The book of John, in the very
beginning of it, is established who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. And this is something that very
few people know. John 1.17, the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man
hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Christ
is the revelation of God in this world, the manifestation of God,
God with us. God manifests in the flesh. 1
Timothy 3.16, without controversy, great, is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. justified in the spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory. When Philip said, show us the
father, and it sufficeth us, the Lord Jesus said, Philip,
he that hath seen me hath seen the father. How sayest thou then,
show us the father? Didn't the Lord Jesus indeed
manifest himself as God on this earth? He revealed his omnipresence
to Nathanael. He said to Nathanael, before
that Philip called thee, when I was under the fig tree, I saw
thee. And Nathanael said, you're the
son of God. You're the king of Israel. In John 1, 48 and 49. Our Lord revealed his omnipotence
in the garden. When the soldiers surrounded
him and he asked them who they saw, and they said, Jesus of
Nazareth. And he said, I am. And they fell
backwards. His all power, his omnipotence,
John 18, six. He said, all power is given unto
me in heaven and on earth. And then he displayed that in
the garden. He revealed his omniscience,
his all-knowing to the woman at the well in chapter four.
She ran into town after encountering him and said, come see a man
which told me all things ever I did. Is not this the Christ? His omniscience convinced her
that he was God in flesh. He revealed his sovereignty over
creation when he commanded the winds and the seas. He revealed his sovereignty in
Providence when he reminded his disciples, when I sent you out
with nothing, did you lack anything? He said, take no thought for
these things. He revealed his sovereignty in the salvation
of sinners when he walked through a multitude of lame and blind
and halt and diseased people and asked one certain man among
them, will thou be made whole? in John 5, 6. And in that same context, the
Lord Jesus declared this, for as the father raises up the dead
and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth whom he will. So he declared himself as God
in everything that he said. in everything that he did. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that spoke to Moses
from the burning bush. He's the one that said, I'll
have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. He revealed that he has
mercy on whom he will when he saved the thief on the cross.
He said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. To one of
the two. He revealed himself as the God
of all grace when he said things like, come unto me, I'll give
you rest. Come unto me and drink and you'll never be thirsty again. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Grace, grace and peace came by
Jesus Christ. The same Christ here in the book
of John that spoke through Isaiah and said, look unto me and be
ye saved. All the ends of the earth for
I'm God and there's none else. He revealed himself as the lamb
of God, which taketh away sin. When John the Baptist beheld
him and said, behold God's lamb. He had revealed himself, who
he is, and this is the one who asks Simon this question. Do
you love me? To be able to answer that question,
you have to know who the me is. If somebody you don't even know
who they are asks you, do you love me? I say, well, I don't
know. I might one of these days. Or no, I don't even know who
you are. But Peter knew who he was. He knew this about him. He said,
you know all things. And he knew his power. He had
seen him raise the dead. He'd seen him heal every manner of sickness in the world. And
you have to understand here in this scene what has happened.
what Peter has done to understand the question and the answer.
The Lord asked, do you love me? Do you love me? And Simon answered that question. Now there's disagreement concerning
what these are. When our Lord asked the first
time, he said, do you love me more than these? And I honestly believe, and I
don't know this for sure, but often when the Lord leaves something
a little unclear, I believe that he leaves it uncertain because
there's more than one answer that's profitable from the scriptures. That's the key now. If the answer
is a scriptural answer, then it's a good answer. There really are just a couple
of things that could be meant by these. Do you love me more
than these? It's either what many have said,
he's referring to the ships and the nets, the fishing gear that
Simon used to make his living. And that becomes more clear when
you think about the whole story here. Do you love me more than
these things that you've gone back to? these things that you're
occupied with now that I personally took you away from. The Lord
called him away from those things. He said, I'm gonna make you a
fisher of men. You're not gonna fish for fish anymore. But Simon,
when he had denied the Lord and was greatly ashamed and hurt
by that, disappointed in himself, he wept bitterly and the Lord
was gone. They had watched him die. And
we don't know the condition of their faith, but Simon said,
I'm gonna go fishing again. He wasn't just saying, I'm gonna
go fishing like we say that. He said, I'm going back to what
I did before. It's over. So maybe the Lord is saying that.
