Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. I'm going to read our text which
is in verses 22 through 25. Now it came to pass on a certain
day. that he went into a ship with
his disciples. And he said unto them, let us
go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. But as they sailed, he fell asleep. And there came down a storm of
wind on the lake. And they were filled with water
and were in jeopardy. And they came to him and awoke
him, saying, Master, Master, we perish. Then he arose and
rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased,
and there was a calm. And he said unto them, Where
is your faith? And they, being afraid, wondered,
saying one to another, What manner of man is this? For he commandeth
even the winds and water, and they obey him. Now, in many ways
this account is a rather poetic picture. And it describes, what
I mean is that it describes the life of believers. And it describes
our journey, our voyage with our Lord and our Savior. And
the lessons that we learn here from this passage that are taught
here to the disciples, these lessons are lessons that we're
taught from the first day we see Jesus, the light of God,
to the day that He brings us home to Himself. And He said
to us, we hear His voice, He calls us by name, He goes before
us and we follow Him. And He says to us, let us go
over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. When He calls us, we launch forth
with our Lord and our Savior. So I wanna show you, before we
get into this, another scripture, companion scripture, I think,
in Psalm 107. And when you get to 107, just
put a marker there, because we'll come back to it throughout this
message. Psalm 107, and we'll pick up in verse 23, and just
read a couple verses here. The psalmist writes, They that
go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters,
these, these see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the
deep. And this brethren is exactly
true of you who trust your very soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. The most precious thing you have
is your soul. And you that believe Christ are
trusting everything into his hand to provide for you, to keep
you, to care for you, to protect you, to deliver you. We're trusting
Christ with the most precious thing that we have, our soul.
And we, he says, see the works of the Lord and his wonders in
the deep. So I want to give you, I want
to show you seven lessons, seven lessons that are taught the people
of God here in this voyage over the sea, till the Lord brings
us home. Seven lessons. Now for our first
lesson, it's that our God is sovereign. We are to learn and
understand that our God is sovereign. Notice that this event takes
place on a certain day. A certain day. And whenever we
read that word, a certain something or a certain someone, like a
certain centurion or a certain Samaritan, we know that our God's
sovereign hand is moving according to purpose. according to purpose. It's, he's intending to bring
our mind, our thoughts to understand something's going on here that
I might quickly just pass on by and not recognize or not take
notice of, but he's telling me it's a certain, a certain day
this happened. Romans 8, 28 says, and we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to purpose. Our God's purpose. And our God is telling us, trust
me, all things, all things work together for good, for my people,
all things. And many purposeful things go
unnoticed by us, yet our Lord is saying, whether you notice
them or not, all things are working together for good according to
the purpose of God, to those who love Him. And we love Him
because He first loved us. He has a gracious purpose for
His people. And in this account, What we're
to see here is that our Lord, He's in perfect, sovereign control
throughout the whole thing. Even though He's described as
having fallen asleep, He is in control of everything. And you can be certain that your
God is in control of everything, every detail happening in your
life. Even those providences that seem
contrary to us, And those providences that are difficult for us to
bear and understand, even those, he says, they're working together
for your good. You that love me according to
my purpose. And he's showing us this to trust
him. And the scriptures tell us repeatedly
how the Lord careth for us. that we're to cast all our care
upon him because he does care for you. And he does care for
the troubles and the difficulties and the oppositions coming against
you. He knows and he trusts. And rather,
entrust him that it's for your good, for your good, brethren.
And so James 1 verse 17 says, every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." That's
the first lesson. God is sovereign. This happened
on a certain day, a day that he chose and called his disciples
into the ship with him. The second lesson is that the
disciples of Christ were never alone. He never departs from
us. He doesn't leave us to ourselves. We're never left alone. Luke
tells us that He went into the ship with His disciples. He went into that ship with His
disciples. Luke says they launched forth. Christ and His disciples, they
together launched forth across the lake. He didn't send them
off on their own, He went with them. And that's because the
Lord has shown us that we're in union, eternal union with
our Lord. He's the husband of His church. We're together with the Lord.
