I hope you saw as Graham read
through Isaiah 50 that we have a remarkably accurate description
of what happened to the Lord Jesus that day, that shocking
day. I gave my back to those who struck
me. my cheeks to those who plucked
out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame
and spitting." For God's children, this momentous
week is the week of the richest blessings possible. but also
in this week, we have man exposed as he really is, and we have
religious people. We've got to keep reminding ourselves
that if we'd seen Caiaphas with his grandchildren and children. If we'd seen these Pharisees
as they left the comfort of Jerusalem and went over land and sea to
win a proselyte, if we'd seen their extraordinary devotion
to the law of Moses, not only tithing their income, but getting
their spices out and tithing them, if we had seen how zealous
they were for the Word of God and if we'd seen how much they
knew it, if we'd been to those great Bible colleges in Jerusalem
and sat under those lecturers, we would have been amazed. If we were transported back there
now we would have been amazed at how serious these people are
for God, how serious they are about personal morality and holiness
and other people joining with them in it. It's a huge mistake
that we make to think that these people who spat in Jesus' face
were always outwardly wicked, immoral people. We need to think again about
these people. Until the Lord Jesus came along,
most everyone thought that this is where true religion is at. We are not involved in the idolatry
of the pagan nations around us. We are zealous for the laws of
Moses. We are zealous for good works. We are zealous for Bible teaching. We so easily think of them as
we do imagine Satan walking around with black capes and trident
pitchforks. but in fact they were incredibly
nice. They ultimately, after the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus, were so incredibly nice and so much like genuine
Christians that they could find themselves in churches that Paul
and John were pastoring and had just left. and be in a place
of prominence in those churches. We need to think again. It is only the Gospel that exposes
these people for what they really are. If you turn in your Bibles
to the last two verses in Isaiah 10, we have two great descriptions
of all of humanity. two particular descriptions which
are obviously incredibly relevant to what is happening in Jerusalem
at this time and what is happening to the Lord Jesus. This is prophetic,
and like all of God's Word, it is true. And think of those apostles
now. Those 11 apostles, St Peter who
we'll be looking at in a little while, the 10 or 9 who fled,
Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha, that little company down in Bethany
just over the hill from these horrible events in Jerusalem. Does verse 10 not describe genuine
Christian experience so very, very clearly? Who among you fears
the Lord, who obeys the voice of his servant? Isaiah 50 verse
10. These were people who did that.
They heard the shepherd's voice. He called with power and they
followed. And yet what is their experience? Who walk in darkness and has no light. See they believed the Lord, they
believed His Gospel, but like many of us here, and God's children
throughout time, they can feel isolated, alone. They can feel as if the light
has gone altogether. They can feel the weight, that
extraordinary weight of darkness and depression feelings of fear
and anxiety, a time when any assurance that they thought they
might have had has been swept away by circumstances. And yet these same people are
called upon by God, let them Trust in the name of the Lord
and rely upon His God. The name of the Lord that the
Lord Jesus uses in Mark 14 is that great name, I AM. And some Hebrew scholars say
that what that means is that I save in the manner which I
save. I reveal myself as a saviour
and in revealing myself as a saviour I reveal myself as someone who
saves sovereignly by my will, by my justice. by My grace, by
My love, and in My way. And let them lean completely
on Him. Let them rely. Let them rest. That's what we come to church
about, don't we? To know and be reminded that
He is our rest. Lisa doesn't like the way I get
into bed in the evenings because I tend to sort of bounce onto
the bed. on a queen-size bed. My bouncing
seems very pleasant and a comfortable way for me to get into bed because
I don't have to bend very many arthritic joints. But of course,
on the other side of the bed, there's a lot of bouncing that's
unnecessary when you're trying to read a book or rest. But it's
a great picture, isn't it, of what we do in resting on our
God, is that we just collapse comfortably into his arms. We lean completely on him. It's an extraordinary description
of God's children in this world. And the other thing that's extraordinary
is the very next verse. And remember, as these earlier
verses in Isaiah 50 are being lived out, there in this courtyard
of these people who are exposed as enemies of God and spitting,
Peter is there warming himself at a fire. He's found to be warming
himself at the fire of God's enemies. None of the words in
this book that we have from our God and none of the pictures
are insignificant and there's much more in it than I can speak
about today. But look what man does. Is this
not a remarkable description of these religious people who
were spitting in the face of the Lord Jesus. Look at all you
who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks. Walk in the light of your fire
and the sparks you have kindled. They have created a religion
that talks a lot about God and does an awful lot. But who kindled the fire? They
kindled the fire themselves. and they encircle themselves
