I thank you again for all that
you've done to make this meeting what it is. Like Brother Clay
said, everything went small and easy and the food and everything. Thank you for it so much and
your generosity. You heard about the church at
Pikeville. You may not know those people.
You may not know Brother Tom Harding and his wife, those people. But we know them, have known
them 30 or more years. They're our brothers and sisters,
a dear church. And it's easy, you know, you
heard about that it's flooded. It's easy when you're on the
outside looking in at trials, things like this, and say, well,
the Lord's sovereign, and it's all going to turn out well. But
when you go, when you're in the middle of it, like they are right
now, It's devastating. A trial wouldn't
be a trial if it's not fiery, trouble, deep waters. And literally now, for them,
I was there. I went there. Some of us men went there when
it was flooded some time back. And I've never seen anything
like that. They've lost everything. Everything. They had it all piled up in a
pile 50 feet high. All of their earthly belongings,
all the church furniture, everything piled up in one big muddy pile
to be hauled away on the track. And the men that were with me,
we wept. And now it's happened again. And if you're in the middle of
it like they are, Brother Tom told me the first time he said
he walked out and saw that water and just fell to his knees, literally
fell to his knees. You can't imagine unless you
go through it. He asked, why? You can't help,
you're human, why? You know the Lord did it, you
know He did it. He asked, why? And you just don't
know why. Immediately. You don't know the
reason. Immediately. You do know it's going to turn
that way. You do know that. But while you're in it, like
Job. Aren't you thankful the Lord
wrote the book of Job? And Job literally lost not only
all his possessions, but all his family, every one of them. And what do you do at a time
like that? Brother Don talked about it yesterday,
that the darkness and the deep troubles and how that you get
down so low you can't get any further down. What do you do? All you can do is look up. When you've lost all, all you can do is hope in the Lord
and trust in the Lord. That's the only time, as he said,
that we'll really trust Him. Like Job, all he could do was
worship the Lord. That's all he could do. All he
could do, all he could say, all that was left to say after all
was lost, was say, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And he worshipped. And I do hope you'll continue
to remember those people. If it was you, if all you owned
and had was gone, That's a different story. I hope
you'll remember those people always. Not forget them. So what are we going to do this
morning? The same thing we've been doing. We're just going
to preach the gospel. Okay? Because this is our only
hope. Our only hope. Christ. Luke chapter
5. Gospel of Luke chapter 5. I'm going to tell you a fishing
story, but this one's true. It's the story of some fishermen
who went out to catch fish and ended up being caught themselves
by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Master Fisher of Men. These verses
came to mind, Brother Greg Elmquist. quite a fisherman and I loved
to fish also. We were down there fishing together
in Florida and these verses came to mind. This is the gospel here. This is the story of salvation
of all of God's elect, how that He apprehends us, how He puts
men and women in his gospel net by the word of his power and
saves them and keeps them. This story from beginning to
end, the gospel story, our story, the book of life, is how the
Lord finds these men, finds his people, where he puts them, reveals
himself to them, overpowers them, draws them, to himself and then
all their lives leads, guides, protects, provides and proves himself to them until
in the end they know and are sure who he is and what he has
done and they are brought like these fish in this net finally
to dry land. Firmly standing on Christ the
Rock. This is my story. Alright, the
Lord comes and finds these disciples. They didn't find him, he found
them. Look at verses 1 through 3 of
Luke chapter 5. It came to pass that as the people
pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he, the Lord Jesus
Christ, stood by the lake of Gennesaret, or Galilee. He saw
two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out
of them. They were washing their nets.
And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, Simon
Peter, and prayed him, or that is, told him that he would thrust
out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the
people out of the ship. Now, how vast was this lake,
this sea, called the Sea of Galilee. It was saltwater. Well, it was
over a hundred square miles, not large by some standards of
sea, but it was big enough. It was fairly large, and yet
the Lord came to this point, this place, at the Sea of Galilee,
at Gennesaret. How many ships were there? Have
you ever been to a fishing port? over there in the Middle East
or anywhere where fishing is a way of life. There are hundreds
of ships, boats out there in the water aren't there? Hundreds.
