Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to John
chapter 6, and reading from our text, part of verse 17. The latter part of verse 17,
And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come, to them. The whole verse reads, and entered
into a ship, that's the disciples, and went over the sea toward
Capernaum. It was now dark and Jesus was
not come to them. We have here a literal account
of after the Lord had worked the miracle of the loaves and
the fishes, And the disciples then are going over to the other
side of the sea, obviously in a rowing boat. And this is a
literal account. They went on the evening of the
day, and the time it took, they were found in the night. And Jesus was not come to them. He wasn't with them in the boat. They were alone in the boat and
aggravated. They had a great wind that blew. And so their trials in the water
and in that journey were in a natural way very great. But we would not just look at
this as a natural account. It is a natural account, but
many of the things that are recorded in the Word of God have also
a spiritual application. Our Lord told many parables and
he gave them a very clear spiritual application and sometimes our
lives are a parable as well and here what is in the inspired
and holy inerrant word of God is not just for the help of those
that would be in exactly the same situation in fact very many
would never be in a situation like this, and couldn't be, of
course, with the Lord coming literally to them, walking over
the water, as he did later on. So then we would think, well,
how does it apply in a spiritual way? We would go back, firstly,
in thinking of the world before it was created. Darkness was
upon the face of the deep. There was no light at all. It
was all darkness. And the Lord came and he dwells
in that darkness. Solomon speaks about him dwelling
in darkness, but then Paul writing to Timothy says that he dwells
in the light that no man can approach unto. The light and
the dark are alike to him. The Lord comes and from that
darkness He brings light and He divides the darkness from
the light. He makes night and He makes day. The darkness that they were in
now was one of those, literally, night seasons in which God had
appointed them. And so, when we look at creation,
then we look at the time when our Lord and Saviour died upon
Calvary's tree. And on that time there was darkness
over the face of the earth from the third hour to the sixth hour
to the ninth hour, three hours of darkness over all of the land
or in another account over all the earth over that time. God having command over the darkness
at the beginning and then the great miracle of redemption And
when our Lord suffered and offered His perfect sacrifice, putting
away the sin of His people upon Calvary's tree, as He bears the
wrath of God, as He bears the weight of His people's sin, as
He suffers, as He puts away those sins by the sacrifice of Himself,
then the sun is hidden and there is darkness over the land. God has command. over that. We read when the law was given
at Mount Sinai, then there was the thick darkness there, and
it was mentioned several times how the Lord dwelt in that darkness,
and in the fearful sights that were shown when the law was given. We think of it in a spiritual
way as well. It's interesting in the holy
word of God, The place where darkness is mentioned mostly,
especially in relation to the experience of God's people, is
in the book of Job. And in the book of Job, 28 times
there is the mention of darkness. And there could be variations
of that, even more than that. But just looking at the word
darkness, and of course Job was In Satan's sin, the Lord had
given permission to Satan to distress Job, to take away his
goods and those things that Satan was accusing Job of just worshipping
and following God because of what God had given him. So God
gave him permission to take away those things. When those things
then were to be taken away, Job, he still says, the Lord gave
and the Lord had taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And yet, through that very severe
trial, so much darkness, the Lord brought Job out of that
trial, the other side of it, delivered him from it. It was
not surprising then that we'd associate darkness with physical
trials, spiritual trials, Trials of soul and trials in our lives,
because in Job it is very prominent. And then also we have in the
book of Psalms as well, 17 times in the book of Psalms. And again,
the Psalms are the experience of God's people, and there they
experience those times. of darkness and we read of them
a little in Psalm 143. But then also we have in Isaiah,
now Isaiah is often referred to as the gospel, many very clear
gospel messages and messages that point to the coming of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and 18 times there's mentioned
the darkness there. And of course our Lord says in
John that he has come a light into the world. His whole work
of redemption is encompassed in that. Our Lord Jesus says
in John 12 verse 45, He that seeth me seeth him that sent
me. I am come a light into the world
that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness."
