Luke 22. Luke chapter 22. This is the beginning, as you
know, the beginning of our Lord's crucifixion. It all started in
the garden in darkness. And our Lord, you remember, said,
He said to them who came to apprehend Him, He said, This is your hour
and the power of darkness. Remember that? This was the beginning. It began in darkness, but it
sure did end in light, didn't it? When He arose from the grave.
It began in horror, but it ended in glory. It began, and the disciples,
full of sorrow, weeping sorrow, that it began, or it ended in
great joy. That's what our Lord said. He
said, the world's going to rejoice. He said, I'm going away. The
world's going to rejoice, and you're going to be sorrowful.
You're going to be sad, but it's going to change shortly. And so this story, this morning,
begins in darkness again. Oh, the darkness of sin, the
sorrow, weeping endures for a night. It seems like a long night when
you're in sorrow. This is a story that began with
betrayal. Horrible betrayal of a supposed
friend, a supposed disciple of our Lord. Betrayed him, sold
him and his brethren. Sold them all. With no conscience. Terrible. But it ends in happiness. Denial. Simon Peter. We're going
to look at Simon Peter's denial. Oh my. And along those lines,
you know, We see right now through a glass, as I said, darkly. Darkly, but we do see. We're
in a world of darkness, of sin, sorrow, evil, but we've got light. Thank God for the little bit
of light we have. If we just heard more and read more and
believed more, we'd have more light. we'd have more light. But we see through a glass darkly.
Someday we're going to see very clearly. And then no more darkness,
no more sorrow, no more sin, no more death. But Simon Peter,
this is the story of his terrible denial. Let's read it, beginning
with verse 54. And they took our Lord and led
Him and brought Him into the high priest's house. Peter followed
afar. And when they had kindled a fire
in the midst of the hall and were set down together, Peter
sat down among them. 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, with Jesus. And Peter denied him, saying,
Woman, 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 Galilee. And Peter, in Matthew's
Gospel, says he cursed and swore. And he said, Man, I know not
what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet
spake, the cock crowed. And the Lord turned. The Lord
was within eyesight. And looked upon Peter. And Peter
remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before
the cock crowed, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out. I believe he ran out of that
place. And wept bitterly. Peter's terrible denial of our
Lord is recorded in all four Gospels. Very few things are
recorded in all four, you know that? Certainly our Lord's crucifixion,
but some things are recorded just three times or two times,
but this is recorded all four. Simon wished it hadn't happened.
Simon wished it hadn't been written. Simon wished he hadn't done it.
Hadn't said what he said. But, it had to be. Now, this
is going to end in comfort, okay? It had to be. That the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. Our Lord said that. Go to Matthew
26. This is the same account, a little more in depth. Matthew
26. This had to happen. Simon had
to. deny Him, and they all had to
leave our Lord that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Look at Matthew
26. It says in verse 30, when they
had sung a hymn, now this is important, they just were together
in the upper room, worshiping, beholding Him, glorying in Him,
hanging on His every word. They sang a hymn. They went out.
But it wasn't too long. Peter denied Him. That's us. That's us. And then our Lord
said in verse 31, All ye shall be offended because of me this
night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd. This is Zechariah
13. And the sheep of the flock shall
be scattered abroad. But after I'm risen again, I'll
go before you into Galilee. And he's going to call them all
back together again. They're all going to deny it.
Look at verse 33. Peter answered and said unto
him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet
will I never be offended. You know, from his heart, he
meant that. He thought that. He hoped for
that. But scripture has to be fulfilled. Every man at his best state is
what? Scripture said that. Altogether,
Simon Peter's an apostle. Oh, his calling was special. It was marvelous. No more so
than ours, really, but they saw what we haven't seen, really.
The miracles of the Lord. They heard His actual voice.
And that's a good thing, because it's a good thing that the Lord
wrote all this, because later on, they believed our Lord more
fully than they did when they were with Him in person. You
know that? They understood more when He
was gone than they did when He was with them. Why? Because all
God's people have to live by faith, not sight. And while He
was with them, it's easy to believe. There He is, standing right there.
