Let's turn back to John 13. Last Sunday night, we looked
at this event of our Lord at His supper announcing to His
disciples that one of them would betray Him. And he said, ìItís whoever I
give the sop to.î And he gave it to Judas Iscariot.
Verse 27 in John 13 says, ìAnd after the sop, Satan entered
into him. Then said Jesus unto him, ìThou
doest do quickly.î Verse 31 says, ìTherefore, When
he was gone out, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified,
and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God
shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify
him. Little children, yet a little
while I am with you. You shall seek me. And as I said
unto the Jews, whither I go, you cannot come. So now I say
to you, he explained to them that in order for their sins
to be put away, he had to be lifted up. He had to be. He had to suffer for those sins. If they were going to be done
away with, He had to suffer for those sins. He had to be separated
from His Father. Separation from God. He had to
be separated to endure the penalty, finish the payment, And then
he had to be raised again to bring new life to them, to us. New life. And he said, I have
to do this alone. I must do this alone. The end
of verse 33, he said, Whither I go, you cannot come. You cannot come. So now I say
to you, verse 34, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love
one another. As I have loved you, that you
also love one another. It's a commandment. Verse 35, he said, By this shall
all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one
to another. He said that's one of the evidences,
that you belong to me, if you have love one to another. Now,
right after he said this, right after he said those words, verse
36 says, Simon Peter said, bless Simon's heart, Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I
go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me
afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. Jesus answered him, wilt thou lay down thy life for my
sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me three times. You're going to deny me three
times tonight. Peter was so sure of himself. So absolutely sure of himself.
Why can I not come where you're going? I'll lay down my life
for you. Now turn with me over to Matthew
26 and let's read Matthew's account of this. Matthew 26 verse 33 says, Peter answered and said unto
him, Though all men should 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. Now that doesn't sound like love
for the brethren, does it? It sounds like arrogance. That's
what it sounds like is arrogance and pride. And we know what pride
comes right before, don't we? Peter, bless his heart, and it
says all the disciples. We point the finger at Peter,
but do we actually believe we would have done any different? But Peter was spouting off to
God. That's what he was doing. in all of his arrogance and all
of his pride. And I want to show you what God
said to him. I don't believe I've ever seen
that what God said to him was at this exact moment in time.
It was during this event. Let me show you what God said
to him in Luke 22. Turn over to Luke 22. This is the same moment. Luke
22 verse 31 says, And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I
am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter,
the cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt thrice
deny that you even know me. You're going to go to prison
with me. You're going to die for me. The rooster is not even going
to crow before you deny you even know who I am. Now let's first learn a lesson
from this. A man or a woman who goes around
acknowledging himself or herself to be unmovable in faith. You know, we just had a Bible
study on this same thing, didn't we? But a man who goes around
acknowledging himself or a woman herself to be unmovable in faith,
a great follower of Christ. Now, I want to be that. I want
to be that. But one who goes around saying
they're going to outlast every other believer on earth. If anybody's
saved, I'm saved. If anybody loves God, I love
God. I don't know about them. That's a man or a woman who's
about to fall flat on his or her face. That's who that is. God said, Peter, be careful.
Satan hath desired to have you. This is the moment, he said that.
That sounds like the work of Satan. You know that, isn't it? Is that not a sobering thought?
That sounds like the work of Satan. We just looked in the Bible study,
we hear ourselves, and I do it every day. I, I, I. Be careful. That self-confidence,
be careful. Our confidence is in Christ. I'm telling you, I am confident
in Christ, not in me. I have zero confidence in me,
but my confidence is in Christ. I'm confident in Him. I don't
do anything right. Nothing. I don't worship Him
with the right spirit. I come to worship going, Lord,
please let me worship today. Because I know if you leave me
to myself, I won't be here with the right spirit. So I need your
spirit. I don't pray to Him like I should. I don't read his word like I
should. Thank God he's faithful. Thank God he is faithful. Our confidence is in Christ. Now, we all know this story,
don't we? Everybody knows this story. We
know it well. Peter did deny the Lord, just like the Lord
said he would. He denied him three times. Right
here in Luke 22, look at verse 56. Luke 22 verse 56 says, But a certain maid beheld him
as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This
man was also with him. And he denied him, saying, Woman,
I don't even know him. I know him not. And after a little
while, another saw him and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter
said, Man, I am not. And about the space of one hour
after another confidently affirmed saying of a truth, this fellow
also was with him, for he is a Galilean. And Peter said, Man,
I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet
spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned and looked
upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word
of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow,
thou shalt deny me thrice. Oh man, what a look. Can you
imagine that look? I don't ever want that look.
