Alright, John chapter 6. It is I, be not a prowler. Our text this morning follows
the Lord feeding the 5,000 with five loaves and two small fishes.
He sent the people away for the night. And what follows is a
very familiar story for centuries. This passage of scripture has
comforted God's people in times of trial, and it should. This passage, when we read it,
should comfort the hearts of God's children. But before we
can apply the promise that our Lord will control every event
for our good and for His glory, before we can find comfort in
the promise of the Lord's presence to us, first there must be redemption. God's only going to work all
things together for good to them that love Him. To them who are
called according to His purpose. So I want us to look at this
passage this morning in two ways. First, I want us to look at it
and see a picture of God's salvation. God does the impossible to save
His people from their sins. And second, I want us to look
at the comfort that must come as a result of that redemption.
Now first, let's look at it as a picture of salvation. Verse
15 of John 6, when Jesus therefore perceived that they would come
and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again
into a mountain himself alone. Now Matthew and Mark tell us
that the Lord went to this mountain alone to pray. He went there
alone. He sent everybody else away.
And that's when you can really pray, when you're alone. Our
Lord went often to be alone to pray. He was a man of prayer. Now, if the Son of God took time
to pray, despite everything that seemed like it was always going
on around Him. He never had peace. There was
tumult. There was things always going
on around Him. He always took time to pray.
How important must it be for us to pray? If the Son of God
did that, it was important to Him to pray. How important it
must be for us to find time to be alone to pray. And the fact
that our Lord was away from everyone. He went to a mountain alone.
He sent his disciples down to the sea. He went up into the
mountain. The fact that he was physically so far away from his
disciples has pointed out to us, so we'll know this, that
humanly speaking, there was no way for Christ to get to that
ship when his disciples find themselves in trouble in the
midst of the sea. Now verse 16, And when evening was now come,
his disciples went down unto the sea, and they entered into
a ship, and they went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it
was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. The disciples went
down to this ship, and they began to sail to the other side. And
in the other accounts of this miracle, that's what the Lord
told them to do. So they, in obedience, did it.
They set sail to go to the other side. And it was dark. And the Lord wasn't with them,
but he told them to go. So they went in the darkness.
And that's the way you and I come into this world. We come into
the world alone. And we come in darkness. Because
we're without Christ. So we're in darkness. We're in
the darkness of sin, the darkness of unbelief. That's why Paul
said in Ephesians 2, now you remember this. When you came
into this world at one time, you were without Christ. You're
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. You're strangers to
the covenants of promise. having no hope. And you're without
God in the world. You're alone in the darkness.
In verse 18, the sea rose by reason of a great wind that blew. Earlier that day, the disciples
were on top of the world. The Lord fed the 5,000 with the
loaves and the fishes. Everyone just was clamoring after
the Lord. And after them, I mean, they
gathered up the 12 baskets of the fragments that remained.
Oh, it couldn't get any better. Just a few hours later, they're
alone in the darkness on the sea. In the middle of the sea,
the wind rose up against them. Life changed on them, didn't
it? That great wind that blew could
have been a gale force wind. Maybe it was a hurricane force
wind. We don't know, but it was a great wind. Matthew says the
ship was tossed. And these experienced sailors
knew they're in trouble. They pulled down the sails. The
way the wind was, the sails weren't doing any good. And they began
to row, trying to row that boat to shore. And worst of all, the
Lord was not with them. At other times, remember, the
Lord was asleep in the ship. At least they knew the Lord's
with us. This time, the Lord's not with
them. They're all alone. They thought they were. They
thought they were on their own. They thought it was all up to
them to get that ship to shore. And it seemed very likely they
would go down with the ship and drown. And while all this was
going on with them, they thought the Lord didn't know what was
going on, didn't they? They thought they were alone. And what was
our Lord doing? He was in a mountain alone, praying. That's a picture of Christ interceding
for His people. Before we know Him, He's interceding
for His people. When we're in darkness and we
think it's all up to us, where's the Savior? He's interceding
for His people. The picture here is of God's
elect on the sea of this world. And this world is a stormy place
because of sin. And on that sea, the law is contrary
to us. Matthew says the wind was contrary
to them, was blowing against them. That's the law. The law
is contrary to us, blowing against us. And no matter how hard we
row in the darkness, we can't get ourselves any closer to the
shore. We can't keep God's law and surely
we'll go down to the pit. And there's nothing we can do
about it. We're utterly helpless. Nothing we can do about it. And
as far as we can tell, the Lord's not with us. That's why it's
so dark. The Lord has removed Himself.
