Again with me to John 21 here. And I just read to you what had
happened. And this is the third time that
our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples. And the title
of my message this morning is Three Necessary Questions. Three Necessary Questions. And
this the third time, as I said, our Lord had appeared unto his
disciples. It was a time of fellowship.
It was a time of food. And they got to the land, the
Lord Jesus already had fire and food. Already had fire and food
prepared for them. You know, and he told them to
come and dine. You all come and sit down and eat. That's what
he told them. And you know it says there in
verse 13, Jesus taketh bread. You know he had done that before.
He done it when he was walking with the disciples on the Emmaus
road. He stopped in their house and they asked him to stay and
he began to break bread and give thanks for it and they knew immediately
it was the Lord. And he broke the bread, and the
last time he had broke the bread for these folks was when they
sat at the last supper, the Lord's table with him. And here he says
they had nothing. They had labored all night and
caught nothing. They didn't have anything to eat. He said, you
got anything to eat? Nope, we ain't got nothing to eat. So
when they got there, he already had the fire going, had the food
on it. Now where did that fire and food
come from? He wasn't a fisherman. He wasn't a baker. Our Lord can
create, if He created this world and upholds it by the word of
His power, it ain't nothing for Him to build a fire and have
bread and fish. You know, He was in a burning
bush. You know, He appeared to Moses out of a burning bush and
the bush didn't consume. So, you know, it ain't nothing
for Him to do that. And just like us, it's nothing
for Him to put the fire of the Spirit in our heart and our soul.
It's nothing for Him to feed us. It's nothing for Him. And we gather together. That's
what He tells us to do. Come and dine. Come and dine. And so when they had ate and
they had dined, our Savior starts a conversation. with Simon Peter. And Simon Peter is representative
of us as a believer. And you know he fell. He denied
the Lord three times. And our Lord Jesus Christ asked
him three questions. And so he fell. And I want you
to see his fall over here in Luke. Luke 22. Look at his fall
here. Luke 22. His fall. You know, when Simon failed, there's several reasons why he
failed. Look here in Luke 22, 21. You know, we see his fall
and his restoration. Here's his fall and our Lord
restoring here in John 21. And the Lord said unto Simon,
Simon, Simon, Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he
may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren." Now listen to what he says here. And he said,
Lord, I'm ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. Oh my, Satan's already started
his work on him. Filling him full of pride, selfishness,
self-confidence, self-righteousness. And he said, our Lord answered
him, said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this
day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou even know me. So there's his fall. And over
here in John 21, we see his restoration. But oh my, he was so full of
pride and self-confidence and self-righteousness. And our Lord
said, Simon, Simon, Satan has sought sought. And this is a very solemn and
blessed thing to say. And here's the solemn thing for
it. It didn't say that he was going
to keep him from falling. That he wasn't even going to
keep Satan from sifting him. He said, the only thing I'm praying
for you is that when you fall and Satan sifts you, that your
faith won't completely give way. Because that's the scary thing
about it. He said, I didn't pray to keep
you from falling. I didn't pray to keep you from
Satan. And what a mercy it was in our Lord Jesus Christ to let
him fall. It was necessary for him. And
you know why it was necessary for him? So he could see the
condition of his own heart. To see how lifted up he was in
pride. See how lifted up he was in self-confidence. And how he looked down on the
rest of those disciples, they'll all forsake you, but I won't.
And that's the way he felt about it. And I tell you the Lord,
what a mercy to let him fall, to show him the worthlessness,
the worthlessness of self-confidence. The worthlessness of this flesh
and trusting in the flesh. And what a blessed thing to let
him fall to humble his proud spirit. He needed to be sifted
by Satan as manifest because he said, Lord, I don't care what
anybody else does. I'll go to prison with you and
I'll even die with you. He got to find out. that don't
make no boast that you can't back up, then oh my. And I tell you what, would it
be necessary for you and I? necessary for you and I to fall
sometime? It was for Paul. Paul told us
in 2 Corinthians, he said, you know, lest I be exalted above
measures for the revelations that God gave me and Christ gave
me, there was sent unto me a thorn in the flesh. I was buffeted
of Satan and sent unto me a thorn in the flesh to humble me lest
I be exalted. And he said, and I asked the
Lord three times. Three times to let this thing
pass from me. Three times. Here's an apostle. Both of these men are apostles.
