If you read the Psalms carefully,
understanding that the Psalms are the hymn book of the Old
Testament Church, you learn something about what our songs ought to
be as we sing praises to our God as we have here this morning
and as we've just heard our brother sing. Every song ought to speak
the praise of God And those songs ought to reflect the experiences
of God's people. Let us sing only that which is
absolutely true. If that's not true that is put
to a good tune, then throw the tune away with the song or write
something good for the tune. But if it's not true, don't sing
it. We're not going to sing praises to man's will and man's works
in this place where God alone is to be praised. One of those
hymns that Judy Estes used to sing for me and for us real often. It was written by John Newton
many, many years ago. It speaks so much of the experience
of God's people in this world. How tedious and tasteless the
hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects Sweet birds and
sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. The midsummer
sun shines but dim. The fields drive in vain to look
gay. But when I am happy in him, December's
as pleasant as May. His name, it yields the richest
perfume and sweeter than music his voice, his presence, disperses
my gloom and makes all within me rejoice. I should, were he
always thus nigh, have nothing to wish or to fear, no mortal
so happy as I, my summer would last all the year. Content with
beholding his face, my all to his pleasure resign, No changes
of season or place could make any change in my mind. While
blessed with the sense of his love, a palace, a toy would appear,
and prisons would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with me
there. Dear Lord, if indeed I am thine, if thou art my son and
my song, say, why do I languish in pine? And why are my winters
so long? Oh, drive these dark clouds from
my sky. Thy soul-cheering presence restore,
or take me unto thee on high, where winter and clouds are no
more. My subject this morning is alone
in the dark. John chapter 6, alone in the
dark. When I was a boy, things were
a little different than they are today. Boys weren't allowed
to be scared of anything. You didn't dare let anybody know
you were scared of anything. If another boy found out you
were scared of something, you'd never hear the end of it. Boys
just weren't allowed to be afraid. but not being allowed to be afraid
and not being afraid is two different things. I don't know that I ever
showed anyone I was afraid of anything, but there were a few
things I was very much fearful of. Almost as fearful as the
sight of my mother with a belt in her hand was being alone in
the dark. I recall when I was just a little
shaver, just a little shaver, grew up in mountains, North Carolina,
And they had a prison up there and they talked about convicts
escaping from the prison and getting out in those mountains
in the woods and just never find them. And my aunt and my great
aunt and grandmother lived up on the side of one of those mountains,
up a holler where there was no lights. And we'd go up there
and they'd make a pallet in the floor for all the girls, my three
sisters. And they'd put me back in the
pantry right up next to the road, that far from it. Don's a big
boy. He don't want to sleep with those
girls. I'd have given anything to have slept with those girls.
I'd lay back there all night long and count cracks in the
ceiling, scared to death. And sometimes they'd send me
up the road. My aunt lived at the head of the holler. And I'd
get out of sight of that house. And honestly, I think the light
bulb might have been five or six watts. I would get outside
of that house and run as hard as I could run and get up to
the top of the hill where my aunt lived to do whatever it
was they had me to do and stop and get my breath and whistle
and act like I wasn't scared. But I was scared of the dark. And
I still am. Not a physical dark, but a darkness
in my soul. In John chapter six, the apostle
John was inspired of God, the Holy Spirit, to record two of
our Lord's miracles. At first reading, these miracles
might appear to be unrelated, but that's not the case. In fact,
if you read the word of God carefully, You'll see that this book is
not only written by divine inspiration in the sense that each word is
inspired of God, but this book is written by an inspired order. so that the things written are
designed of God to convey specific messages. Things are put together
by the Spirit of God to convey the specific message He intends
in that passage. Things came to pass. They transpired
not by accident, but by divine arrangement, so as to teach us
the things that are set before us. Specifically, that is true
with regard to our Lord's miracles. They're performed and recorded
in precise order to teach us specific aspects of his greatness
and his grace. In verses 5 through 14, the Lord
Jesus took five loaves and two small pieces of fish and fed
5,000 men. That's phenomenal. That's just phenomenal. He kept breaking the bread and
it kept multiplying. He kept dividing the fish and
they kept increasing until 5,000 men had everything they wanted
to eat to full, complete satisfaction. And then they gathered up 12
baskets full of remnants. In verses 15 through 21, we see
the Lord Jesus coming to his disciples as they were sailing
