I want us to look at a verse
of scripture that Brother Roach read a moment ago from Luke 5,
Luke the 5th chapter, and let's use verse 8 as a text. Luke 5, 8, when Simon Peter saw
it, when Simon Peter saw it, He fell down at Jesus' knees,
saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. This is a strange request. Depart
from me, O Lord. He knew who he was talking to. And it's a request that most
of us would like to think that we would never utter in a lifetime. I don't suppose there's anybody
here, anybody you've ever met, or anybody you ever will meet,
who will say honestly, I want the Lord God to depart from me. I want him to depart from me.
What man would actually say to the Lord of glory, depart from
me, leave me alone? And yet I find through the scriptures
many examples of those who have done just that. They have said to the Lord of
glory, I'm not talking about the play god now, I'm not talking
about the God of men's imaginations. I'm not talking about the 20th
century Jesus. I'm talking about the eternal,
invisible, infinite, unchangeable, immutable, almighty, sovereign
Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And I've found so many examples
through the scriptures, and I'm going to give them to you this
morning, of men who met with this Christ, And they said, leave
us alone. Depart from us. We want nothing
to do with you in this character. Now here's the issue. A man wrote
me this week from a television audience. I made the statement
on television last Sunday morning. No man can believe evolution
and believe the Bible. I said it twice. No man can believe
evolution and believe the Bible. And he wrote me a letter this
week, and he said, you and I have agreed on most things. I've been
watching you a long time, but we disagree strongly. And he
got real ugly in a place or two. He said, you're just wrong about
that. You're wrong. You said no man
can believe in evolution, believe in God. He said, I believe in
God. I believe in God. You shouldn't
have said that preacher, no man can believe in evolution, believe
in God. I believe in God. I wrote him back and I said,
now when you lock horns with an adversary or you want to debate
with a man, quote him right. I didn't say no man can believe
in evolution, believe in God. I didn't say that. And I went
and got the tape, played the tape. I didn't say that. Because
I don't believe that. A man can believe in evolution,
believe in God. A man believe anything he wants
to believe in God. The devil believes in God. You
know what the Bible says? That's what I told him. I said,
the devil believes in God. The Pharisees believed in God.
The men who crucified Christ believed in God. Before they
sent him to the cross, they said, he said, you're of your father
the devil. They said, we are not. We have one father, God. Even God is the word. Even God. Everybody here believes in God.
Some kind of God. Everybody's got a God. Nobody
doesn't have a God. Everybody believes in God. I
said no man can believe this Bible and believe evolution.
No man can believe the living God, the true God, the one and
only God. That's who I'm talking about.
I'm not talking about your God or the Baptist God or the Catholic
God or the Mohammedan's God or the Buddhist God. I'm talking
about the living God. The living God. Meeting the living
God, the living Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The living
God's not being preached today in most places. A God's being
preached, but not the living God. The Lord Jesus Christ of glory
is not being preached in most places today. Jesus is being
preached. Now, this is so. Jesus is being
preached, but not the Lord Jesus Christ. And what I'm saying is that,
now let me show you that. Turn to Luke chapter 4, back
one page. Now here, our Lord in Luke chapter
4, verse 28. Will you look at it? Luke 4,
28. And all day in the synagogue,
we're talking about in the synagogue, in the temple, in the place of
worship. When they heard these things,
were filled with anger and wrath, and rose up and thrust Him, Whoo! The Lord of glory! Out of their
city! Get out of this place! They thrust
Him out of their city. They even led Him to the edge
of a cliff on which their city was built that they might cast
Him down headlong and murder Him when they heard these things. Now listen to me, folks. This
was Sabbath, the Sabbath day, and these people They were rich
in heritage, they were rich in tradition, they were rich in
custom. We're talking about the Baptist church 2,000 years old.
This synagogue here was a whole lot older than that. They'd been
around a whole lot longer than that. It dated back to Moses.
