A place than all besides more sweet. Nothing sweeter than a place.
And Christ is that place. It's also where He meets with
His people. Right here. Nothing better than
that last verse in Psalm 107. Those that are wise will understand
that. The loving kindness of the Lord. David said in another place,
My loving kindness is better than life. Better than anything
in this life. There's nothing in this life
better than what we're doing right now. And if you love it now, we're
going to be doing it forever. Mark chapter 4. The Gospel of
Mark chapter 4. We've looked at this before.
Chapter 8, this story is found in Matthew 8, Mark 4, Luke 8. We're kind of going slow through
Luke. It was a year ago we looked at
it. Can't believe it. But I've enjoyed
the Gospel of Luke, haven't you? Tremendously. My, my. I've told
many. I've looked at these things many
times. When you see new things, you
just rejoice. This is the story of our Lord. And His disciples had a ship,
a storm. Storms of life is what this is
alluding to. A ship at sea in a storm. And what we're going to see tonight
is the Lord put them through two major storms. Pretty much back to back. That's
something I observed here. Now, the Lord had been preaching.
Go back to chapter 2. He had been preaching chapter
2. and teaching all day long, feeding people, teaching people,
healing people, all day, tirelessly. What a merciful, gracious, kind
Lord we have. Scripture says His tender mercies
All His words, everything that hath breath, the Lord feeds them. Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, He
entered into Capernaum. After that, it was noise. He
was in the house, a straight way. Many were gathered together,
insomuch there was no room to receive them, not even about
the door. And He preached to them. They just swarmed Him everywhere
He went. Verse 15, go down there, verse
15. He came to pass. He sat at Levi, Matthew's house. And many publicans and sinners
all gathered there. They all wanted to hear Him and
be with Him. Large crowds of people. Chapter
3, look at verse 8. from Jerusalem, Idumea, and Jordan,
Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude. They heard what great things
He did. They came unto Him. And He spake to His disciples
that a small ship should wait on Him because of the multitude,
lest they should throng Him. But He had healed many, and so
much they pressed upon Him to touch Him. Down in verse 20,
the multitude came together so much that they couldn't even
eat bread. easily agitated people, got too many
responsibilities, too many people pulling at us and all that, you
know, no way. We done it. Just leave me alone.
He never, he never did that. Thousands, everybody, everybody. What a gracious, merciful Lord
we have. All day, every day. He'd been
teaching, preaching all day long. Healing, serving people. What
a merciful Lord. He went about doing good. That's
what Peter preached at Pentecost. Man, it went about all He did
all His life was do good for everybody else. What a Lord. All day, every day. When we start
to complain about working too hard, you remember Him. He slept very
little. He ate very little. He said,
a 12-hour every day, I've got to work. When we think that we
go through trials and tribulations too many, he more. He more, much more. When we think
we can't take anymore, and we're filled with doubts
and fear and self-pity, this story is going to show us that
he's with us. He's going through it. He went
through it. First of all, He went through
it with them. He went through everything they went through
without fear. Everything. He's with us. Still
with us. Burying our burdens, all our
griefs. Like you do, your child, your
spouse, your parents, your friends, when they go through troubles,
you feel it, don't you? You grieve with them. You suffer
with them. Our Lord, much more. Much more
than that. As I mentioned, Brother Aaron
Simpson, you know how that family is feeling right now. Most people in this room have
been through something like that. You know how the family feels.
It's harder on the family than it is the person going through
it. They suffer with that person. You know how they feel. You know
what they're going through right now. Well, our Lord went through
it all. Bore our griefs. Carried our
sorrows. All His days. All His days. All
His days. I told Brother Aaron before his
surgery, I said, waiting is the hard part. Waiting on that surgery
or waiting on results from tests. Waiting, that's the hard part.
I said, think about our Lord. From the time He was born, He's
waiting to go to the cross. All His life He's been thinking
about how to go But He did cheerfully, willingly,
lovingly, for the joy set before Him. So our Lord is with us. He was with these disciples.
