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So we're continuing our study through the book of Matthew, and we're Matthew 14 here. And so we see here that we're going to see the story, or basically what happens to John the Baptist. So this is where John the Baptist is beheaded, and we start here talking about Herod in verse 1. It says, And at that time Herod the T-chark heard of the fame of Jesus, and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist, he is risen from the dead, therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him. So this kind of tells us, and the Bible does this sometimes too, where it tells us information. It didn't really tell us that John the Baptist had died yet, so now it's talking about how he's risen from the dead, so it's like, oh, okay, he died, and now it's going back and telling you the story. This is often in the Bible where this happens, where it's going to recap a story, and this is where a lot of people get into Bible contradictions, and it's like, no, they're just recapping a story in just a way that, you know, poetically would write something, or even newspapers would write something. The headline will say, you know, there's a car crash, and then it'll go back and tell you the story about what happened before that even happened. But anyway, all I have to say is that we see that John the Baptist is dead, and it's going to explain what happens. But first we see here that it says in verse 3, it says, for Herod had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. For John said unto him, it is not lawful for thee to have her, and when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because he counted him as a prophet. So we see, first of all, that why was he put in prison? Because John the Baptist said that you're committing adultery. That's why. He took his brother Philip's wife, right? So not only did he take someone else's wife, but his own brother, right? But he called him out for that. He preached hard against Herod, and he put him in prison for it, and it actually says that he would have put him to death, but he feared the multitude. And this is something that, you know, especially in our society when it comes into the, you know, the church realm where people are afraid to speak against governing authorities when it comes to their sin. And listen, you know, we're not Fox News Baptist Church, meaning that I'm not a Trump supporter, because Trump is a wicked adulterer, right? And so it'd be like me saying Trump is a wicked adulterer, and then him putting me in prison for that, because he doesn't like that I said that, right? And so obviously we don't have a king. We should have a republic. But notice that even with this, where you have Herod the king, and he's a tetrarch, which tetrarch, you've got to think of monarch. Well tetrarch, monarch would mean like one king or one ruler, right? Mono, mono-e-mono, right? You were going to fight mono-e-mono, or tetrarch. You can think of the word tetris. And so that's where we get four, okay? And so tetrarch means there's four kings, okay? And in Luke, it actually names all of them. But Herod's one of them, okay? So they're over different provinces, okay? But that's why it calls them a tetrarch. But basically he's calling out this king for his sin. And then you also see that the king fears the people. Now this is the way, when it comes to a righteous government or just a nation in general, how it should be, and how is our government set up? It's set up as a republic of we the people. And even in our constitution where we have the 10th amendment, basically says that if there's anything else that's not stated in here, the powers go back to the people and to the state, to the state and to the people, right? So meaning that ultimately the people have the power to either take someone out of government or take someone out of that position or put them in, okay? That's the way it's supposed to be, right? So meaning that if someone's a bad governor or they're going against the constitution, they should be taken out. And so even in this kingdom where you have a king, he even still fears the people, meaning that he knows that he doesn't have omnipotent power over these people, okay? Now I want to go to Luke chapter 13 because I do want to say this, you know, John the Baptist was the greatest prophet to ever live, besides Jesus, of course, right? Because Jesus says, and we already read this, you know, earlier in Matthew where it says that them that are born among women, there's not a greater than John the Baptist. And it says in Luke, you know, there's not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. So he's the greatest prophet to ever live and this prophet preached against the ruler, okay? So nowadays it's like, well, you preach against the ruler, you know, that's wicked, and it'll go to verses where it says you shouldn't revile the gods or, you know, you shouldn't curse the rulers of thy people and stuff like that. Listen, is John the Baptist cursing him? Because John the Baptist isn't doing anything to him. He's just telling him, hey, you've broken God's laws. You're not supposed to be married or take someone else's wife. Does that make sense? When it comes to, if I were to call someone out based off God's laws, I'm not the one damning them. That's God, right? I'm just stating the fact that they're damned. When we go out soul winning, do we actually send people to hell? Are we condemning them? No, we're condemned already, right? And what we're showing them is, hey, here's what the law says, here's what God says. We're just the messenger, okay? So when it talks about cursing and stuff like that, it's a little different than saying, hey, you're a wicked person, or even praying for that person to die and go to hell. The Bible says that let their days be few and another man take their office. That's from the sweet psalmist of Israel. But I also want you to see that, what did Jesus, now we're supposed to be following Jesus' steps. What did Jesus have to say about Herod? Go to Luke chapter 13 and verse 31. Luke chapter 13 verse 31, it says in verse 31, it says, the same day there came certain of the Pharisees saying