Peter quickly replied, Thou art
the Christ. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And our Lord said, Blessed, blessed
art thou, Simon. But flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you, my father. Blessed are your eyes, they see,
and your ears, they hear. He knew Christ. He believed Christ. On another occasion when thousands
of people who had heard our Lord and benefited from His kindness
in feeding them, and only the disciples were left, the Master
turned to them and said, Will you also go away? Quickly,
Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life, and we believe and assure Thou art that Christ,
Son of the living God. And then our Lord took Simon
along with James and John to the Mount of Transfiguration. And Simon saw our Lord talking
with Elijah and Moses, the law and the prophets, and they were
talking about the death that he would accomplish at Jerusalem.
Peter was so impressed. He said, Lord, it's good to be
here. Let's just don't leave. Let's build three tabernacles
on this mountain, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. And then the Lord allowed this disciple Peter to be so severely
tested, so severely tried for his good. He said to Peter, he said, now
when you're converted, you strengthen your brethren. Well, Peter said,
well, I'm ready to go to prison with you. I'm ready to die for
you. These other fellows may deny
you, but not I. Our Lord said, Peter, Satan hath
desired thee that he might sip thee as wheat." He didn't add, but this is true. Our Lord within himself said, and I'm
going to let him have you for a while. He did. But I prayed for you. I prayed
for you that your faith fail not. Cock won't crow three times
until you deny me three times. He denied his Lord. He was humiliated,
so terribly humiliated. And after our Lord arose from
the grave, he said to the women, he said, go and tell my disciples,
and what's the two words he added? And Peter, be sure to tell Peter that I
go before you and I'll meet you. Well, the Lord appeared to the
disciples and to all these folks, and then he ascended back to
heaven. But before he did, John 21, the
last chapter of the book of John, it says in verse 1, After these
things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of
Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. They were together,
Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael, Cana, and
Galilee, sons of Zebedee, James and John, and two other of the
disciples. And Simon Peter said, I go a-fishing. I go a-fishing. And why did he say that? Well, fishing was his business.
Before the Lord called him, before the Lord revealed himself to
him, Peter made his living fishing the boats and the nets. He was
called the great and the big fisherman. And that's how he
made his living. And now he had nothing to do. The Lord was glorified. His master had no special assignment
or service for him at this time until the Holy Spirit came upon
them after he went back to gloating. And Peter was idle. He had nothing to do. And so Peter was inclined to
take up his former employment, his former occupation. He didn't
like to be idle, and he needed to obtain livelihood. And so
he said to the other disciples, he said, I'm going back and fishing,
I'm going back fishing, a fishing." Well, how'd they respond? Well,
they said to him, we also go with you. So they went forward
and entered into their ship immediately, and that night they fished all
night and caught nothing. But when the morning was now
come, Jesus, our Lord, stood on the shore, but His disciples
didn't recognize Him. They didn't know it was the Lord.
And the Lord said to them in verse 5, children, have you any
meat? Caught any fish? Here's somebody
standing on the shore. They're 100 yards out, they're
300 feet out, 100 yards. And he said, have you caught
anything? And they answered back, no. And he said to them, well,
cast the net on the right side of the ship and you'll find. They cast therefore, and now
they were not able to draw the net in for the multitude of fishes. Therefore, that disciple whom
Jesus loved, that's John, author of this epistle, this book. But
John never calls his name in the whole book, never, not one
time. He always refers to himself in
this way, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the disciple who leaned
on the Lord's breast at the Last Supper, And he said, it's the Lord. He
said to Peter, it's the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that
it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat about him. He was
naked. He wasn't. He had on a loincloth. They wore a loincloth and robes
and then fisher coats. But he only had this loincloth
on. He threw his coat about him and cast himself into the sea. I believe he did. He knew he
had no business out there. He was embarrassed. The Lord
had told him tarry and wait till he'd be endued with power and
so forth. But Peter said, I'm going back
fishing. And he had a real problem with his conscience over there.
