This morning, we continue our examination of Mark's gospel and I would invite you to turn to Mark chapter four, we will be looking at verses 35 through 41. And I've entitled my discourse to you, "Jesus Calms the Sea." A very familiar story filled with magnificent truths that are applicable to each of our lives. Perhaps the greatest threat to the church today is its pathetically low view of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. In Psalm 145, verses one and two, the Psalmist says, "I will extol you, my God, oh, King, and I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day, I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever." To be sure there is no greater joy in the Christian life than to contemplate the glory and the grace of the person and the work of Christ. And frankly, we would all do well, to learn from the angels who according to First Peter 1:12, "long to look upon the mystery of the incarnation of Christ." Do you long to look at all of that? I hope you do. That's why we're here today. We see this illustrated, for example, in the position of the cherubim in the Holy of Holies in the temple, who, with outstretched wings, stood over the Ark of the Covenant, and beheld the mercy seat. Theirs was a position and a posture of reverential awe as they gazed upon that golden lid that separated the violated law within from the holy presence that was hovering above. That place where the just wrath of God was symbolically propitiated; the Mercy Seat being a type of Christ, in the discharge of his priestly duties. Would that we all be like the cherubim, amen? Looking upon the glory of Christ and all that he has done, especially during this Thanksgiving and Christmas season, that we might Behold, as we're told in John 1:14, his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace, and truth. May we all be like the apostle Paul, who said that he, he "counted all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whom I have suffered, the loss of all things and count them, but rubbish so that I may gain Christ." Again, dear friends, that is why we're here this morning, that we might know Christ and enjoy him. And certainly the constant beholding of the glory of Christ is the habit of the mature believer that loves him, and it is also the greatest tonic to soothe an aching soul in time of need. May we all be disciplined to this end? Beloved, let me be abundantly clear Jesus Christ is the third person of the Triune Godhead. He is the one who possesses all of the Divine excellencies of the Father and the Spirit. He is coequal and consubstantial, and coeternal with the father and the Spirit. And in his incarnation, he represented humanity, as well as deity in an indivisible oneness. In fact, in Colossians, two nine Paul says, "For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form." And we know that 700 years before he was born, the prophet Isaiah declared of the Messiah in Isaiah nine, six, that "His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." That's who Jesus is. In Matthew one, beginning in verse 20, and following when the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, he said this, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." And then, he goes on to say, "Now all of this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means 'God with us.'" Repeatedly throughout Scripture, Jesus declared his deity, often referring to himself, as the Son of man, a messianic title that's derived from Daniel seven verses 13 and 14. He also described himself as the Son of God. He said in Matthew 11:27, "All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Now, when Jesus was on earth, his claims to deity was considered blasphemy by the leaders of Israel, the religious elite, despite the clear teachings that spoke of him in the Old Testament that they would have been aware of, despite all of the undeniable miracles that he performed. And we've been given just a few in Scripture. He turned water into wine, he cast out demons,he healed sickness and disease and withered hands and people crippled with polio, paralysis, blindness, deafness, leprosy. He created food to feed 1000s, he walked on water, he caused a coin you will recall to appear in a fish's mouth. He reattached a severed ear. He even raised the dead and on it goes. However, John tells us in chapter 21, verse 25, "And there are also many other things which did Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written." But dear friends, no one witnessed anything on the scale of what takes place in this passage of Scripture, when Jesus calms a ferocious storm with a word. Certainly Jesus wanted to put an exclamation mark on his claims to deity. He wanted to reveal himself in a way to his disciples that they would never forget something that would be carved in the granite of their mind, which indeed was hard, at many times, like granite. But this would be something that they would never forget with respect to his power, and his authority.

Now, let me give you the context here. Before we look at the text, Jesus has been speaking in parables. He's been on the northwestern tip of the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Capernaum. Huge crowds are following him. They're coming from everywhere just to get a glimpse of him or to be healed. But most of them because of their persistent, willful unbelief, even in the face of irrefutable evidence, most of them refused to believe that he was really the Son of God, the Messiah. Consequently, Jesus judged them by concealing truth from them through the use of parables. We studied this in Mark chapter four, verses nine through 13. Although he did give detailed explanations of what he was saying to His disciples, by the way, all of that was part of God's sovereign plan. It wasn't like he just came up with this, on the spur of the moment. This was all decreed in eternity past. Matthew 13:35 explains that Jesus spoke in parables, quote, "to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet, 'I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.'" That was written by the way by the prophet Asaph, recorded in Second Chronicles 29:30.

