Well, turn with me, if you will,
in your scriptures to John chapter 13. This is such a glorious passage
of scripture and these next several chapters up to the end of chapter
17 are just remarkable and a remarkable encouragement. If you want to
know what the common faith is, you'll read about it in these
chapters. And if you want to know the work of God the Son,
and the promises of the things that he and he alone must do,
you read his prayer in John chapter 17. And if you have the courage
to mark your Bibles, you mark the petitions that the Lord Jesus
Christ made on this night. Within an hour or so of this,
he will be sweating great drops of blood in Gethsemane's garden. Within a few hours, he will be
arrested. He'll have his beard plucked
out. He'll have his back lacerated. The scriptures describe it as
ploughed as with a furrow, with a plough. They ploughed his back
until the bones were exposed. They plucked out his beard. They
beat him about his face to the point where, according to the
scriptures, he was unrecognizable as a human being. And this is the Lord Jesus Christ. With all of that before him,
knowing exactly what was going to happen, exactly what was going
to happen, these are his words of comfort. These are his words
to his disciples. And in John chapter 13, We come
to the beginning of this Upper Room Discourse and I want us
to read through the chapter division, because the chapter divisions
are put there in the 13th and 14th century. I'm really thankful
for them. It helps to find things. It helps
to be precise about where things are. But you want to just read
through them because this one is especially significant to
read through. He says, little children, verse
33, little children, a little while I'm with you, you shall
seek me. And as I said unto the Jews,
whither I go, you cannot come. So now I say to you, a new commandment
I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that
you are my disciples. if you have love one for another. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
whither goest thou? Where are you going? Jesus answered
him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt
follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. Jesus answered him, Will thou
lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, truly, truly,
amen, amen. I say unto thee, the cock shall
not crow till thou hast denied me three times. The cock crowed
at about three o'clock in the morning. You, verily, verily, I say unto
you, the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me three
times. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there you may be also. What's the destination
of faith? Unto myself. unto myself. I just wanted to briefly look
at some of the other accounts of this. This Peter's fall that
we're looking at here and the Lord Jesus proclaiming the Gospel
to him and telling him not to be heart troubled is in all of
the Gospel accounts. In Matthew 26, and I can just
read these out and you can listen to me, He said thus in chapter
26 verse 31, Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended
because of me this night. Why? For it is written, Because
it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the
flock shall be scattered abroad. That's a quotation from Zechariah,
the second last of the Old Testament books, and it's the most remarkable
passage of scripture. Zechariah promised what was going
to happen on the cross the next day. This is the passage, this
is the verse he is quoting. God says, God the Father says,
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd. against the man that is my fellow,
that is my equal, that is my companion, saith the Lord of
hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered,
and I will turn my hand, my hand of grace and love and mercy,
I'll turn my hand upon the little ones. That was written. What was written
must be fulfilled and we'll see that a little bit later on. But
in verse 35 of Matthew, Peter said unto him, Though I should
die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. In Luke chapter 22 the Lord said
in verse 31, Simon, Simon. Behold, Satan hath desired to
have you, that he may sift you as wheat. What an extraordinary request
from Satan. What an extraordinary request
granted. But listen to what the Lord says,
but I, that's the gospel. But I, this is what you'll do,
this is what Satan does, but I have prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not, and when thou art converted, when thou art
turned back, strengthen thy brethren. Isn't it remarkable that the
making of this apostle to be a preacher and to be an encourager
is the fall of Peter? Listen to Matthew's description
of his fall. You know the story, a little
maid came and said, He was with the disciples and then one of
the acquaintances of the brother of the relation of the man who
had his ear cut off in the garden came and said, I saw you in the
garden with him. And Peter began in verse 74 of Matthew 26, he
began to curse and swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crowed
and Simon Peter went out. He remembered the words of the
Lord Jesus and he went out and he wept bitterly. He wept bitterly. Mark has a similar account. And
so I want us to look today at the Lord Jesus Christ comforting
his disciples, telling them not to be troubled because all of
them are in the same boat. And if you know yourself, If you are caused of God to know
yourself, you will acknowledge before God that if you'd been
there, you would have done exactly what they all did. And if you don't acknowledge
that, I pray the Lord will be merciful to you to reveal what
you are, because that's what happened to Peter, isn't it?
