In the 5th chapter of Luke, the
Holy Spirit gives us a little more detailed description of
the call of our Lord's first three disciples, Peter, James,
and John, than we've had thus far in the scriptures. The Lord
Jesus here calls these men to be his servants. without question, they had been
themselves made to experience his grace prior to this, but
here he calls them distinctly to be his servants. As we read
these first 11 verses together, I want you to just hold your
Bibles open on your laps, and I trust that you will seek from
God as I have and do, that he who inspired these words will
be our teacher. Now it's obvious that these 11
verses are intended to show us something of what is involved
in believing and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing
and obeying. The two things always go hand
in hand. We must, as we have just sung,
both trust and obey the Son of God. Now listen carefully, please
listen carefully. Obedience to Christ does not
in any way make us more acceptable to God. Obedience in Christ does
not justify or sanctify any child of God. But where there is no
obedience to Christ, there is no faith in Christ. The two things
always go hand in hand. Pay no attention, pay absolutely
no attention to anyone who says to you, your character and your
conduct don't matter. Your character and your conduct
will reflect who and what you are. Your character and your
conduct will tell who and what you are. Now, as we look at these
11 verses, I want to give you six or seven very simple statements,
and I trust that God the Holy Spirit will speak through these
lips of clay to your hearts. Number one, those who seek to
hear the word of God shall be taught of God. Look at the first
verse. And it came to pass that as the
people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, He stood by
the lake Gennesaret, or the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias,
this is just another name for the Sea of Galilee, and saw two
ships standing in the lake. But the fishermen were gone out
of them. They were done fishing and were washing their nets.
Verse 3, 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. Then he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now
here is a multitude of men, men and women bound for eternity,
men and women who have heard the Master speak, and now there
is a crowd pressing him, pressing him. He's pushed and in a constrained
position so that it was very difficult to even move about.
They pressed upon him. But they pressed upon him for
a most delightful reason. They pressed, pressed, pressed
upon him because they wanted to hear the word of God. Oh, my soul, what a blessed press. They knew something about the
matter of what he was speaking and who he was, and they sought
to hear the word of God. Like Mary, they chose that good
thing which was needful. They sat at his feet to hear
his word. What Peter saw here, if you'll
turn over to Acts chapter 10, what Peter saw here, he later
experienced himself in Caesarea. When he came to the house of
Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 and verse 33, You remember Cornelius,
this devout man, was given a vision and the angel of God told him
to go send three men to Joppa to fetch Peter to come preach
to him. And so Cornelius sent for Peter and he gathered all
of his house together. And when Peter came on the scene,
look at what Cornelius says, verse 33. Immediately therefore
I sent to thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come.
Now therefore are we all here. present before God to hear all
things that are commanded thee of God. Somehow I got a hunch when folks
gather to hear God, they're going to hear God. When folks come
to hear God speak, God speaks. Why have you come here? Have
you come here tonight to hear the word of God? Are you here
present before God to hear what the Lord God has sent me to declare
to you? If you've come here seeking bread,
this I know, your Heavenly Father will never give you a stone.
If you've come here to be fed, you'll not go away hungry. If
you've come here to be taught, you'll not go away here ignorant.
If you've come here seeking comfort, you'll not go away from here
without comfort. If you come here looking for
Christ, I'm just dead certain you're going to find him. If
you come here needing grace, I'm dead certain you're going
to go away from here with grace. Hear now what God himself says.
You say, Pastor, how on earth can you be so confident about
this? How can you say if a man seeks, the Lord is going to find
him? If a man wants to hear from God, he's going to hear from
God. If a man wants God's grace, he's going to have God's grace
because God said so. God said so. Turn to Isaiah 45. Let me show you. Isaiah chapter
45. Here the Lord God is declaring
plainly His glorious, great sovereignty. And this is what He says. Isaiah
45 and verse 19. You can skip that if you want
to. Just a few verses. The Lord says, Look unto me and be ye
saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God. Beside me there
is none else. But here in verse 19, here's the motive for it.
God says, I have not spoken in secret in the dark place of the
earth. I haven't spoken in secret. This
message that I declare to you, this gospel I preach to you,
it's not some secret, mysterious, deep thing. It's not hidden in
code in the Bible. I've not spoken to you in secret.
I said not. Did you say that word? N-O-T. I said not to the seed of Jacob. Seek ye me in vain? God never
calls sinners to seek him in vain. He said, when you seek
for me with all your heart, you'll find me. I, the Lord, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
God doesn't mock sinners in the preaching of the gospel. God
doesn't mock sinners in calling them to repentance and faith.
