I want to begin reading in Luke chapter 4, verse 40. I want to continue reading in Luke chapter 4, verse 40. Now, when the sun was setting,
all they that had any sick with divers diseases, brought them
to Him, and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed
them. And the devils also came out
of many, crying and saying, Thou art Christ, the Son of God. And He rebuking them suffered
them not to speak, for they knew that He was Christ. And when
it was day, He departed and went to a desert place, and people
sought Him and came to Him. and stayed him, tried to restrain
him, that he should not depart from them. And he said unto them,
I must preach the gospel, I must preach the kingdom of God to
other cities also, for therefore am I come. And he preached in
the synagogue of Galilee. 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, Lake of Galilee, and saw two ships
setting by the lake, that the fishermen were going out of them
and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the
ships, which was Simon's, Simon Peter's, and prayed him, asked
him, that he would thrush out a little from the land, and he
sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he
had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep,
and let down your nets, or a catch a drop. And Simon answering said
unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken
Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net. And when they
had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes,
and their nets broke. 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
of the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw
it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I
am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all
that were with him, at the draw of the fishes which they had
taken. And so also was James and John,
the son of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus
said unto Simon, Fear not, for henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their
ship to land, they forsook all and followed him." Here in verse
43, the Lord makes a wonderful statement. And this was his occupation
while he was here in this world. I must preach. I must preach. Our Lord had healed so many people,
cast out so many devils, and He did this to manifest His power
and His compassion. But primarily, He came to preach. Well, I've tried that for many
years. It amazes me when I look at Jesus
Christ and hear Him make this statement, I must preach. I'm amazed that He came down
from heaven, aren't you? And when He came down from heaven,
He says here the reason that He came and the very thing that
the Father sent Him to do was to preach. What a reproof this
is to those who despise preaching. who want to simply sit around
and discuss. There is a time for that. But
the Son of God was a preacher. I must preach. For therefore,
He says, Am I sent? And He says you are in the same
chapter in verse 18 and verse 19. Look at this. In verse 17, And there was given
unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened
the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captive, and the recovery of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The Scripture must be fulfilled. The Son of Man must be lifted
up. I must suffer. I must be crucified. I must be buried. I must be raised
again the third day. Must. And here is another must. I must preach. I must preach. What a wonderful
statement. I must preach. If a man must
preach, then he can't wait until conditions are favorable. If
he does, he may never preach. If a man must preach, then he
can't wait until a comfortable place or a large crowd to preach
to. Our Lord preached in the synagogues,
but He preached on the beaches. He preached in a ship. preached
on the mountains, he preached in the grassy plains, he preached
in his dying hours upon the cross. He preached everywhere. This
day shall thou be with me in paradise. What a message! It
was a message to that man, and he heard it. I must preach. Our Lord preached to great multitudes. He preached to his little bands
of disciples. He preached at all hours. He
preached to multitudes that came to him in the morning. They came
to him at noon. They flocked to hear him in the
evening. And he preached to this one man that Shannon read to
us about who slipped away and came to him at night. He preached
to everybody, didn't he? And he preached to anybody. He
preached to his enemies who hated him and hated his gospel and
tried to kill him because of it. And he preached to his friends
that loved him and loved his message. He preached to those
who said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it. And he preached
to those who said, you have the words of eternal life. We'll never leave you. He preached
to publicans and sinners. He preached to the self-righteous
scribes and Pharisees. I must preach. I must preach. If a man must preach, he will
preach. He will preach. There is no stopping
a man if he must preach. What would such a man preach?
Here is the eternal Son of God, and He came down from heaven. He was there from all eternity. He knew all the secrets of the
past. He knew all the mysteries of
the universe. What would He preach? Oh, how
this man could appeal to flesh! What He could have told people!
