The Two Draughts Of Fishes

Sermon 443. The Two Draughts Of Fishes
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 6, 1862, BY REV. C. H.
SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the
deep and let down your nets for a draught." Luke 5:4
"And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and
you shall find some. They cast therefore and now they were not able to
draw it for the multitude of fishes."
John 21:6.
THE whole life of Christ was a sermon. He was a Prophet mighty in word
and deed. And by His deeds as well as His words He taught the people.
It is perfectly true that the miracles of Christ attest His mission. To
those who saw them they must have been evident proof that He was sent
of God. But we ought not to overlook that probably a higher reason for
the miracles is to be found in the instruction which they convey. To
the world without, at the present time, the miracles of Christ are more
hard to believe than the doctrine which He taught. Skeptics turn them
into stones of stumbling and when they cannot object at the marvelous
teaching of Jesus, they attack the miracles as monstrous and
incredible.
I doubt not that even to minds seriously vexed with unbelief, the
miracles, instead of being helps to belief, have been trials of faith.
Few, indeed, are there in whom faith is worked by signs and wonders.
Nor, indeed is this the Gospel way of bringing conviction to the
soul–the secret force of the Living Word is the chosen instrumentality
of Christ–and wonders are left to be the resort of that Anti-Christ by
whom the nations shall be deceived. We, who by Divine Grace have
believed, view the miracles of Christ as noble attestations to His
mission and Divinity. But we confess that we value them even more as
instructive homilies than as attesting witnesses.
It is our conviction that we should lose much of the benefit which they
were meant to convey to us, if we were merely to view them as seals to
the roll, for they are a part of the writing of the roll itself. The
marvels worked by our blessed Lord are acted sermons fraught with holy
doctrine, set forth to us more vividly than it could have been in
words. We start with the assumption upon which our sermon will be
grounded this morning–that Christ's miracles are sermons preached in
deeds–visible allegories, truths embodied, principles incarnated and
set in motion. They are, in fact, the pictures in the great book of
Christ's teaching–the illustrations by which He flashed light into dim
eyes.
We have heard of some ministers who could say that they had often
preached from the same text but they had never delivered the same
discourse. The like may be said of Christ. He often preached upon the
same Truth of God but it was never precisely in the same manner. We
have read in your hearing this morning, the narrative of two miracles
(Luke 5, and John 21), which seem to the casual observer to be
precisely alike. But he who shall read diligently and study carefully,
will find that though the text is the same in both, the discourse is
full of variations.
In both the miraculous draughts of fishes, the text is the mission of
the saints to preach the Gospel–the work of man-catching–the ministry
by which souls are caught in the net of the Gospel and brought out of
the element of sin to their eternal salvation. The preacher is compared
to a fisherman. The fisherman's vocation is a toilsome one. Woe be to
that minister who finds his calling to be otherwise. The fisherman must
go forth in rough weathers and at all hazards. If he should only fish
in a calm sea he may often starve. So the Christian minister, whether
men will receive the Word with pleasure, or reject it with anger and
wrath, must be ready to imperil reputation and risk comfort.
Yes, he must hate his own life, also, or he is not worthy of the
heavenly calling. The fisherman's is a rough occupation–no dainty
fingers may come in contact with his nets. It is not a trade for
gentlemen, but for rough, strong, fearless men, who can heave a rope,
handle a tar-brush, or scour a deck. The ministry is not meant for your
dainty souls who would go delicately through this world without a
trial, an offense, an insult, or a sneer. Such work is meant for men
who know how to do business on great waters and can go abroad upon the
sea, not fearing the spray or the waves. The fisher- man's calling,
too, must be carried on perseveringly. It is not by one grand haul that
a man makes his fortune. He must constantly cast forth his net.
One sermon makes not a preacher. He who shall but now and then deliver
himself of some carefully prepared oration, is no true minister of God.