Well, there He is, sitting right there. And He's speaking. Yes, He is,
in His Word. Peter later said that we have
a more sure word of prophecy, didn't he? Didn't he say that?
He said we heard His voice, we saw it. But now, hold on. Those who have obtained this
light, precious faith of us, this is evidence of things not
seen. They believed Him more when He
was gone than they did when He was with them. And I'm glad. David never really saw the Lord. He believed in Him. Caleb, we
live by faith. I believe. Why? It's a miracle. Well, look at verse 34 here. Jesus said unto them, Verily
I say unto you 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. He meant that. Likewise also said all the disciples. Every one of them said this.
No, Lord, this cannot be. How could we possibly deny You? We love You. We've followed You.
You've called us. We see. We hear. We know You. No, no, no. We're not going to
deny You. Yes, You are. Wow. Scripture's going to be
a fulfilled. Because We're not there yet,
and we live by faith, and our faith, you know, we fail, we're
sinful, we're fickle, finite, fallible, foolish, fallen creatures,
and we're going to stay that way until the day we die. We've
got this thing called sin in us that just plagues us, and
we cannot live above sin here. We cannot live perfectly here.
So this is comforting. That the best, the strongest,
the leading disciples fell terribly. Denied him terribly. That the
scriptures might be fulfilled. And for Simon Peter to comfort
his brethren. Remember the Lord said, when
you're converted, you're going to strengthen your brethren.
You can't strengthen them if they think you're better than
them. You can't strengthen them if you have a faith they cannot
attain to. You can't strengthen them if
you don't fall and fail like them. This is how you strengthen
a brother. You pick them up when they fall. You're telling us
what the Lord did for me? I forget, somebody, I don't know
who it was, maybe in here, but I remember them saying to me,
it's so comforting to hear the preacher call himself a sinner. And Simon Peter, he's not Peter's
epistle of great comfort. That's first and second. He begins,
he doesn't get five verses until he says, we're kept by the power
of God. He said, elect according to the four laws of God. And
we're kept by the power of God. We can't keep our sin. Don't
ever say you won't do anything. You will. Simon Peter says, I
know. And this much I know too, I denied
him terribly. But, now here's Simon's hope, and
this old simple Simon's hope, he did not deny me. That's my hope, Simon said. He cannot deny himself. And if he and I are one, he will
never deny that. I left him. All of us did. He
did not leave us. He did not. I'd like to quit right there. Well,
look at verse 54. This is all glorious in our text. Verse 54 says, they took him. Who took him? They led him and
brought him. Who did this? Who's doing all
this? Well, the high priests, religion,
scribes, Pharisees. Our Lord called them hypocrite.
They didn't lay hold of him to believe him. They laid hold of
him to kill him. And it says they led him and
they took him and they brought him. Oh, did they now? I'll tell
you who it was that led him. I'll tell you who it was that
delivered him up. It was God the Father delivered him up.
Isaiah 53 says he is brought as a sheep before her shearers,
a lamb to the slaughter. Who did that? Verse 10, it pleased
the Father, the Lord, to bruise him. He did this. And our Lord
did it willingly. And the Father did it in love
and mercy and grace to God's people. Delivered him up for
us. He offered himself. God delivered
him. And Christ offered himself to
God as sacrifice. Nothing and no one could do this
unless God had purpose and that's what Peter preached at Pentecost.
