Alright brethren, John chapter
21. The apostles had fled that night that our Lord
was crucified and Peter had denied the Lord three times as the Lord
said he would. And the apostles had come to
Galilee but they had left where the Lord had told them to go,
and they went fishing. And the Lord appeared, and He
revealed Himself in their heart by His Word. He filled their
net with fish. He called them to Himself. He
had a meal prepared for them. He said, Come and dine. And He
gave the food to each of them that morning. And it says, verse
14, this is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to
his disciples. After that, he was risen from
the dead. This is the third time. And yet up to this point, the
Lord Jesus had not spoken to Peter concerning his denial of
the Lord. Our Lord had interceded for Peter. That's why his faith did not
fail. Our Lord had laid down his life for Peter, put away
his sin. Our Lord had protected Peter.
Our Lord had called him to himself and fed him. But he hadn't yet
spoken to him about his denial. This reminds me of the Lord's
dealing with Elijah that I talked about this morning. When Elijah was lifted up in
pride and his faith just disappeared and he became fearful of men,
he ran into the wilderness, dropped off his servant at Judah and
he kept on going into the wilderness. He went under a juniper tree
and just laid down and went to sleep. He's directly running
from where the Lord told him to be. running from what the
Lord gave him to do, the commission the Lord had given him to prophesy. And he's in the middle of the
wilderness, asleep under a juniper tree. And you might expect that
the Lord would make it start raining on him because he was
sinning against the Lord, denying the Lord. Or maybe you'd think
the Lord would send a storm or something, you know. Here's what
the Lord did. He sent an angel and touched
him and said to him, arise and eat. And he looked and there
was a cake baking on the coals and a cruise of water at his
head. Later, the Lord spoke in a still
small voice and restored Elijah, but first he fed him. He fed
him. Up to this point, the Lord had
said nothing about Peter's denial. He first fed him. He drew him
to himself and he fed him. Despite his denial, despite his
not waiting on the Lord, despite him, despite him, the Lord came and
drew Peter to himself. God said, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love. That's what he says to his people.
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore in lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. And though we fail and fail and
fail, the Lord never stops loving His
people and never stops drawing us to Him in lovingkindness.
We don't like to see brethren fall, but we sure are thankful
for the falls recorded in the Scripture because we get to see
how our Lord dealt with His people and how He restored His people.
And that gives us some hope and faith to know that's what He's
going to do for us. He brought Peter and these others
to see their inability. They had fished all night. They
didn't catch anything. And then He revealed Himself
to them. He filled their net. He drew them to Him and He fed
them. He said, Come and dine. It was all done. Christ is going
to first, when He begins to restore His child, He's going to make
you hear this gospel again, that it is all done. He's going to
make you hear the gospel because it's Christ that restores, so
we have to behold Him. We have to be made to see our
Lord Jesus Christ. The flesh is only mortified when
we're not looking at ourselves. That's the only way your flesh
is mortified. And the Spirit does that through
the gospel, turning us to Him. And that's why Paul said in Colossians
3, after he talked about Colossians 2, he said, all is touch not,
taste not. It has a real good show about
it in will worship. And it satisfies the flesh, but
it does not mortify the flesh. Sets your affection on things
above. And that's what the Spirit turns us to do and hear Christ
declare, the work is finished, I've justified you. That's what
He's going to speak to His people. I've put away your sin. You're
righteous. You're not going to perish. That's the only way you're going
to be settled to hear Him and to be taught by Him. As long
as you think you're under condemnation, you're going to fear and tremble
and run and choke and die. You're not going to bow and hear
Him. Judgment won't do anything. That's
what the Lord taught Elijah. That strong wind and that earthquake
and all that, that didn't work anything in Elijah's heart. The
Lord wasn't in it. We saw this tornado that hit
Mississippi Friday night, and you wake up Saturday morning
and see the devastation. That's not going to bring anybody
to repentance. God's going to do it through
the gospel with a still, small voice speaking into your heart.
