Luke chapter 5. He says, It came to pass, came
to pass, the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God. Our dear Savior, our blessed
Savior, was a preacher. He was a preacher. Look what
he says back up there in chapter 4 and verse 43. country people came to find him
when he had departed to be alone. And he said unto them, I must
preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, for therefore
am I sent. I'm sent to preach, sent to teach. And he preached in the synagogues
of Galilee. Our Savior was a preacher. He
is the best preacher, the most glorious preacher, and he was
the easiest preacher to understand. They understood what he said.
In fact, that's why there in Luke chapter 4, if you went back
to the beginning, there our Lord Jesus Christ was preaching about
God's sovereign election, about all the widows that were in Israel
in the time of Elisha. And Elisha was sent to only one,
and there was many lepers in Israel in the time of Naaman,
but Naaman was sent to only one. And they were really upset with
the Lord Jesus Christ, not because they didn't understand Him, because
they did. Because He's saying that, you know, God can do what
He wants to with His own. And especially Gentiles, people
that are not Jews as the Jews were and didn't keep the law.
And so they decided to throw Him over a mountain, and our
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why, you know, people
may not believe what He's saying. But they understood what he said.
And the common people, the scripture says, the common people heard
him gladly. And so let's look first of all
at his preaching. It says there in verse 1, And
it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him, Oh my, he's
preaching. He was a popular preacher. He was very popular at that particular
time. The people pressed upon him. That's what they pressed
upon him. And let me show you, look over here in Mark, back
over to the left of you, Mark chapter 12. Let's look at this
just a moment, Mark chapter 12. Here's what he was doing here,
he was bringing many sons unto God. Many people pressed upon
him. In Mark chapter 12, verse 37,
look at what it says here. I've unquoted this to you, but
I believe it would be good to look at it, Mark 12, 37. And it says down there, David
therefore himself called him Lord, and which then is he his
son. And listen to what it says, and the common people heard him
gladly. They heard him gladly. All these
folks that came to hear our Lord Jesus Christ, they came because
they could understand him. And they liked his preaching
because they could understand him, that a whole multitude began
to crowd him, began to press upon him. They began to gather
around him in such a way that he was pressed. They were pushing
him because he was. And you remember in John, you
don't have to look there, but you remember there that the Pharisees
sent some soldiers and some of his people to come and take him.
Said, if you go arrest him and bring him back to us. Well, they
got there and they began to listen to him. There was a great big
crowd around him. And he was preaching. And they went back
and they said, well, why didn't you not bring him? said, well,
there was a great crowd there. We was afraid. And no man of
all the people we've ever heard preached before and all the people
that's ever, we've ever said out of the ministries and all,
how many synagogues we've been in, never man spake like this
man spake. Nobody ever spoke like he did.
