and keep them out and let's go
through these verses together. This is one of my, these last
two chapters in the book of John is two of my favorite chapters
really in the whole New Testament. But let's see some things in
this chapter. Just keep your Bible out there on your lap and
let's just read it together as we go. Let's look at the first
two or three verses here. And after these things, the Lord
Jesus had risen from the dead, showed himself alive to his apostles. And then later on, just a little
bit later, after he did these things, he showed himself again
to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed
he himself. They were gathered together,
Simon Peter and Thomas, called Didymus, and Nathanael of Canaan
in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples."
Seven disciples of the Lord gathered here. And Simon Peter said unto
them, I go a fishing. And they say unto him, we go
with thee. And they went forth and entered
unto a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing.
Now one of the first things we see here as we look at this These
men were workers. When Peter said, I'm going fishing,
he just wasn't saying, I'm going out to catch me a mess of fish
to eat. He was going back to his occupation. That's what he
said. I'm going back to my occupation.
That's what he was by trade, a fisherman. When the Lord first
called him, he was in the boat with his dad, mending nets, because
they were fishermen by trade. So he says here, well, You know,
I don't know what else we're to do, but I know this, I need
to be working. So he said, I'm going back to
my occupation. Now, here's the thing I want
us to see about that. This was commendable in these
men. One of the things I love about
these men, they didn't sit down and say, well, we'll wait on
the Lord to see what else he's got for us. They said, whatever
the Lord's got for us, one thing we're going to do, we're going
to work. We're going to work. Working is commendable. I was
talking with a fellow, he preached here one time, just one time,
he preached one time. And he was married to this lady
and he wanted to pastor a church. And I called him one day and
I said, I said, what do you work at? And he said, oh, I don't
work in anything. And I said, why don't you work? And he said,
well, he said, I don't want to get a job because I'm afraid
the Lord may call me to pastor a church, and I don't want to
be working when He does. And I said, Ma'am, that's not
the way this works. Did you ever know, and most of
us live now long enough to see the Lord call people to preach.
Have you, in your experience, ever known the Lord to call anybody
to preach while he'd quit his job and sit down waiting for
the Lord to call him? It don't happen that way, does
it? Every one of the scriptures, when the Lord called anybody
to do anything, He took them from their jobs. Remember Gideon,
that he was going to send to deliver the children of Israel?
He was threshing wheat to feed his family and to make a living
by it. These apostles, when the Lord called them, Matthew was
working at the receipt of custom. The rest of them were fishing.
I thought about Paul Mahan when he was here, him and Mike, this
past weekend. You know what Paul was doing
when the Lord called him to preach and pastor? He was an engineer
on a train. He had gone to school and took
training and that was going to be his career. And Mike, Mike
Walker, he owned a cabinet shop. He put in countertops. Brother
Henry told me one time that he used to sell ties. He sold ties. The Lord don't call lazy men.
Every man that He calls is a working man. I want you to hold that
right there and look with me over here. It's in 2 Thessalonians. I think I know where it is. In
2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. I
was talking to my sister one time and they were talking about,
she said, She said almost everybody there in that community where
they live is getting on welfare. Healthy people. Girls and boys
and men and women getting on welfare. She said, it's got in
our community where nobody will work. And you often hear of these
people saying, what would Jesus do? What would Jesus do? You want people to go hungry?
What would Jesus do? Well, if we want to know what
Jesus would do, here He tells us. So what would Jesus do with
people who are able to work and they won't work? What would He
say to them? Well, just sit down, honey. We'll
take care of you. Well, let's see. Look here in
2 Thessalonians. Look in chapter 3, verse 7. Look at this. Verse 7. 2 Thessalonians 3, 7. For yourselves
know how you ought to follow us. For we behaved not ourselves
disorderly with you, neither did we eat any man's bread for
naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that
we may not be chargeable to any of you, not because we have not
power or authority, but to make ourselves an example to you to
follow us. For even when we were with you,
this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should
he eat." Now that's pretty plain, isn't it? Some people can't work,
and you help those people. But if a man can work and he
won't work, then let him go hungry. Who said that? Our Lord did,
didn't He? Our Lord said that. And read on. For we hear that
there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at
all but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command
and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they
work and eat their own bread. So I just about bet you when
the Lord calls men to follow him and preach his gospel and
pastor his churches. I just about bet you he don't
call them out of bed. He don't call them sitting on
the couch watching TV. He calls them from their jobs.
