Turn back to Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one. In case there's anybody here
who doesn't know this, I am a fisherman. Many or all of you may have gone
fishing, but you may not be a fisherman. You say, what's the difference? I've heard it explained this
way. It's either in your blood or it's not. I've got three grandchildren
that are older. Three, they're little guys, but
of those three older ones, one of them's got it bad. I can see
it in him. I can see it in him. Fishermen
love to fish. Boy, we do love it so. We will,
if at all possible, go fishing for any fish, anywhere, anytime. In the word of God, we learned
that four, at least four of the Lord's disciples were fishermen. Simon, Peter, Andrew, James,
and John, they were all fishermen. They had it bad. And I'll prove
that to you near the end of the message. But look here in Mark
1 verse 16. Now as he, our Lord, walked by
the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, now that's Simon Peter, and he
saw Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they
were fishers. That means they were fishermen.
Verse 17, 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. Now what's the difference
between a fisherman and a fisher of men? A fisherman's desire
may be found or explained as being, it's just in his blood.
A fisher of men, his desire, his very existence can only be
explained or understood by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is using an earthly
example here to illustrate a spiritual truth or a lesson. Now I know
some of you are fishermen like me and you do love it too. You're eating up with it. You
ever heard that phrase? He's just eating up with that.
Just born that way. I've seen, I've seen Seen some
of you when we get to showing each other pictures? I've seen
some pictures. Some of you got those big ones.
And it lights us up, doesn't it? We can't help it. It leaks out
on us. People learn we're fishermen. It can't be hidden. Turn over
to Romans 12 with me. Now, everyone in here is not
a fisherman, but everyone in this room who loves the Lord
Jesus Christ, you are a fisher of men. You've been made one
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord has been, we've been
made one by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the reason for that and how
it's happened is that he caused us to fall in love with him.
We're consumed with him, everything about him. Your great joy and
pleasure is hearing or learning and worshiping the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, we weren't born that way,
were we? But I tell you what, we were
reborn that way. That's what the second birth
is. By nature, we have no interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
don't like him. But if we're born again, it's
who we are. We can't help it. When he is
spoken of in spirit and in truth, you know what we do? We light
up. We just light up. When we spiritually see a picture
of him, when we hear of his great work, we can't wait to talk to
each other about it when this is over. or to tell someone else,
anybody who listened, we like to tell them, don't we? Who the
Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's done and why he did it. However, not every fisher of
men, everybody in here who loves Christ has been made a fisher
of men. But not all fisher of men, we're
not all apostles, are we? In fact, none of us are apostles.
We're not all preachers and teachers. Look here in Romans 12, verse
four, what this says. For as we have many members of
one body and all members have not the same office or the same
gifts, so we being many are one body in Christ and every one
members one of another, having then gifts differing according
to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, some have
the gift of prophecy. Our pastor has the gift of prophecy. He can preach, that word means
preach there. And it says, if we have that
gift, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Some ministry. Some have that
gift. That's being a pastor. Or let
us wait on our ministering. Or he that teaches on teaching. Or he that exhorteth on exhortation. You say, what's that gift? I
can tell you this from personal experience. Many of you have
that gift of exhortation. I got a call early this week. I was so blue. I shouldn't have
been. I had no reason to be, really.
I was so blue. And one of you called me and gave me the best exhortation. It made me weep. And I'll tell
you why. Not only because I got the exhortation,
the encouragement from someone, but I know who caused it. It wasn't you or you or you that
did it. It was our God that did it. He
enabled one of you to be a fisher of men. You say, well, I thought
we'd already been caught. Well, it doesn't stop that. I
mean, a pastor doesn't, we do preach. We want to go on a new
radio station, so somebody might hear the gospel and come here.
But I tell you what, we keep coming here, don't we? Because
we need to hear it over and over and over. You preach one time,
or you speak one time. Once the gift is given, it's
exercised until either the Lord takes it away or we go to be
with Him. Look at what is next. It says, He that giveth, let
him do it with simplicity. He who has the gift of giving,
whether it's money or material things or our help in situations,
whatever it is, do it liberally is what that means. And he that
ruleth with diligence. Some of your bosses have important
positions. Be diligent with it. Be the best
we can at it. And he that showeth mercy with
cheerfulness. It's a great thing to, and so
many of you have these gifts. This gift of mercy here, don't
you see in one another sometimes that somebody's just hurting?
