Well, I bring you greetings from
our pastor, Charles Pennington, and your brethren, my brethren
there at Grace Fellowship in Wheelersburg. You know, coming
here, and it's been a while since we've been here, but I tell this
at different times, it's like going to a family reunion. But
it's like a family reunion the way it's supposed to be. I go
to a family reunion, you know, the bulk of the people, I don't
know. You know, we just spread out, we're just over here and
there and going, I believe I can honestly say I know everybody
here. I mean, I know you all. We go way back. Way back. Some
of us go way back. But it's a blessing to be here.
And I pray the Lord will be pleased to meet with us in this hour.
Turn back, if you will, to Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4. A few weeks ago, our pastor was
in Mexico and he asked me to preach one Sunday morning. And
I brought a message or tried to bring a message dealing predominantly
with chapter 5, the beginning there in chapter 5, when our
Lord arrives on the other side of the Sea of Galilee and He
heals that demoniac. And after He does that mighty
work of grace for that one man over there, that one man, and
He tells him now, He said, that man wanted to go with our Lord.
He wanted to stay with Him. And He said, no, you go home.
You go home and tell your friends, your family, your neighbors,
everybody you run into, you tell them what great things the Lord
has done for you. And that's what we do. That's
what we do here in this journey here below. We tell those that
we run into. We tell them what great things
our Lord has done for us. Now, in that other message, I
touched on these verses, but I just couldn't kind of get away
from them. And I just kept going back and looking and looking.
And I believe the Lord rolled me some of those nuggets out
there. And I pray He'll be pleased to let me Let me share them with
you all here tonight. Now, as our brother read in this
chapter, our Lord was teaching there at the seaside, and He
taught in parables. He taught the people in parables, and He
told that parable to the people about the sower. The sower went
forth. Some of that seed fell on that hard ground, on that
beaten path by the wayside there. Some of it fell there. Some of
it fell on rocky ground, stony ground. Some fell on that ground
that was infested with thorns, but then some fell on good ground.
And it sprung up and it produced. It was alive and it produced.
And after the multitude was gone, verse 34 is where we're going
to pick up here. Now, when that multitude was
all gone and they were alone, our Lord expounded all things
unto His disciples. He taught them all things. He
taught those things necessary and needful for life, for forgiveness,
for a right standing before the Father. He taught them those
things. Now, He had taught to that huge crowd of people. May
have been hundreds, may have been thousands of people there.
And He talked to them. He talked to them in parables.
And they didn't understand. They didn't understand. And yet,
He had a particular people there. He had a people chosen before
the foundation of the world. He had a people given to Him
by His Father before He ever created the heavens and the earth.
And those people, He gathered them off to the side. He gathered
them alone. And He taught them these parables.
He said, I'm going to tell you what these things mean. I'm going
to give you the spiritual application. All those people that had gone
away, they heard with these ears. Like the world hears the general
call with these ears. But He called these particular
people. And He expounded all things to them. These disciples. These that He came to die for.
These that was given to Him by the Father. He taught them people. Like He's taught you. And you. And you. Particular people. The
world don't know the things you know. The world don't see the
treasures in this book. The world don't understand the
seed and the sower and the good ground. And how did it get prepared?
And who prepared it? What made it different than all
that other ground? God made it different. There's a work of
grace took place. And that Word fell on that good
ground that God had prepared. Those that He had called. And
there's many here tonight. Good ground. God knew you from
all eternity. And He taught you. He revealed
the Gospel to you. He taught you. Now, verse 35. Now the same day, when
the evening was come, He had taught the people in parables.
Those people are all gone. And then he expounded the spiritual
treasures of the Word of God. He taught these treasures to
his people, his particular people. All the others were gone, but
he taught them. He revealed the truth of the
Scriptures to those people. Now, when evening was come, he
saith unto those people, he saith unto those particular people,
let us, me and you, let us pass over unto the other side. He
didn't tell that crowd of people to come and go with Him. You
remember way back there in the book of Genesis. And after that
1656 years, from the time of the fall until God saw the wickedness
of mankind, it prevailed upon the earth. There was no goodness.
It's all wickedness. Everywhere. And He said, I'm
going to destroy mankind. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And God told Noah, He said, now you build an ark.
