Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to Mark chapter 4 and verse 39. 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. Mark chapter 4 and verse 39. This whole account, going from verse 35 that we read, has many ands in it. Each part of the narrative is inseparably joined to the other part. We are told of how the Lord bid them to go over to the other side. And there He is. in the ship with them, and other little ships with them. We can picture it. We can picture them on the sea, on the Sea of Galilee. And then there arose a great storm of wind. Waves beat into the ship, so it was now full. The Lord was in the ship with them, but the wind, the waves, they didn't awake him. And the disciples, they cried out to him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And then it comes to the text, how he arose, how he rebuked the wind, said unto the sea, peace be still. The wind ceased and there was a great calm. Let me read of the not only the effect upon the wind and upon the sea, but upon the disciples as well. How that they feared exceedingly and they said one to another, what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? They seem to be suddenly more fearful of him or more filled with wonder and amazement at our Lord than they were even at the sea and the wind and the ceasing of it. These accounts, and there's many of them, of course, of the Lord's life here below. In one sense, they are vital, because we must understand that the eternal Son of God really did become man He really did dwell among us, and he lived amongst us. I know there's a lot of, perhaps, detail that we'd like to have, we'd like to know, but we don't know. But we do know of his life. We're told of his parents, we're told a little when he was 12 years of age, and especially when he began his ministry, of his moving from one place to another, the parables he taught, and like here, the things that he encountered along the way. Many of these things, of course, could never be replicated. They're telling of the Lord's life, that he would never live like that again upon this earth. And they were recorded, not just to testify to his true manhood, what manner of man is this, as the disciples say, but to give us principles, to give us teaching, and in this event especially, to show his might and his power over the sea and over the winds, to testify who he really was. And also, there's lessons for us in prayer, there's lessons for us in the word of God, in the things that the Lord used to still this storm. And of course, the storm itself. There are many other ways we can look at storms, and this is why we read together in Psalm 107. In Psalm 107, we read in verse 25, For he commandeth and raiseth this stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. We have a picture the other way, that it's the Lord instead this time as just stilling the winds and waves. He is the one that is commanding them, that they rise up, they lift up, they mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble, And then we get immediately a picture. Here is a parable. Here is the word in the Psalms that shows light upon the passage where our text is. And here is a spiritual meaning, a spiritual teaching, the troubles, the trials, the things that we come into, the storms of life. Those things that are appointed by God and how it affects the people of God in a spiritual way and in their souls, they reel to and fro, stagger like a drunken man at their wit's end, then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. They bring to exactly the same what the disciples did with the Lord. What would be those things that raise up a storm? Well, one, of course, is sin itself. We are sinners born unto sin. And David, he says, in sin did my mother conceive me, not that he was illegitimate or anything, but pointing that the original sin we don't, as some so falsely teach, enter into this world with a clean slate, No sin, and then as we go through it, we add sins. No, we are born as sinners, and it is our fallen nature to rebel against God, to break the law of God. The natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them, though spiritually discerned. And so sin to a soul that is awakened He'll have trouble because of it. He'll grieve that it's inside him, and he will grieve also and be troubled by the consequences of it. David in Psalm 51, he speaks in real repentance to godly sorrow because of his sin, the sin of adultery and murder with Bathsheba Uriah. But also, he had, the trouble throughout his life, as the Lord said, that the sword shall not depart from thine house. The consequences of sin and the troubles because of that. Then we have a tempting devil, the temptations. It's not sin to be tempted. Our Lord was tempted above every man, yet without sin. We can have thoughts suddenly come into our mind. tempting us to think about things, tempting us to do things, but while they just remain as a thought that is then rejected and we don't start thinking about it and giving it time and space, that is not our sin. We can see something. We can't go around with our eyes shut. We're going to see things that are evil, that are wrong. But if we end up starting looking at them, then it's a very different thing. We're not just seeing, we're looking, we're entering into it. But as fallen creatures, we