If you turn in your Bibles to
Mark chapter 14, we're back on this night, this
solemn night in Mark 14. The Lord Jesus described it as
a night that is the crisis of this world, the judgment of this
world. And we're looking at the story
of Peter. The story is remarkably familiar to us. Probably in some
sense like David's fall, we can focus much on the falls of our
brothers and sisters. But God has given us Peter's
fall in all four Gospels. And he's done it for a good,
good reason. He wants, of course, to show
us who we are. He wants to show us the greatness
of our Saviour's power to save to the uttermost. He wants us
to see unconditional grace which flows from that fountain opened. And in a world of turmoil and
troubles, there is one whose love and faithfulness does not
change. And there is one whose word is
true. True of the troubles to come
and true of the comforts He brings. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we pray that You would take Your words that You have written for
us for our learning, for our growth, for our humility, and
words which You have designed that would cause us to look to
our Saviour again. We pray that You take them, Heavenly
Father, and apply them to our hearts as we examine the story
of our brother and your dear apostle and your friend Peter. We pray in Jesus' name and for
his glory. Amen. The Lord Jesus suffered
in all points as we have suffered and he's done it in the most
remarkable way in these last hours of his earthly ministry. We have seen something of Jesus'
pain. We have seen something of that
precious blood that fell from His soul's agony in Gethsemane. And we've seen that pain of the
Lord Jesus added to and added to. How many times have you been
in situations where one heavy weight is added to another heavy
weight, is added to another heavy weight, until you wonder how
much you can take of all of this. Just think always in situations
of pain and difficulty. There is nothing that has happened
to you in this world that the Lord Jesus hasn't experienced. He had, in this night as well
as Satan's assaults, the weight and pain of that soul agony. He had those who were his closest
friends, unable to even stay awake and watch with him and
pray. He was betrayed with a kiss by
someone who was a close friend. He was taken as a prisoner and
treated like a common criminal. He was abused and falsely accused
by the self-righteous religious and national leaders of Israel. And now he's denied with curses
by the leader of the apostles, and this done so in His presence,
everything of that evening seemed to just weigh more and more upon
the shoulders of our Saviour. His heart was broken and crushed,
until out of that broken heart poured great drops of blood.
But He turned to His Father and said, Your will be done. We have the greatness of our
Saviour compared in a sense to the fickleness of humanity. Peter, like David, like Moses,
like Isaiah, like all of God's people in the Scriptures, when
their weakness is exposed, God doesn't want for us just to look
at them. We need to look at ourselves. In the same circumstances, you
would not fare as well as Peter, or any differently. Let's read
Mark 14, 66. Now as Peter was below in the
courtyard, and one of the servant girls of the high priest came.
And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and
said, you also were with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied it,
saying, I neither know nor understand what you are saying. And he went
out on the porch, and a rooster crowed. And the servant girl
saw him again and began to say to those who stood by, this is
one of them. But he denied it again. And a
little later, those who stood by said to Peter again, surely
you are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and your speech
shows it. Then he began to curse and swear,
I do not know this man of whom you speak. The second time the
rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the
word that Jesus had said to him. Before the rooster crows twice,
You will deny me three times. And when he thought about it,
he wept. And as the other apostles say,
he wept bitterly. Part of the story of Peter is
that those who have been given special privileges and responsibilities
will become special targets of Satan's darts and arrows. Peter was a man who had great
privileges. He was one of the very first
chosen and the first renamed by our Lord Jesus. He was one
of that inner circle who witnessed the transfiguration, was there
when Jairus's daughter was raised from the dead, was there nearby
the Lord as he prayed in agony in the garden. And he was specially
privileged to be the leader of this church into this gospel
age that we live in. Peter was a man of special privileges. And Peter was a man who was given
special and specific warnings by the Lord Jesus. As the Lord
warned all of the disciples, as promised by Zechariah, the
shepherd would be struck and the sheep will be scattered. And then to Peter specifically,
Luke 22, 31 says, Simon, Simon, this is emphatic, Simon, Simon,
indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. And despite his self-confidence,
he was warned by the Lord again and again. He was told in the
garden to do simple things. Stay awake, watch, and pray,
lest you fall into temptation. St. Peter's fall came through
seemingly insignificant steps. He followed afar off. He sat, as we saw a few weeks
ago, warming himself at the fire of God's enemies. And he denied
Christ, as we look at these verses, he denied Him by degrees, didn't
he? It's interesting, isn't it, that
the Lord promised Peter that Satan will sift him, and yet
we see nothing. from Satan again. How did Satan
sift him? How does Satan sift us? He needs never to do any more
to you than he did to our mother Eve. What was his first words
to Eve? God really say? All Satan needs to do to sift
us is to cause us to enter into the possibility that God's Word,
this precious Word, may not say what it does say very plainly. Peter's words from God were specific they were Old Testament words
