed them with that lunch, with that gospel. We only have one
gospel. We don't have many gospels. Don't
have many, just one. Well, not in your hands, but
in His hands you can. You can feed that whole multitude
if it's in His hands and if He blesses it. If He blesses it,
this whole group can be blessed. The whole group. The one gospel
message we have is enough. It's enough. I don't need to
go to a seminary and get a degree and then try to impress you with
worthless, useless knowledge. Christ is enough. We cannot exhaust
Him. And you'll find Him enough when
you find everything else not to be enough. When everything
else is useless. That's when He'll become enough.
And this ought to condemn our hearts for doubting His power
to use our little, our little talents. I don't have many gifts. I know that. But I tell you what,
in His hands it can be a real blessing if He blesses us. And
let us be careful not to use our little as an excuse Not to
work or to give. Well, I don't have much. It's
not much. It don't count for much. Well, not in your hands,
but in His if He blesses my soul. He turned the world upside down. Look what He did with the twelve
apostles. He turned that whole country upside down with them.
Preaching one message. Him. He says, here's what you do.
Here's what we do. We don't have much. We don't
have much talent, much gifts. I don't have much of that. Here's
what we do. Bring them here to me. Bring it to me. You cannot do anything with these
things, but I can. Here is the key to every blessing. Bring it to me. And it says here in verse 19,
he commanded, he commanded the multitude, thousands standing
there, he commanded the multitude to sit down. He maketh me to
lie down in green pasture. Here's that whole crowd, mixed
crowd, and he says, sit down. And every last one of them sat
down. Every last one of them. Why? Because where the word of a king
is, there is power. If he says sit down, I promise
you, you will sit down. He commanded them to sit down. And what a table, what a table
he furnished in this desert place, this wilderness. And if you'll notice, before
they took the loaves and the fishes, before they gave them
to the crowd, the first thing he did, he looked up to heaven
and he blessed. In other words, he's not going
to do this act without his Father. He looked up and he prayed. Blessed. The Father was involved
in his feeding as well as the Lord Jesus Christ. And he blessed. And he break. And he gave to
his disciples, And the disciples gave to the
multitude. If he doesn't give it to me,
if he doesn't bless my heart, how can I bless yours? It's not going to happen. He blessed, he gave to his disciples
and they gave it to the multitude. This is the order. And you can only imagine the
delight of those hungry people who have been there all day to
sit down and have such a feast. Those disciples, over Mark says
they sat down in fifties and hundreds. They would go out and
they'd give this group of fifty food and they'd go out and give
this one. They'd come back and there's
more. Come back and there's more. It just did not run out. It just
is. And they all did eat and were
filled. Turn to verse twenty. They did
all eat and were filled. Full. They went away full. No
one there that day went away hungry. They all went away full. All, probably close to 10,000
people. Can you imagine that? This one
message of Christ crucified can fill, it can fill this world
if God used it to. If the Lord would bless it, You
can take one man preaching this one message and everyone be filled. He filled everyone that was there. They were all hungry. They were
all willing to eat. And they were all filled. What
a blessing. What a blessing. This is the way we ought to come
to church every time we come. We should come hungry. expecting, looking for the Lord
to feed us. And I should stand here and break
His Word. And Lord, make it a blessing. Make it a blessing. And you notice
here that they took up of the fragments that remained, twelve
baskets full. What did they start out with?
What did they start out with? Five loaves and two fishes. That's
what they started with. And they took up 12 baskets of
fragments. They ended up with a lot more
than they started with. You know, I came into this world
with nothing, naked. That's how I came. My soul, I
own a home. I have a wife and kids and a
good job in this place. I mean, all this and Christ too. I'll leave with a lot more than
I came with. All of us will. All of us will. Here's how we increase. Here's
how we increase. By feeding others. And giving
to others. And helping others. That's how
you increase. That's the way. We should never be afraid of
using our little in His service. When He blesses, we will leave
with more than we came with. I would rather leave with more
in my soul. I'd rather leave with more happiness
and joy and peace than anything else. That's what I want to leave
with, more than anything else. And they that had eaten, it says
in verse 21, and they that had eaten were about five thousand
men besides women and children. That was a crowd now. That was
a crowd. You reckon he can take care of
us? You reckon he can take care of this group? Do you remember, or look back
anyway, chapter 13? Verse 58, He did not many mighty works
there because of their unbelief. I thought yesterday as I was
putting this together, if He does not many mighty works here,
it will be because of unbelief. That's why. Think upon Him. Think upon His
power and His mercy. Think upon Him. If we can do
that, we too will be filled. We will, if we can do that. Okay,
Mike.