Good afternoon. That was a good
meal. Very good. Thank you. If you
would turn to Luke chapter five. Luke chapter five. I just have
some. Brief. Thoughts here on lessons
learned from Peter, another drinker. Lessons learned from Peter's
life. Before we begin, I'll tell a
story. We're listening to a CD on the way home from work. The
other day I picked up the boys and we were coming home and dad
told a story when he's preaching. I was listening to one of my
dad's messages and he said that everybody got in from the second
service. They'd all sit down and the kids
were hot and sweaty. They'd been out playing, you
know, and that preacher, that old preacher got up and he stood
up in front of the congregation. He said, man, I've just got so
much material. He said, I don't even know where to begin. And
this little boy in the back, you know, he's real hot. And
he stood up and he said, Preacher, he said, could you start as close
to the end as possible? I thought that was pretty funny. Luke chapter five. Starting with
verse one. He said, and it came to pass
that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God,
He stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is where it says people pressed upon him to hear the
word of God. Wouldn't that be a wonderful
thing for people? You know, when we went down to
that Bible conference, wasn't that wonderful? I mean, they'd have everybody
stand up and everybody move to the outside of the of the building
just to get everybody in. Well, that was wonderful to see
that. It'd be great to see that again. People pressing to hear
the word of God. And it says, and saw two ships
standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them
and were washing their nets. And he entered, that is, Jesus
entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed
him that he would thrust out a little from the land. That's
sovereignty, isn't it? Sovereign God. He entered into
Simon's. Nothing happens to God on accident.
Nothing happens by accident. It doesn't. He entered into Simon's
ship on purpose. And he prayed him that he would
thrust out a little from the land and he sat down and taught
the people out of the ship. I was just thinking about this,
that. What a great thing it is if the
Lord would use this vessel. And that I would thrust out a
little bit, stand up here and that the Lord would speak and
he would speak. That's what we need. You don't
need to hear my words. You don't need to hear me. You
need to hear from Christ. You need to hear God's word.
That's what you need. and that he would be pleased to speak
from this vessel. You'd be better off just to go
down. If all you hear is my voice, you'd be better off just to go
down to the shipyard and hear the water beat up against the ship somewhere.
But oh, if you could just hear Christ. If you could just hear
His Word. Just one word from Him would
make all the difference. Just one. And so, he talked from
that ship. In verse 4, it says, Now when
he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the
deep and let down your nets for a draw. And Simon answering said
unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night. Doesn't that sound
like us in our natural state, in our depravity? Oh, how we
toil, toil and labor, trying to get somewhere, trying to make
ourselves acceptable, trying to do all these things and how
we're doing it in darkness. That's how we do it. Oh, but
when we see his wonderful light, we understand that he's done
it all. Don't we? We see that. And Simon answered,
he said, and their master would toil all the night and have taken
nothing. That's exactly what we take is nothing if we toil
in ourselves. Nevertheless, at thy word, I
will let down the net. You know, if we look at that,
we'd say, boy, you know, Simon made a decision. He made a decision
to do that, didn't he? Now, I look at that and I say,
man will be made willing in the day of his power. When he heard
his word, he heard the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
spoke to him and he said, I will let down the net. I'll do it.
I'll do it. Verse six. And when they had
this done, this is what we get. If we follow his word, if we
do what he says, we're only going to do it. If it's by His power. Without me, you can do nothing.
You read that earlier, didn't you? Without me, you can do nothing.
It says, And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude
of fishes, and their net break. We have all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, don't we? In the Lord Jesus Christ. Our
nets are full. Our cup is full, isn't it? It
is. What a wonderful thing. Verse 7, And they beckoned unto
their partners which were in the other ship, that they should
come and help them. And they came and filled both
the ships, so that they began to sink. Oh, my cup runneth over
with Christ." Verse 8, when Simon Peter saw it, when he saw it. How many times have we seen that
in the Bible? Men seeing things. Isaiah saw
the Lord high and lifted up. His train filled. Remember what
he said? He said, woe is me. I'm undone. Job saw the Lord.
He said, all my life I've heard of thee with the hearing of my
ear. But now mine eyes see of thee, and I abhor myself. Paul
saw that light, didn't he? Fell down on the road to Damascus.