He could have made people marvel at what he knew. What would he
preach when he opened his mouth? Well, you know we are told what
he preached. We are told here in chapter 5, in verse 1, it
came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the
word of God. Of all the things this man could
have preached, he preached that which was already written. He didn't appeal to men's flesh. He wasn't impressed with men's
flattery. Nicodemus came to him and tried
to flatter him and said, surely you're a man of God. Nobody can
do what you're doing except God be with him. And what did the
master say? Well, thank you very much. I'm
glad you recognize what kind of fellow I am. I'm so proud
of you, Nicodemus. He didn't say that, did he? Nicodemus,
if you're not born again, you can't even know me. You can't
even know why I'm here. You can't even know why I'm saying.
You can't see and you can't enter the Kingdom of God. You must
be born again. He didn't come to impress men.
He didn't come to flatter men. He came to preach the Word of
God. I must preach. We love the writings of men.
I tell you, I do. I love the religious writings
of men. I've got a library full of the
writings of men. And they've helped me tremendously.
Brother Larry just gave me a little booklet. My wife and I read it
this week on Ann Judson. Her and her husband went to Burma
as missionaries. What an encouraging little book. But those are the writings of
men. We have one infallible rule of
faith and practice, and that's what Jesus Christ preached. I must preach, and I must preach
the Word of God. It's the only thing that can
give life to a poor, helpless, darkened sinner. And you know our Lord was such
a wise preacher. Well, I tell you what, He could
humble a man, couldn't He? He that winneth souls is wise. My, He had all the means available
to Him to humble a person. He could go to the heart, He
could get into the conscience of men, bow their hearts, cut
off their boasting, cut off their false hopes. Those fellows came
to Him bringing the woman, taking an adultery in the very act.
And they said, Moses said, stoner, what do you say? He said, I say
this, the one among you that is without a sin, let him be
the first one to cast a stone. And He said that in such a way
with so much power that they began to remember this sin and
that sin. And they were convicted in their
conscience. And every one of them bowed their
heads and left. That rich young ruler that came
to him and said, I've kept all of the commandments. The Lord
said, no, you haven't. You've got a lot of things that
you're coveting. And you won't let them go. You've
stored them up. You've stocked them up. And your
heart's loving them. And I'll prove it to you. Go
sell them and follow me. Oh, he went away sorrowful. Oh,
our Lord could take the stout heart, the self-righteous legalist,
and He could humble him and show him his sin. He could take the
broken heart. He could take the contrite and
crushed spirit and heal it and bind it up and encourage it. He was the Prince of preachers. I must preach. And what He preaches is the Word
of God. The Word of His Father. And oh,
what a light it was in this dark time in which He came and lived. Everywhere He went there was
light. They that sat in darkness saw
a great light. And what was that? It was His
preaching. The entrance of Thy Word, it
gives light. Paul was writing to the Philippian
church. And he made this statement. He said, you shine as lights
in the world. And then he tells them two ways
that they shine as lights. I think the Philippian church
was so much like the Master. They imitated Him in their life
and in what they preached. And Paul said, you do this. You're
doing all things without murmurings and complainings. and disputant,
and you are blameless and harmless as the sons of God in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation." He said, look at the nation in
which you live. Look how dishonest they are.
Look what hypocrites they are. Look what pretenders they are.
But look at you. Oh, you're honest, you're truthful,
you're sincere, and the simplicity of your life, your walk in this
world with Christ, it's a light that shines in this dark and
perverse society. Well, that's what the church
is, isn't it? Your simple lifestyle, your honest lifestyle, Your sincere
lifestyle before God in this world reproves this crooked and
perverse society. Oh, everybody's doing it. Everybody's
talking like that. Everybody's getting paid under
the table. Everybody's cheating. Not the
Lord's people. The world has always lived like
that, hasn't it? Well, but not the church. Paul
said, you're lights. You're lights in the midst of
this crooked and perverse generation. And then he says this to them,
you're holding forth the Word of Life. That's what the Master
did. That's what His preaching was.
By the words that you speak, their spirit and their life.