He must be instant in season and out of season. He must cast his net in
all waters. He must in the morning be at his work and in the evening he
must not withhold his hand. To be a fisherman, a man must expect
disappointments. He must often cast in the net and bring up nothing but
weeds. The minister of Christ must reckon upon being disappointed–and
he must not be weary in well-doing for all his disappointments–but
must in faith continue in prayer and labor, expecting that at the end
he shall receive his reward. It needs no great labor for you to work
out at leisure the comparison between fishermen and the Gospel
ministry, the simile is so aptly chosen.
The two narratives before us have a degree of uniformity. That shall be
our first point. But they have a greater degree of dissimilarity. We
will bring that out in the second place. And, then, thirdly, we will
suggest some great lessons which they both combine to teach us.
I. First, then, IN THESE TWO MIRACLES THERE ARE MANY POINTS OF
UNIFORMITY. They are both intended to set forth the way in which
Christ's kingdom shall increase.
1. First you will perceive that in both miracles we are taught that the
means must be used. In the first case, the fish did not leap into
Simon's boat to be taken. Nor, in the second case, did they swarm from
the sea and lay themselves down upon the blazing coals that they might
be prepared for the fisherman's feast. No, the fishermen must go out in
their boat. They must cast the net. And after having cast the net, they
must either drag it ashore, or fill both boats with its contents.
Everything is done here by human agency.
It is a miracle, certainly, but yet neither the fisherman, nor his
boat, nor his fishing tackle are ignored. They are all used and all
employed. Let us learn that in the saving of souls God works by means.
So long as the present economy of Grace shall stand, God will be
pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Every now and then there creeps up in the Church a sort of striving
against God's ordained instrumentality. I marked it with sorrow dating
the Irish Revival.
We constantly saw, in some excellent papers, remarks which I thought
exceedingly injurious–wherein it was made a subject of congratulation
that no man was concerned in the work. No eminent preacher, no fervent
Evangelist. The whole was boasted to be conducted without human
instrumentality. That was the weakness of the Revival, not its
strength. You say it gave God more glory. Not so. God gets the most
glory through the use of instruments. When God works without
instruments, doubtless He is glorified. But He knows Himself in which
way He gets the most honor and He has Himself selected the plan of
instrumentality as being that by which He is most magnified in the
earth.
We have this treasure. How? Alone? Without any earthly accompaniments?
No. But in earthen vessels. What for? That God may have less glory? No.
But in the earthen vessels on purpose, "that the excellency of the
treasure may be of God," and not of us. God makes the infirmity of the
creature to be the foil to the strength of the Creator. He takes men
who are nothing in themselves, and works by them His splendid
victories. Perhaps we would not admire Samson so much if he had dashed
the Philistines in pieces with his fists, as we do when we find that
with such a weapon, so unadapted to the work, as the jawbone of an ass,
he laid on heaps the thousands of his foes.
The Lord takes ill weapons, that with them He may work great deeds.
When He said, "Let there be light and there was light" without any
instrument, He showed His glory. But when instead, thereof, He takes
the Apostles and says again, "Let there be light," and sends them forth
who were darkness in themselves and makes them the medium of lighting
up a dark world, I say there is a greater glory. And if the morning
stars sang together when they first saw light upon the newly made
earth, surely the angels in Heaven rejoiced even more when they saw
light thus streaming upon the dark earth through men, who, in and of
themselves, would only have increased the blackness and made the gloom
more dense.
God works by means of men whom He especially calls to His work and not
as a rule without them. The hypocrite strives to get rid of the
pastorate but he never can, for the Lord will ever continue to give
pastors after His own heart to feed His people and all attempts made by
the flock to dispense with these pastors will lead to leanness and
poverty of soul. The outcry against the "one man ministry" comes not of
God, but of proud self-conceit–of men who are not content to learn
although they have no power to teach.
It is the tendency of human nature to exalt itself which has raised up
these disturbers of the peace of God's Israel, for they will not endure
to submit themselves to the authorities which God has Himself
appointed. They abhor the teachings of the Apostle, where he says, by
the Spirit of God, "Obey them that have rule over you and submit
yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give
account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is
unprofitable to you."
