Turn in your Bibles for this closing message
to Luke 5 1 through 11.
Luke 5 1 through 11.
Came to pass that as the people pressed
upon him to hear the word of God,
that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret
and saw two ships, really boats.
If you're a Navy man, you'll know it
was a boat, not a ship.
I see some smiles.
Two boats standing by the lake, but the
fishermen had gone out of them and were
washing their nets.
And he entered into one of the boats,
which was Simon's, and prayed him that he
would thrust out a little from the land.
And he sat down and taught the multitude
out of the ship, out of the boat.
When he had left speaking, he said unto
Simon, put out into the deep, let down
your nets for a draft.
Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have
toiled all night and have taken nothing.
Nevertheless at thy word, I will let down
the net.
When they had this done, they enclosed a
great multitude of fishes, and their nets break.
Really their nets were breaking.
They began to break.
And they beckoned unto their partners, which were
in the other boat, that they should come
and help them.
And they came and filled both the boats,
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, O Lord.
For he was astonished, and all that were
with him at the draft of the fishes
which they had taken.
And so was also James and John, the
sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said unto Simon, fear not, for
henceforth thou shalt catch men.
When they had brought their ships, their boats
to land, they left all and followed him.
I think this is kind of thrilling.
Use a little sanctified imagination.
Picture the Sea of Galilee.
The Sea of Galilee is about seven miles
across, fourteen miles from top to bottom, shaped
like a fiddle.
And I think Jesus was up at the
northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee, and
the crowd was following him.
It came to pass that the people pressed
upon him.
Why did they press upon him?
Tell me why they pressed upon him?
To hear the Word of God.
Preach the Word of God, there's an attractiveness
to it.
But he not only taught the Word of
God, he taught it with authority.
You know, the scribes peddled kind of a
second-hand religion, and Jesus wasn't like that.
He really preached the Word of God with
authority.
That's the way we should preach it, too.
Years ago, Billy Graham was having a, in
his early days, he was having a tremendous
struggle with the Lord.
He had gone to seminary, and I guess
he had indulged some doubts about the Word
of God.
Is it really the Word of God, you
know?
And one time he was down at the
Forest Home Conference, and there was a duel
going on between his soul and God.
A real battle going on.
He walked up the mountains and back of
the conference grounds, and he really headed out
with the Lord.
And you know what he did finally?
He finally accepted the Bible by faith.
And he went forth to Los Angeles Crusade,
which was really the beginning of the great
ministry, wasn't it?
The Los Angeles Crusade.
And that's when he started to say, the
Bible says.
And Billy Graham realized that there was a
new authority to his preaching that he never
had before.
And multitudes were swept into the kingdom of
God.
And you know, when I read that, I
thought, well, that's true of me, too.
I accepted the Bible by faith.
Nobody convinced me by evidences and apologetics that
the Bible was the Word of God.
Nobody convinced me by logic that it was
the Word of God.
I accepted it by faith as the Word
of God, and then God showed me that
it was the Word of God.
Somebody said, he who has felt the force
of it is not likely to doubt the
source of it.
And I'll tell you, no book has ever
affected me like the Bible.
He who has felt the force of it
is not likely to doubt the source of
it.
So here's the Lord Jesus, and he's up
there at the northwest corner of the Sea
of Galilee, and he's preaching the Word, and
he's preaching it with authority.
And the people are out there, they're thronging
him.
I like it.
Spurgeon said, get on fire for God, and
the world will turn out to see you
burn.
And Jesus was on fire for God, and
the world was turning to see him burn.
As he got there, as he was working
there, the disciples were washing their nets.
I wonder if this is spiritual, meaning that
after all, those nets are in fresh water
all day long, aren't they?
And you wouldn't think they'd need to be
washed.
They were the Sea of Galilee's fresh water.
You'd think that would be plenty.
But of course, you see, the nets are
enclosing fish, and the smell and the oil
of the fish get on the nets, and
if they don't wash them, they'll rot.
They even tell me that nowadays they use
nylon nets, but it doesn't make any difference.
They still have to wash them.
I've heard, I cannot authenticate this, but I've
heard that fish can detect the smell of
deadness from the nets unless they're washed.
What does that say to me?
It says to me, Bill, in your service
for the Lord, you better keep your nets
clean.
