You have your Bible this morning.
You want to turn with me to the fourth chapter of the Gospel
of Saint Mark. Glad to have each one of you
present with us today. We trust that the Lord has prepared
your heart and our heart that we might receive a blessing in
this service. I want to begin reading with
verse 35 and read down through verse 41. Verse 35 through verse
41. And the same day, when the even
was come, he 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
of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him, and saying
to 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
ye 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? Let us pray. Father, we give
thanks this morning in that name that is above every name, even
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee, our Father, for
the eternal life which we have found in Him, which He has been
pleased to reveal unto our hearts. We thank You this morning for
that measure of grace, that measure of faith, that measure of help
and support that You have given to us. We're unworthy of the
least of thy mercies and unworthy of the least of thy blessing.
We thank you this morning that in pure grace thou hast loved
us out of our sin and loved us unto yourself. We do ask this
morning that your blessing would rest upon this service. Thou
knowest our weaknesses, our frailties. Thou knowest the unbelief of
our hearts by nature, and thou knowest how fearful we become
when the trials of life, when the difficulties in this world,
when they present themselves before us, how fearful, our Father,
and unbelieving we are. We do pray at the outset of our
meeting today that you might forgive and pardon our iniquities
and our sins. We ask that thou would put away
our transgressions. We ask, our Father, that thou
would look upon us as we stand in the person of your lovely
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, how we praise thee when
we reflect upon what we are, how we praise thee for what he
is, and the fact that we are accepted in him, and that we
stand before him, before you, on his merit. Grant us, our Father,
a blessing in this service, we would all rise above those various
hindrances, those various situations and difficulties which seem,
our Father, to so easily beset us, we would rise above these
things and we would overcome in His name. And so, our Father,
enable us to receive today from Your Word strength and help,
support, leadership, guidance, that we might be blessed in the
way and that our lives would be lived to the glory of Thy
name. and to the praise of thy name.
Our faith would be strong in our God. We do ask now, Father,
that you would bless those that are ill, those that are afflicted,
those that are aged. We ask that your blessing would
be with them. We pray especially this morning
for that brother who is having a great trial in his life at
this time. Oh, we pray for him. Lord, strengthen
him, give him wisdom, give him grace, and give him thy help
and thy blessing. And Lord, we pray for those who
are looking to you for leadership about their lives and they do
so much want to do thy will. Direct them in the way and lead
them, my Father, and go before them and open doors for them. We just ask you, Lord, today
to receive the glory and honor and praise of this service and
the worship of our hearts. for we offer it in Jesus' name,
Amen. Now we have another account of
this story that we've read to you out of Mark chapter 4 concerning
the storm that came up and our disciples being on board ship
with our Lord. We have another account of that
in the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. And if you would
turn back there, I would like for us to read this account.
It's a little different than the account that we read in Mark
4, and then we'll go back to Mark 4. But here in the 8th chapter
of the Book of St. Matthew, let me begin with verse
23. Verse 23, And when he was entered
into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose
a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with
the waves, but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him
and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he said
unto them, Why are you fearful? O ye of little faith. Then he
arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great
calm. But the men marveled, saying,
What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
him? Now the winds were howling, and
the water was filling the ship, and the disciples thought surely
that the ship, along with themselves, would surely be engulfed in the
enraged sea. So they woke up the Lord Jesus
Christ. The master was asleep in the
hinder part of the ship, up on a pillow, and he had been preaching
all day long to the multitudes. out of the ship. He was preaching
over onto the shore, as it were, and he was weary, and he was
asleep in the hinder part of the ship. And so the disciples,
they woke him out of sleep. Well, in the account here that
we have in Matthew chapter 8, I want you to notice this difference
in the account that we read from the fourth chapter of Mark. We
see here that the first thing that our Lord does He's been
awakened by the disciples. They said, save us, Lord, we
perish. And then he saith unto them,
Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? And so the Lord speaks,
first of all, to the disciples before he calms the sea, and
he speaks to them, first of all, about their unbelief. And so
the disciples are, first of all, addressed by our Lord before
he, with his omnipotence and power, calms the sea. Now, in the account we have in
Mark 4, the Lord spoke seemingly to the waves and to the sea,
first of all, and then to the disciples. But I wanted you to
notice this in particular this morning, this difference in the
account. The Lord here in Matthew 8 speaks
to the disciples about their fear and about their little faith
First of all, now this is very important that we see this. There
is always, brother, sister, notice this, there is always more danger,
I believe, and more peril to a Christian in his own unbelief
than in the most adverse circumstances by which we may be surrounded
in this life. In other words, it seems that
when our Lord said, first of all, to the disciples, the problem,
the real problem here is not the storm, the real problem here
is not these waves, the real problem is not all of the water
flooding on board this ship, but the real problem is in your
heart. The real problem is the fact
that you're fearful and that you're unbelieving. Now, he dealt
with the chief peril first by rebuking their unbelief. Now,
to omnipotence, all things are possible. There is nothing too
hard for the Lord. But, beloved, to my mind, I think
it to be an easier task for Jesus Christ to calm the winds and
the waves on the Galilean Sea than to still the fear and the
unbelief that is in the hearts of the terrified apostles. I
believe that many times the Lord could easily solve the problems
that we have in our lives. He could easily change our circumstances
and easily deal with all of the affairs that are adverse in our
lives. But the real problem comes in
the Lord dealing with the fear and the unbelief of our hearts.
