Mark chapter 4. Go to Mark chapter
4. As said, this is the same message
that some of you heard Friday night. And yet, hopefully, if
the Lord speaks like a voice that's living, you'll hear something
you didn't hear. If you didn't get a blessing
the first time, maybe a blessing now. It really is the same because
there's one thing needful. There's one message needful.
The stories here of all the disciples together fearing for their lives
and all of us, all our lifetime, are subject
to fear and Christ came to Save us from that beard and save us
from death. Stories here of a dying daughter,
a man possessed, overcome by demons, things of the world.
That's everybody in this room at one time and some still. A story here of a man who had someone he loved
dying and a woman with an issue of blood. I entitled it, before
I entitled it, The Great Lord and Savior. And we're going to
see here in these stories how our Lord is the Lord over everything.
Storms, the seas, the waves, the devils, the demons, the diseases. It doesn't matter. The Lord,
He's Lord. If God's not in absolute sovereign
control of everything, we're in trouble. But he is. And he shows us this here. And
that he's the savior. Savior from all troubles, like
Psalm 117. All the troubles. Troubles he's
in. Troubles the world gives. And
he's the savior from this issue we have in our blood that's killing
us, us and our daughters. And he's the savior from death.
Nobody died. in these stories. Nobody died. They were all afraid they were
going to die. Somebody was going to die. Nobody
died. Why? Because a little while later,
somebody did die. See that? And I've entitled this
morning's message, Hope of the Hopeless. Hope of the Hopeless. These disciples were in a storm.
They were at their wit's end. It's hopeless. It's hopeless.
We're going down. No, no, no. Oh, no. No, no, no.
Man possessed. Nobody. Well, let's get into
it. Chapter 4, verse 35. Same day, the evening was come. You know, this is the evening
of time. You know that? This is near the final hour.
Yes, it is. His last day. He said to his
disciples, they were always with him, they were with him, and
he said this to them, let us pass over to the other side,
shall we? It wasn't a suggestion, but it
was wise counsel, but it was a command. They didn't know what
he was doing from one day to the next. Aren't you glad you don't know
what tomorrow holds? You need to be glad. Because
if you knew sufficient for that day are the evils thereof. And
if you knew the troubles you were about to go through, you
couldn't sleep, you couldn't live through it. And He's going to
put them through some troubles. But they're passing over. They're
going to the other side. They're going to go through some
deep waters to get to the other side. Are they going to make
it? Why? Because He's with them. He's
with them. That's Passover. Passover. He
sent away the multitude. Verse 36, He sent away the multitude. This trial was Him and His disciples. They were in it together. He
was bringing them through this storm and these seas, heavy seas
and these deep waters. Him and them, just Him and them.
He sent away the multitude. This is for His people. Everybody
didn't go through this storm. His disciples did. All of them
did. But, verse 36, there were with him also other little ships. We're in this fellowship, aren't
we? The gospel, we have this blessed
fellowship. Isn't this blessed, precious
to you, this fellowship we have? This little ship, this ark where
Christ is. Well, there are other little
ships right now out there in various places. Kingsport, and
right now they're meeting in Bethel, Spring Lake. Little ship. How can he be in this ship? And how's that ship? He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. I thought about this. I didn't
bring this up Friday. Did those other little ships
make it through the storm? Did it? There's no mention of
any ships going down. It sounds like all the ships
weathered the storm. Why? Because Christ sits in them. And people, as we said, He's
the Savior of all. He saves people's lives day in
and day out, though they don't know it. Though they don't give
Him the glory for it. God's people do. These disciples
all knew the reason we didn't drown and die was because of
Jesus Christ. They knew it. And the world doesn't
know it, brother. They don't know it. But He brought
them through so many things. I didn't. We didn't, did we?
We tried to destroy ourselves like the next man. Who saved
us from it? The Lord did. And now I'm living
to tell it. The Lord saved me. Every day,
every hour. Moses wrote of Him in Psalms. David wrote of Him in the Psalms.
And that's what this is all about. In verse 37, there arose a great
storm of wind, a wave beating the ship so that it was full.
And he was in the back of the ship, the hindered part of the
ship, the stern of the ship, asleep on a pillow. Our Lord sends all the troubles
and trials that we go through in this life. Psalm 107, it says,
you read it with me, that He raises the stormy wind. The last
song we're going to sing today is from every stormy wind that
blows. Our Lord is the one that commands
the winds and the waves, the storms of life, the troubles.
