Good morning. In case you didn't
hear yet, I'm assuming you probably did, but no service tonight,
and then Brother William, Lord willing, will bring the message
for us Wednesday night. I invite your attention this
morning to Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one, look with me
at verse 16. Mark 1, 16. Now as he walked
by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother,
casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus
said unto them, come ye after me, and I will make you to become
fishers of men. And straightway they forsook
their nets, and followed him. And when he had gone a little
further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John
his brother, who also were in the ship, mending their nets.
And straightway he called them. And they left their father Zebedee
in the ship, with the hired servants, and went after him. This is one of my favorite passages
of scripture, and it's recorded three times in Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. I just want to ask you, does
this, what we just read about, a few short verses here, what
just happened there, does that astonish you like it does me,
honestly? Can we see God's infinite goodness
here in what happened? I pray we can. When I look at
this, I see a glorious day of divine revelation. What we just read is salvation
come to four men. It's what we just read. They
were out fishing. That was their life, that's what
they did, okay? They were out fishing when God
incarnate showed up to them. God in human flesh came to where
they were. And consider briefly what he
didn't say. He didn't say, you're some wretched fisherman, you're
going to hell. That's not what he said. He didn't
say, I came here to condemn you. That's not what he said. He came
here to call them to himself in love, in mercy, in grace. Call them out of their darkness
into his light, marvelous light. Look at what he said there in
verse 17. He said unto them, come ye after
In Matthew's account, he saith unto them, follow me. And you know what they did? Look
at verse 18, and straightway they forsook their nets and followed
him. He went on, that was Simon Peter
and Andrew his brother. Then in verse 20, two more men,
James and John brethren, look at verse 20, and straightway
he called them. And they left their father Zebedee and the
ship with the hired servants, and they went after him. The
father and the hired servants, they were there too, but they
didn't go. They didn't follow him. They
didn't come after him because the Lord didn't call them. The
four men whom the Lord called, they followed him. And I rejoice
to tell you that. Straightway, immediately, as
soon as the command went forth, follow me, dropped everything, and they
followed him. Where did they go? Wherever he
went. That's where they went. Wherever he went. Now, here's
what just captivates me, thinking about this. Why did they follow
him? Doesn't it seem like kind of
a strange encounter to you, just reading it? He came to them,
they're here fishing, follow me. Off they go, leaving their
life behind. Is that not strange? Did they, in the spur of the
moment, find some inner zeal and decide to get religious? They just decide to follow Jesus
as this whole world is doing? Supposedly another Jesus, which
is not another. No. Is this something they've
been thinking about for a while? Maybe we should quit fishing.
Maybe we should follow God. No. They followed him, and here's
why. Because the Lord called them. Simple as that. He called
them. Now, we know from Luke's account,
which I brought a message from not too long ago, we know from
Luke's account that the Lord revealed himself in his sovereign
power to these men when they were done fishing, it says, and
they were about to pack up and go home, washing their nets,
and the Lord told Peter, let's go out, And he told them, cast
your net. It's like they caught all the
fish in the sea. Filled two boats that they began to sink. He revealed
his power to them. And then Peter said, depart from
me, Lord, I'm a sinful man. He revealed himself to them in
revealing his power, his Godhead to them. The Lord came to these
men. He taught them. It said he taught
them out of the ship. There were some people desiring
to hear him. He performed a miracle for them. I just mentioned it,
catching all those fish. But the real miracle he performed
for them was that he called them. He called them. I pray God would
teach us what that means. He called them. This calling
wasn't a suggestion. Wasn't a, well, will you now?
Wasn't an invitation. Well, I think you might should,
no. Here's what this calling was. It was a holy, irresistible,
effectual command. And I want to make sure I say
this, they didn't have a choice to not follow Him. You know, in Joshua, it's a verse
that gets quoted a lot, choose ye this day which God you shall
serve. If you read it in the context,
the only choice they're choosing between is false gods. Christ's
people follow Him. And it's His choice that we do.