And our state by nature, our condition by nature, is a state
of darkness. We cannot see spiritual things. They are there, but we cannot
see them, we cannot perceive them. Darkness is over our hearts
and our minds, the same as it was over the world when the Lord
created the world. And the Lord needs to turn that
darkness into light. We read in 1 John, that in Him,
that is in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is light and no darkness
at all. And it is the Lord that changes
that dark into light. He is come, a light into the
world. The experience of God's people
will be times of darkness. If we are to know that darkness
changes to light, we must know the darkness first. And if we
are to know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the glory that
He has, the power to bring that light into the darkness, then
we will experience the darkness as well. And so it is with that
thought that I want to look at the text here, this word here,
and it was now dark and Jesus was not come to them to look
at it in a spiritual way, to look at it in spiritual darkness
and then also in providence as well. It may be, as we gather
this morning, that the Word finds you, finds me, in darkness of
soul or darkness in providence. And may the Lord then be pleased
to use this Word and order it so that there's that help and
strength and blessing through the Word of God to shine some
light upon an otherwise dark, perplexing and trying pathway. So I want to look then at three
points. Firstly, they lead up to where
they were here, where our text finds them. It was now dark and
Jesus was not come to them. There's a lead up to it. Then
secondly, their experience in darkness, the time that it was
dark, what was their experience at that time? And then thirdly,
their deliverance and looking at it for our encouragement. But firstly, there is a lead-up
to this time. It really consists of two things. We have the miracle that the
Lord had wrought. He had changed those five loaves
and two fishes into such an amount of food that was able to feed
about 5,000 men and then women and children. They had seen that
miracle. They had seen what the Lord could
do, what the Lord had done. They had been instrumental in
it, the Lord had used them. The Lord had broken the bread
He'd given to the disciples and they to the people. It had been
a time of great blessing and of great wonder that they had
been part of. And then we have the Lord had
constrained them, as not told in this account, but in Matthew
and Mark, Luke doesn't give this same account at all, but Matthew
and Mark do. Matthew speaks of the Lord coming
and walking on the water and bidding Peter also to come to
him over the water, but we won't dwell much on that part of the
account. But in Matthew and Mark, It doesn't
just say, as in this account in John, that his disciples went
down into the sea and entered into a ship. We read that the
Lord constrained them to get into the ship. It was his instigation
that they should use this mode of transport and that they should
go over to the other side. So there would be that expectation,
the Lord who had wrought these miracles and done these things
that they'd seen, the Lord that had bid them to go into this
path and the way that they were going in, the expectation was
that it would be a path of blessing, a path of help, a path where
they would have the Lord's help and guidance in it. and there
wouldn't be trouble and trial and darkness and contrary things
that they were then to experience. Many times with the people of
God they walk this path that they have an expectation and
the reality does not turn out the same. Now maybe you've joined
us this morning and you've had Expectations. Expectations of
what the Lord would do for you in Providence, or expectations
in seeking the Lord. Maybe you have received a Bible,
maybe you have sought to begin in the ways of the Lord and to
follow the Christian faith, and you've had an expectation that
it would be a rosy path, an easy path, everything would go well,
and it'd be the Lord's blessing on it after all, you were doing
what was right and following the Word of God, and this thought
that, well, everything will be right. And now it's not right. Now things are not what you thought
it would be. Let me remind you of some of
the lead-ups and expectations in the Word of God. We think
of the account of Joseph. Joseph, the son of Jacob, was
given several dreams, two dreams really, and it was a dream that
gave him an expectation that his brothers and his father,
that they would bow down to him. One dream, they're in the field
and the sheaves, Joseph's sheaf was there standing upright and
all of the other sheafs were bowing down to him. Then even
