Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to our reading, Matthew chapter
14, and reading for our text, just a few words in verse 30. The cry of Peter, Lord save me. The whole verse reads, but when
he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to
sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me." Matthew 14 and verse
30. We may well ask in coming to
accounts like this, of what teaching, of what benefit, is it to us
and in gospel days. We know that that which the Lord
did upon the earth, the miracles that he performed, the feeding
of the 5,000, the feeding of 4,000, the miracles of healing,
the miracles here of walking upon the sea, Those things that
he did, they bore witness to who he was, that he was truly
God. And we read at the end of this
account, in verse 33, Then they that were in the ship came and
worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. And those things, and John is
very clear of this in his gospel, that these things are written
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that in believing
ye might have life through his name. And his emphasis is that
Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, is the true God. In his epistles he says this
is the true God and eternal life. And so we know that when we read
these accounts we can apply it in that way. We as well have
the reading of it, the rehearsing of it, so that we might believe. These are written that we might
believe and it's applied to us personally. When we come to the
individual accounts like this, well, we don't expect that any
of the people of God today, well, we certainly will not meet our
Lord and Saviour in the way that Peter met Him, not on earth anymore. He shall come again with power
and great glory at the end of the world. We shall not expect
to have the situation of walking on the water and beginning to
sink and to be saved in answer to our cry, Lord, save me. And so when we come to accounts
like this, we're not looking for an exact walking out and
realising that this meets our case in that way. But what we do meet with is we
meet the same God, the same saviour, who has the same power and the
same might today as he had then, We have the same dear Jesus that
hears and answers prayer. He is the intercessor. He is our advocate with the Father
Jesus Christ, the righteous. He has the same nature, the same
compassion, the same love as he did then. And we are the same. We're the same like Peter, like
the dear disciples in all their fears. in all their doubts, in
all their limiting of the Lord, in all their lack of faith, those
things, we can really draw with them in, walk with them in, and
realise those same things in different situations, yes, in
our lives, and the things that we go through, and things that
we walk through, and so we can come to account like this. And
as we look at it bit by bit, realising, believing that this,
the inspired Word of God, that every word of it that is chosen
by the Holy Ghost to have recorded before us is for our profit,
our blessing, and that faith that cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God, we may expect the Lord bless us with faith
through such an account. And it is part of the work of
the ministry, preach the Word, preach this Word and other words
to draw out from these scriptures the precious truths of God that
shall apply to your life and apply to mine, your soul and
my soul. We do not want to be reading
the Word of God or hearing it preached and just thinking of
it in an academic way and thinking, well, that's an interesting account,
and that applied to the disciples, and that applied 2,000 years
ago, but having no relevance to us or to our lives today. Those things that are set before
us in the Word are directly relevant to us. You and I, we have a soul
to be either saved or lost. We also need faith. Without faith it is impossible
to please God. We also need saving, saving from
this world, saving to the world that is to come, saving from
our sins. So when we have a text like this,
which is a very short and pithy yet urgent prayer and crying,
Lord save me, surely we can come in and feel that that suits us. And may it suit one to nine. May it be that help, whether
in a natural way or a spiritual way, that he give a prayer and
teach us how to pray and teach us about the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, before we come to the prayer,
to the actual words of the text, I want to look at the lead up
to it and how important that is. You know, we've given out
our text and we can have things in our lives, but yes, some things
do just suddenly happen, but in nearly always, there'll be
a lead up to it. You'll be able to trace up from
a blessing, from a help, and maybe it goes back a few hours
or days or months or even years. And you see what leads up to
it. So I just can find the lead up
to when our Lord in verse 22 constrains his disciples to get
into the ship. What they were doing, the whole
situation that they were found in, the Lord constrained them
to do. So they didn't just choose to
go into the ship. And the very word constraining,
it suggests that They would not have done so unless the Lord
had rather strongly brought them to do so. We think of in the
end of the Gospel according to Luke, where our Lord, unknown
to the disciples, the two on the way to Emmaus, he made as
though he would have gone further. But they constrained him. They
said, come in with us, the day is fast spent, and he went in
with them. They used arguments to get him
to do what they wanted. And so with this, the situation
that they're in, the Lord brought them into it, the Lord began
