all right brethren if you will
for our scripture reading let's turn to mark 14 mark chapter 14 we'll begin in verse 66 the lord had told Peter he was gonna deny
him, and here's where Peter denies him. Mark 14, begin verse 66. And as Peter was beneath in the
palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest. And
when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and said,
and thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied. saying,
I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And when
he went out into the porch, the cock crew and a maid saw him
again and began to say to them that stood by, this is one of
them. And he denied it again. And a little after, they that
stood by said unto Peter, surely thou art one of them, for thou
art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto. But he began
to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye
speak. And the second time the cock
crew, and Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto
him, before the cock crowed twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And
when he thought thereon, he wept. Now turn to chapter 16, verse
seven. The Lord has a rose and there's
an angel speaking to these ladies by the tomb. Mark 16, verse seven. He gives them instruction. He
says, but go your way and tell his disciples and Peter. He goeth before you into Galilee,
and there shall you see him as he said unto you. Let's pray
together. Father, we think of our dear
brother Peter as Luke recorded when our king looked upon him. Lord, look upon your people tonight.
Show us what we are and show us the love of Christ to an unlovable
people and make us love him. Make him altogether lovely to
us. Make your people fall in love
with your son as you promised you will. Don't let our flame go out. Lord,
don't let us be lukewarm. Make that fire burn in our hearts
for our Redeemer. Forgive us for what we are. Forgive
us of our continual denial and our foolishness and our willful
rebellion and ignorance and even the things we don't know, Lord. Thank you for this salvation
in your son. It's because of him we ask these
things and we ask that you send your spirit to us. Amen. All right, brethren, if you will
turn to John 21. John 21. Peter had had some high points
in his life. He was a fisherman and the Lord
called him to be a fisher of men. And there was a time the
Lord turned and asked and said, who do men say that I am? And
I gave him a big list and it was all good things, things that
we would consider to be good things and prophets and somebody
real special or somebody raised from the dead. And he said, that's good, who
do you say that I am? And Peter answered for the group.
So many times he was so ambitious and rambunctious and poppy and
just springy. He jumped out in front of the
group and he said, you're the Christ, you're him, you're God,
you're the Messiah right here with us. And the Lord said, you're
blessed Simon Barjona. He gave him the name Peter, which
means rock, didn't call him Peter, he called him Simon. Like Rahab
the harlot, the thief on the cross. We don't get away from
those things, do we? And he said, Simon, flesh and
blood hasn't revealed this to you. Somebody didn't write this
down in a book and you read it and got some knowledge and a
fancy preacher man that you were committed to ain't the one that
gave this to you. He said, my father's revealed this to you.
That's a special thing. There was another time the Lord
fed 5,000. He said some hard things and those 5,000 turned
and went away. That was what we would call a
terrible day in the ministry. And all these people there is
gonna, we got a good thing going now. We got a bunch of people.
Everybody wants more people. And they all left. There wasn't
nothing but 12 there. And the Lord turned to them.
He said, will you please stay? No, that ain't what he said.
He goes, you gonna go too? Pack your stuff and go if you
can. And Peter answered. Lord, to what denomination will
we go? There's not a corporate church in this town." He didn't
say something dumb like that. He said, to whom shall we go?
That's right. That's good. There was another
time. His heart was in the right place.
He was ignorant like I am, but he wanted to do something. Lord
took him and two others up to that Mount of Transfiguration
and his glory was shown forth. And Peter said, this is so good.
Lord, I want to stay here. This is good. Elijah was there. Moses was there. And they were
speaking of the death that he should accomplish in Jerusalem,
that Christ should accomplish. And Peter said, Lord, let's build
three tabernacles, one for each of you, representing the law
and the prophets and you. That wasn't good, but he intended
it to be, even though he was wrong, didn't he? Peter had some
highlights. And then he had some low lots.
He had some hilltops and he had some valleys. And it was just
rough for him. It's rough for other people,
isn't it? Can we enter into that? Can we enter into those days?
We'll take out a knife and I'll cut somebody's ear off. And in
the days that were like, I'm an independent contractor. I
can enter into that. I can, but the Lord, he denied
the Lord and the Lord sent an angel and said to those ladies,
said, you go tell my disciples and Peter. And so the Lord revealed
himself to Peter again. And then he revealed himself
to him the next Sunday when Thomas was there. And now the Lord revealed
himself to him a third time. Peter said, well, he was so wanting
to do something. And the Lord said, I'm going
to send you all out to preach. But he didn't give no guidance. And
he didn't know where to go. And he just left them there. He said,
you just wait till I put the Spirit in you to go. And he didn't
like idleness. He couldn't just sit on his front
porch and twiddle his thumbs. He said, well, I'm going fishing.
