Seven Fishers

May we turn together to the 21st chapter of the gospel by John, just to read the first 14 verses. John chapter 21, verse 1, After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas, Claudidamus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.

Simon Peter said unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately.

That night they caught nothing. 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. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast their fur, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishers.

Therefore that disciple, whom Jesus loved, said 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 did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from the land.

But as it were, two hundred cupids dragged in the net with fishes. As soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish led thereon 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, and hundred and fifty and three. And for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus said unto them, Come and dine.

And none of the disciples asked 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.

Now, dear brethren, we know that this scripture speaks, we believe, of a future scene, a millennial scene. And also the other two appearings, the one in the upper room, would remind us of today, when the Lord is in the midst of his people. And in the one of Thomas, also, a future appearance of Israel, when Thomas saw the Lord, he believed.

But he wouldn't believe until he saw. But this is not my intention tonight, to speak on this. Our intention tonight, by the grace of God, is to bring Christ before our hearts.

Surely, if ever God's people needed the Lord, it's today. We need the Lord as never before. And one has enjoyed this thought, beloved, that Satan has got to change his programs constantly.

His poor slaves are never satisfied with what he gives them, so he has to continually change his programs to meet the demands of his slaves, to keep them in their bondage under his power. But God never changes his programs. The very object that God had for the Apostle Paul, God has for you and for me, and no improvements, no improvements made.

God has Christ. And beloved brethren, let us never forget that. In this day of changes, when people say, we can't go on with the things of the past, this is the devil and the serpent's hiss, to turn our attention away from Christ, to bring in something else.

Let us always remember that God only has one person, and that person not only is for now, but for all eternity. And all through heaven's glory, there will only be one man, and that man is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to fill the people of God's hearts for all eternity. And if he can fill them for eternity, then surely Christ is enough to meet our needs today.

Now, let us notice this beautiful chapter. Notice these seven men in verse 2. These seven men, it tells us their names. The first one is Simon Peter.

Well, we could say much about Simon Peter. What a wonderful servant of the Lord he was. How much he loved the Lord.

Old people sometimes say, poor Peter, but I wish, beloved brethren, that I had just a little small bit of Peter's heart for Christ. But Peter loved the Lord. And when he said, Lord, I'll lay down my life for you, he really meant it.

He really meant it. He loved the Lord. And then later on in this chapter, he said, Lord, thou knowest all things.

Thou knowest that I love thee. Oh yes, Peter had a real love for Christ, a real devoted love for his blessed Master. And notice there was Thomas here, the doubter.

We just mentioned him a minute ago, Thomas the doubter. Nathaniel, the man in whom there was no guile. And then there was the sons of Zebedee, James and John.

Oh, what wonderful servants these men were, James and John. I suppose that John is a man that each one of us loves. You know, the Spirit of God chose John to write this gospel.

And John presents to us the beloved son who ever dwelt in the bosom of his father. And he himself was the only one of the 500 disciples who rested his head on the bosom of a son. The very man that lay in the bosom of a son presents to us the very one who lay in the bosom of his father.

How blessed it is to see. And James himself, and then two other of his disciples, unnamed. I love this chapter.

This is a wonderful chapter. Who are these other disciples? Let us suppose tonight that they're you and me. We're the other two disciples.

Of these seven men, one of them addresses himself later on as the disciple whom Jesus loved. That was John. He always refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Would we be wrong in saying that John would not be jealous if you were to say, and I was to say tonight, I'm the disciple whom Jesus loved. Let John say it. That's good for John to say it.

But I also am the disciple whom Jesus loved. And sometimes we have said, by the grace of God, if you want to see tonight the disciple whom Jesus loved, well, the one that's here, we'd have to look into the glory with the eye of faith. But if you want to see the disciple whom Jesus loved, when you go home tonight, you go and you stand in front of your looking glass, and you will see in that looking glass the disciple whom Jesus loved.

How blessed to look into the looking glass and see your poor failing self, each one of us, and say, there he is, or there she is. That's the disciple whom Jesus loved. I'm glad that John didn't say the apostle whom Jesus loved, because that would leave you and me out.

But he says the disciple whom Jesus loved. The Spirit of God tonight would encourage each one of us who belong to Christ to be able to say, I am tonight the disciple whom Jesus loved. How blessed that Jesus loves you, and he loves me, and that God has no favorites in his family.

