Wanted to get right to it tonight
because I want to read quite a bit of scripture in the beginning
here. Let's turn to Luke chapter 5. This message, I wanted to
preach this tonight because of our study in Matthew in the mornings
on Sunday. And it has reminded me much of
these verses of scripture in Luke and John. in thinking of our Lord sending
us into this world, as he said, and giving us the instruction
that he has and the comfort that he has. And in Luke 5-1, let's
read together. It came to pass that as the people
pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the
lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake, but
the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets.
And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's and
prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And
he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now, when he
had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep
and let down your nets for a drought. Think of what's happening here.
Our Lord preaching the gospel from a ship. And then he says
to the to the owner of the ship, the Apostle Peter, soon to be.
Go out and let your nets down. And Simon, verse five, answering,
said unto him, Master, we've told all the night and have taken
nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I
will let down the net. And when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break. And they beckoned unto their
partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and
help them. And they came and filled both the ships so that
they began to sink. And when Simon Peter saw it,
he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I
am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished. And all
that were with him at the drought of the fishes which they had
taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear
not, for henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had
brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed
him. Now turn to John 21. John chapter 21, verse 1. We'll read another 11 verses
from John 21, keeping again our study in Matthew chapter 10 in
mind, how the Lord has sent us. John 21 one, after these things,
Jesus, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of
Tiberius. And on this wise showed he himself,
there were together, Simon, Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and
Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and
two other of his disciples. And Simon Peter saith unto them,
I go a fishing. And they say unto him, we also
go with thee. And they went forth and entered
into a ship immediately. And that night they caught nothing.
But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples knew not that
it was Jesus. This is years later now. And
I'm sure when they realized who this was, they remembered how
the Lord had first come where they were and called them. He
said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship,
and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now
they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter,
it's the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that
it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he
was naked, and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples
came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as
it were 200 cubits, dragging the net with fishes. As soon
then As they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there,
and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring
of the fish which ye have now caught. And Simon Peter went
up and drew the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred
and fifty and three. And for all there were so many
yet, was not the net broken. After this amazing display of
our Lord's power and grace in Luke chapter 5, the Lord gives
an analogy of what had just happened when he told him, go out and
cast your nets on the other side of the ship. And Peter said, we've been fishing
all night and we haven't caught anything. Nevertheless, at your
word, we'll cast the net. And he tells them in verse 10
what just happened. He just gave them a picture of
what he's going to do for them and with them and through them.
He said, from henceforth, you're going to be doing that only in
a spiritual sense. You're going to be fishermen,
but not for your own living, but for my service in my ministry. You're not going to catch fish,
you're going to catch men. You're not going to be working
for yourselves, you're going to be working for me. Henceforth, from right
now, you're going to be another kind of fisherman. And this is
not the only place this analogy is given. As we know, when our
study in Matthew, we saw before our Lord sent these apostles
out to preach, he called them. And in Matthew 4, 18, he was
walking by the sea of Galilee and he saw these two brothers,
Simon called Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into
the sea for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, follow
me and I will make you fishers of men. And in Matthew 13, 47,
he said to them again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net
that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind. He says
to his people from the north, south, east, and west, come out
of every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue under heaven, which
when it was full, They drew to shore and sat down and gathered
the good into vessels but cast the bad away. Now the Lord clearly
is teaching here what happens when he sends his apostles, his
preachers, his people, his ministers into this world regarding his
gospel and the way that he accomplishes the saving of sinners by these
means. This is the work for which this
universe exists. Remember that God has a universe
because he has a people. And think of the privilege that
it is to be involved in this work. He will gather those people. The gospel net is being cast. And God's people are being drawn
in. And may we by God's grace tonight
learn seven things from this beautiful picture. There's so
much more. so much more, but we'll try to see seven things.
The first thing that we notice about this is, in our experience,
we know something about fishing. I've been fishing all my life,
but these men didn't fish like you and I fish. This was a different
kind of fishing. We would bait a line, whether
it was with live bait, a shrimp or a worm or something, or perhaps
an artificial bait, something shiny or something that is painted
to look like a small shad or something that fish like to eat.