We chose to follow all these false gods. I'll tell you which
God I chose to follow, me. That's which God I in my flesh
chose to follow, was me. Until God spoke to me and said,
follow me, and now I follow Him. It's His work, it's His calling
by which His people follow Him. God's doing. Right here in this
text, the Lord came to these four men and He gave them a whole
new want to. He gave them a whole new heart,
a whole new mind, a whole new spirit that wanted one thing,
and that was to follow Him, to believe on Him, to trust Him. Where were they going? They were
leaving their home. Who was going to provide for them? He was.
Well, He didn't have a place to lay His head. Yes, but that's
God Almighty. and He's able to provide for
us. He made them willing to forsake
everything in an instant, in a moment. They didn't, they just,
just like that, dropped everything and they went to be with Him.
You see why I say this is miraculous to me? This is astonishing to
me? It's just, it's making all these things we heard last weekend
come back to mind, how that his people will follow him, he will
have them. Never may a spake like this man.
When he said, follow me, oh, how could we not? Now, that's my intro. I wanna
focus on what we're told in verse 17. Look at it again. And Jesus
said unto them, come ye after me, and I will make you to become
fishers of men. They were still going to be fishermen.
They just weren't going to be fishing for fish anymore. They
were going to be fishing for men. And notice how the Lord worded
this. He said, I will make you. Oh, you can't say that. Oh, we
better. I will make you to become fishers of men. He will make
us follow Him, and He will make His fishers of men to be fishers
of men. It's something He does. Now,
I thought of a verse that we just looked at Wednesday night
in the message, Psalm 100, verse 3, Know ye that the Lord, He
is God. It is He that hath made us, and
not we ourselves. Not only did our Lord call these
men out of their darkness to believe on Him and follow Him,
He called them to be fishers of men. He called them to be
apostles, men sent with a message from God. That's who He was,
God. He's God. They were sent with
a message from God. God did this for these men. He
called them to it, and they were ready and willing to go. I just titled the message Fishers
of Men. I just want to look at this for a few minutes. And I
must say this when dealing with this subject. Not every preacher,
Fisher of Men, gospel preacher, not every preacher is a true
gospel preacher. And again, I can show you plenty
of scriptures here. The ones that really jump out to me more
than any are found in Matthew chapter 7, 21 through 23. But
I want to read you this verse, Jeremiah 23, 21. Our Lord said,
I have not sent these prophets Yet they ran. I've not spoken
to them. Yet they prophesied. People are
all over this world speaking supposedly in the name of Jesus,
in the name of God, whom God has never spoken to. Claiming
to know God, whom God says, I never knew you. Depart from me. This could not be more serious.
And I feel like a fool standing up here talking about this, but
on the authority of God's word, I'm saying it. From the verse
I just quoted to you, he said, I didn't send them, I've not
spoken to them, yet they're out prophesying and preaching. If God has not
spoken to me, then I have no business standing up here speaking
on behalf of him whatsoever. That's why it's a fearful thing
to do this, understanding that. Now, let me acknowledge this
too, if I, or you or you or anybody is going to be a fisher of men,
then God must make us to be that. We don't make ourselves to be
that. We must be made of God, must be called of God, sent of
God with His message. When it comes to false preachers
and false preaching, It's full of deceit, much like fishing. You get attractive hooks, baits,
lures, and you throw them out there. Oh, you just. Those fish are just jumping to
get on your line and you're so happy. You tricked them. You
got them. That's exactly what false religion is. That's exactly
what false preachers do. Well, let's find some tactics
here. Let's make this thing attractive on the outside and get masses
of people to follow us and give us their money. And oh, we're
all just living for God. We're having a grand old time.
