Open your Bibles to the 6th chapter
of John once again, and let me read a few of these verses. It says in chapter 6 of John's
Gospel, after these things, I'll comment on that in a moment,
but Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of
Tiberias, And a great multitude followed him, we know something
of the number, five thousand men, not counting the women and
children, because they saw the miracles which he did on them
that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain,
and there he sat with his disciples. And the Passover, a feast of
the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus lifted up his eyes
and saw a great company coming unto him. He said unto Philip,
Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said to prove or
test Philip, for he, the Lord, knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Why, if
two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for this crowd,
that every one of them may take a little. An unbelief is contagious. One of his disciples, Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother, said to him, Well, there's a lad here
that has five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are
they among so many? There are several things which
led me to speak from this portion of Scripture, and I don't know exactly what
I'm going to do with it or how I'm going to handle it completely,
but several things which led me to speak from this portion
of God's Word and gave me a great interest in this story. The first is this. Did you know
this is the only miracle our Lord performed, the only one,
that's recorded by all four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
This is the only miracle they all record. Something here, isn't
it? Something very important here
that led the Holy Spirit to have every one of the four evangelists
record this miracle. And then the second thing that
caught my attention was this, in verse 6. It was a time of
testing. It says in verse 6, this he said
to prove, Philip, to test him. testing time, trying time for
Philip, and he failed. He failed, and Andrew failed,
and all the disciples failed. And that caught my attention
because I wanted to see a way, and I failed. And you failed. And then the third thing that
led me to speak from this portion of the Word is when I read Philip's
reply, I saw myself. The Lord said, Where are we going
to get enough food for all these people? He said, well, we ain't
got the money. Andrew, where are we going to
get the food to feed these people? Well, there's a little fellow
here who's got five loaves and two fishes, but what's that among
so many? And this came to him as a title
for the message, Calculating Without Price. adding up their
resources, forgetting to whom they spoke. Oh, I've done that
so much. I've done that so much. I've
measured what can be done by my poor means rather than in
the light of His power. I've just totally ignored to
whom I speak. He says, Philip, where are we
going to get the bread to feed this crowd? We don't have the
money. We don't have the money. I can
hear all the church treasurers in America. You want to go on
the radio to praise God, we don't have the money. You want to send
a missionary somewhere, where are we going to get the money?
You think money grows on trees, preacher? Oh, I see me, I see my brethren,
I see other preachers, I see a board of deacons, I see all
the church folks. Well, let's go try this. Well,
we don't have anything. You know, here's a, we just got
a boy here with five loaves and two fishes. He couldn't handle
that. We limit the sovereign Christ
because of our poor resources. We judge the almighty Christ's
ability by the strength of our weak flesh. We judge his love
by our own. We judge his ability by our own
ability. And I looked at that, and the
more I looked at it, the more I wanted to preach. to me from
this portion. And then the fourth reason why
I'm dealing with this passage tonight is this. I would like
for that scripture, and I quote it in my prayer, I would like
for that scripture, I can do all things through Christ with
strength in me. I'm not just talking about preaching.