And we throw it out and wait for a fish to come along. And
at the essence, that type of fishing is deceptive, isn't it? There's deception required in
order to catch fish that way. God's fishing's not like that.
The way these disciples fished before and after, physically
and spiritually, involved no deception whatsoever. There's
no lure involved. That's modern religion, isn't
it? That's the way modern religion fishes. That's free will preaching.
You dangle something in front of people that's not what it
seems to be. It's something that they desire. Heaven or prosperity
in this life. They'll stop at nothing, won't
they? And I'd stop at nothing. If I wanted to catch a big old
bass, I'll use whatever they're going to bite. That's how religion
is. They'll stop at nothing. They'll
promise you anything that it takes to get you down the aisle
and get you giving to their ministry. But what these men in our text
were doing was strenuous labor. Peter He was, he was wiped out. He said, well, we've toiled all
night long. You're telling somebody that's
been fishing all night and toiling, throwing out the net, dragging
the net. You've seen some of that kind
of fishing in these days. And imagine what it must have
been like then. I'm sure that the method has advanced some
now. But then you talk about Hard,
just honest, simple, hard work. We've told, it wasn't recreation.
Fishing is recreation to me. But a fisherman then, these fishermen
here, if they were gonna eat and have shoes and feed their
family, they had to fish whether it was hot or cold, raining or
not, stormy or if you don't catch anything, you don't eat. You
got nothing to sell and no money. Let us learn from this that though
this is God's work that we do. This is not our ministry. People talk about my ministry.
I don't have a ministry. This is Christ's ministry. We're
ambassadors for him. This is God's work, but he will
use the means that he has ordained to accomplish this work. Paul
said in 2 Corinthians 4, 7, we have this treasure in earthen
vessels. That's the way God does it. He
uses earthen vessels. He's going to send some fishermen
to do his fishing. And you may cast aside the vessel.
You may not care for the vessel. And the vessel certainly isn't
worth anything, but be careful lest you throw out the treasure
in casting out the vessel. If you despise God's means, then
you despise God's blessing. Malachi started his book this way, Malachi 1.1, The
Burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. It's the burden of his word by
us. And we carry a burden too. This
word is just what it sounds like. It involves lifting and carrying
and bearing and work and toil. And we must be diligent in this
work, steadfast and tireless in the work of the gospel. You say, well, I can't do much
career. You're talking about, you know,
let's all show up on work day. That's not really what this is
about. Is it? Of course we do that. Of course
the building has to be maintained and things like that, but this
is a spiritual work. I'm talking about it's hard to deny the flesh,
isn't it? Isn't that tough? That's hard
to do. And then don't be discouraged
in it if the Lord doesn't use you in some way that you might
think that he would. You might say, well, all I'm
able to do is give. All you're able to do is give?
When you're on your job, working at whatever you do, getting an
order, dealing with the public, cleaning out a chimney, putting
out a fire, helping somebody that's in need of something,
selling something, doing whatever you do for a living, and you
take part of that and you give it to this work, what did you
have to do to get that money? You were mending some nets. That's
what you were doing. You were doing the Lord's work.
You may not have realized it, but that's what you were doing.
You were cleaning the boat. You know, there's a lot of people
that love a good fish fry, but when it's time to clean the boat,
they don't have much stomach for that, or mend the net, or
fillet the fish, gut them, clean them. But the Lord will use his people.
