John 21 this morning, verse 15. I can't remember preparing a
message that blessed me more than this one has. And my prayer is always that
as the Lord has blessed me with it, that He'll bless me to speak
it so that It'll be a blessing to you. I pray His grace this
morning to speak on something that's so far beyond me. The
Apostle Paul said, who is sufficient for these things? And I ask myself
that question often. And I know that our sufficiency
is of Him. We have none apart from Him. And so we pray. We ask Him. to help, to bless, and I pray
He will this morning. In John 21, 15, it says, when
they had dined, and we know what that's talking about, don't we,
because we know what happened before. When the Lord had provided
a meal for them, they came after a hard night's work, and after
being frightened and confused and discouraged wrung out a little bit. The Lord
knows how to wring us out a little now and then. Sometimes a lot.
And these men come up on the seashore and the Lord is sitting
there waiting on them with fish and bread. And speaks to them these gracious
words that still ring in our hearts today. because He speaks
to all of us, come and dine. And when they had, when they
had dined with their Master, with their Savior, with the lover
of their souls, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these. He saith unto him, yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my lambs. I like to be referred to that
way, don't you? He's talking about me, and he
says, my lambs. And he saith to him again the
second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto
him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto
him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because
he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto
him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. Now in the very beginning of
the book of John, this truth is established. We're given this
expectation. In John 117, it says the law
was given by Moses. God gave his law to his people
through the prophet 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." If you've
seen God, if you know God, if you understand anything about
God, it's because you know the Lord Jesus Christ. No man hath
seen God without being born again of the Spirit of God. You can't
see the kingdom of heaven. Unless you know his son, unless
you've seen him declared, heard him declared by his son and seen
him revealed in his son, you don't know God. Christ is God
manifest in the flesh. God manifests. How did you see God? He manifest
himself. How did he do it? He became a
man. He became the man. 1 Timothy 3.16, and 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, and received up into glory. My Savior is God, making Himself
known in the flesh. When Philip said to the Lord,
Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. The Lord Jesus Christ said,
Philip, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how
sayest thou then, show us the Father? How in the world can
you look God in the face and say, show me God? Did not the Lord Jesus Christ
indeed manifest himself as God on this earth? He revealed his
omnipresence to Nathanael. You remember that in John chapter
one? He said to Nathanael, before that Philip called thee, when
you were under the fig tree, I saw you. And you know what
Nathanael said? In other words, before we met,
I knew you. That's what the Lord said to
Nathanael. And Nathanael said, you're the son of God. You're
the king of Israel. He revealed His omnipotence in
the garden, didn't He, when the soldiers surrounded Him? A hundred
soldiers with swords came to arrest Him. And He said, He asked
them, who is it that you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
And He said, I am. And they fell backwards. He is the omnipotent God. And He revealed Himself. Did
He not say, all power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth? He revealed His omniscience to
the woman at the well in chapter 4. And I'm giving just single
examples of these all through. He reveals Himself as the Holy
God manifest in flesh. The woman at the well, she met
the Savior and she ran into town and said, come see a man that
showed me everything I ever did. Can anybody who displays such
omniscience be anything but the Christ? She said, is not this
God's Christ? He revealed his sovereignty over
creation when the disciples cowered on that ship and said to him,
don't you care that we perish? And he said, oh, you have little
faith. And he spoke to the winds and the seas and they obeyed
him. That's the sovereign God of creation. He revealed His sovereignty over
providence when He reminded them. He said, when I sent you out
with nothing, did you lack anything? And they said, nothing. He's
the God of all providence. He said to us and taught us,
take no thought for these things. what you shall eat, what you
shall drink, wherewithal you'll be clothed." The godless think
about those things and concentrate on those things and spend their
time and effort and money on those things. He said, your heavenly
Father knows that you have need of these things. Look at the
lily. It doesn't toil or spin. And
even Solomon in all of his glory wasn't as pretty as a lily. Oh, take no anxiety. Don't be
worried about the things of this world. He knows you need Him,
and He's the God of all providence. He revealed His sovereignty in
the salvation of sinners when He walked up to the pool of Bethesda.
