I want to bring a message here
from chapter 14 of Matthew today. And I've entitled this message
from the words that are found in verse 27. In verse 27, Jesus
tells his disciples, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. But I've entitled this message
a different translation of those same words. And the title is
this, Be Comforted, I Am, Fear Not. That's another translation
of the same verse, and so I wanted to give that to you in the title
of this message because it communicates to us the same truth in a powerful
way that because what Christ has done, who he is, what he
said to us, we are to be comforted knowing that he is God and therefore
we have nothing to fear. So let's pray and then we'll
get into this message. Dear Lord, thank you for your
mercy to your people that in the midst of all their trouble
you send your word, you tell them who you are, that you sit
on your throne, Unchanged from eternity, unchanged to everlasting
ages, your purpose will be done, they shall be saved. And therefore
we are to fear not, because God is our Savior. We thank you for
these things in your word. We pray you'd bless your people
today. Take your word, dear Lord, we
pray, and give voice to it in their heart by your spirit. In
Jesus' name we pray, amen. So the title again is, Be Comforted,
I Am, Fear Not. In Matthew chapter 14 at the
beginning, Herod beheads John the Baptist. If that happened
in our day, the greatest prophet that ever lived, John the Baptist,
according to Jesus' own estimation, if the government or the king,
whoever it was, took that man and beheaded him, what do you
think that would do to the people of God who had heard him? You
would probably think that the king on earth seemed powerful
and you would be tempted to doubt that God's purpose was going
to be fulfilled. But, after that happened, Jesus
called his disciples apart to the desert, to a wilderness place.
And you know He called them to Himself after that happened,
because that's the way God does. He sends the Lord Jesus Christ,
calls us to Himself in all trouble. That's the point of this text
of Scripture. It's always, throughout Scripture,
to lift up and to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. So He calls His
disciples apart. And then it says that, that was
in verse 13, when Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by
ship to a desert place. And when the people had heard
thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. So Jesus
now, with his disciples, goes to a desert place. He goes by
ship. The people heard of it. The multitude
came. They were sick. This sick multitude
came to Jesus, and he healed them. So I want you to see these
historical things in the light of God's revelation of how He
fulfills His will in this world. There's opposition, the flood
of ungodly men, Herod attacking John the Baptist and putting
him to death. And then the disciples, Christ coming to them and leading
them away to himself, and then the sick multitude coming to
Christ, and he heals them. But after they were with the
Lord Jesus for that day at even time, the people were hungry,
and the disciples thought that Jesus should send them away,
because there were too many for them to take care of. And Jesus
said, no, you give them to eat. Now that's a command of Christ
to his disciples. You give them to eat. Of course,
they had nothing. Well, no. He asked them, what
do you have? And they said, two fish. I mean,
five loaves, five barley loaves and two fish. And so he said,
bring them to me. Bring the bread. Bring the fish
to me. And he took the bread. And he
took the fish. And he broke the bread, and he
broke the fish, and he gave that to the disciples, and they gave
it to the multitude. And everyone was filled. And
there were 12 baskets left over. There wasn't even a basket, not
one, when they started, and yet there were 12 baskets left over.
That teaches us a lot, doesn't it? It teaches us that the Lord
Jesus Christ will feed his people, which were the multitude, and
yet he would do it through the disciples. They were sent with
the gospel. And they would take what Christ
gave to them, his broken body, and he shed blood, and they would
give it to the people, and there would be so much that they would
be satisfied, and there would be an abundance left over. We
can never really take in all that God says, can we? There's
an abundance of grace, an abundance of His revelation. And so then,
after this, the Lord tells His disciples what we're going to
pick this up in verse 22. There were about, in that crowd
of people, the sick people that Jesus healed and the people that
he fed. There were 5,000 men beside the
women and children. And verse 22, let's read this
together. And straightway Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him unto the
other side while he sent the multitudes away. So, this is
very plain. Jesus compels, he commands. his disciples to get into the
ship, and he sends them away, and then Jesus sends away the
multitude. And when they had sent the multitudes,
and when he had sent the multitudes away, Jesus went up into a mountain
apart to pray. So here the Lord is, his disciples
are in a ship, they've been sent by Christ, and he himself goes
up to a mountain to pray. What does that remind you of?
Doesn't it remind you of the Lord Jesus making intercession
for his people? And where does he make that intercession? Isn't it in heaven itself? And
where are his people? Aren't they on earth? And what
do they do while they're there? Well, they're doing his bidding.
They're doing his command to go forth with the gospel. And
they themselves are living on the gospel that they preach.
And so he sends them away. But verse 24, but the ship was
now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind
was contrary. That's interesting, isn't it?
