THE HISTORY OF LITTLE FAITH

MATTHEW 14:2

A. PETER'S UNUSUAL VENTURE
  1. He saw his Lord walking on the water:
  2. His love and affection for the Lord made him venturesome:
    1. "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water."
    2. No other mortal, as far as we know, has ever made such a request of the Lord.
  3. Our Lord said unto Peter, "come":
    1. That meant that the Lord assumed full responsibility to safeguard the venture of Peter.
    2. In the invitation "come" was the secret of Peter's success.
  4. Peter's faith shrunk when he got his eyes off of the Lord Jesus:
    1. He began to sink.
    2. Left to himself, he would have perished.
  5. But little faith is better than no faith:
    1. "Lord save me." Little faith knows the power of prayer, and it uses it very effectively.
    2. The Lord's answer was instant and complete.
B. LET US CONSIDER THE HISTORY OF LITTLE FAITH AND ATTEMPT TO DRAW SOME HELPFUL LESSONS FROM IT
  1. The story of our text:
    1. Is full of spiritual signification for the Christian believers, "thou of little faith".
    2. I do not suppose that the Lord would call Peter "Little Faith".
    3. Yet, Brother, Little Faith is a true disciple of Jesus Christ - Matt. 16:16; 17:4, 20
      1. He is adventurous -- it was the spirit of adventure that caused him to meet the Lord on the water. We know of no other incident like that.
      2. There were times when Little Faith accomplished a lot - Matt. 17:27
      3. The prophets Elijah and Elisha, too, were venturesome at times - 1 Ki. 18:33-35; 2 Ki. 6:5-7
      4. Little Faith hath its weakness; it was tempted to turn its eyes away from the Lord to the oncoming waves.
      5. But Little Faith had a special gift that all of us ought to covet: it knew when and how to pray, "Lord save me".
      6. Here is where Little Faith is ahead of no faith.
  2. Little Faith acknowledged by the Lord:
    1. It is true that the Lord rebuked Peter, saying, "O, thou of little faith", but that is much better than if he had said, "O, thou of no faith".
    2. It is important to mention the fact that Peter had a desire to be with the Lord; that was to his credit.
    3. He had solid footing so long as he kept his eyes on the Lord Jesus, who had said, "come".
    4. He ventured all to be with Jesus, and that is to his credit.
    5. Finally, Little Faith was coming to Jesus all the while, and that was his salvation.
C. LITTLE FAITH'S DELIVERANCE
  1. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him":
    1. God does all things in time; that is a wonderful blessing.
    2. It should create a desire in us to do everything in time also.
  2. Our text makes it plain that Little Faith received his help solely from the Lord:
    1. It was not Peter's ability to swim that saved his life.
    2. But it was the hand of the Saviour that saved him.
    3. The Lord caught him; that means that Peter was almost gone; he was a brand saved from the watery grave.
    4. It is very illuminating to know that the Lord brought Peter back into ship.
    5. Little Faith rebuked -
      1. Peter was saved from drowning.
      2. But the Master had to rebuke his unbelief.
      3. It was, however, a gentle rebuke.
    6. What would our faith have accomplished, had we been in Peter's shoes?


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