Alright brethren, Matthew chapter
14. I'm going to read this again
and I'm going to just make a few comments as we go and then I'll
say a few things about it. Matthew 14 verse 22. Straightway, Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship. he constrained them to get into
a ship and to go before him and to the other side while he sent
the multitudes away. It was our sovereign God-man
mediator that constrained you and me to get into the fellowship
of the gospel. It was his power that constrained
us to get into the ship. The Son of God called us in sovereign
power, and our sovereign Savior sent
the multitude away. The multitude would have taken
Christ by force and made Him a king. He just fed them with
the fish and the loaves, and they wanted more. They thought
they found their meal ticket, and that was us. and he sanctified
us to himself, constrained us into the fellowship of the gospel
while he sent the multitudes away. It says, 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.
When he finished the work the Father gave him to do, he went
up into Mount Zion, into heavenly Mount Zion, and he ever lives
there to make intercession for his people. That's where he is
now, that's what he's doing now. When he had put away our sin,
when he put away all the sin of God's elect, when he made
us to righteousness of God, when he perfected us forever, he arose
into the Mount. And that's where he is now, interceding
for his people. Verse 24 says, but the ship was
now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind
was contrary. Now that's a good description
of the believer's life of faith. We're in the ship. We're together
in fellowship. And there's a lot of tribulation.
We're on a sea where there's a lot of storms. Every day we
find the wind is contrary to us. The child of God, get this
next verse, verse 25, and in the fourth watch of the night,
Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is God. We just sang it. He walks on
the storm. He walks on the sea. All providence
is our Lord working his sovereign will and good pleasure. 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. But straightway Jesus spake unto
them, saying, be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. Our Lord
Jesus comes to us right now, and how prone we are when he
appears, he appears in strange ways sometimes, and how prone
we are to be troubled and to cry out for fear, but our Savior
comes for the purpose of comforting his people. And it's only by
his word, only by him speaking to our heart and spirit and saying
to us, be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. That's what
he says through the gospel. And in those sweet times when
the Lord reveals himself in our hearts, our faith is strong.
In those sweet times when he speaks affectionately in our
heart, our faith is strong. Verse 28, and Peter answered
him and said, Lord, if it be thou, or since it be thou, bid
me come to thee on the water. And the Lord said, come. And
when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the
water to go to Jesus. This is how strong the word of
the Lord is. In our flesh, one moment, all
we can see is the wind and the waves and the storm. But He can
speak. And the things of this world
go strangely dim. We don't see the wind and the
waves. We see Him. And we're comforted. And our faith is strong. And
we can walk on the water then. The cares that troubled us vanish. We can do all things through
Christ who strengthens us. Verse 30. When he saw the wind boisterous,
when he saw the wind strong, he was afraid. And beginning
to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And Peter was looking
only to Christ. He walked on the water. When
he was looking only to Christ, he walked on the water. But when
he used his carnal eye and looked and saw the wind blowing strong
and the effects of it on that water, Fear entered in, and doubt
entered in, and he began to sink. But what did Peter do? He cried,
saying, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. You know why he
cried that? That means all his faith wasn't gone. Mostly gone,
but it wasn't all gone. Why wasn't his faith completely
gone? Remember another time when the
Lord said, Peter, I've prayed for you that your faith fail
not. That's the only reason Peter still had a little faith to say,
Lord, save me. It's by the Lord. Well, I'll get to this in a minute. Look at verse 31. And immediately
Jesus stretched forth his hand, and he caught him. And he said
to him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? See
there, immediately. Immediately. The Savior stretched
forth his hand and caught him. He caught him. And the Lord said,
O thou of little faith. That's one word in the Greek.
What the Lord said to him is this, he looked right at Peter
and he said, little faith, why did you doubt? That's what I
titled this, a word for little faith. For little faith. Verse 32, and when they, Peter
and the Lord, together were coming to the ship, the wind ceased. Try to imagine that sight, brethren.