And Paul said, I've asked the Lord three times, take this thorn
from me. This buffeting of Satan that
you sent my way. I have no idea what it was. But
you know what he told him? The Lord said, oh Paul, Saul,
Saul. He said, you know what? He said,
my grace is sufficient for you and my strength is made perfect
in your weakness. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. Christ's strength was made perfect
in Simon Peter's fall. Christ's grace was glorified
in Simon Peter's fall. The weakness of his flesh, Christ's
strength was shown in the weakness of Simon Peter's flesh. And oh
beloved, sometimes this is the only remedy God will use on us.
We have to learn this and God teaches us this by experience
over and over and over again because we're so thick-headed
and so hard-headed that in me we got to find this over and
over and over again that in me, that is in my flesh, there absolutely
dwells nothing good. Huh? Oh, how we have to do that. And it's only when we're weak, only when we're weak, that we're
strong. And this is the way for Peter. You know, he said, when you're
converted, strengthen the brother. This is the way for Peter to
be converted. Now, what does convert mean?
Convert means to turn from here to this way. It's like in the
new birth. The new birth is what God does
for us. He gives us life. He creates
life in us. We have a new nature. We are
regenerated. And that's something we don't
have anything to do with. But when that happens, We're
automatically converted and we turn from ourselves and we turn
to Christ. And God, Christ is saying, Simon
Peter, when you're converted from this pride, this self-righteousness,
this self-confidence, this boldness that you seem to have, He said,
when you're converted from that, trusted in your own abilities,
he said, then you turn around, you strengthen the brethren.
Because you know what it is to fall, you strengthen these over
here. And that's what he's talking
about. And I tell you, turn from that dangerous pride and self-confidence. And you know, and then it says
here, In verse 9, verse 21, As soon then as they came to the
land, they saw a fire of coals thereon, and fish laid thereon. Now look back here in John 18,
in verse 18, and look what it says over here. This is where Simon Peter now,
he's already, you know, he's denied the Lord Jesus Christ.
First time. In verse 18, And the servants
and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals, And
they warmed themselves and Peter stood with them and warmed himself. Over there is a fire of coals
and over here is a fire of coals. What a difference in the two.
He's over here with the enemies of Christ and a fire of coals
warming himself with the enemies of Christ and here he is eaten
from a fire of coals that the Lord Jesus Christ made for him.
What a difference. Here's his fall. Here's his restoration. What a difference it is. What
a difference. And then his restoration. Look
what our Lord Jesus Christ did for him. You know he appeared
to him alone. First thing he ever did when
he told his disciples when he first appeared to Mary. He said
go into Galilee and tell Peter and the disciples that I'll meet
them there. And the scriptures tells us that he appeared to
Cephas first. The first person he appeared
to was Simon Peter. After that he appeared unto the
twelve, and then after that among five hundred brethren at one
time. And you know why he appeared to him alone? Because he had
to give him a manifestation of how gracious he was, how kind
he was, how compassionate he was. You see, he had denied the
Lord Jesus Christ three times. And our Lord Jesus Christ asked
him three questions. Three questions. He was asked
three questions when he was in there in the high priest's house.
He was asked three questions. When he was there, when he denied
the Lord three times. And every time they asked him
whether he knew Christ, he said, I don't know that man. I know
him not. Oh, I'm not one of them. And
so he denied him three times. And our Lord asked him three
questions. Look here in verse 15. So when
they had dined, after they'd got through eating, when they'd
got through eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter. But now when
our Lord spoke to him, he called him Simon. He didn't use the
name Peter. Simon. Peter is the name the Lord Jesus
gave him. And he said, Simon, son of Jonas. He said, my daddy's name is Jonas. Love thou me more than these
now he's asking about two things. I believe Do you love these disciples
these brethren that you went fishing with more than me? And
do you love these fish and fishing more than me? Do you love me
more than these these other disciples and all these fish that I caught
for you this morning? Huh? You said you said you did
you said you'd even die with me Do you love me more than these? Look what he said to him, Yea,
Lord, O Lord, and look what he says here, Thou knowest, Thou
knowest. Oh, he fell back on the knowledge
of Christ. Fell back on what Christ knows.
You know, he didn't fall back and retreat to his sinful boast.
He didn't say, Lord, I'm sorry that I did this. No, no. He said
before, I'll die with you now, beloved. He has to come and say,
Lord, thou knowest. You know. And he gave him a hard
confession. He said, you know. You're the
one that searches the heart. And I'll tell you, he didn't
appeal to his own way. He didn't say, Lord, you know,
this was my way. And you know, I'm sorry it didn't
go your way. He didn't appeal to his own way. Or what he even
knew of his own heart. He knew this much about it. He
couldn't trust it anymore. He couldn't trust it anymore.
