was the gospel. And we could go home after having
heard the gospel in that song. That's rare, so rare today to
hear the gospel. I mean, really hear the gospel
in a song, isn't it? Clearly defined. Turn with me
to Mark chapter 6. Mark chapter six. One night last week Mindy and
I were walking on the beach and I don't know what time it was
nine o'clock or so and we were looking out at that deep dark
mysterious vast body of water, the ocean. Any of you have walked
upon the beach at nighttime, the ocean is so mysterious and
so great, isn't it? It's so marvelous, the ocean. It's fearful looking, it really
is. That dark, the waves crashing
in. And I looked at Mindy and I said, Our Lord walked upon that water. He just walked on that. Now, I know people like to make
fun of that, don't they? Our generation, everybody talks
about somebody who thinks he can walk on water. Our generation
likes to poke fun at true religion, at the Scripture, don't they?
They make fun of the fall. commercial on television that
everybody makes light of the fall. That picture of this man
and woman in the garden and she's getting ready to pick an apple
and everything's funny. A light joke about it. That which
plunged this race into misery and despair. But people like
to make fun of that, don't they? Talk about this walking on water.
Do you believe that? Do you believe he actually walked
on water? I mean, walked upon that raging billow." Do you believe
that? Well, it's true. It's true. He did. He did that. Yet, though
it is literal, it is literal, he did just that. I believe just
what God says in that book, that it actually happened. Yet there
must be a spiritual meaning to this. I don't recall ever having
heard anybody preach upon this. But there's got to be a spiritual
or figurative meaning for what he did. He never did anything
idly. Christ never did something idly. Everything he did was full of
eternal spiritual wisdom. It had spiritual wisdom behind
what he did. It told a story. It had salvation
in it. Everything he did, he's the Savior. Every step he took, was foreordained
from the foundation of the world to fulfill the scriptures. We
read over there in Job chapter 9 how that he walks upon those
billows. And he never made one move, walked
one step, made one gesture with his hands that did not have an
all-wise, eternal, spiritual purpose. Do you believe that?
God's too wise to just—to do anything idly. or do anything
without significance, without eternal significance, he's gone.
And God walked this earth, and everything he did had eternal
spiritual significance, everything. And this certainly must be so. And here in our story, the Lord
sent his disciples away into this ship. He sends his disciples
ahead of him into a ship, and he stays behind. in order that
he might later on in the fourth watch of the night, deep into
the night, in order that he might come out there and walk across
the water and get in that boat. Now, why did he do this? He sent
his disciples out in the boat ahead of him. Now, he knew perfectly
well, he'd been planning this before it all happened, a long
time before. before the foundation of the
world. He'd been planning it. He sent them out in this boat,
and they were out there, and he caused a storm to come, and them
to be toiling and rowing and having a hard time. And then
he says, now it's time. And he walked out there on that
water, and then got in the ship later on. Why did he do this?
Surely, surely he had a purpose behind it. Was it just to show
his power? No. A sign? No. No, he said one time, he
said, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign,
but no sign will be given. Besides, the disciples, they
had just been, he had just seen, they had just seen him turn five
loaves and two fishes and a multitude of baskets full of food, and
5,000 men, or 10,000 people probably, eat from five loaves and two
fishes. It ain't a thing to think about.
It didn't faze them in the least. You think him walking on the
water was going to do it? Oh, they were amazed, but they shortly
forgot it thereafter. Shortly forgot. He didn't do
it just to show them how powerful he was. No. No, he didn't do
that. Why did he do this? Well, I believe
what the Lord has shown me here is that it has a spiritual meaning,
and it's for us as well as them. maybe more so for us, because
the disciples, everything they went through was in order that
they might write the scriptures to fulfill this testament, this
book concerning Christ, to put the whole story in perspective.