That's when Elijah came out of the cave and put his mantle on
his face and covered his face. And that's what the Lord's going
to do first is draw us through this gospel to know He's still
your wisdom, He's still your righteousness, He's still your
sanctification and your redemption. He's showing you He's your sanctification
because He's drawing you out of, away from yourself, away
from your flesh, away from your fall, back to Him. That's what
true sanctification is. You're in Him. You're in the
Spirit. He's going to keep you in Him.
He's going to keep you in the tower. He can keep you walking
after Him in that state. Your heart's holy. He just has
to establish you, your heart, to know in Him you're unblameable
and holy. And He's the meat. He's the bread.
So he finds his straying sheep and draws us to him and says,
come and dine. You know when he said, except
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.
Christ is the bread of life. That applies to when he first
calls you, you don't have any life until you believe him. You
eat his flesh and drink his blood. But that applies to us throughout
the days of this pilgrimage through this wilderness. The only way
you're going to have life in you is to eat His flesh and drink
His blood. That means you're going to have
to hear Christ and hear what He accomplished and He's going
to have to bless it to our heart and make you believe Him just
like it's the first day you ever believed Him. Because He's the
life. We don't have it any other way.
We don't have it any other way. He's the life. He's the life. And He's going to speak that
Word of Life into you. That's how He's going to begin
restoring His child. Verse 15 says, So when they had
dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
Me more than these? Later, John is going to walk
up behind them. It says He was following them. So obviously the Lord, after
they dined, the Lord took Peter for a walk down the beach, down
the shore of Galilee. This is personal between Christ
and His disciple. It's going to be personal between
you and the Lord. Nobody else can do this but the
Lord. And it's going to be very personal
between you and the Lord. Peter had suffered long enough
And the Lord's not going to, He's not there to shame him,
He's there to restore him. He's there to restore him. Now notice the name by which
the Lord addressed Peter. He said in verse 15, Simon, son
of Jonas. That was his natural name. That was the name given him when
he was born the first time. Dead and trespassing and sin.
That's his name as the son of Jonah, as the son of Adam, as
the sinner. Peter is the name the Lord gave
him when he gave him a new heart and called him to faith in Christ. Just like he called Saul of Tarsus,
Saul was his name when he was dead in sin, Paul was the name
the Lord gave him when he gave him a new heart. Simon was the
name the Lord used when He asked, what think you of Christ? And
the apostles gave a good answer. And that's the name the Lord
used when he said, Simon, flesh and blood didn't reveal this
to you. Simon, you didn't reveal this to you. My Father which
is in heaven revealed this to you. Flesh, prophets, nothing. Those born of God have an old
man of sin that is of Adam, and we have a new man that's created
of Christ, that's of Christ. The old man is sin, always will
be sin, produces nothing but sin, and will die and go back
to the dust because of sin. The new man is created of our
Lord Jesus in His image, holy in His holiness, with His presence
in you, righteous by His finished work at Calvary, imputed to you,
And it's in this new man that He makes you worship Him. It's
in this new man that He gives you faith, repentance, joy, peace,
long-suffering, temperance. Everything is in the new man. And so using this name Simon
here, one thing it's going to remind Peter, he's still a sinner. He's still Simon. He's still
Simon. But it also reminds him, since
he doesn't go by the name Simon, he goes by Peter, it also reminds
him he is also a born again child of God that's been given a new
name. He's a sinner that's been redeemed,
that's been clothed in Christ's righteousness through faith. It's reminding him of the Lord's
love and grace that called him out of the darkness into the
light. And here he is again, calling
him out of the darkness into the light. But the last time Peter heard
the Lord address him as Simon, do you remember when it was? The last time he heard him address
him as Simon, he said, y'all are all gonna forsake me tonight.
You're gonna deny me? It's written. The sheep shall
be smitten. I mean, the shepherd shall be
smitten. I will smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.
