The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, January 8, 2012, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Please turn in your Bible to John chapter 21. And this evening I'll read John 21, verses 15 to 17. Here we have this conversation between Jesus and Peter. So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Amen. Well, now let's once again ask God for his help in prayer. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we are conscious of our need of your Holy Spirit if any good is going to be done here tonight. So come and help both preacher and hearer that what we do will not be time spent in vain, but will bring glory to you and good to the soul of everyone here. For we ask it in Jesus Christ's name, amen. Well, we began this morning to consider this part of the Word of God. There was this instance when Jesus had appeared to His disciples the third time after He had arisen from the dead. And the disciples were out on the Sea of Tiberias, also known as the Sea of Galilee, fishing. When they came to the shore, Jesus was there. He served them breakfast, and then he and Peter had a walk and a discussion on the beach. And so we're focusing on Jesus' discussion or His conversation with Peter. And I gave just a brief survey of that this morning. We saw that three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him. Three times Peter affirmed that he loved the Lord Jesus. And then three times Jesus told Peter either to tend his lambs or tend his sheep or feed his lambs. He told him what he would have him to do. And then I made some observations about this conversation between Jesus and Peter. I'll just briefly recap what we saw this morning. First of all, I pointed out how Jesus recalled Peter's denial to Him. He reminded him of his sin. Peter denied Jesus three times, and Jesus asked Peter three times, reminding him of his sin. in a sense, bringing it up again, though it was a very painful subject for Peter. Secondly, we saw that Jesus, and this follows from the first thing, Jesus humbles Peter in this conversation that they had together. And I mentioned four ways that we can see how Jesus humbled Peter. First, by, as I just mentioned, calling attention to his grievous sin. Second, he put the question to him three times in a sense, questioning the sincerity of his profession. Third, his words were different each time, and I pointed out how that would serve to cut to the heart of Peter. And then also I mentioned how in telling him to feed his lambs or tend his sheep, Jesus was assigning Peter a very menial task. Here was a man who wanted to be first in the kingdom in whatever way he could. He wanted to do bold things. He wanted to perform exploits for Christ. But Jesus says, here's my job for you, tend my sheep. And then the third observation was that Jesus restores Peter. He doesn't simply humble him, he also restores him. And the three evidences for that that I mentioned were that though he put this question to him, do you love me, three times, Jesus never denied that Peter did love him. He wasn't calling Peter a liar or saying he was insincere. And the second thing I mention under this heading of Jesus restoring Peter is that Jesus was eliciting a profession of love from Peter. And it was a very earnest and sincere profession, but He was doing that for Peter's good. And then thirdly, we could say He was restoring him because Jesus was in fact commissioning Peter. He was saying to him, in a sense, having brought his sin up, saying, even though I know who and what you are, Peter, I know that you have feet of clay, I know that you have been guilty of serious sin against me, yet nevertheless, I want you to be one of my apostles and go preach the gospel to the ends of the earth. So those were the observations about this conversation. And then thirdly, we just began with this final heading, some lessons about the conversation between Jesus and Peter. And this morning we just had time for one of those lessons, and that was that love to Christ is very important. That was the one question that Jesus put to Peter, Love me and as I said this morning every one of us should ask that question of ourselves Do I love the Lord Jesus Christ? But now the second lesson That we have from this passage and from this conversation between Jesus and Peter is this sometimes we need to be worked over when we have sinned and Sometimes we need to be worked over when we have sinned. If we had our way, we would always get treated with kid gloves. Always! including when we have sinned. We want to be treated nicely. We want to be treated gently. In fact, at our worst moments, some of us, maybe all the time, would be happy if when we sinned, others would simply ignore it. That would be our desire. But that is not how Jesus dealt with Peter. He did not just ignore his sin. He dealt with Peter in a painful way. As the Bible says, for whom the Lord loves, He chastens and He scourges every son whom He receives. Now, the best thing you can be to God is His Son. And the Bible says that this is the way God deals with the best of His friends. He scourges them. and that is painful. And he chastens them, and that is painful." So you see Jesus here, in a sense, working Peter over. You could compare it to, once again, as I did this morning, his treatment of the Syrophoenician woman. She comes to him. She wants the demon cast out of her