Thank you. All right, go back
to John 21. Gospel of John 21. Let's read verses 1 through 5
again. We just read them. I was greatly
blessed. After these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on
this wise, and he showed himself, showed he himself. They were
together, Simon, Peter, Thomas, Clauditimus, Nathanael, Canaan,
Galilee, sons of Zebedee, two other of his disciples. Simon
Peter saith unto them, I go fishing. And they say unto him, We also
go with thee. And they went forth, and entered
into a ship immediately. And that night they caught nothing. When the morning was now come,
Jesus stood on disciples, and knew not that it was Jesus. And Jesus saith unto them, Children,
have ye any meat? And they answered him, No. It says in verse one that the
Lord showed himself again to his disciples. You know, this
is what eternal life is. That's what the Lord said in
John 17, this is life eternal that they might know thee, the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent to know him.
And only how we know him, well, we looked while ago, not by wisdom,
but God must reveal his son. to us. He must show himself. He must show himself to us. This is life eternal, that we
might know that Christ, the Son of God, who He is. Who He is. Why He came. What He did. Why
He did it. Did He do this for us? That's
life eternal. He is. This is life, and it's
joy, and it's comfort, and it's rejoicing, and it's consolation
if Christ continues to show himself to you. Who he is. Who he is,
again and again. It says this was the third time
that he'd showed himself to these disciples. Well, how many times
has he shown himself to us? Before whose eyes, Scripture
says, he hath been so evidently set forth. Huh? You see all the disciples their
doubts and fears and they had plenty of. When the Lord showed
himself every time that he showed himself to them. Sovereign Lord
their savior and every sense of the word every time he showed
himself again to them who he was all their doubts and fears
went away. For a while. Until he had to
show himself again you see what I'm saying. That's why we keep
coming back here, don't we? We're full of doubts and fears,
like sheep, and prone to go astray. Well, anyway, he showed himself
again to them. Oh, thank the Lord if he shows
himself to you, and he keeps showing himself. Verse 2, they
were together. Simon, Thomas, they were together. James, John, Simon. It starts with Simon. Nearly
always the scriptures of the Holy Spirit brings up Simon first.
He was the first chosen, but I believe for this reason. He's
the poorest one of the bunch. He really was. Poor old Simon. Poor old Simon. I believe the
Lord chose him, not because he was the best. Although, you know,
he was a fine man. He was a strong man. But the Lord chose him to show
forth his mercy that endures forever, his
continued grace. Old Simon, poor old Simon. What
about Thomas? He mentions Thomas' neck. What
about him? What do we call people? Doubting Thomas. Poor old Simon. And doubting Thomas was a poor
bunch of fellows is what they were. They had now after three
and three some year they had now become great man. They have
to us reading it but do themselves. No they're they're they're getting
ready to go fishing. This is how they started this
is where the Lord found them and they're going back to it. I remember years ago, my pastor
preaching a message, the king and his motley crew. I'll never
forget that. It was such a blessing to me.
This was a motley crew, wasn't it? Simon, Thomas, Matthew, tax
collect publicans, but they were together. A motley crew, but
they were a crew. And they were nearly always together.
That's where the Lord, the Lord chose them all and he put them
all together, together. Every word is significant in
Scripture. They were together. Aren't you thankful to be a part
of this motley crew? Aren't you thankful to be a part
of this poor congregation, this poor assembly of people? Not
many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Aren't
you thankful, though, to be a part of it? When you will quit being
thankful and a part of it is when you begin to be better than. That's always better than. But they were together. And the
Lord, now that they're together, they are together and the Lord
is going to show himself to them while they're together. You get the point here, our Lord
said, where two or three are gathered together. I'm right
there in the middle of. I have been greatly blessed in
private many times. I really have. Greatly blessed. There have been times preparing
a message and I thought that I was in the Holy of Holies. Right in the inner room. The
upper room. But I mean this honestly. I mean
that. As much as I have enjoyed those times and been blessed,
I've never been blessed. Like I have been and am together
with you and with other believers, never. So everything's always
better together, isn't it? Everything works. I've been many times that I've
been down and by myself digging a ditch or something. I'm just
complaining. You know, you do it too. Oh,
poor me. Nobody works as hard as I do.
Don't you think that's what you do when you're alone? We'll be
together. It doesn't matter how hard it
is, does it, Sam? It's going to stay fun. Some things are never fun. But
it's not quite like work when we had yesterday and I'm so thankful
we had the best turnout we've ever had for this work day here.
