I want you to turn to Mark, Chapter
4. Mark, Chapter 4. I'll read the portion of Scripture
that I'm going to speak from. I titled the message, Carest
Thou Not That We Perish. Verse thirty-five, And the same
day, when the evening was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass
over unto the other side. When they had sent away the multitude,
they took him even as he was in the ship. 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 he was in the hindered part of the ship, asleep on a
pillow. And they awoke him and said unto him, Master, carest
thou not that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the
wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. and the wind
ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them,
Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly,
and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even
the wind and the sea obey him?" And I thought about this when
I read this and I studied this, I thought too often we question
our Lord's care for us. We question His care for us because
of the things that we go through. We look too often at the wind
and the waves and we forget whose they are. It's His wind and it's His waves. All are his servants. Everything
that moves, everything that has its being is a servant of God
in one way or another. The devil is even his devil,
and he uses him as he will. The scripture says, A wrath of
man shall praise him, and the rest he'll restrain. Listen to these scriptures. In
Psalm 107, I'll read these to save a little time from turning
to all of this. In Psalm 107 and verse 25, where He commandeth
and raises the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof,
He commands them to do that. Psalm 148.8, I like this verse,
fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling His word,
all the elements, the weather all of them fulfilling his word,
telling them what to do, and they do it. In Nahum, chapter
1, verse 3, the Lord hath his way in the wind and in the storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He hath his way in
the wind and in the storm. Psalm 107, verse 29, he maketh
the storm a calm. so that the waves thereof are
still." And we see that fulfilled in this chapter, and that was
written over there in Psalms, Psalm 107. Psalm 104, verse 3,
"...who walketh upon the wings of the wind." He's not under their threat.
He's riding upon them. He's riding upon them. Now we see in verse thirty-five,
In the same day when the evening was come, he saith unto them,
Let us pass over unto the other side. We find here that his disciples
were doing just as he told them to do. They were in the way of
duty. They had been with him all day as he taught the people.
They were right there with him as he taught the people by the
seashore. And he said to them, Go get into this ship and let's
go to the other side, and they did. They were obedient servants. They did. And then this storm
comes up. You see, the natural thinking
of natural men and natural religious lost men, the natural thinking
is, they must have done something pretty bad. Somebody must have
done something real bad here. I remember one time I lost my
job, and a man said to me, he said, you must not be living
right. That's the natural thinking of men. And when something bad
happens, I must not have been living right. I must have done
something terribly wrong. That's the natural thinking of
men. I must have sinned some great sin for these things to
happen. That's what Job's friends thought.
They said, Boy, Job, you must have done something terrible
for this to happen. Terrible. Well, first of all, God could
have chastened us all day long for everything I do have sinned
in. And now if he's looking for a reason to chase me, he's got
plenty of it. Because everything I do has sin
in it. Everything. David said, Lord, if thou shouldest
mark iniquity, who shall stand? If God were to just this morning,
if God was to just mark iniquity this morning on us, not one person
in here would stand. Not one. You see, it's Christ
who makes us accepted, not the good that I do. It's Christ that
makes me accepted. Then secondly, we live in a world
that's against us. I realize this now. I live in
a world that hates me. I live in a world that hates
my God. I live in a world that hates my Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ, my Savior. They hate Him. We live in a world
that's against us. All principalities and powers
of darkness is set against us. You think about that. This whole world is set against
you, all of it. But the Scripture says, if God
be for us, who could be against us? And knowing this ought to
quiet our fears. Knowing this ought to quiet our
fears in the storms. But not only were they in the
way of duty, they were obeying his will. He said, get in the
boat and we'll go to the other side. They did. They were obeying
his will. You know that most of our afflictions
come when we are in the way, when we are doing the will of
God. That's when most of your afflictions will come, when you're
doing the will of God. All you got to do is look at
history. Look at Abraham. His greatest trials came when he
was doing the will of God. Look at David. Look at Moses,
look at the disciples, look at our Lord. No one was more obedient, no
one. Christ gave perfect obedience,
and yet He suffered more doing the will of God than anyone ever
has. Most of our suffering, most of
our afflictions comes while we're doing the will of God. It comes
in the way of duty, most of the time. And then he was with them. They were in the way of duty,
they were doing his will, and he was with them. He was with
them. You'd think, well, if God was
here, this wouldn't happen. Oh, yes, it will. It will. They didn't go off on their own.
The Lord's with them. The Lord is with them. It would
have done them well to remember this. It would have done them
well to have remembered Isaiah 43. When you pass through the
waters, I'll be with you, and it'll not overflow you. It'll
do us well to remember that, because He's always with us.
