Well, good morning. If you care
to open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 8. The lesson
will be taken from Matthew chapter 8 this morning. Before we begin, let's bow in
prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. Father, we bow in fear
and reverence. daring only to come into the
presence of the thrice holy God and the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And we bow thankfully, how thankful
we are for our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray this morning
that the name of Christ be exalted and magnified and everything
that's said and done here this morning. Teach us more of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Let Him be both the lesson and
the teacher. Father, don't leave Your people
to just hear the words of a man, but Father, speak to us through
Your Word. Speak to our hearts as only You can through Your
Word. Let us learn more of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that we might trust Him and rest in Him more fully. Let us see more of His glory.
Father, as Your Word is preached this morning, We beg of thee
that today would be the day that you cause one of your lost sheep
to close with Christ, that you bring your people to Christ. Let this be the day that the
hearts of your people, who are weak and feeble and worn by our
journey through this life, let this be the day that you strengthen
the hearts of your people. Feed the hearts of your people
with your word. Enable us to to have our hearts
strengthened and thrilled by one more time being able to hear
of Christ our Savior, to hear the gospel of Christ one more
time. And Father, I thank you for this place. I thank you that
you've preserved for us a place where we can hear your gospel,
where we can meet together in peace and unity with our brethren
and worship you. And Father, I pray that for many,
many years to come, if it be possible, till our Lord returns,
that this be a house of worship, that our sole focus as a congregation
be focused upon Christ our Savior, the preaching of his gospel for
his glory, for the good of your people, for the good of this
community. Father, make this a place where
your word is preached and cause it to be preached in power and
the power of your spirit to call out your sheep and to comfort
and instruct lead in your people. Father, we pray a special blessing
this morning for our children's classes. Father, bless our teachers
as they teach, how thankful we are for them. Bless them in a
special way. And Father, bless our children,
how thankful we are that you've given us all these little ones.
And Father, in this hour, I pray that you would plant the seeds
of faith in their hearts, enable them to learn the scriptures
and give them a heart that would believe the gospel that they
hear preached. Make us faithful as a congregation
to them, to teach them the gospel, to teach them and always point
them to Christ our Savior. Father, for your people who are
in a time of trouble, we pray for them. We pray that you'd
meet their need, that you deliver them when it's time. The Father
again, all these things we ask in that name, which is above
every name, the name of Christ our Savior. Amen. All right,
and I've titled the lesson this morning, What Are You Afraid
Of? Maybe that'll get your attention.
If you're full of fears and doubts, it will get your attention. What
are you afraid of? Let's read our text this morning.
I'll go back and make a few comments on it. Matthew 8. beginning in
verse 23. And when he was entered into
a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose
a great tempest in the sea. And insomuch that the ship was
covered with the waves. But he was asleep. And his disciples
came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us. We perish. And
he saith unto them, Why are you fearful? O ye of little faith.
Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there
was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying,
What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey
him? I began studying this passage
this week, and I thought how thankful I am for the attitude
of this congregation. God's given this congregation
an attitude that is not critical towards our brethren when our
brethren show weak faith. And I hope we never lose that
attitude and that we always consider ourselves lest we also be tempted.
You know, it's easy to stand on the shore on terra firma and
look down our noses at those disciples who are out there in
the middle of the sea in this horrible tempest. It's easy,
isn't it? We're just standing on firm ground. But I bet every
one of us would be just as afraid as they were if we could trade
places with them. And if we're honest, We have
been just as afraid and just as full of weak faith as they
were in that storm. All of us have been known at
one time as O ye of little faith. That could be our name, couldn't
it? So we should be able to identify with these disciples and have
some sympathy for them. And my question to us this morning,
something I hope we can learn from this passage, what are we
afraid of? And let me rephrase the question
this way. Considering who our Lord is, what are we afraid of? You know, the disciples were
amazed and they asked, what manner of man is this? Even the winds
and the sea obey him. Well, you know, all of our fears
will be put to rest if the Lord will teach us something of what
manner of man the Lord Jesus Christ really is. So I want to
consider four or five things this morning in light of what
are we afraid of? in light of considering who this
man is. Number one is this. Consider
that the Lord is the one who leads us into every storm that
we go through. Verse 23. And when he was entered
into a ship, his disciples followed him. They followed him. Now,
disciples are followers of Christ. Disciples follow Christ wherever
he led. That's true in our in the day
of our Lord's earthly ministry. It's the same thing true of you
and me today if we believe Christ. We follow Him wherever He leads. Now if you would follow Christ,
I'll give you just a brief refresher of what we looked at last week.
