Do You Not Remember?

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang. Thank you for joining us.! Extra way today for those who helped us set up extra chairs for us, for our choir, for being willing, volunteering, being told, to stay on the platform for us.

It saves us about 75 extra seats out here, and so what a joyful day to be able to lift all of our voices together and to sing.

These are really special days in the life of our church. By God's grace, our church has been here for almost 120 years.

This July will be our 120th birthday for our church, and just a testimony to God's faithfulness and His goodness. I can't help but think about all the people who served here and led here, who gave, who sacrificed so many years ago, and were used by the Lord to make this church what it was then, that today we could stand on their shoulders and continue the work that they have led us in.

When you think of the facilities the Lord has blessed us with, and when you think of all the people the Lord has brought to our church, when you think of the ministries that we are able to do today and the far reach the Lord has graced us with in our ministry as a congregation, everything we experience first and foremost is because of His grace and His goodness.

It's also because of the sacrificial giving and prayer support and ministry of all of our congregation. And that's not true just today. That's true dating back to July of 1903.

There are people who gave everything to start and establish this church, to continue it. People who a number of years ago helped the church to relocate to where we are now.

When we were, our church was gathering here about 50 years ago, there was just one small A-framed building. It still exists. It's just been built around and covered up.

And some of you have been around for a lot of those decades. I don't think we have any charter members from 120 years ago. But we've got some of you that have been around a while.

And for those who have been here for a long time, we're thankful for those who invested so many years and decades into service and giving and leadership.

And for those of you who are brand new, the Lord has just brought to us in recent months or recent years, what an amazing gift it is for the Lord to continue to build His church.

And when we gather here together on one service, it's just a reminder of how this is what unites us. It's the gospel. What unites us are the truths that we have sung about today that our God saves.

And that we want to declare the gospel truth that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. And as the choir reminded us of with a great chorus that we've sung for decades, that God's grace is greater than all of our sin.

That's the message. That's the hope of the gospel that our church has to offer. Because, as we've just declared, the Lord is our salvation. So, let's just be clear and make sure we never forget this, that we exist as a congregation to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And to take that gospel to the neighborhoods around us and to the nations all around the world. That we don't exist first and foremost for selfish things.

We don't exist just to be a place to make friends. So, that's a wonderful thing. We don't exist just simply to take care of each other, though that's a biblical thing too.

But what we uniquely must do and must always do until the Lord calls us home is proclaim the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when that message is received with repentance, we rejoice in that. And when that message is received with rejection, we grieve over that.

Yet, in our grief of rejection, our message never changes. The ministry, the mission, and the message of this church must never change.

God is holy. We are sinners. Christ has died for us. And all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That is the message this church has.

That is the message that every true biblical church must proclaim. And that must be something that together we all believe. And that we all live.

And that's why every ministry of our church is layered in the gospel. That's why if you go visit our preschool rooms, they're teaching them the elementary things of the gospel.

That's why if you go to our children's Sunday school classes, they're learning the Bible. That's why we have Kids Summit for our older elementary students to take them even deeper for those who want to be challenged in the things of the Lord.

That's why if you visit our youth ministry, they are hearing the Bible taught. If you go to our youth service on Wednesday night, we're going verse by verse to the book of Colossians.

We just started Colossians this week. Middle schoolers doing Philippians on Sunday nights. That's why our youth ministry is just layered deep in the verse by verse teaching of God's Word.

That's why if you come in here on Wednesday nights, you hear the Bible taught. We in 2 Peter, Jeff, 2 Peter on Wednesday nights, verse by verse through that. That's why if you go to choir practice on Wednesday night, they're singing songs about the gospel.

John's discipling them in the truths of God's Word. Sunday mornings here going through Mark. Sunday nights in here going through Ephesians 6. Because what we have to offer people is the truth of the message that God saves through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

And this church won't change in that. And times change and methods change and dress changes and all kinds of styles change and trends and fashions come and go and all that kind of thing.

But the message of this church is the same. Our God saves. We want to sing it and pray it and preach it and teach it.

Everybody, all ages, and take that saving message of Jesus Christ to all the neighborhoods around us we can, to all the nations around the world that we can.

And that's what this church does. Proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I just want to say how much I love and appreciate each of you and the families that make up our church.