He was in the boat with them. I asked myself this question
when I was studying this. How would I act right now if
I knew for certain that the Lord was at my side? Then act that
way, because He is. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. He's always, he never leaves
his children. He never leaves their side. He's
always with them. He said, I'll never leave you.
No, not ever, not ever, not ever, leave you nor forsake you. Then
in verse thirty-seven, we come up to the storm. And there arose
a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so
that it was now full. The wind, I read, one couple
of the writers said it was a hurricane force. It was not a windy day. This was a hurricane force. No
one could survive this storm without divine help. No one's
going to survive this without divine help. And you know, we
could not survive a trial without God's help. We couldn't do it. Not even the least trial. We
couldn't survive it without His help. And they can't survive
this storm without his help. This storm was far out of their
control. They could not stop the fury
of the wind and the waves. You ever see, you know when you
watch the news, or if you've ever even experienced it, how
helpless man is against the floods and rain and the storms. You
can't even do, you can't do anything. You can't hold it back. Totally
helpless. And that's why they were helpless.
They were totally helpless. The storm swept away every hope
of surviving they had, except one. And that's where God brings
us. He will, I assure you, and God
saves you. When He saves a man, He sweeps
away every hope that man has of surviving, except one. And that's Christ. That's Christ. They couldn't jump out. They
could not jump out of the boat and run for refuge. You see,
here's what's going to happen. God is going to make them find
a man to be a refuge from the wind and a covert from the tempest.
That's over there in Isaiah. He said a man shall be, he's
over in Isaiah, it says a man's going to be a refuge from the
wind and a covert from the tempest, and that's what God's going to
do right here. He's going to make them to find this man to
be their refuge. He's going to make them find
that. And you see, the sooner we find this out, the better
we'll act in times of trouble when we find this out, where
our real refuge is, where our real help and hope is. Everyone
whom God saves is going to find their hope, their rest, and their
peace in Christ alone for time and eternity, not just for eternity. My hope and peace and rest in
Christ is not just for eternity, it's also for right now. I can't,
I'm not going to get through this thing on my own. It's for
time and eternity. And note here it says that the
waves beat him to the ship so that it was now full. Well now,
get a hold of this. Every affliction, every trial
has its measure. And God knows where the full
mark is. He knows where the full mark is. They said that ship
is now full. It was filling up with water.
Well, He knows where that full mark is. He knows. He has promised
not to lay upon us more than we can bear. God's promised not
to do that. It says in the scripture, it's
good for a young man to bear the yoke in his youth, a yoke
of discipline. Job said this, and this is out
of the Amplified Version, he delivers the afflicted by their
affliction and opens their ears to his voice by diversity. He's
going to teach you something out of this story. And every
trial, every thing God sends our way, he's going to teach
you something. He's not trying to teach you something, he's
going to teach you something. And you're going to learn something
from it. Now, verse 38, I want you to
note the quietness of our Lord. He's back. He's in the back of
the boat, asleep. He's not in the back of the boat,
wringing his hands. He's not in the back of the boat,
on his knees even, praying. He's in the back of the boat,
asleep. Asleep. He's in the captain's seat. That's
where he's at. Now, we know, we know, we know
as God, we know that as God, he never sleeps nor slumbers. who keeps Israel. That's what
he says over in Psalm 121. He never sleeps nor slumbers.
Who keeps it? The one who keeps Israel, which
is God. The storm is under his control. It looks like it's out
of control, doesn't it? I guess there's nothing to look
more out of control than that storm, but that storm's actually
under absolute control. It's under control. In fact,
he's riding on the wings of the wind. But we see here the man of Christ
Jesus asleep. Asleep. Why is he asleep? I'll
tell you why he's asleep. He's asleep for the same reason
I go to sleep. Tired. He was tired. He'd be on that
shore all day with those people preaching, and they wore him
out. He got into the boat, and he went to sleep. He's tired.
In other words, he's a human. He's a real man. He is a real
man who gets tired just like I do. He gets hungry just like
I do. He hurts just like I do. He's
a real man. This is the incarnate God. And
then secondly, he was asleep because he was in no danger.
Now think about that. Really think about that. He believed
God. He believed God and he believed
he was in no danger. Are we really, are we really
ever in danger? Does He not give His angels charge
over you to keep you? And our Lord laid down there
to rest, because He knew He was in no danger. Me and, I think
it was Ron Traban, we was talking the other day. There's never
a reason for me to be upset and wondering. Why God's let this
happen, why God's doing it, there's never a reason for me to be upset
or to be fearful. I cannot give you a reason, a
justified reason for me to ever be fearful, although I know it's
my makeup and I know that as a man that I'm going to be. I
can't justify it because God has pledged his protection of
us. He said he'd give his angels charge over us. Then thirdly,
he's giving us an example here. He's back in the boat asleep.
