Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to the gospel according to John chapter 21. John 21, reading for our text, verses 15, 16 and 17. Feed my lambs, feed my sheep. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to 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. 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. He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of 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. The Gospel according to John 21 verses 15 through to 17.

Peter was commissioned by the Lord to do two things in his ministry. The first was to strengthen his brethren in Luke 22, 32. The second is here, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, John 21, 15 to 17. Last week we considered the first, that is, strengthen my brethren. And this Thursday, the second, and feed my lambs, feed my sheep. And then if the Lord will, on the following Thursdays, I want to consecutively go through the epistles of Peter, tracing out where Peter does strengthen his brethren and does feed the lambs and feed the sheep. as he was commissioned to do through the means of that epistle and setting before the Church of God to the end of time the fruit, you might say, of the Lord's commission.

Now, the Lord's commission here to Peter is part of his restoration. We saw last time how Peter had denied his Lord three times that he ever knew Him. And though he went out and wept bitterly afterwards, yet it is on this occasion the Lord brings him to three times have the opportunity to testify his love to his Lord.

You know, it is not the Lord's will that we never fall. Our Lord had prayed that Peter's faith fail not. He had not prayed that he would not deny him. The great thing is where our faith does not fail, though we fall, we shall rise again. There will be restoring. It's like a tree, a sapling perhaps, and the wind blows upon it and it bends over. And you wonder, is it upright? Will it ever stand again? And when the wind is gone, there it comes upright and it stands again. And the people of God, like David, who fell most grievously, yet he was restored and brought again. And this is the path for the people of God. They're not to despair. They're not to view their falls as that they are cast away from the Lord.

These examples of some of the giants of the word of God, King David, a man after God's own heart, And Peter here, so greatly used of the Lord, so greatly used to preach the sermon at Pentecost and the sermon 10 years later with Cornelius in the calling of the Gentiles with the Holy Spirit then. Peter so greatly used, and yet he fell, and yet he, like David, was restored. And the Lord then comes to him, and remember, It was three times that Peter had said he did not know the Lord, so it's three times here the Lord is asking him this question, lovest thou me?

You might think the Lord should have said, Peter, do you still love me? Or to say to him as a way of restoring, Peter, I still love thee, in spite of thy denials, of even knowing me, I still love thee. But what is at the foundation of this is what we read in John's epistles. We love him because he first loved us. The only way that we know that God loves us is by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. When we have a love to the Lord, then we know that we only can have that love because he first loved us. And so that is why the Lord is asking Peter, lovest thou me?

The first time he asked in verse 15, there's another test you might say, because Peter says, though all men forsake thee, yet will not I. Now, all the disciples forsook him and fled. Peter, he stayed, but then he denied. But our Lord then adds this, lovest thou me more than these? Questioning him, Peter, do you really love me more than these other disciples that you thought they would all forsake but not you?

Peter was humbled through this. The Lord used him. We are not to rise up in pride over our brethren. It's so easy to do. We are so prone to do it. And the Lord knows how to bring down those high looks and bring down our pride so that we don't lord it over our brethren. And so Peter had to answer these three times. Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. The last time when he is grieved and he adds a bit more, he says, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.

This really should be a comfort to us all. The Lord does know all things. And when we are in sin, yes, it's a It's a solemn searching thing to know that the Lord knows our very thoughts and all our rebellings and everything. But the Lord knows also when He restores us, when He gives us His love, when we feel that love and union and faith strong in Him again, when the world loses its power and strength. And we are not ashamed of the Lord when we are able to testify of Him before men. as Peter here was called to do.

So the Lord balanced this. Every time that, this must have been a very piercing question, must have hurt Peter in a way, in a sense, to have to be asked, we read, he was grieved because he asked him that third time. But each time he balanced it, our Lord balanced it with this commission. Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. As if the Lord would say, Peter, you have denied me, but I am still going to bless you and use you to minister to what is very precious to me, my sheep and my lambs. And that, in a way, must have been an encouragement.

And do watch this, friends. Where the Lord may chasten us, where the Lord may lay his hand upon us, where he may discourage us for finding out our pride and we are laid low. Watch to see if he doesn't balance it. Balance it with one poor soul that's been helped perhaps through the ministry or something that the Lord has used us to do or given us the opportunity to do and to walk in. so that he balances these things. It's not all against us. It's not all pain. There's something to encourage. Notice the Lord's encouragements to us. He does not crush and defeat the sons of men. He doesn't delight to do that. We that have children, if we have to reprove them, we'd like also to in some way find something to encourage them and to lift them up. And the Lord used this method here.

