Alright, go back with me to John
21. John chapter 21. This is the story of our Lord
appearing again to His disciples. The third time He appeared after
He arose from the grave. The story of our Lord feeding
them with His fish and His bread. Our Lord is the one who said,
Blessed are they that hunger. and thirsts, they will be filled. They'll be filled. If you come
hungry, if you're hungry, if you open your mouth wide, you'll
feel it. You'll feel it. Next story is
of them around the fire, and the first thing he said to Simon
Peter was what? Feed my sheep. Feed my lamb.
I love to feed. I love to eat this food myself. I love to prepare it. I love
to feed you, hungry people. I love to feed those who love
to eat. Well, verse 1 begins this way. After these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. or Galilee. The Lord was often at this sea,
wasn't He? He spent a great deal of time
at the Sea of Galilee, around it, all around it, and in it,
in a ship in it, or walking on it. But He revealed Himself at
this sea. This is significant. This was
His sea. You do know that, don't you?
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. He made this
sea. Those were His ships, He told
them, to launch out into. That's His ship, His sea, and
those were His disciples. But the Lord showed Himself often
at the sea. Because like the sea, you know,
there's really nothing on this earth more mysterious than the
sea, is it? You know, there's nothing deeper
on this earth. You know, there are places in
the sea deeper than Mount Everest. Yeah. They have not been plumbed
yet, fathomed. That's a picture of Christ in
them. Oh, the depths of the riches. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be
fearful. The sea is fearful. Have you
ever been out on the sea? I mean out to sea. I was out
150 miles out to sea on a little sailboat for 850 miles. And a storm arose. I was scared
to death. It's a fearful thing. Fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If He ever reveals Himself
to you, you're going to fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. So like
the sea, fearful, He is wonderful. Nothing more wonderful, nothing
more wondrous, nothing more full of life, nothing more mysterious
than the sea except Jesus Christ. Like the sea, He shows Himself.
Like the sea, He showed Himself at that sea, on that sea as the
creator of it, the owner of it, the ruler of it. He called the
fish. Those were his fish. That's his
sea, that's his fish. Get the net. Who can do that
but God? He walked on that sea. He plants his footsteps in the
sea and rides upon the storm. Who can do that but God? He showed
himself the master of the sea, creator of it. This is the same
Lord who dried the Red Sea up in the beginning. Same Lord.
And the first time, the first time he showed himself to the
disciples was at the sea, at this same sea, wasn't it? You
remember? You remember the story of Luke 5? In the beginning. And he gave orders at that time,
get in the ship. He came by. looking for his disciples. He was going to preach to the
people first. And he found a ship, and there was Simon, Peter, and
Andrew, and James, and John, and their partners on the side.
And he said, get in the ship, we're launching out. I once asked Brother Elm, because
he's a fisherman and we love to fish, and one time we were
washing his nets. And I said, what if a man came
along and there was your boat, and he got in it and said, ìCome
on, weíre going out fishing.î He said, ìWell, itíd have to
be the Lord.î Well, it was. His sea, his ship, his disciples,
his fish, everything, everything belonged to him. who He is at
the sea. And He gave orders, orders. The
Lord doesn't ask anything. The Lord doesn't request. The
Lord doesn't invite. The Lord commands. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ, the true Christ. And they caught, remember they
launched out and He said, cast your net over here. And they
caught so many fish that the net began to break. And then
James and John came over and they tried to help them and they
put all, and the boats began to sink. You remember that? And
this is when Simon Peter first found out who he was. Jesus,
at first, he said, OK, master. OK, teacher. OK, rabbi, I'm the
fishing expert. But you say... Can you hear the sarcasm in his
voice? You say, we've been fishing all night. And we've been doing
this all our lives. Well, have you caught anything?
Well, no, but nevertheless, at your word we'll care. And he
saw, if he knows every fish in the sea, he knows every thought
in my head. And he hit his knees and he said,
depart from me, Lord, not just Jesus, Lord of
the universe. He hit his knee. I'm a sinful
man. When he found out who Christ
was, he was a fearful man. And he found out he was a sinner.
And he hid his knees before the Lord and he called him Lord.
