again this evening. The Lord Jesus has fed the multitudes. He knows the hearts of every
individual and He knew that these, most of them, were ready to anoint
Him to be a literal King They wanted him to lead a rebellion
against Rome. And aware of their intentions,
he sends his disciples away. He tells them to get in a ship
and go across the Sea of Galilee. Then he sends the multitudes
away. Then the Savior goes up into
a mountain by Himself, and He goes to pray. His disciples, leaving on the
ship, they began to make their way across the Sea of Galilee
The Lord sends a storm. Every storm originates with the
Lord. We know that. Storms don't just
kind of come about on their own. I know the weather forecasters,
they'll say things are ripe for a storm in such and such a location,
but it's the Lord who controls all the variables. He brings
everything about to fulfill His will and He brought this storm
to pass. It's dark for the disciples. It's during the fourth watch.
This storm owes its origin to the Savior, the one who governs
all things. These men are out there in this
ship. an act of disobedience that led
them to go out there. They're actually being obedient
to the revealed will of the Lord. And they go out in the ship and
they encounter an awful, awful storm. Let's be mindful of the fact
that every storm owes its origin to the great sovereign of the
universe, the Lord Himself. And that's not just the storms
of a physical nature, like the one that's in the Gulf right
now, or the one that's over a little north of the outer banks. Though God brings those storms
to pass as well, Even the storms of inward trouble, outward difficulties,
what we read about the fiery trials of life, all of those
storms, those storms that you have to endure, those storms
that come to me as well, we must always remember who the author
of the storms is. He is our master. He is our savior. I know the storms are painful.
The storms can bring great agony. Storms that come to us often
bring anxiety to our souls. But we would do well Every child
of God, every blood-bought saint, everyone who professes that great
name of the Lord Jesus, we would do well to remember it's the
Lord who sends the storm. The Lord sends this storm. The
disciples, they don't enjoy His physical presence with them.
He's up on the mountain, there in the ship, by themselves. Those storms that we have to
endure, we don't enjoy his physical presence. He's up in glory. But we do enjoy his spiritual
presence. He said by His Spirit, He said,
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Though
the disciples were in the dark here during the fourth watch
of the night, they were always under the watchful, watchful
eye of their Savior. And that's good for us to remember.
He not only knows what we're going through, But whatever it
is we're going through, he's putting us through it. He is
the one who sits, as it says in the book of Malachi, as that
one who is burning the dross from us. Malachi says he sits as a refiner. And we're his precious jewels.
We're his treasures. There is much refining that each
of us need. And he puts us through these
fiery trials of life. They won't consume us. They won't
consume you. Oh, they'll cause you some heartache. It may bring great anxiousness
to your inward soul. But they can't destroy you. And
we need to remember, even as these disciples needed to remember,
that indeed all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. Our God is infinitely
wise in the way He deals with His children. He never makes
any mistakes with any of us. We are foolish, We lack the wisdom
and the knowledge to know what's best for ourselves. We ask God
when we petition Him about various matters, we say, Lord, not my
will. Thy will be done. I don't know
what's best for me. You don't know what's best for
you. But I know who knows what's best for me. And I know and you
know what's best for you. He does. The Lord knows. And
in His good providence, He brings these storms to pass. These fiery trials, they come
to us for our good. They drive us to our knees, they
drive us to fall before the Lord upon our faces and say, oh my
God, help me. It's amazing how the storms of
life remind us of those things that are really vital. All of a sudden when God sends
a severe trial to you, And your boat is rocking to and fro on
the sea of life. Those little trivial things that
you thought were significant, they become insignificant. You know, the scripture says
over in the book of Psalm 107, they that go down to the sea
in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works
of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. When is it that you will experience
the graciousness of God and that peace that only He can give?
Well, it's only when you're in the midst of a storm. Because otherwise, faith isn't
tried, And I assure you this, both true faith and false faith
is going to be tried. If you profess to know the Lord
Jesus, to be saved by God's free grace, to be justified by Christ's
imputed righteousness, You profess to be a believer. Yes, I am a
child of God. Yes, I have everlasting life
through the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a believer. I rest in Him. Then you can be assured of this.
Your faith is going to be tried. It is going to be put on trial.
