Nancy Bird is doing better. The doctor checked her heart
out this week and said her heart's fine. She said her lungs are
shot, but her heart's fine. But she's feeling better. She
called Debbie today and I had to talk with her. And also Debbie's
brother Randy's not doing well at all. He's formed a couple
blood clots in his legs. Because they took him off the
blood thinner, he's got this thing called the S-factor. Three
of the boys have that. And then they get blood clots
really easy. And plus, he's just sick as a dog. So we don't know
if they're sick enough for radiation, but we don't know whether he's
malignant or not. So remember Randy in your prayers,
if you will, and also Debbie is her brother number two. I'm sorry. Okay, that's all I
can think as far as announcements go. Let's begin our worship service
with hymn number 126, Rock of Ages. Let's go. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in Thee. Let the water and the blood from
Thy womb, which I was born, be of sin undone in You. Stay around and make me feel
good My tears will forever flow Could my sin of anger know? These poor sin could not atone! Thou art saved when Thou alone! In my hand no rice I bring, Simply
to Thy cross I cling! While I draw near to feeding
bread, with my eyes shall close to bed. When I rise, the world
shall know, and be holy on my throne. Rock of Ages, can't you
learn from me? Let me hide myself in Thee. In the number of 52, Majestic
Sweetness sits enthralled upon Your Savior's brow. Majestic Sweetness. His lips with grace overflowed. His lips with grace overflowed. No mortal can really compare. Who fill the empty train? Who fill the empty train? He shall be one to be distressed
and put to my relief. For me He bore the shameful cross
And carried all my grief And carried all my grief For Him
I owe my life and breath And all the joys I have He makes
me triumph over death, and saves me from the grave, and saves
me from the grave. Turn in your Bibles, please,
to John, the 6th chapter, Part of my message tonight is
Power of Misread. John chapter 6 and verse 15. Jesus therefore perceived that
they would come and take him by force and make him a king. He departed again into a mountain
himself alone. And when even was now come, his
disciples went down into the sea. and entered into his ship
and went over the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus was
not coming to them. And the sea arose by reason of
a great wind that blew. So when they rowed about five
and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the
sea, drawing nigh unto the ship, and they were afraid. But he
saith unto them, Eat his eye, be not afraid. Then they willingly
received him into the ship, and immediately the ship was at the
land with which they went. Our Father in Heaven, we come in
the blessed name of perfect righteousness, Jesus Christ the Lord, who is
our King, our Master, our Lord, our Savior. It is him before
whom we bow in thanksgiving and praise for the work he accomplished
on behalf of his elect. We thank you, Father, for the
shed blood of Jesus Christ. We thank you that he bore our
sins in his body on the tree. received all the punishment that
we deserve, and died the death that we owe to you for our sin. We are thankful that all this
was accomplished for us without any help from us, or any interest
from us. But you did it because you loved
your people from the foundation of the world. Help us to remember what we are,
and who you are, and all the things you've done for us. We
don't deserve the least of your favor, yet you've shown abundant grace
toward us. Father, we pray for those who
are sick. Ronnie Ledford's family, the loss of a loved one. Continue
to pray for Max Bird as you continue to get better. Pray for Randy. You know, he suffered greatly
because of this cancer. I suppose you might be pleased
to hear him comfort. Show mercy to him. Fix his heart
and mind upon Jesus Christ. Help us tonight, Father, we gather
here to look at your word, to see our savior. fix our eyes
and hearts upon Him. But when we see Him, all is well.
And we know that it shall be well with us, because He alone
is the object of our faith. Help us now, we pray in Christ's
name. Amen. Now what transpires in this passage
is the Lord's response to the thoughts of the thousands that
He has just fed. And it's not a stretch to grasp
why the carnal mind would consider the power that Christ displayed
to be a considerable political tool. The multitude that accounted
the power to him as being the prophet, that prophet spoken
of in Deuteronomy 18, the Messiah spoken of in Daniel chapter 9. And now they see his benefit
for them if he was their king. They've seen the power. They've
seen him feed 5,000 people with a few fishes and a few loaves
of bread. Having been under Roman rule
for some time, they saw an opportunity for a great rebellion. That was
what was going on in their mind, where they were delivered from
Caesar's authority and captivity and power. They did not vocalize
their intent to force him into a regal occupation. But it was
in their mind, and the Lord read their thoughts like a book. That's
what it says in verse 15. When the Lord Jesus therefore
perceived that they would come and take him by force to make
him a king, he departed again to the mountain himself alone. He was and is the king of kings,
but he did not come to this world to set up an earthly kingdom. When questioned by Pilate, are
you a king? He says, yes, I am, but my kingdom
is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
my people would fight. He says, but my kingdom is not
of this world. He cared for the poor and the
weak, healed the sick and raised the dead, and drew the offscouring
of the universe to him. But he had no social or political
agenda, none whatsoever. He came to save sinners. to seek
and save that which was lost. He was king, but his kingdom
was a heavenly kingdom. His kingdom was a spiritual kingdom.
