Courage and Cowardice

Covenant Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

The passage for this morning is going to be from Mark chapter 4, verses 35 through 41. On that day, when evening had come, he told them, let's cross over to the other side of the sea.

00:13

So they left the crowd and took him along since he was in the boat, and other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.

00:25

He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, Teacher, don't you care that we're going to die?

00:32

He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Silence, be still. The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

00:41

Then he said to them, Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? And they were terrified, and asked one another,

00:47

Who then is this, even the wind and the sea obey him? Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for another

00:54

Lord's Day, that we can come and worship you in singing spiritual songs,

01:00

Lord, in hearing the proclamation of your word, in fellowshipping with the saints. Lord, I pray that we would have hearts of thankfulness and humility as we encounter your word this morning.

01:09

God, we pray for Pastor Josh as he comes to present your word, Lord, that his words would be sharp and true, just the way that your words are in your holy scripture.

01:20

God, I pray that your spirit would work in our hearts, Lord, that we would be conformed to the image of your Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of your inerrant word.

01:30

And so, God, bless our time together. Lord, may we be changed and altered by it.

01:36

Lord, that we would have the knowledge to know what you say is right and good, but then that we would have the heart to go and act.

01:42

Lord, that we would live lives of action in obedience to your word and your command.

01:48

God, just bless us now as we revel in your word. It's in your name we pray.

01:54

Amen. So I grew up in the illustrious town of Prairie Grove, and for most of my young days,

02:05

I've heard it said that we had a Guinness Book of World Records for the longest losing streak in high school football.

02:13

In fact, I think in my elementary days and going through, I don't remember us ever winning.

02:18

Like, I'd go to games because Dad would take the tickets, letting people in, and I mean, every game was 48 to 3, you know, not 3, you couldn't kick a field goal, 48 to 6.

02:29

And then, somewhere along the way, it started to turn, and they hired a coach.

02:34

And this coach, I assume the field would be named after him today, and, you know, statues and all that kind of stuff.

02:41

And this coach came in, he was a burly, kind of like Scottish -looking guy, and he taught class too, he taught my physical science class, and I remember him just getting in people's face.

02:51

There was no nonsense whatsoever. And his theme and how he turned it all around, Prairie Grove is one of the winningest football programs in the division that they're in in the last 20 years, probably 25 years.

03:04

And this guy came in, and what he would say every single day in practice is he would say,

03:09

Men, football is nothing more than blocking and tackling. Blocking and tackling.

03:16

If we can block and tackle, then we will win. And I think as we look at the faith this morning, there's a lot of stuff in the

03:28

Bible. There's a lot of wisdom. There's a lot of great things that Christians must apply to their life.

03:34

But this morning is a sermon about blocking and tackling. If you don't believe me, let me read some scripture to you.

03:39

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

03:45

And without faith is it impossible to please him, for he who draws near to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

03:55

What use is it, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but has no works?

04:01

Can that faith save him? But someone will say, You have faith and I have works.

04:06

Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one, you do well.

04:15

The demons also believe and shudder. We, every person in here,

04:21

I assume, you're in this place, there's at least probably a profession with the mouth that we believe in God, that we believe that he is.

04:29

We may even believe that he's Savior. We might even go so far as we believe everything in his word is perfect, infallible.

04:36

But the question for us this morning is, are our beliefs resulting in any action?

04:43

Another way to phrase that would be, how much does fear factor into my decisions?

04:48

And so the title of the sermon this morning is Courage and Cowardice. Because cowardice is the opposite of faith, as we're going to see from this story that you just heard read.

04:59

So, context. Jesus has just gone through, with the crowds, teachings on parables.

05:06

And we know from what we read last week that he was speaking to them only in parables. And that there were many who understood and there were many who did not understand.

05:15

And the crowds kept gathering and they were standing by the seashore. And at this juncture,

05:21

Jesus knows that there is another mission. And this mission is to go across the Sea of Galilee to do battle with the demoniac.

05:30

And that's what this, we have the linkage this morning, that Jesus is going to go across the sea to the city of the

05:36

Gentiles to do battle with Legion. But before that, he is going to give a great teaching to his disciples that's brought on by circumstances.

05:47

So why the crossing? Well, the crossing is because there's a mission. There's also something in here to us,

05:52

I think, that Jesus represents as the new covenant. He represents not only the salvation of God, but the door opening to the world.

06:00

That through Jesus, all of the people of the earth would come to Mount Zion, as was prophesied, to see the goodness of God's law and to see the goodness of God's kingdom.

