The Lord walking

Psalm 104, verse number one. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord my God, Thou art very great, Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, Who covers Thyself with light as with a garment, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters, Who maketh the clouds His chariot, Who walketh upon the wings of the wind, Who maketh His angel spirits, His ministers a flaming fire, Who laid the foundation of the earth, That it should not be removed forever. Now another reading in Matthew 14, please.

Verse number 15, 14 and 15. And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past. Verse 22, and straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship and to go before Him unto 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 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, 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. And they cried out for fear.

But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And Peter answered them and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. Now, one final short reading in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verse 32.

And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened unto us the Scriptures? And they rose up that same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and then that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

Now, we know that God will bless His Word with what we have heard already throughout this whole conference. I want to speak a little bit about the Lord walking. And in Psalm 104, we have the Lord walking on the wings of the wind.

And then we have Him walking on the water in Matthew 14. And then Luke 24, we have Him walking by the way. So those are three little things that will be easy to remember, and we don't need to say a lot about them.

Likely you could fill all the little things in yourself. But in Psalm 104, it's a little bit of a contrast with Psalm 103. Psalm 103 is thanksgiving, but Psalm 104 is worship.

Psalm 103 would be redemption. Bless the Lord, O my soul, forget not all His benefits, bless His holy name. But here we have a psalm of creation.

And if you read down the psalm, and I'm not going to do it for you, but read down the psalm. You don't need to do it while I'm speaking. Wait till you get home, and you can look and see the days of creation in this psalm.

For instance, we have in verse number two, it covers Himself with lightness with a garment. And of course, that's the first day we have light, light be. Second thing, stretches out the heavens as a curtain.

You can see that in the second day of creation, and you go right on down. But what I want to just say about this psalm is, it shows something of the greatness of the Lord. Goes away back in eternity.

And we think of all these things that describe His greatness. And you know, we like to speak about the humility of the Lord, and we should. But we'll never really understand or be able to enter in much into His humility if we don't realize something of His greatness.

And here He is. And all these things describe the Lord. Covers Himself with lightness with a garment.

Stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and walketh on the wings of the wind, and so on. And maketh the clouds His chariot. And you have in these few verses, you have it speaks about the heavenly, a curtain.

Light reveals and light covers. And you have the clouds and His chariot. That suggests someone that's triumphant.

When Elijah was taken, he was taken up in the chariot of fire. And I think that would tell us of the triumph of Christ going up into heaven. And you have the very clouds of the base of His upper chamber.

But I think about walking on the wings of the wind, carried along by the wings of the wind, the very thought of God's great creation. But then He not only did that, but He walked in the water. And that tells me that He brought that same power, that great power that He had, and that great glory, He brought it into this sinful world.

It's the best way to describe it is that He veiled His glory. He didn't lay His glory by, as a hymn writer said, but He veiled His glory. But the glory and the power were still there.

And here we have them in the gospel of Matthew. And as you know, when I preached the gospel last night, I mentioned this was the scriptures that God used on the day that I was saved. It was tremendous scriptures for us when we think of the Lord Jesus walking on the water.

First, He sends the disciples into the ship. And it's not long after they're in the ship till they come into trouble. And you know, sometimes we think if Christians are in trouble, it's something that they have done that has brought them.

And that could be true. Things we might do could bring us into great trouble. But here it's obedience that's bringing them into these troubled waters.

When I was first saved, they told me, and I knew the first part of the expression anyhow, they said, salvation is free. That's something I knew. I didn't know much more, but I knew that.

But they said everything else will cost. And we've been reminded of the cost for many, of gathering under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no cost for me.

There was a cost for my father and my mother. But there wasn't much of a cost for me, but it was their obedience. And if we're drifting through life and everything in the garden is rosy, maybe there's something wrong with our lives.

We're not really standing up for the Lord. But anyhow, we don't want to spend too much time on this. But we find that the Lord brought that power in.

He came to them walking on the water. He went to a mountain apart. That would speak of his priestly ministry.

And while they were struggling here, they likely wondered, does the Lord really know what we're doing? Maybe you've wondered that too, if you're struggling along at times. Well, we know he does. He's watching and he's going to draw near.

And you could apply this in many ways, but he can draw near to us. And he doesn't always still the waters. Sometimes he brings us through the troubled waters, but here he's able to still the waters.

And all the power that he brought, he had in creation. He still has it in his person. But then I think the next chapter, the next verses we read, would show that he not only brought us great power, but he's still human.

They had to be human, didn't they? As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he in like manner took part of the same. He had to be like us to be our high priest. Had to be unlike us to be our advocate.

If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Had to be unlike us, but he had to be like us to be our priest. And this is priestly work that we're having here.

Gospel of Luke begins with a priest. But he was a priest that couldn't bless the people because of unbelief. He was struck dumb, speechless.

