Returning to John chapter 21,
this final chapter which the Apostle John by the Holy Spirit
has included, it provides us with an intimate account. It shows us the care, the intimate
care, the the engagement of our Lord with his church, with his
people. And from these verses of our
text this evening, I want to show you our Lord's provision
of grace for his church, which he needs, which he requires in
order to fulfill the commission that her Lord has given to her
to preach the gospel. to preach the gospel, to fulfill
this commission. What is it to preach the gospel? It's to declare what our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ has accomplished for sinners. His people are sinners
in need of grace, in need of His forgiveness, in need of the
salvation that only He gives that only he can provide and
does provide effectually, successfully for his beloved people. his church is to declare what
he has done, how that his blood, his sacrifice has delivered us
from the wrath of God, the just wrath of God, which was against
us for our sins, and that he rose again for our justification,
making full proof in rising from the dead, making full proof that
he has fully satisfied the Father well in all things. For God raised him from the dead,
being well-pleased, well-satisfied with what his son has done. And he tells us that he is well-pleased
in him. He said, in whom I am well-pleased. And all who come to the Father,
trusting his righteousness alone, they are received, received of
holy God, forgiven, perfect, righteous. accepted of Him. And He gives us eternal life
by Himself through the regeneration of His Holy Spirit, whom the
Father and the Son have sent to give us life, to make known
to us what He has accomplished for us. And so this is an intimate
account of His grace here. It affirms to us in seeing this
that we need Him. We need Him to draw near to us. We need manifestations of His
love and mercy, His help, His presence, His effectual power
working in us, making us to hear and to rejoice in what He's done
for us. And it shows us through this
account of our Lord here. He's entertaining His disciples. He's being hospitable to His
disciples. He's giving them provision. He's meeting their need. He's doing this for them. And
it shows us how that our Lord graciously provides for his church
in directing them and in blessing them in their labors of upholding,
of fulfilling. He upholds, of our fulfilling
this great commission, which he gives to us through the preaching
of the gospel and the giving of his spirit. Now, it says in
John 21, verses 9 and 10. Let's read them. It says, as soon as they were
come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid
thereon and bread. Jesus saith unto them, bring
of the fish which ye have now caught. through the death and
resurrection of our Lord, what Christ has accomplished as the
Christ, the Son of God has accomplished as the Christ of God, given for
the salvation of His people, what He's accomplished is He
brings, He delivers His people out of death. He takes us, as
it were, out of the sea of God's wrath, and he brings us upon
a firm foundation, a sure foundation, the rock of our salvation, which
is Christ himself. He brings us out of darkness
upon the light of his land. And that solid foundation that
we now stand upon is the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul said, other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. He's the foundation. He's the
rock that is laid by God. And it's through the power of
his life that we are delivered from the wrath of God, from that
sea of God's wrath, and brought on to the land, the land of our
Emmanuel. We stand upon that firm footing,
delivered from carnal reason and vain fleshly dead religion
of men that they trust in, where we were just tossed to and fro.
By nature, we're in utter darkness. By nature, we don't know how
to worship God. We think we know how to worship
God. Men have this word, this precious, blessed word of God,
and reading it, they still don't know how to come to God. They're still looking to their
works and what they must do to please God, even reading this. But if God gives his spirit,
God delivers us from death, He gives knowledge and understanding
by His Spirit to know who the true and living God is. To know
that it's not by my works that I'm saved, but by the grace of
God given freely in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I for
one tried to make sense of how it is that a man may be justified
with God. And I labored. I had a renewed
sense as I got a little older. I had gone to church services
when I was younger, and I heard some true things about the true
and living God. And after a time, through Providence
being brought low and brought to fear God in what little light
that I had, I thought that I could now please God. I had put away
this thing, I had put away that thing, I had repented of this
and fixed that, and did all these things that I felt like were
standing between me and saying that I was a Christian. I fixed
all those things and then I felt like I had the right to now go
up to God and say, now, now I can say that I'm a Christian. I felt
good about myself. And yet, despite my very best
efforts to fix things and to keep improving things, I kept
seeing, I'm a sinner. It's not getting any better.
It's like digging down into a well and thinking, I'm going to get
to the bottom of this, and then everything's going to be better.