Not that he's not up to it, but I believe it's a bigger task.
Now, the mental seems to always excel the physical, and the ruling
of hearts is a greater thing than the governing of winds and
waves. So, brother, sister, when you
and I find ourselves in trials, When we find ourselves head over
heels in trouble, let us always begin with ourselves. Let us
begin with ourselves. Let us begin with our own fears,
our own mistrust of God, our own suspicions of His love and
of His power, our own selfishness and self-will. For the real danger,
brother, sister, lies right there. All the trouble in the world
cannot harm you as much as one ounce of unbelief. Oh, the seed
of unbelief. And what can come from a man
mistrusting God? What can actually come from a
man not believing the word of the Lord? Now listen to me this
morning. Let me tell you that poverty cannot make you as poor
as unbelief can. Listen, sickness cannot make
you as sick as unbelief can. The greatest evil to be dreaded
by a child of God in this world is that of a fearful and distrusting
heart of his God, being distrustful of the Lord. This is what we
must dread, brother, sister, in our life. Now to the subject
at hand. Let us turn back to Mark chapter
4. Now, here in this particular
account, we find that our Lord Jesus Christ, as He is asleep,
He's been awakened by the disciples, and our Lord speaks to the winds
and the waves, and there was a great calm. He said, Peace
be still, and there was a great calm, and He said unto them,
Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? How is it that you have no faith? Now I do not doubt, brother sister,
that these disciples thought, every one of them thought, that
they had strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They had been
with him all day long. They'd been listening to him
tell the parables. They had been told by him that
it was given unto them to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of God. They had been near him. They
had felt the warmth and the power of his message. And they all
believed, and I do not for a minute question that each one of them
felt that they were firmly grounded in the faith of Jesus Christ.
I believe that every one of them would have said, we'll stand
the test. We can stand the test. We're
well able. We certainly do believe our God. We believe that this is the Lord
that's with us and we will stand firm in faith whenever the trial
comes. How could they possibly have
doubted their Lord in this circumstances. But my brother this morning,
my sister this morning, none of us have any idea about how
weak and how scantily our faith really is. When trial comes,
and it will come, remember that we have no more faith at any
time than we have when we are in trial. Now it's easier for
us to believe that we have all manner of faith when we're not
under trial, when we're not pressed. I mean when hard times are not
upon us. I mean when everything is going
easy and we've got enough money to pay our bills and our obligations
and when we're well able to see the way before us. Ah, we do
not feel at that time that we lack faith. We feel that we have
all manner of faith. But all our supposed faith, beloved,
that we think we have, the faith that we suppose that we have,
if it will not bear to be tested in trial, then it's just mere
carnal or fleshly confidence. It's not real heart faith in
the living God. Fairweather faith is no faith
at all. If your faith is just strong
when the weather is good, then you don't really have any faith. That faith only is a true faith
that can say with Job of old, though he slay me, yet will I
trust him. The true faith is a faith that
endures as seeing him that is invisible. Now, I will admit
that this was a real trial that these disciples here had. This
was, indeed, a very severe storm. This was a severe storm. Now, they'd been on the lake
before, and they were experienced fishermen. This wasn't the first
storm that they'd ever endured. Surely, surely they were acquainted
with how these storms could come up upon the lake. But this was
no usual storm. Now, the trials of the people
of God, they are real trials. They, like these disciples, cannot...
Listen, the trials that come into the lives of the members
of God's living family are real trials, and we cannot just shrug
our shoulders and cast off our trials and pay no attention to
them. Real trials, one of the basic
characteristics of real trials from the Lord are that these
trials get our attention. They get our attention indeed,
and there's not something that we can just say, well, we're
just going to ignore this. No, you cannot ignore real trials
from God. They are there, and you will
not have deliverance until God gives you deliverance from the
trial, and therefore, you must wait upon Him. This is a very
basic characteristic of what God sends into the lives of His
people. Now note again that this storm
was, I think, the more trying to them because it came upon
them when they were in the path of duty. when they were in the
path of duty. Our Lord had bid them to go over
to the other side. Our Lord was in the ship, and
He said, come on and get in here, fellas. Go to the other side.
I want you to do this. This is My will. You go to the
other side. They were not on a vacation.
The Master had bidden them. They were not on a holiday. The
Master said, I want you to go, I want you to cross over to the
other side. Now they were doing right. They
were doing right. And the storm came upon them
while they were doing the right thing. Now, beloved, this is
nothing new. This is nothing new at all. This
has often perplexed believing men and women in this world that
when they do right, they still have trials, they still have
trouble, they still have tests. And they're trying to do the
right thing. They're trying to walk with God. They're trying to do what they
ought to do. And I have heard believers say that they prospered
more while they were lost than they did after They were converted. I've heard believers say that
things went smoother before in their lives, before they knew
the Lord, than they did after they'd come to know the Lord.