it. Now we might look back in our
lives too, and we might be very clear in this, the Lord began
this. This was not of my choosing,
not of my appointing, But I felt really constrained on my spirit. I felt the Lord clearly showed
me from the word of God what he'd had me to do, consistent
with the holy word of God. And I ventured to go and to walk
in this way and to go in that way, believing it was the right
way and the right thing to do. And the Lord would have me to
do it, and he directed me to do it. Sometimes we are not certain
of it. You think of how Joseph, all
that happened in his life began. It was his obedience to his father
to take and see provisions and see how his brethren did. We
don't read of a special constraining of God. It was God's providence,
as he was obedient to his father, brought him into that way, so
Joseph could look back at all the things that happened to him,
how unpleasant it was, and say this, I did my father's bidding. It was not chance but appointment
that the man found me wandering in the field. and that brought
me to the brethren, my brothers, and that all that happened. And
that can be a great comfort, realising that the way that we've
been brought, the path that we're walking in, the Lord has appointed
that path. We think of David when he killed
Goliath. Again, it started with obedience
to his father to go and take those provisions to his brothers
in the battlefield, and that was taken out of his hand. Others
have felt very clearly directed by the Lord what to do, what
way to go, and they have ventured to walk in that way, believing
that it is a right path and a right way to go. Moses was very clearly
told in the burning bush that he was to return and to go to
his brethren and to bring them up out of Egypt. The Lord began
that way but it wasn't very long before they had much opposition
and God had warned Moses that that would be indeed the case. So this is the first thing we
notice here and we may see it in our own lives and notice as
well that the path that we are in, God has appointed in, we
can be at peace with God in our own conscience that we are where
we are and doing what we are because it is the will of God,
the Lord has constrained us to do it, or in his providence he's
brought us into this path. The second thing to note in this
account is that here they were in this bath, and they're tossed
about in the sea. They rode, we're told, 30 furlongs,
that is four miles. It's a long way to row. And the
wind was contrary, it was opposite to them, going against them. And the wind is tossing the waves,
and you can picture the situation. So much against them, so dark,
so tossed, such hard work. What a picture that that is,
that we might be in as well. You say, I didn't expect this.
Didn't expect this in the providential path. Didn't expect this in following
the Lord, in obeying Him, in seeking His path and to walk
in His way and to go amongst His people. Very often we can think, well,
if the Lord reacts in a way, then there won't be any trouble
and any affliction. Everything will go smoothly and
well. Often thought of the children
of Israel coming back from Babylonia's captivity. You think, well, 70
years is over. They'll come back and suddenly
everything will go well. They'll get reinstated in their
land. They'll build the walls. They'll
build the temple. But immediately they had opposition. Tampa was delayed in its building. And then we find them even 78
years or so later, longer than the whole captivity, and the
walls are still burnt and still all knocked down. And Nehemiah
comes and is used to restore the walls again. And it wasn't
a quick revival and rebuilding that we might expect. would be
and yet so wonderfully the Lord raised up Cyrus and it was very
clearly the Lord's time and it was done by the Lord. So we have
them in this situation. We might be like that tonight,
tossed to and fro, buffeted by temptation, buffeted by the world,
by the corruptions of our own evil heart. find that all things
seem to be going against us, contrary to what we thought,
we don't seem to be making any headway in the Christian faith,
in Christian life, seem to go more backwards than forwards,
wearied, wearied and rowing in effect like they would have been
here, darkness in our souls, not finding any light in our
souls at all, have a way we can look at this account and it can
so clearly picture what the path of the Lord's people can be in. And yet in this path, so contrary,
so discouraging, so disheartening, the Lord Jesus comes to them. And he comes to them walking
on those very waves that they're tossed with comes to them through
those very things that are contrary to them. How often it is so. In the world you shall have tribulation,
in me you shall have peace. Ye must through much tribulation
enter the kingdom. And it is in those dark valleys
and in those trying places, the Lord who knows where his people
are, doesn't wait until they get out of that, doesn't wait
until things get better and smoother, but he comes to them while they
are still being tossed to and fro, while it is still dark,
and he comes right where they are. The Lord is still the same in
that, dear friends. They cried unto the Lord in their
trouble, we read in Psalm 107. He delivered them out of their
distresses. So the Lord comes to them, but
he comes walking, walking on these waves. And that made his
disciples very fearful and affrighted. Well, in a natural sense, no
one had ever done that before. never ever seen before, never
ever happened, they wouldn't ever expect that they should
see a man walking on water coming to them in the night season.
