Sermon: The Genuineness of Your Faith

#1781
Martin G. Collins
Given 14-Sep-24; 65 minutes 2024-09-14

In biblical stories of testing, the link between action and character is very close. Action is character and character is action. When God tested Abraham by commanding him to offer his son Isaac, Abraham's prompt and decisive obedience demonstrated his character, in which faith was the dominant virtue. When Jacob arrived at his uncle's home for an extended stay, his ability to establish himself as an adult underwent an extensive test, a test in which Jacob's responses of competitiveness, physical stamina, perseverance, and resilience demonstrated his character.

Please turn with me, if you will, to Luke 8, verse 22. Now, because responses to tests determine character, we remember many biblical characters especially for their heroism or their humiliation, and isolated moments of specific testing. And to help us understand the matter of faith and works, God has given us a simple example of how Jesus' disciples initially failed this test of faith. We will read down through 25. There are also accounts of this in Matthew 8:23-27 and Mark 4:35-41.

Luke 8:22-25 Now it happened, on a certain day, that He [that is, Jesus] got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake." And they launched out. But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came on down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" And then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, "Where is your faith?" And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, "Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!"

We find here a question that Jesus Christ addressed to the disciples. "And He said to them, 'Where is your faith?'" The cause of the spiritual depression that is dealt with here is the whole problem in question of the nature of faith.

Now turn over to Ephesians 3, verse 14. Many Christians get into trouble and are unhappy from time to time because they do not understand faith. But what makes us Christians is that we are given the gift of faith. We are given it by God through His Holy Spirit as we believe in Jesus Christ and that begins the process of salvation. But that does not mean that we immediately have a full understanding of faith. As God's Spirit motivates our behavior, we take on little by little the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Although we may be truly Christian, that is, genuinely being called and being prepared for the Kingdom of God as the result of this gift of faith, it does not mean we will not later get into trouble in our spiritual experience and of trying to live God's way of life. In a sense, we still have at least one toe in the world. Some still have a foot, a leg, or even a large part of their body still in the world as they try to come out of it.

A great deal of the problem is we do not fully understand how to use God's gift of faith. Faith is simply the belief that God exists and that He will do what He says He will. Faith is not merely wishing, hoping, or a positive mental attitude. It is not a temporary surge of emotional enthusiasm. It is not fear of punishment or fear of a worse alternative. It is not guilt. Faith is not peer pressure, it is not intimidation, it is not resignation. It is not self-righteousness or stubbornness. That is quite a list of what it is not.

But faith is confidently knowing that God will do what He says He will do when he says He will do it. Real saving faith comes only from God and it is a gift only He can give, and it in no way comes in any part or fragment from our own human nature or attitudes. It is given as a gift, but from there on, we have to do certain things about it.

This very vivid incident of the boat and the storm brings out the vital importance of distinguishing between the original gift of faith and our walk of faith, which is also called the life of faith, which comes subsequently. Now God starts us off in this Christian life and then we must walk in it. We walk by faith, not by sight.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Before we continue in this vein, I want to mention a few things about this dramatic incident on the boat. It brings us face-to-face with what is described as a paradox, the seeming contradiction within Jesus Christ Himself. Now Jesus was weary and tired and He fell asleep. This incident is recorded in three gospels, as I mentioned earlier, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And it is very important from the viewpoint of understanding Jesus Christ in the flesh.

Notice how human He is. He is fatigued, He is tired, He is weary, so much so that He just falls asleep. And though the storm is increasing in intensity, He still sleeps. Here He is, a man in a physical body and flesh like all the rest of us. He understood fatigue and how hard it is to continue in that state.

Storms often arose suddenly on the lake called the Sea of Galilee. And these fishermen had usually stayed closer to Capernaum and were unprepared for a squall this far from shore. The only place anyone could sleep in a small fishing boat like this with water pouring in from a storm would be on the elevated stern where he could use the wooden or leather covered helmsman seat or a pillow kept under the seat as a cushion for his head.

Now, notice another account in Mark 4 of what happened. Please flip over to Mark 4 with me. So they went to Him and woke Him and they said,

Mark 4:38-39 "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

So Mark describes something the other writers do not. He mentioned it as a great calm. It is not surprising that the disciples, seeing all of this, wondered and fearfully said to each other as recorded in the last part of verse 41, "Who can this be, that even the wind and sea obey Him?" So here was a man with direct access to the power of God and He could command the elements, He could silence the wind, and stop the raging sea. He is the Lord of nature and creation.

