How To Become Fishers of Men
A Sermon
(No. 1906)
Delivered by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At [7]the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"And Jesus saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men."–Matthew 4:19.
WHEN CHRIST CALLS US by his grace we ought not only to remember what we
are, but we ought also to think of what he can make us. It is, "Follow
me, and I will make you." We should repent of what we have been, but
rejoice in what we may be. It is not "Follow me, because of what you
are already." It is not "Follow me, because you may make something of
yourselves;" but, "Follow me, because of what I will make you." Verily,
I might say of each one of us as soon as we are converted, "It doth not
yet appear what we shall be." It did not seem a likely thing that lowly
fishermen would develop into apostles; that men so handy with the net
would be quite as much at home in preaching sermons and in instructing
converts. One would have said, "How can these things be? You cannot
make founders of churches out of peasants of Galilee." That is exactly
what Christ did; and when we are brought low in the sight of God by a
sense of our own unworthiness, we may feel encouraged to follow Jesus
because of what he can make us. What said the woman of a sorrowful
spirit when she lifted up her song? "He raiseth up the poor out of the
dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among
princes." We cannot tell what God may make of us in the new creation,
since it would have been quite impossible to have foretold what he made
of chaos in the old creation. Who could have imagined all the beautiful
things that came forth from darkness and disorder by that one fiat,
"Let there be light?" And who can tell what lovely displays of
everything that is divinely fair I lay yet appear in a man's formerly
dark life, when God's grace has said to him, "Let there be light?" O
you who see in yourselves at present nothing that is desirable, come
you and follow Christ for the sake of what he can make out of you. Do
you not hear his sweet voice calling to you, and saying, "Follow me,
and I will make you fishers of men?"
Note, next, that we are not made all that we shall be, nor all that we
ought to desire to be, when we are ourselves fished for and caught.
This is what the grace of God does for us at first; but it is not all.
We are like the fishes, making sin to be our element; and the good Lord
comes, and with the gospel net he takes us, and he delivers us from the
life and love of sin. But he has not wrought for us all that he can do,
nor all that we should wish him to do, when he has done this; for it is
another and a higher miracle to make us who were fish to become
fishers–to make the saved ones saviours–to make the convert into a
converter–the receiver of the gospel into an imparter of that same
gospel to other people. I think I may say to every person whom I am
addressing–If you are saved yourself, the work is but half done until
you are employed to bring others to Christ. You are as yet but half
formed in the image of your Lord. You have not attained to the full
development of the Christ-life in you unless you have commenced in some
feeble way to tell to others of the grace of God: and I trust that you
will find no rest to the sole of your foot till you have been the means
of leading many to that blessed Savior who is your confidence and your
hope. His word is–Follow me, not merely that you may be saved, nor
even that you may be sanctified; but, "Follow me, and I will make you
fishers of men." Be following Christ with that intent and aim; and fear
that you are not perfectly following him unless in some degree he is
making use of you to be fishers of men. The fact is, that every one of
us must take to the business of a mancatcher. If Christ has caught us,
we must catch others. If we have been apprehended of him, we must be
his constables, to apprehend rebels for him. Let us ask him to give us
grace to go a-fishing, and so to cast our nets that we may take a great
multitude of fishes. Oh that the Holy Ghost may raise up from among us
some master-fishers, who shall sail their boats in many a sea, and
surround great shoals of fish!