He saw that in their minds was a plan to force him to be king. That's an interesting word there,
to force him to be king. Evidently they felt force was
necessary They must have saw something about him unlike normal
men. He had no designs on political
rule. He didn't ask to be paid for
what he had done. He didn't ask for their vote
once that he had done all this for him. This was not a political
move. And they saw that in him. So
they knew if they was going to have him, it would have to be
a force situation. The word force means to seize
or to carry off by force. However, its root word means
to choose by vote. I found that very interesting
and probably appealed to most Baptist churches anyway. They
were going to elect Jesus. They were going to elect the
Elector. Sound familiar? Maybe like free
willism? They were going to make Jesus
their Lord. That's a hard thing to do since He's already there
and He was already King. They were making a decision,
but the Lord would have none of it. He repaired to a mountain
alone to pray, as it says in Matthew 14, recording this story. He went to the mountain alone
to pray, leaving the satiated multitude in the lurch. They
were searching vainly for their belly-filling benefactor to be
their new despot. But he wasn't buying it. He left
them standing where they were. And they went looking for him.
We'll find that later on. Verses 16 and 17 record the disciples
leaving the master and going down to the sea to take a boat
to Capernaum. Matthew and Mark's account of
that says the Lord commanded them to do this. They went with
him probably up to the mountain. Well, before he went up to the
mountain, he told them, you go down and get in the boat and
go over to Capernaum. I'll see you later. I'll see you later. But
he did command them. Now, he would have them again
see his sovereignty over the elements. That's coming down
the road, the sea becoming Became a raging torrent while they were
out upon in verse 18 But it's more fully covered in Matthew
and is the record of Peter walking on the sea This is the same instant
turn over Matthew 14 holding your place there in John 6 Matthew
chapter 14 verse 24 it says 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, Jesus went unto them walking
on the sea. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were in trouble, saying, It's a spirit. And they cried out with fear.
But straightway Jesus spake to them, saying, Be good cheer,
it is I. Be not afraid. And Peter answered
him and said, Lord, if thou, if be thou, bid me come unto
thee on the water. And he said, come. When Peter
was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go
to Jesus. And when he saw the wind boisterous,
he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord,
save me. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of
little faith, wherefore is thou doubt? And when they were coming
to the ship, the wind ceased and they were there where they
were supposed to be quickly at the end of this journey. The
disciples saw the Lord walking on the sea and they were sore
afraid and they thought that they had seen him go. thought
it was a spirit. That word spirit here means phantasm
or specter. That's the meaning of it in the
original language. Now the Pharisees had an interesting
belief about this sort of thing. They believed that these spirits
were demons. And perhaps the disciples got
their thinking from them and that's why they were afraid.
They cried out in fear. John says it was very dark at
this time. It was in the fourth watch here
in Matthew. It was very dark on the sea that
night. The Pharisees said that the demon
spirits appeared always under the veil of darkness. So here
they've got this idea in their head of what they're seeing.
The Pharisees even had a saying. It is forbidden a man to salute
his friend in the night. For we are careful lest it should
be a demon." So, if you was walking down the street at night and
you saw your friend across the street, you didn't wave at him because
it might not be your friend. It might be a spirit, a spook,
a specter, whatever you want to call it. And that's what they
saw. They saw the Lord Jesus Christ walking on the sea. They thought he was a spirit.
Well, in a sense, he is. He is the Holy Spirit, according
to John chapter 16. Then Peter, who rarely had a
filter for his comments, asked the Lord, if he was the Lord,
to bid him to walk on the water to him. So that's trusting in
the Lord, if he's the Lord. So that's the way Peter, what
a word it is. And the Lord said, come on. Simon
Peter, trusting the Lord, walked on the sea. He's only the second
man in history that's ever done that. But the waves billowed
and raised at his feet, and he took his eyes off the master
and began to sing to the briney deep. And as every believer knows,
that when circumstance and trial and tribulations overwhelm our
little faith, our only recourse is to look to the Lord and cry,
save me or I perish. The water stretched forth his
hand and fetched Simon from a sure death. After the Lord rebuked
them for their doubt, he and Peter entered the boat and the
wind ceased and the sea calmed. Peter learned a great lesson
that night, a lesson that is utterly missed in much of religion
today. He knew that the Lord had power
to cause him to walk on water. He knew that the Lord had power
to do that. Most people will say that God
is powerful and God is sovereign. Most of religion will agree to
that. But the fact is, he quickly found out that such power belongs
only to the Lord. It is not translated to the individual. That's where religion misreads
what power is. Power never veers from its source. Psalm 62 11 says power belongeth
to the Lord. His ability to walk on the water
was not in himself. He didn't have power to do that,
but in the Lord was where the power was. Circumstance caused
him to look away from Christ and he began to sing. Now much
of religions, today's religion believes that the presence of
the Holy Spirit gives them power to do things. You hear people
talk about the power of faith. Faith don't have no power. You have the Holy Spirit, but
you ain't got no power. The Holy Spirit is God, and that's
where the power is, and you don't have any. People think they can
get power to do miracles and do great wonders, so they major
on the Spirit and not on the Lord Jesus Christ. They talk
about Him all the time. They don't look to Christ and
they religiously sink beneath the roiling sea of their own
self-righteousness and self-assurance. Power belongs to God. A believer understands that most
of the time. Peter understood that for a while. But in the end it does. The central
attribute of God-given faith is simply this. It is the faith's
singular object. Always and ever and nothing else. The faith's singular object is
Jesus Christ. That's what faith does. Faith
don't move mountains. Faith don't cause you to have
power. Faith don't cause God to become a spigot for blessings.
