Yeah, I guess so. Ain't never
ready. Alright, open your Bibles to
the Gospel of Mark. It's been a tough week trying
to find out where I'm supposed to be this morning. Mark chapter 4. A title this morning is, The
Lord Jesus Christ is Lord Over All. Translated, that means he's
Lord over everything. There ain't one inch of this
whole globe that he's not Lord over, and whomever or whatever
is in this earth and on this earth is under his rule and his
control. Now, in this fourth chapter of Acts,
toward the end, beginning at verse 35, I'm going to try to
shorten it because I want to do a good bit more reading, and
I can't spend it all on my first point. But here in Mark 4 and Mark 5, The Lord Jesus is declared to
be Lord over danger, Lord over devils, the devil and
all his angels. He's Lord over disease, and he's Lord over death. Now
let's work on those four things here in the Gospel of Mark. Let us pray. Lord, we come consciously into your presence, though we never leave Lord, we live in a world that
is so foreign to believers that we are bewildered. We little understand what goes
on around us. We find ourselves often bent
out of shape. not trusting you, not believing
you, we have all kinds of problems
that we make for ourselves. And yet if we believed what this
book says about you, we have no ground for that fear, and
therefore we pray that as you see fit, you would remove it.
Believers of all people ought to be more content, more happy
in sickness and in health, in life and in death. But Lord,
without your constant supply of grace and your bringing life to us
day by day, that we might live in this foreign environment to
the glory of your great name. Lord, if this is to be, you must
bring it to pass. We cannot do it ourselves, so we pray for help and aid from
above. As we take these words from this
gospel this day, Lord, without your anointing, without your
blessing on these words, they do us little, if any good. We beg for you to speak from
eternal glory to our poor souls in this lost and dying world. Open our eyes and our hearts. to see the glory of your person
and the glory of your work every day we live. Thank you. We bless your name, Lord Jesus
Christ, Lord over all. The first instance in which we
come now to prosecute this particular end, that Christ is Lord over
all, has to do with danger. Now, I subscribe to the notion that
if we knew what was going to take place before it takes place,
we'd all lose our minds. We'd just be hysterical all the
time. But here is a tonic. for believers living in a foreign
land. And that's where we live, every
one of us. A foreign land. Here it is. Verse 35, Mark chapter 4. And the same day, when the evening
was come, our Lord said to his disciples, many of whom, by the
way, were before they were called to be apostles and disciples,
were professional fishermen. Let us pass over unto the other
side, that is, of the Sea of Galilee." And when they had sent
away the multitude, they took Christ even as He was, and there
were also with Him other little ships. And there arose a great
storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship. so that it
was now full. And our Lord was in the back
part of the ship. And by the way, I think we would
probably call this, even though it's bigger than some others
that are mentioned in this chapter, we'd call this a boat. I mean,
there's a difference in a ship and a boat, you know. At least
in my mind there is. Our Lord is asleep on a pillow
in the back of that vessel. And these disciples wake him
and say unto him, Master, don't you care that we perish? Can
you believe they would ask him that question? Here's the answer to that. Do
you believe we think like that too? Yes, we do. And if you don't think so, something's
wrong. Something's wrong. And our Lord
arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be
still. And the wind ceased, and there
was a great calm. And our Lord said to them, Why
are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? Just practice a little bit on
verse 40. Why is it that I am so fearful
of many things? Many of which I would be embarrassed
if you were to know them. How is it that when we need it
most, we don't seem to have any confidence in Christ, any faith
in Christ? Is that how it is with you? And
the disciples remarked in verse 41, and they feared exceedingly. These are grown men. They feared
exceedingly. And said one to another, what
manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? So what's your practice when
the hurricane comes? Especially at night time. I head
straight to my bedroom and I go to sleep. And I leave Betty and
the girls to worry about, you know, what happens to the house.
Now, that's just probably stupidity on my part, but I like it. I
sure do. I think if we could truly enter
into what we've just read, we could have a good dose of that.
