Let's open our Bibles again to
John chapter 21. The title of the message this
morning is When the Lord Reveals Himself. How is it that the Lord
reveals himself to his people? Verse 1 of John chapter 21. After
these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the
Sea of Tiberias. And on this wise showed he himself. Here is how he showed himself.
That word showed it means to make known or to make clearly
manifest. What I want us to see in our
text this morning is a pattern of what happens when the Lord
reveals himself to his people. How is it that Christ makes himself
manifest to his people? Now we can't see Christ unless
he makes himself manifest to us. He's got to show himself
to us or we'll never see him. So how does the Lord make himself
manifest to his people? And what happens when he does
make himself manifest his people? Well, first the Lord reveals
himself to the most undeserving people. Look at verse two. There
were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathanael
of Canaan and Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and two other
of his disciples. Now these disciples here that
are mentioned are all undeserving of God's grace, aren't they?
All the disciples, all 11 of them, had deserted the Lord in
His great hour, His greatest hour. They all deserted and left
Him alone. And they deserted Him in fear.
They deserted Him in lack of love and faith for Him. Peter
denied the Lord. He did not even know Him. Thomas
refused to believe that the Lord had risen. Even though at least
three times in Scripture it's recorded the Lord told Thomas,
I'm going to suffer, die, and rise again. His brethren all
told him we'd seen the Lord, he's risen. Thomas refused to
believe. James and John, those are the two sons of Zebedee.
As soon as they heard the Lord say, I'm gonna suffer, I'm gonna
die and I'm gonna rise again. You know what they did? They
began arguing over who's gonna be the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. Let us one sit on your right hand and one on your
left. My word. Nathanael, the first time he
heard about the Lord Jesus, you know what he said? Can any good
thing come out of Nazareth? These men do not deserve the
Lord's grace, do they? But this is exactly who the Lord
always reveals himself to. The most undeserving. And that's
good news to a sinner. Because none of us deserve God's
mercy. All we deserve is wrath from
God. You think about what we are in
Adam. How we're fallen in Adam. We've received Adam's nature.
We're undeserving of God's grace, aren't we? We've rebelled against
God. We don't deserve him being gracious
to us. And when you think about what we are in ourselves, what
we've done, what we've said, what we've thought, undeserving
of God's grace. But you know, before the Savior
is going to reveal himself to us as our Savior, He's going
to show us how undeserving of His grace we really are. Before
the Lord reveals Himself to us, washes us in His blood, cleanses
us from all of our sin, He's going to show us how undeserving
of His sacrifice we are and how desperately we need His blood
to cleanse us from our sin. Before the Lord reveals Himself
to us in love, before He shows us we're an object of His eternal
love, He's gonna show us how undeserving of His love we really
are. We are unlovable by nature. And we learn that, we don't sing,
oh, how I love Jesus. We sing, I'm so glad that Jesus
loves me. I'm undeserving. Second, the
Lord reveals Himself to those whose works produce nothing.
When the Lord reveals Himself to us, He reveals Himself to
those who are nothing, who have nothing, who can do nothing.
And he does that so that we'll see we're always completely dependent
upon Christ. Look at verse 3. Simon Peter
saith unto them, I go a fishing. They saying to him, we also go
with thee. They went forth and entered into
a ship immediately. And that night they caught nothing. Now maybe Peter was saying, I'm
leaving the ministry. I'm quitting this. I'm going
back to my occupation of fishing. Maybe he said, I don't know if
that's what he means or not. Look back at Matthew chapter
28. It could be, knowing Peter's personality as we do, it could
be Peter was saying, I'm tired of waiting here. I'm tired of
sitting here doing nothing and waiting. But the Lord had told
them, you come to this place where you're at and you wait
on me. There you'll see me. Matthew 28, verse 9. And as they went to tell his
disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, all hail. And they
came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. Then said
Jesus unto them, be not afraid. Go tell my brethren that they
go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. Now you go to Galilee
and wait, and I'll show myself to you there. Well, it could
be Peter just got tired of waiting. And he said, I'm going to go
fishing. It's possible. Peter said, you know, while we're
here, we got something to eat. I'm going to go fish and get
us something to eat. Maybe that's what he meant. Nobody
really knows for sure. But the picture, the allegory
that we have in our text seems to indicate Peter was doing something
wrong by going fishing like he was. It doesn't seem like Peter
was going fishing for pleasure. It seems like his fishing was
a job for Peter. Seems like he's going to this
occupation. And he said, I'm going fishing.
