Participants: Chris Shelton (Host), Kenny Shelton
Series Code: BTLP
Program Code: BTLP000054
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00:41 Hello, I'm Chris Shelton.
00:43 And welcome to "Behold the Lamb Presents." 00:46 Our message for this hour is entitled 00:48 "Lord, save us or we perish." 00:51 Today we are going to look at a couple of stories 00:54 found in the book of Mathew 8 00:56 that many of us are familiar with. 00:59 The first story is that of Christ with His disciples 01:02 as they decide to get in to a boat and cross over 01:05 to the other side of the lake. 01:07 Soon Christ falls asleep as they sail. 01:10 And He remained asleep as a tremendous wind storm 01:14 seiged round about the boat filling their vessel with water. 01:18 Then the second story we're going to study 01:21 took place once Christ and His disciples had reached 01:24 the other side of the lake 01:26 and met up with two men who were demon-possessed. 01:30 Friends, I believe, I believe as you listen to today's message 01:34 that you will find direct applications from these stories 01:38 that apply to our walk, 01:40 our relationships and our faith 01:42 with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 01:45 It is a message of encouragement and revelation 01:48 that I believe you'll want to listen to more than once 01:51 so that this information 01:53 will become a part of your rote memory, 01:56 something that's easily recalled when needed. 01:59 But first, let's listen to a beautiful song entitled 02:03 "He Who Trusts" as sung by Stephanie Dawn 02:07 and recorded at the 3ABN worship center. 02:22 These are peril times we live in 02:26 Trouble everywhere 02:31 Weary hearts will often give 02:34 in to this world's despair 02:39 But high and over all our Father 02:44 knows our every care 02:48 So in His book if you will look, 02:52 you'll find His promise there 03:00 He who trusts in the Lord 03:04 Mercy shall surround him 03:08 He who trusts in the Lord 03:12 Mercy shall surround him 03:17 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice 03:21 You upright in heart, lift up your voice 03:25 For great is His mercy toward 03:30 all who trust in the Lord 03:41 Soon will be the time 03:44 when we will see the Holy One 03:49 And oh, how sweet to know that 03:53 He'll complete what He's begun 03:57 And blessed is the man 04:01 who stands forgiven in God's Son 04:06 And blessed are they who in that day 04:11 Will hear Him say, "Well done" 04:17 He who trusts in the Lord 04:22 Mercy shall surround him 04:26 He who trusts in the Lord 04:30 Mercy shall surround him 04:34 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice 04:38 You upright in heart, lift up your voice 04:42 For great is His mercy toward 04:47 all who trust in the Lord 04:54 Gracious is He and slow to anger 05:02 His loving kindness has no end 05:10 With love to embrace both friend and stranger 05:17 He's reaching out to one and all 05:22 Who upon His name will call 05:28 For He who trusts in the Lord 05:33 Mercy shall surround him 05:37 He who trusts in the Lord 05:42 Mercy shall surround him 05:46 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice 05:50 You upright in heart, lift up your voice 05:54 For great is His mercy toward 05:58 all who trust in the Lord 06:04 Mercy is His reward 06:08 For all who trust, for the pure and just 06:12 Who put their trust in the Lord 06:21 Mercy is His reward 06:28 Great is His mercy toward 06:34 all who put their 06:37 trust in the Lord. 06:53 Thanks for joining us here again "Behold the Lamb." 06:56 We're very grateful and thankful for each of our viewers 06:58 and our listeners each and every day. 07:01 We want to encourage you to keep watching, 07:02 keep listening, keep writing. 07:04 Response, we want to hear from you. 07:06 We know the Lord is put questions in your heart, 07:09 in your mind and feel free to call us here. 07:11 Something we can do to help you in your spiritual walk, 07:13 we want to help you by the grace of God. 07:16 Today as mentioned very, very important subject. 07:18 You know, we're talking about 07:20 "Lord, save us or we perish." 07:23 Again words that someone may utter 07:25 when they are in despair. 07:26 Words that someone may cry out 07:28 when they--we say we're at the end of our rope. 07:31 And so today we were going to see that some people 07:34 were at the end of the rope and there's many people today 07:36 that right there just hanging and just saying 07:38 "Lord, I don't know what else to do. 07:40 Lord, save us or we perish. " 07:42 That puts us all just about in the same boat today. 07:45 Take your Bible and turn to Mathew 8 07:47 as we have prayer together. 07:48 I'm going to begin reading with verses 23 through 27. 07:53 We'll finish out the whole chapter as we have that time. 07:55 But right now, 07:56 we need to pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. 07:57 So where you're at would you just join with me 07:59 as we pray together? 08:02 Merciful Father in heaven, we thank you for your love, 08:04 your mercy and your grace. 08:06 We pray now the power of thy Holy Spirit 08:08 to consume each and every one of us, 08:10 every one of your children around the world. 08:12 May we hear Jesus today, may we see Jesus, 08:15 may we understand the Word to the power of thy Holy Spirit. 08:18 Lord, we pray that each one of us say, not I but Christ. 08:21 May we stand behind the cross of Calvary. 08:24 We pray now as the message goes forward 08:26 that it will be certainly the bread of life. 08:29 We pray that it will be a fountain 08:31 that we can go and we can drink deeply of. 08:33 Bless us now, we pray to this end. 08:35 We carefully give you praise, give you honor 08:37 and give you glory because you are God. 08:39 In Jesus' name, amen. 08:42 As again mention there, pencil and paper 08:44 always because we're in Mathew 8 reading verses 23 on down. 08:49 So hope you have your Bible. 08:51 We're gonna read this thing together. Shall we? 08:53 Notice it says, "And when he had entered 08:54 into His ship, His disciples followed him." 08:58 Who's he? Jesus. 08:59 When Jesus entered in the ship His disciples followed Him. 09:01 "And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, 09:04 insomuch that the ship was covered 09:07 with the waves, but He was asleep. 09:10 His disciples came to Him and they woke Him and saying, 09:13 'Lord, save us, we perish.' 09:17 And He said unto them, 'Why are ye fearful, 09:20 O ye of little faith?' 09:23 Then He arose, and He rebuked 09:25 the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm." 09:28 In other words Jesus what? 09:30 He forbid. He said "Stop. 09:32 Please be still." 09:34 Verse 27, "But the men marveled, saying, 09:36 what manner of man is this, that even the winds 09:40 and the sea obey Him!" 09:43 The setting of this account is very interesting. 09:47 Once again your Savior, 09:49 my Savior out busy laboring for souls, 09:52 working day in and day out, from sun up to sun down, 09:56 seem to be no rest, very little time to even eat. 10:00 He was meeting the physical and the spiritual 10:03 needs of the people. 10:05 This is your Savior, this is my Savior, 10:08 working in behalf of mankind. 10:11 But, you know, Jesus in His human flesh, 10:14 made like we are, He became tired 10:17 and we say worn out and he needed a little rest. 10:20 But again the rest that I believe that Jesus, 10:22 in studying this, that Jesus had in mind 10:25 was as He went across the lake there were folks over there 10:29 who had not had the opportunity on that side of the lake, 10:32 listen carefully, as those on this side had to hear about Him. 10:35 And so he was-- you know, 10:37 He was going to accomplish a couple of things here. 10:40 And so they got into the boat and they, 10:42 you know, was calm and peaceful and wonderful. 