Mark chapter 4. Why are ye so
fearful? I needed this. This is for me. You can listen in and if the
shoe fits, wear it. But why are you so fearful? Before
the fall, fear was unknown and unfelt. Adam did not know what
fear was until he rebelled against God. Didn't know it until he
rebelled against God. But after he rebelled against
God, He became afraid. Fearful. Fearful. When he heard
the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
he hid himself. And God said, where are you?
He said, I hid myself. Why? He said, I was afraid. Fearful. Fearful. I never thought of this
before until I was working on this. But he probably thought
that God had come to kill him. He said, in the day you eat thereof,
thou shalt what? Thou shalt surely die. And he
probably thought Because his guilt, his constant screaming
at him, you rebel! He probably thought God had come
to kill him. And he was afraid and he hid himself. And ever
since that day, we have been fearful. Fearful. Everyone knows
what fear is, even down to the youngest person. They know what
fear is. When I was just a boy, I used
to fear that my parents, one of my parents or both my parents,
would die before I grew up. And I would pray, as just a boy,
that the Lord would let him live until I grew up. They don't even
know this. They'll probably hear it on the radio now. They don't
even know that. But that was a fear I had. The
youngest ones know. Animals have fear. We had a dog
that had been mistreated, not by us, but it was just about
five or six months old when we got it. And the vet told Dickie,
he said, he could be a fear biter. A fear biter. Even the animals
know what that is now because of the thaw. Great men, great
men, all men, and great men have fears. Julius Caesar, I didn't
know this until I was studying, was scared to death of thunder.
He would go underground and hide from the noise of it. He was
so afraid of it. One great general was afraid of cats. He'd take
on an army, but he was afraid of a cat. That's something. You know, our fears are unfounded.
Most of the time they're unfounded. Some don't like the number 13.
Unlucky number. So they think. Some are afraid
of seeing a black cat. Or spilling salt. Or breaking
a mirror. And that list goes on. These
things are superstitious fears which have no foundation and
ought to be gotten rid of. Turn over to Acts chapter 17.
Here's another one. Acts chapter 17. Verse 22, Then
Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, Ye men of Athens,
I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For
as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with
this inscription, To the unknown God, just in case there's one
out there. They had this fear. They had
this fear, just in case there's one out there that we've missed.
Let's put an altar over in case he shows up. Let's put an altar
over here just in case he shows up. And Paul says, I see that
in all things you're too superstitious. And if you look that word up,
it means overly religious. Overly religious. Too superstitious. Then we have others who fear
disease. One thing I've noticed about
people as they get older, they get germophobic. They don't want
to touch stuff that they would touch 20, 30 years ago when you
think about it. As you get older, you get germophobic,
afraid of diseases, financial ruin. People are afraid of financial
ruin. Some are afraid of growing older.
Some are afraid of the loss of health. Some are afraid of being
alone. And the list goes on and on and
on. What is it that you are fearful about? What is it that I'm fearful
about? What is it that I'm afraid of? What is it? Here's the question. Why are ye so fearful? They're in a storm. They're in
a boat that's about to sink. And this storm is raging. And the Lord asks them this question. Why are you so fearful? Why are
you so fearful? Has God ever failed you? Did
Christ ever fail those disciples that followed Him? Did He ever
fail them at any time? Have you not found Him to be
faithful in any area? Has His promises failed at any
time? Has any promise of God failed?
Is He not able to save to the uttermost? Is He not able to
do that? Do you fear that your case is
too hard for Him? The situation you're in, the
situation I'm in, is it too hard for the Lord? Is the storm too
big for our God? Is it? What causes us to fear?
These are things I ask myself today as I've written this and
yesterday. What causes us to fear? Well, first it's this,
sin. It's sin. That's what causes
us to fear. We know that sin is still in
us. And it calls us to fear when
we ought to trust, when we ought to trust and not fear. Be still,
he said, and know that I'm God. Wouldn't it have been something
if those disciples, instead of saying, cares not that we perish,
if they had sat there and said, let's see what he's going to
do. Let's see what he's going to do. I told one of my sons
in a year or so ago, about a problem that came up, talking about what
to do. I said, the best thing I can tell you to do is kick
your feet out and ride on the providence of God. Just trust Him. What else is there to do? Just
trust Him. I'll get to that in a minute.
