When Peter prayed this strange
prayer, depart from me. I'm a sinful man, O Lord. When he prayed this strange prayer,
he had not yet been called as one of the twelve disciples.
That did not take place until chapter six. But he had some
experience of the Lord. Look in chapter four, verse 38. And he arose out of the synagogue
and entered into Simon's house, Simon Peter. And Simon's wife's
mother was taken with a great fever. And they besought him
for her, and he stood over her and rebuked the fever. And it
left her, and immediately she arose and ministered unto them."
Now, Peter witnessed this miraculous healing of his mother. Peter knew that Jesus Christ
was no ordinary man. In Luke chapter 5, verse 1, 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. They'd been pulled out of the
water. But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing
their nets. And he entered into one of the
ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust
out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the
people out of the ship. And Peter heard this sermon. What a sermon it must have been.
I don't know what he said, whose saying it tells you the significance
of what he said and Peter heard. Verse 4, Now when he had left
speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and
let down your nets, for draught, for a big catch. And Simon answering said unto
him, Master. Master. Now that is a term of
respect. But it's somewhat beneath Lord. It. As a matter of fact, in verse
eight, when he prays this prayer, he calls him Lord. But here he
calls him master. Yes, respect. but somewhat less
than Lord. In other words, at this time,
he didn't really know who the Lord was. He was impressed. He'd seen the Lord heal his mother. He'd heard his sermon. He was
impressed. Look what he says, verse five,
and Simon answering said unto him, Master. We've toiled all
the night. and have taken nothing. Now,
we know something about fishing. We do this for a living. And
we've been fishing all night, and we haven't taken anything. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. Even
though, as far as my sensory experience goes, this is pointless,
because you said to do it. I'll let down the net. And when
they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes. And their net break. And they
beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship,
that they should come and help them. And they came and filled
both the ships so that they began to sink. Now, can you imagine
this? Watch the Lord will those fish
into the net. Fish get in the net. And they
did. And they filled up the boat so
that they began to sink with the weight of the fish. Verse 8. When Simon Peter saw. He saw who the Lord was at this
time, perhaps for the first time. He fell down at Jesus' knees,
saying, Depart from me. You don't want to have anything
to do with me, for I am a sinful man. Oh, Lord. Now he calls Him Lord. He was
calling Him Master, but now he calls Him Lord. For he was astonished,
and all that were with him, at the great number of the fishes
which they had taken." I have entitled this message,
A Sinful Man. A Sinful Man. For I am a sinful man, O Lord. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. You don't. I am a sinful. I am full of sin. You just want to get away from
me. I'm a sinful man, O Lord. Now, Peter did not know it at
this time, but this was a blessed revelation concerning himself. Evidently, he didn't know it
before then. But now he finds out by revealing
grace, I am a sinful man. Now, what is a sinful man? It's
very simple. A sinful man is a man who is
full of sin. That's all there is in him. He's plumb full of sin. Whatever you pull out of him,
it's sin. A sinful man. A man who is full of sin would
say things like this, for I know, and in me, That is, in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing, nothing but that which is sin. All there is, is sin. Look in verse 12 of Luke chapter
5. This gives us an illustration as to what Peter meant by a sinful
man. Verse 12, And it came to pass,
when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy. Not a man who had leprosy, but
a man who was completely covered by leprosy, so that anywhere
you looked, all you saw was leprosy. That was it. Nothing else. He
was completely covered, every square inch of his body was covered
with this loathsome disease called leprosy. Full of leprosy. A sinful man is full of sin in
his experience. All he does is sin. Nothing else. He cannot refrain
from being what he is. He cannot not sin. He can't look
at anybody and say, regarding what they have done, well, I
wouldn't have done that. At least I wouldn't have done
that. No, he knows. He knows that there is nothing
he would not do evil because he is full of sin. a sinful man. He knows he has
no claims on God. Now, before we go on considering
this sinful man, I've got to ask this question. What is sin? It's a good question. By definition, by God's definition,
what is sin? Now, the word means to miss the
mark. And that's a loose definition,
it means much more than that. John tells us in 1 John 3, verse
4, that sin is the transgression of the law. The ten commandments
to put anything before God is sin. Because he said, thou shalt
have no other gods before me. To take his name in vain. To have not that respect do his
name is sin. To make a false concept of God
because you don't like the way he's revealed in the scripture
