Would you turn back to Luke,
Chapter 5? Julie Morris is in the hospital
right now, if everybody can remember her. She's at Central Baptist.
She's had pneumonia. She's been very ill, and I think
she's on the mend. Tonight, we're going to look
at Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, on the next several Sunday nights
I would like to preach on each one of the Beatitudes. And we're
going to consider tonight what the foundational one is, poor
in spirit. What does that mean? Blessed
are the poor in spirit. Am I somebody who is poor in
spirit? I've entitled the message for
this morning, When Christ reveals Himself. Now, if Christ reveals Himself
to me, and if Christ reveals Himself to you, the revelation
of His person, this is what will take place. Let's begin in verse
1 of Luke chapter 5. And it came to pass that as the
people pressed upon Him, to hear the word of God. Now, we know what the content
of this message was at this time from Matthew's account. He gave
him the parable of the sower, the parable of the wheat and
tares, the parable of the mustard seed, and the parable of the
leaven. That was the content of his message.
But I love to think about people pressing to hear the Word of
God. And when I thought about that,
I asked myself this question, would this describe me? Someone
who is pressing to hear the Word of God. Now that ought to be
my attitude, and that ought to be your attitude when the gospel
is preached. I want to hear from God. I want
to hear the very Word of God. And they were pressing on him.
to hear the word of God. And he stood by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two ships standing
by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were
washing their nets. They had fished all night long
as we go on reading and had taken nothing. And they're washing
their nets, getting ready for tomorrow night, hoping they do
better. Verse three, and he entered into one of the ships, which
was Simon's, who would later be named Peter, and prayed him
that he would thrust out a little from the land. And I love to
think of the Lord's courtesy at this time. I mean, he's the
God of glory. And he could have said, let me
out there. But he prayed him. He acts so
courteously and he acts so politely. I pray you, push the boat out
with me in it. We could learn something from
that. We should always be courteous. And he sat down and taught the
people out of the ship. And the content of that message,
as I said, is found in Matthew chapter 13. And when he had left speaking,
he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep. and let down your
nets for a draft or a haul of fish. Now remember, these men
had been fishing all night long and they hadn't caught a thing.
It had been a failure as far as they were concerned. And they
were already cleaning up their nets, hoping it would be better
tomorrow. And he says, you take those nets,
you just clean. and go back out into the deep
and let the net down for a haul of fish. He didn't say, perhaps
you'll catch something. He said, you let your net down
and there will be a great draft or haul of fishes. Verse five. And Simon answering said unto
him, master, Now that's a good title of our
Lord, Master. He didn't yet know him as the
Lord. He knew him as Master, Great Teacher. He'll one day,
or at this time actually, he'll find out who he really is, but
he doesn't really know yet. He looks at him as a great teacher. That's commendable. Master, we have toiled all the night
and have taken nothing. I believe that there's a whole
lot in that statement. If you want to know what man's
religion is, here it is. First of all, we've toiled. We've
toiled. Weary labor. And that's what
religion is. It's toiling. and it's weary
labor. Religion's a sad thing, isn't
it? He says we've toiled all night. Darkness. There's no real light in it.
You can't really see anything. All you know you're doing is
toiling and somehow it's not measuring up. It's not enough.
We've toiled all night. Man's religion is darkness. And
here's the results of man's religion. We've taken nothing. No success
in it at all. Master, teacher, we've toiled
all night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, I like this. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down
the net. Now we know fishing and feel
pretty sure that this will be fruitless. We've already fished
all night and haven't taken a thing. We've cleaned up our nets. Nevertheless,
at thy word, I'll let down the net. Now here is the rule. His word. His Word. You can't separate the Lord Jesus
Christ and His Word. This is the ground of faith.
