Matthew chapter 8. We will hopefully return to the book of Genesis next Wednesday night. But tonight,
Introduction
Matthew chapter 8. A couple of reasons for that. Genesis 5 and 6 are a bit difficult. They're going to require a little bit more study and prep.
And the difficulty with five is to preach or teach through a genealogy, but I do need to do some further work there. But this has been a passage that's been on my heart for a little while. I certainly preached it several years ago in our studies in the Gospel of Matthew, but Matthew 8, verses 23 to 27. The larger context, Matthew 5-7, is of course the Sermon on the Mount.
And at the end of Matthew 7, in verse 28, we see it says, And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at his teaching, For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." So 5 to 7 describe the authority of Christ and His teaching. Chapters 8 and 9 specifically demonstrate the authority of Christ and His healing, and the miracles, and the signs, and the wonders that He wrought out. So I want to read beginning in verse 23 in Matthew chapter 8. Now, when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.
And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us, we are perishing. But He said to them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?
Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey him?
Introduction to the Passage
Now I want to draw out a few lessons from this particular passage, but first I think it's necessary for some exposition. So we'll notice first the storm on the sea in verses 23 to 25. Secondly, the ruler over the sea in verse 26. and then the amazement on the sea in verse 27. But note first in terms of the storm, the occasion.
The Storm on the Sea
Verse 23,
Scripture Reading: Matthew 8:23–27
now when he got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Go back to chapter 8 at verse 18, it says, And when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave a command to depart to the other side. So, they're on the east side, presently, of the Sea of Galilee, and they will, I'm sorry, on the west side, and they're going to travel over to the east side, and that will bring Jesus to the region of the Gadarenes, or to the Gergesenes, where he will meet the demoniacs. But here, specifically, he gets into the boat, and his disciples follow him.
We notice, of course, the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples are the 12, the apostles. Now, this was a boat that probably held 12 to 13 people.
The Crisis: A Great Tempest
Note the crisis in verse 24. It says, and suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea so that the boat was covered with the waves. Now, this was not an unknown occurrence. Osborne says that this occurred regularly on that lake.
Now, the text says sea, it's the lake or the Sea of Galilee. It's also a lake. He says, this occurred regularly on that lake since it was 600 feet below sea level and ringed with mountains to the east, so that the air would surge through the mountains and kick up huge waves, sometimes 8 to 9 feet high. The waves were large enough that they began to fill the boat with water, threatening to swamp it.
Now this is a real danger, and these men, at least four of them, were seasoned fishermen. They had spent a lot of time on this particular Sea of Galilee. Peter and Andrew, James and John were fishermen. And so that they were alarmed by this indicates that it was indeed a very dangerous situation.
The boat was covered. It's a present which graphically describes the action taking place. It is covered with the waves. The parallel in Luke 8 23 says that a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filling with water and and were in jeopardy.
This was a frightening, difficult, real-life situation that confronted or faced these disciples at this particular time.
The Response: Disciples and the Sleeping Christ
Now note the response of both groups. In verse 25, or at the end of verse 24, we see, but he slept. So Jesus is asleep on the boat in the midst of this particular storm. R.T.
Frantz said, Jesus had taken the opportunity for a rest since the boat is in the competent hands of the Galilean fishermen who are the only disciples so far identified. He's sleeping because they have everything under control. It's quite intriguing that they come to him, a man who we have no sort of instruction that he was conversant with boats. Now, I know that Jesus is God, but we need to understand Jesus according to his true humanity.
Nazareth was a bit of a ways away from the sea, so there's no indication on the pages of Scripture that Jesus knew a lot about boats and navigation in that regard. Certainly in the carpenter shop, he was very able and competent, but when it comes to navigating the waves in the sea, they come to him, which really shows how little faith they had in terms of the various situations that were confronting them. He says, his continuing to sleep in such circumstances may be attributed to natural exhaustion as much as to supernatural confidence, but it provides the setting for a remarkable reversal of roles in that the experienced fishermen appeal for help to a man who, as far as we know, had little experience of boats. Now, we could probably jump off the beaten path and do a bit of moralizing here and say that even our Lord Jesus needed sleep.
You know, we're not John Deere tractors. Rest is a good thing. And the Lord Jesus, in another situation, told His disciples, come apart and rest a while. And I think that's good counsel.
