We're continuing in our little
summer series called or entitled The Devil in the Pulpit. And
I think today is going to be very fitting. Sometimes we we
miss. We miss out when we look at text
like Mark, chapter four of the calming of the storm, and we
look at it as just a narrative of a miracle that Jesus did.
It is it's a story that really happened. that the apostle Mark
wrote down for posterity. But it's much more than that.
Because as Paul teaches Timothy, that all scripture is breathed
out by God and is useful for teaching and instruction and
rebuke and training and righteousness, that the man of God may be successful
and fitted for all good works. If this is true and it is. Then
this text here, this narrative of what Jesus does on this boat
is much more important than just us knowing that he did it. There's
not any hidden thing. It's not really hidden, but it's
playing in plain view as to what's vitally important about this.
It teaches us something about Jesus and it teaches us something
about ourselves and what it does. And it doesn't this in such a
way as to counter how the devil preaches such things. Or to counter
how the devil would preach today, particularly in the Church of
America, through the pulpits of America, when he would tell
you that the reason you are suffering in this life is because you have
little faith. The Bible doesn't teach that
at all. The devil would tell you that the reason you're suffering
is because you have sin in your life. The Bible doesn't teach
that at all. That may be a consequence of
your sin. But what about those who do not see? What does Jesus
say about the blind man in John? Well, who said that this man
might have been born blind? He says neither he nor his father
sins are the reason for him to be born blind. Why was Lazarus? Why did he die? The glory of
God may be revealed. Why do we suffer? According to
Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter four is because suffering in
this life prepares us for an eternal weight of glory beyond
all comparison. Paul says to Timothy that anyone who desires
to live a godly life will be persecuted. It's not a might,
it's not a maybe, it's not a possibly, it's not a shall be, it's a will
be. Will be. And so the lie is this. There's
many ways I could see this lie, but one of the main lies is in
twofold that I want to speak to today is that people think
that suffering, Christians are immune to suffering if they have
enough faith. It's a lie. The stronger your
faith, the stronger your suffering and the stronger your suffering,
the stronger your faith. The American dream has invaded
the theology of our churches to make us think that when things
are good and the plants are blooming and the sidewalks are clean,
that we're OK with God when the very opposite is possibly true
most of the time. That if our life is flowing out
of an abundance of continuity and easy living, we are probably
not living in obedience to the commands of God, nor are we striving
to dig deeper into our understanding of grace. Amen. The truth is, is that all who
desire to live a godly life will be persecuted. All who desire
to live a godly life will suffer. And as we see Solomon teaching
in Ecclesiastes and even the Proverbs at times, that the sun
rises and sets on the wicked and the righteous. And that oftentimes
we see the wicked prevailing and becoming successful at the
cost of the righteous. But this is the way of the world
and the world and its ways are not of God. And the love of the
things of this world is not from the love of God, as John would
tell us in 1 John 2. fifteen through seventeen, to
not love the world and the things of the world for the things of
the world are not of God, but are passing away their rotted
meat, garbage, worthless, having no value in this life or the
life to come. But what we see as a hope is
that Jesus is our hope. And what I want you to see in
this text today is as I want you to understand that Jesus.
And that's why I had Brother Dave start with verse 30. Look
at this again. Jesus talks about in verse 30
of Mark, chapter four, he says, with what can we compare the
kingdom of God or what parable shall we use for it? And so he's
offering. And that's a rhetorical question.
He's offered the question to us and to his hearers. What can
compare to the kingdom of heaven? What can compare to the glory
of God? What can compare to the treasure
of glory? What can compare to the kingdom?
What parable shall we use? And then he uses a simile in
verse thirty one. It is similar. It is like a grain of mustard
seed, which When sown to the ground, it is the smallest of
the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes
larger than all the garden plants and put out large branches so
that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade. And
so what we're seeing here is that Jesus is saying that the
kingdom of heaven, though minuscule in its visibility today, is planting
in the soils of good hearts. for the expansion and explosion
of a great reward and a fruit that is immeasurable for all
of eternity. And he goes on to talk about
the parables, and it says with many such parallels, he spoke
the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak
to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples.
He explained everything. We understand why Jesus did that.
Because only those who were empowered by the Holy Spirit could understand
the parables. Did you find yourself confused
when you hear the word of God? Do you find yourself confused? It could be that you're not born
again, or it could be that you're just living in rebellion. It
could be that you're just disgruntled and frustrated and detached from
the fellowship of the saints or detached from the word of
God. And the outcome of that is not for you to feel guilty
over this, but to feel relieved. that by abiding in the Word and
abiding in Christ, He will really give you the joy of your salvation.
He will reinvest in you the fruit of His righteousness and you
will stand bold and you will not be blown to and fro. And
so as Jesus was teaching, as it was customary, He says, we
need to go. We need to go across the sea.
We need to go to another place. He would teach in one place and
would leave and go to another place, and he would leave and
go to another place. And he got into the boat and they got into
the boat with him. That syntax is a little frustrating
there. But as he was in the boat, they also got into the boat and
we see the picture here. Now, I want you to picture this.