Suppose that they had seen a spirit fearful and afraid. Those things that the Lord does
that are unlooked for, that are not expected, that are against
nature, Those things that make the people of God fearful in
the face of deliverance. You know, at first they did not
know him. We mentioned before with Joseph,
and you think of dear Jacob, we know the account that there
is Joseph in Egypt and he loves his father and he loves Benjamin. And all that he is doing is dealing
with them to bring them to himself. But Jacob can't see this. All
he has is a hard man in Egypt, a man that wants to take his
beloved Benjamin away from him. All he knows is the famine. And he says, all these things
are against me. And we can be like that, the
dear disciples here. Already they'd got trouble and
now they're seeing these visions and that which makes them even
more fearful and afraid. Yet deliverance is right at hand,
as it was with Jacob. And these are lessons for us
as to how the Lord appears and how the Lord delivers his people
and what their feelings are in the midst of what he is doing.
What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. But then our Lord immediately
spoke to them, and he spoke to them to calm them. And when they said, it is the
Spirit, they cried out for fear. The straightway Jesus spake unto
them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. If you need such a word this
evening, in your trial, in your tossings, in your troubles, it
is I, be not afraid. You can't see it, you can't realise
it's the Lord, but the Lord says it is I. Be not afraid. Now we find Peter, Peter is willing
to come to the Lord over these billows. He says, Lord, if it
be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. How often we may
be like that in our trials. Well, if it is the Lord, if it
is thy hand and thy work, then then do this or do that. But
really, dear Peter, he desired to come to the Lord over those
billows. Now I want to put it this way.
Your trouble, my trials, are we made willing like Peter that
we come to the Lord in those trials, but we want to be bidden Because Peter, he didn't just
say, I will come to thee. He says, if it be thou, bid me
come unto thee on the water. And he said, come. The Lord said,
come. The Lord granted what Peter had
asked for. Sometimes we can lay down things
that the Lord should do, and we're willing to walk in them.
But when the Lord fulfills those things that we've asked, then
it may be at first we're fearful, or we start to venture, and then
find like Peter did, that his faith failed, and his strength
failed, and that he began to sink. But I don't want to pass
over this yet, that the very desire in our trouble, trials,
that in the midst of that we desire to come to the Lord. We
desire to be bidden to Him. He's not put us off, He's not
discouraged us. We're not saying if that is religion,
I have nothing to do with it. We're not saying if that is how
the Lord deals, I'm in this path because that is constrained me
to walk in it, there's an actual desire to come to the Lord in
it. How many times it'd be contrary
to what we'd expect. You think of the book of Ruth,
and there is Ruth's mother-in-law, a widow, and she is a widow,
and her sister-in-law is a widow, And Naomi says, the Lord hath
dealt bitterly with me, call me Mara. And yet Ruth still wanted
to cleave to her and to go to Israel and to worship and serve
her God, as a complete opposite to what we would think. As if
Ruth would join with Peter and say, bid me come. over these
billows, in this bereavement, in this widowhood, in my need,
no more sons to sustain me in thy womb, but I will come and
I'll venture to the land of Israel." There's such an encouragement
to us in all of our trials that we should venture upon the Lord,
that we should desire that the Lord might in those times draw
us, draw us to himself, bid us to come to him and to seek him
and to call upon him. Well, Peter, he begins then and
he begins to walk, he begins to do, you might say, what was
contrary to nature, that himself is a Miracle, and you know really
everyone that is born again of the Spirit, everyone that walks
in the ways of the Lord is walking contrary to nature. By nature
we say we will not have this man to rule over me. By nature
we'd have nothing of the things of God. No, a saved sinner is
a miracle of grace, that which the Lord does in them. is a miracle. We can look on this and say,
well, that was a miracle, Peter walking on the sea, and it was.
But it's just as much a miracle that the Lord should take any
of Adam's fallen race and bring them to desire to walk in his
ways. It's not by nature that we do. As Paul writes to the Ephesians,
To those that believe, he said, it is the same power that worked
in you, that believe, as that worked in Christ that raised
him from the dead. The same power, and that was
a miracle. The power of God that shall raise
our Lord from the dead. And it is because Christ has
been risen from the dead the debt is paid, that blessings
can flow to sinners, that there is redemption in Christ, that
there is the ability of the Lord to save unto the uttermost all
that come unto God by him. So then Peter, he begins, he
begins to do this, but then, then he sees the wind, the waves,
the billows, He sees these things. We read in verse 30 where her
text is. But when he saw thee, when boisterous
he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord,
save me. You know, there's something with
all of us that we're very quick to take over. I always remember when I was
in my apprenticeship, when I was very young, if my boss started
me to show something. And as soon as I thought I got
the hang of it, I knew what he was telling me to do, I'd almost
brush him off. So I know now, you don't have
to tell me anymore, I'm right, I'll deal with it. And many times,
I didn't know at all. And I'd try and do it myself
and then find out I couldn't. I needed more instruction and
more guidance. But we can be like that with
the Lord. We can think, well, we need the Lord to begin, but
then we'll take over and we'll be able to do it. And we don't
need the Lord's help anymore. And we don't need his strength,
and we don't need his grace, and we don't need his guidance,
and we don't need his teaching. But then suddenly we find things
that are just too much for us, and we haven't the faith, we
haven't the strength, and we are just weak as any other man.