This is a mighty storm. It's a hurricane-type thing,
you know, as big as they were on the Sea of Galilee. But the
wind's blowing, and waves are white capping, and I mean, it's
a storm. And the Lord and Peter come into that ship, and as soon
as they entered that ship, the wind stopped. And you can just
picture the waves just calm down. Verse 33, Then they that were
in the ship came and worshipped Him. They bowed down to His feet. That's what the word worship
means. They bowed down to His feet. And they said, of a truth
thou art the Son of God. Now here's what we see. The Lord
Jesus is the Son of God who rules all providence to save His people
and to keep us walking by faith, looking to Him alone. That's
what I want to show you in this. He is sovereign God who rules
all providence, everything going on to call us out and then keep
us walking by faith the rest of our days. Now, first of all,
the Son of God, our Savior, is who sanctified us. He's who sanctified
us, and he sanctified us to himself. That's what he did. He did it
all from his heavenly mount. The Lord Jesus went up to the
mount to pray. That's what the scripture says.
Well, after he accomplished the redemption of his people, after
he finished the work the Father gave him to do, justified us,
saved us, made us righteous, all God's elect, our Lord Jesus
went up into the mount. He went to the mount. He said,
I'll pray the Father and he'll send the Spirit. And it's by
His intercession for His people, it's by Him sending forth the
Spirit, sending forth the gospel, that He calls us to Himself,
regenerates us, and sanctifies us out of this world to Him. He does that. He does that. Scripture says, who is He that
condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather,
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. And the same Lord Jesus,
the same one who laid down His life, He's now in glory, and
the same one that was working this right here that day, He
constrained you and me. He gave us a new heart and a
new will, and He constrained you and me to get into fellowship
with Him and with our brethren. He constrained us into the ship,
just like He did them that day. Why did the Lord do that? because
the multitude had just been fed some carnal things for their
belly. And they wanted more of that.
And so they wanted to take the Lord Jesus by force and make
him a king. And you're not going to make
him a king. You're not. He is the king. But to save his
apostles from that, the Lord constrained them. He separated
them. He sanctified them and made them
get in the ship. and he sent the multitude away.
That's what the Lord did. He is sanctification. The Lord
Jesus, that's a good illustration of what sanctification is right
there. It's the Lord constraining you in your heart unto himself
away from the multitude. That's what sanctification is.
And it's all of the Lord. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness. The beauties of
sanctification from the womb of the morning thou hast to do
of thy youth. Our Lord said, not by might nor
by power, not by your might, not by your power, but by my
spirit sayeth the Lord. It's the Lord who sanctifies
his people. Brethren, we see here by what
Peter does, It's only by our sovereign, omnipotent Savior
that we continue to be sanctified to Him, that we continue to be
kept walking by faith and trust in Him. It's only by Him. The
same one who called you is the one that's got to keep you and
deliver you all your days, and only He can do it. Now, that's
not to excuse you and me in any shape, form, or fashion. That's
to make us draw nearer to Him and to call on Him and to depend
on Him. We need Him every hour. Now here's
the second thing. This same sovereign Savior rules
all providence and He does it just for His people. If it comes to pass in this world,
it's coming to pass because our Lord did it and He did it for
His people, whatever it is. whatever it is. No sooner had
the apostles obeyed our Lord, they did what he said, they got
in the ship, they took off, went before him. And no sooner had
they did that, and a storm come, a bad storm. Brethren, never
imagine that the life of faith is gonna be all peace and no
tribulation. Don't imagine that. And don't
let anybody try to cast you down if you do suffer tribulation. Listen, the Lord spoke through
the Apostle Paul in Acts 14.22, and the Lord spoke confirming
the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in
the faith That's not a thing, that's continuing looking to
Christ, continuing the faith. And that we must, we must, through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. It's a must. Our Lord said in Matthew 10.21,
the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the
father the child. And the children shall rise up
against their parents and cause them to be put to death. And
you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But he that
endureth to the end shall be saved. He said, I didn't come
to send peace on this earth. He gives the greatest peace that
can be given when he gives you faith to trust him. But he didn't
come to send peace on this earth, but a sword. You must, through
much tribulation, enter the kingdom of God. But he said this, these
things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In this world you shall have
tribulation. There's gonna be storms, but
be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Our Savior sent the storm. There must be much tribulation,
but it don't come about just at random. It's all by his sovereign
hand. He sent the storm. And we know
that all things work together for good. They just, all things
happen for a reason. No, he works them all together. He's in control of everything
together, and He's working them all together for the good of
them that love God, for them who are the called, and He's
doing it all according to His purpose. Everything is according
to His purpose. He does it just for His elect. He does it just for you who He
saved. Verse 24. But the ship was now in the midst
of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. And
in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went of them walking on
the sea. He sent the wind. People will
look at a scripture like this, and without faith, you're gonna
say, he walked on the water. Listen, the law of gravity is
the Lord. He's the law of nature. He created
everything. He rules all things. It's all
his host that he created that he's in sovereign control over. If the storm comes, he sent a
storm. If the trouble in this earth,
he ruled it and he's working it. All he has to do, but men
do those wicked things. Yeah, men do wicked things, only
because he lets them do wicked things, and he only lets them
do wicked things, working it together to do good things for
his people. It's all serving a purpose. The
sin is all of the sinner. The sin is his fault. It's all
his fault, but it's the Lord who's overruling it for the good
of his people. Everything in nature and everything
in men's lives, our Lord is in sovereign control of everything.