I'm getting ahead of myself. We are to trust Him at all times
and in all cases. What causes us to fear is sin. I want you to turn over something
here in 1 Kings. Oh, 1 Kings. In 1 Kings 20. Look in verse 28 is where I want
to read. And there came a man of God,
spake unto the king of Israel, said, Thus saith the Lord, because
the Syrians have said, if you read this chapter, the Syrians
said their gods, the God of Israel are God of the hills, but not
of the plains. We cannot win. We cannot beat them up here on
the hill. We've got to get them down in
the valley. We've got to get them down here where we can kick
them, down in the plains. Listen. And there came a man
of God, and he spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus
saith the Lord, because the Syrians have said, The Lord is God of
the hills, but He is not God of the valleys. Therefore will
I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall
know that I am the Lord." We are to trust Him, whether we're
on the mountaintop or whether we're in the valley. He's the
God of both. He's the God of both. What causes us to fear? Unbelief. Unbelief. When we see
the storm, we allow it to be bigger and more powerful than
God. That's what happens. What happens. But the Scripture says, He hath
His way in the whirlwind and in the storm. It's His. It's His. Go over and read Job
38, 39, 40. What causes us to fear? Lack
of exercising faith in Him. Do you know the difference? Do
you know the difference between little faith and great faith? It's the exercise of it. It's
the exercise of it. It's not the amount. It's the
exercise of it. I don't need, it's not more faith
that I need, it's the exercise of what I have. I want to show
you this over Luke 17. In Luke 17, let me start reading verse 1.
Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offenses
will come, but woe unto him through whom they come. It were better
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and cast
him to the sea, than that he should offend one of these little
ones. If your brother trespasses against you, rebuke him. If he
repents, forgive him. If he trespasses against you
seven times in a day and seven times in a day, turn again to
thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles
said unto the Lord, increase our faith, increase our faith. I want you to notice his reply.
If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this sycamore
tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in
the seed, and it will obey you. If you had faith as a grain of
mustard seed. And what he's saying here, it's
not the increase that you need, it's the exercise of it. It's
the exercise. They said, give us more faith.
He said, no, you just exercise what I give you. What I've already
given you. And then, what causes us to fear? Lack of knowing Christ better. Lack of knowing Christ better
than we do. Peter says, over 2 Peter 3, 17
and 18, that growing grace, and what? And in knowledge of Him. Take my yoke upon you, the Lord
said, and learn how to live. Learn how to live the victorious
life. Learn how to live better. No, he said, learn of me. Learn
of me. I heard this story one time. His
mother put her little boy to bed. She heard a thump. About an hour
later, she heard his thump, his thud. And she went into the room. And there he was laying on the
side of the bed on the floor. She goes, honey, what happened?
He said, I stayed too close to where I got in. I stayed too close to where I got
in. Lack of knowing Christ better
than we do. It is a relationship. It's like
the relationship between a husband and wife. You know each other
more and more and more. Paul said this, or that I might
what? Know Him. That I might know Him
more than I do. Paul knew the Lord. He knew Him.
But Paul wasn't satisfied with that. He said there's more to
know. This is the wisdom of God. This is God manifested in the
flesh. You're not going to exhaust that knowledge. You're not going
to exhaust knowing Him. You can't do it. And then being overly taken up
with the cares of this life. I'm telling you, especially when
you're younger and you're raising children, it's easy, it's easy
to get a hold of you. I mean, it's easy to get a hold
of you if you're raising children and you're running here to and
fro and you're doing things and you're doing things with the
family you ought to be doing. But I tell you what, you can
sure neglect your first love. You can sure neglect your first love. What is the relief for
fear? How can these fears be relieved
that I have, and you have, and we all have them? We have them. Well, it's the total opposite
of everything that caused them. You can mark that down. It's
doing the total opposite of everything that caused them. First is to
believe God. I'm going to come back to this
point. I'm going to end with this point. But it's to believe God. John
14. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also
in me. Trust me. Trust me. Have confidence in me. You believe
God. And he's saying this. You believe
in God. You believe God. I know you believe
God. Now you believe me. You trust me just like you do
God. What a statement. What a statement. Prayer. What helps to relieve
these fears? Prayer. Have you ever sat down
and talked to a friend about something and you just feel better?
