Turning our Bibles today to Mark
chapter 1. Mark chapter 1. We are going
to be looking at verses 16 through 20 today, but I want to begin
at the beginning of the chapter and read down through those verses. Mark chapter 1, the beginning
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. As it is written
in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his
path straight. John did baptize in the wilderness. and preached the baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all
the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized
of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. And John
was clothed with camel's hair and with a girdle of a skin about
his loins, and he did eat locust and wild honey. and preach saying,
there cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose
shoes I'm not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have
baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost. And it came to pass in those
days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of
John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out
of the water, he saw the heavens open, and the spirit like a dove
descending upon him. And there came a voice from heaven
saying, thou art my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And immediately the spirit driveth
him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness
40 days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beast and the
angels ministered unto him. Now, after that John was put
in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of
God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. And this is the verse we begin
the message with today. Now, as he walked by the sea
of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting
a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said
unto them, Come you after me, and I will make you to become
fishers of men. And straightway they forsook
their nets and followed him. And when he had gone a little
farther thence, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John,
his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets,
And straightway he called them, and they left their father's
deputy in the ship with the hired servants and went after him."
We have been studying in this chapter for several weeks. And the passage we are looking
at today is a passage that tells us about him calling the first
four of his 12 disciples. We have read of the forerunner,
John the Baptist, of his baptism, of his temptation, and the last
time of his preaching in Galilee. Today, our text begins now as
he walked by the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is called
by two other names in the Gospels. It's also called the Sea of Tiberias
and the Lake of Gennesaret. It is, of course, a lake. It's
a freshwater lake that is fed by the River Jordan. It's 15
miles long and at its widest point, eight miles. On its northern
shore, there's a plateau that's very fruitful, very fertile,
plain. And then on the other side, There
are high mountains which explain how quickly a storm could come
up and did come up on this lake. As I thought about those words,
now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, how many wonderful things,
how many marvelous things this small lake of Galilee witnessed. If it could only speak. If this
lake could only speak, it could tell of a time when a man, the
God-man, walked on its waters. It could tell of a man standing
in a ship one night when its waves were very boisterous and
just speaking the word, peace, be still. And the waters were
calm. And his disciples said, what
manner of man is this, that even the winds and the waves obey
him? If this lake could speak, it
could tell us of the number of times when the Lord caused great
catches of fish by those that he commanded to let down a net. But this day, I have two truths
that I want us to see from these verses. And they are two very,
very important truths. They are two truths that all
of us must hear and learn. And by the grace of God, I trust
today that no one will leave this auditorium not aware of
these two important truths. The first truth is the cost of
discipleship. the cost of discipleship. The Lord Jesus Christ passing
by commanded, come ye after me. Now we should all recognize that
this is not the first encounter that these four men had with
the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to keep your places
here, but look with me in John chapter one. In John chapter
one, We read of at least three of these men, beginning in verse
29. The scripture says, the next
day John, that is John the Baptist, seeing Jesus coming unto him,
and saith, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world. This is he of whom I said, after
me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John bear record saying,
I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and its abode
upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear
record that this is the Son of God. Again, the next day, After
John had proclaimed, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away
the sin of the world, behold the next day, John stood and
two of his disciples. And looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he saith, behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples
heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and
saw them following and saith unto them, what seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which
is to say, being interpreted, master, where dwellest thou?
He saith unto them, come and see. They came and saw where
he dwelt and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth
hour. One of the two which heard John
speak and followed him was Andrew. Andrew, the one that we read
about in Mark, who was called, who was commanded, follow me. One of the two that followed
the Lord Jesus. They were disciples of John the
Baptist, first of all. And John pointed Jesus out as
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And
these two followed him. One was Andrew. He was Simon Peter's brother.
And the first thing he did, he first findeth his own brother
Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which
is being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. So here's two of these four we
are looking at in Mark chapter one, who came to the Lord Jesus
Christ before the Lord called them the day when he was passing
by and they were mending their nets and casting their nets into
the sea. This was not their first encounter
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And did you notice that as soon
as Andrew was brought to the Lord Jesus Christ, the very first
thing he did, I've got a brother. I've got a brother. His name
is Simon. I want him to know this man.
I want him to come to this man. When the Lord saves an individual, it's just as natural as the sun
coming up every morning in the east, that that individual has
a burden for others, a burden especially for kinfolk, to bring
them to Christ, that they might know him. who truly is the Lamb
of God. That's so natural, isn't it?
