I'd like to give you all a warm
welcome to our worship here this evening. Let us come before the
Lord, let us ask his blessing and prayer. O Lord God of heaven
and of earth, we ask thy blessing upon our time of worship this
evening. Do grant thy Holy Spirit's aid
in that power without which nothing shall be done. Lord, do help
us to sing thy worthy praise. We ask, Lord, this blessing through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Hymn, 26. Tune, Nuremberg 381. This evening we shall read from
two portions of God's Holy Word. Firstly, from Psalm 107. We have
one of our free Bibles, that is page 599. Psalm 107, and we
will just read from verse 23 through to 32. from verse 23. They that go down
to the sea in ships that do business in great waters, these see the
works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth
and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven They
go down again to the depths, their soul is melted because
of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man, and are at their wits end. Then they cry
unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their
distresses. He maketh the stormer calm, so
that the ways thereof are still. Then are they glad because they
be quiet, so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. O that
man would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful
works to the children of men. Let them exalt him also in the
congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of
the elders. Now let us turn to the Gospel
according to Matthew. Matthew chapter 8. The page is 892 in the Ruby Bible. Matthew 8 and we'll read from
verse 16 through to the end. Commencing at verse 16, Matthew
8. When the even was come, they
brought unto him many that were possessed with devils, and he
cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were
sick. that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Zion's the prophet saying himself took our infirmities
and bear our sicknesses. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes
about him He gave commandment to depart unto the other sign. And a certain scribe came and
said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou
goest. And Jesus saith unto him, The
foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And another of
his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and
bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow
me and let the dead bury their dead. And when he was entered
into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose
a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with
the waves, but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him
and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. Then he saith
unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the
winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men
marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the
winds and the sea obey him? And when he was come to the other
side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him too
possessed with devils coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce,
so that no man might pass by that way. And behold, they cried
out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son
of God? Art thou come hither to torment
us before the time? And there was a good way off
from them, and heard of many swine feeding. So the devils
besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go
away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And
when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine.
And behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep
place into the sea and perished in the waters. And they that
kept them fled and went their ways into the city and told everything
and what was before them to the possessed of the devils. And
behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they
saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their
coasts. Lord, bless to us that reading
of his holy word and help us in prayer. Let us pray. O Lord God of heaven and of earth,
we come to Thee, who art the same today as Thou wast in the
time that we have read of. Lord, we stand amazed that Thou
hast come, the Eternal God, Thou who dost fill all things, Emmanuel
God with us. Thou didst tread this earth,
Thou didst sleep, Thou wast weary, nor thou didst exercise thy might
and thy power here in the sight of men. And O Lord, we wonder
at the wonder of the Incarnation, God manifest in the flesh. You grant us truly to believe
and to have joy and peace in believing that the Son of God
has come. And not only has he come, not
only has he come to this world, that come to us and given us
an understanding, that we may know Him, that is true, and are
in Him, that is true. O Lord, do grant again our petition
