The Unforgettable Fishing Trip, Part 1

Amen, let's have a word of prayer together father. We are grateful lord for your wonderful work of salvation We thank you lord that you are the great god of salvation and that you have provided Your saving grace to all mankind and we pray that today as we Have the opportunity once again to look into the perfect law of liberty. May we see jesus christ only And as a result of seeing you Bow in submission to who you are that we might follow you with all of our heart soul mind and strength We pray in jesus name amen Turn with me in your bible if you would to luke chapter 5 Luke chapter 5 as we quickly make our way through the gospel of luke It's only taking us about a year to get to a little over a year to get to where we are today and In luke chapter 5, but every time we embark on a new paragraph We are able to see more and more of our great god and savior jesus christ And in the first 11 verses of luke chapter 5 you're going to be able to see More about your lord.

In fact, you're going to come to a clearer understanding of who he is And that's important why because you're going to see that our lord is the god of truth You're going to see him as the god who knows everything. He's omniscient You're going to see him as a god who is all powerful. That is he's omnipotent You're going to see him as the holy god that he is and you're going to see him as a merciful god All that is in the first 11 verses and that's very important.

Why? Because if jesus christ is god in the flesh Then he must experience and have the same attributes as god the father And of course jesus does have those same attributes because jesus is god in the flesh And as luke writes, he knows that the jews believe that god is True, they know what jeremiah 10 10 says. It says that the lord is the true god They know isaiah 65 verse number 16 psalm 31 verse number 5 all speak about the fact that god is true And not only is god himself true, but every word that god speaks Is true it says in psalm 119 verse number 151 all thy commandments Are truth psalm 119 verse number 160 the sum of thy word is true So the jews would know the god who is true They would also know the god who is omniscient psalm 147 verse number 5 says great is the lord His understanding is infinite job 37 verse number 16 God is perfect in knowledge So the jews would know about the omniscience of god They would know about the fact that god is true and his word is true They would know that god was omnipotent psalm 62 11 power belongs only to god psalm 147 verse number 5 Great is the lord Abundant in strength They would see god as omnipotent omniscient and true.

Also. They would see him as holy first samuel 2 2 Says there is no one Holy like the lord exodus 15 verse number 11 says our lord is majestic in holiness The bible says in isaiah 6 verse number 3 that he is holy holy Holy, so all jews would know that the god of abraham isaac and jacob was true Was omniscient omnipotent holy and they would also know that their god was merciful psalm 136 26 all 26 verses say that our lord is great in mercy His mercy is everlasting psalm 103 verse number 8 says that our lord is abundant in mercy So when luke writes luke chapter 5 verses 1 to 11, he helps us understand that jesus christ Is god by showing us that jesus is true and the words that he speaks are true Shows us that jesus knows everything.

He's omniscient. He's all powerful. He's omnipotent It shows us that he is the only one who is holy and that jesus himself is the one who bestows mercy upon sinners and so luke Presents to us once again the identity of jesus christ In fact, if you were to go through just the gospels alone, you would understand by looking at each Each verse and each paragraph that they all speak about the character and the identity of jesus christ our lord A number of years ago, there was a book written called the quest for jesus It was a worthless book because they never found jesus.

It's because they looked everywhere except in the gospels Matthew mark luke and john they speak explicitly about who jesus christ is And what he came to do? You're here today and you're going to understand more about the character of jesus christ our lord Let me read to you the first 11 verses it goes as follows now It came about that while the multitude were pressing around him and listening to the word of god He was standing by the lake of gennesaret And he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake But the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets And he got into one of the boats which was simon's and asked him to put out a little way from the land And he sat down and began teaching the multitudes from the boat And when he had finished speaking he said to simon put out into the deep water And let down your nets for a catch And simon answered and said master We worked hard all night and caught nothing But at your bidding I will let down the nets And when they had done this they enclosed a great quantity of fish And their nets began to break And they signaled to their partners in the other boat For them to come and help them and they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink But when simon peter saw that he fell down at jesus's feet saying Depart from me for I am a sinful man.