He's the light of the world. If we don't have Christ, we have
darkness. If you remove light, you have
darkness. That's why it's so dark. Now look over Mark chapter
6. Here in Mark's account of this
miracle, we read something very interesting. Mark 6 verse 47, And when evening was come, the
ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land,
our Lord was alone on the land. And he saw them toiling and rowing,
for the wind was contrary unto them. Our Lord was alone on the
land, and he saw them. The disciples thought they were
alone. The disciples thought the Lord was not with us. He
saw them from there on the mountain. He saw them toiling and rowing. No matter where we are, God sees
His people. That's just so comforting to
me that no matter where I am, to know my way is not hid from
the Lord. He sees His people. He sees me
and He understands what I'm going through because He's a man too.
He understands. And the Lord saw them. Well,
of course He saw them. He has always seen His people.
In eternity past, before the creation, He saw His people. in the election of God. He saw
His people chosen out of Adam's fallen race, given to Him in
the covenant of grace. He saw His people lost in Adam. He saw them being born in this
world lost in sin, lost in the darkness of sin and unbelief.
He sees His people as they're lost, toiling and rolling, toiling
to keep the law, toiling and failing to keep the law. But
He always sees His people. I mean, we're a mess, aren't
we? But He always sees His people in love, in eternal love. He sees His people. There was
never a time God did not love His people. He's always loved
them in His Son. And He always knew when He would
come and redeem them. He always knew when He would
come and reveal Himself to the hearts of His people in grace.
He always knew. He always saw them. He was never
worried. We were worried. We were going
down with the ship. He's not worried. He knew the
time he'd come and redeem them and reveal himself to their hearts.
He knew. Now, verse 19, back in our text. So when they'd rowed
about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking
on the sea and drawing nigh into the ship. And they were afraid. They'd rowed about three or four
miles and the other accounts Say it was in the fourth watch
of the night sometime after 3 a.m. Now, it's dark at 3 a.m. I mean, it's pitch dark. And
here they are in that darkness being tossed around on the ocean
like a cork just every which way. Now, I've been on a ship
in the middle of the night in the middle of the ocean. It was
a cruise ship. There wasn't much danger. It
was calm sea. It was a cruise ship. But I've been out there.
Everywhere you look, you can't see land. You can't see lights
from the land. You can't see lights of another
ship. I mean, it's just darkness. And even on calm seas, you think,
that's kind of unsettling. Imagine how the disciples felt.
Tossed with the wind. The wind contrary to them. They
thought they're going down. And I can tell you why all this
is happening. Many people are going to follow
the Lord because He fed them well. Many people are. And that
heart of self-love is in all of us. That's the heart we're
born with. This heart of self-love. What's in it for me? You know,
if I'll follow, you know, what's in it for me? That's the heart
that's in the disciples too. It's in us. It's in these disciples.
And you'll notice this. The only people our Lord sent
to the sea was disciples. He knew he was going to send
a wind and a storm on that sea. Where'd he send everybody else?
