Let's open our Bibles again to
Matthew chapter 14. I have a message from the Lord
for every single person here tonight. Every single person. I don't care who you are, where
you are, what you're doing, what's going on in your world, I have
a message that will comfort your heart if God the Holy Spirit
will enable you to hear it. The message is simply this. At
all times, in every situation, you look to Christ and don't
ever take your eyes off of Him. I don't care who you are, how
old you are, what your situation may be at this moment. Your soul
will be comforted if you look to Christ. The title of the message is Comfort
on Stormy Seas. No one will be surprised why
this message has been laid upon my heart. Many of you are going
through difficult, difficult times. And I thought carefully about
this statement before I'll say it publicly. I thought carefully
about it and it's true. I would take it from you if I
could. I care so deeply about you. I'd take it from you if
I could. But I can't. Can't do it. So I pray the Lord's given me
this message that will comfort your heart in this time. Now,
before these verses that we read earlier, the disciples had just
seen our Lord feed over 5,000 men, not counting women and children,
5,000 men. He fed all of them with five
loaves and two fishes that they got from a boy's lunch. He fed
those 5,000 people with some sardines and crackers. That's
what it was. It wasn't a big loaf of bread
or a big fish. They were little fish and little crackers And
our Lord took that and fed 5,000 men. Now you think what a miracle
that is. The Lord Jesus, the man, Jesus
of Nazareth stood there. Somebody gave him that boy's
lunch and he started handing it out. And he created matter
that wasn't there before. I know that so because after
everybody, as much as they could, they've stuffed The Lord said,
now you gather up the fragments, nothing be wasted. They gathered
up 12 baskets full, and he started out with five loaves and two
fishes. As our Lord broke that bread and those fishes, he created
matter that wasn't there before. Showing everyone there, the Savior
is the creator. He's got all power over everything. And the apostle John records
the same miracle. And he, John tells us some people
understood just exactly that. They thought this has to be the
Messiah. Nobody else can create matter
like he does. It has to be the Messiah. Let's
take him by force and we're going to make him king. We're going
to make him an earthly king. And the Lord told his disciples,
he knew what the people were thinking. He told them, Get into
this ship and you cross the sea. You go over to Bethsaida and
I'll meet you fellows there. And then our Lord went to that
crowd, the crowd that wants to make him king and send them away. You know, this is election season.
Everybody knows that. You see it going on TV all the
time. Everybody running for president is doing everything they can
to gather a bigger crowd as they can. Maybe the fellow we ought
to want to elect is the one that sends them all away. I don't
know. I can't imagine some candidate doing that, but our Lord did.
He sent them away. And then he went to the mountain
to be alone to pray. And it was then when the Lord
was by himself, alone on the mountain praying, that the disciples
find themselves in trouble. They're on a very stormy sea
in the dark of night. And I'll tell you what makes
it worse. The Lord wasn't with them. Look here at verse 22 of
Matthew chapter 14. And straightway Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship, to go before him under the other
side while he sent the multitudes away. 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 in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves, for the
wind was contrary. Now here's my first word of comfort.
I have a word of comfort to the soul that's on the stormy sea
of your unforgiven sin. The disciples were in the middle
of the sea. They couldn't see any land. It
was dark. They couldn't see anything anyway, but even if it was light
out, they couldn't have seen the land. And there've been a
few times I've been on a ship or a boat that's been out far
enough where you can't see the land. And you hope, hope this boat
don't sink, hope this thing's been put together right, because
you can't see land. That's where the disciples were.
And it was the middle of the night. Three o'clock in the morning
is the fourth watch, when the night is the darkest. Matthew
says the wind and the waves were contrary to them. They were trying
to get that boat to the other side, but the wind and the waves
were contrary to them. The wind and the waves would
not let them do with that boat what they wanted to. They wanted
to go this way and just kept spinning around in a circle.
No matter how hard they tried, no matter how hard they worked,
no matter how much of their knowledge of the sea and sailing and boats
and all these things that they put into play, they could not
get that boat safe to shore. And these experienced sailors
were scared out of their wits. They thought, here we are, nobody
knows we're out here, nobody can see us, and we're going down.
And when the situation could not get any worse, when these
sailors could not be more convinced, they could not get that ship
to shore. When they are completely and
totally convinced, they're helpless in the middle of the sea in the
dark, stormy night. It was then. When the situation
couldn't get worse, it was then the Savior appeared to them.
