So good morning. If you care
to open your Bibles with me to the book of Matthew, Matthew
chapter 14. Let's continue our study of Matthew
chapter 14 this morning. Before we look into God's Word,
let's bow to Him in prayer. Our Father which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your matchless name. We bow before you with
reverence, fear, and trembling at coming before Almighty God. Father, how thankful we are that
while we come reverently, we can also come boldly, confidently
in our Lord Jesus Christ because of who he is and what he has
accomplished for his people. That because of his perfect righteousness,
his precious blood shed to put away the sin of his people. We
can bow before your throne and call you Abba Father. Father,
as your children, we've gathered here this morning to worship
your matchless name. And we beg of you that you would
enable us this morning to worship, to worship you in spirit and
in truth. Father, I pray you'd cause our
hearts to rejoice and be thrilled at the sound of the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, enable it to be preached
this morning. Father, I beg of you that you would be with me
this morning and enable me to rightly divide the word of truth.
Speak to my heart and open my mouth that I might, in clear
and simple terms, proclaim the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I pray that you'd give us all a heart of faith, an ear
that would hear and believe that when we hear of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that we look to him, that we believe him and rest
in him, to be able to see his glory. Father, would you reveal
to us your glory in this place this morning, we pray. Well,
we pray for our class here, we pray for our children's classes. Father, that you'd bless in a
special way, bless our teachers and our children both, that you
might use this time to plant the seeds of faith in the hearts
of our young ones. And Father, keep us faithful
to continually point them, to teach them who the Lord Jesus
Christ is, who they are, and to constantly point them to Christ
the Savior. Pray that you'd give them faith
to run to Him. And Father, we pray a blessing
this morning on those who are in times of difficult difficult
trials, there are so many. Father, we're thankful to know
that you're able, that none of these situations are too hard
for thee. We pray that you give your comforting
presence to your people until such time as you see fit to deliver
them. Father, we ask you would forgive
us of our many sins and failures and see us and hear us only in
our Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his blessed name we pray
and give thanks. All right, I've titled our lesson
this morning, The Lord's Sovereignty in Trials. And I hope that this
will be a very helpful lesson to many who find themselves in
the heat of trial right now. There's a picture here in our
text of a time of severe trial for the Lord's disciples. And
there's a beautiful picture for us to see and hang on to the
Lord's sovereignty in these times of trials. If Lord will enable
us to see his sovereignty, his sovereign love and care for his
people, both in times of trial here and everywhere, it'll be
a blessing and a comfort to our hearts. We read this in scripture
all the time and we quote it to ourselves often, but we'll
see an example of it here this morning in our text. This is
the Lord working all things together for good to them that love him,
to those who are called according to God's purpose. I want to show
you six lessons on God's sovereignty that I believe will be helpful
to us. Number one is this. This is going
to be a severe trial for these disciples. And the Lord sovereignly
sent this trial to them, not just anybody in particular. He
sovereignly sent this trial to these disciples whom he loved.
Verse 22, Matthew chapter 14. In a straight way, Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him unto the
other side while he sent the multitudes away. You remember,
we looked at this last week. The Lord had just fed 5,000 men. And that number does not include
all the women and children that were with them. He fed them with
a boy's lunch, five barley loaves, two small fishes. And John tells
us, in John's account of this miracle, the people who saw this
were fed by this miracle. They were going to take the Lord
by force and make him king. And I can understand why they
think that, can you? I mean, it would be good to have a king,
especially at that time when famine and hunger were a very
common thing. Not common in our country, but
by God's grace, thankfully at this time. But you think about
a place where hunger is a very common thing. Here's a man who's
got the power to feed everyone by creating food. Nobody's gonna
go hungry if this is our king. I can understand why they'd want
him to be their king. And plus, this is in their mind.
If this man has the power to create food, he's got the power
to take Rome's boot off our throat. He could set us free from this
horrible oppression of Rome. And we would think, naturally
speaking, we would think that'd be wonderful if this man would
become our king. But it wasn't the Lord's will.
Even 5,000 men couldn't by force take one man and make him king.
He sent them away and they went away because He's sovereign. Our Lord, and we cannot repeat
this to one another too often. Our Lord is sovereign over all
of this world, over all of it, over everything in it, everything
that happens in it, everyone in it. Our God's sovereign over
all of it. And this world causes us a lot
of trouble. and a lot of heartache. It just
seems like the world keeps coming up with new ways to cause us
heartache, doesn't it? But it'll comfort God's people
to know that everything that's happening in our world, everything
that's happening around us and everything that's happening to
us is happening according to God's eternal will and purpose.
