Matthew 26, our text for this
Bible study will be verses 33 to 35. But let's begin reading in verse
31. Matthew 26, verse 31, it says, then saith Jesus unto them,
all ye shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written,
I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall
be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I
will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto
him, though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet
will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him, verily I
say unto thee, that this night before the cock crow, thou shalt
deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, though I
should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also
said all the disciples. Did they predict their future
correctly or not? No, they did not. We are going to very much have
a Sunday school lesson this morning. This is something that God's people, all of us especially,
ought to learn. Everyone needs to learn this,
but God's people especially need to learn this. There is some
wording that comes from a heart and an attitude that is very
carnal, very fleshly, very prideful, and every person in this room,
beginning with me, is prone to it. It's the two words, I will. That's just the natural way of
the flesh. That's just the natural tendency
of the flesh. To say I will or I will not is
the same thing. That's the same thing either
way. It's the statement and the belief of I am a free moral agent
to do what I will do. You've heard people say that.
People believe that. You know, I'm a free moral agent
to do whatever I want to do. It's the statement and the belief
that I have the right and I have the ability to control my own
life and run it however I want to run it. I reign over me. That's what people believe. I
reign over me. I have the say in what happens
to me. In the end, every person who
says that and believes that will find out, just like the disciples
did, that's not so. That is just not so. The only will that man has is
a bound will to sin. That is the only will that man
has. It's a bound will to sin against
God. So the point of this Bible study
is to teach us and to teach me, those are words that we should
really remove from our vocabulary. You know, I will do this. I am
not going to do that. I am going to do that. I'm going
to do that. That's a heart and a mindset
that we should really just get rid of. We should completely
get rid of that. No matter what takes place in
our life, may God give us the ability to consider our Lord
in the matter. That's the whole point of this.
Whatever it is, may God teach us to consider our Lord in the
matter. Go straight to the Lord in the
matter. His will His providence concerning
us, everything that we do or don't do. What am I gonna do
on this, not do on this? Lord, teach me to go immediately
to your will and your providence concerning me in this matter. Turn me to you, cause me to look
to you, cause me to wait on you in everything. Listen to Peter's
wording here and listen to his sincerity, listen to his love,
but listen to his pride and listen to his foolish arrogance and
his self-righteousness. Verse 33, Peter answered and
said unto him, though all men shall be offended because of
thee, yet will I, that's old English, That's old English wording. In current English, we say, I
will. Peter said, I will never be offended. The Lord told him otherwise,
and he corrected the Lord again, didn't he? Bless his heart. You know, we could really try
to condemn Peter for such an arrogant statement like that,
but the end of verse 35 says all the disciples said that. And if you and I get honest,
you know we say it too. We say it too. Yep, look around
the room right here. Just look around the room. If
anybody's staying, I'm staying. Hold on. Hold on. Yep, they may leave, but I'm
not leaving Christ. I'll never leave Christ. Hold
on. Pride comes before a fall. Always. Always. That's how it happened in the
beginning. That's how the whole thing started. And that's how
it happened and happens ever since. I read this to you recently. Let me read it again. Go with
me to Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14, verse 12, it says, How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground, which did weaken the nations, verse 13 says, for That means, because thou hast said in thine heart,
I will. He said, that's the whole reason.
It's because you said in your heart, I will. That is where the lie of free
will started. The adversary thought he had
a free will. And he lied to man and he convinced
mankind that he had a free will and she had a free will. And
it's not so. It is not so. There is only one
who has a free will. And his name is Jesus Christ.
There is only one who has a free will. And His name is Jesus Christ. People say, if that's the case,
then why do I have the choice to choose good or evil? We don't
have the choice to choose good or evil. All that we totally depraved
sinners have the ability to choose is evil. That's it. Light came into this world and
the only thing that man had the ability to choose was darkness
rather than light. That was it. Man could not come
to Christ. Man would not come to Christ. The Lord said, they are all gone
out of the way. They are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Well, I think I'm
going to choose to do good. Sin. I think I'm going to turn
over a brand new leaf. Sin. Boy, I'm so glad I don't
do the things I used to do. Sin. It's all sin. It's all sin. That all stems from this right
here. Verse 12. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in
thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. Which is what people
say. I know where I'm going, I'm going
to tell you what I'm going to do. I will ascend into heaven. He said, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the cloud. I will be like the most high.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. That's the end for free will. That is the end for free will. Turn with me over to Luke 18. Luke 18 verse 9, Our Lord spake
this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they
were righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men are. extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican, I fast twice in the week, I give tithes
of all that I possess. I, I, I. And the publican standing
afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, This man went down
to his house justified rather than the other, watch this, for
everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased. It's not maybe, it's not might
be, shall be abased. Peter and the rest of the disciples
found that to be so exactly as the Lord said. He that exalteth
himself, I will, shall be abased. Oh, but he that humbleth himself,
our Lord said right here, shall be exalted. It's that way every
single time. We would be so wise to learn
that. We would be so wise to learn
that from salvation. We know that's so in salvation.