Oh lord For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken And so also james and john sons of zebedee who were partners with simon And jesus said to simon do not fear from now on you will be catching men And when they had brought their boats to land They left everything and followed him These 11 verses Luke describes for us Our lord in great detail In fact, if you just had only these 11 verses You would have all you need to know about the identity of jesus christ Enough to help you understand what saving grace is all about To help you understand the identity of who he is and what he came to do And these 11 verses speak to us about the character and nature of our god That's why it's important that when you read the bible you read to see only jesus because if you do You will truly see him in all of his glory Because the word of god expresses to us the great and wonderful character of our lord And these 11 verses jump out at us So we're going to spend a couple of weeks here because you need to know the details of what takes place in these verses Because just a cursory reading of it won't help you understand all that's there So we're going to study it so that we can begin to see the character of our god So we can fall deeper in love with jesus christ the king of kings and lord of lords Let me begin by looking with you at the context The context of verses 1 to 11 by helping you understand two things number one the multitude and number two The message and i'm afraid that's as far as we'll get today We won't embark on the catch because that's going to take us a little while to get through what happens On that sea of gennesaret or that sea of tiberius But we're going to begin with the context and help you understand the multitude.

Listen to what the bible says Now it came about That while the multitude were pressing around him, let's just stop right there for a second You must understand that the phrase it came about is something that describes for us an indefinite indicator In other words, we don't know exactly when this was We just know it happened sometime after luke chapter 4 It happened sometime after christ was preaching in the synagogue at capernaum And after he cast the demon out of the man in that synagogue This happened sometime after they they left the synagogue went to peter's home for lunch and peter's mother-in-law had a fever And christ immediately healed her And then all those in the surrounding villages would come to the house of peter And they would want the lord to heal their sick ones and the lord healed them all No one went away disappointed And luke begins to describe to us the authority of christ the power of christ over the natural the supernatural and the eternal It was sometime after that.

We don't know if it was the next day the next week the next month Luke doesn't tell us It just tells us very clearly now it came about that while the multitude were pressing around him It was the multitude that pressed around him And we made mention of it last week, but you must understand What was taking place in the ministry of christ? I mean after all you had a healing ministry, right? And if you have a healing ministry You will be able to draw a crowd I mean I could just watch tv and see these clowns on tv talking about how they can heal people and there are thousands Literally 50 and 60 and 70 thousands of people in the audience just to sit there and watch somebody Supposedly and I say that in quotes be healed But if you can really do it If you can really truly heal people Everybody Will come see you Everybody who's sick will come see you why because you truly have the gift And christ was of course the god in human flesh and he would heal all who came to him And so when you read the bible as his ministry continues you will notice over in luke chapter 6 verse number 19 These words And all the multitude were trying to touch him for power was coming from him and healing them all Over in luke chapter 8 verse number 4 and when a great multitude were coming together And those from the various cities were journeying to him.

He spoke by way of a parable So now you have a great multitude of people verse number 19 of chapter 8 And his mother and brothers came to him and they were unable to get to him because of the crowd verse number 40 of chapter 8 and as jesus returned the multitude welcomed him For they had all been waiting for him wherever jesus went There was a crowd of people either following him or waiting for him And then over in luke chapter 12 listen to this one verse number one under these circumstances after So many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they were stepping on one another There were so many people Wanting to see jesus It was like crowd out of control They stepped on one another why because Of what he did and what he said People were everywhere And so here is jesus in luke chapter 5 Somewhere on the lake of gennesaret the lake of gennesaret is is the sea of galilee or the sea of tiberias It's all the same thing in old testament.

It's called chenaroth, but it's the lake. It's the sea of galilee It's the it's the focal point of the the northern region of the sea of galilee It's about 13 miles long and about seven or eight miles wide. It truly is a sea. It's a freshwater sea it comes from the the the the mountains of lebanon and the The snow caps that melt and they make their way down into the sea of galilee And you have the jordan river that makes its way down into the dead sea but it's the main source of water supply for the land of israel on this sea when you go to the The land of israel and you sail on this sea and you step on this sea It actually is the actual place where our lord performed all these miracles on the sea of galilee the sea of tiberias And to sit there on a boat and realize that your lord walked upon these waters That your lord one day had done a great miracle by catching a multitude of fish It was in this sea where where peter would go down and catch a fish and out of it would come A the coin to pay for the taxes that were due It was on this sea where the disciples experienced great storms and our lord would calm the sea It was upon this sea that so many marvelous miracles took place and luke begins by helping us identify Christ by taking us to the lake of gennesaret to the sea of galilee the sea of tiberias And show us that as he was on the shore, there were a throng of people multitudes of people pressing Against him Pressing against him they wanted to hear What he had to say And the bible goes on to say that as he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake But the fishermen had gotten out of them and they were washing the nets that he got into one of the boats which was simons And asked him to put out a little way from the land.

