Now, as I said, there are only
three events in the life of our Lord that are recorded in all
four Gospels. The death of Christ, what's more
important than his death? The resurrection of Christ, what's
more important than his resurrection. And the feeding of the 5,000
men, not including women and children. And we know from John's
account that after this event, these people he fed tried to
make him king by force. And he would not accept that. He withdrew himself from them. at this time. Now he fed these
5,000 men and women and children with two, I guess, sardines and
five barley loaves about the size of a biscuit. Enough food
for one small boy. It was his food. And someone
has said that this is the greatest of the miracles because creation
was involved. bringing matter into existence
that prior to this miracle, it was not in the universe. There's a Latin phrase, ex nihilo,
bringing something from nothing. And that is what only God can
do. And this is a reminder to us
that Jesus Christ is the creator. Jesus of Nazareth. I like saying
it that way. So everybody knows exactly who
we're speaking of. Jesus of Nazareth, the one born
in Bethlehem, the one who grew up in Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth
is the creator. John 1 1 in the beginning was
the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were created by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. Colossians 1 says all things
were created by Him and for Him. Don't miss that. They were created
by Him and for Him. for His purpose, for His glory. And He is before all things. I love that statement. Whatever
it is, He's before it. He's the cause of it. And by
Him, all things consist. Hebrews 1.3 says that the Father
created, by whom also He made the worlds. Now I think it's
interesting in Genesis 1 when it says, In the beginning, God
created the heaven and the earth. If you believe that, you're gonna
believe everything. But you know, even then, Elohim, God, is in
the plural, speaking of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All three persons of the Godhead created the universe. The one
God in three distinct persons, and the Lord Jesus Christ created
the universe. The writer to the Hebrews quoted
the Psalm in this, Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hath laid the
foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy
hands. Jesus of Nazareth, the creator
God, God the Son, is the one who created the universe. And
he created bread at this time. He brought matter into existence. Now matter's not eternal. Matter
came into existence when God created the universe. And I only
know of one other time in the scriptures where there was new
matter. And that's when Elijah enabled that woman to have a
cruise where new oil and new meal was made. And that was a
creative miracle by God. And right here, these are the
only times we read of new matter coming into the universe. Now,
there could be many sermons preached from this passage of scripture.
It's just pregnant with meaning. But I want us to simply look
at the whole story, the whole narrative, and we're gonna draw
from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to consider this glorious
miracle. Now look in verse 34 of Mark
chapter six. We're gonna stay there, but I'm
gonna bring some things out of the other narratives. Verse 34. And Jesus, when he was come out,
saw much people and was moved with compassion
toward them. Because they were a sheep not
having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many
things. And like I said last week, he
is no stoic sovereign. He looked at this group of people
and the scripture says he was moved with compassion. moved to sympathy, moved to empathy,
moved to compassion. He delights in mercy. Now, let
me say this before we move on. Anything you've ever felt or
gone through, he has felt it and gone through it more acutely
than you have, and he understands. You say, how could that be if
he never sinned? Well, the scripture says he's touched by the feelings
of our infirmities. All that sin is, he was made
to be, and he never committed sin, but he bore all the consequences
and the feelings of being a sinner. Do I understand that? Not remotely. But there's nothing that you
can feel or experience that he's not sympathetic toward. He's
felt it more acutely than you have. You believe that? It's
so. When he was made sin, he experienced
everything there is about being a sinner with the exception of
committing that sin. And he is moved with compassion,
the compassionate Christ. Verse 35, and when the day was
now far spent, it was late in the evening, his disciples came
unto him and said, this is a desert place. And now the time is far
past, send them away. that they may go into the country
round about and into the villages and buy themselves bread, for
they have nothing to eat. Now, there's never a time when
it's appropriate to tell the Lord what to do. I hope that'll sink in with us.
We can ask him to do things for us, but you don't tell him what
to do. Why, even when his mother said
something to him, they have no wine, he said, woman, what have
I to do with thee? You don't tell the Lord what to do. He's
God. And the disciples try to tell
him what to do at this time and they're letting him know about
this situation. It's late at night. They have nothing to eat. We're in a desert place. Send
them away and let them go and buy food for themselves and provide
for their own needs that are needed for them to live. This is a desert. This is a desert place. And this
is a desert place. And this world is a desert place.