How did Peter come to strengthen his brethren? He was revealed
to be what he was. in reality and also the Lord
revealed what he is in grace and mercy to him and that's exactly
what sinners need. Sinners need a saviour. So we're
going to look at a word of promise and a word of pride and a word
of humbling and the word of comfort at the end. So we're going to
sing again, thank you. We're singing number 20 in your
hymn books. A sweet assurance, blessed rest. Oh say does that star spangled
banner yet wave O sweet Joshua, first blessed
rest, Christ peace, holy night, must be blest. Soon shall my soul his glory
see, bring God's peace, and peace of mind. I want to begin by quoting my
favorite hymn writer, Mr. Hart, from a long time ago,
but I just love his poetry, and he says, And why, dear Saviour,
tell me why Thou thus wouldst suffer, bleed, and die? What mighty motive could Thee
move The motive's plain to us all for love? For love of whom,
for sinner's base, A hardened herd, a rebel race, That mocked
and trampled on thy blood, And wantoned with the wounds of God. When rocks and mountains rent
with dread, And gaping graves gave up their dead, When the
fair sun withdrew his light, And hid his head to shun the
sight. Then stood the wretch of human
race and raised his head and showed his face, gazed unconcerned
when nature failed, and scoffed and sneered and cursed and railed. Harder than rocks and mountains
are, more dull than dirt and earth by far, man viewed unmoved
by thy blood's rich stream, nor ever dreamed it flowed for him. Such was that race of sinful
men that gained that great salvation then. Such and such only still
we see. Such they were all, and such
are we. The Jews with thorns his temples
crowned, And lashed him when his hands were bound. But thorns
and knotted whips and bands By us were furnished to their hands. They nailed him to the accursed
tree, They did, my brethren, so did we. The soldier pierced
his side, tis true, but we have pierced him through and through. O love of unexampled kind, that
leaves all thought so far behind, where length and breadth and
depth and height are lost to my astonished sight. The love of me, the son, for
love of me, the son of God, drained every drop of vital blood. Long time I after idols ran,
but now my gods are martyred men. I can give you a copy of
that if you like. I just do love the poetry of
Joseph Hart. When we come to the cross and
the events around the cross, we are at a loss for words. We are at a place where human
wisdom and human understanding fall very, very far short of
the reality of what happened. And we're so thankful that God
has written in his word these events for us to ponder afresh
today. I do pray that the Lord is merciful
to us and causes us to be able to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the author, the origin, the first cause of faith,
and the finisher of faith. He's the accomplisher of it all.
We have one simple message, again and again and again. Jesus Christ
did it all, long, long ago. And he saved sinners like Peter,
who's presented here before us. There's a new commandment the
Lord gave them to love one another as I have loved you. If you read
the other Gospel accounts you'll see that they were having a debate
amongst themselves at the very time the Lord Jesus Christ was
talking about the cross and imagining in his mind no doubt with extraordinary
clarity what lay before him. They were having a debate in
the upper room about which of them is the greatest. What an extraordinary exhibition
of the sinful pride of men. Love one another. Peter's response,
the Lord says, by this shall all men know that you are my
disciples if you have love one for another. And then to our
text, Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
where are you going? He's told them for three years
where He's going. The Scriptures told them where
He's going. The Scriptures told them why
He came. It just shows us again and again, isn't it, that without
the Spirit of God, we are as dumb as a box of rocks when it
comes to the things of God. We are utterly dependent upon
God Almighty to reveal the truth to us. Simon Peter said, where
are you going? Jesus answered him, whether I
go, thou canst not follow me now. The work of salvation is
a work that the Lord Jesus Christ does alone, all by himself. When he had, Hebrews 1 through
8, when he had by himself purged our sins. Don't you love the
by himself? That means that he wasn't looking
for my contribution one little tiny bit. My contribution was
equivalent to Peter's contribution, and so was yours. But I love
the word of promise, isn't it? You cannot follow me now, but
thou shalt follow me afterwards. And Peter said unto him, Lord, why can't I follow you
now? Well, the answer's really simple. The Lord just told him he couldn't.
