GOD’S WORD FOR  NOVEMBER 5

Our  book excerpt today, and ongoing,  is from “Chiseled by the Master’s Hand”  Lessons from the Life of Peter, by Erwin  Lutzer.  Dr. Lutzer is  Canadian-born and served as Senior Pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago for 36 years, until his retirement in 2016.   He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Moody Church.  He’s written many books and has radio and internet teaching programs.

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We expect Peter to be thrilled with the sight of a boatload of fish.  Here is more money than he and his partners could have hoped to make in a week.  Peter, we might think, is already contemplating how these extra shekels might be spent.  Every fisherman gloats on a lucky ay.  Nothing can change our mood as rapidly as news of a financial windfall.  The unexpected check in the mail, the phone call that tell us we are getting a raise – such experiences can quickly bring sunshine to a cloudy heart.

If Peter had embraced the modern “health and wealth” gospel, he would have approached Christ and invited Him to join his fishing business!  Think of the boon it would have been to have Christ become the leading partner of the firm.  Why not?  After all, followers of Christ should prosper in their business, right?

Not so Peter.  He reacted not to the startling success of that day’s catch but to the Person who produced this miracle. 

“But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’  For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken….and Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.’”  (Luke 5:8-10).

Peter was a broken man.  He clung to His Master, yet urged Him to depart – the natural response of one who both loved Christ and hated his own sinfulness.  His mind was simultaneously filled with confession and adoration. 

THE CONTRAST BETWEEN A HOLY GOD AND HIS OWN UNHOLY SELF CAUSED HIM TO SHRINK BACK IN DESPAIR.

We may look in many places to find a clue to Peter’s eventual greatness, but for now we need look no further. 

Profoundly aware of his own sinfulness, and equally aware of Christ’s holy presence, Peter illustrates the first lesson we need to learn in life in Christ:

THE DEPTH OF OUR WORSHIP IS DEPENDENT ON AN AWARENESS OF THE DEPTH OF OUR OWN SINFULNESS.

This was the Divine Sculptor at work.  The Lord had taken His chisel and opened Peter’s heart.  He was wounded that he might be healed; he was broken that he might be molded according to the Master’s design.  Peter could not see others until he saw himself;  and he could not see himself until he saw the Lord.

Before Peter could work for God, God had to work in him.  If he was to kindle a flame in others, he himself would first have to be lit with the divine fire.  Like Isaiah, Peter had to say, “Woe is me,”  before he could say, “Here I am, send me.”  Like Moses, in the presence of the burning bush, Peter had to WORSHIP before he could WORK.

John Bunyan says of his own experience with God, “I was more loathsome in my own eyes than was a toad …..I thought none but the devil himself could equal me for inward wickedness and pollution of mind.  I was both a burden and a terror to myself.  How gladly would I have been anything but myself.”

When Peter pushed his boat into the sea that morning, he called Christ Master.  When he returned with two boatloads of fish, he called Him Lord (or God).

Like Job and Isaiah before him, Peter was in the presence of the Almighty, where he felt both despair and hope.  Blessed are those who know that repentance is a precious gift of God!!!

If you are saved…..if you have acknowledged that Jesus is your Lord God and Savior,….if you have repented of your sins and want to live with and for Him, then you, too, are in the presence of the Almighty every minute of your life.   That same passion that was sparked in Peter was,  and will be yours too.

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Isaiah 6:5

So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone!   Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”

Exodus 3:1-6

 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush.   So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.  Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”   So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”  Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

    Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

    Isaiah 53:6: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

    Psalm 51:5: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

    Psalm 18:30: “As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.”

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