None of it is happening to us against God's will. If that were
so, God's not God. None of it's happening to us
against God's will. Everything that's happening to us is happening
to us according to the will and purpose of our God. And there's
not one creature in this creation who can do one thing against
the will of God, not one. And that comforts the hearts
of God's people. So the Lord sent the multitude away and the
Lord sovereignly sent his disciples off into the sea alone. They
didn't want to go, but Matthew tells us here, the Lord constrained
The word means he compelled them. He forced them to go. They didn't
want to go out into the sea, but he forced them to go and
they went. They went because he saw them.
They just, they did his will. They couldn't do anything else
but do his will. And I can understand the Lord
had just worked this miracle. They knew it better than anybody
else. They were the ones that distributed that food. They were
the ones that took up the 12 baskets of fragments that remained.
I can understand them not wanting to be out of the presence of
the master. I don't want to be in his presence. I'd never want
to leave him, but the Lord sent them away. He sent them away
to be alone out there on the sea for their good. Even though
they didn't understand it, he did it for their good. We know
the end of the story. You know the story. I haven't
read it yet, but you know this story. You know how it ends.
They didn't know how it ended. They didn't even know what the
middle part of the story was going to be like. They just knew they didn't want
to leave the presence of the Lord. They didn't understand,
but the Lord was doing it for their good. And you and I need
to remember that often, often. In my case, almost always, I
do not understand why the Lord's doing what he's doing. We don't
understand why the Lord sends us where he sends us. You know,
we may not want to go there. I may want to go over here, not
go over there, but the Lord sends us where he sends us for reasons
that are known only to him. And I promise you, I promise
you he's doing it for good. Even when we don't understand,
sometimes we end up seeing the Lord's reason. Oh, now I see. what God's providence was in
this. I see, at least I think I see something of, I think I
see God's reason for doing this. Sometimes we don't, but either
way, every last one of us, we are where we are. We're doing
what we're doing at God's command because he put us here. And then
the Lord, after he sent the multitude away, he sent the disciples out
into the sea. Then the Lord sovereignly sent
the storm. to that spot on the sea where
his disciples were. He's in control of creation. He's in control of nature. The disciples already didn't
want to go there alone, but if they knew that storm was coming,
they sure wouldn't want to go out there without their Lord,
would they? But that's where the Lord sent them. And when
they got out there all alone, that's when the Lord sovereignly
sent this storm to them. And again, you and I would do
well to remember this. This will, Comfort the hearts
of God's people. When we understand this, that
every trial that comes our way, every trial, every violent storm
that we are just sure is going to sink us to the bottom of the
sea. Every violent, dark, difficult trial that shakes us to the very
core is a storm that was sent to us on purpose by our sovereign
wise heavenly father. There's a second lesson in this
trial. The storm was so bad, the disciples couldn't see the
Lord. And that was worse than the storm. They could not see
the Lord. But the Lord saw them. Verse 23. And when he had sent
the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray.
And when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship
was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves, for the
wind was contrary. Now the Lord sent the disciples
away, sent the multitude away, and he was up in the mountain
there alone praying as he often did. And we don't have any idea
what it was, what he was praying, what he was saying, what was
the subject of his prayer, we don't know. But I think it's
a safe guess for us to know at least in part he was interceding
for his disciples. Remember, before Peter ever knew
anything about Satan desiring him, that he might sift him as
wheat. Peter didn't know that was happening. The Lord did.
And the Lord said, Peter, I've prayed for you, that your faith
fell not. It wouldn't surprise me. He knew
this trial was coming. You know why he knew it was coming?
He sent it. So before he even sent it, before the disciples
were even in trouble, the Lord was interceding for them, just
like he did for Peter when Satan came to him. And you just remember
that. That's what the Savior is doing
for all of his people in times of trial. He's interceding for
them, that their faith fail not. If you know anything about our
Lord, about our Savior, about our Master, that thrills your
heart with awe and wonder. He'd make an intercession for
you. He ever liveth to do it. But the disciples didn't know
that, did they? They couldn't see the Lord. They couldn't see
what he was doing. And they were all alone in this little ship
and everything was contrary to them. You ever been there? You ever
felt that way? Everything's against me. Everything's
against me. That's what they felt like. And
they couldn't see the Lord. These were experienced sailors. They grew up on these oceans.
Their fathers were fishermen. They'd been out here many, many,
many times. And this storm came up, and they started working.
They toiled. They rowed. That ship was getting
tossed every which way. They're moving sails around,
just doing everything they could do. They're getting tossed around
like a cork on the waves, trying to get that ship to safety. And
no matter how hard they worked, they couldn't get anywhere. They
couldn't make any headway at all. It was dark. It was the middle of the night.