across the troubled sea in the dark of night. The Lord sent
them down into the sea to take a ship across to Capernaum. He
sent them directly into the eye of a storm that he was brewing
in the sea. Mark tells us that and Matthew
does as well. He sent them out to the sea and
the disciples are rowing across the sea and then suddenly the
sea starts to get rough. And the sun's going down, and
they're looking for the Lord Jesus everywhere. They're looking
for Him in every boat that comes by them, but the Lord hasn't
come to them. They're alone, and they row hard. These experienced seamen take
to the oars, and they row hard, and they can't row against the
storm, and they're alone in the dark. And then suddenly, they
look up and see something they've just never seen anything like
it before. You can imagine these are seamen. These are seamen. They're experienced at the storms
at the sea. And they see something walking across the water, and
they're dead shirts of ghosts. They're dead shirts of ghosts. Fellas want to tell me what a
believer can or cannot believe. He can or cannot think. Stick
that in your pipe and smoke it. They thought they saw a ghost.
Now, I have experienced some things that made me feel like
I was real dumb, but I've never thought I saw a ghost. They thought
they saw a ghost walking across the water, but it was the Lord
Jesus walking to them across the water. They were terrified
and he spoke peace to their souls and stepped into the boat and
immediately they were at the other side. Let's read the story,
and then I will, I believe, give you God's message from this passage. John chapter 6, verse 5. When Jesus then lifted up his
eyes and saw a great company coming to him, he saith unto
Philip, When shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this
he said to prove him. for he himself knew what he would
do. Philip answered him, 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient
for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his
disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, there
is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes,
but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, make the men
set down. Now there was much grass in the
place, so the men sat down and numbered about 5,000. And Jesus
took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed
to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down, and
likewise of the fishes, as much as they would. When they were
filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the fragments that
remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore, they gathered them
together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five
barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that
had eaten. Then those men, when they had
seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth, that
prophet, that should come into the world. 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.
And when the even was come, his disciples went down into the
sea, and entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward
Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus
was not come to them. And the sea arose by reason of
a great wind that blew. So when they had now rowed about
five and 20 or 30 furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea
and drawing nigh unto the ship and they were afraid. But he
saith unto them, It is I, be not afraid. Then they willingly
received him into the ship, and immediately the ship was at land,
whither they went. We often have our proving times,
don't we? Our proving times are seasons
appointed by God our Savior, ordained by our God and our Redeemer,
in which he will prove himself to us, and in which he will prove
us to ourselves. And the proving times are never
pleasant. The proving times often embarrass
us greatly. the proving times often hurt
deeply. But these proving times are times
that call for and demand faith. More than that, these proving
times are times in which the Lord God graciously works faith
in us and forces us to cast our care
on him who cares for us. Times in which he sweetly forces
us into his omnipotent arms of mercy that we may find our joy
and our peace and our security and our satisfaction in him. In the first miracle, the Lord
Jesus used a huge crowd of hungry people to prove Philip and the
other disciples In the second miracle, the Son of God sent
his disciples sailing directly into the storm that he might
prove them. And like these disciples, you
and I must have our proving times. What are we to learn from these
two miracles? Why did they transpire? Why did the Lord perform these
two things? And why are they recorded as
they are by the gospel writers under divine inspiration in this
specific order? Why are they here written by
the finger of God? What do they teach us? Let me
give you five things. I'm sure there's much more, but
these five things I see as obvious. First, learn this and remember
it. Remember the Larry Chris read
this passage to us Tuesday night. He called our attention to this
fact in verses five and six. The Lord God, our savior always
knows what he will do. We seldom if ever know what he's
going to do, but he always knows what he will do. We're often
caught off guard. Nothing catches him off guard.