There are times and seasons, obviously every single night, but there are times and seasons where a bit of rest, extended rest, is a most helpful thing. So our Lord here was asleep on the boat. I love how the various gospel writers give us particular details when they comment on something. There's no contradiction or discrepancy or disparity, but I know that in Mark's gospel, when he records this, he says Jesus was asleep on a pillow.
So that true humanity also liked comfort. And we ought not to think that we have to be in the most austere conditions all of our lives. The Lord Jesus preferred a pillow when he laid his head down on this ship or boat so that he could get some rest. Now, note the disciples' response in verse 25.
They woke Jesus. The disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us, we are perishing. Spurgeon says they caused Him more disquiet than the storm. The storm didn't wake him up.
It was the disciples panicking over the storm that wake him up. And they cry out to him, Lord, save us. We are perishing. Again, the danger is real.
These are experienced fishermen that had spent no little amount of time on this particular sea or in this particular lake. And they come to Christ fearful and threatened for their lives, and they cry out to him. And when they say, Lord, save us, we are perishing. Again, Spurgeon makes this comment.
He says, men in a storm cannot be very select in their language, but they learn to be very earnest and eager. The appeal of these disciples may suit many. Here was reverence for Jesus, Lord, an intelligent supplication, save us, and an overwhelming argument, we perish. I think Spurgeon's on the ball with that particular comment.
The disciples come to him, they wake him, and they say, Lord, save us, we are perishing. So that's the storm on the sea.
The Ruler over the Sea
Let's notice the ruler over the sea in verse 26. Note first his response to the disciples, the question, why are you fearful, O you of little faith?
Christ's Rebuke of Little Faith
Matthew Henry said, He does not chide them for disturbing Him with their prayers, but for disturbing themselves with their fears. That's beautiful. He does not chide them for disturbing Him with their prayers, but for disturbing themselves with their fears. Now, we ought to appreciate in the presence of the Master, we are not to exhibit that sort of fear.
I think the underlying lesson in all of this passage is that the presence of Christ in the life of believers does not immune us from the presence of trials and difficulties and sorrows and hardships. In other words, even though Christ is in the boat with us, there are still storms. There are still winds, there are still waves, there are still issues that we have to face in this world. If I was able, I can't, and if I was able I wouldn't, because God's ordained that this is the way it is.
I mean, we all want to do that. We want to alleviate any sort of pain or suffering, say, from a child. We want to make sure that their lives are great and everything goes well, and we might even say to them in their sickness, I wish I could take that from you. Because the desire is, and the design is, to make sure they never go through any difficulty or hardship.
But it's the difficulties and the hardships, brethren, that make us the people that God has called us to be. We don't always appreciate that, but we need to learn that lesson. Jesus was a man of sorrows and He was acquainted with grief. According to Hebrews chapter 5, He learned obedience through what?
Through suffering. And that's going to be the lot of all of His people. And just because Christ is with us in the boat, does not mean we are immune from the storms of life. His reproof to them.
Notice, O you of little faith. The Lord Jesus does not question their ability to determine the seriousness of a storm. Rather, he faults them on their little faith. Notice it's not no faith.
He doesn't say, how can you be such unbelieving wretches? Are you not born again? So take comfort in this, that there is nevertheless some camaraderie in us and these disciples, that when things come upon us, we oftentimes exhibit little faith. And that's precisely what Jesus chides them for in this particular instance.
Now, the presence of trials in the Christian life is a given, but the faith that Christ's people have ought to hopefully displace the fears that come along with it. Now again, it's not easy to suffer. It's not easy to go through hardship. It's not easy to be sorrowful.
And we'll notice some other passages as we move on later in the study. But brethren, we ought not to be fearful in the sense that God's going to let us go. We ought not to be fearful in the sense that we are going to perish in some sort of a Christless eternity. We ought not to be fearful in such a way that we're paralyzed and we are restricted from engaging in faithful service unto our Lord.
So the Lord Jesus Christ tells them, why are you fearful, O you of little faith? So perhaps we ought to conclude or at least imply at this point that in the midst of trials, when there are difficulties in our lives, we need to guard our hearts against this fearfulness, this fretfulness, this idea that God is going to let us go. The presence of faith will either, A, drive out fear, or B, an abundance of fear will evidence little faith. See, those are the two options.
