Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Huffton. Now shall we turn, please, to the last chapter of John's Gospel, John chapter twenty-one. John chapter twenty-one and verse one. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the sea at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter said unto them, I go fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately. and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said unto them, Children, have ye any meat? And they answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and he shall find. They cast therefore. and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that, heard that it was the Lord, he girded his fishes coat upon him, for he was naked, and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were, two hundred cubits dragging the net with fishes as soon then as they were come to land they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid thereon and bred jesus said unto them bring of the fish which he have now caught simon peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes a hundred and fifty three and for all there were so many yet was not the net broken. Jesus said unto them, Come and dine, and none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord? Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them and fish like one. This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was risen from the dead. Shall we pray? And blessed God, we thank you for this wonderful book we have in our hands. And we thank you for these wonderful stories about thyself, Lord Jesus, here on earth. We pray that the Holy Spirit of God might take the word of God and apply it to our heart this morning and teach us the lessons from thy word. We commit the meeting to thee. Thou, at the search of every heart, And thou knowest the needs of every heart here this morning. We pray, Lord, that the message might bear fruit, eternal fruit, in each of our lives for thy glory. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now for a long time, and I've been speaking here Sunday mornings, I've been speaking on John's Gospel. And we got very near the end. We're in the last chapter. And I feel I'd like to finish it out before we go to some other subject. But we can't do one chapter in one day, at least I can't. Some could, but I can't. But it's good to get back. It was Sunday the fourth of January that I was last speaking here. And we were speaking then all day on the twentieth chapter. You remember we spoke about the latter part of the twentieth chapter. We spoke about the morning of the first Lord's Day. That was the first Lord's Day in history. And the evening of the first Lord's Day. Those were our subjects. And then John, at the end of that twentieth chapter, seems to close his book. He tells us the purpose for which he rose. He says in verse thirty, many other signs or really miracles, but he calls them signs in the Gospel of John, many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. Now John only wrote about seven miracles, starting with the miracle of the churning of the water into wine in Cana of Galilee, the second chapter. and the healing of the raising of Lazarus from the dead in the eleventh chapter there were seven in all that John mentioned but he says there were many others so of course we know they were but he selected by the Holy Spirit he selected seven what for he'll tell you what for these are written that he might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God. That was one reason, that he might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Then he had a second reason. What was that? And that believing he might have life through his name. That's the whole purpose of John's Gospel, that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have eternal life through his name. John uses the word believe ninety-three times in his gospel. And it's all centered around this word believe, believe, believe. And personally, I thank God for the word believe because it was as a boy of ten, as a preacher one Sunday night was quoting John three sixteen, that when he got to the word believe like a flash of light from heaven, I said, I got it. And I was saved right there. For God so loved the world. that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth. And when he said believeth, that was the moment God saved him. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So I'd like to ask a question this morning. I know most of it, but there's some I don't know. But do you know what I'm talking about? Have you ever had that experience? Have you got eternal life? Are you saved? Has there been a moment in your life when the Holy Spirit has revealed to you the meaning of the word belief? I like the way that Dr. Sanford Mills explained it, you know, about when his children were young, he used to put them on the table or on a high place, and to prove what faith was, he used to say, jump, and he'll catch them. And if they had enough faith, they jumped. He said, that's believing. That was his way of explaining believing. Jumping and let God catch you. That's what he said. Trusting in him. We cannot save ourselves. All our works are of no avail. Only can we be saved by the work of Christ at Calvary. And only can we appropriate that work. By faith, by faith are you saved, by grace are you saved through faith. So John emphasizes this believing. Then he comes to the end here and he says, now this is really what I've written and this is why I have written it. But there's a twenty-first chapter. Now if the first eighteen verses of the first chapter are called the prologue of John's Gospel, then the twenty-first chapter is called the epilogue. The epilogue. It's not quite an appendix that was written years after, but we call it, generally speaking, it's known as the epilogue of John's Gospel. Some have tried to suggest that it was a kind of an afterthought. I don't think so. I'll tell you one reason why I don't think so. You turn with me to another of John's Gospels, John's epistle, John's first epistle and chapter five, and verse thirteen. and he says the same words. Listen, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that he may know that he have eternal life. Now, you can't say that the rest of that chapter is something he thought of later on and added years after. He goes straight on. John didn't intend to finish his gospel with those words, I don't think, any more than he intended to finish the epistle with the words, these things have I written unto you. No, he went right on. He went right on into the twenty-first chapter, I believe. But it's another subject. It opens a new era, a new sphere. If the prologue, and it does, if the prologue deals with the eternal glory of the Son of God in a past eternity, for it does, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The prologue deals with that. And then he says, And we beheld his glory, the glory as is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. If that is the prologue, the epilogue deals them with future glory. In the epilogue, he ends up talking about his coming again. What is it if he tarried till I come? So we start with the eternal glory in the first chapter. Then we get that wondrous life of the Lord and his wondrous death. And then at the last chapter we go on into the future. And if in the first chapter it says they beheld his glory, then in the last chapter it says he showed himself. He showed himself. It says twice, look. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And in verse fourteen, this is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was written. So the object of this chapter, I believe, The Lord Jesus allowed this to happen so that he might show himself to his disciples, and that things might happen which would give us lessons, a background for lessons, for our lives as we seek to serve him here. Note the phrase at the very beginning of the chapter, After These Things. After These Things. Look at chapter five, verse one. chapter five verse one after this there was a feast of the Jews look at chapter seven verse one after these things Jesus walked in Galilee this is a term that John uses after these things but invariably when he uses it it brings us to a division in his story We have, in our studies, followed a line of thinking given by Mel Tenney in his book, The Gospel of Belief. I told you that the first time I spoke here. I think that we would follow that. And in his thinking, he divides John's Gospel into periods. And that's what we have done. There was a period, we call it a period of consideration. That was that early time in the Lord's ministry here on earth when men were considering him. They weren't hostile to him in those days. That's the first chapter from verse nineteen right down to the beginning of chapter five. They were considering him. The woman at the well. Nicodemus, those disciples that met him in the first chapter. They were considering him. Here's a new prophet coming on the scene doing wonderful things, miracles, and they're considering him. But when you get to the fifth chapter, we get this term after these things. We're starting a new era. And we call that the period of controversy. The first one was consideration. The next one was controversy. They start to become controversial, and they argue with him, and they argue with him, and they argue with him. But when you get over to chapter seven, it says after these things, he couldn't walk along anymore where the Jews were, they sought to kill him. And we call this the period of conflict. Conflict. They sought to kill him. And then later on, we got to the period of crisis. And then later on we got to the period of conference in the upper room, if you remember it. And then we got to the period we call conclusion the story of the cross and his terrible death and suffering at the hands of man. But this is the epilogue. This is something different. And this gives us, I think, a glimpse into the future. There's something prophetic I fancy about this. They were at the Sea of Tiberias. Now, the Lord had told them to go to Galilee. Look at Matthew twenty-eight in a minute. Matthew twenty-eight, he had told them In verse ten, Jesus said unto them, Be not afraid. That's at the grave side there. Be not afraid. Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee. There shall they see me. Into Galilee, there shall they see me. Now in verse sixteen of the same chapter, It says, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped. So he told them to go into Galilee. Apparently he told them to go to a mountain. In our chapter, they didn't go to a mountain. They went to the sea. There's been a lot of criticism about what Peter did when Peter said, I go fishing. Some people think that Peter got so despondent and something like when the conference ends, you know, it's a kind of a drop. And they've had, we've had three and a half months, counting Christmas, three and a half months of wonderful conference meetings. I remember we had one brother, he's now in heaven a few years ago, and he met me the Monday morning after the conference, and he said, have I got to go to? Have I got to go to? Everybody was going. And I think Peter has this kind of feeling, you know, all the elation, the wonderful three and a half years they'd spent with the Lord, and now they saw the Lord crucify them. That seems like he ended it all. True, he'd seen him. And true, the Lord had met Peter and had a talk with him somewhere along the line. But Peter has that feeling, well, what can I do now? I don't like to blame Peter for going fishing. I remember a time in my life when I spent two and a half years full time in the Lord's work, preaching night after night, practically for two and a half years and traveling thousands upon thousands of miles. In nineteen fifty we drove thirty thousand miles around this country in Canada, telling about the Lord's work in Greece, for he called us here to do that work. But when we had done that, Then I had to ask myself a question. What next? Now, I never planned my life. I get the Lord. I wouldn't move unless the Lord told me. And this is what people think that Peter was planning it on his own here. Well, I don't know. But I had to ask myself the question and ask the Lord's question, what next? And the Lord gave me certain pointers and made it very clear to me. He said he wanted me to get back into secular employment. And I went back. Yet when I look back on it, sometimes I'm bound to think of what they did here. They told all night and caught nothing. And all through the years when I was back in secular employment, fifteen years until I came to part of the problems, I always had that running in my mind. They told all night, caught nothing. But that's not quite true. We did do something for the Lord. And I think Peter did something for the Lord. But Peter said, I go fishing. There at the seaside, there were seven of them. And there's five names mentioned. Two not mentioned. It says two other disciples. But of course, Peter was the leader. And where it says they went forth, went forth the Greek word seems as if they went out somewhere X silt and X is always out of so probably they were meeting in some house somewhere somewhere down there near the Sea of Galilee they had gone to Galilee but they gone down by the Sea of Galilee and whatever they were staying in, house, home, hotel, I don't know, they went out. Excellent. And they went out. They went forth and went into a ship. Now in Luke chapter five, you'll find that Peter owned his own ship there. In Luke chapter five, Verse three, he entered into one of the ships which was Simon's and prayed that he was thrusted out a little from the land. He sat down and talked to people. So Simon Peter had a boat there. Now, I don't know whether he sold that after, but anyhow, he's back in a boat again. In fact, he kept that boat all the way through. I don't know. But he goes to the ship. He seemed to have the right to go into that ship. They went forth and entered into... And in the Greek, it doesn't say a ship. It says enter the ship, enter the ship. As if that was the particular ship that the Lord preached in before, and it was pre-the ship. They entered into that ship. I don't know, but that's how it's put in the Greek. It doesn't say a ship, it says the ship. And they entered into the ship immediately. It didn't take him long when Peter made up his mind to get back to the fishing work. It didn't take him long to say, let's come on, we'll go. Now, many times I preached about this, and now they're spoken about Peter as missing a mark here, you know, that the Lord long ago he'd said, now listen, come after me and I'll make you to be fishers of men. And in the first chapter of Mark, verse fifteen, he said, leave your fishers, leave your boat, leave the tackle, come on, off to me. Now three and a half years he goes back. Well, that may be so, and yet, you know, the Lord did not upbrage Peter for going fishing. Not in all this story did he say anything wrong about fishing. In fact, he helped him. And he got a hundred fifty-three fishes when Peter couldn't get any at all. So I rather think the Lord had a lesson. And I'd like to look at it that way, listen. Our business is to be fishers of men. That's what he told Peter, come after me, and I'll make you to become, fishes of men. Now, that become was a long time. It took over three