Well, I'm looking at this evening, not really at Peter and the call, the question, lovest thou me? but the commission, that which the Lord charged him to do. And really, this is one end of the time that he was in Satan's sieve. The other end was the other commission. Strengthen thy brethren when thou art converted or when thou art restored. And I think as we said last week, a lot of the time strengthening and feeding are the same. If we think of it in a natural way, if we hadn't food for a long while we'd be very weak. We think of David finding the Egyptian in the field after Ziklag had been taken and burned with fire, and he was very faint, he hadn't eaten for three days. They gave him a cake of figs, they gave him things to strengthen him, to give him some energy, and he revived, he was strengthened. And so through food, through feeding, we are strengthened. but there is aspects in the strengthening that is not in the feeding. There's aspects with feeding that is not covered by the strengthening. So those two parts are needed. So I want to look this evening firstly at our Lord's, Lamb's and sheep, those that he would have Peter and every minister of the gospel to feed. And then secondly, the food to be fed to them. What are they going to feed them? And where does it come from? And then thirdly, the means by which God's people are fed. In this way, God is going to use Peter. Peter, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. We have to notice the means. So I want to look firstly at our Lord's lambs and sheep. Our Lord is coming again to The beautiful theme that is in John chapter 10 and in Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leadeth me beside in green pastures, beside the still waters. We sang a rendering of that by Watts in our first hymn. But in John 10, the Lord speaks of himself as the good shepherd. And then he speaks of the sheep, that they are his sheep. And when he putteth forth his sheep, then he goeth before them. And he speaks of those that were his sheep, or are his sheep, that they were the father's. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me. And he speaks of himself as going before those sheep. As a shepherd, of course, a shepherd would seek out pasture and places where they are to feed, where they are to lay down. He'd watch over them, he keeps them. He says in verse 11 of chapter 10, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. When we're thinking of the lambs and the sheep here, The good shepherd has given his life for them. And he says, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. It's a two way thing. The sheep, they know the Lord and the Lord knows them. And he says, I lay down my life for the sheep. Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. That is, not of the Jewish fold, but of the Gentiles. So our Lord here, this is a parable. He's referring not to sheep literally, but to people, to his people, those that were chosen in him from the foundation of the world, those given by the Father to him to redeem. He's speaking of them as his sheep and he is the shepherd. One thing I've often noted in relation to this parable is that in Bible times, that the shepherd was always with the sheep. If you went to find a shepherd today, wherever it was, you'd probably go to his house and there would be the shepherd and the sheep would be out in the fields. But in Bible times, if you went to find the shepherd, you'd find him with the sheep. And he, at night, like the shepherds when our Lord was born, they were with the sheep. And the Lord says here that I am the door. And when they had this circular sheepfold with the one opening, he would sit in the door. He would be the door. He would be in the opening. And when they came in and when they went out, they would pass under his rod. He would count them in and count them out. He knew those were his sheep and he watched over them. And so we have this picture, this beautiful analogy of a shepherd caring for sheep. And if we think of that, what power, what strength have the sheep got? If the sheep went astray, Do you think the shepherd would follow after them and beat them? Or would he not go and find them and search them out? Our Lord told the parable concerning repentance, concerning a person that had a hundred sheep. If one go lost, does not he leave the ninety and nine and go after that which is lost? The whole picture with the sheep and lambs is a people that have no strength of their own. It has been said that of all animals that there are, that sheep, they need to have one to care over them. You couldn't turn a sheep loose into the wild and expect it to survive. For one thing, the wool would just grow and grow and grow. Sometimes you might see a picture of a sheep that the wool has just grown, and it is not shed, it needs clipping, it needs caring, and they are most dependent. And it is a beautiful type, a beautiful type of God's children, dependent upon their Lord, and of the good shepherd who cares for sheep, though they're helpless, though they're needy, though they're dependent upon him to provide for them food and everything. So the Lord's lambs and Lord's sheep, a difference amongst them. In this parable in John 10, we don't read the lambs, but here you do. And of course, in a flock, you will have the lambs and you'll have the sheep, you'll have the young ones, And the older ones, the lambs at first, all they can have is milk. And then later on, they'll grow up to have the grass. And the same is in the things of God. When a person is first born again of the spirit, they are as little children, they are as lambs. They are those like the lambs that can just have milk. They're like a child that must have milk first and then soft things, and then later on the diet changes. But there are those that then are born again. They're born of the spirit. They begin small. They know but little. They feel it. They feel they know little, but the Lord would have both the lambs and the sheep to be fed. One thing that is common with God's people, whether they've been long in the way or short, whether they know much or little, whether they are the little ones or whether they are those nearing their journey's end, they all need feeding. And Peter was charged to feed them both. It's a real encouragement to us and to know that we do need that feeding. The children of Israel, when they went through the wilderness, one of the things, of course, that they needed was food. And we read in John 6 the reference to manna from heaven. And the Lord withheld not that manna from their mouths. He provided it. The people of God were his sheep going through that wilderness journey. And so a people that have been called, a people that are a spiritual people, they need spiritual food, they need feeding. And as our Lord said, as a reply to Satan when he tempted him, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread, He said to him, man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. If we are not quickened into life, then we have no capability of receiving spiritual food. We have no capability or desire after that sustenance for a soul that in us is dead. But if we are alive, That soul will crave and long for food. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. And we can say that where Peter is directed to feed lambs and sheep, that those lambs and sheep, they have an appetite, they have a need. And so may we be encouraged, whether we're young in the way or long, May we be encouraged to think that here is the Lord, and he's referring to his people as lambs, as sheep, and he's referring to it in this way, such a beautiful way, really. He says, in each charge, feed my lambs. He identifies with them every time. Not the goats, not someone else's, But my, he says they are his, they are my sheep. May we always remember this. Those of us who preach, we're preaching to God's children. They're his, he owns them. They're precious to him, he loves them.