Moses. And they didn't have any disruption
of their heritage and their lineage either. They didn't have to go
pick up some folks that they weren't sure about and include
them in the heritage. They had the heritage. The sacrifices
went back to Moses. The traditions went back to Moses. The temple and synagogue went
back to Moses' tabernacle. their holy days and their priesthood
and their laws went back to Moses. They were rich in heritage and
rich in tradition and rich in custom and rich in all these
things. And they had met on that Sabbath morning to read the Scriptures
and to do whatever they did in those days. And the Lord Jesus
Christ spoke to them. The Lord of glory, God incarnate,
who had come to this earth as prophet, the fulfillment of their
prophets to reveal God, as priests to offer Himself, the one sacrifice
to put away sin, in the fulfillment of their priesthood, as the King
to reign over them in fulfillment of their David. The Son of David
was here. And there they sat. And He said
to them as He stood to read Isaiah 61, The Spirit of God is upon
Me. He hath anointed me, he hath ordained me to preach the gospel
to the poor, to give sight to the blind, to preach deliverance
to the captives, the acceptable year of the Lord, and this day
the Scripture is fulfilled in your ears." And then he closed
the Scripture. And he stepped around and said
to them, "'You are surely saying to me, Physician, heal yourself.'
All the eyes in the synagogue were fastened on him,' the Scripture
said. But I say unto you, no prophet
is without honor saving his own household among his own people.
Familiarity, you see. He was born and raised, wasn't
born there, but he was raised there in Nashville. They said,
well, that's Jesus. That's the countryman. That's
Mary's boy. We know his mother, his brother.
We know his brothers and sisters. How does this man say he's from
heaven? He said, no prophet's without honor saving his own
country. But I'll tell you the truth. What I'm going to tell
you, he said it's so. In the land of Israel, and that's
what he was talking to, were Israelites. In the days of the
prophet, there were many widows. And God, God fed none of them. None of them. He passed them
by. And He fed a widow who was a Gentile by His sovereign mercy
and grace. You see, God is gracious, but
he'll be gracious to whom he will. He's merciful, but he'll
be merciful to whom he will. God is not obligated to a man
because he's an Israelite. He's not obligated to a person
because that person has a rich heritage or tradition or custom,
or because he's always done something, or those preceding him have always
done something. The Lord is sovereign in his
mercy. And he said, I'll tell you another truth. There were
many lepers in the land of Israel in the days of the prophet, and
none of them were healed. None of them! But one, Nahum,
a Gentile. And when they heard these things...
Now, people always received Christ when He was healing bodies and
feeding bellies. But when our Lord Jesus Christ
spoke of His sovereignty and majesty and glory, they always
threw rocks at Him. Buy your Bible and find out that's
not so. And you can go in churches today, and these people said,
leave our city! We'll not hear these things!
We're willing for you to do your mighty works in our city like you did in Capernaum.
We're willing for you to play ballet. We're willing for you
to play Santa Claus. Play Santa Claus here like you
did in Capernaum. Heal some sick. Let's see some
folks see that had been able to see. But when our Lord sat
down on the throne, what is a throne? That's a place where a king sits.
When our Lord sat down on the throne and said, I'll be merciful
to whom I will. I'll be gracious to him, I will."
They said, depart from us and leave us alone. Huh? That's right, Cecil. That's not
stretching that at all. They said, get out of town. We're
not going to listen to that. And what in the world are preachers
doing the same thing today? They come into a city and put
up a tent or go to a church and tell a few stories and a few
jokes and have somebody draw a picture on a piece of chalk
and shine some funny lights on it and blow a horn and get somebody
to sing and then get up and talk about God can heal! God can heal! And all this stuff, you know.
And folks just fill washtubs full of money, buy them diamond
rings and long Cadillacs and find homes and brag on them,
you know. But I'll tell you this, God can save you by the power
of His grace through the blood of His Son. But God will save
whom He will. And He don't owe you anything.
He doesn't owe me anything. And God doesn't have to do anything.
He has to send people to hell, but He don't have to save them.
