Harris, Ronald: CMML Missionary Conference 1995-03 ~ Studies In Mark

First day we looked at chapter one. Yesterday we looked at the, um, first part of chapter six. Tomorrow we're going to look at chapters thirteen and fourteen. You might wonder why two chapters tomorrow and then two days on the same. It just so happens that chapter six is a very full chapter, and today I would like us to look at the second half of chapter six. I mentioned that tomorrow we have chapters thirteen and fourteen in case you want to read them in your spare time instead of going shopping, ladies. Mark chapter six, and let's begin reading at verse thirty. We're going to read to the end of the chapter. As we read, let's pray that the Lord would open our eyes, that we might be able to behold the perfect servant of God, and as we behold him, that we may learn, that we may see what we need to do, what we need to change, so that we may be more like him. Mark six verse thirty: And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said unto them, Come aside into a desert place and rest a while. For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they departed into a desert place by boat secretly. And the people saw them departing, and many knew him and ran afoot out of all the cities and went before them and came together unto him. And Jesus, when he came out, when he saw so many, he was moved with compassion towards them because they were as sheep not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. When the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far past. Send them away that they may go into the country round about and into the villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. They said unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them to eat? He said unto them, How many loaves have ye? Go and see. And when they knew, they said, five and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before them. And the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments and of the fish. And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. And straightway he commanded his disciples to get into the boat and to go to the other side before him unto Bethsaida, while he sent the people away. And when they had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. When evening was come, the boat was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. And he saw them toiling in rowing, 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. When they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out, for they all saw him and were troubled. Immediately he talked with them and said unto them, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And he went up unto them into the boat, and the wind ceased, and they were very much amazed in themselves beyond measure and wondered, for they considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened. That's as far as we will read. The apostles gathered themselves unto Jesus and told him all things. Isn't that wonderful? Yesterday we were considering sin. We were considering many different aspects of sin, and I'm sure we were able to recognize those things in ourselves. That could be a very discouraging thing, but after talking to us, Mark, about sin, he turns our eyes in the second half of the chapter into the one who knew no sin, the one who did no sin, the one who did all things well, uh, the one in whom God delighted, the perfect servant of God. And the first thing we see the Lord doing is calling his disciples after they came back and told him all things. By the way, that is prayer. That's what prayer is all about, telling the Lord all things. How many times when we pray, we just kind of like to, uh, dwell on, uh, the things that are good, the things that are spiritual, the things that we know that are right. I enjoy reading the book of Job because of Job's utter and absolute sincerity. He told God some things that we would never dare tell him. He even accused God of being unfair. Uh, his doubts, the storms that were raging in his heart, uh, he poured them out freely before the Lord. I'm sure that as humans that know not the Lord, that have not the help of the Holy Spirit, uh, as they read the book of Job, they would think Job was some kind of an impertinent, um, impolite, uh, ungodly, almost blasphemous sort of person in the things he says to God. And they would give a rate, a rating of approval to his vain counselors because they mentioned all the platitudes that sound right, all the things that are commonly said by everybody. When we get to the end of the book, God justifies Job. God asks Job to pray for his friends. God said that Job spoke truly. Job spoke sincere words, and they were pleasing unto God, even though their content is kind of scandalous when you read it. Poured out all things. Um, when we write missionary letters, we are often reminded that we seek usually to write the good news, and we hide the bad stuff. Well, this isn't missionary letters. Uh, this is what has to come before the missionary letters are written. We have to talk about our service to the Lord. We have to tell him all things, and the all things kind of surprised me, uh, both what they had done and what they had taught. Now, the Lord heard us teach it, uh, the Lord helped us teach it, but we're still supposed to tell him the things that we taught. Uh, that's interesting. When we talk to Sunday school teachers