That part is just wider than
the socket. So I think it must be 3 quarters. Although I didn't look in my
brother's room. I do have some old ones down
at the bottom. I can look and see. I don't like looking at
them. actually i just put them back
in my truck yeah yeah they're pretty handy like what I've changed things right in
the parking lots and I let them use all the tools. One time I
had to take a wiper motor. I just had to take it all apart. And they're like, here, take
these tools, you know, as long as you bring them back. My wifers
went to them one night, it was raining, and they were doing
lousy jobs, so I stopped. They came out and changed it
for me, and I said, yeah. I said, all right. I know they're
not hard to do, but. No, I know, but yeah. He insisted.
He was awesome. That's wonderful. You're probably
the one. You know, my battery, too. Yeah.
Yeah, you know, my battery, too. They checked it and said it was
bad. Yeah, it's nice to get them tested.
What's going on? How's it going? Hey, how you doing? I said, shouldn't touch the trusty
carniac. We've done, like, 10 trips. She likes it better up here. The late 90s
era was 2000. Yeah, sure. And the late 90s. Morning. Alright, we're going to be in
Mark 14. Mark chapter 14. And we'll be looking
at verses 66 through 72. Mark 14, 66 through 72. This will close out the chapter. And these verses are covering
the fall and the recovery of Peter. Peter's fall and his recovery. And what we see here is that
the Holy Spirit moved the Gospel writers to record this in all
four Gospels. There's not a lot of things that
are necessarily covered in all four Gospels, but this is one
of them, and that tells us it's very important. And I want to,
just as we start off, I just want to give you four quick things
so that we can better understand why it is here in Mark 14. And so one of the things that
we see here is that Peter's denial was every bit a part of Christ's
suffering. Peter's denial of Christ was
a part of his suffering, that Christ suffered. And that tells
us that when we deny Christ and when we sin against him, that's
a part of his suffering, that he bore for his people. And then the second thing, we
see that the recovery of Peter, Peter's recovery by the Lord,
it reveals to us just how tender, how gracious, how kind and merciful
and loving our Savior is to his people. He's a loving Savior. He's not vicious. He's not getting
back at us for wronging him. He's very kind. He's very tender.
to his people. And it also shows us that we
ourselves are subject to the same temptations. We see Peter
fall. We know we can fall as well. We see this is something that
we can do. And we also see that the best
of men, those that are the most eminent and the best of men among
us, even they are seen to be weak, frail sinners. even the best of men, that you
would never expect it from, even they are weak, frail sinners,
and therefore we see from that that we can only be saved by
the grace of God. Truly salvation is by the grace
and power of God. Alright, so Peter's fall, it
cries out to us, all flesh is grass. All flesh is grass, and
the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away, so that
we have to declare salvation belongeth unto the Lord." It's
his work, because it's certainly not ours. We see what we are,
and we see it displayed for us in Peter. So this morning, as
we look at Peter's fall and his recovery, remember that like
Peter, we too are weak sinners in need, desperate need of our
Lord's grace. And we know that We need to lean
on the Lord because we want to honor the Lord, right? You that
love the Lord, we want to honor Him. We want to be found faithful
by Him. We want to serve Him and adorn
His name. with the grace that we know that
he's shown to us, we want to adorn his gospel with a life
that looks like we're his people. We want to do that, but we see,
very often repeated in our own lives, we see that if the Lord
doesn't keep us, then rather than honor his name, we're going
to profane his name, and we're going to bring shame upon ourselves,
we desperately need the Lord to keep us. And if the Lord allows
it, we'll even go so far as to deny the Lord who bought us with
his own blood. All right, so remember this is
true of ourselves and therefore we should remember this when
we're dealing with a brother in error, right? A brother or
sister in error, we need to remember this as well so that we're not
so harsh upon them And we remember, you know, I need grace. Peter
needed grace. And so let us remember that when
we're dealing with a brother or sister. So our title is A
Believer's Fall and Recovery. A Believer's Fall and Recovery. And that'll be our divisions.
We'll first look at Peter's fall, and then we'll look at Peter's
recovery. All right, so we're in Mark 14, starting in verse
66. But given what we know about
our own hearts, We would look at this and likely be afraid
and wonder, well, how is this possible? How did this happen
to Peter? I need to know because if Peter
fell, what about me? And if Peter can commit such
an evil act against his Lord, what about me? What does that
say about me? And that's because what we read
of Peter here, he's not a lost man. Peter's not a lost man.