and they were the words of the Lord Jesus they are equivalent
aren't they? so in verse 68 of chapter 14 Peter says I neither
know nor understand what you're saying Nothing like pleading
ignorance when you're confronted by something, isn't it? Don't
know. In verse 17, verse 70, he openly
denied that he knew him. He denied it a second time. He's now lying openly. what initially he says he doesn't
understand, now he just flat out lies. Lies to this group
of people who had just a tiny while beforehand been down in
the garden arresting the Lord Jesus and were there a witness
to this trial that was going on within Earshot. What was the
conversation around that fire? The conversation around that
fire was about Jesus. That was the conversation. And
there's Peter saying, I don't understand. I don't understand
what's going on. I don't know Him. And now in
verse 71. as if to prove that he had no
association with one who was being examined for any sin whatsoever,
just a little way away. He begins to curse and to swear. to prove by his horrible words
that he had no association with one who never said anything other
than truth. He showed them that he was a
fisherman and not a follower of the Lord Jesus. You see, it
takes very little It takes very little for a great saint to fall
into great sin if God just allows the circumstances to change just
a little. It takes very little. So why
the fall of Peter? Like all of us, This was God's
good work in Peter's life. This was God being good, being
loving, being gracious. Peter, like all of us, needs
his pride to be dealt with. The discipline of the Lord, according
to Hebrews 12, never seems pleasant to us. but it's the Lord who's
disciplining us with a hand of love and a heart of grace. Also, we must be made to see,
Peter must be made to see the absolute truthfulness of the
Lord Jesus' words. Our faith is based on words given
to us by Peter and the other apostles written down in a book. We must hold as God's children
that this book is true and this book is clear about what it says. This is not a word of confusion
for God's people. It is plain. When the Lord Jesus
says, You will deny me three times before the crop grows twice. He was speaking words equivalent
to Isaiah's words and Moses' words. It is true, it must come
true. And blessedly, as well as the
warnings, the promises of comfort and the promises of the gospel
are given to us in God's word. It is true. We must all, in God's good time,
again and again, have the weakness of our flesh exposed. It was just a servant girl. Just
a servant girl. She might have been 10 or 12
years old. Just a little slip of a thing.
And we must see be brought to see that our bold words of self-confidence
will actually be seen to be what they really are, just the work
of the flesh. If I have to die with you, I
will not deny you, says Peter. And such was the courage of his
words that all of his friends joined in with him. The other
ten all said the same. But even if all the others are
made to stumble, yet I will not be, says Peter. The bold words
of self-confidence are going to be put in their right and
proper place. We, like Paul, are very prone
to ride on our high horse on the road to Damascus. God is
going to put his people in the dust. To be humbled before God,
to be broken-hearted before God is a good place for us to be. And we are reminded by Peter's
activities to be watchful and prayerful of our own hearts. You see, Peter doubted God's
Word. When he doubts God's Word, he
does it because he believes his own self-confidence. See, Satan's
fingerprints are all over this, aren't they? You doubt God's
word, you become proud in your own estimation. I will be like
God. I will be like the Most High,
says Satan. You will be like God. You can
decide these things for yourselves. Thank you very much, says Satan
to Eve in the garden. You will know good and evil.
You can determine good and evil. The thing that's remarkable about
Peter's activities is that they can, from all sorts of points
of view, be seen to be acts of courage to go there in danger,
the act of devotion to the Lord Jesus by being there when others
fell away. All of it can seem to have good
excuses. But if good things are done contrary
to God's word, then they are no longer good for us or for
anyone else. They are harmful and deadly dangerous. And the result, of course, denying
God's word, self-esteem, is that man becomes a coward. Deceit becomes the nature of
men under Satan's sway. And rather than being honest,
they're always trying to find a way to cover up and protect
their own self, their own self-righteousness. If that means lying, they will
do it. It means sitting with God's enemies
for the sake of the comforts of our flesh, then we will do
it. If it means cursing and swearing,
we will do it. Satan's fingerprints are all
over this, even though he is not mentioned at all in the story. But we must, we must look beyond
just Peter's fall. In Luke's Gospel you have remarkable
words in verse 32 of 22. The Lord said, Simon, Simon,
in verse 31, indeed Satan has asked for you. that he may sift
you as wheat. I was horrified to read in a
commentary yesterday that the Lord Jesus didn't have the power
to protect Peter from Satan's sifting. I don't know why they
write those words about he who is God. Peter's fall, just like our humblings,
are purposes that God uses to exalt His grace, to exalt His
providence. to reveal against a dark background
the glory of a God who loves unconditionally, who saves graciously,
who controls things powerfully. Just look at Peter's road to
recovery, remembering that God wounds that He might heal. He weakens the flesh that he
might make the spirit strong. The first thing that happens
to our brother Peter is that a cock crowed. The first crowing of the cock
should have sent a shiver up his spine. Peter had to be spoken
to twice by a chook. But it's God's rooster. and it's God's crowing at God's
time. Proud flesh will be humbled by
extraordinary things of God's circumstances and providence.
