Let's turn together to Mark chapter
8. Mark the 8th chapter. We'll begin
our reading in verse 1. 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 weight, 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
do you have? And they said, and he commanded
the people to sit down on the ground and he took the seven
loaves and gave thanks and broke and gave to his disciples to
sit before them and they did set them before the people. And
they had a few small fishes and he blessed and commanded to set
them also before them. So they did eat and were filled
and took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. And they that had eaten were
about four thousand, and he sent them away. Now, our Lord here,
once again, miraculously feeds a hungry multitude with a little
bit of bread, a little bit of fish. As I read this passage
just now, and as I read it preparing the message for you this evening,
I could not help thinking And looking back to chapter 6, where
there was another similar miracle. In chapter 15 of Matthew, Matthew
records this same miracle, but in chapter 6 of Mark, there was
a very similar miracle. Our Lord fed 4,000 people with
four, or I'm sorry, He fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two
fishes. And here He feeds these 4,000
with seven loaves and a few small pieces of fish. And I'm certain
that as the disciples asked this question, how can we satisfy
all these people with bread in the wilderness? Our Lord's mind
must have gone back to just a few days earlier. How could you ask
such a question? How could you ask such a thing?
Don't you remember the loaves and fishes just the other day?
And our Lord graciously, kindly, remembering their frame and ours
that we are but dust. Rather than upbraiding and scolding
and reprimanding them, simply gives them another encouragement
to faith. How like the Son of God that
is. How unlike us, but how like him. He's so gracious, so kind, so
forgiving, so long-suffering, so forbearing. More than that,
the Son of God knew the heart of man. and his depravity. He knew that traveling skeptics
would arise in every age who would look for every reason to
deny and dispute his claims to divinity and therefore he shows
forth his divinity in the most clear, remarkable manner possible
so that it is absolutely impossible to read the scriptures with any
with any sincerity, with any honesty, with any openness of
mind at all, and not be convinced that this man is indeed God Almighty
incarnate. Our God has fixed it, so that
if you go to hell, if you go to hell denying the deity of
Christ, denying the claims of Christ as God, refusing to believe
on the Son of God, you're going to have to go to hell literally
jumping over walls of stumbling blocks. Here our Lord performs
a miracle in the presence of thousands of witnesses. Thousands
of witnesses. And when they challenged his
claims, when the Pharisees denied his claims, said you can't be
the Christ, you can't be the Messiah, not one person among
these thousands came and said we didn't really eat of that
bread. Not one of them said, we didn't taste any of that fish.
Not one of them. These fellows stood before the
master, thousands of them, as he broke bread and broke the
fish. This one who broke the bread
and fish is the one who created them that you read about in Genesis
chapter one back in the office. He's the divine creator. He is
indeed God, our savior. Now the title of my message this
evening is Satisfaction Found in the Wilderness. And let me
just call your attention to verse four for a moment and then we
will look at these nine verses together. His disciples answered
him, from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in
this wilderness? I know this, in this wilderness
we call life. And I'm going to tell you something,
if you think it's a wilderness now, you who are younger, ask
anyone who's a little older, I promise you. The older you
get, the more of a wilderness it becomes. It is a world of
sin, and therefore a world of sorrow and suffering. And in
the world to come, that great wilderness called eternity, there
is absolutely no satisfaction to be found for your immortal
soul, neither here nor hereafter, except in Jesus Christ, who is
indeed the bread of life. who is that manna which came
from heaven upon which our souls must feed. We find satisfaction
only when we find satisfaction in him, in his glorious person,
in his blood atonement, the propitiation he made for our sins, in the
pardon he accomplished and he provides in his blood atonement,
in his good providence, in his provision, in his presence, and
in his praise. And when your life is wrapped
up in him. Indeed, when he engulfs your
life in himself, so that in him you are made to know that you
live and move and have your being. And in him you find satisfaction. Then you find satisfaction indeed. So much so that our Lord said,
if you ever drink of the well and the water that I offer to
you, if you ever drink of this water that I'm speaking about,
You will never thirst again. You ever eat of the bread of
life? You'll never hunger again. You ever come to Christ? You
will never seek for anything or anyone else to satisfy your
soul. Peter said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We got, we got no choice. We
got to stay with you. You're the only one who's got
what we need. And I'm telling you, he's the
only one who has what you need. Now may God the Holy Spirit be
our teacher as we look once more at this great miracle performed
by our Savior, one of his great miracles of mercy. And may he
be pleased now to take the things of Christ he recorded and show
them to us. Learn the lessons as I give them.