It's written. Brethren, some of your faults and my faults,
well, all of them, God's sovereign, they're already written. God
already knows them. They're written. The Lord told
them, you're gonna deny me. And Peter said, although all
shall be offended, yet will not I. They all will. But I love you more than they
do. And I will not, I will die with you, Lord. And the Lord said to him, Simon,
Simon, because that's who was speaking when he bragged about
what he'd do, what he had done. That was Simon. That wasn't Peter.
He said, Simon, Simon, the devil has desired to have you. He might
shift you as wheat. but I've prayed for you that
your faith fell not." You know what he told Simon? He said,
if I wasn't for saving you by my intercession, you would perish. You would certainly perish. That
was when the Lord rebuked Peter. He's not here to rebuke him.
He's here to restore him. But Peter had to experience this
fall. He was too proud. He was too
self-confident. And he had to experience it.
And you and me, brethren, are going to have to experience a
lot of falls. That's just all there is to it.
We just are. I've experienced a fall, and
it's for one reason, pride. Pride. And you will too, and
we will again. The Lord had told him beforehand
he was going to deny the Lord three times. He had told him
that. And so when he says, Simon, Simon,
You can just picture Peter thinking about when he said, I will not
deny you, Lord. I love you more than all these. That's when the Lord called him
Simon before. And now he knows I did exactly
what the Lord said I would do. I denied him three times and
then a rooster crowed, just like he said it would. Just like he
said I would. And so Peter knows. The Lord
knows. The Lord knows. That's what Peter
knows now. The Lord knows. The Lord knows. And so he answers differently
now than he did before the fall. He says, yes, Lord. Thou knowest that I love you. And the word he uses here is
not the word the Lord used when the Lord said, do you love me?
Not the same word. The word Peter used is, he said,
yes Lord, you know I have strong affection for you. The Lord knows our heart of flesh.
He knows all your sin before you ever committed. He had to
know it. He took it all upon Himself and
laid down His life for His people and put it away. And He knows every fall, every
step, every thought, everything about our sinful flesh. He knows
it. And when you see what our Lord
told Peter and how He told Peter, He knew that Peter would deny
Him. That is even a comfort to know
for a child of God. He knows my sin before I do it. That means He knows what I need
before I know what I need, because He knows what I'll do before
I know what I'm going to do. That blesses my heart. That comforts
my heart. But there's something else here
that comforts a child of God. He also knows the new heart He's
created in you. And that's what Peter is saying.
He's saying, Lord, you know my new heart. But Peter, having
fallen, he's not going to boast now and use that strong word
for love. And he didn't say, I love you
more than them. He just said, Lord, you know,
I have strong affection for you and left it at that. He didn't
say, I love you more than they do this time. Why? He found out he didn't. He found out he didn't. He found
out he didn't believe near as strongly as he thought he did.
He found out he wasn't near the courageous believer ready to
die with the Lord that he thought he was. He found out his love
was very small. And that's what the Lord's teaching
you and me, brethren. The trial is going to humble
us. It's going to teach us that when we've gotten too big for
our britches, the Lord's going to teach us that we're personally
still the sinner, and He knows it. He knows it. He's going to make us see ourselves
as less than the least, and through this ongoing, eventually He's
going to make you see yourself as the chief of sinners. It's called growth in grace. Growing to know Him more. Growing
to see Him higher. Growing to see Him as being all
your righteousness more. Being made to see Him as everything
more and more. And the more that light shines,
the more it reveals all the cracks and crevices and broken down
dilapidated parts of this building we dwell in. And so you're humbled as that
light shines more and more. That's now, as scripture said
earlier, people say our rock's not like their rock. Well, it's
not, and neither is that work of grace right there either,
like what people say. People think you're getting more,
better, better, better, and prouder, prouder, prouder, and more courageous,
more courageous, till you can just face death like a valiant
champion. It's not like that. It's just
the opposite of that. If the world tells you something,
shut it out because they're telling you the opposite of what this
book says. You see, the only reason we love
the Lord is because He first loved us. And that's what we
see happening right here with Peter right now. The only reason
Peter has been called back to the Lord and is being taught
and restored by the Lord is because the Lord first did this for him
to bring him to him. The Lord is first loving him
to bring Peter to love the Lord. Again, again. We love Him because He first
loved us. He chose His people in eternity
because He loved us in Christ freely. That means when the Lord
gives you spiritual gifts, brethren, He's not going to get mad at
you when you don't do something right and take those spiritual
gifts away from you. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He will take temporal things
from you because we're like a I don't know, we're like a baby
with a pacifier. Or we don't want to put something
that shouldn't be in our mouth in our mouth, and He takes it
out. But He's going to keep the Spirit
in you, and keep you knowing, and loving you, and drawing you
to Him. Because we love Him because He first loved us. Now verse
15, He said to him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
And the Lord said to him, feed my lambs. They're my lambs, Peter. They're my lambs. They're weak,
they're small, they're frail, but they're my lambs, Peter.
