John 21, I know this, that if
Christ died for you and reveals Himself to you, it's well with
your soul. If He hasn't, it's not. You girls
sing for us after a while and sing that song of Jesus doeth
all things well. Can you do that for us? Jesus
doeth all things well. John 21, read the first 14 verses. After these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on
this wise, or in this way, showed he himself. There were together
Simon Peter and Thomas, called Didymus, Nathanael of Cana in
Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them,
I go a fishing. They say unto him, we also go
with thee. They went forth and entered into
a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. But
when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore. But
the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto
them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he
said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship,
and ye shall find. They cast, therefore, and now
they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter,
It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that
it was the Lord, he girded his fisher's coat unto him, for he
was naked, and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples
came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as
it were two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fishes. And as soon
as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and
fish laid there on and bred. Jesus saith unto them, Bring
her the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and
drew the net to land full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty-three. And for all there were so many,
yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and
dine. And none of the disciples durst
ask him, Who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord? Jesus then
cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.
This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples
after that he was risen from the dead. And what's so wonderful about
it, they believe what they're saying. They know it. They've
experienced it. That's what's so blessed about
it. I want to bring a message out of John 21 here today, if
I can. And my subject's in the first
verse. After these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on
this wise, showed he himself. On this way, he showed himself. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ, after
his resurrection, he is on the earth for 40 days after his resurrection,
and no one could ever see him unless he revealed himself to
them out of that. And not only could they not see
him, But the only people He revealed Himself to after His resurrection
was His own disciples, His own people. And that's the way it
is today. He sets in glory and He has all
power and authority and the only people He reveals Himself to
and shows Himself to is His people. He don't show Himself to nobody
else. And the only way even they could see Him, they did not recognize
Him. At times they were there, even
this day when He was on the shore, And He spoke to His children
out on that boat. They didn't know who He was.
They did not know who He was. And there's times that He appeared
to them and they did not know who He was until He would speak
or He would show Himself to them and make Himself known to them.
And none but disciples ever saw Him in His resurrection body.
And look down in verse 14. It says this is now the third
time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he
was risen from the dead. Now I want you to look over here
in John 20 and look with me down in verse 11. Here's a perfect
illustration of what I want to talk about today if God would
enable me. Mary is at the tomb. She went to where the Lord Jesus
Christ was buried in a rich man's tomb. Didn't even have a grave
of his own. But Mary stood without at the sepulcher, at the grave,
and she stood there weeping. How many people have went to
someone's grave and stood there and wept? And as she wept, and
when she's just talking about weeping, she's profusely weeping. The tears are flowing. She's
hurting in her soul. She stooped down and looked into
the sepulcher. And seeth two angels in white
sitting, the one at the head, another at the feet. Now listen
to what it says here, where the body of Jesus had lain, where
it had lain. And they say unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because
they have taken away my Lord. My Lord's not here. My Lord,
my Master, my Savior is not here. And I know not where they've
laid Him. They've moved Him. They took Him someplace else,
is what she's thinking. And when she had thus said, she
turned herself back, and evidently getting ready to turn around
and leave, and Jesus standing, saw Jesus standing, and listened
to this, and knew not that it was Jesus. Knew not that it was
Jesus. How many times have we preached
the Lord Jesus Christ, and people say, I don't know what you're
talking about. He don't mean anything to me.