Well, my friend, how can these things be? Well, let me tell
you this, that I'm trying to do the right thing in my life,
and I think you're trying to do. I want to believe that all
of us are trying to do the right thing in our lives. I try to
obey the Word of God. Don't you? Don't you try to do
what God would have you to do with all of your heart? Well,
beloved, sometimes, even when we're the most dedicated and
the most given over to the doing of the right thing and doing
our duty as it is spelled out for us in the Word of God, this
becomes our severest trial. that while we're trying to do
the right thing, all seems to go against us, and we're experiencing
trial after trial in our life. Now listen, any dead fish can
float downstream, But it takes a living child of God to swim
upstream against the current. Now the apostle Paul told Timothy,
he said, you fight the good fight of faith. You fight the good
fight of faith. This is going to be a fight.
This is going to be a struggle. You must fight in this world
against the world of flesh. and the devil. And again, Paul
said when he was about to die, he said, I have kept the faith.
I have kept it. Now, beloved, you don't say I've
kept the faith unless you've been in a battle, unless you've
been under trial, unless you've been severely tested. And I believe
that Paul obeyed the Lord, walked in the ways of God, and followed
Him in his life, but still had many, many trials. Moreover,
I think it tried the faith that the storm came upon them while
Jesus was in the ship. I believe this was most trying
to these disciples, that they were tried when Jesus was in
the ship. When the Lord Jesus was right
there in the ship. Now, had he been absent, they
could have understood why that they were having this calamitous
time, why this awful storm was coming upon them. But he was
with them. How can I have so much trouble,
somebody says, with Christ in the ship with me? How can I have
so much trouble if Jesus is with me? If the Lord is truly with
me? Well, if I am out of fellowship
with the Lord, People will say, I could understand why this would
happen to me. I can understand why I have such
problems as I have. I can understand it very well.
But when I am in, when I'm walking, when I'm in communion with the
Lord, when I'm walking with God, when I'm in fellowship with Him,
when I'm attempting to do, as we said earlier, our duty, well,
beloved, this is indeed the test of faith. Whom the Lord loveth,
whom the Lord loveth, the scripture says, he chasteneth and scourgeth
every son that he receives. And we think, what we think is,
that all trials means that the Lord is angry or that the Lord
is upset with us. That's what we think. Every time
that something goes wrong in our life, we say, well, the Lord's
angry with me, or the Lord is upset with me. The Lord surely
is put out with me, and that's why these things are happening
in our lives. Well, beloved, This is wrong
to believe this. It's not so. These may be these
trials that you have today in your life. These tests may be
tokens and tests of the love of God in your life. It may just
simply to bring you to see that the Lord really and truly has
received you as sons and that you belong to him and that he's
taking your case up and that he's dealing with your life.
And so I believe this was a test to these disciples that they
were having this awful storm while Jesus was on board ship. And again, the storm seemed to
be so untimely. It seemed to be so untimely. Now, there were many other little
ships, we're told here, with them, and they were all caught
in the same storm. I don't know whether you thought
anything about that or not, all these little ships out here.
And here's this large ship that the disciples and Jesus are in,
and all these little ships, they had to be suffering, oh, maybe
more than what this large ship was suffering in this storm.
But, beloved, trials are never welcome. They are never welcome,
but sometimes they are peculiarly disagreeable. They in a peculiar
way are disagreeable, and that is the case at this time. We
want all things to go well for everyone. We don't want anything
to prejudice men against the gospel. We'd like for the weather
to be good on Sunday morning. We'd like for people to be able
to get out on the highways and drive to church. We don't want
no slick roads on Sunday morning. And I can imagine these disciples,
they, you know, all these little ships around, people that had
come to hear our Lord, and they were going on over on the other
side with Him, boats loaded, and I'm sure that the disciples
said, now we, we, oh my, why does this have to happen now?
Why that, all these people are going to think that Jesus is
another Jonah. That's what they're going to
think. And we don't want anybody to think ill of the Lord Jesus. Well, you know, there's many,
many times when we will say to ourselves, when trials come,
this is so untimely. This is so untimely. You know,
I think back to the death of my mother this summer. And I
had prayed earnestly that the Lord would provide for me, make
me able, put me in a position, when she passed away, to go back
to Indiana and preach her funeral. And when I got news that my mother
was dying and I thought about my circumstances,
my situation, I said, well, it couldn't have been more untimely.
Couldn't have been more untimely. Such a disagreeable time. I mean,
not two nickels to rub together and so disagreeable. But the
Lord, I immediately could see how that the Lord had provided
and how He had went before me and provided for that situation.