And there are hundreds of lame and blind and halt and sick. And He walked up to one man and
said, Will thou be made whole? And He had mercy just like He
said He would on whom He would have mercy. And He knew He had
been in a long time in that case. And He had compassion on him
and spoke personally to him. And in that same context, He
declared this in explanation and revelation
of what He had just done. As the Father raiseth up the
dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He
will." That's who you're dealing with this morning now. That's
who you've come before this morning. The One that gives life to whomsoever
He will. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who
spoke to Moses from the burning bush and said, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. And He revealed Himself as such
when He said to that dying thief, Today thou shalt be with me in
paradise." He revealed himself as the God
of all grace when he said things like this, come unto me and I'll
give you rest. Rest is his to give. Life is
his to give. Salvation is his gift. Faith
is his gift. Repentance. Paul said peradventure
God will grant them repentance. unto the acknowledging of the
truth. That's His gift to give. He's the God of all grace. Come
to Me, He said, over and over. He said, Him that cometh to Me,
I will in no wise cast out. He is the same Christ here in
John who spoke through Isaiah and said, Look unto Me and be
ye saved. Only God can say that. Look unto
Me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, for
I am God. And there's none else. Peter preached to him and said,
there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. He is God and there's nobody
else. You're going to have to come to Him, the one you crucified
for salvation, for mercy. You're going to have to come
to the one who you thought was at your mercy and beg Him for
mercy. That's the only place you can
find it. He revealed Himself as the Lamb
of God that takes away sin. And John recognized Him and said,
Behold, God's Lamb that takes away sin. He had revealed Himself,
who He is, all through His earthly ministry. And this is the one
now who asks Peter this question, Do you love me? That's a hard question to answer,
isn't it? Has anyone ever looked you in
the face and asked you that question? It's a soul-searching question,
isn't it? It's somewhat intimidating. It's
so personal. Do you love me? The title of the message this
morning is this, The Heart of the Matter. This is it. This is the heart of the matter. You have to understand what has
happened before, what Peter has done, what Peter has been through
here to understand the question. And he represents all of us in
what he had done and what he had been through. And you can't
understand this question or the answer without seeing that. There's
disagreement here concerning what these are. In the text when
he said, Lovest thou me more than these." Now remember that
Peter had denied the Lord Jesus Christ. He swore that he wouldn't. He declared very proudly and
loudly that he would not. Though everybody else denied
him, he wouldn't do it. And when the Lord was crucified,
it says, all of his disciples forsook him and fled. Peter forsook
him and fled. And now Peter, who the Lord found
fishing to begin with, fishing for fish, said, I'll make you
fishers of men from henceforth you'll fish for men, not these
fish. But here he is back fishing for
fish again. And that's where the Lord found
him. And the Lord asked him, lovest thou me more than these? I believe that God often leaves
things like this uncertain because there's deliberately more than
one consideration here to be understood by this. Do you know
what he meant by these? There's really just two possibilities
here that I can see. And I'll tell you this, any scriptural
understanding is a good one. Think about that. There are just a couple of things
that could be meant by this. Either it's fishing gear, these things that Peter had gone
back to, or the other disciples. These people. The these is either
these things or these people. One of the two. Wouldn't you
agree with that? Well, it seems to me there's good reason for
the Lord perhaps to ask him, do you love Me more than these
other disciples do? Because isn't that exactly what
he boasted before? He had indicated before that
he loved the Lord more than they did. Let me read you Mark 14.27.
And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because
of me this night. He's talking to Peter and the
other eleven. All of you shall be offended
because of me this night, for it is written. Not only is the
Son of God standing here telling Peter this is what's going to
happen, but God wrote it down a long time ago this is what's
going to happen. I will smite the shepherd and the sheep will
be scattered. But after that I am risen, I'll
go before you into Galilee, But Peter said unto him, although
all shall be offended, yet will not I. So can you imagine perhaps the
Lord was asking him this, do you love me more than these do? Have we learned this lesson? Our love's not worth talking
about. Our anything is not worth talking
about. Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation,
the sin offering for our sin. Peter needed to learn that a
little better than he already knew it, and so do we. So do
we. Do we still boast of our love,
our devotion, our service, our commitment? Christ said in no
uncertain terms, and this is not hard to understand, without
me, you can do nothing. And I believe he may have been
reminding Peter of that here. Don't you think? And then let
me ask you this, did not our Lord have reason to ask him,
do you love Me more than these things that you left in the beginning
in order to follow Me? In Matthew 4.18, let me read
it to you. And Jesus walking by the Sea
of Galilee saw two brothers, 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
men and They straightway left their nets and followed him. So now here Peter is back in
the water Casting nets fishing all night trying to make a living
doing what the Lord called him away from And not what he called him to So, can you imagine Peter having
said I go a fishing and the others. He caused the others to abandon
the work of the ministry given to them and follow Peter. So
this is a good question, isn't it? Do you love me more than
these things? We've got to ask ourselves this
question in both senses. Do we really think that we're
something? That we're distinguished from anybody else? God from the
same lump made one vessel under honor and another under dishonor. We're all carved out of the same
lump, my friends. And it wasn't a good lump. He
made vessels under honor from it. But it was a sinful, vile,
wretched lump. And we're all carved out of that
same lump. He said, you by nature, talking to believers now, He
said, by nature, you were the children of wrath, even as others,
just like everybody else. When we start boasting what we
will do, we're standing on shaky ground. And then, do we love
the Lord more than these, the things of this world. What was it that choked out the
seed in the parable of the sower? The deceitfulness of riches. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
asked him a second time, lovest thou me? What a personal question
this is. And a hard question to answer,
especially to answer honestly. And I believe that this is the
heart of the matter. And the word heart is a good
word in relation to this because it's one thing to believe truth
in your head. It's another thing altogether
to believe with the heart. The Lord said, with the mouth
confession is made. And with the heart man believeth
unto salvation." With the heart. Salvation is a heart work. It's the work of God. Jonah said,
Salvation's of the Lord. And he said, Here's what I'll
do when I'll save you. God said, I'll give you a new
heart. Remember now how he has revealed
himself in this book of John and of course the whole Bible.