Number one, we see in verse one the multitude was very great. Here are four thousand people. following the master. Now in
just a little while you're going to find out there were just a
few who really followed him. There are 4,000 crowding the
streets following him out here in the wilderness now, but our
Lord Jesus only had a few who genuinely followed him. And this
is the first lesson. Multitudes, then and now, follow
our master because of the loaves and the Most folks follow him because
of what they hope to get from him. They had either seen or
heard about the miraculous powers and bountiful provisions that
he offers and gives to men. The fact is, men and women take
up a profession of faith and follow Christ in this world for
many, many years, who never knew him at all. Some have what we
might call a historical faith. They just simply have read about
Christ in history, and they recognize that He, evidence points to the
fact that He came, that He lived in this world as man, and yet
God in human flesh, that He died upon the cursed tree, that He
was buried and rose again. They say, I believe in Him. And
they have just a historical faith. They simply give assent to historic
facts revealed in Scripture. Some follow Christ because they
have a religious family tradition. Their family's always been religious.
Some of you perhaps are here this evening because your family
has always gone to church. You've always been religious.
You've always had a Bible in your home and you've always talked
about religious things and religions as much a part of your life as
just living in the neighborhoods you live in. Some folks follow
a profession of religion for carnal, covetous reasons. because they find it to be worldly
advantageous, carnally advantageous. They find it to be something
that gives them some carnal step up in this world. After all,
you have a little more respectability if you're religious and not so
vile in your behavior. Some take a profession of faith
and follow that profession of faith at a time of emotional
crisis. Preachers are worse than lawyers
to chase ambulances. They catch you at a time when
things are going bad, you have had a near miss with death, as
folks call it, or you've had a terrible tragedy in your life,
or you're sick, or you've gone through some terrible emotional
upheaval and some slick so when it comes to get you to make a
profession of faith in you, you hold on to it. But the vast majority
of those who profess faith in Christ prove in time that they
never knew him. They went out from us, John said,
because they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us until this day. You see,
true saving faith is much, much more than a religious experience,
a doctrinal confession, a doctrinal position, or a form of prayer. True faith essentially involves
three things, and these three things are vital wherever true
faith is found. There must be knowledge. You
cannot believe on Christ unless he is revealed to you and you
know who he is. How can they call on him whom
they've not believed and how shall they believe on him of
whom they've not heard? You cannot trust an unrevealed,
unknown Savior. In order for a person to have
faith in Christ, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he's got
to know something about who Jesus Christ is, what he did, and why
he did it. You cannot possibly trust Christ
if you don't know who he is, God the Son in human flesh, who
has accomplished redemption for his people by the satisfying
of divine justice. But there's more to salvation
and more to faith than just knowledge. I know the book says these things
about Christ. And it seems evident to me that
these things must be so. His claims are well validated.
They cannot be disputed. So I recognize those things are
so. There must also be an assent,
a mental, but more than a mental, a heartfelt agreement with that
which the scripture says concerning him. So that in our hearts, we
agree with God's testimony concerning his son. But there's something
still more than that. Faith is commitment. It is knowing Christ, agreeing
with God's revelation concerning Christ. And upon the basis of
God's revelation, it is the commitment of myself to Christ. It is bowing
to the Son of God as our Lord, trusting our souls upon his merit
and trusting our lives to his dominion. You see, faith in Christ
is not just saying, I believe in Jesus. Faith in Christ is
not simply believing Jesus died for my sins. Belief is something
more than a notion. Belief in Christ is a way of
life. Children of God are men and women. who live upon the Son of God
trusting Him. We trust Him for acceptance with
God, yes. We trust Him for all our righteousness,
yes. We trust Him for all the atonement
of our sins, yes. We trust Him alone for acceptance
with God, but there's more to it than that. Bobby, we trust
Him as our Lord. We trust Him to rule us. to make
our decisions for us, to govern our lives for us, to bring us
safe into glory at last. We trust him in his providence
to govern our times and our days, our lives, and all that we call
our own, we commit to him. It's called faith. Second lesson
is this. False professors will often endure
great hardships. to keep up their profession once
they've made it. Hard to go back. The reason the
Apostle Paul urges us to eat and drink the bread and wine
of the Lord's Supper unworthily is to eat and drink damnation
to your soul. It's because the more you practice this thing
of hypocrisy, the more you practice a religious delusion, the harder
it is to give up. We insist on believers baptism.
