Or I go back to Matthew 14 with
them. We try to preach Christ every
time because not only is He the subject of this book, but He
is the object of our faith. He's our hope. Christ is all
our hope. He's all our peace. He's all
our wisdom. Righteousness means everything to us. And according
as we know Him, the more we know Him, the more we believe Him,
the more we trust Him and are sure, like they ended up saying,
we are sure that You're the Son of God. You're God come down
to this earth. Our Savior. God our Savior. According
as our faith is, so will be our peace and our comfort rest and
freedom from doubts and fears and worries. The Lord in this
story purposely had His disciples go through another fierce storm. This is not the first one. We've
already looked at the first one. Remember, He was in the ship
and He was asleep. And they were even afraid then,
weren't they? Scared to death. And the Lord was in the ship. This whole message should give
us great comfort. But the Lord purposely brought
them through another storm to reveal Himself again, to show
them who He is, their sovereign Lord, and to show them how weak
they are, to gently rebuke or prove their weak faith. Do you think your faith would
be strong if you had seen all that the disciples saw? They
literally saw him do all that he did. You would think that
their faith would be unwavering, wouldn't it? Well, it wasn't. Far from it. He could be gone a few hours,
and they were just as fearful as though he never came. That
gives me hope. And our Lord said that. He said,
Blessed are they whose eyes have not seen. Blessed. But He reveals to them and us
just how weak our faith is, and He brings them through this storm
to strengthen their faith. Storms, trials, troubles are
to strengthen our faith. Trust in Him. Strengthen our
trust in Him because He always, always, no matter how deep the
water, no matter how fierce the storm, no matter how contrary
the winds, He always brings you through. Doesn't He? Every time. They're going to go through another
storm because they forgot. They've already forgotten the
other one. That quickly. They forgot who
Christ is and so do we. At this time, He's not with them. This time they are alone, they
think. It's just the twelve of them
on this ship in a storm. Just the twelve of them. Like
us. Like us. There were twelve men in the
study tonight. Fellowship. Verse 22. It says,
Straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship.
Thank God for his constraining grace. Constrained means to cause
to do something, to make willing. To thank God He causes us to
approach unto Him. Thank God He maketh us to lie
down. One of our ladies said that,
blessed her in thinking about that, how He made them to sit
down while He fed them, that multitude. And I didn't bring
this out, but He made them sit down by fifties. Over in Mark's
gospel it says by fifties. Luke, I think, says hundreds
and fifty. Little groups of fifty here and there. That's by design. Remember what Spurgeon said. In the latter days it would be
congregations made up mostly of about fifty people. He made
them sit down. He made them sit down. Thank
God for his constraining grace that he causes us to approach
unto him. He makes us come here against
our flesh and causes us to lie down, come to him, leave the
multitude to go to the other side. That's
where we're headed. You know that. We're headed to the other side.
He sent the multitude away, but he had his disciples get
in the ship. That's selection. Sent the multitude away. The
Lord passes by many, but his chosen ones he puts in the ship,
in the ark, like Noah. Noah, you found grace in my sight. Come thou and all thy house into
the ark. He wouldn't have come. No man
can come except the Father drawing. Come thou and thy house into
the ark. And in the Lord, shut him in.