Feed them. He said to him again a second
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Again, he uses that
strong, strong word for love. Peter said, yes, Lord. Thou knowest
that I have strong affection for you. And he said to him,
feed my sheep. They're my sheep, Peter. My father
chose them in divine election. I purchased them with my blood.
The Spirit of God called them. I'm keeping them. I'm their shepherd.
Feed them with this. Tell them this. Teach them this.
Feed them. He said to him the third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? At that time, the Lord didn't
use the strong word. He said, Peter, do you have strong
affection for me? He used the lesser word at that
time. Peter was grieved because he said to him the third
time, Lovest thou me? And he said to him, Lord, Thou
knowest all things. Thou knowest that I have strong
affection for you. And Jesus said to him, feed my
sheep. Our Lord, this last time, used that weaker word that Peter
used. Peter couldn't get up to that
strong word. He just had been humbled and
broken hearted to where he could not bring him to say, Lord, I
love you with strong love. He knew better. He said, Lord,
I've got strong affection for you. And the Lord's so gracious. He's so gracious. He did not
press Peter to use that stronger word. The Lord condescended to
Peter's low estate, and used the word Peter used. Scripture tells us, mind not
high things, but condescend to men of low estate, and be not
wise in our own conceits. Well, this third time Peter was
grieved, and it doesn't mean that he was offended. That's
not what it means. means he was sorrowful in his
heart. Peter had denied the Lord three
times, and after that third denial, that rooster crowed, and the
Lord looked on Peter with pity and compassion and mercy. How do you know that, Clay? Because
Peter went out and wept bitterly. That's how I know it. It's the
goodness of God that leads you to repentance. Now, in the same mercy and love
and pity, our Lord is drawing this confession out of Peter
three times. Three times Peter could not use
that stronger word, he uses this weaker word. And I'm sure with that third
time he said it, Peter sees the Lord's mercy and his love has
not changed to him despite Peter's denial, despite Peter's pride,
despite all the things he did. And this third time, thinking
about how he denied the Lord three times, and yet how merciful
and gracious the Lord is to him, it broke his heart all over again. He wept. Grieved. That's a strong word. That's
a spiritual grieving that goes on in the heart. that only the
Lord can produce. Remember, the Lord told him at
the beginning, He said, when you're converted, strengthen
your brethren, Peter. Each of these questions, the
Lord's showing the love and humility with which he restores us. The
Lord's meek, he's lowly. He came to Peter and even came
down to Peter in using this lesser word. That's where Peter learned
to submit one to another in humility. I'm sure he was taught this many
times again, just like we are, but that's where he learned the
lowliness of mind of our Lord and how he brings us to esteem
others better. And the Lord not only forgave
him his sin and restored him, the Lord said, now, Peter, you
can go feed my sheep. Before, in that spirit you had
before where you was a cocksure and you knew everything, you
couldn't feed them. Now you can feed them because you know you
are the vile sinner and Christ is the Savior. Now you can feed
them. When he washed their feet, Peter
objected. Remember that? Peter objected.