Except it wasn't. It got uglier and uglier. It
was filthier and dirtier the more I looked. And it made me
afraid and so bad was it for me that one day I thought that
I had willfully sinned myself right out of the kingdom of God.
and that I had done despite the spirit of grace. And I was terrified,
terrified for a long time, so much that I thought, what more
can I do? And I remember one day, it ultimately
came to me, stripping down every bit of my clothes in my bedroom
and getting down on my knees, maybe, I don't even remember,
maybe falling on my face and trying to pray to God, only to
find that it did nothing for me. I thought I could hear that
verse that is in Isaiah chapter 1 that says, who hath required
this at your hand to tread my courts? And I thought I heard,
as it were, a voice say, get that thing out of my sight. And I was even more afraid then,
because nothing I did could relieve the guilt of my conscience and
the burden of my sin. And I was afraid, and it seemed
every time I opened the Bible to try and find some comfort,
some peace. Sometimes I would read things,
and it looked so precious. And I'd keep reading, and I'd
get to a verse where it just all pulled the thread, and it
fell apart right on me. One such verse is in Isaiah 57.
Turn there. Isaiah 57. And it's at the end of that chapter,
verse 20 and 21. But the wicked are like the troubled
sea when it cannot rest. whose waters cast up mire and
dirt. There is no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked." And I was so troubled and afraid, because
that described me. I was troubled. And I was afraid,
because I had no peace. To me, it felt like I had sinned
against God 70 times 70 times, 77 million plus. And I thought
that was it. There's no way that he's going
to receive me. But I did stay close to friends
that were Christians, as I understood Christians to be. And I envied
them, because they had a smile on their face, and they seemed
to be at peace. And I would talk to them, and
I talked to any new Christian I met, especially one that was
a pastor. And I would tell them my plight.
And I would explain to them how troubled I was. And all they
could say to me in the false gospel that they held was, just
believe. Just believe. And I'd say, but
what if I can't just believe? I'm really troubled. They'd say,
that's just the devil. Don't listen to him. Just believe.
Just believe. And I was even more terrified.
And as I tried to explain it, they would just distance themselves
from me because they thought, that man's cursed. That man's
troubled. I don't want to be near that
guy. And I felt very, very alone. But I didn't know where to go
because, Lord, you alone have the words of life. And you are
the Son of God, the Christ of the living God. Where can I go?
Where can I go? And I hated the thought of every
sin I did that I thought was the reason for me just being
thrust out of the presence and the grace of God. all for some
momentary pleasures. And then one day I heard a man
speak of the sovereign grace of God, how that God chooses
whom He will, to be gracious to whom He will. and that he
will not receive my righteousnesses. He's not impressed with what
I've put away and the things that I've done and the things
I ceased from doing and fixing myself so that I could give myself
confidence in the right to say, now, now I can come to the Lord
and call myself a Christian. That's what I was trusting in.
And I heard him say he will not receive our works. He's not impressed
with our works. The only one that he's impressed
with is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he saves his people by almighty,
sovereign grace. And that actually comforted my
heart. Because I was certain that by
my works, because I could bring myself to God, that by my very
works I could also take myself out from the grace of God. But
it was such a comfort to hear, man, you can't do nothing. Nothing. God by grace, by sovereign almighty
grace, he saves whom he will. And I began to think that maybe
Maybe God hasn't cursed me and driven me out. It had been well
over a year just walking around fearful and afraid and terrified. And every time I open the scriptures,
I hear thunderings and lightnings and crashes down around me. I
was afraid. And finally, it was such a comfort
to know that God sovereignly saves and he strips his people
down from trusting in their self-righteousness. And I thought, wait a minute,
maybe God isn't cursing me. If he had let me go on comfortable
in what I had done, I would have woken up in his presence one
day to a miserable eternity. But in grace and mercy, he shook
me and showed me everything I trusted in was worthless, because I was
trusting myself. I knew the name. I knew a few
things to say, but I was trusting myself. So it hit me that the
Lord had done this, and I began to realize that it was in grace
and mercy. And that's what the Lord must
do. He must deliver us from trusting in ourselves, trusting in our
righteousnesses, because trusting in this flesh, and what I do,
is just like being blown about on a sea that is just tumultuous
and casting up dirt and mire and it's not salvation. It's
not salvation. I had to be delivered from that
because we deceive ourselves. We deceive ourselves. Man deceives
himself very easily and the Lord must deliver us from that. Look
at what it says there in Isaiah 57 now in verse 12. Verse 12, let's begin there.