And the others went with him. Now we just need to be careful
about our actions and our words because what we do, what we say
affects others. When Peter went fishing, instead
of waiting on the Lord, maybe, I don't know if he was leaving
the ministry and going back to being a professional fisherman
instead of fisher of men. Some people think that, but I
don't know. I don't know what Peter's motivation was. But for
whatever reason, the Lord told him to wait and he didn't and
others followed him. So they go fishing. Now you think
of who these men are. They're professional fishermen. At least we know James and John
were raised on the water. Their dad was a fisherman. I
mean, they were raised on this lake, on the sea, fishing. They
knew what they were doing. They knew where the fish were.
And they didn't catch a single fish. Not one. I mean, they just
completely wasted their time. But that's a picture of who the
Lord reveals himself to. He reveals himself to people
whose works produce nothing. Now, all of our works are sin. All of our works are empty nets.
Our good deeds, those things that we think that are good,
they're just as much sin as everything else we do. Because by nature,
what we are is sin. So everything we do is sin. You
know, most men just completely give up trying to keep all God's
law, because they see they can't do that. So, you know, they try
to get the Reader's Digest version. Let's condense this down to a
few, you know, or two or three or one, and we'll keep that.
And we think, you know, God be pleased with me, because I don't
do this sin, you know, I keep this law. God says, not only
does that not please Him, God says that's an abomination to
me, resting in any work of our own rather than trusting Christ
completely. What we do never pleases God. And before the Lord
reveals Himself to His people in saving grace, He always shows
us that about ourselves, that our works are nothing but sin.
He shows us there's no life-giving, no life-sustaining power in any
of our works. And you know, that's a painful
lesson to learn, isn't it? That's just a painful lesson to learn,
to see what we are by nature. That not only just what we do
is sin, that what we are is sin. To see that we can't do anything
to give us life and what we do not only does not give us life,
in fact it damns us. It harms us. Now that's a painful lesson,
but what a blessing if God teaches you that. Because if God really
teaches you that, you know what you'll do? You'll depend on Christ
for all of your salvation. This is why the Lord always reveals
himself to people he's taught. Our works produce nothing. Now
you think about this. We know the Lord's in control
of everything, don't we? Was he in control this night
they went fishing? I mean, the Lord's in control. He could have stopped Peter from
saying, I go fishing, couldn't he? But he allowed that to happen
because he's going to teach Peter, he's going to teach the disciples,
and he's going to teach you and me something very valuable. The
Lord's in control. He let them go fishing. They
entered immediately into a ship. I don't know if it was their
ship that they kind of kept or, you know, the Lord just opened
the door. Well, here's somebody with a boat. You can just take
it and go out fishing all night, you know. The Lord's in control
of that. And they fished all night and didn't catch a thing.
You know why? The Lord's even in control of
the fish. He made it where those fish were not where that net
was. They knew where to throw the net to catch the fish, but
that night they weren't catching anything because the Lord was
in control of the fish. He was in control of the catch. And that's so good. Oh, what
a blessing that the Lord was in control here. What would have happened if they
caught a boatload of fish? Do you ever think of that? What
would have happened if they just had a normal catch? Would they
have kept being professional fishermen and not gone on to
be fishers of men? Could be, couldn't it? There have been times I've been
very bitterly disappointed. Something that I wanted, a job
or whatever I wanted very, very desperately. And I didn't get
it. I'm very disappointed, really
bitterly disappointed. Now that I've got on that side
of that, I'll just be completely honest with you, I asked the
Lord why. Why couldn't I have this job?
