Go with me if you would back
to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. To a child of
God, a called believer, a believer who
has been called by the Spirit to the Lord. Worship, gathering together with
God's people. What we're doing right now. Coming to the place where He
has established the truth of His Word. Singing, reading, praying,
preaching, hearing. Worship. To a child of God, worship
is not just a duty. It's life. It really is life. To someone who has not been quickened
by the Spirit of God, they cannot understand that. Many people
go out of duty. But to a child of God, it's not
just our duty. It is our duty. It is our reasonable
service. We should present ourselves before
our Lord. But we come not because it's
our duty, but because it's life. It really is life. This is what sustains us. Missing the gathering is missing
a meal. It's what sustains us. It's what
comforts us. Missing the gathering is missing
the comfort. And it's what encourages us.
We come here to worship and to hear and to feed on Christ who
is our life. And when we come here, we're
reminded of the fact that Christ is our life. While we're out
in the world, we think the world is our life. But every time we
come in here, we're reminded, oh yeah, the world is not my
life. Christ is my life. Christ is our sustainer. Christ is our strengthener. Christ
is our comforter. Christ is our encourager. We
come here to hear a message. Back in the day before voicemail,
everybody had an answering machine. You'd hear it beep. You'd walk
in from being gone somewhere and it'd be beeping. and even
before you could check it with your phone. The only way to get
the message was to go to the answering machine. And everybody
was always so excited, we have a message. And you'd go, you
know, push the button and it would say, you have, however
many, and it'd go, and you, come on, alright, I know all that,
and you're wondering the whole time you're waiting, who is the
message from? Who specifically in the family
is the message to? And what is the message? Sitting
there waiting. Well, we come here knowing who
the message is from. It's from God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Spirit. We come here knowing who the
message is to. It's to every ruined sinner that
God the Father chose to save. Every one of them. We already
know what the message is. Christ has put away your sin
by dying for you. That's the message. He offered His own blood to God
for you. That's the message. paid your debt, satisfied your
punishment, there's nothing left to pay. It's finished. Here's
the message. You are eternally secure. That's
the message. Now, if we know all of that, why do we keep coming back to
hear the message? If we already know who the message
is from, Who the message is to and what the message says. Why
do we keep coming back to hear the message? Here's the reason.
It's because it's life to us. That one same message over and
over we come back and then we come back. You want to hear that
again? Yeah, play it again. It's life. It is life to us. It's daily bread to a child of
God. It is our sustainment. It is
our comfort. It's what keeps us going steadfast
unto the end. Just to hear from Him, we beg
Him to send His Spirit into this place and gather with us We beg
to hear from Him. We don't want to waste our time
and He doesn't deal in time, but I don't want to waste His
time. We're here to hear from Him through the voice of His
Spirit. It's what assures us that He
loves us. and chose us and died for us. We know that He loves a particular
people and chose a particular people and died for a particular
people. But we come here to hear Him
tell us, I died for you. I prepared a place for you. My prayer is that He might speak
to us. I pray He might speak to us tonight, that He might
allow me, this is my prayer, All I want to be is the answering
machine. David said, I just wish I was
the doorkeeper. Well, I just wish I was the answering
machine. Just the one, just the vessel that delivers the message
from him. Through his word, he does not
speak out loud. He does not speak out loud. Men
will stand up and say, God spoke to me and he told me to tell,
he does not speak out loud. He speaks through His Word, but
through His Word, I honestly believe I have a message. I believe that the message is
from Jesus Christ our God and I believe that this message is
to every ruined sinner that truly fears God. Truly fears standing
before Him outside of the covering of His blood. Does the thought
of standing before the judgment throne outside of the blood scare
you to death? Standing there in your own works?
Standing there in your own doing? Does that scare you to death?
If it does, this message is to you. It's to every sinner that
sees Christ trading places with Him to be his only hope. And
if that's us, then the end of Mark 5, verse 36 says, Be not afraid, only believe. Be not afraid, only believe.
If you are afraid, if you are of a fearful heart because of
your sin, and because of God's holy judgment, then this is the
message from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit
to you. Be not afraid, only believe. Only believe. Only believe that
Christ came to save sinners. Only believe that. What does
a child of God have to believe? What does he believe in his heart?
He believes Christ came to save sinners. Only believe that you stand among
the chief of them. What does a child of God believe?
I'm the chief. Only believe that Christ accomplished
everything that was necessary to hide you in the time of trouble
and to redeem you back to Himself. Only believe that God is satisfied. Satisfied with what Christ did
on your behalf. Be not afraid. Only believe. Well, Gabe, how do you know that
that's the message? You stand up there and you say, this is
the message from God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Spirit
to you. How do you know that? My sin
will not go away. I used to be a sinner. I still
am a sinner, and this is what I'm afraid of. I'm afraid I'm
going to be a sinner to the day I leave this earth. So how do
you know that that's God's message to me? Well, hold your place
right here and look at Isaiah 35. Isaiah 35. Verse 3, it says, "...strengthen
ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say unto them
that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompense." He will come and save you. He said, as soon as you tell
my people that, the eyes of the blind are going to be opened.
