Mark's Gospel chapter 4. I want to begin reading in verse
35 and look at the remainder of that chapter this afternoon
if the Lord is willing. I want to look at chapter 5. Let's begin in verse 25. Mark
chapter 4 and verse 35. And the same day, when the evening
was come, he said unto them, Let us pass
over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the
multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship, and there
were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great
storm of wind, and the waves beat unto the ship, so that it
was now full, our margin says filling. And he was in the hinder
part of the ship asleep on a pillow. And they awake him, and say unto
him, Master, curest not thou that we perish? And he arose,
and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there
was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are
ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly,
and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even
the wind and the sea obey him? Now I have preached on this several
times from this passage. Sometimes I have looked at it
and spiritualized it, and I've heard other dear preachers do
that, and a lot of good spiritual lessons can be learned from spiritualizing
this and the fifth chapter that we'll look at this afternoon.
But really, we don't have to do that. I love to look at these
events just as they happened. This really happened. And I think
as we look at it, just as it happened, it suggests to our
mind a lot of spiritual principles. But this is a wonderful thing
in and of itself, that the Lord Jesus called these men, His disciples,
in this ship, and on their way over to the other side, about,
it depends on whether they went 10, 12, 13 miles away, And they
encountered this awful storm in the midst of the sea and got
through the storm and went on to the other side. And it's an
amazing and wonderful story when we look at it just as it's given
us here in its teaching. And that's what I want to do.
And the first thing I want to do, I want to look at the context
of this. Because he says here in verse
35, And the same day, when the evening was come, he said unto
them, Let us go over unto the other side, in verse 36, when
they had sent away the multitude." Now he gives this command, he
gives these instructions, let us pass over to the other side.
But I want to show you from the book of Matthew, if you'll turn
over there in Matthew, The parallel passage to this, you can put
your little holder there in Mark chapter 4 if you'd like to. But
here's the context of this. It's amazing what happened. Just
as the Lord said, get in the ship and follow Me to the other
side. And in Matthew chapter 8, and
here in verse 18, I want you to know what happens. This is
very instructive. Matthew chapter 8, and look in
verse 18. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes
about Him, He gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came and
said unto Him, Master, I will follow Thee wheresoever Thou
goest. And Jesus said unto him, The
foxes have holes, And the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man hath no place to lay His head." Now, nobody knew. Nobody in this whole crowd, even
our Lord's dear disciples, had no idea what they were going
to face between this shore and the next shore to where they
were going. And this scribe had no idea what
it was going to take to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And this
dear man, you have put so much confidence in His will and in
the power of it. Did you notice how he says it?
I will follow you wherever you go. Now, you better be careful,
hadn't you? A man better be careful. I mean,
if you're following me, you may say, Bruce, everywhere you go,
I'm right behind you, buddy. And you may do it. But listen,
when you follow the Son of God, when you follow Him everywhere
He went, I mean, this man gets you in trouble. Everywhere the
Lord went, there was trouble awaiting Him, and trials, and
heartaches. And this man had no idea. And
I think this is what made him say, Lord, I will. My will is
so strong that wherever you go, I'll follow you. Bud, you can
say that when you're standing on the beach. And it's evening,
and it's cool, and you've got a beautiful sunset that you're
looking at, and a friendly crowd is around you. But how is that
will going to hold up when you're out in the middle of the sea
in the midst of a raging storm? I think these people that put
so much confidence and stock in the power of their will, God
has never taught them, has He? He's never taught them how fickle
the will is and how weak the will is. But that's what this
man said, wherever you go, I'll follow you. Well, that's good. Bless God, it's good to have
a resolve in it. God give us all that resolve.
