Mark chapter 4. I preached from this six years
ago. And I listened to it yesterday
or the other day. I listened to it. And I tell
you, it blessed me, even though I preached it. I couldn't believe
it. I mean, I really received a blessing out of it. So I went
digging for the outline. I thought, I know I've got that
outline here somewhere. And I went through a stack. I mean, I'm
not exaggerating. I mean, we're talking a stack
like this of outlines I've got. It was the last one on the bottom.
It was. It was the last one. So, I got
it out and I went through it. And I did a little bit to it,
but not much. So, I'm going to bring it to
you again this morning. But I'm going to let you pick
the title. You pick the title. I looked at this and I thought,
my, what title would you pick on this? Why are you so fearful? That's a good title, isn't it?
That's a good title. What manner of man is this? Well,
that's a good title. The one that made chill bumps
go over me was when he arose. They woke Him up. And it says,
He arose. And I tell you, even now when
I say that, it makes chill bumps go over me. I can just see the
God of heaven and earth rising up. Boy, something's going to
happen now. Something's going to happen. So I'm going to let you, I'm
going to let you pick the time. So often when you leave here,
someone will say, oh, I got this out of that. Or another one will
say, oh, I saw this for the first time. I mean, it's just different
ones. So whatever you see, it's for
you. Too often, too often we question
our Lord's care for us, don't we? Too often we question His
care. We look too often at the wind
and the waves and we forget whose they are. They belong to Him. It's written over in the Old
Testament, all are his servants. All serve him. Listen to these
scriptures here. Psalm 107. I'll just read these. I've got
them written down. Psalm 107, verse 25. For he commandeth and
raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
The one sleeping in the hinder part of that boat is the same
one who commanded that wind and that storm to arrive at that
time, at that particular time. It wasn't Mother Nature. Don't
ever attribute anything to Mother Nature. It's God bringing all
these elements together, creating that storm for that situation.
Psalm 148.8. fire and hail, snow and vapor,
stormy wind fulfilling His Word. That's what's going on. Whatever
storm, this storm, what was that, Hurricane Sandy came through? God commanded that storm. God
commanded the storm. And guess what it did? It fulfilled
his word. It did exactly what it told it.
The storm did exactly what he commanded it to do. We have God's
word on that. I just read it to you. 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. But he hath his way in the wind
and in the storm. He has his way in our trials,
doesn't he? He has his way. Psalm 107, 29,
he maketh the storm calm. They got to experience this one. They got to experience the God
of heaven and earth standing up and say, peace, be still,
and they watched it happen. They watched it happen. He maketh the storm a calm so
that the waves thereof are still. They got to watch that fulfill.
Psalm 104.3, it says that he walks, I like this one, who walketh
upon the wings of the wind. While he's asleep on that boat,
at the same time, he's walking upon the wings of the wind. You
ever see an eagle soar? I don't know why, but there's
a bunch of buzzards over by our house and you can see them all the
time coming in in the evening. I don't know, I told Vicki, a
rummy cell must be going on somewhere. But you can see those buzzards,
man, they just come in just soaring on that wind. He walks upon the wings of the
wind. What's going on that we can't
see? What God is doing And it's invisible
to us. We don't even come, we're just
a windy day. You know, with the winds blowing out there awful
strong today. You know, we had that wind storm here, what, last
year? He had his way and he's walking upon the wings of that
storm. You and I are hiding. You and
I are hiding. We're looking for shelter. We
are looking for shelter. We are scared, fearful. And He's
walking upon it. Next time you get into a storm
and you feel fearful, remember this. Our God is walking upon
the wings of that storm. It's like riding a horse. It's
just like riding a horse. He's got control of it. Turn
over to Isaiah 32. This is going to be too long
if I don't move on here. Isaiah 32. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment, and the man
shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest."
as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a
great rock in a weary land. But a man shall be as a hiding
place from the wind." They experienced that that day. Now, there's some observations
here I want to make in verse 35. And the same day when the
evening was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the
other side. Something jumped out at me here. He never told them what he was
doing and where he was going, did he? Never. Do you know what God's going
to do after a while? Do you know what God's going
to do tomorrow? You don't know what you're going to do. That's why he said to the disciples,
follow me, follow me. He never said where he was going.