He uses the means that he has ordained. And if you're a supporter
of this gospel, you're a fellow laborer in the work of the Lord. You support this work in whatever
way is necessary. What does it mean? How does the
work here translate into the work here? Whatever's got to
be done. They had a very simple didn't
they? They've got to get fish out of
that water and into this boat. And whatever the Lord has given
us in order to make that happen, that's what we do. He's given
us his gospel to preach. He's given us these hands and
these feet and some gifts. Some of us have some gifts that
are used in his ministry for his glory, whether you're singing
a song or cleaning or Preaching or teaching or whatever it is
that you do just being an encouragement to God's people supporting the
ministry with money Or with labor with your time with whatever
we working together doing whatever the Lord gives us to do To accomplish
his purpose in this world And bring glory to his name could
he worthy of it He's worthy of it. He said I'm gonna make you
fishers of men and they left their nets and they followed
him straight way How about you? Are you in or out? We got to be fishermen, ready
for the hard work. It's not work for the faint of
heart. Do you know how to fish? Do you know how to fish? Peter
said in 1 Peter 3 15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. That's where it starts right
there. If you love him, you'll work for him. You'll serve him,
you'll do what he gave you to do. And be ready always to give
an answer to every man that asketh you, a reason of the hope that
is in you with meekness and fear. Be ready, be ready, be ready. I've been fishing with some people
in the past that made it very clear early on that they hadn't
been fishing a whole lot heretofore. Have you ever been fishing with
somebody like that? They're constantly snagging something in the bow,
if not you. And they liked catching, but
they didn't like fishing much. If you fish for a little while
and didn't catch anything, they're ready to go home. Is that how
we are? 1 Corinthians 3, 6. This is the way God's ministry
works. Paul said, I've planted. Have you ever done that? Have
you ever plowed up some ground and planted seed? That's hard
work too. That's hard work. And if Paul is watered, that sounds easy. Have you done
it? Have you done the work necessary to get water to the seed? And God gave the increase. That's
God's way. We roll up our sleeves. We do
what he's given us to do, whatever it is. And it's hard. Like I
said, we're not talking about just the physical labor of maintaining
a building and working to support the men. We're not just talking
about that. Denying the flesh is hard. It's toil. But your labor is not in vain
in the Lord. Be of good cheer. And then secondly,
we have to hurry. But learn this, may God give
me grace to learn this. The means are worthless without
his blessing and power. We toil all night. It doesn't
matter how long you toil or how well you toil or how good a fisherman
you are, how experienced you are. When the Lord was ready
to give the increase, now think about this. He didn't dispense
with the means. When the Lord was ready, to give
them fish. And that's what happened. That's
what happened right there. The Lord just gave them some
fish. That's what he did. But when he decided to do that
in his good time, he didn't dispense with the means. He didn't say,
just quit this net casting business. That's not doing any good. No,
he said, cast the net one more time. Keep doing what you've been doing
all along, but do it one more time. So the means were employed. But what good were the means
until he was ready to bless them? They toiled all the night and
caught absolutely nothing. That's what good they are, until
he is ready to bless. That's why we pray, Lord, bless
us. Give increase. Get glory from
what happens here, because that's the increase. That's what it
boils down to, the glory of Christ. What will happen here without
the blessing of God upon us in this work? Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. There may
be a lot of casting of nets. We may trim the sails and swab
the deck and everything else that's involved in fishing, but
it will all be in vain without the blessing of God. Them catching nothing wasn't
for lack of energy on their part. They told it. It wasn't for a
lack of perseverance on their part, they told all the night. It wasn't for a lack of fish
in the sea. The fish were out there, weren't
they? For when the Lord came, there were many in the net. They
lacked one thing. And this is simple, isn't it?
And so we don't do things the way we think they ought to be
done. We do exactly what God has promised that he will bless,
because without his blessing, it's all in vain. People call themselves professional
soul winners and they may consider themselves, you know, experienced
fishermen. You're a piece of driftwood without
God, that's what we are. We'll be God's fishers of men,
by his grace only by obeying his explicit direction in the
work. He told him exactly where to
cast and when and how. The means were useless of themselves
and this ought to drive us to our knees before God. I don't
want to labor in vain, do you? The one who gives the increase,
we must cry to him and pray for and desire it and wait upon Him. Number three, it's the presence
and power of Christ that makes the difference. It's that simple.
If He's with us, and if it's His power, we don't have any power. We just
feel like we do. We think we do. We think we know.