I also want to say how much I appreciate all of those who have come before us, many of whom today are now in glory with the Lord, who helped to make this first Baptist church of Mustang the place that it is today.

And ultimately, we give the praise and the glory to Lord Jesus Christ, who declared He will build His church. And that is the work that He is still doing.

And we are so thankful for it. And we begin today a week, eight days here of just a really special time in the life of our congregation here locally.

This is a very special morning for us to be all together. Tonight, we've got our Family Matters dinner. Jeff will share some about that at the close of our service. We're having a wonderful time with dinner and testimony and fellowship together and thanksgiving to the Lord.

Friday night, we've got our Good Friday service. Sunday morning, our sunrise service. Next Sunday, our Resurrection Sunday celebration services. So just a lot of special things, many wonderful opportunities for ministry and fellowship.

We want you to be a part of all of that. And let me also just say that today at 315, our Men's Institute has their final exam for Old Testament 1.

This is the last class of our academic year. Our year two guys, assuming they do well this afternoon, will graduate and be finished with the institute.

That graduation will be in a couple of weeks. Our year one gentlemen, assuming they do well this afternoon, will complete year one, be halfway finished. And sign up is now going on and will through May 1st for any man in our church who would like to be a part of the Men's Institute.

Two years of Bible training, Old Testament, New Testament 1 and 2, hermeneutics, which is the interpretation of Scripture, the life of Christ, personal evangelism, the character of a leader.

You've got online videos to watch. You've got books to read. We teach here at the church one hour a week. You've got quizzes to take, Scripture to memorize, and very lengthy, challenging final exams.

And if you're wondering, why would I want to do that, ask the 75 graduates or the 75 current students we've got. And the answer is because we want to dedicate our life as a church to reaching families to know the Word, raising up our own leaders and teachers, those who would serve and lead and be disciple makers in our church.

I cannot tell you how proud I am of the men in the Institute. We've got teenagers. We've got men in their 70s.

We've got men in their 80s who have graduated. We've got people who are new believers. And we've got graduates who have pastored churches for decades and everywhere in between.

And if you're interested in that, there's a lot of information to Ministry Connection we encourage you to get. And then, ladies, for you, our next Ladies Night of Theology is coming up Tuesday, May the 2nd, 6.30, right here in this sanctuary.

Is it 6.30 we start? Is that right? 6.30? So be here. Basically, I'm just going to live with the church for the next month and try to keep up with what's going on.

And somebody tap my shoulder and tell me where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to do. I'm getting old and I forget things these days. Mark chapter 8. Turn with me if you would. Mark chapter 8.

If you're new with us, we are walking through the gospel of Mark. And we are chronologically about seven or eight, maybe nine months away from the cross as we come to Mark chapter 8.

Just to kind of help orient you with what's going on, Jesus had been ministering in Galilee. He left Galilee. He went north and west up to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

We studied about one of the miracles that He did there. He then looped back around to the south and to the east to an area known as the Decapolis. That's just a name that means ten cities.

An area that was largely Gentiles who were there. And what we see now is Jesus in Mark 8 is going to do a similar miracle to one that He's done earlier.

But it is a different event. We're going to look today in Mark 8 verses 1 all the way down to verse 21. The first thing you're going to see is He's going to feed a large crowd again.

And then the Pharisees and the Sadducees are going to come to oppose Him. And then the Lord is going to teach an important lesson to the apostles based on the miracle that we see here in verses 1 to 10.

If you want to take notes this morning to help you follow along what's going on, let me ask you to write down a few things. Number one, we'll start with this. The deep compassion of Jesus.

The deep compassion of Jesus. It says, And He asked them, And they said, And they said, And they said, And He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground.

And He took the seven loaves. And having given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people. And they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish.

And having blessed them, He said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.

And there were about 4,000 people. And He sent them away. And immediately, He got into the boat with His disciples and went to the district of Dalmanufa.

We see first the deep compassion of Jesus. He sees again a large crowd that's hungry. It's a similar event, but different to what we looked at back in chapter 6.

The numbers of people are different. The time span of the events are different. Mark 6, they were there for one day. Here in this event, they are there for three days.

It's a different time of year. In Mark 6, it is probably very late winter, very early spring. We know that because of the description that the grass was green.

When you are in Galilee in late winter, early spring, as we were, many of us, just about a month ago, the grass is very, very green.