He just said, hey, we're going to the other side. They didn't
say, well, what are we going to do? Where are we going? You know? No, he
didn't. They just said, OK. OK. And they followed. They were
obedient. They did what he said to do.
They'd been with him all day and he had taught the people. You know, he'd been in this ship
and he'd been teaching all day. He wore himself out. Teaching
and praying. Dealing with people. You know,
when I go away, and I've been in some Bible conferences here
lately, when I come back, I'm worn out. I'm worn out because
you're around people all day, and it's wearing now, it just
is. And he was with them all day.
Can you imagine? Could you listen to me all day?
They listened to him all day. I tell you what, when he spoke,
I tell you, that was... I could listen to him all day.
I don't think you could listen to me all day, but when God speaks,
you can listen all day. And they listened to him all
day. Well, they got into a ship and
he said, let's go to the other side. And they did. They did. And as they did, as they followed
him, did what he said, they were obedient. This storm rises up. I mean, a fearful, fearful storm. You know, most of our afflictions
come when we are in the way. They do. Don't think afflictions
come on people because they just stepped out of the way or they,
you know. No. Most afflictions come to
God's children when they're doing the Lord's will. Abraham, get
out of your country. You leave your family and you
go to a place that I'll show you. He didn't give him a road
map. He didn't give him a road map.
I was asking, I remember this has been a few years ago, I was
asking Henry about this, some things I should do. He said,
we never have a clear path to walk. He said, when that stone
comes up, step on it. Then when the next one comes
up, step on it. And the next one, step on it. He said, but
you don't know anything past that. Just step on it. And these men did. The Lord said,
let's go. And they said, OK. And this storm
arose. And as I was saying, most of
our afflictions come when we are doing the Lord's will. David,
when he was keeping the sheep, I tell you what, you reckon he
ever looked back and said, man, I wish I was back there in those
green pastures. Well, I didn't realize what I
had in those green pastures, keeping those sheep, the flock
of my father's. And now he's running, and he
was running and living in caves and hiding, and it was after
his life. I mean, you know his life story. Our Lord was absolutely, perfectly obedient.
And look how He suffered. Look how He suffered. So they
were obedient when this came upon them. They were obedient.
But here's something encouraging. He was with them. He was with
them. They didn't go off on their own.
He was with them. And it would have done them well
to remember Isaiah 43, 2, when you pass through the waters,
I will be with you. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow you. It would have been well if they
had remembered that and applied it to him. He was with them in the boat.
They were not in danger. Are we ever really in danger?
Man, I was in danger of dying. No, you're going to die one day,
and the way you're going to die is fixed. It's fixed. And you're
not in danger of dying of anything else. Here we come to this storm. One writer said it was a hurricane
force. No one could survive such a storm
without divine help. No one. This storm was out of
their control. Just try to stop the wind and
the waves. It's out of our control. But I've learned this now. I've
learned this as I've gotten older. Everything's out of my control.
Absolutely everything is out of my control. If he's not controlling it, I'm
in deep, deep trouble. Because I can't do it. They could
not stop the fury of the wind and the waves. They were totally helpless. The
storm swept away every hope of surviving that they had except
one. Except one. They couldn't jump
out of the boat and run. They couldn't do that. But here's
what's going to happen. And this is what's going to happen
in the life of every one of God's children over time, over time. God's going to make every one
of his children find this man to be a refuge from the wind
and from the storm. The sooner we find this out,
the better. The sooner we find it out, the more peace we'll
enjoy. Everyone whom God saves is going to find their hope,
their rest, and their peace in Christ for time and eternity. I'm not looking for Christ just
to save me when this is over. I'm looking to him to save me
now and from everything in this life that I have to deal with.
