Spiritual Depression Pt. 10: The Nature of Faith

The Storm on the Sea and Christ’s Question, “Where Is Your Faith?”

So we're continuing our series on spiritual depression with using a book by Martin Lloyd-Jones, and he uses the events, the miracle of Jesus calming the sea, and so it's given in several different Gospels, and he uses this one in particular.

Now on one of those days, Jesus and his disciples got into a boat and he said to them, let us go over to the other side of the lake. So they launched out, but as they were sailing along, he fell asleep, and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger.

They came to Jesus and woke him up saying, Master, Master, we are perishing, and he got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. And he said to them, where is your faith?

They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him? Now that's reported in several of the other Gospels, and this is his introduction to this chapter, and the title of this chapter is really The Nature of Faith.

All right, I want to call attention particularly to this question, which was addressed by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the disciples. He said to them, where is your faith? Keep that phrase in mind.

Indeed, I would call your attention to this entire incident as part of our consideration of the subject of spiritual depression. We have already considered a number of causes of the condition, and this particular incident in the life and ministry of our Lord brings us face-to-face with yet another cause.

Remember, what we're looking at is spiritual depression is a real phenomenon that takes place far too often in the church of Jesus Christ. We're not talking about non-believers at this point, but this is something that takes place within the church to individuals in the church.

And we're moving now on to the next phase, which is talking about faith. The one that is dealt with here is the whole problem in question of the nature of faith. That's what I've titled the whole lecture tonight is The Nature of Faith.

In other words, there are many Christians who get into difficulty and are unhappy from time to time because they clearly have not understood the nature of faith. So let's examine this topic. He continues, he says, now this very striking incident brings out the vital importance of distinguishing between the original gift of faith and the walk of faith, or the life of faith, which comes subsequently.

God starts us off in this Christian life, and then we have to walk in it. We walk by faith, not by sight, is the theme that we are now considering. Now, it is important that we distinguish this. We are saved by grace through faith, and that is the gift of God.

Remember, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 tells us very clearly that no one can boast about their salvation because we are saved by grace, the vehicle being faith. Not only is the grace a gift, but the faith to believe is also a gift, so that everybody is saved by this gift of faith.

And what the point that Martin Lloyd-Jones is saying here is that some people get into trouble because they don't recognize that there's a difference between the gift of faith that brought us into the kingdom and the walk of faith, okay?

And we're going to pick up on that as we go along. So I want you to keep in mind, though, the purpose of the miracles of Jesus Christ, because we're looking at one of them here today. What I mean by that is, one of the purposes is that they authenticated the fact that he is the Son of God.

Remember, as we went through the Gospel of John, seven miracles, and each one of those showed a particular aspect of the nature of Christ and his rule over the universe. They displayed his power over this world which he created.

In the present case, we see that he exerts power over the entire physical realm. I mean, just imagine what happens. The sea is churning and so badly that water is coming into the boat. The disciples try to bail it out, but they're lost, all right?

Jesus stands, and what does he do? He calms the sea. The wind stops, the sea stops. So it clearly shows that. That's clearly seen in the reaction of the disciples. They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, who then is this that commands even the winds and the water?

And they obey him. Now I'm putting these slides up here because it's important, all right? We're talking about the nature of faith, okay? And after Jesus calms the sea, what is their response? Who is this guy?

They were fearful and amazed, okay, because of what he has done. So you've got to keep that in the back of your mind. Yes?

It's a parallel to what happened with Jonah, okay? They're on the ship with Jonah. The storm, God hurls a storm at Jonah. Where is Jonah? He's under the bow sleeping. They come, wake him up, and they ask him the same questions.

Who are you? You know, where are you? Where do you come from? Who is your God? Sure. And then they recognize that the storm is on the boat because of Jonah's sin. Here, they recognize that this storm is not because of Jesus, because that's the Son of God.

He's the one who calmed the seas. So somewhere in the back of their minds, they feel for a moment, this storm is because of us. Like this, and obviously.

