Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. I wanted to
come back to this story of the disciples being in this ship
and in their trouble and their help that they received. We just
obviously looked at this for our message this morning, but
I wanted to come back to it tonight because there's something in
it that is too precious and too comforting to just skip over
it and leave it and not dwell on it for just a minute. Let's
read verses 23 to 27. Matthew 8 verse 23 says, 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. And 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. But the men
marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the
winds and the sea obey him?" What manner of man is this? As
we said this morning, Our Lord puts us in these positions on
purpose to bring about these results. They were in the sea
on purpose. If we ever wonder why are we
out in the depths of the sea? They were out there on purpose.
Our Lord was asleep. Why was he asleep through all
this? He was asleep on purpose. It was so that they could, being
sailors, do all that they thought they knew to do. He brought the storm and the
wind to them on purpose. And He made them cry out to Him
on purpose. He led them to all of that on
purpose. Everything here was on purpose,
all on purpose. After all of their efforts were
proven to be of no use. And I have said this before and
I'll say it again because it's so true. Anytime something arises,
we throw in all of our efforts at it. And the Lord just waits. He waits that He may be merciful
in His time. And He lets us just spin our
wheels and do our thing until we've exhausted everything we
know to do. And after all that was proven
to them to be of no use, everything that they thought they could
do, they came to Him. And they awoke Him. And they cried, Lord, save us. We perish. And that's that's
a good place to be. That place where the Lord brings
us to that humble, you know, a broken and a contrite heart,
he will hear. Lord, save us, we perish. At
that moment, after they were brought to that place, verse
26 says, Then the end of verse 26, it
says, then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there
was a great calm. Now Mark's account of this tells
us exactly what he said in this rebuke. All right, turn with
me to Mark chapter four. This is the same account. We
won't read all the verses. Let me just read one verse out
of this. Mark four, verse 39. It says, and he arose and rebuked
the wind and the rebuke the wind and said unto the sea, peace,
be still. And the wind ceased and there
was a great calm. That's what he said for them
and did for them in their moment of great need. Can you envision
him arising? He was asleep on purpose and
that made them come to him. How we need to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. That made them come to him. The
kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.
They awoke him. I need you. And they cried to him, Lord, save
us or we're going to die. Then he arose. And can you just
envision him arising and walking up to the bow of that ship, getting
in front of them? standing between them and this
gray, dark, violent storm that had come upon them. Again, these
were lifelong professional commercial fishermen. They'd been through storms. They
had been through great storms, but this storm was so great.
The boat was beginning to sink. And every one of those men knew
we're gonna die. We're about to die. This is bigger
than us. This is bigger than us. We cannot
overtake this. This is gonna overtake us. At
their wits end, they cried out to the Lord for mercy. And he
stands up and he looks that storm right in the face. And the master
of the sea, The master of the sea said, peace, be still. And the storm and the wind and
the sea obeyed him. And they went flat. I mean, they
went flat. They didn't. Every time we talk
about this, I tell you this, I'm going to every time. They
did not die down. You've seen how water slowly
loses. They went flat because these
sailors marveled. They said, what matter of man? Had everything just slowly dissipated,
that would have been normal. What matter of man? This man
that we came to, and cast our all on. He arose and spoke the word only. And everything, there was a great
calm. It went flat. What our Lord did
for His disciples right there, He still does that for all of
His people. He is the Lord. He changes not. That's why we're still not consumed.
That's why the boat hasn't actually gone down. He is still doing
that for all of His people today. And I want us to just really
get ahold of this and not skip to the next verses down. This
is honestly too precious and too comforting to just pass over.