Have you ever done that? Have you ever had something weigh
heavy on you and you sat down and you talked to somebody? Well,
there's a friend that sticks closer than a brother. There
is one to whom we can go, who is touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. Touched. When that woman with
the issue of blood touched him with his garment, he said, virtue
has gone out of me. He felt it. He said, virtue has
gone out of me. And that woman was healed. Her
heart touched his heart. Cast all your care upon Him for
He careth for you. I wrote this out before coming
over here. Live this. Do this. Do it. Live it. He said cast all
your cares upon Him. Be anxious, worrisome, fearful
for nothing. Nothing. But in all things, let
your request be made known to God. Speak to your Father. We don't pray nearly as much as
we ought to. We don't call upon Him nearly as much as we ought
to. The Scripture teaches us to be continually in prayer,
to be in an attitude of prayer. Christ went out, I mentioned
this the other day, Christ went out and said, at night, and He
prayed all night long. He went to the mountain and He
prayed all night long. He was in communion and fellowship
with His Father all night long. Boy, that made the next day feel
better. I bet you that next day was In other words, spend time with
Christ. I want you to turn over to the
book of Acts again, chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. Let me see here. In verse 13. Now when they saw
the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were
unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. And they took knowledge
of them that they had been with Jesus. This boldness that they
had to stand against their enemies. They looked at them and they
said, these are unlearned and ignorant men, But they had taken
knowledge, they recognized, they admitted, these men have been
with Jesus. Spend more time with Him in prayer. Take His yoke upon you and learn
of Him. The more you know of someone, the more you trust them. Is that
right? The more you know Him, the more
you trust Him. They said, what manner of man
is this that even the winds and the sea obey? I tell you what,
some years later, they were ready to die as martyrs. They knew
what manner of man He was. God. God. Take His word, His yoke, take
His word, and read it like a letter from home, and you're on the
battlefield. I imagine if I were on the battlefield
and I got a letter from home, I'd be pulling that thing out
all the time. I remember back in 79, 80, Henry started writing
me some letters. I still got them, and I still
bring them out every now and then, and I still read them.
I still read those letters. Read it like a letter from home. Learn more of Him as your Redeemer. You've been bought with a price.
You're His. He's not going to let you go.
You're the apple of His eye. Learn more of Him as your substitute.
Learn more of Him as your shepherd. Psalm 23, he says, I shall not
want. Learn more of that. Why shall
I not want? Am I that intelligent? Am I that brilliant? Oh, I shall not want because
the Lord will provide. I shall not want for righteousness,
wisdom, justification, cleansing. I shall not want. I have it in
Him. And I have it for time and eternity. And the Lord didn't just save
me for eternity. He saved me now, too. I'm saved now. He's
going to take care of me now. He will be our guide, it says,
in the Psalms. I think it's Psalm 6. He'll be
our guide even unto death. No, I don't think that's the
Psalm it was. I was reading it the other day. It's in the Psalms. He said, He'll be our guide even
unto death. Learn more of His leadership.
He says in that same Psalm, Psalm 23, He leadeth me. Get this. I said this the other day, but
get it again. I am His responsibility. He's responsible to bring me
home. And I cannot think of a better person to be responsible for
me to bring me home than the Lord of Glory. He's responsible for me. I'm
going to get there. And then it says, He restores
my soul. You haven't lost anything until
you've lost your soul in eternity. Eternally lost. What will a man
give in exchange for his soul if he gains the whole world?
