I invite you to turn in the Word of God tonight to Luke's Gospel, chapter 5. The title of our message, Confession, and the text of Scripture that I particularly want to home in on is verse 8. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Let's just unite our hearts together. You might pray the Lord will speak to your heart tonight. We say that often during our gospel campaign. Not merely for the one in front of you or beside you, but the Lord might speak to your heart and minister unto your soul. Our gracious, eternal, loving Heavenly Father, we thank Thee again for the offerings and the tithes that have been brought in today for the work of God. Bless thee, Lord, for the sacrificial giving of thy people. We pray, Lord, as session and committee, we might have wisdom. We might, Lord, be good stewards of that money. We pray, Lord, that thou wouldst come, O God, and thou might enrich our hearts just now in the preaching of thy word. Lord, we thank Thee we're about the God-ordained means tonight, whereby men and women and children can be saved. We know that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. O God, we pray that Thou might bestill our hearts, bring us into this passage, teach us, O God, what we have read. And we'd ask, Lord, that there would be those tonight that will be brought to the point of confession, confession of their sin and conversion unto the Savior. Lord, I pray that thou wouldst come and do that work. We're conscious, Lord, of our own weakness. We know, Lord, tonight that we cannot cause an anxious thought. for thou must come and do that work. We pray for the blessed outpouring of the Holy Spirit to convict of sin, to convince men and women of their need of the Savior. I pray for that infilling that I might preach tonight the preaching that thou hast bid us. Hear this, our prayer. Abide with us. For we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. On my recent trip to the U.S., and particularly to the Amish country, I came across a large piece of tapestry that bore the words of the verse that the Lord called me through. That is Matthew 4, verse 19. The Lord said, follow me and I will make thee fishers of men. Those words were spoken by the Savior to Andrew and to Simon Peter. But whereas John chapter 1 records for us the conversion of those two men through the faithful ministry of John the Baptist, for John the Baptist that day in seeing the Savior approach, he said, behold, the Lamb of God, which beareth away the sin of the world. John 1 records the conversion. Matthew 4, however, records for us where those men felt the challenge of the word of the Savior. So much so that we read that they left their nets and followed him. But understand right at the outset that Matthew 4 and Luke 5 are not the one and the same occasion. There's a similar setting, we have to admit, but they're not the same. There are the differences, as we shall see, not least in verse 1 of this passage, where we are instructed that such was the multitude of awakened souls desiring to hear the Lord preach. that they pressed upon him. And the sense is that there was an urgency. There was an appetite amongst the crowd of people that day to hear the Lord that we might say today they were nearly on top of him. They were pressing upon him and the picture being of the manner in which you might lay something upon the burning coals. And there was a fervency, a burning fervency amongst the people to hear the word of the Lord. that they pressed upon him. And the Lord, avoiding the danger of being pressed into the sea, he saw two ships close by. And it was into one of those that he went, and he sat down in order to teach and to preach unto the assembled crowds. That boat happened to be that of Peter. And so we immediately are brought to consider that he along with Andrew and James and John had not left their all. They were back again at the old business of fishing. It's not until we get to verse 11 of this chapter that we read those words, and they forsook all and followed him. That's different from Matthew chapter 4. where they only left their nets. In Matthew 4, they still held on to their boats. They still hadn't let go of all that was associated with their former trade. And maybe tonight the Lord is coming to one heart, and the call has been issued again unto you that you have heard before, but he exhorts you to leave all and to follow him. It certainly could be true of a believer. A child of God who has heard that call in service. And the Lord desires that you would let go and that you would let Him have His way in your life. What was it that would bring these men to leave all and follow the Lord? It was the word and the workings of the Savior that day, and not least in the heart of one individual, even Simon Peter, for you'll notice how he is prominent throughout these verses. There may be great crowds, but how often do we not read and see that the Lord deals with just one individual in that crowd? And it could be amidst this crowd tonight in the meeting house that God is dealing with you. and how we've heard it in testimonies before, that I went to a house of God, I was under the preaching of the Word, and it seemed that no one else was there. It seemed that the preacher knew everything about me. And that was the Lord speaking. And I pray it might be the same tonight. I want you to see even in our text the place where the sinner must come to, and that is the place of confession. For we have it here when we read in verse 8, when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. I would that you would look with me in these words to the revelation. This verse 8 has to do with Peter. For it was Him who was to speak these words. And that which we must understand is