You know what the Bible said? A fool trusts in his own heart. And all people say, well I know
my heart. Listen, I know mine is deceitful. I know it can't be trusted. And
I know it will lie to me. And I know it will make promises
that it can't keep. But all like Simon Peter said,
Lord thou knowest, thou knowest. He didn't say thou knowest if
I love you. He didn't say you know that I
love you. He rested on the Lord's knowledge
of his love. And there's two things here about
Simon Peter. humility and confidence. But look where it's at now. In
spite of my awful, awful failure. In spite of my awful, awful fall. In spite of my awful, awful weakness. I do love you. And you know that. You know that. You know what
our Master said then? He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. I heard Henry Mahan say years
and years ago, I mean I hadn't been pastured maybe two years
maybe. And I heard Henry say that God's
got to equip a man, teach a man, instruct a man, before he'll
trust him with his sheep. And he won't trust him. The more
he trains him, the more he uses him, the more he humbles him,
the more he trains him in his school. He said the more sheep
he'll give him. He said he ain't gonna turn his
sheep over to just anybody. And that's what he said, here's
what our Lord Jesus said to Simon Peter. He said, feed my lambs,
the weakest, the furthest, the newest among them. What grace,
what grace to one who's fallen so far. For our Lord Jesus Christ
to commit his lambs to this man. He didn't say, Simon, I know
you love me. But instead, he said, feed my
lambs, the weakest and feeblest of the flock. Look in Isaiah
40. Look in Isaiah 40 with me. Look over here in Isaiah 40 in
verse 11. Feed my lambs. And you know what
our Lord said here? He said, my lambs. They're not
your lambs, Simon. They're not the church's lambs. They're my lambs. Look what he said here at verse
10. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand, and His arms shall rue for Him. Behold, His
reward is with Him, and His work is before Him. He shall feed
his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in
his arms and carry them in his bosom. And he shall gently lead
those that are with young. Oh my, Simon Peter, take care
of my lambs. Not only take care of them, feed
them. Feed them, feed them, feed them.
And all beloved, they are his. And he's the one who appoints
who's going to feed them. He's the one who appoints who's
going to care for them. He's the one who chooses who's
going to protect them. He said, feed my lambs. Here's
the second question he asked Simon Peter, verse 16. He saith to him again the second
time, Simon, still didn't call him Peter, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me? Second question. He saith unto
him, Yea, Lord. And he said the same thing, Thou
knowest that I love thee. Huh? Oh my. Before he had compared his, he
wanted to know if he loved something more than him. These more than
me. Here he just compares love. Deals
with just strictly love. To his love. Not for love for
anything else but his love to Christ and Christ alone. He confines
himself to love his self. Lovest thou me? Love us thou
may. You're talking about a searching
question. Have you ever, ever, I know we all doubt how much
Christ loves us and whether He loves us or not or how He could
possibly love us. But do you ever, ever wonder
sometimes, do you have any love for Him because of the way you
act, the way you do, the way you think? If I was like this,
and I'd done this, and I said this, and I treated people this
way, could I love Christ and do that? A searching question. For all
who profess faith in Him, lovest thou me? Oh, John Newton said, if I've
never loved thee before in any way, let me start today. Oh God,
put your love in my heart now. Oh, if I've never loved you before,
let me start today. Put it in my heart now. Oh Lord,
I want to love you. But I know me. I know that the
Scriptures tell us that we love ourselves more than anybody else.
But he said, Lovest thou me? And I tell you something, he
didn't say, Do you know much? Do you know much? Do you know the doctrines of
grace? Do you do much? He didn't ask that question.
Do you do much? He didn't say, Do you talk much? He didn't say, did you give much? He didn't ask him, did you go
through much? No. He didn't ask him, do you make
a great show in religion? Didn't ask him, do you pray a
lot? Do you read your Bible a lot? He didn't ask any of those questions. Do you love me? Do you love me? And he fell on the same thing. Lord, Lord, O Lord, O Lord, there
you said it, God's right hand. O Lord, Thou knowest, Thou knowest,
Thou knowest, Thou knowest. You know what he said this time?
Feed my sheep. My lambs and my sheep. You know,
when I see you, I see the Lord's sheep. I see God's sheep. I see people that have to be
fed, have to be nourished, have to be taught, have to be instructed.