And so you see, he was a popular preacher. The people pressed
upon him and didn't know what else he said about him. Look
at what he preached. And it came to pass as the people
pressed upon him, listen to this, to hear the word of God. To hear God's blessed word. Our
Lord Jesus Christ was a preacher of the word of God. Now the only
word he had was the Old Testament. They didn't have the New Testament
at this time. So what was he doing here? He was opening the
Old Testament to them. He was teaching them and preaching
to them concerning the Scriptures, concerning what God had to say. They wanted to hear the Word
of God. They didn't want to hear about Mitchell's. They didn't
want to hear about Long's. They didn't come to hear about
Moses. They didn't come to hear about the prophets. They came
to hear him preach the Word of God. And, beloved, that's what
he was doing. And that's why when he was on
the road with those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, when he
departed from them, they said, did not our hearts burn within
us as he opened the scriptures to us? You see, he was giving
them the word of God. And that's what they did. They
pressed upon him and backed him up onto a lake. Up to this lake
here was the Sea of Galilee. And I'll tell you, beloved, he
was taking the Old Testament scriptures and preaching himself
and telling them what the Old Testament meant. Tell them what
no doubt Moses said about it. Tell them no doubt what David
said about it. Tell them no doubt what God himself
said about him, what Elijah said about him, what Elijah said about
him, what Samuel said about him, what Isaiah said about him. He
no doubt took Isaiah 53 and began to preach to them from Isaiah
53. He had so many places that he could take and open the Old
Testament to them that they stood there. No wonder they heard him
gladly. The Pharisees, they would go
to the law. And I was on a website the other
day, somebody sent it to me about Jewish laws. They got 637 laws. You think Ten Commandments is
bad, they set up 637 laws that you must keep. That's why they need so many
rabbis, and that's why they go, and they go over to the Josh
and the Kittles. 637. I can hardly quote the ten, but
they have all these divers, rituals, ceremonies, clothes they have
to wear, food they have to eat, food they can't eat, days they
have to keep, sabbaths they have to keep, new moons they have
to keep, evenings they have to keep, washings they have to keep. All 637 different things they
have to do. And they have to start teaching
their children from the time they were little bitty fellas,
all the way to the time they leave this world, and they still
don't know all 637 of them. What happens whenever they fail
in one of them? Who's going to take care of that
sin? Because if you have a law, if you break the law, that means
you're guilty of being a criminal. And if you've got a law that
you're supposed to keep to be accepted of God, what are you
going to do when you fail in that law? How then, how do you
get accepted of God? You can't back up and undo it.
You can promise, I'll do better next time. What are you going
to do? And that's why our Lord Jesus
came and He preached the Word of God from the Old Testament.
He preached Himself. And oh beloved, look what His
pulpit was. People pressed upon him to hear the Word of God.
I wish people would come to hear the Word of God. I wish preachers
would preach the Word of God. We was in that building yesterday,
and I went up front to see what it was like up there. And right
in the foyer, right in the foyer when you come in, they had a
big old wooden cross there. It had a spark back around it.
And then underneath it, they had a crown of thorns laying
there. That's the first thing you see
when you walk in there. This is a great big cross. Underneath
it, you know, got a little table there with a kind of thorn bed,
you know, laying there. What's that got to do with the
Word of God? Oh my, look at his pulpit. Look
what it said here in verse two and three. And they pressed upon
him to hear the Word of God. and saw two ships standing by
the lake. But the fishermen were going
out of them and were washing their nets. Them fellows was
out washing their nets, and these folks got depressed upon them.
And he got into one of the ships, which was Simon's. And he prayed
him that he would thrust out a little from the land, and he
sat down. His pulpit was a boat. His pulpit was a ship. And he
sat down and talked to people. out of the ship. Or his pulpit was a boat. What
if you were over the path and a preacher preached without a
pulpit? Very easy. Very easy. He didn't wait until
he got to the temple. He said, now listen, if you fellas
want to hear what I got to say, you come over to the temple.
I'll be over there in such and such an hour. We're going to
meet from 10 to 12. We're going to have this and
that and the other. You just hold your horses, and
I'll be over in such and such a place in such and such a time,
and I'll preach over there. If you want to hear me, come
over there." He didn't look and say, well, I got this big building,
you know, and I got it ornate, and when you all get ready to
hear me, you come meet that building, because that's where I'll be.
No, no, no. He used what was provided by God and had his own
self at the right time at the right place. He used what was
there at the time that he was to preach. The people were there. That's what Peter, excuse me,
Timothy said. He says, you know, preach the
word, be it in season or out of season. When it's convenient,
when it's inconvenient. When you've got a crowd or you
don't have a crowd. When you're sick or when you're
well. No matter what's going on, if you've got somebody who
wants to hear what you've got to say, you get up and start
preaching. Get ready. Go on up preaching. That's what
Paul said. One time he was in a synagogue. Any of you fellows
got anything to say? Paul said, that's all I need
to know. He got up and he began to preach. If you got out there,
that's what our Lord did. He provided what was in hand.