If you would follow Christ, you count the cost. I want you to go, I want you
to follow Christ. I want you to come to Christ.
But I also want you to go into this thing with your eyes wide
open, you count the cost. The Lord often leads His people
into the storm. He leads us into storms of trial.
He leads us into storms of heartache. He leads us into storms of uncertainty. And all of those storms are too
powerful for us. We learn there's not one thing
I can do about them. And the Lord leads us into those
storms, into those situations for our good and for our learning.
See, it's only in that storm and the storm that is so powerful,
so violent that we know we can't do anything about it. In that
storm is the only place we can learn our weakness. Otherwise,
we'll get too full of ourselves to think I can handle this by
myself. No, in that storm, we learn our weakness. And it's
only in that storm we learn more of who our Savior really is,
more of His power. His love, His grace, His sufficiency,
so that we trust Him more fully. The Lord led His disciples into
this storm to teach them more about seeking Him and more about
prayer. I believe they learned it, don't you? Lord save us,
we perish. The Lord led His disciples into
this storm and then He let them out of it. So that they would
see more of His power and they would marvel in awe and reverence
for Him. See, they learned something about
the Savior this day. They never learned before. They
learned it in the storm. And the Lord's going to lead
you and me into stormy trials to teach us the very same things. And when he leads us out, you
know what we'll say? About every one of them, we'll
say, that was best for me. That was best for me. I don't
want to go through it again, but that was best for me. I learned
something I couldn't have learned any other way. So if I really
consider that it is the Lord that leads me into the storm,
he leads me into the trial. And I don't have to be afraid,
do I? Because if he leads me into it, he's going to keep leading
me. He's going to lead me out of it eventually, one way or
another. Number two, consider this, that the Lord is the one
who sent the storm. Verse 24 says, And behold, there
arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was
covered with the waves, but he was asleep. Matthew says that
behold, there was a great tempest. Well, how do I know the Lord
sent that tempest? How do I know it just didn't randomly arise? How do I know the Lord sent that
tempest? Look back at Psalm 107. This
is what we looked at Wednesday evening. The Lord's the one who
sent the storm. Psalm 107 verse 23. They that go down to the sea
and ships that do business in great waters, these see the works
of the Lord and his wonders in the deep for he commanded and
raises the stormy wind was lifted up the waves thereof. They mount
up to the heaven. They go down again to the depths.
Their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and
fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end. Then, and only then, do they
cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their
distresses. See, it's the Lord who commands
the storm to rise. He commands the wind and the
sea, and the wind and the sea obey, don't they? The storm arose
at his commandment. And he does that with his people
in the middle of that storm to bring them to their wits end.
So that they cry to the Lord. So they learn how dependent they
are upon the Lord. So they learn to praise Him.
Now this was a very serious storm. John Gill says this word tempest
in our text means a wind that went every direction at once.
It was some sort of whirlwind or something. And the sailors
and their little boat were completely defenseless. Just tossed like
a cork in the sea. The waves were above that boat
coming down on it, filling it with water. And it was going
down. I mean, that was frightening. After I prepared this message
yesterday evening, I saw a short video of some sort of a cargo
ship out in the middle of the ocean. And those waves, I mean,
this is a huge ship. This is just a little boat, these
guys are. This is a huge ship. Waves, I mean, were four and
five times bigger than that ship and just come crashing down on
it. It had a lid on it, so it wasn't filling up with with the
water. But I thought, how does any ship
survive this thing? You know, these waves were huge.
You imagine being in that little wooden ship like these fellows
were in. And we'll see in a minute that
the disciples were afraid. And you and I would be afraid,
too. They were so afraid, though, because our Lord said they had
little faith. and who the Lord is. If the Lord
Jesus is God, and He is, He's God, then He controls the weapon. And more applicable to you and
me, He controls all things. All things. Whatever it is we're
going through, He controls it. Now if He controls it, I don't
even need to be afraid of doing it. And when we're in a trial,
and we think is going to crush us and take us down for good,
we become afraid. Oh, we become so afraid. And our fear comes from a lack
of faith, a lack of belief in who our God and Savior really
is. When that happens to us and we're so full of fear, have we
forgotten that not only who our God is, not only His character,
but have we forgotten that this trial is in His hand? Every bit
of it is directed by Him. Have we forgotten that this trial
can only go as far as He allows it to go? Have we? Well, now
if that storm, that trial, that I think is going to crush me,
is in the hand of my Savior, I don't have anything to be afraid
of, do I? I heard this story. Years ago, there was a ship captain.
