I've entitled the message for
this morning, The Miracle of All Four Gospels. This is the
fourth of seven miracles that John records that this book is
built around, and this is the only miracle that all four gospels
record. It's important if it's only there
once, but the fact that this is the one that has been recorded
by all four Gospels tells us of some kind of special significance
to this, and some have called it the greatest miracle of all
because he used creative power in this miracle, bringing matter
into existence, which had not before existed in the universe.
Only God can do that. Jesus of Nazareth is God. Verse 1, after these things, speaking
of the events of John chapter 5, and actually anywhere between
six months and a year had passed between John chapter 5 and John
chapter 6. And Matthew and Mark and Luke
talk about a lot of things that took place that John just passes
over. And he brings us straight into the events of John chapter
6. After these things, Jesus went
over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a
great multitude followed him. because they saw his miracles
which he did on them that were diseased. Now, this great multitude followed
him, and if we look at the other accounts in Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, or Matthew and Mark, it's not in Luke, what had taken place
was John the Baptist had been beheaded. And the Lord wanted
to get away from the crowds. And he said to his disciples,
let's go into a desert place and rest a while. He actually
used those words. And they were seeking, or he
was seeking at this time to get away from the crowd. And they went into a desert place,
a place where you could not find food. and the crowd follows him there. Verse three, and Jesus went up
into a mountain and there he sat with his disciples. Now this
is just him and the 12. They had departed with these
people following from a distance. Verse four, and the Passover,
A feast of the Jews was nigh. Now, it's no longer called the
Lord's Passover. They had degenerated it to the
place where it's called a feast of the Jews. Not the Lord's Passover,
but the feast of the Jews. Verse five. When Jesus then lifted up his
eyes, and saw a great company. Now remember, he went to the
desert to be alone, and these crowds followed him, and we looked
upon them. Now I think it's interesting
that in Matthew and Mark's account, it says he had compassion on
them. Understand this. Salvation begins
with the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't look
upon them with irritation. Being in a crowd, you've been
in a crowd when you wanted to get out, it was getting to you. I feel that way every time I
go into Walmart. Start feeling aggressive, you know, get me
out of here. But instead of being moved to
irritation, being around people nonstop, he was moved with compassion. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. Salvation doesn't begin with
you. It begins with His compassion. He has compassion on whom He
will. If He wills, He can have compassion
on you. I pray that's the case for me
and you both this morning. His compassion. Verse five, when Jesus had lifted
up His eyes and saw a great multitude, company, come unto Him, He saith
unto Philip, whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him,
for he himself knew what he would do. Now, he looks at this multitude, 5,000 men, Not counting women and children.
It could have been 15 to 20,000 people. Let's say it's 20,000
people. One man, one woman, two kids. Think of Rupp Arena filled
up. 20,000 people. That's a lot of
people. And he says to Philip, when shall we buy that these
may eat? How are we going to pay for everybody
here to have a meal? That's a lot of people. Now this,
he said, testing him. Philip would flunk the test.
We usually do. Andrew flunked the test as well
when he said, here are two fishes and five biscuits. What are these
among this multitude? He tested men. But he himself
knew what he would do. Now, salvation is what he does. Do you hear that? It's not what
you do. It's what he does. He Himself knew what He would
do. I think it's interesting in the
Gospel accounts here and all of the other places, it was a
wilderness, nothing there to eat, And the disciples actually
said afterwards, we're in a desert place and there is nothing here
to eat. Send them away so they can go
into the towns and find and buy food. Now, what I thought about
when I thought about this, this sounds very much like the law. You can't get food in the wilderness. There's nothing for you to eat
in the law. No food there. And when they say send them away,
that's pretty much what the law does. Go away. Buy something. Earn yourself
some food. Provide for yourself. Send them
away. The gospels come. If any man
thirst, let him come to me and drink. The law is go. and do. And the law is very much
like this wilderness. You can't get anything neat out
of the law, not that it will truly provide for you. All the
law does is condemn. Go and do. Come, go and do. Which one do you like the best?
I know which one I like the best. Well, they were right about this
when they said this is a desert place. There's nothing here to
eat. We're here in a wilderness. Verse 7, Philip answered him,
200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them. Now, I tried
to think about this. That's probably what Judas had
in the bag. He was the treasurer, remember. I imagine he said,
Judas, how much money we got? And he said, well, we have 200
penny worth, however much that is. It's not much. Philip's conclusion
is we can't buy anything to eat for a crowd like this, maybe
20,000 people. Verse 8, And one of his disciples,
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There's a lad
here. which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes."
