Chapter four. Matthew, chapter four. I want us to look at something
that was very interesting to me. It was a great blessing to
me. Our pastor and other men have
mentioned to me, a lot of times when you speak, you read the
Scriptures looking for a sermon. And it's important to read the
Scriptures for your own blessing, looking to learn for yourself. And that's what happened in this.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and I pray that the Lord will teach
us and bless us this morning. Here in Matthew 4 is the account
of the Lord calling converting Peter, Andrew, James, and John. And our Lord recorded this. He
used three different men to record this. It's in Matthew, it's in
Mark, and it's in Luke. I want to read all three accounts.
They all say something a little bit different. And hopefully
we'll see who our Lord is through this and how He operates on His
people. Matthew chapter four, verse 17
says. From that time, Jesus began to
preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus, walking by the Sea
of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew,
his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers.
And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers
of men. And they straightway left their
nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he
saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his
brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And he called them. And they
immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. Now, I hope that the Lord will
bless this to our hearts, and it's not just a Bible study. But here in Matthew, we see this
call of conversion through the point of view of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In verse 18, it says, Jesus,
walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren. They were not converted yet.
They were still dead in their trespasses and sin, still caught
up in the world. But when he saw them, he saw
his brethren. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. I've known you from before the
foundation of the world. It is such an amazing thought
to me. I love thinking of the Lord before time, before this
world, thinking on His people, thinking about them. I know He
did. And in time, they're born into
this world, and He looks on them, and He watches them as brethren. Ephesians 2 says, even when we
were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ. He has
always seen his people as brethren. We sing that song that says,
oh, the love that drew salvation's plan. It was always love. Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man. The mighty gulf that God did
span. at Calvary. We know the story,
I believe it was Spurgeon. A man told him, if you believe
only the elect will be saved, then why don't you only preach
to the elect? And he said, I would if they had a big E on their
forehead. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ knows His sheep. And when He sees one, He knows.
That's my brother. He calls them by name. Verse
18 says, He saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers.
And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers
of men. And they straightway left their
nets and followed him. He spake to them as one having
authority and not as describes. Listen to Psalm 29. Psalm chapter
29, verse. Four says the voice of the Lord
is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh
the cedars, yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh
them also to skip like a calf. Move. Lebanon and Syrian, like a young
unicorn. Move. The voice of the Lord divideth
the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness
of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord maketh
the hinds to calf." He said, follow me, and they followed
Him. It says in our text, verse 19,
he saith unto them, follow me and I will make you fishers of
men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him.
Our Lord gives no account of his matters. They didn't say,
now, wait a minute, where are we going? You tell me where we're
going and then we'll follow you. All authority belongs to him.
He doeth as he pleases and who will let him? He said, follow
me, and they followed. David wrote, when thou said,
seek my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face will I seek immediately. Well, it says in verse 21, going
on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James, the son
of Zebedee and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their
father, mending their nets, and he called them And they immediately
left the ship and their father and followed him. Now, let's
take note of this, and this is going to bring us to Mark's account.
The Lord did not see everyone there as brethren. He called James and John, but
he did not call their father Zebedee. Verse 22 says they immediately
left the ship and their father. Now let's turn over to Mark chapter
1. We'll read Mark's account. Mark chapter 1, look at verse
14. Now after that John was put in
prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God. In saying, the time is fulfilled
and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the
gospel. 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." There were more people in the
ship than Zebedee. Hired servants. You think about how strange it
must have been for these hired servants. James and John were
partners with Simon and Andrew. We'll see that in Luke. And how
strange must it have been for these servants and Zebedee to
see their bosses, two bosses, walk away from everything. Walked away from their business.
Walked away from their father. They walked away from everything.