and try to help them to study, to prepare, to do a better job, uh, one of the things I like to do is suggest that after they've studied their lesson, after they think their lesson is all ready, uh, why don't they kneel in prayer before the Lord and say, Lord, this is the lesson I have prepared, and talk to him about it. Uh, practice it, if you please, uh, talking about it to the Lord. But this is doing it yet again. After you've taught, uh, you tell the Lord what you have done and what you have taught. That might help you in many ways. It might help you look for results. It might help you to continue to pray. You don't only sow the seed, it has to be watered. It has to be watered in prayer. Lord, uh, I taught this, uh, may it bear fruit for your glory. Uh, may there be changes in the lives. We were thinking of Sunday school, in my Sunday school class. May these things that were taught, uh, not just go in one ear and out the other. May they not just be scribbled in a notebook and then the notebook forgotten. Uh, may they be written on hearts. May they change lives. May they change attitudes. May they change perspective in my students. It's a wonderful thing to do. And after they did that, uh, he said unto them, come aside, come aside with me into a desert place and rest. This verse was quoted at the beginning of, uh, of this conference. Rest is a wonderful thing. Uh, rest kind of sounds good to us, especially if our life resembles in any way, and I'm sure sometimes it does, what we read in this verse. Many people are coming and going. That's one of the things Dad and I enjoy about driving up here. That is our vacation, because we have six days or so, uh, with nobody coming and going. Our doorbell might be ringing, but so what? We're far away. Our telephone might be ringing all the time, and telephones are wonderful things, but they can really be tremendous. Uh, invariably, as we open the Bible to read it after lunch, that's when we usually read together, uh, never fails. Uh, we never get through a chapter without the phone ringing, and sometimes it's something that makes you have to stop and run and do something else. Privacy is very hard to come about, even if you are closed in a small apartment, just yourselves, no children, nobody to bother us. We thought, boy, when we get there, uh, we'll just have it made. Things will be so easy. Uh, telephone, doorbell, all kinds of things interrupt. People are coming and going. They had no leisure so much as to eat. How good it is for the Lord to say, come apart, come apart and rest a while. This conference certainly fulfills most of the requirements of what we consider rest. But as we think about rest, the Bible has a very different perspective of rest than we do. I'm sure when you think of rest, you think perhaps of a beauty rest mattress. Uh, if you live in the tropics, perhaps you think of a hammock, a hammock in the shade with a nice cool drink beside you and, uh, the breeze blowing, a few little birds singing over there. Oh boy, that's rest. That's not the scriptural meaning of rest at all. Rest is such a different concept in the Bible. Uh, remember the Lord Jesus says, come unto me, all ye that are labored and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And just a few seconds after that, he says, take my yoke upon you. Rest with a yoke around my neck? Who's kidding? Uh, rest means laying down. Rest means nothing to do. Uh, rest means cessation of activity. Rest means a siesta. No, rest means a yoke. Take a yoke, my yoke, not any yoke. Take my yoke upon you. Rest? Maybe. A chapter that talks a lot about rest, if you want to really define rest, I think eventually you would get to Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four is all about rest. It even begins in chapter three. It speaks about a rest that the children of Israel missed. They hardened their hearts, uh, they stiffened their necks, and they did not enter into God's rest. Chapter four uh, gives us at least four different rests, maybe six. We find first God resting. God rested after he, for six days, created, rearranged, um, took away the effects, negative effects on his creation, and we read that on the seventh day, God rested. God rested of all his works, the rest of creation. Uh, we have the rest of Canaan, which the children of Israel, um, at least those who died in the desert, those who, because of unbelief, did not enter at Kadesh Barnea, uh, they never did enter into the rest of Canaan. Now, what kind of a rest did they have in Canaan? Many of our hymns make us think that Canaan, oh, Canaan is heaven. Canaan is heaven. Well, uh, the rest in Canaan, uh, involved, uh, conquering, defeating enemies, killing Canaanites. It involved all kinds of things. It involved temptation. It involved trickery. Uh, Joshua was deceived by men who came dressed in old clothes with stale, moldy bread, um, pretending they had come from afar, uh, begging to make an alliance so that they would not be killed, and Joseph, I mean Joseph, Joshua, Joshua was deceived, and um, he late- later on, very soon, uh, discovered that these men were really his neighbors, those whom he was commanded to conquer and to kill. Yet he had given his word, he had sworn in the name of the Lord that he would not hurt them, and um, he couldn't do that. So they became drawers of water and hewers of wood. Canaan was not a place of absolute cessation of activity, of just enjoying