The Lord Jesus Christ was a Prophet, mighty in word and deed, before God and all the people. He spoke unto the people in those remarkable discourses that are recorded in the Gospels, the words of eternal life. Still, there were not many that heard the report, who believed the Gospel. There were only a few, comparatively, who were brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous light through the personal ministry of the Great Prophet of the Church. As a Prophet, He was mighty in deed as well as in word, and He spake by His deeds, as well as His words, unto the people of that generation, while He still continues to speak by both unto subsequent generations concerning the things of His kingdom. The Gospels give us a record of many remarkable miracles that He wrought, which justified His claims to be the true Messiah, the Son of God, and the Saviour of sinners. One said concerning Him, “If this man were not of God, He could do nothing.” It is perfectly plain that if He had been a false prophet, such wonderful works could not have been performed by Him. The Father would not have sealed any claim but that which was true and just. We have frequent and convincing demonstration, therefore, in the life of Christ that He was the true Messiah, the Son of God, and the Redeemer of Israel, by the wonderful works that He accomplished.
Now, His words and works have been put on record for the instruction and encouragement of the children of men in subsequent ages. We are not to think that, because the Lord Jesus has ascended on high, and has entered into the immediate presence of the Father, He is not able still to do things such as human power cannot accomplish. “He is the same, yesterday, today, and for ever”; and those miracles of His have been recorded to teach us that He can accomplish wonders still that are altogether beyond human skill or human resource. This, I believe, is true in the realm of providence (though, perhaps, in a different manner), as well as in the realm of grace. We do not recognise, as we should, the wonder-working hand of Christ in providence. We fix our attention upon secondary causes, and upon creature instruments, and we are apt to ascribe all that is done, all the success that is attained, unto the creature, when, if we were rightly taught, we would see, and acknowledge, the almighty power of Christ. “All power” has been given Him. But truly, it may be affirmed that, in the realm of the Christian’s experience, and of the experience of the Church, we may see frequently, if we had eyes to see it, that He that speaketh in righteousness in the Word of the Gospel is still “mighty to save.” There are some men of a sceptical cast of mind, who do not believe in the miracles that are recorded in the Scriptures. They refuse to accept any testimony with regard to supernatural acts on the part of God. Why are these men disbelievers in miracles? Just because they themselves were never the subjects of any miracle. For one thing, they were never subjects of the miracle of the new birth, whereby a sinner is “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God that liveth and abideth for ever.” Any soul that has passed through the experience of the new birth, that knows what it is to pass from spiritual death to spiritual life, from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the kingdom of God’s dear Son, has no difficulty in believing in heaven-wrought miracles. They, therefore, expose their own spiritual nakedness in no ordinary degree, who do not believe in the miracles of the Old and the New Testaments.
Now, in this particular passage of God’s Word, we have the account of a very remarkable work that Christ performed upon the Sea of Galilee, and I desire, in dependence upon the Spirit of Truth, to consider what is here recorded in the light of its spiritual meaning and significance. We may learn many things from this astonishing miracle, many things concerning the trials and difficulties of God’s people, and many things concerning Christ’s grace and wonder-working power. Let us observe:—
I.—The Lord Jesus in this ship, with his disciples, on a passage across the Sea of Galilee.
II.—The great storm that arose, with its consequences.
III.—Christ asleep in the hinder part of the ship.
IV.—The disciples awaking Him, with the cry, “Master, carest Thou not that we perish?”
V.—The answer which Christ gave unto their cry. He rebuked the wind, and there was a great calm; and then He rebuked them for their unbelief; and
VI.—In the last place, the impression that was produced on their minds by Christ’s word and work on this occasion. “They feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
1.—First, then, let us observe, for a little, the Lord Jesus in this ship.
Now, I shall consider the ship as an emblem of the human soul, and the first thing to which I desire to call your attention is that it was by Christ’s own command that this voyage was begun. He said, “Let us pass over unto the other side.” My friends, if ever a soul began a spiritual voyage from the shore of this world to the shore of eternity, he began it at the command of the Redeemer. “The Lord spake and it was done.” Naturally, we cleave to the world and the things of it; we do not desire to be loosed from the thrall of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and so the command must come forth from the lips of the glorious Redeemer if a sinner is to turn his back upon the service of sin and Satan, if he is to turn his back upon the world, with its vanities and with its pleasures. “Let us pass over,” He said, “unto the other side.”
You will further notice here the time at which He gave this command It was “when the even was come.” Darkness had overspread the land and it is when the sinner is in darkness that he first hears the command of Christ. He is not walking in light; he is shrouded in the darkness of worldliness and unbelief or in the felt darkness of distance from God; but at such a time as that Christ is pleased to send forth His people upon the spiritual journey to the everlasting kingdom in which there is nothing but perfect light and perfect love.