God is going to try your faith. God will try your faith. If you
built on the rock Christ Jesus, when the storms come and the
winds blow, you'll still be fixed on the Lord Jesus, the rock of
ages, the rock of God. That foundation that we have
in Him will never be moved if we build our houses of salvation
upon Christ Jesus, His blood and His righteousness. Though
the winds blow, though the lightning flashes
and the thunder rolls, If you stay on the rock, they
can't blow us away. The storms cannot do you any
damage. Isn't that wonderful to know? They cannot harm you. But if
you're building a sandy foundation, a work salvation, salvation dependent
upon you, you're going to have the same kind of storm. Our Lord
says in His great Sermon on the Mount, that one of these storms,
it will just blow your house down, because you built on the
sand. Hear these men, the storm arises. We know they have rode three
or four miles, and in the darkness, in the darkness. You know, it's
bad, you know, a thunderstorm is kind of a fearful thing. I
remember when we were growing up and my mother was, she was
absolutely afraid of storms. She was scared to death. And
so she got us, when we were just little kids, my brother and my
sister and myself, we'd get in the living room and she said,
we're going to have Bible study. Because she felt like the Lord
wouldn't hit our house with lightning if we was having Bible study.
So we had Bible study. Actually, we had sword drills,
if you know what those are. Sword drills. Attention, draw
swords, and then you had to look up verses of Scripture. She was
scared to death of storms. I respect storms. Because I know
who sends them, but I'm not fearful of them. But I'll tell you, I
was talking on the telephone one time during the storm and
lightning ran in. Fire came out of the voice bar
where I'm talking. It burnt the stripe across my
chest. That put some fear in me, I'll
tell you that. I like to have a heart attack
on top of being burnt. I don't talk, don't call me during
a thunderstorm." He said, well, that can't happen talking on
the cell phone. I don't care. Don't call me during
a thunderstorm and expect I'm going to pick up. I won't do
it. I have great respect for a thunderstorm. It shows the
awesomeness of God. When Israel, when they heard
the thunder, they said, that's the voice of God. Next time a
thunderstorm happens and you hear the thunder rolling, you
just remember, that's the voice of your God. He can get everybody's attention
real quick too, can't he? Boy, a big rap of thunder, everybody
just gets quiet. And the lightning, flashing of
his eyes. I'm fascinated by thunderstorms. But I'll tell you, I'd rather
a thunderstorm happen during the day and not at night. It's something about the nighttime
when a storm comes. It's just you can't see what's
going on except when the lightning flashes. I remember years ago
I was flying to Florida to preach. And it was a late night flight,
red eye. And we had an awful storm. The Lord was pleased to send
a terrible thunderstorm. And the lightning would, it would
light up and I was sitting right beside, you could see every ribbit
on the wing going out through there. People got, people got
quiet. Some were crying. I mean, it
was shaking that plane. It was like being on a washboard
road. Do you know what a washboard
road is? It's been like one of those, except it's 35,000 feet
up in the sky. We landed in Orlando. We had to go way past Orlando,
then come back. And, oh, they had leaks in that
airport. It tore up some structures there. And the next day, somebody told
Nancy or asked Nancy, well, my husband went to Florida to preach,
and they said, where did he go? Orlando. Oh, my goodness, did
you know a tornado hit there? Did you know how bad? Have you
talked to him since he went? People get afraid during thunderstorms,
especially when it's dark. These disciples are so fearful.
And it's dark. And you know who comes walking
on the water to them? The Lord Jesus. He comes walking
on the water. Look down at verse 19, John 6. So, when they had rode five and
twenty or thirty furlongs, about three or four miles, They see
Jesus in John 6.19. They see Jesus walking on the
sea. They see Him drawing nigh unto
the ship. They were afraid because they didn't recognize Him. But He saith unto them, It is
I. Be not afraid. And then they willingly received
Him into the ship And immediately the ship was at the land where
they went. I would like to make an application
of this when the Lord begins to deal with us in His saving
mercies. And as we begin to recognize
the fact that this is the God of glory we're dealing with,
this is the great I Am, He is God over all, blessed forever.