And then I've been praying all along, Lord, give me something
to say when I stand up to preach to all of my relatives, give
me something to say. And the Lord mercifully and graciously
provided that. and gave it to me. But you see,
it was at a time when I thought, well, the well's dry. I don't
have anything to say to all of these relatives that need to
hear the gospel, but the Lord provided a message. And so sometimes
these trials are disagreeable, and we think that they're very
untimely But beloved, listen, the Lord is in them and we need
to believe that God is gracious and that he will supply the need
and that he will deliver in the time of these great trials. Let
us all have a calm spirit in our hearts and believe that in
these calamitous circumstances that God will most surely work
out his perfect and acceptable will. Now, sometimes the strange
occasion of the trial, it does indeed, I think, make it harder
to bear. The strange occasions that they
come with. I will admit all of that. But
still, let us believe that God will most surely, and even if
your hands are tied, and even if you can't do what you would
like to do, and maybe even what you feel you ought to do, just
trust God. Trust God and leave it to Him.
Now, what I want to do this morning is use these two questions that
our Lord asked these disciples, if I can, for our spiritual profit. I want us to profit some spiritually
by these two questions. These questions are, why are
you so fearful, and how is it that you have no faith? Well, first of all, I look upon
this question, why are you so fearful as being an exclamation
of pity? An exclamation of pity. And then
when the Lord said, how is it that you have no faith? I look
upon that as being a rebuke or a censor of love, a censor of
the love of God, a rebuke of God's love toward His people. And then thirdly, I want, if
I can, in this message, to get to the bottom of our trouble
by trying to ask us a few questions about our particular situation. I will try to hurry. Our time
is getting away. Now then, our Lord woke up, I
think, on this day when he was in this ship. And the disciples
woke him up. It was the middle of the night,
but our Lord woke up like it was a bright summer morning. He woke up very calm, and he
looks upon the disciples with wonder, and finding them so strangely
different from himself, he asked them in all the calmness of his
own brave spirit, Why are ye so fearful? Why are ye so fearful? Now, beloved, I wished I was
not able to do so. No man alive is able to do so. There's no man that can speak
like our Lord. But if you were to hear this
morning these words from the very mouth of the living Lord
Jesus Christ, I believe that it would kill fear and unbelief
in your soul. Can you believe what these words
must have sounded like coming from the mouth, coming from the
tender, compassionate heart of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why are
ye so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? Well, let's think about that
a little bit. I believe that our Lord pitied
He pitied these disciples, and he pitied them, I think, for
several reasons. First of all, their fears had
made them so unlike himself. Their fears had made them so
unlike himself. They were his servants. They
should have been as their master. They were learners. They were
disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did they not put in practice
the lessons of his example? His quietness and calmness and
peace ought to have been contagious. I think it ought to have affected
them. I spoke to a brother last night
on the telephone over in a neighboring state, and he at this time is
going through a real serious trial in his family. And in the
background, I called at a time which was not a good time to
call. I had no way of knowing myself,
but There was a family discussion going on, and it was kind of
a heated discussion. And the brother said, I'll have
to call you back. He says, I'm not able right now
to speak with you. And so I said to him, I said,
Brother, remember this, that our Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ,
was always calm. He was calm. And so you be calm
in the midst of your trouble, in the midst of your situation.
Imitate the Lord Jesus Christ. And I thought that was all I
could say to him in the few minutes that I had, just a few, I should
say seconds, that I had to speak with him. Our Lord is calm and
so you be calm. Now these disciples act They
acted as if they had never been around the Lord Jesus Christ. They acted as if they had never
heard Him preach. They acted as if they had never
watched Him and watched His example. And that they had never profited
by their association with Him. Well, they were not like Him
yet. They should have been, but they were not. Although the design,
I think, of the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ is to make
men like Himself. The Scripture says that if we
say we know Him, we ought to walk even as He walked. And then the Bible teaches that
we're predestinated to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
And then the Bible says in 1 John that when we see Him like He
is, we're going to be like Him. So we're all destined to be like
the Lord Jesus Christ sooner or later. Glorious day. That'll
be when that comes to pass. Now the Master often looks, I
think, upon us, and he looks upon us with much pity and grieves
over us that after our being in the way, after our having
studied the Word of God to the extent that we have, after our
having been exposed, to the doctrines of the gospel and to the truth
of his grace, and after having had his very person revealed
to us by the Holy Spirit, that we are so far, so far away from
being like Him. We fall so far short of His glory,
and some of us are getting gray-haired, some of us are getting white-haired,
and we've been around the things of God, reading, studying, meditating
on the things of God all of these years, and still we fall so far
short of His glory when it comes to faith. Believing Him in our
trials. How is it that we're so fearful
when Christ is so calm? Is this our imitation of Jesus
Christ? Our doubts and fears, our alarms,
our mistrust of God? Are these such as followers of
Jesus Christ ought to exhibit? Does your life exhibit the calmness
and quietness and tranquility of your Lord, of your Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, I think the Lord pitied