That's what the church holds forth, isn't it? The Word of
Life that is shining in a dark place and dispelling the darkness
of sin and death. Boy, this world is a dark place,
isn't it? Darkness of sin and death that reigns. And there
is but one thing that will penetrate the darkness of sin and death. and bring righteousness and life. And what is it? The Word. The
Word of God. And our Master was the best example
we have in preaching it. Our Lord was ready to ascend
to heaven and He gave His church this command. He said, Go into
all the world and preach the gospel. Go into this dark world
and preach the gospel. Preach it to those who are under
the tyranny of the prince of darkness. And that's what they
did. And you and I remember what it
did, don't we? Boy, it invaded. The gospel invaded
the dark countries of Asia and Rome and Africa and Spain. And it spread west. And what
did it do? It tore down the kingdom of Satan. It infused light and brought
life. and liberty. And that's what
Jesus Christ preached. I must preach, and He must preach
the Word. I hope you and I feel the burden
of these words this morning. I must preach. I must preach. I hope all of us feel the burden
of this. He preached while He was here,
and He's left us to preach. All of us are not called to preach
publicly. The Lord doesn't call women to
preach publicly. I suffer not a woman to teach
or to usher authority over a man. But He calls us all to preach,
doesn't He? All of us can go like the Gadarean
and honestly tell what great things the Lord has done for
us. You women, as well as the men,
can speak the truth to your co-workers, to your neighbors, to your friends,
to your loved ones, to your relatives. We're all preachers. I hope we
feel the burden of this. I must preach. Oh, if you can't talk, then hand
out a good track. I've got a good little track
that says, Do or Done. And what a good track that is.
And give it to somebody. Let them see the difference between
do and done. That's the difference between
heaven and hell, isn't it? Life and death. Is your religion
D.O. or is it D.O.N.E.? Is it do or
is it done? That man said it very well. If
you can't preach, Give His message to somebody. If you can't get
in a pulpit yourself, then provide somebody else with a pulpit.
That's what Peter did, wasn't it? Peter wasn't called to preach
yet. The Lord didn't ever call him.
He was getting ready to. Call him to preach. But you know
what Peter did? He provided the Lord a pulpit,
didn't he? He gave Christ His boat paddle out from shore and preach
to the people. If the preaching of the gospel
was so critical to our Master that He preached to everybody,
every situation He found Himself in, shouldn't it be critical
to you and to me? I've often asked myself, how
important is the preaching of the gospel to me? Have you ever
asked yourself that? How important is the preaching
of the gospel to you? How difficult would it be today
if you had to move, if you had to leave this area, how important
is it to you to find some place to hear the gospel where you're
going? Would you check to see if there was a place there to
hear the gospel? I must preach. And Peter said, I must provide
him a pulpit, my ship. It's critical. How important
is it to me? And how important is it to you?
I emphasize this because it's not always easy, is it? It's
not always agreeable to the flesh. Say what we will. Peter fished all night, we're
told here in this chapter 5. And he says, Lord, I caught nothing.
You don't imagine he was somewhat discouraged about that. You could
almost hear it in the tone of his voice, can't you? Lord, I've
caught nothing. And he was tired. He had rowed. He had thrown those heavy nets
out. He had dragged them in all night. He was fatigued. He was
ready to go home and go to bed. He was washing out his nets.
And the Lord Jesus comes to them and says, Peter, I'm going to
sit in your boat, and I want you to row out a little ways
from shore, and I want you to sit there and be patient while
I preach to the people. Was that easy? We think things always have to
be easy, don't we? If there's any difficulty in
it, If we face any opposition, it must not be the Lord's will,
so what do we do? We give up, don't we? It's not
easy. Sometimes there's opposition. How important is the preaching
of the gospel? Is it important enough I spend
some time in prayer to God, asking Him to make it successful? Is it important enough I lose
some time of rest or relaxation? Is the gospel important enough
I'm willing to suffer the afflictions of it if it's called for? How
important is the gospel? How important was it to the Apostle
Peter when he was worn out, when he was tired, when he was looking
forward to a day of rest? that the master says, Peter,
push out and let me use your boat to preach. And you sit and
listen to me. I was reading a little book that
I made mention of just a minute ago. Ann Judson and her husband, they left the United States a
pretty comfortable life. Went to Burma. Hadn't been there very long.