It's to push them to faith. Okay. However, the miracles are also presented, presented teaching moments for the disciples. If you notice, in each of the miracles, especially as we went through the miracles in the book of John, after the miracle was performed, Jesus taught them something.

There was a certain aspect of the kingdom that he used. So the miracles were, there's several folds. I mean, primarily they confirmed, you know, that he was, in fact, the Messiah of Israel. But they also presented teaching moments.

And in this case, what did we see? The disciples were lacking in faith. Now, we don't have to guess at that, because the question Jesus says when, asked them when they, when he wake, they wake them, where is your faith?

And how many other times can we go through the Gospels and see where Jesus said, oh ye of little faith. All right. So at this particular time, we see that the issue that comes up is the disciples were lacking in faith.

So Jesus rebukes the wind and the sea, and then he rebukes them. All right. And don't miss the somewhat of an irony there. Stop, he says, to the wind and the sea, and then he says, okay, now where is your faith?

And it is a rebuke. Don't, don't think it's not. Where is your faith? Again, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, I do not know what you feel, but I never cease to be grateful to these disciples. I am grateful for the record of every mistake they ever made, and for every blunder they ever committed, because I see myself in them.

How grateful we should be to God that we have these scriptures. How grateful to him that he has not merely given us the gospel and left it at that. You ever think of it? I mean, I think that's, that's profound.

We should be thanking God for the disciples, because they made all the mistakes, and we have recorded for us the teaching of Christ in response to the blunders and the mistakes that they made. Far from pointing our fingers or looking down our nose at them, we should be grateful.

Thank you. Thank you for that mistake, because now I, perhaps, if I'm wise, all right, I will learn from your mistakes and not have to make them myself, right? So once again, we see the recurring theme in the scriptures that, oh, that should be a capital, that God has given us everything for life and godliness.

And we see that, remember, I think it was last week we talked about it as well, that most of the epistles were written because of errors in the church. Think about it. If you take each of the epistles, they were written for a particular reason, and most of them because to correct some particular error.

Galatians was written because of the Judaizing heresy, all right? And we can go and see the others. Hebrews was written, why? Because the Jews were lapsing back into old covenant practices. So we see that, so again, we should be thankful, and we don't even want to get started on the church in Corinth as to how many mistakes they were making, all right?

But here's the teaching. If you look at the parable, not the parable, I'm sorry, at the miracle, the conclusion is, if you look at what Jesus says to the disciples, it's not necessary for the Christian to be fearful.

Not necessary. It's not that we're not, but it's not necessary. Paul taught to the Philippians, I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and of going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

That's the context. Paul is saying, I had everything, and I know how to get along with everything. Then I've had nothing, and I know how to get along with that as well. And then he says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

And this is talking about the spiritual strength to work through the issues of life that come upon us. The Christian is never meant to be carried away by his feelings, whatever they are, never. We are not those who respond first and foremost with our emotions.

Well, let me put it this way, we're not supposed to. What is the normal response for every human being that has ever been born is to respond emotionally, to respond with our feelings. And we're even taught in modern psychology that we have to let your feelings go.

Even in the dire circumstances as the disciples found themselves, we do not have to be carried away by our feelings. So now, here's the question, why is it wrong to respond as the disciples did? Think, what's the situation?

Wind and rain coming, the sea is going crazy, the boat is getting flooded, they're afraid they're going to perish, and they're afraid. Why is it wrong that they're afraid? That's the question, and that's the question that we hope to answer here.

It implies a lack of trust and confidence in Jesus Christ. Yes, John? Okay, I had to think about that one for a minute. Okay, that's very true. So it implies a lack of trust and confidence in Jesus Christ.

Mark reports the disciples as saying, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Hold that in your thought for a minute, all right? But still, this agitation and alarm always carries with it a lack of implicit trust and confidence in him.

It is a lack of faith in his concern for us and in his care for us. So the reason why was it wrong for the disciples to respond as they did, because when they conclude that they are going to perish, they are presuming that God is just going to allow them to perish, even though they have been called, and think of all the promises that Jesus made to the disciples.

