Thank you, John, Jeanette. Go
with me now to Luke, chapter 22. Luke 22. Read with me the text, verses
31 through 38. Luke 22, 31 through 38. 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 Peter, Simon, said
unto him, Lord, I am 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. And he said unto them, all of
his disciples, when I sent you without purse and script and
shoes, lacked ye anything? And they all said, nothing. Then
said he unto them, but now, he that hath the purse, let him
take it, and likewise his script or money, and he that hath no
sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. For I say unto you,
that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me. And
he was reckoned, quoting Isaiah 53, reckoned among the transgressors.
For the things concerning me have an end. And they said, Lord,
behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, it is
enough. Title and the subject before
us is very simple. I usually give an outline to
some of you ladies, but it's just so simple. We're going to
look at the sinner. The sinner. Secondly, Satan. And then lastly, the Savior. And I asked the Lord and I I've
tried to tell myself not to spend more time on the sinner and Satan
than I do the Savior, and to get to Him as quickly as possible,
because it's a very fearful thing. There are many warnings here. The sinner. Simon, he says in
verse 31, the sinner. Simon, Simon. He doesn't call
him Peter here. He calls him Simon, does he?
I was mistaken. He did call him Peter down there,
didn't he? But not very often. But He addressed him as Simon,
Simon. And He often said that. Simon, remember, by the fire
after he rose. Simon, son of Jonah. Bar-Jonah. That's who He is. He's just the
son of another sinner. That's all Simon wanted. By nature,
Scripture says, there's not a just man on the earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. Not one. Scripture says, by one
man sin entered into this world, and death passed upon all men,
for all have sinned. All have sinned. I want you to
turn quickly with me. Proverbs 7. Go to Proverbs chapter
7. What we all are, we're born sinners,
and we live in this world as sinners, and we're going to die
sinners. We're just a bunch of sinners.
That's what we are. But God, that's a faithful saint. Christ came into this world to
save sinners, even the chiefs. Proverbs 7 is the story of a
simple man. Look at verse 6. At the window
of my house I looked through my casement. Behold and beheld
among the simple ones. I discerned among you the young
man void of understanding. And what happened was this loud
and proud and stubborn woman, the harlot, enticed him. She represents many things. She
represents everything that's beautiful and enticing in this
world. She represents false religion. She represents everything that
entices simple sinners. And he failed for her. And she did it with flattery.
She did it with smiles. She did it with, you know, good
words and fair speeches. And he said, I beheld, and he,
verse 22, he went after her. As an ox goeth to the slaughter,
as a spool to the crutch, till a dart strike through his liver.
So he says, hearken unto me, verse 24, O you children. Oh
my. Chapter 8 of Proverbs, look at
this, Proverbs 8, which is Christ. He's wisdom in it. Look at verse
1. Doth not he cry? Understanding. Christ is understanding. Doesn't
He put forth His voice from the church? She and she standeth
in the high places by the way, in the places of the past. She
cries at the gates, at the entry of the city. Verse 4, unto you,
O men, will I call my voices to the sons of men. Oh, ye simple,
O sinners, understand. Wisdom. Come to Christ. You're just a bunch of sinners.
You need a Savior. So the Lord calls Simon's name. Not Peter. He calls him Simon.
Peter means rock, but here He says, you're just Simon. And
you'll fall unless I hold you up. Simon Bar-Jonah. And He says
this twice. He says His name twice. You know
that? Simon, Simon. Can you see Him? You remember the definition of
pity that I gave you? It means to shake the head. Like
when you look upon somebody that you're greatly in great trouble
or sorrow, and you shake your head, oh my. Can you see our Lord shaking
His head? Simon had just boasted. They had just strove among themselves
who was the greatest. And He's listening to them. Every one of them did. They got
indignant with one another. There was strife and division
among themselves. And can you see him shaking his
head like a parrot? Oh, Simon, Simon. The Lord said Abraham's name
twice when Abraham took Isaac up on the mount to sacrifice
him. Do you not know that Abraham was distraught? He was trusting
the Lord, he was believing the Lord, he was hoping in the Lord,
but he's about to kill his son. And God said when Abraham took
that knife, He said, How am I going to do this? Don't you know Abraham
said, How am I going to do this? Abraham, Abraham, don't touch
the lad. Look behind you. That sent chills up my spine.
