John chapter 21. This is the chapter in which
Peter and six other disciples decide to go fishing after they
had seen the Lord twice since he was resurrected. The Lord
was not with them all of the time. He would appear and then
he would leave. He would disappear. And two times this has happened.
So this is the third account of the Lord's appearance unto
them after his resurrection. Now, you probably remember this
because they toiled all night trying to catch fish. They drug
their nets. They did their best, if you want
to put it that way, to try to catch fish all night long. And
the scripture says they did not catch a single fish. Now, The
Lord calls unto them and we're going to read this and I'm going
to just keep reiterating the same thing because we're going
to see the spiritual side of this tonight is my hope because it's
all pointing to Christ. It's all about him. It's his
book. And so I love Peter is the first thing I want to tell
you because Uh, he, he was so courageous at one point, so bold
that he chopped off the high priest servant's ear. But in
the very next chapter, same chapter, he denies the Lord three times
from a little girl that accused him of knowing the Lord. And
I see him, uh, he always put his foot in his mouth. I can
relate to that as well. You know, we, we oftentimes say
and do things that we don't mean to say and do. And I see him
as. I hope us, hopefully us, because
we see that there's nothing in Peter that would have merited
the Lord's love. Nothing in Peter that would have
merited the Lord's mercy. Peter betrayed him. Peter denied
him. He did the same thing Judas did,
just without money. That's what he did. So we see
here that things have gotten discouraging for the disciples.
Their Savior, their friend, their master, their Lord, Jesus Christ,
had died. And they were discouraged from
that because once he was gone, although he did appear to them
two times, he wasn't there with them all the time like he was
before. He was supplying everything for them before, and now he's
not there. So what does Peter do? He says,
I'm going to go fishing. I'm going to go back to the trade
that I did before the Lord came. I'm going to go back to doing
that. which my father had done, it was a family business. And
that's where we find this account starting in verse three. Simon
Peter saith unto them, the disciples, I go a fishing. They say unto
him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into
a ship immediately. And that night they caught nothing.
Peter went back to what he knew. Peter went back to what he was
comfortable doing. The Lord had appeared unto Peter
in the calling of Peter and Andrew, his brother. And he said, if
you will follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. And they
left their nets and they left their father immediately and
followed Christ. But we see here because of the
discouragement that they felt. And perhaps it's the guilt that
Peter felt for denying the Lord. Here they are fishing again.
This is where Peter's comfortable. This is what he's comfortable
doing. Working with his hands. So often we go back to doing
what we're most comfortable doing, and that's depending upon ourself.
Is that not true? Now, when it comes to salvation,
we know that it is finished and we know that only the Lord is
right and just and true in salvation. And we don't offer anything up
for salvation, but how many times do we take matters into our own
hands physically when something happens rather than fleeing unto
the Lord? That's what Peter did here. He said, You know, I'm
discouraged. I'm upset. I'm going to go back
doing what I'm comfortable doing. I'm not going to be fishers of
men anymore. I'm going to be fishers of fish. I can do much better
at that. And that's what he went and did. I can totally understand
what Peter's mentality was in that, because I'm much better
at catching fish than I am at catching men. The Lord has to
do the work there, doesn't he? See, we rely on ourself whenever
we're doing something physical, but this is a spiritual matter
that the Lord has to do in the heart. And so we see that we
are so much like Peter in this regard. We do what we think is
best rather than what God has said or what God has shown. And
then he leaves us to ourself for a brief moment. And how does
that end every single time? Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
I have messed up again. I took matters into my own hands
again. I started doing things my own
way again, not your way. I'm not looking to Christ. I'm
looking to myself. The answer, brethren, is flee
to Christ. He's the refuge. He's the high
tower. He's the rock. He's Zion that
we talked about Sunday. He's the cornerstone. Flee to
Him and His finished work. If we can, we will, because He's
made us to. And they toiled all night, they told all night, and
they caught nothing. Look at verse four with me. But
when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but
the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said unto
them, children, have you any meat? They answered him, no. I'm so thankful that the Lord
did not leave the disciples and Peter on that boat, empty handed
in the darkness forever. the sun came up the next morning.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is that sun that shines upon his
people in his time. See, we're spending our entire
life going through darkness, trying to work for our families,
trying to take care of our responsibilities, trying to do things. We don't
do that in salvation. We know better than that. But
so often these distractions happen and we need the light to shine
into our heart, to melt these icy hearts that we have. We need
the Lord's face to shine through. And that's what this is a picture
of here. When the morning came, they saw Christ. Now they didn't
know that's exactly who it was, But he asked him a question,
he says, have you any meat? I found that an interesting question.
