of every scene is so, so instructive. Let's read verse 58 through 62. And after a little
while, another saw him and said, thou art also of them. Just a
minute, I'm starting in the wrong spot. 54 is where we need to
start Verse 54 of Luke 22 then took
they him that's they took the Lord and Led him and brought
him into the high priest's house and Peter followed afar off and
let's just stop there for a minute it says then then took they and
After he allowed them to get up off the ground, then once
he had declared that the hour was theirs, then took they him. Once he had relinquished himself
to the power of darkness in a sense, that's what he said, this is
your hour, the power of darkness. He was submitting himself to
the will of his father, not to theirs, but to the will of his
father who was pleased to crush him for the sins of those whom
he had loved with an everlasting love. But the means of that involved
a certain power given over to darkness for a time, for an hour
he calls it, not literally 60 minutes, but for a brief time,
that the Lord might be taken and with wicked hands crucified
and slain. And then when he had ordained
it, then when he decided it was time, when he told them now,
this is your hour now, go ahead, this is it, then they took him. when his hand and counsel had
determined before that it should be done, and not a moment sooner
or later, then took they him. When we see that word took, we
have to understand what he said also in John chapter 10. He said, verse 17 of John 10,
therefore doth my father love me because I lay down my life,
that I might take it again, No man taketh. They took him, in
a sense, because he allowed it, because he gave himself over
to their wicked hands, but no man taketh it from me. No man
takes him. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. And this
commandment have I received of my father. And that's what the
father had ordained because he loved his people from eternity
and covenanted with Christ's surety that his precious blood
would be shed for our sins. He also said in that same chapter
in John 10 verse 15, as the father knoweth me, even so I know the
father and I lay down my life. That's what we saw already, but
don't miss this part. For my sheep. They took him because he loved
me and you. We who are his elect. They, then,
took they him is the beginning of that, in a sense. Now, of course, in another sense,
that began before time began. He agreed to be our surety before
there was a world. There is no beginning of that,
really. In another sense, he purposed it in eternity, and
so it began. If anything can begin in eternity. But this is momentous here. When
it says, then they took him, it's a momentous thing. It fulfills
the prophecy in Isaiah 53, seven, where it says he was oppressed
and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter. He was taken and brought as a
lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shears is
done. So he opened not his mouth. He could have opened his mouth.
He had just opened his mouth a minute before and everybody
fell over backwards. but when they took him, he didn't
open his mouth. Having just said I am and rendered
them helpless, what could he have said when they took him
and what would have happened? He told Simon that he could have
prayed to his father and he would have sent more than 12 legions
of angels in Matthew 26, 53, but they took him because his
hour had come. And he didn't say a word. He
didn't open his mouth to put them over backwards. He didn't
open his mouth to destroy them and send them directly to hell
without passing go. He didn't open his mouth to pray
unto the father that he would deliver him from this. And they brought him to the high
priest's house. How ironic. They brought the
high priest. to an imposter's house who called
himself the high priest. Hmm. You have the true and only
high priest of God of his people being judged and accused and
mistreated by an antichrist pretender to the office of high priest. The reason there is such a thing
as a high priest is because God ordained it. and appointed his
son Jesus Christ to be the high priest of his church and this
idiot well look at verse sixty three
in our text and the men that held Jesus mocked
him and smote him and when they had blindfolded him they struck
him on the face and asked him saying prophesy who is it that
smote thee and many other things blasphemously speak against him,
that's what happened at the high priest's house, the high priest
of God. How many places that call themselves
the house of God blaspheme God? If you're gonna despise the God
of this book, then don't pretend. Don't pretend, don't say we love
God and oh how I love Jesus if you can't stand the Christ of
the Bible. Just be honest about it. And when you think of this so-called
high priest though, think of all religion. Religious man gathers
in so-called churches all over this world. Why is there such
a thing as a church? Why was that man called the high
priest? Because God had ordained a high
priest. Nobody would have even known
the words high priest if God hadn't done that. And yet, when God's high priest came where
they were, they ridiculed and mocked him and punched him in
the face and blasphemed him. That's what happens in so-called
churches. Why is there such a thing as a church? Because God told
his people, I don't know, people say 6,000 years, I don't know
how many thousand years ago, God, when he had redeemed his
people from the bondage of Egypt by the blood of the Passover
lamb, he said, you are to observe a holy convocation in Exodus
12, 16, a holy convocation. You know what that means? A calling
together, a gathering, a sacred assembly. You know what the word
church means in the New Testament? Assembly. It's not a building. It's a group of God's people
gathering together to worship him, to hear from God, and to
rejoice in his son, to worship him in the spirit, and to rejoice
in him alone and to have no confidence in their flag. So how ironic that people go
to church, but what do they do there? They deny, they mock,
they blaspheme, they ridicule the Lord Jesus Christ and crucify
the Son of God afresh with their false gospel and their man-centered
freewill religion. That's what they do. And Peter
followed afar off. The first thing I'm gonna say
tonight, and this is a two-part message if there ever was one.