Jesus sent his disciples by ship, and yet the wind arose and was
contrary to them. The wind was contrary to the
disciples. It seems like, in all appearances,
that the wind, creation, opposed the will of the Lord and his
disciples going to the place where he sent them to accomplish
his will. But was it truly against them? Well, it was in a sense, but
it all was working together for their good. And so we're going
to learn about that in a minute. And then in verse 25, and in
the fourth watch of the night, which would have been the last
watch, the last part of night, all night they had been out there
thrashing around on the sea. It says that in the fourth watch
of the night, Jesus went to them walking on the sea. To walk on
the sea means to have power over the sea. The Lord Jesus Christ
walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit. And they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. And there's the title of our
message. Be comforted. I am. Fear not. In verse 28, And Peter answered
him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me, or command me,
the word bid is just another word for command, bid me come
unto thee on the water. And Jesus said, come, come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But
when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to
sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. Here Peter is doing what Jesus
commanded him to do, and yet he's failing in his faith in
performing that command. And what does he do? He looks
again to Christ and calls upon him. Verse 31, And immediately
Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said to him,
O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they
were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were
in the ship came and worshipped him, saying of a truth, thou
art the Son of God, which is what he said, I am. So I want
to look at these scriptures with you here in Matthew 14. Under the context that God has
given us here, first of all, the opposition of these ungodly
men, represented by Herod, opposition to John the Baptist, opposition
to Christ, opposition to his people, opposition to their salvation. And then we see here the trouble
that came about even as the disciples were sent away by ship to do
the Lord's bidding, and yet he comes to them at night walking
on the sea. So, let's consider these details. First of all, in verse 22 of
Matthew, it says that Jesus constrained his disciples to get into the
ship. Now, the ship was a vessel. A vessel by which the disciples
were to get to the other side over the storm and over the flood
of waters. We have fled for refuge. We have
fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, haven't
we? According to Hebrews chapter 6. Therefore, to get into the
ship is to be found in Christ, our refuge. Jesus Christ is all
of our salvation, and we have fled for refuge to Him. Our hope,
according to Colossians 1.5, is in heaven. And in Philippians
3.20, we look for Him, the Savior, from heaven. Christ himself has
entered into the presence of God for us. That's why he is
our hope. We are confident that in him,
God will accept us for his sake. That God will treat us as he
treats our mediator, who is our covenant head. Here's the principle. In Adam all die, but in Christ
all shall be made alive. Who die? Who are those that die? All those in Adam. And who are
those who are made alive? All those who are in Christ. And who are raised from death
to everlasting life? It's all those who are in Christ.
Remember the Ark of Noah? Noah and his family escaped the
flood of God's judgment of wrath upon the world of the ungodly
because they were told to get into the ark. God told them to
get into the ark. God shut them in the ark. They
were in the ark, and they were saved in the ark which was covered
with pitch inside and out, which is the atoning work of Christ.
The word pitch means atonement in scripture in Genesis chapter
7. And because they were in the
ark in which that atonement was made, the Lord Jesus Christ,
they were saved from that flood that destroyed the world of the
ungodly. It was in the ark. And then again, in Egypt, all
of the firstborn of Israel, who were in the house where the Passover
blood was sprinkled, escaped the destroyer on that night when
God destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt. And God had told them
to put the blood on that door, to sprinkle it there. And he
said that he passed over the Israelites in the land of Egypt
that night. And when he saw the blood, he
says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And they were
not destroyed, because they were in the house where the blood
was sprinkled in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were saved in the
house sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb. And so believers
are saved in Christ in the house of God's elect, which is the
church, which were purchased by His blood, where the blood
of Christ is sprinkled in the hearts of the conscience of believing
sinners. And so this is the truth we see
here. The disciples were told to get
into the ship. We're told to look to Christ.
Remember also that in the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 19
and elsewhere, if a man accidentally killed another man, committed
manslaughter, he was called a manslayer, he was told to flee to the city
of refuge in order to escape the death that was due to him
by the avenger of blood. And so the man would run to the
city of refuge, and there was safety for the man from the avenging
justice in that city of refuge. Here again we see, we have fled
for refuge to Christ to lay hold on the hope set before us. And
so we see here again that in Christ we are safe. saved from
the wrath of God, saved from the destroying, the avenging
of our souls at the hand of God's justice. Then in the book of
Jonah, remember the ship Jonah got into in order to run to Tarshish,
and God sent a storm, and all the mariners on that ship were
about to perish. But what did Jonah tell them
to do? Throw me into the water. And so the mariners on the ship
that Jonah was on did not perish when Jonah was cast into the
sea. The sea, according to Jonah 1,
ceased its raging when they cast Jonah into that raging sea. And
so the Lord Jesus Christ, who are in the body of Christ, are
saved because Christ gave himself for our sins. He was delivered
up to the judgment of God. And then in the book of Job,
in Job chapter 33, let me turn with you here to Job chapter
33. I want you to hear what God says about the Lord Jesus Christ,
our mediator. We read Psalm 85 earlier, and
this ties into that. He says in Job chapter 33, that
a man is chastened with pain upon his bed, and the multitude
of his bones with strong pain, so that his life abhorreth bread,
and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away that
it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out.
In verse 22, Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave in his life
to the destroyers. Here's a man who's perishing.