Brethren, I warn you, there is a spirit abroad which would pull down
the men whom God Himself has raised up, that would silence those into
whose mouths God has put the tongue of fire, that foolish men might
prate according to their own will to the profit of no one and to their
own shame. As for us, we shall, I trust, never cease to recognize that
agency by which the Lord works mightily among us. We would check no
ministry in the Church of God. We would but be too glad to see it more
abundantly exercised. Would God that all the Lord's servants were
Prophets!
But we enter our solemn protest against that spirit which, under
presence of liberty to all, sets aside the instrumentality by which the
Lord especially works. He will have you still keep the fishermen to
their nets and to their boats. And your new ways of catching fish
without nets and saving souls without ministers, will never answer, for
they are not of God. They have been tried and what has been the result
of the trial? I know not a Church in existence that has despised
instrumentality but it has come to an end within a few years either by
schism or decay.
Where upon the face of the earth is there a single Church that has
existed fifty years where God's chosen instrumentality of ministry has
been despised and rejected? "Ichabod!" is written upon their walls. God
rejects them because they reject God's chosen way of working. Their
attempts are flashes in the pan, meteoric lights, will-o'-the-wisps,
swellings of proud flesh, bubbles of foam, here today and gone forever
on the morrow.
2. Again, in both our texts there is another Truth of God equally
conspicuous, namely, that means of themselves are utterly unavailing.
In the first case you hear the confession, "Master, we have toiled all
the night and have taken nothing." In the last case you hear them
answer to the question, "Children, have you no meat?" "No"–a sorrowful
No. What was the reason of this? Were they not fishermen plying their
special calling? Verily, they were no raw hands. They understood the
work. Had they gone about the toil unskillfully? No. Had they lacked
industry? No, they had toiled. Had they lacked perseverance? No, they
had toiled all night.
Was there a deficiency of fish in the sea? Certainly not, for as soon
as the Master comes, there they are in large number. What, then, is the
reason? Is it not because there is no power in the means of themselves
apart from the presence of Christ? The Great Worker who does not
discard the means would still have His people know that He uses
instrumentality, not to glorify the instrument, but for the sake of
glorifying Himself. He takes weakness into His hands and makes it
strong, not that weakness may be worshipped, but that the strength may
be adored which even makes weakness subservient to its might.
Brethren, let us as a Church always keep this in mind, that without
Christ we can do nothing. "Not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit,
says the Lord." Put no dependence upon societies, upon committees, upon
ministries, upon anything that we can do. Let us work as if it all
depended upon us. But let us come to God depending upon Him, knowing
for sure that it does not rest with us, but with Him alone. Let us send
forth the missionaries to the heathen. Let us send forth our men into
the dark streets and lanes of London. Let us scatter tracts. Let us
distribute the Word of God. Let us send forth preachers by scores from
our "School of the Prophets." But when this is done, let us not sit
still and say, "Now it is all accomplished, good must come of it." No,
Lord, unless Your blessing descend from on High, as well might we have
done nothing, for no eternal results can follow.
How often this drives me to my knees! The surprising work which God is
doing in connection with this place lifts up my heart with joy. But
then the fear lest it all should come to nothing for lack of His
blessing casts my spirit to the very earth. You will remember, I dare
say, that one Brother was moved, some time ago, to distribute a volume
of the sermons preached here to every student in Oxford and Cambridge.
After that had been done and some two hundred thousand sermons had been
distributed, he then gave them to every member of Parliament, to every
peer of the realm and to princes, kings and emperors of Europe. Having
accomplished that work, he has another in hand of great magnitude.
Dear Friends, as I think of these books traveling everywhere among high
and low, the rich and poor, in all places of the land, my heart is
glad. But then, if God withholds the blessing, as well had they never
been born in the press and cir- culated by human hand. What good can
they do? Let the net be ever so broad, ever so strong, and let it be
ever so industriously cast into the sea, yet we shall toil all the
night and take nothing unless the Master comes to bless the work.
Let us, then, be always in prayer for the blessing. Let us remember
that we have done nothing until we have prayed over what we have done.