Here's this small boat, the disciples and Jesus, and Jesus is going
to sleep. He's tired. He needs rest. And
here they are setting out across was probably several hours of
a ride. And a storm came up, not just
any storm, but a storm that says great wind storm arose and the
waves were breaking. Do you see what it says into
the boat? That means the waves were bigger
than the boat and they were breaking and the sea was falling into
the boat. This is not just, oh, I'm getting
a little nauseated. Give me my Dramamine. This is,
oh, help me God, we're going to die. This is more than... I don't know if you've ever been
out to sea. I've been out to sea twice. In a small fishing boat. Biggest mistake of my life. The
swell of the sea is unbearable. I don't like roller coasters
or coming over hills and lions. You know, when you go over that
little hill right there, it makes your stomach... So when I was
on that boat, And all of a sudden you felt as though you just got
dropped 20 feet. It's because you just got dropped
20 feet because you were here in the swell. The water goes
down and you go down with it. Well, imagine if you were in
the in the whatever they call that. I'm not a wave engineer,
but you know, you were in the bottom of that and the waves
broke and the water that was high 20 feet came into your boat.
This is the situation that the disciples were in. It wasn't
just sort of, well, this is getting a little rough. It's like we're
going to perish. We're going to perish. So the boat was already
filling. It was filling. So if something
didn't change, they would sink. Now, see, if I were Jesus, I'd
have let it sink and I'd have rowed that sucker up out of the
water and flown it to shore and irrigated some crops along the
way. It would have been really incredible. But that's not what
Jesus wanted to do. Because what would be greater,
speaking to the storm and calming the sea or floating the boat? I would say to you, speaking
to the sea. But Jesus. Was in the stern asleep
on the cushion. He's asleep on the cushion. What
does this tell us about Jesus? Remember, I said this tells us
about us and it tells us about Jesus. It tells us about Jesus,
that Jesus was confident in the outcome of his life. Jesus was
confident that there was no perishing to be had there. There was no
perishing to be experienced there. And there was nothing to be afraid
of, for he slept. I don't know about you, but when
a good storm comes up, I get up. I want to look, listen. You know, I want to be worried
when it sucks me out of my house instead of asleep. That's how
it works, isn't it? When the house comes down, it's
like the earthquakes in California. The first earthquake we ever
experienced was about 4.20 in the morning, and I woke up to
being shaken in my bed. You remember those old football
games that we had when we were children? And you set them all
up, and it was on a little metal thing, and you turn it on, and
they just randomly went where they went, and you shut it off,
and you're like, yay, look at there. And if your guy randomly
vibrated into the end zone, you know, what it ended up being
is if your table wasn't level, everybody was on one side. You
all became cheerleaders. That's how the game worked. But
you didn't. And everybody just sort of went
around. That's what this first earthquake was like. We wake up in the beds
around the hardwood floor and then you try to get out of the
bed and you can't stand in the wind. The doors are going. The bookshelves are shaking,
all the pictures are falling off the wall, and the mirror
is going, and you think you woke up inside of an Exorcist movie.
And about 45 seconds later, it stops, and I run in there, oh
my gosh, my children are going to be crumbled upon, and they're
just asleep. But for the next few months,
I was afraid to even go into the basement where the laundry
room was. I've had the house going to shake down on top of my head.
This impending doom sort of loomed over me and I was worried. I'd
get on the MacArthur maze and, you know, back in the 89 earthquake,
it sort of fell flat and killed everybody. And I'm thinking,
I've got to get off this thing. On the Bay Bridge, I mean, four
thousand billion zillion tons of steel falling down on top
of you, you're smushed to the axle. And you sit in this horror,
in this fear. Imagine this type of fear. You
are going to perish. The question is, is it now or
in five minutes? Jesus was sleeping. That tells
you something about not just the resolve. It wasn't Jesus'
strength. It was the strength of the Father.
It was the reality that God the Father purposed Jesus for an
absolute outcome that was more horrific than perishing by sea.
that Jesus was placed into this world to establish a new covenant
with his people and to perfect that covenant in such a way that
that he would have rather perish by sea than to drink the full
cup of the wrath of the fury of God. But that's what he did,
and Jesus knew that there was no perishing to be had that day
because he would be perishing in a different way. And everyone
who was with him would not perish either. but would have everlasting
life. So this windstorm. Something
interesting to understand about this windstorm, it came not because
the disciples were in sin, it's just because they were with Jesus.
It's just because it came and they were in the sea in the right
place at the right time for the glory of God to be revealed.
Do you see this? They were not sinful. They were
not. Well, they were, but they were
not sinful against the will of God. They weren't trying to do
something against Jesus. This wasn't a Jonah moment. This
wasn't where Jonah was running from God and the sea came and
almost destroyed the people. And he says, you throw me overboard
to save yourself. And then he was swallowed by
a fish. You know that story. A lot of times we like to go
to Jonah to teach people that's why they're having storms in
their lives. But we're not living in the days of Jonah. We're living
in the days of Jesus who who actually John appointed to. It
was when Jesus went into the temple and he said, I will if
you tear the temple down, I will rebuild it in three days. He
said it took 46 years for us to build this. And you think
you could reconstruct it in three days? But what does John say?
The temple he was discussing was his flesh. Even the temple
is a shadow of Jesus Christ. Jonah was a shadow of Jesus Christ.
We don't live in the repercussions of judgment. We live in the shadow
of grace. And so, yes, maybe there is a
storm in our life because of running from God, but it's not
for our judgment, but for our good. It's not for God to punish us,
it's for God to prune us. It's not for us to be to be pounded
down and destroyed, but it's for us to be lifted up and placed
before God righteously. So this Jesus, following Jesus,
did not exclude these men from suffering. As a matter of fact,
if we know anything about the apostles ministry, we know that
they suffered greatly. And that Paul himself, after
he was blinded on the road to Damascus, was told, Jesus told
him, says, go tell Saul how much he must suffer for my namesake
and that he would suffer greater than any man for my namesake. And he did. And then you have
these beautiful texts like 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And though we do not
lose heart, listen to this. Look at this and then we'll continue.
