Title of the message is A Lesson
in Service. Our Lord gives us a lesson here
in service. Those whom the Lord saves, he
also calls them to service. Every one of us serve in the
kingdom of God, in his vineyard, every one of us. You might say, well, what is
my service? Where he's put you right now, that's your service. Where you're working, you're
not just there working to pay bills and put food on the table.
You're a light. He said, you're the light of
the world. He put you there on purpose. You serve him where
he's put you. There are no loiterers. in the
Kingdom of God. However, before we can serve,
there must be a revelation of Christ to the soul. And there is no knowing the Lord
Jesus Christ apart from Him showing Himself or revealing Himself
to us and directing our steps. Lord, what would you have me
to do? Isn't that what Paul said? What would you have me to do?
Where would you have me to go? Jeremiah, Lord, here am I, send
me. I believe it's Jeremiah. You
get older, you start to question yourself. But here am I, send
me. And God's children are serious
about that. That's not just a, A religious
statement, or trying to sound religious, that's true. You want
to do the Lord's will, don't you? I want to do His will. Even
if it means selling out everything and going to a place where He
would have me to be, that's the Lord's will. But there's a special
revelation to the soul. You know, back in John 14, 22,
Judas said unto Him, not Iscariot, not Judas Iscariot, he said,
How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto
the world? How will you do that? See, there's
a special revelation that Christ gives to those whom He saves,
that He does not give to the world. The world knows Him not,
but you know Him. That's what He said there in
John 14, you know Me, you know Me. You see, He reveals Himself
to His disciples first of all as their Lord and Savior. The
world only sees Him as a historical figure. The believer sees Him
as His Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption.
As their Prophet, Priest, and King, He's our All-in-all. That's
how we see Him, but the world sees Him as as a historical figure. You know, every Christmas they'll
have a manger and they'll have a nativity scene and that's how
they see Him. We see Him seated at the throne
of God. We see Him reigning over all.
That's how we see Him. That's a special revelation.
Now after these things, in verse 1, after these things Jesus showed
Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And on
this wise showed He Himself." Christ is always showing Himself
to His disciples. There is a continual revelation
of the Lord to the heart. It's not just a one-time thing.
It's not something that happened, you know, I was saved 45 plus
years ago, whatever. Well, He's been showing Himself
to me ever since. If He's really saved you, He's
showing Himself to you continually. And this is how we grow in grace
and knowledge of Christ as He keeps showing Himself, revealing
Himself to the heart. Now there are seven disciples
mentioned here in verse 2. This is the number of completion,
but you know what I see here? In verse 2, there were together
Simon, Peter, Thomas called Didymus. Well, he stayed with them this
time. And Nathanael of Cana and Galilee and the sons of Zebedee
and two others of his disciples. Here's unity. Here's unity. You know, not all these men were
fishermen, but when Peter said, I go fishing, they said, we're
going too. They stayed together. Don't miss that. They stayed
together. See, Thomas was missing the last time, but now there's
a number of seven, a number of completion. There's real unity
now among the brethren. Even though some of them didn't
know how to fish, but they went, they went, they stayed together,
unity. But He's going to give us here
some lessons in service. Verse 3, Simon Peter said unto
them, I go fishing. You see, the Lord had revealed
Himself twice to them in Jerusalem. Well, now that Sabbath day and
stuff was over, they all went back to their respective homes,
but seven of them stayed together. And they said, we go with thee also. This is interesting here. They
had not yet received their commission to go into all the world and
preach the gospel. I mean, they were together, they
were unity here. And I'm gonna say this about
them, they were not lazy. God's preachers are not lazy
men. Peter knew this, he went back
home He went back to the shores there
where he was fishing and he just said, I'm gonna go fishing. But
we're gonna see something here. What we're gonna see is this,
working in the energy of the flesh produces no fruit. And
the Lord lets them see this. And He lets us see this, that
if we are working in the energy of the flesh, doing something
that God has not called us to do or sent us to do, there's
gonna be no fruit in it. It's going to come to nothing.
It's going to come to nothing. Here they were not walking as
children of light. They were just men. They were
walking as men. They said, I'm going to go back
to work. I'm going back to my old occupation.
But they're going to remember this in John 15. And he makes
us to remember this. Without me, you can do nothing. Without me, nothing happens.
