Okay, let's turn back to John
chapter 21. I'm feeling sad about losing,
what for me, not leaving a close friend, but when you've spent
so long in one book of the Bible, and I'm not sure we'll find out
how many years it's been, but it's been a long journey but
it's been a sweet journey and it's been an extraordinarily
profitable journey for me and I trust for you. I think we have
seen and read and just heard God speak some wonderful things.
I thought I'd do a message on feeding the sheep so I went through
all of John's Gospels and sort of picked out the highlights
of each chapter and I ended up with far too much for any message,
but I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed sort of reading
all the way through and saying, well, this is what we need to
say out of this chapter and so on. And it's a challenging task. I pray that you might have the
opportunity to do it sometime and I might be able to summarize
it and then summarize it some more and we might have a little
bit of a feast on it. I want us to take note of the
fact that there is a feeding here. It's a nourishing and it's
a nurturing and it's a nourishing feeding. So when they had dined, Jesus
saith unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
Feed my lambs, he saith unto him the second time, Simon, son
of Jonas, lovest thou me? And he saith unto him, yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. And he said unto him, saith unto
him, feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because
he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto
him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my
sheep. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness. What's righteousness? The Lord
Jesus Christ is righteousness. He alone is righteousness. I'll
speak of His righteousness and His only, says the psalmist. But what a wonderful picture
we have, isn't it? You know, the Lord there on that
shore. I just imagine the smell of that bread. It's extraordinary,
isn't it, that the elements that make up bread don't taste very
nice at all on their own. And yet I used to bake bread
in a machine, so I don't think I'm clever. But anyway, I used
to bake bread, and the smell of bread in the baked bread in
the house. They used to say, this is some
time ago, if you wanted to sell your house, what people needed
to do when they walked in was have the smell of freshly baked
bread and freshly brewed coffee. But there's something wonderful
about eating, isn't it? There is the smell. There's the
hunger, of course, first, isn't there? Is it going to be fed?
Do you have to have a need? We need the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord's people need him. They
need him. There is this amazing smell,
isn't it? The aroma of good food. I just love it. As you can see,
I haven't done that poorly in the eating stakes for this last
long time. But then you get to see it. And
his food is just amazing, isn't it? I feed my dog, Ali, and of
course she gets so excited. And she's embarrassing about
her sort of dribbles as she sort of anticipates eating a dry biscuit.
But we see it, don't we? The food is seen. And then we
take the food, and then we chew on the food, and then we swallow
it so it becomes one with our body. And then there's a satisfaction,
isn't there, in food? There's a nourishment to live,
to grow, to fight diseases, to be able to work. There is sheep
food. this spiritual sheep food that
we taste and we smell and we take and we chew. And I love the fact that the
Lord Jesus Christ took that bread. and took it with hands that still
had those wounds for them to see, and he gave it to them. If we're going to be fed, let's
firstly remember that the Lord is the one that's gonna do the
feeding. He'll feed his sheep. He will feed his sheep. And the food for the sheep is
just one food, isn't it? It's got to be the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one food. It's the one
food that comes from the shepherd. It's the one food that is given
to the under-shepherds. And it's the one food that feeds
all of the sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He must be
glorified. Don't you love what John the
Baptist said? He must increase. and increase, and increase. That's why we read Psalms 34,
and magnify the Lord with me. We cannot magnify God too highly. We cannot put the Lord Jesus
Christ on a pedestal that's high enough and worthy enough in our
thoughts for him. He is infinitely more glorious
than we can possibly imagine. infinitely more glorious than
we can possibly imagine. I keep reminding myself and you
of what he says in Hebrews 1. The Lord Jesus Christ is so big
that he can take the universe and wrap it around his shoulders
like a shawl. It's good for us to think of
how glorious He is. We feed, the sheep feed on the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. But let's never forget that this
first meal that He gave to these people after the resurrection
was a feed, a meal that He cooked and He prepared and He gave them
and He gave it to them with wounded hands. The Lord Jesus Christ must be
glorified. He must increase, we must decrease. He must receive all of the glory
for everything about salvation, all of the time. And I must decrease. Peter was made to decrease that
day beside the shore of Galilee, and he was going to be made to
decrease again and again and again in the rest of his life,
until he got rid of this body of death, which was a hindrance
to him as much as it is to the rest of us. I love the story
of an old pastor seeing an old lady in his congregation, and
he went to her and she said, you're sinking. Yeah, she was
about to die. He said, you're sinking. And
she looked at him as if he'd lost his marbles. He said, you're
sinking. And she turned to him and she
said, I've been standing on a rock for all of these years. Have