That's so. And they say, you can get out of town by first
plane out of here if you want to. We don't listen to that.
Let's talk about healing. Let's talk about tongues. Let's
talk about Let's talk about our heritage. Let's talk about our
tradition. Let's talk about other things.
Let's don't talk about this. All right, turn to Matthew 8.
This is interesting here. You say, nobody, nobody would
run the Lord out of town. They did. Not their God. See, they went on playing church
after He left. After God left, they had services
next Sabbath day. The Lord Jesus Christ left town,
and they still had services. And men don't need the presence
of the living God to have religious services and to play church,
or to pray or sing or preach. That's been going on for years,
and it'll keep on going on. But when they met the living
Lord, how you gonna know who He is? He reveals Himself in
His Word. He tells you in His Word who He is, I and my Father
are one. I came down from heaven not to
do my will, but the will of Him that sent me. This is the will
of Him that sent me, that of all He hath given me I'll lose
nothing, but raise it up at the last day. He tells us who He
is. They say, no, we don't want that
Jesus. We want this sweet little Jesus boy that does what we let
Him do. This sweet little Jesus boy who
only does what we enable Him to do. This sweet little Jesus
boy that does only what we permit Him to do. We don't want this
man to reign over us. Matthew 8, 34, listen to this.
Here's a committee came to see the Lord. And behold, the whole
city came out to meet Jesus. Every man, woman, boy and girl
didn't come. This is a way of saying things to emphasize the
large delegation that it was. It was representative of the
whole city. It was a large delegation. It
was an important, influential group. It's folks that represented
the whole city. The whole city came out to meet
Jesus, and when they saw Him, brother, they didn't come to
honor Him. They didn't come to invite him. Come on in. They
didn't roll out the red carpet. They said to him, would you get
out of town? That's right, John. Depart from
our coast. Now, folks, you think about this.
The committee came out, representing the whole city, and they said
to the Master, to the Lord of Glory, get out of town and don't
come back. depart from us and leave us alone.
What had he done? Well, in the preceding verses,
our Lord came into this town. And it says here that two fellows
met Him, verse 28, two possessed with devils, came out of the
tombs. They were fierce men. They were insane men. They were
demon-possessed men. They cut themselves and they
ran around naked, and folks couldn't pass that way for fear of them.
And our Lord Jesus Christ cast these devils out of these men.
And these demons cried out, We know who you are, you are the
Son of God. We know who you are. Verse 29, What have we to do
with thee, Jesus, our Son of God? Are you come to torment
us before the time that's set by the Father, before the time
of judgment? We know we're going to hell,
we know we're going to be tormented, we know we're going to be separated
from God's purpose and God's kingdom, but this is not the
time yet. Are you come to do this before
our time? He said, let us go into that
herd of swine. So the Lord cast them out of
the insane man, and the Scripture says here they went into the
swine. I can't explain these things. Somebody said a demon
has to be embodied. He has to dwell in a body, something
living. I guess I don't know a great
deal about demons. I'm not going to ignore them,
but I'm not going to go looking for them either. Some people
have looked for things and found them. Somebody said, I'm going
to make a study of demons. Let me, as your pastor, warn
you, don't do it. Don't you do it. I have a preacher
friend who, one of his best friends, another pastor, Spent time in
his study, one time studying demons. He bought every book
he could find on the subject. He studied nothing, John, but
demons. He wanted to find out where they came from, where they
dwelt, who they were, what they did, and all these things. After
a while, he had to leave his study because somebody was in
there with him, John. He couldn't stay in his study.
He heard noises and saw things and finally wound up having to
be treated for Real mental problems. And I'll say this to you, and
I warn you, I don't know a great deal about demons. I've read
a couple of books on it, talked to folks who claim to know something
about it. But I'll tell you this about
demons, don't ignore them, don't deny them, but don't go looking
for them. Now, that's fair. That's the
best advice that I can give anybody in regard to demons. You know,
when the angel, was it Gabriel, over the dispute over the body
of Moses? Well, when he was confronted with the devil, he wouldn't fool
with him. You remember that? He said, the
Lord rebuked thee. I've turned you over to the Lord.