Build a boat. You build it exactly the way
I tell you. Build it the exact length, the width, the height.
You do everything like I tell you. And Noah did. And when the
time came, when the fullness of time had come, the Lord said
to Noah, he spoke to Noah, the Lord being in the ark, and he
spoke to Noah and he said, Noah, come into the ark. You come into
the ark. He didn't give that call to anybody
else. He said, Noah, you and your family
come into the ark. The Lord was in the ark. He said,
you come in with me. He said to these disciples, these
that He had revealed Himself to, these that He had loved before
the foundation of the world, these that He would die for,
these that He would redeem and give up perfect righteousness
to stand before God Almighty, He said to them, He said to those
particular people, let us pass over to the other side. Let us
go on this journey. Let us go on this voyage across
this life. Come and go with me. You come
and go with me in the boat. With me. We're going to make
this journey together. And we are. All of us here tonight,
we're in the ship traveling across this journey with our Lord. He
has called us. He has revealed Himself to us.
He's taught us the Gospel. He's taught us the truth of the
Gospel. We see Christ in the Gospel. And He's called us to
come with Him. He said, come. Enter into this
ship. And let's pass over to the other
side. And we are now on that journey. Now, here in this portion
of God's Word, in verse 36, and when they had sent away the multitude,
this crowd, this huge crowd of people that was there hurting,
they were all sent away, and they took our Lord, even as He
was, in the ship, and listen to this, there were with Him
also other little ships. What ship was He in? He was in
the ship with His people. He was in the ship with His disciples.
He was in the ship with those that He had revealed Himself
to. Those that He had pulled off to the side, away from the
crowd. And He had expounded to them the things of the Scripture. He taught them the truth of the
Scripture. Those and those alone. And then He said, come and go
on this journey with Me. We're going to pass to the other
side. Enter into the boat with Me. And they entered into the
boat with Him. Now, on this journey across this
life, We have many people that we come in contact with. I always talk about, I hope Cecil
don't talk. Cecil was down there in that
mill as long as I was. I hope he don't. I just, I grew
up down there. The bulk of my life, my illustrations,
they're about that steel mill. I just, the people I come in
contact with. I met a lot of, I met some dear
friends down there. And this is what I always consider
a dear friend. Would you trust your children
with them? Somebody like that. Well, I met a bunch of them down
there. And we were all going on this journey across this life.
But the Lord called me and He's called you into the ship with
Him. These were in the other ships.
These that I met and knew and visited with and had familiar
conversation with and knew them and liked them and knew their
wives and their children, they weren't in the ship. We couldn't
talk about the things me and Cecil can talk about. We couldn't
talk about the things me and Frank or Lee. We couldn't talk
about those things. They didn't know anything about
those things. Our Lord said to His disciples. He called those
disciples off and He taught them the truth of those parables.
He revealed the deep truth, the spiritual truth, those life-giving
truths about the Lord Jesus Christ. Who God is. Who man is. Who the
Lord Jesus Christ is. Who did He come and die for.
And that Spirit is going to be Invincible. It's going to be
irresistible. And it's going to call those people. And then
He says to them, come, come go with Me. Let's go to the other
side. And they enter into the ship
with Him. And there's other ships all around. There's other ships
all around. Our Lord's in this ship with
His people. And we are in that ship with Him. About three years
ago, Maurice Montgomery was going through a difficulty medically,
and he called me many times to come out there and preach for
him. Me and Jackie would drive out there, and we got to know
a couple named Paul and Anna Hibbs. Some of you may know Paul and
Anna. We stayed with them just about every time we went out
there. And it had been a few weeks since we had been out there,
and we went out there. I knew there had been a tornado
that had hit Madisonville. And we went out there, and Paul
said he couldn't wait. He said, Dale, I've got to go
show you. He said, have you ever seen a tornado right after it happened, just
happened a week before? And I said, no, I haven't. He
said, oh, I couldn't wait to take us out there. We went out
there to the edge of town. There's a big golf course out
there. And they'd built these fine homes on this golf course.
And we pulled up in the driveway there, and there'd been a home
there. There wasn't nothing there now but a concrete slab and a chimney
stood there. And he said, Dale, do you know who lived there?
