Well, good morning everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 6. Mark chapter 6. I feel just very comfortable this
morning like I'm wearing a good old pair of shoes that fit real
well. It seems like old times. I'll teach the lesson and John
will preach. We did that for eight years. And I'm looking
forward to doing that again today. Mark chapter six, before we begin,
let's bow before our Lord together. Our Father, we're so thankful
for this, another opportunity that you've given to us to meet
together, to have your word open to us, to hear your son preached. Father, I pray that you would
send your spirit upon us this morning, enable us to truly worship
you from the heart. Father, enable me to Preach in
the power of thy spirit, not in the weakness of human intellect
and human oratory, but in the power of thy spirit. Enable thy
people to hear in the power of thy spirit, that our hearts would
be blessed at another site by faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We're so thankful for this opportunity. And Father, what we pray for
ourselves, we pray especially for our children's classes right
now that you would Bless them in a mighty and special way that
you enable them to be taught the scriptures, that they may
grow and be like young Timothy who can say that from a child
they've known the holy scriptures, which are able to make them wise
unto salvation. And Father, be with your other
people wherever they gather together this morning. Father, in this
dark, dark day in which we live, How we beg of you that you reveal
your redemptive glory in the person of your Lord Jesus Christ,
that you give us a revival in the midst of these dark, dark
days. And Father, there are many who are sick and afflicted in
deep waters. You know each case, you know
each one, you know your sheep by name and where they're all
at. But Father, we pray for them. We pray that you would comfort
their hearts, that you would heal, that you'd be pleased to
deliver as soon as it could be thy will. Father, especially
that until you're pleased to deliver them, that you give them
a special portion of your presence in their heart. And Father, all
these things we ask in that name which is above every name, the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Now I have a very pleasant tasks
this morning, I always, always enjoy preaching from this passage
where the Lord comes walking to his disciples on the water.
I enjoy that so much because you know, one of the best pictures
that there are of a believer's life on earth is the disciples
being together in a little boat in the middle of an ocean that's
full of storms and winds and big waves. Believers, what we're
doing is we're traveling from one shore to the next. We're
going home from this shore across Jordan to the banks of glory. That's what we're doing. And
we're in this little ship together. Believers are all fellows in
the same ship. And I tell you, if they want
things to go well in that ship, they're gonna strive together.
They're gonna strive together for unity. They're gonna strive
together for peace. They're gonna strive together
to go in one direction. That's what believers are commanded
to do. Strive together for unity and
peace, because when you're in a little ship, it's tight quarters. You know, we need to be able
to have peace one with another. And while we're in this ship,
going from one shore to the next, we're gonna have some smooth,
peaceful days of sunny sailing. But there's gonna be some other
days too, isn't there? A dear friend of mine, he owns a good-sized
boat he keeps on Lake Erie, And he told me one day how he came
to buy this boat. He and his wife went out with
some friends. They had a big boat they kept out there on Lake
Erie. And they had such a good time. I mean, the day was perfect. The lake was like glass. It was
sunny. It was gorgeous. It was, you
know, and they got off that boat and they went and bought one
themselves. I mean, they just, you know, oh, it was great. And
when they took their boat out on Lake Erie, What they found
out was this isn't near as easy and near as fun as it was that
first day we went out. They found today the lake is
full of waves and wind and everything was working against them, you
know. And what they found out was that first day they went
out on the lake where the lake was all smooth, they call that
a sucker day. That suckers you into going and
buying a boat. And then you get a boat and you
find out normally the lake is very choppy. The waves are against
you, it's very, very windy. Well, the life of a believer
is not a sucker day. There are calm, peaceful days,
aren't there? But we're going to find out we have more troubled
days, more troubled seas, more big waves than we do smooth days. There's going to be more rough
waters than there are smooth, smooth waters, smooth, calm seas. But now don't quit. Don't quit. When the wind and waves are contrary
to you, don't quit. When our Lord brings us across
Jordan to the other side, there's gonna be no more troubled days. There's gonna be no more wind
and waves that are contrary to us. There'll be peace forevermore. But until then, we're gonna have
to row through a lot of rough seas. Now since that is a pretty
good encapsulation of the believer's life, Our Lord gives us some
comforting truths in this story of how he came walking to his
disciples on the sea. Our text this morning shows us
an example of how the Lord works all things together for good
to them who love him, to them who are called of God according
to his purpose. So I've titled the message this
morning, Comfort in God's Sovereignty. And this is something that if
you're a believer, if you don't need it right this second, store
it away, because you're gonna need it for too long. Number
one is this. Now, how is it that we can find
comfort in the midst of these painful, difficult trials? Well,
number one, it's in the providence of God. Mark six, verse 45. In
a straight way, he constrained his disciples to get into the
ship and to go to the other side under Bethsaida while he sent
away the people. And when he sent them away, he
departed into a mountain to pray. Now, our Lord sovereignly, sent
his disciples out into that sea alone. Sounds like they didn't
want to go, but the Lord constrained them. He made them, he compelled
them to go in this ship alone, to go to the other side without
him. And the disciples, now they had to do the Lord's will, didn't
they? It may have gone against their fleshly desires, but they
had to do the Lord's will. That's where the Lord commanded
them to go. And I can understand them not wanting to be out of
the master's presence, can't you? I mean, here they've had
this great day where the Lord's been healing people and the Lord
fed the 5,000 plus women and children. Oh, the notoriety,
the glory that their master was getting. Now they're sitting
at the cool kids table at lunchtime and immediately he sends them
away alone onto this sea. And he did it for their good,
even though they don't understand it right now. Isn't that true
about us? We often don't understand why
it is the Lord sends us where he sends us. We don't know. Now
we go where he commands us to go. We may not want to go there.
