In Luke 5, let's read the first
11 verses. Let me tell you my title this
morning. I want to speak on the subject, I Am a Sinful Man, O
Lord. And you'll see it in our text
as we read. Luke 5, verse 1 through 11, please,
for our text. And it came to pass that as the
people pressed upon him, that is, Jesus, to hear the word of
God, he stood by the lake Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by
the lake. but the fishermen were gone out
of them and were washing 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 when he had left speaking,
he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep, and let down your
nets for a draught or a catch. 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. When they had done this, they
enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break. And they beckoned unto their
partners which were in the other ship, that they should come and
help them. When they came, and filled both
of the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw
it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, Lord,
Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." For he was astonished,
and all that were with him, at the draught of fishes which they
had taken. And so was James, and John, the
sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. Jesus said unto Simon,
Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. When they had
brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed
Him." Now, this is another of the many miracles of our Lord
that He did specifically in the sight and the hearing of His
disciples and of others. Now, this particular work is
known in commentaries as the miraculous drought or catch of
fishes, and it likely exceeded any catch that they had ever
made before, perhaps that they had ever even seen before. And it became another of the
miracles and the signs and the wonders of the Lord done in the
midst of the people so that, Acts 2 and verse 22, that these
works bore witness that He was the Son of God, John chapter
5 and verse 36. And though there were many who
witnessed this great catch of fishes, it seemed to be the first
and the foremost that all of this was intended for the sake
of Simon Peter. That is, the Apostle. That it
was designed for him more than perhaps any other ones that were
there. For consider the point with that
in mind. The Lord makes a pulpit of Simon's
boat. You'll see that in the third
verse. Commandeered the boat of Simon that he might make it
a church and a pulpit. Then again, He directly addresses
Simon Peter by name. You'll find that in verse 4.
And again then in verse 10. And the great catch our Lord
intimates was a picture of Simon's ministry that was to come and
was to be fruitful. For he was to become a fisher
of men from henceforth. Thou shalt catch men, the Lord
said unto this apostle. Simon was to have a very important
work in the ministry of the Lord and in the spread of the gospel. That was to come to its apex
and fruition after the death, the resurrection, and the ascension
of our Lord. We see in Matthew 16, Verse 18
and verse 19, our Lord speaking unto Simon. Matthew 26 and verse
40, after the Lord was risen, the angel of God said, go tell
his disciples and Peter that he is risen from the dead. It was there at the tomb. So Peter was to have a great
part in the work of our Lord. And I'll say it this way, that
even here, Peter is being groomed and trained and prepared for
his role in the work and ministry of the Lord and of the Gospel. However, there is no hint here
or anywhere else in the scripture that Peter was ever appointed
a pope or that he ever considered himself to be a pope. I will
admit that at times he acted like a pope in his ignorance
and his contradiction and his rebuke of the Lord at certain
times. But coming to our text and subject
today, let's set the scene that it might be imprinted upon our
mind. It occurred, as the text tells
us, upon a lake, the Lake Gennesaret, or the sea. It occurred after
Simon and others, his partners, had spent a night of toiling
and fishing and dragging their nets in the water, given up as
being a fruitless night of fishing. They were cleaning and washing
and mending their nets for the next time of fishing when the
Lord came. Now the Lord got in Simon's boat
as it tells us, had him push it a little way off of the shore,
and he sat in that boat and he taught the people the things
and the word of God, the subject we are not told of our Lord's
discord. Now, notice, when he was done
speaking, when he had said all that he wanted to say unto the
public, in verse 4, then he speaks to Simon Peter directly, telling
him, launch your boat. out into the deep. Cast away
from the shore out into the deep waters and then let down your
nets for a catch. Go where the water is deeper