We don't baptize our babies and bring them up as being folks
who were brought up in the kingdom of God. To do so is to bring
them up in damnation to their souls. For while they live, they
live under the delusion that their religion is salvation. Now listen carefully to me. Those
who make a false profession will usually go through great hardships
to maintain the appearance of their profession. These people
underwent a great deal of difficulty in following Christ. They were
with him for three days and had nothing to eat. Now, that's hard
service. That's not easy business. There
were those probably who had brought some food with them, no doubt
along the way. But by this time it was all gone.
They'd been out a long time in the wilderness for three days.
away from home, and yet they continued with Christ, and as
far as we can find in the scripture, not a word was spoken about leaving
him. Matthew Henry wrote this, Trusillo
makes nothing of hardships in the way of duty. They that have
a full feast for their souls may be content with slender provision
for their bodies. That is to say, when a person
is truly zealous for Christ, when he truly is devoted to Christ,
hardship for nothing. I joke about it a little bit. One of the most humbling things
on this earth would be utterly helpless and she'll be having
to do everything for me. She doesn't complain any, but
it's difficult for me. Difficult for me. Why does she
complain? She loves me. That's all. She
just loves me. Anybody else had to do what she's
got to do, had to get paid pretty good for it. But she loves me. And there's no complaint. Now,
listen to me. True faith has that attitude
toward Christ. Hardships are nothing. Difficulties
are nothing. We feel the bumps and bruises,
but we count them nothing because we love the Master. However,
It is not at all unusual for false piety to produce the same
kind of outward zeal. Religion without zeal certainly
is false. I wouldn't give you a nickel
for religion without zeal. But outward zeal is no evidence
of inward grace. Grace produces more than zeal. It produces love and kindness
and gentleness and care. Read on. Look at verse 2. The
master said, I have compassion on the multitudes, 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." Now here's the
third lesson. Our all-glorious is a Savior full of compassion
for needy souls. He has compassion for those who
are in need. As a man, he was the most caring
of men, and yet he has particular concern for those that are reduced
to need because of their zeal and devotion to him. He said,
I have compassion on this multitude. They've been with me for three
days. They've been following me for three days. They've been
listening to me for three days. Those upon whom the proud Pharisees
looked with disdain, the Son of God looked with pity and tenderness. We ought to do the same. Now
I got to looking at this. And we find, God forgive us, but it's just
We find every excuse in the world, Benji, for hardness and severity
and callousness toward men. We find every excuse in the world.
Well, you know, they're hypocrites. They don't know the gospel. They
don't know anything about the things of God. Treat them any
way you want to. Our master knew that these folks
didn't know him. He knew they followed him just
for the loaves and fish. He knew their attachment to him
was not an attachment to him, but an attachment to the things
they hoped to get from him. And yet, he was moved with compassion
toward them. He felt tenderly toward them. And thus, by example, he teaches
us to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us.
to be honest with you, I fear. I fear that kind of religion
that makes people hard, callous, unkind, and untalented. I fear it. Whatever it is, whatever
it is, no matter what name it wears, it is not the religion
of Christ. And yet we must never fail to observe that our Lord's
primary concern here, and in all things, is for his elect
among the mixed multitude. While he is merciful to all,
his mercy is designed for his elect. Paul tells us he is the
Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. That is,
he's the Savior, the preserver, the keeper, the benefactor of
all men. But he is particularly, distinctly,
purposefully the Savior of God's elect. Our Lord Jesus Christ
says, they have been with me for three days and have nothing
to eat. And with those things in mind,
our Lord Jesus particularly, having his compassion directed
toward his own elect among the multitude, understand this. Our master will see to it that
we lack nothing by following him. Whatever losses we incur, whatever
hardships we endure, whatever sacrifices we are compelled to
make because of our faith in, our obedience to, our devotion
to the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll be taking care of in this world
and in the world to come, whatever they are. This is a rule, a law,
more certain than any rule or any law of the universe. God
says, them that honor me, I will for Samuel 2 30. Them that honor
me, I will honor. Now I make you this promise, whatever it takes, Danny, whatever it takes for
you to honor God, whatever it takes in everything, do it. God Whatever it takes. Whatever it
takes. You know, we have no sabbatical
rules. We observe no sabbatical rules.