You'll never wash my feet, Lord. And the Lord told Peter, he said,
what I'm doing now, Peter, you don't know, but you will know
later. And the Lord had just done it
for him. Now Peter knows what he meant by washing the feet.
Peter knows what that is. Peter saw his own sinfulness.
He saw his own instability. He saw his insufficiency. He
saw his own weakness. He saw his own need of mercy.
but he experienced the unchanging, unchangeable, sovereign love
of God to restore his people. The Lord taught Peter right here
what it is to wash his brethren's feet and to restore the fallen
by feeding his sheep with this good news. That's how you wash
the feet of your brethren with this good news of Christ and
His everlasting love, His eternal righteousness, His complete salvation
of His people, and how He never will leave us, He will not forsake
us, He will restore us. This is how you wash the feet
of your brethren. How do I know it? It's how He
washed you when He first called you. We don't have an evangelical
message and a message for others. We have a message of Christ to
Him crucified. And the Lord is doing the work
through this message from the beginning to the end. But He's going to use much affliction.
He's going to make us experience His love after our falls. He has to bring us to say, and
not be so proud, and make us say, I've fallen. I've fallen. And it's going to be between
you and Him. It's going to be between you and Him. You see,
really, you can't sin against your brethren. They're sinners
too. You can only sin against the
Holy God. And it's going to be between you and Him. Now, this is what he's going
to keep teaching, where sin abounds, His grace is much more bound.
Now verse 18, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast
young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest.
But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands,
and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest
not. And this spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify
God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, Follow me. Peter
had said, Lord, I won't deny you. I'm ready to die with you. And Peter had tried to show that
in the Garden of Gethsemane when he drew that fisherman's knife
and cut off that soldier's ear. But the Lord told him, put that
up. That's not the weapon of our warfare. And so Peter thinks, I failed
to show him I'm willing to die for him. And the Lord says to him here,
Peter, you couldn't die with me before, because that was your
will. That was your strength and what
you mighty Peter would do. And if you had laid down your
life for me, the devil would have won that victory. But you haven't missed out on
the opportunity to be killed for my sake. You're going to
be. That's what he's telling Peter.
It's not going to be by your will, it's going to be by God's
will. And he said, they're going to bind you, and they did, and
they bound him and they crucified him. It was by God's will and God's
time. You know, God's going to even get to glory, if He makes
us martyrs, He's going to get to glory for that. If He makes
you a martyr, you're going to be killed at His appointed time,
and it's going to glorify Him. So the Lord says to him, now
follow Me. Follow Me. That's the only way
you're going to run this race. Follow Me. Look to Me. Trust
Me. Now the Lord had taken Peter
along, and I just picture them walking along talking as they've
been saying this. Peter looks behind him, it says
verse 20, then Peter turning about sees the disciple whom
Jesus loved following him. John has walked up behind him.
Verse 21, and Peter seeing him said to Jesus, Lord, and what
shall this man do? Brethren, don't think that when the Lord
has You've experienced a fall, and the Lord's chasing you, and
He's restored you. Don't think that's going to be
the last time. Don't think that you won't need it again. We saw
Thursday night how David said, It's been good for me that I've
been afflicted, Lord, that I might learn your statutes. And he said,
Before I went astray, but afterwards I kept your word. You're going
to find the last verse of that Psalm saying, Lord, I've gone
astray like a lost sheep. Save me. See, we're slow learners like
Peter. Just think about this. The Lord
had just restored him. The Lord had just showed him
all this love that only the Lord could do. He showed him what
only the Lord could do for him. And just that quick, Peter turns
around and says, well, what about this man? And the Lord said, if I will, if it's my will that
he lives till I come again, what's that to you? What business is
that of yours, Peter, what I do with him? Why are you meddling
in his business? Now listen to this word. Follow
thou me. You follow me. The Lord's word to Peter here
was much, much, much stronger than when he restored Peter.
