Let us turn back in our Bibles
to John chapter 21. I want to speak to us from three
verses in this chapter, verses 15 through 17. So when they had
dined, 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. 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. Peter had denied the Lord
three times. He had professed that he did
not know the Lord Jesus Christ, and so now the Lord, in restoring
Peter publicly to the office of preaching the gospel, he asked
him three times the same question. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? And then he commanded him three
times, feed my sheep. I have three facts that I want
to bring to us from these verses this morning. Very simple, very
simple facts from the word of God. But first, the Lord Jesus
has his sheep. The Lord Jesus Christ has his
sheep. Each of the three times when
he asked Peter if he loved him, he revealed that he has his sheep. He called them my lambs, my sheep,
and again, my sheep. Now, let's think of several ways,
several different ways that a man has the right to call a sheep
his sheep. to call a lamb my lamb. First,
he may be given a sheep. He may be given a sheep, and
then he can refer to that sheep as his sheep, my sheep. And I
ask this question this morning, are his sheep, those who know
him, those who are saved by the grace of God, Are his sheep his
by gift? That is, have they been given
unto him? And you know the answer, of course,
in John 10, when the Lord Jesus Christ especially speaks about
himself being the shepherd and the sheep. He said this, my sheep,
not my goats, the goats are his too. He's a King of Kings and
Lord of Lords and all of creation is his. But he didn't say my
goats, he said my sheep. Hear my voice and I know them
and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. Now listen, my father which gave
us them me. His sheep, or his, he refers
to them as my lambs, my sheep, because first of all, they were
given to him. He said, my father which gave
them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. And before this, in John chapter
six, in verse 39, he said, and this is the father's will which
hath sent me. that of all which he hath given
me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last
day. And I mentioned that his sheep
were his first of all by gift because this is something that
took place before the foundation of the world. His sheep were
given unto him. And we know from a passage in
Ezekiel, the prophecy of Ezekiel, one day he's going to answer
for his sheep. They're going to be counted,
and there's not one going to be missing. They are His sheep,
first of all, if you're one of His children this morning, if
you know Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are one of His
sheep, and you were given unto Him by the Father in that everlasting
covenant of grace. My sheep, they were first of
all given unto Him. Second, a man may buy or he may
redeem a sheep and then refer to that sheep as my sheep. And I put these two words together,
buy and redeem, because the scriptures speak of both, of the Lord buying
his sheep and the Lord redeeming his sheep. Two times in 1 Corinthians,
the apostle Paul said, you are bought with a price. You're bought. A man may buy a sheep, and it's
his sheep. He may call it my sheep. And
every one of his sheep, that is the sheep of the Lord Jesus
Christ, are his first of all by gift, but second by purchase. He's purchased everyone. When
Paul, the Apostle Paul, met with the Elders of the church at Ephesus
for the last time and he he knew that and they knew that That
they would never meet again in this world He told them Take
heed therefore unto yourselves and all the flock over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers To feed the Church of God now
listen which he hath purchased with his own blood." We just
sang that hymn. Amazing love that our God would
purchase us, would give his life for us, by us if you please. Paul told the elders there that
the church of God is purchased with his blood. If we had no
other verse in the word of God, to declare unto us that Jesus
Christ, the man Jesus Christ, man who was born 2,000 years
ago, that he is God. That verse alone would be sufficient. That God, the apostle says, God
purchased his church. We know he did that as the God-man. He purchased, he gave his life. a ransom for many. I like the word redeem. Yes,
he did purchase us, but I like the word redeem because when
the word redeem is used, that tells us that whatever is redeemed
was already his. And I've used this illustration
many times. I'll use it once more. When you
pawn something, you go to one of these easy pawn shops, and
you have a set of tools or something. They're yours. They're your tools,
toolbox. And you set it up there on the
shelf there, and he opens the lid, and he looks, and he sees
all these ratchets and different sized tools and everything in
there. And he says, well, and now you
know you've paid about $150 for that set of tools. And he says, well, I'll give
you $50. $50. And you need $50. And so you pawn your tools. He gives you a ticket. And you
come back in two weeks, and you pay him $75. High interest. High interest. The tools were
already yours. The sheep are already His. They
were given unto Him, as I said, before the foundation of the
world, but yet He redeems them. He must, to be our Redeemer,
He must be flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, to be the
kinsman Redeemer. That's the word that Job used
in Job chapter 19 when he said, I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and he shall stand upon the earth in the latter days. His Redeemer
is his kinsman Redeemer. And the Lord Jesus Christ had
to become a man, or God rather had to become a man, the Lord
Jesus, that he might be our kinsman Redeemer, to have the right to
redeem. in Israel of old under the law. You might have walked
by or gone by and you see this man out here, he's in slavery
actually, because he sold himself into slavery. Now he's got an
inheritance somewhere. All the men were given an inheritance
in the land of Canaan, but he has sold himself into slavery. Every seven years, the slave
has to be set free. I'm talking about a Hebrew servant,
Hebrew slave. The year of Jubilee in the 50th
year, remember, all was returned back to its original owners.