10:46 And, you know, all of a sudden here come this storm. 10:49 We call it out of nowhere. 10:51 Some of you've been, maybe driving down the road 10:54 it seemed to be peaceful and quiet 10:55 and all of a sudden there's a storm that blew up. 10:57 We have that sometime here in southern Illinois, 10:59 the summer heat and so on, just all of a sudden here it is. 11:03 And it caught them by surprise. 11:05 The Bible gives the account about the waves going so high 11:08 that it was covering the boat. 11:10 So if they go higher than the boat that means 11:11 they're coming in on top of the boat 11:13 and on top of the individuals. 11:15 So much so, that the disciples feared for their very life. 11:20 And they began to cry out, 11:21 they began to say, "we're gonna die." 11:23 Let me just mention, as we study this, 11:26 we have to realize the disciples 11:28 and--I use this word here. 11:30 Just be careful with it but the disciples were not sissies. 11:33 These were men. 11:35 These were fishermen. 11:36 These are who made their life on the lake 11:39 and so they've been through many storms 11:41 but this had to be the storm of storms. 11:44 Now again why? 11:46 We realize the enemy is the author 11:47 and behind this storm. 11:49 We have to realize this because the devil says what? 11:51 Here is this little boat, 11:53 here is all of this big lake out here and the storm, 11:55 we're gonna try to sink that boat, 11:56 kill the disciples, get rid of Jesus 11:58 and then we've got things the way we want them. 12:01 My, what a surprise the enemy had coming to Him. 12:06 Real men, fighting and all of a sudden they say, 12:10 "You know, uh-oh, we're in trouble. 12:12 We are in trouble. 12:14 We've never seen anything like this in the world. 12:17 And now we're gonna need some help." 12:19 They begin to look around and say, 12:21 "Well, now wait, where is Jesus? 12:23 Where is Jesus at?" 12:25 You know the boat began to fill with water. 12:27 If something didn't happens, so they made every effort 12:30 that they knew to save themselves. 12:31 You know people who are familiar with boating 12:33 they have a lot of, I used to call them, 12:35 tricks in order to keep a boat going or so on, 12:37 so forth that maybe you wouldn't have 12:39 but these men knew that all and whether they were bailing 12:42 the water out and or whatever they was doing, 12:44 throwing things off the boat, they wanted to live. 12:47 The storm was bad. 12:48 And that's the way it is in your life maybe today. 12:50 Storm is so bad, you don't know whether you want to live or not. 12:53 You think, you know, you're going to die. 12:55 And maybe you need to be crying out right now, 12:57 oh, God save me. 13:00 And so the disciples, they were doing everything 13:02 that they possibly could, now listen this, 13:04 to save themselves. 13:06 You know how hopeless that is today. 13:08 There are many people in the world, 13:09 Christians, trying to save themselves by works. 13:12 Doing all that they can do to make sure they're safe 13:14 rather than to simply give your life to Jesus 13:16 and be obedient to His commands. 13:20 There was no hope when man tries 13:22 to save himself outside of Christ. 13:25 All of a sudden they began to think, 13:28 Jesus is onboard. Wow. 13:33 If He didn't react or something wasn't done 13:35 we are going to die. 13:38 I don't know if you've ever been in such 13:39 straight place like that, but I'm sure it's frightening. 13:42 Your life is on the line. 13:46 Jesus, where is He at? 13:48 After all when we were there on the land, 13:52 Jesus said we need to go to the other side. 13:54 Jesus said to them, number one, 13:55 launch out into the deep. 13:57 Do you remember that? 13:58 See, this is wasn't the first time 13:59 Jesus had told the disciples to launch out. 14:02 You are His disciple, I am His disciple, 14:04 I believe I've heard that voice say, launch out. 14:07 It wasn't just launch out, it was launch out into the deep. 14:10 In Luke 5: 4 Jesus had told the disciples, 14:14 you know, they are looking for fish, 14:16 He said, launch out into the deep. 14:18 See sometime we launch out as Christian 14:20 but we only go so far. 14:21 We are afraid to get away from shore. 14:23 Our faith is weak. 14:26 Jesus said to launch into the deep means, 14:29 literally the word means, to where it goes down deep. 14:33 He said wow, go down deep, to push out. 14:37 So I got to think. I said let's study this. 14:38 Let's look a little bit. 14:39 Jesus said launch out into the deep. 14:41 He told His disciples launch out into the deep, 14:42 so they were doing what they were told to do. 14:45 Wouldn't Jesus take care of them? 14:48 It's really beginning to go through their mind, 14:49 I don't know. 14:50 What's wrong? 14:52 He's told us to do this but when you launched out, 14:54 it's always this way. 14:55 The word has the meaning, as you look, 14:57 when you launch out it also means you come back. 15:01 So the faith was I launch out 15:02 and by the grace of God, we come back. 15:05 I like to think of church services. 15:07 We come together to get our spiritual batteries 15:09 all charged up. Don't we? 15:11 And then Jesus says to you, 15:12 when we leave the sanctuary, what? 15:14 That's when the work begins. 15:15 We launch out into the deep. 15:17 We, what, attack as it were by the grace of God, 15:20 the impossibilities in this world, 15:23 all the demons of hell fighting against, 15:25 but God said launch out into the deep. 15:26 Give the message, then we come back together to gain strength. 15:29 Launch out. 15:31 So Jesus had told them 15:32 so it gave them a little bit of encouragement. 15:34 Push out, launch out. 15:37 And so at that point they realized 15:38 Jesus was their only hope. 15:41 Oh, my friend, you realize today 15:42 that Jesus is your only hope today. 15:46 There's no hope outside of Jesus Christ. 15:49 The book of Acts 4:12, it says, 15:52 "Neither is there salvation in any other," What? 15:56 There's no other name given among men, 15:57 whereby we must be saved than the name of Jesus." 16:02 Friend, I want you to think about no other name 16:05 given among men, whereby we must be save, 16:07 it's the name of Jesus. 16:10 There's people today who are praying to idols 16:13 and they are praying, maybe the priest or the pope 16:16 or a pastor or a teacher, you know, Mary, 16:20 you know, dead saints, is to no avail. 16:23 Only the name of Jesus, 16:26 there's no other--there's no salvation outside of Christ. 16:30 And so the disciples begin to think, we're helpless. 16:33 We're not going to be able to escape. 16:35 You're helpless too because we've all sinned 16:37 and come short of the glory of God. 16:38 We are under the death decree. 16:40 You better believe it. 16:41 The disciples began to say "Well, we're going to go down. 16:43 We're going to die and there is one hope," 16:46 and you have this one hope today, too. 16:49 You can cry out Jesus. 16:51 The disciples said, "Master, Master." 16:54 You ever been in such a difficult situation 16:57 that you just don't say "Master, Master?" 17:00 When you are in need of something 17:02 you let the need known, "Master, Master." 17:05 You know sometime we say here in the ministries, 17:07 you know, they had needs to get the gospel out. 17:10 Not just personal needs. 17:11 People say, well, you ask for this 17:12 or you want help doing this. 17:14 Listen, it's God's work. 17:15 He said you had to make your needs known and sometimes 17:18 we say we had needs. 17:20 God's calls has needs. 17:23 We are not thinking personal. 17:25 If we don't have them, then we don't do those things, 17:27 opportunity to reach people for the kingdom. 