Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number four from your Spiral Gospel Hymns,
hymnal number four, Hail Sovereign Love. Let's all stand together. I hope this remembers, we'll
see. Hail, sovereign love that first
began the scheme to rescue fallen men. Hail, matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who rules
the sky, I fought with hand uplifted high, despised the mention of
His grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. Enwrapped in thick Egyptian night,
and fond of darkness more than light, madly I ran the sinful
race, secure without a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran, Almighty love arrest that man. I felt the arrows of distress,
And found I had no hiding place. Indignant justice stood in view,
To Sinai's fiery mount I flew. But justice cried with frowning
face, ? This mountain is no hiding place ? ? Ere long a heavenly
voice I heard ? ? And mercy's angel form appeared ? ? Who led
me on with gentle pace ? ? To Jesus Christ my hiding place
? On him almighty vengeance fell that must have sunk a world to
hell. He bore it for a chosen race
and thus became their hiding place. A few more rolling suns
at most shall land me safe on heaven's coast. There I shall
sing the song of grace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. Please be seated. Good evening. That's such a good
hymn. Let's open our Bibles together
to Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43. But now, Thus saith the Lord that created
thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. Fear not, for
I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
and thou art mine. When thou passeth through the
waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, Thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
what comfort, what hope, what light and truth You've spoken
in these two verses. Lord, we pray that your Holy
Spirit would cause us to believe thee. We pray, Father, that you'd
forgive us for so much unbelief, so much fear, so much worldly
cares. For your promises are sure, and
we know that The Lord Jesus Christ has made
them all. Yay and amen. And Lord, we pray
tonight that you would, that you would speak truth to our
hearts and pray that you'd reveal more of Christ to us. And thank
you for your word. Thank you for your church. Thank
you for the fellowship of saints and Lord might we be encouraged
with one another as we walk together in faith. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Let's stand together and sing
hymn number 290 from your hardback Tyndall. This thing's overheated
so it might cut off on us again. Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to order and
provide. In every change, he faithful
will remain. Be still, my soul, thy best,
thy heavenly friend. Through thorny ways, leads to
a joyful end. Be still, my soul, thy God doth
undertake to guide the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence let
nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul, the waves
and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt
below. Be still, my soul, the hour is
hastening on. when we shall be forever with
the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and
fear are gone, sorrow forgot, Love's purest joys restored. Be still, my soul, when change
and tears are past. All safe and blessed we shall
meet at last. Please be seated. Thank you, Tom. I always send the title and the
text of my message to Tom and Jeff. I try to do it as soon
as I can, sometimes the last minute. But Tom always tries to pick
out a hymn that is appropriate to that message, and that one
certainly was. Thank you. If you'll open your
Bibles with me to Mark chapter 4, and while we read this miracle,
I'd encourage you to think about what we just sang. Mark chapter
4, and we'll begin reading in verse 35. On the same day, when
the evening was come, he saith unto them, let us pass over unto
the other side. And when they had sent away the
multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there
were also with him other little ships. And there rose a great
storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was
now full. And he was in the hinder part
of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him and say unto
him, master, carest thou not that we perish? And he rose and
rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, be still. And the wind
ceased and there was a great calm. And he said unto them,
why are you so fearful? Another one of those questions
we looked at Sunday, the Lord asked questions, why are you
so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared
exceedingly and said one to another, what manner of man is this? Even
the wind and the sea obey him. I've titled this message, Passing
Over to the Other Side, Passing Over to the Other Side. And there's another time when
the disciples were caught in a storm on the ship. And I love
the way the scriptures record that event because it says that
they were afraid because they saw the Lord walking on the water
and they thought that he was a ghost. And the Lord spoke to
them and said, be not afraid, it is I. It is I. And he got
into the ship. And the scripture says, and immediately
they were on the other side. Immediately they were on the
other side. The way of the Lord is through
the sea. we are traveling to the other
side. And along the way, there are
storms, there's trials, there's troubles, there's temptations. And here in this miracle, our