But as I said, you see this man out here and you say, you know,
I'd like to redeem that man. I'd like to pay his master whatever
he owes him and put him back in his inheritance. Take him
back to his land, his farm. Well, do you have the right?
Well, no, I'm not kin to him. He's not my kin, folk. You can't
redeem me. Only one who was near of kin
could redeem. That's what the whole story,
the little book of Ruth. Everybody loves that story of
Ruth. That's what it's all about, isn't
it? It's about the kinsman redeemer. I read one time that Benjamin
Franklin went to a meeting of men that met there, I guess,
in Philadelphia to read different things, and he read the Book
of Ruth. And those men were flabbergasted.
They said, that's the most beautiful book. That's the most beautiful
story I've ever heard. Where did you find that? I found
it in the Bible, in the Bible, in the word of God. It's all
about a kinsman redeemer, Boaz redeemed Naomi, Ruth, and then
the mother-in-law of Ruth, Naomi, and all of the things that pertain
to her husband and her two sons. He redeemed them. Remember, there
was one who was a closer kinsman, but he said, I can't do it. I
can't redeem her. He didn't have the power. He
didn't have the withal. When he found out, yes, he was
willing to take the land, But when he found out what you do,
you've got to take Ruth also to be your wife and raise up
a son to her husband's name. Well, I can't do that. That would
mar my inheritance. Boaz, he redeemed her. He redeemed Ruth. The Lord Jesus
Christ, his sheep are not only purchased, but we are redeemed. And the apostle Peter tells us
for as much as you know, you're not redeemed with corruptible
things. Corruptible things such as silver
and gold. Gold, I guess, is one of the
most valuable metals that men know anything about. But still,
gold is under a curse. Silver is under a curse. When
man sinned, God cursed the ground. Man cannot be redeemed with gold
or silver. You could give everything you
had, and you could be very wealthy. It could not pay for your redemption. Take something much more valuable,
much more powerful, something that has much greater worth than
gold or silver. Well, what is it? It's the precious
blood of Jesus Christ. We're redeemed by blood, precious
blood, because it is the blood of Christ. Another way that a
man might own a sheep and call it his sheep is by inheritance. He might inherit a sheep, and
then he says, that's my sheep. He inherited it. It's my sheep. Look back with me to John chapter
10, if you will. John chapter 10, our Lord, as
I said a minute ago, in this chapter is dealing with sheep
and himself being the shepherd. But here in verses 15 and 16,
he said, as the father knoweth me, even so know I the father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep and other sheep I have. Now, who is this? Other sheep
I have, which are not of this foal. Them also I must bring,
and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Who are these of another fold? In Psalm chapter two, the scripture
says, ask of me, God speaking to his son, ask of me and I shall
give thee the heathen. Now listen, for thine inheritance
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. The heathen, of course, refers
to Gentiles, other sheep I have. Gentiles, not just Jews, but
of the Gentiles, he has sheep, and they are his inheritance. The uttermost part of the earth,
it says. I shall give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth."
You and I, we live in the uttermost part of the earth. When the Lord
spoke about being witnesses unto Him, He said, Jerusalem, Judea,
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. We don't live
in Jerusalem. We don't live in Judea. We don't
live in Samaria. We live in the uttermost part
of the earth. His sheep that were given unto
Him as an inheritance by the Father are scattered all over
this world. All over this world. Some from
every tribe, from every tongue. We know that. But they are His
by inheritance. They are His sheep. A fourth
and a last way that a man may call a sheep his sheep, he may
find it. He may find it. For the son of
man, this is what he said, for the son of man, speaking of himself,
is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Two times in
the gospels, the Lord Jesus Christ gives a parable that are very
similar. Both times it is a man that has
a hundred sheep. And one of them is missing. One
of them is lost. Now what does he do? Does he
say, well, I've got 99. That's enough. I don't need that
other sheep. No, no. He leaves the 99 in the
wilderness and pins them up, and he goes out to seek that
lost sheep. And that's what we do in preaching
the gospel. In preaching the gospel, the
Lord Jesus cried. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
and they know my voice. The gospel is preached indiscriminately
to everyone, going to all the world and preach the gospel.