The Lord was gracious. He was pitiful towards sinners,
fallen in sin when He walked us there. He just always was.
He received them, He saved them, restored them, healed them. The
Lord was very, very strong toward anybody who was critical of His
people. And so the Lord spoke more strongly
here to Peter. But get what our Lord's teaching,
brethren. It's our business and our only business to each one
follow the Lord, our own selves. Now, you can help your brother
by encouraging them, look to Christ. Turn from all this and
look to Christ. Hear Christ. You can encourage
your brother like Abraham did Isaac. My son, God will provide. He will provide himself. That's
the best thing you can tell people. That's what's going to mortify
the flesh if we want to provide for ourselves or for somebody
else. The Lord will provide. The Lord
will provide. You can do good things for your
brother. You can help your brethren. You
can restore and be merciful like the Lord was to them. But we
ourselves have to follow the Lord our own selves. Your brother has a master. And
his master is who he stands or falls to. And his master will
make him stand. That Master is Christ, and you
have a Master who knows Him. And you fall, and He makes you
stand. And Peter's learning, the Lord
works, He accomplishes the same affliction in your brethren as
He's accomplishing in you. If He's done that in us, we believe
that, and we know that's so. Why would we speak any other
word than that? The Lord will provide Himself.
The Lord will make you stand, brother. So I want to summarize. Go with
me to 1 Peter 5. You know I can't end this without
reading this. It's just what Peter, everything
the Lord taught Peter that day. He said here, the elders, verse
5, chapter 5, the elders which are among you, I exhort, I'm
also an elder, I'm a witness of the sufferings of Christ and
also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed
the flock of God which is among you. That's what the Lord told
him, feed my sheep. take their oversight, not by
constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready
mind, not being lords over God's heritage, spinning samples to
the flock. Christ came down to Peter and
condescended to restore him. He says, and when the chief shepherd
shall appear, he's the shepherd. and you'll receive a crown of
glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, you younger, submit
yourselves to the elder." This is what Peter had not done. He
didn't submit to Christ. That's why he failed. He says,
now you submit to the elder. You all be subject one to another.
You all submit to one another. Be clothed with humility. God
resisteth the proud and gives grace to the humble. Peter knows
that, don't he? He didn't know that before. But
he knew that after he proudly said, I won't deny you. He found
that out. Humble yourselves, therefore,
unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time. When our Lord said, Peter, what's that to you? Follow thou
me. Here's what the Lord was teaching him. Cast all your care
upon him for he cared for you. That's what the Lord was teaching
Peter. You cast on all your care. Not
John's care. You cast your care on me and
you follow me. I'll care for John. I'll make
him cast his care on me. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil is a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom
he may devour. You find that out when you fall. And he'll devour you in a heartbeat.
Peter learned that too. Whom resists steadfast in the
faith, that's the only way you're going to resist the devil. This
is all I've been trying to say for 15 years. Have your affection
on Christ. Have your book, nose in the book.
Have your heart pointed to heaven. It's only going to be by looking
and trusting Christ to defeat the devil that you're going to
defeat the devil. It's only by trusting Christ you're going
to do anything. But with Him, you can do all things. And it
don't take but a grain of mustard seed faith to do it. Watch this. And do this knowing,
verse 9, the same afflictions. I'm trying to do them in your
brethren. No, I'm accomplishing them in your brethren. Just what
I'm accomplishing in you, I'm accomplishing it in your brethren
that are in the world. But here's something else Peter
learned, but the God of all grace who called us, he learned he's
the God of all grace, didn't he? But the God of all grace
who called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
you've suffered a while, you'll deny him, you'll fall, and you'll
suffer for a little while, but he'll make you perfect. Establish
you, strengthen you, and settle you. And who you gonna glorify? When He does this, who you gonna
glorify? To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. If
that's wrong, if that's a false gospel, I'll go to hell believing it.
because I believe Him. And I don't think everyone, nobody
ever did yet believe in that gospel, believe in that Savior. Amen.