There was a shift in hand. And all those folks that were
hearing, he got in that ship and sat down in that ship. And
then he sat down. This is one of the great mysteries,
you know. We have to stand up to preach,
but he sat down. And this great crowd up there
around him, you know, he sat down and what does it say? He
taught the people. He preached and he taught. And
he taught the people out of that ship. And I'll tell you something,
the number of them didn't matter. Didn't matter at all. You remember
one time there was one woman, one woman, in the middle of the
day, and when she got there to get her water, the Lord Jesus,
sitting on that wheel, used to reach one soap just to preach
to one woman. Do you know He walked for seven
miles with just two people one time preaching to Him? Just two people. People say,
boy, you know, they get disheartened because they saw this many there,
that many there, and I saw this. But listen, I'm telling you,
beloved, the number, when I wore Jesus Christ, the number didn't
matter to me. And look at Philip. When he was going along there,
he preached to one man. He preached to that Ethiopian
eunuch. One man. God sent him to get one man.
And that's the way the kingdom of God has been brought into
existence one soul at a time. One person at a time. And if
our Lord Jesus Christ, if He had a crown, count that. But
there were times He didn't have a crown. There were times when
there was nobody but Him and Mary and Martha. And also, beloved, the number
didn't matter. And I tell you what, that's why
His pulpit didn't matter. The number didn't matter. And
He sat down. And look what happens next now.
Oh my, you're talking about something And he sat down there, and his
people pressed upon him. They've come to hear the Word of God.
Come to hear the Word of God. He got in a ship, sat down, began
to preach and teach to the people. Then look what he said to Simon.
Now when he had left speaking, he got through preaching. Got
through preaching. He's through preaching. There's
a time and a season for everything, and he got through preaching.
Brought his message to an end. I don't believe he gave an invitation.
I don't believe he Said, you know, now you folks need to get
on your knees, and if you've got this deep of repentance,
if you've got this much faith, if you feel like it in your heart
and all that, no, he didn't, but he didn't do anything. He
left them with the message. With whatever he said from the
Old Testament, from whatever he said from the Word of God,
that's what he left them with. He left them with that. And that's
what we've got to do. What in the world can we do after
you tell somebody something you can't take or believe in? You
can ask them to believe it, but we can't cause it. But listen,
our Lord Jesus just sat down and preached to them, and when
he got done, everybody left. And then look what he told his
disciples. Now, when he was out speaking, he said unto Simon,
Take your boat and go out into the deep. Let down your mess,
the mess you just got through washing, the mess you just cleaned
up after you, and let down your mess for a draft. Simon answered
and said unto him, Master, we've called all night. That's why
they was out that morning cleaning their nets. All night they was
cleaning their nets. And we've taken nothing. Huh? And let me tell you something.
He said, launch out into the deep. Let me tell you what he
didn't say. He said, Simon, would you please
let your boat go out there in the deep? If you'll let me, I'll tell you
where some fish are at. If you pray real, real hard,
I'll show you where some fish is at." No, no. He said, this isn't an
offer or an invitation. He didn't say, do you want to
taste some fish? you'll do what I tell you." No,
he made a commandment. He said, launch out into the
deep. That was a commandment. He didn't
ask him. He didn't invite him. He didn't make an offer. He said,
launch out into the deep. Now, Simon, look what he said. Master, we've told all night,
told all night, we have labored and labored and labored, and
you know, When we fished all night long, we took nothing.
We never caught the first fish. When you ain't got nothing, you
ain't got nothing. And as old Scott said, nothing is like a
donut hole. Nothing is nothing. Nothing is a bunch of zeros,
and that's what he said. We told all night long, and we
never caught the first fish. Have you fellas ever done that?
Told all day, told all night, and never catch the first fish?
That's what they did, and that's what these fellas did for a living.
You know they knew that lake like the back of their hand.
