Let us turn again in our Bibles
to Mark, the gospel of Mark. And this morning we'll be looking
in chapter eight at the first 21 verses. Mark chapter eight. In those days, the multitude
being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called
his disciples unto him and saith unto them, I have compassion
on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days
and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away fasting
to their own houses, they will faint by the way, for divers
of them came from far. And his disciples answered him,
from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in
the wilderness? And he asked them, how many loaves
have you? And they said, seven. And he
commanded the people to sit down on the ground. He took the seven
loaves and gave thanks and break 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 they took up of the broken
meat that was left seven baskets. And they that had eaten were
about 4,000, and he said, sent them away. And straightway he
entered into a ship with his disciples and came into the parts
of Dalmutha. And the Pharisees came forth
and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven,
tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit
and saith, why doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say
unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation. And he left them and entered
into the ship again, departed to the other side. Now the disciples
had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship
with them more than one loaf. And he charged them saying, take
heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven
of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves,
saying, It is because we have no bread. And when Jesus knew
it, he saith unto them, Why reason you, because you have no bread?
Perceive you not yet, neither understand? Have you your hearts
yet hardened? Having eyes, see you not? Having
ears, hear you not? And do you not remember? When
I break the five loaves among 5,000, how many baskets full
of fragments took you up? And they say unto him, 12. And
when the seven among 4,000, how many baskets full of fragments
took you up? And they said, seven. And he
said unto them, how is it that you do not understand? It appears
that all that we have just finished reading in these verses It all
occurred on the same day. He told his disciples later,
I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man
worketh. The Lord Jesus Christ filled
his days in doing the Father's will. When the apostle Peter
was commanded to take the gospel to a Gentile, to Cornelius in
Acts chapter 10, as he was preaching there in that house, he said
this, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with
power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed
of the devil, for God was with him. He went about doing good. Every day, his day was filled
with doing good. I have three topics that I want
to speak to us about from the verses here that I've read. First of all, the compassion
of the Lord Jesus. The words that record this miracle
of him feeding the 4,000 open up with, I have compassion on
the multitude. The same was said before when
he fed the 5,000. In that place, in Mark chapter
six, we read, when he saw much people and was moved with compassion
toward them. In the letter of Hebrews, the
apostle tells us that every high priest had to be taken from among
men. In other words, an angel could
never have served as a high priest. A high priest had to be a man. And one of the reasons given
that the high priest had to be a man was that he might have
compassion. He might have compassion. The
Lord Jesus Christ had compassion. upon the multitude. Now you might
think this morning, well, that's all fine and good. That when
he was here in the flesh now over 2000 years ago, that he
was a man who had compassion upon those that he saw, those
that he met in need. But what about now? What about
today? What about me? Is he still the
same compassionate one? Well, in Hebrews chapter 13 and
verse 8, we read Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and
forever. In other words, He is unchanging. The Lord Jesus Christ is unchanging. He is still and shall forever
be full of compassion. You know, John, in the first
chapter of the Gospel of John, he said that we beheld his glory. That is the eternal word of God
who was made flesh and dwelt among us. He said we beheld his
glory full of grace and truth. The love the Lord Jesus Christ
has for his own will never ever change. In John chapter 13 in
verse 1 we read, having loved his own which were in the world,
he loved them to the end. Grace and truth was in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was full of compassion. I'd like to try to illustrate
that in this way. Let's think of a small town that
has a big water tower. And they've got the name of the
town printed, painted on that water tower. And it's full of
water. And everyone in that town, everyone, drinks water from that
tower. If you're going to drink water
and you live in that town, it's going to come out of that tower. May we use that to describe? The grace of God is all in Jesus
Christ. If you're going to experience
the grace of God, the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ, it
must come from Him. He is full of grace and truth. The power to cleanse men from
their sins is His blood, and His blood shall never lose its
power. As the hymn writer said, till
all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. The
power we sang about, there's power in the blood. There's power
to save, to transform, to cleanse. There's power in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's full of grace and truth. All the grace of God is stored
up in him. And, you know, we come to Him
for every need, or at least we should look to Him for every
need. If you say, well, I know that
I must believe in Him, but I don't have faith, look to Christ, come
to Christ for faith. You say, I know, He says, except
you repent, you shall all likewise perish. And I need to repent,
but I have no repentance in my heart. Come to Christ, look to
Christ, for repentance. Every grace, all grace, all saving
grace is in Jesus Christ. And it's not found anywhere else.