Look at verse 25. 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, they were troubled, saying, It's a
spirit. And they cried out for fear.
But straightway, immediately, Jesus spake unto them, saying,
Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. Now, this where the disciples
are in this scene is a very good picture of the place that God
brings everyone to. If God's going to save somebody,
he's going to bring them to this point. Before the Lord saves
anybody, he always shows us our total inability to do anything. He shows us our inability to
please God. and He shows us our complete
dependence upon Christ to save us, because we can't do anything
for ourselves. Before the Lord saves anybody,
He teaches us what we are by nature. We're lost. We're lost. And we don't know
the way home. Not only can we not row the boat
to shore, we don't know where the shore is. I remember being
on a boat when I was a kid. We were in Florida on vacation.
And my dad and I went on this deep sea fishing expedition.
I was so excited. I just thought I was going to
catch all these big fish, you know. And the boat gets out there, and
dad gets seasick, and there I am standing on the edge of this
boat by myself, you know, fishing. And I look around, and I think,
if this boat goes down, I don't even know what way to swim. I'm lost. If that boat goes down,
I'd be lost. That's what it is to be lost
spiritually. Not only do I not know how to
get to God, I don't know where He is. I'm lost. I don't know
how to get there. And then God teaches us, no matter
what we do, we can't do anything to make our situation any better.
We cannot save ourselves. No matter what we do, we can't
bring ourselves to God. Because our sin nature, it's
our nature, is contrary to us. our sin will not let us go to
God. Suppose, for the moment, we could
quit sinning, we can't, but suppose that we want to quit sinning,
or our nature's contrary to us, it won't let us stop sinning.
Our Lord said we cannot, because our nature's contrary to us,
we cannot come to Christ, that we might have life. We don't
have the ability to do that. and all of our works, all those
things that we've done that we think, well, if I do this, God
will be pleased with me. If I do this, I know it won't
atone for my sin, but it'll make God a little happier with me
than somebody else. God's gonna teach us, no it won't. He's gonna
teach us all of our works, our filthy rags. They're all sinful. Not only do they not help our
soul, all they do is further damn our soul. That's what the
disciples learned in the storm. Mark said they toiled and rode
and couldn't get anywhere. That's what it is to be lost
and unable to do anything for yourself. Before the Lord's going
to save anybody, He's going to teach us our total inability
to do anything good. And when God teaches us that,
now when I tell you that, maybe that doesn't make any difference.
But when God teaches us that, It scares us out of our wits. We're scared to death to die
in our sin. And that awful feeling is the
storm of Holy Spirit conviction. If it's the Holy Spirit convicting
you, if it's the Holy Spirit throwing up this storm, you'll
lose all hope in anything about yourself. You sure will. And
as painful as that is, we've got to go through that storm.
Because we've got to learn this. If our sinful soul is going to
be saved, somebody else is going to have to do it. Because we
can't do it for ourselves. And when we get to the place
that we think all hope is gone, all around us is dark and stormy. All we can see around us is God's
judgment against our sin. The storm is so bad. And it seems
at any moment Our soul is gonna sink into hell. Hell just gonna
open up wide and swallow me whole. It's at that moment, when it's
as dark as it can possibly get, that the Savior appears and says,
be of good cheer. It's I. I have forgiven your
sins. Look back a few pages of Matthew
chapter nine. I read this verse Sunday, Matthew
9 verse 2, but it illustrates this point about one so helpless,
brought to the end of himself, meeting the Savior. And behold,
they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. This I know, that man had been
lying on that bed long enough, he lost all hope of ever getting
off of it. He knew there was nothing he could do to get off
that bed. And Jesus, seeing their face, said unto the sick of the
palsy, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Now that is the best news any
sinner can ever hear. Your sin's forgiven. Scott Richardson
said, since I heard the good news, I haven't heard any bad
news. That's how good news this is. Your sin is forgiven. Because as soon as the Savior
appears, there's calm. Look at verse 32 in our text.
And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Immediately the wind ceased.
As soon as the Lord, as soon as we see Christ, there's calm. Christ appears to his people
and says, your sin's forgiven because I took your sin away
from you. I suffered as your substitute.