He sent them away. Go to your homes. Go find you
a hotel room. Go find you a nice place, a tree
to sleep under or something. He sent those people, those people
He knew were going to lead Him, He sent them to safety. He sent
them to a place they got a peaceful night where to send His disciples
to the sea in the darkness where the wind would be contrary to
them. When you find yourself in trouble, don't think it's
because the Lord doesn't love you. It could be because He does. Could be. The Lord will not leave
His people thinking only of material blessings. He won't do it. He's
going to teach every one of His children our need of Him as our
Savior. He's going to teach us our need
of Him as our spiritual provider and our spiritual keeper. He'll
teach us we desperately need His salvation. We need His presence
more than we need anything else. Now, of course, your body has
to have material things, you know, to live and subsist. But
He's going to teach us this. Our primary need is of Him to
be our Savior. Oh, we need His mercy. And we
need His grace. And our Lord sent His disciples
to the troubled seas for a purpose. So they learned something. And
then they see the Lord walking to them. on the water. They're
scared to death because of the wave and the storm. And then
they see a man walking on the water. I mean, can you imagine
how scared they were on those rough seas? The Lord's not running
in a panic, trying to, you know, get into the boat for the waves
overtaking. He's just walking. He's not running.
He's walking. He's not stumbling over the waves.
He's walking on them. The wind's not affecting them.
He's just walking to them. Calmly walking on the waves of
the sea. And the disciples were afraid.
Well, you know, the writers are pretty hard on them. I suppose
I should be too. But I understand. Of course they
were afraid. No one had ever seen a man walking
on water before. They thought they were seeing
a ghost. That's what Matthew and Mark say. They thought they
saw a ghost. Look back in Mark chapter 6 again. They thought
they saw ghosts, and they were afraid. And I can show you why
they were afraid. This is where our fear comes
from. We live in fear. We're so afraid
of everything. This is where our fear comes
from. Mark 6, verse 52. When they saw the Lord, they
were so amazed in themselves. This is after the wind had ceased,
the Lord had come into the boat. They were so amazed in themselves,
beyond measure, and they wondered. For they considered not the miracle
of the loaves, for their heart was hardened." They were afraid
because their heart was hardened with sin and unbelief. That's
why we're always afraid. Only God can walk on water. Only God could create matter.
He could take that bread and as He broke it, He created bread.
He created matter that wasn't there before so that He had enough
to feed the 5,000 plus the women and children. Plus the 12 baskets
full that were left over at the end. Well, they should have known
the Lord could walk on water too. He's God. He just revealed
Himself to be God, the Creator. Well, then He can walk on water
too. But they didn't. They didn't think that. It never
crossed their mind because their heart was hardened with sin.
And here's a comfort. Their hearts were hard. You have a hard heart? Does it
trouble you? I mean, does it bother you? You think, the Lord can't love
me. My heart's too hard. I'm just cold and indifferent. The Lord's not going to speak
to me. He's not going to come to me.
He hasn't done anything for me. My heart's so hard. Their hearts
were hard. But the Lord loved them anyway.
He knew their hearts were hard. What was He doing? After he got
done interceding for them as he prayed on the mountain alone,
he came to them. He was coming to them anyway,
even though their hearts were hard. Salvation is by grace.
Aren't you glad? See, this is the problem. Disciples
aren't the only ones with a hard heart. We have a hard heart.
And we've got to be given a new one. But nothing can be done
with this old hard heart. It can't be changed. It can't
be molded. Nothing can be done with it. We've got to be given
a new heart. in the new birth. That old dead
heart thinks we keep the law. We can roll hard enough that
we can make some headway here against and keep it. We can do
something to make ourselves righteous. That old heart will not consider
that God says in the flesh, no man can please me. That heart
won't consider that God says without faith, it's impossible
to please him. So we just keep rowing and toiling
and rowing because we just keep thinking, I can keep the law.
I've never done it before, but if I just give a little more
effort, I can do it now. And the problem is this, we can
no more keep the law than we can walk on water. You children,
you know this story, don't you? Have you ever tried to walk on
water? I did. Maybe that makes me foolish.
I know I am. It just reveals my foolishness.
