Let us open our Bibles today
to Mark chapter 3. What a blessing it is to be able
to come together and study the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark chapter 3, beginning with
verse 7, but Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea.
And a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea,
and from Jerusalem, and from Edumea, and from beyond Jordan,
and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude. When they
had heard what great things he did, came unto him. And he spake
to his disciples that a small ship should wait on him because
of the multitude. lest they should throng him.
For he had healed many insomuch that they pressed upon him for
to touch him as many as had plagues. And unclean spirits, when they
saw him, fell down before him and cried, saying, Thou art the
Son of God. And he straightly charged them
that they should not make him known. And he goeth up into a
mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would. And they came
unto him, and he ordained twelve, that they should be with him,
and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power
to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils. And Simon, he surnamed
Peter, James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James,
and he surnamed them energies, which is the sons of
thunder, and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew,
and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, and
Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed
him, and they went into a house. And the multitude cometh together
again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when
his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him,
for they said, he is beside himself. In these verses of scripture
this morning, I have three divisions, and each division is around a
certain locality. First of all, in verse number
seven, we see the Lord Jesus Christ by the sea. And then second,
in verse 13, we see him upon a mountain. And then third, in
the last part of verse 19, we read of him in a house. So those
are the three divisions. The Lord Jesus Christ by the
sea, upon a mountain, and then in a house. First, Christ by
the sea. As we read these verses, as we
look at these verses, I'm convinced that the very best commentary,
the very best word that we have upon these verses are the words
of the Apostle Peter in his sermon that he preached in the house
of Cornelius. It's recorded in Acts chapter
10. Remember later in Acts chapter
15, Peter said that the Lord had made choice among them, that
is among the apostles, that by his mouth he might open the door
to the Gentiles, the gospel to the Gentiles. Cornelius was a
Roman soldier. He was a religious man, and God
we know sent him a message from an angel. to send to Joppa, a
place where Peter was, and send for Peter. And that just reminds
us that angels, they are messengers, but they are not messengers sent
to preach the gospel. Messengers, angels, that are
sent to preach the gospel are men. And so send to Joppa for
Peter, and he will tell you what you must do. And in that message,
In that message, we have these words of Peter, and as I said,
I'm convinced his words, inspired words, are the best, very best
commentary on these verses here in Mark chapter 7, when the Lord
was by the sea. What were his words? Here they
are. anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Ghost and with power. Now listen, who went about doing
good and healing all that are oppressed of the devil for God
was with him. Who went about doing good and
healing all who are oppressed with the devil. Multitudes, we
see in this passage of Scripture. Multitudes flocked to Him. Literally, they came from every
direction. The Scripture here says, first
of all, if you look at the map of Palestine, you would see they
came from Galilee. That's up in the north. They
came from Judea and Jerusalem, which is down in the south. They
came from Edumea, which is to the east, and from Tyre and Sidon,
which is from the West. And what a prophecy, what a picture
we have here of the fact that later God would call his sheep
from the four corners of the earth, not just from the four
corners of the little country of Palestine, but from the globe
itself. from the four corners of the
earth, from every tribe, from every kindred, from every tongue. God has his chosen people whom
Christ has redeemed and they are sure to be called by the
preaching of the gospel. But Mark tells us here that people
flocked to him. They came to him, multitudes
came to him. And they came, Mark says, because
they had heard of the great things that he had done. Great things
that he did. Many came to be touched by him. Many came and their one objective
in coming is for him to touch me. They were sick and diseased
and they needed healing, physical healing. And so many came desirous
that he would touch them, and then many came just to touch
him. Because they'd heard of these
great things that he had done, and they came with one desire,
and that is that they might touch him. Multitudes, Mark tells us,
came to him. And so he commanded his disciples
to make ready a ship. a small ship, of course, but
one that was used for probably by Peter and James and john for
fishing. And because in a multitude, I
know you've probably been in the crowd before. When I was
thinking about this, I thought about the time that I flew southwest
and they did not assign seats. And you're up there at the gate,
and they've got four or five different divisions up there.
I forget how all that works. Well, let me tell you something.
