Well, if you notice the lesson,
I'm going to cover the whole chapter of Matthew 14. And seriously,
I'm not trying to rush through, but what we have here in Matthew
14 is a lot of history. And these historical events,
you can read them for yourselves. They have spiritual significance,
and I'm going to bring out some spiritual significance. We won't
read the whole chapter this morning. But I called this, I titled this
lesson Christ the Sovereign Savior because throughout this historical
events that's recorded here, we see the sovereignty of God
to accomplish his glory. in the events that surrounded
Christ in his earthly ministry, and for the salvation of his
people. And the first event is the death of John the Baptist.
It's in Matthew chapter 14, verses one through 12. Now most of y'all,
I'm pretty sure you've read this story. You know, King Herod,
it says at that time, verse one, Herod the Tetrarch, the word
Tetrarch means fourth, means he was over fourth of the kingdom,
He's the son of Herod the Great. You remember Herod the Great
was in power when Christ was born into the world. And he's
the one who issued the decree to kill all the male children
two years and under. And he's dead, and he divided
the kingdom into four of his sons, and this Herod the Tetrarch
was one of them. He's known as Herod Antipas in
other places. But he was king during the ministry
of John the Baptist. And look, it says in verse two,
he said to his servants, well, it said, when he heard of the
fame of Jesus, it says, and said unto his servants, this is John
the Baptist, he's risen from the dead, and therefore mighty
works do show forth themselves in him. Now, for whatever reason,
this Herod, the Tetrarch, Herod Antipas, he became obsessed and
enthralled with John the Baptist, probably mostly because of John's
popularity. Because many people went out
to hear John and to partake of his baptism. And Herod was enthralled
with him. In one place it says that Herod
heard him and liked what he heard. And I don't know exactly what
the message was that day. But we know what John the Baptist
preached. He preached the gospel of Christ.
He pointed sinners to Christ like every true gospel preacher
is to do. Every true prophet, he preached
the gospel of faith in Christ and repentance of dead works,
repentance of all sin. And one of the lessons that we
gather from this is that telling the gospel to lost people can
sometimes be dangerous. Because the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. The world hates the light
that exposes their sin. And that's all sin, not just
the sins of immorality, but the sins of religion too. And we
know that because that light of the gospel wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed, where Christ merits for salvation is revealed,
exposes the the things that men and women by nature think recommend
them unto God as being evil deeds, dead work, self-righteous. And
of course, John preached that. Remember, he looked at the Pharisees
and the Sadducees, and he said, you're vipers. And he said, bring
forth fruits, meet for repentance. So he preached the truth of the
gospel to them, exposing their religion, what men called human
righteousness, as being filthy rags. But he also brought about,
talked about the sins of immorality. He preached against that, as
we all do. If we're preaching the truth, we look around, we
see the immoral behavior of this world, the world that has gone,
as we say, to hell in a handbasket. And of course, you know, people
say, well, we're worse off than we were. Men and women have always
engaged in immoral behavior. And we know that, and that's
sinful, and we need to avoid that. And one of the things that
John brought out, John the Baptist brought out about Herod, Herod
married his brother's wife, Herodias, and John pointed that out. Look at verse three, for Herod
had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison for
Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. And John the Baptist spoke
against that. He said it was wrong, it was
immoral, it was sinful for Herod to take his brother Philip's
wife and marry her. And Herodias didn't like that
and she manipulated King Herod into, on his birthday, and I
believe he was in a drunken stupor, she had her daughter, you know
her name was Salome or Salome, had her dance for Herod, because
Herod wanted her to do it, and said he would give her anything
she wanted. And he swore an oath. And when a king swears an oath,
that's the word. Now you know Herod was not a
Jew, he was an Idumean, he was a descendant of Esau. That's
what he was. And so he was kind of like a
illegitimate king to begin with, but he had power and he had Rome
behind him. But he had that power. And he wanted Salome to dance
for him, and I'm sure it was a sexual dance. I'm sure it was
something like that. And I'm sure that Herod was probably
drunk when he made that oath. And Herodias got her daughter
Salome to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter,
on a charger. And that's what happened. And
Herod didn't want to do it, but he made that oath. He was bound
by that oath. So he had John the Baptist killed.