Knocked him down, didn't he? Paul, he went from the Pharisee
of the Pharisees. He went from a Hebrew of the
Hebrews to the chief of sinners like that. And it's all because
he saw Christ. All of a sudden he cried. Just
like that. Caused it. Watch what Simon says. When Simon
Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from
me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. That's what comes out of our
mouth when we see Christ, isn't it? Oh, I'm a sinful man. I'm a sinful man. The holiness
of God, that reveals that. That reveals our sinfulness and
our wickedness, our depravity. That's what the holiness of God
reveals. Oh, that he might be seen by us today. Verse 9, For
he was astonished in all that were with him at the drought
of the fishes which had been taken. And so was also James
and John, the son of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, for henceforth thou shalt
catch men. And when they had brought their
ships to land, they forsook all and followed him." Now turn over
to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. Now we're going to look a little
bit at Peter's confession of Christ. Peter's confession of Christ.
Matthew 16, starting with verse 13. It says, When Jesus came
into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying,
Whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? And they said, Some
say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias,
or one of the prophets. Why do you suppose he asked that
question? Whom say ye that I am? Why do you think he asked that
question? Do you think he needed to know the answer? No, that
question goes to each and every one of us. Each and every one.
And that's, listen kids, That's a question that your parents
can't answer for you. It is. Who say ye that I am? Parents can't answer that for
you. You're going to have to answer it on your own. You are.
The Lord asks each and every one of us that question. Who
say ye that I am? Some say thou art John the Baptist,
some Elias and others Jeremiah's or one of the prophets. He sayeth
unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered
and said, thou art the Christ. the Son of the Living God. And
Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ savingly, it's not because the preacher stood up here and
told you to believe. That's not how you're going to learn. That's
not how you're going to be taught that Jesus Christ is the Son
of the Living God. It's got to be a work of the
Holy Spirit in your heart, opening your heart. Opening your ears,
giving you ears to hear, hear, eyes to see. That's what's going
to have to happen. Oh, that it would happen today
that you would be able to see Christ. Verse 18. And I say also unto thee that
thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now, the Catholic
Church is so misquoted these things and messed this up that
that we would actually believe that Peter was the rock on which
the church was built. That's foolishness. That is ridiculous. I can just see Jesus standing
in front of Peter and saying, Thou art Peter. This is the rock
this church is going to be built on right here, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the rock the church is
built on. For if it was if it was on Peter, we're going to
find out in just a minute that it would have fell. And within
within days, the church would have fell already. It's the faith. that Peter had was in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he is the rock on which the
church is built. And the gates of hell will not
prevail against the Lord Jesus Christ. It won't prevail against
it. Verse 18. No, verse 19. And I will give
unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And this is no way
saying that Peter's got the ability to let people into heaven and
let people and put people into hell. That's not what this is
saying. It's not. These keys to the kingdom
of heaven, they're the ability, I believe, to discern the scriptures,
to teach the scriptures, the ability to share the gospel,
to preach the gospel. What is the keys to the kingdom?
It's the gospel, is it not? The gospel message and the gospel
message opens the door. Christ is the door. Christ is
him. That's it. That's the that's
the keys to the kingdom. And it says, I will give you
the keys of the kingdom. I believe every. minister of
the gospel has the keys to the kingdom. I believe they do. Every
true minister that's been ordained by God. My dad said something
else one time, he said, a man that has doctor, a preacher that
has doctor on his name or professor or something like that, or has
had an earthly ordination. Oh, it's very pretty. It's like
a pig with a curly tail. He said it's very pretty, but
it doesn't make the meat any better. And it doesn't. It doesn't. The only thing that we need to
be concerned about is that the Lord has given a man the keys
of the kingdom and he's given them the ability to discern the
gospel, the priest of the gospel. I believe each and every one
of his people have this ability with the Holy Spirit in them.
And it says here, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall
be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven. And what is that referring to? Well, I
believe that this is referring to The what is lawful and what
is unlawful, you know, then they bind up circumcision. Then they
do that. They said that you don't need
to be circumcised anymore. That was an Old Testament custom.
