Turn to John chapter 21. Lovest thou me more than these? Or just simply, do you love me? Do you love me? If you men, if
we men, I include myself in this, if we were to ask our wives,
do you love me? I think the first response would
be, of course I do, without thinking. The second time it'd be, yes.
The third time it'd be, it would really, it would sink in. He'd
say, why are you asking me this question? Our Lord, he gets right,
he gets Peter, you know, Peter, I think Peter's first response
is, well, of course I do, Lord, you know I love you. But the
third time he says he's grieved, why would you question my love?
Well, of course, you remember, and Peter remembered, he denied
him shortly before this. And then not only did he deny
him, he just decided to go fishing. He figured it was over. The Lord,
he said, I go fishing. You know, he died and he'd been
buried and he hadn't seen him, so he just said, I'm going to
go back to what I used to do. I'm just going to go back and pick
up my old trade and go back at it. And he just, so the Lord
puts his question to him. And this is a question, I'm telling
you, this is the question of questions. I've told you this
before, but years ago, over 30 years ago, this is the one question
I heard my pastor ask while preaching on television. I heard him, and
he said, do you love Christ? And boy, it struck me. I just
never thought of that. Everybody, you know, that Armenian,
you believe on him, you accept him as your personal savior,
and you know, you live right, you go on. But to love somebody? I mean, you know what that means.
You're sold out to them. It's a relationship, I mean a
close relationship, a real relationship. And that got my attention. We
all love something or someone. Whatever or whomever we love
has us. They've got us. They've got us. Those grandkids
of mine, they got me. They got me. I'm glad they don't
know it. But they got me. They have our
hearts. Whomever we love, they have our
hearts, our affection, our trust. They have us. He's saying, Peter,
you love me. Peter says, you know I love you.
Well, I tell you what, if that's so, he's the Lord's. He's got him. Thick and thin,
he's got him. There's no one saved who does
not love Jesus Christ. No one. No matter how moral,
no matter how faithful a person may attend service, faithfully,
faithfully. But without love to Christ, there's
no relationship. There is no relationship. There
is no work of grace in the soul. Because where there is a real
work of grace in the soul, there is real love. I believe Barnard
called it sweetheart love to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, my
first point is this. It's a searching question. He
asked Peter, and this same question goes out to everyone here tonight.
It is a searching question. This question is asked by our
Lord to Peter. who had denied him three times. And our Lord shoots straight
at his heart. I mean straight at his heart.
I have no doubt that Peter felt some of the guilt of what he
had done, and the Lord is going to deal with it here. Because
it's a heart matter. It's a heart matter. Our Lord
is going to prove Our Lord is going to prove our love to him.
You can just write that down. He's going to prove our love
to him. This question calls Peter to examine himself. We are told
in 2 Corinthians 13, 5, examine yourself whether you be in the
faith. And I don't know that anything, any question, I don't
know that any question would make us examine ourselves
like this question. Peter said in one place, thou
art a Christ, the Son of the living God. He doesn't ask Peter,
do you believe? He doesn't ask him that at all.
He says, do you love me more than these? And he's not talking
about the disciples, because I tell you this, I believe we
ought to love one another as much as we love Christ. I do. Now, he said, don't love your
mother, father, sister, brother. He's talking about the relationship
to the world. My love to Christ, I assure you
this. Let me see how to put this. My love for you is a direct relationship
to my love to Christ. I say I love Christ. And yet
one of you comes and you say you're hungry. And I say, go
away, be warmed and fed. I don't do a thing for you. But
I love Christ. I tell you this, if I love him,
I love you. I love you, and I do not believe
that any of us love Christ any more than we do love one another.
I just don't believe we do. I believe it's a direct relationship
there. Are you not the body of Christ?
Are you not his body? Loving you is loving him. So he asks a very searching question
here. And this question makes Peter,
and it makes us, to examine ourselves. And that examination starts with
what's going on in the heart. It starts with love. Love was
thou made. And why is he asked this question?
I'll tell you why. Why I think this question is
asked. No relationship will last where
love is absent. No relationship is real where
love is absent. If it's absent, there's no real
relationship there at all. There's no serving, there's no
worshiping Christ apart from love. It just ain't gonna happen. And I want you to notice something
here. Look in verse 18. This is after the Lord asked
Peter this question three times. Verily, verily, truly, truly,
I say unto you, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself,
and you walk wherever you want to go. But when thou shalt be
old, now he's getting ready to tell Peter here how he's going
to die. You want to know how you're going to die? I don't.
No, I just want to die. I don't want to know about it.
Don't tell me. But he's telling Peter here exactly
what's going to happen to him. Thou shalt be old, and thou shalt
stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and
carry thee, whither thou wouldst not go. He was crucified, and
the history has it he was crucified upside down. Now you tell me
what's going to carry Peter through the battle. Through all these
battles, he's about ready to go out now. The Lord's going
to go back to glory, and he's going to go out, and he's got a real
battle on his hands. And this is how it's going to
end. He's going to be crucified. Now you tell me what's going
to carry him through that battle. I tell you what's going to carry
him through it. It's love. Love to Christ. And this issue of
love, this issue of love is going to be settled right here by the
Sea of Galilee. It's going to be settled right
now. Who do you love? Peter, do you love me more than
these? He's not, like I said, he's not talking about the disciples.
