I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. We are intentionally
working our way through the book of Luke because his perspective
on what our theme for the year has been is extremely appropriate
as we are revisiting the important, essential, critical, calling
of being witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to furnish
ourselves with every piece of biblical data that we possibly
can have to help us grasp the privilege, grasp the blessing
and grasp the responsibility of being his witnesses. And Luke's
gospel is a very precious gospel because it approaches the history
of Christ in his ministry in a way that is uniquely different
from Matthew, Mark, and John. And I would encourage you to
listen to every word that Luke utters when you just read as
a devotion the book of Luke. He said his job was to set in
order those things that were sure and certain concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. And as such, he fills in gaps
where in you may read the gospel of Matthew or Mark and John,
there are aspects of their recollection of the ministry of the Lord Jesus
Christ that's unique to their book. And so there will be pieces
of information in those narratives that you don't have. In the other
narratives and so you have to do a synopsis. That's what we
call it in order to build a a more comprehensive picture of what's
taking place one of the most important aspects of our Lord's
ministry early on was the Call of our Lord Jesus Christ into
the wilderness By which he was tempted of the devil for 40 days
as you know after which having successfully overcome those temptations,
he was ushered into his ministry right away. Sometimes we're not
sure how that transpired, but Luke lets us know that for a
short period of time, after our Lord was strengthened by the
angels, after the devil left him for a season, he went about
doing ministry all by himself. This was about six months, three
to six months, where the Lord Jesus is beginning to preach
and beginning to teach right in his own homestead, Nazareth
and Galilee and the regions around about there, because he was setting
the pattern for all of us. You don't get called, you don't
get saved and go to Timbuktu. You start at home. See, at home
is where the real crucible is. and you can determine the authenticity
of your call by sharing the gospel with people who know you best.
And when we understand the narrative our Lord Jesus Christ preached
at his own home church, of which in Luke's Gospel chapter 4 we
find that he fulfills Isaiah chapter 61 very clearly. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me. He hath anointed me to preach
good tidings unto the poor. And that was one of the most
anointed worship services described in scripture. The people listening
to Jesus of Nazareth preach were mesmerized by the man that they
thought they had always known growing up in Nazareth with his
mama Mary and his daddy Joseph. And all they could say while
he's preaching is, hey, isn't this Joseph's boy? Because what
they were hearing and seeing did not correspond with what
they thought they knew. And as he expounded the Scriptures,
the words that were emanating within the room of that small
synagogue was, we've never heard words like this before. how gracious
and how powerful the words are that he sets forth. What a marvelous
text of Scripture. But if you recall, as he continued
to preach, he set forth what we call the doctrine of election,
and he made it plain to the nation of Israel that God frequently
in the Old Testament went to people whom they would not have
recognized or even accepted, and God was pleased to work in
their lives rather than in the lives of the whole nation. And
at the end of the worship service, Well, the leadership decided
to take Jesus to the hillside and throw him over the cliff.
Can you imagine this is the first time you preaching at home and
the people want to kill you? It's from that point that Jesus
now begins to move from Jerusalem to Judea and the uttermost parts
of the world as is meant for his message to go forth. We are
reading in the fourth chapter as we prepare for our lesson
today some unusual commentary on the part of Luke. And Luke
does this in his gospel. Luke will use Terms like all
and everyone with regards to the things that jesus did for
instance when jesus healed he healed everyone When jesus healed
he healed all who came to him And when jesus healed jesus healed
completely He didn't do partial healings You know where the rest
of it is left up to your faith He healed everyone of every disease
at every time they came to Him. That's what you read in chapter
4. And it's designed for you to understand that what we are
dealing with in the early stages of Christ's ministry is what
we call the messianic fulfillment. When messiah would come there
would be such an effusion of grace such a outpouring of the
work of the spirit of god uniquely in the life of jesus christ of
which it would not be Reduplicated neither in the life of the apostles
or in the church in this present hour in terms of the dynamic
And the power with which one man influenced so many people
It was designed to authenticate his call as Messiah. If you read
the language carefully, we must say the Spirit of God was given
to Jesus without measure. He had such a full outpouring
of the third person that the things he did clearly gave credibility
to this one man who is called the Messiah. These are the words
that we are hearing over in chapter 4. And then chapter 4 closes
out this way in verse 43 and 44. And he said unto them, I
must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also for therefore
am I sent. And he preached in the synagogues
of Galilee. What was happening? The people
were coming to him in such massive, massive, massive demands that
he had to keep moving because there were just too many people
coming. Tens of thousands are coming to one man. That's the
context in which chapter 4 opens up. So we read verse 1, chapter
5 rather, we read verse 1 of chapter 5, and it came to pass
that as the people pressed upon him to hear the Word of God. Now you and I know we are not
in the days of the movement of the Spirit of God, are we? The
text actually is a Greek device that Luke uses to give us the
epicenter and the main character of Christ's ministry. This is
not a chronological setting. Chapter 4 historically is not
chronologically in order with chapter 5. I'll just let you
know that the Bible does that sometimes. It will take different
chronological events and place them in different places for
a more theologically appropriate purpose. So the center of Christ's
ministry in chapter five, verse one is calling our attention
to the nature and character of the multitudes that are coming
to Jesus. This is what I want you to get
out of verse one. Tens of thousands are pressing upon Jesus in so
much as he must now do something about the load. And this is where our message
comes in. The title of our message today is from henceforth, you
shall catch men. From henceforth, you shall catch
men. For more than three years, the
Lord Jesus Christ would bear record of his father's word and
his father's will, of which will he had to also provide witnesses
who would take that testimony to the world. This is where the
disciples would come in. This is where you and I would
come in as well. As Jesus said to his father in
John chapter 17, Verses 9 and following father. I have manifested
your name to the men whom you have given me I have given them
thy word and they have kept it and watch this and they have
known and are assured That I have come out from you and I return
to you again. I've given them what they need
It's time for you to give them what they need in order for them
to take my word to the world Now we have the historical context
in which the calling of the disciples now take place. And the calling
of the disciples will serve as a model for you and me today.
So put your feet in their shoes. You'll now be ready to ask some
questions of yourselves about the call. Point number one in
your outline. You can follow me in your outline.
Here it is. God will do his business in your space when God is about
to call you to both salvation and service. God will do his
business in your space when he is calling you both to salvation
and service. And these are two sides of the
same coin. The call of salvation. How does
it work? Well, you notice verses one through
three, part A, and see if my proposition does not bear itself
out. When God is dealing with a sinner and calling a sinner
to himself, do you know what he'll do? He'll let you be going
about your merry way, doing whatever you do in life, good, bad, and
ugly. And then he will begin to interpose himself right in
the midst of what you're doing. He will show up without abruptly
tearing up anything. But the next thing you know,
there has been another person invading your space. And that's
God's mercy. Now watch how this works. This
is quite remarkable. And as they were pressing upon
him to hear the word of God, verse two, he saw two ships standing
by the lake. See, he had Luke's narrative
says he's on the shores of Galilee. He's right on the Lake of Nazareth.
