Holy, holy. Number 70, in your
hardbacked hymnal. Number 70, let's all stand together. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning our song
shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling
down before thee, which wert and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. ? Only Thou art holy ? ? There
is none beside Thee ? ? Perfect in power, in love and purity
? ? Holy, holy, holy Lord Jesus Christ ? ? Lord God Almighty
? All thy works shall praise thy name ? In earth and sky and
sea Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. I was just thinking
as we were singing that hymn that the Lord oftentimes uses
repetition in his word for the purpose of emphasis. You know,
those of you, we've got several school teachers in our congregation,
and I know that you understand that repetition is the first
law of learning. And so when the Lord said, truly,
truly, I say unto you, he was repeating himself to say, this
is very important. Or in the Psalms where one verse
will say the same thing as the previous verse, just in a little
bit different way, the Lord is using emphasis to teach us the
important things about him and about salvation. And out of all
of his attributes, Out of all the attributes of God, His mercy,
His grace, His righteousness, His justice, no attribute in
the scripture is brought to the third level of repetition than
the one of holiness. In Isaiah chapter 6, in the year
that King Uzziah died, Isaiah went to the temple as we've done
here this morning. And he saw the Lord high and
lifted up. His train filled the temple.
And the seraphim hovered over his throne and they cried holy,
holy, holy. The Lord God Almighty. Holiness,
we don't understand what it means. We just know that he's other
than we are in every way. He's not like us at all. He's
holy. He's worthy of worship. And the believer's heart desires
to worship Him, but is frustrated in its inability to worship Him
as it ought, to see Him in the fullness of His glory and His
holiness. One day we will. One day we will. Now we look through a glass darkly,
don't we? We see dimly. things of His holiness and of
His grace. I pray that this morning the
Lord will open the window of heaven and just let a little
light shine in our hearts and reveal to us more of His holiness
and more of His glory, more of His grace, more of His successful
work of redemption. That's what we need to know,
isn't it? That when the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's
cross, He put away the sins of His people by bearing not only
their sins but them. The Lord Jesus Christ bore all
His people in His body on that cross. And that's why Paul said,
I am crucified with Christ. We were in Him from the foundation
of the world, in Him as he lived out his life of perfect righteousness
in him as he suffered the wrath of God's justice in him when
he rose from the dead in him right now as he seated in the
heavenlies making intercession for us the scripture says that
we are in the heavenlies in Christ right now no safer place to be
I like what, I think it was John Chapman in Lexington weekend,
two weekends ago said, said the safest place to be from the wrath
of God is in God. And that's so true. That's so
true. It's the only place, the only
place to escape the wrath of God is to find yourself in God,
to be found in him. Well, thank the Lord for giving
us another opportunity to come here this morning and attempt
to worship Him. We need to begin by expressing
our dependence upon Him to enable us to that end. So let's bow
our heads together in prayer. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we ask that You would be gracious
to us enabling us by the power of your spirit to set our affections
on things above where Christ is seated at thy right hand. Lord, we confess to you that
there are so many things in this world that disquiet our hearts
and distract our attention. Might we know something of your
mercy in this hour, enabling us, Lord, to put those things
aside to worship you in spirit and in truth. We thank you for
your word. We're completely dependent upon
you to teach us. You said they shall be all taught
of God. In another place, Lord, we remember
where you said that you reveal these things unto babes. And so we come before your throne
of grace as babes, completely dependent upon you to feed us
and to teach us and to open the eyes of our understanding and
to reveal to us the glorious person and the finished work
of thy dear son. We ask it in his name. Amen. I had someone ask me some time
ago Are we not all the children of God? Are not all men the children
of God? And the simple and clear answer
to that is, no, we're not. To be the children of God, we
must be found in Christ. The Lord makes it clear, to as
many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the
sons of God, or the children of God. Having the Lord Jesus Christ
and sitting at his feet and believing on him is the only hope of being
in the family of God. In Mark chapter 3, all men are
gods by creation. We're all the creatures of God. And as such, he reigns sovereign
over all men, but to enjoy the blessings of being in the family
of God. Look what the Lord says in verse
34 of Mark chapter 3. Well, we'll begin reading verse
31. There came then his brethren
and his mother. This is his half-brothers and
sisters, the ones who previously in this
chapter thought that he was beside himself. He had taken this thing
too far. And so now they come and they're
standing outside where the Lord is and they sent a message into
him, not being able to get to him, that they wanted to speak
to him. They wanted to try to try to
get him back on track I guess, I don't know. And the multitude, verse 32,
sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother
and thy brethren without seek for thee. This is Mary. Mary
knew who he was. There was no question in her
mind. She knew that she had never been with a man when she gave
birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. God had spoken to her and revealed
she had watched him. Oh, can you imagine how Mary
had watched the Lord grow up? And she knew what he meant. In part, at least, when he told
her at the age of 12, did you not know that I must be about
my father's business? She understood something of that.