That's what false religion is all about. I see it. I'm thankful not to be wrapped
up in it. I can tell you that. What our brother just read in
1 Corinthians is about all these things that are impressive to
men in the wisdom of the world, and after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. These things that impress
people in the name of religion, in the name of God, and God said
it's not of God, not of Him. Deceit. You know, I mentioned
Matthew 7, there in verse 13 and 14, he talks about a straight,
narrow way, and then a broad, wide way. And he said that broad,
wide way is the way of destruction, and many there be which are going
in therein. And he said that straight, narrow way, which is
Christ, a few there be that find it. I'm telling you, these four
men found the straight and narrow way because the straight and
narrow way came to them and called them. Otherwise, they'd have
been going that broad way that everybody else is going, to destruction. And I don't want that for us.
To the world, these false preachers, they're worthy. They're qualified. However much money they have,
well, they deserve it. They're doing God's work. It's
just not so. God's apostles, they didn't walk
around with all these fancy things. They had neither purse nor script,
and they simply trusted the Lord to provide for them. And he did. He always does. Something that
I was told once was when you hear a message preached, ask
yourself this question, who gets the glory? When the gospel is
preached, when a true gospel preacher, a true fisherman stands
and declares God's word, who's getting the glory in it? If I'm
getting any of the glory, then it's not of him. He must get
all the glory, all of it. Every single preacher of God
knows this, that we're a bunch of nobodies. that we're not worthy
to do this. We're not qualified to partake
in the things of God at all, to hear Him, to believe Him,
to stand and declare them. We're not worthy. And we know
that. We don't wonder, do we? We know
it. We know we couldn't be any more unworthy than we are, so
unworthy. You just consider briefly these
four men, Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Were they worthy for
this? Were they qualified to go preach the glory of God, the
kingdom of God? Were they? Honestly, they were
fishermen. vile, wretched men. That's what
they were. And yet God called them and sent
them with his message. You know, I hear it said sometimes
that, well, God foreknew. He saw in the portals of time
who would believe on him and who would give their life to
him. And did he choose these men because he saw something
in them? I hope by the time this message
is over, if you think so, that God's word will show us, no,
not at all, not at all. Everything God does for us is
in spite of us, everything. I don't care what it is, everything.
You had a bad day? Well, I deserve much worse. I
feel burdened? Well, I really deserve a whole
lot worse than my state is, honestly. The Lord called these men. because
of this, what he told Jeremiah. He said, before I formed thee
in the belly, before I formed thee in your mother's belly,
in your mother's womb, I knew you. I ordained you a prophet
unto the nations. Before Peter, Andrew, James,
and John were ever in their mother's womb, they had been called and
ordained of God from eternity to preach the glorious gospel
of Jesus Christ. And then in time, he came to
them and called them and revealed himself to them and sent them
with that Responsibility, with that burden. God chose, we don't choose this,
He chose, and again, our brother read it, the foolishness of preaching.
Any of you who've stood here and done this, don't you just
feel like a fool up here? Honestly. And yet God chose this seemingly
foolish means, foolish to us, foolish that He would reveal
His glory through a sinful vessel like myself. The foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe, 1 Corinthians 1.21.
God chose that. It never ceases to amaze me.
Christ saved us by His work on the cross. He saved us in His
effectual redemption by the pouring out of His blood and the breaking
of His holy perfect body. Yet God uses the preaching of
His word to reveal that to us, to reveal Christ in us and give
us faith to believe on Him and Him alone. And you know why he uses foolish
means and weak, sinful, base, despised men like you and me?
Here's why, and it tells us this in 1 Corinthians 1, that no flesh
should glory in his presence, and that he that glorieth may
glory in the Lord. That we may not glory, there's
so much glory amongst the world, amongst religions, so much glory
in each other, so much glory in preachers. And a man has a
Bible and you go, oh, look out. A man says, I'm a preacher. Firm
handshake. This should make us tremble.
Just the thought of coming here and worshiping Him should break
us, honestly. When we understand what it is
we're doing, whose word it is we're looking at, it's not my
word, it's God's word, God Almighty. Well, we're just going to church.
