Matthew chapter 14. Chapter 14. This miracle on the stormy sea is recorded here in Matthew as
well as in Mark chapter 6 and John chapter 6. But let's read
Matthew's account of it. Beginning at verse 22. Matthew
14 and 22. And straightway, Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship. John tells us the reason for
that. After the feeding of the multitude,
John tells us that they wanted to come and take Jesus by force,
imagine that, and make him king. So the Lord constrained his disciples
because they were probably infected with the same notions of an earthly
kingdom He said, it's time to go. So he constrained them to
get into a ship and to go before him and to the other side while
he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes
away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And Matthew, he
said, when you pray, don't be like the Pharisees standing on
street corners so everybody can see how religious you are. He
said, no, you go into your closet and shut the door. Get alone
with God, just like he does here. He goes up into a mountain apart
to pray. What an example. And when the
evening was come, he was there alone. And he spent hours there because
when he came to the disciples, we're told in verse 25, it was
in the fourth watch of the night, that was three o'clock in the
morning. The evening began at six o'clock. When the evening
was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst
of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. And
in the fourth watch of the night, three o'clock in the morning,
Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples
saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is
a spirit, it's an aberration, is what they said. And they cried
out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto
them, saying, Be of good cheer. It's not an aberration. It's
not a ghost. It's I. It is I. Be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he
said, Come. Come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Jesus,
the object of faith, the object of true faith. As long as our
eyes are upon Him, as Bobby sang a moment ago, all is well, all
is well. Peter, oh what a picture, what
a picture of faith. Peter with his focus on Christ,
walking on the stormy sea, just like his master, because his
only thought, his only ambition was to get to Christ. As long as that so, all is well. But, verse 30, but, when he saw
the wind boisterous, he changed his focus, he looked away. When
he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to
sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me, save me. And immediately,
immediately, Jesus didn't say, well, Peter, this is your own
fault. It was. Peter, why did you look away?
No, no, that's not, no. First of all, immediately, Jesus,
full of compassion, tenderhearted, remembering that we're all just
dust, immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him,
and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore did thou
doubt? Indeed, why? Indeed, why do we
doubt? And when they were coming to
the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship
came and worshipped him, and saying, of a truth thou art the
Son of God. Last week's message was from
John's Gospel chapter 12. Our text was verse 21, where
we read that certain Greeks came to Philip with the request, Sir,
we would see Jesus. We would see Jesus. Indeed, Indeed,
we would see Jesus. First of all, because there's
life, spiritual life, eternal life. There's life in a look,
the look of faith, that gift of God that enables us to behold
his son. There's life in a look at the
crucified one. Yes, we would see Jesus. As John
put it, In 1 John chapter 5 we read, verse 11, and this is the
record that God has given to us eternal life. This is the
record. This is recorded, so to speak,
in the courts of heaven. This is God's record. I think
we can count on it. I think we can rely on it. This
is the record that God had given to us eternal life. If that in
itself weren't enough that it's God's record, he adds this, and
this life makes it more secure. This life is in his Son. In his
Son. Therefore, John says, he that
hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not the life. The life is the literal translation. Oh yes, look unto me and be ye
saved. Doing so you have eternal life. But what about after that? What's the best thing that a
believer can do once he's a believer? What's the best thing to do after
you've beheld the Lamb of God? What's the best thing to do after
that? Behold the Lamb of God. Just keep looking. You can do
no better than that. For God's glory and your own
spiritual welfare, you can do no better than that. This is,
I think, what John says. In verse 13 he says, These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know, that you may know, that you have eternal
life, and that ye may believe. Just keep on believing, keep
on looking, that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. This miracle we just read in
Matthew chapter 14 followed another miracle, the feeding of the multitude. It was right on the heels of
that. Look at verse 20, and they did all eat. My, my, my. Can you visualize that? Thousands, thousands, 5,000 men,
plus their wives, plus women and the children, a multitude. Philip, or our Lord as Philip,
John tells us, where are we going to buy bread that all these may
eat? This he said to prove him. Child
of God, is this not a comforting word? John tells us, this he
said to prove him, for Jesus knew what he would do. In your
present circumstance, whether you're sitting down in green
pastures to be fed, as the master breaks the bread of life, or
whether you're on a storm at sea and the master has not yet
come to you, know this. Know this. He will come. Jesus knows what he will do. This didn't catch him by surprise.