He is holy, righteous, undefiled, separate from sinners. Then we
find out in light of His holiness what we are. And then we are
afraid. Scripture says by nature there
is no fear of God before the eyes of men. No fear of God. And yet the fear of God is the
beginning of wisdom. Fear of God is the beginning
of knowledge. No fear. We have no fear of God. No real
fear of God until He shows Himself to us. When the Lord begins to
instruct us as to who He is and as to what we are, then we're
fearful. We're fearful. I had a person
one time, I was preaching on the fear of God, they came up
to me after the service and said, I think we need to hear more
preaching on the love of God and how we need to love God.
And I said, well, God is love and we do need to love God, but
the beginning of wisdom is fear. You know, people just don't respect
God today, do they? There's no respect of God. There's
no fear of God before men's eyes. Because there is no understanding
of who God is. The men behind the pulpits today,
they preach a pathetic God. And the God that they preach
need not be feared. He need not be reverenced. He
need not be respected. But the God of the Bible, you
better stand in awe before Him. You come into His presence, you
better shut your mouth and open your ears. Let your words be
few. That's what Solomon says in the
book of Ecclesiastes. God's in the heaven, you're on
earth. You better watch what you say. Our Lord Jesus comes to them,
and before He reveals Himself to them, they're smitten with
fear. And then He says to them, in
His eye, be not afraid. I'll tell you what I gather from
this. There must be, first of all,
a reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ, and then there will be
a reception of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there must be a revelation
of the Lord Jesus to us, and then we will receive Him. If
you'll notice in this scripture, it says in verse 21, then they
willingly received Him. But there wasn't a reception
until they reverenced Him. Until they feared Him. And there
wasn't this reverence and this fear until there was a revelation
of Himself to them. Revelation first, then reception. Revelation first, and then reception. Then they willingly received
Him. It's only after He said, it is
I, that they willingly received Him. You see, the natural man
won't receive Christ Jesus. The natural man won't come to
the Savior for life. Our Lord said in John chapter
5 and verse 40, And ye will not come to Me that ye might have
life. He said in John 6 and 44, this
same chapter, a few verses over, He said, No man can come to Me
except the Father which has sent Me draw him, and I'll raise him
up the last day. There will be no reception of
the Lord Jesus in faith until the Lord Himself, He comes to
our ship and first of all strikes us with fear, and then identifies
Himself by saying, it's I. It's the Savior. It's the Master. And then you say, oh Lord, please
come on board. Please come on board. They willingly
received Him. And then it says, and immediately
the ship was at the land whither they went. Immediately. They were at their destination.
Well, meanwhile, verse 22. The day following, when the people
which stood on the other side of the sea, when they saw that
there was none other boat there except for that one wherein to
his disciples were entered, and they saw that Jesus went not
with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone
away alone. Howbeit, there came other boats
from Tiberias, nigh unto the place where they did eat bread,
after the Lord had given thanks. When the people therefore saw
that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took
shipping and came to Capernaum." And here's the title of the message
tonight. Seeking for Jesus. And that sounds so promising. It sounds so good. Seeking for
Jesus. I say it sounds good because
the Lord says we're to seek Him, and here they are seeking Him.
In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul speaking on Mars Hill, he said
that they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after
Him and find Him, though He's not far from every one of us.
We're all responsible to seek the Lord. We should seek the
Lord. Well, where is He to be found
if we're to seek the Lord? They're seeking Jesus. Well,
where is the Lord to be found today? Well, I'll tell you. He's
to be found on His throne. You want to find Jesus? He's
on His throne. You want to find Jesus? He's
everywhere. Isn't He? He's omnipresent. You
can't confine God to any one location. He's everywhere. Where is He? Seek the Lord. Where is He? He's in His Word. He's in His Word. Where is God? He's in His Son. God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself. Where is God? He's with His people. He said, where two or three gather
together in My name, there I'll be in the midst. These people
were seeking, they're seeking for Jesus. And that looks good. That sounds
good. After all, go back to Isaiah
chapter 55. Isaiah chapter 55. Don't we read back here about
the necessity of seeking the Lord? Indeed we do. Isaiah chapter 55 verses 6 and
7. Here is the evangelist Isaiah. And Isaiah, the preacher of the
gospel, he says, you seek the Lord. Seek ye the Lord. In other words, each one of you.