17:30 And so we say, you know, as the disciples said, 17:32 "Master, Master, save us or we perish." 17:37 But there was no reply. 17:40 You are going down and you are drowning 17:42 and you're calling out "somebody, save me," 17:43 and there's no one around to save you, you know. 17:45 I've heard the man say you know, 17:47 if a straw floats by, you try to reach out 17:48 and get hold that straw. 17:50 You're looking for any kind of something to hang on to. 17:53 That's how critical that it is. 17:55 They cried out "Master, Master" and there was no reply. 17:59 There was no immediate response. 18:02 And what happens in your life and my life 18:04 when we come to that point that we cry out 18:06 and we expect Jesus immediately. 18:08 You know we have avoided Him for weeks. 18:10 We've not been going to church. 18:11 We've not been praying. 18:13 We've not been studying. 18:14 And all of a sudden a disaster happens 18:16 and all of a sudden, "God help me. 18:18 Master, Master save us." 18:21 Jesus could respond immediately if He wanted to. 18:24 But was there a lesson here to be learned? 18:27 He didn't respond to them immediately 18:29 as they cried out for help. 18:30 Nothing happened. 18:33 Here's what happens in your life 18:34 and my life and the disciples' life. 18:36 They cried out. 18:37 Nothing happened immediately 18:39 and there was two things that seized them. 18:42 There was fear and then there was doubt. 18:44 Both are of the devil. 18:47 Did you get that? 18:48 Both of those are the devil 18:49 but how often we're fearful and how often we doubt, 18:51 when things don't go our way 18:52 or it's not answered immediately the way we think it ought to be. 18:55 And let me say fear and doubt are--they're more like 18:59 little blood suckers, may I say that. 19:01 When they attach their self to you, 19:03 it's not they just pass by but doubt actually sinks its paws 19:07 into you and you cannot get them to release 19:10 until Jesus does the releasing. Why? 19:13 We've asked the devil to do it. 19:14 When we begin to doubt we give him opportunity to come in. 19:17 You think he's just gonna have a little child's hold on you? 19:19 No, he's not. He's gonna have the death grip 19:21 on you and me and only Jesus can release that. 19:25 Now just a quick question. 19:28 What brings doubt? 19:29 You say, well, I doubt it's-- listen, 19:30 what brings doubt in our Christian experience? 19:33 Oh, you might give a lot of answers. 19:35 Three words will simply do it. 19:37 What brings on doubt? 19:38 Separation from Christ. 19:42 Three things brings doubt, separation from Christ. 19:45 When we are connected to Christ or living for Him or studying, 19:47 reading or praying, we don't doubt. 19:50 Why did you doubt-- the disciples, you know, 19:51 Jesus said, why do you doubt, oh, ye of little faith? 19:54 They began to doubt. 19:55 Separation with Christ, see. 19:58 After all the disciples had just seen, 20:01 they had just been witnessing, 20:04 we're talking for a long period of time 20:06 and just in that day they had seen Jesus 20:08 heal all manner of diseases, everything that came to Him, 20:12 and regardless of what the disease was, 20:14 the person maybe had to be brought in on stretcher. 20:16 He's in the last minutes of his life. 20:18 Jesus touched him and restored him completely. 20:21 They'd saw Jesus do that. 20:23 They'd saw Him cast out demons. 20:25 They had seen Jesus raise the dead. 20:27 They had seen Jesus, as He touched people 20:30 it changed their heart and their life 20:32 and they were never the same again. 20:33 They had witnessed all of these miracles 20:35 and the power of Jesus Christ. 20:39 What was the problem now? 20:43 Was the storm too much for Him? 20:46 What was going on with nature, was it too much for Jesus? 20:49 We've seen all these things but He didn't answer me. 20:53 And, you know, a good thing for us today 20:55 is do what the disciples did. 20:56 You know what they did? They didn't give up. 20:58 Friend, don't give up. 20:59 You may have cried out to Jesus but, 21:01 you know, He didn't answer immediately, 21:03 but I'll tell you what, He was always there. 21:04 He never left you. 21:06 He never forsake-- he never left your side. 21:08 But what the disciples did was they cried out again. 21:12 They cried out again "Lord, Lord, 21:14 we're in panic mode right now. 21:17 We're panicking. 21:19 The boat's going down," and I can guarantee you, 21:21 if you were in that storm would be in a panic mode. 21:23 There would be no mumbling or no whispering. 21:25 Everybody would be top of their lungs, 21:28 "we need some help, save us." 21:29 And so they began to say, "Oh, Lord, save us. 21:31 We're going down. 21:33 We only have a few minutes left I'm sure." 21:36 Lightening flashed across the sky, 21:38 lit up the whole area there and for that one instance 21:41 as it lit up the area the disciples looked down 21:43 and there was Jesus fast asleep in the boat. 21:46 How could He sleep in the midst of a storm? 21:51 How could he sleep as it were--or not answer 21:54 me when I am in trouble? 21:55 That's what we say sometime. 21:57 Why didn't He hear me? 21:58 I've been crying out. 22:00 Jesus was asleep in the boat. 22:03 He was asleep. 22:05 The disciples thought for a split second, 22:06 He was asleep when I needed Him the most. 22:08 When I needed Him the most He wasn't there. 22:11 Sometime you've probably said that in your prayers, 22:14 "Lord when I needed you most where were you?" Wow. 22:17 Was He not always there? 22:20 They said "Lord, we need you now, not later." 22:24 Began to try to put demands maybe. 22:27 They screamed out again "Lord, we need you." 22:31 Lightning flashed out again across the sky. 22:34 And in the boat they saw--Jesus stood up. 22:36 They saw the face of Jesus, the face of love, 22:40 a face of calmness, a face of assurance 22:43 and assured them that He loved them with an everlasting love. 22:48 Probably for a split second 22:49 where they were little embarrassed, 22:51 all the screaming that was going on, 22:52 because they stood in the midst of the King of Kings. 22:55 And yet they had doubted that He even loved them. 23:00 Here's just a key thought. Please take this down. 23:02 Put it in your heart and your mind. 23:04 Never, never, keep this in mind, 23:07 never, never does a person cry out for Jesus 23:12 that it goes unanswered. 23:14 Did you get it? 23:16 Never time that a person cries out for Jesus, 23:18 does He not answer. 23:20 It may take a little while because God knows the best 23:23 for each and everyone of us, but God will answer. 23:27 That's reassuring to me. 23:31 How do I know? 23:32 Let's just share a couple of quick passages, shall we? 23:34 Isaiah 65: 24. I've always loved this because it says, 23:40 "before they call, I will answer." 23:44 Come on, some of you know about--what is it? 23:46 "Before they call, I will answer, 23:49 and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." 23:53 God says even before you call, what? 23:56 Because He knows you're going to call, 23:57 maybe five minutes later, maybe a day or two later 24:00 and God's already putting plans into work 24:03 to answer your prayer. 24:05 Before you call I know what's going on 24:06 and I'm in the process of answering it. 24:09 Jeremiah 33: 3 another one of my favorites as a little child. 24:12 We used to have a pastor that came--that came by 24:14 and I think this might have been his favorite passage too 24:17 because He always quoted it and I'm thankful. 24:19 Jeremiah 33: 3, "Call unto me, 24:23 and I will answer thee, and I will show thee 24:26 great and marvelous things, which thou knowest not." 24:29 Oh, friend, that's an awesome, awesome passage of Scripture. 