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[0:00] I think sometimes it's tragic that maybe we don't have a continuous ministry through portions of the scripture, though some might disagree with this.

[0:13] But sometimes there is a great help and an aid in a continuance going through the word to follow on what has been spoken of before and to see things in that context of what has gone before and what goes on afterwards.

[0:27] And when we started reading John chapter 6, and it says in those words, after these things, well we must remember that it's speaking of those things which have happened before.

[0:41] Where the Lord, because of his healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda, there in the five porches as you remember in John chapter 5, they complained to him of the man carrying his bed on the Sabbath day and then it had come down to him speaking that his father worketh still and he'd made himself equal with God.

[1:03] And then as the arguments had gone on about, he speaks of the witness of his works and the witness of the father and the witness of the scriptures and still they fight against him and can't believe, but still he brings more things upon them.

[1:19] Well, it tells them after this, after these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

[1:29] Now, the thing, just first thought I was thinking of there was this. Has Jesus left you? Has Jesus been portraying himself and his word over the years to you?

[1:45] And still you're arguing, you're questioning, you're doubting, and you're still unwilling to step out in faith to believe him and to follow him.

[1:58] Let's be warned, friends. God will not always strive with men. Oh, no. There seems to be a place, it's known to God alone, of course, where he works and then, if he withdraws himself, then we should be in a tragic situation and a tragic place.

[2:18] Let's be warned. After these things, Jesus, he left them. He went away from them. Remember, at the time Jesus died and then he rose again from the dead, he appeared only to those who believed.

[2:36] Let's be ready and warned to be sure of our position and let's pray that our position might indeed be in Christ for that is the only safe ground wherein we can stand.

[2:50] We also see another group of people in verse 2 and it tells us there again that a great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.

[3:05] Here is a group of people. They see the miraculous works of our Lord and they're affected by them. But the tragic thing is it's only in the physical sphere and they want something physical or material of the Lord.

[3:26] They're looking at the natural things and not the spiritual significance of what is happening before them. Let's be warned. There are times when you and I we were drawn here to God that we might get something of God.

[3:40] Oh yes, for the flesh, for our material needs, something of God in that way. Yet there is no real appreciation of God in our souls, friends. So therefore we lose out.

[3:52] Remember, it says, there were many who believed but they did not trust in him. They were not really evangelical believers or believers according to the truth of God's precious word.

[4:05] Yes, they wanted something they could physically see or physically receive of the Lord. And then as we go on, we see another group up there in the mountain.

[4:21] Verse 3. And Jesus went up into the mountain and there he sat with his disciples. Praise the Lord. The Lord has a people who he calls to himself by grace.

[4:37] But be warned. Be warned. Steady. Steady. Steady. You remember those disciples were in the upper room.

[4:52] And Jesus said that one who dippeth in the dish will betray me. And what did the disciples say? They didn't say, oh, it's Judas.

[5:08] They said, is it I? Is it me? Because, you see, Judas was so alike them, so akin to them in the work and the ministry.

[5:23] It was only afterwards that John could say of what he was. Though he was the son of perdition, even in that upper room, it was in their own hearts and before the Lord Jesus Christ and with Judas in that room that they had to say, is it I?

[5:38] Friend, how goes it with you today? Are you or I a Judas? We might be in the house of God.

[5:50] We might like to sing the hymns. We might even speak of some of the effects of God's word. And we might even be in the ministry. But Paul says, let's be warned, that even after we preach, we do not become a castaway or make shipwreck of ourselves.

[6:06] How essential it is to know that our moment by moment or daily experiences of God and that that is a work of God according to the scriptures.

[6:19] Yes, his disciples were there, but Judas was with them. Let's be sure that we are in Christ, friends. It goes on to tell us a tragic thing, a tragic thing.

[6:33] And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. That is, of course, the remembrance of that time in Egypt when the angel passed through the land, if you remember, and it killed the firstborn of any house that had not got the blood over the lintels and the doorposts.

[6:56] Any house that was not under the cover of the blood, the angel of death came to. But where there was the blood, the Lord passed over. And, of course, the Jews, year after year, they remembered it in a feast called the Passover.

[7:13] Look at the words. Pray, God, you've got a Bible in you. Make sure the preacher is telling you the right things. Always have your Bible upon your knee and pray the Spirit might give us discernment that these things are true.

[7:24] No preacher is infallible, friends. We're all fallible. Check the word before you, friends, that these are the things of God. And the Passover, a feast of the Jew, was nigh.