Now I know fishermen, I am one, not as much now being here, but
fishermen will look at each other and it doesn't matter whether
you've seen the guy once or never, it doesn't make a difference.
You say, you called anything? They cry out, they call out to
each other. You called anything? Anything biting? What are you fishing
with? Lord said, have you any meat? He didn't say, are they
biting? He didn't say, have you called anything? He said, have
you any meat? Understand they weren't just out there fishing
for pleasure. They were fishing as a job. That
was their job prior. And that's what they were comfortable
doing. They were fishing because they were hungry. They needed
food. Have you any meat? Fish was the
meat that they were searching for. And the response was no.
They were starving, weren't they? How long had it been since the
Lord had turned the five loaves and two fish into the feast that
they had? How long had it been since they
were gathered with him and he had provided everything for them?
How long had it taken place, the timeframe? So we gotta go
fishing. We're starving here, man. We
gotta get some meat. You ever feel like you're starving
in this world? whenever it comes down to spiritual matters. Now, physically, there's nobody,
and you can correct me after service, but none of us have
went very long without food, have we? The Lord's provided
our physical food from birth. He's given us the sustenance
that we needed to live. But do you ever feel like you're
starving in this world because everywhere around you is darkness
and everywhere around you, you have no meat that you can produce
of yourself. You have no sustenance that you
can get from yourself. You must draw your sustenance
from Christ. Well, that's why we come here,
isn't it? Because we're starving. Have you any meat? No, Lord,
you're going to have to give us the meat if we're going to
have the meat. I can't. I've tried my best to catch fish
and I can't catch a single one on my own. I can't do it. That's
why we come here. We need to be reminded that every
fish is purposed by God. Every single fish that we catch
now. I'm talking metaphorically, I'm talking literally. If we're
going to eat, it's going to come by natural food. Everything that's brought to
our table is by the hand of the Lord and His providence, but
everything spiritual is that much also. It has to come through
and by Him. All good things come from our
heavenly father, the scripture tells us, and everything, everything,
his purpose, every single fish that you get to eat, every single
piece of bread that you've ever tasted, every crumb that you've
ever possessed, the Lord has given you that by his purpose. Now look in verse six, Christ
said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship,
and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now
they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
Now this is interesting because they don't know that it's Christ. They didn't know that it's Christ. So why, why would they obey his
voice? Why? We read in John chapter
10 the reason why. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. See, they recognize the Lord's
voice. John, we're gonna find out. John
said, hey, that's the Lord right there. We recognize the Lord's
voice, don't we? Even though we're in a dark world
and we can't really make him out, because he's out in the
distance, it seems like, in the world that we live in. This is
why we come here. And sometimes arriving here, he seems like
he's far off in the distance, but when we hear his voice, we
know it's him, don't we? We know the Lord's voice. The
Lord's people know his voice. We follow him. Well, what does
sheep follow shepherds for? Everything. Everything. Food, nurturing, covering, protection,
everything. Why do we follow Christ? We need
him for every aspect of salvation. We can produce nothing. We're
sheep. A sheep is not a very intelligent animal. I mentioned
this to you before, but if you take a sheep and you put him
or her along a stream that's moving quickly, if it's rapids,
they'll snort the water and drown themselves. We have to be brought
to the still stream, don't we? The peaceful brook. And that's
what he does for his people. He leads them beside the still
waters. He gives them green pasture to eat on. And that's how he
restores our soul is by the preaching of his gospel. He makes us thirsty
for living water. He makes us hungry for righteousness,
doesn't he? He makes us desperate, desperate. We can't find righteousness in
this world. We can't find it up in ourself.
