Luke

[0:00] Here is a word found in the fifth chapter of Luke's Gospel and the fourth verse.

[0:24] Chapter 5 from the Gospel recorded by Luke, the fourth verse. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft.

[0:54] There are some wondrous things in this portion of the Word of God.

[1:07] And the wonders are those wonders that belong to Jesus Christ.

[1:19] It was his presence and his commanding power that accomplished what was accomplished at this time that the Word of God revealed.

[1:41] And it is the same person that accomplishes everything that is lasting and precious and saving in the lives of everyone that is saved.

[1:58] We were observing this morning the use the Lord made of the possession of this ship that belonged unto Simon.

[2:17] And as one was meditating on this matter, we realize that the Lord did not need the ship.

[2:32] He used it as a pulpit to preach the Gospel to this great multitude that had pressed him to preach the Word of God to them.

[2:45] But he needed no such instrument really. He could have stood on the waters themselves and preached from that position the glorious Gospel that he spake.

[3:05] When the disciples were on this very lake, on another occasion he comes to them walking on the water.

[3:17] He needed no vessel, no ship to stand in to preach. But he used one. He chose the one that belonged to Simon.

[3:35] And in this we see the wondrous condescension of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's something lying beneath this that gives rise to great hope and encouragement in the heart of all true believers.

[4:01] In the hope that the Lord Jesus might come into their lives and make use of something in them for his own glory and in his own service.

[4:13] not despise even the very least. What we may count to be unworthy, the Lord does not count himself to be unworthy.

[4:30] There are many instances in the Scriptures where he has taken up and used things that are weak and indifferent.

[4:43] and made use of them to his own glory and the purpose, the fulfillment of his own purposes. But here we see that he entered into one ship that belonged to Simon.

[5:02] And as we indicated this morning, there was purposes in this that were twofold. Firstly, there was the purpose of preaching the word of the Lord to this great company, this multitude that had come and pressed upon the Lord to speak the word of life to them.

[5:29] That was the first. The other purpose was that he had a hidden, secret purpose to be unfolded step by step to this man Simon whom he was eventually to call Peter and who was to be the chief among his disciples and was to be closely associated with him in his earthly life and ministry, in his suffering, in his miracles, in the translations that he witnessed and in all the things that he accomplished.

[6:26] There was the hidden purpose here that began this great matter in the selection of the Lord of this particular ship.

[6:40] He entered into one of the ships which was Simon. Very little incident. Some people would say it's hardly worth noticing.

[6:52] And yet from this very simple incident there came forth a vast and immeasurable amount of wonder.

[7:07] Here was a poor fisherman who had never been anything at all except a fisherman in the Lake of Galilee. Was from this very moment to be made one of the choice servants of God, one of the pioneers of the gospel, the very man who was himself with his own lips to unlock the key, as it were, of the kingdom of heaven on the day of Pentecost and to preach Christ and the gospel to man.

[7:45] Amen. Who hath despised the day of small things? We often do. We can never see the ultimate issue from a simple incident in our lives.

[8:09] But very, very often in the Lord's dealings with his people, a very slight or simple event may have far-reaching results, consequences.

[8:27] So we find, therefore, here was the speaker, the great, the eternal, the divine speaker.

[8:43] The people had pressed upon him to speak. He was the only one that really could speak. He came as God's messenger.

[8:54] He came with the word of God. Every word, he says, that was given to me by my Father, I speak to the people.

[9:06] There's no one to be compared with Jesus Christ. And they pressed upon him to speak.

[9:17] I like this. I feel we need to observe this very closely and carefully and take it to our own hearts. The Lord will be pressed upon to speak his word to the heart, to your heart.

[9:34] The great trouble with people today is they're not concerned about the word of the Lord or the messages of the gospel.

[9:47] They never dream of pressing upon the Lord to speak to their souls the word of life. It never occurs to them that there's anything in the gospel that might bring them wealth or blessedness or peace or forgiveness or salvation.

[10:20] But there are souls like the way here beside the lake of Galilee. There are souls that will press and still continue to press the Lord Jesus that he might speak the word of life to their soul.

[10:40] And we see this from the incident that Jesus was willing and ready to speak to those that pressed him.

[10:54] He took steps to do so. And the step that he took was to choose this ship that belonged to Simon. But we want tonight to come more to the word that he speaks to Simon.

[11:11] Having left speaking, that is to the people, he said unto Simon, now he turns to the one toward whom he has some very wonderful purposes.

[11:27] He now addresses the object of his love and of his purposes, Simon, who was to be called Peter.