[7:36] Tragic, isn't it? Tragic, friends, isn't it? They got the feast, but it had only become a feast of the Jews. They'd missed out the importance that John the Baptist was crying, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

[7:52] Oh, they got the type, but they'd missed the substance. They got the reality. They got the shadow, but they got the reality of Christ. Is that with you, friend, today? You've got all the form and all the fashion, all the things around of God, but have you got the substance?

[8:07] Have you got the Christ? Are you believing in the Lamb of God that God sent in the world? Have you been washed in the blood? Have you felt and known this salvation? Can you say today, I have heard His voice speaking to me, Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.

[8:23] Oh, it's one thing to have the outward adorning, but it's one thing to have the reality, friends. Let's be warned, friends. It's important, we must warn one another that we be in Christ.

[8:35] Well, we come to the happening we are concerned with now. That is the feeding of the 5,000. And we read there of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we read of Him as He's teaching, He lifts up His eyes and He sees a great company.

[8:53] And He says to one of His disciples, When shall we buy bread that these may eat? And we know that He's doing this to prove Him because it says in the next verse, And this He said to prove Him, for He Himself knew what He would do.

[9:14] He was putting our friend dear Philip on the spot. The Lord Jesus was putting Him, as it were, to the test. He brought Him to this place to test Him.

[9:28] And He was testing and saying to Him, When shall we buy bread that these may eat? And He was doing this to prove Him, to see how He would react.

[9:45] I don't believe He was asking Him really to provide bread. I don't believe, even though the answer in verse 7 says, Philip answered Him, 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little.

[10:03] I don't believe He was even asking the disciples to provide the money for the bread. this is what you and I are like sometimes with the Lord's work, aren't we?

[10:15] The Lord brings us to a particular place, either in our own lives or the life of the church, where there is a testing, there is a need, might be a spiritual or a physical need.

[10:28] And so the Lord says, in a way, well, where are you going to get help now? Or what are you going to do? Or as it was here, when shall you buy bread that these may eat? He puts you on the spot, He's put you on the spot, He's brought you there for a purpose.

[10:42] He knows what He's going to do with you. That's lovely, that isn't it? You know, if only we could cast our cares upon Him and see that, well, I'm in a spot here but God knows what He's going to do.

[10:53] That would enable us to implicitly put our faith and trust on Him. But knowing our own hearts, that's a long process sometimes. But still, there is this time of testing.

[11:04] And I don't believe sometimes the Lord's asking you to really to provide out of your own needs sometimes. I don't believe sometimes that the Lord is wanting us to go into our own pockets or raise the money if it's a monetary need.

[11:20] I don't think sometimes it's that the Lord would ask us to provide the substance or the spiritual thing in some sense. because I think what the Lord is doing here in this scripture with Philip and with us is this.

[11:38] He's sort of saying, whence or where shall we buy bread that He's made? I am standing in the midst.

[11:50] I am the good shepherd. I am the bread of life. I will feed them. He's trying to show us to get away from our own attempts and efforts unto God.

[12:05] I am the one who is able to do this. I'll bring this soul to Jesus. I will enable your needs to be met in your church or in this particular trying situation you've been brought into.

[12:17] I am God. I know what to do. I know how to do it. And he looks for implicit trust and faith in him. But there has to be testing. But notice as you read on how infectious unbelief becomes.

[12:35] One of his disciples Andrew Simon's Peter brother saith unto him there is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes. Lovely. Isn't that lovely? Hallelujah. Provision.

[12:47] But he has to spoil it like we do. You know. We pray to the Lord for something. We feel God's given us a promise. He's given us the word. We pray to God. We take our knees to God and we say unbelievingly sometimes.

[13:00] If it's your will. Where we should be saying Lord I've brought this to you and I'm putting it in your hands. I believe you and I'm trusting you. I'll leave it there. Not if in the sense sometimes of have I got faith.

[13:13] But where we should be saying Lord thy will be done. Completely putting it in the hands of the Lord. But he has to spoil it don't he? He says but what are these among so many? Lord five loaves and two fishes here this lad's got but how are they going to be?

[13:28] Well they're not going to go anywhere Lord. But he hasn't seen has he that the Lord is sufficient. True isn't it? Unbelief or things against the Lord that affect you would be catching and spread.

[13:45] It's tragic that isn't it? It's like rumour isn't it? Or panic on a boat that's sinking they seem to spread through us. Even the church you know well what are we going to do in the next position well how are we going to manage and oh we're not going to get through now we're getting smaller in numbers how are we going to make it and we forget.