unto him, get thee out and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, go ye and tell that fox, behold I cast out devils and do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. So that didn't faze them. They're like, hey, Herod's out to kill you, and he's like, go tell that fox that I'm doing this, this, and this, basically saying nuts to him. And he called him a fox. Now, when you're called an animal like that, like a dog or a swine or a fox, you're dealing with a reprobate here. Now I personally believe, because later on, this is after John the Baptist is killed, when he says this to Herod. I believe there is a point where this Herod drew that line, and I don't know if it's when he killed John, but meaning that, what I'm going to show you is that Herod actually liked hearing John the Baptist preaching, and I don't believe he was too far gone before that. This is a different Herod than the one that tried to kill all the children. If you remember, in Matthew chapter 2, that Herod died before Jesus came back into the country as a boy and all that stuff, so we're dealing with a different Herod than that Herod. Obviously that Herod was a reprobate, killing all those children, but this goes into the fact of speaking against the ruler, or the fact that a ruler is always ordained by God. And this isn't a whole sermon on that, but in Romans 13, it talks about the fact that let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, but there is no power but of God, the powers that be ordained of God. It doesn't say that the governors are ordained by God, it says the powers. The power of government is ordained by God, meaning that we're not anarchists, meaning that there should be a civil government that's going to execute judgment. That's what's ordained by God. But then it says, for rulers, in verse 3, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. What that means is that if you have a ruler that's a terror to good works, they're not a legitimate ruler, and that's definitely not ordained by God. God does not ordain. If you think of Stalin, Joseph Stalin, or Mussolini, or Adolf Hitler, do you think God was ordaining them? Would they be ordained in a position of power? When you think of the Antichrist, he's going to take over the whole world. Who gave him his power and his authority? The dragon, not God. So people take this way too far. And you also need the King James Bible, because it says that he ordains the higher powers, meaning the government. He ordains government. And so we're not anarchists, I don't believe that we should just have no government, because we need capital punishment, and that's the one thing government doesn't do. The government takes care of everything else it takes care of, we use that term lightly, but they try to take care of everything else in our lives, but the one thing they have, the one job, you had one job government, you had one job, and that was to execute judgment on evil doers and you're failing at it, right? And they let out the murderers and rapists and the pedophiles left and right, but they're going to come tell me what I'm going to administer on my children, they're going to tell me what I'm going to eat, they're going to tell me everything about what I'm going to do in my life that they have no business even messing with. And so, I told you this wasn't going to be a sermon on the government. So as we go on here, so I do want to, going back to John the Baptist, go to Mark chapter 6, Mark chapter 6, because I do want to show you this is very interesting, because Herod obviously did not want to kill John, okay? He was, I don't want to say he was tricked into it, he was dumb in what he did, he made a vow, and this is what, every time someone makes a vow in the Bible besides God, it always turns back on their head, it always turns bad, you know. I still wonder what happened to those people that made a vow that they were going to kill Paul, you know, and they said they weren't going to eat until they killed Paul. I wonder if they broke that vow or not. But anyway, in Mark chapter 6 and verse 18 it says, For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him, but she could not, for Herod feared John. So we see here that first of all, it's not necessarily that Herod wanted to kill John, it's the fact that Herodias wanted to kill John, and that's kind of why Herod was wanting him to die, because of Herodias' sake, right? But he feared John, and he feared the multitude, and therefore he was just putting him in prison. But notice what it says. For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and holy, and observed him. So this is Herod, he observed John, he observed him, and when he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly. That's interesting. So before he kills John, he really liked him. He liked his preaching, he liked what he had to say, he did many of those things, he observed what he had to say. And I'm not saying that Herod got saved, because I don't believe he did get saved, but I believe that he was on the cusp, if anything, he was maybe like a king of Grippa, where almost persuaded Stoudemean to be the Christian, you know, where it's very close. Because after he kills John, that's where Jesus said, tell that fox. And remember, when Jesus goes to Herod, or they take him to Herod before his crucifixion, remember Jesus didn't answer him a word. He didn't say anything to him. So you think about the fact of reprobate concerning the faith, and the fact of the Holy Ghost, or the Father not drawing you anymore, and the fact that Jesus won't even speak to him. And so I believe Herod became reprobate, and it probably very likely happened after he killed John. That was like the final straw, where he's like, you're done. You know, I gave you all this, I had John preaching to you, the greatest prophet that ever lived besides Jesus Christ, and you killed him. You killed the greatest prophet. I think that would be the line, okay, if there was a line to be drawn besides blaspheming the Holy Ghost, and taking the mark of the beast, that would be it. But Herod is dumb, and he makes a mistake, and go back to Matthew chapter 14. So he pretty much kills