You got somebody who's sick that you love, or you got something's
going on, and y'all are so kind. You're so merciful. And that's
what this is saying. There's all these gifts. And
here's my point with this. I know fishermen who have varied
abilities and talents. I've seen fellows who can take
a fly rod, you ever see them do that? And they go back and
forth and back and forth, and they can put that fly in a little
circle, in the smallest area. There's some who can take a bait
caster and throw it way out there and get it right where they want.
Some with a spinning rod. Others can lay a trout line or
cast a net or seine or use long lines. There's all these ways.
But just because they can't do them all or all equally well
does not mean that they're not a fisherman. If you can do any
one of those things, you're a fisherman. God's people, fishers of men,
they don't all have the same offices or the same gifts, much
less all the offices or all the gifts. A few have all the gifts. I'm grateful. I've known some
men that they just seem to have all the gifts. Some have only one gift. Listen
to this. It does not make either one,
the one who has them all or the one who has one, it does not
make either one any less a child of God or anyone more a child
of God depending on how many gifts we have. We are not made
God's children because we went and got or developed some gift
or gifts. No. We have the gift, or gifts,
only if God has put us in Christ, having made us his child. Everyone
in Christ is a fisher of men, and therefore receives the gift,
or gifts, or the ability, or abilities, which will get our
Lord the most glory. You say, how come this person's
got more gifts than this person? The only explanation I can give
you is Christ must get greater glory that way. If God the Father called two
angels, he summoned two angels before his throne and he said
this to them. He said, on such and such a day,
I want one of you to go to Bethlehem and hover over that place and
herald the birth of my son. And then he said, and I want
one of you to go down there the night before and sweep the dung
out of the stable where my son will be born. You know they wouldn't
care which one did what. They wouldn't care one bit. They would rejoice either way. Why? Because their very existence
is to glorify their God. Hear this, they don't become
angels by doing his bidding. They do His bidding because they're
His angels. Do we understand the difference
there? We don't get to be fishers of men by what we do. We're made fishers of men because
He's made us that way. It gets Him the greatest glory.
And may God give us the grace and the wisdom and the peace
and the desire, the joy, and the contentment to be whatever
comes with or does not come with being his fishers of men. Let me give you this illustration.
I knew a man. He died 12 years ago. We worshipped
together under the same fisher of men, the same pastor, for
28 years. He'd worshipped with this pastor
years before that. but that I met him and we were
in the same congregation for 28 years. In all that time, never
once did he preach. Never once did he teach a class
or anything else. Never once did he read the scriptures,
either from the pulpit or in any public setting that I'm aware
of. He never once led the singing or sang a special or played an
instrument in a worship service. Never once did he ever lead in
public prayer that I'm aware of. Now, that may cause us to
ask this question. Does that mean he was not much
of a fisher of men? Does that mean that he was not
a fisher of men at all? Well, let me give you a little
more information about this fellow. This man was a generous man to
his church, and especially to missionaries. You say, how do
you know how generous he was? Well, I had no part in counting
the money, none at all. On one occasion only, there was an effort being made
in regard to a missionary who had a great need. And for some
reason, all the fellows who counted the money but one weren't there.
And there should always be at least two doing that to help
one another. And I was asked to help. And
I got back there and started unfolding checks and whatever.
And he said, well, read them off to me. And I read them off.