I'm talking about singing or playing instruments or witnessing. Or I'm talking about just living,
I'm talking about trials, I'm talking about victories, I'm
talking about endeavors, I'm talking about anything. I can
do all things through Christ which strengthens me. I'd like
that to be my experience rather than my doctrine. That's what
I'm saying. Day by day. Day by day. If it's planting the garden or
hoeing the weeds. If it's painting the house or
cutting the grass, if it's taking care of the babies, or if it's
working on my job, if it's the persecution of family or friends
or those who hate the gospel, if it's God calling on me to
go to some special place and do something, whatever it is,
day by day, trust. Day by day, rest and trust in
Him. in His strength, not mine, in
His riches, not mine, in His power, not mine, in His ability,
not mine. I think this is what Paul was
saying when he wrote in Galatians 4 and 19, I prevail till Christ
be formed in you. Not Christ a firescape, but Christ
a living, abiding Lord. Not Christ of a way out, an insurance
policy, but Christ dwelling in us, drawing from that fountain
of life all we need when we need it. I can do... He said, without me, you can
do nothing. And I know that. I know that. I'm well versed
in what I can't do. I'd like to think a little bit
about what I can do. We hear so much preaching about
our depravity and inability, and it's necessary. But I tell
you, I need to think a little bit about what I can do through
Christ and by the power of Christ. The rest and joy that I can enjoy,
the rest and joy and peace. All right, let's look at chapter
6, just verse by verse, a few statements here, and let's see
what the Lord's pleased to give us. It says here in verse 1,
chapter 6, after these things. After what things? After the
things that occurred in chapter 5. After the healing of the impotent
man. Now, the disciples were witnesses
of all this. Our Lord came there to the sheet
gate by the pool of Bethesda, and there was a man who had been
impotent, lame, for thirty-eight years. And the master said to
him, Will you be made whole? Oh, he said, sir, he said, I
have no one when the angel disturbed the water to put me in. And even
if someone helped me, the other folks come and get in the water
before I do. And there's no possibility. Our
Lord said, would you be made whole? Oh, yes. Yes. Well, rise, take up your
bed and walk. And the disciples saw this. They
were witnesses of this after these things. Then after these
things, after the Jews, had demonstrated that they were more interested
in their tradition than they were in the mercy and grace of
God to the needy. They met this man. Our Lord told
him to rise, take up his bed. Here was a man lame for 38 years,
who had never walked for 38 years, who was able by the power of
God and the strength of Christ to literally take up his bed
and put it on his back, a roll or whatever he slept on, and
carry it. And these religious Pharisees
saw him coming down the road carrying his bed, and they ignored
the fact that here was a man who had been lame for 38 years.
They ignored the fact that a mighty miracle had been performed. They
ignored the fact that God had had mercy on this man, and they
were more interested in their religious tradition than they
were in the mercy of God. And they said, hey, you can't
carry your bed on the Sabbath day. What a commentary on our day,
when men are more interested in their traditions and customs
and rules and regulations than they are in the grace and mercy
of God. The disciples were witnesses
of that. And then our Lord spoke to these Pharisees. He brought
a lengthy discourse on His deity. I am the Father One, but my Father
worketh and I work. He talked to them about his power
to give life to the dead. He said, The Father hath power
to give life, and even so the Son, quickeneth whom he will.
He talked about his mission to redeem a people. And after this,
he gave a revelation of the witnesses. In John chapter 5, the witnesses,
who bore witness of his deity. He talked about John the Baptist.
He talked about the works that he did. He talked about the Father
speaking from heaven, and then he talked about the scriptures.
He said, you search the scriptures, in them you think you have life?
They are they which testify of me. And still he made no, he
made no impression whatsoever on these religious people. And
so it says here in verse six, or verse one, chapter six, after
these things, after all these things, our Lord just left them,
just departed from them. He departed from the presence
of these unbelieving religious debaters and arguers, and he
went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
He just left. And verse 2 says, And a great
multitude followed him, a multitude of the people. And why did they
follow him? They didn't follow him because
they were interested in what he was saying, They followed
Him because of the miracles which He did on them that were diseased.
Turn to John chapter 2. We see this frequently in the
Word of God. People who are not interested
in what our Lord says, they are interested in what He does, in
what He did. In John chapter 2, verse 23,
Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast
days, many believed on Him when they saw the miracles. They saw
the miracles which he did. They saw these astounding miracles,
and they had a form of faith because of the miracles. They
were drawn to him by the unusual miracles. Verse 24 says, but
he didn't commit himself to them because he knew them. He knew
what attracted them. He knew what appealed to them.