Now we're talking about circumcision of the heart. That's what we're
talking about now. Circumcision of the heart. And then what did
they do? They they loosened the ability
to eat certain meats. Oh, they said that, you know,
you can eat any meat you want to eat. Now you can. Christ is our meat and he's our
drink. He's everything to us. He is
everything. In verse 20, watch this. Then
charged he the disciples that they should tell no man that
he was Jesus the Christ. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. All
right. Now, Peter thought. Peter thought. All right. That's a problem.
All right. Peter thought that God, Jesus
was going to set up an earthly kingdom, is what he was thinking.
He was thinking Jesus was going to set up this earthly kingdom,
and he just had the keys to it. And he was going to sit right
beside his side and be one of the rulers. That's what he believed
here. And Peter took him, verse 22,
and began to rebuke him, saying, Be far from me, Lord. This is
not going to happen to you. He said, This shall not be done
unto thee. No, don't say that. Don't say,
I've got the keys to the kingdom. Don't say that. Verse 23, but
he turned, that's Jesus, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind
me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me. All right. Satan would
have wanted nothing better than to stop Jesus from going to the
cross of Calvary. What a defeat that would have
been. But you know, that's not going to happen. That's not going
to happen. And he said, Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an
offense unto me. For thou savorest not the things that be of God,
but those that be of men. And how careful we need to be
that nothing enters into our worship that takes away from
Jesus Christ and him crucified, no matter what it is. If you
have this aspiration of having a great building fund or whatever,
and we got to change the gospel message to bring more people
in to raise money, you got to get rid of that. Get rid of that
aspiration. Get out of your head. You know,
and there's so many people that have, they take religion and
they make certain things out of dispensationalism and eschatology
and all these different things that we make so much of. Paul
said we preach Christ crucified. That's what he preached. Unto
the Jews a stumbling stone, unto the Greeks foolishness, but to
them that are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ the power of
God and the wisdom of God. That's the power. It's in the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He said, I'm determined to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That
is the message of the gospel. We get off on these tangents,
we're in trouble. We're in trouble. We got to get
back to the message. The message of the gospel. We can't let nothing
take its place. Nothing. I listen to people and
know so much about eschatology. So much. But yet, that's all
they know. That's all they talk about is
eschatology. My dad told me this one time,
he said, He said, I'm a pan millennius. He said, it's all going to pan
out in the end. It is. And it's true. It is. It's all
going to pan out in the end. God's got a plan and a purpose.
And whatever that is, we'll bow to it. We'll bow to it. It's
all going to work out. All right. Mark, Chapter 14.
Turn over there real quick. Mark, Chapter 14. Let's look at the Garden of Gethsemane. Mark 14, starting with verse
27. It says, And Jesus saith unto them,
All ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written,
I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.
But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. But
Peter said unto him, There's Peter thinking again. Although
all shall be offended, yet will not I. Yet will not I. We have
such high aspirations for ourselves, don't we? Such high thoughts
of ourselves. We do. Oh, everybody else might
be offended with you and everybody else might run away. Not me.
I'm not going to do it. Oh, Lord leaves us for one second
and we're running the other way, aren't we? We're running the
other way. Oh, it says in verse 13, Jesus
says unto him, Verily I stand to thee that this day, even in
this night, before the cock crowed twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.
But he spake them more vehemently. This is Peter. If I should die
with thee, I will not deny thee. And any wise, likewise also,
said they all. We think we got this flesh whipped
sometimes. We do. We think we just have it whipped.
But the Lord will show us. He will show us that he is the
power. The power is in him. If we're going to walk, we're
going to have to walk in him. We are. Verse 32. And they came
to a place which was named Gethsemane. And he saith to his disciples,
sit ye here while I shall pray. And he talked with him, Peter
and James and John, and began to be sore amazed and to be very
heavy. And saith unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto
death. Tarry ye here and watch. And
he went forward a little and fell on the ground and prayed
that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. And
he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take
away this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will,
but what thou wilt. Jesus Christ drank the cup of
damnation dry for us, didn't he? He did. He took that cup
and he drank it. He did. And then look at verse
37. He says, And he cometh, and he
findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst not thou watch one hour?
Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly
is ready, but the flesh is weak. Verse 39, And again he went away
and prayed and spake the same words. And when he returned,
he found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. Neither
wished they what to answer him. And he cometh the third time
and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is
enough. The hour is come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed
into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go. Lo, he that
betrayeth me is at hand. And immediately, while he yet
spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great
multitude, with swords and staves, from the chief priests, and the
scribes, and the elders. And he that betrayed him had
given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same as he,
take him, and lead him away safely. And as soon as he was come, he
goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master, Master, and kissed
him. And they laid their hands on him, and took him. Now watch
this, verse 47. And one of them that stood by
drew a sword. Now we know this is Peter. As
we know over in John, it talks and it gives names. It says it
was Peter. It says, and one of them drew a sword and smoked
the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And I think
there's a good lesson to be learned in this. There is. So many times
we'll sit and we'll listen. I'm guilty of this. I am. I'll
sit and listen to a message about the grace of God and what he
did for us on Calvary's cross. And I'll just sleep through it.
I will. But the preacher says one thing,
just one word that doesn't strike me as the way it should sound.
I'm all over it. All over it. Eyes are open. Oh,
I'm grabbing my sword. That's what Peter did. He's sleeping
while Jesus was going through all this. He's sleeping. He's
sleeping. What happens? Here comes this
guard rushing in. Jesus is in trouble. He's in
trouble. So he grabs his sword, not the sword of the spirit.
Sword of the Spirit is love. That's how we approach people.
Oh, people, sometimes they'll say some things that we just
don't agree with. Oh, we're all over it, Dan, and we'll whip
out our sword and what do we do? Chop off their ear. That's
what we do. They turn a deaf ear to us. They
will. If we use our sword. Oh, but
what are we supposed to do? What should we do? Sword of the
Spirit. Come to them with love and go
with the Word of God. and explain things through the
Word of God, not with our own sword, not getting upset. We
need to always remember that but by the grace of God, that's
where we'd be right there. Oh, what a wonderful thing it
is that we know the gospel, that it's been revealed to us, that
that would be our prayer, that these ones that we speak to,
that when we get in front of them, not that we might just
be able to cram the truth down their throat, But that we might
be able to stand in front of them with love and that the Lord
would speak through us and with his sort of spirit that would
go into them and would teach them the truth. Oh, that that
would be the way we'd be. And we'd witness to people. I
think we'll see some great things. I think we will. All right. Let's
look at verse sixty six. Sixty six. Of the same chapter. We'll skip down there and it
says this Peter. was beneath in the palace. Now we're at Peter's
denial of Christ. And as Peter was beneath in the
palace, there cometh one of the maids of a high priest. And when
she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and said,
Art, and thou also was with Jesus of Nazareth. Verse 68. But he
denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest.
And he went out into the porch and the caught crew. And the
maid saw him again. And began to say to them, and
stood by, this is one of them. And he denied it again. And a
little after they that stood by said again to 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 crow twice, thou
shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon,
He wept. He wept. I tell you, there's
hope, though, Peter. There's hope. There is hope. Jesus Christ bowed his head on
the cross of Calvary and he said, it is finished. It is finished. There's hope, Peter. There is.
Do we know what that means? Do we know what it is finished
means? Do we have we experienced the finished work of Christ?
Have we experienced it? Do we know by an experience of
grace, regeneration, conversion, what we're talking about this
morning? Do we understand what it means to be justified freely
by faith? We're just talking about that,
weren't we? Do we know what that means? To
be justified freely by faith? Can we not see ourselves in this
story? Can't we? We can see ourselves so plainly
in the stories that I read here. We can see ourselves over and
over again in Peter's life. That all we brought to the table,
All we brought to it was our wickedness, our violence, our
selfishness, our sleeping, our sin, our depravity. That's all
we brought to this. Remember old Mephibosheth? You
remember him? And David, he asked Ziba, he
said, is there any of the house of Saul that I can show kindness
to for Jonathan's sake? And Ziba looked at him and said,
well, yeah, there's that there's that kid down there in Lodabar,
that place of no pasture. He's down there and he's crippled
from a fall, though. So you'll have to go get it.
If you want him up here, you're going to have to go get it. And what
did he do? He told Jesus, he said, go fetch him. Go get him.
That's what God does with us. If we're found, he said, go fetch
him. Go fetch him. And we were found. And he went
down there, and he fetched him, and he brought him back. And
he brought him to the table, all right? The king's table.
And he dressed him, clothed him, put that robe on him, cleaned
him up, set him at the table, and he pushed him under the table.