When they open that gate, people like cattle take off. Well, you've
got to try to get a good seat. But in other... times I've been
in crowds, you have too. And people are jostling against
one another. And that was the case here. Now,
this is the first time that we read that our Lord commanded
them to prepare a ship for him to enter into. And no doubt,
although Mark doesn't tell us, but no doubt at this time he
was teaching them from a ship. If you look in the next chapter,
Mark chapter four, In verse 1, we see that he did this a second
time, and this time we're told what he was teaching. Mark chapter
1 it says, or Mark chapter 4 verse 1, and he began again to teach
by the seaside and there was gathered unto him a great multitude
so that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea and the whole
multitude was by the sea on the land. This tells us something
of the Lord's projection, the voice, being able to project
his voice so that he could set in a ship on the sea and preach
and teach. He was setting and they're standing
and teach them. Wouldn't you have loved to hear
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ? You know, when he spoke in the
synagogue in Nazareth, after he was baptized, he went back
to the town in which he had been raised and went into the synagogue
and took up the scripture and began to read, and people marveled. They marveled at his voice, the
sound of his voice. Think of that hymn, I Come to
the Garden Alone, and the sound of his voice. Oh, to hear His
voice. We've not been privileged to
hear His voice, an audible voice, but He continues to speak to
us, doesn't He? By His Word and by His Spirit. But oh, to have heard the voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They thronged Him. Multitudes
came to Him, and listen, He never turned one away. I challenge
anyone in the scriptures to find anyone who came to the Lord Jesus
Christ with a great need. And that's the only time anyone
came when they had a need. That's the only time anyone comes
to Christ is when we're made to realize we have a need, and
then we look to Him. But He never turned anyone away. He never was confronted with
a physical sickness that he could not heal. After all, he's the
one who created our bodies. He's the one who made us and
not we ourselves. It's a shame that man have fallen
for Satan's lie of evolution, isn't it? There's a good article
in the bulletin, read it not now but later, if you will, along
that line. But what a lie. And men have
fallen for it. And there's no responsibility
now unto God if we're just the accidental work of something
that just happened, a big bang or something like that. God made
man in the beginning and God can heal. This is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He never was confronted with
a sickness, a disease that he could not heal. But you notice
it says he cast out plagues, men with plagues, and the writers
are kind of divided on that when it speaks about these plagues. In verse number 14, no, verse Verse 11, and on verse 10, for
he had healed many insomuch that they pressed upon him for to
touch him as many as had plagues. And the writers, some say, well,
this is leprosy. And leprosy no doubt was a plague,
is a plague. And the Lord cleansed them from
leprosy. He never healed them, he cleansed
them. It was a plague. But others say,
no, the plague is these unclean spirits. Well, both I would consider
to be a plague. But did you know, and I know
you do, but let me remind us of this, that the Bible tells
us that sin is a plague. That every one of us have a plague. Every one of us have a plague.
You say, where does the Bible say that? Well, if you want to
look with me, let's go back to 1 Kings, when Solomon was dedicating
the temple. And in this prayer, very lengthy
prayer, but he makes mention of this. 1 Kings chapter 8. What he is praying is he dedicates
this glorious, beautiful, beautiful temple. Oh my, there's so much
gold and everything that man calls precious was in that temple. There was no limit to the expense. And as he dedicates it, it wasn't
the physical building. When he's praying and asking
the Lord to hear when people prayed toward this temple, it
wasn't the physical temple itself, but it was what was in that temple,
and that was the mercy seat. The mercy seat. That's where
God had told Moses in the law, that's where I'll meet with you.
The mercy seat. And so Solomon, in dedicating
the temple, is praying that God would hear when people prayed
toward the temple, toward the mercy seat. Look in verse 38.
He says, what prayer and supplication so ever be made by any man, or
by all thy people Israel, now watch this, which shall know
every man the plague of his own heart. and spread forth his hands
towards this house. Then hear thou in heaven thy
dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man
according to his ways whose heart thou knowest. For thou, even
thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men, that
they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which
thou gavest unto our fathers. Let me ask you this morning,
have you ever been made to know the plague of your heart? Have you? Have you ever been
made to know the plague of your heart? God, the Holy Spirit,
he's the one who makes men aware of this plague of sin, of judgment,
of righteousness. And if you have, listen to me
now, if you have, you've been made aware of the plague of your
heart, the sin that separates you from God, that makes you
obnoxious to God, that alienates you from God, have you been made
to know the plague of your heart And there's only one remedy.
There's only one remedy for this plague. And it's not down here
at the medical center. It's not in the drug store. No. The one remedy for the plague
of our heart is the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood to cleanse
us. His righteousness. to justify
us, to reconcile us unto God. Have you ever been made to know
the plague of your heart? And if you have, have you gone
to Christ? Have you looked to Him and Him
alone? Christ by the sea. Now notice
secondly, Christ upon the mountain. Now, I encourage you As you read
the Gospel, always compare the parallel text in the Gospel of
Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. And in the Gospel of Luke, we
find that the Lord spent the night in prayer. When we read
here that he went up into a mountain, Luke tells us that he spent the
whole night there in prayer and then the next day he did what
Mark tells us here in this passage of scripture. He continued all
night in prayer and when it was day, then he called whom he would
and ordained 12. Now he later told these same
12 in the Gospel of John You have not chosen me." We've seen
there was a multitude. There were many people, but He
chose whom He would. He chose these 12. And it is,
of course, a picture of God's sovereign election in choosing
His people whom He would before the foundation of the world.