and the Lord promises him a catch. a success in casting out his
nets. We see in that verse that Peter
had mixed emotions about all of this. On the one hand, you
will notice there in verse 5, he had already let down his nets. They had already toiled all night
to the point of exhaustion and had caught nothing. They had
taken nothing in their nets. No fish at all to eat or to sell. They had nothing but empty nets
to show for it. On the other hand, he respects
the Lord's words unto him, and Peter says unto him, at your
word, nevertheless, Though we've toiled and caught nothing, at
Your Word I will let down the nets into the water." Can we
see here a mixture of doubt and of faith in the heart of Simon? I've toiled, I've caught nothing,
we labored all night, we're weary, it has been to no avail at all,
but at your word, at your saying so, because you said so to the
credit of your word, to which we believe the words imply, as
the Puritan Goodwin said, that Simon did it only on the credit
of the Word of Christ. He had not done it if one of
the other fishermen had said to him, well, you know, let's
give it one more try. Let's make one more pass and
see if we might be successful. Had his fellow fishermen suggested
that, no doubt it would have been rejected by Peter. But it does speak well of the
fisherman that at the Word of Christ he went He cast out, He
launched His boat and dropped His nets down into the water. Then look at verse 6. They got
their nets so full that the nets were about to break or to burst
from the great load that were in them. And when they hauled
the fish into the boats, into those compartments there for
the keeping of the fish, then the boats were about to sink. They were so full and weighted
down from the fish. It was as if they would sink
their boat, and it was their greatest catch ever, I fear not
to say. Now consider this. The same men,
the same boats, the same nets, in the same lake, all night fishing,
and yet nothing is caught. But then, at the word at the
direction of our blessed Lord, a huge catch of fish was heaped
up on them. In a short time, I might add,
not all day. It shows the Lord's power over
all things. It shows our Lord's power over
nature, over unintelligent creatures and such things, including what
we might call unintelligent creatures. For who provided that great fish
that swallowed up Jonah? When Jonah was cast into the
sea, who provided that great fish to swallow him up? The Lord
did. Who was it that caused Balaam's
donkey to speak with an audible voice of a man? Who put demons
in that herd of swine? so that they rushed down into
the lake and were destroyed. The same one who put fish in
Simon's nets on this particular occasion. Now, who would deny,
who at all would deny, that the Lord might have taken another
way? In other words, The Lord might
have caused these fish to leap out of the water and leap into
the very boats of these fishermen. He could have caused them to
flounce upon the shore, where all they had to do was to pick
them up. Instead, He takes the more natural
way, puts them in the net to be drawn out in the natural way. And this was sufficient to make
the desired impression upon Peter and upon the other fishermen. Who as Joseph Hall said, Simon
was a mighty skilled fisherman. This was his life's work. This
was his vocation. He knew well the tricks of his
trade and how to fish. Therefore, he recognized the
magnitude of the miracle that our Lord had wrought upon this
occasion. So now, for the heart of our
text and sermon today, let's focus on the reaction of Simon
Peter to this obvious miracle. The nets full of fish to the
point of breaking, The ship's heavy laden, riding low in the
water to the very point of sinking. How does Simon respond to what
he saw here? First of all, we notice what
he does not say. Simon does not rejoice with his
partners and say, whoopee, hallelujah, we are rich. We have much fish to sell and
to take our ease for day. He does not say, oh boy, we now
can take a few days vacation. a few days off, we have much
fish to tide us over in the meantime. Nor does he say, Lord, Lord,
my boat is about to sink and to be lost. My livelihood is
threatened here by this great catch of fish. Both the nets
or about to be ruined, as well as our boats are in danger from
this very abundant catch." No, he says none of that, nor does
it come into his mind. Instead, look, when he saw in
the 8th verse, His reaction is amazing. Because his heart is
not toward the fish, his heart is not toward the boat, his thoughts
are not upon his neck or his boat, his concern is not for
the safety of their very own life. His reaction, I tell you,
is very spiritual on this occasion. both what he said and what he
did on this occasion. Now let's notice what he did.