This leads us to a critical issue: if we do not believe in the unique divine being of Jesus Christ, obviously it is impossible to be a true Christian. He took on human nature and dwelt among us in flesh and still His disciples asked, "Who can this be?" He was God and human at the same time.

However, that is not the only purpose of this incident. In the specific incidents involved here, we see other specific lessons of their own. Now, in this case, there is a lesson concerning the disciples and their condition at this point concerning faith. We can be thankful for the record of every mistake they ever made and for every blunder they had ever committed because we can see ourselves in them and learn from their mistakes and apply these things in our lives. It is a wonderful thing that we can read accounts like this and see ourselves depicted in them and how grateful we should be to God that it is a divinely inspired written Word that speaks the truth and shows and pictures every human frailty.

So we find Christ rebuking these men. He reprimands them because of their anxiety, because of their terror, because of their lack of faith. And here they were in the boat with Him, the storm came up, and immediately they assumed they were in danger and possible doom. They bailed out the water, but the boat was filling up, and they could see that in a few moments it was going to sink and they thought they had done everything they could, but it did not seem to be beneficial. And in all this, what amazed them was that their Teacher was still sleeping soundly in the stern of the boat. So they woke Him up.

Mark 4:38-41 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they woke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?" And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another. "Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"

We should be careful to understand what Christ was saying in His rebuke of those disciples. In the first place, He was rebuking them for being in such an unfaithful state of mind. Matthew records it like this, "O you of little faith." Mark records, "How is it that you have no faith?" And Luke records, "Where is your faith?" All three of these have the same basic meaning.

Here, as elsewhere, Jesus was disappointed in their unbelief and that is the first spiritual lesson we should apply to ourselves and to one another. It is wrong for a Christian to be in such an insecure condition. No matter what the circumstances, we should not get frantic. We should never be beside ourselves like this and we should never be in a condition where we have lost control of our emotions.

Sadly, some people, even in God's church, are fooled by emotions and fears and wishes that disguise themselves as faith. And this is true even for converted people who may have been in God's church for years. And that is why many people lack faith because they think they have faith when they do not.

But the real tragedy occurs when these people meet trials that demand real faith; instead of real faith, they find only a poor substitute and the substitute quickly crumbles under pressure and they are left with nothing. Such a person who finds his false faith crumbling beneath him quickly learns about his lack of faith the hard way by experience.

But there is a better way than experience to learn. I think most of us recognize that. That way is to recognize how deceitful our human nature is and to identify the false substitutes for faith before they take root and block the growth of real godly faith.

Now, here are 12 of the most common human counterfeits and substitutes for faith.

1. Wishing. Wishing is simply wanting something to happen. All of us at one time or another wish for something. We wish for a new house or car, or even to be healed. And wishing may not necessarily be wrong, as long as our wishing does not degenerate into coveting. But it is most important that we do not confuse wishing with faith. Wishing is not based on anything reasonable. It is not supported by facts and often it is a wrong desire for something we have not worked for.

Please turn over to Romans 8, verse 24.

2. Hope. Hope is an optimistic expectation that we will get the desired results. Hope is a necessary element of human experience. Faith is not affected by what it is seen or not seen, but hope is. That is important as well.

Romans 8:24-25 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

An example of a situation that most of us have experienced at one time or another will illustrate the difference between faith and hope. Most people sometimes must approach a lender for a loan for a house. If the person has an optimistic expectation that the lender will grant his wish, then that person has hope. But faith is more than just an optimistic expectation. Faith is believing that God will do what He says He will do according to His Word. It is critical to remember that: according to His Word, according to the truth.

For instance, God has not said that He will not allow you to get turned down for a loan, although He has said He will never allow the righteous to go without food and shelter. And the point is that faith and hope are different. We should be careful not to confuse the two.

3. A positive attitude. Now, this is the ability to examine the facts, concentrate on a possible positive outcome, and it requires a positive attitude to concentrate only on the narrow potential for winning and ignore the overwhelming odds of losing. Having a positive attitude is a good quality.

Please turn to Philippians 4, verse 8. It is a characteristic we should all strive to obtain and we should concentrate on good positive things. However, a positive attitude is not faith and should not be confused with faith.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

So develop a positive outlook on life, but do not confuse it with faith. A positive attitude does not necessarily require faith, but faith does require a positive attitude.