We're talking about a believer, a child of God, who's been redeemed
by the blood of Christ, and the grace of God has saved him,
the Spirit has sanctified him, Christ put away his sin, so that
he's now justified. And yet on the night in which
our Lord was betrayed, this evil broke out of Peter's heart, and
he displayed incredible wickedness against the Lord. What he said
and what he did was evil and it was horrible. It was wickedness
and certainly not righteousness. And so Peter was moved to protect
himself. He was moved to deny Christ and
say, I don't even know this man. I don't know this man. I don't
know who he is. You think about the honor that
Peter had, right? Peter was a chosen vessel of
God. He was one of the first ones
to whom Christ was revealed. And he was one of the first ones
to be saved by the grace of God in seeing Christ and beholding
him. He was one of the earliest professors
of Christ. And, you know, Andrew, his brother,
heard John declare, this is the Christ, the Lamb of God. And
yet when Andrew brought Peter to the Lord, he said, our name
shall be called Cephas, which is a stone. One who's a dependable,
solid rock of a person, Cephas. And so Peter was in the Lord's
inner circle and yet here he is denying the Lord. And he was
used in the early church to be one of the the mightiest of speakers,
the preacher of the gospel in the early church. And the Lord
told him, the Lord was kind. He said to Peter, before all
this happened, before there was any trouble or commotion, he
told Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desire to have you,
that he may sift you as wheat. And so he was warned of this,
and when he was in the garden, he was told by the Lord, watch,
Peter, watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation, and yet,
as this is all playing out, as this is all going down, Peter
goes right on in to the danger, and he ignores the light that
he had revealed to him by the Lord, and he doubts the word
of Christ. He doubts the word of Christ,
and he goes right into this, and then he finds himself in
this awful situation. Another thing, too, is that this
happened so soon after he was the one who said, Lord, though
all these others here should deny you and forsake you, it
won't be me. It won't be me. I'm not going
to do that. I'm going to stand with you,
and I'll die with you this very night if that's what it takes.
I'll die with you. That's what he said, and yet
here he is. denying Christ only a few hours later. He's denying
the Lord. So through this, we're to consider
ourselves that Peter, and think about this, Peter's fall didn't
happen suddenly. It wasn't just all of a sudden
that this happened. This happened by degrees. His fall came by degrees. And I'll show you a few things
in the text where we can see that Peter's fall came by degrees. First look there in Mark 14.
and look at verse 54. Verse 54, here we're told, and
Peter, so this is after they fled, and Peter followed him
afar off. Peter followed him afar off. And that's when Christ willingly
said, I'll go with you, but let these go free. I'll go with you
willingly. When they heard that, they said,
uh-oh, this is it. We're going to be persecuted
here. And they left. They fled from Christ to protect
themselves. And so Peter, wanting to preserve
himself and to protect himself, he followed the Lord, but it
was a far off, a far off. And so when we see that, the
question for us is, am I following the Lord, a far off? Do I keep
him at a distance to protect myself? I want to follow Christ, I have
an interest in following Christ, but I keep him just far enough
away so that it doesn't come near to me and I don't receive
any persecution. You know, do I keep my social
circles apart from my family circle, I mean from my church
family circles? You know, do I keep it at a distance
so that nobody really knows that I love Christ and I'm following
Him? So he followed Christ afar off.
That was the first thing that we see. And then Peter's denial,
his denial was also by degrees. And so for starters, we see him
sitting in the seat of mockers and scorners over in Luke And
you can turn there to Luke 22 and just hold your finger there.