And now we've got the whole story. And I believe we have an understanding
of it now. I believe he did this for us. Now, let's look at it
here in Mark, chapter 6. Mark, chapter 6. Now, this is,
like I said, right after he fed 5,000, it says, That means there
are probably at least 10,000 people, that is, men, women,
and children. He says here in verse 45, look,
straight away, right away after he fed these people, he says
he constrained his disciples to get into the ship and go to
the other side before him unto Well, he sent away the people. Now, right after he'd fed, like
I said, right after he'd fed 5,000 people, possibly 10,000,
maybe more, 15,000 people, perhaps, he'd fed. Right after that, he
did this. Now, he'd fed all these people,
and Scripture says the whole earth is full of his glory. Everybody
upon the face of the earth right now is eating his bread. He's
feeding people right now, even though they don't acknowledge
it. Even though they don't acknowledge God's hand in the provisions
that they have, God's still feeding the multitudes, the masses, with
his bread. He's still doing it. and loaves
and fishes. He's still feeding them. And
although men have the clothes that they wear and the homes
that they live in and the water they drink and the bread they
eat, and it all comes from God, they don't acknowledge Him. And
while these people were chowing down, right on top of them eating
and chowing down on that earthly food, and they probably weren't
thinking about Christ. They were so hungry that they
were just chowing down on this food, and probably after they
got through eating, it was all going to take a big nap. big
siesta and not think about Christ. But the Lord, right on the back
of this, the Lord in saving mercy to his disciples, to his disciples, he had better
things in store for them, just like you and me. And while this
earth is chowing down and eating and reaping the things from God's
hand but not giving him a thought and go to sleep afterward, He's
got better things for you and me. And look what he says here.
He says he constrained his disciples. He constrained his disciples.
Scripture says, I know my shame. Scripture says, the Lord knoweth
them that are his. I see, what do you see right
here? He constrained his disciples. I see election. I see it everywhere
in the Spirit. In mercy, love, and grace, he
constrained—while everybody else was all sacked out and chowing
down and having a big old time, forgetting about it, who—where'd
we get this food here? I don't know. Somebody brought
it to me. He had better things in store
for his disciples. Ah, he said, I've got many things
you don't know of. And he had it for his disciples,
too. He was going to give it to them, too. And he constrained
them. He called them. That's what that means. He called
his disciples. He called them. This wasn't a
general call. Anybody wants to go across the
other side? Come on, we're going, we're leaving.
No, it wasn't. He constrained his disciples.
He said one by one, Peter, get in the ship. John, it was a specific
call, a personal call, an effectual call. You reckon they got in
the ship? Every one of them. He called them. He constrained
them. Get in the ship. Perry, get in the ship. Bartholomew,
Matthew, get in the ship. Let's go. We're going over to
the other side. He does the calling, you see.
He does the constraining. Thank God for his constraining
grace. Who calls. Who calls his people
by name. And if you believe the gospel,
he called you by name. Sinner. We talked about it this
morning. Everybody doesn't know their
name. Sinner. If you know that, if you feel that, if you know
you are, then God has called you by his grace. And thank God
for his constraining grace. And look what he did. He constrained
his disciples to do something specifically. He constrained
his disciples to get into the ship. He gave them a specific
instruction. Get into the ship. John? The ship. James? Now, he didn't say, he didn't say,
Peter, you and James get in that boat over there, and Bartholomew,
you and Matthias, there's one, you get in that one, and the
rest of y'all, you get over the best way you can. I want to show you something.
Look over at Mark, chapter 3. It's a few chapters over. Now,
he said, Boys, James, John, Peter, get in this ship. Right there
it is. Get in that one, that ship. Say, where'd this boat come from?
Look at Mark, chapter 3, verse 7. It says, Jesus withdrew himself
with his disciples down to the sea. Now a great vast multitude
of people were thronging him, and he withdrew himself from
them and was walking down to the sea. And a great multitude
from Galilee followed him, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem,
and from Idumea, and from beyond Jordan, and lay about Tyre and
Sidon, a great multitude. When they heard what great things
he did, they came to him. And he spoke to his disciples
and said, There's a ship down here, but a small ship. should wait on him because of
the multitude, lest they should throng him." This ship, this
is a specific vessel that Christ himself chose before this whole
thing ever started. He had the boat parked there
all that time, that ship. He had it chosen. It was a chosen
vessel for them to get him. You see anything there? What
is that? Who's that talking about? This wasn't just any old ship. It wasn't a ship they brought
with them, either. Here, you bring a boat with you? No. No,
he'd left all of them. He'd left his ships. He'd left
his boats. His way had to go Christ the
way. And this wasn't a ship that they
brought, but this was a ship that the Lord himself had prepared,
had chosen, prepared before the whole story took place. A chosen
vessel. And Christ is that ark. of safety
prepared by the Father from the foundation of the world." And
you get in the ship. There's only one ship to go across
the other side. This ship, not any old ship,
not Terry and Henry. You'd all get, you'd go to heaven
by your good work, and Stan, you and Charles, you'd all get
there by your morality, and John, you. No! There's only one way
across over Jordan, a ship. His vessel, His chosen vessel,
Christ, Christ, the ship of salvation, the vessel of mercy prepared
before the foundation of the world. And the Scripture says
this, when He comes into the world, He says, Sacrifice and
offering thou wouldst not, not just any old way to get there.
