You want to turn in your Bible
to Romans chapter 5. I'm going to read first for a
moment Romans 5 because it goes along with our sermon. And then
I will read to you from the Gospels. Romans chapter 5. This is one
of those key scriptures that you should have ever present
in your mind. Romans chapter 5. It's central
to our confidence in Christ, the basis of our coming. Let's
read this together from Romans chapter 5, verse 1. We'll read
through the first 11 verses here, and then we'll ask the Lord to
be with us in this sermon. Romans 5. based on everything that had
come before, and you can read that in your own time, being
justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom also, by our Lord Jesus Christ, we have access
by faith into this grace wherein we stand. and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. And not only, but we glory in
tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience. Patience means a happy, enduring,
joyful endurance. And patience, experience, which
means approving in our own experience what God has said to be true.
And experience hope, a confident expectation for the future. 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." That's
a key statement in this text of Scripture. The love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us. How? Well, the verses that follow
tell us exactly how. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life. And not only, not only all this,
but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
we have now received the atonement. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that
you would bless us from your word today. Teach us your revealed
will. Teach us we can trust you for
all of your will, even that part we don't see in our lives. Help us to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ and trust him only. We ask, Lord, that you'd be with
us now in your word and teach us in our hearts the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In his name we pray,
amen. Now, if you would please turn
to Matthew chapter 8. We're going to read the same
account in all three of the Gospels. Matthew chapter 8, continuing
our series there. In Matthew 8 verse 23, we'll
read from 23 to 27. It says there, "...and when he,
Jesus, was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him."
If you read, we're going to read the other accounts, actually
Jesus was already in the ship, teaching the people in the ship,
and they decided, he decided to, after, at the end of their
teaching, to go to the other side. So it says, "...when he
was entered into the 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 to 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? Now turn with me to Luke chapter
8. It's also in the same chapter 8 of Luke. Very similar in Luke
as it is here in Matthew. Luke chapter 8, verse 22. Now
it came to pass on a certain day that he went into a ship
with his disciples, and he said to 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 to 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 the water, and they obey him." And now finally
in Mark. Mark's account is in chapter
4 of Mark. A lot of what Mark says in his
gospel is more compactly stated in a more compact fashion,
but here we actually get a fuller picture of this account, so I'll
probably be focusing most of our interest, our attention on
Mark chapter 4. He says here, beginning at verse
35, And the same day, when the even
was come, he saith to them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the
multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there
was also with him other little ships, and there arose a great
storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it
was now full. And he was in the hinder part
of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him, and say unto
him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose,
and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Peace, be still.
And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said
to them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly,
and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even
the wind and the sea obey him? Now, I wonder often as I look
at this, I was actually intending to go through this. this account
here, and also the man who was possessed of devils, because
I thought there was not that much here. But as I began to
look at this, I realized how much truth there is in this one
little account of the Lord. And so I wonder that we should
always read a text of Scripture as if it were the only word that
we had from God. I don't mean we should ignore
other Scripture passages, but that we should compare one with
another. But each text of Scripture, I
think we should approach it as if that's the only thing we had
from God. And think about it. Let it turn
over and over in our mind, waiting for God to open to us the good
news. It says in Proverbs 25, 25, "...as
cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."
And that's the gospel to the sinner who needs his thirst of
soul quenched by the good news of what Jesus has done for him.
And so when we read the Bible, when we read anything small like
this, we don't have to read a lot of scripture. But we do need
to think a lot about scripture that we do read. And so we ought
to treasure it up and turn it over in our minds as if it's
the only thing we have. Remember what we read in the
early parts of Matthew? The centurion said to Jesus,
these short phrases, speak the word only. What a deep truth
there is only in just those words. And then the leper said, if you
will, you can make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand
and touched him saying, I will be thou clean. We could read
those and think on those and draw from them such great gospel
truth to our souls that is worth spending time thinking carefully
about what God says. So the second thing I see in
the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is that the greatest
proportion of the accounts given in these Gospels are actually
personal interactions between the Lord Jesus Christ and people,
individuals. He heals. He gives sight to the
blind eyes, unstops mute tongues, opens deaf ears, raises the dead,
casts devils out from tormented, tortured, possessed men and women
and children. He forgives sins. He calls disciples,
silences and shames his enemies with the truth. And He does all
this with these individual accounts. He speaks to men and women, and
they often come to Him and speak and ask Him for great things
that only God can give. And so we find the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Gospels with people because He came to save us as
individuals. And so when we read the Scripture,
read the Bible as if God has a message for you. not for others. Sure, it's for all men and women
to pay attention to, but don't think about others when you read
the Bible. Think about God speaking to you. The Lord Jesus Christ
came and He spoke to people, individuals. So I see that first
of all here. Now, it says here that the disciples,
in Matthew chapter 8, Matthew's version of this, it says that
the disciples followed Jesus into the boat. They followed
Him into the ship, into the sea. They followed Him in His purpose.