Each one of us is his beloved. I believe that this blessed, this dear apostle Peter, I suppose he meant so much to the Lord. Oh, how the Lord Jesus loved Peter.

But he loves you, and he loves me exactly the same. Isn't that a wonderful thing? Oh, our failures. Let us forget our failures for this hour.

Let us forget everything, but think of that one blessed man whose love will never cease, and whose priceless love has captured our hearts by the grace of God. Oh, surely the Lord is worthy. Surely he's worthy, beloved.

Tonight of your affections and my affections, there's nobody like him. He stands, as it were, unchallenged in the whole of eternity, as the one who is the altogether lovely one, the blessed Christ of God. One of these seven men had a leader in the third verse, and his name was Simon Peter.

Oh, Simon Peter was always doing something. I have to point out, this just comes to my mind. You know, there were three men in the Bible who said the Lord Jesus never sinned.

We've all enjoyed this. The first one was the man of action. The man of action was no less a person than Simon Peter.

And when the Spirit of God wrote through him about this question of the Lord not sinning, he said, who did, no sin. Well, the Apostle Paul, we might say, was a man of education. We believe he was a well-educated man.

When he wrote about that question, he said, who knew, no sin. But when the Apostle John wrote, the one who was the closest to the Lord, the one again who was in his bosom, lying on the Lord's bosom, listening to that great heart of love, beat out of love with people, he said, in him is no sin. Isn't that beautiful, beloved? Isn't that priceless? Isn't that precious? We know a man tonight, we all have failed, we all have sinned, but we know a man tonight who's never sinned.

And that's the man that God presents to you tonight and to me. His name is Jesus. Oh, what a blessed one he is.

What he did for us to win our hearts. He loved us unto the shameful death of the cross. He suffered agonies that even when we dwell for eternity in his presence, we'll never be able to even begin to fathom the sufferings that he went through to win poor worms of the dust like you and like me.

Sinners and enemies of God by wicked works, the love of Christ has captured our heart. Well, this leader here says, I go a fishing. You know, it's a serious thing to be a leader of God's people.

Peter was a leader and he said, I go a fishing. Well, immediately the others say, we also go with thee. Immediately they follow the man who we believe was their leader, Simon Peter.

We also go with thee. And what did they do? Well, it tells us here, they went forth and entered into a ship immediately. We don't read that they had a prayer meeting.

Beloved brethren, don't we do this too? Don't we often make split decisions? Young sisters, they make split decisions. They meet a man that's unsaved. Oh, he's charming.

He's got a great job. He can furnish a wonderful home. He can provide a lovely car.

And they make a split decision and they say, why, certainly I'll marry you. And then they spend the life of hell on earth because they marry an unsaved man. Or a young man meets a charming young girl and he thinks this is the girl of his choice.

This is the one he chooses. He doesn't pray about it. He doesn't seek God's mind, but he marries an unsaved girl.

And he also lives a hell on earth, his life wrecked and ruined. And sorrow after sorrow, his children grow up to be ungodly young men and women in many cases. Oh, how solemn this is.

They went forth immediately. No mention of seeking God's mind, no mention of seeking the Lord's mind. Immediately they went into the ship and the story says, the rest of the verse says, that night they caught nothing.

Now remember that Simon Peter was a fisherman. He was a great fisherman. This was his business.

He earned his living before he met Jesus, fishing. That must have been very humiliating to poor Peter to fish all night and catch nothing. I suppose that many of us in this room, especially brothers, have gone fishing.

I have. It's very discouraging for even an amateur fisherman to get up in the morning at five o'clock and fish till nine o'clock and have to go home very sheepishly and say, I caught nothing. But these men were professional.

This man Peter was a professional fisherman. And how humiliating it must have been to Peter to have caught nothing, absolutely nothing. And maybe we are Sunday school teachers.

Maybe some of us preach the gospel. Maybe some of us teach in the Bible class. Maybe some of us take part in the Bible reading.

And if we don't pray, we'll catch nothing. Oh, beloved, it's not the preacher that stands up to preach. It's not just the message the preacher gives.

It's prayer, prayer. The great men of God we read of in the old days, they spent hours in prayer. I remember my old grandfather telling me about an old servant of God in England, well known, I won't mention his name, and he said on Saturday he saw nobody.