It'd provide for my family, give me just, you know, it's a good
job, something I'd enjoy doing. Why can't I have this job? Now,
you know what I see? The best thing ever could have
happened to me. The Lord not giving me what I
wanted. was the best thing that could
have ever happened to me. If I'd have gone off someplace
and got a big job, would I have been here? Next time, we're bitterly disappointed. Remember this. The disciples
were not all that thrilled that they toiled all night and caught
nothing. They were disappointed. But it was the best thing that
ever happened to them. Now they're going to be committed
to being fishers of men. And the Lord always reveals himself
to sinners who he's taught that lesson, our works are useless. And even after conversion, brethren,
our works are useless. Unless God's in it, we'll not
get a catch. God's gotta be in it. If God
doesn't give us a marching orders, don't go. If God doesn't give
us the marching order, just keep sitting and waiting where He
told you to sit and wait. Because if we go without Him in it, we're
wasting everybody's time. Nothing we do will benefit anybody
unless God commands us to go. So wait on the Lord. Just wait
on Him. Because our works are nothing. They won't produce anything good.
Thirdly, when the Lord reveals Himself to us, We will confess
who and what we are. The Lord's gonna show us who
and what we are and we'll confess it. Look at verse four. But when
the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples
knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, children,
have ye any meat? They answered, no, no. I mean,
they didn't get no, no further explanation needed, no. Now,
the disciples are only about 100 yards offshore. Why didn't
they recognize the Lord Jesus standing over there? They'd been
with Him for three years. They knew the Lord. These men
knew the Lord. They believed the Lord. They
trusted Him. They had faith in Him. They loved
Him. Granted, like us, it's weak, isn't it? But they knew the Lord.
Why didn't they recognize Him? Why didn't they recognize the
sound of His voice? We said, children, have you any
meat? You know why? The Lord has to always reveal
himself to his people or we'll not know him. Even after conversion,
unless the Lord opens our eyes and enables us to see him in
his word, we'll not see him. If we see him, it's because the
Lord revealed himself to us. But the picture we have here
is they didn't recognize the Lord because they're in a state
of unbelief. These men knew the Lord. But
what they're doing right now is they're relying on their own
words. And they had to confess, we're failures. We've caught
nothing because we're failures. You see, the Lord didn't ask
this question for his own information because he never asked questions
for his own information. He knows everything. The Lord
always, when he asks a question, does it so we'll learn something.
And so we'll be forced to confess it. The Lord knew they're failures. but he's going to hear it from
them. They're going to confess we're failures. Everything we've
done has been a complete and utter failure. And when the Lord
reveals himself to a sinner, that sinner confesses, I'm a
sinner. I'm the chief of sinners. We're
going to confess all of our works are failures. All those religious
things that we've been doing are nothing but filthy rags defiled
by sin. When we see Christ, we're going
to confess my works of righteousness are nothing but unrighteousness.
Tell you how I knew that. I've seen Christ, my righteousness.
That's how I know. That's why we would confess that.
When the Lord reveals Himself to us, we're going to confess.
None of our works of the law can give us any life. None of
our works of the law can please God. The only obedience I can
ever claim is His obedience. And the Lord's going to hear
it from us. We're going to confess it. He's going to bring it out
of us when He reveals Himself to His people. Fourth, when the
Lord reveals Himself to His people, a sinner is made willing in the
day of His power. Look at verse six. And he said
unto them, cast that 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 fishes. Now I used to fish a little bit
and I haven't fished in years and years and years. I don't
know that much about it anymore, but this is what I know about
fishermen. Experienced fishermen do not take advice very well.
Experienced fishermen I know what I'm doing. I know how to
catch this fish. This is my spot right here. I
know just what to do, you know. But if you find a wise fisherman,
he'll take advice from somebody else. Bob Coffey told me this
story years ago. He's somewhere fishing on a pier. And like these disciples, he
wasn't catching anything. I mean, nothing. He was wasting his time.