life, retirement. Uh, no, uh, Canaan was a place where they had to fight, where they had to possess new land, yet that is described as rest. The chapter mentions that there remaineth a rest if, uh, that was the full, the final rest, uh, David would not have written in Psalm ninety five, I guess it is. He would not have written that there remaineth a rest for the people of God, one that we had to strive to enter into. There was more to it than just getting into Canaan for Israel. There's more to it for the believer. We already quoted Matthew eleven twenty eight, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The rest of salvation. You can call it the rest we receive at conversion, when the load of our sins, when forgiveness comes, and that is real rest. There's nothing like the rest when we know that sins are forgiven, when our burden of sin, a very heavy burden which we could not carry alone, has rolled away. Yes, that is rest, but that's not all of the rest. There still remaineth a rest. There remaineth a rest for the people of God, and it's the rest of a victorious Christian life. It's the rest of victories in Canaan, and yet there remains still a rest. The chapter four of Hebrews would speak to us of the rest of heaven, the rest when we come into God's presence. And what's going to happen in heaven? A couple years ago, Bill spoke about heaven, about glory, uh, the four evenings, and we really got a picture of what heaven is like, what the scriptures... He quoted many glorious hymns that talk about the blessings that are available, uh, that are awaiting us when we arrive in heaven. And the scripture certainly gives a picture and mentions a few things that the world kind of forgets about. One of the things that's going to happen in heaven is that his servants shall serve him. So we're not gonna retire. Heaven is not a retirement home. His servants shall serve him. But believe me, that will really be rest, because there we will serve him without all the struggles, without all the imperfections, without all the failings, without all the incomplete tasks, um, that are a burden to us today. Well, with that general picture of rest, perhaps our minds have been stretched and have been broadened so that we won't accept the first definition of rest that makes us think of doing nothing. We certainly need it. Summing this up, what is rest? I think the chapter helps us a little bit. Rest comes when a need is supplied. We've mentioned sins forgiven, but right after this we have the feeding of the five thousand. I guess they were quite concerned. This would affect more the ladies than the men, but it affects us too. The Lord says, give ye them to eat. Right away the men think of money. How much is it going to cost? Uh, we don't have enough. There's just no way our funds will suffice for feeding this multitude. It happens on a mission field. I'm sure it happens to you. Guests come by, uh, people come right at dinner time, a family of fifteen, twenty people. Give ye them to eat. Lord, how? We just have one can of Campbell soup. Can't add water to that and feed this many people. Give ye them to eat. Well, rest comes when a need is supplied. I'm sure the disciples felt a great sigh of relief when they had baskets and baskets of, uh, Wendy's or McDonald's or Big Burger, Burger Kings, or what have you, to give around to everybody. By the way, they were fish, they weren't hamburger, but you can get those in fast food places too today. But that was not the origin of these. They were m- multiplied miraculously by the Lord. Everybody was sitting down in groups of fifty, groups of a hundred. Rest? Sure, it was rest. Nothing to worry about. Just pass it out and have everybody enjoy it. Somebody wanted seconds? Abundance. Uh, they picked up twelve baskets full when it was all over, which shows that you should clean up after a picnic. You shouldn't leave the place littered. People that believe in protecting the environment, uh, nothing new. Uh, the Lord taught his disciples to do that. They had to pick up every fragment, leave the place cleaner than they found it before, the grass on which they were sitting, which indicates that this was not in a desert place. Have you ever preached on the feeding of the four thousand? We asked that beginning of the year, we were studying the Gospel of Mark in Sunday school, and um, nobody had ever preached on the feeding of the four thousand. Nobody had ever heard a sermon on the feeding of the four Uh, children might even think that when they read that, oh, that this is a mistake. It's supposed to be five. There's quite a few similitudes, but there's some very interesting contrasts between the feeding of the four thousand and the feeding of the five thousand. The four thousand, I think you will find, uh, didn't sit on grass. It was a desert place. It was dry. It was another place. It wasn't in the northwest corner. It was possibly in the southeastern corner of the Sea of Galilee. But anyway, rest comes when a need is supplied. This chapter tells me something else about rest. Farther along in the chapter, we read about a storm. Rest comes when a storm is conquered. How many times we have a storm, perhaps not outside, perhaps inside, raging within our hearts, and, um, when the Lord comes and says, be not afraid, it is I. I am with you. I caused the storm. I can make the storm cease. Be not afraid. It is I. Rest is a need supplied. Rest is a storm. Rest is serenity. Rest is security. Rest is the absence of disobedience. Rest is the absence of unbelief. Disobedience, that can sure make us uncomfortable. Our conscience, our sanctified conscience, because our normal conscience might not bother us. Our sanctified conscience can make us very, very restless if we're walking a path of disobedience. Unbelief can make us be full of fears, full of insecurity. The absence of disobedience, the absence of unbelief, that's rest, even though the circumstances are still raging, are still adverse, are still contrary, uh, the winds are still contrary, but we can have rest. Rest is the opposite of fruitless labor. Rest is the opposite of complaint. Finally, rest is the consciousness that we have adequate resources. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. Rest is the conscious possession of adequate resources. We have the promises of God, thousands of them, promises of God that should give us rest and put our hearts at ease. Let's turn now to the, to the storm, to Jesus walking on the water. There's many, many lessons for us there. Straightway, verse forty five, he commanded his disciples to get into the boat and to go to the other side before him, unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. The Lord told his disciples to get into the boat and to cross the lake, uh, while he finished, while he said goodbye to everybody, uh, while he not only did that, but while he departed into a mountain to pray. We find the Lord praying early in the morning. We find the Lord pr- praying so many times in the Gospel of Mark, even more so, I think, in the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke that presents the perfect man. Man needs to pray. Man needs to rely on God. Man is like a car, needs to charge his batteries. Man needs constant communion with God. A servant certainly does. A servant needs to come before the Lord every day and say, Lord, what would you say to your servant today? What would you have me to do? Paul began his Christian life that way. An incident in Joshua's life is very important. Just before the Battle of Jericho, the captain of the hosts of the Lord came and appeared unto Joshua, and, um, I love his prayer. What saith my Lord unto his servant? Isn't that necessary? As the servant of Jehovah, he was forever coming into the presence of his father, asking him, what is your plan? What is your purpose for the day? I need strength. I need to depend on my father to do that which he has commanded me to do. The Lord went into a mountain to pray, and this is a beautiful picture of the twentieth century. It's a beautiful picture of the whole gospel era, because the Lord is ascended at the right hand of God, interceding for us while we are down here seeking to obey his commands. He told his disciples, get into a boat and cross the lake while he was up in a mountain. He was in a mountain praying. When evening was come, the boat was in the midst of the sea, and he alone in the land, and he saw them. Yes, the Lord is at the right hand of God, but his eye is upon his servants. He never sends a servant on a task and then forgets about him. He saw them. He saw them toiling. What a difference to rest, come apart and rest. But he saw them toiling. Toiling in rowing. Well, they had to row. They didn't have a motor. They didn't have a power boat. Uh, they had to row. Toiling, the wind was contrary. They were told to go in that direction. The wind is going this way, you can't sail, uh, especially if it's a storm. Uh, the wind was contrary. And about the fourth watch of the night, he cometh into- unto them, walking upon the sea. And when they saw him, he saw them toiling. They saw him, and they didn't recognize him. They thought it was a ghost. What a difference in the way of seeing. The servant of God, the perfect servant of God, he's, he is interceding for his people, and that's the Lord in heaven now. Someone has said that the Christ, the Anointed One, he was all three things all of the time, I know that, but perhaps in his early ministry, uh, the emphasis is on his ministry as a prophet. The word was made flesh. He communicated, he told us about God. At the cross, he definitely begins very specifically his work as a priest. He offered a sacrifice for sin, and then as a priest he is in heaven today, interceding. At his second coming, the office of king will come into first place. Then he will be the king reigning over his people, the king of kings reigning over all the powers, all the nations, everyone in the world. He saw them. He saw them toiling. They saw him. They saw him and didn't recognize him. They thought he was a ghost. Let's ask the Lord to open our eyes, to cleanse our eyes, to focus our eyes. We don't need glasses, we don't need contact lenses, but we do need the touch of God so that we may see, we may see Christ in all of his glory. We may not forget Christ. We may see him as he is. Sometimes I'm concerned that we always think of Christ as he was, in the sense that the picture that we have in the four gospels is the picture, the only picture sometimes, that we have of the Lord when he was still limited as a human, when he took upon himself the form of a servant and the likeness of man. But now we have to read the book of Hebrews. We have to read the book of Revelation to see the Lord as he is. He is glorified. He is seating at, he is seated at God's right hand. He is interceding