I want you to open your Bibles
this morning to the book of John. We're going to be reading from
John 21, verse 15. I'll be speaking on this subject,
Lovest thou me? In John 21, 15, the scripture
says, So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He said unto
him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee, and Jesus saith
unto Simon, Then feed my sheep. I thank God that the scriptures,
unlike the biographies of men, do not just give the good points
of God's people. You can read the biographies
of men and you would think that they never failed, they never
erred, they never doubted, they never feared. But God Almighty,
to encourage folks like you and me, and to reveal His mercy and
His grace to sinners, tells the truth about even His choice servants. Now, Abraham was a man of faith,
and his faith is clearly revealed throughout the Scriptures. God
told him to leave his father's house and go to a land that He
would show him, and Abraham believed God, and he went. And God told
Abraham that he would have a son when he was over a hundred years
old, and he believed God, he didn't know how. And then God
told him to take that son and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah
as a sin offering to the Lord God, and Abraham did that too,
not knowing why. So he was a man of strong faith,
and all of us envy the faith of Abraham. He's called the father
of the faithful. And when our Lord identified
Zacchaeus as being a believer, or one of God's chosen, he said
he also is a son of Abraham. But the Bible not only reveals
Abraham's faith and Abraham's integrity and Abraham's honesty,
but it reveals Abraham's doubts and Abraham's fears. When Abraham
journeyed through the land of the heathen king and with his
beautiful wife, Sarah, he feared for his life. Abraham couldn't
the same God who delivered you and from your father's house
and took you to land of promise, couldn't he protect you? Well,
Abraham felt he ought to help God out a little bit, you know,
so not once but twice he denied that Sarah was his wife, and
he was willing to give her up in order to save his neck. And
God didn't hide that. God just let it be put right
there in the Bible for everybody to read. That's Abraham's shameful
act, but there it is. And then Moses, Moses' meekness. We're always talking about the
meekness and humility of Moses, and he was perhaps the world's
most humble, and I guess meekest man. But Moses had a temper. I was reading it Sunday morning
in my message at 13th Street, how that Moses' anger waxed hot. Moses had just spent some time
in prayer before God, in intercession for a sinful people, and came
right down off the mountain and just took the Ten Commandments
written by the finger of God himself. This was the work of
God himself. And Moses, in his anger, just
threw them on the rocks and bashed them to pieces. And then Moses
was the man who smote the rock in the presence of God. As God
said, you didn't sanctify me, you gave a display of your temper
before the people and God killed him. Wouldn't let him go into
the promised land. So there you have it, Moses'
meekness and humility strongly, strongly recorded in God's word.
His temper, and his flesh, and his humanity, all right there
in the scripture. And then David is not a more
devoted man. The scripture says he was a man
after God's own heart. It doesn't say that about anybody
else. It said John the Baptist was the greatest man born of
woman, and talked about Solomon being the wisest man, and talked
about some Job being a patient man. But David, twice it says
he's a man after God's own heart. Devoted and consecrated but we
find as we read some of the acts of David He was a fleshly man
a sensual man He was a man who defended himself even to having
a man having a man murdered To defend himself to protect his
reputation to protect his name to protect his throne So as you
read the Bible the Word of God the Word of God shows us the
faith of God's people and the and the honesty and integrity,
but it also lets us see the other side, too. And that encourages
folks like you and me. And that shows God's mercy and
grace. And Job, Job's patience, Job's
faith are evident. But so is his self-righteousness,
and so is his claim to piety, and so is his self-defense. He defended himself to the point
where he almost laid the responsibility of his condition at the feet
of God. He almost came to the point where he blamed God for
the shape he was in and said he didn't deserve it. And then
the master didn't hesitate to rebuke Philip. He said, Philip,
have I been so long time with you and you haven't known me?
And Thomas, when Thomas said, I won't believe that he's risen
from the grave unless I touch the nail prints in his hands
and the scar on his side. And he said, all right, Thomas,
do what you want to do. Touch the nail prints and don't
be an unbeliever. And he rebuked all of the disciples.