24:35 Acts 2:21, "It shall come to pass, 24:37 that whosoever shall call on the name," what? 24:40 "Of the Lord shall be saved." 24:42 You notice what it's saying here? 24:44 Psalms 86: 5, just a few, come on. 24:46 "For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, 24:49 and plenteous," the Bible says what? 24:51 "In mercy to all of them that call upon Thee. 24:56 Psalms 86: 7, last one. 24:57 "In the day of my trouble," 24:59 listen, are you in the day of trouble right now? 25:01 Something going on. 25:02 You don't know, marriage, family, 25:04 children, job, what is it? 25:05 Loosing your home? 25:07 You can claim this. 25:08 "In the day of trouble I will call upon Thee, 25:11 for Thou wilt answer me." 25:13 You notice the faith that's involved 25:14 in that--in claiming that. 25:17 It says in the day that I have trouble I will call on You, 25:20 and hear what he says there. 25:21 And I know that you will answer me. 25:22 You're calling on Him but you're not sure. 25:24 Your faith is little. 25:25 Your faith is just not there where it needs to be. 25:28 How do you expect God to react? 25:31 When we think about it I look at these passage 25:33 in the Scripture and I see, call unto Me, 25:35 whosoever shall call, all that call upon Me, 25:38 I will call upon you. 25:40 You look at that. 25:41 Today Lord, help us. 25:43 Somebody call. 25:45 Did you get it? Somebody call--oh yeah. 25:47 All you have to do, if you're in some dire straits, 25:52 you know, maybe a spiritual battle that's going on. 25:54 It doesn't matter. Mental, physical spiritual, 25:55 it doesn't matter. It says, call and I will answer. 26:00 Somebody make that call right now. 26:02 Say Lord, I need some help, I'm going down. 26:06 I don't know how much longer I can take it. Why? 26:08 Because He has, we say, 24/7 answering service. 26:11 He will always be there, He will always answer, 26:13 He won't be like some of the persons you try to call 26:14 that you can't get somebody talk to. 26:17 He's always there for you. 26:20 Interesting how Jesus answered their cries. 26:24 They cried out for help, Jesus always hears that cry. 26:27 He stands up--and notice, He stands in the boat. 26:29 How He can stand up in the boat? 26:31 Oh, what's going on? 26:32 Only God knows. 26:34 He stood up and He raised up His hands and he said, 26:37 "Peace. Be still." 26:38 He spoke to nature. 26:40 He's a God of nature, isn't He? 26:42 He can speak to it and nature obeys Him. 26:44 The nature obeys Him. 26:46 When the animals went into the ark, 26:47 the animals obeyed Him. 26:49 Everything obeys Him except human beings. 26:52 Think about it. Sad, sad. 26:57 And He's given the intelligence that we can study the word 27:00 and we can balance it out and make decisions and choices. 27:05 He raised His hand, He says "peace. Be still." 27:07 The storm ceases how? Immediately. 27:10 Not next week, not an hour from now. 27:13 I hear people say-- we have storms today. 27:14 They say, let's get in there 27:16 where it's safe and let's wait it out. 27:17 It's going to be hours in passing by. 27:19 It didn't. When Jesus said stop, it stopped. 27:22 He is a Man of His word. 27:24 When He said stop it, it stopped. 27:25 I mean, it disappeared under that sheet of glass again. 27:27 All the boats have been tossed around. 27:29 Those who went out, 27:31 they're all in the big--it seemed 27:32 as though they all kind of cluttered together. 27:35 I wonder if there is a reason for that. 27:37 All the other boats had come around together here 27:39 because all of them had witnessed and seen 27:41 what Jesus had just said and done. 27:44 They had experienced the storm, the storms of life, 27:48 like you and I are going through. 27:49 They had--they all thought that they are going to die 27:53 in that storm but now all the boats close together 27:56 and seeing what Jesus had just done. 27:59 They witnessed the power of Jesus. 28:02 See that's what you need in your life, 28:03 my brothers and sisters, we need more power. 28:05 We're weak. We're vacillating. 28:07 Faith of a grain of a mustard seed, we don't even have that. 28:10 We're ready to give up. 28:12 We're ready to quit because someone 28:13 said something we didn't want to hear. 28:14 We don't go to church anymore 28:16 because somebody hurt our feelings. 28:17 Friend, we've got to be strong in Jesus Christ. 28:19 Those things are going to happen. 28:21 They are tests how much we love Jesus. 28:24 They just witnessed the power of our loving Savior. 28:28 And notice this, all fear was gone. 28:32 They saw Him work. 28:33 If you've been seeing Him in your heart and in your life, 28:35 there need not to be any fear. 28:37 1 John 4: 18 says, "There is no fear," what? Good. 28:41 "There is no fear in love, 28:43 but perfect love casteth out fear." 28:46 I'd love to put all in there. 28:47 I don't think my King James reads that way 28:49 but to me it's all fear. 28:51 Somebody stay with me. 28:52 But it goes on to say this, 28:54 "He that feareth is not made perfect in love." 29:00 So if you still have that fear, 29:02 if you're still fearful in a time when its just, 29:05 you're not sure what's going to take place, 29:06 what's going to happen, 29:08 it's because we have not let Jesus, 29:10 God of love inside of us 29:12 because it says if we still fear, 29:14 we've not been made perfect in love. 29:17 So we need some help, don't we? 29:19 Interesting. Jesus asked this question. 29:21 Now he said to the disciple, it is legitimate. 29:24 And I pose it to you and to myself today 29:26 as we go through the storms of life, 29:28 as we kind of get-- and all of a sudden things 29:30 begin to settle down. 29:31 And someone might look at us and say, 29:33 "Now why did we react that way?" 29:35 You have to ask yourself, why did you react this way? 29:37 After all you've been maybe on this planet for 20, 30, 40, 50, 29:42 maybe more, 60 years, 70, 80, 29:44 and has He ever let you down? No. 29:47 So why is it at this time that-- Jesus said to the disciples, 29:51 "Why, why are you afraid? 29:54 Why are you fearful?" 29:55 And Mark 4:40 it says, 29:58 "How is it that you have no faith?" 30:01 How is it that you have no faith? 30:04 It's a legitimate question. 30:05 We're challenged with that, because without faith 30:07 the Bible says what? 30:08 It's impossible to please God. 30:11 So He says, "Where is your faith?" 30:12 Storms come up, a test of faith and love for Jesus. 30:16 After all He was there, was He not? 30:20 But now, always kind of feeling good about 30:23 what just took place but now they're little fearful again. 30:27 See how the devil is trying to rob and trying to steal? 30:29 The way that their prayer was answered concerned them. 30:35 I don't know if you've ever been there or not. 30:37 We need to think about this, because sometime our prayers 30:40 are answered and it's not exactly 30:42 they way we--that we ask for. Praise God. 30:44 We're asking for a mess sometime, aren't we? 30:46 We think it ought to be this way. 30:48 God knows what's best. 30:49 But we begin to complain because it wasn't answered 30:52 the way we wanted to. 30:53 Just what the disciple said. 30:56 Did you get that? 30:58 There is what they said. 30:59 Now they said in Mark 4:41--I mentioned 31:02 I think it was Mark 4:40 and now it's Mark 4:41. 31:05 Now they said, "What manner of man is this, 31:10 that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" 31:13 Now they began-- instead of saying, "praise God," 31:16 even though they didn't understand, at least it ceased. 31:19 Who did this? What's going on? 31:20 They said, "What kind of a man is this, 31:23 even the sea and the wind obey Him" 31:25 It wasn't the way they expected it to take place. 31:28 Interesting. Psalm 89:7 says this, listen carefully. 