And as many or more fishermen also. But the Lord chose one
ship. This ship. This boat. This particular
one. These two men, Simon and his
brother Andrew. The Lord found them. The Lord
came to these particular men. The scripture over and over again
tells stories like this. A certain man or a certain woman,
meaning these were the ones whom God had most certainly chose
and would certainly say He came to them. and chose them and found
them. They didn't find him. They weren't
even looking for him. Peter or Simon and Andrew weren't
even looking for the Lord. They may have heard about him,
but they weren't seeking him at this time. They were fishing,
washing their nets anyway. The Lord came and found them,
and he ended up saving them. And later on, he reminded them. They were constantly reminded,
as we heard last night, you didn't choose me. I chose you. Remember
that. This thing of election, we always
seem to bring it up, don't we? Why? Because that's where it
all started. That's where this whole thing
of salvation started. God, before the foundation of
the world, chose a people in Christ. And this thing of election,
who believes election? Who believes election? The elect
do. Who loves the fact, the wonder,
the marvel, the glory, the good news that God chose a people?
Who loves God's sovereign election of a people? Well, the elect
do, don't they? They all know that had not God
chosen them, they would not have chosen them. Right? They all know that. To a man.
To a person. They all know that without exception.
Spurgeon said this, he said, I know that the Lord chose me
because I wouldn't have chosen him. I knew that. I know that.
And he says, I know he had to have done it before the world
began, before I was born, he said, because if he had waited
until after I was born, then I know he wouldn't have chosen
me. Someone argued with Brother Spurgeon
one time. He said, you believe that God
has an elect, don't you? And only the elect will be saved.
He said, well, that's what the scripture teaches. Yes, I believe. And the man said, well, if you
believe that, why don't you just preach to the elect? Why preach
to everybody like you do? Why don't you just preach to
the elect? Spurgeon said, I would if I had an E on them. I would. I wouldn't bother preaching to
anybody if they had an E on them. He said, they don't. I don't
know who they are. So I preach to everyone, like
our Lord said. But the fact of the matter is,
folks, they do have an A on. God sees it. What that is, is
the blood of Christ on them. That's what it is. That's the
mark in the forehead of God's people, isn't it, Brother Joe?
That's the mark between the eyes, in the forehead of Christ's people. Put my law on their mind and
in their heart, and the blood of Christ upon them. Salvation's
of the Lord. Salvation of the Lord. You know,
you've been hearing this from the outset. You hear it from
your pastor Sunday after Sunday. And we only have one message. We really do. This is man's only
hope. This is God's glory. We have
one message. Kind of like that bass fiddle
player. Brother John, his real instrument,
not that he doesn't play that way. But the one that he really
loves to play and plays is the bass fiddle. And that fella was
joined in this little band of fellas who were playing a little
bluegrass music. And they said, can you play the
bass? Sure can. So they started playing, and
he played one string. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And they stopped
and went, hold a minute. Hold a moment. They said, is
that all you know? Is that one note? He said, well,
he said, you fellas are running up and down that neck trying
to find this note. He said, I found it. And, you know, people got all
kinds of so-called messages from the Lord and all that. Brother
Joe said this from the very outset, the very first message. God has
one thing to say to mankind, and that is Jesus Christ. He
said, this is my beloved son. If you're gonna hear from me,
you gotta hear of him, through him, to him, to his glory, about
him, gotta be saved by him, gotta be kept by him, gotta be redeemed
by him. It's all him. This is a him book. This is his
story. It's not history, it's his story. That's what this is all about.