06:11

Because as we remember from last week, Jesus is God's kingdom. Jesus is the kingdom of God manifest that is on the scene right now.

06:18

It's at hand in the time of the writing of Mark. And it is in production right now.

06:23

We are living in God's kingdom today. So as they cross over, as they cross over,

06:30

Jesus had said this in Matthew 8, and I think we can start to understand the mission and the ministry of Christ by this.

06:37

There's crowds, but there's not people that are really here yet. There's a lot of people that want to see the show, and the disciples, his closest people, don't really understand what they're dealing with yet either.

06:47

Matthew 8, 19 -22 says, A scribe came and asked to him, to Jesus, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.

06:54

And Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the

06:59

Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And another of the disciples said to him, Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.

07:07

But Jesus said to him, Follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead. Did the disciples understand this?

07:16

I think not. I think the disciples, and we get from the story this morning, is the disciples didn't understand a lot of what was going on.

07:22

And what Jesus is saying is that as the kingdom of God comes on, it's doing battle with another kingdom. This is the kingdom of the world and the prince of the powers of this world.

07:31

And so as he's doing battle, there's a lot of people, Peter being one of them, who is gung -ho. Surely I will die for you.

07:37

Surely I'm going to follow you wherever you go. And this morning we find that rash professions of faith have no merit outside of deep conviction and actions because the disciples are going to get exposed this morning.

07:52

So if you want to be part of the kingdom of God, you have to abandon your own ways. And so what happens?

07:58

The disciples are on this boat. Jesus is tired. He's been teaching for hours.

08:04

Imagine having crowds pressing on you, crowds trying to touch you, crowds trying to get healing.

08:10

There's no rest. It's multitudes in your face all the time. And this has been the ministry of Jesus.

08:16

And Jesus is God, but he's also a man in this union that's mysterious for us.

08:22

And as a man, he gets tired, and he is weary. So he wants to go across, and he's going to sleep in the boat.

08:29

And it's a small boat. They're in the sea. The boat, we actually, this is one of those things.

08:36

Archeology found one of these first -century fishing boats years ago, and the thing was dug out, almost preserved entirely out of the sea.

08:45

And so we know a lot about them now. This boat was probably about 26 feet long and about 7 1⁄2 feet wide.

08:52

And so as they're going across this thing, these are experienced fishermen. Every one of the disciples besides Judas Iscariot was a

08:59

Galilean. And the Galileans were living on this sea, and so they knew well the weather patterns.

09:06

They knew what this sea was like. This sea was volatile. It was very volatile because across on the eastern side, there was the

09:14

Golan Heights. And what would happen is out of nowhere sometimes, a huge windstorm, like we saw on Friday, would come across from the east, and it would be dry.

09:24

There would be no thunder and lightning, but it would cause 20-, 30 -foot waves and breakers.

09:30

And these were sailboats. So swing back and forth. And I think as the fishermen go across, they are willing to take

09:37

Jesus across. They say, hey, we can handle this. We've got this. The problem is they don't have it, and their experience doesn't matter.

09:45

But so often it's like us. I think Spurgeon says something to the extent of we think that we have this ourselves and our own independence, and we only cry out to God whenever we have no other option.

09:59

And that's what the disciples do here. As they're in this storm, imagine being on this small vessel, right?

10:05

I think some people around here probably have fishing boats that are this size or bigger. As it's crashing around, and they're trying to cut the sails down so that it doesn't anchor them down, so it doesn't blow them over, and waves crashing over the side of the boat.

10:20

You have to think that the boat's taking on water, and everyone on this boat is afraid that they're going to die except one person.

10:27

And this one person, amazingly, is asleep in the back of the boat.

10:34

How is that possible? Well, I think there's a couple of explanations for this, and I think they're all valid.

10:40

One explanation would be that Jesus is God. So there's absolutely no fear about what's going to happen here.

10:47

But I think another explanation is I think we see the fatigue that Jesus has in this moment.

10:52

He needed a moment to rest here because he has been put hard to it for days before this event, and he's about to go have another encounter, and there's going to be more interaction in a dangerous land.

11:06

And that's what's going on. And so in the middle of this storm, the ship is about to capsize.

11:12

And it's at this time that the disciples decide, well, we're at the end of ourselves, we better do something.

11:20

And what they do is the exact wrong thing. So if you're looking at this passage,

11:26

I think what you should see is that there's a series of rebukes in this.

11:31

And the disciples started off. The disciples rebuke Jesus. Now, I probably don't have to tell you that that's not a good thing to do.