John, because he made a dumb vow, or he made a dumb oath, and he upholds his oath, okay. This is kind of like when you think of Jephthah, that made an oath, and he was between breaking an oath and committing murder. And he was between a rock and a hard place, he couldn't get out of that. And I personally wouldn't have killed my own daughter, I mean, I'm just saying, out of my heart, I would rather God take it out on me. But Herod, obviously, puts himself in that same position. In verse six there, it says, but when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask, and she being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head and a charger. And the king was sorry, nevertheless, for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meet, he commanded it to be given her. And he sent and beheaded John in the prison, and his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother. This also kind of reminds me of Jezebel and King Ahab, and the fact that he got this Herodias is very wicked, he's like, I want his head. And then, you know, Herod's kind of has, he doesn't want to, and Ahab's kind of that similar way, where Ahab's like, he's moping over Naboth, you know, and how he didn't want to give him the vineyard, but he's not the one that like sent out the sons of Belial after the guy, that was Jezebel, right? And so, also to note here, to find a good wife, you know, find a virtuous woman and not a Jezebel or a Herodias, meaning that you can see how mighty men have fallen because of wicked wives or wicked mistresses in this case. But we see here that for the oath's sake and for them that sat with him at meet, so basically his reputation was on the line, right? If he didn't do this, then everybody's gonna be like, oh, he doesn't keep his word, you know, that's a king that doesn't keep his word, so basically he was gonna lose his reputation as far as keeping his word, and so that's how John the Baptist ended up getting beheaded, and so, but what a way to go out, you know, being the best, the greatest prophet to ever be born besides Jesus Christ, and then have a martyr's death because you preached hard against sin, and so that's definitely the way to go out right there. Now going on from that down in verse 12 of Matthew chapter 14, it says in verse 12, it says, and his disciples came and took up the body and buried it and went and told Jesus. So John's disciples buried John the Baptist, and they go to tell Jesus, and it says in verse 13, and when Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart, and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities, and so there's nothing coincidental about this, the fact that Jesus went into a desert place after John the Baptist died, okay, and if you think about it, John the Baptist was actually Jesus' cousin, you know, they were actually related physically, okay, obviously Jesus is the son of God, I'm not taking away from his deity, but Elizabeth was Mary's cousin, so they were family, and you say, well, you know, but he's the son of God, he wept over Lazarus when Lazarus died, okay, Jesus cared, you know, it's not like he took this lightly when John the Baptist died, and just like when Stephen was being martyred, he stood at the right hand of God, okay, so Jesus cares, and especially for those that are taking a stand for the cause of Christ, and so I just, I look at those details when I see that in the Bible, and the fact that Jesus, he's just like, I'm going to a desert place, I need to get away from everybody here, and they all followed him out there, obviously, so, but this is the famous story of feeding the 5,000, now what's interesting about this story is that this is mentioned in every gospel, okay, and so there's certain stories that are mentioned in every gospel, but not a lot, meaning that there's a lot of stories that are mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but John is usually that outlier where it's not, like John has a lot of stories that aren't, you know, a lot of things that aren't in the rest of the gospels, but some of those stories there are that are in the other gospels as well, so it just stands out that the feeding of the 5,000 is mentioned in all of the gospels, including the book of John, and so, but as we go on here, so they're out in a desert place, so you kind of see the setting here, that they're not, they're not in town to where they can just go get some food, and verse 14, it says, and Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick, and when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, this is a desert place, and the time has now passed, send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves vittles, and so, vittles, by the way, this is the way, I used to pronounce it victuals, but I did look it up, and Scorby says vittles, so it has to be right, no, but it is vittles, it's one of those weird words where it doesn't look like it's pronounced, you know, you think of bologna, it definitely doesn't look like it's supposed to be pronounced that way, but there's other words like that, but vittles just means like food, or like a ration, or you know, basically it's just talking about food, okay, and so, but it says, in verse 16, it says, but Jesus said unto them, they need not depart, give ye them to eat, and they said unto him, we have but five loaves and two fishes. Now, go to John chapter 6, John chapter 6, because we're gonna get a little bit more information about what's going on here, but either way, you have five loaves and two fishes, but John actually tells us where he got those five loaves and two fishes from, but in John chapter 6 and verse 1, same story, but it gives us a little more information, meaning that, if you remember in Matthew chapter 14, they departed thence by a ship into a desert place, so they took a ship to wherever they went, but here it tells us exactly where they took a ship, you know, where the ship was at, it says, and after these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased, and Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples, and the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. It says, and when Jesus lifted up his eyes and saw a