2 Corinthians chapter 4. I can't say favorite. It's just
a good text. Verse seven, we have this treasure,
the treasure of the gospel that shines in the hearts of men to
give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. We have this treasure in jars
of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not
to us. We are, verse eight, afflicted
in every way. but not driven to despair. Persecuted,
but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying, not sometimes,
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus in order that
the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. Four,
we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus'
sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our
mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life is at work
in you. Since, therefore, we have the
same spirit of faith according to what has been written, I believe
and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also speak, knowing,
knowing, knowing, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His
presence. For it is all for your sake,
so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase
thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. You see what he's saying there?
We are being shredded like cheese, and we are not going to lose
heart. For though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self
is being renewed day by day. Verse 17, this light momentary
affliction. And I want to stop there and
I want to talk about what Paul means when he says light momentary
affliction. Paul was disowned, Paul was stoned, Paul was imprisoned,
Paul was beaten, Paul was shipwrecked, Paul was hated. And he called
that light affliction. And his entire life as a young
man at the stoning, well at his salvation, shortly after the
stoning of Stephen, until the day his head was taken by Nero,
he called that momentary because it is momentary. And this light
momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison as we look Not to the things that are seen,
but the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen
are transient, temporal, temporary, but the things that are unseen
are eternal. So keep that in mind. As this boat was filling
up. Jesus was thinking this isn't
even affliction. And a lot of times what we think
is affliction isn't affliction at all, it's just smooth sailing. And we think, where is Jesus?
Well, Jesus was in the boat with them. This didn't happen because
they were separated from him. It happened to them just because.
And Jesus was also with them. And so the temporary life, momentary
affliction of this life is not because Jesus is away from you,
it's because it just happens. I made the comment to a sister
several months ago around Easter and talking about this, wickedness
of cancer and how it just takes lives. And I said, yes, and I
said, cancer is a result of sin. She misunderstood me. I said,
no, no, no, no, no. People don't get cancer because they've sinned.
I said, no, cancer is in the world because we've sinned. Because
Adam sinned, cancer is in the world. But even cancer, though
it's taken dear friends and loved ones from me, is nothing compared
to the fury of the wrath of God. And it's light and it's momentary. And it doesn't mean that God
isn't with us. It doesn't mean that Christ isn't ours and we're
not his. It's just the way things are
in a fallen, broken world when we just sang today that one day
he will come and he will set it all right. And what do they do, they have
no faith. He was asleep. Imagine how much water was on
him. He rested there. And they woke
him and said, keep in mind, they'd seen him do miracles already.
They'd seen him heal people. They heard the testimony and
some of them probably heard the voice of God, this is my son.
They've seen what he could do. They've heard the truth of the
gospel. They knew his power and they say to him, teacher, look
at what they do. Do you not care that we are perishing
in that the way we work? Why, God, have you lost your
mind? You're going to let me suffer.
Do you not care? See, that's what that's what
it looks like. We think that it's Jesus' fault
because he's careless. How about we look at what he's
doing and follow suit? He's resting. Man, there's a
bigger picture there for me. Resting in the sufficiency and
the character and the promise of the Father. There was no perishing
to be had there for him or the other man. For there was a greater
purpose for which they would perish in this life. But they
would never perish eternally. Have you no care that we're perishing? So what does Jesus do? He awoke
and rebuked the wind and rebuked the sea. He rebuked it. He says, peace, be still. Amazing words. Here is Jesus
who was asleep and fine. Keep in mind, Jesus didn't wake
up in fear and do something. Jesus woke up in response to
the unbelief of the disciples. Jesus acted
because of their no faith. Jesus responded in their failure.
Jesus responded in their lack of trust. Jesus responded in
their blindness. He didn't wait for them to go,
OK, all right, let's just wake up Jesus. He'll fix it. They
accused him. They blamed him. And Jesus woke
up and said, Peace. Be still. And the sea was calm. Friends, there's a gospel message
there. You know what the devil lies to us and tells us? That
we must get our lives together in order to be right with God
and that when our lives are not together, we're not pleasing
to him. It is a lie. from the Father
of lives, through the mouths of people who could care more
about what people think of them than they do the glory of God,
who is Jesus Christ. And that's why so many people
in the political church of the United States of America, who
is Babylon and will fall at the day of Christ and His reign,
are so disjointed, discouraged, disfigured, and distrusted. It's a sad day when the pulpits
of America screen legalism and moralism and humanism. When Jesus, by the very act of
miracles, he comes in when there is no faith to be seen. You don't believe and then Jesus
comes. He comes and you believe. You were born again and you go,
I see. You are made new and you trust. And even when you're faithless,
he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself, Paul tells Timothy.
He cannot deny himself. It is his nature, his character,
the perfect essence of his immutable self. He's a God of truth. This isn't a friendly sermon
to most people. Because most people do not like
God to be the king of their lives, but rather they want to come
to him and open the door to him that he may be on their terms.
Friends, that's a dangerous teaching. And it is not from truth, but
from error. And he says, peace, peace, all
is at peace. Sometimes I think he was rebuking
them. Peace. And then he commanded the wind
that he owned and created, be still. There's peace here. I was at peace. You woke me up
because you don't believe. You're unbelievers. And the wind ceased and there
was a great calm. I believe there was a greater
calm than ever was. I believe fish stopped and went,
whoa, where's the current? I mean, you know, it's one of
those things where, and don't quote me on that, So, where's
the current? It's just such a peace that it
had to be described as a great peace. A great calm. A calm that had not been seen
on that sea in their lifetime. Mark goes, I remember that sea,
and I would travel it every day, and it had never been that peaceful. It had never been that calm.