He was the captain of one of those wooden ships, you know,
that crossed the sea. And on one voyage, his wife was with
him. And during that voyage, a violent
storm came up and she was scared to death. And her husband didn't
seem to be scared at all. And she asked her husband, he
was there on the, by the, whatever you call that, steering the boat,
you know, he's up there commanding the whole thing and all his,
get up his uniform and ribbons and sword. I mean, he was all
decked out, you know. And she came up to him and asked
him, why? Why aren't you afraid? And he drew his sword and put
it at her neck. And she just looked at him and
smiled. He said, don't you see this sword? This sword's sharp. This short sword could cut your
head off in a moment. And she said, I'm never going
to be afraid of a sword that's in the hand of my loving husband.
And he put that sword back in his sheath. And he said, then
neither will I be afraid of a storm that's in the hand of my loving
heavenly father. If I really considered that this
trial is in the hand of my loving heavenly father, I wouldn't be
so afraid. I thirdly consider this, that
the Lord was asleep during this storm. Then the end of verse
24 says, but he was asleep. Now Mark tells us in his account
of this that the Lord was asleep in the hinder part of the ship,
in the back of the ship. And I read that, I thought about
the time Jan and I went on a cruise and I called the lady to make
the reservations, you know. I didn't know nothing about nothing,
never been on a cruise or anything. But she was helping me with the
reservations and she picked for us a cabin that was in the middle
of the ship. She said, because if I put you
at the front or the back, you're going to feel the movement of
that ship a whole lot more than you do in the middle. Well, I
never would have known that. So I'm glad you did that. Well,
Mark tells us that the Lord was asleep. In the part of the boat
you'd feel the movement the most. But he was still sound asleep.
Now, why do I point that out? It's so that we see the Lord
Jesus. He's God. He is God. But he's also a real
man. He was exhausted. You think how
many days in a row he'd been preaching. I preached one time,
six days in a row. And I mean, I want to tell you,
I was exhausted. Our Lord was preaching and traveling
for days at a time. He was exhausted, so exhausted. He was sleeping through this
storm. Now, why is that significant? Why is that significant to you
and me? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a real
man. Only a real man would be this
tired. The Son of God became a man of flesh, subject to the
infirmities of the flesh, being hungry, being tired, being thirsty. He became a man of flesh so that
he would be the representative of his people who were in the
flesh. And since he's our representative,
we did what he did. See when he obeyed the law, we
did too if we're in him. Now here our Lord lay asleep
in full faith in his father. He wasn't full of fear, in full
faith of his father and his obedience, his faith is our obedience and
our faith. Look at Galatians chapter two.
Now we are saved, we're made righteous through the faith of
Christ. It's not just our faith in Christ,
it's the faith of Christ. It's not our faithfulness, it's
His faithfulness. Galatians 2 verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now you notice Paul didn't say
by faith in Jesus Christ, he said by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Now this is what Paul is saying. We're made righteous through
the faithfulness of Christ. Through the faithfulness of Christ
to obey the law for his people. We're justified by the faith
of Christ to believe his father for us. Now we have faith in
Christ that we might be saved, that we might be made righteous
by the faith of Christ. So our Lord lay sleeping in this
storm in full faith in his father. Well, if we're in him, his faith
is my faith. See that? You and I become full
of doubts and fears at the drop of a hat. I mean, it doesn't
have to be a big storm, let's be honest. It doesn't have to
be a big storm. It doesn't have to be a severe trial to fill
us with fear, does it? Just a drop of that. Well, I don't want my salvation
dependent on the strength of my faith, do you? No. Our salvation,
I'm thankful, is dependent on the faith of Christ for us. We're full of doubts and fears,
but He's not. He's not. He believed His Father in perfect
faith. And that is our faith if we believe
on Christ. His faith is our faith if we
believe on Him. Now, we never, ever should have
weak faith. There is never an excuse for
weak faith. But when we have weak faith,
this is our comfort. We're saved by the faith of Christ. And here in the midst of this
violent storm, He lay asleep. Because He's perfectly calm.
He had faith in His Father. And that's our faith if we're
in Him. I fourthly consider this, the Lord's patience with his
people. Verse 25, and his disciples came
to him and awoke him saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And
he saith unto them, why are you fearful? O ye of little faith. Now Mark's account of this story,
Mark tells us that disciples came to the Lord and said, Master, don't you care? Don't you care? Lord, don't you
care? We perish, don't you care? I'm
suffering, don't you care? What weak faith that is. I felt
it, haven't you? I know you have, if you're honest.