what caused Him to say the words, what brought Him to make this great confession. And the simple answer to that is the revelation that He was to have of the Lord that day. You see, men and women, young person, he saw Christ as he'd never seen Him before. His eyes were opened to behold new things about the Lord. And oh, that this would also be true of you in this congregation tonight, that your eyes might be opened, that you would see Him as you've never seen Him before by the power of God's Spirit. Oh, you've heard of the Savior before, but oh, that you might look beyond the preacher and you might see Christ. Well, that's what happened to Peter here. He met Him in John 1. He heard the challenge in Matthew 4, but he meets with them here afresh in Luke 5. It's revealed to Peter something more of who Christ is. That revelation was of the mercy of the Lord. Peter understood the circumstances that were before him that day. He could see the crowds that had thronged at the shore in order to hear the Savior. The Lord didn't chase them away, but rather we read that He sat down and He taught them. And you see, that's the business of the preacher who desires to have a Christ-centered ministry. It is to teach and it is to preach. Men and women, that was a mercy to these people. And it's a mercy that the Lord is still speaking to your heart tonight through His Word. And the very fact that the Savior was to enter into Peter's boat, that also was a mercy. Oh, it was no coincidence that he chose to enter into the boat of Peter, for it was Peter he had come to deal with in a most particular manner. It was Peter who had heard the challenge of Matthew 4, to follow me and I will make you fishers of men. That challenge had previously gone to his heart, and now the Lord calls again, and that's a mercy. That's the mercy of God. We can think of Jonah. And remember how he received the call of the Lord, the Word of God, to go to Nineveh and to preach unto that great city. What did Jonah do? He went in the opposite direction. He went to Nineveh, and God had to stop him in his tracks. And we all know the story, of course, but how comforting it is when we come to chapter 3 and verse 1 of that little book. It says, and the Word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time. The second time. That's the mercy of the Lord. And it's a mercy that the Lord would again be calling in salvation to a sinner this evening who has heard His call before, who has known the strivings of God's Spirit before, and yet you've rejected it. And unto Peter this day was revealed the mercy of the Lord toward him. Again, it is emphasized, particularly there in the words of verse 10, when the Lord's speaking unto him, He said, Thou shalt catch manly. Thou is singular. The Lord was speaking to him as an individual, and thus the same Lord is one that we present before you, the individual tonight, the individual soul in this very meeting, the individual soul that is yet without Christ and without hope in this world or that which is to come. It's the same Lord that we present and we have left before you. And I trust that you see that He is one who's merciful. But you know, there was also the miracle that was a revelation to Peter here. We're speaking of an experienced fisherman along with the others. And verse 5 indicates that Peter and the crew had toiled all night. And the sense of the word toiled is as any fisherman would know in this part of the vineyard. It's a wearisome work. It's a work that is exhausting. And yet his testimony was, we have toiled all night and we have taken nothing. And now the Lord commands him to go out into the deep and to cast down the nets. And it's when he does so that they were to enclose a great multitude of fish so that the net began to break. They had to call the other boat to come over and help them. And when the fisher gathered in, such was the vastness of that miracle that the Lord had wrought that it seemed as if the very boats themselves were beginning to sink. That was a miracle wrought before the very eyes of this man, Peter. And I put it to you that it was even a greater miracle in the mind of Peter when he considered that everything was against such a catch of fish ever been caught. For it was in the wrong place. The Lord told them to go out into the deep. It wasn't in the shallows. And it was the wrong time of the day, for it was in the daytime, midday, instead of being in the evening time when those men normally would have gone out onto the Sea of Galilee. Everything was against them ever catching such a haul of fish. But the Lord of Peter's boat is the Lord of this church. He's the God of miracles, and none greater than the miracle of grace that is able to take a soul that is dead in trespasses and in sins, and able to regenerate them, and able to show them their need of salvation, and one who is able to save them to the uttermost, all that come unto God by Him. He's able to transform a soul from being in bondage to the devil to being part of Christ's kingdom. Now, that's a miracle. And that's a miracle, I want to tell you, in which the Lord is able to perform in your heart tonight in this meeting house who still don't see you. This revelation of Peter was also of the Messiah. The text states when Peter saw it, he was astonished at what he was witnessing, and he began to realize that this was no ordinary man. This was the promised Messiah who had come, for we know from other scriptures that no man spake like this man. And Peter was to hear his teaching that day, and then he was to see the miracle that accompanied such teaching. It verified the Word. This miracle verified before him that this was the power of God in evidence. And more than anything else, the inference