Let's read together John chapter
1, verses 35 through 42. John chapter 1. We'll begin reading at verse
35. Again the next day after, John
stood, and two of his disciples, And looking upon Jesus, as he
walked, he saith, Behold, the Lamb of God. And the two disciples
heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and
saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi,
which is to say, being interpreted, Master, Master, where dwellest
thou? And he saith unto them, come
and see. That is, come, and you certainly
shall see. They came and saw where he dwelt,
and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother. first findeth his own brother
Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which
being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.
And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son
of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas,
which is by interpretation of stone. Now, in these few short
verses, We had the beginning of the New Testament church,
vast as this vine is today, growing in every part of the world and
growing every day with millions and millions of people. It began
with the calling of these three disciples. With these three disciples,
just a little over 2000 years ago, hearing the words of John
the Baptist, who proclaimed, behold, the Lamb of God. And
they heard the word and followed the Lord Jesus as his disciples. The first of these disciples
is Andrew and his brother Peter. And the third, in all likelihood,
was the Apostle John who writes this gospel narrative. We say
that because John always chose in his writings not to identify
himself by personal name. He never mentions his own name.
And so it is most likely that these first three disciples are
Andrew and John and Simon Peter. Now, today I'm going to be preaching
to you This title of my message, Peter's four calls. But actually,
that will be the last part of the message. Peter's four calls. I want to show you five things
distinctly set before us in these verses of scripture that are
set before us, I believe, by God, the Holy Spirit, to teach
us things that need to be taught continually in God's church. Number one. The Spirit of God
here shows us an example of faithful preaching. In verses 35, 36,
and 37, we see John the Baptist, and he says, Behold the Lamb
of God. Now, it appears that the first
time he did this, just a day earlier, he said, Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. Nothing
happened. No one heard it. I'm sure multitudes
heard him with the physical ear, but no one heard him. No one
paid any attention. God the Holy Spirit did not take
the message home to a single heart so far as we're told in
Scripture. What does John do? I've been
sent now to proclaim the Lamb of God. I've been sent as Elijah
to make way the path of the Lord to clear up the highway and I've
declared behold the Lamb of God and no one's paying attention.
I must have misunderstood. Surely the Lord intended for
me to do something else. Surely there is something better
to say. Surely something more needs to
be done. Perhaps rather than preaching like an old prophet
in this Outfit that identifies me as one of those old prophets
rather than using the straightforward plain language of a prophet I
should put on a smoother attire and a smoother voice and sit
down and discuss things with people. Offer my opinion along
with the opinions of others and we can come to some reasonable
understanding about things. After all, preaching has become
out of date these days. This is the day of great Greek
tragedies and plays. Perhaps we should instead of
preaching, me declaring to men, behold the Lamb of God, just
discuss things and maybe have some entertainment. If you were
in our day, maybe what I need to do is Get me one of those
opaque projectors and put things, draw pictures, and put my notes
out so folks wouldn't pay attention to me preaching. They'd be entertained
with me drawing and looking at things. And we could have a more
educated, educated service for educated, intellectual people.
After all, educated people aren't going to listen to a man standing
before them and preaching like some old prophet. What did John
do? Nothing of the kind. The next
day, he saw Jesus walking by, and you know what he preached?
You know what he preached? Exactly the same message he preached
the day before. Said exactly the same thing.