The righteousness, the righteousness that a person needs, a person
must have a righteousness For God to declare that person to
be just, to be righteous, to be accepted with Him, that righteousness
is only found in Christ. His righteousness, His righteousness
is imputed, the scripture says, is charged to the account of
all them that believe. Now, when we come here and read
the Lord Jesus Christ feeding a great multitude of people once
again. Just a few chapters earlier,
we read of Him feeding the 5,000 men, not including the women
and children, and now we read He feeds 4,000. And with just
a few loaves of bread and a couple of small fish, He fed this great
multitude. I believe that we see this recorded
twice over to us to convince us and assure us of his power
to continue to provide for us as we live in this world. He
fed us once. He met our needs once. He hasn't
changed. He's the same today as he was
yesterday and shall be forever. He fed thousands one day, he
fed them again a second day. When we look in the scriptures
at the various ones that the Lord fed, miraculously fed, he
fed Elijah, his prophet Elijah. You know, he had those ravens
and ravens are flesh eating birds. And yet he had them carrying
flesh to his servant. Elijah to feed him. And then
when the brook dried up beside which Elijah was, where the Lord
had led him, then he fed Elijah by that widow's meal in the barrel
and the little oil that was in the cruise of oil that she had.
He fed the nation of Israel. And when they numbered the nation,
think about this. When they numbered the nation,
there were 600,000 men above 20 years of age. 600,000 men. They didn't count
the women. They didn't count anyone that
was under 20 years. And yet for 40 years, for 40
years, every day, God gave them food to eat. God supplied. I remember reading many, many,
many years ago now a book entitled The Flood. And this man, if I
remember right, told how many boxcars of food it would have
taken to feed Noah and all of those animals while they were
there in the ark. How many boxcars of food? You
think how many boxcars of food, how many trailer loads of food
come into the city of Houston every day to feed the number
of people here? God fed every day the nation
of Israel. Some believe over three million
people. Every day they went out. He fed
them on the Sabbath day, but they didn't gather food on the
Sabbath day. They had to gather twice as much
on Friday so they'd have enough for Saturday, the Sabbath. But
he fed them all that time. You know, in Matthew chapter
six and verse 33, the Lord Jesus Christ says, seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you. And in the context there, all
these things Refer to food and clothes and shelter. All these
things shall be added unto you. God has promised to meet the
needs of his people. Paul wrote to Timothy, for bodily
exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto
all things. Now listen. Godliness is profitable
unto all things, having the promise or having promise of the life
that now is. In other words, that's the life
that we are now living in this world. The promise, having promise
of the life that now is and of that life which is to come. God has promised us to meet our
needs in this world as well, our physical needs as well as
our spiritual needs. He's our kind and loving Heavenly
Father. He said, as your days shall demand,
so shall your strength be. This is what I see in this recording
of the feeding of the thousands, once again, to remind us and
assure us, as his children, he will meet our needs. You know,
people live sometimes with great anxiety and great apprehension
about the future, and I've been there, and I still find myself
there many times. But let me tell you something.
I've been there over the years, and now, as an old man, I can
say with the Psalmist David, I once was young, but now am
old, and I've never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed
begging bread. I've never seen that. And I don't
believe I ever will. And the reason the righteous
will never be forsaken is because the righteous one The Lord Jesus
Christ, He was forsaken. He was forsaken of God the Father
when He was bearing the sins of His people. And because He
was forsaken, we'll never be forsaken. He will meet our needs. There's a verse in Isaiah chapter
33, which speaks of those of us who trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ, as dwelling on high, then we are told that his place,
that is the person who dwells in Christ, who lives in Christ,
who finds his all in Christ, who lives on high, his place
of defense, now listen, shall be the munitions of rocks. Munitions. And I thought, now
what does that word mean, munitions? I've heard of ammunition. So
I decided I'd better look that word up. Munitions of rocks. And yes, ammunition comes from
it, because the ammunition is what people have to defend themselves
with. Men shut up in a fort. They have
ammunition. Well, what this scripture is
telling us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the believer's refuge,
and he's a refuge so high that none can get to you in him, and
he's a refuge so strong that no one can overcome him. And
in this refuge, there's a stockpile, if I could use that word, of
everything that we might need as we go through this world.
And then that verse continues on. Let me read it all to us.