was that he was in the presence of divine majesty. He was in the presence of infinite power. Dear soul, tonight that's the one on whose presence you are in. For the Lord is here. the One who's divine in His majesty, the One who's infinite in His power, the God of the the God of internight power, the God in whose plan of salvation was to promise the Messiah and was to send them forth when the fullness of time was come. I can only pray that you might have a similar revelation this evening, so that you would ever see Christ before and beyond anything else. Oh, that you would see Him tonight. that your cry might be from the heart, sirs, I would see Jesus, and that God might reveal himself unto you, as he did here with Peter. You'll also consider in these words of my text a recognition, for having seen what was to happen in his ship being in the midst of this great evidence of divine power, the following words in our text speak of what Peter recognized that day. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees. Peter recognizes the One who is sovereign. The Lord Jesus had merely to direct the ship out to the deep in order for Peter to catch a great multitude of fish. And through that, Peter can do nothing else but cast himself down before the person of Christ. And you know, there are some commentators, and they have a problem with these words. And they try to change the words, and they try to explain them away. For you see, it doesn't say in the verse that Peter fell down at Jesus' feet. And some of them will give consideration to say, oh, this is an error here. What it does say in our text is that he fell down to Jesus' knees. And your knees are not your feet. But you know, men and women, if they'd only look at the context, if they only look at the previous verses, then there would be no problem. Because you'll see from verse 3 that instructs us that when the Savior went into Peter's boat, what does he do? He sat down. He wasn't standing as the preacher is standing before you tonight. He sat down and he taught the people. And so when Peter, having saw the great catch of fish, he comes and he falls down before Jesus' knees. His posture was one that meant that he would come before his knees. But don't miss the important truth, he fell down before him. And he did so because he knew he was sovereign. The Lord was in control of the situation, and when Peter brought the ship to the place of the Lord's command, it was then that he recognized that not only was the Lord sovereign in all his ways, but he was also one who knew all things. The theological word for it is he is omniscient. He's all-knowing. He knew where the very fish were in the sea, and if the Lord knew where the fish were, and this power was evident to guide them into those nets, then by implication, Peter's thinking, he knows everything about me. And you see, that's no new truth where Peter is concerned. He knew Peter's heart. He knew what he was thinking. And Peter can only fall down before Him. And this was something that when Peter first came into the company of the Lord, it was a truth that was revealed unto him then too. Where I've mentioned John 1, I would like to take you there just for a second. You will see it in the words of verse 42. Let me read to you verse 41. He first findeth his own brother Simon. That's Andrew. He first went and he got his own brother. And he saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted to Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. And it says that when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. That's the first time that Peter ever set his eyes on Christ. And the Lord says, Thou art Simon. the son of Jonah. In other words, Simon, I know who your father is. I know everything about you. And so does he know everything about your heart tonight. And he knows whose child you are this evening. He knows tonight whether you're a child of the devil or whether you have a heavenly father. The Lord knows your very thought, far off. There's not a word in your tongue, but he knoweth it altogether. Psalm 139. He knows how you're feeling just now, sitting under the preaching of the word. He knows what you were at last night. And Peter recognized that day in the boat. The Lord knows everything about me. Dear loved one, I wonder, is this a recognition that you arrived at yet? that nothing happens by chance or by mistake, but that God has a purpose and God has a plan, and He is working out all things according to His most perfect will. And one day that perfect will of God will be done in earth as it is in heaven. And if you recognize this, then surely you will do what Peter did, and you will fall down before Him rather than go on in your sinful ways and one day be forced to fall down before Him, and one day be forced to confess that He is Lord. For one day, I want to tell you, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord." Peter recognized he was sovereign. But Peter recognized he was the Savior. He was God. For you don't fall down in reverence before men. And only God could cause such a miracle to happen and to take place. But He was also the man. He was also the God-man who came into this ship. He was God manifest in the flesh and who came to be identified with man and who comes to where man is in all his need. The one who took upon Himself our nature yet without sin so that one day He might lay down His life on the cross. Now tell me, have you come to that recognition that there's only one Savior of a lost mankind? that he became man in order to save man from the effects of sin and from the broken law of God, and that he is the only one who you need to fall down before, and he's the only one whom you need to acknowledge as your Lord and as your