Let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew
chapter 8. Several have read this in the
past weeks. I believe Brother Kevin has read
it a couple of times. Every time I've heard somebody
read it, I've wanted to preach from it. And now here's another
question that our Lord asks sinners in Matthew 8, 26. He saith unto
them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Now if we'd
be a true disciple, a true student of the Lord Jesus Christ, if
we would be in fellowship with Him, in inseparable communion
with Him, then we must follow Him by believing on Him. It says in Matthew 8.23, when
He was entered into a ship, His disciples followed Him. Now many think of following Christ,
but something always seems to get in the way. For instance,
some would follow Him, but they cannot bear to suffer for His
sake. They cannot bear to give up the
things they would have in this world and suffer the cost of
following Christ. He said there in verse 19, A
certain scribe came and said unto him, Master, I will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest. This man was a self-taught scribe. Christ didn't call him. He volunteered. He came running to Christ. He
probably heard the fame of Christ. He probably thought that he could
get some of that fame for himself. So he comes running to Christ
and he volunteered himself. And self-willed religionists
always start out this way, I will. I will." The contrite heart says,
Lord, if thou will. And the self-made professor always
brags about what he will do for the Lord. Master, I will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest. Isn't it amazing how the Lord
preached so differently than false preachers preach? Listen
to how the Lord answered this man. Most false preachers would
have said, Oh, come, come. We want you to come. Come and
join with us. Listen to what Christ said to
him. Verse 20, Jesus said unto him, The foxes have holes to
protect them from danger. The birds of the air have nests,
a safe place to raise their young. But the Son of Man, It is God's
servant representing His people. The Son of Man hath not where
to lay His head. False preachers will tell sinners
that if they will believe on Christ, then knowing Christ and
following Christ means you'll be prosperous. You'll be prosperous
in this world. That's not true. Christ said,
if you follow Me, then you'll be a sojourner in this world
and it'll be costly to you because you won't have the things that
other men have in this world. You'll be like Christ. He was
a sojourner. He didn't have a house. He didn't
have a place of safety. He had nothing. He who made all
things didn't have where to lay his head when he walked this
earth. It's costly to follow Christ
and because that's so, very few truly do so. And others would
follow Christ, but there's always something more important to them.
Verse 21, 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. Now Christ is not saying
that you can't go bury your father. We ought to do that. But he's
using something here that's very, very important to show us that
nothing is as important as forsaking all and following Christ, believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet there are very few who
are willing to forsake the opinions of their father and their mother
who do not believe on Christ and to follow Christ in truth.
You know, over in Mark's gospel, before they got into this ship,
our Lord was preaching and He preached on the four types of
ground. And one out of four, one out
of four received the seed. Christ has to make His child
good ground by giving us a new heart. And Christ makes us receive
the seed of the gospel and believe on Him. And thus, He gets the
glory for making us to follow Him in spirit and in truth. Very
few follow Christ. He said to the apostles, unto
you it's given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But unto
them that are without, it's not given. He said, all these things
are spoken in parables, so that they seeing shall not see, and
hearing they shall not hear and believe. Unto you it is given. But by God's grace, because He
does work this grace effectually, true disciples that He has called
follow Christ no matter what. Verse 23, when He was entered
into a ship, His disciples followed Him. And when they followed Christ
into that ship, literally, physically speaking, they were in fellowship
with Christ. And when we believe on Christ
spiritually, by His grace, we are in fellowship with Christ. That's what believers are. We're
fellows in the same ship with our Lord, our Captain, Christ
Jesus. were in fellowship with Him.
