(Read Luke 5)
YOU find in this chapter four men brought into contact with Christ, all of them alike in being sinners, but all different as to their state when the Lord meets them, yet each perfectly and divinely met by Christ, and therefore all of them afterward witnesses of the grace of Christ.
In the first three you have the direct effects of sin on the conscience and on the body. In the last, it is more a question of the heart. But whether it be conscience, body, or heart, Christ meets every one of them perfectly. And, my reader, whatever the state of your conscience or your heart, Christ is more than able to meet that state. The body, as a rule, He does not touch now.
When the Lord first came to earth He did heal the body, as an attestation of His divine power, but the man who only believed in Christ, because of His miracles, had not soul-saving faith. You must get down before Christ in the sense of what Christ is personally, and as the Saviour of your soul, the Saviour of man. Christ is a perfect Saviour, the one who meets every need, and to whom the Holy Ghost would direct each heart. Let us see the way in which the Lord meets these four men.
1. THE CONVICTED MAN CALMED.
First we have Peter. This is not Peter’s conversion. He was doubtless a converted man at this time, but he had not personally clung to and followed the One who converted him. He was like many souls today who are not at home with Christ, they are not happy with Him, though they have been touched by the Word of God.
Do you ask, When was Peter converted? In John 1 you get his conversion. The Lord meets Peter there, shows He knows all about him, and changes his name too, that is, asserts His authority over him. You belong to me, the Lord says, as it were. Peter did not, however, learn his lesson; and now in this fifth chapter of Luke, the Lord enforces this truth, emancipates him, and brings him out on His side.
In the scene before us the Lord does not say to Peter, “Lend me your boat,” for He is Lord of all. He has bought the world, as well as created it. Men may deny Him, but He is their Master. I do not say all are redeemed, but all are bought, and the price was His own blood. All is His, and the Lord therefore took Peter’s boat, preached to men, and then He paid Peter for the use of his boat. He is beholden to no man. “Launch out into the deep,” He says, “and let down your nets for a draft.” “Master,” says Peter, “we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word (that was faith), I will let down the net.” Have you, my reader, ever let down your net for a draft? Do you say, I have toiled and striven to get peace, to know that I am forgiven, and I am anxious still. Now, then, at His word, let down your net. “At thy word,” I obey in faith. That is the link between God and the soul. Peter acted on Christ’s word, and the net was so full, it brake; i.e., the blessing was too great for the vessel. You are sure to be blessed when you obey Christ; when you let down at His command.
When Peter saw it, he said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” What was his sin? Was it sin to lend the Lord his boat? Was it sin to say he had toiled all night and taken nothing? Was it wrong to let down the net? No. What then had raised the question of sin in his conscience? When he saw the fish filling up his net that day, after his night of fruitless toil, he found out it was more than a man he had in his boat that day; he found out he was in the presence of God, and, further, though long since called by Him, that he had failed to follow Him.
The divine glory of the blessed Lord shone into the recesses of Peter’s guilty heart, and in a moment he goes down and judges himself to be, as he was, “a sinful man.” Not merely a sinner, but “a sinful man.” “Born in sin and shapen in iniquity.” Sinful in the very springs of his being, the sins of every day were the outcome of a nature irretrievably bad. This discovery is always made when the soul gets into the presence of the Lord; and yet notice, where does Peter fall? “He fell down at Jesus’ knees.” At the very moment when I discover that I am not fit for Christ, that is the moment when I feel I must have Him. “I am not fit for Thee, Lord,” Peter says, as it were, “but I cannot do without Thee”; and I believe that, had the Lord moved one step from him, Peter would have clutched Him.
Have you, my reader, ever known in your history a moment like this? If not, do not delude yourself with the thought that you are converted. Has there come a moment when you, in the presence of the Lord, have found out that you are a ruined, undone sinner? Then you will also find that nothing but Christ will do for you. You may not have discovered this in the vivid way Peter did; but if you have not known it, depend upon it you and the Lord have never met.