Why did he do that? Because there was no more room He was inundated with people And so as the people were coming and he's as he was speaking and he was backing up He was getting closer and closer to the water because more and more people were coming and they were pressing against him And so in order to get some breathing space between him and and the crowd he he got into simon's boat Asking to push out a little ways And of course simon was a fisherman Hence simon was mending his nets Why because that's what you do during the day You fish at night You mend your nets during the day you wash your nets during the day If you've been to israel, you know that when the sun comes up and and it begins to beat down on the land It can become very very hot And you can't fish during the middle of the day.

It's too hot The fish are down deep into the water but during the early morning hours and during the night hours The fish rise to the top and that's when the fishermen are able to catch their fish You know as well as I do that the cloudier the day the earlier the day the better the fishing but in the middle of the day You're not going to be able to do that because the fish are too deep into the sea to catch But on this day It would be unlike any other day because jesus Knows where all the fish are If you want to go fishing you go fishing with jesus Because he knows how to get the fish.

He knows where all the fish are We don't know where the fish are we kind of speculate we can guess where they're at But we don't know where they're at but jesus because he's god. He he knows where all the fish are That's how he can gather all the fish together And that's how simon would be able to see the the great master of the universe perform a great miracle of nature And yet and yet our lord would push out into The lake So that he could continue to preach and and teach the gospel One of these boats, of course was simon's and this is not the first encounter that christ has with simon Remember in john chapter one that was the first time that christ and simon met together And he was called to follow him and then in mark chapter one cross reference matthew chapter four You have a second time where they were called to follow christ But but christ was going to do something significant in peter's life.

Also james and john's life He was going to do something of great significance in their life because he wants to bring them to a point where they are Absolutely committed to following him no matter what And so the miracle he's going to perform on this day is specifically designed for simon for james and for john To understand the significance of his identity that they might follow him with their whole heart and we will see in days ahead How christ wants us to follow him with all that we have not just partial obedience But total obedience willing to follow christ with everything that we have because he truly is the master of the world and so He pushes out just a little ways That he might be able to continue to speak to the people The multitude pressed around him And he would always have Multitudes around him.

That's why he always had to escape into seclusion That's why they get up early in the morning to to spend time alone because there was always somebody around Always somebody wanting to be healed always somebody wanting to talk to him Always somebody wanting to interrupt him always somebody around And so he'd get up early so he could escape into seclusion to spend time alone with his father And that's what he was doing in luke chapter 4 in verse number 42 And when day came he departed and went to a lonely place and the multitudes were searching for him.

Well, where's jesus? Where can he be? Don't you know that if we're up he should be up and if if we need healing He should be at our disposal. Where is jesus? So they went looking for him until they found him And then of course what did he say He said in verse 43 I must preach the kingdom of god in other cities That my friend is so crucial Because you see the multitudes were were pressing around him and the bible says this and this gets us to the message it says this And the multitude were pressing around him and listening to the word of god Now listen carefully This is the first time luke uses this phrase And the literal translation reads they were listening to the word that comes from god They were listening to the word that comes From god Luke is telling us That jesus is god And the word that comes from god is the truth is the is the word of truth And of course he would speak and as he was speaking remember if you read the account of christ in matthew chapter Five six and seven that great sermon on the mount They said at the very end that they were all astonished because there was never a man who spoke like this man would speak You see jesus wasn't wasn't a scholar He wasn't spending time in his study or in the the library at jerusalem.