Savior. You see, that's how it was with Peter. He now saw him in a different light. He was someone to be reverenced. And as Peter recognized his greatness, and as Peter recognized his superiority, he's no longer merely the master. For you see that in verse 5. And Simon Anstrin said unto him, Master. But you see now, verse 8, he's Lord. He's Lord. Is he your Lord tonight? Is he your Savior? But you see, crucially, Peter recognized something else. Not merely the sovereign and the Savior, but he recognized his sin. His sin. Before the perfection and the holiness of Christ, He had a deeper understanding of his own sin and his own unworthiness. The closer you come to the Lord Child of God, the more unworthy you will feel. For you see what our text says, let me just leave out a little bit of it, let me come to the end. He says, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Did you ever consider what his sin in particular was in this instance? And please bear in mind that we're dealing here, we're looking at one who was saved. He already had met Christ. But you see, men and women, I bring this thought out because the sin of Peter in this instance is the same sin as that of many an unbeliever tonight in this house. He had sinned in delaying the bidding of the Savior. We've already stated that the Lord had called Peter in Matthew chapter 4 to follow Him, and the promise was He would be a fisher of men. But in Luke chapter 5, whatever the time span is between those two chapters, He had delayed in taking up that challenge, for He was back at the old business of the boats and the nets and the sea. And my friend, if there is one sin that you're guilty of tonight, then surely it is delaying in accepting the invitation of the Savior in salvation. You know your need of salvation and yet you still hanker after the old world. You still follow the old sins and the old ways and you're a sinner who has delayed and you procrastinated as God's Spirit has been striving with your heart and has been moving with you and moving in the congregation and yet you still delay. That's just what Peter had done here, he delayed. His was a delay in following Christ. Why? Your delay is a delay in accepting God's offer of mercy and salvation. And then, as sin may be, was also in doubting and disbelieving the Lord. That sentiment, I think, is brought out in verse 5, where he hesitates, after the night in which they had taken nothing. He says there, he answered him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing nevertheless. Well, at thy word, I'll do thy bidding. But Lord, we have toiled all night. And there was doubting there, and there was disbelieving of the Lord. But when the nets were full, and when the nets were bulging, his doubting of the Savior was rebuked. And if the Lord could provide the abundance of the fish in the nets, then surely he could provide for him if he left all and followed him. How could Peter provide for his wife? We know he was married because he got a mother-in-law. He maybe had a family as well. We don't know that. But how was he going to provide for his family as it is scriptural to do so if he left the fishing and if he left the boats? The Savior caused his doubts to disappear through the smirkle that was wrought. If the Lord could provide such a cast of fish, and He could provide for me, And dear friend, it may be your sin is doubting the Lord and doubting His Word. How will I be able to walk with the Lord? What will I do if the friends laugh at me and despise me if I tell them I've got saved? Will the Lord really save me? Dear loved one, tonight I want to tell you, the promises of God, they're sure. They are yea and amen in Christ. Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. He'll not turn you away. And He that will not only save, but He promises to keep. And He gives you that Spirit, His Spirit to abide in your heart, to guide you in your walk, and to help you walk in grace. He'll give you that needed grace for every new day and every new challenge and every new barrier and affliction that has to be overcome. Oh, men and women, young person tonight, recognize your sin, recognize that you're a sinner, and in repentance of it, turn to the Savior. Peter recognized a lot of things this day. He recognized the Sovereign, he recognized the Savior, but he recognized his sin. Have you got there yet? But you know, there's a final thought here, and is the response. His response in the ship is quite startling. As the words of our text reveal, for it says that when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me. That's his response. For I'm a sinful man, O Lord. You'll notice the reason for such a response before the person of Christ, the one who wrought this miracle. Peter was broken. Peter saw himself as unworthy and worthless in his sight. He couldn't stand before the Messiah and the one on whom there was no sin and could not sin. He was overwhelmed in the presence of the power and the glory of the Savior. And instead of being boastful and instead of being brash, as is portrayed by many in these days in so-called worship, where there's no reverence, Oh, there's reverence here. He falls down to Jesus' knees. But instead of in those things, there instead is a contrition. And there's an open confession that he was a sinful man. He wasn't worthy of the least of the Lord's mercies. He deserved to be abandoned by the Lord. Depart from me! Dear sinner, I want to tell you that a broken and a contrite spirit the Lord will not despise. He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. And you know it's a good thing if you see your own unworthiness and you see your worthlessness apart from Christ. And when you're saved, then you realize afresh that our