All of God's people have to go through trouble. That's the only
way you know that you have faith. The only way you know you have
God-given faith. Faith is not in this church. Faith is not in this preacher.
Faith is not in your faith. Faith is not in yourself. Faith
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The only reason that ship made
it over was because of Jesus Christ. That's faith. We know
that. Salvation is of the Lord. And He raises these storms of
life and troubles to where we've come to our wits end, that we
feel hopeless. And that's good. Because if you
have no hope in yourself, have no hope in the flesh, you don't
look to anybody and anyone else, you'll see all your hope is in
one place. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And no matter how deep the waters,
no matter how deep the sea, no matter how difficult the trial,
no matter how the waves and billows pass over your head, no matter
how strong the stormy wind seems to be against you, if God be
for us, Who and what can be against us? No, it's not against us.
It's for us. As said, He didn't send everybody
through this storm, but He sent all of His disciples through
it. And if God loves you, He'll send you through deep waters
and troubles and trials. Because He loves you. Because
He loves you. Well, they woke him up in our text. It says they
woke him up. Master, don't you care? Yes, He cares, that's why He
came. Yes, He cares, that's why He sent them through these troubles.
Because He cares. David wrote that in Psalm 73,
didn't he? That world doesn't have troubles like God's people.
Why is that? Because He doesn't care about
them. He cares about His people. And these trials make you look
to Him, call upon Him. They would not have called on
the Lord if He hadn't put them through such troubles, would
they? They'd been sailing along thinking, we're pretty good sailors,
weren't we? Simon Peter, you know, they'd
been through a lot of storms. James, John, they'd been fishing
all their lives. They'd been through a lot of
storms. They thought, I'm a good boatsman. I'm a good sailor. You don't need him, he's asleep. Why was our Lord in the back
of the ship? If you know anything about ships,
the captain's quarter is always in the back of the ship. You
know that? Always. And the rudder is back there. How do you control a ship from
a rudder, right? Where's the rudder? It's in the
back of the ship. Well, our Lord was asleep, but
yet He's in absolute control of this whole thing. How can
that be? I don't know. But I believe. What Gade preached,
we believe. We don't fully understand, but
we believe. And we're glad. He that keepeth Israel never
slumbers asleep. But he did, because he touched
with a field of iron firmament. God giveth his beloved sleep,
and he gave him sleep. And our Lord is revealing here
perfect peace, perfect calm, perfect faith in his Lord and
his God. He's not worried about drowning. Why were they? Because they didn't
have much faith. When he awoke, he rebuked them. He said, where's your faith? Why are you so fearful? That's
a good question. Why are we so fearful? Our Lord's in the ship. He's
with us. He'll never leave us forsaken. He rebuked the wind and the sea,
told the wind to stop blowing and the sea to sit, lie down. And they said, what matter of
man is this? He's no mere man. This is the God-man. You say,
He's Lord. He really is. They came over
the other side. See, they made it, didn't they?
Chapter 5, they came and there was a man in the tombs. Verse
3, he's dwelling among the tomb. Nobody could bind him, not even
with chains. He'd been often tried, they tried
to bind him with chains and he broke those asunder. And nobody,
verse 4, could tame him. He was at night and day in the
mountains, in the tomb, crying and cutting himself with stone. This man was in the tombs. That's where dead people are. That's where he lived. among
dead people and dead things. And he was bound in chains. He
was in bondage. He was completely in bondage
to dead things and dead people, dead places, in the darkness. And nobody could do anything
with him. He's a hopeless man. And such were some of ye, but
God. Scriptures talks about 2 Timothy
that all people in this earth are held captive by the God of
this world, Satan. Men, women and young people scoff
and laugh at any mention of a devil or demons, you know, and they
make fun of it and they make movies all about demons and devils
and they laugh and they enjoy these science fiction movies
and all this. It gives them great pleasure
to think about demons and devils. when in fact everybody is in
bondage to, in captivity to the God of this world. It takes different
forms. Demon possession takes different
forms, whether it be the death row criminal with a hardened
look in his eye or a preacher in a pulpit. God of this world, according
to the Lord of this world, the Lord of lords, King of kings
and Lord of lords, the Lord Jesus Christ is absolute Lord reigning
and ruling over devils. Nobody can do anything unless
He allows it. Ask Job and his friends. The devil said, I can't get to
Job. You've got a hedge about him. And we better be glad God is
Lord over devils. It's bad enough as it is, isn't
it? And the reason it's not worse is because God is merciful to
His people. Are you with me? I know you've heard this before.