But the action on the part of the disciples that brought in
the multitude of fish, it was the same action that had caught
nothing. The only difference, and the only difference necessary,
is the presence and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And his
power in this context is the gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel, because it's the power. It's the power of God. At thy If there's no his word, if there's
no gospel, there's no power and there'll be no results. Oh, but
look at the world. Look at the world's religion.
They're getting results. Their result is shame and dishonor
and disgrace and deception. What they consider results is
worse than failure. It's the murder of souls. We do what Christ has said to
do. We say what Christ has said to
say, and we wait on Him. God said to Moses in Exodus,
33 14 my presence shall go with thee
and I will give thee rest and he said unto him Moses said to
God if thy presence go not with me carry us not up hence We don't
want to go without him For wherein shall it be known here that I
and thy people have found grace in thy sight is it not in that
thou goest with His presence and power So shall we be separated, I and
thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also
that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight.
And I know thee by name. May the Lord go with us. If he
sent us now, if he truly sent us, and he said, I'll go, I'll
be with you. Go and preach, and lo, I'll be
with you unto the ends of the earth. Number four. Faith will
obey. The sinner who has faith in him
will obey the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith always does. It's the flesh
that disobeys and doubts and begins to reason in the flesh. But faith always obeys. What
good is one more cast of the net gonna do? You think Peter had any idea? that he was going to catch anything. But it was what Christ had said
to do. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will. Seems pretty hopeless sometimes,
doesn't it? Have you ever tried to tell somebody who hates the
Lord Jesus Christ who he is and what he did for
sinners? I've spoken with one of my brothers a few times just not any interest. But if the Lord says, let down
the net, if he gives opportunity, let down the net, it's hopeless. It's hopeless. Well, it is if
it's up to you. It is if it's depending upon
your power and ability. This community just doesn't seem
to care that the gospel is preached here. Nobody has any desire to
hear. The Lord said, go and preach. Isaiah said, who hath believed
our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? He
felt like nobody believed the gospel then. And there are times
when we feel the same way. Shall we quit or say, nevertheless,
at thy word? We've been fishing all night.
We ain't caught anything. Yeah, but that's you, Peter. That's
you. Number five. God will have the
glory in the work, and man will be abased. If this is God's work,
Christ is gonna be glorified, and you and me are gonna be in
the dust where we belong. Is that what happened here? In
Luke 5, 8, when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees,
saying, depart from me, For I am a sinful man, O Lord. Never are we more aware of our
own wretchedness and weakness and insufficiency than when we
labor the most for the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot be a fisher of men
and be a somebody. This church, this is the church
where everybody is somebody. Tear the thing down. It's not worth the space it's
taken up, because God's fishermen are a bunch of nobodies, and
he gets the glory. We'll be broken at the feet of
the master, like Peter was, and the more we labor, the more broken
we'll be. And the more we'll see and understand
the vanity of the flesh, and how the flesh profiteth absolutely
nothing. The more you're in on the work,
the more you'll know that, the more the Lord will make you to
know that, and the more you'll honor him and sink into the dust
where we belong. God has, and will continue if he's going
to, to work among us in such a way that me or you or anybody
else will be able to boast of any glory. And by His grace,
we like it that way, don't we? Anybody want some recognition,
want your name on a plaque somewhere? Not the Lord's fishermen, not
the Lord's sent ones. By His grace now, by His grace,
we've been forced all along the way, these going on nine years
now, to say, look what God has done. And so shall we continue
in his blessing, if we're to enjoy it. If we're nothing and
he's all, that's the way it'll be. Number six, notice the difference. And we won't turn back there.
You will remember what we read. The difference between the narrative
in Luke and that in John. In Luke, the language is general
regarding the work and the result. He said, launch out into the
deep and let down your nets for a drought. And when they had
done this, it says, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes.