31:33 It says, "God is greatly to be feared." 31:37 So even in their turmoil and they didn't understand 31:40 what kind of a man He was, 31:42 friend, let me tell you He's God. 31:45 God can do it the way He wants to do it. 31:47 He knows what's best. 31:50 "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints," 31:54 I'm afraid many times God is not feared 31:57 in the assembly of the saints. 31:59 And the Bible goes on to say, 32:01 "And to be had in reverence of all them that are about him." 32:06 Do you see that in your church? 32:07 Do you see that in your local church? 32:09 Do you see in the church that you go to? 32:11 He said He is greatly to be feared in the assembly, 32:14 when the saints assemble in the church. 32:17 They come into the church and they think 32:19 they're having a social-- 32:22 but now they're talking about everything except, what? 32:24 The things of God. 32:26 Is He greatly to be feared? 32:27 No, you've completely rooted Him out 32:30 and thrown Him out of the sanctuary 32:31 because of the worldly chatter and the talk. 32:36 Laughing, carrying on. 32:39 The Bible says, "He is greatly to be feared." 32:41 Now let's hear the whole conclusion. 32:44 Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, 32:45 "Let us hear the conclusion of," what? 32:48 "The whole matter. 32:49 Fear God and keep His commandments." 32:52 Fear God, love Him, respect Him, 32:54 honor Him, obey Him and keep His commandments. 32:57 That's talking about law. 32:58 It's talking about something that's divine. 33:00 It's talking about His ordnances. 33:01 It's talking about His precepts here. 33:04 This is the whole duty of man. 33:06 People have the audacity to say, yeah, 33:07 but no, that's not what it means. 33:08 That's exactly what it means. 33:11 The whole duty of man, that means, 33:13 that's all the duty of man, 33:15 all manner of what man is all about. 33:17 It's everything that has to do-- it's complete and it what? 33:20 It makes you perfect in Christ Jesus. 33:23 Wow, so how are we gonna throw that out? 33:26 We dare not. 33:27 See what did the disciples now see in the face of Jesus? 33:32 In the midst of the storm what did they see? 33:33 They saw love. 33:35 People need to see love in your face, too. 33:38 They need to see something different 33:39 than what goes on in the world today. 33:41 They're looking for comfort. 33:42 They're looking for encouragement. 33:43 If you have the same look and the same desire, 33:45 the same kind of talk and act the same way 33:47 you're not gonna be any help to them. 33:49 He saw love. 33:50 He saw His Father's love in Him. 33:52 1 John 4:16 says, "God is love." 33:55 Get this straight, quickly. 33:56 The Bible said God is love. 33:58 It makes sense then. 34:00 "And He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, 34:04 and God in him." 34:06 Keep that in your mind. 34:07 So it says God is what? Love. 34:09 And if God's dwelling in you, right? 34:11 We're to dwell in Him, He's to dwell in us. 34:14 We have this relationship together here. 34:16 And then it says in 1 John 4:19, 34:19 "We love Him because He," what? 34:21 "Because He first loved us." 34:23 We're returning-- He first loved me. 34:26 He came to seek and save that which was lost. 34:29 See, it's easy to say--a lot of time you hear people say, 34:30 you know, "Well, you know, we love God. 34:33 Oh, we love God with all of our heart." 34:34 Where is the proof? 34:37 Think about it. Where is the proof? 34:38 Anybody can say that. 34:41 Anybody can say anything. 34:42 But do you love God? 34:44 Here's what Bible makes it clear for us. 34:46 1 John 5:2, it reads like this, 34:48 "By this we know that we love the children of God," 34:52 we love God's children. 34:53 We love our fellowman. How? 34:55 "When we love God, and keep His commandments." 34:59 There's proof. If you don't love 35:01 your fellowman you don't love God. 35:03 There's some trouble here. 35:04 We don't have the love of God in us. 35:07 Now let me answer this. 35:08 Let me ask you this question. 35:10 What is the love of God? 35:12 I hear people sing about it. 35:13 I hear people talk about it all the time, 35:16 because I hear people say things like this 35:18 and talking about the love of God. 35:19 Some say, "Oh, I'm living in the love of God." 35:23 That's good. And then they'll say, 35:25 "Boy, I'm walking in the love of God. 35:27 I'm working in the love of God. 35:29 I'm singing in the love of God. 35:31 I'm sinking in the love of God. 35:33 I'm gaining victories in the love of God." 35:34 There's nothing wrong with that, 35:36 but that's as far as it goes for them. 35:38 It's a talk, we're living, we're walking in the love 35:42 and we need to for-- why? 35:44 The Bible says in 1 John 5:3, "For this is the love of God," 35:48 You're walking in love, you're preaching in love, 35:50 you're teaching in love, this is the love of God. 35:53 The Bible says, "That we keep His commandments 35:55 and His commandments are not grievous." 35:57 Wow, interesting. 36:00 They're not grievous. 36:02 It's not bondage. 36:03 It's a freedom there. 36:05 It's not weighty. 36:07 It's not burdensome. 36:08 It doesn't tear you down. 36:09 It's not heavy. 36:11 So let's put it in a nutshell. 36:12 If we love God then this is our whole duty. 36:14 It's what the Bible just said, isn't it? 36:16 We simply keep His commandments, 36:18 because God is love, and what? 36:20 And He dwells in us. 36:21 We return His love, because He first what? 36:24 Loved us. And then when that happens, 36:26 we bear witness to the fact that we love Him 36:29 and we love our fellowman, that we keep His commandments. 36:33 If you love God, you love your fellowman 36:35 then we'll be willing by God's grace to keep His commandments. 36:38 The Bible said, "This is the love of God for us." 36:42 And then if we go on it really gets pretty difficult for some. 36:46 1 John 2:4 tells us, "He that saith, 36:49 I knoweth Him, and keepeth not His commandments, 36:51 is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 36:54 You say you walk in love and everything's all about love, 36:57 then you're gonna keep His commandments. 36:58 That's what the Bible says. 37:00 You can't throw these things out. 37:01 You may want to but you can't do it 37:03 if you are an honest seeker of truth. 37:05 So what happens even to the liars? 37:06 It says, if somebody stops telling the truth, 37:08 says, 37:10 "For without--those outside the walls are dogs." 37:14 Now what does that mean? 37:16 Dogs, the shameless. 37:19 You know dog doesn't have any-- they say any caution. 37:21 Dog goes down, take care of business, 37:22 do whatever he needs to do, he don't care if people are around. 37:24 Outside the dog it says, Philippians 3:2 it says, 37:28 tell us, "That beware of dogs." What? 37:31 Beware of evil workers. 37:33 And then it goes on to say, sorcerers, 37:35 that dealing with magic. 37:36 Come on, let's quickly do it. 37:37 Magic, it produces a non reality condition 37:43 or spiritism or spiritualism here that outside the walls 37:46 we need to be careful with this. 37:48 Bible says, outside the walls are whoremongers. 37:50 That's people, listen to me carefully, 37:51 that's people who sell their bodies. 37:53 Don't you realize your body is important? 37:54 It's supposed to be the temple of God. 37:56 But people, they are selling their bodies 37:58 because they think they have no other way out. 38:00 There's nothing else they can do. 38:01 They need to eat, they have no clothing, 38:03 they have no place to stay and they sell themselves. 38:05 But, friend, you don't have to do that. 38:07 It can stop today. 