We're often taken by surprise. Nothing takes him by surprise.
We're often unprepared. He's never unprepared. We often
find our great God and our savior showing himself, demonstrating
himself in remarkable ways, ways that he has ordained that we
never expected. Now hear me, you who are lost
without my God, without my savior, without Christ. He knows what
he's going to do for you. If you're his, if he chose you,
if he redeemed you, he knows when he will call you by his
grace. He knows when he will meet you and stop you in your
rush to hell. He knows how he will reveal himself
in you. And I'm prepared as his servant.
And these people as his servants here are prepared while we earnestly
pray for you and seek God's mercy for you. We're prepared to wait
for him to do what he will. We won't run before him and we
won't do anything to encourage you to. He knows what he'll do
for you. For you, my brothers and sisters.
He knows what he will do. He knows. Before ever Lucifer
fell he knew what he would do. Before Adam sinned in the garden,
he knew what he would do. Before we went astray speaking
lies from our mother's womb, he knew what he would do. And
before the darkness and the storm came, he knew what he would do,
all the while preparing us for what he will do. He knows that
this my comfort be, He knows the path designed for me, a healing
balm for all my woes. Oh, blessed thought, my Savior
knows. The thorns that pierce my aching
feet, the lowering clouds, the storms that beat, and then with
bliss of calm repose. Oh, blessed thought, my Savior
knows. The thing our Savior knew he
would do in these two miracles is the thing he constantly is
doing. Actually, the two things he's constantly doing for us
and in us. He was about to show his disciples
their utter insufficiency. Philip, where can we buy bread
for this hungry crowd? Lord, we can't. That's what I
wanted you to say. That's what I wanted you to say.
Andrew said, well, we've, this boy over here has got some fish
and got some loaves of bread, but master, that's nothing. Not for all these hungry people.
That's what I wanted you to say. This is what you've got to learn. Don Fortner, this is what you've
got to learn. Grace Church in Danville, this is what you've
got to learn. Children of God, this is what you've got to learn.
Without me. You can do nothing. You don't have any strength.
You don't have any ability. You don't have any store. You
don't have any supply. You don't have any funds. You
don't have any bread. You don't have any fish. Oh,
yes, I do. I know but it's just five barley
loaves and two fish and you've got 20,000 people for dinner.
Without me, you can do nothing, nothing. Lord, you've called
us to do great things. Who's sufficient for these things?
Not you, not me, only him. And that's the second thing he
designs these miracles to show. The second thing, He constantly
teaches us. The second thing, we must constantly
be taught because we're such slow learners. And that's His all-sufficiency. His grace is sufficient. And
sometimes I dare believe Him. Sometimes I really do dare believe
Him. I really do believe I can do
anything he would have me to do. I really do believe I can accomplish
any task he puts in my hands if he's pleased to work and perform
the work. The Apostle Paul had to learn
this, and while it is recorded in 2 Corinthians 12 as a one-time
experience, I'm certain it was not a one-time experience. He
said, I knew a man within the flesh, I don't know, but I knew
a man who was called up to the third heaven. He said, I was
translated up to heaven. Recently, I was preaching in
a place and a fellow was visiting and he and his wife started telling
me about how he had died and the angel met him and sent him
back. And I just, I had a cup of coffee in my hand. It was
a good thing. I sipped it on it and just turned around and
walked off. Let somebody else handle this, I gotta preach in
a little while. The only fellow who ever did said, I can't tell
you what I saw. I can't tell you what I saw.