Everything. It says here that the waves beat
into the ship so that it was now full. I want you to get this. Every
affliction, every trial has its measure. Has its measure. And Almighty
God knows exactly where the full mark is. Now, my full mark is
a whole lot lower than His. I get the first drop in the cup,
and I say, okay, that's enough. It's like, you know, as soon
as my dad got a switch, I said, I'd never do it again. He didn't
even have to touch me with it. You know how that goes. But God knows where the full
mark is. He has promised not to lay upon us more than we can
bear. And I assure you, there will
come a time when you'll question that promise. You'll question
that promise. You say, you should never question
God. Well, you live in a different world than I live in. Different
name then, because I tell you, we should not do it, but we do
it. If it's severe enough, we do it. But He has promised us that He'll
not lay upon us more than we can bear. Here's the thing of
it is, I can't bear anything. I've learned it. I can't bear
it, but He can bear it. And He can enable me to bear
anything He sends my way. He can strengthen me. Paul says,
I can do all things through Christ who what? Strengthens me. And
we usually think of doing some kind of great work or some kind
of, you know, doing something for the Lord that's magnanimous,
you know, marvelous. I can suffer any trial also through Christ who strengthens
me. I can do that. I want you to listen to this.
I'm going to read the amplified version from Job 36.15. This
is good. He delivers the afflicted by
their affliction and opens their ears to his voice by adversity. That's how he opens our ears,
to his voice. That's how he gets our attention.
I said to you in prayer this morning, I prayed, Lord, arrest
our attention. I tell you what, for God to arrest
our attention sometimes, it can be very, very painful, isn't
it? I was telling Frank. David said, deal gently with
Absalom, didn't he? Deal gently with my son. Oh,
Joab, deal gently with Absalom. But you know, in Psalm 143, I
preached for him last Wednesday. David closed that psalm with,
Cut off my enemies. Cut off my enemies. He didn't
realize it'd be his own son out of his own house. He opens their ears to his voice
by adversity. Job said, By the hearing of the
ear, I have heard thee, but now mine eye seeth thee. And I abhor
myself in sackcloth and ashes. He said, I've spoken things too
wonderful for me. I said things I don't know. I
don't know what I'm talking. Job came to the place where he,
here's what he's saying. And it does us who preach well
to recognize this. I don't know what I'm talking
about. I've said things that I don't know what I'm talking
about. It's so far over my head. I said, I feel like a bank mule. I've said things too wonderfully.
He said, I've declared, look over there real quick, Joe 42. Who is he, verse three, who is
he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered
that I understood not. You ever do that? You ever talk
about something you don't understand what you're talking about? Like we actually really had the
answers. Things too wonderful for me,
which I knew not. I talked about things that I
don't know what I'm talking about. I'll tell you what. If it hadn't been for these afflictions
he went through, he wouldn't be saying this. He'd still think
he knows what he's talking about. He'd still think that he knew
he had it together. That's what they do for us. That's
what afflictions do for us. But in all this, in all this, in verse 38, notice the calmness
of our Lord. You know, Spurgeon said this,
and this has always stuck with me. I read this years ago. The
limping of the leader is the lameness of the people. And I've
never forgotten that. Our Lord never limped. Here He is in this storm. Same
storm they're in. He was afflicted in all the afflictions
we're afflicted with. But he's in the hindered part
of the ship, and he's asleep on a pillow. Can you believe
that? He's asleep. That's what they
thought. Don't you care that we perish? Grab a bucket and
start bailing water here. You know, help us. Do something
to help us. Oh, he's in the back of the boat
asleep. Now, we know. As God, He never
slumbers nor sleeps. Who keeps Israel? We know that.
We know that from Psalm 121, 3 and 4. The storm is under His
control. Whatever the trial is, it's under
His control. He's riding upon the wings of
the wind as He sleeps on the boat. But here's what we see. A real
man who's tired. day long. He'd been on that ship
talking to those people. Just talking to them. Speaking
to them all day long. He's tired. We see the man, Christ
Jesus, asleep. He's wore out. He's wore out. Evidence of his humanity. Have
you ever just been so wore out that you just about collapse?