Couldn't help the people. And he had a son that was born in his old age. And likely he was thinking, it's going to be great.

They're going to be a priest to follow me. But God didn't give him a priest, he gave him a prophet. And this prophet was to bring in the real priesthood.

And if you go right through, you'll see that in this Gospel of Luke. The man from Jerusalem to Jericho, the priest couldn't help him. God had finished with that now.

He's bringing in something different. But here's a priest, a priest who had been to the altar. Not that golden altar that our brother was telling us about.

Zechariah went to, but couldn't bless the people. But the Lord Jesus went to the brazen altar. Went to Calvary for the wrath and the judgment of God.

And now in this little preview, 40 years, 40 days rather. A little preview of what the Lord is doing now. And I want you to think of it this way.

You can apply these many ways. But you know, here's two people and they're going away from Jerusalem. You say, is there anything important about that? Well, I think that that's where God had placed his name.

Even though the Lord was rejected. And where were the disciples? Those chief men among the brethren, they were in Jerusalem. But these people had turned their back to Jerusalem and they're going home.

And they're disappointed and they're full of unbelief. What would you have done if you had been in the place of the Lord? Would you have rebuked them or say, well, just let them go? If that's their choice, just let them go. The Lord said, no.

I want to bring out what's in their heart. And they said to the Lord, are you the only person in Jerusalem that doesn't, you don't know what happened up there. Actually, the Lord was the only one that knew.

But he didn't say that to them. He just brought them out. And what was he doing? He was recovering them.

And I think we've come to conferences for recovery. We all need it. And some of us more than others, but we all need it.

Maybe we don't all recognize it. But when we come to a conference, and lots of times I come to a conference and I listen to my brethren unfolding the scriptures. And if you weren't here this morning, it was a wonderful Bible reading.

And sometimes I think, what have I been doing? Why do brethren know all these things? And they've been studying and I'm trying to study. But, you know, it's great to come as we're enlightened. And we're recovered and encouraged to get back into the scriptures if we have neglected it for a while.

Get back in. So the Lord says, no, you need to be recovered. How are they going to be recovered? Through the scriptures.

The scriptures concerning himself. And I'm sure, Brother Larry, that he unfolded to them what you have been bringing before us. Must have been wonderful.

What a Bible reading, if you could call it that. Maybe it was all one sided. Sometimes our Bible readings are like that, too.

But anyhow, you wouldn't have much to say if the Lord's explaining the scriptures. From all the scriptures. We're not specialists.

We need all the word of God. And I believe all these things concerning himself. Because he was explaining to them how he had to suffer.

They were wondering what took place and what was going on. But he said, these are things that had to happen. And what did he say? Our heart burned within us.

And it's often been said that it was the priest that trimmed the lamp in the tabernacle, the temple. Why did he trim the lamp? To make it burn brighter. Some of us are old enough to know what the old oil lamps were like.

Maybe not too many. But they trimmed the wick. If I had been there, I might have extinguished the wick.

Blown it out and said, forget it. If you didn't understand what I've been teaching you all, not the Lord's, not like that. Isn't it wonderful? How compassionate he is.

And the love that he has for us. And I'll tell you what happened. And I have to close right now.

I'll tell you what happened. They turned around. They had a good long walk.

But you know, they didn't waste any time. They turned around. What for? To be with God's people.

And to enjoy the fellowship of God's people. That's why they came around. And they found the disciples.

And they told them the things that were done in the way. And how they were known to him in the breaking of bread. I don't think it was the Lord's Supper.

But it would maybe remind them if they had known anything about the day when the Lord did take the bread and the cup. But it's a meal. Maybe they thought of the feeding of the 5,000.

I'm not sure. But I know this. They were recovered.

And they came back. And what did they do? They enjoyed the fellowship of God's people. How do we know that? Because while they were talking about him.

And like he telling them about some of the things that he had taught them. The Lord Jesus himself stood in the midst. Isn't that wonderful? That we can be recovered.

And enjoy the company of the Lord. What a wonderful thing it is to be part of a local assembly. I hope we really appreciate it.

And by the grace of God, I hope we'll appreciate it till the Lord comes. Or takes us to be with himself. So may the Lord bless his word.

Think of the greatness of the Lord. Walking upon the wings of the wind. What majesty.

Walking in the water. Above all circumstances. They were toiling.

But the Lord came. Mr. Sidney Maxwell said one time a woman asked him how he was. And he said, I'm not too bad under the circumstances.

And she said, you shouldn't be under the circumstances. Walking in the water. And then walking in the way.

And he's still walking with us. And as we'll leave the conference later on after the gospel is preached. We're not all going alone.

And we should always remember that. Because it will color our whole life if we realize this. The Lord went with them and the Lord will go with us.