38:08 You make a commitment to Jesus Christ, 38:10 you call upon Him and say, oh, Lord save me, 38:11 I'm going to perish but I'm not gonna do this to my body. 38:14 It's to be the temple of God. 38:16 You know what? God's gonna bless you. 38:17 He's gonna put your feet on solid ground. 38:19 You're gonna gain a victory 38:20 that maybe you never had in your life before, 38:22 but you have to purpose in your heart, 38:23 that's the last time, no more. 38:25 My body is the temple. 38:26 Because outside the wall it says, 38:28 those who sell their bodies, 38:29 oh, don't do that, my friend. 38:31 You don't have to. That God hears you. 38:32 He wants to do something good for you. 38:35 I thought how interesting this is as we look, whoremongers. 38:38 It said murderers are outside the wall. 38:40 They're talking about people 38:41 who is intentionally murdering. 38:43 Not that you can't get forgiveness of all these things. 38:46 Praise God for His grace, praise God 38:48 for the blood, flows so freely. 38:49 It's so powerful. 38:51 But, you know, we're talking about-- 38:52 it said there's idolaters outside. 38:54 Are you an idolater today? 38:55 Are you an image worshipper today? 38:57 Are you bowing down in front of some dead image 38:59 made of glass or silver or wood or whatever it might be? 39:03 God said they're outside the walls. 39:04 Please pay attention to the Scriptures. 39:07 Anything that's put before God becomes your idol. 39:11 They're outside the wall. 39:12 You put anything before God today, 39:14 it can be husband, it can be wife, 39:15 it can be family, it can be children, 39:16 it can be your job, it can be anything, 39:18 before God, here's the bottom line, Bible said, 39:19 "Whosoever loveth and maketh a lie is outside." 39:24 Isn't that interesting? 39:26 But then the Bible goes on to say in the last chapter, 39:28 Revelation 22:14, "Blessed are they 39:31 that do His commandments so they may have a right 39:33 to the tree of life, and enter into the gates of the city." 39:36 My friend, who is going to enter into the gates of the city? 39:39 Those that keep His commandments, 39:41 not commandment breaker. 39:42 It's very clear. 39:44 You can't erase that. You can't take it out. 39:45 You can't wad it up, tear it, 39:46 throw it in the trash, the Bible has said. 39:49 I challenge you with that today. 39:50 Deal with these issues. 39:52 Deal with these Scriptures. 39:53 How are we gonna deal with them? 39:55 You say well, nine's better enough. 39:56 No, it's not. 39:59 James 2:10 talks about if you break one, you're guilty of all. 40:03 We need to-- I wonder how often-- 40:05 as we look at this story how often our own life 40:08 and our own experiences so clearly resemble that 40:12 of what the disciples just went through. How often? 40:18 It's like when we were going through the storm. 40:19 It's like--you know, Isaiah 57:20-21 says, 40:23 "The wicked are like the troubled sea." 40:25 The wicked are what? 40:27 The wicked people are not giving their life to Jesus. 40:29 There's turmoil around them all the time. 40:33 There's never peace. 40:35 They get out of one mess just to get into another mess 40:38 and another mess is waiting for them down there. 40:39 Why? Because they don't have Jesus to straighten it out. 40:42 "The wicked are like the troubled sea," 40:44 the Bible says, "when it cannot rest." 40:47 It says, "there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." 40:52 Interesting. Sin. 40:54 Yow know why he's talking about sin and separating? 40:56 There's no peace if there's sin in life. 40:58 We can call, jealousy and pride and gossip 41:01 and back biting and self serving, 41:04 all these things, there's no peace to people. 41:07 They have this, you know, this mindset. 41:09 They can't find any rest 41:10 and they're busy tearing other people 41:12 and other things apart all the time. 41:13 The Bible says there is no-- there is no rest for them. 41:17 Sin has destroyed our peace. 41:20 Sin has destroyed our peace in this world today. 41:22 It doesn't happen to you as a child of God, 41:24 but the world we see that's in turmoil right now. 41:26 But I can say this while self sits on the throne. 41:30 If you not ask God to take self out of your life. 41:33 As self sits upon the throne you'll find no rest, 41:36 because there's no human power, 41:40 no human power that can change the heart. 41:44 You see, only by God's grace. 41:47 No human power can change this heart and this mind of mine. 41:50 It takes out something outside of that. 41:52 It takes the power of the living God to come here 41:54 and change us by His grace. 41:56 We are as helpless as the disciples in that boat 41:59 in the midst of the storm that we are in of life. 42:02 And our cry must be today, don't be embarrassed, 42:04 don't be ashamed about it. 42:05 There's some of your husbands, 42:07 you know, on your recliner over their 42:08 and you're trying to play the man of man 42:10 that you don't need God 42:11 and your wife's trying to go to church, 42:12 trying to raise the children and you're trying to be a man 42:14 and say you don't need God. 42:16 You need God. 42:17 The man of man's cry, Jesus, the man of man. 42:20 He needed His heavenly Father. 42:22 He put the heavenly Father inside of Him. 42:23 We need to what? Accept Him. 42:25 Lord, save us or we perish. We find help through Him. 42:31 And I love Romans 5:1, being justified by what? 42:34 "By faith we have peace with God 42:37 through our Lord Jesus Christ." 42:38 Disciples feeling good now. 42:40 Man, this is wonderful, they're saying. 42:41 Well, look what we did. 42:43 Peace, be still, everything's calm and we are still alive. 42:45 Praise God, we're still here. 42:48 Man, what a calming effect it had upon their nerves 42:51 which were just at wits' end, 42:52 be ready to, you know, like snap. 42:54 And now they view things in a little different light. 42:57 The victory at sea, victory against the old enemy. 43:00 All of a sudden their faces boistered up again 43:02 and they feel like, oh, boy, we can take anything now. 43:05 Bring it on. Oh, they felt good about it. 43:08 By first light, you know, as they landed, 43:10 they went back to the other shore 43:12 and they landed on there, 43:14 got out of the boat, they were feeling good. 43:15 This is wonderful. 43:17 Boy, I tell you, Jesus, He's good. He's in control. 43:19 But since that boat landed on the shore what happened? 43:23 In Mathew 8, you go and read on down starting with verse 28. 43:26 We won't have time to do that but you'll see what happens. 43:29 They landed on there, there come two men possessed with demons. 43:34 Wow, what an interesting thing. 43:37 They'd just been through all this good stuff. 43:39 Now we have two demons going on 43:41 and they were going to tear everyone into pieces. 43:44 Isn't that kind of interesting? 43:46 Anytime you've had an experience with Jesus Christ 43:48 the devil tries to steal that from you. 43:50 You go to church, you have a blessed time. 43:52 Before you get out, the phone rings. 43:53 Somebody is upset, somebody is mad about something. 43:55 You go to camp meeting. 43:56 You can't even get home with the blessing 43:58 because the devil is determined to steal every blessing 44:00 that God gives you. 44:01 You don't have to let him take those. 44:03 We end up giving it to him. Then that devil comes again. 44:06 He said, I can't stand to see 44:08 disciples doing what they doing right now. 44:09 I can't stand it. 44:11 We've got to steal that blessing from them. 44:14 Boy, what do you think he did? 44:17 He came to do exactly what he's always done. 44:19 You remember in John 10:10, the thief cometh not to what? 44:22 Come on, kill, steal and to destroy what? 44:25 To steal--to steal the blessings that God gives to us. 44:29 He comes to kill or take possession of 44:31 or if he can't he physically will try to kill you, 44:34 to destroy, at least to destroy, 44:36 if he can't completely get rid of you, 44:38 to destroy your faith in Jesus Christ. 