Jesus just stood up and wiped his eyes and went, peace, be
still, and it went, phew. And imagine the peace that was
in their hearts all of a sudden. The stillness of knowing he was
asleep because he's the master of such things. He controls the
wind and the sea and they obey him. He didn't do some magic
trick. He didn't stand there and for
three or four minutes, they just waved. He didn't do anything.
He just stood up and said, peace, be still. He probably didn't
even yell it, he probably just said it, peace, be still, and
the sea stopped. And he said to them, why are
you so afraid? So there's a question for you today, church. Why are
you so afraid of your suffering? Why are you so afraid of your
cancer? Why are you so afraid of your financial problems? Why
are you so afraid of your marriage problems? Why are you so afraid
of changes in your life? Why are you so afraid of the
storm? Because when you give up and throw your hands in the
air in total fear, I'm there. And I will bring peace to you
when you stop trying to be the peace of your own life. Have you still no faith? I love
that. You still have no faith? Where's your faith? Why does
this narrative? See, people say, oh, the Bible
is so It's just so unreal. It can't be true. These people
put this together and we get to the absurdity of that. But if I were writing a story
with me in it, I'd look pretty good in it. And if I were Mark, I'd be like,
those 11 were screaming like little girls and I was going,
come on, Jesus, show them what you got. I mean, that's what
I'd write. Or I'd admit the whole story that I was down there about
to drown and crying in my on fear. Have you still no faith? You haven't had any faith yet.
You don't have any faith now. And now that you just see me
do that, you still don't have faith. Have you still no faith? He asked
the question, you still no faith? And look what it says, that they
were filled with great fear. Now, we look at two weeks ago
and I talked about how we ought to fear God. It's not a trembling
and horror and terror. It is an absolute respect of
affection. It's an understanding of what could have been and what
should be by His holiness and His justice. But it is justice.
He gives us His righteousness because His justice is poured
out on Christ here on the cross. And we're filled with great fear
and said to one another, have you still no faith? Have no faith. Who is this? Who is this? Who is this? They're following
Him everywhere. Christ! Who are you? Who is this? You see, when you
go there and you ask that question, who is this Jesus? We are just
like these disciples, where we think we know who Jesus is. We
think we know He's a martyr. He wasn't a martyr. He was a
sheep. He was a lamb. He wasn't martyred. He gave Himself. His life wasn't
taken from Him for the sake of His cause. He was the cause and
His death was the cause. And His life was the cause. Who
is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him? Who is this
man? See, here's here's what I think
about this. There's some there's some there's some major pragmatism
from a theological point of view here. What do I mean by that?
There's some great application that has to do with who God is
from this text. And the reason I wanted to couple
with James, chapter one is is James, chapter one. Just throw
over there for a quick second. Listen to this. Verse two. Count it all joy, my brothers,
when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know. I emphasize that when we see
it, knowing, knowing, knowing, for you know that the testing
of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its
full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Now, if you continue there, lacking
in nothing, some people say, what am I supposed to do in this
circumstance? Look at verse 5. I'm going to couple it with the
theme and then look at the text in Mark 4. I'm going to use James,
who was in that boat, to help us understand a little bit more
about the thinking there that was going on that wasn't written.
If any of you lacks wisdom, Wisdom for most of us is not, oh, let's
be very discerning. Wisdom is, oh, tell me, God,
I don't know what to do. Where do I go? What do I do?
What do I say? How am I going to get through this? We don't
have wisdom. So we lack wisdom. If any one
of you lacks wisdom, what did you just said? That your trial
creates steadfastness of your faith and let steadfastness have
its full effect. In other words, it'll do this.
It'll give you everything and make you perfect and make you
complete, that you lack nothing. But if you lack wisdom, Let him
who lacks wisdom ask God who gives generously to all who without
reproach. That means anybody, even those
of no faith, little faith. When I say no faith, I'm not
talking about unbelievers. I'm talking about believers who
have lost it. Lost their hope. Because of the
trials of life. Not rejected the gospel, but
gone. I just don't see it. And I'll show you in a minute
what I think everybody in this room is probably experienced and maybe
experiencing now. But here, without reproach, let
him ask in faith, in other words, trusting that I know God will
give me wisdom if I ask, knowing he'll give me wisdom. And it will be given, but let
him ask in faith with no doubting. In other words, that's why I'm
asking for wisdom, because I'm doubting. He's not talking about
in your doubting. He's talking about asking for
wisdom and trusting that God will give you wisdom so that
which you come to resolve is the will of God and wisdom from
God. You stand in without doubting.
How many times have you heard in your own life and the lives
of others? Oh, we feel like the Lord's calling us to do this.
We felt like the Lord's calling us here. We felt the Lord's calling
us here. And then all the troubles start
and they go, well, maybe God's not calling us here after all.
That's sinful. If God calls you here and he's
going to make circumstances be so that you have to frustrate
yourself to where you think you've made a wrong choice, you're an
unbeliever in that situation. And the reason people are so
fickle in that way is because they don't realize what James
1 teaches and what Mark 4 shows us. They think trials is a sign from
God, this divine thing that comes down to give us an understanding.
Oh, we better figure out how we stepped on the wrong landmine.
We're on the wrong path. No, you're on the right path. The question is, will you take
your foot off of it and trust God for the outcome? Because
you asked for wisdom, he gave you wisdom, he brought you to
where you are and he's going to carry you through it. And
the question is, are you sure that you have sought wisdom from
the Lord? How do we know that? Well, that's
not what this text is about. I mean, that's not what this sermon is
about. But have you sought counsel? A church member without a family
is really waiting for problems. Just go ahead and take a number.