But in this case, he chose these 12, and in John 15, he told them,
you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that
you should bring forth much fruit. He chose them that they might
be with him. Now for the next two and a half,
three years, These 12 men are going to live with Him. They're going to live with Him
so that they can hear His teaching, so that they can see the miracles
which He performed, so that they might be taught the Gospel. Now, He's going to send these
12 out to preach, but not at this particular time. Remember,
this is just the beginning of His ministry. They're not prepared
to go preach the gospel at this time. A person has to know the
gospel. God has to reveal the gospel
to a man before he can preach the gospel. You've heard that
old saying, you can't come back from a place you've never been.
And no one can preach the gospel, no man can preach the gospel
until the Lord reveals that gospel unto him. These men must be taught. They're not just turned loose
on society. They must be taught. They must
know. Yes, he's going to give them
power to work these miracles that are mentioned here. Let me ask you something. Why
12? Not 10, not 15, 12. 12 men. I want you to keep your places
here, but look with me on the book of Revelation. In the book of Revelation, going
to look at a couple of passages here, but the first passage is
in Revelation chapter four. Now what was the purpose of the
book of Revelation? It's full of symbols and and
signs and things that are difficult to understand, but let me mention
this. The purpose of the book of Revelation
was to give comfort to his church in that very day in which the
book was given unto John. It's not a book concerning things
that are yet to happen way off in the future. It's a book that
is given to you and I down through the ages, His church in this
world that might give us comfort and give us assurance that everything
is on schedule and everything is under His control. Yes, even
when God allows persecution to come upon His church. It's all
part of His purpose. His purpose that was purposed
in eternity before the world began. Now John, and we can't
of course look at all these places, but here in chapter 4 and verse
4, John is in a vision seen in heaven. And of course, the first
thing he sees is his throne. Now that's the first thing that
you've got to get a hold of. that we as God's children must
get a hold of, that no matter what happens in this world, no
matter what takes place in this world, God is still on the throne. Nothing is going to take His
church by surprise or harm His people in any way. If He allows
persecution to come, it's going to be for their good and for
His glory and for the building of His church. Now, that's just
so. Well, John sees the first thing
he sees is a throne, but he sees that encircling the throne are
24 elders. Now, 24 is 2 times 12, right? So what we see here are all of
God's chosen people from the old dispensation, 12 tribes of
the nation of Israel, and from this dispensation, we call the
new dispensation, 12 apostles, all represented, all of God's
elect, all represented by these 24 elders. I like this so much here, we're
all equal to the throne. I don't know how that's going
to be, but there's a lot about heaven I don't know how it's
going to be. But I know this, you're going
to be as near to the Lord Jesus Christ as everyone else. You're
not going to be way out there in the backside of the desert
somewhere. like Moses was when God called
him. No, you're going to be near the
throne, near the Savior, always, throughout eternity, rejoicing
in seeing Him. 24. Not one is missing. Now turn with me to Revelation
21. I said there's 24 here, 12 and
12, and this is This will confirm this to us.
In Revelation chapter 21, in verse 1, John says, And I saw
a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Now
that's the church. That's the church represented
by a city as the bride adorned for her husband. All right, look
further down in that chapter to verse 10. And He carried me
away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed
me that great city. Just read about it. That great
city coming down out of heaven from God. Jerusalem, that holy
city. The Bride, the Bride of Christ,
the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And showed me that great
city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having
the glory of God, And her light was like unto a stone most precious,
even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal, and had a wall great
and high, now notice this, and had twelve gates, and at the
gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the
names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, on the
east three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the
south three gates, and on the west three gates. Now notice,
and the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them
the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. You see, Christ
only has one body. He only has one bride. And this
body, this bride, is made up from believers all the way back
to Adam, Abel, Abraham, Noah, Enoch. I mean, you just come
on through the Old Testament. All of God's children that we
know of, and we know very few, there was many, many, many, many
more believers, no doubt. And then since the Lord came
into this world and gave his life a ransom for many, those
who've been saved, those who are yet to be saved, But all
are represented by these two sets of 12, the 12 tribes of
Israel, the 12 apostles. You say, what about the 144,000?
The 144,000 is a multiple of 12. 12 times 12 times 1,000, 144,000. Now
that includes all of God's children. He's not just saying 144,000
are going to be saved. No, right after that he says
he saw a multitude that man could not number. What he is conveying
to us is that not one is going to be missing. Not one. that He loves with an everlasting
love and redeemed with the precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ,
not one is going to be missing. He's going to stand before His
Father and say, Father, here am I and the children which Thou
hast given me. He's going to see of the travail
of His soul and He's going to be satisfied. Not one is going
to be missing. Oh, you're going to go through
tribulation, and God's church has. And there are parts of the
world today where God's people are being punished and persecuted
greatly. There's no doubt about that.