And this lake is a massive sea. It's not as large as we would
call the ocean, but sea meaning that it's large enough for it
to be deep and wide and long. And it was part of the Galilean
coast. And he's right on the edge. And
imagine here you are on the shores of the ocean or the sea, and
there is tens of thousands of people pressing to hear you.
He has to now accommodate their need, which is his ministry,
by now appropriately utilizing the resources of the people he's
about to call to ministry. Watch verse two. Watch it again. And he saw two ships. The word
literally is boats, but you could call them ships because they
were fishing vessels of a significant size standing by the lake. But the fishermen were gone out
of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into one
of the ships. There you go. So here you are
working at the office. Or here you are on your route.
Or here you are washing your nets, if you were a fisherman.
And you are just going about your daily routine. And this
individual just jumps in your boat. Now, what's interesting
about the scenario is you are very much aware of this man because
the fame has gone out now from the moment he started ministering
to this present. Luke chapter 4 tells us his fame
went everywhere. The disciples who are yet now
to be called have heard about this Jesus of Nazareth. They
have probably even heard him preach. But they haven't had
what we would call a personal encounter with him yet. That's
about to take place now. You and I know lots of people
who have heard the gospel from afar. Lots of people who heard
about Jesus. But there is a vast difference
between people who hear about Jesus and people who have Jesus
climb in their boat. And so this is the transition,
the marked transition in the life of the disciples, which
corresponds for us a real saving experience. Look at our master. He's confident enough to climb
into Peter's boat while Peter is washing his nets. I'll explain
that down the line. And when he climbs into Peter's
boat, here's what he says to Simon. He says, Simon, would
you thrust me out a little bit from land? And when Simon did
what he said, we'll talk about the reason why he did that a
little bit. He sat down and talked to people out of Simon's boat. When God's calling you to himself,
he will always enter into your space, watch this, with his agenda,
with his purpose and his business. I know this is true because when
you read the scriptures, you find that God works the same
way yesterday, today, and forevermore. He doesn't change. So if my proposition
has eternal verity to it, I can go in the Old Testament and see
that model. I know a man named Moses who was working on the
backside of the mountain herding sheep, happy as he could be.
He wasn't looking for God no more than looking for the man
on the moon. See, when a person gets saved, it's not because
they were looking for God, but God was looking for them. So
he's working on the backside of the desert with a bunch of
nasty sheep. And you know what God does? Interrupts
his weekly and daily routine. Now he knew Moses' route. Shepherds
take the same route all the time. He ran around, he worked around
the mountain Horeb, and God plopped a big old bush right in Moses'
way and set it on fire. And Moses looked at the bush,
and it was the very bush that caused Moses, the scripture says
in Exodus 3, to turn aside and see what this thing is. See,
when God is calling you, He will give you a revelation of His
glory, listen, consistent with what you are doing. He'll give
you a revelation of His glory consistent with what you are
doing. He will meet you right where you are. Moses is doing
his job, all of a sudden this bush shows up, it's burning but
not consumed, and his life changes forever. God enters into people's
lives, doesn't He? He'll enter into your life. He'll
enter them. I remember a man named Gideon. Don't you remember
him Gideon hiding from the Midianites Way down on the backside of a
cave and he's threshing the wheat, you know You thresh the wheat
you're tossing the wheat up so that the wind can blow and separate
the wheat from the chaff Because you need a little wheat to eat
now the Midianites have been destroying and devouring the
land now for several years and just wreaking havoc on Israel
and Gideon is hiding trying to get him a little food to eat.
Y'all, that's where we are today. We're just trying to get a little
food to eat. And you know what? The Lord Jesus shows up right
there where Gideon is. It says, Gideon, thou mighty
man of valor. Gideon goes, hoo, hoo. See what God does? He gets right
in your business. And all of a sudden, now watch
this. I don't know if you know God's
dealing with you. I want you to hear this now. His business
becomes your business. This is true for the woman at
the well. We just talked about her several weeks ago. Just going
on about her business. Sister just trying to make a
dollar out of 15 cents and keep out of trouble. She goes to the
well because ain't nobody showing up. She knows the pattern. But
Jesus jumps right in her way. Remember what he told the disciples?
I must needs go through Samaria. He gets right in the way. And
he not only gets in the way, but he deals with you according
to where you are. You know what I'm saying? I'm
saying that as Moses was a shepherd, he met the good shepherd. And
as Gideon was a thresher of wheat, what he met was the one who really
knew how to separate the wheat from the chaff. And as he met
the woman at the well, he told her, not only do I have living
water, I am the living water. and now he's meeting a group
of men of which we're getting ready to talk about and he's
getting ready to let them know, fellas, I really know how to
fish. See, this is what's so powerful
about our Lord Jesus Christ. When he's calling his elect from
every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, he meets them where
they are and he applies a characteristic of one of his attributes according
to where they are. See, he has many names. And all
of the names of the Lord Jesus Christ correspond to the needs
of His people. When you meet Him in your need,
He will show up with that name, and He will ultimately point
you to Jesus Christ, whose name is above every name, by which
name every knee will bow. The disciples therefore are now
about to meet Jesus. He climbs in Simon's boat and
he tells Simon to launch backwards a little bit, you know, unloose
your anchor and let me drip back a little bit because I need to
develop an echo chamber in order to preach to this mass group
of people from the boat he was able to do that. Can you imagine
Simon? Here he is washing his nets,
getting prepared for the next night. And all of a sudden, he's
in the middle of a major worship service. And he's sitting in
his own boat over in the corner, listening to Jesus preach to
the tens of thousands. Christ has now, by his sovereign
grace, invaded the life of Simon. Simon couldn't do nothing about
it. See, when God works in Providence to get you, I don't care what
you're doing, He's going to get you. Now I know Simon if he was
human like I am he had all kind of thoughts going on in his head
He might have wanted to leave and go eat But that was interrupted
He might have thought okay if this man can climb in my boat
and take my boat and somehow influence me to get involved
in it I don't know what he about to do next. You know all kind
of stuff going through his head, right? But here's what's going
on. I want you to get this as a principle
in your outline point number one God will do his business
in your space Watch this point number two and the way he does
it is designed for the purpose of establishing a relationship
with you The way he's doing it is designed to establish a relationship
with you in other words. He's not being selfish And he's
not being braggadocious. He's not simply mulling over
your space with the objective of just taking advantage of you.
Christ was never a taker. He was always a giver. In ministry,
if you are not authentically called of God, you can't give
people anything. All you can do is manipulate
people and take from them. Whenever Christ showed up, he
left you with way more than you had before he came. And that's
the way our Lord is working here. But it's primarily designed,
while He's ministering to the masses, He's targeting Simon. While He's ministering to the
masses, Simon is being challenged with the question, Who is this
man? He's listening to Christ preach
to the people the Kingdom of God, and as Christ finishes His
preaching, He now is once again interrupted by Simon not only
by the Lord Jesus Not only is the Lord going to establish a
relationship with those he's calling to himself He's going
to initiate it. He's going to affect it and it's
going to happen while you are going back about your work Ladies
and gentlemen, I want you to get this point when God starts
to draw you to himself. I And that's how salvation works. He starts to draw you to himself.