He knew why they followed him. In John 6, 25, look at this. In the sixth chapter of John,
the one we're talking about, Verse 25, here's this crowd following
him. And when they found him on the
other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come
over here? He answered them, he said, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, I know why you are following me. You seek me not
because you saw the miracles, but because you did even the
loaves and were filled. This is that crowd that he fed. This is the thing that disturbs
me today. I don't really believe that we
know how bankrupt we are spiritually in this day. I don't believe
we really understand how bankrupt we are. People today are following
clever evangelists, they're following faith healers, they're following
religious cheerleaders, they're following noisemakers, they're
interested in music, they're interested in good singing, they're
interested in quartet, they're interested in all-night gospel
singing, they're interested in football stadium meetings, they're
interested in all these different things, but they're not interested
in the words of Christ. in the words of Christ. You can
announce a bunch of quartets or special music or some famous
personality, and you can fill a stadium, you can fill a theater,
you can fill a large auditorium. But if you announce you're going
to look into the Word and have a Bible study and find out what
the Master is saying about God and about sin and about Christ
and about the atonement, and about redemption, I'll tell you,
you'd have plenty of room in that place. That's a commentary
on our times. But it's the same thing happening
here. The same thing. Our Lord left
the religious Pharisees, He left these arguers, He left these
theologians, He just turned and left them. And then these other folks followed
Him, and they followed Him, not because of what He taught, not
because of what He said, They followed Him because of the miracles,
and they followed Him because of the loaves and fishes. They
followed Him because of all these things. And then verse 3 says,
And our Lord left them. And He left them. And He went up into a mountain. Has not the Lord perhaps withdrawn
Himself from from American religion in 1986. We still got the noise and the
confusion and the foolishness and the promotion. But to save
my life, when I listen to it and watch it and observe it and
read it and read their ads in the papers and listen to them
on television, And I know the cheerleading's
there, and the whoop-de-doo's there, and all these things are
there. But he's not there. He's not there. You know, in Corinthians, there's
a scripture that talks about the unlearned coming into a place,
and sitting down, and listening, and saying, the Lord is among
these people. Today, the comment, they come
in, they sit down, they say, boy, they got some good singers.
That's West Virginia for singers. Boy, they sure got a pretty place.
This cost a pretty penny. Or there was a ring in the PA
system. I noticed while the preacher
was talking that there was a ring. They ought to get that fixed. It's just all kind of things.
that people think about, or did you see who was there this morning? And I think verse 4 tells us
what's wrong. It says here, And the Passover,
a feast of the Jews, was nigh. One writer said this. He talked
about the Lord departing into the mountain. He said, The Lord
went up into a mountain, a place apart with twelve disciples,
weary of their unbelief. Weary. of their foolish questions,
weary of their tradition, weary of their covetousness, weary
of their fleshly pursuits, and sought a quiet place to be
alone with those that really loved him. Now, I want to show you something
here. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. What's
wrong with that? Well, the Passover originally
was the Lord's Passover. It was the Lord. That's what
it's called. Paul, in Exodus 12, he said, when your children
ask you what mean ye by this service, you tell them it's the
Lord's Passover. It's the Lord's Passover. And
it has now degenerated into a feast of the Jews. The Lamb was standing
right there, and they didn't know Him. They went right on
about their Passover, their Jewish feast. They went right on about
observing it in solemnity, oh, sobriety, in a lot of reverence,
and doing just the right things. He was over there up in a mountain.
The Lord was. It's their Passover now. You
see what I'm saying? It's their Passover. You say,
how can you carry on religious things without the Lord? Easily. You can carry on all types of
religion and legalism and ritualism and ceremonialism and all these
things without God. It's always been so. These fellows
here prove that. We're proving it today. You know
what I'm sure to tell you? What's the Lord's house called
today? Our church. Our church. That's what we called
it. Not the Lord's church or the
Lord's house, it's our church. What's the Lord's prophet called?
