Are we on? Before the sun had ever shone
its light upon the land Christ was slain In sin her stead
more numerous than the sand. Jesus died a substitute In my
place stood He All my sin in Him He bore On
blood-stained Calvary Was this justice? Was this right? That God would die for me How could I condemn to die By
Jesus be set free Jesus died a substitute In my place stood he All my sins In him he bore on bloodstained
Calvary Now I know what my pardon is
And why it is I live Jesus' blood, the reason is His
for mine did give Jesus died a substitute In my
place stood He All my sin in Him He bore on
Bloodstained Calvary Bloodstained Calvary Matthew chapter 14, if you would
turn with me. Matthew 14 and verse 22, we'll
begin reading. Now this passage of scripture,
Matthew 22 through 33, is a picture of a sinner coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Very simple picture. And this
is the gospel. Our Lord's message to sinners
is, come to me. All you that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you Rest. That sounds like salvation to
me. That sounds like... That's the gospel. Come now and
let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. That's salvation. Simple. What is salvation? Christ, come to me. Come to me. Not come to a knowledge of this
and that, come to me. And so as we read this, let's
see if we can see where, and the Apostle Peter in particular
pictures us as the sinner coming to Christ. Let's see if we can
see where he came from, and where he went, and how he got
there. Verse 22. 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. And notice that our Lord Jesus Christ, the sovereign King
of glory, orchestrates every aspect of this. You get in a
ship. I'm going to do this. You go
do that. So let's read 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 tossed with waves, for
the wind was contrary. The wind was contrary, but our
Lord was in a mountain praying. We don't know what our Lord said
when He was in that mountain, but I know this, the Lord has
revealed, He revealed to Peter one time what He prayed about.
He said, I'm praying for you. I've been praying for you that
your faith fail not. And when our Lord says, I've
been praying for you that your faith fail not, what does that
tell you is going to happen to your faith if he don't pray for
you? The ship was now tossed in the
midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary.
And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them,
walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea..." Now, where did Peter go from? We know this
story, you're familiar with it. The Apostle Peter is going to
get out of that ship, onto the water, and he's going to go to
Christ. This is a sinner coming to Christ. Where did he come
from? They were troubled. And the Lord has arranged this,
now the Lord put them in trouble, did he not? They were troubled, saying, it's
a ghost. So not only were they troubled,
they were stupid. What they knew was a lie. It wasn't true. It's a spirit. They didn't say, I wonder if
it's a spirit. They said, it's a spirit. That's
not true. And they cried out for fear.
They were afraid. They were afraid. And this is
us by nature. We're in trouble. And they were helpless, weren't
they? To do anything about it. Experienced semen, but unable. They don't do anything about
it. The ship was tossed. They're troubled. They're scared
and they don't know what in the world is going on. They don't
have any idea what's happening. This is us by nature. And then our Lord speaks. Straightway
Jesus spake unto them. and said, be of good cheer. Has
the Lord ever said to you, be of good cheer, when there wasn't
anything to be cheerful about? They're scared, troubled, and
ignorant, superstitious, blind. And without Him, they thought,
where is He? He's not here. Yes, He is. Talking
to the believer now. You who believe on Him, have
you ever heard Him speak these words? And what is He going to
say that will comfort you more when you're in trouble than this? It's me. It is I. What else do you need to know?
It is I that sent this storm. It is I that put you exactly
where you are. It is I that brought the fear
into your heart. It is I that's showing you your
need of me, your helplessness, your foolishness, your superstition. It is I. These three words spell goodbye
to every fear. every doubt, every sorrow, every
grief, every trouble. When you're going through a difficult
time, when you're troubled like these disciples were at this
moment, have you ever, when you don't understand, you ever come
to the place, you just confuse, you don't understand like they
didn't. When you're foolish like they
were, and you don't know the savior from a scary ghost, What more comforting and reassuring
thing could our Lord Jesus Christ speak to our hearts than it is
I? I haven't been through very much
in my life. I know some people that have. I've had a few sleepless nights
over the years and when my mind is troubled and when my heart
is breaking, whether it should be or not, It has been as though
the Lord speaks these very words in my ear, and I know if you
know Him, you've heard them too. It is I, be not afraid. He doesn't
speak audibly to us, but we have a more sure word of prophecy
than an audible voice, do we not? He's spoken in His eternal,
immutable word and said, all things work together for good
to them that love me. Do you love Him? to those who
are the called. If you love Him, here's why.