We are His people. He brought us into union with
Himself so that we are members of His body. It just says your
body is a member with your head. And so we are the members of
Christ's body. We're one with him. We're in
union with our Lord. And so whatever place we find
ourselves in in this life, our Lord is with his people in spirit
through faith. He's with us in spirit through
faith. When he gave his disciples that
great commission before he rose to the Father, and he gave him
the commission to preach the gospel, he assured his church
of his presence, saying, Lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world. And that's comforting. That's
comforting for the church today, and as long as we go on this
world, that's a comfort to the Lord's people, that he's with
us till the end of the world. He's not leaving us. And so,
He doesn't leave his church ever. He doesn't separate himself from
his members. And he certainly doesn't leave
us when times begin to get difficult. He doesn't disappear on us when
times get difficult. Matthew tells us, and when he
was entered into the ship, his disciples followed him. And what that tells us is that
our Lord goes before us. He goes before us. Anything we
endure, our Lord has endured Himself. And He knows the sufferings. It's not like He can't be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows our infirmities. He
understands what we're going through. He purposely came in
the flesh and bore our sorrows and suffering to obtain our eternal
redemption and that He might minister peace to our hearts
and comfort us in a way that we understand and receive that
and is meaningful to us. And so our Lord gives us His
word that He's always going to be with you that believe Him,
that trust Him. He's with you. He's given you
that faith. He's given you that belief and
that trust and confidence in Him. He's not going to leave
you. And read with me, turn over to
John 14. Let me show you a few scriptures on this. John 14, and we're gonna pick
up in verse 26. We'll just read two verses there,
26 and 27. So he tells us that he gives
us the Comforter. He says, but the Comforter, which
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall
teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace, I leave with you. My peace,
I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. And so our Savior has accomplished
our salvation. He's redeemed his people with
his own blood, and he's gone before us through the veil and
has made for us an everlasting place so that when he returns,
he'll take us to be forever with the Lord in that place. And so he's gone before us and
he sends us the Holy Spirit who reveals and manifests the love
of Christ in us to know him, to have an understanding of our
God, to know that he's sovereign, to know that he's in control
of all things. You've probably met some people
like this in life. I have, and they've endured some
tragedy. Perhaps losing a child, and that's
very difficult to bear for a parent. I can't imagine how awful that
is. And the way they comfort themselves
is with a lie, saying that God isn't in control of all things.
Well, that's more terrifying to me than knowing that God is
in control of all things, and that nothing can take from us
or strip us of anything outside of God's control. If it's taken,
it's because our God has done it, and he's done it for our
good, to bring us to the feet of Christ, to know our need of
him, and to find his sufficiency to meet our need. Turn over to
Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians 3 verse 17 and following,
our Lord adds this blessing of understanding to us. Paul writes
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,
and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. And that word
passeth, knowledge, means that our Lord, what He gives us is
to know that His love far exceeds the knowledge and understanding
that we have. And He gives that to His people.
He reveals His love for us. And the preciousness of His love. I'm gonna show you one more.
Look at Philippians 4. Philippians chapter 4. And let's look at verse 6 and
7. Be careful for nothing, but in
everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Now, I'm not a Greek scholar,
but I have some tools. And I looked up those words,
passeth here, passeth all understanding, and back in Ephesians 3, where
it says passeth all knowledge. And they're different words,
but they both start with that prefix hyper, which means to
go over and above there. And what it's saying there is
that here the peace of God it surpasses all understanding. So that what our Lord is saying
is that we don't have to know everything. We don't have to
understand everything that happens and why it happens. When God
gives you peace in your heart to trust Him, to believe Him,
in spite of the fact that you may not know or understand why
a certain thing happened, but when He gives you peace in your
heart that you're His, and that He loves you, and that He's provided
for you, then we don't need to know all the details. We don't
need all knowledge and all understanding. We're blessed to have incredible
light to know that the scriptures are revealing to us Christ the
Savior, the salvation of God. And it's a blessing, however,
to have the peace of God revealed, shed in our hearts, So that even
though I don't know all things, and there's a lot that I don't
understand, and I don't always have the right words to say to
my brethren in need. But I know the Lord Jesus Christ,
and I know how precious he is. And that peace that he gives
in the hearts of his people, I'd rather have that peace. than
to know all mysteries in the universe. I would much rather
have the peace of my God through the Lord Jesus Christ than know
everything and understand all mysteries. And that's what he's
saying. And so that peace that he gives
us, because he brings his children to trust him. And that's what
He's doing here with the disciples here. He's bringing them to trust
Him and lean on Him and know that He is Sovereign God, has
everything in His control. He's doing all things for our
good and He's with us. He's with us and that's what
He's revealing. That creates great trust and
great comfort in the true and living God because by nature
Man does not trust God. Once Adam ate that fruit and
his eyes were opened, he fled from the voice that walked in
the garden in the cool of the day. And that voice, the word
of God, is Christ. He fled from Christ. And so you
that are drawn to Christ, that's grace. That is grace upon grace
that God should call you into fellowship and union with himself.