Moses didn't know he was coming or going in Egypt and all that. He ran out of Egypt. He's out
in the wilderness. He said, there's a bush burning
up on that mountain. I'm going to see what this is.
And he went up there just to see the sights. And God said,
Moses, Moses. This is the same Lord saying,
take off your shoes, Moses. Simon, Simon. Great peace in that voice, isn't
it? Oh, how simple, how weak, how helpless we are in ourselves. Our Lord says, you don't know.
You're just wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. You know,
we get lifted up with pride and think we have need of nothing,
but in fact we need everything. And without Him, we can do nothing. Thank God. Thank God. Christ is made unto us everything. That all fullness dwells in Him. Aren't you thankful that He is
made of God? Are we in Him who of God is made
unto us? All that we need is wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. I quoted that to John, I think. We were sitting up there talking
about the Redeemer. And remember, I quoted Ruth where
they said to Ruth, the man won't rest until he finishes this thing. Put your trust in that kinsman
redeemer. He will not rest until he finishes
his study. Aren't you glad that God gave
us to Christ? Christ is our Redeemer. And all
fullness dwells in Him. We are nothing, but all fullness
is in Him. And of His fullness have all
we receive grace for grace. And He emptied Himself to fill
us. Oh, isn't that something? Simon,
Simon. Satan. Now let's look at the
adversary. Satan. He's called the evil one. He's
called Lucifer. He's called the son of the mourner. Light. An angel of light. In disguise. He's called the
prince of the power of the air. He's called the ruler of the
darkness of this world. All of it. He's headed. All the
evil. He's called spiritual wickedness
in high places. He's called the God, the master
of this world, master deceiver, the tip-toe. No man, no woman
at their best state is able to stand before Him. None. Eve. Adam. And he says to Satan,
or he says to simple Simon, Satan had desired you. Who? A fisherman? Now what's
Simon Peter going to do? He can't do anything. And Simon
Peter, by experience, later wrote in his epistle, 1 Peter 5, he
said, Satan as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he
may desire. Anybody and everybody. All of
God's people. And I've said this before. And
who does he desire? Me? Well, if he does, I'm... I can't stand. Can you? Not before one single
temptation. Not one. Our Lord said that without
me you can do nothing. Not one. Simon boasted, didn't
he? In himself. And he lifted up
himself above his brethren, didn't he? He said that all these forsake
you. I will not. So all the Lord had to do was
just leave him alone. Just one minute. One minute. You know, everyone
who belongs to Christ, I've said this before, Satan is not omniscient. He doesn't know everything. He's
not omnipresent. He's not everywhere. But he took
a third of the heavenly hosts with him. That's a lot of demons. But he doesn't even need them.
He can just leave, God leave a man in this world and the world
and everything in it is enough temptations without anybody doing
anything to him. But I believe he knows who he
does not have absolute control of. I believe he does. He said
that about Job, didn't he? And he said, he fears you, but
why should he? You've protected him all about.
You've blessed everything. You've hedged him about. I can't
touch him. You notice that? He couldn't get one boil on his
body. Are you with me? Are you with
me? Right now more than ever, he
couldn't get one boil on his body unless God said so. Right? And though the means were set
by Satan and this and that, God did it. And Job knew it. And Job said so. That's faith. But anyway, Satan desired Job,
Satan desired Simon, and Satan desires all of God's people.
You know, the Scripture says there's joy in heaven over one
sinner that repented. So surely there's joy in hell
over one that falls. Don't you know they erupted when
David fell? No, it didn't. The enemy's dead. They rejoiced. We got him. We got him. See? He's no better
than anybody else. That's what they said. You know
he did. Satan's not omniscient. He doesn't
know all things. We're going to look at our Lord's
Prayer in the Garden on Sunday. Satan... I want to go on. I want to get to the Savior.