It didn't catch him by surprise. Little did that young man know
when he left his house that day and his mother gave him those
few fish and bread, that in the hands of Jesus Christ it would
be multiplied to feed thousands. And they all sat down on that
tablecloth, God's tablecloth, green grass, just sat down just
as orderly just as orderly as if it had been planned for six
months. You ladies, when you're having
just these past holidays, you had folks over. Man, it took
some planning. You wanted everything just right.
You worked on this thing for weeks and weeks, wanted to make
everything just so. Oh, our master knows what he
will do. And they all sat down. It couldn't
have been more in order. It's as if it had been planned.
And in a sense, it had been. Jesus knows. And oh, what a picture
we have here. And they took up the fragments,
verse 20, or rather, he commanded the multitude to sit down on
the grass, verse 19 again. And he took the five loaves and
the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and and
gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude.
And they did all eat and were filled. And they took up of the
fragments that remained twelve baskets full, twelve baskets,
one for each waiter, the disciples. What a picture of his amazing
grace and power. What a mountaintop experience
that was. but how soon it changes. How
they go from being on the mountaintop to being down in the valley.
From sunshine in just a matter of hours, this is the same day
that the multitude was fed, that it constrains them to get in
a ship. That evening, Mark says, is the
day wore on. In a matter of hours, they go
from that glorious mountaintop experience to finding themselves
on a stormy sea, rowing with all their might, wearing themselves
out physically and mentally, and getting nowhere. And if things
could be any worse, again, Joseph says, and Jesus was not yet come
to them. Can you imagine what was going
through their minds? He constrained us to do this. We're not out of His will. We're
doing just exactly as our Master commanded us to do. Now here
we are in the midst of the sea. We've been rowing for hours. Hours. Nine hours they've been
on that lake, on that Sea of Galilee. And they're in the midst
and they can make no progress whatsoever. And it was now dark. Dark in their mind. Don't understand
this. This is confusing. Can't figure
this out. Troubled in spirit and mind and
heart. But whether on the mountaintop
feeding the multitude and being blessed as instruments in God's
hands to do to be a part of that because he gave the loaves to
the disciples and the disciples to the multitudes. What a picture
of the gospel. But whether we're experiencing
something like that, where we're on a stormy sea, and whether
we want to admit it or not, we're confused. Don't understand this? Don't understand what's happening,
what's God doing? But on both occasions, Jesus
Christ is the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. And he's more than equal to rise
to the occasion for whatever is needed in either circumstance. That's what we see here, do we
not? And we learn from this miracle on the stormy sea. Here's one
example, just one, that all things, all things, child of God, all
things we know, Paul wrote, do we know because we can understand
it all? Do we know because we can comprehend
it all? Of course not. My thoughts, God
said, are not your thoughts. They're much higher than you.
My ways are not your ways. You can't figure it out. But
Paul says, we know by faith. We know because God's doing it. And our Heavenly Father is too
wise to make a mistake, too powerful. And he says, therefore we know
because God's doing the work. It must be for our good. And
by this one example, we learn that all things, the storms included,
I should say especially the storms. Is that right, John? Especially
the storms. They learned more on the stormy
sea, I dare say, than they did on the mountaintop. Because it
might be Mark that tells us that they didn't consider when they
were fearful and thought they were going to perish, they hadn't
considered the miracle of the feeding of the multitude. It
hadn't sunk in. So they learned some needed lessons
in the storm. They learned some things on the
stormy sea that they would never have learned on dry land. Just
not possible. Ask Peter. Ask Peter. Peter, would you change anything
that you went through that night? Would you change anything? And
he would say, no, oh no. The master taught me some things
about myself and about him, more importantly, that I would have
never known, would have never seen, never experienced otherwise
except through that storm. The disciples, you see, as we
pointed out in the reading, were in more danger from the fickle
favor of the crowd than from the fury of the storm. Our Lord said, beware when all
men speak well of you. The Lord taught Peter a very
needed lesson. Again, can you picture it? This was like a typhoon. This
was not just some few waves just rising up. Oh, no. At least four
of these fellas were experienced fishermen, including Peter. They'd
seen storms. But this was beyond their power.
They couldn't maneuver through it. But look at Peter. Oh, hearing, hearing, Lord, If
that's really you, if that's you, if that's you, bid me come. Bid me come. Allow me to come.