And think about who it is that's speaking to you. Do you love
me? Do you love me? Do you love the Christ who has revealed
himself in this book? Everybody loves Jesus. I understand
that. That's not what he's asking.
Do you love me? The person of Christ. The one who revealed himself
as the omnipotent God who speaks and it's done. Do you love his
omnipotence? Or do you still reserve some
ability for yourself? Is God, oh, he's all powerful,
but we can resist him. The scripture says, who hath
resisted his will? Can he not do with his own what
he will? He said, is my arm shortened that I can't save if I want to?
Because you won't let me. That's not the God of the Bible.
He's omnipotent. Do you love the omnipotent one?
That's the question. Do you love His omniscience,
or do you still think you know better than God? Are you even
aware of all of the ways in which we second-guess God Almighty? Every time we complain about
anything, you're saying, I know better than God. Do you love His sovereignty?
Or are you a rebel against the sovereign God? He reveals Himself
as the God who does what He will, when He will, with whom He will. Is that alright with you? Are you glad that He's on the
throne? Do you love the sovereign Christ? Do you love Him in His
deity? Or do you still think you're
God? Do you know that's our problem by nature? We think we're God.
That's why when somebody crosses our will, you know, we express
our wrath. Who are we to express wrath against
anybody? Do you love his grace? I'm not talking about the grace
that gives sinners a chance to do the right thing. I'm talking
about real grace. Because sinners have never done
the right thing and they're not ever going to. That's why Christ
had to come down here and do what we couldn't do and pay for
what we did do. I'm not talking about that grace
where the Lord is waiting on you to do something right. That's
not grace. That's condemnation. That's hopelessness. I'm talking
about the grace that reaches down, way down for you and delivers
you from a horrible pit just because He wanted to, just because
it pleased Him to do it. He asked him the third time, And then Peter was grieved when
he asked him the third time. I don't think there's any doubt
whatsoever that there's a correlation here between Peter denying the
Lord three times and the Lord asking him three times, do you
love me? This is the Lord restoring Peter, graciously restoring him. Peter had denied the Lord three
times and the Lord gave him three times to own Him, to confess Him. And the grace to do it. The heart to do it honestly. The love that He had in His heart that
caused Him to be telling the truth when He said, I love you.
This is the Lord's gracious restoration of one of His sheep And I want
you to notice something. When the Lord asks Peter, do
you love me? Peter never tries to produce any evidence whatsoever
in support of his case. You know why? Because there wasn't
any. I'm not saying at all that if
you love the Lord, you won't show it. I believe you will.
Don't you? I believe love shows, but I'll tell you this. Your
hope better not be in the evidence that you give
of your love and your faith and your anything. The Lord Jesus
Christ, Paul said, saved sinners of whom I am chief. All outward evidence would have
been counterproductive to his case. Don't you imagine? What
would he have pointed to? He had boasted before that he
had never denied That's just as sinful as the
act of denying Him. Did you know that? Do you know
what God hates more than anything else? Do you remember when it
says, these seven things God hates? Do you know what number
one is? A proud look, a haughty spirit. And Peter said, though
all of these eleven will deny you, I will not. That's satanic. When we say, I will, we're talking
like the devil who said, I will ascend unto the throne of God. He boasted, he denied, he forsook
and fled when the Lord was on the cross paying for his sin.
Somebody said recently, what was that in that bulletin I read?