daughter. And Jesus doesn't make it easy for her. He gives her a hard time. He puts up obstacles that she has to work her way around or bowl her way over. But she does it. And Jesus does that in order to elicit faith. to elicit a very clear and strong profession of faith from this dear woman. Now, if that is how Jesus worked, to simply bring out an expression of faith from someone, He put her through all that just to express her faith in Christ. How much more should we expect Him to deal very closely and even painfully with us when we have sinned. Sometimes, this is how God deals with us, isn't it? Just as Jesus did with Peter. He puts our sin right in our face again. And He does it in various ways. He does it through circumstances that become reminders of sins that we have committed. He does it through things that really are the fruit of our sins. There are some sins in our lives. Maybe not every one of us could say this, but many, if not most of us as Christians even, can say there's a certain sin in my life or a certain series of sins because of which there is something I live with every day of my life. Maybe it's something we wish wasn't in our life. Maybe it's something that God has even brought us to be thankful that it's in our life. Maybe it's a person. But it's there because of our sin. And it constitutes, therefore, a painful reminder of some sin that we have committed in the past. Maybe God does this through His Word. You want to read His Word constantly? And maybe there are some portions of the Word of God that God once used during your private devotions as a Nathan to you. And that text stood up and it said, Thou art the man. And you'll never read that text for the rest of your life without remembering that time in your life. Painful though it was. What is this? It's God putting your sin in your face again. Kind of like Jesus was doing with Peter. Maybe He does it through our need to confess our sin to others as well as to God. Maybe someone has committed a serious sin. God has broken him now. God has humbled him. And it was a Herculean effort from his standpoint in terms of his pride and his humbling himself to get on his knees and actually mouth the words, Lord, I have sinned. Forgive me. But then when he got up and was thankful that God had forgiven his sin, he realized, I didn't just sin against God. I have sinned against people. Maybe people who are near and dear to me. Maybe people who don't really like me. and who might be tempted to rejoice in my fall into sin. But I need to go to them and confess my sin to them and humble myself and ask their forgiveness as well." In another way, God is bringing your sin before your face. Or maybe it's through the way that others deal with us. Maybe it's been some time since someone has committed a sin. I heard someone's testimony along these lines recently. He had committed a grievous sin against someone and had never acknowledged it or dealt with it. And then God brought someone into his life who sinned against him in a very similar way. And he was able immediately to connect the dots. And his heart was broken. because of the way God brought his sin before his face once again. Sometimes we need to be worked over when we have sinned. Don't resent it when God deals with you in that way. Peter was grieved when Jesus dealt with him in this way. We don't know if his grief was all pure, if you will. Would you be surprised if there was at least a little resentment when Jesus began to put pressure on Peter's wound? Why are you dealing with me like this, Jesus? Isn't that in the past? Didn't I acknowledge my sin? Didn't I confess my sin to God that night when I wept bitterly? Isn't it all forgiven? And we can be resentful if someone is dealing with us in such a way that it brings up pain of a sin from the past that needs really to be brought up. You need to stop and think about it. Who sinned in this case? Not Jesus. Jesus didn't sin against Peter. Peter sinned. When you sin, you should look at it this way, that you have no grounds to complain to God about how He deals with you in the wake of your sin. including when He uses other people to come and remind you of your need to deal with your sin, when He uses their words to prick you and humble you. I am not saying that we all have carte blanche in light of what we see here to go and bring up people's past sins for no good reason. But Jesus wasn't doing what He did for no good reason. He had some very good reasons and righteous reasons for doing what he did. This is a good lesson for you to learn when you're young, especially when your children still at home. Sometimes your parents are telling you things about your sins that you've committed. And you don't want to hear about that. You've acknowledged your sin, you've confessed it, but they're telling you some lessons you should learn perhaps. And you look at it this way, they're lecturing me. Or maybe they're in the process simply of disciplining you, but they're reminding you, and you say, well I understand, I know, I know. And you don't like it. Ask yourself the question. And I know it's painful, but ask yourself this question. Whose fault is that? What does that pain stem from? Your parents' meanness? or your foolishness. That's where it comes from. It wouldn't be happening if you hadn't sinned. And parents, you should look at this and not just learn lessons for your own life, but