that we might worship Thee aright this evening. Lord, we desire
to praise Thy name, to put the crown upon Thy head, and to give
to Thee that honour that is due to Thee. O, let us not be like
the world that only consult to cast thee down from thine excellency,
but, dear Grand Lord, that we might be like those in thy temple
where everyone doth speak of thy glory. We seek also that
we might receive of thee this evening that thou hast sent help
from the sanctuary and strength out of Zion. that thou hast feed
us with the bread of life from heaven, the manner of the word
of God, that thou hast granted unto us that faith that cometh
by hearing, and that we might be helped in our journey. Lord,
do thou be pleased to remember the commission that thou didst
give to Peter to feed thy sheep and feed thy lambs, and also
to strengthen thy Help, Lord, through the ministry tonight
to strengthen the brethren. And Lord, as we listen, as we
hear thy word, Lord, we would be encouraged to know that one
of the purposes, one of the reasons for gathering together in thy
name is that we might be strengthened. O Lord, do grant that we might
encourage one another in the Lord our God, and that also we
might be strengthened through thy word that is received. Do
bless us here in the sanctuary. We pray for those that join with
us online. May thy blessing be upon us each. In thy word go forth, have free
course, and thou be glorified. O Lord, do be pleased to bless
us as a church and people, and build us up, and do be pleased
to make us a blessing, especially to the people of Cranbrook, that
do make us a blessing through the ministry and through the
means of the messages, the sermons to go forth into all the world. Lord, bless each that have received
a Bible from us and that Thou hast be pleased to constrain
them to read it and that Thou hast bless it to them. and that
there might be many that are called by thy grace, brought
out of darkness and into thy marvellous light. We pray for
the young people that are round about here, especially those
that attend the Cranbrook School. Lord, may there be those that
have thy word from here, from our Bible boxes, and Lord, that
there might be those from many different nations that come to
this town that receive thy word, that even take it back, to their
own families and to their own people. And Lord, we do pray
that thou would work. Lord, thou has said that I will
work and none shall let or shall hinder it. And so, Lord, let
thy work appear and cause that we might see the fruit of thy
death, sufferings and rising again, a people quickened into
divine life. O Lord, do shine upon our churches
We pray a real gracious revival amongst them in this land, in
Australia, Canada and America. And do bless our dear friends
from Holland and do be with them. Be with those that are in affliction
at this time. We pray thy kind healing hand
and strengthening and help forward for those that are nearing their
journey's end. Bless our dear friends in the
Pilgrim and Bethesda homes, and bless thy word that goes forth
to them. O Lord, we do pray that thou
be with others that gather as we do this evening. And Lord,
may thy blessing be in each assembly. We commit unto thee the remainder
of this week and thy day, that thy blessing might be upon us. And Lord, that thou be pleased
to grant us those helps those strengthenings from thy word
that we might be able to testify of what thou hast done and how
thou hast appeared for us. O Lord, do thou be pleased then
to work especially, Lord, where thy people struggle with sin
and temptations and trials, inward trials, outward ones as well,
infirmities, and weaknesses. Lord, thou knowest the circumstances
of each one of us, and thou knowest too where we would hide our head
in shame for our own foolishness, our waywardness, our bringing
the rod upon our own back, and our walking in a way that is
detrimental, is against the goodness of God, and does not work for
the strengthening of our souls. O Lord, do save us, and do grant,
Lord, that we might be made wise. Help to redeem the time. O Lord,
help us to press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. O leave us not to be discouraged
in the way, but do encourage us, do strengthen us, and cause
that we might press on. Lord, do leave us not to go back
from following thee. Lord, do help us then through
thy word this evening and shine upon it and do be with us in
the way that is before us. We ask thy blessing upon the
young people's meeting on Saturday, that thy blessing might be upon
us as we gather at Heathfield for that. We ask thee now these
things. Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
He who lived and died and rose again, our dear Redeemer, the
Church's living Head, we ask these things in His dear name.