If you come seeking him, you'll find him. Why haven't I found
him? You haven't been seeking him.
It's just that simple. It's just that simple. Why don't
I hear from him? That's not what you wanted. Why doesn't he give
me comfort? That's not what you seek, not
gospel comfort. If you seek him, you'll find
him. If you call on him, he'll come to you. If you believe him,
he'll save you by his grace. That's what he says. All right,
secondly, look in verse four. When he had left speaking, He
said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets
for a draft. Now what on earth is he talking
about here? This is it. Our great glorious Lord God condescends
in infinite goodness to use frail human instruments like us to
perform his greatest works. Did you hear me? God graciously
condescends in performing his greatest works in the world to
use frail, insignificant, useless, worthless human instruments for
the glory of his name. Our Lord is here about to cause
a great draft of fishes to be caught. So great is the draft
of fishes that these seasoned fishermen are astonished when
they catch them. I mean, these fellows never saw
anything like it. And they bring up the nets and
the nets begin to tear as they bring them into the ships. And
the ships are so full with fish that they begin to sink. Now
this is not a hyperbole. This is not an exaggerated statement.
These fish were literally pressing down the boats and the fishermen
were fearful of not getting them back to shore. What a miracle! What a miracle! But the Lord
said, Peter, You launch out in the deep and cast your net. Now
the catching of the draft was miraculous, but the fishermen
were just fishermen. The boats were just boats and
the nets were just nets. But here's the secret. They were
fishermen and boats and nets in God's hands. That made the difference. God
was pleased to use these fishermen, these boats, and these nets. Let me see if I can give you
a couple more illustrations that will kind of confirm this to
you. Probably, without question, the greatest, most miraculous
work God performed in all the Old Testament, recorded in Scripture,
is Israel coming out of Egypt, crossing the Red Sea. The Lord
God sent a mighty wind and caused the sea to congeal and stand
as a solid brick wall at his command. And the bottom of the
sea was dried up so that the people came across that thing,
walked through the Red Sea without any mud on their feet, dry shod,
a whole lot of mud. And when they had gone to the
other side, God dropped the wall. and drowned Pharaoh and his army
in the Red Sea. What a wondrous work. But I'm
going to tell you something. The sea did not even begin to
part until Moses stepped forward and put his rod in the edge of
the sea. There was no power in Moses,
no power in his rod, but God said for him to put his rod in
the sea and the sea would part. The Lord Jesus came to Mary and
Martha, came with them to the tomb of Lazarus. And Lazarus
has been in the tomb for four days. He's been dead for four
days. And the Son of God is about to
raise Lazarus from the dead by the mere power of his word. And
he first says to the folks standing by, take you away the stone.
Well, now wait a minute. If he can raise Lazarus from
the dead by just saying, Lazarus come forth, moving the stone
wouldn't be any trouble for him. That would not be a problem.
But those standing by are capable of taking away the stone, and
what they're capable of doing by his direction, they must do. Do you understand what I'm saying?
What you and I as God's people in this world are capable of
doing, it is our blessed privilege and responsibility to do, and
God makes it useful for his people and his glory. When our Lord
was about to feed 5,000 men, 5,000 men were specifically told.
That doesn't include women and children. Somewhere upwards of
15 or 20,000 people. Somewhere upwards of 15 or 20,000
people. With, what was it, five loaves
and two fish. And I'm not talking about these
big loaves you get out of these cookers now. I'm talking about
five little pieces of bread and a couple of sardines. He's going
to feed 20,000 people with them? How? His disciples are going
to keep walking by him. and picking up a tray and passing
it out. What am I going to feed them
with? Well, there's one boy here, he's got his lunch. Oh, my soul,
what I wouldn't give to have that lunch and be that boy. Five
loaves and two fish in God's hand, feeding 20,000 people. So too, in the salvation of chosen
redeemed sinners, The Lord God condescends to work by means
of human instruments. It is written it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The
instruments God uses in themselves are utterly useless. They're
totally insufficient for their work and they everyone acknowledge
it frankly. Master, we've toiled all night. And we've taken nothing. Why
did he put that in there? Why does the Holy Spirit tell
us Peter said that? Why was it that this the case
that they toiling all night hadn't caught a single fish? Was it
because there were no fish in the sea? No. Were these men unskillful
in their work? No. These fellows were seasoned
fishermen, seasoned master seamen. Were they lacking in diligence?
No, they had toiled all night. Why then had they caught nothing?
