Our lesson this morning's taken
from Mark chapter eight, verses one through nine. Now, I'm not
gonna be skipping about in our studies, but as always, I'll
try to go verse by verse with our lessons. And this is
just a reminder, I recommend that you read ahead each week
and familiarize yourself with the subject and the verses and
have those things on your mind when you come in and I think
you'll find it a benefit to you as we go through and study the
scriptures. Mark chapter eight, let's read
through these verses. In those days, the multitude
being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples
unto him and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude
because they have now been with me three days and have nothing
to eat. And if I send them away fasting
to their own houses, they will faint by the way. For divers
of them came from far. And his disciples answered him,
from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in
the wilderness? And he asked them, how many loaves
have ye? And they said, seven. And he commanded the people to
sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves
and gave thanks and break and gave to his disciples to sit
before them. And they did sit them before
the people. And they had a few small fishes.
And he blessed and commanded to sit them also before them. So they did eat and were filled. And they took up of the broken
meat that was left, seven baskets. And they that had eaten were
about 4,000, and he sent them away. Now, I want to say this first
because I always assume people know this, but I'm finding out
in conversation they don't. Not necessarily among this congregation,
but it makes me wonder if there's some in this congregation who
understand. This is a real account of an
actual miracle. I was talking with my sister
before she died, and she told me, she said, I think these are
just stories that God has given to us to inspire
us. She said, I don't think we're
to actually look at these things as though they actually happened.
And I said, well, I disagree with you. I think these things
are exactly God's account of what actually happened because
of why he said they happened. So this is a real account of
a legitimate miracle performed by our Lord in the presence of his apostles
and this great multitude. And consider this divinely inspired
testimony. To do that is anything but truth
is to call God a liar. God said this is what happened.
He didn't say now this is a parable. He set before them a parable.
No, that's not what happened here. This actually happened. Now it teaches and I can use
it as a picture the same as I would use a parable. But this actually
happened and it happened for good reasons. These miracles were things Peter
said that God did by him in our midst to confirm his person and
his offices and his works. These miracles were God's confirmation
of him. But they're also pictures of
a work that we cannot see. These miracles show us man's
spiritual condition and his need of divine intervention and his
need to be fed. Here was a great multitude, our
Lord said, that had nothing to eat. This pictures this world,
doesn't it? It pictures this world. Here's
a great multitude out here, but they have nothing to eat. The multitude following Christ
is, to me, a picture of the professing church, that is, people who,
for whatever reason, seem to seek after the Lord Jesus
Christ. Any man or woman who professes
to believe in or follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this multitude,
there was a mixed company of believers and unbelievers. There
always is. There he is here this morning.
I don't know who they are, and I'm not even gonna begin to attempt
to separate wheat and tares. but people who were truly disciples
of Christ. And then there was others who
were just there for the benefits. And this is a true symbol even
to this day. If preaching, if what I preach
to you in this place was the mark of a pure congregation. That is, you sat here and you
listened to me and I don't really have any quarrels or outward
rebellion. If that is the symbol of a true,
pure congregation, then this multitude sitting under the living
word would have been pure, would it not? But it's not. The gospel in itself is pure. The work of the Holy Spirit is
pure. The preaching of the gospel is
the power of God unto salvation. We don't doubt those things. But just because it's preached
doesn't sanctify the congregation. The congregation is still a mixed
congregation. It always will be. Always will
be. But my friend, I want you to
consider this. Even though this was a mixed
multitude, they would all have the same meat and the same bread
set before them. And in this act of setting these
things before these people, That was great mercy on the part of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Who could, I can't, but he could
rightly divide that congregation. He could go through there and
tell you who was his sheep and who wasn't, but he didn't. And he fed them all the same. The one man who could truly have
separated the sheep from the goats and the wheat from the
tares, the natural from the spiritual, Didn't do it. Rather, he said
his disciples meet and bread before them all. Now let me give
you four things very quickly to consider. The first thing
is I want you to see things as they are. I want you to see where
they are. They're in a wilderness. Now,
you know, it's difficult for us. We're not exposed to any
kind of wilderness around here. There's no wilderness around
here. But you start to go out north
a little bit or, I mean, out west a little bit or go north
a little bit, you can run into some areas that's wilderness.
There's no water out there, no food out there, just cactus and
sand, nothing to eat. Predators, full of predators. We're in a wilderness. Well,
is not this world a wilderness? I'm talking spiritually now.
