Turn back to Mark chapter 4,
just to give you some observations while in my studies of this portion
of Scripture. I titled the message, And this
is the one that the title came to me as I was reading this.
This jumped out at me as I was reading this portion of scripture. There arose a great storm. That's
the title of the message. And I thought of the storms that
we experience through the year and the weather is indicative
of this life. You know, everything In this
natural realm, I believe, has a spiritual implication to it,
if the Lord just enables us to see it. The sun coming up every
day and shining across this globe is a good indication of Christ,
the Son of God, the light of the world. There's only one light,
one great light that shines on this earth, that's the sun. And
the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the light. And He's given us
a good example of that just in the Son. There's just so many
things. And I thought that the storms
that we experience through the year is just so indicative of
this life. I believe that our Lord at this
time led His disciples. He led His disciples into this
storm. He knew this storm was coming.
That's one of the reasons he could sleep so easily. There's
nothing that took him by surprise. Being God, being God, he knows
all things. And yet, as a man, he learned
all things. What a person, what a mysterious
person, the God-man. But he led his disciples through
this storm to prepare them for what they were about to face
later on down the road. after he ascends and goes back
to heaven. They're going to really face
some storms in their life. And I also know this, and I've
learned this over the years, and I've learned this through
reading the Word of God, trials, and that's what this storm represents,
trials are tailor-made for us. All the trials that I will go
through are tailor-made by God for me. For me. The ones you go through, you
go through. We all don't go through the exact same things. But we
all do go through trials. And these trials are tailor-made
for us. Just what we need at the time. Just exactly. I mean
right to the measure. You know, you ladies, when you
cook, You take a measuring cup out and you measure the ingredients
that you're gonna put in that meal. And our trials are measured,
I mean, to the nth degree for that time. And they are always
timely. Most times they seem to be inconvenient,
don't they? But they're always timely, always
timely. Now our Lord said in verse 35,
"'Let us pass over to the other side.'" His Word should have
been enough to calm their fears right there. What did He just
say to them? "'Let us pass over to the other
side.'" You reckon they're going to do that? You reckon that's
going to happen? He told them they were going to pass over
to the other side. If they had just taken Him at His Word in
that storm that He said, He said, let us go to the other side.
That alone would have calmed their fears, if they had just
remembered that. And it says in verse 36, After
they sent everyone away, you know, over here in the beginning
of chapter 4 here, I'm going to read just a little bit of
this. And he began again to teach by the seaside, and there was
gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship,
and sat in the sea. And the whole multitude was by
the sea on the land. And he taught them many things
by parables and sent them to them in his doctrine. Then he
goes on and gives these parables. All day long, all day, he is
sitting in this ship just offshore and he's teaching this great
multitude. This is all day long. And then at the end of the day,
He sent everyone away. That is, He took care of seeing
to it that everyone was dispersed and going to their homes. I thought
this, I thought, our Lord never leaves anything unfinished. Never
leaves anything unfinished. At the end of that day, He was
so weary of teaching and being with that multitude, but before
He took ship and went to the other side. He took care of that
multitude. He took care to send them away properly, and they
went away. He never leaves anything unfinished. Anything. We never have an unfinished
life. Never. Our Lord sees to it that everything
He has purposed for us happens, and it comes to pass. And then
it says, they took him as he was. No preparation for any trouble
on the way. There was no sign of trouble.
