Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleGod Mightier Than The Waves
Bible TextPsalm 93:3-5
Synopsis I have preached on this subject many times. But I think today, I can preach this with a little more experience and a little more certainty that it is true. Listen
Date30-Jul-2020
Series Psalms 2011
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: God Mightier Than The Waves (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: God Mightier Than The Waves (128 kbps)
Length 41 min.
 
Title:  God Mightier than the Waves 
Text: Psalm 93: 3- 
Date: July 30, 2020 
Place: SGBC, NJ 
  
 
Our subject: God Mightier than the Waves 
 
I have preached on this subject many times.  But I think today, I can preach this with a little more experience and a little more certainty that it is true. 
  
Divisions: 1) The life and cry of a believer 2) Our assurance and security 3) The end purpose 
 
THE LIFE AND CRY OF A BELIEVER
 
Psalm 93: 3: The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. 
 
At almost any point in a believer’s life this is our cry.  At any time we are either going into a trial, we are in a trial or we are coming out of a trial.  As long as we live in a world of sin this will be the case.  As long as we have a ruined, depraved sin-natures this will be our cry.   As long as we live amongst sinners we shall have wave upon wave of trial.


Job 5: 7: Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. 
  
Acts 14: 14:22…we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. 
  
We face waves and winds from without.  Unregenerate sinners hate God as sovereign over all who does with his own what he will.  Sinners hate God who choses some and passes by others.  Unregenerate sinners are enmity against God who accomplished redemption and must regenerate us and draw us by his will.  So you and I will be despised and rejected of men for the gospel’s sake.  That is a tremendous wave of trial.  The heathen raged against Christ.  The floods of ungodly men came in unto him (Ps 2:1; Ps 18: 4). 
  
There are waves in the world, in our lives from the world 
  
Isaiah 57: 20: But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 21: There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. 
  
The wicked take vengeance on us.  They rage with enmity against God.  Sinners try to destroy you.  But as wicked hands did with our Redeemer, they only fulfil what God before determined to be done to glorify Christ and save his people.  The King of kings is ruling over it all 
  
Amos 3:6…shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? 
  
We have waves of sickness, heartache and loss.  But this is of the Lord “who healeth all thy diseases; who shall never leave thee nor forsake thee.” 
  
But the worst waves come from within.  In the parable of the 4 kinds of ground, we know God, by his grace, has made true believers’ good ground.  But having a sin-nature, we have the same trouble as the other 3 kinds of hearers at times. 
  
At times we are like the wayside hearer.  We hear the gospel preached but sometimes the devil cometh immediately and takes away the word sown in our hearts.  Immediately we forget what we heard.  That is a mighty wave. 
  
Other times we are like the stony ground hearer.  We receive the word with gladness.  But sometimes affliction or persecution arises for the word’s sake and we are offended.  The apostle Peter denied the Lord 3 times when speaking with a little damsel due to fear of affliction and persecution.  What a mighty wave! 
  
But especially we face seasons where we are like the thorny ground hearer.  We hear the word but the cares of this world enter in—what boisterous wind and waves the cares of this world can be to a believer.  The deceitfulness of riches trouble us—temptations from the treasures of Egypt can create large waves.  We face the lusts of other things entering in—our sin-nature is nothing but sin; our old man only lusts after other things.  All of these can choke the word and make it become unfruitful.  They are all floods of mighty waves. 
  
Our love and zeal can grow lukewarm—that is a wave.  We start feeling sorry for self: overworked, underappreciated.  Self-righteousness creeps in: it starts by noticing a little shortcoming in another; then a critical tongue; then a critical eye; before long it is all we see.  At the same time, we see ourselves righteous: we have done more; been better; we cease seeing ourselves as needing mercy or being merciful. 
  
Brethren, the devil does not care what we look to so long as he can get us to look away from Christ. 
 
What happens when we turn our eye from Christ to the wind and the waves?  Remember, the apostle Peter that night on that stormy sea?  Peter saw the Lord walking on the water and he wanted to go to the Lord so the Lord bid Peter walk to him and Peter walked on the water—“but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and began to sink.” 
  
Brethren, we become afraid when we look to the wind and waves instead of Christ.  But our Lord does it to bring forth fruit in those he has made good ground by making us cry, "Lord, save me.”  So we cry “The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.” 
 
ASSURANCE AND SECURITY OF A BELIEVER
 
Psalm 93: 4: The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. 
  
Our assurance and security is that our triune God in Christ is reigning over all. 
  
Psalm 93: 1: The LORD reigneth…
 
Rev 19: 6: Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 
  
We are sent to declare “Thy God reigneth!” 

Psalm 93: 1…he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself…
 
It is his own!  Christ our God is majesty and strength.  He is the creator and owner of all persons and things.  Christ directs and disposes of all his creatures and all our actions according to the counsel of his own will, especially for his elect people. 
 
Psalm 93:…the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved
  
It is upheld by the word of Christ’s power!

Psalm 93: 2: Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting….
  
Our triune God made his covenant of redemption and counsel of peace in Christ to save his chosen people from eternity.  And the works were finished from the foundation of the world.  He said, “yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it” (Is 46: 110). 
 
Isaiah 42:4: He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. 
  
