Matthew chapter 8. We're going to give our, we're
going to take next Wednesday for our final message. I'm going
to condense next Wednesday's message into, well, it's going
to be two messages into one. That'll be our final message
on the tabernacle. But tonight I felt impressed to give this
message. I hope the Lord is the one who impressed me. You've heard the old saying,
no man is an island. Well, that means that no man
lives to himself, but he is, or she, is influenced by everyone
that's around them, and they influence those around them,
and affected by other things and other people. This is especially
true of the church. There's no member of the church
who's an idler, who lives unto himself. The church is called
a body. A body. of believers. Christ is the head,
and we are many members, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12, many
members. We have different makeup, situations,
personalities, and so forth, yet we're one collective body
called a church, one body. The church is called, in places
it's called the fellowship of his son, it's called the fellowship
of the gospel. It's called the Fellowship of
Saints, and I like to refer to it as, simply put, as fellows
in the same ship. And what is that ship? Who? It's
Christ. The Ark. We're all in Christ. He's the Ark. He's the ship.
And we're fellows in the same ship. We live in the ship. We're
in this Ark. We're in this vessel, in this
body. And we're traveling. We've got
a destination. You know where we're headed? The other shore. The other side. The other side
of Jordan. And Christ is that ship that
we live in, we travel in, we live, move, have our be, move,
have our be, and we seek our refuge in the ship. We ride out
the storms in the ship. The church is the body of Christ. And it's the body of that ship. It's that vessel. And if we are
in Christ, then we are in the church. We're in this ship, okay? And there's a very real sense. Terry and I were talking about
this. There's a very real sense. It's a strange thing. It's a
mysterious thing, a mystical thing. There's a very real sense
in which this right here is Christ himself. It's his body. Didn't he say,
inasmuch as you've done this under one of the least of these,
you've done it under me? Inasmuch as you haven't done this under
one of these, you've not done it under me. Right? In a very
real sense, you know, husband and wife, they're one. My wife
took my name. She is Mrs. Paul Mahan. She no
longer has her own name. She is Mrs. Paul Mahan. We're
one. Whatever you do to her, you do to me, and vice versa.
You love her, you love me. You can't love her and not love
me. Somebody said that. Not too long
ago. I can understand that from the
personality. She's much more lovely than I
am, but not enough to her, though. And in a very real sense, there's
no way that you can love her and not love me. We're one, right? And it's this is a strange it's
a mystery. Great is the mystery of God and
the names of six things. The church is the mystical body
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Christ. It's strange. And as I said,
we're like what we are here, this body. We're like one person
who is on a long voyage to a certain destination, and we're in this
ship together. We're in this ship together.
And this world is the ocean that we're on. We're crossing the
ocean, and it's vast and it's long. It doesn't seem like there's
any end to it, any end in sight. We can't see land. Some of us
ought to be able to see it. Land aho! We ought to. Some of us ought to. But for
most of us, we don't see the shore, do we? And it's a rough
and stormy place that we're on. I've been out to sea. I don't
know if any of you were—anybody in here in the Navy? You weren't
in the Navy? You been out on the ocean though
at all? I've been out on the ocean before. I was out there about two weeks
one time in a little small sailboat. It looked pretty big tied up
to the dock. But when we got out on the ocean,
six of us in this 41-foot boat, and the waves started pounding
and the wind started blowing, that boat started heeling over
like that. Oh, I felt like a mighty small little minute in that ocean.
And I was there. I'm a landlubber. You know that?
I'm a landlubber. I could have done like Pope Paul
when I got back to the shore. I could have kissed the ground.
But at any rate, we were out there for two weeks, and the
majority of the time, it was smooth sailing. Boy, I liked
it then. Oh, this is great. Isn't this
lovely? When the waves started crashing and the boat started
leaning, oh, my. I wanted to go home. And that's
the way we are. That's the way our lives are,
really, for the most part. For the most part, we have pretty
good, don't we? For the most part, it's pretty smooth sailing.