He brought his lunch. That's what he brought for lunch,
his one kid. Five biscuits made of barley and two sardines, small
fishes, sardines. But what are they among so many? Verse 10. And Jesus said, remember
he knew what he would do. And Jesus said, make the men
sit down. In the other accounts it says
Jesus commanded them to sit down. You see, you can't eat while
you're working. You can't eat while you're doing. You can't
rest while you're doing. Sit down. Sit down. And I love to think of this great
company of people all of a sudden just sitting down. in obedience
to the command of irresistible grace. Sit down. Don't try to
do. Sit down and see what I am going
to do. Couldn't help but think of the
parting of the Red Sea when Moses, the Lord said to Moses, stand
still and see the salvation of God. Sit down. and see what I'm going to do. It takes almighty grace to make
a man sit down. Verse 10, now there was much
grass in the place, so the men sat down and number about 5,000. And Jesus took the loaves And when he had given thanks,
somebody says, should we offer thanks when we eat? Yeah, Lord
did. Lord did. When they had given thanks, he
distributed to the disciples. And the disciples to them that
were set down, likewise of the fishes, as much as they would.
Now, picture in your mind what has taken place. There's 12 baskets. Each disciple has a basket. They have five biscuits and two
sardines to put in those 12 baskets. Now, I don't know how they divided
it up, but that would mean each basket had less than one-half
of a biscuit and one-sixth of a sardine placed in each basket. to feed a group of 20,000 people. Like I said, imagine Rupp Arena,
standing room only crowd. And you take a basket, 12 baskets,
each with a half a biscuit and a six of a sardine, and you're
going to feed that crowd with those baskets. And that's when
this creative miracle takes place. Matter. is brought into existence
that was not in the universe before. They took the baskets,
each one of the 12 disciples, and I suppose they had anywhere
between 1,000 and 1,500 each to feed with that half a biscuit
and one-sixth of a sardine. And they come in and say, put
your hand in. And the scripture says they got as much as they
would. Like I said, this was an all-you-can-eat. I don't think
anybody's thinking, well, I'm just going to take a little bit,
so it'll be plenty for everybody. No, everybody got as much as they
wanted, like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Tandoors, you know, over
here. I like that place, that Indian
place. I always eat a lot. And they got all, as much as
they would, they ate, and they were filled. Everybody there
was completely satisfied. They had as much as they wanted,
and they were satisfied. Now, I think this is interesting. Verse 12, 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 filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five
barley loaves. There's more left over than there was when they
began with. Then those men, when they had
seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, this is of a truth, that
prophet, the prophet spoken of in Deuteronomy 18, only he could
do that. But listen to this. These same people who drew that
conclusion, this must be that prophet. The next day, after
he preached a message, every one of them left him. This lets us know that even seeing
a miracle like this never causes anyone to believe. They didn't
really believe. They drew false conclusions.
They drew a true conclusion, this is that prophet, but it
didn't do them any good because when they heard that prophet
preach, they left him. From that time forth, many of
his disciples went back and walked no more with him after they heard
that message. Five loaves, five biscuits, two
fish, small fishes. Now what I thought about was
when, remember when the Lord opened the scriptures to his
disciples in Luke chapter 24? And he said, all things written
in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me
must take place. Five loaves, the five books of
the Pentateuch, the Psalms and the prophets, Maybe. I know this, the only thing we
can live on is the word of God. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The
five loaves, the five books of the Pentateuch, of Moses, the
Psalms and the prophets, five, one and one equals seven, the
number of perfection. Feeding with the word of God.
I need him to feed me, don't you? It's no good for me to hear
simply from the words of a man. I need to hear from him. I love
the way he said, bring him to me. bring them to me. I'm going to
try to preach this sermon on the five loaves and two fish
and nobody's going to get anything out of it unless it's brought
to the Lord and he takes it and breaks it and feeds the people
with it. I want to be fed don't you and
I want him to feed me. I want to hear the gospel and
the power of the Holy Spirit. I want to be able to see the
beauty and excellency and perfection of Christ, the perfection of
his salvation, to see his glory, to bow down before him in my
heart, to believe that he is sufficient. I want to be filled.