Amen. Hymn, 331. Tune, Polycarp 405. Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Matthew chapter 8, and reading
from our text, verse, sorry, verse 26. And he said unto them, Why are
ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the
winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. Matthew 8 and verse 26. Words for little faiths. The Lord speaking unto them that
were with him in the ship, those that were being tossed about
with this tempest, those that arose and woke him with this
cry saying, Lord save us, we perish. The Lord had words for
them. And in those words for them,
he also added words that he spoke to the winds and the waves. And
in what he did here, his rising, his weariness, his sleep, his
rising, the power, the commanding, the winds and the waves, we have
a very clear showing forth who our Lord was, God and man in
one person, Emmanuel, God with us. May we be encouraged through
the word this evening if we are those that are of little faith,
this is a real account of what happened when our Lord was upon
earth. What happened when he went with
his disciples over the sea? What happened on the sea? Well,
I want to speak first of several points regarding faith. Our Lord refers here to a year
of little faith, and we have in Hebrews a great list of those
that lived and died by faith, and in that chapter we are also
told what faith is. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That is the
inspired Word of God definition of what faith is. We know faith is a trusting or
a hoping for the evidence of things not seen. Then there's
the examples of faith throughout this chapter. But we're told
in verse 6 that without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. And there we have joined together
faith and believing. They always go together. They
do in the very word of our text, where he speaks of those that,
it's actually covered in another account of this, where he spoke
to them about their belief and how they were slow to believe. We're told also in Hebrews 12
where the faith comes from, who is the author of faith. And we're told in Hebrews 12
verse 2 that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Faith
is what belongs and is given at the new birth and then is
no need at death when faith changes to sight. We're also told that
there are those degrees of faith. There is little faith like we
have in our texts and there's those of great faith. We have
when our Lord had the centurion come to him, whose servant was
sick. And he says, speak the word only,
and my servant shall be healed. He said, I'm not worthy that
thou should come under my roof. He said, I am a man under authority. I say to this one, go, and he
goeth, come, and he cometh. And he could see in the Lord. that he was one under authority
and he only needed to speak, he didn't need to be personally
there, and it would be done. And our Lord marvelled and he
said, I have found not so great faith, no, not in Israel. That great faith to believe that
the Lord only needed to speak and his servant would be healed.
And we think of the context here, the Lord speaking, and these
waves, these winds, they are stilled. We think also of the
trial of faith. Peter speaks of this in his epistles. The trial of your faith, being
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
tried with fire, shall be found unto praise and honour and glory
at the appearing of our Lord. Faith, though the smallest, as
the hymn writer shall surely be tried. And in one sense, the
context with our text is the trial of the disciples' faith. Could they really trust? Did
they really believe the Lord was who he said he was? Thinking of Peter, our Lord,
knew the path that Peter would have to walk in Satan's sieve. He said to Peter, Satan hath
desired to have thee to sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed
for thee that thy faith fail not. And of course, Peter denied
his Lord and Master three times. But at the end of it, he came
out still believing still trusting, still a disciple, the faith that
the Lord had given, he preserved, and he was brought through that
trial. Though you might say he wasn't
kept from denying the Lord, he wasn't kept from falling, but
he was brought out the other side with one not gone back,
but still continuing on. And it's a really good lesson
for us to remember in the trial of faith. And the Lord has said
to Peter, when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren, or when
thou art restored, those that have been tried, those that have
fallen, those who have been through these storms and temptations
and trials, They are best qualified to strengthen brethren that later
are going through these same things. So we would think of
those things that are said of faith. The fact also that the
Lord uses the word of God, faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of the Lord. All these things are said of
faith. in the Word of God. Now, we know
that we have here our Lord speaking to the disciples, O ye of little
faith. And I want then to look at this
portion and look first at words to those who are fearful and
of little faith. And secondly, the word made flesh
that dwells among us. The word made flesh for little
faiths. And lastly, storms made calm
by his word. But firstly, words to those who
are fearful and of little faith. The very text is this. It's a
blessed thing if we can come to a part of the Word of God
and we can say, here is a word for this character and this character
is me. Sometimes in the Old Testament
we read, this word is for you, O ye priests. And so the priests
would have listened, this is what applied to them. And we have words to children,
we have words to fathers, we have words to pastors, to preachers
and to deacons. But many times in the word of
God, the word is to a character rather than an office. Most of
the people of God encompassed in those words. And so when we
have those here, those here in the ship, and there's the storm. The storm is raging. The Lord
is with them, but he is asleep. And they are fearful. They are
afraid. They cry unto the Lord. They
pray to the Lord. What an example to us. when we
are fearful and afraid. To pray to the Lord, to cry to
the Lord. What short prayers are effectual
prayers. Lord save us, we perish. The same as when Peter was walking
to the Lord over the sea. Lord save, save me, sinking. Those short, earnest, urgent,
prayers and cries to the Lord. And the Lord has a word then
for them as they cry unto him. He's not silent, he does speak
to them. And the first word that he says,
and the word that he says to them, why? Why are ye fearful,
O ye of little faith? In other words, you do not have
a reason to be fearful. And they would have looked at
the winds, the waves, and all that they could see naturally.