that's far better than the riches of this world and it's far better
to have that peace that Christ has paid the price and made me
his son or his daughter and brought me and made me his child and
brought me into union with him is far better than all the other
things that this world pursues and goes after. Far better. And
it's easy to say. I understand. It's easy to say
that. But that's what he does. Through this voyage, he teaches
us, trust me. I provide for you. I've got it
all in my hand. Believe me. Believe me. And so
our Lord, he says to us, as he said to his disciples, let us
go over onto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. And so our Lord is doing that.
He's with us and bringing us over the sea of life here. Now
the third lesson is that even though we are believers in Jesus
Christ and we seek to obey our Lord, we seek to obey His word,
we want to honor Him with our lives, our decisions, and what
we do, our Lord is showing us that we still suffer trials.
They went with their Lord. They followed Him into the ship.
And then this great trial came down, this storm of wind came
down upon them in their obedience, in their obedience to the Lord. So just because you're suffering
doesn't mean that you're being disobedient and getting a spanking
from the Lord. No, not at all. He's still, he's
drawing you nearer to himself to learn of his grace and mercy
for you in his darling son, Jesus Christ. And so we experience
suffering, which our Lord uses to teach us his grace, right?
And back in Psalm 107, 24, that verse was, these, these see the
works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. Those that are with
him in the ship, they see the wonders of the Lord. Those on
the land who aren't in the ship with Christ, they don't see the
wonders of the Lord. But you do, you do, you that
believe him. And so we, the Lord brings us
into deep waters on purpose, on purpose. There's another place
in John six that says he constrained them to get in the boat. He can
strain them, and so our Lord is the one in control. He puts
his people in the ship to teach them and to reveal himself to
them in wonders of glory, wonders of grace that we see him. And
so we read in verse 23, Luke 8, 23. But as they sailed, he
fell asleep. And we'll come back to that in
the next point. But there came down a storm of
wind on the lake. And they were filled with water
and were in jeopardy. So Luke calls it a storm of wind. I think Matthew calls it a tempest. And Mark also says it was a great
wind, a great wind. And any one of us who's been
through storms, and sometimes wind storms, And I can just go
around the corner sometimes and see trees and limbs, giant things
falling over. And my yard maybe just had a
few branches, thankfully. But we've seen wind. And if you've
been through a hurricane or you've been just living here in Missouri,
I've never seen wind like this except once in Pennsylvania.
But yeah, you see some fierce winds that come through and they
are destructive. When a fierce wind hits your
structure, it can blow them over, it can take off roofs, it can
take whole structures and throw them. Big vehicles, and what
was it, in Iowa, I think they had another straight line wind
500 miles long and it just leveled all the grain. And so what we
see from wind storms, they can be very destructive. And they
can take out things that we're trusting, things that give us
comfort and peace and joy and make us feel okay. in this life. And then that windstorm
comes down and poof! Just blows it away. Just knocks
it away. And so windstorms can be very
destructive. And if something that we feel
we need gets taken out, we can feel just like these disciples
in jeopardy. I'm in trouble. Now things are
going to start falling apart. What's going to happen? And we
get put into difficult positions like that in windstorms. And
things just whip up. And that sense is that it's just
coming. It's hitting them from different
directions, all these different directions. And it's really affecting
them, and they're afraid. They think this is it. You know,
at least four of the men there in that ship with them were fishermen
who knew this lake. I think Luke calls it Lake Gennesaret,
but Matthew and Mark, I think it's Sea of Galilee. John is
the Sea of Tiberias, but it's the same sea, and they knew this
sea. They knew how this sea was, and they, being very familiar,
having gone through storms, knew we're in jeopardy. This is not
going to end well. We're out in the middle of the
sea, and here comes this windstorm, and we're in deep waters, and
we're going down. And so the Lord shows us here
that just because we believe Him, it's not necessarily that
we're being disobedient. It's not because we're even being
chastened necessarily, though He will refine the preciousness
of faith which he gives to his people. He'll refine that, and
he'll refine those gifts that he gives to his people through
the storms, but that's, you know, we go through them and we think,
I've been through a lot, and I think I can handle a lot, and
then, but the Lord knows exactly how to touch us in such a way
that we're shaken again. And we're undone suddenly again.