You start arguing with God and God wins every single time. God
says you can't. God says no man can come to me
unless the Father which has sent me draw him to me. You can't. There are things that are impossible
with man. Thankfully, those things are
not impossible with God. You can't follow me now, but
afterwards you say, why can't I follow you now? Listen to Peter's
pride. I will. I will lay down my life for thy
sake. Jesus answered him, will you
lay down your life for my sake? Truly, truly, I say unto you,
the cock shall not crow until you has denied me thrice. What
are the great words that echo from the hearts of fallen man
all the time? I will. I will. I want us to, as we look at Peter's
fall, I want us to be reminded that this man showed the most
remarkable devotion at the end of his life. He did lay down
his life for the Lord Jesus Christ. He was crucified. He did follow
the Lord Jesus Christ all the way to the end because the Lord
kept him that way, and he was used mightily of God to write
those two books in the New Testament, and he was used mightily of God
on that great day of Pentecost and beyond to preach the Gospel. He was the first Gospel preacher
to the Gentiles. You can read about that in Acts
10. So Peter was a remarkable man and his devotion was more
than just lip service devotion. Down in the garden he actually
cut off a fellow's ear. He had a sword and it was only
a little sword. He cut off a fellow's ear and I'm absolutely certain
he wasn't aiming at his ear. And the Lord said, you put that
away and he healed the man. Our fight is not against and
not with the flesh and blood that surround us. Our fight is
a spiritual fight. But Peter had a courage which
was remarkable, didn't he? Peter had a remarkable, he's
a remarkable man. So let's look at this fall in
light of what I read in Luke chapter 22, where he says when
you are turned you'll be converted, but you have to be turned from
something to be converted, to be turned back to the Lord, and
he has to be turned from his pride. Every time you hear someone
say, I will, you can write it down. They won't. And we should be people of integrity
and we should be people of our word and we should live that
way in this world. We should be people whose word
of promise is kept. But when we say to God, I will. You know the verses in Proverbs,
don't you? Pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before the fall. Everyone that is proud
in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Quite simply, Proverbs
21, four sisters. Pride, a proud heart is sin. A proud heart is sin. So Peter's fall according to
the Lord Jesus Christ in our verses when he says don't let
your heart be troubled, Peter's heart was troubled. The Peter's
fall according to... The word of God, the promise
of God, it was a necessary fall. It was a fall that was promised.
God's word will be fulfilled. Every last jot and tittle must
be fulfilled. If he says something about what
is happening to people, it will happen for sure, always. Don't
you love the authority with which he speaks, isn't he? He says, I say unto thee. Don't you love that? When the
Lord Jesus Christ speaks, He's speaking as God Almighty. He
always speaks as God Almighty. I just love all through the scriptures,
you've heard what other people say, but I say, I say. It's according to Peter's falls,
according to the word of God. Peter's fall is for the glory
of God. Peter's fall is for Peter's good.
And as we read in Luke chapter 22, Peter's fall is for the strengthening
of the brethren. How can someone that fell as
far as publicly in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the enemies of God, how can someone strengthen their brethren with
a fall like this? The simple answer is that Peter
will be able to declare for the rest of his days that salvation
is all of grace and that all of the sins of all of God's people
were in the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father punished them
and they're gone. And he can declare in a way that
he could have never declared beforehand. that salvation's
all of the Lord, it's all of grace, and we are safe and secure. And Peter can say, don't look
to yourself, and don't look to your will, and don't look to
what you can do, you look to the Lord Jesus Christ. His will
and His doing is all of our salvation, isn't it? We hear so many people
in religion, we used to sing a song in the 80s, I don't know
if any of you remember it, but I have decided I have decided
to live like a believer. Do you remember? It was such
a catchy tune, wasn't it? And she was such a sweet lady, Amy
Grant. I have decided to live like a believer, to turn my back
on the deceiver. And it goes, and you probably
know the rest of it, some of you, but anyway, rubbish. Yes, I will,
isn't it? And you hear people say, I will
be strong in faith, and I will be obedient, and I will stay
the course to the end, and I'll stand when others fall. That's
exactly what Peter was saying. He looked around that room to
those other ten apostles there and he said, I know what they're
like. I know how weak that John is. I know how doubting that
Thomas is, but I'm going to stay the course. I will, he says. Everything that has its origin in the will of man fails. Everything that has its origin
in man must by God be destroyed. Peter must have the pride of
his life and the pride of his will crushed under the weight
of what he really is and by God Almighty. People are going to
fall in two places before the Lord Jesus Christ, aren't they?