They arrested him, put him in prison. She lost her infant child. He was released only to be removed
to another prison. She lost another child. She went
to where he was because they didn't feed the prisoners. The
family had to come and provide food. She lived in a grain bin
with her infant child until he died. to provide herself and
her infant and her husband food. And you know why they did that?
You know why they went to Burma? To spread the gospel of Christ
to the heathen. Ain't that amazing? And he wrote
a letter to Ann's dad and said, are you willing to lose your
daughter never to see her again? For the cause of the gospel. How important is the gospel to
us? I don't know if Peter went to
sleep when the Lord was preaching or not. I doubt it, but he may
have. We look upon these men sometimes
as being superhuman, don't we? And what they suffered in the
trials they went through, we think, well, that's them, though
they were different than we are. You know, they were men subject
to like passions as we are. They were just like us. They
went to sleep while our Master prayed in the garden. Could you
not watch with me one hour? And He wept like a baby and the
disciples slept. He shed blood and they slept. They were just men in and of
themselves, like us. But they knew how critical the
gospel was. Here in verses 4 and 5 of chapter
5, look at this. And when he had left speaking,
he said unto Simon, he had finished his message. How long it was,
we don't know. But when he had closed the message,
he turned to Peter and he said, Peter, launch out into the deep
and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered and said unto
him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word I will
let down the nets. See some practical things here.
These verses are just full of instructions and comfort for
you and I. And the first one is this. Look
at this practical instructions and information here that we
have in verse 5. Some of God's children have trying
occupations. Lord, I have toiled all night. And I've caught nothing. Are
we mindful of that? I try to be mindful of this,
as I said in my study, not molested with the conversations of the
ungodly, not wearing myself out physically, working in a shop,
or some of you mothers that work at home. I try to be mindful
that some of the Lord's people toil in occupations that's very,
very tiresome and stressful. And some of them just make ends
meet. We have toiled all the night. The livelihood of my dear wife
and my mother-in-law and my children depend upon me, and I've toiled
all night and caught If you've got a pretty easy job, remember those who don't. Now, all of the Lord's people
have it easy, don't they? My wife told me just the other
day, hopefully she won't scold me too bad for telling you this,
but she said, you know, we've never had it better. I don't want you to think about
giving me Another race for a walk, according to my wife. We've never
had it better. That almost embarrasses me. When
I know that some of the Lord's people in some places are toiling,
and they can't hardly make ends meet. We've toiled all night. Well, here's some comfort for
those people. Do what Peter did. First of all, take time. No matter
what your job is, no matter what occupation you have, no matter
what you're doing now, do what Peter did. Take time in the midst
of your schedule. Take time in the midst of your
stress and your job to worship. You see what Peter did? This
wasn't the Sabbath day. If this had been the Sabbath
day, Peter would not have been fishing. He was fishing because
this was a work day. This was his occupation. He had
to be doing this to live. His livelihood depended upon
it. But what did he do in the midst
of his stressful day when he was tired from toiling all night? He stopped to listen to a message
by his Savior. Matthew Henry said something
to this effect. He said, if you won't let your
busy schedule hinder your worship of the Lord, then your worship
of the Lord will probably make your busy schedule more delightful. Haven't you found that out in
your life? I would encourage you dear mothers
who work at home, and it bothers me and it probably bothers you
when somebody asks you, do you work or do you stay home? In
fact, there's a difference. Let some of the men try staying
home and not working. It's a difficult task to keep
home, isn't it? Especially if you have children.