The more you let the slightest little foul wind come up, oh,
life's miserable. Isn't this awful? A couple of
storms come along, a wave of trouble here, a wave of sorrow
there, a wave of sin, besetting sin, crash over the bow, fill
you up, a wave of some kind of trial that seems to overcome
you, a wave after wave And like I just said, many of which get
inside the ship, and you think you're going down, going down,
sinking, until you finally despair of yourself and your life, and
you think you're not going to make it. Well, look here in Matthew
chapter 8, verse 23. Matthew 8, 23. And when he was
entered into his ship, his disciples followed him. That's a perfect
picture of the church right there. We're in a ship, and Christ is
in it. We follow him. This is discipleship,
Terry. This is true Christianity, following
Christ. Wherever he went, he called them,
and what'd they do? Followed him. Followed him. He got in
a boat, they got in a boat. He got out of the boat, he got
out of the boat. Someday, Christ is going to lead his bride. On
the other shore, we're going to follow him. Everywhere, like
a puppy dog, we're going to follow him. I like that. Like the people
in Pilgrim's Progress, or Holy War, you know, They loved him
so much they liked the way he walked and talked, and they got
in behind him and stepped in his footsteps. We're going to follow him. Verse 24, Even though Christ
was in the boat, the disciples were safe. They followed him.
He's the master of the sea. Behold, there arose a great tempest
in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with waves.
Didn't say anything about it going down, did it? It just says
it's covered with waves. But he was asleep. Christ. You're talking about a mystery
now. God was sleeping? Well, we know God never sleeps,
but that's a mystery there, and he was asleep. And His disciples
came to Him. These waves were crashing over
the bow and so forth, and the boat was leaning over, and they
started getting scared. And the disciples came to Him
and woke Him up saying, Lord, save us. We're going down. We're perishing. We perish. Could they have possibly perished? It's the slightest possibility
that that ship could have gone down. Where was their security? In
the ship. Not the boat itself, but the
one that was in the ship. All right? But there's a real
sense in which if they stayed in the boat, because of who was
in the boat, they were going to be all right. All right? In
the ship. Because of who was in the ship,
because they were in the ship. inseparable. And remember, like
I said, Christ and his people are one. You're in Christ, you're
in the church. You're in the church, you're
in Christ. All right? Same body, same head. One family, one father. The children of a family, they're
all safe as long as daddy's in the house, right? They're safe.
One fellowship, One boat, fellows in the same ship, same ark, and
their safety is in the ship because Christ is in the boat. It's not
going to run aground. No way. It's not going to go
down. It's not going to veer off course.
It's not going to perish. Christ is in the ship. Christ
is in the ship. Christ is the ship. He's in the
ship. Yet we fret and we worry like
these disciples. We fret and we worry and we're
fearful and we're of little faith and we cry out, Lord, save us
or we perish. I'm going down. You believe Christ. You ain't going down. Lord, save
us. Spurgeon gave this illustration
of a great ship going across the Atlantic Ocean. This was
in our bulletin one time. great ship was going across the
Atlantic Ocean, a big steamliner at one time. And on that ship
there were many different people. There were, there was a, on that
ship there was a little baby in the arms of his daddy, a little
six-week-old baby in his daddy's arms. And there was a great big
strong robust man on that boat. Now, is that baby, what determines
whether or not they get to the other side or not. Is that man,
is that strong man going to get to the other shore because he's
a strong man? Huh? He can't swim any more than a
baby can. Is the baby any less safe because
it's weak and helpless and so forth? No. What determines which
one of them or the fact that, whether or not they're going
to get across? According to the strength and the safety of that
vessel, that is where their safety lies. And the same thing with
the church. There's weak ones, there's strong
ones, and when it comes right down to it, none of us are very
strong. But our whole safety depends on the ship, the vessel
that we're in. In verse 26, they said, and Christ
said unto them, Why are you fearful? O ye of little faith, why are
ye fearful? I am is here. I am here. God was in Christ. God, Christ. God is in Christ,
reconciling us to the Father. leading us, guiding us, protecting
us, saving us, keeping us. If you're in Christ, I don't
care how weak your faith is, it's not the strength of your
faith. It's the vessel. It's the object of your faith.