But he's not omniscient. And I am speaking things too
wonderful for me, but I don't want to speak evil of dignities. Our Lord said, look at our text,
He says, He desires to sift you, to have you that He may sift
you as wheat, as wheat. Now turn with me to Amos, the
little book of Amos, find that. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Amos chapter 9. Amos is called
the burning prophet because he speaks so much about fire from
God. Right after Joel, the book of
Amos chapter 9. Our Lord said, Satan desires
to sift you as wheat in a sieve. Have you ever done that? I'm
not talking about flour. I'm talking about grain, rough
grain. You put it in a big sieve. And what you do to get the chaff
out of it is you throw it up in there. The threshing floor,
there's two ways. Threshing floor where they beat
it. And that's how the wheat came out of it. They beat it,
fresh it, fresh it. That's what God sends to all
his people, to find out the wheat from the chaff. Trials, hard
trials. And it takes it, the wind comes
along and blows the chaff away, and the wheat falls to the ground.
Wheat stays there. Wheat's not going anywhere. But
then when you put it in a sieve, you put it in a sieve, and you
do this, and you shake it, and you toss it here and to and fro,
and you really shake it and try to get all this chaff to come
out the screen, the sieve, you know, where the wheat will be
in the sieve. Well, Satan wants to prove God's
people, that they're not God's people, that they are in fact
chaff. Or like gold is tried in the
fire. He wants to prove us to be dross and not gold. He was happy to see Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego be thrown in that fire. How'd they come
out? Like gold. Who put them there? God did. Who was with them? God was. Christ was. Satan wants to prove
you that you're chaff, Simon, that you're not wheat. And he
thinks you're worshiping God for nothing, that you're no better
than Judas. He's probably said that to Jacob,
that you're no better than Esau. Oh yeah, you'll sell out time
to come. You'll sell out. You'll prove what you are. Now, he had already used Simon
once, remember? Do you remember? And Simon rebuked
the Lord. The Lord told him what he was
going to do, suffer. And he said, oh, he pulled the
Lord aside to tell him what he ought to do. And the Lord turned and said,
get behind me, Satan. Satan was using him then. Can Satan do that? Can Satan
use us? Can Satan use anybody? Oh, yeah. Yes, he can. Let me say this
before we look at Amos 9. How did Satan start sin in this
earth? How did he start? How was it
started? Out of all the evil that came in this world, how
was it started? Right there. Wasn't it? whispered to the woman in private. I was telling lies,
slandering God, and telling her, God's withholding from you. Did
he have a smile on his face? Did Satan have a smile on his
face? Yeah. Kisses of an enemy or a deceiver.
Smiles. Tears. Did he turn on the tears? God won't let me in again. He
won't have anything to do with me. And now he's withholding
from you. He's treating you poorly. That's
how it all started. Wasn't it? Lie on God. Whispering. Gossip. Slander. Criticism. That's how it all started. Can
Satan use us? Yes, he can. And I'm telling
you, I'm warning you, this is his tool. What he wants is to
divide. What he wants is division and
strife. What he wants is the kingdom
of God to fail. This is a little church, and
I'm small potatoes, but this is God's church, and I either
am or I am not his preacher. Don't talk about Privately, do
not criticize this church, your brothers, and this preacher.
If you do, Satan has you. Do you hear me? Do you hear me? And don't tolerate anybody else
doing it. If you love this gospel, if you
need this kingdom, this gospel, don't put up with it. You rebuke whoever it is and
get behind them. As it can happen, it happens
all the time. Don't countenance people's smiles
or tears or self-pity. Who's on the Lord's side? Don't
do it now. All right? That need to be said.