This description gives us no mention of green grass. Different term, just as they set on the ground. Likely because it's summer and the grass has gone from green to brown because of the heat and the lack of rain.

We know the accounts are different because it's different amounts of food. One starts with five loaves and two fish. The other starts with seven loaves and just some fish.

Different term, by the way. It's a word here in Mark 8 that would refer to sardines that's being used. It's different baskets that are used. In the feeding of the 5,000 men, we are told that they had these 12 baskets left over, but the word for basket there refers to just a small box, a small container.

The word used here in Mark 8 to describe this feeding has seven baskets left over, not 12, but it's a different word. It's not these small baskets.

It's very large baskets that are left over. So it's a very similar miracle, but it's a different one than the feeding of the 5,000 men plus the women and children.

And in verse two, it says, I have compassion on the crowd because they've been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. Splangnizimai is the word for compassionate.

It means to be moved deep inside. It's a word that refers to the inner guts. It would be used in relation to a sacrifice.

It would be like us saying today that I've got something that's gut-wrenching. Or you might say that you just, you feel this burden in your stomach, this pit in your stomach, this deep feeling on the inside.

This isn't just seeing somebody and thinking, oh, look at that, how sad. This is a deep feeling of compassion. This is who our God is.

Psalm 103 verse eight, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding, instead fast love. And the crowd has been with Jesus for three days.

This is largely a Gentile crowd. The crowd that he fed earlier at the miracle of feeding the 5,000 men would have been a Jewish crowd. This is a largely Gentile crowd, different location, different people that are there.

And they have been so interested in listening to him that they've been there for three days. He's teaching. He's instructing them. And whatever food they had brought with them, they have since eaten.

And now it's been a while and they've got nothing to eat. It's time for people to go back home. But he knows if he sends them back home, they're going to be weary. Some will faint.

Some won't be able to make it because of hunger. They need to eat. And it's strange in verse four because his disciples answered him and said, how can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?

Does that strike you as a weird thing? If you just take Mark 8 by itself, just in a vacuum, it may not seem strange because you think, well, that's a fair question.

You've got thousands of people here and just a small amount of food. That question makes sense. But you never read the Bible in a vacuum.

You read it in its context. And what we know in Mark 8 is this is not the first time the disciples have seen a crowd of thousands of people with just a small amount of food.

It was just a few months ago that they were with Jesus and there were 5,000 men plus women and children, as many as 20,000, 25,000 people and all they had was the lunch of one boy who offered it to an apostle who brought it to Jesus and Jesus took it, gave thanks, broke it, blessed it, multiplied it, and fed everybody and there were 12 basketfuls left over.

That was just a few months ago. I don't mean a few months ago for us that studied it. I mean just a few months ago for the apostles. They've already been through this. They've already seen this.

This isn't a new predicament for them. This is a rerun. Would you have forgotten if you'd experienced that?

I mean if back in October you had been in the place where 20,000 people were fed with one boy's lunch, is it possible that a few months later you would forget what you experienced?

I can't imagine that would be the case. So what are we to make of this question? The disciples said, how can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? And we should read that and think, but wait a minute, back just two chapters ago, you know exactly how it happened.

Jesus did what only Jesus could do. We can't be certain of this, but I think the way we should read verse 4, when you consider what the apostles have already experienced, the current situation, and the way they question, I think the best way to read verse 4 would be this way.

How can one feed these people in such a desolate place? The Gentiles.

I mean it's one thing to do the miraculous for the Jewish crowd, that that's the people of God. What are you going to do with the Gentiles? I mean I know they've been here to listen to you and all of that, but they're outside of the covenant with Israel.

How are we going to feed these people? I know just a few months ago you did this amazing miracle with just a few loaves and a couple of fish, but that was with the Jewish people.

And in that day the Jews didn't even share a meal with the Gentiles. What are we going to do with these people? I mean surely we're not going to treat these people the same as you would our people.

Surely you're not going to do the same act of grace for these people that you would do for us. Jonah runs from the Lord because he didn't want salvation to come to these people of Nineveh.

I think that's the way that we understand this. Will the grace and compassion of Jesus be the same for those outside of Israel as it is for those inside of Israel?

Verse 5, he asked them, how many loaves do you have? And they said, seven. And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and having given thanks he broke them and gave to the disciples to set before the people and they set them before the crown.

