So our passage then, which Paul
has so ably read for us, is Mark chapter eight, verses one to
10. The title of today's thoughts,
today's sermon, is They Did Eat and Were Filled. One of the earliest
revelations of the character of the Lord our God, is drawn
from the experience of Abraham on Mount Moriah, that time when
he was instructed to sacrifice his son as a mark of his faithfulness
to God. And we know that Abraham was
ready and willing to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, And he took
him to the top of the mountain, there he built an altar, there
he laid his son upon the wood, and as he drew his knife ready
to slay the boy, we're told that the angel of the Lord called
out for him to stop. And in Genesis chapter 22 and
verse 13, we read these words. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh,
as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall
be seen. So here we find a revelation
of the character of God in this title that Abraham gave to that
place and the events and the circumstances surrounding the
provision of the ram in the thicket. The name is applied to God. Jehovah Jireh means the Lord
has seen, or the Lord sees. The Lord has provided, or the
Lord will provide. And these two are so closely
connected as to suggest to us, as indeed it did to Abraham,
that as soon as our need is seen by God, provision for that need
has already been made. As soon as the need arises, there
is already provision made. Isaac's deliverance on this occasion
required that a substitute be found. And Abraham's words to
his son as they had travelled together towards the top of the
mountain and the lard had asked, where is the lamb? Abraham had
said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And that Jehovah Jireh, speaks
about the fact that the Lord sees a need and the Lord provides
for that need. And that anticipation and that
preempting of the need of the Lord's people is what we have
before us today in this passage. That anticipation of God and
that preempting of God, the need that we have the need that we
have as sinners, the need that we have for deliverance, the
need that we have to be saved from judgment, is the reason
why a substitute was required for our lives also. Just as that picture of the ram
in the thicket was given to us in the context of Abraham and
Isaac, so the Lord Jesus Christ has become that one who was provided
by God as the substitute for sinners like you and like me. And we see that substitution
most gloriously fulfilled in the atoning work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who in the covenant of grace and in that covenant
of peace was foreordained, set up, to shed his blood for the
remission of the sins of his people. That's what we're told
in 1 Peter 1, verse 20. John explains it slightly differently,
but with the same emphasis, that the Lord Jesus Christ, he tells
us in Revelation 13, verse 8, was as the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. So that the Jehovah Jireh, the
Lord our God, saw the need and immediately had provided for
the satisfaction and the provision and the supply of that need. That the Lord Jesus Christ, though
crucified in time, was as the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, tells us that when Adam fell, when Adam sinned in
the garden, that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and a covering
of justifying righteousness was already certain, was already
sure, was already accepted by God, even as the Lord's death
was being prefigured. in the slaying of the animal
and the covering of the skins that were given to Adam and Eve
to cover their nakedness. So that the prophet Isaiah describes
this anticipation, this pre-empting by God of the need of his people
for their salvation, like this in chapter 65 and verse 24, where
he says, it shall come to pass that before they call, I will
answer. And while they are yet speaking,
I will hear. And that's a timely reminder
for you and for me today, brother and sister in Christ. Because
no matter how and when and where we begin to think about salvation
or feel our need for help, the provision of God is already
there. The Lord Jesus Christ is already
there. The Lamb has already been slain. Atonement has already been made. The way of escape has already
been supplied. No matter how and when and where
a believer finds their need arising and cries out for mercy and for
grace, the Lord Jesus Christ already knows and He has already
put the means of our deliverance into place. He is with us. Our great Deliverer is with us
in that moment of our need. Paul could say to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13, There hath no temptation
taken you, no trial overtaken you, but such as is common to
