Jesus by the Seaside

Introduction and Context: Jesus's Withdrawal to the Sea

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, August 19, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Monville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to turn in your own Bibles to the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark as we continue our consecutive expositions of this Spirit-inspired record of the life and ministry and sayings and ultimately the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Mark chapter 3, please follow as I read verses 7 through 12. Mark 3, beginning with verse 7.

0:48 And Jesus, with his disciples, withdrew to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea. And beyond the Jordan, and about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came unto him. And he spoke to his disciples, that a little boat should wait on him because of the crowd, lest they should throng him. For he had healed many, insomuch that as many as had plagues pressed upon him, that they might touch him.

1:30 And the unclean spirits, whensoever they beheld him, fell down before him and cried, saying, You are the Son of God. And he charged them much, that they should not make him known. Now let us again seek the face of God in prayer, that the Lord will indeed reveal to us some fresh understanding of his own grace and mercy in the Lord Jesus. Our Father, we thank you for this record of the life and ministry.

2:06 We thank you for this record of the life and ministry of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray that as you have been pleased to record these incidents, some of which on the surface of things appear rather insignificant and inconsequential, may the Holy Spirit so give us to understand your mind in Scripture, that we will behold wondrous things out of your law this morning. Amen. Amen.

2:35 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:35 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:36 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:37 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:38 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:39 And reveal them to us with grace and power. We ask in his name, Amen. Now as we return to our studies in the Gospel of Mark, I would simply remind you by way of brief introduction and review, that the dominant theme of the Gospel of Mark is clearly set before us in the opening verse of that Gospel. Mark is concerned to set the new world.

3:10 set before us the gospel or the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And in the unfolding of this theme, Mark is particularly concerned to demonstrate that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the only Savior of sinners, is God's mighty worker. In chapter 1, after the record of our Lord's introduction by John the Baptist and his formal identification with his people in the ordinance of baptism, Mark records those incidents which gave rise to the growing popularity of the Lord Jesus, particularly as he ministered in the northern part of Palestine in the region of Galilee. And then in chapter 2 through chapter 3 and verse 6, Mark sets before us the first series of incidents in which opposition to our Lord begins to surface, the very opposition which would eventually issue in our Lord's rejection and public execution upon a Roman cross. However, starting with the passage read in your hearing, chapter 3 and verse

4:28 7, Mark now returns to describe some more of these mighty works of the mighty worker, works which validated his claims to be the Son of God, and works which caused men to recognize that this was no ordinary man who was in their midst. And our Lord performed these works that he might lay the foundation of drawing from men their trust and confidence as the only Savior of sinners. Now in the passage read in your hearing, there are basically three units of thought that we'll open up as we work through the passage and then seek to focus upon three vital lessons contained in the passage. First of all, in verse 7a, we have a record of the withdrawal to the sea. The withdrawal to the sea. And Jesus, with his disciples, withdrew to the sea.

5:36 In all of this, we have a record of the withdrawal to the sea. And Jesus, with his disciples, withdrew to the sea. In all likelihood, the previously recorded incident which took place in a synagogue, chapter 3 and verse 1, on a Sabbath day, probably took place in the city of Capernaum. And the significant thing is that as long as our Lord ministered in the synagogue and in the city, he would necessarily bring himself into constant and direct confrontation with those religious leaders who were in the city of Capernaum. And he would necessarily bring himself into constant and direct confrontation with those religious leaders who were in the city of Capernaum. And he would necessarily bring himself into constant and direct confrontation with those religious leaders who are even now, according to verse 6 of chapter 3, plotting his destruction. And so our Lord cognizant that the Pharisees have gone out with the Herodians and are taking counsel how they might destroy him, he now withdraws with his disciples away from the synagogue, away from the city, and there to the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

6:36 Now the verb used, translated withdraw, though it does not necessarily mean withdrawal for safety reasons, we would call it a retreat, does have that connotation in several pivotal passages in Scripture. For example, in Matthew 2 and verse 14, it records the flight of Joseph and Mary and the young child. And he arose and took the young child. And he took the young child and his mother by night and departed. He withdrew. This was a defensive measure. He withdrew into Egypt.