Is not this world a wilderness? We don't treat it that way, do
we? Huh? Boy, we like cattle. That grass
is always greener. All you gotta do is get on the
other side of the fence. That grass would be so tasty over
there. And then you get over there, and then you want to work
just on the other side of the next fence. We look at this world and see
things in it, and our heart gets all blown out of shape, and boy,
we go after it. This world's a wilderness. It's
a wilderness. There's nothing in here. What
would it profit a man if he gained the whole world? If he owned
the whole world and then lost his soul, what would it profit
him? These people, for whatever reason,
had followed Christ and Christ led them into the wilderness.
This wasn't an accident. It didn't just happen. He led
them out into this wilderness. I visited my nephew here a while
back and he was showing me around down in Florida. Show him his
retirement home and what all he was going to do to it. And
I'm happy for him. I hope he is able to do all the
things that he wants to do. But this is where our heart is,
you know. That's natural man's heart. This world's a wilderness. You
might find you a mansion in it and a lake in it and things to
do that you like to do in it, but it's a wilderness. What he was looking at was heaven
on earth to him. But I thought as he talked to
me, you're living in a wilderness and believing it's Shangri-La.
It's not. It's not. Is there anything spiritually
edible in this world? Is there anything out there edible? Anything out there that would
benefit you spiritually at all? No. No, there's none. Our Lord said, if a son shall
ask bread or fish from his father, will they give him a stone or
a scorpion? Because that's all that's out
there. That's all there is in the wilderness. And for right or wrong reasons,
this multitude had followed the Lord, and He had compassion on
them, knowing how long it had been since they had eaten, and
knowing where it was that they were gathered. Does not the Spirit of God, the
very Spirit of Christ, make us to feel the emptiness and curse
of this world? That's been my experience with
it. He shows it's a curse is what it is, it's a curse. The
only thing worth seeking after in this world is Christ. Peter said this, seeing that
all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Do we see that
though? And then notice this, there was
nowhere he could send them that they could get to before they
died of hunger. Nowhere to send them. And then secondly, Christ intends
for his disciples to use what they have. Here's another important
lesson. Verse five of our text, he said,
how many loaves have ye? Now it's a humbling fact that
we who do believe manifest so often our unbelief as these disciples
did. Where are we going to get bread
to feed these people in this place? The need was so great and what
they had was so little. What seven loaves and a few fishes
to 4,000. And I tell you, it makes me,
and I often go through this, I look at my pitiful talents. I know something about myself
and my background and what I know and what I don't know. I look at my pitiful talents
and my poor understanding and then I see a great multitude
all around with nothing to eat. And it simply overwhelms you
to the point that you won't even consider what you have. They didn't have much. But what
they had was real. They had real bread. They had
real bread. They had real fish. They didn't
just have a picture of it. They didn't have it in their
imagination. They had some real bread and they had some real
fish. I've been numbered in that congregation
that had nothing. I thought I had a few things
and then discovered I didn't have anything. Discovered I didn't have any
understanding, I didn't have any ability, I had no will, I
had no commitment. And then being stripped of these
things, he then showed me the glory of God in Christ. He showed me the heavenly bread
and the water from the smitten rock and the lamb of God. who
taketh away the sin of the world, so that what I have now is true
bread. I have true bread. I don't have
it in the capacity of a John Gill or a Charles Spurgeon, but
I have what I have real. It's not false, it's not an imagination,
it's real bread. But then my own belief takes
inventory and says seven loaves, really? You gonna feed 4,000,
seven load? Well, I'll tell you something
about that number seven. It's the number that God uses
for perfection and completion. And here's what God says about
the heavenly bread. In him, dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Now listen, and ye are complete
in him. This bread, I don't care if you
just have a little bit. I don't know how big one of their
loaves was, but seven loaves would probably sit right here.
And here's 4,000 people. Regular bread wouldn't feed them.
But God's bread will. It will. He said in John 6, 35,
I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. And then let me say this. Our
Lord knows who we are. I can't hide anything from Him.
He knows who I am. And He knows how pitiful we are.