And he asked him to leave. But no, this is who Christ came
for. And you know what? Christ is
never going to leave him from that day forth. Simon Peter said, and this is
not my message. Well, it is my message. It's
the same. Simon Peter said, depart from
me, I'm a sinful man. How could you have anything to
do with me? Well, that's who he came for and that's why he
came. And Simon was one he came for.
And he revealed himself as the true Jesus Christ the Lord that
he is. This other Jesus, you know, trying
and wants to and can't and trying to get in your door and you won't
let him in. That's another Jesus, as I said
before, don't answer the door. When the Christ of Scriptures
comes to you, he'll reveal himself to you and you'll know that it's
the Lord. He showed himself in the inn.
Here he shows himself again in the inn at the sea. That's something,
isn't it? In verse 2, there were together
seven of his disciples. Where were the other four? I'll tell you who was there,
Thomas. You know who this heaven was? Thomas. He's not going to
be found missing when the disciples meet together. Where were the
other four? Well, you know, the Lord stayed
on the earth after he arose for 40 days. You know that? He was
on the earth for 40 days. He appeared three days after
He died, after He crucified. And then it says in verse 26,
after eight days. Are you with me here? I'm building
something here. After eight days, where was He
during that time? Did He go back to the Father?
Remember He said to Mary, touch Me not, I have not yet ascended
to the Father. Did He go back to the Father? What did He do?
Did He go there? What did He do? Did he pour the
blood on the mercy seat before the Lord? Did he? We don't know. It's not all written,
is it? Eight days. Eight days is significant. I
had several things written, but I don't have time. Well, after
eight days, where was he? They didn't know. They didn't
know. But he came back and appeared
to them then. Well, then how long was it he left and went
somewhere? Then how long was it that he
appeared the third time? They don't know. But the disciples
became impatient. Are you with me? They should
have been waiting on the Lord. But they became impatient. They didn't know where He was,
and they had to wait, and so do we. We have to wait on the
Lord. Where is He? Well, I know where
He is. Where was he when Simon Peter said, I'm going fishing?
Where was he? Right over there standing on
the shore. You know, we've got to wait on
the Lord now. Wait. And again, I say, wait. Don't
make a move. Well, this is what I'm going
to do, Simon Peter said. Simon? Somebody said, let's just
wait. on the Lord. He's coming back.
It's me and them that wait on her. If you make a move without
waiting, you're going to mess up. Well, he said, I can't wait.
I'm going fishing. They all said, okay, we're coming
to you. Now, Simon was not leaving the Lord. I've heard men preach
on this. He was not forsaking the Lord.
He knew the Lord now. He denied the Lord once. He's
not going to do that again. He knows the Lord now. He's not
going to forsake the Lord. He just doesn't know what to
do. He doesn't know where to go. He said, well, I think I'll
just go fishing. And maybe for recreation. We like to fish, don't we? Wrong.
I'm going fishing. They said, we'll go too. Or maybe
he thought, you know, some extra money would come in handy. You
reckon? That was his life before. Zebedee still had those ships,
James and John's fire. They still had those ships. They
found the ship immediately. And they said, look, can we borrow
this ship? Peter might have still had his ship and given it to
somebody else. Peter thought, I'll go fishing
and earn a little extra cash. I don't know where the Lord is
and we're going to need some money. The Lord is going to show him. what He called him to do, and
will show him that the one thing a preacher is to do is preach. And those that preach the gospel
live by the gospel. And He's going to show every
one of us that we're to be as those that wait on our Lord.
Our vocation is a disciple and a follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nothing else. This world is not
what we pursue. This world and the things of
this world is not our career. Christ is. Christ is our life. He's going to show us all. You
are to be as those who wait on your Lord. Are you with me? You,
me, not just me. You, you're a disciple of the
Lord. You're a witness of the Lord. You're a follower of the
Lord. This is your vocation. Walk worthy
of the vocation wherein you come. This world is a fleeting, passing,
perishing place. We're in it. We're just borrowing
things. We're not here to accumulate stuff. Christ is our Lord. Simon Peter got impatient. I'll
go earn a little money. And so they fished all night
long. Again, you know, good fishermen
fish at night. I've never done that. I'm scared
to. But good fishermen go out at
night, don't they, Thomas? They go out at night. They no
go out in the deep water, don't they? And they fish deep. Well,
they did. These are expert fishermen, experts. And they fished all night long,
fished deep. They caught nothing. How long does it take for us
to learn something? Our vocation as His disciples.