My teaching at this time will be very simple, but I hope it will be
eminently practical; for my longing is that not one of you that love
the Lord may be backward in his service. What says the Song of Solomon
concerning certain sheep that come up from the washing? It says, "Every
one beareth twins, and none is barren among them." May that be so with
all the members of this church, and all the Christian people that hear
or read this sermon! The fact is, the day is very dark. The heavens are
lowering with heavy thunder-clouds. Men little dream of what tempests
may soon shake this city, and the whole social fabric of this land,
even to a general breaking up of society. So dark may the night become
that the stars may seem to fall like blighted fruit from the tree. The
times are evil. Now, if never before, every glow-worm must show its
spark. You with the tiniest farthing candle must take it from under the
bushel, and set it on a candlestick. There is need of you all. Lot was
a poor creature. He was a very, very wretched kind of believer; but
still, he might have been a great blessing to Sodom had he but pleaded
for it as he should have done. And poor, poor Christians, as I fear
many are, one begins to value every truly converted soul in these evil
days, and to pray that each one may glorify the Lord. I pray that every
righteous man, vexed as he is with the conversation of the wicked, may
be more importunate in prayer than he has ever been, and return unto
his God, and get more spiritual life, that he may be a blessing to the
perishing people around him. I address you, therefore, at this time
first of all upon this thought. Oh that the Spirit of God may make each
one of you feel his personal responsibility!
Here is for believers in Christ, in order to their usefulness,
something for them to do. "Follow me." But, secondly, here is something
to be done by their great Lord and Master: "Follow me, and I will make
you fishers of men." You will not grow into fishers of yourselves, but
this is what Jesus will do for you if you will but follow him. And
then, lastly, here is a good illustration, used according to our great
Master's wont; for scarcely without a parable did he speak unto the
people. He presents us with an illustration of what Christian men
should be–fishers of men. We may get some useful hints out of it, and
I pray the Holy Spirit to bless them to us.
I. First, then, I will take it for granted that every believer here
wants to be useful. If he does not, I take leave to question whether he
can be a true believer in Christ. Well, then, if you want to be really
useful, here is SOMETHING FOR YOU TO DO TO THAT END: "Follow me, and I
will make you fishers of men."
What is the way to become an efficient preacher? "Young man," says one,
"go to college." "Young man," says Christ, "follow me, and I will make
you a fisher of men." How is a person to be useful? "Attend a
training-class," says one. Quite right; but there is a surer answer
than that–Follow Jesus, and he will make you fishers of men. The great
training-school for Christian workers has Christ at its head; and he is
at its head, not only as a tutor, but as a leader: we are not only to
learn of him in study, but to follow him in action. "Follow me, and I
will make you fishers of men." The direction is very distinct and
plain, and I believe that it is exclusive, so that no man can become a
fisherman by any other process. This process may appear to be very
simple; but assuredly it is most efficient. The Lord Jesus Christ, who
knew all about fishing for men, was himself the Dictator of the rule,
"Follow me, if you want to be fishers of men. If you would be useful,
keep in my track."
I understand this, first, in this sense: be separate unto Christ. These
men were to leave their pursuits; they were to leave their companions;
they were, in fact, to quit the world, that their one business might
be, in their Master's name, to be fishers of men. We are not all called
to leave our daily business, or to quit our families. That might be
rather running away from the fishery than working at it in God's name.
But we are called most distinctly to come out from among the ungodly,
and to be separate, and not to touch the unclean thing. We cannot be
fishers of men if we remain among men in the same element with them.
Fish will not be fishers. The sinner will not convert the sinner. The
ungodly man will not convert the ungodly man; and, what is more to the
point, the worldly Christian will not convert the world. If you are of
the world, no doubt the world will love its own; but you cannot save
the world. If you are dark, and belong to the kingdom of darkness, you
cannot remove the darkness. If you march with the armies of the wicked
one, you cannot defeat them. I believe that one reason why the church
of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is
because the world has so much influence over the church. Nowadays we
hear Nonconformists pleading that they may do this and they may do
that–things which their Puritan forefathers would rather have died at
the stake than have tolerated. They plead that they may live like
worldlings, and my sad answer to them, when they crave for this
liberty, is, "Do it if you dare. It may not do you much hurt, for you
are so bad already. Your cravings show how rotten your hearts are. If
you have a hungering after such dog's meat, go, dogs, and eat the
garbage. Worldly amusements are fit food for mere pretenders and
hypocrites. If you were God's children you would loathe the very
thought of the world's evil joys, and your question would not be, 'How
far may we be like the world?' but your one cry would be, 'How far can
we get away from the world? How much can we come out from it?'" Your
temptation would be rather to become sternly severe, and
ultra-Puritanical in your separation from sin, in such a time as this,
than to ask, "How can I make myself like other men, and act as they
do?" Brethren, the use of the church in the world is that it should be
like salt in the midst of putrefaction; but if the salt has lost its
savor, what is the good of it? If it were possible for salt itself to
putrefy, it could but be an increase and a heightening of the general
putridity. The worst day the world ever saw was when the sons of God
were joined with the daughters of men. Then came the flood; for the
only barrier against a flood of vengeance on this world is the
separation of the saint from the sinner. Your duty as a Christian is to
stand fast in your own place and stand out for God, hating even the
garment spotted by the flesh, resolving like one of old that, let
others do as they will, as for you and your house, you will serve the
Lord.