They just took him as he was, got him to the ship, and they
did exactly what he said. You have to realize that this storm
comes on them in their way of duty. They did what he said to
do. Don't think that all trials come
on somebody because of chastening or they did something they shouldn't
have. No, they were doing exactly what they were told to do. They
were with the Lord, doing what He said, going across the water. And then it says this, and this
is interesting, other little ships were with Him. There were
other little ships around His. They too experienced the storm,
and they too experienced the calm, but only His disciples
experienced Him. Only the ones in His ship experienced
Him. Only the ones in His ship said,
what manner of man is this? The others experienced that storm,
they experienced the calm, but they never experienced Him like
His disciples did. And it says in verse 37, And
there arose a great storm, a violent, that's what it's talking about,
a violent storm, and it filled the ship with water, trouble
all around, no solid ground to stand on. I have to say, if I'm
going to be in a storm, I don't want to be on water. It's not
like you can just run. There's nowhere to go. You're
there. You're on the boat. There's nothing
you can do. There's no solid ground at all,
but there is. And they're going to find this
out. And this is what we find out
in trials. There is a solid rock to stand
on. And that rock is Christ. And
when all is said and done, They find Him to be all they need
in that storm. He's all they need. Jesus Christ
is all that I need. He is all that you need at any
given time. It's never plus or minus. He's
all. He's sufficient. He's sufficient
at all times. And then we see in verse 38,
we see in this verse, Christ's true humanity. He was weary from
all day of being around people. People can wear you out. You
know, I go to a conference, and I enjoy the conference, but I'm
telling you, at the end of three days, I am drained. I'm drained
from speaking, and I'm drained from Just constant conversation. And our Lord was... This shows
His true humanity. At the end of the day, He was
weary. He knows what it is to be weary. You know, I was thinking
yesterday, I was thinking about Adam, and I was thinking about
our Lord. I was thinking about Isaiah 53.
He shall grow up. And that thought hit me there
in Isaiah 53, and I thought of this. Adam never knew what it
was to be a child. Adam never knew what it was to
be a teenager. He never knew that. Adam was a fully mature
adult. God created him that way. But
our Lord, our Lord grew up. Our Lord knows what it is to
be a child. He knows what it is to be a teenager. He knows
every stage of life that we go through. Adam didn't know that.
He didn't know that. But I thought of that, and I
thought, He knows everything about me. And He's also, listen,
our Lord, He knows every stage of my life because He grew up,
but He's also the Ancient of Days. Is He not the Ancient of
Days? That's what He's called in the
Scriptures. He knows every stage of life that we go through. He
can identify with us at every point. But now to get back to
the message. We see in verse 38, the true
humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was weary. I'll tell you something
else we see. We see the perfect faith of Christ
as a man. He believed God so perfectly
that in that storm, that violent, violent storm, He slept. He literally slept. This is how a son of God should
act in all situations. I know what I'm saying here. I'm not going to make any excuses
for it either, saying, well, you know, we're sin, we're this,
we're that. No, this is how we ought to act. Right here, here's
our example. In all the trials and heartaches
that we go through, right here is how we ought to act. He's
showing us. But in this same verse, we also
see imperfect faith. We see ourselves. We see ourselves. We see this imperfect faith in
His disciples, and we see it by their questioning His care
of them. "...carest thou not that we perish?"
What a question! And when they awoke him, when
they went back and they awoke him and they said, "'Carest thou
not that we perish?' They were wanting him," you know what they
were wanting? They were wanting him to help them bail out water
like another hand bailing out water was going to do them any
good. What they needed, and what you
and I need, is for God to save us. whether it be to save my
soul from damnation or to save me from any given trial that
comes my way. I need God to bring me through
it. When you go through the water,
I'll go with you. That's what I need. I need God
to do it. I need God to save me. And I want you to notice in verse
39, when I read this, this just makes chills. run down my back. It says, He
arose. I tell you, there can't be a
more powerful statement than when He arose. I think of the
sun, the power of the sun coming up and shining across this earth
and giving light. Here is God Almighty rising up
at their beckon. God arose. He arose and rebuked
the wind. They thought He was going to
help bail out water. That's what they thought. I know
that's what they thought. They didn't ask Him to do what
He did. It didn't cross their minds at
that time that He could do that. They watched Him cast out devils,
but you can't see a devil. You can't see a spirit. They
watched Him heal a diseased person or the lame to walk. They saw
some miracles. Now, how many they saw before this event, I
don't know, but I know this. They saw some, but not like they're
going to now. I mean, He's going to command.
He's going to rebuke the wind. He's going to rebuke the wind
And listen, and he speaks peace to the sea because the seas all
tore up because of the wind. He rebukes the wind and he tells
the sea to peace, be still, be still. And that quick, immediately,
immediately, it just calmed right down. There was a great calm. I mean, it was probably like
looking at glass. You go from this violent storm,
this violent wind, to all of a sudden, at His command, He
speaks, and it's dead calm. Can He not do that for us? Can
He not do that for any situation I'm in? Any situation you're
in? Can He not do that? It was time for him to do it
at that time because they had come to the end of their selves.