What he did was he fell down, the Scripture said, at the knees
of Jesus. Now in verse 3, it states that
Jesus had been sitting in the boat as he was teaching. And
Simon, when he saw what he saw, kneels before the Lord, bows
himself, prostrate himself, assumes a position of worship or reverence,
humbling himself in a very deep way, bowing the knee, owning
the Lord as one sovereign and superior and divine. in a ship that appears to be
ready to sink. Now, as to what he said, these
are some of the most amazing words in the Scripture. Look at them again. Depart from
me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Now, we might have expected from
Simon Peter the fisherman, gushings of praise and gushings of thanksgiving,
rejoicing, glee, gladness, all of those things at the great
catch. Instead, there is a strange request
when we look at it. Depart! from me, O Lord. Go from my present." And a most
startling confession from Simon Peter, a disciple of the Lord. I am a sinful man. Now, let's see if we can get
in the mind of Simon and some of the others. What moved him
to say these things unto our Lord? What's the motivating factor
behind this confession of Simon Peter? What brought it on? And then we ask, are his words
proper? Are both sorts of his words proper? Depart from me, Lord. And the
second, I am a sinful man. Now we read in verse 9, Did we
not? That he was astonished, as were
all that saw it and that knew it. Linsky said here that the
word contains the idea of being completely enclosed or enveloped
round about that he was full as it were on every side with
amazement. We might say in English he was
dumbfounded or he was stupefied by what he saw as if frozen in
surprise and in wonder at what had just occurred. It was more
than they could take in. It was more than they had ever
thought. They had never seen such a thing
before in their career as fishermen. They had never even thought of
such, and because of that, it made a deep and a very lasting
impression, particularly upon Simon Peter. as it was intended
to do. But then the question comes back
into our mind again. Why is it, and is it proper,
that Peter confesses himself to be a sinful man? Why would he blurt out such a
thing when what he had just seen had happened? And could it be
a part because of Simon's words in verse 5? Lord, we have toiled
all night and have caught nothing. Now thou sayest, cast out and
put in your net." Shall we find success now after we toiled all
night? Did he question the likelihood
of any success that the Lord had suggested and go only because
the Lord had given them His command? Is he now smitten with some kind
of conviction for the way he had responded unto the Lord's
words? Said such a thing, that every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Christ is true, and
it is not to be measured at the bar of human reason. It is not to be weighed by our
efforts or our strength or our thoughts or our failures. We're
not to weigh the Word of our great Christ by any of those
scales. And the question comes to mind,
what does Simon then mean by this confession? I am a sinful
man, O Lord. I ask, does he put himself, by
this confession, by these words, does he put himself in the same
class with worldly sinners who have no interest or response
unto the Lord? Does he speak here from the standpoint
of an outright unbeliever or of an unconverted man? Does he
speak as a man without a work of grace in his heart or his
life, or a man with no interest in Christ? Is that how Simon
phrases the question? Or does he confess it in comparison
to Christ and His glory and the wonder that he had just seen? Now here's some thoughts that
I gleaned from a work simply called Contemplation by a man
named Joseph Hall, born in 1574. So he wrote a long time ago. He points out that Simon was
a very skilled fisherman. He had seen many a catch in his
day and in his time. So he immediately recognizes
that what had just occurred was not according to his skill at
all. That it was not a natural occurrence
at all. It was a miracle. And so as Joseph Hall wrote,
quote, he turns his eyes from the act unto the author. and from the catch unto himself."
He saw glory in Christ and this great work. And he saw the vileness
of himself, which motivated him to utter the words found that
are our text today. Depart from me, for I I am a
sinful man, O Lord. We have already hinted, have
we not, Simon is not putting himself in the very same category
as lost worldly sinners. As a man called a disciple of
Christ, he saw, he felt, he knew himself to be sinful even in
the sight of our Lord. He saw it more in the presence
of our Lord's great work. And he confessed it aloud, first
to Christ but also in the hearing of those that were there. Then
when we put the two halves together, We then, I think, can understand
the meaning to be that he felt unworthy to be at that time in
the presence of the holy, righteous God and Savior. And by the way, compare the reaction
of this same man in John's Gospel chapter 21 and much the same
circumstances in the lake fishing and at night and so forth. Now,
moderns, and I include even people in the churches today, might
be prone to look at this, then to diagnose the apostle to be
suffering from a very severe case of low self-esteem. This is one of the new national
diseases that we have in the world today. People, they say,
need to feel good about themselves at all times. They need to have
high self-esteem. They need a high sense of worth
and of value concerning themselves. Those who hold to this position,
they blame all kinds of vileness and sin and aberrant behavior
on what they call low self-esteem. And I'm sad to say that so many
of the churches have entered into an adulterous affair with
modern psychology as a way to encourage high but false self-esteem
among sinners in our day. If you don't believe that, listen
to Joel Osteen sometime. Now, the Scriptures teach us
that God will strip away sinful pride and self-righteousness
from those He calls. That He will put one in the dust
at His blessed and holy feet. And this goes for first-time
penitents, that is, first-time converts, as well as what I will
call seasoned Christians. This goes for both of them, that
our Lord will humble us and strip us of our pride and of our self-righteousness. Now I want to take an aside,
prove that from the Scripture. Let's look at some instances
in the Scripture. I first of all bring before you
that publican, that old crooked tax collector that we read about
in Luke chapter 18, verse 13 and verse 14. You remember, he
and a Pharisee went up to the temple to pray. Well, the Pharisee
put on quite a show. Lord, I don't do this. I don't
do that. I'm not like other men. I don't
drink. I don't smoke. I don't dip. I
don't chew. And I don't run with the folks
that do. He put on quite a show. But the
old publican, when he's come to pray, he stood afar off. The Scripture said he smoked
upon his breast, his eyes cast down, not upward. and praise
these words, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Actually, he
used the word that is translated, make reconciliation, over in
Hebrews 2 in verse 17. This is the same word that is
translated, make reconciliation. Then there are some expositors
who say that there is the article here before sinner. Be merciful
to me, the sinner. The great sinner. The sinner. He went to pray at the temple,
but being a publican, a tax collector for Rome, who were famous for
their corruption and were hated by their fellow Jew. And as this
man prayed, he was seized with a sense of deep conviction of
his sinful sinful way of life, of his unworthiness, of his personal
wickedness and he confessed it and he prayed there for mercy. And what do we read? We read
that this man went down to his house justified rather than the
other. For remember, God resists the
proud like the Pharisee, and He gives grace unto the humble
like the publican. James chapter 4 And verse 6,
in Matthew 23 and 12, whosoever exalts himself shall be abased,
he that humbles himself shall be lifted up. A holy God. abhors pride and self-righteousness,
and sees nothing good in the children of Adam, nothing to
commend them to God and to His grace at all. Well, there's another
example, the returning prodigal. You remember him, don't you?