Do you love me more than these? Or he may be referring, as some
have intimated, taught that he's referring to
the other disciples. Do you love me more than these
men do? And think about this. It seems
that there could be a good reason for the Lord to ask him, do you
love me more than these other disciples? Because he had indicated
before that he did exactly that. You remember when Simon said,
listen to Mark 14, 27, And Jesus saith unto them, all
ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written,
I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.
But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. But
Peter said unto him, although all shall be offended, yet will
not I. These other disciples, they may
be offended, but not me. They may scatter, but not me.
So in another place in the scriptures, how that he said, I'll die with
you. That's what it takes. And we all have to learn this
lesson. We have to come to the place where we say, is it I?
When the Lord says, one of you shall betray me. This is saying,
well, I'll never betray him, but I don't know who it is. They
all said at the table, it's I, is it me? The Lord revealed to
them that it very well could be because of our nature. Do
we boast of our love? Religions sing songs about how
much they love the Lord rather than his love for us. Do we boast
of our devotion, our service, our commitment? All of that boasting
is repulsive to a believer because we, by God's grace, we know ourselves
better than that. Anything that we've ever supposedly
done for the Lord, we know it was just him doing something
for us. If he didn't, we would never
do anything for him. Christ said to all of his disciples,
without me, you can do nothing. So why would we boast about anything
we've ever done? And I believe that he could have
been reminding Simon of that here. Without me, you can do
nothing. Do you really love me like you said you did? More than
these do? Did our Lord not have reason
to ask, do you love me more than these things that you left in
the beginning in order to follow me? Your occupation? Listen to Matthew 4.18. And Jesus,
walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called
Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for
they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men, and straightway they
left their nets, and follow him. Simon, do you love me more than
these? because he's about to ask him in the context, he's
about to tell him, you feed my sheep, that's your business,
not fishing. Fishing hasn't been your business since way back
in Matthew 4, 18, however long before that was. Feed my sheep. But now Simon had said, as we
read in the context here, I go fishing. And all the others abandoned
the ministry apparently for a time and followed Simon in this. So
that would be a good question, wouldn't it? Don't you love me
more than these things? We can't be 100% sure which one
it is. I believe it's those things.
I believe it's because of Simon's answer. If he was asking him,
do you really love me more than these ones do? Like you said
you did? I think Simon's answer might've
been different, don't you? Rather than yes. You know that
I love you. So it seems like to me that he's
asking him about the nets and the boat and the, what he did for a living. And
think about it, it's no small thing to ask somebody to leave
everything. Follow me, be a fisher of men. So the Lord asks him the second
time, and what a personal question. That's a hard question to ask
somebody, do you know that? Have you ever just looked somebody
in the face and said, do you love me? My wife does that every
once in a while just to check in. But that's that's a very intimate
thing. That's a very special. Not something
you would just ask anybody. And this question puts everything
else into perspective. It's the heart of the matter. It really is the heart of the
matter. It's one thing to believe doctrine
in your head, but salvation, the salvation of God is a heart
work. Remember again how the Lord in
this very book of John has revealed himself And of course in the
whole Bible His omniscience his omnipotence his infinite grace
towards sinners And he let's put the emphasis
on the word me do you love me and Because that's different
than loving the Jesus of this religion, of this religious world. Do you love Jesus? Well, it depends
on which one you're talking about. If you're talking about the Christ
of the Bible, that's one thing. If you're talking about the Jesus
of religion, that's another thing. Do you love his omnipotence,
for example? that he has all power, that he
said, I give life to whomsoever I will. He has the power to give
life. Lord, if you will, you can. A lot of people don't like that
Jesus. They don't like him. They would
prefer the one that wants to Do you still reserve some ability
for yourself or do you love the omnipotent Christ? Do you love
his omniscience or do you still think you know better? How many
people question the very word of God Almighty? They wouldn't
come out and admit it in so many words, but they think they know
better than God himself. You don't love the omniscient
Christ. Do you love his sovereignty or
do you rebel? Do you love his deity or do we
still think like in Adam in our old nature that we're God? Do you love his grace? Or do you like 99% grace and
1% will of man? That's no grace at all in that.