There was nobody allowed to see him. Even the Queen of England was not allowed to disturb this man when he went into that room and shut the door and got down on his knees and stayed on his knees all day Saturday. Just imagine, the whole day, crying to God for souls.

And when he stood up on the Lord's day to preach the gospel, men and women fell out of their chairs and said, Oh God, have mercy on us. That was the power of that man of prayer. And so how important it is, if we're going to teach little boys and little girls, we might say, well, it's very easy to teach these children.

We don't have to pray very much to teach a few little boys and girls five and six years of age. And the result is that that night we catch nothing. That night we catch nothing.

Maybe this is the secret, one of the secrets to why we see so few souls saved, because there's no prayer. The prayer meetings call for 7.15. Some people can hardly get there until 7.28. At the last minute we're too busy to pray. And this is what the devil is trying to do.

He's trying to keep you and me from prayer. There's all kinds of things to disturb us. We have a five-day week, but never before has there been so little time to spend reading our Bibles.

Never before have we been so busy. In the jet age, when the planes are going 600 miles an hour, the devil has the whole world racing forth. We have no time to pray.

We have no time to read. Men say to me, I haven't got any time to read my Bible. And dear Christian, you'll pardon me for saying this, and I'm not hitting at anybody, God forbid, such a thing tonight.

But I know in the book of Exodus that Pharaoh took the straw away from the children of Israel and said, now you've produced the same number of bricks without the straw. And I'll knock out of you your desire to go three days into the wilderness and worship the Lord. And this is what the devil's doing in 1972.

He's taken away our straw. And young men come to me and they say, we have to work. We get home for supper, we sit down at the table with our little family, and the phone rings and the boss says, come on back to work.

And back to work they have to go. On the Bible reading meeting night, on the prayer meeting night, the world is so busy, we haven't got time to pray. And that night they caught nothing.

Oh, how much we need to pray. Is it not true, dear brethren, that the reading meeting is well attended, but the prayer meeting, so often only a handful comes to the prayer meeting? This is the powerhouse, the powerhouse to meet God in prayer. For God answers prayer, a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God.

How we need to pray today as never before. And that night they caught nothing. But notice the fourth verse, for when the morning was now come.

Oh, here we have something different. Jesus stood on the shore. Isn't this beautiful? When the morning was come, and the morning is coming, beloved.

The morning is near. The night is going to soon pass by. The morning is very near.

And Jesus stands on the shore. We can see with the eye of faith. We can see Jesus standing on yonder shore.

He's waiting. Jesus was waiting here to meet these seven men. He's the unchangeable one.

He knew all about the fish. He knew these men were cold. He knew these men had fished all the night through and they caught nothing.

But he was there standing on the shore. And you and I, beloved, we fail the Lord. I speak for myself.

Our hearts get ice cold. We get away from the Lord. We stop reading our Bibles.

We stop praying. But what happens? We find that Jesus is standing on the shore. And what's he doing? He's waiting for us to come back.

And the devil says, don't go back. He doesn't want you anymore. You failed.

You might just as well throw in the sponge. No. Jesus stands on the shore.

The same blessed person is standing on the shore. And he's looking at you. And he's looking at me with an eternal love.

We change. He changes not. He can never change.

He can never change. We have an unchangeable Savior. We all change.

But there is one who changes not. Oh, how blessed to see Jesus standing on the shore. And what's he saying? It says in this fourth verse, but, the end of the fourth verse, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.

Now here's the result of no prayer. Here they had no discernment. If they had no prayer, they had no discernment.

They didn't recognize that blessed one. Oh, they knew him. Peter knew him, but he didn't recognize him.

The disciples knew not that it was Jesus. How many times Jesus has stood on the shore. And we haven't seen him.

They said, I don't know who it is. Who is that? Who is this that brought the circumstances into our lives? And we don't know it's Jesus. We say, we don't know it's Jesus.

We've lost our discernment because we've lost our prayer. And Jesus stands on the shore looking at you and me. And we don't know who it is, beloved.

We don't realize that he's over all. That he moves the scenes he's behind. We can't see him except with the eye of faith.

But he's moving the scenes. Is it true or is it false that the Lord moves the scenes he's behind? Indeed it's true. We have to believe it.

Nothing happens by chance. Nothing happens by chance. The Lord moves the scenes he's behind.