But I tried walking on water before. And you know what I found
out? You can't do it. I mean, you
just can't do it. I used to try, there's a pool
we went to when I was a kid. I used to try to put one foot
on the cement and one foot in the pool. You can't even walk
on water with one foot in the pool. I mean, looking back at
that now, I thought, boy, this kid's nuts. But I tried it. And you cannot walk on water. Try it sometime. You won't be
able to do it. As foolish as it sounds, that's what we try
to do when we try to keep God's law. We can't walk on it. It's
foolish to think you can walk on water. The water won't hold
you. Our flesh makes it impossible
for us to walk on the water. That same flesh makes it just
as impossible to keep God's law. We can't do it. Not even one
step. We can't keep God's law. But we just keep trying anyway. That's this cold heart. This
dead heart. And one day, maybe we start to
get an inkling, we're going to see God in judgment, and we get
afraid. Because we know we've not been
walking on water. We know we've not been keeping God's law. That's
why Hellfire and Brimstone preaching get some emotional response.
Because men by nature are afraid of Hell. We know we haven't done
enough. I mean, your conscience tells
you that. We know hell is what we deserve. And if we look around
us, we will be full of fear just like these disciples were. We'll
be full of fear. And if we look within, we're
going to be afraid. All you're going to see is blackness
and sin and unbelief and darkness and we'll despair of all hope.
But if we look to Christ, all those fears are going to vanish.
Look to Him. The disciples were shouting in
fear. And back in our text, verse 20,
John says, They are full of fear. But our Lord saith unto them,
It is I. Be not afraid. Those have to
be the most comforting words a believer will ever hear. For
the Lord to say, It's I. Oh, if the Lord's with me, Then,
of course, I won't be afraid. What's there to be afraid of?
If the Lord's with me, what's there to fear? This is how the Holy Spirit comforts
the hearts of God's people. By showing them Christ. He shows
us who Christ is. He shows us what Christ has accomplished
for His people. The Holy Spirit comforts God's
people by giving us an ear that will hear the Lord say, I am. Be not afraid. I am. I am your
substitute. Be not afraid. I am the one who
bore your sin. I am the one that bore your punishment.
Be not afraid. I am your righteousness. Be not
afraid. Look over in Colossians chapter
2. Matthew said that the wind was contrary to them. And that's
a picture of the law being contrary to us. Well, now what are you
going to do with that? What are you going to do with
the law that's contrary to us? What are you going to do with God's
judgment that's against us because we haven't kept the law? Colossians
2 verse 13, And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath he quickened together with them, having forgiven
you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out
of the way, Nailing it to his cross. That's how God took away
that which was contrary to us. He blotted it out with the blood
of his son. That's how it is taken away.
Now, listen, there's no reason for fear if sin is removed. The only reason we fear is because
of sin. Always. That's the only reason.
Well, if sin is removed, there's no reason for fear, is there?
And that's what Christ has done for his people. He's done the
impossible. Just like walking on water. He's
done the impossible. God's spirit. But God was made
flesh. That's what scripture says. We
say, well, that's impossible. God can't be made flesh. Oh,
yes, he can. He did the impossible. Sent his
son made of a woman. Made flesh. So he could be the
representative and the substitute and the sin offering for sinful
men. The God man. I kept the law perfectly. Now, you and I say that's impossible.
It's impossible to keep the law. And in our experience, that's
so, isn't it? It's impossible for a man to keep the law. Not
the God-man. The God-man did the impossible.
He kept God's law perfectly. God said, I will by no means
clear the guilty. Well, then it's impossible for
me to be cleared because I know this. I'm guilty. That's not hard to see. That's
not hard to figure out. I'm guilty. Well, then it's impossible
for a sinner like me to have any hope. No, Christ has done
the impossible. He put the sin of his people
away. And brethren, he made them not
guilty. Not guilty. By taking their guilt and his
body on the tree and bearing that sin away and giving his
people His righteousness. So they're not guilty. He's done
the impossible. Now look over Matthew chapter
14. Everyone in Christ has been made just like Him. Been made
not guilty, righteous. And we have a picture of that
in Matthew. The other apostles don't give an account of this,
but Matthew does. This is the time that Peter walked
on water. He did what the Lord did. He
did the impossible. Peter walked on water. Matthew
14 verse 27. Here they cried out for fear,
but straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer.