It's a zero grace. And then he asked him the third
time. And it says Simon was grieved. Now there's no question here
that there's a correlation between Simon denying the Lord three
times And the Lord asking him this question three times. And that seems to be the reason that he was grieved because it
caused him to remember that he had denied him three times. It'd
be kind of obvious, wouldn't it? But less obvious, the Lord
had to reveal to him actually what he had done. and I believe he did, and that
grieved him. Also, just naturally, somebody
asked you, do you love me, your wife or your husband or somebody
or your children? And you said, of course I do,
I love you very much. That should settle the matter,
right? They shouldn't have to ask you three times. If they
ask you three times, you're like, what are they thinking about?
Why would they ask me that three times? And so maybe Simon was
perplexed in that sense. But I want you to notice something.
By God's grace, and there's no question that
this is the Lord being gracious. There may be some grief involved
in our heart when the Lord is gracious to us, but this is Him
being gracious. This is him restoring Simon.
Think about the whole context of this. Simon had denied the
Son of God three times, and here he is. It's the Lord, John said. It's the Lord. They had quit. They had gone back to what they
were doing before. It's over. It's not over. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. And he asked Simon this question,
and then he asked him the third time, and Simon is great. But
this is the Lord being gracious. When he's done with what he's
teaching Simon here, he's gonna trust Simon with the most precious
trust that a man can be entrusted with. Feed my sheep. It's something in a sense, in
a great sense, that all of his people are trusted with. Be a
blessing to my sheep, be an encouragement to my sheep. Be a comfort to my sheep. But Simon never tries to produce
any evidence whatsoever in support of his answer. If the Lord asks you three times,
you might be tempted to do that. You might be tempted to point
to something to support your answer. But all outward evidence
that Simon could have brought up would not have helped his
case. He boasted before. He denied the Lord. He forsook him
and fled when he was on the cross, and now he was gone back to his
old occupation, not preaching the gospel, but just making a
living. What in the world would Simon
point to and say, look there, see, I do love you? He had nothing
to point to, and neither do we. Listen to 1 John 3.18. 1 John, or let's see. Yeah, 1 John 3.18. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. For if
our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. and knoweth
all things." That's what Simon said. No evidence to back it up. He just said, Lord, you know
all things. My own heart condemns me, but you know all things. You know that I love you. The heart of the matter, Do you love me? And we could look at
every word of that. And we may, before long, do that. You remember the illustration.
You can say I love you three different ways. If you say I
love you, you're telling somebody who it is that loves them. If
you say I love you, You're telling them how you feel about them.
If you say, I love you, you're saying something else, aren't
you? You're telling them who it is that you love. The emphasis
is important. Do. Not, I made a decision when
I was 10. Do. This morning, you love the
Lord Jesus Christ. Do you. Do you. It's not a doctrine now. It's
not, oh, I believe in the love of God. I believe God loves sinners,
and I believe that we love Him because He first loved us. Do
you? Do you love Him? And do you love
Him? Oh, I go to church, you know,
99% of the time, or I go to church 80% of the time, or I go to church
75% of the time. Do you love him? I read my Bible all the time.
Do you love him? It's not a duty. I'm not a husband because it's
my duty to be a husband. Although there's duty involved
in that, right? But that's not what it is. That's
not the heart of it. And do you love him? Do you love
your idea of him? Do you love doctrine? Do you love church? Or do you love the son of God? In 1 Corinthians 16.22, it says
this, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
anathema, cursed, maranatha, when the Lord comes. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, It doesn't say if any man believe not the doctrine
of election, let him be anathema maranatha. It doesn't say that. The Lord didn't say to Simon,
do you believe in the sovereignty of God? Well, yeah, I do. See, if you're going to feed
the Lord's sheep, you're going to have to love the person. Because
you can love doctrine and you can preach it to a T. You could out-argue the devil
himself and not feed the sheep of God. What they need is the
only sheep food there is. They need Christ himself. You're going to have to love
him if you're going to feed his sheep. John 14, 23, Jesus answered and
said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words. And my father will love him and
we will come unto him and make our abode with him. You know what his words are?
Doctrine. When are you gonna keep the doctrine?
