Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the Gospel according to John
chapter 21. I'm reading a few words from
verse 16. In fact, it could be taken from
verse 15 or verse 17 as well. The question of our Lord to Peter,
lovest thou me. The whole verse 16 reads, He
saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Three times the Lord asked him
this question. And when we think of how dear
Peter had denied his Lord three times, said that he did not know
Him, he'd been in Satan's sieve, he'd appeared even for a time
almost like the chaff, not the wheat. almost like those that
are unconverted instead of converted. And yet here the Lord has been
pleased to appear to him, and instead of assuring him three
times that he still loved Peter, he asks Peter, does he love him? And we cannot tell. the love that God has toward
us, except as it is set forth in the Word, God commendeth his
love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. But we do know that love when
it is felt in our own souls. And so it is a question that
all of God's people will have a concern to answer, and the
hymn we've just sung was written by John Newton. And who would
have thought that John Newton, once a slave trader, wonderfully,
clearly converted, changed, should write such words as in that hymn. There's a point I long to know,
oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not? And yet he did. And many of the
Lord's people, though we might have been many years in the way,
45 years since I was first called, yet still we have tried from
time to time over the reality of our love. Things come in that
cloud it, and we realize what an important thing it is that
we do love the Lord. And so a question like this,
is a very searching question. Each time, Peter had recourse
to the Lord, what the Lord knew. And that is true of every one
of his dear people. He knows those that he loves,
and he knows those who love him in return. Although sometimes
they might not be able to discern that that really is the love
of God that they feel. With Peter then, he added to
each time that question a charge. Feed my sheep, feed my lambs. The Lord was commissioning Peter. You know, the people of God are
to be fed the Word of God. And it is the Word of God that
really evidences the love that the people of God have for His
Word. You know, in a natural sense,
if we had someone that we loved, and they were at a distance from
us, and the only means of communication was by letter, wouldn't we joy to get those
letters? Wouldn't we love to open them
and to read them? If there was no love, Then we'd
see the pile of letters, we'd deal with all the other things
first. There wouldn't be any feelings that accompanied the
opening of the letter. But where there is love, we want
to read what that person that we loved has written to us. And so in that way, when Peter
is to feed, he is to bring the Word of God to the people of
God, The other charge that the Lord gave to Peter, when they
are converted, when they are restored, strengthen my brethren. And their strength is where the
Word of God shines upon their life, shines upon their path,
and they're able to see clearly through the Word where they are
and what they are. And it is with this thought here,
this question, Peter loved the Lord, but do we? And how to answer
this in some way through the Word of God. And so I want to
look at three points. Firstly, reasons. Reasons why
poor sinners love the Lord. And I want to keep close to the
Word in these reasons. It won't be all the reasons,
of course. And then second, the reason why
our love is cold. The word is not silent on that
either. And then how love is manifested
in us. How it is actually shown in us. But firstly, reasons why. Poor sinners love the Lord. We
are told in John's first epistle, chapter 4, verse 19, we love
him because he first loved us. The reason why any poor sinner
loves the Lord is because that love originates in the Lord himself. And we must be clear on this,
that by nature we do not love the Lord. We must be very clear
on that. There is no love, desire, no
drawing or anything to the Lord. We read in Isaiah 53 that He
is as a root out of dry ground. There's no form nor comeliness
that we should desire Him. And we know that the natural
man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. And we know from our
Lord's time upon earth, if we picture our Lord as described
in the Word, how he sojourned amongst men, and even those that
heard his gracious words, those that saw his miracles, they evidenced no love to him. Some did, some didn't. And we
need to really notice that marked difference. The enmity with some,
the calling him the prince of devils, calling him to be an
imposter, accusing him of many things. No reverence. No love, no fear. When they heard his word, many
went back and walked no more with him. And we have this picture. We have this picture of mankind
in the compass of the Jews. And there's the Lord Jesus Christ
and how people are reacting to him. Very different ways. And I hope we think and meditate
on that, as to give a picture of the real difference. We've
said, we said this morning, how much the Lord uses contrasts
in the word. Doesn't just give one praying
in the temple, but two, the publican and the Pharisee. Not just Abel,
but Cain and Abel. Not just Ruth, but Ruth and Orpah.