Then Christ came and proved it.  By one offering, Christ made his people eternally righteous because he is eternal God.  By one offering, he obtained eternal redemption for us because Christ Jesus is eternal God.  By effectually bringing us to faith, all God’s elect are eternally reconciled to God because Christ Jesus who reconciled us is eternal God.  Now Christ is risen again to his eternal throne reigning supreme as our God-Man Mediator.  So remember brethren, “The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.”
 
Psalm 29: 10: The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever. 11: The LORD will give strength unto his people; 
  
Our Savior walks upon the waves of the sea, the waves of providence; the waves of trial; the waves of our sinful nature; 
  
Psalm 65: 7: [Christ our God] stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.  
  
Our all-wise Savior sends the wave of trial but he says “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” God chose us by grace.  He will not allow our sins or trials to separate us from him ever again.  Christ justified his people by his blood.  He shall never pour out justice on us a second time.  Christ bought you child of God.  You are his.  He shall not lose one to the waves.  “The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.” 
 
THE SURE END OF THE BELIEVER
 
Psalm 93: 5: Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever.
 
Why does Christ send trials?  It is to bring us to this sure end to know, Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever.”
  
His testimonies are his covenant promises.  His testimonies make up God’s everlasting testament of grace to keep us safe and give us the victory.  God cannot lie! He keeps us believing that all his promises are very sure.  His new testament testimonies are written in the blood of his Son, Christ Jesus—thy testimonies are very sure.

Two, through the trial, he reminds us that he is our Holiness.  Christ is the beauty of holiness that becometh his house.  He separated us and made us holy.  He keeps us separated from our sins in his holiness.  Doing so he makes us love his holiness and hate ungodliness because “holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, forever.”
  
A believer may go through seasons overcome by the floods of our sin-nature.  We fall into sin and self-righteousness—“when any man sin”…you shall, you do, we all do.  But God will not allow his child to go on in sins, go on in self-righteousness, excusing self and accusing others, being merciless, unforgiving, haughty, proud.  He brings his child to remember how Christ had mercy on us.  God will break the heart by making us remember how Christ came lowly and laid down his life for us.  He will bring us down from our self-righteous pedestal by bringing into our hearts how he continues to show us mercy every day.  He makes you repent.  Christ makes you hate your sins, mourn them, confess them to God, beg forgiveness, turn from them and make amends with your brethren. 
  
A false professor cannot fake this!  Their sinful flesh will continue being spiteful, vengeful, sinning and justifying rebellion.  It is because God has not sanctified the false professor.  And no sinner, no matter how white washed on the outside, can change his heart within to humble himself in the spirit of love and grace.   But God makes his child broken and contrite eventually because “holiness becometh thine house, o LORD forever.”
 
But why does he do this through waves of trials?  It is to teach us our utter weakness.  When we begin leaving our first love, the Lord says, “do the first works.”  But left to us, we simply cannot do so.  We need his Spirit.  Scripture teaches us to mortify the deeds of the flesh.  But every believer knows we have no power to mortify our flesh, to put on the new man and put off the old, except the Spirit of God enables us.  So Christ uses waves of trial to remind us it is the Lord alone that can bring forth that fruit.  He must fulfill his testimonies to be our Covenant; he must separate us in holiness and keep us in order to be our Sanctification. 
  
Sometimes the Lord waits a long time.  He did not go to the apostles until the fourth watch of the morning.  He allows the waves to rage until we think he is going to kill us.  But it is to save us.   A record producer, David Foster, was driving home from the studio late one night when he ran over a man standing in the road.  At the hospital, the man was bleeding from his ears, mouth, and nose, had broken legs, arms, ribs, internal and spinal injuries.  During the exam, physicians discovered he had a bleeding brain aneurism which caused him delirium which is why he was in the highway flailing his arms.  But if he had not been hit by the car the aneurism would have killed him within hours.  Turns out the man was the actor Ben Vereen.  He recovered fully.  He became friends with David Foster.  He often said that David Foster saved his life by running over him with his car.  Sometimes, God’s trials are painful.  We think they will kill us.  But they are the means God uses to turn us to Christ and save his chosen from sure and certain death. 
  
By sending trials our gracious Head brings us to cry to him and worship him alone.  When Peter sank in the waves then he cried,  “Lord, save me.” That was the fruit of the Spirit.  And by Christ saving them they were brought to bow and worship and praise him. 
  
Mark 4: 39: And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm…41: And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? 
  
Matthew 14: 32: And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. 33: Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. 
  
By saving us from the waves he reminds us that all opposition against Christ and his people is impotent as waves against the rocks. 
  
Job 9: 4  He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?...8: Which alone…treadeth upon the waves of the sea. 
  
Song of Solomon 8: 7: Many waters cannot quench [Christ’s] love, neither can all the floods drown it.” 
  
Not all the floods of corruption in our nature could quench God’s love for us in Christ.  Not all the travail Christ endured on our behalf could quench his love for his elect.  Not the floods of God’s wrath Christ bore in our place nor our base ingratitude quenched his love. That is what he reminds us of in the trial—“many waters cannot quench his love, neither can all the floods drown it.”
 
Believer, “The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.”  Remember, we are under the direct reign of Christ our Covenant, the Lord our Righteousness, our Holiness.  The very hairs of your head are all numbered.  If God provides for the sparrow and the lily, your heavenly Father will provide for you.  He knows what we have need of better than we. 
 
Amen!