Let's take our Bibles and turn
to Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4 verses 35 through
41 is another one of those clips in time preserved for us by the
Holy Spirit of God through His servant Mark. to teach us something
about the salvation of sinners and especially about our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now this is, I hear people refer
to this as a parable. And I suppose if you take the
definition of a parable as meaning an example or a a lesson, something
to teach us, then I suppose you could call it a parable. But
it's not a story made up. This is an actual historical
fact. And this event was preserved
for our learning and our admonition. Now I want to begin this morning
by calling your attention to what our Lord said to his disciples
before they ever left the shore. This was not his only trip across
this sea, nor was this the only storm that he passed through
going over the sea. But this is one of the accounts. First, he had given them clear
instruction as to who he was and what was presently going
on with himself and with them. He gave them, I don't know, I
didn't bother to go back and count them, but each one we've
had a lesson on all the way from the beginning of chapter 4. And
there's many parables here that he taught them. And he's teaching
them something about himself and something about what's going
on with him and them in this world. And he was talking to them and
preparing them for the ministry. These are the men who were going
to be his witnesses. These were the men who were going
to be his apostles, the chief seat of the church and the foundation,
or at least part of the foundation of our faith. And then as the
day came to a close, he said to them, let us pass over unto
the other side. Now evidently there was another
crossing of this sea recorded in John's Gospel and in Matthew
and also in Mark chapter 6, in which our Lord sent His disciples
ahead, telling them that He would find them, He would come to them
later. And so they went down and got
into ships without question and took off across the sea. And
you know that story, He came to them in the middle of the
night, walking on the water. But on this occasion, he said
to them, let us pass over. Now I thought as I read this,
and the older I get, the more I'm learning to just pause and
consider what you're reading. Consider every word because every
word is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Consider these things. What a blessed thought that our
Lord would be with us as we go to wherever he's commanded us
to go. I was thinking about that on
my way to North Carolina the other day. I knew I had to go
through dangerous traffic. If any of you have ever driven
through Birmingham or Atlanta, you know what I'm talking about.
It's a dangerous situation at best. But what a blessed thought
that he would go with me. He would be with me. And I'm
sure it was with them as they thought about this. Now someone
once said the crossing of the sea is the story of every believer's
life. And I believe that's so. I believe
that's so. It is the story of our life. From the time He commands us
to go forth and calls us out of darkness into His marvelous
light, there is a crossing. There is a passing going on.
We are going to the other side. This life is not the end. Judgment
is not the end. We have eternity promised to
us in Christ. And so there is a passing over. It begins with a divine calling,
this passing. It's established by the preaching
of Christ. It's tried by the winds and the
storms and waves of adversity. And then they're safely preserved
to reach their desired destination. So this is the story, no doubt,
of every believer's life. And surely this is taught in
both of these crossings of the sea. Now, I want to read you
something that will set this parable or this actual event,
it will set it in motion for you. This is in Psalm 107. David spoke by the Holy Spirit
and he said, they that go down to the sea in ships, that do
business in great waters, These see the works of the Lord and
His wonders in the deep. For He commandeth and raiseth
the stormy wind which lifted up the waves thereof. They mount
up to the heaven. They go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because
of trouble. Those who are in the ship doing
business will go. They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. And then they
cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their
distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so
that the waves thereof are still. Then they are glad, because they
be quiet. So He bringeth them into their
desired haven. Now that's a description of what
took place with these disciples out on the sea. And truly this
account symbolizes the whole of every believer's life. But
it also, and this is the heart of this passing over the sea,
it depicts what's going on in our lives every day. Every day. There's a passing over every
day. You and I are on a journey, a
voyage, if you will, to the other side, moment by moment and hour
by hour and day by day and year by year. We're crossing what
is, for lack of a better word, the sea of time. You know that the angels, the
elect angels, We're never subject to time. They don't know what
time is. The Lord said a day with him
is as of a thousand years and a thousand years as of a day.
We have no sense of eternity, they have no sense of time. But
we're passing through time. We're subject to it, partakers
of it, passing through it. Spending our efforts and our
thoughts and hearts hoping to reach the other side, hoping
to get through this realm of time and reach eternity. One preacher said, these are
not painted ships on a painted sea. Brother Don Fortner said
that. These are not painted ships on
a painted sea, but eternity bound men and women, real sinners,
real people on a real and dangerous sea. And if you study the narrative
closely, you'll discover that there were with them other smaller
vessels. It wasn't just one ship, but
there was many that started out on this journey. And these vessels
and the souls which were in them are never mentioned again. Nothing about their salvation,
nothing about their future, nothing about Christ going with them. They're never mentioned again.