He's dying. He's about to go from life to
death. He's about to go to the grave.
Now listen to what happens. If there be a messenger with
him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man
his uprightness." Now this messenger is the messenger of the covenant.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the interpreter. He makes
known the gospel from the word of God and he himself, he reveals
himself as the one who fulfills that. And so he makes known unto
man his own righteousness, God's righteousness, the Lord Jesus
Christ. In verse 24, then God is gracious
to him, to the man who was sick, who was dying. And he says, deliver
him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom." Here
the Lord Jesus Christ interprets God's word in the covenant of
His grace. He appeals to God as our mediator. He appeals to us. concerning
himself as our mediator and his blood that made peace, our peace
with God, our peace in God for our sins. He satisfied God's
justice and God's mercy as if it were, as it were pent up and
his grace as it were constrained like a wine bottle about to burst. is shed forth because of the
justice satisfied in the blood of Christ. And so all of God's
wisdom and justice and truth and mercy and grace are satisfied
to the maximum in the Lord Jesus Christ. When he brings himself
to God as the ransom, and God says, in his justice now, and
in delight of his mercy, deliver him, that sinner, from going
down to the pit, I have found a ransom. And so we see these
things that we're saved because we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. I love to think about that, how
God has said, deliver every guilty sinner. When we hear the preaching
of the gospel, it's the Lord Jesus Christ through that messenger
that he sends by his own role as our messenger and his own
intercession that he would save us from our sins. We can only
be saved and we are truly saved in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the message. Jesus constrained his disciples
to get into that boat, in that ship. It teaches us this truth
that we are only saved in the Lord Jesus and yet we are truly
saved in him. And this also teaches us that
there is salvation in none but the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
this in Acts chapter 27. I want you to see this. Jesus
constrained his disciples to get into the ship. And this ship
is the good hope, grace, the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter
27. There was a situation there where
the men were about to perish. The ship was full of men. I think
there were some 270 people on board, a large number of people
on the ship. And the apostle is given an understanding
that if they try to escape out of the ship to save themselves
from the ship breaking up in the sea, that they wouldn't survive. And so in Acts 27, 31, Paul said
to the centurion, The captain of those on board,
the soldiers, he said, and to the soldiers, he said, except
these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. That's the message
of Matthew 14. The Lord Jesus says to his disciples,
except you abide in the ship, you won't be saved. Unless you're
in Christ, you can't be saved. But if you're in Christ, you
shall most certainly be saved. And so we see in this command
of the Lord to His disciples to get into the ship that our
salvation is in Christ alone, but we also hear His call to
His people, constraining them to get into the ship. Except
these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved, is teaching
us the same thing, that all outside of Christ will perish, but all
in Christ shall be saved. And it is in believing Christ
that we see all of our salvation from our sins and the wrath of
God, isn't it? Believing Christ, we experience what it is to be
in Christ. What is that? It's peace and
joy and righteousness in the Holy Ghost, as we saw last week
from Romans 14. Now, as the disciples must get
into the ship in order for them to arrive at the destination
that Jesus had determined for them beforehand, so every believer
must be in Christ in order for us to be saved to the uttermost,
to be conformed to His image. God determined from before the
world began that all in Christ would be brought to Him and presented
to Him as holy and unblameable and justified in His sight. And
so we must be found in Christ. He is our Savior. He is our surety
in this covenant of peace. And so God has made Him our representative
so that He acts for us in all things. And this is the most
glorious thing, I think, the most glorious news to a believing
sinner, that when he was without strength, God had already appointed
Christ to be his mediator, to be the one who would stand and
answer to God all for him, and to give everything that God required
of him. Think about this for a minute.
Remember the verse in Acts 15, 15-18, known unto God are all
his works from the foundation of the world? Known unto God
are not only all his works, but all those whom the Lord would
call, all those on whom he set his name. In other words, from
eternity God knew what he would do in time. Nothing is done at
the end of time. Nothing is done in everlasting
ages to come that wasn't already preconceived and foreordained
by God from eternity. Known unto God are all his works
from the foundation of the world. That's phenomenal. Known unto
God are all those that he would save and those on whom he set
his name. This is God's work. So everything
that the Lord Jesus did in time is just a fulfillment of what
God had determined before to be done in eternity. Everything
that He did in time was already done in that covenant of grace
that God set down before eternity. In Ezekiel 37, it's called a
covenant of peace. In Hebrews 13.20, it's an everlasting
covenant. And in several places in scripture,
it's an everlasting covenant made in His blood. The peace
of that covenant was made in the blood of Christ. And since
it's an everlasting covenant, that blood had to have been set
down as a requirement by which God would make peace for us,
for our sins, to His justice, in the blood of His own Son.
and who is the Lord Jesus Christ, but our mediator in that covenant.
And so we see this in all that we see here. He made him, remember
Adam was a figure of him that was to come. That means that
the Lord Jesus Christ was already established in that covenant
to stand for his people and in time God would tell us that and
testify to it and show us this in setting up Adam as just a
type and a figure of him who already was established as the
Christ of God. who already had agreed to shed
his blood, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
for those whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life."
