Go ahead and turn in your Bibles
to the 22nd chapter of Luke. Luke chapter 22. Right after our Lord's last supper
with His disciples, He told them that they would all be offended
because of Him that very night. This had been foretold by Zechariah
in the Old Testament that God would smite the shepherd and
the sheep of the flock would be scattered abroad. But Peter
proudly boasted and said, though all men be offended, and I don't
know, I can just kind of picture him looking around to the other
disciples, as though he was saying, if all these be offended, and
that word offended means fall into apostasy or enticed to sin
or be shaken and fell and fall. If all these, do all these things
because of thee, he said, yet will I never be so. And the Lord told Peter, verily
I say unto you, that this day, even in this night, before the
cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice." Three times you're
going to say that you don't know me. Mark tells us in his account
that when Christ told him of his denial that Peter became
agitated. The word used in Mark's gospel
is vehemently, that Peter spake more vehemently. He spoke louder. He spoke more passionately with
force and intensity. And he said, if they threaten
to kill me, I still will not deny you, Lord. Peter spoke with
pride and arrogance. And we know through the scriptures,
by the words of Solomon, that pride goeth before destruction. and a haughty spirit before a
fall, those who walk in pride will surely fall. Now, here in Luke's account in
chapter 22, verse 31, the Lord says to Peter, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat. But I prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I'm
ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. And the
Lord said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this
day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. Recently,
I had a discussion with someone that I love dearly. One who has
found religion. And since they found religion,
they seem to be, as the scripture says, ever learning and never
coming to the knowledge of the truth. Do you know folks like
that? They're always learning, always studying, but they're
so far from the truth, never seem to come to the knowledge
of it. And in the religion of this person, it's their opinion
that Satan is the cause of everything bad, evil, and wicked in this
world, even though you and I know that many times our problems
with sin and evil and wickedness come from within. We give the
devil way too much credit. And that's exactly what our Lord
said. He said, for from within. Out of the heart of men proceed
evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness.
I'm reading out of Mark chapter 7. Wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride. He said all these evil things
come from within. And they defile the man. But we live in a day of religion,
friends, where men and women give too much credence, too much
credit to Satan. No doubt he's a mighty being,
but he's not almighty. He's subject to God, who is almighty. And these folks who refer to
themselves as charismatic seem to always be fighting the devil.
Every time you talk to one of them, they're fighting the devil,
they're rebuking him, they're taking authority over him, all
the while battling one that's already been defeated. I've had
some experience with this religion. And I've come to know that Satan,
yes, he is the devil, but he's God's devil. And all a child
of God has to do to overcome this great adversary is to submit
to God and resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Now I won't
be presumptuous. I know that we ourselves personally
are no match for the devil. But I also know that the devil
is no match for God. People today in certain denominations
put Satan on a level playing field with God, but there's a
problem with that. It's just not so. Yes, Satan
is the father of lies. He's the prince of the power
of the air. He's the little g God of this
world. He's the accuser of the brethren,
but he's God's devil and God has him on a chain. And there's
no doubt in my mind that Satan is the great tempter. He tempted
Eve in the garden. He brought into question God's
Word. That's what he does. He brought
into question God's commandment. He was more subtle and more cunning
than any beast of the field. And he brought God's Word into
question, and he still does, questioning, yea, hath God said? Is that really what God said?
Is that really what God meant? And those of you that have had
discussions with those in religion, you know for a fact that often
times they'll say, is that really what you think that means? Same
thing. Same thing. Yea, ye shall not
surely die, he said. God doesn't want you to eat of
the tree that's in the midst of the garden because He knows
your eyes will be opened. He knows that you'll become as
gods and that you'll be like Him. And He doesn't want that.
You'll be like Him, knowing good and evil. Oh, He's a tempter. Satan tempted our Lord Jesus
in the wilderness. Do you remember that? Immediately
upon being baptized, we're told in Matthew chapter four, verse
one, that our Lord Jesus was led up of the spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And our first clue there
of who's in control should be that it was the spirit of God
that led Christ into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. God was behind this. And when
the tempter came to our Lord, he said, if thou be the Son of
God, command that these stones be made bread. This was after
the Lord had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. And he was hungry.
