The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

      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 for him. We may perform very many of the outward, ritual observances of religion; but unless love lies at the bottom, all these things are vain and useless. The question, then, “Do you love me?” is a very vital question; far more so than one that merely concerns the outward conduct. It is a question that goes into the very heart, and in such a way that it brings the whole heart to one question; for if love is wrong, everything else is wrong. “Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?”

      6. Ah! dear beloved, we have very much cause for asking ourselves this question. If our Saviour were no more than a man like ourselves, he might often doubt whether we love him at all. Let me just remind you of various things which give us very great cause to ask this question: “Do you love me?” I will deal only with the last week. Come, my Christian brother, look at your own conduct. Do your sins not make you doubt whether you do love your Master? Come, look over the sins of this week: when you were speaking with an angry word and with a sullen look, might not your Lord have touched you, and said, “Do you love me?” When you were doing such-and-such a thing, which you very well know in your conscience was not according to his precept, might he not have said, “Do you love me?” Can you not remember the murmuring word because something had gone wrong with you in business this week, and you were speaking ill of the God of providence for it? Oh, might not the loving Saviour, with pity in his languid eye, have said to you, “Why do you speak like this? Do you love me?” I need not stop to mention the various sins of which you have been guilty. You have sinned, I am sure, enough to give good ground for self-suspicion, if you did not still depend on this: that his love to you, not your love to him, is the seal of your discipleship. Oh, do you not think within yourselves, “If I had loved him more, would I have sinned so much? And oh, can I love him when I have broken so many of his commandments? Have I reflected his glorious image to the world as I should have done? Have I not wasted many hours within this week that I might have spent in winning souls for him? Have I not thrown away many precious moments in light and frivolous conversation which I might have spent in earnest prayer? Oh! how many words have I uttered, which if they have not been filthy, (as I trust they have not) yet have not been such as have ministered grace to the hearers? Oh, how many follies have I indulged in? How many sins have I winked at? How many crimes have I covered over? How have I made my Saviour’s heart to bleed? How have I done dishonour to his cause? How have I in some degree disgraced my heart’s profession of love for him?” Oh, ask these questions of yourself, beloved, and say, “Is this your kindness to your Friend?”

      7. But I hope this week has been one in which you have sinned little publicly with respect to the world, or even in your own estimation, with respect to public acts of crime. But now let me put another question to you, Does not your worldliness make you doubt? How have you been occupied with the world, from Monday morning to the last hour of Saturday night? You have scarcely had time to think of him. What corners have you pushed your Jesus into, to make room for your bales of goods? How have you stowed him away into one short five minutes, to make room for your ledger or your business journal? How little time have you given to him? You have been occupied with the shop, with the exchange, and the farmyard; and you have had little time to commune with him! Come, just think! remember any one day this week; can you say that your soul always flew upward with passionate desires to him? Did you pant like a hart for your Saviour during the week? No, perhaps there was a whole day went by, and you scarcely thought of him until the evening; and then you could only upbraid yourself, “How have I forgotten Christ today? I have not beheld him; I have not walked with him; I have not done as Enoch did! I knew he would come into the shop with me; I knew he is such a blessed Christ that he would stand behind the counter with me; I knew he was such a joyous Lord Jesus that he would walk through the market with me! but I left him at home, and forgot him all the day long.” Surely, surely, beloved, when you remember your worldliness, you must say of yourself; “Oh Lord, you might well ask, ‘Do you love me?’ ”

      8. Consider again, I beseech you, how cold you have been this week at the mercy seat. You have been there, for you cannot live without it; you have lifted up your heart in prayer, for you are a Christian, and prayer is as necessary to you as your breath. But oh! with what a poor asthmatic breath have you lived this week! How little have you breathed? Do you not remember how hurried your prayer was on Monday morning, how driven you were on Tuesday night? Can you not remember how languid your heart was, when on another occasion you were on your knees? You have had little wrestling, maybe, this week; little agonizing; you have had little of the prayer which prevails; you have scarcely laid hold of the horns of the altar; you have stood