Because He called you by His free, sovereign, infinite grace
according to His purpose. When everything is going wrong,
when everything is going wrong, hear these words, believer. If
you don't love Him, if you don't know Him, if He hasn't called
you by His grace, then don't You have no claim upon this,
but if you know him, believe or hear these words, it is everything that happens to you.
It is. I did it. I brought it and I
did it for your good. We can't see all that he's accomplishing
in the moves that he makes in our lives. You see how he orchestrated
this event. He sent these disciples ahead
of him to the other side of the sea and brought a storm upon
them and appeared to them not in a pleasant way. But we can rest knowing this,
in all of our troubles and fears, it's I. Knowing him, knowing
him, what more do you need to know than it is he If it's he,
then I'm safe, though troubled, blessed, though scared to death. How can a man dying of cancer,
laying in bed and not gonna get up, and you've come there to
try and be a comfort to him, and I did, I wanted to be, how
is it that he's the one who says, Chris, don't cry, I'm going to be okay. I'm supposed to be the one to
say that. I came here to say that to you. But the Lord had
already spoken to his heart and said it is I. Be not afraid. It is I that brought the cancer.
It is I that brings the heartache. It is I that brought the pain.
Be of good cheer. It is I who loved you and gave
myself for you. And now I'm bringing you home.
Because you see, it's more than just earthly troubles that our
Lord has assuaged with these very words. There will no terror ever take
hold of a sinner like that of your sin when the Lord reveals
to you what you are. And you know that Christ is all
even in that. When He's revealing our sin,
you know how you're going to see your sin? By seeing Him.
Dying for your sin, by seeing what it cost. Ye who think of
sin but lightly, nor suppose the evil great, here may view
its nature rightly. Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed. See who bears the awful load,
tis the Christ, the Lord's anointed, Son of man and Son of God. And
so when the terror of your sin, if it does, by God's revealing
grace, take hold of you, if God ever reveals to you, as he did
to Paul, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, If the ghosts of all
of your ingratitude and self-righteousness and pride and just flat out evil
ever appear to rise and haunt you in so much that you feel
as though you'll die from it. When our Lord, as our brother
just told us, when he began to feel the weight of my sin upon
himself, he said, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death. You're not ever going to feel
it like that. But when we do feel it, when I do feel it with
Paul, I'm able to say what? Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ. It is I. I can say it is Christ because
he has spoken to my wretched heart and said, it is I, be not
afraid. It is I that brought you sins
before your eyes to begin with, so that you might see the glory
of the truth, that it is I that washed them away. Be not afraid at the thunderings
of Mount Sinai. Be not afraid at the roarings
and accusations of Satan, the great accuser of the brethren.
Be not afraid of the terrors of hell. It is I. Be of good
cheer. It's not just that somebody named
Jesus died on a cross because, you know, they say he loved me
this much and stretched out his arms and died. As our brother said, I love that.
It's not just believing that Jesus died on the cross. Wait
a minute. What Jesus? It's knowing who he is, believing
that he's the son of God. The unshakable confidence of
my soul by his grace is the knowledge of who it is that died for me.
It is Christ that died. Now I can be of good cheer. If the sovereign almighty Lord
Jesus Christ died for me, then I am perfected forever just like
he said I am. Eternal redemption is obtained
for me, just like he said through his apostle in the book of Hebrews
that it is. The Lord is my shepherd. Well, then I shall not want.
I shall not want for righteousness before God. I shall not want
for a perfect satisfactory sin offering before God. The Lord is my shepherd. He didn't
say to his disciples before he left this earth, now, let not
your heart be troubled because heaven has streets of gold and
pearly gates and everything's going to be fine. He did not
say, let not your hearts be troubled. I've done all I can do and now
I'm leaving it up to you. But you've learned a lot, you
know, so you'll be okay. He said, let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Trust me. In my father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. Isn't that gracious? You know,
if this wasn't gonna end well for us, he would have told us
that. But he said, it's going to. It's
gonna end real well for you. Why? Because I'm going. I'm going
to make sure of it, to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna come,
and I'm bringing you with me. That where I am, there you may
be also. That's the object of this story.
Where he is, that's where the Apostle Peter wanted to be. From where he was, scared, foolish,
an idiot, superstitious. He said, I'm going to go see
to this. Believe in me. I'm going to go see to it. I'm
going to go make sure that you never pay for a single sin you've
ever committed. or ever shall commit. Because
of what I'm going to do, you should never be troubled ever
again." We got no excuse for it, do we? Got no excuse for
it. He said, let it not be. Let not
your heart be troubled. I'm taking care of it. I'm going
to make all of your fears unfounded and all of your troubles baseless.