Yesterday's devotions won't do for today.
Last year's study of the Bible won't do
for this year.
You've got to stay in touch with the
Lord moment by moment, day by day.
And I see that, as I see the
disciples here washing their nets.
So actually, they're pushing the Lord Jesus into
the water.
Isn't that nice?
What a nice thing to have such a
crowd that the Lord Jesus doesn't have any
place to stand, and they push him into
the water.
And he used Peter's boat as a pulpit.
That's an interesting study in the New Testament,
the unconventional pulpits.
I don't think there was one like this
in the, I'm glad it's here so you
won't see my quaking knees, but I don't
think they ever had one like this in
the New Testament.
The pulpit was wherever there was the opportunity
to proclaim Christ.
The prison was a great place for a
pulpit, wasn't it?
Some of the best preaching was done in
prison.
The marketplace was good, too.
The early disciples had the notion that there
was no place where Jesus Christ was out
of place.
And so whenever situations arose in their lives,
they really opened their mouths and let out
the word.
Little did Peter know that day, when the
day started, that Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, would use his boat for a pulpit,
did he?
Little did he think that a group of
believers in Spokane, Washington, would be thinking about
it years later.
There's a lesson there.
Give what you have to the Lord.
It's surprising what he can do with it.
I know a little boy that had five
loaves and two fish, and he gave them
to the Lord.
It's multiplied them and fed 5,000 men
plus women and children.
You know, we all have things that can
be put to work for the Lord.
Garage sales.
It's great to have a garage sale every
once in a while, or a patio sale,
and get the money and put it to
work for Jesus.
Just a missionary garage sale, and all the
proceeds go to the work of the Lord.
Give Jesus what you have.
He can use it.
You say, oh, I don't have very much.
No, you've got something that he could use.
And I notice also the unconventional pulpits in
the book of Acts and in the Gospels.
Unconventional pulpits.
And I notice that the preaching, somebody said
it was not the performance of an hour,
but it was the preparation of a lifetime.
Do you understand that?
In other words, these men had accompanied with
Jesus, and they had been with Jesus, and
then when a crisis arose, they let out
the message.
Not the preparation of an hour, not the
performance of an hour, but the preparation of
a lifetime.
After George Verwer had given a stirring message,
some young person went up to him and
said, George, how long did it take you
to prepare that message?
And he said, all my life.
That was a good answer.
All my life.
And I think that's what you have here.
The disciples are ministering in the book of
Acts, and it took all their life.
Then the Lord Jesus said to them, launch
out into the deep.
First of all, the boat was there in
the shallows.
And then Jesus said to them, launch out
into the deep.
And I believe that that is what he
would say to us today.
And if we wanted a title for today's
message, I would call it that.
Launch out into the deep.
Why?
Well, I'll tell you why, because we all
like the shallows.
But it's in the deep, it's in the
depths that there's fruitfulness.
We don't like to think of the depths
of trial.
We don't like to think of the depths
of tribulation, of trouble, of difficulty, and all
the rest.
How often have you met a Christian who's
gone through a terrible period of trial, and
he says, I wouldn't want to go through
it again, but I wouldn't give it up
for anything.
Why?
Because of the lessons he learned from the
Lord in it.
There was a lady in Illinois, and she's
been through enormous tragedy in her life, including
the birth of a little fellow, born defective.
And she said to me, Bill, if I
had the last 10 years to live over
again, I'd choose them just the way the
Lord has planned them.
That's it.
Launch out into the deep.
Somebody said it was in deep waters that
the net were filled.
We must quit hugging the shore and launch
out in full surrender's tide.
Faith has its deep waters, and so do
suffering, sorrow, and loss.
These fill the nets with fruitfulness.
It's true, isn't it?
And I think many here today can say
that.
I thank God for the bitter things.
They've been a friend of grace.
They've driven me from the paths of ease
to storm the secret place.
When do you pray better?
When the going is easy and when the
going is rough.
I pray better when the going is rough.
I didn't really know how to pray then.
And it's in the deep trials of life
that that's wonderful, because, you know, for the
unsaved, the difficulties of life are only a
foretaste of what's going to come.
But for us, they're a foretaste of glory.
What a difference, huh?
What a difference.
Foretaste of glory.
Somebody has said life is filled with blessings,
cleverly disguised as trials.