the stars of heaven were. Joseph must have had that expectation
that he was going to be raised to some place of prominence and
that God was going to do some wonderful things. Well, Joseph
then was taken by his brothers that hated him. cast into a pit,
then sold as a slave, brought into Egypt, and falsely accused,
cast into prison, forgotten, but then he was raised up out
of prison, brought next to Pharaoh, and indeed his brothers did come
and bow down before him. But from the time of that expectation
of his dreams, to the time they came to pass, He went through
many great and deep trials. Then we have later on when the
children of Israel came out of Egypt and God appeared to Moses
in the wilderness, told him to go and lead the children of Israel
out of Egypt. He did warn him that Pharaoh
would not listen to him, that God would harden his heart and
God would show all the wonders in Egypt. And God did show all
the wonders in Egypt, nine great plagues in Egypt. But as that
began to happen, Pharaoh was very hard on the children of
Israel, and their burdens got much harder before they were
brought out of Egypt. So hard that they wouldn't listen
to Moses, so hard that even Moses did cry unto the Lord. in the
trouble that they went into, to the first expectation that
they would be brought out of their burdens. Their burdens
got harder before they were indeed brought out. Then we have the
case of Elijah. Elijah, that great and fiery
prophet that could stand fearlessly before Ahab, tell Ahab that there
would not be rain, nor Jew for three and a half years or until
he gave word again and God hid him and at the end of those years
he showed himself to Ahab upon Mount Carmel and the sacrifice
was offered and the God that answered by fire He was to be
the God. There was a sacrifice by those
that were worshipping Baal, and a sacrifice by Elijah, who offered
according to the prescriptions of the God of Israel. And God
answered by fire. Baal couldn't answer. Baal couldn't
kindle the fire at all, but God did from heaven. And when the
Israelites saw that wonderful sign, then they were willing
to acknowledge God as their God and kill the prophets, 800 of
them of Baal. And then Elijah prays again and
the Lord gives rain on the land. But then he has a message from
Jezebel, Ahab's wife, that she intends to kill him. And God
had said to Elijah that in the answer on Mount Carmel, that
God had turned the heart of the Israelites back again, back from
idolatry. No doubt Elijah had an expectation
of great revival, great blessing at that time. But Elijah went
from that wonderful event of the power and might and greatness
of God on Mount Carmel to such depths that he ran, he fled,
lay under a juniper tree, he wished that he might die, and
that God brought him an angel to strengthen him, feed him,
bring him to Mount Horeb, and then give him fresh commission,
tell him 7,000 still had not bowed to Baal, and that he would
be with him and give him a helper in Elisha to the end of his days. But what a contrast from such
a demonstration of the power and might of God to then being
so low and so despondent. We think of Naaman the Syrian
who was a leper, and one of his servants, maids from Israel,
bid him to go to Israel, go to Samaria, and to the prophet that
was in Samaria to heal him of his leprosy. And he had an expectation
how he would be healed, that he would go and the man of God
would call upon the name of the Lord over the place and recover
the leper. But instead, the man of God just
sent a messenger and told him to go and wash seven times in
the river of Jordan. And he was offended. He went
away in a rage. He said, I thought this. And
so he had that. expectation, and the reality
was very, very different. But when he did, when his own
servants prevailed upon him to go and humble himself and wash
in Jordan, instead of the rivers that he felt were better in Syria,
then he was healed. And so we have, very often, this
expectation. We wonder what Mary, the mother
of our Lord, felt, and hearing all what the shepherd said, concerning
our Lord when He was born, and she laid these things up in her
heart. But she had to wait those 33
years, and then our Lord was crucified and slain. Those two
on the way to Emmaus, the two disciples on the third day, the
Lord met with them when they were sad. He said, why are you
sad? What is this you're talking about?
And they thought he was a stranger. They didn't know who he was,
a risen saviour, risen Jesus, having put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And they told him all what had
happened. And they said, we trusted that it should have been he that
should have redeemed Israel. And in their eyes, he'd failed.