His Word. They go out into the deep. That's
the command. You go out in the deep and let
down the net. Now they couldn't see fish. They couldn't see the
fish. You know, if they saw the fish
and let down the net, that would not be faith, would it? That
would not be obedience to his word. That would be acting by
sight. That would be acting because, well, I see I can benefit out
of it. They couldn't see fish. The only thing they had was his
naked word. At thy word, we will let down
the net. Now his word. That's the same
word that created the universe. Light be and light was. That's the same word who stilled
the storm and there was a great calm. He said to the storm, peace
be still. And the scripture says there
was a great calm. Oh, what a great calm there is
in his word. Abraham, Look up at the stars. Can you number them? That's how
many kids you're gonna have. That's your descendants. He didn't
have any children. Sarah was barren. She'd already
gone through menopause. He had no evidence that this
would take place but the word of Christ. Is that enough? If you have His Word, is that
enough? His Word is the ground of faith,
our supreme rule, our warrant to act. I come to Him because
He says, come unto Me. That's why I do it. No other
reason but that He says, come unto Me. I come unto Him believing
on His name. This is our great argument in
prayer. His Word. Do as thou hast said. We take
something from His Word. Lord, you said this. Do it. And that's not a command. That's
faith. Do what you said. You can't separate Christ and
his word. Nevertheless, at thy word, I
will let down the net. Verse six. 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. You cannot obey Christ's word
and fail. This is what we call the obedience
of faith. When they had this done, they
let down the net. And when they had this done,
and not before then, they took in this great haul of fish. Now, he didn't say let down the
net and maybe you'll catch some, did he? He said let down the
net and there will be a great haul of fish, something that's
already been determined, you see. He can see what's going
to happen before it happens, because whatever happens is what
he determined to be done. That's how he knows. When somebody
says, well, God can foresee the future. Yeah, I know he can,
because he determined it. Everything that happens is what
he determined to take place. The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Now, every fish
he commanded to go in the net, that's what took place. What
do I learn from this? What do we learn? First, God
uses means. The fish didn't jump into the
boat, did they? He could have made them jump into the boat.
He could have said, fish, jump in the boat. And all of a sudden,
a bunch of fish would have jumped out of the water and landed in
the boat. He could have done that, but he didn't. The fish
didn't just jump into the boat. They had to let down the net
in obedience to his word. God uses means. The means in themselves have
no power. The fact that he let down the
net, did that cause the fish to go into the net? No! Only
the word of Christ, the command of Christ could make the fish
go into the net. The means in themselves have
no power. You know, faith in Christ is
the means of receiving Christ, but faith in itself has no power,
it's Christ. It's not faith that saves me,
it's Christ. The means in themselves have no power. They only have
power with the word of Christ. When Christ said, fish, get in
the net, what'd they do? They got in the net immediately
in obedience to the divine fiat, the command of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The only power comes from his
word. Now, did Peter have doubts at this
time when he said, Let go back out into the deep, let your net
down. Of course he did. And I would
have too. And I would have not wanted to
do it. Man, I've just cleaned them up. I've been fishing all
night. Yes, he had his doubts, but when do you not? You know,
when it says, when that fellow said, Lord, I believe help thou
mine unbelief. Well, as long as you have something
called the flesh, you're going to have unbelief. Is there ever
a time in your experience, right up to this point, is there ever
a time when you've been able to say, Lord, I believe I don't
need any help from unbelief? No, no. Peter doubted at that
time. No question about that. But he
obeyed the word and what took place, verse seven. And they
beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship,
that they should come and help them. And they came and filled,
filled to the full, both the ships, so that they began to
sink. Filled to the full, they couldn't
hold any more. The ships actually began to sink.
Now that's a lot of fish. Filled to the full. Now, that
gives us some idea of what salvation is, who salvation is, what happens
when the Lord saves somebody, they're filled to the full. Of
His fullness, of His fullness have we all received. He's made
unto us wisdom. and fullness of wisdom. Righteousness,
fullness of righteousness. Sanctification, fullness of sanctification. And redemption, fullness of redemption. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body and you are completely You're plumb
full. You can't get any more saved
than you are. You can't get any more righteous than you are.