Come, ye children of God, you must stand out with your Lord outside the
camp. Jesus calls to you to-day, and says, "Follow me." Was Jesus found
at the theater? Did he frequent the sports of the racecourse? Was Jesus
seen, think you, in any of the amusements of the Herodian court? Not
he. He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." In
one sense no one mixed with sinners so completely as he did when, like
a physician, he went among them healing his patients; but in another
sense there was a gulf fixed between the men of the world and the
Savior which he never essayed to cross, and which they could not cross
to defile him. The first lesson which the church has to learn is this:
Follow Jesus into the separated state, and he will make you fishers of
men. Unless you take up your cross and protest against an ungodly
world, you cannot hope that the holy Jesus will make you fishers of
men.
A second meaning of our text is very obviously this: abide with Christ,
and then you will be made fishers of men. These disciples whom Christ
called were to come and live with him. They were every day to be
associated with him. They were to hear him teach publicly the
everlasting gospel, and in addition they were to receive choice
explanations in private of the word which he had spoken. They were to
be his body-servants and his familiar friends. They were to see his
miracles and hear his prayers; and, better still, they were to be with
himself, and become one with him in his holy labor. It was given to
them to sit at the table with him, and even to have their feet washed
by him. Many of them fulfilled that word, "Where thou dwellest I will
dwell:" they were with him in his afflictions and persecutions. They
witnessed his secret agonies; they saw his many tears; they marked the
passion and the compassion of his soul, and thus, after their measure,
they caught his spirit, and so they learned to be fishers of men.
At Jesus' feet we must learn the art and mystery of soul-winning to
live with Christ is the best education for usefulness. It is a great
boon to any man to be associated with a Christian minister whose heart
is on fire. The best training for a young man is that which the Vaudois
pastors were wont to give, when each old man had a young man with him
who walked with him whenever he went up the mountainside to preach, and
lived in the house with him, and marked his prayers and saw his daily
piety. This was a fine instruction. Was it not? But it will not compare
with that of the apostles who lived with Jesus himself, and were his
daily companions. Matchless was the training of the twelve. No wonder
that they became what they were with such a heavenly tutor to saturate
them with his own spirit! And now to-day his bodily presence is not
among us; but his spiritual power is perhaps more fully known to us
than it was to those apostles in those two or three years of the Lord's
corporeal presence. There be some of us to whom he is intimately near.
We know more about him than we do about our dearest earthly friend. We
have never been able quite to read our friend's heart in all its
twistings and windings, but we know the heart of the Well Beloved. We
have leaned our head upon his bosom, and have enjoyed fellowship with
him such as we could not have with any of our own kith and kin. This is
the surest method of learning how to do good. Live with Jesus, follow
Jesus, and he will make you fishers of men. See how he does the work,
and so learn how to do it yourself. A Christian man should be bound
apprentice to Jesus to learn the trade of a Savior. We can never save
men by offering a redemption, for we have none to present; but we can
learn how to save men by warning them to flee from the wrath to come,
and setting before them the one great effectual remedy. See how Jesus
saves, and you will learn how the thing is done: there is no learning
it anyhow else. Live in fellowship with Christ, and there shall be
about you an air and a manner as of one who has been made in heart and
mind apt to teach, and wise to win souls.