But I tell you, God stripped us from this vain confidence
that we may have in thinking that we can do it apart from
grace. This man put a lot of confidence
in his will. But something else here in verse
21, look at this. And another of his disciples
said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow
me, and let the dead bury their dead. Now Luke adds another one
to this account. He tells there was another man
who said, Lord, I'll follow you, but suffer me first to go say
goodbye to those that are in my house. And the Lord Jesus
answered him this way, No man putting his hand to the plow
and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Boy, I tell you what, one thing
I've found out, brothers and sisters, if you're going to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ, it's going to take grace. There was a little
phrase a few years, maybe in the 80s or early 90s, this little
phrase come up, it's fun being saved. Anybody remember that?
It's fun being saved. Well, listen, I've never known
such joy I've never known such peace of heart as it is when
the Lord saved my soul. But I'm telling you this, it's
not fun and games, is it? It's not fun and games. And that's
what the Lord Jesus is telling these fellows here. You're going
to follow me? It ain't going to be by the power
of your will. You're going to follow me? Then
you're going to have to deny yourself. and deny your family
and those that are at your house. And it may sound harsh. It may
sound uncaring. But listen, brothers and sisters,
if we're going to follow Jesus Christ, we can't follow Him with
this attitude, me first. I'll follow you, but me first. And boy, we reach this conclusion
when the Lord Jesus was ready to push out from the coast. We
can reach this conclusion. Ain't nobody going to follow
Him that knows what the consequences are going to be. But those who
have had a new birth, those who have been converted, and those
who follow Him in a power outside themselves. That's the only way,
isn't it? These fellows were standing there
on the seashore, and they were fishermen. Boy, these
fellows had fished this sea, and they may have been standing
there looking out over the Sea of Galilee, and it was evening
time, and they probably thought to themselves, Peter, James,
and John, they probably thought to themselves, Boy, now I've
fished this sea. I know every spot on this sea
to fish. And I don't know about taking off from this side all
the way to the other side. Because we're going to get out
to our ways and it's going to be dark. And I know what can
happen out on that sea. I wonder if they were just a
little bit apprehensive about it. Well, I tell you this, there
was one man sitting in this pulpit not long ago, and I agree with
him. He said, you want some affliction? You want some trials of your
heart? You want your soul to be humbled? You want to do the
most difficult thing you ever dreamed of doing? He said, take
up your cross and follow Jesus Christ. And that's the truth,
isn't it? That's the truth. And this man
who had this strength of will to do it, when he took off from
shore, I bet you he was humbled when he got out in the midst
of this storm. I bet you then he realized if he got on this
boat, when he got out there in the storm, he said, Lord Jesus,
I had no idea what you'd get me into. I need grace. I need
strength. I need help. I need help. He said, let us go over to the
other side. That's the first thing. The second
thing I want us to see is this, and all three of these writers,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, mentions this. Mark says, let us pass
over unto the other side. And Luke says this, let us go
over to the other side of the lake. But Matthew says it like
this, Jesus gave commandment to depart unto the other side. Now here's something that's concerning. Here's something that's awakening.
And here's something that's also comforting. Here's something
that's awakening. And here's something that's comforting. The Lord Jesus was going to the
other side. And if you were going to follow
Him, you had no choice but to get in that boat. and follow Him. Now as I just
said, as I just said, if you don't know the consequences of
following Him, then you may get on that boat and out you go and
say, man, isn't this fun. But here's something, brothers
and sisters, about following the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
some headaches to it. There's some heartaches to it.
If you don't believe it, you ask men like Moses. You ask men
like Moses. Lord, You told me. You told me that You'd be with
me. And now You've not told me who You're going to send with
me. And You put this awful burden upon me to lead this people.
And if You don't help me, You might as well kill me now." Ain't
that what he said? Ask Jeremiah. Ask Jeremiah. The Lord called Jeremiah, and
Jeremiah didn't want to go. And the Lord said, you go preach
to the people. And Jeremiah went to preach to
the people, and they put him down in a pit. And he was up
to his knees in mud. And you know what he said to
the Lord? You've deceived me. You've deceived me. You didn't
tell me how rough this was going to be. And we looked at Jonah,
didn't we? We looked at Jonah, what a rough
time he had come into grips with what the Lord called him to do.
