Well now, this morning then we turn for
yet another meditation on the main theme from
Simon to Peter.
And the theme of our message this morning
is based upon John chapter 21, verses 1
to 14.
Vital reassurance is the title that we have
given to it.
As we have been following in the footmarks
of our Lord and his disciples over the
months that are gone, we have seen how
amazingly patient he is with his own.
And yet how sovereign and how sufficient is
his grace.
He overcomes every obstacle.
He is able indeed to make all grace
abound toward those whom he calls.
Where sin abounded, I believe we have all
seen grace abounding far, far more.
We come today to what must be deemed
a very important landmark in the training of
the twelve.
And under God I trust it will be
an important landmark in the training of each
one of us.
For whatever work the Lord may have for
us to do.
We have now reached a critical stage.
I say critical for this reason.
Up until this point or up until this
stage in the developing ministry of our Lord,
Simon Peter has been very ignorant of himself.
Now we have been stressing this the last
two or three times especially.
He has been a man who for some
reason or other has been almost totally oblivious
to all his faults and sins and follies.
This as we have pointed out on one
occasion must surely be one of the great
tragedies in his life and it may be
equally so in our lives.
Other people can see Simon's sins so glaringly
standing out.
He couldn't see them himself.
So that whenever the Lord challenged him for
anything he said, Oh yes Lord you can
depend upon me, the others may let you
down but never me.
He was so sure of himself.
And I'm not so sure that his breed
is yet extinct in the Christian church.
There are those of us whose sins are
very obvious to others.
Whose weaknesses are glaring to our fellows.
And yet apparently we are ourselves utterly ignorant
of them.
May God grant us to see ourselves as
Simon Peter ultimately came to see himself.
Because what makes this a critical point is
this.
At long last Simon has come to a
knowledge of himself.
What brought it to a head of course
was his three fold foul denial of his
Lord.
It's very sad that it had to come
to that.
But it was only when Simon did that
and then saw his Lord nailed to the
cross going alone to die.
That the hideous reality of his own carnal,
sinful, arrogant, proud, blaspheming self hit him between
the eyes.
You know it's very sad.
Sometimes the Lord has to let some of
us slip into terrible sin.
Before we come to a knowledge of ourselves.
Thus having seen his Lord crucified and buried
in a borrowed tomb.
Simon Peter spent probably the most dismal three
days and nights that a man ever spent.
He heaved out the sorrow of his soul
in tears.
As he wept and thought and pondered.
One can almost sense the heaving of his
great soul for relief.
Little care.
Until the dawn of a new day when
Jesus personally met him.
You remember how he commissioned Mary Magdalene and
the others.
Go tell Peter and the others.
But Peter especially that I'm risen from the
dead.
Then we are told that he made a
special appearance to Simon.
1 Corinthians 15 5.
And that somehow or other stayed.
The terrible sense of lostness and hopelessness that
gripped Simon up to that point.
At the same time we must be realistic.
If we rightly read between the lines.
Neither that personal confrontation with Jesus.
Nor his subsequent appearance to Peter along with
others.
Has really rehabilitated the man spiritually.
He is still very nervous.
Very fearful.
Very timid.
Wouldn't you be?
If you had really seen yourself as a
man or a woman.
Capable of denying your own Lord with oaths
and curses.
Wouldn't you feel like that?
And so here in the passage that we
have before us today.
The episode brings to our notice the mood
of the disciples still.
And the ministry of the Lord.
Whereby he would meet that particular mood of
a somewhat desolated people.
Now the passage I think naturally divides into
a two-fold thrust.
First we see the disciples in semi-retreat.
And secondly we see the master in full
pursuit.
This is what I want to stay with
for a short time.
First of all the disciples in semi-retreat.
These followers of our Lord are not now
turning their backs upon him.
And returning to the boat and to their
secular affairs.
Simply or even primarily because Jesus was crucified.
Now can I please underline that.
Because I have no time to expand it
any further.
They are not going back to the boat.
They are not in semi-retreat because Jesus
was crucified.
Because they know that he is alive.
The mere fact of the crucifixion.
What was at an earlier stage perhaps deemed
by them to be a sheer tragedy.
Is no longer seen in that light because
God has omnipotently reversed that.
And the very worst that man could do
to him.
Has now become the greatest deed of God.
He has raised him from the dead.
So Jesus is alive.
Why then are they retreating?
Why are they retreating from any spiritual ministry
of a positive order?
Surely the knowledge that Jesus was risen should
have saved them from anything of that order.
