I remember as a child that when I colored in my coloring books, I drew a dark line around my subject and then I filled in the body. I haven’t seen my grandchildren do that, but that was my habit – outline and then fill. As far as I am concerned that is still the way that we should be when coloring our doctrines. There should be a clear, distinct, dark outline; when that is done, staying inside the lines is easy. But with every issue of that magazine, the lines around their doctrines were becoming more blurred. Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer.
I think that one of the genuine problems of 21st Century Christianity is its regression into social issues thinking that is something spiritual. That is a part of the nature of neo-evangelicalism. But this world needs a people whose focus is vertical, and not horizontal. It’s not that we don’t care about the problems of our society, but as Bible believers we know that the solution to these issues are not carnal but spiritual. We must set our attentions, as well as our affections, “on things above, not on things on the earth.” When we get our priorities with Heaven right then the earthly peripherals will fall into place.
So, the nature of our ministry is spiritual, Biblical and eternal. And a part of that spiritual attention has to address the subject of faith. Not only are major portions of our rewards and blessings contingent on our faith in God, but our ability to be a true blessing to others – loved ones or society in general – depends on the Lord’s enabling. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him,” and without faith it is impossible to serve Him.
Even the most eminent saints, like Abraham, David and the Apostle Peter need to work on strengthening their faith, so that they might better serve the Lord, and serve their society. You and I cannot prosper, function well – or even survive – without a close connection to the Lord through faith – trust. And that brings us to our scripture and this subject.
As much as there might be here to criticize in Peter, I admit to standing here amazed at that good man. Was Peter among those with the superstitious idea that the Lord Jesus could have been a phantom? Did he fear that this miraculous appearance of Christ in the middle of the lake was Lilith or some demon? If he did, the familiar voice of Jesus told them all not to be afraid. But was Peter’s response logical or even careful? “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” If it had been a demon out there on the Sea, could it have imitated the voice of Christ and lied? It seems to me that even Peter’s question exuded faith in God. When he heard the Lord’s invitation, he stepped out – he stepped out by faith – as they say.
Please don’t think that I am trying to say that my faith is equal to Peter’s. But Thursday I was talked into renting some ice skates and stepping out of the comfort of my boat. I haven’t skated in well over ten years, but, hey, I’m a Canadian, I can walk on frozen water can’t I? I stepped with confidence out onto that ice, and immediately knew that I was off my familiar turf. The first five minutes out there, my arms were flailing and my feet were flopping; I stayed close to the boards. I can just image what Peter was feeling when he stepped out onto that unfrozen pond – the Sea of Galilee.
Peter slipped, slid and walked his way toward the Saviour, but with some confidence that he could do it. After all he had the invitation of the Lord. But then he felt the wind blowing past him like a hundred expert skaters whizzing by. And he saw the waves all around him like another hundred little kids flopping all over the ice in front of him. And Peter began to sink – “Lord, save me.” “Lord, help me find and put my hands on the boards.” “Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief.” When the Lord reached out, immediately Peter was once again upright and standing on the water.
Let’s begin with a quick refresher course on the FUNDAMENTAL nature of faith.
And please remember that these are not the mere opinions of this preacher. Some of you saw me floundering out there on that frozen water, and you’ve seen my weak faith. It is not me, but the Lord who has declared that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” – Romans 14:23. And it is He who reiterated in Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please Him.”
Do we all understand the meaning of these words? God cannot tolerate or abide any form of sin – period, exclamation point, three exclamation points. He is patient and longsuffering, not immediately judging every sin at the moment of its commission. But there are many occasions when the Lord rightfully lays His patience aside. The second that Uzzah touched the sacred Ark of the Covenant, he died. There is some indication that this form of government will return during the Millennial reign of Christ. But, quite often the Lord gives sinners more than enough time to learn and to repent. Nevertheless, it is true that “without holiness shall not man see the Lord.” Neither sin, nor its hosts, shall be permitted into the presence of the holy God. And – “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
Without doubt, it was because of a lack of faith that Peter began to sink into that water. It was a result of sin – in the form of unbelief – that he started to go down. What would you say is the meaning of words – “But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried…” Did Peter immediately drop into the water, bobbing back up to the surface and crying out? Or was it like so many of the little ones on Thursday as they started to fall, their parents or friends caught them before they hit it ice really hard? Despite Peter’s lack of faith, you could say that the Lord caught him before he hit the ice.
