The Lord bless us together tonight
as we consider his word. Let's turn to the Gospel of Mark
chapter 4 and we'll read verse 39. The Gospel of Mark chapter
4 and reading verse 39. And he arose and rebuked the
wind and said unto the sea peace be still and the wind ceased
and and there was a great calm. We observe in this little account
that the Lord permitted a situation to develop that needed some gracious
and wonderful help from himself. And the illustration is very
simple, because there were the disciples and the Lord went into
this ship to get away from the multitude.
And what happened, there was a great storm. And the effect
was that the ship was full of water, a desperate condition. And the Lord was in the ship. And the Lord was asleep on the
pillow. And the disciples come and awake him and say, Master,
carest thou not that we perish? And the Lord then arose. My friends,
today we perhaps may not be physically, indeed probably not physically
in a ship like these disciples were. But nonetheless, there
are those situations when perhaps It's like this, everything may
seem to be very pleasant. Indeed, no doubt when they got
in this ship and started off with the object of getting over
to the other side, everything seemed very okay. And what happened? A great storm
arose. A great storm, not a little storm,
a great storm. Sometimes in our lives it's just
what happens a great storm arises, something we never expected,
we didn't look for, and suddenly we're totally involved in this
great storm. And well, it was a desperate
case, wasn't it, for the disciples. Clearly they were fearful that
they might indeed sink. Indeed they said, Master, carest
thou not that we perish? Well, what was happening? The
Lord was testing their faith. He was testing their religion.
And surely today, exactly the same things happen. The Lord
brings circumstances into our lives by way of a storm, not
perhaps a physical one with wind and rain, but nonetheless a storm
which may arise. And what does it do? It does
what the disciples, it did to them. It drove them to the Lord. And what did they do? They cried
out, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Well, the Lord
was able, you see, to show to them very clearly that he did
care. What a blessing that is for us
today to realize that the Lord does care for us. And he cared
for the disciples so much that he arose and rebuked the wind
and said unto the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased
and there was a great calm. Now, I believe the same situation
occurs today. When the Lord speaks, we may
be in the midst of a particular trouble, particular storm, But
you see, when the Lord speaks, then it puts everything in a
different perspective. Then it is that we realise, perhaps
the Lord, like the disciples here, was testing their faith
to see what they would do. What they would do, where would
they turn? The sad thing is, often, as you're faced with difficult
situations, we often seem to fail to turn to the great and
glorious Saviour Himself. We look around and we try and
produce a solution. How foolish we are! And sometimes
we have to learn again and again our foolishness. The Word of
God is full of examples of bringing everything to the Lord indeed.
Take it to the Lord in prayer. And how we fail do we not so
often in these things. And so here we have this beautiful
picture before us in these few verses of the Lord arising. What a mercy the Lord still arises
today. He knows our need. He knows our
fears. Here were these fears, weren't
they? They thought they were going to perish. But no, they weren't. The Lord
knew. The Lord knew what he would do. My friends, still today, the
Lord knows what he would do today in your life and my life. And
that should be a wonderful comfort. And I believe if the Lord applies
his word to our hearts, what does it do? It does just what
occurred in this situation. It brought about peace. Peace be still, and the wind
ceased, and there was a great calm. Peace is a beautiful thing,
isn't it? And yet, I suppose as we pass
on through this world, there's not very much peace, is there?
We find trouble on every hand, really. One thing and then another. And we don't seem to find very
much peace. Well, we should realise we won't
find peace really in the things of time. We may look for it,
we may hope for it, but you know the only peace is really that
peace which Jesus gives. And the wonderful blessing is
this, that this peace brings with it eternal blessings. It's not something transient
like the peace which we may obtain for a short time in this world,
just a transient passing peace. But you know, the peace which
God gives is an eternal peace, not something which is fading
away. The Lord Jesus, when he was in that upper room on that
Passover night, he spoke to those beautiful words which I think
I may refer to on the Lord's Day. It's in the 14th chapter
of John and the 27th verse and it's a very beautiful statement
the Lord makes. He says, Peace I leave with you,
my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. Why did Jesus speak these things
to his disciples on that Passover night, because he knew they would
need such words of comfort in the ensuing days and indeed throughout
their lives. And so he speaks these glorious
words and he tells them, he says, these things have I spoken unto
you, being yet present with you, but the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach
you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have said unto you." Now that's a great truth, isn't it? Because
God very graciously does bring to our remembrance sometimes
his word and sometimes the word that he's spoken to our hearts.