This is the Lord speaking. He says, I'll declare thy righteousness. I'll say it, and I'll declare
thy works, for they shall not profit thee. I know what you're
trusting, and I'll tell you what you're trusting. I'll show you
all the things, all the good works that you've done, and everything
that you're trusting in. I'll tell them to you, and they
will not profit thee. When thou cryest, let thy companies
deliver thee. If they're so good, keep trusted
in them and let them deliver you. Let them speak for you in
the day of judgment. But the wind shall carry them
all away. Vanity shall take them. All your good works, all our
filthy righteousness is going to show up and then be driven
away like crumpled up leaves in fall, get blown away in the
wind. But, and here's where he makes
his chosen redeemed child to know. What to know and to do. He says, he that putteth his
trust in me shall possess the land. The land. They'll possess
Christ. They'll have Christ and shall
inherit my holy mountain. And that's where Christ brought
his disciples in John 21 to the land that is our foundation,
which is Christ. And the Lord says, and they shall
say, cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the
stumbling block out of the way of my people. Because religion
is a stumbling block. Religion can be a mighty stumbling
block. It was a stumbling block for
the Jews. It was a stumbling block for the Greek philosophers,
because they trusted in those things. And they thought, this
is my righteousness. This is my salvation. And that
prevented them from hearing the true and living God, from hearing
the Lord Jesus Christ, how that he saves his people to the uttermost. to the uttermost. And so our
Lord makes the call of his gospel effectual to the hearing of his
people. He manifests himself in our hearts
by faith. He draws us to himself in power
and in glory. And Christ says to his regenerated,
child, believe. believe, just like he said in
John 21, bring the fish which ye have now caught. That provision,
because right, who gave the disciples in this account, who gave the
disciples those fish? The Lord, when he said, cast
ye the net on the right side of the boat, and they took it
up, and they had many fish, a great many fish, and he said, bring
forth the provision that I've given to you. Bring it forth.
And this faith that we, whereby we believe Christ, it's not of
this flesh. This is not a fruit of the flesh.
This is a fruit of the Spirit, which is given to the children
of God by the Spirit. It's born in us by the Spirit
of God. And so he says, bring of the
fish which ye have now caught. Come to me in faith. Believe.
Believe me. Rest in me. Trust me. I'm the
provision that God has given to you, and I've given to you
everything you need for your salvation. Put aside your works
and your vain confidences and trust me. Look to me, cry out
to me, and I shall save you. Thou shalt be saved. And that's
how we come into the kingdom of our Lord, stripped of all
vain, false hopes. He removes them, like gravecloths
being taken off of Lazarus. Remove the gravecloths, he said.
He gives life, and by his word, by his servants, through the
ministration of the gospel, he just strips these things off
and takes them away from us because they're just weighing us down.
They're just preventing us from seeing. But he delivers us in
grace and in mercy. And so through this gospel, his
lost sheep are brought in. Also, like we see here, like
fish, like fish of every sort and size taken up in that gospel
net. And so it says in John 21, 9
and 10 again, as soon as they were come to land, land by the
grace of Christ, by the grace of God in Christ, they saw a
fire of coals there and fish laid thereon and bread. And we see in that a sweet picture
of the declaration of Christ crucified. who bore the wrath
of Almighty God, the fiery wrath of God in Himself to put away
the sins of His people, to be the provision, to be the life,
to be the satisfaction of His people, to make a redemption,
an atonement, accomplish redemption for their sins by His own blood,
that we might have every provision filled by our Savior, every need
filled, And he promises life to his people by himself, for
he himself is the bread of heaven, upon whom we feed. And he makes that word effectual.