I go fishing. That's commendable. That's commendable.
I'm going back to my occupation. I'm going to work and support
my family. Look back at our text now again. in verse 3 especially. And I thought of this as I looked
at this. Simon Peter said unto them, I
go fishing. And they said, we're going with
you. And they went forth and entered to a ship immediately.
And that night they caught nothing. That night they caught nothing. Now I've did some fishing. I've
did some night fishing. And buddy, it's tough when you're
fishing in the night. Especially like they fish with
their nets. And they caught nothing. All night long they fished and
caught nothing. Every time they put down the
net and drug it up to the boat, they pulled it up and it was
empty. They'd cast it out and pull it up the net and every
time it was empty. All night long they toiled and fished and
caught nothing. It wasn't until after daylight
that they caught this huge round of fish. Now, what does that
tell us? The Lord often works just like
this. Sometimes there are nights of
toils, nights of labors and fruitlessness in our lives just before the
Lord sends the blessing. How many times has it been that
way with His people? And you've experienced it in
your own life. It seemed like you come into
this place that it's a long valley. It's a deep valley. And boy,
it's a struggle. Or it's a steep hill and you're
having difficulty getting up to it. And then, after that deep
valley or high hill, the Lord blesses. You ever had that happen
in your life? One thing I've tried to correct
myself on the last few years and it's been the most difficult
thing is not be discouraged when things are going rough. Because
sometimes out of that roughness comes the blessing. The children
of Israel had to go down into Egypt and be down there and be
brought into bondage and grown under that burden before the
Lord delivered them. And then they had to come up
to the Red Sea and see no way out. And thought, man, we're
in trouble, before they saw the Lord open the Red Sea. And how
were they going to get to that promised land but through the
wilderness? These people were going to... These disciples were
going to catch a great drought of fishes. They were going to
sit beside the Lord's fire and eat His fish and eat His bread.
But first of all, there was this long night. Wet night Where they
call nothing fruitlessness, and that's what will happen in your
life I just about bank on so don't be discouraged when that
comes hang on hang on and pray and wait upon the Lord to bless
you and Here now in verses verses 4 through 6 look at this. I Want
you to notice how quickly the Lord can turn everything around
and bless his people But when the morning was now come, Jesus
stood on the other shore, but His disciples knew not that it
was Jesus. Then said Jesus unto them, Children,
have you any meat? And they answered Him, No, sir,
we haven't caught a thing this night. You know, we appreciate
you asking. That's not what they said. Can't
you hear this tone in their voice? No! No! Why are you asking? No, we didn't
caught anything. They didn't know who he was.
But there's a little bit perturbed that he would even ask them.
No, in verse 6, cast the net on the right side of the ship,
and you shall find. And they cast thereof, therefore,
and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of
the fishes. Oh my goodness, ain't this amazing?
The Bible says here in a few minutes that they caught 153
great fishes. Men, Brad was just talking today,
and he just read this portion, and we were talking about, isn't
it strange that you were these experienced fishermen, and now
it was daylight, and here they were fishing off the left side
of this boat, and all these fish were on the right side of the
boat. You wonder, how did we miss that?
Isn't it something how easy and how quickly the Lord can turn
your fruitless, laborsome nights into a fruitful day? And how
easy it is. And sometimes He does it so quickly.