Didn't change a thing. He said, behold, the Lamb of
God. And when he did, Andrew and John
just took off. just took off following the Lord
Jesus. They left that man who had been
their teacher, their master, their instructor, their trainer,
that man who had been the prophet of God to them and followed the
Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God,
was the message John prepared and John preached. And by preaching
that message, prepared the way of the Lord. He is the lamb portrayed
in the scriptures and typified in the scriptures, prophesied
in the scriptures, the lamb without blemish and without spot, who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world and
in due time died in the room instead of his people. God's
servants are like John. And this needs to be heard in
this day. God's servants never adjust or
alter their message for any reason. Mark it down. Somebody ought
to hear this. God's servants never adjust or
alter their message for any reason. Well, this is not working. If
this doesn't work, nothing will. Well, people aren't coming to
hear the word if they don't come to hear this word. Any other
word they come to hear is only damning to their souls. God's
servants never adjust or alter their message for any reason. It doesn't matter who the congregation
is, where the congregation is, how well informed or how ignorant
the congregation may be. It doesn't matter their age or
their circumstance. It doesn't matter whether they
hear or refuse to hear. God's servants never alter or
adjust their message for any reason. Find me a man who does
and I'll show you a man who serves somebody other than God. Find me a man who alters his
message And I'll show you a man who serves himself, his own lust,
and not the Redeemer. Our message, like John's, is
behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Now, these things are recorded
in Scripture to show us by example how it is that we are to serve
the souls of men. It is by the preaching of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. by the preaching of the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the preaching of Christ in all
his redemptive glory as our saving substitute. It is by the preaching
of Christ that sinners are converted. It is by the preaching of Christ
that God's saints are edified and comforted. It is by the preaching
of Christ God's people are directed in their paths as they walk through
this world and nothing else. Turn to a couple of passages
of scripture with me. Hold your hands here in John chapter one
and look at first Corinthians chapter one. It is by gospel preaching that
God calls out his elect by the preaching of the cross that eternity
bound men and women are snatched from the clutches of Satan as
brands from the burning. First Corinthians one verse 18.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. I know it is. I know it is. I'm
not the brightest bulb in the room, but I'm smart enough to
know that. The preaching of the cross is to almost everybody
a bunch of nonsense. It's foolishness. It's foolishness. Anybody who does any kind of
religious survey, who happened to come in here this morning
listening to me preach, they walk out, and if they wrote anything,
they say, well, that's foolishness. That's foolishness. Nobody pays
any attention to that. He's so out of date that you
can hardly even think about considering him in the survey. The preaching
of the cross is to perishing, lost, damned men and women who
have no knowledge of the living God. Just foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it's something else. It's the power of God. For God
has written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Chapter 2. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. What is Paul saying? He came
to these Corinthians. The church at Corinth was made
up of the most well-educated people of the day. Corinth was
a huge trade city. It had all the advantages of
any modern city in the Gentile world. And Paul comes to the
Corinthians and he said, Now, when I came to you, I deliberately
did not use the language of a lawyer trained at the feet of Gamaliel,
but rather I used the language of a plow boy. How come? For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
Frankly, I don't think Paul is talking at all about physical
weakness. He's talking about spiritual weakness, weakness
as a man before God, weakness as a preacher. I came to you
as one fully aware. that I couldn't accomplish anything
for you. I couldn't do anything for you.
And fear, fear lest I misrepresent God to your eternal bound souls
and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom. I didn't make
any effort to persuade you with logic or oratorical ability and
skill or rhetoric to do something you didn't want to do. I made
no effort to get you talked into a religious profession. I made
no effort to get you to be followers of Paul the Apostle. But rather,
my preaching was the simple declaration of God's truth in demonstration
of the spirit of God and the power. Merle Hart, that's preaching
and nothing else is. Nothing else is. I don't care
how true it is. I don't care how well backed
up it is with the creeds and confessions of history. That's
preaching. Everything else is just spinning
your wheels in the sand. How come that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of a man, but in the power of God. If you believe something because
Don Fortner taught it to you, Don Smith will come down by tomorrow
and he'll teach you better and teach you something else. But
if you believe God, if you trust Jesus Christ, because God the
Holy Spirit has sealed the gospel of his grace in your heart with
the finger of infinite mercy. Nobody's going to talk you out
of it. I'll write back here in our text. The preaching of the gospel,
Paul tells us, is the power of God to salvation. Nothing else. Preaching is exalting Christ,
not the church. Preaching is proclaiming the
Savior, not the sacraments. Preaching is telling folks about
Christ, not creeds of the church. Preaching is proclaiming the
truth, not sharing an idea. So sick of hearing folks stand
where I'm standing now. Well, I want to share with you.
I've got something to tell you, Bob Dove. I've got something
to tell you that you must hear. Preaching, not giving out a lesson,
it's delivering a message. And it is by this means, the
foolishness of preaching, that God saves his elect. Let the world laugh and mock. Let us be left behind in the
opinions of men in the religious world. We will not lay aside
this mighty weapon of our warfare. It is like the ram's horns that
Joshua gave to the children of Israel as they marched around
Jericho. And when Joshua gave the command, they gave a blast
on the ram's horn. And you know what happened? The
walls of Jericho disintegrated at the blast of a ram's horn.