We're not under the law. Nothing wrong with men engaging
in employment or other things on any day of the week, Sunday,
Monday, Tuesday, otherwise. But there is a necessity for
your soul's sake that you worship God. There's a necessity that
you do. I recall when Paul Wendell moved
here and started looking for work, he just told folks, no,
I won't work on Sunday, I won't work on Tuesday. And he made
it a little stricter than that. He said, I'm going to play videotapes
on Wednesday and Friday. I'm not going to work those nights
either. Well, how are you going to go to work? He looks a little hungry, but
he's not. He's not. God takes care of things. God
takes care of things. God honors folks who honor Him. I flatly believe that. And God helping me, I'm prepared
to prove it. Them that honor me, I will honor.
He comes first. He comes first. And I want to
tell you something. If He doesn't come first, He
doesn't come in at all. David said, the young lions do
lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not
want any good there. Our Savior said, if I send them
away to their houses, they will faint by the way. He knows and
considers our frame. If we seek to glorify him, we
shall be fed by him. He considered that many of these
came from far. were a long way from home, therefore
he refused to send them home fasting. It is not his way to
send those away empty. He will never give a stone to
those who look to him for bread. He will never send you away empty.
You come seeking life in him. You come seeking grace from him. You come seeking the bread of
life in him. Oh no, he never, never sends
them away empty. Now fourthly, let's look at verse
four again and see that the strength of God's all-sufficiency and
grace is made perfect in our weakness. This is what the Apostle
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12, 9. He said, The Lord said to me,
My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, Paul
writes, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. And let me show you how this
is displayed in verse four. The disciples answered him, From
whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? These disciples' unbelief forms a black backdrop against
which the diamond of Christ's mercy and the beauty of his power
and the radiance of his grace shines forth brilliantly. They've
been made I'd have probably been stomping and kicking and fuming. You fellas, don't you pay any
attention to anything! But thank God my master is not
like me. And regrettably, I haven't learned
to be much like him. He takes our unbelief and our
sin and makes it an opportunity to show forth his mercy and his
grace. Our unfaithfulness makes his faithfulness all the
more radiant. Our weakness makes his strength
all the more beautiful. I don't suggest for a moment
that a sin that grace may abound, but I am saying distinctly and
clearly that our unbelief and sin, the sins and unbelief of
God's elect are graciously overruled by our great and glorious Savior
to make his grace shine forth all the more brilliantly. This
miracle, marvelous as it is, great as it is, wouldn't be near
so bright if we hadn't had this word from these disciples. after
they experience the same power before. How can these be fed? How can they be satisfied out
here in this wilderness? The Lord says, I've shown you,
but you just step back and watch. I'll show you again. Fifthly, it is the way of our Lord to intervene at the time of utmost
extremity. His time to act for the relief
of his people is when things are brought to an extreme end,
to a crucial point, to a climax. We're told in verse 3 that these
men were at the point of fainting, and when they were utterly reduced
to absolute dependence upon him, then he steps in, just like it. Just like that. I'll tell you
when he'll step in for you and bring deliverance to you. If
we're talking about salvation, the spiritual deliverance of
your soul from the bondage of sin, the power of Satan, the
corruption of your nature and the terrible, terrible curse
of God's law, the wrath and terror of God seizing your soul. I'll
tell you when he'll step in. He'll step in just before you
faint. When you've been made to understand
that there's absolutely nothing you can do for yourself. When
you finally give up trying to fit yourself for him and you
recognize that you've got nothing. Nothing in my hands I bring simply
to thy cross I cling. Helpless come to thee for grace,
naked look to thee for grace. When you come to him like that,
That's when he'll step in and speak peace into your soul. And
I'll tell you when he will deliver you from your troubles. Tell you exactly when it'll happen.