[11:41] And what does he say to him? Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft.

[11:52] He knew all about Peter and he knew all about the Sea of Galilee.

[12:07] He and he only knew the depths that was there and all that was in the deep. He says to his servant Peter, he says, launch out into the deep.

[12:29] And I believe the Lord Jesus, he says the same to every believer. Indeed, the very initial appointments of the work of grace and the beginnings of the teaching of the divine spirit in the heart are tantamount to this demand that he makes of Peter, launch out into the deep.

[13:04] The things of God are of deep. The deep is something that is hidden. Something that you and I cannot discover.

[13:19] Peter could never discover what was in the deep, even of the Sea of Galilee. It was something beyond his comprehension. The Lord knew everything about it.

[13:34] He calls his people to launch out into the deep. The unknown, the unforeseen, the incomprehensible.

[13:48] The way the Lord will have us enter is a way that we cannot see.

[13:59] The vulture's eye cannot see it. The highest intellect in the earth can never discover the deep things of God. They have to be revealed revealed and revealed by God himself, by God the Holy Ghost.

[14:22] But nevertheless, the Lord bids his people to launch out into the deep. and oh, what depth there is in divine realities.

[14:41] when a believer comes to enter touch with the great things of God, they feel to be like a child at the brink of a great ocean with scarcely anything in their hands.

[15:03] and what a vast, immeasurable space before them. And yet the Lord says to them, launch out into the deep.

[15:21] You know, this entailed the launching of this ship that belonged to Simon. It entailed this. When a ship is launched, any ship for that matter, when it is launched on the sea, it is committed entirely to the element, the water.

[15:44] It is supported entirely by the water. it has no standing of its own. It is launched, therefore, into the element.

[16:01] And how true that is in regard to living faith. The believer launches into the element of divine grace, into the element of the Holy Spirit and spiritual things.

[16:17] these things support the believer utterly, completely. And if you are among those to whom the Lord says, launch out into the deep, you will find this, that you have to launch verily and completely, utterly dependent upon the grace, supporting power and continuing mercy of your God.

[16:59] And never does a child of God ever find that element to let them down. No vessel of mercy can ever sink.

[17:11] sink. These are vessels that are unsinkable. Peter's vessel would eventually no doubt decay and be destroyed, but the vessels of God can never fail nor falter, neither can they ever perish or make shipwreck or sink.

[17:36] they are born up on the mighty element of God's grace and once launched on that element they can never, never return and neither can they ever sink.

[17:56] Oh, what wondrous truths these are and what wonderful blessings to enjoy and to receive. Now, when the Lord spake this word to Simon, there were really two miracles.

[18:17] Two miracles can we trace in this circumstance that forms our subject tonight. One miracle was this.

[18:32] The fact, and the Lord knew this, he knew this perfectly, the fact that Simon and his companions had toiled all night long previously without catching anything whatsoever.

[18:57] He said, Lord, we have toiled all the night and we have caught nothing. that was a miracle. Just as a wondrous miracle as the great draft of fishes that Simon did catch almost instantly after the Lord had bidden him launch out into the deep.

[19:26] there was a miracle, there was a double miracle. One was, as I say, the fact that he caught nothing.

[19:38] Here was a lake that was profuse, we believe, with fish. It may well have been that Simon had never known such an experience before in all his life as to go out all night long and to catch nothing.

[20:00] But it was a miracle because God saw to it, the Lord Jesus saw to it, that he caught nothing that night because his faith was to be tested.

[20:14] He was to see the mightiness of the Lord who had entered into his ship. But you know, these miracles are traceable in the experiences of God's people.

[20:35] There are times when they toil and labor all their strength for something which they never get.

[20:47] and if they did get them, they would never further seek. And therefore, the withholding of things from those whom the Lord intends to bless are among the miracles of his grace.

[21:09] when a person becomes dissatisfied with themselves and with the world and with the pleasures of the world and can find nothing in it, though they toil as much as ever they can to extract some pleasure, some substance, I say it's a miracle of grace when the Lord denies his people.

[21:39] the things that they seek after. The miracle of grace because those are the very people who, like Peter, will eventually draw in the riches, the abundant riches, the immeasurable wealth of the grace and love of God.

[22:05] so there were two miracles then and one was as important as the other. You'll come to see that the things the Lord denies you and takes from you are as important to you, to your real well-being as the things that he gives.

[22:32] is not all in the Lord's purpose to give his people. There are as many times when he is pleased and it's a very great thing he is pleased to take away and to deny.