11:40

We should not be rebuking the Son of God. He's always right. But in our fallenness, when we have fear, when we have panic, when we have blindness, when we start to think that things are very unfair, maybe this situation that's got me down is never going to change, and the world presses in.

12:01

Maybe we know too much. We're in an era now with the Internet where we know more about what's going on in the world than anyone has ever known.

12:09

And I don't know sometimes if the human brain is capable of keeping track of all this stuff. It's like, how much are we supposed to care about things that are happening half a world away that most of humanity would have never been able to know about?

12:21

But when we panic, when we are blind, a lot of times our first reaction is to question God, not in a reverent way, but in a blasphemous way.

12:31

And so the disciples do as they are in the midst of the storm, and they're terrified. They go to Jesus, and they find him asleep.

12:38

And I think it makes them angry. And I don't think that I'm without warrant to say that. I think they are exasperated, and they're angry.

12:46

We are fearing for our life, and here is the master asleep in the back of the boat.

12:52

And they say, rebuke. Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

13:00

We've given up our jobs and our lives to follow you. Do you not care that we're going to die?

13:08

And to ask that question is to answer it. Because think about why the disciples are on this boat in the first place.

13:15

The reason they're on the boat is because they believe that they are following the Messiah. They wouldn't be here if they didn't believe that he is the

13:22

Messiah. And so get this straight. In the disciples' mind, in their wise thinking, they believe that the

13:30

Messiah who is going to bring redemption to the Jewish people and usher in the kingdom of God and save everyone and put everything to rights is going to die in the

13:39

Sea of Galilee in a windstorm. That's what they functionally believe. Now, if you had asked them in an academic sense, do you really think

13:47

Jesus is going to die in a boat? To a man, they would have said no. No, he's the

13:54

Messiah. He's the anointed one. He is the one that we have placed all of our hopes on.

13:59

But as you can see, man is finite. And in that aspect of being a man or being a human, we get blinded by the circumstances that are right in front of our face, and we do irrational, inconsistent, blind things.

14:16

And the blindest thing to do is to blame God for our circumstance when God himself has put us in our circumstance.

14:23

Do we think that we're outside of his plan? No, they don't understand the practical implications. They rebuke the one who has purposely put them in this boat for his own purposes and for his own ends.

14:35

See, Jesus has a plan, and Jesus always has a plan. Can Jesus die in the sea?

14:42

No, that's preposterous. That's a ridiculous thing to believe, and yet they believe it. Because if what they do in their rebuke is true, then they should, as soon as they possibly can, they should get off this boat and never look back.

14:55

And too often, this is what we do with Jesus, is that we try to make Jesus just a slightly bigger, smarter, stronger version of ourself.

15:04

He's a little better than me, but I can't trust him when things get really bad.

15:12

That's a foolish way to live. So the first reaction to this storm is an extremely foolish one, and it's a rebuke against God.

15:22

Totally counterintuitive. But we are not rational creatures when we get upset. We're not rational creatures when we are afraid, to jump ahead a little bit.

15:32

We're not rational creatures when we are cowardly. To the Christian, is there any reason to ever be a coward?

15:41

No. We've read the end of the book, and we know what's going to happen. Whatever happens to us individually, we understand that that is a blip on the temporal radar, and that God has his plans for us in eternity.

15:55

And so we can go through tremendous pain here, and all that pain does is it feeds the glory of the eternality of God and the immortality he's given us.

16:05

We look at another reaction to this storm. So the reaction of the disciples to this storm is to rebuke

16:11

God and to panic. And I would argue that rebuking God is panicking. We have another reaction, and this is

16:19

Jesus' reaction. So what does he show by sleeping in the midst of a tempest?

16:26

Well, he shows a few things. Some of them are a little bit deeper maybe than the surface reading of the text.

16:31

He has a complete understanding of reality, which brings calm. Jesus completely understands why the storm is here, what the end of the storm is, his power over the storm, and his plan with the disciples.

16:47

And what he is showing us in a very real way is that the kingdom of God grows even while sleeping.

16:54

Was that not the parable of the seed last week? The kingdom of God is growing all the time.

17:01

And it's growing right now because this is an event that is going to rebuke and teach the disciples something, and the kingdom of God grows out through the teaching ministry of these very men who are on this boat.

17:14

So not only is it preposterous to think that Jesus, the son of God, was going to die on this boat, it's also preposterous to think that these disciples were going to die on this boat because the mission of God and the ministry of the church was all on this boat right there.

17:32

God was never going to allow that to be capsized. He sleeps in the full confidence of God's purposes.

17:39

I think it was Stonewall Jackson that said that he sleeps like a baby every night before battle knowing that every bullet is ordained by God and that he could walk standing straight up in the trust that God had ordained every single projectile in the battle the next day.