And I got to this one check and I went, whoa, whoa, whoa. It was this man. I didn't think
he had that kind of money. But he didn't. But he gave. He gave liberally. It's the only
time that ever happened. with me involved with that. This
man had a small business. Everyone who ever worked for
him said he was a most kind and generous man. Two of his employees
at his bidding came to hear the gospel. And you know what? They
never left. They never left. They said he
was the best boss they ever, ever had. This man always had
a kind and cheerful spirit and attitude. He had that even as
he watched his wife die of cancer. He became an example to his fellow
fishers of men that the Lord his God could sustain all of
his fishers of men even in a raging storm. This man's pastor said
this of him. He said he single-handedly was
responsible for bringing more people to hear the gospel preached
than all the other fishers of men in that church combined. How'd that happen? He had a gift. Had a gift. Is anyone now asking,
was he really a fisher of men? He just had less obvious gifts
than others had. Turn to 1 Corinthians 13. You see, our salvation is not
dependent on how much or how little we do. Our salvation is
totally dependent on what Christ has already done. Our Lord lived
a sinless life for 33 years. What are we going to add to that? He died a terrible death for
the sins he did not commit. Why? so that when our fisher
of men days are over, they're gonna be over, they're over for
Dale now. So grateful for that. But when those fisher of days
are over and we arrive before the throne of glory, you know
what we can hear? Oh, welcome, welcome. You're quite the fisher of men.
To which we might reply or think, when was I that? When was I? a great fisher of men. And he
answers, when you did it to the least of my saints, your brethren,
you did it to me. Did what? Did what? Well, chapter
13 is called the chapter of love. You see, when we loved one another,
we loved Christ. When we loved Christ, we loved
one another. And when Christ loved us, we
loved one another and him. But before this chapter 13 is
chapter 12. You see, Christ was the perfect
fisher of men and so are we in him. Look here, it's okay, it's okay
to covet, to desire. It's the only time I can find
in the scripture where the word covet is used in a positive way. You see, verse 31 of 1 Corinthians
12 says, but covet earnestly the best gifts. You know, it's
OK to think, I could preach better than Bob. You probably could.
And in time, you may. That'd be great. That'd be reason
for rejoicing. The Lord raised somebody up to
preach the gospel or to teach or do whatever. It's okay to
covet that, to desire that. But look up here in verse 27. Here's the good news. Now you
are the body of Christ and of members in particular. Nobody
here is going to arrive one day before the throne and be told,
well, you weren't much of a fisher. You didn't get much done. You
know why? All that's going to be seen is
what Christ did. And if we're standing there in
him, he goes, oh, you were quite the fissure of men. But look
here in verse 28, it says, and God has set some in the church.
First apostles, secondarily prophets, that's preachers, thirdly teachers,
after that, those who could work miracles, then gifts of healing,
helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles,
are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles?
Of course not. Having all the gifts of healing, do all speak
with tongues, do all interpret? It says, it's okay to covet earnestly
these best gifts, and yet show I unto you a more excellent way. You know what that is? He spends
the next 13 verses telling us. You may not be able to preach,
but you can love one another, can't we? We can do that. By
his grace, we can do that. Brother Henry wrote this about
chapter 13. At the close of chapter 12, Paul
exhorted the Corinthians to desire the best spiritual gifts for
the glory of God, the preaching of the gospel and the good of
the whole church, that there is something better than supernatural
gifts. There is something to be desired
more than knowledge, unusual spiritual talents and offices,
and that is true, sincere, heart love of God and men. That's the surest evidence that
we are fishers of men, if we love one another. Turn back to
John chapter eight with me. And let me use the balance of
my time showing you just a few differences between fishermen
and fishers of men. This first one's a little embarrassing
since I've already admitted I'm a fisherman. You know what all
fishermen are? We are flat-out liars. We are
flat-out liars. That two-and-a-half-pound bass,
we hold it up and show the picture and says, hey, he's almost five
pounds. That 24-inch walleye, wow, he's almost 40 inches. We
get into a mess of white bass, and we were catching them so
fast, we were just throwing them in the boat, looked up, almost
sank the boat. Really? Really? I don't have to convince
anybody anymore about that, do we? What's the problem with us
fishermen? When Adam sinned, we all became
liars. By nature, there's no truth in
us. But let me tell you about fissures of men. You know, we,
thank God, do not have to exaggerate anything. We don't have to leave
anything out. We don't have to admit any truth
because the truth is good enough. The word of God is good enough. It will persuade men or we will
not be persuaded. Look at John 8, verse 30. As he spake these words, many
believed on him. This is our Lord. Then said Jesus
to those Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my
word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the
truth and the truth shall make you free. Make you free. I'm a big fat liar. But do you
know what? I'm free from that sin. Christ
has put it away and making us one of His fishers of men. Free? You say free? Yes, free from
sin. Christ put it away at Calvary.