And for many, it may be just like water off a duck's back.
They don't hear a thing. But his sheep hear his voice,
and they know his voice. His voice is a voice of authority. It's not a voice of maybe so
or perhaps so. No, no. His voice is a voice
of authority. It's a majestic voice. And His
sheep hear His voice and they know it's His voice. When they
hear a man talk about how you've got to do good works and when
you die, God's going to take your good works and put them
on one side of the scale and your bad works over here and
whichever one outweighs the other, that's going to determine whether
you go to heaven or go to hell. The sheep know immediately that's
not the voice of the shepherd. Shepherd doesn't talk like that.
He doesn't use words like that. The shepherd uses words like,
for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. The Apostle Peter in his first
letter said, for you were, past tense, for you were, he's writing
to believers, you were as sheep going astray, but are now returned
to the shepherd and the bishop of your soul. The shepherd, the
good shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in Psalm 119,
David, who was a shepherd, when the Lord anointed him to be king.
He knew a lot about sheep. And that 119th Psalm is all about
the word of God. But near the end, he prays and
he says, Lord, I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek thy servant. Sheep are prone to go astray. I'm talking about God's sheep.
I'm talking about people who know the Lord as their Savior,
know the Lord as their Shepherd, and yet we have a heart that
is prone to go astray. Now a sheep, when it goes astray,
it doesn't just fly over here in the wilderness from the pasture
and all of a sudden it's over here in the wilderness. No, it
starts looking and the grass looks a little greener over here,
a little more grass and moves over here, and then the grass
looks a little greener over here, moves over here, and eventually
it's out here needing the shepherd once again That's what David
is talking about when he said, I have gone astray like a lost
sheep. Seek thy servant. He prays and
asks the Lord to seek him. A person doesn't go away from
the Lord in a big step normally. A person just begins to neglect. First of all, neglecting the
word of God. I just don't have enough time.
You just don't understand, preacher, how busy I am and the job that
I have and the demands of my family. No, I don't. We all are in a different circumstance. I realize that. But we begin
to slowly neglect the word of God. There was a time when we
wouldn't leave our house without reading the scripture. But now
we can leave our house and When we get back home at night, I'm
going to read the Word of God, but there's so many different
things that we neglected. We go astray. The same thing
about attending worship services. People go astray. They gently
or slowly stop attending the services. Not all at once, but
first it's usually Wednesday, and then it's Sunday night, and
before long, it's Sunday morning. We go astray. Sheep have a tendency
to go astray. That's what I'm saying. And David
realized that having been a shepherd, a shepherd must seek to find
a lost sheep. The sheep's never going to return
on its own. The sheep is never going to come
to the shepherd on its own. He seeks us, He finds us, and
in those parables, He places the sheep on His shoulders and
carries it all the way home. The same thing is true about
a child of God, a sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ. He must find
us. When we go astray, He must find
us. And if He doesn't, we'll just
go farther and farther astray. That's a fact. That's the first
fact. The Lord Jesus Christ has his
sheep. They're his by gift, they're
his by purchase, they're his by inheritance, and they're his
by him finding them. Here's the second fact. The Lord
Jesus has under shepherds. He has under shepherds. In 1
Peter chapter 5 we read that Christ is the chief shepherd.
Yes, he's the chief shepherd, but we know that he has under-shepherds. He has elders or pastors of the
congregations, of the sheep. And in that fifth chapter of
1 Peter, Peter confesses himself also. He uses that word also. I'm an elder also. He's writing
to the elders. But he confesses himself to be
an elder also. You know, some have done with
Peter the same thing that they did with Mary, the mother of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The angel told Mary, blessed
thou art among women. And people have changed that
and they say, blessed art thou above women. And so they begin
to worship Mary. and begin to call her a mediatrix. There's one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That's what the word of God declares.
That's God's word. And they've done the same thing
with Peter. They say, he says he's an elder also, but they
say, no, he's above everyone else. In fact, some of them go
so far as to say he's the rock upon which Christ built his church. What a lie. Satan's masterpiece. Be sure of that. What a lie.