them next because their fear and unbelief made them so unlike
themselves. Not only unlike the Lord Jesus,
but unlike themselves, really. They were men. They were men
indeed. They were fishermen. And they
were braver than this, surely, that immediately they would act
like frightened children at this storm. When you and I get fearful,
we get foolish, and we think and speak and act in a foolish
way. Do we not? When we get fearful,
I mean when we're in unbelief, Doesn't it make us act like silly,
foolish children and people? We could have weathered the storm
in any given situation, on any given day, had we just trusted
the Lord, had we not failed in confidence in God. But when we
fail there, we become weak as water and no telling what we
might say, no telling how we might act. because we are fearful. We are fearful. A fear grips
our heart. How are the mighty fallen, the
children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back
in the day of battle? These who ought to be patterns
of courage, they become cowards when faith fails. Surely the
Lord pities us when instead of being like himself, we're not
even like ourselves. much less being like him. Now, Jesus, again, I think he
pitied them because their fears made them so unhappy. Their fears
made them unhappy. They were white as sheets. The
boat was filling and sinking. Well, what was the matter? Was
they afraid to die? Was they afraid to die? We feel
a thousand deaths, the poet said, in fearing one. To die is nothing. compared with feeling or fearing,
I should say, to die. All the agony of death, we're
told, lies in the foresight of it. Was this what got to these
disciples? Was they fearful of death? Were
they unhappy over the thought of leaving this world? Death
for the believer, it ends all agony. Through death, the believer
enters in to rest. And these men were made wretched
by their fear. They were made very, very sorrowful
and unhappy and very childish over their fears. Our unhappiness,
our sorrow, beloved, I believe most of it is homemade. We beat
it out of our own anvil with the hammer of our forebodings,
and we need to be very careful that most of our unhappiness
lies in the fact that we don't believe God, that we're not trusting
the Lord. The Lord pardon us of this, that
we should make ourselves so unhappy by our unbelief and miss the
joy of a restful faith in our blessed Lord. Lastly, the Master
felt pity for these disciples because their fears made them
so unkind. It made them unkind. Does unbelief
make you unkind? Does it make us unkind? I'm sure
it does. Now listen, they said to the
master, now here he is, weary and asleep on the pillar, and
they say to him, listen to what they say to him. Carest thou not that we perish? That's what they say to him.
Now it sounds to me like this is rather wicked and unkind.
Don't you think it is? Carest thou not that we perish? Well, have you often been unkind? And have you ever said hard things
to the Lord? Made hard speeches to God? I
mean, under your breath? About the providence of God?
About what was happening in your life? About the circumstances
that you had to deal with and put up with? Did you ever make
any unkind statements to your Lord? Well, I'm sure that we
all have. We are not tender even toward
others. Our tendency, our unbelief, has
a tendency to make us unkind, and we're not tender toward the
Lord like we ought to be, and we are not tender toward those
around us at home. If a man gets fearful and in
unbelief, he can be a bear to live with. Even though he's a
professing Christian, he can be tough to live with. And then
when he gets to church, sometimes he's rather short because he
is in unbelief. And he is unkind because he is. And out in the world, he can
be tough to handle and get along with, even though he's a professing
believer, because he's walking in unbelief and he's fearful
in his own heart. Now, listen, when we're disturbed
about ourselves, look out. when things are not right in
our hearts. about faith toward God. Be careful. Our master,
he didn't find fault with the unkindness of his disciples here.
He went to the root of the evil and their unbelief. He went right
to the root of the problem, their unbelief and their fear. Why
are you fearful? How is it that you have no faith? Well, let's think just a moment
or two, and like I say, I've got to hurry, about these words
here. How is it that you have no faith?
I said I believe this was a rebuke of our Lord. Now is this a serious
thing or is it not? Is it serious to mistrust God? Is it serious to have unbelief
in your heart as a professing believer or as an individual
in this world? Is it a very serious thing? Well, I believe it is. I believe
it's a very serious thing. We're told in Mark chapter 16
and verse 16, that he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
but he that believeth not shall be damned. And then in John chapter
3, in verse 16, the scripture says that God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through him might be saved. And he that believeth
is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God." Sounds to me like it's serious. And then also we
read in the scripture, in the 36th verse of John chapter 3,
that he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath
of God abideth on him. And then in the book of the Revelation,
in chapter 21, in verse 8, we read these words, and the unbelieving are put together
with the murderers and the whoremongers and the idolaters and the sorcerers
and they said they're gonna all have their part in that lake
which burns with fire and so it does it does it to you sound
like it's a serious thing to be fearful and unbelieving my
brother sister it is indeed and I'll tell you something this
morning this is so serious unbelief is not It is not a weakness that
ought to be tolerated, but I believe it's a crime that ought to be
condemned. And I believe here our Lord rebukes
these disciples for that very reason. They ought to believe
him, and they ought to trust his power, and they ought to
trust his love. How could they think that he
would let them sink? How could they believe this?
He was in the ship with them? Was the Lord Jesus Christ a pretender? Was he a fake? Would he let that
ship go down? with himself on board? When he
had been sent into this world by God the Father on a mission?