You couldn't see his legs anymore, could you? Those lame legs, you
couldn't see them. Couldn't see them. Oh, that's
us. That's us. We didn't bring anything to the
table of salvation. All we brought was our wickedness.
That's all we brought. But he's made us kings. He's
made us princes. Took a beggar and made him a
prince. That's what he did. Oh, there's a wonderful thing
there. While Jesus was agonizing in the garden, what were we doing?
What were we doing? We said I wasn't around. When
Jesus was agonized, yeah, we were. We were. We were. What
we slept and our spiritual wickedness, what we did. We were sleeping
while he wept and agonized in the garden. And Jesus, while
he was whipped in Pilate's courtyard, what were we doing? We were in
our unbelief. We were in our darkness. That's
what we were doing. Jesus being led to Calvary's
Mount, what were we doing? We were kicking and we were We
were denying. That's what we were doing. Do
we not see ourselves taking those nails and nailing him to the
cross of Calvary? That was our doing. It was. Oh,
that sticking that spear in his side, that was our doing. It
was. We can see ourselves right there.
We can. We can own it. We should. We
should. Oh, he died for us while we were
enemies with him. He died for us, his people. But
he died. God who is rich in mercy, for
in his great love wherewith he loved us, even we were dead in
sin, have quickened us together in Christ. By grace are you saved. By grace are you saved. And these
words come to our hearts. These beautiful words, like a
beautiful love song, they come to our hearts. It is finished.
It is finished. It comes to us. That song, guilty,
vile, helpless we, spotless Lamb of God was he, full atonement. Can it be? Hallelujah, what a
Savior. Full atonement, not partial atonement. What kind of hope would that
be? It had to be all the way done, and I'm going to hell.
It had to be all the way done. Full atonement, can it be? Lifted
up was He to die. It is finished was His cry. Now
in heaven exalted high. Hallelujah, what a Savior. What
a Savior. Jesus paid it all. Full atonement
was made. Every jot and tittle of that
Levitical law, the spirit of the law, every bit of it was
fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every bit of it. If you stand
in Christ today, you are justified. You are justified. Totally. Why? Because we stand in Him. And
the work is finished. He finished it. He finished the
work. Listen, I'm going to say something
that might shock you. I don't know. I doubt in this crowd it
will. But I'm going to say something that might shock somebody. It
might. Peter was a converted man. He was. He was a converted
man. We know Peter confessed Christ
and Christ confessed his love for Peter. He did. That means
Peter was just as justified, listen, he was just as justified
before a thrice holy God in verse 71 of Mark 14 as he was when
he stood and preached on the day of Pentecost. He was. When he stood there and kicked
and screamed and denied God, just as justified as when he
stood at the day of Pentecost. He was. I got another one for
you. David, King David. He is just as justified when
he stood on that rooftop and looked down at Bathsheba as he
was when he stood on the battlefield and looked at Goliath. Just as
justified. He was. Because he was in Christ. If you deny it, if you do, we
need to find ourselves a Bible and we need to figure out what
it is finished means. Need to figure that out, what
it is finished means. And before he shows you what
it is finished means, he's going to show you a little something
about the letter and the spirit of the law. Going to show you
what that is. And when you see something about
the spirit of the law, you're going to know you've been caught
kicking and denying the Lord a lot more times than you thought
you were. And you're going to find something else out too.
You're going to find out you've been caught in the arms of Bathsheba
a lot more times than you thought you had too. You are. And we
find a little something about the spirit of the law. And that
revelation is going to drop us to our knees. It is going to
drop us to our knees like it did Isaiah, like it did Job,
like it did Saul of Tarsus, and like it did Peter. And we're
going to cry unto him, depart from me. I'm a worthless sinner.
I'm a worthless sinner, ungodly, undone. I abhor myself. I abhor myself. But then the
Savior, He'll draw you to the cross of Calvary, where you'll
hear those sweet words, it is finished. It is finished. Like Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress,
remember what? Remember that story? He walked up to the cross
of Calvary, and that pack on his back, that burden that he
was carrying on his back, he looked up, and he saw his Savior
high and lifted up. And that pack rolled off, didn't
it? Rolling right down the hill,
couldn't see it anymore. Oh, it is finished. It is finished. Well, you say that sounds awful
anonymous to me. It sounds awful anonymous. It just does. If you preach like
that, people are going to go out and live any way they want
to live. I've got news for you. People are going to live any
way they want to live anyway. And if we're making a difference,
just what we say is making a difference. And that's not what does it. It isn't. Churches are full of
people. They preach legalism from the
pulpit all the time. Oh, they're puppets in the church
building. They get out here in the world. You wouldn't know
they're Christians if they came up and kicked you. You know,
they're a Christian. Oh, it's not. That's not what we need.