You know, when the Lord said, He said, the Lord is my shepherd. Everything about that says, because
he's our shepherd, I shall not want. And he, the shepherd, does
the leading. He leads us. And then it says,
he maketh us. He has to make it happen. Maketh
to lie down beside the still waters. He has everything about them
sheep. He does for those sheep. That His sheep don't say, I did
anything for myself. He leads them. He guides them. He makes them lay down. He leads
them beside the green. He takes them into the green
pastures. He does it all. Huh? Oh my, I'll tell you what,
it'd be worrying to the heart. The worst thing you can do is
mistreat one of God's sheep. There he is. I've told you this before, there's
a fella, he's dead and gone now. And he preached against the gospel. Me and Bruce Crabtree, God taught
us the gospel. He wanted to distance himself
from us. But he said this one time, he said, God called me
to shear sheep and dehorn goats. What a stupid thing to say. Shear sheep? Shear sheep? You know what God
said about His sheep? Feed my sheep. Comfort you, comfort you my people. Huh? And one thing our Lord told us,
He said, it'd be better for her to take a big millstone, put
it around a man's neck and throw him into the depth of the sea,
than he should offend one of these little ones. Oh, my feet, my sheep. And then
he told Simon Peter in another place, he said, take oversight
of the sheep of God, the flock of God, not for filthy lucre's
sake. You do it because I told you
to do it. And oh my! I've told you this
before, I'm sure I have. I know I have. Years and years
and years ago. We're still over in that other
building. And I mean, we was very, very small congregation
and wasn't many of us at all. And I got to feeling sorry for
myself. I'd come on Sunday night and
after a while, three or four would show up, maybe five. Wednesday
nights, I mean, it was same thing. But I got to feeling sorry for
myself one Wednesday. And I thought, Lord, I ain't
no bit of sense. I ain't no sense of me even getting a message.
I ain't even going to worry about getting anything to preach tonight.
I said, I'll just show up and if there's anybody that shows
up, I'll come up with something to say. You know? What it amounted
to, I felt like I deserved more. Because I was such a good preacher,
I deserved people to preach to. You know? That's my problem. I see it now. You know, full
of pride. But I had one little old Holstein
calf. I'd raised him on a bottle and
I was feeding him. And I'd have to go down there
every day and I'd feed that calf every day. And I was on my way
down there to feed that calf in the afternoon. And it, oh,
it's just like, it's just like God just, oh, you're talking
about a fog. He said, you know, ain't no sense
in him getting nothing to say. But it dawned on me, God just
opened my heart to see that I was going down there to feed one
calf. And my heart smoked me, God smoked
my heart. And he said, you feed one calf? And if there's one sheep shows
up and you want to complain about not feeding them, I sighed about
it, boy, I broke my heart, I just, oh, I just, I just, I felt so
ashamed of myself, so embarrassed before God. And I said, Lord,
if there is one sheep shows up, I'll have something to feed them
from now on. By God's grace, I've been able
to hopefully feed the Lord's sheep whenever I've been able
to be with them together. Oh, God taught me a valuable
lesson. I was like Simon Peter. Oh, I had to fall. I had to fall. Here's his third
question. Look what he says here in verse
17. Here's his third question. Oh
my. Simon, he saith unto him the
third time, remember he denied the Lord three times, so the
Lord asked him three times. Three times, Simon son of Jonas,
lovest thou me? Peter had an altogether different
reaction this time. Altogether different reaction.
And it says, Peter was grieved, because he said unto him the
third time, Lovest thou me? Peter had a different reaction.
He was grieved. He said, the Lord knows something
about me. I don't know. There's something in me that
I don't know. Something in me going on. And
he was grieved. And that means deeply, deeply
sorrowful. Cut to the quick. He's contrived,
He's grieved, He's hurting. Three times He had denied the
Lord Jesus Christ His Master. And three times our Lord challenges
His love. And three times He confesses.
But this time He confesses in a different, different way. Watch
what He said. Lord, first thing He says, Thou
knowest all things. You know everything there is
to know. There's nothing, nothing that
you don't know. It said over in John 18 and 4,
Jesus knowing that all things that should come upon him. Went
forth. Knowing exactly what was going
to happen to him. Knowing exactly how he was going
to be treated. Knowing exactly what was going
to happen to him on the cross. Knowing exactly what men were
going to say and do to him. He went forth knowing all things
that should come upon him. And there Simon Peter falls
back on that. Lord thou knowest all. Is there
anything you don't know about me, Lord? You not only know me,
but you know all things. You know all things. You told
me before I fell that I was going to fall. Oh my. Lord, thou knowest all
things. And you know that I love you.