They all, no doubt, had their best fishing holes. They, no
doubt, had the best places that they wanted to go. You fellas,
you know, don't call me because I've got this special place over
here where I really know where the fish are. But that night,
the fish weren't where he was. We didn't take anything. He admitted
here that his labor was in vain. But look what he said. Nevertheless,
at thy word." Nevertheless, at thy word. Come on, Lord, we've
taken nothing. Our labor's in vain. But nevertheless,
at thy word. You think about that. At thy
word, the heavens were created. God said, let there be light. At thy word, there was light.
God said, Let the day and the night be separated. At thy word
they was. He spake, and it was done. He
commended, and it stood fast. This, the cause of all causes,
is the word of God. At thy word this world continues
in upheaval by his word. The seasons come and they go. Why? At thy word. At thy word
kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. At thy word, sinners are brought
to Christ. At thy word, God saves people. At thy word, God made prophecies,
and they came forth. And then after they came forth,
them prophecies became history. And that's why he says, nevertheless
at thy word. That's what our Lord said when
he was in the Garden of Gethsemane. Not my will, but your be done. That's what Simon Peter said.
Lord, at your word. What you say, that's what we'll
do. And he said, I'll let down the net. And that's what he said,
nevertheless, if thou wilt, I will let down the net. And look what
happens now in verse 6 and 7. And when they have done this,
and when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude
of fishes. And it cost so many that their
net began to break. And I mean, they've never experienced
nothing like this before. They caught so much fish that
their net began to break. And then look what it says, and
they beckoned unto the partners, bring your boats over, bring
your boats over here, that they should come and help them. Come
and help us. And they came and they filled both of those ships.
They had so many fish in those ships that they began to sink.
The weight was so great, the fish was so many, they had enough
to fill two ships, and they almost began to sink. Now, that's the
way the Lord does things. We give out little old bitty
bits, and He gives out big, big handfuls. That's what He does.
He always gives a handful on purpose. Not just a smidgen. a handful. And look what happens
now in verse 9. For he was astonished, they were
astonished at the draft, and all that were with him, they
were astonished. And this is the way our Master does. We labor,
and our labor, we take nothing, absolutely nothing. Looking through
that thing we got from the good Samaritans, this morning, and
I had noticed it before, and very brought to my attention,
because I didn't get that far back there. It says, God has
no hands but our hands. That's what they say. But oh my, our Lord don't even
need any hands. All He does is use His Word.
That's all He does is speak. That's all He uses right now
is His Word. He uses no more than His Word. It's like that's
Him we sung today. It's by the interruptible seed,
by the Word of God, that we're begotten again. It's by the Word
of God that God produces life in a man. It's by the Word of
God that the seed is sown. It's by the Word of God that
the Gospels preach. It's by the Word of God. That's
Thy Word. It's God's Word. The heavens
declare the glory of God. The firmament shows His handiwork.
And God does everything He does in this world right now, even
as He did in creation, by His Word. And I'm telling you something,
I showed it to you last week, and he says that his word would
not return unto him void. Now, I mean sometimes it may
fall on an ear that they don't hear it. They don't hear a word
the preacher says. Their mind may be a million miles
away. They may fall asleep. They may think of me saying,
well, I need to get here, I need to get there, and they may be
doing all kinds of things. But I know this. Whether you're asleep,
whether your mind's a million miles away, no matter what goes
on, the Word of God is not going to come back to him void. And
here's the thing about it, men are not only going to hear the
Word, and it's not going to return to him void, but I also know
this, that men will not only be responsible for what they
hear, they'll be responsible for what they could have heard.
Do you know that? for what they could have heard. So you, you know, I'd take every
opportunity I could. If it's me, that's just me. So listen to what they've done.
Oh, they caught more fish and they know what to do with it.