Our Lord is still doing this for his people today. I want us to enter into the command
of the one we are following. We're following him. He has said
to us, follow me. We're following him. And I just
want us to enter in to the command of the one we're following. I've
titled this message, Peace Be Still. Peace Be Still. In the message this morning,
we saw the storm of God's judgment against sin and the peace that
Christ brought to his people, enduring that storm for them,
bearing for them all of the unleashed deluge of judgment that came
down. You think about Noah's Ark. You
just think about the story of Noah's Ark, how God in that storm
poured out all of his wrath. And you just think about
what it must've been like to be inside that ark, listening
to all of that judgment come down. Oh, ye of little faith. Don't you think Moses and his
wife and three sons and their wives were thinking, Oh, I hope
this sealant holds. Oh, it's going to hold. Christ bore all of the deluge,
all of the judgment, all of the storm, all of the wrath, just
like the ark, Christ carried his people through it. Everything
went down, that ark went up, and everybody in it. Christ led his people through
every bit of that storm, led them to the cross of it, led
them to the tomb of it, led them to the resurrected glory of it.
And just like Moses said to the children of Israel at the Red
Sea, here's the word to God's people because of that. Just
stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Just stand still. He is the way. Christ is the way that leads
God's people to a quiet, still peace with him. Peace with God. No more judgment, no more wrath,
no more fury. Christ is the way. Now, because
of that peace, God's people have a continued peace that He gives
to their hearts through His Word to them. They have a continued,
continued peace. He still speaks this to and for
His people. He knows what things we have
need of, and we need for Him to speak peace to us. We need
for Him to still us and calm us, and He still does that for
all of His people. Turn with me to a few scriptures
here. We're going to see it and hear
it, all right? Go with me to Psalm 46. Psalm 46, I wanna read one verse,
and then I wanna read this Psalm. And let's see if the Lord will,
through His Word, His own Word right here, speak this peace
to our hearts, all right? Psalm 46, verse 10 says, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. Be still and know that I am God. Look at verse one, Psalm 46,
verse one says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present
help in trouble. I love that line. I love that
he said in his word to us, I am a very present help. That means right now. God's people need it right now. Verse two, therefore will not
we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains
be carried into the midst of the sea, Though the waters thereof
roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the
swelling thereof, there is a river, the streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the
Most High. God is in the midst of her. She
shall not be moved. God shall help her in that right
early. I love verse six. The heathen
raged, the kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice, the earth
melted. Let the heathen rage. All he
has to do is speak the word. He uttered his voice, the earth
melted. Verse seven says, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the
Lord! What desolations he hath made
in the earth! He maketh wars to cease unto
the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow, and cutteth
the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among
the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. In that, do we hear him saying,
peace, be still. Peace, be still. Let's skim through some verses
in Isaiah. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
nine. Isaiah 9 verse 6. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Now watch verse 7. of the increase
of his government and peace, there shall be no end. Upon the
throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth, even forever,
the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." I love that
it says, Well, it doesn't just say that his peace, his government
and peace shall never end. It says the increase shall never
end. It'll never, it just keeps increasing
and increasing. It'll never end. He is the prince
of peace. That word prince means the ruler,
the leader, the captain, the commander of peace. And of the increase of His government
and peace, there'll be no end." Peace be still. That says, peace
be still to my heart. Every time I think about that,
just peace be still. Look at Isaiah 26. This is so true. This right here
is so true. Isaiah 26, verse three. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.
Trust ye in the Lord forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength. That is so true. Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. We mentioned
this morning, Peter, we just mentioned that Peter was, he
was walking on the water and he started looking elsewhere.
He got his minds off of Christ and he started sinking immediately. Anytime we get our mind and our
eyes on all of these things around us, we will sink immediately. But thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. Look with me at verse 12
right here. It says, Lord, thou wilt ordain
peace for us. For thou also hast wrought all
our works in us. That's a wonderful verse. You
will ordain peace for us. And it's because you have wrought
all our works in us. We need to do a lot of good works
to be accepted into the presence of the Holy God. Christ did all
of them in us for us. That's peace. That is such peace. Turn to Isaiah 55. I love this. I really love this. Isaiah 55, verse eight, it says,
for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
my ways, saith the Lord. And to that, all of God's people
say, thank God. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and maketh it bring forth in bud, that it may give
seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, So shall my word
be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto
me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. It shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For you shall go out
with joy and be led forth with peace. That's how God's people
are gonna leave this world. The mountains and the hills shall
break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands." You're going out in peace, peace, peace. Be still. Christ is our peace. He is our peace because Ephesians
2 says, He made peace for us through the blood of His cross.
