Turn us on. Tim, you come preach
to us. Well, it's good to be back again
tonight. Paul had some pizza. And if you fall asleep, I won't
wake you up. And if I fall asleep, y'all don't
wake me up either. Just leave and surprise me. Matthew chapter 14. Let's get
a little warm. I'm going to take off my coat
if you don't mind. Again, reading in verse 22, we'll
read through verse 23, a very familiar portion of scripture. Verse 22 says, in a straight
way, this is after the Lord had fed the 5,000 with some few fishes
and loaves. In a straight way, Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship and go before him unto the other
side where he had sent the multitude away, or while he sent the multitude
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 waves, for the wind was contrary. And
in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went into them walking
on the sea. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, is it a spirit?
They cried out for fear. Straightway, Jesus spoke unto
them, saying, Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. 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. He began to sink,
and he cried, Save me, Lord. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were
coming to the ship, the wind ceased. And they were in the
ship, came and worshiped him, saying of a truth, thou art the
son of God. What prompted his message was
a conversation I had with my brother Myron. during my last
visit to see my mom in Winston-Salem. We were talking about the world
in general, and there was so much going on that it was hard
to think sometimes, all the chaos that surrounds us. Opinion and
anger abound. Things were changing at a breakneck
pace. The changes will continue, and
what we see today will be a little bit different tomorrow from the
same people. And the changes, whether political, social, religious,
or whatever, will not be changes for the better. You can count
on that. Things, according to our Lord
Jesus Christ, will wax worse and worse. And to love many,
according to the Lord Jesus Christ, will wax cold. Time and tide
are like a great juggernaut careening apace toward the deadly prefaces
of prolific depravity. And we will be aware more than
ever because of the devices that report news or opinion at the
moment when it happens. We don't miss anything today.
Those who cry for transparency find more than ever all they
see is public airing of dirty laundry. causing men and women
to glory in their shame. Words like integrity and honor
and duty have been sacrificed on the so-called altar of carnal
acceptance. It makes you long for a day when
sin and debauchery were things thought to be worthy to be hidden
from the public eye. Under the guise of being honest,
men and women put their depravity on public display. Said, I know
I'm a criminal. I know I'm a murderer. At least
I'm honest about it. They use the law to defend themselves. Now, my brother and I, during
this conversation, both agreed that this present age, it's hard
to concentrate. It's hard to be fixed on something
worthwhile. It is what the Lord called in
the parable of the sower, the cares of the world. Paul called it the sin that so
easily doth beset us and hinders us from looking to the prize,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we who believe know that
these things take our eyes off Christ. And sad to say we are
so easily overwhelmed by these things. My brother Myron spent
four years in the Coast Guard of the United States. And his
first tour was an icebreaker in the Arctic Circle. And the
rest of his time, he was spent on boats off the coast of Carolinas. They were rescue boats. They
often had to go out in really stormy seas with waves that towered
over the boats. And when they were on deck amid
these towering torrents, the standing order was always the
same to the men on the deck. the standing order was this,
eyes in the boat. Eyes in the boat. This meant
that they were not to look at the roiling seas, but keep their
eyes within the parameters of the vessel. Specifically, they
were to look at the helmsman who sat at the head of the boat,
stationed forward in the boat to keep it pointed in the right
direction and toward the waves. That one man was he who would
guide the men through the storm So the captain said, eyes on
the boat, men. Eyes on the boat. There's safety there. Don't look
away from the helmsman. Keep your eyes on the boat. Because
to look away is to see the peril that you're really in. To see
the waves rising up. And as he explained this to me,
I was fascinated and I thought of this episode of the life of
Simon Peter. That's what I thought about. Who was Simon Peter? He was a chosen apostle, a disciple
of the Lord. And he was one of the inner circle
that was always around where the Lord was. He loved the Lord. He said it three times when the
Lord asked him three times. He finally said, you know I love
you because you know all things. He declared the Lord to be the
son of the living God when nobody else was wondering who he was. He said he's the only one who
had the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go? He said
to Christ. Thou hast the words of eternal life. He was the one
whom the Lord gave the commission to feed his sheep. You love me?
Feed my sheep. He was the one who led the charge
at Pentecost. And the first to personally take
the gospel to the Gentiles. When he went down to Cornelius'
house. After the Lord had hung down a sheet with a bunch of
beasts on it and said, eat. And Peter said, oh, no, I can't
do that. Lord said, don't call unclean what I've made clean.