years, training and teaching. The young men and young women today go to a Bible school for three, four years to become. And Peter went to a Bible school. He sat at the feet of the Lord. He had three and a half wonderful years in the best Bible school possibly. to become what? To become fishers of men. And he surely did become one of the greatest of all, because on the day of Pentecost, when the time came, and he preached the gospel, God used him, and three thousand souls were saved that day. So he learned the lessons, but my, they were hard lessons to learn. But one would suggest that in this twenty-first chapter, Peter is kind of planning it himself. Nowhere does it say that the Lord said to Peter, go to the Sea of Galilee, get back in that old boat and go fishing. The Lord never said that to Peter. The Lord said, go into Galilee there while I meet you. And that's when the Lord told them there in Galilee, he said, carry in Jerusalem. not in Galilee, Tarry in Jerusalem till he be in Jude with par from on high. Then he could go fishing when he was in Jude with par from on high. But now he's doing it in his own strength. You see the point? I go fishing. He didn't wait for the Lord to say go fishing. He said, I'm going fishing. And immediately he said that. Six others said, we go with it. That's easy. If you find someone going that way, You'll find plenty of people who want to go with him. It's hard to go with the Lord. But still the Lord overruled, and I believe this thing, God had a purpose in it for his glory and for our health. I go fishing. I'd like to pause a moment here and make this personal and make it applicable to every one of us. When you decide to move your home and go and buy another house or something? Is there a lot of I about it? I go fishing. Or did the Lord tell you to move your house now? Was it your scheme or was it his scheme? When you came to the palms to lift, was it your plan or was it God's plan? I tell you, I came here. I had a call on Sunday night, and the brother said, the Lord woke me up at three o'clock this morning and said, send for Bob Willie to come to Park Laughan. That's how I came. I never had any thought or idea of coming here. I believe God called me here. And I think that when we make a move, whatever it is, whether it's in business or in the home or whatever it is, we've got to wait for God to show us. It mustn't be our plans if we want his blessing. It isn't I go fishing. It must be, Lord, what must I have me to do? Here am I, send me. And let's be willing to go anywhere in the world he likes to send me. If the Lord want to move me, I'd be off right away, because if he made it. You couldn't do otherwise if you trust me. I go fishing. There's too much I about this, I think, but the Lord overruled it. But what was the result? If you go and do it in your own strength, what do you get? Look at it. That night, they caught nothing. Wonderful lesson, isn't it? I go fishing. I'm going to do it all my own way. You come with me if you like, but I'm going to do it my way. And that night, they caught nothing. But while wonderful, the next verse, when the morning was now come, you know, sometimes you get to the end of the night. We toil on and do things our own way, sometimes for months and months and years, and suddenly the morning breaks sometime, and the Lord shows you where you are, what you've done wrong, and where you should be. The morning broke when the morning was now come. Do you remember that term once before? We referred to it when we were in the... sufferings of Christ. Let's see, that's Matthew twenty-six, I'm sure. Matthew twenty-six, it says, I'm wrong, it's Luke. When the Lord was being tried that night, remember we referred to this. We've got lost. It is Matthew. It says, and when the morning has come. The same term, and when the morning has come. Matthew twenty-seven, I'm sure. Matthew twenty-seven, verse one, I'm sorry. When the morning has come. All the chief priests of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death, and they bound him and led him away. Remember how we, I think in all my studies in John's Gospel, I have never in all my life been so moved personally as I have been in our last few talks about the sufferings of Christ. Remember we had one subject one morning, Behold the man. Then the next time we had the subject, Gal Gatha. And the Lord spoke to me as he never has before. When the morning was come, I sometimes ask myself the question, why didn't God stop the sun rising that morning? If the Lord in Joshua said, Joshua could say, Thou sun stand still in Gideoneth, and Thou moon in the valley of Agilent, and he could stop and put the clock back if Joshua could do that. Why didn't God stop the sun shining on that awful sea when His Son stood before Pilate when the morning was done? But He allowed it to happen. And here's another morning breaking. When the morning was now come, Jesus is not standing before Pilate here. It's all over. He's passed through that awful ordeal. He's gone through the agonies and shame of Calvary. And He's died. And now he's ridden from the dead. And the sun shines on him on another morning. The