[14:02] If the Lord stands in the midst who's going to build the church? It's the Lord not us. It's the Lord's work not our work in that sense of the thing. He's the one to go to.

[14:13] Lord you have brought us here you have caused us to put this building here Lord you have provided this pulpit and you've provided this people Lord enable us it's to God we've got to go we can't pull the things out of ourselves we've got to look to him and this is what he was trying to show his disciples but it's infectious you see but oh that it might drive us to the Lord and you know what amazed me because it's not always easy sometimes to understand the word is it?

[14:43] It's hard the word sometimes some people think oh the preacher seems to know what it's all about but the preacher doesn't the preacher needs to search the word and ask them all and some things seem rather strange as well even though we believe them in faith listen to what it says next this miraculous provision and Jesus said make the men sit down now there was much grass in the place so the men sat down in number about five thousand now let's just for a moment think of this the thing that amazed me was this the disciples at least the two disciples we know we can't say about the others but the two disciples we know they've not got really faith in the sense that the Lord would provide the means for the situation I'm convinced they believed who he was but for this enactment they just couldn't see they couldn't look any further than the five loaves and two fishes of the five thousand crowd they couldn't get beyond it to see the

[15:52] Lord himself standing in the midst with the capabilities of meeting all the needs and just think for a moment if God only answered you and me according to our faith we wouldn't get much would we some of us would literally speaking in a bit of broadshare we'd be getting out we wouldn't get a thing but praise the Lord see the grace here he doesn't answer according to faith he answers according to grace it's grace he feeds them in his unmerited love and favour you know he can't honour the faith because he's not there so of himself he has to come and meet that need wonderfully marvellous I think how many times when we've we've trembled on the doorstep of opportunity or we've not been sure how to respond to something in God's precious word and yet he's he's taken us on despite ourselves and enabled us and met our need and opened the way for us in a wonderful he's a lovely marvellous

[16:59] God our God he's a father who pitieth his children he knows our frame he knows all about us the lovely thing is it's like as Lord Jesus gone to represent us he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities it's lovely to know that someone knows you better than you know yourself today our mothers and fathers might think they know us and the pastors and elders might think they know us and our next door neighbour or husband and wives but there's only one who knows us even we don't know us but God knows that's the lovely he knows what to do in each and every particular circumstance there's no wonder is the writer puts it my times are in his hands that's that's the place to want him in his hands that's the confident place not in ours we make a hash of things but in his hands that's the safe place and of course we've seen something first thing he says he wants them to sit down got to rest be calm sit down

[18:07] I don't know how your mother used to treat you but I remember when we were children if we couldn't eat our dinner there were trouble for us what you been eating what sweets have you had today what ice cream you know we'd filled ourselves up with something some dainties of sweets of the world or apples maybe of somebody else's treat instead of being able to come down and sit that wholesome food that she set before us she used to deal with us forcibly if we'd done that because this was the wholesome food you should come and eat but how many of us today are not able easily to sit down in the presence of God to come to receive the word because we're full of the tidbits of the world we've filled our minds with the things of the world we've been spending time in the presence of the enemy and the world and the things of the world so we've got so full up of the things of the world we've no hunger we're not hungering and thirsting after righteousness and desiring the word and we wonder why we're not taking anything in well we're full of something else we can't take anything in because we're already full of the world and we need to be cleansed from it and wean from it oh may God cause us in that sense to turn away from the world unto him but how it is that he wants us to sit or to rest to settle down green pastures that's the place isn't it but you don't want to listen really do you oh we'll listen a bit on a

[19:37] Sunday afternoon and a Sunday morning at the prayer meeting but generally speaking and because we're getting a little older we have to sit down longer than we used to do yes but that don't mean to say that our mind or our hearts are sitting down as well we can sit down and still be full of all sorts of things we can be walking the dervish or yorkshire moors when we sat outside a living room fire instead of walking through where Jesus walked oh yes we can friends we're so full of other things instead of the and he has to make us sit down I remember one time so busy in the Lord's work and so busy in my own work that I fell off a ladder one night I wanted to go to a missionary meeting in London and I was so busy trying to get this job finished I fell off this ladder and I broke my ankle for ten weeks I couldn't do anything for five I had to sit or near sit anyway and I had the Lord speaking to me you'll be quiet now you'll sit down now you're not going to run around now doing this and that and the other you'll wait up on me now you'll listen to me now and I didn't I