And he was preparing to go down to an unclean Gentile and carry
the gospel to him. In the text, the Lord has just
fed 5,000 with fishes and a few loaves. And John's account said
that they wanted to make Christ their king. So he sent the disciples
on to the sea and told them that after he had dispersed the crowd,
he would join them. And he dispersed the crowd, as
crowds are often dispersed, actually almost always dispersed, by speaking
the truth. They came to him and said, we
want to make you king. He said, that's not going to
happen. And so they said, well, you know this fish and loaves
thing. Could you teach us how to do
that? Could you teach us how to do the works of God? And he
told the truth. This is the work of God. And
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has
sent. This is the work of God. And that dispersed the crowd.
The disciples had no idea, had no idea. I wouldn't have had
an idea that the Jesus Christ was going to walk to them on
the water. The words of our context tells us a great deal about Simon
Peter. and because he is a sinner saved by grace and I'm so glad
he's in the scriptures because he's always seems to be messing
up on things and always being kind of, you know, bold in the
wrong places. I'm glad he's there. But because
he's a sinner saved by grace, it tells us a great deal about
ourselves. This is a story about us. Our Lord had retreated to
the mountain to pray and the disciples had set sail on the
sea. Soon the disciples were in a quandary. Their little bark
was being tossed about by great waves in what the Lord called
contrary winds in verse 24. That word contrary is used a
lot in Scripture. When our Lord went to the cross
of Calvary, he nailed what was contrary to us on the cross.
He says that in Colossians chapter 2. It says this, and blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, and nailing it to
the cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, you
made show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. And what that's
talking about was contrary to us. The law is contrary to us. It ain't never been for us. It's
always been against us. As the old fella said, it's against
us. It was contrary to us. And the Lord took care of the
law that day. He fulfilled the law and kept
the law. He fulfilled it in this sense.
The word fulfill means to end, to end, to be done with, to set
aside. He fulfilled the law and he kept
the law the way everyone will keep the law, the only way you'll
keep the law, and the only area in which you'll keep the law.
How will you keep the law? By being good? Too late for that. There's none good, no, not one.
By being righteous? Too late for that. There is none
righteous, no not one. There's not a just man on earth
that doeth good and sinneth not. How you gonna keep the law? Same
way I'm gonna keep it. I'm gonna die. That's how we
keep the law. We obey the law by dying. Because
the soul that sinneth it shall die. That's what the law says.
What the law says, it says to them who are under the law that
every mouth might be stopped and the whole world become guilty
before God. If you're guilty, you've got to die. And that's
why Jesus Christ died in the room instead of his people. To
account that death is hired by imputation. When he died, we
died. We kept the law. We kept the
law. We obeyed the law. We were obedient
even unto death because he was obedient even unto death. The
law is contrary to us. That's one of the winds that
sometimes kicks up around us. Religion likes to talk about
it. Religion likes to put people under it. Religion likes to draw
the law into the gospel. It don't work. It don't work. You're either saved by grace
or you're lost altogether. And the law ain't gonna help
you if you're saved by grace and it certainly ain't gonna help
you if you're lost. It's the law, contrary to us. These are
the contrary winds that rock our boat sometimes. Also, scripture
says that the flesh is contrary to the spirit. Contrary. We have this principle, two principles
of life in us. Paul called them laws. Laws of
life in Christ Jesus and law of sin and death. And what they
are, these two principles of life are the flesh and spirit.
If you're a child of God, if you're not a child of God, you're
not going to know what I'm talking about. So you can just say, well, he's
not talking to me. Okay, that's all right. But if you're a child
of God, you know what I'm talking about. You have the flesh, you
have the flesh and the spirit. And they're always contrary to
each other. Paul said they're so contrary to each other that
we can't do what we would. And I think that works both ways. We would love to be good people.
And we try our best to do what's right, to be honest, to have
some integrity in this world, to deal honestly with people.
We try our best. We don't succeed. But we want
to be good. Paul said this is the principle
he described in Romans chapter chapter 7 at the very end in
verse 25 he says so this is my life with my mind my heart my
intent I serve the law of God but with my flesh I serve the
law of sin and death and that's our existence the law is contrary
to us and the flesh is contrary to the spirit so we can't do
what we would and sometimes when we desire to go astray the spirit
keeps us from going astray. So we can't do what we would
either way, in the flesh or the spirit, because they're contrary.