The things I saw can't be put into words. But he said, when
I landed back here on this earth and I woke up, whether I was
in the flesh before or not, I don't know, but I woke up and came
up with this realization. I have seen and heard and learned
things nobody has ever seen, heard, or learned before. There's
never been a human being who went up to heaven, saw what I
saw, and came back down here on this earth. And he's writing
to these Corinthians, and you fellas say, I'm not an apostle.
And he seemed to say it just that way. And he said, Lord,
take that pride from me. This message of Satan. He'd think
about what he'd seen and he'd swear with pride that Satan would
beat him in the face. Just beat him in the face and
beat him in the face and beat him in the face. And he said,
take it from me. Three times I prayed, God, take
this from me. And finally the Lord said, live
with it. Live with it and learn. There's no sufficiency in you.
There's nothing in you. But my grace is sufficient for
thee. And he learned the lesson. He
said, most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities
and in my afflictions, for when I'm weak, when I know day by
day anything I can do, when I know I'm as helpless as a gnat in
a fireball, then I'm strong. When I can't do anything, the
Lord just might use me for something. When I have no sufficiency, I
may experience something of His all-sufficiency. You remember
how Gideon got his army to go defeat Israel's enemies? He had
this great army, and the Lord said, you got too many. He said,
thin them out. And the final thinning was this.
He said, all those fellows who kneel down and get a drink of
water, Send them home. But those fellows who are so
scared, they're so skittish that they won't even bend down and
get a cup of water. They'll just grab their head
and lap it up. Run along as they go. I'll use
them. Those fellows who are scared out of their wits. Now you've
got a conquering army because they're useless. And Gideon took
his 300 scared men and conquered the enemies of God's people and
delivered Israel. Here's the second thing. When the Lord Jesus tries and
proves us, though he sift us as wheat, though he refine us as silver
in the furnace, now listen to me. God help you listen to me.
Nothing shall be lost, but much gained. We read in verse 12 that
when the disciples had passed out all the bread and fish to
all the people, the Lord Jesus said to them, now go around again
and gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. And they gathered in 12 baskets
of fragments. How often we are like our Lord's
disciples. You remember when Peter spoke
for the disciples in Luke 22, he said, he said, Lord, we've
forsaken all and followed you. I could have been a professional
football player, look what I've done for you. I could have been a head of the
finest company in the world, look what I've sacrificed for
you. We've forsaken all and followed you. And the Lord Jesus said,
lacked ye anything. Now what was it you gave up? When was the last time you went
hungry? When was the last time you didn't have any clothes to
wear? When was the last time you had to sleep outside under
the bridge? Lacked ye anything?" They looked around and said,
no, Lord, I didn't mean to say that. No, we lacked nothing. Israel
came out of Egypt. I was talking to somebody one
night this week. They came out of Egypt and they
had They had silver and gold and precious stones. Do you know
when they came out of Egypt, they came out with everything
they would need for 40 years? And they came out with silver
and gold and precious stones, enough to make all the furnishings
of the tabernacle. And they got it from the Egyptians.
The Egyptians said, you need some silver here, take it. You
need a little gold, take it. You need some of this or that. You need our jewelry for something,
take it. Just take it and get out of here. And they spoiled
the Egyptians. And what they didn't carry out
with them, when they got out on the Red Sea, out on the other
side of the Red Sea, and they looked back and saw Pharaoh and
his armies laying on the side of the sea, they gathered up
all the things they had. And then they walked through
the wilderness, And their shoes or their feet never swelled. Never swelled in 40 years. In
40 years. They were shod symbolically with
the preparation of the gospel of peace. And that's sufficient
for this journey. I don't need any other shoes.
Their clothes didn't grow moldy for 40 years. Isn't it wonderful
the Lord used that term? He said they didn't grow moldy.