17:58

That's what faith looks like. And Jesus is asleep on the boat not because he's a fatalist but because he knows the whole thing.

18:05

He knows his destiny, he knows the mission, and he has a proper amount of concern for the storm. So was it wrong for the disciples to be concerned?

18:13

I don't think so. Jesus has the proper amount of concern because he knows how easy it's going to be to get out of this situation.

18:20

The disciples, though, should have come to Jesus in a different way. And so now as we move through the story, we're going to look at some more rebukes.

18:28

So the disciples first, and now it's Jesus' turn. He gives the mildest one first and then the strongest one second.

18:35

The mildest rebuke, though, is mild only in the sense of who he's rebuking. And this one puts the commentators into a tizzy because it says that he rebukes the wind and the sea.

18:48

And that should bring us back to the same word that he used in chapter 1 of Mark when he is rebuking demons.

18:55

And so that has led some commentaries to believe that this windstorm was started by demons. I don't think so, and here's why.

19:02

I think that what Jesus is doing as Mark unfolds is that he's showing his mastery over all of the aspects of the kingdoms of the world.

19:12

He has power over demons. He has power over Satan. Satan can tempt Christ, and all it does is further

19:19

Christ's ministry, right? Jesus has power over the sacraments. He's baptized by John the

19:25

Baptist so that righteousness could be accomplished. Jesus has power over sickness. We're going to find that Jesus has power over death.

19:33

But here in the middle of it, we see also that Jesus has power over nature, over nature itself.

19:40

He has mastery over the elemental things of the world, whether pathogens, demons, angels, all of it.

19:50

It's important for us to remember that because many times in the New Testament we are told that we have to take our thoughts captive, that we are not to be controlled and ruled by the elemental principles of this world.

20:02

Most people rightly ascribe those things to demonic powers, but there is something more fundamental than that because in the ancient world, the demonic powers were said to be tied in with the earthly elemental powers of earth, wind, fire, and water.

20:18

So people in the ancient world would ascribe demons or gods to these things.

20:23

The god of the sun, the god of the wind, the god of fertility. Baal was the god of thunder and lightning.

20:29

So there was this idea that there were higher powers and gods that were associated with these elemental principles of the world.

20:36

And so Jesus in the ancient world here is showing that he has power over all of this.

20:42

Not only of nature, but of the demons behind it. And so what he does is he rebukes them.

20:48

And we should have known. And here's the point this morning. We know better than they did. We know better than the disciples.

20:54

The revelation to us is far greater than the revelation to the disciples because we have God's written word fully revealed that has been studied for thousands of years by church fathers and by us.

21:05

And you're hearing it preached and you have it at your home. Do you realize how much of a novum that is in history?

21:11

Most people, most Christians who have lived in this world never even had scripture in their home.

21:17

They had to have a pastor come and explain and read it to them because they didn't have it printed.

21:22

We have so much revelation today and we should have known. And one of the points in Jesus' rebuke as he turns and makes his second rebuke is that everyone should have known that he had power over the storm already.

21:34

How do I know this? Well, we read one of the Psalms this morning. Let me read a couple more. Psalm 89, 8 and 9.

21:40

O Yahweh, God of hosts, who is like you, O mighty YAH? Your faithfulness also surrounds you.

21:47

You rule the swelling of the sea. When its waves rise, you still them. Psalm 107.

21:53

I'm going to read a longer section here. It's worth it. Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on many waters?

22:02

They have seen the works of Yahweh and his wondrous deeds in the deep. He spoke and set up a stormy wind which raised up the waves of the sea.

22:10

They went up to the heavens. They went down to the depths. Their soul melted away in the calamity.

22:16

They staggered and swayed like a drunken man, and all their wisdom was swallowed up. Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distresses.

22:25

He caused the storm to stand still so that its waves were hushed. Then they were glad because they were quiet.

22:32

So he led them to their desired haven. Who is the master over the storm?

22:38

God. There was never a time when he was not. And the psalmist knew, and the

22:44

Old Testament saints knew, and the prophets knew, and Jesus knows, and his disciples also knew.

22:52

Who is God? What does he control? And so their rebuke and their fear is inexcusable.

22:59

More for us later. So Jesus rebukes the storm, and what happens?

23:05

Get a contrast here. Does the wind and the waves slowly subside?

23:10

No. Perfect peace and calm. Jesus tells the winds to stop, and he tells the sea to be quiet, and instantly, it's a calm, glassy sea.

