Turn with me to Mark chapter
4. Mark chapter 4. This will be our text this morning. Mark 4, look beginning with verse
35. Mark 4, verse 35. And the same day, when the even
was come, he saith unto them, he spoke to his disciples. And
he said, let us pass over unto the other side. And 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, the Lord, was in the
hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him
and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And
he arose. And he rebuked the wind and he
said unto the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there
was a great calm. And then he said unto them, why
are ye so fearful? How is it that you 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? Now, I want us to look at these
few verses of scripture together this morning. I pray the Spirit
of God would be our teacher as we look in to his word, and that
he might Please be pleased to teach us, teach us from these
words. The first thing I'd have us see
here is this, believers, those that know Christ, those that
love Christ, those that believe Christ are not exempt from trial. They're just not. God's saints
are not exempt from the storm. These men, they were following
the Lord here. And what had started as just
a calm trip across this body of water has now turned into
a great storm. More than just a little wind
or rain, The old writers say this was actually a hurricane.
That's what the level of this storm was raised to. And this
ship was full of water and ready to sink. These disciples, listen, they
weren't in this storm because they had disobeyed God. They
were in this storm because they had obeyed God. They got into
the ship with Him. They did what the Lord had told
them to do. They were following Him. And
yet, they're filled with fear, filled with doubt. But you know,
despite all that, the Lord is still with them. Even in this
storm, even in their fears and doubts, the Lord is, He's there
with them. There are so many, if we read
through God's word, that have been faced with great, great
trial. This world, men teach a health
and wealth and happiness religion, but I tell you, that's not been
the case for believers. Job. Job lost, Job had much,
but Job lost everything. Everything had been taken away
from him. Joseph, think about Joseph. His own brethren kidnapped
him and they faked his death. They cast him into a pit and
they were going to let him die, but then they determined they
could just make some money off of him. They sold him into slavery. He would later be, false allegations
would be made against him and he was cast into prison. Well,
there was a lot happened to him before the Lord exalted him to
the throne. What about Esther? Esther, she
risked everything she had, risked her life and everything she had
for just to approach the king. to ask mercy for her people.
David, David was known as a, he was a friend of God. And yet
his life, you go back and read, his life was filled with tragedy. Paul, the Apostle Paul, he was
tested and tried. The Lord gave him a thorn in
the flesh to keep him from being exalted above measure. And he
would later write this. He said, I count all these things. I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. He said, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things. And this is what he said about
all those things. He said, I count them but done. I count them but
done, that I may win Christ. God's word declares that in this
world, believers are gonna have tribulation. We're gonna have
trial, and that we're not exempt from what we'd like to be, wouldn't
we? But we're not. We're not exempt from trial.
And again, they're following the Lord. They're in this ship
with the Lord, a storm that God had sent." Listen to these words
from 1 Peter 4, verse 12. It says, Beloved, think it not
strange. Don't think this to be a strange
thing concerning the fiery trials which is going to try you. When that happens, don't think
some strange thing has happened to you. Those of you who believe
God, don't be amazed. Don't be bewildered when difficult
trial comes, when afflictions come upon you. Afflictions, trials,
suffering, that's the common lot among God's people. And that's been true in all ages. I think Brother Henry wrote this.
He said, God had only one son without sin, but he has none
without suffering. All of his people are going to
endure suffering and trial. Our Lord, he suffered hatred.
He suffered reproach. He suffered contradiction. He
suffered false charges against him. He suffered death on the
cross. The trials of the believer in
this life, listen, they're not by chance. They are ordained
of God. Trials and afflictions try the
graces of the believer. Affliction and trouble, they
try our faith. which becomes more precious through
trial. They try our love for Christ.
Do I truly love him? That cannot be dimmed or drowned
in suffering. They try our hope of eternal
life. How's that? Weaning us from the
things of this world. They try our profession. It's in those times that it's
revealed, am I looking to myself? Am I looking to this arm of flesh?