And he gives the two, and so with the whole life of our Lord,
you get those that received Him, those that did not receive Him,
those that stayed with Him, those that went back from Him, those
that loved Him, and those that did not. And that picture is
for us to look at. And also with those that loved
Him, there was degrees of love. It wasn't all shown in the same
way. Or at the same time, if we took
a little picture of, say, one of them at one particular time,
and you see how their lives described, you say, how does that really
evidence the love of God? And so, when we look at the eternal
love of God, it is said upon His elect, His chosen, yea, I
have loved thee with an everlasting love, Therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee, that love is not to every individual. God did so love the world. He
gave his only begotten Son. It is in this world that his
people are. It is the sin of this world that
he died for. Not the sins of the whole world,
but the sin of this world that the people of God labour under. They struggle under. They feel
and grieve over that sin that is in them and feel often that
they don't grieve as they should grieve. And so this first reason
why sinners love God, why there is a difference, why some design
none of His ways and others do, is to be traced up to the eternal
love of God and to the drawing of God. In Psalm 16, we have a reason
given there why the psalmist loved the Lord. In the very first
verse, I love the Lord because, because he hath heard my voice
and my supplications, because he hath inclined his ear unto
me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. A scripture reason, when the
Lord answers our poor petitions, and especially at the actual
time of answering, when time goes on, that love often wanes. But at that time of answering,
and realizing the Lord answers our prayers, the psalmist says
that's why he loves the Lord. In the Song of Solomon, it is
put that the Lord is the love of his sweet ointments, or the
savour of his sweet ointments. In the very first chapter, in
verse 3, because of the savour of thy good ointments, thy name
is as ointment poured forth. Therefore do the virgins love
thee. And what is those? That savour
of the good ointments of the Lord. We think of the holiness
of the Lord, the righteousness of the Lord, the sweet savour
that is spoken of in the Psalms. In Psalm 45 we have in verse 7, Thou lovest
righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God thy God hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments
smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces
whereby they have made thee glad. And it is that sweet savour in
the name of Christ the church views and sees in him that draws
love to him. In the Gospel according to Luke
chapter 7, we have a record of the Lord going into the house
of a Pharisee. And when he was in that house,
there came a woman, which was a sinner, that washed his feet,
anointed his feet with ointment. And the Pharisee, he said, if
this man were of God, he would know what this woman was, who
it was that was so anointing him. So the Lord then told a
parable to him. He said, there was a certain
creditor which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence and the
other 50. When they had nothing to pay,
he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of
them will love him most? Simon, that is the Pharisee,
answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast
rightly judged. And then he applies it to the
woman. Say, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou
gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with
tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest
me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not
ceased to kiss my feet. My head, withal, thou didst not
anoint, but this woman, hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Therefore I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven,
for she loved much. He sums it up here, but to whom
little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And right through
that account, the Lord is making a comparison with this woman
that's a sinner and with the Pharisee. and the difference
of the love, the affection that was shown to the Lord. And so a reason why sinners love
the Lord, when there is a sense of pardon and sense of forgiveness,
and the greater that realisation of a sinnership, then the greater
the love will be. Another reason, and this is where
the love is very sweetly felt, and we've sung of it in our first
hymn, our prayer to the Holy Spirit to come and shed abroad
the Saviour's love, and that shall kindle ours. Because it
is when the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy
Ghost. That is an act of God, an act
of God that results in a very clear, strong love and affections
to the Lord, often very softening and drawn out to the Lord. It is not something that is,
as it were, shown as evidence of it from the scriptures, but
it is felt in the soul. loves the Lord. But I would be
very careful in this, that those blessings might be very few in
the lives of the people of God. That time when the heart is so
really filled with love is not always like that. That's not