We have one message, don't we? And if you've heard it and it's
truly good news to you, you can keep telling it and telling it
and telling it and it never gets old. It's good news. Like talking
about your grandchildren or something. Your own children. You never
get tired because you love them. And you never get tired. Salvation's
of the Lord. That's every sinner's clarion
cry. Salvation's of the Lord. That's who saved me and how.
from the first to last. This is our hope. If we're left
to ourselves, we're lost. The word salvation means just
that. It means you're lost, you can't
save yourself. So it must of necessity be of
the Lord. Right? How utterly ridiculous
can you get? There's a man out there drowning
and he's going to go down and he's going to die unless somebody
comes to save him. So what do you say to him? Well,
if you'll let me save you, And how utterly ridiculous. You don't ask His permission,
you go and get Him. If He's going to be saved, somebody's
going to have to do it. If somebody's lost, it means
they're lost. Brother Ralph Barnard used to say, an old evangelist
from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, whom the Lord used mightily in
our day, didn't He? He's a modern day John the Baptist. Started preaching back in the
early 50's. You may or may not have heard of him. But everybody
in this room pretty much is some indirect result of that man's
preaching, aren't they, Brother Joe? I'd venture to say that. Well, Brother Barnard used to
say this. He'd go around preaching. And
he'd preach at all these Southern Baptist so-called churches and
all these places where everybody's all fixed up and saved and sure
for heaven as if they're already there, you know, that sort of
thing. Everybody's saved. And Barnard used to say, I'm not
trying to get people saved. I'm trying to get people lost. Until you're lost, you won't
be found. Until you're hopeless, you won't
call out to Christ. Until you don't have anything,
until you're nothing and nobody, nowhere, and going down, you
won't call on the Lord. You won't call on Him who you
really don't believe is the only one who can save you. Isn't that
right? These fellas now, they're going
to find out who Jesus Christ is. So the Lord comes and finds
them. They don't find him. Phillip. Later, you know, Phillip
said that, didn't he? We found him. Yeah, Phillip.
Yeah, you have. He found you. He reveals himself
to them. This is salvation. The Lord revealing
himself. to you. Verse 3 says that he
entered into one of the ships, it was Simon's, and he prayed
to him that he would thrust out a little from the land. He sat
down and taught the people out of the ship. Taught the people. And I believe Simon and Andrew
heard this. They were standing over there washing their nets. And the Lord
got in their boat, told them to cast off here, and they heard
him preach. You know, these are just old,
rough fishermen, and I'm sure they, and the Lord spoke like
no man spake, didn't He? But they did not yet really know
who He is, and I believe that Simon and Andrew both probably
thought, that's a good sermon. Good sermon. I've heard that
a lot. I've heard people say that a
lot. And when they say a good sermon, preacher, I know that
they didn't hear a thing, right? Good sermon, yeah, that's good.
But when salvation comes, when the Lord reveals Himself to you
and is a glorious person in power and you're in His hand, when
the Lord really speaks to you, He speaks directly to you until
you feel like, well, I've heard this after the Lord dealt with
somebody. That was just for me. I felt
like I was the only one in that room. You've talked in just a
minute. That's how the Lord speaks, powerfully,
personally. Until you're astonished, like
these men, end up astonished, amazed, fearful, in the hands
of this sovereign Lord, not vice versa. Well, look at verse 4. Now, when he had left off speaking,
he finished speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the
deep and let down your nets for a draft. Said this to Simon. See, the Lord speaks to individuals
personally. We're not saved by the buddy
system. The Lord speaks to each one of us individually. He said,
my sheep hear my voice. They're gonna hear my voice.
Though it's through a preacher. God, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that blew. Their earthen vessels,
they don't do the saving, but it's the word of the Lord through
them. And that's the way he does it. Well, the Lord said to Simon,
launch out into the deep. Launch out. Let's go. We're going out here. We're going out here and we're
going to let down your nets for a draft. He didn't ask Simon,
did he? To do that. He didn't ask him. The Lord, the King of Kings doesn't
ask anybody anything. King doesn't ask his subjects
to do things for him, does he? We, in our day, have completely
lost sight of sovereignty. There hasn't been a despot, a
totalitarian ruler, besides maybe Saddam Hussein, but he came down
real fast. But we don't know much about
sovereignty in our day because we've never really seen a sovereign. It is a king who does as he will,
because he will, simply because he will. And no one can say or do anything
about it. They can cry all they want, it's not fair, but he does
it anyway. Right? That creates fear. People have
been under kings like that. Fear the king. No, they fear
the king. Today there's no fear of God
before men's eyes because preachers are preaching a God who's not
God. He's not sovereign. He doesn't do as he will. He
does according to man's will. He's subject to man's will. He
does only what they let him. That's not the God of the Bible.