But those who refused to believe on Christ, those who stayed back,
they were not in fellowship with Christ. And neither are those
who refused to believe on Him. If we would be students, disciples
of Christ, that's what a disciple is, a student of Christ, taught
by Christ, Heeding Christ's Word, obeying Christ's Word. If we
would be disciples of Christ, we must follow Him by believing
on Him. And there is nothing as important
in this world. Christ is the one thing needful. We must believe on Christ and
follow Him. Now, another thing about faith
in Christ is this. When we believe on Christ, we
will be tried by great trials, and that is a must. We will be
tried. It says, verse 24, And behold,
there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship
was covered with the waves. Wouldn't it seem like since they
followed Christ, Since they obeyed Christ and followed Him and sided
with Him and publicly identified with Him, wouldn't it seem like
that they would enjoy calm seas and a nice wind at their back
to carry them across the sea? But that wasn't the case. Many
false preachers teach you that if you believe on Christ, you'll
be healthy and you'll be wealthy and you won't suffer in this
world. That's not true. This is what Christ promised
His disciples. He promised this to His disciples. And He is an example. As soon
as Christ publicly was baptized and publicly entered His ministry,
immediately Satan began to tempt Him and men began to reject Him. Immediately. And so this is what
He promises us. Listen to this. Turn there with
me. John 15. Look at John 15, 19. He says, If you were of the world,
the world would love His own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore for
the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. Shall
Christ suffer and shall we not suffer? Shall Christ be rejected
and we not be rejected? He says, If they have persecuted
Me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept My saying,
they will keep yours also. But all these things will they
do unto you for My name's sake. because they know not Him that
sent me." Look at John 16, 33. These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me ye might have peace, in the world ye shall
have tribulation. Where is our peace? It's in Christ. And He's going to make certain
that that's the only place where we have peace is in Him. In the world you shall have tribulation. Tribulation means trouble. You
are going to have trouble. But be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. You who are baptized, Ben and
John and Kimberly, you can expect and you should expect that right
away you are going to start facing trials. You are going to start
facing trials. Satan had no problem with you
before when you didn't publicly identify with Christ. The world
had no problem with you before when you did not publicly identify
with Christ. But now, it's all together different. And you will suffer trial. But
I want you to see something in this passage. Believers suffer
trials to teach us that we are not saved by ourselves, but by
Christ alone. Now that's the purpose of the
trial, that to teach us, remind us, keep us ever mindful that
we are not saved by ourselves, by anything we do, but we're
saved by Christ alone. That's what is meant by the words
we just sang. Those words came from Isaiah
43 and they came from other scriptures. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy
supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
I only design. Thy dross to consume and thy
gold to refine. That's always going to be what
he does. Now first of all, trials teach
us by whose faith we are saved. That's the first thing we see
in this passage and that's the first thing that we're going
to be taught in the trial. We're taught by whose faith we
are saved. Look at Matthew 8, 24. Behold, there arose a great tempest
in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves,
but Christ was asleep. Now you compare Christ to His
disciples. Verse 25. And His disciples came
to Him and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. Now when the tempest was raging,
when this tempest was raging, this storm on this sea was raging
so that the ship was covered with the sea. We don't know how
high the waves were, but they were coming over the ship. Other
verses say the ship was full of water. And while that was
going on, Christ was asleep. He was asleep. Now, in this we
see His faithfulness. We see Christ as a man representing
His people, perfectly trusting God, His Father. He knew there
was a tempest. You know, when you get in a ship,
the front and the rear of the ship are the worst places to
be during a storm. If you go on a cruise, you want
to get in the middle part of the ship. If you're in the front
or you're in the rear, you're going to face the hardest part
of the storm. In the front, you're going to
experience the up and down. In the rear, you're going to
experience the rolling of the ship. Christ was in the hinder
part of the ship. So he was experiencing that ship
rolling in those waves. He knew there was a storm. He could experience that. He
could feel that. He could hear the wind howling
and the ship creaking and all that. Yet he was asleep. Christ,
who is God, as a man, representing His people, trusted God His Father
perfectly. He trusted His Father in every