They're gonna learn this because he's gonna send them out into
the world to go out into all the world to preach the gospel
We have the gospel because of these men preaching the gospel
And it just spread like a like a wave over the world. It just
like the wave ocean wave going coming into shore But it started
with them though. They started with 12 men 12 nobody
fishermen a mixed group Only the gospel can bring a mixed
group of people together and they're happy and they love each
other and they want to be with each other. They enjoy each other's
company. Only the gospel can do that. But they went forth. They went
forth and And they had not yet remembered
what the Lord said in Mark 1 17. And Jesus said to them, come
ye after me, and I'll make you to become fishers of men. Now
they were fishers, but now they're gonna learn, this is not what
you're called to. He that woreth, Paul said, he
that woreth entangles not himself again with the affairs of this
life. That's why you support me. Because I'm not gonna entangle
myself again with the affairs of this life. My responsibility
is to study and preach Christ to you, feed the sheep. That's
my responsibility. That's totally my responsibility.
I'm not an ambulance chaser. I'm a preacher, pastor. That's
what I am. I don't chase ambulances and
try to give people a card and talk them into a profession. I stand here and preach the gospel
to you week after week. That's my number one responsibility,
to stand here and glorify Jesus Christ, and in doing so, the
sheep are fed. That's how I've learned to feed
the sheep, glorify the Lord, and the sheep are fed. And they
entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing.
It's interesting, they fished at night. They were working in
the night. Here's a lesson. As I already
said once, nothing happens apart from Christ. They're out there
in the night. And the Lord will not bless that which he's not
called us to. And our Lord does not work in the dark. I want
you to notice this in verse four. But when the morning was now
come, Jesus stood on the shore. He's not working in the dark.
Our Lord's the light of the world. He's the true light. But when
the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples
knew not it was Jesus. They didn't know Him. Why did
they not know Him? Here's why. Because they were
at too far a distance from Him. There's a spiritual application
here. Let us stay close to our Lord. Paul put it this way. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. In other words, Keep yourself
in the sense of His love for you, in the sense of His presence
for you. Keep yourself in the sense of
that. In other words, study the Word of God and seek the Lord.
Study His Word and seek Him continually. That's why they didn't recognize
Him. And also this, they didn't recognize Him because the Lord
must reveal Himself to us continually. Or we wouldn't recognize Him.
We're that dull. I know we don't like to hear
that, but we're that dull, spiritually. And we oughtn't be. This is why
we need to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him. And when
He speaks, we recognize it's the Lord. And I want you to notice,
this is when they recognize when He speaks. Later on here. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children.
Sounds like the Father speaking, doesn't it? Whom one speak, they
all speak. The whole Trinity speaks. Have
you any meat? And they answered him, no. He made them face their inability
even to catch fish without him. I'm going to tell you, this is
a true experience. The Lord made me realize in my
early, early days that I could not preach. I realized that I
couldn't do it. I didn't want to do it. I would
go home from the service and I would be in tears. I said,
why am I doing this? I can't preach. Why am I doing
this? I didn't want to be called on
to pray. I didn't want Henry to call on me to pray. I did
not want him to call on me to preach. I wouldn't look at him.
I stayed away from him. I'm telling you the truth. I
stayed away from him. I didn't want to be in the pulpit. And after
I learned I couldn't preach, then the Lord started using me
to preach. You can't catch fish without me. He said, I'll make
you fishers of men. You'll be fishers of men, but
you can't fish without me. The work is of God, the power
is of God. Have we learned that without
Christ we can do nothing? Have we learned that yet? I mean, I'm not talking about
just the ministry here, now. I'm talking about everything.
Without Christ, don't be silly enough to do this,
but just take the next breath. Try to take the next breath without
Him. You can't do it. He even gives breath to those
who don't believe Him. They breathe by His power. It's not just automatic. MAN
SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS
FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD. BREATHE. BREATHE. And you're breathing. That's why. EVERYTHING WE DO,
WE MUST HAVE HIM WITH US AND BLESSING US. SATAN SAID TO THE
LORD CONCERNING JOB, HE SAID, YOU HAVE BLESSED THE WORK OF
HIS HANDS. IF HE DOESN'T, YOU'RE GOING TO STARVE TO DEATH. I promise
you, you'll starve to death. You'll be in the soup line if
He doesn't bless the work of your hands and my hands. Now they have direction from
above. The Lord's going to speak to them. They have a command
where to fish. It's so interesting. Verse 6,
And He said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the
ship, and you shall find. He didn't reprimand them, He said, cast your net on the
right side of the ship. And they cast their fore, and
now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
You remember when Paul wanted to go to Asia and the Lord forbade
him? He said, no, you're gonna go where I want you to go. You're
not gonna go to Asia, you're gonna go where I want you to
go. Our labor in the Lord's vineyard is directed by Him. Our Lord
directs our steps, He sends the gospel where He will. You read
this, I mean, you can read of another time over in Luke chapter
five, one through 11, when the Lord was on the shore teaching,
then he told the disciples that was in the ship with him, he
said, launch out into the deep. Remember, they're going to go
out there and they're going to catch a whole draft of fish,
a whole net of fish, just like they did here. Launch out into
the deep because that's where sinners are. They're in a deep
pit. You and I, until God saved us,
we had no idea how deep in sin we were. How lost. Have you ever been lost? Have
you ever been lost? I tell you, those who are lost
are in a deep pit. And that's where fishing is done.