He was a man, and he was hungry. Satan said, if you be God, the
Son, command these stones to be made bread. And the Lord Jesus
said, it's written, man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then
we're told that the devil took him up into the holy city and
set him high up on a pinnacle of the temple. And there's no
question now in reading these verses that Satan has power.
He had to in order to set Christ high up on that pinnacle in a
moment's time. And Satan tempted the Lord and
said, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. For it's written,
he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their
hands shall they bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy
foot against a stone. And the Lord Jesus again quoted
the word of God and said unto him, it's written, it's written
again, thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God. And again, the
devil took him up into an exceeding high mountain, it says, and he
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. And he said unto him, these things
will I give unto you if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Now listen, the devil has some power and authority. He had the
authority to give these kingdoms of the world and the glory of
them. or they would not have been a
real temptation unto the Lord. But he has no authority and no
power at all over God, either God in heaven or God in the flesh. And the Lord Jesus said, get
thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and only him shalt thou serve. And we're told that
the devil left him, How do we resist the devil? Christ, as
our great example shows us, is by the word of God. Be certain
of this. You and I, as believers, will
be tempted by Satan. Let no man say when he's tempted,
I'm tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither
tempteth he any man. That means that God doesn't tempt
men to sin. He tempted Abraham to try his
faith. He tempted Israel in the wilderness
to humble them. He tempted Job to try his faith
and his patience, and he tries all his people by afflictions,
but he never tempts us to sin. But Satan certainly does. He's
out to destroy you, child of God, and you're no match for
Him. And Satan masquerades as an angel of light. An angel's
a messenger, and God's light is the gospel. So Satan is able
to disguise himself as a messenger of the gospel. You know, he's
not a red creature with horns and a pointed tail and a long
pitchfork. He comes as a preacher. is found
in the pulpit. And friends, He's not in the
bars and in the brothels. He's in religious meeting places. That's His place of operation. And those who spend their time
in drunkenness and reveling of sin don't draw any need of attention
from Him. They're doing what they want
to do. But here in our text, verse 31, when Christ tells Peter
that Satan has desired to have Him, this is what I want you
to see. This has all just been an introduction to what I want
to talk to you about this morning. And that's the divine intercession
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that He prays for His
people. When Christ tells Peter that
Satan has desired to have him, that word desired comes from
a Greek word that means beg. Isn't that interesting? Satan
has begged to have you. It means craved. It means asked
permission for. Who did Satan seek this permission
from? God. Satan answers to God. Satan can only do what God permits
him to do. Satan doesn't know who God's
elect are. And he's gonna do everything
that he can do to cause a believer to fall away from Christ. Now
I think it's important to be aware of his intentions. And he thinks in doing so that
he's somehow striking a blow against Christ. The Lord did
foretell that he would bruise the Lord's heel, but the Lord
would crush his head. So Satan comes before God and
he asks God's permission to sift Peter's wheat. You know, if you
remember, that's basically the same thing he did with Job. In
Job chapter 1, Satan appeared before God and God said, and
I'm going to paraphrase, what are you doing? And Satan said,
well I'm going to and fro in the earth and walking up and
down and I'm seeking whom I may devour. I'm out to destroy some
folks. And we must always remember that
Satan is as a roaring lion. He is as a roaring lion. It's
God that puts on and takes off his muzzle. It's God that lets him roar and
it's God that shuts him up. And do you remember what God
asked Satan? God brought the subject up. God
said, has thou considered my servant Job? He said, there's
none like him in all the earth. He's a perfect and upright man.
One that fears God and escheweth evil. This wasn't Satan's idea. This was God's. And Satan answered
the Lord and he said, Job doesn't fear. He doesn't reverence and
respect you for nothing. You have a hedge about him. You
have a hedge about his house, protection over his house and
all that he has on every side. He doesn't love you for nothing.