Now, this is the Lord Jesus Christ here casting out demons, not
this weak, frail, finite, fallible, foolish preacher. I'm not fooling
with him. I turn them over to the Lord. You say, well, the
apostles did. The apostles were the apostles
of Christ, gifted, anointed, in a special way, with special
gifts and credentials and powers to deal with these things. And
I say this, every preacher and church member I've ever known
that started dabbling and fooling around with this sort of thing
had some serious problems, see, before it's over, because they're
real. We turn them over to Christ.
We turn them over to the Lord of glory. The Lord rebuke thee,
Satan. Satan's not almighty, but he's
mighty. He's mightier than you are, or I am. And you know, one
time, the sons of Seba, you read this in the book of Acts, a fellow
was possessed of demons, and these sons of Seba, they were
going to show off their religious ability, and they tried to cast
the demons out. And this is what the demons said.
The demon says, Jesus we know, and Paul we know. But we don't
know you fellas. And they beat him up. They left them stripped and wounded,
seriously wounded. So this is what it boils down
to. Jesus, the voice of Christ, the demon's here. And they respond. And the voice of Paul, the apostle.
But now they don't know me. And I'm not going to fool with
them. But I just know this, that these demons, these demons said
to the Lord, let us go into the herd of swine. And you just leave
it right there. That's a good place for it, right
there. And someday we know in part, and we prophesy or preach
in part, someday we'll know, even as we're known. But you,
I'll tell you this, it'd be a whole lot better for you to come to
know about Christ than to know about demons. And the more time
you can spend searching His Word and finding out, coming to know
Christ, you'll be a whole lot better off than you will studying
demon possession and things of this nature. But anyway, these
swine, when the demons went into the swine, they ran into the
sea and were drowned. And the fellows that were out
there keeping great herds of swine, it says, great herds.
And the fellas keepin' them went skeedaddle into town and told
the owners of the pigs what had happened. The whole herd is wiped
out. The whole crowd is wiped out.
There's a fella named... What happened out there? He said,
well, a man named Jesus, and do you know those two fellas
that were crazy? They're in their right mind. That fella has given
them their right mind. They got clothes on, and they're
as sane as you and me. And these fellas got a committee
together and they came out to meet the Lord. And they said,
they didn't come out to honor Him. They didn't come out to
invite Him into the city. They came out to ask Him to leave.
Why? What were these fellas thinking?
What was going through their minds? One thing. The power of this man, the greatness
of this man. If we invite Him into our town,
we're going to have to mind Him. He's going to cause us trouble.
He's going to cause us trouble. We're going to have to examine
our businesses because he's going to put us out of business if
we're in the wrong business. This fellow, see he was great.
They were faced with greatness. They weren't faced with this
little silly, sentimental, emotional Jesus that stands off the corner
and begs you to let Him in your heart. And then when you let
Him in your heart, He just occupies a little corner over there and
lets you do as you please, with whom you please, any way you
please. And every Sunday you can run down and say, Hello Jesus,
I'm glad you're still there, you know, and then go on about
your business. You just hang around Jesus, and when I need
you, I'll call for you. No, sir, they knew this man.
who had cast out demons, who had dealt with powers and principalities
and rulers and spiritual wickedness in high places. This man, who
was just a word, had put a whole herd of swine in a sea. They
knew they had something on their hands they couldn't handle. And
they weren't willing to handle it. And they asked him to leave. Now this is what I'm saying,
my friend. If the preacher will come to
you and offer you heaven and salvation just by accepting a
few mental facts about Jesus, and he'll quietly come in and
behave himself and leave you alone, and nobody really that
doesn't want to pay attention to him will know he's even there.