But now she's confused. Why has this thing gotten so
out of hand as she saw it? And he answered them, verse 33,
saying, who is my mother or my brethren? And he looked round
about on them which sat about him and said, behold, my mother
and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of God, the same is my brother and my sister and my mother. Now I want to know something
about doing the will of God that I might be counted in the family
of God. John makes it clear in 1 John,
he said, and this is the will of God, that you believe, that
you believe on him whom he has sent. This is the commandment
of God, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to rest all the
hopes of your salvation on him as all your righteousness before
God to trust that what he suffered on Calvary's cross was sufficient
to satisfy the demands of God's justice to put away all your
sin that you died in Christ to believe on him that is what it
is to do the will of God so he says these that are these that
are sitting at my feet and listening to my voice that have trusted
their immortal soul on me. That's my mother. That's my brothers. That's my sisters. And in another
place the Lord said, no longer do I call you my servant, for
a servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but rather I
call you my friends, my friends. Why? Because he has told us what
he did. He's told us what he accomplished
on Calvary's cross. So, we'll back up now from that
verse to verse 9 and because that's where we left off last
Sunday. And see something about these,
there's many characters referenced in this passage between verse
9 and the end of the chapter. And my hope is this morning that
the Lord would show us the difference between the believer and the
unbeliever that we might find ourselves with some hope of being
in the family of God. There's no greater comfort to
the soul than for the Lord to speak peace to your heart, that
you are his child, that you are his friend, that you're not at
enmity with God. And so verse nine begins with,
he spake to his disciples. Those are the only ones that
the Lord speaks to effectually. A person who is not a child of
God can understand some doctrine. They can understand some history.
They can have some knowledge. And yet, not really. Not really. You remember in Jeremiah where
the Lord said that he will write his law upon our hearts and impress
them upon our minds and then In the book of Hebrews, that
passage is quoted, but the Holy Spirit reversed the order. And
he said, I will write them on your minds and impress them upon
your hearts. Sometimes we make a distinction
between the head and the heart, but the scriptures don't make
that distinction. You can You can teach a child
to speak words of things they don't understand. You can teach
a parrot to do that for that matter. You can teach a man to say some
things that are true, but only when God speaks to his disciples
does he teach them experientially what that means otherwise they
just are speaking words you see the disconnect is not between
the head and the heart the disconnect is between the heart and the
lips the scripture says all men are liars and people will say
things that they don't understand nor do they believe Now what
I'm saying is that what you understand, you believe. And what you believe,
you understand. There's no difference. That doesn't
mean that you can't say total depravity. You can learn the
doctrine of total depravity. But not until the Holy Spirit
makes you a sinner do you understand what total depravity is. You
see, otherwise you were just repeating words that you learned
from another man. And the same thing is true about
everything relating to the gospel. God has to speak. You know, we've
seen this in the past. The Ethiopian eunuch, Philip
asked the Ethiopian eunuch, understand this what thou readest and what
did the eunuch say? How can I except a man should guide me? Does the prophet speak of himself
or is he speaking of another? And then what does John say in
1 John? He says, you have no need that
you should be taught of a man for you have the unction of the
Holy Spirit. You see, what you learn from
a man, you can unlearn from another man. But when the Spirit of God
teaches you by the unction that He gives you, then that can't
ever be untaught. How do I know I'm a child of
God? Because God has taught me. God's taught me. I didn't learn
this from a man. I heard the words from a man,
perhaps, who was guiding me through the Scriptures, but the Holy
Spirit has taught me to my heart to believe this with all my heart.
I can't be convinced to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by another
man. Only the Spirit of God can do that. How do I know I'm a
child of God? Because I've been taught of God.
Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these things from the
wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes, even so it seemed
good in Thy sight. They shall be all taught of God. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow after me. So here's how I know I'm a child
of God. God has spoke to my heart. He's revealed the truth of who
he is and what he's accomplished. And nobody can talk me out of
it. Nobody can talk me out of it.