I suffered and died to pay your sin debt. I went through the
storm of God's wrath for you. So there's no storm of God's
wrath left for you. It all fell on me. I bore it
all for you. Now you rest. You rest in me. Now that's comfort for the sinful
soul. If Christ says it to you, if
He speaks to your heart, that's comfort for your soul. The songwriter
said this, I was once far away from the Savior and as vile as
a sinner could be, and I wondered if Christ the Redeemer would
save a poor sinner like me. I was wandering on in my darkness,
not a ray of light could I see, and the thought filled my heart
with sadness. There's no hope for a sinner like me. But then
in that dark, lonely hour, a voice sweetly whispered to me, saying,
Christ the Redeemer has power to save a poor sinner like me.
I listened and lo, it was the Savior who was speaking so kindly
to me. And I cried, I'm the chief of
sinners. Oh, save a poor sinner like me. I then fully trusted in Jesus.
And oh, what a joy came to me. My heart was filled with his
praises for saving a sinner like me. Now I say to every lost sinner
who's here tonight, you're on the storm, stormy seas of your
unforgiven sin. You look to Christ and you look
only to Christ to find comfort for your soul because he's the
only one who can save you. He's the only one who can help
you. You look to him. There is comfort in the forgiveness
of your sin in Christ. It's unspeakable. I can't tell
you how wonderful it is. You look to Christ. He saves
sinners. Now second, I have a word of
comfort for the believer who's on the stormy sea of trial. Now
I'm speaking to believers now. I'm speaking to those to whom
the Lord has given faith. He's revealed himself to you.
And you know when the Lord saved you from that stormy sea of your
unforgiven sin, It may have surprised you at first, but by now you've
figured it out. Your storms didn't end today.
Matter of fact, they just began. Saul of Tarsus never had any
trouble. Not a one. The life of the Apostle
Paul was nothing but trouble. His trouble began after the Lord
saved him, didn't it? The storms began after the Lord
saved him. The Apostle Paul suffered real
trial. real pain, real suffering, real
loss, real fear, real sorrow. And we will, too, if we believe
God. Now, it may not be to the same extent, but we'll suffer
nevertheless. Fr. Henry said God had one son
without sin. God has no sons without suffering.
We'll all suffer just that way. But God in his word and in this
story of the disciples on the troubled sea, gives us some words
of comfort for those times of very real trial. Number one,
when those next storms arise, now will you listen to me? Don't
ever think that God's punishing you for your sin. Do not. If Lord saved you, He's already
punished your sin and your substitute. Now He may be correcting you.
He definitely is teaching you something. But I promise you,
He's not punishing you. The disciples were in this storm.
They weren't being punished, were they? They weren't being
punished for something that they did wrong. This is one of the
very few times you can find the disciples doing exactly what
the Lord told them to do. You can almost never find them
doing what the Lord told them to do. But in this instance,
they were, weren't they? Doing just exactly what the Lord
told them to do. And they're in the midst of that
storm, scared out of their wits anyway. Well, then why were they
in the storm? Why were they in such darkness?
Why were they in such sorrow? They're doing what the Lord told
them to do. Because the Lord sent them there for a purpose.
He sent them there. not to punish them, but to teach
them something that they could not learn anywhere else but the
stormy sea. They're going to get a view of
the Savior this night that they couldn't have gotten anywhere
else except the troubled sea. Tonight, they're going to learn
something about themselves, and they're going to learn something
about the Savior that couldn't have been learned on the shore. had to be learned on the stormy
sea. Tonight, they're going to learn
the Savior really is sovereign. He's sovereign over the wind
and the waves. This night, they're going to
learn about the faithfulness of the Savior. They're going
to learn He does indeed always come to His father, always. Tonight
they're going to learn that the Savior really is present everywhere. Even though He's on the shore
and they can't see Him, He's with them, He sees them. They're
going to learn that. They're going to learn they haven't
drifted out of the sight of their Savior. This night the disciples
are going to learn, I have in my notes, they're going to learn
the love of the Savior. What they're really going to learn
is the Savior loves them. He loves His people. He loved
them even when they failed. Tonight they're going to learn
about the power of their Savior. Not only does He have power over
the storm and the elements, He has power to comfort my heart. I know nobody else has power
over the wind and the waves, but you know what's more precious
to me? Only He has the power to comfort my heart. This night,
the disciples will learn again how much they need the Savior.