Without faith, everything that we might attempt to do for the Lord, will not – cannot please God. That is because anything without faith is sin. Who says that it is sin? Elohim, the Almighty God says so! Argue with God at your own peril; you will loose that fight. Christ Jesus had every right, as the sovereign God, to let Peter drown at that point. How gracious, kind and patient the Lord is.
Without faith, for all practical purposes, we are impotent – especially in the important or spiritual things. Oh, we may deceive ourselves into boasting about our space missions, nuclear power plants, and medical miracles. We may even declare that we are pretty good skaters. But these feats of human strength and mental accomplishment are insignificant when examined through the eyes of the Almighty. Sure we may be able to build jet-skis, but we aren’t yet walking on unfrozen water. We may have machines that pluck up trees by their roots, but we aren’t casting them into the sea with our words. We may be swapping hearts between current cadavers and eventual cadavers, but the creation of life belongs only to the Lord. Without faith we are virtually powerless – and certainly powerless in the really important things.
And it goes without saying that without faith there is no salvation from sin – a really important thing. With all our technology, human theology and psychology we have yet to remedy man’s greatest dilemma. “There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not” – not even Peter. We are drowning in the watery depths of our wickedness. The waves of our sin keep washing over our heads, driving us deeper and deeper into its darkness. If I am not mistaken there was one little boy, Friday, who was being treated for bashing his head on the ice. We may bob up to the surface for a moment, thinking that we are free from our addiction. We cough and sputter, clearing our lungs for a few moments, and we think that we shall live for ever. But very quickly we find that we’re drowning under another tidal wave.
We could look at Peter as an illustration of a man trying to walk to heaven on water. He had heard the invitation, and he yearned for eternity in the glory of God. So off he goes toward the sound of the Saviour’s voice. But without faith there is no salvation from either the guilt of sin or from the domination of sin. The Lord Jesus said, “Verily, verily I say unto you, He that hearth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life; and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves….” The Bible says, ”That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Without faith everything we do is sinful in God’s sight and spiritually powerless. And certainly without faith there is no delivery from that sin. Conversely, the just are saved from sin by faith.
Now consider one variety of FRAUDULENT FAITH.
Let’s call it tactile faith – a faith that demands some sort of physical touch. So Peter steps out of what was probably a little fishing boat onto the surface of the Sea of Galilee. But soon we see him dropping below the waves like a 200 pound chunk of wood. “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus reached out and caught Peter, keeping him from drowning. I have a lot of questions about the details of all this.
But I think that I can understand a few things – the outline. For example Peter believed that his Saviour could still save him from the sea. Sure, he had walked on the water, and then he failed and began to flail. He cried out for salvation – but salvation from what? From water? Perhaps in Peter’s mind, all that was necessary was for Christ to touch him. It wasn’t the kind of faith that is defined in Hebrews 11:1 – “the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” I have doubts that Peter ever returned to walking on the water. And on this occasions, the Lord Jesus may have had to drag His disciple over to the ship. The others may have had to pull Peter into the boat like some big, exhausted fish. Nevertheless the Saviour saved the man once again. But Peter apparently felt that it was necessary that there be actual physical contact.