He's giving us an example of how we ought to rest in all things. We ought to rest in all things. If I cannot find my rest in Christ
concerning these things, if I cannot find my rest concerning these
things that come along in my life, How can I find rest in
Him concerning the weightier matters of life such as judgment
and eternity? If I cannot trust Him to handle
the wind and the rain, how am I going to trust Him to handle
the wrath of Almighty God? And if He can handle that, He
can handle a little rainstorm out there. He can do that. One man, one writer said this,
I like this. He said, let's say they had sunk
to the bottom. Could they not have better company?
If you go down, if you go to the bottom, can you not have
better company than the Son of God being there with you? He'd
have went right down with them. But that's not going to happen.
We know that no soul, no soul that's ever trusted Christ should
perish. And they awoke him—here's the
question—they awoke him and said, "'Carest thou not that we perish?' Oh, here they are asking God
Almighty, "'Carest thou not that we perish?' I can say this, God will show
mercy when no one else can. And when you have bailed out
all the water, When you have bailed out all the water you
can, and it just keeps getting worse, then he'll deliver. That's
when he'll deliver. When he receives all the glory
for the deliverance. When he receives it all. Because
you see, when they came to him, they quit bailing out the water,
they knew that it was just, it was useless. They threw the buckets
down, and they just turned to him and said, don't you care
that we perish? Then he arose. Then he arose, and when he rises,
all else must subside. The king of kings is rising up. And he rebuked, he chattered,
he rebuked the wind and the sea, and they stopped. They hushed. Just a dead calm. Right when he told them to. Well,
the scripture says this, where the word of a king is, there's
power. And when the King of Glory rises up and says, Be still,
no man can disturb Him. When He gives you peace in your
heart and rest in Him, nobody can disturb that. When He commands
it, nobody can disturb it. At His command, all that was
against them is now for them. All that was against them was
now for them, just at His command. The same voice that commanded
their beginning commanded them to be quiet. You see, I know
that's all that's needed is the Lord just to command it, to speak
it, and all will be well. He makes everything to serve
our good and His glory. If we could see, if we could
see how all our heartaches and all of our tears are working
for us a far more exceeding weight of glory, we would count the
furnace as great a blessing as the gold that comes out of it."
He would count the furnace as much as precious as the gold
that you take out of the furnace. He spoke, and they obeyed. I wish I could do that. I tell
you this, don't let the elements outdo us. He spoke and they just
calmed right down. And that's the way I want to
be. I just want to calm right down, knowing He's God of the
storm, He's the Lord over it. And then He asks the question,
why are you so fearful? Can you come up with a good reason?
Can you come up with a justified reason why you are so fearful? They couldn't do it. Why are
you so fearful? How is it you have no faith? Have I ever failed you? Has God
ever failed us? Not once. He said you can't come
up with a good reason why you have such fear. You can't do
it. What do we have to be afraid
of? If God be for us, who can be against us? What do we have
to be afraid of? If Emmanuel is in the boat, if Emmanuel's in the boat, then
we have nothing to fear. And why is our faith, he said,
why is your faith so weak? Why is your faith so weak? Why
do you have no faith? Well, first of all, they're too
concerned with the storm. Their attention just totally
got onto the storm and off of him. They were so concerned with
the storm, and second of all, they didn't want to lose anything.
Well, that's what the storm's for. I can tell you that's what
trials are for. It's not only to reveal faith,
but you're going to lose some things. You're going to lose
some drops. When God sends trials, He sends them to take away some
things. Take away those things that we
don't need to hinder us from our relationship to Him. We don't
want to lose anything. That's what it's for, is to drive
away the chaff. Too afraid of dying. They were
afraid, fearful, fearful of dying. I tell you, we need to hold on
to these things loosely, because we're going to leave them. We're
going to leave them. Hold on to them loosely. A man will never be a good soldier
until he's willing to die for what he believes in. So he's
willing to die for them. They're too afraid to die. Our
Lord said, except you lose your life. Those who try to keep their
life, He says you'll lose it. Those who lose their life shall
gain it. This is the only business I know
where loss is gained. It's the only business where
loss ends up being a gain. And then they were so fearful
because they were immature in the faith. I'd say we need to
be in the Word of God, we need to be where the gospel is preached,
that we might grow in faith and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that, and that'll help calm these fears. That'll
help calm these fears. And they were filled, it says
here in verse forty-one, after he had calmed, he told the wind
and the sea to be still. It says, they were filled with
fear. Well, now they feared the right
thing. Now they had the right, they feared the right thing,
the right one, not thing, they feared the right one now. You
see, the scripture says, with the Lord there is mercy that
he may be feared, that he may be feared. And they had an awe-inspiring
fear of him, reverence of him. Who is this man that even the
wind and the sea obey him? He's the God-man. He's God manifested
in the flesh. That's who this man is. This
is not an ordinary man. This is God Almighty in the flesh. He's more than a man. They had
seen him perform miracles on others, and now they experienced
their own weakness in need of him. See, they walked around
with him, and he'd heal this one, he'd heal that one, he'd
feed a multitude. Now they have experienced their
weakness in need of Him. They've experienced it. Before
we can truly preach Christ, before we can truly preach the Lord
Jesus Christ to others, we must first be convinced of our need
of Him and His ability to save us before we could ever preach
to others. And that's what He's convincing
them of here. That's what He's teaching them here. Is they going
to find out their real need of Him and who He is, who He really
is, before they can ever go out and become apostles and priests
of the churches? Now, to answer the question,
I'll wind this up. I'm going to answer this question.