7:15 But according to Matthew chapter 12, verses 14 and 15, the parallel passage to Mark 3, 7 to 12, it was the knowledge of what the Pharisees were doing that caused the Lord Jesus to withdraw. Verse 14 says, Verse 14 says, Verse 14 says, So we have in this account of Mark chapter 3 and verse 7, a withdrawal of the Lord Jesus from the synagogue and probably the city of Capernaum, because he was conscious of the plot to destroy him. Because he was conscious of the plot to destroy him. Now I must hasten to comment that this was not a withdrawal of cowardice or of carnal fear.

8:16 Rather, Jesus was conscious that he yet had much work to do before voluntarily giving himself up to the murderous designs of his enemies. Those designs are already being made. But to use the language of John, Jesus knew that his hour, had not yet come. And therefore this withdrawal with his disciples was a wise and a judicious act calculated to restrain and to avoid unnecessary provocation of the religious leaders and to give the Lord Jesus a context for his more positive ministry of teaching, healing, and casting out demons. He was concerned to give more. He was concerned to give more validation to his claims. He was concerned to lay a broader view of Israel with respect to his identity as God's Messiah.

9:20 As long as he is in the synagogue in direct interaction and confrontation with the religious leaders, his concentration is upon their opposition. So now with his disciples he withdraws, not out of cowardice, but out of principled ignorance. Out of an intelligent, intelligent commitment to do what he knew was the will of God. Now then we see in the second place, not only the account of our Lord's withdrawal to the sea, but secondly the gathering of the multitudes by the sea.

The Gathering of the Multitudes by the Sea

9:56 7b through verse 8. And a great multitude from Galilee followed, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came unto him. Now in this account of the gathering of the multitudes by the sea, two things are said about the multitudes. Who they were, and why they were gathered.

10:29 Now who comprised the multitudes? According to Mark, there are two groups. The first group came from the very area in which he was ministering, up in the section of Capernaum. For the text says that as he withdrew with his disciples, a great multitude from Galilee followed him.

10:53 So the very people who had heard him preach in the synagogues of that upper region of Palestine, centering around the city of Capernaum, when they saw the Lord Jesus withdraw with his disciples, having remembered all of the mighty works which he accomplished. And you remember again and again in chapter 1, verses 28, 39, and 45, his fame had gone throughout that entire region, realizing that the Lord Jesus was in the business of continuing to heal the sick, continuing to cast out demons. The multitudes follow him as he withdraws to the sea. But then this great multitude was also comprised of another group. For the text says that from Judea, which would be the southern part of Palestine, and its very central, significant capital city, Jerusalem, in Judea, and then from Idumea, which refers to a section on the east of Palestine, the kind of borderline between Jews and Gentiles, and then also, from east of the Jordan, an area often called Perea, and then all the way up in the northwest section of Palestine, these two famous cities of Phoenicia, Tyre and Sidon,

12:22 from all points of the compass, and there seems to be a deliberate omission of Samaria, which lies in the middle between Judea and the Galilean section, people were coming to him, Jews from all of these areas, and most likely, as we'll see in subsequent lessons, even some Gentiles here of his fame, and they comprise this vast multitude that now gather by the Sea of Galilee. So much then for who comprise the multitude. Now, the second thing that is addressed in the passage is why they came together by the sea. And the text says, they were continually hearing, the things that he was continually doing. Notice the emphasis falls upon this gathering of the multitudes based upon their hearing by oral report the mighty works that Jesus was performing. A great multitude hearing what things he did came unto him. There were no portable TV cameras who were showing every inch of the evening on the six o'clock news, the latest miracles.

Jesus's Compassionate and Powerful Ministry to Human Need

13:39 There were no daily newspapers with pictures of healed people who stood and manifested the power of Christ in their bodies. And certainly, unlike so-called modern healers, he had no promotional organization that trumped up apparent mighty works and calmed the people. The text says that what he actually was doing, what he was actually performing could not be contained, but it spread from one mouth to another ear and from that ear to the mouth and to another ear until from all over Palestine as far down as the borderlands of the Gentiles to the south and to the north, multitudes gather around him as he withdraws to the sea. Now then, in the third place, we are not only told by Mark of Jesus' withdrawal to the sea, the gathering of the multitudes by the sea, but we have in the third place the response of Jesus to the multitudes gathered by the sea. And three things are emphasized in the remaining part of the passage. First of all, the response of Jesus is described in what I'm calling his compassionate and powerful ministry to the vast spectrum of human need.