We're not of this world. How long? How long? How long
does it take us to realize that no matter how long we live in
this world of darkness, we're not going to accumulate anything? Well, verse 4, look at this. When the morning was come, the
morning came, oh my, and the Lord, the Son of Righteousness,
is standing on the shore. The sun arose indeed, and He's
standing on the shore. But the disciples knew not that
it was Him. They didn't know it was Him.
And He was preparing them breakfast. It's breakfast. As He often did. He often fed them, didn't He?
Often fed them. As He always provides for us
and everything on this earth. Psalm 104. That which thou givest
them they eat. You open your hand and they eat
from it. Everything. Every creature. And
our Lord has been there the whole time. There's a fire of coals. Now you don't get cold until
you've been there a while. He'd been there the whole time
watching over them. He never took his eyes off them.
They didn't see him, but he saw them. He never took his eyes
off them. He's been there all along watching
them. There's never a time He didn't
see them or took his eyes off of them. I love this Psalm 139. David said, Whither shall I flee
from thy presence? See, if I take the wings of the
morning or get in a ship or a boat and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea, there thy hand shall lead me and thy right hand shall
hold me. If I say, surely the darkness
will cover me and the night be light about me, no, the darkness
hideth not from thee. You possessed me from my reigns,
from my mother's womb. Oh, how precious are these thoughts
to me. So our Lord was there the whole
time, though they couldn't see Him, didn't know Him. He was
there. They knew it not. Now He was a hundred yards away,
two hundred cubic. And they didn't recognize Him.
They couldn't see clearly. But He saw them. And what did
He do? What did He do? And they went
off. They weren't waiting on Him.
What did He do? Called them. He keeps calling those He loves.
What did he call them? Look at verse 5. Then Jesus said
unto them, Children, except you receive the word of
God as a little child, you'll not see the kingdom of God. You
say, you're just a man. I know that. But I'm preaching the word of
God. Unless you receive this as a little child, You'll not
see the kingdom, you'll not enter the kingdom of God. Are you a
child of God? If you are, He'll call you and
keep calling you and keep calling you. How? What I'm doing right
now, right now. Children, children, I remember
when my mother, my mother fixed me breakfast every day. I know what modern diets are
all about and I, well nobody's working by the sweat of their
brow anymore. Years ago, you had to have breakfast. You couldn't
make it to lunch. And these men are going to go
to work. They've been working all night long. Tired, hungry. The Lord's fixing them breakfast.
Fish, bread, okay? Children! I remember when my
mother fixed, she fixed breakfast, lunch, and supper. Every day,
seven days a week, seven days a week. Does not our Lord provide
for us every single meal that we eat? I remember when she would
call us. Do you remember? Robbie, Danny,
Becky, come to breakfast. Inevitably, she'd say, where's
Paul? Where was Paul? Where was I when the Lord called
me? Where were you? In a pit. Now that could be a pit or the
gutter, literal gutter, or in a pew in religion. Whatever,
wherever it was, it's a pit. It's a slime pit. In this world,
caught up in this world, one way or another. Oh, thank God
he called children coming down. Coming to them. Children. And here's what he asked them.
Children, have you any meat? He didn't have to do that. He
could have spoken a still, small voice and they'd have heard him
a hundred yards away. Children, have you any meat? Meat. Meat means something that fills
you. It fills you. Something satisfying.
Meat. Something that died that you
might live. Meat. Meat. Children, have you
any meat? Any meat? And why didn't they
recognize his voice? Why didn't they recognize his
voice? They've been hearing that voice for three years. Why didn't
they recognize his voice? They were doing other things.
They were fishing. Mary recognized it immediately,
didn't she? Didn't she? Mary was seeking the Lord. Mary
was waiting on the Lord. Mary was right there and didn't
leave. And the Lord said one word, Mary. She said, Master. Why didn't
they recognize the Lord? They're fishing. You know, the
Lord speaks to us all the time. And we don't know it. We don't
recognize it. His word. I preach message after message
after message. Bible study after Bible study.
Do you hear His voice? Have you heard from Him? Every
time. What are we doing? Other things.