I don't want that look. Can you imagine that? Peter,
all his denial, and then he looks over at the Lord, and the Lord
is just looking at him. the shame. And it says in verse
62, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. This grown man, this
rough cussing sailor who can pull in great nets of fish, strong. This man who can go to crowds
of people and point his finger at him and tell him, you repent
and believe in the name of the Lord. He's just sitting there
crying like a baby. And I'm sure after he went out,
he could hear all the things they were doing to our Lord.
Verse 63 says, And the men that held Jesus mocked Him and smote
Him. And when they had blindfolded
Him, they struck Him on the face. You know it says they struck
Him with a reed? You think of that being a little stronger
than a blade of grass. They had a pole. He could not
become more marred than any man with a reed. They beat him, they struck him
in the face as hard as they could and asked him, saying, Prophesy,
who is it that smote thee? And many other things blasphemously
spake they against him. And the whole time Peter just
wept bitterly. We all have the same reason to
weep bitterly. Every single one of us. We all
have denied Him. We all have been ashamed of Him. We all have been the cause of
His suffering and His pain. But our God is merciful. You know that? What that means
right there is the two words, but God. That's all it means. Does that diminish what we've
done? Not one bit. Our God is merciful. Oh, how
merciful. How merciful. Blessed Lord, how
merciful thou art to me. Our God is so merciful. In spite
of everything that Peter is, our God preached the gospel to
him right here in this event. Go back with me to John 13. Right here, at the end of John
13, our Lord declared the truth of the Gospel. That's what He
did. He told Peter the truth of the Gospel. And then right
after that, Peter declared the error of religion. And our Lord declared the awful
truth of man's works, and then He declared the glorious truth
of His own works. That's what just happened right
here. He preached the Gospel to him. Verse 36 says, Simon
Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him,
Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now. He was going to
a place that no mortal man could return from. No man could return
from there. No man could withstand it. Death. Hell. Our Lord said in the Psalms,
I believe it's Psalm 40, thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.
That's awful to even say that. The grave. No mortal man could
return from there. His sin would keep him there.
So Christ, the God-man said, I'm going to take your sin there
for you and I'm going to leave it there. I'm going to leave
it there. And I'm going to remove the curse
that's on you. I'm going to totally take that curse off of you. And
then after I do that, you're going to be able to follow me."
He said unto all those men, follow me. Follow me. And then he told them, now I'm
going somewhere that you can't go. You can't go there now. But after I'm finished, you will
then be able to follow me. Wherever I am, there you will
be also. Verse 36, Simon Peter said unto
him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I
go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me
afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. That's religion. That's religion. That's the heart of religion.
That's the mind of religion. Well, sure, I'm worthy to go
to heaven right now. I'll walk in right now. False religion does not tell
men and women that when Christ laid down His life, He finished
the work. Religion says you have got to
lay down your own life. That's what it says. You've got
to lay down your own life. Peter said, Lord, I don't need
you to die for me. I'll die for myself. I'll do
all, you do your dying, I'll do my dying. That's religion. I tell you what, you take that
first step, I'll take the second. As a matter of fact, Peter said,
I'll accomplish the work for you. I will lay down my life for thy
sake. That's religion. Religion does
not declare what God has done for me. Religion declares what
I am going to do for God. That's the difference. Religion
has it all wrong, don't they? Look back a couple pages to John
8. John chapter 8, verse 21. Then said Jesus again unto them,
I go my way, and you shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, you cannot come.
Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? Because he saith, Whither
I go, you cannot come. And he said unto them, You are
from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not
of this world. I said therefore unto you that
you shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I am,
you shall die in your sins. If you don't believe that I am.
Peter said, now wait a minute, Lord. Wait a minute. Let me tell you what I'm going
to do for you. How many people on this earth
does that sound like? Oh, he does a lot for the Lord.