Right? It's not the strength of your
faith. Not the weakness. It's the object. If you're looking
in the right direction, you're going across. You're going across. If you travel the right way,
the right path, You're going across like those children of
Israel. You're going across on dry land. You're not going to
get wet. Now try another way. If one of
those fellows, I think I can make it a little quicker if I
turn right. He'd have hit a wall of water, wouldn't he? And drowned. Stay in one direction. Your faith
in one direction. Pointing in one direction. Looking
to Christ. Look. Look. And be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. If
you're where Christ is, And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that
Jesus Christ has visited and is visiting, and I believe, I
trust Him that He will continue to visit this little group right
here. I've been here when He's been here. Can you stand? And
where Christ is, there's safety. I ain't going nowhere. How about
you? Fellowship of His Son. Fellows
in the same ship. You see, Christ handpicked this
vessel. He handpicked it. He handpicked
it, whom he would. He handpicked, he foreknew, foreloved,
forechose, ordained every member, every board, every rivet. Now you may be, I don't know
what you are in the vessel, You may be just a rivet, and the
body you may be the little toenail. But the Lord hand-picked every
one of them for His vessel, hand-picked it. He bought it with His own
precious blood. He bought this vessel. You know
what, though? This vessel, when He found it, it was sunken. It was on the bottom of the ocean,
rotten. to the core, to the hull. The
hull was rotted through. He found it, a spunken vessel,
but he—what do you do when you pick something out of the water?
He raised it. He quickened it. We're quickened
together with Christ. He raised this old vessel. He
rebuilt it every boy and every rivet, every sail, mainsail,
jib sail, whatever. But he bought it He chose it,
he bought it, he built it. He built this church, this building,
this vessel. He built it, this earthen vessel.
It's his ship. It's his. He's got a lot invested
in it. It's his vessel. He dwells in it. And if we're
in it, we're safe. We're safe. He's not, and this
master, this owner, this great high admiral, he's not going
to let anything happen to it. You've got too much invested
in it. It's glory. He's got his glory invested in
it. And he's not going to let anything happen to it. And he's
not going to leave it in the hands of just anybody. This is
comforting. It should be comforting to you.
It's comforting to me. Did you notice that it said there
that he was asleep in the ship? He was asleep. Evidently, one
of those other fellows was Somebody was manning the sails,
somebody had a hold of the tiller, and somebody else was doing this
and that and the other. He left it in charge of somebody,
didn't he? That's exactly—turn over to 1
Corinthians 12. This is exactly how the Lord
Jesus Christ does with his church. Exactly. Exactly. Christ has delegated all the
work and the responsibilities of his church to me. He, himself,
he leads, guides, protects, charts the voyage, he makes sure of
the outcome, he oversees it, he's driving for, he's the wind
behind the sails, he determines where it's going and so forth.
He, the light is cast in the lap, the whole disposing, that's
a good verse, it's perfectly applied. The light is cast in
the lap, the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. He's
the great high admiral. But he's delegated work and responsibilities
of his church to men. He's still calling the shots.
He's guiding the ship, but he does it through the means of,
like any ship, sails, a tiller, a wind, a crew, all
of these things. And we're all in this ship, and
we've all got work to do. Not the same work. Not the same
work. but it's of the same importance.
And we all got the same destination. We're all seeking to go to the
same place, and no matter the difference in the work, they're
all of the same importance. I'm going to show you that in
a minute, how you can't do without one. Look here at 1 Corinthians
12, beginning with verse 3. Now, wherefore I give you to
understand. Now, understand this. Oh, how
we need to understand this. That no man speaking by the Spirit
of God calls Jesus a curse. Now, God's not going to let His
Son be abused and a false gospel priest and so forth to His church. And that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. God, through the
Holy Spirit, speaks through men, the edification of His people.
because he's determined for them to grow in grace and the knowledge
of Christ. Now, verse 4, there are diversities of gifts, but
it's the same Spirit, same Holy Spirit. There are differences
of administrations, ministries, but the same Lord. There are
diversities of operations, but it's the same God which works
all and in all. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. It's for the
profit, for the good of all. And to one is given by the Spirit
the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, by the
same Spirit another faith, another gifts of healing, and so forth,
a work and a miracle, a prophecy, and all these things. Verse 12.