23:23

I imagine you could see your reflection in it. I imagine there was not a ripple on the water, because this was a supernatural calm.

23:30

This was totally shutting it off. And it happened instantly. Instantly.

23:37

And the disciples are rightly afraid. And so now comes the harsher rebuke.

23:44

In the Greek, we lose a little of this. I don't do this often, but there's two words that are used for afraid in this text, and they're different from each other.

23:52

The one that's used first, when Jesus goes to them, he says, why are you afraid? This word actually means cowardly or faint -hearted.

24:01

Why are you so cowardly? Do you still have no faith?

24:07

Why are you so cowardly? Do you still have no faith?

24:13

This is a harsh rebuke indeed. I think we in the Christian church, we don't really understand how harsh this rebuke is.

24:20

Let me put it into focus for you. Revelation 21, 8. But for the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and sexually immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

24:42

Is there a word in our vernacular that doesn't quite belong in that laundry list? The unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, liars will burn in hell, and we say amen.

24:56

But there's a word in there that doesn't get put in these junk drawer lists very often, and that word is cowardly.

25:03

The cowardly will have no part in the kingdom of God. Friends, that should scare us to death jumping into the modern context because we are marked, we are marked as a generation of Christians who have been cowardly.

25:22

We've let unrighteousness go. We've said nothing. Do we have so little faith?

25:32

Do we have so little faith? The disciples should have known. How should they have known?

25:39

They've seen it all up to this point. They have seen the miracles. They've heard the teaching with authority.

25:47

They've heard the meaning of the parables. Remember that last week? That Jesus spoke in parables all the time, but to the disciples, he came back and he told them what it all meant.

25:57

Do you understand how important that is? That the second person of the Godhead was speaking in parables to mask the meaning from the masses so that only

26:09

God's elect would hear, but he goes to his disciples who are undoubtedly elect because they have a higher mission and a higher ministry, and he comes back to them individually and he tells them what everything he's saying means.

26:21

I'll be frank. I wish Jesus had told me exactly what the parable of the seeds meant last week. I struggle with bits of it.

26:26

I still struggle with parts of it. It's a harsh rebuke. Jesus is saying, why are you all of these things that will burn in hell?

26:38

Do you have no faith? Well, they're on the boat. Are they not?

26:44

They're following him, but does that not recall there will be many that say, Lord, Lord, and I will say to them, depart from me.

26:52

I never knew you. It's Jesus saying here to the disciples, depart from me. I never knew you.

26:58

No, he's not saying that because we know the story, and praise God because all good gospel preaching does this.

27:06

You have to understand this. I'll give you a peek behind the curtain. You have to talk about how helpless and bad our situation is.

27:15

You have to. We are literal followers of Satan in our flesh and that God looked at us and he saw mercy and he forgave us and he rose us from down here following the prince of the power of the air and he rose us up into the high places seated with the elders for all eternity eating at the table of him through the washing of his blood.

27:44

That's what he did. There's a huge gap between those who will burn in the second death who will never have another life.

27:52

The second death is the eternal death and cowards will inherit that death and so will the sexually immoral and so will sorcerers and so will murderers but praise

28:01

God in 1 Corinthians 6 he says, and such were some of you but you have been washed.

28:08

You have been forgiven. Friends, these disciples needed to understand what they needed to be forgiven of and so Jesus uses harsh language.

28:19

Harsh. About as harsh as it can get because what the disciples had done is they had disconnected the miracles and the authority of the teaching.

28:30

He had illuminated all of the scrolls speaking with the power of the Holy Spirit to the hearers and the people had never heard anything like it because the religious system was so corrupt and so dead and Jesus taught with life and they heard it and they understood what he was saying and yet they took all of that doctrine and all of that head knowledge and all of that understanding and they disconnected it from the tangible protection and the reality of Jesus' deity and his mission.

28:56

Have we done that? Can we pull a string on the back of us and us repeat good doctrine?

29:02

Yeah, we can. Five solas. By grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

29:11

We can repeat it. We can give all the doctrines but often times when we are smacked in the face with circumstances and when men look at us disapprovingly and they threaten us what we do is we disconnect the true doctrine that we understand from the real tangible protection that God offers to his people because he is

29:30

God and because he does have a mission. We do this all the time.

29:35

We hear the gospel so often that we tune it out. We forget the beauty of it.

29:42

We underscore it. We diminish it. We think that we have to accomplish the kingdom of God by our own power as if we have any.

29:50

That's like these Galilean sailors thinking that they're going to calm this amazing storm that's intended to make them rely on Christ.