We'll look at the rest of this passage that goes down to verse
62, really verse 63. We'll look at the second part
of it tonight. The first thing I'm gonna say tonight is this.
We see ourselves in each other. Peter followed afar off. That's pretty much what we do. That's what we do. We follow
the Lord. We love him. Think about the
spiritual lesson here. Why did Simon follow the Lord?
Well, he was concerned. He's the one that said, Lord,
be this far from thee. They're not going to take you.
And we love him as Simon did. He cared. He had drawn his sword. He cared about the Lord. He loved
him. He had very adamantly expressed
the fact that he did not want anything bad to happen to his
Lord. But he didn't follow close enough
so that he would be identified with Christ. But think about this with me.
That wasn't really the problem. When Simon is talked about and
the truth is spoken that he denied his Lord, he did, he denied the
Lord. It's never mentioned that he
followed him afar off. That wasn't really the problem. The nature of this evil world
dictates that. They hate the Lord Jesus Christ
and they hate everybody that has anything to do with him. And it's their loss, is it not? We live in this world in such
a way that most people will never know that we're with the Savior.
Isn't that right? How about you? You wanna go down to these idiots
in the streets that are hurting people and tearing up stuff and
start preaching to them? I don't want to. Most people will never know that
I'm a preacher of the gospel, and I'm okay with that. We know already that they don't
want to know him. This world doesn't want to know him. And
nobody has any excuse. They don't have any excuse for
that. And do you really think it all depends on you and me?
We're going to save the world. Those who say that are not interested
in saving the world. They're like Judas saying, oh,
we could have given that to the poor. But the scripture says
he didn't care anything about the poor. They don't care anything
about saving the world. They just want to build an empire
for themselves. We follow Him afar off, and I
believe that's of necessity. I really do. Well, if I don't say something,
though, that person will never know the Lord. They don't want
to know the Lord. They don't want to know Him. And that's not your fault. It's
not my fault either. Don't feel like you need to cast
your pearls before swine. God gives wonderful opportunities
at times to exalt him, to testify of him, and I thank God for that.
But he doesn't always do that. There are exceptions to this,
of course. There are those that we run into in this life that
God brings into our lives that we can't bear to let them go. We just can't bear to let them
go, and that's of the Lord too, isn't it? If there's any way
we can say something or do something. Listen now to Jude, the book
of Jude, verse 21. Keep yourselves in the love of
God. Looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and of some, have compassion. You can't fake that. But isn't that beautiful? There's
gonna be some that you're just not gonna be able to let them
go. Of some have compassion making a difference. Sometimes you're gonna have to
tear the roof up and lower them down, aren't you? You just got
to. Others saved with fear pulling
them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh We know we don't save him It's
not talking about that. Listen to the next words now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling And to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only
wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and ever, amen. It's for his glory, isn't it?
But he does make it so at times where we do anything. We do anything. And listen to me, please. Always
look at every word in scripture, but especially the language here
that surrounds the Lord Jesus Christ bearing our sins in the
garden and on Calvary. Every step, every look, every
word was orchestrated by God Almighty in its deep and beautiful
water. May God give us grace to enter
into every word of this. And if he does, I'll tell you
this, the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in every word of
it. And we'll be blessed in it. We'll
be blessed if he's glorified, I know that. Verse 55, when they
had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall and were sat down
together, Peter sat down among them. We do that too. And there are a couple of ways
to look at this. Many have preached that it's
dangerous to warm yourself by the world's fire. It cannot end
well. There's something to be said
about that. And I actually want to address
that, Lord willing, but think of it this way first. This world
is a cold place. Well, that's the understatement
of the day. This world is a very, very cold
place. The world where the Son of God
is judged worthy of death is a cold place. A world where just
a stone's throw away, they're mocking and ridiculing and blaspheming
and punching God's only begotten well-beloved Son. That's a cold
world right there. And think about this now, this
is where we are. This is where we are. John 19,
six, when the chief priest, therefore, and the officers saw him, they
cried out saying, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto
them, take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.