So he's going to get to the Lord first. And he jumped overboard
and started swimming in. And that's not like a fisherman
to leave his fish. Yes, it is. I mean, they'd caught
more fish than they'd caught in a long time, and he just left
his friends and his boat and his fish and everything and dove
in the water and started swimming ashore. He wanted to get to Christ.
His heart was smitten, smitten. He's like a little boy caught
with his hand in a cookie jar. Before he was chastised, he was
going to embrace the Lord. And the other disciples came
in a little ship, for they were not far from land, about 200
cubits, or cubits 18 inches, that's 300 feet, dragging the
net with fish, just dragging that net. And as soon then as
they would come to land, they saw a fire. Who built the fire?
The Lord Jesus. They saw a fire of coals there
and fish. and laid upon and bread. Wouldn't
you have liked to have been at that dinner? You talk about a
chef. A dinner prepared for the master. These tired fishermen had been
out there all night, sweaty and dirty and weary and hungry. One of them, I know Peter was
tired, he just swam a hundred yards to get to the shore and
the rest of them dragging that net. And there was a fire. Our Lord's so kind, isn't he?
There was fish already cooked, bread already prepared on the hot coals. And the Lord
Jesus said to them, now you bring of the fish which you've now
caught. Our Lord never intended for them
to let those fish spoil or go back out to sea. He said, you
gather them all in, we'll eat after you finish your work. Diligent
in his work. finish getting this thing done,
then we'll eat." And Simon Peter went up and drew the fish, the
net, to land full of great fish, 153. And for all, there were
so many, yet that net wasn't broken. And then the Lord said
to them, after they had completed their work, He said, Now come
and dine. And none of the disciples Just
ask Him, who art thou? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus
then cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.
Now this is the third time that the Lord Jesus showed Himself
to His disciples after He had risen from the dead. So after
they had died, our Lord, I believe, took Simon Peter over a little ways from the other
disciples. He always seemed to be the spokesman
and the leader. But remember, he had denied the
Lord three times before a fire prior to this. He took him over
to the side. Verse 15, when they're dying,
he said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these? You don't think for a moment.
Not even entertained for a moment that our Lord pointed those other
disciples. Never, never, never. Never. Our Lord waved his hand
back toward that sea. Back toward those boats. Back
toward those nets. Back toward Peter's whole background. occupation, means of livelihood. Do you love me more than these? These material things. Do you
love me more than these? The question is not, Peter, do
you believe me? That's been established firmly so many times. The question
is not, do you fear me? I think his plunging into the
water and trying to get to Christ first was evident that he had
some respect and fear for the Lord. He didn't ask, do you admire
me? He said, do you love me? And
he kept asking that. Let's read all of it. Peter,
Simon, Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
He said, Lord, yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. feed my lambs. I called you to the ministry.
I called you to preach the gospel. I called and ordained you to
be an apostle. You are to feed my lambs, my
little ones, my children. He said to him again the second
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He said to him, yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. I knowest that I love thee. He said, Feed my sheep. He said to him the third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? I believe we could fill in
a lot of things here. Peter was grieved because he
asked him the third time. Don't you know his mind went
back to sitting by that fire? Somebody said, He's a disciple.
He said, I am not. Somebody else said, well, I saw
him with the disciples. No, you didn't. I never was with
those fellows. Finally, a little maid said,
he's one of the disciples, and he cursed and swore. He said,
I do not know the man. And then our Lord looked down
at him, and he went out and wept bitterly, wept bitterly. Fear. had driven him to deny
his Lord. And here the master before another
fire has brought up this thing. Do you love me? Do you love me? Then he said, Lord, thou knowest
all things. Thou knowest that I love you. I do love you. Bishop J.C. Rowe preached a message
on this text one time, and he brought out five things that
were a special blessing to me, and I'll pass them along to you.