The fourth watch is about 3 a.m. They were so scared and they
were all alone. Everything's against them. Everything
I've tried is failing. They felt that way. That's the way they felt. And here's something that's sad.
The disciples had already forgotten the Lord's power. They'd already
forgotten the miracle of the loaves and the fishes and they
are filled with fear and all they could see was danger and
fear and trouble and things that were going to sink them to the
bottom of the ocean. That's all they could see. You know why
that's all they could see? Unbelievable. I'll show you that. Look at Mark chapter six. And
you and I cannot be hard on these disciples because we're the exact
same way. How many times have we felt like
the only thing I can see is fear and danger and things are going
to destroy me. I can't see, I can't, I can't
see anything, but that trouble, it's, here's something that'll
comfort your soul. Mark chapter six, this is Mark's
account of this story, verse 47. They couldn't see the master. That's why they're so full of
fear. And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of
the sea and he, the Lord alone on the land. And he saw them
toiling in rowing. They couldn't see him, but the
Lord saw. Now you remember that when the
trial that the Lord sends us, when it's so violent and it's
so dark, And the waves are so contrary to us. And the wind
is so contrary to us. And we just were just tossed
every which way. So we're just seasick. And we
can't see the Lord. And we feel all alone. You remember
this. The Lord sees you. He sees you. And that is precious
to God's people. You remember Hagar. She had that
little baby, Ishmael. She was out in the desert. She
thought she was going to be out there and die. And Sarah had
been so mean to her. And the Lord came to her and
she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, thou God, see
us made. She didn't see the Lord. The
Lord saw her. And there was a well there at
that place where the Lord came and spoke to her. And she named
that well. The well of him that liveth seeth
me. That's the same Lord who's Lord
over all today. That's the same Lord. If you
believe him, the same Lord saved you. Same Lord, the Lord that
liveth, he sees you. In every trial, in every dark
wave tossed night, he sees you. You're all alone. And it just can't get any worse.
You hang on to that. You can't see the Lord. You can't
see what he's doing in this. You don't understand and you're
scared to death. You hang on to this. He sees
you. He sees you. And that's all. That's all it
took for Hagar. The Lord sees me. The Lord sees
you. Right, here's the third thing.
The Lord came to the disciples in a miraculous way. Look at
verse 25, back in our text, Matthew 14. And in the fourth watch of
the night, about 3 a.m., Jesus went unto them, walking on the
sea. This is just as great a miracle
as the Lord creating matter when he fed the multitude. He came
to them walking on the water. This is a sea that's being tossed
with the waves and the wind and the Lord's walking on water.
I just, just like it's a parking lot. He's walking on water. What
a miracle that is. And that just shows us the Lord
is really sovereign over everything in it. He's sovereign over nature. He just suspended the rules of
physics and nature. He walked on the water. I want
you to listen to what brother Fortner said in his commentary
on this verse. He said, the Lord did not come
walking on the sea to teach them how to do it. He wasn't walking
on the scene, teach the disciples to walk on water, but to teach
them and us that since he is God overall, we can, and we should
trust him. Absolutely. Isn't that good? Now, The Lord here is demonstrating
His almighty sovereign power walking on the water. Now let's
remember that. When we find ourselves in a dark,
dark, dark trial, no matter where we are, we'll never find ourselves
in a situation our God can't deliver us from. We'll never
find ourselves in a situation that'll overwhelm our Lord. When we think, This is it. I mean, this is it. This is the
end. Often, that is when the Lord at that very moment, when
we think this is it, there ain't no more. That is when the Lord
miraculously suddenly comes to his people. And I'll tell you
why the Lord does it just that way, so that you and I will learn
to trust him. He came to us. Well, the next
time we find ourselves in that same situation, you reckon we
could trust him to come to us again? He does that to teach
us that we should trust him. And while we're in that little
ship getting tossed every which way, we're going to have a whole
lot of ideas about how the Lord could deliver us. And he's not
going to use one of them. When the Lord delivers his people,
he delivers his people by his power in his way, and in his
time. And again, he does that so that
we learned to, so we will learn to trust him so that we'll see
of all the ways I came up with that the Lord might deliver me
from this. The way the Lord came and delivered me was a whole
lot more glorious. It was a whole lot more miraculous
than any way I dreamed up. So I'll learn and maybe I'll
remember the Lord's way is best. The Lord's timing is best. I'll
learn to trust him. Ephesians 3 verse 20 says that
our Lord is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think. And Lord sends us into a trial
and he comes to us in a miraculous way to deliver us. He may not
even deliver you. He may come in the midst of a
storm and calm your heart with his presence. And it's a miracle. It's a miracle that you can suddenly
find your heart calm and at peace in the midst of the storm. It's
a miracle. The Lord did that. He's able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. So
we'll see his glory and we'll trust him. All right, here's
the fourth lesson. The Lord will come to deliver
his people at exactly the right moment. Now the Lord waited till
the third watch of the night. He waited to come to his disciples
until they were absolutely exhausted. He waited to come to them until
they knew we cannot get ourselves out of this fix by the arm of
the flesh. We can't do it. These were experienced sailors
and the Lord waited to the third watch of the night till he took
all the starch out of them. I mean, you know, I would say
an experienced sailors, kind of like the rest of us, if you've
been doing something a long time, And you're pretty good at it.