And this is the way our Master always done. Look over with me
in John 21. Let me show you this again. You know, it's the Word of God
that improves us, convicts us, corrects us, instructs us, that
God uses to chasten us, to open our understanding. You know, our Master, we take
nothing. He speaks, and we have more than
we could ever imagine. But look what He said here in
John 21, verse 3. Simon Peter saith unto them,
I go a-fishing. They said unto him, we'll just
go with you. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately.
And look here, they're fishing at night again. They always fished
at night. That night, they caught nothing. Just like over here,
they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus
stood on the shores, but the disciples knew not that it was
Jesus. Now watch what happens now. Then
Jesus says unto them, Children, have you any meat? Have you got
anything to eat? Caught anything? They answered,
No. Now watch what he says here. He said, Unto them, cast your
net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They
cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for
the multitude of fishers. Most times they got nothing.
Most times they got nothing. And that's the way it is. You know a lot of times. We live,
you know what we do? We live from God's hand to our
mouth. We really do. We really do. All
God's got to do to bring us to nothing, just He can cut us off.
Just look, Lord bless His name. He don't do that. You know what
we come? We come within our heads with
nothing. And He gives us everything. Alright, now look what Peter
says here. This is one of the most amazing
things in the Scriptures. Look what it says here. In verse
8. back over in Luke 5. And when
Simon Peter saw it, saw them multitude of fishes, the nest
began to break, filled two boats full of fish. And when Simon
Peter saw it, he fell down. Jesus in that boat sat down.
He sat down. And he fell down at Jesus' knees. Got back down, and our Lord sat
him down. He got down on his knees. He
got down before the Lord, and he got down on his knees. He
fell on Christ's knees. He laid himself on the knees
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he said, look here,
depart from me, for I'm a sinful man. Depart from me, for I'm a sinful
man. Now look back up. In chapter
4, verse 42, look what it 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. Please don't leave us alone.
Don't go away and leave us like that again. Don't depart from
us. And here, Simon Peter says, depart from me. for I am a sinful
man." Why would anyone, why would anyone say, Lord, depart from
me? Why would anyone say that? Depart from me, for I'm a sinful
man. I'll tell you why he said that.
It's because he saw Christ in his glory. He saw Christ in his
glory. He saw him as the Lord. He saw
him as God. He saw him that he had dominion
over the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything that's
in him. He saw how in the world, he said, he told me exactly where
it was and what to do. And here I told him, I said,
we talked all night. I was trying to tell him something
that he already knew. I was trying to instruct him
in something he already knew. And oh my, he saw himself in
light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and when he saw himself in the
light of Christ, that's when he saw himself as a sinful man.
Look with me in Isaiah chapter 6, and I'll show you just what
I'm talking about. You know, people say they see their sinfulness
and they come to Christ. No, you see your sinfulness in
the light of Christ. It's only when Christ is set
forth that you see His sinfulness. When you see Him set forth in
His suffering, when you see Him in His suffering, when you see
Him in His sacrifice, when you see Him in His substitution,
when you see Him in His glory, when you see Him with all that
He went through in His life and that He'd done it for you, that
He bore your sins in His own body on the tree. that you saw
Him being under the wrath of God for you, when you saw Him
enduring the justice of God for you, when you saw Him being the
Lamb of God put in your place. And that's what he said. He said,
I say, he said that he sees Christ in His glory. And when he says
that, depart from me, Lord. Do you remember what it was like
when you became such a sinner in yourself and then you felt
your sin in such a way that you stood in astonishment and wondered
how in the world God could have anything to do with you? Do you
ever remember that? How could God have anything to
do with me? How could God look on my way? How can God be just and save
such a sinful man like myself? How can God look at me and see
me as I am and save me? How can He do it? I remember
going through that for over a year. I thought when I first saw the
gospel and I started first preaching it to you all, that's all I could
think of. How can God be just? Look at us. We were legalists.