And we think, we thought, I thought I was beyond that. I thought
I wasn't going to be troubled again. And I thought that wouldn't bother
me anymore. But it does. Because the Lord knows exactly
how to bring it in such a way that it touches us in a way to
bring us to our knees. I might think I'm humble. But
then the Lord does something, and I find I wasn't as humble
as I thought I was. I'm even lower now. I have a
lot more to learn and a lot more lower that I can go. And it's
only by His grace that I'm not lower. It's His hand keeping
us. But when the time comes, when
it's for our good, He brings it. He brings that windstorm
to take us down. And so the Lord brings it, and
it's always for our good. When you're drawn to the Lord,
through the windstorm. That's the preciousness of the
Lord doing that for you. If you're separated from the
Lord, then you never were His. But if you're the Lord's, He
actually draws you through these windstorms nearer to Himself. Isaiah 40, verse 7, it's perhaps
a little different, but I think there's quite a relation here.
Isaiah 40, verse 7, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth,
because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people
is grass. And so our Lord, what we need,
He brings and He withers this flesh by the wind of His mouth. And He strips us down and brings
us low in ourselves so that we can confess with Paul in Philippians
3, 3, brethren, we're the circumcision which have no confidence in the
flesh. But I didn't always think like
that. And I still find I have plenty
of confidence in the flesh that I ought not to have, but he strips
it away in measure for our good to see that he's all my confidence. Because otherwise, I just figure
things out and get myself out of trouble. And I don't learn
anything in those things. But I learn a lot when the Lord
brings me to the end of my rope, so to speak. And so our Lord
shows us that's not all suffering. Suffering is not necessarily
bad. Our Lord suffered for us. He suffered in the flesh to the
point where he gave his life for us. He laid down his life
for us. And Paul, he spoke of how much
the Lord called him to suffer for us. Now, we're not necessarily
called to that same level of suffering, but we do suffer,
and it's for our good. Turn with me to Romans 8. Let
me show you this in Romans 8. Let's go to verse 14. And I want you to see this, that
it's his children that he brings suffering to. those that are
his children, those that are precious to him, he will bring
them into suffering. Now he says in verse 14, for
as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. They're the sons of God and your
God is making you to know that you're his son and his daughter. If you're his son and daughter,
he's going to make you to know this. He's going to reveal it
again and again and again. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We cry out. The way your
children cry out to you, we cry out to the Father. Lord, save
me. Lord, help me. Lord, where are
you? I'm in darkness, Lord. I'm scared.
Where are you? And so this is what our Lord's teaching us through
many storms, many wind storms, to cry to him for his salvation,
for his help. Verse 16, the spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. That's peace that passeth all
knowledge. That's peace that passeth understanding.
Because we maybe don't understand how we can even be so confident
in the Lord. When we're faced with just being
wiped out by the windstorm, and yet the Lord gives us that comfort
and that peace in spite of what we know in our minds, in our
carnal minds. He makes us to know the peace
of Christ. And so our sufferings are given
to us to cause us to seek Christ through the experience, that
we might know his grace and his power. Now, the fourth lesson
is related to the last. But our God, we see here, tries
and proves that faith that he's given to us. We're told that
as they sailed, he fell asleep. And that's when the storm arose. when he was asleep. So that trouble
came, and what it's teaching us there is he didn't immediately
silence it. He knew it was coming. He brought
them into the ship, and he didn't immediately silence it for them. It was his being asleep that
brought them to that feeling of, we're in jeopardy. We're
going down, and he's asleep. He's not answering us. He doesn't
know what's going on. He's just comfortably snoring
away. And we're going down. We're going down. And it shows
us that our God doesn't always answer us right away. And he
does it that way to grow us, to show us the things that only
those in the deep waters are brought to see with the Lord.