That's not the God who is God. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His will among the armies of heaven, and yes, the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand, or even
say to Him, You can't do that. Yes, He can, and He does every
time. And the Lord does not ask anybody
anything. He said, If I were hungry, I
wouldn't ask you. He said, All the cattle on a
thousand hills belong to Me. If the Lord was going to use
money for his church, he doesn't ask us. My father was on the
TV for over 35 years. Very costly. Very costly. They never had, never asked for
one dime over those airwaves. Not ever. Not one time. Never
had a fundraiser. Our church, the church doesn't
have fundraisers. We call on the Lord who has all
the gold and silver and all the miles and He provides. Yes, He
goes through men, but He tells them. He tells them. You don't have to beg people.
God's not a beggar. His preachers aren't a beggar.
His church is not a beggar. They call on God and God tells
men what to do. Launch out, Simon. Brother John and I love Psalm
71, verse 3. Don't we, John? David said, Thou
hast given commandment to save me. Salvation is by command,
not by request. Salvation is in order. Come! Christ said, I'll call them and
they come. I have a dog. I have two dogs. Well, one is
mine. My dog comes when I call him.
Her dog, no. But my dog does. What does that
make me? His lord, his master. He knows
who his master is and he comes when I call him. I'm a good master. The Lord said I am the good shepherd.
I am the good, I'm the chief shepherd. I know my sheep. They're
known of mine, of me and I call them and they come. Launch out,
Simon. This is one of his sheep and
he's come to one of his sheep. He's come to find him. and call
him and give the commandment, Almighty love, arrest that man. Brother Greg and I
were washing his nets after we went fishing. Caught nothing.
We were washing his nets out in his boat and I said, Brother
Greg, What would you do if a man came up, and while we were standing
here doing this, a man came up, got in your boat, didn't ask
you, just got in your boat and said, come on, we're going fishing. Anybody here got a boat? What
would you do? Brother Greg said, well, he'd
have to be the Lord. Well, I wouldn't do it. Well,
it was the Lord. You see, this is no pitiful,
powerless Jesus. And pity the people who have
such a Jesus. No, he can't save a flea. Pitiful Jesus who asks people
to let them save him. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is the Lord Jesus. That's
not a figure. He's not a figurehead. He is
Lord. That's not a name only. He is Lord, means sovereign,
absolute ruler and controller. He came, well the Lord, the scripture
says, came to His own. It's all His. Earth is the Lord's
and the fullness there. The world and the inhabitants
thereof, they that dwell therein. It's all His. It all belongs
to Him. Well, the scripture says He came to His own, but His own
received Him not. But it didn't matter. He took
it anyway. Brother Joe, he came to his own. These fellas were his own. They
didn't receive him at first. He took it. He took it. See, this sea was his. That was his sea. He made it. The fish in it were his. He called
them and look what? Get in the net. That boat was
his. That wasn't Simon's. That's his
boat. That's the reason he didn't ask him. He said, Longchild,
we're going out in my boat. And we're going to catch my fish
in my lake. And you're mine. And you're going
to do what I say from here on out. You're going to be my fisherman. And you're going to catch all
the fish that I put in your net. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
Lord of Lord, King of King, who turns men's hearts, who makes
men willing in the day of his power. Verse 5, so they, Simon, Simon
spoke up a lot, didn't he? I'm so thankful for Simon Peter. I can relate to him. Always speaking
when he shouldn't. But he, Simon answered him, and
can you hear the cynicism in his voice as he says this? Master,
teacher. Can you hear that? Here's an
old professional fisherman. He'd been fishing since he was
a child, Brother Clark. He and Andrew and James and John,
they're buddies. This was their life. He grew
up. He cut his teeth on nets and
boats and ships. He knew those waters like the
back of his hand. He grew up there. And here comes this teacher,
this rabbi, and says, launch out here and let down your net. for a drought. He didn't say,