with the sparks, the sparks that seem to send lights up to heaven
itself. They walk in the light of their
fire. They walk in the light of the
religion that they have created by disobeying God's words. by not heeding the words of his
prophet and not heeding the words of the greatest of all of those
prophets. They didn't hear the words of
John the Baptist. They didn't heed Isaiah's words. They ignored Jeremiah's words,
Ezekiel's words, Malachi's words. See, they walked in a light,
a religious light that they have kindled, and sparks that come
from that same kindling. And this you shall have from
my hand. God's children are called upon
and will trust, and they will rely. This you shall have from
my hand. You shall lie down in torment. If the spark of the religion
that people have is a spark that's come from human activity and
is bolstered and supported and encouraged by human activity,
God says that when they come to lie down, are lying down in
torment. Caiaphas and these people have
been lying down in torment for 2000 years and it will never
ever finish. That, in a sense, is the background,
isn't it? You have proud people Proud people,
and no more proud people are on the face of this earth than
proud people who are made proud by their religious activities,
their supposed zeal for the Lord. So let's turn back to Mark Chapter
14, and I'll be spending most of my time in the first two verses. They led Jesus away. As we have seen, the Lord Jesus
reminds His people again and again that He is very big and
very powerful. This whole troop, this multitude
of troops that stood before Him, at a very word, at a word, they
fell back as dead men. So when he is led away, he goes
willingly. He set his face, as Isaiah 50
says, like a flint to go to Calvary. He didn't turn away. He was led by love for his people. He was led by the glory of his father's
holy name. These men thought they were leaving
him. For a little while, the sparks
and the light of their fire seemed very bright indeed. And there they were, assembled all the chief priests and the
elders and the scribes." It is, of course, a description of the
Sanhedrin. This is the ultimate in Israel's
religion, isn't it? religious, moral and social,
and they all assemble together. And they assemble together with
malice and murder and deceit in their hearts. In verse 55, they all sought
testimony against Jesus Not to find out the truth, what does
God say? They sought testimony against
Jesus to put Him to death. But they found none. And they had accusations they
could have brought against Him. In John 8, some people who come
along looking as if they are believers. Jesus said to those
Jews who believed in him. These were apparently believing
Jews. And if you read the rest of the
chapter, you'll find at the end of the chapter these people sought
to kill him. But they raised three accusations
against Jesus. One is, that you have a demon. Aren't we right? You have a demon. Aren't you a Samaritan, and not
even a proper Jew, a half-bred Idumenian, not a real Jew? Aren't you an imposter, a liar,
and a deceitful traitor? And when he talks about his Father,
his God, and the father of the faithful Abraham. Then he says
to them, you do the deeds of your father, i.e. the devil. Then they said to
him, we were not born of fornication. The accusation that they levelled
against him was an accusation levelled against his mother and
Joseph. They were saying, we know the
story of your birth. We've heard those stories from
up there in Bethlehem. We know that 33 years ago a young
girl got pregnant out of wedlock. You weren't even born. You were
not even born in a legitimate way. It's extraordinary, isn't
it? That they brought these testimonies
against him. They didn't bring them here in
this court. and their testimonies didn't
agree. The other thing to remember, there's one remarkably noted
absentee from the court who walked up there, one would presume,
from the garden with all of this truth. Where's Judas? Where is Judas right now? Surely
if someone was going to bring an accusation of sin against
the Lord Jesus, Judas, who had been with him for three years,
preached with him, seen the miracles, watched him in times of difficulty
and frustration and tiredness and all sorts of other things,
surely Judas, when he betrayed him, could have said, there is
some sin. We must be reminded again and
again that the sinless perfection of our Saviour is the basis of
our salvation. He spots the Lamb of God. These men enjoying the sparks of their
own fire at the moment Feeling as if they finally got the best
of this man. Herod got rid of John the Baptist
for them so they no longer had to listen to him. And now they
had the Lord Jesus where they wanted Him. The Lord Jesus had these circumstances
exactly as He wanted them. See their pride. Their religious
pride had driven them to murder and deceit, and standing as a
court, they seek liars to bring a testimony against our Saviour. And none can be brought." But today I wanted to look some
more at verse 54, Mark Chapter 14. But Peter followed him at a distance,
right into the courtyard of the high priest, and he sat with
the servants. He sat there with the enemies
of God, and he warmed himself at their fire. We've got to remember,
you've got to love Peter. He's a remarkable, remarkable
man. To have the courage of Peter
and his boldness is something we ought to envy. And we've got
to remember that our friend and our brother Peter was loved by
God with an everlasting love, an unchanging love. He was personally called by the
Lord Jesus to be an apostle. He was appointed from among the
twelve to be part of that three that witnessed the transfiguration,
was there with Jesus when Jairus' daughter was raised from the
