Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
John, the gospel of John chapter 18. I'm going to begin in verse
15. And the title of the message
is Peter, a sinner saved by grace. Talking about the apostle Peter,
whose name was originally Simon, but the Lord gave him that name
Peter. We'll look at that passage in
just a minute in Matthew 16. Peter is one of the most interesting
characters in the Bible. And in this passage here, one
of the main issues is that in the historical life of the Lord
Jesus Christ is this is where he was taken before the high
priest, a man named Caiaphas. We read about Caiaphas last week
when Caiaphas made that statement when he said that it was expedient
that, in verse 14 of John 18, that it was expedient that one
man should die for the people. It's necessary that one man should
die for the people. And Caiaphas spoke prophetically
there without even knowing it. That's the amazing thing about
our God. God works all things after the
counsel of his own will. And especially when you consider
passages of scripture like Romans 8, 28, that all things work together. Those all things that God is
working together, those things work together for good to them
that love God, who are the called according to his purpose. And
of course, that's talking about believers. That's not talking
about everybody without exception. People who are born in sin and
live their lives in sin and unbelief and die in unbelief, they die
in their sins, and that's not good. But for God's children,
sinners saved by grace, like Peter, like me, like you who
are saved, if you're truly saved now, I'm not just looking out
there and blanketly telling people they're saved. Because we make
a judgment about that when we hear what people believe. What
do you believe? Do you believe the gospel? The
gospel's the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believeth,
believeth what? The gospel. And the gospel is
the revelation of the righteousness of God, which is the entire merit
of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the
surety, the substitute, and the redeemer and preserver of his
people. And that preservation is so important. Not only that we're initially
saved, by God's grace and power, but we're kept by God's grace
and power. And there's a lot of people who
claim to be Christian who don't believe that. They believe you
can be saved and then you can be lost again. But that's not
what the Bible teaches. That's not what the gospel teaches.
Christ is the preserver of his people. and he's the Savior and
the Preserver. And we're gonna see that especially
in the life of Peter. But here in this passage, this
is the passage that records where Peter denied Christ three times. And it's very interesting, and
it's not set there so that we can gang up on Peter and say,
oh, that bad person, you know, if I'd have been there, I would
have done better. No, sir. If we'd have been there, we'd
have done worse. And so we have to understand it. You know, God's
Word, the Bible, does not hold back in recording the sinfulness,
the sins, the weaknesses, the flaws in God's saints. It doesn't present sinners saved
by grace, the people of God, it doesn't present them as some
kind of super saint who stands high above everybody and has
no problems and no flaws. And that's the very point of
this is to show that God saves us by his grace not conditioned
on ourselves but conditioned on Christ who met those conditions. God keeps us by His grace and
God will bring us to glory in heaven by His grace. All of grace,
mark it down. At no time, now listen to me,
at no time in a believer's life Is any part of salvation conditioned
on Him? It's all conditioned on Christ.
Now, there are evidences of salvation. And there's the power of God
who works in us to do and to will His good pleasure. And there
are fruits of the Spirit. There's the fruit of the Spirit,
not fruits, plural, but the fruit, the singular fruit of the Spirit,
which manifests itself in different ways. And then there's a struggle
within every believer to follow the Lord, to obey Him. There's
a warfare of the flesh and the spirit. But our salvation and
our final glory in heaven is not conditioned on our accomplishments,
our efforts, our doing, because that's already secure in Christ.
And that's the thing about grace. Grace secures God's people in
salvation unto glory. Now, the problem that a lot of
people have with that, they'll say things like, well, if I believe
that, I would just sin as much as I want to. Well, you don't
understand grace. You don't understand the gospel.
You don't understand the Bible. You know, people who say things
like that, who object to God's grace like that, what they're
actually revealing about themselves is that they have no motive for
obedience except the sinful, legal, self-righteous motives
of salvation, of rewards based upon our efforts, and punishments
based upon our sins. That's a low motive. But see,
when God saves a sinner, He replaces that low, sinful motive that
causes us to bring forth fruit unto death with a holy motive,
the motive of grace and gratitude and love. But now, let's go to
the scripture here. This is where Peter, Peter's
a very interesting character as far as the disciples. Some
people say he was the leader of the disciples. He wasn't.