4. Emotional enthusiasm. A temporary surge of emotional enthusiasm is just that. Certainly the children of Israel must have felt that way when they came out of the land of Egypt with boldness. But the enthusiasm came from leaving Egypt, leaving slavery. Or today, it may come from hearing an inspiring sermon for healing, but that is not faith. That is the emotional reaction to a heartfelt request.

Turn with me to Matthew 26, verse 31. Probably the most striking example of false faith in a New Testament is the incident of Peter's denial. Here was a man who was to become one of the greatest pillars and examples of faith in the church, but he did not start out so well.

Matthew 26:31-35 [This is Jesus predicting Peter's denial] Then Jesus said to them, "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: 'I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee." Peter answered and said to Him, "Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble." And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times. And Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You." And so said all the disciples.

Matthew 26:74-75 Then he [Peter] began to curse and swear, saying, "I do not know the Man!" Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." So he went out and wept bitterly.

Emotional enthusiasm is not faith.

5. Fear of punishment. It is amazing how some people can be motivated into doing something because they fear the punishment of disobeying. We do that with our children, do we not, when we correct them and they react to us, initially because they are fearful of the spanking or the correction, but then later it becomes part of their life, part of a habitual thing and they do it as a way of life. So we must correct our children when they are young so they will grow up to honor God and obey Him.

Ancient Israel, after refusing to enter the Promised Land, had a dramatic change of heart and wanted to charge in to the Promised Land after being told they would be punished for not going,

Numbers 14:40 And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain [this is the children of Israel], "Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned!"

So it was only after God said they were going to be wandering in the wilderness for 40 years that they actually decide, Ok, we should have gone as God had told us. Now that they felt fear of the punishment, they were willing and ready to obey. It would be easier for some to assume that they had overnight developed a great surge of real faith so that they now were ready to put aside their fears of giants or war, and instead stalk into the land with renewed bravery. But God did not accept their change of mind because He knew it was not genuine faith. And the fact is that they developed a fear of punishment that would come upon them, that is, wandering 40 years in the wilderness, if they did not do what they were told.

Now, sadly, some people obey God only out of fear of punishment. The fear of punishment should not be confused with faith. It may be a motivation to obey God. But if we lack faith, we should obey anyway and ask God for the faith to trust Him and live His way of life.

6. Fear of a worse alternative. In a sense, that is what happened to the Israelites as well. But some people put off surgical operations or decide not to seek a doctor's help not because they have deep faith in God for healing, but because they are afraid of the surgery or afraid of the doctors. And this fear may be a good thing if it causes a person to really think through the consequences of going under the surgeon's knife and the high failure rate of their one-size-fits-all procedures. But this fear should not be confused with faith.

Psalm 118:8 It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

Regarding causes of fear, the Bible repeatedly reminds us, even commands us, that those who trust in God are exempt from fear.

Psalm 56:3-4 Whenever I am afraid, I trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), in God have I put my trust. I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?

7. Guilt. A person's conscience can be a powerful motivator toward obedience. For example, someone may tithe, not because he has real faith or not even because he might fear God's punishment, but because he would feel guilty if he did not. That person is not motivated by faith, but by guilt. Still, tithing because of guilt is better than not tithing at all. And we begin to truly understand God's way of life only after we actually follow and experience it.

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments.

In order to have faith, we must have action. The tither motivated by guilt should not confuse and misdiagnose his guilt as faith. God is not deceived although the person might be. No wonder some are not as blessed as they could be for tithing with the right, giving attitude.

8. Peer pressure. Often when a person begins attending God's church, he has to ask his boss for the Sabbath off. And sometimes the new convert does it for the wrong reason. It may not be that he had faith to trust in God if he were to lose his job over it. But sometimes the new Sabbath keeper has not really proven that God has commanded the seventh day as the Sabbath and does not have the faith to trust God in the first place. We know that Genesis 2:2-3 says that God hallowed the seventh day as the Sabbath and He Himself rested on it—and no one has the authority to change that.

His real motivation for asking for the Sabbath off, that is, the new convert, was fear of what other people in the church would think if he did not keep it. But sadly, not even peer pressure in the long run can make a person obey if he does not have the faith to back it up. Eventually he will compromise and give in because the conviction and commitment never existed because there was no faith.

9. Intimidation. This is similar to the last one, but a little different. Now, this is to force into or deter from some action by inducing fear. For example, a slick salesman may be able to talk a person into buying something he does not really need or want. The IRS, for example, extracts huge sums of money out of people through intimidation. Big Pharma constantly runs advertisements to intimidate people by scaring them into believing they will suffer or die if they do not take their drugs.