There's been a few times out at the shop over the years that
I've worked 25 and 30, I think 32 hours straight, as long as
I haven't worked in a stretch. And I was passing out on my feet.
Our Lord was so tired, He was just, this storm doesn't even
bother Him. Even as a man, He was able to
just lay there and sleep. Tired. And then the second reason
He was able to lay there and sleep is that He knew He was
in no danger. Oh man, if I could get over that. He was in no danger. He believed God. He said to them,
how is it you have no faith? That could never be said to him.
He believed God and he laid down that. He knew exactly how he
was going to die. He knew he was going to be crucified.
He knew that. That storm's not going to take his life. These
things are not going to disrupt and destroy that mission he's
on. And we have the same thing. We
have a time and a way we're going to die. And until then, you just
let all the storms come. It's not going to take your life. You ever see a car crash that's
so mangled up and you think, how did the person live? In that
crash, how in the world did they get out of that alive? That's not the way God's going
to kill them. That's not the way He's going to take them out. So with that,
we ought to have confidence. We ought to have some comfort.
Not afraid that this is going to get me or that. He was in no danger. And then
he's given us, thirdly, he's given us an example to follow in trials. Here's an example for us to follow.
How am I supposed to act if this happens or that happens or whatever's
going on right now? How should I act? Exactly like
he did. Calm. Confident. Someday, sooner or later, we
have to live what we preach. And I hope it's sooner than later.
Because it will make life a lot more comfortable when you actually
are able to live what you preach. What we believe. He did. He did. If I cannot find rest in Him
concerning these things, if I have a hard time finding rest in Him
concerning these matters, these trials that I go through now,
how in the world can I find rest in Him for the weightier matters
of standing before God? How is it that I can find rest
then and I can't find it now? There's a problem. There's a
real weakness there in faith. Spurgeon said this, if they had
gone to the bottom, they couldn't have had better company. They couldn't have had better
company. But no child of God is going
to perish that's with Christ. We know that. And they awoke
him. In 39, they woke him up. I'm
sure they were astonished. They were astonished that he's
asleep. How in the world can you sleep? There have been times,
and I know you've done this too, you've been so tired and you've
slept through a thunderstorm. I mean, I've had people say,
did you hear that thunder last night? No, I didn't hear a thunder at
all. That storm passed over and didn't
worry me at all. I was asleep. And they're probably looking
at him and thinking, how in the world can you sleep? We're about
to go down here. The storm is raging. That boat
is being rocked. You know that boat is being rocked.
That would be tough sleeping. Up, down, up, down. And they
woke him up. And they said, carest thou not
that we perish? They were a little upset. A little upset. A whole lot more
than a little. They were upset. They thought he was just being
indifferent back there laying in a boat and not caring whether
or not they perished and they drowned. Care so not that we
perish? What do you think he's doing
in the boat? He's in that boat because he cares. He's going
to Calvary because he cares. Oh, he cares all right. But let me note this. God will
show mercy when no one else can. He's got to strip us of every
hope, every ounce of hope we have, except Christ. When Christ is
the only hope we have, that's when you'll notice a difference.
When you have bailed out all the water you can, and I'm sure
they had little buckets. I'm sure they would. Can you
imagine, you're trying to bail, now listen, here's a good This
is a good example. You're trying to bail out an
ocean. That's just like somebody trying to merit salvation. You're
trying to bail out an ocean here now. You go down to the Atlantic
Ocean with a bucket and see how much you can bail out. And that's
literally what's going on here. They're trying to bail out an
ocean of trouble that they're in. You can't do it. You best
off just sit down and rest and just totally lean on Him. to do it. When you have bailed out all
the water you can, and it keeps getting worse, then He'll deliver. That's when He'll deliver you. Stand still. Watch what He said.
