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The sermon presents doubt as a recurring weakness that may accompany genuine faith, especially amid suffering and awareness of sin. Spurgeon teaches that believers must look beyond secondary causes to God’s providence and Christ’s sustaining presence. Present acceptance and final perseverance depend on divine grace, not human ability, so Christ will preserve those who trust Him. The closing appeal emphasizes salvation by grace alone: sinners are invited to come to Christ without personal merit and rely wholly on His atoning work.
Theological center: Salvation, assurance, and perseverance rest on Christ’s grace and faithfulness rather than human strength, works, or feelings.
Applications: Look to Christ · Cast burdens on God · Come to Christ as you are · Cling to Christ alone
Primary texts: Matthew 14:31
“O you of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31. IT seems as if doubt were doomed to be the perpetual companion of faith. As dust attends the chariot wheels so do doubts naturally becloud faith. Some men of little faith are perpetually enshrouded with fears, their faith seems only strong enough to enable them to doubt. If they had no faith at all, then they would not doubt, but having that little, and but so little, they are perpetually involved in distressing surmises, suspicions, and fears. Others, who have attained to great strength and stability of faith, are nevertheless, at times, subjects of doubt. He who has a colossal faith will sometimes find that the clouds of fear float over the brow of his confidence. It is not possible, I suppose, so long as man is in this world, that he should be perfect in anything, and surely it seems to be quite impossible that he should be perfect in faith. Sometimes, indeed, the Lord purposely leaves His children, withdraws the divine inflowing of His grace, and permits them to begin to sink, in order that they may understand that faith is not their own work, but is first the gift of God, and must always be maintained and kept alive in the heart by the fresh influence of the Holy Spirit. I take it that Peter was a man of great faith. When others doubted, Peter believed. He boldly avowed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, for which faith he received the Master’s commendation, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven.” He was of faith so strong, that at Christ’s command he could tread the billow and find it like glass beneath his feet, yet even he was permitted in this thing to fall. Faith forsook him, he looked at the winds and the waves, and began to sink, and the Lord said to him, “O you of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?” As much as to say, “O Peter, your great faith is My gift, and the greatness of it is My work. Think not that you are the author of your own faith, I will leave you, and this great faith of yours shall speedily disappear, and like another who has no faith, you shall believe the winds, and regard the waves, but shall distrust your Master’s power, and therefore shall you sink.” I think I shall be quite safe in concluding this morning, that there are some here who are full of doubting and fearing. Sure I am that all true Christians have their times of anxious questioning. The heart that has never doubted has not yet learned to believe. As the farmers say, “The land that will not grow a…