There's only one foundation, and that's Christ. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the foundation stone, and
he's the chief cornerstone. And the apostles, the scripture
says, are built upon him. Well, notice that Peter, when
he wrote that first epistle, and he's writing to those elders
there, he repeated what the Lord said to him. Feed the flock of
God. That's what he wrote. Feed the
flock of God. And the Apostle Paul said the
same thing to the elders of the church at Ephesus. Feed the flock. Now, two things I notice. The
sheep, his sheep, we grow, and we grow by being fed. Just like your body, if you never
took in any food, it wouldn't grow. It would die. And sheep
grow by being fed. And I see this when our Lord
first of all said, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Feed my lambs. Start off
as lambs, don't we? When a person is born again of
the Spirit of God, he's not full grown. She's not full grown. We are given the graces of God,
the Holy Spirit, but these graces grow. They should grow. And how do they grow? By being
fed. Sheep grow by being fed. And
I see the same thing that when John, in his first letter, he
addressed it, first of all, to children, to young men, to old
men. What is that saying? It's saying
that we grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
don't come into the faith being full grown. And the Lord uses his word. What are the sheep to be fed? In Psalm 100 in verse three,
The psalmist said, know you that the Lord, He is God. It is He
that hath made us. God made us, God created us.
He made us, first of all, as men and women, and He made us
believers. Know you not that it is He that
hath made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture. What is that pasture? It's the
word of God. The green pastures. Every pastor
is exhorted not to entertain people. That's not what God calls
preachers to do. Tell funny stories, sad stories
and entertain people. No. The pastor is to feed the
flock over which God the Holy Spirit has made us an overseer. Feed the flock. And the food
comes from the Bible, from the word of God. One of the chief
requirements, we see this here, one of the chief requirements
for an under-shepherd is that he love Christ. Our Lord asked
Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Now, some men have suggested,
if you look back at our text this morning, when the Lord said
in verse 15, so when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? Some say, well, these, that must
refer to the fish. Do you love me more than the
business, the occupation of fishing? I don't believe that's what he
said at all, what he meant at all. But I will say this, that
a man who's called to preach, who is set apart to the ministry,
preaching is his life. He doesn't need to be involved
in a lot of other things. I've lived long enough to see
some preachers. Slowly, just like a sheep goes
astray, slowly get involved in this business and this business,
and many of them before long are out of the Lord's business.
No, preaching is the life of a pastor. That's his work, that's
his life, that's his job, to feed the church of God. Now these, I believe it refers
to the other disciples. A few days ago, Peter, you were
boasting and you were telling me, you were telling all of us
that though all these people forsake you, not me, you can
count on me. I'll go with you even unto death.
Now, Simon, do you love me more than these? The scripture says,
take heed lest they, you stand, you fall. Peter had fallen. Now, Peter, do you still confess
that you love me more than these, that you're more faithful in
yourself, you're more competent than any of these other disciples? Here's the last fact. The Lord
Jesus has all knowledge. Verse 17, Peter said, thou knowest
all things. Did Peter confess this because
the Lord had told him what he would do before he did it? The
Lord had told him, before the cock crows twice, you're going
to deny me three times? Is that the reason Peter now
confesses, Lord, you know everything, you know all things. You know,
there are many things that happen in the life of every sheep, providential
happenings, in the life of every child of God. And we try to figure
out the purpose. We try to somehow figure out
the purpose. Why would God allow this to happen? What did God cause this to happen? And we come up with a blank. We don't know. We know this,
whatever it is, it's part of the all things that work together
for good to those who love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. We do know that. When the Lord washed the feet
of His disciples, He told them, what I do thou knowest not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter. And it wasn't a few days or a
few months maybe before they realized why the Lord had washed
their feet. They then knew. And sometimes
we do know in a month or a week or a day why the Lord allowed
this or caused this to happen. But there's some things we'll
never know until we reach heaven's shore. Now we see through a glass
darkly. But then, we shall see face to
face. And I'm confident that when we
look back, we will all confess the same thing. The Lord has
done all things well. That man said one time, if you
had all the power in the world, you'd change everything. But
if you had all the wisdom, you wouldn't change anything. And
God does. He has all wisdom and all power. And he's working all things after
the counsel of his will and all things ultimately for his glory
and for the good of his people. I trust the Lord will bless this
word to us this morning. Now, if you will, let's turn
to hymn number 258.