So, we come to the text, Mark four beginning of verse 35. Jesus is utterly exhausted by the crowds. And we read, "On that day when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side." Now, the other side would have meant would have meant going over to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, where there would be no major cities. Not a lot of population there, it's that way to this very day. It would be a great place to rest from the massive crowds. Any of you who have been in ministry know how exhausting it is to constantly be answering theological questions, and hearing everybody's problems, and trying to help them and make it a Hallmark movie where it'll all come to a happy ending within just a few minutes. Obviously, that doesn't work that way, but it is exhausting. And here we see Jesus, being exhausted along with the others. They needed rest desperately. So verse 36, "Leaving the crowd, they took him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with him." Now, these were probably one of the fishing vessels that had belonged to Peter and Andrew or maybe James and John, we know that they kept them even after they left their fishing career, even after Christ's resurrection. And when he appeared to the seven disciples, they, they went fishing in their own boat, according to John 21, three. And we also know according to Mark three and verse nine, that Jesus told them to keep their boats handy, kind of on standby in case they needed to use them to have a safe place to go. So that's what happens here. They, they get one of their boats, or maybe a couple of them. And these boats wouldn't be large enough to hold all 12 of the disciples plus Jesus. So there was a little flotilla here, a little armada of boats, and some people had their own boats and they're going to follow along with Jesus and according to Luke's account, in Luke 9:23, we read that they were "sailing along" which denotes calm seas, pleasant journeys, a steady breeze. But suddenly, everything changed. And drastically. So verse 37, "And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boats so much that the boat was already filling up." Now you must understand the geography here of the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake that 690 feet below sea level. It's about 13 miles long, seven miles wide. And it's located about 30 miles east of the Mediterranean Sea. And if you look at it, it's in a basin, there's large cliffs and, and almost like mountains around the whole thing. And so it is vulnerable to cold air masses that can suddenly sweep over those ridges and come down into that basin where there would be warm air. And often that would happen coming off the Golan Heights. And to the north, you have Mount Hermon, which towers above the landscape about 9200 feet, and many times, strong northerly winds can suddenly and frequently descend upon the warm air in the Galilee basin and get trapped there in the cliffs and then come down, causing violent winds to occur very, very quickly. So it can be a dangerous place. The waters of course begin to turn into a ferocious tempest. I want you to put yourself in that boat with Jesus. Imagine the terror of the disciples. Have you ever been in a situation where you're horrified or you're helpless? And that would have been the situation that they were in in this storm. And yet as we are going to see Jesus is going to demonstrate to them in undeniable ways that he is the creator and the sustainer of all things. Jesus, as we see is asleep in his humaneness. But dear friends make no mistake, he is wide awake in his deity. He knew exactly what was occurring. In fact, he had orchestrated the whole thing. The one who never slumbers nor sleeps, deliberately brought them to a place that we all despise. And that is that place of utter helplessness, where we are completely out of resources. We don't know which way to turn, we don't know what to do, we feel like we are going to die in our state of utter desperation and helplessness. God provides for us an opportunity for him, to prove himself powerful on our behalf, and to reveal Himself to us that we might worship Him all the more, and that our faith might be strengthened. Well, we've all been there, haven't we, if we haven't, we will be. I know some of you are there right now. Nowhere to turn, nowhere to hide, out of human resources. But again, this is where God loves to take us many times. Because it is there that He reveals Himself to us. When we are weak, he is what? He is strong. So as that cold air rushed down those canyons and, and valleys adjacent to the upper Jordan Valley, and swooped down into the warm air on the sea, there was great turbulence that occurred to the point where it was about to capsize the vessel. By the way, if you're in a vessel like that, the first thing you would have to do very quickly, is fold your sails in, then you have to seize oars to somehow get the bow of the vessel pointed into the wind rather than sideways. And, and there has been evidence of waves as high as 10 feet on the Sea of Galilee. And so if your boat is sideways, it's just it's just going to be capsized. So they're literally fighting for their life here. Luke says in Luke 8:23, "a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger." Matthew 8:24 "The boat was being covered with the waves." Matthew said and again Luke 8:23, "They began to be swamped and to be in danger."