you ever heard anyone falling through a rock or sinking through
a rock? We rest, don't we, the children
of God, rest in the Christ of the eternities, the Christ who
is man and able to feed us on himself. Christ is our life. And Peter
is reminded, and I want us to all be reminded, that love to
the Lord is the essential part of feeding, isn't it? He makes
that essential. Do you love me? Now you can feed. Do you love me? Do you love me? Now you can feed. And if you
love the Lord, then you love his sheep. And if you love his
sheep, you want them to love the Lord and look to him. That's
the whole purpose of church, isn't it? I want to be fed. I
want you to be fed. I want us to come and gather
together and go away nourished, to go out into this world, thinking
some more about how glorious the Lord Jesus Christ is. Peter,
Paul was encourage those apostles when
he was leaving them on that beach, those Ephesian elders in Acts
chapter 20. He said, for I have not shunned
to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. the whole counsel
of God, leaving nothing out. Then he says, verse 28 of Acts
chapter 20, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the
flock of God, over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers,
feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own
blood. There can be no feeding. and
no nourishing of the sheep where the blood of the lamb is not
displayed. The best question that's asked
in the scriptures about any church service is the one that Isaac
asked on the way up to that mountain in Genesis chapter 22. Here's
the wood and here's the knife, here's the fire, where's the
lamb? Where's the lamb? A sermon that
doesn't begin with the lamb, focus on the lamb, finish with
the lamb, is a terrible, terrible tragedy. Without the cross, without the
cross, there is no glory. For God there is no love, there
is no salvation, there is no grace, there is no righteousness,
there is no forgiveness, there is no heaven, there is no serving
God. This world loves to tell people
that the Lord Jesus Christ loved them and died for them. And they do it again and again
and again. What did we just read in Acts
chapter 28? Feed the church of God which
he hath purchased with his own blood. Did he get what he paid
for? This religious world wants to
tell us again and again and again that somehow the Lord Jesus Christ
died in such a way that salvation is there on offer for all people. You cannot feed on that. Sheep
cannot feed on a Christ who tries and fails. Sheep cannot feed
on a love that fails. Sheep cannot feed where all of
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is taken from Him at that one
moment when He was publicly exposed naked under the wrath of God
Almighty. He purchased the sheep. He purchased
a church. And every one of them, every
single last one of them, will come to Him. And He'll sustain them. There's
no feeding or nourishing the sheep where the blood of the
lamb is not shed. There's no feeding or nourishing
the sheep where the love of them is not there. Where is the love
of God? Romans 8 makes it clear the love
of God is in Christ Jesus. Turn with me back to John 13.
This is such a wonderful, wonderful verse. I love it so much. You're
going to hear some verses that I feed on today for a little
bit, just for another 15 minutes. Finally, he'd spoken all the
way through John's Gospel and said it was the Jews' Passover,
the Jews' Passover, the Jews' Passover. Now he says the feast
of the Passover. This is the real Passover is
here. When Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should
depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his
own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. He loved them unto the end. He loved them. Peter is told three times, they're
mine. They're mine. They're my lambs.
They're my sheep. They're my sheep. They're my
sheep. The sheep belong to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He bought them with his own blood. And the sheep will be fed by
the same Lord Jesus Christ. There is one food we need, and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one bread we need, the
manna from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one drink. And
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you speak of Christ,
you're speaking of Him who is the Anointed One, Prophet, Priest
and King, the Anointed One in union with all of His sheep. As He is, so are we in this world. As He is, We'll be fed when he
provides the meal. We'll be fed from his wounded
hands. We'll be fed by his broken body
and his shed blood. What's the whole counsel of God?
Paul describes the whole counsel of God in 1 Corinthians 2. For
I determined Not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All of the attributes of God
and all of the scriptures point to Him and all of the attributes
of God are on display on the Cross of Calvary. We feed on
Him who is the Word of God. And we feed on the Word of God. And we are desperately in need
of the Holy Spirit opening up the Scriptures to us. But also
we are desperately in need of all of the Scriptures bearing
weight on all of the other Scriptures. This world, this religious world,
billions of people, hold that John 3.16 holds up the whole
Bible. And John 3.16 covers all of the
Bible, and yet they rob John 3.16 of the very meaning of the
words in the text, they rob John 3.16 of its context, and they
have to then introduce ambiguities and confusions into it. I'm writing
to a fellow and he says, God has two wills, two desires, two
loves, two deaths. Which one do you choose? How on earth can you be certain
about anything when you have reduced God down to what is nothing
other than the figment of your imagination? Are you dealing
in ambiguities? How can you hear what he says?
Listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 4. He
was taken into the wilderness from the Holy Spirit. took him
into the wilderness to do battle with Satan just after his baptism. And Jesus, Matthew 4, verse one,
then Jesus was led up of the spirit into the wilderness to
be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days
and 40 nights, he was afterwards and hungered. And when the tempter
came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command these
stones to be made bread. But he answered and said, it
is written. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. How
does man live? What is the food for sheep? You
have it in your laps, every word that comes out, every word. I
love the fact that for 20 odd years we have been harassed by
the religious world and I've been declared to be a false teacher
up and down all sorts of places and warned about anyone having
to It's been a journey that we would never have chosen, but
it's been a journey where we and I have been forced to continually
go back to the Scriptures and say, are we telling the truth?
Is this the Gospel? Is this really what God says?
And after all of those trials and all of those assaults like
all of the apostles went through, Not a single thing has changed.
Graham found in his house yesterday, I think it was, or the day before,
our very first bulletin from a long time ago. We probably
had others, but these were the first ones that were printed
out. And I reprinted it, didn't I, some years ago, and Graham
found it. Anyway, would you change a word, Graham? You wouldn't
change a word. wouldn't change a word. In fact,
all that God has done in all of those assaults has made us
more and more firmly grounded on the rock. The waves of this
world have washed us so sweetly up onto the rock that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. I do love that story of that
young fellow who was the only survivor of a shipwreck and he
was on a rock. He was washed up onto a rock.
And when they came to Rescue him the next morning. They said
to him, weren't you trembling and terrified here all night
and shaking? And he said, I was all night
long. And he said, but the rock didn't move one tiny little bit.
That's the rock I want us to be rocked on. That's the rock
that is high enough. Lead me to a rock that's higher
than me. Don't let me have anything. I
don't want to be fed by anything that's in me. I want to be fed
and I want to be led to a rock that's higher than us. Our rock,
Moses said, is not like their rock. The world around, whatever
you want to say it, has another rock. Every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God Jeremiah is told in the midst of an apostasy
which is similar to what we're living through these days, you
want to know what this religious world is like, you read Jeremiah
and Ezekiel and you get a very clear understanding, and all
the other prophets, but Jeremiah is told, you speak to them, you
speak the words, all the words that I command thee to speak
unto them, diminish not a word. I cease to be a faithful preacher
if I diminish the Word of God. I cease to be faithful if I change
and adjust the Word of God to suit the circumstances of what's
going on around me. We diminish, not a word. Isaiah is told, isn't it, to
the law and the testimony. He said, you seal it up. You
seal up this testimony. You put it like diamonds in a
beautiful bag. You tie the band tight. To the law and the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, Isaiah 8.20, it is
because there is no light in them. He doesn't say there's
a little bit of light in them. He says there's no light. What do the sheep feed on? They
feed on what the shepherds feed on. The shepherd's food is all
of the attributes of God. We read it this morning. Oh,
taste and see that the Lord is good. How good is God? How good
is God? Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him, the Lord is good. I'm to tell the sheep how good
God is. I'm to tell the sheep how great
he is. I'm to tell the sheep that you can feed, you can taste
it, you can taste how good he is. We can also taste how gracious
he is, 1 Peter 2.3. If so be you have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. God's sheep feed on the grace
of God, free grace, sovereign grace, electing grace, keeping
grace, preserving grace. If you want to know what grace
is, you take all of the attributes of God and put them in front
of it and then you'll have an idea of what grace is. I love
the grace of God. When God first began her work
in my heart many, many years ago, the whole notion of grace
just was so captivating to me. It was just so captivating. Norm's
going to do a series on the attributes of a God I'm looking forward
to, but I'll just read you. Divine grace is the sovereign
and saving favour of God, exercised in bestowing blessings upon those
who have no merit in them, and for which no compensation is
demanded. Nay more, it is the favour of
God to those who not only have no positive desserts of their
own, but also who are thoroughly ill-deserving and hell-deserving. It is completely unmerited and
unsought, and is altogether unattracted by anything in, or from, or by
the objects upon which it is bestowed. Grace cannot be bought,
earned, or won by the creature. If it could be, it would cease
to be grace. When a thing is said to be of
grace we mean that the recipient has no claim upon it and that
it was in no wise due him. It comes to him as pure charity
and at first unasked and undesired. I love that. That's how God's
dealt with me. I can feed on the fact that he
came to me Are you thirsty? If your soul
is thirsty, if you hunger and thirst after Christ, you'll rejoice
in that. Isaiah did. He says, ho, Isaiah
55 verse 1, ho everyone that thirsts us. You know these verses
of Scripture well. We've read them often. Ho everyone
that thirsts us. Isaiah 55. That means you don't bargain
with God. What God gives is the result of free and sovereign
grace. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, or your labour for that which
satisfy not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. 3. Incline your ear and come unto me." What did that
Lord say on that shore with him at the Camphylion? You come to
me. You come and dine. It's all ready. It's all done.