Our Lord just gave us the illustration of that. Lord, I'm just a lowly,
wretched sinner. Please, not me. You do it. Salvation. but from salvation to every circumstance
in life. Every single circumstance that
comes our way through this life. Our Lord said, he that humbles
himself or herself shall be exalted. And our Lord is the great example
of this. He is the great example. Look back at Matthew 26 with
me. Verse 36. says, then cometh Jesus with
them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples,
sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and
very heavy. Then saith he unto them, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful. even unto death, tarry ye here
and watch with me.' And he went a little further and fell on
his face, and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."
Not as I will. After Peter said what he did,
that's what our Lord said. It's not as I will. He said,
Father, it's not I will. It's as you will. As you will. It's not my will in this. I'm
telling you, this brings the best outcome every time. It's
not my will in this. It is your will in this. I bow
to your will in everything. That's how it was in creation.
It was your will. That's how it was in salvation. It was your
will. And that's how it will be in
every other remaining circumstance in this life. Your will. Not what I will do, what you
have done. What you have already purposed
to be done. We would be wise to truly, truly
learn that and to really let that sink into our heart and
then ultimately in our vocabulary, in our speech, because out of
the heart, the mouth will speak. And these apostles, through this,
they learned that lesson very well. It sank down deep into
their hearts, and because of that, their mouths did speak.
Look with me at James chapter four. James chapter 4 verse 10, he
said, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall
lift you up. Speak not evil one of another
brethren, he that speaketh evil of his brother and judgeth his
brother, speaketh evil of the law and judgeth the law. But
if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a
judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgest another? Go to now ye that say, today
or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there
a year and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas you know not what
shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is
even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then banisheth
away. Verse 15, he said, for that you
ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live. If the Lord even
wills for us to live. Before I say what I'm going to
do, let me say, if God even keeps me alive and gives me another
breath of air, For that you ought to say, if
the Lord will, we shall live and do this or do that. He said, I'm telling you as one
who was standing there with Peter and the rest of the disciples
saying, now, Lord, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'll tell you exactly how I'm
going to handle this. Peter said, no, this is how we're
going to do it. James said, yep, that's right.
Yeah, I'm not doing that. He said, don't do that from experience. Don't do that. Verse 15, for
that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and
do this or that. We're in his hands, living and
abiding according to his will. And we would be wise to recognize
that and to acknowledge to him that we recognize that. As Nebuchadnezzar
said, those who walk in pride, he is able to abase. And James
said he still does that to this day. He still does that. Look
at 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5, verse 5, he said, likewise
ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you
be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for
God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time."
Peter said, just like James did, humble yourselves. These men
were speaking from experience. Humble yourselves. I can see
Peter saying, oh, I wish I'd learned this sooner. I just wish
I'd learned this so much sooner. Humble yourselves. Say with John
the Baptist, I must decrease. Do you ever get a hold of that
in moments where You're ready to win the argument.
Does that ever get a hold of you? I think the best thing for
me to do right now is decrease. I must decrease. Lord, let that
knot just roll off my tongue. Let it enter my heart. I must
decrease. Give me the ability to decrease. Lord, if you humbled yourself
all the way down to a man of no reputation. Lord, please let me see myself
as a man of no reputation. Every time I see an opportunity
to exalt myself, and exalt my worth, exalt my
opinion, and exalt my glory. Lord, as you opened not your
mouth, teach me to open not my mouth. Cause me to realize that
I am what I am only by the grace of God, only by your grace. Verse six, he said, humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you
in due time, casting all your care upon him. Had the disciples
done that in that moment of our text, when the Lord told them
that they were going to be offended and they were going to be scattered,
had they cast their all on him, things would have gone differently
for them. And honestly, that's the case
for us. That is the case for us. These things were written
for our learning. These things were allowed to
fall out the way they did to teach all of us something. Whatever
the situation may be, if we will say, Lord, not my will, but thine
be done. Your way is not only best, it's
the only way. It's not only the best way, it's
the only way. I bow to it. I humble myself
before you, before my brethren. If the Lord would teach us to
do that, things would go well for us. It would go well. Our
Lord said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart
and you shall find rest unto your souls. Lord, help us, teach
us, teach us to do that. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.