That's good.
Life is filled with blessings, cleverly disguised as
trials.
Comes into your life as a trial, but
you look back and you say, what a
blessing.
What a blessing that was.
Note the omniscience of Jesus.
He says, launch out into the depths and
let down your nets for a draft.
The Lord Jesus knew where all the fish
were in the Sea of Galilee.
I believe that.
You know, there are some men today that
say that when Jesus came into the world,
he laid aside the attributes of deity.
One man said he'll never take them up
again.
I don't believe that.
I believe that when the Lord Jesus came
into the world, he veiled his deity in
a body of flesh.
I believe it was all there.
You can't be God and be anything less
than God.
And I believe the Lord Jesus was just
as omniscient, just as omnipotent, just as much
omnipresent when he was here as he was
before he came.
And he knew where all the fish were
in the Sea of Galilee.
He said, let down your nets now for
a draft.
Well, that's really wonderful.
Tells me that I want to be dependent
upon him in my service for the Lord
because he knows where the fruitfulness is.
Hell, I could go around and pass out
tracts to everyone in Spokane.
I don't suppose I could, but I could
try to pass out tracts to everyone in
Spokane today, but it might just be a
waste of effort.
You know, there might be some soul at
some corner waiting to hear the message of
life.
And the great thing is to be in
touch with God so he can say, go
join yourself to the chariot, like he said
to the Ethiopian eunuch, the omniscience of Jesus
that came up in our question period this
morning.
How, how is it that Jesus didn't know
that hour of his coming?
Well, and it was answered too.
And I agree.
John says the servant knoweth not what his
master doeth.
I think as God, the Lord Jesus knows
everything.
But as was pointed out as man, he
grew in wisdom and stature and in favor
with God and men.
People say you mustn't separate the deity and
humanity of Christ.
And I know that's true.
Yet we have to separate them in some
ways.
Jesus died, but God cannot die.
And so we have to separate them.
And I think that in his humanity, it
wasn't given to him to know the time
of his coming again to reveal it to
us, which is just as well.
Well, he says, let down your nets for
the draft.
And Peter says, Lord, we have toiled all
night and caught nothing.
There's the fisherman talking, you know, the fisherman
is talking, he says, Lord, we've toiled all
night and caught nothing.
It's possible to toil all night and catch
nothing.
What?
Service carried on by our own wisdom can
be fruitless.
It's only spirit-ordained service that counts.
As I look around in the evangelical world
today, I see a man, he has a
great idea, forms a big corporation.
Pretty soon it becomes an empire.
I wonder, did the Lord ask him to
do it?
And if the Lord asked him to do
it, why does he have to beg for
money all the time to carry it on?
God pays for what he orders.
If God tells me to do something, he
pays for it.
The money comes to the penny.
Absolutely.
So it's possible for us to engage in
Christian service and in our own wisdom, in
our own strength, and it's futile.
The secret is to be guided by him.
They had fished the Sea of Galilee the
night before in their own wisdom, in their
own strength.
They didn't know where the fish were.
They were grappling.
Now the Lord says, let down your net
for a draft.
A woman, 75, said, I am 75 and
I have done nothing with my life.
That's sad.
It doesn't have to be said of any
of us here today.
We can go from the conference, we can
get down on our knees, we can commit
our lives to the Lord and say, Lord
Jesus, live your life through me.
I'm just the empty glove.
You're the hand.
You move the glove the way you want
to move it.
But I think it's lovely here that though
Peter was an experienced fisherman, he took advice
from a carpenter.
Huh?
Well, I know Jesus is more than a
carpenter.
He's the son of God.
But nevermind, from the human standpoint, he was
the carpenter from Nazareth.
And here he comes and he tells Peter,
let down your net for a draft.
And I suppose Peter could have said, look,
I'm a fisherman.
I've been fishing this lake for years and
you're telling me to let my, he didn't
say that.
What it tells me is that the benefit
of being teachable, the benefit of being open
to instruction.
I don't believe there's a Christian that I
can't learn something from.
We're all members of the body.
Every member has its usefulness.
If I can take our charismatic brethren for
an example, I do not agree with their
doctrine.
I do not agree with the doctrine of
tongues.
I do not agree with their doctrine of
healing.