great multitude come unto him, he saith unto Philip, whence 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, two hundred 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? So we see here that, we see some more information, Jesus went up into the mountain, so when they were in a desert place, he found a mountain that they're at, okay. Now when it says desert in the Bible or wilderness sometimes, you're not dealing with maybe the Sahara where you're on dunes, okay, so sometimes we get that idea when we think of the desert or wilderness. Wilderness is not necessarily like West Virginia here, you know, wilderness could be more like a desert or just a barren area, but anyway, all that to say is that there wasn't an abundance of food out there, that's pretty much what's going on there. But also we see that where they get this five loaves and two fishes, they got it from this boy, right, this lad, so it's probably this teenage boy that just had his lunch there with him, I don't know. So he had five loaves and two fishes and this famous phrase that Philip said, but what are they among so many? What are they among so many? And this is the theme of the Bible really. The theme of the Bible is God using, doing great things through few, you know, to save many or to do, you know, it's always been that way. You think of Gideon where there was 32,000 men and they were going against probably an army of probably over a million and he says, you got too many, you have too many and he got it down to 300. And so 300 men took out about a million and that's the way God loves to operate. You think about how he brought Egypt out by a high hand through Moses, right, and through his wonders, but God gets the glory for that. And obviously in this case, Jesus knew what was going to happen here and he knew that God would get the glory because there's no way that anybody would say that 5,000 men were fed, you know, by five loaves of bread and two fishes if there wasn't a miracle, okay. And so you got to imagine that it has to be that way, okay. You couldn't just have like, well everybody has like a little bit of bread and everybody was filled and be like, well, yeah, that could be possible, I guess. But this case, there's 5,000 men beside women and children, so you can imagine when it says beside women and children, let's just say that there's one woman per man and let's just say just to be conservative we don't count the children, okay, and that averages out to where there'd be one other person per man. That's 10,000 people, you know, but there's at very least 5,000, okay, but on top of that obviously you have whatever women and children were there and five barley loaves and two small fishes. Now, as it reads on there in Matthew chapter 14, it says in verse 18, it says, he said, bring them hither to me and he commanded the multitude to sit down on the green grass and took the five loaves and the two fishes and looked up to heaven. He blessed and break and gave the loaves to his disciples and disciples to the multitude and they did all eat and were filled and they took up of the fragments that remained 12 baskets full and they that had eaten were about 5,000 men beside women and children. Now, I don't get too stuck on like the amount of baskets, you know, that were taken up because you think of like the seven loaves and a few fishes and how many baskets they took up and you think about the number and people get really caught up in that type of stuff. I don't worry about that stuff. I'm not saying there isn't a meaning there but that's not the main purpose of this story, okay, to say, well, the 12 baskets represent the 12 tribes or it represents the 12 apostles or whatever. Listen, there may be some symbolistic stuff in there with that but how about the fact that it's just a great miracle that he fed 5,000 people with five barley loaves and then they had more than what they had at the end than what they had at the beginning, right? They filled up 12 baskets, okay? Okay, if you're going to fill up 12 baskets, even if you were to say, well, you know, there's just five loaves left, I mean, that still would, you know, how are you going to fill up 12 baskets with five loaves, okay? So, the miracle is, is obviously that he fed the 5,000 pretty much out of nothing and you think about this in the Old Testament and Jesus is bringing in the New Testament and what's the big thing that he did? He fed them with manna and he brought the water out of the rock and all this was a miracle obviously that this happened and so in John chapter 6, it gives us a little more information about what they were thinking about when this happened. In John chapter 6, I probably should have had you hold a finger there but in verse 14, in verse 14, it says, Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of the 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. So, this is kind of a major theme and when you do a big miracle, they're like, he's our king, we're going to make him a king and he would have to kind of flee away from them so they didn't try to do that but we see that this is that prophet that should come into the world. I believe this is talking about the prophecy that Moses, you know, that that prophet that should come that would be like unto Moses and you can definitely see how that would apply, you know, where he's feeding people with bread here and with these fishes but also another prophet that Jesus is constantly being called. So, if you remember, he was called art thou the Christ, art thou that prophet and what's the other one they would always say? Art thou Elias, right? In John chapter 1, that's the three that they were saying, right? And some of them, you know, when he asked his disciples, which we haven't got there yet, who this men say that I am and some say Jeremiah so that's like one time they said, is he Jeremiah? But most of the time, it's are you Elijah? Are you that prophet or are you that Christ, right? And so, but you can see how this applies with Elijah. Go to 1 Kings chapter 17, 1 Kings chapter 17. With the story of the widow woman that he feeds, that Elijah feeds, you can definitely see why people are like, this is Elijah. Especially