He brings it to our remembrance. And what does that do? Does it
not produce that peace in our heart? Because then we can rejoice
in that which God has said. We may have perhaps lost sight
of it. We may have disappeared. We may
have been tempted to give up all hope. But bless God when
he comes and he speaks like this and he says, he shall teach you
all things This is the Holy Spirit. And bring all things to your
remembrance. The Holy Spirit brings things
to our remembrance at the right time. At the time when our faith
is being exercised. When we are being tested in our
religion. The work of the Holy Spirit is
like that. And what a blessing it is to
think that, that blessed Spirit, He knows all about you, He knows
all about me. It's not something which is unknown
to him. He knows the path that we take. Indeed he knoweth the path that
we take when he has tried us we shall come forth as gold.
Yes, what a blessing it is that. And the Lord does test us. He was testing the disciples
here, wasn't he? And my friends, today the Lord brings these times
of storm into our life. Here it was, and we read, a great
storm. A wind and the waves beat into
the ship so that it was now full. Sometimes the Lord brings these
situations so that we are almost overcome. Almost overcome. But the fact is, you see, we
will not be overcome. Because my friends, the Holy
Spirit will be working in our hearts. And to bring us then
to these remembrances, so that we may remember what the Lord
has said, what the Lord has done. And I believe therefore, under
the blessed influence of the Holy Spirit, what does it do?
It brings peace to our soul. And that's a peace, which is
has eternal realities in it, not something which we can just
give up and fade away. You know, my friends, it's a
solid piece. What a blessing it is then to
have such a gracious God who speaks in this way. You think
of this, this was the night just before the Lord was to be crucified
and the disciples, you see, they didn't know really what was in
front of them. The Lord had told them, but they
hadn't absorbed it. Sometimes we may have had warnings, but
we haven't really absorbed the situation. But here was a word,
a word which they could lay hold of, a word which they could thank
God for. It may be so in our lives. We
can thank God for such a word as this, because it emanates
from God himself. Peace, I leave with you. My peace, I give unto you. And because of that, he tells
them, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. It's
a repetition, isn't it, really, of the words that the 14th chapter
commences with, where the Lord says, let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me, and so on. Well, as we
journey on through life, without any doubt, There will be those
times when we shall be troubled. Our heart will be troubled. What
a blessing it is then to realise that we have such a great and
glorious Saviour, who is the same today. The same today, my
friends. The Lord hasn't lost any of His
power. You may think you've got a mountain
before you. Remember the mountains that God
puts there. And the mountains that God puts
there can be removed as easily as they came. That's why we should
encourage ourselves with the truth of God's Word to know that
the Lord does make the mountains to flow down at his presence. In fact, Nothing can stand in
the way of Almighty God. However big that mountain may
seem, it may seem impossible to ever pass it. Don't forget
we have a great God who is able, God is able to do great things
and my friends to bring those things to pass so that his name
will be honoured and glorified, we find ourselves entering into
these storms to test the reality of our religion and to encourage
us in the faithfulness of our God and to depend upon what he
has said and to trust him. Not to trust ourselves, but to
trust our own abilities. only get deeper, the waves will
get higher, the storm will get stronger. But as the Lord gives
us that grace to come and to cast all our care upon Him, remembering
He cares for us. Now you see when the Lord comes
and applies a truth like that, it will bring peace to our souls. Peace to our souls. And we'll
be thankful that we have a God who has but to speak. He spoke
here very simple words. Peace be still. And everything
obeyed the word of the Lord. So my friends today when God
comes and speaks, peace be still. It will be so. And you'll be
able to rest. You'll be able to rest in the
promises of God. You'll be able to commit on your way unto Him.
