Good morning. When I got here I saw Bruce Crabtree
and I thought well there must be some mistake. I want it to be known I would
much rather sit there and listen to you preach. I've been very
blessed to hear you over the years and I'm certainly thankful
that you're here along with the rest of you. I truly am honored
to be here with you and Consider it a great honor and privilege
to ever be asked to preach God's Word. It's such a privilege and
a blessing. I pray it will be just that to
all of us today. If you will turn with me in your
Bible to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. And as always, Brother Gabe and
your brethren in Kingsport send their love and greetings. Luke chapter 4, and I want to start in verse 42. Luke 4.42 says, And when it was day, he departed
and went into a desert place, And the people sought him, and
came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from
them. And he said unto them, I must
preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, for therefore
am I sent. And he preached in the synagogues
of Galilee. And it came to pass that as the
people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by
the lake of Gennesaret. There were some men who had heard
the Lord preach, some men and women, and they liked what they
were hearing. I wanted to preface looking at
chapter 5 with the end of chapter 4 because I love how it tells
us that these people sought Him, they came to Him, and they stayed
Him that He should not leave them. They wanted Him to stay
with them. Just a few verses up, there were some people that
were so angry at the words our Lord had to say concerning His
election of some and not others, that it says they took Him to
the edge of a cliff and tried to cast Him off headlong. And
yet He walked right through the midst of them, going His way,
preaching the kingdom of God. And then He came upon some people
who liked what they heard. And I love that. And then chapter
5 starts with, perhaps some of those people, but again, we see
people pressing upon Him for this reason. to hear the Word
of God. So many times we read of people
who came to the Lord physically to accuse Him, to trap Him in
His words, to take counsel how they might kill Him. Other people
came to Him to be fed of Him. Remember, He fed the multitude
on multiple occasions. There were some people that came
to Him in John chapter 6 and that's one of the occasions where
He fed the multitude and they wanted to make Him king. People often came to Him wanting
to see some miracle. It doesn't say any of that here.
They came to Him desiring this, to hear the Word of God. Don't you love that? Amazing. Our Lord said this. There was
a woman who heard our Lord speak one time and she said, basically
it's what she said, blessed is your mother. Here's what he told her. He said,
blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. That's my prayer for us. That
we might hear, I have to speak. I've been called to come here
and speak. I pray we might hear the word of God and that we might
keep it, that it might pierce our hearts, that God might pierce
our hearts, that we might believe it, that we might rejoice in
it, that we might truly keep it, all right? Verse two right
here says, and he saw two ships standing by the lake, but the
fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. Our Lord had encountered a lot
of people There was a multitude right there
with Him, begging for Him, craving Him. And yet in the midst of
that, our Lord sought out some fishermen. And I want it to be very clear,
these fishermen were not seeking Him. You can tell that from the way
we just read it, can't you? People are following him, pressing
upon him to hear the word of God, and onward goes, and he
sees two ships, and he sees some fishermen standing out of the
ships, washing their nets. We're gonna look at those fishermen,
okay? They weren't included in the group of those pressing upon
him to hear him. They weren't. Yet our Lord came to them. He
sought them out. Verse three says, 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. Here, we're introduced
to one of my favorite brethren in the scriptures, Simon Peter.
He was one of those fishermen. He was a sailor. Every time I
think about him and what he was in his flesh, I can't help but
think, boy, he must have been a rough man. He must have been
a rough and tough fellow. Probably not the easiest to get
along with, if I had to guess. And it says that the Lord entered
into his ship. It doesn't say he asked if he
could enter into his ship. That's important. He entered
into his ship. Know this about God. He does
not ask for permission. With whom did he take counsel
when he spoke the world into existence? Nobody. Psalm 115
verse 3 says, but our God is in the heavens. He hath done
whatsoever he hath pleased, and it pleased him on this day to
enter Simon Peter's ship." That's not cruel. That's not
cruel at all. That's amazing. That's amazing
grace is what it is. And then we read in verse 3 that
he asked Peter, he prayed him, he kindly approached him. Our
God is a loving, kind God. He kindly approached Peter and
he asked him to let out the ship a little bit into the water.
Now again, we just read Peter was standing out of his boat,
he'd been in the boat, now he's out, he's washing his nets, he's
done, it's time to pack up and go home. But the Lord came to him, and
he had a purpose in doing so. The Lord came and interrupted
his plans. Sovereign grace interrupts our plans. And Peter was about
to be so thankful that it did. Aren't you thankful that it does?