And for our comfort and our faith and our assurance, here's what
gives us peace, believer's peace and comfort. Though saddened,
though sorrowful, though troubled, though even fearful, this is
our peace and our comfort. Whatever it is, It is the Lord. He caused it. This storm they're
going to go through, He did it. But He's with them right in the
middle. Alright. His disciples. Mark 4. Verse 34. These were
His disciples. Verse 34. Without a parable spake
He not unto all the people. And when they were alone, He
expounded all things to His disciples. They were hidden from everybody
else but not His disciples. In Revelation 17 it says, "...they
that are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful." Who called
them? He did. Who chose them? Who chose
who? He did. Ask them all. Election? There's not a disciple,
not a child of God on earth that doesn't believe. More than that,
thank God to high heaven for choosing them for His sovereign
election. Ask the disciples. Ask them all.
Simon Peter, did you choose him or did he choose you? He'd look
at you like, are you an idiot? I had no interest whatsoever
in that Jesus of Nazareth thing. But one day he came about and
chose me! Ask them all, Simon, Andrew,
Peter, James, John, ask them all. Doctrine? No, Barnard, you
say. This is God choosing people to
be merciful to, to be gracious to. They would never give Him
a thought if He didn't choose them. They're such unworthy,
such ungrateful, such useless, worthless creatures. But God
chose not just a few. These are His chosen disciples.
He chose them that they might know Him. Don't you love Isaiah
43? These people have I formed for
Myself that they might know Me. This is life eternal to know
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ to be sent. To do
what? Save us! Chosen called these men to a
man. They all heard His voice. They all were chosen to hear
Him, to see His glory, to be with Him. Over in chapter 3,
it says, He went up into a mountain and called whom He would, and
they came to Him. And it says, He ordained twelve
that they should be with Him. That's why. He prayed that prayer
in John 17. Father, I will that those You've
given me be with me where I am. Be with me. Behold my glory. Tonight, is He with us? He promised
me. What do we want to do? Behold
His glory. When we see His glory, it calms
us. It gives us peace. It gives us
comfort. It gives us assurance. For a little while, we could
worry without Him. We'd fear Him. But it's for a little while. There He's called, chosen, and
faithful. Faithful, they're faithful. They believe Him. I do too. Do
you believe Him? Who believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ? I do. That's not presumption. Do you or do you not? Okay? They believed Him. They did.
Why? Because He revealed Himself to them. He revealed Himself
to them in such a way that they couldn't help but believe Him.
After this, are they going to believe Him after this? They believed, they followed
Him. Do you not want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ? Everybody
that believes Him follows Him in believers' baptism. He did! And He tells us to. Well, sure,
yes, Lord. I want to follow You. Brothers
and sisters, He's not ashamed to call us brethren. He tells
others where He is, and they're getting in that fools telling
everybody, He's my Lord, my Master, my Savior. That's a bare witness of Him. Those that He called, they're
faithful, they love the Lord. Don't you love Him? You love to hear about Jesus
Christ. Don't you want to hear anything else? What do you want
to hear about? Want to discuss politics? Only lovers of Christ want to
hear about Christ. All the time. All the time. So these are His disciples. Okay? And He's going to put them through
a storm. All of them. Why? The trial of their faith. That's why. Everything comes
our way. One principle reason. To try
our faith. You don't need faith with everything
He's going to find. Everybody in the world claims
to believe in Jesus and believe in God when everything is going
fine. God's blessed me. God's blessed
me. Look at that. Oh my God. Everybody says that. Alright,
take it all away. Take your health away. Like Joe. Take it all away. You have nothing.
You don't have your health. You don't have your family. All
your family's died. All your possessions are gone.
Your health is gone. You're sitting in the ashes. Joseph gets the Lord. The Lord gave him. The Lord takes
it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
For does that give him glory or what? That gives him glory. See, faith is to believe God
in spite of what you say. Against everything you say. It's
hoping against hope. Abraham, take your son and offer
him to me as a burnt offering. He didn't ask why. He didn't have to lie. He got
up early and went up there. And it's a good knock. Stop Abraham. Now I know. And everybody else
does too. Only God can give a man that
kind of faith. You know that? It's supernatural.
That glorifies God. It's not faith to live by sight.
It's faith to live on things you can't see. Just trusting
His Word. That's faith. When everything's
going wrong and you say, God did this. I believe Him. Here it is. Job said, though
He slay me, I'll trust Him. Now these are His disciples.