morning has come. And where is he? He's down by the seashore. And when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore. But his disciples knew not that it was Jesus. I believe there's another morning going to break one day. And we're going to land on that shore up there in the glory. And he'd be standing on that shore when the morning breaks. not too far off for some of us perhaps. When the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. What a daybreak that was. How they must have remembered it all the rest of their lives. As they got near to the shore and the day began to break and they pierced through the morning this, and they saw someone on the shore, but they knew not that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to them, Children, have you any meat? This is a peculiar expression. I can't quite say it, as it's put in the Greek Testament. He says, he says, have you anything for eating? This would be anything for eating. It's all one word, Prostfagion. Prostfagion is eating, and Prostfagion is toward eating. Have you got anything you fit to eat? That's what he's saying to them. This term here, have you any meat, is not in the Greek. I think that's the term they used at the time when the Bible was translating into the English language four hundred years ago. I think that word meat was a general word for food. And he said, children, have you got anything to eat? And they answered no. Now listen, they've been working all night and the answer is no. I hope when the morning breaks, mind you, we see the Lord face to face. And he says, well, if you draw, I hope we don't have to say nothing. The Lord put it all right. And when the count, and it was counted out, one by one, one by one, a hundred and fifty-three fishes when the Lord had finished with them. And I trust that when we get to the glory, there'll be a good count, you know. But there won't be a count. We go our way. we'd let the net down on the wrong side of the ship and we'd catch nothing we'd do it our way the Lord said cast the net on the right side of the ship and you shall find now this is the way to work in our gospel service to cast the net on the right side of the ship you see what do you mean what I believe is Oh, let me give you three examples very, very quickly because our time is going. And some of you have heard me say this before. In the Acts of the Apostles, Philip was down in Samaria preaching, and a great work was going on. And suddenly the Spirit of God said, go down to Philip and said, go down to Joppa. Now he might have argued and said, Lord, this is my work down here. I'm doing a great job. He didn't. He said he arose and went. And when he got down there, there was the Ethiopian unit, and he led him to Christ. He didn't know the Ethiopian unit was there, but the Lord knew. I once heard a man years ago talk about the triangle, and he said, the Lord's on the top of the triangle. The Ethiopian unit's down there, and Philip's down here, and the Lord signaled down to Philip and said, go over there, and he completed the triangle and led Philip to Christ. And then the next chapter, Saul of Tarsus is down there in Damascus. And the Lord signaled down to Ananias. He said, go over to that man. He said, Lord, this man will pray to that man. He came here to put us to death. He said, go on over. He's a chosen vessel of mine. And the triangle was completed. And Ananias led Saul of Tarsus to the Lord. And then in the tenth chapter of the Acts, Peter's on the rooftop praying, and the Lord lets down that niche, you know, and Peter says, when he said, arise, children, he said, Lord, I can't do that. The Gentiles, I can't touch them. There's a knock at the door. And Cornelius had sent some servants to Peter, and the Lord signaled down to Peter, and he said, go on up there to Cornelius. And that triangle was complete. and he led Cornelius to the Lord. But Peter didn't even know there was a Cornelius. And Ananias didn't know that Saul of Tarsus was going to be saved. And Philip didn't know about the Ethiopian unit. But the Lord knew that was the right side. That's what he means by let the net doubt on the right side of the ship. Not according to your planning, but according to the Lord's planning. When we go out in the morning, And when we go for a trip on the airplane, ask God to make the ship by the right person. He knows every heart. And the Lord will let you put the net down on the right side of the ship. And when the net was put down on the right side of the ship, they couldn't pull it to shore. And it's interesting to note that in the fifth chapter of Luke, when... there was that miraculous drought that fish is the net broke. But in this case the net didn't break. Yet for all that, the number is hundred and fifty-three, and yet for all there was so many, yet was not the net broke. And I believe that we can go forward in God's work and do much for him and win many to him without breaking up the net. We can go forward and do it if we do it his way. This is the lesson I would seek that we would learn this morning, that we do not try and do things our way. I am most interested, you are all most