What was His purpose? It was to go to the other side.
Why was He going to the other side? You find this in Matthew
8, 23. They followed Him into the ship. Well, When we read in all of the Gospels,
what follows this account is that he gets to the other side
of the sea, to the land of the Gergesenes, or the Gennesarets,
whichever version you read. And there are two men, or at
least two men there. One man he speaks to in Mark
and Luke, but here in Matthew there's two. And he meets him
and he casts the devils out of this man. So he had a purpose
in going to the other side of the sea. And he revealed that
purpose to his disciples. But in revealing that purpose
to them, He did not reveal the other thing He had in mind, which
was to go into the sea, where there would be a great storm
that would rise, and they would find themselves in danger of
losing their lives, and they would find Him asleep in the
middle of that storm. And so we learned something very
important from Scripture and in our lives. First is this. That what God reveals to us in
the gospel is what we are to hold up to our faith and look
at, and wait for, and pray about, and all the things that God would
teach us from His word. The objective revealed truth
is what God holds up to our faith. But in that, He also holds up
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our triune God who saves
us. And He has another will. It's
the same will, but He only reveals part of it to us. And that other
will, that other part of His will, is not revealed to us.
And it wasn't revealed to these men. Which was to go into the
sea, where there would be a storm. And in the storm they would fear
for their lives, be in great danger. And He doesn't reveal
that to them. But they followed Him. They followed
Him because He was their Master. And it was in following Him that
they learned again to trust Him. To trust Him for the things that
they didn't know. Trusting Him in the things that
He had revealed to them. Especially looking to Him in
His person and in His work. Now, while men are lost, while
they're unaware of the gospel, when they're in a state of unregeneracy
before God gives them faith and life in Christ, when we're the
enemies of God in our mind, we have no need of Christ. And so
we see no need in Him that's met. We see no supply, no provision,
no beauty in Christ. Because we have no need for Him.
When the disciples get into the boat, there was no storm. It was calm. They sail on, Jesus
falls asleep, everything's fine. But as soon as the storm arises,
suddenly they have a deep need. And then they cry to the Lord.
In Matthew's account they say, Lord save us, we perish. They
really thought they were going to die. at least die. Now, in this account, the other
thing you see is that the Lord rebukes not only the sea and
the wind, but He gives them a word of chastisement for their lack
of faith, their unbelief. Now, in scripture, unbelief is
a disobedience. It says in Romans 10, verse 16,
They have not all obeyed the truth. For Isaiah says, Who hath
believed our report? So faith is obedience, but unbelief
is disobedience. Who has believed our report?
That was the cry of Isaiah from Isaiah 53-1. And he says, they
haven't obeyed the truth. That was the disobedience. The
interesting thing in scripture is that unbelief is not just
something we're born with and it's not our fault. God says
that unbelief is our fault. It's a disobedience. But here's
the interesting thing, the grace of God. Faith is obedience, but
faith is only credited to the gift of God. We are responsible
and guilty for our unbelief. God is responsible and credited
to be credited for our faith. So because that's the case, we
need to come, like the disciples, to the Lord Jesus Christ, asking
Him for faith in Himself. Asking Him to reveal to us His
Gospel, that we might hold Him up in the eyes of our faith.
God would persuade us of the truth, and in doing so, we would
be able to walk in faith in this life. So we see that there was
a purpose that Christ revealed to his disciples, and there was
a purpose that he did not reveal to them, and that's what I wanted
to look at here in this account. Look with me in Mark's account,
Mark chapter 4, because that, I think, is where I was able
to get the greatest insight into what actually took place here.
When you read Matthew's account, it looks as if the disciples
are crying out Lord, save us, we perish. And their plea is
genuine. They're just at their wits end,
and they're about to die. They think they're going to die.
