Well, we read here in this chapter,
75 verses, so it's a long chapter, but dealing with the events leading
up to the cross, the central issue of redemptive history,
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see how God is working
all things after the counsel of His own will. to bring this
great event about. The death, the burial, and the
resurrection of Christ. And some of these things are
joyous and some of them are sad. But they all will work together
for good to them that love God who are the called according
to His purpose. And today we're going to look at a sad episode
where the Apostle Peter, one of the disciples, actually denied
and forsook the Lord three times. And we see there's a purpose
in this now, and it's God's purpose. And how Peter was brought to
shame and repentance, and we'll see that. Well, you know, back
in verses 30 through 35, the Lord told His disciples, not
just Peter, but He said that they will all be offended. And
that word offended means that they would all stumble. Because
that very night, when he was taken by the soldiers and brought
to the high priest and put on trial, and he told them, he said,
this very night, you will be offended. You will stumble. You'll
trip and fall in a way of their mental Fortitude, in a way of
their spiritual fortitude. Remember he told them, he said,
the spirit's willing, the flesh is weak. Boy, doesn't that describe
us? We have a willing spirit, and
that's because God has made us willing in the day of his power.
But boy, is our flesh weak. And our flesh constantly wars
against our spirits and against the Holy Spirit, who resides
within us, to do what we want. You know, we want our selfishness.
and our human fear. And that's why we're told to
trust in the Lord and lean not unto our own understanding. You know, when I think about
this, and I used to hear preachers kind of indicate, well, for salvation,
you don't have to really understand anything. Well, that's not true.
First John 5 says, the Son of God has come and given us an
understanding that we might know Him that is true. But there's
a lot of things, especially in Provenance, that we just don't
understand right away. Sometimes we can look back on
things and then we have a better understanding. But the thing
about it is, we see these things happening and we trust in the
Lord to do what is right, what is just, what is fair, and what
is gracious towards his people. Trust in him. He may, it may
be a disease like cancer or something like that, and we've all had
loved ones who have gone through that. And you might say, Lord,
I just don't understand why, you know? And, you know, when
I think about The big picture, let's put it that way. The scheme
of all things. The answer's clear from the Bible,
it's for his glory. And if they're one of his children
especially, it's for their good. The greatest good. And we have
to look at it that way, not because we feel anything. You know, you lose a loved one,
you feel bad, you miss them. But what does God's word say?
Trust in the Lord and lean not unto your own understanding.
Well, so here he tells his disciples, you're going to stumble. And
of course, this means they'd fall away. Just like Judas fell
away, but in a different way. And I'm going to talk about that.
They'd fall away not like Judas who fell into apostasy and eternal
destruction. You know in the book of Hebrews
chapter 10, the last two verses, when it's talking about professing
believers who had turned around and rejected Christ. What they before confessed, they
confessed him and they claimed to be believers, but then because
of pressures and the threat of death and torture and all kinds
of things, they turned on him unto apostasy. And understand
that word apostasy now means they fall away unto destruction. It says in Hebrews chapter 10
there in the last verse we who are saved by the grace of God
if we're truly saved We are not of them that fall away unto perdition
That is unto destruction now. We'll stumble all of you've stumbled
I've stumbled we all do and You know what do you do when you
stumble? Well? You've got to be recovered? And
that's what happened to Peter, it's what happened to these other
disciples. But now Judas could not be recovered because he fell
away unto destruction, revealing that he had no spiritual life,
no true faith, had never been brought to true repentance. We're
gonna look at next week where Judas repented, but it wasn't
the kind of repentance that God brings his children to. The kind
of repentance that God brings us to drives us more to Christ. And that's what Hebrews chapter
12, when it's talking about chastisement, it talks about the peaceable
fruit of righteousness. When you're going through a trial
and you're hurting and you're sorrow and sad and all of that,
that is not a pleasant thing. And it's really hypocritical
for you to act like it is, you know. I used to know a guy all
the time, he was like that old story that preacher used to tell
about a guy who was like, wasn't working with a full deck. And
they called him Happy Jack. And no matter what he'd do, he'd
say, I'm just happy, happy, happy. Well, I gotta tell you all something,
I'm not happy all the time. I'm not a Happy Jack. And I'd
be a hypocrite if I acted like I was. but I do have a joy and
peace that comes from looking to Christ. And so Hebrews 12
says when you're going through these trials, that's not pleasant,
that's not fun, that doesn't make you happy, but it's only
after that you have that peaceable fruit of righteousness. And what
is that peaceable fruit of righteousness? After those trials, and you know,
like we go through one, another one's coming now, Brother Shepard
talked about that. He's standing on the shore of
the Atlantic Ocean. He said, that tide comes in,
it goes out, another one's coming. And that's the way trials are.