Lord encourages us to know that we will arrive safely on the
other side. If we're in the same boat that
he's in, that's the important thing, isn't it? There's some large ships on this
ocean of life that the Lord's not on. And like the Titanic, the people
on that ship living life to its fullest and thinking, you know,
nothing can happen to us. And yet, these disciples find
themselves in a rickety wooden fishing boat and they arrive
safely to the other side, though the passengers of the Titanic
often meet their fate. and the icy waters of the sea. Seven brief points I want to
try to make from this miracle. And the first one is the occasion
of the miracle. The occasion of the miracle,
and we see this in verse 35. When even was come, he said unto
them, let us pass over unto the other side. how easily it is
that we lose sight of how brief this life really is. The Lord tells us in the book
of James, what is your life? It is even a vapor that appear
through a little while and then vanish away. If we could only remember how how transient this life is, things
would not bother us as much as they do, would they? We smile when a three-year-old
is put in the corner of the room and given time out, and they
think that 10 minutes is a lifetime. And yet, I'm sure the Lord looks
at us often the same way. We act like that three-year-old
oftentimes, don't we? The Lord puts us in the corner
for a time out. And we think all is lost. It's all come to an end. We become
so disquieted and so discomforted and so fearful and concerned. And the Lord's looking at us
saying, oh, don't you know that your life is a vapor? Don't you
know? When the Lord told Isaiah to
speak a word of comfort to his people, Isaiah said, what do
I say? And you remember what the Lord
said? Tell them they're grass. Tell them they're grass. That'll
be a comfort to them. Remind them of how brief their
life is. Tell them that the flower fadeth
quickly and that life is short. Remind them of that. Remind them that we are but passing
over to the other side. Psalm 78 verse 39 says, he remembers
that we are flesh and that we are but a wind that passeth away
and cometh not again. Here's the Lord's description
of our life here. And it's good for us, isn't it?
It's important for us to be reminded often, because if we're not,
we'll invest everything we've got in this world. And we'll
live our lives as if this world is all there is. And we'd be
just like every other unbeliever, just not even considering the
the true brevity of life. That is the occasion of this
miracle, and it is our occasion. It's the important thing for
us to remember that we're born, we live a very brief time, and
we die. I remember hearing a preacher
one time is preaching on the, I think it was at 3rd and 4th
chapter of Genesis where it speaks of all those descendants of Adam and how long they lived. And, you know, they lived 860
years, 969 years, you know. But after every one of them,
after it says how long they lived, after every one of them it says,
and he died. And he died, and he died. And you're gonna die,
and I'm gonna die. And it's important for us to
live our lives in light of that reality. Let us pass over to
the other side. That's the occasion of this miracle. They're just passing over, just
passing over. I had a friend that, that learned
English by reading the King James Bible. He grew up, all he knew
was Spanish and he wanted to learn English so he learned it
from the King James. And he had a phrase that he would
often use when he would talk to me about coming to my house.
He would say, I'm going to pass by tomorrow. And he got that from the scriptures. I'm gonna pass by. And I used
to say to him, why don't you stop while you're passing by?
But we don't use that term much, do we? But that's all we're doing.
We're just passing by. We're just passing by. The place of this miracle is
in a little ship on the sea, a little ship. Now, there's no
reason for us to believe that the New Testament churches were
any larger than gospel churches are today. Gospel churches have
always been small. Most of the New Testament churches
that are being addressed in the epistles were small groups of
people that met in homes They're just little ships, insignificant. And when you're in a little ship
on a turbulent sea, it can be a scary proposition. When I was in the Navy, one of
my responsibilities was a helmsman. And so the ship that I was on
was over 500 feet long and we went across the Atlantic Ocean
and I did some of the steering, never was afraid. We were in
some rough seas, 530 foot long ship, never worried about it. But these men are in a little
rickety boat and there's a great storm and they're afraid. It's a little ship. Sometimes,
you know, sometimes what's small can be intimidating. But the
Lord tells us not to despise the day of small things. how
many times we see God doing great things through small things,
not the least of which was a babe born in a manger in an obscure
village, unknown to the world, and yet the Lord, being the savior
of his people, came into this world in a small, small way. God gets the glory when he does
great things in small ways. And so, let us not be intimidated. Let us not fear the fact that
we're in a small boat. God's people always been in small
boats. And the important thing is, as
I said, that the Lord himself is in the boat with us. That's where our safety is, not
the size of the boat, but the inhabitants of that boat. And the ship, the ship throughout