No man can come unto me, Jesus said, except the father which
sent me draw him. Do you know what's happening
when God starts to knock you down, put the handcuffs of grace
on you and slowly tow you to himself? There's a power that's
dragging you that you can't overcome. And now you find yourself thinking
about this man who has invaded your space. Am I making some
sense? And you are still trying to do
what you do, but you can't help but think about Him because He
has so graciously and powerfully entered into your space that
now half of your thoughts are thoughts about Him. You're at
work working on the computer. You're on your route trying to
help people. Whatever your vocation is, once Christ starts entering
into your life, half of your brain is His. He now is sewing
into your thought, your contemplation, your imagination, your understanding,
a manifestation of who he is. And now you are forced to work
with at least two screens going on all at the same time. The
screen of practical, everyday, pragmatic life, and the other
screen of, now who is this Jesus that just keeps invading my life?
He's initiating a relationship with you. And it's happening
in the context of ministry. Point number being our outline
under our first category. He is however also I want you
to hear this now He is however also Prioritizing his work over
your work If in fact he will use you he will use you ladies
and gentlemen for his glory I want you to see it in verse three.
Watch this now. Here it is. This is the progression of the
relationship between Christ and Peter, and yea, all the disciples,
but Peter's the point man. He entered into one of the ships,
which was Simon, and he prayed to him that he would thrust out
a load from land. He sat down, he taught the people out of the
ship. Now look at verse four, watch this. Now when he had left
off speaking, he said to Simon, Simon, launch out into the deep
and let down your nets for a drought. What a word. Now, I know you
heard this priest a thousand times and that's all great. But
before we unpack it, I simply want you to understand the psychological
implications of what just occurred. When Jesus showed up in the life
of Simon, Jesus was doing what he was called to do, preaching
the kingdom of God, proclaiming the gospel of God's glory, doing
what he was called to do. See, Jesus is not a transformer.
When He comes into your life, if you are a singer, He ain't
gonna sing. When He comes into your life,
you know, if you're doing something, He's not gonna morph into what
you are. He can do what you do, but when
Christ comes to you, He's coming as the Savior. He's coming as
the Shepherd. He's coming as the Word of God.
He's coming as the truth of the gospel, integrating who He really
is into what you are. So now that he's got Simon's
attention, you know what he's about to do? He's about to show
Simon who he is in total. Simon wonders, why would the
master enter into my boat doing his business? He could have did
his business on another shore or on the deck. What is our master
doing? What our master is about to do
is to teach Peter Teach the disciples and teach you and me a pattern,
a picture, and a process of the ministry of the gospel represented
in us being called to be fishers of men. See, Peter didn't see
it, but what Jesus was doing while he was preaching from Peter's
boat to those tens of thousands of people that were around him
was fishing for men. Peter didn't see the vast drought
that was in front of his face. He didn't make the corresponding
connection between what he did as a vocation and what Jesus
did as a ministry. But he's about to. He's about
to see that Jesus has graciously integrated himself into Peter's
life to show Peter that God has called him to a much higher calling. than merely catching a few fish. But in order for Peter to get
this, Christ must show himself sovereign. He must show himself
as God, and he must show himself as totally successful in all
that he does. See, Peter's challenged in his
mind, and our Lord's getting ready to deal with Peter. So
he calls Peter to do something. This is an imperative. Verse
4, launch out into the deep and let your nets down for a drought. Launch out into the deep and
let your necks down for a drought Peter now is challenged point
number two launch out into the deep Let your necks down for
a drought and verse 4 tells us in 5 after Christ gave that imperative
Simon Peter answered and said unto him master We have toiled
all night long Watch this and we haven't taken one thing Now,
I can see you know how to preach. But what you're getting ready
to ask me now, it doesn't quite make sense. And what our Lord is about to
teach Peter is what he has to teach you and me all the time.
That when he calls us to the obedience of faith, He calls
us to operate with a principle that sometime will militate against
human reasoning. When he calls us to the obedience
of faith, he will call us frequently to a principle that will militate
against human reasoning. It is in the clash between the
human reasoning skills that you and I operate with every day
and what God himself knows by which he operates in the realm
of what he calls us to faith, the obedience of faith, where
you and I are going to see that God can't lie, God can't change,
and God can't fail. In other words, when God calls
you and I to the obedience of faith, watch this, ladies and
gentlemen, he's going to humble us. Whenever you and I equivocate,
whenever we equivocate in obedience, when God gives us a command and
we go back, what we have done is erected the idol of intellect
and reason over against the proposition of obedience that came from,
watch this, the infinite mind of God. Now if you take those
two concepts and juxtapose them together, you know what you get?
foolishness on the part of the creature thinking that he can
challenge God when God tells us to do something just because
it doesn't make sense to us. And so it's implied in the statement,
Lord, we've been fishing all night. So we didn't troll this
whole area. We just want you to know this,
okay? We know you know what you're doing, but we just want you to
know we didn't, we didn't, you know, we, and listen, we, the
fishermen, haven't caught nothing, okay? I just, we want you to
know, so when the outcome is suspected, we just, we just want
you to know, okay? I know you're trying to push
your ministry and extend your ministry, you're trying to show
people some stuff, but, but, And so he lays that out. Now,
it's interesting what he's doing here. And as I said, it's critically
important for us to understand that what our Lord does when
he calls you and I to the obedience of faith is to challenge us to
believe him. Isn't that what our elder said
just before the prayer? God help us to believe you. Help us to
believe you and I'll tell you one of not all of it, but one
of the impediments to immediate spontaneous submission to the
propositions of God's word is unbelief. One of the hindrances
and obstacles that keep us from being able to just act on the
proposition is unbelief. Now, unbelief will manifest itself
in all kinds of forms, but ultimately, it's a hesitation to do what
omnipotent God says do. Now, if you know God to be omnipotent,
and you know Him to be omniscient, is there any reason at any time
you should ever hesitate to obey God? Since He can't lie, change,
or fail, any time He gives you an imperative or a commandment,
it's on God to see to it that that commandment gets fulfilled.
Isn't that right? If God says jump, why not just jump? He's
the one that created gravity. He can suspend that law of gravity
and catch you and hold you in the middle of space if he wants
to, right? The only reason you wouldn't jump is because you
don't believe God. And now God's going to challenge
us on this very frequent even in our ministry. Now, my objective
for us is this, for you and I to understand that in order for
us to be successful the way that God would have us to be successful
in ministry is we've got to obey God. Do you hear me? And whenever God lays out propositions
for you and I, ultimately, from his perspective, they are never
unreasonable. They may not be comprehensible
at the time, but they're never unreasonable. So in your outline,
launching out into the deep requires two, three things. The obedience
of faith combined with the wisdom of God. But in this proposition
of the obedience of faith combined with the wisdom of God, we're
going to see the weakness of men. So the text tells us in
Simon Aaron said, Master, we've toiled all night and we've taken
nothing. Nevertheless, what at your word, I will let down the
net. Do you see that now? There's
a construction in the original language that also gives us a
little bit of insight into why Peter capitulated. I'll share
that with you. It has to do with the little
word there called master. Do you see that phrase master?
