I've entitled the message for
this evening, Worship and Hardness of Heart. We read where the Lord walked
on the water, and in Matthew's account, it says when he entered
back into the ship, they worshiped him, saying, truly, thou art
the son of God. And then in Mark's account, it
says they were, in sore measure, amazed. Kind of an incredulous
attitude. And it says they considered not
the loaves, they considered not that miracle that they had just
witnessed taking place, and their hearts were hardened. Same event, two different conclusions. Now, the Lord was walking on
water. We're gonna look at that. And
once again, he demonstrated that the law of physics were his laws,
and he could suspend them whenever he was pleased to do so. And
the disciples are in a boat with the wind contrary to them. beating against them. And they
were toiling, the scripture says, in rowing. They were getting
knocked backwards, not making any progress. And then they see
the Lord walking on the sea toward them. Now put yourself in their
place. It's dark. The waves are beating against
the ship. They're not able to make any
progress. And all of a sudden, see the
Lord walking. And as a matter of fact, walking
past them, as we see in Mark's account. And the scripture says
they were terrified. They cry out in fear. And it's
only Matthew that tells us about how that Peter got out of the
boat and walked on the sea toward the Lord. Now, here he goes walking
on the sea. Imagine that. Peter gets out
of the boat after asking the Lord, if it be thou, bid me come
to thee on the water. None of the other disciples made
this request, but he gets out of the boat, leaving his place
of safety and security to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
he begins to sink when he sees the wind boisterous. We'll look
at that in a moment. The Lord took his hand out when
he said, Lord, save me, grabbed him by the hand, pulled him up,
And they both walked back into the boat and were given two accounts
of what took place. Let's look at Matthew 14 once
again. And when they were coming to
the ship, verse 32, the wind ceased. Then they that were in
the ship came and worshiped him, saying of the truth, thou art
the son of God. Could there be a better response?
I don't believe so. And then we read in Mark's account,
verse 51, and he went up unto them into the ship. The wind
ceased, and they were sore amazed in themselves, beyond measure,
and wondered. They couldn't account for this.
How did this happen? And here's why, for they considered
not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened. One account, worship. The other
account, hardness of heart. Question, which account is true? Both. Both are completely accurate
accounts of what took place and this lines up With Mark 9, verse
24, when the man said whose son was crazy, and they'd asked the
Lord to heal him, and he said, if you can do anything, help
us. And the Lord said, if thou canst believe, all things are
possible to him that believeth. And he cried out, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. At all times, if I'm a believer,
I've got a nature that believes. It cannot not believe. But not only do I have a nature
that believes, I have a nature that does not believe, the old
nature. It cannot believe. The new nature cannot not believe,
and the old nature cannot believe. You see, faith doesn't come from
the old nature, does it? It doesn't come from the flesh.
If we have faith, it's the gift of God's grace. given to us.
And the reason we have faith is because we have a new nature,
a holy nature given to the new birth that believes. But we still
have the old nature that doesn't believe. Turn with me for a moment
to Matthew chapter 28. This is after the resurrection
of the Lord. And we read in verse 16, then
the 11 disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where
Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped
him, but some doubted. Now the word some is not found
in the original. Here's the way the inner linear
reads it. They worshiped him, but doubted. They worshiped Him, the risen,
resurrected Christ, the Lord of glory, and right while they
were looking at Him. But some, and not really some,
but every, all 11, all 11, while they were looking at the resurrected
Christ, they doubted. Now, the new man always believes. Try to not believe. If you're
a believer, try to not believe. Can't be done, can it? The new
man always believes and the old man never believes. And let's look first at Mark's
account of what took place. Mark chapter six. Verse 44, and they that did eat
of the loaves were about 5,000 men. This miracle that took place
where the Lord actually created food and matter was brought into
existence that was not there before. This is God. God the Son, Jesus Christ the
Lord. And this has just taken place.