Our little preacher. I hear that all the time. A lady
came to me not long ago and said, I want you to meet our little
preacher. He's so sweet. I just can't imagine anybody
introducing Paul that way. Or Peter especially. Or the sons of thunder, James
and John. Our little preacher. That's what
everybody calls him. Because that's what he is. He's
our little preacher. He ain't God's servant. He's
our little preacher. We hire him and fire him. When
you get tired of him, we'll fire him. That's right. Because we
hired him. God didn't send him. We hired
him. We had a pulpit committee. And they had a meeting, and they
heard a lot of preachers, and they thought he was the most handsome,
and had the best voice, and prettiest wife, cutest kids. So we hired
him. He'll make a good pastor. Like
one church member said one time, said, my preacher can't preach
a lick, but he's a good pastor. So I said, how can he be a good
pastor and can't preach a lick? Well, he visits the sick. He
made them sick. He ought to visit them. Starved them to death. They're
dying of malnutrition. He ought to visit them every
day, shouldn't he, Charlie? What's the Lord's Word called?
What do we call this Word? My Bible. My Bible. I've had people look at me and
say, My Bible doesn't say that. Well, I know what my Bible says.
It used to be the Lord's Word. It used to be the Word of the
Lord. See, the Jewish feast was at hand. It used to be the Passover,
the Lord's Passover. It used to be His Passover, when
a revelation of His presence and power and mercy and grace. But now it's the Jewish Passover.
What's the Lord's salvation called now? David said, Restore unto
me the joy of thy salvation. You know what it's called now?
My profession of faith. Not the Lord's salvation anymore,
because salvation is not of the Lord anymore. I read a song in
that paper you gave me a while ago that said, I just made my
down payment on a mansion in glory. It's my salvation. It's my profession of faith.
The Lord's church is our great denomination. The Lord's table
is what? It's a church ordinance. And
we only let those who are members of our congregation attend. They may be lost, but if they're
members, they can come. And you may be saved, but if
you're not a member, you can't come. So it's not the Lord's
table anymore, it's our table. Roland Hill was preaching for
a church one time, and they were observing what they said was
the Lord's table. He was sitting down in the front
row, waiting to come up and preach. He was a pastor, preacher, veteran
preacher, many years, writer, soldier of Christ. He was sitting
down in the front row, and they observed what they called the
Lord's table before he came up to preach, and the deacons were
serving. And of course, they practiced closed, closed communion. And so he took, the deacon took
the bread and Mr. Hill reached out to take it.
He's a believer. He knew Christ. He reached out
to take it and the deacon pulled it back. And looked at him with indignation
and said, you can't come to our table. Mr. Hill said, oh, I beg your
pardon. I thought it was the Lord's table.
I'm sorry. No, it's not the Lord's table.
The incarnation of Christ. What is the incarnation of Christ
now? Christ the Lord left heaven's
glory and came to this earth clothed in human flesh. You know
what the incarnation of Christ is now? Christmas cheer. And the Lord's Day, what is that?
It's Mother's Day, Father's Day, Roundup Sunday, Fun Day, just
keep naming it. We've got all kinds of things
to do on Sunday. What's the resurrection of Christ
now? Easter bunnies and egg hunts. We're in bad shape. We're in bad shape. The Lord's
offering now, instead of just an offering as unto the Lord,
is now planting seeds of faith. A lot of fancy words for it. And the reason we plant these
seeds of faith is we expect to get a return on our investment.
a big return, because the preacher said we would. And the Lord's
coming. You know what the return of the
Lord is now? I'm looking at this thing, the
Passover, a feast of the Jews was bound, that which was the
Lord's Passover, that which was that solemn time of remembrance,
when God passed through and saw the blood and passed over them.
when Christ was portrayed and pictured and the pattern was
there, Christ, the Lamb of God, it had degenerated into a mechanical
feast of the Jews. And all of these things that
used to be so important to us has degenerated into these things
that we can do, thank you, without God. The Lord's coming, you know
what it is now? The Lord's coming is the rebuilding
of the Jewish temple and the return of the sacrifices and
the return of a nation of rebels to power over other nations.
