Faith Amidst Storms: Lessons from Peter's Journey

Faith is an activity, something that must be applied. Where is your faith? They had it, but they were not bringing it to focus upon this particular problem. Now this morning, as we shall see, while in general we are still considering the question of faith and the true character of faith, it is a somewhat different aspect of the question and of the problem. [00:03:35]

Our temperaments do not change; they remain exactly what they were. You don't become somebody else; you're still yourself. Oh yes, we all say, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and yet we go on to head, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God. [00:10:54]

The trouble with this kind of person is that he tends to act without thinking. The trouble with this person's faith is that it hasn't been based upon thorough thought. The difficulty is that this kind of individual doesn't think things right through, doesn't work them right out. Now that was always, it seems to me, the trouble with Peter. [00:15:54]

Doubts are not incompatible with faith. I found many people many times in my pastoral experience very unhappy because they haven't grasped that principle. Some people seem to think that once you become a Christian, you should never again be assailed by doubts, but that isn't so. Peter here still has faith. [00:21:28]

The antidote to all this is great faith. It's little faith that causes the men to be mastered by doubts. The antidote, therefore, must be a great faith, a big faith, and that, as I see it, is the thing that is emphasized here above everything else. What are the characteristics of a great faith, a big faith? [00:24:00]

The Christian faith begins and ends with a knowledge of the Lord. That's it. Must I say it again? Again, it begins with a knowledge of the Lord, not a feeling, not an act of will, but a knowledge of this blessed person. There's no value in any feeling; there's no value in any action unless it's based upon this. [00:26:12]

The antidote to depression is knowledge of him, and you get that in this word, and he takes trouble. You must take trouble to learn it. It's hard work; it's difficult work, yes, but you've got to study it and pray over it and give yourself to it. The tragedy of the hour, it seems to me, is that people are far too dependent for their happiness upon meetings. [00:29:52]

Faith says this: what he has begun to do, he can continue to do. What he started doing was a miracle, so if he can do a miracle, he can go on doing it. What he has already initiated, he can keep going. Being confident of this very thing, says Paul to the Philippians, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. [00:35:01]

You cannot live on an initial faith. That's what seems to have been trying to do. He started off with a great faith, and then, you see, instead of going on with the same faith, he, as it were, tries to live upon it. You can't do it. You can't live on an initial faith. You can't live on a preliminary experience. [00:36:21]

The only way to keep walking is to keep steadily looking at him. May I say a final word of comfort and consolation? It's all here in this wonderful incident, isn't it? The first is, my dear friend, he will never let you sink. Peter cries out in terror and alarm, Lord, he says, save me, and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him. [00:37:59]

The great lesson of the whole incident, in a sense, is this, isn't it? That he can keep us from falling. We never need be desperate like that. We never need to cry out like that. If we only keep on looking at him and believing in him, we shall never fall. We just keep straight on. If Peter had only looked at him, he'd have gone on walking until he'd come to him. [00:39:45]

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees and looks to that alone, laughs at impossibilities and cries, it shall be done. That's faith. Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees in him and looks to that alone, to nothing else. It laughs at impossibilities, these waves, and cries, it shall be done. [00:40:27]