Our Lord's Ministry in Gennesaret

Introduction and Context: The Setting of Gennesaret

0:05 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, October 20th, 1985, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the last paragraph of the sixth chapter of Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter 6, and I shall read in your hearing verses 53 through 56. Mark chapter 6 and verse 53. Mark, writing with reference to the Lord Jesus and to the Twelve, writes as follows, And when they had crossed over, they came to the land unto Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. And when they were come out of the boat, straightway the people knew him, and ran round about that whole region, and began to carry about on their way. And they laid their beds, those that were sick, where they heard he was. And wheresoever he entered, into villages, or into cities, or into the country, they laid their sick in the marketplaces, and besought him that they might touch, if it were, but the border of his garment.

1:31 And as many as touched him were made whole. Let us now again seek the face. Let us seek the face of God in prayer, that God by the Spirit will take the word and reveal Christ in his glory and power to each of our hearts. Let us pray.

1:53 Our Father, how we thank you for all of the scriptural truth in the hymn we have just sung. None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. And we thank you that he is among us in the plenitude of his grace. In the overflowing of his love and power and accessibility to sinners.

2:20 May we see him in his own word this morning. As the Spirit who moved Mark to write as he wrote. We'll hear in this place, shine upon the face of Jesus. In the very word he has given.

2:37 O Lord, may that word run and have free course amongst us today. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. I am sure that by this stage in our service of worship, and especially if you were with us in the previous hour, all of you are aware of the fact that this day is not only the Lord's Day, the day of appointed worship and praise for the people of God, but it constitutes the day on which we begin our second annual pastor's conference here in our assembly.

3:20 And from the very beginning, your elders determined that we should conduct our stated meetings for worship and prayer, that is, the meetings of the Lord's Day and Wednesday, as ordinary services, but yet as an integral part of the pastor's conference. This means that the instruction of the previous hour and the point at which we find ourselves in the gospel of Mark this morning have not been determined. By the peculiar circumstance of this being the first day of the pastor's conference, but by the ordinary course of consecutive exposition and teaching. However, as so often happens in a course of consecutive expositions, the providence of God has so ordered our days, our plans, the rate at which we have worked through the gospel of Mark, that the passage read in your hearing, has more than an ordinary relevance to the peculiar circumstances of this day. Let us come then to the passage in the expectation of faith and independence upon the Holy Spirit, not only to receive its general instruction, but also to receive its very specific and relevant instruction

4:45 for this very special day in our life together, as the people of God. Now, as we come to examine the passage read in your hearing, let me say just a word concerning its setting and its distinguishing character before we begin to unpack its content. As to its setting, those of you who have been following the expositions will remember that the great miracle of feeding the 5,000 is just past. Perhaps the day before, some would suggest, perhaps several days, but it is very recent history for our Lord and for the Twelve.

5:27 Furthermore, they have just come through that unusual experience of having their Lord come to them walking on the sea in the midst of a tumultuous storm. Shortly thereafter, we have this account of our Lord's ministry in Gennesaret. That's the general setting of the passage. Now, its distinguishing character is this.

The Distinguishing Character of Jesus' Ministry in Gennesaret

5:53 Mark closes this section of his Gospel, that part that we would call our Lord's period of popularity in Galilee, with this description of a concentrated healing ministry of the Lord Jesus. The passage before us is distinguished not only by the vividness of its descriptive detail, and if you doubt that, compare it with the parallel passage in Matthew. Matthew's account is bland and saltless, without casting aspersions on its full inspiration, compared to the vividness of Mark's account of this particular ministry. But it is distinguished not only by its vividness of descriptive detail, its verb tenses, which thrust us, as it were, into the midst of a frenzy of activity, but because there is no recorded reference to our Lord teaching. You will remember in the course of our expositions, we have seen again and again, wherever Jesus goes, it is recorded that He taught, or that He taught and that He healed,