This is the contrary winds that rock our boat, the boisterous
winds and waves that make us fearful, that make us fearful.
Also, the strange winds of doctrine are contrary winds. They come
down the pike. And I'm not talking about crazy,
far-out doctrine like some of this. I'm talking about within
the realm of those who love the Lord, those who seek his way,
and those who believe the gospel of God's grace. Sometimes doctrines
pop up, men's ideas and thoughts pop up, and they rock the boat.
These are contrary things. Contrary things. And we are subject
to them. We are subject to them. The Lord
was not with them. They were by themselves. They
couldn't see Christ. The elements were making them
afraid. So afraid that they even cried out. Even when the Lord
was present with them, they became afraid in troubled seas. You
remember when they went to the ship, all of them together with
the Lord, and the Lord was sleeping. And the waves begin to toss them
about and they say, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Wake
up! Well, we didn't want to wake
him up. But they wanted him to wake up because they was afraid. And he stood up and said, Peace,
be still. And the sea became like mirrored
glass. They were afraid. We're often
afraid. How do I know? Because so often
in scripture, our Lord says, Fear not. Be not afraid. Things can throw us off. Things
can get us off. Get our mind off the way it should
be. Why? Why were they afraid? They were
looking outside the boat. They were looking at the waves. They were feeling the wind. The trouble around them caused
them to fear for their life. And they were afraid. Even when
the Lord was present with them, they were afraid. When they saw
Christ walking on the sea, they were afraid. They were afraid. They thought he might have been
a ghost or something, a specter, an apparition. They didn't know
what, maybe they thought he was the Grim Reaper coming to finish
the work. They didn't, I don't know what they thought, but they
were afraid. They were afraid. Maybe they thought their time
was done. But what this tells us is that
if the elements are contrary to us, and contrary enough, what
we see may not be what we think we see at all. Because we're
looking at the wrong place. We may cry out in fear when in
truth it's the Lord that's in control of all things and we
know that. So why do we fear? Because though
we are believers, we are so full of unbelief. It's such a part
of our existence. Shall there be trouble in the
city and the Lord not be in it? And the Lord not do it? It says
in Matthew in Amos chapter 3. The Lord's in control of all
things. He that walks on the waves, holds the winds in his
hands, and counts the mountains in a balance, and controls the
spirit. The Lord told them, be of good
cheer. Now think about that situation.
They're in a boat. It's being tossed to and fro.
The winds are conjuring. The waves are still rolling.
And our Lord said, be of good cheer. It's me. Be not afraid. Oh, if we could see Him. And
when we see them, I think about this often. This is a world of
chaos. And I get ticked off just like
you do about what's going on. I get upset, I get worrisome,
and sometimes I think some of the awfulest things. It's a tough
world we live in. And I think, when am I happy?
When am I at peace? When am I full of joy when I'm
doing what we're doing right here? The rest of the week, It's
nip and tuck all the way. This way he's rolling over the
bow all the way. But in these moments, these great
sweet moments, when we hear someone preach the gospel of God's grace
and tell us who Jesus Christ is and what he's done for his
people, oh, it settles the soul. Anybody here afraid tonight?
Any of you even thinking about what's going on outside these
doors? No, we're thinking about what's being said, what's being
taught. That's what we're thinking. We're thinking about our Lord.
And when your eyes are fixed on Him, everything's all right.
Everything's all right. Would to God we could do that
and we'd walk outside these doors. But the waves toss us about.
Though the words of Simon Peter may be construed as doubtful.
When he said in verse 28, he said to Peter, answer Lord, if
it be thou. Bid me come unto thee. Now some might say, well
he was doubtful whether it was the Lord. Well I'll tell you
this, if it had been a specter or a ghost or an apparition and
had lied to him, he'd still step out of that boat. He would have
stepped out of the boat because he believed it was Jesus Christ
out there. He just wanted to make sure.