because at the beginning of the chapter, Herod's like, he says that Jesus is John the Baptist risen from the dead, which is really strange because, you know, Jesus was on the scene doing but I guess there was maybe not that much of a gap between when when John went to prison and died and, you know, Jesus ministry, Jesus had a ministry for three, three, three years, three and a half years. And so there's not that much of a gap there, I guess to say, maybe he didn't hear about all this stuff that Jesus was doing or whatever before he killed, killed John. But in 1 Kings chapter 17, it says in verse nine, it says, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks. And he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I am not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruise. And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me. And after, make for thee and for thy son. For thus said the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days, and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. So you can definitely see how this would apply, how people were like, Oh, this is Elijah, because he's feeding the 5000. In the next chapter, you know, when we get further on in Matthew here, I believe it's in Matthew 15, where we get to the feeding of the 4000. So back to back, he's feeding these multitudes of people with basically these small tiny portions of food. And it's exactly what we see here is that I have a handful of meal, and a little oil in a cruise. That's all she had, but that fed them for close to three and a half years. So if you remember, while in first King chapter 17, that's how you know, Elijah jumps on the scene is that he's praying that it would not rain. And it didn't rain for three and a half years. And Luke chapter four, Luke chapter four, this story is brought up by Jesus. Now he brings up two stories. And this is where he really triggers the Pharisees. Because the two stories he's basically saying, Hey, you know, there was a widow woman that wasn't of Israel. And there was Naaman, the Syrian that wasn't of Israel. And those are the two people that God chose to heal and to bless, and not those in Israel. Okay, so he's really destroying this Zionism stuff that Israel is so far above the rest of the world, and destroying that, that respecter of persons that they have a problem with. But in Luke chapter four, verse 25, it says, But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel, in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land, but unto that none of them was Elias sent, save unto Zarepta, a city of Zidon, unto a woman that was a widow. So again, you know, he's even linking this back, he's linking it back to, because what does Jesus do? He's feeding the 5000 the 4000. He's also healing lepers, right, he at least healed the 10 lepers and the other places, and he healed all kinds of diseases. So you can see how he's healing all these people, just like the Old Testament prophets were doing, like Elijah and Elisha, right. And you can definitely see why people would say, Is this Elijah? Because of the stuff he was doing. Okay. And they would also they were saying, you know, well, Elijah must first come. They knew that they knew that's what it said in Malachi chapter four. And that's where Jesus was saying, this is John the Baptist, if you will receive it, right. He is Elias, which was for to come. And so he's answering that he's listening, I'm not Elijah, that was John the Baptist. I'm the Christ, okay. And so there's a difference, obviously, between the prophecy of Elijah coming and the Christ and that prophet that should come. Now going back to Matthew chapter 14, Matthew chapter 14. So when, when they said unto Jesus, they said, they were marveling at him, and they wanted to make him a king, and he went up into a mountain alone. Well, before he did that, because we saw that in John chapter six, before he did that, he sends his disciples into a ship by themselves, meaning that he doesn't go with them. Okay, so in Matthew chapter 14, verse 22, it says in straight way, 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. Okay, so in John chapter six, we see a little more information, meaning that he sent his disciples away. And then I believe why that was happening, they're like, let's make him a king. And then he separated himself into a mountain alone. And so to get the picture, obviously, the next story that we're going to see here is where Jesus walks on the water. And so this is definitely a very famous story in the Bible. But the picture is that Jesus is up on top of a mountain there in the sea. So he's not with them at that moment. And so in verse 24, we see the disciples that are in the ship that he sent them into. So in 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 on to 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 straight away, Jesus spake unto them saying, be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. So one thing that we need to remember is that if God is sending us into, you know, a certain situation, we really need to just trust in him, knowing that when we go in, when God is sending us out to preach the gospel, when God's sending us out just into the world in general, when it comes to being a Christian, and just all the things that were supposed to fall in the Bible. Listen, there's going to be trouble as times, there's going to be, you know, rocky times. And we just need to remember, hey, if God wants us to do this, he's going to be there for us. Okay. And in this case, I see a lot of this, I see this, I see a lot of just a symbolistic of tribulation. Okay, tribulation can happen in our lives, just in general, but also the great tribulation that's going to come on the world. See, the great tribulation, as far as end times, is really just a magnification of what Christians have always gone through, right, meaning that everybody has always gone through tribulation, that is, you know, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And so we all must, through great tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God, if you're living for Christ. But the great tribulation that's entered in the world is