We're in the last days and judgments begin at the house of God. Don't
be his pawn. Don't be his instrument of strife
and division. Don't do it now. Amos chapter
9. Now this sifting of Satan was
really of the Lord. Sifting of Simon Peter. Look at Amos chapter 9 verse
9. And the Lord talks about, you
know, the goats and the sheep. And the wheat and the tares,
doesn't he? Often, he says, I'm going to make them known. He
says, it's going to be a sifting. Verse 9, I will command, I will
sift the house of Israel. You have it, verse 9, chapter
9? Among all nations, like corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall
not the least grain fall upon the earth. I'm going to get rid
of the dross, but the grain Not one of them is going to fall
to the earth. Do you hear me? Verse 10, all the sinners of
my people shall die by the sword, which say the evil shall not
overtake to prevent us. Oh, in that day I'll raise up
the tabernacle of David. And he goes on to talk about
Christ. Oh. Verse 14, I'll bring the captivity
of mine. My people, verse 50, I'll plant
them in the land and they'll never be uprooted. But he said,
I'm going to do some shifting and mine, my weeds, they're going
to remain. My weeds. So the sifting is of the Lord,
isn't it? Though Satan desires and Satan
tries and Satan tempts, he can only do what the Lord allows
him to do for the good of God's people, like Job. Anything we
will ever go through, Job went through it in a matter of a day
or two. He went through it all at the
same time. You know, in a lifetime, 70 years, we will go through
some degree of all of this. Loss of loved ones, loss of things,
loss of health and this and that and the other, won't we? And
people and things and calamities and all that will be the means
that which it happens, disease and whatever, but it's the Lord
that does it. Every bit of it. Whatever it
is, the Lord said, it is I. Like the disciples, you know,
they were out on the sea and they thought they saw a vision
on it. He said, why do you imagine things in your heart? He said,
when he got in the boat, he said, why is it you're always thinking
the Word? Why is it you're giving credit to all these things when
it is I? Don't sin with your lips. Bless
God. That's what he said. Bless God.
Do you have peace? If you know, if you realize,
if you, you know, we're downcast, but we're not in despair. Why?
Because it's the Lord. He said He does all things. He worketh
all things together. For what? For what? Didn't He
say in Psalm 91, no evil shall befall you? Didn't He say that?
Can He lie? He can't lie. So we just have
to wait. Let patience have her perfect
word. Wait, I say. Wait on the Lord. You'll see.
It was the Lord's hand. And when it's over, you're going
to see he knows what he's done in it. Like Scott Richardson
said, if you knew what God knows, you wouldn't change a thing.
You'd order your life exactly the way God did it. When at the
time you think this is the worst possible thing that could happen,
Don't you? We all do. This is the worst
thing that could possibly happen. Why? Why? Why? And you wait a
little while, you see. It's for His glory. It's for
my good. It's for the good of His kingdom. All right, let's
look at the Savior. I got about 60 more minutes.
I wish. I got a little time. The Savior. I've been talking about Him.
Here's His protection and His provisions, His prayer, Savior,
our advocate. We're talking about the adversary.
If any man sin, we have an advocate. Aren't you glad? He's with the
Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. The
Father always hears His prayer. And he said, and one of the ladies
texted me today when I texted the text, She wrote back and
said, Oh, I sure love verse 32. He said, Satan hath desired to
sift you this week, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith
fail not. And I believe he's smiling when
he said that. He's shaking his head. Simon,
Simon, Simon. Oh, Simon, Simon. Oh, what you're
going to go through. But, he lifted his head up. Simon licked his head and said,
I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not. I have prayed.
Why did the Lord say He prayed for you? Why didn't the Lord
just say, I'm going to take care of you, you don't have a thing
to worry about. I've got Satan under my thumb, I'm going to
take care of you. Why did He say, I prayed for you? Because the Lord is living as
a man by faith. He's showing us. He's showing
Simon Peter. And our Lord, in this sense,
limited Himself. Can I say that? He took upon
Himself weakness in flesh, and He lived totally by faith in
God. So He asked God for everything
that He received. He asked God for the help for
His disciples. Okay? He depended, he cast all
his care and all their care upon his Heavenly Father. See, the
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And our Lord,
as a man, told us to pray always about everything. Pray your Heavenly
Father. He'll answer you in it. David, all through the... Pray,
pray, pray, pray. So he's a man. He's not going
to do... The Father's going to do this.
And our Lord hasn't been praying. I've prayed for you. He was living by faith, casting
His care, as we're told to do, upon the Father. He told them,
He told us, to pray without ceasing. Prayer is calling on God to help. And we're going to hear the Lord
Sunday, Lord willing, in the garden, calling for help. About
to go through something that He said, If it's possible. And we're going to go through
things. Lord, please. Help me. Prayer believes God. Prayer calls on God. Waits on
an answer. You must wait. He said, I have
prayed for you. He had. He did. And he does. He does not now. He's seated
at the right hand of the majesty on high. All right, so he tells
us to pray. And Peter, look at verse 32. Verse 32. He says, now Peter, and I was
going to turn to John 17 and read so many verses, where the
Lord prayed, Father, keep them. All You've given Me, I've kept.