There are so many things in so many areas that we have no control
over. And in fact, they are so much
bigger than we are, but that ain't got nothing to do with
anything. It ain't bigger than Christ. I'm telling you, everything in
this world is governed by Him. Everything in hell and everything
in heaven. We have reason to be calm. Not have so many things that
are beyond our control. Well, let's go a step further.
We move now into chapter 5 of Mark, the first 20 verses. Having to do with this fellow,
and his name is a pretty good one for me, the Maniac of Gadara. This old boy is a card. He's
in a fix. And only one can remove it. So
we move from Christ being Lord over danger to being Lord over
devils, demons, and the devil himself. Now, you're not surprised,
are you? Gosh, I hope we've covered this
often enough for that not to be the case. Now, there's no need of telling
you that. I ain't going to do that. I'm
going to stop when I have to and make a comment, okay? First
20 verses in Mark chapter 5. And our Lord and these disciples
apparently at the same time now when we read in the previous
chapter, they were on the Sea of Galilee and they came over
unto the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the
ship or boat Immediately there met him out of the tombs a man
with an unclean spirit." Now this is a demon or a devil, though
not Satan himself, but Satan's emissaries. An unclean spirit. This man had his dwelling among
the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because that he had been often
bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked
asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could
any man tame him. And always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself
with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, He ran and worshipped him. Now please understand, this is
talking about the demons inside the man. And here's why that's so. Let
me read you another couple of verses. Verse 6, verse 7, and he cried with a
loud voice. We're going to learn in just
a minute that something had taken place that we've not yet been
told has already taken place. The Lord Jesus has already demanded
and commanded these devils to leave this man. So he cried with a loud voice
and said, this is the voice of Satan in him or in us, you son
of the Most High God, I adjure you by God that you torment me
not. For he said, the Lord Jesus had
already said unto him, that is, to the demons, come out of the
man, you unclean spirit. Come out of the man. That's what brought the statement
from their lips in verse 7. And our Lord asked this spokesman
for the demons that are in this man, What is your name? What is your name? And he answered, My name is Legion,
which in the Roman Whatever you call it, at that
particular time in history was 12,000 men, if I remember right. Maybe 16, I can't remember which
it is, but Mr. Hawker mentions it in his Poor
Man's Commentary. What is your name? And he answered,
saying, My name is Legion, because we are many. And he besought
him much. These demons that were in this
man, besought the Lord Jesus, they begged Him much that He
would not send them away out of the country, implicitly stating
that whatever Christ said, they must do. And that's still the
rule right now. It cannot change. Why? Because the Lord Jesus cannot
change. Now, there were nearby a great
herd of swine feeding. For you country people, that's
called my hogs. But it's called swine in our
Bibles, and that's all right. And all the devils, verse 12,
besought Christ, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may
enter into them. And forthwith, immediately, the
Lord Jesus gives them leave. He does what? He gives the devils
permission. And that's still the rule that
we're under right now in this world. What does this mean? It means the devil can only do
what God in Christ permits him to do. And nothing, nothing is
excluded from that statement. Not anything. Anywhere. Concerning
anybody. It is as universal as universal
can be. So our Lord gave them leave,
and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine,
and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea."