Do we recognize that Jesus is on the other shore? Do we see Jesus or are we blinded by this poor Christ-rejecting reasoning world? They say like this, why do you pray? Doesn't God know everything? That's the devil's hiss, beloved, the serpent's hiss. We have a God who wants us to pray, who calls us to pray, who's on the other shore. The Lord is there.

Can we see the Lord tonight? Can we see Jesus on the other shore? And can we recognize that person on the other shore who allows things to happen in our home life, our business life, our assembly life? Are we blind? Can't we see that Jesus is on the other shore? And what is he doing? He's taken our attention away from everything in this world onto his blessed person. Well, in the fifth verse he speaks. Notice he speaks and he says, children, have you any meat? They answered him, no.

Children, have you any meat? And doesn't the Lord say that to you and to me today? Doesn't the Lord say to you and me, have you any meat? He doesn't mean the meat we eat for our dinner. He means the spiritual meat, the word of God, the things that are in this book. Have ye any meat? Oh, when he fed the 5,000, he said to the disciples, give ye them to eat.

But the disciples couldn't meet the need. The disciples couldn't meet the need of the 5,000. They only had five loaves, which speaks of weakness, the figure five.

They only had two small fish, which speaks of testimony, a weak little testimony. And that's exactly what we are, brethren, just a weak little testimony. Five loaves and two small fishes.

But Jesus was able to take them into his blessed hands and feed 5,000, over 5,000, and 12 baskets gathered up. Oh, what a provider he is. And here he says, children, have ye any meat? And they said, no.

Well, how lovely it is that Christ has the remedy. He has the remedy to meet every need. So here he meets the need.

He says unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find. When we were in England a year ago, we spoke on this chapter in St. Ives where the fishermen lived. And after the meeting an old brother said to me, why did the Lord say, cast the net on the right side of the ship? And I said, brother, I haven't got any idea.

And he said, now I'll tell you. Because he said, fishermen always fish on the left hand of the ship. Always.

That's our policy as fishermen, to fish on the left hand side. But he said, when the Lord told them to fish, he told them to do exactly the opposite to what man does. And this is exactly how God works.

All man's schemes and plans and arrangements have to be thrown overboard. And we have to do exactly the opposite to what the world would do. The world's got its policies.

The world's got its methods. But they're man's ways. They're man's methods.

They're man's arrangements. They're man's schemes. And they're no good in the things of God.

We have to go God's way. And the Lord's way was on the right hand side of the ship. Do you mean to say the fish weren't there before? Indeed, they were there.

But the disciples couldn't catch the fish. The disciples couldn't catch the fish. And I believe the Lord wouldn't let them catch them.

But now they have to start all over again with the word of the Lord. You see, they recognize the voice of that blessed one. No doubt there must have been something in his voice that led them to take this stand.

Cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find. They cast their form. Here's the step of obedience.

Here now they obey the voice of the one who stood on the shore. There he was on the shore, beloved. Separated from the waters, he stood on the shore.

And the Lord Jesus is separated from this world. He said, I am not of the world. And he said also of you and me, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

We have a Savior that doesn't belong to the world, but a Savior who loves the people in the world. He loves poor sinners and he loves his people. And even though he's gone, there's some things that he can't do.

And that is he can't love you and he can't love me any more than he does. Impossible for the Lord to love us more because he loves us with all his heart. He loves us with an unchangeable love, an unmeasurable love, an eternal love.

And so it says in the end of the sixth verse, and now they were not able to draw for the multitude of fishes. Oh what a multitude of fishes they caught. But now notice what happens.

Here's the man that lived closest to the Lord. Oh dear brethren, is that you in this assembly at Pine Grove? Are you the brother that lives closest to the Lord? Am I? I'd be afraid to say yes for myself. What about you? John was the one who lived closest to the Lord, I believe, and he was the one who said in the seventh verse, therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said unto Peter, notice unto Peter, it is the Lord.

Oh John, you know this great multitude of fishes, that voice that said cast the net on the right side of the ship was his voice. They obeyed his voice. The great number of fishes came into the net and then John was convinced it was Jesus.

And it's always the ones who live closer to the Lord, closer to the Lord, who recognize the Lord's actions, that recognize the Lord's voice of authority and power, that recognize the Lord's ways and means. It is, said John the Lord. And notice he addresses it to Peter.

There were five other men on the ship beside Peter and John, but John addresses his remarks to Peter. I suppose that John and Peter, they had been on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord, and in this gospel the Mount of Transfiguration is not found at all. Because all through the gospel, Jesus is the one who's glorified, who's magnified as the Eternal One.

