Luke 5:1-11

I'd like to read in Luke's Gospel chapter 5, Luke chapter 5, and read from verse 1. And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Peter's or Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship.

Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep, let down your nets for a droth. And Simon answered and said unto him, Master, we have toiled all night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.

And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and the net break. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both ships, so that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man. For he was astonished, and all that were with him at the droth of fishes, which they had taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said unto Simon, fear not, from henceforth thou shall catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. Now the Lord will bless to us the reading of his precious word.

There are some other scriptures that I would have liked to read, but I don't want to take the time for it. I'll just refer to them. If we would go to Peter, we would say there in 1st Peter, we are born of the word.

That's what brought us to salvation was the word of God. And then we also in 2nd Peter, 1st Peter chapter 2 and verse 2, it says there we grow by the word. And then in John chapter 15, we are cleansed by the word or made clean by the word.

And then in John chapter 17 and verse 17, we are sanctified by the word and set apart to God by the word. And chapter Ephesians 6 and verse 17, we're protected by the word. Acts 20 and verse 32, we're edified by the word.

We're built up in our most holy faith. Psalm 119 and verse 105, we're illuminated by the word. And then in verse 103, we are satisfied with the word.

So the word of God has a lot of power to it. So when we think of that this afternoon, and I think of the word of God, and then we see that the word is creatorial, it's evangelistical, doctrinal, practical, prophetical, and devotional. So them are some of the things that are in the word of God.

Now, here in this portion of God's word, we see that the multitude or the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God. And it's wonderful to see people at a conference like this wanting to come to hear the word of God. Isn't that wonderful that people are still coming to hear what the word of God has to tell us? Now, as we mentioned before, we're born of the word.

Now, when I think of Andrew, Peter's brother, he saw the need for bringing Peter to the Lord Jesus. And there in John chapter 1, we read that he brought, Andrew brought his brother to the Lord Jesus. He brought Peter to the Lord Jesus.

And there, Peter was a call to salvation. What a day that must have been in Andrew's life when he brought Peter to the Lord Jesus and Peter was reached and saved. Quite a little difference between Cain and Abel.

When Cain murdered his brother, and the Lord says, where is Abel thy brother? He says, I'm my brother's keeper. He didn't have any love for his brother. But when we think of Andrew, he had love for his brother.

The first thing he wanted to see was to see his brother brought to the Lord Jesus. But here we have, they pressed upon the Lord to hear the word of God. And then it says here, and he saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets.

And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. Why isn't that quite remarkable that the Lord Jesus went into Peter's ship and he says, thrust out a little. The Lord Jesus wanted to have just a little time with Peter.

And I sometimes wondered, dear brothers and sisters, if the Lord Jesus wouldn't just like to have a little time with you and with me to come aside and to see really what the Lord Jesus could do. And there they were. And he read the word of God and he taught the people out of the ship there that day.

Now in this portion of God's word, I would like to look at it this afternoon as a night of failure, a morning of faith, a day of fullness, a time of fellowship. And then we have a lifetime of fellowship. And then we have a fear not, and we have a forsaking, and we have a following.

Now, when we think of this here this afternoon, and it says here, thrust out a little. And as the Lord thrust out, as Peter thrust that ship out there that day, and as they were setting, I've often thought what Peter's thoughts was that day when the Lord Jesus was speaking to that multitude there on the shore of the sea of Tiberias or the sea of Nazareth. And when we think of that this afternoon, as I, I've heard some people that were over there and they claim that it's just like an amphitheater.

It's just a mountainside along the sea of Tiberias. And the words that the Lord Jesus spoke there that day, every one of them could hear the word of God so plainly as he mentioned it, but they pressed to hear the word of God. I wonder dear brothers and sisters this afternoon, do we still, do we have the desire as those that were not saved, they had a desire to hear the words of the Lord Jesus? And you've often wondered why did the Lord Jesus want to get in the ship and go out to the sea and then to speak from that ship? Many times the Lord Jesus was in the place of death.

And I really believe it was a place of safety for the Lord Jesus at that time, because the multitude was waiting for him to find a little fault within the Lord Jesus, and then to do away with him. But they could never have done away with the Lord Jesus. But here we see thrust out.

And then the Lord Jesus told Peter, he says, now Peter, I want you to launch out into the deep. And dear young brethren today, don't be afraid to thrust out. Don't be afraid to launch out into the deep.

I know we're living in the days where we don't see as many things done, but is that any reason why we should give up? Launch out into the deep. Peter says to the Lord, Lord, we have toiled all night and we have taken nothing. What a thing.

A night of failure. And I wonder dear brothers and sisters, how many nights of failure has been in my life? How many days of failure has been in my life? How many weeks of failure? How many months of failure? How many years of failure? Do we have failure? They toiled all night and they took nothing. But finally, Peter says, Lord, on thy word, I'll let down a net.

As much as I say, Lord, I'll show you that there is no fish out there. Are we not a little bit of the same characteristic of today? We're thinking that there's no more out there. Oh, dear brethren and sisters, don't let us give up.