He had a wife. You know that? Peter's mother-in-law
was sick. His wife's mother had a real
high fever. And the Lord healed her from
it. He had a family to take care of. And so he said, well, I got
to take care of them. This must be the means that the
Lord, well, this has got to be it. Just like Jonah going to
Tarsus. Well, if the Lord didn't want me to go, he wouldn't have
had a ticket for me. That boat would have been full. And he
encouraged his brethren, those that the Lord were going to use
to go preach the gospel to this world, to do the same thing he
was doing and go find a living. And the Lord come and spoke to
him again, we looked at it last week, and he said, cast your
net on the other side. And that boy was a fish, 153, an odd number,
an exact number. It wasn't 152, it couldn't have
been. And it ain't gonna be 154, one ain't gonna sneak in. Big
old stinky fish. People put fish on their bumpers. We don't need those things, we'll
see in a minute. But the Lord spoke and John said to him, he
said, that's the Lord. And out of absolute shame, he
knew what he was doing was wrong. There's a lot of times I've led
my family into trials and it's absolutely my fault. We ain't
in a pickle, we're in a pickle jar right now. And it's every
bit my fault. And I'll be the first one to
tell you, I'll jump off the boat. He had to get where the Lord
was. Before I get chasing him, I'm
gonna go up and tell him I love him. I'm gonna be close to him. Rub up next to him. He had to. And the Lord said, them fish
ain't gonna go to waste, okay? I got food here ready for you
fires here remember he was by some coals by a fire that man
had built and now he's by a fire that God had built and he said
it's already ready he timed the cooking of that fish to perfection
and this is bread there that the the bread of life made but
it's good I said, boy, is it time to eat? I just swam 100
yards. I'm ready. More out. He said,
no, no. We have to be diligent. Now,
you go pull them fish in. They're not going to spool. They're
not going to go to waste. We have to be diligent. You get
the work done, then we'll eat. And so they ate. He said, come
and dine. Come and dine. The work's over. Come and dine.
It's time to eat, boys. I'm going to fill you up. You'll
be warm, and you're going to be satisfied, satiated. But that
wasn't the end of it. They didn't get a belly full
of sardines and biscuits and then do cartwheels and clap their
hands all the way home. The Lord wasn't finished with
them yet. He hadn't ascended. Here in John 21, look at verse
14. This was the third time the Lord had come to him. He had
to come to these disciples in perfection, didn't he? John 21,
14. Now this is now the third time
that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was risen
from the dead. Verse 15, 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. And he saith unto him, feed my
lambs, feed my lambs. The Lord is laying a foundation
here for Peter. And it's going to happen over
and over and over. How many times does the Lord have to reveal
himself to us? Three times? 300 times? Three million times? But the Lord's going to get back
to basics with Peter. He's going to get down to the
core of what all the other blessings are going to come from. He's
going to need some motivation in the future. There's going
to be days that he's just sit down and he's going to go back
to something. In this core of everything, The
Lord didn't ask him, he didn't say, did you believe on me? Of
course Peter believed him. Of course people, he didn't say,
do you know me? Of course he knew him. He didn't
say, do you fear me? Do you honor me? Do you respect
me? That was evident. He just jumped off that boat
and swam to him. That was some respect there. And he didn't
even say, do you admire me? Am I a good role model for you? He's emphasizing the fundamental
thing. Before that work's about to take
off, you're about to go labor in the fields. And in that laboring,
there's gonna be a lot of pain, Peter. And before we get to that
pain, and there's gonna be a lot of suffering for the word's sake,
for the gospel's sake, before that begins. And that's gonna
culminate, Peter, in you being crucified. You ready to get nailed
to a cross? You're gonna have to remember
something. There's gonna be a foundation laid for this. And then the other
ones that's there with them, some of them's gonna be stoned.
One of them's gonna, the one that's right there's gonna be
exiled. You talk about being lonely. Stick you on a deserted
island somewhere. Before all this comes, before
all that, we gotta lay a foundation. Lord could say so much with so
few words, can't he? Do you love me? Do you love me
more than these? And get this, boy, let's get
a hold of this. The Lord is not asking him, do
you love me more than the other disciples there with you? Them
six other ones. He is not saying that. All that would do would
sow discord and malicious spirits. That is not what he's asking.
What's he asking him then? Do you love me more than these?