You with wicked hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory
but you did what God determined for you to do or you couldn't
do it. Our Lord said no man taketh my life from me and no man taketh
our life from us. Either physical or spiritual,
no man, no sir, no one takes our life unless God says take
his life. God says, I killed, I make it
loud. The Lord is in absolute sovereign
control of this whole thing. Our Lord Jesus Christ was in
absolute sovereign control of His own crucifixion. They couldn't have led Him if
He didn't go willingly. And one last show, remember He
said, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus. Hmm. I am. I don't know. The Father led
him. The Father delivered him up. Another story, I love the fact
that everything in this story took place just exactly as it
was written. It's like someone was standing
over to the side with the book open reading, now this is what
you've got to do. Now this is supposed to happen next. Someone
was. As it is written, everything
said about him. The preparation of the heart
and the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. Everything. Everything. Everything they said. Everything
they did. From his betrayer, to his apprehenders,
to his enemies, to the time he was on the cross. Everything
they said about him on the cross. Scripture says it. They'll say
it. Why? Because man has no power at all
except of God. He can't say or do anything unless
God allows it. Everything said about him was
written. Everything done to him was written. From the stripes, the wounds,
the spitting. Read it. Psalm 22, 69. The plucking
of his beard. The scoffing, the mocking, it
was all written, all recorded, just as written. Everything done
to him, everything done by him. was written and our Lord said
must be fulfilled. And it was. It is. Wow. This is absolute proof. Our God is sovereign. Christ
is sovereign. His word is true. He said not
one word of mine shall fail. Every human being will, but not
Him. Not His Word. We fail, He did
not. We sin, He did not. We flee,
He did not. He set His face like a plant.
We deny Him, He cannot deny His own. This is our salvation. Alright, here's Simon's denial.
It started this way. It says, He followed Him afar
off. Simon felt great strength and
bravery as long as he was standing beside Christ. When he was in
that garden, Christ was standing right there. Simon took his sword
out. He said, I'll die with you right
here. Because Christ was standing right there. And they took Christ. His strength lived. What does
that tell you? Without Him, we could do nothing.
And He is our strength. His presence is our strength
and our help. And it says that Simon Peter
followed Him afar off, afar off. Turn to Ruth, the little book
of Ruth, right before Samuel. The little book of Ruth. You
know these verses. I was going to read it for you,
but I want you to read it with me. And this is what we need
to pray with Ruth all the time. And our Lord said, pray without
ceasing. Well, here it is. Here's what we need to pray.
This is what Simon Peter should have prayed. He should have said,
no way I'm going to leave you. Oh, he should have remembered
Ruth's prayer. Oh, Lord, please don't let me
do this. Look at Ruth, chapter 1, verse
16. Ruth said, entreat me not to
leave thee. If you don't keep me, I'll leave. Or to return from following after
thee, Simon quit following him. Where thou goest, I will go.
Where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people,
and thy God my God. Where thou die, will I die, and
there will I be buried." First, it started with a prayer, didn't
it? And treat me not. Lord, Simon Peter said, Lord,
Everything you say is true, but I don't want to leave you. Please
help me. Don't let me leave you, Lord. Yes, I'm liable to do that. Don't let me. If you hold me,
I'll be held. If you keep me, I'll be kept.
Don't let me do that. That's the reason we should always
begin everything with Lord willing. Lord willing. Lord willing. He followed afar off. Our Lord
said, if you abide in me and my word abide in you, you have
strength, you have peace. And he followed afar off. Far
off. John, now, all of them did flee
immediately in the garden, but it had to be. The scriptures
had to be fulfilled. But now John, apparently came
back real quickly. You know that? You've read it.
Because it says John went in with our Lord into the high priest's
home. Somebody knew him and let him
into the house. And remember in the other, it
says he came out and had Peter come into that inner court. That's
how Peter could see our Lord. He was so close and our Lord
was very near. Probably as close as, you know,
Me and Ed, Jeanette, right here. It was an outer court. That's the way it was back then.
They had these courtyards where everybody would gather and they'd
build a fire. And our Lord apparently was right there close by. But
John went in. And it even says that John was
right there at the cross, wasn't he? Right there with Mary and
the women at the foot of the cross. But our Lord looked down
and said, Son, hold your mother. John. Didn't leave him. He did briefly the Scripture,
but he came back. John called a beloved disciple. John kept saying, the disciple
whom Jesus loved. How do you know John loved Christ
and Christ loved John? How do you know? Every time you
see John, he's leaning on the Lord. He couldn't get away from
Him. Just right there close by. That's
safety. You know that? That's salvation.