Who would expect them to grow moldy out in the desert? What's
he talking about? Looks like he said they didn't
wear out. Looks like he said they didn't get any holes in
them. He said they didn't grow moldy. Nothing gets moldy in
the desert. Nothing does except something
that might be symbolizing that which men look at as getting
moldy. You see, the garments of salvation are the righteousness
of Christ, his obedience and his death. And sadly, for folks
who just pass by and see it hanging on a rack somewhere and admire
it for a little while, it gets moldy in a hurry. But for folks
who are clothed with the garments of salvation, Christ's righteousness
never gets moldy. This will do me in the day and
in the dark. It will do me in the sea and
it will do me in the dry land. It will do for me in the desert
and it will do for me in the Arctic. This is the garment I've
got to have. Those three Hebrew children were
cast into the burning fiery furnace. And there they are in that furnace
that consumed the men who cast them into it. And Nebuchadnezzar
looked over in the furnace and said, how many fellows did we
throw in there? Three. Strange. I see, oh, I see a fourth one. And he looks to me like the son
of God. And those three Hebrews in the
furnace, their cords are gone. All they lost were the cords
that bound them. What do you lose when God comes
to prove you? Nothing. You only gain. You only gain. Have you considered
my servant Job, the Lord said to Satan? Tell you what, you
go out and do anything you want to with him, only you can't have
his life. And Satan tried Job. But the one trying Job was not
the devil at all. The devil was just the instrument
by which the Lord himself tried Job. And when he got done, Job
had more than he had in the beginning doubled. Everything, everything. Peter,
Satan decided to have you that he might sift you his wheat. And I've told him he could do
it. But I prayed for you, that your
faith fail not. And Peter is sifted and stripped
of everything. He's stripped of everything.
I mean, he's emptied. Simon, you sure you love me more
than John? I love you, Lord. Simon, you
sure you love me more than these boats, nets that you've come
back to. I love you, Lord. Simon, do you love me? Lord,
you know all things, you know that I love you. And you see
him in the book of Acts and you'll find out he wasn't anywhere near
the man before the sifting. He was after the sifting. Thus saith the Lord that created
thee, O Jacob. He that formed thee, O Israel,
Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name, and thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they'll
not overflow you. And when you walk through the
fire, you shall not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon you. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel. You lose nothing when he tries
you and proves you. After our Lord performed this
great miracle, those who saw what he'd done, they said, this
is surely That prophet, this is the one that Moses spoke about.
This is the Messiah who was to come and they started talking
among themselves and said, fellas, let's go make him king. This
man, this man who can feed 5,000 people, 5,000 men with five loaves
and two pieces of fish, this man, this man who can walk across
the water in the midst of a horrible, horrible, horrible storm and
walk into a boat and immediately landed on the other side. This
has got to be the Messiah. This has got to be the king.
We'll take him and make him king. These Jews were looking for a
Messiah who would deliver them from the Obama government. I speak a little bit in jest,
not much, a little bit. They were looking for one who
would deliver them from the cruel, oppressive yoke of Roman bondage
that's looked upon by our historians as a democratic society. To deliver them from that cruel
Roman bondage, and they were going to make him king. They
said, he's a prophet, we'll make him king. There's just a problem
with that. He was already king. His name
is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He was not interested
in being king over some peanut government over in Palestine.
He's king over everything. But between his offices of prophet
and king, there is another office that folks who love to talk about
prophecy and love to talk about end time things, who love to
talk about the past and the future, love to neglect. It's called
the priest. And he can't be the king except
to be make a sacrifice as the priest. And by his priestly sacrifice,
he is inaugurated king as his resurrection from the dead and
pours out his spirit over all flesh, testifying that he is
indeed king of kings and lord of lords. All right. Here's the
third lesson. While living in this world. We
will have. and must have our knights alone. In verses 16 and 17, these disciples
were in the ship. Matthew tells us, and Mark does,
that they boarded this ship and set sail for the other side because
the Lord Jesus told them to. They were looking for the master.