And here in this passage up through verse 12, this is where the disciples
came and they informed Christ that John the Baptist was dead.
Well, Christ went on with the ministry. And what, he didn't
fall down in sorrow and all of that. He didn't say, well, we
need to give up. No, he went on, because I'll
tell you what, Christ already knew that John the Baptist was
dead. This was all well within the plan and the purpose of God,
to further the gospel in some way. And it says, in verse 12,
it says, his disciples came, John's disciples, they took the
body, they buried it, and went and told Jesus. So that's the
first thing. Had John the Baptist killed,
and where's John the Baptist? Well, he's with his Lord in heaven.
In spirit. He's much better off now than
he ever was before. But he preached the gospel. And
one day that's going to end. There's going to come a time,
we're going to talk about that in the message in Revelation
today. How when the vials of wrath are poured out, that's
it. All of God's elect have been
called into the kingdom. And that's the end, and the wrath
of God abides upon those who are found without Christ. Well,
in the next set of verses, Matthew 14, 13 through 21, we have another
episode where Christ feeds the multitude. And I've got in your
lesson, this miracle, like all miracles, proved his power as
God manifest in the flesh. Christ is sovereign over the
elements. He controls it all. And what
this, you know, when he fed the multitude, he took, what was
it? A few loaves of bread and a few
fishes, and he fed over 5,000 people. Now that's amazing, isn't
it? What does that illustrate? Well,
it illustrates that he himself is the bread of life. And he
himself is the complete salvation of all his people, his sheep.
You can read about that in John chapter six, beginning at verse
22, where he talks about, I am the bread of life. And the manna
that God gave Moses, that manna, that was a type of Christ. But
if you look at this, it says, in verse 16, Jesus said unto
his disciples, The disciples were gonna send the multitude
away because they were hungry. And Christ said in verse 16,
they need not depart, give you them to eat. Verse 17, they say
unto him, we have here but five loaves and two fishes. And it
says there were 5,000 men out there. Well, that means there
were more than 5,000 because of wives and children. And it
said, he said, bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude
to sit down on the grass and took the five loaves and two
fishes. And looking up to heaven, he blessed and break and gave
the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude.
And look at verse 20. They did all eat and they were
all filled. They took up all the fragments
that remained, 12 baskets full. And they that had eaten were
about 5,000 men beside women and children. They did all eat
and they were all filled. And I thought about this, what
a great picture of how the one sacrifice of one person, the
Lord Jesus Christ, is enough to save and to feed his people spiritually. Christ, that one person, God
manifest in the flesh by his one sacrifice for sin is able
to provide all the righteousness that we need for all of his people. He is the bread of life. He is
the water of life. Remember what he told the woman
at the well, he said, this is water which when you drink this,
you'll never thirst. And I think about in Matthew
chapter five, he said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst
after righteousness, for they shall be filled. You think about
that. Everything that God requires
of his people is found fully in one person by one sacrifice,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible tells us that by
his one sacrifice, he sanctified forever them that are his. Romans 8.32, he that spared not
his own son, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? Ephesians 1.3, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Think about
that. Christ is all and in all. And everyone who partakes of
the bread of life and the water of life, just like these people,
all who eat, all who believe in him, you remember he said,
he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, he's not talking about
cannibalism, he's talking about faith. And he says, he that do
that, they'll be filled, they did all eat and were all filled. Our cup runneth over in Christ. And that's what an illustration.
Well, he's sovereign over the elements, but he's sovereign
in salvation too. He's the sovereign savior. And he is enough. And let me
tell you something now. If you claim to be a Christian,
but Christ is not enough for you, you've got a problem. Isn't
that right? You gotta go look for something
else to seal the deal or to make sure you're saved. or you gotta
do your part. And let me say this, we have
a part to do. We're the product, we're the
result, we're the fruit of Christ's work. We're to obey him, we're
to be zealous of good works, we're to fight sin in every way,
self-righteousness and immoral sin, all of it. But not because
Christ is not enough. I'll never forget this. Years
ago. when we were going through some
division here at this church, up at 13th Street when I was
up there. And men who I thought were sovereign grace gospel preachers
were straying away from the truth. And one of those men wrote an
article and put it in his bulletin. I still have a copy of it. And
you know what the title of the article was? The Blood is Not
Enough. That was the title of that article.