lessons for being a parent or anyone who has to deal with someone who has sinned and you need to go address it, or you need to bring it up again for one good reason or another, you should learn this lesson that we sometimes need to be worked over when we have sinned, lest you grow weary in well-doing. Because Jesus' task here is not an easy one either. to have to deal with someone very faithfully and in a painful way when he has sinned. So that's the second thing. Sometimes we need to be worked over when we have sinned. The third lesson is this. True Christians may have difficulty in working through their sin and in believing and receiving forgiveness." True Christians may have difficulty in working through their sin and in believing and receiving forgiveness. I don't doubt for a minute that Peter had confessed his sin when he wept bitterly over it. Remember, we're told that in Luke, I think, 22, that when he saw Jesus look at him right after he had denied him the third time, it says that he went out and he wept bitterly. And so there's a sense in which we could say certainly God forgave him for that sin. If he confessed that sin to God and asked God to forgive him, just as it says in 1 John 1 that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There's a sense in which we could say he's confessed it and God has forgiven it. And back in chapter 20, as I mentioned this morning, Jesus had come to Peter, and Jesus had said to Peter, peace, when He spoke to him. And He had spoken those words of commission. In fact, turn back to John 20, and let's look at verses 19-23. John 20, verses 19-23. This is the day that Jesus had risen from the dead, and it says, Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be with you. Now when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Then Jesus said to them again, Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are forgiven." Retained now remember what I mentioned this morning. This would have been a very significant Instance for Peter because he hasn't seen Jesus alive Since he saw him on the cross But the the last intimate contact he had with him was when he had just denied him the third time and then he looked at Jesus eye to eye and And Jesus didn't say any words, but he said volumes in his gaze upon Peter. So that Peter was convicted, he was cut to the heart, and the Bible says he went out and he wept bitterly. So it almost makes you wonder if, on this instance, Peter, who would normally be standing in the front, and being the one that wished he could have opened the door for Jesus, even though he didn't need the door opened on this occasion, that he might have been standing behind one of the other apostles, or at least in the back row there, wondering, what will Jesus say to me? And what are the two things he says? One, peace. All is well between you and me. And he tells him that he's going to receive the Holy Spirit and he's going to be in a position of ministry and authority in terms of the advancement of the kingdom of God. In other words, what he says to Peter is this, I want you, you eleven men, Peter included, to be my apostles. So that was very significant. But still, Peter, no doubt, is laboring with the effects of a guilty conscience. You look back at verse 12 of chapter 21 for a moment. Remember who Peter is, or at least who he has been up to this point. He is the guy who always has something to say, and he's the guy who doesn't usually stop and think before he speaks, but he blurts things out. without thinking it through first. He just comes out and says it. And remember what happened when he was on the boat. John had said, it's the Lord. And Peter said, well, it's the Lord. And so he jumped in the water and he swam to shore to be the first one there. But now he's talking with Jesus or they're talking with Jesus, and we read in verse 12, Jesus said to them, this is after Peter had dragged up the net, Jesus said to them, come and eat breakfast. But then it says, yet none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? Knowing that it was the Lord. Now what has come over Peter? He knew the answer this time, but he wouldn't even say it. So he has been chastened, and he's probably laboring to some degree with the effects of a guilty conscience. That's probably part of the reason he's so hesitant and self-conscious. Even Peter won't say something here. And then look at verse 17 once again. When Jesus said to him the third time, Simon, do you love me? We're told Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time. He's grieved, no doubt, still as the result of his sin. He hasn't completely worked through this whole matter of his sin and the pain and the guilt. And so, under this heading that true Christians can have difficulty in working through their sin and in believing and receiving forgiveness from God, don't expect that forgiveness will always come easily. Don't expect that. You've sinned many times in your life, and in many ways, and perhaps we could say in some senses, regrettably, Forgiveness has come all too easily for you. But it doesn't always come easily, especially for serious sin. Let that thought slow you down when you are playing with temptation and when you think that you can sin cheaply. Forgiveness does not always come easily. Now, I am not saying you have to do penance to receive forgiveness. I am not saying that. I am not saying that