44:40 The devil never sleeps, dear friend. 44:42 He doesn't wants you to have that blessed assurance. 44:43 He doesn't wants you to have that blessing 44:45 that God sends your way that He wants you to have today. 44:49 Here they just experienced this great victory on the lake. 44:52 What did disciples do? 44:54 Here come these two demons, hair all matted together, 44:58 foaming at the mouth and screaming and big old chains 45:00 hanging down all over from right there. 45:02 You think they weren't powerful individuals 45:04 that were filled with the demons of hell. 45:05 Who's gonna tear those things out of the wall? 45:07 Who's gonna rip metal or steel or chain 45:09 whatever they were chained with out? 45:11 An ordinary man couldn't do that. 45:12 They were cutting themselves, blood everywhere. 45:16 And the eyes of demon they were coming at disciples, 45:18 they were going to kill them. 45:19 What did the disciples do? 45:20 Did they stand fast and say, we serve a risen Savior? 45:24 No. They turned tail and ran. 45:27 That scared them to death. 45:28 They began to run again. 45:30 And all of a sudden, you know, as they were running fast 45:32 as they could go, they're going down the road, 45:34 all of a sudden they said, "Where's Jesus again?" 45:39 They stopped and they looked around 45:41 to see where Jesus was at. 45:42 Jesus was standing fast. 45:45 He never moved a muscle 45:46 as it were when the enemy approached Him 45:48 through these demons. 45:50 You've never seen and never will see Jesus 45:52 back up against the enemy. 45:54 He always goes forward and takes care of business. 45:56 Not the disciples, they turned tail and they began to run. 46:00 Wow. They though that was their only escape. 46:05 Jesus who just stilled the storm 46:09 met Satan out there in the waters 46:11 as it was and He defeated him, cast out demons. 46:17 Here they came with everything they had, 46:19 the demons of hell against the Savior. 46:22 Where's Jesus? There He stands. 46:26 Here come those demons. 46:28 They look around and all the others had fled. 46:30 So here's Jesus standing by the self and the demon says, 46:32 let's get Him now. 46:34 We can take Him. 46:35 They begin to rush at Jesus, 46:37 gnashing their teeth and their eyes-- 46:39 it's all about the devil. Fearful. 46:42 Oh, Jesus stood His ground. He never backed up a step. 46:45 He looked at them, He raised His hand. 46:47 You know what Jesus--and they halted in their step. 46:50 their stride. They could come no closer to Him. 46:54 They were still screaming and raging like the devil does now. 46:57 When he can't just get to you when he wants to get to you 47:00 he stands there and he screams and he puts up smoke screens 47:03 and he makes threats as it were through other people, 47:05 but he really can't go any farther than doing that 47:07 but that's enough sometimes to defeat us. 47:11 Jesus stopped them in their track. 47:13 They stood helpless as babies before Jesus. Praise God. 47:19 You know and God in His great mercy-- 47:20 you know what, Jesus in His mercy, 47:23 He called out those unclean spirits. 47:26 They'd taken control of these two men here. 47:30 And you know what, they-- 47:32 listen, even the demons of hell recognize Jesus. 47:34 In the world today, many people don't even recognize Jesus. 47:37 They don't know who He is. 47:38 The demons recognized who Jesus is, 47:40 because they've been beaten by Him every time they confronted. 47:42 Jesus beat them every time. 47:44 And so we see the demon-- and what they said, 47:47 "Oh, have mercy on us. 47:49 I besiege Thee, don't torment us." 47:52 Jesus asked him, he said, "What's your name?" 47:55 And they answered that we are legion for we are many. 47:58 Remember a legion in the Roman army was 23,000 and 5,000 men. 48:04 That's an awesome thought, think about that. 48:08 The devil was using these two men as mediums 48:11 in which to communicate and do his dirty work. 48:14 This is what the enemy does. 48:15 He uses you till there's nothing left to use up 48:18 and then he tries to destroy you in your sin. 48:22 As those demons came out they said, 48:23 you know, may we enter-- 48:26 the demons of hell still had to ask Jesus, 48:29 when they got cast out, where can we go? 48:31 You give us permission. 48:32 And he says, "Can we go into the swine? 48:34 Can we go to the swine?" Jesus gave them, "yeah." 48:38 They realized as they went into the swine, what happened? 48:41 All the swine, the herd that were on the mountain side, 48:43 you have the people that watched over them, 48:46 the caretakers and so on, 48:47 but as demons went into the herd, what happened? 48:49 They ran over the mountain side and all the swine was killed. 48:53 Wow, they all fell to their death. 48:56 But see, I sense this, the Jesus in His mercy 48:58 preserved those who were watching over the swine. 49:01 So that they can see this lesson, 49:02 get an opportunity to come to Him before it was too late. 49:07 Jesus wants to point out that they need to be seeking Him 49:09 instead of the earthly things but they were mad. 49:12 They lost their patience with Him. 49:14 They lost their material things and their eyes were blinded 49:17 to spiritual things and the mercy of God. 49:20 Friends, you realize that today in such a short time 49:22 when Jesus had operated with the power, 49:24 who He really was, and the storm and casting out the demons and-- 49:28 you don't realize the demons that he cast out 49:30 became His missionaries. 49:31 They sat at the feet of Jesus. 49:33 When He does something He does it right. 49:34 Let Him do it in your life, 49:36 let Him do it in mine to completion. 49:38 Jesus tried to reach someone. 49:40 Now I want to think about the purpose quickly here, 49:42 I just have a few minutes left. 49:44 Purpose of Satan going into the swine, 49:45 this is really important. 49:46 People say, why Jesus gave permission to go into the swine? 49:49 The devil had a plan, Jesus understood the devil had a plan. 49:52 Here's the plan of the enemy. 49:54 The enemy said, you know, I am--'cause they asked Him, 49:56 "Can we go into the swine?" 49:57 Jesus said, "Yes, you can." 49:59 Because the herd of swine ran over what, 50:02 the cliff and they were killed. 50:03 So what happened? The owners lost the herd. 50:06 The enemy knew that the owners probably 50:09 would be upset about it. 50:10 They lost their money 50:11 and then the devil knew that Jesus would be blamed for it 50:14 because they've seen this miracle take place. 50:17 Cast the demons out and they went into the swine. 50:19 Number two, people would not listen to Him anymore. 50:22 In other words, after this happen 50:24 the people is not gonna listen to Jesus anymore, 50:25 so devil said, oh, this is good. 50:27 Destroy the swine, nobody is gonna listen to Jesus anymore. 50:30 And the number three, they would end up asking Jesus to leave. 50:33 Mathew 8:34, don't forget that. 50:35 They besought Him that he should depart. 50:38 That means they entreated Him, they ordered Him, 50:40 they commanded Jesus to get out after the swine was killed. 50:44 What was the purpose of Christ, 50:46 quickly, in allowing those demons to go into the swine? 50:50 Jesus allowed the demons to go into the herd of swine, 50:53 we're talking about the unclean, isn't that right? 50:55 Jesus knew they were unclean. 50:56 Jesus said don't touch the swine's flesh. 