Because we must ever be reminded that the instruments God uses
are in themselves totally useless. Our Savior said, without me you
can do nothing. That means Don Fortner can do
nothing. for the good of men's souls,
nothing for the glory of God, nothing for the furtherance of
God's kingdom, nothing for the good of eternally bound men and
women, nothing. That means Grace Baptist Church,
all of us combined, no matter how much we give, no matter how
much we work, no matter how diligent we are, no matter how zealous
we are, we can do nothing without Him, nothing. I got a hose hanging
up on a reel over there. And that hose is totally useless
hanging down that reel. It's totally useless. You can't
even use it to whip off a mad dog. It's totally useless until
I decide to do something with it. You understand what I'm saying?
You and I are totally useless for good to men's souls and God's
glory and the cause of Christ until God Almighty takes us in
His hands. The Apostle Paul said, who's
sufficient for these things? No man. No man. God commends
this preacher, speak comfortably, speak to the heart of Jerusalem.
I can't speak to your heart. I can't do it. I can't do it. But I've got to do it. How on
earth can I do it? With him, I can do anything. With him, all things are possible.
I can even speak to your heart. even speak to your heart with
him we can even catch fishes described fishes as the souls
of men when the son of God is at the helm of the boat by some
mysterious power hordes of fish are drawn into the net not only
that but the Lord usually performs his work in the most unlikely
places. He chooses the most unlikely
people as the objects of his grace. And he chooses the most
unlikely people as the instruments by which and with which he will
work. And he usually does his work where we least expect it.
Now, I'm not a fisherman. Some of you fellows are keen
fishermen, but I'm told, I'm told that if you want to catch
fish in a lake You don't generally fish in the deepest part of the
lake. If you want to catch fish, you don't launch out into the
deep. You might catch a few, but you're not going to do much
good fishing out in the depth of the lake. But our Lord says
to these disciples, says to Peter, launch out into the deep and
let down your net. He commanded Peter to do so because
he would demonstrate that nothing with regard to his purpose, his
will, and his work depends on anything you can say. Nothing.
God's work does not in any way depend on our circumstances.
He controls the circumstances. Can you get a hold of that? All
right, here's the third thing. Faith obeys Christ. It just does. Let men say what
they will. God says faith without works
is dead, and it is. You can attempt, if you dare,
to justify your disobedience, but faith is obedient to the
will and word of God. Believers are not rebels. Believers are willing servants. Look at verse five. Simon Peter,
answering, said, Master, that's the way we approach him, isn't
it? Master. Master. I've been a rebel all my life.
I don't say that boastfully. I don't even say it laughingly.
It's just fact. I've been a rebel against authority
all my life. But the Lord God has done something
inside me that makes me happy to call him my master. and long
for him, like you say a little bit ago, to mold me like the
potter molds the clay, after his will. Master, we have toiled
all night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I'll
drop down the debt. You said do it. Doesn't make
any sense to me. It's contrary to my reason. It
doesn't look to me like a reasonable thing to go out into the depth.
We don't catch fish out there. It's contrary to my experience.
I've been laboring all night. There haven't been any fish biting.
And it's contrary to the circumstances around us. But you said do it. I'll do it. And he launched out
into the deep. Obedience to the word of God,
obedience to the will of God, requires immediate, unquestioning,
selfless, self-denying compliance. Some preacher had come to him,
talking to him, and asked him, said, do you think I'm called
to preach? He said, if you gotta ask me, you're not. You confer with
flesh and blood? Confer with flesh and blood?
When the master speaks, believers obey. Just obey. Whatsoever he
saith unto you, do it. Speak, Lord, Samuel said, for
thy servant heareth thee. Immediately, Paul said, I conferred
not with flesh and blood. If you'll honor God, you've got
to simply obey Him. If you would walk with Christ,
you must obey Him. If you would enjoy the peace
of God, you must obey Him. You must obey Him. You just must. We're His children, and children
until they keep defying their conscience, until
they keep defying their conscience, are terribly disturbed when they
secretly disobey mom or dad, terribly disturbed, not at peace,
not at peace. And you and I can't walk in peace
before God, If we refuse to obey, it can't be done. So what we
sang a little bit ago must be so. Trust and obey, for there's
no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Fourthly, look at verses six
through nine and learn this. When sinners are made to see
the goodness and grace power and glory of God in Christ. They're
overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with a sense of their
own unworthiness to stand before his presence. And when they had
done this, verse 6, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and
their nets broke. That is, the nets began to 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 ships, so that they began to sink. 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 draft of fishes which they had taken. Now there may be some things
involved in Peter's prayer here which are not commendable. I
read several commentaries this week looking at this, several
sermons, and almost everybody jumped on Peter. You know, he's
kind of like us. He goofed up so much everybody
expected him to goof up all the time. But I don't think this
was at all a thing to be reproved. Our Lord did not reprove Peter
for this prayer. This was not something for which
Peter was to be corrected, but rather it is a commendable thing.