Where would we be? I don't even like to entertain
the thought. We might be having this world by the tail. Just
have an easy peasy life. Everything's great. We're having
what we want, doing what we want. It's all good. Praise God for
sovereign grace. The end of verse three says,
and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. I didn't
know what our brother was going to read, but he did the same
thing in what was just read to us. There was a multitude of
people wanting to hear him, and he got in the ship and he sat
down and taught them. He taught them. They wanted to
hear him, and they heard him. I told you, the Lord came here
for Peter and these fishermen, and he came here for those people
too. He came there so they could hear him too. And I'll tell you
this, if we desire the Lord to teach us, he will teach us. Lord, teach us. Is that not your
prayer? Lord, speak to us. Let us hear
your word. Teach us. Verse four says, now
when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into
the deep and let down your nets for a draft. He taught the people. He graciously taught the people.
And again in chapter 4 it says, the people were amazed at the
gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Every word
he ever spoke was a gracious word. And I'm sure these people
were hanging on to every word. But he taught them and now it's
time for him to deal with one of his own. This man Simon Peter. We had just read that the Lord
asked him to thrust out a little bit. Now we have a command. a gracious command." Launch out. And I wanted to say
this, when salvation comes to a sinner, and that's who it comes
to, sinners, when salvation comes to a sinner, a command comes
to that man or woman. And I like how he said, launch
out to the deep. We're going out into the deep.
I don't know what all that means, but I believe there's something
to that. Lord will deal with his people, and he'll take us
out to the deep. There's a command to launch out.
The Lord commands us, and he makes us able and willing to
heed the command. Right here in verse 5, And Simon
answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night,
and have taken nothing. I'm sure Peter was kind of insulted
at what the Lord had to say. Peter had been out fishing all
night, all night, and he caught nothing, nothing. He didn't catch
a single thing. And he was an experienced fisherman
and sailor. I'm sure he thought, who does
this man think he is? Does he not know who I am? Does
he not know what I've been doing, what I'm capable of? What does
he think he can do that I've not already done? He's about
to find out. He's about to find out. The end
of verse five, Peter said, nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down
the net. You see, I'm sure Peter's flesh,
his mind, all his common sense told him, this is nothing but
a total waste of time. Nevertheless, at thy word. See, there's power in his word.
He's the king. Where the word of the king is, there's power.
With his command, There was no not obliging by that command.
God doesn't want, God doesn't try, God doesn't hope, He does.
God was pleased to enter His boat, and God's purpose was that
He was going to go out in that boat, He was going to deal with
Peter, Peter was going to let down his net, that's why at His
word, He said, I'm going to let down the net. He made him willing
in the day of his power to do exactly what the Lord commanded,
all right? And he doesn't know it yet, but I'm telling you,
this man Simon Peter, he's about to witness firsthand the power
and the excellency and the majesty and the sovereignty of God Almighty.
Verse 6. And when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break. Peter had fished all night. It says he toiled. That means to labor with wearisome
effort. He labored with wearisome effort. He worked hard all night long. And what did he accomplish? What did his works accomplish?
Nothing. Nothing. He caught nothing. Is that what your Bible says?
Nothing. He didn't catch anything. This great haul of fish, this
drought, this draft, it was the Lord's doing. The Lord used Peter
to do it. He had Peter cast the net, but
the Lord caught all those fish. Peter didn't have anything to
do with it. It was the Lord, and Peter knew it. He knew it
was the Lord. And if any of you know me, you
know I'm not, I ain't much of a fisherman. Some of you like
to fish, that's great. I'm not much for fishing. If
you want to go fishing sometime and I'm able, I'll go with you,
but don't count on me to do anything. But I know this about fishing. You sit there and you wait. I
have sat on a boat and we could have been out at 5 a.m. and I
may not have had a bite till 11 o'clock. So I kind of understand
Peter was out there all night and he caught nothing. But then
I thought, when our Lord came and he said, launch out, you
lay your net out, do you think they had to wait very long before
these fish came in the net? I hate to assume on the scriptures,
but from reading, I believe as soon as he laid that net out,
here they come. They didn't have to wait. You
see, our Lord purposed for these fish to get in the net. When
our Lord simply speaks the Word, He's not waiting on us to do
this or that. He's doing everything in His
time according to His purpose and His will. The Lord speaks
the Word. He prepared those fish for that
net. Why didn't they get in the night
before? Wasn't time. He didn't command for him to
get in the net yet. When he commanded to get in the net, they got in
the net. You think about that next time you're fishing and
you sit there for six hours, you ain't caught nothing yet. Well,
there's a reason for that. You can try your different baits
and hooks and lures and whatever you got, but they're going to
get in that net or bite your bait whenever the Lord's ready.