50:58 It's an abomination. It's not any good. 51:00 The Old Testament, New Testament, 51:01 just alike, you need to really study this. 51:03 He did it as a direct review to the Jews 51:06 who were raising swine unclean for selling them. 51:09 Friend, don't try to raise something that, 51:11 you know, you won't eat yourself 51:13 and then you try to give it to somebody else. 51:15 Two, Jesus preserved the keepers and the owners of the swine 51:19 from being swept over by the demon 51:21 so that they could see the power of Jesus Christ. 51:24 That those who witness-- number three, witness, 51:27 so that the people could see the cruel power of the devil 51:31 not only on human beings but on animals. 51:34 Number four, Jesus wants men to have knowledge of the enemy, 51:38 'cause we're all gonna have to meet Him head on. 51:40 Remember that, so that we're not deceived, 51:43 so that we're not overcome. 51:46 Five, Jesus wanted the people to see 51:48 the power that the Father had given to Him over the enemy, 51:52 as the storm, as He set the captives free, dear friends. 51:55 These demon possessed men, again as I mentioned before, 51:58 they became His evangelists, they became His missionaries. 52:01 They threw Jesus out but those two men 52:03 stayed to do the work that Jesus came there to do. 52:05 How interesting. Stabilize. 52:08 Friend, how are you today in your walk with Him? 52:10 We won't read it, but 1 John 1:1-3, 52:14 read that because in it, it says this, 52:16 "We are His witnesses." 52:19 So we are to witness for Him. 52:21 We are to go far and wide to tell what we know about Him, 52:25 the things that we have seen, the things that we have heard, 52:29 the things that we have felt, 52:30 how He's lead us in our Christian life, 52:32 step by step by step if you count it, 52:34 you can see how God has been leading you. 52:37 You can see that His promises are true 52:39 when you by faith grasp a hold of Him. 52:42 You see that the Jesus is answering your prayer. 52:44 We've experienced the grace in His life. 52:47 It's changed us, right. 52:49 We've experienced Him right in our heart and our mind. 52:51 We're no longer the same anymore. 52:53 We're no longer like we used to be, 52:55 but old things become new. 52:57 But you know when that change took place? 52:58 The change took place the day that we cried out, 53:01 Lord, save us or we perish. 53:03 Is there somebody today who's gonna cry out? 53:06 Lord, today is the day. Save us or we perish. 53:08 There's no place for me to go. 53:10 I've tried everything, nothing works. 53:12 And now we're at the bottom, we're at the end. 53:14 We're dying. We're saying, Lord, save us. 53:15 He will hear you if it comes from a real heart, 53:18 contrite heart, a heart that's been to Calvary. 53:21 Oh, He wants to answer your prayer today. 53:23 Your life will change when you cry out, 53:25 God, save us or we perish. 53:28 There may be some today, 53:30 before we have our closing prayer 53:31 and I want to encourage you to do that right now. 53:33 You can send a card or a letter, we can pray for you. 53:35 You can make a phone call 53:37 or you can get on your own knees right now, 53:40 right now as you listen 53:41 and ask God to come into your heart. 53:43 Ask Jesus to come into your heart, 53:44 into your life, take control. 53:46 You know, do for those things that you can't do, 53:50 create in you a clean heart, a new mind, right spirit 53:53 and He's going to do that. 53:55 All those things will disappear and behold, 53:58 all things will become new 53:59 if you make Him Lord, master of your life. 54:01 Why not do that today as we pray? 54:04 But we want to hear about how-- 54:05 what God's done in your life to bring you closer to Him, 54:08 but let's pray about it right now. 54:09 Let's confirm it, shall we 54:10 as we do this in prayer? Let's pray. 54:12 Father in heaven, we thank you for Your precious Word today. 54:15 We thank you for reminding us that you are God. 54:17 You do things the way they need to be done. 54:19 We just need to be crying out. 54:21 Oh, Lord, help us not to come to that point 54:23 where there's nothing else left to do, 54:25 but the very first thing we need to do is to cry out to you. 54:28 Lord, save us or we perish. 54:30 Bless us now we pray 54:31 and those who have made that decision right now 54:33 as they turn their life over to You 54:35 and I thank you for hearing and answering prayer. 54:36 In Jesus' name. Amen. 54:40 So those of you, who've made that decision, 54:41 praise God for that. 54:43 You know we appreciate the opportunity and privilege 54:45 to come into your home. 54:47 We think it's an awesome thing that God is doing 54:49 so we'll be able to talk to you and you can talk to us. 54:51 Pray for us here that God will continue 54:53 to help and to bless us as we move forward 54:55 and other opportunities as we might be able 54:57 to reach out, you know, for other people 54:59 and touch their lives for Him. 55:01 And, you know, we survive here and we do programming, 55:03 what, just by your love gifts that you send to us. 55:06 That's our only means of support. 55:08 And we thank you for what you're doing. 55:10 Many people, you see, are praying. 55:12 We hear it all the time, we're praying, 55:13 we're praying and they give. 55:15 We praise God for that. 55:16 Don't forget, you know, the station 55:18 that brings this to you. 55:19 You know without 3ABN and going worldwide, 55:21 you know, these programs wouldn't be on the air. 55:23 So continue, pray everyday. 55:25 Right, pray one for another 55:26 and remember do it before it's too late. 55:28 Cry out, God, save us or we perish. 55:32 Until next time, see you then. 55:37 Hello and welcome back, friends. 55:39 Isn't the Lord good? 55:41 There are so many precious gems to be found in His Word. 55:45 As Pastor Kenny was presenting this message, 55:47 these gems or lessons 55:49 seem so evident, clear and encouraging, 55:52 yet not until I listened to this message 55:54 did all these principles come together for me. 55:57 The Holy Spirit was speaking to my heart, 56:00 as I pray He did to yours as well. 56:02 Christ's ways are not always what we expect them to be. 56:06 They're just not always what we think that they should be. 56:10 This is where our faith 56:12 and our trust in Him must come into play. 56:15 We must believe that the path that He is leading us on 56:17 is the path that He has chosen 56:22 to be the best for our salvation. 56:25 And of course he will only lead us as we allow Him to do so. 56:29 Friends, remember we see through the glass of life darkly 56:34 but Christ sees it very clearly 56:36 what must take place in our lives to clean us up 56:40 and to prepare us for a life 56:41 with Him in the heavenly kingdom some day. 56:44 I desire to be there and I hope that, 56:46 that is your desire as well. 56:48 You know I told you in the beginning 56:50 that this would be a message 56:52 that you would want to listen to more than once. 56:54 Therefore we're making this, copy of this message 56:58 that is entitled "Lord, save us or we perish" 57:01 available to you for a love gift of just $8 or more. 57:05 And remember, as always your generous support 57:08 of this work enables us to continue working together 57:12 with you and sharing these timely messages as God sees fit. 57:16 And if you are interested 57:18 in obtaining several copies of this message at once 57:21 call in and ask us about our special sharing price. 57:24 Our phone number here in the United States 57:27 is area code 618-942-5044, Central Standard Time 57:33 or you may write us at Behold the Lamb Ministries, 57:36 PO Box 2030, Herrin, IL 62948. 57:42 Email us at behold thelambministries@yahoo.com 57:46 or as always you may also order this message on our website 57:50 at www.behold thelambministries.com. 57:55 Until next time, friends, may our precious Lord 57:58 continue to richly bless you and yours. |
Revised 2014-12-17