I am too. Are you? Yeah, I am. But they're
much more than that. They're little children. They're
grown men, but they're little children. And no matter how old
we get, brothers and sisters, I wish you'd see what I see. This white head, white hair is
all over this place. It doesn't matter how old we
get, we're just, when it comes to things, we get afraid, and
we're totally dependent on our noise. At the end of this, he's, well,
let me go on. If I get to the end of it. Okay,
here's the command. He gave a command. John read
Psalm 71. God gave a commandment to say,
verse 35, same day, the evening was come, he said unto them,
let us pass over on the other side. Matthew's Gospel, and Luke
says he took a ship. He just grabbed a ship. You can't
do that. The first time Peter ever knew
Him, when the Lord revealed Himself to Peter, he got in Peter Simon's
boat, ship. He said, cast off. Now Peter, Brother Mike, you've
got a boat that you built. Would you let just anybody come
up and say, I'm taking that boat out? No. If it's the Lord, you would.
Because it doesn't belong to you. He gave it to you. He gave
Simon that boat. That's his boat. It's not Simon's
boat. It's his boat. He said, now you're getting my
ship. We're casting out on my sea.
It's my ship, my sea, and Peter doesn't know it yet, but he belongs
to it. They gave the command. Now look
at the command. Let us pass over on the other
side. This is the command. It's a promise
to it. We're passing over the other
side. A little while later, they don't think they're going to
make it if they listen carefully. If we would just let these sayings
sing down deep in our ears, we're passing over the other side. You know that? He's been telling
us, Kelly, all along, but I'm a sinner. That's who it came for. Every
sinner that sees their sinfulness and sees their need of God is
going to pass over, John. Him! Don't holler. Yes, holler! I'm doing it for you. You want
to, and I'm doing it for you. Listen to the term here, Passover. Let us Passover. He is our Passover. He came to be their Lamb, slain
from the fountains. He came to be their Passover.
How are they going to make it? Him! How are they going to make
it into heaven? Him? He's the Passover lamb.
How are they going to make it over this sea? Him? He's the
ship. He's the ark. He's the captain. He's the Lord. They're His hands.
He's their Father. They're His children. Let us
pass over. Do you remember the story of
Joshua and the children of Israel going over the raging, stormy
Jordan? It overflows its banks. And they
all stood on that raging Jordan looking across there. And Joshua
said, "'Oliver, me!' And he said, "'Look to that ark!' The priest
went up to it." And at the end of it, the last verse, John says,
"'And all the people passed clean over.'" Every single one of them that
believed Joshua and looked to that ark passed clean over. Let us pass over to the other
side. And you just wait until you get
to the other side. What's on the other side? Peace
for everyone. No more storms. Now, the disciples
never knew where the Lord was going next. They never did. He knew every step He was going
to take. It was ordained by God, by Him and His Father and the
Spirit. before the world ever was made.
Every step he would make, every gesture with his every finger,
every person he came to save, everything he did, every word
he spoke, everything he did was ordained, preordained before
the foundation of the world. Predestined. They didn't know
where he was going the next moment. They didn't need to. Did they? Did they need to know? He knows.
He said, don't think of tomorrow. You don't know what tomorrow
is coming, but I'll tell you who's bringing it. You just need
to know Him. Trust Him. That's all they did.
That's all they could do. Every day, day in and day out,
just trust Him. Just trust Him. Just trust Him. Follow Him. They
followed Him. Just follow Him. Shepherd knows where He's going. They just followed Him and obeyed
and trusted Him. And they should have listened
more carefully, more believingly, or they'd have had more peace
like us. We should listen more. But we need to know this, that
everything He does is on purpose. And for the purpose of saving
His people, bringing in His kingdom, bringing His people into the
kingdom, and even everything we go through, somehow or another
is connected. Somewhere or another it's connected
to this purpose of God, bringing His people. Everything He does
with us. Everything. Even our sins. They're going to go through this
great storm. You know where they're going? They're crossing over
to the Gadarenes. Let's say one word and spell
at a time. That's what the Lord is going
to put them through. All it is to go across that sea to save
one worthless fat. He's going to save him, and you
know what he's going to do? He's going to say, get back in the ship. We're crossing. We're going back over. No, fat
doesn't give you hope. What does? Oh, he's not only
able to save the uttermost, he will go to the uttermost, the
farthest points to save. Verse 36, when they sent away
the multitude, they took him even as he was, that is, dressed
as he was. He didn't eat anything. He just
got right in the ship. He didn't waste a moment. And
they were also with him of the little ship. So they got in the
ship. They got in the ship together. Now, I love this thinking about
the ship. My dad's been on ship, I've been
on ship, Cody, other men, sailors, some men been on ship. He took
this ship and he put his disciples in it. And they were in a ship
quite often together. The Lord was about the Sea of
Galilee all the time. And he spent a lot of time, Capernaum
was on the coast there. They were in a ship quite a bit.