And He's chosen us knowing what we are on purpose. Listen to the Scriptures. Not
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and the base things of the world, and things which
are despised hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are. Why? That no flesh should
glory in his presence. So the disciples They brought
what they had to Christ and he blessed it and gave it again
to them to set before the multitude. That's where it's at. Whatever piddly little bit that
I do have, I gotta bring it to him. It's not adequate without
his blessing. But with his blessing, it's sufficient. It's sufficient. And then thirdly, if the work
we're doing is his work, he'll maintain it. There was no way. You couldn't take inventory that
day and say, now here's how we're going to feed the multitude.
You couldn't do it. It wouldn't add up, would it?
But if what we're doing is his work, he'll maintain it. He'll
maintain it. And sometimes it requires all
that you have. That's all the bread they had,
seven loaves. He didn't say, now, take three
loaves out, keep four for yourself. He said, how much do you have? We got seven loaves. Put it all
out there. Bring it all over here to me, all seven loaves. Sometimes it requires all that
we have, but he'll maintain it. And if he didn't, what could
you do about it? This work is so far out of our
reach, so far out of our ability, we can't even conceive what God
does, let alone maintain it. Paul said, our sufficiency is
of God. We're to work and to give and
to do all that we can, and at the same time realize that without
Him, we can do nothing. All right, and then lastly, I
want you to consider this. With our great God and Savior,
nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible. Oh, but preacher, we're just
down to a handful. Sounds to me like we're getting
right down to the place where God couldn't use us. right down
to a handful. Sounds to me like that's just
the kind of situation Christ is gonna bless. What can such a small group do?
Exactly what a large group can do. They can set what they have
before the multitude and wait on Christ to bless it. Huh? If we had 5,000 people here,
I'd be telling you the same thing. I'd have nothing more to give
than what I'm giving to you. We bring our little bit of bread
to the Lord and ask him to make it a fix. And I know after three days,
the disciples knew that the multitude was growing weary and faint,
wondered about how they'd be fed, but they never said a word. See, they opened their mouth
the first time He fed the multitude, and they put their foot in it.
This time they wasn't going to say anything. But our Lord knows
our situation, He knows our condition, and He knows our limitations,
and He knows how to make us hungry, and then how to fill every hungry
soul. Now the question that was raised
was this. How can a man satisfy these? Pointing to that mixed multitude.
How can a man satisfy these? These that we're about to thank
for lack of nutrition. How can a man satisfy these with
bread here in the wilderness? And here's the answer, Psalm
107 verse nine. For he, talking about Christ,
he satisfies the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with
goodness. That's Christ. What Christ is pleased to bless
will always satisfy the hungry sinner. Isn't that something? I'll tell you, I've had texts
and people, even from here, people come up and say, you know what,
I think that's the best message you ever preached. And I go home
and I might have who knows how many downloads on the internet
on a certain message. But that message to me didn't
say any more than I said in the message before. It didn't have
10 clicks, you know. There was just as much truth
in the other one as there was in this one. But the Lord was
pleased to bless this for his own glory and for his own purpose. And I'll tell you this, whatever
Christ is pleased to bless, it'll always satisfy hungry sinners.
The issue here, as well as in Mark 6, is feeding hungry sinners. And to me, this is the business
of the church. Peter, he'd been through the
meal. I'm telling you, he'd been through the mill. He thought
he was going to actually become a martyr for Christ. He was ready
to die for Christ. There's not a doubt in my mind
that he was ready to do it. But that's not what he did. He
denied Christ. And then he quit the ministry.
And he went back to his fishing. He went back to his boats and
his nets and all of those things. And then the Lord appeared. Said
some things to him, and Peter jumped in the water, and he swam
ashore, and the Lord had some fishes there on, ready to feed
him. Feeding's always the issue, see. He had those fishes prepared. He gave them to him to eat. When
everything had calmed down, the Lord said, Peter, do you love
me? He said, Lord, you know. You
know all things. You know I love you. What did
he tell him? Feed my sheep. Me? The deserter? The guy who left? The guy who quit? Me? Yeah, you. Peter, do you love me? Lord, you know I love you. Feed
my lambs. Feed my lambs. See, that's the
issue. That's the issue. This is what
our Lord's preparing his disciples for. To know what their station
is all about, to know what their apostleship is gonna be all about,
it's feeding his sheep. Feeding his sheep. Today we got
pastors doing everything on the sun. Anything and everything. They have to be entertainers,
they have to be this, they have to be that, they gotta be counselors,
they gotta do, Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. That's it. That's the work of the church.
That's what we're here to do. That's what we're trying to accomplish.
Feed his sheep. Feed his sheep. Feed his sheep.