Shut him in. Simon, James, Phyllis, get in
the ship. Get in the ship. Then he went,
verse 23, he sent the multitude away, kind of like everything
Matthew Henry said about this. In fact, I listened to a brother
preach from this as I was running around in circles. It was such
a blessing to me, and I know him well, and I thought, where
did he get that wisdom? I said, he got that from somebody. I almost called him. Then I started
reading Matthew Henry and I thought, that's where he got it. And it
can't be improved upon, some of the things he said. But he
said, he sent the multitudes away. Thousands, ten thousand
people. Now you know he didn't just say,
get. But he left them with some words
of wisdom, words of warning, words of promise, words of encouragement. He dismissed the multitude. Would
that He would dismiss us every time with His Word, with His
grace, with His promises. Well, He went up, verse 23, into
a mountain apart to pray. He was there when it was evening,
and He was there alone. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ,
known unto whom are all His works from the beginning, Like one
place says in Luke 15, it says, knowing that all things were
given unto him, John 13, knowing that everything is according
to God's purpose, yet he prayed always. Always prayed. He tells us to pray without ceasing,
to call upon the Father. And he did it. He prayed. without
ceasing. If he prayed without ceasing,
how much more do we need? How much more? And he was alone
with God often. He often got alone with his Heavenly
Father, which is the key to vital godliness and strength and peace. It is. This right here, I would
say, is the most important part of our lives. But next to it
would be your own personal communion with and fellowship with your
Lord. It's vital. Our Lord did. It's
a shame people can't stand to be alone anymore. God's people
must, must get along with their Lord like our Lord did and pray
unto Him. He prayed all evening into the
wee hours. The ship was now in the midst
of the sea, tossed with waves. The wind was contrary to them. Mark's Gospel says it was contrary
to them. The ship was in the middle of
that sea, although the sea was not very large. It was only about
7 miles wide and 15 miles long. But it might as well have been
1,000 miles wide. They weren't that far from shore
is the point, but they might as well. As the winds got contrary
and the seas were raging, they felt like they were a thousand
miles away. So it is with us when we get
in the midst of troubles, sea, deep troubles. Disciples were
sent into the sea by the Lord. He's called the captain of our
salvation. And he sent them right into the eye of that storm. Now, an earthly captain, they
don't do that. An earthly sea captain would
not do that. Foreseeing there's a storm, you
say, we're going to go around this. But the Lord, the captain
of our salvation, said he's the one that raised the storm. Psalm
107. And he sent them right into the
eye of it. In other words, he's going to put them through heavy,
deep seas beyond their ability to fathom or to fight those seas,
to sail through them, to show Himself the great Savior. He sends us out into the world. He says, in the world you shall
have tribulation. Man that is born of woman is
a few days and full of trouble. We live in a trouble-filled world. And our Lord sends His people.
He doesn't shelter us from trouble, but He sends us right into the
middle of it. He doesn't keep us from trouble, but He puts
us through trouble. He could keep us from all trouble,
but He doesn't. He purposely puts us through
deep, heavy seas to reveal unto us several things, but this mostly,
to reveal unto us how that he watches over them. He watches
over them. The Lord had his eye on these
disciples. He never took his eye off them.
He never took his eye off them. He wasn't with them, but he saw
them. And he brings us through these trials, these deep troubles,
to show that he is always with us, really. Though we don't see
him, he is with us. He said this. His last words
before ascending in a cloud were this, Lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the world. I will never leave you nor forsake
you. That's not just a saying. It's true. And he sends us out
into this world in deep troubles to show us how his grace is sufficient
through the roughest seas, through the worst of storms. It's said
here that the wind was contrary, and Mark, as I said, said it
was contrary to them. They thought that the wind was
contrary to them, but in fact, all of this was for them. All
of this was to strengthen their faith. Faith must be tried like
a ship must be put out to sea. It must be. It may look good
at dry dock, and everybody's bragging on it. That's religion
then. It may look good. And you know,
we have what seems to be great faith when nothing's going wrong.
All of us can act like we really believe when nothing's going
wrong. So faith must be a trial of our
faith, which is trust in Him. Trust in Him. That's what faith
is. It's trusting the Lord. And Mark's Gospel says, he saw
them toiling in rowing. The winds had picked up so powerfully,
and the waves got so deep, such rough seas, that they had to
strike sail. That is, they had to bring down
their sails. You can't sail when the winds
are swirling. You can't make any headway. And
they had to bring down the sails and get out the oars. Has anybody
in here rowed a boat for any length of time? What about in six or eight foot,
ten foot seas? About for about eight hours. They were in this ship for about
nine hours in heavy seas. Rowing. Heavy seas. Rough going. Hard labor. And this is what our Lord said
we would go through, every one of us, men and women in this
world. He said to Eve first, in the
garden, He said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow, your labor
and pain and your sorrow. Adam, He said, in the sweat of
your face you will earn your bread, you will toil, heavy labor. Do you remember Psalm 95? We
may live 70 years, 80 years, but in all those years there's
strong labor and sorrow. That's what our Lord said. But
He did it, didn't He? He toiled. He labored. He knows our frame. He's not
going to put on us more than we're able to bear. He Himself
took like part of the same. He suffered as we suffered. He
labored. He toiled for 33 years. He toiled and labored for us
to keep the law, to bring in an everlasting righteousness,
to please the Father, to glorify God. And then he went to Calvary's
tree and suffered the equivalent of an eternity in hell for us. Oh, he labored. And He doesn't
tell us to do or give us something to do that He did not do Himself.