That's the way God works with his children for our good and
his glory. But that peaceable fruit of righteousness
is we come out on the other side by the grace of God, looking
to and depending upon Christ even more. And we have to say,
Lord, thank you. for bringing me through that.
Well, Judas didn't come out on the other side looking to Christ.
He come out on the other side just regretting what he did in
a legal way, and we'll talk about that next week a little bit.
But being under the threat of bodily harm, physical death,
for their association with Christ and his gospel, he said, you're
gonna stumble. And he'd already told them, you
can read about it back in John 15, verse 18. Remember what he
told them? He said, if the world hate you,
don't be amazed, it hated me before it hated you. And you're
not greater than your master. If the Lord hated our Savior
and our Lord, the world's gonna hate us. And we're told why the
world hates us. It's because of our message.
John 3, 19 and 20, the light, which is Christ as he's presented
in the gospel, exposes the world's best deeds aimed at saving themselves
by their works are evil in the sight of God. And why are they
evil? They deny the glory of God. They
deny Christ. They exalt the sinner. So you
remember when he told them that you're all gonna be offended.
Remember what Peter said in Matthew 26, 33 there. He said, though
all men shall be offended, though all shall stumble because of
you, yet will I never be offended. I'll never fall. Now, it's kind
of like he was setting himself up for a fall. What? I'll never
do it. You know, Paul in Galatians 6,
he talked about that. When we see a brother or a sister
fall, stumble in whatever way, don't ever take the attitude,
well, I would never do that. You put us in certain situations,
we don't know what we would do. And you can be like Peter and
say, well, I wouldn't do that. Well, that's just nothing but
self-righteousness. That's all it is. And that's
why he says, you approach that brother or sister with humility,
realizing that your flesh is weak too. So he stood boldly,
he said, I'll never be offended. And that's when the Lord informed
him in verse 34 of Matthew 26. He said, that this night before
the croc crow, before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times. And Peter, he insisted that he'd
never do it. But he was wrong, and here in
these verses we see that the words of the Savior are ringing
sadly true about Peter. And the story I've got in your
lesson, the story of Peter's threefold denial of Christ is
found in all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And I wanted
to make this point. It's not found in all four Gospels
just to put Peter on display. and his weakness and fear of
men as if only to humiliate him. It's a testimony to the weakness
of all of us and to know that our strength is in the Lord and
that even our perseverance is due to his grace and power in
preserving us. What are we? I'm only a sinner
saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace.
This is my story. To God be the glory. So look
at verse 69. Let's just read most of the passage
here. 69. Verse 69. Now Peter sat without
in the palace. Now this is the palace of the
high priest. And remember Peter and I believe
John followed Christ. Peter was a ways off now. He
wasn't right with him. You know, he was kind of just
lurking in the shadows and trying to find out what was going to
happen here. And John went on into the palace, but Peter didn't.