And be revealed as what they really are. They will be made
by God to fall here in grace and restored gloriously here. Well, they will fall at the end. Every knee, every single knee
will bow before the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you want to read
about it in Matthew chapter 25, please, I beg of you to go and
read that chapter. What is the one distinguishing
mark between the sheep and the goats when the Lord Jesus Christ
gathers all humanity together in one place at one time and
separates the sheep from the goats? The goats have got things that
they have done. and the sheep haven't got a single
thing that they can commend themselves to God with. Not one single thing. I have zero percent confidence. I have none in me and in my abilities,
in my prayers, in my preaching, in my witnessing, in my life.
Zero. All, all of my confidence is
in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. There will be a
fall. And God's children will be the
trophies of grace, not the reward of their works. They'll be the
reward of the work of God Almighty. They must be. Great grace and
great faith come when you have absolutely nothing. Nothing in
yourself that you have done, nothing in yourself that you
can do, nothing in yourself that you will do. You're utterly dependent
upon God Almighty. Nothing in my hand I bring simply
to the Where does Peter's I will come
from? We need to know the origins of
things if we're going to know the foundation of the monthly. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
14 and I'll just read the verses out. But Isaiah 14 is the beginning
of the will, the I will in the scriptures. It's not in the beginning
of the scriptures, but it's the beginning. It's the declaration
of what Satan was. He says in verse 12 of Isaiah
14, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer? Lucifer means
a light one, an enlightening one. Son of the morning, how
art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations?
For thou hast said in thine heart. So don't forget we're the cause
of the problem. The seat of the problem is not
in the actions. The seat of the problem is in
your heart, isn't it? God sees the hearts of people. He says, you have said in your
heart, I will ascend into heaven. That's free will works religion,
isn't it? The very first words we hear recorded of Satan is
I will ascend into heaven. I will by my activities and by
my decisions and my doing, I will be welcomed into heaven. I will
ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. He's going to sit
on Mount Zion. I will ascend above the heights
of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. I will be like God. So when Satan
came to our parents in the garden, and we were there, Romans 5.12
says that when this happened, you were there. I don't have
to explain that. But you're in Adam, and I was
in Adam, and God says you were there. This is what happened
to you in the garden. Satan says to the woman, you
shall not surely die. The serpent said to the woman,
did God really say? Has God really spoken? Has God
given a true word? She says, he says to her, you
shall not surely die for God knows it in the day you eat thereof. Your eyes shall be open and you
shall be as God's knowing good and evil. You will be as God. So Satan's poison infects all
humanity. So Satan asked permission of
the Lord Jesus Christ to sift Peter as wheat. And what happens when Peter is
sifted as wheat? Out comes these words of religion,
isn't it? I will. I will. I will die with you. I will. I will lie down my life for thy
sake. Look what I am going to do for
God. When Satan sits, people, that's
what comes out. When Satan sits, Earlier in Matthew's
account in Matthew 16, you remember the great proclamation that Matthew
made of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Christ, the Son of
God. And the Lord commends him and says, this wasn't revealed
to you. Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, Peter, but
my Father in Heaven revealed it to you. And immediately the
Lord Jesus Christ says, I'm going to the cross. And Peter says,
no you're not. No you're not. What are the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ to Peter? Get behind me, Satan. Where is
Satan active in telling men what they can do for God? I will lay
down my life for you. I'll do this to put you in debt
to me." They're the words of Satan, and you hear them a million
times over if you have opportunity. You hear them in church after
church after church, isn't it? You come and do. You come and
pray the sinner's prayer. You come and do these things.
Look at the things that I've done every single time that I
can recall in these recent years. When I've met someone in religion,
they have wanted to tell me what they have done for God. That
God now owes them something because of what they've done by their
free will. God is not our debtor, brothers
and sisters. The gospel is about not what
we do for God, God has done for us. Our sufficiency is of God. If you're going to pray, God
must give you that. If we're going to worship God
today, where does that come from? God must grant us the permission. He must grant us the grace to
worship Him. If we're going to hear from God
today and hear from His Word, God has to grant that to us.