7:12 but that the primary emphasis fell upon His work of teaching, and His healing, though expressions of benevolence and mercy, were primarily attestations of the validity and the uniqueness of His teaching. But the distinguishing character of this passage is that there is no reference whatsoever to our Lord being engaged in His primary ministry of teaching. Now, He may have taught, but Mark does not underscore anything of the teaching ministry, and there must have been a purpose for that, and I think the purpose will unfold in the course of the exposition. Consider with me then, having briefly looked at the setting and the distinguishing characteristic of this passage, at what I will call the vivid picture or mural painted by the pen of Mark. Now, you children have seen murals, whether you knew you were looking at a mural or not, and a mural is generally a very large painting, often on the side of a wall in a museum or in an open place, where an artist seeks to capture a given period of history, the experience of a given segment of people, by drawing pictures which, though they, as it were, rub shoulders,

A Vivid Mural: The Scenes of Gennesaret

8:39 show different aspects of the experience of an individual or a group of individuals. So as your eye passes across the mural from left to right, generally from left to right, or it may be from right to left, you have an overall impression of the experience of that individual or that group of people. And so what we have in verses 53 to 56 is a vivid word picture, a vivid verbal mural painted by the pen of Mark. And all of it is bounded by this ministry in Gennesaret.

9:20 And there are three major groupings in that picture. We have, first of all, the arrival in Gennesaret, in verse 53, and then the immediate recognition and response of the inhabitants of Gennesaret, verses 54 and 55, and then a general summary of the ministry in Gennesaret, verse 56. Let's look then at the three groupings on this mural. First of all, the arrival in Gennesaret.

9:53 Mark describes it this way, And when they had crossed over, they came to the land unto Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. Either in the termination of their perilous journey across the storm-tossed sea, the night before, or shortly after a brief visit at Capernaum, where our Lord may have delivered the discourse on the bread of life, our Lord's disciples cross over to a place called Gennesaret. Now, unlike Bethsaida, either Bethsaida, Julia, or Bethsaida in the other section of that northern part of Galilee, Gennesaret is not the name of a particular town, or city. Rather, it refers to a famous plain on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was approximately three miles across the shore, and narrowed back in triangular shape for about a mile. Certain secular historians who lived at the time of our Lord write in glowing terms about the fertility, the favorable climate, and the beauty of this place called Gennesaret.

11:16 Furthermore, we are told that apart from the areas that were used for the raising of many crops, that it was a rather densely populated area. Now, Mark tells us that when they had crossed over, they came to the land unto Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. And probably with Peter's own word in his mind, he uses a word found nowhere else in the New Testament. It's a nautical term, and it means that either they threw out an anchor from the bow of the boat that fastened itself upon the shore, or there was some kind of a piling to which they tied up as the boat was yet in the water, but anchored them to the shore. And so, in those simple terms, the first picture in our mural is the arrival in Gennesaret of our Lord and His disciples. Then in verses 54 and 5, we have the picture of the immediate recognition and response of the inhabitants of Gennesaret. And when they were come out of the boat, Mark straightway, without any delay, the people recognize him,

12:43 and then they begin to run about into that whole region, and begin to carry about on their beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. Now, in terms of the context, the constant use of the verb takes us to passion that is continuous. Mark is attempting to transport us back into that situation and to see it with the eyes of our mind. Once again, to stimulate our imaginative faculties to our own edification.

13:19 And he describes, first of all, this immediate recognition and response of the inhabitants of Gennesaret. No sooner had they disembarked when the people, without asking any questions, knew him. That is, they had a perceptive awareness of the precise identity of the central figure in that little band who came out of the boat once it was moored to the shore. You will remember again and again in our previous studies in Mark, there are those summary statements that his fame went throughout the entire area of Galilee until it even spilled over and touched the Gentile nations on the fringe of Palestine. And so there was no tentativeness in their cognition. Immediately they recognized who he was, the remembrance of his previous reputation as the one who had raised the daughter of Jairus, as the one who had healed all manner of sickness and disease among the people, the one who had cast out demons with the word, the one who had even been able to give the power to do his own work. And you remember they had gone out through that entire area and had come back and reported all things they had done and all things they had said.