often do that. And so again, the temptations, they're a constant source of trial and of trouble. Often it's likened that the wind is like the winds of temptation that come. and they whip up and they stir up our own sin and they stir up troubles in and around us. The people of God know what it is to have also providential troubles. You might say, well, the world has them. Those that don't fear God have things that happen in their lives that trouble them. But we God's people, there's always a spiritual aspect to it. because it stirs up rebellion, it stirs up questioning, it stirs up things like the disciples implied here. Master, carest thou not that we perish? And for God's children to be thinking evil about their God, casting aspersions upon his care as if he didn't care at all. And that makes then providential things, even simple things, to be a real cause of trial and of trouble. Then we have from men. Dear David, how much trouble he had from King Saul. How much he had from his own house, the sons of Zeruiah, his sister. How much trouble he had from the Philistines. We will. have trouble and trial from men. And so again, what a storm that can raise up as well. The Lord raised up, because of Solomon's going after many strange women and after their gods, he raised up those adversaries, Jeroboam and others, to plague him, to trouble him in his life. and how that he fretted against them, fought against them, tried to get at Jeroboam, but those troubles were ordered by God. And we think of sickness. We think of the troubles that Mary and Martha went through when Lazarus was sick. He whom thou lovest is sick, but the Lord didn't appear to take any notice, just like here in the ship where he's asleep, he's not stirred up, he doesn't seem to take any notice, he stays where he is, he doesn't come. Martha says, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. And so we can have sickness that the Lord doesn't seem to be taking any notice of, that he comes and We're in it and laboring in it, and it affects our lives, stops us from doing things, stops us from mixing, takes away our plans. These storms, these winds that come. And then the imaginations. Sometimes we fear where no fear is. We think what someone is saying. We imagine what they're saying behind our backs. And that causes such a storm within. And we cannot allow, we cannot settle it down. When we think one aspect is dealt with, then another rises up again. Another storm is where God hides his face from his people. Job, he says, oh, that I knew where I might find him. You say, well, Job, he had the storm of Satan coming. He had the providential troubles. He had his friends, miserable comforters they all, and he had God hiding his face from him, looking on the right hand and on the left, where he does work and not finding him at all. And it's these storms that come in this way that rise up many fears, many things that threaten to destroy us, take away our faith as if we had no faith. These things can be drawn from such an account like this, that in a literal way cannot be repeated, but is a very, very vivid picture of those troubles that man is born unto trouble, and the trials, the word that our Lord said, in me ye shall have peace, in the world ye shall have tribulation, or great trouble. not specifying what that trouble should be, but God appoints it for each one of his people. And so then we have, in the midst of all of this, the Lord was actually with them, but not appearing to help them or to take any notice of what was happening at all. He is just lying and he is asleep. in the hind part of the ship. Now I want to look with the Lord's help. Firstly, the Lord arising for his people's health. Our text says, and he arose. And secondly, our Lord's use of his word. and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace be still. The Lord is speaking, the Lord is using his word. And then thirdly, the effect of his word, and there was a great calm. But firstly, the Lord rising for his people's help. We've already noticed that the Lord was not awakened by the waves, the wind, the motion of the ship, or the fact that it was now full with water. Through all of these things, the Lord had slammed. But then he arises. And to me, there's a great contrast here. You would think, surely, surely all those things that are happening would have awoken him. But they didn't. But what does awake him is the disciples. Master, carest thou not that we perish? Now, laying aside their unbelief, their implying the Lord did not care over them at all, but highlighting this, the Lord, in effect, was wokened by prayer, by their word, by their asking and coming to Him. And to me, it seemed a real beautiful contrast, a real help. On the one hand, the Lord was right there. He was in that trial with them. He was in as much danger as them. But the thing that stirred him up, the thing that brought him to arise was the disciples coming to him, speaking to him, casting their fear, their trouble before him. This is one of those real examples to pray. We might say, well, the Lord knows my trouble. He knows the difficulty. He knows what I'm in. What's the use of praying? What's the use of telling him? What's the use of asking him? He knows about it. I will for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. The Lord spoke