We're here to worship Him. We're here to speak in His name.
We're here to give Him all the glory and praise for everything. And I pray that he might get
the glory and praise and everything that's done here today and every
day, every time. Turn with me over to Corinthians,
2 Corinthians 2. 2 Corinthians 2. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14. Now thanks be unto God, which
always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest
the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are
unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in
them that perish. To the one we are the savor of
death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto
life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not
as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity,
but as of God in the sight of God. Speak we in Christ. Who is sufficient to enter into
the things of God? And I'm not just talking about
preaching, though it seems that's what he's talking about here. That God would reveal anything
to us. Is that not amazing to you? That
he would reveal his person, his holiness, his character, and
his willingness and ability to save sinners like us. Who's sufficient
for these things? I'm not. Paul wasn't. None of
us are. No man is. We're trusting Him and Him alone
to save us and do for us what we can't do for ourselves and
what standing here we can't do for each other. We're relying
on Him, on Him alone. Look over at chapter 3 right
here, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5. Paul said, not that we're sufficient
of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New
Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter
killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. We are nothing. Paul used to be a high and mighty
man. He rode a high horse. And then he became so low, he
couldn't get any lower. less than the least of all saints,
the chief of sinners, nothing, nothing. But he had everything. He had
some sufficiency, not in himself, but in Christ. He had all sufficiency
of God in Christ. Christ is all. 1 Corinthians
1, Christ has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Whatever it is I need, Christ is it. He's all,
Christ is all, and in all His people. All my hope is in Him,
the glorious God and Savior that He is and the wondrous works
that He accomplished for sinners like me, obtained eternal redemption
for me, put away my sin by the sacrifice of Himself as far as
the east is from the west. So far, He's removed my transgressions
from me, made me to be a new creature in Him, He's done it all. Now quickly,
this matter of fishing for men, how do we do it? How do we do
it? Turn to Luke's account of what
we were looking at in Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5, verse 4. This is the account of our text
where the Lord came and called these men. Luke 5, 4, 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 have toiled all the night and have
taken nothing. Now he was talking about fishing,
okay? He'd fished all night and caught
nothing. But I see a picture here to preaching. We can toil. all day and night. We can study day and night and
then get up here a few times a week and preach the word, but
we can take nothing. You understand what I'm saying?
It's not up to us to take. God has called his men to the
work, but God must bless it. He must do the fishing, if you
will, okay? We do this acknowledging we're
so unable, no ability in here to bless the word. I could impress
you, maybe, I doubt it, but maybe I could impress somebody. I can't
impress God. What a fool would think such
a thing, that we could impress God. We confess that our labors
are in vain if the Lord be not with us. If you don't carry me,
Lord, if you're not with us, don't carry us up. You must be
with us. We can toil all night, but we
need Him to speak. I can't tell you how I'm relying
on Him right now. I need the Lord to bless His word every
time. Right here, verse five again. How do we fish for men?
Acknowledging we're nothing and we're completely relying on Him. And
we fish for men according to His word. Simon Peter, let down your net.
We're casting forth the gospel net when we stand here and open
God's word and declare what it says. Declare it is finished. Christ is all. You're completing
him. Casting the net. And you know what? God will see
to it that all of his people swim into that net. Oh, all our life we've been Baited
and hooked, hooked and baited. Oh, we just believed everything
under the sun, didn't we? But now we've been caught by the
net, the gospel net. And we don't have to wonder who
caught us, do we? Fish ain't got a clue who caught them, they're
just some guy. That's who most preachers are, they're just some
guy. If we ever find ourselves enclosed in the gospel net, we'll
know who caught us, God. We'll be so glad to be in that
net. Please don't take me out. Oh, don't take me out. Let me
stay right here. Let me stay in this net. Oh, please. God
says get in the net. We get in the net. He sees to
it. How do we fish for men? Relying
on God and God alone. According to His Word, what do
we preach? The Word. Preach the Word. Preach the Word,
nothing else. And we fish for men trusting
in the Lord. When Peter, right here, when the Lord came to him,
the first thing he said, well, we've been doing this all night.