I suspect he said, y'all go ahead and I'll follow you. I suspect
that's what he said. They were looking for him everywhere,
but it got dark and he didn't come. We're told it was now dark
in verse 18, and Jesus was not come to them. They were there
in the middle of the sea, not because they were rebels and
sinning against him. They were there because they
were doing exactly what he told them to do. obeying Him. Doing what they seldom did, they
were precisely obeying Him. And there they were in the middle
of this sea, and He hadn't come to them. They're alone in the
dark. The storm starts to rise, and
they man the oars. And the wind blows hard, and
the storm about to overturn their little boat, and they rowing
hard as they can row and getting nowhere. And then in the darkness,
the thick, thick darkness, they see the Lord Jesus coming to
them. But they didn't know it was him.
They thought it was a ghost. And they're more terrified than
ever. You're out in the middle of a storm and you're just dead
sure you're going to die. And all of a sudden you see something
and you think you're seeing a ghost. I understand. These were the
Lord's servants, but the Lord wasn't with them. They were doing
what he told them to do, but he hadn't come to them. They
had 12 baskets full of food sitting in the boat with them, and they
couldn't eat a bite. They were in trouble. They were
in trouble. Every lost sinner's life It's a life like this one. It is a long, empty, starless,
dark night. But believers have their nights
as well. Trials, adversities, pain, emptiness, desolation,
woe, sickness, bereavement, sorrow, heartache. Paul speaks of the
church and speaks about famine and nakedness and peril being
constantly the lot of God's people in this world. How dark is the
night when the Lord Jesus is not with us, when he appears to have abandoned
us. Job said, when I looked for good, then evil came to me. When I waited for light, There
came darkness. Micah said, Rejoice not against
me, O mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When
I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be light unto me. But while you're
sitting in the darkness, it's hard to conceive such a thought. The Lord's given me something,
I believe, that will help you make it through the night. Darkness
engulfed these men. Danger roared around them. Desertion
withered them. But things were not as they appeared. And so it is with you. The Savior
is with you. When you can't see Him, and you
can't hear Him, and you can't touch Him, and you can't feel
Him touch you, He's still with you. He's God at hand. He said, I'm with you always,
always. The night has come, not because
of some evil you've done. You go through some horrible
trial, and the first thing you start to do is beat yourself
up. And I'll be honest with you. I'll be honest with you. If you
talk to me before you get into the mess, I'd tell you to beat
yourself up. Cause you deserve the beating.
You deserve the beating. You're a miserable failure just
like your pastor. You deserve to beat yourself
up. But don't ever imagine the Lord Jesus sends the heavy trial
and the heartache and the pain because of the evil that you've
done. Or the good you've left undone.
No. No, no. He sends it cause he
loves you. He sends it for your good. Again
and again, by experience, you're made to know your utter insufficiency
and Christ's sufficiency. And that's the reason he sends
the trouble. These night seasons, when you're alone in the dark,
make you conscious of your need. And the Savior's mercy, his love,
his grace is unchanged. If it should ever come to pass
that just one sheep of Christ should fall away, my fickle,
feeble soul, alas, would fall a thousand times a day. But night
seasons aren't wanted seasons. In fact, if you stop to just think for a little
bit, about what you've experienced in the nights. You are alone
and desolate. You'd avoid it. You'd avoid it
with everything you can. But they're never wasted seasons.
In the darkness of the night. The Lord gives stars for light.
He calls those stars the angels of his churches, men who are
sent to bring the gospel of God's free grace. In our bulletin,
at the top of the bulletin this morning, if you have it handy,
pick it up and read it again just in case you neglected that
nugget. I mean nugget. Brother Scott
Richardson said, standing in this pulpit many years ago, there's
been no bad news since I got the good news. He gives light. to guide you
through the night. And in the night seasons, we
find the fullest revelations of our Redeemer. Daniel said
he was in the night vision when the Lord showed himself to me.
He said the kingdoms were torn apart. Everything was topsy-turvy.
Everything was upside down. And I saw the Ancient of Days.