They were fellows. All these fellows were in a ship. Fellows, are you with me? Fellows
in a ship. It's no accident, the English
language. Fellows in a ship. Fellowship. That's what we're doing right
now. The ship is his kingdom. The ship is Christ himself. He's
the ark. The ship is His church, where
His people dwell, the fold. Truly our fellowship is with
the Father and His Son. If you weren't with Christ in
the ship, there's no fellowship. Right? Those other ships didn't
have fellowship then. They didn't. Right? Those other
ships are just drifting. They're with the Lord. They've
got a purpose. Our life is Christ and His people
and His worship. Those are in Christ. As said,
my dad was in a ship one time, I think he said about six months. That's a long time. A long time. I was in one about 10 days and
Cody Gruber was in a submarine and he would stay submerged under
water, no light of day for 30 days. Try that. Hidden, buried, gone. It's like you're dead to the
world. That's us in the Ark of Christ. We're dead. We're in him. In a ship. A ship. These sailors, fellows in a ship.
This is what goes on in a ship. A ship is their home. That's
where they live. That's their dwelling place.
In Him we live, move, have our being. He's our dwelling place.
That ship is their refuge. Their refuge. That ship is their
way over, if they make it. Every single fellow in the ship
knows, if we make it, this ship's going to get sank. This is Christ. They all knew that. That ship
is their life. They eat on it, they drink on
it, they walk, they talk, they walk around the ship, they talk.
What are they talking about? What do sailors talk about? The
ship. Sailing. They serve the ship. They scrub the floors, they raise
the sails, they knot the ropes and all that. They serve the
ship. You can't go a day, if you're
on a ship, you can't go a day without thinking about the ship. That's God's people. They're
in Christ. Christ is the ship. Christ is
our life. Fellowship with Him is people. Duty, it's our life, our love. Sailors, I know that I read a
lot of old sailing stories. Sailors, you know, they can't
wait to get to land, can't wait to get to land, can't wait to
get to land, and when they get on land, they can't wait to get
back on ship. Seriously. They're little ships. What about
these little ships? Well, you know there's a scripture
that says Christ is the Savior of the world. He's the Savior
of the world. Especially men that believe. What's that mean? Well, at any given time in the
United States, there are 50 million cars on the road. 50 million cars. How many wrecks
are there? How many fatalities are there? not compared to the number of
cars. Why? If any ship makes it, Jesus Christ
did it. If anybody is saved in any way,
anybody is healed, it's Him. It's Him. Everybody. These other little ships went
through this storm. They didn't see Him stop it.
They didn't hear Him say, peace, peace, be still. They weren't
with it. After it was over, I guarantee
you, some of them said, we sure were lucky. And it goes on every day. Are
we not blessed or what? We see the Lord did this. Every
one of those men in that ship with Christ, they'll tell you
who did this. Jesus Christ did this. He saved us. He calmed
the sea. He brought it and He stopped
it. It's the Lord. The storm. There's the storm. Verse 37,
there rose a great storm of wind. The waves beat into the ship
so it was now full. A great storm. And Matthew's
Gospel says a great tempest. They said the ship was covered
with waves. Ten, twelve foot waves. And Luke's
Gospel says raging the water. It says in Luke's Gospel, they're
filled with water and in jeopardy. Now these were hardened sailors.
They've been through a lot. And they thought, this is it.
They've never seen one like that. And to a man, they thought, it's
over. We're all going to perish. They
all thought that. Every one of them. We're going
to perish. Scott Richardson. who went through
many storms. He's now a clean oak pastor. He went through many storms.
Lost his wife, lost a daughter, lost his health, son put in prison. Not to mention all the troubles
of the church. Everybody else's troubles were
his. And he said, let me give you two statements. He said,
every believer usually has one great opportunity in their lifetime to show forth the praises and
the glory of their Lord. One big opportunity to show men
and women who you really believe. And then he said this, you remember
this, he said, if you knew what God knows, You'd order your life
just exactly like He ordered. It wouldn't change a thing. So
the Lord sent this great storm. This great storm of wind. Look at verse 37. It says, a great storm of wind.
Our Lord told the parable, the story of the house built on the
rock and the one built on the sand. You remember that? And
He said the rains came. That's down from heaven. Rains
come down from heaven. Trials that come down from God.