I can see him taking his hand. Pointing. They left a boat. Fishermen
don't normally leave their boats floating out in the water, do
they? They left their nets. They don't normally just cast
those to the side. Everything that was on that boat was gone.
He pointed to that livelihood he had. He said, do you love
me more than this? Do you love me more than the
experiences of ocean life? More than nets? More than the
thrill and the satisfaction and the pride of providing for your
family? You love me more than that? If there's men, I don't mean
boys that can shave, I mean men, if there's men that provide for
the families and they love the families and they go out there
and get up early and it hurts and you stay out late and you're
tired and you don't care because it's out of love, there's satisfaction
in that because that's what God put us on earth to do. And there's
a sense of fulfillment to that. And there's a lot of men in this
nation right now that have no interest in those things and
it's a shame. That's hitting him where he lives. Lord said, you love me more than
that? Peter had that family. This here is first to the apostle. Peter's about to go preach. He's
about to, for a living. He ain't gonna go back fishing
no more. He ain't gonna go back to work no more. He ain't going
back to the way he used to make a living and provide for his
wife anymore. He's here to preach. That's his job. But you know,
this is to all of us. It is. The Lord said there in
Luke 14, he said, if any man, that's women too. If anybody,
if they come to me and they hate not their father and their mother
and their wife and their children and brethren and sisters, yea,
even his own life also. Does that mean you have to hate
your father? No. I don't listen to him no more." That's not what
he's talking about. He said, but if you value those things
more than you value me, if you love these more than me, he said,
you cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. That pain, that
suffering, he asked him over and over, will you be saved?
You count the cost. He goes right in that in Luke
14 about a man building a building. They don't count the cost. Like,
well, we run out of money. So they're going to laugh at you. They'll
mock you. That's rude in our day and age,
isn't it? Go up to somebody and be like, I was building a house,
but I ran out of money. You idiot. Mock them. Make fun of them.
That's not kind in our day. But Lord said, they'll make fun
of you for doing that. He said, you better count the cost. You love me more than these?
Weigh these things. Well, who in the world would
say yes? Your whole family's going to turn against you. Your
livelihood's gone. Any means of providing for the
ones you love's took away. Everybody's going to hate you.
And most of the time, like Moses, even the ones that are the Lord's
people is going to be throwing rocks at you and frustrated with
you. And you're probably going to end up crucified or stoned
or exiled. Sign me up, huh? What would make somebody want
to do such a thing? Love would. Love would. If he's loved us
and we love him, it may not be fun. I don't want to be crucified
upside down. But so be it, if that's the case. And we understand those things.
We have friends or family or loved ones or children or whatever,
right? We have spouses. Come play me
in that woman. Watch what happens to you. Y'all
got children? I ain't experienced grandbabies
yet. It's coming Sunday, I hope. In the verse 15 says, he saith
unto him, yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he saith
unto him, Peter says, Lord, you know, you know, I love you. You
look on a heart to me. He said, feed my lambs. If you're
going to be my servant, you're going to do some serving. Why
in the world would the Lord call us servants if we ain't gonna
serve? You get that? I know it seems
simple. We're gonna do something. Now it may not be, we might not
think it's much, but the Lord's gave us something to do. He says,
my lambs, you feed my land. He didn't say feed your lambs.
He didn't give him a video about what food looks like. He said,
feed them. He said, they're my lambs. You don't have any lambs,
Peter, but I do. And there's some lambs out there.
That's the little bitty ones, isn't it? He said, I'm going
to make them ewes to calve. He says he makes the rose to
calve in the wilderness, the deer. Mankind can't make a lamb
come out of a ewe. We can't do that. We'd dry and
kill something. And he said, I'm gonna have little baby lambs,
and you just nurse them and clean them up, and give them milk to
drink. That's picturing babes in Christ.
You gotta go preach, and I'm gonna make some babes. And then
you give them the sincere milk of the word. You love me, here's
your job. Go feed the lambs, my lambs.
Boy, what a job. Could you imagine that? Could
you imagine that? The Lord came with a kitten and
said, this is my cat. Now, feed it and take care of
it. Would you say, well, I got some stuff going on this season.
I got an appointment and family's coming into town. Oh, buddy. Would we warm the
milk? I've got some discounted milk.
I think it's still good. That cat may have to chew it
a little bit, but we'd go get organic non-GMO or whatever the
fanciest thing we could find was. That's a Lord's cat. Why
don't we see his babes in Christ that way? You love me more than boats and
fishing and providing for yourself, he said, you give the sincere
milk of the word to my baby lambs. That's what I put in your hand
to do for you. All right, we got it, don't we? He's gonna
say it again, we're gonna roll our eyes at him. I got it the
first time. Hush, stop telling me these things.