Let us consider that all the seed we have put into the ground is put
there for worms to eat, unless we have dropped into the soil the
preserving grain of prayer to keep that other grain alive. We shall
have harvests if we wait on God for them, but after all our sowing, if
we look to the soil, the seed, or the sower, we shall see nothing for
our pains.
3. Thirdly, there is clearly taught in both these miracles the fact
that it is Christ's Presence that confers success. Christ sat in
Peter's boat. It was His will that by a mysterious influence drew the
fish to the net, as though He had a hook, a secret hook in each of
their jaws. As though He could stop them in their sportive leaps and
hurry them all to one common spot. It was His Presence on the dry land,
when He spoke from off the shore to His toiling disciples out yonder
and said, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship"–it was His
Presence that drew the fish to the place where they were taken.
Oh, Brethren, we must learn this–that it is Christ's Presence in the
midst of the Church that is the Church's power–the shout of a King in
the midst of her. It is the Presence of Christ's great representative,
the Holy Spirit, that is to give the Church force. "I, if I am lifted
up, will draw all men unto Me." There is the attraction. The Spirit
gives the power and we must tarry until we get it. But when we have it,
then we cannot preach in vain, for we become "a savor of life unto
life" to those who hear. Christians, Christ's Presence with you must be
your power. Be much in fellowship with Him. Catch much of His Spirit.
Meditate much upon His sufferings. Keep close to His Person. And then,
wherever you go, there shall be a power about you which even your
adversaries shall be compelled to acknowledge.
Oh that we had more of Christ's Presence in us as a Church! Lift up
your hearts for it. If Christ is here at all, let us not grieve Him. "I
charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up nor
awake my love till He pleases." And if He is not here, let us rise from
the bed of our sloth and go forth and seek Him, crying, "Oh You whom my
soul loves, tell me where You feed, where You make Your flock to rest
at noon!" And if you find Him, I charge you hold Him and let Him not go
till you bring Him into your mother's house, into the chamber of her
that bare you, even the Church of Christ. There will we hold Him, there
will we embrace Him–and He shall show to us His love.
4. In both instances the success which attended the instrumentality
through Christ's Presence developed human weakness. We do not see human
weakness more in non-success than in success. In the first instance, in
the success you see the weakness of man, for the net breaks and the
ships begin to sink and Simon Peter falls down with–"Depart from me
for I am a sinful man, O Lord." He did not know so much about that till
his boat was filled. But the very abundance of God's mercy made him
feel his own nothingness.
In the last case, they were scarcely able to draw the net because of
the multitude of fishes. Brethren, if you or I would know to the
fullest extent what utter nothings we are, if the Lord shall give us
success in winning souls we shall soon find it out. As we see first
one, and then another, and then scores and then hundreds, brought to
the Lord Jesus, we shall say, "Who has begotten me these? How can such
wonders be worked by me?" And we shall fall prostrate before the
footstool of Sovereign Grace and confess that we are unworthy of such
amazing favors.
Let the Church spread, let her conquests be many, let her overrun whole
provinces with her heavenly arms and instead of man becoming more
famous, man shall sink lower and lower and it shall be more and more
fully perceived that it is the Lord. Little works, such as have been
common in our Churches for years, where twos and threes are added, are
quite consistent with great self-congratulation, and so is utter
barrenness. Mark the pompous carriage of many a fruitless preacher and
see if it is not so.
Let the Lord make bare His arm and the man humbles himself in the dust,
for when hundreds are ingathered, this cannot be the minister, this is
the finger of God. The man is forgotten, then, in the very abundance of
his success and the Lord, alone, is magnified in that day. Oh that God
would do in the Churches of England some great and stupendous works by
all His ministers! Then would they discover their own weakness and then
would the name of God be glorified!
You frequently meet with the observation, if a man is successful in
winning souls, "I am afraid he will grow proud: how we ought to pray
that he may be kept humble!" Brethren, that is a very necessary prayer
for anybody. But it is no more necessary for the man who is successful
than for the unsuccessful one. In fact, it is an assumption of pride on
any person's part to think that he has less need to pray against pride
than any other man. Think not that when the Church prospers, it becomes
necessarily proud. No, the very fullness of the boat makes it sink, and
the very abundance of the miracle makes us cry out the more, "It is the
Lord," for we feel that it could not have been of man, for it is out of
man's reach to have accomplished such wonders.