15:06 His compassionate and powerful ministry to the vast spectrum of human need. Verses 10 and 11. For he had healed many, insomuch that as many as had plagues pressed upon him that they might touch him. And the unclean spirits, once whoever they beheld him, fell down, that is, they caused the bodies and the personalities that they possessed to fall down before him.

15:35 And then using the vocal cords of the possessed person, cried out saying, You are the Son of God. So the response of Jesus to this vast multitude that followed him from the area of Galilee above the sea, and from as far away as southern Judea, the eastern side of the Jordan, as far north and west as Tyre and Sidon, what was the response of the Son of God to this vast multitude of people? Well, it was nothing less than a compassionate and powerful ministry to this vast spectrum of human need. In fact, the language that Mark uses is unusually graphic when it says in verse 10 that as many as had plagues pressed upon him that they might touch him, a more literal rendering of that verb would be they were falling. And so you get the picture of the Lord Jesus standing in the midst of this vast sea of humanity with all forms of sicknesses that were so acute that they are called scourges. The very word used for scourging someone. These illnesses were not undiscernible internal maladies.

16:56 They were not psychosomatic diseases. They were real degenerative symptoms of physical plagues that could be seen with eyes. And they were so desperate to get into touch with this One who with compassion and power was ministering to the full spectrum of human need that they are literally falling over one another that they might at least just touch him. And there begins to emerge in Mark's Gospel this intimate connection between the healing virtue of Christ and the touch of Christ.

17:35 You remember in chapter 1 in verse 41 when He came into the presence of a leper He stretched out His hand and He touched him. And you remember the incident that we'll study God willing subsequently in chapter 5 that Gentile woman she said if only I can what? The hem of His garment I'll be made whole. And so this connection established by God and this is the essence of the healing follow closely unlike so called modern faith healers who say that basically the healing power is in your own head.

18:11 Think positively enough about the power of Jesus and you'll be well. God is making it plain that this was not a matter of playing head games on oneself. There was healing virtue and power in Christ and if He would stretch forth His hand symbolizing that that virtue and power was going forth from Him to touch needy bodies or if they could but touch Him either way the virtue and the healing power was in Christ and in Christ alone. And our Lord responds then to this clamor of needy humanity with compassion and with power as He meets this vast spectrum of human need healing these who are afflicted with these who are possessed of devils. But then His response is also described as what I am calling His authoritative directive that this ministry not be emblazoned abroad. You'll notice how the passage ends here in Mark. And He charged them much which is a rather crude attempt to translate the vigor of the verb that Jesus was with tongues that bordered on

Jesus's Authoritative Directive and Wise Provision for Safety

19:37 charging those that they should not make Him known. When the demons were being cast out as we found in chapter 1 they were confessing their acknowledgement of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth You! The Son of God. And in the parallel passage in Matthew Matthew tells us that Jesus was charging those who were healed of diseases not to make their healing known.

20:10 Notice in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 16 after telling us that He healed them all then Matthew writes and charged them that is those that were healed that they should not make Him known. So there's no contradiction as we've seen again and again there's a wonderful synthesis. Mark's emphasis falls particularly upon Jesus charging the demons that they should be still and not openly confess His identity. The emphasis in Matthew falls upon Jesus charging those that are healed that they should not emblazon abroad that they have been healed by Him. Now according to Matthew 12 17 and following Jesus engaged in this authoritative directive both to the demons and to healed men and women in order that His very method of ministry might fit the prediction of the prophet Isaiah. This has come to pass Matthew says that it might be fulfilled which was spoken and then He gives this description that Messiah would not be like the political agitator. He would not be like the military conqueror.

21:36 The political agitator is always out trying to drum up an interest in His cause with His rhetoric. The military conqueror sends His impressive message of entourage before Him to announce His appearance and to emblazon abroad His conquest. But Jesus as it were keeps all afraid that there might be this backlog of pressure with respect to His almighty work which validates His own identity that by degrees men and women might come to understand that He is precisely the Messiah described in the Old Testament Scriptures. But then the response of Jesus has a third strand.

22:20 Not only His compassionate and powerful ministry to the vast spectrum of human need His authoritative directive that this ministry not be blazoned abroad but thirdly His wise provision for His own safety and well-being. It's a strange strand of emphasis but it's here. His wise provision for His own safety and well-being. We saw it first of all in the fact that He withdrew to the sea.

22:49 He withdrew from the place of unnecessary confrontation with those who are already plotting His death. But then we have in verse 9 this strange verse. Only Mark gives it to us. It has that touch you see of an eyewitness in believing that Mark learned these truths from Peter.