That would be the Sea of Galilee. They were about 2,000 swine and
were choked in the sea. Now, if you know anything at
all about the Jewish religion, you know they weren't supposed
to have anything to do with pigs or hogs or swine. This was off
the list, but somebody had a pretty sizable operation going. And our Lord has just destroyed
all of them, and these people aren't happy. They'd rather have
their hogs than to have Christ. And if it wasn't for the grace
of God, that'd be me and you. We're so set on ourselves and
what we want and what we have to do and achieve and all this
stuff. I tell you, without Christ, we
can't do anything right. So the people that were hired
to feed the swine, in verse 14, they fled to the city and told
it in the city and in the country, And they went out to see what
it was that was done. And they came to Jesus and see
him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion, if
that's 12,000, whatever it is, I don't know, sitting and clothed
and in his right mind. in his right mind. Boy, I could stand a dose of that. And these people from the city
of the Gadarenes, Gadara, as well as the people who worked
feeding the swine, they were afraid. Not afraid of demons, not afraid
of the man that had the demons. What were they afraid of? God. God. We're born wanting a God
that we can control. And that's what modern religion
has fostered on this God-forsaken part of the world. So verse 16, And they that saw
it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the
devil. And they also told these people concerning the swine,
and they began, here's their response, they began to pray
him to depart out of their coast. So our Lord went to the ship, And the man that had been possessed
with the devil prayed him, begged him that he might be with him. My, what's wrong with that request? Lord, let me go with you. Howbeit
Jesus suffered or allowed him not, but said unto him, Go home
to your friends and tell them how great things the Lord has
done for you. and has had compassion on you,
and our Lord departed, this man departed and began to publish
in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all
men did marvel." Now, let's just back up from
it just a little bit and see if we can I mean, get a hold
that we don't ever lose the rest of our days, that God in Christ
rules everything in this universe, everything on this globe. There
is nothing that he does not govern and control and do whatever he
will with it without a single person's permission, including
ours. It's His. He made it. It's His
glory to be Lord over all things. Not just danger and devils, but
we're about to learn in Mark chapter 5 that our Lord is also
Lord over disease. Now that ought to help us, so
let's take a look at it. Chapter 5, beginning at verse
25. Now there's two things going
on when we get to verse 21. The first one has to do with
the ruler of the synagogue whose daughter subsequently dies. But on his
way to the ruler of the synagogue's house, this woman comes up behind
him in this humongous crowd and touches the hem of his garment.
And that flow of blood that no doctor could cure was suddenly
abated, and she found herself free. So I have to take her case first,
even though I've got to jump over some verses. Then we'll
take the ruler of the synagogue, and we'll take a section of verses
starting at verse 21, and then we'll finish it toward the end
of the chapter, all right? Let's get this lady with the
disease. Verse 25 to 34, And a certain woman, which had
an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things
of many physicians. I've had a few of those, thank
God not many. And had spent all that she had
and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. When this
poor woman had heard of Jesus, She came in the press of the
crowd behind him and touched his garment, for she said, If
I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." Just let me
touch his clothes and I'll be whole. And straightway the fountain
of her blood was dried up. And she felt in her body that
she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing
in himself that virtue or power had gone out of him, turned him
about in the press of the crowd and said, Who touched my clothes? The disciples think he's lost
his mind, and so they say in verse 31, they say, You see the multitude thronging
you, and say, You who touched me? Why, hundreds had touched
him, but not one of them was like hers. Everybody claims to know Jesus, but not everybody does. And our Lord looked round about,
Now watch this, to see her, not him, her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him
and told him all the truth. And our Lord said unto her, Daughter,
your faith has made you whole. Now really, my faith? It's faith's object that makes
us whole. It's Christ who must give us
that faith or we won't ever have it. This crazy religious world just
thinks, oh, if you just believe, you can do anything. You can
move mountains. You can create things. You can
get rich. You can do whatever you want. That's pure poppycock. That's
utterly stupidity. Religious madness. And it's on
every hand in this county and all others in this country and
in this world. Daughter, your faith. has made
you whole, go in peace and be whole of your plague." Now what
does this mean to us? Some of you know that I have
a little problem with diabetes. And I've wished many a time I
didn't have it. But I do. I finally waked up to some things
that I should have done many, many, many years ago. But I know why I have this disease. God gave it to me to tame my unruly heart. There's a purpose for everything
under the sun. Everything. The bad, the beautiful,
the ugly. Now, if we could understand this
and truly think of it in our minds and hearts, we ought to be happy. We ought
to be satisfied. We ought not be always complaining
because we don't have this, that, or the other. I know one thing. Christ is Lord
over disease, and that includes the C word, cancer. People who've never had cancer,
it has nothing to do with whether they've done something different
from everybody else, and so they don't deserve to have cancer.