This weak faith questions the character of the Lord. It questions
His love for us. A greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life Our Savior laid down His
life as a sacrifice for the sins of His people. And then we're
going to question His love for us? Oh my. No. The Lord loves His people too
much to redeem them and let them perish. It's not going to happen.
Look at Romans chapter 11. This weak faith questions the
Lord's wisdom Lord, why did you leave me here? Did you leave
me here so I perished like the children of Israel? You let us
out here in the wilderness. You let us out of Egypt so we
die in the wilderness. It's questioning the Lord's wisdom.
Romans 11 verse 33. Oh, the depths of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. The Apostle Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 24, unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Christ is the wisdom of God. In his wisdom, God found a way
to redeem his people from their sin by the sacrifice of his son,
Christ our substitute. And after that, now we're going
to question God's wisdom? After God found a way to redeem
us, deliver us from going down to the pit because he found a
ransom, now we're gonna question that God's wise enough to keep
us? Oh, the Lord's too wise to do that. He's too wise to redeem
his people and then lose them and let them perish anyway. Now
look at 2 Corinthians 8. This weak faith questions God's
grace to his people. 2 Corinthians 8. Verse 9, For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. After Christ our Savior emptied
himself of everything to redeem us from our sin. What grace that
is to give himself, to redeem us. And now we're going to question
if He's gracious enough to keep us? He was gracious enough to
suffer and die for us. Now we're going to question,
is He gracious enough to keep us? Oh, my. No, the Lord is too
gracious to redeem His people and then let His grace run out
so His people perish. No, He's too gracious for that.
And the proof of our Lord's constant, ongoing graciousness is that
he met the weak faith of his disciples with just a gentle
rebuke. Now the Lord shows us here, a
gentle rebuke. Why are you so afraid? Where's
your faith? Now the Lord shows us something
very important here. Don't just pass over this and not learn
something important. The Lord shows us what the real
danger is. The real danger is not the storm.
The real danger is not the trial. The real danger is not that this
trial may destroy this flesh. That's not the real danger. The
real danger for our souls is lack of faith in Christ. Isn't
that what the Lord's saying? The real danger is lack of faith. Listen, someday something's going
to kill this flesh. I mean, this trial or another
trial, something's going to kill this flesh. Can't escape that.
But if you have faith in Christ, you'll never die. So the real
danger is lack of faith in Christ. And that's what he's saying here.
And if we really consider the Lord's character, we consider
his love, his wisdom, his grace. If we consider his patient, how
patient he is with us. Oh, maybe we learn to wait more
patiently on him to lead us out of the trial. Certainly, if we
learn more of our Lord's character, we know this. He's not doing
wrong. No matter how painful this is
for me, no matter how much I do not understand it, He's not doing
wrong. And I can rest in that if I really
learn more of who He is. I fifthly consider this. Consider
our Lord's sovereignty over all things. Verse 26, He saith unto
them, Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then He arose
and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm. Our Lord simply spoke. He rebuked
the wind. He rebuked the sea. And immediately
the sea turned to glass. Immediately the wind quit blowing.
Now that just denies or defies the laws of physics, doesn't
it? I mean, water just doesn't instantly become smooth. And
the waters of the sea never become that way. Even after a hurricane,
the hurricane passes, there's still wind for a while, isn't
there? Dying down to a breeze here. Our Lord is sovereign over all
things, isn't He? Even the laws of nature. Our
Lord is sovereign in this thing of our tribes. He's sovereign
over the storm, over when it starts. He's sovereign over how
strong that storm will be. And He's sovereign over when
it'll end. The waves of that storm will be high. Look at Isaiah
chapter 43. The waves of the storm are going
to be high. The Lord's going to make the
storm strong enough, hot enough that we do become full of fear.
Now we shouldn't, but he's going to make it strong enough that
we do. And we need to remember this. The waves are going to
be high, but they will never, ever, ever sweep away any of
God's elect from him. Isaiah 43, verse one. But now
thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed
thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have
called thee by thy name, and thou art mine. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee, because I am with thee. For I am the Lord thy God. the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Saba for thee. God destroys nations for the
good of his people. Since thou was precious in my
sight. If you're precious in God's sight,
is he going to let you go? Is he going to let you be swept
away? No. Thou has been honorable and I've loved thee. Therefore,
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Now, fear
not. for I am with thee. Now that's all a child of God
needs. Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from
the east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north,
give up and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
far, my daughters from the ends of the earth. Even everyone that
is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. Then
God's not going to lose his glory by letting him go, is he? No,
I've created him for my glory. I formed him. Yeah, I've made
him. And this is what the Lord's saying
here in context of Isaiah 43. I made him and I'm not going
to let him go. I'm not going to let him be destroyed.