I think we might look at a couple other verses once in a while
from there, but, because Luke adds a certain, just the way
he words some things is very helpful to see what's going on
here. But in Luke 22, verse 55, we're
told, and when they had kindled the fire in the midst of the
hall and were set down together, Peter sat down among them. He sat down among them. He went
and sat down there among the scorners and the mockers and
the scoffers who did not believe that Christ, that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ sent of God. So much for Peter and us being
the blessed man who sitteth not in the seat of scorners. or like
Peter, Christ and Christ alone is the blessed man who doesn't
sit in the seat of scorn. All right, now back in our text,
let's read a couple verses, a few verses here in Mark 14 verse
66. It says, and as Peter was beneath
in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest. And when she saw Peter warming
himself, she looked upon him and said, and thou also wast
with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied, saying, I know
not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out
into the porch, and the cock crewed." The first time the cock
crewed. So at this accusation, he just pretended, I don't even
know what you're talking about, young lady. What are you talking
about? I don't understand what you're
saying here. And so he began to distance himself
a little further. I don't even know what you're
talking about. I'm not with that Jesus of Nazareth. And then we
read verse 69. And the maid saw him again, and
began to say to them that stood by, this is one of them. And
he denied it again. And a little after, they that
stood by said again to Peter, surely thou art one of them,
for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto. But
he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of
whom ye speak. And so he began to swear, you
know, bring down oaths upon his head and swear to these things
that he does not know this man, this Jesus of Nazareth. And so
he began to speak of him, not even as the son of God, but he
began to speak of him as just a common man. I don't know this
man. this man, and he knew the divinity
of Christ. He had confessed before in John
6, 69, I'll read it, and we believe and are sure that thou art that
Christ, the Son of the living God. The Spirit put that in Peter's
heart, and he confessed that. He confessed that, having that
light, and now he's saying, I don't know that man. or this man. I don't know this man. I don't
know who he is. And so, there's many ways in
which men and women fall and deny Christ. There's many ways
in which men and women fall into sin, but saints rarely fall into
sin suddenly. They rarely fall into sin suddenly.
It's by degrees. It's little inconsistencies that
just keep adding up and adding up and adding up and then Eventually
you deny Christ or you have some great fall. we see here with Peter, you know,
he was so mighty and so strong one moment that he would cut
off a man's ear and then he becomes afraid of a little maid's question
and he becomes afraid and fearful of man. So we see here a few
things in Peter and that we can then lay over our own heart and
consider about ourselves because that's what we're doing. It's
not about me looking at you, or you looking at me, or other
people. It's, what do I learn from this? What can I take away from this?
Well, Peter, for one thing, he was far too confident in his
own strength. He was very proud of his own
strength, and he was very confident about who he was and what he
believed of the Lord. And then we see that Peter was
yet, even as bold as he was, he was yet overcome by the fear
of man. He was afraid and he was overcome
by the fear of man. And then we see that he wasn't
watchful over his own heart and soul. He just ignored everything
that the Lord said to him. And he wasn't watchful, he wasn't
careful, he wasn't thinking about it or worried about what's gonna
happen to him. He just went on doing what he
wanted to do. And we also see that he doubted
Christ's word. When the Lord told him, you're
gonna deny me, he didn't believe him, he doubted it. He questioned
it. He questioned it. Alright, and
Proverbs tells us in Proverbs 4, 23 and 24, keep thy heart
with diligence. Keep your heart with diligence
for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a
froward mouth and perverse lips put far from thee. And that's
exactly what Peter did. He had a froward heart and he
had perverse lips and he denied the Lord and so We're to remember
that and to keep watch over our hearts. All right now, but let's
move on to the second point here of Peter's recovery. As soon
as Peter denied Christ in their midst, we're told in verse 72,
Mark 14, 72, and the second time, the cock crowed. And Peter called
to mind the word that Jesus said unto him. before the cock crowed
twice, thou shalt deny me thrice, or three times. And when he thought
thereon, he wept. Now, thankfully, we have this
account given to us in very plain and painful detail. And the gospel
writers, they make no excuses for Peter. They make no excuses
for him. They don't justify it in any
way. They don't say, well, it was late, and Peter was tired,
and he was grouchy and angry. They don't say, well, you know,
he was surrounded by enemies, and so he was just protecting
himself to get out of there safely. They don't give any excuse, and
Peter never gives any excuse, right? It's good for us to see,
you know, when we're wrong, when I'm wrong, let me just be wrong
and say, I'm wrong. And not say, well, you said this
to me and you did that. Maybe they did. I'm not saying
they're right either, but let us own up to what we are and
what we do that is wrong. And it's important for us just
to say, I'm wrong. What I did was wrong and I'm
a sinner and forgive me. And so it shows us that Peter
is brought down to nothing. He's just stripped of the competences
and the strength in his flesh and he's brought to see that
I'm nothing. And the beauty in that is that
he sees completely now that salvation is all of grace. That his restoration
is entirely of the Lord. It's not of him. You know, as
long as we can justify what we're doing, then we're not hearing
and not understanding that salvation really is of the Lord and it's
not because I'm a good person or because I've done something
to earn God's favor. When we see what we are in our
nature, then we know, Lord, truly salvation is of grace and we
experience it so that having experienced that, we're more
likely to be kind to others when they sin. whether we're helping
them or they sin against us, whatever it is, we won't be looking
down on them because we know, honestly, I have no excuse for
the things I do, or that I did, ever. So, you know, it's just
of the Lord's grace, all right? And so Peter's end, though, is
a happy end in Christ, right? He fell, but he didn't perish.