basically a magnification of all that, something that the world has never seen that much tribulation. And I believe this is really kind of talking about it, because notice that it says in verse 25, and in the fourth watch of the night, okay. And so the fourth watch of the night would be, like, pretty much the last watch. Okay, so if you were to break up the night, let's say, let's say you were to go from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. was like the night time, right, let's say that's, and that's generally when you have sunset to sunrise. I'm just, okay, just for sake of argument, that's when it's sunset, sunrise, but that's, obviously it fluctuates throughout the year. But that gives you 12 hours, right, so the first watch would probably be from 6 to 9, and then 9 to 12, and then 12 to 3, and then 3 to 6. So the fourth watch would basically be right before you're getting to dawn. Does that make sense? So you're basically, you're going through the night, you're going through the night, and you're pretty much at the end of it. That's when Jesus comes into this. And why I say it is, you know, is dealing with the fact that we're dealing with tribulation. First of all, go to John chapter 16. John chapter 16. Because a lot of this stuff in the Bible, when it's dealing with great tribulation, or just dealing with verses on that subject, listen, that's not just for that time period. Meaning that if the Lord tarries, and let's say he doesn't come for another couple hundred years, then these verses still apply to us in this life, okay. It may not be as magnified as far as the tribulation that the world's going to go through, but it still applies. Meaning that when, if you're brought before the judgment seats, that happened to the apostles. But I do also believe it's going to happen in the end times. But that can happen in between. Listen, there was times that Christians were burned at the stake for having an English Bible, or trying to translate the Bible into English. And so that stuff has been going on throughout history. John the Baptist was beheaded. We just read that, right. Meaning that prophets and Christians have been persecuted and martyred throughout history, and the great tribulation hasn't even happened yet. So these verses are very pertinent to us anyway. So don't get that idea, well we don't know if that applies to us yet. No, it applies to you, okay. It just means that how much more does it apply to you if we're here for the great tribulation. But in John chapter 16 verse one it says, these things have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues, yea the time cometh that whosoever kills you will think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me. And so I believe this is talking to the apostles back then. I believe this is talking to us now. And I believe this is talking about the future as well. Meaning that there's going to be tribulation. And John 16 at the very end of the chapter, it says in verse 33, it says these things have I spoken unto you that in me you shall have peace, you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world. Notice that phrase being be of good cheer. Isn't that what Jesus said? When they were fearful, they saw Jesus. They thought he was the spirit. They cried out for fear. He says be of good cheer in his eye. And what's going on at that moment? They're in this, the winds contrary, they're being tossed to and fro in the sea, okay. So you got to get this picture. A lot of times when you think of Jesus walking on the sea, you think of it being like Lake Placid or something, you know. It's just like this calm, you know, like nothing. Imagine just the sea as it is when it's calm, right. It's going up and down and all this stuff. So but imagine that it's very boisterous as the Bible would say or it's just, you know, a big storm. I would, that's a fearful thing, okay. I'm not, I've been on the, I've been in the ocean like on a small boat before and I've seen storm clouds coming. I'm like we need to get to the shore, okay, because we're on this little baby boat, you know. But all that to say is that that would be a very fearful thing. And so you got to get that picture and then Jesus is saying fear not, be of good cheer. And he's saying that while all this is going on, okay. And I'll prove to you that the waves didn't stop yet, meaning like it's not like it just calmed, you know, like the fourth night, you know, they saw Jesus and it was all calm. No, not yet. And so when Jesus is walking on the water, it's, it's pretty crazy out there. So Jesus is there when it's, you know, the waves are going high, they're being tossed to and fro. Go to Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter 13, because the end times, you know, when you think of Great Tribulation, obviously the end of the world is likened unto the harvest. So you kind of have the seasonal year-round thing where you have spring, summer harvest. And so you kind of have that picture of the harvest, reaping the harvest, all that stuff. But it's also likened unto the night. And Romans chapter 13, now death is kind of, you know, talks about, you know, I must work while this day, the night cometh when no man can work. So you can obviously, there's different things that night can represent. It can also be not being awake, you know, that we're not children of, we're children of the day, not of the night, right. So we need to be sober, not sleep. But notice what it says in Romans chapter 13, verse 11, it says, and that knowing the time that now it is high time to wake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Now this is not talking about salvation like eternal life. This is talking about salvation, talking about the resurrection, okay. Meaning that there'll come a time when our body is saved and, you know, both soul, body, and spirit, okay. And, you know, when this phrase for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe, that's how time works, my friends. Meaning that the end times, I don't know how far away it is. I don't know when Jesus is coming back. I don't know when the tribulation is going to start, but I'll tell you one thing, we're closer to it than we were