Cares thou not that we perish? Cares thou not that we perish?
Does God care if I perish? Does He not see my troubles?
Does He not see my troubles? Well, you know, the Lord said,
not a hair of your head will perish. He said, not a hair of
your head will perish. Now, let's look at this. Does
God care if I perish? Well, before God made the heavens
and the earth, before God made all of this, before He made the
heavens and the earth, He made a covenant. God made a covenant
with His Son concerning you, you who believe the gospel. And
everyone whom he loves, as David said, his thoughts to us cannot
be reckoned up in order. God's thoughts toward us can't
even be reckoned up in order. And in that covenant, Christ
became the mediator between you and God so that you would not
perish. He was made the surety. He's responsible to bring you
home debt-free. It became him in bringing many
sons to glory. So he became responsible to bring
you home, me home, with no debts. Debt free. He became responsible
for that. He was made the high priest to
offer up himself as a sacrifice for sin. On our behalf, he was
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
He was made those things to us. He's our prophet. He was made
to be our prophet to teach us of God, our priest, our king.
He's the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. You
see, God's the God of order. God set all this in order before
He ever created the heavens and the earth. But after this, after
God established this order, then He created the heavens and the
earth. He made Adam. Adam failed. He gave the pictures
and types that spoke of the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world, that spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave his
written word to us. He sent prophets that would preach
of Christ and foretell his coming. Then, in the fullness of time,
he came. He said, in the volume of the
book that's written of me, I've come to do thy will, O God. He
came just as God said he would. He came. He came, bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh. He was born of a woman, made
under the law to redeem you from its curse, to take you away from
that curse. God, Christ did this. He kept
that law perfectly. In doing so, He worked out a
righteousness for us. He worked out a righteousness
for us and made us righteous. We're not only—He not only produced
a righteousness for us, but we are made righteous in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are made righteous in him.
He suffered the penalty of that law that was against us, took
it out of the way, then went to his cross. He took it out
of the way. He went to the cross as our substitute, died in our
place, rose again, ascended on high, seated at God's right hand,
making intercession for you. Making intercession for you. Then he sent the Holy Spirit.
He sent the Holy Spirit into your hearts, regenerated you,
and that's why you and I are inspired to cry, Abba, Father.
That's why we call him our Father, because the Holy Spirit has given
you a new birth. He's given you a new life. He's
given you faith. He's given you repentance. He's
given you life in Christ, and you are still with the Holy Spirit
of promise. You're still with him. the Holy
Spirit of promise. He's made you an heir of all
things. He's made you an heir of all
things. He has given his angels charge
over you, and do you think that they would dare break that charge?
Do you think they would dare disobey that charge? He's given
his angels charge to take care of you, to let nothing happen
to you, that he has a purpose and appointed And he's coming again. He says,
I'll see you again. He's coming again to take you
to that place that he's prepared for you. Now, I ask, what more
can he do than for you he hath done? What more? Yes, yes, he cares if I perish. I say this, perish the thought. Perish the thought. Karest thou
not that we perish? Yes. Look what he's done. He prepared all of that before
he ever created the heavens and the earth. Sent his son to do
all that. I'll tell you this. Not one of
his sheep, not one of them, shall perish. Not one of them shall
perish. John, you have a closing song? Let's try it, Alperma Foundation. 268 saucepan. I'll try a couple of verses with this
first and the last. Our Father Foundation, we thank
Thee ever more. We pray for Your faith in His
excellent Word. Can we say that you, you, you,
you have said, you, you, you, you have said, you, you, you,
you have said, you, you, you, you have said, you, you, you,
you have said, The soul that on Jesus hath pleaded for His
throne, I will, God, I will, thou desert to His throne. I'll never, no never, no never
forsake.