When you love him. Not the doctrine. I'm just telling you now, I know
people that love doctrine, that don't seem to have a whole lot
of love for the Savior. Now that's between them and the
Lord. But by their fruits, you shall know them. This is the proper order. If
a man loves me, he will keep my words. It doesn't say if a man keep
my words, he will love me. It doesn't work that way. Sound
doctrine is vital. It's vital, I'm not minimizing
it. I'm certainly not opposing the teaching of sound doctrine.
It's just that some people have a different idea of what doctrine
is. The words of Christ, that's doctrine. That's our doctrine, that's my
doctrine. And this is the heart of the matter. The devil himself is a five point
Calvinist, I guarantee you. He's more familiar with the doctrines
and he believes them more strongly than you do. He believes what you believe,
he believes what I believe. You think Satan knows anything
about total depravity? He said to God, you take away
from Job all your blessings and he'll curse you to your face.
He knows the heart of man. He knows what we're made of.
Nothing, that's what we're made of, evil. Satan knew exactly what was happening
on that cross. Satan's not stupid, he just hates
God. What do you think he was rebelling
against in the first place? It wasn't that he was ignorant
of anything about God. He just didn't like God being
God. There are a lot of people like him. We're all like him
by nature. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. There's election right there,
but there's also the love of God. Turn with me to Romans chapter
five. Verse one, therefore being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulations, tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost, which is given unto us. All of these things are mentioned
in the context of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. First John 5.1, whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth
him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. You remember the story in Luke
chapter seven, verses 37 through 48 if you want to look at it
later. When is it that a sinner will fall in love with the Lord
Jesus Christ? He that is forgiven much loveth much. And think about
Simon here. Not only did he watch the Lord
die, and again, I don't know how much faith Simon had. The
Lord had told him clearly that he would rise again, but then
rather than in expectation of that, them waiting patiently,
they went back to what they did before. They forsook him at the
cross and fled. But also, on top of all that,
Simon had betrayed the Son of God. The Lord had taught, if
you deny me before men, I'll deny you before my Father. You
think that's stuck in Simon's heart, maybe? And yet here the Lord is, just
His presence there, with Simon showed that he loved Simon, and
that he forgave him. And in Luke 7 there, 37 through
48, we see that him that is forgiven
much, the same loveth much. That's when you'll love the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that's how much you'll love him. when he comes like he did to
Simon, in spite of your sin, in spite of your denial of him,
in spite of your cowardice, in spite of your failure, in spite
of you winding up like a dog returning to his vomit and a
sheep or a pig to his wallowing in the mud, the Lord is there to comfort
you and restore you and to entrust you even with that which is most
precious to Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. Simon loved the Lord Jesus Christ. He was honest about that. When
you can appeal to the omniscient God to be witness of your love, that's grace. You're either just lying or that's
the grace of God, if it's the truth. And Simon said, Lord, you know
all things, you know that I love you. And Simon loved the Lord because
the Lord found Simon cast in the net one day and called him
by his grace. and made him a fisher of men. And Simon still loved the Lord,
even after all that had happened, because the Lord first loved
Simon. And still did. His love is immutable. His love
is eternal. He said, I've drawn you with
an everlasting love. And after Peter answered the
Lord's question, the Lord entrusted him with that solemn privilege,
feed my sheep. Now you think about that. After the answer, I love you,
you know that I love you, you know everything. You know that
I love you. Think of what the Lord's response
to that could have been, might have been. Save the world, go
to every continent on the planet and preach the gospel. He could have given him any number
of great accomplishments to strive
for and strive to achieve in proof of his love for the Savior.
But it was a lot simpler than that, wasn't it? And yet we see
what is important to Christ himself. My sheep, my sheep, feed my sheep,
wherever they are. It's not a difficult thing to do. and yet it's impossible. If you love me, feed my sheep. May God give us grace all to
understand what matters to the Lord. What's important to us
is one thing. What's important to the Lord
is very simple. His sheep. How can we not be reminded of
Him saying, when you've done it to one of the least of these,
my brethren, you've done it in me. How do you serve the Lord in
this world? By building great buildings or traveling across
the seas? No, by giving a cup of cold water
to one of His little ones. Dorcas, who was full of good
works, just made coats. They remembered when she died,
they all showed each other. Remember when she made me this
coat? Good work, full of good works. I pray the Lord will teach us
what matters in this world, what matters. The heart of the matter. Amen, let's pray.