He's always transfigured in John as the one who is the heavenly one. And John recognizes this. It is the Lord.

Now what happens? Now when Simon Peter heard that, it was the Lord. He girded his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and he cast himself into the sea. Oh, what a man of action he was.

Why, there wasn't a ship fast enough on that sea to get him to shore. This is the man that denied the Lord what happened to Peter. Well, we know what happened to Peter.

The Lord met him, and God has veiled that meeting. He just tells us that the Lord appeared to Simon, but he doesn't tell us anything that happened during that meeting. It was a sacred meeting.

But I suppose that each one of us have tried to picture that meeting. It's a very, very touching scene, isn't it? When Jesus, the risen Christ, with the marks in his hands and feet and the mark in his side, met the beloved Peter. Oh, what a sacred meeting that was, beloved.

What tears must have flowed down the apostle's cheeks as he stood there in the presence of his faithful Lord, the one who looked at him across the judgment hall and broke his heart. It broke his heart, beloved. That look of Jesus that we like, we must, each one of us, we should see that look that Jesus gave to Peter.

It broke this man's heart. And how he must have wept as he stood in the presence of his blessed Lord and found him just the same. Like the little hymn says in 224, in the little flock hymn book, and yet to find thee still the same, is this that humbles us with shame.

And so, what a meeting that must have been. And Peter was restored to the Lord, and that's why he threw himself into the sea. That's why he wanted to get to Jesus.

And beloved, has he won your heart and mine? Has he captured your heart and mine? Then we would cast ourselves into the sea to get to Jesus. Oh, Peter, that man, that impulsive man, could not wait for the ship to take him to the land. He would get into the sea.

He would get first to Jesus. He longed to be in the presence of his blessed Lord. And then it says in the 8th verse, And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cupids.

Now notice how God measures the distance. Isn't this important? God measures the distance. In the 24th chapter of Luke's gospel, where the two disciples went down to Emmaus, God tells us exactly how far it was from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

He measures the distance. But in the 15th chapter of Luke's gospel, where the poor prodigal was in the far country, God doesn't measure the distance. He doesn't tell us how far it was at the far country.

He says it was a great way off. As much as to say I can't measure the distance. And beloved, we were so far away from God that he couldn't measure the distance.

But thank God, in the darkness of Calvary's cross for three solid hours, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, he measured the distance. We were away from God. He measured the distance.

And by measuring the distance, he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Oh, he measured the distance, as the sin bearer, as the wrath of God was poured upon him. Thank God he measured the distance. But here, when it comes to the disciples, God measures the distance.

Two hundred cupids dragged in the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, now notice this. We don't want to talk about the distance.

We want to talk now about these men as if they were you and me. As if they were you and me. And we were going through this ourselves.

Notice what the Lord had. A fire of coals. Well, people say, usually in this, that when Peter saw the fire of coals, he thought of the high priest judgment.

Well, maybe that's so, but tonight we don't want to talk about that. We want to talk about this fire of coals. This is what you need and what I need.

A fire of coals. Not Peter's fire of coals, but the fire that Jesus lit. This is the fire that Christ lit.

And this fire of coals that Christ lights, it warms the hearts of the people of God. The fire that Jesus sent, it warms the hearts of the people of God. And it says here, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.

Oh, the Lord didn't need their fish. He had his fish already. He was preparing that scene on the shore for the arrival of the seven men.

Now, seven speaks of completeness. And the Lord on the other side of the shore, on the other shore of the glory land, he's got everything prepared. When the Lord Jesus Christ, as the risen Son of God, ascended on that fortieth day into the presence of God, everything was ready.

When he stepped to the threshold of the Father's house, everything was ready for you and for me. The seven is a word which means completeness, the complete church of God, the complete gathering of all his saints. Everything was ready when Jesus stepped over the threshold of his Father's house.

And how lovely it is to see here that when these men came to the shore, they had that fire of coals. They were cold. They were cold.

Don't we get cold? They had fished all night. They probably were wet. And they were cold.

And they were maybe shivering. And the Lord anticipated their needs, and he had the fire of coals ready to warm them up. And beloved, tonight, Jesus has the fire of coals for you.

And for me, to warm us up. He knows we're cold. This Christ-rejecting world makes us cold.