And I want to mention this, we talked about this back in the first big feeding when we studied in Mark 6. The first thing Jesus does here is the ministry of organization. He takes the thousands of people and he sits them down and he organizes them.

In the feeding of the 5,000 and we say 5,000 that's men plus women and children. In the feeding of the 5,000 it tells us he would get them in groups of 50 and 100. The text doesn't tell us that's the exact way that he did it here though it would make sense to assume he did that again or at least something similar to it.

He has them sit down and the reason he put them in groups is so that you can assign certain of your disciples to be assigned to certain groups. Make sure they got fed. Somebody's got to take the food to them.

Somebody's got to help them to understand they're about to be served. Someone's got a wait table so to speak on them and so you do it in an organized way. It's the ministry of organization. You know one of the things that is very helpful to people in times of great chaos or great stress and great challenge is when there are leaders in the church in the nation in the home who have the gift in the ministry of organization to try to help things become calm and organized so that needs can be met.

That's true in our families. In your home you need someone who is organized that can take the chaos of kids' homework and ball schedules and bills to be paid and piano recitals and all these different things and somebody's got to organize that and be able to say we need to know where we're supposed to be and when we're supposed to be there and what is due and when is it due.

There's a great ministry there. That's true in the church. You've got all these families that are part of our church and all these people have all these great ideas.

It's got to be organized and it's got to be done in a way that fits with who we are and our facilities and our budget and it takes organization and administration to be able to oversee that and it's not just about spreadsheets it's about ministry.

It's about organization so the large crowd can be served and be ministered to. Some of you have that spiritual gift and I just want to encourage you to use it for the glory of God.

It's not just that you love Excel. It's that you have a gift. I mean some of you do just love Excel I know but done right it's a great gift to your family.

It's a great gift to the body of Christ. It's a great gift to your organization. Otherwise you just have mass chaos. Jesus. And so Jesus directs them to sit down.

And I notice this just really stood out to me this week when I was reading this. At the end of verse 6 he broke them referring to the loaves and he gave them to his disciples to set before the people and they set them before the crowd.

Jesus didn't have to do it that way. He gave his disciples the blessing of being involved in the work.

The blessing of being a part of the miracle. Jesus could if you can take and feed thousands of people from just a few loaves of flatbread you don't do that miracle and then say I wish I had thought to have someone here to serve it.

What am I going to do? No. This is creation. This is Jesus just speaking food into creation. And if you can speak the world into existence and you can speak food into creation you can make it appear wherever you want it to be.

You don't have to have these disciples to do the work of the serving but it's for the sake of their blessing. They get to be a part of the work of Christ.

And as I read that this week I just couldn't help but think about how possible it is that there's some even within our church family today who miss that.

Who miss the joy of being a part of what God is doing here. it is an unspeakable blessing that we are able to serve and do the work God's called us to do.

I know that teaching children is hard. I know that teaching Sunday school with youth demands a lot of your time. I know that being a faithful giver to the Lord through the church takes sacrifice.

I know that serving on ministry teams demands a lot of commitment. It absolutely does but don't you understand that it is an invitation from the Lord that we get to be a part of his work.

This isn't some laborious curse he's put upon us. This is an invitation to a gift. This is an invitation to joy.

the apostles had the privilege of getting to be servants of being waiters for the king. The king speaks the food into existence and then turns to normal regular stubborn slow to learn people that look a lot like us and says be a part of my work.

Go serve the hungry crowd and you can spend the rest of your life telling people about the blessing you received from being involved in the work I alone can do.

Church that's an invitation for you today. Be a part of the work. work. It's true. You can sit out if you want and you can stay on the sidelines if you want.

You can never serve and you can never help us in praying and you can never give. That's true. We'll still let you in. We'll still love you. We'll still be glad you're here.

But listen, if you go through life like that, it would be like the apostles saying, you know what, Jesus, you made the bread. You can serve them. You don't need me. I'll sit this one out. Who would do that? Why would you miss the opportunity to be a part of the work of the King of Kings?

And it's such compassion. It's not only compassion for the hungry crowd. I also see the deep compassion of Jesus on display by allowing the disciples to be a part of the miracle and a part of the work.

That's true today. The compassion of the Lord is on display not only in the fact that he still saves, but his compassion is very much on display that he would use sinners like us to teach children the gospel, to teach youth the gospel, to make disciples of adults.

He allows us to give and we can send portions of those funds all around the world to support the work of God in parts of the world you will never set foot in.

This is the compassion of our Lord that allows us the privilege and the opportunity to be a part of his work.

You also see Jesus modeling for this group of largely, this Gentile group. He's modeling for them how to give thanks before you eat. He's modeling for them what it's like to receive the food provided by the Lord with a grateful heart.

And it says they ate, verse 8, and they were satisfied. You're familiar with that term we've talked about before in the gospel of Mark. It's used of animals who go up to the feeding trough, they eat all they can, and they back away because they don't want anything else.

They've been fully satisfied. Jesus meets the need, and he meets it all the way. He doesn't just tide them over. He doesn't just give them a small snack before they go back home.

He lets them eat until they are satisfied. And there were seven baskets full left over.

Seven basketfuls. In the feeding of the 5,000 men, the word was kofenos, baskets, small baskets. It's a different word used here in Mark 8 for this miracle.

This is spurris. It would be more like a large hamper, like a clothes hamper. And just to give you an idea of the difference of the terms, in Acts 9, 25, Paul is being put in the basket to be lowered over the wall in Damascus.

It says this, when many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. And they were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

Same word as Mark 8. It's not a small lunchbox left over like in Mark 6. This is a large basket, a large hamper, the same word used that a man could fit inside.

And then immediately he got in the boat with his disciples and he went back to the district of Dalmanutha. He's leaving the Decapolis. He's going back briefly to Galilee. In Matthew's gospel, we refer to this region as Magadan.

This is the region in Israel. You got this region between Capernaum and Magdala. Those who went with us about a month ago in our church and our trip, we went to both those cities.

We saw Magdala. It's where that first century synagogue was found that we saw. Capernaum, which was Jesus' headquarters. In between there is this other small town, Magadan.

It's the same region known as what Mark described it as, Dalmanutha. Two names, same place. And as Jesus leaves, what the disciples are left with is this picture of the deep compassion of Jesus.

Compassion on the hungry crowd and even compassion on the disciples themselves, letting them be a part of his work. But just like it's true in your life and ministry, the same was true for Jesus, that right after these moments of great joy and of great spiritual ministry, right on the heels of that often comes the test, often comes the opposition.

And in verses 11 to 13, let me show you secondly the deadly rejection of his opponents. The deadly rejection of his opponents.

Verse 11, the Pharisees came and began to argue with him. Matthew 16 records this same event. He adds just a small portion more of detail.

Let me read Matthew 16, verse 1. It adds the Pharisees were together with the Sadducees, that the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to argue with Jesus.

Now this is very significant. Because the Pharisees and the Sadducees, if not for Jesus, would be arguing with each other. Why in the world are the Sadducees and the Pharisees tag team partners?

One reason, a common hatred for Jesus. These groups that did not get along could put their differences aside because they had a common hatred, a deadly rejection of Jesus.

So the Pharisees, verse 11, and the Sadducees from Matthew 16 came and began to argue with him. By the way, the word for argue here, it's not, don't think they were just having a little debate.

They were just having a little discussion. That's not the word. The word used here in this verse for this term, this is heated. This is hostile. This isn't just, let's talk about our differences.

This is, they're coming. Their guns are loaded. They're ready. Their weaponry is aimed right at Jesus. This is a battle. This is a fight. They came to argue with him.

Right after this amazing work of grace and compassion, right after that, the next thing that Jesus faces are his opponents coming right after him.

Now let me just stop for a minute. This often happens in spiritual conflict. You need to know this. That often it's right after seasons of great spiritual growth and great spiritual blessing that the enemy gets very active.

It may be right after a mission trip when your heart is so tender to the things of God and here comes the temptation. It may be right after a season of ministry where you feel so fulfilled and so blessed to be used by the Lord and here comes the opposition.

It may be if you're a leader in the church, right as you see the Lord doing many good things, that right on the heels of that come the conflicts, come the problems.

And gratefully not true for us, but in so many congregations right after days of great joy, here come the complainers. Here come the people who just love to tear down. We're a blessed congregation here.

We don't have that. It's not because we're not sinners capable of it. It's just that by God's grace, this church continues to choose to be faithful to what God's called us to and not get involved in small, petty things.