concerning the widow woman and the unjust judge. The Lord was teaching that men ought always to pray and not to faint. He wasn't teaching, well, The Lord knows about widows, and we're told the Lord does care for them. But that doesn't mean that there's no supplication, there's no prayer, there's no asking of the Lord. So may this account be a real encouragement in whatever the trial, the storm is, whatever it is that has been fanning up the waves of corruption and waves of trouble. You know, the Lord dealt with both these things. But the first thing He did was to arise. And there's something really beautiful for God's people in the Lord arising. And He arose. God was on his way. God was doing something. He had not yet spoken, but he arose. The thought that came to me was with Elijah, and he's praying for rain, and there's nothing. And he says, go again, seven times. Go and look toward the sea. And there he is, praying and praying. And then there comes this message back there, Out of the sea a cloud like a man's hand. Now that is like the Lord arising. There was no rain. There was no change. There was nothing done yet. But Elijah knew. He knew when the Lord begins, then he will complete it. And so he said, arise, get down, haste, say to Ahab, make haste, let rain stop thee not. The Lord was on his way. And many times in Providence, that we get the first indication, the Lord has heard prayer and he has arisen. He's on his way. He's doing something. You know, we had when our Lord came to this earth, the first, as it were, arising when he actually came. And we think, 30 years before he started his ministry, how many had forgotten that event at Bethlehem, had forgotten what was done after all of those years? But there was a real expectation. And then when the Lord began his ministry, such an expectation. But the Lord's ministry wasn't like the ministry today, not like the apostles, not like we who preached Christ and Him crucified, but really the ministry of His disciples and our Lord's ministry was that He had arisen. God had appeared. He was on His way to fulfill the Scriptures, to appear for His people, to ransom them, to deliver them and save them, and the message was there even before. it had been accomplished at Calvary. We have a similar thing with the promises that were given to Abraham of his seed would be stranger in a strange land. They would afflict them and they did afflict them. But the Lord was looking on in the wonderful account of how Moses was born. But that was 80 years before the Lord actually brought them out of Egypt. But the Lord was on his way. Then when Moses, 80 years later, was sent back to his people, and he worked those signs, those miracles before them, so they believed Moses, they believed the Lord was with him, they rejoiced. They were still in Egypt. They weren't out yet. And they were going to go through some much more troubles and trials and storms as well, so much so that they weren't even going to listen to Moses when he tried to comfort them and assure them God was in control. But God was on his way. Moses was sent, and in due time they were brought out with a high hand out of Egypt. And so, the Lord arising, it is beginning to move. And the times that I've felt it is, maybe there's been no openings in providence whatsoever, and then you start to get some moves. Or perhaps we've been so hard-hearted, so far off, so worldly, so carnally, and the Lord has come, perhaps through the word, and softened our hearts. And we felt the Lord is on His way. The Lord will appear. He will look upon us in our affliction. And sometimes we've actually said in such situations to those of our loved ones, the Lord will appear. The Lord has appeared and He will deliver us in this trial. And it is when He arises, it is to help. If there's been prayer and prayer and prayer and a labouring in a particular trial for perhaps something to come about in providence or an opening or a help or for an illness to be healed and to go away and you might have prayed for it for ten years and there's no sign at all but then the Lord gives that indication and the Lord says, my sheep they hear my voice before it comes to pass, a couple of weeks before it may be, yet we are persuaded of it. We're believing the Lord is on His way, that it is going to come about, and it has come about. When the Lord arises, it is to help. It is to do for us that we have been crying unto Him for. And it's a good thing to recognize that the Lord It does work in this way, appears in this way. How mindful the Lord was of their infirmities, of their lack of faith, of their fearfulness. And the Lord's mindful of ours as well. Yes, He gently rebukes them, reproves them, but He did for them. exactly what they wanted first. And then the remutes came after. He said unto them, why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? Our lacking in faith, we often feel to be, and faith is the gift of God. But the great work of faith is especially in prayer in going to the Lord. Remember the centurion, the Lord had him, centurion sent his servants to the Lord. I am not worthy that thou should come under my roof. Speak the word only and my servants shall be healed. The Lord didn't need to be there. He didn't need to be speaking the word actually over his servant. It's like Mary and Martha. Martha says, if