We pass through. We hear men cursing all day long, on the buses, on the planes, on the trains, girls as well as boys, swearing and blaspheming. All around us, our children are brought up in this environment, and the Lord knows we get cold.

And so he's got his fire of coals ready. And he's got his fish ready. And he has here the bread ready.

It's all ready to meet these men and their need. What a Savior! Have we seen the Lord on the other shore? Have we seen this fire of divine love ready to meet us and greet us and warm our hearts? Oh, dear brethren, we get discouraged. Our heads go down.

We get discouraged. And we say, what do we do? What do we do? Our eyes rest on men, on our brethren. We look at our brethren, and we miss the mark, and we get cold, and we get away from God and away from the Lord, because we're always looking at circumstances, looking at men, instead of looking to the other shore where Jesus is, where he has the fire of coals and the fish and the bread to warm us up and to bring us back into that joy and that peace.

And, beloved, a born-again Christian can never be happy in this world without Christ. You meet people, they get away from the Lord, and you say, well, are you happy? And they say, why, of course I'm happy. I always say, one of two things.

Either they're telling a lie, or else they're not saved at all. Because a born-again Christian cannot be happy away from the Lord. He cannot be happy because God, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the body of the believer, will not let that person be happy.

And he's God, and he has the power to make us unhappy. And we can pray that we'll never be happy if we get away from the Lord. How sad to see a person who says, I'm born again, I'm going on in the world, I'm having a wonderful time in the world, and I'm a happy Christian.

I say he's lying. He's not telling the truth. Because the Lord won't let a Christian be happy if he's cold under the spell of this Christ-rejecting world.

You can't be happy away from the Lord. And so here they come back to this grand reception. Now in the 10th verse, isn't this beautiful? "...Jesus said unto them, Bring up the fish which ye have now caught." Is it true? Did they catch the fish? Indeed they didn't.

Who sent the fish into their net? The Lord sent them into the net. The Lord made the fish go into the net. They didn't catch the fish.

He caught the fish. But he gives them the credit. And beloved, when we get home to glory, and we see those little few that maybe by the grace of God we've led to the Lord.

Who led them to the Lord? The Holy Spirit did. The word of God brought them in. But the Lord gives us the credit.

He says, Bring up the fish which ye have now caught. What a gracious master. I wonder, he didn't say bring her the fish which I have caught, but bring her the fish which ye have caught.

Oh beloved, to know him is to love him. You can't know Christ and not love him. You can't.

It's impossible for a man to say, I know the Lord, but I don't love him. It's impossible. Absolutely impossible.

If you know the Lord, you love him. What a gracious, loving, tender, faithful master. Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.

Now it tells us in the next verse, Simon Peter went up and he drew the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred and fifty and three. Notice God has them all counted. They're all counted 153.

Why does it say 153? Well, I believe, and I've read this and I've enjoyed it, at that time there were 153 different dialects or languages in the world, and there was one from every one of them. And in the fifth chapter of Revelation, we read of every tongue and people and nation. God is going to pick up in that Soviet Russia, that land of atheists, he's going to pick up, the grace of God is going to go into Russia and pick up those Russian ones that he has chosen, his beloved people.

He's going to pick them up. And through the Red China, where they say there's no God and so on, the grace of God is going to reach into Red China. And every nation under heaven, the grace of God can't be kept out.

There's 153 fish, and he numbers them all. He knows exactly the God that counts the hairs of our head, how simple it is for him to count his beloved people. He knows them all, every one of us.

He knows our names. He knows where we live. He knows the state of our soul.

He knows how happy we are. He's the Lord. How blessed.

153. And yet for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Now you remember in the fifth chapter of Luke's gospel, where the Lord said, let down your nets.

Let down your nets, plural. And you remember that Peter said, we have fished all night, we have toiled all night and have caught nothing. Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

The result was the net broke. But here the net doesn't break. Oh, how blessed.

The Lord Jesus Christ had died on the cross of Calvary. He had risen again, a glorified man, the risen Christ. Can any of the fish get out of the net? Oh, 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. How blessed. Not one of the fish got out of the net.

They were all in the net and the net didn't break. And yet it says, and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Verse 12, Jesus said unto them, come and dine.

Oh, how blessed. Come and dine. He had the supper ready for them.

Come and dine, he said. What an invitation. The Lord of glory invites his people to come and dine.