That's a word that we don't like in democratic societies You know,
we want to bring into captivity everything that seeks to exercise
superiority over us because you know We feel like we're all little
sovereigns right as we are dealing with right now the economic slump
in which we are in and And you see politics working this dialectical
process. You got the one percenters versus
the 99 percenters, right? That's a class warfare battle
that was set up by the powers that be in order to distract
us from what's going on in Washington as they confiscate our wealth
every day. The goal is to get you all upset with the one percent
of the folks who have the vast majority of the money. Now, I
want to help you with this. I'm going to just segue here.
What on earth any good will be done for you to get upset with
the one percenters. How's that going to change your
income? How's that going to put more food on your table? What
good is it for your blood pressure to rise up because you found
out that you were part of the 99%? Now follow me for a moment. Okay,
we're all part of the 99%. The day before I found out that
I was part of the 99%ers, I was doing fine. But now that I realize
I'm part of the 99%ers, I want to go out and protest? It's very, very important for
you and I to understand that that kind of battle is not the
battle for the people of God. The battle of the people of God
is to believe God. The battle of the people of God
is to believe that God is able, that he's capable of providing
for you, keeping you healthy, giving you a job, sustaining
you, and giving you all the sufficiency for everything you need to take
care of your family. See, for you, the battle is for you to
believe that the Lord is your shepherd and you shall not walk.
Not Washington D.C. Not Washington D.C. Christ That's
the battle that we are fighting and so so as we as we work through
this we see a call to obedience If peter knew what he's about
to know, which he didn't know He wouldn't have responded by
saying masters the greek term Epistates is not our normal greek
term curious. It is not our normal greek term
Didaskalon which is scholar or teacher or the one I submit myself
to in order to be instructed This term master is a term that
is more remote, now watch this, and non-relational. Peter is
acknowledging that Jesus is an authority. And because he's acting
in an authoritative way, he's submitting to the authority of
Christ. But the word does not connote
a personal relationship. It simply acknowledges that this
man is known by all kinds of people. He didn't he didn't came
in my own shop Open the doors up put his sign up and he's in
authority are in control and I'm just gonna go with the punches,
right? That's what he's doing. I want you to get that. He's
basically yielding to the Epistasis is a term that means the present
Authority that's standing over you right now. So Jesus is usurping
authority over Peter Does he have right to do that? Is he
God? Can he enter into your life and just usurp authority over
your life whenever he wants to? Listen, now watch this now. And
it don't have to do anything with redemption or salvation.
Doesn't he own everything? Isn't he Lord over all? Can't
God in the person of Christ enter into anybody's house he wants
to and take over? Well, what Peter is doing is
rationally and wisely simply backing away and letting Jesus
have the show. Now, the Lord knows this. He knows this. Peter don't know
what's about to happen. Now, if he was a betting man,
he would say, I'm going to put some money against Jesus. See,
because he didn't step way out of bounds now. But we'll see. And see, I already gave him a
warning. I already told him we've been out all night long. We didn't
checked out this whole thing. And guess what, Jesus, we who
are the professionals, we didn't catch a thing. We just want you
to know that just, you know, just in case failure enters into
the equation. But what I want you to understand
is when Jesus told Peter to launch out into the deep, he was fulfilling
Jeremiah chapter 16, verse 16, where God says, and I will send
fishers to fish for you from every place where I have driven
you. When the Lord Jesus gave commandment to Peter to launch
out into the deep, the abyss, this is what we were talking
about last night, man, the abyss. In the sea are multitudes of
fish who represent people, nations, kindred, tribes, and tongues. He's fulfilling the Ezekiel vision
of chapter 40, of which in the last chapter what you see described
is a vision of the temple of God, the Holy of Holies, out
from which flows the water. it goes all the way through the
temple and outside the temple gates of chapter 48 of Ezekiel
and as it goes out the gate it goes all the way through the
streets and it goes into the lakes and it starts filling the
lakes and as it fills the lakes it overflows the lakes and goes
into the sea this is a water source coming out of the Holy
of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant is and the vision of
Ezekiel describes fissures Fishers out there doing what casting
their nets? Casting their nets now Why are
we having a vision of the temple and then a vision of fishermen?
connected together in Ezekiel's temple Because it's at the temple
that the blessing of the means by which the multitude of fish
will be caught it comes from the seat of propitiation It comes
from the holy of holies where christ's atoning work will merit
for the human race Listen to me ladies and gentlemen an outpouring
of the holy ghost represented by the waters that proceed from
jerusalem that go out into the streets that goes into the lakes
and then enters ultimately into the masses of the seas and Ezekiel
47 verse 10 says and wherever the waters go These will be for
the healing the waters wherever the water go these will be for
the healing of the waters now watch this the Spirit of God
represented by the waters will go into all the people groups
and prepare the fishermen for gathering in great droughts are
you guys following me so far Peter doesn't know this but Christ
does so watch how this unfolds if you didn't get it get the
tape listen ten times watch this watch this now verse 6 verse
7 I mean verse 5 the latter part so at your word I will let down
the net verse 6 and when they had done this do you see that
and when they had done this they enclosed a great multitude of
fish whoa what's going on here Jesus doesn't know anything about
fishing But as soon as the disciples obey Christ and drop the nets,
the nets fill up with fish. Now stay with me for a moment
because it's necessary for us to develop this for you to understand
the marked miracle that took place. I like fishing. Several of my brothers out here,
they know I like fishing and they love fishing too. We love
to fish. We understand the significance of it. We understand the typology
of it. We love being with God out there on the water. We love
the idea of sitting on top of the water, not being able to
see anything in the water and yet being able to use the right
approach, the right method with praying to God that he would
put a fish on our hook in an ocean that's 20 miles wide and
20 miles long and a mile deep. Do you understand? We know that
God puts the fish on the hook. And when we catch it, we thank
God for it because there are days we go out there and the
bait don't even get touched. See, this is called operating
by what faith is functioning with principles, but operating
by faith for Peter and the disciples to have launched their boats
out into the deep. that took them about a 10, 15,
20 minute ride. Remember that we weren't dealing
with motorboats in those days. So they're rowing, right? And
you can imagine what's going on in their minds. This is broad
daylight. They have been out all night
long. At best, we are dealing with a time frame of 9 o'clock
to 12 o'clock noon. As Peter is headed out, he's
looking around the water. Guess what he sees? Nothing. There are no other boats out
there with him. None! Because they're smart enough
to know you don't catch fish here in the daytime. Not with
the kind of fishing that Peter and James and John and Andrew,
who were all buddy fishermen, they had a fishing team together,
did. Can you see how Peter was struggling in his mind to obey
Christ with every row? The people on the shores are
watching. Peter now is forced to obey Christ
publicly. This epistatis that he doesn't
even really know. This fellow that's exercising
sovereign authority over him even though a relationship is
not established yet. All kind of stuff is running
through Peter's mind as it runs through yours, as it runs through
mine. To the degree that we don't have a knowledge of God in Christ,
to that degree we struggle with who he is. why he gives us the
command Peter is moving out and then the text says Jesus said
here we go right it is good drop your nets so they drop their
nets in as soon as they drop their nets ladies and gentlemen
a most marvelous miracle takes place do you know what that miracle
is it's a manifestation of the glory of God who created heaven
and earth the sea and all things therein by the word of his power
in the person of Jesus Christ Who's in the boat with Peter?