dead, was there with a remarkable exhibition of faith when he had
a word from God. Yes, you can come to me on the
water. And he walked on the water. He walked on the sea of Galilee. And as we saw last week, he was
a witness in the garden to the terrible agonies of the Lord
Jesus. And he was possessed with great
courage and boldness, a boldness which in the garden
was the boldness to use human means to achieve God's purposes,
but a boldness also that stood up before these enemies of the
Lord Jesus on that great day of Pentecost and preached those
powerful sermons, the first sermon of this gospel age. And he was
appointed by God to lead the young church into this glorious
gospel age. And so given all of these things
about Peter, and there's much more, when the Holy Spirit exposes
His life before us, He must have really important lessons for
us to learn, to learn from Peter's falls, lessons which God says
are for our good and lessons for us who wish to bring honour
and glory to our Saviour. In this little short time we're
on this earth. God wants us to learn lessons
from Peter. When we see Peter's fall, as
we'll see later in this chapter, We must firstly acknowledge that
we would do worse if it wasn't for the grace of God. Our hearts
and Peter's hearts are cut from the same bolt of cloth. Do we know our own hearts? Only
God can show us what we really are in ourselves. Only God, by showing us what
we really are, can cause us to be the people of Isaiah 50.10
who feel like they walk in darkness and feel like they have no light. But Peter's boldness was a human
boldness. and it led him to a place where
God's people need to be really careful about being. He went into that court and John
says that on his way in there was a young girl who challenged
him about whether he knew the Lord Jesus and he denied it. There he is found sitting with
the enemies of the Lord, being warmed by that same fire." It's good to chart Peter's fall
in these days, isn't it? The Lord Jesus had told him that
night, wishes to sift you. Simon, Simon, he said. Satan
seeks to, wishes to sift you like wheat. And yet Peter, again
and again, didn't heed the Lord's warnings at all. You see, earlier
on in verse 27, And the Lord said to them at the last supper,
He said, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this
night. And for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and
the sheep will be scattered. He had a promise from God about
that. And what was their response?
All of them said, including Peter, Lord, is it I? Is it I? who will betray you tonight. This night began with Peter being
humbled. It mercifully finishes with Peter
being humbled. And then verse 29 of Mark 14,
Peter is gone from saying, is it I? Is it possible that I might
be a betrayer? It's gone from that to him saying,
even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be. I know what
that Thomas is like, a pretty doubtful character. I've been
with that John for a fair while and that Andrew. I know that
when I'm around, they're pretty strong. But when they're left
on their own, they're as weak as water. They might stumble,
Lord Jesus, but I won't. I promise them from God, you
will deny me three times. Peter, kindling his own fire,
says, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. Peter's heart grew more and more
confident. See, pride, pride opens the door
to every other sin. Pride that looks into ourselves
and says, I am strong. Pride that looks to others and
says, I'm not like them, I'm not like that other person over
there, I'm strong. Pride goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit before the fall. And then they are asked in the
garden to do a simple, simple thing by the Lord Jesus. Pride
is followed by laziness, sloth. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. In his hour of greatest need,
they are just nearby Jesus. and they couldn't even stay awake,
in his agony with blood falling to the ground. And then pride leads to people
wanting to achieve God's purposes by fleshly means. He drew his
sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off
his ear. There he was, incredibly bold, but incredibly wrong. He was
trying to achieve by human means what God said only can be done by Him. In Matthew's Gospel he
reminds Peter and the others there, that at Jesus' disposal
at that moment was 72,000. Twelve legions, 72,000 angels. Do you think they could have
come and sorted the problem? Do we need a little fisherman's
knife that you have, Peter, to get God's work done? And here
we have Peter following afar off. Again, the commentators rebuke
him for this and say it's cowardice. I think in the circumstances
it's a sign of, again, remarkable human courage. What was going
on there? There was this group of soldiers,
a great multitude of soldiers. Peter followed. He followed right in. to the
very place where Jesus was held bound. See, even extraordinary
courage, extraordinary fleshly courage, is not necessarily godly
obedience, even if the motives seem right. I'm sure Peter's
motives were excellent. It was out of concern and care
for the Lord Jesus that he went there. But here we have this
brave Peter being reduced. And Peter is being exposed to see what his flesh really
is. Afraid of a young girl as he
walked in. And there he is, sitting down
with these enemies, warming himself. What do you think they were talking
about? What would have been the topic of conversation around
that fire? There could only be one topic
of conversation for a band of soldiers on that night with all
of the religious leaders of the Jews gathered just upstairs and
so close by you could hear them and so close by that Jesus could
see Peter. There was one topic of conversation.