and to worship an idol is sin. To fail to rest is sin. To fail to honor your parents,
to fail to honor authority is sin. To kill is sin, and you
can kill not merely by killing someone's life. You can kill
their character. You can murder their character. The Lord said
to be angry without a cause is murder. To be jealous of somebody
is to kill them. Adultery, all sexual sin, stealing,
and that's more than shoplifting. You can rob glory from God, taking
and Describing to yourself what you shouldn't. To lie is to sin. To covet is to sin. In Romans chapter 3, verse 23,
Paul calls sin coming short of the glory of God. Romans 14,
23 says, Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. That means if I don't have faith,
everything I do is sin. James 2.9 says the respect of
persons, showing favoritism to the flesh is sin. James 4.17 says to him that knoweth
to do good and doeth it not, to him, it's sin. Proverbs 24.9
says the thought of foolishness is sin. Somebody says, well,
God can't condemn me for what I think. Yeah, He can. The thought
of foolishness of sin, and this is my personal favorite definition
of sin. Proverbs chapter 21 verse 4 says,
the plowing of the wicked is sin. Now, if I think of a
wholesome activity, I think of plowing. But if a wicked man
does it, it's sin. And Peter says, this is what
I am, a man full of sin. That's why he's asking the Lord
to depart from me. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. I am full of sin. There's no hope for me ever being
better. There's no hope for me ever improving. I'm at the bottom. I am full of sin, a sinful man. Sin is my nature. Sin is my action. Sin is my name. What's your name? Sin. I define the word. If you wanted to look up a definition
for sin, you'd find my name, right? That's the definition.
Turn with me to a few scriptures. Turn to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. Here's God's
testimony of man. Verse 5. And God saw, you know,
God sees. He sees. And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that most, no,
every He's not even talking about the
works yet. He's talking about what goes on in the heart and the
mind. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. Now there's the description of
a man full of sin. Turn to Romans chapter 3. Verse 9, Are we better than they? Are
we Jews better than the Gentiles? No, in no wise, for we have before
proved both Jews and Gentiles that they're all under sin. That means sin's over them. As
it's written, there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understands. There's none that seeks after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not Turn to Romans 7. Verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God's law that
exposes sin, is it a bad thing? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, I had not known
sinful desire, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not covet. Don't covet. But sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence,
covetousness, wicked desire, discontent. For without the law,
sin was dead. I didn't see I was a sinner,
for I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died, and the commandment which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore, the law is holy, and
the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which
is good made death unto me? Is it the cause of my death?
God forbid! But sin, that it might appear
sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the
commandment might become exceeding Is that you? Exceeding sinful. Now, this discovery of sinfulness
came to Peter as a result of seeing the Lord Jesus Christ.
It says when Peter saw, when he perceived who was in front
of him, That is when he said, Depart from me, I am a sinful
man, O Lord. And Job said, I have heard of
thee with the hearing of the ears, but now mine eye seeth
thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself, and
I repent in dust and ashes. Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter
6 verse 1, in the year the king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up. And you know what he said about
himself when he saw the Lord? I said, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm cut off. I'm a man of unclean
lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts. Daniel said, When I saw Him,
my comeliness, that which I thought was beautiful, turned to corruption,
and I retained no strength in me. Now you see by light. Christ is the light, and if you
don't see yourself the way I'm describing, the way the Word
of God describes, quite frankly, here's the reason. You've never
seen the Lord. That's why. If you ever saw the
Lord, You would know that this description fits you to a tee. And if you say, well, I just
can't go there, the reason is you've never seen the Lord. Everybody, without exception,
who sees the Lord has this response. They see, I am a sinful man,
O Lord. If he ever reveals himself to
you, here's going to be the evidence. You'll see yourself as a sinful
man or a sinful woman, full of sin. And notice his request, depart from me. You don't have anything to do
with me. When somebody has the Lord revealed to them, when
they see their own personal sinfulness, all sense of entitlement vanishes. He doesn't even suspect mercy
at this time. Lord, you don't want to have
anything to do with me. Now listen to me real carefully.