interested in the future part of the pounds. This is the burden of my life. I believe God brought me here. And I've been here in August. It'll be ten years, if the Lord tarry. And I feel like Peter... They taught all night in Cardinal. Now, that isn't quite true. When we came here, there was no chapel in here. When we came here, there was no assembly here. When we came here, most of you people, I can count about three here this morning that were here then, three or four perhaps. God has brought all of you in. God has given us this chapel. God has led us on. But yet, when you think of the object that we were going to have a retirement place here, and we haven't got it yet, I feel they told all night and thought nothing. And I'm asking myself the question, have I been doing it in my strength? Have you been doing it in your strength? Has our board and our committees and all our planning been done our way and not God's way? You know, I feel sometimes we ought to stop doing everything and just have a tremendous prayer meeting and say, Lord, now you do it. And I believe the Lord could do it and give us all we need. I wish we could have more faith. I wish we could trust the Lord more. I wish we could give up our toilings and say, Lord, here we are. Use us just as you would. If you want the net on the right side, all right. If you want on the left side, all right. But Lord, where do you want it? What does the Lord do? I know he could see through the water. He could command the fishes. He once commanded the fish to come and bring a penny and put in Peter's hand. He could tell the fishes what to do. He once made a whale or a great fish swallowed Jonah. He can command fishes and he brought a great shoal of fishes near to the shore and they all went straight in the net, you know. And the Lord can do that still. He hasn't changed. He hasn't changed. So let's learn some lessons from this incident here. They were a hundred yards from shore, two hundred cupids. And they had to drag the net. Then old Peter, I can't quite understand this. He must be mighty strong. I think God gave him power. They were dragging the net, and there were six of them, and it says Peter went up and drew the net to land. He was great at that one. Six of them tried and struggled, and then Peter went up and drew the net to land. What a great fellow he was. God must have given him strength. That's when it says he went up. He went up on the deck of the ship, perhaps, up on the bridge of the ship, and he took charge and did it that way. I don't know. That's how he would do it, of course. But he got the fish used to land, and they counted him a hundred and fifty-three. One day we were going to land. One day we shall sit down at a feast with the Lord. He had the breakfast already. There's still three miracles in this chapter, you know. John counted seven miracles, but here's another, the fishes that they caught letting the net on the right side. The other is the fishes he had there on the fire. Where do you get the calls from? Where do you get the fishes from? Where do you get the bread from? This is all miracles the Lord did and can do, of course, and make all provision for us. But one day we're going to sit down with the Lord. He says so, that we shall eat in the kingdom together. And then there's going to be a countdown. And they counted the fishes. When we meet the Lord face to face, it's going to be a count. We have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and he's going to go over it. And we'd have to give account of all those things that we did in our own strength. And he'll count up all the things we did in his strength. And the souls we've won to Christ because we went his way. They'd be all counted down in eternity. I wonder how you're going to stand, and I wonder how I'm going to stand in that day. May God help us to get into this fishers of men business. Now, he changes when we get to our next talk. You'll find it's no longer talking about fishing, but he's talking about shepherding. One is the winning of sinners, the other is looking out to the church. We'll come to that in our next talk, which will be our final talk, I expect, on John's talk. But we trust God will bless this and stir our heart to let down the net on the right side and to keep on serving him until the morning breaks. Shall we pray? Blessed Lord, we bow before thee. We thank you for this picture thou hast given us. We see thee, Lord Jesus, on the shore. They didn't know it. Sometimes, Lord, thou art standing on the shore, waiting for us to do something, and we don't know it. Help us, Lord, open our eyes. Give us ears that listen to thy voice. And when thou dost lay let down the net, help us to do it and do it immediately. O Lord, we ask for the future of this trace path at the palms. And we ask for the future of each one of our lives, Lord. We don't know how much is left, but we want to use it for thee and for thy glory. Help us, Lord, to serve thee. And so that great day, when the morning does break, and we see thee face to face, we ask, Lord, there might be eternal fruit for thy glory. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.