14:48 It was impossible for our Lord not to be recognized. So in the minds of these dwellers in the area of Gennesaret, there was an inseparable relationship between Jesus and both his power and his willingness to heal sickness and disease. And because that connection was inseparable in their minds, immediately they began to run off in all directions. Another unique word in the New Testament, and we would probably say in current Americanese, they scurried about in all directions.

15:26 And what were they doing? Some were going as heralds to announce that Jesus had come to their area. And as soon as that news arrives, men begin to pick up on their little cots, their little pallets, their little straw mats, those who were so infirm that they could not, under their own strength, get to the places where Jesus was. And Mark tells us that there was a constant network of information in which people were saying, Oh, he's over in this town.

16:01 No, he's now over in this town. Someone says, no, no, that information is now outdated. He's now in this particular town. Notice the end of verse 5.

16:11 That they were carrying about on their beds those that were sick where he was. So the verbal reports are spreading backward and forward throughout that entire area. And people are seeking to go before our Lord to the next town where they've received information. He is about to go.

16:33 Or, having heard that he was there, the information makes its way back to the place of their dwelling, and they come carrying the sick and the infirm from all directions in that general area of Gennesaret. Now then, to this account, in which we have the arrival in Gennesaret, the immediate recognition and response of the inhabitants of Gennesaret, Mark then gives us, thirdly, the general summary of the ministry in Gennesaret in verse 56. And though he gives us no specific time reference, it is unlikely that what he describes happened in one day. It is unlikely that it happened in two days. It could well be that this was a ministry that extended over several days or perhaps even longer. Now the biblical chronologists who tried to piece together the various gospel records have fun with this part, and I'm not going to go into those problems. Suffice it to say that verse 56 is obviously a general summary of the entire ministry in the Gennesaret area, however long it may have lasted.

The Pattern of Healing: Accessibility and Touch

17:53 And notice what he says in that summary. And wheresoever he entered, into villages or into cities, or into the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and besought him that they might touch, if it were but the border of his garment, and as many as touched him were made whole. Now it is at this point in the narrative that we find at least four or five imperfect verbs. That is, those point to continuous action in the past, and so Mark is telling us that what he describes was the pattern of what happened during this entire segment of our Lord's ministry. Now notice, first of all, by use of these words, into villages or into cities, or into, we would say, the open places, the country places or the fields, Mark is describing every conceivable grouping of people. Into villages, the smaller places where people congregate in groups, the cities, the larger places, or even the open places where perhaps you had nothing but the various crops that were raised

19:21 and laborers by the dozens or the hundreds. Mark is saying wherever he went throughout the entire Gennesaret area and perhaps even pressing a bit beyond that, wherever he went, this is what was happening. They would lay the sick in the marketplaces. And the word translated marketplaces did not necessarily mean a place where you had booths and food being sold.

19:49 It could have been that. But more literally, the open places, the gathering places. In some rural areas of this country, we still have the town square, the town green, that place in the center of town where on a Saturday evening the townsfolk gathered to chit-chat about the news of the week. Well, it's speaking of those places where there perhaps might be shade trees to protect people from the burning Palestinian sun.

20:20 But be that as it may, whether he was in a village, a city, or the open places, the general pattern was that people would come carrying their sick upon their pallets and place them into these marketplaces, into these town squares, into the place of greatest accessibility. And then when they brought them there, Mark tells us, it was the pattern and the unique characteristic of this concentrated period of healing that the request again and again focused on this issue. And they besought him. They entreated him that they might touch, if it were, but the fringe of his garment. Now, you've met this notion before, have you not? You remember, I trust, in the account of the healing of the woman with the issue of blood recorded in chapter 5, verses 27 and 8. She was convinced, if I can but touch the fringe of his garment, I shall be made whole.