ultimately it is a difficult matter, because God's grace is free. And He doesn't require that we do anything. I'm simply saying God, in His wisdom, And His righteousness and His goodness does not always make it that simple for us when we have sinned. And further, don't think that somebody cannot be a true Christian if he doesn't immediately bounce back after he has sinned in a grievous way. Don't think he can't be a Christian if he doesn't immediately put back on the oil of joy in the place of his mourning. Or if he doesn't put on, as the Scripture says, the garment of praise in place of the spirit of heaviness. Now if he's truly forgiven of his sin, the oil of joy should come back onto his face. And the garment of praise should be found clothing him again. But I'm simply saying, if it doesn't happen immediately, don't conclude that person probably isn't a genuine Christian. Now if you're in that kind of a situation, and you don't find the peace that surpasses understanding right away after you've sinned, and then God has convicted you of that sin, and you freely and fully confess that sin, and you don't find the peace that surpasses understanding just like that, it might be your fault. And it might be your unbelief. Because you just don't really think God can forgive you when the Scripture says clearly that He does and that He will. But part of the reason also might be simply the wisdom of God. Because God teaches different people in different ways at different times, doesn't He? And you can't look at someone else and say, well, I sinned in a similar way to that, and I confessed my sin, and I never had problems with that sin or the guilt that related to it again after that. Well, thanks be to God. But God doesn't always deal with everyone in exactly the same way, and that's part of His wisdom. And also remember this about God, He never wants to make sin a pleasant experience for you. And sometimes that might mean that He makes us go through some difficulty before we come to that place of the peace that surpasses understanding after we have sinned. I'm not saying that that shouldn't be what you aim and you seek for when God has humbled you for your sin. I'm simply saying don't conclude that you're not a Christian if it doesn't happen like that or that someone else isn't either. And then a fourth lesson. Grace and forgiveness are real. Grace and forgiveness are real. In a way, we could look at Peter in this passage and call him Doubting Peter. Thomas didn't believe that Jesus was risen. There's a sense in which we could say Peter almost couldn't believe that he was forgiven. And I personally think that this is a large part of the reason for this episode, why Jesus had this conversation with him, and why it was recorded for us. Peter needed to know this. He needed to know that forgiveness is real. How could Peter have ministered the gospel to other people if it was still an open question whether his own sin was fully absolved? If Peter was always struggling with this question, Is it really right? Is it really well between me and my Lord Jesus? If he was always struggling with that question, how would he have been able to minister the way he needed to in preaching the gospel and dealing with sinners if there was any uncertainty whatsoever on his mind? So you see the point. Jesus was trying to bring Peter to the point of certainty about the forgiveness of his sin, I believe. He had a special need, we could say, for Jesus to say, Peter, I know that you love me, and I want you to be a witness for me. He needed to know that. And similarly, The church needed to know this lesson. The church in its early centuries needed to know that. In some of the early centuries of the church, there were controversies in the life of the church, in which certain segments of the churches and certain places were actually questioning whether Christians who committed serious sins could even be restored to the church upon repentance. There was a period of time in which there was quite a controversy regarding the question whether people who committed sexual immorality and who were put out of the church for it when they repented could be restored to the membership of the church. And I think that Christ's treatment of Peter would be a guide to them when they're wrestling through that kind of a question. Well, how could we add someone back to the church who had committed sexual immorality? Well, let's weigh it against Peter's denying his Lord. when Jesus had told him in advance he would do it, when he had said he never would do it, when it was in the presence of many witnesses, when Jesus Christ himself was right there, and it was at his lowest point and his one time in his life where you could say he needed friends. But Jesus forgave him, and Jesus restored him. That could be a guide to the church. And you and I need to know this as well. Peter's sin was real, and it was serious. And so was this conversation between Jesus and Peter. The forgiveness of sin is real also. It is real. You need to believe this when you sin. You need to believe it, especially when you sin in a serious way, that forgiveness is real. Even though Christ would have you feel the weight of your sin and of your guilt, you need to know that forgiveness is real and that He does not intend for you to carry the weight of that guilt around with you for the rest of your life. Peter had sinned some