I might rather be over here than somewhere else, you know. But
the Lord sends his people sovereignly where he sends them. And only
he knows why. The Lord knows the reasons and
sometimes we end up seeing the reason. Why did the Lord do this
with me? Why did the Lord do this or that? Well, sometimes
we see the reasons, sometimes we don't. But either way, we
are where we are and we're doing what we're doing at the Lord's
command. Servants don't get a choice in
these matters. We're serving wherever it is that the Lord
put us. And we need to remember this when the Lord may send us
somewhere that this flesh don't want to go. We're doing something
this flesh doesn't want to do. We need to remember this. The
Lord isn't making a mistake. Ever. Ever. The Lord never makes a mistake.
He's sending his people where he sends them to accomplish his
will and his purpose. He's sending us wherever it is
he sends us primarily for his glory and for our learning. for our learning. You know, the
Lord sent them. I mean, everybody here knows
the story. The Lord sends his disciples out in this sea, this
horrible storm. And you know, they think surely
they're going to go down, you know, sink right to the bottom
of the sea. And at just the right time, when
all hope in the flesh was gone, the Lord came walking to them
on the water so that they would learn to trust him, so that they
would learn he really is able Our God's sovereign, he's able,
he always does his will. Now, that's not just doctrine.
If we believe that, we're gonna live it. We're gonna live it.
Now, it was the Lord that sent his disciples out onto the sea
and there was a violent storm coming. He knew it, they didn't.
Now, these disciples would not have gone out into that sea if
they'd known a storm was coming. They're experienced sailors and
fishermen. They know better than to go out in the middle of that
sea when this big storm's coming. They didn't know the storm was
coming, but the Lord did. And you know why he knew it was
coming? He sent it. He's the one that, he didn't
just look in the crystal ball and foresee the future. The Lord
knew what was going to happen. He knew this storm was coming
because he's the one that sent it. And he sent them into the
midst of it. And he sent that storm straight
to them. for God's purpose, to accomplish his purpose. Now, next time we find ourselves
in a little boat, in the midst of the storm, and we think we're
going down for the third time, let's just remember, the Lord
sent us providentially there, just like he sent his disciples
providentially out in the middle of that sea. The Lord sent them
the storm on purpose. And next time we go through a
storm, it's because the Lord sent it to us too. our wise heavenly
father, sin it. Not for our detriment, not to
punish us, not because he's mad at us, but for our good, that
we might learn something of him, that we might learn to trust
him more. You know, it just always help
us to remember, everything that happens to us, our Lord and our
master did it. Our Lord and our master did it.
John, Friday night, made just such a great statement about
our God. Now if He's gonna do something, He don't ask us. He don't ask us if it's all right
with us. If God's gonna take something from us, He doesn't
ask us if it's all right, He just takes it. Because He does
His will. And He's doing His will to teach
us something. But we also need to remember
this, This is the purpose of our loving, wise, heavenly father. He's doing it for our good, for
our learning, always. And he isn't making a mistake
with you and me any more than he made a mistake with the disciples,
sending them in the midst of the sea. Even though this violent
storm was coming, it's easy for you and me to see God's providence
in this and God's purpose in it. Because we already know how
the story ends. It's very different when you're
in the middle of the boat and you don't know how the story's gonna
end. But here's our comfort. We don't know how the story's
gonna end. Our comfort is in the sovereign providence of our
God. All right, number two. There's comfort in the presence
of the Savior. You know, these disciples were
all alone in that little ship. The wind was contrary to them.