But was it work? Honestly, those of you, was it
work? That was enjoyable, wasn't it?
And Davis and Joseph, where's old Joseph? Where'd he go? Oh,
I appreciate you young fellas coming to help. Elizabeth, Lauren,
thank you. I really do think that you didn't
say anything about it came up. But it's old people working at
the church. You know when the Lord the church
is not the church. As Virgie would say. That church. It's family. Everybody pitches
in and it's not work. It's not work at all. It doesn't
seem like it. It all gets done together. That's
worth bringing up. Foods more enjoyable in food
more enjoyable. Laughter. I've seen things that
I want to go ahead and tell the illustrations of good. Everything's
always better when somebody's around to share to share it with
you just enjoy it together. It's always that way. Laughter
sites have both Jack Shanks was out playing golf with Gary Borders. Some of you know Gary. I got to tell this. And they
were out playing golf, my brother Jack and Gary. And I don't care what you think
about golf, Stan. Stan thinks it's silly. Anyway, that over
the jack enjoys it and so I say it's good that that old fellow
faithful servant get some enjoy about it a dormant from and I
say it's what. He's entitled to it but anyway
he was out playing with Gary and Gary Borders hit a good shot
wrong Gary hit a good shot. Jack just he and Jack and Gary
said oh I wish somebody had been here to see that. And, you know, Jack said, Hey,
that's somebody. Well, what he meant was, I wish
more people had been here. Have you ever been that way?
I wish more people had been here. You and there have been so many,
how many times have you thought, oh, I wish the world could have
heard that. Been in on this. But they weren't. But we are.
Here we are. These fellows were together.
And the Lord is going to show himself mightily, powerfully,
wonderfully to them. Fellowship. And truly, our fellowship. We have fellowship together sometimes
and we meet together. The conversation might not turn
to the gospel. You hope it does. You want it
to. That's your hope. But it doesn't always. That root
of the matter is there, though. That's what joins us, what unites
you. But this right here, this is it. Truly, this is our fellowship
right here, what we're doing now. I love church. You know,
maybe meals and all that, but this is it. This is the table. This is where we all gather together. Around the table. Fellowship of the saints, fellowship
of the mystery, fellowship of the gospel. There is no other
fellowship otherwise. And I've made this statement
before and I'll stick by it, that I am not going to Befriend
someone too much until they're Christ's friend. You see, people can fall in love
with you. They can be your friend and buddy
and all that and not know Christ and never know Christ. That's
not what you want. What you hope and pray for is
that They'll fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll
reveal himself to them. And then if they are, oh, we're
going to be best friends. If the Lord reveals himself to
your husband or your son or your son-in-law,
we're going to be best friends. See, all believers have a bunch
of best friends. Together, truly. Well, verse
three, they were together, and Peter, here he is, Peter speaks
up. See, Peter's real impulsive,
he's impetuous. Impetuous means runs and does
things without thinking. Impulsive means without thinking.
Impetuous means bold to do it. He rushes headlong. Impatience,
he just can't wait. Now, the Lord has already revealed
himself to him. This is eight days later. But
yet the Lord didn't tell them what they were going to do. They
believe the Lord, they trust him, they're not leaving the
Lord himself. But they don't know what to do
with themselves. They don't know where to turn, what the future
holds, so to speak. They don't know. So Peter said,
well, we've got to do something, don't we? No. No. Well, Peter said, I'm going
fishing. I guess preaching's over. What
he meant was, he's going back to his old lifestyle. That's
what he meant. They didn't fish for fun, Ron.
That long ceased to be fun to them. You understand? Kelly, do you ride horses for
fun? It long ceased to be fun. Like
the railroad. Used to work on the railroad,
you know, and on the locomotive. Some of you think, boy, you can
ride on a locomotive? That'd just be a dream come true,
don't you? Seriously. I remember thinking
that. You'd be surprised how many people
used to ask me how big the steering wheel is on a locomotive. Some of you, I can tell you think
there is one. It's on rails, people. You don't
steer it. Anyway, you'd be surprised how
many times I've been asked that. But anyway, you think, well,
that's so romantic, isn't it? Not too long ago, I was in Orlando,
Florida, and I thought, I'm going to try Amtrak. I hadn't been
on a train in years. I hadn't been on a train in years,
on purpose, by choice. I didn't want to get on another
train. I got on Amtrak, and after taking that ride, I know why.
Now, I knew why. I hadn't been on a train in years.