And they would say, we have every reason to be fearful. And you
could be like that this evening. You could look at all of that
around you, all of what is happening, all of what is going on. And
you say, well of course I'm fearful, I am. And then the Lord adds
this, O ye of little faith. The fears were arising because
of their little faith. The evidence of things not seen. You think of the case with Elisha
and his servant, when the mountain where they were on was compassed
about with soldiers, a host from Syria, to take them captive. And the servant said to Elisha,
alas, master, how shall we do? What he could see with his eyes
was all of the enemy and just those two of them standing there. But Elisha said, fear not, there
are more with us than with them. And he prayed, Lord, open the
young man's eyes. And the Lord opened his eyes
and he saw round about them chariots of fire, horses of fire, a great
heavenly host. He couldn't see that. And the
disciples hear. They saw Jesus sleeping. but their faith as small, they
saw him not as he truly and really was. And they were fearful. They were fearful for themselves
and for him. But the Lord had this word for
them, a gentle word, really, and yet a reproving word, a word
that addressed their fears, and a word that really pointed them
to what was needed, what was lacking, the faith. Another time the disciples had
prayed to the Lord, they'd said to the Lord, Lord increase our
faith. And he had said to them that
if they had faith, even as a grain of mustard seed, They could say
to this sycamore tree, be rooted up, cast into the sea, or say
to this mountain, be thou removed, and it would obey you. The power
of faith as given by God is a mystery, as it were, to us. That God gives
every one of his chosen, redeemed people Saving faith, faith to
trust in Him for salvation. But in that faith there are degrees
of faith. And that faith then is exercised
right through life's journey in the very situations like this. Sometimes His people seem to
have very little faith at all. And other times they have strong
faith. is a mystery to us, how the Lord
sometimes gives great faith, sometimes little faith. He is sovereign in that, but
he does use means, and the means, as we said at the outset, that
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord. In one way, in these Gospel days,
we have great advantage over the disciples here. We have the
completed canon of Scripture. We have these accounts here of
the power and might of God. And it is through this record,
through this inspired Word of God, that our faith is to be
strengthened. And it is as we trust in the
Word, trust in God, trust in his counsel, his way, his remedies,
and don't lean to our own understanding. It is while we are looking at
natural things, that is when faith begins to fail. When the
storm is seen, when the wind is seen, the waves is seen, that
is when we fail, is when really we are looking and that which
we can manage ourselves. But if faith is to be tried,
it must be brought to where we cannot manage ourselves. This is why we read Psalm 107,
a very similar picture to what we have here in the sea. We have those again that are
brought into great waters, see the works of the Lord in the
deep, He commandeth, raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth
up the ways thereof. Mount up to the heaven, they
go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because
of trouble. And how they reel to and fro,
stagger like a drunken man, are at their wits' end. And then
comes the cry, just like the disciples in the ship. Then they
cry unto the Lord in their trouble. and He bringeth them out of their
distresses, He maketh the storm a calm, a direct parallel and
direct as well in the cry for help, the cry to the Lord. So may we be the same as that,
when we can no deliverance see, when natural streams are dried,
when all our help is gone, That is when faith sets its sights
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is when the trust is in
Him and Him alone. And the Lord was going to do
in this account that which would no doubt really have strengthened
them and strengthened their faith later on. For sometimes we do
I forget, there was one time when the disciples, they'd had
the miracle of loaves and fishes, they saw what the Lord did, then
they again had gone over the sea, they'd forgotten to take
bread, and our Lord cautioned them to beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees, and they said one to another, it is because
we've forgotten to take bread. And he said to them, hast thou
not considered the miracle of the loaves and the fishes? They
were worrying about what they left, what they hadn't got, and
didn't really think that they were with Him, that it multiplied,
that it made all those miracles. They need not have worried for
that at all. And so, our Lord on another occasion
bids His people not to be anxious, concerned about temporal things. Things of earth, O ye of little
faith, if God so clothe the grass of the field, if he feeds the
birds of the air, how much shall he more feed you, O ye of little
faith? Many, many of the people of God,
the true people of God, struggle with faith. They struggle to
trust. They struggle to believe. They
do have faith. God has given them faith. The
Lord refers to it as little faith. But he doesn't cast away the
little faiths. He doesn't disown them. He has
words to speak to them. And he points to them, those
things that he is able to do. He addresses them as what they
really are, fearful. and of little faith. May the Lord be pleased to have
words this evening for those of us that are fearful and are
of little faith. The devil will be saying the
Lord will never speak to you. He'll never regard you. You're a very poor believer.