Lies on God, lies to herself. And God in sovereign mercy came
in the end and let us see the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory,
so as what it was to worship Him in spirit and in truth. made
us feel the depths of our sin like we never knew what sin was. Before we thought sin was how
you wore your hair, the clothes you wore, how much makeup you
wore, places you went, how you dressed. And then Christ comes
along and shows us that sin's not what we do, sin's what we
are. And we often wondered if we could
get under a hole, we'd get in a hole and say, God, I ain't
coming out of here until I understand what it is for you to make me
just and make me holy. Do you know how ridiculous it
is for men and women to put on a white shirt and a pair of black
pants and put on suspenders and grow a beard and put on a hat
and a bonnet and call that holiness? Do you know what it is for men
and women to think for one moment that in their minds, in their
hearts, they think they've got the first snitching of righteousness
and acceptance before God? Hallelujah because they did it. But oh Lord, that's what Simon
said, depart from me Lord, I'm so sinful and in the world. To think that I'd be arrogant
enough and presumptuous enough to tell you we talked all night. And we didn't touch nothing,
like you didn't know me. Like you didn't know who I am,
like you didn't know what I did, like you didn't know where I
was. We can't know God as He is, but I tell you what, He knows
us just exactly as we are. We get in the dark, we can't
find our way around. The dark's just exactly like
daylight to God. And there ain't no place you
can go. If you want to go up to the heavens, He sees you.
If you want to go into hell with your mind and your heart and
your flesh, He'll be right there watching you. No wonder David said, this is
just too wonderful for me. Look what Isaiah said here, in
chapter 6, in verse 1. In the year that king Uzziah
died, this is the prophet now, this is Isaiah, this is the preacher,
this is the prophet. In the year that king Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord. I've not only seen a man die, but I saw the Lord. And what
I see now, sitting on a throne, And he was high, and he was lifted
up. And his train, or the skirts
of his glory, filled that temple. And above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings, with two he covered his face. They
with God were so holy that they covered their faces in the presence
of God. And with two they covered their
feet, because their feet and their walk is unholy in and of
itself in the presence of God, but with two they did fly. And he's one cried unto another
and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of his glory. And when they said that, the
posts in the north, there in heaven, where God's sitting on
his throne, when they done that, the posts began to shake. And moved at the voice of him
that cried, and the house was filled with smoke with the glory,
the coming glory of God. Then, then, said I. Then, said I. Look back over
in chapter 5. Let me show you something. Look in verse 8. Look what Isaiah's
doing here in chapter 5. Verse 8. Woe unto them that join
house to house. Look down in verse 11. Woe unto
them that rise up early in the morning and follow drink. Look down verse 18, woe unto
them that draw a liquor with cords of vanity. Verse 20, woe
unto them. Now, look what he says about
himself back over here in Luke, Isaiah 6 and 5. He just pronounced
all them woes on everybody else in the way they were living and
what they were doing. Look what he says here now. Then said I,
woe to me, Oh, woe to you, woe to you, woe
to you, woe to you, woe to you. He saw the Lord, and then he
said, woe is me. Everybody else is under woe until
we see the Lord. Then it's us. Woe is me. Look what he said. I'm undone. That word undone means I'm cut
off. And here I'm a man of unclean
lips. All the words I was pronouncing over to everybody else, they
was coming out of the lips. That was the lips of a hypocrite.
The lips of somebody that had never seen the Lord. Everything
I said come out of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips. Not only am I wrong, but everybody
else is right just like me. They all are talking things about
God. That's why Job said, I heard about you with the hearing of
the ear. Everybody told me about you, but now my eyes see shit.