Well, in verse 25, in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went
unto them walking on the sea. In the fourth watch. That was
3 a.m. They had been out there, as I
said, nine hours. Only nine hours, I started to
say. But in the midst of a great trial, Nine hours can seem like
nine days, can it? In a deep trial, the minutes
go by slowly. Time seems to stand still, doesn't
it? In a deep trial, sorrows and
troubles and sicknesses especially, things like that seem worse at
night. It was dark just before daylight. Troubles are always
worse at night, aren't they? They seem like they last longer
at night. David said in Psalm 130, My soul
waiteth for the Lord. My soul waiteth for Him more
than they that watch for the morning. How many sleepless nights
have we spent waiting for the morning? And just as soon as
the sun comes up, it seems to be better. And I'm sure that
every one of these fellas, to a man, were all so tired and
so weary and so worried and thinking, how long are we going to go through
this? Every one of them, to a man,
thought, where is the Lord? Why isn't He with us? Didn't He know we were going
to go through this? You know they did. You hear what
they say in a minute. They think they see a ghost. And Simon, I know Simon Peter,
oh, he loved the Lord. I love Simon. Don't you love
Simon? Oh, how I love Simon, and how
Simon loved the Lord. He really did. He was so up and
down, hot and cold, but he loved the Lord. Now, Simon, I bet you
said, if I could see him now, I'd dive out of this boat to
get to him. They did, if I could see him
now. In the end, do you remember? After the Lord arose and they
said, it's the Lord. What did he do? I ain't waiting,
boys. And he dove out of that ship.
The fourth watch. Listen to this. You'll enjoy
this. Jesus Christ is the same. Yesterday,
today, forever. The fourth watch. The children
of Israel in Exodus 14, mind you, in Exodus 14, when the children
of Israel had come up to that Red Sea, and the Egyptians were
behind them, and they thought it was all over, in the fourth
watch, the Lord parted that sea. Same Lord. Same Lord. They said, Who are you? He said,
Even the same that I said unto you in the beginning. He's ever
with all of his people, bringing them through. They all did pass
through the sea, and all these disciples did too. So the Lord
who came to them in the beginning, the Lord who came for them in
the beginning, comes for them again. He said, I'll never leave
you. The Lord who came for them. They
weren't looking for Him. They weren't calling on Him.
They weren't calling now. But before they called, He came. And the Lord who chose them,
the Lord who called them, the Lord who came to them the first
time, keeps coming to them. Keeps coming. Keeps coming. He's
not going to leave them. He'll leave us alone for a while
on purpose. On purpose. But he came, it says,
walking on the sea. Job said, in Job 9, I believe
it is, he says, he treadeth upon the waves of the sea. David said,
Thy way is in the sea, thy path is in the great waters. We read
Brother Cowper's, we sang Brother Cowper's hymn. He plants his
footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. I wish you ladies
would have sung that song tonight. You and Jeanette, that song you
all sang, Master of the Sea. He came walking upon that sea,
he really did. He really did. He's the God that
made it. God that made it to show us that
all things are under His feet. The things that threaten to destroy
us are under His feet. He said, in the world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. The sin that threatens to drown
you, the troubles, the sorrows that threaten to Go over your
head? The temptations you think you
can't endure? It shall not overcome you. Our
Lord said it shall not have dominion over you because he was made
sin. Sorrow shall not overcome us. He's the man of sorrows,
according to the Greek. He bore our sorrows and carried
our grief. The world shall not drown us,
though it threatens to. The world and all of its temptations,
the lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, pride of life, threatens
to drown us in perdition just like other men, but he came to
deliver us from this present evil world. He is not going to
let us go down. He is not going to do it. Well, they said, look at verse
26. The disciples saw him walking on the sea. They were troubled
and saying, it's a spirit. They cried out for fear. It's
a ghost. And they had to think it was
a bad one. It was an evil one. Evil spirits. Now, sailors, you
know, are known for seeing visions. When they are out to sea for
any length of time, they... I forgot to hit my timer. Okay. Now it begins. Sailors used to see visions,
didn't they? They were out there for a length of time and they
were always hoping for land and they were always thinking they
would see it. You never would put a landlubber up in the crow's
nest. You never would put a young fellow
up in the crow's nest because he's going to see it every time.