We need Christ working in the hearts of his people. That's
what we need. Turn over to John chapter 21. Real quick, John
chapter 21. Lord Jesus wasn't done with Peter.
Wasn't done with him. You got another thing to tell
him. Got something else to teach him here. I hope that the Spirit of the
Lord, if anybody here was bound by the law, was bound by the
chains of the law, I would hope that in the last little bit,
the Lord has loosed you from it. That he's loosed you from
the law, that you understand fully what justified means. It
means in Christ you're justified fully. What full atonement was. Jesus Christ paid the debt in
full. In full. But there is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. There's not one single solitary
thing that we can add to our justification. Not one thing. We can't add anything to it.
We're justified freely by the faith, by faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that faith is a gift of God.
It is. But Jesus has something else
to teach Peter. And I believe all of us need to get a little
bit better grasp on this. We do. Jesus asked Peter a question
here in John 21, verse 15. And I believe this question is
for each and every one of God's people. It is. For each and every
one of them. This question comes to us. We
can put our name in where Peter's name is put here. We can. It
says in verse 15, So when they had died, Jesus saith to Simon
Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Lovest thou me? Jesus, on the cross of Calvary,
he paid the price in full for Peter. The price was totally
paid. Full. The law was fulfilled.
Thou shalt not bear false witness. The law said that. Peter denied
God. He told a lie there and he fibbed,
okay? But yet, in Christ, the law was
fulfilled. Peter stood justified. He stood
blameless. He had paid the price in full
for him. Thou shalt not kill. Complete. It was paid in full
by the Lord Jesus Christ, by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Paid. Stamped. In full. Don't
owe anything. Nothing. If you're in Christ,
you owe nothing. The cords of the law had been
loosed from Peter. They had. But now what? Jesus
is going to ban Peter. He's going to ban him with cords
that will never break. They'll never break. Them law
accords, they were like, they were like just thin little little
nothing, little pieces of baling twine have been out in the barn
forever compared to this, this binding. Oh, this is this is
something here. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? Lovest thou me? When I was married,
when we got married, I stood in front of her and the preacher,
I heard those words come out of the preacher's mouth. He said,
would you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?
To have and to hold his richer and poorer and sickness and health,
all these different things. And I heard those words come
out of her mouth. I do. I do. I said the same thing.
And the preacher, he said, by the law vested in me, I pronounce
you man and wife. And listen, I was married to
her. She said, I do. I could have went out in this
world I could have went and did whatever I wanted to. I could
have just left. Legally, I was married to her. You couldn't
have drugged me away from her with a team of horses. You could
not. Why? Because I loved her. I loved
her. And Jesus loves his bride. He
does. And his bride loves him. That's
right. His bride loves him. They do. Jesus is in love with his bride. What makes a marriage is not
a legal contract. That's not what makes a marriage. What makes
a marriage is love, isn't it? If you've got to go down to the
courtyard, or the court, and you've got to dig out your marriage
certificate to show your buddy that you're married to your wife
and prove to him, that's the only way you prove to him that
you're married, you've got a problem with your marriage. You do. And I tell
you, if you've got to go to the halls of election and get into
the Lamb's Book of Life, To prove to your friends and yourself
that you're one of his people. And there's something wrong with
your salvation. There's something wrong. There's got to be some
love there. There has to be. Jesus stands
in front of Peter and he says, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? Lovest thou me? Why does he say,
Simon, son of Jonas? Why does he say that? I think
he says it because it reminds him where he came from. He does. Each and every one of us came
from a father, an earthly father. I brought a message on this a
couple of weeks ago. This word begat in Matthew chapter one. And this word begat and made
an acrostic out of it. Born enemies going against truth. That's how we're brought in this
world. Born enemies going against truth. And he reminds Simon,
son of Jonas. That same thing can be said about
me. David, son of John. Same thing he said about every
single one of us. It could. Love us, thou me. Asked
him three times the same question. And a lot of people have a difference
of opinion on why he asked him three times. Some people think
he asked him three times because he denied him three times. That
sounds all right, but I truthfully believe that Jesus was all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. And I believe he asked him all
three times in each different person of the Godhead. I did.