Now the body is one, has many members, and all the members
of that one body being many, yet they're one body. And this
is the way Christ is. This is the way His church is. 13. By one spirit, we're all
baptized into one body. We're all in the ship. We've
all been placed in Christ by faith, right? Baptized into Him. As many have been baptized into
Christ, they've put on Christ. Whether we be Jew or Gentile,
whether we be from Franklin County or Boyd County, Henry County,
wherever it may be, New York, wherever it may be, we're all
in the ship. Whether we be bond or free, we've
all been made to drink into one spirit. Stay with me now. Come on. The body is not one
member, but it is many. All right? Now, if the foot shall
say, I'm not the hand. I don't like being a foot. Well,
granted, a foot's not quite as lovely as a hand. Doesn't seem
to be by the natural law. But you try doing without one. I'm not of the body. Is it therefore
not of the body? If the ear shall say, because
I'm not to eye, I'm not of the body, I'd rather be an eye, what
if the whole body were one big eye? He said there in verse 17. Where were the hearing? What
if the whole, what if everybody aspired to be preachers? Who's
going to hear them preach? They sure wouldn't listen to
one another. If the whole were hearing, where
were the smelling? What if it were one big ear,
one big nose? And now hath God set the members,
every one of them, in the body, as it hath pleased him. Who decides who goes where and
who does what? As it hath pleased him, him,
him. or respect and appreciation one
for another. He just got through talking about
those members which seem less honorable or the meek and the
quiet and the less visible and vocal and so forth. The members
should have the same care one for another. Why? Because we're
all equally important to one another in this body. Twenty-sixth,
and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.
You let your little, you get a, you mash your thumb or a stubby
little toe or whatever. The whole body, your head hurts.
That's the way it ought to be with the body. And one member
be honored, oh, I wish I'd a, who's, you know, I deserve it.
No. We all rejoice with him. So-and-so
got a promotion. Great. Thank God. good, all rejoicing. Now, you're the body of Christ,
verse 27, and members in particular. I wish I could stress, I'm not
sure I knew that this was a member, and I'm not sure you know it
now, but I wish I could just stress the value and the responsibilities
of just being a member of the local assembly. When somebody in here leaves
or whatever, we miss some bad, don't we? Can you think, Bala,
can you think of anybody in this room right now that you could
do without? God is my witness. I can't think
of anybody that's here and is not here, who is normally here,
that I want to do without. Can you? I want to say with Moses,
Lord, if you don't say, block me out. If old Henry can't make
it, I don't know. Can you say that? Like Paul said,
Lord, I could wish myself a curse for my brethren. Well, speaking of these fellows
in the same ship again, speaking of these duties and responsibilities,
Some of us are swabbing decks, and that is not a glorious and
romantic cut in the grass. That's just not a very glorious
thing to do, is it? Boy, we sure need it done, don't
we? Just leave her alone for about two weeks and just see
how badly and how vital it is. People go by and say, well, that
place is finally closed up, hasn't it? Just because the grass isn't
cut. Pretty important, isn't it? It's
a pretty viable and responsible chore to this community. It's
a pretty viable witness in front of the community, isn't it? Huh?
Yeah, if you look at it that way. Some are manning the sails. Some are manning the sails. Old
Joe's manning the sails up there. Singing, you know. Some are working the bilge pumps. down in the lower parts of the
belly of the ship, working to build your pump. Never see the
light of day. Some are in the galley, cooking.
Right? I'm not going to cook another
meal for these ungrateful sailors up there. They're the ones getting
all the sun tanned, and here I am down here. Everyone, regardless
of what they're doing, they may feel neglected and unimportant.
Like I said, like that man in the bilge pump. Right here is
the man in the bilge pumps. Right here. The treasurer. It's the most un-thankless. It's
the biggest headache. It's the most responsible position
other than the pastor of the church. And they do a mighty
fine job. And I'm sure that he and Sherry
both feel like it goes unnoticed. And it does. And we need to thank
them. It's a thankless, dirty job. Somebody's got to do it. Somebody's
got to do it. And responsible? One man in the
church was a treasurer. What happened to him? Judas. Pray for this man. It's a tremendous responsibility. Some make it to those stands.