You can't get any more sanctified than you are. You can't get any
more wise than you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. fullness of
salvation. You know, the Lord doesn't do
anything by halves. He doesn't make somebody sit up to where
they're just barely saved. Somebody says, well, I just got in by
the skin of my teeth. Not me, buddy. I go in fully
through the Lord Jesus Christ. I have fullness of salvation,
fullness of justification, fullness of sanctification. The ships
were filled to the full. Verse eight. when Simon Peter saw, when he perceived, when he understood. Now you'll notice in verse five,
and Simon answering said unto him, master, we've told all the
night and have taken nothing master, but look what he calls
him in verse eight. When Simon Peter saw, he fell
down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I'm a sinful
man. Oh Lord. Now he sees he's the
Lord. Remember when Paul said, no man
can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now that's
not just simply talking about audibly saying it. All kinds
of people say he's Lord in that sense. That means you actually
understand and perceive that he is the Lord. That means the dictator. The one who has absolute control. The one who as Lord spake the
universe into existence. The one who as Lord controls
every event of providence. The one who as Lord saves whom
he will. Salvation's in his hand. He's
the Lord. That's not an empty title. He's
the Lord. I've heard people say, He's received
him as Savior, not as Lord. That's impossible. No, there's
no such thing as that. He's the Lord. And Peter now,
he saw that this one who he thought was a great teacher is the one
who said to the fish, get in the net. They got in the net.
He saw this is the Lord. This is God. This is the God
of glory. He saw clearly. that standing
before him, ordering the fish into the nets was the ancient
of days. He's the Lord. Verse eight, when
Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus knees saying,
I'm most gladly accept you as my personal savior. And I'm going
to allow you to forgive me of my sins. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Nothing like that, was it? Nothing
like that remotely. And when Peter saw. He fell down
at Jesus knees saying, depart from me. For I am a sinful man. Oh Lord. Now this tells me that
when Peter saw the Lord, he really saw him. This wasn't some false
concept of God. He saw him for who he was. You see, You won't see who you are and
I won't see who I am until the Lord shows us who we are. And the way he shows us who we
are is by showing us who he is. And when you see who he is, when
I see who he is, I'll have the same response as Peter. When he saw who he is, When he
saw the Lord in the glory of his person, in his power, in
his holiness, he said, Lord, you don't want to have anything
to do with me. I'm bad. I'm no good. Depart from me. I am a sinful, a man full of
sin, and you don't want to have anything to do with me. Now, if you don't understand
that, If I don't understand that, there's
one reason. The Lord hadn't revealed himself. The Lord hadn't made
himself known. Because if the Lord ever makes
himself known to you or me, this is what we're going to see. And
this is going to be our response. Now, this isn't just an isolated
act throughout the scriptures. This is the way men responded
to the Lord making himself known. Daniel. He said, when I saw him,
My comeliness, that which I thought was beautiful, that I thought
was acceptable, my comeliness turned to corruption. That's what Daniel said. What
about Job? He said, I've heard of thee with
the hearing of the ears, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I hate myself and
repent in dust and ashes. Turn with me to Isaiah 6, if
you would, please. Isaiah 6. Here's what happens when someone
sees the Lord. Here's what happens when someone
... when the Lord makes Himself known to someone. Chapter 6,
verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord. Now this is Isaiah speaking. Now what happened when King Uzziah
died? If you read the history of King
Uzziah, he was one of the good kings. He wasn't one of the evil
kings, he's one of the good kings. And the Lord had blessed him
greatly, but somehow his heart was lifted up with pride. King
Uzziah. And all of a sudden he thought,
I can do what the priests do. I can come into God's presence.
I can bring my censer in as a priest. And the priest told him not to
do it. They said, don't do it, Uzziah. This doesn't appertain
to you. You got no business doing this. You're king by God's appointment,
but don't think you can come into God's presence on your own.
Don't you do that? And Uzziah said, I'm going to
do it. And the moment he walked into the temple, he turned into
a leper and he died as a leper. And Isaiah was high on Uzziah. And when he saw this take place,
this man who he was esteemed so highly, and yet when he tries
to come into God's presence without a priest, look what takes place. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord. Now here's somebody who saw the
Lord. Same thing Peter saw. He saw
the Lord. I saw also the Lord sitting,
his work finished, not pacing back and forth, sitting upon
a throne, ruling and reigning, high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
two, he covered his face. He couldn't look upon the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. With two, he covered his feet.