29:58

They think that they're going to get through it themselves until they know that they're surely going to die and they turn to Christ. We go to church.

30:05

We see the works of God. We see the fruits of the Spirit and then what do we do? We fear.

30:11

Faint hearted cowards that we are. I think of all the times they rolled across my mind this week and I think of all the times that I have been standing in front of someone who is listening to my words and that I flinch back in fear of what they're going to think of me if I tell them the truth of their need for repentance and the good news that God has given.

30:31

Or when I stand and I let evil be in my sight and I don't say anything and I don't call it out and I let evil men flourish because I say nothing and I think to myself, do

30:42

I have so little faith? How can we do this? How can we go to church with God's people every week?

30:49

How can we see the works of God in people's lives? How can we see the redemption and the forgiveness and the joy that he gives to his people and then fear man and fear circumstances and fear for our lives?

31:05

I have to do it. It reminds me of Denethor in Lord of the Rings. Boy, he could have been confident in his strong towers but what he does is he does the wrong thing.

31:16

He starts focusing on the enemy. He starts focusing on the massive armies of darkness and he fears for his life and he despairs.

31:26

We do this all the time and Jesus, I think, asks and it's a timeless question, do you still have no faith?

31:34

What is faith? Let's go back. I'm going to scroll up. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.

31:41

It is the conviction of things not seen and let's get to the blocking and tackling verse. Without faith, it is impossible to please him.

31:49

If you want to be a Christian, to be a Christian is to want to please God. Right?

31:56

Blocking and tackling means you must have faith. You must have faith. It is impossible to be a

32:02

Christian without faith. It is impossible. Impossible. It doesn't matter how pretty you look on the outside.

32:09

It doesn't matter how much money you make. It doesn't matter how many Bible verses you can quote. It doesn't matter how many times you publicly and piously say scriptural things and pray in front of people.

32:20

Without faith, it's impossible to please God. The Pharisees and the scribes, they looked good religiously.

32:28

They looked very good and yet they had no faith. They saw the

32:33

Lord of glory and they were worried about how he was going to take away their situation.

32:41

Understand this. This is important for us. It was important for the disciples. Faith in God is not about signs.

32:49

It's not about miracles. It's not about doctrinal propositions. It's not about rational arguments or facts or preaching or singing or your family.

32:59

What is faith? Faith is a God -given conviction that Jesus is

33:05

Lord or as they say nowadays, Christ is King and that acting on all that entails.

33:12

You cannot disconnect the God -given conviction that Jesus is

33:17

Lord from the way that we must act when we are given that conviction. Abraham believed the promises of God and it was accounted to him as righteousness.

33:27

And so what did he do? By faith, Abraham heard the word of God and he offered up his son as a sacrifice knowing that God would raise him from the dead because Isaac was the son of promise.

33:39

Abraham believed what his heart told him and what God had promised him more than what his eyes could see.

33:45

And this is the fault of the disciples here is they do not believe what their heart says.

33:51

They do not believe in their faith in Jesus Christ. What they believe in is the certainty of their death through the waves about to capsize their ship in the middle of the ocean or the middle of the sea.

34:02

How do you get faith? You pray for it. Pray for it like your life depends on it because it does.

34:11

Because another thing is true that if without faith it's impossible to please God that also means without faith it is impossible to be with God because God will not have anyone in His presence that does not please

34:23

Him because God is holy, holy, holy and there will be no stain of sin in the presence of God.

34:30

And it is by faith in Jesus Christ that we are atoned for.

34:37

Faith in the blood of Jesus Christ that He has done it all and that that's enough. And from that comes fearless action.

34:46

And friends, it's my most repeated prayer. I pray it every day. I pray it every day.

34:52

That our church would have faith. It's going to be hard. There's going to be ebb and flow to life situations.

35:02

People are going to have hard times. People are going to have good times. The church is going to have hard times.

35:08

The church is going to have good times. Attendance is going to ebb and flow. Money is going to ebb and flow.

35:14

Preaching of the word. There's going to be good ones and there's going to be mediocre ones and there's going to be clunky ones.

35:21

Alright? It's going to happen. Through the midst of it all the trajectory that we have to look at is to ask this one question.

35:27

It's blocking and tackling. Do we believe that Jesus is Lord and are we acting accordingly?

35:33

Because if we believe that Jesus is Lord then we have nothing to fear. If we don't believe that Jesus is

35:39

Lord we have everything to fear. We saw it. We see it anytime that people's lives are in danger.

35:46

If they have no faith in Jesus as Lord they will be afraid of everything. They will lock themselves in their rooms for months on end.

