Mark chapter four and begin reading in verse 35. On the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side. Now, when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was. And other little boats were also with him. And a great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But he said to them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him? So Jesus was with his disciples in the boat and they were all believing men. But when he spoke to them, after he calmed the storm, he was intimating, that he did not see any faith in exercising them at all at that particular time, that dangerous time. Jesus asked them, why were you fearful? And they had no answer. He was implying that a believer ought to have strong and courageous faith. in exercise in such situations. So the question that I want us to ask ourselves at this time is this, what will enable me to exercise faith in the most critical times of my experience? Let me give you three things to remember. First of all, I want you to remember that it is the Lord who is leading you into this situation of difficulty in order to test your faith. Verses 35 and 36. On the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side. And when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was, and other little boats were also with him. And a great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat. so that it was already filling. So we need to understand that it had already been a very long day of ministry for the Lord Jesus and his disciples. He had been ministering to the multitudes pretty much all that day. He preached his sermon on the mountain. Afterwards, he healed the leper. After that, he entered Capernaum and healed a centurion's son at a distance from the afflicted one. Then he healed Peter's mother, who was sick with a fever. And following that in verse 18, it says, and when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave a command to depart to the other side. Now I would think it was getting on towards dark. And it was after all of this, when you would have thought that he would have sent his disciples home to bed and gone to bed himself. He then said to them, let us cross over to the other side. But even though the Lord Jesus did have this, his base of operations in Capernaum, and he must have stayed at Peter's house sometimes, we've seen before that the multitudes would come and they would crowd the door and bring their sick and demon possessed to be healed. So the issue of faith, once we come to know the Lord Jesus, is whether we will follow Him. Whether we will follow Him through thick and thin, whether we will follow Him wherever He leads us. Now He leads us individually by the word of His commands and by leading us to the places and to the people whom He puts us together with. This is how he builds our faith, by the way. I wonder if you truly believe this. Let me ask you, will you follow Christ spiritually when he leads you out onto the sea into situations which are unfamiliar or difficult? The disciples sensed no danger. when they launched out, but the storm on the lake came suddenly upon them. And this is how it is sometimes in living the Christian life. There are storms to face, difficulties and trials in which you will have to exercise faith. So Jesus is not asking that you would deliberately place yourself into a place of danger. He's asking that if you will be his follower, that you would follow him wherever he leads you. Now, perhaps it is into a situation which you would not want to willingly be in. What then? Will you exercise faith? So you should understand that Jesus will sometimes do this in order to build or strengthen your faith. You say, well, Jesus is not physically here upon the earth any longer. We know him no longer according to the flesh. And I do not need to do anything as foolish as launching out on the Sea of Galilee when the sun is going down. Yes, that's true. But still, you need to understand that the Lord will still, sometimes, deliberately lead you into places and situations that are somewhat dark, somewhat difficult, and where sometimes you don't understand why you were there at first. Now, you could become discouraged about this, but let's think about these situations in terms of what God would have us to learn about faith. How can we grow in our faith and help other people around us to understand more of the glory of Christ and the grace of Christ? God helps you. He helps me, an unworthy sinner, the one who doesn't deserve to be helped. He helps me, the one who has made so many sinful mistakes. And yet he doesn't condemn me. but he shows me something more of the greatness of his grace. What does he expect? He expects me to become more like him. He expects me to become more giving, more serving, more loving, more caring, more patient, and that we would be helpful and kind to people around us. The only way that I will become a helper and a teacher of people around me is to follow Christ's lead. I must follow him into the dusk and the darkness and the difficulties of other people's lives by faith. If your faith is small, very little will be accomplished for his kingdom and for his name's sake. If your faith is strong, you will do exploits. This was a command to his disciples. And so they launched out onto the Sea of Galilee. They obeyed even though they knew not what lay ahead on their journey across the lake. So second, Jesus would have you to remember that he cares for all who trust in him. Verses 37 to 39. And a great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. but he was in the stern asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, be still, peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. So we see here that the Lord Jesus Christ is both God and man. And he was then, and he is now able to see all the concerns of your heart and mind. All of the concerns of your body and what happens to you in this life. His discernment of our hearts is perfect. His discernment of what happened that night on the lake was perfect. The Lord Jesus was a real man with a real human nature and this passage makes that very evident. He was so tired that it says in verse 38 that he was in the stern asleep on a pillow. As a man, he was insensible to what was happening around him. In the case of the disciples, however, they failed to reckon with the divinity of Christ, filling his humanity. He was at perfect peace. in his sleep, and he knew that his father was running the whole universe and ordering all things after the counsel of his will. He was no doubt fulfilling the verse in Psalm 4, verse eight. I will both lie down in peace and sleep for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Well, he knew what he had come into the world for. That is what he had come to do. And he knew that he would not die until his work, which the father had given him to do, was finished. He rested in this real care of his father in his human nature. You and I should learn to do the same. Why is it that so many people are afraid of death? It's because by faith they are not resting in this perfect care of the Father as Jesus was. We will not die one iota before the time in which the Father has purposed that we die. All of his purposes in regard to us will be fulfilled and we will not die one iota later than what his perfect will has determined. Our times are in his hand. And all of his purposes will be fulfilled, even though we sometimes fear that they will not. Now, the disciples, I believe, wanted the Lord Jesus to get some rest on this trip. And so they were probably very happy that he had been able to go to sleep in the stern of the boat. That is, they felt this way at first. But when the storm came up so suddenly, so powerfully, something in them changed suddenly and powerfully. There was a storm which arose within each one of them. And they went from being those who were concerned to watch over him so that he could get some sleep to those who were concerned that he was not