Preachers are sent to cast that gospel net into a deep, deep
ocean of a bunch of lost sinners. And I want you to notice, he
said, cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall
find. You know, maybe to this, is there. You shall find. If we follow his commands, we
will fish on the right side. Every other side is the wrong
side. Every other side is the wrong
side. No matter what you're doing, if it's not, if he doesn't command
you to fish on the right side, you're on the wrong side and
you're going to catch anything. There's going to be no fruit
of your labor in any way, shape or form. Cast on the right side
and you shall find. It's interesting here, this just
jumped out at me. Our Lord knows where the sheep are. He knows
where his sheep are. They're on the right side. Where's
His sheep now? They're at the right hand of
God. Are we not at His right hand? They cast their fore, and now
they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
Boy, when the Lord blesses, nothing can hold it back. Nothing can
stop His blessing. But here's something interesting.
I want to show you the power of His Word. Here are fishermen,
and especially somebody like Peter on the boat. And you know
Peter's gonna run that whole boat. He's gonna run the show.
But when the Lord spoke, and when they saw him on shore, they
didn't recognize him. They didn't know who he was.
He was a stranger to them at that point. But when he spoke,
they did what he said. See, that's the power of his
word. I tell you, everybody's gonna do what he said when he
speaks. This whole world is going to do what he said when he speaks.
That's the power of his word. Where the word of a king is,
it says there's power. They hadn't even recognized him
yet as the Lord. But when he spoke, they did exactly
what he said. And Peter, old impetuous Peter,
didn't smart off or say, who are you? No, he did what he was
told to do. That's the power of his word. NOTE THE RESULTS OF THIS OBEDIENCE.
NOW THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO DRAW IT FOR THE MULTITUDE OF FISHES.
YOU KNOW IT SAYS IN PSALM 1911, MOREOVER, BY THEM, BY THY COMMANDMENTS,
BY THY JUDGMENTS, AND BY THY STATUTES, BY THEM IS THY SERVANT
WARNED, LISTEN, AND IN KEEPING OF THEM THERE IS GREAT REWARD.
THEY DID WHAT THE LORD SAID, AND THEY CAUGHT A GREAT AMOUNT
OF FISH. And the Lord is teaching them here because he's gonna
send them out into the world and they're gonna become fishers
of men. And he's gonna say, without me, you can do nothing. In a
little while, you're not gonna see me again in the flesh, but
I'm with you. And they're gonna take him at
his word. That's what salvation is, taking him at his word. That's
faith, that's saving faith. They will remember this later
as they preach the gospel to the Gentiles. You see, all those
fishes represent Gentiles. It represents all of God's elect,
but it represents us Gentiles in that net too. And they're going to remember
this, that the power is of God and not of us. That's one thing
I can say about preaching. The Lord will always remind His
preacher that the power is not of you, it's of me. There'll
be times that I'll stand here and preach and I want to go home
and cry. A lot of times, I'm telling you, many times, I felt
like I completely failed. And as far as I'm concerned,
I did, but the Lord didn't. And He's going to teach me, and
all whom He calls to preach, the power is of God, not of you.
HE HAS PUT THIS TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS THAT THE EXCELLENCY OF
THE POWER MAY BE OF GOD AND NOT OF US. God makes us who preach,
He makes me realize my weakness more than you know. He makes
me realize, John you can't preach, I can but you can't, but I can
enable you to. I can enable you to take, and
this is what, here's one of the things I look for when I hear
a man preach. When he references, when he interprets scripture
with scripture, and they flow, they go together, they match,
it works. That's of God. That's of God. When you can take scripture in
the New Testament, scripture in the Old Testament, and you
can bring it out, that's of God. Only God can do that. He's the
one who wrote the book. It's His book. It's His Word.