He was one of those great respected writers of bygone days. But he said this, the true Christian,
five things about a true believer. He said the true Christian is
one whose faith is in his heart and in his life. Not just a profession,
it's in his heart, felt by him, experienced by him. And it's
in his life seen by others. That's faith and conduct. That's
belief and obedience. The true Christian is aware of
and feels his own sinfulness, and he daily repents before God. He's always so humble before
God because of his shortcomings, his weakness, yearns for perfection. He can say with David, my sins
are ever before me. Thirdly, he said the true Christian
always sees Christ as his only holiness, his only righteousness,
that he has none, even now, of his own. But in Christ he is
sanctified. In Christ he is righteous. In
Christ he is redeemed. And he's always looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith. Christ, the goal
of the law to all them that believe, the righteousness of God. Then
fourthly, he said, you can ask a true Christian at any time
these three questions. And he'll answer with meekness
and fear. Ask him, number one, what is
your hope for acceptance with God? He'll reply. only the righteousness of Christ.
That's my hope for acceptance with God. Secondly, you can ask
him, whom do you trust for the forgiveness of sin? His reply, only the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood maketh atonement for
my soul. Asked him, what is your reason
for such hope? What is the foundation of your
confidence and your assurance? He replied, the infallible, inerrant,
were to God. I believe that God is able to
do all that he promised. And then he said, fifthly, but
my friends, Besides all this, faith in the heart, an awareness of sinfulness of
our thoughts and deeds, a view of Christ as our righteousness,
I praise you. Besides all this, there is a
mark, there is a distinguishing characteristic that is peculiar
and particular to every sheep of Christ, every believer. A
mark that includes all these things, a mark that includes
all reverence, obedience, faith, and perseverance. It is a mark
that sums up the relationship of a believer with his Lord.
It sums up the union of Christ and the believer. Christ loves him and he loves
Christ. That's the foundation. I am my beloved and he is mine. So this is the subject that's
being settled between Simon Peter and his master. The master's
settling this issue. Peter's had his mountaintops
and valleys. He's had his alps and inns. He's
had his agro-efficient and all these other things. Here he is
now. Before the master goes away,
he settles this issue. Do you love me? Do you love me? Before the master
sends Peter out to preach to other people, he settles this
master. That's the matter. Do you love
me? Before Peter goes out to face
an unfriendly, hostile world, the Master knows he needs this
one thing. Do you love me? Before Peter leaves other preachers,
and he was a leader, he took the leadership, sometimes not
very humbly, but he took it. But before the Lord Jesus sends
him out to lead other preachers, he settles this one question,
do you love me? Do you love me? Before Peter is put in jail for
what he preached, faces persecution, harassment, embarrassment, The
Lord settles this issue. Do you love me? Before Peter suffers abuse and
pain and finally crucifixion. Right. Crucified. Upside down. Our Lord knew he needed one thing
settled and clear. Do you love me? The only thing, there's absolutely
nothing, Mr. Riles said, that'll equip you
for these experiences, sustain you in the most difficult
times, motivate you when you've got no other motivation, keep
you from falling, from fainting, from quitting, and comfort you
at all times. It's His love for you and your
love for Him. Isn't that right? Doris and I had another anniversary. We keep having those things,
you know. Fifty-two of them a few weeks ago. And I hope all you fellows who
follow the leadership of your pastor, be sure don't forget
an anniversary or a birthday. Sometimes you just take something
to them without it being anything special. That helps a whole lot.
But I went to the card shop, and there are so many cards.
I tell you, they're just lines. You can spend hours hunting what
you want. And so many cars, and so hard to find an appropriate
one. And I'd read all these long poems by all these people, poems
and poems and birds and trees and flowers and leaves and all
these things, you know, and finally I found one. I said, this is
it. On the front, It had a picture. On the inside, three words. I love you. That covers it all. Isn't that right? That's all you need to say. You
don't need to doctor it up or flower it up or anything. Just
I love you. And that's just when you have
a person's love, you have them. You have everything. And that's
what our Lord is preparing Peter for. Do you love me? It's going to be hard and tough
and rocky and deep and wearisome, but I want to know one thing.