We see this immediately in Andrew. Just as soon as he found the
Lord, he found his brother, Simon, and brought him. He first findeth
his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah,
which is being interpreted, the Christ, and he brought him to
Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he
said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called
Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. So two of these disciples
in Mark, we see here, and there's a third one. And I'm convinced,
and I believe you agree when you read through the gospel of
John, he was used of God to write the gospel. but he never refers
to himself by his name. He always calls himself another,
the other disciple, the other disciple. And I love that one
time when he said this about himself, he whom Jesus loved. A person who comes to Christ
never gets over that truth. that Jesus loves him. I read the story one time years
ago about Charles Spurgeon, the great man of God that he was, used
of God so greatly, preaching the gospel. Someone came into his study to be interviewed for
baptism. And they found Mr. Spurgeon there
weeping. And they were taking it back. And they asked him, Mr. Spurgeon, what's the problem?
Why are you weeping so? He said, there's no problem.
He said, I'm weeping because Jesus loves me. God's people are loved with everlasting,
eternal love. The world of religion says God
loves everybody, loves everyone the same, love Judas just like
he loved Peter. But you know that's not true.
That's not so. Scripture says, having loved
his own which were in the world. If he loved everyone the same,
that would not be called for to say having loved his own which
were in the world. God's love is special. It's everlasting. It's discriminating. And when a person experiences
the love of God and the forgiveness of their sins, never going to
get over that, never. His love for us produces our
love for Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. And our love is not only in our
hearts, but it's demonstrated in our lives. Andrew's love was demonstrated
immediately. He found his brother Simon and
brought him to Christ. No doubt John, his love was demonstrated
as well with his brother James. George Matheson wrote to him,
Oh, the love that will not let me go. story was of a love that
he had for a lady who had agreed to become his wife, but when
she realized that he was going to be a pastor, a preacher, she
said she couldn't do that. And he wrote that hymn, Oh Love
That Will Not Let Me Go. Oh love that will not let me
go. I rest my weary soul on thee. I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths it flow, may richer, fuller be. Now if you will turn back to
Mark. The Lord Jesus called first Simon
and Andrew, And then James and John, come ye after me. What do we read? They forsook
their nets and followed him. They left their father in the
ship with the hired servants and went after him. All four
of these men, they all did the same thing. They left all and
followed Christ. Both are necessary. The cost
of discipleship. They left all and followed Christ. Someone said, well, these men,
they were special. They were part of the 12 disciples
that he was going to teach over the next three, three and a half
years. In a sense, they were special. But listen, they were
not exceptions. They were not exceptions to the
cost of discipleship. Look in Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8 and beginning
with verse 34. We read, and when he had called
the people unto him with his disciples also. So these words
that we're going to read here, yes, he did speak these words
to the disciples, but notice the people also. It wasn't just
exclusively to the disciples that he spoke these words. When
he had called the people unto him with his disciples also,
he said unto them, Whosoever, whosoever will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall
save it. For what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? These
words he spoke both to his disciples and to the people. What is the
meaning of denying self and taking up the cross? This is what he
said, the cost of discipleship. If anyone would be his disciple,
you, me, and anyone else, if we would be his disciple, he
said we must deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow
him. What does it mean to deny self? Well, this is a message of repentance,
isn't it? It is to change our minds about
ourself. About, first of all, sinful self. Sinful self. That by nature we
are sinners. But not only sinful self, Most
people will agree to that, but righteous self. In other words, most people,
yeah, I've sinned, yeah, I've done some things I shouldn't
do, but are you telling me that I have no righteousness that
God will accept? Yes, that's exactly what the
word of God says. The word of God says any and
all righteousness that man may have is nothing more than filthy
rags before God. You see, the doctrine of total
depravity, my friends, is not just something that's taught
in theology classes. It is the truth of the word of
God that all of us by nature are sinful beings, and we must
recognize that. and acknowledge that, that we
have no righteousness. There's nothing we can do to
please God. Nothing. Anything and everything that
we would do to earn our salvation is contaminated, if you please,
by us. We put our hand to the work and
the work is contaminated. It's flawed. It's toxic. Why? Because of who and what
we are. If any man come after me, he
must deny himself. He must be willing, and not only
willing, but forsake all, that there be no competition with
Christ. Christ, as one person has said
many times, He's either Lord of all or He's not Lord at all. Brother Ralph Barnard used to