Or am I truly looking to the Lord Jesus Christ? They're not strange. They're
not unusual for the believer. All who live godly in Christ
Jesus are going to be tested. Servants of God, those who walk
with God, men who are upright in spirit, we read of some of
those. Those who despise evil, listen, they're not without trouble. Man that is born of woman. Job
wrote this way, way back there. Job wrote and he said, man that
is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. They that
live godly in Christ are gonna suffer persecution. I'm gonna turn back to our text. Do you still have Mark 4? Here's
another second point here. Think about this, Christ was
asleep on a pillow. Mark 4, verse 38, he was in the
hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. This is the second
point here. Our Lord, he preached all day
long, parables, and he taught the people, and he was weary. He was weary. Mike, you mentioned
that. You get out in your work all
day, you're weary, you're tired at the end of the day. That was
true of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew what it was like to be
tired, to be weary. How is that? Because he's a man.
The Lord Jesus Christ is a man, and this reveals that he was
his humanity, the fact that he was a real man. He became a man. He was born. He came into this
world. He was born. It was a supernatural
birth, but he was born. He was made of a woman, made
under the law, and he perfectly obeyed the law. He did what you and I could never
do. He perfectly obeyed the law in the flesh. God's word says
that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Our divine
Lord took upon himself human nature. He became a man, yet
sinless, a sinless man, a perfect man. And as a man, he suffered
and he died on the cross. As a man, he can be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. Isn't it hard? Have you ever
tried to talk to someone, explain something to them, and they just
absolutely cannot relate to you? They have no idea what you're
talking about. That's not the case with our
Lord. He wept. He grew weary. He hungered. He thirsted. He was in all points
tempted like we are, yet without sin. We have a high priest that
can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. But listen,
that's just half of it. Not only is he a man, but here
if we read on, he's also God. Third point, the wind and the
sea obeyed his voice. We read that he arose and he
rebuked the wind and he said unto the sea, peace, be still. This reveals His deity, the fact
that Jesus Christ is God. He is God in human flesh. The
disciples asked that question, they said, what manner of man
is this? The wind and the sea obey His
voice. He created the wind. He created the sea. It's all
His. He spoke all these things into
creation, and He is sovereign over all that He created. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. Turn with me to 1 John. 1 John. Hold your place there and
mark, but turn to 1 John. 1 John 5, look at verse 7. Is Jesus Christ God? Look at
1 John 5, 7. It says, there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. They're one. John 10, our Lord
Jesus Christ was questioned by some of those Pharisees and he
made this statement. He said, I and my Father are
one. The Father to whom we pray, when
we say our Father which art in heaven, that same Father and Son are
one. Our Lord spoke those words, I
and my father are one. And when he said that, there
were a group of religious men, religious Jews, that they took
up stones to stone him. They wanted to kill him. And
he replied to them, he said, many wonderful works have I done
among you. For which one of these things
are you stoning me? And the reply was, listen, we're
not stoning you for a good work. We love good works, right? We're
stoning you because you, being a man, claim to be God. He doesn't only claim to be God.
He is God. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. How's that the case? Because
he is. He is God. And he said this to his apostles.
He said, if you've seen me, if you've seen me, if you've seen
the Lord Jesus Christ, you've seen the Father. As God and man, listen, He redeemed
us and He saved us. He saved the people from their
sin. Back to our text, turn to Mark
chapter 4 verse 38. Those disciples, they woke the
master. His own disciples went and they
woke him during this storm. And they ask this question, carest
thou not that we perish? This is the fourth point. The
greatest saints in this world are still sinners. The strongest believers, those
that we see as being great in faith and strong in the Word,
You know they're still filled with fear and unbelief, filled with doubt, still sinners. Four of these
men, at least four of them, at one time, they were no strangers
to the sea. They were professional fishermen. That was their occupation. Skilled,
skilled men of the sea. And in all likelihood, Peter,
Andrew, James, and John, they were very familiar with the Sea
of Galilee. They likely grew up around it. They'd seen many a storm. Probably
had seen a few people pulled in or found on the shore that
didn't survive the storm. On top of that, they were the
Lord's disciples. He had personally called them,
and they had seen Him perform miracle after miracle. They'd
seen Him cleanse a leper. Who'd ever seen that before?