No, He said, Abide thou hast prepared for me. And you've got
to be in Him. You've got to be in Christ. You've
got to be in the ship, in Christ. And in the frualness of time,
the Scripture says, Christ came and took upon himself a vessel
of clay, like ours, took upon himself the likeness of sinful
flesh. And that body of his, that vessel,
he had a vessel. We have this vessel. We have
this treasure, the Scripture says, an earthen vessel. That's
this body of clay. You look at an earthen vessel
up there. And Christ took upon himself a vessel. like this,
prepared by the Father. And everything is in that vessel.
Everything depends upon that vessel. Our safety, our salvation,
getting across depends on that vessel that God put upon this
earth, that vessel. And this vessel, this ship, was
christened, christened Jesus. Call His name Jesus. God broke
the wine bottle of His wrath on that vessel. Call his name
Jesus, for he shall save. He'll get them across." I don't
know if you like this, but I'm liking it. That's just so. There's no other name, the Scripture
says, under heaven, given among men, whereby we will go across,
be saved, but it's the name of Jesus, the name of Jesus Christ. How do we get in Christ? I've got to define it. Like I
said last Wednesday night, you'd better define it, what you're
saying. Salvation in Christ, a lot of people say that. I'm
going to tell you what it means. Salvation to be in Christ means
to be represented by Him. It means to have somebody. It
means to have Christ standing at the right hand of the Father,
representing you with His perfect righteousness, with His holy
life, and being your substitute. Christ hanging there on that
cross, paying the sins of Him. should have been punished for.
That substitution and righteousness, giving you this righteousness
that you must have and giving you the faith to come to Him,
come to God by Him. That's what it means to get in
Christ. And He constrains His disciples. And He does it to
you and you and you and me. He constrains His disciples.
He calls us effectually by His grace. And what does He say?
Get to Christ. Get in the ship. Get in the ship. Not any way to be here. Just one. Just one way across.
We'll look back at the text here in Mark chapter 6. Look back
at the text. Well, he called a specific people,
his disciples, to get into a specific ship, to go to a specific destination. We've got a specific Lord. We've got a definite Lord who
determines and purposes all things. And look at it, verse 45, again.
It says, "...he constrained his disciples to get into viship."
The Holy Spirit chooses words well, doesn't He? Even little
a's, and's, b's, but's. Don't you like the but in the
Scripture? The Gospel's in a but, isn't
it? But God. But God. Viship, He said. Not a ship. Viship. And where does he tell
them to go? The other side. The other side
unto before, unto Bethsaida. The other side. Scripture says
we have here no continuing city. No continuing city. Not here. No continuing city. It's on the
other shore. It's across Jordan's stormy banks. That's all it says. It's on the
other side. It's on the other side of this life. We set our
affection on things on the other side, don't we? Things above,
where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father. Now, Terry,
you get in the ship. You come to Christ by faith,
and you're going to go to heaven. That's where you're going. Other
side. You don't have anything here. Now, get in the ship. Get
in the ship, and let's go. That's what it is to be a disciple.
Anybody here not a disciple? Get in the ship, and let's go.
All right? Let's go across the other side.
We have here no continuing city. Look at it. Here's election and
here's reprobation. Here's reprobation. He says,
well, he sent the people away. You see that, John? He sent the
people. He said, James, John, Peter,
Bartholomew, Matthew, all these up. Get in the ship. Everybody
else, go on. Go on your way. Go on home. What does the Scripture say?
All the world kicks at this, kicks against the bricks. The
Scripture says mysteriously, the election hath obtained it,
and the rest he hardened. He hardened, or blinded. The
rest he blinds. I don't understand that. I really
don't. I'll be honest with you, I really
don't understand this thing of reparation, of how God hardens
people's hearts. They'll get the blame for it. It's their responsibility to
believe. But somehow or another, he blinds
them and he chooses whom he will, and you believe that? I believe
it. That's what Scripture says. That's
what it says right here. He constrained his disciples
to get into this ship and go to the other side while he sent
the people. And all of you all have people in your own family,
people you know. And he's constrained you, he's
restrained you from all manner of evil. Well, he didn't have
them. He hasn't them. He's let them go like a wild
ass has gone. He's restrained you from all
manner of evil and constrained you to come to Christ by faith.