I mean, it's not it's not false modesty. I'm good at this. That
you think I can handle this. The Lord waited until they realized
I can't handle this. This is out of my control. I
just I cannot handle this. When all of their strength and
all of their ability was gone. Then and only then did the Lord
come. Only then. And when he came,
he was walking on water. And the Lord's going to do that
with all of his children and all of our trials. This is the
way the Lord does things. He's going to wait until we've
exhausted all of our hoarded resources and we're finally brought
to the place. I've got no hope. I've got no
hope left in anything that I can do. I'm completely and utterly
dependent on the Lord. That is when the Lord will come
to deliver us and not a moment sooner. Not trials. All of God's children
are going to have them. And trials are not sent to punish
God's children. Trials are sent to teach us something,
to teach us. The Lord waits. He waits to come
to his people so that we'll learn. And I wish we could learn this
lesson once. Once. I wish we could learn it
just once. But that's not our nature, is it? I just think back
to when I was a little boy. I cannot tell you how many times
I got spanked for the same thing. I mean, it wasn't a different
thing every day. It was the same thing every day.
Why couldn't I learn? It's just our nature. It's just
our nature. And, you know, we hope that from
the time that we're a child, we've grown and we matured and,
you know, but we still got the same nature. The Lord waits to
come to us until there's no hope left in ourselves. Then he comes
and then he delivers us. And since we didn't learn the
lesson fully the first time, he's going to send another trial.
And when he comes to deliver us from that trial, it's going
to be the exact same way. When there's no hope left in
ourselves, then he comes to us and he keeps doing that over
and over and over again to remind us we can trust him. We can trust
him. And I tell you another reason
he does it that way. So that when he comes to us, we learn
again, how sweet, how sweet his presence is to us. We get so
caught up in this world, don't we? We get caught up in our flesh
and all the things that we're doing. And we think that the
Lord's presence is sweet to us. We think his gospel is sweet
to us. We think his grace is sweet to us. And then he withholds
it for just a second. And when he comes, brings his
presence back to us, we know how sweet it is. Look in verse
27, what the Lord said to his disciples, this is how he comforted
their heart. But straightway, Jesus spake
unto them saying, be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. He didn't tell
them, be not afraid because I'm going to fix this thing. He said,
be not afraid, it is I. His presence with them comforted
their heart. It is I. It's the Lord. We have his presence again. Everything's
better now. To the child of God, it doesn't
get any better than that. To hear the master say, it's
I. Be not afraid. All right, here's
the fifth lesson. Our Lord sends trials to strengthen
the weak faith of his children. Verse 26. And when the disciples
saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is
a spirit. And they cried out for fear.
Now the disciples, they knew and they believed on the Lord
Jesus. They did. But just like us, their
faith was weak. Now this is 3 a.m. So just The
next day, just the previous day, less than 24 hours ago, they
had seen the Lord's power over nature. They saw him create food
just in that same, probably about 12 hour period. They saw the
Lord create enough food to feed 5,000 men plus women and children.