Hadn't they been taught that before? Yeah, they have. And they're going to learn it
again tonight. Because unfortunately, that's not a lesson we learn
once, is it? No, we need to learn it over
and over and over We're going to learn not only do I need the
Savior to save me, I need that Savior to keep me. I can't save
myself and I can't keep myself. And when the Lord puts us in
this trial and He shows us we cannot keep ourselves, that's
when we'll really learn the Lord keeps His people. Trials teach
us there's really and truly only one thing equal. The one thing
we must have is Christ. Every believer will tell you
that. You know, I think there's a lot of things I can't do without,
but the Lord will show you otherwise. Just strip them away until you
say, Lord, take it all, but give me Christ. Don't take your presence
from me. That I can't live without. Can't
do it. And we can only learn that in
trial. We can only learn that in loss. Trials teach us that
what comforts the heart is not all the things that we accumulate. Comfort to the heart doesn't
come from anything about this flesh. Here's my family. I love him. Oh my goodness. But you know I'm not speaking
ill of him. I say he can't comfort my heart like the Lord can. Nothing will. I heard Brother Fortner one time
talk about a man I knew when I was a little boy in Danville.
And he died. An old man. His wife was left
a widow. She'd been married to him for
over 50 years. And everybody was so sad. And there was a young man there. He said, why is everybody so
sad? Everything's wonderful. Our brother's with the Lord.
Brother Fortner told him that's true. He is. But what you don't
know is what it's like to live with a man for 50 years. And the Lord take him and leave
you here. You don't know. You can't understand
the sorrow. And you also can't understand
how the Lord can comfort the heart. Brother Fortner said,
I'm afraid you'll learn it someday. We can't learn that any other
way other than in times of suffering and sorrow. Songwriter wrote,
prisons would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with me there.
The only place you know that's true is in prison. That's right. Second, believers go through
many stormy seas, many stormy seas. But now you remember this. Our Savior is the Lord of the
seas. He's in control. There are times
that the only way you can describe the life of a believer is a stormy
sea. It seems to us everything is
out of control. What other wave can hit me? What
other wind can blow me? I'm on this uncontrollable sea. I like to go to the to the beach
on vacation. And I sit there and I watch that
ocean. And I think, what's more out
of control than that thing? I mean, it's going to go where
it wants. You can build flood walls all you want. You can build
up dunes all you want. That sea's going anywhere it
wants to go. What's more out of control than the sea? Well,
you know, it seems out of control to us. But that dark sea, with
all of its wild waves and wind, Every molecule of it is under
the direct control of our God. Our Savior is the Lord of the
sea. And in this storm, our Lord taught
his disciples that. Look at verse 25. And in the
fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the
sea. Now the Lord, the Lord Jesus,
a man, was walking on the top of the water. What more proof
do you need he's the Lord of the sea? He was walking on top
of the water and didn't sink. Now you just try that and you'll
find out you don't have any control over the water. You'll sink every
time. But our Lord walked on top of the water, on top of the
sea. It would be wise for us to remember we ought never limit
what the Lord can do. The laws of nature, the laws
of physics do not apply to him. And certainly, please remember
this, the laws of our logic, what we think we can comprehend
and understand, the Lord's not limited by that. He does far
greater than we think or imagine or hope. He's not limited by
these things. And our Lord was walking to them,
not on a smooth lake, He was walking to them on a wildly,
wavy, stormy sea, and he was walking to them calmly. One of
the other writers, apostles who wrote about this, said he was
just going to walk by them if they hadn't hollered at him to
stop. He was just calm and just going for a walk. You know why he was walking so
calmly? They're rowing and doing everything. They're just exhausting
themselves, and the Lord's just strolling. You know why? Because he's in control of this
thing. He's in control of the sea. He was working his will
by this storm. This storm didn't come up by
accident. It was sent by his sovereign will to accomplish
his purpose for his people. Calper wrote, God moves in mysterious
ways. He wonders to perform. He plants
his footstep in the sea. and rides upon a storm. Judge
not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace.
Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. Our
Lord is the Lord of the troubled sea. He's the Lord of the trial,
and behind it, his smiling providence is something good for his people,
because he's the Lord of the sea. Thirdly, When we're in the
midst of the stormy sea, and it's dark, and you can't
see anything. Hard as you look, you can't see
the Lord. Hard as you look, you can't see
His mercy or His love. Hard as you listen, you cannot
hear His comforting voice. As much as you read the Psalms,
you can't find any comfort. It's so dark. It's so dark you
can't imagine God has a purpose in this. When you're in that darkness,
that storm, you hang on to this. God sees you. Look at Mark chapter
6. This is Mark's account of the
same night. Mark chapter 6. Verse 47, And when even was come, the ship
was in the midst of the sea, and he, our Lord, alone on the
land. And he saw them toiling and rowing,
for the wind was contrary unto them. The Lord was alone on the
land. Maybe He was on the shore at
this point, maybe He was in the mountain, I don't know. But no
human eye could have seen that. But He did. He saw His people. They couldn't see Him, could
they? But He saw them. It's the Lord who puts His people
in the trial. But you rest in this. You rest
in the fact that the Lord put His people in the trial, but
you rest in this. While we're in the trial, His watchful eye
is always on His people. Now if you know God, that's comforting
to know He's watching. If His eye is on this thing,
nothing bad can happen to me. The worst thing that'll happen
is it'll burn off some gauze or it'll take me to be with Him.
But one way or another, nothing bad's going to happen because
He's watching. Look back at Malachi chapter
3. He's watching. If I could, my eye would never
be off my daughters. Never ever. That took some getting
used to when they went off to college to know when are they
home or when are they not. I can't watch all the time. Our
father does. Look here at Malachi 3 verse
3. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And he
shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver
that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness."
He sits. He puts his people in the fire.
Now listen, he doesn't put Woodhay and Stubble in that fire trial.
No, he puts those things that are precious to him. He mentions
here gold and silver, the sons of Levi. These are those that
are precious to him. He puts them in the fire to purge
them, to burn off the dross. And when they're there, He sits
as the refiner, controlling the fire, controlling His people
in the fire. He sits in control of it all.
His eye is never off of His people. The fourth word of comfort is
this. For the believer on the stormy sea of trial, Christ,
our Savior, will always, always, always come to his people. And he will come at the best
time. I promise you he will. But the
best time will not be the time that we would choose. The best
time will be the very darkest hour. And he's got to wait to
the very darkest hour to come so that He will be more precious
to us. And when you're on that stormy sea of trial, and the
night is so dark, oh, it's so dark, you can't see, you can't
understand why, you can't see how God's gonna work any good
out of this. You're on that stormy sea and you have never felt so
alone. When you're on the stormy sea
and you're so tired. You're so tired of being battered
by the wind. You're so tired of being battered
by wave after wave after wave and you think I can't take it.
I'm so tired. And it's so dark and you think
this is it. I'm going down with the ship. My brother and sister. When you
find yourself in that moment, you take comfort. It is in the
darkest of hours when our Lord appears and says, be of good
cheer. It's I. Be not afraid. Don't
be afraid of the dark. Be of good cheer. It's I. It's I who sent you here. It's
I who sent the storm. It's I who controls the storm.
And it's I who your soul craves. Be of good cheer. Don't be afraid. And you simply can't understand
how comforting that is to your soul until you've been scared
out of your wits. And you've been so alone on that
dark, stormy sea of trial. Look in Isaiah chapter 43. To
those right now who are on this very stormy sea, I say to you,
look to Christ your Savior. And our Savior says to you, be
of good cheer. It's I, I'm with you. Isaiah
43 verse one. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, He that formed thee, O Israel, fear not,
for it is I. I have redeemed thee. I have
called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Saba for thee, since thou is precious in my sight.
Thou has been honorable. I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Fear not,
for I am with thee. It is I. Fear not. Be not afraid. And this was impressed upon my
soul a few minutes ago. Only our God can make us thankful
for the trial. I think of the situations, the
trials that I've been through, and on this side of them, I can
truthfully say I'm thankful for everyone. I am. I don't want to do it again.
But I'm thankful for it. A few minutes ago in the study
before we came out here, Brother Gene led us in prayer. And he began his prayer saying,
thank you, Lord. Thank you for the trials that
you've sent our way. And thank you for the comfort
in our safety. Gene, you couldn't learn it any
other way. The comfort of our safety. It's I. You're not afraid. Now thirdly, I have a word of
comfort to the believer who suffers on the storm of a hard heart
and a storm of weak faith. The disciples saw the Lord coming
to them, walking on the water, and they were afraid. Verse 26
tells us that. They saw him walking on the sea.
They were troubled, saying, it's a spirit. And they cried out
for fear. Why were they afraid? They had
just seen the Master earlier that day feed 5,000 men with
a boy's lungs. What have they got to be afraid
of? They'd just seen the Master create matter. They knew He's
the Creator. He's the one that spoke all this
into existence. What have they got to be afraid
of? There's nothing out of His control. He's God. He can do
anything. And better yet, here He comes.
