your knee, go out to weep, go out to pray. God give you grace to believe! And oh, how sweet and pleasant the thought, that this day sinners have fled to Christ, and men have been born again to Jesus! Brethren, before I finish, I repeat the words at which so many have cavilled — it is now or never, it is turn or burn. Solemnly in God’s sight I say it; if it is not God’s truth I must answer for it in the great day of account. Your consciences tell you it is true. Take it home, and mock me if you will; this morning I am clear of your blood: if any do not seek God, but live in sin, I shall be clear of your blood in that day when the watchman shall have your souls demanded of him; oh, may God grant that you may be cleared in a blessed manner! When I went down these pulpit stairs a Sunday or two ago, a friend said to me words which have been in my mind ever since — “Sir, there are nine thousand people this day without excuse in the day of judgment.” It is true of you this morning. If you are damned, it will not be for lack of preaching to you, and it shall not be for lack of praying for you. God knows that if my heart could break by itself, it would, for your souls, for God is my witness, how earnestly I long for you in the heart of Christ Jesus. Oh, that he might touch your hearts and bring you to him! For death is a solemn thing, damnation is a horrible thing, to be without Christ is a dreadful thing, to be dead in sin is a terrible thing. May God lead you to view these things as they are, and save you, for his mercy’s sake! “He who believes and is baptised shall be saved.”
Lord, search my soul, try every thought;
Though my own heart accuse me not
Of walking in a false disguise,
I beg the trial of your eyes.
Does secret mischief lurk within?
Do I indulge some unknown sin?
Oh turn my feet whene’er I stray,
And lead me in your perfect way.
{a} For the poem by Hood, GoTo Explorer “http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/720.html”
{b} Cairn: A pyramid of rough stones, raised for a memorial or mark of some kind. OED
Lovest Thou Me?
No. 117-3:81. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, By C. H. Spurgeon, At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
Jesus says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, “Do you love me more than these?” He says to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He says to him, “Feed my lambs.” He says to him again the second time, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?” He says to him, “Yes, Lord you know that I love you.” He says to him, “Feed my sheep.” He says to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonas, 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 says to him, “Feed my sheep.” {John 21:15-17}
1. How very much was Christ the same before his crucifixion as he was after his resurrection! Although he had lain in the grave, and descended into the regions of the dead, and had retraced his steps to the land of the living, yet how marvellously similar he was in his manners and how unchanged in his disposition. His passion, his death, and his resurrection, could not alter his character as a man any more than they could affect his attributes as God. He is Jesus for ever the same. And when he appeared again to his disciples, he had cast aside none of his kind manners; he had not lost a particle of interest in their welfare; he addressed them just as tenderly as before, and called them his children and his friends. Concerning their temporal condition he was mindful, for he said, “Children, have you any meat?” And he was certainly quite as watchful over their spiritual state for after he had supplied their bodies by a rich draught from the sea, with fish (which possibly he had created for the occasion), he enquires after their souls’ health and prosperity, beginning with the one who might be supposed to have been in the most sickly condition, the one who had denied his Master thrice, and wept bitterly — even Simon Peter. “Simon, son of Jonas,” said Jesus, “do you love me?”
2. Without preface, for we shall have only a little time this morning — may God help us to make good use of it! — we shall mention three things: first a solemn question — “Do you love me?” secondly, a discreet answer, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you”; and thirdly, a required demonstration of the fact, “He says to him, Feed my lambs”; or, again, “Feed my sheep.”
3. I. First, then, here was A SOLEMN QUESTION, which our Saviour asked Peter, not for his own information, for, as Peter said, “You know that I love you,” but for Peter’s examination. It is well, especially after a foul sin, that the Christian should well probe the wound. It is right that he should examine himself; for sin gives grave cause for suspicion, and it would be wrong for a Christian to live an hour with a suspicion concerning his spiritual estate, unless he occupies that hour in examination of himself. Self-examination should more especially follow sin, though it ought to be the daily habit of every Christian, and should be practised by him perpetually. Our Saviour, I say, asked this question of Peter, that he might ask it of himself; so we may suppose that it is asked of us this morning that we may apply it to our own hearts. Let each one ask himself, then in his Saviour’s name, for his own profit, “Do you love the Lord? Do you love the Saviour? Do you love the ever blessed Redeemer?”
4. Note what this question was. It was a question concerning Peter’s love. He did not say, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you fear me.” He did not say, “Do you admire me? Do you adore me?” Nor was it even a question concerning his faith. He did not say, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you believe in me?” but he asked him another question, “Do you love me?” I take it, that is because love is the very best evidence of piety. Love is the brightest of all the graces; and hence it becomes the best evidence. I do not believe love to be superior to faith; I believe faith to be the groundwork of our salvation; I think faith to be the mother grace, and love springs from it; faith I believe to be the root grace, and love grows from it. But then, faith is not an evidence for brightness equal to love. Faith, if we have it, is a sure and certain sign that we are God’s children; and so is every other grace a sure and certain one, but many of them cannot be seen by others. Love is a more sparkling one than any other. If I have a true fear of God in my heart, then I am God’s child; but since fear is a grace that is more dim and has not that halo of glory over it that love has, love becomes one of the very best evidences and one of the easiest signs of discerning whether we are alive to the Saviour. He who lacks love, must lack also every other grace in the proportion in which he lacks love. If love is little, I believe it is a sign that faith is little; for he who believes much loves much. If love is little, fear will be little, and courage for God will be little; and whatever graces there be, though faith lies at the root of them all, yet they do so sweetly hang on love, that if love is weak, all the rest of the graces most assuredly will be so. Our Lord asked Peter, then, that question, “Do you love me?”
5. And note, again, that he did not ask Peter anything about his doings. He did not say, “Simon Peter, how much have you wept? How often have you done penance on account of your great sin? How often have you on your knees sought mercy at my hand for the slight you have done to me, and for that terrible cursing and swearing by which you did disown your Lord, whom you had declared you would follow even to prison and to death?” No; it was not in reference to his works, but in reference to the state of his heart that Jesus said, “Do you love me?” To teach us this; that though works do follow after a sincere love, yet love excels the works, and works without love are not evidences worth having. We may have some tears; but they are not the tears that God shall accept, if there is no love for him. We may have some works; but they are not acceptable works, if they are not done out of love