I hear a lot of other messages out there, but I'm convinced
that this is true because God has taught me. God has taught
me. Now, what does that say to each
one of us? Oh Lord, teach me. Teach me. The gospel is called
a mystery. Over and over again. The Word
of God is called a mystery. Don, you read from 1 Corinthians
Chapter 2 this morning, and the reference was to the mystery
of the gospel. Eye has not seen, nor is ear
heard, nor does it enter into the imagination of man the things
that God has prepared for them. Because it's a mystery. It doesn't
mean that it's mysterious or strange. It means that it's hidden. It cannot be understood unless
it's revealed and only God can reveal it. So every child of
God says, Lord, I can deceive myself. I can learn to repeat
some things and convince myself that I believe them just because
I can say them. But Lord, I'm dependent upon
you to unveil the mystery to me and to teach me and to speak
truth to my heart. The Lord speaks to his disciples.
These are my mother and my sisters and my brothers. These that are
listening to me. And what did the Lord say to
them? Get a small ship. Now, ships oftentimes in the
scriptures are referenced to Christ and his church. We see
that with Noah and the ark, don't we? The ark is a picture of Christ
and Noah being in Christ and his family. There's the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ saved from the wrath of God. And the
very judgment of God that fell from heaven that consumed and
drowned the whole world is the water that lifted up the ark.
And so it is with the wrath that fell from heaven on the Lord
Jesus Christ. The death of Christ, there will
come a day when God will judge the world by this man. So the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ will be the standard of judgment
by which all men will be judged. Some will be found guilty and
others will be found not guilty. And so it is with the Ark. Jonah, you remember Jonah was
on the ship trying to flee from God and they got in a storm and
the sailors, The mariners, his shipmates were afraid. They thought
they were all going to die. And so they went around trying
to find out who was guilty before their God to cause such a catastrophe. And it was determined that it
was Jonah. And Jonah said, cast me into
the sea. And he was. And what happened
to the rest of the sailors? They were all saved, weren't
they? They were all saved. The fact that Jonah is a picture
of Christ was cast into the sea and went into the grave for three
days and three nights and there the picture of the church is
seen in a ship. What about in Acts chapter 27
when Paul was being transferred from Caesarea to Rome and there
was a shipwreck at Melita and they were trying to save the
ship and the ship was falling apart and And some of the sailors
were going to jump off the ship and Paul told the captain of
the ship, he said, don't let one man leave the ship. If anybody
leaves the ship, they're going to die. But if you stay with
the ship, you stay with the ship, you're going to live. And the
ship ended up breaking up into rocks, but everybody stuck with
the ship and everybody survived the shipwreck. The Lord said,
get a little ship. This is the way the Lord's church
has always been. just little dinghies. That's
what we are, isn't it? You know, men of the world, they
would a whole lot rather be on a luxury cruise liner than to
be on a dinghy, wouldn't they? I mean, there's a whole lot more
fun, a lot more to do, the food's better, you know, lots of entertainment,
lots of things going on to appeal to the flesh on a cruise liner.
What's a dinghy have to offer? The presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's it. That's it. The problem is the natural man
unable to discern the presence of Christ doesn't know that the
Lord's not on the cruise liner. So only the children of God can
discern the difference. Only the children of God can
see that the Lord has spoke. And what has he said? Get a little
ship. Get a little boat. Because that's
where I'm going to be. And that's where the Lord's always
found. and God's people, God's children, the family of God,
the mother and the sister and the brothers of the Lord Jesus
Christ, they've got no interest in that cruise liner. Let the
world indulge themselves in the pleasures of that all they want.
I wanna be on the little ship where the Lord Jesus Christ is.
That's the only place of safety. Maybe that's where the word fellowship
came from. Bunch of fellows on the same ship. We're the only
ones that have fellowship. The ones in the little ship having
fellowship with the Lord, walking in the light as he is in the
light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us of all our sins, all our sins. The scripture says, despise not
the day of small things. The world, the flesh loves things
that are big and flamboyant and powerful. God doesn't usually
work that way. God works in small things. Had
you and I had anything to do with planning the incarnation,
we would have had the Lord Jesus Christ coming the same way He's
going to come in His second coming, wouldn't we? We'd have had the
sky split, the trump of God's sound, and all the angels in
glory alert to the whole world, here comes the Son of God. The
whole world would have been aware of His presence, wouldn't it?