And look at these apostles. They made whipping posts out
of these men. They hated them. They said, this
world counts us as the offscoring, the filth of all things. And Christ called them to follow
Him. Here's the awakening thing about
this. When He calls you to follow Him,
you're in trouble. Sometimes I ask Esther when she
comes in on Sunday morning, sometimes I'll say, Esther, have you had
a good week? And she says, I'm fighting. I'm fighting. Isn't that your experience? I'm
fighting. You ever got in some storms?
We have, haven't we? We have. And here's the awakening
thing. Once these men got in this boat,
there was no getting out until they reached the other side.
Huh? You can't get out, can you? How
were they going to get out? You can't get in the midst of
the storm and say, I'm going back. You can't. And when the
Lord calls you and gives you a will and a heart to serve Him,
I'm telling you, you can't quit. You can't not follow Him when
the storm comes. Can you quit believing? Can you
quit following Him? Wherever He leads you, that's
where you're going. That's what I'm saying. You say,
well, I may and I may not. No. Not in this. There's no may
nots. Where He leads you, you're going.
You're going. You can't a bit more not follow
Christ than these men could get out of this ship halfway across
this lake. You don't know where Christ is
going to lead you next. If it's in green pastures, and
beside the still waters, or through the floods and the fires, but
one thing's for certain, wherever He leads you, that's where you're
going." Now, that's serious, isn't it? That's serious. That is serious. But there's
something here, too, brothers and sisters, that's very comforting,
and these disciples missed it. They hadn't learned to listen
close enough. And they miss what the Lord Jesus
said. Here's what He said. Let us pass
over unto the other side. Did you catch that? They didn't
catch that. And because they didn't catch
that, they got out in the middle of this lake and they become
very fearful that they would not make it to the other side.
What was between them and the other side, they did not know. But this they could have easily
known, and if they had believed it, the journey would have been
much more pleasant than it was. Believed what? That their destination
had been fixed. Was there any chance at all that
they would not make it to the other side? The Lord Jesus said,
let us depart unto the other side. Read chapter 5 and verse
1. And what does that say? And they
came unto the other side. That was pretty fixed, wasn't
it? If they had believed this, they wouldn't have been fearful
and doubtful and fretful in the midst of this sea. And He even gave the command.
He gave commandment to depart to the other side. I love the
verse that Clarence read this morning in Psalm 71. He gave
commandment to save me. Ain't that wonderful? He gave
commandment to save me. I used to have a cousin, and
I used to go around all the time. We liked each other, but we could
not agree on the Scriptures. And I'd quote Scriptures to him,
and I'd quote Scriptures to him Junior, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. And you know what he'd say? Yes,
but now, Bruce, but, but. And I'd quote another unto it.
He that eateth of this bread hath everlasting life. Yes, Bruce, but, but, now, but.
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall never come into condemnation."
Yes, Bruce, but... but... but... Men may argue theories. And they may out-argue you and
me in their theory. But you cannot argue against
fact. And we have fact, don't we? Let
us pass over unto the other side, and they came over unto the other
side. That's fact, isn't it? And you
can make all the hypotheticals you want to, but you can't argue
against fact. They got in this ship, just like
the Master said, they went to the other side. I had a friend
of mine, and he made the silliest statement one time. It's been
probably 30 years ago, but I never have forgot it. I remember when
he made it to me and everything. It just shocked me when he made
it. He said, I wouldn't want a salvation that I couldn't lose. I thought, man, you have no idea
of the preciousness of your soul. If you had a precious soul, you'd
say that right the other way. I don't want a salvation that
I can lose. I don't want a salvation that
I can't lose. Have you ever heard such a ridiculous
statement in all your life? That's like one of these disciples
running up on the ship where our Lord is and saying, is there
any chance that this ship is not going to make it to the other
side? No, buddy, this ship ain't going down. It's going to land
on the other side. Well, I don't want on this ship. I'm going
to find that ship over there that's got some holes in it.