21:28 And she was made whole, not by her touching the border of his garment, but Jesus said, Thy faith hath made thee whole. It was faith reaching out to Christ and the will of Christ reaching out in gracious omnipotence which resulted in her healing. And most likely, the news of that had spread throughout that area until now it became a kind of contagious request that people do not even ask that Jesus would pause long enough to pray over them. To lay his hands upon them.

22:06 To discuss with them the nature of their malady. All they needed to do by their request was all that we may but touch his garment and we shall be made well. And the scripture tells us, and as many, without exception, as many in any town, any village, any open place, as many touched him were made whole. And I underscore again, they were made whole not because God was honoring some superstitious notion that there was virtue in his garment.

22:43 They were made whole in the same terms that that woman was made whole who touched the hem of his garment. It was an expression of their faith in his person and in his and he will honor that faith, the very faith that he had created in their hearts. Now that's basically what the text tells us. As we look at the mural, the first is the landing in Gennesaret.

A Season of Holy Disorder and Sanctified Frenzy

23:14 The second scene, the immediate response of the people of Gennesaret. The third scene, this summary statement of that activity. Able to visualize what a season of holy disorder and sanctified frenzy this must have been. Relive it of sickness that they are no longer ambulatory, as we say in current terminology.

23:47 They are either of or of degeneracies to such an extent that they cannot carry themselves to Jesus. And loved ones who have seen them languishing, loved ones whose hearts are concentrated upon in other aspects of the gospel record as hearts that yearn and break over sick sons and daughters and servants and friends. One can only imagine as the news reaches their ears, Jesus has come and someone comes into the village and says he's on his way here. Now can you begin to picture the sanctified frenzy, the holy disorder, people shuffling to get by one another and into the place of greatest accessibility. And then in the light of a passage like Acts 3, what happens to a person who's been lying upon his bed under the grip of paralysis or a degenerative disease for years? And suddenly feels a surge of life and strength going through the dead body. Does he simply get up on his pallet and say, oh, well, this is lovely.

25:00 You know, I feel good. Isn't this nice to be able to walk? No, the scripture says when that man who had been lame from his birth received strength and he had no reason to doubt. But this was a jumping, leaping season around Gennesaret.

25:23 Had we been passing over in one of those, had one of our, there we might have thought that somehow a flock of grasshoppers had descended upon the plain of Gennesaret. And that's precisely the picture that Mark is painting for us. This season of holy disorder, sanctified frenzy, unbounded joy and gratitude as wherever Jesus goes, those on the hem of his garment are made whole. Well, that's the mural.

Vital Principles: Jesus' Gracious Accessibility and Omnipotence

26:05 That's the picture Mark paints. Now then we come secondly, having examined the vivid picture painted by the pen of Mark, to consider the vital principles, the abiding message of this mural, this picture of the activity of Jesus in Gennesaret. Those of you who have been with us for these expositions have been reminded again and again that Mark never lost sight of his theme introduced in the first verse of his treatise. He opens his gospel with the words the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Let us know that everything that follows, no matter how far some of the individual details may seem to depart from that theme, he is driving and that is that focuses upon a person called Jesus who occupies a specific office as God's Messiah and none other than God. And so as we have come to passage after passage,

27:31 we have first of all asked the question, what is there in this passage that constitutes good news concerning Jesus Christ, Son of God? And surely we need not think long. We are at all sensitive to the content of the passage. For first of all, the passage demonstrates clearly two wonderful characteristics of the Lord Jesus.

27:59 It demonstrates clearly two wonderful characteristics of the Lord Jesus. And these characteristics are good news. First of all, the passage demonstrates clearly His gracious accessibility. His gracious accessibility.