we're going to try to catch some fish. With launch out here, Peter
said, teacher. Teacher. Now, we've been toiling all night. We know these waters. We know
these waters. And we've caught nothing. We've
caught nothing. Our own mouths are going to condemn
us, aren't we? We've toiled all night. You know,
we, like these men, dwell in darkness. Ignorance. Sin. Darkness. Prince of the
power of the air. The rulers of the darkness of
this world. We're these captives. We're in the darkness of ignorance
and the unknown. Everything's unknown. Though
we think we know something, we know nothing. We're in darkness. We toil in darkness. We work
all our lives like these fellows. We've toiled all night and have
taken nothing. We toil all night. We toil in
darkness. We work all our lives. Everybody
in here, man, is told in the beginning about a sweat of your
brow. Sweat of your brow. You've earned
your bread. But after we work all our lives,
what have we taken? Nothing. Vanity, right? There was a widow of Sarepta
that Elijah came to. Elijah, who's a type of Christ,
came to that widow of Serapton. She said to him, and he didn't
ask her either, he said, give me, give me a cake. The Lord, when he came to that
woman at the well, he didn't ask her for a drink either. Uh-uh,
uh-uh, no, no, no, no, no. He said, give me to drink. She
said, why are you asking? She's an Armenian. She's an Armenian. She said,
why is it you ask me? He didn't ask her. She's still
an Armenian, Joe. Later on, she won't say that. That widow of Serepta, Elijah
said, give me. She said, I don't have all I
have. I'm going out to gather a few
sticks, and then I'm going to die. And that's us. It's every one
of us. We're gathering wood, hay, and
stubble. And then we die. No. Nothing. The wisest man ever lived, our
Lord excluded. Solomon said, vanity of vanity. The preacher, thus saith the
preacher, all is vanity. That means it's It will not satisfy. It will not give you what it
promises. It will not. It's vanity. It
won't let it. The Lord makes us know, one of
the first things He makes us know is that we are nothing,
we have nothing, we can do nothing, we've caught nothing and never
will. And we'll admit it by our own
mouths, whether we know it or not, we will admit it. They say
we've toiled all night and caught nothing. Caught nothing. Nevertheless, verse 5, nevertheless at thy
word I will let down the net. Yes, you will. Yes, you will
at His word. They all will, won't they, at
His word. When the Lord gives the word,
they will. You see, here is the difference,
the difference between the truth and error, the true gospel and
the false gospel. The false gospel says, if you
will, the Lord, He will, He shall. The truth says, God says, I will
and you shall. That's the difference. Over there
in Ezekiel 36, all the way through Ezekiel 36, where the Lord talks
about what he has done and will do. I will give them a new heart.
I will wash them. I will cleanse them. I will save
them. I will draw them out. I will,
I will, I will. And nearly the last verse says,
and you, I will be inquired of you to do this. You will ask
me for it. I will, and you shall. The Lord
said, I have spoken it, I will do it. I have purposed it, it
will come to pass. The Lord gives the word, nevertheless,
at thy word, I will. Now I think old Simon wants to
prove him wrong. Don't you? just like everybody
who first, you know, hears a little bit of the truth, that I'll prove
him wrong. Okay, all right, we'll let it
down to that, we'll see. Don't you, Joe, don't you think
at this time he's thinking, okay, all right, I'll show you. Folks, it's a wonderful thing
to have to eat crow when it comes to the truth. It's a wonderful
thing to have to admit you're all wrong. When it's all over,
every single person who rejected the truth and hated the truth
is going to be forced to say and willingly say, I was wrong,
he is right. Let God be true and every man
a liar. and loved to have it so. Loved
to have it so. Nevertheless, so this old hardened
fisherman, kind of like a die-hard Southern
Baptist, can you teach a die-hard Southern Baptist anything? Or
Catholic or somebody like, can you teach them anything? No,
you can't. You can't. You can't! But the Lord can and
does, every one of them. Abraham was 75 years old, an
idolater, living in the land of Ur, Ur of the Chaldeans. Died in the world, he believed
what his daddy believed, his mama believed, his granddaddy
believed. That's what he believed. Believed everybody else was wrong.