He hadn't them. He sent them away. Left them
laying in the ditch and came and picked you up. What do you
say to these things? Well, hallelujah. Wish he'd picked them up, but
I'm sure glad he didn't pick me up. and called me by His grace
and constrained me. Sure glad. Now, you don't ever
forget this. Let me not forget it. All that we are, all that
we have, all that we will ever hope to have and ever will hope
to be, we owe all to His electing grace, His electing love. More
than just a doctrine and a charity. Oh, it's dear to my heart. It tells me how God saved me.
Paul says we're bound to give thanks. Beloved of the Lord,
because God, bound to give thanks for you, because God had from
the beginning chosen you unto salvation, bound to give thanks. He hadn't chosen me, I'd never
chosen him. Right? Well, that's what the disciples,
that's what happened to them. Look at verse 46. So he put them
in the boat, and it says, when he'd sent them away, verse 46,
he departed into a mountain to pray. And he sent these men out
onto the middle of the ocean, and he left. He left. He put these fellows in a boat
and sent them out into the water, and he went up into a mountain
to pray. He left them to themselves, it
seems, while he went up into a mountain to pray. Do you remember
when we read over there in John chapter fourteen, well, in another
place, he said, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel?
And in John chapter 14 he says, I go to prepare a place for you.
He sends us out into the world. He sends us out. He prayed to
the Father in John 17. Not that the Father would take
us out of the world, but keep us from it. But he sends us out
into the world. While he himself goes to the
Father. To do what? To pray. To intercede for us. To mediate for us. To pray to
the Father. for us. He ever liveth to make
intercession for us. Scripture says. He sends us out
on this ocean of the world. He sends us out. Go ye and all.
You know what Bethsaida means? Bethsaida? It means a fishing
house. Church is a fishing house. He
sends us fishing. Puts us in a ship. Tells us to
go fishing. That's what he said. Go ye and
all the world and preach. Preach. You'll be fishers of
men. I'm going to make you fishers of men." He said, I'm going back
to Father to pray. Isn't this marvelous? It is. Look at verse 47, And
when evening was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea,
and he alone on the land. When evening was come, they were
out in the middle of that mighty ocean, and he was alone on the
land. Ship. Ship. That's right here. I see right here. That's the
church, the ship. Church is going through. People
talk about the tribulation period. We're going to go through the
tribulation period. We're in it. We've been in it
from the beginning. The church has been under trials
and tribulations from the very beginning, hadn't it? Christ
said, in this world you shall have tribulation. We're in the
tribulation period. We have been. from the very beginning. This world is a place of tribulation,
and life is like wave after wave of trouble and turmoil and heartache
and sin and misery, isn't it? Bouncing on these old boats,
isn't it? Knocking us back and forth, up
and down. Our lives are up and down, wave
after wave, aren't they? One day we'll be riding the crest
of the wave. Hey, I'm going to make it. I'm going to surf on
in. The next thing, we're under, over our heads. We've gone down
under the wave. Can't take it anymore. Wave after
difficulty. And most of the time we feel
alone. Now, most of the time we feel like God's Christ has
left me. He left me to myself. He's gone
back to the Father and He's left me to myself. I'm one of these
reprobates. I'm the only apostate in this church. You ever felt
that? I feel it all the time. Here I am a preacher. I feel
I'm going to be the only one there for them. Everybody's going
to make it but me. You ever feel that way? Yeah,
you do. Christ has left me to myself.
He's left me. And that's what they were thinking
by this time. He's left us. The wind started rising, and
the waves started crashing, and they started rowing, and they
said, Where is he? What are you doing this for? Look at verse 48. And when he
saw them toiling in He saw him. They couldn't see
him, but he saw them, right? That's the only thing that matters.
He really is. Most of the time we feel alone.
We feel like God is not with us, but he's left us to ourselves.
He's taken his hand off of us. No. Uh-uh. He may let us go through
some things, but he's not far. And he's got his eye on you.