You hear these disciples worry, man, they were bent over the
left side of that and throwing it out there. That's what you
get, I guess, for fishing out of the left side of your boat
anyway. Everybody wants to fish out of the right side of their
boat. I'll say that for you Republicans, that you've got fish on the right
side of your boat. But there all the fish was on
the right side, and they didn't see it. But just that quick and
that easy, here we're going along in our lives, and we're so burdened,
and our hearts are so burdened, and we can't bear any fruit.
Then just a little instructions from the Lord, just guiding us
a little different direction. And there it is, everything opens
up. It shows us, doesn't it, how
wonderful it is when the Lord leads you. You can be experienced
in what you're doing, but boy, when the Lord leads you, it's
altogether different, isn't it? Boy, it just makes you want to
go home and get somewhere by yourself and say, Lord, lead
me. Lord lead me. And don't the Bible says He leads
us? He leads us besides still water? You're led by the Spirit
of the Lord? We need His leadership, don't
we? In everything. You just made me think I'm talking
about a preacher. I'm talking about all of us.
How wonderful it is while you're out there on your little boat
out in the sea for the Lord just to whisper to you, cast your
net on the other side. Cast it on the other side. And
boy, when you do, He knows where the fish is, doesn't He? He knows
where the fish is. Look in verse 7 and 8. They were
not able, and they cast therefore, and now they were not able to
draw it for the multitude of fishes. Look in verse 7. 7. Therefore that disciple whom
Jesus loved said unto Peter, It is the Lord Now when Simon
Peter heard that it was the Lord, he gird his fisher's coat unto
him, for he was naked. And he did cast himself into
the sea. And the other disciples came
in a little ship, for they were not far from land, as it were
about two hundred cubits, dragging the net with the fishers. Now
I want you to notice this. Notice what a crude group of
people these fellows were. What a rough culture that they
lived in. Now I don't know if Peter was
completely naked or not. Some say he was and they used
to fish this way and some say they kept what you and I would
call a little underwear or something on. But they didn't want to get
out there in their big loose clothes because they'd get their
clothes wet. So they had what they called
a fishing coat that if they had to they'd wrap it around them.
Usually they fished like this, almost in the nude, so they could
sling the nets and everything, probably the heat of the night
too. But wasn't that a crude culture
that these men lived in? Can you think of Peter out there
naked on a boat fishing? I mean, he's an apostle of Christ. That was the kind of people and
the kind of culture that these people were raised in. We can't
relate to it, can we? They wore these old sandals around
and can you imagine when it rained? They'd come in the house and
they had this mud coming up between their toes. And they were dirty
and when it sweat, I never read where they had anything like
deodorant like we have today. Can you imagine how they smelled?
And they went through the grain fields and they were hungry. They just pulled off a bunch
of grain and wiped it in their old dirty hands and ate it. They
come back from the market. They don't do like we do and
run in the bathroom and wash their hands and sit down to eat. They just sit down and eat. Aren't we got so fine-tuned in
our cultures? I mean, not in all our houses,
I know when we have company, Joe and I are always concerned,
man, we want our house, try to get it as spotless as we can.
Because we want a clean house. And the best of clothes, when
I come here, man, I forgot my belt this morning. I'm almost
embarrassed that I forgot my belt. But what's a belt? And our vehicles, we want our
vehicles to be clean and, boy, just shining. We've just got
so fine in our culture, haven't we? It's just amazing. And I
don't want anybody to come to my house until you give me a
day's due notice so we can clean the house up. Ain't we that way? And boy, the ladies back there,
and I appreciate this, how they keep the dining room back there
so clean and all the spreads and everything. Can you imagine
Peter bringing his family in there to eat? He said, man, does
a king live here? The little picture back there,
most of you noticed that a missionary there in New Guinea, Sampson,
you see the black guy there with his, and I showed it to you one
day, the house and the little naked baby underneath it. Then
I noticed something else in the picture looking at it last week.
There's his wife standing in the door. I didn't see her before.