It's like what we read in Proverbs 24, 16, that a just man falleth
seven times riseth up again." Because the Lord raises us up,
right? The Lord raises up His people. And so, the Lord gives
us four things that we can see. Four things that we see here,
which He used to recover Peter from his fall. Four things that
we see here. And so, let's look at this, because
then we see and know, well, this is how the Lord deals with us.
And we can see how the Lord's dealing with us when we see these
things in Peter's case. The first thing that we have
here is the Lord's use of a work of providence. The Lord uses
providence to reveal Peter's sin to him. It says, the cock
crowed. The cock crowed. Right? It crowed. And when Peter heard that cock
the second time, he knew, I've sinned. What I did was wrong. I was not right for what for
what I did. So the Lord uses providence,
and we know that. We've had things happen in providence
where we're broad. We're going, I know I have, I'm
going, I'm going, I'm going, and things are getting harder
and harder and harder, and I'm just not getting it. And I'm
just going headlong with a thick skull and not getting it. And
then suddenly something happens that I stop and say, oh yeah,
what am I doing? I haven't even been thinking
about the Lord in any way in this regard. And I've just been
doing these things in my own strength, in my own wisdom, my
own logic, my own abilities. No wonder why it's going nowhere.
I've just forgotten the Lord. Alright, so that's one of the
ways that we see here. The second thing that we see
is that before Peter's conscience was actually struck by that providential
work of the cock crowing the second time. Before that happened,
Luke tells us over in Luke 22 verse 61, we're told, and the
Lord turned and looked upon Peter. That's a work of grace. And that's
how we're turned. It isn't just providence for
providence's sake. It's the mercy of our God who
looks upon us in grace and makes us to hear and to understand,
oh, I see what I've just been laboring in my own strength.
And that's what happened here. The Lord looked upon Peter, and
then we're told that he heard the cock crow. I mean, the cock
crowed, but when the Lord looked upon him, that's when it struck
him, and that's when it was laid to his heart that the Lord's
in this, and I've sinned against him, and I need to hear. hear
the Lord. So it wasn't that Peter looked
to Christ, it was that Christ looked to Peter, and then Peter
understood what he heard in that. And so Peter, you know, in that look, what's
conveyed there by Luke is the tenderness, you know, of the
Lord who, you know, says, Peter, I love you. I loved you. I gave
my heart, my life, my blood, my body for you to put away your
sin. I love thee, Peter, with an everlasting
love. I left my throne in glory, Peter,
and took on the likeness of your flesh to put away your sin, to
work righteousness for you which you cannot work for yourself. Peter, I love you. I love you. And you deny me, Peter? And yet, Peter, I love you, and
I'm still going ahead, and I'm going to lay down my life to
put away your sins forever, that you might have eternal life with
me and my Father for all eternity." So, we see that, and that came
rushing into Peter's heart. The Lord, in grace, revealed
that to him, and that's what he does for us. That's what he
does for us. He reveals his love and mercy
for us. Now third, we see the work of
the word. We see the work of the word of
the Lord upon Peter. Look back in Mark 14, 72. That
last verse there. Mark 14, 72. And Peter called
to mind the word that Jesus said unto him. Before the cock crowed
twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon,
he wept." And so, brethren, that's why we read the Word. That's
why we preach the Word. There's things in the Word that
are an exhortation. And we know that in our flesh,
we don't have the power or the will or the desire to hear the
exhortation. And we don't have the ability
to do the exhortation. but we read the word and we preach
the word and declare it knowing that it's the Lord, the Holy
Spirit, that takes that word and brings it back to our minds
and our remembrance that, oh, the Lord said to me this, and
the Lord said this to me, and the Lord showed me this promise,
that this is his will and purpose for me. He gives us his word
so that we know. It's not that we have ability
to do it, but he makes us to know his will and purpose for
us and then he works that grace in us so that we hear it and
that by his strength and power, we're able to hear the word and
to receive it and to believe it and to walk in the truth of
that word. And so the Lord uses all these
things here, right, to bring to our mind his will and his
word and then in the appointed time, we'll hear it. We'll hear
it, he'll make it known to us, all right? And so fourth, we
see here, or we understand and know that this is the work of
our advocate, Jesus Christ. This is one of his glorious works
for his people, that he's an advocate for us. He told Peter
before this happened in Luke 22, 32, but I have prayed for
thee, all right? Satan hath desired to sift thee,
Peter, as wheat. He wants to sift you, but I have
prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. And so, that's what we need. We need an advocate. We desperately
need an advocate, and Christ is the advocate of His people.