And we've got to be aware of that. We can't take that for granted. We talked about that in Staff Meeting Monday, that there are things that we enjoy as a congregation, but they can't be assumed.

They have to be, we have to be faithful to keep them in priority. We can't just assume that just because our church has been a place of unity, it just always exists that way. We have to protect the bond of peace.

We have to choose to continually be keeping our eyes on the things that matter most, because if we don't, we will do what so many others do, and that is to get distracted by what matters most and get in these small, petty arguments about things that aren't important.

So sometimes it's self-inflicted. Sometimes it's just the enemies, those who despise the Lord, who come after you. And that's what happens here in verse 11.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. God, they're demanding in this heated argument, prove to us who you are.

As if he hasn't spent the last two and a half years raising the dead and calling those who can't walk to rise and walk, and taking eyes that have never seen and helping them to be able to have sight, and taking ears that have never heard and helping them to be able to hear.

They've heard the miracles. In fact, it's more than that, isn't it? They know the miracles. How do you know they know the miracles? Because they could not dispute that they happened.

And so, because they refused to believe Jesus was God, what did they say of his miracles? They said, we can't deny that you do them. We've seen them. But the power by which you do the miracles, you do by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.

They could not deny the miracles because they saw them. All they could do with their hardened hearts of rejection is say, your power is supernatural. We refuse to believe you are of God.

So, our conclusion is you are satanic. This is the deadly rejection of his enemies. And so, they come to him again, seeking this fight, seeking this argument, demanding from him to do something, demanding from him to show a sign, demanding from him to do something in the heavenlies, to dance when they say dance, and to jump when they say jump.

Verse 12, and he sighed deeply in his spirit. You ever look at the world today, the evil and the wickedness, and just think, that's the sigh.

This is Jesus who has given every person around him for close to three years, proof after proof, evidence after evidence, that he's who he says he was, that he is the Messiah, the one sent from heaven, the Savior of the world, the Redeemer, for which all of the Old Testament has been pointing to.

But these who have hardened hearts, who refuse to believe, blind eyes, who refuse sight, come after him, wanting to argue with him, wanting to demand of him, and Jesus just sighs deeply in his spirit.

These blind leaders who refuse sight, who cling to darkness, who glory in their own shame, and in their own deadly rejection of Jesus, think they can make Jesus do whatever they want him to do, and Jesus just...

looks at them in size. It's a similar feeling you have when you look at the wickedness in the world, and just say, how long, O Lord?

It's a similar feeling you have when you look at our nation celebrating sin, flaunting sin, demanding that you celebrate their sin, pretending as if they are God, and there is no other God, and all you do is sigh, and just think, how long, O God?

He sighed deeply in his spirit, and he said, why does this generation seek a sign?

You need another sign? You need another miracle? I mean, all we know are the handful of miracles that the Bible describes for us, but there are several times where the gospel writers tell us about one healing, but then says, and he healed all the others who were there.

So it tells us of one, but there were dozens, and in many cases, probably hundreds of miracles. They don't need another sign. He says, why do you seek yet another sign?

Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. They don't need more proof. Hard hearts are not lacking for evidence.

The wickedness you're watching in the world, on your phone, and on your computer screen, the wickedness, the evil, the flaunting of sin, the taunting of the people of God, the hatred of the things of God, the mocking of God, that you see all around you, these are not people lacking evidence.

These are people who are willfully rejecting God, pretending they are God themselves, only one day to take a final breath, stand before the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and realize that what they thought would never come has now arrived.

They're not lacking evidence. They are willfully running head first, straight into hell, which is why the world needs the church.

to stand up with courage and conviction, with grace and compassion, and say, our God saves.

grace but His mercy won't last forever. There is still the rainbow of grace from the flood of Noah and that rainbow in the sky says that God's grace is extended.

But there will come a day where the sound of thunder will fall again. and the day of God's grace goes away and it will be the wrath of God on all who have rejected His grace.

So I say to you, church, as I often do, don't spend one second being envious of the wicked. Not one second.

Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. Matthew 16 adds, at this point, Jesus says, accept the sign of Jonah.

That's the only sign they're going to be given from now on. The sign of Jonah, just as Jonah was in the fish for three days and three nights, so Christ is going to be crucified on the third day, be raised back to life.

The next sign these individuals are going to see will be the resurrection of Christ. And then one of the saddest statements in the Bible, verse 13, and he left them.