When he brings you to your wit's end and you just throw up your hands and say,
God help God help me. I can't handle it. I can't go
on. I can't continue. There's nothing
I can do. Lord, unless you deliver me, I'm gone. That's when you step in. Every
time. Six now. The blessed story of grace and
power that our Savior's storehouse of grace is utterly inexhaustible. Now, as I've mentioned several
times, he performed virtually this same miracle twice. And
he did so with a specific purpose in mind. It was not an accident.
He wanted to show that he is ever gracious and infinitely
bountiful in grace and power. And he's still the same today.
His throne of grace is the throne to which he invites sinners and
bids us come as often as we have need that we may obtain mercy
and fight in every time of need. How often can I come to the throne
of grace? Won't he ever get tired of me coming to him? The only
thing he ever gets tired of is self-sufficient sinners. He never
gets tired of needy sinners. He bids us come. and obtain mercy
and find grace to help in every time of need. Notice this too. In the first miracle, our Lord
took five loaves and two small fish and used them to feed 5,000
men. In this miracle, he's only got
4,000 to feed. Looks to me like he'd have just
taken four loaves. If he was doing anything consistently.
We like everything consistent, you know. We like everything
fitting in a nice neat package so we can fix things up. Five thousand, five loaves, four
thousand, four loaves. But he takes seven loaves. And
a few small ones. And feeds four thousand. How
come? I think he intends for us to
understand at least three things specifically. Number one, it's
our responsibility, yours and mine, to use everything God puts
in our hands for the work he gives us opportunity to do for
the good of men's souls and the glory of his name. If you've
got four lows, use them. If you've got five, use them.
Whatever He puts in your hand, use it all for His glory. Use it all. Number two, if the
work we're doing is God's work, it does not matter whether we
appear to have much or little. It's all the same to Him. But
we've proved that, haven't we? It doesn't matter whether we've
got great talents or no talents. Great wealth or no wealth, it's
all the same to Him. You see, what we have or don't
have is utterly insignificant to God. Utterly insignificant. What we call riches or talents
or things at our disposal, numbers or powers, all those things are
utterly insignificant to God. Our greatest asset and our greatest
abilities are just as significant and insignificant as our greatest
liabilities and our deepest poverty. You see, the work of God's kingdom,
the work of God's Spirit, the work of the gospel, the work
that God has given us to do, is his work. And he can feed
with five loaves, or seven loaves. Or he can feed with a few fishes,
or a few pieces of fish. Doesn't matter. The third thing is this. With
God, all things are possible. Our Lord performs this miracle
using these loaves and tissues to make us understand that whatever
he puts in our hands, he expects us to use it all for him. He
wants us to understand that what we have or don't have, Lindsay,
is utterly insignificant as far as our being useful in his hands.
And he wants us to understand with him, anything is possible. One last lesson. Let's go to
verse 8 and learn this. In his house there is bread enough and to
spare. So they did eat and were filled. Oh, hungry, thirsty souls. come now to Christ, eat. And the took up of the broken
meat that was left, seven baskets. There is a fullness in Christ
which he communicates to all who come to him, so that from him we receive grace
for grace. And those who live upon Christ
have read enough and despair and should never, never, never
fear the possibility of suffering me. I used to know desperately, desperately Rex, I needed everything. I needed
everything. For 30 years, I've never known
what need is. Never. Now, that doesn't mean
I've always got plenty of money in my pocket. It means I've got
enough. That doesn't mean I've always got everything that I
look at and say, well, boy, I'd kind of like to have one of those.
No, no. I mean I've never had, I've been
young and I'm getting old, and I've never seen the righteous
forsaken nor his seed baking bread. Now that's true in a physical
material sense, but it is indescribably true
in a material, in a spiritual sense. I'm telling you, you come
to Christ and you have all that God can require of righteousness
and satisfaction, and all that God can give of grace and goodness,
and with no possibility of failure. In him is bread and hope and
despair." When Horatius Bonar lay on his deathbed dying I think he had consumption. I
presume that was something like lung cancer. I don't know. But
he was dying. Painful, slow, lingering death. And his wife, Jim, and after
she had finally bathed him and soothed him enough that he could
get to sleep, one evening she came in and sat down in their
living room, we would call it, had just an oil lantern and she
started to write. And this is what she wrote. Faith,
faith, each earthly joy, Jesus. Now there's red enough. Let's
sing that hymn. Number 266, I believe it is.