Wait for problems. Next. Matter of fact, your problems
will come before your numbers up. So we ask. And we don't doubt
for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea. How fitting,
James, how fitting that he would write that in a moment when he
had no faith and he thought for sure he was certain. Come on,
he knew that he knew that he knew he knew that he was going
to perish. James had no faith. And at that moment, the one who
doubted was like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed
by the wind. For that person, verse 7, must not suppose that
he will receive anything from the Lord. He's double-minded,
unstable in all his ways. That question came up in a Q&A
some few weeks ago. A double-minded person is a person
that doesn't trust God for the answer. A person that gets the
counsel from God's Word and goes, yeah, but... A person that says,
God told me here. Oh, that doesn't look right.
So maybe here. Oh, well, maybe here. And it's
like, I don't know, Cookie Monster or something, wherever there's
a crime, he's going. And that's not the way God works. And if
the apostles sought the will of God in that way, they would
have never accomplished one thing. If we look at our circumstances
as a church, each of you in your own personal lives. Well, ever
since I started coming to Grace Truth, my finances have gone
down. It must not be God's will for me to be here. It probably
is. Well, there's just been so much
going on in my life, I just don't know if I have time to be in
fellowship with the saints. Well, you're probably right.
So you need to do that, which you know you should. I probably don't need to be a
part of a church anywhere. I can just stay home and look at the
Internet. No, you can't do that because that's disobedient. You
can't ask God for anything if you ask him to do anything, and
yet you're not going to do anything that he asked you to do. That
seems a little funny, the way that sounded. Wisdom. Who is this man? And isn't that what all false
teaching does? It paints us a new picture of who Jesus is. Every
bit of it. If you want to if you want to
change the picture of who Jesus is, change the picture of what
the church is supposed to look like. And it changes Jesus, and not
only does it change Jesus, it changes the gospel, it changes
the outcome of the church, it changes the plans and the programs,
it changes everything. What do we learn in Titus? That
right doctrine produces right living. Teach what accords with
sound doctrine, Paul tells Titus. I left you in Crete that you
may appoint elders in every city to put in order what remains
of the church. To put in order what remains
of the church. That they may be sound in the faith. He calls
Titus a true child in a common faith. Are we in a common faith?
Not if the Jesus that you think is Jesus is different than the
Jesus that the Bible teaches. And I'll be straight with you,
church. We learn a lot of bad stuff that's even in my mind.
and heart, because we've grown up in an environment that we
learn wrongly about the gospel. And that's why we have to stay
focused on the word. I'm a big, according to some
people, a Bible worshiper. Well, I do worship the word of
God. His name is Jesus. The word became flesh and dwelt
among us. God speaks. God and his wisdom saw fit to
use natural means of syntax and grammar rather than epileptic
seizures and trances to communicate himself to us. That's how God
works, because God created the natural order. So therefore,
God communicates to the natural order through supernatural means
or through supernatural, through natural means, supernaturally,
through natural means. So even as God spoke to Noah,
to Moses and to Noah. He doesn't speak to you unless
it comes to the word of God through them. The apostles in the same
way. So the trials and sufferings
is not the cause. I mean, yes, sometimes there's
consequences for disobedience and rebellion, but there's never
condemnation. It's never punishment. It's always
pruning. It's always what? Discipline.
Matter of fact, Hebrews writes that if anyone's not disciplined,
he's illegitimate and not a true son. It means you haven't been
adopted. If your life is so good and so flowing that there's no
conflict, that there's no tension in your life. that causes you
to exercise your faith in the one who is faithful, Jesus Christ,
then you're not a true child of God. Certainly not. Certainly not. So the outcomes
of these trials are not some things and then are some things.
Based on this text, in closing, let me give you some things to
think about. They are not a sign of God for us to decipher. James 1, you need wisdom, ask
for wisdom. There are things that the scripture
has told us that we ought to know to be doing. Most of the
commands of the New Testament church are for the what? Are for the unity of the body
of Christ growing together in fellowship and worship. So it
is not for you to pray whether or not God wants you to be part
of a local church. I hear it all the time. Well,
there's no church membership in the Bible. Yes, there is.
They had widows list. They had a list of who were there
in Corinth. They had a list of who was supposed
to be there. And when they kicked them out of the church because
of sexual immorality and incest and lawsuits, they had a list
of who shouldn't be there and who couldn't be there. How do
you think they did that? How do you think they qualified
people who would get the food distribution by the deacons?
They had to be a widow over a certain age. They had to have these requirements
and these requirements and these requirements. And how do you
think they did that? They just went, okay, you're
qualified. And they just put their, you
know, some kind of psychic mojo. No. They wrote it down, they
talked to them, they interviewed them. Are you of this type of
person? Are you in this particular place
in life? Then you can receive this food. So you put your name
on this list and we will feed you on the days we're supposed
to feed you. That's why deacons, doulos, diakonos, that's why
deacons were given to the church to be servants for food, to feed
people who were in need, who were of the church. So it's not
a sign for us. We seek wisdom and then we stand
in it. We don't. And then something
else. I mean, that's divination. You know what that means? It's
like necromancy. It's it's dealing with the spirits
trying to look at the science, like looking at the weather and
the news for the incoming. You know, the Bible teaches us
not to do that, actually commands us not to do that. So we see
all these people who are talking about prophecy and the end of
the world, the second coming, and they're telling us that it's
coming by their own actions, they're making themselves apostate.
We're not supposed to be trying to figure out all these things.