When he had been sent here to save his people from their sins? When he had been sent here with
the obligation upon him to finish the work which the Father gave
him to do? Would he go down with his disciples? Would they go down? Would they
sink? Ah, to think that we ever doubt him who gave up his life
for our salvation. He must not be doubted anymore,
brother sister. It's cruelty to doubt him whose
life and death has given us so many infallible proofs of his
unchanging, his immutable love. It is cruelty, I say, to do it. It is evident to me that their
unbelief and ours is unreasonable. It is unreasonable to not believe
God. The most unreasonable thing in
this world is to doubt God Almighty. Listen, faith is pure reason. That may sound like a paradox
to you, but nothing is so reasonable as to believe the Word of God
who cannot err or lie. God cannot make a mistake, and
God cannot lie, and the most unreasonable thing you can do
is to mistrust the Lord, and to be fearful and unbelieving
toward Him. The fear of these disciples was
unreasonable because it was contrary to their own convictions, to
their own doctrines. Now, listen, they surely believed
in this deity, don't you think so? Don't you believe that they
believed that this was God manifest in the flesh? Don't you think
so? I believe they believed that. If you would ask them before
the storm come up, they'd say, this is God incarnate. That's who this is right here
in the ship. He's asleep back here, but this is God. We believe
that. And then don't you suppose they
believed in his sovereignty? Don't you suppose that they believed
that he was omnipotent? They believed in all of his attributes.
Every one of these disciples prayed them before us all, and
they all would say, we believe in his attributes. We believe
that all power belongeth unto God. In heaven and earth, we
believe he can do whatever he wants to do, whenever he wants
to do it, however he pleased to do it. We believe this is
God. And here they are fearful and
unbelieving when the storm comes up. I tell you, this is so unreasonable. It's because it's contrary to
everything you believe. And you and I are found in the
same position over and over again. We say, well, we believe. Preacher,
we believe that God's on the throne. We believe that God is
a God that has a will and a purpose and that none can thwart it or
none can say to him, why doest thou? None can cause him to turn
from accomplishing his divine purpose, that purpose that he's
purposed from the foundation of the world. Now do they believe
that this one, the Lord Jesus Christ, that this mission can
be thwarted by this storm and that Jesus Christ can drown in
a river or drown in a lake whenever he's been purposed of God to
die on a tree, die on a cross. Well, if they sink in the sea,
he must sink with them, too. And, brother, sister, you remember
this, that you say, Preacher, you believe the Lord's in everything
in our lives? Anything that's, if you, are
you a child of God? You say, yes, I'm a child of
God. Then anything you're involved with, He's involved with. The Lord's in it if it's, if
your life is involved with it. And the Lord is involved with
it. And if you think, then He will. We're all in the same boat
together. And so, brother, sister, listen
to me now. I beg you not to be inconsistent with your beliefs. If you believe something, stand
true to it. Face it and stand true. And believe
what God says and don't be moved off of it. Regardless of how
bad the storm is. Their unbelief was contrary to
their own experience. And how, listen, They had seen
the Lord work miracles. They had seen the Lord perform
many, many wonderful works. They had proofs of His power
and His Godhead. They could sit with you for hours
on end and tell you how it had been to walk with the Lord and
follow the Lord. Is not this true of us also?
Has the Lord ever failed any of us? Has the Lord ever, hey
listen, has He not helped us to this day? Why, the Lord's
helped me to this day. Listen, are we going to fly in
the teeth of everything that God has ever done for us and
become fearful and unbelieving at this stage of the game? Somebody
said, well, preacher, are you going to be able to stand? Well,
I better stand after all of these years. I've seen about everything.
And about everything that's happened that I figured could happen,
things that I feared would happen, has happened. And I've been around
and around and around through all kinds of trials and tests.
I'll tell you, the Lord's been faithful to me. God has been
faithful to me. He said that when you're unfaithful,
still I'll be faithful. I cannot deny myself. I'm God
and I'm truthful. I'm faithful and you can believe
that what I said I'm going to do. Whatever, whatever and however
it is with you. Well, is all that you've ever
believed about God, is it going to turn into a lie? Is it? You're on board that ship, and
boy, that water's coming up. I mean, it's coming up. And that
wind is howling and raging. Are you gonna just say, well,
everything I ever believed about God's a lie? Trouble comes, problems,
phone rings, this happens, that happens. Oh, my. You gonna give up everything
you ever believed about God and say it's all a lie? No, no, no, no,
we can't do that. We can't do that. Have we been
under a delusion to this very day? Have we been deceived? No! These disciples acted like they
had been deceived! Lord, don't you care that we
perish? Save us! We perish! Have we been
under a delusion to mistrust? God is irrational. It is irrational
because It is contrary to all of our experience and contrary
to the observation both of faith and our very eyes. God is faithful. Now, boy, I don't know. I hope
anybody here got to be somewhere at 12 o'clock because we're just
a few minutes away. But listen to me. Another thing
I see in this unbelief, it deserves censure because it grew out of
these low views. of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I tell you, I had to mention this. Because there are so many
preachers, when they're preaching to people, they preach Jesus
just, you know, not over an inch or two taller than we are. And
he certainly don't have any more power than we got. And he certainly
can't do anything that we won't let him do. And so the professed
people of God come up with low views. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Can't do anything unless we let
Him. And He's a doormat. Call Jesus.