Either the faith that we possess will drive out the fear that we always will and possibly will have when it comes to a particular trial, or this constant fearfulness and fretfulness will evidence the lack of faith. Matthew 6, the very idea that we are not supposed to worry. Again, Jesus is not calling us to lie on the couch and just expect everything to go well. No, we need to work, we need to labor, we need to use the means, but we are not to fret in a carnally anxious sort of a way.
The Lord God Most High calls us to Himself by His grace and for His glory, and He gives us everything necessary so that we can maintain stability, so that we can maintain faithfulness, so that we can soldier on. It seems to me that one of the things that happens in the lives of God's people is that at times we just fall apart. Now, you're looking at me puzzled. Okay, maybe you don't, but I've seen it happen, at least with some people, and I've experienced it myself.
You just kind of fall apart. You're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to draw from the resources that God has afforded in His Word, realizing that the presence of Christ does not immune oneself to the presence of trials, and we need to soldier on. We need to press forward.
We need to persevere. We need to be consistent, faithful, disciplined. That never stops, no matter the situation that we face in our lives. The presence of faith will either drive out fear, or an abundance of fear will evidence little faith.
It ought to be a settled reality for each and every one of us that there will be trials. If you have not experienced great trials as a Christian yet, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but somewhere along the line, unless God and His mercy takes you before then, you probably will. Now, notice I didn't say you absolutely will. I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but the scriptures are pretty clear in this regard. that those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
Jesus said in this world, you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. There's always going to be these challenges. And just because we're believers doesn't provide us with some sort of a safety net that keeps us from the sorts of things that unbelievers are faced with. You get that?
We're not prosperity gospel adherents. You may have misery in your life. You may have difficulties. Everybody here has probably read Pilgrim's Progress.
He loses his burden at the cross. That's a beautiful and a wonderful thing. And then his life is just hunky-dory and he sails right into heaven. Is that what happens?
Absolutely, positively not. He goes to the cross and he loses the burden of sin, but that yoke of discipleship, more often than not, means great difficulties in the life of our hero, Christian. He doesn't just sing zippity-doo-dah and skip his way into heaven. If anything, that book depicts for us the very sorts of things that we're considering this evening.
Now, notice Christ or His response to the storm. We see His authority. Verse 26b, "...then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm." It was intriguing because in my notes I had a reference to a pastor At that time, a pastor in Seattle who claimed to have the ability to see visions and he had the ability to engage in some modest healing. He didn't tell people about this except in the sermon when he was telling people about this.
And so I said, if you really want to impress me, stand up on a windy day in the midst of robust waves and tell them to stop. And when they stop, then I'll believe that you have the gift given to you by God. Obviously, if a man speaks to waves and to wind, it's not going to stop, is it? I mean, imagine if you didn't know Jesus, you had no track history with Jesus, or track record with Jesus, and this man has woken up out of a deep sleep, and he's maybe rubbing his eyes, and then he starts talking to the waves in the wind.
You might be inclined to think, is he sleepwalking? Is he sleep talking? Men just can't do this and expect any results. Well, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, can, and He does, and He stills the sea.
Notice in verse 26b, Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm." There was a great calm. Chamberlain says, Jesus, who just said that He lacks even the natural provisions granted to animals, chapter 8, verse 20, now shows Himself to be master of nature. The authority He has been demonstrating over afflictions, He now exerts over the raging sea of Galilee." So with reference to the sea, His response, or rather the result of His Word, is that there is a great calm. He stills the sea.
He stills the wind. It's no longer a threat. It's no longer a danger to these disciples. Lord, save us, for we are perishing.
And the Lord speaks to the wind, He speaks to the waves, and there is a great calm. And then notice, what do you think became of their little faith at this particular time? It probably grew a whole bunch. It probably increased in a manifold way.
Now, I think the tendency for us, or the temptation for us, is to say things like, well, you know, Jesus hasn't made an appearance with us and sort of calmed everything out in our own lives. When Jesus calms everything out in our own lives, well then my faith can grow. Brethren, you've got Genesis to the book of Revelation to give you instance after instance after instance of God doing that very thing. Faith feeds upon the truth of God to steady and to stabilize in the midst of the trials.
It doesn't demand that God come down and smooth out every rough edge in their lives. No, they take confidence in the fact that God has always been there for His people, and He has promised to never leave us, never to forsake us, and in that we rejoice. So whatever the trials or the circumstances, or the things that affect us going on around us, we have that steady rock and that steady confidence in our Lord God Most High. Spurgeon says, when our Lord rebuked the winds, He did in the best manner rebuke their unbelief.