Then the Jews answered him, we have a law, and by our law he
ought to die. because he made himself the son
of God. A world whose law condemns the
only one that's good. That's a cold, cold place. And
here is one of the Lord's sheep following afar off because the
world hates the master so much that it'll kill him too if it
finds us out. And I say him and us because
it's the same thing. If the world finds out we're
with him, they'll kill us too. In their hearts, if no other
way. And so we follow afar off, and even though Simon is not
having his best hour here, the Lord's teaching Simon some things
that he needed to know, and it's for his good now. It's for his
good, but this is not a good time in another sense. And yet the Lord causes this
world to build a fire. And they didn't build it for
Simon, but the Lord did. You see the picture here? The
Lord warms us and he uses this world to do it. This is a cold
place. Cold, cold, dark, horrible place. that he'll cause this world to
build a fire that we can warm ourselves by because he loves
us. Simon was fallen because he loved
the Lord, but oh, this is love. Not that Simon loved him, but
that he loved Simon. And so Simon has a warm place
to sit because the Lord ordained it. Peter followed him afar off.
Mark's account says this in verse 54 of chapter 14. Peter followed
him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest, and he sat
with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. Our Lord is not gonna let us
get cold, even when we fail. John 18, 18, and the servants
and officers stood there who had made a fire of coals, for
it was cold. That's why they did it. It was cold. And they warmed
themselves, and Peter stood with them and warmed himself. So you could look at it the other
way. You could say, boy, you know, Peter, it's dangerous to
warm yourself by a fire that this world builds. And he did
get in some trouble, didn't he? He sure did. But you could also
look at it this way. Whose fire was that? I don't know if the Lord cared
if anybody else there was warm or not, but he cared about Simon,
I'll tell you that. Now in the next verse, we see
that there is danger in warming by the fire of this world. I
understand Following him afar off and you do too. Let's just
be honest. We follow him afar off in this world. We just do And that wasn't the problem and
I understand Simon coming in and sitting by the fire It's
cold. That's why they built a fire
because it's cold We warm ourselves every day by the fires that this
world has kindled, don't we? But we know also who has provided
the fire for us. It wasn't this world They don't
care whether we freeze to death or not. It's the Lord that cares
for us. He's the one that gives us a
job and a home and everything we have in this world. He uses
the world for his elect's sake. So I understand Simon sitting
down here, but look at the next word too. But a certain maid
beheld him as he sat by the fire. earnestly looked upon him and
said this man was also Key words right here with him The only
reason she said anything at all the only reason it was an issue
Are those two words with him that's the problem and that's
the solution Sooner or later it'll get out
on you you can follow as far off as you want to, it's gonna
get out on you. And that's good too, isn't it?
That's fine too. This is where Simon becomes an
example now of what we don't want to be and do and say. But it's gonna get out on you
and there's no need, as I've said already, there's no need
for you to preach to everybody you see. But just because of who you are,
and more importantly, because of who you're with, they're gonna
find out sooner or later, aren't they? Somebody's going to. Because you're with him. And
that's what this world has a problem with. Before she looked earnestly
at Simon, before she looked close enough, They were just all a bunch of
folks sitting around the fire warming themselves, probably
just, you know, talking about current events or something.
But then it says she looked earnestly at him. The world kind of gets
a better look at us sometimes, don't they? If this world ever
gets a close look at a believer, they're going to see that you're
with him. They better, you reckon? And that's a problem. It's not
a bad thing, but it's a problem. Now here's one thing that will
give you away. This will give you away now,
Matthew 2671, a different account of the same scene. 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 that was the accusation.
You're with him. That's the thing that the world
has. That's the only problem they have with believers. With him, with Jesus, and again,
he denied with an oath. I do not know the man. And after
a while came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter, surely
thou also are one of them for thy speech betrayeth thee. That'll get you. That'll get
you one. They'll know that we're with
him. And that's fine too. It's gonna be a conflict. It's
gonna be a problem. But it's not bad. And that's how, you remember
what he said in the very previous chapter to our text, in Luke
chapter 21, 17. You shall be hated of all men. You remember
the next words? For my name's sake. That's the problem, you were
with him. You're with him. Before they associated Simon
with the Lord, it was come on in, we got a fire going here,
come on in, brother. Then they got to looking at him
a little bit closer And his speech betrayed him But look at verse 57 And he denied him That's tough in it it could have
just said that he said woman I know him not it doesn't just
say that it says he denied him and there's so many so many lessons
here we saw recently where the disciples none of the disciples
could watch with the lord even for an hour in the garden but
the lord said to them sleep on now and take your rest it's enough
they were doing nothing the lord was doing everything and he said
that's enough We understand that, don't we? What Christ was doing for them
was enough. What they were doing was failing.
What they were doing was showing the weakness of their flesh.
But it's enough because of Him and what He did for them. Is
it enough now? When Simon is warming himself
by the fire of this world and denying the very one who is giving
himself for Simon, is it enough? Still enough. It's still enough. It better
be now, because we don't do any better. We see ourselves in each
other, don't we? God forbid that we sin, that
grace may abound, but is it enough or not? It had better be because
the lesson here is not that you'd better not deny the Lord. That's
not the lesson here. That's not what this is teaching.