Our minds want other places. But whereas if we came hungry
and thirsty and really seeking the Lord, we'd hear His being.
He's speaking to me. And here's what he asked them.
Have you any meat? Do you have anything that fills
you? Do you have anything that satisfies
your hunger and your longing? Do you have any meat? And let
me ask everybody in here. Let me ask you. After a lifetime
of accumulating things and doing things and giving yourself to
things, do you have anything? Have you accumulated anything
that really gives you lasting satisfaction? When it's all over,
when we live 99 years like this woman down here, what do we have
when it's all over? Nothing. Nothing. If you don't have Christ, the
scripture says Christ is what? All. What's that mean? All means
all. Nothing means what? What does
nothing mean, Patrick? Louder. Nothing means nothing. Vanity of vanities. All flesh
is vanity. We work all our lives. We toil. We labor. We sweat. We accumulate. We bind. We sell. What do we
have when it's all over? Six feet in the ground. Nothing. We come from dust and
we're going back to dust. Now hold on. Christ calls you. And you've
got to be a nothing for him to call you. You know what he's
going to give you? Everything. Everything. The unsearchable riches of Christ.
Let me ask each one of you, okay? Let me ask you. Have you accomplished
anything in this life? Tell me what you've accomplished.
Somebody, anybody. What have you accomplished? I
could ask Hope, she's a school teacher, and these other women
have taught school. Do these children, do you really feel
like, you know, after all your education, after all these years
of teaching, these kids are really listening to you now? Oh my,
she can't wait till she quits. Have you accomplished anything?
Huh? No. Let your yay be no, yay and
nay be no. Let your words be few. Yay and
nay. Have you bettered yourself in this life after all these
years you've lived? Are you a better man than you
used to be? No! Do you now have great faith?
Surely, disciples, you ought to have great faith after all
the Lord's done for you. Surely. Do you have great faith?
Give me an answer. No! What about great knowledge and
wisdom? Surely you've accumulated some
knowledge and some wisdom, and you've put this knowledge to
work, and now you're not a fool anymore. What about you? You
got wisdom? No! Then come and die. These Gospels are those that
are a nothing and a nobody. Here should be our answer to
anybody that asks us anything about ourselves. We're to deny
ourselves. You come after Christ, you follow
Christ, you're to deny yourself, deny your wisdom, deny your knowledge,
deny your worth, deny your goodness, deny your works, deny that you're
nothing. Here should be our answer. Very
simple. God's in heaven. You're on the
earth. Let your words be few. Here it is. Here's all you need
to say. Christ is all and I'm nothing at all. That's it. Is that all you believe? That's
right. Well, what about Eschatop? Christ is all and I'm nothing
at all. What about Soterion? Christ is all and I'm nothing
at all. What about your superlapsar and the infralapsar? Christ is
all and nothing at all. John Luke. wrote amazing grace. John Newton, one of the greatest
preachers I've ever known. He's one of my favorites. Volume
after volume of his sermon. Brilliant man. Brilliant man.
Nothing like him, nothing better than him. Okay? When he died
as an old man, you know what his testimony was? This is it.
His dying word. He said, after all this lifetime,
I've realized now that I'm only a great sinner and Christ is
a great Savior. That's it. That's all you got
to say for yourself? Jurious. Who are you? What are you? Nothing. What have you accomplished? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Coming down. That's who this
is for. That's who this is for. Now look at this. Very briefly,
verse 6, he said, Cast the net on the right side of the ship,
you'll find. They did cast their four and were not able to draw
it for the multitude of the fish. You know the gospel is a net.
The gospel is a net. Our Lord said that. The parable
of the net. A net surrounds the fish, doesn't
it? A net apprehends the fish, doesn't
it? A net captures the fish. A net
makes fish captives. Okay? If it's a good net and
doesn't break, they can't get out. This is the gospel. This is the gospel. Our Lord
doesn't use bait. He uses a net. Okay? That apprehends, that surrounds
His people. Like Saul of Tarsus. Suddenly
a light shone round about him. Paul said, I've been apprehended.
Thank God the gospel's a net. Fishermen often I fish with a
lure, you know, a lure, and generally it's an artificial lure. It's
dead. That's religion in it, trying
to lure people with dead things, fleshly things, trying to lure
people. And some people swallow it, hook, line, and sinker. You've
got to be a fool. You fooled that fish. That's
not the way God does things. The gospel is the power of God.