If you let something or someone entice you, and you end up a
far off, you'll deny Him. That's how it
started. That's how it started. And look
at this, verse 55. When they had kindled a fire
in the midst of the hall. Who's they? That's this crowd
that hated our Lord. That's this multitude that hated
our Lord. They were Peter's enemies, Simon
Peter's enemies. They were not buddies at all.
He didn't run with them. They weren't his companions.
James and Thomas and Matthew, these men were his companions.
Here he is, verse 55. He sat down together with them. Something bad is going to happen.
You know that? Paul wrote later, how? How? How can light have fellowship
with darkness? What are you talking about? You
ain't going to talk about Christ. You're going to deny Him. They
don't love Christ. How can you sit with those that
hate your Lord? But he did. There's a scripture
I was going to have you turn to in Isaiah 50. Brothers and sisters, if you
haven't read, start in 49. Lead it up to Isaiah 53. Start
at chapter 49. Just start reading. It's marvelous. But it talks about the fire that
men kindle. Let me read it to you. Who fears the Lord that obeys
the voice of his servant? Who walks in darkness, hath no
light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, stay upon his job,
and behold all ye that kindle the fire. Accomplish yourself
with the light of your fire, the sparks you've kindled. You're
going to lie down in sorrow. There's no comfort there. There's
no light there. There's no hope there. There's
no warmth there. So Simon Peter sat among these
Christ-haters, trying to warm himself, trying to comfort himself
with the world. What were they talking about?
Well, they may have been talking about Jesus, but they were talking
about how it's over. Ain't nothing to that. Ain't
nothing to this Jesus fellow. We told you. Wasn't anything
to that. Our hopes in this world, our
hopes in Caesar, our hopes in Rome, our hopes... We need to
listen to our real leader, Caesar. See, this is Jesus, Phil. They're
going to take him, kill him. This is over. Sign up, you're
sitting right there with me. You know that's what they're
talking about. How? How could he? He's going to deny it. And we
will too. The only way we can sit with
those that hate our Lord is to keep our mouths shut. And when
the subject of His truth comes up, we deny it. The only way
we can two walk together is if they do agree. I tried when the
Lord began to reveal Himself to me as a young man in my twenties.
I had lots of old buddies. And I tried to maintain those
relationships. I did. I didn't want to appear
to be religious to them. I am. I was. But I wanted them
to say, I'm just like you, you know. I'm not. But I was just
like them. Something happened. Yeah, I remember so many times
I started talking about the truth, about the gospel. It was like
pouring cold water all over everybody. I quenched their fire. And for
long we were arguing and we couldn't get along. Finally, you don't
have to drop your old friends, they'll drop you. They will. Our Lord said this, the blessed
are you when men vow you and persecute you and say all manner
of evil against you falsely. For my name said, oh, he said,
that's what they did to the prophet. The prophets walked alone. The
apostles. We can't walk with the world.
Or we're denied. This is the only way we can.