23:07 Here is the voice and the eye of Peter in the eye of Peter in the eye of Peter in the eye of Peter who would be particularly sensitive to this as a fisherman. And he spoke to his disciples that a little boat the diminutive is used not the standard word for boat but a little boat should wait on Him because of the crowd lest they should throng Him literally lest they should afflict Him press in upon Him and endanger His very physical being. Now get the picture. Lord Jesus withdraws to the sea.

23:49 The multitude comes out of Galilee with Him. Before long multitudes come from all over Palestine and even the borderlands of the Gentiles. Mark tells us that as He with compassion and power ministers to their needs charges them not to make known what He has done charges the demons not to speak forth His identity as the Son of God the crowd becomes so pressured that His own well being is endangered. So He speaks to His disciples and says I want you to make sure that wherever I stand to minister to preach and to heal that there is right at hand a little boat into which I can jump if I need to and shove myself off from the shore to escape the pressure of the crowd. And according to this passage there is no indication that He wanted to use the boat as His pulpit. Later on we have a description of the Lord Jesus getting into a boat and using it as His pulpit while He addresses the crowds upon the shore. But here the emphasis is very clearly underscored by Mark.

25:03 He did this lest afflict Him lest they should throng upon Him lest they should crush Him. In other words Jesus was tying up the use of the boat as a planned escape measure in order to protect His own person. Now that's the emphasis of the passage I didn't put it there God the Holy Ghost did. Now having gone through the passage and opened up the basic facts contained in it what does all of this say to us?

Lesson 1: Jesus as Our Perfect Example of Keeping God's Law (Holy Caution)

25:41 And in the time remaining this morning let me set before you three of the abiding lessons of the Word of God. And the concentration is going to be upon the Lord Jesus Himself. And the first thing we notice about Him in this passage is that Jesus is set before us as our perfect example of fulfilling and keeping the law of God. Jesus is set before us as our perfect example of the law of God in many respects but I'm thinking particularly of that precept of God that was brought into focus in the initial wilderness temptation. You remember the record in Mark's in Matthew's Gospel and then again in Luke's Gospel that when Jesus was tempted of the Lord He said that He will give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways lest thou dash thy foot against the stone and what did Jesus say by way of

27:10 response to that temptation? It is written thou shalt not tempt or make trial of the Lord unto the Lord by righteousness with respect to His life the methods by which He would accomplish His ministry and here in this passage we see the Lord Jesus demonstrating how perfect courage submission to the will of God in all situations Jesus is our perfect example of the holy caution so when He said to His disciples secure a little boat for me and wherever on the shore make sure the boat is near at hand we have imperfect in compassion in self giving ministering to this vast

28:39 human need but at the same time making sure His escape route is open to Him and I say in this our word is a picture to us perfect example of fulfilling the law of God in Him ought Himself so to walk even as He walked if Jesus Christ is not only our substitute and therefore Savior if He is not only the one whose obedience to the law whose obedience unto death form the basis of our righteousness but if He is also our then where are we and what is the law of God it is not just the law of God I who is a 18 a

30:09 I am a 25 there are 은 I

30:21 that I We are not tempted by placing ourselves in a position of unnecessary danger. Furthermore, though our Lord could have reasoned this way, surely, if my Father is upholding me according to the promise of the covenant, behold my servant whom I uphold. If I'm pouring out myself in compassion and pity and exercising my power to heal the sick, even if the multitudes are about to crush me, surely my Father will come and rescue me. He doesn't reason that way.

30:57 He says, disciples, get me a boat. Keep it nearby. If the crowds get too unruly and press in too fiercely, I'll hop into the boat and thereby escape personal danger. Are you a Christian?

31:12 You're to walk as Christ walked. You are not only to imitate Him in the strength of His Spirit, in His undaunted courage, in those times when we must face unrighteousness, our bitterest foes and hurl into their consciences the Word of God, times when we must take steps of defensive withdrawal, and we must take steps of caution to provide for our own safety.

31:41 Now, you know where I'm going with my application?

31:45 No Christian should sit in a car with a seatbelt unbuckled. If God's ordained to keep you from going to the windshield and laying your face open, He's ordained to use a shoulder harness, and a seatbelt to keep you from going through the windshield. And if you say, well, I'm in the hands,

32:06 seatbelt, and your shoulder restraint, your violence is recently in getting into cars with preachers. And I remember one just a couple of months ago. We got into the car, and I looked over at him, and I said to him, my brother, when did you become a hyper-Calvinist? And he looked at me.