He says to these disciples, you cast that net. You preach the
gospel. They didn't want to ask the fish,
please fish, get in the net, cast it. Aren't you glad, John,
the gospel is a command? Salvation is up to the Lord.
Those fish aren't going to jump in the boat. You can talk to
them all day, but they're not going to come to you. They're
fish. What's going to have to happen?
He's going to have to bleed captivity captive. That was me. The Gospels are there. And they're
cast. Oh, and they couldn't, it says
they couldn't draw them. There's so many. And when the
Gospels, the Gospels have been preached now for so long. A multitude
no man can number. But we're going to see the Lord
has them numbered. Look at verse 7. That disciple whom Jesus'
love saith unto Peter. It's the Lord. Now, brothers
and sisters, salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. Well, if you've been apprehended
of the Lord, if the Lord saved you, you know what you're going
to say? It's the Lord. You're not going to say, I got
saved. You're going to say, He saved me. I'm not playing on words here
or making a man an offender of the Word, but that's what you
save. Say if somebody came out and you were drowning and saved
you and risked their life to do it, that's what you're going
to save. That man saved me. Not me and him. If you've been apprehended by
him, you're going to say it's the Lord. If you see others apprehended
by him... And brethren, I've preached this
Gospel now for a long time. And I can't get anybody to come. If I could, I'd get every one
of you to come. I can't get one single person
to listen. I can't do it. I know who can,
and I've seen it happen. And when I see it happen, when
I see the Lord apprehend somebody, I say, it ain't me. It's the
Lord. So many times, You know, I prepare
a message. Nearly every time I prepare a
message with some particular person in mind, they don't show
up. All right, then I prepare a message. Somebody's there.
I think, well, she's going to need this, and I'm drawing these arrows,
and this will hit her. Pew, and she doesn't respond.
Pew, and she's not moving. Doesn't happen. Over here. Somebody moved. The arrow hit them. No flesh
was going to glory in His presence. It's the Lord. We fished all
night and caught nothing. He said, cast over here. They
caught cattle all over. It's the Lord. I tell you what,
when you see fish get in the net like they saw, like Simon
and Peter, you're going to say, it's the Lord. And when you see
men get in the water, you're going to say, it's the
Lord. It's the Lord. When you see fish
get in the boat and men get in the water, you're going to say,
it's the Lord. He did that. Simon heard, it's the Lord. Now the first time he knew it
was the Lord, he said, ìDepart from me.î The first time he heard
and saw that this is the Lord of glory, my Lord, my God, I
donít know Him, Iíve sinned against Him, Iíve lived my whole life
without giving Him a thought. And here he is right in front of
me. He hit his knee. He said, oh, get away from me,
Lord. Get away from me, Lord. Now in the end, three and a half
years later, oh, brother. Three years later, after hearing
his voice time and again, after Christ called him time and again,
after hearing him speak peace to Simon Peter time and again,
after promise after promise, after seeing his mercy and his
grace and his forgiveness, after pulling Peter out of the mire
of clay, out of the depth, after Peter denies him, he can't get
to Christ fast enough. He dives out of the ship. Before
he says, depart from me. And somebody said, it's the Lord.
He said, I've got to get to Him. That's how it is now with those
in spite of yourself, in spite of a whole lifetime of sin. Knowing yourself, knowing more
of yourself now than you did in the beginning. Peter didn't
think he'd deny the Lord. In fact, he said, I won't do
it. Everybody will. He did! In spite of his denial. He now knows the Lord will not
deny him. In spite of Peter running off
and all of them, he thought, He's not going to run away from
me. And if I come to Him, He'll receive me again. Do you understand? I've got to get to Him again,
knowing He's not going to turn Him away. Anybody? In spite of himself, in spite
of his sins, he can't get to Christ fast enough. He casts
himself into the sea. Cast yourself on the mercy of
the Lord. Is anybody hearing me? Cast all your care on Him. He's
caring for you. He's been caring for you from
the beginning. Oh, you didn't care for Him. He was caring for
you. If you find out who He is, come on now. Be like Simon Peter. You know what he's saying? Sink
or swim, I've got to go to Him. He was naked. He was naked. When you hear it's
the Lord, you know what you're going to find out? Just like
Adam and Eve. I'm naked. You're a religion
and you've got your fig leaves on. When you find out salvation
of the Lord, you're going to realize, these don't cover me.