In Luke chapter 15, he came neither expecting nor demanding the Father's
favor and goodness and mercy. But he said in verse 21 of that
chapter, I have sinned against thee, heaven and in thy sight,
and am no more worthy to be called thy son." Remember that prayer?
I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight I'm not worthy
to be called your son. Make me one as the hired servant.
Send me out into the field as a hired servant. What had he
done? He had taken the Father's substance. He had wasted it in riotous living. He had sunken to the level of
feeding swine, a disgrace in the mind of a Jew. He lived in
a famished land where famine had come. would have filled his
belly with the hush that the swine did eat. But this prodigal
son was, I tell you, in a better frame of mind than his self-righteous
older brother." You can read it in Luke chapter 15. There
is a double fault today with the preaching and the theology
of many, and it the way that they deal with, quote, sinners,
unquote. And it dictates their view. It
is evident in their preaching. Their fault, their double fault
today. One, there is not much sense
today of the holiness of God. Listen to preaching today. You
won't find much preaching, real preaching, on the holiness of
God. Few are able to comprehend the
measure of the majestic fullness of God and of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Few there are who preach on the
attribute of the holiness of God to their congregations today. I attribute this, by the way,
to the false views of love as being universal, popularized
earlier in our country by such men as D.L. Moody, Armenians,
Unitarians, and such like. Because the only attribute that
they ever emphasize is the love of God, as they like to say. And yet, you search the scripture
and you will see neither. And I want you to get this point,
I want to make it, that you will see that neither Christ nor the
apostles later went about telling sinners everywhere that God loved
them. of all the sermons of the apostles,
you won't find the word love one time in the book of Acts. I believe that I am right, and
they preach to a lot of people. So that's a fact. There is not
a strong sense today of the sinfulness and the depravity and the corruption
of man. Especially is there a weakness
on original sin. Preachers no longer caused Jerusalem
to know their abomination, as God said in Ezekiel 16 and 2
and Isaiah 51 and verse 8. Preachers don't speak much about
sin today. If they do, they speak about
mistakes. They speak about bad choices. And they talk about not corrupt
sinners, but hurting people. Human depravity is very unpopular. And that is true even in the
churches. But my friend, I remind you,
only sinners can be saved. Jesus came to save sinners. And each one that is saved will
come to view themselves as the chief of sinners, as Paul called
himself. I Timothy 1 and verse 15. Even
Christians, and even seasoned Christians, I add, ought to view
themselves as sinful and unworthy of the blessings of God's grace. Peter's reaction was not an aberration. No, not at all. It was a normal
response in that situation, when dwelling on the majesty of God,
or dwelling upon our own failures. And in this the apostle has some
good company, as there ought to be a sense of sinfulness and
unworthiness in every child of God, and it ought to spring up
often. Now, we've already considered
the publican and the prodigal son. Now, let's look at some
more and how their attitude became as they besought Christ for His
favor, His help, and His mercy. We remember the centurion. That
centurion whose most beloved and trusted servant was at home
sick at the very point of death. And he sent Jesus a message.