You know God, didn't you? And it says the floods rose,
the flood rose. That's trials from the earth,
people and things and all that that we've tried. The flood of
the ungodly, the flood of iniquity, all this rises from the earth.
And it says in the wind blows. Where does that come from? God,
who controls the wind and whose hands our breath is. Job said,
it's the breath, the blast of His nostrils. And He did it. It's all for our good, our faith
and His glory. But He's the one that raised
this stormy wind. That's what it said there in
Psalm 107, isn't it? And what we read, He said that
He raises, He raised, He commandeth and raises a stormy wind and
lifted up the waves there. And they were sailing. They were
in a sailing vessel. I've been in one. I told you about that.
And there's not a more helpless feeling than in a sailing boat
out on the ocean. You're completely, totally dependent
on the wind. Now, the wind bloweth where it
listeth. It bloweth where God says to
blow. And they were sailing the ship. He went to sleep. He was so tired,
so weary. Oh, he'd been through it all
day long. He went fast asleep. And they were sailing. Were they
now? And the winds were fine. Everything
was going fine. They were sailing just as long.
Oh, what a beautiful day. God blessed us with a beautiful
day. Isn't this wonderful? Just sailing along all of a sudden.
It changed everything. Things can sure change overnight,
can't they? From happy and calm to scared
to death. The Lord did it. He sent it.
Every stormy wind that blowed, the Lord does it. He's the Lord over the wind.
He's the Lord over all. And they were all full of fear.
Every one of them. There's not a person in this
room who's not afraid of something. Some of us are afraid of one
thing more than the other. We're all just flesh. It explains it. It doesn't excuse
it. We ought to believe our Lord more. He upbraids them at the
end. He rebukes them all for not having anything. I believe
it. But we are. And they were all full of fear. Now look at this, look at verse
37. He was in 38. The ship was now full. David, remember, in Psalm, what
Psalm is it? 42. He said, I was so cast down,
I was so full of trouble. He said, all thy waves and all
thy billows, deep calleth unto deep. All thy waves and all thy
billows, just keep one wave rather than another crashing over me.
Can it get any worse? Job thought the same. Can it
get any worse? It did. It kept coming. It kept coming. When is it ever going to end?
And they all, to a man, thought they were going to perish. But
the Lord did it. He showed forth His glory. And
He, verse 38, was in the hindered part of the ship. Stop right there. Those old sailing
vessels of old, old brigs, barquetees and ships of war. You know where
the captain's quarter was? In every ship, the captain's
in the high department. The captain's back there in the
ship. He's sailing his vessel. But
he's asleep. This is a mystery and a marvel.
The God man, God never sleeps. He that keepeth Israel never
slumbers or sleeps. God never sleep. Man gets weary. He was God and man. He got weary.
He needed to sleep. Isn't that amazing? And a marvel,
a marvel, alright? The waves are filling the ship.
The wind is boisterous. The ship is rocking like this.
I kid. And the waves are crashing over.
Those waves are slapping him in the face. He's laying in the
back of the ship on a pillow, sleeping like a baby. And the
waves are hitting and smacking him. It just sounds right. A
man with perfect faith. Perfect faith. He lived by faith,
Sister Mindy. He lived by faith. He depended
on every meal from his Father. Everything from his Father. He
lived by faith. He had to. The just shall live
by faith. He never did anything for himself. Satan said, command
these stones to me by my bread. No. Trust my Father. Jump off this cliff, you're the
son of God. He had perfect faith. You know what perfect faith will
give you? Perfect peace. He knew his Father loved him.
Perfect love. He knew he was immortal until
it's time. He said, no man taketh my life
from him. No storm is going to take my
life from him. My Father is going to take my
life from him. He knew that he cannot,
he will not die until he lays his own life down. He knew that.
And you and I won't either. Brothers and sisters, We are
not going to die until the Lord says so, and then you can't stop
it. And after it's over, you're glad you couldn't. You'll be
real glad. He knew that his Heavenly Father,
that he was in his Father's hands, and his Father loved him, and
everything was good. Like that little boy, Spurgeon's
the one that told that story about the young man on a sailing
ship, a passenger ship. And it was a fierce storm. And
this young boy on this sailing ship, everybody was scared to
death. And that little young man, he was unafraid. He was
just acting like whistling or something. And somebody said,
young man, don't you realize the danger we're in? Why aren't
you afraid? He said, my dad's the captain
of this ship. He's not going to let anything
happen to me. That's faith. So he's peacefully asleep. Peacefully
asleep, they're fretfully awake. He has perfect faith and perfect
rest. They have little faith and great
fear. No rest. No rest. You know what they should
have done? Crawl back in the back of the
ship and go to sleep with him. He's resting. But he knows our prayer. We're
so subject to the flesh. We don't live much by faith.