They had one over 13th Street for 35 years now. He's one of the finest men up
there, and you can trust him with your life savings, you know.
I believe we've got one just like that. And everybody may want a different
job. Yet, if they had another job, they'd probably get tired
of it, too, you know. That's just the way it is. That's
the way we are. Greener pastures, you know. And we realize, if
we were in another man's shoes, we'd realize the difficulty of
that job as well. Well, look back at the text there
in Matthew 8. No, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry. Look over at 1
Corinthians 12 again. Look back, let's see, verse 28. Yeah, back here. He says, Now
your body of Christ and members, all with different responsibilities,
members of the body, all equally important. But look at this,
look at the order of things, verse 28. And God has set some
in the church, though. This is just the way it is. God
has set some in the church. First, apostles. Secondarily,
prophets. Thirdly, teachers. Now, look
over to Ephesians 4 with me. Ephesians 4. We'll get back to
Matthew in a second. Ephesians 4, verse 11, he says
the same thing here. He talks about God giving gifts
to the church. for the perfecting of the saints,
the work of the ministry, edifying of the body of Christ, the work
of the ship, you know, bring the ship to shore. Verse 11,
He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists.
Now, there are no more apostles, right? There are no more prophets. And I don't know right now of
any evangelists going out. Every man, every pastor, I do
the work. When you send me out, I'm doing
the work of an evangelist. I'm a missionary of this church wherever
I go to preach. Ralph Barnard was a true evangelist, one who
lives by the support, who goes all over and preaches the gospel
by the support of other churches. I don't know of any right now. You may know somebody. I don't.
No more evangelists. Where does that leave? What does
that leave as the authority of the church? That's what it says
right there. Pastors and teachers. That's
one and the same. Elder, elder means the same thing. Bishop, same thing. At the helm
of the ship, leading and guiding the church. Now, I'm not trying
to call attention to myself here at all, but it's just part of
this thing. I've dwelt for thirty-five minutes
now on us. But the crew, now it's got a
man at the helm, the pastor. The crew only sees Crew only
sees the romanticism of the job. They see the captain up there
in his uniform, his little pointed hat on, you know, with his hand,
got his hand on the plow, or on the wheel, looking over the
horizon, undaunted, unmoved. Right? Captain Bly. They don't
see his heart breaking. They don't see him shaking in
his boots. All they hear him do is barkin'
orders. Hup, hup, hup, hup, hup. Scrub my neck. Man that sail. What's wrong with you over there?
Get ship shakin' now. They don't see him at two o'clock
in the morning while everybody else is asleep. They don't see
him walkin' the plank, ready to jump in. They don't see him
consulting the compass and the chart and the stars, hoping,
praying not to take that ship off course. They don't hear him
crying out to the master of the sea, Lord God, who is sufficient? Why am I at the helm? Jeremiah, every one of them,
you just look at every one of them, they all said the same
thing, basically. Jeremiah, the Lord called him,
and he said, Lord, I am a child. He's 24 years old, I believe.
Lord, I'm a child. I can't leave the... Say not
that you're a child, and I'll go with you. Moses. Lord, I'm
not an elephant man. I never have been, never will
be. Who made man? I'm being made a fool. I'm off
scouring the earth, like Paul said, Jonah said. Jonah fled,
you know, because the people were going to believe him. He
told them they were going to perish, but yet the Lord turned
around and said, I'm going to save them. And he was going to
be made out to be, you know, a fool. Elijah, Lord, I'm scared. There's a woman chasing me. I'm
scared. Oh, he could fight down All those
false prophets and so forth, stand eye to eye to all those
false prophets, got one Jezebel on his tail, and he's running
like a scared dog, scared rabbit. Peter, I quit. Lord, I quit. I'm going fishing. I'm going fishing. Even the Lord
himself, praying in the garden, even the Lord himself, Terry,
if it be possible, And while he was praying this,
who was asleep? But no, like I said, all they
know is what they see and hear. And some may even say, I wish
I was a captain. But the captain, the captain,
he only wants one thing, a true A true minister and pastor and
preacher of the gospel, leader of the sheep, he only wants one
thing, and that is to lead the ship across that ocean to the
other side, point that ship in the right direction. And he may
take a direction that nobody is familiar with. Hey, Captain,
now these are uncharted waters. You've never been this way before. Every day is a new day, right?