When Jonah, when they cast him off that ship, Well, it just
so happened a whale come up, swallowed him. Oh, he got lucky. Oh, no. Go look at it sometime. Jonah 1.17, and the Lord prepared
a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Why on earth would he do that?
I'll tell you why. Because as Jonah was three days and three
nights in the whale's belly, so was the Son of Man three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth. That's why. It
was the Lord's doing. It wasn't by chance. It didn't
just so happen. You see the power of His Word?
Oh, I pray we see the power of His Word. We worship the sovereign
God, brothers and sisters. God does what He will. We can't
do that. We think we do what we want,
don't we? He wants nothing. He wants nothing. Verse 7 right here says, And
they beckoned unto 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. Now, this physical
miracle that took place, again, I'm not much for fishing, but
it's unfathomable to me to think that you could catch so many
fish, and there was one boat out there initially, and then
he called to his partners, and then the other ship comes out,
and both the ships are starting to sink. I think of those loaves
and fishes, how they just kept multiplying and multiplying.
I just picture these fish just multiplying and multiplying and
they started to sink. Have you ever been on a boat
that started to sink because you had too many fish in it?
That's what I'm saying is unfathomable. I can't even enter into that. You know it was the same nets
that they just spent all night trying to fill and not a single
fish got in those nets. Same nets, same boats, same fishermen. What was the difference? We can
see the difference, can't we? One glaring difference. Somebody
else was on the boat. The Lord Jesus Christ, God manifesting
the flesh, He was there now. That's the difference. And brethren,
Christ Jesus the Lord is always the difference. I don't care
what it is. And when it comes to our hope
of eternal salvation in ourselves, no hope without God, without
Christ in the world, dead in sins. But now in Christ Jesus,
oh, we're made nigh by the blood of Christ, aren't we? They didn't
have Him. Now they do. Has that not been
your story? Is that not your life? You didn't
have Him. Now you do. What'd you do to
get Him? Nothing. Well, praise the Lord. Told you, it's a wonderful thing
that our Lord was pleased to enter Simon Peter's ship. Best
day of his life, no doubt about it. You know, the great miracle here
was not the multitude of fish that they caught. The great miracle
that took place here was our Lord caught Simon Peter. Yeah, they caught some fish.
That's great. Our Lord drew Simon Peter to Himself. And He was
never going to let him go. Verse 8, when Simon Peter saw
it, and I think this is so important, the word it is in italics here.
No doubt Peter saw what took place. Peter saw the ships. He
saw the water. He saw the nets. He saw the fish.
He saw these things. He saw it. He saw the physical
miracle. He saw it. But he saw something far greater.
What did he see? He saw the Lord. A minute ago
he saw Master. He saw this teacher. That's what
he said, Master. He's about to say something else.
Now he saw the Lord. You know, in Matthew 16, we looked
at this a few months ago when the Lord said, Peter, who do
men say I am? He said, well, some say you're
Elijah, some say you're Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said,
but who do you say I am? He said, thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. That's who he saw right here. This is the first time in his
life he saw the Christ. I pray we might see the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Verse 8, when Simon Peter saw,
He fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I
am a sinful man. Oh Lord. He didn't cry that before. Before
God comes to us in loving kindness and mercy and lifts us out of
our sin and our shame, we don't cry that. Not until He comes
to us. Apart from me. I'm a sinful man,
oh Lord." Can you tell the Lord did something for that man? That's
the cry of someone the Lord's done something for. And when I read this, I can't
help but think about this. You know, people make it sound
like salvation is so easy. Well, you just go to church,
read your Bible, say a prayer, follow me, and do all these things,
repeat this, and go here, do that. Well, I'm giving my heart
to Jesus. I'm deciding to follow Him. Listen,
salvation has nothing to do with you and me. All I can do is sin
against the God that made me. All that is in my flesh is sin. All I know how to do is sin.