Please turn over to Ephesians 6, verse 5. Although obedience to God is a good thing, no doubt, someone obeying God's commands because of intimidation is not obeying out of faith. Faith requires conviction, sincerity of heart.

Ephesians 6:5-6 Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with [and I will add respectful] fear and trembling in sincerity of heart, as to Christ, not with eyeservice as men pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing [that is, obeying] the will of God from the heart.

10. Resignation or hopelessness. Some people have, after ineffectively trying doctors, procedures, and prescriptions, come to God's ministers and ask for an anointing and prayer for healing as God instructs through James.

James 5:15-14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith [and I will add the prayer of faith, it only takes one] will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Sometimes, of course, the person has real faith and other times someone may come for prayer and anointing because no alternatives are left. Out of utter hopelessness and resignation he may seek God's help and that is still a good thing. However, God's intervention should be sought as a first resort, not a last resort. Of course, we should take all of our trials to God. Trials are a tool God uses to draw people to Him. But someone who seeks God and prays for His intervention because they do not have anyone else to turn to and nothing else to do—that God is a last resort—is not necessarily exercising genuine faith. It could be, but quite often it is not.

Now, the person may be just using human logic and doing what any soldier in a foxhole does under the thunder of blasting shells would do. The prayer of faith will save the sick, not the prayer of resignation or hopelessness.

11. Self-righteousness. People sometimes obey God, pray for healing or other needs, or even endure trials not because they have real faith, but because they have told other people in similar situations that they would not do whatever the other weak people had done. Instead of seeking God, a person may put on a show of righteousness by toughing it out. But such a show of righteousness occasioned merely by self-righteousness is unrighteous in God's eyes.

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

So genuine faith is always accompanied by humility.

12. Stubbornness. Occasionally a person will be confronted by a great trial and will see it through to the end in grand style, keeping a stiff upper lip. And we may assume the motivation factor behind his great steadfastness is a deep and abiding faith in God, and it may be, and that is wonderful. But sometimes it is just plain old human stubbornness. Stubbornness is unreasonable or perverse obstinacy.

Please turn with me to Deuteronomy 9, verse 5. In contrast, steadfastness may help a person or group of people hold on and endure in times of stress or trial, but neither stubbornness nor steadfastness should be confused with faith. The story of ancient Israel and her legacy of being stiff-necked is the case in point.

Deuteronomy 9:5-7 "It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord."

False faith is human nature deceitfully trying to convince us that we really believe in God while we remain stiff-necked. Although stubbornness may seem like self-control, it is not when it is based on wrong goals and principles. The motivation must be based on Christ who strengthens us. And this is the basis for our steadfastness of heart.

So the first spiritual lesson is that we should never be in a condition where we have lost control of our emotions. The second spiritual lesson is that it is wrong to be in this condition of unbelief because it shows a lack of trust and confidence in God. That is why Christ reprimanded the disciples. When Jesus said, "Where is your faith?" He also said, "Do you not trust Me?"

Now, this type of worry and distress always carries with it a lack of implicit trust and confidence in God. It is a lack of faith in His concern and care for us. It means that we take charge and we are going to look after the situation ourselves, feeling either that He does not care or maybe that He cannot do anything. That is what makes it so terrible but we probably do not realize it. It seems obvious as we look at it objectively in the case of these disciples. But when we are worried and distressed and do not know what to do and are giving the impression of great nervous tension, anybody looking at us is at liberty to say, "He sure doesn't look like he has faith (or very much faith) in God."

War brings people to these trials in an exceptional way. But even now in times of relative peace, anything that comes across our path and causes us trouble immediately shows whether we believe in God and trust in Him by our response and reaction to it.

Let us look at a few general principles we can extract from the incident on the boat. First of all, in looking at the general idea of faith, what about what we might call the trial of faith, trials that show up that require great faith.

Scripture is full of this idea of the trial of one's faith. Take, for example, Hebrews 11. In a sense, that is an account of this theme of the trial of faith. Every one of those men and women was tried. They had been given great promises and accepted them, and then everything seemed to go wrong. And it is true for all of them.

Now think of the trials of a man like Noah, a man like Abraham, the trials that men like Jacob and especially Moses had to endure. God gives the gift of faith and then the faith is tried. And that is the theme of all the Scriptures. We find it in the history of the patriarchs and of all the Old Testament saints. And we find it running through the New Testament. It is especially the theme of the book of Revelation.