Well, it don't matter what we want, the Lord's gonna speak,
isn't he? He can shut our mouths and he can talk. Verse 16, and
he saith unto him a second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? And he's saying to him, yay,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he saith unto him,
feed my sheep, feed my lambs. Those that aren't born yet, you
catch them as they come out, clean them up, feed them, give
them milk. And those that are a couple of days old, give them
milk. But you feed my sheep too. He said, there's some lambs on
this earth and I've sustained them and I've grew them. They're
grown up a little bit, and you rightly divide the word, and
you tell them of me, and you baptize them, and you teach them
all my commandments. Everything I've said, you teach
them. Feed them. Give them what I give you. Hmm. That's every believer, isn't
it? That's what's been put in our hand. Not to just preach
the word to the Lord's people and sit down and beat somebody
to death with the scriptures, but look after them and care
for them and comfort them. You know how many tables I've
ate at in this world? I was gonna say this nation.
Other continents too. People's fed me. Some of y'all
fed me in your homes, in your tables. And that was just in
the body. Been fed in the spirit too. I've
been encouraged to look to Christ, trust Him. That's putting our
hand to do. We shirk, that was the thing
I always put in people's NCOER's in the Army. I'd write the people
underneath me and I'd put shirks responsibilities. I don't want
to shirk these responsibilities. Negligent in duties. I don't
want to be negligent in these duties. The Lord's gave us that.
He has to do it and I'm going to ask Him for us to do it. Verse
17, he saith unto him the third time. Surely, didn't we get it
the first time? Yawn, didn't we get it the second
time? He needs this three times, don't he? How many times do I
need it? He saith unto him the third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Now Peter was grieved because
he saith unto him the third time, lovest thou me? It hurt. But it hurt me. I cried all day
working on this. I was hoping I could hold it
together for this. Does that hurt you? The Lord come to you and
say, you love me? You love me? You love me? He was grieved. I get it. Peter was grieved.
Because he asked him the third time, love us not me. And he
said to him, Lord, thou knowest all things. You know the good side. You know
the bad. You know both sides of this coin. You know my flesh
and you know my spirit. You know that new creation that's
in me. and you know what's housed in. What's the Lord say to him? He saith unto him, feed my sheep.
The job ain't changed, Peter. Peter's changed, but the job
hasn't changed. Peter was not grieved after the
Lord, but Peter was grieved because of himself. Because of his denial
and his past failures, and he knew this flesh. The Lord taught
him what he was, and he knew he was gonna fail again. And
he knew that day would come, I'm probably gonna deny him again.
And he said, Lord, even, no matter what the outside looks like,
you know the heart. You look on the heart. That ought
to be comfort to the Lord's people. and ought to be terrifying to
the unregenerate. God looks on the heart. Brother
Henry said that one time. He said, if I'm disgusted by
what you do, imagine what the Lord is. Oh, buddy, I want to
climb every pew. I just, well, that was one of
them days he got a hold of me after. He said, you been sleeping good,
son? I wasn't friendly preacher Henry, I was pastor Henry. God
hold my shoulder right there. He said, you need to get some
rest, buddy. I was talking to Donnie Bell about that yesterday.
I knew it was going to happen again. Peter did too, didn't
he? You know, there by that coal
of fires built by man is where Peter denied the Lord three times.
And here he's by a coal of fires built by God himself and he confesses
him three times. You see that? Isn't that precious?
A whole lot of comparisons there. Before, he said, Lord said, you're
going to deny me. And he said, you don't know me.
You don't know how committed to this work I am. I'll die with
you. I'll go to the cross with you."
And he said, yeah, uh-huh. He said, Satan's desire to sift
you like wheat. And he didn't tell him, I'm gonna
let him sift you for a little bit, just so you know what it
feels like. And then I pray that your faith
fail not. And I'm gonna be the one that's faithful in your eyes,
Peter. Before, Peter's attitude was, you don't know me. What's
his attitude now? You know me and you know all
things. You see the transition there? That's a work of God,
and it's got to happen in us. It's got to go from us knowing
everything to Him knowing everything. May not look like I love you,
but you know the heart. Oh, what comfort that is to one
that sees their own wickedness. He knows. He knows. Can we know
if we love the Lord? I want to help the Lord's people,
just a couple of us here tonight. Hopefully we all stay with it
a little bit, and this will be a comfort for your souls as you
go into the wicked world. Now, if you ain't getting plowed
up, and there's no trials on you, and you're crying out to
God, then I really worry for people's souls. And writers of
old, a friend of mine told me, J.C. Fieldpot's reading today,
and through Baca's veil, it's the same. I was like, yeah, he
said it better than I said it. Lord's gotta do some plowing
sometimes, don't he? I think this will be helpful to you.