We are thirsty after Christ. It makes us desperate. No matter
what we do, we can't produce that which is necessary to please
the Lord. And he shows us that, and he
makes us desperate. I would imagine these men were
desperate, and that's the reason they said, well, can't hurt nothing,
throw it over on the other side. Well, the Lord didn't say the
other side. The Lord said the right side. The right side of
the ship is interesting in its translation. I'm kind of getting
ahead of myself here, but the right side is the purposed side,
the purposed side of the ship. We were fishing on the wrong
side our entire life, until we heard the gospel. We were trying
to catch something that wasn't there, that didn't exist right
there. They didn't catch any fish because it was purposed
for them not to catch fish. When the Lord calls us to fish
on the other side, by His word, by His word, cast your nets on
the right side. That's when we caught fish. What
am I saying there? That's when the Lord revealed
His glory, His righteousness, that it's all gonna be by His
word, by His hand, according to His purpose. This is what
He did. The Lord makes His people willing,
willing in the day of His power. And when we're desperate, that's
when we'll flee to the word. That's when we'll flee to Christ. That's
whenever we'll hear. He makes our heart willing to hear because
he's made us desperate to do so. And you notice, I'd already read
this, but he says they could not draw the fishes. They could
not draw the fishes. I'm gonna, I don't wanna talk,
elaborate on that quite yet. We're gonna come back to that,
but let's read the rest of this account, verse seven. Therefore,
that disciple whom Jesus loves 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 had cast himself
into the sea. The other disciple came in a
little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were
two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fishes. As soon
then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there.
and fish laid there on and bred. Jesus said unto them, bring of
the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew
the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty
and three. And for all there were so many,
yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, come and
dine. And none of the disciples durst
ask him, who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then
cometh and taketh bread and giveth them, and fish likewise. This
is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples,
after that he was risen from the dead. First thing we see
is John said, it is the Lord. It is the Lord. How did he know
that it was the Lord? Well, it was revealed to him, wasn't it?
He knew it was the Lord because the Lord had revealed that into
him. He recognized his voice. He saw that the miracle that
had just taken place, it had to be the Lord. That's exactly
how it happened. John just knew. John just knew it was the Lord.
Is that your confession? When you hear the Lord's voice,
whenever you hear from the preaching of the gospel, that you know,
that you just know. You just know that that's him.
You just know. As soon as Peter heard this,
he gurts his fisher's coat. So not only was he out there
fishing again, but he was naked fishing again. He went all the
way back to doing exactly what he was doing as if he had not
walked with the Lord three and a third year. Think about that.
Is that not us? That's exactly what we would
do left to ourselves. So we see here that he puts on his Fisher's
coat, whenever he, when he sees that the Lord is there, he says,
well, I'm not going to approach the Lord this way. I'm not going
to approach him naked. Let me put this coat on. But
he didn't do that for righteousness. This is not a representation
of a covering for righteousness. No, this, he was going to go
see the king. and he wanted to be covered.
He was gonna go approach the Lord Jesus Christ, and he wanted
to make sure he had something better on than nothing. He needed
something to be wearing. Now, this is not a picture. This
is not a picture of him trying to have righteousness before
the Lord, as we've seen many times with coverings in the scripture.
This was just him having a reverence for the Lord and fear where he
wanted to have this covering so that he wasn't He wasn't disrespectful
unto the Lord, if I can put it that way. It's what we do when
we come to service. We don't come to service in pajamas,
do we? Why not? Because we come to worship the
King. We come to see Him. We do come naked before Him,
but it's the nakedness of our heart, isn't it? Having no righteousness.
We wear what we can unto Him when we come because out of reverence,
out of godly fear. This is just how the Lord has
given us a heart to do, isn't it? And he jumps in. He jumps
in with the coat on. I'm gonna go see the Lord. He
doesn't hesitate. He jumps in the water. Now a
cubic is 1.5 feet. And I realize I'm giving a lot
of information. I'm giving the story because we're going to
see the spiritual of all this here in just a minute. And everything
that I'm building upon, whenever I elaborate here in a moment,
it'll make more sense. But cubit is 1.5 feet, roughly. And it says there were 200 cubits
from the shore. Peter swam 300 feet. That's a
football field. Peter swam 300 feet to the shore.