scripture has always been a picture of the church. We see that in
the book of Jonah, when Jonah, the son of Jonah, The ship there
was in a turbulent sea and Jonah said, cast me over. And Jonah
we know is a picture of Christ. And as the sailors on that ship
cast Jonah into the sea, the sea became calm and the sailors
were saved as a result of Jonah being sacrificed. Is that not
what we did when our Lord went to the cross? Was it not our
sin? Was it not our hand that drove
the nails? Was it not us that cast him into
the sea in order that his sacrifice might save those that are on
the little ship? When the Apostle Paul in Acts
chapter 27 was on that ship that was breaking up because of the
waves, he told the captain of the ship, he said, He said, if
those men leave the ship, no one can be saved. We must, 276
souls, we must all stay on the ship. And we'll either all be
saved or no one will be saved. And that's the way it is. Either
everyone in the ship's gonna be saved or no one's gonna be
saved. If there's anyone for whom Christ
died that's not saved, then none of us have any hope. Here in the Sea of Galilee, we
find the disciples oftentimes in a boat and it's the church. And the place of this miracle
was not only in a boat, but it was in a turbulent sea. The way
of the Lord is through the seas. We are passing over to the other
side in the midst of the sea. And oftentimes the Lord stirs
up trouble on these seas. And when he does, it's for the
purpose of getting us to cry out in faith to him, Master,
Master, save us. We like calm seas. We like clear sailing. We like for there to be no trouble. We like a gentle breeze. When the children of Israel were
leaving Egypt, they had to cross through
a sea. And the scripture says they crossed
through that sea by faith. You know, oftentimes we think
of that passageway in the sea being opened up before the first
step was made, but I think probably more likely as each step was
made, the waters moved. Because when the Egyptians got
there, they saw the wall of water. And they saw a clear passage
through the sea and they thought, they didn't walk through the
sea by faith, they walked by sight. They thought we'll go
through there and about the time they got in the middle of the
sea, the walls of those waters collapsed and drowned them. We walk through this sea by faith.
We want there to be a clear path, we want there you know, to be
an easy way, but it's not that way. The Lord has made it such
that we must take it step by step by faith. And he will move
the waters as necessary in order to bring us safe to the other
side. When Joshua was leading the children
of Israel across the Jordan River, The ark had to go first and the
priests went and when they stepped into the waters, the waters parted.
And so it is, again, in walking across that river into the promised
land. We will be doing it by faith.
We'll be doing it by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. The Lord's gonna try that faith,
isn't he? A faith that's untried is unproven.
And how oftentimes the Lord, in his mercy and in his faithfulness,
he stirs up the seas. And we look about like Peter
did, that time when Peter was walking on the water The scripture
says he looked at the wind and the waves and he became afraid
and he began to sink. And as soon as he began to sink,
what did he say? Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Oh, what a merciful
Lord we have that he would allow us to begin to sink. Well, we just read in Isaiah
chapter 43, the water shall not overflow thee. You're gonna have some turbulent
seas, but in those times, you're gonna find yourself crying out
to me. Psalm 95 verse five says, the sea is his, he made it. Oh, brethren, whatever the Lord
has ordained in this life for us as we pass over to the other
side, he made it. He made it. It really will work
together for good for them that love Him and those that are called
according to His purpose. Psalm 93 verse four says, the
Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea,
than the mighty waves of the sea. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters. Yea, even the great waves of
the sea, he is greater. Whatever trouble he sends, he's
able. What manner of man is this that
even the waves and the wind obey his voice? He is mightier than
the waves of the sea. Might we cry out to him in our
time of fear? Psalm 89 says, his hand also
is in the sea and his right hand is in the rivers. The waters
shall not overflow thee. The water shall not overflow
thee. Now that's God's promise to his
people. He's not gonna let it happen. This picture, this miracle is
so is so clearly an example of the life of faith that we are
living as we pass over to the other side. The occasion of the
miracle is that these disciples were passing over to the other
side and that is the occasion of our life. The place of the
miracle was in a little ship. in the midst of a storm, on the
sea, and that's the place where you and I walk. And the people
of this miracle were fearful disciples. And that's, that's me. I speak for myself. Oh, how often
times I'm disquieted. How often times I'm prone to
look at the winds and the waves and I'm prone to to doubt and
be afraid and the Lord says to me, why do you
have no faith? Their fear caused them to cry
out. Look at verse 34. Verse 35, in the same day, when
Eden was come, he said to them, let us pass over to the other
side. And when they had sent away the multitudes, he took