You've blessed the work of his hands. You've increased his substance. You've given him land and great
possessions. He said, but you put forth your
hand and take all that he has? Now Satan's telling the Lord
this. He said, you put forth your hand and take forth all
that he has and he'll curse you to your face. You see, Satan
knows he's in control. He knows that God's in control.
He said, God, you put forth your hand and take all these things
away. God's the one who gives and takes away. Isn't that right?
Isn't that what Job wound up saying? And again, the Lord said,
behold, all that he has, I put into your power. Now, I wish
that I could, I wish that the folks that give credit so much
to Satan today, I wish they could hear this message. The Lord said, you can take away
all that he's got. He said, but I'm gonna put restrictions
on you. He said, you can take everything
that I've given him, but you can't touch him. And you know
the story. Satan went forth from the presence
of the Lord, and he did just that. He took everything that
Job had in one single day, including all 10 of his children. And what
did Job do? Did he curse God? That's what
Satan said he would do. No, he didn't curse God. He said,
the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. Oh, for that kind of faith. So
Satan comes before the Lord again in Job chapter two. You can read
this. And the Lord asks the same thing. What are you doing now?
And Satan said, I'm doing the same thing. I'm looking to afflict
somebody. I'm looking to wreak havoc somewhere. And the Lord said unto Satan,
hath thou considered my servant Job? There's none like him in
the earth. He's a perfect and upright man.
One that fears God and avoids evil. That's what the word escheweth
me. And he says, after all I allowed
you to do to him the first time, he said he holds fast to his
integrity. Even though you asked me to move
against him to destroy him without a cause. Now who's in control
here? God or Satan? God's in control. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. And Satan again answered the
Lord, and he said, skin for skin, all that a man hath, he'll give
for his life. If you put forth your hand now
and touch his bone and his flesh, he'll curse you to your face.
He changed his tune, and the Lord said, behold, I give you
permission, he's in your hand. And then there was another restriction
that God put on him. He said, you can't take his life.
You can do the skin for the skin, and you can afflict his skin,
and you can afflict his bone, but you can't take his life.
And you know the rest of the story. Satan afflicted Job with
boils from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. Satan
calls Job's wife to say unto him, are you going to retain
your integrity? Why don't you just curse God
and die? And Job said, shall we receive
good at the hand of God and then complain when hard times come,
knowing that God sent it all? Oh, what kind? That's amazing faith, isn't it? Satan's nothing more than a tool,
friends, and an instrument that God uses to accomplish His will
and purpose. And again, verse 31, And the
Lord said, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired, he's begged, he's
asked permission to have you that he may sift you as wheat.
And Satan is saying, let me show you how weak he is. Same thing
he did with Job. Let me sift Peter's wheat, and
he'll deny you to your face. He'll deny that he even knows
you, and he'll do so right before your face. And do you know what? Peter did exactly that. Peter
did exactly that. Now, it's important to see here
that Christ did not pray that Satan would not afflict Peter.
The Lord did not pray that Peter would not fall and that Peter
would not fail. Do you know why? Peter needed
these things. He needed these things to happen
to him. Peter was in a state of pride and in a state of arrogance,
and this affliction would do him good. It was good for Peter
to be afflicted, that he might learn God's statues and God's
appointments. That's what David said, it's
good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn. That's how
God teaches us things. He chastises us. And that word
chastisement, I told you not long ago, means training. God's
training us. What's He training us to do?