That's not the way the Lord came. A frail, dependent baby in a
feeding trough of a barn in an obscure village in a hated nation? Oh, despise not the day of small
things. See, God always works with small
things. And the believers walk of faith.
is is a life of small steps isn't it we get this idea that we just
we're waiting for the big thing to come for our ship to come
in you know we're gonna we're gonna have the big day and everything's
gonna be everything's gonna be taken care of the truth is that
the trees of righteousness which are the plantings of the Lord
grow slowly they grow slowly weeds grow fast But the trees
of righteousness which God has planted and most often times
he plants them in very harsh environments. And those are the
strongest trees of all, aren't they? The ones that have to fight
with the rocks and the cold and the wind and all the harsh things
that come against them and those trees survive and they're the
strongest of all the trees. But it's a small step-by-step
process, isn't it? He spoke to the disciples. Get
on a little ship. Quit looking for the big stuff.
That's what the world's doing. This is going to be a small thing
that I'm going to do in order to... Somebody's phone. If I can hear it, it's bad. What
is it? Okay, she's looking for it. All right, let's go back now
to verse 9. And He spake to His disciples
that a small ship should wait on Him. And that's what we're
doing, isn't it? Waiting on Him. We're just waiting
on Him. Isaiah chapter 31. I can't begin to quote it. It's one speaking of the Well, the passage is at the end
of Isaiah. It's verse 31. I can't remember
which chapter it is now, where it speaks about the eagle mounting
up with wings as eagles. He shall run and not be weary.
He shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40, 31. Is that it? Yes. And just waiting. That's how
it starts out. That's what I couldn't remember.
It is, thank you Bert, Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31, but they
that wait upon the Lord, they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. It's waiting on Him. What is
it to wait on Him? It's to believe on Him. is to
rest in him, is to trust him. It's what faith does. Faith waits
on the Lord. And so that's what he said. Go back
with me to Mark chapter 3. And he spake to his disciples that
a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest
they should throng him Now the next several verses speak of
this multitude of people that are being healed by the Lord
and following after him. And I remind you that it's not
long after this event that this same crowd of people is crying,
crucify him, crucify him. Don't think that everybody that
the Lord healed physically in the scriptures, he saved them.
uh... we know at least of one incident
where he healed ten lepers and only one of them came back to
worship him the other nine just went on as if you know they forgot
all about it uh... so there's evidence that the
lord that the lord healed people and they and then he he told
them after the feeding of five thousand he said you're only
following me that you might have your belly's full He said, if you really want to
be my disciple, you've got to be willing to take up your cross,
die to yourself and follow after me. You've got to identify my
cross as your cross and die in me and look unto me, the author
and the finisher of your faith. They weren't interested in that.
They were interested in, and nothing's changed. It's the same
today, isn't it? People want God to be there to
deliver them from their temporal circumstances, but they have
no interest in the eternal destiny of their soul. They have no concern
for their sinfulness before God. It's just, you know, God just
needs to give me some relief in this situation. That's what's
happening in the rest of this chapter. The Lord's healing him,
they're thronging him. It's just like when, you remember
when the Lord was going to Jairus' house and the press became so
strong on him that he couldn't move. And then the woman with
the issue of blood crawls on her hands and knees through the
crowd and thinks, Robert, as you preached so well a couple
weeks ago, if I could just touch the hem of his garment. And that's
all we ever do. All we ever do is just touch
the hem of his garment, but that's enough. That's enough. She was
healed, wasn't she? And she told him all the truth.
And the Lord said, who touched me? Well, Lord, the disciples
said, what are you talking about who touched you? Everybody's
touching you. And nothing's changed. Here we
are 2,000 years later, and everybody's trying to touch Jesus, aren't
they? Particularly today and tomorrow, everybody loves the
thought of a babe in a manger. No threat to that. Babies aren't
threatening. They're lovable and cuddly, aren't
they? And that's all men want out of
Jesus. They don't have any interest
in the one who died on Calvary's cross and bore them and their
sin before God. No interest in Him. so the same
things going on here the lord's healing people they're pressing
on him and they're just interested uh... in what relief he's able
to give them for their temporal circumstances how do i know if
i'm a child of god godspoken i'm on a little ship because
that's where the lord is and he continues to speak and and
and I don't know what to do, but
wait on him. I don't know what to do, but wait on him. And I'm not interested. Oh, I
do. I do have a need for the Lord
to provide for my daily needs, my daily bread, but oh, my greatest
need, my greatest need is the salvation of my soul, forgiveness
of my sin. Verse 10, for he had healed many,
insomuch that they pressed upon him, for to touch him as many
as had plagues. And unclean spirits, when they
saw him, fell down before him and cried, saying, Thou art the
Son of God. The demons crying, thou art the
son of God. Were they saved? No. James put
it like this. You believe that there's one
God, you do well. The demons in hell believe also and tremble.