Oh, I'm... Hallelujah, I see the Lord! No,
no. He said, I have whored myself
in light of God and His glory and His power and His majesty
and His sovereignty and His holiness and His righteousness. He said,
oh, I've whored myself and I repent in dust and ashes. And look what Isaiah goes on
to say. Here's why I said I'm undone, a man of unclean lips,
and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Huh? Oh, my. That's what I'm asking. He saw Christ, and when he saw
himself in the light of Christ, it makes him see himself. Now,
when we see ourselves in light of one another, it's no big deal. You can't turn your head for
the difference. But when you see yourself in
the light of Christ, and when you see yourself in the light
of Christ, he said, Lord, I'm so sinful. Now, he didn't say
here, I said the wrong thing, I did the wrong thing, I went
to the wrong place. I cussed, I lied, I stole. He didn't say one sin that he
committed. He didn't say, Lord, I'm sorry
I committed this sin, I'm sorry that I committed those sins,
I'm sorry I've done this, I'm sorry I went there. No, no. No,
he said, Lord, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. It's not what
I've done, it's what I am. And he sat there before the Lord
with his head on Christ's knees. Right there on the knees of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And believe me, when he said
this, he was speaking from the depths of his heart. I don't expect mercy from you.
I don't expect anything from you. I don't deserve it. Just
go ahead and get out of my ship. Go on, leave me here to myself.
Leave me to my sinful self. I don't deserve anything. You're talking about self-denial
here. This self-denial. Here's what
self-denial's about. Here's what this is about here.
You're talking about humiliation? People don't mind saying, you
know, I know I'm not perfect. I know I've got a few faults.
I know I've committed a few sins. But, boy, to become a sinner,
become sinful, and say, Lord, how in the world could you possibly
have me stay in your presence like I am? You just go ahead
and leave me alone, because I certainly don't deserve anything. I don't
deserve grace. I don't deserve mercy. I don't
deserve anything from your hand. Here's the humiliation. I have
nothing in me to commend myself to you right now. Here I am before
you. Here I am prostrate. Here I am
in your presence. And Lord, I absolutely have nothing
but my sin before you right now. I have nothing but my sinful
soul and heart and nature before you right now. And it was in light of seeing
Christ and in light of seeing His blessing. And oh, it's the
goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. And when he saw
God's goodness to him, he cried out, Oh, Lord! And oh, beloved, he saw the distance
between himself and the Lord. And what he's saying, you'd be
just to depart from hate. You'd be just to do that. And
I tell you, that's an astonishing thing. He said, boy, I don't
want to do that. Well, if you ever become a real
dead dog, you'll be just exactly like Mephibosheth was when he
saw David. He said, oh, why would you look
upon such a dead dog sinner as me? And I'll tell you something. We don't get any better as far
as sin goes. But we learn a heapsight more
about Christ. Simon Peter is going to learn
something about Christ right here. He's going to learn something
about Christ. And this says there in verse
9, For he was astonished, and all that were with him, every
one of them was astonished. Oh, they were astonished at the
Lord Jesus Christ. And look what happens now. Look
what our Lord says to him. Down in verse 10. Our Lord consoles
and gives consolation to Simon. And so also was James and John,
the sons of Zebedees, which were partners with Simon." Verse 10
of Luke, Chapter 5. And Jesus said unto Simon, Simon
was the one who said, Lord, depart from me, I am a sinful man. The
Lord spoke to him. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear
not. I know you're sinful. I know
just exactly who you are. Oh, I know you, Simon, I know
you. He said, you're going to deny
me three times before the rooster crows, but I ain't going to depart
from you. I'm not going to do that. That's
who I come to save, is these sinful men like you. That's exactly
the reason I come into this world, to save men and women who absolutely
know they have nothing. And stand in my presence, knowing
that if they get anything from me, it's going to be because
I will give it. And then he says, not only that,
but you know what you're going to do from now on? I'm going
to make you a fisher of men. You're going to quit fishing
for these fishes. You're going to go out here and start preaching the
gospel. And you know, he said, and I want you to see this. Look
over here at 2 Timothy with me. I want you to see this. This
will be such a blessing to you. It was a blessing to me. 2 Timothy. Oh, ain't you grateful that we
found out that Christ would never depart from us? Never depart
from us. Never leave us. Huh? I'm not going to depart from
you. And look what it said here in 2 Timothy 2, verse 13. If we believe not, Simon Peter
didn't believe. When he said to him, he said,
you know, Noah, I mean, when he told Simon Peter, said, saying
that this ark is sick to his wheat, I pray for thee that thy
faith fail not. If we believe not, Noah, you
reckon Noah had some unbelief? When he got out of that ship
and got drunk? Laying there naked? You reckon
Abraham? denied the Lord when he went
down there and says, Sarah here, she's my sister. And you tell
them you're my sister because they'll kill me to get to you. You reckon Abraham denied the
Lord when he went down there to that famine instead of trusting
Christ, trusting God? Huh? What about David? You reckon
he denied the Lord when he took Bathsheba, had Joab killed? You reckon David denied the Lord?