man. But God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able. Listen,
but will with the temptation, but will with the trial, but
will with the difficulty that you find yourself in right now,
also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. And
I know that some of you are going through some pretty horrendous
trials at the moment, some pretty difficult times, but hear the
word of the Lord. God is faithful. We have thought
already about praying to the Lord, how that the Lord Jesus
Christ and the psalmist cried to the Lord in their distress
and the Lord heard them. So it is that whenever the believer
turns to the Lord, provision has already been made. With the
temptation comes the way of escape so that we might be able to bear
it. The Lord doesn't give us a life
free of trial, but rather He gives us the trial and He gives
us the support and the enabling to be able to bear it, the way
of escape by turning to Him and drawing from Him such help and
strength and comfort and grace that He desires and is able to
provide. With the opening verses here
of chapter 8 of Mark, we see the Lord anticipating the need
of these people who had gathered in the wilderness to hear him
preach and to partake of the healing miracles that he was
performing. These people had gathered and
they had stayed with the Lord for three days. Such was their
commitment and dedication. Such was their interest and enthusiasm
to hear the word of the Lord that they spent days there in
his company. But the Lord knew that there
was a need that had arisen. And before the people asked,
He was already preparing his disciples for the provision of
that need. And it's also a lovely picture
of God's love for his people. The Lord said to his disciples,
I have compassion upon the multitude. And the Lord God, because of
the love which he has for his people, he was moved to send
his son into this world to be our substitute, to be that ram
in the thicket, to be that lamb of God for our ransom, for our
redemption. He was the bread of life that
was given for our souls. So here in the wilderness is
a hungry multitude and the Lord knows that they have run out
of food. I don't know why it took three
days for this to happen. Perhaps they had brought food
with them. Perhaps they had gone through
the food that was available there. But the Lord knew that there
was a need arising. He knew that these people would
not make it to their homes because some had come a long distance.
He knew that they would be faint in this Judean wilderness unless
sustenance and nourishment be supplied for their bodies. And
so we have a miracle by which the Lord wonderfully satisfies
the physical hunger of these people using just a few loaves
and some fish. And the passage in many ways
is clearly understood to be teaching that. However, there's a lesson also
in this for the disciples. And we've been remarking how
it is that the Lord was teaching his disciples by his words, by
his doctrine, by his parables, by his miracles. That the Lord
was constantly about the preparation of these disciples. Putting them
through, as it were, an apprenticeship. so that they in time and in turn
would be able to take upon themselves the yoke and responsibility of
the apostleship that the Lord Jesus Christ would leave in their
charge. And there's a lesson for the
disciples and a lesson for the Church of Jesus Christ in this
miracle also. The Lord is teaching the disciples
for their own ministry to a spiritually hungry people. A people who spiritually
are certain to faint in the wilderness of this world unless they were
provided with gospel sustenance and gospel nourishment, with
the doctrines of Christ, with the message of the gospel. That needed to be supplied to
their souls. And so the Lord is giving his
disciples lessons about their role in the preaching of the
gospel in a day to come. And I think there are four little
lessons here that I would like to draw out that the Lord taught
his disciples from this miracle and teaches us as well in this
feeding of the 4,000. The first one is this, that the
Lord here discovers these loaves and fishies. The Lord turns to
his disciples, he looks out on the multitude, he looks out on
this great gathering of people, and he knows that they have a
need. And so he asks his disciples
how much bread they have. How many loaves have ye? Now the Lord didn't ask that
because he didn't know. The Lord knows all things. But he asked it so that the disciples
would take note of the resources that they had available. And
it wasn't much. It was seven loaves and a few
fish. That was all they had. And as
we read the narrative, we might wonder at the way in which the
disciples reacted. Had they forgotten the miracle