And dear Peter found this out. And this is where he, beginning
to sink, his cry, Lord save me. What an urgent cry that was,
as he saw these same waves and these billows, but now he is
on them, he is walking on them. and he is sinking. And how soon,
how quickly, immediately, Jesus stretched forth his hand and
caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore
didst thou doubt? And so this then is the lead
up to this word, this short factual prayer. And may it be that in
our situation, whatever that may be, whether it be in providence,
whether it be in grace, and we know the two go together. And
often it is in the big troubles and trials that the Lord makes
those things work together for good. So we have the word of
our text, the Lord saving one that is of little faith and full
of doubts. Remember that. The Lord's saving
one that is of little faith, and the Lord tells him that,
O thou of little faith, and one that doubts, full of doubt, wherefore
didst thou doubt? So just briefly, their trouble,
their cry, Lord save me, and the Lord's saving hand. Their trouble. Peter's trouble,
urgent trouble, trouble brought into, and we may say planned
and appointed by God, that this should be written for the generation
to come. This recorded for us of the Lord's
appearing in this trouble. We mentioned Psalm 107, how they
cried unto the Lord in their trouble and the Lord
delivered them. It's important for us to realise
this and very often it is the Lord using troubles in our lives
to bring us into a concern, bring us into a position where we cannot
help ourselves. If we go through life And we
can always manage everything ourselves. We don't need to ask
anyone else for help. We're self-sufficient. We like
to be like that. But in a spiritual way, how fatal
that that is, if we are always sufficient for ourselves. Israel
was like that, ancient Israel. They found the strength of their
own hands They had a way to get out of their troubles and their
trials without having recourse to the Lord and falling and bowing
before the Lord. You and I, unless the Lord bring
us to do so, we will not call upon the Lord. We will not seek
the Lord. Our hearts are hardened and we
come to Him last. That is what is very evident
through Psalm 107. They fell down, there was none
to help, but the Lord used these trials and these tribulations. And if you and I come into those
situations, these troubles, these trials, these things that really
affect us in our lives, whether it is us personally or our loved
ones, like the Canaanitish woman who had a sick daughter, she
came with an equally short, But effectual prayer, Lord help me. And she got what she desired
after a time of being really tested and tried. We must not overlook the troubles
of the people of God. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. That path
that is appointed, it doesn't come by chance. It is appointed. Tribulations are appointed. And that's why we traced it from
the beginning here. And we are to trace those things
from there rising. How did they arise? And how did it bring us into
this time of trouble? And has it brought us to be like
Peter? To feel in it, where's our faith? How full of doubts we are. We
might have an idea and say, well, if I'm a child of God, then I'll
have faith. And then I'll be able to believe.
And these things shouldn't move me and shouldn't trouble me.