This is phenomenal, isn't it? That the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is God Himself, God the Son, would take on willingly and delightfully
to perform all to God for his people as our mediator. And everything
that he did was as the second and the last Adam. So that what
he did was counted to us, was imputed to us, because God chose
us in him and imputed our sins to him and his righteousness
to us because of that eternal covenant he made with his son.
And so we see this, getting into the ship, getting into Christ,
looking to Christ alone. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
exhorts us to do. Now, the big question is, how? How do I get into Christ? If
there is only deliverance from judgment in Christ, as it was
in the ark of Noah's day, in the house sprinkled with blood,
as it was in the city of refuge for that manslayer, or as it
was with the mariners on the ship in Jonah's day, Or as it
was in that man who was sick in Job chapter 33, and God found
a ransom and therefore gave commandment to save that guilty sinner. And
he said, deliver him from going down to the pit. I have found
a ransom. This is the commandment of God,
Psalm 71.3, Thou hast given commandment to save me. And John 12, verse
50, the Lord Jesus Christ said, and His commandment, my Father's
commandment, is life everlasting. And this is the commandment the
Lord Jesus communicates to us by His command to save us. And
He did so. He saves us and gives us everlasting
life because of His own blood. So how do I get into Christ?
How can I be a beneficiary of this commandment of God to save
a guilty sinner who was under the sentence of death and dying
under the wrath of God and the Lord found a ransom in Christ?
How can it be? 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse
30. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus. It's of God. We cannot get ourselves
into Christ. But, even though it's of God,
what does God tell us to do? The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
tells us what to do. He says, look unto me, and be
ye saved, all the ends of the earth. Look at Isaiah chapter
45. Oh, guilty sinner, and helpless too, and hopeless in yourself. What does God tell us to do?
Look upon the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him, there is an everlasting
salvation. Look at this in Isaiah, Isaiah
45 and verse 5. I'm going to read, I am the Lord,
there is none else, there is none beside me. When I was an
engineer, most of my time was spent measuring things. And the
only way you knew what something truly was, how big or how heavy,
or what frequency it was operating at, or whatever it was you were
trying to interest it in, was to measure it. But to measure
something meant really just to compare it to something else
that you understood, that you knew about. It was a known quantity. And we do that, don't we? You
want to see how long a piece of cloth is? You pull out a yardstick. You know how long the yardstick
is. If you want to know how fast something is running, you get
a stopwatch that has a known time. And that's the way measurements
are. You always compare an unknown
to a known. And here the Lord says, there's
none beside me. There is none holy but God. You cannot compare Him to anyone. Justice is what God thinks. Righteousness
is what God does. Holiness is who He is. And there's
none beside him, no reference to compare God to. And so he
says, there's no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun and
from the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and
there is none else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. And what are we going to say
to that? God is holy. God is holy. God is holy in all
that he does. Righteous in all that he does.
His thoughts are the reference. His work is the reference for
all truth and grace and justice. Now listen, verse 8, drop down
you heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness. This is amazing. He who creates
all things is now of his own initiative by his own holiness
creating righteousness. Let the earth open and let them
bring forth salvation and let righteousness spring up together.
I the Lord have created it. Look at verse 17. But Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Where are they saved? In the
Lord. You see, in the Lord. Look at verse 21. Tell ye, and
bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together, who has
declared this from ancient time. Gather all the idols, all the
gods of men, And ask them this, who has declared this from ancient
time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there
is no God else beside me? And what is it that God is asking
them to tell? How can you justify a sinner?
He says, but I've said it, a just God and a Savior. There is none
beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.
This is a quotation taken and put in Romans chapter 14. The
Lord Jesus Christ speaks these words there. He says, I am God.
He says, verse 23, I have sworn by myself the word has gone out
of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto
me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear. The Lord
God, our Savior, sits on the throne of judgment. He himself
is God over all, Jehovah God. One with the Father and with
the Son, and it is He Himself who by His wisdom and His blood
has justified His people. Look at verse 24. Surely shall
one say... Any believer says this. Every
believer says this. Here's what we say. In the Lord
have I righteousness and strength. Not in me. In the Lord have I
righteousness and strength. Even to Him shall men come. And
all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. All who
oppose Christ, who rebel, who will not submit to His righteousness,
they will be brought to shame. Verse 25. In the Lord shall all
the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. They're going
to say, He created this righteousness. It's an everlasting salvation
in the Lord. And His righteousness is mine.
Their righteousness is of me. So you see this. How God has
put us into Christ. That's the only way we get there.
And He tells us what to do. Look to Him. Look to Him. Don't
look upon your own obedience. To look upon your own obedience
is disobedience. To look upon Christ's obedience
and trust Him is the obedience of faith. So the disciples are
exhorted to get into the ship. The Lord Jesus Christ is at ship.