But the house is propped up with rocks. The step that you come
out of the house has some little old sharp rocks holding the step
up. And the Lord has visited those
people. He has saved old Samson and called him in the ministry
to preach. Isn't that wonderful? I don't know that Having all
of these fine things won't hinder us. It's just the place and the
time that we live in. There's nothing the matter with
it. But boy, sometimes it gets to be a burden, doesn't it? It
just gets to be a burden to us. And I'm so thankful that the
Lord is not as concerned about it as we are. You know the main
thing, no matter how we live and how well our house is kept
or what we're eating, you know the main thing. Well, poor Martha
is there preparing the meal and all worried about that. We need
some more Mary's, don't we? Just to come and sit at the feet
of Christ and hear His Word. Man, naked, out fishing naked. Apostles out fishing naked. And notice here in verse 9. I
thought this was interesting. And as soon then as they were
come to shore, to land, They saw a fire of coals there, and
fish laid there on and bred. Now this struck me as I read
this. I noticed it didn't say there was a burning fire there.
There was a blaze. There wasn't a blaze at all.
There was only coals of fire. Now how do you get coals of fire?
It's where the fire's already been burning at. The fire had
burned and what remained was these coals. We did that with
charcoal, haven't we? You know, you let it get cold
and the wood burns and leaves these ashes, hot ashes. And it
means the fire had been there for a while. So this tells us
something. While those poor fellows were
out there fishing and laboring and toiling and catching nothing
and had no idea where the Lord was, He was there. How long had He been there? Isn't that comforting to know
that during your nights of toil and sorrow and unrest that He's
there? The children of Israel used to
say this. They said, My way is hid from
the Lord. That's a complaint that they
often made. My way is hid from the Lord. And my judgment is
passed over from my God. He doesn't know what I need.
He's not aware. of the trouble that I'm in. And
here's the answer to the Lord, to His church of old. Hast thou
not known? Hast thou not heard that the
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary? When you're weary, He's not.
He's not sleeping because it's night. He never grows weary. Listen to this. There is no searching
of his understanding. He gives power to the faint,
and to them that have no might, He increases strength. Here the
Lord Jesus was, unknown to them, on the bank, and He was preparing
fish and bread and a fire. A fire to warm them by, and fish
and bread to feed them by. Isn't that wonderful? That's
wonderful, isn't it? Remember that next time, folks,
that you're out on your little sea and you're struggling and
toiling and catching nothing. Remember, He knows. He knows. And look in verses 10 and verse
11. I thought this was awful interesting,
too. Jesus said unto them, Brang of the fishes which ye have now
caught. Simon Peter went up and drew
the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred and fifty
and three and for all there were so many yet was not the net broken."
153 fishes. Now did you ever wonder why the
Holy Spirit put this in here? Why in the world name the number
of these fish? They counted them. I was reading a commentary on
this and he made this observation. I don't know if this is true
or not but he said he affirmed it by some some kind of people
that went to the Sea of Galilee and they said in the Sea of Galilee
they have 153 species of fish I thought that's amazing 153
species of fish and if that's so then probably what he's teaching
here is that they caught one of every species And every species
that they caught was the best among that species. If they caught
a crappie, biggest crappie I ever seen. If they caught a walleye,
never seen a walleye like that. Caught a cat, man what a catfish. 153 species of fish. And they caught one of each species. That's what the commentator said
about it. I think too, if that's so, there's
probably a good lesson for us out there, a spiritual lesson.
They caught a variety of every kind of fish in that sea. Now,
what does that tell us? Well, it tells us this. We know
that in the Bible, the gospel is called a net, isn't it? It
gathers people. In one place, they're the good
and the bad, and they pull it back to shore and siphon and
get them all out, the good from the bad. But the gospel is a
net. And you know when the gospel is finished gathering all over
this world, You know it's going to gather poor believing sinners
from every nation and every tribe and every tongue out of this
world. The Lord spoke to Abraham and
he said, Abraham, in you, in this gospel, in your seed, in
Christ, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed.