And because of that, He has now preached peace to us. And the message is, be still.
That's the message. Be still, just be still. Peace
has been won. Peace has been accomplished.
It's been a long time since I've told you this story, but it's
an appropriate story for this subject. When this country was
forming a long time ago, when the country was forming and people
were starting to settle out west, moving out west, they used to
travel in wagon trains. They would travel across the
country in wagon trains. It was safer to travel that way. There were a lot of dangers in
the journey across the country. And one of the great dangers
was prairie fires. Fires would, a lot of dry, tall
grass out in the plains. And if a fire got started, it
would catch that grass and it would run like wildfire. And
so as they would travel, a common thing that they would do is they
would send a scout out on a horse in front of the wagon train.
And he would run up a mile or two and just make sure that there
were no dangers. And if they were, he would come
back and report. Well, on this occasion, there
was a scout about two miles out. And he came up on a prairie fire
and it was a huge prairie fire, just, just eating up the grass
coming right for the wagon train. So he turned around. And he ran
as fast as he could back and he told the wagon master, there's
a prairie fire coming two miles away and it's coming fast. It's
coming right for us and it's coming fast. So the wagon master
told all the men, let's scrape the grass behind us, make a dirt
patch behind us and light the grass on the other side of it
with fire. And that grass took off and burned out behind them. And once it was far enough away,
the wagon master said, now let's ease the wagons back. And they
sat and they waited. They just sat still and they
waited. And this man was sitting on his
wagon and his little boy was in his lap and here comes the
smoke. And then here comes the fire
and they see it and it's wide and it's coming fast. And that
little boy reached up and grabbed his father's neck. And he said,
I'm scared. And that man rubbed his son.
And he said, honey, you have nothing to be afraid of. He said,
look down, do you see all that black stubble? We're standing
on burnt ground. The fire has already been here. Nothing to be afraid of. We're
safe. What he was telling that little
boy was, peace, be still. It's over. And that's what our
Lord says to us through his word continually. Peace, be still. Just be still. Be still. Trust the God who has already
accomplished all the wrath, all the fire for
you, everything for you. Peace, be still. A very dear
man handed me this one time, and this is what he'd written
on it. The peace and rest that a man enjoys depends on his confidence
in the God who controls the flight of an angel or a fly. who controls the flash of lightning
or the glimmer of a glow worm. No matter what it is, no matter
what it is, He did it. He's in control of it. And His
word to us is peace. Be still. Peace. It's in the hands of the all-controlling
God. Be still. I pray that the Lord
will speak a great calm to us. I truly do. Whatever our storm
is, I pray the Lord will speak a great calm to our hearts. Go
with me one more time to our text. We'll close with this.
Matthew 8. Verse 25. His disciples came
to him and awoke him saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he said unto them, why are
you fearful? Oh ye of little faith. Lord, increase our faith. Increase our ability to be still. That's what faith does, it causes
us to be still. Be still in whatever it is, whatever
it appears that somebody's doing or controlling or devising or
whatever it is, be still. Be still, it is in the hands
of God Almighty. Increase our faith, Lord. Increase
our peace, increase our ability to trust you. Verse 26, he said
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. But the men marveled, saying, what manner of man is this, that
even the winds and the sea obey him? I'll tell you what manner
of man this is. When he says it, it happens. Why hasn't it happened yet? He
hasn't said it. But when He says it, it happens. When He says to the heart of
His people, peace, be still, it happens. It happens. When He ordains peace, there's
peace. Quietness, calmness, by the still
waters of His Word. They really do come through the
still waters of His Word. Lord, speak peace to our hearts,
we pray. Speak the peace of Christ to
our hearts. All right, Brother Dwight, you
come.