May you that hear the word of God think if we are numbered amongst God's children, if he has given us an appetite and desire, he is making sure. that our souls be fed. May we have that expectancy to receive from the Lord that which we can digest, that which we can meditate upon, that which shall do us good. Really, we think of the sheep as those that also chewed the cud. They were clean beasts. They parted the hoof and they chewed the cud. on the side of God's people, separated from the world, and they go over the word of God. The sheep doesn't just take the food once, it brings it up again into his second stomach, goes over it, chews it, and it goes again to the second stomach. It gains from the word. Not only once, but twice. We think of the Bereans. They searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so. They'd heard it once. They've heard it by Paul, but then they went over it. And this then is marking out these sheep and these lambs by their character, by their dependence, by their humility, by their lowliness, by their innocence, you might say, by their appetite, by their desire that they have for that which the shepherd provides for them.

May it be our early desire that we might be amongst the lambs, amongst the sheep, amongst those that are the Lord's people, that are described here, that He is taking care, that they are provided for and fed. I want to look then secondly at the food to be fed them. We do have to be very careful on this. Firstly, the source of that food is from the Lord. It's not from Peter. It's not from us. The sheep are not ours and the food is not ours. It is the Lord that provides both. It's important to Remember that, because that also leads especially to the type of food. Now we read in John 6. Now, there are many things that through the ministry must be taught, many doctrines, many words are found, were my thy words were found and I did eat them, says Jeremiah, they were to the joy and rejoicing of my soul." And we need that doctrine. We need the teaching, my doctrine shall drop as the rain and distill as the dew. And we need that which is spoken of and referred to in Hebrews 5, where our Lord, in a way, reproves them of the Hebrews. He says in verse 12 or verse 11, of whom that is speaking of Melchizedek, we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. So his teaching of Melchizedek is a time of the high priest. For when for the time when ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. that is, speaking of the food for the lambs and food for the sheep. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern good and evil." We'd be worried if we had a child that always only wanted milk or child's or baby's food. We'd expect them to grow and their appetite to grow and what they ate to be varied according to that.

And the apostle here was speaking to the Hebrews that he couldn't go into the deep doctrines. They were not ready to receive them. They needed to be taught the first principles, first principles that of Christ's coming, being made a man and dwelt among us, the eternal Son of God made flesh and dwelt among us, the first principles of Christ's suffering and dying in our place, and his life being a perfect righteousness imputed to believers, those first principles about God, about the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is, the whole Trinity, the Holy Spirit, those things that are taught, Christ's death, Christ's resurrection.

And there are many other things that we would then go on to know a bit more depth to the teaching as to how and why we are blessed and God's perfect plan and purposes for his people. And so he, Paul, he goes on in Hebrews 6, he says, the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do if God permit." And he's going on then to teach more things, further things.

the doctrines of the faith. The food is, the doctrine is the teaching of the word. But one thing to be utterly remembered, that Christ is the centre of it. And why I really emphasise this, even those that are not enlightened can in one sense, get along quite well with some of the doctrines and teaching of the word, and especially if we were to, say, be preaching some of the parables or some of the Old Testament accounts and stories, you could have a sermon and you could leave out Christ. And you could be gathering together, gathering amongst God's people, and thinking, well, I'm a sheep and I'm a lamb, and yet your appetite is not for that which is the real separating thing.