Oh my. Isn't it a blessed thing to know
that our Lord Jesus Christ knows all things? You know he knows where we're
at right now. He knows what this country is going through. He
knows that in fact he brought it this way. He brought it. Why did he bring it? To show
that this, you can't put any confidence in the flesh. That
there's so much in this world that's out of men's control and
He wants this world to know. You can't control this world.
You can't control me. You can't control diseases. You
can't even control your own will, your own imagination. Keep yourself
from sin. And this will make people look
and understand that there's things out of men's control. And beloved believers are the
only ones that know that, I tell you, the only people that know
in this world that God knows all things. And He's the first cause of all
things, and when it ends up bringing all the glory to Him, that's
when it'll stop, and it won't stop till the end. And we're not glorying in the
fact that that's what happens, but we know this, that if what
He brought, He also can take away. What He does, He can stop
just like that. He can bring it that quick and
stop it that quick. But this world and everybody
in it is going to learn to touch somebody besides this world and
governments that save people. And you know what it does for
you and I? It makes us care for our country like we haven't cared
for it in a long time. You know what else it does? It
makes us care for people. You know how many people? This
is the thing that bothers me more than anything else other
than just the sickness. It's all the people that are
going to be out of work and have no income whatsoever. Now that
really troubles me. People are going to really, really
be hurting. And I'll say this, if you've
got a good job, and you've got a steady income, you do what
you can to help people that's out of work, you find somebody
in your community, in this town, and in this city, that people
that don't have a job, don't have any place to work, and lost
their income, you find somebody to help. Find somebody to give
them a little money. But it's caused us to pray. Oh,
how we pray for this country. Huh? Pray for those, all those
people, all those people out of work. And in here, Simon Peter, that's
why we say God knows all things. There's nothing happening. But
I'll tell you what. But I want to know God. I want
to know Christ. I want to know Him and I thank
God that He knows all things and when all things are ready,
He'll stop just like that. Stop like it came. Men couldn't see any signs of
love. This is what's going on in Simon
Peter's heart. Men couldn't see any signs of
love that he loved the Lord Jesus Christ when he denied Him. That
maid that led him in said, Oh, you, you was with him. No, no,
I wasn't, I wasn't. You couldn't see any sign of
loving for Christ when he done that. You couldn't see any love
for Christ when he stood beside that fire. You couldn't see any
love for Christ when he denied Him three times. But Lord, you can read my heart. When I denied you the first time,
you read my heart. When I denied you the second
time, you read my heart. When I denied you the third time,
you read my heart. I'm glad that you don't just
look at what men do, and how men act, but you look in the
depths of their heart and you know what's really there. Huh? There's lots of times folks have
seen me and said there's no way that man could be a Christian.
Huh? But oh my. No, you looked beyond
what I said, and look what beyond I did. You looked past it. You done atoned for all my sin. And you saw the depths of my
heart. You saw the depths of my soul.
My lips said one thing. My lips said one thing. But Lord, you was reading my
heart, not my lips. Huh? Ain't you grateful that
he's that way? Oh, He reads your heart. You
know, He don't read our lips. He reads our hearts. And He looks at the heart. Oh,
the heart. Oh, my. And then look what He
said here, again. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Three times He told, times He
told, feed my sheep, once to feed my lambs. Don't you think
these are three necessary questions? Simon Peter, you love me. Here's
the way. Here's the way you're going to
manifest your love for me. How? For my sheep. How you treat my sheep? He said,
feed my sheep. You love me? Take care of my
sheep. They're my sheep. He said, I'll
lay down my life for the sheep. He's forgiven freely. Fully restored
to his apostleship. And the Lord commends to him
that which is the most dearest to him on this earth. And you
know what it is? His sheep. The dearest thing to him on earth
is his sheep. And he said, Simon Peter, I want
you to feed them. I want you to take care of them.
And He bought them with His precious blood. He paid for all their
sins with His blessed blood. He laid down His life for them.
And He knows them. And they know Him. They hear
His voice. And you know where you hear His
voice? when He's having them fed. They hear His voice when He's feeding them. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I thank You for Your abundant
mercy and grace given us in Christ before the world ever began.
I thank You for this Thy precious Word, Lord, you're responsible
for the sheep and you told us to feed your sheep. We can't feed them unless you
give us food. So Lord, you have to give us something
to feed them with. So we look to you for the feed.
We look to you for the guidance. We look to you for the grace.
We look to you for the strength. And God bless you, dear sheep.
Lord, strengthen them, encourage them. And Lord, we commit ourselves
and this congregation and those who are greatly tried right now
into your hands. And again, provide for those
who don't have. Lead us, Lord, to people that
we could maybe help someway, somehow. For Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.