I'm naked. What does he do? He girt himself with a fisher's
coat. Fisher's coat. You ever seen
fishermen, the coat they wear? I'm not talking about bass fishermen.
I'm talking about men been out in deep waters, been out there
for days. You better have a coat that's
going to keep the elements away from you. A fisher's coat. I started thinking, where'd they
get these coats? The Lord gave it to them. But this fisher's
coat was warm. Oh, it was weatherproof. Brothers
and sisters, there's only one covering that will do for a naked
sinner. Only one. Do you know what the dress code
of heaven is? Do you know what the garment
to get in the door is? Do you have one? Are you robed with
one? It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. These men were
fishers of men, and all of them were wearing that coat. All of
them were covered with the righteousness of Christ. Do you know what they
went out preaching? The righteousness of Christ. Didn't it? David was
covered with that righteousness. And you know what he said? I'll
speak, I'll make mention of thy righteousness and thine only.
A righteousness that Jesus Christ gave me. A righteousness that
Jesus Christ covered this prodigal son with. There is no other covering
for naked sinners. Well, when he came, they came.
Verse 8, the other disciples came to a little ship not far
from land, dragging the net with the fish. Verse 9, they came
to land. They saw a fire of coals there
and fish laid there on it and bread. A fire of coals and fish
and bread. Well, the disciples were cold.
They were tired. They were hungry. How does this world leave you?
You're out in the world. You're out there. You come in
here. How do you come in here? You
get cold out there? Well, I got something to warm
you. Fire of coals. You know, Isaiah
in chapter 6, he saw the Lord. You know what the angel did,
John? He took coal from the altar. Boy, he's going to preach now.
Fire of coals. They were cold. They were tired.
Anybody? Come unto me, Christ said, all
you that labor and everything. I'd love for a self-righteous
religious person to walk in here, tired of religion. Maybe a preacher
who's been trying to preach all his year, realizing he doesn't
even know the Lord. I'd love for somebody like that
to come in here and sit and hear the gospel, tired of religion,
tired of Tired of it all, and you know, I've got good news.
Christ said, come to me. I'll give you rest. Tired, they were tired, they
were hungry. I do preach to some hungry people, it's evident.
And you go away filled, and like those clean animals, I see you
chewing the cud when it's all over. I love it. They were cold
and He warmed them. They were hungry and He fed them.
That's because this is Jehovah-Jireh. This is the Lord who provides.
And He had all things ready. He said, Come and dine there
in verse 12. Come and dine. It's all ready.
Come. All things are ready. The Lord that provided all things
for them. The great provider. The great
giver. Where did He get this fish? Where
did He get this fish? Where did he get the bread? It's
a miracle, wasn't it? How did he get it? Where did
it come from? He spoke it. He spoke it into existence. Like
he did everything. A great provider. And it says
in verse 13 that he fed them. He served them. He was always
doing this, wasn't he? Still is. A great provider. A great giver. He's a great servant. of his people. What did he serve
them? The exact same thing he served
the multitudes. He fed them the same thing that
all the multitudes ate on a couple of different occasions. Fish
and bread. Fish and bread. Where did fish
come from? Where do fish come from? Out
of the depths. Out of the depths. It's been
apprehended. And a fish has to die for you
to eat its body. A fish dies that you may live. And somebody apprehended that
fish and killed that fish for you to eat its body. Are you
with me? Now what am I talking about right
now? What did Christ provide for his people? What did he come
here to feed his sheep with? He said, my meat, my body is
meat in the air. This is my body, which is both
of you. He gave his life. He died that
we might live. Where did he come from? Oh, the
depths. Oh, a mystery. Great is the mystery.