He told his apostles when he sent them out to preach, he said,
there's not a sparrow that falls to the ground without your father.
A little sparrow, the little sparrow that you see about 30
of them land in a tree all at once and then they flutter away,
those little bitty sparrow. He said, one of them don't even
fall to the ground without your father. He said, the hairs of
your head are all numbered. He's in sovereign control of
everything. I mean, if there's a microscopic
germ in your body that causes you to get a disease, he's in
control of that. And if there is some mighty empire
that tries to come up against a nation, he's in control of
that. Greatest to least, he's in control of every bit of it.
He sent the wind. and they did exactly what we
do when the storm comes. They tried to save themselves. We'd have done it. Be a natural
thing to do when a storm comes. Mark 6, 48 says, he saw them
toiling in rowing. Now get this, he went up to the
mount along to pray. They went off on the sea, and
it's the third watch in the night. They've been, it's probably,
what's that, three or four in the morning, I think. They've
been gone a long time. But he saw them. Our Lord is,
He's omniscient. He knows and sees all things
at one time. You're never out from under the
watchful eye of the Lord. And He saw them, He knew what
they were doing. And what did He see them do?
When a storm came, they're toiling, they're working hard as they
can, rowing, trying to get away from that storm. It says, but
the wind was contrary to them. They could try and try and try,
they'd row and row, they'd make a little ground, and they'd win,
they'd just push them right back. And about the fourth watch of
the night, He cometh unto them walking upon the sea, and He
acteth like He's gonna pass them by, Mark said. But the whole
time the Lord Jesus saw them, He saw them toiling, He saw them
working to try to save themselves. And He waited till the fourth
watch to go to them. Why'd he do that? Why'd he do
that? Do you see, first of all, one
reason is he shows us a great contrast between him and them,
between him and us. He's the faithful one. That's
who he is. He's the faithful one. We saw
this morning, we're saved by his perfect faithfulness. He's
the perfect one. But here's his believing children.
His believing children are out there and they're rowing hard,
rowing hard, the wind's pushing them back. But he comes to them walking
on the sea. Walking on the sea, calm, just
walking on the sea. And the whole time he saw them,
He saw them the whole time. Listen to what the scripture
says. Psalm 12, I'm almost positive I wrote this down wrong. Let
me just give it to you. My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. Psalm 32, he says, I will instruct
thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide
thee with mine eye. This is our savior. Never asleep
and guiding us with his eye all the time. He sees his people
all the time. There's no remote possibility. I mean no remote possibility
that Anybody for whom Christ died will ever perish. Now, let
me clarify that. I don't mean you're not gonna
die. I don't mean you might not suffer in this world. I mean
you're never gonna be separated from the love of God in Christ.
And if you know him and you've heard this gospel, you know that's
what's important. He'll bring you through everything
else. You just don't wanna be separated from him. And the fact
of the matter is, is He laid down His life and bought us with
His blood just as demanded we die. Christ laid down His life
for us and He put away the sin of His people and justified us
and the same justice that demanded we die demands we be with Him
forever and have eternal life. And so nothing's gonna separate
us from the love of God in Christ. But he waited to the fourth watch
of the night. He let them row and row and row
and the wind push on them and push on them and push on them
until they were absolutely exhausted. You ever been there? Storm comes. and you're trying
everything you can to save yourself out of it. And it just seemed like the Lord's
not there. And you keep trying and you keep
trying until finally you just don't have the strength to try
anymore. You reckon He does that on purpose?
You reckon He does that on purpose? Our Lord's going to keep us knowing.