Peter is watching Sovereign God in the person of Christ defy
logic Do you know the God that made heaven and earth made the
fish too and And while sovereign God, for his own purposes, did
not allow Peter, James, John, and Andrew to catch any fish
that night, God had told the fish, no, you guys go way on
the backside of Galilee, because I don't want them catching any
fish right now. I've got some lessons to teach them. I've got
some lessons to teach them. And I'm going to teach you those
lessons today. I've got some lessons to teach these boys about
what I want them to be. I've got some lessons. So by
the time they came back, their testimony was this. We've caught
nothing. We toiled all night. We've caught
nothing. We've toiled all night. We've
toiled all night and we've caught nothing. And Jesus' answer would
be to them, not now, but in a moment, you can't do anything without
me. Without me, it's impossible for
you to accomplish anything. I don't care what skill set you
have. Don't care what bait you have. Listen, without Christ,
you can do nothing. Without Christ, you can do nothing.
And Peter and the disciples, tragically, would have to learn
this twice. We'll touch on this and you know, sometimes God has
to take us through the same lesson twice Some of y'all said pastor
five times. I understand that I Understand
that he's they're out there and they drop the nets. Now. Listen,
I want to help you with this. I Have discovered that there
are all sorts of means by which fish are caught In the parables
that Jesus gave a series of seven or eight parables in Matthew
chapter 13 where he spoke about the kingdom of God being like
a big drag net A dragnet is a net that was used to go down to the
bottoms of the sea that would be held up at the top of the
water and it would be held by generally two boats, if not one,
with vast wings on each end and they would scoop through the
water, picking up everything. That's what a dragnet is. Scooping
through the water, picking up everything. Tires, trees, good
fish and bad fish. That's the nature of the gospel
preaching today. As we preach the gospel, all
kinds of people come under the hearing of the gospel. And God
will do the separating of the good and the bad. That's a drag
net. But did you know that there were
all kinds of nets? They had what are called scoop
nets. A scoop net, as you drove by, you would take it down and
scoop it up. They had a dip net. I don't know how the dip net
works. Watch this. Watch this. Watch this. They
had a gill net. They had a drag net, they had
a trowel net, they had a tangle net, they had a hoop net, they
had a straight net. And then they had what is called
a trammel net. Trammel, T-R-A-M-M-E-L. And the scholars have been able
to determine that this is the very net that the disciples are
using. Now a trammel net comes from the noun trammel, which
means to impede, to tether, to bind, to trap. And what a trammel net is, is
a three-fold net that has two big nets on either side of it,
large enough for fish to get inside, and then a smaller, more
nest-type net inside the two big nets for the fish to get
entangled in. This trammel net is so large
and so visible that it very seldom works in the daytime, because
fish are smart enough over time to see you drop the trammel net. How many fishermen I got in the
house? Come on now. Now tell me something. Aren't fish fairly
intelligent? You can't just do anything to
get the smart fish that's been hanging around a minute. They're
smart enough to eat all your bait, clean the hook, and leave
a note thanking you for the bait. Am I telling the truth? Am I
telling the truth, brother? Hey, watch this. They'll eat
all the bait, they'll leave a note, and they'll take their wing and
put tug on it to let you know they ate it. Listen, fish are not that dumb.
And this is what challenged Christ. It challenged him because the
kind of nets that they used were so visible that they only work
at what? Night. There's no way in his
mind that he can reconcile the method that he was using at the
time that Jesus said it and the response was enormous See Peter
couldn't get with this but Christ knew exactly what he was doing.
Listen to it at verse 6 again. And when they had done this,
did what? Dropped the net at his word. You see the phrase they enclosed?
That's the point. They enmeshed. They trapped. They tethered. They bound. They
hindered. They brought in multitudes of
fish. Now watch this. A great multitude of fish and
their nets began to break. And their nets began to break. Now right here I need to tell
you something. That the metaphor and the account
and the message in our account is not about how Jesus can come
in and help your floundering business become successful. This
is not about Christ increasing your wealth, Christ increasing
your store, Christ increasing your business, Christ increasing
your income. This is not about earthly carnal
things. Sadly, most of our prosperity
preachers interpret the scriptures along the line of human need
rather than according to what the Bible would say. These things
are about Christ. They're about his glory, about
the redemption of sinners, about the salvation of sinners. The
fish in our account are eternity bound souls. It's not your money. Eternity bound souls who have
now been trapped by the gospel. preached right in front of their
face, and if they could escape, they would have. But when the
gospel gets a hold of you, you can't escape. You know, people come into the
church having all kinds of arguments before they get here. Yeah, I
heard, you know, I heard he teach this, he teach that, he teach
the other thing. Well, I'm getting ready to go check him out, and
I'm going to prove him wrong. Do you know how many people God
has saved over the last 2,000 years of them trying to prove
God wrong? And you know what God did? He
allowed the first part of the net with the big ol' hole so
your big ol' head could go through that big ol' hole to get in there
with your arguments and your debates and your rebuttals and
your game-saying. And then he traps you in the
mesh of grace! And the more you wrestle, the
more you get trapped. And the only way you're going
to get out of that thing is for God to bring you up and bring
you to shore. And it's interesting because
the disciples are just, they are, they are, listen ladies
and gentlemen, they are blown away. They are blown away. And what are we describing here?
