is not an idea Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddroadgracechurch.com.
Now, here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. I've entitled this morning's
message, When Christ Makes Himself Known. Now, the only way that
you or I are ever going to know the Lord Jesus Christ is if He
is pleased to make Himself known. Now, in this passage of Scripture,
this is where the Lord made Himself known to Peter. Peter knew Him
after the flesh, but he didn't know Him in a spiritual sense. Now, he had a high opinion of
the Lord before this. He called Him a master, a great
teacher. But this is when the Lord made
Himself known to Peter. And if the Lord makes Himself
known, to me or you, the way He'll do it is the same way He
made Himself known to Peter. We're going to learn the same
things when Christ makes Himself known. In Luke 5, and 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." Now, the fishermen, we go on to find out, were Peter
and James and John. They had been fishing all night
and they had not taken anything. And they had given up for the
night. They were out washing their nets,
hoping that they would do better the next night when they went
out to fish. So there they are 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. And we know from Matthew's
account that what he had to say at this time is found in Matthew
chapter 13 when he talked about the parable of the sower, the
parable of the wheat and tares, the parable of the mustard seed,
and the parable of the leaven. He was preaching and teaching
the people, and they were pressing to hear his word. Verse 4, now
when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Lodge out into
the deep, and let down your nets for a draft. Now remember, they
had been fishing all night long, and they'd already cleaned up
their nets. And I'm sure that they didn't really want to go
back out and get their nets messed up when they had seen there weren't
any fish at this time. And yet the Lord tells them to
launch out into the deep for a draft, a great haul of fish. And He didn't say, maybe you'll
catch some fish. He said, this is what will take place, and
you launching out into the deep. Peter's response. And Simon,
he hadn't been named Peter just yet. And Simon answering said
unto him, Master, we've toiled all night and have taken nothing. And I believe in that statement,
Peter gives a comprehensive summary of human religion. We've toiled. Wearisome labor. People doing
things they really don't want to do. Working, working, never
enough. Have I done enough to please
God? Working, toiling, and laboring. He said we've toiled all night. You see, human religion is in
the night. It's not in the light. It's in
the night. It's dark. It doesn't tell you
how you can be saved. It doesn't tell you how God can
be approached. It's darkness. We've toiled all
night and have taken nothing. That's the end result of salvation
by works, human religion, no success. We have taken nothing. Nevertheless, At thy word, I
will let down the net. Now, we know fishing, and we
are pretty sure that there's no point in this, but at thy
word, at thy word, we will let down the net. Now, here is our
rule, his word. At thy word. This is our rule. This is our only rule of faith
and practice, His Word. You cannot separate the Lord
Jesus Christ from what He says. He is the Word of God. He is the great prophet and you
cannot separate His person from His Word, from His teaching,
from His doctrine, from anything He says. The words that I speak
unto you, the Lord said to His disciples, the words that I speak
unto you, their spirit And they are life. And Peter says, at
Thy Word I'll let down the net. Now I want you to think about
the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Word that created
the universe. This is the Word that controls
all of providence. All His will is always done. He is in absolute control. This
is the Word of salvation. He is salvation. Now, His Word
is the ground of our faith. Nothing else needs to be said,
His Word, if we have His Word for it. For instance, let me
try to explain what I'm saying. He said, Come unto Me, all ye
that are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Now, I'm
coming to Him. You said, you told me, Come to
Me, all ye that are weary and laden, I'll give you rest. I'm
coming upon your Word, give me rest. That is the way we approach
the Lord, His Word. Nevertheless, at thy word, I
will let down the net. Now, I don't have any doubt that
Peter had his doubts and fears at this time, and he didn't really
want to do it. But by the grace of God, he still said, at thy
word, I will let down the net. Verse six. And when they had
this done, when they let down the net, they enclosed a great
multitude of fishes, and their net break. And they beckoned
them to 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." You cannot obey Christ's
Word and fail. Now, this is what is called the
obedience of faith. He said, you let down that net.