The waves were crashing over that little boat. and they were
all alone. Have you ever felt that way?
I mean, is there anything worse than being miserable and scared
and being alone? It's awful, isn't it? And these
experienced sailors, they rowed and rowed and rowed, they worked,
all the things a sailor would do, you know, they put up the
sails, they put down the sails, they turned the sails, they moved
the sails, they did everything they could think of to do, and
they're still getting tossed around like a cork on the water.
and they weren't able to direct that ship whatsoever. No matter
how hard they worked, they couldn't get anywhere. And in the dark
middle of the night, 3 a.m., Jan's grandmother used to say,
nothing good goes on after midnight. You just ought to be home, because
nothing goes on good after midnight. Well, somebody ought not be awake
thinking at 3 a.m., should they? Because our thoughts are just
like the night outside. They're always dark. They're
full of fear. And they're so scared. And they're so alone. Every one
of us felt that way, haven't we? Now, what would give them comfort?
Well, it would give them comfort if they could just find a way
to row to the shore and they'd be safe. Get on dry land. That'd be comfort, wouldn't it?
You want me to tell you what's more comfort than that? The Savior
coming and having his presence in the midst of the storm. This is something that the Lord's
taught me. I'd rather have his presence than the trial end. There's nothing sweeter than
his presence in the midst of the storm. And that's what he
gave his disciples. There's comforting there. See,
the disciples felt all alone, but you know, they weren't, they
weren't. They couldn't see the Savior,
but the Savior saw them. Look at verse 47. And when even
was come and the ship was in the midst of the sea and he,
the Savior was alone on the land and he saw them toiling and rowing. He saw them. They couldn't see
him. He couldn't see them because he had a binoculars and he could
see out through the dark in the midst of the sea. He saw them
because he's God who sees everything. He saw them. His eye is always
on his people. Even if we don't see him, he
sees us. Even if we don't feel him, feel
his prayer. He sees his people. And next
time you feel you're all alone in a violent storm that's so
dark and you're so all alone and you just feel so discouraged,
you remember this. The Lord sees you. He sees. Remember Hagar, she thought she
was going to die. She took that little precious son of hers out. She thought she was in the desert.
She thought she was going to die. And the Lord spoke to her. You know what she called the
name of the Lord who spoke to her? Thou God seest me. Thou God seest me. The Lord that
liveth sees you and me in every one of the trials that he sends
us. I don't care how dark it is. I don't care how wind-tossed
the seas are. He sees his people. Now, when
you can't see him, you hang on to that because the comfort is
he sees you. He sees you. Now, I wonder, What
was the Savior doing when the disciples couldn't see him? What
was he doing? You know, he was praying and
making intercession for them. Verse 46 says, and when he sent
them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. I don't know everything
that the Lord said in his prayer and everything that he prayed
about, but I do know this, he was making intercession for his
people because that's what he always does. And if you know
Christ and you trust Him, there is nothing more comforting to
your heart than knowing that right now, sitting on the throne
of glory, your Savior is making intercession for you. Your name
is on His heart just as much as it was on His heart when the
Father elected a people and gave them to His Son to save in eternity.
Your name is on His heart just as much as it was when he was
nailed to Calvary's tree, suffering and dying for his people. The
names of his people, they were on his heart. Your name is on
his heart the very same way, as he sits right now in glory,
making intercession for his people. But then, the Savior came to. Now, they have his presence.
And the very moment they had his presence, there was peace. Verse 50 says, For they all saw him and were
troubled. And immediately he talked with them and saith unto
them, be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. It is I. Then let's be of good
cheer. The Savior has come and has his
presence with his people. And like I said a minute ago,
there's just nothing sweeter than having Christ's presence
even though you're still in the midst of the trial. Remember
the three Hebrew children were thrown into the midst of the
burning fiery furnace. They made Nebuchadnezzar so mad,
he made that furnace be seven times hotter than it was made
to stand. And they threw those three Hebrew
young men into that burning fiery furnace. And that furnace was
so hot, it killed the men that threw them in. But it didn't
harm Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, did it? There they are in the
midst of that burning fiery furnace. I mean the furnace hot with trial. And what were they doing? Walking
around like they didn't have a care in the world. You know
why? Because there was a fourth man
in that furnace. Like unto the Son of God, Nebuchadnezzar said.