They'd seen a sick man of the palsy healed. Miracle after miracle,
each one of those showing his divine authority, his sovereignty
over all things. They had seen and heard him preach. Oh, what that must have been
like. To hear the Lord Jesus Christ preach in the power of
the Spirit. They had seen him reprove and
rebuke the Pharisees. Everybody else was afraid to
stand up against him. They'd be cast out of the temple. John 20 verse 30 says this, many
other miracles. There's those that are written
there, those that we know of, but listen, many other signs
truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which aren't
even written in this book. Why? that ye might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you might
have life through his name. All these things they had seen
and they had heard and they knew, and yet they doubted. Can we relate to that? What we've seen, the mercies
our Lord has shown us, and yet we still, maybe I'm just
talking to myself today, still filled with fears and doubts. Well, they doubted Him, and the
Lord had even told them. Look at verse 35 of Mark, For
the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, that's
the Lord speaking to his disciples, he said to them, let us pass
over to the other side. Now listen, I could tell you
that after the service this morning, we're all going to go somewhere. And I could have the best intentions
about that. And I could truly believe that's
going to happen. But listen, at best, that's just going to
be the words of a man. We don't have control over things. There's no guarantee that what
one of us, any of us, would say is going to happen. We should
truly, we should say, if the Lord will. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
the one speaking here, and he tells his disciples, let us pass
over unto the other side. He's the one, listen, that declares
the end from the beginning. from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I
will do all of my pleasure. He said this. He said, I've spoken
it. I've spoken it. I will also bring
it to pass. I've purposed it. What's the
rest of that? I've purposed it. I will do it. And yet, we rejoice in those truths, don't
we? But we still doubt, don't we? We still have fears. I think of that centurion. I
think, why can't I be like that centurion who said this, Lord,
Just speak the word. Just speak the word. Or like Abraham of old, who the
scriptures say was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he
was also able to perform. He was also able to do. These are the Lord's disciples.
The Lord's present with him. They can look and they can see
him. He's physically present with them. And they still fear and they
still doubt. I'm ashamed of myself and I'm
comforted in the same verse. Carest thou not that we perish? Isn't that true of all of us?
How often we're filled with fear and doubt. How can that be the case? When
the Lord has said to his people, fear not, I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will uphold thee by the right hand of my righteousness. How is it that I can doubt his
mercy? His love, his grace. When the
Lord has said this, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise
cast out. How can I doubt him who has promised,
I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish? The disciples, when they were
faced with this storm, With this trial, with this adversity, they
cried, carest thou not that we perish? And that's every one of us. Our Lord spoke these words in
John 16, 33. He said, in this world, you're
gonna have tribulation. He already told us that. You're
gonna have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome. the world. How is it? How is it that we
find ourselves under the weight of anxiety, taken up with the
cares of this world, overtaken by fears and doubts like these
disciples? And think about this. Scripture
says that, and when those things happen, what do we think? I'm
all alone. We murmur, we complain, we find
fault. Lord, how could you do this to
me? Our heavenly father, he knoweth. Our heavenly father knoweth that
you have need of all these things. In spite of who and what I am,
Despite my fears and my doubts, here's the fifth point. Our Lord,
the Lord Jesus Christ, is a tender and compassionate and forgiving
Savior. Listen to the tenderness, the
compassion, the forgiveness in these words of our Savior. When
he looked at his disciples and he said, why are you so fearful? Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? The prophet Jeremiah wrote in
the book of Lamentations, Lamentations 3, 21, he said, this will I recall
to my mind, therefore I have hope. It's of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed. His compassions, we get wore
out, don't we? His compassions, they fail not. In fact, he says they're new
every morning. I tell you, that reason alone
ought to be one reason that we wait for the morning, isn't it?