And in letting down that net, you'll enclose a great multitude
of fishes. And you will not do that apart
from letting down the net. Now, they couldn't look down
and see the fish at this time. They couldn't see a school of
fish at this time. They just had to simply act on what He
said. This is called the obedience
of faith. They acted on what He said, let
down the net, And he does not say maybe you'll bring in a big
haul of fish. He says the fish will come. Let him down the net. You'll
bring in this great draft, this great haul of fish. And only
in letting down the net did that take place. Now, let me make
a couple of comments about that. First, God uses means. The fish didn't jump up out of
the water into the boat. They had to let down the net. God uses means. Faith is the means. Now, faith
by itself doesn't save. It's just a means. But there
is no salvation apart from faith, apart from believing Christ,
apart from believing the Gospel. God uses means. They had to throw
the net down into the deep in obedience to His Word. But the
means in and of themselves are powerless. You see, they had
taken that same net and fished all night, and they didn't take
in any fish. Just because you let down the
net, that doesn't mean the fish will come. The means in and of
themselves are powerless. The means are only successful
with Christ's Word. He said, fish get into the net,
and the fish got into the net. He controls all. Now, God always
uses means. means in and of themselves are
powerless, and the only power that comes with the means is
the Word and the authority and the will of Christ. He caused
those fish to come into the net. Now, what happened when they
did this? We read that both ships were
filled, filled to the full, so that they actually began to sink.
They were completely filled with fish. Now, I think this, I know
this illustrates salvation. In believing the Gospel, we're
saved to the uttermost. We're filled to the full. In
believing Christ, I have fullness of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. Of His fullness have we all received. Colossians 2, 9 and 10 says,
in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in a body, and
you are complete. You're full in Him. Now, in believing
the Gospel, in faith, you are made perfect before God. Now, it's not your faith that
makes you perfect. It's Christ who makes you perfect.
Faith receives that. Faith believes that. They let
down the net. They wouldn't have had this great
haul of fish without letting down the net. But in letting
down the net, in obedience to Christ's Word, they brought in
this great haul. It wasn't the net that did it.
It was the power of God. Christ willed those fish into
the net. It wasn't luck or chance or happenstance. It's what He
said would take place. And in believing, here's another
way to look at it, or not another way, it's the same thing. He
that has entered into his rest, Hebrews 4, 9, he that's entered
into his rest, his Sabbath of rest, has ceased from his own
works as God did from his. There remains a rest for the
people of God. Now, you enter into his rest? you'll have rest. But you won't
have it if you don't enter in. You believe the Gospel, you'll
have fullness of salvation. You'll be to where you can't
be any more loved, you can't be any more accepted, you can't
be any more righteous, you can't be any more holy than you are
in the Lord Jesus Christ, filled to the full. And that will not
happen apart from the obedience of faith. Now, verse 7, And they
beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship,
that they should come and help them. And they came and filled together
both the ships, so that they began to sink, when Simon Peter
saw. When Simon Peter understood. When Simon Peter perceived. Now, what was it that he saw?
He finally saw who the Lord really was. He saw that he's not merely
a great master. When you read how he addressed
the Lord in verse five, he addressed him as master, master. That's
a term of respect, a title of respect. We have fenced all night
and taken nothing. But now in verse six, he calls
him something different. When Simon Peter saw, he fell
down in Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful
man, O Lord." He now sees that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Now what does that mean? Jesus
Christ is Lord of creation. He created the world and everything
in it. He is Lord of providence. He
controls everything that takes place. His will is in control
of everything, everybody. They're in His hands. Nothing
happens without Him. Most especially, He's the Lord
of salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. If
you're saved, it's wholly up to Him to save you. You don't
have any control on this thing. I don't have any control of this
thing. We're totally dependent upon Him. He is the Lord. And Peter saw who He was. And
how did he respond? When he saw who the Lord was,
he said, Depart from Me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Now,
this was no false concept of God, because He did what people
always do when God makes Himself known, when Christ makes Himself
known. When He saw who the Lord was,
that's when He saw who He was, a sinful man. Perhaps he didn't
believe this or understand this before this event. But when he
sees who the Lord is, he says, depart from me. You don't want
to have anything to do with me. I am a sinful man, O Lord. Now, this is what takes place
in the Scriptures when men see who the Lord is. There's so many
examples of this, but the first one I thought of was Job. He
said, I've heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now
mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I hate myself and
repent in dust and ashes. Daniel said, when I saw him,
my comeliness, what I thought was beautiful about me, turned
to corruption. Now, if you see or if I see myself
in any other light than a sinful man, it's because I've never
seen the Lord. If you see the Lord, you're going
to have the same response Peter did. It's only seeing Him that
we see ourselves. You don't see yourself and then
turn to the Lord. No, you see the Lord and then you see yourself. It's when He makes Himself known. Now, I want to read you a passage
of Scripture from Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 6, in the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. Isaiah said he
saw the Lord. And how did he see Him? Sitting
upon a throne, ruling, reigning, sitting, His work being finished.