This is the Son of God. When they had his presence, the
fiery furnace didn't bother them a bit. They'd rather have his
presence than get out of the burning fire furnace. You notice
they weren't trying to climb out. They were with the Savior. They were walking around with
him. Daniel, those enemies of his
tricked the king into throwing Daniel into the lion's den. They
starved those lions for days and days and days, didn't feed
them. And they threw Daniel in there thinking, boy, these hungry
lions will just devour Daniel immediately. And they didn't. The lions didn't harm him a bit.
They threw Daniel in that lion's den. They put a rock over top
of it. And you know what Daniel did all night? Slept. He slept peacefully with all
those lions all around him. You know why? Somebody else was
down there with him. He said, it's the angel of the
Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ was there
with him. When Christ was with him, the
lion's den was just a comfortable place to sleep. He'd rather have
the presence of Christ and be in the lion's den than be out
of the lion's den and be with King Darius without the Lord. See what I'm saying? That's why
Newton wrote prisons would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with
him there. Oh, there's nothing more comforting
than the presence of our savior. Then number three, there's comfort
in the power of our God. Look at verse 48. And he saw
them, you know, they were out of human eyesight. He saw them
because he's God who sees everything. He saw them toiling and rolling
for the wind was contrary unto them. And about the fourth watch
of the night, he cometh unto them walking upon the sea and
would have passed by them. But when they saw him walking
upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit and they cried
out for fear. And the disciples were all alone.
in the midst of this stormy sea. And it may have occurred to them
at some point, while they're rowing and toiling and working
and doing everything they can do to stay alive, it might have
occurred to them at some point, you know, if the Lord was just
here with us, we wouldn't be having all this mess. but the
Lord couldn't get to him. They thought, well, I mean, it
doesn't matter. He's not here now and he can't get to us because
when we took this boat across to see all those other little
boats took off too, there's no more boats over there. And even
if there was, nobody's gonna take the Lord out in the midst
of this sea to come hunting for us. Nobody in their right mind
would do that. The Lord can't get to us now,
so we're just in the middle of this storm and we're just gonna
have to deal with it alone. You know why the disciples did
not think that the Lord could get to them and help them? It's because their hearts were
hardened. Verse 52 says this. Here's why they were amazed in
themselves beyond measure and they wondered, for they considered
not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened.
They just saw the Lord show himself as God the creator. creating
matter. As he broke that bread and those
little sardines, he was creating matter. You know, they started
out with five loaves and two fishes, they ended up with 12
baskets full. He's the creator. He got power to do anything that
he will. And they, I mean, later that
day, they forgot the miracle of loaves and fishes. And their
hearts were hardened. They were so full of fear because
their hearts were hardened, hardened with unbelief. Oh, now they can
talk a good game. Boy, you let these fellas get
up and preach and they'll talk about the power of God one day.
They'll talk about the sovereignty of God. But when they're in the
midst of it, they forgot it. They preached about God's sovereign
power over everything, but they couldn't find it in themselves
to trust him and his power when they were overpowered. When something
was too much for them, Suddenly, they couldn't trust God's sovereign
power anymore. If we're being honest, not one
person here can be hard at them for that, can we? We got the
same nature. And in the midst of that unbelief,
the Lord came to them anyway, showing them again his absolute
power over all things. Our God suspended the laws of
physics and walked on water. Walked through that storm just
like he's walking on the sidewalk. Our omnipotent God did not need
a boat to bring him out. He didn't need some man. He didn't
need a man's help to get him in a boat and get him to the
disciples. He didn't need man's help. By his omnipotent power,
he walked on water to get to him. Now, that's power. I mean, power. And oh, it would
serve us well to remember. You know, our God hadn't changed. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. That's what Gabe told us about
yesterday at the conference there in Lexington. God's still the
same today. He still has power over everything
that wriggles and moves and lives and inanimate objects. He has power over everything
in his creation and He does not need our help to end the trial.
You just wait on Him. Wait on Him. I really do think we'd be wise
to wait on Him to come to us and give us His presence more
than waiting on Him to end the trial. Lord, come to me and teach
me. Teach me what I'm doing. Come
to me and comfort my heart. If you just wait on Him, they'll
take care of the problem. And then, just to make this point
of His power even clearer, as soon as the Lord stepped into
that boat, the storm stopped. The wind didn't slowly subside.