And he says, And a damsel, a young lady, came unto him, saying,
Thou also was with Jesus of Galilee. Now, she's an eyewitness. She
saw Peter. Verse 70, But he denied before them all, saying, I know
not what thou sayest. I don't know what you're talking
about. Verse 71, and when he was gone out into the porch,
another maid saw him and said unto them that were there, this
fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied
him with an oath. Now you see his denial intensifies. He first said, I don't know what
you're talking about. Now he swore an oath, I do not know
the man. Of course we know what the Bible says about swearing
an oath and all of that. then verse 73, and after a while
came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter, surely
thou also art one of them for thy speech betrayeth thee." Now
what he's talking about there is he was a Galilean and most
of the commentators and you know I rely heavily on a commentator
named John Gill and he said this, he said that was a particular
vernacular, it'd be like if Randy, if you went to New York City
and you spoke, they'd say, you're from the South. Of course, they'd
do me, too. I always thought of a Southern
accent as being like history before you, you know? But anyway,
and a Northern accent's just like somebody reading the weather
report, but anyway. But his speech revealed that
he was a Galilean, which Jesus of Nazareth was. And so his speech
betrayed him. Some commentators say, well,
you know, he's talking about the gospel there, but Peter wasn't
preaching the gospel here now. So, you know, he was lurking
in the background trying to figure out what's going to happen. So
he said, your speech betrays you. And look at verse 74. Now
remember how his denials intensify. Then began he to curse and to
swear, saying, I know not the man. and immediately the cock
crew. Now you think about that. So
to curse and swear, saying, I know not to ma'am, and this is just
exactly what the Lord said to him, Peter, this is gonna happen.
And Peter said, oh no, no, no. But we know that Christ spoke
the truth. So here's one thing I want to make a point on this
lesson. Judas denied and betrayed Christ, So did Peter. He denied and betrayed him, but
there was a marked difference. Judas, because of the absence
of spiritual life and faith, Judas had a profession now, as
long as he was with the other disciples. He claimed to be a
disciple, claimed to be a believer, but because of the lack of spiritual
life and true faith, God-given faith, He totally fell away unto
eternal destruction from his profession. John spoke of that
in 1 John 2, 18 and 19. You know when he's talking about
those who went out from us and he's talking about apostasy there
in 1 John 2, 18 and 19. Remember he said it's the last
time and he said you've heard that antichrist shall come. There's
many antichrist already. And he says they went out from
us. And he says, had they been of us, had they been truly saved,
they would have no doubt remained with us, but they went out that
it might be made manifest that they were never of us. The Bible's
clear on that. They didn't lose salvation. Judas
didn't fall away from salvation. He was never saved. And that's
the way it is. That's what the Bible teaches.
And somebody said, well, you're just preaching that old doctrine,
once saved, always saved. My friend, if God saves you,
it's one time and you're always saved. It's by grace. It's not conditioned on you.
And actually to claim that a person can be saved by grace and then
lose it is a denial of grace. They go to that passage in Galatians
chapter five where it talks about those who followed false preachers
have fallen from grace. And they'll say, well, see there,
that means they fell from, No, it means they denied what they
one time professed. You claim to be saved by grace,
but you're denying grace. And that's what that's about.
So Peter, because of the weakness of the flesh, and that still,
the weakness of the flesh still plagues you, doesn't it? It plagues
me. Aren't we in a warfare with the
flesh? An inner warfare? And we certainly are. And Peter,
because of the weakness of the flesh, he fell into the sin of
self-love and fearing men rather than God. Self-preservation. Later on in Peter's life, he
didn't fall away from that. And you know why? Because of
the grace of God. Now there's all kinds of stories
about Peter's death. Some say he was crucified upside
down and all that. I don't know if that's exactly
true, but that's okay. I mean, he boldly proclaimed
the Lord and he didn't fall away. But that's by the grace of God.
And I gotta tell you, if somebody came in and threatened my life
over the gospel, if I stood firm and went to the gallows or the
firing squad or the electric chairs, it would only be by the
grace of God that I'd do that. You too. His grace and his power. So Judas totally and finally
forsook the Lord in his truth. And he later became sorry for
his sin, but not in a godly way. That resulting godly repentance
by which the spirit uses to restore a child of God who has fallen.