But she knew not that it was Jesus. Now listen to what happens
here. Oh my! Jesus saith unto her,
Woman, why weepest thou? Why do you cry so? Who are you
looking for? She supposing him to be the gardener,
one tending the garden of Gethsemane, the garden there where he was
buried, saith unto him, Sir, if you have borne him hence,
took him from some place else, tell me where you've laid him,
and I will take him away. Now watch what happens. Jesus
saith unto her, Mary. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. I know My sheep, and My sheep
know Me. I call them by name, and they
hear My voice. And she turned herself and saith
unto Him, O Master, Master, O My Master, My Master. You see, that's
what I'm saying. Unless the Lord Jesus Christ
shows Himself, there was a way when He showed Himself in this
way that she could see. And this is what's happened in
this verses I read to you. But like
the two disciples on the Emmaus road talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the Lord Jesus walked up beside them and walked along
with them. And Christ began to ask them what they was talking
about and what they was so worried about. And as they were talking,
our Lord Jesus began to open the scriptures and teach them
from the Scriptures things concerning Himself. And all the time they
walked with Him, they didn't know it was the Lord Jesus Christ. That took seven miles from the
time they left Jerusalem to go to Emmaus, on Emmaus Road, to
go where they lived. Seven miles. And our Lord Jesus
walked with them, and they did not have a clue, did not know
that it was the Lord Jesus Christ. And then when they got home,
the Lord Jesus Christ went in to have dinner with them, have
supper with them. They broke bread, and our Lord Jesus blessed
the bread, and then He left. And then they knew that it was
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they said, did not our hearts
burn within us while we was on the way? So you see, Christ can
only be known even by his disciples and only to his disciples after
he revealed himself to them. And many, many saw our Lord's
words and heard our Lord and heard his words while he was
on the earth. They saw His miracles, even men who saw Him raise the
dead, saw Him raise Lazarus from the dead, the widow's son from
the dead, and seen Him there and standing there, yet saw all
the miracles that He did, yet they didn't believe on Him, yet
they didn't trust Him. And now, if any man sees Him,
any man sees Him, me, you, or anybody else, The Holy Spirit
has to reveal Him to them, and He only reveals Himself to believers. Would you see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ? How are you going to see it?
You believe, and then you see. You don't see and then believe.
You believe, and that's when you see. Our Lord Jesus, as many
said, as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to
become the sons of God, which were born, not of blood, not
from generation to generation, not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man, but were born of God. There's nothing
a man can do. This is, we're shut up to what
Christ said. And then it says on this wise
in verse one, He showed Himself. He showed Himself. Revealed Himself. And look at the time it was.
I've preached on this many times over the years. Look at the time
it was. It was after a night of failure.
Look what it says in verse 3. Simon Peter saith unto them,
I go a fishing. I'm going to go fishing. And
when Simon talks about going back fishing, it's not like you
fellas get in your boat and say, well, let's go fishing today.
This is how these men made their living. This is what they were
doing, making their living before Christ revealed Himself to them
and told them they would become fishers of men. And this is all
that they'd ever known. It would be like me saying, well,
I'm going to quit preaching and I'm going to go back doing something
else. And that's what these fellas are doing. You know, the Lord
Jesus Christ, as far as they was concerned, He was gone. Though it said seen him a couple
of times, yet they didn't understand what was going on. And so they
went back fishing. They went back fishing. And I
tell you, you know how many of the fellas, it says there, and
look what it said, many of them said, they said unto him, we
also go with him. You know how many people, disciples
went with him? Seven. Seven of them went with
him. He didn't, you know, when a man
does something wrong and does something that's not right, he
can't do it by himself, he's got to take somebody else with
him. And he said, I'm going to go fishing, but I'm going to
go make some money. I've got to go back to making a living.
I've got to go back to doing what only thing I know to do.
So he said, I'm going to go back fishing. Seven other fellows
said, well, we'll just go with you, Peter. We've got to make
a living too. And that's about what it amounts to. And this
is not like you and me going fishing. He's going back to his
old ways. He's going back to his old ways.
He's not living by faith. And but Peter, Peter always,
always takes over the lead, always takes the lead, ever true to
his nature. And then the scripture says,
look what it says. They went forth and entered into
a ship immediately. I mean, they didn't talk about
it. They said, well, we're going to go fishing. And they got up
and went. I mean, they got busy at it.
They got going after it. They said they went immediately.
Our Lord had called them away from their nets. The Lord had
called them away from their work and told them they'd be fishers
of men. But they gave in. They gave back
to the reasoning of their fallen nature. And all those other disciples
say, we'll also go with you. And they went that night and
they fished all night long. All night. I mean, they started
before dark and it got daylight. Daylight come. Sun was coming
up. And they labored and labored
in the dark. And that's what men do. When
you go reigning to your own carnal nature and your own carnal reasoning
and lead to your own understanding, you're laboring in the dark.