28:19 Note how the entire passage underscores the activity, the volitional activity of Jesus in making Himself accessible to so many in their desperate condition. Verse 53 tells us that they crossed to the land of Gennesaret. There is no indication that any messenger came before as in the case of that centurion who sent a servant to plead with Jesus to come. There is no record that any dweller in the Gennesaret area had sent an individual or a group of individuals to plead with Jesus to come. It was His sovereign will to be accessible to those people that brought Him to the shores of that beautiful plain of Gennesaret. Furthermore, He didn't come there for a little R&R and sit in the boat a bit, away from the land only to depart and let people have a sight of Him or merely to preach a sermon to them. Verse 54 again underscores their volitional activity.

29:31 When they were come out of the boat and there was that immediate recognition at that point Jesus could have said oh no, not the multitudes again, not the clamoring for virtue that will go out of me again. I've just come through that traumatic night with my own walking upon the water. The draining experience of teaching all day to the thousands and multiplying the bloves and the fishes. Though there was recognition and Jesus knew that the recognition would lead to more acts of self-giving for I remind you when that woman touched Him He felt virtue go out of Him because she was healed by His will and His holy will was never exercised to human suffering without Him. Without passion and without personal cause. Jesus was never a healing computer who pushed a button in Himself and out came virtue. His heart, His holy humanity was engaged in the work of healing and virtue went out from Him every time He healed.

30:41 Though the multitudes or the immediate group recognizes Him and He knows that this will lead to the press of the multitude He makes Himself further accessible and then the truth of the world is revealed. The text says that wheresoever He entered verse 56 He entered into villages He entered into cities He entered into the country places the open fields the deliberate acts of accessibility as words spared and doubted were made bold one of the things that emboldened them to come was that they heard the report why He was in such and such and they brought dozens upon their beds and everyone who touched Him was healed. Well then you mean He would not turn me away? He might be accessible to me? And while that sick one is being carried others who were carried earlier are running back along the road What did you do to get me?

31:47 What did you have to bring? They would say all I brought was my need and He met me with unbounded unrestricted all of us are leaving healed. Do you see how the passage beautifully demonstrates the gracious accessibility of the Lord Jesus? My dear friends this is exactly what every sinner needs to know Once your conscience begins to be honest with itself and when it has come under the pressure not only of its own native accusations but that accusation turned up to the point where we feel that the decibels will utterly blunder in the chambers of the soul that we are guilty There is someone perfectly suited to our need who is accessible to the vilest of sinners Someone who is accessible by deliberate volitional acts of his own self available to sinners in all this and complexity

33:17 of their need who dares to come unto me all and our will give you rest Him that comes unto me I will This is a faithful saying worthy of all Jesus came into the world Sinner There is no difference for the same Lord is Lord over all rich unto all upon Him Surely the good news of this healing ministry in Gennesaret is this that it demonstrates the gracious accessibility of Jesus but then it also wonderfully demonstrates not only accessibility but His gracious omnipotence Look at the text

34:42 It did if it were someone stricken with paralysis a week before whose muscles seemed to have all of their or one who had lain past twenty years and the muscles had atrophied and there was nothing but skin and bone It was grace no degenerative tissue which was beyond His power deserted to heal no fever that He could not calm a fountain of blood that He could not heal no disease was any difficult more difficult than another as many as touched Him were made whole and I say again isn't this precisely what we sinners need to know we need to know not only that there is a gracious accessibility in the Lord Jesus

36:10 but that there is a gracious saving omnipotence because once we begin to take our sins seriously and God begins to give us some sight of the death not only of our guilt the inrunk and react contrary to the norms of God and the harm and a sink and sewer of uncleanness who cannot only be accessible in His but who is omnipotent in His graciousness that there is no chain which you have forged by your repeated willful until that which you pursued as your path to liberty has now become your very prison house and I would be very surprised if there is not someone here who fits that

37:30 description that first slick girly you hide with the horrible potions of envy what is it friendless is free indeed there was no that did of the gracious omnipotence of Christ two things were our savior do you see what a terrible state we'd be in if He had but gracious accessibility His omnipotence I'd chase beyond Him yes He's accessible but if I come to Him getting for me