watching over them. And they even thought that he did not care if they were perishing. This was because of their lack of faith. Faith is a grace that reasons with itself based upon the sovereignty of God. And they were reasoning with themselves during this storm, but their conclusions concerning Christ were wrong. and their conclusions about what they should do were also wrong. And I would say that their reaction is a good picture of what we are often like ourselves in times of such circumstances. In our Bibles, we find that our God is not a God who slumbers or sleeps. He does not grow weary or tired. We read that he has the power to do whatever he purposes. And therefore, if we are in sudden danger, we think that we can handle it without awakening Him with our prayers. We think that because He is sovereign over everything, that He will always intervene and immediately prevent us from being hurt or killed physically. So if we come into one of these situations of danger or difficulty, and we are not immediately delivered from it by His divine interposition, then we should not conclude that He doesn't care. But I think a lot of times we think that if He did care, this wouldn't be happening, and He would not be so long in coming to our aid. Does it feel like that to you? I'm sure it does. But we forget the responsibility that we have. to exercise faith. In this case, the disciples finally did awaken Jesus when they believed that they were going to go down with the ship. But their question upon His waking up was, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? It was obvious that the Lord did care For when he heard those words, he immediately arose. And it says, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still. And it says the wind ceased and there was a great calm. So Jesus was easily able to deal with this mighty thing. He stilled the winds and the waves. but he no doubt was very grieved by the words of his disciples. Do you not care that we are perishing? Take care, dear Christian, that by your doubting thoughts and words you might not realize that you are grieving the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit of God, it says, by which you were sealed to the day of your redemption. It is your responsibility to believe that God is most definitely working all things together for your good in all the situations that you find yourself in. It's your responsibility to believe that He can come and deliver you and rescue you and keep you safe from all physical harm. If it's in accordance with His purpose to do so, how often has He done so already? But if He chooses to permit you to suffer some calamity, or if he permits you to be injured in an accident, or even if you are called upon to die what some people would call an accidental death. The exercise of your faith in God and Christ will uphold you. This is what I want you to see. It will sustain you. And it will even encourage you in such dreadfully difficult circumstances. It's your faith that is the most important thing to God. Do you see that, dear Christian? That is the most important thing for you to exercise. In God's sight is faith in Him. So Jesus says, men ought always to pray and not to faint in Luke 18, 1. And here in this passage, he says, where's your faith? Now he knew they were believing people. He knew they were believing men. But you know, sometimes our faith can be so inactive, positively inactive, that we actually hurt ourselves and dishonor God. when we do not exercise faith. God has given us our faith in the new birth. He's given us grace, the grace of faith for us to exercise. Therefore, we should exercise it. When you exercise your faith, it is pleasing to God. You remember that verse, without faith, it is impossible to please him. Without faith, it's impossible. to please Him. For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So what I'm trying to show you is that faith honors God. It honors Him because you are confessing by your faith in Him that you believe that He has holy and wise reasons for permitting all that you are going through When you exercise faith, all the difficult things of life can be faced, and all that you do during those times will be blessed, because you know that everything that you are suffering is only that which will ultimately draw you closer to God. Now, do you believe that, dear Christian? It really is quite essential that you believe this. and most especially when you are in circumstances of great difficulty and danger. You should understand that when you exercise faith during those times when you are afraid, that you will be blessed because you know that everything that you are suffering is only that which will ultimately draw you closer to God. And then thirdly, I want you to remember that the Lord Jesus does have control of all nature and all the situations of difficulty that we as believers are undergoing, verses 40 and 41. But he said to them, why are you so fearful? And how is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him? These questions were good questions for the disciples and they are good questions for us when we become fearful. Why are we fearful? Is it because we do not believe that the Lord cares for us? Is it because we do not believe that he can help us or deliver us? What the Lord Jesus did to the wind and the waves, he can also do for you. When your fears run so strong in your heart, he can rebuke them and calm them and say to our souls, peace, be still. because things around us seem to be out of control to us. That's why we feel fear. It's because even we ourselves cannot control our own reactions that we fear and have no faith. And we need to remember the words of David. In Psalm 56 3, whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, I will praise his word. In God I have put my trust, I will not fear. But the disciples came to a greater fear that night than the storm first produced in them. It was the fear of the Lord. They feared exceedingly. It says here, and they said to one another, who can this be? Or what manner of man is this? that even the wind and the sea obey him. That's the kind of fear that comes when we are awestruck by God's power. All creation must obey the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we are that part of God's creation, which because of sin, does not always willingly obey the commands of our God. But we should. We have been created with a will. And until we come to Christ, we are for the most part unwilling to do God's will or we do it from selfish and sinful motives. But when we come to Christ, we are made willing in the day of his power. We are not stronger than the winds or the waves, are we? But our Lord wants a willing and a loving obedience of faith in him. This is what each one of us should pray for, that by faith, that we would not be afraid, but that we would exercise faith in him in every situation of our lives. Will you do that? Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this passage of scripture. We only pray that you will help us to take notice of everything that the Lord Jesus, you are Lord Jesus, wanted these disciples to learn about how you truly do care for each one of your dear disciples, your brothers and sisters, you call us. And you want to strengthen and build our faith But Lord, oftentimes we are overcome by the implications of the situations around us and it causes fear in us. Help us, oh God, to see that you are well able to rescue us if that's your purpose, but even if not, and even if the ship sank that day, that all these men would still have been safe. We pray, thanking you for your mighty power, Lord Jesus, which is demonstrated in this perfect and holy and awesome way. And we pray that we would take it to heart and learn from it, that you are our God, you are our strength and our song and our victory in all that we go through in this life. You will bring us through it and into the next. So help us to receive these truths in Jesus' name, amen.