You're laboring in the dark. And our Lord Jesus Christ didn't
appear to them during the night. No, no. No, no. He left them
to the cells. left him to the cells, left him
to what would the results of their flesh, the results of their
decision, the results of their carnal reasoning, the results
of going back to their old ways. And he left them to their cells
and what in the world did they accomplish? What did they accomplish? They caught nothing. They caught
nothing. And they had to hear by experience
what our Lord said unto them. And we have to learn this by
experience. He says, without Me, you can
do nothing. He didn't say, without Me, you
can do a few things. Without Me, you can do a thing
or two. without me you can try to do
and he says without me you can't do nothing you can't believe
you can't repent you can't come to him you can't pray you can't
do anything acceptable to God without him without me you can
absolutely do nothing nothing and you know what nothing is
anybody here know what nothing is Oh, Scott said it's a hole in
a donut. Oh my, without all, and listen,
without Him, without Christ, without our blessed Lord Jesus
Christ, everything is a failure. My life without Christ is a failure. And it's bound to fail. Everything
that anybody does without Christ is a failure and it's bound to
fail. It's already failed. And this
is the way I feel. I hope you feel this way. I don't
want to live one moment in this world without Christ. Not one
moment. I don't want to lay down at night
and not know that if I don't wake up in the morning that I
won't be with Christ. I don't want to live a blink
of an eye in this world without Christ. I don't want to live
without him. Do you? Not one moment. And oh,
how many, how many, how many who think their life has been
a success. They've been so successful, live
in the best of homes, drive big fancy foreign automobiles. and got all kinds of things and
money in the bank and got the best of everything. Life is so
successful and people look at them and say, boy, that fella
and that woman, oh my goodness, they've got everything. And life is success, but when
they face God on that day, they'll find out that everything they
thought was success was nothing but a failure. What are they
going to say when they face God? All that money will be like toilet
paper. Them big, fancy, wealthy, expensive
automobiles, they are going to sit there and the wheels are
going to rot off on them. Oh my. And I tell you, life without
Christ, I don't care how successful you get in this world and how
much money you got and how much traveling you do and how much
you accomplish in this world. Without Christ, you're gonna
find out that it did not amount to zero. It'll be like these
disciples fishing all night. It'll amount to nothing. And
we can't, we can't make men understand that. We cannot make men understand
that. But I'll tell you who can. I'll
tell you who can make them understand it. Look down verse four. But
they entered into that ship that night and they caught nothing.
But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore,
but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. When labor and
everything was a failure, when they caught nothing, When everybody
said Simon Peter, when old Simon said, I'm going to go fishing.
I don't care what you fellas doing. I got to go back. I got
to make a living. I ain't going to be preaching
anymore. I've done failed enough. And I'm going to go, I'm going
to go back to what I did. And when they followed old impulsive
and petulant Simon Peter, it says the morning was now come.
Let me show you a verse of scripture. Hold on to that. Psalm 30 in
verse 5. Look in Psalm 30 in verse 5. I bet some of you all know exactly
this verse. Psalm 30 in verse 5. Look what
it says here. What our Master said. Oh my! The morning was now come, and
Jesus stood on the shore. Psalm 30 in verse 5. For His
anger endureth but a moment. In his favor, or in his grace,
is life. Weeping may endure for a night,
but now listen to it, but joy, joy cometh in the morning. Back over here at John 21. Oh
my, our Lord Jesus was standing there, stood on the shore. But the disciples knew him not,
that it was Jesus. What a sad, sad state of heart
not to recognize their master, not to recognize the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, I said, I think I said
this the other day, How many of y'all, when you close your
eyes, do you have a picture of Jesus in a physical body? I don't. I haven't for years. But I tell
you what, I know the Lord Jesus Christ. I know when He's present. I know when He's here. How do
I know that He's here? Well, by what He says. by His
Holy Spirit, by what He speaks to my heart, to what He says
to my mind. I don't see a physical person,
I don't know how tall he was, I don't know how much he weighed,
I don't know what color his hair was other than what the Song
of Solomon said, that his hair was bushy and black, other than
that. But I tell you what I do know
about him, I know he's full of grace, and I know he's full of
truth, I know that having loved His own, He loved them to the
end. I know that when He found them weeping, He would always
come to them and ask them what their problem was. And I know
when He saw Mary and Martha standing there weeping, I know He wept
with them. And I know our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He wants to save one of His elect, He goes to where they
are, and He calls them by name. And I know this, beloved, that
I know that if a man ever knows Christ, God the Father has to
reveal Him to him. He said, who you say I am? Well, you're Jeremiah, one of
the other prophets. But who do you say that I am?
