Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2810
“Nevertheless at Your word.” Luke 5:5.
OUR Lord Jesus Christ had preached a sermon to the multitude while He was sitting down in Peter’s boat. And after the people had gone, He had a private message for Simon. He said to him, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Christ’s discourses to the general public were all full of most blessed teaching, but His little private talks to His intimate acquaintances were even more helpful and precious. They were important Truths of God which He proclaimed to the many, but the choicest things He reserved for the few. Many a parable which He addressed to the crowd, He explained only to His own disciples—and many a thing which He never said to the crowd at all, because they could not understand it, and it would have been like casting pearls before swine, He whispered in the ears of His disciples. So it was with Simon Peter at this time. First there was the sermon to the many and after the sermon, this word to Peter about launching out into the deep. Mind that you, who love the Lord, always look for the private piece after the public sermon. Watch for the sweet Word which your Master is always willing to utter—and do not be satisfied unless you hear it.
Then, if the message that He gives you shall be a precept, or a command, like that addressed to Simon, bidding him let down his nets, be careful that you obey it at once. Be not negligent of the special voice of God in your own heart and conscience, for God intends thereby to bestow a great blessing upon you, even as He did upon Simon whose boat was filled with fish almost to sinking! If you give heed to that special private word of your Lord to your own heart and soul, you shall have many a boatful of fish, or rather, many a heart-full of untold blessing which otherwise you might never have received.
Peter, being exhorted to launch out into the deep and to let down his nets for a catch, reasoned that, according to the ordinary course of events, it would be of very little use to do so, for he and his comrades had been toiling hard with their great nets all through the night, yet they had caught nothing and it did not, therefore, seem probable that they would catch anything now. However, feeling that Christ was his Master and Lord, and that it did not become him to raise any question about the matter, he just stated the facts of the case and then added, cheerfully, “Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”
Those four words, “Nevertheless at Your word,” seem to furnish me with a topic upon which I shall try to speak thus—First, the word of Christ is our supreme rule. “At Your word.” Secondly, the word of Christ is our sufficient warrant. If we have that at our back, we may well say, “Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” And, thirdly, to keep that word will always ensure a reward.
I. First, then, THE WORD OF CHRIST IS THE SUPREME RULE OF THE CHRISTIAN. Time out of mind have we spoken to you about the precious blood of Christ that cleanses all sin and about the blessings that Jesus brings to you when He becomes your Savior. But we are also bound to remind all of you who profess to have believed on Him, and to have become His disciples, that you must not only acknowledge Him as your Master and Lord, but that you must do whatever He bids you—
“Faith must obey the Savior’s will,
As well as trust His Grace.”
The moment we become Christians, who are saved by Christ, we become His servants to obey all His commandments. Hence, it is incumbent upon us to search the Scriptures, that we may know what our Master’s will is. There He has written it out for us in plain letters and it is an act of disobedience to neglect this search. By refusing to learn what the will of our Lord is, the sin of ignorance becomes willfulbecause we do not use the means by which we might receive instruction. Every servant of Christ is bound to know what he or she is to do and then, when he knows it, he should at once do it. The Christian’s business is, first, to learn Christ’s will and, secondly, to do it! Once learned, that will is the supreme law of the Christian whatever may seem to oppose it.
Let me just mention a few of the times when it seems difficult to conform to that will, but when we must say, “Nevertheless at Your word.”
And, first, we must do this with regard to great Gospel Truths when our own reason is staggered. No thoughtful person can seriously consider the Doctrines of Grace without often crying out, “They are high! I cannot attain to them.” There are many things revealed to us in the Scriptures which we cannot understand—no, not even though we give all our mind to endeavor to comprehend them. There are difficulties in theology. This doctrine does not appear to square with that, or that one with the next. One Truth, perhaps, appears inconsistent with the love of God, or we may, sometimes, wonder how certain events in God’s Providential dealings can be consistent with His goodness or justice. Well, my Brothers and Sisters, whenever you put your hand to your brow and say, concerning anything revealed in the Scriptures, “I cannot comprehend it,” lay your other hand upon your heart and say, “Nevertheless I believe it. It is clearly taught in the Bible and although my reason may find it difficult to explain it, and I may not be able to discover any arguments to prove the truth of it, yet I lay my reason down at my Infallible Master’s feet and trust where I cannot see.” For a man to take his creed blindly from a pope or a priest is to degrade himself because he receives that teaching from his fellow man—but for him to lay his whole mind down at the feet of Jesus Christ is no degradation since Christ is the Wisdom of God, and all wisdom is Infallibly gathered up in Him. I do not expect to fully understand my Lord’s will—I only ask to be informed what that will is. I do not suppose that I can comprehend it, but I say, “What is Your will, my Master? If You will reveal it to me, I will believe it.”