Do you love me?" And he saddled it. Yeah, Lord, he said, you
know all things. You know I love you. Feed my sheep. You see, the scriptures have
so much to say about this. Let's look at a couple of scriptures.
John 8. John chapter 8, verse 38. John chapter 8, verse 38. It's not to dress the part in
formality. It's not to profess the part
in theology. It's not to play the part in
so-called morality. is to love him. Look at this. Listen to what he said. In John
chapter 8 verse 38, he said, I speak that which I've seen
with my father, and you do that which you've seen with your father.
Well, they answered and said to him, Abraham's our father.
Jesus said unto them, if you were Abraham's children, you'd
do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me,
a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God."
This did not Abraham. You do the deeds of your father.
And they said to him, we be not born of fornication, we're not
sinners, we're not heathen, we have one father, even God. And
the Lord Jesus said, if God were your father, you would love me. That's so clear. That's so plain. That's so strong. Apply this
to every cult, sect, religion, profession. If God were your
Father, you would love me. That's Scripture that Brother
Dan read a moment ago in 1 Corinthians 13. He talks about all of those
supernatural gifts gifts that God gave in the early church.
Some of these people were proud of their gifts. Some of them
were envious of those who had the gifts. They had a real problem.
But Paul deals with it there in chapter 12, and then he says,
covet the best gifts. Covet the gifts and talents of
God. But I'm going to show you something
better. I'll show you something better
than gifts. a more excellent way. Because, verse 1, chapter
13, if I speak with the tongues of men and angels, I may speak
many languages and even have oratorical ability like an angel. But if I don't have love for
Christ, well, you might as well be hammering old Chinese gongs. Mmm, that'd be rough on these
hearing aids, wouldn't it? Well, I tell you, a message without
love is hard on anybody's hearing aids. In addition to somebody
trying to talk about the gospel who doesn't love Christ. And though I have the gift of
prophecy and understand mysteries and have all faith, I could remove
mountains and have not love, I'm nothing. And I may give my
goods to feed the poor, my body to be burned and have not love,
it won't profit me anything. Here's the basis. Here's the
foundation. Here's what keeps hearts together,
homes together, churches together, believers together, union with
Christ. It's a cement of perfection and
unity, peace, love. And I'll tell you over here in
1 Corinthians 16, Paul leaves no doubt. He leaves no loophole.
He leaves no hope outside of a hard love for Christ. He finally
says in 1 Corinthians 16, 22, if any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. You know what anathema means?
Cursed. Cursed. What's that mean? The Lord's
coming. Maranatha means the Lord's coming.
And so if anybody, any man loves not Christ, let him be accursed.
The Lord's coming. And then let me give you this,
Ephesians 6. The scriptures emphasize this
point I'm trying to make tonight over and over again. In Ephesians
6, verse 23, Paul, writing to the church at Ephesus, closes
the epistle with these words, Peace be to the brethren, and
love with faith. From God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ, grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus
Christ. insincerity, no hypocrisy, no false claim, no play in the
game. But I'm writing and praying for
grace to be with those who love our Lord Jesus Christ, insincerity. And I tell you this, it's not hard to love him. because
he's altogether lovely. Who wouldn't love him? Not to
love one altogether lovely indicates blindness and deadness and violence. We love Him because of the loveliness
of His person. The whole book of Hebrews talks
about He's more excellent than the angels. He's more excellent
than Moses. He's more excellent than the
priests of old. He's exalted above all exaltation. Who wouldn't love Him? We love Him because in Him dwells
all the fullness of God. Not to love Christ is not to
know God. nor to have any feeling for God.
In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. How could anybody not love Him
who's the personification and expression and exact image of
God? Don't you love the sunshine?
He's the sunshine. Don't you love love? He's love.