You know strange as it may seem.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ caused
some problems for them that they never had
before.
And especially during these forty days.
Oh yes he was risen all right.
Risen all right.
Thomas made sure of that when he put
his hand.
His finger in his hands and his hand
in the wound in the master's side.
He's risen all right.
But there are problems that emerge.
Even now.
I suppose they might even have asked this.
There were times before the cross when he
seemed so full of authority and of power.
And yet that happened to him.
They took him away like a lamb and
led him to the slaughter without a bleating
of the lip.
Could it not happen again?
I suppose also they might have been asking
a question such as this.
If they were able to do that to
our Lord will they not do it to
us?
If the shepherd could so easily be smitten
what about his sheep?
If the master was nailed to a cross
what will our master's enemies do to us?
Dare we be loyal to him?
Dare we serve him?
These then kindred Christians could not other than
torment these early disciples at this stage.
Peter among them.
Oh yes let me repeat they knew that
he was risen.
But there's something strange about the risen Christ.
Something they cannot come to terms with.
They can't make sense out of it.
They can at one moment touch the print
of the nails in his hand and then
there's something strange happening.
Here they are in an upper room.
The doors are closed.
The windows and the doors are barred.
And suddenly he stands among them.
How can a risen physical Christ, the Christ
they'd known so long, how can he do
a thing like that?
Is it real?
Can't you see them rubbing their eyes and
asking is this thing real?
And then just as easily as he had
emerged into their midst as he had come
into their midst so again he makes his
exit.
And when he's gone they don't know where
he's gone to.
They don't know what he's doing.
They don't know where he's sleeping.
They don't know where he's staying.
They know next to nothing about him until
suddenly he comes from somewhere again and he
meets them on the way.
He's so elusive in his glorified body.
The risen body is the same as the
old and yet it's different.
And the difference makes them all so, so,
so nervous.
What kind of a church can you build
around a crucified Lord?
Even with a print of the nails in
his hands if he's here one moment and
then he's gone another.
You turn around and he's not there.
What kind of a kingdom of God can
you build upon a king such as this?
Ah yes, it is his kingly power to
come in when the doors are bolted and
barred.
But then he leaves you.
And where is he?
Now can I put a little word in
brackets here?
You see all this has meaning.
There is nothing meaningless in the purpose of
God in the unfolding drama of divine redemption.
What is happening is this.
That God is teaching the disciples and preparing
them for the age of the Spirit.
Beginning at Pentecost.
He is present though he's absent.
Now that sounds Irish to some.
He is physically coming and going.
But he's within reach.
He's within range.
And he comes when they need him.
And when he comes he has all power.
You see this is an era which is
introducing another.
So you see the kind of problems that
these people have.
How can they launch out into a militantly
aggressive evangelism when they're not sure of him?
Puzzled and perplexed these disciples, can I put
it like this?
They knew too much to go back.
But they had too many doubts to go
on.
Oh they knew too much to leave him
and forsake him.
That they could not do.
The whole three years teaching.
The evidence of his grace and of his
power.
They can't wipe that out.
Thanks be to God.
There is that indelibility about the grace of
God.
You can't get rid of it.
And when once he's done work in your
heart you can't shake it off like that.
They couldn't.
They know too much to go back.
But you see they have too many doubts
to go on.
They can't go out into the world on
an errand of militant evangelism for the Christ
that was crucified and risen just like this.
They're not sure of things.
And the world certainly discovers our uncertainties.
So what they do is this.
They're nervous.
And nervous people cannot long remain inactive.
They've got to do something.
And especially Simon Peter.
Oh what can we do?
Simon says, well fellows he says I don't
know what about you but I'm going fishing.
And they all said Simon that's a great
idea we come with you.
And back they go like a flock of
sheep.
Simon set the pace.
You see he's leader still.
Even in his backslidden state.
The potentiality is there.
The power is there.
The human charisma is still there if not
the divine.
It's a very dangerous thing to have this.
There are men and women even in their
most backslidden moments can be leaders.
Simon said I go back.
They all go after him.
They knew too much to retreat properly and
fully and to make a break.
But they must get something to do.
And they must go somewhere.
They've got to change the scene and the
scenery.
And Simon tells them what to do.
And they all join in.
Now my friends before we leave this can
I put it to you.
We're not here simply to talk about Simon
Peter this morning.
What about us?
Where are you this morning?
Am I speaking to some men and women
and fellows and girls.
And the fact about you and the fact
about me perhaps may be this.
