Please turn with me now in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 4. Mark's Gospel, Chapter 4. We read from verse 35 to the end of the chapter. And the same day, when the even was come, Jesus saith unto them, 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 was in the hinder part or 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 rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, why are you 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? Let's bow, please, in prayer. Our loving and gracious Father, as we continue in this time of worship, in this time of praise, in this time, O God, where we have determined to meet with Thee, and we stand upon the promise that if two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And so, Father, today we pray that there will be a word for every one of us. Don't leave anyone out today. Father, undoubtedly there are some here without Christ who are listening online. Please, Lord, speak to their hearts and bring them to salvation. And yet, Lord, the focus of our message today is for those who are Christians, believers, those who have been born again. And I pray that there would be help for each one and that we would be strengthened with might in the inner man. Lord, teach us what it means to die unto ourselves daily, that we might live unto Christ. So take this word now today and use it in every life. Lord, I need help this morning. I need to know the infilling of the Spirit of God, power from heaven, to speak the Word of God faithfully, to speak it plainly. Lord, we pray the Holy Spirit will apply the truth to our hearts this morning. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. The entire portion we have read today is the text for our message this morning, and I have entitled it this, Will This Storm capsize your life. Will this storm capsize your life? We could say a beautiful body of water lies about 80 miles north of Jerusalem. It is known by several names in the Bible. The Sea of Kinneroth, the Lake of Gennesaret or Tiberias, but we probably best know it as the Sea of Galilee. It's actually not a sea in the strict definition for a couple of reasons. It's not really that big, and it's not salt water. It is a freshwater lake through which the River Jordan flows, entering in the top and exiting the bottom, heading down to the Dead Sea. It's about 15 miles long and six wide, It is at the bottom of a very deep valley, 652 feet below sea level, that is below the Mediterranean Sea. And because of that, it has very hot temperatures. And rising sharply from the sides of the lake are the hills that surround it. And therefore, what happens in many cases There are currents of air that rise because of the heat at the lower level, and they meet the colder air that comes down from the sharp hills. And when those two forces meet, why it causes strong winds. And so that the unexpected nature of storms that rise on the Sea of Galilee are quite common. The Sea of Galilee has a surrounding country where the center of much of the Lord's ministry was. You think of Capernaum and Tiberias, Bethsaida, and the country of the Gergesenes. These were all on the shores and around the neighborhood of the lake in the Sea of Galilee. The Lord Jesus walked on the Sea of Galilee. He appeared to his disciples there after he had risen from the dead. It was on the banks of the sea of the Lake of Galilee that Peter and Andrew and James and John were called by the Lord into his service. And from it, Jesus commanded his disciples to get that miraculous draft of fishes that nearly broke their nets. On the shore of the same Sea of Galilee, He healed the devil-possessed man. And on that same sea is where 2,000 pigs were drowned in the lake. Those disciples who were fishermen, while they knew this body of water extremely well, perhaps like the back of their hand or the back of their paddle, they knew it well. It was therefore no strange thing for them when the Lord said and told them to come into the boat and cross to the other side. But it had been a very exhausting day of ministry and of teaching for the Lord, most draining. He had been contending for the truth against the skeptics, against those that claimed to be the followers of Christ. He had been teaching, helping, ministering, healing, and the Lord was at this time extremely weak in body. The Lord then said the same day that was even, He said, let us pass over to the other side. It's not unreasonable to say, I believe, that Jesus was so weary after the end of the exhausting time that he either had to be helped or carried into that boat. Look at the words of verse 36 again carefully. It says, and when they had sent away the multitude, notice they, the disciples sent them away, not the Lord, that they took him, Jesus, and this phrase, even as he was. in the ship, even as he was exhausted, drained, weak, weary. That speaks to us so clearly of the humanness of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not part of the Lord's character that we exalt or recognize that often. We speak so often about His deity and His almighty power, but when we think about the humanity of Christ, that's something that you and I have a connection with, because He is a man touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He is one who