As Peter there that day, he says on thy word, on the word of God, what the Lord told him to do, I'll let down a net. And that day, what happened? The net was filled. My, a day of fullness.

And then he beckoned for his partners. He wanted help. And that's what we need in the gospel work.

We need workers. We need helpers. And to like the four men that brought the paralytic man to the Lord Jesus, isn't that wonderful that they brought that man to the Lord Jesus? And then that man found out there that day that his sins were forgiven.

And my, when we were brought to the word of God, we found out what the Lord Jesus did for us at the cross of Calvary. And we found out that he took our place and he died in our stand. Now, when I think of Peter here, he says, I have told all night and taken nothing.

Is there ever going to be another day in Peter's life that he is toiled and taken nothing? If we take up the life of Peter, and I don't want to say too many things against Peter, because one day I'm going to meet that dear man in heaven. So I'm very careful what I'm going to say about him. But we read in the word of God that one day he followed a far off.

And then he warmed himself at the world's fire, toil all night, taking nothing. And then he denied the Lord Jesus three different times. But dear ones this afternoon, thanks be to God that there is a way back to God.

There is a time that we can be restored. If we get away from God, don't ever give up on somebody that is going to do some things that are not pleasing to the very God of heaven, that they can't be restored back to God. Don't just let him go.

Try to encourage him, try to encourage him to come back. And here, here's a man that's going to be restored back to God, not at this time, but in later on in the word of God. So he beckoned his partners to come and help him.

What did they do? They came and helped him. And then a little later on, he says, and Simon Peter saw it. He fell down at Jesus knee saying, depart from me.

My, the lack of faith that Peter had on the word of God, he could see that he was a sinful man. I wonder dear brothers and sisters, if I would be so faithful after I have done something wrong, or you have done something wrong, that I would go right to the feet of the Lord Jesus and say, depart from me for I am a sinful man. And when we think of that today, and then the Lord Jesus goes on and he says, fear not Peter, from now on, I want to make you a fish or a man.

Now, if we would go to chapter four of Matthew, we would read there that he was called to service and here he's called to fish for man. He was called to salvation first, John chapter one. And then he's called to his service in chapter four of Matthew.

And now he's called to fish for man. Matthew said they were casting their nets and they were mending their nets. Here they were washing their nets.

What was wrong with the nets? There was something wrong. Peter thought because he didn't catch any fish that night. They toiled all night and taken nothing.

So he wanted to wash the nets up. Sometime we need a washing. We need a cleansing.

We got to get right with God. And here it says, fear not from henceforth thou shalt catch men. In order to catch men, there had to be a forsaking of all and a following of the Lord Jesus.

Now, when you think of all the fish that were out there in the sea where they were fishing, you know, they meant a lot to Peter. That was Peter's life. He was a fisherman and a fisherman.

He doesn't like to lose fish, but here's these fish out there in the sea. The Lord Jesus is trying to tell him, Peter, those fish out there, they're not worth very much. But I want you to think about a soul.

And I want every one of us to think about a soul today. A soul out there that is without Christ. Should this not stir us up to think of some of our loved ones that are in their sins and they're perishing and they're going to be lost if they never get saved? If we could just get stirred up at this conference to really want to see souls reached and saved, that we might go in for it with might and mean to warn them once again to flee from the wrath to come.

I think we should be stirred up, dear brothers and sisters. I know we're living in a day where everything seemingly is all taken up with time and sense, occupied with what's going on in this world. But if we could just get taken up with a soul that is lost and going down to hell, that they might be delivered from the bondage of their sin.

We go to John chapter 21. Peter even, he's restored back to God. And now the Lord says to him, there he said when he had that night, he take nothing there that night in John chapter 21.

We should really read it. But for the sake of time, we'll pass it by. He toiled all night.

And he says, the Lord appeared on the scene. He says, have you any meat? He says, no, we have no meat. Quite remarkable, isn't it? Normally a fisherman isn't always honest, but they were honest that day.

He admitted that they had taken nothing. When I consider that, the Lord says, Peter, put the net on the other side of the ship. And just from one side of the ship to the other side, here was a multitude of fishes, 153.

Here we are laboring for the Lord, trying to see souls reached and saved, maybe just over on the other side, there will be the multitude of fishes that we could gather in. Oh, if we would only be in the mind of the Lord to really realize where God would want us to go and to see blessing in salvation. And the Lord says, don't love us all me more than these.

And Peter says, I'll know that I love thee. And he said, feed my lambs. My dear ones, this afternoon, when we think of Peter there, the Lord told him three different times.

The first time, feed my lambs. The next time, feed my sheep. And the next time, feed my sheep.

Shepherd the lambs, shepherd the sheep. The sheep need to be encouraged, dear brethren and sisters. That should touch every one of our hearts this afternoon.

Talk about a man restored back to God. Did God use him? On the day of Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, Peter preached a message, won 3,000 souls for God. I know this will never happen again in the world that we will see that kind of blessing.

But when we think of that today, what a joy Peter had that day to see those souls reached and saved and obeying God in baptism and then being added to the fellowship and then continuing in that fellowship. Wouldn't that be wonderful if we could see something like that done, just a few more souls saved and reached for the glory of God.