You're a poor thing. You should trust, you should
believe, you should shake yourself out of this trouble and this
fearfulness. But you are fearful and you are
of little faith, but the Lord still does speak and still does
come to his people like that. What would it be if instead of
what we read, Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.
What if it was to say, without great faith, it is impossible
to please Him? That would cut nearly all of
the people of God off, wouldn't it? But faith, faith is a grain
of mustard seed, the Lord said. It is where it comes from. The
author, the sustainer of it. and the one who knows exactly
where his people are. So may the Lord speak his word
tonight to you, to me, to the fearful, to those of little faith. He saith unto them, why are ye
fearful, O ye of little faith? What a question. You may be able
to answer that this evening. Why? Tell the Lord why, why you're
fearful, why you're afraid. You know, the disciples here,
they didn't have time to answer him, did they? In one way, it
wasn't a question that needed an answer. But it would have
made them really think the Lord here couldn't see a reason. They
thought they could see a reason the Lord could not. But then
the Lord did deal with those things that were causing them
the fear. And He'll do that for you, do
that for me as well. He won't just say, it's nothing,
just shake yourself out of it. Don't fear and do nothing about
it. He didn't do that with the disciples
here. He dealt with it. I want to look before we come
to those storms made calm by his word. I want to look at the
word made flesh for little faiths. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal
word, our Lord, and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is one of these
beautiful accounts that so clearly picture Him as truly man and
truly God. When you find Him asleep, but
He was asleep. And then when He rose, what a
difference. when he rebuked the winds and
the sea, and there was a great calm. What power, what authority,
what effect it had upon the men there. The men marveled, saying,
What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
him? What manner of man? This is Immanuel
God with us. This is the Eternal God. made
flesh dwelling among them. This is one of those times that
this was clearly seen. I would like to speak of the
type, the shadow in the Old Testament with the Ark of the Covenant,
the rectangular box covered with the mercy seat and the cherubims. And then whenever they moved,
it was covered with the veil of the temple, veil of the tabernacle,
so no one would see it. They'd see the shape underneath
it, but they wouldn't actually see it. And all they would see,
they'd see first a covering of blue that was over top of the
veil. And then they'd see the coarse
hairs, the badger skins. But you know, if you lifted up
that veil, then underneath you'd see the gold, the golden box,
And with our Lord Jesus on earth, they could not deny his grace. They marveled at the gracious
words that proceeded out of his lips right at the start of his
ministry. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
it shone. It could be seen in all he said
and all he did. They couldn't deny that. But
then they stumbled, they stumbled at what we might say the badger
skins, his humanity. This is Jesus, the son of Joseph,
the carpenter's son. His brethren are he, his brethren
we know. They were offended at him. They
stumbled at that. But in occasion like this, in
effect, we have the badger skins lifted, we have the vial lifted.