of the feeding of the 5,000, which Mark has just told us about
in a couple of chapters before? Had they forgotten that? I don't
think that it was a lack of memory. I think it was a lack of faith. Their faith was weak. But the
Lord was going to show them that he would use what little they
had, and he would take all that they had. And that was the lesson
that he had for them that day. The scale of the task that the
disciples had that day in the Galilean wilderness was significant. It was daunting. The resources
that they had were sparse. Yet the Lord took the little
they had and he fed a multitude thereby. Food is natural for
life. It's essential. And for spiritual
life, there is also a need for spiritual food. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
rose from the dead, met his disciples the morning after they had been
fishing on the shore of Lake Galilee. And he fed them with
bread and fish. and he took that occasion to
remind the disciples, and Peter in particular, that he was to
feed the sheep. I don't think there was any coincidence
really that it was bread and fish that was used to feed the
5,000 and the 4,000 and the disciples on the morning after the Lord's
resurrection. Because this was the lesson that
the Lord was giving. These apostles had to feed the
sheep. of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God, and the people of God
are often called his sheep. And so the apostles were to carry
that message. It is as if the Lord is saying
to his disciples, remember the 5,000, remember the 4,000, Remember, what is impossible
with men is possible with God. And these few disciples, they
appear to be the most inconsequential band of individuals imaginable. They faced great odds. They faced
the religious strength of the Jews. They faced the civil and
military power of the Romans. And yet these few men, went out
into the world preaching the gospel and they turned the world
upside down by the foolishness of preaching. So what was meager
in the estimation of the disciples in the hands of Christ was sufficient. And what is mean and foolish
in the estimation of this world upon the lips of the preacher
who is called and sent of the Lord Jesus Christ is the most
significant life-changing message for the souls of men and women. When we look at the world today
with its multitude of hungry souls, we often feel weak and
insufficient and ill-prepared to be able to make any difference
at all in the hearts and lives of men and women. And yet the
Lord takes the little that we have and he discovers in it the
source of life-giving nourishment for hungry souls. In his compassion
for his people, the Lord will have his sheep fed. and he will
have them comforted with the word of truth. So he sends his
preachers to preach that word. He sends his disciples, he sends
his people into the world to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ
in worship, to stand for the truth of the gospel. Though we
often feel inadequate for the job that he gives us. Is it possible
that men and women like you and me, that the Church of Jesus
Christ can make a difference in this world? Yes it's possible,
not only possible but it is certain because it's by the preaching
of that Gospel, it's by the witness of the Church that the Lord has
ordained the gathering in of his people. That is why this
activity today of gathering together around the Word of God is so
significant. That is why sending this message
out in its broadcast form or as it is preached from pulpits
around the land is so meaningful and important. It is why we still
declare this gospel with so much commitment and dedication and
enthusiasm because it is the only way that men and women will
be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ is gathering
his people still today. He is building his kingdom still
today. And it's not our skill and it's
not our ability that achieves that end, but it is the blessing
of the Lord upon that meagre resource that we bring. We preach
the gospel And the Lord takes the power of the Holy Spirit
and he lays it upon that common fare. Loaves and fishes were
just about as basic as you could get in Galilee. But like the
Apostle Paul, we can say, Christ sent me to preach the gospel,
not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should
be made of none effect. My speech and my preaching was
not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power. The Lord divided the bread, the
loaves and the fishes. The Lord blessed the loaves and
the fishes. And it is the Lord that takes
his gospel and with his blessing divides to all appropriately. Remember the parable of the sower,
the sower sowed the seed, but it was the Lord who made it grow.