These are experienced fishermen. They see that this is bad. It
says that the ship was full of water. The waves beat down on
it. It was a real danger. They were
in real danger of losing their lives. And so they cry, Lord,
save us, we perish. But in Mark's account, it gives
us more insight into their attitude. And we see why Jesus rebukes
them for their unbelief. Look at verse 38 of Mark chapter
4. He says there, And he was in
the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow, and they
awake him, and they say unto him, Master, carest thou not
that we perish? You see, in this account, they
didn't think that Jesus was even paying attention. He went to
sleep. The storm was raging, and He's
sleeping. And this is really the, I think
the, if we can understand this, I think we'll see and appreciate
the lesson that God is teaching us from this text of scripture.
Carest thou not that we perish? What is that? What is that? That's an accusation from the
disciples to the Lord. Don't you even care that we're
dying? Now, we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ cares for His own. But still, in this passage, we
see what trouble does to us. The storm came quickly upon them,
and it was a real danger. But when they saw the storm,
and knew their danger, they expected that Jesus was going to do something.
But here He is sleeping. Sleeping. In the storm, Silent,
doesn't seem to be responding, doesn't seem to be concerned.
Now, we know the Lord Jesus understood and knew that the storm was coming.
He's the one who upholds all things by the word of His power.
He created the world. He created it by Himself, for
Himself, to His glory. And so He commands the winds
and the waves. They are His servants. He knew
what was going here. But as a man, He enters into
the ship knowing it was His Father's will that He go to the other
side. His Father's will that He lay down His life for His
people, save His people. And it was His Father's will
that these chosen disciples would take His word after He ascended
to heaven and go into all the world and preach this gospel.
He had no doubt God was going to fulfill His ultimate will. And yet, He knew the storm was
coming. And He designed the storm to
try the faith of His disciples. And in the midst of that storm,
in the midst of what they didn't understand, Jesus hadn't told
them, there's a storm coming, the boat's going to look like
it's going to drown, but I'm going to save you from it. He
didn't tell them that. And so they're looking at Him,
and all they can see is the events visible to their eyes at that
point. And so they cry, Lord, you're
not talking to us? You're not even awake? What are
you doing, unconcerned, sleeping? And isn't this exactly what we
experience in our lives? It seems like that when we believe
the gospel, and yet we live in our day-to-day lives, going to
work, with our families, and thinking about the things of
life, marriage, and finances, and jobs, and all these things,
and we pray, maybe, towards a certain end, and it doesn't seem like
the Lord even hears us. It doesn't seem like our circumstances
necessarily change. We just go on in our lives. And
it's like the disciples, Lord, aren't you even listening? Don't
you even care? And sickness comes. And you know
how the laws of nature God has designed. He upholds all things
by the word of His power. God doesn't just set the world
in motion. He doesn't just command and the
world starts and then He just starts it up like a big machine
and gets it going and then lets it go. Everything, gravity, all
of the electromagnetic laws of physics that we're familiar with,
communication, light. audible sounds, all these things
that men study and marvel at, the movement of the planets,
air that we breathe, biological functions, God Himself at all
times is actively upholding these laws. But in so doing, we see
that all of these laws are indiscriminate. They're no respecter of persons.
If a baby gets close to the cliff, and a murderer gets close to
the cliff, the same laws of gravity control both of their lives. And it's God that does that.
The flames will consume the martyr just as quickly as it will consume
the murderer. And so the sea is there and it
will drown the disciples just as well as it would drown any
man, whether he be good or bad. Job's friends accused, they said
to him his illness and his trouble and all that came upon him was
because of some special sin. But it wasn't. It was for God's
purpose. The disciples asked the blind
man, about the blind man in John 9, was his illness because of
his parents' sin or his own sin? For neither. It was to the glory
of God. And all these things teach us
that even though we don't see in our lives, a revelation of
what our lives are going to be. And even though we don't see
God's hand fulfilling our prayers necessarily in healing us, in
giving us what we ask for, whatever it is that concerns us, even
victory over sin or the salvation of our loved ones. When we don't
see these things, we often can think what the disciples thought
here. Don't you care that we perish? That's the first thing,
is that these things try our faith, don't they? We are left
with the naked Word of God and the gift of faith in Christ,
and this one object of our faith that God loved His own, gave
His Son, and Christ gave His life for His own to save them
from sin. And that is the mainstay. That's what we stand on. That's
how we access God. That's how we live our lives
and worship God. And that's our hope, that because
God has given us His Son, reconciled us when we were His enemies,
that all through the troubles and tribulations of life, we
actually see God's hand building up our faith, trying our faith.
and giving us these trials of life that we might grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Read God's Word,
study it, meditate on it, see what God has done in Christ,
and let that be the object of your faith as you experience
all of the difficulties of life. And in those difficulties, Come
to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him who died for you, and say,
Lord, save us. We know that You can. We know
that You will ultimately deliver us from all of our enemies and
all of our sicknesses and even death itself. Save us, Lord. In ourselves, we're nothing,
but we know that in You, You can save us. And so we see that.