say quite often, don't speak to me so much about who your
Savior is. Who is your Lord? Everyone has
someone who is their Lord. Who is your Lord? Is Christ your
Lord? Is He your Lord and Savior? Or
is he just a fire escape that someone has presented to you
somewhere along the line to save you from hell? Is he your Lord? Does he rule? Who rules? Who
reigns in your life? After all, he's not only prophet,
priest, but he's also king. And when he comes into the life
of an individual, he sets his throne up in their heart and
reigns supreme. Matthew chapter 10 and verse
37, he said, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. Each one who would be one
of his disciples has a cross to take up, to take up, that
is to cheerfully and patiently submit to whatever he has ordained
for us. Not only to deny self and take
up the cross, but we must follow him. He bore his cross. Remember when he came out of
that judgment hall, he was bearing the cross and there was a man
by the name of Simeon that bore part of the cross with him. And
that's a picture, isn't it? That Christ bore the heavy part
of the cross, yes. But each one of us, we have a
cross to bear. Each person has his own cross
to submit to God's will, submit my will to his will. to learn
to pray, and pray with meaning, like the Lord Jesus Christ prayed,
Father, not my will, but thy will be done. We must follow Him. You know,
I was thinking about this, preparing this message, and I thought about
the hymn that we used to sing, and I thought, how easy, how
easy, how easy is it to sing these words? Down in the valley
with my Savior I would go, where the storms are sweeping and the
dark waters flow. With His hand to lead me I will
never, never fear. Danger cannot frighten me if
my Lord is near. Follow, follow, I would follow
Jesus. Anywhere, everywhere, I would
follow on. It's easy to sing that, isn't
it? It really is. But this is what it costs to
be one of his disciples. To deny self, take up a cross,
And, and, you know, he is the one who gives you the cross that
you bear. Many times as believers, we get
into, into trouble because we look at a fellow believer and
we, we see the cross that they're given to bear. And we think ours
is heavier. Ours is harder to bear. Have
you ever heard that people say, it's not fair. It's not fair. There's nothing about salvation,
my friends, that's fair. Fair has to do with justice.
Salvation has to do with grace. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. So that's
the first truth. I think a very, very important
truth and a truth that needs to be preached I believe that
our churches have been filled with people who have never been
faced with the reality of what it really means to be a disciple
of Jesus Christ. We want an easy road. We want
an easy cross. We want everything flowery. Must I be carried to the skies
on a bed of flowers while others fought to win the prize and sailed
through bloody skies? That's the first truth and a
very, as I said, a very important truth. Now here's the second
truth I want us to take today from this passage. The Lord's
promise fulfilled. I will make you to become fishers
of men. I will make you to become fishers
of men. It's important to say that the
Lord promises that he will make them to become fishers of men. The Bible is not a self-help
book. If you go into a store, a so-called
Christian bookstore, the shelves are lined with self-help books. The Bible is not a self-help
book, my friends. We should all recognize that
self is what got us into our problem. That's what got us into
the problem that we all have when we come into this world.
It's self, and self cannot get us out of the problem. It's going
to take someone greater than us Going to take Him who is the
Lord and Savior, who has conquered sin, death, and hell. We need someone greater than
us. A man cannot make himself a Christian. Man can buy a Bible,
and he should. Man may read the Bible, and he
should. Man may find a gospel church,
and he should. And hear the preaching of the
word of God. And remember this, men are not
only responsible for what they have heard, but what they could
have heard. Men are responsible, yes. But no one can give himself a
new heart. No one can. That's a blessing
from God. The apostle Paul said we are
his workmanship. Speaking of believers, we are
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Follow
me, our Lord said, and I will make you to become fishers of
men. I imagine all four of these men,
they knew a great deal about fishing for fish. They had fished
on this lake most likely all of their lives, but they didn't
know anything about fishing for men. The Lord Jesus said, I will
make you to become fishers of men. The Lord didn't go to the
universities of that day. He didn't go to the religious
leaders of that day. to call his first disciples,
but he went to men who were hardworking men, worked with their hands.
They were men of the sea. These first disciples were fishermen,
and that is a hard trade. I've watched men earn their living
by fishing, and not so much maybe today. Well, it still is. It
still is. Dangerous. But I tell you, if
you've ever done any fishing, you know you can fish all day
and not catch anything. You go out in the early morning
out on the ocean, here in this case on the lake, they fished
at night a lot, and it's hot over there. Sun beating down
on you, and you come back to shore and you have nothing to
show for your labor. That's a hard work. They were,
it says they were casting their nets and the other two were mending
their nets. They were hardworking men that
God called, called them to the ministry. They knew a lot about
fishing, but they didn't know anything about fishing for men.