You give the word. If you say so, it'll be so, Peter. Oh, such strong faith. Come. Bid me come to you. And the Lord
said, come. Can you see that? There's Peter
walking. Man, the wind's howling. The waves rolling over his head.
and Peter looking at Jesus Christ and walking on the water just
like Christ is. What a picture. And under that
picture you can put these words. I can do all things through Christ
that strengtheneth me. Because he's looking to all of
his attention, all of his focus is on Jesus Christ. He's got
blinders on momentarily. He doesn't see anything else
but Christ. Therefore, it's well with his
soul. But he takes his eyes off Christ. And Peter's not the only one
that's had that experience. Your pastor has had it. And I
dare say each one I'm... each child of God I'm speaking
to has had it. Take your eyes off Christ and
you'll find that without Him, you can do nothing at all. You'll
find as Peter found, remember? Peter, Cephas, which means a
stone. He took his eyes off Christ and
he began to sink like a stone, didn't he? Leaning up on the
arm of flesh. This morning, I had the TV on
just seeing what the temperature would be today, how cold it was. And as I was looking for a channel
to tell me that, there was, no, no, it was on the news, it was
on the news. They had this segment, they had
a segment on about a, if I remember this right, they were interviewing
a woman who was a spiritual psychologist. I think a psycho something. But, psycho! She had a candle in one hand
and it looked like some big goose feather or something in another.
She said she was teaching people how to reach deep down within
themselves. Maybe like those folks that you
put a sheet on and sit cross-legged in a corner and say, I don't
know. Teaching people to reach down
within themselves. David did that, didn't he? And
he said, I came forth from the womb speaking lies. Paul reached deep down within
himself and he said, this is what I found. Deep down within
myself dwelleth no good thing. Peter needed to do more than
that, didn't he? because as he is an example up
here, child of God, we walk by faith, not by sight. Don't judge God's dealings with
you. Don't judge God's providence
by feeble sense. You'll always make a mistake
because we walk by faith, not by sight. Peter walked to go
to Christ But when he took his eyes away, he began to fear. As soon as he began to fear,
he began to fail. But look at verse 30. When he
saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink,
he cried, saying, Lord, save me, save me. Notice what it says
there. Beginning to sink. Just beginning
to sink. Peter wouldn't drown. Oh, he
thought he was. But he wouldn't drown. He just
began to sink because the master of the sea was near. And soon as Peter cried, Lord,
Lord, save me. That's all. Lord, save me. And
immediately, do you see that in verse 1? Immediately, immediately,
the Lord reached out his mighty hand. and lifted Peter up, and
they walked together across the waves and get into the ship. Christ, Paul wrote, cannot deny
himself. He abideth faithful. And if he were to break his promise, or his word to us, It would be
a denying of himself. It would be denying who he is
if that should ever happen. And it will never happen. Christ's sheep shall never perish. They may begin to sink. God may
allow that. for their own good, to teach
them a lesson. Keep your eyes on Christ. He
may allow you to begin to sink, and you may feel like you're
drowning. Oh, but when you turn your eyes back to Christ, crying,
Lord, save me, immediately. How many times has it happened
in your life? Immediately he reaches down and lifts you up.
Christ's sheep can't perish. They can't perish. The great
shepherd won't allow it. He just won't allow it. We cannot
drown, someone said. We cannot drown. Not one member
of the body of Christ can drown with their head so high above
the water. And Christ is our head. Peter,
would you change anything about that night? Oh, no, no, no. I
learned things I could have never learned otherwise. I learned,
began to learn. It's a lesson I would have to
relearn and learn again and again. Oh, don't lean up on the arm
of flesh. Keep your eyes upon Christ. I
learned, as he would write in his epistle, we're kept Not our
own power, not our own determination, not our own resolve. We're kept
by the power of God Almighty. That's the only explanation.
My sheep hear my voice, the great shepherd said, and they shall
never perish. Why? Because no man can pluck
them out of my hand. No one. Peter's words in his
two epistles and so much of this, I'm sure, that he wrote, he was
glancing back in his memory to this night on the stormy sea.
The Lord taught me, taught me I'm kept by the power of God.