And Peter was overtaken in a fault in need of restoration. And how
do we know this? Well, look at the next verse,
look at verse 75. And Peter remembered the word
of Jesus. Now that's key. Notice Peter's
reaction when he heard that rooster crow. He remembered Christ's
word. And whenever we fall away into
any particular scandalous sin, and I know that word falling
into sin. Well, there's a sense in which
sin is present with us continually because, for example, I'm gonna
talk about that in the message coming up. We always fall short
of the perfection of righteousness of the law that can only be found
in Christ. We have that perfection because
it's given to us by the grace of God by imputation. But in
ourselves, within our own hearts and within our own character
and conduct, we always fall short. I mean, we can say as believers,
sinners saved by grace, that we love God, that we love one
another, but we can't say we do it perfectly yet. The fact that within me is a
warfare tells me that. If I could love God perfectly
and love you as I love myself without any flaw, I wouldn't
have a warfare. You see, this fleshly warfare
will be over when we die and go to be with the Lord, because
then we will not have any sin within us. It'll be totally removed. And I'll talk more about that
in the later message. But he remembered the word of
Jesus. And so when we fall into any
particular, I'll say scandal, I've got that in your lesson,
a scandalous sin. It's a sin, for example, that
brings shame on the kingdom of God or that gives unbelievers
reason to boast and to deny God. You remember like Peter, I mean
like David when he sinned with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet
told him, he says, you've given the enemies of God room to boast
and to deny because of that. But the first thing the Holy
Spirit does is to remind us of the Word of God. And in two ways.
First, there's the word of admonition. Now what does that mean? Word of correction. That tells
me, hey, I didn't act right. I did so wrong there. I didn't
act right in the kingdom of God. I didn't glorify Him by what
I said or what I did. I didn't do right to my brother
or my sister in Christ. And I was wrong. And that's what
brings us to ask of them forgiveness. And then there's the word of
His grace, which tells me, tells me that my sin is forgiven. Remember what Nathan told David
when he Brought that sin of his adultery and the murder. No,
he said, but God has forgiven your sins. Now, did that cause David to
say, well, let's just go out and do it again? No. It brought him to tears. You
can read about it in Psalm 51. And that's what it does, this
word of admonition and this word of grace, both used by the Spirit
to bring us to what the Bible calls godly sorrow over sin. Turn over with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter seven. I want you to see, this is such
an important part of a believer's life. And it's a continual repentance. You know, in the new birth, There's
an initial repentance that God brings us to a repentance of
dead works and idolatry by which we are shown the reality of thinking
of how sinful it is to think that I could be saved or made
righteous or be right with God based upon my works. And when
the Holy Spirit shows me the way of salvation by God's grace
in Christ, he brings me to repent of that. And you see a grand
example of that in Philippians chapter three. Paul said, that
which was gain is loss. And that's that initial repentance,
the gift of repentance, repentance unto life. But as we go through
our lives as believers, fighting the flesh and sometimes falling,
we'll have a continual repentance. And it comes by the admonitions
of the Lord in his word and by the word of his grace. And look
at 2 Corinthians chapter seven. Look at verse nine. Now Paul
had written some harsh things to the Corinthians because they
were doing some bad things. And he says in verse nine, now
I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, Not just simply that
you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. The
sorrow that you were made brought you to see your wrong, your sinfulness,
and a change of heart, a change of mind. Now that's a grace of
God now. And he says, for you were made
sorry after a godly manner. Now we're gonna see next week,
Judas was made sorry, but not after a godly manner. Many people
are made sorry, but not after a godly manner. You know, a lot
of people, they think repentance is just being made sorry for
your sins. Oh no. There's a sorrow that leads to
death. Now look at it. He says, you
made sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage
by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world
worketh death. Let's say a person who, for example,
is a notorious sinner in the community. He goes to a revival
meeting and he hears the preacher talk about repent, repent, repent,
but not in the context of the gospel. And so he becomes sorry
and he gets religion and he's determined to make up for it
and to get right with God. by his works. That's the kind
of sorrow that leads to death. Godly sorrow by the spirit always
drives a sinner to Christ, begging for mercy. God be merciful to
me, the sinner. And that's what Paul's talking
about here. Look at verse 11. For behold this selfsame thing
that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought
in you, you became more careful, more concerned. Yea, what clearing
of yourselves, realizing that my sins are not charged to me.