So far, then, there is a likeness running through the whole. Means must
be used–means alone, unavailing–Christ's Presence gives the success.
That success develops human weakness and leads to the exclamation–"It
is the Lord."
II. Having, then, shown the likeness, you will be still more interested
in REMARKING THE DISSIMILARITY.
Allow us to say in the commencement, that we think the first picture
represents the Church of God as we see it. The second represents it as
it really is. The first pictures to us, the visible, the second the
invisible. Luke tells us what the crowd see. John tells us what Christ
showed to His disciples, alone. The first is common truth which the
multitude may receive, the next is special mystery revealed only to
spiritual minds. Observe, then, carefully, the points of divergence.
1. First, there is a difference in the orders given. In the first, it
is, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught." In
the second it is, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship." The
first is Christ's order to every minister. The second is the secret
work of His Spirit in the Word. The first shows us that the ministry is
to fish anywhere and everywhere. All the orders that the Christian has,
as to his preaching, is, "Launch out into the deep and let down your
net." He is not to single out any particular character.
He is to preach to everybody, sensible sinners and insensible sinners.
He is to preach to the dead dry bones of the valley as well as to the
living souls. He is not to look where the fish are, but just to throw
the net in, doing as his Master tells him, "Go you into all the world
and preach the Gospel to every creature." Those ministers who preach
only to the elect should remember this. Our business is to include all
sorts of fish and not to be particular about where we are, but just
splash the net in. What if we are in town, or city, or village? What if
we are among the rich or poor, learned or illiterate? What if we are
among the debauched or immoral? We have nothing to do with that–our
duty is the same, to "launch out into the deep, and let down the
net"–that is all.
Christ will find the fish–it is no business of ours. The secret truth
is that when we are doing this, the Lord knows how to guide us, so that
we, "cast the net on the right side of the ship." That is the secret
and invisible work of the Spirit, whereby He so adapts our ministry,
which is in itself general, that He makes it particular and special. We
speak to all, and He speaks to some. We blow the trumpet, but only the
bankrupt debtors hear it–only those who are truly of the Spirit of God
know the joyful sound and rejoice therein. We cannot single them out,
but God can. We thrust in the blessed loadstone of the Gospel, and that
heavenly magnet has an affinity to some hearts which God has quickened,
so that as many as were ordained unto eternal life believe.
The Apostles preached to the crowd but the Lord God, the Holy Spirit,
who had decreed the salvation of His chosen, sent the Word home with
power to the chosen and separated ones. What a joy it is to think that
we always have a picked congregation here, for the Lord has picked
them! Though they are crowded together promiscuously–here the good,
and there the bad, all sorts mingled and mixed together–yet God brings
them in according to His eternal purpose and all the while there is a
core of chosen souls inside the mass of the congregation to whom God is
applying the Word. We cast the net, after all, on the right side of the
ship and we do find it full.
2. In the first instance you will clearly see that there is a distinct
plurality. The fishermen have nets–in the plural. They have boats–in
the plural. There is plurality of agency employed. Each man seems to
come out distinctly. In the next case, it is one. There are many men
but they are all in one boat. They unitedly drag the net and it is but
one net– there is no division, it is all one. Now, this is the visible
and the invisible. To us, the means that God makes use of to bring
sinners to Himself are various.
Sometimes we are in one boat trying to catch all the fish we can. There
is another boat over yonder and they are trying to do the same. We
ought to consider them as being partners and whenever our boat gets too
full, we should beckon to our partners in the other ship to come and
help us. We ought not to look upon those Brethren who differ from us as
though they were emptying the sea and competing against us. The more
the merrier. The more men to do good, the more will the Lord's name be
praised. I think, in many of our towns where some of our whining
Brethren say that all good people should go to one Chapel, that it is
far better to have three or four.