That really we know too much to go
back in full retreat.
But we have too many doubts to go
forward.
Our Lord puzzles us in so many ways.
The mystery of his providence.
He said something.
He's done something.
He's allowed something.
And because of the mystery of his providence
or of his ways or of his word.
We are found today actually in a kind
of cul-de-sac.
Into which we have gone hoping that things
will get better.
And things will get straightened out.
Otherwise we would dearly love to make a
wholesale retreat.
Are you inactive in Christian service just because
of this?
Would there be many more hands involved in
our Sunday school.
In our teaching ministry.
In our summer fellowship ministry.
In bringing souls along to hear the gospel.
If it were not that there are multitudes
of our members in a semi-retreat.
They know too much to go back.
But they don't know enough to go on.
They've not got the passion of truth in
their souls.
They know nothing of the burning of the
word in the soul.
And the mighty fire of the Holy Ghost
in the heart.
Is that you?
No, you've not gone back to the boat.
But you're up some cul-de-sac.
That some humanly charismatic teacher.
Now I'm not speaking of the charismatic movement
properly.
I'm speaking of a human charisma.
A carnal charisma.
A human thing entirely.
They have led you up the garden path.
And your life revolves around a man.
Or an ism.
The disciples in semi-retreat.
I'm glad to be able to leave that
for a moment.
Come with me to the second main thread
woven into this rich tapestry.
The Saviour in full pursuit.
Oh, their Saviour knew the mind and the
mood of these men.
Isn't that wonderful?
You know, my friend, what is more wonderful
still is this.
He knows your mind.
And he knows your mood this morning as
he knows mine.
And I am glad that if they were
meandering out and back out of his will,
he's not meandering or coming quietly toward us.
He's in full flight.
He's in pursuit.
Now, what did he have to say to
men in this condition?
What did Jesus want to say to these
people?
As this is really my concern this morning,
I'm not simply concerned.
I'm not primarily concerned with the details of
the narrative.
Sometimes we cannot see the wood for the
trees.
I want to see the wood.
I want to see the message.
What was it that our Lord wanted to
say to these men in and through this
incident?
And what does he say?
Because he never fails.
Three things.
One, in the first place, Jesus would teach
them the sheer futility of life outside of
his will.
That night, they caught nothing.
If ever I was tempted to rejoice over
the failure of men, you know, I want
to rejoice over this.
I want to say hallelujah, praise the Lord.
Not a fish, not a fish, not a
solitary fish that night.
And that's not out of spleen, but out
of concern for the glory of God.
Not a fish.
Why not?
Were there none in the lake?
Or have they lost their hands, those of
them who had previously been fishermen?
Not at all.
There were scores of fish in the lake,
as we shall see later on.
A hundred and fifty and three come crashing
into the nets at a certain stage later
on.
And the nets are really breaking, nearly breaking.
It's not that they've lost their hand.
It's something quite different.
The Lord of oceans and tides and waves.
The Lord of the fish of the sea
and of the birds of the air.
The Lord of men and of beasts and
of demons and of angels.
The Lord is in command of the lake
and of its fish.
And that night the fish in this lake
were under strict orders to keep away from
that net.
They were permitted to go anywhere else, but
not into this net, because the Almighty God
has a lesson to teach these men on
board that ship.
You see, He's in command.
There's no gospel apart from this.
None whatsoever.
You can't understand the Bible.
You can't understand the gospel.
You can't understand a thing unless you stand
on this plank.
Our Lord is sovereign.
This is no accident.
This is no freak.
It was He who kept the fish out
of their net.
But what's He saying?
What's He got in mind?
Why does He do things like this?
What's His message?
Well, you see, He is graciously but firmly
telling His retreating and nervous disciples that the
very best skill exercised in the most familiar
circumstances is no guarantee of success outside of
His will.
Can I repeat that?
That the very best skill employed in the
most familiar circumstances is no guarantee of success
outside of His will.
That night they caught nothing.
The reason is not that they've lost the
art of fishing.
The reason is that they're retreating somewhat out
of His will.
This is love's way of showing them that
there are more perils in retreating from Him
and away from Him than in going forward
with Him.
Now, this is something that the devil doesn't
want anybody to hear, and I'm going to
repeat it.
I have met it so often in pastoral
work.
There are fellows and girls and men and
women in middle life, especially middle life, who
are afraid that to go on in an
entire abandonment to the will of God means
they're going to lose something.
It's dangerous to give too much of your
physical strengths, too much of your time, too
much of this, too much of that.