He had an idol. But he was zealous and all. Seventy-five years old. Can you
teach a seventy-five year old saved man, Christian man, a man
who's serving the Lord, doesn't even know the Lord. Can you teach
him anything? No, you can't. You can talk to him till you're
blue in the face. But I know who can, and does, and must,
but they won't be taught. At thy word. That's why we call
on the Lord. by power or might, not ours,
but by His Spirit, says the Lord. It is God that worketh in us
both to will. Peter said, I will. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Look at verses 6 and
7. So, when they had done this,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes in their net break.
And Simon and Andrew beckoned unto their partners which were
in the other ship that they should come and help them. And they
came and they filled both ships. Till it began to sink, they began
to sink. Annette. You know the Lord called
the gospel of the kingdom Annette. Annette. A net encloses fish. Have you
ever fished with a net? Anybody ever thrown a net? I
have. Brother Greg taught me how to
do that. Not very good at it, Cyril, but
he did teach me. I can't catch many. He can, but
you throw that net out. A net apprehends fish. A net surrounds fish. A net encloses
fish. You don't, in modern fishing,
you see, you use lures and bait, artificial lures, man-made bait,
trying to bait people, fish. Yeah, people, that's what I'm
talking about. Man-made, artificial, he's trying
to trick them. That's modern preaching, isn't
it? Trying to bait them. Look here, this looks good, doesn't
it? And they swallow it, hook, line,
and take her, don't they? And what's happened? What do
you do with a fish? Eat it, devour it. The Lord's gospel is a net that surrounds His people. Saul of Tarsus wasn't looking
for the Lord, was he? He was saved. He thought. He was righteous, he thought,
didn't he? Keep the law. Yeah, he thought.
Thought he knew God. He thought, but he didn't. God
knew him. Here's his hope. God came to
him, found him, and it says, suddenly a light from heaven,
that's Christ, shone round about him. You're mine, buddy, and
you're not getting away. Buddy, if you're in a net, a
fish, you're not getting out unless it breaks. You're not
getting out. You're caught. And if you're
one of the Lord's own, you're glad. You're glad that he caught
you. Didn't leave you alone, or else
you're going to be eaten. Live fish are caught. My, my,
the gospel's net, the net. Well, they began to take in all
these fish. And another story, it said 153. 153, exact number. They were so many,
innumerable. The Lord had them all counted.
He said, go out here, this is my lake, they're my fish, and
we're going to catch 153 fish. Well, they did, and they brought
it into their boats, and it says their net began to break, and
they called out, hey fellas, come help us, James and John,
come help us. James and John just happened
to be there. Wasn't this their lucky bag? They're just bystanders. Oh,
no, no, no. There are no bystanders when
it comes to salvation. God Almighty. They just happen
to be there. The Lord's calling them too.
And Brother John, I've never really seen this, but Simon and
Andrew both are the ones that called in. Hey! Come over here!
And they came. And bless your heart, the Lord
saved all of them. We ask people to come hear the
gospel all the time. We talk to people. We don't know.