I couldn't believe that that man wrote that article. Now,
here's what he was saying. He was saying, not only did Christ
have to die for us to save us from our sins, but we must also
be born again. Well, that's true. In order for
us to be saved, the ground of salvation has to be established
in the blood and righteousness of Christ, And as a result, as
the fruit of that, we must be born again. We must be brought
under the gospel and brought to faith in Christ and we must
be preserved. But it's not because the blood
is not enough. In fact, it's the opposite. The
reason we must be born again and brought to faith in Christ
and repentance of dead works and be preserved is because the
blood is enough. It's enough to fulfill all righteousness. Isn't that what Christ said at
his baptism? Suffer it to be so for us to fulfill all righteousness. What does Romans 8, 10 say? I
quote it all the time. The body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is alive because of what? Because the blood's
not enough? No, because of righteousness.
And where we find righteousness? All righteousness in Christ.
His righteousness imputed to us. When I, Lord willing, when Randy
and I go up to Kentucky to preach in a conference up there in August,
the subject I was assigned was the reality of imputation. And
of course, that's just right up my alley. I've written a book
on that, you know. What is the righteousness of
God? Listen, the imputation of sin to Christ was so real that
because of that, he had to become a man, he had to keep the law,
and he had to die on the cross to save us from our sins. The
imputation of righteousness to us is so real that we're justified
before God on that ground. We're forgiven of all our sins.
God says he won't hold them against us. He says, he will not charge
us with our sins. The God who knows me. That's
what he said. I mean, he knows me better than
you do. I'll go this far. He knows me better than I know
me. He sees my sins, my shortcomings. And knowing all of that, he doesn't
charge me. with my sins, and he declares
me righteous. But also it's so real that because
of that, I must be born again. And that's the reality of it.
Well, Christ is sovereign over all that. Now, in the next set
of verses, Matthew 14, 22 through 32, this is the episode where
Christ walks on water. Walks on water. Well, what does
that show us? Well, it shows us again, he's
sovereign over the elements. If he wants to dive to the bottom
of the sea, he could do it. If he wants to walk on the sea,
he can do it. And he did it. Look here in Matthew
22, or Matthew 14, 22. It says in straight way or immediately
is what that means. This is after he fed the 5,000. He constrained his disciples
to get into a ship to go before him under the other side while
he sent the multitudes away. When he had sent the multitudes
away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening
was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst
of the sea tossed with waves. There was a storm. For the wind
was contrary, wind was against them. And in the fourth watch
of the night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. When
the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled,
saying, it is a spirit. And they cried out for fear.
They didn't recognize him, whether it was they couldn't see because
of the storm or he was far away. But straightway or immediately,
Jesus spoke unto them, saying, be of good cheer, it is I, be
not afraid. Now what is he doing? He's revealing
himself to his people. And that's what he must do. If
you're gonna know God, if you're gonna know Christ, if you're
gonna know salvation and all of its blessings, God must reveal
himself in the person and work of Christ. It is I. Be of good cheer. He must reveal
himself to us in his word. And when he reveals himself to
us, what does that do? That causes us to be of good
cheer. Now that doesn't mean we're always gonna be happy and
go around smiling all the time. But it means as far as our relationship
with God, we can be of good cheer. No matter
what comes our way on this earth, in the providence of God, if
I get sick, sick unto death, I can still be of good cheer
because my salvation is set in stone. When I have bad thoughts,
even when I doubt, Paul said to Timothy, when I doubt, he
doesn't deny himself. He doesn't cast me off. He cannot
deny himself. His glory is engaged in the salvation
of his people. But here's the main lesson, look
at verse 28. Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And Christ
said, come, and when Peter was come down out of the ship, he
walked on the water to go to Jesus. Peter walking on the water. To do what? To go to Jesus. That's what salvation is, it's
going to Jesus, receiving Jesus, the Lord our salvation. He who
will save his people from their sins. But verse 30 says, but
when he saw the wind, now how do you see the wind? You look
at it. And when he saw the wind, boisterous,
strong winds, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried,
saying, Lord, save me. Now what'd he do? What was wrong
with what Peter did? He took his eyes off of Jesus. That's the problem. How? Think about, I've got cited
here, Isaiah 45, 21 through 22. That's where God reveals himself
as both a just God and a savior through the glorious person and
the finished work of Christ. And you remember what he says?