Well, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. We're
sure of that. We're sure of it. And I tell
you, just like this morning, the Lord Jesus Christ is here.
He said, wherever two or three are gathered in my name, thou
I am in the midst. And our Lord's here, and there's
no physical presence. And our Lord's here in physical
presence, and they still didn't know who He was. And here's the
sad thing about it. If the Lord Jesus Christ was
to come to this earth now in a body like this right here,
and come in here and sit in this service today, Unless He made
Himself known, we'd never know He is here. That's the truth. We wouldn't know it. In fact,
that's why they don't know Him. Look over here in John 20, in
verse 19. Oh, what a sad state of affairs
for these men. But oh, look what it says. John
27, 19. The same day at evening, being
the first day of the week, the day that He was raised from the
dead, the first day of his resurrection, when the doors were shut, where
the disciples were assembled, and listen to this, for fear
of the Jews, afraid of the Jews, afraid the Jews going to do something
against them. Jesus, came Jesus and stood in
the midst and saith unto them, Peace be unto thee. And when
he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side,
Then were the disciples glad when they saw Jesus. And so,
see, they didn't know who he was. They're just all standing
there for fear. And all of a sudden, he stood in the midst of them.
Stood in the midst of them. But look what it says back over
here again in chapter 21, verse 4. But, I love big doors swing
on such little bitty hinges. But, when we have failed miserably. What? But, when we labor in the
dark. When everything's dark. And that
darkness has been going on for a long, long time, and we labor
and we labor and we labor. When our Lord Jesus Christ comes,
He brings the mourning with Him. He brings the mourning with Him.
He brings the joy with Him. He brings the peace with Him.
Now look what He does. And like you know Mary, when
her heart was immersed in sorrow, when she was occupied with death,
she didn't recognize the Savior. These men returned to their worldly
ways and their worldly calling, occupied with their bodily needs
and didn't recognize the Savior. But on this wise, in this way
He showed Himself. Our Lord Jesus has a way of showing
forth Himself and revealing His doctrine at the same time. When
it says there in verse 1, he on this wise showed he himself,
on this wise. And the first thing he does to
them, look what he says in verse 5. First thing he does to them,
he asks them a question. Then Jesus saith unto them, they're
close enough that they can converse, they're talking. Children, John
says, this same John who wrote this epistle here. In his epistles,
in the first five chapters of John, he uses that word, little
children, seven times. Perfection. Seven times he calls
those disciples little children. And here he says, children, Christ
says, children, have you any meat? And what do they say? No. And oh, listen, you know
why our Lord leads us to do this? They said, he said, no, we haven't,
we haven't caught anything. No, we haven't got anything.
We ain't got nothing to eat. We've labored all night. We ain't
got anything. We've taken nothing. We failed. He knew they had taken
nothing. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
do you think he, you think he was surprised because these fellas,
you know, no, no, he's there to show them. Their failure show
them that they can't do nothing without him. It's like when he
said, Adam, where art thou? Our Lord doesn't ask questions
for information. He asks questions to reveal ourselves
to ourselves. Adam, where are you? And Adam
had to say, I'm afraid and I'm naked. And he says to the disciples,
have you taken anything? He wants to show them the revelation
of their selves and what they do without Him, that there's
nothing that can be done. He reveals things to our hearts.
And there was no use to them pretending that they had something. There's no use to say, well,
We just come close to catching a few. There's no use pretending
they had taken something. No. And I tell you, this is a
great lesson for us. Beware of misrepresentation and
beware of exaggeration. People say, well, they tell a
little white lie. There's no such thing. There's no such thing. How can a lie be white? A lie
is a lie is a lie. If you caught a nine-inch fish,
don't make it 19. Don't even make it nine and a
half. That's why he says, beware of exaggeration and misrepresentation. I remember one time he was in
my house, and I'd been dehorning some calves. And one of them
calves, I mean, blood just went everywhere. Just squirt, squirt,
squirt, squirt, squirt. And I was telling Henry about
it. I said, Henry, that blood squirted, you wouldn't believe
that. It just went way over yonder like that. Henry said, Donnie
Bell, that blood wouldn't squirt that far. And I said, well, it
went a long way. And then I had some pear trees
in the backyard. And I said, Henry, we had pears
that big. He said, how big? How big? I said, about that big.