We don't know who the Lord is going to say. My father-in-law, dear, dear man, he passed away
several years ago, but he's very bold for the truth, zealous for
the truth. He had a golf course. He was in a clubhouse. at one time, and he was talking,
he was loud, very loud voice, and came across as gruff, but
he was real tender. But he was talking to a fella,
and like us, you know, you get mad at people. And you try to,
you take like Peter and that sword, you know, you try to cut
their head off with the truth. But anyway, he's talking to this
fella right here, and he can't convince this fella. He's talking
to this fella right here, unbeknownst to him, There's a fellow over
here that's listening to him. And this fellow, he talked to
him. Oh, what's the use, you know? So he goes on. Do you know
that like 20 years later, it's true in a minute, 20 years later,
this fellow shows up at the church and says, well, Earl, was his
name, Earl? Earl? Yeah, I think it was Earl.
He said, Earl? He said, good to see you. Who asked you to come? He said,
I heard you talking to that fellow in the clubhouse 20 years ago.
He stayed with me ever since. Hey, fellas, come over and help
us. I said, OK. The Lord dealt with all of them. All right, I got to hurry. So
they tried to take it all in. They tried to take it all in.
Their nets began to break. Their ships were filled and they
began to sink. You know, when the Lord deals
with us, when He reveals His mighty person to us, His power,
His glory, His honor, and we try to take it all in, the first
thing that happens to us is our hearts begin to break. We can't
take it all in. We're filled up not with peace
and joy at first, but a sense of our sinfulness. What we think we're full of is
sin. And we get this sinking feeling
like this ship. I'm going down. Isn't that the
way it is when you first hear the Gospel? You hear, oh, He's
wonderful. He's glorious. and your heart breaks over your
own sin, you think, but this is wonderful, but it can't be
for me. That's what Peter said. You know, the Scriptures, oh,
I love Psalm 107. It says, they that go down, down,
down. The Lord saves you. He brings
you up. You've got to be brought down
first. They that go down to the sea and ship, they do business
in great waters. These see the works of the Lord
and His wonders in the deep. And He commandeth, Scripture
says, He commandeth and raises a stormy wind and lifteth up
the wave. That's your boat that He's rocking.
That's your soul He's breaking. Your heart He's breaking. They
mount up and go down and up and down. Their soul melts because
of trouble. They reel to and fro, stagger
like drunken men. They're at their wits end. Then
they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. That's the only time
you'll cry unto the Lord, He's in trouble! And He saves them. He delivers them. He bringeth
them out of their trouble. Peter said, Simon Peter, oh look
at it, verse 8. Simon Peter saw this, he fell
at Jesus' knee. He fell on his face before this
sovereign Lord. Realizing that this one who knows
the fish and the ocean knows Him. Everything about Him. The one who surely sees the fish,
they're unseen, knows His thoughts. They're unclean. Unseen to others,
but seen by Him. Seen by the Lord. And Peter,
hear what he said in verse 8. He says, Depart from me, for
I am a sinful man, O Lord. You know what Peter was saying,
don't you? Everybody whom the Lord has chosen, they know. That's what they thought. That's
what they said, first thing. First thing, when the Lord saves
someone, they go from thinking, like that old Southern Baptist
fella I was talking about, they go from thinking, I'm a pretty
good fella. to saying, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
They go from thinking... I worked on the railroad. There
was this Pentecostal fella. I didn't know it. I knew it real
quickly. He was reading his Bible, real,
in plain sight, where everybody could see him. That's what they
do, to be seen of men. He was reading his Bible, and
I walked up to him, a real young fellow, about 22, 23 years old,
young believer. And sincerely, I said, I thought,
oh boy, this might be like the eunuch, Philip and the eunuch.
And I said, understand this what thou readest? Hopefully, and I thought maybe,
maybe, you know, understand this what, Joe, he got so indignant,
the drains popped out on his neck, he got red in the face,
he said, I'll have you know, I'm a born-again, tongue-talking,
spirit-filled Christian. I said, well. I said, but that's not what I
asked you. I asked you if you understood
what you were reading. But I knew I had the answer.