Please turn over to James 1, verse 2. So we can deduce from this that we will find ourselves in a position in which our faith is going to be tried. Storms and trials are allowed by God. And if we believe that we will never have any more worry for the rest of our lives once we are Christians, we are embracing a terrible fallacy. It is a delusion. It is not true. Our faith will be tried, and James goes so far as to say, it is a blessing.

James 1:2-8 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

God permits trouble. He permits the wind to blow and the clouds to roll and everything may seem to go wrong and we ourselves seem to be at risk. We have to have the right perspective and realize that God does not take His people and lead them into some kind of present utopia in which we are protected from all the enticements and challenges of the world in this life. We are living in the same world as everybody else. And the apostle Paul seems to go further than that. He tells the Philippians,

Philippians 1:29 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.

So it is a privilege to believe in Christ because it is by the faith of Christ in us that our sins are forgiven, that we become reconciled to God, and have the hope of the Kingdom of God. It is a great blessing because it saves our minds from the tortures and deadly influences of unbelief. It saves us from the anxiety, restlessness, and darkness of faithlessness.

Knowing that His disciples would be scattered, Jesus both warned and comforted them by emphasizing that they would find peace in believing Him. Please turn over to John 16, verse 27. Earlier in John 16, He emphasized the love of the Father and that whatever we ask in Christ's name, the Father will provide if it is according to His will. And faith is one of those things that the Father personally provides. In verse 27 of John 16, Jesus explains why the Father Himself loves us.

John 16:27 "For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God."

John 16:31-32 Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me."

And that is the same with us. We are not alone either because the Father is with us, if we are Christian.

John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

And if Jesus has overcome the world and the faith of Jesus and God the Father is in us, we too can overcome the world.

God allows the storm to come. Our situation may very well be quite desperate and we may appear in danger. Everything may seem against us, but it should not drive us to hopelessness. And while all this may be happening to us, God may seem totally unconcerned for us. That is when the real trial of faith comes in. The wind and the clouds were bad enough and the water coming into the ship, that was terrible. But the thing to them that was most terrible of all was Jesus Christ, His apparent unconcern.

Turn over to Luke 8, verse 24 please. Now, while Jesus was still sleeping and not apparently caring, they woke Him and said, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" And He appeared to be unconcerned about them—or so they thought. Imagine the feelings of abandonment of these men who thought they were about to die. They had followed Him and listened to His teaching about the coming of the Kingdom of God. They had seen His miracles and were expecting amazing things to happen. And now it looks as if everything was going to come to an end in shipwreck and drowning. Should He not have been concerned? That is what they thought.

We all know something of this condition of trial and trouble and of a feeling that God somehow does not seem to care. He does not seem to do anything about it. But if you look at every aspect of your trial, you will see God's hand in the little things along the way. He is intervening, you are just not recognizing it. So we have to make a definite and heartfelt attempt to see God's hand in whatever is going on in our lives, especially during the trials. The fact that God permits these things and that He often appears to be quite unconcerned about it all really constitutes the trial of faith. Those are the conditions in which our faith is tried and tested. And God allows it all. God permits it all.

Now, let us go on to the second question: what is the nature of faith? What is the character of faith? This is really the primary message of this incident and it is brought out very clearly in this record of it in Luke's gospel account. Notice how Luke records Christ's way of putting the question in the incident.

Luke 8:24-25 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, "Where is your faith?" And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, "Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him."

Verse 25 simply says, "Where is your faith?" And that is the key to the whole problem. In observing Christ's question, it is clear that it implies that He knows perfectly well that they do have faith. The question He asked them is, where is it? You have faith but where is it at this moment? It should be there. Where is it? And that gives us a key to understand the nature of faith. So let us look at it negatively for a moment.

First, faith is not merely a matter of feeling. It cannot be because one's feelings in this situation can change. Christians are not meant to be dejected when everything goes wrong. We are told to rejoice by Jesus Christ, by James, and throughout the New Testament, especially. Feelings are connected to happiness alone. Rejoicing takes in something much bigger than feelings. And if faith were a matter of feelings only, then when things go wrong, the feelings change. Faith will waver or depart.

But faith is not a matter of feelings only. Faith takes up the whole person, including his mind, intellect, and understanding. It is a response to truth. There is action involved. Remember faith is a gift from God, but we are to activate it, in a sense.