32:37 And he says, I'm not a hyper. I said, I think you are. And I had a serious face on. He said, brother, you know me.

32:44 I said, I'm not a hyper. I said, I thought I did.

32:48 But you've disappointed me. What did I say? I said, do you believe that the God who ordains the ends ordains the means thereto? Why, of course I do.

32:58 I said, all right. If God's ordained to keep you from going through that windshield in a collision, what? Oh, my seatbelt. I said, uh-huh, your seatbelt.

33:08 Your seatbelt. That's right. I went after his conscience with this very text. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

33:15 Oh, but I... Oh, listen.

33:17 Get off it. That's just a flimsy excuse. These statistics are so overwhelming. Of the father that would be spared.

33:31 As one state trooper has said, he's never pulled a dead baby out of a seat harness.

33:40 Never pulled a dead child out from under a seat harness. Our Lord is the great example in the whole matter of taking immunization shots, in the whole matter of life insurance, in making wise and judicious, provision with reference to circumstances that we can control to tempt the Lord our God on a trip without a spare tire. We are not going to place our families in a car and we haven't checked the front wheel bearings for 20,000 miles and say, well, I'll just trust God. Dear people, that's...

34:23 And it means in the care of our automobiles, in the care of our persons, in the ordering of our homes, we are to be like our Savior. Anticipate real dangers and wherever possible, make real, legitimate, reasonable provisions to escape those dangers. I'm not talking about the Mr. Fury who finds behind every corner some imagined threat to his life, who's about to boil every mouthful of water that he ever drinks and about to defumigate with Lysol every chair on which he sits.

35:00 I'm not talking about that kind of terrible extreme. But the basic principle is surely taught by our Lord that we are not to tempt the Lord our God. And so the Lord Jesus, in the most practical way in this passage, is set before us as our perfect example of keeping the law of God. But then secondly, He's set before us as the almighty deliverer from sin, its consequences, and the devil himself.

Lesson 2: Jesus as the Almighty Deliverer from Sin, its Consequences, and the Devil

35:33 He is set before us as the almighty, the almighty deliverer from sin, its consequences, and the devil himself.

35:43 What is the purpose for which Christ came to this world? Matthew 1.21 tells us, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He it is that shall save His people from their sin. And one of the early sayings of the church was, this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance, Christ Jesus came into the world, and one of the purposes behind all of these physical healings was that God might, as it were, give object lessons of the mighty power.

36:20 If He can deal with human bodies, can He not deal with its invisible root in the souls of men? And wasn't that His very reasoning in the early part of chapter 2? He said, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or take up your bed and walk? Well, it's easier to say your sins are forgiven.

36:40 That's an invisible truth. It's not a transaction. But He says that you may know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins. He said to this paralyzed man, take up your bed and walk.

36:51 In other words, we are to reason from Jesus dealing with the fruits of sin in human sickness to His power to deal with the root of sin in the human soul. And so when the passage tells us that He healed as many as had plagues, scourges, diseases, that were not matters of mind over matter, but real degenerative diseases, real demons, people, what is Jesus showing to the multitudes, particularly when He tells the demons to be muzzled and no longer to confess that He is Son of God? He is telling them and God is telling us that Jesus is the Almighty Deliverer from sin, its consequences, and from the devil Himself. And isn't that the Gospel? He told us at the very beginning He's going to set before us the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

37:58 And if you can't convince yourself that Jesus is to help you, that's not the Gospel.

38:10 It is that you're a sinner and that your soul is as ugly as before those bodies that were there by the shores of Galilee 2,000 years ago. And as Jesus, by His Almighty power,

38:30 so today He's able to cleanse you of your sin, to break the power of sin that binds you, to deliver you from the devil who's taken you captive unto His own will in the language of 2 Timothy 2 and verse 26. And here in this passage is good news indeed that Jesus is the Almighty Deliverer from sin, its consequences, and the devil himself. And then finally, in this passage, Jesus is set before us as the great divider of all mankind. Could any contrast be more striking than the contrast drawn by Mark?

Lesson 3: Jesus as the Great Divider of All Mankind

39:15 Look again at the context. Verse 6, Jesus heals the man with the withered hand on a Sabbath day in the city. And what's the response of the Pharisees? They went out and straightway with the Herodians, took counsel against Him, how they might destroy Him.