Not pacing back and forth, wringing His hands because His will is
not being done, but sitting in absolute control. High and lifted
up. Now if I haven't seen the Lord
high and lifted up, Exalted in His glory, I haven't seen Him
at all. We don't see some kind of weak
God whose will can't be done unless we let Him. That's no
view of God. He saw Him high and lifted up,
and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings. With twain He covered His face,
and with twain He covered His feet, and with twain He did fly.
And cried one to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the
Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. And the
posts of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried, and
the house was filled with smoke. Then said I." What did He say? Then said I, I'm going to accept
you as my personal Savior and let you forgive me of all my
sins. Nothing of the sort. Here's what He said. Then said
I, Woe is me. Now, if you ever see the Lord,
if I ever see the Lord the way Isaiah did, this will be our
response. Woe is me, for I am undone. I'm cut off because I am a man
of unclean lips. Everything that comes out of
my mouth is unclean because of an unclean heart. And I dwell
in the midst of the people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have
seen the King. The Lord of hosts. Woe is me, I am undone. Now, Peter, when he sees who
the Lord is in His glory, in His greatness, that he could
actually will fish into the dead, so his will must be done in all
things. He saw Him as the God-man. He saw Him as the Lord. What
was his response when he saw who the Lord was? Depart from
me, Lord. I am a sinful man. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. Now, when we're filled with self-righteousness,
we don't see anything like this. When we're filled with self-righteousness,
we don't have any understanding of salvation by grace, or sovereign
grace, or being saved by the grace of God, or we'll have objections
to it. We don't believe sovereign grace.
Now, what do I mean by the term sovereign grace? Well, God is
sovereign. He gives His grace to whom He
will. God does not respond. He acts. He doeth according to His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And none can say His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou?
He is sovereign in the dispensation of His grace. Now what does that
mean? Two people. One is saved. One is not. Well,
if one is saved, it is because God saved him. He did it all.
The one is not saved because he did something the other one
did not do. He's not saved because he exercised his free will and
chose God and the other one didn't. The reason someone's saved is
holy God. Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians
4, 7, Who makes you to differ from another? Not what, but who. If you're saved, you've been
made to differ. Who makes you to differ from
another, and what do you have that you didn't receive? I think
of that passage in Exodus chapter 11 when God says regarding the
children of Israel before the Passover when He was going to
destroy the firstborn in Egypt, He said, Against the children
of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast,
so that you may know that the Lord doth put a difference between
the children of Israel and Egypt." That's what sovereign grace means.
The Lord makes a difference. If you're saved, God the Father
made you to differ in eternal election when He chose you to
be saved. If you're saved, God the Son
made the difference in your salvation in that He died for you and put
away your sins. He didn't die for everybody.
He just died for the elect. If you're saved, it's because
God the Holy Spirit made a difference and gave you a new heart. The
reason you believe is He put faith in you. He gave you a new
heart to believe and repent. That's what's meant by sovereign
grace. It means God does it all. It means He gets all the glory. Now, anybody objects to that,
there's only one reason behind it. Self-righteousness. We think God owes us something. We think that if we do something,
then God is obligated to respond, and we don't see that we're sinful. If I ever see that I'm sinful,
I won't have any objections to God's sovereign grace. When we
see Him as He is, and actually when we see us as we are, and
we'll say, depart from me. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. I'm no good. I'm a sinful man. I'm a man full
of sin. Now this word sinful in the Scriptures
is used both as an adjective and as a noun. As an adjective,
it describes me. How would you describe me? Sinful. Full of sin. Somebody thinks,
well, what's wrong with you then? Why are you that bad? Well, the
only reason you'd say that is because the Lord has not made
Himself known to you. Because if the Lord has made
Himself known to you, you'll know that this is the case with
you. You'll know by seeing His holiness,
by seeing who He is, Oh, you'll say, I'm a sinful man. This word is also used as a noun.