I'm going to make it so that you can and shall be with me
forever. How did he do that? He went to
Calvary and took all of my sins upon himself and paid the penalty,
the wrath of suffering, the wrath of God as my substitute, bearing the guilt and shame and
punishment of my sins. put him away. It is I, be not
afraid. And then look at verse 28. And Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, and I don't think he's doubting here, he's
saying, since it's you, don't you reckon that's what he's saying? Since it's you, if it be thou,
bid me come unto thee on the water. Peter, now think about
that. Peter didn't just want to do
a magic trick. He didn't just want to walk on
water so he could tell his friends, I walked on water, man. That
was unbelievable. He said, bid me come unto thee. That's what, it's the Lord. Bid me come unto thee, Lord.
And Peter didn't just jump out and start toward the Lord on
his own. Something's gotta be, we need to understand something
first. Does he want me to come? He said, Lord, bid me. And he
didn't say Jesus bid me. He said, Lord, bid me come unto
thee. What a wonderful thing it is,
because you don't wanna go to God. You don't want to be where
He is unless He bids you come. Oh, but has He bidden us to come?
Come. Let everyone that's thirsty come. We sang, the Spirit and the bride
say, come. And let him that's thirsty come. What a wonderful, gracious God
is ours. that he would say to a wretch
like you and me, come right now. Come right now. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden. What sinner would presume to
come without his bidding? But you don't have to worry about
that. Even knowing that it was the Lord's will now, even knowing
it was the Lord's will, the publican stood afar off. and would not
so much lift up his eyes to heaven." Do we understand that? We know
that in religion there's an unholy familiarity and presumption that
we're just going to come bebopping into the presence of God. Oh,
I need to know this, Lord, would You have me come? Then I'm coming. How about You? How about You? And when I say in religion, I'm saying
in our hearts, in our human fleshly hearts, there's that unholy familiarity. At Sinai, the people didn't have
any desire to go where God was. They said, you, Moses, you go
and talk to him and let us know what he said. They prayed the
mediator to go for them. Well, here he is. Here's the
mediator in our text between God and men. The man Christ Jesus. We can't
go to God. That lesson is clearly taught
here, isn't it? We can't go to God. We don't know what terror
is until we get a glimpse of what it means to appear before
God in our sinful condition. And yet, in the person of Christ,
the substitute, the mediator, God says to sinners, come. How can I come? How can I be
together with God? How can I commune with God? Well,
though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be white as snow. This
is the Gospel now too. Before I dare come to God, I
need to know that's what He wants. And bless God in His Gospel,
it's pretty clear. That's not just what He wants,
that's what He commands. And what a gracious command.
Come. Come to Me. There's no question
of me accepting Jesus. The question is, will he accept
me? Can I come to you, Lord? Can I come to you? Then I'm coming.
By his grace, I'm coming. Think about that in terms of
our text. Can the apostle come to Christ? Can he? If you were looking over the
side of the ship and saw the waves, what would you be thinking? Can
I get to Christ? Lord, you bid me come. If you
bid me come, I can come. And look what our Lord said in
verse 29. One word. Isn't that a beautiful word?
If you know who He is and you know what you are before Him,
what a wonderful word. Come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Just as I am without one plea, Just as I am the fool, the scared,
superstitious fool that I am, wretched and helpless in my sin,
and without one plea but that you've revealed by your
grace that your blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to
thee, Oh, Lamb of God, here I come. How about you? Oh, may He give
us grace. He did the impossible. The Apostle
Peter did the impossible because the Lord commanded it. With men, it is impossible, but
with God. All things are possible. And
this is faith. Dead people can't come out of
their graves. But what does our Lord say to dead people in their
graves? Come forth. Lame people can't walk. That's
what it means to be lame. Have you ever thought about the
fact that the Lord commanded them to do exactly what they
couldn't do? You think maybe He's teaching
us something about how sinners are saved in that? Stretch forth
thy hand. He said that to a man with a
withered hand. He didn't say run a marathon
for me. He could have probably done that.
He wouldn't have won it with one hand. But he could have got
that done. Do the one thing that you can't
do. You know what the one thing is that you will never do apart
from the power and free grace of God? Come to Christ. He did the impossible. And you can't come to the Lord
without Him saying, come, and with the command giving the ability. You can't come to Me unless my
Father does something for you. He gives the supernatural ability
to obey the command. It's not within our natural ability
to obey the Gospel. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. You're not going to come up with
it. I can't convince you of it. I can't give it to you. It is
the gift of God. I had somebody say to me one
time, and I think I've heard it more than once, several times,
but somebody said it right to my face one time. He said, God
would never ask a sinner to do anything that that sinner can't
do. Well, I agree with the first
part of that. God never asked a sinner to do anything. Our Lord doesn't ask. But the truth is just the opposite
of what that man said. God never commands a sinner to
do anything that the sinner can do. Has he ever commanded you
to do anything that you were capable of doing? Lazarus, come
forth! With men, it's impossible. Even
after he saves us, you know he's still saving us. You might say,
well, Chris, we can love one another. We can do that, can't
we? Can you? You know, He didn't say love
one another. He said, love one another even as I have loved
you. How are you doing with that? Here's what we must understand.