But get up in the morning, and before you begin your busy day
and tired in your mind, sit down and worship the Lord. Sit down in your quiet hours
and seek His face. In so many ways you can do it,
by reading His Word, by listening to a message, by reading some
religious portion of a book, singing some songs of worship,
praying to Him. But when you are tired, when
you are wore out, and you are stressful in your mind, find
that opportunity to stop and still your heart. in some portion
of the day, simply still away, and set your mind and your heart
and your affections upon things of God, and see if that don't
make your day go better. How many times, if I asked you,
would you bear witness to this, and you would say, I was having
an awful day, it had almost got me down. until I turned my heart
towards heaven, and everything changed. I tell you one of the greatest
delights of our Master, our Savior, you know what one of the greatest
delights in serving Him? You can bring Him right down
in the midst of where you live. I don't care what your situation
is. It may be deplorable. It may
be a daily grief and heaviness to you. Your job may be stressful. But bring the Lord Jesus right
down in the midst of your little boat of occupation. He was in
the boat with Peter. And Peter felt like he could
take his complaint to the Lord. You don't have to complain to
other people. Complain to Him. Go right to Him and tell Him,
Lord, here's the situation I'm in. I'm in over my head. I just can't do this. This job
is stressful. Lord, I'm wore out. I've toiled
all night, and Lord, I've taught nothing. He is such a compassionate
Savior. He's such a One that can be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows you. He knows where
you're at. He knows what you're doing. and
tell him about your situation. This great preacher will condescend
to understand. That's good advice, isn't it? Look what else Peter did. Live by faith upon the word of
our Lord. In verse 5, "...at thy word I'll
let down the net." Was that easy? No, that was difficult. He was tired. He was a skilled
fisherman. He had fished this lake many,
many times. He knew when the fish were too
deep. to be caught. And he knew that
there was no rhyme or reason to go back out and expend the
labor and the toil of casting those nets out when he knew,
humanly speaking, we are not going to catch a thing. Then
why did he do it? Brothers, if we are going to
follow the Lord, We can't follow Him by human wisdom. We can't
follow Him by what seems logical all the time. We have one rule
to walk by, and that's the rule of His Word. Now, you be honest with me, there's
times when you need to be and you ought to be somewhere else
besides in this worship service. Why do you make the extra effort
to come? There are times when you witness
to people and you just don't feel like witnessing to them. You almost force yourself if
you don't altogether force yourself. There are many things that you
do not because you feel like it, but because He said to do
it. Nevertheless, at Your Word. I tell you, when we live like
that, when we live like that, you honor the Lord by giving
Him His place. And He has first place in your heart, in your life,
in all that you do. You honor Him by believing Him
and simply walking by the rule of His Word. When we do that,
I'll tell you what He'll do. When you have to launch out into
the deep, He'll be there to guide you. He'll be there to guide
you. And that's what we see here in
this text. I can't explain this, but it happens. Look what he
said in verse 6 and 7 again. And when he had this done, they
enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their nets break.
And he beckoned his partners into another ship. And they come
and fill two ships with fishes. Isn't that amazing? Some man
said that these ships held between one and four tons of fish. The average fishing vessel that
they fished felt between one and four tons. You realize they
could have had eight tons of fish. We often say, don't we often
say this? The Lord is so faithful to provide
our food and our raiment. Who among us can say that's all
He's given us? That's all He's provided us. I don't know of anybody that's
all that He's given them is food and raiment. He said Himself that you've got
the promise of this life and that life that is to come. He is rich. And where He is honored, where
He is believed, where He is first and foremost worshipped and sought,
there is just no telling how and what He may give a man. They were amazed. They were amazed. If you've been poor financially,
and you've had to struggle just to put food on the table, and you've honored the Lord as Peter did here, and He's provided for you, there's something about that
that it will teach you. that everything you have, you're
aware that He's provided it for you. If you've been there, and your
job has been stressful and tough, and you don't have a bank account,
and you struggle, but yet you've honored Him, and you've sought
Him, and then you've sought to your amazement how He provides
for you. Don't it amaze you? You may be poor. You may still
be poor. But it still amazes you that
He provides for you. Whether you're poor or whether
you're rich, everything you've got, He's given it to you. Joe and I had two old friends.