yesterday, right. That's just how time works. I mean, it's always going to be that way until he comes. But notice in verse 12 there it says, the night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Think about this. I mean, when you think about the span of time, and let's say you were to look at the span of time as far as how long we've been here on the earth and how long, you know, since the creation, we're getting closer to the end. Meaning that if this is the last days, as it said, you know, from when Jesus was walking on earth, because it said God who had sundry times in a diverse manner, spake in time, passed unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. That means that it's probably not going to be another thousand years. Okay. Just because of that would be like half the time or, you know, getting, it's getting closer to where it's like half and half. Okay. So that, that what I mean by that is the fact that when you think of the night is far spent, meaning that the night's almost over. And when Jesus was walking on the water, what did he say? What time was it? It was in the fourth watch. So if we're in the last days, you can see, Hey, we're getting close to the end. Okay. And what he's saying is that, listen, we're getting close to the end. And how much more now do we need to, you know, cast off the works of darkness, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, live for Christ. And our salvation is nearer than when we believe we're getting closer to the, when Christ is going to come back, we're getting closer to the, to the tribulation. And so we need to be ready for that. And we need to be, you know, looking towards that. And in Luke chapter 21, you know, what I'm really doing here is kind of linking in this story of Jesus walking on the water with end times. When you think of the fact that, Hey, when Jesus comes, it's going to be dark, meaning like everything's darkened, right? It's pretty much the closer to everything you have the, the sun, moon, or darken, the stars are going to fall from heaven. And then Jesus comes into clouds, like lightning from one end of heaven to the other. And what an entrance that he's going to have, but how dark is it going to be just speaking spiritually speaking, right? You know, seducers are going to wax worse and worse. And it talks about the love of many shall wax cold. It's going to be like the days of Noah. There's going to be violence throughout the whole earth. And it's going to be really dark. The night is far spent. And as when you get to that point, you're going to think that how can it get any worse? You know, and you're just like, everything's falling apart. And there's Jesus saying, be a good cheer. It is I, and those in Luke chapter 21 and verse 25, just to kind of give you that picture. And verse 25, it says, and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and the stars and upon the earth, the stress of nations with perplexity, the sun and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh. Praise the Lord, you know. Now that's what we're looking for. We're looking at Jesus. He's saying, be a good cheer. It is I. The rest of the world is looking at the face of the lamb and they're trembling and saying unto the mountains, fall on us. And so what a great picture to see of Jesus in that boisterous time where he's going to save us out of that. Now obviously we see with Peter, Peter is saved physically from this, but Peter, you know, Peter gets a bad rap, meaning that Peter says a lot of dumb things and you can definitely see where Peter falls and stuff like that. But in this case, Peter's the only one that gets out of the boat. So you can't knock Peter too hard. He's the only one that had the faith to get out of the boat to begin with, even though he didn't follow through with it. And so in verse 28 there, verse 28 of Matthew 14, it says, and Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, come. And when Peter was calmed down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Notice this, but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and began to sit 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 didst thou doubt? And so this is a great story to show us, hey, we need to be like Peter and have that faith to say, you know what, if it's you, Jesus, then let me come out there to you. And especially in a time like the end times, when everything's going hectic and everything's going haywire, to where you'd have the faith to really follow them then. And listen, you say, well, you know, I'm going to follow, are you following them now? Because a lot of people say, well, I'll follow them when everything falls apart and the world's against the Christians, that's when I'm going to fight. No, you won't. You're going to hide. Because if you don't follow them now, you're not going to be ready to follow them later. And listen, if you're too afraid to go up to a door and speak to somebody now when it's legal and when no one's really persecuting you that bad, how much more when they're wanting to behead you? Okay. And so that's why you need to really just take advantage of the easy times. And this is where you need to prepare for war and time of peace. You know, meaning that you need to be ready now and be just diligent now. Basically, it's almost kind of like preparing for that battle, where you do a lot of practicing for it before. And then when that battle comes, you're like, hey, you know, I've been doing this my whole life. This is second nature. And I'm not gonna let this stop me. But these people that are on the sidelines saying, hey, you know, when everything goes down, and I know that we're in the tribulation, that's when I'm gonna do it. No, you won't. You won't have the spiritual gumption to do anything. You'll be afraid. And you'll be offended. You'll still be saved, right? You know, it's eternal security. I'm not saying you're not gonna be saved. But, you know, it's the ones that are doing it now that are going to serve him and that are going to follow him when that time comes. But notice that in verse 32, it also does show you that salvation is immediate. I mean, this obviously isn't where Peter got saved. I