Depart From Me For I Am A Sinful Man

So if you have your Bibles, a scripture that stood out to me recently that I would like to dig into a little bit is out of Luke 5, verses 1 to 11. I'll give you 30 seconds or so to turn there. Luke 5, verses 1 to 11.

It says there, And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed that he would thrust out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship.

Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch unto the deep, and let your nets for a draft. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all night, and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.

And when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net break. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both ships, so that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draft of the fishes which they had taken. And so was also James, and John, and the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him. That section there, when Peter fell down, and he said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful Lord, O man.

It stood out to me last week. I don't know where I heard it. I think it was maybe just skimming through a few chapters.

And that stood out to me. Why did Peter do that? Why did Peter, after he had caught so many fish, bow down, fall down at Jesus' knees, and say, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. And whatever the reason was, it was the miracle of the fishes that were caught that finally broke him.

I don't think that it was just the miracle of the fish. But it was a lot of things, and this finally broke him. Jesus said to Peter, Cast in your net.

And Peter, he was an experienced fisherman, and it's kind of like one of my friends from work, he's a fisherman. And if I were to tell him how to fish, that would be out of place. And Jesus was a carpenter, and he's telling fishermen who own a business, a chartering business maybe, Hey, put your net in there.

After they've toiled all night, and he tells them, Cast your net in there. It seems so out of place. But because of previous experiences of what Peter might have had about Jesus, he says, Okay, I'm going to do it.

And then there's so many fish that he could hardly even put them in his boat, into two boats. The net break, and the boats got so full that they sunk. And this somehow touched Peter, that he said, Depart from me, Lord.

I am a sinful man. I think it's because he saw who Jesus was. And I want to give a little bit of context here.

It wasn't just the fish that made Peter respond this way. Because in chapter 4, just the day before, we read more. So if we read a little bit of the context, Jesus had an encounter with a man that was possessed with demons, with many demons.

And they professed him, the demons professed Jesus to be the Holy One of God. And then Jesus rebuked them and cast them out. Just like that.

I want to read that out of Luke 4, verses 35. 33 to 35. And in the synagogue there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone.

What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.

So he cast out devils just the day before. And then right after this, we could continue to read, he ends up running into Simon Peter's mother-in-law, who was sick and ready to die. And Jesus heals his mother-in-law.

And right after that, all those that were sick came to him, and he healed them. Many who were possessed with devils came to him, and he cast them out. And then he continues to preach in the synagogues, and he continues to preach to the multitudes about the kingdom of God.

That's what it says in Luke 4. And now here he is on the seaside, preaching to the multitudes, so much so that they're thronging him. Maybe he was pressed further and further, and he thought, Hey, there's some boats. I'll go into the boat, and I'll ask one of the fishermen to cast me out so I can preach and speak openly to the multitude.

And he sees Peter washing his empty nets, and he asks him to cast him out. And was it that sermon, that Jesus preached, or was it just a mighty strong sermon that Jesus preached that Peter would have then come and later on said, Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord. I think it was a part.

You know, we hear oftentimes when there was a powerful sermon being preached, and people come to the Lord and get saved. That's very good, but I wonder how it would have been when Jesus spoke. It wouldn't have been a powerful sermon.

It would have been more like an almighty word from God with authority. I can only imagine. And so all of this, Peter's under this.

Peter's under all of this. He's seen the sick get healed. He's seen the devils get cast out.

He's seen him preaching about the kingdom of God. His mother-in-law got healed, and he's under this almighty, powerful word of God being spoken right beside him in the ship, and then this miracle of fishes, and he breaks. He says, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

So Peter knew. He began to understand who Jesus was, and it was not just the carpenter, the carpenter's son. It was creating conviction, and he breaks.

Peter was under heavy, heavy conviction, and the miracle of the fish was like the camel or the straw on the camel's back that broke him. It's amazing. I thought about the verse that would apply to this, and Jesus said, Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

So Peter did well to come to this conclusion and say unto the Lord, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. He did well. And I think about any one of us who has given their heart to the Lord and experienced just a full surrender, and we come before him, and we say to him, in essence, the same thing.

I'm unworthy. I'm a sinful man. It's uncomfortable when Jesus is around because I am too sinful.

But it's when we break and we understand, we understand our situation and we break. That's when Jesus responds. Peter's response was good and right.

He said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. But what was Jesus' response then? Jesus could have righteously responded, except that the Father had sent them not to. He could have responded, Yes, you are a sinful man.

Yes, you are worthy of condemnation. Yes, I will depart from you, and you will be separate from God forever. He could have.

That would have been a righteous judgment. But he didn't. When Peter responded that way, then Jesus responded, Okay, come into my kingdom, and I will make you a fisher of men.

And I think we all need to get to that point. As we learn about Jesus, as we grow in our knowledge of him, how do we respond? Is it shallow, or is it a response that comes from a true understanding of who Jesus is? I think the proper initial response for us, I would say initial. I don't think we always need to respond to Jesus this way.

But our initial response is when we meet with Jesus is to fall under severe conviction and to do what Peter did, to fall at his feet and let him know that we are not worthy to come near him. And we know that we are not worthy to come near him because we know who he is. And we know that under our current condition, we are condemned.

And we understand that if we would be condemned, it would be a righteous judgment for us once we get to that point. It's like almost a straw on the camel's back. And we know that unless he shows mercy, condemnation is exactly what we will get.

And we understand that's exactly what we deserve once we get to that point, once we come to him that way, humbled and repentant. And it's at that point when Jesus then says, come into my kingdom. I have a work for you to do.

I will make you fishers of men. To Peter he said, I will make you a fisher of men. To me and to each one of you, he might say something similar.

He might say something a little bit different. But one thing is for certain, he wants each one of us and each one of you, he wants us in his kingdom. This was what Jesus preached, the kingdom of God.

He wants us in his kingdom. He wants us with him. And he wants each one of us to apply ourselves in his kingdom for the benefit and for the prospering of his people.

And then ultimately for the glory of God. So that's all I have. Just a short little, hopefully, something that is inspiring to each one of us, something that stood out to me over the week, that our response would be the same as Peter's was.

At least our initial response. When we understand who Jesus is, when we understand what he's done, and when we understand how far we have been removed because of our sins from God, that we would fall down on our knees by him and say, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. And then we're going to find out that it's actually not going to happen that way, that Jesus is abundant in love and grace and in mercy.

God bless you all.