The second negative thing is even more important. Faith is not something that acts automatically. Faith is not something that acts magically. This is a blunder that we all have at some time or another been guilty. We seem to think that faith is something that acts automatically. Many people, it seems, think of faith as if it were something similar to a thermostat on a wall that controls heating and cooling in a house. You set the thermostat at a specific temperature to maintain your comfort level and it acts automatically. If the temperature rises above that, the thermostat comes into operation and brings it down. If you use your hot water and the temperature is lowered, the thermostat automatically activates the heating element or the flame, bringing the water back up to the set temperature automatically.

There are people who seem to think that faith acts like that. They assume that it does not matter what happens to them, that faith will operate and all will be well.

Faith, however, is not something that acts magically or automatically. If it did, these men on that boat with Jesus would never have been in trouble. Faith would have come into operation and they would have been calm and quiet and all would have been well. But faith is not like that.

Now that we know what it is not, what is faith? Let us look at it positively. The principle taught here is that faith requires activity. It is something that has to be exercised. It does not come into operation itself; we must put it into operation. It has to be activated.

Let us divide that up a little. Faith is something we have to bring into operation. That is exactly what Christ said to the disciples. He said, "Where is your faith?" Which means, "Why aren't you taking your faith and applying it to this situation?" It was because they did not apply it, they did not exercise it, because they did not put their faith into operation, that the disciples had become unhappy and were in a state of anxiety.

How then do we put faith into operation? Faith is something we have to apply. The first thing we have to do when we find ourselves in a difficult situation is to refuse to allow ourselves to be controlled by the situation. Negatively reacting to a problem leaps up very quickly. The disciples were on the boat. Christ was asleep; the wind was blowing, the clouds were rolling, and the water was coming in, and they could not bail it out fast enough. It looked as if they were going to sink. And their trouble was that they were controlled by the situation. They should have applied their faith and taken charge of it and said, no, we are not going to panic. They should have started in that way, but they did not. They allowed the situation to control them.

So relating this principle to a physiological problem, many women, especially in the beginning stages of their change of life, experience anxiety or worse, panic attacks. The same principle will work at times toward controlling those reactions to a certain extent. And that is, do not let anxiety set in. Catch it as soon as the feeling raises itself, take control of it immediately before it has the opportunity to mature.

Sometimes you are dealing with only fractions of a second reaction time. Immediately put things into the right perspective and prepare ahead of time with proper nutrition to help ease the severity. This is not a cure-all for the physiological imbalance, but it could help. Even if it was a little help, it would be worth it.

Faith is a refusal to panic no matter what. Initially, faith means unbelief kept quiet. Faith means self-control and action. And this is what the disciples did not do. They allowed the situation to grip them. They became panicky. Faith, however, is a refusal to allow that. We must not be controlled by circumstances. And when a problem arises, no decision is a decision to do nothing. It is a relinquishing of control. So we must take charge of ourselves and pull ourselves up. We determine how we are going to react in any given situation. Will it be indecision? Will it be panic or self-controlled action?

Our reaction must be the activation of the gift of faith. Our reaction must be obedience, humility, and trusting acceptance of God's will. So you control yourself. You do not let yourself go, you assert yourself. And that is the first thing but it does not stop at that. That is not enough because that may be nothing but resignation and that is not the whole of faith.

In reality, God is the One who makes it possible. But we have the responsibility to activate what God has given us. If we are not living God's way of life, we cannot activate the gift of faith, of saving faith.

Having taken that first step, having pulled yourself up, you then remind yourself of what you believe and what you know. And that again is something these disciples did not do. If they had just stopped for a moment and said to themselves, "Wait a minute. What about this crisis? Let's analyze what we know. Is there anything He can't do?" They had 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 is going to allow us and Himself to be drowned in this way? Impossible!" That is the way the disciples should have been thinking.

And that is the way we should think in a trial when a crisis comes or when a temptation tempts us. In every way, He loves us. He cares for us. He has numbered the hairs of our heads. And that is the way that faith reasons. It says, I see the raging waves and the fierce wind, but God is still on His throne. He is almighty and merciful. That is faith. It has recognized the values, the truth, and the reasons from what it knows to be fact. In John 8:32 Jesus says, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." That is the way to apply faith, know and obey the truth, know and obey God.