He called them men of little faith. O ye of little faith,
how long will I be with you? And then the Apostle Peter. I
want to take just a few moments and run down the life of the
Apostle Peter. Our Master seems to single Peter
out for his highs and lows, his wise words and his foolish words,
his good points and bad points, His impulsiveness, his imperfections,
his impatience, his indiscretions, his improprieties are just so
obvious in the Word of God. And yet, when the Lord arose
from the grave, and the disciples were off there in the upper room,
the angel was instructed to tell the women, to take this message
to the disciples that the Lord had risen and that he was gone
before and he'd meet them in Galilee. And this is what the
angel said. You can read it yourself in Mark
16, 7. The angel said to the women,
go, tell his disciples. There were 11 of them, but the
angel named one. The angel said, go and tell his
disciples and Peter, and Peter, that he's gone before you and
he'll meet you in Galilee. You see, Peter was the impulsive
one. Peter was the bad boy. Peter was the fellow that made
the mistakes. Peter was the fellow that rose
high and sank low. Let me give you some examples
of that, if you will. When the Lord Jesus asked the
disciples, whom do men say that I am? Well, the disciples said,
some say you're John the Baptist, some Elijah, one of the great
prophets. He said, but whom do you? Do
you say that I am? Well, who made Peter the spokesman?
He did. Who made Peter the one to speak
for the rest of the disciples? He did himself. He stepped forward
and he said, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. And
then it was Peter who on the Mount of Transfiguration, when
our Lord, the glory of God, encompassed the blessed master. And Moses
came down representing the law, and Elijah came down representing
the prophets, and they talked with the Lord about his death.
And the glory of God shone about them, and God's voice spoke from
heaven, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. It
was Peter who, after it was all over, said to the Lord, let's
don't leave here, let's just stay here. I tell you what we're
going to do. We're going to build three tabernacles
here, one for the law, and one for the prophets, and one for
the Lord Jesus. We just have three tabernacles
up here on the hill that that's Peter all wrong Misunderstanding
the whole situation they were there to talk about his death
Redemption the way God was going to save sinners and here Peter
was going to build some tabernacles and just bypass the cross And
then it was Peter who said to Christ out there on the water.
Let me walk on the water He saw the Lord coming towards him on
the water none of the other disciples made a request like this But
Peter did that was characteristic of him And it was Peter who refused
to allow the Master to wash his feet. All the other disciples
submitted humbly and willingly. None other of the disciples argued.
But when the Master came to the Apostle Peter and would have
washed his feet, Peter said, you're not going to wash my feet.
And the Lord said, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part
with me. He said, well, Lord, wash my head and my hands and
my feet, my whole body. That's Peter. And then it was
Peter who drew his sword. And cut off the high priest's
servant's ear. It was Peter, when the Lord Jesus
announced that he was going to Jerusalem, there he would be
killed and he would be buried and rise from the grave. And
Peter said, not so. He took the Lord by the arm aside,
the scripture said, took him aside from the other disciples.
And he said, that's not going to be. That's just not going
to be. You're not going to die. And
our Lord said, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou savorest not
the things of God. And then it was Peter who sat
by the fire. He followed the Lord right up
to the judgment hall, got as close as he could get. The other
disciples, I suppose, had fled. But Peter had to be where the
trouble was. He had to be where the action was. He had to be
where the goings-on were. And so he got as close as he
could, even to sitting with the enemies of God. There he is with
all the enemies, crying for the blood of the Master. And he's
warming his hands with all of them. And one of them said, well,
you're one of the disciples. What are you doing here? He said,
I'm not one of them. Well, your speech betrays you. I know you're
one of the disciples." And he said, no, I don't know the man.
