Well, turn in your Bibles to
Luke's Gospel and the fifth chapter, Luke chapter five, where we have
the account of the miracle of the great catch of fish, great
catch of fish. We live in a world of sin and
suffering. I think you'll agree with that.
All around, we live in a world of sin and suffering, and there
are fleeting joys and pleasures. But on the whole, people try
to mask out the difficulties by making the most of the fleeting
joys and the pleasurable things, but we live in a world of sin
and suffering. All the consequences of sin.
Sin and its effects. Because the wages of sin is death. But in this world which we see
all around us today, the darkness that you see in the hearts and
minds of people going by, that darkness all around us, God has
a kingdom in this world. In this fallen world of sin and
suffering, God has a kingdom. And it's a kingdom that is a
kingdom of souls, of citizens, of people, saved out of the world. How are they saved out of the
world? By the righteousness of God. It's the righteousness of
God that saves them. The justification of God, the
payment of the sin debt to the law of God. And in this miracle,
at the Lake of Galilee, Gennesaret, we have a parallel, we have an
allegory of salvation. The lake is a picture of the
world all around. Fish. Fish all over it. But the lake is a picture of
the world. The fishermen are preachers. They're preachers. The boats are churches. The nets
is the gospel that is let down into the world. The shore is
eternity, where we're going to. And the catch that comes into
the boats is the elect, those that are saved out of this world,
out of this lake. That's what it's a picture of.
Look at the account here. Jesus is preaching, he says in
verse 43 of the previous chapter, the next to last verse, he said
to them, because they wanted him to stay there, stay with
us, don't move on, he says, I must preach the kingdom of God to
other cities also, for therefore am I sent. And he preached in
the synagogues of Galilee. What did Jesus do? Primarily,
he preached. He preached the kingdom of God
in the cities, in the synagogues, all around that area, he preached. This is why he said he was sent.
He came preaching. And here's a remarkable thing
in verse one, that the people pressed upon him to hear the
word of God. These were remarkable days. Do
you remember what I told you last week about the ministry
of John the Baptist? How the multitudes pressed together
to hear him. They were moved by God to come
out and hear him where he was preaching. He didn't put on any
gimmicks. He didn't give them a meal. He didn't make life comfortable
for them. He just went out into the wilderness
and he proclaimed this message and God, the Holy Spirit, made
it their top priority. Oh, I've just got this, no, that
can wait. I want to hear this man preach
the word of God. A multitude, and remember, it
was the soldiers, the Roman soldiers. Roman soldiers listening to him.
All sorts of people came out and were listening. Sinners,
generation of vipers, who's persuaded you to flee from the wrath to
come? The Holy Spirit had persuaded them to flee from the wrath to
come. He's the only one that ever does persuade anyone to
flee from the wrath to come. If the Holy Spirit speaks to
you, doesn't matter how many times you hear the voice of this
man or another, but if the Holy Spirit speaks to you, you'll
flee from the wrath to come. You'll seek to hear this word
because you know this is the word of life. These are the words of eternal
life. And the people pressed upon him
to hear the word of God. They couldn't get enough of it.
What a remarkable thing. These were remarkable days. There
have been remarkable days down the centuries at times when people
have been pressing to get into the kingdom of God. When the
message has been, let's lengthen the cords of the tent, we need
to get more people in. Let's bring more people in. So
there he is, he's standing by the lake. And he sees two boats,
two fishing boats, ships it says in the authorized version. They're
fishing boats by the lake. And the fishermen had gone out
of them and were washing their nets. And the people were pressing
to hear. And of course, he being the one
who upholds all things by the word of his power, the Lord Jesus
Christ's power, he knew how acoustics works. If you were to ask Peter
about acoustics, he'd tell you a little bit about it. And Jesus
knew that if he went out into the lake a little bit, the surface
of the water would act as an extremely good acoustic reflecting
surface. And so all those people on the
banks and up the hillside by the lake would hear so much more
clearly. So he would speak and it would
bounce off the water up to them and they'd be able to hear. So
he said, push me out a little bit from the side. into the shallow
waters so that I can speak to these people." And so he did.
And we're not told what it was he preached, but we can infer
so clearly from other things, but he preached. And then, when
he'd finished preaching, he said, cast out into the deep water
over there and put your nets down. And Peter said, Simon,
who became Simon Peter, who became Peter, the Apostle Peter, he
said, Master, we've been fishing all night long, and we've caught
absolutely, there are no fish over there. Cast out over there. Nevertheless, at your word, we'll
do what you say. Because you've said it, we'll
do what you say. And so they go, and you know the account.