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. You and I squirm
around like children in kindergarten, Fidgety and can't sit still. But when he finally gets our
attention, he deals with us. He delivers. I know in training bird dogs,
when they're a pup, they put them on a chain. What they call
a chain gang. Put them on a short chain. about
that long, stretched out a chain, put them on a chain about 18
inches long, and you just walk away and leave them. And they
will fight, and they will growl, they will bark, and I mean they
will, you think they're dying. And you, you know, some of you
would be, you'd think it was abuse. But all you're doing is teach
that dog to just sit still and be quiet. And when it sits still
and when it's quiet, then you go over and then you start teaching
it. But until then, you can't do
anything. That's what he's doing. Before he leaves, before he dies
and goes back to the cross, he's got to teach these men to sit
still and be quiet. You can't teach anybody who won't
sit still and won't listen. And what was that? God will deliver when he receives
all the glory, when he's able to make us to sit down, shut
up, be still, know that I'm God. Be still, know that I'm God.
And then it says in verse 39, he arose. I'm telling you, this
just makes chills go over me. He arose. Man, this is more than
just a man rising. This is the God of creation.
This is the Almighty Creator. He arose, and when He arose,
something about to happen. When our Lord rises up, when
our God rises up, everything else has to subside. And He rebuked the wind. and
the sea, and they hushed. It became, that fast, that fast,
it became a calm. Just a dead calm. Like a pond
out there, a farm pond. You ever look at a farm pond
out there in the hot summer time and it's just as still as could
be. Not a ripple on it. And let me tell you something,
that's how easy he can steal my troubles. That's how easily
he can do it, and that's how quickly he can do it. He can
do that. Scripture says, where the word
of a king is, there's power. At his command, all that was
against them is now for them. All that they feared is now laying
at their feet. You know, one day when this is
over with, and we stand before God, Everything that made us
afraid is going to be laying at our feet. Everything we feared
is going to be laying at our feet. Everything that was against
us will be for us one day. He makes everything
serve our good in His glory, in His time. I didn't need this message as
much six years ago as I do now. I'm telling you. When I went
over this and I listened to that message, I thought that was six
years ago. It meant a whole lot. It means a whole lot to me more
now than it did six years ago. Listen to this. Someone said
this. I don't remember who it was. how all our heart fates
and fears 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." Isn't that good? Our Lord spoke, and the wind
and the waves obeyed Him. We ought to do the same. We shouldn't
let the elements outdo us. When he speaks, believe. When the Gospel is preached,
as she said this morning, Frank, believe. When this book is opened,
and the Word of God is read, and the Gospel is preached, believe. Believe God. And he asked them a question.
They asked him a question, carest thou not that we perish? They
put a big question mark on his care for them. He asked them
a question. Why are you so fearful? Why are you so fearful? How is
it that you have no faith? That's why you're so fearful,
because you have no faith. Why are you so fearful? Have
I ever failed you? They've watched him cast out
demons. They've watched him heal. They've watched him, I mean,
they've been watching him do all this stuff. And yet, they
get into this storm. It's like we get into trials.
You know, we go through a trial and the Lord delivers us out
of it, doesn't he? Then we go into another one,
then we do the same thing over again. We say, where is he at? What's he going to do? We go
through the same emotional thing again. Then he delivers us out
of it again. And then we go through another one. That's life. That's life. How many storms do you reckon
we'll have this year in 2013? How many rainstorms do you reckon
we'll have? How many thunderstorms do you
reckon we'll have? I don't know, but I guarantee we'll have several.
And if I live to be an old man, I'll see storms every year. Every
year I'll see thunderstorms, rainstorms, windstorms, snowstorms. That's the way it is spiritually.
We're going to have storms and trials. They're going to go up.
They're going to go down. They're going to go up. They're going
to go down. It's like being on the ocean. He's going to speak
peace, and we're going to have peace. And then it's going to
come again. And then he's going to speak peace, and we're going
to have peace. That's the way it is. Someone
said this, and this is so. Fear and indecision is absolutely
debilitating. Two of those things that's just
absolutely debilitating, and you can mark this down, is fear
and indecision. It'll shut you down. But let me ask you this. He said,
why are you so fearful? What do we have to be afraid
of? If God be for us, who can be against us? Emmanuel's in the boat. God is
in the boat. He's not watching it, he's in
it. And why is our faith so weak?