I'm justified by the grace of God in Christ. Yea, what clearing
of yourselves? Yea, what indignation? Yea, what
fear? What vehement desire? Yea, what
zeal? Yea, what revenge? In all things
you have approved yourselves to be clear in this manner."
In other words, you come out on the other side of it with
that repentance that drives you to Christ, begging for God's
grace and God's mercy, knowing that your efforts cannot save
you. Tears of repentance and remorse
will not wash away my sins. Only the blood of Jesus Christ
will do that. And I tell you, when I think
about that, sometimes it causes me to cry. We'll go back to Matthew
26 now. So this is a conviction or a
sorrow over sin. It says, In verse 75, Peter remembered
the word of Jesus, which said unto him, before the cock crow,
thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly. He wept bitter. There was a conviction
or a sorrow over sin. But now to think about it now,
and I don't wanna keep banging this drum, but I wanna emphasize
it, that conviction or sorrow or sin, even if it's genuine
and sincere, that does not drive us to find our peace, our comfort,
our forgiveness, our assurance of salvation in Christ and His
righteousness alone, that's not of the Spirit. That's natural
conscience conviction. You know, a man's or a woman's
conscience can do a lot of things to him inwardly. But I also want
you to go to Luke chapter 22. And I want you to see what Luke wrote
about this episode, Luke 22. And we'll begin at verse 31.
And this is where the Lord spoke to Peter, whose name was Simon,
one of his names. Verse 31 of Luke 22, listen to
what the Lord says here. The Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you
as wheat. Satan wants you. Remember, Satan
wanted Job. He wanted Peter. But look at
verse 32. These words are precious. But
I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. That's the intercessory
work of Christ for his people. God's elect. If he prays for
me, I'm safe. I'm secure. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. Now, conversion can mean different
things. Does this mean Peter was actually
not converted in the new birth yet? Some say yes. And of course,
when you go to the end of the story here and see how they reacted
about the resurrection, it might give some credence to that. But
I don't know. We continually change our minds
in different ways. But that initial change of mind,
which is repentance, that comes through the preaching of the
gospel that brings us there. But here's the point that I wanna
make here. He says, when thou art converted, strengthen thy
brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I'm
ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. And he said,
I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, that
thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. And of course, we
know what Peter responded. But the point that we want to
make here is this, that he gives, number one, this speaks
of the intercessory work of Christ for his people. Remember 1st
John chapter 2 and verses 1 and 2, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And then it also speaks of Peter
being one of Christ's sheep, one of his own. And why, you
might ask the question, why did God let Peter fall like that?
Well, he tells us, strengthen your brethren. Going through
these trials ourselves, and realizing that we're totally dependent
upon God's grace at all times, that helps us to be an encouragement
to one another. You look at somebody and they
fall into some particular scandalous sin, and maybe you've gone that
way too. Maybe not, but you've done other
things. And it causes us to be more forgiving
and more loving to our brothers who trespass against us. That's
why he said, forgive us our debts as we forgive those who trespass
against us. So Peter, he come through this. Now let me say this in closing.
Peter was and is not the rock of the church. Christ is. When Christ spoke those words
in Matthew chapter 18, he was not telling Peter that he was
the rock. He was telling Peter's confession. And Peter was not
the first pope. That's a false prophet. But he
was a child of God, resting in Christ, standing before God justified
in Christ's righteousness imputed. All of those things, and later
on, you see the strength that God had given Peter in preaching
in Pentecost in Acts chapter two, and then later on writing
the two epistles, first and second Peter, and then later on dying
as a martyr for the Lord. Okay.