I'm not going to say if. The moment I start to think,
because I do this, the moment I start to think, there's some
good in me, I'm deceiving myself. The truth is we're sin. Adam fell in the garden, he sinned,
and we're all born crying, no God. We're all fools. We didn't want Him. We nailed
Him to the cross. Our Lord was talking to some
folks on one occasion, and they said, well, if we were here,
we wouldn't have done that. We wouldn't have killed the prophets.
We certainly wouldn't have. That's what people say, right?
We wouldn't have killed the Lord. We wouldn't have done that. And He said,
the very fact that you're saying that manifests you did. You're
guilty. in my flesh dwells no good thing."
In order for you or me to be saved, you know what it takes?
It takes a miracle of God. That's what I'm getting at. We
can't save ourselves. All we do is bring condemnation
to ourselves. That's all we do. What do we
pass on to our children? In a minute, hopefully, you'll
see our little baby boy that we're just tickled to have and
our little girl. I think they're cute. I think they're precious. I think they're just sweet little
babies. What's God saying? We all come forth from our mother's
womb speaking lies. What do the scriptures say we
pass on to our children? The sin and the shame and the
guilt that we are. That's what we pass on. Pass
on our sin nature. And here's what God says about
sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. I will by no means
clear the guilty, angry with the wicked every day. Vengeance
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. There's a song I like. It says,
it took a miracle to put the stars in place. It took a miracle
to hang the world in space. Now listen to this. But when
He saved my soul, when He cleansed and made me whole, It took a
miracle of love and grace. That's the miracle. Yeah, that's
a miracle that everything that exists exists. But I'm telling
you, there's no greater miracle than that God can save a soul
like me. And that's exactly what Simon Peter is coming to realize
right here. He said, depart from me, for
I'm a sinful man. Oh, Lord, what could you possibly
have to do with me? Doesn't that song touch you when
we sing it? How can it be? How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? It's like
when Isaiah saw the Lord in his holiness. He thought the same
thing. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. What could you have to do with me? Oh, depart
from me. Depart from me. Was our Lord
going to depart from Simon Peter? No. He wasn't going to depart
from Him. He came here for Him. It pleased
Him to come to Simon Peter, reveal Himself to him, call him out
of his darkness into His marvelous light, the marvelous light that
is Christ Himself. He didn't come to condemn Peter.
He came to save Peter. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Verse 8 again, When Simon Peter
saw, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I
am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished. And all
that were with him at the draft of the fishes which they had
taken, and so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
which were partners with Simon. These men were just astonished.
They were absolutely astonished. Wouldn't you have been? Aren't
you astonished just to read about it? The power of the Word of
God is astonishing when it's ever revealed to us. Naturally,
we don't know anything about it. People say, oh well, maybe
there's a higher being. Oh, we just don't have any idea. If Jesus Christ, the Word of
God, He is the Word of God, is ever revealed to us, and the
only way He's revealed to us is by the power of God. If He's
ever revealed to us, if God's Word, if God's power is ever
made known to us, one, God has to do it. And two, we'll be absolutely
in awe, just like they were. Just like they were. Later in
this chapter, our Lord, He entered into a house and He There was
this paralyzed man, couldn't walk, confined to a bed. And
there were some Pharisees there, and our Lord, He said, what's
easier for me to tell this man to take up your bed and walk,
or to say, your sins be forgiven you? And so that they might see
the power of God. You know what He did? He did
both. He said, thy sins be forgiven
thee. Take up your bed and walk. That's the power of our God.