That we watch for the morning. His mercies are new every morning. Great. Great is His faithfulness. Sixth. In this passage, we see
our Savior's reason for everything he does. It's the salvation of
his elect. If you look at the next chapter,
listen, the Lord told his disciples, he said, let's pass over to the
other side. What's on the other side? What's on the other side that's
so important? What was his purpose of this? You know there's a man over there.
There's a man on the other side of that water, that man of the
Gadarenes. He's described as a certain man. A certain man. He's awful. He's a man filled
with devils. He's a man that wore no clothes. Don't you know that people were scared to death of
that fellow? I guess they were either scared
of him or they probably, he was probably the butt of many, many
cruel jokes. Feared by those around him, the
object of jokes. Listen, he didn't have a house. He didn't have a house to live
in. Where'd he live? He lived in the tombs. Who lives
in the tombs? Dead men. Men had no compassion on this
fellow. How do we know that? What was
their response? To bind him. Let's just bind
him with chains and fetters, strong chains. That didn't do nothing for him,
did it? He broke those chains asunder. But on this day, on this day,
the Lord comes to him. Nothing's going to stop his purpose.
Nothing's going to keep him from one of his sheep. This is why he passes over to
the other side. He's on the trail of one of his
lost sheep. And the Lord had mercy on him. You go back and read that. Luke
8, you see Luke's account of this, but there were folks that
came out to see what was done. Don't you know word of this had
to spread quickly? A fella like this? And boy, when they got there,
it said the people, they came out to see what had been done
and they came to Jesus. They came to the Lord Jesus and
they found this man of whom was filled with these devils And
they found him, and listen to this description of him, sitting
at the feet of Jesus. What else do we read about him?
He was clothed. I don't know what he was wearing,
but I know he was clothed in a perfect righteousness. Clothed. And he's in his right mind. Oh, let us pass over onto the
other side. The Lord's got one of his lost
sheep over there. And he said this, he said, if
all the Father hath given me, I will lose nothing, not one. That wild, lost, Gadarean man
on the other side to whom the fullness of time was come. And then one last point. Back
to the ship real quick. You know everybody that was in
that ship, every one of them. One man called it the good ship
of his grace. They're there with Christ. And
He's there with them, and they are perfectly safe. Even though that boat is full
of water, even though that sea is rough, the Lord's with them. And He's never gonna leave them.
He's never gonna forsake them. That's true of all of His sheep
that pass through the stormy seas of this world. And that sea gets rough, doesn't
it? Our Lord spoke peace and Scripture
says the wind ceased and there was a great calm. You know, you go back to the
ark Every one of them that were in
that ship, what were they? They were safe. They were secure. They were delivered. In Acts
27, Paul told those men, he said, don't be afraid. Just abide. Just abide in the
ship. Does he care? Does our Lord care? His disciples asked that question,
carest thou not that we perish? And as soon as he, boy, he hushed
them, didn't he? He hushed the wind and the sea,
but don't you, the disciples, when they asked that question,
don't you care that we perish? He spoke to them as well, didn't
he? Peace, be still. All does He care. 1 Peter 5 verse
7 says, Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Cast all your cares. Cast all
your worries. Cast all your anxieties. Cast
all your concerns. Cast all your cares upon Him
once and for all. God's Word says He cares, doesn't
it? He cares affectionately, having
loved you from the beginning. He cares for you watchfully. How does He watch over His people?
He said this, He gives His angels charge over us. And He cares for His people eternally. Eternally. In closing, turn with
me to one more passage of Scripture, Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13, look at beginning
with verse 5. Let your conversation, Hebrews
13 verse five and six, let your conversation be without covetousness
and be content with such things as you have for he hath said,
I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will
not fear what man shall do unto me. carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and he rebuked
the wind, and he said unto the sea, peace be still. Peace be still. And at his command,
the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. I pray the Lord would use his
word to do exactly that for us this morning, that he would speak
peace to our hearts and cause us to look to him. All right, Mike, you come lead
us in a closing hymn.