Why, who would ever have dreamed such a thing? Who would ever
have thought of such a thing? That just, nobody could have
dreamed of something like that. Right, that doesn't give any
credit to anybody. Well, those men sure must have
knew how to play the ram's horn. You can't make a ram's horn sound
good. It just can't be done. What'd they do? They just put
them up and blew them. And we simply proclaim the gospel of
God's free grace, blowing the gospel trumpet. And to those
who hear it is a joyful sound, and the gates of hell desegregate
before it. Let every preacher of the gospel
patiently continue his labor preaching Christ. God declares
my word shall not return unto me void. It shall accomplish
that which I please. It shall prosper in the thing
where to I have sent it. Did you hear me? Grace Baptist
Church, Denver, Kentucky. Send out the word. Just publish
the word. By everything you have, by every
means God gives, by every opportunity, just publish the gospel and it
shall not return void. It shall accomplish exactly what
God has pleased and it shall prosper everywhere he sends it. All right, second. We see in
the conduct of these two disciples, Andrew and John, a picture of
true Christianity. We're told that these two men
followed Jesus. What is Christianity? Following
the Savior. These are they which follow the
Lamb whithersoever he goeth. They followed the Savior and
the Lord Jesus graciously received them and made himself known to
them as they followed him. This was the most memorable,
most blessed day of their lives. These two men today took up the
cross and followed the Savior and they followed him until the
end of their days. They followed him through temptation
and trial. They followed him amongst his
enemies and amongst his friends. They followed him day after day
after day. They followed him and one of
them certainly became an apostle. If the other was John as I think,
he too became an apostle. This shows us what Christianity
is. It's following Christ. Believers
are men and women who follow the Savior's doctrine. Doesn't matter what the opinions
of men are. It doesn't matter how men revise
and restate things. Believers, Christians, not folks
who wear the name Christian, Christians. Not folks who wear
the name believers, believers. Saved sinners. are men and women
who adhere tenaciously to that which the Son of God taught and
that which he continues to teach in his word by his servants.
They follow his example. We have lots of folks who try
to tell us that we ought to live under the law. We ought to keep
the law, keep the law, keep the law, keep the law. And I have
observed as I can with my limited abilities, that those who are
forever saying we're still under the law, and they say by that
we're under the commandments, we're to keep the Mosaic law,
keep the Sabbath and all that stuff, they have a convenient
way of interjecting their own laws. You ever notice that? Oh,
you folks are, you're licentious because I saw you having a glass
of wine with your steak the other night at the restaurant. Where
does God say you can't do that? And a preacher, you ought not
say things like that from the pulpit in public. People might misunderstand. Or they might understand. It just matters. Where does God say you can't
do that? What do you, you, you, you folks don't, y'all not living
right down there. I saw some of your folks out
playing ball and kids had on some shorts. Where does God say
you can't wear shorts? Where does God say, oh now brother
Don, you don't say things like that from the pulpit. People
just won't understand. They just might. Every child of God lives as the
child of God and the servant of God, not yours and not mine. And they follow the master. They
follow his example. And somehow, following Christ,
following his example, as it is set forth in this book, is
just totally, I'm talking totally different from following any
religious creed, custom, church dogma, or what have you. It's
always got something to do with loving each other, forgiving
each other, and serving each other. Read this book. Our Lord Jesus in John 13 We're
told having loved his own, he loved them to the end. And then
he gives us an example. Oscar, he took a towel and a
bowl of water and girded himself and knelt down and washed their
dirty feet. He washed their dirty feet. He
didn't establish foot washing as an ordinance in the church.