And I think also, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Master. He's both God and man. And yet
He grew tired. He grew tired and He slept. But
did He change? Was He no longer God while He
was sleeping in His humanity? He's still the Lord, isn't He?
But the disciples were immature in their faith here. They didn't
clearly understand at this point what they would learn even later
as their faith would get clarification and grow in strength. Here they
didn't understand that the Lord of Glory is still the One who
upholds the universe even while He sleeps. And so they had no
danger, really, even though danger was real. They weren't really
in danger of perishing. Not against the will of God.
His will would be in it all. So, I think that one of the things
we see here is that the Lord Jesus Christ is does care for
his people even though it seems sometimes that we don't think
he does. Remember the account of the widow? We talked about this a couple
of weeks ago in 1st Kings 17. The widow woman was in Sarepta. And God sent Elijah the prophet
to her. In sending Elijah, it was the
midst of a drought. There was no water for three
and a half years. God sent Elijah to this widow
woman in the land of Sidon, to a city of Sarepta. And Elijah
tells her to give him something to eat. She doesn't have anything. She obeys his word. And God,
through Elijah, makes sure that the meal in the barrel and the
oil in the cruise never run out. He and the woman and her son
live on this meal and oil all during the drought. And yet,
in the middle of that, when God had promised that the oil would
not run out and the meal would not run out, her son gets sick
and dies. And she says, look with me at
this account, 1 Kings chapter 17. Because it's the same thing
throughout scripture, we see it over and over. God gives a
word, and His word is true, it can't fail. And yet, there's
something that seems to go against that word in our experience.
He says in 1 Kings chapter 17, Verse 14, I'll pick it up in
the middle. He says, For thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise
of oil fail until the day that the Lord sent rain upon the earth.
And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and
she and he and her house did eat many days. And the barrel
of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail, according
to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. And it came
to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress
of the house, fell sick. And his sickness was so sore
that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah,
What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come
unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? She was a
widow. She had nothing but her son,
and it was her only son. And he said to her, and notice
her unbelief, What do I have to do with you? This is the God
who was feeding her. She was going to die until Elijah
was sent to her. And yet she loses her son and
she says, Have you come here to bring my sin to remembrance? Don't we think that sometimes?
Don't we think that God sends trouble to bring our sin to remembrance? and to bring on us the consequences
of our sin? Isn't that what we sometimes
think in our trouble? It must be because of all that
I've done, I deserve this. We'll look at this in a minute,
but here, the woman thinks that the whole account here of her
son dying was to bring her sins to remembrance. And Elijah said
to her, give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom
and carried the boy up into a loft where he abode and laid him on
his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord, this
is Elijah, a man of like passions like we are. He cried unto the
Lord and he said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon
the widow with which I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched
himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord,
and said, O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come
into him again. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and
he revived. And Elijah took the child, and
brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered
him to his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son
liveth. And the woman said to Elijah,
Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the
word of the Lord is in thy mouth, and is his truth. You see what
God did here? Here was a circumstance. She
had no idea it was coming. There was no word from Elijah.
Elijah himself didn't know it was going to happen, but it was
God's will. And in this circumstance, God
is going to give to this woman something she could never have
had, had he not done this. He's going to teach her, first
of all, that even though she thought by the death of her son
her sins would be brought to remembrance, through the resurrection
of her son, Therefore God must have justified her because she
received her son back from the dead. And this is exactly what
all of scripture is meant to teach us in all of the circumstances
of our life. That God in Christ has laid our
sin on His Son. He remembered our sins in His
Son, put Him to death, and having paid the full penalty of those
sins, He raised His Son from the dead. And it's because He
raised Him from the dead and brings Him to us and tells Him
about this in faith that we find all that this is indeed the Word
of the Lord. God is glorified in His Son and
this is the pattern of all of Scripture. Remember, Lazarus
Martha and Mary and Lazarus and their brother their brother Lazarus,
and they thought Lazarus is going to die He's sick hurry Jesus
come and heal him, but Jesus doesn't come he waits He waits
until he actually dies, and then he tells his disciples I must
go and awake him out of his sleep He tells him what he's going
to do he comes to Mary he comes to Martha, and they're grief-stricken
They're overwhelmed by their grief. They wonder. Why did you
wait? What's going on here? And Jesus
tells them, if you would believe, you would see the glory of God.