If we're going to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, He's
going to have to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. If
he's going to have our feet washed again because our walk is so
dirty, he's going to have to wash our feet. That's exactly
what we see in the Upper Room and that's exactly what Peter
is told here. All of God's children declare what Paul declared in
Romans 7. He says, To will is present with
me, I desire to love God. I desire to live in such a way
that he's honoured. That was Paul's desire. The will
is present with me. Listen to what he then says.
But how to perform that which is good, I find not. Peter had to be, to be used of
God, reduced from being the great I am, the great I will, down
to a little pebble, Peter. Saul of Tarsus, that word means
desire, his name means desired. He had to be reduced down to
Paul. What does Paul mean? Little. God will use those that he has
humbled. And no one welcomes the humbling. No one welcomes the humbling. Peter did betray the Lord Jesus
Christ that night. And the gospel account said that
he went out weeping bitterly over what you
are before God, is the beginning of the path to strengthening
disciples. How great the depths of sin revealed,
how great the mercy and the grace How could Peter be saved? When
he walked out of that courtyard and the Lord Jesus Christ looked
at him, and Peter walked away and he wept bitterly, and he thought, what did he think
at that moment? He probably heard the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ who said in Matthew chapter 10, whosoever
shall deny me before men, Him will I also deny before my Father
which is in heaven. He thought he was a lost man.
He thought he was a lost man. And it's in that state where
Peter's man-made religion has been brought down to nothing.
The religion of men is a religion of, I will. I will lay down my
life. I will do this for God. Look
at all the things that I am doing for God. Peter says to the Lord,
you don't need to die for me. I'll do my dying and I'm going
to go and do my dying with you. You take the first step and I'll
take the second. Peter says, I'll accomplish the
work for you. I'll help you by my devotion
to you in my salvation. Have you heard that before? Anything
like it? I'll help you out. I'll help
you out. I'll lay down my life for thy
sake. Peter had to be brought to that
place. Religion tells men what they
have to do for God. The gospel declares what God
has done for men. That's what the gospel is, isn't
it? That all of Peter's doing, all
of his I will, just landed him in deeper strife. People are
saying it again and again throughout this world, aren't they? You
pray the sinner's prayer and now you're declared to be saved.
You open, give your heart to the Lord, invite Jesus into your
heart, accept Jesus into your heart, respond to the music and
respond to the pleas. And the Lord Jesus, when you
do those things, He'll be just so pleased that you've been nice
to Him, when everyone else is being mean and horrible to Him.
Poor little Jesus. This Jesus, this Jesus of this
Gospel, this Jesus of this account here is the sovereign God who
humbles his people to the point where they have nothing in themselves
that they can look to at all. What could Peter look to? He could have, before this fall,
looked upon his preaching and his miracles. They really cast
out demons and they really fed thousands of people. They really
did wonderful things, didn't they? And now Peter is left with
absolutely nothing. Nothing in my hand I bring. I want us to have a break. We've
looked at the fall. I want us to remember that it's
necessary that it's promised of God, that it will be the journey
of all of God's children in this world. You will have, as a child
of God, yourself exposed to you, and you will sin in such a way,
like Peter did, that you will feel that all is lost. That's how David felt when Nathan
came along to him and said, you are the man. That's how Nebuchadnezzar
felt when he had those seven years of crawling around in the
grass outside his palace. That's what God does to everyone
he saves. And it's an ongoing process.
It's called In Acts chapter 2, when Peter preached that great
message, the people who heard, who had the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ on their hands, and had about as many good works
as Peter did, they were cut to the heart. They were cut to the
heart, and they cried out, what must we do to be saved? I want us to spend the second
half of our message, our time after we've had a break, looking
at the glory of what God says. But God, he says in Luke chapter
22, but I have prayed for thee. And the Lord Jesus Christ comforts
this fallen, falling apostle by preaching the gospel to him.
And that following day, he's going to live out the gospel
And Peter, whose heart had every reason to be troubled, will hear
those words from God Almighty, don't let your heart be troubled.
Believe, believe in God, believe also in me. I'm going, but I'm
coming back, and I'm taking you to myself, you wounded, fallen,
fickle man. I'm taking you to myself. All
of your salvation is all of me, 100%. What a saviour of sinners. Amen. Let's pray the Lord blesses
those words and let's have a break. Thank you.