He's talking about, he's talking about this. Peter says, I go
fishing. That's what he's talking about. His occupation. The things that he grew up doing.
That's all he knew. And he says, Peter, do you love
me more than these? More than this? Lord, you know,
I love you. Then he says what? Go fishing?
All right, go back fishing. No, he says feed, first he says
feed my lambs. Take care of my little ones.
And then he says feed my sheep. This is what you're going to
do for the rest of your life. Don't you get sidetracked. This
is your calling. You feed my sheep and my lambs
and you let this other stuff go. You let it go. Searching
question. Now the first thing our Lord
does here is He has Peter to look at His love to Him and His
love to these things. And He's telling Peter there
can be no rival. There can be no rival for your
love to me. Just like my love for my wife.
There can't be no rival now. That issue is settled. There's
not going to be a rival. And he's telling Peter, there's
going to be no rival here to my love, to your love to me,
at all. And then this question is personal.
It's a personal question. Peter, do you love me? Boy, that's a loaded question,
isn't it? Here is God incarnate. Here is that prophet. Here is
the king of glory. Here is the high priest. Here
is the sacrifice. You can't just love a part of
Christ. You can't have him as a savior and not the Lord. Is
there anything about Christ you would change? We can't say that about each
other. We'd say, is there anything you'd change about me? Honey?
Well, there's a few things I can think of. A few. But now, He's altogether lovely. I'm not. I'm telling you, I'm
not. And you're not. We are not altogether
lovely, listen, in this flesh. We've got too much sin going
on. Got too much of an attitude at times. But now, our Lord is
altogether lovely. And there's absolutely nothing
about Him that we would change. Do you love me as I am? Who I am? Do you love me? It's not a general question,
nor did he ask the other disciples at this time. He didn't say to
his disciples as they were all sitting there after they had
dined, do you all love me? No, it's personal. Do you? Peter, put your name there. Just
put your name there. Mike, do you love me? Bob, do
you love me? You just go around, John, do
you love me? It's a personal question. If I was going to ask my wife
that, I wouldn't say, do you love us? I'd say, do you love
me? Do you love me? Do you love Christ? You love him. This is not some type of group
therapy going on here. This is real and this is personal. And it's a question that you
must answer. You can't say, well, let me think
about it. Well, that's over. You lose. If you have to think
about it, if you literally have to think about it, you don't
love him. You don't love him. If you have to think about whether
you love somebody or not, you don't love him. You don't. Do you love me? And then it's
a heart question. Love starts in the heart. It
starts in the heart. It starts where the affections
are. And the scripture says, where your treasure is, your
heart is. And I thought today, where your love is, your heart
is. And where your heart is, your love is. Don't talk about
loving someone when your heart is somewhere else. And then this,
it's a heart question, it's evidence of a new heart. Because that
old heart never loves him. It never falls out of love with
itself. It doesn't have room for love or anything else. It's
evidence of a new heart and that's the only heart that will love
him. And then it's a revealing question. It's a revealing question. It reveals whether you're lost
or saved. You know that? Look over in John chapter 8.
Look in verse, let me get to it first. John, let's see. Look in John 8, 41. You do the
deeds of your father. Then say they to him, we be not
born of fornication. We have one father, even God.
Now listen. Jesus said unto them, if God
were your father, you would love me. It's a revealing question. It
reveals whether you and I are lost or safe. He said, I proceeded forth and
came from God and neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
But if God were your father, you would fall in love with me.
You would fall in love with me. And then it reveals spiritual
health or spiritual sickness. What was the charge against the
church at Ephesus? You left your first faith? Your first love. Your first love. Where's your heart? What happened?
Where'd your affection go? Where'd your love go? It reveals whether a person is
spiritually healthy or sick. And then it reveals whether a
person is walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh. No man,
no man can walk in the Spirit and not love Christ. Can't do it. And then it's a repeated question.