Or some rotten boards. Because I really don't care if
I make it or not. Isn't that ridiculous? How do
you feel about your soul, brothers and sisters? Is it worth more
to you than this world? How do you feel if you ever think
that you're going to lose it? I tell you, I've had those doubts
and fears, and I tell you, it's torment, ain't it? I'm glad that
once you're in Christ, you're always in Christ. When He puts
you in the ship to follow Him, He'll land you safely on heaven's
coast. Grace be gone as heaven won. I love that, don't you? I love
that. I love the fact that He said,
let us go unto the other side. And we have it here where they
landed safely on the other coast. Following the Lord can be a burdensome
trip. It can be heartaches and trials. The waves beat unto this ship. But I think a burden that would
be unbearable would be to be in the midst of the storm. And
you had to carry this burden. I may lose myself. You can bear
the burdens. The Lord will give you grace
to follow Him. But I tell you what, if you're
full of doubts and fears that He's not going to bring you to
the other side, that's almost a burden you can't bear, isn't
it? Has Christ called you? Has He
given you a heart to know Him and follow Him? Then be assured
of this. that He which called you will
keep you in the midst of your trials and land you safe there
in the Father's house." Why are you fearful? Ain't that
what he asked them? Why are you fearful? Well, you
know why they were fearful? Little faith. He says here to
them, where's your faith? You have no faith. In another
place, he said, it's your little faith. And what he's simply meaning
here, where's your faith in what I've said? Why were they fearful? They missed the Word. Let us
go over unto the other side. What caused them to be fearful?
They didn't believe His Word, did they? Brothers and sisters,
when we read God's Word, read it very slowly. I mean, this
copy and paste, that won't get it. It just won't get it. Turn
over there and read it slowly and prayerfully and get it down
in your heart. Let us pass over to the other
side. If we need assurance, you know
where you're going to get it? You ain't going to get it from
your feelings. I mean, when you're out in the midst of the storm
and your little boat's filling up, you ain't going to feel too
good. There's one place to get assurance, and that's from God's
Word. Except you believe, surely you
shall not be established. Listen to this. Believe in the
Lord. Believe in the Lord. So shall you be established.
Believe His prophets, and so shall you prosper. Prosper in
assurance. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that believing
you may have life through His name." Listen to this. These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
Son of God, that you may know. These things have I written that
you may know. How can you know? By what's written. By what's written. Let us pass over to the other
side. Isn't that assurance enough?
Let us pass over to the other side. There may come times in your
Christian trials when your reasoning and your present circumstances
and all the evidence that you seem to have It may be against
you. It may be against your making
it at last. But if the Lord Jesus commanded
you to get in the ship in the beginning, if He gave you grace
to throw in your lot with Him and leave the shore from the
other side, then there is something greater than your carnal reasonings
and something greater than your present circumstances. And what
is it? His Word. His Word. Let us pass over unto the other
side. A true believer may be filled
with doubt and distrust in the time of severe trials. And distrust
will bring doubts and fear and impatience and harsh judgments
even towards our Lord and Savior. That's what unbelief does. Why
are you so fearful? What's the answer to that? Unbelief. Unbelief. Master, we perish. Why such reasonings as that? Were they going to perish? Let's
be honest about it. Were they going to perish? That
was what they reasoned. They looked around them in the
waves. They looked down in the dark waters. We perish. Why did
they reason that way? Unbelief. Unbelief. Master, don't you care? Why such
harsh judgment against their master? Don't you care? Do you ever get mad at the Lord? Do you have problems with your trials
that you're in? Do you get impatience? You know what causes us to get
in such a state of mind? Unbelief. Unbelief. Here will cure this unbelief. Exercise your faith in what He
has said. When you believe what He said,
you believe Him. If He was here this morning,
He wouldn't tell you anything but what He's already told you
in His Word. That's it, isn't it? Let us pass
over. Believe Him. Believe Him. Wouldn't
it have been much better for these disciples, and more honoring
to the Lord Jesus, for them to have believed Him, and landed safe on the other
coast, and then come up to Him and said, Master, it happened
just like You said it would. We enjoyed the trip. We enjoyed
the trip. Wouldn't that have been much
better than having to land on the coast and apologizing for
their misjudgments and their fears and doubts? Wouldn't it? Rather than apologizing, they
could have said, Lord, I believe you. But you know the Lord is
so tender, isn't He? We never read that He confronted
them after this. We never read that he got on
the shore and turned to him and said, you bunch of rascals. You
just grieved me to death. What's the matter with you? Are
you going to pay for this? He doesn't take offenses personally,
does he? Oh, bless His gracious name.