38:58 yeah accessibility is gracious omnipotence is perverse suppose you gracious omnipotence a savior who's able to break any chain to cleanse every stain to remove defilement and guilt and pollution and bondage yes that's wonderful I believe you how can I get in your village He's in your market accessibility to grace just we poor sinners need no wonder Mark said the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ good news good news in Jesus gracious omnipotence meet run to Him find Him to be exactly what these Gennesaret dwellers found Him to be in those days of His presence

Three Basic Ingredients of Saving Faith

40:28 among them but then in the second place by way of application by way of extracting from this verbal mural its message to our own hearts the passage not only demonstrates clearly the two wonderful characteristics of the Lord Jesus but the passage illustrates vividly three basic ingredients of saving faith the miracles are often wonderful object lessons of the way of life and salvation that's not allegorizing that's taking a clue from our Lord Himself He feeds the multitudes and the next day preaches a sermon on the true significance of what He did the miracle to the unique identity of His person but beautifully illustrating the way of life and here in this passage there is illustrated very vividly the three basic ingredients of saving faith note those words in chapter 5 34 He said to her daughter the one who originally touched the hem of His garment thy faith hath made thee whole and what are those ingredients of faith hath made thee whole as the foundation of those in the rest of

41:56 the world then and in the world hath made thee whole hath made thee whole as the foundation of the life of Christ the Creator and who hath blessed you that He might save you which is that it blinds in our all the... My friend, I put it as plainly as I know how.

42:48 You'll never have Christ as your Savior. For he said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Healthy people have no need of a doctor. I have come as the great physician of men's souls, and I come for sick people.

43:06 There is no saving context but that of the consciousness of desperate need that I cannot meet in and of myself. You'll never go out of yourself to Jesus as long as you're playing around with the band-aids and the mercuric home and the salves of your own conceiving and of your own application. There was the consciousness of desperate need. Then there was the conviction of the accessibility and power of Jesus to meet the need.

43:37 It says that some were running around like heralds, telling people Jesus is here. Others convinced that Jesus was the one who could meet the need of their loved ones, pick them up upon their beds, and they'd bring them to Christ. A conviction of the accessibility and power of Jesus to meet the need. But then notice, it says, as many touched him, the original rendering's it.

44:05 I believe him is both not only permissible grammatically, but it's proper theologically. As many as touched him. In other words, the garment had no virtue except in its connection with him. And what they wanted was direct contact with him.

44:22 The virtue was in him. You remember the story of that woman in chapter 5? He didn't say, I feel virtue's gone out of my garment, when he said, who touched me? She touched the hem of his garment.

44:34 He said, who touched me? Because you see, she touched the garment as it were an extension of the person of Jesus. It wasn't her faith in the garment that made her whole. He says, thy faith hath made me whole.

44:47 You see, they saw beyond the garment the one who wore it. And they wanted contact with him. Because in him was the virtue and the power to heal. And my dear friend, is not that the essence of saving faith?

45:01 As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. He that hath the Son hath life. Faith brings us into living union with Christ. In saving faith, sinner in the nakedness of his knees, embraces the Saviour in the plenitude of his grave.

45:24 In between, no water of baptism, no way of sacraments, no clergyman, no pithing faith, in the presence of his need. And the Saviour in the plenitude of his grave. Embrace him brought healing. Because his own reached out in grace to enfold them.

45:57 It was the reciprocal embrace of him. And healing virtue flowed when Christ willed unto their deliverance. Now my friend, do you know anything about that kind of faith? You say, oh, I believe in Jesus, Son of God, the Son of Mary.

46:18 Yes, I know that. But let me ask you, where, when, by what means, does God bring you to see your desperate, desperate need? That if the court of heaven were set today, summoned before all my God today, you'd be sent to that place that the rich man was sent.

46:43 And you too would cry out in torment, when, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need?