He alone is the faith of our faith. He's going to keep us
knowing. He alone is the Savior. He alone is the one who can deliver
us and has and shall. Now lastly, here's a word about
faith. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of the Lord. That's why I said to you young
people, if the Lord gives you faith, you're gonna know this
is the greatest thing your parents could have done for you, making
you come here on Sundays and midweek. Poor kids out there
playing soccer today, they think they've just, oh, how good life
is. Parents just let them do, play
sports. Faith comes by hearing. It's
going to come by Him preaching this Word to you and speaking
this Word in your heart through just some earthen vessel preaching
the Gospel. But faith comes by hearing, and
hearing is by the Word of the Lord. It's by Him speaking. And
look what happened. When they were afraid, it says,
verse 27, He spoke and He said, Be of good cheer, it's I. Be
not afraid. And when he said that, faith
came into Peter's heart. He had faith, but I'm saying,
when he said that, Peter didn't see the waves anymore. He didn't
see the storm and the wind anymore. Peter answered him and said,
Lord, since it's thou bid me come to thee on the water. And
the Lord said, come. That's happened because the Lord
Jesus spoke in power and said, be not afraid, it's I. And if
he speaks, that's when you're gonna believe. If he speaks to
your heart, you'll have faith and you will believe on the Lord
Jesus. You won't see the obstacles anymore. Right now, when He brings
you into the storm, at first you start seeing your sin and
you start seeing that you can't satisfy Him by any works you've
done and you think, I'm too sinful to come to Him, He won't receive
me. And that's just a storm. You try to do a little something
to make up for it. That's just rowing against the waves and
the wind. But when the Lord speaks and says, be of good cheer, it
is I, that's when you'll have faith and you'll pray, Lord,
let me come to you. And you know what He did? He
said, come. Listen, there is never in the Scripture, you'd
never find it anywhere and it's never been in the history of
this world. If the Lord gives a man faith to come to Him and
to beg the Lord, Lord bid me come to You, the Lord says, come. Has He given you a heart to believe
Him? Has He made you hear His Word?
He's made you, you sitting here that maybe you've never believed
on Him before. Has He done something in your
heart and you want to call on Him, you want to come to Him?
He says, come, come, come to the Lord. That's what he says
to all those he gives faith. But we can only come to him through
faith. That's the only way. We can only
walk through this life of tribulation looking to the Lord Jesus. We're
only going through this life and we're only going to endure
to the end by faith looking to Christ only. While Peter looked
to the Lord in faith, he walked on the sea. Do you believe Peter
walked on that water? I do. Peter walked on that water. You could walk on it today. If
the Lord gave you the faith He gave Peter, you could walk on
water today. That's so. And look at this too now. The
Lord didn't stop the wind from blowing. He didn't first stop
the wind from blowing. He didn't first make the sea
calm. And then Peter had the faith to step out. That ain't
faith. That wouldn't be faith. He's
not going to put away all your sins in your flesh. He's not
going to take you out of that body of death. You're still going
to be in that stormy sea. But He gives you something you
didn't have. He gives you a new heart, a new
constraint, faith in the heart to behold Him. And that's when
you'll come to Him. When the Lord spoke, he strengthened
Peter's faith so that Peter didn't have any regard for the wind
and the waves. Peter, you just hear Peter, the
way he said that, Lord, since it's you, bid me come to you.
He had, you see faith there? Peter believed he could walk
to the Lord. That's faith. And the Lord said,
come on. That's only by our Savior speaking.
He's the only one that can speak faith into the heart and He's
the only one that can strengthen the faith once He gives it. That's
the only way you're going to walk through the storms of this
life. That's the only way you're going to walk through this life
is by Him giving you faith and strengthening your faith and
sustaining your faith. I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me. Does that mean walking on the
ocean? If He gave you faith, you could. But even more than
that, He gives you faith to, in this body of sin and death,
even more miraculous than walking on the ocean, He gives you faith
to believe Him, that He has justified you and put away all your sin,
and He shall present you faultless before the Father. Scripture tells us to sanctify
the Lord in our hearts. It says, behold Him above all.
More powerful than all. And when you have faith and the
Lord is sustaining you and strengthening you in faith and you're looking
to Him, you're looking to Him, that's when He sanctified you
in the heart. And that's when you know He's
all-powerful, ruling everything. ruling everything. That's when
faith believes he's above all, and he's ruling all, and he's
the salvation, our salvation over all. Here's how we get in trouble.