him even into the ship. And there was also with him and
the other little ships and there rose a great storm of wind and
the waves beat unto the ship so that now it was now full. He was in the hinder part of
the ship, sleep on a pillow. And they awake him and said to
him, master, cares not that we perish. David said in Psalm 56 verse
three, what time I am afraid I will trust in thee. How many times in God's word
He tells us to fear not. Why would the Lord tell us so
many times to not be afraid? Because fear is real. And it's
the evidence of our unbelief and of our sinful nature. Turn with me to Psalm 18. Psalm
18. Look at verse four. The sorrows
of death come past me. The floods of ungodly men made
me afraid. The sorrows of hell come past
me about. The snares of death prevented
me. And in my distress, I called
upon the Lord and cried unto my God, And he heard my voice
out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even unto his
ears." What are the ungodly men that
we're most afraid of? The men of this world. Is it
not the ungodly man that we live with in our own old man, sinful
nature? Are we not afraid of ourselves? Are we not afraid to be left
to ourselves? And are we not afraid to stand
before God by ourselves? That's what we ought to be afraid
of. We should be afraid of ourselves. Our hearts are deceitful and
our flesh is weak. Is there not anything of which
we're not capable, we need to be afraid of ourselves. And we should be afraid to be
left to ourselves. Constantly, we're reminded of
our need of the Lord to keep us, to restrain us, to forsake
us not. Without the Lord as our shepherd,
we are prey to every wild beast Lord, I'm afraid. I'm afraid
of myself and I'm afraid to be left to myself. And mostly, mostly,
I am afraid to stand before God by myself. That's a good fear. How we need a substitute, how
we need a sin bearer, we need a savior, we need an advocate,
we need one who can stand in our stead before God and speak
on our behalf and recommend us to God. Because apart from him,
we have no hope that there would be a favorable sentence given. if we were to stand before a
holy God by ourselves. Is this not what it means to
fear God? The need for this miracle is
a great storm. The real storm that threatens
to sink our boat is not the wind and the waves, it's not the trials
and the troubles and the tribulations. Those things only strengthen
the ship. The real storm that threatens
to sink the ship is sin. It's unbelief. Many people turn to God in a
time of trials and troubles. When the sea gets rough, and
it gets rough for believers and unbelievers alike, people get
religious. And then the seas are calmed
and they have no more interest in the things of God. But it
requires the work of the Holy Spirit to show us what the real
storm is, what the real trouble is, what the real problem is,
and it's not our circumstances, it's our sin. Our circumstances
just bring it out. The trials and tribulations just,
how often have you ever said to somebody, well, you made me
do this, or you've heard somebody say, you've said it, you made
me mad, you made me know. No, you didn't make me do anything. You just brought out what was
already there. We don't respond appropriately
to our circumstances. We can't blame the circumstances. We have to blame the sin that
caused us to respond in such a way. And so, the Lord's giving the
disciples this storm in order to expose their unbelief and
cause them to become more dependent upon him. Our strength is made, his strength
is made perfect in our weakness. And only when we're brought to
the end of ourselves do we cry out for him. These were experienced
fishermen. I'm sure they were, they take a pretty bad storm to cause
them to be afraid of perishing, of dying. So, master, care us not that we perish. And the Lord says to them, how
is it that you have no faith? Now, Matthew, when he records
this miracle says, that the Lord told them they had little faith.
And Luke, when he records this miracle, says that the Lord says,
where is your faith? The fact that they cried out
to Christ as their master tells us that they did have faith in
him, they just didn't. The no faith was relating to
their circumstances, not to who was in control and who was able
to save them. And here's the comfort for that,
brethren. The Lord said if you have faith
as a mustard seed, you see, it's not the quantity of our faith.
These men are being accused of having no faith in their circumstances. The Lord's rebuked them for having
little faith and he rebukes them for saying, where is your faith? And how oftentimes when we get
in difficult circumstances, our faith can be described the same
way. It can be described the same way, can it? Because we're
afraid and we think, you know, all is out of order and And yet, if the Lord's given
us saving faith, if He's given us faith in Christ, we will cry
out to Him. We will be brought to that place
to where we'll say, Lord, save me. Oh, Master. Saving faith looks Though faintly,
oftentimes it looks to the person of the Lord Jesus and cries out
to him. The Lord Jesus himself is the
power of this miracle. Paul said in Romans 1, verse
16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first
and also to the Greeks. The gospel is a person. He was asleep in the boat. He
wasn't worried about anything. Don't you love it when you, you
know, The Lord, He's never afraid. He's never disquieted. He's never at His wit's end.
Why? Because He's got perfect faith.