You never read about jesus in a study You never read about jesus catching up on the latest material. That was was that was in print Why because he knows everything he is the god of truth And so whatever he opens his mouth he speaks god's words because it's god who is speaking And so he speaks the truth of god He didn't have to learn any truth because he embodies truth Remember john 1 verse number 14 says that he was full of grace and full of truth His whole life embodied truth because he's the god of truth over in john 14 6 He says I am the way I am the truth and I am the life Christ says I am that truth And so as he was speaking He was speaking the words that come from god He was speaking divine revelation He was preaching to them the kingdom of god Remember what he said?

He said I must preach the kingdom of god in other cities There was a there was a divine must in the life of christ if you go through the gospel of luke you understand the divine must of christ He says I must Preach the kingdom of god in other cities if you go over to luke chapter 9 You begin to realize that he says the son of man must suffer these things in luke chapter 13 He says the son of man must journey to jerusalem. Why because if he's going to suffer these things he must do so in Jerusalem, so he must journey there It says over in luke chapter 19.

Zacchaeus. I must go to your house today Why because luke 19 says that he came to seek and to save that which was lost in luke chapter 24 He says prophecy must be fulfilled. Why because you see christ had a compulsion about him He had a propulsion about him. It was all about the divine must he must preach the kingdom of god He must preach to people about the gospel and he is the gospel in the flesh and therefore To answer the need of man. He must suffer. He must journey to jerusalem. He must die He must rise again.

He must fulfill all prophecy because he is the gospel He is the truth So you have this divine must where christ says I must preach the gospel Now listen over in john chapter 5 to what it says Christ says in verse 24 of chapter 5 of john truly truly I say to you he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has Eternal life and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life You see the words that christ speak Because they're divine revelation they're words of eternal life And so if you hear the words of christ and you believe the words of christ you then enter into eternal life Because his words have eternal value we talked about it on wednesday night about how god's word is powerful How god's word is purposeful to confront the soul to crush the soul to convict the soul to convince the soul To convert the soul to cleanse the soul only god's word does that nothing else Only god's word can redeem man from his sin And so he must preach the kingdom of god.

He must preach the gospel because no one will get saved unless he does It's fine and good to do miracles. That's a great thing It's fine and good to cast demons out of people, but none of that saves anybody The only thing that saves somebody is the gospel of jesus christ. It's the word of truth We are born again. Peter says by an incorruptible seed the word of god james says in james 1 18 We're brought about by the word of truth the revealed word of god You begin to understand in the parable of the sower and the soil that the one who sows the seed Which is the word of god is the only thing that saves people nothing else does which is very important Why?

Why because there are people today who believe in what is called natural revelation or rational revelation That is that if you never hear the gospel But yet you believe that there's a higher being that there's some some god-like existence of a superior being if you if you believe That there is and you and you live a good life. God will let you into heaven. The roman catholic church teaches that So you don't have to hear the gospel to be saved Well, that's that's false You can't get saved because unless you hear the gospel because faith cometh by hearing and hearing Specifically a word about the christ romans 10 17 No one can get saved unless they hear the gospel No one can get saved unless jesus christ is presented to them because there is no other name Under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved.

That's the name of jesus. There is no other name to save a soul So unless people hear the gospel and hear the gospel preached so that they know who jesus christ is they will never Ever be saved it makes no difference what anybody else says it only makes a difference what god's word says that's it If you confess with your mouth jesus as lord And believe in your heart that god raised her from the dead then you will be saved But if you don't know who jesus is and you don't know that jesus is lord And you don't know that he was raised from the dead.

You'll never be saved Can it be any clearer than that? I don't think so And yet we want to come up with another idea about what it means to be saved And so we come up with this natural revelation which speaks Totally against what god's word says Which provides for us a problem? It provides for us a problem because what has happened now is that the divine must of preaching the gospel No longer circulates in modern evangelical churches There is not that compulsion to preach the gospel There's not that compulsion to to make sure people hear the truth The church and evangelicalism today has moved far away from that unfortunately It's very sad In fact, you'll hear words like this, you know, we don't preach anymore.

What we do is we have a dialogue with one another or we have an Address to the people or we share jesus with others Why? Because we don't want to use the word to preach because it's too authoritative It's too dogmatic And so we have a community of people that gather together to share with one another or to communicate with one another or to have a Narrator a lot of churches no longer hire pastors. They hear hire those who will who will read a narrative They hire narrators They don't hire preachers anymore It's because preaching is too offensive preaching is too harsh And yet the bible says paul told timothy preach the word In season and out of season Reprove rebuke Exhort with all long suffering and patience That's the demand.