You'll be able to cast all your burdens upon Him. You'll be able
to cast all your care upon Him. And there will be that peace
which will fly into your hearts because you'll be thankful God
has given you that grace to do that which you couldn't do yourself.
come and cast all your care upon Him. What a blessing it is to
realise He cares for us. The great God, the almighty ruler
of the universe, cares for puny, unworthy you and me, to such
a degree that He promises to give us peace, His peace. His peace. You know, nothing
can truly disturb that peace. The devil may try, But when God
speaks, it's with power. Power belongeth unto God. And
it produces that peace, which is beyond our natural comprehension. And we're amazed. I mean, the
disciples were amazed, weren't they? They were amazed at what
happened. And he said, 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 ye 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? Well, we're thankful tonight
that we have such a great God that we can come to a great God. who does help us, and a God who
does strengthen us. There are many references to
peace in the Word of God, very, very many, and I won't go through
them all tonight, we'll be here a long, long time, but just one
or two little illustrations to help us with this great favour
of peace. In the 29th Psalm, the Psalmist
David, who had a troubled life, didn't he really? He had many
battles to fight, times when he feared he would be overthrown.
But he comes down in the 29th Psalm in the last verse and we
read, the Lord will give strength unto his people. The Lord will
bless his people with peace. Now David was able to speak these
words because he had experienced them. He'd known that his God
had given him strength and that he knew that the Lord will bless
his people with peace because he's enjoyed it himself. It's
a wonderful thing, isn't it, to have the testimonies of godly
people to encourage us today because we come to that God who
does not change. Yes, he is the same yesterday,
today and forever. The Lord keeps his people and
Isaiah speaks to us in his prophecy about that situation. He tells
us, he says in 26 chapter and the third verse, that will keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusteth in thee. And that is a place of blessing. If we stay upon our God, So often we don't enjoy this
peace because we don't stay upon our God. And I suppose the reason
is, well, we've got our little plans that we expect God to work
to, and we have worked out how things are going to appear, and
then they don't. Well, what are we doing? We're
not staying upon our God. You see, when we can come like
that, and we can trust in Him, because, my friends, God will
do that which is best for us, won't he? He will do that which will
be best for us eternally. You see, the Lord sees our whole
life. We only see the immediate situation
we're in. Let us realise we have a great
God who knows all things. And so may we be able to become
like this and realize the truth, thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on him, because he trusteth in thee. You see, there's one thing in
reading it, and another thing in having faith to do it. But my friends, may God give
us that faith to hear his word. and to be able to really come
and trust in him. Now you see, when the Lord enables
us to do that, what's really happening is that we're casting
our burden upon the Lord. That burden that we were trying
to carry, and it was weighing us down and we weren't making
much progress, it was so difficult. And yet you see when God gives
us that grace and gives us that spiritual understanding to cast our care upon him, then
you see there is that peace. Because we know it's the Lord
who has enabled us to do just that, to come and to cast all
our care upon the Saviour. What a blessing it is that we
have a saviour who does indeed care for us and a saviour who
is so gracious to us. We have a God who doesn't change,
don't we? And that he arose and rebuked
the wind and said unto the sea, peace be still. And the wind
ceased and there was a great calm. You know John's gospel. Apart from that 14th chapter,
there are also, we read in the 16th chapter, where the Lord
spake again to the disciples and it was words of encouragement. And my friends, when the Lord
speaks so often, it's words of encouragement for us that we
can indeed thank God. In the 16th chapter, we read
the very last verse. familiar verse, these things
have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. What does it carry on with? In
the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. Now remember again this was a
continuance of that address that the Lord gave to his disciples
in the Upper Room on that Passover night. And these were really
the last words that he spoke. And yet he says, these things
have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. What does that really mean? It means there's no true peace
in the world. Our peace is in Christ. Indeed, the hymn writer has it
right, doesn't he? Peace by his cross, as Jesus made. And it's when our attention is
directed to the Saviour, when our eyes are fixed upon him,
when we are led to the cross, that's what puts everything in
its place, doesn't it? Everything then becomes right.