He taught me that he's the God of all grace. You see, these
are not the words of an armchair theologian or a Monday morning
quarterback. No, these are the words of a
man who was in the trenches. who experienced God's power. He experienced God's mercy. Peter
says, I'm telling you what I know. What I know. Let me tell you.
I imagine that this was some, like a sort of landmark, don't
you? In the disciples' spiritual journey. I wonder how often after this,
when they were sitting in a jail for preaching the gospel, when
they were being threatened for preaching the gospel, I wonder
how often they would look back and say, well, this is just another
storm. Remember that night we were in
that other storm? Remember what happened? Remember
when we thought that we had been deserted, but the master was
just teaching us some very important necessary lessons? Remember that? By water, steel, or troubled
sea. by water, steel, or troubled
sea. What do we sing? Is this not an example of it?
The mountaintop, the stormy sea, the valley, the darkness, the
wind, at our wit's end, the psalmist said. But whether By water still or troubled sea,
still. God, teach me this. Teach me this. It's still your
hand that leadeth me. You know, my God and Savior,
what you will do, and I'm going to be brave. I'm going to attempt
to be brave. Oh, this miracle is so full of
lessons. Someone said the Lord's parables
were his spoken lessons, like John's been teaching. His miracles
were his acted lessons. And this one is so full of instruction,
but let's just mention two or three. The first lesson is this.
Really, everything else either stands or falls on this. Our
God, our God, our Lord Jesus Christ is the sovereign ruler
of this universe. Is it not so? Is it not so? Our
Lord is sovereign over all. Verse 25 again, and in the fourth
watch of the night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. Wow! Wow! What a Savior. What a Savior. Again, John's account says, it
was dark and Jesus had not come to them. Have you ever felt like
that? You have. So have I. It's dark. It's dark. Man, I can't see any
light at the end of the tunnel. It's dark. I look inside and it's dark. I look around and it's just dark. It's dark. And what's even At the time, at the time,
in that darkness, even more of a heartbreak, Jesus has not come
to me. But he will. But he will. When it's best for
his glory and best for your eternal good, he's going to come. He's going to come to you walking
up on the sea. He's going to give you an appreciation of him that you
never had on the land. You could never have until you
see him walking up on the sea. The storm caught them by surprise,
but it didn't catch him by surprise. They never do. This is not the
first storm that the disciples encountered. In chapter 8, we
read of another one. Jesus, on that occasion, is with
them in the ship, but he's asleep. And there's a great storm, and
they wake him up. You know the passage. Lord, don't you care
that we're going to perish? And he stands on the deck of
that ship, and the Creator speaks to his creation and says, Peace
be still. and the wind ceased. And there's
a great calm. A great calm. The angry waves
lay at his feet because they know the voice of their creator.
And it created a great calm in the hearts of the disciples as
well. We learn that we must through much tribulation inherit the
kingdom of God. Not some tribulation. Not rare
tribulation. Much tribulation. Much. Who are
these, John? that stand before the throne.
And where did they come from? The elders said, these are they
which came out. Ooh, I love that verse. And that's
why I quote it so often. They came out. Oh, glory to his
name. They all came out. My sheep shall never perish.
They'll never drown, not as long as he's the master of the sea.
Many, the psalmist said, are the afflictions of the righteous.
Many, many. But. The Lord delivers them out
of them all. I read somewhere several years
ago some commentary, I don't recall which, but I know I read
that the ancient Egyptians had a symbol. If they wanted to depict
something that was an impossibility, just an utter impossibility,
you know what the symbol was. A symbol of two feet on water. They said, that's impossible.