And the little girl said, well, I saw him with the disciples
and he cursed and swore. And he said, I don't know the
man. That's the Apostle Peter. And it was Peter who in John
21, 3 resigned from the ministry. And his resignation affected
the whole group of the apostles. They were sitting up there in
the upper room. And you know, his life was fishing, nets, boats,
sea. That was his life. And he figured
the Lord's kingdom was done, you know. They couldn't see the
kingdom by way of the cross. They only saw a Jewish kingdom
on the earth in Jerusalem, reigning from David's throne. They couldn't
see the cross and the tomb and the crown and the glory and the
second coming, the redemption of sinners. And Peter said, I'm
quitting. I'm going fishing. I'm going
back to where the way I made my living all my life and the
other disciples they followed him He was a spokesman and they
said well just wait and we'll all go with you And then when
the Lord appeared to them on the shore just before our our
text here When he appeared to them on the shore and the disciples
were out there a hundred yards from shore 300 feet from shore
and they hadn't caught anything and the master said children
do you have any meat and they said no Lord we fished all night
and caught nothing and So he said, cast the net over here,
and they did, and drug in the fish. And Peter said, why, it's
the Lord, and he just jumped in the water. He left the others
with the care for the fish and the net and the boats and everything
else. What if they'd all jumped in the water? But no, he jumped
in the water faultlessly, in a hurry, and swam to shore. I congratulate him. He wanted
to get to his Lord. I see that. But he left others
his responsibility. Impulsive. That's the way he
was. And he swam to shore. And it was Peter who wanted to
know what John was going to do. You know, the Lord told him,
said, you're going to die. You're going to be crucified.
Somebody said upside down. That's probably so. But Peter,
instead of just dwelling on that and thanking God and asking for
more information, he spun around and looked at John and said,
what's this fellow going to do? If I'm going to die, what's he going
to do? And the Lord said, it's not in your business what he
does. If I will that he stay here on this earth till I come
back again, what's that to you? You go do what I told you to
do. But Peter was always stirring things up and here he singled
out for special attention right here in this instance. In this
instance, our Lord, all the disciples had sat there and they'd had
their fish and their bread and the master talked to them and
then he called Peter aside and he went over there and sat down.
And he looked him in the eye and he said, Simon son of Jonah
son of Jonas. Do you love me? Do you love me
and Peter answered Lord thou knowest that I love thee Thou
knowest that I love thee here. Here's a confrontation here between
the Lord and his servant and there better be a Confrontation
between you and the Lord and this is the issue that better
be settled right here when it all comes down When all of the
highs and lows and doubts and fears and so-called professions
and rededications and reconsecrations and service and all of these
things, you know, the good and the bad and all the rest of it,
the success and the failure, when it all boils down to this
fact, the Lord God, no soul winner in between, no preacher in between,
nobody in between, no cardinal or bishop or priest or nobody
else, the Lord Jesus dealing with you, do you love me? That's what it all boils down
to. If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed
the Lord's coming. Let him be accursed. A man who
does not love Christ cannot love God. A man who does not know
Christ cannot know God. And this is what it all boils
down to. I don't care whether you're a patient Job or a beloved
David or whether you're a humble Moses or whether you're a steadfast
Paul or whether you're a courageous Stephen or whether you're a beloved
John. I tell you, Simon Peter was faced with an issue of issues.
He was faced with a question of all questions. He was faced
with a bedrock foundation need of every man, and that is to
love Christ. And I want us to look at these
three things. Every one of these things occurred three times.
Three times the Lord asked this question, Do you love me? Do
you love me? Do you love me? Three times the
Apostle Peter gave this good answer. You know I love you. You know I love you. You know
all things. You know I love you. Three. Three times the Lord gave this
command. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. I know one of
them's feed my lambs, but that's not my subject right now. Feed
my lambs. And somebody out there will say,
well, one of them, he said, feed my lamb. You'll get sidetracked
and go to trying to find out what it meant by feed my lambs
instead of feed my sheep. Missed the whole message. Folks
like the gnarled bones. Goats like to chew on tin cans.
But I'm calling your attention to this, the covering of the
whole thing. Our Lord three times said, Peter,
do you love me? And Peter three times said, you
know I love you. And three times Christ said,
feed my sheep. Now let's look at these three,
these three things. First of all, there's a solemn
question. And the question wasn't for the
Lord's information. The Lord doesn't ask questions
for His information. Adam, where art thou? That's
not for the Lord's information. That's for Adam's realization.
Cain, where's your brother? That's not for the Lord's information.
He knows where his brother is. That's for Cain's examination.