It just mentions that they started. It's my opinion that they were
swallowed up by the sea and so shall every vessel without the
presence of the Son of God, our Savior, is going to be swallowed
up. It's just a matter of time. If you read carefully in the
book of 2 Peter, those who said there's not gonna be a coming,
they said all things continue as they were. And that's how
it seems to us. You know, we've got friends and
neighbors, and some of them despise the Bible, they despise the gospel.
They don't want any part of it, and yet they go on, day after
day after day, and it seems like Everything goes so smooth for
him. David actually got angry about
the prosperity of the wicked. Then he said he went into the
house of the Lord and he saw their end. He saw their end. It's just a matter of time. Just
a matter of time. Their foot shall slip in due
season. Now the Lord Jesus Christ has
called us to himself and by faith put us into an eternal union
with himself. In Colossians 3.3 it said, for
ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ who is our life
shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. And there's always gonna be other
little ships. There always will be. There always
will be. Trying to follow the Lord for
his benefits or for his reputation or for whatever reason that men
follow him. But nobody outside the good ship
of grace will ever reach the other side. It's just not gonna
happen. And I call this vessel the good
ship Grace, because grace is the way Christ saves sinners. We were, Paul said, by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace ye are saved. How can that be? Well, He raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. Why would He do that? That in
the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace
and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Don't you imagine
when Christ got on the other side of that sea? And He went
out there and here comes this big mob after Him and the Lord
turned to Him and He said, You're not following me out of faith.
You're not following me out of love. You're following me for
whatever you can get. You ate of the loaves and were
filled, and now you're ready for the next meal. You're ready
for the next miracle. You're ready to be seen with
me. Can't you imagine, though, that
when our Lord began to preach and talk about His Lordship and
talk about His salvation, don't you think that those guys that
He saved in that ship had a whole new understanding of what grace
was? Oh, my soul. Now, how many here today has
he pulled out of the storm? Huh? You ever been in the storm? That's where men do business
with God, in deep waters. And only He can put you there.
Only He can take you there. Only He can raise that storm
and make you think that you're gone. But you're not gone because
He's with you. He's with you. That which was produced in the
flesh panicked in their fear. That's what this flesh produces.
It panics at the sight of things and it's fearful and afraid. It frantically tried to save
themselves, didn't it? That which this flesh produced.
It was bailing water. They had the Son of God in the
ship and they reached for a bucket. Can you imagine? It said the waves beat against
the ship. and it was filled with water. I've been in some small boats
out on some pretty good sized lakes and I've gotten a lot of
water in them from rain and from waves. And I tell you, you'll
panic when you start to see that water coming. I can't imagine
in a big ship having that water just fill that thing up. Here's the son of God, they didn't
run back to him first, they ran and got a bucket. Started bailing
water. Took down the sails. Tried to
turn the ship. Tried to change its directions. And then they went back when
they finally did go to the Lord and charged Him foolishly in
their unbelief. Carest thou not that we perish? Now I'm telling you that's flesh
that does that. Flesh questions the love of God. My soul, he manifested his love
for us on the cross. How could we question his love? But that's what unbelief does.
That's what this flesh does. And I'm gonna tell you something.
Your flesh will always react this way. It'll never change. It'll never change. But there is in the believer
a new man, a new creation. Christ in you, the hope of glory,
a divine work of grace in us. A new man, and this new man runs
to Christ. He knows that only Christ can
save him. Christ alone is his hope, and
even if it is watered down with unbelief, it still runs to the
person, don't it? Wasn't anybody in them little
ships calling out for Christ? Yes. Peter said, we believe. Help thou our unbelief. We know
that we're filled with unbelief. But we have something we've never
had. We have faith. And that faith does believe.
It does believe. Oh, how these men must have looked
back on this and assured themselves in trials to come, that even
when the circumstances looked deadly and irreversible, yet
their Lord rested in His omnipresence, in His omniscience. He rested in His Father. And He didn't
feel like they felt. He was asleep. Can you imagine? This ship, I know this was a
lake, this is not the ocean, so this ain't a ship like a pirate's
vessel or something that you see with three big masts and
all that, but it was a pretty good sized ship. Fishing vessel. And they were out in that sea
and this thing being tossed. If those waves were high enough
to fill that ship, that ship was being tossed. It was being,
I mean, the things washing overboard and crashing and tearing up,
and Christ was asleep. Boy, we can't rest there in times
like that, can we? No, but we can rest in Him, and
we can rest in His rest. If thou shalt enter into his
rest. That's what it says over in Hebrews
chapter four. Let me read you something. This
just come to me. This is over in 1 John. I wanna
read this to you. I've quoted it to you many times. But this has a good application
for this particular subject. In verse 17 of Hebrews, I mean
of 1 John chapter four, he said, herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as he is, so are we in this world. Is he safe? He thought so. He was sleeping. He wasn't running
around with buckets. He was sound asleep. We can rest
in his rest because as he is, so are we. We're in him. And I'll tell you,
if you look at him, you want to know what faith is? Here's
perfect faith. It's sound asleep in the storm.