I want you to understand evangelically what we are describing is the
foolishness of preaching. What we are describing is what
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. It pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe. See,
if you think about preaching and its proposition and its message,
and then you think about human arguments and where people are,
you aren't able to reconcile how the message of redemption
can actually save an eternity-bound soul unless you know the God
who is able to redeem through the message. The message doesn't
logically fit with the nature of mankind. Our message is that
you are sinners. Our message is that you are under
the wrath of God. Our message is that you are headed
to hell. Our message is that Christ is the only savior, that
he alone has accomplished eternal redemption. Our message is this,
without Christ, you will perish. Now, you may not have heard this
message anywhere else, but this is our message. There's no other
name given among men by which we must be saved. Our message
is Christ is the only Savior. That's our message. That's our
message. And we preach that as a as a net, a trombone net to
tether your mind, to trap you, to bind you. And we trust that
if you want to God's elect, the more you struggle, the more you'll
come to know the indomitable power of God that's willing,
not only willing, but able and determined to save you from your
sins. Peter, really struggling now
because he's been proven in his own mind to be wrong at least
once verse 6 which moves us to our next point and when they
had done this they enclosed a great multitude of fish and fishes
and their nets began to what and I use that word began because
again that's in our original language you have to be sensitive
to language the nets didn't just break because had they broken
they would have lost their fish And if they had lost their fish,
Jesus couldn't have been the truth because the proposition
and the imperative was launch into the deep and you shall catch
a great what? Drought. And so what we are dealing
with is the breaking of the nets at the hinges because the drought
was so massive. Now I want you to get this. This
is a process that's taking place. It's in what we call the imperfect
verb form. So what's happening is Fish are coming from everywhere
in the world at the beckoning call of the sovereign God. God's
calling us to jump in Peter's net. And here they come, big
fish and little fish and all kinds. And they're jumping in
and it's getting fuller and fuller and fuller. And fish are still
trying to squeeze in everywhere. Why? At your word, oh Lord. your word they're squeezing in
and Peter is just he's amazed because you know what he just
met he met the inexhaustible omnipotent God who spoke a word
of power and connected that word of power with the limited resources
of Peter's net boat and faith Peter just met the omnipotent
God in his eternal decree to save men and women from every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, a number which no man can count,
only God. Peter met the command that says,
drop it and you're going to see a great drought. And no way could
Peter reconcile the kind of response that he got. But this is when
grace comes in power. fulfilling its own prophetic
word, having nothing to do with you. Now I want you to hear this
now. This is very important. God is not limited by your resources
and He's not limited by your gifts. And here's another good
word for you to get. Are you ready? He's not limited
by your unbelief. See, in these word of faith churches,
you know what they do? They blame you every time you
ask God to do something for you and God don't come through. They
tell you it's your faith. Isn't that what they say? Your
faith is weak. Well, listen, I'm going to tell you, Peter's
faith was as weak as they come right here. All right, Lord,
that's your word. I'll do it. And here's the point. Salvation
is of the Lord. The work of saving sinners is
ultimately the work of God. What Peter will come to discover
is whenever one sinner or a thousand sinners comes to Christ, it ultimately
is not predicated or based upon the strength of your faith. Listen,
all you need to do is have the faith of a mustard seed. And
that's not going to wet my saliva, a mustard seed. But it's not
your faith. It's the object of your faith.
the origin of your faith and the design of your faith and
the purpose of the one who gave you the faith by which God is
going to manifest his own glory. The small resources that Peter
had was a little net, a little boat, and a little faith. Are you hearing me? and that
faith was about to just be abandoned if Christ didn't go ahead on
and do something right about there. So, you know what we can
say with that one? Whenever your faith is seen in your own eyes
to be so small that even as you are uttering, okay, Lord, you
know, that's just mixed with all kind of incredulity right
there, right? Okay, Lord. Say, Lord, do something
in a hurry before this little bitty faith I got disappear. Are you hearing me? Please do
something for me. because our faith must always
be strengthened by God's providence. Our faith must Lord, you know,
all I'm doing is tossing out a little bitty. I can't even
see this thing I'm giving you. I need you to do something. And
that's exactly what God does for Peter before Peter fails. Christ succeeds. He comes through
in such a magnificent way. And notice what we are learning
here. The sufficiency of Christ's grace combined with the inadequacy
of our gifts. The sufficiency of Christ's grace
combined with the inadequacy of our gifts. They do this. They
show us for what we really are. And that is by nature, we are
all weak in faith. Can I get a witness? And we are
often rooted in unbelief. Now here's some practical advice
before we move on to the next one because I know some of you
you think the only way you're gonna do a lot of great work
for God is if your faith is great, but I'm here to tell you no one
really has great faith, but Jesus and If great faith is manifested
in your life It's only a temporary gift given to you at that time
in order for him to accomplish his purpose and you notice he'll
take that great faith away and leave you back with yourself
and so we see the weakness of faith. We see unbelief in Peter. We see the imperatives and commands
that are given to God. And why does God give you and
I, who are just as bad as Peter, commandments? He gives us commandments
in order to show us, watch this ladies and gentlemen, what we
cannot do. When Christ gives us commands,
he gives us commands in order to show us what we cannot do. This is why we don't really like
obedience Because we're sinners by nature. I'm sorry. I know
this is shocking you but give me a few more minutes you are
a sinner and Whenever you read in your Bible obey the Lord at
best you pay lip service to it, but without grace you will never
obey God and when you do obey it's so mixed with sin and weakness
that if you have to be honest, you would have to call it disobedience
and See, Peter is getting ready to prove that to us here in a
moment, isn't he? Peter met omnipotence. Peter met an inexhaustible grace.
Peter met success. Peter met one who couldn't fail.
But Peter missed all that because Peter was stuck on himself. He
was stuck on his own knowledge. He was bound by his rationale.
He was stuck on the empirical evidence that seemed to be contradictory
to the proposition that the Master gave. And he was woefully surprised
by a miracle of grace that humbled him, that humbled him, that humbled
him. Our next point in our outline,
the nature of the work will require the humility of teamwork. Do
you see that? I'm talking to you guys about
ministry, and I'm talking to you guys about what it means
to be witnesses of Christ, and I'm sharing with you a pattern
and a picture of the process. The command to Peter is the command
to us. Take this gospel to the world,
right? Let down your nets for a drought. This command by Christ
is an infallible promise from the omnipotent God who cannot
fail. If you and I can believe that,
all we need to do then is obey God. Am I telling the truth?
If he says launch your nets, you will have a drought. Just
obey! But our struggle is in our own
weakness. So we move on to our next point
the nature of the work will require the humility of teamwork Do you
know why god will allow us in the midst of success to see failure? Is so that he could humble us
Have you ever been in a situation where god has allowed you to
ostensibly in the presence of others succeed but you know Privately
you have failed before the lord Am I making some sense? Outwardly,
people say, oh, that was wonderful. Oh, look, the Lord really using
you in your own heart. You said, man, if the Lord just
left me right now, I deserve what I get. My attitude was so
funky in that thing. It was just dreadful. And the
truth be told, it was God who did it all, not me. See, this
is when God is humbling you. This is about his glory. What
Peter is about to learn is Christ could have done all this by himself. And yet, as I've been teaching
you and I, he has chosen to use his body, his church, to be the
means by which sinners are saved. More than that, Sister Elsa,
he has chosen to use the meager gifts that he gives us, meager
gifts, to do the very work that could only be done by him and
through him. Yet here's a process that's critical
to ministry I remember talking to us about this 12 years ago
at grace when we first started grace and we went through a really
Really pivotal point in our church We're about 65 people, 70 people,
80 people. And I remember telling our congregation,
you know, we can shut this thing down if you want to, because
I wasn't really happy with the attitude. Because, you know,
God called me. I didn't call myself. You know, I can go sit
down somewhere or go preach somewhere else. And I was really worried
about the attitude, because I know, I know that you cannot do God's
work God's way until he straightens out your attitude. I know that.
I know that. So I said to our church, hey,
we can shut it down. They said, no, no, no, let's keep going.
I said, OK, now we got to do it God's way. Are you hearing
me? We got to do it's goth. So we had to start learning all
over again What was important to god? And what i'm sharing
with you today is a message I preached to us over 10 years ago When
I was sharing with our congregation if we will love what god loves
God will be pleased to work through us to fulfill it If we will love
what god loves God will be pleased to work through us to fulfill
it. When you're a small church in
a small ministry, one of the problems that occurs is that
you will think small. When you're small working a small
church in a small ministry, what you will do inadvertently is
think small. Now what you're doing, this is
called a normalcy bias. I'm going to talk to you for
a moment. Can I do that? It's a normalcy bias. What this does
is it basically justifies your limitations. When you think small,
what you're doing is basically rationalizing why you are where
you are. And when you are thinking small,
you actually use the negative more frequently than you do the
positive. You go, we can't do this. We
can't do that. We can't do the other thing.