We live by sight. Alright, they came to him in
verse 38. He's sleeping on a pillow and
they awake him and they say to him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Don't you care? How could you
be sleeping like this? We're all pale in water. Has
anybody in here said something like that? I bet you everybody
in here said something like that. Why would you do this to me?
Don't you care? That's like a little child is.
Selfish little child. Don't you care? I had a big St. Bernard and built a house for
him big enough for me and that dog to get in at the same time.
And you know, my parents would get after me, not nearly as much
as they should, but I'd get my feelings hurt and I'd crawl into
that dog house with that dog, put my arm around him and say,
nobody loves me like you do. What a little idiot. What an
ungrateful, childish little fella you are. Me, don't matter. What's
wrong with you? Care? Don't you care? Do you know how much our Lord
cared? To leave the Father, to leave
heaven, to leave happiness, to leave the place where everybody
loved Him, everybody sang His praises, there was all this peace
and joy to come to this hell hole. For whom? Who did He do
it for? Care? Hmm. Boy, I dishonored
the Lord, didn't I? Don't you care? Didn't He say
in another place, I give unto them eternal life? And they said,
what? Never perish. He came so they wouldn't perish. They're going to perish if He
didn't come. And He's going to show them with this great storm
that care? You have too much care of the
world and things, too much fears of this world and people and
things. You have too much fear. You need more faith. Yes, I care. And he arose and
rebuked the wind, walked out on the bow of that ship, rubbed
the sleep out of his eye, and said to the wind, hush. And said to the waves, that raging
sea, he said, peace, be still, lie down now, like a dog, lie
down. And it did. That raging sea. The sun came out. The sun was
out. He just parted the clouds. There
was the sun all along. Watered like a farm pond. No wind. It's quiet. Peace. Home. Try to imagine them seeing this. We can't. We can't. We've been
through some storms. We never thought we'd have any
peace. Never thought we'd be happy again.
Never thought we'd get over it, get through it. David said, I
would have perished in my affliction had I not believed to see the
goodness of the Lord in the land I live in. Peace. And the wind ceased, and
there was a great calm. There's great peace and great
calm by believing, by trusting. You're going to see. You're going
to see. And then he gently rebuked them.
He knows they're praying. And He said unto them, look at
this, verse 40. Why are you so fearful? Two things. Why are
you so fearful? What are you afraid of? Who or
what are you afraid of? Didn't He say, don't fear men. Don't fear what anybody can do
unto you. Huh? Fear God. He said, even if they
killed a body, you remember this, Kelly? Even after they killed
a body, that's all they can do. Can't touch Him again. Why would you fear that? All
your troubles are over. Death is better than birth. That's
what it says. What are you afraid of? Who are
you afraid of? I say this to those who are not
here, who are listening. What are you afraid of? Fear God. Don't fear man. Don't
fear things. Look at the next thing. He said,
how is it that you have no faith? He says, you have no faith. Not a little. No faith. You're showing zero faith. What
is faith? Is faith just trusting Christ
to keep our soul out of hell? I believe the doctrine. I believe
the doctrine. And He's going to get me to heaven,
I believe that. Is He just the Savior of our
soul? Or is He the Savior of every hair on our head? And what are we afraid of? We act like we don't have anything. Why is it, I'm asking myself,
why is it at times I act like I have no faith whatsoever? I
act just like the world who doesn't believe God at all. I act just
like this. What's wrong with that? And they feared exceedingly,
said one to another, what manner of madness is this? Even the
wind and the sea obey Him. And brother, let me say this
before I don't get to it. I've got to say this. Aren't
you glad salvation is not by our faith? How much faith we
have. We're not saved by our faith.
We're saved by His. Aren't you glad? Now this was
not the last storm. Chapter 6. Go on over to chapter
6 with me. Give me a few more minutes, you'll
enjoy this. This wasn't the last storm, this
was just a, I don't know, a few weeks or months later. They thought
after this storm was over, whew, I'm so glad that's over. To a person, they thought. And
Helen, they probably thought, we'll never doubt him again after
this. I don't know why we doubted him. Look, look, he controls
everything. No, we believe now. One time
our Lord said a lot of things to him. He said, do you understand?