Now, that might not seem like a long way to some, but if you
can't swim, that's a long ways, isn't it? We see that the disciples have
to drag the net to shore. They couldn't get the fish up
in the boat. They dragged the net all the way to the shore,
but Jesus had fish and bread already waiting on them. He didn't
use the fish that they caught. He tells them to bring your fish
up here, but when they arrived, he had fish and bread waiting
on them cooking already. He fed them. The Lord fed them. Now I wanna look at the spiritual
application of all of this. The first thing we notice is
we must be kept. The second thing we notice is
how we are kept. If left to ourself, we'll go
back to doing what we do best. We'll go back to our craft, like
Peter did. What's our craft? It's unbelief,
isn't it? Unbelief is our craft by nature,
and we're really good at it. We are so good at looking to
ourself looking at the world and not looking to Christ. If
left to ourself, that's what we'll do. We'll examine ourself.
We'll justify ourself. We'll say that we're right in
our own eyes. That's what all men do by nature,
isn't it? Unbelief, that's our craft. Peter would have been
a good fisherman. It was a family trade. You and
I are really good sinners. Really good, it's a family trade.
All the way back to Adam, all the way back to the very beginning.
We are sinners by nature, we are sinners by practice, and
we're sinners by pleasure. We enjoy sin in the flesh. This
flesh does. It's enmity against God in every
way. The flesh hates God. So we see that just as Peter,
not looking to Christ and not following him is what we would
do if left to ourself. Left to self, we will always
end up fishing. And we'll end up fishing on the
wrong side of the boat. Not only will we be fishing,
but we'll be fishing on the wrong side. There's only one right
side. There's only one right side.
And he's not talking about your right being your arm, your right
side. It's the side, meaning the place
of honor and authority. When I looked up that word right,
it had two definitions. Right meant the place of honor
and the place of authority. That's where the Lord told him
to fish. You're fishing in the wrong place is what he's telling them.
This is the picture of where are we fishing? Are we fishing
on our own, doing our own, hoping in ourself? Or are we looking
to Christ? That's what the picture is. Are
we fishing on the right place? Well, where's the right place?
It's under the sound of the gospel, isn't it? And I'm using the term
fishing, trying to parallel it, but I believe I'm making sense
of what I'm trying to tell you. It's the Lord's gospel. This
is the Lord's gospel. And I've titled the message Unbroken
Nets. Unbroken Nets. We're fishing. As preachers, as a candlestick,
we're fishing that the Lord may bring His elect fish in, that
He may bring His sheep in. That's the business that we're
in. We're fishers of men. Greg Elmquist told me this, and
it really encouraged me, and I hope it does you too. But a
preacher's responsibility is to not preach with a sniper rifle. It's not to aim at one person
in particular. The preacher's job is to preach
with a spread gun, a shotgun. So it goes everywhere. We don't
know what the Lord's going to do with his word. It's the preacher's
job to preach with a net, a cast net. A cast net's wide and long
and it's, who is it going to catch? We don't know. We don't
know what it's going to catch. It's not our job to fish with
a fishing pole. We use a cast net, don't we? And it's an unbreakable
net. It's an unbroken net. Why? Because
it's his gospel. That's how he gets his people.
He's already got them in eternity past. He saved them and then
he calls them by his gospel, by this net. That's the picture
here. That's the picture he casts. We just cast the gospel net over
and over and he does that, which is pleasing unto him. So many times I get discouraged
because I don't see something that I want to see, meaning my
efforts are not validated in my mind, or I don't have the
gratification that I wanted, but the Lord uses the same net
to catch what he has chosen at the appointed time. It's not
up to me. and it's not up to you. And we all have, or most
of us here have children or loved ones that don't know the gospel,
that haven't come to the knowledge of the truth yet. Don't be discouraged. We're just going to keep throwing
this net and the Lord will bring those that are his. He's promised
he'll do so. He promised he would. Point is,
is they could not draw the fishes, could they? I said, we're going
to circle back to that. They couldn't draw the fishes.