I bet you when this thing is finished and the net is drug
up to heaven, I bet you you'll find there are people from all
over this world of all families. That's what the gospel does,
isn't it? Saves people from all over this world. That's one of
the things that's made missionaries leave their families and leave
their property and sell out and go to some foreign land. Because
the Lord said, take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the
earth, didn't He? Because He's going to have people from every
nation and family and tongue and tribe, just like all of these
fishes. But one of the things I noticed
here too, as I was reasoning this, he said, for all these
fish, these great fish, yet was not the net broke. Ain't that wonderful? The net
didn't break. That's wonderful, isn't it? And
it was amazing to them because they had caught a bunch of fish
like this before, and the net broke. Remember that? In Luke
chapter 5, I think it is, or 7? But this time, the net didn't
break. And they drug all those 153 fishes
to land. Now, when I was a boy, we used
to have a pond. And somewhere or another, we
had two big bass, two big, huge bass in that pond we couldn't
catch. So somebody got the bright idea of getting a net, and two
or three of us kids got in the pond with that net, and we got
those big bass in that net, and we were just little kids. And
I'll tell you what, they gave us a thrashing, trying to hold those
big bass, jerking our nets and everything, you know. Can you
imagine having 153 huge fish in this net? Can you imagine that shaking
and fighting and struggling? But the net never did break.
It never did break. That's a wonderful thought, isn't
it? And here's what we can learn
from this, I think, in the spiritual sense. Boy, when the Gospel embraces
you, and when you embrace the Gospel, you're in this Gospel
nest. You're in Christ. And that nest
is never going to break. The Gospel is never going to
break. Who shall separate us from the love Isn't that wonderful? Brother Paul preached, when he
preached up here the other night, he preached on draw near to God. Remember that message? And one
of his points was, ask for backsliders. Let backsliders draw near to
God. I don't even like to think about backsliding to you. Awful thing to backslide in your
heart, isn't it? It's an awful, awful thing. But aren't you glad? that He has power to break you
again, and to draw you again, and whisper to your ears, I have
loved you, and with love and kindness have I drawn you. This
gospel man. This gospel man. It will never
break. Bless His holy name. It will
never break. Verses 12 through verse 13. And Jesus said unto them, Come
and dine, We used to sing that old song, remember? Come and
dine, the Master calleth. Remember that one? Come and dine,
the Master calleth. Come and dine. You may feast
at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude. I forgot
how it goes. Turn the water into wine. To
the hungry calleth now. Come and dine. That's what He
said to His disciples, come and dine. And none of His disciples
did ask Him, who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus came
and took bread and gave them and fished likewise. Isn't this
wonderful? He's still serving His people,
isn't He? Here's the Lord of glory. And
what does He do? I don't know if He literally
got the wood and built this fire. He just willed it to be. I don't
know. I don't know how he did it. But I know he tucked this
fish in his hand, he tucked some bread, and he gave them the fish
and gave them the bread. He's still serving his people,
isn't he? Isn't that amazing? And you know he's in heaven today,
but you know what? Isn't he there ministering for
us? He is, isn't he? He's there in the sanctuary,
a minister of the sanctuary, ever in the presence of God for
us, working among us and for us, helping us and keeping us. Boy, how patient He is with us.
How patient. And you know, if He condescends
to serve us, we should condescend to serve one another, shouldn't
we? The Lord, John said, if He laid
down His life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for one
another. The Lord said, if I have washed your feet, you ought to
wash one another's feet. Boy, that's a good motive, isn't
it? Good motive. The Lord's still serving His
people. The Lord helped us to be like
Him. And here, look, here's another good motive for serving the Lord.
Look in verse 15. I'll hurry on quickly. So when
they had dined, Jesus said unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these? I wonder what he meant there.
I reckon he meant these fishes. Peter, do you love me more than
these fishes? Do you love me more than your occupation? Do
you love me more than you love your brothers, these disciples?