And straightway, immediately, he constrained his disciples
to get into the ship. Now, evidently, they didn't want
him. They didn't want to. They wanted
to stay with him, and he constrained them. He made them get into the
ship. And to go to the other side before,
unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. And I can imagine
him sending away this great crowd that were full and grateful. He sent them away. Verse 46,
and when he'd sent them away, he departed into a mountain to
pray. I love to think of the communion
that the son enjoyed with the father. He went into a mountain
to pray. We have several examples in the
gospels where he would pray all night long. If the Lord Jesus Christ, because
of his relationship with the Father, wanted to pray like this,
how much more should you and I? He was all by himself, the disciples
had been sent away, and he was there to pray. Verse 47, and
when even was come, the ship that he made them get into. The
ship was in the midst of the sea and he alone on the land. And he saw them toiling in rowing. For the wind was contrary to
them. And about the fourth watch of
the night, he cometh unto them. That's about three o'clock in
the morning. He cometh to them walking upon the sea and would
have passed them by. Now, there at this point, according
to Matthew, three or four furlongs out on the sea there in the middle
of the sea, three or four miles away. It's dark, it's storming,
and there the Lord is standing on the land watching them. How? Well, he sees them just
the way he sees into people's hearts and knows exactly what
they're thinking. He sees me, he sees you right now so clearly. He sees, he saw his disciples
toiling in rowing. Now that word toiling means making
no progress, maybe even going backwards because the scripture
says the winds were contrary to them. Toiling is found in
the scripture eight times or twelve times eight times it is
Translated Tormented One time it's translated
pain One time it's translated tossed another time. It's translated
vexed and here it is translated toiling The picture is they're
trying as hard as they can, rowing the boat, and they're being driven
backwards. They're making no progress. Can you relate with that? They're
being driven backwards. They're making no progress. And the Lord sees. He's watching. Who sent them out on this boat
in the first place? The Lord did. Who sent the winds? The Lord did. I like one phrase of a song we
don't sing because it's got some really bad stuff in it. It's
the one where it says, He your Savior wants to be, be saved
today. I don't like that. Neither do you. But I love this
line. He's the master of the sea, billows
his will. And that's exactly what is going
on at this time. And he comes at about three o'clock
in the morning, walking on the sea. Look in our text, verse
49. But when they saw him walking
upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit. And they cried
out, crying out in fear. Now, one thing that I love to
think about, they supposed it was a spirit. Everything we suppose
is wrong. Everything we suppose is wrong. The supposition they made was
wrong. There was no accuracy to it.
And look how it states in verse 48. he would have passed them
by. And I love thinking about this.
They're in a boat, scared to death. I mean, these are sailors. These guys are men's men, and
they're in jeopardy. The wind's contrary to them.
They don't know what's happening. And all of a sudden, in the darkness,
they see the Lord Jesus walking toward them. They were scared
to death, and he started to pass them by. What'd that look like? Why isn't he getting in the ship
with them? He's actually passing them by as if he's gonna go to
the other side by himself without them. I know exactly why he made
as if he would have passed them by, because he's gonna make them
cry out, pass me not, oh tender Savior. Hear my humble cry, while
on others thou art calling. Do not pass me by. He wasn't going to pass them
by, but he was going to be merciful to them and put them in a position
where they're going to cry out to him. What mercy on his part. But when they saw him walking
upon the sea, verse 49, they supposed it had been a spirit,
a completely wrong supposition and they all cried out in fear
for they saw him and were troubled. And immediately he talked with
them and said to them, be of good cheer. It's I. Be not afraid. Question, is he the first cause
of everything? Yes. Is Romans 8, 28 always in effect? And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. Yes. Be of good cheer. I look at myself
being in that line for parties for 25 minutes and I was getting
so frustrated and I was so wrong. to do so. Be of good cheer, something
as petty as that, he's still in control of it. Be of good
cheer, it's I. Literally, I am. Be not afraid. Now let's go back to Matthew's
account, Matthew chapter 14. Verse 26, 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 Jesus spake unto them, saying, be of good cheer,
it's I. Be not afraid. And literally,
I am. The name that he addressed Moses
with from the burning bush. I am, the simplicity and the
power of that burning bush. It was on fire and it couldn't
be consumed. It didn't need the energy. I mean, it was on fire and couldn't
be burnt out. It didn't need the energy of the wood to sustain
the fire. Utterly independent. The Lord
Jesus Christ is utterly independent. You know, a Christ that needs
me, there's not much to it. But he is utterly independent. He didn't need the energy of
the wood to keep burning. And he couldn't be consumed by
the fire. That's the perfect humanity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What a beautiful picture of who
he is. Utterly independent, perfect
humanity. The fire could not consume him. I am. Well, that's enough to
make you not be afraid. I am, that's who he identified
himself to Moses from the bush. I am. Verse 28. And Peter answered it and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water. Now there've been a lot of schools
of thought on this verse. I've read where some have thought
Peter should not have said, if it be thou. That's kind of like
Satan saying, if you be the son of God, if it be thou, he'd already
identified himself. And what is Peter doing saying,
if it be thou? And for another thing, what's
Peter doing making a request like this in the first place?