And He enables me to put it together. How many times I've had people
say, I never saw that before. I didn't either. There was a
time I didn't see it. But that's why I sit in the study.
And that's why I come out here week after week and preach. And
we learn here little and there little. That's how we learn. Now the result here, as I said,
of obedience is the fruit of their labor. We see the fruit
of their labor. In verse 7, Therefore that disciple
whom Jesus loved, that's John. John, listen, John seemed to
be, and this is so with the Lord's people, you know, we're all on
different levels spiritually. We're all saved by the same grace,
by the same Spirit, by the same blood, by the same sacrifice.
But there are some who are more mature than others. I think John
was spiritually more mature than Peter and those others in the
ship. And I'll show you here. Therefore that disciple whom
Jesus loved, John, he's speaking of John, he said to Peter, it's
the Lord. It's the Lord. Now when Simon
Peter heard that, that it was the Lord, he didn't say, you're
right, it's the Lord. He jumped in the water, just
like he did at the tomb. He ran in the tomb. When he got
to the tomb, John stood there looking in, Peter said, get out
of the way, and he ran in. And I have no doubt that when
Peter heard, it's the Lord, it was still fresh in his mind,
he denied the Lord, he wanted to get to Him first. He wanted
to get to Him first to show, Lord, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Because Peter's the
one he deals with here in the next week, Lord willing. Do you
love me more than these, Peter? I think Peter's love to Christ
is evidenced here by him jumping into that water. It says he was
naked, then he girdled himself about and jumped into the water,
and then he got to Christ. Boy, I tell you what, when you
sin and you have a real sense that the Lord's forgiven you,
boy, you want to hug up to Him, don't you? You want to hug up
to Him. But here's what, listen, John
recognized, now listen, he recognized by the miracle of that, all those
fish being caught. Nobody can do that but the Lord.
Nobody can do that but the Lord. Peter, that's the Lord did that.
Remember how he fed 5,000 with the lads at lunch? A piece of
bread and a few fishes? Remember how he, John remembered
it. John said, nobody can do that
but the Lord. It's the Lord. And Peter, when he said that,
he recognized, you're right. You're right, it's the Lord.
And Peter makes haste, but this time in a good way. And he cast
himself to the sea, and he couldn't get to him fast enough. Couldn't
do it. And the other disciples came in a little ship. Well,
they were not far from land, but as it were, 200 cubits, dragging
the nets with fishes. They couldn't get the net in
the boat, they had to drag it with the boats. Now listen, here
again, here again is the power of his voice. He's a hundred yards from the
boats, two cubits. Let's see, how many cubits was
it? 200 cubits, that's 100 yards, basically 100 yards. He's not
shouting, the Lord's not shouting. Remember when he got in the boat
and he backed up and he spoke to that big crowd? He wasn't
shouting and they all heard him, even the ones in the back, they
all heard him plainly, they all did. And this just jumped out at me,
the power of His voice. He's 100 yards from them, yet
they heard Him plainly. They heard him plainly. If he
speaks to you this morning, you'll hear him plainly. You'll hear
him. This was an expression, now listen,
he says here, he says here in verse 9. He says, as soon, where it says,
as soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals
there and fish laid there on them. They toiled all night and
got nothing. The lesson learned, lesson learned,
without me you can do nothing. But when he tells you to just
cast on the right side, that fast they were successful. They
were successful. But notice here how our Lord,
He doesn't reprimand them, He feeds them. Our Lord, I'll get this. This
will help you as you grow older. It's helping me as I grow older.
He's always mindful of our need. He knows when we're hungry. He
knows our physical needs. The Lord knows our physical needs.
He knows our spiritual needs. He knows our physical needs.
He knows. He knows His children. He knows
them. And listen here, there's something
else here too. The Lord must feed His preachers
before they can feed the people. I know that. The Lord's got to
feed my heart before I can feed your heart. And He does so. And Jesus said to them, Bring
the fish which you have now caught. Everything's immediate with the
Lord. Everything's now with Him, you know that? Everything's right
now. Everything's now. Obedience is
to be immediate now. We are to bring men and women
to Christ in our preaching. Now listen, I don't mean dragging
down the aisle, but in our preaching, I bring Christ before you. I'm
an ambassador of Christ. And in a sense, I bring you to
Him. Now it's the Holy Spirit who
reveals Him and works in the heart. I can't do that. But I'm to do it now. Who said
we had tomorrow? Now may be it. It may be. Then Peter goes back and he helps
the other disciples drag the net. You notice here in verse
11, it almost sounds like Peter's the only one dragging the net.