To trust in Him, to believe Him, to lean on Him in every trial. The Lord told Peter that Satan
desired to have him, to sift him as wheat. And again, we see
the gospel in that little three-letter word, but, verse 33. But, Christ said, I've prayed
for thee. I prayed for thee, that thy faith
fail not." How marvelous and beautiful is the intercession
of Christ. How wonderful are Christ's high
priestly prayers for his people. You know, in the Old Testament,
the high priest would slay the sacrifice and he'd bring it into
the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies represents
the very presence of God. That's what it pictured. And
that high priest, he'd had the names of the 12 tribes of Israel
engraved on his breastplate. And by way of intercession, he
carried the people of God's sins on his shoulders, just as Christ
carried the burden of the cross on his. And you see on the cross,
Christ was sacrificed for the sins of His people. And when
He interceded for them, He there interceded for them by saying,
Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Now here's
the point I want you to see, and this is so important. You
cannot separate the sacrifice and the intercession of Christ. When Christ intercedes for His
elect, it's not, Father forgive them because they're sorry and
have repented. It's not, Father forgive them
because they won't sin anymore. You see, sin has to be dealt
with in order for justice to be satisfied. When Christ intercedes
His prayer is, Father, forgive them because I died for their
sin. I died for their sin. I gave
them my perfect righteousness. I satisfied justice and justified
them. Christ's intercession and sacrifice
can't be separated. Now let me show you that real
quick. Stick your marker here in Luke 22. And look at 1 John
2. I want to show you two places
here. And I pray that I'm able to convey
this glorious gospel truth to you this morning. 1 John 2. In verse 1, John writes, My little
children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not,
And if any man sin, as every man and woman does, might as
well said, if, not only if, but when any man sins, we have an
advocate, we have a mediator, we have a go-between, we have
a intercessor with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And
in verse two he says, and He is our propitiation. And that
word means atonement. He's our atonement. He's our
expiator. He's the one who suffered the
fullest as our sacrifice for our sins, verse two. We see right
here that Christ has the right to intercede for His elect because
of His sacrifice for their sin. That's what gives Him the right
to plead our cause, friends. He died for our sins that He
might intercede on our behalf as our righteousness and our
acceptance to God. Christ intercedes. He pleads
our cause and our case before God based on His propitiation. Do you see that here? Based upon
His atonement. Based upon His sacrifice for
sins that He's made. And He's the only one who can
truly plead our cause. He's the only one who has the
right to. Jeremiah said this, he said, their Redeemer is strong. The Lord of hosts is His name,
and He shall thoroughly plead their cause. Boy, I like that.
He thoroughly pleads our cause. Aren't you glad that the Lord
of hosts Thoroughly pleads your cause. And it's important for
us to understand that Christ differed from all the other Old
Testament high priests because He had no sin of His own to offer
sacrifice for. Look at Hebrews chapter 7. Just
back a few pages. Hebrews chapter 7. With me. Verse 24. I'll give you a moment
to get there. Speaking of Christ, the writer
of Hebrews says in verse 24, but this man, because he continueth
forever. It has everything to do with
who he is. He's God. He is forever. He continueth forever. He has
an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to
save them to the uttermost. that come unto God by Him, seeing
He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Isn't that a glorious
thought? He forever lives to make intercession
for us, to plead our cause before God Almighty. For such an high
priest, verse 26, became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who
needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice,
first for his own sins, and then for the people's. For this he
did once, when he offered up himself." Now, this is what this
story of Peter's all about. It's all about Christ's sacrifice
and all about Christ's intercession for His people. And the grounds
of Christ's intercession is His sacrifice. That's what the high
priest of old did. He brought the blood of that
sacrifice before the Lord and represented God's people as their
great intercessor. And they picture Christ, our
great high priest, who by the sacrifice of himself, we're told,
put away sin forever. Paul said this in Ephesians 5
verse 2. He said that we should walk in
love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for
us as an offering. and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet-smelling savor. Christ is to God a sweet-smelling
savor. We saw a couple weeks ago that
the gospel is a sweet-smelling savor of life unto life to the
believer, but Christ's sacrifice for his people is a sweet-smelling
savor unto God. God's satisfied, satisfied with
the sacrifice of Christ. And that's why when Christ prayed
for Peter that his faith failed him not, his faith failed him
not. It's who's praying for us that
makes the difference. Christ's prayer is always effectual. And I've said this many times,
and I'm sure many of you agree, even in your own lives, I can
so identify with Peter. Peter failed in so many ways. Don't we fail in so many ways?