He chose those twelve, and he let them know exactly what they were being called to. They weren't being called to a job they didn't know what was going on. Jesus told them, and in fact, when other people wanted to join the ranks, what did he tell them?

Not so fast. Count the cost, make sure you know what you're getting into. So these disciples knew what they were getting into. They knew what he was calling them to, and yet they don't believe that that's going to happen.

They believe that he's not caring enough to carry them through. So the first point, then, in what we're talking about here, is an understanding of the nature of faith. We need to understand faith if we're not going to allow ourselves to be depressed, spiritually depressed, because of the circumstances we find ourselves in.

Let's be realistic about it. What is the number one cause of spiritual depression? Well, there you go, the circumstances. When do our emotions and our feelings become engaged? When the circumstances around us are not to our liking, right?

It could be circumstances which make you angry, okay? Could be circumstances which make you sad. Whatever it is, it's the circumstances that we find ourselves in that cause us to either be happy or depressed, right?

So, and it's because we misunderstand the nature of faith. The second point is understanding that faith is to be tested. It's all kind of, we're all talking about faith in every point tonight, so there's going to be a lot of overlap as well, but understanding that faith is going to be tested.

Remember, you have been given the gift of faith, that's how you enter into the kingdom. Now you are told to walk by faith, not by sight, okay? And you have to understand that faith, by its very nature, is going to be tested.

God gives a gift of faith and then the faith is tried. In fact, the entire 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews is devoted to the trial of the faith of the saints that went before us. If you look at that whole chapter 11, okay, Abraham and Moses and and Sarah and how many other people are in there, all right?

And what does the writer to Hebrews highlight? Where they were tested. Their faith is shown because of their successful, successfully navigating through the trial. Moses, right? What did he do? He didn't think it was worthy to be called a son of Egypt, but rather they're the hardship of going with the Jews, okay?

So each person listed endured under some of the most adverse trials we can imagine. In fact, if you read the book of Hebrews in chapter 11 and you go down towards the end of chapter 11, that's where some of the words, they were sawn in two, beheaded, all right?

And it doesn't end with with Hebrews 11, okay? It's a theme that runs through the entire Bible, is that the faith, can you think of anybody, any of the heroes of the Bible whose faith wasn't tested? I thought about, I can't.

I mean, I'm not saying that there isn't somebody in there, but I can't think of anybody offhand. It's the premise for the book of Job. It's not the main point of the book of Job, but it's the premise for it.

Look at my servant Job. Why was Job tested? Because he was a bad guy? No, because he was faithful. And God says, okay, yeah, go ahead, have at him. So it's the nature of faith. In fact, Peter says this, in this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.

Notice, distressed. That's indicating, it's not some little trial, you know. So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Notice, what is the purpose of the testing of the faith? To glorify God. When you pass the test of faith, when you go through the furnace, so to speak, and you come out of it on the other side, God gets glory.

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago, in fact, almost every week, Martin Lloyd-Jones said that one of the major reasons why there's not more people in the church is because of the emotional condition of the people who are in the church.

He says, why would people want to come into a church if they look at the people in the church and they're all miserable? It doesn't make sense. James, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

Let's just stop there for a second. How many here can honestly say that when bad news comes, your very first response is to count it all joy? For lion. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect results so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

There's virtually no such thing as a Christian who never has his faith tested. Philippians 129, for to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.

How do you like that election? We Calvinists, we love to talk about how Christ ordained us before the foundation of the world to salvation. Praise God. Guess what? He also ordained you for suffering. Praise God.

Experiencing the same conflict with you saw on me and now here to be in me. Do you want to match testing with Paul? I sure don't. See, there is a subtlety in this event that can easily be overlooked. Disciples were afraid that they would perish.

The physical danger was real and threatening. This was not imagined. I mean, we live on an island. Anybody, boating enthusiasts, spend any time out on a boat? I never had one of my own, but I worked with guys.