All the wrong things become insignificant by comparison with the blessing
that God bestows upon us, the blessing that God gives us, the
blessing that God comes and grants to our souls. There are beautiful
words in the Colossians in the first chapter. We read, and having
made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile
all things unto himself, by him I say, whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. What a difference
when the Lord comes and applies his word and directs us to himself. And then we have a right perspective
of the things of time and the difference between time things
and eternal things. Isn't it a blessing when the
Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit comes and directs our hearts
to these great truths, and we realise, yes, well, I've got
these storms in my life. But you see, when we are able
to view the Saviour, all the things seem to fade away. And having made peace through
the blood of His cross. Now just you think, you see,
we were enemies with God, weren't we? Our sins had separated between
us and our God. And how were we to be reconciled
to Almighty God? And that may be a great storm
in your life. You may feel so alienated. You
may feel so far off. There may be great sins which
stare you in the face. You may seem to be in a terrible
storm. Yes, the wind's blowing, the
waves are boisterous. You're fearful that you will
perish, and you know that you deserve to perish. Then you see, to be blessed with
that faith, to come like this and to see the glory, the glory
of the death, of the Saviour, because that death brings peace,
brings peace, eternal peace. And the blessing is that all
our terrible sins are washed away, taken away through the
sin-atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ. What happens? The storm becomes
a calm. The storm becomes a calm. And
it only becomes a calm because we're able by His grace to look
up. Those glorious words, look unto me. And be ye saved, all
the ends of the earth, for I am God and there's none else. What
a favour it is to be found looking to Jesus. How we fail, don't
we, so often? how we carry our burdens often.
But here we have this great and glorious truth. Remember, for
it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. There's nothing lacking in Christ,
nothing lacking to meet all our needs, all our varied needs,
all our different needs, all our great needs, all our small
needs. My friends, there's a fullness. Let us bless God for it, and
let that fullness bring peace into our hearts. And having made
peace for the blood of his cross, by him, by him, to reconcile
all things unto himself, by him I say. The apostle knew, didn't
he? The apostle knew it so clearly. He'd experienced it. He knew
this was the only place of peace. to be found in Christ, to be
found looking to Him, to be found depending upon Him, to be found
casting all our care upon Him. It's the only place of true,
blessed peace. Don't forget the cost. It was through the blood of His
cross, it was through that excruciating death that He passed through,
that he brought about this lasting peace to his church. And he then speaks directly to
you and me, and you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death. Well, that's a tremendous
truth, isn't it? to reconcile us to God through
what He had done. We can't reconcile ourselves,
but the Saviour reconciles us, has reconciled us to God and
therefore we have this great truth in the body of His flesh
through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. that great Judgment Day, to be
found standing before that great white throne, and to realise
that these words are so blessedly true that we will be presented
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. My friends, as
the Spirit of God may come and apply these things to our hearts
with power from on high, what does it do? Well surely it must
produce that which is in our text, peace. As the Lord Jesus came and spoke
to his disciples on that sea when he said, and he arose, he
arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, peace be still. and the wind ceased, and there
was a great calm. Well, can we not bless God for
these great truths? Can we not bless God for the
peace that he gives? You know, we have the Ephesians,
that beautiful epistle in that second chapter, it starts off
in that way. And you have the quickened who
were dead in trespasses and in sins. And we come down to the
17th verse and we read, And, well, let's read the 16th verse.
And that he might reconcile, again you see this word, reconcile
both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby, and came and preached peace to you, which were far
off, and to them that were nigh, for through him we both have
access by one spirit unto the Father. And he goes on and says,
Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.