What does Jesus now say? “Fear not.” He loves to say this to the trembling soul. Have you ever heard His voice saying to you, “Fear not”? It is thus Christ speaks to souls; and if you say I have never heard Him say, “Fear not,” I expect He has never heard you say, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” You have never taken your true place as a ruined sinner, and therefore you have never met Him as the peace-giving Saviour. The two go together. When a man learns what he is before God he does not incriminate his neighbors, he says, “I have sinned,” not “we.” When an awakened soul gets before God every other living being is left out, and that soul and God are alone.
Have you, I ask, known this moment? It is a moment of blessing, for when I learn what I am I learn also what God is. If I learn that I am full of guilt, I learn also that God is full of grace.
Peter from this time left all to follow Christ. He had an object now in Christ that eclipsed all down here. And notice this, he left his business when it was at its best and brightest. I suppose he had never had such a draft of fish as that day.
2. THE DEFILED MAN CLEANSED.
Look now at the next man, a man full of leprosy. Here we have the outbreak of sin. Sin not only gives me a guilty conscience, and makes me know I am unfit for the presence of God, but there is also the sense of defilement. “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,” the leper says. He knew His power, but he doubted His willingness. Are you, my reader, conscious of your sin, knowing you are defiled by it; do you know that Jesus could remove it, and yet do you doubt His willingness? Oh, prove Him. Come to Him and know this very day the touch of His hand. “I will, be thou clean,” He says, and touches the leper. Here His divinity is proved again. Had any mere man touched a leper he would have been defiled, but when Jesus touched the leper his leprosy was healed. This man had just enough faith to come to Christ, and just enough unbelief to make him doubt Christ; but he got blessing, for it was Christ he came to. You come to Him too, my reader. He is enough. His blood is enough to wash your sins away, and nothing but the blood of Christ is enough.
3. THE PALSIED MAN PARDONED.
Look at the next scene, the palsied man brought by the faith of others. Paralyzed—the fruit of sin—he must be carried to Jesus by others. They could not come in by the door here, because Satan had that blocked up by an indifferent crowd to keep these four earnest, anxious men and their sick friend from Christ. What do they do? They break up the roof and let the man down at the feet of Jesus—the true place of blessing.
This is one of the most magnificent flights of faith. What do you think the people round about said when they saw the bottom of the bed coming down through the roof. No doubt many thought it impudent, audacious. What did Jesus think of it? He was delighted! “When he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.” Faith and forgiveness are joined together by the Lord in such a way that nothing can rend them apart. The moment there is faith there is forgiveness.
We have seen then a man to whom sin has given a guilty conscience, and Jesus says when he draws near to Him, “Fear not.” We have seen a defiled man in his guilt, and to him He says, “Be thou clean.” We have seen one paralyzed by his sins, and He says to him, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” This is the Christ for you, my reader, for He is the same today as He was then; you come and trust Him.
4. THE RICH MAN SATISFIED.
Now comes the fourth man, “a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom.” Jesus passes by and speaks two words, “Follow me.” There the man was with bags of gold, but he was not happy, for money never made a man happy yet. Two words fall on his ear, “Follow me,” and what happens? All goes; he leaves all, rises up, and follows Jesus. He does not stay to gather up his money or anything. Two words from Christ changed the whole current of that man’s life.
“Follow me;” and he left all and followed Him. He dropped immediately into the feelings of the heart of Christ, and filled his house with sinners for Christ to address them. The moment this hitherto unsatisfied man gets his heart satisfied he sees what Christ was about, in calling sinners to repentance, and goes out and gets a house full of the right kind to a gospel feast. What a conversion! What a grand conversion! He had a portion in this blessed Saviour, an object to fill his heart for time and for eternity, and sought to share his new-found joy with others. Oh for a legion of Levis now-a-days! Rob me of Christ I am poor indeed, but give me Jesus and I have everything my heart can want. Will not you, my reader, come to Him, listen to Him, hear His own voice, and henceforward follow Him?
W. T. P. W.