But He said, I'm coming to the Father. Keep them through Thy
own name. I pray not, He said, that I should
take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil. And Christ, He said, the things
concerning me, down in verse 37, have an end. He's leaving, isn't He? But He's
sending a comforter. He's sending someone else to
abide with them and never leave them. And they're one, Christ
and the Spirit. They're one. But Christ is a
real man seated at the right hand of God right now. And the
Holy Spirit dwells in every one of God's people. Leading, guiding,
protecting, doing God's will. in God's people's life. Christ
said, I'm leaving. He lived as a man for men and
prayed as a man in faith to the Father and asked the Father to
protect them. So, verse 32, he said to Peter,
I pray that thy faith fail not. Now, faith, what is it? Faith
is not something we do. Faith is not something we do.
Faith is someone we believe in. Faith is not what we do, but
faith is believing in what Christ has done. Faith is not us at
all. Faith is Him. Faith is not an
act of ours. It's just looking unto Him, like
a maid, Scripture says, to her mistress. Like a servant to his
master. Like a dog to his master. Does
your dog ever look up at you like, look up at you like, I
can't eat? I can't go outside? I can't, I can't do it? Help. Your dog ever do that? You're his master. That's faith. You're my everything. That's faith. Looking to Him,
believing, trusting Him, trusting God, trusting Christ, depending
on Him. It's love to Him. Does your dog love you? Don't
you wish you could love the Lord like our dogs love us? Follow
Him. That's what faith is. He's object. Faith is not something we do.
It's someone we trust. Now here's what Isaiah said.
Now our Lord said, Peter, Simon, Barjona, Satan hath desired thee
to sift you like wheat. Simon's going to fall terribly. He's going to fall like he'd
never fallen before because he's no match for this adversary.
He's going to fall. David did. Eve, Adam did. Solomon did. Every man in his
best state is going to fall. As I said, fickle, finite, fallible.
Failures. That's what we are. Failures.
Prone to failure. Prone to fall. Sin, like gravity,
pulls us down. There's no hope in ourselves.
There's only one hope, and that's in one person. And the Scripture
says, though a righteous man falls seven times, the Lord is
going to unite him. Simon's going to fall. Simon's
going to fail. But Christ won't. Christ is not
going to fail. Simon is going to deny Him. Christ
is not going to deny Him. He came. You're smiling now. That's good. Peter denied Him. Our Lord would
never deny Simon. Peter left Christ. Christ said,
I will never leave you nor forsake you. Ever. Don't you love him,
Hosea, where he said about Eve, forgive him, just leave him alone.
He's gone to his isle, leave him alone. And later on the Lord
said, how can I give you up, Eve? I can't do it. I promised. We fail, we fall. Our Lord Isaiah
said it in Isaiah 42, God's servant, behold, he shall not fail. till he's done his work. That
man, he will not rest till he's done his work. Oh, brothers and sisters, we've
got a faithful Lord, don't we? If you can leave, you will. You
know that? If you can leave, you will. It means Christ never knew you.
It means Christ never loved you. It means Christ didn't purchase
you. It means you're not God's elect. If you can leave, you
will. It'd be something. Judas, he didn't know Christ. He didn't have any faith. Judas
didn't believe Christ. He did not. He didn't love Christ.
He didn't love God's people. Like I said, he sold Christ out
and he sold the rest of them too. He didn't care about them.
He cared about money. He's hoping the whole thing would fail. Because
he didn't have love of God in him, and so he'll look better
if all this falls. But not Simon Peter. He failed. He denied him. And he's not going
to sell him. And he's going to go out and
weep bitterly in them. And he's not going to leave. He's not
going to leave. When it's all over, he's not
going to leave. And remember what he said before, and he meant
every word of it. Lord, to whom shall we go? To whom? He had
a wife. He had a family. He had a house.
He had a job. He had things. And he said, I
don't want to go back to that. And he meant it. Why? Because
he loved Christ. Why did he love Christ? Because
Christ loved him. That's how you know. Okay? And
our Lord said, I pray that your faith fail not, your dependence
on me, your love for me, your looking to me, that you'll never
quit looking to me. You're going to fail. You're
going to fall miserably. And it's going to cause you great
grief and a lot of people around you great grief. But I pray that
you'll keep looking to me. Because if you do, it's proof
that I have not failed you. I will not fail you. You see,
if you can leave, you will. But if you belong to Christ,
you might leave, but you'll come back. You know what? He'll come. He'll find you. He'll
find you. Nothing wrong with you, kiddo.