And we see the gold, we see the king, we see the authority, we
see the power that comes forth. There is the true Son of God,
the divine nature of our Lord. Why was the Lord made flesh and
dwelt among us? Not for those who have no need
of a saviour, but for those who need a saviour, those who need
faith, those who need a righteousness that is not theirs but given
them to be theirs, those that need their sins put away at Calvary,
those who need a near kinsman to do that, those who need such
a one as our Lord. You know, how vital in the lead
up in our Lord's life before he came to Calvary, it was that
it could be seen that he was truly man and truly God. You know, over the history of
the church, the controversies, sometimes they have said, no,
his humanity was not a real humanity. It's just a spiritual body, as
it were. He wasn't really a human. He
wasn't really a real man like we are, and there are those that
have and still do hold that error. Then there are those that, in
the early days of our denomination, they denied the eternal sonship
of our Lord. They said his sonship only began
with his birth, and that he wasn't eternally one with the Father,
equal in power, in deity, in his omnipresence, his omniscience,
his knowledge of all things, that he didn't have the same
qualities as the father had. He did. He does. He is truly God. But he is truly
man. And that is vital for him to
come to Calvary. If he'd been just a man, then
his sacrifice, there would have been no merit in that. If he'd
been a sinful man, he would have died and never rose from the
dead. Those are beautiful words of
Abraham to Isaac, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for
a burnt offering. You know, we are told that Abraham
saw Christ's day. Our Lord says, he saw my day
and rejoiced at it. And Paul says that the promise
that was given to him, that in thee and in thy seed shall all
nations be blessed, was not of seeds of many, not all his offspring,
but of one seed, which is Christ. And here is our Lord Jesus Christ. fitted for that which is before
Him, and giving abundant evidence before He came to lay down His
life for His people and shed His precious blood, that He truly
was God and man. He truly was Immanuel. He was
all what the prophets said He should be and would be and is. And so may we prize these occasions
like this, the record like this, here, in this ship, of a little
glimpse of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Let me think of how faith comes. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. May it be this evening, as this
account is read, as this part is read here, that the Lord gives
faith to see Him, to view Him, to make Himself precious, so
that we do trust in Him and do lean hard upon Him. This is written,
is written for the Church of God, is written that faith might
anchor in our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to then look lastly, as
storms may come, by his word. This that is here will not be
replicated again. Our Lord will not be on earth
like this again. He will not be in the ship with
his disciples again like this. After our Lord rose and ascended
into heaven in the Acts of the Apostles, we read a similar,
we might say, account where the Apostle Paul was being taken
to Rome as a prisoner. He had other prisoners there,
many soldiers in the ship. And they were caught up in a
hurricane. And for many days, couple of
weeks, they saw no light and were tossed to and fro upon the
sea. But then Paul speaks of an angel
of God that stood by him in the night, whose I am, whom I serve,
and how that angel had said that he was with him and would give
him all that were in the ship. The ship would be broken, but
they would be saved. God was watching over Paul. He
watched over all those with him on the ship. and they were all
brought safely to land, as what was told. The power of the Lord
is still the same. From heaven he sends forth his
angels, his might, his power, even in that literal way of being
saved to land. How sovereign the Lord is though,
and whether it be in a natural situation, a literal storm, a
literal trouble, a providential trouble, a providential trial,
or whether it be in a spiritual way, there is much help and encouragement
from such a passage as this. And I want to just break up and
just think of some of those storms that the people of God know within
when they like the disciples here, are crying out to the Lord
when they're fearful, when they are of little faith. And of course,
the first one is this, when there are fears. You know, there are
so many fear nots in the Word of God. You can't escape that
God's dear people do have fears. They come into things where they
fear. They're not stoics. They don't
enter into things and think, well, I must not fear this. I must just face it and not be
trembling and not be afraid. God's dear children do have fears. And maybe this evening you gather
and that is what you have. You're fearful. Well, the Lord
here, he dealt with it. He dealt with this, the cause
of this fear. He dealt with this storm. He
rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. The word that the Lord spoke
to the disciples, the same mouth, the same person, The same word,
the same word really that formed the sea and made the dry land
and spoke it into existence. The same word speaks here and
there is a great calm. May we remember this in all that
the Lord does in addressing the fears and the storms that his
people have. The expectation is, as in Psalm
107, he sent his word and healed them, the written and the incarnate
word the same. Speak the word only, said the
centurion, my servants shall be healed. And the Lord said
of him, he had not found so great faith, no, not in all his world.
a trust in the word of the Lord. Our natural thought is to go
to this and that and these natural means, but where the word of
a king is, there is power, and where the Lord speaks, that authority,
it is done. And so, if our trial, if our
storm this evening, and it is fears that storm within, This
is one of the storms the Lord deals with. Another one, right
through the word, is that of temptation. When Satan comes,
when he tempts, you go right back to the Garden of Eden, the
fall of man began with the temptation. Our Lord, in his ministry, immediately
after his baptising, was led of the spirit, not by Satan,
It led the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 40
days, 40 nights. Our Lord needed to be tried.