Nothing in heaven, earth or hell can stop our God from accomplishing
his purpose of the redemption of his people. Nothing. What
we have to be afraid of? Huh? What do we have to be afraid
of? All right, lastly, consider this. Consider this man in fear
and reference. Verse 27 said, but the men marveled,
saying, what manner of man is this that the winds and sea obey
him? Now at the first, the disciples
were filled with fear. They were afraid, terror. But now they're filled with a
different kind of fear. This fear is reverence of the
Lord. It's awe and reverence of Him. And I tell you what, the more
we marvel at the Lord Jesus Christ, the less we're going to marvel
at the storms and the trials that we go through. The more
we marvel at Him. Now, what do we have to be afraid
of? Considering who our Lord is, if we believe Him, what do
we have to be afraid of? Let me give you a few things
believers fear. How about our sin? Do I have
to be afraid of my sin? Not if I consider Him. Now, hath
He appeared once at the end of the world to do what? Put away
sin. Well, if He's put it away, I
don't have to fear it, do I? No. What about this world? Well,
this world is the enemy of a believer. This world will swallow us up,
chew us up, spit us out, won't it? What about this world? Don't
be afraid of this world. I watch the political things
going on in our day, getting ready for the next presidential
election. And I've got to stop myself now of getting worried
about this thing. Don't be afraid of this. What did our Lord say? Consider Him. And before we get
afraid, let's consider Him. He said, be of good cheer. I've
overcome the world. Don't have to fear, do I? Oh,
what about our old nature? Every believer knows this about
themselves. I've got an old nature. It's sinful, it's depraved, it's
vile, it's wretched, it hates God. And if God lead me to myself,
if he lead me to that nature, I'd leave him in a nanosecond
and I'd be destroyed. Do I got to be afraid of that
old nature? Not if I consider Him. Our Savior gives His people
a new nature, and that nature reigns. That nature of Christ
that's in us reigns. And it reigns in this way. Not
that we don't ever sin anymore. No, it reigns in this way. That
I can't not believe Christ. He's the one that's given me
a nature of faith. I can't not believe it. I like
what Brother Fortner says. Somebody asked him, do you ever
not believe? And he said, I try to every day. but God won't let
me. I know I'd be afraid of my old
nature if I consider Him. What about the weakness of old
age? I read this from Charles Burgin
years ago when I was a young man and I just thought, huh,
I don't know about that. Huh, that seems weird to me. This is what he said. He said,
the believers that I've seen make the most serious errors
are old believers. Now, I would think, oh, that
believer is so old and it's been so well established, now won't
leave Christ, won't make these mistakes. But he said, because
of the weakness of the flesh, when we get old, he said, that's
when I've seen people make the biggest mistakes. He's not saying
they weren't saved. He's not saying they didn't know
the Lord. He said, that's when they made the biggest errors, because
of the weakness of the flesh. And as I've started to get a
little older, I remember that statement, but it scares me to
death. What about the weakness of my flesh as I get old? Am
I going to be afraid of that? Well, not if you consider Him.
Because what did He promise His people? I will go with you to
the end. Then I don't have to fear that.
I probably will make some gigantic blunder. But it's not going to
cause me to lose my salvation. Because He said, I'll go with
you to the end. And then last, kind of the subject of our whole
lesson this morning, what about our weak faith? We can't deny
we have it, can we? What about our weak faith? Do
I have to be afraid of that, my weak faith? That it'll cause
me to leave Christ? That it'll cause Him to leave
me behind because of my weak faith? He just gets finished,
fed up with my weak faith? Well, weak faith is shameful.
I don't ever want to have weak faith. But do I have to be, I'm
gonna have it. I do have it. Do I have to be
afraid of it? Not if I consider him. What does scripture say
about him? He's faithful. He is faithful
that promised. He promised, I will never, no
never, leave thee nor forsake thee. That I don't have to fear
my weak faith as long as I consider him and his faithfulness to his
people. And when I look at him, When
I consider Him, I don't even be afraid of doing it. I hope
the Lord bless that to you. Maybe use it to help you when
the Lord sends you a storm and fills you with fear.