Each one of us today are invited by the Lord Jesus Christ to come and dine. He's got the book all ready for us. He has the fish and the bread and he has the fire, all in the book.

It's all in this book, beloved. It's not on the shore now like it was in the 21st of John, but the whole thing is in the book. The fish and the bread and the fire of Coles is here in the book to warm us up and to feed our souls.

Well, I want you to draw your attention before we close the rest of these couple of verses. And none of the disciples durst ask him who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Oh, their mouths were stopped in the presence of the Lord.

They were in the Lord's company and they felt themselves in the presence of the Lord. What a wonderful place to be in the presence of the Lord. There they were.

They were in the Lord's presence and I suppose they were very reverent as they stood there in the presence of the Son of God. Now in the 13th verse, now isn't this wonderful? Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them and fish likewise. Isn't that beautiful? We often enjoy thinking of this verse.

I suppose if we were to go to the home tonight of the Prime Minister of Canada and he invited one of us to supper, I'm sure we wouldn't expect Mr. Trudeau to go into the kitchen and bring in a big plate of roast beef and then cut it and serve us. He's got servants to do that. And the President of the United States and the Queen of England, they don't go out in their kitchens and bring food in and go around the table serving their guests.

No indeed they don't. They're too big for that. They're too busy for that.

They're too important for that. But here is the Lord of glory. The Lord of glory, the Son of God, the Creator, the Almighty One.

What do we find them doing? We find them serving seven men. Seven fishermen, there they were, and the Lord of glory going to the seven of them and feeding each one of them. You see the Lord serves in the 21st chapter of the book of Exodus.

We find him as the servant, as a Hebrew servant who loved his master, I believe would speak of God. He loved his wife, speaking of the church. He loved his children, speaking of you and me.

And he wouldn't go out free. And then in the 12th chapter, the 13th of John, we find the Lord of glory as the servant. Down he is at the disciples' feet.

What a picture. Who is this person? The Lord of glory. And where is he? Down at the disciples' feet.

And he's washing the disciples' feet, and he's drying them with a towel. This is the Lord of glory, beloved, a servant of the present. A servant of the past, a servant of the present.

And then in the 12th chapter of Luke's gospel, we find he'll come forth and serve them. The servant of the future. And here is the servant, here is the eternal son of God, and he's serving these fishermen.

And none of the disciples are asked, in verse 13, Jesus then cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. Now I'm sure that these men had enough to eat. What a provider.

God loveth a cheerful giver. Why? Because he is a cheerful giver. That's why when we're cheerful givers, we're like God.

He's a cheerful giver. He gives the best. He always gives the best.

And I suppose these disciples, each one of these seven men, had a wonderful feast that day on that shore, beside that fire. They were warmed up, and they had Jesus feeding them. How wonderful it is when Jesus feeds us.

Well, now the last verse, the 14th. This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. How blessed.

The third time. The third time he had showed himself to his disciples. It was the Lord's great delight to show himself to his disciples.

In all, in the fourth chapter, I think it is of Acts, it says of the disciples, being let go, they went to their own company. And that's exactly what Jesus did. Being let go from that tomb, the risen Christ, he went to his own company.

He never appeared to the world. We never read of the Lord Jesus appearing to the world after his resurrection. It was always to his own company.

In all, the one who is the living word of God always fulfills the written word of God. He appeared to his own company. May the Lord tonight warm our hearts in the matchless love of that precious Savior whose love will never cease.

And beloved, may you and I see on the other shore that blessed person whose love will never cease. Do not allow the devil to whisper in our ears, Oh, well, you know, we're such miserable failures that the Lord doesn't want us anymore. He does want us.

He does love us. And we're in him accepted in the beloved. Let us turn a deaf ear to the devil and all his wicked thoughts and his wicked words.

And let us look full into the very face of the lovely Jesus and know that we're his. And that no power, even the devil himself, can take out of the mighty hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, the weakest Christian in the world, can't snatch from the very hand of that blessed Lord one of his sheep. May the Lord give us the glory in such a Savior.

Number 256. Praise the Savior, ye who know him. Who can tell how much we owe him? Number 256.

Praise the Savior, ye who know him. All we have. Jesus is the name that charms us.

He for conflict fits and arms in him. In him ye saints for those he loves from him. Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us in him.

Then we shall be where we would be. Then we shall be, should be, and shall be.