In our circumstances, we don't see it, but God does. He's going
to glorify himself in all of the circumstances of our life.
And the way he glorifies himself is by pointing our eyes, our
faith, to the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that God has redeemed
us from death, from sin, and all these things. And therefore,
because God has done this, we can trust Him. Look back at Romans
chapter 5. I want to read this to you. We
read it before the sermon, but look at this again in Romans
chapter 5. Beautiful promises. He says here,
In the midst of this, he says, we glory in tribulation, knowing
that tribulation works patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope, and hope does not make ashamed. Why? Because
the love of God in our experiences is shed abroad in our heart by
the Holy Ghost which is given to us. And he reminds us the
lesson in verse 6. He says, for when we were without
strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. much more than being now justified
by His blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to
God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we
shall be saved by His life. If God gave His Son for us when
we were His enemies and reconciled us to Himself by the death of
His Son, How much more will God take care of the little things
of life? Hairs falling from our heads,
sparrows falling to the ground. Dog's tongue wagging. All these
little things are in God's absolute control. And He orders them and
works all things together for the good of those who He has
called, according to His purpose, to conform them to the image
of His Son. And in conforming us, He holds
Christ before our eyes and He, little by little, changes us
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Look
at 2 Corinthians 3. What a beautiful promise that
God has made here in the Gospel. Revealing to us from His Word
what He's doing, but on the micro scale of our lives we don't see
it until we look back on it. Verse 18, "...but we all with
open face beholding as in a glass a mirror the glory of the Lord
are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by
the Spirit of the Lord." God holds up the mirror of the gospel
to us and in the gospel we see the Lord Jesus Christ and as
we look on what he who he is and what he's done we find full
confidence in him we find our desires drawn out to him because
God has highlighted our need in the circumstances of our life
convinced us in our conscience that we need this salvation and
he brings us to this and we look on him and what he's done and
we marvel that God would save us wretch worthy of hell And
we're changed from glory to glory, conformed to the image of His
Son. That's what this is teaching. And that's what the troubles
of life were doing for the disciples, though they didn't know it. And
God works in this way because He doesn't reveal it on purpose. What would we have to believe
Him for if we could see in advance all the things that were going
to work out? We would have no need to trust Him, would we?
No need to trust Him. But we see this. Now, there's
a temptation in these things. A temptation that is highlighted
here. And that is this. We believe
that God works all things according to the counsel of His own will. He does. The most minute details
of life, God works out. the sun shining, the clouds,
the flat tire on your car, your illnesses, everything is working
out according to God's perfect will. But in knowing that, in
our trouble, Doubts come in, and these doubts tempt us to
accuse God in knowing that He controls all things. What do
we see? Well, there was a beautiful description
given by Charles Spurgeon of this, and I think I couldn't
improve on it at all, so I'm just going to read it to you
here. He says this, he says, the doctrine, and the doctrine
he's referring to is that God works all things according to
His predestined will. This doctrine becomes a lurking
place of temptation. We gaze upon the ponderous wheels
of predestination in their awful revolutions and fear that they
will grind us to powder. In the forebodings of our trouble,
we fear that we may be entangled in the terrible machinery. And
that, as it will not pause for our crying, it will rend us to
pieces. And like the prophet, only with
far greater dread we cry, O wheel! That was Ezekiel he's referring
to. But we ought to reflect that there is no such thing as blind
fate. Predestination is a far different
thing. Fate is a blind man who rushes
madly on because he must. Predestination is full of eyes
and proceeds in one line because it is the best path which could
be taken. Fate is a tyrant declaring that
such a thing shall be because he wills it. Predestination is
a father ordering all things for the good of his household.
God has his purpose and his way, and his purposes are both for
his own glory and for the good of his people. Who among us would
wish the Lord to turn aside from his holy and gracious designs? He has ordained the best. Would
we have him vary? He has determined all things
wisely. Would we have him determine otherwise?