Or believe not, I shouldn't say deny. But if we believe not,
guess what happens? Yeah, he'll abide faithful. You
know why he'll abide faithful? Because he cannot deny the work
that he put in a man's heart. Can't do it. Noah, I like what Scott said
one time. He said, everybody saw Noah's
nakedness but God. You know why God didn't see it?
Because he is clothed with the righteousness of Christ. And
he cursed him because he went out and told about it. God's
people don't go around telling everybody else's nakedness because
they understand that the only thing that covers their nakedness
is the righteousness of Christ. Huh? You know why God didn't
cut Dale off? Because he's mine. He's mine
alone. He's the man after my own heart.
Oh, yes. Yes. He believed in God. He didn't
abide faithful when he done those things. But I'm going to abide
faithful to Him. You know why I'm going to abide faithful to
Him? Because I put that work in Him. I put the Spirit in Him.
I put that new heart in Him. I put that new nature in Him. I know He's got that flesh, but
He's mine and all beloved. I tell you what, and yet He cannot
deny His work in Himself. And then he told Simon Peter,
he says, now you're going to catch men. And how's he going
to catch men? There's only one way. And you
know, when you go fishing, you fellas that are fishing, you
take all kinds of bait with you and you try, you try this bait,
that bait and another bait until you find something that'll work.
And that's the way religion does. They try every kind of bait they
can come up with. But there's only one thing that
God uses to catch men. That's the gospel. And Simon
Peter on the day of Pentecost stood up and he began to preach
the Lord Jesus Christ and preach the gospel. And three thousand
souls were added to Christ that day. You think he caught a neck full
of fish and he couldn't get them to shore? He broke a neck. He caught three thousand men
with the gospel on the day of Pentecost. With one thing. The gospel. You use what words. You use what God said to you.
Huh? And then look back at our text
real quick, and then I'm done. Look here in Luke chapter 5. And look at what happens to these
fellas that see the Lord, and these fellas that God blesses
in His goodness and His mercy, and He calls them. And it says
in verse 11, when He told Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou
shalt catch men. You're going to go catch men
with the gospel. And in this, that's why they
said, men and brethren, what must we do? He said, repent and
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he said. And when
they had brought their ships to land, in verse 11, watch what
happens. They walked off and left the
fish, the boats, and everything. He said, everything in life now
revolves around this man right here. I'm going to follow him.
I'm going, where are you going? Wherever he's going, that's where
I'm going. I'm going to follow you. That's what we do. We're
going to follow him. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. Oh, gracious Father, in the blessed
name of your Son, the Lord Jesus, thank you for your gospel. Thank
you for the truth as it is in Christ. Oh Lord, I pray that
you'd cause this word to be fruitful, effectual, and a blessing to
the hearts, souls, and minds of your people gathered here
today. Father, you've got sheep here. You've got people here. And Lord, we'll stay, by your
blessed grace, as Paul did in Corinth, we'll stay and preach
to your people. And your people will come and
listen. And give us the Word of God, give us the Gospel, that
we may be faithful, true, and honor You, and forsake everything
for Your sake and the Gospel's sake. Not let anything keep us
from following You. We ask this in Christ's name,
Amen.