Now look at our text here in Mark four verse 38. "Jesus Himself was in the stern," that's at the back of the ship, "asleep on the cushion." Now these vessels we know had a raised section at the stern. Jesus was obviously exhausted, but he would have been up out of the water that is beginning to fill the vessel. And the stern in a storm will be kind of the best place so you're not being tossed about hardly as much, that's where Jesus was. And then we read, "and they woke Him and said to Him, 'Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?' We've been there, haven't we? Lord, where are you? This isn't fair. What I'm experiencing right now is absolutely overwhelming. Where are you? Why don't you do something? Luke 8:24, "They came to Jesus and woke Him up saying 'Master, Master, we are perishing.'" Inevitably, dear friends, fear and frustration can betray a heart that has a superficial understanding of the character of God. And that's why he oftens puts us in these scenarios where all of a sudden in our flesh, we begin to wonder if God is insensitive to our needs, if he is indifferent. Maybe he just doesn't care. Versus being able to say, God right now I'm in desperate need. I think I am going to die. And unless you do something, I probably will but I know that you were in charge. And I will trust you no matter what.

Maybe you would even quote Psalm 139 verse nine, "For if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will lay hold of me." So father right now i cry out to you for help. But if you choose to let me perish, I'm okay with that. Because I know that immediately I will be in your presence, I will trust you, come what may and remain steadfast in your love. Well, many of us have experienced the power of God in our lives. There are those times where there are limits to our faith, I've been there, you probably have to. And God loves us, loves to take us to those limits. And when we're in those situations, what an amazing thing it is to experience not only the power of God, but the presence of God in our life. This is what he wanted to teach his disciples. Let me give you a very real and practical illustration that's close to my heart. My father was a Marine, stationed aboard the USS Indianapolis in World War II, After they had delivered the components to the atomic bombs to the Indian at the BT 29 Base that were later dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they went on to towards the Philippines for the main invasion of Japan. A Japanese sub launched a spread of six torpedoes to have the torpedoes hit the ship. It went down in 12 minutes, and it was the greatest catastrophe at sea in the history of the United States Navy. 1195 men were on board. They estimated that maybe 800 of them got off. The Navy lost them out there in the waters and almost five days later, they accidentally found them. And they rescued 316, my father was one of them. Most of the men died of dehydration, saltwater poisoning, hyperthermia, and the sharks. I had the privilege of recording my father's testimony in the book, "Out of the Depths," many of you have read it. But I want to quote to you a little of what my father said, with respect to all of this and you will see another example of the power and the presence of God in His redeemed. Dad said this quote, "The scene around me on that second day can only be likened to a nightmare. Human remains and corpses floated around our dwindling group." By the way, the groups went off as the ship continued to move forward, guys were abandoning ship. When they finally found them. There were little groups of people scattered about 75 miles apart. Dads group started at about 75 on the first day and it was dwindled in half by the second day. When they picked him up it was just him and one other Navy Lieutenant. He went on to say, "The sharks were never far away lingering in the distance. Basically, stragglers suddenly swim towards us for no apparent reason. Those of us who could still see because they didn't have the oil in their eyes, remember, with horror, those black dorsal fins slicing through the water. When they would swim through our ranks, hysteria and panic would naturally overwhelm us. On numerous occasions, I recall seeing a large fin coming straight at me. In horror, I would take what I thought would be my last breath, bend my knees up to my chest, draw up my feet to my buttocks, and cry out to God. 'Oh God help!' Sometimes I could feel their fin brushed my body. Other times I would merely feel the wake of the massive beast streaking through the water just underneath me." He went on to say, "Excruciating body cramps would often follow these episodes. Every muscle fiber in my body would tense up to make me as small as a target as I could possibly become. When the sharks would become active, my weakened body would finally get to a point where I could no longer draw my knees up to my chest. My abdominal muscles would become completely exhausted, leaving my legs to helplessly dangle in the path of the mighty predator." I remember asking dad, "Dad, what went through your mind when these types of things happen?" I mean obviously there was there was horror. I remember him saying, "Son it's hard to describe, but it was a mixture of terror and peace," a mixture of terror and peace, "because I knew that the worst thing that could possibly happen to me is that I would be killed and go into glory," which would certainly have been a relief, given what he was enduring. He went on to say this in another section, "Bobbing in the middle of the Pacific, I was reassured that even if the Lord chose to let me perish, I knew his sweet Providence was ultimately in charge. In fact, it was a welcome thought to consider that he might decide to take me to my heavenly home and relieve me from my distress. But somehow, I knew that he had plans for me and wanted me to survive. Had it not been for the strength and incomprehensible peace of the Lord, I fear the ordeal would have destroyed me. I had already seen and experienced enough anguish and suffering to last me a lifetime. The inescapable bloody carnage alone was almost unbearable, not to mention my own physical challenges plus the fear of the unknown. Yet through it all, God remained my close companion. His faithful presence gave me great strength and resolve. As the terror surrounded me, my heart ran frequently to the Lord in prayer. The Holy Spirit would help me think of Scripture. When this happened, I would lay hold of his promises and pray them back to Him with an attitude of awe and great joy." He went on to add, "I remember quoting the 23rd Psalm, giving special emphasis to the source of my strength, and hope, the Lord himself and to my Shepherd's, personal care for me. And I would often quote, especially Psalm 23, 'For even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me, Thy rod, and thy staff, they comfort me." What a testimony of God's grace, what a testimony of the power of the indwelling Spirit in the redeemed.