knew what it was to be drained from work. He knew what it was as one to be worn down in weariness because of the abuse of those that came against Him. And He knew what it was to bear upon His own shoulders as the Son of God, the Son of Man, unbelief by those who were the closest to Him, around Him. The Lord Jesus knew all of those things. And yet, when it comes to what he requested of them at the end of their hard day's work, let's get in the boat and go to the other side of the lake. It was a simple request, really. It was a very common request, as they spent so much time in that area. It was a request that would not cause alarm to anyone, and certainly not those who were experienced fishermen on the lake. But this time, This time would entail circumstances that pushed these disciples to the point of despair, to the point of the despair of the very life that they believed was held in the hand of the God and the Master that they were serving. I wonder, friend, today, are you here in this service? Is this describing something of your life? Something of where you are just now? Not long after they set sail, the Lord fell asleep. It was likely in a cabin or some kind of sheltered place from the wind and the water as he was asleep on a pillow. But we are told that a great storm of wind arose. The word great here is the word magos. The word storm of wind is a word that means whirlwind. So it was something of great intensity that arose, and it appears from all accounts that this was heightened from what they had normally been used to, heightened to such a degree that, well, the waves now crashed into the boat, and it was now full of water. The disciples would have been bailing frantically, If you're not a boatsman, yet still you likely know that the term bailing is to describe the process of getting water out of the boat that should not be in the boat. But they could not keep up with the water that was coming in. There's a quaint saying that goes like this, boat in water, good. Water in boat, not good. And that's where these men were at this time. Surely after their desperate attempts to overcome the storm in the water, because they would have tried to do this before disturbing the Lord, but they came to Him. And notice what they did not say to the Lord here. They did not say, by the way, Master, we have a little breeze here that may delay our soggy arrival on the other side. But not to worry, we have faith and trust in your almighty power, so please just go back to sleep and be no concern." That's not what they did. No, that is not how it was. And when they cry to the Savior, questioning His due diligence for their safety, for their well-being. Do you not care that we are going to die, is what they said to him. Are you so oblivious to what's going on in my life, in our lives, that we are right on the edge, we are right on the verge, and we are going to drown, and it's all over. Lord, do you know about this? Lord, are you caring about this right now? Do you see what we are seeing? So the Lord got up, and with a quiet and yet a confident and almighty authority, He rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And the word great is the same word, magos, that's used for the great wind and the great storm. And yet the Lord brought a great calm in light of that. The Lord then asked what some would say would be a redundant question. He said, why are you so fearful? What do you mean, Lord, why are we so fearful? Is that not kind of obvious? Why are we fearful? because of all that's going on around us. But then the Lord added that second part to his question. Why are you so fearful? How is it? How is it that you have no faith? That's at the crux of the problem. That's at the very problem here. And so, friends, we ask ourselves the question, is it this storm that's going to capsize our lives? Is it this storm that you are going through right now that's going to overturn your ship? It says in verse 41 that they feared exceedingly following these words that Jesus spoke. They feared exceedingly and said one to another, what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? You see yourself somewhere, don't you, in this story? Does this have a connection? Are you soaking wet in a stormy trial and you wonder, what's the Lord doing here? I don't get it. I don't understand. Why is he not helping me? Why is there a lot of water in my boat just now? And I keep bailing, but it gets worse, not better. I have no more strength to bail. I have no more strength to do anything else. There are some, I believe, important lessons that we can learn from this today, and I want to share some of those lessons with you. And the first lesson that we could learn is this. Christians are not exempt from the storms of life. Christians are not exempt from the storms of life. And I want to say that implicit obedience does not exempt us from trials. Implicit obedience to the Lord does not exempt us from trials, because here we have these disciples in the path of duty. Let's not forget that. They were in the path of duty, obediently following the Lord Jesus. They were daily waiting on Him. They were daily serving Him. They were daily obeying His Word. They were not living in rejection or rebellion of His ways and will. They were walking with Christ. And it was their