I think the first time he asked, the Holy Spirit asked him, that
one who found you in your deadness, that one who found you in your
darkness, that one who found you like that little baby that
was thrown out in the desert, that one who was polluted in
his own blood. And I came by and I spoke life
to your heart. I breathed the life, the breath
of life in you. I did this. Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me? Love has found me. The Father.
I chose you before the foundation of this world. I chose you. Without any goodness in you.
I didn't look down and see you were going to do something good
for me. That's not how I chose you. I chose you out of my own
good pleasure. That's how I chose you. Before
the foundation of the world, I'd grave in your name on the
palm of my hand. I'd put my own dearly beloved
son into this world. And I placed your sin on his
back. And he went to the cross of Calvary
and died for you. Isaac took his son up there and
put him on that offering, that altar. And he raised that knife
up to heaven to slay his son. But that ram was caught in the
thicket. Abraham didn't have to go through with it, did he?
But the father did. The father did. He had his own
son crucified on the cross of Calvary for sinners. He did. Oh, and I did that for you, he
said. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Lovest thou me? And Jesus Christ, the eternal
Son of God, I took upon myself your sin and your iniquity. I was beaten for you, bruised
for you, chastised for you, crucified for you. Your debt is paid in
full. Don't you dare try to add anything
to what I did for you on Calvary's cross. Don't add anything to
it. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me. Lovest thou me, because I loved
you first. Lovest thou me. Then what does he say? He says,
feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. That's what he
said. That's not a work. That's a command. That's what that is. That's a
command of love. You feed my sheep. That's what
you do. You love me, you feed my sheep. What does that mean? Feeding the sheep. What does
it mean? Well, Peter's case, he was an apostle, wasn't he?
He's a preacher. I know not everybody can do that.
Not everybody's been called to do that. But Peter was. But there's
a lot of different feeding the sheep. There is. You know, a
farmer can get out there with his big bag of feed, spread it
out in the trough, feed a bunch of sheep at the same time. But
then there's that little boy and that little girl who walks
up to the fence, and they're looking in. And the farmer comes
up, dumps a little feed in their hand, and they stick their chubby
little hand through the fence. And those sheep come up. And
you know what they're doing? They're feeding the sheep. They're
feeding the sheep. We can all feed the sheep. All
of his people can feed the sheep. They can. We can feed them at
work. We can feed them at home. I know we come in sometimes.
We're so tired. We are. This week, I was beat. I was. A whole lot of drywall. And coming to house, just want
to sit down. Sit down and take a load off
your feet. And then little kids run up to you, and they're looking
at you, and feed the sheep. Feed the sheep. May we never
lose an opportunity to feed the sheep. We can sit down at night,
no matter how tired we are, and we can sit down with our children,
and we can open the Word of God to them, and we can feed the
sheep. We could feed them. Do we love it? Then feed the
sheep. Feed my sheep. That's why I said,
let me... Arminianism's got us so messed
up. It does. It does. Do you have to love
Christ to be saved? Do you? You don't have to love
Christ to be saved. You don't. I guarantee you, if
you're saved, you're going to love Christ. You're going to
love Him. You are. John 10.27 says, My
sheep, hear my voice. And I know them and they follow
me. They follow me. Does that verse mean you have
to hear? You have to follow to be saved?
No, but it means that if you're saved, you're going to hear.
They're going to hear. And if you're saved, you're going
to follow. If you're saved, you're going to hear His voice. And
if you're saved, you're going to love Him. You're going to
love Him. We believe in a powerful Gospel. We don't believe in something
that you came up with. If this was something that you came up
with, then yeah, I mean, yeah, you can go out here and do whatever. I suppose you could if you came
up with it. But if God got you into this, if he did, if his
spirit saved you, converted you, ain't no getting out of it. No
getting out of it. Oh, do we love him? Then feed
his sheep. All right. Lord bless you. I enjoy it so
much coming over here preaching.