But God does, doesn't he? He draws his people to repentance
and faith. He draws his people at his appointed
time. It's all by grace. Christ said
in John six, no man can come to me except the father which
sent me draw him. That's what the Lord does by
his gospel. He draws his people. It's his work alone. And it's
all at His word, isn't it? Cast your net on the right side.
We're no longer fishing in the same hole that we used to fish
in, the same self-righteousness that we had before, looking to
ourself and not looking to the Lord. Why? Because He spoke,
cast your nets on the right side and you'll find meat. Because
He's provided everything there. He's provided everything for
His people there. We get no glory in it. It's His gospel. It's
His net. And He'll do whatsoever He will
with it. Do you know why it's an unbroken net? Because it's
kept by Christ. It's kept by the power of God.
He's the one that keeps it. He's the one that wrought it,
and it's all for his glory. Notice verse seven. Therefore
that disciple whom Jesus loves saith unto him, Peter, saith
unto Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that
it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he
was naked, and cast himself into the sea. And the other disciple
came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as
it were, 200 cubits, dragging the net with fish. Now he gives
us the exact number of fish. As soon as then they were come
to land, they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid thereon and
bread. Jesus saith unto them, bring up the fish which ye have
now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full
of great fishes in 153. It gives us the exact number
of the fish that they caught. Do you find that interesting?
I find that very interesting. The Lord doesn't do things by
chance, by circumstance, by accident. He doesn't try to do anything,
does he? God is God, he's sovereign, he's holy, he's just, he's good.
And he does everything that he has purpose to do. And he purposed
to put 153 fish down in John chapter number 21. And even though this seemed to
overburden the net, it did not, did not break the net. That's
what he tells us. The very end of that verse, verse
11, for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. This is what the Lord has done
in showing us exactly how he's gonna catch every one of his
fish. We know the number one means the Father. We know that
it's the only one, the self-existing one, the sovereign one, as we
learned about on Wednesday night several weeks ago. We know that
the number five is all by grace, and we know it took the Trinity
to enter into the covenant of grace to redeem his people. This
is how it's done. It's done by the one, by grace.
And all three of them, the father elected a people, the son redeemed
the people and the spirit regenerates the people. That's what this
number represents. This is the Lord's people caught in his net
by his gospel. This is what he's done. He brings
them at the appointed time. And there's not one added or
not one taken away. The net will hold because the
Lord has fashioned it. And the third thing we notice
is who is kept, who is kept. I mentioned already that it's,
I have to turn back, I can't recall. First thing we notice is we must
be kept. The second thing we notice is how we are kept. And
the third thing we notice is who is kept, who is kept, his
people. His people are kept. Can you get out of the net? Not
this net. This is an impenetrable net from
the outside and from the inside. This is the Lord's doing by His
gospel. We are kept by Him, by His purpose. It's unbreakable. I'm thankful
that I can't get out of it, aren't you? I can't mess it up. I can't mess it up. I can't do
something, not one thing. that would give me favor towards
God or ruin the favor that he's given towards me in Christ. I
can't do one thing to mess that up. We're kept by him. We are
kept by the power of God through this, his glorious gospel, his
finished work. That's what this net represents.
His net catches according to his will and he will not lose
one of his fish, not one of his sheep. Fourth thing we see is it's going to take an act of
God to change our heart. Peter walked on the water. Peter,
a man, literally walked on water with the Lord. Now, I don't know
How else to conclude this, but to think of it this way, Peter's
walking on the water and he begins to sink because he takes his
eyes off the Lord and he says, Lord save me. Now we just read
that he swam 300 feet. He swam 300 feet. Now. There's two ways to look at this.