He believed it was the Lord, else he would have remained in
the boat. Think about that. He stepped out, says unto the
water. Stepped out on the water. I've
never tried that. I don't think I could. I might
in some creeks where I know the rocks are and it might look like
I'm walking on water, but I'm not. He stepped out onto the
water, not into the water. It says he stepped out on the
water when the Lord said, come, come. But just as Simon Peter
was a man of faith, he was also a man. a human being, and though
the sea had become solid footing for him like a concrete pad,
a true foundation for him, he took his eyes off Christ. And
he saw the waves rolling about him and felt the bluster of the
wind buffeting him and he slipped from his moorings and began to
sink into the deep. His doubt emerged when he turned
his eyes from the only object of faith. That's when our trouble
begins, doesn't it? Let's be honest. With your eyes
on Christ, you don't have any troubles. I think it was Spurgeon
who said the knowledge of Christ, the doctrine of Christ is like
an inebriant, a heavenly cordial from heaven by which we get inebriated
and for the time we see him, we forget everything else. All our troubles go away. And
that's the truth. And that's the truth. Took his
eyes off Christ and began to sink. What a picture this paints. How full of faith and courage
we are when we see Christ. How sure we are of his sovereignty
when we hear the gospel preached and the Spirit assures our soul.
And how true it is when we are buffeted by the doctrines of
human wisdom and the torrents of the world's chaos lapse at
our feet, we begin to sink when we look at those things. Always
the case. Have you ever noticed that the
things of the world never lift you up? They never lift you up. They
always bring you down. What can we do? Shall we apply to the law? No,
that's contrary to it. Shall we apply to the impotence
of the flesh? No, that's contrary to it. We do that though, don't
we? It seems the last thing we do
is look at Christ in our situations. You know it's true. You know
what I'm talking about. You get in trouble, you get in
a fix, you automatically begin to think of ways to fix it. Don't you? That's our nature. And to whom do we apply? Ourselves. We apply ourselves to fix it.
So we apply to the flesh to fix the flesh that will never work.
Look to Christ. Look to Christ. The wisdom of the world is great.
Marvelous, wondrous thing. We talk about it often. We talked
about it this week, how medicine is, what medicine can do today. I was a boy. I remember getting
a smallpox vaccination. Well, I was seven, I think, when
I got my vaccination. Still got a scar on my arm. We
got rid of smallpox. They used to kill people like
flies. I remember taking sugar cubes with the polio vaccine
and let them dissolve in my mouth so I wouldn't get polio, so I
wouldn't end up in an iron lung. That was a fearful thing, an
iron lung. The wisdom of the world's great, but it won't get
you out of trouble with God. It can't. The waves get big enough
you can apply to the wisdom of the world, who undo our downward
plugs, but we're still sinking. That's the case of Peter in our
case also. eyes in the boat eyes on the helmsman he's the
one taking care of us he cried Lord save me Lord save me how many times have we cried now just a one-time thing that
happened way back when we start our road to salvation Deliverance
is an everyday thing. Lord, save me from this mess. Save me from the mess I got myself
in. Save me from turning my eyes
away from you. Lord, save me. This is the hue
and cry of the believer throughout his life as he sinks in the mire
from which he was once so wondrously lifted. How frail our frame. How small our faith. How quick
our doubt. I thank the Lord that salvation
is by grace and grace alone. And when we see Him and call
on Him, He never says no. Immediately, He stretches forth
His hand and saves us and delivers us over and over and over again. Looking to Him is all that will
keep us afloat. Peter, if he had looked at Christ,
kept looking at Christ, he would have walked all the way to Christ
and he would have walked back to the boat hand in hand. Looking
to Christ is the only thing that keeps us afloat. When we're distracted
by the waves and contrary winds catch our attention, we begin
to sink. We will sink. I say tonight,
Lord save me. Lord save me. That's what happens
when the gospel is preached and we hear it again and again and
again. You know it. It may not be theologically correcting
people's notions, but we get saved again. Hearing the gospel
is being saved again. Have you heard the gospel? Are you looking to Christ? If
you're not, you're sinking. You're sinking. That old song
says, I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,
very terribly stained within, seeking to rise no more. But
the master of the sea heard my despairing cry, and from the
waters lifted me. Now safe am I. We used to sing
that. The old hymn says this. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. and the things of the world.
The contrary waves, the boisterous winds, the things of the world
will go strangely dim in the eyes of His glory and grace.
You know this is true. How full of unbelief are we?
We know this is true. We experience it over and over
again. I'm thankful that we have places
to go to hear the gospel and men to stand and tell us the
truth about what God has done for us. Because as soon as we
leave this place, this world is coming after us. headlong,
and it's going to rock our boat. You know it's true. God give
us faith to look to the prize, to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when I see Him, when
we see Him, we're at peace. Right now, you couldn't shake
me at all. You couldn't shake me at all.
I don't know what I could say 30 minutes from now when I walk
out these doors. I don't know. But right now, everything's fine. All's right with the world. God
bless you. Keep your eyes on the bull.