Why are they afraid? Look at Mark chapter 6 again.
Mark tells us why they're afraid. Verse 52. For they consider not the miracle
of the loaves, for their heart was hardened. Oh boy. They'd
already forgotten the lesson they learned that afternoon,
didn't they? But how often do we do that? How often do we forget
the lessons the Lord has so clearly taught us in the past? And we've
got to be taught again. We've got to be reminded. How
often do we forget our own helplessness? How often do we forget the power
and faithfulness of our God? To our shame, we say often. And
I tell you the reason for it. It's our own hard heart. Now
does that alarm you? To hear the problem is right
in here. It's my nature that's contrary
to me. Well, you'd be of good cheer. Yes, we're hard hearted. But our Savior is merciful and
he will save his people anyway. Now, don't be mistaken. There's
no excuse for a hard heart. But the good news of the gospel
is summed up in these three words our Savior said. It is I. Bob, it's all Christ. It's all
Him. We're saved. Why? For Christ's
sake. We're saved because of what He's
done for us and in us. And we're kept for Christ's sake.
We're kept by His power and for His glory. The glory of the Savior
all hangs upon this. that He present everyone the
Father gave Him, faultless, before the throne of the Father. And
I'm telling you, He'll do it. He's going to do it for His name's
sake. He blesses His people for His
sake. Never for our sake. Never because
of what we've done or what we haven't done. It's always for
Christ's sake. It's I. Does your weak faith trouble
you? Well, it ought to. If it doesn't, it should. Weak
faith causes us nothing but trouble. Look at verse 28 back in our
text, Matthew 14. And Peter answered Him and said,
Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water. And He
said, Come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But
when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning
to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus
stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said unto him,
O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? When they were
come into the ship, the wind ceased. And they that were in
the ship came and worshiped him, saying of a truth, thou art the
Son of God. Peter, I try to picture how this
went. stepped out of that boat onto
the water and started walking. He was walking on the water to
go to the Lord. Just like his Lord, he was walking
on the water. Well, when did Peter get in trouble?
Peter got in trouble when he looked away from Christ and started
looking at the storm. Peter got in trouble because
of weak faith. Strong faith always looks to
Christ. It's weakness that causes us
to look at the storm, look at the waves, look at all the bad
things that can happen, and look away from Christ. I tell you
where strength comes from. Strength comes from relying on
Christ. Relying totally on Him. When
I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. Because when I recognize and
admit my own weakness, I'm relying on Christ. That's when I'm strong.
That's how Peter began walking on the water, isn't it? Looking
to Christ. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me, even walk on water. I can do all things
through Christ that strengthens me, even come to Christ. But
Peter began to find himself in trouble when he thought, how
am I going to keep this up? I'm walking on water. How am
I going to keep this up? That's when he started sinking.
Peter got in trouble when he started relying on what he thought
he could do instead of continuing to rely on Christ. And there's
not one person in this room that can look down on Peter because
every one of us has done the same thing. And that ought to
trouble us. There's no excuse for weak faith.
But the Savior comforts us and says, be of good cheer. It's
I, be not afraid. The Lord didn't let Peter go
down into the depths, did he? He immediately caught him. You
see, our salvation doesn't have anything to do with us. Not even
the strength of our faith. Now we ought to have strong faith,
but salvation is not accomplished by the strength of our faith.
Salvation is accomplished by the object of our faith. It's
all Christ. Didn't look to him. Look to him. Cry to him. and depend upon Him,
He's the comfort of our soul. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we humbly bow. We
bow before Your awesome throne of grace. And we do cry with
Peter of old, Lord, save me. Lord, don't leave us alone. Lord,
bid us come to Thee. Oh, don't leave us to ourselves.
But let us see the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you
come to your people this evening. Your word has been preached.
Cause your word to take root in our hearts. Say to our hearts,
be of good cheer. It's I. Be not afraid. Let us
leave here. Let us go home. Let us tonight
and tomorrow and all the future days, let us depend on upon our
Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Let us depend upon Him to save
us by Him alone, by His work, His righteousness, His blood
alone, by faith that He gives alone. Let us depend upon Him
to see us through safely all the storms and trials of this
life. And when we're so weak, when we're so hard-hearted, let
us depend on Him not to leave us alone. Oh, how we thank you
for the precious promises of your word that you'll never leave
or forsake your people. Father, it's in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And for his glory, we pray that
you bless your word to the hearts of your people.