He does it that way. Had he prevented them from ever
being touched by that storm, they wouldn't have learned the
things that they learned this day. This wouldn't even be recorded
in the scriptures for us. We wouldn't even know that it
happened if he just silenced it right away. But they were
brought to the end of their limit. They were afraid. Look back at
Psalm 107. Psalm 107, now let's go to verse
25 through 27. 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 wit's end. That's how we feel oftentimes
in the windstorm. And sometimes we're elated and
lifted up on a mountaintop and before we know it, way down in
the valley and we're struggling again and we're afraid. But those
times are made precious to us because that's when we cry out
to the Lord and beg Him to draw near to us. And so again, these
are the people that see the works of the Lord and His wonders in
the deep. You know, oftentimes we pray,
Lord, I want to see your glory. I want to see your power. Well,
when that's your prayer, he'll show it to you, but it's going
to often be through the windstorm and through hard times. He'll
give it to you in grace, in grace. He doesn't always give us what
we think we need. He gives us what we do need, and He keeps
us and provides for us. But yeah, if you wanna see the
Lord's power, you wanna be brought to the end of yourself, and sometimes
we pray for things, and we think we're ready for things like that,
and we get a taste of the deep waters and the windstorm, and
we see just how fragile we are, just how much we need Him, and
how sufficient He is. Romans 5 verse 3 through 5 says,
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing
that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which
is given unto us. And so they're given for our
good, brethren. Now fifth, the fifth lesson brings
us to the greatest lesson that any man or woman could ever experience,
could ever come to know in this life, and that is to know and
to lean on the Lord Jesus Christ for all our salvation. Do not come to Him with anything
that we've done, trusting in those things, but to be emptied
of ourselves, to trust wholly upon Him to save us, because
that's salvation, rather, and that's what He brings us to do.
Verse 24 says, and they came to Him, so Luke 8, 24, they came
to Him and awoke Him, saying, Master, Master, we perish. Then He arose and rebuked the
wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was
a calm. And so this is what our Lord
does for us through the fiery temptations, through the fiery
trials and the manifold temptations. He brings us through these things.
And what he's doing here is that he's teaching us to pray. Because
the hardest thing I've ever found in my flesh to do is to pray.
That's the hardest thing, is to pray. To actually stop what
I'm doing, and to hit my knees and to just pray. Because otherwise,
it's good to pray without ceasing. As you're going about the day
and praying for your brethren and praying for various things,
but there's times where we just need to stop. Because otherwise,
we're kind of in it and not in it, and we're still doing, we're
still talking, we're still trying to work through the problem ourselves,
we're still trying to handle it and fix it and mitigate things
and worrying, but to just stop. Stop what you're doing and just,
Lord, I really can't do this. I need you, Lord, to do this.
I need your grace. I need your salvation. And it's a rare thing to pray
in the Spirit. even. It's a rare thing. It's
good to pray, and pray regularly, but a lot of times our thoughts
are distracted, and we get interrupted, and it just... And then there's
a few times, you can probably count them on one or two hands,
where you believe the Lord really was with you, and helped you
to pray in spirit, and that He heard you, and you just know
the Lord was in it, the Lord was in it. But he calls us, he
says, pray to me. You seek me for these things.
And we confess there and at that moment when we stop moving and
stop talking and stop doing things, trying to work through it, and
we just confess, Lord, I need you. And we thank him for the
trial. We thank him for hearing us,
because he doesn't need to. He doesn't owe us anything. He's
God. But we thank him. for hearing
us. We thank Him for bringing us
to our knees there to pray to Him. And then we ask Him, Lord,
Lord, I need you. I really need you here, Lord.