That's what the Lord's coming is to most people. And we all
are going to run over to Jerusalem and we're going to worship at
that temple again. That's an abomination. You know
what I think of when I see all of these things that I'm looking
at? I think of that dear daughter-in-law of Eli. Eli was 90 years old. And Eli had ruled or judged Israel
for forty years, faithfully. Eli, who was Samuel's teacher,
had faithfully judged Israel for those forty years. And he
was old and his sight was dim. And they came and told him that
the Philistines had come in and they had conquered and they had
stolen the ark of God. And that old man was so shocked,
he fell off the stool and broke his neck and died. And his daughter-in-law
had a baby about that time, and they told her, said, your husband's
dead, and his father Eli's dead, but you have a son to brighten
your day. The ark of Israel is gone, and
she said, name him Ichabod. The glory has departed. That's what I see here. I see
our Lord engaged after these things, after all these glorious
revelations, after all these glorious teachings, after all
of this declaration of His witnesses, and they still, they still argued
and quarreled and debated. He just left them, just left
that bunch of religious leaders, just departed, went over And
then here came this crowd, you know, because of the miracles
he'd done. And he went up into a mountain,
and looked down there, and the Feast of the Jews, the religion
was going on, all the Parthenon, conglomeration, and programming,
and all that sort of thing. And I see that today. But, he puts his own disciples
now. Here we come in, his own disciples. We're not much better. We're
not much better. All the T.H.D.' 's and P.H.D.'
's had been, he'd left them. And all that crowd of will-worshippers
and miracle-worshippers and programs, he'd left them. And now he's
sitting there with his 12, the inner circle. He looked out there
and saw that crowd. They were down there. He was
up here on the hill. And they were all over the place. A lot
of grass there. They were all over the place.
So now he's going to put them to the test. If it wasn't for
his grace, he'd leave them, too. He turned to Philip, and he said
in verse 5, he said, Philip, Matthew, I believe, said the
Lord had compassion on them. They were hungry. And he turned
and he said, Philip, where can we get bread? that these people
may eat. It says in verse six, he said
this to prove Philip, test Philip. You know, we look, we talk about
those religious Orthodox Jews who were so contentious, so careful
about their Sabbath day and ignored the mercy of God. And then we
talk about these miracle workers who weren't interested in what
Christ said, they were only interested in what Christ did. And we say,
we're the twelve that are interested in what Christ said, but do we
really believe what He said? That's what I'm asking. Now,
the Lord knew what He would do. You say, what does that mean,
Preacher? Well, known unto God are all His works from the beginning.
Our Lord is going to work in spite of us. Not because of us,
in spite of us. He'll use means, but He'll...
You see, and He asked Philip this question to test him, to
prove him. Now, the Lord never asks a question
for information. He never asks a question for
information. He knows all things. He knows all things. And known
unto God are all His works from the beginning. But when our Lord
asks a question, say He asks a question of you, Chuck, or
of me, He's not asking for information. He's asking to reveal what's
in us. That's right. He's asking. He
said to Adam, Where are you? Where are you, Adam? Where are
you, Adam? And Adam then told what was on
his mind, what was on his heart. Cain, where's your brother? He
knew where his brother was. Philip, see this crowd? How are we going to feed them? And Philip answered. Watch this.