35:55

Destroying their mental health. Destroying their families. Destroying their career. Because if we don't have

36:01

Christ our life is all that we do have. Because we know internally even if we suppress the truth in unrighteousness we know eternally that without faith in God we know where our destiny lays.

36:14

And it's the second death. And that's a good thing to be afraid of if you don't know the

36:20

Lord. But for us death has no sting for us eternally. Sin has no victory over us.

36:28

You need to hear it. You need to hear it. Do you know what the answer theologically is to our struggle with sin?

36:36

Faith. Faith. If we believe in the promises of God and that leads to action then that sin looks kind of puny.

36:46

Is your sin that looks like a gigantic monster that's dominating your life right now when you stand that up to the

36:52

Lord of glory who just with his weakness, with his death destroyed that enemy. Think about that.

36:57

The weakness of God in being killed on a cross. That blood that poured out destroyed that monster that you can't get around.

37:06

That's because God is so much more glorious and so much more powerful than our fallen corruption.

37:12

That's a thing to believe in. So let's end here. There's a rebuke and then there's a response to this rebuke.

37:20

And this response is very interesting because the disciples know that they just got called out but they don't fully understand it yet.

37:27

But they understand one thing and it's still the same problem, right? What the disciples understand is what their eyes have just seen.

37:35

They understand what their eyes have just seen. Let's read it. They became very afraid.

37:43

This is a different Greek word and this one means kind of what we got. Terrified. They're terrified.

37:53

And they were saying to one another who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him.

38:01

Who is this? Now I want to draw we can sharpen our long knives on the disciples all the time, right?

38:09

You guys are with this guy. Are you stupid? You don't understand what he's saying. But listen, they're far more accomplished than we'll ever be.

38:16

Are they not? Who's going to have the greater throne in heaven? You or Peter? Let's take it easy on making fun of these guys.

38:26

Okay? Let's take it easy on that. Let's understand something here. That the wind and the waves, they obey

38:33

Jesus immediately. But the disciples, they got to figure something out here. Because there is a conflict in them now.

38:41

They don't really understand what they're seeing yet. But they're starting to see that this is a very dangerous man indeed who's in the boat with them.

38:51

Can you imagine? I think that we read these things as an academic exercise sometimes.

39:00

So you're in a boat. It's being tossed around. Waves crashing over the side of it.

39:06

Can you imagine the pit in your stomach as it crests a wave and just drops 30 feet down into the trough of the next one?

39:14

It would be like the wildest roller coaster you could ever imagine. Just being battered about.

39:21

And this man is asleep. And then he stands up and he says, everything be quiet.

39:28

Hush. Be muzzled is what he says. Be muzzled. And it all just stops. If your response to that is not fear, then you're insane.

39:37

You're crazy. And they are. This is not a faint hearted cowardly fear.

39:43

This is a frightened awe. That's what this conveys. There is an awe of Jesus.

39:50

We would call this a fear of God. This is a fear of God. And I think we've under preached fear of God.

39:56

I think what we think fear of God is, is like, oh yeah, God's really great. I'm reverent. No, no, no, no, no.

40:02

There is a reverence in the fear of God. But there's also an understanding. He is God and He is terrifying.

40:10

Did you know this? You, right now, are hearing, breathing, seeing this, and sitting here alive because He is sustaining you with the thought of His mind.

40:23

Right now. That's not me making up stuff. That's Colossians 1. That Jesus is holding everything together through His thoughts.

40:33

So He's on the boat and He's asleep because that's how much danger this storm posed to the

40:40

Lord of glory. And as He wakes up, He calms it immediately. And they ask this question. They ask this question in their reverent awe.

40:47

They say, Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him? And the answer is quite obvious, isn't it?

40:55

He's God. He is God. He is not a slightly bigger, more impressive version of you.

41:02

He is the Lord of all creation. He is the executor of the Father's will.

41:09

He is the one who puts it in motion. He is the head of the glorious church. He is the bridegroom.

41:15

He is the King of all kings. He is the giver of the comforter, the Holy Spirit.

41:22

He is the very Word of God, made flesh. Everything that we understand about God has come through Jesus Christ.

41:31

The revelation of God is through Jesus Christ. This answer, it's obvious, right?

41:37

He is God. This answer has massive ramifications. Massive. And I think that's what

41:42

James is talking about. You Bible students, you probably knew that I quoted him several times in the introduction. Because James is saying, your orthodox profession means nothing if you don't have action.

41:54

And the churches today are full of people who have orthodox confession. I believe Jesus is Lord. I even believe

42:01

He died on the cross for my sins. But what does James say? If you don't do anything, what does that mean?