And this is what the Lord does in John 6. John 6 is a very, very important chapter, going from natural bread, that which the Lord did in feeding the 5,000 with the loaves and the fishes, and then going to spiritual bread, labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the sudden man shall give unto you, there's the source of it, for him hath God the Father sealed. And this is what is so dividing, and it was in this account, because our Lord is insisting on a spiritual aspect.

You think of how our Lord does this, is going through the Gospel according to John. He speaks in John 3 of the new birth, and when Nicodemus can't understand it, he emphasises it again and again, he must be born again. Nicodemus is thinking of natural. Our Lord is speaking of spiritual.

Here, our Lord is insisting, except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. When they're saying this, it's a hard saying. Who can hear it? They can't understand this. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And yet our Lord again is bring them off natural to spiritual. They are to understand it in a spiritual way. He says so clearly in verse 51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

And this then caused the Jews to strive amongst themselves. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And that's where the Lord reinforces it even harder. He doesn't back down and explain how it is then. He just insists upon it, how vital it is. If we were to go back to verse 32, Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. That's when the Lord clearly says to them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. There he is saying, you are feeding upon this. You will not hunger. This shall satisfy you. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

And so the Lord is insisting upon this. What does he mean? Well, he clarifies it in verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth. Ah, this is spiritual truth. This is something that needs to be brought with the power of the Holy Spirit from heaven into a sinner's heart. The flesh profited nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. That is what we feed upon, the words, interpreted by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