I said, I had no idea. He said, Frank Ramsey lived there. I said,
Frank Ramsey, the basketball player? Yeah. He said, Frank
Ramsey? He said he got out of basketball years ago and said
he got into banking and become a multimillionaire. He said he'd
come back to this county where he was raised and said he was
a fabulous wealthy man. He said that was his home. He
said that tornado hit. He said he had a delivery. UPS
truck pulled up in the driveway. UPS truck pulled up there. Had
a big delivery package for Frank Ramsey. Went up and knocked on
the door. Frank come to the door and had
to sign for it. And he said that fellow left. Frank closed the
door and went back in his house. He said the fellow started down
the driveway and was filling out his little notepad there,
you know. He heard something roar. Man, it was roaring. Oh, here
it comes. He thought, what in the world?
And he turned around and looked. Galloping over that hill right towards
him was a tornado. It was the biggest tornado recorded
in the United States that year, three years ago. It was a half
a mile wide when it was on the ground. You could see the swath.
Paul said, right there Dale, you can see it. There wasn't
nothing left. It just looked like a big mowing machine had
gone through there and cut it. Remember that Jackie? Just cut
everything down. And that fella said, well maybe
I can run and get in my truck and get away from it. And he
headed down the driveway and that thing was gaining on him
fast. He said, I can't get out of here. And he ran across the
driveway, and he ran across the street, and there was a metal
guardrail there along the road. And he laid down on his back
and crawled in under that guardrail and wrapped his arms and legs
around that guardrail, and that storm hit. And he watched Frank
Ramsey's house splinter into ten million pieces. There was
nothing left of it. And that tornado went right on
across that golf course, tearing trees out that big around. He
watched them be snatched up and gone. He thought, my goodness,
that man's gone. He's dead. And he dropped himself
from that guardrail. He slid out from under there
and he walked right out in the middle of the street. And he just stood
there and looked. There was nothing left but a chimney. And right beside
the chimney was a little coat closet about that wide. And he
said he stood there and just couldn't believe it. And he said,
all of a sudden, the door on that coat closet opened up and
Frank Ramsey walked out. He didn't have a cut. He didn't
have a bruise on him. Paul and Anna Hibbs was in the
ship with our Lord going across this journey. David and Teresa
Edmundson. Sue and Maurice Montgomery. God
spared that place for those. It wasn't a fatality in Madisonville.
It wasn't a fatality. Frank Ramsey just went along
for the ride. He was just blessed because of
God's people. Because the Lord's in that ship going across this
life with His people. I used to tell everybody down
there at the mill, And I still believe it, and I'll tell anybody
that listens. And I know Cecil believes it too. That steel mill's
been down there for a hundred years. It's been down there for
one reason, and one reason alone. It's to supply an income and
to take care of families and God's people in this community.
Now everybody else is down there drawing a paycheck and they're
sending their kids to college and buying cars and homes and
vacations and all that. They're just going along for
the ride, like these boats were. These other little boats. But
God was in the ship with His people. And He's in the ship
with us. And we're going across this journey.
We're going across this sea of this life. And we're in the ship
with our Lord. We're in the ship with our Lord.
Now look here in verse 37. This is so contrary to religion
in our day. These people that lie to people
in our day and say, God wants you to be happy. He wants you
to be healthy. He wants you to be wealthy. He wants you to have
everything. And if you don't, it's because your faith is too
small. God wants you to have these things. That's a lot. Anybody
that says that, by the authority of God's Word, that's a lot. Some of his choice servants,
every one of the apostles but one, died a horrible, ignominious
death except John on the Isle of Patmos. And he was exiled
and living there by himself. The Word of God will not back
up that kind of statement. And right here, the Lord, revealed
Himself in a special way to His people. Like He revealed Himself
to you and you and you. And He taught you the truth of
the Gospel. And you see Christ on every page of the Word of
God. And you cling to Him and trust in Him. And it's nothing
to do with us and our works and do's and don'ts. It's all because
of His grace that He saved us. And He called us by His mercy
and tender love. And He said, come and go with
Me. Come and enter into this with Me. Come and go with Me.
I'll take you to the other side. And they're on this journey.
Our Lord's on this journey with these people. These that He's
always loved. These that He would die for.
And going along with Him out there are some other little boats.
Now, verse 37, there arose a great storm of wind. A great storm
of wind and the waves beaten to the ship so that it was now
full. This is our Lord and this is our Lord's special people.
And they're gone across this Sea of Galilee. They're gone
to the other side. You think the Lord didn't know
there was going to be a storm? You think the Lord didn't know
that His particular people that He loved was going to be subjected
to this storm? And in this journey that we have
here below, we're not exempt from these things. We're not
exempt from sickness. We're not exempt from sorrow and pain.
We say goodbye to those we love. We say goodbye. If you haven't,
I promise you if the Lord carries His return, you will, to someone
very near and close to you. We're not exempt from those things.
These storms arise on this sea of life that we're traveling
through. But our Lord is with us. He's
on this journey with us. He ordains all of these things.
He purposes all these things. This storm arose. Now, we don't
know. We're not given in the Word of
God. We're not given at what time. How long they had been
on this journey? This was an all-night journey
across the Sea of Galilee. They left in the evening, and
they arrived in the early morning on the other side. And we don't
know at what time during the night. We don't know when it
started, and we don't know how long it lasted, and we don't
know when it ended. But sufficient for us to know
is, this is God's special people. This is the brethren of our Lord
Himself. He is in the ship with them,
and they're going on this journey across the sea. And this storm
arises. And it's going to arise in our
life. It's going to arise in our life. I think that's probably
why I've looked at this so carefully the last few weeks. We're going
to have trouble. In this world, we're going to
have trouble. Tribulation. The Lord promised
that. And we are going to have it.
We're going to have trouble. And these people were in that
time of trouble. And the ship was about to sink.
It was clear full of water. Now listen. Now listen. What
about these other ships out there? They were going through the same
thing. They were going through the exact same thing. The people on that
ship were as fearful as these disciples were. These disciples
were fearing for their life. They were afraid that they were
going to die. They were afraid the ship was going right to the
bottom of the Sea of Galilee. These people over there were
too. But the difference is, here's the difference. Here's the difference.
The Lord was with His people. The Lord's with you and me. He's
near. Speak to Him. Reach out and touch
Him. He's passing by. He's right there
with us. We're not going through this
alone. You don't leave it. He said, I'll go with you. I'll
never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'll
be with you. I'll comfort you. We don't know how long this happens,
but all these trials that we're going to endure in this life,
they're going to have a beginning. They're going to have a time
of continuation. And they're going to have a time when they
end. And then there's going to be a memory. There's going to
be something that's in the past. But our Lord's still going to
be with us. Now, verse 38. Our Lord was in the hinder part
of the ship. He was asleep on a pillow. And
they awoke Him. You see the difference here?
In this ship, on this journey, the Lord's people had access
to our Lord Himself. He was there present with them.
We have access to our Lord. Brother Frank Prager, what a
privilege it is because of our Lord Jesus Christ that we can
enter into the very presence of our God. We can come in with
our petitions. Anything, great or small. What's
troubling you? What burden are you under? What
storm of trial are you under? Take it to the Lord. Take it
to the Lord and leave it there. He knows. He's aware. And we
know that all things work together for good to them who love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. All these things. They'll be for our good and they'll
be for His great glory. And they went to Him. They went
to Him. The people on those other ships,
they didn't have anyone to go to. Didn't have anyone to go
to. I often say this when a trial
comes along. What do people do that don't
have the Lord? How do they get through these things? How do
they get through these things? Who do they go to? Where do they
find comfort and rest and peace and hope in these times? Where
do they go when the Lord is pleased to remove a dear one? Or you
go through a terrible sickness of trial or old age and loneliness
and sorrow and grief. Who do they go to? They didn't
have anyone. They were in these other ships.
They didn't have anyone. The Lord's people that He had
taught Himself and that He had called them Himself and given
them faith to enter in with Him, He was with them. He was with
them. He was with them. And they said to Him, Oh my goodness,
is this awful or what? Master, don't you care that we
perish? Don't you care that we perish? Well, who do you see when you
read that? Who do you know that you think
of when you read it? Who do you think of who would
do something like that? Who that the Lord Himself had
reached out there and plucked you from the burning and had
taught you the gospel and had opened your eyes and let you
see Christ and given you the grace to flee to Him and throw
your arms around Him and hang on and cling to Him and trust
in Him and rely on Him Who do you know that in a time of trouble
would say something like this? Don't you care? Don't you care
that we perish? Well, you know who I think of?
I think of me. I think of me. Have you been
guilty of anything like this? Been guilty of anything like
this? Why do we doubt? Why do we have times of fear
and confusion and all? Why do we do that? Why do we
do that? It makes it very evident to me
that the old man is still very well and alive in me. And if
the Lord removes his hand just a little bit, for just an instant,
I'll say, or do, or go anywhere, or say anything, anybody else
will. And that's what's going on here.
These men were afraid. I've never been in a storm at
sea, but here last summer, I guess it was, last fall, I've lived
over there on Sugar Creek for 64 years, lived my whole life
over there. We've been through a bunch of storms over there.
I've never seen anything like it. I've never seen the wind howl like
it did that. I believe it was a Sunday night. The electric
went out. There me and Jackie said, man, I mean, it's dark. You could hear the limbs breaking
off and you could hear them hitting the ground. A couple of trees
fell down over the hill there somewhere. I'd never heard anything
like it. Was anything going to happen
to me? Was anything going to happen to Jackie? Was anything
going to happen to any of our kids? Only if our Lord intended for
it to happen. And listen to this. If it happens, if it happens,
that's the end of the journey. You've arrived on the other side.
I mean, I heard Adam and Eric, our son-in-law, talking just
the other day. And they said... I mean, it was Gene. And they
said, I heard Henry say something a few years ago. I couldn't believe
it. He said, I just absolutely couldn't
believe it. And Gene or whoever it was said, I remember that.
I know what you're going to say. I know what you're going to say.
Some of you may have heard it. Some time ago, Henry said, I'm telling
you, the Lord's going to return in 20 years. Any of you remember
that? He's going to return in 20 years.
And then he said, I'm an old man. He's sure going to return
for me in 20 years. And that's what, if the Lord's
pleased to remove us, When we're gone on this journey with our
Lord who's taught us, who's revealed the truth to us, who's revealed
Christ to us, He's called us by His grace, He's given us faith
to look to Him and to cling to Him and to flee to Him. And He
said, come go with Me. You remember what Moses said
to his father-in-law, Hobab? He said, come go with us. We'll
do you good. We'll do you good. Don't you care? Don't you care
that we perish? Now listen, our Lord in this
33 years that he lived here, he was very God. But he was a
man. He did no miracles to alleviate
himself from suffering or pain or hunger or any of those things.
And he got tired, he was exhausted. As soon as he went into this
ship, it appears the way it's written, as soon as he went into
this ship, he went to that part of the ship and laid down and
went to sleep. He was exhausted from a day,
a whole day of teaching thousands and thousands of people. And
the ordeal that he had gone through those three and a half years,
he was exhausted. And these men that he had revealed
the truth to and had provided for them and sustained them and
maintained them and given them life and a good hope for the
life to come, They rushed in when he was exhausted and he
was asleep. And they said, don't you care?
Don't you care that we perish? Look here, verse 39. And he arose. He arose. He got up. His brethren
were in a time of trouble. They were in a time of great
stress. And he arose and he rebuked the
wind. And he said to the sea, peace,
be still. Be still. And the wind ceased
and there was a great calm, like a sea of glass. Are you saying
that all these things that bring us so much fear, that they are
directly under the control of our Lord? That's what He said.
That's what He said. It's mine. I tell this all the
time. We like to go to the beach. We
like to go to the ocean. And the very first thing I do,
the very first thing I do, I run right straight through that place.
Go out the other side, down the beach, and I run right out there
where that water is right there at my feet. And I look out there,
and I don't see nothing but water as far as I can see. And this
thought comes to me. It's been coming here for 6,000
years and no further. God said this is where it will
come. It's His sea. It's His ocean. We've been down
there a few times. We got run away from the beach
here a few years ago. Hurricane was coming in, was
down there at Top Sail Island. They said, you've got to get
off the island. And we left. And man, that water was, I mean,
it was just galloping in towards us. It was scary looking. It
was frightening. That wind was a howling. And
we got out of there. He'll send those signs. But the
next week, it was right back at the same place. You're going
to come right here and no further. It's my ocean. I've created it. It's all going to be for my purpose.