General language, just let them down for a drought. And there
was a multitude of fishes. In John, the language is more
specific. They are told, cast the net on
the right side of the ship and you'll find. And Simon Peter
went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes. A hundred and fifty-three of
them. Not just a great multitude, a hundred and fifty-three. And these two different narratives
show the work from our point of view and from God's. We go into the deep and cast,
but we're just casting. We're casting
at a venture. You remember that fellow that
shot an arrow at a venture in the Old Testament? And that arrow,
he shot it at a venture, it says that, at a venture. But that
arrow went right in the one hole in the enemy's armor and went
into that hole and killed that enemy. He just shot it into the
air at a venture. It wasn't at a venture from God's
point of view. God had already made that little
hole in that armor to receive that arrow that that man shot
at a venture. For to us, we just can't, we're
casting that, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel
to who? Every creature. But we're casting exactly where
Christ has determined that we shall. And to us, those who come
are just a multitude. I know, I can't even count them.
And we're told by John in Revelation, there's a multitude which no
man can number. But God has had us catch the
exact number that we're supposed to catch. All that the Father
gave him in the eternal covenant of grace shall come to him. How much room was there in Noah's
Ark? Plenty. There was plenty of room wasn't
there? Plenty of room. There's no rounding up or down.
No generality, it's 153 fish. Why do we need to know that? Because the Lord sent us to fish.
And when he sends us, he makes us to know that we're not, this
isn't just a, this isn't a crapshoot. God has a people in this world
and he's gonna call every one of them to himself. This isn't
just a venture. We're not just doing our best
and God's doing his best and now it's up to men. This is God's
work we're doing. Does that help? It helps me. If I'm depending on people just
to wise up, you talk about hopeless, I would have quit a long time
ago. I never would have started. No. The Lord gives us the victory. Every time we cast, it's going
to accomplish exactly what the Lord caused us to cast in order
to accomplish. Every time. Every time. He always
causes us to triumph, Paul said. That helps me. That makes all
the difference to me. There shall be success. The pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. That's what we're doing. By His grace, what He's doing
with us. His word shall not return void.
Though we toil all night and catch nothing, there's this glorious
encouragement. We may cast a few nights all
night without catching anything, but listen to this. 1 Corinthians
15, 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast. We didn't catch anything last
night. Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord. For as much as you know, you
know your labor's not in vain. How do we know that? Because
it's Him doing it. It's the One who quickens whom
He will, who saves whom He will, who has chosen a people from
the foundation of the world and said, I'll lose nothing. I'll
raise it up again at the last day. And that's the work He's
sending us and led us in on, saving His people in this world.
We know it's not in vain, and so we keep casting. And then
finally, the Lord uses us in spite of us, doesn't he? That encourages me because I
still hadn't come up with one reason why he would use me. But I know he uses us in spite
of us, and so I'm just happy to be in on it. He'll never forsake
us because he loves us. Peter said, Lord, depart from
me. I am a sinful man. That's what the Lord ought to
have done. You know what he did do? He said,
Simon, fear not. From henceforth thou shalt catch
men. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ
for us. Peter says, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. Have you ever noticed in the
scriptures that both Peter and the Lord said this to each other
at different times? The Lord said to Peter, along
with the other disciples in John 6, 67, after many had walked away, the
Lord had preached of his sovereign mercy and power and love and
grace upon his chosen people. and of the inability of the sinner
to do anything apart from the sovereign mercy of the Father.
And everybody started leaving. And the Lord said to Peter and
the others, will you also go away? And Peter says, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And here in our
text, Peter says to the Lord, Go away. But the Lord's not going anywhere. Peter needs the Lord too badly
in order to leave the Lord. And the Lord loves Peter too
much to ever leave him. And so he bestows upon us the
greatest honor that any person in this world can have. He gives
us his work to do, his ministry in which to serve, sends us into
his fields to labor and goes with us every step of the way.
And I pray he's taught us something in these studies about the work
and the one who sent us and why he sent us. and how he sent us,
and what we're to do, and why, and how. And may he continue
to teach us, and give us a heart for the work, and leave us not
alone. And may his glory always, always, always be paramount in our hearts. His
glory. Let's bow in prayer.