In their eyes, everything had come to nothing. Their redeemer,
their saviour, their leader had being crucified and slain. And
the Lord showed them how foolish they were, showed them in all
the Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures, the things concerning
Himself. And then He revealed Himself
to them. Right the way through Scripture,
we have many, many times where God's people went from great
blessing to times of darkness. from an expectation of what was
gonna happen, that it would be wonderful, and instead, it was
trials as well. The coming back of the children
of Israel from Babylon, and they had 70 years in Babylon, and
then to come back to their own land, build the temple, the walls
again. The Lord brought them back, but
they had many adversaries, many oppositions, and it took a long
while for the walls to be eventually built up again in the temple
again. And so again and again we are
reminded of this. There will be lead up to times
of darkness, lead up of which our expectation, we look for
light and yet there was darkness, we look for blessing and there
wasn't blessing, we look for joy and peace and yet there was
trouble, and this is the lead up. that is here. And how is
it with you? Maybe with you, with me, we've
had those things as well. And if we're honest with ourselves,
we thought, well, there would be blessing, there would be help,
everything would be well. We do the Lord's will, we do
His bidding, we expect the Lord will, perhaps in our own words,
pat us on the back. Say, good servant, and make everything
go for good. And yet we have trials and we
have tribulation. We prove, as in the book of Job,
that man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. And in the world, our Lord said,
you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. In me you shall have peace. And
the apostles, when they went forth, they encouraged the disciples,
reminded them that he must, through much tribulation or great trouble,
enter the Kingdom of God. Don't ever think that if we are
a follower of the Lord, then that somehow gives us an insurance
policy that we will not have illness, we will not have trouble,
that everything will go well, that we shall not have anything
go against us. The scriptures record it very
differently. And if we know our own heart,
some of those things, those times of darkness and those times of
trouble, is for our own chastening, the Lord's correction, the Lord's
hand upon us. In this case, it was not so.
There's no reason. We are told at all that the Lord
would bring them into a place that they were found in. So I
want to look then Now the second place, the experience in darkness. Now I want to think of it perhaps
first with the idea of darkness. The scriptures tell us that the
night cometh when no man can work. Of course, today we can
have artificial means of light to a great extent that can allow
us to work. But without that, without light,
when it is dark, we cannot see. We cannot see our way. We can
have everything around us and yet not know that that is around
us at all. can be very disorientating. Years
ago, and while still I can have those nightmares at night, especially
of being very busy before going to bed, and then wake up and
not realize where I am. Always have to have a light on
so that when I wake up in those nightmares, then at least immediately
I can know where I am. Years ago when I was young man
and in a choir we performed in a male voice choir late at night
and then I went to bed and I thought I was standing behind this curtain
all of the audience was the other side of it any moment the curtain
would go back and I was just standing frightened to move or
do anything and after a long while I realised that I was actually
standing in my pyjamas in the hallway of our family home and
I'd sleptwalk and I just thought that I was still in the place
where I was. And it can be very, very frightening
and with the darkness you can't see the reality, you can't really
know. As soon as someone puts on the
light you immediately know where everything is, where you are
and all of that uncertainty goes. So it is in many ways, in spiritual
ways, in providence as well. If darkness is upon our path,
if darkness is over our soul and over all that the Lord is
doing, we cannot see what the Lord is doing. We cannot see
what His purpose is. We cannot understand the way
that we are going. And He can bring us into, as
we sung, deep despair, very low in soul, very discouraged, very
disheartened, very troubled. Often things are magnified in
the dark, in the night season, our troubles. Well, how was it
with the disciples here? The thing that we read in both
Matthew and Mark was that the wind was contrary. They were going in a boat, and
obviously what would be the best thing was the wind to be behind
them. But it wasn't. It was going in
the opposite way. It was blowing them back the
other way. It may well be that that is why
they were taking to the oars. If you've got a sailing vessel,
then the only way you can sail into the wind is by tacking,
zigzagging. And they may have found it much
better to use the oars. But in a natural way, they had
opposition to make their headway very, very difficult. Now we
think of this in a spiritual way. Those that are seeking the
Lord, those that are seeking to walk in the ways of the Lord,
will find many things that come against them, that oppose them.