tempest He faced, and especially that greatest of all tempests,
on the cross. You see, it's by the faith of
Christ that He came to where we are and took flesh like unto
His brethren, like unto those God the Father chose and gave
Him before the world was made, like unto those that He entered
covenant to redeem from the curse of the law. It was by the faith
of Christ that He withstood every temptation as He walked this
earth as a man. It was by the faith of Christ
that when the hour appointed came, He went to the Garden of
Gethsemane to present Himself as the spotless Lamb of God to
be made sin in place of His people, knowing full well the shame of
bearing our sin and the suffering that was to follow. It was by
the faith of Christ that He endured that cross being cut off. That was the tempest. That was
the great storm. Being cut off by God in three
hours of total darkness. Being cut off from God His Father
whom He loved and yet He remained perfectly faithful. trusting
that God the Father would not allow him to perish. He said this, ìFor the Lord God
will help me, the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not
be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.î Now
that's the faith of Christ. Now, let's compare His perfect
faith to our faith. And we see our faith when we
see these disciples. Having Christ who is the life
so near to them, in the ship with them, knowing they're in
fellowship with Christ the life, they thought they were about
to die. And in Mark's gospel, they accused
Christ of not caring if they perish. They came to Him and
they said, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Now, we ought to take this scene
right here and look at this scene and let this be a lesson to you
and me. We are not saved by our faith. We are saved by the object
of our faith. Christ the Lord. He is the faithful
one. Go to Galatians 2.16 and let
me remind you of this one more time. Galatians 2.16 and I'll
say this to you. This is so very important that
if you have a Bible that doesn't read like I'm about to read to
you, get you a Bible that reads like I'm about to read to you.
Because this is the difference between true faith and a false
faith. Look at Galatians 2.16. knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ. That means by His faithfulness.
We're not talking about your faith in Christ. We're talking
about we're justified by the faithfulness of Christ who went
to that cross and by His faithfulness manifest the righteousness of
God. Romans 3 says the righteousness of God is manifest without your
doing the law. It's manifested by the faith
of Christ. We're justified by the faith
of Christ. Look at this. Even we have believed
in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of
the law shall no flesh be justified. Look at Galatians 3.22. Galatians
3.22, The Scripture hath concluded
all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe in Jesus Christ. You see that?
You see the offsetting of the faith of Christ and our faith
in Christ? by the faith of Christ were saved.
Paul said in Philippians 3, 9, I want to be found in Christ,
not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. The righteousness which
is of God by His faith. You know, there's a lot of people
who talk about how my faith saved me. My faith saved me. And indeed,
Christ did say on one occasion to somebody, Thy faith has saved
thee. And He was saying by that, that
it is indeed necessary that you have to have faith to be saved.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. If you come to
God, you must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him to do the saving. But when
He said, Thy faith has saved thee, He's talking about the
object of our faith, Christ the Lord. What does faith believe? Faith is not believing in our
faith. We don't put faith in our faith.
That's putting faith in ourselves. That's the dross that He's consuming
by the trial. He's teaching you and me that
if it was up to our faith to save us, we would surely perish. We'd start blaming God that He
don't care that we're going to perish. But the goal He refines
is to make us to behold through true faith that Christ is the
strength of our faith. It's by Christ's faithfulness
that we're saved. He's the faithful one. Now secondly,
trials are given to force us to Christ. That's why the trial
is given. Look, it says verse 24, Matthew
8, 24. 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. Now while the wind and the sea
were calm, we don't read anything here about them coming to Christ. It's very likely that they didn't
even notice Christ had went to the hinder part of the ship and
went to sleep. You remember Mary and Joseph, they went a whole
day's journey supposing Christ was with them and He wasn't even
with them. You see, we're very apt to...
And this is what made me want to preach on this. We've had
some really blessed good times lately by the Lord. And it's in these good times
that we're apt to cease coming to Christ and depending on Christ
and needing Christ. So I figure it's time because
the trial is probably about to come. preach this passage. According to other Gospels, they
didn't go to Christ until the ship was full of water and they
saw they were in jeopardy. That's just us. That's us. They
probably tried to save themselves. They probably striked the sails.