And this heart, it is a desert place. Unable to find provision. This is a desert place. And the disciples said, send
them away that they may go buy their own
food. Now, this is the message of the
law, isn't it? Send them away. Tell them to go out and do whatever
it takes to make sure they can be maintained, they can buy their
own food, they can purchase and work for the things they need
to keep themselves alive. Send them away. That's what the
law says. Go and do, go and work, go and
achieve, go and earn, go and do what is needed for God to
be pleased and to accept you. Send them away. That's the message
of the law. Now the gospel is come to Christ. And let me remind you before
you think, well, what does it mean to come to Christ? It means
to believe on him. It means to believe on him. If you believe
on him, you're coming to him. If you're coming to him, that means
you're believing on him. What's it mean to believe on
him? It means to trust him only as all you have in salvation
and know you don't need anything else. The Lord said, come unto me,
all ye that are weary and heavy laden. Not go away, come unto
me. If any man thirst, let him go
find something to drink. No, if any man thirst, let him
come to me and drink. not go and earn and buy and purchase,
come to me. And in coming to Christ, you
will be received. I love John 6, 37, all that the
father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out. Now we know from John's account,
if you would read John's account of this, The Lord said to Philip,
when shall we buy bread that these may eat? Now, that's one
of those rhetorical questions. He knew exactly what he's going
to do. As a matter of fact, the scripture says, for he himself
knew what he would do. But he asked Philip anyway, in
order to prove him, to test him, to see what his response would
be. He himself knew what he would
do. Not only did he know what he would do to provide for these
to eat, he knew what he would do to save. He knew what he would do to save
these people. And he knew that all of salvation
is in what he himself would do. And it's climaxed by these words. It is Finished. Whatever it was he came to do,
he did. He came to save his people and
we hear his words from the cross, it is finished. God is glorified. The law has been honored. Justice
has been satisfied. Sin is put away. Salvation is
completed. all by what he himself did. I love Hebrews 1, 3. When he
had by himself purged our sins, no help from you, no contribution
from me. When he'd by himself purged our
sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high from
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. Verse 37. They had nothing to eat. He answered
and said unto them, give ye them to eat. Don't send them away. Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, shall
we go away and buy 200 penny worth of bread and give them
to eat? We can't provide for these people with 200 penny worth
of bread. Now, the Lord gives them an impossible
scenario. You give them to eat. You feed
them. You give them what they need. And Andrew said, we know from
Matthew's account, all we have is the lunch a boy brought. Five barley loaves, five biscuits,
and two small fish, probably two sardines. And what are they
among so many? an impossible scenario, but the
Lord says when they say, and you get this from Matthew's account,
this is so important. They said, send them away. You
know what the Lord said? They need not depart. They need not depart. The law says go and do, buy your
own food. Christ says, They need not depart. You don't need to go and do anything. Now, do you hear this? I hope
you're listening. There is nothing for you to do to provide your
food or to provide your salvation. There is nothing for you to do. They need not depart. Abide in Christ. You don't have
to provide anything for yourselves as you would in the house with
the blood over the door. Now, when I said there's nothing
that you need to provide, you couldn't provide anything anyway,
could you? Is there anything that you could provide to contribute
to your salvation? There's not a blessed thing.
But he says they need not depart. All you need is found right here
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the house with
the blood over the door. You stay in there and you wouldn't
depart either, would you? And oh, the blessed words, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Not when I see your faith
or your efforts to stop sinning or your efforts to start becoming
a better person or your repentance or your anything. When I see
the blood. The gospel's here. When I see
the blood, I will pass over you. He said, you give them to eat.
And I'm sure they were thinking, well, you might as well tell
us to create a universe. We can't do that. You give them to eat. Now, something else in Matthew's
account. You can go read this on your
own. It's a blessing. He said, they need not depart. Bring them to me. Bring them to me. These five
loaves and two fishes. Somebody once said that represents,
I don't know if it does, but it sounds good. That represents
the five books of the Pentateuch, the Prophets and the Psalms. Bring them to me. The Bible is
our food. The word of God is our food.
Bring them to me. That's the difference. Bring
them to me. And this is what we're to do
with regard to everything. Bring them to Him. Your sin,
you can't do anything about it. He can. Bring it to Him. Your unbelief, your hard heart,
your inability, bring it to Him. your needs, whatever they might
be, your physical needs, your spiritual needs, your loved ones,
bring them to him. That's the difference. Bring
them to me, casting all your care upon him, for he careth
for you. I wonder how many of us really
believe that. He careth. for you. And he's the only one
who can do anything anyway. You know, these pathetic five
loaves and two sardines are gonna be more than enough when they're
brought to him. Now look in verse 39 of Mark
chapter six, verse 38, he said, how many loaves have you? Go
and see. And when they knew, they said
five and two fishes. And he commanded them to make
all set down by companies on the green grass and they sit
down in ranks by hundreds and 50. Some people say that means
100 groups of 50. I don't know. But here's the
point. In order to eat, what they have
to do first? Sit down. You see, you can't
eat while you're up doing. You can only eat in the sitting
position. Not doing, but sitting. Hebrews
chapter four verse nine says, there remaineth a rest for the
people of God, for he that's entered into his rest hath ceased
from his own works. Have you ever done that? Have
you ever ceased from your own works as God did from his? Why did he cease? They were finished. They were very good. And you
cease from your own works when you see Christ finish the work
and behold, it's very good. And you're not looking to your
works. He had them sat down and the
meal is served to them. Verse 41, and when he had taken the five
loaves and the two fishes, Five biscuits and two sardines, that's
not much food. That was lunch for a little boy.