Now the word constrained here in Matthew 14.22 is a very strong
word. He says in verse 22, straightway
Jesus constrained his disciples to get into the ship. It's a
very strong word. It put a necessity upon the disciples to get into
the ship. He compelled them with words
to get into the ship. He made them get into the ship. It's very strong. He would not
allow them to do otherwise. And guess what they did? They
were gladly obedient to Him. We're going to get in the ship.
And that's the way it is with us, isn't it? In this interaction,
this interaction between Christ and His disciples, we see our
salvation. He constrains us. He says to
us, I am the way, the truth, and the life. and His people
are not disobedient to His command. We like to obey that command,
don't we? To trust Him with everything
in our salvation. We find, like the multitude who
came to Jesus, sick and hungry, we find all sufficiency in our
Savior. We do not seek righteousness
in our works. We're convinced by the Spirit
of God that we're sinners, that He has fulfilled all righteousness
for us and has judged our enemies in His death. And so we obey
in faith, God-given faith. We believe His word, we look
to Him, and we receive Him. And so receiving, we have everlasting
life. We have said to our seal that
God is true because we received God's testimony concerning His
Son. This is amazing. The Spirit of
God, the Spirit of Christ, constrains us by convincing us that Christ
and Him crucified is the whole truth. This is it. This is everything
about the way things are between me and God. We are tempted to
look to see how we're living. Tempted to see if we're living
as a good Christian. And from that, examination of
our own performance to gain some confidence or assurance or strength. But you won't find assurance,
or confidence, or strength, or joy there. You won't find salvation
there. You'll only find it one place,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Get into the ship. Look to Christ.
And so, in looking, you'll find God has put you in Christ, and
He has made Him to you all of your righteousness and strength. Look at verse 23 of Matthew 14. It says, 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. Now think about
this. Here the Lord Jesus Christ is
by himself praying. I wonder what he was praying.
I wonder what his prayers were. Who were they for? What was he
praying about? Who was he praying to? We know
the answer to these questions, don't we? How do we know? Because He's the One, it says
in Romans 8, who makes intercession for us. The Lord Jesus Christ
makes intercession for His people. You see, there were two main
things that the mediator was appointed to do. The first one
was to make reconciliation for our sins. The second one was
to intercede for us, to God. To make intercession means to
pray, to interpose himself between us and God and to plead his own
obedience and his own blood for us. Remember Moses in Exodus
32 when the people had commissioned Aaron to make them a calf And
they gave Aaron their gold earrings and other pieces of gold. And
he made this calf in the fire. And he told them, these be your
gods, O Israel. And they were worshiping this
idle calf. God tells Moses, go down the
mountain. Your people, who you brought
up out of Egypt, have defiled themselves, have corrupted themselves.
See what they've done? And so Moses goes down, he finds
that they've committed idolatry and spiritual adultery in worshiping
this calf. And he knows that God is going
to destroy them. And what does Moses do? He pleads
to God for them. And he asks God to forgive them.
And he asks God, if he doesn't forgive them, then blot me, I
pray thee, out of thy book. Moses made intercession to God
for the people. And he did so as a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the reason God appointed
Christ to be our mediator, to intercede for us. To intercede
for us in heaven, for his people. And you think about the intercession
of Christ, and it's quite amazing. Here the Lord is praying at night
for his disciples while they're in the ship. He tells them to
get into the ship. They're crossing the sea, they're
laboring against the storm, and He's praying for them. What does
this teach us? That in all that God has given
us to do, and all that Christ has told us to do, in looking
to Him, in trusting Him, that in Him we have all of our righteousness
and strength, that we rejoice in Him before God with exceeding
great joy, because God has received us for His sake, because God
looks upon Him for us. All these things, in living this
way, We find opposition in our lives. And this opposition comes
from many different places, doesn't it? But in the midst of all this
trouble, where is the Lord Jesus? He's interceding for his people.
Remember what he told Peter? He said, you're going to deny
me three times before the cock crows. Before morning, before
the cock crows in the morning, three times you're going to deny
me. And then what does Jesus say? But I have prayed for your
faith. Already, Satan, he said, has
desired to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for your faith.
Already before the request of Satan came in to the court of
heaven, Christ had prayed for Peter's faith. And before the
world was created, the Lord Jesus Christ stood as our mediator,
and he was already as the Son of God, interceding for us. How do we know that? Well, we
just read in Job 33, deliver him from going down to the pit.
I found a ransom. Isn't the Lord Jesus Christ,
wasn't He ordained before the foundation of the world for us?
1 Peter 1.20. Wasn't He the Lamb slain in God's
purpose for those whose names were written in the Lamb's Book
of Life? Revelation 13.8. Obviously it was to make peace,
Colossians 1.21, by his blood with God for us. And obviously
that peace was determined in God's covenant of peace, Ezekiel
37. So we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ, in offering himself to God willingly, and pleading for
his people, even before the world was created, was pleading for
them as they were in themselves, fallen, in God's consideration
of them. And in this covenant, God already,
before He ever created His people, had set Christ up as Christ as
their mediator for them. And He was already there interceding
for His people. And then in time, He came. He
says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And
in John 17, He pleads for them. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them whom God has given me. And then here
we see the Lord Jesus Christ, while he was on earth, going
up into the mountain, praying as his disciples were sent away
in the ship. He tells us to get in to Christ.