Now, back to our disciples, the Spirit of God did not dwell in them as yet. And they had much to learn about their trust in God, their faith, it was fledgling at this point, a faith that needed to be strengthened. And whenever we find ourselves paralyzed in fear, paralyzed in fear, not afraid, but paralyzed in fear. We betray the weakness of our faith or unwillingness to really acknowledge the resources that are ours in Christ, the perfection and goodness of his plan for us. Now, being afraid is natural, even appropriate, but being paralyzed, to the point of panic, unable to function in a crisis betrays our lack of trust and confidence in the Lord our God. And beloved, now is the time to understand these things and lay hold of them in your heart. Not when you're in a storm. Many people today are gripped with irrational fears, you see it all the time, often resulting in bizarre behaviors. I still see people driving along in their car wearing masks, or people wearing two masks. It's interesting, isn't it? To date, as I understand it, there's not one single peer review white paper that indicates that those masks are effective in preventing the Coronavirus spread. The people are terrified of so many things. And I feel sorry for them because they don't know the Lord. But the more we TRUST and OBEY Him, the more opportunities we have to witness his power, to experience his goodness. And this was the lesson that the disciples were about to learn the hard way. So in their terror, they awakened Jesus verse 39, "And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Hush, be still.' And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm." Beloved, this is absolutely incomprehensible, is it not? And what an understatement. He just said "Hush, be still."

Dear Christian, I want you to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is the preexistent, self-existent, uncreated Creator of the universe. That is the God that we worship. That is the one who has given his life for us. And unless you allow those great truths to grip your soul, you're going to find yourself terrified when the storms come your way. And this was the lesson that they were learning. Verse 40, "And he said to them, 'Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?'" Now, I'm sure there were other things that he said but his point is certainly understood. It's as if he's saying, after all of the miracles that you've seen me perform, after all, the demonstrations of my divine love and mercy, my tender compassion, do you really think that I'm going to ignore you? You certainly can't believe that. Even if I let you drown in the sea, and allow you to pass through the veil of this wicked world and enter into paradise, do you not think that I'm still caring for you? Don't you remember the words of the psalmist in Psalm 89, beginning of verse eight, "Oh Lord God of hosts, who is like the Almighty Lord, thy waves rise, Thou dost steal them." Are these words meaningless to you? Have you not quoted them and sung them before? Time and time again? What about the Psalm you've sung in days past? Psalm 46, beginning of verse one, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change, the mountain is slipping to the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride." Don't you believe that? That's the point. Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?