They took the sails down. You don't want the sails up when
the wind is howling. They struck the sails and they
probably threw overboard everything that they didn't need. That's
a lesson in itself. When the trial comes, that's
when we realize the things we really do need and the things
we don't need. They probably threw overboard
everything they didn't need. But what they were doing was
they were trying to save themselves and it was not until they finally
came to the place where they saw they weren't going to be
able to save themselves out of this trial that they ran to Christ. And usually, you and I go through
the motions of praying This is interesting to me that
we've had these good times recently and I have found it harder to
pray recently than I have in a good while. But He sweetly, graciously brings
the trial upon us and He forces us to have nowhere else to run
to but to Him. And that's the purpose of the
trial. Until we see we have no strength in ourselves, We won't
really go to Him. We don't really truly pray to
Him. He brings us to the end of ourselves
and makes us say, Master, save us. We perish. Isn't that a beautiful
prayer? Master, save us, we perish. It
wasn't all of this, oh, we thank you for your electing grace and
your saving, choosing us from before the foundation of the
world and all the things we pray to sound good in front of men.
When you need Him, you just, Lord, save me, I'm perishing.
That's good. That's get, get to the point.
Now, the trial is to teach us to seek Christ first at all times. That means anytime, at all times,
Christ ought to be the one we're seeking first. Christ said, seek
ye first the Kingdom of God. That don't mean make a list of
things that you want to seek but put Christ at the top of
them. That means it don't matter what time or what you're doing
or what it is you're seeking, Christ is the one you seek first.
He's at first all the time, preeminent. Seek Him first. And that's what
He's teaching us through the trial. By trials Christ teaches us what
is most deadly to us. By the trial He teaches you and
me what's most deadly to us. Matthew 8, 26. He saith unto
them... Now get that. He saith unto them,
Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then He arose and rebuked
the winds and the sea. Now, why did Christ first rebuke
them? He hasn't even arose yet. He's
probably still laying there on the pillow and they wake Him
up and He's waking up. And why are you so fearful? Oh, ye of little faith. And then
He got up. And then He rebuked the wind
and the sea and they became calm. Why did He rebuke them first?
And this was a gentle rebuke. Just a simple question. But why
did He do that first and then get up and rebuke the sea and
the storm? Well, it's not the winds and it's not
the sea. It's not the trial. It's not
whatever it is that we're wanting so badly to be out from under
that we think is going to cause us to die. It's not that that
is dangerous to us. What's dangerous to us is our
unbelief. So he dealt with that first. So let's hear his question. Let's answer this question. Why
are we so fearful? Do we doubt the life that we
have in Christ? Believer, Christ is our life. You who have been brought to
Christ to believe on Christ, you have eternal life. That means you shall not and
you cannot ever die. Listen to this. He said, I am
the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? You know
what I picture? This just occurred to me, but
this is what he's saying. That day when brother Cody went
upstairs and was getting dressed to go preach the gospel and all
of a sudden he had a heart attack and his body dropped to the floor.
He didn't drop to the floor. He, though He died, He lived. And He went right then to be
with the Lord. You know when we're really going to believe
that? When that happens. When we drop this body at death
and all of a sudden realize, I'm not dead. I am alive. It's just like Christ
said it was. He is my life. He is my life. Why are we fearful? Do we doubt
the security of Christ's finished work? There He stood in that
ship as their surety. That means He entered into covenant,
He who cannot lie, God who cannot lie, entered into covenant that
He would go to the cross and justify His people from their
sins. So that ship could not sink and
His people could not perish because His cross work was not yet accomplished. And now we cannot perish because
His work is accomplished. Everything about our security
revolves around His work on the cross. They were looking forward
to that work and because He was going to that cross, nothing
could happen to them and that ship. And because He's been to
that cross, nothing can happen to us in this ship. Now that's
so. God's just. He will not pour
out justice on Christ and satisfy His justice so that He answers
the wages of sin which is death for all His people and then turn
around and pour out justice on His people. That would not be
just. God won't do that. We can't perish because Christ
finished the work. Why are we fearful? Do we doubt
His love for us? By this was manifested the love
of God. He laid down His life for us.