And so it is with the blessing from the Lord. That power is
from above. It's the work of the spirit and
the soul that brings the change in the lives of individuals. but it's the ministry of the
preaching of the gospel that is the medium that is used by
the Lord. And that ministry is still to
go out today. The disciples were given that
which the Lord had blessed and were told to distribute it amongst
the multitude. And our ministry is not about
slick presentations or clever rhetoric or professional training
or even evangelistic initiatives. It's about declaring the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is about preaching salvation
by grace and faith. in the finished work of Christ
on the cross. That's all. That is the sum total
of the message that we have to bring. That message alone gathers
the elect of God from the four corners of this world and brings
sinners into the kingdom of God. That message alone feeds the
souls of God's people and comforts their hearts. That message alone
is what we need to hear week by week so that our souls will
be nourished and sustained and that we will be built up in the
most holy faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. That message is the power
of God unto salvation. It's the ministry which we have
received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace
of God. Here's another point that we
can learn from this little miracle. Preaching the gospel or testifying
the gospel of the grace of God was to be the life's work of
these disciples. And we hear afterwards of a few
of them. But most of them in time left
Jerusalem and Judea and we never hear of them again. They went
forth as sores to sow. They went forth as fishers of
men. They went forth dispensing and
distributing the loaves and fishes of gospel truth to nourish the
souls of men and women, boys and girls all over the known
world. They did as the Lord commissioned
them to do. And basically, as preachers of
the gospel, they had three responsibilities. A preacher has three responsibilities. He must feed the church of God
with the gospel and with knowledge and understanding of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's our purpose as preachers. In doing so, we protect the church
from the false teaching and from anything that would turn them
away from the simplicity that is in Christ. So we preach the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ so that there will be knowledge
and understanding of Christ and we protect men and women thereby
from anything that would turn them away from Christ. and we
preach with the desire that we might increase the church, ever
seeking the Lord's sheep where we preach the gospel. So we're
preaching the same message both to the saved and the unsaved,
lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ so that there might be a knowledge
and understanding of Christ and a protection against false doctrine
and false teaching. And as the disciples handed out
the bread and fish that day to the hundreds and to the thousands,
those who had thronged to hear the Lord, it foreshadowed the
breaking of the bread of life in the preaching and ministering
to all who will gather to hear. The power's not in the preacher,
but in the gospel that is preached. Just as the nourishment wasn't
in the distributing of the food, but in the devouring of the food. And that's the final point that
I want to leave with you here today. The necessity of devouring
the loaves and the fishes. Because the means by which the
Lord feeds and satisfies the hunger of his people is by the
consumption of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You might wonder
how it is that three days had passed before these people became
faint with hunger. And maybe it was that they had
brought sufficient food with them for a little while, or that
they found food locally for the first few days. I don't know.
We're not told, and we need not worry about that. But what we
are told is that the dedication of these people to the Lord's
ministry caused them not to want to leave. Some had come from
a great distance to hear the Lord. It is hungry people who eat and
it is those who hunger and thirst after righteousness who come
to Christ for that gospel food that he gives. Free will preachers,
they try to force feed religion to people who are not even hungry. But the gospel is manna to the
souls of those who are starving in the wilderness of sin and
weary to the point of fainting under fresh trials. We encourage one another as we
gather together around the Word of God. We comfort one another. But even for believers, the flesh
is willing, or the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. We need that constant supply
of the gospel for our souls. You don't just get saved in your
teens or your twenties and then go on assuming that everything
is all right with your soul thereafter. There has to be a constant return,
a coming back week by week, even day by day, that we might feed
upon Christ. These 4,000, we're told, ate
and were filled. Believers taste Christ and are
satisfied, not so that they don't want more. We are filled, but
we find him suitable to our taste, and we want more of him. We want
that filling and we want it time after time after time. We're
told that the people here on this day, they ate and were filled. John chapter 6, verse 53, the
Lord said, Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
ye have no life in you. And so we come back time after
time after time to hear the Gospel, to hear about God's provision,
to hear about the love of God and the mercy of God and the
grace of God in sending His Son into this world as the Lamb of
God to take away the sins of His people. we look to Christ,
who out of his love, voluntarily submitted to taking our sins
upon himself, bearing our iniquities, dying in our place, our great
substitute, our surety, our deliverer, our redeemer, our friend. Lord Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. May the Lord bless us always
with a preacher who takes that gospel food from the blessed
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and distributes the divine truth
to our souls. May the Lord God grant us grace
to feed upon Christ day by day that our spirits may be nourished
as carefully as we nourish our bodies. And may we eat and be
filled with the sweet knowledge and understanding of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and protected and preserved from false doctrine
and from the lies of men. May we feed upon Christ, our
Lord and Saviour, that we faint not in our journey through this
wilderness as we head for our promised home in glory. Amen.