He needed to walk this path. Why? To succor his people, to
strengthen his people. He will not suffer you to be
tempted above that which you're able, but will with the temptation
make a way of escape that you be able to bear it. Again. Satan will tempt all of the people
of God, but the Lord is over Satan, is stronger than Satan,
and though he may feel to have but little faith and fearful
in him, the Lord is able to deliver out of temptation, out of Satan's
hand. May that be a help to us when
sometimes it comes, wave upon wave, Satan knows our weaknesses. He lays his baits in suitable
ways. He has 6,000 years of experience
of observing humanity, of knowing just where our weaknesses are
and where he succeeded one time. You know, what would you think
if you had a fisherman and he used a particular type of bait
and he got a nice lot of fish? Next time you saw him fishing,
he was using a different bait. You say, what are you doing?
He says, oh, I thought I'd try a different bait. You say, but
when you used that bait last time, you got a lot of fish.
Why don't you use the same bait? Well, Satan knows that. And you
and I might feel, and you might look back many years, and you
think, I fall for that same bait every single time. You feel how
weak. Little faith you have. Well,
in such storms as that, the Lord only needs to speak a word and
still those storms of temptation. Another storm is that of persecution. Thankfully, in our land, we don't
have the persecutions that they have in some other lands. We
can freely worship, we can meet together. But sometimes it can
be as persecution right in a workplace, or if we're a student at school
or university, we can know what it is to suffer for our faith. Because we believe, because we
name the name of the Lord, then others act against us and persecute
us. And it's in those times when
it can come. Like a storm, like a trouble,
it's what it rises up within. That's what the, it is the effect
that it has upon us. And again, these type of storms
might appear that the Lord is far off from us, but here he
is awakened, called upon, he arises, and his word, he stills
that storm. I've known of this personally. knowing what it is in teaching
young people and having them bait me and having them blaspheme
and being so tempted that because I was their teacher, I was actually
responsible for what they were saying and their cursing and
their blasphemies. And many cries went up to the
Lord on that account until one day in the middle of the class,
standing in front of them, And the Lord dropped in, on their
part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
And that word instilled all that storm, never forgotten, and such
a precious word it was to me. And in one sense it was a persecution
in the workplace and in my calling, because of my faith, because
of what I believed. Yes, the Word heals. The Word with power makes such
a difference. Then there are the lusts of the
flesh. If anything is spoken of so greatly
in the Word of God that fights against the people of God, it
is this, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Paul says, I keep under my body,
lest after I preach to others, I myself become a castaway. Those who through a knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ have escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. And we only got to look around
us and into every form of communication, visual or hearing, and you find
The lust of the flesh is there. The great men, David, Solomon,
Samson, they all fell in that way. And many, many do and have. And it is a trial to many of
the people of God. Their old nature, their fallen
nature, and what storms. Sometimes you might say it hardly
is enough to Describe it, the storms that they rise within. Well here again, may we be like
these disciples. Lord save us, we perish. And
the Lord then arises, he sends forth his word. Those storms like that, the Lord
knows all about them and he's able to deliver us from them
I've proved it, I've known it so. When the Lord has come, if
the sun shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And
all those thoughts, all of those temptations, all of them are
gone in a moment. I know the Lord can do it. Sometimes
we are kept in those storms for a while. But may we have regard
to the Lord. who is raised up for this very
purpose, he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are but
dust. Then there are those doubts.
I think it was Bunyan in his Mansoul, Holy War book, when
he speaks of Mansoul, and Satan, and Legion, he thought that the
best way of taking Mansoul and assaulting it was to send against
it so many thousands of doubters and that they would prevail.