It's so simple, isn't it? Without me, you can do nothing. That's before He saves you. That's
when He saves you. And that's since He saved you. And yet He says, come. Let him that's thirsty come.
But look at verse 30. But when he saw the wind boisterous,
he was afraid, And began to sink, and he cried, saying, Lord, save
me." Now, apart from the divine prayers
of our Lord, that's about the best prayer I've ever heard.
How about you? Lord, save me. And let me say this before I
go any further. You can't come to Christ. That's pretty clear,
isn't it, from this take? But I'll tell you what else is
clear. You must come to Christ. You've got to have Him. You've
got to have righteousness before God, and Christ alone is the
sinner's righteousness. You know, my righteousness is
not like His. My righteousness is His. He Himself
is my righteousness. I've got to have a sin offering
before God. He said your lamb shall be without blemish. What
about your lamb? You got one like that? Your lamb
must be the spotless holy lamb of God that takes away sin. We must come to Christ. So let's
see if we can see how that happens by God's grace. Now notice It
took faith, don't you imagine? I believe that the Lord gave
the Apostle Peter some faith or he never would have stepped
out of that ship. And yet all of our faith is full of doubt
and unbelief. He began to see the winds and
the waves. I'd say it took great faith for
him to step out on that water. But we're so full of unbelief. By His grace, we believe. But can you ever say that? I don't guess a believer can
ever say that, Lord, I believe, without that voice in the back of our
mind saying that, Lord, help me. Help my unbelief. And this is not a one-time prayer
here where he says, Lord, save me. This is not I've been crying,
Lord, save me for a long time now. I've seen the waves and
the winds many times when I should have had my eyes fixed upon him,
but I didn't. I should have been looking at
the one who bid me come. But notice how brief and urgent
this prayer is. I'm sinking. There's no time
now for eloquence or pretense. This is not, you know, as the
Pharisee, God, I thank Thee that I'm not like other men, you know,
I tithe and I do this and I do that, blah, blah, blah. There's
no time for that now, I'm sinking. This is more like, God, be merciful
to me, I'm a sinner. That's pretty much what Peter
said here, isn't it? Lord, save me. How's the Lord gonna save
you? Be propitious to me on the mercy
seat. May that blood shed on the mercy
seat, the place where God said, I will meet with you there and
commune with you. The only place where God can
meet with a sinner and not destroy you and put you in hell is at
the mercy seat, the Lord Jesus Christ, where the blood is offered. So that's pretty much what he
said, wasn't it? Lord, save me. Be propitious to me. Let that
blood wash my sin away. This prayer speaks of ability.
Lord, save me. You know who you pray that to?
Somebody that can save you. This is an appeal to the only
one who can save a sinner. You know, only the Lord. Only the sovereign Christ can
save. If He leaves it up to you, as
religion likes to say, you'll drown in your sins. Bless God,
my Savior is almighty to save. His hand is not shortened that
He can't save. He's able to save to the uttermost
those that come unto God by Him. He said in John chapter 10, I
lay down my life for my sheep and they'll never perish. There
is a specific result Certain result of him laying down his
life for me. I'm never gonna perish How many
this morning as we sit here this morning how many are praying
to a God who cannot say Hmm I'll tell you this about my Lord and
Savior if he will He can make you whole He can
make you clean He can wash all of your sins away. My Savior
has power on this earth. He did when He walked here bodily
and He does right now. He's got authority and ability
right here on this earth to forgive sins. If He says your sins are
gone, they're gone. That's who we need to get to.
We got to get to him, don't we? It never says that Peter tried
to swim back to the boat, you know, or say, John, throw me
a rope. I'm sinking here. He disregarded
human ability. And when God saves you, you will
too. You'll despair of self. And this is faith, this is how
we come by grace through faith. When Paul said in Philippians
2, I've suffered the loss of all things. Remember, I said
this last night, I believe, but remember again what he was talking
about, that he suffered the loss of. His circumcision, his heritage
as a Hebrew, his religious heritage. I was a Pharisee, his standing
in religion, as touching the law, I was blaming his own works.