Wipe your feet on Him if you want to. Take Him if you want.
Try Him if you want. Do whatever you want to with
Him. Brother, sister, I'm telling
you that if a man ever hears the Lord Jesus Christ exalted
and preached up. I'm not able to preach him as
high as he ought to be preached, but if a man ever hears him exalted
and preached up to the point where that he's God on a throne
and he is the eternal God and he has all power in heaven and
on earth and he can do whatever he wills to do, listen to me,
I believe it'll help us a whole lot with this fear and this unbelief. It'll make a great deal of difference
if we just understood. And after the Lord had said,
peace be still, and there was a great calm, why, they all marveled. And they said, well, what manner
of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? What manner of man is this? Oh,
beloved, listen, if you ever hear Jesus preach and hear Him
lifted up and hear Him glorified, you're going to say, well, this
man, this man, he's able to do, he's able to deliver. This man,
he most surely, if he's taken my case, he will surely deliver
me in his good time. Oh, that we thought more of Jesus.
You cannot think too much of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
tell me I make too much of Him because I'll just go right on
and I'll determine to make more of Him, more of Him. And one
of my problems is I've made too much of the Lord Jesus Christ
and there's some people in this state that are not interested
in having too much made of Him and so little made of them. But
our effort here is to preach Him up and to preach Him as high
as we possibly can by the Holy Spirit. If we took Him to be
what He really is, I mean, if we regarded Him as most truly
God, we could rest in Him and say farewell, oh, fear and unbelief. Our Father has put to grief the
Lord Jesus Christ for me, and he will never charge my sin. To me, once he has charged it
to my bleeding surety's hand, the Lord Jesus Christ is God. Now, if Jesus were greater in
our esteem, our lives would just surely be more glorifying to
the living God. Let us then close with that point
Let's go on to the last right quick, and I'll not not keep
you long. I don't have too much on this
This will be very short. I want to just ask you a few
questions about your unbelief and If there's ever going to
be any hope of our getting past being like most of us are When
we get in trouble and when we're faced with with a difficult situation
being fearful and full of unbelief Then we got to examine this we
got to get to the bottom of it Let me just ask you a few questions.
How is it that you have no faith? That was the question of our
Lord. How is it that you have no faith? Is it for the want
of knowledge? Is it that you just don't know
enough about God and about his word? Listen to me, let me ask
you this. I think the disciples, if they
would have known Jesus better, They surely would have acted
different. They surely would have believed
Him. Is it so with any of us? Are
we badly taught in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Have you and
I cloudy views at the best of the covenant of grace and of
the great salvation which is wrapped up in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ? I say cloudy views at the best. Listen, is our want of faith,
is it that we just don't have enough knowledge? If it be so,
the quickest way to remedy that is to get your Bible down, is
to study the Word of God more, pay more attention to what you
hear when you're hearing the Word preached. I mean come prepared
to work at listening to the Word of God. Some people say, well,
you know, I can't follow much of it, preacher. I just get a
little bit here and there. Can't follow much of it. You discipline
yourself and you get to work on studying to pay attention
to what the preacher's got to say so that you might make advancement
in faith. Spend more time. Two, three,
four, five times the amount of time that you now spend Spend
it in devotion, draw near to God, asking the Holy Spirit to
lead you and to guide you into all truth. And it'll kill your
fears and it'll strengthen your faith. Remember the word. Acquaint now thyself with God,
and be at peace, for thereby good shall come unto thee. It
reminds me of that old song, More About Jesus. More about
Jesus, let me learn, more of his holy will discern. Spirit
of God my teacher be, showing the things of Christ to me. More
about Jesus and his word, holding communion with my Lord. Hearing
his voice in every line, making each faithful saying mine. Is it that we don't know enough
about him? Is that why that we got so much unbelief and fear?
And then secondly, how is it that we have no faith? Is it
that our trials take us by surprise? Do you think this storm took
these disciples by surprise? They'd been in church all day
and they'd been with our Lord all day and half the night. Do
you think it took them by surprise? I think it did. I think they
probably said, well, being that we've been in church so long
and being that we've been with the Lord all day, surely we'll
not have a trial tonight. Surely. No trial tonight. Well, don't you believe it for
a minute, brother, sister. I'll tell you that some of the
time you can mark it down that if God lifts you up and you get
up on the mountain and you know that God has blessed you, you
better look out in a day or two. You better look out. Maybe the
same day you better look out. Because I'll tell you the trials
can come on you. Some of the greatest trials that
I've had in my life came on me right after the Lord had mightily
shown me His hand. And I ran on the strength of
that visitation of the Lord through the great trials of my life. Now listen, Christ, here listen,
He was on board, but listen, here's the trial, and the lesson
is this, don't ever let your guard down. Never let any affliction
surprise you. The Lord said, in the world you'll
have tribulation. If your children die, don't be
surprised. Shall mortal parents bring forth
immortal offspring? Don't be surprised. If your earthly
goods and your riches, if they just suddenly take wings and
fly away, don't be surprised. They had wings all along. Why
should they not fly? Why not? Yes, believe it, my
friend. Don't be surprised. Don't be
surprised about these things. The Bible says, listen, any adversity
that happens, you ought not be surprised because the Bible says
that as sparks fly upward, we're all born into trouble. We're
born into trouble. So believe it. Count on tribulation.