They bailed out all they could bail out and it was still filling
up. And he asked him this question.
They said, they asked him and said to him, carest thou not
that we perish? Now he's going to ask them a
question. Why are you so fearful? You know, you come through a
trial and you realize God brought you through it. And the next
one comes along and you're fearful again. Fearful again. Why are you so fearful? How is it? How is it that you
have no faith? You've been with me all this
time. You've seen all these things. You've heard up my..." They heard
his teachings. They sat on the ship right there. And he even took them aside and
explained all those parables to them. How is it you have no
faith? I'll tell you how it is. They
were looking at the storm instead of looking to Christ. The storm
made them miss the Savior. The storm made them miss who
was with them in the ship. It's like Peter. Peter said,
Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you. And he said, come on. And Peter
walked on water for a few steps. And then it says, he saw that
the wind was boisterous, and he began to sing. It's like what he said to Philip.
He said, have I been so long a time with you, and yet hast
thou not known me? Have I been with you so long?
Have I not helped you so many times? Have I not brought you
safe thus far? Have I not done this? And yet
you don't know me. You act like you don't know me. Oh, I'm so glad salvation is
all of grace. We wouldn't make it. We wouldn't make it. If it were not God saving us
from beginning to end, if it were not for God putting us in
Christ, Christ living for us, dying for us, rising for us,
and seated and interceding for us, we wouldn't make it. Now, let me give a few observations
of this Great storm, which represents
our trials. First of all, they didn't create
the storm. These are some thoughts that
came to me while I was reading this. They didn't create that
storm. All storms, all trials, are of
God. They are of God. You know, the
Scripture says, He has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm.
But I want you to turn over to Psalm 107. Psalm 107. Look in verse 23. They that go down to the sea
and ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works
of the Lord." That's what these trials are all about, to see
the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. "'For He,
He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifts up the
waves thereof.'" He does this. The Lord Jesus Christ commanded
that storm. He commanded it. It's His. He commands our trials. And then
something else that came to my mind is this, they were powerless
in the storm. What can you do against the wind? We can't stop a storm. I'll tell
you this, by ourselves, we are powerless in any trial. Anything
comes upon us, we are powerless. And here's something, though,
we need to see. We not only see this, that we're
powerless, we need to see our weakness and total inability. We need to see it. In 2 Corinthians,
Paul was given a thorn in the flesh, and he prayed that the
Lord would remove that thorn. And the answer came back, like
this, and He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee,
for My strength is made perfect in weakness." When you are at,
you and I, when we are at our weakest, that's when we see the
power of our Lord. That's when we see His strength
and we realize it. Most gladly, Paul says, most
gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. His power is seen and
experienced in my utter weakness. When I see, I can't do it. I
can't go another step. I mean not another step. Have you ever just worked so
long? And I've done this when I was in business. Have you ever
worked so long that you just hit the wall? I mean, you hit
the wall and you can't go one more step. When the Lord sends us trials,
it's to bring us to the end of ourselves. That we may rely on Him completely,
completely. The storm has a purpose. It has
an eternal purpose. You know, everything that God
does with His children has an eternal purpose to it. Everything. Everything. Some time ago, I was playing
golf, and I stepped on a nest, a yellowjacket's nest, and I
got stung twice. I don't know what the purpose
is of that, but there was a purpose to it. I believe that. I mean there's a purpose to a
fly lighting on me. I do. It has an eternal purpose. But I'll tell you what it does.
It exposes weak faith. And here it exposed no faith.