Their own wicked heart will, our besetting sins and those
things that rise up will oppose us in the way that we want to
go and want to seek the Lord. Then it may be that we've got
family members as well or those that are of our kindred that
will also hinder us and stop us from walking in the ways of
the Lord. And the Lord spoke a lot of that,
that those that love father or mother or son or daughter more
than Him was not worthy of Him. And many have been, as it were,
strangers in their own house, as the Lord has called one but
not others. And they have had to make a choice,
as it were, They suffer that persecution or loneliness or
trouble from those of their loved ones and follow the Lord or give
up following the Lord and go back to being with those who
do not want anything to do with the things of God. But it is
a contrary wind, it is an opposition. Then we have Satan. Satan is
an accuser of the brethren, an adversary, to the people of God,
and He will lay up those snares and oppositions and try to hinder
their progress if He could. The world as well, all of the
allurements, the snares, the men, the women of the world,
our former habits and former ways, they all oppose us when
we seek to want to walk in the ways of the Lord. There's many
things that will take an opposite course. It won't be a smooth
path. Satan, the world, our own heart
and our loved ones, they won't all rejoice and say, what a wonderful
thing. There's our brother, our sister,
our loved one. This person is walking in the
ways of the Lord. Let's help them all we can and
let's encourage them. Very often it is the The other
way, the opposite way. Then we think of it also in ways
of providence, that is, when we're seeking to do things in
our lives, go from one place to another, one house to another,
one job to another, when we're seeking to order things in our
own homes. Those things that we know God
orders our way and we seek direction and guidance in and seek to know
and do His will. Again, there will be those things
that seem to be so contrary and so opposite. Those things we
might include in Providence as what happened to Nehemiah and
those that came back from Babylon. They had enemies, they had adversaries,
they had those that made their way hard. And we can have the
same thing. It's not limited either to our
being in the world, but in the Church of God. Those that oppose
us, those that grieve us, those that do things that are in opposition
to us. And those things then, they,
like this wind that was contrary, both Matthew and Mark bring about
a reaction, or what resulted in that, what that resulted in.
In Matthew, he notices that they were tossed with waves. The wind, it raised up the waves,
and that then tossed them about. And that may well describe you
or I this morning. Tossed to and fro. Tossed about. Up and down. First this way,
then the other way. Know not which way to go. What way, what thing to thought. What thing to go in or to dwell
upon. Just have no stability at all. In Psalm 107, it speaks of those
that do business in great waters. They go down to the decks. Their
heart is melted because of trouble. They rise again into the heights,
tossed to and fro. That is what Matthew noticed
as a consequence of the contrary wind. But Mark, he notices that
because of this contrary wind they were toiling in rowing they
were trying to get where they wanted to go and it was hard
work that's what he notices it's interesting and it will be the
case with each of us as we go through trials there's various
things that we notice and that are more prominent With Matthew, the tossing up
and down. With Mum, the effort, the toiling,
the trying to get on, but meeting opposition all the time. That's
what he notices. So this is their experience. It may well be your experience
and my experience as well. But then we have the matter of
time. And Matthew and Mark, they notice
it in watches, that it comes to the fourth watch of the night,
or the last watch. The Romans, they divided the
night into four watches. The Jews, only three. a middle
watch, which you can't have with four, but in the times of the
Romans, the times of our Lord, they were with the four watches. So the fourth watch was 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. And so the disciples, in verse 16, we
are told that even was now come. So it's just beginning to get
dark. And here they'd as it were, toiled
nearly all night, they'd come to the last watch, the last three
hours. How often that is an aspect in
the trials of the people of God, the time aspect. There will be
a time. You can't think of a trial and
it being just a few seconds, or we'll make it a few minutes,
or a few hours, There's always, in some way, there'll be a time
aspect to it. We know the children of Israel
were 215 years in Egypt. And the latter, you might say
80 years. They were there, but when Moses
was born, they were throwing the young man, the man children
into the Nile, trying to destroy them at that time. But Moses
was saved, he spent 40 years in Pharaoh's household, then
40 years in the desert, and then there comes deliverance for the
children of Israel in Egypt. So 80 years, they'd had that
toiling and labor. There is a time aspect. And of course, 40 is very significant
for trials. So 40 years, Moses' life was
divided into three lots, or three watches, as it were, of 40 years. But we need to remember this.