He's got his eye on you. He had his eye on them all the
time. Scripture says, The eye of the
Lord is upon the righteous. Scripture says, My substance
was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. God knew you before
you were ever born. Oh, yeah. That's what this verse
says in Psalm 139. Before I was made in secret and
curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, thine eyes
did see my substance, yet being not perfect. You saw me. Paul
said it and called me from my mother's womb. Set your eyes
upon me. God has chosen you from the beginning,
written your name in the Lamb's Book of Life, called you from
your mother's womb, called you by His grace, put you by faith
in Christ, and let you hear the gospel and come to Christ, accepted
you in the beloved, and though you're in the midst of the sea,
in the midst of troubles, He's got His eye on you. He's not
going to let you fall. He's toiling and laboring two
and a half hours a day. six days a week, laboring, toiling. Oh, Lord, where are you? He's at the right hand of the
Father, praying for you. You're going to make it. He got
it on you. Is that good news? Yeah, it is. Look at verse 48. He saw them
toiling and rowing. I tell you, when we take our
eyes off Christ, we'll start rowing, won't we? We'll try every
means available. to overcome this, to overcome
that, to be accepted by God. We're going to fall into self-righteousness
and try to work our way to God somehow or another. We think
we've got to be bad enough, got to repent hard enough. We'll
try something. Some kind of method, we'll try.
And we start toiling and look at it. It says the wind was contrary
unto them. Everything seems to be against
us here, doesn't it? Doesn't it, believers? Everything
in this life seems to be a good stuff. It is. It is. It's contrary to us. Christ said, if you're not of
the world, if you're of the world, the world would love you. Ah,
you could just, you could float along level seas if you're on
this world. Yeah. Everything would go smoothly
for you if you were of this world. Real smooth. But like David,
David wondered at the prosperity of the wicked and the trials
and tribulations of God's people. He said, I can't understand it.
We're going now and we're sinking. God's people are sinking. Everybody
else is riding. It's nice and no trouble. And
the Scripture says, because they have no changes there, for there's
no fear of God in them. No changes. You talk to, you
try to talk to somebody on the street about sin and suffering
and trial. Why you ought not to have that,
brother? I have my faith. I do. I've been sick a day in
my life." They don't understand it, Henry, do they? You're going
down. They're just going along smoothly,
nothing wrong. That's what David said. I don't understand this.
I don't understand. Until he said he went into the
temple and heard the gospel. He said, now, I said, God puts
us out there in the boat and lets us ride the waves. Why? So he'll come to us. You're going
to see it here in a minute. You know, if you were just another
fish in the ocean, would you be swimming along? I'm just having
a big old time. I used to do a real good fish
impression. I'm not going to do that. I'd make a fool out
of myself. But you'd be just swimming along
perfectly, happy and content, wouldn't you? If you were just
another fish in the ocean. But no, you're like my fiddle
shell, Terry Kingsley. He'll fetch you out of the ocean,
buddy. reach down the gospel net and scooped you up and drawn
you to himself. He said, come here, boy. You're
not your own anymore. You're mine. Get in the ship.
And you may feel like a fish out of dry land, don't you? You
feel like a fish flopping around in this world, in this ocean
of trouble. And I tell you what, you still got a lot of smelly
old fish on you, too. You can't just fish the smell
out of something. Can't do it. There was a smell
of rotten meat. You can't do it. You can't get
it out. I don't care what you do. And we still got a lot of
salt water on us. That's the world, all this world
in us. While we were down there in Florida,
this is what I told Mindy after about the fifth or sixth day
there. I said, this is the reason I
left Florida. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want
to live there. I said, it's just sand and it's salt water. You
can't get it off of you. It's everywhere, it's in your
car, it's in your house, it's everywhere you go. You think
you've got it all, you take a shower, you know, you go into the apartment
or the house, but it's on you, it's in you, it's everywhere.
It's in your pockets, in your ear, sand, salt water, it's all
over you. You feel sticky, grimy, that's
acid. Can't get this ocean out of it. Someday we're going to
be washed white as snow, washed clean with pure water. We'll
not have any of this old salt water on us anymore. We'll not
smell like an old fish anymore. We'll be a sweet smelling savor
under the salt. But right now we stink, don't
we? We're rotten fish flopping in a boat, flopping around, but
Christ says, be of good cheer. In this world you shall have
tribulation, I know, but be of good cheer. What's he saying
there? I've overcome the world." And
look what he does here. He saw him toiling. The wind
was contrary unto him about the fourth watch of the night when
they thought, we can't take it anymore. We're going down. This
is all, it's over. It's all over. He came to them
walking on the water, walking on the sea, walking to them. He said, in this world you have
tribulations. Be of good cheer. I walked on this earth. I took
care of it. I overcame it. I overcame it.