That's the command if the church is going to be the pillar and a foundation of the truth It must preach the word when the church ceases to preach the word it ceases to be that pillar and foundation of the truth So paul would tell timothy preach the word in first timothy six two.

He says make sure you teach and preach these principles Make sure they're given authoritatively so people will know what god has actually said over in second corinthians chapter 5 second corinthians chapter 5 Oh, excuse me chapter 4 verse number 5 paul says For we do not preach ourselves but christ jesus as Lord paul says we preach christ As lord, he said in first corinthians 9 verse number 16 for if I preach the gospel I have nothing to boast of for I am under compulsion For woe is me if I do not preach the gospel See paul had a divine must he had to preach the gospel.

I'm a cursed man He says if I don't preach the gospel may every man who darkens the door of a church And stands in the pulpit understand that verse If you stand before the people as a pastor and you don't preach the word you are a cursed man by god Paul says woe is me. I am cursed if I do not preach the gospel The bible says over in first corinthians chapter 1 verse number 23 We preach christ crucified to jews a stumbling block and to gentiles foolishness Paul says we preach christ crucified We preach christ.

That's what it's about. We preach the gospel Because there's this compulsion to make sure that people hear the truth when jesus spoke He spoke The word that comes from god why because he is god They are the words that speak eternal life And therefore he would speak the eternal words that would transform the lives of lost souls Paul says we preach that same word we give it week in and week out day in and day out we preach the gospel So important to understand That we need to preach the word Is it easy?

No, it's not easy Why why isn't it easy Well romans 9 tells us that christ himself is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense romans 9 33 first peter 2 8 We saw in first corinthians 1 23 that the message of the cross is a stumbling block to some It's foolishness to others Paul would say in first corinthians 2 verse number 14 The natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of god for they are foolishness to him And he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised And yet paul would say for i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ And paul would write to timothy in second timothy chapter one verse number eight He admonished him not to be ashamed of the testimony of our lord or ashamed of me a prisoner of our lord Maybe timothy was feeling the heat of wanting to compromise the message and not preach with authority because Of what was happening to paul or happening to others because they they would stand strong in the truth But paul says do not be ashamed you see because if you don't preach the gospel you are ashamed of christ That's the conclusion.

If you don't preach with authority, you are ashamed of christ That's why paul would would tell titus to reprove and rebuke with all authority and let no man despise you Let no man disrespect you you preach the word with authority because god's word in itself is authoritative The person is not authoritative. The person has no authority, but god's word is authoritative And that's why you need to preach the truth With ago So martin luther Who wrote this just when when when preachers were starting to shy away from from preaching with authority?

Listen to what he says in his book on preaching and preachers He says a new idea has crept in with regard to preaching And it has taken various forms A most significant one was that people began to talk about The address In the service instead of the sermon That in itself was indicative of a subtle change an address No longer the sermon, but an address or perhaps even a lecture There was a man in the usa who who published a series of books under the significant title of quiet talks Quiet talks on prayer quiet talks on power, etc In other words the very title announces that the man is not going to preach Preaching of course is something carnal lacking in spirituality What is needed is a chat a fireside chat quiet talks and so on Now he wrote that decades ago Just when preachers were in the embryonic form of of shying away from preaching the truth but nowadays Nowadays it's run rampant to the church Listen to this 2004 was the Was an emergent church convention if you were not been with us on wednesday night Then you might not be aware of what the emergent church is all about but in 2004 there was an emergent church convention Anything about the emergent church, you know that it shies away from any kind of authority It speaks of the of the bible as ambiguous Uncertain there are no certainties in the bible and this this for this, uh, this, um, uh movement has swept our country And along with that it confuses the mission of the church and the call Of the church because it says that scripture is no longer clear by what it says And listen to what One man said as he spoke to eleven hundred different leaders in the emergent church movement That are in america His name is doug padgett.