A couple. And he died and left his widow.
Both of them were as poor as they could be. They were poor
when he was living and she was really poor when he left. And I got to thinking about her
one day. I thought we better go by and
see her. And Joe and I went to the grocery
store and bought a bunch of groceries. Walked up to her door and there
we stood holding the sacks of groceries. Knocked on the door
and she opened the door. You know what she said? I was
just telling the Lord I was out of food. I was just telling the Lord I was
out of food. You think the Lord won't care
for His people? You think He won't provide for His people?
That was just amazing to her seeing us stand there with those
sacks of grocery as these boatload of fish was to Peter, she was
amazed that the Lord provided for her. I don't care what situation we're
in, when we find ourselves, brothers and sisters, first and foremost
honoring Him, live by faith upon the Son of God. And I'm telling you what, you'll
be amazed. how he'll provide. Verses 8 and 9, right quickly. I sure can't explain this. But
look what he says here in verse 8. When Peter saw it, he fell
down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful
man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all
that were within all the draught of the fishes which they had
taken." There is something about this, when Peter experienced it here,
that the sovereign Lord, who rules in heaven, and He rules
in earth, He rules in the sea, He rules in the paths of the
sea, had condescended to care for him. and to provide for him. He was amazed by that. He got
a glimpse of that, and he said, Who am I? Who am I? This is just something that comes
so spontaneous. When we see the Sovereign Lord
of Heaven condescend to us from His throne and daily provide
for us. There is something about that
that we ask this question. Who am I? What is man that you would be
mindful of him and send this word for him to cast all your
care upon me for I care for you? In my daily allowance, in my
job, my toil, my heaviness, my stress, that He cares so much
for me that He stoops, He bows. I often pray this way, to be
honest with you. Lord, if You're going to hear
me, if You're going to care for me,
You're going to have to get down in the dust with me, because
that's where I am. God doesn't look us eye by eye. He doesn't look up to see us.
We are way down here. And He has to stoop and condescend
and bow down, and that He does. And when He does, this is what
we say, Who am I that a sovereign, the king of
the universe, that has need of nothing? Who am I that a king
would bleed and die for? Who am I that a sovereign God
would stoop down and care for and uphold and comfort and prosper? Who am I but a poor, sinful creature
of this earth? I can't explain how that happens,
but when we get a sense of His greatness, and His care for us,
and His love in providing for us. It humbles us. It humbles us. And I tell you, when we feel
this way, we come here to verse 10 and verse 11. They were all
amazed, and the Lord said, Fear not, I will make you fishers
of men. And when they had brought their ship to land, look at this,
they forsook all and followed Him. Ain't that amazing? They
had all of these tons of fish. This was their livelihood. This
is what they toiled all night for. And when He gave it to them,
what did they do? They said, we'd rather have you.
Ain't that what they said? How could a man do that? I tell
you, brothers and sisters, they had nothing but Christ when they
had nothing. And they found Him to be enough.
And they wanted nothing but Christ when they had everything. So
they're willing to leave it, let it go, when we know that
it's Him that gives it and mercy provides it. And it's a gift
of His goodness. and that He is everything to
us. You know what? In life or in death, we can let
it go. We can use it here, enjoy it
under God, but when it comes time that He says you've got
to go to Burma, you've got to go to the mission fields, you've
got to go to the pulpit, you've got to leave, we let it go and
follow Him. When it comes time to leave this
world, we don't hang on to it. We can't say, oh, I can't endure
to leave it. Oh, what about my farm? What
about my automobiles? What about my job? What about
my bank account? No, it's nothing. I'm going to
be with Him who is all in all. Lord bless this Word. Let's pray.