You know, it's amazing that He could make a lame man get up
and walk, and give him strength to carry a bed, but it's so much
more infinitely amazing that He could say to you or me, thy
sins be forgiven thee, and it actually means something. I could
tell you that and it don't mean a thing. And those Pharisees, they said,
who has power to forgive sins but God? Only He can but rejoice
in this. He can. We can't. He can and He does. There is
forgiveness with Him that He may be feared. Christ died the
just for the unjust. He has brought us to God by the
sacrifice of Himself. After our Lord saved that man,
physically and spiritually, look what these people had to say
that saw it. Luke 5, 26. They were all amazed, and they
glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen
strange things today. I imagine they did. And that
word strange there, I love this. It means extraordinary. Don't
you like that word? When we see what God has done
for us, oh, it's extraordinary, isn't it? We never could have
dreamed of such a thing. Free and full forgiveness. Salvation
that we couldn't earn. That don't cost us anything,
it costs Him everything. Even the faith to believe on
Him is His gift. Works of goodness. To will and
do of His good pleasure is His gift. We have no room to boast. He did it all. Doesn't that make
you rejoice? Isn't that a hope you can cling
to? Isn't that a hope you can leave this body of death with
and approach God, trusting in? It is finished? Oh, I can't imagine
a better hope, can you? Oh, they were astonished. They
were amazed at the glory and wonder and excellency and power
of God Almighty. And again, that's who Jesus Christ
is. People call Him Jesus. He's God Almighty. Lord Jesus,
Savior. Verse 10 goes on to say, Jesus
said unto Simon, fear not. I told you he wasn't going to
depart from me. And now the Lord tells him, Peter, I'm not going
anywhere. I'm not casting you off. Nope. Why? Because I came into the world
to save sinners. Didn't come to call the righteous. It goes
on to say that here. But sinners to repentance. I came just for
you, Peter. What's the qualification? A no
good, dirty, rotten, evil, vile, corrupt sinner. Well, all right. You meet the bill. What a day this was for Simon
Peter. And Andrew, James, and John My
soul, what a day it was for them. Can we see that the Lord saved
them? Can we see that? Can we also see that they didn't
save themselves? It's obvious, isn't it? They
just went out to fish. They were about to go home, just
all tore up. They couldn't catch anything. And look how fast their
life changed in an instant. The Lord saved them. They didn't
do one thing to save themselves. Just think about it. When our
Lord was there walking, all these people are following Him and
just dying just to hear Him. They just didn't want to hear
Him stop talking. Just, please, Lord, speak again. Speak the
Word again. Let us hear more of these gracious
things You have to say. And yet our Lord, in infinite
wisdom and purpose and goodness, He sees these fishermen It's
like when he must needs go through Samaria, he must needs come to
the Sea of Galilee to save these men, call them to himself. The
end of verse 10 goes on to say, fear not from henceforth thou
shalt catch men. Not only did our Lord save these
men, not only did our Lord call these men to believe on him and
to follow him, Our Lord was calling these men in particular to be
His disciples, to be His apostles. He said, I'm going to make you
fishers of men. A fisher of men is a gospel preacher. That's what He's talking about
here. Fishers of men. Now, I want to look at this and
we'll wind this up. Turn over to, we'll come back
here. Turn over to Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4. Same account. Matthew 4.18. 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.
Now that tells me the Lord saw them before they were done. He
had his eye on them. He saw them still fishing. Then
he came to them when they were done. And that was on purpose
too. Verse 19, and he saith unto them,
follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Now look at this.
And they straightway left their nets and followed him. Matthew
tells us a lot less. And yet it goes right along with
what we just read in Luke 5. It wasn't two separate accounts.
It's the same account. And John tells us something a
little different. Mark tells us a little more details. What a strange thing they experienced
that day. And you think about this. When
our Lord came to them, and just look at it as if this was the
only account you knew, what Matthew just told us. He came up to them,
and he said, follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. And
they straightway left their nets and followed him. Why would they
do that? Seems kind of odd, doesn't it?
If someone came up to me and said, follow me, I guarantee
you, I'm going to want to do the exact opposite. But I'm not
God. They followed him. They forsook
everything and immediately followed him. Because the Lord said, follow
me. I'm telling you, if there's anything
we take away from this message, let it be this, there's power
in His Word. He said, follow me. They dropped everything and they
followed Him. They didn't have a choice in
the matter. Well, nobody wants to be the Lord's disciples, guess
He won't have any. He came unto his own, and his own received
him not. Nobody, including you and me, wanted him. But he purposed
to have some disciples and apostles, and he had them. Every single
one he wanted to have. Even Judas was purposed to be
a castaway, what the Scriptures say. He called these men. He saved them. And He did this
in holiness. He called them with a holy calling
that couldn't be refused. And being fishers of men, they
were going to go, they were going to walk with Him, they were going
to learn from Him, they were going to preach the gospel of Him,
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. By this fishing of men is the
means God has ordained and given us to reveal salvation to His
people. 1 Corinthians 121, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Doesn't
that sound foolish to you that he would use a fisherman like
Simon Peter to go declare the glory of God in the person of
Jesus Christ? It would have just made more sense for him to use
a Pharisee, wouldn't it? Upright, religious man? Oh, no. God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
that are mighty, base things of the world, things which are
despised. That's what God has chosen. Brethren, that's what
I am. And I'm thankful to know what
our Lord did here. Look right here in verse 21 of
Matthew 4, And going on from thence, he saw two other 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. We'll look at the last verse
in our text here, and I'll leave you with some comments here.