No. He didn't understand. When God Almighty, through His
Word, reveals Himself, like Job. Job said, I've heard of you,
now I see you. Now what? I have an unclean thing. Didn't he? Daniel said, my beauty
melted to corruption, didn't it? Isaiah couldn't have been
a finer man on earth. Isaiah said, I'm a man of unclean
lips. Simon Peter said, you're a holy
God. I'm a sinful man. How could you
have anything to do? Depart. No, Peter. I'm going to depart. That's why I came. This is who
I came for. Didn't He say that? I'm not come
to call the righteous. But sinners, what kind of sinners?
Roman seven sinners. There's really no other kind.
Roman seven sinners are sinners like this. What I want to do,
I can't do. What I can't do, I want to do. That's a Roman 7 sinner. An Isaiah
1 sinner. From the sole of my feet to the
top of my head, crown of my head, there's no soundness in me. That's a sinner. That's whom
the Lord came to save. The lost, the dead, sinful, full
of sin, sinking low. That's who He came to bring down. Beggars off of the what? The
what? Dung heap. I have shoveled a
lot of manure in my time. I'm not talking, said it, speak
it, I've done that too. But if I had horses, I've shoveled
a lot of it. It's a nasty place, you get filthy,
you're stinking, that's a beggar, those were the people who were
delegated to that task to shovel manure for a little bit to eat. That's who he lifts up and sets
among princes. That's who he came to call and
say. Oh, my. Well, they were all, after this,
were astonished. And it says, they all, it says,
everyone up. The Lord said to them, to James,
John, Simon, and Andrew, fear not. They were all full of fear.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And you never quit
fearing Him. Fear not. From henceforth thou
shalt catch men. And when they had brought their
ships to land, It says, they forsook all and followed him. Now, if, like I said, if you
don't know if you have a boat or a ship, Joe, I'm sorry, I
got to tell this story. This is good. To a fisherman,
his boat is everything. It's everything. especially back
then, is ship, nets, everything. There's a life, a love. Fishermen
call boats by female names, don't they? Because they love them.
They love them more than their wives. But these fellows, they
were their life. Fish, nets, boats, ships, and
all that. When Christ came to them and
revealed himself to them, they dropped it all. Like it was nothing. left their
dad, James and John left their dad, dear old dad, left them
all. Why? Somebody called them. Somebody they'd fallen for, fell
in love with. There was a man years ago who, Brother Barnard, again, was preaching
a meeting in some town somewhere, and this fella owned a tavern. a bar, a tavern, and his wife came to the meeting
where Brother Barnard was preaching, but the man didn't. She was a
believer, but he wasn't. And Brother Barnard preached
several days, several nights, three or four nights, and one
day the woman asked Brother Barnard to come eat dinner with them.
And he did. He agreed. So he went there,
and he was sitting down, and the man was there. Her husband
was sitting there, and Brother Barnard was eating, and the man
wasn't saying anything, and Barnard wasn't saying anything either.
Finally, the fellow said, Preacher, he said, I guess you've noticed
I haven't been to the meeting. Larder kept eating. He thought,
I'm going to eat fast because I'm liable to get run out here.
I'm going to keep eating. He said, yep, I have. He kept right on eating. And
the fellow said, well, don't you want to know why? Larder
said, why? The fellow said, because every
preacher I've ever met says that If I'm to be saved, I'm going
to be saved, I've got to sell my tavern. They all tell me,
you sell your tavern. You've got to sell your tavern,
and the Lord will save you. He said, I ain't selling my tavern.
No way. No way. Byron said, he kept eating. He said, you don't have to sell
your tavern to be saved. He kept eating it. He said, did I hear you right?
I don't have to sell my, no, you don't have to sell your tavern
to be saved. Kept on eating. That fella said, well, hmm, I
think I'll come hear him. And he did. You know what happened?
The Lord saved that fella. He came and heard. Then you know
what happened? He sold his tavern. True story. True story, when the Lord commands,
He gives a command. It's a done deal, isn't it? It's
a done deal. Oh, may the Lord bless that.
You know, I was thinking when Mother