It is I. Be not afraid. Well, buddy, the
Lord said, Don't be afraid. Peter said, All right, I'm not
afraid. He said in verse 28, Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water. Peter
always wanted to be with the Lord. He's going to go to the
Lord. He's not afraid. So, verse 29, he said, come.
And when Peter was come down out of the ship, Peter walked
on the water to go to Jesus. Peter did the impossible and
walked on water. Well, wow, Peter's something,
isn't he? Peter's really powerful, isn't he? No. How did Peter walk on water?
In the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter walked on water
because the Lord gave him the command. And He did the impossible. He walked on water. It's impossible
for me to convince you to come to Christ. It's impossible. But the moment you hear the Lord
say, Come. You're going to walk on water.
You're going to do the impossible. And you're going to come to Him
and be made the righteousness of God in Him. Come! It's in the power of Christ.
The Scriptures plainly declare, God's elect have done the impossible. They've kept the law in the person
of our substitute, in the person of our representative. We've
kept the law and we're perfectly righteous. Not in our doing,
in the doing of the Lord Jesus Christ, in His righteousness.
Now, Frank, are you saying that once you believe Christ, the
storm's over? No, sir. I'm not saying that at all. Look
at verse 30. Peter's doing the impossible.
He's walking on water. Oh, but he saw the wind was boisterous,
and he was afraid. And he began to sink, and he
cried, saying, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. The storms must
not be done, but Peter still saw them. He saw the wind was
boisterous. He saw the waves, and they still
made him afraid. Peter's faith was not perfect. But Peter still knew who he was
depending on. When Peter was going down, who
did he look to? Who did he cry to? Lord save
me. Lord save me. Of all the prayers
in Scripture, this is the one, I don't know if I can say I like
the most, but I find much comfort in this prayer. This is one of
the great prayers of Scripture. You don't have to be an orator. Pray well. You don't have to
be an orator. You don't have to know a lot of good language and
a lot of good words. You don't have to know a lot of the language
that was used in the King James Version. You don't have to know
the original Greek or the original Hebrew. You have to have a heart
of prayer. Lord, save me. Oh, this is a
great prayer. It's short, but it's a great
prayer. Peter put all of his confidence
in the Lord. Peter didn't start swimming.
He said, Lord, save me. He quit toiling and rolling.
Lord, save me. Save me by your grace. He cried
to the Lord. This is the sinner's prayer.
Your people say, let's repeat, repeat the sinner's prayer. This
is it. Lord, save me. You don't have to repeat after
me. Peter didn't have to repeat after anybody. This came from
his heart, a sincere prayer from his heart to the point. It didn't
have to be long to be heard, did it? It was to the point.
No suggestions on how to save him. Lord, now if you'll do this,
you know, you can, Lord save me. However you will, whenever
you will, Lord save me. And the Lord did. Verse 31. Immediately, Jesus stretched
forth his hand and caught him. He saved him. And he said to
him, O thou little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Peter, why
did you waver between doubt and confidence? Only for this reason. He looked away from Christ. And
I don't just know that from reading this in God's Word. I know it
from that. I can back it up with experience.
Every time I've been afraid and sunk. Every time. Because I looked
away from Christ. It's just what Peter did right
here. And this is going to be the experience of every believer. We will cry to the Lord in fear. Lord save me. Look over Mark
chapter 6 again. Mark 6 verse 48, this is interesting to me. He
saw them toiling and rowing, for the wind was contrary to
them, and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them
walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. He just
got for a stroll, and he would have passed by them. But they
cried to him in fear, and he said, It's I, be not afraid.
The Lord is going to make His disciples cry for mercy. We're going to beg for mercy.