He pastors a church in minneapolis He said these words preaching is broken He suggested that a completely open conversation where all participants are seen as equals is better suited to a post-modern culture Why do I get to speak for 30 minutes and you don't he asked? A sermon is often a violent act. He declared. It's a violence toward the will of the people who have to sit there and take it And so this my friend has swept the country It swept the country A man a pastor in pasadena our own area A pastor Agreed that preaching is simply too one-sided too authoritative too rigid for post-modern times He says these words Every day every week there's stuff that pops up in life and it's not resolved just crazy and confusing and painful When people come across with three answers and they know everything and they have this iron sheen about them I'm turned off period i'm just turned off and I think that's not unique to me either in quote He doesn't want anybody to preach to him He doesn't want anybody to come with him with answers from what the bible says Why because you see in the emergent church movement, there are no answers There's just discussion just dialogue just sharing Just communication no accountability no authority just communicate with one another just share with one another but don't come in and say thus saith the lord And so here was jesus Preaching the words that come from god preaching the kingdom of god preaching about forgiveness and what it means to be saved from your sin Here was paul saying I am compelled to preach the gospel And one author said this The experts are now telling us that pastors and church leaders who want to be successful must concentrate their energies in this new direction Provide non-christians with an agreeable Inoffensive environment give them freedom tolerance and anonymity Always be positive and benevolent if you must have a sermon keep it brief and amusing Don't be preachy or authoritative above all keep everyone entertained Churches following this pattern will see numerical growth.

We're assured those that ignore it are doomed to decline And so a pastor who reads that says hey, I don't want my church to decline. I want people to come So he begins to accept all the new ideas that come down to pike because he wants people to come to his church So instead of having this divine must to preach the gospel knowing that i'm a cursed man If I don't preach with authority the gospel of christ We begin to compromise the message and compromise Of course the gospel of truth What does that happen How come that that has swept the country?

Read an article about a church in our community where where the parishioners now for once have been happy now in their church Whatever happened to parishioners being holy in the church Why is it now we we seek to make the parishioners happy Is that the objective of the pastor to make everybody happy who comes? Or is it the objective of the minister to preach the gospel so people know what it means to be holy before god John macarthur in his book truth war states this about what the reason is we are preoccupied he says with image and influence It stems from the misconception that to win the world to christ.

We must first win the world's favor If we can get the world to like us, they will embrace our savior That has long been the philosophy of seeker sensitive churches.

It is also one of the driving assumptions of the emergent church movement Such a philosophy suggests that christians should try to make unconverted sinners feel comfortable with the christian message The whole point is to make the church a completely non-threatening place where unbelievers feel they naturally belong To tantalize non-christians rather than confront their unbelief to make friends with the world rather than standing apart from the world That all sounds very nice warm and friendly to people with post-modern sensibilities But it is not the strategy for evangelism if we are we are given excuse me in the scripture In fact, it is altogether incompatible With sound doctrine it is a form of compromise with the world and james called that compromise spiritual adultery And look at the effects of this tragedy Strategy in the seeker movement preaching has been replaced with entertainment in the emergent church movement truth itself has given way to skepticism In both movements any preacher who tries to take a stand for truth and make the biblical message clear is likely to be asked To take a seat instead He is a problem an embarrassment an offense to non-christians If the truth cannot be fearlessly proclaimed in the church what place is there for truth at all How can we build the generation of discerning christians if we are terror struck at the thought that non-christians might not like hearing?

the unvarnished truth And since when has it been legitimate for the church to woo the world? Then the apostle john write do not marvel my brethren if the world Hates you 1 john 3 13 And did not jesus say the world hates me Because I testify of it that its works are evil. John 7 7 Biblical christians have always understood that they must shun the world and here were our lord's own words in john 15 18 to 21 if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you If you were of the world the world would love its own yet because you are not of the world But I chose you out of the world.

Therefore the world hates you Remember the word that I said to you a servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted me They will also persecute you if they kept my word They will keep yours also but all these things they will do to you for my name's sake because they do not know him who sent me Christ said it very clear If the world doesn't hate you There's a problem with you If the world loves you And the world likes to be in you and in your church. There is a problem That means you're not confronting the error of sin.