It is to be observed further in this connection that, when the disciples got the commandment to pass over to the other side, they obeyed the voice of Christ. His word was with power. “Where the word of a king is, there is power,” and they immediately began to obey His call, and what was the first thing that they did? The first thing they did was to send away the multitude. They could not take the multitude and Christ along with them. And so, my friends, if you have heard the call of Christ to real saving purpose, you will send away the multitude, you will turn your back upon the world lying in wickedness. I do not mean that you will go away into a monastery or convent. That is not required of us according to God’s word. Christ prayed not that His disciples should be taken out of the world but that they should be kept from the evil, and there is such a thing as being in the world and yet not of the world; there is such a thing as being separate in spirit and in practice from the world that lieth in wickedness, though lawfully engaged in its midst. Well, the disciples on this occasion realised plainly that they could not take the multitude along with Christ, and so they sent away the multitude.
Then the next thing that we are told is that they “took Him even as He was in the ship.” He had been in the ship all that day teaching the people that were on the shore. He was speaking to them the words of truth, the words of life, whether many of them profited or not. I have not the slightest doubt but His own disciples were benefited; those who were willing to be taught by Him were deriving benefit from His instruction. And now that He gives commandment that the disciples should loose from the shore and that they should set out upon a voyage, they are willing that it should be so, and they take Him as He was in the ship. Now, I understand this to mean that they took Christ without waiting for any outward or common preparation. They did not wait for preparing Him in any way for the journey. He was there in the garments that He had on during the day, during the time that He was teaching. They took Christ just as He was. And oh! my friends, this is a mark of those who hear the voice of Christ to real purpose in the word of the Gospel. They take Christ as He is. But that is not the way the majority of people would wish to take Him. The majority wish to add something to Him or take something from Him, in His person and His doctrine. This has been the way with false teachers and false Christians in all ages and generations. They are not willing to take Christ as He is; especially they are not willing to take Him with soiled garments in seasons of reproach and persecution. If Christ were brought near to them clothed in beautiful garments, clothed in garments that pleased the carnal eye and gratified the senses, they would be willing to have Him, but they are not prepared to take Christ and those soiled garments that He has through the reproach, the spitting and the mud that are cast upon Him by the world. I say, therefore, that it is a blessed mark of real saving faith on the part of any sinner when he is prepared to take a whole Christ in the ship of his soul as the reproached as well as the exalted Jesus.
Further, we read that “there were also with Him other little ships.” Christ was not in these ships. Still they were in the company of the ship in which Christ was, and so these little ships shared both in the storm and in the deliverance. My friends, it is a good thing to be in the company of Christ and His disciples, it is a good thing to associate oneself with those who fear the name of the Lord and live by the faith of Jesus Christ. Although you may not have as yet Christ in the ship with you, you will derive benefit by the society of Christ’s disciples. You will experience some of the storms that they have to come through, by being associated with them, but you will also experience some of the blessings that come to the ship in which Christ is. If those little ships had not been sailing with the ship in which Christ was, it is hard to say what would have become of them amidst the raging waters, but we have no record of their loss. It is quite possible there were some in these little ships, who were saying, “I am sorry we have not Christ in the ship with us. We would consider it an honour, the most precious thing under the sun, to have Christ in the ship with us.” And it is certainly true under the gospel that if there is a real, sincere, reigning desire to have Christ in the ship, that desire will be satisfied. “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” “And there were also with Him other little ships.” Ah, therefore, you that are still without Christ, seek the society of God’s people; seek to be in their company; and seek that the Lord would extend the blessing to you although you are yet without it. He is able to do so, and He has done so to such persons in all ages and generations. It is a saying that grace does not run in the blood, but that it often runs in the line of the families of God’s people. They have a privilege that others have not, though sometimes they do not make the use of the privilege that they ought to do. It is hard to say at what moment the Lord in His abundant mercy may pay them a saving visit, may visit their souls with His light and His truth, manifesting Himself as the God of their salvation. “The promise is unto you and to your children.”
II.—I pass on now, in the second place, to observe the great storm of wind that arose.
It might be that the disciples supposed that, when they had Christ in the ship with them, they would have a smooth and comfortable journey to the other side. At anyrate, I have no doubt they thought they would get across without any special difficulty. They might have bargained for some little ripple upon the waters, some contrary winds and waves, but they did not look for what actually happened. And here, my friends, although the Lord of life and glory was in the ship with these few disciples, a great storm of wind arose, which powerfully stirred the waves of the lake so that they began actually to come into the ship. Ah! it was not one wave occasionally that broke into the ship: one wave rapidly succeeded another. First, there was a little water in the ship, then the water increased until at last the ship in which Christ and His disciples were was actually full of water, and you know — some of you far better than I do — that, when a boat is full of water and is tossed amid the roaring billows, it is not far from sinking to the bottom. Now, I think that here we have brought before us something that is true in more or less degree of believers who are endeavouring to make their spiritual journey across the ocean of life. Oh! very probably when you began your course, you were like the disciples, thinking you would have a comparatively smooth passage. Had you not Christ in you? Had you not Christ with you? And I may notice here that there was a promise wrapped up in the command of Christ to pass over unto the other side. He would never have presented to them in the way He did the prospect of reaching the other side, if He was not assuring them that they would arrive safely there. Well, it may be you thought that, when you had all these spiritual privileges and comforts, things would go well and prosperous with you; but perhaps you were not very long upon the spiritual voyage when a storm arose. The Lord, in His mysterious providence, has appointed adversity for His people. He said to His disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” and it may have happened that much tribulation soon succeeded the comfort that you enjoyed.