Free from the law? Yes, Christ fulfilled it in His
life for us, all His people. Let me give you this second thing.
Fishermen never know or rarely know what he'll catch. He can
be after a certain kind of fish, but he doesn't have any assurance
he'll catch them. You know, sometimes all we catch is a cold or we
catch a sunburn. or something, but fishers of
men, they always catch the ones for whom they're sent to catch.
And you know they have a name in the scriptures. You know what
they're called? The called. They are named the
called. In Romans 1, they are the called
to be saints. In Romans 8, them who are the
called according to his purpose. Turn back a couple of pages to
John 6, Have any of you ever heard, I
know the fishermen have, you ever heard the term trash fish?
They have names like carb, or sucker, or bottom feeder. If a fisherman catches one of
those, you know what he does? He either kills it or throws
it back. Our Lord, on the other hand,
look here in John 6 verse 37, All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Thanks be to God. He will never
throw us back even though we're bottom feeders. Thirdly, don't expect the high
and the mighty, the noble or the rich to pay much attention
to us fishers of men. After all, we're just trash fish
bottom feeders, aren't we? We're just sinners. Saved by
grace. Turn back to Malachi before the
book of Matthew, Malachi chapter 3. When guys go fishing, when fishermen
go fishing, you know what they're after? The big ones. Want to get the big ones. Want
to get the most beautiful fish, the big sailfish or the rarest
of fish. And when he catches one, you
know what he does with it? He kills it. He stuffs it, makes
it a trophy, puts it on the wall for what purpose? So everybody
can, he can tell everybody, look what I got. Look what I did for
his own glory. When our Lord, the great fisher
of men, catches one of the called, one of the bottom feeders, you
know, he knows us for what we are. We're the lowest of sinners. What does he do? Does he give
us what we deserve? Does he give us death? Does he
toss us back? Look at Malachi 3 verse 16. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another. Let me pause here a minute. I
thought of this as I read this. I had that word spake circled. One of the great gifts of the
fishers of men is that we speak to one another. No doubt we give
each other plenty of reason to never speak to one another again
in the flesh, but what a blessing that coming in that door out
of the study tonight, it sounds like there's so much conversation
going on. After this is over, Lord willing,
we're all gonna talk to each other and fellowship, and one
of the great gifts is to speak to one another. It's an outpouring
of love one for another. And it says, then they that feared
the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I
make up my jewels. You know what that word is? Trophy. He said, when I make
up my trophies, he said, I will spare them as a man spareth his
own son that serveth him. God's trophies in Exodus 19,
they're called a peculiar treasure. Who would take a 10-pound sucker
and have him mounted and hang him on his wall? I've never seen
that done. Maybe somebody has. A bottom
feeder? Mm-mm. Our Lord takes us, the
worst of the worst, sinners, and he makes us his special jewels,
his special trophies. He delivers us and makes us his
own. He loves us. He does not give
us the death we deserve. He gave that to his son. He gives
us life. You know, fishing is a bloody
business, especially for the fish. All the fish, they're kept,
their blood is shed. They're gutted with a knife,
their skin is flayed off, their bones are torn out, and then
they're devoured. Know what you do with the fish
when you catch them? How about fishers of men? Do we realize
that's a bloody business too? Not for us, the called. Not for
us, the bottom feeders. It's a bloody business for the
one who calls. the fishers of men. It's a bloody
business for the one who sins, the fishers of men. It's a bloody
business for the one who died, for the fishers of men. Christ's
blood was shed on Calvary. Listen to what was done to him.