Boy, I tell you, well, I tell you when the Lord forgives you
of your sins, Obedience is easy, isn't it? You know it's easy
to submit and be obedient to someone you love. It's not hard. It's not hard. It's not a problem,
not to someone you love. Simon Peter went up and drew
the net to land full of great fish. It sounds like he's the
only one that did it. But he was not too proud to serve, that's
for sure. 153, he counted every one of them. There's no waste
with the Lord, never a waste. And for all there was so many,
yet was not the net broken. First of all, there's no loiterers
in the kingdom of God. Everybody has a part in His service.
And the Lord knows exactly how many sheep He has. 153 here in
this net. That represents an innumerable
company of people. He knows. And these fish, here's
something interesting, look here, and for all there were so many,
yet was not the net broken. You know the scripture speaks
of heaven being populated with the people that can't be numbered.
I can't explain that, but that's what it says, it teaches that.
Heaven is spoken of as a city, as a country, hell is spoken
of as a place. I don't believe there'll be more
in hell than there are in heaven. I don't. I can't explain that,
but I just believe there's going to be an innumerable company
of people in heaven. All these infants that's died
and all the people that has these mental handicaps, I believe they'll
be there. I believe they'll make up for,
forbid not the children to come to me for such is a kingdom of
heaven. Such is. You know, the Lord said there's
going to be people saved out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation, every family, every family. He said there's going
to be somebody saved. And I think a vast majority of
it is those who died in infancy, childhood, mental handicap. You know, the Bible is written
to morally responsible people. It is. Now they are not going
to be there because of innocence. They are going to be there because
Christ died for them just like He has those who believe. But listen here, these fish are
examples of the gospel net catching sinners and bringing them to
heaven and the unity of it is not broken. You know the Lord
said, I will not lose one sheep. He said, I will not lose one
sheep. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And then
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast him out. I will
not cast him out. And though the church, and here's,
I made this, I think, earlier point, but though the church
is made up of such diverse people, yet there's unity, it's not broken.
It's not broken. It's not broken. And note how
all the fish accounted for it. He's not gonna lose them. And
in verse 12, Jesus saith unto them, come and dine. You know the Lord says to everyone
this morning, come and dine. Are you dining this morning?
Are you getting anything out of this? Is the Lord feeding
you this morning? Are you about to fall asleep?
The Lord feeding you. I'm dining. I've been dining
on this for a while. Come and dine. And none of the
disciples asked Him, Who art thou? He had to have had such
an appearance about Him that it was just amazing. And even sitting there, they
didn't ask Him, Who are you? No, it's the Lord. It was the
Lord. No one speaks like this. No one
has power like this. No one can do a miracle like
this. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. Still supplying
our needs, still revealing Himself, it's the Lord. Come and dine. If you want to really be a witness
of Christ, you've got to feed on Christ first. You've got to
feed on Him first. And note their reverence. None
of them asking who He was. knowing it was the Lord that
kept silent. Here's reverence in His presence, here's reverence.
And I want to close in verse 13, Jesus then cometh. Now I want you to notice how
gracious our Lord is. Remember earlier He called them
children, as He calls everyone here who believes, His children. What do you do with your children?
You feed them, don't you? And you always feed them. And
I can tell you this as a parent, your children will always be
your children. Even if you're 90 and they're
70, they're still your children. They're still your children. They never quit being your children. We went over to my parents' house
every Sunday. And I've told you this before.
I mean, we all did, all seven of us. Then we brought the husbands
and the wives. And then we brought the grandchildren.
And nobody brought anything. Mom cooked everything. And I
said later, after Mom passed, what were we thinking? What were we thinking? You know,
she never, Mom and Dad never one time complained, not once. I mean, we're talking. We're
talking 25 people at that time. Went from seven to 25. And she never one time complained
about, this is too many. You know, this is too expensive.
She always fed her children. Always. The Lord's feeding his
children this morning, you know that? He's feeding his children,
come and dine. And the Lord, in verse 13, He
said, He takes the bread and He gives them, and the fish likewise.
We don't feed Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ feeds us. We don't
feed Him. This is now the third time that
Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after that He was risen from
the dead. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, let everything
be established, says the Word of God. So by His appearance,
this is the third time He appeared to them. Two times in Jerusalem,
now He's out there by the Sea of Tiberias. Here's one of the
reasons, not only for their encouragement and their faith, but as witnesses
to us. These are eyewitnesses and earwitnesses
that the Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Lessons in service. Without me,
you can do nothing. All right.