If he wills, if he attends this word, this gospel word, and blesses
it to your heart, he's the one that gives it the grace. He's
the one that makes it effectual to us, giving commandment, bring
of the fish which ye have caught. He calls forth his child in faith
to look to him, to believe him, to trust in him, to bear those
fruits of righteousness which he has made for us and given
to us of his provision. And so our Lord does, he commands
his people to believe, to bring forth that which the Lord has
worked in our hearts, wrought in our hearts by grace. Now verse
11, John 21, 11. Simon Peter went up and drew
the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred and fifty
and three. And for all there were so many,
yet was not the net broken. Now this is a verse that is right,
just full with the church's labors. It's a picture of the church
laboring in that great commission. That's what we see here. That's
what I see here. This is showing us the tokens
of what our Lord works in his body for the ministry. John here highlights Peter specifically. I don't know if the other disciples
were helping him or if Peter just received great strength
there to just pull that thing up onto shore with 150 great
fishes, it says there. And it says, for all the great
fishes that it contained, yet was not the net broken. And there's something about this
account, especially because it's Peter being highlighted here.
And it reminds me of Peter's earliest interaction with the
Lord. And Luke records it in Luke chapter
5. Let's go to Luke 5. Luke 5. And we're going to pick
up in verse 4. This is where Christ the people
are coming to Christ and are pressing against him on the shoreline. And so he steps into Peter's
boat and there declares the gospel. There he declares the things
of the kingdom of God. And it says afterwards, verse
four, Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out
into the deep, and let down your nets for a draft. And Simon answering
said unto him, Master, We've toiled all the night, and have
taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word I will
let down the net. And when they had done this,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net break. And they beckoned unto their
partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and
help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that
they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell
down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful
man, O Lord. Now, what the Lord is showing
us here in these two accounts is that at the beginning, when
Christ first came to them, they were being shown their insufficiency. They weren't able to do the work
that the Lord had purposed for His church. They needed to be
taught. They needed to be broken down, their net break, their
boats were sinking. They were insufficient to do
the work at that time. But Christ was showing them his
power, that he is the Christ, sent of the Father. And then
all his ministry long, he showed them how that by his grace and
power, they can do all things. And without him, they can do
nothing. nothing and he was teaching them
that that whole time that they could do absolutely nothing because
when we get proud and puffed up and lifted up in ourselves
the lord is very capable of bringing us low in ourselves and humbling
us and stripping us down again and making us to see i can do
nothing what was i thinking lord without your grace i can do Nothing. And so he was showing them that
they could do nothing. But now Christ had finished the
work of redemption. Now he had risen from the grave. Now they stood in awe of him. And they were beginning to see
the glory of their Lord and Savior. They were beginning to see who
was like him. This is our God and our Savior,
our husband, our friend. our all. They were being made
to know that. Proud Peter was humbled by a
cock that crowed three times. And he was humbled. Before that,
he thought he was all that. He was certain that he would
lay down his life for the Lord. And then by a little servant
girl and a few other people calling him out, he denied his Lord three
times. And all the other disciples scattered
and ran and left him forsaking him and left him to do that work
which he had to do by himself. And he did it. And he did it.
And now they knew and they were humbled. And so here The Lord
performed the same miracle of them first catching nothing.
They were out there all night on the sea. They caught nothing.
And then he directed them, cast your net out on the right-hand
side. And they drew up the net full of fishes. For all, there
were so many. And it says here that yet was
not the net broken. We hear nothing of their boat
sinking. And the net remained firm and strong and steadfast,
because Christ is showing them with my provision, I'm going
to bless this work. You're going to go forth and
you're going to fulfill this commission which I've given to
you, and I will bless this work. And you'll see my grace and my
provision and everything that you need, I'm going to provide
it for you. And so they learn. They learn
now. They knew whose glory it was, that it's all the glory
of Christ. Whatever we do, I've got nothing
to boast of. If your hearts are blessed, Praise
God, because it's all of His grace and mercy that works this
in your hearts for your good, for your comfort, for your peace,
and for your joy. Even if it strips you down and
takes you down to nothing, it's all for your good. Because if
it brings you to the feet of Christ on your face in the dust,
it's good. It's good. It's good. And the
Lord knows exactly how to do it. Now, this count of fish is
peculiar. It tells us, very plainly, 153.