But just down the pier, this guy, he's slaying it. I mean,
just every time he's casting, he's just reeling them in just
as fast. And Bob thought, oh, I know how to fish. Nothing.
Nothing. And Bob finally thought, what
am I doing? He goes over and asks this fellow, what are you
doing? How are you doing this? And the guy told him. And Bob
said, oh. So he goes back down to his spot
and does the same thing. And Bob just hitting him as fast
as he can because he is wise enough to take advice. Experienced
fishermen aren't normally that way. And that is human nature,
isn't it? Boy, we're not going to take
advice from anybody. We're not going to have anybody tell us
we know. Isn't that our nature? These men on this boat were experienced
fishermen. I mean, they knew what they were
doing. And they could have told that man on shore, buddy, we've
been doing this all of our life. We've been fishing this very
sea. This spot of this sea was given
to our tribe. We know what we're doing. Just
be quiet. Go on about your business. We
know what we're doing. But they didn't do that, did they? Contrary
to human nature, they cast the net on the right side of the
ship. They obeyed in the day of His power. Now, human nature
is not willing to confess our sin. And I'm not just saying,
when I say confess our sin, that I have done some bad things.
Human nature is not willing to confess that what we are is sin. Just not willing. We're not willing
to admit I'm a failure, but we're willing in the day of God's power
when the Lord reveals himself to us. Human nature is not willing
to come to Christ till we might have life, but we sure are willing
when the Lord reveals himself to us, aren't we? We come running
when he reveals himself to us. Human nature wants to be saved. We want to go to heaven, we don't
want to go to hell, but now human nature is not willing to be saved
on God's terms. by Christ alone without any help
from us? No, I'm going to contribute something. We're willing in the day Christ
reveals himself to us. Human nature is not willing to
beg for the forgiveness of our sin. Now we'll just get mighty
hungry before we beg. We're not willing to beg for
the forgiveness of our sin. I'm telling you what, if the
Lord ever reveals himself to you, you'll fall at his feet
and beg him to be merciful to you. Beg him to forgive your
sin. When Christ reveals himself,
a sinner's made willing in the day of his power. You'll cast
your net on the right side when he reveals himself to you. Fifth,
when the Lord reveals himself, a sinner is filled, filled by
the power of God. They cast their four, and now
they weren't able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Now all night long, these men
fished. They just kept casting that net,
reeling it, pulling it in, casting the net, pulling it in. Caught
nothing. All their efforts produced nothing. Doing it their way got them nothing
but emptiness. And worse now, I mean, if they
were hungry when they went out, now they spend all this energy,
they're really hungry. I mean, it made them worse off
than if they just stayed home. But when the Lord gave commandment,
he made them obedient. They were filled, weren't they?
And that's the way it is for God's elect. We'll go on a long
time trying it our way, doing it our way. We'll continue in
our sin and rebellion as long as God lets us. And all of our
efforts, all they are sin, all that all of our efforts are doing
is damning our soul. We're just getting ourselves
emptiness of spirit. But when Christ reveals himself,
He gives us a heart of faith. He gives us a heart of obedience
to obey the gospel and to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Then we're filled. Filled with everything we need.
Filled with everything that God requires to stand before Him
accepting. We're filled with a new man who
believes God, who loves God, who has faith in Him. Look at
Ephesians chapter one. Our Lord said, In Matthew chapter
5, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. Well, filled with what exactly?
They'll be filled with righteousness because they're filled with Christ.
Look at Ephesians 1 verse 22. And hath put all things under
his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. When Christ reveals himself in
mercy and grace to his people, we're filled, filled with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sixth, when Christ reveals himself
to a sinner, you know what that sinner does? He comes to Christ. Verse seven, our text, John 21.
Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter,
it's the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that
it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he
was naked, and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples
came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as
it were two hundred cubits, about a hundred yards, dragging the
net with fishes. Now as soon as John told Peter,
that's the Lord speaking to us, Peter shows us his nature, doesn't
he? His impulsive nature, and he
just jumped into the sea. Just, you know, just swam toward
Christ. Maybe this is where the saying
came from, sink or swim, I'm going to Him. Peter just cast
himself into the sea. Once Peter knew it's the Lord,
Peter was not gonna let anything come between him and the Lord.