Every day is a new day. It's new water, uncharted water. But they aren't uncharted. Somebody
went before us. And he left a journal, Terry.
He left a journal. And a smart captain is reading
it. He's consulting it. Somebody went before us. He was
a pastor, a shepherd of the sheep, and he wrote up some charts. And a smart pastor is consulting
the charts, diligently consulting the charts. And I say this, I
dare not make a move without studying our Course, without
studying these charts and so forth. And a true pastor is more
concerned with the safety of that sheep than anything else.
Paul said this. Follow me, isn't it? I'm following
Christ. And as long as this man is preaching
Christ, and you don't make mistakes, granted, but as long as I'm preaching
Christ and doing my dead-level best, seeking God's will to point
this church to Christ and in the direction of the gospel,
the glory of God, the good of the church, you can follow me. And if the sailors, if all the
sailors were studying the same charts, we'd see, we'd all see
the right direction, the direction we would be headed. If we studied,
you know, like a sailor, we study the sailors and a captain studies
the moon, the stars to navigate by. They study the moon and the
star in times of darkness, you get the north star that you study,
and the moon, you look at the moon and so forth. But there's
one thing, I'll tell you there's one thing, one sure and certain
star, light, that you can guide the old ship by. And it's the
brightest one of them all. What is it? The sun. The sun
is always going to come up in the east, right? Always. Every time. It's not going to
come up south to southeast, north to northeast, it's going to come
up in the east. And as long as that captain makes sure where
the sun is, and everybody else does too, follows the sun, they're
going to head in the right direction. Due east. And folks, this little
ship is going due east, by God's grace. Due east. And if the church,
if the people, if the sailors, if the swabbies, We'd all study
the same chart diligently. It'd be smooth sailing, wouldn't
it? Yes, it would. Smooth sailing. But we're not. I speak this to
our shame. We're not. I'm not like I should
be. I want to be. But Paul said it
over in Philippians chapter 2, he said, all seek their own,
and not the things which are Christ's. Didn't he? He said, I have no men like mine
except Timothy. All seek their own, not the things
of Christ. There's an old saying, and I
know this applies to, there's an old saying that says the family
Praise together stays together. Well, that was a silly little
statement. You can't legislate the new birth
by prayer. But there is a real sense in
which the church prays for one another, prays together for leadership
and guidance. It's going to stay together.
It's going to stay a church with eyes pointed on Christ. If we
pray for the glory of God, like I mentioned a while ago, the
good of the church, then we'll all be just fine. It ain't going
to be just fine. Just fine. But needless to say,
now listen to this, needless to say, if you forsake the assembling
of yourselves, now I harp on this all the time,
don't I? All the time. I'm going to keep on. I'm going
to keep on. Why? You've got to be in the
ship. Huh? Food's being cooked in the
ship. You're not going to eat. You've
got to be in the ship. comradery, peace, shelter, refuge,
safety. You're not going to get there
if you're not in a ship, right? You're not going to get there
if you're not in a ship. You're out of fellowship. You're a fellow out of the ship,
right? If you're not in the ship, He
said, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, if you
become, if we become discontented and bitter about our lot or whatever
and seek great things for ourselves. I'll give you an example. Old
Peter, they were all in the boat one time, and they were fine.
They were going along just fine. The Lord came walking by. And
old Peter, hey, I'd like to try that. Why, Peter? You're doing
just fine in the boat. You know, we're getting where
we're going. In the boats, stay in the boat. No, I want to try
that. Lord, let me get out and walk on the water. Bid me walk
on the water, too. You fellas can stay here if you
want to. All right, Peter. Come on. He got out of that boat
and took a couple of steps, and what happened? That boy was going
down. Why? He got out of the ship. What did Christ do? He got him. Put him back in the ship." He said, Peter, stay in the ship. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together. And old Peter, you know, these
fellows here, they were all in together, they prayed intercessory
prayer. They said, Lord save us, and we prayed. And if he
doesn't, stand if he doesn't save us. If he doesn't save us
collectively, this thing's going to close the door, and we pray. Oh, Peter got out of the boat.