[22:55] he denied Jacob 21 years of what was his rightful, we might well say his rightful portion when he labored hard all those years in the service of Laban.

[23:20] God saw to it that he did not get what he was entitled to fully. He had to say by night the frost consumed me and by day the drought troubled me.

[23:38] He was driven to extremity all the while he was at Paton Aaron. And why? Because God saw to it that he did not settle down there but he had purposes for him not in Paton Aaron but in Israel in the land of Canaan.

[24:02] It was there that the Lord was to bring Jacob. Then we come to the other miracle.

[24:14] God will come to him. And we might say there was three miracles here because indeed it was a miracle that this man Simon whom he had only just met the Lord you know only just recently had come into contact with him should at his bidding go and return to his labor his laborious task of unraveling the nets and launching out into the deep and casting those nets again into the waters.

[24:56] But he says nevertheless Lord at thy word I will. Oh what promise there was in those words of Peter.

[25:08] they indicated there was something in this man that had come from God. Nevertheless at thy word I will I will launch forth.

[25:26] That was a miracle. The greatest number of such like characters would have said I will never go again.

[25:39] I've worn myself out already. I've proved to myself that there's no use in fishing just now at this time in this place. It's all abortive.

[25:54] But not so with Simon. He says Lord I've been all night. I've worn myself out and nothing has been resulting from my labors but nevertheless because the word is from thine own lips I will go.

[26:19] I will launch out into the deep. deep. And then another thing before we come to this wonderful miracle let us notice this the Lord said let down your nets for the draft.

[26:43] Now there were two things here first of all there was the deep and the deep belonged to the Lord. He knew all about it.

[26:55] He commanded it. He made it. I nearly read tonight the 95th Psalm. The 95th Psalm you know it says this in it.

[27:07] The sea is his and he made it. And that included the sea of Galilee.

[27:22] The sea belonged to the Lord. The deep was the Lord's. The nets were Peter's. They belonged to Peter.

[27:37] The Lord says let down your nets into my deep. Amen. my dear friends we may have some very poor nets.

[27:54] The more the net is used the more broken it is until he becomes very very poor. No doubt these nets that were Peter's unmended nets.

[28:10] But he was not the pristine suitability or the condition of the nets that the Lord was mindful of.

[28:27] He said let down your nets into my deep. Let down your nets for a draft.

[28:39] And notice this too. the Lord does not just say let down your nets in the hope of a draft. But let down your nets for a draft.

[28:55] Very great difference. Peter had all his life simply thrown out his nets from the ship in hope of receiving a draft of fishes.

[29:09] Sometimes he had. and other times he had not. But now he was to let down his nets into the deep for a draft.

[29:23] There was already planned for him by the sovereign Lord who was speaking to him a draft of fishes that had never been seen, the light of which before.

[29:40] This was the miracle. A draft that had never been seen before. So much that the two ships were well nigh sinking under the weight of them.

[29:59] What an amazing glorious power there is in Jesus Christ. He knows how to fill his people's vessel to the full.

[30:13] he promises that his blessing shall be like without measure at times well poured in pressed down and running over.

[30:32] And there are just some times in our lives when these things will be fulfilled. when there will be such a drawing in and such a gathering in by the arms of faith that there will be scarcely capability to receive them.

[30:56] When those ministers in the Old Testament days who had ministered in the sanctuary of the Lord when they came to the sanctuary after the Lord had answered Solomon's prayer and had filled the place with his glory they could not go in to minister.

[31:28] It was beyond their power to perform their labors and duties as ministering servants of the Lord.

[31:39] God's blessing. I don't say this will be a very frequent occurrence.

[31:53] It was not in the case of Peter. It's a very wonderful thing. There will be times when you will feel almost unable to contain under the blessing of the Lord.

[32:10] And if he says launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft, what are these nets? Well, it may be a poor description that comes from my attempts to describe them, but I would suggest the nets could be well described as prayer.

[32:37] It is a wonderful net that is let down into the deep of God's infinite power and goodness.

[32:53] And when God says to his people, pray, ask, and you shall receive, he is as good as his word and he fills their vessel with the finest of his blessings.

[33:13] When poor Jacob wrestled with the angel, at Peniel, the angel of the Lord touched the thigh of Jacob and it was out of joint and he simply had to hang upon the angel.

[33:31] He couldn't stand on his own feet because of his lameness. But what a blessing he had. He was able to say afterwards, I now know that God is my God.

[33:46] I know now that he is my God. The sun rose upon him when he passed over Peniel.

[34:03] Yes, those nets are nets that the believer cast out into the deep of God when they come and plead for Jesus sake.