In this was manifested the love of God. He sent forth His only
begotten Son that we might live through Him. He laid down His
life that we might have life. Do we think that He would love
us to the point He would come and lay down His life for His
people? And then, after so great a suffering and so great a work
and so great a manifestation of His love, then turn around
and let us perish? Of course not. Why are we fearful? Do we doubt His faithfulness?
Would He send the Gospel to us? He said, I'll pray the Father
and He'll send forth the Holy Spirit. And He promised to send
us the Gospel. And He promised where two or
three are gathered, He would be in the midst of us. And He
promised that as that gospel is going forth by these nobodies,
that no flesh would glory in His presence. But as that gospel
is being preached, it would be of God that you're in Christ.
It would be of God who makes Christ your all. So that He gets
all the glory for bringing us to behold Him through the preaching
of the Word. It's His glory by which you're
born of that incorruptible seed which by the gospel is preached
unto you. It's by His faithfulness. Would
He do that and bring us to convince us to cast all our care on Him? And then once we cast all our
care on Him, then say, aha, I fooled you. And bring us to be ashamed
for trusting Him? Listen to this. The Lord shall
help His people and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the
wicked and save them because they trust in Him. It's contained in the Scriptures.
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. He'll
never bring one to trust Him and then betray our trust. He's
faithful. So believer, always remember
this, as real as Christ was in that ship with them and as real
as He felt all the waves and all the wind that they felt,
just that real, Christ is in fellowship with each of you that
believe. And when you're touched with
a trial, He's touched with a trial. When you suffer, He suffers.
And so He will come to where we are and He will keep you from
perishing. Our danger is not in the trial. And what He's teaching us is
our unbelief is our greatest danger. It's not those things
we're afraid of. It's our unbelief. So we need
the trial, don't we? We need the trial for Him to
teach us and turn us to believe on Him to sustain our faith,
to believe on Him and trust Him so that we're not carried away
with unbelief. That shows us again that we're
saved by His faithfulness because if it wasn't for His faithfulness
keeping us turned to Him and keeping our faith sustained,
we would perish in unbelief. See, our faith... He often called
us, O ye of little faith. That's a good name for us. Because
we have little faith. But not the object of our faith.
He has great faith and it's by Him we're saved. Now fourthly,
by trials Christ teaches us that He alone rules all things in
our lives and He is working a great effect in us by these things. He rules everything in our lives
and He's doing this to work a great effect in us. Matthew 8, 26. Then He arose and He rebuked
the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men
marveled, saying, What manner of man is this that even the
winds and the sea obey Him? They marveled. They marveled. By trials, God keeps us marveling
at our Redeemer and His amazing grace to such weak sinners as
we are. I'll tell you something, far
greater than His ability to calm that wind and that sea, far greater,
it takes far greater power to calm you and me to believe Him. He said that in Ephesians 1.
He said the same power it took to raise Christ from the dead,
it took to quicken you. And it takes that power to calm
you. It was a far greater marvel that
He calmed them than that He calmed that sea and that wind. You go
home tonight and read the rest of this passage and you'll see
what He did to that Gadarene demoniac who had the devils and
you'll see what's truly a marvel. And that's what He does for us
by His grace, casting out the devils in us. And they marvel. This trial is to bring us to
marvel. And then Mark says, they feared exceedingly. And His trial,
by the trial, He keeps us awestruck. He keeps us amazed at His constant
abiding presence and His constant protection. One person said about this, he
said, if they would have sank to the bottom of the sea, they
would still have been in the in the hollow of His hand who
holds all the waters in the hollow of His hand. It has still been
in His hand. Isaiah 40 said He holds all the
waters in the hollow of His hand. If He would have let them sink
to the bottom, they would have still been in His hand. He keeps
us awestruck, exceedingly fearful, giving Him the glory rather than
giving the trials the glory. saying He's the one that's able
to rule the trial rather than the trial ruling Him. That's
what this world's got backwards. A natural man, you know, see
a storm or something, oh, this wasn't of God. God, you know, He wouldn't have
done this. Well, was it out of His power?