Peter, do you love me? And he said unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. And he said unto him, Feed my
lambs. And he said unto him again the second time, Simon son of
Jonas, lovest thou me? He said, Yea, Lord, thou knowest
that I love thee. He said, Feed my sheep. And he
said to him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he
said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto
him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus
said unto him, feed my sheep. Sometimes when we have put something between
us and the Lord, or sometimes when something has ejected itself,
injected itself between us and the Lord, The Lord brings that to a head.
How many times did Peter deny the Lord? Three times. How many
times did the Lord say, ìYou love me?î Three times. Three
times. Sometimes when weíve let something
come between us and the Lord, sometimes when our first love
has dwindled, gotten cold, sometimes He starts asking us these questions. And sometimes it can be a painful
thing. Has the Lord ever dealt with
you about something in your life that you had put between you
and Himself? And He begins to deal with you
in the only way that He can. And you try to get around it
because you really don't want to face it because it's too painful.
But He just keeps pressing. You love me more than you love
that. You love me, Bruce, more than
you love that? Lord, I love you. Lord, I love you. Do you love
me, Bruce, more than you love that? See how much time you're
giving to that? Do you love me more than that?
Lord, you know I love you. Bruce, do you love me? Lord,
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know what I've done. I know what I've been thinking.
I know how that's drawn my affections from you. Oh, and it grieves
me now. Has he ever dealt with you like
that? Boy, he's got a way dealing with us, doesn't He? When we've
maybe denied Him in some way, or our love towards Him has grown
cold. And sometimes, boy, I tell you,
it's a grievous thing to our hearts to be corrected. Peter, lovest thou me? Lord,
you know I love you. Then feed my lambs, feed my sheep, if you love me. Boy, ain't that
good motives? Ain't that a good motive? You
know everything we do for the Lord, this must be the first
motive. I know we reverence Him. I know
we serve Him with godly fear. I know that. I know it's only
by faith we serve Him. But you know, if we don't serve
Him out of love, we can't serve Him. Remember what he told the
Ephesian church? He said, I know your labors.
I know how you've been working. I know how you're giving. I know
how you're going to worship in public. I know this about you.
But he said, I've got something against you. You're not serving
me out of the motive of love. You're just going through the
motions. Love. Boy, that's it, isn't it? Love.
We've got a wonderful article this week in the bulletin. If
you haven't read the bulletin, Brother Clay Curtis has a wonderful
article in there about leaving your first love. I want you all
to read that. That's such a good article. Because
when it becomes a burden to serve the Lord, there's just one reason. It's because our love for Him
is not what it should be. If you love me, you'll keep my
word. Ain't that what he said? If you
love me, you'll keep my word. love is not only a good motive,
it's the first motive. All right, quickly, let's look
at verses 19. Look at verse 19. Well, look at verse 18. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Peter, when you were young, you girded
yourself, and you walked where you wanted to walk. But when
you shall be old, Thou shalt stretch forth your hands, and
another will gird you, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not.
And he tells us in verse 19 what he's talking about. This spake
he signifying by what death Peter should glorify God. And when
he had spoken this, he said unto him, Follow me. This is why some
people say that Peter was crucified in his death. That somebody else
got him and led him to the cross and they crucified him. But the
Lord speaks something here to Peter and he says, follow me. Peter, right now, this is what
I'm telling you. This is my command. You follow
me. Now, I want you to know the very
first thing Peter done in verse 20. Then Peter turning about,
he saw that disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned
on his breast at supper. Of course, that was John. And
he said, Lord, which is when he leaned on and
asked the Lord who betrayed him. And Peter said in verse 21, Peter
seeing him, seeing John, said to him, Lord Jesus, what shall
this man do? What about this fellow? And Jesus
said unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is
that to thee? Follow me. This saying went abroad among
the brethren that this disciple should not die. Yet Jesus didn't
say he shall not die. But if I tarry till I come, what
is that to thee? Now, notice the first thing Peter
does. And boy, this is so common. I've seen people do it. I've
seen people get in trouble when they did. I've seen people get
the church in trouble when they did. The Lord's commandment to
you and to me is what? Follow me. You follow me. What was the first thing Peter
does? He took his eyes off the Lord and turned around and saw
John back here. And he said, Lord, what about
him? What are you going to tell him? What's he going to do? And
you know what the Lord told him? That's none of your business.