I mean, isn't that presuming on the Lord, asking him to enable
you to come to him on the water I think it's beautiful. I think
what Peter is doing is absolutely beautiful. I think it's such
an illustration to us of this man's faith. Let's put it this
way. He wanted to come to Christ.
If it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water. And that's
the expression of the desire of every believer. whatever it
is to come to Christ, to his person, that's exactly what I
want to do. If it be thou, bid me, and that word bid is not
invite, that word is command. If it be thou, command me to
come to thee upon the water. Now, we know that we can't come
unless he commands us. Don't you know that? You can't
come to Christ unless he bid you come. And we know that when
he commands us, we can. And we know that this thing of
coming to Christ is just a supernatural thing as walking on the water. Don't you know that when Peter
was walking on the water, he knew he was only upheld by Christ
himself with each step. He was sure of that, bid me come
to thee on the water. And I admire Peter and I desire
to emulate him. You can't trust Christ too much. Do you hear that? Do I hear that? You can't trust Christ too much. Now, he was not interested in
playing it safe and staying in the boat. I want to be like that,
don't you? He wasn't interested in playing
it safe and staying in the boat. He wanted to walk on water and
come to Christ. And beloved, when by grace we're
enabled to come to Christ, that's greater than walking on the water.
That's what he wanted to do. Now, what does the Lord say?
Verse 29, Peter said, Lord, if it be thou bid me come to thee
on the water, and he said, Not, Peter, what are you asking
for something like that? No, come on, come. And you know,
that is the gospel. Come. Not go and do, not go and
prepare yourself, not go and do something to make yourself
ready. Right now, come as you are to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth
say, come. and let him that is to thirst
come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
The message of the gospel is come to Christ. I don't care
what your condition is. Don't wait till you get better.
Well, I've just sinned. I've just done something terrible.
I can't come now. I've got to wait till things straighten out.
No! Come right now to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the message
of the gospel. If any man thirst, let him come
to me and drink. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come. The door
is open. Come. You're welcome. Come. He says to Peter, come. Now, in order for Peter to get
to Christ, four things had to take place. Number one, Christ
had to command him to come. Number two, he had to leave the ship. Number three, he had to come
down. And number four, he had to walk
on water. Coming to Christ is always initiated
by the command of Christ. See, John 6.44 says that we cannot
come except the Father which has sent him draw us. We can't come to Christ unless
he initiates it. And I love the fact that the
calls to come to Christ are commands. Come unto me. All ye that labor
and are heavy laden is a command. Your right to come is because
it's a command. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. So first, to come to Christ,
he's gonna first have to command you to. Peter understood that. Bid me, command me to come to
thee on the water. And secondly, to come to Christ,
you have to leave the boat. Now what is meant by that? The
boat is your security. The boat is your safe place. The boat is where you think you
find protection. It's where you think you'll be
saved. To come to Christ, I must leave
the boat. Leave your evidences. Leave your
experiences. Leave your works. Leave your
knowledge. Leave your feelings. You've got
to leave everything that you find safety and security in. Leave your righteousness. You've got to leave the boat. That boat's going to sink. If
you have any sins, you'll get out of it. Leave the boat. And the next thing that he had
to do was come down. Come down. The way up in the
kingdom of heaven is always down. When you've hit the bottom, go
further until you're shut up to Christ and you have nothing
else. He had to come down out of the
boat And then he had to walk on water in obedience to Christ's
command. And you know, if you are coming
to Christ, you know in your own experience that every step he's
upheld you to cause you to come toward him. Don't you know when
Peter was walking on that water, he knew it didn't have anything
to do with any spirituality or strength in him. He knew that.