They catch so many, it nearly breaks the nets. They catch so
many, they just cannot cope with it. There are so many fish that
are drawn in to that net in the most unlikely of places. And
Simon's reaction when he hears that, Simon's reaction is, who
is this that I'm dealing with? He's a good teacher. He's somebody
for whom I've got the greatest respect, but who is this that
has just done this thing? And he falls down at Jesus' feet
in worship because he's conscious that he's in the presence of
the living God. And what does Jesus say to him?
See, he says, depart from me. You can't stay with me. I'm a
sinful man. You're using the wrong instrument.
I'm not fit to do anything for you. I'm a sinful man. And Jesus said, fear not. It
won't just be fish that you catch from now on. It will be men.
So I want to look at some lessons from this. Look at the lure. If you know anything about fishing,
and I must say I know next to nothing about fishing, but you
need a lure to attract, to fool to deceive the fish into thinking
that there's something for them to have so that they'll come
and then you can catch them. Or you need great cunning to
know where to go to know where the fish are going to be or as
they use these days they have sonar equipment that reflects
off the shoals of fish and the boats go where they are and then
they catch the fish. But if you're fishing with a
line you need a lure. What's the lure that's going
to catch the fish? What's the lure that's going
to catch the men and women that are the fish out of the lake
which is the world and bring them into the kingdom of God.
What's the lure? And the lesson is the lure is
preaching the kingdom of God. That's what Jesus did. That's
what the master did. He preached the kingdom of God. And they were drawn to hear the
word of God. And it was God that gave the
increase What will attract people to listen? We might ask that
question. What must we do to attract people
to listen? Rely on the Holy Spirit. We must
do that which the Master says, and that alone. And we rely on
the Holy Spirit to bring crowds like this. He might not bring
any crowds here that we're aware of. There's a part of me that is
perfectly happy to say whatever he will do, that he will do. Because if he did, we'd only
get blown up with pride, wouldn't we? There'd be such a tendency
in the flesh to be blown up with pride. Jesus preached the kingdom
of God. What does it mean to preach the
kingdom of God? He preached salvation. That's
what the kingdom of God is. He preached salvation. The salvation
of a particular people. A people saved by him. A multitude
that no man can number. By imputed righteousness and
justifying satisfaction to the law. That's what he preached.
What was his text? the Old Testament Scriptures
that he unrolled in the synagogue at Nazareth, and went to the
place in the book of Isaiah where it said those words concerning
him. He preached from the Scriptures. Thus, when he was tempted of
the devil, it is written. It is written. That was his text. The Word of God was his text.
And the Word of God, the Old Testament, was entirely about
imputed righteousness, about substitutionary atonement, all
the temple sacrifices, the animals, the shedding of blood, blood
sacrifice to pay for sin, that man might be right with God,
atonement, Passover, all of these things were what he preached.
He preached the kingdom of God, the salvation of a particular
people. This was what he came to do.
He didn't come to preach morality. he didn't come like john the
baptist didn't come to tell people to get their act together that
they better be reform their ways he didn't come to do that he
came to tell them because of because of the remission of sins
he came because it is accomplished that a people are redeemed he
didn't come with a tirade certain sins in our society particularly
you might say in this last week of news rightly raise our anger
at the degeneration of the society in which we live. But our purpose
is not to stand on a soapbox. We as a church, you have your
views and your views should align with the word of God. But our
purpose is not to tell this world what we think about the things
going on in this world politically. It's to proclaim the kingdom
of God. That's what we preach. Sovereign,
particular, gracious redemption. And that's a message which the
flesh and reason in the flesh hates when it hears it. I tell
you, it's true. The flesh hates, oh but it depends
how you say it. If you say it so the flesh doesn't
hate it naturally, you're not telling it the way God's word
says it. God's word is about sovereign grace. That's what
it means, sovereign grace. And no other lure is necessary. None at all. This is the teaching. Are we a people of the book or
not? Are we a people who say to the
law and to the testimony? or not. Are we those who say,
well, alright, it says that, but we know how we've got to
apply it here to be wise. No, we do what the word says.