What are some of the waves of tribulation that pass over God’s children? I may say, in the first place, there are waves of common tribulation, or tribulation which they have in common with the rest of the world. They may be called upon to suffer affliction in their bodies; they may have to experience trials in their families; and they may be called to endure deprivation in their temporal circumstances. Many are the waves of common tribulation which pass over the children of God, and in the times in which we live this is peculiarly and eminently true. When this great storm of wind arose, even this dreadful War that is still raging upon the Continent of Europe and upon the sea, we see that God’s people have been called to endure waves of great tribulation in common with the rest of the world. They have not been exempted; they have suffered many hard and sore trials and bereavements in connection with their families. (The reference is to the first World War).
Then, I observe, secondly, that there are also waves of spiritual tribulation, or tribulation of a special kind peculiar unto them who believe in Jesus and are His true followers. These waves, I may say, are outward and inward. There is, for example, the wave of human persecution. All that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution in one way or another. They may not be persecuted in the open and notorious way in which our reforming ancestors and our covenanting ancestors were persecuted, but if they will be faithful to Christ and to His word, they cannot but expect to meet with the opposition and hatred of the world. The seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman cannot live comfortably together. True it is that the Lord sometimes makes the enemies of His children to be at peace with them, but that is to the praise of His sovereign grace and wonder-working power and not to the credit of what is in sinful, rebellious man. Then, I observe that there are waves of inward affliction or trial. For example, sometimes a wave of corruption, that seems as if it were completely subdued in the soul, arises, and the child of God is ready to be overwhelmed. He had supposed that sin was subdued in him; he had supposed that such inward manifestations of the power of iniquity were things belonging to the past, but here he finds that they are still within his breast, a sea that constantly casts up mire and dirt, and he is constrained to cry, “Iniquities prevail against me.” “Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
And then, again, there is a wave of Satanic temptation. You will remember that, when the Lord Jesus received the most clear demonstration from heaven that He was the beloved Son of the Father, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Wave after wave of Satanic temptation passed over His holy soul, and shall His people be exempted from this? No. I do not say that all those who have Christ in the ship of their souls experience the same measure of this kind of temptation. Some of God’s children get a comparatively easy course through this present world, but I think I am safe in saying that the greater number know what it is to have wave after wave of Satan’s temptations passing over them. He has many ways by which he tries them. He endeavours to persuade them that they know nothing aright, know nothing to any saving purpose; he tries to cast doubt into their minds concerning the glorious Redeemer Himself, as to whether He was the Son of God. “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” And sometimes he may arise up dreadful unbelieving thoughts in virtue of the various trials that they are called to come through. They may be ready to conclude that these outward and providential trials are indications that the Lord is against them, and not for them, and that they never knew the Christ of God in truth, or even evidences that there is no God, and that religion is all a delusion.
Again, there is sometimes a wave of God’s fatherly displeasure. The Lord is not pleased with them in their waywardness, in their rebelliousness, in their giving place to the suggestions of the adversary, or it may be in doing something that is positively contrary to His word and to His precepts, and He sends a wave of His holy and fatherly displeasure over their souls.
There are other waves of a spiritual kind that might be mentioned. The Lord’s people may be concerned not only about their own spiritual standing, but about the spiritual standing of others, in whom they are deeply interested. And oh! my friends, there are many waves of trials passing over the minds and hearts of God’s children in these times, in connection with members of their families exposed to imminent danger and death, about whom they are not assured that these friends are in Christ or prepared for eternity. What extraordinary waves these trials are, they only know who go through such in their own personal and individual experience!
Now we see, further, that “the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.” The ship, apparently, could hardly hold one drop more, and seemed to be on the brink of destruction. And is that not sometimes the case when the child of God experiences wave after wave meeting upon him? It may be as he walks by the way, or it may be in the still hours of the night, one wave after another comes in upon his mind, and he seems to have no standing ground. A wave of Satan’s temptations may stir up rebellion within him, so that he is afraid that he will blaspheme the Most High, if not with his lips, in his heart. Ah! these are heavy waves, when the ship is full.
(to be continued)