How did he end up praying? Lord, save me. These other fellas
are alright. Right? I'm the one that needs
saving. Isn't it? He got out of the ship. Sounds so simplistic, doesn't
it? But that's the way it is. Stay in the ship and cry with
the rest of them. Lord, save us. Save us, or we
perish. We go down together, but we're
not going down. Like I said at first, it's the
Lord's boat. If the Lord doesn't keep us all by His power and
grace, we'll mutiny, we'll jump ship like Judas, like Demas,
like Alexander and Hymenaeus. But if we cry out, Lord, save
us, we perish. Now, look back to the text, and
I'll quit. This is it. I promise. Matthew 8. And you know what gives me courage
to go on? This job is to, like I said when
I first got here, I said in a bulletin article, the first week I was
here, I said, I'm not seeking, this is not a stepping stone
to a bigger place. This is not something I'm going
to try this out a little while and then when a bigger, better
offer comes along. I told you then, I mean it now, this is
too big for me as it is. This is too big for me as it
is. But you know what gives me courage
to keep going on? This is the Lord's ship, and
he's promised to keep it. It's the Lord's ship, and if
he's in it, if God's in this thing, everything's going to
be all right. All right, and I want to be in
it. I want to be in on it, in on it. Everything will be all
right. He'll rebuke the wind and the
sea, whatever comes along, look at it. And he said unto them,
verse 26, Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he
arose victorious over his foes. He arose and rebuked the winds
and the sea. That's whatever comes along that
aggravates his church. And what aggravates us individually,
what aggravates us collectively, whatever it is, whatever trial,
whatever comes along, he'll take care of it. The winds in the
sea, the winds within, floods that rise, trials of this earth,
winds that blow, you don't know where they're coming from, what
they are. And he arose and rebuked the
winds in the sea and there was great calm. Isaiah 54, 13 says,
All thy children shall be taught of thee, and great shall be the
peace thereof. Great peace. Great peace. Why? Because who's in the ship? He's in the ship, master of the
sea, master of the waves. He's the one that caused the
waves. He's the one that calmed the waves. Right? He arose, he rebuked the winds,
and said, Peace be still. What did he say to the disciples?
Peace be unto you. The first thing he said to them
when they were all thinking about quitting, oh no, the Lord's dead
and this and that, the first thing he said, Peace be unto
you. My peace I leave with you, as
he was leaving. And the men marveled, saying,
What manner of man is this? Wherein lies the safety of this
vessel, this little church? It lies in the manner of the
man. The manner of the man, the God-man, who's behind it, who's
in it, who's with it, who's over it, who blows in the sails, who
steers it, who bought it. And this little dinghy, you know
what a little dinghy is? A little boat. This little church
is a little dingy by comparison to most places. A little dingy.
And a lot of us are a little dingy. Including me. But it's God's
church. I like that thought. It's God's
church. And he said the gates of hell
shall not prevail against him. Well, I hope you get something
out of that. Stand with me. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you
for your Word, how it comforts our hearts. Thank you for the certainties and sure realities
Christ being in us and with us. Where two or three are gathered
together, you've said, you've promised that you'd be in our
midst. We believe we've got that number
here. And by your grace, we'll continue to have that number.
Lord, help us to worship God in spirit, rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. Help this man that
stands up here above all others. Help me not to put any confidence
in my flesh. Stand alone in the strength of
the flesh, but always consult the Lord and Master and the charts
and the compass. And help everyone else too, Lord,
to be looking in the same direction. We work together as a church.
Members of the same body in love. Members in love. Fellows in the
same ship. It's a blessed fellowship that
we enjoy. And we look forward, by your
grace, to many more years together. Lord, grant it for your glory
and our good and our salvation. Amen. You're dismissed.