Here's how we get in trouble. Verse 30. But when he saw the
wind was strong, when he saw the wind was boisterous, He was
afraid and beginning to sink. Peter was walking by faith. That
don't have a thing to do with our flesh at all. Nothing. That's spiritual. That's of the
Lord. It's all spiritual. But then
when his fleshly carnal eye looked at the wind and saw the waves
and all of that, doubt entered in. He became afraid, and what happened
then? Here, faith saw the Lord way
up here, and the wind and the waves and all that's way down
here, don't even have an effect on anything. But when he looked
at those waves, those wind and those waves went way up here,
and he couldn't see the Lord, being the all-powerful one. You
see, that's what, when he says, sanctify the Lord in your heart,
when you have faith by his grace, you see the Lord high and above
over all, ruling all. But whenever you start looking
with the carnal eye at carnal things, those things become all
powerful. Now that's so everything about
it. You start looking at your works, you start looking at how
you're doing, you start looking at your faith and trying to look
at your faith and trying to look at your religious service and
all of that, same thing happens. Your sins just elevate to the
highest. Paul said, when I heard the law
and when I looked to the law and all of my religious works
I was doing, he said, sin deceived me. and by it slew me." The true
sanctification is the Lord speaking into your heart and giving you
faith to look to Him. Brethren, listen to this simple
scripture. It's in parentheses in the Bible,
but it's the most important thing to remember. 2 Corinthians 5.7
says, we walk by faith, not by sight. We walk by faith, not
by sight. When that doubt entered, Peter,
that's what the Lord said, why did you doubt? That's what happened,
doubt entered. And what it was is, carnal reason
told Peter, the wind is stronger, the waves are stronger than my
Lord. That's what carnal reason told him. Tell me, you that's
sitting here today, when we read that Peter walked on that water,
did not there something in your car or mine that said he walked
on water? It's that doubt of our flesh.
That's unbelief. That's what happened to us when
our carnal eye looks to the storm. Doubt enters and we begin to
sink. But our Lord stood firm. Look here. He didn't begin to
sink. He's standing there on the water. The Lord is. He didn't
begin to sink. You know why? He's the faithful
one. He's the faithful one. He's God
ruling all of that. He didn't sink, but verse 30
says, Beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately
Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said, O little
Faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were coming to
the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship
came and worshiped him, saying, Of a truth, this is the Son of
God. I asked myself, Little Faith,
why do you doubt? I know the answer. The sin that
so easily besets me, the sin that so easily makes me sink
is unbelief. And you know how that comes about?
I start looking with His eye, listening with His ear, I start trying to reason with
my carnal reason. That's always the cause of my
unbelief, always. Listen, Hebrews 12, one says,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus. That's the only way you can,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before Him, He's the joy set before
us. He looked to the Father, that's what we saw this morning.
And for the joy set before Him, He finished the work, despising
the shame, and He sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. You run this race looking to Him. And here's the good news,
Christ will keep His saints looking only to Him. He'll keep His saints
looking only to Him. It's only going to be by the
faithful one bringing us to cry out, Lord, save me. That's the
only reason Peter still had a little faith to say, Lord, save me,
was the Lord kept that faith in his heart. And He's going
to keep the faith. If He's giving you faith, He's
going to keep faith in your heart. Only by the faithful one reaching
forth His hand and lifting us up. speaking His Word and lifting
us up. That's the only way we're going
to continue. And it's going to be by the faithful
one coming into fellowship with you, making you come into fellowship
with Him. When they entered into fellowship,
the wind ceased. And that's what always happens.
This is what Paul meant in Galatians 2.20 when he said, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I. But the life I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. That's what we see with Peter.
If it wouldn't have been for the faithfulness of the Son of
God who loved Peter and who was Peter's righteousness, Peter
would have sank and drowned in that sea that day. But by the
faith of Christ, he lifted him out and brought him into fellowship
with him. And that's us all the time walking
through this life. We know to walk to run the race
looking to Christ, but we gotta flesh the man and we keep looking
at the wind and the waves. start looking at ourselves and
we start sinking and the only way you keep living is by the
Lord Jesus Christ. The same one who sanctified you
in the first hour and sent the multitude away is the one who
speaks into your heart by his faithfulness and lifts you out
of the sea and keeps you in fellowship with him. That is sanctification. That's how we're saved. That's
when we hit our face at His feet in faith and give Him all the
glory and say of a truth, Thou art the Son of God. That's when
you worship Him. Isn't it so? I pray the Lord
bless that. All right, Brother Greg.