The waves didn't slowly get, you know, lower. The sea was
instantly as glass, and the wind instantly stopped. You know, we'll never find ourselves
in a situation that's beyond the Lord's power to deliver us.
You know, the Lord often suddenly and miraculously brings a trial
to an end. You think this is never gonna
end. There's no end in sight. And He just ended instantly.
Sometimes He does that. And He does it that way so that
we learn to trust Him. So that we learn to trust His
power. so that we learn to trust his
wisdom, so that we learn to trust his love for his people. He knows
how and when to end the trial that's the best for us. Our Lord, Paul said in Ephesians
3 verse 20, is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think. Well, we often make suggestions
to the Lord, don't we? How he could fix this problem,
how he could fix this problem, how he could do this, how he
could do that. And you know, when we do that, all we're doing
is limiting the Lord because He is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think. His power is so far beyond our
ability to understand. He's able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think. And when they get off the ship,
the Lord reminded them again of His power over everything.
They saw Him heal everybody yesterday. Everybody had need of healing.
He healed. Everybody was hungry. He fed them. Apparently they
forgot, so the Lord taught them again the next day. As soon as
he got off that ship, he showed them everything in his creation.
From giant storms to microscopic germs that we can't see, they're
all under his control. Verse 53. And when they passed
over, they came under the land of Gennesaret and drew to the
shore. And when they were come out of
the ship straightway, they knew him and ran through that whole
region round about and began to carry about in beds those
that were sick. Where they heard he was and whithersoever he entered
into villages or cities or country, they laid the sick in the streets
and besought him that they might touch as it were but the border
of his garment. And as many as touched him were made whole. There is no problem that our
Lord, just by his presence, just touching the hem of his garment,
just by his will, His sovereign power over everything. Now, let
me ask you, what problem do you have that our Lord does not have
the power to fix? What problem do you have? What
ache of the heart? What is it that the Lord does
not have the power to comfort your heart? Nothing, is there? Not one blessed thing. And I wanna give you this in
closing. There's comfort in the pity of our God for weak sinners.
Verse 52, verse 50 says, when they saw him, they were all troubled. They thought it was a spirit.
They thought it was a ghost, but immediately he talked with
them and saith unto them, be of good cheer. It is I, be not
afraid. And he went up unto them and
the ship and the wind ceased. And they were sore amazed at
themselves beyond measure. And they wondered, For they considered
not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened.
Now their heart was hardened because they'd already forgotten
the Lord's power in healing and feeding the multitude the day
before. And they felt so scared and they
were so certain everything that was bad was going to happen to
them because of unbelief. I mean, just hours after they
saw the Lord, Demonstrate His power and His care and His love. Ever been there? It would be real good if we could
remember the folks we're in this little ship with. Ain't none
of us perfect. There's gonna be a lot of weak
faith. There's gonna be a lot of times we look at one another
and we look at ourselves and there's no faith there whatsoever. These folks had such weak faith
and you know, there's no excuse. No excuse for weak faith. But
the Lord came to them and comforted their hearts anyway. The Lord
came to them and performed this miracle for them anyway. He didn't write them off. He
didn't cast them away. Said, I'm gonna find me a new
12 because these 12 are so no count. No, he didn't cast them
off. Instead, He taught them. He taught them of His sovereign
power again. He taught them of His love for
sinners again. He taught them of His compassion
and pity for sinners again, for His weak, weak children. He keeps
teaching us over and over and over and over again, maybe someday
we will finally learn. But till then, we're going to
have to be kept being taught over and over and over again,
aren't we? And it's all by His grace. You know, the Lord does
not save his people by our works, does he? And he doesn't keep
us saved by the strength of our goodness and the strength of
our faith either. The Lord saves his people in spite of our sin,
in spite of our failure. The Lord saves his people and
preserves his people by his grace, because he has such pity to sinners. You and I live in a body of dust,
and it's a shame how frequently we forget We live in a body of
dust. I mean, you know, you just can't
expect too much from a pile of dust, can you? Our Lord knows
a whole lot better than we do. He knoweth our frame. He remembers
we're dust, even when we don't, and has compassion on us. And
you know, when we're not nearly as faithful as we should be,
which is pretty much all the time, the Lord's always faithful. He is faithful, that promised. And our comfort comes from trusting,
from trusting who he is, from trusting his character, his pity,
his grace, his mercy, his love, and his power to save sinners.
All right, hope the Lord bless that to you and comfort your
heart with it when you need it.