Can we know if we love the Lord? Can I know if I love that woman
back there? Well, yeah, I can. Well, if I know I love her, surely
I know I can love him. Can you? It's so similar, isn't
it? There's necessities there. With
that love comes some musts. There's some evidences of that
love. If one human loves another human,
you people that's got children that's married off, you see that
happen. Them two love each other. Most of our parents know it before
the young people do, don't they? We're given a family in our homes
to teach us the love of Christ for sinners. Lord, ordain that
family government for that. And when we love someone, what
do we want to do? What do we want to do? What takes
up our thoughts? I mean, all day long, throughout
the day. What takes up our time and our
efforts? We want to see that person. When
we love somebody, we want to be in their company, and we want
to see them. And we want to hear their voice,
don't we? We want to be where they're at. We want to read what they wrote. You think about that. We have
the word of the Lord right here with us, don't we? If he's loved
us and we love him, don't we want to know what he has to say?
That kind of is uncomfortable. That's okay. You tell me what's
uncomfortable. I want to know all of it. Do we need something
to remind us while we're at work? If I'm out working on an ice
machine somewhere, do I need something to, do I need a bumper
sticker? Do I need a license plate cover?
Do I need a bracelet that says, what would Jesus do? Do I need
a bracelet that says, what would Kimberly do to make me remember?
I got a ring on my hand, but does that mean if I take this
off, am I gonna forget you? No, we don't need those things.
I don't need a Father's Day shirt to remind me I'm a father and
remember my children, do I? Why? I love my family. Do I need these things and crosses
on my neck and things on my car so I remember the Lord? No, I
love Him. Why? He loved me. It's important. It's not lackadaisical. It doesn't hit the snooze button.
It's important. There's a person we're in love
with. We want to be in their company even if they don't talk
to us. If I get sick, I want Kimberly. If I'm on a road trip,
I don't have to talk to her the whole way. I just want her in
the car with me. Sometimes my dad would come home, he'd say,
Sue, Sue, she'd be cooking. He'd say, come here and sit with
me. He was reading a newspaper. He wasn't even talking to her.
One time he took a remote, tried to hit the mute button. He got
in trouble that day. He just wanted her in the room
with him. We look for a way to spend time
with him, not squeeze it in. When I first met Cameron, I had
a, there's a re-enlistment poster. It's a kernel on there, the famous
Phil's got a Wikipedia page, but I went and got it framed.
Do you think I cared about having that poster framed? No! It's something I found in a bag
somewhere. I just wanted to go where she
worked so she'd frame it. I had a reason to ask her out
for coffee. That cost me a lot of money. I said when it broke. I wanted to be where she was.
I wanted to talk to her. And I lost a lot of sleep. If
you love someone, they're more important than self. If we love
someone, they're more important than sleep. There's times I fell
asleep running one time. I didn't think that was possible.
I know Scuba Diver fell asleep twice underwater and woke up.
He said, that's a weird way to wake up, buddy. I don't recommend
it. I was running and started nodding off because I was up
all night talking to her on the phone. Why? Because I loved her. How do you know someone loves
Christ? They gotta be where He is. They gotta be where His people
are. They gotta have a word from Him. They want to know what His
word says to us, no matter the cost to the body or the budget.
I don't care. Because we love Him. When you
love someone, you want to talk about them, don't you? And you
want to hear other people talk about them. You want to hear
the gospel preached and you love those that preach it. We understand
that's just a conduit that the Lord uses to speak to us, but
we're happy for them. We're thankful for them. That's
a precious thing to know somebody that preaches the gospel. We
love them. Thank God for them. I was in
a room one time with someone that did not like my wife. And
you know what I wanted? To get out of that room as fast
as I could. I didn't want to be in their
presence. Same with my children. I heard somebody discouraging
one of my children one time. Don't set up good with me. Don't
set good with me. Same with those who don't like
my master. I'm not in the same ship with those people. Do you
understand that? Not with someone that's, some dude named Jesus
or somebody that has, like we looked at it, not the same name,
different person. I don't care to spend any more
time than I have to with them people. And I'm not talking about
other humans, like I'm gonna walk with my nose up in the air
through this earth. But those that actively oppose the gospel,
those that are actively against it, I ain't gonna waste my time
arguing with them. Just move on. And I don't wanna hear a
cross word about those that love Christ. My brothers and sisters,
I don't wanna hear it. You know what so-and-so did?