That which happens to us occurs because in the judgment of infinite
wisdom and goodness, it is on the whole best that it should
be so. Would we wish the Lord to arrange
otherwise? Will you tempt the Holy One of
Israel? Will you ask Him to do other than that which is wise
and just and good and holy for His own glory? You see what the
Lord is saying here through these things? Is that we are tempted
to think that God is just going to crush us in the wheels of
His providence. We'll be ground to powder. Because
He's bigger than we are. And we can't resist His will.
And we think because somehow God is big that He's going to
do these things without considering our needs and our weakness and
all these things. We know we're worthy to die and
like the widow woman we think God is remembering our sins to
us. But look at Psalm 103. I found these to be extremely
encouraging. Psalm 103, look what it says
here. I'll read a couple of Old Testament
scriptures to you. Psalm 103, he says in verse 10, get there. He says, we could
read the whole psalm, but just these three verses, verse 10,
"...he hath not dealt with us after our sins." Do you see that? In all of the circumstances of
our lives, what is God saying? For His people, He has not dealt
with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions
from us." Look at Isaiah chapter 43. You read this last week,
Isaiah 43 and verse 25. God says, "...I, even I, am he
that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins." God will not remember the sins of His
people. He promised this in the New Covenant. Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Why? Because Christ made full
remission. And not only that, but in Psalm
103 He says, He has not dealt with us according to our iniquities. He hasn't. So the widow woman
expressed that concern, but it wasn't the case. God hasn't visited
you because of your iniquities, but for the glory of His name
and for the trial of your faith. Look at Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54
and verse 5. He says, For thy maker is thine
husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the
Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall he be
called. Who is our Redeemer? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
God of the whole earth. And look at verse 6 of Isaiah
54. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken, and
grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused
We were refused. The law refused us. Satan accused
us. Religion and our own conscience
condemned us. But God says He has called us
when we were a woman, a wife in our youth. We were refused. Verse 7. For a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In
a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord
thy Redeemer. You see, in our lives we can
think about these small moments in several different ways. First
of all, God chose His people in Christ before the foundation
of the world. But when He created man and in
Adam we all fell, for a moment we were under the condemnation
of sin. And it seemed like that that
was going to be it, just like Israel had to go down to Egypt.
But then, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son. So for a moment, it looked like
we were under the condemnation of sin. But then Christ came
and redeemed us from the curse of the law. And then also, in
our own experience of our lives, Haven't you found that you lived
your life for a time, and then it seemed like when you weren't
expecting it, when you were living in sin, alienated from God in
your mind and by wicked works, God arrested you, brought attention
to your needs, and then showed you Christ, and you clung to
Him with a life grip, because all you have is Christ. For a
moment in your life, you were apart and alienated, and then,
in great mercies, the Lord has saved you. But then the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself experienced this. For a moment, God's wrath
was upon Him. He suffered under the wrath of
God, but then He was delivered from it when He rose from the
dead. And so He says here, in verse 9 of Isaiah 54, For this
is as the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that
the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have
I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart."
The disciples are in the boat. The boat is about to sink. If
they could just remember these words. And we could go on and
on. Let me show you one more in Psalm 35. I love the picture. that these consolations in Scripture
bring up to us. The picture in Psalm 35 is beautiful. He says here, Psalm 35, I want
you to get a picture of a little, small, insignificant, helpless
person here on this side, and a great enemy. that has power
unbelievable to come against this small and significant person. And then there's a champion,
a defender that stands between them. This is the picture that
Psalm 35 He says in verse 1, plead my
cause O Lord, hear this little insignificant helpless one, plead
my cause O Lord with them that strive against me, fight against
them that fight against me, take hold of shield and buckler and
stand up for my help, draw out also the spear and stop the way
against them that persecute me. You see what he's asking? Get
all of the defenses and all of the arms and put it against the
enemy of my soul. And then he says this other thing,
but toward me he says, Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. This is what God does in the
gospel. He tells us what Christ has done against our enemies.
And then he says, Lord, say to my soul, I am thy salvation. This is what God does in the
gospel, and we see this throughout. And you could read this in several
places, which we don't have time to go to, but go back to the
account in the book of Mark. And you can see that here the
disciples, they don't see this. They're concerned about dying.
And it's a real danger. They have real fears. Life is
real. We experience real pain and sorrows
and suffering. But in the midst of all these
things, God is is giving us a trial of faith in order that we might
look to Christ, and look again, and come close, and draw near.
