Matthew chapter 8. We will hopefully
return to the book of Genesis next Wednesday night. But tonight,
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? 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. Verse 23, 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. 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. 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.
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? 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. 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?
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. 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. 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