No. He did something heaps more than
that. He said, I've given you an example. You go do to each
other what I've done to you. Well, what was needed by Peter
at just that time? They'd been walking on a hot
dirt path road. You ever walk on a hot dirt road? I was born down in Southeastern
North Carolina, fixing to go back down there. It was 110 degrees down there
yesterday. And I'm telling you, that sand
is scalding. It's scalding. You get it in
your sandals, and it's grating on your feet. Don't care how
tough your feet are. Oh, how good it feels. to stick
them in some cool water. And even better, somebody else
does the washing. What did the Lord do for those
disciples? He did what was most needful, at the time, and most
refreshing, purely for them. They said, you go do the same
thing to each other. Go serve your brethren. Be kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. So that rather than being
sharp and severe and judgmental, be kind and gracious and merciful. And the next time you have a
thought, man, sorry, David Peterson, I wish, oh man, that's my brother. God loves him. Christ redeemed
him. I'm happy to have him with all
his faults. You understand me? Be kind one
to another. All right, here's the third thing. These two disciples, as they
were received and taught by the master, we read in verse 38,
Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them, what seek
ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi,
which is to say being interpreted master. Master, where dwellest
thou? What a strange response. What
seek ye? Master, we'd like to know where
you live. We'd like to know where we can
always find you. We'd like to know what neighborhood
you dwell in. We'd like to know how to get
to your house." And the master said, come. You keep following me and you
will see where I dwell. Come and you shall see. It wasn't just come and maybe
you'll see. The language is very strong.
Come, and you shall see. Is this the quest of your soul? Is it the quest of my soul? Do
you cry like Job of old, O that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his seat? Turn to Isaiah 57. Let me show you where his dwelling
place is. Let me show you where you can find
him. all the time. Let me show you where you can
find him, all the time. Verse 15, Thus saith the High
and Lofty One, that, what's the word? Inhabiteth eternity. Where do you find him? You find
him, Brother Roundtree, outside of time, outside of pressure,
outside of limits. He inhabits eternity. He who is God my Savior dwells
in the leisure of his sovereign being in eternity. He's never constrained. He's
never pressed. He's never pressured. He's never
moved by anything outside eternity. He inhabits eternity. Read on. His name is holy. And he says,
I dwell in the high and holy place. Where do you find him? You find him seated on his throne. Isaiah saw him high and lifted
up, saw him seated on the throne of grace, on the mercy seat.
He is that one who is described by John as standing in the midst
of the throne as a lamb, having been slain. He is seated on the
throne in the high and holy place. Read on. I dwell in the high and holy
place with him also. that is of a contrite and humble
spirit to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart
of the contrite ones. Oh, I beg you, Lord Jesus, make me such a soul and come dwell in me. Give me this mercy. By whatever means necessary,
bow my heart before you in contrition and in genuine humility and do
as you promised. You promised I and my father
will come and dwell with you. I will give you my spirit to
abide with you. He shall be in you and I will
be with you. The Lord's dwelling place is
in His people. And the Lord's dwelling place
is right here. In our meeting place, He promises,
where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am
I in the midst of them. He was sitting right there beside
me this morning. Brother Lindsey got to the point
he did about, uh, if it had not been for the Lord then, and he
nudged me, he said, listen to this now. Listen to this now. I've, I've seen him this morning
and I've heard his voice this morning. and I fully expect to
see him and hear his voice again tonight, Tuesday night. Wouldn't miss it for the world.
All right, back to our text. Verse 40. As soon as Andrew found the Lord
Jesus, he became the faithful witness of Christ. and went out and found his brother,
Simon, and brought him to the Savior. He first findeth his
own brother, Simon. And he said to him, said, we
have found the Christ. We've found the Messiah. Oh,
Andrew must have been an Arminian. Don't be afraid of what Andrew
said. We don't use language like that around here. It's all right.
It's all right. It's alright. I sought the Lord
and afterward I knew. He moved my soul to seek Him
seeking me. It was not I that found no Savior
true. No, I was found of thee. But
we found Him. We found Him. We found Him because
we sought Him with the whole heart. He said you shall seek
me and you shall find me when you search for me with all your
heart. Andrew heard John say, behold,
the Lamb of God. And he said, I'm going to follow
him. And following him, he found him. And as soon as the Lord
Jesus received him and made himself known to him, Andrew went and
found his brother Simon. He said, you know, we've been
talking all our lives and we heard daddy mama talk all our
lives about the Messiah. the Christ, that one of whom
Moses and the prophets spoke. You know, you remember the woman
seed spoken about back there in Genesis. Abraham's seed, David's
son and David's Lord. We found him. Here he is. Oh, that's witnessing. That's witnessing. Some people
have the idea that a good witness is setting folks down and arguing
with them about election. You can argue with them about
election until you both go to hell. That ain't witnessing. That ain't
witnessing. Witnessing is doing what our
Lord told that Gadarene to do. You go home and tell your brothers
and your sisters and your mother and your daddy and your neighbors
and your friends what great things God's done for you. We found the Messiah. We found
the Christ. We found the Redeemer. He's here. Oh, God make us faithful witnesses.