We were always going out fishing, shark fishing, blue fishing, you know, all kinds of stuff. And we got caught out once in a gale, and we had eight to ten foot waves, and I was on a 25-foot boat. It was scary.

I'll tell you, it was scary. I could have been one of these disciples. Lord, we perish. It was bad, all right? So the physical danger was real, but notice how Mark reports the incident. I mentioned this earlier.

Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? This is the subtlety, okay? The worst aspect of their lack of faith was their fear that the Lord didn't care about them. It wasn't even that they lacked faith that they were going to die, but Christ is sleeping.

He doesn't care. Yes. Yeah. We're very strong parallel to that. Be honest with yourself and ask yourself, was there ever a time you're going through bad times, tough times, that you didn't pray and say, Lord, don't you care?

I think it happens more often than we'd like to admit, even if we don't necessarily articulate it. Just imagine the feelings of these men. They had to follow him and listen to his teaching about the coming of the kingdom.

They had seen his miracles and were expecting marvelous things to happen, and now it looked as if everything was going to come to an end in shipwreck and drowning. What an anticlimax, all because of his unconcern.

That's what they were feeling. So the age-old question, why does God allow bad things to happen to his people? How many times have you heard that question? Why does he allow things to go wrong with me and not with the other person?

How many times have you had that feeling? Why me? Why did I have to have this particular trial or this particular test? Why is that man successful while I am unsuccessful? Remember what Asaph, Psalm 73, one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm of Asaph, and Asaph says, I looked at the wicked man, and my foot almost slipped.

He says, I'm looking around, and the wicked are prospering around me, Asaph says. He says, and my foot almost slipped. He says, I almost lost my faith. I almost gave up. Then you know how the Psalm ends?

Yeah, but then I entered into the sanctuary, and I perceived their end. It's a question of faith, all right? How often do Christian people ask such questions? They have asked it about the whole state of the church today.

Why does he not send revival? Anybody there with me? Lord, send revival. If there was ever a time we needed revival, okay? This was written 70 years ago and about England. Remember, Martyn Lloyd-Jones was British.

Why does he not send revival? Why does he allow these rationalists and atheists to take the ascendancy? Why does he not break in and do something and revive his work? How often we are tempted to say such things, exactly as these disciples in the boat were.

So what we need to do is, if you come away with anything from tonight, is say, guess what? I'm one of those disciples in the boat, aren't we? The next point which follows through on that is the character of faith.

Let's look again at the words of Jesus to his disciples. Where is your faith? That's what he says. There's a key to the whole problem. You observe our Lord's question. It seems to imply that he knows perfectly well that they have faith.

The question he asked them is, where is it? You have got it, but where is it at this moment? It ought to be here. Where is it? If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you have faith. You can't be a believer without faith.

So you have it. It's not a question of not having it. It's a question of having weak faith. Remember the disciples that prayed, increase our faith. And that's the question that he asked, where is it? You don't have faith.

He didn't call them unbelieving scoundrels. He says, where is your faith? Remember, faith is not merely a matter of feelings. I want to keep emphasizing that. Feelings, following our emotional status, is one of the things that will get you into spiritual depression more than anything else, because all we're doing is looking at our circumstances.

When things go wrong, we do not let our emotions dictate our response. Faith is not something that acts automatically. In fact, if you read the book, Martin Lloyd-Jones likens it. He says, it's not like a thermostat.

You set your thermostat to 70 degrees or 69 degrees, or if you're really frugal, maybe 65 degrees. And what happens? It starts to get cold. What happens? The furnace automatically comes on. The thermostat tells it to come on.

Some people think faith is like that. It's not, because it's not subject just to, it doesn't act automatically. He says, faith, however, is not something that acts magically or automatically. If it did, these men never would have been in trouble.

Faith would have come into operation, and it would have been calm and quiet, and all would have been well. But faith is not like that, and those are utter fallacies with respect to it. So then, what is faith?