Somebody said one time, if they're putting people in prison for
being Christians, would there be enough evidence to convict
you? That's something to think about, isn't it? And that's not
the Christ of the Bible. These men met the Living God. These men met the Almighty Christ. These men met the King. These
men met One whom they knew if they invited Him into their city,
He's going to change things. He's going to change things.
And they weren't willing to change. They weren't willing to bow down.
They weren't willing to change. They weren't willing to submit.
And they just ask him to leave. That's what I'm saying. You say,
you mean people actually said to the Lord, leave? These folks
in Nazareth did. They helped him get out of town.
And these folks right here got a committee. And I've had them
do this before where I preach. A whole bunch of them will come
and say that we Why don't we just close the meeting, preacher?
You know, what you're preaching is not what we believe. And the
God you preach and the Jesus you preach is not the Jesus we
worship. So why don't you just, you know,
wind her up tonight. Don't embarrass us. We don't
want to be embarrassed. We're going to cause trouble.
You're going to cause trouble. This Jesus that you're preaching
is going to cause trouble. Yeah, he said. I came not to
bring peace, but a sword. And a man's enemy shall be those
of his own household. I've come," he said, to set at
variance a mother and her daughter, a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law,
a father and his son-in-law. The Christ of the Bible will
cause you some problems. And this little committee went
out and they said, you can leave. We'll go on playing church, but
we don't want you." That's what they did to you up yonder in
the country, Haven. They said, you can leave. And they're still
meeting, aren't they? And all he said was, God is on
the throne. All he said was, God Almighty
is sovereign. All he said is, God sets the
boundaries of every man's life. All he said is, Jesus Christ
is a sovereign Savior. And they said, let's close the
meeting. And they go right on. They go right on. All right,
here's another fella, Acts 24. Let's see somebody else that
said we'd be much obliged if you'd leave us alone. Acts 24. Acts chapter 24. Here's a troubled
man. Here's a troubled man. This man
is a troubled man. How do you know he's troubled?
Because he's trembling. It says here in in Acts 24, verse 25,
"...and after certain days, when Felix..." Now, Felix was somebody,
my friends. Felix wasn't a nobody, he was
somebody. He was a man of position, he
was a man of power, he was a man of influence, he was a man of
prestige. He was a somebody. He wasn't
just an ordinary nobody. Felix was somebody. He was a
ruler. And when he came with his wife,
Drusilla, which was a Jewish woman, he sent for Paul and heard
him concerning the faith in Christ. He heard him. Paul wasn't trying
to get him to accept Jesus. Paul was trying to win souls.
Paul was preaching the gospel of Christ, the truth about Christ,
the truth about sin, and the truth about God, and the truth
about Christ, and the truth about eternal life. This man wanted
to hear concerning the faith in Christ, and as Paul reasoned
of righteousness. What righteousness did he reason?
The righteousness of Christ. Paul said in Romans 10, these
folks are going about to establish their own righteousness and have
not submitted to the righteousness of God, which is Christ. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes it.