Anything that could happen, went wrong, went wrong. Anything bad,
it took about 14 hours for me to get home. The engine broke
down, all kinds of delays and stuff. It was the most miserable
trips I've ever had. So what I'm saying is they didn't
go fishing, they weren't going fishing for fun. It long ceased
to be fun for them. They're going back to fishing.
And folks, I can't tell you how many times I've quit this. How about you? I don't mean renounce
the Lord, renounce the truth, but just want to go off somewhere
and to yourself and anybody else, come on, you're afraid to admit
it. I'm just going to just leave. Huh? Peter said, I'm going fishing. And they said, we're coming with
you. So they went forth and entered
into a ship immediately. And they went night fishing all
night. That's a real fisherman in it. Night fishing. went out
in the darkness, and this is everything is by design. Everything
is on purpose. They didn't fish all day. It
says they fished all night. They were in the darkness, you
see. All night long, they toiled and
labored in darkness. They went out in darkness and
worked all night, and what did they catch? It says that night,
all night, they caught nothing. Nothing. You see, the Lord, Scripture
says, is light. John 1, and this John who wrote
this, begins this gospel by saying, He's light. Begins the first
epistle. God is light. In Him is no darkness. But here's the condemnation.
Men love darkness rather than light. If the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is light, is not with you. Now listen to me. If the Lord
Jesus Christ is not with you. If you're not in him, he's not
in you, you're in darkness. And listen to me, especially
the young people. You can labor all your life, toil all your
life, and try to come up with something. Try to find whatever, peace,
happiness, contentment, fulfillment. You can labor all you will. All
your life. And if you're without Christ.
You're going to end up in outer darkness. And none of these things
will fulfill none of them. You'll labor all your life and
when it's all over, what will you have? Nothing. Honestly. Nobody wants to die. Why is that?
Because all these things and people and stuff that they don't
want to leave it. This is this is everything to
most people. And when it comes to, they're
going to lose it all and they don't know what's out there.
It's all darkness and mystery to the unbeliever, to the world.
And they don't want to leave this place and hold on with all
that they can to this stuff. Because if they lose all this,
they've got nothing. But if Christ reveals himself
to you. You can lose it all and still
have everything. Oh, but they toiled all night
and caught nothing. And that's by design. And but verse four, when the
morning was now come, the morning was now come, they toiled all
night. But now the morning's gone. Don't you love that verse, Nancy? You're thinking about it, aren't
you? Weeping endures for a night, but ah, joy cometh in the morning. What is the morning? What makes
it morning? The sun. That day star that rises with
healing in its wings. Oh, don't you love that Psalm
130? My soul waited for thee more than they that watch for
the morning. Everything's so bad at night.
Troubles are so much worse, aren't they? But when the sun starts
coming up, there's hope, isn't there? There's hope. There's
warmth. Morning was now come. Yeah, he
was. He's standing on shore. Morning. And would that God would
deliver someone out of darkness this That's my prayer, that's
my hope. Well, it says he stood on the
shore. The morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but
the disciples knew not that it was him. Everyone in this room is in God Almighty's hands. Scripture
says that God in whose hands our breath is in all our ways. Let me go a step further. has
put all things into the hands of or under the authority, the
reign, the rule of Jesus Christ. All reign and rule has been given
to Jesus Christ. That's why he's called Lord.
That means Lord, and that means he's Lord of lords. That means
king, sovereign, reigning, ruling over all things, all flesh. He
said, all authority is given unto me over all flesh, that
he should give eternal life. See, it's not we don't have it.
He that hath the Son hath life. Neither hath not the Son, hath
not life. Don't care what they have, it's not life, because
it'll die. But if the Son gives you life,
who is life, you'll have life and can't kill it. It's the life
of God, the life of the Spirit, eternal life. Well, all of us are under the reign
and rule and the hands of Jesus Christ to do with as he pleases.
Every one of us. Young and old alike, every one
of us, though some don't know him. They don't know him. Some
people don't know. That's why the scripture says,
is it nothing to you, all you that pass by, all these people
that go by and don't give God a thought. God is not in all
their thoughts. Christ is not in their thoughts. They don't
know who God is. They don't know who Christ is.
They don't care. They don't know him. The creature doesn't know the
creator. The guilty don't know the judge don't know the need
and advocate can you imagine how foolish. People are and we're the same
who made us to differ these disciples didn't know him you know this
is exactly the way the Lord found them amazing this is exactly
the way the Lord revealed himself to them the first time he chose.