A third meaning, however, must be given to this "Follow me," and it is
this: "Obey me, and then you shall know what to do to save men." We
must not talk about our fellowship with Christ, or our being separated
from the world unto him, unless we make him our Master and Lord in
everything. Some public teachers are not true at all points to their
convictions, and how can they look for a blessing? A Christian man
anxious to be useful, ought to be very particular as to every point of
obedience to his Master. I have no doubt whatever that God blesses our
churches even when they are very faulty, for his mercy endureth for
ever. When there is a measure of error in the teaching, and a measure
of mistake in the practice, he may still vouchsafe to use the ministry,
for he is very gracious. But a large measure of blessing must
necessarily be withheld from all teaching which is knowingly or
glaringly faulty. God can set his seal upon the truth that is in it,
but he cannot set his seal upon the error that is in it. Out of
mistakes about Christian ordinances and other things, especially errors
in heart and spirit, there may come evils which we never looked for.
Such evils may even now be telling upon the present age, and may work
worse mischief upon future generations. If we desire as fishers of men
to be largely used of God we must copy our Lord Jesus in everything,
and obey him in every point. Failure in obedience may lead to failure
in success. Each one of us, if he would wish to see his child saved, or
his Sunday-school class blessed, or his congregation converted, must
take care that, bearing the vessels of the Lord, he is himself clean.
Anything we do that grieves the Spirit of God must take away from us
some part of our power for good. The Lord is very gracious and pitiful;
but yet he is a jealous God. He is sometimes sternly jealous towards
his people who are living in neglects of known duty, or in associations
which are not clean in his sight. He will wither their work, weaken
their strength, and humble them until at last they say, "My Lord, I
will take thy way after all. I will do what thou biddest me to do, for
else thou wilt not accept me." The Lord said to his disciples, "Go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature: he that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved;" and he promised them that
signs should follow, and so they did follow them, and so they will. But
we must get back to apostolic practice and to apostolic teaching: we
must lay aside the commandments of men and the whimseys of our own
brains, and we must do what Christ tells us, as Christ tells us, and
because Christ tells us. Definitely and distinctly, we must take the
place of servants; and if we will not do that, we cannot expect our
Lord to work with us and by us. Let us be determined that, as true as
the needle is to the pole, so true will we be, as far as our light
goes, to the command of our Lord and Master. Jesus says–"Follow me,
and I will make you fishers of men." By this teaching he seems to
say–"Go beyond me, or fall back behind me, and you may cast the net;
but it shall be night with you, and that night you shall take nothing.
When you shall do as I bid you, you shall cast your net on the right
side of the ship, and you shall find."
Again, I think that there is a great lesson in my text to those who
preach their own thoughts instead of preaching the thoughts of Christ.