How strange. So strange. In Mark's account,
we see this call of conversion through the eyes of others, through
the eyes of the world. I'm sure not only were there
more people in this ship, this was a fishing village. It was a fishing coast. There
were people everywhere. They knew James and John. They
did business with them every day. They knew that's James and
John's boat. We do business with them every day. And they're watching
this and they see this one come and he says, follow me. And they
see these two men leave everything and follow him. And they're thinking,
what in the world are you doing? This doesn't make any sense. They're thinking you're a fool.
That's foolish. You're going to leave everything
for this. You're going to leave everything.
It's really not anything, is it? That's what they were doing to
Pilgrim and Pilgrim's Progress. We repeat some of the same things,
but I love them. They did the same thing to Pilgrim.
They do the same thing to every single believer. They were hollering,
where are you going? What are you doing? And he stuck
his fingers in his ears, hollering, life, life, eternal life. Shut up. I have to follow this man. Yes,
I do. I have to follow this man. My life depends upon it. Nothing
else is worth not following this man. The world does not understand
because the world is not called. That's why. Those whom he calls,
they're certain they're chosen, they're particular, and it's
not everybody. It's his brethren. Zebedee and
the servants, they watched James and John leave and they have
got to be thinking. What in the world are we going
to do? The boss left. The bosses left.
What about us? What's going to happen to us?
I thought about when the Lord said, in that day, two shall
be in the field. One is going to go into the clouds
to meet the Lord into the air. And the other one is going to
be standing there left. What about me? Two women are
going to be grinding at the mill. One shall be taken. One shall
be left. Can you imagine the fear and
the horror that the world is going to experience in that day?
It causes me to want to repent and believe the gospel. That's
what it causes me to want to do. Our Lord mercifully told
us in verse 15, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at
hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the
gospel. Repent and believe the gospel.
Save me. Call me. Lord, convert me. Please, speak to me. Grab me. If he does, then Luke's account
will tell us how he will do it. Let's go to Luke chapter 5. Matthew writes from the point
of view of a sovereign God. Mark writes from the point of
view of a simple world. And Luke writes from the point
of view of a converted sinner, a sinner saved, the one he chose. Verse one says, it came to pass
that as the people pressed upon him to hear the Word of God,
he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two ships standing by
the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing
their nets. And he entered into one of the
ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust
out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the
people out of the ship." Now, the first thing our Lord did
was He came to Simon, Simon was not expecting him. He came to
Simon and everything Simon had, and he seized it. He just got
on the ship. And he told Simon, thrust out
from the land. When he did that, he showed that
there is a great gulf between God And man, the people were
pressing on him. Preach the gospel to us. And
he got in this ship and he left them. And now there's a great
gulf between God and man. But there was not a great gulf
between God and Simon. They were both in the ship. The Lord sanctified him. He set him apart from the rest. He sanctified him for holy use. And he did that by putting him
in the ship. And that ship is Christ. Verse 4 in Luke chapter 5 says,
Now, when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out
into the deep and let down your nets for a draft." Launch out
into the deep. The deep is life. It's life. Life gets deep. The longer we go, the deeper
it gets. Ignorance is such bliss. Verse 5 says, And Simon answering
said unto him, Master, we have toiled all night and have taken
nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I
will let down the net. They didn't catch anything. They
toiled all night. They were in the world. They
just came back from the deep. They were already in the world.
They toiled all night. They didn't catch anything, which
means it was pretty smooth sailing. They didn't catch anything. Pretty late back night. They were just kind of boating
down Easy Street, strolling along. They didn't catch any fish, and
I'm not a fisherman, but I hear a bad day of fishing is better
than a good day of work. They caught no fish, and they
had no struggles. Out in the sea, these men, they
catch one fish and they fight it for two hours and they fight
it and they fight it. They had no struggles. And then
the Lord said, let down your net. Verse six says, and when they
had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and
their net break. Proverbs 15, 16 says, better
is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and
trouble therewith. I always read this and thought,
how happy were they? They were catching fish and all
in the boat together, just lots of fish. Catch any fish? Oh yeah,
we caught a bunch of fish. These fish are not a blessing.