In verse 49, they saw Him walking upon the sea, and they supposed
it had been a spirit, and they cried out. Oh, they were troubled. They cried to Him. Why would
the Lord walk by Him? He wasn't going to. He was going
to show mercy, but He wouldn't walk by Him. For this reason,
He's going to make us beg for mercy. He's going to make us
realize who did the saving, and who's the sinner, who can make
us realize our need of Him. And if you're a lost sinner here
this morning, I want you to listen to me. If you cry to the Lord
out of a sincere heart, if you cry to Him out of a heart of
need, if you cry to Him out of a desperate need for a Savior
who'll save you from your sin, He'll save you. That's what He
said. And He showed an example, an
illustration of it right here. If you cry to him, he'll save
you. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on
others thou art calling, don't pass me by. Lord, save me. Now,
that never means that Christ is the beggar. He's just waiting
on us to call him. It never means that. We're the
beggars. The lesser is always the beggar.
And we're the lesser. gladly receive what the hand
of the sovereign would give. Look back in our text, John 6,
verse 21, that's what we see. Beggars gladly receive what the
sovereign gives. Then they willingly received
him into the ship, and immediately the ship was at the land where
they went. Now Christ, the Savior, will
be received willingly and gladly because he's given his people
a new heart. That old heart doesn't love Him, but the new heart does. It gladly receives Christ. It gladly desires to be saved
by Him and receives Him and desires salvation by Him more than anything
else. I desire to be saved by Christ
more than I desire anything else. I would rather be saved by Christ,
be saved by His mercy, be saved by His grace, be saved by His
blood than if I could do it on my own. I'd rather be saved by
Him. It's much more glorious. And
the believer, that new heart, is going to desire the presence
of Christ more than anything else. More than anything. You're going to desire Him. Now
I want you to notice this. As soon as the Lord came on board,
that ship was at its destination. Now from what I read, they were
about six to seven miles from their destination. And the moment
the Lord stepped on that boat, it was at its destination. When
Christ is on the boat, there's no more fear. When Christ comes
in the heart, there's no more rowing. There's no more toiling. There's no more working. Just
rest. And here's the thing about coming
to Christ. As soon as you begin to come to Christ, you're there. As soon as you begin, you're
there. The disciples were immediately
at the shore. Not by rowing, by grace. And that's salvation. Salvation's
not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according
to His mercy, He saves us. Salvation's not by our works.
It's by works, but it's not by our works. It's by the powerful
working of Christ. His work for us and His work
in us. The moment we look to Him, we're
at the destination. That's salvation. Now second,
this story is given to show us this. The Lord always comes to
His people in times of trial. It's because a person has been
given spiritual life and they trust Christ. That does not mean
they're trials and the hard times are over. Really, it means they're
just beginning. When you come to Christ, the
time of trial and difficulty is just beginning. Now, often
a believer feels like we're alone in the darkness, toiling and
rowing. You know what that word toiling
means? It means tortured. That's what
the law does to us. That's what our works do to us.
They torture us. It's torturous to keep working
and working and working and never one time be obedient. And we
feel like we're alone. You feel like no one sees you. You feel like no one cares. Even
the Lord. Why am I here? Has the Lord forgotten
me? Is His mercy clean gone? But brothers and sisters now,
rest assured, the Lord sees His people. He sees all. You're not out of His sight.
Jan and I were up in Michigan this week and our niece, we were
at a restaurant. She ran around the corner out
of sight. Her mom and daddy didn't ask
all that concern. Jan had a heart attack. I don't know. We're getting
older. She was out of our sight. It
petrified us. It should have scared her. Child of God, you're not out
of His sight. He sees His children. You're
not out of His sight. He hasn't gone out of the reach
of His arm. He sees His people. It's the Lord who sent the trial.
He didn't send that trial. He sent them away, didn't He?
Go rest, He told them. What do you tell the disciples?
Go down to the sea. I sent you there. Well, he saw them when
they were there. He sees. He's the one that sent the wind
that was contrary to them. He's the one that sent the waves
to toss them about. He sees. Even in the darkness,
the Lord sees. We're in the darkness. The Lord's
seeing it. And you know how He sends the darkness? For a time. Thankfully, it's just for a time.