So the whole Church of God joined together in unity when they're
blessed with this wonderful experience of knowing that their peace rests
in what Christ has done. And when the Holy Spirit applies
that to their souls, what peace there is. And so we are then,
we're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints. There's that unity of spirit,
there's that which binds the church together, because they're
blessed with this wonderful privilege of peace in Christ. Because he
says, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself, being the chief cornerstone,
in whom all the building, no exceptions, fitly framed together,
groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are
built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. It's all the work of the Spirit,
my friends, to recognise that we have nobility ourselves. But
you see, the blessed work of the Spirit confirms to us what
God has done, that we could not do for ourselves, He's done for
us. And does that not then produce in our hearts that blessing of
peace? in the midst of a difficult world,
in the midst of a stormy world, to know the Lord comes and he
blesses us with peace. The apostle, when he wrote to
the Romans, had a number of references to peace, but just to reference
one and to think how wonderful it is that God gives all these
encouragements to us in the day and age in which we live, we
still have the Word of God. And he tells us, as the Apostle
wrote to the Romans, chapter 15, verse 13, now the God of
hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. And I think
this is a wonderful truth, isn't it? Because you see, the devil,
he comes and he produces these storms in our lives. to try and
to make us despair, make us perish. But here we have this grand statement,
now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. You see when the Lord comes and
blesses us, that we're able to believe the truth of God's word. Here is the result of that. It
brings peace, joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound
in hope for the power of the Holy Ghost. You see, it's the
work of the Holy Spirit which blesses us with that ability,
that grace, that faith to believe. And the result is, as we're blessed
with that, we have then a little peace, a little true peace. Remember
how it's spoken of? The God of hope, filled with
all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope for
the power of the Holy Ghost. And he tells us, and I myself
also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that you also are full
of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish
one another. Well, this God of peace, My friends,
what a glorious God we have, do we not? A God of peace. And
the Apostle tells us, when he wrote
to the Romans, he said, for to be carnally minded is death. Now that's the trouble, isn't
it? When we are carnally minded, when we look around, just like
the disciples did, just like Peter did, you know, when he
walked upon the water, what did he do? He looked all around.
He saw the waves. and he began to sink. That's
the problem you see. When we look all around, calmly
minded. But to be calmly minded, does
that bring any blessing? No. To be calmly minded is death. But, to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Life and peace. To be spiritually
minded, oh to pray that we might be more spiritually minded And
if we're to be more spiritually minded, what does that really
mean? It means to be more Christ-centred, to be continually concerned that
we may be found and realise that Christ is in us the hope of glory. We are born again of his Spirit.
And so to think of these great blessings, as the Apostle says,
to be spiritually minded, is life and peace. And as you know,
he goes on and says, and if Christ be in you, the body is dead because
of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But
if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead should also quicken
your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Well, these
are great truths, aren't they? and it's wonderful to be able
to lay hold of them. And therefore, the Saviour here
spoke of the disciples and asked them this question, how is it
that you have no faith? Oh, that the Spirit of God may
bless us with living faith to read these verses and these words
and remember the promises of God, that we may have grace to
be able to come and commit ourselves unto our God and to see that
we may come and cast all our care upon him, knowing and believing
that he cares for us. You know, that's a wonderful
place of comfort. It's a wonderful place to realize
the great God looks upon us, looks upon me, unworthy me. I haven't been cast off. I haven't
been cast away. I haven't been forgotten. But
God, has been gracious, and God is mindful of me, and God does
come and strengthens me with might in his inner man and gives
us that grace to come to cast my care upon him. Remember here,
And he arose. How humbling it is to think that
God rises up on our behalf. He comes to us where we are. And he delivers our soul, delivers
us out of the great storms of life, the great storms of our
spiritual life, and brings us that peace of God which passes
all understanding. And he arose and rebuked the
wind and said, under the sea, peace be still. And the wind
ceased. And there was a great calm. What
God does is done forever. Amen.