These disciples were to follow Christ that they might listen to him,
hear what he had to say, drink in his teaching, and then go and teach
what he had taught them. Their Lord says, "What I tell you in darkness,
speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the
housetops." If they will be faithful reporters of Christ's message, he
will make them "fishers of men." But you know the boastful method
nowadays is this: "I am not going to preach this old, old gospel, this
musty Puritan doctrine. I will sit down in my study, and burn the
midnight oil, and invent a new theory; then I will come out with my
brand-new thought, and blaze away with it." Many are not following
Christ, but following themselves, and of them the Lord may well say,
"Thou shalt see whose word shall stand, mine or theirs." Others are
wickedly prudent, and judge that certain truths which are evidently
God's word had better be kept back. You must not be rough, but must
prophesy smooth things. To talk about the punishment of sin, to speak
of eternal punishment, why, these are unfashionable doctrines. It may
be that they are taught in the Word of God, but they do not suit the
genius of the age. We must pare them down. Brothers in Christ, I will
have no share in this. Will you? O my soul, come not thou into their
secret! Certain things not taught in the Bible our enlightened age has
discovered. Evolution may be clean contrary to the teaching of Genesis,
but that does not matter. We are not going to be believers of
Scripture, but original thinkers. This is the vain-glorious ambition of
the period. Mark you, in proportion as the modern theology is preached
the vice of this generation increases. To a great degree I attribute
the looseness of the age to the laxity of the doctrine preached by its
teachers. From the pulpit they have taught the people that sin is a
trifle. From the pulpit these traitors to God and to his Christ have
taught the people that there is no hell to be feared. A little, little
hell, perhaps, there may be; but just punishment for sin is made
nothing of. The precious atoning sacrifice of Christ has been derided
and misrepresented by those who were pledged to preach it. They have
given the people the name of the gospel, but the gospel itself has
evaporated in their hands. From hundreds of pulpits the gospel is as
clean gone as the dodo from its old haunts; and still the preachers
take the position and name of Christ's ministers. Well, and what comes
of it? Why, their congregations grow thinner and thinner; and so it
must be. Jesus says, "Follow me, I will make you fishers of men;" but
if you go in your own way, with your own net, you will make nothing of
it, and the Lord promises you no help in it. The Lord's directions make
himself our leader and example. It is, "Follow me, follow me. Preach my
gospel. Preach what I preached. Teach what I taught, and keep to that."
With that blessed servility which becomes one whose ambition it is to
be a copyist, and never to be an original, copy Christ even in jots and
tittles. Do this, and he will make you fishers of men; but if you do
not do this, you shall fish in vain.
I close this head of discourse by saying that we shall not be fishers
of men unless we follow Christ in one other respect; and that is, by
endeavoring, in all points, to imitate his holiness. Holiness is the
most real power that can be possessed by men or women. We may preach
orthodoxy, but we must also live orthodoxy. God forbid that we should
preach anything else; but it will be all in vain, unless there is a
life at the back of the testimony. An unholy preacher may even render
truth contemptible. In proportion as any of us draw back from a living
and zealous sanctification we shall draw back from the place of power.
Our power lies in this word, "Follow me." Be Jesus-like. In all things
endeavor to think, and speak, and act as Jesus did, and he will make
you fishers of men. This will require self-denial. We must daily take
up the cross. This may require willingness to give up our
reputation–readiness to be thought fools, idiots, and the like, as men
are apt to call those who are keeping close to their Master. There must
be the cheerful resigning of everything that looks like honor and
personal glory, in order that we may be wholly Christ's, and glorify
his name. We must live his life and be ready to die his death, if need
be. O brothers, sisters, if we do this and follow Jesus, putting our
feet into the footprints of his pierced feet, he will make us fishers
of men. If it should so please him that we should even die without
having gathered many souls to the cross, we shall speak from our
graves. In some way or other the Lord will make a holy life to be an
influential life. It is not possible that a life which can be described
as a following of Christ should be an unsuccessful one in the sight of
the Most High. "Follow me," and there is an "I will" such as God can
never draw back from: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Thus much on the first point. There is something for us to do: we are
graciously called to follow Jesus. Holy Spirit, lead us to do it.
II. But secondly, and briefly, there is SOMETHING FOR THE LORD TO DO.
When his dear servants are following him, he says, "I will make you
fishers of men;" and be it never forgotten that it is he that makes us
follow him; so that if the following of him be the step to being made a
fisher of men, yet this he gives us. 'Tis all of his Spirit. I have
talked about catching his spirit, and abiding in him, and obeying him,
and hearkening to him, and copying him; but none of these things are we
capable of apart from his working them all in us. "From me is thy fruit
found," is a text which we must not for a moment forget. So, then, if
we do follow him, it is he that makes us follow him; and so he makes us
fishers of men.