It's the same word that the publican cried when he beat upon his breast
saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now, what does the
Bible mean by a sinner? Or who is this man who is a sinful
man? What's that mean? And see how
you measure up here. A sinful man is somebody who's
full of sin. That means that's all there is.
A sinful man is someone who all he does is sin. If he does it,
it's sin because he did it. I don't care if it's praying,
reading, the Bible, whatever you do. If you're a sinful man,
whatever you do is sin because you're the one that did it. A
sinful man is someone who cannot not sin. I cannot say, well,
I'm going to be holy for at least five seconds. I'm not going to
have any wicked. I'm going to be, I'm not going to sin for
the next. You can't even go a second because of who you are. A sinful
man is someone who cannot not sin. A sinful man is someone
who truly cannot look down their nose at anybody. I don't care
what somebody's done. If you haven't done it, you know
it's only because God has restrained you, and you would do it apart
from the grace of God. And you can't look down your
nose at moral superiority and judgment of anybody. And a sinful
man is someone who knows they have no claims on God. If God
passed me by, if He saved everybody but me and passed me by and sent
me to hell, I couldn't say, that's not fair. You saved this person,
why don't you save me? No, I know that I merit His condemnation
and I can't charge God with injustice if He passes me by and doesn't
do anything for me. Now, in making this request that
Peter makes to part from me, I'm a sinful man, O Lord. He
demonstrated two things. First, he'd seen the Lord when
Peter saw, when Peter perceived, when Peter understood who he
was. He saw the Lord, but he only
saw Him partially. You see, Christ Jesus is the
friend of sinners. Aren't you thankful for that?
He said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Every sinful man, Christ Jesus
came to save. You see, the Gospel is a sinner's
religion. It's made just for sinners. All
other religions are made to make you good. It's for good people. If you do this, if you do that,
you'll be saved. The Gospel is for people who can't do good.
People who are sinful. That's the person who hears the
Gospel. Sinful men. Paul, the apostle,
said in 1 Timothy 1.15, this is a faithful saying, it's worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am the chief. God commends His love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us when we were yet without strength in due time. Christ died for
the ungodly. You see, the gospel is for sinful
men. Now, here's what our Lord did
on Calvary Street. He made it so that a sinful man
can be without sin. Let me repeat that. The gospel is how that the Lord
Jesus Christ can take a sinful man like Peter, or me or you,
and make it to where we are without sin. You see, my sins that were
ever before me became His sins. He bore our sin in His own body
on the tree. And you know what he did with
my sins? He put them away. He paid for them. He separated
them from me as far as the east is from the west. So now, he
says to Peter, fear not. Fear not. From henceforth, thou
shalt catch men. Peter thought he was cut off.
He said, no. From now on, you are going to catch Men, fear
not from henceforth thou shalt catch men. So Peter was now going
to let down the gospel net. And let me tell you this about
the gospel net, gospel preaching. It's not like fishing where you
disguise the hook with bait and throw it in the water. That's
what most religion does. It disguises what it's really doing. No, it's
all above board. We just throw down the nets and
we look for the Lord to bring the fish in. Now, Peter is fit
to be a preacher of the gospel. You see, only a sinful man can
preach the gospel. A man like somebody else wouldn't
even understand what grace means or what mercy means or what forgiveness
means. They have no concept of it. But
you find a sinner saved by the grace of God, he can preach the
gospel. from his own heart, from his
own experience. Yes, from the Word of God. But
I can't preach what I haven't experienced any more than I can
come back from a place where I've never been. Now Peter is
fit to preach the gospel of God's grace. One sinner telling another
sinner. where mercy is found, where grace
is found, where acceptance is found. Fear not, Peter. From
henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought the
ships to land, they forsook all, and they followed him. That's
what sheep do. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Neidert, praying
that God will be pleased to make himself known to you. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send a request to messages at codsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
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