I should be able to trust and to get through them. But this is a beautiful word,
isn't it? Really, the Lord's saying, and
he didn't say it until he'd actually stretched forth his hand and
caught him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? If you and I in our troubles,
of little faith and full of doubts, if we feel ready to sink, Ready
to perish, ready to die, may we be encouraged by this account
here before us with Peter. The second thing is their cry,
Lord save me. Prayer, effectual prayer, does
not need to be long prayers. Our Lord reproved the scribes
and the Pharisees because they, for a pretense, made long prayers. He gave the example of the publican
and the Pharisee in the temple praying. The Pharisee had many
words to say, but it was only about his own good works and
what he saw himself in his own eyes to be. The publican didn't have many
words at all, just, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And our Lord
said that that man went down to his house justified rather
than the other, or free from guilt, free from condemnation. Real prayer is heartfelt prayer,
squeezed out often, like here, by troubles, by urgency, by need. And it's prayer that the Lord
hears and answers. You're familiar with the prayer
of Jabez, just to know his actual prayer is one verse in scripture. And yet we are told in that,
that that prayer was heard, the Lord gave him that which he had
requested of. We mentioned this, this morning
of the prayer of Jabez and if I could find it again, I think
it's 1 Chronicles 4 and verse 10. Jabez called on
the God of Israel saying, O that thou wouldest bless me indeed
and enlarge my coast and that thine hand might be with me and
that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not greed me. And God granted him that which
he requested. Their scriptures are full of
those prayers that are short prayers. It's a wonderful thing
that God has ordained this, that men, sinful men on earth, can
utter words that are heard in heaven. that are received by
the Lord and presented there, perfume with his precious blood,
made effectual there, and that he answers those prayers. I will,
for this being quiet of, by the house of Israel, that is God's
children, to do it for them. And it is God that teaches how
to pray, and often the way he teaches is through these trials
and troubles, that squeeze prayers from us, and we pray as we are
felt within because of those things we're actually walking
through. So they're crying, Lord save
me. And you know each one of us,
we need saving. We sung it in the middle hymn,
didn't we? We need saving sometimes in providential
situations, but in a spiritual way. We need saving from our
sins. We need saving from the wrath
to come. We need saving from the just
condemnation due to our sins. Who so offendeth in one point
is guilty of all. Cursed is every man that continueth
not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them. There is that sentence of death
upon every one of us outside of Christ. It is only those in
Christ that it is said that there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. You and I need saving. If we are not saved, we will
be lost and lost eternally. And the cry, Lord save me, is
a vital cry, a vital prayer for each one of us. And then in those
ways that were set before us in the hymn, Satan's temptations,
the wiles of the devil, the pull of the world, the unbelief, our
doubts, our own lusts, the evils of our heart. We need saving
from these things. Many times we're overcome, and
many times with temptation hard upon us, a wicked, deceitful,
evil heart craving those things of earth. Those things for which
sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience
and feelings ready to sink under them. What a suitable prayer. Lord, save me. Save me from these
sins, from this slippery path, from this slippery slope, from
this ruin. So this is a second point. Their cry, Lord, save me. But thirdly and lastly, the Lord's
saving hand. How quickly the Lord put out
his hand and saved Peter. And we must remember with the
gospel, this is the Lord's saving hand. And when David had sinned
in the matter of Bathsheba and murder, and when he was brought
to confess that sin, Nathan said, the Lord hath also put away thy
sin, thou shalt not die. It was immediate. He didn't say
to David, I need to go and bring this back to the Lord and ask
what he will do and whether there's hope for you at all as a murderer. He didn't. He immediately said
his sin was put away. Yes, he said that the sword would
not depart from his house, he would be chastened, he would
be corrected. Sin is a bitter thing and it
does have consequences and David had to realise that. But his
sin was blotted out, he was saved from that condemnation and it
was immediate and it was through what the Lord Jesus Christ would
do for him a thousand years hence from David's time. When David's
greatest son, the Lord Jesus, would lay down his life for David's
sin, bear his sin on the tree, and be crucified and slain and
risen again. It is the Lord's hand and we
are to know the blessings of the gospel. It is the Holy Spirit
that takes the things of Jesus and reveals it unto us. And it
is the Lord who is the author and beginner of our faith that
gives us faith and trust and belief in what Christ has done. That is the saving health of
the gospel, that the Lord gives that faith to embrace that hope
for want of any other hope. We have no hope but what is held
out to us in the gospel. We have no hope that what is
given us through the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And yet here,
O thou of little faith, we might say with the man with his afflicted
son, the Lord said, if thou believest, all things are possible to him
that believeth. And we might say, well, yeah,
we believe the gospel, but I'd Do we really believe it? Do I
believe it savingly? Do I really believe it as thy
people believe it? We may come with that word, Lord,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. And it is the Lord then that
strengthens the faith of his people and gives them that helping
hand that they need, that strength that they need. So the Lord's help. as in a spiritual way, bring
to believe in his dear name, help laid upon one that is mighty. As often as it is joined with
trials to bring us to saving faith in him, the Lord sends
that help in providence as well, sometimes not in the way we expect. The Apostle Paul expected and
prayed that his thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan,
would be taken away. But instead of taken away, the
Lord gave grace. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. And so it is the Lord that saves
his people and delivers them. And right the way through this
life, we need the Lord to save us from all those snares and
ourselves and the world. and save us to his heavenly kingdom. Salvation is that. It is to be
saved from hell and saved to heaven. And it is the Lord that
does that. You think of the definition or
reason why our Lord was given the name of Jesus. For he shall
save his people from their sins. So this is a Beautiful prayer
may become our prayer. Wonder how often it has been
on our lips in this way. Lord save me. The Lord bless
us with that saving that he and he alone is able to do. Amen.