He sent Jesus a word saying, come, or rather, speak the word
and my servant shall be well. But he said this, I am not worthy
for you to come under my roof. You want the text? Matthew 8,
8, Luke 7, and verse 6. Then again consider Abraham,
the father of the faithful, the friend of God in covenant with
our great God. It's in Genesis chapter 18. And
in that chapter, when God says, I'm going to destroy Sodom, we
find Abraham making intercession for Lot and for Sodom. And in verse 27 of that chapter
of the Scripture, Abraham says this, I have taken upon me to
speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes. Now I don't mean God is dust
and ashes, but he himself is dust and ashes. Abraham reckons
himself to be so, to assume the work of a mediator and become
an intercessor between God and men as he did in that chapter,
a man, a descendant of dust. being permitted to speak and
to pray unto the Lord God. And Gil said on this verse, and
I quote, the disproportion between the speaker and the one spoken
to was infinite, unquote. There was such a distance between
them as could hardly be measured. In comparisons to God, Abraham
reckoned himself dust and ashes when in the presence of that
holy God who has threatened destruction and making intercession. Then
who is there that can forget the prediction or the experience
of Isaiah? The godly Isaiah, chapter 6 of
that book. Isaiah, the great statesman prophet,
the one admired by perhaps more than any other. And he saw in
a vision, in a particular year, the Lord high and lifted up. He saw in a vision. And in that
vision, the holy angels of God were about the throne crying,
Holy, Holy, holy. Now, what was Isaiah's response
under that vision that he saw? Did he do like some might today
or think they would? Whoopee! Hallelujah! That's not the response of Isaiah. His response is, woe is me! For I am undone, I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts." There in verse 5, he feared that he would
be cut off. Woe is me! He uses a Hebrew expression
in the margin. I am cut off. I'm a man. of unclean lips. Isaiah, who
had spoken so faithfully the things of God. But now, seeing
the Lord, I am undone, a man of unclean lips. And then, coming
back to the New Testament, there is the testimony of John the
baptizer. In John 1 and verse 27, he said
concerning Jesus, He is preferred before me. Listen. whose shoelaces
I am not worthy to unloose." John saw himself in comparison
to Christ, not even worthy to fall down on the ground upon
his knee and untie the shoestring off of the sandals of our blessed
Lord. Not even worthy to grovel in
the dust at the feet of our blessed Savior. Then again, I would have
you to consider God's servant Job, whom the Lord called a perfect,
an upright man, one that eschewed or avoided evil. Yet when the
Lord did finally speak unto Job, over in chapter 40 and chapter
42. Chapter 40 and verse 4, when
God spoke, Job said this, Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer
thee? I lay my hand upon my mouth. Again, Job 42 verse 5 and verse
6, I have heard of you by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye sees you. Wherefore, I abhor
myself and repent in dust and in ashes. Hear Him again. I am vile. I abhor myself. I repent. Now it stands as an
immutable truth. The more we see or the more we
know of the majesty and the power of our God, the more conscious
we become of our own worthiness that we are yet sinful, O Lord. The greater His works toward
us, the more we have the mind of Simon and of Abraham and of
Job and of Isaiah. In fact, hear me say, it is doubtful
if one has grace in their soul who has no sense of being a sinner
in the sight of God. All sinners and even the saints
will confess themselves to be vile like those did in the scripture
that we have referenced. Does it pain some? I think it
does. To hear Paul say, I am carnal,
but he said it in light of the law. It's spiritual. I am carnal. Does it pain some? It does. To hear Paul say, O wretched
man that I am, in Romans 7. Does it pain some? I think it
does. To hear Paul say in 1 Timothy
1.15, I am the chief of sinners. Not I was, not I used to be,
but I am. We live in a generation are proud
and arrogant, self-righteous sinners. And part of the reason
is they are ignorant of the character and the attributes of God. And they often think of God as
someone like themselves. Psalm 50, verse 21, you thought
I was altogether like yourself. the power, the sovereignty, the
purposes and so forth of God, not even preached and seldom
heard in so many of the churches today that go under the name
of Christian. This much is sure. They who truly
come to God through Jesus Christ the Lord will be made to see
themselves as sinners in the sight of God. Those in Christ
will at times be overcome and say to the Holy God, I am a sinful
person, O Lord. Sooner or later the Lord will
bring you to that knowledge and that confession that we are sinful
in the sight of our God. Therefore, how natural the words
of Simon before the glorious work of Christ, I am a sinful
man, O Lord. I think it could be the prayer,
the exclamation of all, even those that are in Christ.