He's coming to Christ, nothing's gonna stop him. And that's the
way it is when Christ reveals himself to a sinner. When that
happens, nothing will stop that person from coming to Christ.
If we ever hear Christ speaking through his word, nothing will
stop us from coming. There's no obstacle that will
keep us from coming to Christ. We may hear the preacher for
a while, not get too awful excited, but when we hear Christ speaking
through the message, We hear Christ speaking in his word,
nothing will stop us from getting to Christ. That's what Peter
did, nothing could stop him. And Christ reveals himself to
his people through the preaching of the gospel. Christ brings
his people to himself by sending out fishers of men, sending out
preachers to preach the gospel. That's how the Lord brings his
people to himself. The disciples catching this multitude
of fish That's a picture of how fishers of men fish. Now, you
men who fish, Wayne, you've got some hooks. And you go out and
you bait that hook. You put that worm on that hook
or the bait, whatever you use, to hide the hook. Because you're
trying to trick that fish into biting that hook. Or you've got
a lure. You've got something. You're trying to trick the fish.
That's not a fisher of men. Fishers of men aren't trying
to fool anybody. They're casting the net, just
casting the net out into the water. And God, who is in control
of everything, puts His fish under that net. And it's His
fish that are in that net that are drawn to Him by fishers of
men. And you know what? Not one of
them is going to be lost. Not one. Not one is going to
escape. The net is never going to break and let one escape.
The net never breaks. As long as we just preach Christ,
the net of the gospel will never break. And those fish, they're
coming to Christ. They're going to be irresistibly
drawn to Christ by the preaching of the gospel. And these fish,
the disciples caught, they're God's elect. It's a multitude
of fish they caught. Just an enormous haul of fish. It's a multitude. But we found
out later it's an exact number. 153, an exact number. That's
God's elect. They're a multitude. No man can
number. but they're an exact number. And every one of them
is going to be before his throne in glory. Every one of them.
And when Christ reveals himself to his people through the preaching
of the gospel, we come to Christ. And you know, coming to Christ
is a continual act. Peter later on wrote, we read
this in our lesson this morning, to whom coming. We're constantly
coming to Christ. I've come to Christ. I come to
him again today. I was, Studying this this week
and thought, Oh, that just made my heart worship that the Lord
would reveal himself. Somebody like me. Oh, I'm coming
to him again. I come to him again. And you
know how God keeps his people coming to him the same way we
came to him the first time is through the preaching of the
gospel. Constantly revealing himself to his people through
the preaching of the gospel keeps his people coming to him. Look
back in Luke chapter 5. You know, this story ought to
sound familiar to us. It's happened before. Here the Lord walks up, just
enters onto this ship. Paul Mahan and Greg Elmquist
were in Greg's boat fishing one day. And they come back, you
know, we're cleaning the fish and doing whatever, getting the
boat out of the water. And Paul asked Greg, he said, what if
some long-haired fellow, obviously homeless, walked onto your boat
and said, cast out here in the water a little ways? Greg said,
I'd tell him, get off my boat. Not in that day, the Lord reveals
himself. Look what happened here in Luke 5, verse 2. Well, let's
look up the first one. 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. and saw two ships standing by
the lake. But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing
their nets. They were done for the day. And he just entered.
He just walked right on to one of the ships, which was Simon's,
and prayed that he thrust out a little from the land. And he
sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he
left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep and
let down your nets for a draw. Simon answering, said unto him,
Master, we've toiled all night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless,
at thy word I let down the net, and willingly gave his power. And when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes in their net break,
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. The Lord
revealed himself, didn't he? And when Simon Peter saw it,
he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I
am a sinful man, O Lord. Well now, that was at the beginning
of the Lord's ministry. At the end of His ministry, He's
been crucified, He's been buried, He's risen from the dead, and
the same thing happened. The exact same thing. It's the
same gospel preached that keeps us coming to Christ. It's the
same gospel preached that keeps revealing Christ to us. Peter
knew the Lord, but the Lord had to reveal Himself to Peter again,
or he never would have known Him. The Lord had to reveal himself
to Peter again. And when he did, what happened?