Every child of God ought to be like Andrew. Anxious to tell
others the good news of God's saving grace. Anxious for others
to meet the Master. anxious to bring others to the
Savior. I can just picture Andrew. He runs over and he grabs Peter
by the arm. And before he ever says anything, he just kind of
starts dragging him. He said, come on, come on, I'll show you
something. And he takes him to the master. And Peter looked at him and said,
what are you doing? What's come over you? Where are we going?
We found him. Found who? We found him of whom
the prophet spoke. We found the Messiah. And before
Peter knew what was going on, he's standing right in front
of him. That's witnessing. Back years
ago, my dear brother and friend, brother Paul Thacker of Pikeville,
Kentucky. Many of you know it. He's with
the Lord now. He, uh, got to listen to brother
Mahan on television and called him up. And he said, uh, he said,
if I build a church building, would you come up here and preach
or have somebody come up here and preach to us? And Henry said,
well, sure I will. He was expecting to go and find
some storefront renovated, maybe some benches on blocks or something
up on the side of a mountain. And Paul called him up. He said,
the building's ready. And man, he built that church building
where Brother Tom Harding is pastor now. Handed him the keys,
said, if God sent us a pastor, he said, here it is. He's handing
him keys. And I went over to preach for
them one Sunday. This had been a long time ago. There probably
were 15, 20 people normally were attending. But I walked out that
morning to preach. And that building was full. I mean full. It's full. And it's a bigger building than
this one. It's full. I don't know whether Paul paid them to
come. or threatened him to get him to come. I don't have got
him there. Everybody who worked for that man, I mean, everybody,
was sitting there in that building that morning. Every son and daughter
and daughter-in-law and son-in-law sitting there that morning. Every
one of them. All of them. Everybody. I never did ask him. I may ask
his wife, Sue. She probably doesn't know. But
somehow or another, he said, I'm going to do what I can. make
sure folks who are influenced by me, one time, hear the gospel
of God's free grace. And he brought them to hear the
message. God make us such witnesses. Don't know much that Andrew did
after that, do you? What'd he do, Larry? What'd he
write? Who else ever heard him? I don't
have any question he told lots of folks. We found the Messiah!
We found him! And I don't have any doubt somebody
else must have heard him surely. But maybe not. Maybe just his
brother Simon. Oh, but look what God did with
Simon. Lord God, Make me an Andrew in
your kingdom. Make me a brother like that.