the most of the time that it is evidenced in that way. It
will come later. to those evidences more of love. But this is a reason why, and
when we do feel our hearts so full of love, this is the work
of the Holy Spirit. Satan sometimes will say it's
only emotion. I've been tempted many times
in that way, been blessed like that, but then if that was so,
why can't I make it come in similar circumstances? Why can it come
in a similar way? Why is it so infrequent? It is
because it is the Spirit's work. They that have no changes fear
not God. But God's people do have changes. Their life is bound up with the
Lord. And their changes of love, of
hardness, coldness, They are wrought when God sheds abroad
that love in the soul. Another reason is that he gives
us faith. Remember Peter in the lead up
to this occasion. The Lord says, Satan hath desired
to have you, to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not. Peter realised the Lord had made
intercession for him. He had been kept, he had been
preserved. And when we can look and we can
see how we've been kept, when we've been in a position of temptation
and the Lord has stopped up the way, the Lord has used means
to deliver us and set our feet free, to loose us from it. When we see that we've been brought
out of that snare, and when we've been brought the other side,
and to still cleave to the Lord, and realize that the Lord is
the one that has kept our soul, and Peter would have looked back
at what had been foretold, looked back at what he'd done, and here
is the Lord now restoring him, and not only that, telling him,
of how he'll use him and commissioning him to feed his sheep and feed
his lambs. These are some of the reasons,
scriptural reasons why, why poor sinners love the Lord, what they
see in the Lord, what has been done in them by the Spirit, what
it is that they have known of forgiveness and pardon and the
mercies that have come to them through the Lord. I want to think then, secondly,
of the reasons why love is cold. We said at the outset that a
natural man, he cannot love. And we're not to forget that,
we're to remember that we don't have in us of ourselves any love
for the things of God except it be wrought in us by the Lord. And so it is not surprising that
if the Lord withdraws, and for other reasons, that there are
times that the love of God is cold. It's told in Matthew 24,
that because iniquity shall abound, The love of many shall wax cold. Iniquity is wickedness or departure
from that which is right. And when we live in a world that
abounds in iniquity, at first we can be horrified at what we
hear and what we see. But gradually we get hardened
to it. We hear the things in the news
and it doesn't shock us anymore. We see things and we don't recoil
from it when we used to recoil from it. And sin slowly becomes
more and more acceptable, imperceptibly. We might even not detect that
it is so. But the Lord has said, because
iniquity abounds, because of all the evil round about us,
that that is a reason why love grows cold. And we can apply
that as well. when that is in our own souls
as well, when there is not a sanctifying, when there is not a keeping under
our body, when we don't mortify through the spirit the deeds
of the body, when sin is indulged, when sin is not fled from, that
makes love grow cold. And so close to that is what
John warns in 1 John 2, And if we love the world, if any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Love not
the world, nor the things that are in the world. All the things
that are in the world are not of the Father, but of the world. And there is a counter, as it
were. The Lord says you cannot serve
God and mammon. You can't love two opposites. And so when we start to love
the things of the world, and our affections, our hearts, go
out to it, then it is that the love of God that goes cold. In the letters to the churches
in the Revelation, the very first letter in fact, written to the
Ephesian church, Paul, when he writes to them, he speaks about
these spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. They were favoured people, they
were blessed people, but there were people that the Lord had
this charge over them, that they had left their first love. And
that can be viewed in a couple of ways. One, like when the love
of God is shed abroad in the heart at the beginning, When
the Lord first quickens and favours a soul, that soul goes out after
the Lord. But as years go by, then that
grows cold, and they leave that first warmness of love and affection. The other way is our first love
should be to the Lord. It should be that we love the
Lord first, and then our neighbour, and then ourselves. And if we
leave our first love, it means that a love to the Lord has grown
cold. It's very easy for us to be religious,
to even have the Lord with us, and yet not evidence that love. We think of Martha, and we're
told very specifically that the Lord loved Martha. But Martha,
who cumbered about with much serving, And that prevented sitting
at his feet, hearing his word, and enjoying his love. And especially those that are
concerned in the Church of God, ministers of the Gospel, maybe
deacons, elders, those that have much to do, can have much religious