I think it was Martin Luther that said, somebody asked him,
what was your part in your salvation? And he said, sin and resistance.
And I've said to you many times, our part in salvation is simply
this, we need it. We need it. And now here he is
fishing for fish. When the Lord found him doing
that and said, I'm going to give you something else to do. What would Peter point to and
say, lookie there, I love you? No. What does Peter answer? Lord,
Thou knowest all. We just talked about how the
Lord Jesus Christ had revealed himself as God in human flesh,
and as the omniscient God, the all-knowing God, and Peter acknowledges
him as such. He says, Lord, you know everything. Turn to 1 John 3.18. 1 John 3.18 My little children, let us not love in word. Don't go around talking about
how much you love God. You know how much that's worth? Let us not love in word. If you want to talk about love,
talk about His love. neither in tongue, but in deed
and in truth. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. Because,
not because we talking about our love all the time, but because
we do love him indeed in truth. Look at verse 20, for if our
heart condemn us, if we start looking for evidence of our love,
And our heart says, you don't love him. God is greater than our heart.
If our heart condemn us, if our heart says you're a vile wretch,
you don't love God, you haven't served God, you have no faith. And I guarantee you, if you look
at your heart, if you look inside, that's what you're going to see. But God is greater than our heart.
And he knows what? What did Peter say to him? I imagine when Peter looked at
Peter, he didn't find much evidence of love for Christ. Do you, when
you look at yourself? There Peter is, caught red-handed,
just like all of us. doing that which is contrary
to the will of Christ, to the command of Christ. And the Lord
says, do you love me? And here's Peter's appeal. You
know all things. Our salvation. Though we know
Him and love Him, that's not our salvation. Our hope and assurance
and confidence is this, that He knows us and loves us. He knoweth all things. This is the heart of the matter. Do you love me? In 1 Corinthians
16.22, the Apostle Paul said, if any man Love not the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let him be anathema maranatha. Let him be accursed when the
Lord comes. In other words, when the Lord comes, let him put him
in hell where he belongs. If he doesn't love Christ. He
didn't say there, if he doesn't believe in the doctrine of election,
let him be anathema maranatha. Well, there goes Chris talking
against doctrine again. No, not at all. Not at all. In fact, in John 14, 23, it says
this, Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he'll
keep my words. And you know what that word words
is there? Doctrine. If you love me, you'll keep my
doctrine. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ,
you will believe and defend. That word keep is defend. You
will love. You will not tolerate any deviation
from what He said. But you can believe the doctrine
and not love Him. If you love him, you're going
to believe the truth that he speaks and keep it. But you can
understand and know some truth without loving Christ. Do you
see why I say it's the heart of the matter? Do you love me? He said, if a man loved me, he
will keep my words. And that's the proper order.
It doesn't say if a man keep my words, he'll love me. He said
it the right way. And I am not, nor ever will I,
by God's grace, minimize the importance of sound doctrine.
I'm simply talking this morning about the heart of the matter.
You will not come to Christ through doctrine. You'll come to doctrine
through Christ. You'll believe the truth because
you know Him. Not the other way around. Did you know that Satan is a
five-point Calvinist? Satan knows the truth better
than you do. He believes everything that I
believe Satan does. What's the difference? What's
the difference between head faith and heart faith? Love. The devil's a lot more familiar
with the truth of God than you are. You think the devil knows
anything about total depravity? He called Job on it, didn't He?
He said, talking to the Lord, He said, you take away what you've
given Job and Job will curse you to his face. And He was right.
If the Lord removes His grace from us, where will that leave
us? How long could we stand without His grace? The devil knows something
about total depravity. Unconditional election? You think
Satan knows that God has a people? that he chose from before the
foundation of the world? Limited atonement? You reckon
the devil knows what happened on the cross? He knows exactly what happened
there. Satan's not stupid, he just hates
God. What about you? If you hate God, you're stupid
and you hate God. And me too. I'm not talking down
to you. This is the heart of the matter. Who do you think Satan was rebelling
against in the first place? The sovereign God. He said, I'll
be sovereign. And that's what we say by nature.
When we rebel against the sovereignty of God Almighty. What's the difference
between head faith and heart faith? Do you love God? That's the heart of the matter.
Paul said in Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together
for good. Would you like to be in on that?