46:50 When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need?

46:53 When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need?

46:55 When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need? When, what will bring you to discover your great need?

46:58 When, what will bring you to discover your great need? The words lost, bound, guilty, all deserving sinner offend you. You've never seen your need for Christ. It is all sin.

47:27 As they heard that Jesus, who heals and even raises the dead, when they heard there was that conviction that the report was true, they didn't mock at the ones running around the towns and villages and saying, you guys are on a fool's errand. What in the world are you getting so excited about? You know, you're going to lead people to think that this Jesus can actually do something for their poor, sick, paralyzed, infirmed loved ones. You see, unless they believed the report, they never would have run with their invalid loved ones.

48:09 And my friend, you'll never become a Christian until you credit the testimony of God about His Son, that He is what God says He is, and He can do what God says He can do.

48:25 Forgive them, cleanse them, break their chain, cover them with His righteousness, endow them with the Spirit, make them children of God in heaven, saving faith involves not only the consciousness of desperate need, but the conviction of the accessibility and power of Jesus to meet that need. But that's not enough. Saving faith finds its crowning expression in the determination and the actual embrace of Christ. As many as touched Him, touched Him, touched Him,

49:04 as many as touched Him, with His person and the virtue of His power, and so saving faith is a receiving and a resting upon Him, or in the language of the late Professor Murray, the most beautiful, uninspired, that is divinely inspired definition of saving faith I've ever found. Saving faith. What is it? Saving is this faith,

49:42 and in the perfection of His work, as He is so freely and fully of us in the gospel. That's saving. And not upon Him, as conceived in the silly little gospel ditties of our day, or in the sentimental slush that is paraded in the name of the gospel. Upon Him in all the beauty of His person, who is static union, the object of the wonder of angels, and cherubim and seraphim, you throw yourself upon that One who is God and man, and you throw yourself upon Him in the light of the perfection of His work for sinners, trusting only in what He did, by His perfect life, culminating in His death upon the cross, raised again from the dead, and seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from which place He sent the Spirit down upon His church, and promises Him to every believing soul. That's saving faith, friend. Not just a little nod over the shoulder.

51:07 Yeah, Jesus, yeah, tip my hat. Oh, fine, good. Oh, I feel good now. I guess I'm...

51:12 My friend, no, no. Away! Away! Hallowness!

51:20 Then Christ has to die. It has to do with the devil. Saving faith is coming in the consciousness of your desperate need, in the conviction that Christ is both able and accessible, and then casting yourself upon Him, so that you, the sinner in all the nakedness of your need, and He, the glorious Savior in all the plenitude of His grace, embrace, and you are His, and He is yours. But then, thirdly and finally, this mural, painted to us, by Mark, not only is a vivid illustration of these elements of saving faith, and clearly demonstrates two characteristics of the Lord Jesus, but the passage portrays a basic privilege and duty of all believers. The passage portrays a basic privilege and duty of all believers. The sick and the needy in the passage are described as those who had to be carried to the places where Jesus was, and laid in the marketplaces, or the open village square, the place where Jesus was to come. Their loved ones and friends were powerless to heal them, but they were not powerless to get them to Jesus, who was able to heal them.

The Privilege and Duty of Believers: Bringing Sinners to Jesus

52:47 You see that? Some of them, no doubt, for weeks or months or years, had felt the frustration. Loved ones languish under illnesses that they were powerless to heal, but when the news came that there was someone, who had both the power and was accessible in that gracious power, then they did what they could. They could put them on their little pallets, on their little cots, and they could carry them to Jesus.

53:13 And my dear friends, that's a beautiful picture. And the theme, one of the themes of this conference, is the matter of evangelism, and that's what we're doing in evangelism. We're seeking to take helpless sinners who cannot help themselves, and bring them to Jesus. Bring them to Jesus!

53:32 Bring them to Jesus on the pallet of our prayers and intercessions for them! ...to some, but I hope before the week is out, it won't.