I have too. We'll learn some things here. All right? Nobody
could tame this fellow. He was in captivity to these
things, all right? And he was in darkness and dead
things. We looked recently about being overcome by the world.
And different people overcome by different things. There are
people that overcome by making money. They're just consumed
with it. It's their life, making money.
If people are overcome by their family and their children and
their homes and they're consumed by it, have given no thoughts
of God, just that their family is everything. It means everything
to them. But it won't last. And the Scriptures call these
things idols, that which you give your money and time and
you adore and you give all your life and you live for. And people
consumed with entertainment and music. There was a time when
music ruled me. I mean, I was completely overcome
by it. I couldn't think of anything
else. And people are taking captive
religion. And people are ruled by drugs
and drink. Well, there's all kinds of drugs.
Religion's a drug. Making money's a drug. Pleasure
is a drug. It's all drugs, and people are
overcome by it, held captive by it. And these are dead and
dying things, and they're killing us all. And there's only one hope, is if
Jesus Christ takes captivity captive. See, these things captivate
us. These things absolutely, totally
captivate us. We're captivated with them. We
can't think of anything or live or do anything else but that.
We're captivated. He's got to take captivity captive. He's got to make us... He's got
to captivate us. The gospel's got to take hold
of us and captivate us to where we don't want to think about
those other things. Nobody could tame this man. Nobody could get
him out of those tombs. Who can get a man out of this
world, get the world out of a man? Who can take a man that's a devil
and turn him into a saint? Who can take the man, the devils
out of a man and take him out from among devils? He liked devils. He liked darkness. And that was
me. All my cronies. You know, people
don't want saving. People don't want out. This man didn't want out. Look
at verse 7. He cried with a loud voice. He
came. He ran. He worshipped. He said, What
have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? I adjure thee
by God. Don't torment me. You're tormenting
me. Brother, there was a time when
hearing this gospel was torment to me. It's torment. Mom, Dad, don't
take me. who it was I was talking to. Brother Johnny or somebody saying
that when the kids were young, I don't want to go. Get up. You're
going. It's torment. You're trying to
torment me? Who can take something that's
torment and make it the best thing you've
ever done in your life? Only one person can do that.
Preacher can't do it. Mom and dad can't do it. When is it going to happen? Look
at verse 8. He said, come out. And the unclean
spirit came out. That's, you know, people, the
gospel really is the power of God and the salvation. That's
just not a slogan. That's just not a verse of scripture.
It's true. I'm living proof of that. I'm looking at living proof
of that. I'm looking at people. For a
while it was torment. You'd only come on Easter. And now here you are. You come
on Wednesday. Wednesday? This man, I thought about this.
This man said, what have we to do with thee, Jesus, you Son
of God? You're tormenting us. What have
we to do with you? Let me tell you this, what Scripture says.
All things are naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom
we have to do. We have to do. Everybody's going
to be faced with Jesus Christ someday. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. Every
single human being on the top side of God's earth is going
to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and give an account of
themselves. That's a fact. And he's going to say, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity. You didn't want anything to do
with me. You didn't want anything to do with the gospel. You didn't
want anything to do with my son. You only thought of yourself
and sin. Get him out of my sight. That's Jesus. That's the Jesus
Christ description. Bind him hand and foot and cast
him out of my presence. I don't want to see him ever
again. And the religious people, a multitude
of religious people, we cast out devils. We did this. We won
souls for Jesus. You did it for your own glory
and namesake to build bigger buildings. Get him out of my
sight. You weren't doing this for my glory. You weren't doing
this for the salvation of souls. You're doing it for money. Get
him out of my sight. That's Jesus Christ. And to others,
you're going to say, Come, you blessed of my Father, into the
kingdom prepared for you. Who made the difference? Grace. See that? It's only grace. It's only by grace that I'm not
standing up here preaching a false gospel. It's only by grace that
you're not sitting here listening to that false gospel and believing
it. Just here to be seen, or just here for the entertainment,
or just here because we're going to serve dinner after. It's only
by grace. If you're here because you love
God as God, and you love Jesus Christ and His gospel, and you
really do love His people and His kingdom, and you want to
pass over, it's the grace of God Almighty that brought you
here. One hundred percent grace. You had nothing to do with it.
It wasn't free will, it wasn't free choice, it wasn't your decision.