Number one, it was just now the morning and they didn't have
depth finders back then. There was no way he would know
how deep the water was when he jumped out of the boat. So he
had to know how to swim or he wouldn't, I mean, it would take
an insane person just to jump in the water. Now the scripture
doesn't tell us whether he could swim or not, does it? But when
he started sinking in the Lord's presence, what did he say? I've
got this, I'm gonna swim back to the boat. No, no, he said,
Lord, save me. What are we to conclude from
this? Peter's heart had been changed. Peter didn't care about
the water anymore. He just wanted Christ. He jumped
in head first. He jumped in and swam 300 feet
to Christ. Peter went back to doing his
own way. Seeing Christ, he girt his fishing rope. What do you
wear when you come to church? We wear the Lord's righteousness,
don't we? We don't come in here wearing our own righteousness.
Ours is filthy rags. We pray that we're wearing his
righteousness whenever we approach, don't we? That's what this is
a picture of. And we dive in. We don't think
about how deep the water is. We don't worry about the consequences
of our actions. We are here to see him and we
have got to get to him. It's the most important thing. Remember the woman that had an
issue of blood for 12 years? She had tried physicians. She
had tried holistic doctors. I mean, the scripture tells us
that she tried physicians. Well, whoever was declaring to
be a physician back then, I'm sure she tried everything she
possibly could for 12 years. 12 years and nothing helped her,
did it? Nothing made it better. It's
interesting because at that particular time, the method of treatment,
if you were sick, or if you were if you were unwell in whatever
way, they would bloodlet. They would literally let out
blood in order to compensate or try to, well, you have a blood
problem, so we need to get some of that blood out and that'll
fix it. She was already bleeding. She was anemic, no doubt. And
so now they're letting out more blood in order to try to help
her. Is that not all religion? Every bit of religion, isn't
it? That's what men do. They believe they have a sin
problem, but yet there's something they can do to fix it. And so
they just bloodlet. but they don't realize that it's
not gonna do any good. It's not gonna fix the issue of blood
that they have. It's our blood that's polluted in the Lord's
eyes. We need the Lord Jesus Christ's blood, don't we? So
what did the woman do? She says, if I can but touch
the hem of his garment, I've got to get to Christ. He's the
only one, the only one that can make me whole. I know that if
I can get to him, everything will be all right. and she starts
pressing through the crowd. I can no doubt see her. She'd
have been weak from all, I mean, think about the loss of blood
that she had. She'd have been weak and tired, but yet she had to
get to Christ, no matter what. He was the only one that could
help her. And she's pushing through the crowd, probably on her hands
and knees. She was gonna touch the hymn, so that was down low,
wasn't it? So she's just crawling her way to him. Is that how you
feel when you come in on Sunday sometimes and Wednesday? We're
just trying to crawl to him, aren't we? We've been beat up
and banged up and defeated. And we've looked to ourself and
we feel embarrassed for it. Just as we're going to see, Peter
was embarrassed for the way that he treated the Lord in denying
him. And yet we've got to get to Christ. We've got to get to him. Lord,
give me legs to run to you. Give me eyes that I can see you.
Allow me to touch the hem of your garment and make me whole.
That's exactly what happened, wasn't it? She touched his garment,
was made whole immediately. Immediately. God places a cry
in each of his people that says, I must have Christ. I must get to Christ. I've got to have him. Peter saw
the Lord in his heart. had hope again. His heart had
hope again. It was filled with hope. Christ
is the only one who can love a dead dog sinner like me. I've
got to get to him. He's the one that looked at me
in mercy. You remember whenever he denied the Lord, the look
of compassion that the Lord gave to Peter. It wasn't a look of
judgment. He said, I've got to get to him. He's the only one
that can love a sinner like me. Peter believed that Christ put
away the sin of his people. Peter believed the Lord Jesus
Christ. He believed that he had all the
power. And you do too, don't you? You believe he has all the
power to right your wrong. Every bit of the wrong that we
are, every bit of the wrong that we do, he made it right on the
cross of Calvary by taking our wrong into himself and giving
us his righteousness in return. That's what he did for his people.