You better not deny the Lord too late. And please listen to me carefully. I don't want to deny my Lord,
do you? I don't want to do that. Simon didn't either. It was unthinkable
to him. that he would do that. The very
thought of denying him just a little while before he did it was unthinkable
to him. He said, though everybody deny
you, I won't. I'll die with you. And yet he became the very thing
that he hated. He said, there's no way that's
going to happen. It was absolutely unthinkable. And it is to me,
too. I don't even want to think about
that, do you? But the lesson here is not that
you'd better not deny the Lord. The lesson is you need the Lord. The lesson is salvation is not
what you do for Him. It's not you measuring up for
Him and stepping up for Him and doing something for Him. Salvation is who He is and what
He did for me. You are a denier of the Lord. You're a coward. Has the Lord
ever shown you that? You're an absolute blithering
coward. He showed that to Simon. You're a failure. You're absolutely a failure.
Has the Lord shown you that yet? in everything that matters, you
have failed. And me too. Now, I don't wanna commit that
openly. I don't want to prove that by
my actions all the time. And the Lord spares us that, usually. But just as Simon declared that
he was better than his brothers. They may deny you, but I won't.
And the Lord had to show him that he was not better. We need to know that too. He shows us that not just so
that we will do better. I want to do better. I want to
learn from Simon. I don't want to have to go through
that myself, do you? I want to learn it from Simon's
bad example here. I want to do better. I want to
grow in grace, and I want to grow in the knowledge of my Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. But he shows us what we are,
not so that we won't be what we are anymore. Do you really
think the Lord has any illusions about that? That we're going
to become, you know, Something special if we just learn enough
from God. The Lord's not finished with
me yet and all that kind of, he's still working on me. He's either plumb saved you or
you're a goner. He ain't working on you. He's either all or he's not. It's not so that we won't be
what we are anymore, but so that we will find all of our hope,
all of our trust, all of our righteousness, all of our salvation,
and everything we need in Him alone. That's what happens when you
come to the end of yourself and you see what you are. You flee
to the Savior. That's what happens. And that's the lesson of every
trial. Would you say this was a trial that the Lord put Peter
through? Every trial. And it's the message of all of
Scripture. It's the Gospel. Faith looks to Christ alone. Faith has one object. And the
trial of that faith which He has given will result in us looking
to Him even more. And even more so to Him alone. It'll cause us all over again
and even more deeply by his grace to look away from self and find
all of our sufficiency in the Lord Jesus Christ. Simon didn't
even know yet what he had done. He did not even know, he denied
the Lord and didn't even know he had done it. That's worth
thinking about now. That's a warning. He didn't weep
bitterly until later. As soon as these words, I don't
know the man, I don't know him. He didn't start to weep then.
How many times do we dishonor our Lord without even knowing
that we did it? How many times when the Lord
takes very personally how his sheep are treated, how often
Do we give him a glass of water, as he said we do, when we've
done it to the least of one of his brethren? And how often do we slap him
in the face? Like they did at the high priest's
house. And we don't even know that we
did it. It's easy to see in other people. It's easy to see that Simon did
it, but what about you? What about me? I know this and we'll, as I said,
we'll close for now with this. I pray this clear lesson from all
of this. Our only hope is not that we
won't deny him what Simon did. Our only hope is that he's as
gracious to us as he was to Simon. Do we see that? Our hope is not that we won't
deny him. Our hope is that he will never
deny us. John 13, 31 through 14, three. You remember what happened there?
Let's just talk about it and you can read it. Read it later. That's where the Lord told the
disciples that they would all deny that they even knew him
before. This was all over with and Simon said, I will not. I
will not deny you. I will die with you. I will, I will, I will. And then the Lord in effect said,
you will not. You will do the very thing that
you say you won't. But I will. I will go to prepare
a place for you. I will come again. I will receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there you may be also. Simon, you're gonna
fail, but I'm not going to. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. And it's the lesson of every
trial. He is our life, and he is our atonement. He has
to live for us and he's got to die for us if there's to be any
hope for us. Simon's life, you know what that
equals? Hell. Not just this moment. Simon's life equals hell. Me
too. Simon without a sin offering
equals hell. me too simon though was prayed for by
christ you remember what he said satan has desired you i believe
we'll look at that tonight a little closer but i've prayed for you
the only difference is i've prayed for you that your faith fell
not so simon was prayed for by christ he was loved By Christ,
he was converted by Christ. You remember when he said, when
you're converted, strengthen the brethren? Who do you think
did that? He was died for by Christ. And that's enough. That's more
than enough. That equals heaven. The result of who Christ is for
me and what Christ did for me is where he is. There I will
be also. May God teach us that simple
and yet glorious, ever-glorious truth of his gospel. And Lord willing, we'll look
at the rest of that passage tonight. Let's pray.