You're denied. You're denied. Simon, it was
David said, he said, I have not sat with vain persons. I have
not sat with deceivers. He said, I love the habitation
of thy house. I love the congregation of thy people. He said, that's
where you're going to find me sitting. That's where I want to be. But
David did, didn't he? Just like Simon Peter, he ended
up in Gath. What's he doing there? What's
he doing there? Remember that story? David, this
is the enemy. This is who you were fighting,
Gath, where Goliath came. What are you doing there? And
he ended up acting like a madman. And so will we. We have to live in this world,
we have to be with this world, we have to work among this world,
but they're not our companion. If they are, we'll be like them. And our goal and our hope and
our purpose in mingling is to bring them to hear the truth
of the gospel. Peter ended up denying it. He
read with me. You know, Peter later wished
that this had never happened. He said some things he wished
he'd never said. Anybody? He can't undo it. He can't undo
it. And it's the blood of Christ
that did it. The only thing. He could never get this out of
his mind. This is why John wrote one to
our little children. I write unto you, don't do it. Don't sin. And, if any man does,
we have in Africa, don't do it. He said some things we should
never say and he couldn't unsay them. did some things he wished
he hadn't done, he couldn't undo them. Words can't be taken back. I know him not. That haunted him the rest of
his life. Saul of Tarsus, that's the reason Paul said, I'm the
chief of sinners. My sin is ever before me, like
David. It's ever before me. I'll never get it off my Man,
how I denied the Lord. How I hated him that loved me. How could I? How could I? Well, we can't. And we just might. But God. Do you see why the gospel is
the greatest story of love and mercy and grace man has ever
known? That everyone hated him. And all His disciples left Him. Peter, His closest, denied Him. Simon of Judah betrayed Him. But He's not man, is He? He's
God. And that's who it takes to save
the likes of us. And look at our Lord's look now.
And this is why the Lord... You remember this whole thing
started, the Lord said, Watch and pray. Watch and pray. Watch
and pray. Look at verse 61. After Simon Peter denied him
three times, the cock crowed, the rooster crowed, just as our
Lord said. You know, the sun, if we follow
the far off, If we sit among dissemblers, if we listen to
the world, if we find our companions with the world, try to warm ourselves
at their fire with their wisdom, if we listen to the world, we're
going to deny our Lord before the sun comes up. Before the
sun comes up. And it says that the Lord turned,
verse 61, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. Just as soon as Peter said, I
cursed and swore and acted like an unbeliever, reverted right
back to that old man that he used to be, that still had in
him. And he looked up and the Lord was looking at him. And
the Lord's looking at us. He never takes his eyes off of
us. You know what? He never takes
his eyes off of you. That's why David said, I did
this in your sight. But the Lord looked on him, and
this look, this needs another whole message. But the Lord looked
upon Peter, and Peter remembered the word that the Lord spoke,
and it smote his heart. In verse 62, he went out, and
like I said, I believe he ran out of that place, don't you?
He couldn't get away from that crowd fast enough. He couldn't
get away from those people fast enough. Let me out of here. What
am I doing? What have I done? He ran outside. He ran out into the dark, sitting
from under that fire. Ran out into the cold. And he
sat down or he laid down somewhere in the dark in the cold and he
wept himself to sleep bitterly. He watered his gout with his
tears. Ever been there? What have I
done? What have I done? Well, this
is the beginning of healing. This is the beginning of conversion.
of conversion. He ran out and wept bitterly
and said, Oh wretched man that I am. That's the beginning of
salvation. That's the beginning of conversion.
That's the beginning of healing. The Lord looked upon him. This
is the first step. The Lord looked upon him. When
did the Lord first look upon Simon Peter? Before the world
began. whom he foreknew, he looked upon
him. Simon, long before he was born,
in the look of love, thoughts of love, our Lord said this concerning
all his people. He said, I know my thoughts towards
you, thoughts of peace. And I know everything about you.
I have predestined everything about you. I know what you're
going to look like because I'm going to make you that way. I
know what you're going to be, do, say. There's not a word in
your mouth, not a thought in your head, not a deed you'll
ever do that I'm not in absolute control of." And he loved him
anyway. Oh, he knew, he knows every one
of us, our thoughts, our love for him, our lusts, In the world. He knows. It's awful, isn't it? When Simon Peter first realized
who the Lord was in that boat, you know, the Lord called all
those fish into that net, and Simon thought, if he knows every
fish, If he sees the unseen fish, and he's got every one of them,
he knows every thought in my head. He knows what I've been
thinking while I've been sitting in this boat with him. Oh, and
he's going to hit his knees and say, depart from me, Lord, I'm
a sinful man. No, the Lord can't depart from
you. He can't. He came for you. That's why he
came for you. He knows you. I'll never forget
hearing a preacher preach on that. He knows you. When I was
a young believer. And it both scared me and it
both comforted me. He knows me. Oh, he knows me.