I don't care. I don't care, just like Paul and Onesimus, isn't
it? If he's wronged you, or if he
owes you money, pay him three years, I don't know what he did
to you. Whatever it is, just put it on my account. Walk in
backwards, I don't wanna know it. I don't wanna gossip jaw
jack about it. If we love him, we love others
too. Those that don't yet know him.
If we have a value of our soul, we have a value for the soul
of our children, those around us and our neighbors. Those people in our community.
What else about loving the Lord? You know, love seeks not our
own. You know what that means? I knew a man one time that was
milking his children for all they were worth. What a shame. That wasn't a man. Wasn't even close to a man. He
was seeing what financial gain he could get out of his children.
That's not love, is it? We don't go to the Lord to see
what we can get out of Him. Well, I don't want to go to hell.
Well, a crazy person don't want to go to hell. I want to have
health in the body, and I want my neighbor's dog's babysitter
or whatever kind of crazy prayer lester out there in this world
to be healed. I want to know Him. If He sends
the trouble, that's all right. He sent it. You get the difference? Let's look at that. Turn over
first Corinthians 12. The brethren there in Corinth
were having a trouble. Lord gave some gifts that was
necessary. They were getting puffed up one
to another and having all kinds of trouble with it. So Paul had
to address it here in first Corinthians 12 verse 29. He says, are all apostles? Is
everybody an apostle? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?
Are all workers of miracles? Does everybody work miracles?
Have all the gift of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all
interpret? Does everybody have the same thing? Are we all ears?
Are we all pinky fingers? Are we all toes? No. We'll see next week. Peter said,
what about these other ones, Lord? And he said, you mind your
own business. You worry about you, Peter. So I've given you
something to do, and you do that. Verse 31, but covet earnestly
the best gifts, and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.
What's that, Paul? What's better than all these
things that they've been arguing about and all these things we call
gifts? And well, this one gets to do this. I don't get to do that
no more. And he said, I'm going to show you a better way. You
want something better than all that? Chapter 13 verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels and have not love, I'm become the sounding
brass or a tinkling cymbal. You ever heard, I've heard people
preach and there was no gospel in it. There's no Christ in it.
There's no love in it. I don't want to hear it. I can't let,
I can't make it all the way through. I get sent messages sometimes.
I'll go about three minutes in and just go, ugh. Paul, I'll
go back to weed eating. Give me something to drown that
noise out. I don't want to hear it. And though I have the gift
of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
I have all understanding and all knowledge. And though I have
all faith so I can remove mountains and I have not love, I'm nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I
give my body to be burned. You talk about commitment to
the gospel, burn me. Burn me. I believe the Lord and
I'll get to go to him. Burn me. And have not love, it
profiteth me nothing. Look at this here in verse four.
Charity, love, suffers long. Long suffering, it suffers long.
And it's kind. And charity envieth not. You
know the difference between jealousy and envy? Jealousy is I want
what you got. Envy says I don't want you having
what you already got. If we love the Lord, do you want
him to get all the glory or do you want a little bit of glory?
I don't think he ought to have all of it. Maybe I ought to have
some. No, I want him to have it all. Every bit of it. That's
right. Cheriteth, vaunteth not itself.
It's not self-promoting. Well, you know what I did? I've
been doing this a long time. It's not love, is it? It's not
puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly.
Seeketh not her own. is not easily provoked, thinketh
no evil." That's what love does. Love doesn't come from self-preservation
and self-promotion and self-benefit. Kimberly didn't marry me because
of all my money. She didn't marry me maybe for
the insurance. She didn't marry me because of that. I didn't
have any money. I was broke. I was a single fella spending
money on dumb things until I met her. I had about $4 in the bank. We don't provide things for the
Lord, but we honor him. We acknowledge him. We thank
him and we praise him, don't we? Because we love him. We don't
seek the Lord for the benefits for us. We seek him for who he
is and for his countenance and his ways and his person and his
personality. I like the way he does business.
I enjoy his will and I love his word and I love his law. And
it's just, everything's just magnificent. Everything does
is wonderful. Verse six, love rejoiceth not
in iniquity. Doesn't look for the bad things.
The Lord didn't sit there and say, Peter, remember when you
denied me? He didn't say, he didn't bring it up, did he? But
rejoiceth in truth, beareth all things, love believes all things,
love hopeth all things, endureth all things, love never faileth.