This mysterious food just appeared. So did Christ. Fish. Fish came out of a foreign place,
didn't it? Into dry land to provide them
life. That's Christ. Bread. Even bread. Christ said, I am
the bread of life. And then He had the coals. And
I was going to read Psalm 18, Leviticus 16 about the coals
from the altar of the high priesthood. But look at verse 10. I'm going
to close it. It says, He said to them, Bring the fish you have
caught. Who caught? Who caught this fish? Do you
reckon any of those men would say, we caught this fish? Do
you think that for a minute, Thomas? They've drugged these
fish. They've fished all night. They've fished all night. They
caught nothing. When the Lord said, cast over
here, he's the one that put the fish in those nets. And they
all came to land and said, every single one of these fish, the
Lord caught them. We can catch one of them. Catch one of them. But our Lord said, bring them,
bring them. And they numbered them 153, but
the net wasn't broken. In the beginning, when they caught
fish, the net broke. In the end, it wasn't broken.
It won't break. This gospel is still apprehended. Not great multitude. Here a little,
there a little. Well, this is a symbol, this
is a picture of how the Lord saves men and women by the preaching
of the gospel, okay? They're going to hear the gospel,
and that gospel is preached by a man. From henceforth, our Lord said,
I will make you fishers of men, okay? But no preacher has ever
saved one single human being. No preacher has ever caught one
single person, let him captive. Not one single person. Preaching
doesn't save. Preachers don't save. The Gospels
save. The Lords save. And he says,
all he says is cast the net. I'll put him in the net. Cast,
preach the Word. And those that don't preach the
Word as a net, those that try to use lures and baits and entice
people and all that, they don't know the Lord, and nobody is
ever saved by that man. Not one. Not one. But those who
just simply stand up and say, Thus saith the Lord, bow, believe,
repent, come to Christ, and they sit down like Simon Peter at
Pentecost, you watch the Lord fill that net. And no flesh or glory in His
presence. And it's 153. 153 exact numbers.
Why do they number them? Because the Lord has His people
numbered. Okay? He's caught, so far, 153
trillion. Heaven's going to be full of
very great sinners praising a great Savior. And he gets all the bill. Now verse 12, he said, Come and
dine. All things are ready. And none
of the disciples asked him, Who art thou? Why? They know. What do they know? First it said, It is the Lord.
It is the Lord. Salvation of the Lord. When it's
all over, you know what they said? It was the Lord. Are you with me? They said, it
is the Lord. And now when it's all over, it
was the Lord. It was all of the Lord. Our amazing
Lord. And this is the third time He
showed Himself. And you know, there's coming
a day very soon, very soon, and they got to shore is all over. There's coming a day very soon
when our Lord comes back for all His people, and every one
of us are going to say in the end, He was the Lord. He was the Lord. Amen? This morning, another sinner
has been apprehended by Christ by the gospel of death. like
most in here, like everyone in here that's truly been saved.
Brother Robert Montgomery back there is going to confess Christ
and believers baptism. And like so many, many in this
room, he was in religion, right? In religion. Like Saul of Tarsus,
he told me he's like Saul of Tarsus. He's very zealous, even
preached. Didn't know the true and living
God, the true Christ. It's like my father, my pastor.
Now you do, don't you? And he wants to confess. He's
coming to confess the true Christ, the true God, and identify with
his people. You know, baptism is not only
identification with the Lord and his death, burial, and resurrection.
It's not only confessing the Lord. that He's yours all in
salvation. You're crucified with Christ,
buried, your sins put away by Him. You want to rise to walk
in newness of life with Christ. Christ is your salvation. That's
what baptism is a picture of. You're confessing Him, not yourself,
Him. It's also an identification with
His people, all of whom are baptized. Every one of them. It's a command.
Every time I do this, and I got it from my father, he did it,
he says it this way, in obedience to the divine command of Christ
Jesus my Lord, and upon your profession of faith in him I
baptize you. It's a command that God gives
to everyone that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you
believe? Do you? Do you? Why not? What more can he say than he
said? Huh? Do you? Yeah, but. Hold on. Don't say but. Yes, I believe. Hold it right
there. Don't go any further than that. I believe. Okay. And what you're saying, what
he's saying, what we all say when we do this, we're saying
like Ruth. I may just preach on Ruth real
soon. Ruth said, your God is my God. This God that I've heard
you preach, that's my God. This Christ, that's my Christ. This gospel, that's my gospel. There was another one. Now this
is the gospel. These people are my people. And when I die, I want to die
the death of the righteous. I want to die in the faith. And that's what you're saying
when you confess Him and believe in Him.