He tells us to look to Christ. And we're to pursue the will,
the work that he's given to us in preaching the gospel against
all the opposition of the flood of ungodly men and our own sins. And he says, in the meantime,
I'm up in the mountain praying. In heaven now, the Lord Jesus
Christ sits at the right hand of God, making intercession for
us. It says in Hebrews 7.25, He ever liveth to make intercession
for us. Look at that with me. I want
you to note the way the words are there. So strong. Hebrews
7.25. Let me go back to verse 19. For the law, the law of Moses,
made nothing perfect. Nothing was made perfect under
the law, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the
which we draw nigh unto God. The better hope is the new covenant
in Christ's blood. Verse 20. And inasmuch as not
without an oath, he was made priest. The Lord Jesus Christ
was not made priest without an oath. God swore that he would
make him priest. Verse 21. For those priests were
made without an oath, but this Lord Jesus, with an oath by him
that said to him, The Lord swear and will not repent, thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now that was
spoken back in Psalm 110. Known unto God are all his works
from the foundation of the world, right? So this Scripture recorded
it in Psalm 110. It had already been spoken in
eternity. Thou art a priest forever. By
so much, by this oath and by God's swearing to him, by so
much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. A testament
that didn't depend on men, that depended upon one man, Christ. Verse 23. And they truly, those
Old Testament priests, they truly were many priests, because they
were not suffered to continue by reason of death. Had to have
a lot of them. One would die, I'd have a new priest. But this
man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. All the way from the beginning,
before time began, his priesthood has been unchanged. Verse 25.
Wherefore, He is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, get into the ship, come to Christ, seeing
he ever liveth. What is the purpose for which
God anointed him to be Christ? Wasn't it to save his people
from their sins? Why would he even be the anointed
of God were it not that he was appointed by God to save his
people from their sins? There would be no Christ if there
were not a people that the Lord had chosen in him to save. And
so he says, he ever liveth for this purpose. to make intercession
for them. There's never a time when Christ
will cease making intercession to God with himself before God,
pointing to himself for them, and making that intercession
that God would receive them for what he finds in him. It's so
significant here. that when Jesus went up into
a mountain to pray, it teaches us that he rose from the dead,
sent his disciples to preach the gospel throughout the world,
he ascended to heaven, and then he sat down on the right hand
of God and on his throne, ruling heaven and earth on behalf of
his people and throughout this New Testament age as they strive
to fulfill the will of God against all the opposition of this unbelieving
world. He's praying for them. amazing. The Lord Jesus hung on the cross
and next to him were two thieves and one of those thieves, it
seemed as if he was the only one at the cross who saw in Jesus
the crucified Christ, the Son of God, the Lord of Glory, the
King of Glory. He was the only one, it seemed,
who saw Him that way. And in our world today, when
you look around, it doesn't seem like there's anyone ruling over
it all. It seems like a complete mess. It seems like a steady decline,
an exponential decline. into darkness and despair, doesn't
it? But as the thief, every believer
says, the Lord Jesus Christ on his throne at the right hand
of God making intercession for us. He told us to get into the
ship and that's where we're going to stay and there we will be
brought to the other side. Be comforted. I am. Fear not. Those were his words.
And so in verse 24 of Matthew 14. It says, The ship was now
in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was
contrary. Now, first of all, see this. Why would the Lord Jesus send
them in the ship when he knew that there was going to be this
storm? Isn't it God's will to keep us from trouble? So that
we don't have trouble? We're always praying, Lord, deliver
us from this, deliver us from that. But that's not God's way,
is it? God is pleased to glorify himself
in delivering us by faith in Christ through our trouble. Remember
Lazarus? He got sick. Martha and Mary
sent to Jesus. He whom thou lovest is sick.
And Jesus said, this is for the glory of God. He isn't dead,
he sleeps. But his death will be for the
glory of God. And it was, for that the Son of God might be
glorified. And so it is in all of our trouble. Look at 2 Corinthians
1. Why does trouble come then? Well,
that the Son of God might be glorified. What does it do for
us? It seems like we're always under
the burden of these everyday life, and the opposition of the
world, and Satan's kingdom, and our own sinful nature, our own
sins rise up against us. What is the whole point in this?
2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 9. We had the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in
God, which raises the dead. Isn't that it? This is why trouble
comes. So that even though we have in
ourselves a sentence of death, in our body it's going to die.