He is a God of all providence. And then in Luke 61, Luke 22 61 we have a remarkable
look from our God and the Lord turned and looked at Peter then Peter remembered the word
of the Lord if the Lord looks. He turns to you and looks. His word will become something
more than bits of ink on pieces of paper. It will be a powerful
word. It will be a powerful word that
impacts us. It becomes a powerful truth that
brings repentance. powerful word. But just look at something else
and the circumstances of this should thrill our hearts when
we stumble and fall like our brother Peter. In verse 32 we
have a promise. Satan has asked you, Peter, that
he may sift you as wheat. Then we have one of those remarkable
buts. in Scripture, but I have prayed
for you. Please remember that the praying
of the Saviour goes before the fall of the sinner. He was praying
before Peter fell. When you fall and stumble You
have a Saviour who's prayed for you. When did He begin praying
for you? The knowledge of the Lord is
infinite. When did He pray? He started praying in eternity. And in Romans 8, it says that
He now stands at the right hand of the Father, the right hand
of God, and makes, also makes intercession. Does he stop? Does he change
his intercession for weak, fallen people because of our sin? Does his gospel change because
of our sin? He prayed, and He prays now,
knowing that we are sinners in our flesh, and knowing the sins
that are going to come upon us, knowing the arrows of Satan directed
at our flesh, day in and day out. He is praying. The question might come to mind
that given the Lord's prayer, and given His providence, Did
Peter's faith fail? I have prayed for you that your
faith should not fail. Did his faith fail? God's Word
says that it didn't fail. Did Peter's enjoyment of his
comfort in faith with the Lord change? It did. Peter fell, but he didn't
perish. His faith was weakened and looked
pathetic, but it did not die. The strength of our faith is
in the faithfulness of someone who now resides in heaven in
a body like ours. It's been tempted just like ours. He sinned. And the Holy Spirit
never, in all of the scriptures, wants us to diminish the sinfulness
of the sins of any of God's people. Not one hint. in Scripture allows
sin to be seen as anything other than horrible, wicked unbelief,
and particularly in God's leaders. He sinned, but he wasn't forsaken. His faith was weakened, but it
did not die. His joy of believing was lost
for a time. The comfort that God's children
have in believing had gone for a while. Peter denied the Lord,
but the Lord never denied Peter. Peter belonged to the Lord Jesus
from eternity. and he will never lose one of
his sheep. He is, according to God's word,
a good shepherd. And when the sheep are all in
the sheepfold, every single last wandering, naughty, dirty, sin
laden sheep will be there, absolutely perfect and spotless. See Peter fell like all of us
do and the Lord Jesus raised him up. You see the Lord's prayer
in verse 32 of Luke 22 says, I prayed for you that your faith
should not fail. And when you have returned to
me, strengthen your brethren. Here is weak, failing, frail
Peter given the charge of going back to his brethren and strengthening
his brethren. Isn't it remarkable how God takes
the weak things of this world to shame the wise and the humble. He takes the things that are
not and makes them wonderfully effective and useful in his ministry. What would Peter have gone back
and said to his brothers and sisters? How would he have strengthened
them? He preached those amazing sermons
in Acts chapter 4. The weakness that he displayed
here became the most remarkable strength. But when Peter met
with his brothers and sisters, fickle brothers and sisters who
stumbled and fell, what will Peter say to them about the Lord
Jesus? What will he say about our Saviour. He will use the words of Scripture
properly. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. The humble and the contrite in
heart, He will not cast away. He is the same yesterday, today
and forever. He'll strengthen His brothers
as He strengthens us by saying, it's not about your activities,
brothers and sisters. It's not about how good and how
strong and how courageous and how holy you are. It's about
Him. He would have said, like Paul, as he came through the gospel
to understand what had happened and what was happening as the
Lord Jesus bore that sin of rebellion, that sin of denial, that sin
of unbelief, that sin of cowardice. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live. But
Christ lives in me, the life I now live in the flesh. I live
by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. See, the look the Lord Jesus
gave to Peter was a look of love, a look of compassion, a look
of understanding, a look of grace. a look of a substitute who is
going to bear that sin and the guilt of that sin, call it his
own, suffer the wrath of God for it, and then say, it is finished. Peter, you are holy and spotless
and blameless before God. The flesh is weak. We need to
know ourselves. We need to never presume that
we are stronger than we really are. All flesh is like grass,
says Peter. Peter was a remarkable, courageous,
self-sacrificing, faithful friend. But as the scriptures say, therefore
let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls. Who makes you to differ? Where
does your strength come from? It comes from God, who is a God
of all grace. His grace is unconditional. It
flows to us because of the Lord Jesus and His work. It's free
and it's indestructible and it's unchanging. Our Saviour will
never leave us. Never forsake us. Let's pray.