What's it matter? You all going to follow you to
the grave? He restoreth my soul. And it says, Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. I will not be fearful of evil
men, evil angels, evil events, what we call disasters. I won't
be fearful of these things because He said, because thou art with
me. You're never alone. You are never alone. We sing
that song, don't we? Never alone. Our Lord was probably the only
man that was ever truly, truly alone. My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? That ensures me, as his child,
that I'll never be forsaken. because he was in my place. Now, there are some things, I'm
going to close here in just a minute. There are some things that all
people fear, and they ought to fear outside
of Christ. That's death, judgment, and the future, which is eternity.
Those who love not Christ have every reason to be afraid. It
is a what? Fearful thing to fall to the
hands of an angry God. That is fearful. That is a right
fear. That fear has foundation. It
has foundation. The future is eternal. And as a tree falls, it says
in Proverbs, so shall it lie. There will be no change. So how
can this fear of death and judgment be relieved? Now, we're going
to go back to faith. We're going to go back to faith,
and I'm going to end with it. Faith in Christ, confidence in Christ,
trust in Christ will deliver us from fear of death. Christ dying in my stead? the
law being satisfied with his death instead of my death. If you can lay hold of him, if
God enables you and I can lay hold of him, O death, where's
your sting? O grave, where's your victory?
They've been de-stung because the stinger's been taken out. He took it out. In the place of a multitude of
sinners, He took the sting of death. I watched one person, I hope
I never see it again, I watched one person screaming as they
died. I've never watched a believer
do that. Never seen a believer do that.
He took the sting out of it. He took the sting out of it. How can this fear be relieved?
Faith in His blood. I believe through the Word of
God, the witness of His Spirit, that the blood of Christ is able
to cleanse me from all my sins. Nothing else can do it. Nothing
else can put away my sins but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that His blood can
put away my sins. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. That trial is over and the verdict
is this, I find no fault in Him. Can you believe that? I hope
you can. Can you imagine standing before
the throne of God and the verdict comes down, I find no fault in
him or her. How can this fear be relieved?
Faith in his power to save and to keep me saved. Paul says, Sirs, I believe God. It shall be even as he told me."
Now, you hang your hat on that. You hang your hat right there.
I believe God. It'll be just as he told me.
How can this fear be relieved? Faith in his love. Having loved
his own, he loved them to the end. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. There's nothing that I can do,
ever will do, that will diminish the love of Christ for me. We
read that in Romans, didn't we? Romans chapter 8. Let me read this. In Romans chapter 8. He says
in verse 38, For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from what? The love of God which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. By what love? What love? Why are you so fearful? He said
to them. How is it you have no faith?
What did Christ ever do to cause me to doubt? Absolutely nothing. Here's what I want to end with.
I want you to turn over to Mark chapter 5. Look at verse 22. And behold, there cometh one of the
rulers, of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And when he saw him,
he fell at his feet. And we saw him greatly saying,
My little daughter alive at the point of death, I pray thee,
come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed and she
shall live. Now look over and see here in
verse 34. And he said unto her, Let's go 35. While he had spake,
there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain
which said, Thy daughter is dead. Why trouble the master any more? Why trouble him any further?
Your daughter is dead. And as soon as Jesus heard the
word that was spoken, he said unto the ruler of the synagogue,
Be not afraid. Don't be fearful. Only believe,
only believe. And he suffered no man to follow
him, save Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. And he
comes to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the
tumult of them that wept and wailed greatly. And when he was
come in, he said unto them, Why make ye this ado and weep? The
damsel is not dead. She's not dead. She's asleep. She's mine. She's mine. And they laughed him to scorn.
And here's what happened. When they did that, he put them
out. You believe not? This is what
happened in the end. He put out. He takes the father
and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him,
and he entered them where the damsel was lying, and he took the damsel
by the hand and said unto her, I don't know if I said that right,
but, which is being in trouble with damsel, I say unto thee,
arise. And straightway she arose. Be not afraid. Be not fearful. Believe. Trust me. Trust me.