He says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. I'll tell you
what I gather from that. You need to seek Him now. That's
what I gather from that. Because he sort of qualifies
this. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. And I tell you something else
I take away from that. It seems to be saying there will
be a day when men will seek Him and they won't find Him. You
better seek Him while He can be found. He says, call ye upon
Him while He's near. He won't always be near. Call
upon Him while He's near. Let the wicked forsake His way,
the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord. Come back. In other words, return. Come back. You left in Adam,
come back. You left by your own rebellion,
come back. And what will God do? He will
have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Seek ye the Lord. Now, I tell
you what we do, we generally take this out of the context. Let's go back and see what the
Lord says to us before this. He says in verse 1, Everyone
that thirsteth. Everybody who has a sense of
their need. Everybody who has a realization
that they need the water of life.
Who is the water of life? Christ Jesus. Everybody who needs
salvation. Our Lord stood on the last day
of the feast in John chapter 7. He stood on the last day of
the feast. He stood and cried saying, If
any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. And out of
his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Oh, everyone that
thirsteth. Are you thirsty? Come ye to the
waters that come forth from the very throne of God. And he that
hath no money, This is good news for us sinners, because we don't
have anything with which to buy. He says, come ye buy and eat,
but don't come with money. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money, without price. He says, wherefore do you spend
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me, eat
ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. He says, and clock your ear,
and come unto me. He says, to hear, and your soul
shall live, and I'll make an everlasting covenant with you,
even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given somebody. I've given a hymn, this is what
God says, for a witness. Let me tell you something, this
seek ye the Lord while ye may be found, he's identified. He's identified here. He's the
one who's the witness given to the people. He testifies of God. He's the Word of God. He's the
great prophet. God says, I've given him for
a witness to the people. A leader! A leader! A commander! Who is Jesus of Nazareth? He
is not a doormat. He is the commander. He's a commander-in-chief
of all of the armies of God. All of the hosts of heaven worship
Him. This is the one you're to seek.
Not a pitiful, helpless Jesus who needs you, but this one that
God has given for a witness to the people. A leader! A commander! This is the one you're to seek.
Seek Him. Seek the one who can save. Seek
the one who does save. Watch this. Verse 5, Behold,
thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord
thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for He hath glorified
thee. There's a people, the Lord says. There's a people. They don't
know the Lord, but He knows them, and He's going to make them to
run to Him. You know what that is? That's
effectual grace right there. Here is this book all of God.
He'll make them run to Him. He draws them to Himself. And then Isaiah says, seek Him. Seek Him. And I'll tell you when you'll
seek Him, when He draws you to Him. draws you to Himself. Because you see, these people,
the Word of God is going to be sent to them, and that Word is going to do
its job. You see, that's what He talks about in the rest of
the chapter. You notice God says in verse
8, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, your ways are not my
ways. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down in
the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the
earth, and maketh it bring forth, and bud that it may give seed
to the sower, and bread to the eater, God says, so shall my
word be. that goeth forth out of my mouth."
That's His written Word. Oh, and it's also the incarnate
Word that came forth from God. It shall not return unto me void. The Lord Jesus didn't return
unto him void. He redeemed the people. He saved
the people. He did the work the Father gave
Him to do. It wasn't an empty work. It wasn't
a work that He merely attempted to do. Maybe it was successful,
maybe it wasn't successful. It's all dependent upon you.
No, no, no, no. He came and did the work and
He went back to the Father and He didn't go back empty handed.
He went back having finished the work God gave Him to do.
He accomplished that which God pleased. He prospered for those He came to save. And just
as the incarnate Word won't return unto God, neither will the written
Word. What I'm preaching tonight, this
Gospel Word, this Gospel of God's grace, the Word of God as it
goes forth, it's going to do just exactly what God sends it
forth to do. It'll harden some people. That's
a possibility. It'll soften some people too.
And it'll bring some people to seek the Lord while He may be
found. And they'll call upon Him while
He's near. And then that's why it says in
verse 12, for you shall go out with joy and be led forth with
peace. The mountains and the hills shall
break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come
up the fir tree. Instead of the briar shall come
up the myrtle tree. It shall be for the Lord, for His name, for an everlasting
sign that shall not be cut off. Instead of us being a bunch of
briars, we'll be trees that bear fruit for His glory. These people over here in John
6, they are seeking for Jesus. You say, oh, isn't this wonderful. Back over here in John chapter
6, they are seeking for Jesus. Seeking for Jesus. Seeking for
Jesus. You got to love those words. But it was from a bad motive. It sounds good on the surface,
but it was no good. No good. See, they're not searching,
seeking for the prophet who will teach them. They're not searching
for the great high priest who will offer a sacrifice that will
put their sins away. They're not looking for the son
of righteousness to illuminate their darkened hearts. They're
not looking for a spiritual king who reigns over a spiritual kingdom. They're not looking for a fountain
of cleansing to wash them from their sins. They're seeking for Jesus, but
with a wrong motive. They just want to see another
miracle. They want to see something exciting. They don't need Him as Savior. They don't need life from Him.