He said, boy, I'd like to have one that big. You know. So beware of exaggeration. Beware
of exaggeration. And that's what our Lord is teaching
us here. And here's a little picture for us. The disciples
out there in the sea, they picture us out here in the world. We're
in this world. We're on the sea of life. And
we're laboring and we're moving about and we're doing things.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, there He is on the shore. But as we're
here in this world, our Lord Jesus Christ is in glory now. And yet, blessed be His name,
He speaks to us from that far, far shore while we're on this
old sea of life. And I tell you what, how many
nights have we spent and spun our wheels and said it didn't
amount to nothing, didn't amount to nothing, huh? And then look
what our Lord Jesus done to them. He tried their faith. He said
in verse six, and he said unto them, now he's talking to them
now. They still don't know who he
is. Cast the net on the right side of the ship and you shall
find. Oh my, ain't this the sovereign
of the seas? Oh wondrous sovereign of the
sea. Oh my, still them waves. When I'm near that fearful shore,
when before me the breakers roar, oh Lord Jesus, pilot me. Jesus,
Savior, pilot me. And oh, listen. And they said,
cast your net on the right side of the ship and you shall find.
And they cast, therefore, and now, now, after Christ told them,
now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fish.
Isn't this the God-man? Isn't this the one who knows
all? He knew Peter. He knew all these disciples.
He knew John. Sees all. He sees everything
that we do. Sees everything that we think.
Does everything. He watched it. You know, he knew
those fellows going fishing. He knew what was going to happen.
Is this not the one who has all power? And he said, now cast
your net. He didn't say cast it to the
front. Cast it to the back. Just cast it over the side. No,
no. He said, you're in a ship. You cast that net on the right
side. And wherever Christ tells us
to do, it's always right. He said on the right side, whatever
he tells us to do in his word, it's always right. And that's
why I say, He can't tell us to do anything wrong. And He said,
cast on the right side and you shall find. And this is the only
miracle revealed and recorded after our Lord's resurrection
when they caught all these fish. These men had fished all their
lives, toiled all night, caught nothing, but they heard the voice
of certainty. They heard the voice of authority.
They heard the voice of power. And they didn't know who it was,
but they did what he told them to. He said, they didn't know
who he was. He said, cast your net on the rice, and they did.
And then look what happens. They cast therefore. And now,
That boat was empty. Every net they had was empty.
And now the net was so full, they were not able to draw it
for the multitude of fishes. They pull on it and pull on it
and they can't get it up. They can't get it on the boat.
They can't get it on the boat. And this shows you that our Lord,
He's the only one who can bring something out of nothing. The
only one that can. The only one that can. And they
cast and they were not able. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
restored that which He didn't take away. He didn't take away
our righteousness, but He restored it. We were disobedient, but
by His obedience we were made righteous. And look what He said.
I want you to look in Ephesians 3.20. Excuse me, I'm going the
wrong way. Ephesians 3.20, over to your
right. And look in Ephesians 3.20. Look
what our Master says over here, what our Lord says in His Word.
Ephesians 3 20 you know he created the world out of absolutely nothing
there was nothing there and he created a world out of nothing
nothing but chaos and void and here he takes me and who did
nothing and brings good out of it bring something out of it
bring something out and we are people that absolutely have nothing
nothing nothing we have no righteousness naturally We have no hope, naturally. All we have that belongs to us,
that's natural, is our sin. And the only way that that sin
can be taken care of is for Christ to put it away. For Christ, by
His obedience, many were made sinners, but by His obedience,
many are made righteous. And beloved, we are like these
disciples. We absolutely amount to zero. I've used this illustration before.
I'm going to do it with my finger. One, two, three. How much is that worth? One,
two, three. There are six zeros now. What's
that worth? Zero, zero, zero. Nine now. What's it worth? Nothing. But
you put a one in front of it. What's it worth then? And that's
what we are. We're just nothing but a bunch
of zeros until Christ. Christ is the only one that makes
us worth anything. And blessed be His holy name.