This is why Peter dove in. And I don't know if Peter could
swim or not, but it did not matter. Peter dove in. He said, I've
got to get to him. Maybe somebody would say, well,
if he couldn't swim, he'd have been a maniac. Well, that's all the
Lord saves, isn't it? His maniacs. You remember the
message about the maniac at Gadara? That's the only kind of people
the Lord came to save was the sinner, the maniac, those that don't
have it all together. He had to get to the Lord. Once the Lord offended his followers,
if you will, not the disciples. He offended the following that
he had. A lot of men and women would
come to the Lord for what he could do physically for them, not spiritually.
They would come and say, we need you to heal this person, or we
need you to do this for us. We need you to feed us. And the
Lord would do so. Well, the Lord preached the truth
to them, just like he preached the truth to the Pharisees in
John 10, as we already read. And it made them angry. And they
all departed from him. And the Lord asked the question,
To the disciples, will you also leave? They said, Lord, where
are we going to go? You have the words of eternal
life. This is why Peter jumped in the water. He knew that the
only fountain of life, the only fountain of living water was
right there on that beach. And he had to get to him. He
had to get to him. Peter was fully persuaded if
I can get to him, all will be well. Everything will be all
right. Is that why you come to here? Because you know if you
see him, all will be made right. Everything will be made right.
No matter the circumstance in life, if we see his face, If
we see his face, if we see that there is peace between us and
God, we rest in that moment. And that's the only rest we truly
have in this life, isn't it? That's the only hope that we
truly have in this life is resting in his finished work. Peter didn't,
I got to thinking about how it was a bigger vessel because they
took a smaller one that says the other disciples took a smaller
boat to the shore. Peter being ready to go, it probably would
have been his boat, I would imagine, or his father's, because that
was the trade that they had. Peter didn't say, make sure the
anchors dropped. Make sure the cells are turned
down. Make sure that this is taken care of and this is taken
care of. No, he had to get to Christ. He put on his robe and
he jumped in. Didn't matter about anybody else.
I've got to have him. That's the mentality the Lord
gives his people, isn't it? I've got to get to him or I'm
going to die. I'm going to perish. I have no
hope outside of him. Now, can you relate to Peter? You relate to Peter? I can. On arrival, what did Peter find? It's the fifth thing we notice.
He found fish and bread. That's the spirit that represents
the spirit and the washing of water by the word for the Lord's
people. It represents the body of Christ and the blood of Christ.
That's what this fish and bread represents. Everything that they
were tolling for, everything that they were trying to accomplish
on their own had already been provided for them. That's what
the Lord reveals to his people. When we see him, we realize that
everything that we were trying to do by getting our own righteousness
had already been provided in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
see our righteousness in comparison as filthy rags. Everything needed
was already required for the disciples when they arrived. They were made to see Everything
required, the Lord provides, doesn't He? Salvation is by the
Lord's hand alone for His people, not by the works of our hands,
not by the sweat of our brow, but the works of His hands, the
sweat of His brow, the sweat of His brow. I'll remind you
that in Genesis chapter three, the curse that man had, you shall
eat bread. by the sweat of your face. But
the spiritual aspect to that is no matter how much we sweat,
we cannot eat the bread of life. He had to sweat so that we can
have the bread of life. That's what he did for his people.
Everything required, the work of his hand, the sweat of his
brow that became great drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane
was done so that you and I can flee to him the bread of life
and find that everything needed, he provided for his people. We see the picture here of the
preacher just cast in the net over and over and over. That's what Peter was, is the
Lord's preacher. The Lord gave him the keys to the kingdom.
He established his church through the disciples, didn't he? Through
Peter on the day of Pentecost, the Lord used him in a mighty
way. And we see it's a picture of him doing it his way, trying
to get things accomplished his way. This is what men do by nature. Men go back to their own ways,
trying to bring people in, turning the house of the Lord into a
den of thieves, not robbing him physically through monetary gain,
but robbing him of his glory. That's what men do, isn't it?
And that's what the picture is here, is the gospel preacher
must cast where the Lord leads, where the Lord shows. The Lord's
preachers must declare the gospel alone. You have no other hope. I have no other hope of salvation
except through and by the finished work of Christ. It is not our
righteousness. It's his that he bestows upon
us. There's nothing good about us.