But whether there be prophecies, they shall fare, whether be tongues,
they shall cease, whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish
away, for we know in part, we prophesy in part, but when that
which is perfect is come, and that which is in part shall be
done away with. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood
as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put
away childish things. For now we see through a glass
darkly. But then, face to face, now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith,
hope, and love, these three. That's what we have right now.
The Lord gave us the gift of faith. He gave us an expected
end, and he put his love in us and shed abroad in our hearts.
That's what we got right now. But the greatest of these is
love. Faith's gonna, we believe in
something unseen, and that day's gonna come when we see Christ
face to face, and hope that expected end, well that end's gonna come.
We're gonna be conformed to His image, and what's, only thing
left's love for Him. That ain't gonna change, that's,
you talk about a down payment in earnest. Ooh, isn't that precious? If we love Him, we love His people,
don't we? If people don't want to come hear from Christ and
about Christ, it's because they don't know Him. He's altogether
lovely, and to know Him is to love Him. If we love Him, we love just
like Ruth did. She says, And treat me not to leave thee, or
return from following after thee. But whether thou goest, I'll
go. And whether thou lodgest, I'll lodge. And your people is
my people, and your God is my God. And wherever you die, I'm
going to die there. And wherever you're buried, I'm buried there. And
the Lord do so to me, and more also if aught but death part
thee and thee." That's a marriage, isn't it? Told death do us part. I want to be faithful to the
end. Paul Mahan emailed me. He said, we're good friends,
and I hope we're faithful to each other to the end. Me too. I love that man. I love him,
love him. I think highly of him. I want to be faithful to the
Lord to the end. He has to do that. That's what's required
of a servant, not to be good, not to be friendly, not to be
productive, not to have a big congregation, not to baptize
a bunch of folks, but to be faithful. Faithful, that's what I want
to be. Those that are stuck in idols and routines and a life
outside of Christ and things of this world, if they don't
come out of that, it's because the love of God ain't in them.
And that's not, I want to say these things because that's not
looking down on people and say, well, I'm better than them because
I'm out of there and they're still over there and I win. And so
we know to pray for them, and to not walk around in ignorance
thinking everybody's okay. Well, that's pretty close. This
ain't horseshoes, this ain't hand grenades, this is eternal
life and death. Paul said, if any man love not the Lord Jesus
Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. What's that mean? Anathema means
cursed, cast out, excommunicated, and maranatha means when the
Lord comes in that divine judgment. If they don't love him, let him be cast out. Turn over to John chapter 8.
There's those that don't. And it's all about the loves,
what it is. It's not facts. Like those Pharisees, they believed
in election, didn't they? They thought there's all gods
elect. It's in verse 39, John 8, 39. They answered and said
unto him, Abraham's our father. And Jesus saith unto them, if
you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
But now you seek to kill me. A man hath told you the truth.
I came here, I just told you the truth. Am I not your enemy?
That's what Paul said, wasn't it? Am I not your enemy? Because I told you
the truth. The Lord said, all I've done is tell you the truth
and you want to kill me, which I've heard of God. This did not
Abraham. Abraham didn't look to kill me.
You do the deeds of your father. They say unto him, we'd be not
born of fornication. You calling us sinners? I used to be, but not now. Is
that what you're saying to me? You're saying I'm wrong? We have
one father, God. Jesus says to them, if God were
your father, if you were a child of God, you would love me. Love
me, not try to kill me. It's one or the other, isn't
it? Well, I just recused myself from this situation. That says
kill him. You're okay with him dying. If God were your father, you
would love me. Turn over to 1 John. John had wrote these things and
learned them and walked with them a long way. And nothing
had changed. 1 John chapter 4. Begin in verse 7. It says, Beloved, let us love one
another. For love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God. For God is love." I hear all
over this world that, well, our God's a God of love. God's not
a God of love. God is love. That means we don't
understand love, so we have to be taught. I want to learn. Do
you? Do you want to be taught how to love? I do. I want to learn. What is it? Verse 9. Here's what we need
to learn. Peter understood that. That's
important. He's life. He's all. He's not the most important thing. He's not a big part of our life.