[20:42] I learnt more in that first five weeks than I learnt for a long time of the Lord because he brought me into a place where I got to be quiet and I got to wait upon him you know the tragic thing with you and I is this we don't spend that time with the Lord that we ought to do it's even one thing to read the word and to pray but as that bishop of old used to say the time of meditation how many of us honestly can say we spend at least an hour in meditation each day not that we might make a legal thing of this but how many of us spend time meditating upon the things of God you know the truth turning it over in our mind and praying about it and is there no wonder we don't feed we don't digest the word into our very souls because we don't spend the time is there any wonder the Puritans of all oh yes you said they've got more time but the Puritan ladies haven't got washing machines the Puritan ladies haven't got fridges they had to make the jam and they had to make the clothes and they had to scrub the floors and they had to do a lot of hard work that we never have we've got more more time than they ever had but they've got more time for

[21:56] God than we have it's shame on us friends we've got all the modern things to help us and yet what have they become they've become a hindrance they've become a bondage they've become a curse but they are friends may the Lord help us to sit because if we don't he'll make us to sit because he's in control of everything and he'll bring us to that place well he sat them down he said make the men to sit down now there was much grass in that place I think that reminds us of the 23rd Psalm of the sheep in the pastures so the men sat down in number about 5,000 and Jesus took the loaves he took the loaves he took those despised of the disciples articles five loaves and two fishes what are they among so many they're no good at all they're not feed one man but Jesus took them took them in his hands

[23:08] Jesus the Lord and giver of life the omnipotent God manifest in the flesh he took these five loaves and two fishes do you know something you and I we often despise small things I was reading Mr.

[23:34] Pink on this excuse me that I read other men's thoughts and bring them into my message but then sometimes I don't get all the light through my little roof it sometimes goes in through somebody else's so I make use of what light they've received and I make no excuses for it he says look at some of the little things that God uses in the Bible the little things he mentions of Moses his tears God used the tear of Moses upon his eye that Pharaoh's daughter should look upon him and take him into care that he might be brought up in the Egyptians God in his wonderful wisdom used that tear to have this servant of his who was in great danger put right into the middle of the camp of the enemy it's not reasoning is it really but that's what he did who put anybody in the middle of the camp of the enemy to be looked after and then not only that

[24:40] God using that little tear and honouring the faith of Moses mother he had it done so that the mother of Moses not only looked after her old child but she got paid by the enemy for doing it fantastic isn't it if you really get down to read God's word and see what happens it just amazes you and there's us isn't there we're finicking and faddling about aren't we and worrying and strutting about as though we're chickens with our feet tied together instead of walking in the ways of confidence of our God or that we might be like Enoch who walked with God and faith was in God think of something else a great army stands against Israel and there's Goliath and he's got a spear it says as big as a weaver's beam and I don't know how big a weaver's beam is you can tell me afterwards if you know because I don't know but I know it must have been big anyway because the Bible quite clearly states of this and none of the men of that great army with all their armour dare stand against

[25:45] Goliath Israel was stopped the armies of the Lord were stagnating there in that particular place there was no progress made then comes along a stripling I say a stripling a shepherd boy called Abed comes to bring some cheeses and provisions for the brothers and he says he'll go against this enemy and of course they try the armour of Saul but he said no I prove that I can't go in that armour so he sets off five stones out of a brook five pebbles and a sling of course the secret is in this he says the battle is the Lord's he goes against the enemy and he fetches him down and he chops his head off because it's in the Lord and how the

[26:46] Lord can do mighty things through some of the simplest things that we can think of you can go on one man with an ox gold he chased a thousand men sent them beat them and drove them away another man with the jawbone of an ass and so we go on through the scripture seeing how the mighty have fallen and brought down by humble and simple things why why friends because it's those things that are in the hands of God ordained of God just think Moses was a saviour for his people if you read the account when he's called to go and commission of God he argues I can't speak I haven't got good speech he's making all the arguments he can think about he's nothing really he's like you and I he's a sinful man but

[27:49] God takes him doesn't he and God uses him to bring out that people and how many times friend do you know that where you have looked for deliverance in some other person some bigger thing yet God has brought deliverance hasn't he through something very small and insignificant because it's been God's hand upon it can I just tell you one little thing I don't call my children insignificant but I do in the sight of God I once had a very terrible disease I got an infection by clearing a very dirty manhole and great and they didn't know what to do with me for three weeks I was very ill as though I I really felt as though I was dying and they tried everything they could think of and when I was home and sat on the city one day my little girl wasn't very old in those days she'd been at school maybe for a year and she came in she said dad she says you look very miserable