That's just impossible. Yes, the things that are impossible
with men are possible with God. With men, impossible, but not
with the God-man. You know why? Because he's the
Lord that has his way in the whirlwind. and in the storm and
the clouds are the dust of his feet. Learn. Learn. Again and again. Louis, he, he's
the master of the sea. He's the master of the sea. Which
one? The storm in Matthew 8 or Matthew
He's the master of every sea, every storm. He's the master
of this one they passed through, the one previous to that, and
he's the master of the storm, the troubled sea that you're
passing through right now. He's still the master of the
sea. He knows, he sees, and he'll come to you. You're not going
to drown. You're not going to drown. unless
he drowns with you. That's not possible. Just keep
looking unto Jesus. Through the storm, through the
rain, through the tears, just keep looking and he'll come with
these blessed words. He'll speak as only you can,
as he did to Peter, as he did to disciples. Be of good cheer,
Cause it's I. It's I. Don't be afraid. I'm with you always. I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. He that created the sea certainly
controls the sea. By water, steel, or troubled
sea, it's still God's hand that leadeth me. Child of God, we're
never out of his hand. Never. Peter found that underneath,
are the everlasting arms. This, as I said, was a spiritual
landmark in their journey. Do we not all have them? David
said, why are you cast down, O my soul? Our Lord said, be
a good cheer, it is I, the eternal I am. that have my way always, I who
sent you into the storm, I who sent the storm, control the storm,
I who saideth king forever." Moses wrote, from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God. Meaning, not only that he's God
from everlasting, but that he's everlastingly God. He's always God. He acts as God. Omnipotent. But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. When is that so? When is that so? Are there exceptions
to that? Is there ever a time that he's
not doing whatsoever he is pleased? Is there ever a time when he
doesn't know what he shall do? Is there ever a moment, just
one moment, second? Is there ever a second? Has there
ever been a second that he wasn't the Lord God omnipotent? If there's ever been, then he's
not God any longer. He's vacated his throne. And
when he says, it is I, it doesn't have much comfort in it if he
is not the great I am. Oh, but he is. He is God over
all and blessed forever. Therefore, when he says, it is
I, be not afraid. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He reigneth. Someone asked me,
this thing you talk about, God's sovereignty, just saying God's God, is that
really essential? Is the belief in that really
necessary? Well, let me ask you this. Is
where you spend eternity important to you? Is it important to you
whether you open your eyes in hell or open your eyes to behold
Jesus Christ himself? Is that important to you? Is
your sanity important to you? Your hope, your peace, your assurance,
your faith, is it important to you? They all depend upon God
being everlastingly God. Most people today view God like
someone looking through the wrong end of a telescope, don't they?
Don't they? Most religious people do. That's
why when they talk to you about their God, they say, my God,
little g, won't interfere with my will. My God will save you
if you'll let him. I've got a theological word for
that. Deep word. Hogwash. Hogwash. That's just not so. Job and his friends tried to
understand God by their own thoughts and reasonings, didn't they?
They attempted to look at God through the wrong end of this
telescope. And then God Almighty himself
appeared on the scene. He reached down and took the
telescope out of Job's hands and turned it around and handed
it back to him. And then Job looked through the right end
and he said, man, oh man, was I wrong. I heard of you with
the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth you. I abhor myself. I abhor myself
and I repent in dust and ashes." Oh, hallelujah. When God enables
us to look at Him. as he is, just a glimpse of as
he is, we look through that telescope of his sovereign mercy, of his
word, his grace, and his spirit, and we bow down in true worship,
and we sing from our heart, how great thou art. Ooh, that's what
I want to do, don't you? That's what I want to do. Like
what they ended up doing, they worshiped. They bowed down and
worshipped. And they said, this is the first
time they said this, of a truth, you're the son of God. We can't
deny it. We don't want to deny it. From
what we just saw, what we just experienced, we're without a
doubt, you're the son of the living God. Peter learned that
Christ is the only God and Savior. Bid me come. Christ said come. Come, oh sweet word of grace.
Come unto me. Come unto me. Just for my sake. You remember the bride in Solomon's
song? The bridegroom comes to her door. Oh, I can't get out of bed. I'm
in bed. I done put off my shoes. I won't
answer the door. I can do that anytime. I need
my sleep. I'm not going to answer the door.
And he withdrew himself. She tried to sleep, but her heart
woke her. And she said, oh, what have I
done? Where's my beloved? I've got to find my beloved. When our focus, like Peter's
on this occasion, was just on Christ all this way that was
the issue we had with that church wasn't you've left your first
love Scott Richardson said that's sweetheart remember remember
he was all my focus he was the main attraction Nothing else. Nothing else is
that important. Not compared to focusing, looking
unto Jesus. Oh, but take your eyes off him
and you begin to sink. But notice what Peter did. He
cried immediately. Lord save me. He didn't say,
well, if God's ordained that I should not drown, then I won't
drown no matter what I do. And if He's ordained that I should
drown, there's nothing I can do about it. You say, that sounds
so foolish. I tell you what, I sometimes
cringe when I hear statements like that from people. Well,
whatever will be, will be. It's God's will. It doesn't matter
what I do. That's a cop-out. God's sovereignty
is not an excuse for our irresponsibility. Peter said, Lord, save me. Let
me put it this way. Are you planning on eating today?