He's life. And he came here and everything
he went through and suffered, died, and God forsook God because
of me in him. He did that for us. That's love,
buddy. God says so. That's what Paul
told us in Ephesians 4. He said, be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Well, if he haven't forgiven
you and revealed that to you, you can't forgive. If the Lord hadn't loved
you, you can't love. Well, you go through some motions
of what mankind says love is, but that ain't love. What is
love? Verse 10, herein is love, not
that we love God, but that he loved us. And he didn't just
love us, say, I love you. See you later. Best of luck to
you. No, he loved us and sent his
son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so
loved us, we ought, that means out of a debt of gratitude, just
to be, I mean, just to thank him. Reasonable service. We ought
also to love one another and you can't keep from it. No man
hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells
in us, and his love is perfected in us. We haven't seen God. John had seen Christ, hadn't
he? We haven't even seen that. And Peter said there in 1 Peter,
he said, whom having not seen, ye love. You love him. How could that be? Remember when
Eliezer was the first thing I thought of? Abraham sent Eliezer to go
get a wife for Isaac. And here comes Rebecca, he went
and found her, got her, and that whole trip back, he just told
him about Isaac. Told her about Isaac. Talked
about his master, didn't he? And Abraham, his father, and
here's all the things they do, and here's what they like, and
here's how he acts, and he's real good, I like him, he's good
to me. And she was in love with him before she ever saw him.
And then she got a glimpse of him. She didn't know it was him
yet, but she got a glimpse of him. Rebecca lifted her eyes, and
when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. She just clean
left the camel, just like Peter clean left the boat. She said
to the servant, she asked Eliezer, what man is that that walketh
in the field to meet us? Who is that? And the servant
said, that's my master. That's my master. Therefore she
took a veil and covered herself. She said, oh buddy, cover me
up. That's her face hitting the dirt.
That's bowing, lying prostrate before him. Verse 13 says, hereby
know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given
us his spirit. We weren't like that before.
We didn't have that life before, we do now. We have seen and do
testify that the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the
world. If anybody's gonna be saved, it's gonna be through
Him. I'll tell you that right now, that's it. Whosoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him,
and He in God. And we have known. I think, I'm
pretty confident. No, he says we've known. We've
known and believed the love that God hath to us. That's love. That's what He did,
what He said, that's love. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love. That's the tenor of the life.
Now, there's gonna be days I'm just unlovable. I know that's
hard to believe. That's so. But the tenor of the
life dwelleth, right? He that dwelleth in love dwelleth
in God, and God in him. Because God resides in him, that's
why that's happening. I know old brother Newton wrote
a song that says, "'Tis a point I long to know, it often causes
anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not?" That's a condition of every believer at points,
isn't it? That does happen. But we don't
dwell there 99.9% of the time. That love that's in us is shed
abroad. It spreads out, it grows, it
does something, doesn't it? We have those, when we look to
ourself, when we look to our flesh, when we look to this world,
we have those doubts. When we look to Him, we don't.
That light just shines too bright for there to be any darkness.
Can't be any darkness. The Lord told Peter, back in John 21,
I'll let you go, verse 18. He said, you love me? He said,
you feed my lambs. You love me? You feed my sheep.
You love me? Feed my sheep. and he tells him
what death he's gonna die. We'll look at more next week,
but verse 18. Verily, verily, truly, truly,
I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself,
and walkest, whether thou wouldest. You used to do what you wanted
to do. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth
thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee, whether
thou wouldst not go. He spake, this he spake signifying
by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
he said unto him, follow me, follow me. You know, Peter's
last letter that he wrote, he said, feed, he's speaking to
those elders. He said, feed the flock of God with knowledge and
understanding the word of God. Just tell him what he said. Tell
them what he said. Just tell them what that word
says. Just read it to them. If you ain't got nothing, read
it to them. How do we love him? He first loved us. And how couldn't
we? That's how. How could we love
him? He first loved us. But how couldn't you? He's altogether
lovely. He's the express image of God. And we're gonna be made like
him because everything he did for us before we ever knew him,
while we were his enemies with him, he loved us. Don't that
melt your heart? That's who peace comes to. Paul
ended that letter to Ephesus. He says, peace be to the brethren
and love with faith from God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace, we need grace. Grace be with all them that love
our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. Amen. I pray that grace
and peace is on all of us. Let's pray together. Father, forgive us. Prompt at wonder is an elegant
way of describing our nature. Lord, we seek ourselves so much,
make us seek Christ. We see our flesh, we know what
we are. Lord, and you know our frame.
You put a new creation in us and have compassion on us, Lord.
Make us grow in grace and knowledge and understanding of him. Thank you. Thank you for his
blood. Lord, be with our brethren everywhere as they suffer and
as they struggle. We're all in our weakness. Be
with us as you promised you will be and keep us to the end. Make
us faithful to the end. Because of Christ we ask it.
Amen.