He's going to think he sees it. But those sailors, they'd see a mermaid,
they'd see all these things, didn't they? A superstitious lot is what they
were. And they hadn't gotten rid of
much of this. They had only been with the Lord a year or two.
And we have so many grave clothes now. We have so many fears. I
wish I had brought that article my dad wrote on. And we have
entirely too many fears for people who claim to believe God. Entirely
too many worries. Entirely too many doubts and
so on and so forth. But they thought they saw a spirit
and an evil one at that. Matthew Henry said, they shouldn't
have said that. They should have said, it's the
Lord. They should have just said that. It's the Lord. But here's
the point, and I'm glad this happened. Because these are believers. These are believers and they're
grown men. And yet, they are full of doubts
and fears. They're full of worry. Grown
men. Strong men. These are the men
we're going to... our examples. And yet they're
full of doubts and fear. They're scared to death. Strong
men that are scared to death. I'm glad the Lord put that there.
The strongest of men are men at best. Every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. The strongest faith will be weak
at times. Nobody has perfect faith. Except
the Lord Himself, when He was a man. Like Abraham. Abraham's the father of the faithful.
Abraham, being strong in faith, persuaded that God was able,
didn't he? He believed against hope, he said. He got scared,
didn't he? He was afraid twice. Afraid for
his life. David, as a young man. We talked about this the other
day. David, when he was a young man, was full of zeal, full of
enthusiasm, full of courage. And he went out to face that
whole Philistine army, didn't he? And that giant said, is there
not a cause? If nobody goes, I'll go. And he did. Well, after
he started accumulating some things, after he got wives and
homes and families and all the much treasure and trouble therewith,
his courage began to wane. And he said, Saul is going to
kill me. But I'm glad that the Lord put
those things in there, aren't you? The strongest faith is weak
at times. And the Lord will bring us through
some things to show us how weak we are, that when we are weak,
what? He is strong. He is strong. Verse 27, the Lord straightway,
immediately spake unto them, How does the Lord allay our fears?
How does the Lord give us courage? How does the Lord remove our
doubts and fears? He speaks. His Word. David said, Remember thy word
unto thy servant, or that is, speak to me again, upon which
thou hast caused me to hope. Oh, my hope is in what you say
to me. Speak to me, Lord. I need you
to speak to me. And he spake unto them, immediately
saying, Be of good cheer, it is I. Be not afraid. They're going through what they
think is a life-threatening storm. And he says, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer. Again, Matthew
Henry said, Quite often we're afraid, most afraid of those
things that are going to be our deliverance. The Lord sends us trials to wean
us from this world, things that are good for us, the best thing
that could happen to us, else we won't want to leave. So He
sends these things that are our deliverance, and yet we're scared
of them. And He often said we're often
most afraid when we're not hurting at all. They're not hurting. They're in the boat. The other time the ship was full
of water, but this time it's not. They're just dashed around,
but they're not hurt. Every one of them is safe, but
they're scared to death. Imagine that all sorts of times.
The Lord one time said, why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
In other words, why do you always imagine the worst? Why do you
always imagine the worst? Do you? You get a little sickness? Oh, it's cancer. I'm going to
die. We do. Whatever it is, we always
imagine the worst. It's a spirit. It's evil. It's
bad. Things are bad. Real bad. So wait until you're
really hurt. Wait until you're really hurt.
And here's what he said. I loved it. He said, Be of good
cheer, and we should be. happy people, not all the time.