I question whether the plurality of agency involved in denominations is
not a great benefit and blessing. Instead of, in the slightest degree,
standing out against my Brethren for carrying out their convictions, I
praise them and look upon them as partners in another ship. Our
denominational distinctions help to keep us awake–thus we stir one
another up and do far more good in the world than would be the case if
there were only a nominal Church. God would have the agency diverse.
There must be several nets and there must be several fishermen and
these fishermen in different boats.
So far as we are able to see, there will always be a Paul and a
Barnabas, who cannot get on together. There will always be outward
divisions in the ministry. And I avow myself the advocate and lover of
these things. As I said last Sunday, the thing called Sectarianism I do
not disown but maintain.
But let us look to the inward. In John they are all in one boat, all
fishing together, all dragging one net. Ah, Brethren, this is what is
really the fact. We do not see it, but all God's ministers are dragging
one net and all God's Church is in one ship. Oh, I bless God for that
sweet doctrine! It is no use striving after outward uniformity. We
shall never see it. Neither the texture of the human mind nor the will
of God require it. It is of no use to contend against the diversities
which exist in the great visible Church. I do not know that these
differences are evils.
They are the natural results of man's finite character and must and
will exist to the end of the chapter. It is the unity of the Spirit. It
is unity in Christ Jesus. It is unity in love to one another that God
would have us regard. Let us learn this unity from the fact, that after
all, though we may look as if we differed, yet if we are God's
ministers, there is only one ministry. If we are God's Church, there is
only one Church in the world. There is only one spouse of the Lord
Jesus. There is only one fold and one Shepherd. Though to our eyes it
will always be so, two boats, or twenty boats–two nets, yes, fifty
nets–yet to Him who sees all things better than we do, there is only
one boat and one net. And they shall all, who are taken in that one
net, be safely brought to shore.
3. Thirdly, there is another difference. In the first case, how many
fish were caught? The text says, "a great multitude." In the second
case, a great multitude are taken, too, but they are all counted and
numbered. "An hundred and fifty and three." Luke does not tell us how
many were caught the first time, for there were some of them not worth
the counting. But the second time, you will perceive the exact number
is recorded, "an hundred and fifty and three."
What was Peter's reason for counting them? We cannot tell. But I think
I know why the Lord made him do it. It was to show us that though in
the outward instrumentality of gathering the people into the Church,
the number of the saved is to us a matter of which we know nothing
definitely, yet secretly and invisibly the Lord has counted them even
to the odd one. He knows well how many the Gospel net shall bring in.
See where the Word is preached what a great multitude are brought in!
Thousands, tens of thousands are added to the different Churches of
Christ and make a profession of their faith.
It were impossible to reckon all over Christendom how many have been
taken in the outward net of the visible Church of Christ. But,
Brethren, it is quite possible for it to be known of God how many shall
be brought at last and how many now are in the invisible Church. He has
counted them, foreordained their number, fixed them, settled them. The
number, "an hundred and fifty and three" seems to me to represent a
large definite number. They shall be in Heaven a number that no man can
number, for God's elect are not few. But they shall be a number whom
God can number, for "the Lord knows them that are His."
They shall be a number certain and fixed, which shall neither be
diminished nor increased but shall abide the same according to His
purpose and will. Now, I, as a preacher, have nothing to do with
counting fish. My business is with the great multitude. Splash goes the
net again! Oh Master! You who have taught us to throw the net and bring
in a multitude, guide into it the hundred and fifty and three!
4. Yet again, notice another difference. The fish that were taken the
first time appear to have been of all sorts. The net was broken and
therefore, doubtless some of them got out again. There were some so
little that they were not worth eating and doubtless were thrown away.
"They shall gather the good into vessels and throw the bad away." In
the second case, the net was full of great fishes. They were all great
fishes, all good for eating, all the one hundred and fifty and three
were worth keeping. There was not one little fellow to be thrown back
into the deep again.
The first gives us the outward and visible effect of the ministry. We
gather into Christ's Church a great number. And there will always be in
that number some that are not good, that are not really called of God.