Dave Harrell

Now what is stated next is hard to grasp. And it's hard to even explain. But we read in verse 41, "They became very much afraid, and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?'" As I examined the Greek texts, when it says "they became very much afraid," it can literally be translated, "they feared with great fear." In other words, the fear of the storm is at this level, but now all of a sudden, their fear is at this level, if you can imagine that. And what is it that they're afraid of? It's not the storm, but it's the one that calmed the storm. Can you imagine the look on their faces? As they stood there soaking wet, trembling in terror of the storm, but now they are legitimately overwhelmed as they witnessed the power of the Creator. Oh, dear Christian, we cannot even begin to imagine the power of the Most High, but to experience it? In this kind of a scenario? It's astonishing. Their response, by the way, is the only appropriate response when someone experiences the power of God. For example, when Jesus cast out the demons in the man from the tombs in the country of the Gerasene’s, remember when he sent them into the swine we read in Mark 5:15, "The people came to Jesus and observe the man who had been demon possessed, sitting down." By the way, this is the guy that they had tried to chain and he would break the chains. They're used to hearing this guy scream and do all this and now they see him sitting down closed in his right mind, the very man who had the Legion, referring to all of the demons, and it says, "And they became frightened." The concept of terrified, that's what happens when you witnessed the power of God. There was another storm in which Jesus walked on the water. Remember, in Mark six beginning in verse 48. We read, "Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them walking on the sea, and he intended to pass by them." In other words, he wanted them to see him. "But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they suppose that it was a ghost, and cried out;" "Anekraxen" in the original language, it means to scream in horror. They cried out, "for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them, and said to them, 'Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.' Then He got into the boat with them and the wind stopped, and they were utterly astonished". The term astonished means to be so utterly amazed that you're on the very brink of losing your mental composure. In Mark nine, you will recall when Peter James and John saw the effulgence of the glory of God emanating from Christ, the text says that they "became terrified." In Mark 16, verse eight, when the women went to the tomb and saw that it was empty, then they saw and heard an angel tell them that he is not here "He is risen." The text says, "they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had gripped them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Oh, dear Christian, never underestimate the power of God. And never lose the wonder of the exertion of that power on your behalf. Would that we all have the heart of the words that are expressed by the psalmist in Psalm 65, verse five. "By awesome deeds, You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation. You are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farther sea; Who establishes the mountains by His strength, being girded with might. Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves and the tumult of the peoples." Will that we have the same testimony of the solace in Psalm 107, beginning in verse 23, "Those who go down to the sea and ships, who do business on great waters; They have seen the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths, their soul melted away in their misery. They reeled nd staggered like a drunken man, and were at their wit's end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble. And he brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed, then they were glad because they were quiet. So he guided them to their desired Haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men!" It is so sad that even many Christians only see Jesus in His humiliation. Rather than beholding him as he really is in his glorification. Again, he is the creator, and the sustainer and the Redeemer as well as the concentrator of all things. John, one three, we read that, "through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that was made." Paul tells us or the writer of Hebrews tells us, we're not sure that it was Paul, chapter one and verse three, "that he upholds all things by the Word of His power." That's how all of the atoms stay together by the Word of His power.

Think about it, he maintains the gravitation necessary to keep our solar system in orbit. I was reading how the Earth spins on its axis at 1000 miles an hour at the equator, it travels in a 580 million mile orbit around the sun at about 1000 miles a minute. Who is causing all that to happen? Beloved, it was that Babe in the manger. In fact, while he was still a fetus in Mary's womb, He was holding all things together by the Word of His power. From the macro to the micro, Jesus reigns over all of His creation. I was thinking about this again, many bacteria like Salmonella and streptococci propel themselves with miniature motors, I was reading about this. And I've spoken on this before, I'm just, my mind goes back to it, just to once again get lost in the wonder of who Christ really is. And these little miniature motors are equivalent to a car traveling 150 miles per hour in liquid. These motors rotate up to 100,000 revolutions per minute. And they operate through electrical charges from a flow of protons. Each shaft rotates a bundle of whip-like flagella, that acts as a propeller. And these motors have intricate sensors, and control mechanisms so that they can start and stop and reverse and change directions, and do so instantly. There are 8 million of these motors, or they said 8 million of these motors would fit the circular cross section of a human hair. And evolutionists tell us that bacteria were one of the first forms of life to evolve, because they are so simple. Out of foolishness the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Again, Jesus is our Creator, our Sustainer. He has made every human being with staggering complexity that scientists are just beginning to understand. Again, I was reading, there are 100 trillion cells in the human body. Now how they know that I can't vouch but that's what they say. Let's just say there's a whole bunch of human cells, right 100 trillion cells in the human body 46 segments of DNA exist in most cells. And there are 23 that come from the mother, and 23 that come from the Father, which by the way, underscores the fact and I know this is hard for some to believe, but there are only two genders.