The ears of the deaf are going to be unstopped. The lame man
is going to leap as a heart. The tongue of the dumb is going
to start to sing. And in the wilderness, water
is going to break out. There are going to be streams
all over the desert. This is God's message to every
ruined sinner that is looking to and hoping in the blood of
Jesus Christ. Be not afraid, only believe. Now go back to our text in Mark
chapter 5. Our brother read this story to
us in the message last Sunday night. This was one of the stories
that he went through and this is what caused me to see this
and be reminded of this. A man named Jairus right here
has a daughter that is extremely sick, so sick she's on the verge
of death. And he comes to the Lord for
help. And the Lord said, I'll come to your house and help her.
So a great crowd of people followed the Lord to Jairus' house. Here
they all go. They're heading to Jairus' house.
While they are on their way, A woman with an issue of blood
works her way into this great press of people and touches the
hem of his garment. And as soon as she does, the
Lord stops and says, Who touched me? And he looked right at that
woman and she confessed her all to him. And he said to her, The
faith that God has given to you, has made you whole, go in peace."
Verse 35 right here says, "...while he yet spake." That means while
he was in the middle of that exchange. While he was talking
to the woman with the issue of blood. She's confessing it all
to him and he's saying, your faith has made you whole. While
he's in the middle of that, It says that some men came from
Jairus' house, and they said to him, Jairus, I am so sorry,
but it's too late. Your daughter died. There's no
need for you to trouble the master any further. There's no need
for him to come to your house. Verse 35, While he yet spake,
there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain
which said, Thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master
any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, He saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be
not afraid, only believe. That's one of my favorite lines
in the scripture. Here He is talking to this woman.
He knows everything that happens everywhere at every given moment
in time. He knew those men were coming
from Jairus' house. He knew what they were talking
about. And here he is in his exchange with this woman and
hears them say, Jairus, I'm so sorry. And he says, hold on one
minute. And he looks at Jairus and he
said, be not afraid, only believe. And he went to that man's house
and he raised that girl from the dead. Now, this represents a child
of God's spiritual salvation. Death to life salvation. But this also represents a physical
condition that Jairus and his daughter were in. They were in
a real, true, life condition. And this is the message that
I pray we'll get a hold of tonight. And I'm very happy to be the
answering machine tonight because there's a lot going on. We all know what's going on.
A lot of people are moving and things are happening. There's
a lot going on with us. We're in the process of trying
to build a building and such on and so forth. There's a lot
going on. And if the Lord will enable us
to really get a hold of this, We will walk out of this place
with infinitely more comfort and peace and rest than we walked
in with. Concerning salvation and every
other circumstance in the life of a believer, this is what the
Spirit of God, through His Word, has to say to us. Alright? Concerning salvation and every
other circumstance in the life of a believer, the Spirit of
God says to us, Be not afraid, only believe. Now there are quite
a few times that the scripture says, be not afraid. Quite a few times. I want to
show you three. Three times. If we can remember
these three things and truly enter into these three things,
every circumstance that comes our way, will have comfort and
peace and rest and hope poured all over it, every circumstance. Alright, turn with me to Joshua
chapter 1. Joshua chapter 1, the Lord is
speaking to Joshua here, and He says in verse 9, Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage,
be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, For the LORD thy God
is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. Be not afraid, neither
dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
Wherever you go. Spiritually speaking, when we
talk about salvation, He was with us and we were with Him
as He hung on that cross, as He laid in that grave, as He
rose from the dead. But physically speaking, physically speaking, He said,
I'll never leave you. Wherever you go, He said, even
unto the end of the world. He said, I'm with you. David
said, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil. You're with me. You're with me. A dear man named Brother Maurice
Montgomery, he pastored in Madisonville, Kentucky for many, many years. He told the story of when he
was a young man, probably about 18 years old, going into the
service, into the military, and he was getting on a bus, headed out
of town, he was going overseas, and his father, who was a believer,
said to him, last thing he said to him was, Son, remember, God
goes everywhere. He goes everywhere. Whatever
location you are in, whatever state of mind you're in, wherever
you are, whether it's a physical place or an emotional place, Whether it's a place of happiness,
sadness, loneliness, wherever you are, he said, I'm
with you. I am with you, even in those times when we feel so
far from Him. And I believe some of you may
be able to enter into this with me. Do you have moments when
you feel so far from Him? So spiritually far from Him?
Like David said, Lord, where are you? You're going to leave
me here alone forever? I just feel so far from you.