joy to follow Him. It was their joy to serve Him. And the last thing on their mind was to say, we're only doing this so what we can get out of it. Well, there might have been one character on board that was saying that. His name was Judas. But the rest of them were not saying that. And that applies to us today. Each of us in our lives, I believe that we are saying to the Lord in our hearts, we want to fulfill your will. Lord, we want to follow in your way. There's nothing that would fulfill our life more than to say, my master, my friend, we are following hard after your ways. And we want to be obedient. They were daily testifying to the world that they follow Jesus, the Messiah. Of course, that brought opprobrium from the scribes and Pharisees. That brought the angst of those who were rejecting the Messiah-ship of Christ. And yet they were saying, it doesn't matter what they say, we are following the Messiah. We believe we have found Him, the Son of God, the Son of David, and we are in His track. We are following His course. We are in His plan. And they suffered that scorn, and yet they believed on the Lord Jesus. They loved Him, and they were not ashamed of Him. My, the Apostle Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation. They knew what it was to follow after the Master. Apostle Paul knew that. And yet, when you look at his life, man, he had many a storm, didn't he, that he had to go through. Yes, here we see these men in trouble. They were tossed up and down in this storm, and they were in danger of drowning. But let's think about this lesson very carefully. Because if we are true Christians, if you today, my dear friend, have been saved by the grace of God, having your sins washed away in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have tasted that He is your Savior and you have eternal life and your sins have been forgiven you, you know the Lord today. And you are walking with Him. My dear friends, consider today that if you are a true believer, Don't expect a smooth crossing. Don't expect a smooth journey from earth to heaven. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial we are admonished. We must not count it an odd thing if we must endure sickness, if we must endure bereavements and disappointments. If we must endure losses just like all other men do, then, my dear believer, do not jettison your faith. Do not come to the point of questioning the almighty hand of God in our lives. God has promised to us full forgiveness of our sins. He has promised to us salvation from hell. He has promised to us a home in heaven, and we are today already there in the mind of God, seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are at home in heaven with Him. Though we are still physically here on earth, God sees the end of the story and the picture And we do well to pray for an increased faith so that you and I will also see the end of the story, the picture that God sees as completed. But how do we look at the tapestry? You and I look at it from the underside of the tapestry, and it's not pretty. All the threads are hanging down. You can faintly see the image that is being sewn on the top side, but it's not pretty underneath. Dear friends, one day we're going to see the finished picture from the top side, and we will see what God has fully and perfectly planned. He has never promised that we will have no afflictions. In fact, the opposite is true. And He teaches us many, many precious lessons, which without them, we would never learn. So we've read from Psalm 119 this morning, and David said and testified, it was good for me that I had been afflicted. It was a blessed thing when I have been able to stand back and look and see that God intended something through that affliction that I will learn and that I will take and carry on. How's our learning going? What's our report card look like? J.C. Ryle said that, by affliction, He shows us our emptiness and weakness. He draws us to the throne of grace. He purifies our affections. He weans us from the world and makes us long for heaven. This is what the Lord does. One day, you and I will stand back and we will thank God for every trial, for every hardship, for every unknowable, for every time we think the bottom has fallen out, for every time our ship is full of water and we've run out of strength to bail anymore. I don't see Alan and Anne Rogerson here today. They're not in the service. I know that Anne has not been too well, but maybe they're watching online today. Brother Alan has a hobby, and his hobby is to make vessels in glass bottles. He's been working on these for many, many years. And when he asked me to come over to his home because he had something to give me a little time ago, I was very pleased and honored to receive from him this, which is a one-of-a-kind. It's something he has made specifically, and he wanted to give it to me, and I'm very, very appreciative of that. On the bottom here, he tells completely about the vessel and uniqueness, and he knows much information about them. But the thing that probably impressed me most about this was the saying that's written across the bottom. And it's known, I suppose, to those who are involved in sailing. And it says this, a smooth sea does not a skilled sailor make. A smooth sea does not a