He'll withdraw the light of His presence so we can learn something. He's going to learn. We're going
to learn this. that even in the time of darkness, we don't see
Him. He sees us. And what's He doing? He's interceding
for His people. Peter, Satan's desire to sift
you is weak. But I've prayed for you. I've
interceded for you that your faith fail not. Aren't you thankful
our Lord's a man of prayer? Interceding. Ever-living, interceding
for His people. Now at those times, darkness,
storm, wind, Our faith's going to waver. Sometimes it'll even
fail. Completely fail. And we'll be
scared. We'll be scared of the trial.
And then we're going to be scared because of the hardness of our
heart. I think the hardness of my heart scares me worse than
the storm. And there's no excuse for it.
Our faith should never waver because our Savior never wavered.
Our faith should never fail because our Savior will never fail. And we'll be scared and we'll
forget the past blessings of the Lord because of the hardness
of our heart. And here's comfort even then. The Lord's coming to us. I may
not be coming to Him. I may be just sitting in the
corner crying and making a mess. But the Lord's coming to me.
He's coming to His people. And He will deliver us at exactly
the right moment when we've learned what we're supposed to learn
and when we'll see His glory the best. The Lord is going to
wean you and me away from the creature comforts of this life.
And He's going to cause us to love and to desire His presence
more than any Everything else you know. He's going to teach
us that. And when we have His presence, there'll be no more
fear. There'll be no more worry. I'm not saying there won't be
storms. There will. But when we have the presence
of our Lord, you won't notice them. You just won't care. Because His presence will overpower
it. The glory of His presence will
overpower whatever else is going on. And when we're full of doubts
and we're full of fears, let's look to Christ. Look to Him. If we look around us, we'll be
full of fear because there's no hope. If we look within, we'll
be full of fear because there's nothing to see in us but despair
and lack of hope. But if we look to Christ, our
fears will vanish. The darkness vanishes when there's
light. Fear vanishes when there's light,
when there's the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you
in darkness? If you are, you remember this.
You're not alone. You're not alone. Sometimes people
don't want everybody to know the trial that they're going
through. Maybe somebody doesn't know. But you're not alone. The
Lord sees you. You're not alone. is going to
go with you. I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. It may seem dark. You may feel
like you're alone. But wherever you are, the Lord
sent you there. He didn't just fall off a ship
and accidentally get there. No. He sent you there. And He's coming for you. And
He's going to arrive right on time. And then the trial won't
seem quite so difficult. And it won't seem so important.
It won't seem so grievous. Because you hear the voice of
the Savior say, it's I. Be not afraid. Oh, we won't be
afraid if we have His presence with us. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
that we can call the God of heaven and earth our Father. It's by Your grace, it's by Your
matchless, infinite, loving grace and mercy that You've made us
Thy children, that we can come before Thee crying, Abba, Father. How thankful we are. How thankful
we are for the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, that You would
reveal Your Son to the hearts of sinners such as we are. that
You would in mercy come to us and say, It is I. Be not afraid. Father, we're thankful. And we
do beg Thy forgiveness for the hardness of our heart. You revealed
to us Thy person. You shall not fail nor be discouraged. There's no reason for the hardness
of our heart. There's no reason for the failing
and wavering of our faith. And we ask your forgiveness.
And how thankful we are. Oh, how thankful. That salvation
is by grace. Not because of something that
we did to earn it or deserve it. And not by something we did
to keep it. It's by grace. And Father, until
the time comes that you would call us home, we beg your presence. We know times of trial and trouble
will come from thy hand for our learning for Thy glory. And in
those times, Father, we beg of Thee that You give us Your presence. But we've learned this, that
we can do without anything else in this life that we cannot do
without Thee. And we pray, Father, that You
keep us ever near Thy side. Keep us looking constantly to
the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who took away our sins so there'll
be no more fear. We thank you. In the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, we ask thy blessing, a blessing on thy
words. We go home. God bless your word to our hearts.
For it's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray and give
thanks. Amen.