39:34 Picture them. Here's this little group up there in the city of Capernaum sitting around and plotting how they may kill Jesus when from the farthest reaches of Palestine even Gentile dogs are pressing their way to the seaside that they might touch Jesus. One group plotting to kill Him. The other dying to get...

40:04 next to Him that they might touch Him. You see, this passage shows the Lord Jesus as the great divider of mankind. For He Himself said, I came not to send peace but a sword. I came to set a man against his father, the daughter against the mother, the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law, and the man's foes shall be they of his own household.

40:29 As then, so now. Jesus Christ is the great divider of this congregation. It's not this center aisle that divides us. It's not our sexual identity into boys and girls, males and females that divides us.

40:44 It is Christ who this morning is the great divider of this assembly of men and women, boys and girls. There are those of you who share the spirit of the Pharisees and the Herodians. The claims of Christ irritate you. The yoke of Christ is irritant to you.

41:03 The thought of up to Christ is abhorrent. Perhaps the claims of Christ are ridiculous to you. And there are others who like the multitudes who pressed near Him, tumbling over one another, falling so that they might touch Him. Thank God there are those here who have come in that determination of a spirit-wrought faith to be satisfied with nothing less than direct living contact with Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

41:37 And may I say it reverently, God has touched Him not with your physical hands, but you've touched Him as by faith. A faith engendered in your own heart by the mysterious work of the Spirit. You've come in all your sin, in all your bondage, and you've reached and laid hold of Him who said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And sitting here this morning you sit as one who has been cleansed of your sin, Pardoned of all of your offenses against God.

42:16 Your bondage to sin broken. In that sense, the devil has been cast out. And Christ by the Spirit has come to dwell in your heart. And you love Him.

42:28 Yes, I know your love is feeble. You wish it were stronger. So often it's fickle. You wish it were more constant.

42:36 But you can look Him in the eye as Peter did and say, Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You.

42:45 But others of you, you cannot honestly say you love Him. You don't love a Jesus who tells you that He must have a place above father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, and your own life. You don't love a Jesus who says, Never know His face until you prepare to humble yourself and take the posture of a guilty, helpless sinner. Throwing yourself upon His mercy.

43:11 You plot the destruction of a Christ like that. And you see, as then, And so now Jesus is the great divider of all mankind. On what side do you stand? Do you stand with the multitudes who press to touch Him?

43:27 Or are you in that group that plots to destroy Him? May God grant that you will be amongst those who see in Him the great divider. Not only now, but even in the last day. Matthew 25 says, When He sits on His throne, He shall divide the sheep from the goats.

43:49 He'll be the great divider in the day of judgment. If that day came today, on what side would He place you? With the sheep? Or with the goats?

43:58 With those who have seen His glory, and in faith have pressed towards Him, and in faith have touched Him, and known the virtue of His saving grace and power? Or would you be found amongst those who like the ones who plotted to kill Him? Religious! Full of the Bible!

44:17 And pride and unbelief ultimately to be cast from His presence. May God grant that this scene of Jesus by the seaside will become the means by which Christ Himself will become precious to our hearts. Let us pray.

Prayer of Application

44:49 Our Father, how we thank You for Your holy Word. We thank You for the livingness of Your dear Son, that when we turn to Your Word, we do not read a dead account of a dead Christ,

45:06 and have some kind of nostalgia that we would long to be back where they were when He was. But we thank You that we are able this morning to know communion with a living Christ, who in the pages of His own Word comes to us to minister Himself to us. And we pray that in this place today, there would be those who would press after Him, who would see His great compassion for sinners where they are, and His great power towards sinners. And may they in true repentance and faith lay hold of Him as He is offered in the Gospel.

45:51 We pray for us, Your people, that we will follow His great example. Forgive us for our sins of presumption, our sins of tempting You, O Lord our God. We pray that the implications of His example would touch us wherever we need to be touched, that we might live responsible lives in the light of Your holy law. And then we plead with You, O God our Father, that we may ever behold in our Lord Jesus, that divider of all mankind, and that it may be our deepest longing to know that we are numbered, numbered amongst those who are with Him and not those who are against Him. Seal Your Word to our hearts, and may it bear its holy fruit in all of our lives throughout this day, and even until the day of His appearing, we ask these mercies in His name. Amen.