You see, we don't have a high priest who's not touched the
feet of our infirmities. God walked this earth as a man.
He knew what it was like to hurt. Anybody hurtin'? We got some
people hurtin' in here. He ain't hurtin'. He hurtin'
more than anybody'll ever hurt. Oh, yeah. You lonely? Oh, nobody
was as lonely as he was. Man, you sorrowful? Nobody. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief from the cradle to the grave. Nobody was as sorrowful,
as lonely as he was. He knew what it was like to hurt,
to hunger, to thirst, to suffer, to be sorrowful. To be rejected,
you've been rejected. Nobody was rejected like him.
Everybody turned thumbs down on him. His own familiar friends
turned thumbs down on him. He knew what it was like to be
abused, to be maligned, to be falsely accused. He knew what
it was like to be tempted. He knew what it was like to die.
But he overcame. He overcame. He rose above it
all. He didn't go down. Thank God.
Thank Christ. He didn't go down. He did it
for us. He did it for us. Wave after wave after wave that
takes us down, lasts its fury upon His vessel. He walked on. Here comes a big wave of greed
and worldliness. Satan said, look at all the kingdoms
of the world. I'll give them to you. Don't
want them. He walked. Walked on it. Walked
over it. Wave of lust. Don't you know
women threw themselves at his feet? Oh yeah! Lust that we're
overcoming. Didn't bother him staying. He's
a man. Didn't touch him. Didn't bother
him. Thank God. If he'd have succumbed to one
thought, we'd be goners, wouldn't we? He didn't. He didn't. Wave of sin. Wave of death. He
triumphed over him. He walked on it. And I tell you
what, like old Peter, we try every now and then. Lord, let
me try. I want to do some walking, too.
I'm tired. Tired of running. I want to do
some walking. Some walking on the water. I want some victory
over my sin and my pride. I want some victory. You know,
we say victory in Jesus. You better remember where your
victory is. It's in the ship. Isn't that what Paul said one
time, as the people were in that boat? He said, now everybody's
going to be okay if you stay in the ship. Don't get out of
the boat. Right? And it was so. Well, that's
the same way with us. We better stay in the ship. Don't
try to get out and walk. A man can't walk on water. Can
you? You can't overcome your sins,
can you? Peter said, let me do some walking. Let me come to
you, all right? Come on!" He walked and stepped
out of that boat, and I bet it wasn't five seconds. He went
down. And that's how I said it. We take one step and say, Hey,
I can do it! And God just restrains us from
one little sin. I've overcome that. And we go
down under something else, don't we? Wave after wave, we go down. And what does He do? He said,
Now, don't look, and put us back in the boat. Right? Put us back
in the ship. We get to looking at the sea
and not the Savior. That's what old Peter did. Well,
look at verse 48 again. He saw them toiling and rowing,
and the wind was contrary unto them. Late in the night he went
walking on the sea, and he would have passed by them. But when
they saw him walking upon the sea, They supposed, they supposed
it had been a spirit and cried out. They all saw him and there
was nothing. Every one of them. Even though
they all saw him. Every one of them saw him. Now,
he hadn't taken on a glorified body like he did on that Mount
of Transfiguration. That was the same Christ. same
Christ, same body. He hadn't taken on a different
form, not at all. But they started imagining all kinds of things.
They saw him, but yet they supposed there was some kind of spirit,
and they started crying out out of fear. They all saw him, were
troubled, and they cried out, cried, worried, troubled. It's sad to say, most people
in here have seen his glory, have heard his voice, have heard
his gospel time and time again. You've heard it time and again,
haven't you, baby? In spite of all the times you've heard the
gospel and seen his glory and seen your only hope and seen
where your peace lies and where your strength and where your
comfort is and derive some strength and some comfort and some hope
and some assurance and some peace from the gospel and everything
that you need, in spite of those things, we start supposing all
manner of things. Well, what if? Well, I've got
my job, I've got my home, and what if there's a war in the
Middle East? Well, don't suppose things. Same Christ that's on
the throne right now as was on the throne back then. Same Christ
that triumphed over your problems as He was over these men's problems. Same Christ that came to them
comes to you. Right? And they all saw Him,
though, and were troubled. And they forgot. They started
supposing they'd seen a spirit when they forgot he was a man.