42:09

If Abraham had said, yeah, I believe you, God, and then he didn't offer

42:14

Isaac, what does that mean? It means that he did not have faith, and that he's a coward, and that he's gonna burn.

42:24

If we follow Jesus, who is God, who knows everything, then our faith has to be action -packed.

42:30

Because true faith causes action. And action in true faith always begins with a fear of God.

42:39

It's the most often repeated commandment in the Bible, fear not. But we are to fear one, we are to fear

42:45

God. Because a fear of God is a all -encompassing supplanting of the sinful kind of fear.

42:52

Because if we fear God, then that means that all other fears are subjected under Him, and so they are lesser fears.

42:59

And these lesser fears are irrational. Because if God can do anything, and has said everything, and has promised everything, if He's done that, then to fear anything beneath Him is stupid.

43:10

We are very stupid. Do you understand that? We should get this from the Scripture. We are very, very stupid.

43:16

These disciples, who are far greater than we will ever be, they were a little bit stupid.

43:23

We're very, very stupid. We have squandered everything because we have to look in the mirror, and we have to understand, do we have faith?

43:31

One of my favorite sections of Scripture, Ecclesiastes 12, I think it's Solomon, he ends the book with this, these wise words.

43:38

Solomon had looked into every corner for wisdom, hadn't he? He had looked into every corner for how to please

43:44

God. Because nothing on earth satisfied. There was nothing under the sun that satisfied.

43:49

In fact, Solomon would over and over say that everything under the sun is, the Hebrew word is hevel, which means a vapor.

43:56

It's a mist. It doesn't satisfy. And here is the end of his musings.

44:02

He says, The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well -driven nails.

44:09

That means they hold you to something, right? They are given by one shepherd. But in addition to this, my son, be warned.

44:17

The making of many books is endless, and much devotion to books is wearying to the flesh.

44:23

The end of the matter, all that has been heard, fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the end of the matter for all mankind.

44:33

For God will bring every work to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

44:40

Church, this has to change our calculus significantly. If the end of all mankind is to fear

44:48

God and keep His commandments, and Solomon tells us that we're going to be laid out in judgment and all of the works and all of the thoughts are going to be laid out and they're going to be judged.

45:04

And for us, what we know is as we fear God, that what's going to be laid out for His people is that Jesus is going to say,

45:12

He's mine. My blood has covered His actions. His actions are my actions.

45:17

He's righteous. That's what that means, to be declared righteous means to be declared innocent of guilt in the face of the law.

45:25

That's what Jesus has done. And so wisdom is this, fear God and obey

45:30

His commandments. That is the blocking and tackling of the Christian life. Fear God, obey

45:37

His commandments. Do we have a dead faith that accomplishes nothing?

45:44

Or are we going to fear God, fear nothing else, and obey His commandments?

45:49

I think that's the question for us. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we,

45:58

I think, should come face -to -face in this that we fall so short. Lord, just as Your people so many thousands of years ago grumbled in the desert, they were afraid.

46:12

They thought that they looked like grasshoppers compared to the people of Canaan. And yet, Lord, You had promised them a land.

46:19

And so a whole generation died out in shame because of their lack of faith.

46:26

Lord, we sit in a church, in a country that was founded wanting the freedom to worship

46:33

You. And Lord, we sit in the church in decay and we ask,

46:40

Lord, have we, have we grumbled? Have we been enticed by the riches of Egypt and wanted to go back?

46:49

Have we thought that we look like grasshoppers in the land compared to the enemy who's in power? Lord, we pray that You would give us great hearts, not faint hearts.

47:00

Not so that glory would be brought to ourself, Lord, but so that we would be proven faithful. So that we would show faith through action.

47:10

Lord, help us to fear You. Because to know You is to fear You. And Lord, may

47:17

You temper this fear with trust. Because we have a hope, and that hope is an unshakable one.

47:24

That hope is one that is greater than the reality of what we see. Lord, that as Paul writes, that the spiritual places are greater and more real than the tents we inhabit right now.

47:35

So Lord, help us to have hope and help us to trust in Your Word. And Lord, through that comes a fear that crowds out all other fears.

47:44

All other motivations that would set themselves up against You and make us faithless. Lord, I pray that You would disarm those, that You would break those chains in us, and that we would have a fear of You that leads to courageous action.

47:57

Lord, help us to not be cowards. Lord, help us to repent of the sin of cowardice.

48:05

Lord, help us to walk according to what You've called us. And we will give praise, knowing that all the power to do that comes from You, so that we can boast in nothing except in Christ.