What a rebuke to unbelief that would have been if Jesus would have said, or when Jesus said that, and it showed them that they had no reason whatsoever to fear.
The Amazement on the Sea
Now note finally the amazement on the sea. The disciples' response here is gold. Verse 27, So the men marveled, saying, Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey him? They were fearful.
Mark 4, 41, in this same, you know, the same parallel says, And they feared exceedingly. Now Matthew doesn't indicate that. So the men marveled, saying, Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey him? But Mark and Luke both tell us that there was a fear that had entered into the hearts of these disciples.
So Mark 4, 41, they feared exceedingly, feared a great fear, literally. And in Luke 8, 25, and they were afraid and marveled. So this man that they are standing in the presence of, has now promoted fear in their hearts, but a fear that is a different kind of fear. They had previously been afraid of perishing on the Sea of Galilee.
Now they're afraid because they're standing in front of a man who has the ability and the authority to speak to the wind and to speak to the waves and to see them calm. And they ask this very appropriate question. Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him? Who is this?
What sort of a person is this? What kind of a man can speak to the wind and can speak to the waves and actually bring about a calmness? As far as I can tell, that's about as good a question as could be offered up at this particular time. Very appropriate.
Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him? Now, there's a reason why they ask this question, because these men knew their Old Testaments. While they wouldn't have called it the Old Testament, they simply would have called it the Word of God, or the Bible, or the Tanakh. They would have known what Scripture says concerning power over the wind and over the waves.
And there are various texts which indicate that Yahweh of Israel has that authority. Job 38, verses 8 to 11. or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb? When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, when I fixed my limit for it and set bars and doors, when I said, This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop. See, when these men see His authority to command the waves, what is resonating in their heads is Old Testament Scripture that speaks of the supremacy of Yahweh over the waves of the sea.
Psalm 29, 3 and 4, the voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. Psalm 65, 7, "...you who still the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples." You see why this whole scene would evoke from them that very pertinent question? Who can this be that even the winds and sea obey Him? Remember, the disciples didn't have this full revelation all at once and knew everything there was to know about the Lord Jesus Christ.
He, on occasion, reproves them and rebukes them because they're slow, they're dull, they're not getting it. He tells them, have I been with you so long and you still don't understand? So it's not the case that the moment they laid eyes upon Jesus Christ, they had a fully developed Chalcedonian definition of the hypostatic union. They didn't possess that at that time, not to say they would have rejected it, not to say they didn't have some inkling of it, but they're still processing who this man is.
And when they see this man speak to waves and wind, and they calm down, no doubt these Old Testament passages are rising up in their heads. Psalm 89, 9, you who rule or you rule the raging of the sea, when its waves rise, you still them. Psalm 107, 23 to 30, especially verse 29, he calms the storm so that its waves are still. It's intriguing in the prophet Jonah, when they throw Jonah into the water and the sea calms, who do they praise?
They praise Yahweh. These pagans got it much better than Jonah got it. And they praise Yahweh and they offer up sacrifices to Him. And then in Nahum, chapter 1, verse 4, it says, He rebukes the sea and makes it dry and dries up all the rivers.
So you see, that is a legitimate response to the expression of power that they had just witnessed. They knew the Old Testament. God alone had authority over the wind, over the waves, and they had witnessed the Lord Jesus Christ do that very thing. So who can this be that even the winds and sea obey him is a most appropriate question.
Now, in terms of some lessons on discipleship, I've already said it, it bears repetition, the presence of trials in the Christian life. Just because we have Jesus doesn't mean the absence of trials. Just because we are believers doesn't mean we don't have tensions in our families, doesn't mean we don't lose jobs, we lose arms, we have issues and challenges and all of the difficulties. that come with life on this earth. Spurgeon says, with reference to these disciples in the boat, he says, they were wise to follow Him and safe in so doing, but they were not therefore secure from trial.
In the boat with Jesus is a happy place, but storms may come even when we are there. I wonder how many of us have sort of wittingly sucked in the false gospel of health, wealth, and prosperity. Now, it's easy to see it when it comes through Benny Hinn. It's not quite as easy to see it when, you know, as a result of hard work and faithfulness and discipline, use of the means, everything seems to go well for us, and other persons have these trials and these difficulties, and we might just be inclined to think, well, if they would just try harder, or they would just suck it up, or they would just do this, then maybe everything would go well for them, too.