believe he got saved way before this. But you do see where Jesus says, save me, and Jesus immediately catches his hand. So it is a physical to represent the spiritual when it comes to how fast Jesus will save you. The thief on the cross is another example of that, where it was that immediate. But in Matthew 14, verse 32, it says, And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. And they that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. So notice that when Jesus gets into the ship, that's when the wind ceased. And so definitely a great picture of the calm. You know, you have, we're gonna have the storm, everyone. You know, that's something that we just need to know that's gonna happen. That you're going to have tribulation. In First Thessalonians chapter three, it talks about that we're appointed unto afflictions. We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. That, you know, who's, that, yea, and all that will live God in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It's going to be there if you're going to follow Christ. Now, if you don't follow Christ, and you just eat chips off your chest, and don't come to church, don't go soul winning, and don't do anything for God. Yeah, I mean, you don't really have to worry about anything because what kind of persecution you're going to deal with. But also, if you do that, then where is that righteous remnant calling out to the world and saying, saying, Get right with God. And you listen, a lot of the reasons why our civilization civilization and our country is so wicked is because not enough people actually stood up and just proclaim the word of God. That's why we have a bunch of sodomites running out and just with no fear, feasting themselves without fear. And we have we have just a society that's running rampant, because basically, Christians just stood back and said, you know, just let it go. And listen, you know, I know, we're gonna go through great tribulation. And I know that's going to happen. I know the world's going to come into that. And I know there's nothing that's going to stop that, right? That's Bible, it's going to happen. That doesn't mean that I'm wanting to push that forward by not saying anything. Listen, I'm going to fight it as long as I can. And it comes down to this, you know, when it talks about an Ezekiel or in Jeremiah, you know, let it be known that there was a prophet among them. And let it know that there was a righteous remnant in West Virginia, and in Texas, and in any any state of our union, and through a throughout the world that there's a righteous remnant in every country that was proclaiming the Word of God, preaching loudly, winning people to Christ. And then when it all goes down the shambles, at least you say, hey, we did our best. We followed Christ, and we knew it was going to happen anyway. But guess what? A lot of people got saved. And they have no excuse. They're without excuse. And when when God pours out his judgment, you know, he's gonna say peace be still unto us, or not peace be still, but he's gonna say be of good cheer, it is I, when we're raptured out. But to the world, that's where he's going to pour out all the prayers of the saints with fire on this nation, on this world. And so they're going to not only be without excuse, all those that cried out to God for all the wickedness that's going on in the world will be poured out on this world. And people think that God is getting soft or something like that. You've never read Revelation. Listen, Revelation is the culmination of everything that's gone on throughout the Old Testament. All those plagues, listen, all those plagues of Egypt are going to be done by the witnesses. That's before God, even before God starts pouring out his wrath, and during it, they're going to be doing that. That's not even really, really mentioned that much. Excuse me. Oh, I feel like I eat a bug every once in a while. But it doesn't really mention it that much. Meaning, he just kind of says it in passing. It just says, hey, by the way, these two witnesses, they can make water in the blood, and they can do all whatever plagues they want to do. They can also shut the heavens that doesn't rain. It just kind of mentions that in passing. So these people that think that God has softened up in Revelation, it's going to be worse than it's ever been. And so, but praise God, we won't be here for that. You know, we'll have to go through great tribulation with the Antichrist. But I believe it's going to be like when we're on that ship, God will keep us safe. And listen, I believe those that are doing God's will and all that, that he can keep us safe through that. That he can save us physically through that tribulation. And if not, praise the Lord. If you think about the fact that the great tribulation is about 75 days, we're talking like two and a half months of great tribulation. And, you know, when you see the abomination desolation, you have two and a half months. What do you really care if you died like a week into it or a week before that ended? Now, don't get me wrong. I'd love to be there to see like, you know, in the flesh, like Jesus coming in the clouds. I'm not saying that I don't want to see that. But in the end, you know, praise the Lord, you have a crown of life for the rest, you know, for all eternity and all that. So you just have to kind of be thinking about, hey, this is going to be over here in a minute anyway. So what's the matter? But that's Matthew chapter 14. A lot of interesting stories in there. Jesus walking on the water, feeding the 5,000. And then obviously the kind of the sad story of John the Baptist being beheaded. But just definitely interesting stuff in there. So let's end with a word of prayer there. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening. Thank you for everybody that came out. And Lord, just pray that you would bless us throughout the rest of this week. And Lord, just bless us with our work and our jobs. And just pray that you would give safe travels to all those that will be traveling. And Lord, bring us back to the appointed time. And Lord, we love you and pray in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.