If your response to the great, holy, glorious doctrine of God,
choosing who would be saved before time began, and those are the
only folks that will be saved, and those are the only people
Christ died for, if your response to that is, that's not fair,
you've never seen yourself as a sinner. If you ever see yourself
as a sinful man, all sense of entitlement will be gone. And you'll know that if God passes
you by and lets you drop into hell, just and holy is his name. Now, do you remember a few minutes
ago when I said this was a blessed revelation? Depart from me, for
I am a sinful man, O Lord. Now, please hear me carefully. The gospel is utterly unique. It's like no other religion because
the gospel is the only sinner's religion. Every other religion is for good
people. The gospel is for bad people. Is that good news to you? The
gospel is for sinful men and women, your personal sinfulness
will not keep you from Christ. You know what will keep you from
Christ? Your righteousness. That's the only thing that will
keep you from Christ. Not your sinfulness. Not your
inability to stop sinning. It's your righteousness. It's
your goodness that will keep you from the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, the whole need
not a physician, but they that are sick. He said, I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Everybody, with
that exception, who has this revealed to them, I am a sinful
man. God is going to save that person.
The work of grace has already begun. Now, remember that leper? Verse 12 said he was full of
leprosy. Do you know the laws concerning
the leper in the Old Testament? Turn with me to Leviticus chapter
13. That leper was full of leprosy. He didn't have any healthy flesh. It says in verse 14 of Leviticus
chapter 13, when raw flesh, that means healthy flesh. Healthy
flesh, flesh that does not have leprosy on it. Flesh that's good. When raw flesh appears in him,
he shall be what? Unclean. Send him back to the
leper colony. He's not allowed in. Keep him
out. Look up in verse 12. And if a
leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all
the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even to
his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh, then the priest shall
consider, and behold, if the leprosy hath covered all his
flesh, he shall pronounce him clean." Do you hear that? When was he pronounced clean?
When the leprosy covered all his flesh. When he was completely
sinful. The priest pronounced him clean. Now, depart from me, I'm a sinful
man, O Lord, Peter said. The word sinful and the word
sinner in the New Testament is actually the precise same word
and it is an adjective. A little grammar lesson. An adjective is a word used to
express the quality or the attribute of the thing named. He's a tall
man. He's a short man. He's a sinful
man. And an adjective is used to limit
and define a thing as distinct from something else, like he's
an ill-tempered man as opposed to a jovial man. He's a sinful
man as opposed to a good man. Would that be the adjective they'd
have to put in front of you? a sinful man. And this word was used by the
Pharisees to describe whom they considered the most morally bankrupt
and degenerate. The Pharisees, the separated
ones, the religious fellows, they talked about the publicans,
and they said they're sinful men, the tax collectors, and
they were sinful men, and prostitutes. They're sinners, they're sinful
people, they're morally bankrupt. And you know, the Lord looked
at them and he said, the publicans and harlots will enter the kingdom
of heaven before you. You reckon they were offended?
Probably. But the publicans and harlots
weren't, though, were they? They were probably kind of excited. Regarding all sinful people, This is who the Lord came to
call. He said, I came not to call the
righteous. But the sinful. To repentance. Christ was called
the friend. Do you fit this description of
sinful? Beloved, you've got a friend.
He was called the friend of publicans and sinners. While the Pharisees
complained about him, they said, this man receives them. He actually
receives sinners, the morally degenerate, and he eats with
them. He receives them. I don't know how to say this,
but one of the greatest regrets I have regarding anything that's
happened in my experience of preaching is one time I got a
letter from somebody who was it was a TV listener and that
the only comfort I have about this is that this person was
one of the Lord's elect they'll be saved even if I did mess everything
up but this person who was a TV listener they wrote me and they
said I'm practicing homosexuality I'm practicing a gay lifestyle
but I want to know If I can come to church and hear the gospel
you're preaching, I'm fascinated by what you're saying. And no
one will know it. Can I come and listen? And even
wanted to bring their partner, but they said, you'd never know.