Here's Peter, coming to Christ. Just casting himself into the
ocean, coming to Christ. Now, Peter's like us. Believers. Saved people. People have been
born again. They have that old nature, that
second nature. Boy, they're full of a man of
flesh, too. Just like we're full of the new
man. We're full of Christ. We're full of that man of the
flesh too. We're full of a man who's nothing
but sin. And you know what part of that
sin is? Where we see it? When we go fishing. When we go
off doing something the Lord hadn't told us to do. When we
find ourselves not waiting on the Lord, we're going fishing.
When we're not doing what the Lord commanded us to do, we're
going fishing. Part of that sin that's still
in us, that sin that's so strong is the sin of self-righteousness. We're full of self, aren't we?
Full of self-righteousness. And that will never be eradicated
until this flesh dies, because that's what this flesh is full
of. It's full of self, self-righteousness. And that's what Peter's coat
is a picture of here. Now, Peter was fishing naked.
I doubt he was completely naked. He had some sort of loincloth
or something on. That's all he had on because this is hot, hard
work. You're just constantly casting
that net. I mean, he's not just casting
lines, sitting, you know, waiting. He's constantly casting that
net and pulling it in, throwing it out, pulling it in. It's hot,
hard work. So now John says, Peter, that's
the Lord. Well, why would he put his coat
on before he jumped into the sea to swim to shore? I don't
know about you, but when I go swimming, I strip down to just
a bathing suit. I don't need a lot dragging me
down. Why did Peter put his coat on
before he cast himself into the sea? It's because Peter knew
he shouldn't be out there. Peter knew he shouldn't have
gone fishing. He knew he was wrong and he felt
naked. So he put his coat on to come
to Christ. Instead of coming to Christ naked.
Instead of coming to Christ the same way he came the first time,
naked, needing everything, Peter felt like he had to put his coat
on. That's the way we find ourselves when we go fishing. That's just
so. And that nature, we're going
to battle it until the day we die. And there may have been,
I'm sure Peter didn't want to get to the shore, you know, naked.
I'm sure his brain was coated. But this is a picture. Every
time we come to Christ, we've got to come to him naked. Every
time we come to Christ, we come empty handed, clothed only in
his righteousness. That's the way we come to Christ.
And that's the way we keep coming to Christ. A child of God keeps
coming to Christ on the merit of Christ alone, on his obedience
alone, on his person alone. And it's the constant preaching
of the gospel by fishers of men, That's how God, what He uses
to reveal Himself and keep His people coming. If the Lord ever
reveals Himself to you, you'll come to Christ. Seventh, when
Christ reveals Himself, we find that Christ has prepared everything
we need. Verse nine, as soon as they were
come to land, they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid
there on and bread. They got to land and everything
was already prepared, wasn't it? It was all prepared by the
Lord himself. I'm confident breakfast never
tasted so good. This is breakfast with the Savior,
prepared by the hand of the Savior. Christ prepared the meal, and
Christ provided everything for the meal. The disciples didn't
contribute their fish, did they? The meal was already prepared.
Everything was there waiting for them. And this is the lesson. Christ has prepared everything
necessary for salvation. He's done it all. He is all of
our salvation. It's all prepared in Him. Christ
provides the righteousness. Christ provides the obedience
to the law God demands. Christ has provided blood to
atone for our sin. Christ has provided the death
that the law demands for our sin. Christ provides all the
grace. He supplies the gospel. He sends
out His gospel. He provides the ears to hear.
He provides the heart to believe. He's provided it all. All is
ready. And this is Christ issuing the call of the gospel. The call
of the gospel is come. You come to Christ, the spirit
and the bride say come. Look at verse 12. Jesus saith
unto them, come and dine. And none of the disciples durst
ask him who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then
cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise."