And it seems to tell us something about the body of Christ. I read a number of commentaries,
and no one really was sure what it meant. They weren't sure what
to say about it. The most grounded thing that
I read was something about perhaps they were counting it to be divided
later among themselves. And so without hearing what others
have really said about it, let me at least tell you what blessed
my heart as I thought about this. This is in relation. to the Lord's gracious provision
for his church, who's going to fulfill the commission of the
Lord. So we know it has something to
do with that. It's an odd number. It has something
to do with the body of Christ fulfilling the commission of
the Lord. And it's an odd number of fish. It doesn't divide evenly. It
just doesn't divide evenly. Even with seven people, it doesn't
divide. evenly and so as i thought about it you know there's things
about salvation there's there's things that well there's things
in the in the kingdom that are different not everything is divided
equally in the kingdom now there are things that are divided equally
every one of us christ died for every one of his people his blood
was shed for every one of His people and every one of His people
is given the Holy Spirit who regenerates us, gives us life.
Every one of us by the Holy Spirit is washed in the blood of Christ
so that our guilty, fiery, conscience is cleansed and soothed and cooled
by the blood of Christ. Every one of us receives the
sight of faith to behold that Christ laid down his life for
me. Every one of his people has the
hope of a believer, has the inheritance of a saint, has the blessings
of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. We're delivered from death unto
life. But when it comes to the gifts
of the ministry in the church, we don't all have the same gifts.
They're divided differently as the Lord sees fit. I can show
you this in Romans 12. Let's go to Romans 12. Romans
12, and we're going to pick up in verse 3. Now remember, this is Paul the
apostle. I'm not an apostle. You're not
an apostle. Paul is an apostle. And so as an apostle, with the
gifts and graces of God for being an apostle, he says to us, in
verse 3, I say, through the grace given unto me. To every man that
is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought
to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to
every man the measure of faith. there's a measure of faith that
God deals to a man, some more, some less. For as we have many
members in one body, and all members have not the same office,
so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one member's
one of another. My fingers are not as strong
as my thigh. It's just not. I can't balance
myself on my hands as well as I balance myself on my feet.
There's different gifts, different abilities in the body of the
church according as the Lord gives, as he's purposed and what
he's purposed to do. Having then, verse six, gifts
differing according to the grace that is given to us. Whether
prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. or ministry, let us wait on our
ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth
on exhortation, and so on and so on. It's gifts given by the
Lord to his people in the body, in the church, to function with
the many members, all having different gifts, and talents,
and abilities, in different measures, according as it pleases the Lord. as it pleases him. And so this
odd number of fishes tells us, it not being even, that that's
what I see, that the Lord's saying there's different amounts as
to who will receive what according as the Lord is pleased. You know,
when you read Acts, it's Peter and John in the beginning of
Acts that are highlighted. There was other apostles, but
Peter and John were the ones that were used mightily, that
were recorded greatly of being used of the Lord in the beginning
of the church. In fact, it was Peter's first
public preaching of the gospel that 3,000 souls were saved on
that one day when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church. I don't know if there was ever
that many people saved at one time. again after that. But Peter
was used for that. The Lord did it with Peter there. And then we read of them until
eventually Paul. was focused on by Luke. And I
guess Luke went with Paul and so he recorded the missionary
journeys of Paul and how that Paul was used mightily of the
Lord. And much of the New Testament is written by Paul, preacher
of grace. So firm and founded on the grace
of God, so clear that we are saved by the grace of God in
Christ. Grace alone, through faith alone,
in Christ alone. It's all Christ, all of Him.
And then one other thing of note that I thought of with 153 is
there was seven disciples in the ship that night. And that
means that it's just a little under 22 fish each. In other words, it would be six
of them would receive 22 fish, and one, only one, would take
21. And I just thought with all the
times these guys argued about who was the greatest in the kingdom,
which of them that day said, I'll take the least. Give me
the least amount. You, brethren, you take the many. And I'll take the lowest amount.
Being taught of the Lord. Taught of the Lord. And so that's
what I see in it. And it would bless my heart.
Now verse 12, Jesus saith unto them, come and dine. And none
of the disciples durst ask him, who art thou? Knowing that it
was the Lord. Now this is a gracious command
to those who are gathered in the church. It's a gracious command
to those who are gathered into the church. And it's a blessed
command to believers. those who know him as their Lord
and Savior. It says, none of the disciples
durst ask him, who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. And so there was no question
as to who it was. And he doesn't say, go and dine.
He says, come and dine. Just like in the ark, he said,
come into the ark, Noah. He didn't say go into the ark,
come into the ark, because that's where the father meets with his
people, in Christ. And Christ says, come. Come and
dine. Feed upon the many provisions
and the blessings that I've given to you, that you receive in me."