[34:16] God's mercy, God's blessing. There's no telling what you will gather in by your poor broken nets and your prayers are poor things, broken sentences, lame at the best, scarcely worthy of scattering in the deep of the Lord's ocean of mercy and yet the Lord, when he commands, will cause his people to gather in.

[34:54] the gospel is a wonderful net and that there are many things in one's own life and in one's own experience which are, as it were, nets.

[35:23] That which the soul would link itself with God and would draw from God's bountiful mercy the riches, the blessings that they need.

[35:43] And so this great miracle was performed. Peter did just what the Lord had commanded him to do and he had such a great enclosure of fish that the net did break.

[36:07] Then we see what, how this affected Peter. if a worldly person had received the same things as Peter had on this occasion, they would have been elated, they would have been calculating how far this would go, what could have been obtained by the revenue that they had now received.

[36:43] All manner of speculations would have arisen in the minds of a worldly person. But how did it affect Peter? He had to fall down before the Lord and say to the Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, depart from me.

[37:10] Do you think that that's an unnatural reaction? to such a wonderful miracle of blessing. Now, if you know anything of God's teaching, and if you know anything of your own heart, and the depravity of it, you know this, that when you come close to Jesus Christ, when you come into contact with divinity, you find yourself to be so utterly unworthy, unfit, that all you really can say, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

[37:53] You may depend upon it this, that all any that may feel to, there's no other thing they can say, there's nothing else that they can express, you may depend upon it, they are the souls that the Lord will never depart from them, they are the souls the Lord will bless, they are the ones that he will heal, as he did with Peter.

[38:23] It was the beginning with Peter, not the ending. It was the opening of a great experience experience for Peter, not the separation and severance of his relationship with the Lord.

[38:42] It was the dawn of a life that was to expand and expand in the glorious knowledge of the Lord.

[38:57] Lord shout into the deep. let down your nets for a draft. You see, the Lord not only commands, not only does he control all things, nor does he, is it true that he not only knows all things, but he will sometimes bring our little attempts things into contact with his greatness.

[39:34] Yes, he will do this. He does not save, I've said this many times, he does not save a person and make them simply an automatic machine where there's no feeling and no movement, no action, and no exercise.

[39:54] if we are really among the saved of the Lord, there will be exercise in our soul, real exercise, and this exercise will be like Peter's nets.

[40:11] There will be things that will be put down into the deep, not kept, wrapped up securely in the ship, but opened out and dropped into the deep.

[40:31] You can apply that in a multitude of ways in your own experience. You know something about it. Come to the word of God, here's a deep, a great depth here, a vast depth in God's word, in his truth, and the Lord says to us, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a drop.

[40:59] If you never read the word of God, you'll never drop your nets into it. It's a precious truth, it's vast, it has everything for us, all that we need for life and pleasure, health and medicine, shield and sword, is revealed in the word of God.

[41:22] Let down your net into this deep. You know calculation whatsoever what you will find, what treasures will be brought to the surface, and what wealth will be in your possession.

[41:47] The deep of God's way, it is a deep way. People say it's too deep for me, far too deep.

[42:00] I must remain apart from it. The Lord says to his people, he may be saying to some of you here, launch out into the deep.

[42:17] It's my depth, it's not your depth, it's not your responsibility, it's all in my hand, but it's for you to launch out into it.

[42:30] A venturing heart is a very wonderful heart indeed, and a venturing faith is the faith of God's elect. As I said at the beginning, a venturing faith ventures entirely and absolutely into the element of divine reality.

[42:54] It casts itself upon God. It leans wholly and utterly on Jesus, on his name and on his love, relies upon his precious blood, for all its safety, for all its peace.

[43:18] Launch out into the deep. That's the word, the word the Lord sends to us. May God give us grace to be like Peter, and to say in spite of all our fears, and faintings, Lord, nevertheless, of thy word, I will let down my nets.

[43:50] May God bless the word to us. Amen. Amen. Amen. to birth.

[44:08] Amen. Amen. In the front of the night of Tumas, Esther, 297, come weary souls with sin distress, come and accept the promised rest.

[44:36] The gospel's gracious call obey, and cast your gloomy fears away. 1109. The gospel's gracious call obey, the gospel's gracious call obey, and cast your gloomy fears away.

[45:29] The gospel's gracious call obey, and cast your gloomy fears away.

[45:42] The gospel's gracious call obey, and cast your gloomy fears away.

[45:56] The gospel's gracious call obey, and cast your gloomy fears away.

[46:11] Thank you.