Look back in our text, Luke 5 verse 11. And when they had brought their
ships to land, they forsook all and followed him." These four
men, they forsook everything and followed him. When he said,
follow me, everything they knew, fishing was their life. Everything
they knew, everything they loved, everything they had, they forsook
it all. They left it all right there.
And they followed him without hesitation. We just read in Matthew's
account, James and John, they left their father right there
in the ship. Mark tells us they had hired servants in the ship,
left them all. Why did they go and their father
and the hired servants, why did they not go? Because the Lord
called those four men. They, and I'll tell you this,
they wanted to go. You know that? They wanted to
leave. They wanted to follow the Lord. It wasn't their plan
when they woke up that day. Moments ago, when they were about
to pack up and go home, they didn't have this in mind. But
once our Lord dealt with them, I'm telling you, they wanted
to go with Him. When our Lord commands us to
believe on Him and follow Him, we follow Him, we believe on
Him, and we want to. It's amazing. We didn't before,
and now we do. That's the power of our God.
That's not a decision we made. It's a decision He made. And I'm thankful that He did.
When I think right here about their father Zebedee, I imagine
he got to keep the ships, the nets, all the fishing stuff,
the fish. And yet that man went home with
nothing in here. Empty in his soul. I pray God
saved him, but I have no reason to assume He did. These four
fishermen, they didn't even go home. They just followed the
Lord. And He didn't have a place to
lay His head, Scriptures tell us. And yet the Lord provided
for them. They didn't need anything. He
didn't send them out with purse and script. He provided for them. Every need they had, He provided
for them. They followed Christ wherever He went. You know, fishing
was their life. They had a life just like you
and I do. They were just living their life like you and I are.
But now they have a new life. Their new life is this, Christ. Christ is our life. Is it so with you? And I'm telling
you, there's no life like Him. There's no life like Christ.
He's our life both now and forevermore. In conclusion, what does all
this mean for you and me? Here's what I see from this text.
God has a people chosen unto salvation, chosen before the
foundation of the world, not according to any good or bad
which we've done, but according to His mercy and grace, His purpose.
Who are they? Sinners, just like these four
fishermen. Sinful men and women. And at God's appointed time,
the time of love, He will call every single one of His chosen
people unto Himself, just like He did right here. Just like
He did here. When He does, it's an effectual
call of grace that we cannot not hear. You know, sometimes
we sit here and we don't really hear it in and out. If our Lord
speaks to us, we're going to hear it. And if He says, follow
me, we're going to drop everything and follow Him, just like they
did. And we're going to want to. That amazes me. He puts the want to in here.
I love that. Until the Lord does this for
us, we'll be out living our lives, fishing, washing our nets, fulfilling
the lusts and desires of our flesh and mind like we all do.
But I rejoice to tell you, You who've heard His voice, you who
may have not heard His voice yet, God's grace will come to
you if He chose and purposed to save you. You're not going
to be seeking Him, just like they weren't. Those men that
were seeking Him, the Lord put the seeking in them. We seek
His face when He says, seek My face. We come to Him when He
tells us, come to Me. All you that labor and are heavy
laden, maybe they heard that and thought, I've got to get to Him.
There's rest to be had in Him. Salvation is not according to
us. It's the work of God. We can't stop it. We can't hinder
it. We don't influence it. We can't ruin the perfect work
of salvation that God has accomplished for us. I love that too, because
if I could mess it up, I promise you I would. I would have already
be long gone. Praise the Lord. What I'm urging you to do is
to rest in the Lord. Don't go home and try to save yourself.
Well, let me straighten up and fly right. Yeah, we ought to. Yeah,
maybe we shouldn't do that. The bad things that we do. The
bad ain't gonna save us. Christ alone can save us, and
He has saved all His people. I'll leave you with this. Chapter
5 starts with these words. Look at it. Verse 1. And it came
to pass, whatever God has purposed, always
comes to pass. What happened that day for that
man, Simon Peter, and his brother, and James and John, it came to
pass. God purposed it. My prayer for us is that it might
come to pass for us to hear the Word of God from God Himself,
to believe it, receive it joyfully, love it, and that that call might
come to you and me. Follow me, because if it does,
oh, we'll be so happy. We'll be willing to. We'll forsake everything and
follow Him. Lord, do this for us. Call us like you called them. I pray He might. Amen.