Well, but at your Word. We'll do it. In his flesh, he
doubted. He didn't know the Lord yet. But then right after this,
that's when he says, depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord.
That's how the Lord revealed himself to him, was by performing
this miracle for him and revealing to him who he was. And that's
exactly what he does through the preaching of his word. He
reveals to us who he is in the person of Jesus Christ. And we
know it's him. We know it's him. We declare
the gospel and then we wait on the Lord to bless it as he will.
He will add to the church daily such as should be saved. I can't,
I won't, but he will and he does and I rejoice to know it. This
gospel, this glorious gospel of Christ is the power of God
unto salvation. To everyone that believes, the
Jew, the Greek, doesn't matter who we are, the power of God. He
will work and who shall let it? He doesn't need me to help him
and thank God I can't hinder him. He will work. He will let
it. He'll see to it. And quickly,
look with me at the last chapter of the book of Acts, and I'll
close. Acts chapter 28. When it comes to fishing for
men, God calls men to it. He calls men to the work. He's
their sufficiency. It's His work. And He will see
to it that He will catch, He will draw all His people to Himself. Every single one. Every fish
that got in that net, God called that fish to the net. I'm sure
there were a lot of fish in the sea. But every fish that God
purposed to get in the net got in the net. That's what I'm telling
you. Right here, Acts 28, look at verse 24. And some believed the things
which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not
among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one
word, Quoting Isaiah here, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah
the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people and
say, Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing
you shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people
is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should heal them. Verse 28, "...be it known
therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles,
and that they will hear it." What we looked at in the first
verse there said, some believed and some believed not. Then he
says, the salvation of God has gone out. And the Gentiles, they
will hear it. That represents God's people.
The Gentiles, the nothings, the nobodies, the wretches, they'll
hear it. They'll receive it. They'll believe
it. They'll love it. Now make no mistake, what we
just read in verse 27, Their heart is waxed gross, their ears
are dull of hearing, their eyes have they closed. They can't
hear, they can't see, they can't understand, and none of us can
until God in his mercy comes to us like he did to those four
men and speaks to us, reveals himself to us, and gives us faith
in him. We'll be out living our life,
whatever our occupation is, whatever we're all about, we'll be out
there doing it. Sinning against God with every breath that goes
forth, every thought in our heart, every motive we have for everything
we do. Cursing God until God comes to us and says, follow
me. And then nothing will ever be
the same. Will we still sin? Of course we will. That's what
this old man is. That's all we know how to do.
But I just mentioned that he made us new creatures in Christ.
New heart, new spirit. One with him. Verse 29 right
here, and when he had said these words, the Jews departed and
had great reasoning among themselves. And Paul dwelt two whole years
in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him. People
were coming to him. Why? To hear of Christ. Verse 31 right here, preaching
the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the
Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. What's
your message? We preach the kingdom of God.
His kingdom is not of this world. He has a heavenly kingdom, and
it's gonna be full of a bunch of slimy fish like us. We preach Christ crucified, the
things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ." I love that. With
all confidence. We know there's no other message.
We're absolutely convinced, persuaded of it. No man forbidding him.
Pray the Lord, give me that confidence. Cause me to trust Him fully.
I'll leave you with this, Isaiah 55, 11. The Lord said this, so
shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not
return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please,
and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. God's pleased
to use his word. He sends his word, he sends it
on purpose, he sends it for a purpose, and it's gonna accomplish that
purpose, that he's pleased. And he's been pleased to beget
his people with the word, the word of truth, to save us by
it, give us faith in Christ. I pray the Lord might speak to
us, that he might come to us and cause us to believe on him
and him alone, amen.