[28:52] I said yes I feel I feel miserable I don't feel very happy at all I don't feel very well she says well I've come to cheer you up I thought praise the lord and she brought in a little recorder that they have at school and a chorus a little spiritual chorus and they remember sitting there and singing this chorus to me and you know from that it was still another three or four weeks before I was well enough to even think of going back to work but from that time I saw my recovery it was like the heart of Dave it was the voice of God God took that little child to lead them you know never despise anything friends never look down in the hands of God God is mighty friends I saw the hand of God and here we have the Lord he takes these five loaves and two fishes he takes them he blesses them he multiplies them and he feeds this this five thousand people

[29:53] Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would it's terrific the provision is made out of those seemingly insignificant things because the Lord's hand is upon it we've all got a place if we're part of the body of Christ we're members as such all have got a part our fingers our nose is the hair of our head the toes of our feet our heart everything in that body is a part Christ is there we're dead and we're parked nothing is insignificant never look down on anything put it or see it in the hands of God for his glory and for his praise yes we need to be still don't we before

[30:54] God we need to see the God of order and purpose and we need to see that in his hands things that look significant become very important are very important let's just think for a moment on that verse 13 where it sorry verse 12 and 13 after they were all filled it says 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 twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that had eaten it always amazes me why the Lord should bother having these bits and pieces collected up it wasn't the day of the the people who were so keen about the countryside and the park attendants wouldn't be there and he was always saying about the birds of the air and the animals would be fed and I thought well if he left them there they would feed them so what was the significance there must be some significance in the thing that it says that these things gather them up he commands them to gather them up these twelve baskets and I must confess that

[32:20] I didn't find it easy but again I received light from other quarters and there was the light the picture of the feeding of the five thousand is the bread the bread of life it's a picture of the Lord Jesus feeding his people I am the bread of life and here the provision is made in the feeding of the five thousand they were all filled and so what is the gathering of is it not this that we must be careful and gather up everything that we hear when the preacher is ministering or when the word is being read this is precious food for all the scriptures they testify of him who is the bread of light so therefore this is the bread this is the food isn't it that we feed upon which is the blessing for our souls so therefore you and I we have to be very careful that when we hear the word that none of it is lost but as I was speaking about application this morning that's the tragic failure isn't it the gap seems to be between the word being preached or the doctrine believed and understood and the application and the doing and the experience of the word that's the tragic gap that's between but how it needs to be friends that we the

[33:56] Lord is telling us and showing us how careful we need to be in what we hear that we receive it with grace that we pray over it we apply it we be careful you see even a little crumb or a piece of fish was not unimportant here because of the great significance of him giving his life for the world that we should receive this life that's the picture that stands before us yes they gathered them on that which remained over and above unto them that had eaten just one final thought before we go there are many ways that the people reacted to this some would have made him king we read on and some still wanted him to feed them with bread but he had to say in verse 27 labor not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life which the son of man shall give unto you for him hath God the father see you and he then said they unto him what shall we do that we might work the works of God and he says in that verse there this is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent and later on in

[35:20] John's gospel it tells us about eating his flesh and drinking his blood and they who eat his flesh and drink his blood are those who believe those who believe or partake of him the essential the essential life I see here there are warnings how we react to the word of God and that we must be very careful how we listen and react to the word of God the sovereign Lord is working out his purposes but yet there is the responsibility of man in gathering up the fragments in listening very careful to the word he that hath ears to hear let him hear you see this is the thing the responsibility of hearing a right and acting upon the word now friends if we be listening today we should be those who are presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God because of all that he's done for us in his tender mercies and walking in the ways of the

[36:27] Lord and we should be those who should have be warned by the lack of faith in the disciples and in humble faith and confidence in God we should trust him even though we can't see the way even though some things are very faintly marked out we have to put our hand in him is and trust him and walk the way he friends who fed the five thousand can do wonders he's the great I am that I am and I'm glad this afternoon for just a moment to be able to lift up this mighty God Savior our Lord Jesus Christ may the Lord bless us in our meditations and help us function all good time attentionl go

[37:32] Thank you.

[38:02] Thank you.

[38:32] Thank you.

[39:03] It says that if we could get the creature or creature to help or ease us, we wouldn't seldom go there. But praise God, he puts you and I in awkward situations that we might call upon him.

[39:17] Even sometimes, as it were, crying out of the very depths. Pray God, he knows how to deal with us. 396. Could the creatures help or ease us?

[39:31]  Seldom would we think of prayer. Amen.