He said, it's all dung, all dung. Why, Paul? So I may get to Him. I cast all of that behind me,
forgetting those things which are behind, because I got to
get to Him. I'm pressing toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God. Where's that, Paul? In Christ
Jesus. I must be found in Him, and nothing
I am, nothing I have, or nothing I do can contribute to that.
What then? Lord, save me, that's what. Simon
Peter put all of his hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. As weak
as our faith is as believers, true faith, all of it, looks
to Him, to Him alone. I know whom I have believed and
I'm convinced. There's nothing to argue about.
I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. This prayer of the apostles on
that water was one with complete confidence in the ability of
the Savior to say, Lord, save me. And it's a prayer also, it
acknowledges ability, but it also acknowledges inability.
Lord, save me. I don't just need a helping hand
here. I don't need a chance. How about you, do you need a
chance to be saved? I'm way past that. He didn't say, Lord, I'm going
to swim towards you the best I can, but boy, I may need you
to help me, you know, come halfway at least. Save me! Paul said, we are the circumcision. We are the covenant people of
God who worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in this flesh. And I, by God's grace, do you
have any confidence whatsoever in your flesh? By the grace of
God, I can say no, none. Not mine and not yours. Will
my loved one, will my children, my grandchildren, those that
I love, will they come to Christ? I have no confidence in their
flesh. They're not going to figure it out, are they? Lord, save them. Save them. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth. Absolutely nothing. And this is personal, isn't it?
Between him and the Lord. He said, Lord, save me. It's one thing to believe in
the doctrine of salvation of sinners by the sin atoning death
and representative righteousness of Christ and be absolutely correct
in that. I believe that too. But my prayer
is that Lord save me. Save me. It's one thing to believe in
the doctrine of the immaculate, sinless, holy son of God and
the effectual sin atoning blood. And I want to believe, I believe
that. I believe that he is who he said he was. But our Lord
said, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life. By faith, we must be partakers
of Him. Do we understand what He was
saying by that? I pray He'll reveal that to us. We can sing,
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, and that's all fine and well. I'm
glad He saves, aren't you? But have you come to the place
where you've cried from your heart urgently, from a sense
of your great need for Him and Him alone, Lord, save. We have sinned. We have sinned. I need saving. I'm the problem. I'm sinking. And I deserve to
sink. And I'm sinking because of what
I am. If I was a fish, it wouldn't
be a problem. But I'm not a fish, I'm a sinner. And sinners sink. That's what they do. And sinners can't come to the
one who saves sinners. They need for Him first to come
to them. What did He do? He came where
they were and then bid Him come to Him. And how does this end? Well, as I've said already, Christ
has saved me. He is saving me. And He shall
save me. We're still coming to Him, aren't
we? The apostle Peter wrote, 1 Peter 2.4, to whom coming? As unto a living stone, disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Are you still
coming to Him? Let me ask you this, are you
going to make it? Are you going to make it all the way to Him? Well, I'll tell you this, if
you do, it won't be on the strength of your faith. Look at verse
31. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth his hand and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" It wasn't Peter's
faith that got him to Christ, was it? He was sinking because of his
faith. In a sense, you understand. We're saved by grace through
faith. You're not going to be saved apart from faith. But don't
trust your faith. The apostle was a doubter just
like you're a doubter. But he was a caught doubter. He caught him by the hand and
raised him up out of his wretchedness, his inability, his sin, and saved
him. Lord, save me. Thank God for catching grace. Amen, brother. Thank you, Chris. The Lord has given these two
dear brothers the faithful ability to make straight in the desert
a highway for our God. What God requires, God must provide,
that no flesh glory in his presence. And he's provided for us here
this morning. I saw something in this story
I've never seen before, Chris. I always sort of thought that
Peter was the most courageous and faithful of all the disciples
by getting out of the boat. But the Lord said, lest you have
faith as a little child, you should not enter the kingdom
of heaven. Faith is not an expression of stalwart strength. is a desperate
need for help. Peter was the weakest, most cowardly
of the disciples, saying to the Lord, I don't trust this boat. I need to get to you. Thank you, brother. What a blessing.
Let's stand, Tom. Number 256. And we're going to
have lunch afterwards, so please stay and enjoy time together. 256. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul,
it is well. with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. The Satan should buffet, though
trials should come. Let this blessed assurance control,
that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate. hath shed his own blood for my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, My sin not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the
cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul, it is well. With my soul, with my soul It
is well, it is well with my soul And Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trump shall resound, and
the Lord Shall descend, even so, It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Amen. Thank you.