You know who's in on that? To them that love God. To them who are the called according
to His purpose. Turn to Romans chapter 5 and
let's look at this together. I'm almost through. Stay with
me for just a minute. Romans 5, verse 1, 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 the hope of the
glory of God. Now he's talking about our salvation.
our hope in Christ. He's talking about hope. We rejoice
in the hope of the glory of God because of all these things,
because of Christ and what he did and our faith in him that
he gave us. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations
also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience
experience and experience hope. He's right back to hope again,
isn't he? He's talking about our hope and hope maketh not
ashamed. It's a good hope. It's not, I hope it doesn't rain
this afternoon. That's not the kind of hope he's
talking about. It's a good hope. It's a sure hope. Why? Because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,
which is given unto us. I have a good hope because by
his power and grace, He has shed abroad His love in my heart." And I answer with Peter. He says,
do you love me? I can't point to anything. Is
there anything in your life that you would point to if the Son
of God looks you in the eye now and says, do you love me? Is
there anything you could say? Now look, there's evidence that
I love you. Are you kidding me? The best thing I ever did is
pathetic. It shows more weakness than strength.
It would damage my case. It wouldn't strengthen it. But He knows all things. And
He has shed abroad the love of God in my heart through Christ.
And my hope is Him, His love, His power, the work He did in
me, not anything I've done. Do you see that so clearly here?
1 John 5, 1. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. I can't believe Ken read
that this morning. Having no idea what I was going
to preach on. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begat, who is him that begat? Well, he just said, you're born
of God. God is the one who begat us again
unto a lively hope. by His Holy Word. And everyone
that loveth Him that begat Jesus the Christ, He just said, also
loveth Him that is begotten of Him. If you love Him, you'll
love Me. And if I love Him and you love
Him, I'll love you. They go together, you can't separate
them. If you love Him that begats sinners again unto a lively hope,
then you love those that are begotten of Him. Isn't that marvelous? That's why we love one another.
Not because we've got a lot in common. We may or may not. It doesn't matter if you know
Him. We have Him in common. So really we have everything
in common. Everything that matters. Do you remember the passage in
Luke 7? Let's turn over there. We've
got just a couple more minutes here. Luke 7, 37. And that woman who was a sinner,
she heard that the Lord was eating at the Pharisees' house and she
went there to see Him. In verse 36, one
of the Pharisees desired that He would eat with him, And he
went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet him. Behold,
a woman in the city, which was a sinner. That's all that we
know about her before she met Christ. And that's all that matters
about you before you met Christ. You're a sinner. I don't care
what kind of sinner you are. It doesn't matter what your profession
is. You're a sinner. We all take the same place before
him as a sinner. When she knew that Jesus sat
at meeting the Pharisees house, she brought an alabaster box
of ointment and stood at his feet behind him, weeping and
began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs
of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment.
Look at all she did there. She never opened her mouth. And
do you know this whole story, as we'll see the end of it here
in a minute, Concerns the fact that she loved the Lord Jesus
Christ and Simon didn't But she never once said I love you Don't
work don't love in word or in tongue indeed and in truth You
know, I've learned that the more people talk about something how
true something is the less true it is about themselves I stood at his feet behind him
weeping. Now when the Pharisee, verse 39, which had bidden him,
saw it, he spake with himself, saying, If this man were a prophet,
he would have known who and what manner of woman this is that
toucheth him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus said, Simon, I've got
something to say to you. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors, the one owed 500 pence and the other
50, and when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them
both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? And
Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most.
And he said unto him, thou hast rightly judged. And he turned
unto the woman and said unto Simon, seest thou this woman?
I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet,
but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the
hairs of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this
woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my
feet. My head with oil, thou didst
not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. Now, the Lord forgave her sins
because she loved him. No. What did he just get through
saying? The cause of the love is much
forgiveness. The one who has been forgiven
much loves. This woman loved the Master because
she saw Him as her sin offering. She saw the Son of God come down
to this sin-wrecked earth to save her, a sinner woman, from
her sins. And she fell in love with Him.
That's what happened there that day. If you ever see Him as she
did, you will love Him much. Because to know Him is to love
Him. And that's the heart of the matter, my friends. And I'll
tell you this, people can go around bragging about how much
they love Jesus, singing it or whatever. But the Word of God
teaches we love Him because He first loved us. Let's sing about
the cause, not the effect. Let's sing about His love. He's
the one that's worthy of all praise and honor and glory. Peter answered, you know all things and you know
that I love you. And the Lord entrusted him with
a solemn privilege. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Are you in on
that? Every believer is in on it. The Lord has done everything
He has done in eternity from the beginning of time and right
here this morning for the sake of His sheep. Are you in on this? Feed my sheep. That's what this
is about. That's why there's a building
on this property. That's why there are people in
it. Because Christ loves His sheep. and they're fed by the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you in on that?