We're supposed to be doing that which the Bible has told us clearly
to do and not just do that in obedience, but do it because
it's what's in it. Secondly, the trials of suffering
are not, first, not a sign from God for us to decipher. And it's also, too, not a call
that we are not in His will. These men were with Jesus. Just
reiterate that for you. I want you to understand these
men were with Christ and the suffering Jesus promises suffering
in this life. You cannot follow Christ and
expect not to suffer. It's not possible. It's not possible. The enemy of God in the supernatural
world will not let you rest in this world without suffering.
And God cannot grow you in your strength and grow you in glory
and grow you in grace without suffering. It can't happen. Jesus,
who never sinned nor could sin, grew through suffering and learned
obedience through suffering as a human being. It's not that we're not in his
will, it's probably that we are in his will. Thirdly, suffering and trials
are not evidence that God has left us. Jesus was in the boat
and it came upon him. The Holy Spirit was given to
the apostles, but they were all killed and imprisoned. Why? Why is it that when we are, when
we, you ever noticed that if you just talk about God in general
and community, people love it. You just stop at the gas pump. And get to a place where you
get to a conversation with some people and you just start talking
about, oh, God is good and God is, oh, they'll resonate, they'll
high five you, they'll hug you, they'll pay for your gas, they'll
talk to you. It'll be great. Pull your Bible out. And read
a passage. I dare you. I dare you to go
to James or John or 1 John. I dare you. Their tune will change most likely.
If you go door to door. Hey, how you doing? We're just
in the neighborhood. Hey, what do y'all need? No,
no, no. Fine. You go door to door, ask people, can you pray
for them? They love you to death. You go out on the street, you
hand out literature about a picnic that you're doing, or an event
that you're doing, or a revival meeting, camp meeting that you're
doing, or a VBS that you're doing. Man, the police will drive by
and help you, hand out your flyers. But you open your mouth to proclaim
the Word of God, people will hate you, cuss you, call the
cops on you, and they will not relent. They will not. As you weep in
their living room for them to listen to the Word of God, they
will hate you and talk about you when you leave and say, I
hope he never comes back to my house. They visit the church
and they hear the gospel and they're like, that's too edgy
for me. I had somebody tell me recently
that you preach like you're mad. Am I mad? No, I'm amazed. I'm amazed. If I, and I can't
see it, but I see people lose their voice over soccer games
and get a sunburn over a rubber leather ball being whacked around
by a bunch of people and go, could you say that? I saw, I'd
rather watch paint dry. And if you like sports, that's
great. I like billiards and chess. I mean, you know, and hockey.
I don't know any hockey team. I don't even know what it's called,
the thing you hit it with. But it's fun to see on TV every
now and then for about three minutes. It's fast. But if we
can get excited about those things, if we can weep, if we can weep
at the sound of symphony, if we can hear Luciano Pavarotti
sing Puccini, and get chills, then why can we not just be overwhelmed
with the beauty of the glory of God? What's wrong with this
church? We don't love it. The world doesn't
love Jesus Christ, but they love the God that they like to come
to. They love the little mediator Jesus, the mansy-pansy wimp of
a man who will do anything that he could to bring them begging
and crying and bleeding and dying to try to get them to see how
much he loves them. They love that Jesus. But they
don't love the God of the Bible who fully shows Himself through
Jesus Christ. When, as Brother Neil and I were
talking this morning in John 12, it says many of the Jews
and the Pharisees believed in Him, but would not confess Him
because they loved the glory that comes from man rather than
the glory that comes from God. The rich young ruler, your God,
your King, You have eternal life. How do I get it? Behold. Well,
I am holy, he says. Then give away everything you
love. And you'll have treasure in heaven. Follow me. I'll take
you there. Nah. Not that way. I'm out of here. Why'd you come? When did you
come over here, Rabbi, teacher? You come after me, Jesus says,
not because of my signs and wonders, but because you've got your stomachs
full of food. Do not labor for the bread that
perishes, but labor for the food that endures to eternal life.
I am the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to
all men. You see the difference there? What is the glory that
comes from God? His name is Jesus. And suffering helps us see him. We are able to see because of
his suffering. We are able to be justified before
the father because of the passion of Jesus Christ, who died that
we might live. The suffering of this life is
not a sign for us to decipher. It's not a call that we're not
in the will of God. It's not evidence that God has left us,
and fourthly, it's not a result of weak faith. The storm came
and they had no faith to begin with, but it's an opportunity
for the faithful to run in. Salvation and redemption is not
the puppy marketing himself in the window of the pet shop. He's
got the mercy of the patrons. And even the puppy has a greater
chance because he's cute and we're not. We're worthy because God has
declared us worthy. We're not worthy of his love
apart from his mercy. Fifthly, suffering and trials
in this life are, we went to the negative, now we're going
to the positive, are an opportunity for faith. They're an opportunity
for faith. How are these how are these disciples
ever going to learn truly? And keep in mind, well, you know,
they saw Lazarus come out. And still left after Jesus died,
because they thought it was over, he said, go away, I'll be back
when he was arrested. Thomas never came back, they
had to bribe him back. Come prove us wrong. Just show
up, see what happens. He was sitting there with his
arms crossed against the wall going, these people are stupid. And
when Jesus busted in through a brick wall without tearing
the wall down, just walked through the wall and says, Thomas, behold,
my hand's on my side. And he falls down, the Lord of
me and the God of me. See, when Thomas had no faith,
Jesus was faithful to come and save him. The woman at the well of Sychar
in John chapter 4 had no faith and wanted to talk religion.