And in less than 12 hours, they forgot. Know anybody like that? Fear and weak faith, when the
Lord was walking to them on the water, made them think I'm seeing
the ghost. Fear and unbelief made them think
there can't possibly be any other explanation for this, that I'm
seeing the ghost. Fear made them not even be able
to make out it's the Lord. See, looking at their fear, and
looking at the storm actually made them not be able to distinguish
the Savior when they saw him. Look over Mark again, Mark chapter
six. Just one storm, and I know it
was a bad one, but just one storm made them forget the power of
the Lord. Verse 52, Mark chapter six. Here's why they were so full
of fear. Here's why they thought they saw a ghost. For they considered
not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened. Now they had faith in Christ,
no question about it, but one little storm hardened their heart
so that they forgot. They had faith in Christ, I don't
have any question about it, but their faith was weak and their
hearts were hardened. You know how I know that? I mean,
besides the scripture telling us that, I know that. I understand
exactly how they felt. Because we got the same flesh
that they do. But once they went through this difficult trial,
this severe storm, that weak faith was strengthened. And they
believed more fully. They already believed and trusted
Him, but they believed more fully on Christ. Because after all
this was over, look back in our text, verse 33. This is what
they said. Then they that were in the ship
came and worshiped him, saying, of a truth, thou art the Son
of God. I believed it before, but now
of a truth. I believe this more fully. You
are the Son of God. The Lord sent this trial to strengthen
their weak faith, and it worked, didn't it? And we have another
example of this in the very same story, that there's genuine faith,
but it's weak. It's weak faith. Look at verse
28. And Peter answered him, after
the Lord said, is I, be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he
said, come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But
when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to
sink, he cried saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus
stretched forth his hand and caught him. and said unto him,
O thou little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Now Peter,
he had genuine faith. I grant you, we know the story.
It was weak faith, but it was genuine. Which of you would get
out of that ship in the middle of that storm and think you're
going to walk on water? I wouldn't. Peter did. He had genuine faith, but just
like us, it was weak faith. Peter was actually walking on
water and he got so easily distracted. My goodness, walking on water,
going to the Lord himself and poor Peter took his eyes off
the Lord. How often? I mean, how often
do we do the same thing? I want you to please understand,
I'm not being hard on Peter, because all of us would do the
same thing. Most of us probably wouldn't find ourselves walking
on the water in the first place. Yeah, we see it's the Lord. He said,
be a good comfort, be a good cheer, be not afraid. It's good,
I'm staying in the ship. You know, come to me. Peter's
walking on water. And he took his eyes off the
Lord and looked at the wind, and looked at the waves, and
immediately started to sink. Peter was so easily distracted. Anybody like him? Anybody else
like him? And we do well to remember our
problems, they're real problems. I'm not saying they're not real
problems. This wind and this waves, they're real. Our problems
are real. But they always look bigger to
us when we look away from the Savior and start studying our
problems and seeing all the intricate details of our problems, they
start looking bigger to us. Peter was walking on water, and
the Lord just took his hand off of him for just a second, and
Peter started to sink like a rock. He did that to show us how much
we always need the Lord. Even walking on the water, Peter
still needed the Lord, didn't he? Peter's faith was so easily
distracted, but Peter didn't forget how to pray, Lord, save
me. And the Lord immediately caught
him in safety. Verse 32 says, when they were
coming to the ship, the wind ceased. Suddenly a calm. I know that there is never an
excuse for weak faith in our part, and I'm not trying to give
us one, but I sure am thankful for this. That salvation depends
upon the power, upon the faithfulness, upon the compassion of the Savior,
not on the strength of my faith. Then here's the last lesson.
Trials teach us both the faithfulness and the compassion of our Savior. The compassion and faithfulness
of the Savior. Peter started to sing and the
Lord didn't say, now Peter, have you learned your lesson? Aren't
you sorry for this? And Peter flailing around the
water and the Lord's, you know, rebuking him. The Lord didn't
do that. Immediately he stretched forth
his hand and caught him. That's the faithfulness and compassion
of the Savior. And all the Lord gave Peter and
the rest of the disciples and us is a gentle rebuke. Hold out a little faith, watch
it out. Let's remember this. The next
time the Lord sends us into that dark sea, the Lord's the one
who sovereignly sent the tribe, sent them into it. Lord waited. He waited to come to deliver
them so that they would be taught more of him and learn to trust
him more fully. They learn more of the power
of the Lord, more of the faithfulness and compassion of the Lord because
of this trial that they wouldn't have seen any other way. Look
over to Isaiah chapter 54. I want to close reading this. And this is the last thing that
they learned. They learn more fully. And this is why the Lord
sends trials to us that we might learn this. We might learn more
fully. He is a son of God. So we'll
trust him more. Isaiah chapter 54. It seems in
verse 11, it seems like Isaiah had this very night in mind as
he wrote this, these verses, Isaiah 54 verse 11. Oh, thou
afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted. Behold, I
will lay thy stones with fair colors. and lay thy foundations
with sapphires. And I'll make thy windows of
agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant
stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord,
and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness
shalt thou be established. Thou shalt be far from oppression,
for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not
come near thee. They will surely gather together, but not by me. Whosoever shall gather together
against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold, I have created
the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth
forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster
to destroy. No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord. And their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord." Next time the Lord sends us into the tempest
and we're tossed, maybe we want to mark that and go back and
read that, huh? And be reminded. All right. I pray the Lord bless
that to you.