skilled sailor make. I appreciated the time and effort that our brother Alan put in to give me that, and I appreciate well the sentiment that is carried there, because we apply that to our Christian life, don't we? And we can say the very same thing, that as God puts us through trials, and the sea that we are on, sailing on, if it's smooth, and we're all happy, and the sun is shining, and everything's great, and we're out with the suntan oil on, and everything's very good on the deck. But it's not like that when the clouds come over, and the wind's blowing, and the waves are about to knock you off the deck. But that's by God's grace how He teaches us. He teaches us how to sail through those stormy seas. And may God make us all good seamen in that way, that we will be faithful to His cause, that we will stand in the day of hardship, that we will see what it means to go through the storm and the wind and the violence of the times. And my dear friends, we have not yet faced the fiercest of times yet. Because the Lord promises that before He comes back again, the mystery of iniquity and of lawlessness will spread across the globe. And persecution will be intensified. And you and I will need to determine to bear witness for Christ. And we may be called to go through some extremely rough seas. Therefore, we need to learn the lesson. that God has for us in such circumstances, and we must learn that Christians are not exempt from the storms of life. Please notice with me a second lesson. It is this. Storms can lead us to the wrong conclusions. Storms can lead us to the wrong conclusions And conclusion number one that is wrong, it's about the cause of the storm itself. Because we will look back and we will ask ourselves, hmm, what has brought this in my life? Is it our sin? That's a good question to ask. Because there are times in which a storm will come after us because of our sin and our disobedience. It is true. The prominent example of that is Jonah, isn't it? I mean, the Lord told him to do something, and he didn't do it. He went the opposite way. The Lord sent a storm after him, and the Lord got his attention. And it led Jonah to repentance. It led him to acknowledge by faith, I must trust in God and obey Him to fulfill His will. And the Lord wants to bring us to the same position. Sometimes we have to ask that question. Yes, it may be. What's going on in our lives, we ask. It's good for us to consider the cause of the storm that's going on around. And we say, Lord, we need to listen to the Holy Spirit from the Scripture. We need to be students of the Word. We need to be attentive to the voice of God speaking to us from His holy truth. And therefore, we need to pray that we will be ourselves in a right spirit, a right heart, that we will have the wisdom and discernment from the Lord that is so absolutely necessary. And we also need to do well to pray, Lord, convict me of the sin that I have committed that has brought this, or that has perhaps led me down this road. And let me confess it, let me repent of it, and let me get back on in fellowship with You, Lord. So I want to know about the cause of the storm that's happening, but I want to be careful that I don't come up with a wrong conclusion for the storm. This was not the case for these particular men that we have already been talking about. These disciples, they were doing the will of God, we know that. They were following in obedience the best way they knew how, and yet things still went bad. You see, God's purpose, don't miss this, God's purpose in allowing your present and personal storm is part of His greater plan. And if we can see that, if we grasp that and say, Lord, teach me to know the cause of the storm, teach me to understand and not come up with a wrong conclusion to that, God's purpose is allowing our present storm and personal one. part of His greater plan. We need to be thankful, my dear friends, that we are in His plan. We need to be thankful that we are part of His eternal and beloved purpose, that we are His children. From everlasting we are His children. For the Lord has been pleased to set His love upon us, and my friends, the Lord is not able to do us any harm that is ultimately going to deter, detract, take us away from our eternal home. God is purposing everything according to His great plan and purpose. But we can also come up with another wrong conclusion that may lead us to question the Savior's love and care for us. We say, yes, okay, but if the Lord really loved me, or He was really not so angry with me, These things would never happen because they don't make any sense to me. They are against the pattern of biblical happiness and peace. And the disciples could have asked and said the same thing, and maybe they did. Maybe they said it when they said, Lord, you don't care about us. We're going to die. Surely, Lord, you don't love us anymore. You don't love us with the same love you loved us when you saved us, because now we're going through our life of service in the will of God, doing what you want, and still the turmoil comes. It makes no sense. And in those times, we are in danger of coming up with a wrong conclusion, and we can doubt the love of God to us. My dear friend, let that never be the case. Let us never come to the point where we question the