His body was pierced. His bones were out of joint,
hanging there. His skin was flayed off with
a cat of nine tails. He was gutted by that spear,
and he died devoured at the hands of wicked men and women. His
blood was shed for this reason, so ours won't have to be. He
died, so we won't have to return. Now, turn to John 21. Let me
give you this, and we're almost done. Turn to John 21. Even when we want to give up
and quit, quit being fishers of men, anybody here ever had
that happen? You just throw up your hands and go, you know,
there's no hope for me. I'm hopeless, helpless. Even
then, our Lord will keep us. He won't throw us back. You know,
after he died, what happened to those fellows that were fishermen?
Look here in John 21.3. Simon Peter said unto them, as
some of the other disciples, he said, I'm going fishing. I'm
going back fishing. And what'd they say? They said
unto him, we'll go with you. We'll go with you. And they went
forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they
caught nothing. But when the morning was come
now, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that
it was Jesus. You notice they didn't go looking
for him. He came where they were. When
Jesus said to them, children, have you any meat? They answered
no. Hadn't caught a thing. He said
to them, we'll cast the net on the right side of the ship, and
you'll find. They cast their four, and now
they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
Therefore, that disciple who Jesus loved, this is John, said
unto Peter, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. At the very time
we'll get most discouraged, He'll come to us. He may send some
other fisher of men to preach a message to us or just pick
up the phone and call us or just have an encouraging word and
tell us. The Lord still loves us. no matter
what our state is at any point in time. Now when Simon Peter
heard that, it was the Lord, he threw off his coat, or he
put on his coat, for he was naked and did cast himself into the
sea. And you know the rest of the story, they got to shore
and the Lord had, he didn't need their fish, he'd already prepared
some on a fire for them there. The Lord sat there and you know
what he did? He let Peter come and rest his
head against his breast here. And he let John, the first two
fishermen he called, and he had him come and rest his breast
right here. And he sat there with his arms
around him. At the very moment, we were ready
to quit. He'll snug us up. He'll give us what we need. He'll
encourage us again. He'll do for us. But what did
he say to Peter? See verse 17, well first of all,
first he said to Peter, he said, Peter, do you love me? Peter
said, Lord, yeah, I love you. And the second time he said to
him, Peter, do you love me? And he said, yeah, Lord, you
know I love you. And he said, well, feed my sheep.
And then in verse 17, he said unto Peter a third time, Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter was grieved, because
he said unto him the third time, Why? Three times he denied our
Lord. He said, Lovest thou me? And
Peter said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest
that I love thee. And what did our Lord say? Jesus
saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Now, here's what
I want us to, the last thing I want us to get about this.
Turn back to our text. Mark 1, fishers of men desire
to do whatever the Lord our God would have us to do. When our
Lord died and Peter and the others were obviously so discouraged
they quit, they said we're going fishing. And a great lesson here
is that our being great or small, fishers of men, is no more dependent
on what we feel or what we think or even what we do any more than
our being children of God is dependent on our works. He makes
us a fisher of men, all of us. And we will become what our Lord
makes us to be, no more, no less. And whatever that is, it takes
time. It happens according to his purpose
in his time. He did not tell Peter and Andrew
this. He did not, listen closely, he
did not say to them, I'll make you fishers of men." You almost
said that when you read it, didn't you, Tony? And you went back
and corrected yourself. He certainly did not say, today
I'll make you fishers of men. Look what he did say to Peter.
You see here in verse 17, Jesus said unto him, come ye after
me and I will make you to become fishers of men. It takes time. It's a process. He doesn't save
somebody and two days later put them in the pulpit. He doesn't
save somebody and the next day have them get up here and lead
the singing. I don't care how well he can
do it. He doesn't just one day save somebody and they become
the most compassionate, sweetest, most merciful, kind person in
the world. It's a process. We are being
saved. We have been saved. We are being
saved and we will be saved. We're in the are being saved
stage of this thing. It takes time. Let us try to
be patient. It's okay to be eager. It's okay
to desire, to covet. It's fine. But God give us the
grace to wait upon him. And in the waiting, What he'll
do is he'll bless us beyond all comprehension. So that the day
will come when we appear before his throne and he says, you're
quite the fisher of men. In fact, in my son, you were
the perfect fisher of men. Well, I hope this will bless
someone and it'll be to our benefit encouragement. Okay, Dwight.