Jesus preached to her the gospel, they'll come in time. When we worship neither here
nor there, but in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such
people to worship Him. And all of a sudden she sees
and she goes, wow, I guess I'm going to have to trust fully
in Messiah to give me the answers, aren't I? And He says, woman,
the one to whom you speak is He. She was born again. before she even knew that that
was Messiah. I saw a man who told me everything
I'd ever done. No, he didn't. He told her she
was a religious zealot who was sleeping around. But because she was born again,
she could see the immense wickedness of her soul and the immense mercy
of the Father through Jesus Christ. She saw it all. She saw it all. It's an opportunity for faith. Sixthly, suffering and trials
in this world and in this life are an opportunity for strengthening
our faith. Peter writes to these Jews in
the Dyspersia, who he says to them that though for a little
while, if necessary, you will face various types of trials,
that these trials will what? Will test the genuineness of
your faith, which is more precious than gold, though that perishes
when tested by fire, to result in the praise and the glory and
the honor at the appearance of Jesus Christ. Though you do not
see Him, you love Him. Though you have not seen Him,
you love Him. Though you do not see Him now, you love Him and
you are filled with a joy that is inexpressible. How are they filled with a joy
that is inexpressible? He tells them. Or the writer of Hebrew
tells them. Sort of the same audience there. The writer of Hebrews tells them
that you have a greater reward. And so you joyfully accept the
plundering, the seizing, the removal, the stealing of your
land and your livelihood and your children because you've
got a better reward. Is there a better reward that's
worth the cost of the lives of your home and your money and
your family? Yeah, absolutely. Seventh season for growth. In your faith, not just strengthening
your faith, the season for your growth of your faith as you still
have no faith and they have a little more faith that day. But it still
is perfect. Our faith is perfected in us.
What does it say in Hebrews that Jesus is the author? and perfecter, or it's not really
a word, finisher of our faith. The finisher of our faith. He
started it and He'll finish it. He who began a good work in you,
Paul says, is faithful to carry it to the day of completion,
to continue to the day of completion. What is that? Not only is it
our glorified, fully, wholly perfect selves, But it's a full
faith forever, never waning. You know what that's like? No,
we don't. We get a taste of it for just
a few minutes. And then the world comes back in, the mind comes
back in. It's a season for wisdom. It's a season to understand the
will of God, that it's our sanctification, Paul tells the Thessalonians. It's an opportunity. The will
of God is that we rejoice in affliction. The will of God is
that we give our lives to be a living sacrifice, not a martyr's. That's OK. But we're to live
for Christ. We're to live for the gospel.
We're to live for suffering. He says, endure suffering like
a good soldier, Timothy. That's what Paul teaches. You
see adversity? Don't skirt it. Run into it. Go into the wind. Go into the
face of adversity. Go in. Do not worry. What does
the Lord tell the disciples? Do not worry, for when you go
to these towns, you will be arrested. You will be persecuted. What
does Paul tell them? The only thing I know that awaits
me is imprisonment. The Lord has told me I'm going
to go to prison when I enter the city. And what does Paul
write from prison? Though I lie in chains, the Word
of God is not bound. You know, sometimes they put
his hands in chains so he couldn't write, so he would preach the
gospel to jailers and preach the gospel to scribes and preach
the gospel to people who would come in to tend to him and they
would be born again and then they would come in there and
write the letters for him. You cannot bind the Word of God. And ultimately, what this does
is likely is it proves suffering and trials prove that we are
really believers. Not just by their existence,
because unbelievers have trials, too. But by the fact that we stand
bold under them, we persevere through them, we trust with joy
in them, in Christ. The fullness of the outcome of
that is a season of solidarity. Isn't that what we want? We want to we want to just maintain
an even ground of solidarity. We want to be on a foundation
that stops giving way. Friends, there is no foundation
in the world. But as we're in this rocky ground,
we stand on the rock of offense. The gospel. We don't want to
be a wave tossed to and fro. We don't want to be, as Paul
tells the Ephesians, a leaf blown in the wind with every wind of
doctrine. Well, I'm not looking at it.
Yes, we are. We're looking at new doctrine, new teaching when
we impose a new Jesus or when we argue that we're supposed
to find some hidden message in our suffering or when we deal
with the attitude that that maybe Jesus has forsaken us. That's
different doctrine. That's that's different theology.
That's not sound teaching. It's that we're being tossed
to and fro. And what we do is we go after things that tickle
our itching ears. We try to find somebody who's
got a devotional book that teaches us that Jesus speaks through
other people. Rather than his word, it's a lie. We try to go
find a video or a book about somebody who died and came back
from the dead so we can find some ounce of hope when the Bible
clearly, Jesus Himself says, if someone does not believe the
prophets and the Word of God, they will not believe in Me,
even if one comes back from the dead. And He proves it by raising
Lazarus from the dead. And then the Pharisees saw Lazarus
come out of that tomb after four days of rot. And they said, we've
got to kill him and Lazarus. How stupid? You want to kill
the very man who just raised the dead? So how do we deal with it? What
do we do? We find ourselves in a place
where we have no faith or have weak faith. And we're in the
storm, we're in the boat, and we're blaming God that we're
perishing. And we see and we hear these words, I understand,
but I just can't get on my... Feet, I cannot stand up. You're
not supposed to stand up. You're supposed to lay down like
Jesus was in the boat that was about to sink and rest. Because
the Father's promises are, Amen. Not hope you get them, but they
are yours. So we rest. We rest. Lord, take us through the storm. Hold us in the storm. But even
after the storm was over, those disciples had to bail some water. So even when we're resting, we're
working, but we're not working for our hope. We're working with
our hope. We're working from our hope. So how are we to deal
with this? We continue to have opportunities
to grow through suffering. We're never going to stop suffering
ever, never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever
going to stop suffering ever. The minute you think that you're
going to get to a place where there's no more suffering is
the minute you bought another line. It's not going to happen. You think, oh, I'm almost done.