And there were anywhere between 10 and 20,000 people here at
this time. 5,000 men, not including women
and children. And he took those five loaves,
and the scripture says, I love the way it says this, he took
the five loaves and the two fishes, and he looked up to heaven. You
know something I don't feel comfortable with? Looking up to heaven. I
keep my face down. When I pray, I'm not looking
up, holding my hands up. I know a lot of people do that.
Not me. I know my prayer is heard and accepted through Christ.
I believe that, but I'm looking down. I'm like that publican
beating his breast, crying, God, be merciful to me, thee sinner. I'm looking down, but not him.
He could look up in full knowledge that he was perfect and the Father
was pleased with him. He looked up into heaven, and
he blessed. He blessed. It doesn't say he
blessed the bread. It says he blessed. I love that
scripture in Hebrews 7 that says, without all contradiction, no
arguing about this, the less is blessed of the better. He
is the one who blesses. I know people mean well. So I don't wanna be too hard
on somebody, but when somebody says, bless you, I think, huh,
can you do that? Have a blessed day, well, they're
all blessed in Christ Jesus, but I don't wanna be harsh, but
I think, he hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Every blessing we have, we have
in Christ and we have it because of this breaking. Look what it
says in verse 41, he looked up to heaven and blessed and then
he break the loaves and every blessing we have is because of
his broken body. Every blessing we have, all spiritual
blessings. And let me remind you, Every
true blessing is a spiritual blessing. Somebody says, well,
I like temporal blessings. Well, I'm not even sure temporal
blessings are blessings. It may be God gives you health to make
you forget him. It may be God gives you wealth
to make you forget him. I'm thankful to be able to pay
my bills. I want to. I don't want to have
too much. I don't want to have too little.
And the wise man said that. But understand this. Blessing
is not physical, material blessing. Blessing is spiritual blessing. He hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And they come
to us because of his broken body. The bread was broken. They all
come through the gospel through Christ dying on Calvary's tree
and putting away my sin and giving me righteousness and justifying
me. Every blessing I have, it doesn't come because of me. It
doesn't come because of something I do or something I do that causes
God to give me this blessing because I've been this way. No!
Every blessing comes through the broken body and shed blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He blessed and he'd break the
bread. Aren't you glad it's this way?
I would want it to be any other way. And we'd taken the five
loaves, verse 41, and the two fishes. He looked up to heaven
and blessed and break the loaves and gave them to his disciples
to set before them. And the two fishes divided he
among them all. Now, we know that every one of
these disciples had a basket. that they served the crowd in. And there were five biscuits
and two sardines. Now, how did he divide these
between the disciples? I don't know. I don't know if
they started out just breaking up the bread so he had a little
less than a half a biscuit and one-sixth of a sardine and put
it in there. Or I don't know if all, you know,
they put that in each one and food was created and it just
kept multiplying. But here's the point. This is the miracle
of creation. Through his death, we have the miracle of creation. Through his death, I don't wanna
leave that, I don't wanna ever leave that. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? Now through his death, through
the breaking of his body, everything you need is provided. And I think of these disciples,
each one of them had a basket and they were each to serve at
least a thousand people each with these baskets. I would say
it would be very conservative to say there were 12,000 at least
there, if you count women and children. And each disciple was
given a basket with a very meager amount of food, and it multiplied,
it multiplied, it multiplied, it multiplied. New matter was
brought into existence, new matter was created, and everybody was
fed. This creation of new bread just
kept happening. What a miracle. And the people
saw it. Now, this lets you know that
seeing a miracle doesn't create faith. Because these same people
who were fed in John chapter 6 After he preached to them,
they left him. They didn't want to have anything
to do with him. Now, at first they said, let's make him king.