53:42 Bring them to Jesus where He's marketplace, where His word is in the gathering of His assembled people. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I. Jesus is in His marketplaces when His people gather, and when His servants preach His word, it is built by the notion that the church, the ring of believers, and then we should seek church, and only when they're saved bring them to Jesus. But do not think that it is some kind of a twisting of biblical truth to the marketplace where Jesus is found in a special place, in a special way He's found in the midst of His gathered people. And there Jesus draws near by His word. You say, where do you find that?

55:02 ...says the word of faith which we preach is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart.

55:07 Thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus, that I am God. Lord and believe in thy from the dead thou shalt be saved Christ comes near in the preaching of his word this is his marketplace and we need to seek to bring the sick and the infirm who cannot help themselves bring them to Christ yes on the palate of our fervent prayers as the apostle exemplifies in Romans 9 1 and 10 1 and 2 but then all effort to bring them under the sound of the word where Christ is most likely to be present and minister to their heart we come around full circle to where we began we said that this passage that concludes this section of Mark's gospel concentrates upon this unique event in the life of our Lord as Mark records it an event in which preaching is not central in the record but surely the great lessons embedded in this record are unreachable and constitute good news for those who are in their sin and those of you who by grace have been brought to the Lord Jesus is it not

56:31 true that most of us can look back upon someone who loved and cared enough to put us on a pallet of intercession and bring us to Christ in their prayers who cared enough to bring us under the means of grace and the preaching of the word if I were to do a survey the duration of that survey would be overwhelming that very few of you were brought to Christ by an isolated independent search of the word of God most of you were brought on the pallet of somebody's prayers and sanctified efforts to get you under the sound of the word some of us were brought on that pallet before we ever came out of our mother's wounds we were the subject of their fervent prayers and that's why we don't ask people to walk down the front Jesus is not here but to be us there in the midst of his gathered people as near as the heart that will reach you and embrace you if you see your need of him my friend I tell you on his authority he is present with gracious accessibility and with gracious power if you perish you'll perish because you will not to touch him if you perish it is not because there is narrowness in his heart or shortness in his arm it's because you love your sin you love your pride! you love your sin!

57:55 that you've been in all your life and flee to Him and say, Lord Jesus, here I am with all my chains clanking, break them. I have no power.

58:11 He has the power. In all my defilement and filth I come. Lord Jesus, wash me in Your precious blood. He'll do that.

58:21 And oh, dear people of God, may the Lord use this sight of our Savior in His accessibility and His power. Use this picture of saving faith and this highlighting of our duty and privilege to stir up on the threshold of this conference in which the evening sessions and two-of-the-day sessions will focus upon the freeness, the wideness of God's mercy in Christ and in the Gospel. May God back us with a new zeal to see the Lord Jesus in the beauty of His accessibility and His power present. To our poor, needy generation that sinks so quickly into that place from which there is no return. Let us pray.

Concluding Prayer and Exhortation

59:21 Oh, our Father, how we thank You for the revelation of Your Son in the Scriptures. Thank You for the good news concerning Jesus Christ, Son of God. Thank You that many of us have known His mighty power perfected by His power. Thank You that many of us have been saved and that many of us have been saved and that many of us have been saved from our sins, breaking the dominion of sin over us.

59:47 And we pray today that some who came into this building seeing no beauty in Christ or perhaps seeing oh, the magnitude of their sin had no hope that Christ would ever receive them. Oh, Holy Spirit, apply Your Word in those very pointed and special ways that You know. And may the fruit of it be that some here in this Gennesaret will touch Him and be made whole. Oh, God, seal Your Word to our hearts.

60:23 Grant that we may feed upon it in the Word that we heard in the previous hour. May we be given grace to sanctify the remainder of this day to Your praise and to our profit. We pray that Your grace and power will rest upon this people as we leave. And may we be conscious that we cannot leave Your presence.

60:49 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.