Now, there might be an instance where that might be the case, but there might be in us that sort of a mindset that temporal prosperity is the necessary evidence that God's blessing is always upon you. And those who are suffering, those who are weak, those who are sorrowful, those who are in the depths or the pits, they must not know God's blessing. Well, brethren, Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. If ever there was a man who knew God's blessing, it was the Lord Jesus Christ.
And yet that did not keep him from the sorrows, from the groanings, from the heartaches and from the difficulties associated with life. These men are in the very presence of Jesus on the Sea of Galilee. And nevertheless, they suffer these waves and these winds, just like a pagan boat would have had as well. So we cannot conclude that the presence of trials necessarily means God's disfavor.
In fact, it may just be the opposite. God may be actually working in that particular person's life at that particular time to bring about further conformity unto the Lord Jesus. And again, I think we look at our lives that way. We're fair weather fans.
As long as our team wins, we'll swing their pennant and we'll root for them. As long as things are going well for us as Christians, oh yeah, I'm a believer, I'm a godly man, or I don't know if any of us would... dare say that. I mean, don't do that. That's not a good thing.
But when things are going well, yes. But when things go bad for us, well, where is God? Why isn't God in the midst of our trials? Why isn't God with us, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the way that David confessed that he was?
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? Because you're with me. The Apostle Paul knew what it was to go through great trial and affliction and difficulty and hardship, and he learned to rejoice in it.
He learned to delight in it because it was through his weakness that God's power was made strong. So again, Benny Hinn, easy target. Within the Reformed community, it's not so easy to spot that there might be latent in our hearts that as long as everything is good, temporally, then that must mean God's favor is upon me. And conversely, when I see some poor brother in the church or poor sister in the church going through some particular trial or difficulty, I might wonder what sin have they committed where they're being inflicted with all this stuff.
Well, maybe it isn't a sin that they've committed, and maybe God and His mercy and grace is further conforming them unto the Lord Jesus. Ryle made this observation. not in his comments on Matthew, but in his book Holiness. If you want to read a good Ryle book, pick up Holiness. It's a collection of sermons or essays on various themes and subjects, and I think this is from the one called The Ruler of the Waves, and it's his exposition of this account.
He says, if you are a believer, you must reckon on having your share of sickness and pain, of sorrows and tears, of losses and crosses, of deaths and bereavements, of partings and separations, of vexations and disappointments, so long as you are in the body. Now, I realize that this sounds like anti-gospel tonight. I'm telling you life is going to be miserable for you, and Ryle is buttressing it in his comments on this very theme. I'm actually not.
I'm trying to encourage all of us to take notice of the text that Jesus is there, and nevertheless, they suffer. Nevertheless, there's heartache. Nevertheless, there's hardship. Consider this preparation.
If you've not gone through trials, this might be a helpful preparation. If you have gone through trials, you're probably able to nod along and say, yeah, those were some lessons that I had to learn the hard way. I mean, I think many of us have to learn things the hard way. We go to the school of hard knocks, and it's God who, by grace, delivers those hard knocks, because we need to be taught in that particular way.
But back to Ryle. He says, Christ never undertakes that you shall get to heaven without these. He has undertaken that all who come to Him shall have all things pertaining to life and godliness. But He has never undertaken that He will make them prosperous or rich or healthy and that death and sorrow shall never come to their family.
He's never committed to that, never promised you that. In this world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. There's gonna be trial, there's gonna be sorrow, there's gonna be hardship, but always have that confident realization that Christ has overcome the world. Now, there are several other passages by which we can make the case.
That one in John 16, 33, but turn back to the Old Testament. 2 Samuel 4. 2 Samuel 4. Verse 9, David answered Rechab and Baanna, his brother, the sons of Rimen, the Barathite, and said to them, As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all adversity? Now, for those who have glanced at the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, you'll know that David had adversity. You'll know that David went through a whole lot.
David's life was not punctuated by carnal ease and pleasure. I mean, it wasn't all misery, and I'm not suggesting our lives are necessarily all misery. There's good, there's blessing. The Lord is good, He gives good gifts to His children, all that sort of stuff.