He left them. The Pharisees and the Sadducees stood face to face, eye to eye, with the only Savior in the universe.

And rather than believe and repent and worship, they demanded a fight. And Jesus says, that's all.

And he left. Let me say to you, friends, you could be here in this room this morning and though on the outside none of us may know it, in your heart, you know you've been rejecting Christ over and over and over.

Your parents have pleaded with you, your teachers have pleaded with you, your spouse has pleaded with you, your children have pleaded with you, your church has pleaded with you, and week after week after week after week you hear the gospel in song, you hear the gospel prayed, you hear the word of God read, you hear the gospel preached and proclaimed, and week after week after week you just reject him.

Listen to me, what makes you think you'll have one more chance? if you don't know him, call upon the name of the Lord this day and be saved.

He left them and he got into the boat and he went to the other side. We've seen the deep compassion of Jesus, we've seen the deadly rejection of his opponents.

Let me show you one last thing, thirdly, the dangerous forgetfulness of the apostles. The dangerous forgetfulness of the apostles. Verse 14, now they had forgotten to bring bread and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.

You're going to see the apostles forget two things in this story. First, they forget bread. Verse 15, and he cautioned them saying, watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

Leaven is used here as a metaphor for sin. Just a small amount of leaven, just a small amount of yeast is able to permeate a large dough which results in the bread rising.

In the same way, a small amount of tolerated sin permeates a culture, permeates a life, and brings damage. The leaven, the sin of the Pharisees and of the Herodians was immoral activity, hypocrisy, an emphasis on the externals over the issues of the heart.

And Jesus turns to the disciples and say, look, I know you're worried about bread, but I'm telling you watch out, beware of the leaven, beware of the small sins you tolerate.

If you want evidence of how just a little bit of sin permeates a culture and explodes, go home. I wouldn't do it for long.

Go home, read the headline news for about five minutes and you'll see what Jesus is talking about. When you take a little bit of compromise, a little bit of worldliness, a little bit of willful rejection, a little bit of toleration of sin, you watch it permeate a culture until it infects the whole culture and you wake up in one day and say, I think our nation's lost its mind.

Here's why. Because when you tolerate sin, it permeates your whole life and eventually, it influences everything.

everything. And so he warns them. Verse 16, they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.

Just imagine Jesus here. Guys, what are you talking about? We don't have any bread. We don't have any food. And he says, you know what? I know you're hungry, but be careful of your sin.

Be careful of small places of compromise. Be careful of tolerating any sin in your heart. You don't want to be like the Pharisees. You don't want to be like the Herodians. You don't want to be people who tolerate a small amount of sin and then it permeates and it builds and it builds until it blows up on you.

And the apostle says, I have a question, Jesus. Does anybody have any food? Anybody have any bread? It doesn't tell us Jesus sighed deeply again, but I would have.

You guys. Verse 17, Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?

What did Jesus just do? He just took care of the feeding of thousands of people. His apostles are going to be fine.

All they care about is bread. And we read this and we think, how could these guys be so stubborn?

Until we realize they look a whole lot more like us than we wish we thought were true. Do you not perceive or understand, verse 17, are your hearts hardened?

Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? In verse 14, they forgot bread.

In verse 18, they forgot something much more important. they forgot about the character and compassion of Christ.

Do you not remember when I broke the loaves for the 5,000? How many baskets, how many broken pieces did you take up?

And they said to him, 12. And the 7 for the 4,000? How many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, seven.

And he said to them, do you not yet understand? What a great question.

Are you seeing all of this? Are you hearing all of this and you still don't get it? Did you forget who I am?

The disciples thought they were in trouble because they forgot lunch. The truth is they were in a dangerous place because they forgot about the character and the compassion of their Savior.

Church, your greatest weapon, your hope your life is this.

Remember the faithfulness of God. Remember the faithfulness of God.

If you forget that, you will despair. if you remember that, you will have joy no matter the circumstance.

Jesus showed deep compassion. His opponents displayed a deadly rejection of him.

And the apostles saw all of it. But the danger for them was that they would forget the faithfulness of Christ.

My friends, daily remind yourself of the good news that his faithfulness is great, his mercies are new every morning.

And our God saves. Lord, we thank you today for your word. What a rich feast it has been for us today to sing and read and to study.

through R me.

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