And I'm sure there are plenty of other
places where I don't agree with their doctrine,
but you know, I love them.
If they belong to Christ and I can
learn something from them, I can learn warmth
from them.
I can learn zeal from them.
I can learn enthusiasm in singing from them.
Right, John?
Enthusiasm in singing, it draws people to them.
Man, these people are excited about their faith.
And it's true.
So we want to be like that too.
We want to learn.
Peter learned from Jesus.
Peter the fisherman learned from Jesus the carpenter.
And you know what happened?
The nets were filled.
Why, that was wonderful.
It shows the value of humility and teachability.
I'd like that, have my nets filled.
Even if it was a charismatic that took
me, that gave me the advice to do
it.
But I'm not going to, I'm not going
to sacrifice doctrine.
If I see something from the word of
God, I'm going to stick to it.
It says there was a great haul, a
great haul.
And now, supposing you were out in that
boat with Peter and that day, and you're
pulling on the nets and you think, oh,
I've got the Loch Ness monster in here,
you know, what would you have done?
The other boats are all around, you know,
green-eyed monster.
They're not getting anything.
The other fishing boats are all around.
What would you say?
Stay away now.
Look, this is my day.
I don't want you to be interfering.
The fish are running here and this is
my turf.
Turf isn't a good word, is it, for
water?
They didn't say that.
They beckoned to those in the other boat
to come and help.
Does that teach you anything?
It teaches me the value of cooperation in
service.
Look, we're all standing against the tide of
the Antichrist.
It's coming.
It's coming strong.
And the time has come when Christians must
stand unitedly without sacrificing doctrine.
Be true to Jesus, but cooperate with other
Christians.
But you know, when the boat came in,
and I can just picture the boat coming
into the dock there, maybe at Tiberias, and
the boat is down to the gunwales with
fish, you know, it's really down to the
gunwales.
Were Peter and his cohorts proud?
Well, there's nothing to be proud about.
You say, but it was a great fishing
day.
I know, but it wasn't through their wisdom
that they caught the fish.
It was through the Lord's.
And I feel that if you and I
have the opportunity to lead a soul to
the Lord, nothing to be proud about.
God does the work of saving.
We can't be proud about it.
I abominate the scramble for numbers in the
evangelical world today.
It just seems so contrary to the Word
of God and the Spirit of God as
well.
Jesus was the one who told them where
to let down the nets.
They let down the nets, brought up a
big draft of fishes, and the glory was
all gone.
One plants, another waters, God gives the increase.
That's the way it is.
Amazing, isn't it, when you stop to think?
Somebody said, it's wonderful what you can do
for God if you don't care who gets
the credit.
Well, I guess we should care who gets
the credit.
I guess we should care that he gets
the credit.
But it means on the human level, it's
wonderful what you can do for God if
you don't care who gets the credit.
Well, then it says that their nets were
breaking and the boats were sinking.
Wow, problems.
That's terrible to have nets breaking and boats
sinking.
No, it's not terrible.
It's the best thing that can happen to
a fisherman.
He loves it.
There are problems in the Christian life and
in service.
Some of you have come to the conference,
maybe, and you're facing problems.
You think it's terrible.
No, it's not terrible.
It's wonderful.
There was a great American industrialist who said,
problems are the price of progress.
Don't bring me anything but problems.
Good news weakens me.
Well, that'll make you chuckle.
But it's true.
There's an unsaved man, a worldly man saying,
problems are the price of progress.
Don't bring me anything but problems.
Good news weakens me.
Well, there's some good news that doesn't weaken
you.
That's the good news of the gospel.
That doesn't weaken you.
But I know what he meant, just the
same.
It says, all of a sudden, Simon was
overcome.
Now, this is a funny thing here.
It says, verse 8, when Simon Peter saw
it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying,
depart from me, for I'm a sinful man.
Well, you'd think his ego would have been
inflated, wouldn't you?
Instead of that, he falls down at the
feet of the Lord Jesus and says, depart
from me, for I'm a sinful man.
Oh, what does that mean?
It means, when you see the Lord in
all his glory, you have a vision of
your own worthlessness.
That's what it means.
Job had that experience, didn't he?
He said, I heard of him by the
hearing of the ear, now my eye seeth
him.
I abhor myself and repent in dust and
ashes.