If the DNA in one of your cells were uncoiled, if they were connected and stretched out, it would be about seven feet long. And the info of just one of those cells would fill a library of about 4000 books. And if you do the math, if the DNA of the whole body were stretched out and placed into end, it would go here to the moon more than 500,000 times. Indeed, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, right. And if you put all of it in book form, someone calculated that it would fill the Grand Canyon 75 times. Beloved, this same Jesus that has made us and has and continues to sustain us is the one who has redeemed us that he might inhabit us; this is the one who died for us that we might be reconciled to God through faith in him. And what a glorious thought it is. To know that this is the one that we love and serve. And beloved, no matter how violent the storm. Jesus is always there to answer our cry. And the issue, by the way, is never the size of the storm. That's not the big deal. Nor is it the fact that he somehow doesn't hear or he doesn't care, or that he doesn't have the power to act, the issue is always our humble faith. To be able to say, God, I don't understand what you're up to here. And quite frankly, I'm terrified and it breaks my heart, but I will trust you. Because you are good and you are glorious, and you are gracious. I think of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Remember back in Daniel three, they refused to bow, to worship the golden image. And in his rage Nebuchadnezzar basically cast them into the furnace of blazing fire to see if there is a God that can deliver them out of his hands and so forth. And I love their response. In Daniel three, beginning in verse 17, "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire." Boy, there's confident faith right. "And He will deliver us out of your hand Oh, King, but," and I love this, "even if he does not, let it be known to you, oh king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." Oh Child of God, may I remind you that the Lord calls the storms into existence in our lives that he might reveal Himself to us? Was it not in the context of some great storm in your life, that you first understood the glory of the cross? You remember that? How often he initiates his elective purposes to save some soul, when that soul is utterly consumed in some kind of great trouble. Isaiah 48 Verse 10, says, "Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Spurgeon says, "It is when we are down to the very lowest, when we are brought to bankruptcy, and beggary, spiritually. When we lie at Christ's feet as though we were dead, it is then he puts his hand upon us and says, Fear not, I am the First and the Last. It is then he anoints us with the oil of joy, it is then He clothes us with the garments of salvation. It is then when we hear the voice of eternal love, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn thee." Indeed, this is the marvelous love of the Savior. To not only meet us in that hour of desperation but love us enough to bring that hour into our life. Behold, the majesty and the glory of Christ should produce a holy fear in us all and drive us to our faces in humble worship. And when we do this, our hearts will be filled with praise. Such was the inspiration of Charles Wesley when he wrote that great hymn, "Oh, for 1000 tongues to sing, my great Redeemers praise, The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. Jesus, the name that charms our fears that bids our sorrows cease to his music in the sinners ear. Tis life and health and peace." Oh what glorious truths, Amen. All these things should ignite our hearts praise and motivate us to faithful obedience and service to the one who has delivered us. I want to close with a personal reflection that I wrote a number of years ago actually, when I preached on Matthew 14 "Life is filled with gale force winds that cause the waves to roar. And like the men of Galilee, we strain against the oar. With billows high we cry aloud, Oh, Lord, where have you gone? Then he whispers through the squall, I've been here all along. Oh, we of little faith, why doubt? Like give our hearts to fear. For when the tempest trials blow tis then we must Draw near. For in the wind of every storm a Sovereign I doth see, the waning faith and broken hearts of those like you and me. And with his outstretched hand of love, he reaches down to save. All who trust in Him alone, for us his life he gave. So when the tumults or us roll, let's thank him for the gale. For in His love, He caused the storm towards he that set the sail." Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for these comforting truths. Indeed, what peace fills our heart when we consider that you are the mighty sovereign, that set your love upon us and eternity past that nothing can separate us from Your love and that you will bring us safely home. Even though now, in this life, between that time when we are ultimately healed and completely away from the presence of sin, we experienced great difficulties. And we would cry out to you to help us with our weak faith. But we thank you for the power of your word, the power of your indwelling Spirit. And I pray especially this morning as your servant that for each one within the sound of my voice. You might speak in such a way that these truths become the passion and the power of their heart. That each of us will give you praise. No matter what our condition no matter what our lot knowing that you love us with an everlasting love. And because of this, we give you our praise in Jesus name. Amen.