infinite and eternal love of our Savior to us, for He loves us with an everlasting love. Going through such storms, we are very prone to say, against all our theology, Against all our good thinking and good learning, Master, carest thou not that we perish?" The hymn writer said, does Jesus care? The hymn that we sang at the offering time, Master, the Tempest is Raging, was written by a lady called Mary A. Baker. She wrote this hymn after a time of great depression, after a time of, as she describes it, rebellion against God and against His doings in their lives. She said this, God does not care for me or mine. This particular manifestation of what they call divine providence is unworthy of a God of love. That's what Mary Baker said. And she said that after her parents had both died of a disease, and now her dear brother had succumbed to the same disease. They had left Chicago, and they had traveled down south to a better climate in the United States, hoping to improve his health, but to no avail. And to make matters worse, he was on his deathbed, wishing for his favorite sister, Mary, to come and visit him, but she was also bedridden at home and could not get. They communicated and corresponded by telegram for two weeks, and then he died. It was more than she could bear. She could not imagine why God would allow this, and when she did not feel that she deserved it, what had she done wrong? I know that you have asked the same question in some circumstances. You say, Lord, it's not fair. I don't get this. What have I done wrong? Lord, why are you so upset with me? Lord, do you not love me anymore? Have you forgotten to be gracious, Lord?" Soon, however, the Lord came back to her mind and heart, and she realized that the Lord was just indeed working out His perfect plan in her life and molding her into his likeness, and he was not a God who was wreaking vengeance on her or on his children, but carefully guiding a rebellious child, as she put herself. Shortly after she had written him in 1894, a man by the name of Palmer, Or pardon me, before that, Mr. Palmer had asked her to write several songs for a children's series that was based upon Mark 4 that we have read today. And so she began and thought through the experience of her own life. And so she wrote these words, Master, the tempest is raging. The billows are tossing high The sky is overshadowed with blackness. No shelter or help is nigh. Carest thou not that we perish? How canst thou lie asleep when each moment so madly is threatening a grave in the angry deep?" And so Mary wrote these words. And as she grew in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, this is how she concluded. She said, God's way is best in my life. And that's how this dear servant of the Lord passed away herself, God's way is best for us. My friends, let us not misunderstand or misinterpret the signs of God and come up with wrong conclusions for what the Lord is doing. I have a third lesson for you today. It is this, the Savior's presence in the storm. He does not expect us to be afraid in the trials of life. But the Lord Jesus expects us to trust Him with all our hearts, not leaning on our own understanding. Because He tells us, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. My friend, Christ is in the boat with us. He is in our hearts, in our lives, in our spiritual journey. And though it appears He is sleeping, He is sovereignly watching. every detail of our lives, every detail. The hairs of our head are all numbered. He knows the cells that make up our bodies. He is directly concerned with all that we are and all that we are doing. My friends, do not ignore past mercies in present trials. Do not ignore what God has done for you in your life, in all that He has given. Do not ignore those great things in the times when we are going through serious trial. The Savior was present with them in the storm. And our omniscient and omnipotent Savior, though He has risen from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, still this Savior has promised, where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them. And we also know that the Holy Spirit who abides within us, He takes the things of the Lord Jesus from His Word and applies them to our hearts. The Savior is present with us continually. When Daniel's three friends were in the fiery furnace, there was a fourth person in that furnace. And Nebuchadnezzar, the wicked king, acknowledged, who else is with them? It is one like unto the Son of the gods. He saw a fourth person, and we know It was the angel of the Lord that encampeth round about them that fear Him and deliver them." And my dear friends, let us pray that God will protect us with His surrounding presence, that He will build the hedge around us, a very high one, a wide one, and a thick hedge. Let us not ignore all the blessings that God has given to us. And then another lesson that we must learn from this is the Savior's almighty power to still the storm. This really put these men back on their heels. Perhaps this was the first time that they had ever seen such a demonstration of power that silenced them and that caused them deeply inside to wonder, what manner of man is this that is with us? Yes, He could heal the people who were blind. And yes, He healed those who were