And so He prays as our High Priest, He prays and intercedes for us
with the Father, and we receive forgiveness, and we are restored
again to life, and we are cleansed by His power and His Spirit so
that we know Him and rejoice in Him. So it's like what John
the Apostle wrote in 1 John 2.1, My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. So
we're thankful that He's righteous. And so that's where we see the
restoration of Peter, how the Lord used all those things. And
we see and know the Lord uses all those things with me. That's
how he, I fall seven times, but the Lord raises me up and he
uses these things with power, by his spirit and his power,
that's how he brings us home to our hearts. And so the Lord
fully restored Peter and the trial that he endured was good
for him, right? It removed a lot of chaff from
him. It was good for him to endure
that, and the Lord restored him and used him mightily in the
church. And so, you know, the Lord will
do that with us. We'll go through these things.
They're painful. We don't seek out to fall into sin. We don't
want to do that, but when we do, and the Lord restores us,
He draws us near to himself and will use us in his kingdom as
he sees fit, as it pleases him. All right? And so, after that
point, we know that Peter then went out from among them, he
left those scorners, and he left that area, just left them behind,
and he went out from them. He was restored back to the Lord. All right? And so, Peter was
broken. He was broken in spirit, and
that's a good place for us to be. We're brought to that. When
we fall, we're broken in spirit. And the Psalm says, Psalm 51,
17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and
a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. So the Lord uses that to break
us into to show us that we're nothing. That we have nothing
to glory in or boast in and we're as guilty of doing the worst
sins. There's nothing that we can't
do that this world doesn't do. This flesh is capable of the
worst, most vile of crimes and sins and evil against others
and against our Lord. So it's by His grace that we're
saved. Now, looking at Peter, we're
reminded that, one, we should never presume ourselves to be
faithful and mighty and great and wonderful. We should never
think too highly of ourselves, but always be reminded and always
remember, I'm grass. I'm grass and I'm withering and
fading away, but my Lord, let him increase in us. So we desperately
need his grace every hour. And then we see that we're capable
of the worst and most vile crime, And then remember these things
when you're dealing with your brethren, when you're dealing
with someone you love and care about and someone that you know,
be kind. I mean, you can be honest and
you can tell them the truth if they're wronging you or sinning
against you, but be kind and merciful. Remember that, because
that's how the Lord deals with us. He's honest, but He's kind
and merciful, and don't be too severe with your brethren, all
right? Peter's restoration shows us that our Lord is the one who
works salvation for his people and not we ourselves. It's him,
it's his grace and mercy. So I say this, never depart from
the Lord, let us not depart from the Lord, but be watchful and
be mindful that we're able to fall away just like Peter. And
if we're restored, it's by His grace. So cling to Christ. Pray that He never leave you
and that you never leave Him. And if you do fall, when you
do fall, return to Him. Because He's a merciful, tender,
gracious, kind, loving Savior. Return to Him. Because there's
never anyone who seeks Him out for mercy that goes to Him seeking
mercy. He never turns a sinner away. who seeks mercy and grace from
Him. So remember that. I pray that
the Lord bless that word to your hearts. All right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank You for Your tender mercies. Lord, we thank You for including
this account of Peter, that we may see his fall, and Lord, that
we may see his restoration. And Lord, we pray that You would
Indeed, show us the same kindness and grace and mercy for Christ's
sake, Lord, because we cannot save ourselves and we're no better
than Peter. Lord, if anything, we're worse
than him. Father, please have mercy upon us for Christ's sake. Keep us close to our Savior. Let us not walk with him at a
far off distance, but let us walk near to him, shoulder to
shoulder and resting in his bosom. And Lord, that we would not be
ashamed of him. Father, when we fall, please restore us. For
Christ's sake, we pray this. It's in his name we ask it. Amen. All right, brethren.