And the word says, preach the kingdom of God. Preach salvation. No other lure is necessary. Let
us learn that. Is everyone offered the possibility
of salvation from judgment if only they'll accept the free
gospel offer? Oh, that's what you'll hear in
Calvinistic churches up and down this country. Effectively. You'll
hear that. Everyone's offered the possi-
We believe in sovereign grace, but everyone's offered the possibility
of salvation from judgment if only they'll accept the free
offer of the gospel. Well, if that's true, we'd better
learn from the principles of effective selling. Hadn't we?
Because there's good selling and there's bad selling. There
are good salespeople and bad salespeople. There are those
who are effective. And when it's good, I tell you,
it's very good. Hands up all those who've been
conned by a very effective salesman. I'll put my hand up to that.
I've been duped. It's very, very powerful. And
religion is one of the places where it's used to greatest effect.
The great televangelists, the great campaigns, it's sales techniques
It's selling, that's what it basically comes down to. But
scripture doesn't teach that. It says preach the truth. The truth that flesh hates, but
the truth that God has revealed. Of God's salvation which is in
Christ alone. And leave it to God to do the
catching of the fish. Do what he says and leave it
to God to do the catching of the fish. And so he gives Our
Lord Jesus Christ gives a miraculous illustration. Why were so many
people pressing to hear the gospel of the kingdom? Was it because
of the gimmicks that they were thinking, you know, that were
luring them? Was it because of the attractions
that were drawing them to it? No, not at all. It was simply
faithful preaching. It was a declaration of thus
says the Lord. So why did so many people come?
and pressed to hear John the Baptist and hear our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Holy Spirit moved them. The Holy Spirit planted
a desire. The Holy Spirit gave them hunger
and thirst after righteousness. The Holy Spirit made it their
top priority to come when everything else, oh, let's have some rugby
matches this morning. Oh, no. No. I mean, I like rugby. I'll watch rugby with the rest
of them, but there's a service where the gospel of God's grace
is being preached. I need to hear that above all
else. When I've done that, I can then spend some time playing
rugby if I want to, but I'm not going to do the one at the expense
of the other. No. Priorities. He made them. He
made them get their priorities right. What must we do? Preach
and trust God that He will do what He will do. Now the dramatic
picture is here. Verse four. When he left speaking,
when Jesus had finished preaching to this crowd that were pressing
to hear the word of God, he said to Simon, Simon Peter, launch
out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft, for a
catch. Launch out into the deep. This
is a very unlikely strategy. How are you going to get people
to come to your church? Launch out into the deep. and
let down your nets. Do you know why it's an unlikely
strategy? Because there are very few fish out there. There are
some shoals, but your chances of catching fish there are very,
very slim. There's not much food there.
The fish go where the food is. The food tends to be in the shallower
waters, nearer the side. That's where the fish go. Don't
go out there, because Peter and his colleagues, Peter and his
partners in fishing, they would have told you, this is a complete
waste of time. It's a very unlikely strategy. There are not many
fish out there in the deep. As fishermen, they never ever
would have bothered doing that. They've toiled all night long
and caught absolutely nothing. They would have said, it's a
complete waste of time. These are professional, experienced,
Crafty, even. They know where to go. If you're
going to catch fish, these guys could catch fish in that lake.
They knew it inside out. They were crafty, expert fishermen.
Peter would say this, I would do what you say, go out into
the deep and let down the net, I'd do it a thousand times, and
I'd know with certainty, based on my experience, that every
time I would get very little, if anything at all, out there.
There might be the odd fish come up, but very, very little. God
says this to us, go and preach the message that the flesh hates. Go and preach it to this generation.
What's the message the flesh hates? That God chose a people
in Christ before the foundation of the world, out of all the
sinners that would ever live in this world, in all history,
God chose them, God gave them to His Son, who came and lived
in their place, and died in their place, and rose in their place,
and they did all of that in Him, and He saved them to the uttermost
from their sins, that they might be right with Him forever, that
in glory there might be a multitude that no man can number, praising
God, giving Him all the glory, crying, worthy is the Lamb that
was slain, that he might be glorified. This is what he did. He left
nothing to the will of man, because the will of man would never ever
choose him. You or I would never ever choose God, left to ourselves. We would never ever be persuaded
to the true God, left to ourselves. No. We hear what his command
is. do what he says and Peter says
okay he knows fishing inside out he says we've toiled all
night long and caught nothing whatsoever nevertheless nevertheless
at your word master we've toiled all night long and have taken
nothing nevertheless at your word I will let down the net
you see I don't know at this stage how long Simon Peter had
been with Jesus I don't know how long it was. I think this
was before the time when he said, you are the Christ, the son of
the living God. But he was beginning to see something.