He said, even in that moment, I'm with you. I'll never leave
you." That's comforting, isn't it? That's comforting. If we
belong to Him, He's going to draw us nearer. But He said,
I'm with you. Here's the second thing for us
to remember. Go with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 20. 2 Chronicles 20, a great multitude
of people went to war with the children of Israel. Three different
nations of people. They all came together because
they hated Israel and they wanted to destroy Israel. Jehoshaphat
was Israel's king at this time. And when he heard that this great
multitude was coming against them, it says, he set his face
to seek the Lord. And he called all of the people
together for the purpose of crying out to Him for mercy and for
help. He said, I want everybody to come together. We're going
to call on God because this great multitude is coming against us.
And he said in verse 12, O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? For we have no might against
this great company that cometh against us. Neither do we know
what to do, but our eyes are upon thee." He said, we have
no might in this. We're at a standstill. Our eyes
are on you. We're just looking to you. Verse
13 says, And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little
ones, their wives and their children. Then upon Jehaziel, this man,
Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Maniah, the son of
Jeil, the son of Madaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the
Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation, and he said,
Hearken ye all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
thou King Jehoshaphat, thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid,
nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle
is not yours, but God's. The battle is not yours, but
God's. If we could ever get a hold of
that, if we could just remember that in every fearful circumstance
that comes our way, the battle is not yours, it's His. Just like it was told to Moses,
stand still, the Lord shall fight for you. And the Lord did fight
for them. I'm just going to paraphrase
this. I'm going to read it to you. The Lord told them, I'm
going to deliver them into your hands. He said, I'm going to
set ambushments. He said, you're not even going
to have to swing one sword. You will not even fight in this
battle. He said, it's so not yours, you
won't even enter it. And he said, you go out and you
go meet them. They're coming. You go right into them. Go meet
them. I'm with you. And Jehoshaphat was so excited
and so thankful, he told everybody, I don't want any swords or bows
and arrows on the front line. I want singers and musicians.
The front line into the battle is going to go in. praising the
Lord. And it says, as they started
singing praises to the Lord, the Lord caused two of the nations
to ambush. They got confused. And two of
the nations ambushed the third one until they were pretty much
gone. And everybody that was left ambushed
each other until there was nobody left. And by the time Israel
walked up to the battle, it was only dead bodies. And it was
so much spoil, so much stuff, and it took them three days back
and forth to carry all the spoil home. The battle is not yours. It's the Lord's. The Lord shall
fight for His people. If you would love to pour some
comfort on whatever circumstance comes your way, remember this,
our Lord said, I'm with you. And He said, I'll fight for you.
And if He fights for you, you're going to win. You're going to
win. If God be for us, who can be
against us? One more thing to remember. Go
to Mark 6. Mark 6, verse 45, it says, "...in
straightway He constrained His disciples to get into the ship,
and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while He sent
away the people. And when He had sent them away,
He departed into a mountain to pray. And when even was come,
the ship was in the midst of the sea, and He alone on the
land. And He saw them toiling and 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 them by. But 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. And immediately
he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer,
it is I, Be not afraid. When He said it was Him, He meant
all of it was Him. Nothing can bring greater comfort
to a child of God than knowing this. In every situation that
we face, in every detail of the situation, it can be said, it
is the Lord. in every piece of it, every trouble,
every trial, every time something happens that we think, oh man. It can be said, it is the Lord. It is the Lord every single time.
Whether it's joy, sorrow, sickness, health, poverty, or wealth, it
can be said, it is the Lord. It's the Lord. He sovereignly
is ordering and controlling everything about everything that pertains
to us. Everything about everything.
I mean everything about everything. He is the one who put them in
the ship. He is the one who controls the
wind and the waves. He is the one who made them cry
out to Him. Even in the death of the prophet
Eli's sons, Eli said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth
him good. Let him do what he deems to be
good. He is the one controlling everything,
and in the end, he always brings good. I'd like to repeat that. He is the one controlling everything. And in the end, He always brings
good. Something happens and we say,
well I know the Lord's in control of it, I just wonder if it's
gonna be good or bad in the end. In the end, He always brings
good out of everything. Everything. We, I wrote, we may
not understand it, we won't understand it. Never do we understand it. We usually can't see any possible
way good could come from it. How could good possibly come
from this? But it will. It will. Everything
ends up being for our good if we belong to Him. Every single
thing ends up being for our good and His glory. Every single thing. So this is His message to us
tonight. Whatever difficulty you are facing
at the moment, whatever it is, in whatever circumstance is troubling
you, if God has caused you to find all of your rest and all
of your hope in Christ, if He's all to you, then be not afraid,
only believe. If He's all to you, and He's
in control of you, and you love it being so, then be not afraid. Just like he told Moses, stand
still, wait, see the salvation of the Lord. He'll take care
of it. All right, let's all stand together.