Philip said, I can just see him. He's like me or you. We just
don't have the money. Two hundred penny worth of bread
is not sufficient for all these folks. Why? We don't have the
money to, we can't afford to feed all these people. Philip
had seen the Lord heal that man lame. Philip had seen the Lord
make water into wine. Philip had seen the Lord do all
manner of miracles, and yet when the Lord asked him, how do we
feed this multitude? Philip began to calculate his
own resources. He began to look to see what
he had. See what he had. Instead of looking
to Christ, Philip looked to himself. What is our feebleness compared
to his strength? I do this. I do this in so many... I see people who do it in redemption. I see people who do this in righteousness,
holiness. They look to themselves. I see
them do it in preaching. I see him do it in daily life,
in trials. When that man brought his lad
to Christ, the boy who was possessed of devils, and the boy was even
then thrown at the feet of Christ, rolling in the dust, and his
eyes rolled back and going into a fit, and the Father said, Can
you do anything? And our Lord said, If you can
believe, all things are possible to them that believe. if you
can believe, not in yourself, in me. What is our feebleness
compared to His strength? What is our emptiness compared
to His fullness? What is our inability compared
to His power? But Philip was calculating without
Christ. And when you do that, there's
no hope. Anytime. When I walk up here to preach,
if I'm depending on my knowledge and wisdom and understanding
of the Scripture, I'm going to be a total failure. When we're
called upon in any event of life, in any trial of life, in any
decision to make, if we calculate without Christ, there's no hope.
But look at verse 8. Another disciple spoke up, Andrew
spoke up, and he said this. Now, this is interesting. Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother, said unto him, Well, we don't have any
money, but there's a young boy here who has five loaves of bread.
and two small fishes. But Lord, what are they among
so many? Still, determining this situation
without Christ. Not taking into account His power,
His grace, His mercy, His ability. I know what we're doing in religion
today. Now, if we can go to school and get our training and get
our credentials, and get our doctorates, and get our organization,
and get our endowments, we'll feed this multitude. We can handle
it then. Look at verse 10. Our Lord then
spoke to them, and He said, Make the men sit down. And there was
much grass in the place, so that the men sat down and had about
five thousand men. I'm counting the women and children.
And our Lord took the loaves. What did he take? He took that
simple thing that that little boy had, and he said, five loaves
and two fishes. He took the foolish, the base,
the simple. And what did he do? He blessed
it. He gave thanks. He blessed it. He put his hand
on it. And then he distributed it to the disciples, and the
disciples, to them that sat down, and likewise of the fishes as
much as they would, and they were all filled." Our Lord used
the means and filled everybody there. Turn
to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Now here's, Paul is talking about
it over here. Paul is talking about it in 1
Corinthians chapter 1 beginning with verse 26. You see your calling, brethren,
not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called. But God hath 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. It's not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,
saith the Lord. And God hath chosen the base
things of the world, the things which are despised of men, hath
God chosen. Yea, and things which are not.
Things which have no power in themselves. There's no way that
a boy with five loaves and two fishes can feed five to ten thousand
people. Can't do it. It's just not possible
unless he's in the hands of God. And he takes the things that
are not. to bring to nought the things that are. Why? That no
flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us all we need, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Oh, that I might
learn from this scripture, from this
story, that I've read to you tonight, not to calculate without
Christ, that I can do all things through Christ which strengthens
me, that He can do it, and our Lord can take the simplest means. That which men count is nothing.
Like Andrew said, there's a boy here, he's got five loaves and
two fishes, but what is that? What is that? It's nothing to
us. But these simple means in the hands of our God, simple
means in the hands of our Christ, can do all things. Nothing is
impossible if we can believe. Our Father, how grateful we are for Your
Word. The Word of the Living God. This
story would mean nothing if it was the writings of men. It would
have no bearing upon us, no impression upon our hearts, and have nothing
for us. But this is the Word of our Lord. And we pray that you will enable
us by your Spirit, as thy children, thy disciples, to learn from
what has been taught tonight. Never, never to look to our own
strength and resources, but always look to Him. Never to approach
any situation calculating without our Lord Jesus Christ. Remembering
if He commands it, it shall be done. If we are led by His Spirit,
it shall be done. that we have no reason ever to
doubt Him or to question Him or to question His power or ability
to do what He will. Lord, increase our faith. We
believe, help our unbelief. Use this message for whatever
purpose it pleases Thee, for the glory of our dear Lord. In
His name we pray, Amen.