He that dwelleth on high, his place of defense shall be the
munitions of rocks, and his bread shall be given him. That's his
food. His food shall be given him and
his waters, and we need water to live, don't we? And his waters
shall be sure. So let us learn from both the
Lord's compassion. He had compassion on the multitude. Let us learn from both his compassion
and his power to trust him. to meet all of our needs, spiritual
needs as well as physical needs. Remember this world is his world. We quote that verse quite often
about the fact that he can turn the heart of the king as he turns
the rivers of water. But it's not just the heart of
the king, it's the heart of all men. God controls all things. The reason he knows the end from
the beginning, and he does, is because he has determined all
things, the end as well as those means to the end. That's what
we call predestination. Predestination. He has predestined
these things. determined these things, and
we see that especially in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That man was responsible, he's charged with crucifying the Savior,
but yet everything that man did, he did according to the determinate
counsel, God's will, and the foreknowledge of God. And that's
true of all things. of all things. There's not a
grain of sand that is in this world. There's not a feather
floating through the air, my friends, that God does not have
control over and has not destined that feather to where it will
light. The seeds. The seeds from the
flowers and the seeds from the trees, you know the wind blows
it and where do they go? They go to where God would plant
them. He's in control of all. Asparagus
does not fall to the ground. Now some people believe, you
know how a bird eats. Now they may go down and get
a grain. Some people believe what our
Lord is really saying there that asparagus doesn't even go down
and pick up a grain of of food, of feed without the Lord. That everything, everything,
no matter how minute, no matter how great, God, our God, is in
control. And He's working all things after
the counsel of His own will. And He's working all things for
His glory. And this is something that I
believe has This generation and the previous generation, we've
lost sight of the fact that this is God's world. It's not our
world. This is His world. We are His
creatures. And everything in this world
and everything that goes along and on in this world ultimately
is for His glory. and for the good of his chosen
people." Everything. Now the second subject here is
the desire for a sign. If you notice in verses 8 through
12 here in Mark chapter 8, the desire for a sign. Scripture
says, that they desired of him in verse 11. And the Pharisees
came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign
from heaven. They did this tempting or testing
him. Now think of this, they wanted
a sign from heaven. Some of the signs that Moses
wrought when he went in before Pharaoh. I would assume or conclude
those were signs from heaven, the locusts that came into the
land, the swarms of flies that came, the thunder, the hail that
came upon the land of Egypt. These were signs from heaven. I was reading in Joshua this
past week, when they were engaged in one battle, the Lord, the
scripture says, the Lord cast down great hailstones from heaven. In other words, God was fighting
for them. And more people were destroyed
by those hailstorms than by the swords of Joshua and his army. And 1 Samuel The prophet Samuel,
he called for a sign that the thunder that came, a sign from
heaven. Now, the only sign, and this
is how we understand this, they asked for a sign from heaven.
And the Lord said, there's not going to be a sign. But then
he did say the only sign that's going to be given is the sign
of Jonah, the prophet. which was not a sign from heaven.
It was a sign, but it was not a sign from heaven. You see the
difference? These signs from heaven, miracles
or wonders performed coming down from heaven, but the sign that
was given to that generation was the sign of Jonah. For he said, for as Jonah was
three days and three nights in the whale's belly, So shall the
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth. Jonah was assigned, not only
to that generation, but he's assigned to every generation. He's assigned to men today. The Lord Jesus Christ said, destroy
this temple. And they said, well, he's talking
about this temple in which we're here today worshiping. They're
building this temple. Herod was 40 some years, you
know, adorning this temple. And he tells us he's going to
raise it up in three days? No, he wasn't talking about that
physical temple, was he? He was talking about the temple
of his body. The word was made flesh and tabernacle,
temple among us. Destroy this temple and in three
days I will raise it up. That's the sign that was given,
the sign of Jonah, the prophet. And what did that sign testify
to? Well, it testified to the fact
that he is God. He is God. You destroy this body
in three days, I will raise it up. And not only did it testify
to the fact that he is God, in fact, in Romans chapter one,
the apostle Paul said that that by the resurrection it was manifested
that he was the son of God, but also it's a sign to those of
us who believe that our sins have been paid for. He was punished, my friends.
He didn't die of old age. No, no. He died the death of
a felon, crucified on a cross. And he died because he was bearing
the sins of his people, the scripture says, in his own body. There
was a debt that we owed. His people owed a debt to God's
justice, a debt we couldn't pay. And how do we know that debt
is paid? How do we know that God is satisfied? God justified him. raised him
from the dead on the third day. So that you and I, this morning,
might have assurance. Assurance today. Not hope so,
not maybe, but assurance today. Our sins have been paid for.