Our body is dead because of sins. Trouble comes. Our body grows
weaker. Our mind grows weaker. We feel
perplexed, yet we're not in despair. We're cast down, but not forsaken. All these things come upon us
to teach us not to trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the
dead. We know that though this body perish, Christ will be magnified
in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me to
live is Christ, and to die is gain." And so he says in verse
10, "...who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver
in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us." At the cross
he delivered us. And it was always His eternal
will to deliver us. In time, though we experience
the storms of life in Christ, He will deliver us. And we trust
that He will yet deliver us. And He will save us, both in
our body and our soul, for all eternity. So that's the first
thing. But in Scripture, the floods
and waves often signify wicked men. It says in Isaiah 57.20,
the wicked are like the troubled sea. And in Psalm 18, verse 4,
it says, "...the sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods
of ungodly men made me afraid." And then again in Psalm 124,
verse 2, it says, "...if it had not been the Lord who was on
our side when men rose up against us, they had swallowed us up
quick when their wrath was kindled against us." So, in Scripture,
the sea One of the things it signifies is this flood of ungodly
men who are in subjection to Satan in his kingdom, who oppose
Christ, oppose his gospel, oppose the salvation of his people.
And this is always going to be there throughout time. But what's
going to happen? The Lord is going to raise up
a standard against them. Look at Revelation chapter 12.
The book of Revelation recounts the redemptive history and the
certain salvation of God's people by the victory of Christ over
all of their enemies. And this is repeated throughout
the book of Revelation. And here's one example of that
in Revelation chapter 12. Look at this in verse 1. I'll
just read through this quickly. And there appeared a great wonder
in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, Who is the woman? It's the church. What is her
clothing? It's the righteousness of Christ, who is the son of
righteousness, that rises with healing in his wings. And the
moon under her feet, because as the moon reflects the sun,
so the church reflects the gospel, which is Christ as the sun shining
into her heart, and she preaches the gospel. And upon her head
a crown of twelve stars, and she, being with child, cried,
travailing in birth, in pain to be delivered. What was the
man-child that was born to the people of God, the church? It
was the Lord Jesus. And there appeared another wonder
in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads
and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head. This would be
Satan. And his tail drew the third part
of the stars of heaven, and it cast them to the earth. And the
dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered,
when she was about to give birth to Christ. For to devour her
child as soon as it was born, What happened? She brought forth
a man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and
her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. That would
have been the resurrection and the ascension of Christ. And
the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared
of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred
and three scored days, twelve hundred and sixty days, which
represents all the time since the ascension of Christ until
the end of time. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his
angels fought against the dragon. Michael, in this case, is the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the archangel, the one who is like
God. That's what the name Michael
means. He fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought,
and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place
found any more in heaven for the devil. And the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him. Jesus told his disciples
when they went forth preaching the gospel, he said, Behold,
I saw Satan fall from heaven as lightning. Verse 10, now here
we see the persecution and the salvation. And I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength in
the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the
accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before
our God day and night. And they, those who were accused,
who were the Lord's people, they overcame him, how? By the blood
of the Lamb. Christ overcame our enemies.
And by the word of their testimony, which is the gospel. That's our
testimony, isn't it? That's our hope of glory. And
they loved not their lives, even unto death, for me to live is
Christ, to die is gain. Isn't that it? Christ is our
life. Therefore rejoice, you heavens,
and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the
earth and to the sea, for the devil has come down unto you,
having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short
time." You see, in the commissioning of his disciples to go to the
other side, the storm came. Not surprising. God uses troubles
in order to teach us not to trust in ourselves, but in God who
raises the dead. He will gain the victory over
all of our enemies, and every device of the enemy against us
will be turned as a servant of Christ to bring us to himself
and to magnify his saving work in our lives. There will be a
victory, because the Lord Jesus Christ already sits in heaven.
He's already overcome, and so we see this here. Herod beheaded
John. Jesus took his disciples to a
desert place. All these sick multitudes came
to him and he healed them and he fed them. And then he constrained
his disciples to get into the ship and cross the storm-tossed
sea. And so the Lord, even today,
is with his church as we bring the gospel. He intercedes for
us. Success is certain. Our salvation
is sure. He's given commandment to save
us. And he's pointing us to himself as our high priest and intercessor.
Now, the sea also signifies the judgment of God. Remember in
Jonah chapter 1, God sent the great wind. And Jonah and the
mariners would have been destroyed, but God saved them from that
because the Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins and endured the
wrath of God. Consider this also from Psalm
97. It says there that the Lord preserves
the soul of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand
of the wicked. Now, what is your greatest enemy?
I don't know about you, but I know that my greatest enemy is my
own sinful nature, my own sins. But what did Paul cry? Oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall save me? Who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Isn't that it? He points us to
Christ. Get in the ship. Look to Him.