He was beginning to see who he was. He's beginning to see that
This man has the words of eternal life. You know, in John chapter
6, when Jesus, what was Jesus preaching in John chapter 6?
Sovereign grace. Particular redemption. As clear
as the nose on your face. Any church that says it's Arminian
and it believes Arminianism is the message of the Bible, take
them to John chapter 6. Say, read it. Read it. What does
it say? Does it say that? No. Sovereign
grace. Particular redemption. And what
did they do? By the will of the flesh, they went away. Those
that had followed him and thought he was great, and they'd had
a big feed when he fed 5,000, they went away. And he says to
the ones that are left, he said, are you also going to go? And
Peter says, to whom can we go? Where shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life, nobody else does. Do you have problems
with the gospel of sovereign grace? I tell you, if you don't
at times have problems in your flesh, With what you hear, then
you've never heard it properly. But you come to this conclusion.
By God's spirit and grace and enlightenment, by his word, you
say this. I don't know everything, but
I know this. You have the words of eternal life, and they're
nowhere else. Where can I go? Oh Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. Help me, show me. Help me to
be submissive in every respect to your will and to your word.
And so they went, and they let down the net in the most unlikely
place, and of course it nearly sunk the boat. There were so
many fish. Have you ever been down to Stanborough
in summer when the big carp are feeding? Timothy has, haven't
you, Timothy? You've fed the carp down at Stanborough Lake,
and you know those huge fish come right to the shore, don't
they? When you chuck them little pieces of bread, those great
big fish come to the shore, and you can see them almost climbing
out of the water to get the bread. I imagine it was a catch like
that, great big carp type catch, nearly sinking the boat, the
nets breaking, absolutely full, miraculously. Either Jesus knew
by sovereign knowledge where the shoal was, or he drew that
shoal to that place at exactly that time. Doesn't matter which
way around it was, it was a miracle. It was miraculous. He, do you
believe in miracles? Of course I believe in miracles.
Oh, aren't you a scientist? Everything's scientific and rational,
isn't it? No, it isn't. No? The vast majority
of time, God upholds all things by the word of the power of the
Lord Jesus Christ. All of the laws of physics, all
of the laws of science, all of the laws of the universe, He
upholds actively now. That's what I believe. So then,
so then, if I believe that things have not been wound up and left
to run themselves down, but now, as God's word says, He is actively
upholding all things by the word of Christ, I don't have the slightest
problem in believing that the one who upholds the sun and the
moon and the stars and the galaxies in their orbits relative to one
another can in a moment draw a shoal of fish into a net on
a lake in Galilee at his word. Do you? Not the slightest. He's
the one who can make eyes out of dust because he's the one
who made eyes in Adam out of the dust of the ground. He's
the one who can do that. And he did it. He's the sovereign
God. I don't have the slightest trouble.
It's contrary to all rational reason and expectation. But he
did it. And he says this. Without me,
you can do nothing. Jesus said this to his followers.
Without me, you can do nothing. But it pleases God to use earthen
vessels Earthen vessels with nothing to contribute at all. Oh, Peter could bring his expertise
in fishing. Peter's expertise in fishing
didn't catch a solitary fish that day. Not one. Christ did. He brought them. He brought them.
What did Peter contribute? Don't misunderstand me, I'm not
talking about works in any way, but what did Peter contribute?
Nevertheless at thy word. obedience. This is what God requires
of us, faithfulness and obedience. Nevertheless at your word I'll
do what you say in the way that you say and trust you to do what
you will to accomplish his sovereign purposes. Every week we come
here, we let down the gospel net, in these, you'd call them,
deep lifeless waters of Datchworth and Nedworth and surrounding
district. Every week we do it and we wonder, will there be
a catch? We also let down the net on the internet as well through
Free Grace Radio. Will there be a catch? Will there
be a catch of men and women? for the kingdom of God. Will
there be a catch? Who knows? God knows. God knows what he will do. He
knows what he has planned to do. You might say, well, God
won't bless us because we're too sinful. We're insufficiently
sanctified. You know, we're not fit to be
used. If we were significantly more
holy people, then God would bless our holiness and bring in a lot
more people. We don't spend long enough in
prayer meetings together. Maybe if we had a few all-night
prayer meetings, that would cause God to change his mind about
us and start to bring lots of people. And we haven't witnessed
to enough people at work or with our neighbors or other places.