But David had his share of misery, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all adversity. Again, that's a powerful statement when one understands what David went to up until this point. And then turn over to 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 1. 1 Kings 1.29, and the king took an oath and said, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from every distress. Now, again, within the life in the context of David up to chapter four in 2 Samuel, he had suffered a lot.
He had been hunted by Saul. He had been menaced by the Philistines. He had been on the run. He was just driven out in all manner of trial and hardship.
Well, 2 Samuel 4, he says that God has redeemed his life from all adversity. Okay, everything's good with David now. Everything's going to be hunky-dory. No, David sins grievously, and God promises that the sword will never depart from his house.
And that comes to pass. The latter part of David's life isn't a walk in the park either. In fact, the latter part of David's life is very difficult and very hard. So, in the middle of his life, he says, Yahweh has redeemed me out of all adversity.
And at the end of life, he's able to say, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from every distress. Now, both taken together indicate these two things very crystal clear. One, David had problems. David had trials, David had sorrows, David had hardship, but too, God always delivered him out of them.
That's what we need to focus on. That's what faith needs to grab hold of. That's why Jesus chides the disciples, oh, you have little faith. How do you have little faith in light of a big Bible?
How do you have little faith in light of a big God? How do you have little faith in light of a great big Savior? How do you have little faith when it comes to understanding the truth as it is in Jesus Christ?
Psalms and Honest Suffering
And then notice in Psalm 42, the book of Psalms is filled with this sort of idea as well. Actually, Psalms 42 and 43 I oftentimes refer to. I think that you're probably aware of what the texts say. Why are you cast down, O my soul?
Why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. Turn to Psalm 88. Psalm 88.
Now, I don't know if you've ever considered the Psalter as a whole, but most Psalms end on a positive note. I mean, it might be calamity, there might be trial, there might be pagans coming to get our temple, but typically the Psalms end on a high note, a positive note. There's a sort of a remedial or a redemptive end. That's Psalm 88.
Psalm 88's about, you know, if I could just use some vernacular terminology, it's a downer. There's no end, crescendo, but I will hope in God. There's none of that. In fact, I'll read Psalm 88.
Verse 1, O Lord, God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to the grave.
I am counted with those who go down to the pit. I am like a man who has no strength, adrift among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more and who are cut off from your hand. You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you have afflicted me with all your waves.
Selah. You have put away my acquaintances far from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am shut up, and I cannot get out.
My eye wastes away because of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon you. I have stretched out my hands to you. Will you work wonders for the dead?
Shall the dead arise and praise you? Selah. Shall your lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Shall your wonders be known in the dark, and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
But to you I have cried out, O Lord, and in the morning my prayer comes before you. Lord, why do you cast off my soul? Why do you hide your face from me? I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth.
I suffer your terrors. I am distraught. Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.
They came around me all day long like water. They engulfed me altogether. Loved one and friend, you have put far from me and my acquaintances into darkness. There's no happy end there, is there?
There's no, oh, but, well, in the context, it moves into Psalm 89, which is the covenant psalm, wherein God does deliver his people, to be sure. But I simply highlight this to suggest that this psalmist knew God. Verse one, O Lord, God of my salvation. And yet this psalmist suffered distress and grief and hardship and pain.
It is an inevitability, so it's not anti-gospel tonight, it's preparation. And I think there's a good bit of doing somebody a favor by actually telling them what might be in store in the Christian life. This idea of an American or Canadian form of Christianity You know, we tack a little Jesus onto our lives, we show up at church on Sunday, we have a latte, we listen to a 15-minute chat, and then we go off on our life and just have a happy, you know, wonderful existence. That kind of churchmanship does not pull somebody out of the depths of despair.
It's the doctrine of who God is. It's His faithfulness as it's revealed to us from Genesis to Revelation. It's the doctrine that God delivered David from his distress. It's the doctrine that God allowed the psalmists to actually write this stuff.
It's an argument or a debate about what's called exclusive psalmody. Are we only ever supposed to sing the psalms in the church of Jesus Christ? I don't want to weigh in on that debate presently, but I will suggest this. We should be singing more psalms because no human authors are this honest when it comes to the spiritual difficulties that God's people have.
And when we sing these songs of Zion, you know what we're actually doing? We're saying the prayers of Jesus Christ. That's who the subject of Psalm 88 is. So brethren, this is the reality when it comes to the Christian life.