But, further, if we follow Christ he will make us fishers of men by all
our experience. I am sure that the man who is really consecrated to
bless others will be helped in this by all that he feels, especially by
his afflictions. I often feel very grateful to God that I have
undergone fearful depression of spirits. I know the borders of despair,
and the horrible brink of that gulf of darkness into which my feet have
almost gone; but hundreds of times I have been able to give a helpful
grip to brethren and sisters who have come into that same condition,
which grip I could never have given if I had not known their deep
despondency. So I believe that the darkest and most dreadful experience
of a child of God will help him to be a fisher of men if he will but
follow Christ. Keep close to your Lord and he will make every step a
blessing to you. If God in providence should make you rich, he will fit
you to speak to those ignorant and wicked rich who so much abound in
this city, and so often are the cause of its worst sin. And if the Lord
is pleased to let you be very poor you can go down and talk to those
wicked and ignorant poor people who so often are the cause of sin in
this city, and so greatly need the gospel. The winds of providence will
waft you where you can fish for men. The wheels of providence are full
of eyes, and all those eyes will look this way to help us to be winners
of souls. You will often be surprised to find how God has been in a
house that you visit: before you get there, his hand has been at work
in its chambers. When you wish to speak to some particular individual,
God's providence has been dealing with that individual to make him
ready for just that word which you could say, but which nobody else but
you could say. Oh, be you following Christ, and you will find that he
will, by every experience through which you are passing, make you
fishers of men.
Further than that, if you will follow him he will make you fishers of
men by distinct monitions in your own heart. There are many monitions
from God's Spirit which are not noticed by Christians when they are in
a callous condition; but when the heart is right with God and living in
communion with God, we feel a sacred sensitiveness, so that we do not
need the Lord to shout, but his faintest whisper is heard. Nay, he need
not even whisper. "Thou shalt guide me with thine eye." Oh, how many
mulish Christians there are who must be held in with kit and bridle,
and receive a cut of the whip every now and then! But the Christian who
follows his Lord shall be tenderly guided. I do not say that the Spirit
of God will say to you, "Go and join yourself unto this chariot," or
that you will hear a word in your ear; but yet in your soul, as
distinctly as the Spirit said to Philip, "Go and join yourself to this
chariot," you shall hear the Lord's will. As soon as you see an
individual, the thought shall cross your mind, "Go and speak to that
person." Every opportunity of usefulness shall be a call to you. If you
are ready, the door shall open before you, and you shall hear a voice
behind you saying, "This is the way; walk ye in it." If you have the
grace to run in the right way you shall never be long without an
intimation as to what the right way is. That right way shall lead you
to river or sea, where you can cast your net, and be a fisher of men.
Then, too, I believe that the Lord meant by this that he would give his
followers the Holy Ghost. They were to follow him, and then, when they
had seen him ascend into the holy place of the Most High, they were to
tarry at Jerusalem for a little while, and the Spirit would come upon
them and clothe them with a mysterious power. This word was spoken to
Peter and Andrew; and you know how it was fulfilled to Peter. What a
host of fish he brought to land the first time he cast the net in the
power of the Holy Ghost! "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men."
Brethren, we have no conception of what God could do by this company of
believers gathered in the Tabernacle to-night. If now we were to be
filled with the Holy Ghost there are enough of us to evangelize London.
There are enough here to be the means of the salvation of the world.
God saveth not by many nor by few. Let us seek a benediction; and if we
seek it let us hear this directing voice, "Follow me, and I will make
you fishers of men." You men and women that sit before me, you are by
the shore of a great sea of human life swarming with the souls of men.
You live in the midst of millions; but if you will follow Jesus, and be
faithful to him, and true to him, and do what he bids you, he will make
you fishers of men. Do not say, "Who shall save this city?" The weakest
shall be strong enough. Gideon's barley cake shall smite the tent, and
make it lay along. Samson, with the jawbone, taken up from the earth
where it was lying bleaching in the sun, shall smite the Philistines.