They said, yeah, we understand. He said, do you? You remember right before we
went to the cross, they said, now we believe that our Christ
is the Son of the Living God. Now we know, we believe. He said,
do you? He said, you're all going to depart from it. Remember that,
John? He said, every one of you are
going to believe that. So our salvation, It's not in
any way dependent on us. Not in any way. Aren't you glad? Chapter 6, verse 45, straightway
in the strangest cycle, get into the ship. Get in the ship. Why? We're going to the other
side. There it is again. Sent away the people. Sent everybody
else away. Told his disciple, get in the
ship. Why? We're passing over. When he sent them away, he departed
into a mountain to pray. When evening would come, the
ship was in the midst of the sea and he alone on the land.
Now, if anything, this storm was worse than the first. Why?
They didn't think he was in the ship. They had no sight of him. They'd lost sight of him. They
thought, he's not with us now. He can't tell that he's not here.
to tell the wind to stop. They couldn't see him. You know
what I'm going to say to them? He never took his eyes off of
them. Never took his eyes off. He saw them, verse 48, toiling
and rowing. Toiling. I can't do it anymore,
Lord. We're not going to make it. The
wind was contrary unto us. Was it? Was the wind contrary
to us? Is anything contrary to us? Didn't
He say, all things work together? About the fourth watch of the
night and the dead of the night. Have you ever watched for the
morning? Like Psalm 136, my soul waiteth for thee more than they
that watch for the morning. and deep troubles and sorrows
and sickness and affliction and waiting and waiting on the Lord.
And He says He came walking upon the sea and raised Him, showing
us that He's the Master of the sea. Billows His will obeyed. He said, in this world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome. I own this world. I own this way, this water. And
all this that you're going through, I did it. And it says He would
have passed by them. He made it though He wouldn't
pass by. And they saw Him walking upon
the sea and they supposed He had been a spirit. Now listen
to this. They all saw Him and they were
all troubled. Every one of them, to a man, thought that they'd
seen a ghost. and immediately talk with them
and say unto them, be of good cheer. Cheer up. It is I. Be not afraid. Whatever it is, it is I. Brothers and sisters, he's the
head of all principalities and powers, spirits and wickedness
and high places. We do not even fear those things. Sometimes we act like we've seen
a ghost. Fray of the dark? Grown man. Day and night unlike
the Lord. Oh, my. What's wrong with us?
I'll tell you what's wrong with us. Reflesh. And we just don't
trust Him enough. And I wish we did. I wish I did.
And He came walking to us and says in our text in chapter 6,
verse 51, when He got into the ship, the wind ceased. And they
were so amazed in themselves, beyond measure and wonder. Tell
me, if you're going through some troubles and trials, and we all
do, or maybe, do you ever get any more peace than when you're
with the families and the ship together? That Psalm 107 said,
let them all sing, let them sing in the congregation. Why? The great things the Lord has
done. Oh, the fellowship of the gospel, the fellowship of His
sufferings, the fellowship of the saint, of the mystery. And
it says, in our fault, as they considered
not the loaves, their heart was hardened. They just considered,
they'd forgotten, they forgot so quickly everything He'd done,
everything He said. These men acted like they hadn't
heard a word He said. And that's us. We have less excuse
than they do. Most of us are older than all
of the disciples. Right now, over there. Most of us have walked
with the Lord, known the Lord a lot longer than those disciples.
They've only known Him a couple of years. They're babes. We have
no excuse to do it. Thank God He's so much faster.
He remembers our prayer. Okay, stand up. Father in Heaven, thank you, thank you,
thank you. Your blessed Word comforts us, consoles us, eases
our doubts and fears, and gives us peace and calms us. Thank
You, Lord, for Your Word. We pray that You would make these
sayings sink down deep in our ear, let them be planted in our
hearts and minds so that there will be a wellspring when we
need them most. We're going through troubles. May these things come back to
our mind. Not forget past mercies. Not forget Your Word, Your sure
promises. There's a great peace of believing
and trusting in our Lord. So give us this faith that comes
by Your Word. Thank You, Lord. Thank You for
Your people. Thank You for bringing us. In Christ's name, amen.