things to do, but neglect that close time with the Lord. And
so the love grows cold to the Lord, and we can have religious
busyness, we can listen to many sermons, go to many services,
but if it's not engaging our heart and our affections, and
that love is not in it, then we become hardened under it. Another reason is the lack of
the use of the means of grace that We are not using them in
the right way, as a door upon its hinges, but not looking to
the Lord to speak to us and to bless us through that means of
grace, especially in the closet, as that is where the intimate
love between the Lord and His people is. Shut the doors about
thee, call upon thy Father which is in secret, He shall reward
thee, open thee. And so we think of that word
that when David came, when Goliath was fighting Israel and his brother
accused him of leaving the sheep and coming just to see how things
were, that David says, is there not a cause? And when we feel
that lack of love often, There is a cause, there is a reason
why that is the case. And may it be then that we pray
and ask the Lord, what is the reason, why is it? When the children
of Israel came into the promised land, they were put to the worst
before the city of Ai. And we read that Joshua fell
on his face before the Lord, and in his prayer he wasn't asking
for any reason, He was saying, really charging the Lord for
leaving them, and what shall the Canaanites and the heathen
do now? They'll all come round and they'll
destroy us. But the Lord said, up, because Israel hath sinned. If they had taken the accursed
thing, there is a reason why. And so it's good for us as well
to, especially when we have known the Lord, and walked in his ways
to ask why our love is cold. Is there a reason? Is there a
cause? Why this is so? Are we neglecting
the means? Are we indulging sin? Are we
walking in contrary ways? I want to look then lastly at
how, how love is manifested in us. Now the first point, we might
think a strange point. I want to make it very clear
that we are not saved by our works. By the deeds of the law
shall no man living be justified. We are saved by grace, through
faith, and not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. We are
not saved by obeying the commandments of the Lord and the Lord looking
upon us and saying that we have done well, therefore he'll save
us. It is the Lord's finished work alone. The Lord Jesus Christ
has fulfilled the law, the ceremonial law, the moral law, the law for
Israel, we might say, all the law. He made it honourable. He did that which we cannot do,
weaving a righteousness to give to us. And as the Lord demanded,
without the shedding of blood there is no remission, He shed
His blood. All what the Lord came to do
was because of the law that we had broken. Sin entered into
the world and death by sin. Sin is the transgression of the
law of God. And so where a sinner has been
saved from sin, the Lord has fulfilled the law for them. The
Lord has made it honourable. Shall we then that are saved,
shall we then that the Lord has wrought such salvation, treat
with indifference the commandments and laws of God and what is pleasing
to Him and what is right in His sight? That cannot be so. And so the evidence of love in
the word of God speaks very much concerning our attitude to the
law, to the word of God. Our Lord said to those that believed
on him in John 8, if ye continue in my word, ye shall be my disciples
indeed, You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
free. And there'll be those that will say that they believe or
that they love the Lord, but when you would point out to them
the Word of God, the way of holiness, the way of uprightness, the way
to walk, they don't want to know that. They don't want to walk
in that way. But if the Lord has quickened
us and made us to see what sinners we are, how we have broken the
law of God, and how the Lord has fulfilled that, then one
of the effects will be that the Lord's ways, the Lord's commandments,
His word, His testimonies will be our delights. Psalm 119 is
a real example of that. Right the way through in, the
psalmist professes his delight in his Lord's statutes, his laws,
his ways, his precepts, all his ways he's delighting in. And so we're not surprised then
when there are the clear statements of the Word concerning this. In the second epistle of John,
We read in verse 6, and this is love, that we walk after his
commandments. This is the commandment that
as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. So immediately
it is pointing to a real clear token and evidence of love in
walking in the Lord's commandments. You could put it Another way,
as in 1 John and chapter 5, there we find that it is obedience
to the Lord and to his commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world, And this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith." And so, again, John is setting forth
what the love of God actually is. Remember, we are not saying
that those that love the Lord will be able to keep the commandments
perfect and pure. They won't. Paul says, the good
that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. But then he gives the comparison
in Romans 6, if we are saved by grace, will we have the attitude,