He knew each step. It was the supernatural work
of Christ that held him up. And in this thing of coming to
Christ, we know the same thing. And I love to think of Peter
walking on the water. And he was coming to Christ. And he was so excited, walking
on the water. And I have no doubt, at some
point, he thought, look what I'm doing. You know, this thing
of faith really works. Look at me. I'm an example of
it. Look what I'm doing. You know, I don't see John out
here. I don't see James out here. Why,
Thomas wouldn't try this in a thousand years. I am walking on the water,
going toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 30, but. But, you see with me and you,
there's always a but, isn't there? But, when he saw the wind boisterous,
he was afraid. He went from looking to Christ
to looking to himself. Look what I'm doing. Look at
my walk. I tell you what, anytime you
look to your walk, you're in trouble. He started looking to
his walk, and then he started looking at the boisterous wind,
the secondary causes, and he became very afraid. And the scripture says he began
to sink. Now, I've tried to picture that
in my mind. How do you begin to sink? I mean, as soon as you're
in the water, boom, you're down under, you know? But the scripture
says somehow he began to sink. It wasn't just like that. He
began. to sink. As long as I'm looking to Christ,
I'm going to walk on the water. It is that simple. As long as
I'm looking to Christ only, I'm going to walk on the water. But the second I look anywhere
else, myself, secondary causes, my faith, my courage to do something,
the moment I look away from Christ, I will sink. Verse 30, but when he saw the wind boisterous,
he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried, saved. And here's my favorite prayer
in the Bible. This is the prayer that I've
used more than any other prayer. There's seldom a day that goes
by when I don't pray this prayer. Lord, save me. I'm going down. And if you don't
save me, I'm going to the bottom. Lord, save me. Now, Lord, that's a good place to
begin. He's the Lord. You know what
that means? That means his will is always
done. You're praying to one who has
the will and the authority and the power to do whatever it is
you ask him to do, if he's pleased to do it. He's the Lord. He's
the one whose will is always done. He demonstrated that in
creation. He demonstrated that the day
before when he... created food, brought matter into existence
that had not been there before. He's the Lord, he's Lord of creation.
He's the Lord of providence. When he comes to them walking
on the sea, he says, be of good cheer, it's me. Whatever it is,
it's I. He's the cause of whatever's
taking place. He's the first cause. He's before
all things. He's the Lord of providence,
but most especially, he's the Lord of salvation. And Peter
is asking the right one. Lord, save me. And this prayer is a very comprehensive
prayer. It covers everything. When is
it not appropriate to pray this prayer? Lord, save me. I don't
care if you're talking about some kind of mess you've got
yourself into, some kind of temporal mess. I don't care if it's a
spiritual mess, whatever it might be. It doesn't matter what it
is. This is always the appropriate prayer. Lord, save me. If you don't save me, I won't
be saved. Lord, save me. And I love how direct this prayer
is. Lord. Lord, you're the only one that
can do anything for me. Lord, save me. And I don't know how this is
gonna sound, but this prayer was doctrinally sound. What can be more sound than that?
Lord, save me. You see, salvation's of the Lord.
And if we're going to be true to the scriptures, this is all
we know. Salvation's of the Lord. If I'm saved, it's only gonna
be because he saved me. 2 Timothy 1.9 says, he saved
us. That's everything we believe.
He saved us. He reached down his hand and
he saved him. He pulled him up. He did it,
Peter was going down. There wasn't anything Peter could
do to stay up. And he put forth his hand and he saved him. Oh
Lord, save me. Now that is doctrinally sound. Anything that's not just that,
it works. Lord, save me. And it was personal. It was personal. Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Have you ever asked the Lord
to save you? I hope every day. Lord, save
me. And it was in dead earnest, he
was sinking. He was sinking. This prayer was
in dead earnest when he cried out, Lord, save me. And here's
what I love about this prayer. It was effectual. Do you know
the Lord always answers this prayer? This prayer has never
been prayed where the Lord did not answer it. You say, well,
I've prayed for him to save me and he didn't. You didn't ask
him to save you. You were trying to strike up some kind of deal.