Fear not, neither be dismayed. Let your responsibilities drive you
closer to your Master. Let horror of prevailing sin make you look into
his dear face who long ago wept over Jerusalem, and now weeps over
London. Clasp him, and never let go your hold. By the strong and mighty
impulses of the divine life within you, quickened and brought to
maturity by the Spirit of God, learn this lesson from your Lord's own
mouth: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." You are not fit
for it, but he will make you fit. You cannot do it of yourselves, but
he will make you do it. You do not know how to spread nets and draw
shoals of fish to shore, but he will teach you. Only follow him, and he
will make you fishers of men.
I wish that I could somehow say this as with a voice of thunder, that
the whole church of God might hear it. I wish I could write it in stars
athwart the sky, "Jesus saith, Follow me, and I will make you fishers
of men." If you forget the precept, the promise shall never be yours.
If you follow some other track, or imitate some other leader, you shall
fish in vain. God grant us to believe fully that Jesus can do great
things in us, and then do great things by us for the good of our
fellows!
III. The last point you might work out in full for yourselves in your
private meditations with much profit. We have here A FIGURE FULL OF
INSTRUCTION. I will give you but two or three thoughts which you can
use. "I will make you fishers of men." You have been fishers of fish:
if you follow me, I will make you fishers of men.
A fisher is a person who is very dependent, and needs to be trustful.
He cannot see the fish. One who fishes in the sea must go and cast in
the net, as it were, at a peradventure. Fishing is an act of faith. I
have often seen in the Mediterranean men go with their boats and
enclose acres of sea with vast nets; and yet, when they have drawn the
net to shore, they have not had as much result as I could put in my
hand. A few wretched silvery nothings have made up the whole take. Yet
they have gone again and cast the great net several times a day,
hopefully expecting something to come of it. Nobody is so dependent
upon God as the minister of God. Oh, this fishing from the Tabernacle
pulpit! What a work of faith! I cannot tell that a soul will be brought
to God by it. I cannot judge whether my sermon will be suitable to the
persons who are here, except that I do believe that God will guide me
in the casting of the net. I expect him to work salvation, and I depend
upon him for it. I love this complete dependence, and if I could be
offered a certain amount of preaching power, by which I could save
sinners, which should be entirely at my own disposal, I would beg the
Lord not to let me have it, for it is far more delightful to be
entirely dependent upon him at all times. It is good to be a fool when
Christ is made unto you wisdom. It is a blessed thing to be weak if
Christ becomes more fully your strength. Go to work, you who would be
fishers of men, and yet feel your insufficiency. You that have no
strength, attempt this divine work. Your Master's strength will be seen
when your own has all gone. A fisherman is a dependent person, he must
look up for success every time he puts the net down; but still he is a
trustful person, and therefore he casts in the net joyfully.
A fisherman who gets his living by it is a diligent and persevering
man. The fishers are up at dawn. At day-break our fishermen off the
Doggerbank are fishing, and they continue fishing till late in the
afternoon. As long as hands can work men will fish. May the Lord Jesus
make us hard-working, persevering, unwearied fishers of men! "In the
morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for
thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that."
The fisherman in his own craft is intelligent and watchful. It looks
very easy, I dare say, to be a fisherman, but you would find that it
was no child's play if you were to take a real part in it. There is an
art in it, from the mending of the net right on to the pulling it to
shore. How diligent the fisherman is to prevent the fish leaping out of
the net! I heard a great noise one night in the sea, as if some huge
drum were being beaten by a giant; and I looked out, and I saw that the
fishermen of Mentone were beating the water to drive the fish into the
net, or to keep them from leaping out when they had once encompassed
them with it. Ah, yes! and you and I will often have to be watching the
corners of the gospel net lest sinners who are almost caught should
make their escape. They are very crafty, these fish, and they use this
craftiness in endeavoring to avoid salvation. We shall have to be
always at our business, and to exercise all our wits, and more than our
own wits, if we are to be successful fishers of men.