Even this seraphim was ashamed of his walk, even though he had
not committed sin. He knew he would and could if
the Lord didn't prevent it. He knew that's exactly where
he would be. And with two, he did fly ready to do his will. And one cried into another and
said, holy, holy, holy. It's the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me. Same thing Peter said. 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 it proceeds from an unclean heart. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the king, the
Lord of hosts. Now this is what happens when
someone sees the Lord. And if I don't know anything
about this, quite simply, it's because I have not seen Him. If you ever see the Lord, this
is how you'll see yourself. Depart from me. You don't want
to have anything to do with me. You know, when we're filled with
self-righteousness, we have all kinds of objections. to the gospel,
to the gospel of God's sovereign grace. Now, listen to this phrase,
sovereign grace. What's that mean? What's sovereign
grace mean? You hear it said, what's it mean?
Here's what it means. It means if you're saved and
somebody else is not saved, the difference is holy because God
did something for you that he did not do for that other person.
That's what sovereign grace means. 1 Corinthians 4, 7 says, for
who makes you to differ from somebody else? Not what makes
you to differ, but who makes you to differ? Remember in Exodus
11, verse 7, God said, against the children of Israel shall
not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast, so that you may
know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the children
of Israel and between Egypt. Who makes you to differ from
somebody else? I'll tell you who makes you to
differ if you're a believer. God the Father made you to differ
in eternal election when He chose you to be saved. God the Son
made the difference in redemption when He put away your sins on
Calvary's tree. God the Holy Spirit makes the
difference when He gave you a new heart, eyes to see and ears to
hear and a heart to receive. God makes the difference. That's all sovereign grace means.
It means God makes the difference. He made you to differ. Now, if
someone is filled with self-righteousness, they'll object to that. How can
that be fair? How can it be fair for God to do something for one
that he doesn't do for the other? That doesn't seem right. How
can it be fair for God to not love everybody the same? How
can it be fair for Jesus Christ to not die for all men without
exception? How can that be fair? That's not fair! The only reason
anybody says that's not fair is because they think, I've got
it coming. I deserve it. It ought to be done for me. This
is not right. And the only reason someone feels
that way is because they're self-righteous. That's it. There is no other
reason. Filled with pride. But when we see who he is. Our response is, depart from me, Lord. You don't
want to have anything to do with me. I'm no good. I'm bad to the bone. Lord, depart
from me. I am a sinful man. And this word sinful, same word
in the scriptures used both as an adjective and as a noun. An adjective. describing me. What is the one word to describe
me? Sinful. Full of sin. It's also used as a noun. It's
the same word the publican used in the temple when he said, God
be merciful to me. The sinner, the worst man to
ever live. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now I've given this before, but
maybe there's someone this morning that's never heard this. What's
the Bible mean by sinner? Would you please listen carefully?
What does the Bible mean by sinner? When that publican said, God
be merciful to me, the sinner. When Peter said, depart from
me, I'm a sinful man, oh Lord. What's the Bible mean by that?
Well, it's found in the word. I'm full of sin. I'm full of
sin. That's all there is. There's
no righteousness, no merit, no goodness. There's nothing to
commend me to God. I'm full of sin. Plum full. Because of that, All I do is
sin. That's it. When I pray, I sin. When I call upon the name of
the Lord, I sin. When I do something bad, I sin.
When I do something good, I sin. If I did it, it's sin. If I did it, it's sin. And the reason it's sin is because
I'm the one who did it. You see, when you're sinful,
that means you cannot not sin. You cannot, you lack the ability
to not sin. Peter knew that. I'm a sinful
man, oh Lord. And if you really believe that
you're a sinful man, full of sin, you know that you don't
have the ability to look down your nose in moral superiority,
in judgment over anybody. You know that you, in and of
yourselves, would be as bad as the devil himself if God doesn't
prevent it. You know that about yourself.
And no matter what anybody's done, you know that you're capable
of being worse. And you can't look down your
nose at anybody if you really believe you're a sinful man.