Every member of the human race deserves whatever God sends it. That's just how it is. If that
makes you unhappy, maybe you could figure out a way to leave
this globe. I don't know how to do it myself. The problem with modern religion, their God is too small. He can't do anything unless they
let Him. He can't do anything unless they help Him. Thank God, we know better, don't
we? Now we've got to go back and
piece the other fellow and his daughter. In Matthew 5, we come now to
verses 21-24, and then we're going to jump to verse 35-43.
Mark 5, verse 21, And when Jesus was passed over again by ship, unto the other side, that is,
of the Sea of Galilee. Much people gathered unto him,
and he was near unto the sea. And behold, there comes one of
the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, And when he saw
him, when Jairus saw the Lord Jesus, he fell at his feet and besought him greatly, saying,
My little daughter, she turns out to be twelve years old, my
little daughter lies at the point of death. I
pray you come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed
and she shall live. And our Lord went with him, and
much people followed him, and thronged him, and a certain... and we stop at verse 24 and now
we jump to verse 35. While he yet spoke, while this
ruler of the synagogue was still speaking with our Lord Jesus
Christ, There came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain
which said, Your daughter is dead, why trouble you the master
any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, Be not
afraid, only believe. And he suffered no man to follow
him except Peter and James and John. And he comes to the house of
the ruler of the synagogue and sees the tumult and them that
wept and wailed greatly. And when our Lord was come in,
he said unto them, Why make you this ado?" And weep. The damsel, the young
girl, is not dead but sleeps. She really is dead. But he's
going to raise her from the dead. And they left him to scorn. But when he had put them all
out, he takes the father and the mother of the young girl
and those three disciples that were with him, and they enter
in where the young lady was lying. And our Lord took the young lady
by the hand and said unto her, Talitha Cumi, which is being
interpreted, Damsel, I say unto you, arise. And straightway she
arose and walked. For she was of the age of twelve
years, and they were astonished with a great astonishment. And our Lord charged them straightly,
that no man should know it, and commanded that something should
be given her to eat." Now, if that doesn't say this,
I don't know anything about this book. Jesus Christ is Lord over
death. His people, believers, Christ's
sheep, His church, have an appointed time for their death. And it
won't come early or late. But here's the problem we have
with that. None of us know when that is. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
if you knew that five years from this very moment you were going
to expire? I don't want to know it. I'd rather know that Christ has
appointed that time and neither hell nor high water can make
it come any sooner or delay it any further. It's his prerogative. It's who Christ is. He's the
perfect God and the perfect man. And he rules everything. According
to Revelation chapter 1, he has the keys at his waist to heaven,
hell, and death. Revelation chapter 1, somewhere
about verse Sixteen or seventeen, I don't know exactly. I could
find it, but I'm not, because I need to cover some more ground. All right, all of that's one
point. Christ is Lord over danger, devils,
disease, and death. Now we want to come and deal
with a much greater question probably in our day than what
we've just covered, though I think in some places this would probably
burn the building down on you if you dare state these four
things about the Lordship of Christ. Here's the question. Can you and I make Christ Lord
and King? Can we cause Him to be more than
He is? Let's take a look at some things.