Faith looks to Jesus Christ. Always and ever. And if you're not looking to
Christ, it's because you have little faith like everybody else.
Like everybody else. Like the disciples had. Faith may turn its view from
Christ. In May, we know that's the case. And as did Simon Peter, it was
soon realized that it's little. I hear people talk about great
faith. I didn't say some people had great faith. Syro-Phoenician
woman had great faith because he did everything he could, as
a humanly speaking, to turn that woman away. He said, my daughter
is grievously sick. I know you can help her. Would
you please help her? Would you please help her? He said, I'm
not sick, but of the household of Israel. That's a lecture.
She said, I don't care. I need your help. You can help me. You can help
me. It's not fit for me to give the
children's bread to the dogs. He said to her, she said, well,
I'll be your dog. I'm your dog. I need your help. Her faith was fixed on one thing.
This one person, not the 12 disciples that stood around arguing among
themselves, this one person, could do for her what nobody
else in the world could do for her. And his response to her,
the old woman, great is thy faith. You know what great faith is?
Looking to Christ. When you look to him alone for
all things, you have great faith. Every believer can pinpoint the
moment when things go awry. It's usually in hindsight, but
we can find it. When things go around, their
faith is little. It's precisely when they take
their eyes off the Savior, when circumstances overwhelm
them. The old hymn says, turn your
eyes upon Jesus. full in his wonderful face, and
the things of the world will grow strangely dim in the light
of his glory and grace." Faith looks to Christ, and you know
this is so. That's why we come to hear the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and once again it brings us back
to where we need to be. The world pulls on us. The world holds sway over us. And so we come and we meet together
for one thing. So the preacher would tell us
about Jesus Christ over and over and over again. Because once
we fix our eyes on Him, once we see Him in the scriptures,
once we see Him exalted, once we see our Savior at the right
time, the Father, having accomplished salvation for us, everything's
okay for a little bit. If it's only 20 minutes, if it's
only 30 minutes, hey, I'll go for that. Most of the time, I
have little faith. And so do you. Most of the time,
the world and the circumstances bother us way too much. Why do
you fear? He said, be not afraid. He's
got control over the elements, you see. He's got control over
the world. Why do we have this? Because
in those moments, these things bother us. We're not believing
very much. Our faith is weak. Our faith is little. I text,
and John ends with a great account of miracles. Jesus walked on
the sea. Simon walked on the sea. Simon
sank down, and the Lord saved him. And then we find the sea
obeying the Sovereign Lord. And when he stepped in the boat
to sea, the sea had calmed down. In another place, when the sea
was raging, the disciples cried, don't you care for us? Don't
we matter to you? And he said, Oh, you have no
faith. He looked out at the sea, the mighty, raging, roaring sea. He said, Peace, be still. And the sea was like a piece
of glass. He's the sovereign Lord. The record is that the disciples
willingly received him into the ship. Their fears are swayed
so they're delighted to have Him in their presence. And that's
how it is in this world. Going around, we look around
us and have trouble. But when we see Him, that's the
way it ever is. When Christ is in our midst,
our soul is filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. In those blessed
moments, the tempest is calm, fear is abated, and we know where
power resides. Not in us. If we're thinking
in us, we're going to sink. And we're going to have to cry out, Lord,
save me or I'll perish. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Father, bless us to understand
and pray Christ's name. It was good what she said. It
was, yeah. She's beatin' her. She is. She is too. She's beatin' her
on that book. Look at that dress on her. so I can get it done. A lot of times, people, when
they're born red-haired like I was, with black-red hair, and
kind of strawberry blonde, they turn white. She was born blonde,
and then got dark red. How's your eye, Loretta? That's
the same. Oh, well, that's different. Have
you got more stitches in there? No, I don't. You're going to
leave your books laying like that? Can you see out of it,
OK? Yeah, Arlene's not feeling well, she was out of sync. She's not got back to the place
she was before? No, they give her papers back
whenever, and she thought it was crazy.