No, no, no, no, no.
You be careful.
Don't spend too much.
Don't give too much.
Don't do too much.
Isn't this the peril that wastes at noonday?
My Lord Jesus Christ wants us to know
this morning that the dangers of going back
out of His will are greater than the
dangers of going on with Him.
Because you may have your gifts and you
may have your training and you may fish
in the most familiar waters, but if He
does not see fit to let the fish
get into your net, you'll catch nothing.
And there are men and women today, I
shouldn't be at all surprised that they're here
in Convocation Hall this morning, some of them,
who've done exactly this, and their life this
morning is a miserable, parched, spiritual desert.
Now it's sad.
They thought that to go back depending upon
their own natural abilities was far safer than
to go on with the Lord.
It's not.
That night they caught nothing.
And don't let anyone say, Aha, but the
Lord does allow even a bad man to
make rich sometimes.
Yes, yes.
But that will be settled when the accounts
are finally audited.
There are no exceptions to what I'm saying.
None whatsoever.
Ultimately the Lord will sort out all things
from this principle.
To go on with Him is the only
safe course in life, because He's the Lord
and the Saviour.
But there's another thing that Jesus wants to
tell these men.
He would teach these nervous and now timid
men that they may be absolutely certain of
victory when it is His will to give
it.
Oh, there's real irony here before we come
to that.
I hope the Bible makes you laugh sometimes.
I'll tell you, it makes me howl.
And here's the case in point.
Here's a carpenter from Nazareth, the audacity of
it, from the backwoods.
Can anything come out of Nazareth that's worthwhile
talking about?
And here's a carpenter from Nazareth, humanly speaking,
telling fishermen trained in this particular area, fishermen
with experience, how to fish.
And where?
You know, the cheek of it.
What does a carpenter know about fishing?
He was a stranger to the lake, he
was a stranger to waters.
There were no waters for fishing around his
home, and he was brought up in that
environment.
Well, let him get on with his carpentry.
But what right has he to tell fishermen
how and when to fish and how to
make a success of it?
Ah, you see, this is the glory of
it, isn't it?
Behind the irony is the wonder that the
carpenter of Nazareth was none other than the
Lord of the universe, God incarnate, who knew
the fish as well as he could deal
with wood and timber.
Arriving near the shore towards the break of
day, having caught nothing during the night, these
men were doubly miserable.
And added to their spiritual problems, which were
still there in the background, there also failures
in another realm now, a familiar realm for
some of them.
And I guess that they were tired and
very disappointed and disillusioned, not knowing what to
say.
I'm sure Peter must have been difficult to
get on with during that last hour before
they came ashore.
They were certainly not in a mood for
conversation with strangers.
And yet, here is a stranger on the
shore yonder, and he makes as if he
wants to talk to them.
And no sooner have they come within the
sound of his voice than he shouts to
them the familiar word, Children, have you caught
any fish?
I wish I could have heard the inflection
in his voice then.
I wonder how he put it.
Children, have you caught any fish?
Is the emphasis on the children, the relationship?
Or is the emphasis upon the fact that
they have miserably failed and he knows all
about it.
Have you caught any fish?
Huh?
I can't tell you.
I don't think anyone can tell you.
But ask the question he did.
Children, have you caught any fish?
And they replied with a somewhat sullen, if
not guilty, negative, only to elicit the tantalizing
report from him.
Now, here it is.
Here's the carpenter.
Here's the stranger on the shore.
They don't recognize him yet.
Fellows, if you cast the net on the
other side, the right side of the ship,
you shall catch.
What audacity!
Who does he think he is?
What does he out there on the shore
anyway, even if he's a fisherman, what does
he out there know about fish in here?
Here are we on the boat.
We know what's going on all around us.
We know what's best.
We are fishermen.
We are not blind.
We can see.
What does he know out there?
That the command comes, cast your net on
the right side of the ship and you
shall catch.
You know, there are some things that you
can never explain.
A strange, a strange inexplicable impulse came upon
them.
Made the beeline to the net.
And the very net was about to break.
A hundred and fifty and three of them
crash into the net.
And the whole situation is changed from one
of sheer failure to one of unqualified success.
And John, bless him, John recognized it.
This is the work of only one person.
I can't see him clearly yet.
It's just dawn, you see.
It's not light yet.
I can't see him yet.
Perhaps there's a little bit of a haze
there.
I don't recognize him yet.
But this can only be the work of
one person.
It is the law.
When Peter heard that, he put two and
two together instinctively, put a garment around him,
jumped into the water and made for the
person on the shore.