But as well, we need to encourage our hearts. that though Christ is in the boat and there are still storms, Christ is in the boat while there are storms. In other words, if the presence of Christ does not immune us or protect us or guard us from trials, the presence of Christ sees us through those trials. Now, He may not do it this way, arise, be calm, and actually stop the wind and the waves, but we can be sure and we can be confident that He will stand up for us. He will protect, He will stabilize, and He will keep us.
The believers' faith in Christ should displace fear. Christ's presence in the lives of His people ought to encourage them that though they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, they are not supposed to fear evil because God is with them and God is protecting them and keeping them. The believer may face great Great difficulty. I mean, the language of our disciples in our passage is very appropriate.
Lord, save us. We are perishing. This wasn't the possibility of a demotion at work. This wasn't getting skunked on the Sea of Galilee.
Lord, we didn't catch enough fish to secure the sort of money and payment that we typically get. Could you have a few fish jump into our nets and see us on our way? They were going to die. And yet Christ is there in the midst of that.
So you'll see and appreciate, I hope, that there are possibly difficulties in our lives, but Christ is there with us in our lives.
Christological Lessons from the Passage
And then we ought to appreciate the lessons from the passage on Christology. His true humanity. He slept, didn't he? He wasn't a phantom.
He wasn't an apparition. He didn't pretend to be a man. He was a real man, true humanity. Humanity sleeps.
God neither slumbers nor sleeps according to the prophet Isaiah. So Jesus, according to his humanity, sleeps in the boat at this particular time, at this particular occasion. In the language of our confession, the Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with Him, who made the world, who upholds and governs all things He has made, did, when the fullness of the time was come, take upon Him man's nature." How do we know that's true? Because He slept in this boat.
How do we know that's true? Because He bled on Calvary's cross. How do we know this is true? Because He ate.
Because He drank. How do we know that He took on our nature with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin? A common infirmity. essential properties. The body of man requires sleep.
God does it. Jesus is not sleeping there as God. He is sleeping according to his humanity. Remember the one person, two natures, at times he functions according to the divine And other times, according to humanity, not a toggle switch, the one person of Christ engaged in all of life, but here he sleeps.
As well, we ought to appreciate something that is conspicuous that we don't have time to look at in chapters 8 and 9 are both the mercy and the power of Christ. We sing in 393, He is willing, He is willing, He is willing, and He is able. And we are to doubt no more. So when we went through chapters 8 and 9, I tried to stress this.
If we had a willing Savior that didn't have power, that would be nice, but doesn't really help us, does it? If Christ is willing to save us, or Christ is hoping to save us, or Christ is rooting for us, but He doesn't have the power to do it, that's not good. We need him to will and to be able. But if he's able and he's not willing, he's got all this power and this majesty and these resources, but he's not willing to display it, well, that's not good either.
But he's both willing and able. In Matthew chapters 8 and 9, we see that over and over and over again. We see his willingness to heal and his ability and power to heal. And you see that here in Matthew 8 when he speaks to the wind and when he speaks to the waves.
And then, of course, we see him here functioning according to his divinity. He speaks to the wind and the waves, and they stop. They're calm. This shows us His divinity.
The statement concerning Jesus in Matthew 1.23 is called God with us. The divine function of Jesus in forgiving sins in Matthew 9, verses 3 to 6. And then as well, this recognition of who Jesus is when He has this command and authority and power over nature itself. The Lord Christ is both man and God.
And He displays Himself that way on the Sea of Galilee to these who had little faith. Well, let us close in a word of prayer.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for Your Word and thank You for our Lord Jesus. And I pray, God, that we would know what Scripture says concerning the place of trials in the Christian life. We know that you are working all things for good to those who love you, to those who are the called according to your purpose. We know, God, that you predestined us to be conformed unto the image of your Son. and that oftentimes that conformity takes place through trial, through hardship, through woe.
We ask God that you would give us grace to bear up under these things, give us grace to persevere, give us help and strength and increase our faith. And may we feed that faith on the Word of God on a daily basis. May we feed that faith when it comes to preaching and Bible study and all these sorts of things that you offer in terms of feeding our souls. We ask that you would go with us now.
We pray for all of our brothers and sisters all here in our church. All of us have various issues and trials that we're going through. May you help us through them. May you grant us grace to bear up and may you help us to do so even joyfully knowing that you are in control over all things.
And we ask these things through Christ our Lord. Amen. you