The principle taught here is that faith is an activity. Notice that. Faith is an activity. It is something that has to be exercised. It does not come into operation itself. You and I have to put it into operation.

It is a form of activity. So what again is faith? Faith is the refusal to panic. Do you remember a couple of weeks ago, I said that one of the things, if you're going to stay out of depression when bad things happen, you got to start talking to yourself.

And what I mean by that is telling yourself, not allowing your feelings. See, what we do normally is we allow our feelings to talk to us. Okay? We allow our feelings to force. When faced with danger, there's what they call a fight-or-flight reflex.

I'm sure everybody, if you've taken any kind of psychology classes, and that's really true. What makes a difference between the person who runs and the person who stays to fight? It's an act of the will.

Faith is like that. Faith is the refusal to panic. So when you come into circumstances in your life, you have to refuse to panic. Faith is the refusal to be controlled by the situation. In fact, let me use an illustration out of my own life.

You all know that I was a police officer, and when it came to using your weapon, all right, big emphasis on being trained in the proper use of the weapon. And when you go out to the range, they put you through all kinds of combat courses that spring up on you, and they turn the targets and everything.

And you have to learn how to shoot, and not shoot the little girl, you know, sucking on the lollipop, but the bad guy with the gun pointed at you, okay. They teach you how to stand and everything else.

I was at a roadblock. We were expecting a large shipment of drugs to come into Long Island, and we spotted the car, and we had a roadblock. The car was going to come up. Well, the guy actually ran through the woods to come around the roadblock and aimed the car right at me, all right, and I immediately went into my crouch and started shooting exactly how they had taught me.

It was just so ingrained, I so practiced it on the range that when the real-life circumstance came up, I went right into the crouch. Now, they teach a different crouch these days. They don't do that anymore, but that's neither here nor there.

But the point is, faith needs to be exercised. It's a product of the mind, the will, and the emotions. Unfortunately, we panic. We let our emotions dictate what we do instead of thinking about it and willing ourselves how to respond in faith, okay.

Faith involves the mind and will as well as the emotions. Think of, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Fox's Book of Martyrs, right? I mean, it's an eerie book, but when you read some of them, how these men went to be burned at the stake and maintained a composure and were praising God while the fires were being started, an act of the will.

Faith affects the whole inner person. It's not just, faith is not just one little section of our being. So, the first response to trouble is to refuse to be controlled by it. Having taken control of your emotions, remind yourself what you believe and what you know to be true.

So, when you start feeling sorry for yourself because things have come badly for you, say, instead of getting depressed and saying, oh, woe is me, all right, what do you do? Wait, I know that God loves me.

If you're a believer, I know God loves me. He has promised he'd never leave me nor forsake me. Think of all the things that you know to be true, and that will move your emotions. Remember, our emotions will move with what you believe.

Long quote, but he says it well. That again is something these foolish disciples did not do. If only they had stopped a moment and said, now then, what about it? Is it possible that we are going to drown with him in the boat?

Is there anything he cannot do? We've seen his miracles. He turned the water into wine. He can heal the blind and the lame. He can even raise the dead. Is it likely that he's going to allow us and himself to be drowned in this way?

Impossible. In any case, he loves us. He cares for us. He has told us that the very hairs of our head are all numbered. That is the way in which faith reasons. It says, all right, I see the waves and the billows, but, it always puts up this, but, that is faith.

It holds on to truth and reasons from what it knows to be fact. That is the way to apply faith. Now, it's a long quotation, but I just felt he said it so well in that, you see what he's saying? Faith has to be exercised.

You have to think about it. It doesn't act automatically. Faith says, I cannot believe that he who has brought me so far is going to let me down at this point. It is impossible. It would be inconsistent with the character of God.

So, faith, having refused to be controlled by circumstances, reminds itself of what it believes and what it knows. This is where I keep saying you have to learn how to talk to yourself and remind yourself.