But the Lord, the point I'm trying to make, the point I want to
make is he fulfilled his promise. Was Peter, think about this,
now over this time period, from this day when the Lord called
them, was Peter qualified to be a fisher of men? When you
look back over into Matthew chapter 16, when he would dissuade the
Lord Jesus Christ from going to the cross. Matthew chapter
16 in verse 21, From that time forth began Jesus to show unto
his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer
many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and
be killed and be raised again the third day. That's the gospel,
isn't it? Christ crucified. He must do
this if anyone is to be saved. If one of those people that God
has loved and chosen and given to him as his children, as his
sheep, if any one of them are to be saved, he must, he must
suffer. He must die. He must be buried
in the grave and raised from the dead. There's no salvation
apart from his substitutionary work, his vicarious work, his
sufficient work. What does Peter say? You think
he's qualified here to be a fisher of men? And Peter took him and
began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this
shall not be unto thee. What about Andrew? That day when
the Lord told his disciples to give food to the thousands of
people there, and Andrew said, listen, he said, there's a few
fish here and a couple of loaves of bread, but what are they? What are they among so many? Well, they're nothing until they're
put into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then they are
sufficient to feed thousands, and yea, to pick up afterwards
and take with them that which was left over. What about James and John? You
think they were sufficient? They were ready to be fishers
of men that day. They asked the Lord, Lord, would
you have us call fire down from heaven and destroy that whole
village? You don't know what spirit you
are of. And later, when the same two,
James and John, they were seeking preeminence, they wanted to be
on the right hand and on the left hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, they qualified them to
be fishers of men. The Lord Jesus said, follow me
and I will make you to become fishers of men. Did they become
fishers of men? Absolutely. Look with me in Acts
chapter 2. You know, the world would thank the Lord Jesus Christ
to began his gospel ministry to the world would go to the
great men of this world and to the wealthy people of this world.
And that's the way lost people always think, isn't it? When
that rich young ruler came to the Lord and the Lord, by what
he told him he needed to do, he went away sad and his disciples
What did they say? Lord, who then can be saved? Don't you realize this man is
somebody? That this man is wealthy? That
he's a ruler? This man has clout. He has prestige. He can be a great asset to your
kingdom. And you tell him he has to sell
everything he has and follow you? Once again, I'm always reminded
that God's ways are not our ways. God's thoughts are not our thoughts.
God is going to do, listen, He's going to do His work, He's going
to accomplish His purpose, and He's going to do it in such a
way that He receives all the glory. All the glory. Acts chapter two, verse 14. And
I'm almost finished. Verse 14. But Peter, standing
up with the eleven, here they are, all of them together, lifted
up his voice and said unto them, You men of Judea and all ye that
dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words. Now skip down to verse 22. You
men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know
him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,
whom God hath raised up. having loosed the pains of death,
because it was not possible that he should be held of it. Now
down to verse 36. We're not reading the whole sermon. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. I want you to know this, Peter
said, what you did, you did by your wicked hands, but you did
exactly what God had determined should be done from before the
foundation of the world. And that man that you had crucified,
he's Lord. He's Christ. He's your Lord. He is the promised Messiah. And
what was their reaction? Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart, said unto Peter and to the rest
of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said
unto them, repent. and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and
you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise
is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many
other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves
from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received
the word were baptized. And the same day there were added
unto them about 3,000 souls." Don't you see, Peter? First time
we see him, he's casting his net. I watched my grandson cast
the net into the sea when we were in Galveston recently. But
Peter, he's casting the net for fish the first time we've seen.
But now, he's cast that gospel net out far and wide. Not only him, but the others
with him. And 3,000 souls were gathered
in that day. They were gathered in. He had
become a fisher of men. All of them had. Just like the
Lord Jesus Christ said, follow me and I will make you to become
fishers of men. When the Lord says something,
for instance, when he said, all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me, him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. That's his word, that's his word. If you come to Christ, his word,
just like his word to these apostles was fulfilled, his word is fulfilled
in you and to you. He will not cast you out if you
come to Christ. I pray that the Lord would bless
these words to all of us here this morning.