Life! Truth! We love Him because of His great
love to us. Love begets love. I love Him because He loves me,
don't you? I'm ashamed I don't love Him
more. I don't love Him like I'm going
to. But I'm saying with Peter, he knows all things. He knows
who loves him. He knows from the beginning who
believes and who doesn't believe. We love him because he's light.
He's life. He's truth. He's love. I hear people say, our God's
a God of love. No such thing. No such thing. God is not a God
of love. God is love. Outside of God,
there is no love. Outside of God, there is no such
thing as love. God is love. God is life. Jesus
is alive. What in the world is wrong with
folks that write things like that? He's not alive. He didn't
meet a standard of living. He is life. I am the life, he
said. I am the resurrection and the
life. He is love. And anyone who doesn't know him
is a stranger to love. Isn't that true? He's a total
stranger. You don't know what love is. Well, I know people
that don't know God, but they love their children. They love
themselves. People that know God love your children, too.
They love God's children. They love God. No trouble to
love yourself. That's the reason he said a man
ought to love his wife is he loves himself. No man ever yet
hated himself. Even Adam didn't hate himself. Christ is love. He's easy to love because He's
holiness. He's everything that by nature
I'm not. He's everything I want to be.
He's everything to which I admire and esteem
and hope for is in Him. Why in the world wouldn't I love
Him? It's not hard to worship Him. Not to love Him reveals
the hardness. Well, let me close with these
statements. How does true love for Christ
make itself known? That's not too difficult to deal
with at all. How does love, true love, sincere
love for Christ reveal itself? A person loves Christ as it's made known. Well, if we love someone, we
enjoy thinking about them. Isn't that right? We don't need
a string around our finger if we love someone. We don't
need a bracelet on our arms that says, what would Jesus do? We don't need a cross on our
lapel to remind us that we love Him. We don't need a fish on our bumper. He lives in here. Is that not
right? You don't need any of these reminders
to remind you that you love your children, do you? I'll tell you
this about our beloved ones. They're never off your mind.
Not often. Not often. You just love them. And he's never very far from
our minds. Somebody preached a sermon not
long ago on New Year's resolutions and talked about, I'll read my
Bible every day and pray every day and think about Christ and
praise him. How could you keep from it? If you love him. Secondly, we not only like to
think about them, we enjoy hearing others talk about them. Now come
on, don't you? You grandmas. Somebody starts showing pictures
of their grandchildren, one of the other grandmas say, I demand
equal time. That's right. You love to hear
somebody talk about somebody you love. I love, you love, I
tell you, you know the reason you love to hear these men preach
around here? They're bagging on to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You never get tired of it. Isn't that right, Joe? You never
get tired of hearing from this pulpit they preach Christ. And you have pleasure hearing
His name, any report of His virtues, accomplishments, His goodness.
Some people listen with indifference, but not those that are related
to Him. That's right. Thirdly, we enjoy
hearing from people we love. We enjoy reading a letter, card,
getting a call, any word of communication. When we don't hear from them,
we're in trouble. And every letter is treasured,
and that's His Word. I know I love Christ because
I love to think about Him, I love to hear others talk about him.
I love his word. Don't you? Honestly. With all
sincerity. I love his word. Fourthly, we
enjoy pleasing people we love. And we dread their disapproval.
We dread their frown. We dread their frown. We will
deny ourselves in order to serve or please them. We will abstain
from that which would displease them. We delight in their praise.
We fear their disapproval. And then last, if we love somebody,
we long to be with them. Our Lord said to the believing
thief, he said, today you'll be with me. Turn to Philippians
1, listen to Paul here, And every one of you who love Christ understands
something of what he's saying. He says in Philippians 1, 21,
for me to live is Christ, for me to die is gain. But if I live
in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall
choose, I know not what not. I'm in a strait betwixt the two.
I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far
better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful
for you. Paul longed to be with Christ. When we love someone, we want
to be with them. We want their presence. Lovest thou me more than these? The wave of his hand. Yea, Lord,
thou knowest all things. And he gets the glory for that because
if we love him, we're born of God. And everyone that's born
of God, loveth God.