These men are in trouble. They're in trouble. Their nets
are starting to break. They cast this net into the water.
It engulfs all of these fish and they're holding it. And all
of a sudden, this net goes down. It almost pulls them over the
boat to the point the nets are starting to break. I thought
about, you've seen fish come up to the surface and it's this
white water frenzy and it's loud. It's extremely loud. And they
were not expecting this. And fear comes over them and
they're fighting this. And they're looking at each other
and they're thinking this. I know they're thinking this.
If we let go, we're going to lose everything we have. And if we hold on, it's going
to take us down with it. And that's a helpless place to
be. That's a no-win situation. Well, at that exact moment in
time, God is standing in the ship. But they have no idea who He
is. They give the Lord God no thought.
They do not seek Him. They do not call on Him while
He is near. Verse 7 says, they beckoned unto
their partners. Isn't that what we do? It says they beckoned them to
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. They came and they pulled
the nets up, they got the nets up and they filled both ships
with fish. Oh, the Lord's really blessing
us, isn't he? They thought we've got this.
We've got it all. The worst is over. Fisher in
the boat until the boat begins to sink. I believe these men knew the
difference in taking on a little water and this boat's going down. It's not until a man or woman
realizes that the best they have to offer cannot save them from
going down. Their best ability cannot save
them from going down. It's not until a person realizes
all of my works are in vain. Everything I have done is now
going to drag me down. It's not until a person realizes
everything I do is leading me straight to destruction. Until
a person sees that, he cannot see who Jesus Christ really is. He's heard of Him. But he'll
never see who he really is until he sees that. A person must see
his own inability in order to see his all-sufficiency. A person
must see his own case as being hopeless in order to see Jesus Christ
as being his only hope. Verse 8 says, when Simon Peter
saw it." That's what he saw. I'm in a
hopeless situation. I'm going down. Everything I've
done is dragging me down. I've got nothing left. I've called
all my buddies. I've exhausted every avenue I
have, and I have nothing left. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell
down at Jesus' knees. Saying, depart from me. I'm a
sinful man, oh Lord. The Lord brought Simon Peter
to the exact same place he brings every single person that he chooses
to call. In Isaiah, just listen to this,
Isaiah six, it says in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train
filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face and
with twain he covered his feet, with twain he did fly. One cried
unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door
moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled
with smoke. And that's when I said, woe is
me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. Mine eyes have now seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Psalm 107 says, They that go
down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters,
these see the works of the Lord. They are the ones that see the
works of the Lord. His wonders in the deep. He commandeth and
raises the stormy wind. He raises the stormy wind which
lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven.
They go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because
of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man and are at their wits end. Then they cry. unto the Lord
in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad, because they be quiet. So He bringeth them
unto their desired haven. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness. That trouble is such goodness.
And for His wonderful works to the children of men. In our text, Luke 5, verse 9
says, he was astonished. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell
down at the Lord's knees and he was astonished and all that
were with him at the draft of fishes which they had taken.
He was astonished not at how many fish they caught. He was
astonished at the fact that they didn't bring him down to his
grave. If the Lord would have left me
there, it would have brought me down to my grave. Peter looked at that after they
had all those fish on the shore and those nets. And he said,
but for the grace of God, there go I. Verse 10 says, And so was also
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt
catch men." The Lord tells him, you're mine now. You've been
doing what you wanted to do, and you're mine now. It's not
your will be done, it's my will be done. Verse 11, And when they
had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed
him. They didn't even want the fish. They were there. They had them.
And they walked away from them. Walked away from the nets. They
forsook all. All they wanted was their Savior. That's all I want. He said, My people will be so
willing. Not just made to be willing.
They're going to want to be willing. in the day of my power." I'm
so thankful the Lord recorded this story three times. This is every believer's story.