Are you planning on eating today? I know you are. We're going to
all go somewhere and eat, probably not long after we leave here.
Well, I mean, why? If God's ordained that you should
live, you'll live whether you eat or not. And if God's ordained
that you should die, you'll die whether you eat or not. Just
go ahead and start. Say, man, that's foolish, that's
foolish. Yes. God who ordained the end ordained
the mean. Sinner, God says, look unto me
and be ye saved. What must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't try to figure out whether
you're a let. You can't know that until you
believe. Lord, I'm drowning. Save me. Save me. I'm perishing. I'm perishing. And he reaches out and does so.
Last of all, last of all, Christ this night, in this miracle,
as all miracles. Christ is the one constant, isn't
he? The one constant in the story.
The sea changed abruptly and quickly. Peter changed, and the
rest of the disciples. They both proved unstable, the
water and the disciples. But Jesus
Christ is the same. He stayed the same, yesterday,
today, and forever. Isn't that comforting? When you're
in the storm, as you may be now, if not, you soon will be, don't
pretend that you're not. If you looked away from Christ
and you feel like you're drowning, just admit it and confess it
and turn your eyes upon Jesus. Lord, I perish. and he reaches down his hand
for you. What? He would teach you what
you may have for God. Oh, Larry, how can a believer
forget God's mercy and grace and faithfulness? How is that
possible? Well, it is. It is. I once knew a fella a believer, a preacher. He got his eyes off of Christ
to such a degree. I mean, he was going through
a very severe storm, about the severest one he had ever gone
through. And leaned up on the arm of flesh,
couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, Everything just seemed to be
falling down around him. It was dark. It was dark. Bad
shape. Bad shape. You sure he was a
believer? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Pretty
sure. Because you're looking at him. And I thought, well, I still
got sense enough to know I've got to get my eyes back on Christ.
Didn't know much else, but I knew that. So I had a friend that
I met where I lived at the time. He had moved, had been gone a
few years, but he was preaching up in Fairmont, West Virginia.
So I got my mother to keep my children because my wife was
in a mental hospital and I went up to be in that service. I went in and sat down. My mind
running in 10,000 different directions. And my good friend, you know
him, that Fortner fellow, was preaching. I probably told you
this story before. And I'm sitting there trying
to focus on what he's saying. And John, I can't hardly do it.
I'm at my wit's end. And there's two chairs on the
platform, and one Brother Scott sat in, and it didn't take much
to hold up Scott, that little fella. And one was like this
one. And Don walked over, and he said,
you know, leaning on the arm of flesh in my works and my resolve
and everything, it's like trying to sit in this chair, and he
pretended like he was going to do it, and everybody, they knew
what would happen, it's splinter. And Don said, oh no. But he said,
the grace of God, The Lord Jesus Christ, not my works but his
mercy and grace. Oh, they're like this chair.
I believe I can sit there, and he did. And it'll hold all my
weight. And he put his legs up in the
air and said, ooh. That's a spiritual landmark for
your pastor, because then the light went on. The light went on. And the Lord, once again, like
He did Peter on that stormy sea, reached down His hand for me. Verse 33 says, Then they that
were in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth thou
art the Son of God. That made the storm worth it,
didn't it? It gave them a view, appreciation
of Christ that they never had before. They bowed down and worshipped. I want that for myself. Man,
I am so tired of just going through the motions. Just going through
the motions. Oh God, give me grace when I
come here to focus on you. Allow us when we gather here
to bow down and truly worship our Lord and our God. And with holy admiration leave
here saying, well Larry was a little longer today than usual. Oh no.
Saying, oh it was a good place to be. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Someone
gave up their seat at the tabernacle so their friend could go hear
their pastor, Mr. Spurgeon, preach. And after the
service, the man who had done so waited for his friend to come
out and said, what did you think of my preacher, my pastor? Wasn't
he eloquent? You ever heard such a voice?
Did you like the way he thus and thus? And the fellow said, oh, I guess so. I guess so. Mr. Spurgeon was all right. Oh,
but hallelujah. What a Savior. What a Savior. That's what we want to see. God
bless you. Thank you for your attention.