Three years early three and a half years early. Yes, sir. They were
all fishing. And it says they fished all night
and caught nothing. And the Lord was on the shore
and said, cast your net over here. They said, teacher, Peter. Master, we've been doing this
for years. They didn't know it. Nevertheless,
Barbara, that's how the Lord revealed himself to them the
first time. And here in the end, is revealing
himself to them again the same way. Do you know this is exactly
the way the Lord continues to reveal himself to his people,
the same way. After all these years of toiling
and laboring and doing what you will, what do you got? And the Lord said in verse 5,
this is a profound question, isn't it? Have you any meat. He knew. Then he's not asking
this for information the Lord God and doesn't ask anything
for my information he's omniscient means he knows all that when
he asked Adam where he was. He knows where he is. When he
asked Jacob his name. You know his name. He's demanding
that Jacob Confess his name. Gee, he's demanding that Adam
see, look where you are now. And he's saying to these disciples,
he knew they didn't have him, he knew that. And he's demanding
of them and forcing them to confess that they've labored all night
and they have nothing. You have any meat? The first thing I want you to
notice, though, is he calls them You know, I issued a disclaimer
for my preaching this morning. One of the things I got to quit
doing is laughing. I just did. I am so glad it doesn't depend
on me. I am so glad. You don't know how glad I am,
how dependent I am on the Holy Spirit. How glad and thankful
I am that it doesn't depend on the words I say and the way I
say it. I'm so thankful that this thing
is totally up to the Lord, that he works in spite of me. Oh,
how thankful I am. I'm a nobody from nowhere. But sometimes I can't help but
laugh when I see these things. I don't know. I don't know why.
It's joyful. It causes me pleasure to consider
it. That's what it is. It causes
me pleasure. Children. He calls them children. Now, these are 35-year-old men,
40-year-old men, maybe 45. We don't know the ages. Some
of them may have been 50. He calls them children. And I
thought, what a great blessing to know that you're a child.
Oh, you know that only God's children know their children?
Huh? They shall all be taught of God. I've got to quit hollering, too,
in my preaching tonight. But something's got to be shouted. Our Lord quoted Isaiah in John
6, verse 45. It says, They shall all be taught
of God. And what that says over there in Isaiah 54 is, All thy
children, verse 13, all thy children shall be taught of God."
And our Lord said, "...and every man that hath heard and learned
of the Father comes to Me." Children! Our Lord kept saying
that to them, didn't He? Except you be converted and become
as little children, you're not entering the Kingdom of Heaven.
You're not going to be there. You're not going to be there. Except you receive the Word of
God as a little child, you're not going to be there. Children. I think I don't know who it was.
Someone and I were talking about how amazing. This was that the
Lord Jesus Christ was 33 years old, 30, 32, 33 at the time. Talking to one of these men,
now he's a man, the Lord is a man in human flesh. If you wasn't
a Kellie, you and I The Lord was a man of human flesh and
blood man. And he'd be standing there talking
to another man like Pete Simon Thomas. Who might have been older
than him in human years, a man flesh and blood, and he says,
children. And they receive it. And they're
not offended. He said, it's a man. Now, they
know this is not just a man. John wrote to. His epistle said
little children. Nobody was offended that God's
children aren't. Not offended, seek children and
all flesh. Paul wrote that they that are
the children of the flesh, they're not the children of God. But
the children of the promise are. Children of the promise are counted
for the seed. Promise promise one Christ is the firstborn among. He's God who thought it not robbery
to be equal to God, but he's he doesn't mind because of God.
That's. He's God, he's the father. But
he's the son. But he's so he was so submissive
to the father and childlike in malice, and he says that about
children. Children by adoption. How are
God's people children? Adoption. What's that choice?
You choose. Today you don't much. Somebody
used to. Robin used to go back in days
of old to an adoption agency or an orphanage. And there's
a whole bunch of children in there and none of them worth
having. Ragamuffins over in England. There were lots of orphanages,
ragamuffins, but the Charles Spurgeon opened one. Boy, I'd
been a good one to be in one. But you'd go in these orphanages
and you would choose the child. But that's exactly what God Almighty
did. A bunch of ragamuffins. And he
makes his choice. He doesn't choose by, you know,
this one, he looks good. Oh, no. Not many wise, mighty,
or noble will call their children. He chooses the base of things
that are nothing, things that are not. You see, you're calling,
don't you, brethren? Children by God's choice, not
our choice. Okay. I don't know if you can see it,
but I'm going to try to zoom in a little bit. I don't know if I'm going to
be able to do it. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. you