It's impossible. We can't get that done. We can't
do that. God's not calling us to this.
Now you all of a sudden at God's elbow telling God what he can't
do, right? This is what goes on in small business minds. This
is what goes on in small ministry minds. And it's understandable
because what you are doing is saving face. Really what's taking
place, ladies and gentlemen, is that you are ignorant. What
Peter just learned, didn't Peter just learn that? He thought he
knew everything about fishing and come to find out how ignorant
he was. And it's the same thing with the people of God. The command
that Christ gave to the twelve apostles, Go ye into all the world Was
given to 12 men who knew nothing but the regents of galilee with
the exception of the apostle paul They couldn't fathom the
world And yet their message has now for 2 000 years Gone into
all the world. Are you hearing me ladies and
gentlemen? but our master is teaching them now what the process
is by which it will get done. Will you listen carefully? The
next word I want you to get is called teamwork. So look at it
in verse 7. After that they had begun to
close in this multitude of fish and their nets began to break,
Peter realized that catastrophe is on hand. Isn't that right?
If these nets break, We lost everything. So what does he do?
He starts beckoning. Isn't that what your word says?
And they beckoned their partners. Now that's a strategic statement
because the word partners there really refers to their business
colleagues, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. who were drifting
behind Peter, watching Peter and Jesus, as Peter and Jesus
is going through this personal private business matter, and
James and John are wondering what's happening. They get so
far apart that Peter has to beckon them, like wave, or bob the head,
because he's too busy holding on to the nets. They're too far
away for him to call, but they can see him beckoning. What is
he saying? He's saying, fellas, I need help. And one of the things you'll
learn with ministry is that in ministry, to be as successful
as God calls you to be, you have to be willing to have a team. God has designed it where it's
never accomplished by one man. Are you hearing me? And anytime
ministry takes place where he will use the point man, the pastor,
who becomes prominent or what have you, that pastor knows very
little of what he does is the cause of the success. Will you
hear me? Very little of what the pastor
does is the actual cause of the success. It's a vehicle. But the cause of the success
is Christ's blessing on the Word. the real method by which the
success takes place and more importantly what I want to hear
you I want you to hear me now hear me now on this is the sustaining
of the blessing is a consequence of men and women humbling themselves
and working together to sustain the blessing for had Peter thought
okay here's my time to shine like religious folk want to do
he could have just tried to grab that whole thing in by himself
Right? But he knew better. Because in
the process of the blessing, you know what was happening to
Peter? He was being humbled! He was being broken! He was being
brought to the real point of his problem, which is unbelief.
And now he's asking for help. See, I know you're getting better
in your walk with Christ when you start asking for help. See,
you've been able to do it all by yourself for the longest.
finally you creep over you still asking for help like Nicodemus
remember he snuck up there by night the Lord you know we know
you a teacher come from God at nighttime he snuck in but listen
watch this at least he came see that Jesus doesn't care about
care how you come come because what he knows is if you come
the Father drew you and If you come, the father drew you and
see you will never see success unless you are willing to humble
yourself and be part of the larger process. Oh, what a word for
my elders and my deacons and for those who want to enter into
ministry. Understand is never designed for you to have your
name in the limelight as if somehow you are the source of the blessing.
Now watch how this works. I want to show you the blessing
of cooperation. Are you ready? Because I've seen this happen
to in churches. where the leadership starts to
experience the blessings of God in the ministry of the word and
they realize they don't have all the resources necessary and
they go to call others to help. And you know what other people
do? They shun them, reject them, and stay on their own because
they want to stay over in their little corner of the world waiting
for God to bless them enormously, right? But James and John were
legitimate partners of Peter and Andrew. And so when Peter
and Andrew called, they came. Do you know what the Bible tells
me? Two are better than one. And a three-fold cord is not
easily broken. Am I telling the truth? Cooperation,
therefore, in the body of Christ is critical to the ultimate success. James and John came speedily
to help Peter out, right? Now watch this. The text tells
us in verse 7, and they beckoned them to their partners, which
when they were in the other ship, that they should come and help
them. They came. Now look at what takes place
in this latter part of verse 7. And filled both ships. Huge. Huge. Huge. If I stay with the metaphor
of the fishing, here's how this goes. You and I are on the top
side of the water. The water represents the mystery
of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is as a mystery.
You and I don't know what's going on under the water. We don't
know how many fish are under the water. But I already told
you, God, by His voice, called all the fish in the world to
come to these boys, because these would be the men by which the
whole Gentile world would be brought to Christ. This is how
many fish are under the water with regards to Peter, James,
and John, and Andrew. Are you ready? Way too many for
them to handle. That's how many are there. And
by the time Peter and his boatman get the fish in their boat, they
are sinking. By the time James and John get
fish in their boat, they're sinking too. And the way the verb form
has it is in the imperfect tense. Now just imagine your boat filled
with fish and your boat sinking to the point where the water
level is equal to the top ridge of your boat. Are you right there
with me? Are you with me? Watch this.
All those boys are scared to death. Now watch this now, watch
this now. They say it looks like we're
being successful, but I don't know. Maybe now we have more than we
can handle. Maybe now we have more than we
can handle. Why don't we throw some of these fish overboard?
That's human reasoning. That's what the disciples said
last week when I was teaching you about what do we have to
feed these 5,000. If it was left up to the disciples,
remember, Lord, tell these guys to go home. It's late. See, and
that's the attitude and mindset of men and women who don't believe
God. You will send people to hell just to keep the room comfortable.
I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you the truth. I'm
telling you the truth. I've had people as we grew from
60 to 70 to 90 to 100, 150 people. I had people tell me all we need
is 100 people. We're good with a hundred people
like, you know, what God's number is for his church And if you
get too much larger than that passage, yes, I don't want to
have nothing to do with you. See you Cuz see at this point I know
that the faith that you're operating in is stifling unbelief you have
failed to see the glory of the infinite God and loves sinners
who loves sinners who loves sinners and will have sinners of every
hue in the same place at the same time giving them glory for
his power and his am I making some sense now now this is what's
going on with Peter James and John look at what the text says
and they came and filled both the ships so that they began
to sink Oh, the sufficiency of his grace combined with the inadequacy
of our gifts. The resources that we have are
limited. The means that we have are limited. But this is designed
for God to get the glory. This is a glimpse into the divine
nature of Christ. Point number five, the nature
of the work will require the humility of teamwork. The fields are all
white. They have been 2000 years now.
Let me say this to you who are contemplating launching out into
the deep. There's plenty of souls to be
saved. Do you hear what I'm saying?