Our Lord was a man of sorrows, but He was not morose and melancholy
and always down in the mouth. And there are times when we're
real sad, but for the most part, we should be happy people because
we're blessed. We're greatly blessed. In fact,
we should be some of the most happiest people on earth the
way the Lord has blessed us. But he said, be of good cheer,
it is I. It's not an evil spirit, it's not an apparition, it's
not Satan, it's not devils, it's not demons, it is I. And we need to look at everything
like this. Everything that happens to us,
or ours, it is I. I did this. I raised this stone. I put you out there. Like Eli
said, it's the Lord. Job, when they came to him with
all the worst news a man could possibly hear in a lifetime,
he said, the Lord did this. It is I. I wish we could know
that. It is not the evil one. I used
to talk to a fellow on the phone all the time. He did most of
the talking. He didn't listen very good. But
he was a worrywart. He just worried about everything.
He would send a check every now and then to this church to support
it. And he quit doing that after
a while. He was worried about the mail, U.S. mail. Afraid that
check would get lost in the mail. He just worried, worried, worried.
He said, the devil, the devil, the devil. He was always saying
the devil. The devil said, brother. And I gave him the benefit of
the doubt. I said, Brother, you give the devil too much power. You give the devil way too much
power. Whatever happens, it's the Lord.
You don't worry about the devil. You trust the Lord. We don't
have to worry about the devil. The Lord's got him on a chain.
Well, it is I, he said. Don't imagine the worst. It is I. I am that I am. Verse 28 and 29, Peter answered
him, said, Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the
water, bid me come. Peter, he was so glad to see
the Lord that he had to get to Him as fast as he could. He's
not doing this for show. He's not doing this to see if
he can walk on the water like these charlatans today. You're
not doing this to prove anything. He wants to get to the Lord. He's so glad to see Him. I'll get out of this ship if
you bid me come. You know what is a greater miracle
than walking on water? Peter didn't walk long. You know
what's a greater miracle than walking on water? Coming to Christ. No man can. Except the Father draw him. No
man can. And when he bids him. Bid means
command. Come. Did the Lord say, Oh, I
wish you would. No. Come. Come. And buddy, he did. He came. Verse
29. And Peter got down out of that
ship and he walked on the water. Yes, he did. I hate how people
use this all the time, don't you? I hate to hear the way people
make a mockery. They don't believe it. They don't
believe it. They don't believe Christ did. They don't believe
Peter did. And I don't care what they believe. He did. This was to show our Lord's power
over who He was, the Son of God, God who made this world. of elements. He's not a subject to them, but
they're subject to Him. All of them. Lord over all. Heavens
and earth. And to show that whatever He
gives His people to do, He gives them the strength to do it. The
ability to do it. Overcoming power and grace. And I do hate that. Don't you
hate how people use this? I'm not. He did. But it's symbolic,
really, because he didn't walk long. He didn't need to. He never brought it up. He never
brought it up. If this had been one of these
false prophets, he would have announced it everywhere he went.
No, no. Peter never brought it up. In
his two epistles, he never mentioned it. Because he failed. He failed. He didn't walk long. He was ashamed
that he didn't walk all the way. And he never did it again. Didn't need to. Didn't need to.
But he said, it says here in verse 29, he walked on the water
to go to Jesus, looking unto Jesus, the author of the finished
work of our faith. But when he saw the wind, he
took his eyes off of it. He took his eyes off the Lord.
He saw the wind and felt the wind, and he was boisterous and
strong, and the waves, I'm sure, were crashing. And he was afraid,
and he began to sink. Beginning to sink. You know, a man can't walk on
water, can he? But he did. And a man can't walk
by faith. We walk by sight. We really do. People only believe what they
see, but we do. We walk by faith. Many do. But
if we take our eyes off Christ, if we take our eyes off of Him,
as soon as we look around, and we're all guilty, as soon as
we look around, if we forget what He said, if we take our
eyes off of Him, the prize, and we start to look around, start
to listen to everything that's around us, all the tempests,
the noisome pestilence, feeling, all these things that make us
feel afraid, these sounds and sights and sounds, we're going
to sing. We're going to sing. If we listen
to the world and look around, if we look down, if we look within,
old John Newton wrote that When I look within, all is vain and
dark and wild. Can I deem myself a child? Don't
look within, look without. Pretend to Him. And we start to sink. Sin and
despair, like the sea waves roll, threaten the soul with infinite
loss. Have you ever literally had a
sinking feeling because of your guilt and your sin? Have you? Such shame and such guilt or
fears, troubles, sorrows that just left you with a sinking
feeling? Your heart drops. Your heart
drops. Did you? Did you sink? Did you go down and didn't come
up? Anybody? You're here, aren't you? Sweetest,
shortest prayer in the Bible. Three words. Shortest prayer
in the Scriptures and it's a prayer sure to be heard every time.