When Christ reveals Himself, we know He's the Lord. We don't have to ask anybody,
we know He's the Lord. We know He's the one who's prepared
everything. We know He is the one who is
everything. And we don't have to ask. We know it's the Lord
because He's revealed Himself to us and He's given us this
command, come and dine. Come, all's ready, come and dine.
And He didn't wait on them. He gave them the bread. He gave
them the fish. Come and dine. And He gives them
everything that they needed. And we know that's the gospel
when we hear it. Because we know Christ. We know
Him. He's revealed Himself to us.
And we know the gospel when we hear it that declares Him. I
want you to notice this. This is for your comfort. Here's these poor disciples.
My goodness sakes. And the Lord said, come and die.
No one was excluded. Their lack of faith didn't exclude
them. Their lack of love didn't exclude them. Their emptiness
didn't exclude them. Come and die. Come to Christ
and partake of him. No one's excluded. And then last,
I would end the message there, but I saw this and I thought,
this is really good. When Christ reveals himself to
a sinner, you know what that sinner does? He gives out of
a gracious, thankful heart. Verse 10, the Lord said unto
them, bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Huh, that's
kind of interesting, isn't it? Bring the fish you've now caught?
I didn't catch anything. It's all the Lord's fish. I mean,
the only reason I have them is he gave the commandment to cast
the net on the right side, you know. Yet the Lord calls it the
fish you caught. You know I never have produced
any righteousness. I haven't produced one righteous thing
all my born days. Christ is my righteousness. He
supplied the righteousness. He earned it and he gave it to
me. You know what he calls it? He
calls it my righteousness. It's mine because he gave it.
The gospel is God's gospel. God's the author of it. Christ
is the subject of it. It's God's gospel. But God gave
it to us, didn't he? He gave it to us to believe.
He gave it to us to preach so that we can say with the Apostle
Paul, this is my gospel. This is the gospel of my salvation.
God gave it to me. Oh my goodness. Everything I have. Everything. God gave it to me. You too. The
money you have. All the money and possessions
you have. Where'd you get it? God gave
it to you. It's a gift from Him. And you
think, well, now I went to work and earned that. I mean, they're
not giving me a paycheck out of charity. I went to work and
I earned that. That's true. But everything you have is still
what God gave you. God gave you the ability to work. God gave
you the desire to work. God gave you a job you'd go to.
It's all God's. Everything we have is a gift
from his hand. We haven't earned anything. It's
all been given to us from him. And when the Lord reveals himself
to his people, There is a generosity in giving. We give out of a thankful
heart because of what the Lord's done for us, how he's revealed
himself to us and in us. That's how Christ reveals himself
to his people. Verse 14, this is now the third
time that Jesus showed himself, made himself manifest to the
disciples after he was risen from the dead. After the Lord
arose from the dead, You know, he only appeared to his disciples. He never appeared to the Pharisees
again. After he's risen, he only appeared
to believers. Because every time the Lord reveals
himself, that person is his. They become a believer. He reveals
himself to them because they're already his. And that's why I
pray for us this morning that the Lord, in his mercy, would
reveal himself to our hearts through his word. Let's bow in
prayer. Our father, how we thank you
for this portion of your word that we've just read. How we
thank you that in your mercy and grace, you do reveal yourself
to sinful men and women such as we are. What mercy, what grace, what
love, that you would set your affection upon sinful men and
women. Father, we freely confess, we
gathered here this morning are sinful men and women, boys and
girls. We're sinners in need of everything. Everything we've ever done is
nothing but emptiness, does nothing but bring your condemnation and
wrath upon us. But because we're sinners, We
pray that you'd make us objects of your mercy and your grace.
And how thankful we are that you always reveal yourself to
true sinners. If anyone ever knows they're
a sinner, that's what you taught them. And you reveal yourself
to them. Father, I pray you'd reveal yourself
in your glory, in your might, in your power to our hearts this
morning. All these things we ask for your
glory, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and for the good
of your people. Amen.