The Lord Jesus was the topic of conversation. He had to be. And yet Peter is able to sit
there warming himself around their fire and being silent. So his denials were preceded
by fleshly pride, fleshly activities, and now just silence. So what was going on in Peter's
mind at this time. He was, as Isaiah 50 verse 10
says, a man who at this time was walking in darkness, confused,
guilty, afraid. And all of this in the presence
of the Lord Jesus. All it would have taken is one
word from Jesus, and he would have been exposed as one of his
disciples, and he would have been in the same place as his
Lord. But the Lord had preached the
Gospel to them in the garden. You can take me, but you must
let these ones go free. So we have our brother Peter
humbled yet again. No wonder the Lord encourages
us to pray, Lord lead us not into temptations. Lord protect
me from myself. protect me from the things that
I want to do in my flesh, protect me from the things that seem
good and seem right and seem moral, but are things that cause
me to sit around someone else's fire and keep silent about the
Lord Jesus. There's a remarkable promise
in Luke 22. The Lord says to Peter, after the
request of Satan to sift him like wheat, but I have prayed
for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned
to me, strengthen your brethren." Did Peter's faith fail? God says
it didn't. Peter's assurance of faith had
left him for a while. His comfort of relying and resting
and trusting in his Lord had gone from him. But his faith
did not fail, because faith is God's gift. Faith is God's gracious
gift. And Peter, like us, need again
and again to be put into places where we are made in our flesh,
when our designs are designs where we are kindling a fire,
we are lighting a fire and enjoying the sparks of a
fire of our own activities. We need to fall and be humbled
like Peter. It was a blessing of grace, just
like when Peter stumbled again in Antioch. The Pauls refers
to in Galatians 2, what a gift of God's grace that Paul was
there and he stood to him face to face so that Peter would go
as far as God would allow him to go and absolutely no further. Isn't it wonderful to know that
we are hedged in by the love and the grace of God. See, the Lord didn't pray that
Peter wouldn't stumble and fall. He prayed that his faith wouldn't
fall. And this was Passover season
in Jerusalem. The lambs were being slaughtered,
and they were remembering that great night 1,500 years beforehand
in Egypt. Imagine yourself in Egypt on
that night. What would you have felt like
if you were inside that house? Fearful? Uncertain of what was going to
happen? Possibly feeling guilty? Concerned about your children
and your friends? Concerned about whether God can
really do it? And what does God look for? What
did God look for on that Passover night? What was God looking for
on this Passover night that we've been looking for? Is God looking
for the sparks and the light of your faith? Your obedience? Your good works? Your great public
deeds? Does He look for us looking at
the blood? God says, when I see the blood,
when I see the blood, I will pass over. That night of darkness will pass
for God's children. Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and rely on his God alone. And we will see the light
of God's faithfulness to his name. I am. I am. I say in the manner which I say. We don't have to go. and sit
at a fire kindled by ourselves or by others. We can trust if
God gives us the grace to, and we can rely, and we can lie down
on that bed of comfort, on that pillow of grace in the Lord Jesus. Let's pray.