I need your grace. I need your help. You say you're
with me. Lord, I need to I need your presence,
Lord, and I need your hand. I need you to help me and to
save me and to deliver me. And that's how our fears are
quieted. We see it right here. When they
went to Christ, that's where all their fears were quieted. Master, master, we perish. All right, and he arose, and
he resolved the thing. He brought it to an end. Then
he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water,
and they ceased, and there was a calm. The winds and waves ceased,
and the fear and the tempest in the hearts of the disciples
ceased as well. He brought it to an end, and
they ceased. And just as believers are taught
this repeatedly, this verse also gives us a picture of how our
Lord saves His people. He brings His people to the end
of themselves. He brings us to see that I have
nothing to give to the Lord, nothing to bargain with, nothing
to give to Him for my salvation. And that's who He saves, empty,
worthless, vile sinners who have nothing to give to Him, nothing
to barter with, nothing to trade. He freely forgives His people,
all who ask Him. If you ask Him, it's because
He brought you to that on a certain day. in the day of grace when
he purposed to be merciful and gracious to you. And so that's
another picture there as well as how the Lord saves his people.
Not because we have something to partner with him and work
out with him. No, he saves people who cannot
save themselves. So that's what he's bringing
us to see. And back in Psalm 107, verse 28 and 29, Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Now, the sixth lesson we see
is, again, related to the last point. But our Lord asked them,
where is your faith? And that's a personal question. We should hear that question
asked to us. That's a personal question to
me. That's a personal question to you. Where is your faith? And our Lord teaches us a lot
as we think on that question before the Lord. Lord, where
is my faith? Lord, help me. Lord, keep me. Why do I doubt
so much? Why do I not believe so often? Why am I so forgetful? The Lord
teaches us. But I'll say this one thing.
We're never told what the disciples said. I doubt they said anything. We're never told what they said,
and yet the Lord always, because that's not the only time he's
ever asked him a question like this, but he's so quick to forgive. Because he delights in mercy. He saves not because we say anything
or know what to say. I think that's why we don't see
them saying much in reply, because otherwise we try to repeat it
and think that was our salvation. But we don't know, because we
don't need to know. The Lord is merciful to us for
His own mercy's sake, for Christ's sake. And He's going to work
that out in us. We're going to work out our salvation
with fear and trembling, as it says. That is, Christ is going
to be brought home to our hearts. We're going to know Him, that
He's my Savior. And I don't know what you said,
but I know how He's broken me and brought me low on myself
and caused me to cry out to Him and beg Him for mercy. And that's
what He does for each one of us. That's why I think it doesn't
tell us what they responded. This is not our business. But
it's a question for each one of us who trust the Lord. Where
is your faith? And the seventh lesson our Lord
teaches us is that Christ our Savior is omnipotent God. He's omnipotent God, all-powerful
God. Luke 8, 25, and he said unto
them, where is your faith? And they, being afraid, wondered,
saying one to another, what manner of man is this? For he commandeth
even the winds and water, and they obey him. And so this, brethren,
is your sovereign God and Savior, the God-man mediator. God robed in flesh that he might
be the fit, perfect sacrifice for his people to lay down his
life for his people, to obtain eternal redemption for us. And he must be holy divine, perfect
divinity, God Almighty, to accomplish an eternal redemption for us. He commandeth even the winds
and water so that everything, what that's saying there is everything
that comes upon us that troubles the sinner, that brings a sinner
into fear and bondage and darkness, to sin in themselves, we're brought
to see that it's our Lord, God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ,
that delivers us from that bondage. He's the one that heals us. He's
the one that calls us into the light of himself. He's the one
that takes us out of the prison and brings us into his presence. He brings us out of it. And so
he's the one that brings all his children, his poor children,
into the ship with him. And so if you're going through
windstorms, it's because Christ is revealing himself to you.
He said, come, let us go over to the other side of the lake.
and they launch forth. You're with the Lord and the
blessing is you see the works of the Lord in deep waters. You see these precious things. Psalm 107, 30 and 31, Then are
they glad because they be quiet. So he bringeth them unto their
desired haven. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men. Praise God, give him all the
glory for his wonderful works. And he does it for our good to
bring us to seek him, to cry out to him and to know him in
peace and in grace and mercy, amen.