You're not confronting unbelief. You are accepting sin You are accepting those who rebel against the authority of god You are accepting them just as they are and god does not accept the sinner just the way he is That's why the bible says in psalm 5 that god hates the sinner Because he's rebelled against the authority of god And that's why we've got to preach the gospel to them so they can be what?

reconciled to god So they no longer become enemies of god, but they become the friends of god That's why you got to preach the gospel So here was christ preaching to all these people granted. They were there because they knew what he could do for them They knew of his healing power They knew of his greatness and they marveled at the words that he said because never a man spoke like this man spoke And so they would hang on every word as he spoke the word of truth But he wanted to make sure That the gospel was presented clearly Not conveniently That it was presented in a way that would confront their sin And confront them in their stage of unbelief that they might come to a point of repentance And believe the gospel of jesus christ our lord What did paul say in first corinthians 4 verse number 13?

He says we have been made listen as the filth of the world The offscoring of all things Paul says we've been made the scum of the earth According to the world we are filthy They don't want anything to do with us Why because the gospel we preach is an offense to all the jews It's foolishness to the gentiles That's why And so we come to a point where we we have to ask ourselves the question. What what is it we preach? What what is it we stand for When you read about the early church, what do they do?

They just kept on preaching the gospel If you go back to to acts chapter 5 after the apostles had been beaten It says and every day in the temple and from house to house. They kept right on teaching and preaching jesus as the christ They didn't come back together and say, you know, we got beat up here. Maybe we should change our message Maybe we should change our tactics. Maybe we should be a little bit more user friendly to the world So they might like us a little bit more Now they just kept right on preaching and teaching jesus as the christ And it says in verse number four that those who led in the church were committed to prayer into the ministry of the word And persecution would break out all over all over the church in an act chapter 8 verse number 4 It says therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the word Saul was leading a whole escapade of persecution against christians.

And what did they do say? Well, you know, maybe we should change what we're doing. It's not going over very well People don't like us people aren't coming to the synagogue anymore. People aren't coming to the church anymore Maybe we should change some things so they'll begin to come back No, they were scattered abroad and everywhere. They went they went preaching the word of god That's all they did Why? Because they knew as paul knew in galatians 1 10 listen carefully if I seek To please man I forfeit the pleasure of god When you have a man-centered ministry to please men, you no longer have the favor of god none And paul knew that he was more concerned that the lord god would look favorably upon him in his ministry than what the world thought of him and his ministry So he would preach The gospel And that's why paul told titus in titus chapter 1 That when you put men in leadership You put men in leadership who hold fast the faithful word Which is in accordance with the teaching that they may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict Those are the men who are to lead in the church They are to refute those who contradict the truth They are to preach the sound words of doctrine and doctrine itself is is judgmental Doctrine itself is all about the truth of god doctrine itself reproves rebuke exhorts doctrine itself is that which is decisive and authoritative charles spurgeon Right before he died God would write about this exact thing How men this was over a hundred years ago As he saw the church and men in the church ceasing to proclaim the authority the truth of almighty god As he began to sense that in the church The word the church was beginning to to bring the world in and to compromise its stand on authority Listen to the words of charles spurgeon.

He said dear friends this name this faith These are our message Our only business here below is to cry behold the lamb Are any of you sent of god with any other message? It cannot be The one message which god has given to his people to proclaim his salvation through the lamb Salvation by the blood of jesus to tell of jesus is our occupation We have nothing to say which is not comprised In the revelation made to us by god in jesus christ. He who is our comfort is our one theme There is no other theme.

There is no other message than jesus christ the lamb of god Crucified for the sins of the world that man might be brought to a point of repentance That they might believe in jesus christ. That is the message any other message is the wrong message That's it And may god give us the grace to proclaim that message with all authority because it truly is god's holy word Let's pray Father, we thank you for this day and the opportunity we have to spend in your word and thank you for the truth That's there And I pray lord that we as a church would never compromise the stand of the word of god This is the pillar and the foundation of the of the truth That's what the church of jesus christ is and we need to stand strong in that truth without compromising And I pray that all of us as we go forth each and every day that we would go forth to preach the gospel To gentiles lord, it's foolishness.

It's ridiculous To jews, it's a stumbling block But jesus christ Is the king? He's the lord He's the crucified lamb of god And may we with all authority proclaim that truth In jesus name. Amen