And we start supposing, too, don't we, about just imagining
all sorts of things when there's a man. This is one of our greatest
comfort. It is our comfort that Barbara,
he is not some ethereal vapor or just a spirit floating around. He's just some oneness. Like the Hindu, he's a man. He's
a man, seated at the right hand of the Father. Not a spirit,
a man. That's what Christ said when
he arose from the grave and appeared to his disciples. Touch me! Handle
me! It's me! A man walked this earth. The God-man, he was God, yes,
but he was a man, just like us, touched with a feeling of our
own. We're going through all manner of problems and trials.
all manner. But he went back to them. He
said, don't worry. Be of good cheer. Let not your
heart be troubled. I'm going back to the Father
and start praying for you, interceding for you. And there's a man. This
is our comfort. It's my smile. This is our comfort
and our peace and our joy. This is a man. Deborah, there's
a man. You've got a husband in glory.
It's interceding with the Father for you. What do you need to
worry about? taking care of your every need. What have you got
to worry about? Oh, we'll start supposing tomorrow
morning, won't we? First thing Monday morning, we'll
start supposing. Well, suppose he's left me. No, that's not
what the Scripture says. No, he's faithful and just. Faithful
and just to save all those that come unto God by him. But they were troubled. They
were troubled, and look at this. They all saw him and were troubled.
Verse 50. And immediately he talked with
them. Hey, be of good cheer. It's me. It's I. It's I am. And he comes to you in the gospel.
You've had all kinds of problems and troubles maybe this week.
You come in here to sit and listen. And he said the same thing this
morning and the same thing tonight. You have good cheer. It's all
right. You're safe. You see that? He's
safe. He said, that's right, ain't
it, Father? I said, well, you don't have
to worry about it. I talked to Todd and Ivory on
the phone the other day. Todd said to me, he said, boy,
I look so sorry. He said, I can't wait to die. You know anything about that?
I'll tell you. If you know Christ, I mean really
and truthfully now, I remember thinking that more so when I
was a young believer than I did later on. I remember thinking
that. I remember as a point in my time
when I thought, I want to go. I want to leave. Not just to
get out of my problem. Really, truly. I thought, I want
to go. I want to go see Him. I want
to go be with Him. I told Todd, I said, we were
swimming in the in the pool down there, and I said, one time I
went down to the bottom of the pool and put down to the bottom
of the pool and laid there, holding my breath, and I thought, I think
I'll just stay here. I'll just stay right here. Let
them dredge me out of here later on. Stay right here and go home. Go back to glory. Why am I? I don't know what's
going on over there in the Middle East, but it could be. I don't
know. Are you looking forward to it? I am. I am. I honestly admit that. But Christ says in the Gospel,
He said it back then, He says it to us now, Be of good cheer.
It's I. Don't be afraid. Be not afraid. Be not afraid. And look at it,
verse 51. And it says, He went up unto
them and to the hill. Oh, boy. You know, sometimes
there are two or three people gathered together. And we've
experienced it here. Sometimes. Helen, every now and then, there'll
be two or three people in here. gather together in the name of
Christ, and He'll come join us. I've been in on it. I don't know
if you've had to have been one of those two or three people
to be in on it, to feel Him in the ship. But every now and then,
He will. I've felt Him. You've felt Him
in this place or somewhere else? I have. I've been sitting in
the backyard with a couple other believers, talking about Christ
and the gospel, and He was right there. Yeah. He does. He comes to his people. The two
or three are gathered together in his name. He comes, and look
at verse fifty-one, and the wind ceases. That's the only time the wind
will cease, isn't it, when you feel his presence. He gets up
in the ship, in the ship, and the wind ceases. You know, I
believe when Christ constrained his disciples, I believe he said,
Getting a ship. Fellowship. That's our fellowship. Scripture said truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son. And fellas in the same ship,
that's us. That's the fellowship of the
gospel, the fellowship of the saints, the fellowship of His
sufferings. Paul said it's not only given unto you to believe,
but to suffer. Feel the fellowship of His sufferings.