Look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, for
there's no other God. I'm God, there's none other.
What is salvation? It's looking unto Jesus. You
remember when the Lord sent fiery, poisonous snakes to bite the
people in the wilderness, and he told Moses to put a serpent
upon a pole? And he said, tell them, those
who look will live. Look and live. We sing a hymn
about that, look and live. I had a good friend of ours,
a dear brother who lives in Memphis, he asked me about that. He said,
why would that serpent on the pole is a picture of Christ. Well, Christ isn't a serpent,
is he? Why would God use a serpent to picture Christ? The serpent
refers to the curse that Satan, in the form of the serpent, brought
in, and Christ upon that pole represents Christ on the cross
bearing the curse that we were under because of our fall. That's
what that's about. So what do you do? You look to
Christ on the cross, dying for my sins, establishing my righteousness,
doing for me what I can't do for myself. And then I always
think about Hebrews 12, where it talks about the sin that so
easily besets us, which is doubt and unbelief. And he tells us,
here's how we run the race of grace. Looking unto Jesus. the author, the beginner, the
finisher, the completer of our faith. That's how we run it. And so, Peter said, Lord, save
me. Well, that's our daily cry, isn't
it? Lord, save me. Look unto him, and it says in
verse 31, and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and
caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore
or why didst thou doubt? Christ doesn't hesitate here.
He doesn't say, well, Peter, pull yourself up by your bootstraps
and walk on that water. Or he didn't say, oh, Peter,
just lay down and float a little bit. No, he immediately reached
out his hand, reached out his hand and caught him. How many
times has the Lord caught you, caught me, O ye of little faith. What's that about? Well, our faith in this life, it's
the gift of God, we know that. Faith in Christ is not natural
to us, it's a gift. Comes through the new birth by
the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. But while we're in this life,
Our faith will always be challenged by the flesh. But even little
faith looks to Christ. And the power of salvation is
not in our faith, it's in the Christ in whom we believe. And
that's the point here. He's walking on water. Look of
faith. Be of good cheer, it's I, he
said, it's Christ. Our safety and our security is
not in ourselves, it's in Christ. And you can read this in your
lesson. Even little faith looks to Christ
for all salvation. Well, in the last point of this
lesson, look at verse 34. It says, when they were gone
over, well, let me read verse 33, or verse 32 here. When he said it, he said, when
they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. When we're with
Christ, that's the calm. That's the peace. That's the
security, that's the safety. Then they that were in the ship
came and worshiped him saying, of a truth thou art the Son of
God. You're the sovereign Savior,
the Messiah. And then in verse 34, when they
were gone over, they came into the land of the Gennesaret, And
when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out
into the country round about and brought unto him all that
were diseased, all that were sick, and besought him that they
might only touch the hem of his garment. Remember the woman with
the issue of the blood? She said, if I can just touch
the hem of his garment. Well, was there some kind of
magic in his garment? No. This expression, I don't
know, maybe they heard about the woman with the issue of blood. Maybe they've had different thoughts
about this, I don't know. There was no magic in his robe. You remember that story of the
robe? I think he made a movie about it, God had the robe. That
robe means nothing. It meant nothing as far as salvation. But touching him in his garment
was an expression of their faith in him to heal them. It wasn't
the robe that healed, it was Christ who wore the robe. But
it says, and as many as touched were made perfectly whole. And
that's the way it is. As many who come to Christ, as
many who believe in him, who plead his blood and righteousness
for salvation, they're made perfectly whole. Whole, that means healthy. That means free. Now it doesn't
mean free from physical sickness, this body is dead because of
sin, but it means free from sin and condemnation and death and
hell that would condemn us forever and ever. We're whole in Christ
and he is our wholeness, okay.