I want to be filled by him, not with my own thoughts, not with
my own ideas. I want to be filled with the
word of God that he has provided. He said, bring them to me. And then he looked up, as only
he could look up to the Father. You know, if I think of a man
looking up, I think, really? When he does it, oh, it's so
beautiful. It's so perfect, it's so glorious,
his perfect communion with the Father. He looks up to the Father,
he breaks the bread. He was the one that broke up
the biscuits. And I don't know how he got the fish taken apart.
I don't know what he did. I don't know if he had a knife.
But he looked up to the Father, gave
thanks. He break the bread and distributed it to the disciples.
Every blessing we have is because of his broken body. Every blessing
you have is because of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
doesn't give it because you deserve it, or because you've earned
it, or you've merited it. He does it for Christ's sake. Now, the people left the next
day. As a matter of fact, look what
the Lord says in the next day when they came looking for him
and brought this message to him the next day. But look what it
says in verse 26. Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles,
Not because of any conviction concerning who I really am, but
because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. That's why you're
seeking me. These guys were health wealthers. You're seeking me
because you got your belly filled. But they went ahead and left
him after they heard this message. But here's the point. A creation
miracle took place. A creation miracle. took place. Now this is what I want us to
think about. When God created the universe,
God created something from nothing. The Latin ex nihilo, something
from nothing. Why is there something and not
nothing? Because God created the universe. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. Do you expect me to believe that?
Yeah, I do. I do. God created heaven and
the earth. Question. How much help did God
have in creation? Did you help him out? Did an angel help him out? No,
there was nothing to help him. He spake the world into existence. Creation is what God does by
himself, without any help, without any contribution. Creation is
what God does by himself. Salvation is what God does by
himself, without any help, without any contribution from me or you.
Salvation is what God does by himself. Just as in creation,
God brings something from nothing. He had nothing to work with.
There wasn't anything. In salvation, God brings something
from nothing. In creation, something is made
that was not there before. In salvation, something is made
that was not there before. It's new. It's a creative act
of God. When God saves somebody, he doesn't
alter the old nature and make it better. He gives a new heart. Something is created. If any
man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The creative act of
God. Now, if I think that God acts
upon the old nature, that is the key behind the heresy of
progressive sanctification, that you think you can do things to
make yourself more holy and less sinful. No, salvation is God's
creative act, a new creature in Christ Jesus. Now, In this creative act, I'm
made to be what I was not. Now when I was born into this
world, and when you were born into this world, guess how you
were born? Sinful. Sinful. Full of sin. Nobody needed to teach you how
to lie. It became natural. You didn't simply follow a bad
example. I didn't simply follow a bad example. I did what was
in my heart. Born a sinner. Born bad. Born evil. You see, you inherited your first,
I inherited my first father's nature. That's why we're born
bad. We're like Adam, born bad. But when God saves somebody,
he makes me to be what I was not before. in my experience. Turn to Colossians 1. I want
you to see this. Now remember, the point behind
this miracle is creation. Salvation is a creative act of
God. Now look in Colossians chapter
1, verse 20. Having made peace. That's what the Lord did on the
cross. He made the world. He also made peace. Having made
peace through the blood of his cross. Oh, the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why God created the universe. and having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself by him I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven and you that were sometime or aforetime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Now, when I was born into this
world, nobody could say he's holy, he's unblameable, he's
unreprovable. But when Jesus Christ died, My
salvation was so completed that in the very sight of God, this
is God's testimony with regard to everybody that Jesus Christ
died for, they're holy. They're unblameable. They're
unreprovable in the very sight of God. This is not pretend.
In God's sight, this is the way it is. Now, I wasn't that way. I am
now. I wasn't that way when I was born into this world. That would
not describe me. But this is the accurate description
of every believer in the very sight of God. This is how powerful
the blood of Christ is. He made me holy. Unblameable. un-reprovable in
the very sight of God. Now, according to the scripture,
God is one God. He's not three gods. He's one
God in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Now, the only reason we know
that is because of the Bible. Nobody could have woke up one
morning thinking, you know what, I think maybe God is one God
in three persons. No, the only reason we know that
is because God has revealed it in His Word. When the Lord told
His disciples to baptize, He said, baptize them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God is
one God in three distinct persons. In the beginning, was the Word,
and the Word was with God as a distinct person, and the Word
was God. You know, in Genesis chapter
1, verse 1, when it says, In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth. God is in the plural, Elohim.