That's why your mind is, your mind is engaged in faith. Your will is engaged in faith, as well as your emotions. And, if you put your mind and your will forward, your emotions will follow. Then, apply that to your particular situation.

We've got some general principles. So, now, whatever circumstances you come, you face, whatever your particular trial is, because, for us, it's going to be all different. Not everybody in the same room is going to be tried in the same way.

So, just take your circumstances and apply the principles. He says, the enemy will come and attack you. The water will seem to be pouring into the boat. But, you say, it is all right. Let the worst come to the worst.

You stand on your faith. You say to yourself, I believe this. I am resting on this. I am certain of this. And, though I do not understand what is happening to me, I am holding on to this. That's applying whatever, this is whatever circumstances you find yourself in.

The last point, which is a very important one, is that even the weakest faith has value. Remember, if you're a believer, you have faith. If you have no faith, you're not a believer. So, even the weakest of believers has faith.

He says, however poor and small and however incomplete the faith of these disciples was on this occasion, they, at any rate, had a sufficient amount of faith to make them do the right thing in the end.

They went to him. Having been agitated and distressed and alarmed and exhausted, they went to him. They did, ultimately, what they should have done. The Lord were in trouble. Go to the Lord. Even though they had weak faith, it was enough faith that they knew that Jesus could help them.

They recognized that Jesus could save them, and they had no doubt about that. They acted on that faith, and they woke Jesus up. And, even though he rebuked them for having little faith, he didn't neglect them.

What did he do? He rebuked them, but notice he rebuked them after he got them out of trouble. He saved them from their distress, and the result was that they witnessed the power of God and came away from the experience, not only with increased faith, but blessed.

Remember, they were amazed. Who is this man? Calms the seas, silences the wind. And then this is the ending quotation. If you find yourself in this position of trial and trouble and testing, take it as a wonderful opportunity of proving your faith, of showing your faith, of manifesting your faith, and bringing glory to his great and holy name.

But if you should fail to do that, if you should apparently be too weak to apply your faith, if you are being so besieged and attacked by the devil and by hell and by the world, well then, I say, just fly to him at once, and he will receive you and will bless you.

He will give you deliverance. He will give you peace. But remember always that faith is an activity. It is something that has to be applied. Where is your faith? Let us make certain that it is always at the place and at the point of need and of testing.

Faith Is a Gift to Be Walked Out, Not a Feeling to Be Triggered Automatically

Questions? Any thoughts? Comments? Yes.

I think that one of the most important things that we should take from this is the fact that Jesus is in the boat with them. Yes. You know, ours is the only God who comes into the world to suffer under the evil that we brought into it.

No other God even claims to do that. So here is God in the boat with us. That should be our greatest comfort, to know that He lives inside of you. He's right, He's at ever-present help in time of trouble.

He's there, wherever you are, no matter what the circumstance is.

Yeah, and you see again why it's so important that you study the Scriptures. If you don't know the promises of God, if you don't know how He has promised never to leave you nor forsake you, if you don't understand those things, you're going to be distressed and you're going to fall into depression.

But if you understand the promises that, hey, it's nothing strange, you know, like Peter says, why are you surprised at the fiery ordeal that comes upon you? As though it was something strange. If you understand that, then when the trial comes, you say, hey, this is normal.

Yeah, not only am I going through it, but every Christian since beginning of time has gone through this, something like this. You know, this just happens to be my particular trial, my particular distress.

And again, learn how to talk to yourself. How do I apply this Scripture to my life, to my circumstances, what's going on? That's how you exercise your faith. And that's how you can be joyful and rejoice in the midst of the fiery furnace.

Everybody here familiar with Betty Elliot, Elizabeth Elliot? She was the wife of Jim Elliot, one of the five missionaries put to death down in the jungle in Ecuador. She actually did a tape relating her experiences called Through the Furnace.

If you can find it, it would be worthwhile listening to, because she's really... Imagine she had, I think she had one or two little kids at the time her husband was martyred. And she's just had a tremendous ministry on this whole subject of going through the fire.

Any other questions? No?