We can't beat around the bush now. We've got to do this in
a hurry. And I've marked mine, so if you don't want to turn,
I won't feel hard at you. I'll talk about you later, but
not today. In John 6, verse 15, we read these words. When Jesus
therefore perceived that these people whom He had fed the previous
day in the feeding of the 5,000, that these people would come
and take him by force and make him a king. Do you know why they wanted to
do this? They had a free ticket every day of their lives. My
soul, that's what's wrong with America this morning. Everybody's
on the take. And our Lord departed again into
a mountain, himself alone. Second Scripture, Acts chapter
2. This time it's four different verses. We begin at verse 32, Acts chapter
2. And I believe this is Peter's
preaching on the day of Pentecost, and he's speaking regarding the
resurrection of Christ. Acts 2.32, this Jesus has God
raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by
the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has shed forth this which
you now see and hear. Talking about the apostles preaching
on the day of Pentecost. For David is not ascended into
the heavens, but he said himself, David said himself in Psalm 110,
the Lord, the Lord God Jehovah said unto my Lord, the Lord Jesus,
sit you at my right hand until I make your foes your footstool. And that's what God's doing right
now, this very minute. And every minute of every day,
he's causing people to bow to who and what Christ is and apply
to him for mercy. Sit at my right hand until I
make your foes your footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both
Lord and Christ. That's who He is. That's who
He is. And He is that forever. We're
going to skip another place in Acts, and let me take you to
1 Corinthians chapter 12. I've got that one marked too,
if I can ever find where the marker is there. Nope. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3. with the question, can we make
Christ Lord? Does he need us to be Lord? Verse 3, 1 Corinthians 12, Wherefore,
I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit
of God calls Jesus accursed, and here's the statement I'm
after, and that no man can say, that Jesus is the Lord except
by the Holy Spirit. So it is then, it requires then,
a miracle of grace in order for any son and daughter of Adam
to confess Christ as Lord and Savior and God. That's the only
way it can take place. Now quickly, I really have two
other points, but I might just settle for one. The third thing
is this. Regarding the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ, some people have divided this glory into various
categories that is very helpful in order for us to understand
what it means and how we are to understand it. The first glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ Some people refer to it as his essential
glory. That is, it is the glory that
belongs to Christ. To be without it would be to
lose his deity, which cannot, of course, take place. It is
his essential glory. That is, Christ is God. Secondly, the next category has
to do with his moral glory. Christ is called in this book,
the God-man. He is the man, Christ Jesus. Therefore, it is Christ's human
nature That is, this second glory spoken of by some as Christ's
moral glory. The third glory has to do with
Christ's offices, of which there are basically three, though some
other offices as well. But the scripture speaks of Christ
as our prophet, our priest, and our king. So all the honors and
glory that belong to Christ in regard to these three offices
are referred to as his official, official glory. That is, the
glory having to do with his offices. Then there's a fourth category. I've written down, it is his
acquired glory. There is a glory that our Lord
acquired by leaving heaven and coming to this earth, being born
as an infant and living some thirty-three years, and then
going to the cross, rising from the dead, ascending to glory.
Therefore, this fourth kind of glory has to do with what is
called his acquired glories. Acquired. They've been added
to his other glories. You understand what I'm saying? This glory of Christ that he
earned and merited as the God-man mediator. There is one mediator
between God and men, and it is the man, the God-man, Christ
Jesus. 1 Timothy 2, I think verse 5. Finally, here's another rundown
on Christ is Lord over all. He is Lord over all people. Let
me read you a statement from John 17, verse 2. Well, I can't get my pages to
come apart. Here we go. John 17, verse 2. Our Lord speaking to the Father,
as you have given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as you have given him. He must have
power over everybody to save those that he saves in that total
picture of people living on this earth at various times and dying
and others taking their place and so forth. Our Lord is Lord over all people,
every kind, every tribe, every race, every country, every generation. And he's also Lord over all powers. Matthew 28, 18, all power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth. And then our Lord extends
that wonderful commission to his disciples to go and preach
the gospel in his name. Then there's this matter called
providence, more easily understood if we
say the Lord will provide. He does provide. He has provided,
He is providing, and He will continue to provide. He is Lord
of Providence. And then I think I touched on
this earlier, but in Revelation 1, verses 17 and 18, our Lord
is said to be Lord over all places, everywhere. On the earth, in
the grave. On the earth, In the heavens,
he's Lord. He can't be anything else. He
must be Lord. Now every year, I'm going to
wait until Johnny turns that thing off.