They don't need forgiveness from Him. So, they asked Him, verse
25, when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said
to Him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? That's not a bad question to
ask, but you know what? Answering that question would
not have benefited anybody. He didn't even answer it. At
least not with the kind of answer that they wanted. He answered
them, but he said this, verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek
me. You do seek me. You're looking
for me. But it's not because you saw
the miracles and you're desiring in your heart of hearts to know
me and sit at my feet and learn the gospel from me. No. But because you did eat of the
loaves and were filled and now you want some more miracles to
satisfy your fleshly appetites. And he says this, labor not for
the meat which perishes. Now he's not saying don't work
anymore. He's not saying quit your job,
stop being concerned about what you're going to eat tomorrow.
Don't worry about that. After all, the Bible says if
a man doesn't work, he doesn't eat. That's what the Apostle
Paul said in the book of 2 Thessalonians. But he said, labor not for the
meat that perishes, but labor instead for the meat
which endures to everlasting life. Devote yourself to this. Devote yourself to salvation,
to knowing God, to life in Christ Jesus. Labor for that. Enter wholeheartedly into this
sort of labor. Him had God sealed. God's attested
that He's His Son. God's authenticated that He's
His Son by the signs that He did. Well, then they said to
Him, what shall we do? We might work the works of God. And men always want to do something. Give me something to do. Give
me some works. And Jesus said unto them, now
watch it, this is the work of God. This is the work of God
that you believe on Him whom He has sent. Let me give you
three things and I'll quit. See, our Lord here, He's calling
them to a work that they never thought of, a work that never
entered into their minds. This is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. Here's three things. Number
one, faith in Christ is what God demands and requires of you. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. And God commands all men to believe
His Son. It's not an invitation to believe
Him. God commands it. And you're either
obedient to the gospel or you're disobedient to the gospel. That's
just fact. God calls all men, demands all
men to believe. After all, without faith it's
impossible to please God. A jailer said, what must I do
to be saved? Paul said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. Faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ is what God demands and requires of you,
of everybody. You say, well, man's not able
to do it. We're not talking about your ability. We're talking about
your responsibility. You're duty bound to believe
Jesus Christ the Lord. If you don't believe Him, God's
going to send you to hell. Here's the second thing. Faith
in Christ Jesus. Number one, it's what God demands
and requires of you. Faith in Christ Jesus is something
that is absolutely impossible for the natural man to perform. And that's a fact too. It's as
true as the first one. Right here in John 6, and I quoted
a while ago, the Lord said, no man can come unto me which is
faith. You can't believe me unless the
Father draws you. Therefore, if anybody is to come
to Christ in faith, If anybody is to obey the command of God
to believe Him, it must be due to the work of God within you. He's got to give you faith. John
1, 12 and 13, But as many as received Him, to them gave He
the power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe
on His name, which were born. Which were born? Born in what
way? Well, not of blood, not of the
will of the flesh, and not of the will of man, but born of
God. Born of the will of God. By grace He is saved through
faith, and that's not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. So here's the third thing. Here's
the third thing. I say faith in Christ is what
God demands. God demands it. Faith in Christ
is what God demands. It's what God gives. And here's
the third thing. It's what God accepts. Faith. You see, God will accept that
which He requires and that which He gives. He will accept. And this evening, We come to
the Lord Jesus Christ. We seek Him. We seek Him. He's on His throne. We seek Him
in His Word. We seek Him by the power of the
Spirit of God. We seek Him. And by God's grace,
when He works a work of effectual goodness and mercy and kindness
within us, When He quickens us by His mighty power, that which
God demands and that which God gives, we exercise that faith
and God accepts it. And you know who gets the glory.
The Lord gets all of the glory. Well, let's sing.