And in drawing near, we're blessed in knowing that our sins are
forgiven. God is for us. Nothing can condemn us. No one
can condemn us. Life and death All these things,
Paul says in Romans chapter 8, I'm persuaded, none of these
things can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. This is what we learn in all
of this. And so it says in Mark chapter 4, he says, Master, carest
thou not that we perish? Carest thou not that we perish?
Notice that little word, we. carest thou not that we perish?"
Lord, you're in the ship with us. We entered into the ship
with you. We were going to the other side
with you, and here you are with us. Don't you care that we perish? Are you going to perish with
us? Is it even possible that the Lord of glory, the Lord Jesus
Christ, could perish with his disciples? It cannot happen. Jesus cannot perish. He must
complete the will of God. His disciples will be saved with
an everlasting salvation. They cannot perish. And the fact
of the matter is that God's people can no more perish than that
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself would perish. Look at John chapter
10. This is amazing. God gives us
such a consolation for our faith in trouble. that we would always
look to Him and glorify Him for His mercy and His love towards
us in Christ. Look at John chapter 10. He says
this in verse 27, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and
they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand, And then he says this, My Father which gave them
Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. Do you see? God is saying here
that the will of God the Father and the will of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, the will of the Spirit of God, are one. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. God's people
can no more perish than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself could not
fulfill His will, the will of the Father. God the Father will
not fail to save His people. If any of God's people were to
perish, God would lose more than they would because His name,
His oath, His truth, His promise, the death of Christ, all would
be for nothing if God's people perish. What greater confidence
can we have And notice back in Mark chapter 4 verse 39, And
Jesus arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Peace, be
still. And the wind ceased, and there
was a great calm. Now when Lazarus was sick and
ready to die, and actually did die, Jesus said, He sleepeth. Here the Lord Jesus Christ is
said to sleep, and this teaches us and reminds us that what's
happening here is showing how the Lord Jesus Christ was able
to rebuke the wind and calm the sea with his word. Even though
he is the Son of God, yet God put all things into his hand
as mediator, the one who has conquered death. Because in His
sleep He arose from His sleep and then rebuked the wind and
the sea. It was because the Lord Jesus
Christ overcame death that He can free His people from death.
Because He overcame sin that He can save them from their sins.
And we see all this. There's a great calm. Who can
deny the Deity of Christ to speak to the sea and the wind? All
of creation obeys His voice. And all of hell cannot stop Him
from fulfilling His will. The gates of hell will not prevail
against Him. And in our salvation, our Lord
Jesus Christ has conquered all and done all. And so, I want
you to keep these things in your mind. And maybe the Lord would
give us grace to remember these things. And I love what He says
here at the very end. He says, He says, and he said
to them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? No faith? Unbelieving disciples? Do you see how the Lord Jesus
Christ saved these men even though their faith was weak? Almost
completely without faith? You see, true faith, God doesn't
save us because of our faith. He gives us faith to look to
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is all of our salvation. He saves
us in spite of our unbelief. He says in Romans 11, around
verse 32, He has concluded them all in unbelief that He might
have mercy upon all. All of God's people, He's concluded
in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all of them. And so
our salvation depends not on the strength of our faith, but
on Christ alone. Remember Abraham? He was fully
persuaded that what HE had promised, HE was able also to perform. And Sarah also, she judged HIM
faithful who had promised. God has promised that nothing
in life or death, no devils in hell, no angels in heaven, not
our own sin, nothing can separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Our salvation depends entirely
upon the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is all of our
salvation, and that is all of our hope, and that is why we
have such confidence and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's
pray. Father, we thank you that in
the midst of the storm of this life, even though we see no evidence
of change in nature's laws, no miraculous power to raise us
from the dead or heal us from our sicknesses different than
any other in this world. And we often wonder, are you
listening? Has the Lord left us Are our
sins being brought to His remembrance? Is all of this coming upon us
because of our own sin and the difficulties of life? And does
God even care? Help us to know, oh yes, He cares. Our Lord Jesus Christ has given
His life for us. How much more will He give Himself
for us and order all things in this world to eternity to conform
us to the image of His Son? Lord, we pray that You would
do this work according to Your Word and Your power and Your
faithfulness and Your grace and Your mercy in Christ our Savior.
Save us, Lord. Without Your salvation, indeed,
we would perish. But because You have promised
to save Your own, We know, Lord, that we cannot perish. We cannot
perish because you cannot fail. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.