Ain't that what he said? What's that to you? While you're
poking your nose into his business, you've got enough to keep yourself
occupied by following me. You get your eyes off of him,
and you follow me. He told him that twice, didn't
he? Told him to follow me, and he turned around and looked at
John, and he got a hold of him and said, Peter, follow me! I
tell you, I tell you, when you see people do this, they start
picking at other people in the congregation. They start finding
fault with people in the congregation. And their whole problem is they've
quit following Christ themselves. If your heart is caught up with
following the Lord yourself, you're having enough of that
to keep you busy. You don't have time to straighten
everybody else out. But it's when you get your mind
off of the Lord and you start looking to everybody else, that's
when you start finding these little beams, these little bolts
in their eyes and say, hey, let me help you with that. Let me
help you get this out. And you're just poking people's
eyes out. Ain't that the way we are? And look at the trouble
this caused in the church just for Peter doing that. What about
this guy, Lord? And the Lord gave him an answer,
and everybody misunderstood the answer. The Lord said, even if
it's my will that he abide till I come back, what's that any
of your business? And Peter jumped to the conclusion,
John ain't going to die. And everybody started saying,
John ain't going to die. That's not what the Lord said at all.
Isn't it something how awful things can get started among
the children of God? And if you're not careful, it'll
start telling for the truth. John died, didn't he? He's somewhere
around 90 or 100 years old, but he died. He didn't live until
the Lord came back. The Lord didn't come back yet.
But the Lord never said he would. I want to read you another verse,
if I can find it. I'll look on the first Thessalonians,
I think. This one, if I'm not mistaken. Then we'll close with
this. But this goes right along with
what the Lord Jesus just told Peter. Look in 1 Thessalonians chapter
4. Look in verse 9. 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4 and look in verse 9. But as touching brotherly love,
ye need not that I write unto you. For you yourselves are taught
of God to love one another. And indeed, you do it towards
all the brethren which are in all Macedonia. But we beseech
you, brethren, that you increase more and more. Well, there's
a growth in this, isn't there? Don't get satisfied with where
you're at. Keep growing, seeking the Lord.
And verse 11, and that you study to be quiet and to do your own
business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. Now boy, there's a good message
there, isn't there? I'm going to preach a message someday on
shut up and mind your own business. That's what he's saying, isn't
it? Study to be quiet. Be quiet. Don't we have to tell
our kids that sometimes? He has to tell his children that
sometimes. Be quiet. You're causing too much trouble.
Shut your mouth. That's what he's saying. and
mind your own business. My mother used to tell me that
all the time. Son, shut up and mind your business. That's good
advice. That'll keep you out of trouble,
won't it? And it'll keep you from causing
other people trouble, too. How many neighbors have been
divided because of some blabbermouth in the community? How many friends
that used to love one another so closely have been divided
because of some blabbermouth? Solomon said, a blabber mouth,
a tail bearer, separateth chief friends, didn't he? Shut up and
mind your business. That's what he said. And that's
what the Lord is telling Peter. I love it when, I don't care
if the Lord deals with me this way. I love it because I know
He loves me. He's my Lord. He's my Father.
And He doesn't do it to hurt us. But boy, He can get sharp,
can't He? What's that to you, Peter? Shut up and follow me. Shut up, Greg. I know what you're
thinking. Shut up. Shut up. Follow me. Ah, it's wonderful, isn't it?
Lord bless His word.