Sound asleep. All right, secondly, I want you
to notice how lovingly and gentle our Lord rebukes his disciples.
He said, why are you so fearful? Peter had already confessed,
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Why are you
so fearful? You believe that Jesus Christ
is God? I do. God come into play. Then why am I so fearful? Well, from a natural standpoint,
they had plenty of reason. These men were skilled fishermen,
skilled seamen. They spent their life on that
sea. And there was a storm at hand.
And the waves were flooding the ship, and the text says the waves
beat into the ship so that it was now full. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4,
16, of our outward man perishing, and so he said, I die daily. Daily. Yet the inward man, he's
renewed day by day. For I light affliction, which
is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory. Now watch this. While we look
not on the things which are seen. That's why he could rest. He
didn't look at these things. He was above those things. But at the things which are not
seen. For the things which are seen are temporary. They're changeable. They come and go, but the things
which are not seen are eternal. They're permanent. They're unchangeable.
They're here forever. So what are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying faith looks to Christ. And it may look watered down
with unbelief, but it still looks. Faith rests in Christ. It don't
rest in its own energy. rest in its own works. It rests
in its Savior. And faith walks in Christ. Faith preaches and confesses
Christ. And He alone can preserve chosen
sinners on the sea. There's no peace without Him. Only He can speak peace. And
then peace becomes a reality. And not only did the winds and
the waves obey his voice that day, but also his panic-stricken
disciples. They looked at him and said,
what manner of man is this? Well, he's not like you and I,
that's for sure. That's for sure. Even the winds
and the waves obey his voice. My soul. What we got to be afraid
of? Huh? He's the God-man. God and man
in one glorious person. God coming to seek and to save
that which was lost. And He's man coming to suffer,
coming to feel our infirmities, coming as a fit representative
and substitute for His people. And He's the way. He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life. Now, is this not the daily lesson
of our lives and faith? Are we not shut up to Christ
daily? Boy, I am. I am. It don't take long, either. I'm shut up to him. I can't get
through the least thing. Sometimes I'll answer a phone
call and just have a meltdown. And then I'll think to myself,
oh, how pitiful. How pitiful you are. Are we not
exposed in our weakness and unbelief as vessels of mercy in every
event of our lives? Are we not totally dependent
on Him? That big vessel would have perished with the smaller
vessels if Christ had not been in the ship. And so would we,
a thousand times over. And then thirdly, let me say
this. I do not wish to encourage any of you to be satisfied with
their unbelief. Unbelief is the greatest of sins. It doubts the love of God. It
doubts the power of God. It doubts God's work in you. That which you've experienced
in your own soul, unbelief doubts. It draws doubt on the sufficiency
of Christ's atonement. It doubts everything. It is the
greatest of sins, unbelief. Unbelief ignores the Son of God,
our Savior, though he was present in the ship, he was ignored till
they ran out of options. Bail out the water. Turn around
the vessel. He was a valuable friend, but
he wasn't all. He wasn't all. He was a great
prophet and teacher, but he wasn't omnipotent. His presence in the
ship was no more than a rabbit's foot to them. That's what unbelief
sees. It just made them feel good. Unbelief
ignores the Father's glory and His purpose in sending the Son
into the world. Faith is given of God to trust
in His Son. That's why it's given, that's
what it does. And every soul taught of God
the Father will come to Christ, be drawn to Christ, and rest
in Christ. You'll have assurance in Christ
and not in your own faith. I've heard this said so much
by my mentor, Pastor Mahan. He said, faith didn't die for
you, Christ did. Faith didn't clothe you. Faith doesn't intercede for you.
Christ did and He does. Assurance is in Him. And that's
what this stormy trial was all about and what our daily trials
are all about. Faith looks to Christ. He said to them, how is it that
you have no faith? How is it? I believe he said
it tenderly. I don't think he sneered through
Clint's teeth at him. I think he said this tenderly. How is it that you have no faith?
Do you really believe that being with Christ, you could perish? Huh? He's the creator. He spoke in everything that you
can see and more. He created in a millisecond. I don't believe in evolution
for one second. I think everything you see was
there instantly. It just was there. And it wasn't
made from something that was already there. He tells us that
in Hebrews chapter 11 right off the bat. He tells us he made
these, the things that you see were not made from things which
are. You really believe that being
with him you could perish in any circumstance? Why are you
so fearful? My friend, there's only one way
to be saved. Just one way, in Christ. That's it. There's nothing
else. So where ought our confidence
to be? And if I want to encourage this
church, where should my preaching be? What should I zero in on
except Him? There's nothing outside of Him.
It's just a black hole. It's just a mirage. In Him, it
said, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you're
complete in Him, who is the head of all principalities. May God
give us all an understanding of what I've just said. Thank
you.