And then you'll not be overtaken nor fret as though some strange
thing was happening to you. How is it that you have no faith?
Was it because you do not trust God fully, but trust in your
own strength? Trust in your own strength? We
too often mingle reliance upon self or upon some other arm of
flesh with our reliance upon God. We can manage. Sure, we
can manage, we say. We can do it. We can do it. Well,
brethren, we're never so weak as when we feel strongest. and
never so foolish as when we think we're wise. Remember, when our
confidence is partly in God and partly in ourselves, then listen,
it's not long before we're going to experience a fall. We've got
to have confidence in God Almighty only. The arm of flesh will fail
you, and you dare not trust your own. Trust the Lord solely and
wholly. Now listen, the last thing is
this. Are we too absorbed Is it that we have no faith because
we're too absorbed with our trials, too absorbed with them? Now,
I think that oftentimes we read too much in to the trials that
we have. I think these disciples immediately
said, this means death. We're going to die on this ship.
We're going to die. You know, a lot of times when
we have trials, you say, well, you know, I got a wife and a
child. I got a wife and three children. I got a wife and four
children. A man with a wife and family can't afford to drown.
Well, I mean, after all, I mean, I've got to live. I can't afford
to, I can't afford to do this. I can't afford to risk this and
that. I mean, I've got to, I mean, I've got a right to be fearful.
I've got a right to look after my own and to deal with my own
sister. Listen, if we fix our thoughts
when we're in trial solely upon the wife and the children, solely
upon the job, solely upon our plans, solely upon what we want
to do, the very desires of our life. And whenever the Lord is
leading us to go in a certain way, and we say, well, we've
got to take into account this and that and all these other
things, and we've got to make sure that all of these other
things, that everything fits in, because after all, we don't
want to risk our security. We don't want to do all this.
Listen to me. A trial of faith doesn't necessarily mean that
you're going to lose your livelihood. A trial of faith doesn't necessarily
mean you're going to die. Quit believing it does. God's
able to deliver you. You trust God in your situation. Don't become so absorbed with
your trial that you say, oh, it means this, it means that,
family's going to be split up, busted up, the home's going to
be gone, the job's going to be gone, my this is going to be
gone and that's going to be gone. Just believe God and quit being
so absorbed and quit reading so much into every trial that
crosses your path. There isn't any wonder you're
afraid all the time and that you have no faith. You're just
absorbed with you and yours. and you're not concerned at all
about God Almighty and what He would do with your life. This thought must be in our minds
when every trial comes. And I think this covers it all.
Jesus is with us. He is with us. He has an eternal
purpose. I am involved in it. And I cannot
fail until He does. And I'll trust Him until the
last breath is gone out of my body. I'll trust Him, and wherever
He leads me, I will go. And I'll do as He directs me
to do, and I'll love Him the best I can. The winds are blowing,
but Jesus Christ is on board with me. The waves roar, but
Jesus is on board. These poor sailors, they are
not going to perish because Jesus is on board. He's there and He's
there with them. And our brooding upon what we
might lose by walking by faith, my friend, listen, it's too much
for our faith and we're going to become childlessly fearful.
I remember 20, 23 years ago when the Lord led me to this city.
I can take you to a spot over there, up there in Great Falls
on 7th Avenue, on 7th Avenue, I can take you to a spot in a
front yard up there where the Lord said to me when I was full
of fear and unbelief about leaving my security in Indiana, my business
and everything and coming here to preach the gospel, I can take
you and show you where the Lord said to me The fearful and the
unbelieving will have their part in the lake which burns with
fire. I can take you there and show you. I'm telling you this,
that when a man starts brooding over everything when he's in
trial, that might come of it all, that man has no faith. He's not trusting God. You have
got to leave. Get over the Lord. Let me say
that you nor any other child of God will ever lose anything
by trusting the Lord. You will never lose anything
by trusting God. Is that right? By trusting Him.
We must glorify our Lord by believing confidence in Him such as neither
storm, sorrow, nor tempest, or temptation can shake. Amen. We must glorify the Lord. We
must believe Him. Well, that's the message this
morning. And I, last Sunday morning, I made a vow. I just, I'll repent. After I preached last Sunday
morning, I said, I'll never, I'll never preach long again.
I'd say, it's over, it's done. And here this morning, I've come
back here and I preached 20 minutes longer than I normally do. Now,
what do you say about that? That goes to show you a fellow
just don't know what he's going to do in a week away from time. He certainly don't know. Well,
Mike, do you have a hymn?