well, if we are saved by grace, let us sin that grace might abound. Or put it another way, let us
break the commandments of God that we might have grace abounding. He says God forbid. If there
is a real love, then we want to keep those commandments. And Lord, in John 15, he speaks
of the keeping of the law, commandments of God, commandments of the Lord,
as a means of abiding in his love. In John 15 and 10, if he
keep my commandments, he shall abide in my love, even as I have
kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you,
and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that
ye love one another as I have loved you." And so the first
point is centering on the commandments of God, how we view them, what
attitude we have toward them. and how we view what sin really
is. The next point I'll bring before
you is my loving the brethren. Again, it is in the epistles
of John. 1 John 3 and verse 14 so clearly
states we know that we have passed from death unto life because
we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. And by nature we do not love
the people of God because they are the people of God. But when
the Lord blesses us, the disciples being let go, they went unto
their own company. They desire the people of God. And so then we have as well a
joining together of how that love is shown to the people of
God. In 1 John 4 we read, in this
commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his
brother also. And going to the beginning of
chapter 5, 1 John 5, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ,
is born of God, And everyone that loveth him that begat, that
is, the Lord who begets his children, loveth him also that is begotten
of him, or loves other believers that also are made believers
by him. And so the evidence or how love
is manifested is not in a love to one that we cannot
see, but one that we can see, who is the brethren of the Lord. And that is how the Holy Spirit
has shown it, has evidenced it, and said, how can we say that
we love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love our brother,
whom we have seen? It's a blessed evidence of the
love to God. And remember the Lord spake of
a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple. Verily shall not
lose his reward. And so I want to look in the
third place on this last point, that it is to be not just in
word, but in deed. And so in 1 John 3, and verse
17 and 18. But whoso hath this world's goods,
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? What a question. How dwelleth
the love of God in him? My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed, and in truth. And these are the way the Holy
Spirit has said that love is manifested. We have the same
teaching in James. In the epistle to James, in chapter
2, there's a setting forth of the fruit of faith, that If one
say, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye
give them not those things which are needful to the body, what
doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not
works, is dead being alone. Yea, a man may say thou hast
faith and I have works, show me thy faith without thy works,
and I will show thee my faith by my works. And we can apply
that to love. as well. We have the beautiful
chapter in 1 Corinthians 13 which speaks of love as charity, the
greatest blessing. And charity is a practical love,
walking in love in a practical way. And of course the important
thing in Ephesians 6, when Paul finishes his His word to the
Ephesians there. He closes the epistle and he
says, Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ
in sincerity. In sincerity. You think of Judas
and how he betrayed him with a kiss and made out he loved
and yet it was not sincere. And I hope the Spirit will bear
witness where the love that we have, the love that we feel to
brethren, that which we desire to help them, to do for them,
is actually sincere. We're not being double-minded. We're not doing it for an ulterior
motive. We're doing it because of this
constraining love of God. The love of God constraineth
us. a beautiful testimony of the
love of God in a sinner. That sinner might not think that
they love God, they might not feel like the love of God should
have brought in their heart, but it moves them, it constrains
them, it draws them to Christ, it draws them to his people. Thy people shall be my people,
thy God my God. You think of the beautiful words
of Ruth, and it was said, to know, O my, thy daughter-in-law,
that loveth thee. And how is that love manifested?
By cleaving to her, by listening to her, walking with her, wanting
to be with her. And you might say, but that wasn't
wanting to be. Yes, it was with her God. She
says, thy God be my God, thy people my people. but it was
first evidence towards one that she could see, and she was drawn
to one that she could see, and she loved her, and she loved
her God too. I hope these points will make
it a little clearer, maybe answer this question, so that if we
were asked by the Lord, lovest thou me, that we could also appeal
to the Lord, who knows all men's hearts, who knows our lives,
who knows all that we do. Lord, Thou knowest all things,
Thou knowest that I love Thee. May the Lord grant us that love
and the witness of His Spirit. Amen.