He said, how is it you have no faith? And then it strengthens
weak faith when it's over. It'll strengthen weak faith when
it's over. And then the storm for His disciples
and us, when they come our way, is for the purpose of revealing
the power of Christ, that we may trust Him in greater trials
that are coming. If I can't trust Him, I thought
this before coming out, If I can't trust Him in trials, why would
I think I can trust Him to save my soul when I die? If He can't
save me from the smaller matters, how is He going to save me from
standing before God? And then there's something else
here in verse 37 I want us to see. The waves beat into the
ship so that it was now full. These trials, storms that the
Lord sends our way, they have their appointed time and they
have their appointed measure. The ship was now full. God knows
where the full mark is. He knows. Scripture says, He
will not put on us more than we can bear. He knows where my
full mark is. Now I think my full mark is way
down here when it comes to trials. And when it comes to trials,
my full mark is about that deep. But he's gonna pour it to the
rim. And then these trials have their
appointed duration. They have an appointed duration.
When you come to the end of yourself and completely rely on Him and
look to Him, you've come to the end of the trial. That's the
purpose of it. Then trials reveal more about
us than when everything is calm. Don't they? Don't they reveal
more about us than when everything is calm? Foxholes reveal a lot
more about a person when the bullets are flying than when
there's just peace. Now, as I said, they ask him
this question, it's a stinging question. Carest thou not that
we perish? Their lack of faith, their no
faith brought him to this point of believing that he didn't care
what happened to them. Can you imagine that? We should never doubt our Lord's
care of us because of circumstances, because of things that are happening
that we think are bad. Look at Job. God took everything from him.
And God loved that man. He loved that man. Our Lord proved
His care of us by coming into this world. living force, dying
force, rising force, interceding force. Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." His
friends. That's great love. He says, greater
love hath no man than a man laying down his life for his friends.
You know, I thought, I thought of this yesterday after I went
home from the funeral. I thought, when I lay down to
die, when it comes to my time to lay down to die, I thought,
I'm going to look into the face of that man that I'm standing
here preaching, my Lord, who actually was put to death for
me. I'm going to look into the face
of a man that was put to death for me. I'm going to realize,
I'm going to realize in its fullness, in its fullness, what really
took place when Jesus Christ died for me. When I see those
nail prints, that he really was executed in
my place. I thought, wow, now that is going
to be a real experience. when I see Him who died in my
place. And then listen, carest thou not that we perish?
Our Lord makes all things work together for our good. And how
much care is that? I never made everything that
I did work together when I was raising my two sons. I didn't
make everything work together for their good. I didn't do that. But our Lord
does. Our Lord does. He makes everything
work together for our good. All things are of God. and they're
all for our good. And then I realized this. We
cannot die before our time. The disciples thought they were
going to perish. They said, carest thou not that we perish? Well,
first of all, they're not going to perish because the Lord died
for them. He saved them. You're not going
to perish. And then when did it ever become
a bad thing for a believer to die? Me and a pastor friend of mine
was talking about this the other day. And we were talking about
dying. I said, when did it ever become
a bad thing for a believer to die? That's the best thing that
happened. That's the best day that I'll
ever have is the day I lay down and leave this world. You know, and here's something
else. Our Lord, he cares for us from
the cradle to the grave. I mean, every step of the way,
he cares for us. The hairs of our head are numbered.
They're numbered. Then here's the purpose for the
trial. In verse 41, "...and they feared exceedingly and said one
to another..." Listen, now they fear the right one. Before they
had fear of perishing. Before they feared the storm. But now they fear the right one.
Trials work in us a proper fear of God. They give us a proper
fear. They finally take us off the
things of the world, the elements, and they put it on the proper
person, the Lord. And they see Him, and this is
another purpose for it, they see Him as they had never seen
Him before. They witnessed His power. And
they looked at Him, and they said, what manner of man is this? I mean, they were standing there
in absolute awe. I would to God that every one
of us would stand in absolute awe of Jesus Christ in this life
before we leave it. What manner of man is this? I'll
tell you what manner of man He is. God in the flesh is what
manner of man He is. This is God. This is God. If we really know who He is, we shouldn't be surprised when
He does great things. We ought to expect great things
of Him. We ought to. If we really know who He is,
we should never question His care of us. If we really know
Him, if our hearts are really set on Him, We should never question
His care of us. But here's the question. Here's
my question. Do you, do I, really know, really
know, not some facts, really know Jesus Christ? Do I really
know Him? All right.