Was it out of His hand? If it was, He's not God. You
ought to worship the tornado then. That's to glorify the second
cause. He brings you to be exceedingly
fearful of Him and give Him the glory rather than the second
cause. And then Matthew shows us that they said, what manner
of man is this? By trials He keeps us admiring
Him who is the wisdom and power of God. Let's answer that. What manner of man is this? You
know in this passage we see In this one passage, we see that
He is both God and man in one person. That's who He is, the
God-man. As a man, He was asleep. You
know why He was asleep? He was tired. He went everywhere
preaching. He did so much that day. He was
tired. That shows you He was a man.
And He was being faithful to God His Father, resting and trusting
Him even in the middle of the storm. He was a man, the Son
of Man. And then He arose and with a
word made the wind stop blowing and the sea just like glass. That shows He's God. Nobody could
do that but God. This one we're talking about
is God and man. And believer, this same God-man
is risen right now, seated at God's right hand and He is our
wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. He is our salvation. He did what He did as a man in
the place of His elect men. And because He is God, everything
He did is eternally, eternally efficacious because it accomplished
eternal salvation, eternal redemption. And it's He, right now, that
One, that God-man in glory, it's He who sends every trial that
we suffer in this life. And He controls everything about
it. And He even controls your heart
and the outcome of it. He blesses it. He blesses the
trouble to your good and to my good. That's what we just sang.
He blesses it. It's the power. Is the power
of your trial strong? Next time you come into a trial
and it's so strong and it's so severe, then look at how powerful
that trial is and remember this, the one who sent it is more powerful. Because he sent it and he's controlling
it. and it'll stop when He says it's
to stop, when He's accomplished what He willed by it. This God-man
is He who speaks peace into our hearts, teaching us He is the
faith of our faith, He is the strength of our strength, and
He's all our salvation. None but He could do this and
bring a great calm in your heart. I've said this to you time and
time again. He doesn't have to stop the wind and the sea to
cause the calm in the heart. He can cause the calm in the
heart and not stop the storm in the sea. One of these days
He's going to do that because we're going to die. He's not
going to stop that. That's the trial. He's not going
to stop that. But He'll give you that calm in your heart.
See, that's the greatest thing. That's the great thing. And that's why He ends the trial
only when He's taught us once again that He's our God, our
Savior and our all. He's going to bring us to see
every time that salvation is not of us in any way. Salvation is of the Lord and
that's what He's teaching us. The trial is only for our good
at the hand of our loving Savior. Let me illustrate this with a
story I read. There was a woman on board a
ship. And there was a great storm going on and she was so terrified. She was just afraid. But her
husband was the captain of this ship and he wasn't afraid at
all. And she went to her husband and she said, how can you be
so calm in this ship? And he drew a sword out and he
stuck that sword to her breast and he held that sword right
against her breast. And she just started smiling. And he said,
why are you smiling? He said, don't you know that
this sword right here can strike you and kill you in an instant? And she said, but I'm not afraid
of that sword as long as it's in the hand of my husband who
loves me. And he said, and I'm not afraid
of this storm as long as it's in the hand of God my Savior
who loves me. He's working it for my good.
And so when the trial comes, this is what we sing. It's what
we say to ourselves and remind ourselves. Be still, my soul. Thy God doth undertake, thy God,
to guide the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence,
let nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul. The wind and
waves still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below. Now let's sing that. Amen.