He's got perfect faith. How comforting it is for us to
have a Savior who is willing and able and faithful to save
us. He is the power. What manner
of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey his voice? Yes, he's the God-man, and he's
able. He's able to save to the uttermost,
and we have not been brought to the uttermost yet. Paul said
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18, the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness but to us which are being saved
it is the power of God. The cross of Christ, the successful
death of the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem his people, the resurrection
of Christ, the ascension of Christ, the glory of Christ, the power
of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation. We preach Christ crucified to
the Jew, a stumbling block, to the Greeks, foolishness, but
unto them which are being saved, both to the Jews and to the Greek,
Christ. Christ, the power of God. Christ,
the wisdom of God. He's in perfect control of all
things. I mean, here are these experienced
fishermen and I saw where they unearthed a first century fishing
boat that had, Waters, I guess, back in the 80s, 1980s, they
found the remains of this first century fishing boat. I think
it was 26 feet long. It was wood. And, you know, you
just imagine. And these fishermen would have
been, you know, very experienced in being in storms and being
on that sea, crossing over to the gatherings from, from where
they were, you know, it was a common experience for them. And yet
this storm is such that they thought they were going to die.
And in the midst of all that, the Lord's asleep. He's asleep. Why are you afraid? That's a
good question. Look at verse 40. And he said
unto them, why are you so fearful? What do we see Sunday? What seek
ye? What seek ye? It's a good question. Why are
you so fearful? Oh, I hope the Lord will drive
that question home to my heart. Every time I have a tendency
to be afraid and every time a tendency to look at my circumstances,
may God the Holy Spirit speak that question, just the question,
why are you afraid? Why are you afraid? I'm here,
I've got this. I want you to notice in closing
the verse 41 because They only thought that they were
afraid in the midst of the sea, in the midst of the storm. But
now look at verse 41. And they feared exceedingly. Now they're exceedingly afraid
and their fear is rightly placed now. It's a godly fear. It's not a worldly fear, it's
a godly fear. Now their fear is properly placed. Psalm 19 verse 9 says, The fear
of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. This is a work of grace. You see, they went from being
afraid of their circumstances to now being afraid of God. And
not in a slavish fear, but in a reverential, worshipful fear. They're looking up to Him in
a loving fear. Come you children, Psalm 34,
verse 11. Come you children, hearken unto
me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. This is a good fear. This is a holy fear. It's not a natural fear. It's
a fear that God must put in our hearts. We can be afraid sinfully. We
can be afraid naturally. Naturally, there are things to
be afraid of. It's a good thing to be afraid
of some things. And that fear will cause us to be cautious
and not be foolish in putting our lives in danger. natural
fears, sinful fear and then there's a holy fear. It's a holy fear
and these men now are exceedingly fearful and this holy fear exceeds
any other kind of fear that we might have. In verse nine of Psalm 34 says,
oh, fear the Lord, ye saints, for there is no want to them
who fear him. There's no want to them who fear
him. In Psalm 111 verse 10, the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So here we go full
circle. Full circle, the occasion is
that they're, as we are, passing over to the other side. The place was in a little ship
on a turbulent sea. The people, fearful disciples,
followers of Christ, yet afraid. because of their flesh, their
sinful nature. The need for the miracle was
that they were in a situation that they was beyond their control,
a great storm. Power of the miracle is Christ
himself. And the result of this miracle
is that they went from fearing their circumstances to fearing
God. That's a good place. How oftentimes
this pattern is repeated over and over and over again in our
lives. That's a blessing. Immediately, they were on the
other side. Oh, as long as we're in this
little boat, we're going to be going over this and over this
and over this. And then in the book of Revelation,
Revelation chapter 21, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
And there was no more sea. No more sea. No more turbulence. No more trouble. No more tribulation. No more sin. No more unbelief. His glorying in His presence
for all eternity. Our Heavenly Father, forgive
us for our unbelief. Oh, how much like these disciples
we are. Thank you for remembering that
we're made of dust. Thank you for your faithfulness
in providing a calm to the storm and reminding us of how our sins
have been put away. and that we need not be afraid. Lord, teach us, grow us in your
grace and the knowledge of Christ, we ask it in Christ's name, amen. 256, let's stand together. We'll sing acapella. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot,
thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. ? Though Satan should buffet
? ? Though trials should come ? ? Let this blessed assurance
control ? ? That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate ?
and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, my sin not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the
cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. ? And Lord haste the day when
my faith shall be sight ? The clouds be rolled back as a scroll
? The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend Even so,
it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul.