Good morning. Can you take your
spiral hymnals and turn to number 19, pleading for grace, pleading
for grace. And if you could please stand,
number 19. Sovereign ruler, Lord of all,
prostrate at your feet I fall. You are holy, wise, and just. I'm a creature of the dust. All things move at your command,
governed by your mighty hand. ? Heaven, earth, and hell I see
? ? Fulfill all your wise decree ? ? Dares a man resist his Lord
? ? Stand against the sovereign God ? ? I will bow before your
throne ? ? Seeking grace in Christ your Son ? through his blood
and righteousness. Lord, I plead with you for grace. If you will, you can, I know. Grace and mercy to me show. Will you, Lord, my soul forgive? Grant this sinner grace to live. I've no other hope but this,
Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now I'm conquered by your grace. In the dust I hide my face. Give me Christ or else I die. I upon your grace rely. ? Oh for mercy now I plead ?
Grant me Lord the grace I need ? Turn O turn to me and say ?
All your sins are washed away ? In my Son your debt is paid
? He for you the ransom made You may be seated. Good morning. Will you turn with
me in your Bibles to Mark chapter four. Mark chapter four, we'll
continue our study in this book. What
a blessed study it's been as the Lord's been pleased to reveal
himself in each one of these texts. We're thrilled to have guests
with us from Kentucky. We're glad you all are here. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our study. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful that once again you've brought us to this place
and you've promised to meet with us. Oh Lord, how dependent we
are on you. fulfilling that promise in our
hearts and opening your word, opening our hearts. Lord, we're
so very grateful to know that what you open, no man can shut. And so, Lord, we pray that you
would give us eyes to see and hearts to believe or that you
would be pleased now to reveal the glory of thy dear son and
show us his accomplished work and give us hope and peace in
his mercy and grace. Father we pray for our brother
Cyril and we ask that you would put your hand of strength and
healing upon him and we pray that in his surgery this week
that you would direct the physicians and give them skill and provide
for him healing. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Cyril is in a lot of pain and
is having surgery on his neck Thursday and not been able to
be with us today and over the past few weeks. So we're very
hopeful that the Lord is going to give him some relief. Y'all
pray for him. Alright. It seems like every time the
world tries to be clever, all they do is expose their ignorance. You've heard it said, it's not
the destination, it's the journey. And nothing could be farther
from the truth. The journey is nothing. The destination is everything. That statement might sound inspiring
to men, you know, live for the moment, power positive thinking. I saw one of those little signs
recently, a picture of some seagulls flying and underneath it said
They fly because they think they can, implying that if you would
just think that you could fly, you could too. No, they fly because
God made them to fly, and the reason you don't fly is because
you can't. But isn't that the way the world is? You know, they're
always coming up with something clever to try to inspire men
to have hope. The inspiration of hope for the
child of God is dying. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we'll see him
as he is. See him as he is and be made
like him. That's our hope. Paul said for
me to live as Christ, to die is gain. The journey is nothing. The destination is everything. The journey is but for a few
days. The destination is for ever. That's why our Lord, when
speaking to the disciples, he told them, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. For in my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
so that where I am, there you may be also." And then when Paul
was writing to the church in Thessalonica, he talked about
the trump of God sounding and the dead in Christ being raised
and those which are alive being caught up together with them
in the air. And he concludes that whole passage by saying,
comfort ye one another with these words, the destination is everything. It's everything. The journey? Oh, it's going to be over soon.
I saw another one said, you know, life gives you lemons, make lemonade
out of it, you know, and people just just trying to trying to
make more of the journey than what it is. May God give us the
grace to set our affections on things above. where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God and know that we are in Him in
the heavenlies right now and that one day very soon this journey
is going to be over and we're going to be taken safely to the
other side and that's the story here. Go with me to Mark chapter
4 In another place, the Lord said
it like this. He said, what does it profit
a man if he gained the whole world and loses his own soul? What will a man give in exchange
for his soul? Well, I'll tell you what he'd give in exchange
for his soul. Men by nature will exchange the destination for
the journey. They will. They'll cast it all
away. in order to have a bowl of soup
today. And 70, 80 years, what is that
compared to eternity? Look with me at our text. It's the hope of dying that keeps
us living, isn't it? I mean, it really is. It's the
hope of dying that keeps us living. Notice what the Lord says in
verse 35, and the same day when the even was come, he saith unto
them, let us pass over unto the other side. Let us pass over
unto the other side. In John chapter six, we have
the story of our Lord coming to the disciples as they were
in another storm on a ship, same Sea of Galilee. And they thought
he was a ghost, remember? And they were afraid and he speaks
to them and he says, be not afraid, it is I. And then the story goes
on to say, and they received him into the ship. And as soon
as he was received into the ship, they were on the land that they
were going to. They immediately, when they willingly
received him into the ship and immediately the ship was on the
land where they went. Let us pass over to the other
side. Now you know that these ships in the scriptures are representative
of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that in Noah's
Ark. We see that in Jonah's boat or
ship that he was cast off of in order to save the rest of
the mariners. Jonah being a picture of Christ
being cast into the sea and going into the belly of the whale for
three days and three nights in the calm The sea was calm. And
the shipwreck in Acts chapter 26 when Paul was headed to Rome
and he told them to stay on the ship. Don't leave it. And every
one of them, every one of them were saved because they stayed
with the ship. The only ship that's going to
rise safely on the other side is the one the Lord Jesus Christ
is on. Now I want to be on that ship, don't you? And notice in
verse 36, 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. I love the way the Lord speaks
of his church as being a bunch of little ships. Some of us have
been members of big cruise liners before, and And those ships aren't
going to make it safely to the other side. Be careful about
what ship you get on. The natural man is attracted
to the big ship, the ship with a lot of fanfare, ship with a
lot of programs, ship with a lot of excitement. But the ships
that are going to rise safely to the other side are generally
little ships. They're insignificant. to the people of this world.
There's a little ship in Lexington, Kentucky. There's a little ship
in Danville, Kentucky. There's a little ship here in
Apopka, Florida. Little ships here and there.
Those are the ones that are going to arrive safely to the other
side. The rest of them, like the unsinkable
Titanic, are doomed for disaster, and you're not going to like
the destination that a ship that doesn't have Christ on it is
going to end up with. Remember we saw a week or so
ago from 1 John 4, try the spirits and see whether they be of God. for many antichrists gone out
into the world. There's a lot of ships to be
that are claiming to have Christ on them, but they don't. I want
to be very careful to make sure I get on that ship that the Lord
is on. The Lord said in Matthew chapter
24, he said, beware, beware. How do I know if Christ is on
the ship that I'm on? Well, the Lord said, beware of
those who say he's out in the desert. Go not there. He's not there. Beware of those
who say he's in a secret place. Believe it not. Now, in man-made
works religion, there are two basic messages as to where to
find Christ. The first place is through personal
sacrifice, dedication, commitment. Go out in the desert, live the
life of John the Baptist, eating locust and wearing camel's hair
and make a sacrifice and God will take notice of your sacrifice
and he will reward you with salvation. That's one of the messages that's
clear in man-made religion. Another message in man-made religion
is the Lord Jesus Christ, he's in a secret place. You've got
to delve into the secrets of life and he's hidden. You've got to have lots of knowledge. Lots of understanding. You've
got to be able to parse the verbs of the Greek and Hebrew and understand
theology and have a deep, deep understanding of spiritual things
in order to find Christ. Both of those views of knowing
God are based on works, aren't they? They're both based on works.
You remember when Paul was preaching in Athens and the scripture says
that he met with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers? Those two groups represent what
I just described. The Epicurean philosophers are
you find the meaning of life through things, either the sacrifice
of things or the indulgence of things, but that's how you find
the meaning of life. And the Stoics on the other hand,
those are the ones that delve into the deep secrets of knowledge and intellect. They,
that's what the Lord was saying in Matthew 24. He said, behold,
somebody's going to tell you he's out there in the desert.
Don't go out there. He's not there. Another group
is going to tell you he's in a secret place. Don't go there. He's not there. So where is he? Where is he? Well, the Lord said
to the Pharisees, he said, you search the scriptures because
you think in them you have eternal life. But these are they which
testify of me. If we're going to know the Lord
Jesus Christ, we're going to find him in his word. In the
volume of the book, it is written of me. So how do I know if the
ship that I'm on has Christ on it? Well, number one, everything
about that's done on that ship is pointing to the Lord Jesus
Christ from his word. We're not engaged in the entertainment. We're not engaged in ceremony or in tradition. We just, every time we come together,
we open the word of God and we look for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where he's to be found,
not in the desert, not in the secret place, but in his word. in His Word. And His Word by
the gospel is preached unto us, isn't it? So everything we do
is around the Word of God. The Lord said to the prophet,
He said, if they speak not according to the law and the testimony,
it is because there is no light in them. If they're not If they're
not revealing the glorious person and accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ from the word of God, it's because there's
no light in them. They have no understanding. They're
completely in the dark. They talk about Jesus. They throw
out words. But those ships, those ships
are not going to make it safely to the other side. The ships that make it to the
other side have Christ on them. And he gets all the glory, doesn't
he? And he gets all the attention
and everything points to him who he is as the son of God. What did the Lord say to that
Ethiopian, or Philip say to that Ethiopian eunuch? If, when he
asked him, what doth hinder me to be baptized? If you believe
with all of your heart, you may. And what did the Ethiopian say?
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Now, there's
a whole lot of folks who are on ships that the Lord Jesus
Christ is not on, who would say, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. But they're saying it without
any understanding. They're saying it without any
meaning. As we've seen before, preaching is the defining of
biblical terms. That's what we're doing. We're
lifting up Christ, but we're defining what the Bible actually
says, comparing the spiritual to the spiritual, comparing scripture
to scripture. And so when we say that we believe
that Jesus, you shall call his name Jesus, why? For he shall
save his people. Jesus means Jehovah saves. He does all the saving all by
himself for all his elect. That's what Jesus means. So we're
gonna be on a ship who's talking about Jesus Christ. Make sure
that they're talking about the right Jesus, because there's
other Jesuses in this world. There's a whole lot of little
Jesuses. Jesuses that are doing their
best to save. They're trying to save. They
made a sacrifice to save, but they can't get it done unless
you let them. That's another Jesus. What that
Philippian, that Ethiopian say? I believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Christ, the anointed one, the one sent of the father in
the full power of the spirit of God in order to accomplish
the salvation of his people. He's the Messiah. He cannot fail. He's not frustrated. He's not
defeated. He's not wringing his hands.
No, he actually accomplished. everything necessary for the
salvation of His people. And I believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. The Son of God. He reigns absolutely
sovereign over all the affairs of men, over the armies of heaven
and the inhabitants of the earth. He hath done whatsoever He wills.
He's God. He's sovereign. He cannot fail. Is that the Jesus that's being
preached on the little ship you've been upon? I've been in lots
of ships that claim to have the Lord on them and they don't. Not when you define who He is
by scripture. He's not in the desert. He's
not in a secret place. He's in His Word. And where His
Word is preached in the fullness of its meaning and of His glory,
that's a ship I want to be a part of. Because that's the one that's
going to get safely to the other side. Not by works, not by wisdom,
not by will. But by my power, saith the Lord,
it's going to be a ship that gives to him all the glory and
all the praise. Go back with me to our text.
Look at Mark chapter four. And so let us, the Lord says,
let us pass over to the other side. This is the destination. Now the journey is going to get
rough. We're going to see that. They're going to get caught in
a storm. And it's a ferocious storm. These were fishermen who
were used to being on that lake all the time. But God sent a
strong wind that was threatening to sink the ship. Actually, in
John chapter 6, the story where the Lord's walking on the water
and meets them, he says, be not afraid of His eye. The scripture
tells us exactly how many furlongs they had paddled out into the
ship, out into the... they were three miles offshore.
And how far offshore they were here, I don't know, but these
men were afraid. And there arose, verse 37, a
great storm of wind. And the waves beat into the ship
so that it was now full. It is now full. I mean, if you've
been in boat trouble before, it's a frightening thing. It's
a frightening thing to be out in the ocean or out in the deep
water and not be able to see land and it's dark and and the boats filling up with
water. Scripture says the way of the
Lord is through the seas. And you remember in the book
of Revelation where John describes heaven and he sees the Lord Jesus
Christ seated upon his throne river crystal clear flowing from
the throne of God and the tree of life. And then he says, and
there was no sea. There was no sea, no more turbulence,
no more trouble, no more sorrow, no more tears, no more dying,
no more sickness, no more sea. There's no more sea. And no more
separation. The sea is a picture of the separation
that we experience here in this world right now, isn't it? We've
got to cross the sea to get from continent to continent. And so
in heaven, there is no more sea. That's our destination. No more
trouble. No more turbulence. No more fear. Well, fear is a, would be a wonderful
thing to be rid of that, won't it? No more sin. No more sorrow. That's our destination. Now, can you say it's not the
destination, it's the journey? Or can you say the troubles of this present life
cannot be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us?
The only thing keeping me alive is the destination. That's my
hope. Well, the Lord stirred up a storm,
didn't He? And every storm that you and I go through, God stirs
it up. And He stirs it up for a purpose,
to expose our unbelief. That's what He's going to expose
in these men. He's going to expose their unbelief. Now, the sin
spoken of in Hebrews that doth so easily beset each one of us,
the sin that doth so easily beset us, Now, I used to think, well,
you know, some people have a weakness towards one sin, another one
may have a weakness toward another sin, and everybody's got a sin
that easily besets them. No. The sin that easily besets
us is the same sin for every single one of us. Every single
one of us. It's the mother of all sin. It's
the cause of every problem. It's the sin of unbelief. The Lord Jesus Christ believed
his father perfectly. The Bible says whatever is not
of faith is sin. If you and I were capable of
having perfect faith, we wouldn't have any sin. We wouldn't have
any sin. And what did that man say when
the Lord spoke to him about believing? He said, the Lord said, do not
be afraid, only believe. And this man cried out and he
said, Lord, I do believe. Help thou my unbelief. See, the new man has faith. The
new man believes God with all of his heart. But he's living
with an old man, isn't he? The old man's never believed
God. There's the difference between us and the Lord Jesus Christ.
He came with one nature. Perfect deity. Born of a woman,
born under the law to redeem them that are cursed by the law.
He didn't have the Adamic nature like you and I do. Likeness of
sinful flesh, but not sinful flesh. He was able to believe
God with all of his heart and all of his mind and all of his
soul all of the time. And you and I have never been
able to believe God with all our heart, all of our mind, all
of our soul, any time have we? There's our problem, this unbelief. If we could just believe God,
Lord help thou my unbelief, increase our faith, isn't that what the
disciples ask? Lord, increase our faith. We're
so full of unbelief, we're so distracted and caught up in believing
the things of this world instead of believing you. And that's
the reason for the storms, to expose our unbelief and to cause
us to cry out to Him. Notice what happens. Verse 38, and he was in the hinder
part of the ship. Now, what's the significance
of that? Well, the hinder part of the ship is where the rudder
is. He's the one doing all the steering.
You say, well, he was asleep. That's all right. Our God never
sleeps nor slumbers. He was where the boats steered
from, just like this boat and just like your boat. The Lord
Jesus Christ is at the rudder. He's at the helm and he's steering
it exactly where he'd have it to go. And they awake him and say unto
him, Master, carest not that we perish? What a question. And yet we have the same thoughts
when we go through storms, don't we? Lord, don't you care for
me? Truth is, there's only one person
that cares for you more than you care for yourself. There's only one person that
loves you more than you love yourself. And his love for us is, that's
incomprehensible. It's past finding out. Master cares not that we perish. Oh, if you knew how much I cared
for you, you wouldn't be asking me that question. I've got an objective. My objective
is not the journey. My objective is the destination.
I'm going to get you safely to the other side. I know the thoughts
that I have for you, thoughts for good and not for evil that I might bring you. to your
expected end. Brethren, it is the destination. It's the destination. The destination's
everything. And the only way we're going
to get to the right destination is to be in the boat that the
Lord's in, that He's steering, He's controlling. And in our
trials and troubles, we cry out just like these disciples, Lord,
care it's not for me. And he arose, verse 239. Oh, that's what we need the Lord
to do, isn't it? We need for him to arise. Oh,
Lord, stand up for me. Stand in my stead before God.
Represent me before a holy God. Present yourself for all my righteousness. Lord, stand up for me that your
shed blood might be the covering for my sin. Stand Arise, Lord. Arise for me. If the Lord should
mark iniquity, who should stand? Who's going to stand in His presence?
Turn to me. Look at this again. Mark Psalm
15. Turn with me to Psalm 15. Lord, who shall abide in thy
tabernacle? Verse 1. Who shall dwell in thy
holy hill? Who's going to be able to stand
in the presence of a holy God? And then the Lord answers the
question. Now, in the English language, we have participles,
but we only have past and present participles. A participle is
a verb that acts as an adjective and our participles will either
end in ED which means it's a past participle or it'll end in ING
which means it's a present participle. If you say I painted the room,
that's past tense. If you say I'm painting the room,
that's present tense. That's a participle. In the Hebrew
language, there's a present participle. that gives no reference to time,
all the emphasis of the participle is on the action of the verb
without any reference to time. And it's easy for you to know
which ones they are. If they end in E-T-H, how many
verbs you read about in the scriptures that end in E-T-H, that's a present
participle. And in the Hebrew it means that
it covers everything from eternity to eternity. Now God has asked this question,
who's going to stand in my presence? He that walketh uprightly. He's never done anything but
walk uprightly. And worketh. He's never done
anything but work righteousness. and speaketh the truth in his
heart. He that backbiteth not with his
tongue, nor doeth evil, nor taketh up a reproach." Those are all
present participles. It's the eternal tense. Now that
can only refer to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one. who walked
uprightly, worked righteousness, and speak the truth from his
heart for all eternity. And that's God says, he's the
one that's going to stand in my presence, nobody else. The only hope that we have is
to be found in him. not having our own righteousness,
which is the law, but that righteousness, which is by the faithfulness,
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the faithful
one. He believed God all the time. Go back with me to Mark chapter
four, please. He arose, he arose and stood
in our stead. He said, Father, He's one of
mine. I walked righteously for Him.
I did no evil for Him. I spoke truth from my heart for
her. She's mine. He's mine. He arose and rebuked the wind. You see, this is the only way
you're going to get to the other side. How much time and energy and
and fear and trouble we put into the journey. Isn't that true? Brethren, it's the destination. The world and their attempt to
be clever when they talk about it's not the destination, it's
the journey. They got it backwards. But they always get it backwards,
don't they? They get everything backwards. The natural man's
got everything turned upside down. When they accused Peter
of turning the world upside down, he was in fact turning it right
side up. It was already upside down. Preaching the gospel, the
only thing that sets things right. He arose and rebuked the wind
and said unto the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased. And there was a great calm. Oh
Lord, speak peace to my heart. Give me the calm assurance of
resting all the hope of my salvation in the one who's in the hinder
part of the boat, steering me through the storms to get me
safely to the other side. And then the Lord said unto them,
why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? Trust me. Trust me. Believe on me. I got this. This is my boat. This is my ship. It's not going to sink. Just
stay in the ship. And they feared exceedingly.
They weren't afraid of the storm now. They were afraid of the
Lord. That's a good thing, isn't it?
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. You know, the natural
man fears that there's no fear of God in their heart. They fear
their circumstances, but they don't fear God. Faith fears God. They feared exceedingly and said
one to another, what manner of man is this? What kind of man is this? Well,
he's the God-man. He's not just a man. He's God. The fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's the incarnate Son of God. That even the wind and the seas
obey His voice. Yeah, they do. They do. Because He's determined to get
His little ships safely to the other side. All right, let's
take a break. th th