You're trying to bargain somehow, trying to, if I do this, you
do that. That's not that prayer. This prayer is praying to the
Lord, the sovereign Lord save me. And he's never said no to
anyone. who cried out this prayer. And he caught him with that omnipotent
arm and said, O ye of little faith. Now at this time, I think
Peter had the greatest faith of the disciples at any rate.
He's the only one who got out of the boat. I admire his faith,
but what does the Lord say? Wherefore didst thou doubt, O
ye of little faith? Do you know there's never an
excuse for unbelief? There's never a reason for unbelief. But I know this, in my own experience, both conclusions are true concerning
me. They worshiped him, saying, truly,
thou art the Son of God. Now that's what faith is. It's
not about what you believe about yourself. I need to say that
about every time I speak about faith. Faith isn't believing
you're saved. Faith is believing he's the Savior.
Faith isn't believing you're a Christian. Faith is believing
that he is the Son of God. That's faith. And where there
is faith, thou art the son of God. There is worship. You will
worship him. You'll hit the dirt and you will
worship him. Now there we have Matthew's account. And then we have Mark's account.
And Mark's account is just as accurate. Let's go back to Mark's
account. Verse 51, and he went up to them
into the ship and the wind ceased. You know, they'd seen this happen
before. Remember when the Lord was in the lower part of the
boat, the storm was coming, they said, don't you care that we
perish? And he said, peace, be still. And there was a great
calm. They'd seen this before, but act like they'd never seen
it. I can relate with that. How many things that have you
seen the Lord's taught you that you've completely forgotten? The wind ceased, and they were
sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered, and here's
why, and this is, this is not worship, this is
how this happened. They wondered, for they considered
not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened. And this thing of a hard heart,
you know anything about it? what it is to have a hard heart,
calloused, unfeeling, unperceptive. The word is used five times in
the New Testament. Two times it's translated blinded,
and three times it's translated hardened. And it's something
that Christ's disciples do. They have their hearts Now, one
time, it says, he hath blinded their minds. It's talking about
unbelievers. He hath blinded their minds. He's the one who
did it. But every other time, it's a believer just being left
alone. Left alone. That's all that's
got to do, all that's got to happen for me to have my heart
hardened is nothing. That's it. Nothing. Their hearts
were heartened. And it's not the last time this
takes place. Look in Mark chapter eight, verse 14. Now the disciples had forgotten
to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than
one loaf. Now remember, these fellows have seen the miracle
of the feeding of the 5,000 and the miracle of the feeding
of 4,000. They'd seen both of these things, but they forgot
bread. Verse 15, and he charged them
saying, take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and
of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves.
What's he talking about? Is it because we forgot bread?
Look at the way the Lord answered him. And when Jesus knew, he
saith unto them, why reason ye, because you have no bread? Perceive
ye not, neither understand? Have your hearts yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? Having ears, hear ye not? Do
you not remember? When I break the five thousand
loaves how many baskets full of fragments took you up? They
said in M12, and when the seven among 4,000, how many baskets
full of fragments take you up? And they said, seven. He said,
how is it that you don't understand? Now, when our hearts harden,
and they do, we don't understand. We don't perceive. We don't see. But do you know that he's promised
to always soften those hard hearts. He's not gonna let a believer
stay hard. But I tell you what, there's
a benefit in hardness of heart. It shows you how bad you are
and how bad you need the Lord Jesus Christ. In that sense,
it's a blessing. And this was a blessing to these
men. You know, one of the things I've noticed about Mark, reading
Mark, Mark brings out the weakness and the unbelief of the disciples,
where sometimes it almost sounds like, do these guys even believe?
We'll come across several times like that in Mark, but I'm thankful
that both of those things are true. There's worship and there's
heart of heart going on at the same time. The new man worships
and the old man, he is what he is. Let's pray.