One of the strategies of Satan is to cast doubt. If thou art
the Son of God, if thou art again and again with Christ's temptations,
the very first temptation, the fall of our first parents, It
was casting doubt upon what God has said, about the authority
offered, and actually doubt on the sentence that would be executed. Doubt upon the integrity of the
Lord. God knoweth that as soon as you
eat this, your eyes shall be opened. You shall know good and
evil. God's keeping something back
from you. He has an ulterior motive. And
all the time there is doubt in it. To doubt the Word of God,
right through the ages, there have been those that have raised
up to criticise the Word of God. And they make out they're wise,
and they've got some degrees and some understanding, and the
higher criticism, lower criticism, as it were, of the Word of God,
instead of receiving it as the inspired Word of God. Doubt. Uncertainty. You know, wherever
that is sewn in the Word of God, there might be a text of scripture
and you've used it, you've pleaded it, and then someone comes along
and says, no, no, no, that's out of context, you can't pray
that. You can't use that in that situation,
that's not a word for you. Until you can resolve that, Until
you can see that, yes, it is valid, I can still pray in that
way, I can still plead that word, it stops the mouth. You can't
pray because there's a doubt. Oh, perhaps I shouldn't be pleading
that. Perhaps I shouldn't be using
that argument. Doubt is a very undermining thing. And may we be delivered, especially
in the ministry, casting doubt upon the Word of God or making
the people of God doubt. Then there are those questions. Sometimes we can be questioning
in a right way. You know, little children, they
learn by why, why, why, asking questions. I always used to think
when I go into the schools and aren't able so much to do now.
But speaking with the children, I ask them lots of questions.
They ask me lots of questions. And it is the way that I can
understand where they're coming from, what they know, what they
don't know, and how they can find out things from me. It's
a good thing when questions are asked in that way. with the scribes
and the Pharisees, they came to the Lord questioning, laying
traps, laying snares, trying to undermine him. And with Satan,
that is how he comes. That is how unbelief works, to
question the word of God, to question what God has said. And they can be sometimes like
Great storms we cannot get out from underneath them, or it might
be regarding providence, regarding our lives, regarding the Lord's
purpose, regarding things he's permitted to happen, the things
that other people are doing, questions, and they trouble us. They cause us to be agitated
and fearful and afraid. You may remember when we have
the example here of these storms. These are just as much storms
and storms within as ever there are waves and winds. You may
remember this as well. With the waves, the reason why
they rise up, why they have so much strength is because the
wind. You take away the wind and the waves go. Remember years
ago, as young men, late teens, and in a small sailing boat,
sailing along the coast, battling along with the headwind all the
way. And it was tacking, tacking,
tacking, very hard work. And then suddenly the wind stopped. Absolute, complete calm. The
waves all dropped. It was just to be calm. We're
going to get the oars out. Then the wind came around 180
degrees and it blew us straight back to harbour. We're very thankful
for it. But the effect of the wind upon
the water, many times we've been out sailing, you look over the
water and you can see the wind coming. You can get ready for
it hitting your sails because you can see the ripples on the
water. Water is a very good indicator
of where the wind is. And so here, those two things
are joined together. And we find with Satan, with
those storms that are raised within, there's something that
is causing it. There's Satan's suggestions.
There's things that are stirring up all that is within us. May this word then be a help,
because these storms were made a calm, by His Word, the Word
of the Lord. I often say this, with medical
things, you've got to think, well, what specialist do I need? Who shall I go to? What shall
they prescribe as the remedy? But for the things of God, the
remedy is found in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the remedy is in
His Word. He sent His Word. May we know
something of that power and still the calms and the troubles of
our minds. He saith unto them, why are you
fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the
winds and the sea and there was a great calm. This is he. He was to suffer, bleed and die
at Calvary and rise again. This is he. in whom we trust
for time and eternity. Amen. Hymn, 993. Tune, Promise 832. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all now and evermore. Amen.