You'd never know. And I wrote back and I said,
of course you can come. But you got to know the Bible
forbids that lifestyle. Well, sure, it does. They knew
that. Why couldn't I have just said,
come on in and listen? And I got to thinking about it,
if anybody else, any other kind of sin, I probably would have
said, sure, come on in. But that, I have such regrets. The Lord receives. He receives sinners. They can come into his presence
and not feel threatened. not feel judged, not feel condemned
by Him who is holiness. He is the friend. Now, like I
said, every time I think about that, it causes me pain. I wish
I hadn't have done that. I wish I would have just said,
come on. Of course, if the Lord saves this person, he'll quit
practicing that. I realize that. But I shouldn't
have said, well, I wouldn't have said that about any other kind
of thing. The Lord receives simple men. Turn with me to Luke chapter
7. Ah, beloved, if this describes
you, you've got a friend. You've got a true friend. You've
got a friend like no other friend. He is the friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. He is the friend that loves at
all times. Look in Luke chapter 7, verse
34. The Lord is speaking of the criticism that he received. The
Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, behold,
a gluttonous man. He's a winebibber, a friend of
publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of all
our children. One of the Pharisees, he heard
this, he desired him that he would eat with him. And he went
into the Pharisees house and said down to me, behold, a woman
in the city, which was sinful, sinful, full of sin. That's all there was there. Now,
some people say, well, she was a prostitute. Maybe she was,
I don't know. But she was sinful, full of sin. She'd heard the
Lord preach. And when she knew that Jesus
sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster
box of ointment and stood at His feet. Behind Him, she wouldn't
dare come face to face. She stood back at His feet, weeping. And she began to wash His feet
with tears. And it wiped them with the hairs
of her head. And she kissed His feet and anointed
them with ointment. When the Pharisee, which had
bidden him, saw it, he spake with himself, saying, This man,
if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of
woman this is that toucheth him. For she is a sinner. And Jesus answering. You know,
the Pharisee didn't say this out loud, did he? But the Lord
read his thoughts. And Jesus answering said in him,
Simon, I have some what to say unto thee. And he said, Master,
say on. There was a creditor, a certain creditor, which had
two debtors. The one owed 500 pence and the other 50. And when
they had nothing to pay, the one who owed 50 was unable to
pay as the one who owed 500. They didn't have anything. He
frankly, freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which
of them will love him most? Simon Peter answered and said,
I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast
rightly judged. And he turned to the woman and
saith unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine
house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed
my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came
in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst
not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Wherefore, I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven."
She loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth
little. And he saith unto her, thy sins
are forgiven. And David said, meet with him,
began to say within themselves, who is this that forgiveth sins
also? And he saith to the woman, thy faith has saved thee. Go
in peace. Now let me give you some things
the scripture tells us about this sinful person. Remember
that fellow in the temple in Luke chapter 18? You remember. The Pharisees stood up the front.
Lord, I thank you that I'm not as other men are. I fast twice
a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
I'm not an extortor. I'm not unjust. I'm not like
this pathetic creature back here trying to call on your name. But the Lord says he prayed thus
with himself. God never heard a thing he said. But the publican, standing afar
off, he wouldn't so much as lift his eyes to heaven, but he smote
upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner,
the worst man to ever live. You know what the Lord said about
that man? He said, I tell you, that man went down to his house
justified, not guilty. Same way that that leper who
was completely covered with leprosy was pronounced clean. Now these people who are sinful
people are the people that Christ died for. Turn to Romans chapter I've got one hope of being in
heaven. You know what that hope is? That Christ died for me. That's the only hope I have.
Nothing else. Well, how do you know he died
for you? Well, look at verse six. For when we were yet without
strength. Without strength. In due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, and that
while we were yet sinful, same word, full of sin, Christ died
for us. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 1. This is, I told you this before,
I'm going to tell you again, this is my favorite scripture. Favorite
is this. Verse 15. This is a faithful saying. You
can rely on this. This can be counted on. And it's
worthy of all acceptation. Everybody ought to receive this
as the best news they've ever heard, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save Simmers! Of whom I am the chief. And notice it doesn't say he
came to save believing sinners. It doesn't say he came to save
repentant sinners. It doesn't say he came to save
elect sinners. It doesn't say he came to save
sensible sinners. If there was a more qualified
type of sinner he came to save, I'd lose heart. But thank God
he came to save sinners. And I fit in that demographic.