Blessed be His holy name. And you know this is one of the
things He reveals to us. Just like He reveals to these
disciples. What did you get? Nothing. What do you amount to?
Nothing without you. Nothing without you. Alright,
Ephesians 3.20. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask. Boy, we can
ask for some big, big things. Or think, oh my goodness, all
the things that we could think that we want. And oh, now unto
him that's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think. Exceedingly abundant. and anything
we could ask or anything we could think according to the power
that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church
by Jesus Christ world without end. Now let's go back over again
look in this in this verse here. Let's go back over and look at
this. And he brings something out of nothing they obey these
words And the result is, and oh my, they were not able to
draw it to the land for the multitude of fishes. Then in verse 7, now
look what happens. Therefore that disciple whom
Jesus loved saith unto Peter, he looked over at Peter and said,
Peter, I know who that is. I know who that is. I know who that is now. I know
who that is. It is the Lord. Oh, it's the
Lord. It's the Lord. And oh my, how
did they recognize Him? By what He did. By what He did. By performing a miracle for them.
By doing something for them that they could not do for themselves.
This could only be our Lord who would do this. This is the only,
this only our Lord could take our failure and turn it absolutely
around. And it's only our Lord who can
take the weak to confound the mighty. It's only our Lord who
can take the foolish to confound the wise. It's the Lord. It's
the Lord. And how many times have we said,
Lord? Oh Lord, it's You. It's You I
trust. It's You I believe. It's You I need. It's You I trust. It's You I need. It's You that
makes me understand. Without You I can do nothing.
It's You that makes me understand that everything I do is in darkness
until You bring light to my mind, to my understanding. Only You
can do that. And when we have failed miserably,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in this wise, showed Himself. And sinner,
let me tell you, let me tell you, those that don't know Christ,
this is just like our Master. This is just like our Master.
And what I'm telling you is quit laboring for nothing. Don't quit,
just quit laboring for nothing. Believe. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Believe His Word. Look what it
said here in John 20 and verse 30. And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written
in this book. Talking about the Bible. Talking
about John. Talking about the Word. But these
are written. These are written. That you might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that believing
you might have life. How? Through His name. His name
is life. His name is Himself. And oh listen,
John back over here in John 21 and 7. John recognized Him. John was the first one to recognize
Him. Because He was that disciple
whom Jesus loved. That disciple who leaned on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And look what Simon Peter does.
Look what Simon Peter does. Now when Simon Peter heard that
it was the Lord. Who told him it was the Lord?
John did. And I'm telling you it's the Lord. And Simon Peter
heard that it was the Lord, he girded his fish's coat, unto
him, for he was out there fishing naked. And what did he do? He
forgot about fish. He forgot about fishing. He forgot
about everything he was doing. He had one purpose after this,
after Christ. He knew that it was the Lord.
I've got to get to my Master. I've got to get to Christ. And
he jumped in the sea. He jumped in. He couldn't wait
until the boat got to shore. He said, I've got to get to Christ.
And he jumped in the sea. He went a fish and he left the
fish to get to the Lord whom he loved just like a Samaritan
woman She left her water pot and said come see a man that
told me all that ever I did There's no reserve in old Simon Peter
and look what else our Lord Jesus Christ does Oh how he reveals
himself how he makes himself to be known And the other disciples came
in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it
were, 200 cubits, dragging the net with fishes. And as soon
then as they came to land, they saw a fire and coals there on
and fish laid there on to them and bread. Oh my. Now here they
are, they get to land. They didn't even have to build
a fire. They didn't have no bread. It says they had nothing. He
said, Have you got any meat? And they said, No. Have you any
meat? No. Got anything meat? No. Caught anything? No. And then
they get there. Where in the world did this fire
and fish and bread come from? You know, this is the same thing
that our Lord fed the multitude two times. Two times He fed over
5,000 people and made them all sit down in company. and took
two fish and five loaves of bread and fed them all. Another time
he took seven fishes and two loaves of bread and fed over
4,000. So all bread and fish, and they
had a fire there. Now listen, anybody that can
create a world by His Word and uphold it by the same Word, it
ain't no problem for Him to build a fire. Ain't no problem for
him. And to provide fish. You remember that time? Our Lord
Jesus Christ, He said, who pays the taxes? He said, the children
or strangers? He said, well, the strangers
do. He said, lest we offend them. He said, Peter, go down there
and catch a fish. And the first one you catch, bring the money
here. He went and caught a fish, and it had the money in the mouth
of it. To do what? He said, we're strangers
here. We're not of this world. We're
strangers here. And he paid taxes, because he
is a stranger here. And all this, and it wasn't a
great fish, a great feast, but it was sufficient. He knew they
were hungry, knew they were cold, and blessed be his name. He's
the shepherd of the sheep. He's the shepherd of the sheep.