Maybe that's what we need to do. What did Peter say when he
saw this that had happened? Lord, depart from me. See, verse
8, he fell down at Jesus' knees. Falling down is a state of worship. Do you remember, if you've read
the book of Revelation, when John the Apostle, in that vision,
he sees these great angelic beings, these glorified beings, and he
falls down at their feet. And what do they immediately
do? What do they immediately say? Don't do that! We're just
men like you. Worship God and him alone. But
Jesus doesn't rebuke Peter for falling down at his feet, because
he is God. He falls down at his feet because
he's in the presence of the living God. He's in the presence of
God incarnate, in flesh. And Peter says this, he is light
and truth. This man who has no comeliness
that we should desire him has light and truth and holiness,
piercing, piercing holiness. And Peter sees what he is like,
a sinner. Depart from me, Lord. I am a
sinful man. Depart from me. You're too holy
for me. That wasn't the right thing to
say, but we can understand why he said it. Depart from me. I
am a sinful man, O Lord. He was astonished at what he'd
seen. This wasn't a miracle that you could rationalize, or you
could say, oh, well, they just happened to get lucky. He'd never
seen a catch of fish in all of his years of fishing, anything
remotely like it. All of these sham miracles that
go on in charismatic meetings. You know, people that are lame
hobbling around claiming they've been cured. What did the man
do at the temple when Peter and John went to pray and they met
a lame man on the way? And he held out his palms and
he asked for arms and this is what Peter did say. Silver and
gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. In the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." And here was
a miracle. A man who'd sat by the temple.
What did he do? He went hobbling and limping.
No, he went walking and leaping and praising God. That's what
he did. It was a miracle. This was a miracle like Peter
had never seen. And he knew, I am in the presence
of the living God. Who is this in whose presence
I am? I'm a sinner. What did he know
from the Old Testament? No man can see God and live.
There's impending judgment. I, a sinner, stand in the presence
of the living God. Like the Old Testament saints,
fearing imminent death. Do you remember Manoah, the father
of Samson, who when the message came about Samson being born,
and they put two and two together and they said, we've seen God.
It's all up for us. That's it. Finished. We're going
to die. No man can see God and live. No man has seen God at
any time. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. That's where
we can see God. This is where Peter saw God.
Peter saw God in this man who had just performed this miracle
before his eyes. He saw that this is God. Behold
your God. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God. Peter saw this is God come to
redeem his kingdom of sinners, to fish his catch of sinners
out of this world, this unlikely place, from bondage to the law
into the blessed liberty of the sons of God. And he had a glimpse
of the contrast between the sinfulness of sin and the holiness of God's
kingdom. And it was as if the lights were
shined in his eyes. Have you ever had a strong light
shined in your eyes when you've been in a dark room? And it hurts. Please turn that light off. You
don't like it. And this is what Peter felt, I'm too sinful to
stay here. I'm out of my depth here, literally
out of my, I just cannot, I cannot stay here. But Jesus says this
to him. You see, we should feel that.
We should feel that. We're unfit for God to use, of
course we are, in ourselves. We're completely unfit. But bless
God, Jesus says this. Jesus said to him in verse 10,
fear not. From henceforth, despite you
being sinners, he didn't say, oh no, you're not sinners, you're
pretty good. No, no, they were dead right. They were dead right,
they didn't see enough of what they were. But in him, in him,
useful in the kingdom of God. From henceforth, you shall catch
men. this was Jesus's response, fear
not you're going to catch men you shall net men into the kingdom
of God from now on not fish into your boats I will use even such
as you Simon Peter and James and John the sons of Zebedee
worthless worthless nothing to contribute unable to contribute
anything but by God's grace made obedient in the small thing of
this. Do you know what the mother of
Jesus, Mary, said at that first miracle, at the wedding at Cana
of Galilee? She said to the servants, whatever
he says to you, do it. Where does he speak to us? In
this book. Whatever he says to us, With
his strength, by his grace, let us do it. So let us, by God's
enabling, determine to obey him in the small things. in the small
things, to abide by his word, to not seek to do anything gimmicky,
but just do that which he did, which is preach the kingdom of
God, preach the salvation of God, preach the true gospel,
to declare it as God has declared it, and trust God to save whomsoever
he will.