He knows all my sin, all my thoughts, all my lust, all my passion.
He knows all that. But yet he knows you. That means
love. This was a look of love. He looked
upon Peter before he was born. He looked upon Peter while he
was a sinner, while he was a foul-mouthed fisherman out in that boat, fishing
all day, cussing God. The Lord looked upon him. When he's without God, without
Christ, without hope in this world, a wretched, miserable,
poor, blind, and naked, cussing sailor, the Lord looked upon
him. That one's mine. I've come for him. And walked
on the shore that day and said, just with a word. That's all
it took. Signed up. Some of us think we're pretty
good trainers of animals. Do they always come to you when
you call them? No, they don't. Our lords do. They do. Simon, follow me. Not one, two, follow me. He walked off. No coercion, no
bribing, no begging, just a word of power, just a word of power.
Follow me. And he did. He did. So he looked
upon Him, called Him out of darkness into His marvelous light, looked
upon Him as a wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked, sinner, sailor,
sinner, and called Him out of that. But now, hold on, He's
still got that old sailor inside of Him. That time I knew it. Our Lord knew it. And this is the paradox of it.
This is why he keeps calling him Simon, Simon, Simon. Just
on rare occasions, Peter. Here he's called Peter all the
way through. Peter, Peter, Peter. A rock? A rock? Yeah, because
it's not Peter's faith. See, that's not the rock upon
which the church is built. It's Peter. Peter's faith is
built on Christ's rock. You ask Peter what his name is,
he says, Simon. You ask old Jacob, what's his
name? Israel? No, Jacob. Simon Peter. Peter. The Lord
looked upon him. This look was a look of conviction.
This look was a look of compassion. It caused Simon Peter great grief
and shame. But it brings him to this. which
we all need daily. Repentance. Repentance. It's the goodness
of God that leads us to repentance. If we don't fail in thought,
we wish we wouldn't, we don't want to, we intend not to, but
we're sinners, and we do. And it gives us great grief and
great sorrow, but what's it make us do? Lord, forgive me. Lord, have mercy upon me. Lord, take pleasure in them that
fear Him, and we fear Him, so He's going to cast me out. The
world doesn't fear that. They don't even believe Him.
They don't care. They want Him dead. No. Not God's people. And even though we deny Him, we come back. And you know, the
four words Peter wished he had never said, that he could not
get out of his head, I know Him not. forward. He never got anything. I can't
believe I said that. How could I have said that to
him who called me, who loved me, who washed me from my sins
with his own blood, who did all that he did not, would not deny
me? How could I deny him? Peter needed that for his own
humility and, you know, contrite, contrition of heart, and to be
able to comfort his brethren. But the two, two of the Two of
the sweetest words he ever heard in his life, and he was so thankful,
so glad to hear them. It brought him great joy. It
brought him out of darkness into his marvelous light. The Lord
sent an angel to tell them, go tell my disciples. And Peter,
not Simon, Peter, That's his name. That's my boy. I named
him. I loved him. I'll never leave
him. Go tell Simon Peter I'm waiting on him to come back.
Remember, he couldn't get out of that ship. He didn't take
his clothes off. Sink or swim, I got to get to
him. First one at the Lord's fire. Now somebody's got a fire
going. And I'm way ahead of them, but
I had to get to them. That's what it's all going to
come to, you see. We're going to deny Him and wish we never
had, but we want to somehow. And I tell you this, I warn you,
don't do it. Don't sit with Him. Don't do
it. Don't be a far off. Abide in
Him. You won't deny Him. But if you do, and when you do,
and you repent, you call on the Lord. You know what He's going
to do? He's going to call you back. Come on, man. Now, now you go comfort your
brothers. They're just like you. All right.