We offend Him and we confess it and He forgives us and we
just go on and He forgets it. Blessed be His wonderful name.
In spite of their doubts, in spite of their fears, they landed
safe on the other coast. And listen to this, some of the
Lord's true children, some of His most faithful children are
going to doubt and fear all the way to heaven. We just read the
song, we just sang the song by William Cowper. What was that
we just sang? Was it nothing but the blood? Something about
the blood? William Cowper, do you ever read the history of
poor William Cowper? He lived in doubts and fears, tried to
commit, tried to kill himself two or three times. And just
a few days before the Lord took him, he was so sick. And they
said, finally, he reached his hands up towards heaven and said,
oh, I'm not rejected, I'm not rejected. Doubted and feared
all the way to the gate of heaven. Can a child of God do that? These
men did in the very presence of the Lord Jesus. But brothers
and sisters, I see no reason why we should if the Lord is
true. Believe Him. Believe Him. Two more things right quickly.
Right quickly. And I want to bring this out
because it's here in the text. And every time this is in the
text, we need to bring this out. Jesus Christ was truly man, wasn't
He? Look at what He said again in
verse 38. And He was in the hinder part
of the ship asleep on a pillow, and they awake Him. They had
to wake Him up. He was truly man, wasn't He?
Asleep on a pillow and had to be waken. Jesus Christ was a
man. And every sense of the Word,
he was a man. He had a real human body. He
had a real human soul. And every sense that you're a
man, and I'm a man, he was a man. Sin accepted. But he had a human
nature, didn't he? I mean, he got tired, and he
had to lay down and rest. When he got hungry, he had to
eat. When he got thirsty, he had to drink. He could be tempted
and was tempted in all points, like as you are and I am. And I tell you, he could cry,
couldn't he? Jesus wept. And he could feel in his human
soul. He could feel. And I tell you,
he could die, couldn't he? He could die. And you know, none
of these things are said about God. God don't get weary. He never gets thirsty. He said,
if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. He sure can't suffer and
die. And this is the mystery of this
wonderful person. He's both God and man. And here
we see His manhood, because there He lays, and He's tired, and
He's worn, and He's asleep, so sound asleep that the storm don't
even wake Him. He's a man. Oh, but He's God
too, isn't He? Because He rose up and said,
Be still. You be still. A mere man can't
speak to the ocean. Spurgeon was telling about Bonaparte
and he won a big battle and he tucked his chair down and sat
on the beach and said, I'm going to defy the tide. And Spurgeon
said if he hadn't moved his little chair, it would have washed him
and his chair away. Man has no control over the oceans. He can't
speak to the wind. It blows where it will. But when
Christ speaks, it obeys. Why? He's its Creator, isn't
He? He's the God-Man. He's really
and truly Man, and He's really and truly God. And here in verse
36, lastly, I thought this was something that was interesting. And when they had sent away the
multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship." And look
at this. We don't hear anything else said about this. And there
were also with him other little ships. And here's the point I want to
make out of this. How these other little ships
profited from Christ being in the ship with His people. When
He said, Peace be still, the whole sea became calm. And listen,
everybody on that sea benefited from that. Even those who had
no idea what just happened, they benefited from Christ's presence
with His people. And I'm saying this, look how
parts of the world has benefited from Christ's presence in His
church. Look how our country has benefited,
brothers and sisters. Some may not believe this or
acknowledge this. I know atheists would never acknowledge
it. But look how our own country has benefited because Christ
is here in His church. There are parts of the world
that It's not like it is here, brothers and sisters. I ain't
been out of this country but one or two places. But the last
time I went out of this country, I almost kissed the ground when
I got back here. I was conscious where the police
was running around with big rifles on their shoulders. And if you
left without your paperwork, you had to go back and get it. This country has been blessed,
has it not? We talk about the American dream
of owning a house, and having some property, and having safe
neighborhoods, and the citizens being respectful one with another. You know where that really comes
from? That's not the American dream. That comes from Christ's
presence in His church. here in this country. That's
where they come from. And you know something? We may
never realize that, brothers and sisters, until we've lost
it. Until we've lost it. These little ships may have had
no idea why the storm was calmed. But those in the ship knew it.