The disciples on the boat did not do that so they became worrisome and panicky. And we will have anxiety and become panicky if we fail to recognize and hold on to truth—if we fail to put things in the right perspective. God is still on His throne! If we fail to remember that always, we are going to get ourselves into trouble. So then, whatever circumstances, stop, wait a minute, and meditate on what you know to be true about God's power and His might and His desire for you.

Faith reminds itself of what Scripture calls "the exceeding great and precious promises."

Please turn to Romans 8, verse 28, a very familiar scripture to all of us. So faith, having refused to be controlled by circumstances, reminds itself of what it believes and what it knows. It is inconsistent to say, "I believe in God," but do not believe that He has the power or desire to intervene in the lives of His saints.

Then, the next step in applying faith is that faith applies to all particular situations. Again, that was something the disciples in the boat did not do. And that is why Christ put it to them in this way, "Where is your faith?" "You have the gift of faith, why don't you use it?" "Why don't you bring all you know to bear on this situation?" "Why don't you put this specific problem in its right perspective?"

That is the next step in applying faith. Whatever your circumstances at this moment, bring all you know to be true of your relationship with God to bear upon it. Then you will know without a doubt that He will never allow anything to happen to you that is spiritually harmful; and any physical trauma that He allows to happen and that you may have to bear will always end in something better. God's will always ends in something greater and better.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

So we do not always understand everything that is happening, but we will know for sure that God is not unconcerned. The One who has done the greatest thing of all for us must be concerned about us in everything. And though the clouds are thick and we cannot see His face, we know He is there. Nothing can happen to us but what He allows. It does not matter what. It may be some great disappointment or maybe an illness or injury or it may be some other tragedy. But we can be sure that God allows that thing to happen to us because it is ultimately for our good and for the good of everyone involved.

The book of Hebrews tells us how to renew our spiritual vitality. It requires disciplining and humbling.

Hebrews 12:3-13 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. [Of course, speaking of Jesus Christ.] You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives." If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them [that is, our fathers], but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. [That is the reason God chastens us.] Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Chastening yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And that is the way faith works. But we have to exercise it, it does not come into operation automatically. We have to focus our faith on the situation and say, "I know God is sovereign over all things and that Christ also has authority over all things. And because that is true, I'm going to apply it to the situation. And that means this problem can't be what I think it is. It must have some other explanation."

And we end up with seeing that it is God's gracious purpose for us, and having applied our faith, we then endure and persevere. We must refuse to be moved from believing that God's will will be done. The enemy will come and attack us. The water will seem to be pouring into the boat. But we stand on our faith and conviction.

Let us begin to wrap this up. That brings us to the third and final principle. The value of even the weakest or smallest faith. However poor and small, however incomplete, the faith of these disciples was on this occasion, they had a sufficient amount of faith to make them do the right thing in the end. Having been fearful, distressed, exhausted, and panicky, they went to Christ. They still had some kind of belief that He could do something about it. And so they woke Him and said, "Master, Master, we are perishing! Are you not going to do something about it?" And even though that was weak faith, it still was faith.

God may be disappointed with our weak faith and not conceal that. He may rebuke us and say, "Why do you have anxiety? Why didn't you apply the faith I gave you as you should have done?" He will let us know if He is disappointed in us, but He will not reject us. He will not drive us away. He did not drive those disciples away. He received them and He will receive us, bless us, and give us peace. He will intervene on our behalf, but it is rarely how we expect it.

He rebuked the wind and the sea and there was a great calm. He produced the condition they were so anxious to enjoy, despite their lack of faith. This is the omnipotent, merciful, and loving God that we believe in and follow. Though He may be disappointed in us at times and though He disciplines us, He will never neglect us.

Now, over to the next chapter, Hebrews 13, verse 5. This is quoted from Deuteronomy 31:8 where Moses writes "And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave nor you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

And I believe that the original actually says never five times. I will never, never, never, never, never leave you nor forsake you.

God will do for us what He did for His disciples and He will give us peace. With this peace He gave them a still greater conception of Himself than they had before. They marveled and were full of amazement at His wonderful power.

Please turn for a final scripture to I Peter 1, verse 6. When you find yourself in this position of trial and trouble and testing, take it as a wonderful opportunity to prove your faith, to show your faith, to manifest your faith, and bring glory to His great and holy name.

I Peter 1:6-8 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love.

The ESV actually says this phrase in a better way, more easy to understand way. The ESV on this phrase says, "though you have not seen him, you love him."

I Peter 1:8-9 Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

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