And it may come to our country. You say, well, it could never
happen here. That's what probably some people in other countries
thought at one time. It can come here. And it will
come here if it's God's purpose and God's will. But remember
this, God's purpose is calling out his people. And he's going
to do that. He's doing it and he's going
to keep on doing it. Now, if you go back to Mark with
me just a moment, he called these 12 unto him. Now I'm convinced,
you know Judas Iscariot, he's called the son of perdition.
He was never saved. He was never saved. I'm convinced that Paul took
his place to make up the 12. He says he was an apostle, the
least of the apostles. He was born out of due season.
I believe they say that means an abortive an abortive birth. In other words, he was born after
the other 11, but still an apostle, one of the 12 apostles of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And in this list, Peter, and
when there is a list, Peter is always mentioned first. Not because
he had special authority, Not because, and certainly not because
he was the rock upon which Christ would build his church. No, Christ
is the rock. He's the chief cornerstone. In
fact, the apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians that the temple,
the New Jerusalem, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, is
indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. It is built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets. Who is the foundation of the
apostles? Who's the foundation of the prophets? Jesus Christ. The stone, God's
elect stone, we read about in Isaiah chapter 28, that God laid,
God laid. And every child of God must be
built upon that stone, must be in union with that stone to be
a part of his church. And you know, in this list of
apostles, he names the two brothers. There's two groups, two sets
of brothers, Peter and Andrew, and then James and John. Think
about this. He called them sons of thunder. No one really knows what that
means. I know one time they wanted to call fire down out of heaven
and destroy those cities that wouldn't receive Christ. He said,
you don't know what spirit you are of. But think about this. James, one of these brothers,
he was the first one to be put to death. He was the first one. You read
about it in the book of Acts. He was put to death by the sword. And John, his brother, he lived
to be the oldest, the last of the apostles to die. When you
think about that, when I think about that, I think about God's
providence, don't you? When we read that his ways are
not our ways, and our ways are not his ways, and his thoughts
are not our thoughts, God's ways are past finding out, aren't
they? Here the church is just getting going good, so to speak,
and God lets one of them be destroyed and causes his brother to live.
Tradition says that he died of old age, John. God had a purpose for each one,
and tradition, I know we don't put a whole lot of stock in tradition,
we shouldn't, but every one of these men that's named here in
this list, Judas took his own life, of course, but every one
of the others excluding John, if he died of old age, every
one of them, ministered, preached the gospel in some parts of the
world and were put to death, were stoned or put to death by
the sword or something like that. But they suffered persecution.
Well, let me close with this, Christ in the house. in the house. So we see Christ by the sea,
Christ on the mountain, and now in the house. And I assume this
was Andrew and Peter's house in Capernaum. We saw that several
weeks ago. And his friends here were concerned
about him, and who wouldn't be? He had taught all day, been in
that big crowd, and then spent the whole night, no sleep, praying.
then calling these men up on the mountain and then coming
into the house and the press of people were so many they couldn't
even eat. He couldn't eat. And as I thought
about this, let me see if you can follow me. The Lord Jesus
Christ is God-man. One person. As God He is omnipotent. But as man, he's just like you
and I, in the sense that he knew what it was to grow weary. He may be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities just because he too has been tempted in all
points, yet without sin. That's what the scripture says. And when that woman, we read
about later in the gospel, she said, if I can but touch the
hem of his garment, I'll be made whole. You know the story. And
she came and she touched the hem of his garment. He stopped. Who touched me? And I remember
his disciples said, well, Lord, you see all these people around
you and you want to know who touched you? Oh, he said, but
someone touched me because I felt virtue. That word virtue is power. I felt power go out of me. And I don't fully understand
this, but I believe that every time he healed someone, power
went out of him. And as a man, now as God, he's
all powerful. His power cannot be reduced.
I understand that. But as man, he did grow weary. And his friends here were concerned
about him. The fact that he had been teaching,
no sleep, no eating, that in weakness they came and did what
they could to administer to him. I pray the Lord would bless these
thoughts and these words to all of us here today. We have a wonderful, wonderful
Savior, my friends. And if you're here today and
you don't know Christ as your Lord and Savior, today is the
day of salvation, the scripture says. Look unto him. Remember he told
Nicodemus, he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And
he was lifted up, lifted up on the cross, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Look to him. Look and live. Look and live. May the Lord bless
this word. Let's sing a hymn, number 125. Jesus paid it all, all to him.