weeks earlier, possibly. We don't know exactly when this happened, in the month or so after Jesus rose from the dead. But clearly this was a matter that still had to be brought to resolution in Peter's mind and heart. And now that Jesus has spoken to him and dealt with him in the faithful way that he did, it had been brought to a resolution. It was done and it was over with. And when I say that, that doesn't mean that Peter would never think about that sin again. It doesn't mean that reflecting on that sin would never cause pain to Peter again. But the point is this, it would not give him a constantly guilty conscience. And it would not be an albatross around his neck. that would prevent him from wholeheartedly serving his Lord, or would prevent him from joyfully serving the Lord Jesus Christ as one of his apostles. You could compare it to Paul and his persecuting the church. Paul said he was worse than Peter, didn't he? He said, I persecuted the church, therefore I am the chief of sinners. That's how Paul looked at it. But was that fact, that he had been such a terrible sinner in all the light that he had, even in the face of all that, does that mean that was a cause for Paul to live a whole life of grief and woe? and to have a constant sense of failure because of what he had done? No! It was the occasion for him to constantly, as he said in Galatians, to glory in the cross of Jesus Christ. And it was the occasion for him, his remembering his sins, to labor even more wholeheartedly. Not because he thought he was atoning for his sins, but he did it to show his gratitude to Christ who forgave him for his great sins. And he did it in a real way, we could say, to overcome evil. with good. You may have read at some point the autobiography of a man named Robert Flockhart. Maybe you haven't. Probably not many have read it. But anyway, he was a Christian man, I think, back in the 18th century or the 19th century. And he had been a sailor, a Scottish sailor. And he lived a terribly wicked life. He committed a lot of sins. You can go through almost all the commandments, and he probably violated literally every single one of them in gross ways. And then God, in his years while he was still on the ships and before, God brought him back home to Scotland. After this very profligate life, God saved him. And he really humbled this man. And he really made him feel the weight of his sins and his guilt. But it wasn't, like I said, an albatross around his neck that kept him from serving God and serving Him very wholeheartedly and very joyfully. He had precisely this attitude, that I'm going to overcome evil now with good. And he looked at it this way. He made it a point while he was still in the navy to try to witness to all the guys that he knew that he had sinned with because he felt like he was the reason for the sins of many of them. And he thought, I've led these guys into these sins, now let me do what I can to try to rescue them from them. And then he spent his last days, until I think he got sick from being outside too much, preaching on the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. His sin, though it was grievous, and though he looked at it that way until his last day, did not weigh him down and prevent him from doing good. So that's the fourth lesson. Grace and forgiveness are real. The fifth lesson is this. God uses broken and restored vessels to do his work. He uses broken and restored vessels to do his work. Peter was broken. He was brought very low because of his sin. He was humbled in the dust. And yet Jesus restored him. And He didn't simply restore him and make him feel the forgiveness of his sins. And He also made him useful in His kingdom. Even though that might have been beyond belief for Peter. Notice three things here about this point that God uses broken and restored vessels to do His work. First, God often humbles people just to make them useful. This is often the answer to the question, why are you doing this to me, Lord? Why are you putting me through such difficulty and pain? So I can use you. So you'll be useful to Me. So you'll be worthwhile as an implement in My hands to do good. You may think that He humbles you and He works you over for your sins in order to deny you a place of usefulness. Or that's how other Christians are dealing with you. They see your sins and they're pouncing on you. And they're saying, you can never be used by God because of your sin. I've heard Christians who have sinned in grievous ways, sometimes public ways, scandalous ways, that God has humbled. And yet in so many words, they've said to me, how can I? ever be useful in God's kingdom. How could God ever use someone who has sinned like I have? Sure, God can use you As if I'm a person who has never sinned. Or maybe he's saying, you haven't sinned in the grievous ways I have. God can use you. As if God is going to use someone, he has to be a vessel made of gold. And that that's all he ever has been. There aren't such people. There aren't such people. No. God doesn't humble you to keep you in His doghouse. And He doesn't humble you to keep you out of a place of usefulness in His kingdom. He does it rather to make you fit for service in his kingdom in whatever capacity that might be. It might not be as a gospel minister or a missionary or whatever you always wished or dreamed you could or would be. But he's not trying to keep you out of a place of usefulness. He's trying to make you useful when he humbles you. A second thing is this. He doesn't just humble His people to make them useful. He humbles them to teach them how to minister to others. That's what I think is the connection here with the orders that Jesus gives to Peter here. Do you love me? Reminding him of his sin? Yes, I love you. Okay? Do this. Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Listen to J.C. Ryle on this point. He says, one of our Lord's objects here was to teach Peter what should be the primary aim of an apostle and minister. The true qualification for the ministerial office he must learn was not high profession of more courage and zeal than others, not loud talk or even readiness to fight. but loving, patient usefulness to the souls of others, and diligent care for the sheep of Christ's flock." Turn with me to 2 Timothy 2, verses 24 to 26. a passage I've maybe read even frequently here, and it's one I turn to myself even more frequently, because it's an important passage for Gospel ministers. but really for anyone who wants to be of service in Christ's kingdom and do good to the souls of others. Here he speaks about a servant of the Lord, meaning Timothy, meaning a gospel preacher. So he says, a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, 2 Timothy 2, 24, but be gentle to all, liable to teach, patient in humility, correcting those who are in opposition. if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses, and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will." Now that was not Peter's normal way of dealing with people, was it? It could probably be better illustrated by cutting off people's ears. whether with his sword or with his tongue. He always had something to say. He was loud. He was forward. It's as if on that day when Jesus said, and he presented him with his sin, and reminded him of it, and he humbled him, and then he said, now feed my sheep. It's as if he were saying, Peter, I hope that you have spent all of your abruptness and brashness and hastiness and impulsiveness on me and that you won't spend them on my sheep." He humbled Peter so he would deal a little more gently and patiently with his sheep. Hopefully Peter learned this lesson because he saw his own sin in a new light. And maybe it would help him then to look at the sins of others in a new light. Listen to what John Owen says. Owen said, I will not judge a person to be spiritually dead, whom I have judged formerly to have had spiritual life, though I see him at present in a swoon as to all evidences of the spiritual life. And the reason why I will not judge him so is this, because if you judge a person dead, you neglect him. You leave him. But if you judge him in a swoon, though never so dangerous, you use all means for the retrieving of his life. Peter was in a swoon. And look how patiently and carefully, even though painfully, Jesus dealt with him and ministered to him and sought after him. So maybe natively, that lesson would be far, far from Peter's mind and heart in the way he would deal with people. Well, why don't they have swords? Why aren't they standing here next to me? Now maybe he's learned to such a degree that he could deal with people as Jesus dealt with him. Shouldn't Peter have had that lesson that Owen speaks about, mastered, that just because someone is in a swoon doesn't necessarily mean he's dead, even if no one else has mastered it of the eleven. So God uses broken and restored vessels to do his work. He often humbles His people just to make them useful. He humbles them to teach them how to minister to others. And then thirdly and finally under that point, He humbles them to show them and to show the world that the power is all of God. Just turn with me to one passage, 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3. Well, just one brief text in chapter 3 and then one in chapter 4. But look at 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5. After Paul has asked the question in the last part of chapter 2, who is sufficient for these things? That is for gospel ministry. Who is sufficient for these things? He says here in verse 5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves. It's possible that the Peter, who always has an answer for everything, and who always has to speak up, and who is always ready to stand up and fight, it is possible that Peter might not have, from the heart, been able to save this with the Apostle Paul, previous to his sin and his restoration by Christ. not that we are sufficient of ourselves, but He definitely knows it now. And then look at what it says in the last part of the verse, but our sufficiency is from God, who has also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. God humbled Him to show Him that all the glory must go to God. Or as it says in chapter 4 and verse 7, if you look over there, but we have this treasure This gospel that we're carrying around. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. We're pots of clay. Why? So that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. So God uses broken and restored vessels to do His work. And then a sixth and final lesson is this. Love to Christ energizes and stimulates our love to His people. It's love to Christ that is going to make us love His people more. In fact, we could say love His people at all. Because there is a sense in which it is more difficult to love people than it is to love Jesus. Isn't that the whole issue that John was dealing with in 1 John 4? Dealing with people who say, I love God. Well, what was their problem? They didn't love their brother who they could see. Telling them, telling us all that really they didn't love God if they didn't love their brother. It's easy. It's easy for me to love people I can't see. and to say, I love God. I love the universal church. They never bother me. It's individual Christians that bother me. People that live close to me don't take any offense. It's easy to say, I love Jesus. I'm a good Christian. But it's hard to love people. And notice how these things are brought into connection in our passage. Do you love me, Peter? Feed my sheep. You really, really love me? Here's how you express it. You show that great love for these little ones, for these weak ones, for these sinful ones. some of whom are doing the same wrong thing over and over again after you've told them and spelled it out clearly. Tend those sheep. Feed those lambs. Love to Christ energizes and stimulates our love to His people. Do you have a problem when it comes to loving and serving God's people. If you say, well, yes, I do, quite frankly, you are undoubtedly lacking in your love to Christ Himself. Now, see, you might not look at it that way, but that's the point here. There's that connection. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Does your native self-centeredness and selfishness keep you from serving and loving your brethren as you ought? If that's the case, what is your problem but that you love yourself more than you love Christ? Isn't that it? Isn't that we're led by our self-centeredness more than we are by love for Christ? Or look at it this way. Does the potential pain and disappointment that you expose yourself to when you love the brethren, because we do. If we love people, we expose ourselves to pain. They might walk all over us if we're kind to them. They might stab us in the back if we give them the opportunity. But that's the Christian life. Constantly giving people the opportunity to stab you in the back. That's it. But does that possibility of pain and disappointment make you shrink from loving people? Well, what is that but loving your own ease and your own comfort more than you love Jesus Christ? Now, that might be a painful way to look at it, but that's exactly the way the Scriptures tell us to look at it. It really isn't. His or her sinfulness or ugliness or prickliness that keeps you from loving Him. It might make it difficult, but it really is something in here. And it's not just a shortage of love for that particular person or that particular kind of person. It's a shortage of love for Christ. That's what it is. Paul said, if we are beside ourselves, it is for God, or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. Why? For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died, and he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them. and rose again. Brethren, that love, the love of Christ for us and our corresponding love for Jesus Christ ought to compel us to love our brethren and be willing to lay down our lives for them. Do you sometimes even find yourself looking down on and despising Christian brethren? Do you find yourself doing that? Do you find yourself looking at them as a nuisance? You need to see them as those for whom Jesus Christ died. Tend my sheep, Jesus says. That's who they are. You need to see them as those who are members of Jesus Christ's body. That's who they are. That's who every Christian brother is. Now you are the body of Christ and members of it individually, Paul said. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Remember how he gave that instruction to the Romans on those matters of food and other Jewish laws that they had disagreements about. And Paul says it was a matter of Christian liberty. He says, do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Those words should cut us to the heart every time. And you should remember those words when you are tempted to despise your Christian brethren. How can you despise them if you look at them in that light, which is the light Jesus Christ wants you to look at them in? Do you need more love for the brethren? This is where to start. Lord, I love you. You know that I love you. I believe that I love you. But increase my love for you, because I need to love you more, Lord Jesus. Because if I loved you the way I should, if I loved you even the way I thought I did, I would be able to love that sister or that brother. As we sing, this needs to be the prayer of all of us. More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee. Let's pray together. Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word and ask that You would take these words and write them upon our hearts. We thank You for Jesus Christ and His example of grace and compassion and goodness and mercy and love in the way He dealt with Peter. We ask that You would help us to see how and when You are dealing with us in similar ways. And we ask Lord Jesus Christ that you would give us more love to you, that we might love one another more as well, that we might be good and gracious and kind Christians, and that we might show the greatness of the gospel and of our Lord by the way that we love one another. And we ask this all in your name. Amen.