And when the Lord Jesus looked at Peter and said, do you love
me? And when he looks at you this morning and says, do you
love me? The question's not for him, nor his information. It's
for you to search your heart. It's for you to find the answer,
to settle the issue. Our Lord raised it. It'll be
settled once and for all. Do you love me? What do you got
to say? And the question's not about
faith. Well, I'll tell you, Lord, I've got a lot of faith. Well,
the question's not about faith. Christ didn't say, Do you believe
in me? He'd have believed in him, or he wouldn't have tried
to walk on water. He'd have believed in him, or he wouldn't have said,
You're the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter believed
in him, or he wouldn't have believed what he saw on that mountain.
He believed, but Christ didn't ask him, do you believe? He said,
do you love me? And the question was not about his works. He didn't
say, are you serving me? Are you willing to serve me?
Peter would have served him if he'd have set up a kingdom on
this earth. Peter said, we've left our homes and our families
and our fish and our boats and everything. What are we going
to have when you come into your kingdom? So he was serving him,
but that's not the question. The question was not about his
fears and failures. Are you sorry for your sins?
Christ didn't ask him that. Aren't you ashamed of yourself,
Peter? The Lord didn't sit him down there and say, now aren't
you ashamed that you denied me? No, that's not what he asked
him. He just said, do you love me? Do you love me? And my friend,
that's where it all is. Though I have the gift of prophecy,
or the gift of tongues and oratory, and I can speak like an angel,
or a gifted man and have not love. I'm a sounding brass and
a tinkling cymbal. I may have the gift of prophecy
and knowledge and I understand the mysteries and have not love.
It profiteth me nothing. I may give my body to be burned.
I may bestow my gifts to feed the poor. I may have faith to
move mountains. If I have not love, it profiteth
me nothing. I am nothing. Peter, do you love
me? Have you decided for Jesus? That's
not the question. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ
is the question. Have you made a profession of
faith? That's not the question. When did you get saved? That
ain't the issue. Are you a church member? That's
not the issue. Have you been baptized? Simon
Magus was baptized. Judas was a church member. Demas
was a preacher. And they all missed heaven. Ananias
and Sapphira were big workers in the missionary circle. They
all missed Christ. The issue is, do you love the
Lord Jesus Christ? That's the issue. If you love
Christ, everything else is all right. If I have love, I have
everything I need. Love for Christ. Love is the
evidence of faith. Love is the motive for service.
Love is the cover for sins. And love is the greatest of these.
Now that is faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is
love. I tell you, my friend, be warned. Satan is the great
religious imposter. He does his work not in honky-tonks
and beer joints and dives. He does his best work in church
pulpit. He's an imitator, and every sign
and evidence of religion he can imitate perfectly, but love he
cannot produce. He hates God, and everybody who
knows him hates God. He's a liar and the father of
liars, and Christ Jesus said, Satan's your father. You're a
liar like he is. But he's an imposter. He deceived.
You say, well, he can't deceive me. He deceived your mother Eve.
That's right. He can't deceive me. He deceived
the Galatians, old foolish Galatians who had deceived you. He can't do anything with me.
He could handle Peter pretty well. Well, he can't hurt me. He took care of Job pretty good.
I tell you, my friends, Love for Christ that's where it is.
That's where that's the reason we bring this whole damn thing
right down here beside a seashore Between a master and his his
disciple and he looks him in the face and he said this is
this is the whole issue Do you love me? Do you love me? All right. Here's a pretty good
answer The Apostle Peter said this to the master, you know,
I love you You know, I love you now Our Lord asked Peter this.
He said, do you love me more than these? What was he talking
about? More than the disciples? I can't
believe that. I can't believe the Master is
setting one disciple against another. I don't think the Lord
is saying, Peter, do you love me more than John does? God doesn't
deal that way. He doesn't deal that way. We
may. We say, you love me more than you love somebody else?
Well, we may think along those terms because we're flesh. But
our Lord didn't. He said, Peter, do you love me
more than Tell you if he'd asked him that as a time when Peter
said yes There was a time not now, but there was a time you
remember when the Lord said all of you deny me He said I won't
these other fellas made that's in Matthew 26 33 He was a proud
fella then but God brought him down now. He'd been whittled
down. He'd been stripped and broken He'd been smitten he'd
bitten the dust And there was a time with the Lord. It said
you love me more anybody. He'd said I shared that I shared
it But our Lord is saying this, do you love me more than these?