And true enough, it was the law.
As to when the significance of that miracle
really dawned on them, we cannot say.
But sooner or later it must hit them
between the eyes.
Not only can he withhold success when it
is better for his disciples to fail, he
can give it.
When it is his will that they should
have it.
He can send the fish into the net.
He's the Lord, you see.
Oh, men and women, I hope you're worshiping
the Lord with me this morning.
He's the Lord.
Now, one other thing here, and we must
not miss it.
I would be very cross with myself if
I forgot this, of all things.
Here we have here this morning what the
critics tell us is virtually a duplicate of
a miracle that Jesus wrought a long time
ago and is recorded in Luke chapter 5.
If you read Luke chapter 5, we've already
dealt with that incident, and then you come
to this and you don't check too carefully,
you might say, well, really, it's the same
event, and John has mixed it up, he's
put it here, Luke put it in another
place.
Not on your life.
I want to go so far as to
tell you this morning that Jesus deliberately duplicated
that miracle, and that for this reason.
In order to show his disciples that death
has shorn him of nothing.
He went to the cross.
He submitted as a lamb to the smiters
and the slayers.
He died.
He gave up the ghost.
He was buried in the tomb.
He was dead.
What can a dead man do?
The purpose of this duplicate of that other
miracle is this, to say, I can do
the same thing still.
I am omnipotent.
I am Lord.
I can do now, even though my physical
body is a little bit of a mystery
to you, don't let the mystery hide from
you this fact.
I'm still what I was and more.
I'm Lord of death.
I'm Lord of life.
I'm Lord of the creatures.
I'm Lord of the ocean.
I'm Lord.
I can give success when it is my
will.
Let every disciple who may be tempted to
retreat out of fear take serious note.
You know, the outlook is far brighter forward
with Jesus Christ than it is backward without
Him.
Oh, I know you may have wounds in
your body.
I know that most of these men were
martyred in due course, some of them in
North Africa.
I know there, that there's something bigger than
death.
There is something greater.
There is something wonderful even in death for
Jesus said, Blessed are ye when men shall
persecute you and say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad.
That's the New Testament theology and philosophy.
His is the word that gives victory.
His is the word that restrains it.
Come with me to the last lesson here.
As He pursues His retreating disciples, Jesus not
only demonstrates the futility of life outside of
His will and the certainty of victory when
it pleases Him to give it, but also
the continuity of His care and love even
for His wayward half-believing disciples.
No, no.
He has not washed His hands of them.
I believe that one of their problems at
this time was this.
Assuming that He Himself is what He said
He was.
Assuming that He is the Son of God
and the Lord of life and of destiny.
What's He going to do with us now?
One of our number sold Him for 30
pieces of silver.
Simon Peter our leader three times denied Him
with curses and with oaths.
And all of us forsook Him and fled.
What's He going to do with us?
What's He think of us?
Surely He's going to wash His hands of
us and He'll get some new fellows around
Him and He'll put the whole business of
His kingdom into their hands.
My dear friends, oh let me bring you
this message this morning.
He loves His people even in the rebellion.
That's what we have here.
He will not let them go.
He will come after them.
And if they're in semi-retreat, He's in
full and total pursuit.
If the hall of fishes that fill those
empty nets speak of His undimmed sovereignty and
sufficiency of power, His action on the shore
proves His undiminished love and affection for them.
The simple fact of the Lord's presence there
that time of day speaks of His interest
in them still.
Have you thought of that?
What's He doing there?
Is He out for His morning's walk?
I don't think so.
He was there because they were where they
were.
He had an interest in them.
That fact is underlined by His simple question.
Children, have you caught any fish?
He was interested in them.
He wanted to know.
Of course I believe that He knew in
His heart the answer to that question before
He asked it.
But ask He did because He wanted to
show that He was concerned.
The facts speak for themselves.
Especially so when He mercifully and totally unsolicited
gives them the secret of success and fills
their empty nets with fish.
But all these things pale into insignificance alongside
of something else that happened on the shore.
Look at it.
You notice what happened.
I read.
When they got to land, they saw a
charcoal fire there.
This is the revised standard version I'm reading.
With fish lying on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, Bring some of the
fish that you have just caught.
Then I'm omitting a few words and then
He concluded, Come and have breakfast.
Now that's the best translation, not come and
dine.
Come and have breakfast.
Have you got the picture?
Not only has He been generally concerned for
them.
Concerned for them so as to get up
early to teach them a lesson that He
deemed important for their well-being.