It's God said, come out. That's the only reason you came
out. No reason you come. No man can come to God, can to
Christ, except the Father draw him. Deliver that boy from going
down to the pit. That's why you came out of the
pit. He brought you out of the pit. And I found a ransom. Come out. How do you know he
came out? Verse 15 says, The man possessed
with the devil was sitting clothed in his right mind. That man, once, it was all torment
to him. Now, the most lovely and wonderful,
pleasant thing he could think of was to sit and listen to Jesus
cry. Clothed in His righteousness
and His right mind, the mind of Christ. And the Lord told
him, in verse 18, He wanted to go with them in the ship. See,
they're getting back in the ship. In verse 18, The man possessed
with the devil asked him, ìCan I go with you?î And our Lord
said, ìNo, you go home and tell your friends how great things
the Lord has done for thee and had compassion on you.î When
the Lord does something for you, thereís nowhere youíd rather
be than with Godís people in Christ, in the house of worship. Thatís where youíd rather be. And if He saved you, if the Lord
saved you, if the Lord's redeemed you, that's what you'll say.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. You'll tell people, the
Lord saved you. You won't tell them, I made a
decision. I let Him into my heart. I accepted Him. I'm my personal
Savior. That means you did the saving. That means you let Him
save you. But if the Lord saved you, you
know what you'll say? The Lord saved me. Salvation of the Lord. Okay. So here's a hopeless bunch
of men about to drown. What's their hope? Christ. He
brought them through. Here's a man who's hopeless.
Nobody can tame him. Nobody can do anything with him.
You got anybody you know that seems hopeless? It's not hopeless. As long as this gospel is preached,
it's not hopeless. Alright, here comes a man with
a dying daughter, verse 22. They passed over, verse 22, and
it comes a ruler of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And when he saw
Christ, he fell at his feet. He apparently heard Christ was
coming. He heard of who he was. He believed. And he bowed before
the Lord Jesus Christ. He fell at his feet. And he besought
him greatly, verse 23, saying, My little daughter lieth at the
point of death. I pray thee, come and lay thy
hands on her that she may be healed and she shall live. My
daughter is dying. She's hopeless. And I can't find anybody anywhere
to give me any hope for her. She's dying. And he kept pleading with the
Lord. This sought him greatly. Wrote
an article. Was it in this bulletin or Weeping?
Did you read it? I think it's this bulletin. Weeping,
sowing with tears. Would God save someone that we
have such a burden for if we never quit calling on Him? He just might. If we watered
every surface with our tears. You see, we're still pretty much
overcome by this world. Oh well, you know, there may
be no tomorrow. This is life or death. It really
is. It really is. Our children, they
need to hear this today. Today's the day of sacrifice.
This man, my daughter's dying. She really is dying. She's dying.
And Lord, if you don't lay hold of her, she's gone. She's gone.
Right? Preparing this message again,
you know, before I was thinking about somebody in particular,
but just preparing this message again, I named sons that we know. A daughter. Sons, daughters. Named them to the Lord. They're
dying. If you don't do something, they're
going to die. Please take this gospel Get a
hold of them. Get a hold of them. This world's
got a hold of them. The only way, the only one that can. There's a song we used to sing
years ago. Is there anyone can help us?
Is there anyone can help us? One who understands our hearts.
When the thorns of life have pierced them till they bleed.
One who sympathizes with us, who in wondrous love imparts
just the very, very blessing that we need. Yes, there's one,
only one, the blessed, blessed Lord Jesus. He's one. When afflictions press the soul
and waves of trouble roll and you need someone to help He's
the One, the only One. This man came to the One. We've
come to Christ. Anyone can help us when the load
is hard to bear and we faint and fall beneath it in alarm. Who in tenderness will lift us
and the heavy burden bear and support us with His everlasting
arm? Yes, there's one, only one, the
blessed, blessed Lord Jesus. He's the only one. When afflictions
press the soul and waves of trouble roll and you need a Savior to
help you, He's the one. Is there anyone can help us?
One who gives us centerpiece when his heart is burdened down
with pain and woe. who can speak the word of pardon,
and He gives us sweet release, and whose blood can wash and
make us white as snow. Yes, there's one, only one. He's the blessed, blessed Lord
and Savior. He's the only one. When afflictions
press the soul and waves of trouble roll, all thy waves and billows
are going over me. And you need someone to help
you. You're the only one. Hope is hopeless. This man said, my daughter's
dying. You know what he did? He made him wait. This can't wait, Lord. This is
urgent. He made him wait. Somebody else
came. A woman with an issue of blood.