Get ready. It's not going to be an escalator.
It's going to be a clip. And even the cliff is in the
hand of God. And nobody's going to take you
out. How are we to deal with it? We
continue to know that we're going to have opportunity to grow through
suffering no matter what. Secondly, we are one body who
is supposed to endure if we get together. You know, one of the
biggest sins of the church, and I know that sounds so funny,
One of the biggest failures of the church is that when it gets
tough, we separate. That's weird. Oh, I got arthritis. Tendonitis. I mean, headaches. You ever heard the old adage,
cut your nose off to spite your face? That's what we do. And
then some of us right now are thinking, man, I'm guilty of
that. I'm guilty. Oh, woe is me. Stop. Stop. Woe is you, not
woe is you. Great is our God. Great is our
King. Great is our Savior, who suffered
the wrath of the Father so that we could become the righteous
of God. See what kind of love the Father has given to us that
we should be called, Pastor Luke preached last week, the children
of God. And so we are. We're a body. How do we stand? How do we deal with a weak faith?
We deal with a weak faith by saying, I got a weak faith to
our brothers and sisters who go, oh, crud, me too. Let's be
weak together. Like duct tape, that's some strong
stuff. Put it in the dirt. And they try to stick it on something.
It doesn't work. It's a mess. But when it's all wound up together
on that roll, you know, you can't get it off
sometimes. You get it on your hand, you're
in trouble. On your eyelash, it's over. It's over. What's
that mean? Well, in some way, I see the
church as sort of like a roll of duct tape. When we're together,
we're adhesive. And even if there's a piece that's real dirty on
in there, let's wrap it around with some clean duct tape. But even duct tape won't hold
this building up. So it's still weak. It's still not strong. And our weakness, God made us
alive in Christ Jesus. In our weakness, Paul tells the
Romans that the Spirit of God intercedes for us with words
and moanings and groanings that we can't even understand. Friends,
we can't do that apart. It's not meant to be done apart. It is rebellion to think we can
handle our suffering. We continually press and hold,
not being double minded, but holding fast to the person and
the character and the promise of God through Jesus Christ.
We know him and he knows us. And so we hold fast. You see
how that works together? As the church feeds itself, and
as the shepherds feed the church, and we pray, and we work, and
we live, and we do, that's why we're so intentional about not
programming ourselves to busyness. Because when people die, the
things you've invested in that cost you the most take priority.
Friends, as the people of God, the things that we invest in
that cost us the most should be each other. because God invested
in us through the body of Jesus. And finally, when we're weak and absent in
our faith, we say, oh, do you not care that we're about to
perish? But we don't perish, do we? We
persevere. We know that last year's storm
may still be brewing, but we're further along in it than we were
last year. And one day we will stand bold,
fully complete, lacking nothing on the other side. And if it's
before our Lord takes us away or comes again, we will be preparing
to go into another one. It's often the question, how
can you be so strong with everything you've got going on? We're not.
You ever had anybody ask you that? And you want to laugh at
them, but it's just not the right moment. You just want to bust
out laughing because it sounds like a joke, but they're being
serious. I can't laugh right now. So you sort of flare your
nostrils up and you go, hmm. And the reason you're laughing
is because you don't have a clue. We're not strong. Our God is
strong. Our brothers and sisters are
strong because Christ is strong in us together. I always use the idea that we
all don't want to be the same thing in the body. We don't want
to be a bag of eyeballs or a bag of toenails. But friends, take
off a toenail. It's important. It's very painful
without one. There's a reason. Everything's
necessary. You, even in your weak faith and suffering, are
necessary to the body of Christ. And God, through your season
of suffering, has you as a blessing to somebody else. Absolutely. So the truth is, is that God
gives us to Jesus And all who have been given to Jesus come
to Jesus, and all who have come to Jesus, He will never cast
away. Have you come to believe in the
gospel of Jesus Christ? Are you believing today? Let's pray. Lord, there is no word It's amazing
how often when I start to pray, that's what comes to my mind.
I don't know what to say. We praise You in the storm, Father. God, there's a lot of storm among
us right now. A lot of hurt. A lot of sickness. A lot of poverty. A lot of weak faith. Just a bunch
of weaklings wringing our hands in the boat, Lord, while Jesus
is resting at Your feet. A bunch of Martha's trying to
clean the kitchen when Jesus is teaching in the living room. Thank You, Lord, that You gave
the measure of grace to both of them, that they might believe
Lord, thank You that You've given the measure of grace to us that
we would believe, and that when we're weakened, when we fail
in our faith, You are faithful. Lord, I confess that I want to
have a way of just instructing this, that it just goes, boom,
and aha, and the light comes on, and everybody gets it. God,
I can't. I cannot do it. It is beyond my ability. And
Father, I think that that's very much the same, as it was beyond
the ability of your disciples in that boat to do anything about
the sinking of that ship. Father, it's beyond our ability
to do anything in our efforts or even the gifts you've given
us to give faith to each other. But Lord, when we rest in you,
it is a gift. Help us rest. Help us rest when
we see sin in our life to know that we don't have to do that
anymore, that we can come away. Help us rest knowing that we're
not weak and frail and worthless because we need help. Help us
rest when we are struggling to even want to get up in the morning,
Lord, and we just do it out of necessity. Help us rest, Father,
when we don't hunger for your word. Help us rest when we're
angry. Help us rest when we're depressed.
Help us rest when we're hurting and sick and don't have the ability
to to teach or to pray, help us rest in Your everlasting love,
in the fullness of Your grace, which has given us and shown
us perfectly in Jesus Christ. In His name we pray.