for us. See him. Know him better. Someone has said that it is easy to have faith in a big God. It is easy to have faith in an omnipotent, risen, glorified Savior. We don't have faith because we don't see him. We just see a part of him. We just see pictures of him. I think it was John Phillips once that I heard tell a story that really moved me. He told about one time when he was visiting in a home, and there was a young boy at the table during the meal. When the meal was over, um, he asked the young boy, uh, what he thought about Jesus, uh, what Jesus meant to him. And he was shocked, and the parents were even more shocked when he said, I don't like him. So John asked him, why? He says, oh, he wears a dress. He dresses like a girl. Christian family, Christian workers, and they were really cut to the quick when that was the impression that their son had of the Lord Jesus. I don't like him. He wears a dress. All he knew was the pictures he had seen in Sunday school, and he didn't compare to Superman. He didn't compare to Batman. He didn't compare to Spider-Man. He didn't compare to his heroes. Uh, his heroes appealed to him more than the picture, than what he saw, what he knew of the Lord Jesus. That really impressed me, especially when I became a grandfather, uh, because I saw grandchildren growing up, and uh, they- there came times in their life when they're fascinated with all these Nintendo figures and everything. I don't even know their names, the Teenage Mutants and all this stuff. And as someone said just the other day, uh, Christians know more about TV, uh, characters and what's happening. Uh, Christians can tell you right off, uh, the batting order of the Cubs or of the Mets, but they can't tell you the batting order of the Minor Prophets. They'd be really hard pressed to tell you what the averages are and what the accomplishments are of minor prophets, but they can just rattle off team after team, uh, what men, what human imperfect heroes can do. Yes, um, we see, but we don't see the Lord as he is. We don't see him in all of his glory, in all of his power, and because we don't see him, we don't communicate him properly. We don't communicate him properly even to children and grandchildren. May the Lord help us to see, to see better and to communicate better. I have a couple questions to finish with. The first one is why, why in the world did the Lord wait until the fourth watch of the night to come to his disciples? The fourth watch of the night. In the scripture, you never hear of hours at night because, uh, hours had to do with the sun, and they had sundials. In the night, you just have watches. We will talk about this a little bit tomorrow, the different watches of the night. But the Lord came in the fourth watch. Why? The Lord always does that, I think. Uh, when Jairus' daughter was sick, the Lord didn't hurry. He never hurried. The servant of God was never in a hurry, yet he accomplished the Lord's purposes, the Lord's will for every single day of his life. We're always in a hurry, and we never get anything done. We never get there. When he arrived, it was too late, according to many. The little twelve-year-old girl, girl was dead. But he manifested his power, his glory, by raising her from the dead. When him that the Lord loved, him whom thou lovest, is sick, did the Lord hurry? When he got there, he'd already been four days, four days in the grave. He came during the fourth watch, and that happens to us. That's one of the things that we see most often in the Psalms. Let's turn quickly to two Psalms, Psalm six and Psalm thirteen. We have here something on this problem, this which is a problem to us, and it has been a problem to Job, it has been a problem to Christians all through the ages, the problem of the silence of God. We know God hears our prayers, but sometimes he doesn't answer quite as quickly as we would like him to. He's seeing us toiling, and he lets us toil during the first watch, during the second watch, during the third watch, and it's the fourth watch, the night is almost over, and he still hasn't come. Psalm 6. Let's just read the first couple of verses. O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also very vexed. But thou, O Lord, how long? How long? Have you ever prayed that way? How long? In this psalm, which is the first of seven penitential psalms, um, we find David crying, crying to God for forgiveness. It's not so much physical healing as spiritual healing. We need to use these psalms. We need to use penitential songs. Let's ask ourselves, when is the last time our sin caused us sorrow? When is the last time other people's sins might have done it more frequently, but when is the last time our own sin made our eyes to weep? It's a very challenging thing because sometimes you can say, hmm, I haven't done that for years. How come? We certainly need it. Penitential psalms, there's seven of them. I think we need to read them frequently. I think we need to apply them. Uh, it's nothing to brag about if it has been a long, long time since we have wept, since we have sought the Lord's forgiveness for ourselves. We can't help others if we don't know how to do it ourselves. How long? You find this many times in the next Psalm I mentioned, Psalm thirteen. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? The Lord comes at the fourth watch, and while we wait, uh, we are sorely tempted to use this language and say, Lord, how long, how long? Carest thou not that we perish? How long, how long? But, um, in both of the psalms and in many, many others, prayer is the vehicle that takes us from perplexity to praise. Prayer is the vehicle which takes us from trouble to triumph. Verse three, consider and hear me, O Lord my God, lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of the dead. Lighten mine eyes, give light into my eyes, help me to see, help me to focus. That should be a prayer we make, we might have to make more often. And then he ends, but I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. Psalms are something which we certainly need in our daily diet, just as we take vitamins and supplements for our physical diet. Uh, the book of Psalms should be one that we go to frequently, that we use constantly, uh, that we know well enough to know which kind of psalm is the one that we need at any particular time. There is no emotion that a child of God can have that is not covered by something that is said and felt. Uh, the scripture puts into words what we sometimes can't even understand about ourselves. How long? The fourth watch, but the Lord will certainly come. He will come, and he will take us from, uh, our test, from our troubles, from our trials to triumph, and prayer is the vehicle we need. Prayer is the means, the means of transportation. In closing, let's ask another question. Why storms? Why should there be storms in our life? And there certainly are storms in our life. All of us have gone through storms, and some of us perhaps are still going through storms. Why are there storms? Why storms in the life of a Christian? Let me suggest at least three reasons why there are storms. And for the first two, I would like to remind you of incidents in the life of two— in the lives of two great missionaries. First, I'm thinking of Jonah. Jonah was in a tremendous storm. Why? Why was Jonah in a storm? The answer is very easy. He was a disobedient missionary. He was a disobedient missionary because... you don't have to turn if you don't want to, but I just turned to the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah starts by saying, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up. Arise. He obeyed the first part. He rose up, but he rose up to flee. Instead of going east to a city in the desert by the rivers, by the great rivers of Mesopotamia, instead of going there, he went west. He went down, he bought passage on a ship, and he tried to sail across the Mediterranean to Tarshish. Some people think Tarshish is Valencia in Spain, way over the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. Disobedient prophet. God said, do this. He said, no, Lord, I want to do the other. Just exactly the opposite. The first chapter has Jonah going down. He went down to Joppa, got on the boat, and then the Lord sent a storm, a great storm. And what does Jonah do? He goes down. He goes down to the bottom part of the boat. The pagan sailors are crying to their gods, deliver us. Idols that cannot answer. The missionary, the man who knew the true God, what was he doing? He was not resting, but he was sleeping. He was sleeping on the bottom of the boat. You know, sleep can be an escape sometimes. I remember one person, an older person in Mexico, who was sleeping, sleeping, sleeping all the time, and his problem was not that he was sick, it was not that he was tired. His problem is that he had some circumstances in his life that he did not want to face. So he turned the conscience off, uh, by going to sleep. Most of the time when people sleep, uh, you say, boy, he must have a clean conscience. Look how he's sleeping. But you can also sleep to silence a conscience that is bothering you. That's what Jonah was doing. Uh, finally, he was discovered. I guess the captain was a good captain. He was counting all of his crew and finding out if all the passengers were there. One was missing, so they found him, and the sailors shake him and say, wait, thou that sleepest, cry unto your God. Don't you know we're drowning? They bring him up to the deck. Who are you anyway? He says, I'm a Hebrew. I'm a servant of the God who made heaven and earth. At last, the missionary's lips are unsealed, and he begins to testify to his God. I am responsible. I am fleeing. I am disobeying God. I'm doing the opposite. It is because of me that this storm has come. Confession is good for the soul, but hard on the reputation. I learned that from Vance Havner, long time ago when I heard him speak once. Confession, good for the soul. Noble, the sailors were, even though they were pagan sailors. Uh, they didn't throw them right away. Uh, they did everything they could to see if they could weather the storm, but the storm seemed to be getting worse. So finally they took him and threw him overboard. The Lord had prepared a fish. Why the storm in Jonah's life? Obvious, he was disobeying. That's not the only reason, but that's a very good place to start. When there is a storm in my life, I should always ask, why, Lord, is there anything I am disobeying? Tell me what it is. In chapter two, we have the missionary who was disobedient in chapter one. In chapter two, we have the missionary in great distress. We have a distressed missionary, but his distress makes him start to go up. First, he goes up in prayer. From the depths of the sea, he looks up all the way to the throne of God and begins to pray. His prayer