He talked about righteousness, imputed, imparted. He talked
about righteousness worked out by Christ, fulfilled by Christ. He talked about temperance. He
talked about judgment to come. And under that preaching, he
confronted this man with the royal claims of King Jesus. This man trembled, and he said,
Go away! Go away! For right now, but go away. When
I have a convenient season, I'll send for you. You say, this man wasn't confronted
with a living Christ. Oh, yes, he was. Everybody who
hears the truth of the gospel of God's glory, as Paul preached
it, is confronted, Bob, with a living Christ. There Felix
is sitting right here this morning. You've got axes to grind and
apples to polish and trees to prune and appointments to keep
and things to do. And that man, that's Felix. Important,
prestige, power, influence. Somebody. And Paul's talking
to him about eternity. Paul's talking to him about his
relationship with God. Paul's talking to him about laying
down these things and walking with the Son of God. Sell what
you have and take up your cross and follow me. He that would
save his life will lose it. He that would lose his life for
my sake shall save it. Men need to know Christ, need
to be brought into a living, vital, personal union with the
Son of God. And old Felix shook under the
preaching of that righteousness of Christ and that temperance
and that judgment to come, and he said, go away! I know I ought to deal with these
things, but not now. I know God has a claim on my
soul, but not now. I know that vanity of vanities,
everything is vanity, There's something with real value. But
not now. Go away. Depart from me. His interest was never rekindled. Never was. Never was. His interest was never, as far
as I can determine from the Scripture, ever revisited. I can't find
it. Go away. All right, one more
and I'll quit. Luke chapter 5, let's go back
to the text. Now this is most unusual. These
people, Christ crossed their tradition and their religion,
and they said, go away, depart from us. And those demons even
said, depart from us. And that committee that came
out of the city said, depart from me. And here Felix, confronted
with Christ and the royal claims of Christ, said, go away! Take
it away. Take him away. But here a man
named Peter, who was a disciple of Christ, a child of God, one
of his own sheep, in verse 8, fell down at his knees and said,
Lord, I'm a sinful man. Depart from me. Why did he say
this? Three reasons. Number one, because
he was a man. He knew he was a man. Therefore,
being a man, you'll have the same reaction if you're ever
confronted with the risen, enthroned, living, sovereign Christ, God
Almighty. He felt amazed and confounded
in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm always in trouble
by these people who have a familiarity with Jesus. As awesome as he is, as mighty
as he is. All the way through the scripture
people bowed down. They were speechless. They were
awed in his presence. John said, I fell at his feet
like a dead man. Peter here, Peter the Apostle,
perhaps his first real sight of the glory of Christ, his first
real sight of the power of Christ overwhelmed him. It's like a
man coming out of a dark room and seeing for the first time
the sun, that ball of fire, and he said, my soul, it will blind
me, take it away. It can't stand me. Peter, what happened here? Peter
and his buddies had been fishing all night. They were pros. They
were professional fishermen. They'd been fishing all their
life. They were raised fishermen. They'd been fishing this sea
all their life. They'd fished all night and caught nothing,
not a nibble, not a bite with a net. And old Peter was sitting
over there, tired, eyes bloodshot, He'd been out all night and he
was sitting there mending his nets where they'd broken. They
were handmade nets. These were poor men. And he was
sitting there mending his nets, you know, and probably mumbling
under his breath, you know, for all night long, so tired, got
nothing to sell, no fish to market, nothing to pay my bills. And
all night they snapped at one another, you know, and they were
cleaning, mending their nets. And the Lord Jesus Christ walked
up And he said, Simon. Simon looked up. Yes, Lord, he
said, have you caught anything? No, sir. He said, well, Simon, get back
in the boat and take your nets and go out there and throw the
nets right over the side. Peter said, Lord, I've been fishing
out there all night. I'm tired. But nevertheless, if you say
so, I'll do it. That's your word,
I'll do it. He put the nets back in the boat. I just put myself
in this. I can imagine him. He didn't
go out that morning like he went out the night before, you know,
all full of vim, vigor, and vitality to fish, you know. He drug the
nets. He kept looking around at the
Lord, you know, and the Lord just stood there. All right,
he said, it's your word, I'll do it. Nevertheless, he made
first sure, Bob, that Christ understood he had fished all
night. I fished all night, and I hadn't caught anything. But
it's your word, I'll do it. So he put the nets in, pushed
her out, threw the nets over, and there's so many fish in those
nets that they had to call everybody, hey, help, help, we're going
to break all our nets and sink our boat. And they hauled that
fish into the land, and when Peter stepped off that boat,
brother, let me tell you something, He had seen the power of God. He hadn't seen that meek little
Jesus standing outside a door all covered with vines and holly
and roses with no latch on it, timidly knocking on his little
lantern. He saw the Lord with the universe
in His hands, with even the fish of the sea in His hands, with
the bodies of men in His hands, with the Word of authority over
all the universe. And that's when this old boy
said, you can depart from me. I don't
belong in this place. That's exactly it. Christ, I'm a man. I'm a man. You're God. What business we
got together? Now see, so that's what happened.