Sometimes we have Church meetings in which we have to throw the bad
away. We have many blissful meetings where it is gathering in the
fish–and what big hauls of fish has God given to us! Glory be to His
name! But at other times we have to sit down and look our fish over,
and there are some who must be thrown away–neither God nor man can
endure them.
Thus is it in the outward and visible Church. Let no man be surprised
if the tares grow up with the wheat–it is the order of things, it must
be so. Let none of us wonder if there are wolves in sheep's
clothing–it always will be so. There was a Judas among the Twelve.
There will be deceivers among us to the end of the chapter. Not so the
invisible Church– the Church within the Church–the holy of holies
within the temple. In that there is none to throw away. No. The Lord
who brought them into the net, brought the right sort in. He did not
bring one hypocrite or apostate. And having brought them in to the
exact number of one hundred and fifty and three, they cannot one of
them get out again–but they are kept in that net, for that net does
not break.
They are in the secret invisible Church of Christ and they cannot get
out of it, let them do what they may. They may even give up their
nominal profession, and thus get out of the visible Church but they
cannot give up their secret possession. They cannot escape from the
secret and invisible Church and they shall all be kept there till the
net is dragged to land and the whole hundred and fifty and three saved.
6. Yet again, you notice in the first case the net broke and in the
second case it did not. Now, in the first case, in the visible Church,
the net breaks. My Brethren are always calling out "the net is broken!"
No doubt it is a bad thing for nets to break. But you need not wonder
at it. We cannot just now, when the net is full, stop to mend it. It
will break. It is the necessary consequence of our being what we are
that the net will break.
What do I mean by this? Why, that instead of having some one
denomination, we have twenty or thirty? The net is broken. I do not at
all grieve over it. I believe it is what must be as long as we are
flesh and blood. For until you get a set of perfect men, you never will
have anything but these divisions. The net must break and will break.
But glory be to God, the net does not break after all in reality, for
though the visible Church may seem to be rent and torn to pieces, the
invisible Church is one. God's chosen, God's called, God's quickened,
God's blood-bought–they are one in heart and one in soul and one in
spirit. Though they may wear different names among men, yet they still
wear before God their Father's name written on their foreheads. And
they are, and always must be one.
You perceive, Brethren, that I do not advise you to strive for a
nominal unity. The more you strive after that, the more divisions there
will be. Certain Brethren left many of our denominations and formed,
they said, a Church that should not be a sect. All they did was to make
a sect the most sectarian of sects–the most narrow and most bitter of
cliques, though containing some of the best men, some of the best
Christians and the ablest writers of the times. You cannot make a
visible uniformity, it is beyond your power–the net is broken.
There now! Take care of the fish and leave the net alone, but still
maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of per-fectness. Take care
that you are not a schismatic in your heart, that you hold no heresy in
your soul, that you are one with all them that love the Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity. And in this you will soon see that the net is not
broken but that the saints are one. Ah, I bless God that when once we
get with God's people–it does not matter what they are–we soon find
the net is not broken. There are many a godly clergyman of the Church
of England with whom I commune with the greatest joy and I have found
the net was not broken.
And in conversing with Brethren of all denominations, some who from
doctrine, some who from sentiment stand wide as the poles asunder, I
have still found and known that there was such a real and perfect
harmony of heart that the net was not broken. I do not believe that
charity would ever have had such perfect work in Christ's Church if it
had not been for our being divided into tribes, like the twelve tribes
of old. It is no charity for me to love a Brother who thinks as I
think–I cannot very well help it. But for me to love a dear Brother
who differs from me in some points–why there is exercise and room for
my charity!
And as God has left trials and troubles to exercise faith, I believe He
has left us in many doctrinal difficulties on purpose–to exercise our
love till the day shall come when we shall all grow to the stature of
perfect men in Christ Jesus. The net is not broken, Brethren. Do not
believe it, and when you read about this denomination, and that, do not
be grieved at these names and tribes, but rather, thank God for them.
Remember, that is the visible Church and the net is broken. But there
is an invisible Church where the net is not broken–where we are one in
Christ and must be one forever.