There is a set time to favor Zion. There's a time for trials. There's a time for difficulties. There's a time for this darkness. It was now dark, and had been
for these three watches. All the while they were tossed,
all the while they are toiling in rowing. And Matthew and Mark,
they noticed the time. Are you looking at that too?
Thinking of how long you've been in this case? Think of the man
that was 38 years at the Pool of Bethesda. Long time lying,
no deliverance. You think of the woman with the
issue of blood. 12 years she had that issue of
blood. You think of the man that was
born blind. He is of age, ask him. He must
have been, well, 19, 20, something like that. And the Lord says
that he was born blind for the glory of God, but had to wait
many, many years before that glory was revealed and shown. We mentioned of Elijah, three
and a half years of famine. Always there is the time. Your
time, says our Lord, is already. My time is not yet. And that
applies to these times of trial and darkness. But John, he measures
it in a different way. He measures it in length, how
far they've gone. Verse 19, they'd rode about five
and 20 or 30 furlongs, three and a half miles, they'd got
some. six and a half miles to go in
the whole journey, they're about halfway. And so he is noting
the distance that they have travelled. And maybe that is how you're
measuring things, not by time, but the progress that you've
made. And you think, how little progress,
we're only halfway, how little, We have progressed at all in
our faith, in the way of holiness, in the way of grace, or in providence,
in what we've been attempting to do. We're the same place now
as we were a year ago, or two years ago. We're no further on,
we're not even halfway to obtaining what we were seeking to obtain. And these are the Things that
aggravate this time of darkness. Darkness of mind. Darkness over us. A troubled
soul. How much does that describe you,
describe me? It was now dark. You might say
it is now dark. But here we read it was now dark. And Jesus was not come to them. Really, in a way, that is what
made the whole lot worse. In all of this, all the tossings,
the rowing, and the time, and the distance, Jesus was not with
them. He hadn't come to them. They
walked through this. This is what made the darkness
more than anything. They hadn't got the feeling,
felt presence of the Lord and His blessing in their soul. Is
that you? Is that me? In all these things
that happen, you say, if we had the blessing of the Lord, how
much that would make a difference. On to look then in the third
place. And the deliverance that they
had is a deliverance for our encouragement as well. And the first is this, that Jesus
knew where they were. He knew where they were and he
saw them. He saw them toiling. in rowing. Mark is very clear in that, that
he actually saw them. And he saw them toiling in rowing,
for the wind was contrary unto them. And may we be encouraged
in that. They couldn't see him, but he
could see them. And Paul, he says of heaven,
then shall we know even as we are known. And he acknowledges
this. that God, He can see us when
we see not Him. And He knoweth the ways, says
the psalmist, or no, it is Job that says it. He knoweth the
way that I take, and when He hath tried me, I shall come forth
as gold. And the psalmist, he says, Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise Him as the health of my countenance. Or Psalm 139,
where the psalmist views that wherever he goes, whether it's
in the depths of the sea, there's no place that he can go. The
Lord does not see him and know him. And so that may be, may
that be a real encouragement and help to you, to I at this
time. The Lord does know. He does see
us. He is mindful of us. Another
time with the disciples, When the Lord was in the boat, and
they were like to being sunk with the waves, and the Lord
was asleep, they said, carest thou not that we perish? Of course
the Lord cared for them. He knew all that was happening. His divinity never slept. And
so may we be encouraged in this. Jesus knows your path, my path,
my darkness, your darkness, The second thing is, He came to them. Now I don't do love this, really
this is the whole gospel. The Lord came to them. The Lord said when He was preparing
them for, when He'd be taken from them and crucified, I will
see you again and your heart shall rejoice. Your joy no man
taketh from you. On that resurrection morning
and in the following 40 days, the Lord appeared again and again
to His disciples, a risen Saviour. He chose the time. He chose the
place. He appeared to them. They did
not find Him. He found them. And this is the
encouragement here. And this is the whole work of
the Gospel. The Lord finds His sheep. He
is the Good Shepherd. He comes to them when they're
in the ditch, when they're helpless, when they're in danger. He lifts
them up, He saves them. He passes by His people when