thou has been here, my brother had not died, but the Lord did not need to be there to prevent his death. But the thing with the centurion, when the Lord, when the centurion said to him, I also am one under authority, I say to this one, Come, and he cometh, and to another go, and he goeth. And he could see the Lord had that authority just to speak. And he said to the Lord, speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. And the Lord said that he had not found so great faith, no, not in all this world. Now, these disciples, it is said, you have no faith. If they had come to the Lord, they awoke him, said, Lord, speak the word only, and stay the wind, and stay the sea. What a different way. We have a similar contrast with the angel appearing to Zacharias and the angel appearing to Mary. The first one in the birth of John Baptist, the other in the birth of our Lord. With Zacharias it was said, because thou believest not my saying. So he was dumb during the time of pregnancy. How can this thing be? He couldn't believe that it would be so. With Mary, she did believe, but she didn't know how it would come about. How shall this thing be? And so we can be in a situation where we can believe what the Lord is saying. Often the Lord said, believest thou that I am able to do this. We might believe that he can, but not know how. And we may ask in prayer, Lord, how will you do this? How can this come? And with Mary it was told, the power of the Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee, therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And there is a difference. Sometimes you read those two accounts and you think, well, what's the difference? Why was Zechariah said he unbelieved and why was Mary not? There is a difference. Though the centurion, great faith and he was how his prayer was. We can pray unbelieving prayers and amazingly here, An unbelieving prayer got answered. A faithless prayer got answered. How kind, how long-suffering the Lord is. If he says you have no faith, and yet they'd awoken him, they hadn't told him what to do. He'd done what was necessary. But the Lord arose. So may our prayer be, in the first instance, that we awaken the Lord within, that we bring the Lord to arise and to begin to work and appear. But may we remember all the time we're praying, the Lord is with us and He is mindful and He does care for us. The second point, is our Lord's use of His Word. Our text says, And rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace be still. The Lord is using His Word. What a great illustration that this is He that spake and it was done, that spake the world into existence. The creation account is all done by the Word of God. The conversion of a sinner is all done by the Word of God. It is God speaking. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He had magnified, we read in Psalm 138, his word over all his name. God's promises he must fulfill. He will use his word. Remember the account of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man thought, well, if one rose from the dead, they would surely believe. No, says the Lord. If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if one rose from the dead. Our commission as ministers is to preach the Word, instant in season and out of season. It is the Word of God, that which was used with the Thessalonians. The Word came unto them, not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and with power. But it did come by the Word. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word. of the Lord. And so this account is again a real affirming of where the blessing and where the power comes through, it is from the word. And like we said with the centurion, speak the word only, my servant shall be healed. And this is why with the gospel, We are to preach. We are to be having the Word of God central and yet please God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. My sheep, they hear my voice, my Word. And they follow me. They know my voice. And it's a blessed thing if our ear is opened in that way. If you, if I, am in any trouble with the waves, the winds, the storms arising, you think, how can this be stilled? How can this be stopped? How can I be delivered out of this trouble? Who can save me? One word from the Lord and it is done. One word. May we not minimise the effect and the power of the Lord's commands. His intercession in heaven, His being our advocate with the Father, what is He doing? He's speaking, one of our hymns, beautiful hymn, What voice is that which speaks for me in heaven's high court for good? The word is not only on earth, but it's in heaven. The written incarnate word is all the same, in the beginning was the word and the word was God, with God and the word was God. The beginning of the gospel according to John. And so this picture of the Lord arising in the midst of the sea, with the waves, with the wind, and he speaks. He rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. This is what the Lord used. This is what the Lord uses. May we know it in our troubles that the Lord can give commandment, and know it as well when there are especially inward troubles. The Lord can speak through his word and does speak through his word. To still and has done many times I've known it. One quiet, soft word has taken away all my anger, dispelled my fears, calmed my mind, settled the matter. Speak the word only. The Lord spoke the word only here. I want to look then lastly at the effect of His Word. 