is very, very interesting. Uh, his prayer is not original. He quotes from Psalm eighteen, from Psalm thirty one, from Psalm forty two, from Psalm sixty nine, and from Psalm one forty two. Anything wrong with praying prayers that are not original? You'll find that most people in the Bible pray that way. It was not original, but it was certainly genuine. He felt every word that he said, and that's the way to pray. Don't be afraid to use other people's words, especially the words of scripture, especially the promises of scripture. But here we have Jonah going up. We're not studying Jonah, but in chapter three we have Jonah going forward, and in chapter four we have Jonah going backwards. Good missionary, just like us. He's the only missionary that the Lord, he's the only prophet, let me say it that way, he's the only prophet that the Lord directly compares himself to. Now turn, if you wish, or just listen, turn to Acts twenty seven. We have another missionary, same ocean, same sea, Mediterranean Sea, and he's in a storm. Why was Paul in a storm? Paul was in a storm, not because of his own fault. He was in a storm because they didn't pay any attention to him. He spoke to the captain of the ship and said, I know, I was raised in that were spoken by Paul. It wasn't convenient. You don't make any money having a big ocean parked and stopped, uh, in port when there is merchandise to transport and to charge at the end for delivering it. So it was very easy when a south wind came to say, this wind is favorable, let's go, let's get out of here. This is not a comfortable port. Well, they sailed, and a storm came, tremendous storm, a storm that lasted fourteen days. And finally, we read in verse twenty one, but after being long without food, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, sirs, I told you so. He couldn't resist. He didn't say it quite in that tone of voice, maybe, but his words were, ye should have hearkened unto me. But that's not all he said. He said, now I exhort you to be of good cheer. There stood by me this night an angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve. Whose I am, what I am, is comes first. That's more important than what I do. Whose I am and whom I serve. Relationship comes before we can shoulder responsibility. Why was Paul in a storm? It wasn't because of his disobedience. It wasn't because of his sin. He was in a storm in order that he might be the instrument of God to bring cheer, to bring comfort, to bring relief to those around him. We read that in second Corinthians chapter two. We are troubled. We go through tribulations. Why? So that we can comfort others, others who go through tribulations. And I'll get back to chapter six. Chapter six of Mark. Why were the disciples in a storm? They weren't disobedient. All that, just the opposite. The Lord said, get into a boat and cross the ocean. Modern language, they were in the center of the will of God. They were doing just what they were supposed to, and still, yet, there is a storm. Why? Perhaps we could suggest one reason. Perhaps they were becoming just a little too used to the kind of life they were living. Uh, oh, the Lord, he multiplies bread, he makes, he does miracles all over the place. Uh, this is almost normal. I think they were in a storm. They were in a storm so that the Lord could, um, change their hearts, open their eyes. The result of the storm is that they say, what manner of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him of a truth. Thou art the Son of God. Sometimes we need a storm. We need a storm in order to learn, in order to get into our minds and into our hearts, our hardened hearts, theirs were hardened, uh, lessons that will get in no, no other way. I would like to close by quoting a hymn. I don't think we can sing it, at least I don't know all the verses by heart. It's a hymn all of us, I'm sure, loved as kids. I remember as a kid in Sunday school and in gospel meetings, I really felt good when they picked this hymn because I liked it so much. Master, the tempest is raging, the billows are tossing high, the sky is overshadowed with blackness, no shelter or help is nigh. Carest thou not that we perish? Forgive a parentheses. One of the apostles who said, carest thou not that we perish, Peter, in his epistle wrote, he careth for you. He learned his lesson. Carest thou not that we perish? How canst thou lie asleep when each moment so madly is threatening a grave in the angry deep? Master, with anguish of spirit I bow in my grief today. The depths of my sad heart are troubled. Oh, wake up and save, I pray. Torrents of sin and of anguish sweep o'er my sinking soul, and I perish, I perish, dear master. Oh, hasten and take control. The winds and the waves shall obey my will. Peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea or demons or men or whatever it be, no waters can swallow the slip- the ship where lies, the master of ocean and earth and skies, they all shall sweetly obey my will. Peace be still. Not only did they pray for deliverance, but they prayed in gratitude when it was over. The third verse says, Master, the terror is o'er, the elements sweetly rest, Earth's sun in the calm lake is mirrored, and heavens within my breast. Linger, O blessed Redeemer, leave me alone no more, and with joy I shall make the blessed harbor and rest on the blissful shore. May that hymn have been our prayer with which we close this meeting.