Make me your witness. Now, very briefly, I want you
to see that this man, Peter, experienced four distinct gracious
calls from the master. First, we have it here in John
1. He was called by the Spirit of God through his brother Andrew
to be Christ's disciple. That's the beginning of grace
in his soul's experience. The Lord Jesus begins by teaching
us our need of him, showing us our sin, and revealing
himself to us as the Lamb of God who takes away our sin. Second, Matthew chapter 4. Brother
Darwin and I were discussing this yesterday afternoon. He
and Kathy came by for a little bit. The Lord's in Capernaum. And he called Peter and his brother Andrew. Well,
wait a minute. They're already called. Yeah,
but they're out here in, I said Capernaum, he's in Zebulun. In
the area of Zebulun, these heathen. Here are these two brothers who
are already the Lord's disciples. What are they doing? They're
out on the sea fishing. That was their business. That's
what you would expect them to be doing. They were fishermen. Verse 17. From that time, Jesus
began to preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren,
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 straightway they
left their nets and followed him. They were believers already. They were true disciples before
they were called to be preachers. But now the Lord calls these
two brothers along with the sons of Zebedee to entirely abandon
all earthly pursuits for the cause of Christ. To devote themselves
to him entirely as preachers of the gospel. evangelist they were industrious laboring
men serving as fishermen when he called them to be fishers
of men they were true believers serving
the Lord over here in the area, region of Zebulun, among all
these godless, reprobate people, as fishermen. They'd been out
there on the Sea of Galilee fishing. And the Lord found them industriously
serving this world, serving Him, and called them to forsake the
service of the world for the service of Him. And he said,
I'll make you fishers of men. Now listen carefully, listen
carefully. Every man called of God to serve
as a preacher, pastor, missionary in his kingdom is called of God
utterly to abandon the care of himself. and he's got to do it. He's got to do it. He's got to
do it. God uses men. We have men here
who are gifted teachers and preachers within a congregation. But if
God Almighty puts a man in the position of being a pastor, a
missionary, called to this labor, He must abandon the service of
his own needs in the cause of Christ. And he's got to do it
every day. And I say to any man, and I have
lots of them. I have brethren all over the
world. I hope they hear this message and hear me well. I say
to any man, quit doing whatever it is you're doing. to provide
for yourself and provide food for God's people. You can't do
both. Well, how on earth are we going
to take care of our family? They're not mine to take care
of. They're God's to take care of.
Either he'll take care of you or I'm not his servant. One of
the two. One of the two. and I've got
no business pretending. They were called to be fishers
of men. Interesting. Fishermen are men
who have to be familiar with the water where fish live. And I expect Peter and Andrew
and James and John knew every nook and cranny of the Sea of
Galilee. Fishermen have to do a lot of
waiting. They've got to do a lot of waiting.
I'm not much of a fisherman, but the divers are fishermen,
the last fishermen. They'll go out and fish all day
long, and if they don't happen to get anything, that's all right,
we've been fishing. But if the fish aren't jumping on my hook,
take me home. Fishermen have to do a lot of waiting. Fishermen often put themselves
in hazardous situations just to catch fish. Is that right? I was out fishing with Doug one
day, and we was all tangled up in this new lake, all those pieces
of wood and sticks sticking up, and he's out on the bow of that
little boat of mine, Rocking back and forth, me and Will in
there. Because the line got tangled up, catching a little old crappie
about that long. He's a fisherman. He's a fisherman. Me, I'd have thrown the rod in
and got out of there. But he's a fisherman. God's servants
deliberately put themselves at hazard for the souls of men. for the glory of Christ. Fishermen
have to be persevering. They just got to stay with it.
Dogged determination. Just got to stay with it. Third,
we won't look at it now, but Peter was called then to be an
apostle in Mark chapter 3. Verse 13 through 16, the Lord
called his disciples called to him whom he would, named them
his apostles. Some men God sets apart for very
special purposes, for works for which he alone can equip them
and preserve them and keep them. Such men the apostles were, and
they stand at the forefront of the battle in the warfare with
the prince of darkness. And standing at the forefront
of the battle in this warfare, they take all the full brunt
of Satan's head-on assaults all the time. In every generation,
God raises up a few such men. In this assembly, we've had the
privilege of knowing a couple. In our generation, Brother Henry
Mahan, Brother Scott Richardson, been remarkable, gifted men,
men of tremendous influence. God raise up others as he does,
they too will be assaulted relentlessly. And sometimes, like this man
Peter, they fail and fall miserably. You remember Peter denied the
Lord Jesus, and denied him again, and denied
him again. And he thought it was all over,
but he got a fourth call. The Lord Jesus met him like he
said he would on the Sea of Tiberias, and he called him to himself.
He said to his disciples, come and dine. And he fed them with
the meal he had prepared for them. And he pulled Peter aside. And he said to Peter, lovest
thou me? Lovest thou me? And the third
time, he used the strongest word imaginable. And he said to Peter,
Peter, Now let's get down to where the rubber hits the road.
You need to know something. Do you really love me? And Peter
said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. And he was never the same man
again. Oh, blessed is that man. and that woman. Blessed are those
people whom the Lord, having called, will not leave to themselves, but will raise them up, though
they fall seven times in a day, and keep them as the apple of
his eye. Amen.