That's exactly what happened. He came out of that book. He'd
seen the power of God. He hadn't seen this little meek,
weak, frustrated, defeated fellow that I'm here to preach that
can't do anything. He'd seen the Lord of glory. And he was a man. Secondly, he
said to me, not only because he was a man, but he was a sinful
man. It's something some of you never
learned. He was a sinful man. As a man, he stood amazed at
the power and presence and majesty of Christ. As a sinful man, he
stood alarmed and awed by the holiness of Christ. He knew if
this man knew where those fish were, he knew what was in his
heart. Now you talk about something
shook him up. He knew if this man Jesus Christ
knew where those fish were. And one day He knew where a coin
was in the mouth of where a fish was. That He knew what was in His
heart. And Peter in the presence of that man felt himself stripped. If you ever, you little girl,
you ever been a little boy or a little girl and had your mom
or daddy look at you and you knew they knew what you had done?
Mamas and daddies had a sixth sense or something. They bluffed
a whole lot. They bluffed a whole lot. They'd
look like this and you'd say, he knows, he knows! You know,
you've been out doing something wrong and came in and you thought
no word before she said, where you been? Oh my goodness, she
knows. No, she don't know, she's bluffing. She'll flush it out of you, though.
You'll confess it, because she'll just keep quiet, keep looking
at you, you know, keep looking at you. She knows. Well, Peter
knew he knew. You talk about, and you would
like to go into the other room when Mother knows, and you know
that she knows, or think that she knows, you want to get out
of her presence, don't you? I don't imagine too many of you
crawl up in her lap and say, you know, don't you? And Peter
didn't either. He said, Lord, Depart from me!"
He was unveiled, he was laid bare, he was discovered. He'd
probably been sitting there cursing his luck and cursing God while
he was men in those nets, because he hadn't caught anything. And
his attitude was unveiled. Peter, he whom who knew the fish
of the sea must know the hearts of men. And oh, how awful Peter
felt in his presence. You don't usually run around
with people that intimidate you, that make you feel small and
little and stripped and naked. I've had people say, well, I
don't go to church because I just don't like to feel bad. Well,
I'll tell you, the preaching of God's Word, it comforts and
it encourages and it gives peace, but it also strips. And Peter
was stripped. The Lord knew his heart. I'm
a sinful man. The third reason why he said
this, Peter said, Depart from me, Lord. I'm a man. I'm a sinful
man. And the third reason he said
it is he was genuinely a humble man. Peter looked at himself,
a man, a sinful man, a poor man, a common man, a nothing. And
he looked at the Lord and he said, Who am I? I know a little
bit about how Mephibosheth felt. Who am I? A dead dog. I know a little bit about how
Abraham felt when those angels came around. He fell on his face.
I don't know anything about these folks today that are doing something
for Jesus. I can't figure them out. I don't
know anything about that. I don't know anything about that
person. You're doing something for her. That person you're serving
is firing to me. I know something about from this
book and the revelation of the Holy Spirit, a living Lord, triumphant,
eternal, almighty. And like Peter, notice this though,
Peter fell at his knees. And he was saying, Lord, depart
from me. But in his heart, he was begging Him not to depart.
Do something for me. Lord, don't leave me. Don't forsake
me. May I be one of those sinners
for whom you came, those lost you came to save. No, these folks
in Nazareth, they wanted him to leave. These folks of the
committee wanted him to leave. These demons wanted him to leave.
Felix wanted Paul to go away. But Peter really didn't want
him to go away. But he was confessing what he
was. He was taking his place, you see. The first steps a man
takes toward a living union with Christ is to put everybody where
he belongs. Christ on the throne and a man
in the dust. And when you put everybody where
he belongs, then you can get this situation straightened out.
God on the throne, one mediator between God and me, the man Christ
Jesus. And that way I know who I am
and I know who He is. And I can bow down, bow down
and worship. Let's sing a closing hymn, if
you will.