worthiness is through Christ. You see, there's those people of God these days, and they stay away from the Lord's table because they recognize they're not worthy. Shame on you. There's none of us worthy. But our worthiness is Christ. He invites us to the table. And the more you go on in the Christian life, you recognize that. He's worthy. He's our worthiness. But I want you to consider the wrongness of this response. For feeling his unworthiness, he in effect was to make a prayer. This is a prayer. He says, Oh Lord, what a foolish request that was to make. There is no just cause for any soul to ask the Lord to depart from them. If there's one thing that Peter needed at this time, it was the Savior's presence. And so it is with every soul born of Adam's race. I want to tell you something. It's a dangerous thing for you, unconverted loved one, to ask the Lord to depart from you, to stop speaking to me, to leave me alone. Take away thy spirit, that they're not convicted me of my sin. There's men that have done that. They're so troubled and convicted in their sin that they've asked the Lord to stay away, to depart from me. That's a dangerous thing, for if God takes you at your word and removes himself from you, then apart from his mercy you're as good as damned, and that for all eternity. How tragic if the Lord should leave you to go on your way, the way you're going in your sin. How tragic if you could sit through gospel meetings and gospel mission and yet remain unmoved, your conscience not arising within you, your conscience not condemning you, and you become like those who go down to the pit whom the Lord has been silent to. Here, sinner, never pray for the Lord to depart from you. I plead with you. prayer. And you'll see here the reply to that response that the Lord gave to Peter. You'll see it in the words of verse 10. At the end of it, he says, Fear not, for henceforth thou shalt catch men. You see, the Savior's reply was in grace. And you just picture him there, and he's down before the Savior's knees. They're in the boat. The great catch of fish is in the hull. And he's praying, Depart from me, O Lord. And the Savior turns to him and says, Fear not, for thou shalt catch man. Far from casting him off, he will be usable in the Lord's service. And I want you to see that his reply was immediate. And it's just the reply that Peter's heart needed that day. And how many great men of God were to receive the fear not from the Lord. You can think of Abraham, fear not I am thy shield and exceeding great reward. You turn with me to Revelation chapter 1 and the verse 17, you have one that was given to John. It says, and when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. That is when he saw Christ. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. And now he comes to Peter, and he says, Fear not, Peter. And he comes and he offers the same word of comfort to the sinner's heart tonight. Fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, I bring unto thee good tidings of great joy." Those good tidings that we may consider sort of this time of the year. Those great tidings are the message that we preach all year. It's a message of the gospel. It's a message of Christ who is able to save and take you on to himself. Why? Because he has completed the work of our salvation. He's completed the work of redemption by giving himself on that cross, by the shedding of his own precious blood. And he did it as a sinner's substitute. that you would never have to pay the punishment for your sin in your own body in lost eternity. I wonder, dear soul, tonight in closing, what will be your response to the Savior? I trust it will be one of confession. Confession of sin. You don't confess your sin to any man. You have to confess your sin unto God. and that your response tonight will be one of conversion. Confession of your sin, repenting of it, turning away from it, and converting to the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Savior. God can do that work for you. As the Lord is speaking in the closing seconds of this meeting, I wonder, is that going to be your response? Preacher, it's Christ for me tonight. My eyes have been opened. I've seen Him as never before. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. You know, dear soul, whether the Lord has been speaking to your heart tonight, whether He's been speaking before, you've rejected that call, but He comes again in mercy. He comes revealing Himself to you as the only Saviour, the only one who can save you, the only one who can deal with your sin problem. I wonder, will you come to see me? Will you bow in contrition with that contrite spirit, brokenness over your sin? and acknowledging Christ as your Savior. God help you. God help you to come just now. I heard just last night that a dear woman prayed for many years. Last Sunday night she called upon the Lord in salvation just sitting in the pew in one of her churches. You can do that too. Will you come? Our Father and our God, we thank Thee for Thy presence. We thank Thee, Lord, for this passage. And O God, how Peter was dealt with in a most individual manner. And Lord, he recognized the Savior. And there was that reverence where he fell down before Thee. He recognized the power and divine majesty of the God-man. And, O God, we pray that thou might apply the lessons even to the unconverted soul tonight. And, Lord, that their response would be the same as that of Peter, as one who was saved, that he left all and he followed him. Lord, give deciding grace this evening. Give that gift of faith whereby a soul will come, even now, repenting of their sin, accepting Christ as Lord and the Savior. For we ask these things for Jesus' sake and for God's eternal glory. Amen.