crippled. And these were physical things around them, no less miracles, by the way. But for some reason, those things did not seem to have as much impact upon the disciples as when they witnessed what they were right in the middle of, of the forces of nature. And yet the God who is the God of creation, the God who made all things out of nothing, the Lord Jesus Christ by whom and through whom all things consist, is the one that was in the boat with them. He is the one that spoke to the very wind and the waves. Peace be still and all was settled. And that great magos wind became a great calm. Yes, my friend. All nature must submit to the voice of the Son of God, for He is all-powerful and almighty. And all this world that reels in torment and anguish and warfare, and all this world that is rejecting and rebelling against God and against His Son, the Lord is holding all things according to His eternal plan. And He holds us, my friend, in the center of His will and hand. And let us bow then before the almighty power of the living God. You know what He's got power to do in our lives? He's got power to stop the storm. What about the storm of passion, the temptations that affect today many Christians? The storm of passions, the Lord is able to stop those. What about this storm that is rough and violent of temper and of bad manners and of things that we see in our lives that we hate when we see them revealed, and we know that they are not Christ-like, they are against His mind and His will, and sometimes they rise up so great, and as we wonder, Lord, is there any hope for us? God is able to still those storms in our lives. And He is able to give us deliverance from that so that no one of us need despair. We are in His hand as His children if we only would bow down from the pride of our hearts and say, Lord, come. The Lord can do miracles upon and in our lives and in our hearts. The Lord Jesus will carry us through every danger. Christ will conquer every enemy that we have. What if those come against us from every dimension, every place? It doesn't matter. Family, neighbors, friends, it doesn't matter. The Lord is saying, I am able to still the storm and to quiet the waves, for greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. And one final thing, and I close with this. A lesson we learn about the gentleness of Christ with His weak disciples, For notice what he says to them and how he responds. Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? You know, as Jesus stood and rebuked the wind, the word rebuke is an interesting one, because some commentators believe that that storm of wind that was sent down to trouble the disciples, and it did, was a wind that had come from Satan's power. And the intention was to destroy the Savior and keep Him from ever getting to the cross. The Lord Jesus, when He rebuked the wind, He rebukes the devil's influences, powers, his forces in our lives as well. And the One who brings against us the great temptations that hold us down and we so often succumb to, by God's grace He is able to be and give miraculous power over those things. The Lord dealt with His disciples here in this case very tenderly and gently. Because of their unbelief, their lack of faith, the Lord comes to us in our time of weakness, doesn't He? And He deals with us with a gentleness And indeed, the gentleness of Christ, David said, made him great. And you and I today, we must be asked by the Lord, why are you so fearful? Have you no faith? Where are you in your faith walk with the Lord? Where am I? The Lord is very pitiful toward us. He is full of tender mercy. As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. and He knows our frame and remembers that we are dust, the Lord is all-knowing of every detail for us. And therefore, my dear friends, when we wonder, is it this storm that we are presently in, is that the one that's going to capsize our boat, our life? No. For with Christ in the vessel, we can smile at the storm. For the Lord is greater than all the forces of evil. Our great God is able. He is our great overcomer. And today, we might walk in Him and walk with Him and pray that the Holy Spirit's power would increase our faith and would strengthen us that we might walk in fellowship with Him. Let's bow, please, in prayer. Our Father, we pray that in the weakness of our own experience and walk, that we will not dishonor Thy holy name. Lord, I pray that during our times of not knowing uncertainty, that we would rest completely and fully upon Thy sovereign purpose and providential care. Lord, give us all grace and strength that we need Lord, you know every person in this church today, everyone listening online, you know every detail of our lives and the heavy burdens and storms that some are going through just now. Lord, give that word of peace and calm and quieting and rebuke the wind, Lord, we pray. Rebuke the evil one and remove his hand from our lives. Bless our church, we pray. Be with every believer. May this place be a place of salvation. Continue to speak, Lord, in the hearts of those who are without Christ even now today. So bless us. May we know Thy presence in this afternoon. Keep us in the Spirit on Thy day. And we pray for blessing upon the service tonight. In Jesus' precious name we ask. Amen. so so so so