Christ was the leader of the disciples. He's the leader of
all his disciples. Some say that Peter was the spokesperson
of the disciples because a lot of times when things were asked
or said, Peter spoke up first. I don't think that means that
Peter was the appointed spokesperson. It just could have meant that
Peter was a loud mouth. And he spoke often without thinking. He did that. But one of the best
confessions, before we get into our text, look back at Matthew
chapter 16. where Peter spoke up and he was
speaking for the disciples, basically all except Judas, but Judas did
agree with it at that time, but Judas was a false disciple. But
Christ asked the disciples here in Matthew 16. He said, who do
men say that I the son of man am? And they answered him, they
said, well, some say that you're John the Baptist, some say you're
Elijah, some say you're Jeremiah. And then he asked them in verse
15, he saith unto them, this is Matthew 16, 15, but whom say
ye that I am? Who do you say that I am? And
Simon Peter answered. Now he spoke up. And He said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You're the
God-man. You're the Messiah. You're the
Savior. You're the one that was set up
before the foundation of the world, to whom the people of
God were given, the people whom God chose were given, the ones
whom the Messiah, you, the Messiah, would come to save. the son of
the living God, God manifest in the flesh. And listen to what
Christ said to Peter, and he said in verse 17, and Jesus answered
and said unto him, blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, Simon son
of Jonah, that was Peter's original name, for flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
And this is where the Lord gave him the name Peter, Petros, which
means a little rock. And he says in verse 18, and
I say unto thee that thou art Peter. And upon this rock, now
Peter, Petros or Petra, Petros and Petra, they're two different
words here. And Peter means a little rock. And then the rock here
in verse 18 means a big rock, like a boulder, like a rock of
Gibraltar. And he is not telling Peter here. Now understand this, get this
in your mind. He's not telling Peter that he
will build his church upon Peter. Listen to it. And I say unto
thee that thou art Peter, a little rock, and upon this, this big
rock. Now what's the big rock? Christ
is the big rock. He's the rock of the church.
He's the rock of Gibraltar for the church. Bigger than that. And he said, upon this rock,
and he's referring to what Peter confessed. Thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. That's the big rock upon which
the church is built. Not upon Peter. The Catholic
church has taken these things and just mangled them to make
man his own savior. Peter was not the first Pope.
They don't even know historically, factually, if Peter even went
to Rome. Some say that he did and he may
have, I don't know. And they say that he was crucified
upside down, all of that, but he was not, there's no Pope in
the church. Christ is the head of the church,
not the Pope. The Pope is a false prophet.
And so we need to understand it. He said, upon this rock,
verse 18, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. So he's telling Peter and the
disciples, he said, upon him, upon Christ, the rock. He will build his church, and
the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And verse 19 of Matthew
16, he says, and I'll give unto thee the keys of the kingdom
of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven. What that's talking about is
not any power given to Peter or the other disciples to forgive
sin. Only God can forgive sin. What
he's talking about there is the preaching of the gospel, which
shows sinners that sin can only be forgiven by God in Christ. And when we preach that, that's
what binds things in heaven. And that's what loose things.