And he was pointing to those boats and those nets and that
sea and those fish. That was Peter's life before
he met the Lord. That was his life out there.
That was his livelihood. That was his profession. That
was his hobby. That was his enjoyment. That
was his daily. He spent all day and all night
out there. And our Lord came down to this, Peter, do you love
me more than these? And there was a time when Peter
would have said, yes, I do. But he didn't now. He didn't
say that. He didn't say, I love you, Lord, more than these, the
other disciples. He didn't say, oh, Lord, I love
you more than anything on earth. He just said, Lord, you know
I love you. That's a humble answer. That's
the best answer. That's the answer that came from
the heart, and he said it three times. Three times Christ asked
him, and three times he came back with the same answer. You
know I love you. You know it. I don't have to
convince you that I love Christ. I don't have to convince my minister.
I don't have to convince my wife or my friend. Jesus Christ knows
I love him. My feelings in my life sometimes
cast a doubt on my profession, but I can always say, Lord, you
know I love you. I love you in life, I love you
in death, I praise you as long as you give me breath, and when
the death dew lies cold on my brow, my Jesus, I love thee as
I love thee now." That's the answer. Lord, you know. You know
all things. You know all things. You know
I love you. And then our Lord gave the command,
Peter, do you love me? You know I love you. The starch
had been taken out, the brag had been taken out, the boast
had been taken out, the pride had been taken out. And now the
humble disciple looks up at his Lord. He says, you know, I love
you. And the master said, well, if
you do, feed my sheep. Now, my friends, our Lord didn't
say entertain my sheep. Our Lord didn't say, shear my
sheep. There's a lot of folks doing that. I see preachers today
who are spending all their time entertaining what they call the
sheep. They're putting on a lot of shows. They're carrying on
a lot of foolishness. They're giving away a lot of
prizes. And they're raising a lot of dust. They're entertaining
the sheep. Our Lord didn't say, entertain
my sheep. He didn't say, shear my sheep. I hear preachers who
just cut the sheep of Christ to pieces. I hear them say, well,
I just wish Christians would pray. Christians will. I sure
wish Christians would tithe. They will. I sure wish Christians
would witness. They will. Christians will. He
didn't tell you to shear his sheep or beat his sheep or weed
out his sheep. I know a lot of fellows that
put so much emphasis on church discipline. They're always wanting
to kick somebody out. Well, I tell you this, I'm anxious
for folks to come hear me preach the gospel. I don't want a one
to leave. I don't care how sick they are.
Please don't leave. Stay here. You're not going to
do you any good to go outside. You know, we hear the gospel
out there. Don't kick a fellow out. He's not going to be fed
out yonder. He's going to be fed here. If
he repents, it'll be here. If he comes to know Christ, it'll
be under the gospel. It won't be out yonder. He didn't
tell you to weed out his sheep. He said, let the wheat and the
tares grow together. God's the only one who knows
the difference. You don't. But he says, feed my sheep. How
do we feed his sheep? How do we take them by the green
pastures and lead them by the still waters? What is it? It's
the Word of God. That's how you feed God's sheep.
You feed them the Word of God. His Word. By the Word of God,
men are convinced of sin. By the Word of God, men are born
again. Of his own will begat he us with
the Word of truth. By the word of God, men receive
faith. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. How shall they call on him in
whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? We don't need 25 minutes of music and 5 minutes
of preaching. We need 28 minutes of preaching and 1 minute of
music. We can sing at home. We can sing
at other times. The church is built on the preaching
of God's word. It's by the Word of God that
men grow. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word that you may grow thereby. By the Word of God, men are comforted.
It's the Word of God that comforts me. Somebody says, what shall
I say? I don't know what to say. Well, try to say nothing. Preach
God's Word. By the Word of God, men are kept
from sin. Thy Word, if I hid in my heart,
that I might not sin against thee. Peter, you love me. You feed my sheep. Feed my sheep.