Please don’t think that I’m maliciously criticizing Peter, because that is not my intent. And I think that I understand the limitations of my heart in regard to my own faith. But don’t we have here an illustration of a superstitious faith, a fraudulent faith. “Touch me Lord and I will be safe.” The faith that requires statues and images is not only corrupt, it is condemned by the second commandment. A faith that demands this sacrament or that sacrament for completion is not Biblical. A faith that requires a crucifix for focus is fraudulent.
This world is filled with fraudulent faith. “Lord, touch my hand or I won’t be able to walk on this water.” “Lord let me touch you or at least some earthly representation of you.”
Thankfully, before the fraudulent faith there was the GENUINE, FRUITFUL FAITH.
By Paul’s definition and description, “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” When Peter said, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water…” – that was genuine faith. It was about something which had never been seen before, except that Christ Jesus was doing it. Until that moment walking on water had been unknown, unseen, unheard of, and definitely unusual. As Peter stepped out of the boat he was touching his Saviour more solidly he was when the Lord rescued him.
If it is the blood of Christ which flows through the veins of Bible Christianity, its nervous system is faith. It is faith which sends the impulse to the hand and arm which reaches out to the Lord. This is how we draw nigh unto God, inviting Him to draw nigh unto us. This is our victory, the conduit for our worship, and substance of our religion. “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” “Lord, may I come out there to you?” “Come,” He says. It would have been presumption and sin for Peter to have jumped out of that boat without the bidding of the Saviour. Oh, how glorifying it was to God for Peter to ask and then to obey. I commend Peter’s audacity in both asking and then in doing. In this case “audacity” is a synonym for “faith.” Faith displays itself in seeking new ways to glorify the Lord. Faith displays itself, not just in believing that God can do things or that we can do things through the Lord… Faith displays itself in actually doing those things which the world says are impossible but which God says are guaranteed.
For example God says that we are all hell-bound sinners about to go down with the ship. And out of the depths of our hearts we know that is the truth. For some of us we’ve tried bailing the water out of our boats, but with every bucket that we toss away, another two gallons of filthy water pours in. Time and time again, we’ve failed to clean up our lives and to save ourselves. But the Word of God says that the Saviour has done all the work necessary for our deliverance. It says that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, poured out his blood as a satisfactory offering to God. The Bible says that if we will simply grasp by faith the work that Jesus accomplished, then God will accept His sacrifice as our own sacrifice. “As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God….” In touching the Saviour, His ability to walk on water will become our ability. And how do we grasp? By faith. Step out of the sinking boat of your personal self-righteousness out onto the water of the promise of God. When you look to Christ, past your righteousness and your perceived abilities to walk on water…. When you look to Christ, past the boisterous wind and waves of the judgment of God…. When you look and then step out by faith, He will save you from your sin. He will even render you a new creature in Christ Jesus. But the key is not DOING things to please Him, but believing the promise of God in Christ Jesus.
But what about the FALL of faith?
Christ Jesus asked a question as he carried Peter back to boat – “Wherefore didst thou doubt?” I plan to address this more fully this evening in regard to you and me as Christians. But permit me to put it into the context of the world which so desperately needs salvation. I believe that there are millions of people in hell today, who have heard of Peter’s watery walk. And to them the question is asked: “What made you doubt this Christ, His power, and His gospel?” There have been millions of people, raised in Christ’s churches who have walked away, sinking under the judgment of God. What made them question this testimony?
Briefly, the reason that Peter went down, not onto the water, but under the water – Peter began to sink because he took his eyes off Christ. The Bible says that he considered the boisterous wind, and its resultant waves. Without a doubt the vast majority of the people of the world are more concerned with the world, its people and its problems, than with Christ and His word. But in addition to that, most people are full of themselves – self-satisfied and self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency doesn’t work while walking on water..
We are all sinners, and we are all in need of the Saviour. The Lord has brought you here this morning to face these eternal facts. I implore you to step out of that uncomfortable little sinking boat of yours. The Lord Jesus is inviting you to join Him for eternity. Will you say “Yes” and believe on the Lord Jesus today?