That doesn't mean to say that there is no variety in preaching. It doesn't mean to say that we go along the same lines every time, explaining the plan of salvation and our Lord Jesus Christ, his sufferings and his death. The Scriptures are full of different ways of viewing what Christ has done, but they all centre in him and they all centre in his sufferings and death at Calvary. And that is what a living soul will go after. A dead soul can do without it. It is a subject that is the hardest one for a minister to preach unless he's living close to the Lord, unless we ourselves feed upon that bread and love the word. You think of the two on the way to Emmaus as Christ opened up in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And it would have been those prophecies that pointed to his sufferings and death, that which he was explaining to them what they'd actually seen. He would have brought them to the Passover He would have brought them to the offerings, the burnt offerings, the sin offerings. He would have brought them to see those types and those shadows, the tabernacle in the wilderness, the fiery cloudy pillar, but especially the smitten rock. Those things, all pointing to himself, his sufferings and his death. And their heart burned within them. They loved to hear that. That was food, that was strengthening, that was warming to their souls. And this is to be the food to feed the people of God. Please the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. That which is given is my flesh, that that be eaten, that be the meat and drink. how God was made flesh and dwelt among us, how that he was made an offering for sin, how that he stood in our place, how that he was the one that bore the wrath of God and not us, how that this was possible because God who filled all things incomprehensibly made man, so that Solomon who said, will God in very deed dwell upon the earth, the heaven of heavens, they cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have built. Those that marveled at the wonder of Christ's coming, Emmanuel God with us, and as the Lord said, for this cause came I into the world to bear witness of the truth. This is to be the food, and we are to be mindful of this. A Christless sermon is a useless sermon. A Christless ministry will not feed lambs, will not feed sheep. And again, may we notice this, right from the very start, Christ is the one. Remember with our Lord speaking of the new birth, right from then, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life. Who's he speaking it to? He's speaking to those that are just being born again. He's speaking to Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews, but doesn't know these things. And yet he brings him straight to Christ, straight to himself. straight to the types of the Old Testament, straight to his sufferings. There is the life of the people of God. There is the food for them. I know we read in the instruction to Paul in his epistles that if any man provide not for his house, that he is worse than an infidel. More Christ provides for his house. He has provided for His people that which shall nourish them, strengthen them, give them the token that they are His people, are His sheep, are His lambs, are the little ones and are the older ones. And it won't wear that out. It'll be as precious when we come to a dying bed as when we first saw the Lord and first heard the gospel. You think of the eunuch. He couldn't see Christ in Isaiah 53 as we have it in our Bibles, in his sufferings, until Philip began the same scripture and opened to him the scriptures, preached unto him Jesus. What a precious thing. He was led as a lamb. That's using that time of the Lord being made as a lamb and a sheep. The lamb before a shearer's is dumb, so open he not his mouth. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and he identifies himself, as it were, with his people. But the Lord provides for his people, and we should be really encouraged and strengthened in that, that there is no lack, There is a fullness in him. There is provision for souls that we might feed upon the word of God. We want to come then to our last point, the means by which God's people are fed. The same means for lambs and for sheep. It doesn't mean, of course, that We can't have Sunday schools, or that we can't have Bible studies groups. But the preaching of the gospel, you please God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, should be from the youngest unto the oldest. None should be excluded. Those that are able to understand, I feel, Really, even those young ones to be brought up in the habit of being in the house of God, and accustomed to be there, is absolutely vital that nothing replace the preaching of the gospel. That is the main and primary way by which God feeds his people, lambs and sheep. When our Lord was to ascend up into heaven, he gave another commission to all of the disciples, to all of his servants, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. But he also added this, tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. They needed the Holy Spirit. They needed the power. The word that came to the Thessalonians was not in word only, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. And so we need the Holy Spirit as the means, one means, that joining with the word of God, that that food is conveyed to the people of God. Peter was to be the means, as the one that was to bring the word, preach the word, set the word before the people. And so that means is, you might say, a natural means. We don't want to fall into the trap of that solemn case when there was the famine in Samaria and the prophet Elisha foretold that there would be great plenty. And the Lord on whose hand the king leaned, he said, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And the prophet said to him, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but not partake thereof. And when God wrought that miracle, it was a miracle, But it was using natural means. The Syrians thought they heard a great army, so they fled. And they left all the victuals. They left the foo. And the king appointed the lord that had said that to stand by the gate. And the people, when they rushed out, they trod upon him, and he died. And there's a lot of verses that are dedicated to that account. what he said as the unbelief of it, as if it needed to be a miracle that was sharing this food from heaven instead of using, you might say, natural means, but there was a spiritual miracle and aspect of it that the Syrians fled. And so with this, the Lord uses natural means and that he uses men. He uses preachers. He uses, as it were, weak means. But with the Holy Spirit's power, those means are used to feed sheep and lambs, to feed His people. We are not to despise the means, not to despise how the Word is brought to us and preached. You might have a preacher, You're not a very ordered preacher. You stumble over his word and may be despised, but the Lord may use him and bless that word. To look above the man, above the preacher, to the chief shepherd, whose sheep his people are and whose food is being distributed in that way. If we were to go back to John 6 in the early part of that chapter, It was the Lord that broke the bread and the fishes, and he multiplied them under his hand, but he gave it to the disciples to distribute. They were the ones that distributed it amongst the people. So you might say, well, they received it from men. Yes, they did, but it came from the Lord's hand and from the Lord's blessing. We do need to remember that. Thinking of Peter and thinking of his epistles, another means is of writing, of letters. A good part of the New Testament are letters. And through that means the people of God were fed, and we are fed and nourished the word of God. But we can also be a means to feed God's people. It is the same food. It's the same account, it's the same Lord Jesus Christ that is set forth. But the people of God have that to be nourished by, to be strengthened by, to be satisfied by. I will satisfy my poor with bread. There's one great mark that the Lord will do. And so we have in this account here with Peter's commission, our Lord's lambs and his sheep. We have the food that is to be fed for them, and we have the means by which God's people are fed. Do we use the means, dear friends? Are we fed? Are we nourished? Do we go away satisfied often? Do we hunger for it? Do we have an appetite as we come into the house of God? Are we waiting to hear the word of God and to receive it? You know, if we were to have a beautiful banquet, but we came to that banquet and we were already full and had no appetite, it would just mock us. How necessary it is to have what the Lord said, blessed are they that hunger. and thirst after righteousness. Some of you may be chiding yourself often. You say, I'm a leaking vessel. I so lose things. I have one service, and it's not long before I've forgotten it. And I can't remember what has been said. But you know the manna that had to be gathered day by day. They couldn't. They mustn't hoard it up. And we need that fresh food. We can't, if I could remember every sermon I'd preached, every sermon I'd heard, and every message, and every blessing I'd had, and many blessings I do remember, but mostly that which nourishes and satisfies us. If I was to ask you, well, what did you have for dinner two days ago, or last week, you might struggle to tell me, but you did have something, and you were nourished. and you were strengthened. We don't take notice of everything that we eat, but we do know that we keep going. We are encouraged, we are strengthened. May that be in a spiritual way as well, that we are still hungering and thirsting after these things. Our appetite is often wet and we want to hear again, we want to receive again that precious word of our Lord and to hear of our Saviour. and hear what is accomplished at Calvary, what he's done for us and where he has gone to prepare a place for us and where he makes intercession for us in heaven. To hear these things is to feed our souls. May the Lord bless this word to us and help us in future occasions to be able to feed upon the truth set forth in the epistles of Peter. Amen.