Now, if you can look down your nose at somebody, you don't believe
you're sinful. Oh, you sin, you make mistakes,
you do bad things, but not full of sin, the way Peter said. And
if you're a sinful man, this is so important, if you're a
sinful man, that means you realize you have no claims on God. If
you really believe you're sinful, and if the Lord saved everybody
in this room but you, and passed you by, and didn't give you mercy,
you couldn't say that's not fair. That's not right. No, just and
holy is his name. Depart from me. I'm a sinful
man. Oh Lord. Now, when Peter has
this response, we see the reality of the revelation of Christ to
him. He saw who the Lord was. And
he said, depart from me. I am a sinful man. Now he. In
making this request depart from me, Lord, you don't want to have
anything to do with me. I'm full of sin in making this
request. One, he really had seen the Lord.
This is what seeing him produces. But another thing I see about
this request is he only saw a part of the Lord. He only saw a part of the Lord. Now, what do I mean by that? The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the sinner's religion. Does that sound right? Yeah. And here's why. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am the chief,
I'm the very worst one. He didn't say of whom I used
to be the chief, did he? No present tense. This is what
Paul said about himself, of whom I am the chief. Now, why did
Paul have such a low view of himself? Because he had such
a high view of the Lord. That's why. Because he was someone
who was walking in fellowship with the Lord. Because he was
someone who had seen the Lord. I guarantee you this, the higher
view you have of him, the lower view you'll have of yourself.
You can just write that down. He said, of whom I am the chief. Peter, this is what makes you
a candidate for salvation. Being a sinful man. That's the
person he came to save. God commended his love toward
us in the 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, he is the friend of
sinners. I hope I never bring a message
ever at any time for any reason when I don't bring this out.
Sin, the sins of his people became his. That's why he died. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. That's why he
came, and that's what he did. When he said it is finished,
the sins of those people that he bore in their place. He's
a substitute. He's my representative. He bore
my sin in His own body on the tree, and He put it away, and
I don't have any sin. I hope I never preach a message
where that's not the very ground of everything I say. His great
death for sinners, and what He accomplished for sinners. Peter
said, Lord, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. Peter, this is
what makes you a candidate for salvation, because the only people
He saves are sinners. Now, if that description of a
sinner doesn't describe you, then He didn't come for you.
He only came to save sinners. You cut your own throat when
you say, that's not me. The only hope you have is found
in Him dying for sinners. Back to our text in Luke 5, verse
9. For he was astonished and all that were with him at
the draft of the fishes, which they had taken. He saw who the
Lord was through this. This is what happens when Christ
reveals himself. And so was also James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus
said unto Simon, Fear not. I suppose that Simon was scared
to death. I guess he thought he'd been
reprobated. He thought the Lord, no mercy for him. No mercy. Fear not. Later on, in a couple
of chapters over, he said, fear not, believe only. Fear not. From henceforth, Thou
shalt catch me in. You see, only a sinner can preach
the gospel. An angel can't. An angel can
repeat what he knows, but he's not speaking from experience.
But only a sinner can preach the gospel. And he can tell what
the Lord has done for him. Go home and tell your friends
and family the great things the Lord hath done for thee. That's what happens when someone
preaches the gospel. Now, fear not. From henceforth,
thou shalt catch men. You're going to catch men with
the gospel nets. You know, fishing. I've never
fished like this. I mean, when we fish, we disguise
the hook with bait. We try to trick the fish, but
that's not gospel fishing. We just put down the net, nothing
deceitful about it, nothing hidden. We just put down the gospel net.
Here's the gospel. And we know that God says to
the fish, he's going to say, get in the net. And they get
in the net and they're brought up. Verse 11. And when they had brought. their
ships to land, they forsook all. They renounced all. That's what repentance is. They
forsook all and they followed him. Now here's, here's what
a sheep does. A sheep follows the shepherd. He doesn't have
to be driven. Well, yeah, he does, but he does
it willingly. It's by the grace of God that
he follows. You know what we do? We do willingly, but it's
because we're made willing. We know that, don't we? But we
follow the shepherd. They forsook all. Goats never
follow the shepherd. Sheep do. They forsook all, and
they followed Him. And this is what happens when
Christ reveals Himself. May the Lord add His blessing
to His Word. Let's pray.