You see, when a sinner believes what we preach in the gospel,
it's by the power of the Holy Spirit, with a message of power
and goodness and mercy from heaven. This is heaven's message. And
it binds and it loosens, it sets free and it binds men up. And
if you, you know, just like Christ told the Pharisees, he said,
if you believe not that I am, that Christ is the Messiah, like
Peter confessed here, you'll die in your sins. And that's
a binding. Well, look at verse 20 of Matthew
16. He says, then charged he his disciples that they should
tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. What he's talking,
he's not trying to hide this, but he had it planned out. The message would get out and
it would come to the time that we're looking at in John 18 when
he would be arrested. publicly and it says in verse
21 now listen to this from that time forth began Jesus to show
unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem suffer
many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and
be killed and be raised again the third day and then Peter
spoke up now this time Peter opened his mouth where he should
have kept quiet and he said in verse 22 then Peter took him
and began to rebuke him Peter began to rebuke the Lord, saying,
Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. And then,
verse 23, Christ turned to him. He turned and said unto Peter,
Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me,
for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of men. Peter was speaking under the
inspiration of Satan when he said that. No, you're not gonna
go to the cross. You're not gonna die. Well, that's
why he came to do. And we're gonna see that in the
next message, that the purpose of Jesus Christ coming into this
world was to die for the sins of his people that had been charged
to his account and satisfy the justice of God. And then later
on, over in John chapter 13, he was talking to his disciples,
many things to say to them. And he told them that he had
to go alone to the cross. He was going where they could
not come. And look at verse 36, this is John 13, verse 36. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
whither thou goest? Jesus answered him, whither I
go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me
afterwards. Where I'm going, you can't follow
me now. You see, Christ is the one and only Savior. He had to
walk the winepress of God's wrath for his people alone. By one
offering alone. And it said, Peter said unto
him, verse 37, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay
down my life for thy sake. That's what Peter said. And listen
to what Christ told him in verse 38. Jesus answered him, wilt
thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, the cock, the rooster, shall not crow till thou hast
denied me thrice. Three times. Well, Christ predicted
that Peter was gonna deny. He knew Peter was gonna deny
him. It was ordained that Peter do so by God. You say God is
the author of sin? No, he's not the author of sin.
But all of this is well within the planned will of God for the
purpose of bringing Christ to the cross. So look at John chapter
18 and verse 15. We finally got there. It says,
and Simon Peter followed Jesus and so did another disciple.
That disciple was known unto the high priest and went in with
Jesus into the palace of the high priest. Now that's the other
disciples, John. So Peter and John went with Christ
to the high priest, but it says in verse 16, Peter stood at the
door without, he stood outside. And John went in with Christ.
Then went out the other disciple, which was known unto the high
priest, and spoke unto her that kept the door, and brought in
Peter. So John came back out, brought
Peter in, and said, Then said the damsel that kept the door
unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this man's disciples?
How did Peter respond? Aren't you one of Christ, Jesus'
disciples? Peter said, I am not. He denied
him. And the servants, verse 18, an
officer stood there who had made a fire of coal, for it was cold,
and they warmed themselves, and Peter stood with them and warmed
himself. Well now, look at verse 19. Now
we come to where Jesus standing before Caiaphas, the high priest.
The high, and think about this, this is something that's amazing.
The high priestly office was always set up to be a picture
of Christ, the high priest of his people. And that's what the
high priest was to bring the offering the offering of atonement,
the blood of the Lamb from off the brazen altar and into the
holiest of all and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat,
the Ark of the Covenant. And that was a picture of how
God was reconciled to sinners and sinners to God on the basis
of the blood of Christ, on the ground of His righteousness imputed. And how does God bring a sinner
to faith in Christ? By showing that sinner his sinfulness
and deservedness of condemnation. And showing that sinner that
the only way of salvation is to be found in Christ. Having His blood shed for your
sins. Having His righteousness imputed
to you. And so, and from that, that's
where we get life and faith and repentance coming from there. But we're justified, forgiven
of all sins, and declared righteous before God on the basis of the
righteousness of Christ, who is our high priest, who is our
altar, who is our substitute, our sacrificial lamb. And so
here he is standing before the high priest, verse 19, the high
priest then asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine. He asked him about his followers,
about what he taught. In verse 20, Jesus answered him,
he said, I spake openly to the world, I ever taught in the synagogue
and in the temple where the Jews always resort or reside, and
in secret have I said nothing. And so he asked Caiaphas, verse
21, why askest thou me? Ask them which heard me, what
I've said unto them. Behold, they know what I've said.