What Peter here expresses in his prayer is exactly what sinners
feel when they are conferred with the glory of God. Adam was hiding in the garden,
and God came and said, Adam, where are you? And he hid. I can't stand in God's presence.
Isaiah said, I saw the Lord in his glory. I saw him high and
lifted up. I heard the voice of the angels
filling the temple saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbath. I saw the doors of the temple
shake. And I bowed before him and I
said, oh, woe is me. For I'm a man of unclean lips
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. When Israel
saw the mountain shake and the thundering and the lightning
upon Mount Sinai, they said, Moses, you speak to God. Let
not God speak to us lest we die. Believers seeing God's glory
acknowledge we are unworthy to stand before him. We're unworthy
to lift our eyes to heaven. We're unworthy to speak his name,
unworthy to call upon him. Our only worthiness is Him who
is God our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. Number five. Look at
verse 10 and learn this. God honors those who honor Him. Nothing honors God like obedient
faith. You remember what Samuel told
Saul? Saul thought he'd done a great
thing because he devised something he thought would be good. Samuel
said to obey is better than to sacrifice. When Peter launched
out into the deep and let down his nets, he caught the fish. He honored God, obeying God,
and God honored him, filling his boat with fish. Faithfulness
in small things always leads to greater things. God make me
faithful, wherever you put me, Whatever you give me to do, God,
make me faithful. Make me faithful. And as I by
faith in Christ and faithfulness to Christ honor him in the place
where I am, he will honor that which is honoring to him with
greater things. Look at verse 10. So when James
and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon,
and Jesus said unto Simon, fear not. Henceforth, thou shalt catch
men. It is another place, he said,
David, I'll make you fishers of men. Here he said, I'm gonna
make you catchers of men. You're gonna catch men. You're
not just gonna go out and fish, you're gonna catch men. Peter,
James, and John, who were faithful to Christ as fishermen, were
now made by Christ to be catchers of men. All right, look at verse
11. You don't need to turn there,
but in Matthew chapter 4, where Matthew gives his account of
this, the Lord Jesus said in verse 19 of Matthew 4, follow
me and I will make you fishers of men. Here in verse 11 of Luke
5, when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all
and followed him. Now learn this as well. The call
of Christ demands and produces three things. Three things. If he's called
you to life and faith in him, James Jordan, he requires these
three things. If he's called this man to preach
the gospel of his grace as he called Peter to be his apostle
and his messenger, the call of Christ requires three things.
Three things. First, faith. If we would be
the servants of God If we would be men fishers, if we would catch
men, we must believe him. We must believe him. Second,
forsaking. If we would follow Christ, it
doesn't matter, Ron, where, how, for what. If we would follow
Christ, we must forsake all. You can't follow him without
forsaking everything. If you don't take up your cross
and forsake all and follow him, you can't be his disciple. If
I'm going to serve him as his servant, I've got to constantly,
day by day, forsake everything. Everything. I used to think, Gary, this is
going to get easier as I got a little older. You know, as
a young man, you struggle a little bit. But young men don't have
enough sense to pay attention to the future. Not many of them.
Most of them just don't have enough sense to pay attention
to the future. You get a little older, you get to think, well,
you know, what's going to happen to my wife if something happens to
me? Maybe I better start this. Maybe I better go here. Maybe
I better do a little investing. Maybe I better get into this
little sidelining business. Make some preparations. You pray for your pastor, will
you? That God will give me grace. Constantly to separate myself
unto the gospel. I know this. I can't give myself
to this work if I give myself to anything else. And no other
man can either. Can't be done. And it requires
following. Got to follow his guide, his
lead, his word, his will. Be obedient to him. Now this
historic event, like all historic events recorded in Holy Scripture,
has an allegorical meaning as well. I'm not stretching the
text at all when I tell you these ships carrying Christ and his
people across the sea with the word of God represent gospel
churches. The fishermen represent gospel
preachers. The net cast into the sea represents
the gospel of God's grace which we proclaim to sinners. is often
used in scripture representing the world. The shore represents
eternity to which we are going. And the miraculous draft of fishes
represents God's elect who shall be saved. And the scripture says
here the boats were filled. And I'm telling you the church
and kingdom of God shall be filled. So let's just keep casting the
net and casting the net. and casting the net, and the
master will bring in the fish. Amen. All right, let's hear it.