Every believer can say the Lord in His sovereignty chose me. I don't know why He chose me,
but He chose me. And He put me in a place to see
He's all I need. He's all I need. I believe Peter, Andrew, James,
and John thought after all that was over, the Lord brought us
through that. He revealed Himself to us. He
converted us. We're saved. I'm so glad I'll
never have to go through that again. Turn to John 21. John 21, verse 1 says, After
these things, after all that, all that time, they've been with
the Lord now for three years, all that they learned, all that
He said, after all that, after these things, Jesus showed
Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias And on
this wise showed he himself. On this wise. This is how he
showed himself to them. Verse two says there were together
Simon, Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathanael of Cana
in Galilee and the sons of Zebedee, James and John and two other
of his disciples, maybe Andrew was there. Simon Peter saith
unto them, I go a fishing. They crucified our Lord. He's
no longer with us. And I'm going back to fishing. He said, I'm going fishing. They
said unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered
into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. It seems they're right back in
the same boat they started in. They're in the same place they
started in. They're no better than the day they started. Verse
4 says, But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on
the shore. But the disciples knew not that
it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children,
have you any meat? And they answered him, No. We have nothing. We feel like we just have nothing.
We just feel so empty. Verse six, and he said unto them,
Cast the net on the right side of the ship. and you shall find."
They cast their four, and now they were not able to draw it
for the multitude of fishes. The Lord allowed them to get
themselves into trouble again. What appears to be this great
blessing of many fishes has got them in trouble again. They weren't
expecting it. They didn't see it coming. They
throw the net. And now they're fighting and
they have the white water and it's loud and this time John's
in the boat. Fear has come over them. If they would have never gone
back to fishing, they would have never got themselves in this
position again. Gone back to the world. Gone back to looking
within themselves. Gone back to the flesh. But they did. They're in trouble.
Fear takes over, and once again, they're thinking, if we let go,
we're going to lose everything. And if we hold on, it's going
to take us down to the bottom. Same thing all over again. The
first time this happened, these men thought they could get themselves
out of trouble. They fought it. They fought it. They got them
in the boat. That didn't help. They nearly
drowned because of it. Well, in the heat of this moment,
in the heat of their trouble, in the heat of their fear, John
realizes something. This time, something is different. It's different this time. And
they're fighting these fish. And John starts hollering, Peter!
Peter! And Peter says, what? He says, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. We've been with the Lord three
years. The Lord does all things. He does all things well. Everything
that's happening to us is working together for good. It's the Lord. Peter, it's the Lord. It's in His hands. It's His battle. Peter, your warfare is accomplished.
It's the Lord. Verse 7 says, Therefore, that
disciple whom Jesus loved said unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now
when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's
coat unto him, for he was naked and did cast himself into the
sea. As soon as Peter realized this
is the Lord, he let it all go. Peter! Roll your burden over to the
Lord. It's the Lord. Let it go. These fish are nothing. I know
you need fish. You have a job. You need food
and support. Let these fish go. He put on His coat. As soon as
Peter realized, as soon as he was reminded it's the Lord, he
put on the new man. He put on the righteous robe
of the Lord Jesus Christ's work, which he had to have on to go
meet God. And he drew nigh unto God. That's what this experience calls
him to do. Own this wise is how he shows
himself. Whatever you're going through,
it's the Lord. When the Lord calls his people,
they come. And because of our weak, simple
flesh, great is his faithfulness to keep on calling. He lets us
get in that situation again and then he calls us again. By His
grace, we continue to come. Verse 8 says, The other two disciples
came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as
it were, two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fishes.
As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals
there and fish laid there in bread. The Lord already had the
fish there. You don't have to fight those
fish. Jesus saith unto them, Bring
up the fish which you have now caught. 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. Jesus said unto them, Come and
dine. Come and dine. Follow me. Come and dine. None of the disciples durst ask
him, Who art thou? They all knew it's the Lord. My sheep hear my voice and they
know me when I'm talking to them. It's the Lord. He's back. We have the Lord again. We see
the Lord again. He really is never going to leave
us, is He? It's the Lord. May the Lord bless
His Word. Hmm.