And you know what he says, the shepherd says about the sheep?
They shall not want. When they're hungry, he's gonna
feed them. When they're thirsty, he's gonna give them something
to drink. When they're cold, He gonna warm them up. He gonna
warm them up, huh? And oh, listen, then He has fellowship
with them. He says there in verse 12, bring
of the fish, now verse 10, bring of the fish which you've now
caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of
great fishes, 153 of them, big fish. And for all that there
were so many, yet the knot was, The net was not broken, but look
what our Lord does. He has fellowship with them,
communion with them. And he said unto them, come and
dine. We sang that old song, come and
dine. Come and dine. Come and eat. Come and eat with
me. That's what he's saying. Come and eat with me. And none
of the disciples dare not ask him, who art thou? They didn't
ask him. They didn't have to ask him.
We don't have to ask who he is. We know who he is. knowing that
it was the Lord. Oh my! And look what it says
next. He takes the bread. He takes
the bread. He don't say, fellas get you
a piece of bread here. He takes the bread and He gives
it to them. And He's the bread of life and
He takes the bread and gives it to us. He don't say get all
you can. You get it yourself. You help
yourself. No, no. He took the bread and
gave it to them. And then He took fish and gave
the fish to them. He does everything for us. He
takes, He gives, and this shows you that everything we have,
He has to give to us. If we eat, He has to feed us.
And they didn't ask, who are you? Knowing it was the Lord.
Who else could be this, act this way? Who else would act this
way? Who else could fill up our nets and care for us, our hunger? And our Lord Jesus Christ has
a way of giving, a way of giving that makes Himself known. The
law demands, but grace gives. Christ gave Himself. He giveth
them. And then look down here with
me at verse 20. I want to show you something
about another thing that we need to learn. So they are with the
Lord Jesus Christ. And look what happens. Then Peter,
turning about, seeth disciples, seeth the disciple whom Jesus
loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper, and
said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? You know, he's following the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter John said, you ask
the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask him. John asked the Lord
Jesus Christ, Lord, which one was it that betrayed you? They
still don't know which one betrayed him. They're out there fishing,
and as far as they're concerned, one of them may have betrayed
him. They didn't know who it was that betrayed him. John says
to him, Lord, which is that he that betrayeth him? And then
Peter, he see, piped in and he says this, seeing him sayeth
to Jesus, said, Lord, and what shall this man do? What's going
to happen to this man? Who betrayed you? And what's
going to happen to him? And listen to what our Master
said. Jesus saith unto him, If I will, if it be my will, that
he tarry, and live on this earth till I come, what's that to you? What's that to you? What business
of it is yours? What business of it is yours
what I do with somebody else? Look what he says, follow me. Oh, they've already forgot what
a sad state they were in, how they went back fishing and now
worried about what the Lord's going to do with somebody else.
He said, if I will, if I will, follow me. Don't follow Peter,
don't follow John. Look what happened when you did.
You went out and labored all night and didn't catch anything,
didn't catch anything. And oh my, may our Lord Jesus
Christ show Himself to somebody here by His grace and for His
glory. Our Savior, our blessed, blessed
Redeemer, Thank you for the day. Thank you for the gospel. Thank
you for the truth as it is in Christ our Lord. I pray that
the Holy Spirit would take the things of Christ, reveal them,
make them alive, make them effectual, for he's the only one who can.
Lord, I know that some just heard my voice, but I pray they heard
your voice. I pray they heard your voice.
I pray they heard you speak to them. Speak to them. We ask these
things and bless you in Christ's holy name. Amen. Amen.