There are several other points of difference but I think we have hardly
time to enlarge upon them. I will only hint at them. In the first case,
which is the visible Church, you see the human weakness becomes the
strongest point. There is the boat ready to sink, there is the net
broken, there are the men all out of heart, frightened, amazed and
begging the Master to go away. In the other case it is not so at all.
There is human weakness but still they are made strong enough. They
have no strength to spare, as you perceive, but still they are strong
enough, the net does not break, the ship goes slowly to land dragging
the fish.
And then, lastly, Simon Peter pulls the fish to shore. Strong he must
have been. They were just strong enough to get their fish to shore. So
in the visible Church of Christ you will often have to mourn over human
weakness–but in the invisible Church, God will make His servants just
strong enough–just strong enough to drag their fish to shore. The
agencies, means, instrumentalities–shall have just sufficient force to
land every elect soul in Heaven–that God may be glorified.
Then, notice, in the visible Church, they launched out into the deep.
In the second case, it says they were not far from the shore, but a
little way. So today our preaching seems to us to be going out into the
great stormy deep after fish. We appear to have a long way to reach
before we shall bring these precious souls to land. But in the sight of
God we are not far from shore. And when a soul is saved, it is not far
from Heaven. To us there are years of temptation and trial and
conflict. But to God, the Most High, it is finished–"it is done." They
are saved–they are not far from shore.
In the first case, the disciples had to forsake all and follow Christ.
In the second, they sat down to feast with Him at the dainty banquet
which He had spread. So in the visible Church today we have to bear
trial and self-denial for Christ, but glory be to God, the eye of faith
perceives that we shall soon drag our net to land and then the Master
will say, "come and dine." And we shall sit down and feast in His
Presence, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of God.
III. The time is gone and I close by NOTICING ONE AMONG MANY LESSONS
WHICH THE TWO NARRATIVES IN COMMON SEEM TO TEACH. In the first case,
Christ was in the ship. Oh, blessed be God, Christ is in His
Church, though she launch out into the deep! In the second case, Christ
was on the shore. Blessed be God, Christ is in Heaven. He is not here,
but He has risen. He has gone up on High for us. But whether He is in
the Church, or whether He is on the shore in Heaven, all our night's
toiling shall, by His Presence, have a rich reward.
That is the lesson. Mother, will you learn it? You have been toiling
long for your children. It has been night with you as yet. They give no
evidence of Divine Grace. Rather they give many signs of sin and they
grieve your spirit. Your night's toiling shall have an end. You shall
at last cast the net on the right side of the ship. Sunday school
teacher, you have been diligently laboring long and with but little
fruit. Be not discouraged, the Master will not let you work in vain. In
due season you shall reap if you faint not. And as these disciples had
a great sea harvest, so shall you have a harvest of souls.
Minister, you have been plowing some barren rock and as yet no joyful
sheaves have made your heart glad. You shall, doubtless, "Come again,
rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you." And you, O Church of God,
travailing for souls, meeting daily in prayer, pleading with men that
they will come to Christ, what if they are not saved yet? The morning
comes, the night is far spent, and the Master, Himself shall soon
appear. And though He may not find faith on the earth, yet His advent
shall bring to His Church the success for which she has waited–such
success that as a woman remembers no more her travail because a man is
born into the world–so shall the Church remember no more her toils,
her efforts and her prayers, because Christ's kingdom has come and His
will is done on earth even as it is in Heaven.
Work, dear Friends! If there are any of you that are not working, begin
now. If there are any of you not saved as yet, the Lord grant that when
the Word is preached, you may be caught in it as in a net. We do throw
it out once this morning. We hope to throw it again this evening.
"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved," for "he that
believes and is baptized shall be saved and he that believes not shall
be damned."
Flee to Christ! Escape from the wrath to come! May the Spirit apply
that Word to you, and lead you to the place where high on Calvary with
bleeding hands and feet the Savior dies! One look at Him and you are
saved. Look, Sinner, and live! God save you, for Christ's sake! Amen.