He said that at one place. That's what it means to be in
a ship. with other people, like passions and sufferings and problems.
But when he comes into the ship, when we feel his presence there,
the wind ceases. You got any problems right now?
I mean, right this minute? No. For forty-five minutes, the
wind stops there. Forty-five minutes. That's the
reason. I think we'll go on for a couple of hours here tonight
so the wind won't pick back up. The wind ceases when he meets
with us. And look at it, they were sore
amazed in themselves. You know what this is saying? They were amazed. They were amazed. They were amazed at him, first
of all. And then they were amazed at themselves. Remember when
he was asleep in the boat that time and he got up and went out
there and calmed those waters? They were amazed. He said, we've
never seen it like this. They were amazed. And I'm sure
they were amazed at the... What were we worried about? The
Lord was in the boat. The Lord was with us. What were
we worried about? The Lord's in the ship. The Lord's
in the church. The Lord's with His people. He
said, I'll never leave you. What were we worried about? Huh? What were we worried about? And
they were so amazed in themselves, beyond measure, and wondered.
And they thought, how could I have ever doubted him? You know, it
always happens. Whenever we go through a trial,
and he brings us through it, and we look back over it, and
we have 20-20 vision, and we say, he did it all. He was with me, and he overcame
it, and he provided, and he led me through it, and he put me
in it. And you wonder, you say, how could I have ever doubted
him? But you do, over again, don't you? You wonder. He wondered. 4, verse 52, They considered
not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened.
As you and me, we forget yesterday's mercies, don't we? His mercies
are new every morning. God was merciful to you yesterday.
You were riding down the highway. If you went to work or went to
store, you were riding down the highway within one foot of eternity,
and God preserved you. God, do you have anything to
eat yesterday? Everybody have a couple of good
meals? I know you probably do. One big one. Big meal. Forgot
about that? Oh, he's provided however needed. Is the roof still dry? Still got plenty of clothes in
your closet? Forget about that? Yesterday's mercy. Yeah, we can
start complaining. I read you that. God gives us
some kind of toy, and then we want something new. We're satisfied
with it a while, and then we want something new. After that,
we forget yesterday's mercy. Well, look at it. Verse 53, and
I'll quit. When they'd passed over, when they'd passed over and came
into the land of Gennesaret and drew to the shore and got out
of the ship, straightaway, They knew Him. They knew Him. When they passed over and drew
to that shore, it says in a moment, the twinkling of an eye will
be changed. We shall know Him even as we've
been known. Because why? We'll see Him as
He is. And we'll be like Him. We'll get out of the boat. Get
out of this ship, out of these waters, these troubled waters.
pass over that other shoulder in Christ, by Christ, and reach
to the other side, we'll know Him. And we'll know ourselves. We'll know even as we've been
known. And we'll look back in amazement. That's the reason
that we read there in the Revelation where it says that they all stood
at the throne, stood, their mouths open, amazed. I stunned amazed
in the presence of Jesus of Nazareth. And looking back over our life,
when this passing world is over, when we stand on that other shore,
the song said, and when Christ explains to us, tells us what
he's brought us through, then, and not until then, will we know
just how much we owe. because we'll know even as we've
been known. Let me read this poll to you. Charlotte Elliott, a great hymn
writer, wrote this back in 1834. She said, When waves of trouble
around me swell, my soul is not dismayed, because I hear a voice
I know full well. "'Tis I, be not afraid." But
when the black, threatening skies appear and storms my path invade,
I hear that voice, and it soothes each fear. "'Tis I, be not afraid."
There is a gulf that must be crossed. Savior, be near to my
aid. Whisper, speak. When this frail
ship is tossed, Tis I, be not afraid. There's a dark and a
fearful vale, Death hides within its shade. O say, when flesh
and heart shall fail, Tis I, be not afraid. And Virgie, some
of you older folks that may go on We'll sing before that. We'll
sing that song. His smile will be the first to
welcome me. You know what he's going to say
to you? Virgil Jones, it's I. Can you believe that? It's me. The one you've been
worshiping for a little while. And then you talk about worshiping
virgins. You're going to worship him then like you wanted to all
this time. You're going to worship him. Fairness, you're in the ship.
Get in the ship. Christ. Come to Christ by faith. And let's go over to the other
side. Stand with me and I'll dismiss
this.