Peter failed in every single way but one. His faith failed
him not. His faith failed him not. All
Peter was left with was faith. And beloved, that's enough. That's enough. I'm certain that
after he denied the Lord, I am sure after he denied the Lord
three times, he thought himself to no longer be an apostle. I'm
sure he could hear the words of his master play in his head
over and over. Whosoever shall deny me, him
will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. I'm sure
Peter must have thought over and over constantly, there's
no hope for me. I have denied my Lord and He'll
deny me. Don't you know that Peter was
discouraged? I'm sure that Peter thought,
I can't be a disciple. A true disciple wouldn't do such
a thing. And I often think the same thing.
How could one who loves Christ say the things I do, think the
things I do, act the way I do, respond the way I do? But thank God, My salvation has
nothing to do with my faithfulness to Christ and everything to do
with His faithfulness to me. And I tell you, if you're a sinner,
that's good news. Boy, that's good news. And the
only reason, the only hope, the only comfort I find of being
saved is that Christ hath prayed for me that my faith fail me
not. Peter, like that leper, he knew
that the only way that he could be clean was if Christ made him
so. The confession of the saved sinner
is, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. The believer's
hope is in God's will. That God will have mercy. My
only hope is that God will have compassion. We must come to God
as a sovereign. Do you see that? Lord, if You
will, You can. That's saying, God, I know You're
sovereign. If You will, I know You can,
but will You? Salvation is of the Lord. Peter's
faith didn't fail because all he had was Christ. Satan's sifting had exposed that. And we talked about it considerably
in the first hour this morning, but we have nothing to offer
God. Absolutely nothing. I can't offer Him my will, because
it's not of Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. My will has nothing to do with
it. And you can talk about your free will all you want to. It
means nothing. Nothing. I can't offer Him my works because
it's not by works of righteousness that we've done. Our righteousness,
filthy rags. I can't offer Him my heart. My
heart's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and only
God can know it. What do I have left to offer?
Only Christ. That's it. That's all I have
is Christ. Christ is all we have, child
of God. What gives me the right to come
to God? Only the righteousness of Christ. The right that He accomplished. I have no rights. I have no rights. I'm almost finished, but I want
you to look back at our text, Luke chapter 22, and I want to
look and address the last part of
verse 32 here in chapter 22. Christ told Peter, he said, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan had desired to have you that he might sift
you as wheat. But I prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not. And look at this. And when thou
art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Strengthen thy brethren. when thou art converted. That
word converted means turned. Turned. It's important to understand
that conversion is not regeneration. Regeneration is a rebirth. Regeneration
is being born again. Born from above. Born of God. Regeneration happens only once
when a sinner is born from above and born of God. But being converted,
being turned, is pretty much continual. Every day, I turn,
and I turn, and I turn. Because I sin, and I sin, and
I sin. God's keeping hand keeps me turning
to Him. And I turn only because I am
turned. Because of Christ's intercession
for him, Peter turned from being a Pharisee. Lord, all these may
forsake you, but not me. I'm not like other men. Isn't
that what that Pharisee said? Peter turned from being that
Pharisee to being that publican who said, Lord, be merciful to
me, a sinner. His confession changed from,
I'm thankful that I'm not like these, The Lord be merciful to
me, the sinner. And the Lord said, when thou
art converted, when you're turned, strengthen thy brethren. All
friends, I'm telling you, we know that we've passed from death
unto life by our love for our brethren. May we never forget
that. We don't beat our brethren down
when they fall short. No, sir. We don't judge them
when they fall short, for we ourselves fall way short. I dare not judge a brother when
I myself am guilty. Let's encourage one another in
Christ. He's all we got. He's all we
have. Faith in Him is all we need. And that's the beauty of this
Gospel message. All that God requires, we find
in Christ. Faith in Him is all I need. All
I need. You know, there's one in glory.
I love to think about this. There's one in glory who's praying
for me. And God always hears him. Isn't that amazing? Faith in
Christ is all I need, and He says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, I pray
for them. Those whom thou hast given me,
for they are thine. May God enable us to continue
to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.