Look at it. Verse 25. the crowd thronged the Lord,
and that man thought that Christ had forgotten about him. And
this woman with an issue of blood, twelve years, I think she was
an older woman, pretty sure she was, suffered many things. She
was not better, but worse. That's someone who had got religion
and tried this and tried that and this church and that church.
No better, just worse. And she heard of Him. She heard
of Christ, Him, and came in the pressed behind and touched his
garment. Matthew's Gospel says it twice, that she touched the
hem of his garment. And in another place it said
everybody touched the hem of his garment. Did you know that?
It said the whole crowd needed to touch the hem of his garment.
A high priest's garment. She said, if I could just touch
his clothes. What's that? That's his righteousness. I'll be whole. I'll be righteous.
Verse 29, the straightway, the fountain of her blood was dried
up. She felt in her body, she was healed of the plague. Anybody
know the plague of your heart? Anybody know this issue that's
in your blood that's killing you? Sin? We all do. God's people do. That's the issue. Well, our Lord came to deal with
that issue, didn't He? This is a faithful saying. Can you repeat it? and worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. This is the issue. With us, with
our sons and daughters, we're dying of sin. Our Lord said to
Adam in that garden, dying you shall die. And we've all been
bitten by the serpent, held captive by him. And the issues in our
blood we brought forth from the womb, speaking lies, sinners,
sinners. There's only one hope for sinners,
Jesus Christ. One hope. See, the issue in our
blood will only dry up by Christ's blood flowing. Her blood, her blood stopped
the issue, dried up when Christ's blood flows. The only thing that
will take care of this sin issue is the blood of Jesus Christ. Well, old Jairus thought, he's
forgot about me. He's forgot about my daughter.
He's not going to save her. He's not going to save her. No,
that's not necessary to settle. He's just making her wait. Waiting
is the hardest thing of all. How long is he going to have
to wait? How old is she going to be? How long? David in Psalm 13,
my favorite psalm. How long, Lord? How long? How
long is this going to go on? How long? When are you going
to do something? Please. Wait, I say. Wait. You'll see. Sister, we've seen some people
that have wasted their whole lives and come in here 60, 70
years old and what say to them? Same Lord. Same God. We're going to make her wait.
In God's good time. He's not going to do things when
you and I say do them. He's not going to move, not going
to speak when we necessarily want him to. But if he has a
purpose to speak. Now look, verse 35, While he
yet spake, there came a ruler from the synagogue's house, from
the ruler of the synagogue's house and said, your daughter
is dead. Don't worry the master anymore. It's hopeless. It's
hopeless now. She's dead. She's beyond hope. That demon-possessed man, he's
beyond hope. Everybody's trying. There is
no hope for him. Your daughter is dead. Completely
dead. There's no hope. Is there? Is anybody hopeless? Please listen to me. Is there
anybody too far gone? Is there anybody too far away
that our Lord cannot bring back? Is anybody too captive by this
world? No, there's not. And they left him to scorn. He
came into the house. I believe our Lord's in this
house. I really do. Because I've seen Him bring His
people through storms. I've seen Him bring His people
through deep waters. I've seen more than a dozen brought
through deep, dark waters. Waves all the way, waves and
billows over my head. I've seen him take people overcome
by things, completely overcome by things, and take them captive
where there's nothing they'd rather do than sit and hear the
gospel. I've seen him do it. I'm one of them. I've seen him
take people with an issue in blood and cleanse them from all
unrighteousness. And I've seen young people, dead
to God, dead in trespass and sin, grow up and never see Him,
and the Lord bring them back and save them by His grace. It's
never hopeless. He's Lord. He's going to do things
when He has purpose, in His good time. And He's the Savior. Nobody
else can. Don't send them to here and there
if they need help. Don't send them anywhere. Send
them to Christ. Call upon the Lord. And don't
you go anywhere but Him. And He took her by the hand,
verse 41, He took that damsel by the hand and said, Damsel,
I say unto thee, arise. When is your daughter going to
arise and come to the Savior? When is your son going to arise
and come to the Savior? When is your lost loved one going
to be quickened? When the Lord says, right. And
not until then. And He does it through what I'm
doing right now. What the world calls foolishness. But to those
who have been saved, it's the power of God and the wisdom of
God in it. I've felt that power. I've heard
that power. I've been quickened by that power.
And so have you. So what's the hope of those who
seem hopeless? Same as us. You know, Kelly,
we've said this so many times. If he saved us, there ain't nobody
hopeless. Nobody. No hopeless cases. Right
here, you look. No hopeless cases. You come to
crack. OK. Brother John, lead us in
455.