Repeated question. Three times. Three times. I don't know why he asked him
three times. But I do know this. We should
face this question every day when we get up. Every day. Why is that? Why should we face
this question every day? It helps keep our focus on him. I assure you if Vicki got up
to everyone and I said, Vicki, do you love me? You couldn't help but think of
that one who just asked you that. It would focus her attention
on me. If we think, if this question is repeated time after time after time, it
helps us to focus our attention on Him. And then it's repeated. It's
a repeated question because there's too many things that attract
us, isn't there? There's too many things that
attract us. And this question helps keep
us centered on Him. And thirdly, it's a repeated
question because we are repeated offenders, are we not? Peter denied him three times,
and what did he say? I'm going to go fishing. I'm
just going to go back to whatever I was doing. He was just ready
to leave. And here's what, especially as a pastor, let's go back to
that. Let me show you something. This
just jumped out at me as I read it. And Simon Peter said unto them,
I go fishing. They say to him, we're going
to go with you. I thought, my, my, my, if you're
the leader, you better be careful. Be careful, because they say,
I'm going with you. Be careful who you go with. Always
be careful. We are repeated offenders. And
so many times we are guilty of leaving the first love, our first
love. Way too many times. Way too often. Way too often. Now, Peter said, Lord, you know,
I love you. And every believer here. We'll
say the same thing, Lord, you know. He knows the Lord's not
asking for information, this is for Peter, this is for Peter,
and this is for you and I, because he said, Lord, you know, you
know, I know, you know. That I love you. Well, why do
I love Christ? Why? Well, it says over in 1
John 4, 19, because He first loved us. That's why. It's a response. My love to Christ is a response
to His love to me. It's that new man responding
to Christ. That's what it is. It's a response.
And then why do I love Him? Turn over to 1 John. 1 John, chapter 4. 1 John, chapter 4. Look in verse 7. Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God. and knoweth God. Why do I love Christ? Because
I've been born of God. Born of God. Why do I love Christ? Listen. Because I cannot help
it. I did not make myself fall in
love with my wife. It happened. That's not something
you just had to work on and strain. I've got to love them. I'm supposed
to love them. It's called falling in love.
If you could help it, it wouldn't be called falling. You fall when
you can't help it. That's why you fail. You can't help it. It's the natural
response of a new birth, of a new man. It's that natural response. You just fell in love with him.
One day you heard the gospel. God gave you life and light,
and you felt yourself drawn to him. You fell in love with him. Now we have love's proof. Peter,
do you love me? Lord, you know I love you. You
know all things. You know I love you. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Get this. Love, true love, is
proven by conduct. It's proven by conduct. Peter, you love me? Feed my sheep. Watch yourself. See, love looks
after the object of its love and not after itself. Don't feed yourself. Feed my
sheep. Are you still in 1 John? Turn
and look in chapter 3. In verse 18, my little children,
1 John 3, 18, my little children, let us not love in word, neither
in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Proven by your conduct. That's
how it's proven, by your conduct. God proved His love to us by
sending His own Son. God so loved the world, He sent
His only begotten Son. Christ proved His love to us
by dying on a cross. Having loved His own, He loved
them to the end. And the Holy Spirit proves His
love to us by never leaving us. I wouldn't live in this house
if I didn't have to. Would you? I thought about this today. I
thought, my, we wouldn't stay in the house. He stays in. We're told, you know, don't,
not to sin and grieve the Holy Spirit. But I tell you what,
he never leaves us. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit.
You're sealed with him. And he never leaves you. Even
when you're acting like you've got to act, he never leaves you. The love of God absolutely never,
never fails. It never fails. Now I'm going to close with this.
How do I know, how is it that I know, how do you know that
I love Christ? How do I know that? When you love someone, you don't
have to try to think about them, do you? You don't have to even try. The
thought just comes in your mind. They just come into your mind.
They come into your heart, and it's just a pleasantness. There's a real pleasantness about
it. Is there not a real pleasantness about thinking upon Christ? There's
a real joy when you're able to think upon them. There's a real
joy in that. Do I have that? Is He in my thoughts
daily? I tell you what, when you love
someone, you think about them every day. Every day. Not just when you see them. You
think about them every day. Often. You love their presence. What did that unclean spirit
say to our Lord this past Sunday we looked at? Leave us alone. But those who love Christ don't
leave us alone. Don't leave at all. You love
the presence of the Lord. You enjoy it. And then you love to talk about
the ones you love, don't you? Just pull out a picture, a family
picture, and somebody else pull out one too. They're saying,
you know, you've got a family album going on. You love to talk about them. You're not ashamed to talk about
them. You are not embarrassed to talk
about the ones you love. You're not embarrassed. And then you long for their company.
You long to see them come home. You long to just be with them.
Have you seen Him whom my soul loveth? That's what the lady
says in the Song of Solomon. Have you seen Him? If you've
seen Him, tell Him I'm lovesick. Have you ever been lovesick? Be like an old puppy falling
around. And if you love someone, it's
not hard to submit to them, is it? It is not hard to submit if you
love them. Even when they're being a jerk.
It's still not that hard to submit. And then last of all, it's easy
to be faithful to one you love. Easy. It's not hard. Not hard at all. They got you.
They got you. What's that famous line? You
had me at hello. Yeah, gotcha. Peter, here's a searching question I
want to ask you. Here's a serious question that
must be answered before you go out there on the battlefield. Do you love me? Because I'll
tell you what. When the battle gets hot, you'll
run off the battlefield. You'll leave. You'll leave. But love is stronger than what? Death. How many people have, I mean
just even natural people and natural, what we call natural
love, there have been people who've died for others. We've
had people die for this country. Let's take that on a greater
level to our love for Christ, our love for Him. Do you love
me? That's a searching question,
and we have to answer it individually.