The fisherman is a very laborious person. It is not at all an easy
calling. He does not sit in an armchair and catch fish. He has to go
out in rough weathers. If he that regardeth the clouds will not sow, I
am sure that he that regardeth the clouds will never fish. If we never
do any work for Christ except when we feel up to the mark, we shall not
do much. If we feel that we will not pray because we cannot pray, we
shall never pray, and if we say, "I will not preach to-day because I do
not feel that I could preach," we shall never preach any preaching that
is worth the preaching. We must be always at it, until we wear
ourselves out, throwing our whole soul into the work in all weathers,
for Christ's sake.
The fisherman is a daring man. He tempts the boisterous sea. A little
brine in his face does not hurt him; he has been wet through a thousand
times, it is nothing to him. He never expected when he became a
deep-sea fisherman that he was going to sleep in the lap of ease. So
the true minister of Christ who fishes for souls will never mind a
little risk. He will be bound to do or say many a thing that is very
unpopular; and some Christian people may even judge his utterances to
be too severe. He must do and say that which is for the good of souls.
It is not his to entertain a question as to what others will think of
his doctrine, or of him; but in the name of the Almighty God he must
feel, "If the sea roar and the fullness thereof, still at my Master's
command I will let down the net."
Now, in the last place, the man whom Christ makes a fisher of men is
successful. "But," says one, "I have always heard that Christ's
ministers are to be faithful, but that they cannot be sure of being
successful." Yes, I have heard that saying, and one way I know it is
true, but another way I have my doubts about it. He that is faithful
is, in God's way and in God's judgment, successful, more or less. For
instance, here is a brother who says that he is faithful. Of course, I
must believe him, yet I never heard of a sinner being saved under him.
Indeed, I should think that the safest place for a person to be in if
he did not want to be saved would be under this gentleman's ministry,
because he does not preach anything that is likely to arouse, impress,
or convince anybody. This brother is "faithful:" so he says. Well, if
any person in the world said to you, "I am a fisherman, but I have
never caught anything," you would wonder how he could be called a
fisherman. A farmer who never grew any wheat, or any other crop–is he
a farmer? When Jesus Christ says, "Follow me, and I will make you
fishers of men," he means that you shall really catch men–that you
really shall save some; for he that never did get any fish is not a
fisherman. He that never saved a sinner after years of work is not a
minister of Christ. If the result of his life-work is nil, he made a
mistake when he undertook it. Go thou with the fire of God in thy hand
and fling it among the stubble, and the stubble will burn. Be thou sure
of that. Go thou and scatter the good seed: it may not all fall in
fruitful places, but some of it will. Be thou sure of that. Do but
shine, and some eye or other will be lightened thereby. Thou must, thou
shalt succeed. But remember this is the Lord's word–"Follow me, and I
will make you fishers of men." Keep close to Jesus, and do as Jesus
did, in his spirit, and he will make you fishers of men.
Perhaps I speak to an attentive hearer who is not converted at all.
Friend, I have the same thing to say to you. You also may follow
Christ, and then he can use you, even you. I do not know but that he
has brought you to this place that you may be saved, and that in after
years he may make you speak for his name and glory. Remember how he
called Saul of Tarsus, and made him the apostle of the Gentiles.
Reclaimed poachers make the best gamekeepers; and saved sinners make
the ablest preachers. Oh, that you would run away from your old master
to-night, without giving him a minute's notice; for if you give him any
notice, he will hold you. Hasten to Jesus, and say, "Here is a poor
runaway slave! My Lord, I bear the fetters still upon my wrists. Wilt
thou set me free, and make me thine own?" Remember, it is written, "Him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Never runaway slave came
to Christ in the middle of the night without his taking him in; and he
never gave one up to his old master. If Jesus make you free you shall
be free indeed. Flee away to Jesus, then, on a sudden. May his good
Spirit help you, and he will by-and-by make you a winner of others to
his praise! God bless you. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Matt. 4 verse 12, &c.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–45, 12, 262.
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AN EARNEST WORD WITH THOSE WHO ARE SEEKING SALVATION BY THE LORD JESUS
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gospel treasury of priceless worth."–The Christian.
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