And he's telling the high priest, I didn't speak in secret. This
is no secret society. We didn't speak in code. You
know, I've seen these books about the Bible code and all. There's
no code here. It's all plain right here. Now,
because of our spiritually dead state, fallen in Adam into sin
and death, we don't have eyes to see it and ears to hear. We
have no desire for the things of the glory of God. It has to
be revealed to us. But it's not because of a secret
code or anything like that. Look at verse 22. He says, and
when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by
struck Jesus with the palm of his hand. Now some translations
say with a stick, a rod. And it says, but he struck him,
and saying, answerest thou the high priest so? And Jesus answered
him, if I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil, but if well,
why smitest thou me? I've not said anything wrong.
He didn't deserve to be hit like that. In verse 24, now Annas
had sent him bound unto Caiaphas, the high priest, and Simon Peter
stood and warmed himself. And they said therefore unto
him, art not thou one of his disciples? And here's the second
time. And Peter denied it and said,
I am not. And then verse 26, one of the
servants of the high priest, being his kinsman, whose ear
Peter cut off, that Malchus, remember Peter cut his ear off,
this is one of his kinsmen, said, did not I see thee in the garden
with him? And Peter then denied again,
and immediately the cock crowed. Just like Christ said, the rooster
crowed three times. Or Peter denied him three times,
then the rooster crowed. Well, why put this in the Bible? To show us that if we are saved,
if we are preserved, kept, if we make it to heaven's glory,
the new heavens and the new earth, it is all of grace. That's who Peter is. That's who
I am. All of those who are saved, that's
who they are. They are sinners saved by grace. And this is the thing, you see,
this is why we make the distinction between the true gospel and false
gospels. A false gospel, now listen to
me, there's two things that you need to look for when you're
listening. There's more than two things,
but let me just simplify it down to this. A false gospel will
always make salvation in some way, at some stage, to some degree,
conditioned on you. But the true gospel will always
make all of salvation conditioned on Christ. And what we do in
responding is the fruit, not the cause. but the result of
the grace, the goodness, and the power of God in Christ. If
I believe the gospel, it wasn't by my goodness or my free will. No, sir. Because by nature, I'm
not willing. As I'm born into this world,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them. He says, no man can come to me
except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I'll raise him
up at the last day. Our wills are in bondage to sin,
and until we're released by the Holy Spirit in giving us a new
heart, spiritual life, a new heart, the new birth, new eyes,
spiritual eyes and ears. We will not believe. Faith is
a gift of God, for by grace are you saved through faith. That
not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any
man should boast. If you're saved, you're not saved
because you were better than other people and you made the
right choice. If you're saved, you did make
the right choice, but it's only because God chose you first.
That's what the Bible teaches. It's all of grace. Thank you,
Lord, for saving my soul, for making me whole. So false gospels
always will make it come down to what the sinner does for God,
not what God does for the sinner. And the second thing is that
false gospels will always cause you to measure holiness and righteousness
on a sliding scale. But the true gospel will force
you to measure righteousness and holiness by Christ. God has appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
and that he's given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead, Acts 17 31. You see, my righteousness
before God is not my works, it's not my choice. In other words,
what I'm saying, I do choose righteousness in Christ. but
my choosing does not make me righteous." That's what I mean
by that. Christ, God makes me righteous as He imputes, charges,
accounts Christ's righteousness to me. And if he's done that,
at some point in time, he's going to send the Spirit of God to
bring me under the Gospel and give me spiritual life and faith
to believe and bring me to repentance. That's what it is. It's all of
grace. And that's what Peter understood.
Don't you know that his heart was broken? Don't you know that
he was ashamed when he denied Christ three times? But later
on, you remember Christ said, he said, you won't follow me
now, but you'll follow me later. You see, God preserved him, Christ
preserved him. One time Christ told Peter, he
said, Satan desires to sift you as wheat. But he said about,
I pray for you. And if he prays for you. You're
good to go. He's the mediator. And you can
read 1 and 2 Peter, for example, and see where Peter came to by
the grace of God. A sinner saved by grace. I hope
you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.