I think the one answer to that is this, lack of exercise. Why is your body so weak? Lack
of exercise. And that's the exact same thing
for faith. It's lack of exercise in faith in Christ. Two taken
up with other things. Two concerned with the storm.
Peter said, Lord, let me come out. If it's You, remember the
Lord walking on water? If it's You, command me to come
out. Let me come out to You. He said, well, come on. And he
did. He probably didn't take two steps. I bet he wasn't many. Probably
about two steps. He realized, I'm standing on
water. And he started to sink. It's hard, and I'm telling you,
it's hard to get your mind off the trial and just get on to
Him, who's riding up on the wings of the wind. And then we're afraid of losing.
I don't want to lose this. I'm
losing whatever it is we have. I've worked so hard for it. Well,
God's going to burn it up anyway. And I tell you what, if my heart
is attached to it, it's best I lose it now. Find out where
my heart is. You find out where your heart
is. I'd rather know that now than later. I'm afraid of dying. Well, we
all, we get, we talk about wanting to go and be with the Lord, and
we do. We do. I don't think there's a person
in this room who wants to die right now. I bet I can go around here and
say, I don't want to die. If you get sick, I guarantee you'll
go to the doctor. Guarantee you'll go find, you'll go try to find
some help for it and get over it. Because you don't want to
die. Not right now. You know, God
gives us dying grace when it's time to die, but until then,
we want to live, don't we? And at that time, they wanted
to live. They wanted to live. They were afraid of dying. But we all got to do it. We all got
to do it. So let's hold as much as possible. I'm telling you, when I listen
to this, it blessed me, but it also just shot me between the
eyes. Because I stand here and I tell you to trust the Lord,
then I go through some stuff, then I've got to trust Him. And I'm thinking, I'm standing
here and saying, I'm telling them to trust the Lord, and what
am I doing? I'm telling them we shouldn't
complain, what am I doing? I'm complaining. Our Lord said, except you lose
your life. If you lose it, you'll gain it.
If you gain it, you'll lose it. This is the only business I know
of where loss is gain. Every other business is loss
is loss and you're in trouble. And then why are you so fearful?
Immature in the faith. Immature in the faith. We need
to grow up. I tell you what, I'm going to
have to quit. That's too long. And they feared, and let me just
look at verse 41. I'll just say a couple of words
about it. I might have to come back to
this and make a message on its own. And they feared exceedingly. See, before they were fearful
of dying. Cares how not that we perish? The Lord said, why
are you so fearful? He calmed the wind and the waves.
And now they feared exceedingly, but they feared Him. They feared Him, the rider of
the storm. What manner of man is this? That
even the wind and the sea obey Him. What manner of man? Well,
He's not just a man, that's for sure. This man is God. We say God-man, but he's God-man. It's like I say Chapman. I don't
say Chap-man. He's Chapman. It is so one, it
is so one, it is God-man. He's the God-man. That's what
manner of man he is. Oh, we know you. You're the carpenter's
son. Well, they needed to see a different
one than the carpenter's son, didn't they? And we need to see
a different one than the carpenter's son. For us to have faith, for
us to have confidence, we need to see that this man is Almighty
God in the flesh. And he's able to deliver us.
O Daniel, is thy God able to deliver you? Is yours? Is the Christ that you trust
able to deliver you out of every storm? for time and eternity. What manner of man is this? We
may have to pick up on that one the next time. Prayer of the blessing. It was
to me. It was to me. There are times
in your life when you need those things more than other times. I've learned this. Promises are
only good when you need them. I'm talking about they're always
good with God. But you and I never really get
the sweetness or the power or the nourishment out of a promise
until we go through something that that promise applies to. And then we get the full nourishment
out of it. Like honey out of the eater.