They knew it. And you and I look over this
vast country at the liberties we've had, the freedoms that
we've enjoyed, and the privileges, and we attribute it to one thing,
Jesus Christ's presence with His church. Everywhere the gospel is established,
it elevates everything, doesn't it? It just elevates everything. Education. I was going to print
out a little article, And I forgot it this morning, but it talks
about all of the universities that was established by professed
believers and by the churches. And it's amazing, the old institution
that started out so great and gave wonderful education to people
was started by professed Christians. I wonder how many good universities,
atheists, I found it. I bet not very many have it. I tell you this, and you ladies
will be interested in this. Everywhere the gospel is established,
everywhere Christ is present in His church, it elevates women. It elevates women. There are
some countries and some periods in countries that ever lay to
you this morning, you would be a second-class citizen. Do you
know that? At best. And in some places,
treated like property. The Gospel has elevated you. It's Christ that told the man,
husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church. And
where that's put into practice, it's just like showers coming
down from heaven, and waters the communities, and waters the
country, and brings forth fruit. You ladies, would you like to
live under the old ungodly doctrine and religion of Mormonism? Would you like to share your husband
with a couple of more wives? I was reading the story of Joseph
Smith and why he had to leave Missouri and go west. Do you
know why? The Gospel ran him off. He couldn't take the criticism,
the exposure. The Gospel exposed him. You don't want to live under
that, do you? What about Islam? You ladies here would like to
live under that? You know what's bothering me more than anything
in this day about that? Women bless their hearts, this
feminist movement, and they hate Christianity. They hate Christ. They hate His gospel. And they
won't hardly say anything about Islam, when it's the gospel all
along that has elevated them to the freedom and privileges
that they have. Wait till Islam takes over. These ladies now that hate Christ
and His Gospel have to robe themselves and look through little peepholes
in the veil to see what's going on. You don't want that, do you? We gather here this morning and
I can tell you, dear sisters, the same thing I can tell you,
brethren. We are one in Christ. Islam doesn't believe such a
thing. You ladies want to be forced? to conjure up that old Baal image
of the crescent moon and be made to bow to that God who cannot
save? Oh, God, deliver us from that
wretched, violent religion, and especially you women. And I tell
you what will deliver us from it. The Gospel. The Gospel. Look what it does for the country. Look what it does for your community.
Look what it does for families. It elevates everybody, doesn't
it? It brings the calm, just like the Lord Jesus speaking
here, and it brought the calm. This world is full of storms
of all kinds. Economic storms, social storms,
civil storms, moral storms. And who is better off in these
storms? Who is better off in these storms?
You'd like to live in North Korea? That's a dark place, ain't it?
And you know why it's dark? Christ is not there in His church.
We have trouble here too, don't we? We have the storms. But who's
better off than anywhere else but that place where Christ is
sovereignly and graciously present with His church. A lot of benefits where Christ
is present. A lot of benefits. May God bless
His message. Let's pray.