And if you were to earnestly contemplate it, it's overwhelming. Next year we will focus in on
missionary work. And we will understand how absolutely,
devastatingly, humbling missionary work is. Because to be a missionary,
is to take on what I consider the quintessential calling of
Christ. To go to a people that you do
not know, that do not know you, that do not love you, that do
not like you, do not want you, and lay down your life for the
salvation of their souls is tantamount to Christ leaving glory, coming
into a world of sinners like you and me. What is it that makes
God do what he did to save our souls? Nothing in us. Nothing,
there's nothing in you that makes you lovely enough for God to
have left heaven and come to earth. It had to be based in
his own love. Are you hearing me? It had to
be based in his own love. And when you meet real authentic
missionaries who lay down their lives, listen, in your heart,
thank God for them, because there's not enough. I'm talking about
authentic missionaries. There's not enough. There's not enough
men and women who say, Lord, I want the nations for you. I'm
out of here. I'm willing to go through, I'm
willing to suffer, I'm willing to endure whatever I might endure
for the salvation of sinners in the people groups that nobody
even cares about. None! I'm willing to live among
them, be like them, dwell with them until you grant me grace
to open my mouth and share the word of the gospel that they
might be transformed, that you might pluck out for yourself
sheaves from that nation too. You see what kind of mindset
you gotta have? Most of us are comfortable with our 9 to 5,
our houses, our cars, and we think we're something and we
are nothing. Are you hearing me? We are nothing
compared to our brothers and sisters who abandoned it all.
And that's what these disciples are being taught how to do. They're
being taught how to leave it all. Give me a few more minutes
of your time. I just want you to grasp the enormity of the
calling of which Christ is calling them. He's calling them to this.
There is an overflow of His inexhaustible grace given to them of which
the bounty is so massive that we must conclude that what we
are having here is a foreshadow of the outpouring of the Holy
Ghost in the book of Acts where thousands upon thousands come
to Christ through the ministry of the apostles. Isn't that the
way the book of Acts goes? Acts chapter 3, 3,000. Acts chapter
5, 5,000. And multitudes start coming. The apostles could have
never imagined it. They could have never imagined
it. But this is not your vision or mine. It's God's. You and
I have got to know that. And so, here's what happens from
verses 8 through 10, which is instructive to us now. When Simon
Peter saw all the boats filled with all of the fish and all
of them sinking, He fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Do you see it? Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. What happened? He acquired
a revelation of his sinfulness. God revealed to Peter how that
if he left Peter to his own devices, Peter never would have did what
Christ called him to do. If God leaves you to your devices,
you will never do what God calls you to do. If God lets you reason
through your limitations or your wisdom or your skills, watch
this now, you will roam around with your engine running, never
engaged to do the work God calls you to do. There are some of
you now hearing my voice. God is calling you to the missionary
field. You know intuitively that your
ministry is not here. It's somewhere else. In fact,
it excites you every time you hear the prospect of leaving
America and going somewhere else to do missionary work. God is
calling you that, particularly if he's giving you grace to understand
the truth of the gospel, where you are not propagating and pandering
false religion. Few are the laborers who are
preaching the truth in our other nations. Somebody has to go. Are you hearing me? Somebody
has to go. Maybe it's my sons. Maybe it's
my daughter. Maybe it's several of my daughters.
Maybe it's your son. Maybe it's you, you young couple,
that Christ is calling to go to the nations with the gospel. See, we have left off with it
because we are so, we are in our own little bubble in this
Christian world. It's a bubble. It's a bubble. And we're trying
to manage this bubble best we possibly can. Bust that bubble. believe God Believe God for something
much more glorious than your own little comfort zone You see
what he did. He entered into Peter's face
took Peter's Products and show Peter a greater way of living
Peter is humble humble By what he sees falls down on his face
acknowledging his sinfulness wanting the Lord to depart he
couldn't reconcile his own his own antipathy towards what Christ
was doing with what Christ did. Now, here's a lesson in that.
I'll get to my last point. When God blesses us, isn't it
true that when he blesses us, he shows us our sinfulness at
the same time? For which we are now overwhelmed
at how merciful and favorable God can be in spite of us. And do you know what it produces?
Thankfulness and gratitude and brokenness. It crushes me. It crushes me that God will still
be pleased to bring to pass his will and providence and purpose
in my life when I rebel against him as much as I do. Not you,
me. And it's amazing, I can totally
identify with Peter. Peter said, Master, listen, Master,
I don't deserve you being in my presence. You can get this
done all together without, you don't need me. Am I telling the
truth? You don't need me. You don't
need me. Which moves us to our seventh
point after the problem of sin regarding the call of evangelism
has to be rooted in obedience Uh in obedience not ability of
human wisdom if you and I are going to be successful In any
aspect of the ministry of christ. It has to be rooted in obedience
and that the obedience of faith and not in human wisdom Point
number seven the magnificent drought Was christ's work and
not theirs I don't have to belabor this point. I can shut it down
right here because you understand how sovereign grace works. You
and I know that we accomplish nothing in our own strength.
More than that, here's what you must know when it comes to the
salvation of souls. When a man or woman is born again,
it is the direct consequence of what Christ accomplished on
Calvary Street. The salvation of a soul anywhere
in the world is the result of the Spirit of God hunting them
down. Because God had chosen them in
Christ before the world began. And in God's own time, he begins
to put the handcuffs of grace on them and bring them to himself. And when He brings them to Himself,
what He lets them know is, Christ died for you 2,000 years ago,
and I'm giving you to Him. as the reward of his successful
work on Calvary Street. In other words, the salvation
of sinners is not a result of human method and human techniques
and the wisdom of man and Madison Avenue methods by which sinners
come and make a decision for Jesus. Saved souls are the result
of Christ's death on Calvary Street and the Father's agreement
to go get those souls for whom Christ died. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and he that cometh unto me I will
in no wise cast out. Everyone that the Father gives
to Christ will come, not one will be lost. Listen, somebody's
going to get them. Jesus is going to climb into
somebody's boat and he's going to persuade somebody to let him
use that boat while he uses what they have to go get his people.
and put them in his boat and bring them to shore. Do you understand
what kind of faith it took for those boys to row that heavy
boat that's sitting on the edge of the water just about to sink
back to shore? Do you understand what kind of
faith it took? See, faith causes you to tremble all the way. Lord,
you told me to go out there. Lord, you told me to drop the
net. Lord, you brought in all these
fish. Lord, you see the boat is just
about to sink. Lord, now these people all at
the shore watching to see if we gonna make it now. Lord, you
got to get us ashore, Lord. You got to get us ashore. Without
faith, it's impossible to believe God. Without faith, it's impossible
to believe God. You've got to believe God for
the salvation of every sinner he's chosen. You've got to believe
God for the salvation of your husband. your wife, your son,
your daughter, your children, your grandchildren, aunts, uncles,
nieces, nephews. You got to believe God for that
and you got to believe God to the last breath. Are you hearing
me? The magnificent drought was the
work of Christ, not theirs. It's the work of him who died
on Calvary Street and rose again having said it's finished It's
the work of the father saying to the son in Psalm chapter 2
verse 8 ask of me and I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance
the uttermost parts of the world for your possession That's what
we are talking about, right? Okay. So by work by virtue of
application, I'm done. You and I are called to believe
God We are called to obey God We are called to tell the world
about Christ. In a word, you and I are called
to fish, and God will cause it to prosper. Amen.