It's all under my control. It's all under my will. And he
silenced it. He silenced that wind, silenced
that sea. And now he turns to those disciples
that were so fearful. He turns to them and he said,
why are you so fearful? Why are you so fearful? How is
it that you have no faith? Matthew, when he records this,
he said, little faith. Why is it that you have little
faith? Have I not taught you the truth
of this Word, My Word, that's a parable to the world, that's
a mystery to the world? Have I not taught you the truth
of this? Have I not revealed it to your heart? Have I not
called you by My grace, singled you out from that common lump
of mankind and drawn you to Myself? Have I not done that? Have I
not told you to come with Me? You remember that there in John
chapter 37, the last day. The last day, the great day of
the Feast, eight days, Feast of Tabernacles. Jews from all
over the world come to Jerusalem, if they could, for eight days.
And they'd been there all eight days. And on that last day, our
Lord seen them going away empty, seen them going away still in
their sin, without God, without Christ, without hope. And He
stood and He cried with a loud voice. And He said, Oh, is anybody
thirsty? You know something about this
thirst? Is God giving you something to know about this thirst? Are
you thirsty? He said, come to Me. Come to
Me. All of them didn't come, but
those that He came to die for, they came. They all came to Him.
He said, come to Me. Let's go across this sea, this
life's journey. Let's go to the other side. How
is it that you have no faith? Knowing that, why do these things
upset us so? Well, they do. They do me. And
verse 31, look at this, and they feared exceedingly. I don't think
that they feared what the Lord may do in retaliation for their
weakness of faith and for their approach to Him. But I think
they finally realized and they feared that they had offended
their Lord. They feared that they had such little faith, such
weak faith, How did I go into Him? How did I approach Him?
Don't you care? Don't you care? I think they
feared that they had offended Him who had saved them, revealed
the Gospel to them, called them by His grace. And they said this,
and they said one to another, what manner of man is this that
even the wind and the sea obey Him? What manner of man? They knew then. They knew then. I'll have you to turn to one
Scripture. Isaiah chapter 25. Isaiah chapter 25. Verse 8. Isaiah 25 and verse
8. What manner of man is this? He
will swallow up death in victory. Our Lord will. He'll swallow
up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces. And the rebuke of His people
shall He take away from off all the earth. For the Lord has spoken
it. Verse 9. And it shall be said
in that day. What manner of man is this? What
manner of man is this? And it shall be said in that
day. Lo, this is our God. This is Him. This is our God. We've waited for Him. And He'll
save us. This is the Lord. We've waited
for Him. We'll be glad. And we'll rejoice
in His salvation. I don't think that when our Lord
said, how is it that you have no faith? I don't believe He
really talked rough to them. I think it was a mild rebuke.
But I think He said it like we say it to our children, our little
ones. I think he said it tenderly,
why is it? Why would you fear? Why would you doubt? And he rebuked
the wind and he said, what man of a man is this? This is our
God. This is our God. He's called us by His grace. He's taught us by His grace.
He's given us the grace to come to Him and to cling to Him. And
he said, come and go with me. And we've entered in because
of His grace, because of the faith that He gave us. And on
this journey, we're going to have trouble. I promise you we're
going to have trouble. But when we have this trouble,
we have a beginning, we have a continuation of it, and we
have an end of it. And then He'll be gracious, He'll
come, and we'll say at last, what manner of man is this? This
is our God. This is our Lord. And look at
this. Mark 5 and verse 1. Any doubt this is going to happen?
Any doubt in anybody's mind? These that he had revealed himself
to, and he had taught the gospel to, and revealed it to their
heart, called them by his grace, said, come and go with me. He
said, come and go with me to the other side. There's nobody
going to be left behind on this. He's not going to lose one of
his sheep from whom he died. Verse 1, And they all came over
unto the other side What about them other ships out there? What
about them? Our Lord will spare His people.
He will bless His people. And He may bless the community
that His people are in. The storm was abated for those
people too. But His people came to Him. Lord,
save us. We're going to perish. We're
going to die. None of those people died either.
They were just going along. on the mercy that he showed to
his particular people that was traveling with him. I hope that
will be a comfort. I hope it's been a comfort to
me. I've asked Mike, if he will,
he's going to close the service and sing until the storm passes
by.