they're in unregeneracy, when they're dead in sin, when they're
in the darkness of sin, and He bids them live. This is the Gospel. It is God is the first in salvation. He is the first in deliverance. It is the Lord that delivers
His people, not them delivering themselves. It was now dark and Jesus was
not come to them, but He did and He came to them. How did He come to them? He came to them in a way they
could never have anticipated. They've never seen that happen
before. One walking on water, the Lord
coming to them in that way. How many times do you and I think
and go over all the possibilities what shall happen? How the Lord
will deliver us from our darkness? How the Lord will appear in providence? How the Lord will appear in grace? And we go round and round and
we exhaust all the possibility and say it's impossible. Yeah,
it is impossible with man, but not with God. May we always remember
this, that the Lord does that which we did not look for and
works in a way that man cannot devise. He did it in his great
redemption upon Calvary's tree. In Job he wonders how it can
be that God shall bring a clean thing out of an unclean. The
Old Testament saints, they knew the promises and the seed of
the woman that should come and bruise the serpent's head. They
didn't know how it was to be brought about. We know, by the
virgin birth, the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. We know, by
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, how He put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. And whosoever believeth in Him
and trusts in His sacrifice, and in His righteousness shall
never perish, but shall have eternal life. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto
the Father but by Him. And it is a way, a way that the
Lord has devised, and the way that the Lord will work. And
it stops us from putting our hand to things, and it causes
us to see This is the Lord's work and marvellous in our eyes. May that be a thought that is
encouraging to you and to me. In our souls, in Providence,
the Lord here, he comes in a way that they look not for, comes
in a miraculous way, and actually, he comes to them over that tossing
sea, over the waves and over the billows, Those things are
not a hindrance to him. We might look upon many things
and say they are all against us. Dear Jacob did, just before
Joseph was revealed, that he was alive. All these things are
against me. Remember, of course, this is
the fourth hour of the night. They'd gone a long way, they'd
waited a long time, but then the Lord comes. In a way they
had not. It's all anticipated. Now when
he does come, when he is in sight, when they first see him, is it
joy? Is it gladness? No, it's fear. They were fearful at first. So
when our Lord rose from the dead and appeared to them, the doors
being shut in the upper room, they were frightened. They thought
then it was a spirit. They thought here it was a spirit.
The Lord said to them then, A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye
see me have. And here the Lord again had a
word for them. We read that they were afraid,
but he saith unto them, It is I, be not afraid. Now often, just before the Lord
appears and blesses us, we're filled with fears and even frightened
at those very things. that the Lord is coming in and
delivering us in. What lessons there are in this,
that we even see a blessing, but cannot see it as a blessing.
We even see the Lord's coming, but don't discern who it is and
what He is doing. And yet the Lord did come, allay
their fears. And what happened? Immediately
that they are the land. The rest of the journey, half
of the way, They quickly went over, miraculously went over,
and then it was day. The Lord had come in the fourth
watch. How quickly things changed. No more waves, no more billows,
no more contrary, no more darkness, and the Lord was with them. So
our text, and it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them,
was turned about the other way and now it was light and Jesus
was come to them. How very suddenly, what a change
was wrought about when the Lord came. And so these are really
encouragements to us, encouragements to persevere, to still look to
the Lord, to wait His time, to be encouraged in providence and
in God's grace. to still trust in the Lord with
all our heart and lead not to our own understanding, to wait
His time. These things are written for
our learning, for our encouragement. These were dear disciples. Dear
disciples, walk this path and the Lord show you and I that
we also are His disciples. Following the Lord in times of
darkness, And the Lord turning that darkness to light, times
of trial, and yet the Lord bring from those trials some wonderful
deliverances, and that we may tell and recount as three of
these evangelists do, to the honour and glory of God. May the Lord then bless His word
and encourage and help your souls and mine. Amen.