As if they could make him king, he already is king. You don't
make him king who already is king. But they said, let's make
him king because they thought, man, this is the kind of king
we want. No work, free food, no effort, get everything. This
is good, let's make him king. And when they heard him preach,
they all ended up leaving him, all but the 12. And you know,
I bet the disciples, before they left, were really excited. We're
finally getting somewhere. I mean, these people are following
the Lord. They wanna follow Him, and we're finally seeing some
progress, and we're finally seeing some results, and this is good. And then they were watching as
the 5,000 left, and no one left but the 12. Now, creation, and this is what I
really wanted to get to, Creation is a beautiful picture of salvation. Now everybody knows that God
created the universe. What about atheists? They weren't
always atheists. You have to dislike the implications
of God and say, well, I don't believe God. But as I've said
before, that is illogical. It is anti-intellectual. Everything
about that is a blind leap into the dark to be an atheist. I'm
an atheist, and I'm sure many atheists are much more intelligent
than I am as far as IQ goes. I give that. There's a lot of
smart atheists. But when you take that leap in the dark, that's
plumb-dumb. It is. Creation. God creating the universe. Something from nothing. Ex nihilo
is the Latin, something from nothing. Only God can do that. Now in the physical creation,
he made something from nothing. For me to be saved, he's gonna
have to make something from nothing. And the only way you'll ever
be something is if you're first nothing. What's that mean? That means you have nothing to
bring to the table. You're not saved because you did anything.
You're not saved as an act of your free will. You're not saved
by your works. You have absolutely nothing to
bring to the table. And if you have anything to bring
to the table, your salvation is not a creation. It's a cooperative
effort between you and God. Now, did anyone cooperate with
God in the physical creation? Absolutely not. So too in the
spiritual creation. He creates something from nothing. I bring nothing to the table
and if you have anything to offer, creation does not take place. In creation, He makes something
to be that was not. He makes something to be that
was not. You see, he made me holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable. And you know what? I was not
holy, I was not unblameable, and I was not unreprovable. As
a matter of fact, I was unholy. Still am in my flesh. Blameable? No. Blame me for everything. Everything is my fault. Reprove me for everything I've
ever thought or done. But by His glorious work on Calvary's
tree, the blood of the cross, He made every believer to be
what they were not. Were you born into this world,
holy and unblameable and unreprovable? No, you were born defiled and
sinful and unholy. But by virtue of what He did
on Calvary's tree, He made you to be what you never were. Holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in His sight. The work of the cross was a work
of creation. Listen to this scripture, 1 Corinthians
15, 22. For as in Adam, all die, Even
so, in the same manner that in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive. What a creative work he accomplished
on Calvary. What about regeneration? Regeneration,
you're given a new heart that was not there before. That's
a creative act of God. If any man be in Christ, he is
a what? New creature. New creation. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. You see, regeneration is
not a change. It's a new creation. It's not
the old nature being changed for the better. That old nature
remains as bad as it ever was, but it's a new nature, a new
heart. Also will I give you. So we see how this creation of
bread to provide, that is such a beautiful picture of salvation.
It tells who Christ is, he's God, he's the creator. Now look
what it says in verse 42. and they did all eat. Now this is the only time I suppose
where no child is left behind. They did all eat, every single
one of them. They did all eat and they were
all filled. John's account says they ate
as much as they would, no limitations. You can have as much as you want.
And they were all filled, completely satisfied. Now, you know when
you're satisfied? You're satisfied when you really
don't want anything else. Have you ever been satisfied with
Christ when you really don't want anything else? You're totally happy to
be saved by him alone and you don't want anything else. Now, when you don't want anything
else, you're filled. Now, if you want something else,
it's gotta be more. Gotta be more. There's something missing
here. Well, you just never were satisfied. But if you're ever
satisfied, you won't want anything else. I'm just sure of that.
I'm as sure of that as I am that God is and that I exist. If anybody
ever believes the gospel, they're not looking for anything to add
to what he has done. They look to him only. Now look, let's
go on reading. They did all eat and were filled. And we know from John's account
that the Lord had them take up all the leftovers. It says in
verse 43, and they took up 12 baskets full of fragments, all
of the fishes. And in John's account, they took
up all the leftovers. And he said, get up, get all
the leftovers that nothing be lost. Now, I've heard people
say, well, the Lord is teaching us that we ought to be frugal
and not wasteful, and I wouldn't deny that. But that's not the
teaching there. It's not just not be, you shouldn't
be wasteful. There's no doubt about that. We ought to be responsible
with what the Lord gives us and not wasteful and so on. But 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 up all the fragments that nothing be lost. And there were 12 baskets remaining. Now this is interesting. After
all were filled, not only was the food not diminished, but
there was more than there was at the beginning. You see, his vast stores of mercy
and grace cannot be exhausted. There is always more. There's always more. 12 baskets, that's a special
number. 12 disciples, 12 sons of Jacob, 12 foundations, Of
the New Jerusalem, the number 12 refers to perfection,
wholeness, and completion. Beloved, if the Lord's body was broken
for you and you've eaten of Him, Right now, present tense, and
from this time forth and even forevermore, you're perfect,
you're whole, and you're complete. That's true of every single believer. Now, never forget these words
when you're tempted to go and do and buy your own food, they
need not depart. Bring them to me. May the Lord enable us all to
do just that. Let's pray together.