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. So they're joining together, His arising, His commanding using His Word, and then the effect that it had. The waves stilled. Now this was a real miracle. But I've known it literally out sailing where the wind has been very contrary and very, very strong. And the waves high. And then suddenly the wind has completely dropped and the whole sea has become a mill pond. And then it turned around the other way and blew us back to port. As I've known it in that way, but here, what a miracle to be done by the hand of the Lord. The effect of his word. I hope it is with us and with all of God's people to be able to testify of the effect of the word of God. He sent his word and healed them. Here he spake his word and caused the wind and the sea to cease from its raging. The effect we would notice. Sometimes we might be troubled. Well, has the Lord really spoken? The disciples here, they heard him speak. But if we've been blessed in the house of God, then we will have heard that word through the ministry and its effect upon our own soul. But where the Lord appears in providence, maybe we need more of discernment and realizing that this is the Lord that has caused it to happen. The devil's hour would have happened anyway. It would have ceased, the trouble would have gone anyway. But here we are clearly told, with the ands here, that there's a direct link between the two. May the Lord give us to really believe this. Where we've been praying over a matter, and where that then trouble has ceased, that we might know the Lord has answered our prayer. He has given commandment. He has caused that trouble to cease, and that be strengthening to our faith, that we believe it really is the Lord's Word. When it comes actually through the ministry or spoken to us, we might see more clearly it is through the Word, but maybe also notice the effect, and the effect will be remembered a lot longer than the actual Word itself. Sometimes the Word may be be forgotten what the man's text was or what the word was spoken, but the effect upon our lives, upon our spirit, here the effect actually not just on the sea and the waves, but on the disciples themselves. They feared exceedingly. They said one to another, what manner of man is this that even the wind and the wave and the sea obey him? And so we are to notice not only answers to prayer and what happened in Providence, but how it affects us as well. Those times that we marvel, those times we wonder at it, those times where it leads us from the trouble we are in to God himself. Those 10 lepers that came with their trouble, that the Lord would heal them, they went away They saw that they were healed. They realized that they were healed. But only one returned to give glory to God and thanks to the Lord. The others, as it were, didn't link together their healing and what the Lord had done, or didn't link it so that they gave any glory and honor to God at all. And we can be like that. We can be just as much trouble with sickness and affliction and trouble and come to the Lord in prayer within, and the Lord sends healing, but we forget to give thanks. We miss out on a view of the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who has answered our prayers, who's the one who's put forth his power, who's given us a token for good, a token of one of his dear people. Those lepers, they'd all partaken of the healing, but they didn't all partake of, in effect, what the disciples said here, what manner of man is this? They couldn't see the glory in Jesus of Nazareth and the miracle and the wonder that he'd done. The things that God brings his people through, I believe nearly every time, It will end like this account, that the Lord Jesus Christ is magnified. He is glorified. The apostle says that no flesh might glory in his presence. It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, and the crown is placed on his head. And this again is another sweet token for God's children, that when their trials, they come into them, they go through them, They're brought to pray, the Lord arises and helps them. And at the end of it, Christ is more precious than the beginning. At the end of it, they see more of beauty and attractiveness, of power, and a token of answers to prayer than they did at the beginning. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning of a thing. And so we have, in this portion here, Many lessons, much teaching that I hope that we can bring or see into our troubles and our trials. And maybe even this evening, some of you going through things you think the Lord doesn't know. He's not with me in this. He's not mindful of me in this at all. Maybe you feel just like these faithless disciples that the Lord doesn't care at all. They put it into words. Maybe you haven't put it into so much words as sometimes we have, but we thought it. But may we come in prayer. May encourage us to ask and to watch and to watch first when the Lord first arises and begins to move. And then we'll be ready to see every part and everything that he does, recognizing the hand of the Lord. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.