If this is prayed from the heart, every time the Lord will hear
it. Peter was sinking, and he cried, saying, Lord, save me. Lord, O my sovereign, O my great
God, my ruler, save. Salvation belongs unto the Lord.
Lord, it's up to you. It's your will. Completely up
to you. Not up to me or anyone else.
Me. I'm lost. I'm dying. I'm undone. I'm a sinner. I'm sinking. Lord, save me. Get it? Look at this. It says,
immediately, immediately, Jesus stretched forth His hand. Oh, He stretched forth His hand.
Do you know how strong? His hand must be to pick up a
200-pound man out of a raging ocean like he's a child's doll. It says he reached down. He immediately stretched forth
his hand and caught him. I like that. It says he caught
him with his powerful hand. He made bare his right arm and
caught him right before he drowned. He caught him. Right before he
goes under, he caught him. Right before he goes down and
never to come up again, He caught him. Are you with me? How many times have you thought
this is it? He caught you. Or we've gone
off. We've strayed like a wandering
sheep. And the Lord, hitherto shalt
thou go, and no further. He caught you. He's going to
go down. This is going to be the end of
him. Nope. He caught him. That's my hope. That's my hope. apprehended. We are cast down,
but not destroyed. O thou, he said of little faith
to Peter, wherefore didst thou doubt? You
know, the Lord has never given us reason to doubt, has He? All
our lives we have only reason to trust Him. Why are we so unbelieving,
huh? O thou of little faith, why do
we doubt Him? We have faith that, oh, it's
so little in it. So, the Lord, we need to go through
more of these near drownings. And verse 32, it says, and I
quit, and then when they were come into the ship, the wind
ceased. When we come in here, the wind
ceased. The storm seemed to cease. Mark's Gospel, John also says,
as soon as he got in the ship, they were in land. Isn't that
great? What seemed like an eternity
out in those oceans without the Lord. And you know, the Lord
hides His face from us at times, doesn't He? What makes us feel
like we're alone because of whatever, our sin, or lets us go through
sorrow, to make His presence that much more wonderful when
He shows Himself again. And we say, oh, we'll never doubt
you now. Yes, you will. But I'll never leave you. And
they were immediately, the wind ceased, and they were in the
ship, verse 33, they that were in the ship came and worshiped
Him. Saying of a truth, Thou art the
Son of God. You know, only sinking sinners
will worship the Lord. Only dying sinners will worship
a sovereign Savior. Oh my. They worshiped Him. After
great deliverances, we ought to be on the front row, worshiping
Him. Let me close by reading this.
It says, He makes the storm a calm. They that go down into the sea
and ships do business in great waters. They see the works of
the Lord, His wonders. He commands the raising and raises
the stormy wind. He's the one that lifts the waves
up. They mount up to the heaven, go down to the depths. Their
soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro like a drunken
man. They're at their wits' end. They
don't know what to do. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble. And He brings them out of their distresses.
And He makes the storm a calm so that the waves are still.
And they're so glad because it's quiet. And He brings them unto
their desired haven, oh, that men would praise the Lord for
His goodness. Let them exalt Him in the congregation
of the people and praise Him in the assembly of the elders.
So they worship Him. Alright, may the Lord bless His
Word. Stand with us. Our Lord and our God, we thank
You, thank You, thank You for Your Word. It is our rock. It's Your Word. It's Your voice
that we hear if You're pleased to speak. And You speak peace
to troubled hearts, sinful souls. You give courage to cowards,
and Lord, You give hope to the hopeless and the dying. We thank You for Your Word. We
pray that, Lord, You would keep this on our minds and our hearts. You bring it back to our mind,
back to our memories, just as soon as we go out into this world
and these storms and trials assail us. remind us it is I. It is I and that you are ever
with us and we are in your hands and all that we are and have.
Forgive us our unbelief, Lord. Help our unbelief, we pray in
Christ's name. Amen.