He does a lot for the Lord. Yeah, he's working for Jesus.
Carpenters for Christ. You ever heard of them? They
have t-shirts. Carpenters for Christ. Turn over
to Titus 3. Titus 3 verse 5 says, Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that
being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. That's it. Peter said, Lord,
I'll lay down my life for you. He said, Will you, Peter? Will
you? Back over in John 13, verse 38
says, Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my
sake? Let me tell you all that you're
capable of, Peter, dear sinner. Let me tell you the only work
you're capable of performing. This is all that you can do.
Here's the truth concerning your works. He said right here, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till thou
hast denied me thrice. Peter, you will not come to me
that you might have life. Peter, you cannot come to me
except the Father which has sent me draw you. That's the truth.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Peter said,
I don't know that man. I don't even like that man. Curse
that man. Verse 38, Jesus answered him,
Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me
thrice. That's the truth. Now I am so
thankful, I've preached a little while, now I want to tell you
something. I am so thankful, I am so, so thankful that God
raised up men to translate His Word into our language. You know what mercy that was?
Really, what mercy that was. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. And God in mercy, He raised up
some men to diligently and thoroughly translate His Word into our language. He kept His hand on them. And He preserved His own Word.
God preserved His own Word. And I have always loved the title
pages of our Old Testament and our New Testament. Turn over
to the page just before Matthew 1. It looks like that. It says, The New Testament of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. translated out of the original
Greek, the language that God sent it in. And with the former
translations diligently compared and revised by His Majesty's
special command, this is appointed to be read in churches. And that
little Latin saying at the bottom means with much privilege. We
are so privileged because men died for this translation. Much
Privileged. Diligently compared and revised. I thank God for these translators. He caused them to do such a good
job. Such a good job. It's so easy
for us to find where we want to be together. The book, the
chapter, the verse. And I'm quite positive that our
Lord inspired these men to put these divisions where He wanted
them to go. But as we read this Word, here's
what I want to say, as we read this Word, we have to remember that it was
not originally written with divisions. It was not written at all with
divisions. And if we don't read the whole story, it could mean
the difference in us walking out of this door either with
great sorrow or extreme joy if we don't get the whole story. So I want to close with this,
okay? I want you to go with me back to John 13. I want to close by reading what
our Lord said to Peter in its entirety, with no divisions. All right, verse 36 says, Simon
Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him,
Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow
me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou
lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. Let not your heart be troubled. Is that not wonderful? That is the longest half inch
on a page. You are going to deny me. You
are going to reject me. Let not your heart be troubled.
Let not your heart be troubled. Peter listen to me, that denial,
yeah you're going to deny me, but that denial is what I'm about
to go pay for. I'm going somewhere that you
can't come. And I'm going somewhere to put away your sin. The sin that you're going to
be so ashamed of. But that sin right there that
you have not committed yet, Peter, it's already put away. It's gone. Our Lord immediately said in
chapter 14 verse 1, let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's
house are many mansions, Peter. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you,
Peter. Now in the next couple of hours,
Peter, a little girl is going to come to you and get you all
frazzled, and you're going to tell that little girl you don't
even know who I am. And then a man is going to come to me,
and you're going to tell him, I do not know that man. I do
not want that man. I do not like that man. I do
not claim that man. And then another one's going
to come to you and you're going to start cussing in heart, cussing out
loud. Let not your heart be troubled.
I am going to a place that you cannot go. And the reason I'm
going is to prepare a place for you. He said in verse three,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be
also. Where I'm going, you can't follow
me now, but you're about to. You're going to follow me afterwards. The only thing that we can say
about this glorious gospel and this message is it is It is so
of the grace of God. That's why that sign out there
says sovereign grace. Man do we not deserve it. It
is a free gift of Christ. The love of God in Christ. And
I thank God for it. Because outside of Christ, all
I would do is deny him. I can't turn over a new leaf.
I can't change my way. I can't change this heart. If
I could, I would have already done it. You know that? If I
could, I would have already done it. But I can't. But he can. And he said right there, let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, you believe
in me. What he's saying is, don't worry,
Peter. Rest. God is faithful. I'm faithful. That which I have begun, I'll
perform it. I'll take care of it. Thank God. Thank God. All right,
let's stand together.