God is in the plural. God the Father. God the Son. God, the Holy Spirit, in the
beginning, created the universe. When I think of the seraphims
crying as they saw the Lord sitting on a throne, they said, holy,
holy, holy. Holy is the Father, holy is the
Son, holy is God, the Holy Spirit. The whole earth is filled with
his glory. God in three persons. Now, in God's salvation, Lord
willing, tonight I'm going to be preaching on Jacob saying
in the midst of his prophecy concerning his sons, I have waited
for thy salvation, O Lord. In God's salvation, the three
persons of the Godhead act. God the Father elects. And this was done before time
began. according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. God the Father elects. God the
Son redeems. He made complete payment for
my sin. And God the Holy Spirit gives
life. That's what the new birth is,
being born of the Spirit. God the Father elects. God the
Son redeems. God the Holy Spirit gives life. Now in creation, did God consult
you? Did God look for something from
you? In election, how much did you
have to do with that? Did God look down through time
and see what a good person you'd be? and how you would be very
beneficial to his kingdom. You'd probably give a lot, and
you would win many souls to Christ, and you'd set such a good example,
and therefore I'm gonna choose that one. No, no, no, no, no,
no. He chose you in Christ, and that is the only reason he
chose you. He didn't choose you because
he saw you'd be good. He chose you in his son. He didn't
consult with you. You weren't even around. For
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, no good works to recommend them, no sinful works to disqualify
them. The children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works. Amen. But of Him that cometh. in this thing of redemption.
Did Jesus Christ die for you because you asked him to? Did Jesus Christ die for you
because he saw how good you'd be? You know what the scripture
says with regard to his death? When he had by himself purged
our sins. No help from me or you. You didn't add anything in this
thing of redemption. Just as you didn't have anything
to do with creation, you don't have anything to do with redemption.
What about the new birth? How much did you have to do with
the new birth? Did the Holy Spirit say, if you'll let me, I'll give
you a new birth? It's up to you to decide. No,
just like in your first birth. Nobody asked you about being
conceived. You just were by the power of God. And in the new
birth, this is the work of God, the Holy Spirit by himself. You know what all this means?
Salvation is of the Lord. Every aspect of salvation is
of the Lord. And I love the way when they
had eaten, the scripture says all of them were filled. Now
listen to me. If you ever believe the gospel,
you'll be plumb satisfied with it. You'll be filled. You won't be looking for anything
else. Somebody says, there's gotta be more. You ain't eating
then. If you eat of the gospel, you
will be filled. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and you are, the word complete is actually
full. Full. Nothing can be added to
you. You're full. They were filled. They were completely satisfied.
And then in verse 12, after they took as much as they would, when
they were filled, He saith unto His disciples, Gather up the
fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Now, some people have
said the Lord is teaching us the importance of being frugal.
And I wouldn't deny that. It is important to be frugal.
I mean, you shouldn't be wasteful. Be frugal. That's a good thing. But I don't think that's exactly
what the Lord's teaching. Nothing's to be lost. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing. but raise it up again at the
last day. Gather all the fragments, that
nothing be lost. And you know, with regard to
what he does, there's always more. He giveth more grace. You take all you want, there's
gonna be a whole lot left over. 12 baskets full. You can't outdo
his grace. Now how can we conclude this
message? He that's able to create is able to save you without any
help from you. Let me repeat that. I want you to think about this.
He that is able to create, and that's what he did, matter was
brought into existence that was not there before. Matter. Stuff. Anything that takes up
space and has mass. Stuff. Whatever it is. Particles.
He brought matter into the universe that wasn't there. Only God can
do that. You sure can't. I can't. He did. Because He's God. He's the table to create the
universe. is able to save you with no help
from you. Now what? Ask him to save you. There's never been anybody that
asked the Lord to save them that he didn't save them. Never happened. Somebody says, well, I've asked
the Lord to save me, and he didn't save me. No, you didn't. You
may have tried to strike some kind of deal with him. You said,
if you do this, I'll do that. That's not asking for mercy.
Every believer is somebody who, Lord, have mercy on me for Christ's
sake. And he's never turned down one
who did trust him, this one who is so glorious. Trust Him to
save you. 2 Timothy 1.12, Paul said, I
know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I've committed to Him against that day. I've
committed the entire salvation of my soul to Him who is God. May the Lord enable each of us
to do that. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
excellency and the glory of thy son. How we thank you for the
salvation that's in him. Lord, how we thank you for your
glorious gospel that shows us who you really are, your glorious
character, how we thank you for your word. Now, Lord, we ask
in Christ's name that you would enable each one of us, according
to your will, to believe your gospel. Bless this message for
Christ's sake. In his name we pray.