God's testified. He's satisfied. The debt's gone. Sin's removed. We've been justified
before God. You know, in 1 Corinthians chapter
one, this was when Paul was preaching many, several years after the
resurrection of Christ, he still said the Jews require a sign
and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. You know, that just seems to
have been a trait among the Jews. They were always looking for
a sign. But there's no sign going to
be given. And as I was preparing these
notes, I thought to myself, I wonder how many people down through
the ages have perished. How many people are in hell today
who were looking for a sign? If God would just show me a sign.
I'll believe. If I could just see some miracle,
I would believe. No, faith is believing the testimony
of God. That is the Word of God. What about you? Are you waiting
for a sign? Waiting for a feeling? Waiting
for an experience? Are you? Believe, this is what
Paul told the jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. Now the third topic is the warning
about leaven, and let me be very brief here. But you notice the
Lord warned his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees.
and Herodians in verse 15. He charged them saying, take
heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven
of Herod. Now, in Matthew's gospel, it
reads the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and it's believed
that most of the religious leaders who supported Herod were Sadducees. But what is the leaven of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees? Well, there are two verses of
scripture. When I ask you a question like that, what is the leaven
that the Lord Jesus Christ warned us about? I want to know what God says
the leaven is, don't you? There are two verses that tell
us. Let's turn. First of all, in Matthew chapter
16. What is the leaven the Lord warned
us about, warned his disciples about? In Matthew chapter 16 and verse
12, we read, then understood they, that is his disciples,
then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the
leaven of bread, But, here it is, of the doctrine of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,
the doctrine, the teaching of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. What was their doctrine? What
was the doctrine of the Pharisees? Well, we know from the scripture
here, their doctrine was they set aside the word of God and
chose tradition over God's Word. That's the leaven we should be
aware of. Now, leaven works, it works silently, doesn't it? A small leaven, small amount
of leaven will leaven a whole lump, the Apostle Paul said. And leaven, this doctrine, this
teaching of the Pharisees, setting aside the Word of God We've, some of us are old enough,
I believe we've seen this in our day, in our land, how that
the word of God at one time was accepted in all the so-called
Christian churches of the land. And then slowly, slowly, the
Christian churches have been denying the word of God and choosing
the traditions of men. And we've come to the place today,
now think about this, we've come to the place today in our land
when smart people, educated people, leaders, they cannot even tell
you the definition between man and woman, though the Lord told
us in the very beginning, he made them both male and female. And they tell us, follow the
science. Okay? Follow the science. In biology, there's a male and
there's a female. There's no other, no other sex,
is there? And yet that's, how did that
happen? How's that come about in our
country? People have slowly set aside
the Word of God, and now we are accepting all sorts of things
as a norm and as a standard. No, the standard, my friends,
is the Word of God. That's the rule. And when I say
rule, I mean that's the rule by which we are measured. That's
the way you tell what's crooked and what's straight. The Word
of God is straight. And when we deviate, and as I
said, it happens slowly over time, now we've got the most
crooked and perverse things being told this generation. And people are afraid to speak
out. But we don't have a choice. We
believe the Word of God. I believe the Word of God, don't
you? I know you do. So the doctrine
of the Pharisees, as far as I'm concerned, was to set aside the
Word of God and substitute for it the inventions of men, the
traditions of men. And then the doctrine of the
Sadducees, they denied a resurrection. They denied that there's a life
yet before us. As the scripture says, it is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. Men have no problem with accepting
that there's a day of death, but that's not the end. There's
also a judgment, a judgment. Well, look at the other place.
So that's the first place. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees. Here's the second place in Luke
chapter 12, where we are told what this leaven consists of.
In Luke chapter 12, And verse 1, in the meantime, when there were
gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch
that they trod one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples,
first of all, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. What is that? That's pretending
to be what we are not. Hypocrisy. Pretending to be what
we are not. I trust the Lord would bless
this word to all of us here this morning and give Give thanks
today. All of us give thanks. And I
know we do, by the grace of God. Give thanks for his word. And
I have a friend. He's since passed away. But when
he went into the Navy, they taught him how to navigate by the stars. I forget that instrument they
use. You probably know of it. But
anyway, they navigate. by the stars. Out there in the
Pacific Ocean, that's a big ocean. That's a big ocean. Where are we? Well, they could
line up with certain stars and know exactly where they were.
A person in this world without the word of God is like It's
worse than being out there on the ocean and not knowing which
way is north, which way is south. Not knowing where you are, what's
out there before you, what's around you, where you are. Thank
God we have the Word of God that is a light under our path and
a lamp under our feet. Amen. We're going to sing hymn
127, Man of Sorrows. What a name. for the Son of God who came.
Number 127.