Everything is lovely about him. He's provided it all. And at
the appointed time, this unbroken net, it's unbreakable because
it's kept by Christ, his gospel. It's unbreakable. It's the covenant
of grace. It's all one in the same. It's what he's done in
the salvation of his people. It can't be broken. It's unbreakable
because he keeps it. He kept it, the fullness of the
covenant for his people. He brings us in one at a time,
according to his purpose. And he brings us back safely
over and over again, don't he? He didn't just, salvation is
not a one time and done deal. It is to the Lord. On Calvary's
cross, every single person that the Lord died for was successfully
redeemed and the father was pleased forever. He's satisfied with
his son. But for you and I, we're constantly
being saved, aren't we? Saved from ourself, saved from
our sins, saved from our thoughts, saved from our actions. Lord,
have mercy on me, the sinner. That's our cry. Save me again,
Lord. Draw me into you again, Lord. Don't leave me to myself
out here on this boat in darkness, trying to do it my way. Lord,
give me Christ. Cause me to see your face in
the morning sun. Now in closing, I want to look
in verse 15. So when they had dined, Jesus
said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more
than these? He said unto him, yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, feed my lambs. He saith unto him again a second
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He said unto him, yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, feed
my sheep. He saith unto him a 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, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, when thou is young, thou girdest thyself and walkest
whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou
shalt stretch forth thy hand and another shall gird thee and
carry thee wherewith thou wouldest not. This spake he signifying by what
death he should glorify God. And when he has spoken this,
he saith unto them, follow me. When Peter turning about, seeth
the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned
on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that
betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus,
Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, if
I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow
thou me. Peter was asked the same question
three times, just as he had denied the Lord three times. This brought
up a memory to Peter, no doubt, brought up the grievousness of
his sin. And do you know that that's what
the Lord does to his people? He allows us to remember our
sin. The Lord does not remember his people's sin. He's cast them
as far as the East is from the West, into the sea, never to
be remembered again. He put them away by his own blood.
He put them away by his own death. Our sin is gone, but yet he allows
us to see our sin for a moment. And what does it do when we see
it? It grieves us, don't it? It grieves
us. It doesn't grieve us as it ought,
but it grieves us. And that's what happened here
with Peter. It grieved him. Our love is so cold to the Lord,
and yet his love is so good and perfect and right. He said, Do
you love me? The Lord said, Peter, do you
love me? Peter said, Lord, you know all
things. You know that I love you. He said, follow me the last
time. He said, feed my sheep, feed
my sheep. And then he says to all of them, follow me. What
is he saying to Peter here? Stop depending upon your love
for me because it's not your love for me that merits anything.
It's my love for you. Follow me, look unto me. That's what he's telling Peter
here. Don't look to yourself and don't look to your sin. Don't
look to your self-righteousness. Look to Christ, flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. That's what he's
telling the disciples here. It's not our love, it's his.
And he gives us the remedy. He gives us the remedy for looking
unto ourself. He tells us, follow me, look
to Christ, not self. We must forsake ourself, our
thoughts, our concerns, our doubts, our unbelief. We must forsake
any bad that would be in us, such as self-righteousness, anything
that we're doing that we think is pleasing God. We must flee
from that and flee to Christ. flee to his gospel, this unbreakable,
unbroken net whereby he will get, he's already got them, but
he's gonna keep calling and keep calling and keep bringing us
to the same shoreline, seeing his fish and his bread, that
he's the fountain of living water, that he is the bread of life
over and over again. And when he does, he's gonna
say, do you love me? You say, Lord, I love you. But
Lord, my love is cold and I am so often easily distracted. Lord,
help my unbelief. Cause me to love you more. Cause
me not to look at my love, but cause me to look at your love
and what it actually accomplished. My love can't accomplish anything.
My love can't accomplish anything, Lord, but yours did. You were
successfully redeemed your people. We trust in his love because
it's unbreakable. It's unbroken, just like his
net, his gospel, amen. Father, thank you that you have
purpose to save a people and that everything you purpose is
unbreakable and it's unbroken because you have fulfilled every
covenant promise for the salvation of your people. Calls us to rest
in you, in Christ's name, amen.