But He thought of their empty stomachs.
Oh men and women, followers of Jesus Christ
especially.
Look, put your arms of faith around this
this morning and don't let it go.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, risen from
the dead, went down to the shore to
prepare a breakfast.
A hot breakfast.
Not just your roll and butter and marmalade.
A cooked breakfast for His backsliding disciples.
There was no need for it.
No, no, only the need of love.
Self-kindled love.
The cause was not in them, the cause
was in Him.
He loved them.
He loved them in their backslidings and despite
it.
And He would follow them and He wants
to lavish the best upon them.
And He wants to make it abundantly clear
to them.
Look fellows, I love you and I'm not
letting you go.
But now hang on, we can pass over
that far too quickly.
That's a general statement that I've made, come
down to the particular.
There is something which is terribly humbling here.
The Lord of life and of death, the
Lord of fish and of seas, the Lord
of the night and of the day, has
been buying bread somewhere.
Who buys the bread in your house?
Well, it's the housewife probably.
Who brings in the fish.
The very Son of God has gone on
a shopping escapade and He's bought all the
ingredients of this meal and He's brought them
to the shore.
Like the slave servant would do.
Then He's got some charcoal from the shore
somewhere and He's put it all together as
a good boy scout would know how to
do.
And then He's got some flint and He's
got some spark from somewhere and He's got
the charcoal aglow and then He's begun to
blow upon it.
Can you see the picture my friend?
The Son of God blowing a charcoal fire
into existence on the seashore.
Kneeling there with His nose to the sand.
Why?
Out of love for His retreating disciples.
He will not let them go.
He wants them to see.
He loves them still.
Simon with all your denials.
Simon with all your rebellion.
Simon despite all you've done, I love you
still.
I have a plan for you and a
purpose for you.
More of that will come out in the
end of the chapter.
But for the moment He loves them still.
He who washed their feet in John 13.
That's probably the climax of the pre-Calvary
ministry.
The ministry of the other side of death.
When He makes Himself the slave, the servant
of His people.
He's not changed.
Now in resurrection power He tells His people
that even though He's Lord of all, can
withhold or give success, yet He in His
grace is theirs.
So however much I have thundered this morning
that Jesus is Lord and it cannot be
thundered over much.
Oh my dear friend, let me with equal
emphasis say to you children of God that
He wants to be your servant.
He wants to serve you.
That's why He's brought you here this morning
and that's why He Himself is here.
He's come to prepare a meal for you.
I hope it's to your taste.
I know it's to your profit because He
prepared it.
And He wants you to learn these two
things as these disciples in semi-retreat of
old.
If you're going back without Him it's far
more dangerous than going forward with Him.
To go forward with Him there is one
thing you can know, you can be certain
about.
When it is His will to give the
victory, He will give it.
Nothing can frustrate Him.
And in the meantime, despite all your failures,
He only asks for penitence and brokenness and
contrition and a turning afresh to Him in
faith.
And you will know the flood of His
grace, the ruins of your soul to repair
and make your heart again a house of
prayer.
Yea, and commission you afresh.
That's what follows this.
We can't go on to it this morning.
For the work that He originally had in
mind for you, which you will never give
up.
He never revises His plans.
But when He first thought of them He
did so with inscrutably divine wisdom.
My friend, where are you?
You know it's a great privilege to preach
to you good people.
It dawned on me this week that I've
been here for nearly a year now and
you've not thrown me out or sent me
away.
Despite my lingo.
Well, where are we brother?
This is not your lovely Egyptian English.
You've put up with me.
But may I ask you a question?
Where are you men and women of God?
As you sit in this seat in Convocation
Hall this morning, is there a private rebellion
in your heart?
In your imagination and in your fancy are
you on the way back or on the
way forward?
Where are you in your dreams and in
your hopes?
Going on with Him or looking for an
escape and a way back without Him?
And if only He assured you of Heaven
at the end you would rather go back
than go forward?
I want you to see Him this morning
He's come to us in Convocation Hall.
He comes to you from His Word and
by His Spirit and He says, come, come,
come.
I've prepared a meal for you on the
strength of which I want you to know
that you can go forward anywhere with Me.
It's the safest.
It's the best.
It's the only way.
Oh God grant us and any who are
visiting among us this morning as we have
meditated upon this delightful theme from the Word
of God God grant that we may go
with fresh fuel for devoted, loyal service forward
with Him who is our Lord and our
Saviour and to His name be all the
glory and the everlasting praise.