Salvation is sure in Christ. It's accomplished. And so we
see that even though our sins prevail against us and our transgressions,
the Lord is going to purge them away. Psalm 65 verse 3. And we
know that He has buried our sins in the depths of the sea. In
scripture it says, the prayer of God's people is, let the snare
that they intended for the righteous be the trap in which they are
caught. Our sins are like our enemy intent
on bringing us to death. How does it say in Romans 5.21,
as sin has reigned unto death, Sin reigned like a tyrant, unchallenged,
until the Lord Jesus Christ came. Even so, through the righteousness
of Christ, grace reigns through His righteousness unto eternal
life. And so sin shall not have dominion over us, because Christ
reigns. Now, it was in the fourth watch
of the night, in verse 25 of Matthew 14, that Jesus came to
them on the sea. The darkest hour. The latest
hour. And isn't this the way our lives
seem to be? When we're at our weakest, when we have no strength,
then faith is its strongest. Because we look away from ourselves,
we find nothing in ourselves. And when the gospel is preached
to us by the grace of God, we realize that yes, our salvation
is in Christ. In the darkest hour, when we
have no strength, That's when the Lord saves us. If when we
were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by His life?
It's in the darkest hour, and Jesus came walking on the sea.
His complete rule over our enemies and our sins. It's amazing, isn't
it? He tells us when He comes on
the sea, the disciples saw Him and they were afraid. Because
by nature, we think our sins are going to swallow us up. God's
going to destroy us. We're going to fail. Our life
is going to be a total wreck. We keep the same sins, seem to
be always against us. We're so prone to fall. Prone to fall. We wonder, how
can we be saved? And all these things, though
they're against us, God lifts up the Lord Jesus. Look to Him.
Get in the ship. It's amazing. I want you to consider
just this last thing here. Look at what Peter does here.
They were afraid. He tells them, be comforted,
I am. Fear not. Verse 28. Peter answered
him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee in
the water. Now Peter wasn't presuming. Oh, it's Jesus. I can just jump
out of the water here. He's going to catch me. He's
going to hold me up. He said, Lord, if it's you, command me
to come to you on the water. Lord, if you have been gracious
to me, if you truly are the Son of God, as I trust you are, as
you've said in your word, then command my salvation over all
my enemies and call me to yourself. Isn't that what he's saying here?
So the Lord Jesus said, come. There's the command. Come. Come
to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. Him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. He is able to save to the
uttermost all who come to God by him. Come, come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Here
he is, walking, actually walking on the water. But when he saw
the wind, boisterous, he was afraid. As we are in this life,
living by faith, what do we find? Unbelief and doubt and failure.
What are we to do? Oh, I'm such a sinner. I'm just
going to forget the whole thing. I can never be saved. My sins
are too great. No. It says, He cried, Lord, save
me. Salvation has to come from the
outside, doesn't it? It has to come from Christ. And
immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand. And I love to think
about this. The arm of the Lord Jesus lifting this strong fisherman
right up out of the water. Because He lifted him with the
omnipotence of God. Out of the floods of ungodly
men. The floods of our sin and our sinful nature. The floods
of the kingdom of Satan. And He overruled them all. I
have overcome the world. He's overcome all of our enemies.
And you can imagine that when he was lifting Peter up, what
do you think Peter was doing? Just laying there like a limp
rag? I bet he was grabbing hold of Jesus with everything he had.
Holding on to Him. And that's what we do, isn't
it? We cling to Him who holds us up. Isn't that what faith
does? We look again to Him who called us to Himself. And He
asked him, wherefore didst thou doubt? Is there any reason you
should doubt me? That my power is able to save
you to the uttermost? Why would you doubt? Only if
you trusted something about yourself, or that you feared that the enemy,
your sins, or Satan, or the ungodliness of this world, was bigger and
greater than Christ. Why would you doubt? And then
it says in verse 32, when they were coming to the ship, the
wind ceased. As soon as Jesus entered the
ship, They were there in the ship with him and the wind stopped.
It was all calm. When Christ revealed himself
to be their salvation in our souls, there's a perfect peace
because we trust him, isn't there? And faith is the substance, the
present possession, the reality now of things hoped for, expected. It's the evidence now of things
not seen. And so they had what they believed
when Christ came to them. And what did they do? Verse 33. They that were in the ship came
and worshipped him. saying of a truth, Thou art the
Son of God. Think of the majesty the Son
of God has in himself, the one by whose word heaven and earth
were created, and by whose word all is upheld, and by whose rebuke
Satan must stand down, and every accuser has to be silent before
him. and hear the fullness of the
Godhead dwelling in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
these men see Him, the majesty of God, in a man, their mediator,
to save them from all their enemies. And they worshipped Him. Just
like Thomas. He said, My Lord and my God.
Let's pray. Lord, we thank You that You are
the Savior of Your people, that You have saved them by Your own
work on the cross, your obedience unto death, your shed blood,
your righteousness, your power now in heaven, with authority
over all things in heaven and earth, even by your intercession
for them from eternity and in time and for eternity as our
High Priest. Truly this is a better covenant,
this is a better hope. And we see the Lord Jesus as
our surety. What amazing grace that you would
save us who had offended you, and do so at the death of your
own son. And we pray, Lord, that it would be to your glory we
would not trust in ourselves, but the Son of God would be glorified
in our salvation, because he's worthy. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.