And that's what he tells us. Make full use of all the provisions
that he's given to you. Every time the doors are open,
come. Come, when the church is there,
gather together to worship the Lord, come and worship together,
to worship the Lord together as a body. When the word is being
preached, come and hear that word, make full use of it to
your prophet, the Lord's given it to you. Come and sing hymns,
worshiping our Lord publicly with your brethren, and to hear
the word publicly read, and to partake of that public prayer. Do it together. Make full use
of what the Lord has done. Make full use of His ordinances. If you have not been baptized
as a believer, be baptized. Ask. Come and be baptized in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Take of the ordinances of His
table. Come and eat. Partake with your
brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ feeding upon His body. his blood
and make full use of what he's given to you when you're at home.
Read his word in private devotion. Pray to the Lord. On your knees,
pray to the Lord. And when you get up and you're
going about your chores and your things to do, when you lay something
on your heart, pray. Pray always without ceasing. Make full use of all the provision
that the Lord has given to you. Come and dine. Don't be shy.
Don't draw back. Don't take yourself out of it.
Don't think yourself unneeded or unwanted. It's a blessing
when all the brethren come together to hear the Lord and to hear
what the Lord is saying to his people. Don't make excuses. Just
come. Come and hear. Come and hear.
And if you know that it's the Lord, then come and let nothing
stop you. you know it's the Lord and you
have no doubt this is the very Christ of God the salvation of
God Lord save me help me come come and the Lord receives all
that come to him and he turns none away now apparently this
word dine specifically means come and have breakfast Come
and have breakfast. And the sense of this is that
these are the provisions which the Lord has given to us for
this day of grace. One day He'll return and take
us up to be with Him, and we'll all sup together at the marriage
feast of the Lamb. But now, in this morning, in
this day of grace, we are to partake of that full provision
of His blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be our
God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, which hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And so everything we receive
is in Christ, and nothing is outside of Christ. It's all in
Him. And so He gathers us together,
and He gives us this provision for this day to fulfill this
commission that He's given to us, to preach the gospel. Verse
13, John 21, 13, Jesus then cometh and taketh bread, and giveth
them, and fish likewise. And that's a picture. of us to
encourage us that our Lord who came as a servant, he said to
them in another place, but I am one that came to you, that is
among you as one that serveth. The Lord took the place of a
servant and laying down his life for his people, for his people. He laid down his life for his
people And he fulfilled the will of God for his people in laying
down his life for them. And he took up his life in resurrection
power. And now he's done the work. He's
ascended to the Father. He's seated at the right hand
of the throne of God, expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. And yet, even to this day. He
serves his people in giving us provision and giving us everything
we need and interceding for us so that we have all that we need
being strengthened and comforted and encouraged by our Lord to
this day. And that's what we see here.
This passage is a picture of the labor of the church fulfilling
the great commission of her Lord. where we declare Christ crucified
to those who are taken by that gospel net and brought near to
the Lord to behold what he has accomplished in his death and
resurrection. And those who believe him Knowing
that this Jesus is both Lord and Christ, they are drawn by
His grace, saying, Believe, come, come and dine, come feed upon
me. I have given you everything you
need, and it is made effectual in our hearts by His power and
His glory, and we feed upon His full provision of grace for us
while we minister as the body of Christ to the needs of the
people, to help them, to comfort them in their way, in their pilgrimage
way, to encourage them, to look to the Lord, look to the Lord,
don't be turned to the left or the right, stay on that narrow
way, which is Christ. And I'm reminded of what our
Lord told his disciples in Luke 12, verse 37, when he said, blessed
are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he
shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and
will come forth and serve them. And so brethren, watch, watch
and pray for our Lord ministers, is yet ministering his gracious
meat to you, to feed you, to nourish you, to strengthen you
with this gospel word. And he feeds those that are yet
hungering and thirsting for righteousness. I'm thankful that someone preached
the gospel to me. I'm thankful that they didn't
keep it to themselves but made full provision and declared that
glorious gospel to me. I'm encouraged to do likewise,
and He encourages you. Do likewise. Tell others of what
the Lord has done for you, that He successfully saves His people
from their sins by His death and resurrection. I pray the
Lord bless that word to your hearts, brethren.