Incline your ear and come unto me. Here and your soul shall
live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. I can rest my head on my pillow,
thinking about that. I can go out into this world.
What are the sure mercies of David? The Lord Jesus Christ,
the blood of the eternal covenant. The very first public sermon
that's preached, you can read about it in Luke chapter 1, Zechariah
talks about the sure mercies of David. This page began, it's
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, a covenant of grace,
a covenant in his blood, the sure mercies of David. Before
Adam sinned, before the flood, before you came to this world,
you were saved. in the eternal covenant in the
grace and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Show me that in
scriptures, someone says. Okay, turn with me to 2 Timothy
chapter 1. Let's see what God says. Diminish not a word. 2 Timothy. Chapter 1. We feed and rest our souls on eternal
realities, the eternal union of the Lord Jesus Christ with
his people. I don't want to embarrass Graham,
but it was just lovely going to see June in those last days.
She said, I've heard about the union of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we know it and we believe it, but he's come to me so sweetly
in these last weeks that it's as if he's holding me in his
arms. and tell him again and again how much he loves me. 1 Timothy 1, I just read these
verses with me. He said, Be thou not therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. And listen to this. who hath
saved us, completed activity, and called us. What came first? What came first? The saving came
first, and then the calling, with a holy calling. If you're
in religion these days, as I was, that holy calling means it's
the calling for you to be holy. That's not what it means at all.
You're holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not about your works.
There's everything opposite to that in this. Listen to it. He saved us and called us with
an holy calling, not according to our works. Aren't you thrilled
about that? Does that feed your soul? Not according to our works,
but according to his own purpose and grace, the sure mercies of
David, which was given us in Christ Jesus when? the blessings of God's children. But is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Saviour. How does our Saviour appear today?
He appears in the preaching of the Gospel. He appears in the
feeding of His sheep. He comes as a shepherd to feed
His sheep. Now made manifest by the appearing
of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Listen to what He's done. Who
hath abolished death. Can you feed on that? and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Whereunto I am appointed a preacher
and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. All of us here
except Colin are Gentiles. That's good news for Gentiles,
isn't it? That's good news for Gentile dogs, isn't it? for which cause I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed,
listen to this, for I know whom I have believed. Not a what,
a whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word. Who's the one who feeds his sheep? The good shepherd feeds his sheep.
Isaiah 40 verse 11. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. Listen to what else he'll do.
He'll gather, he shall gather the lambs in his arm. What a picture. Are you a lamb? You come as little children.
He'll gather them in his arm and he'll carry them in his bosom
and gently and shall gently lead those which are young. He shall
feed. I love what he says, and let's
close with this in Luke chapter 12 verse 37. There'll come a
time, and the time is now for all of the
saints of God, when he comes and appears and feeds his people. Let's start in verse 36 of Luke
chapter 12. We're looking to Him. Verily I say unto you, that he,
the Lord, shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meet,
and will come forth and serve them. Who's the shepherd who
does the serving? Ay, he will feed his flock like
a shepherd. How do you know you've been fed? How do you know what happens
when you've been fed? And I've had a really lovely meal. I'm
satisfied and I rest. Don't you? I do. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that he who is the manna from heaven will bring that sweet
manna to feed our souls. He who is the Great Shepherd,
will feed us with his broken body and his shed blood. Heavenly
Father we thank you that this is real food for the souls of
your people, real drink for the thirst of your people. Oh Heavenly
Father what a Saviour we have, what a glorious, glorious Saviour. How precious his words, how wondrous
the grace that you have bestowed upon us. How wonderful his mercy,
what depths of love, what wonders of union, what eternal and glorious
promises we read. Oh Father, you can cause us to
be hungry and thirst after righteousness. But we beg of you to fill us
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us heavenly Father by your
grace. to eat and drink in remembrance
of him, and to proclaim his death until he come again, and doing
so in faith that rests on him and him alone. For we pray for
the glory of your holy name, our father, and for the good
of all your sheep that he feeds. Bless us for Christ's sake. Amen.