That's me. If that's the case, if what that
passage of scripture says is true, that means he came to save
me because I'm one of them. I really am a sinful man. But I fear I'm too bad. That
argument was Paul already said, I'm the chief, I'm the foremost,
I'm the worst man to ever live. So you can't use that argument.
He came to save sinners. Now, the question is, did He
do it? Did He do what He said He came
to do? Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Now, beloved, when He bowed His
mighty head and said, It is finished, what does that mean? It means
I did what I came to do. He said in John 17, 4, I finished
the work that thou gavest me to do. And what was that work?
To save sinners. Now let me show you what that
means. Turn to Romans chapter 5 again. Romans chapter 5. Verse 10, For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. It doesn't
say when we believed, we were reconciled to God. It doesn't
say when we repented, we were reconciled to God. It doesn't
say when we turn things around we were reconciled to God. It
says when we were enemies. We were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son. When He said it is finished,
all of God's elect were saved. Now, that is a salvation that's
outside of my personal subjective experience. He saved me, really,
before I was even born. Now, I realize some people will
take this and say, you're saying faith is not necessary. No, I'm
not saying that. Well, you're saying repentance
is not necessary. No, I never said that. If you don't believe
and you don't repent, you'll go to hell. Now, that's the truth.
But my salvation was not accomplished by my faith and my repentance.
My salvation was accomplished by what the Lord did for me on
the cross. I was reconciled by His death
and saved by His life. Well, how does His death save?
Well, if He stayed dead, it wouldn't save. When He was raised from the dead,
that tells us that God accepted what He did. Now, me or you will
go to hell. It'll be forever. It'll be for
eternity, because we could never satisfy the justice of God. But
He did. You see, His death is altogether
different than your or my death, because of who He is. When He
died and when He was raised from the dead, that means all my sin,
my sinfulness, was put away. On the cross, the sins of those
sinful ones became his sins. All of the sins of God's elect
became his sin to this extent. The scripture actually says he
was made to be sin. And he put that sin away. When God raised him from the
dead, it's because God said, I can't ask anything more. I'm satisfied with what he did,
and I'm satisfied with everybody he did it for. Now, beloved,
that's the gospel. That is the gospel. But is there anything I must
do, or do I just find out if I'm saved after I die? Yeah,
there's something you must do. What must I do to be saved? Believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. But how am I to live? Well, Paul
said, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life
that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I don't frustrate
the grace of God. If righteousness came by the
law, then Christ died in vain. Back to Luke chapter five, we'll
close with this. You know, when Peter said, depart
from me. And I understand that, I mean,
I don't want to say, Lord, leave me alone, stay with me, I don't
want him to part, but I understand Peter's feelings when he was
so overcome with a sense of his own sinfulness, he was saying,
Lord, you don't want to have anything to do with me. But I
can say this with the same amount of conviction Lord, save me,
for I'm a sinful man. Lord, save me, for I'm a sinful
man. If you don't save me, I won't
be saved. Save me, for I am a sinful man. Now in Luke chapter 5, look
what happened next. Verse 9, for he was astonished,
and all that were with him at the of the fishes which they
had taken, and so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, The
same one who said, Depart from me, Lord, I am full of sin, fear
not. From henceforth thou shalt catch
men. You know, he's now qualified
to be a preacher of the gospel. Not before then. You see, you
can only preach the gospel as a sinner to other sinners. And anything short of that is
not preaching. Preaching is one beggar telling
another beggar where he got the bread. And he is now qualified
to preach the gospel. Are you qualified to declare
the gospel? I'm not talking about how much do you know or how well
versed are you in theology. Do you know the hope of a sinful
man? That qualifies you to be a fisher
of men. May God make us all to be true
fishers of men. Let's pray together.