And there he sat. had his feet popped up on the
earth, because the earth's his footstool. And everything's all
right. In Zechariah chapter one, Zechariah
speaks of the night. He said, I saw the church of
God like myrtle trees down in the bottom of a deep valley where
there's darkness and mold and mildew and disease. But that's
where life is, down there in that valley among the myrtle
trees. And folks were opposing God's
church, wanting to tear down the myrtle trees. But in the
night, I saw one riding among the myrtle trees, sitting on
a red stallion. And everything's all right, because
Christ walks in the midst of his churches. Song of Solomon. The church says, by night, O
my bed, I sought him whom my soul loveth. I sought him. I found him not.
So I rose, went about the city, and I found the watchman. And
I said to them, have you seen him whom my soul loveth? And
they told me all about him. And just a little while, I passed
from them. And I found him whom my soul loveth. And I brought
him into my mother's house and into the banqueting house. And
I said to my sisters, oh, daughters of Jerusalem, stir not up, nor
await my love till he please. The night of darkness is the
time when we had the sweetest revelations of his grace. It's
the time when our Lord appears as our glorious defense and refuge. Isaiah chapter four. In the day, he is a pillar of
cloud above every tabernacle of Zion. A pillar of cloud. That's all right. That's fine. That's good. Delighted to have
it. Shelters us from the heat and the burning sun. But most
of us don't really look upon clouds as anything special. Most
of the time we look up and see clouds in the sky and we say
trouble's coming. Never realizing that he who is our God is a pillar
of cloud above us. But in the night, The glory which is our refuge. That's what he said. The glory of God, Larry Bradshaw,
refuge. That's Christ Jesus, the Lord.
The glory in the night. He sits over top of every tabernacle
in Zion as a flaming fire. And in the middle of the night,
if I can see the flaming fire above me, That's all right, I
can endure the night. Here's the fourth thing. The Lord Jesus will come to you
in the night. In the night of your storm, he'll
come to you in such a way as he could not otherwise come. He comes walking to these disciples
in their little boat. He says to them, he knows what
they're doing. He knows they think he's a ghost. And he walks up right beside
them in the boat. They're tugging away at the oars,
horrified, terrified. And he said, it is I. Be not afraid. It is I who loved you. I who redeemed you. I who called
you. I who sent you into the storm.
It is I who raised the storm. It is I who sent the wind. It is I who rules everything. It is I who has promised you
nothing but good. It is I. Be not afraid. And Immediately, they said, Lord,
come on in the boat. Willingly received him into their
boat, wouldn't you? Well, there's no more room in
here. Throw out the baskets of food. Get rid of those baskets. Make room for it. Make room for
it. We've got to have you. Got to have you. And the master
comes walking across that store. Do you know what it took, Bob,
to see him walk across a stormy sea? I hear folks joke about
this. I want to deck them. They think he can walk on water.
Let me have a look at his legs, see if he can walk on water. There's no joking matter. Do
you know what it took for him to come walking across the storm?
It took a storm. You couldn't see him walk on
the troubled water if there was no troubled water. You couldn't
see him coming in the night if there were no night. And immediately,
they received him into their boat then. Then. They're home. Immediately, instantly,
he takes them from the middle of the sea, they were at least
five, six, eight miles from shore, out in the middle of the sea,
where they had been rowing in the night, and immediately he
takes them over to Capernaum. They that go down to the sea
and do business in great waters, they see the wondrous works of
the Lord. that can't be seen anywhere else.
They reel to and fro as a drunken man and they're at their wits
end. And then they cry unto the Lord. And He saves them out of
all their troubles and brings them to their desired haven. Oh, that men would see this. and glorify the Lord. Thank God
for the nights He leaves us alone in the midst of storms. Things
we would never choose. Never choose. But He chooses
for us. I've written so many letters
like this over the years. If I could, I'd take this pain
from you. If I could, I'd take the trouble from you. But he
who loves you infinitely better than I ever imagined loving you
sent the storm and he's doing you good.