They knew who the Lord Jesus Christ was. And the Lord had
sovereign control over them. What did he tell them? He told
them to shut their mouths. Don't tell anybody. The demons knew more about the
Lord Jesus Christ than most men do today. In one place, you remember at
the demoniac when the Lord crossed over the Sea of Gennesaret and
found this man who was living in a graveyard chained and was
he was out of his mind and the demons cried out and they said
Jesus our son of God has now come here to torment us before
our appointed time they know that he has control over them
they know that there's an appointed time that that that they'll be
judged The demons believe more about the Lord Jesus Christ than
most men. Most men don't believe that there's
an appointed time for salvation. They don't believe that he's
sovereign over them. They've made him subject to their
own will and to their good works. They've dethroned him. They've made him to be a God
who has abdicated his throne to their will and to their works. They may honor him with their
lips. They may say he's God, but they don't believe that.
What do the children of God believe? That he is the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. that he has the sovereign right
to save or to harden according to his own will and purpose. The child of God knows that they
are completely dependent upon the will of God. The will of
God. See, the world says God's willing
to save everybody, but he's not able. Why? Because he's not really
the son of God. He doesn't really possess the
full power of deity. He's dependent upon you to let
him have his way or to put in your two cents worth to make
what he did work for you. That's what the world believes.
These demons believe more about him than most people believe. We believe that he's the son
of God and we believe that if he If it's His will to cast my
soul into a devil's hell, He'd be just in doing it. He'd be
just in doing it. I've got no defense. The only hope that I have that
that would not happen is that my Savior went to hell for me,
that He suffered the full wrath of God's justice. and that God
satisfied with him, that God saw the travail of his soul.
And not only the travail of his soul, but God, Isaiah chapter
53 verse 10, it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and he saw his seed. You see, God's children have
been in Christ from before Adam was ever created. So when Christ
died on Calvary's cross, all God's people died in Him. They
died in Him. And God saw the seed of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He saw His people, His children,
and He prolonged His days, and the pleasure of the Lord was
in His hands. He is before all things and by
Him all things exist. He's the image of the invisible
God. I don't know if I'm a child of
God. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. And unlike these demons, I'm
trusting Him as the Son of God to be my advocate, to be my Savior. God's given me a love of the
truth. These demons feared Jesus as
the Son of God, but they had no love for Him. And what does
the Lord say in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2? Because they have
no love of the truth. Who is the truth? I am the truth.
I am the way. Because men have no love of Christ,
Number one, they don't believe that he's God. Number two, they
have no love for him. His children believe he's God
and they love him. Look what else happens. Verse 12, and straightway he
charged them not to speak. And he goeth up into a mountain
and called unto him, whom he would and they came unto him. And the same thing's true now.
He calls unto him whom he would and they come unto him. They're not coming to a denomination. They're not coming to a word.
They're coming to a person. They're coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ. They've heard his voice and they've got no place to go
but to flee to him. Well, there's so much more in
this chapter. I had grandeur visions of getting through the
whole chapter this morning, but we'll save the unpardonable sin is in here and the accusation that the Lord
was of the devil. And I want you to think about
between now and when we get back to this passage, his mother and
his brethren, thinking that he was beside himself. Why would
they think such? Why would they think such? The
reason they thought such is because he had become such a radical. And Christianity is a radical
religion. If the gospel is not true, it's
of no importance. If the gospel is true, it is
of infinite importance, but no one can conclude that the gospel
is moderately important. That's not an option. It's either
worthy of the trash or it's worthy of everything, everything. And the Lord, the Lord was making
it clear that this, this gospel is radical. And they thought
he'd gone too far. You ever have your friends and
family members accuse you of that? You know, can't you just
take it by measure? All right, let's take a break. Okay.