He'll find you. You will sin. You will fall,
but never finally. Never finally. You can't. You
can't. Isn't that good news? And the
purpose of Peter's fall was to get into such a state that he
could enter into what all his brethren are going to. So our
Lord said, when you're converted, he got into such a state, he
was lifted up with pride, you know, above his brethren. So
the Lord said, okay, you're going to fall so low that you don't
even know if you're one of them. You're going to doubt your salvation.
You're going to think, everybody's saved but me. Before he thought,
everybody may leave you, not me. And after this is over, you're
going to think, nobody left you but me. So, there's no hope for me. No, there's not, in yourself.
But you have a good hope through grace, don't you? Through Christ.
Now, when you're converted, when you get out of this state of
pride and bitterness and self-sufficiency and all this, here's what you
do. You strengthen your brethren. So Simon's going to be a preacher.
He's going to go out in this world. He thought he was strong.
He finds out he's weak as a kitten without the Lord. And what he's
going to be doing is preaching to people, every one of them
weak, every one of them a bunch of sinners, every one of them
sons of Adam, every one of them liable to fault, and none of
them can do anything at all. But by His grace, by His power. And He's going to be preaching
to them. Now how's He going to strengthen them? You know what
He's going to do? He's going to tell them what happened to
Him. He's going to tell them what
great things the Lord has done for them. He's going to say,
this is a faithful saint, brothers. Like Saul of Tarsus. I'm the
chief of sinners. He told that story over and over
again, didn't he, John? Saul of Tarsus. This was me.
This was me. And this was you, and you, who
were dead and trespassed in sin. He said, I was a chief, but God. This is how you strengthen people.
This is how you build them up on this most holy faith. This
is how you keep them looking to Christ. You're weak, but He's
strong. You're a sinner, He's a Savior.
No hope in yourself, but there's all hope in Him. Strengthen their brethren. Tell
them how weak you are. Confess your faults one to another.
Be compassionate to their faults and their failures. Pick them
up. Bear their burden. Tell them. Tell them Christ is
the Savior. That's who He came for. Look at verse 33. He said, Lord,
I'm ready to go with Thee both to prison and to death. He will. He will. You know Him? He will. But He's got to be converted
first. And every, you know, every one of them said this in Matthew
and Mark's Gospel. It says every single one of them
said the same thing. Us too, Lord. It said all of
them. Our Lord said that. Every one
of you will be offended because of that. Why? Because the Scriptures
fulfilled. Because the shepherd and the
sheep will be scattered. Because nobody's going to go
with Him to the cross, He's going to go alone. And because every
one of us are nothing but sinners, and we're going to fall, just
like our Lord said. But He won't fail. Every one
of them left Him, He's going to leave one of them. You see
that? So what is faith? It's not a
what. It's looking unto Him. Well, and I, you know, I want
to be like Simon Peter. He meant it. He meant it. Didn't
he? Now I'm ready to go. He meant
that. He's got to learn this. Now read
on, and I don't really have time to deal with this, but let me
just briefly. Our Lord said, I tell you before
the sun comes up, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day
before thou shalt not thrice deny that thou knowest me. And
the same is true with all of us. We won't leave this, we'll
leave this building, and before tomorrow, in some way, somehow,
we're going to deny, we're going to act like we've never heard
anything the Lord ever said. in our attitude and things that
run through our heads and minds, you know, thoughts, and we act
like we didn't hear a thing. That's true. Now he says to them, verse 35,
when I sent you without purse and script and shoes, lacked
ye anything, Now, you know, he's telling them
about their weakness. He's telling them about their
failures. He's telling them about their hopelessness in themselves
and how Satan desires them to shift them like weed. And now he reminds them where he
found them, what he did for them, and that he'll never cease to
do so. He says, when I sent you without
person script, remember that? It wasn't too long ago, He said,
He sent them out. Lack ye anything? They said, we haven't lacked a thing. We've had everything. And I was
going to turn to Psalm 23. The Lord is our shepherd and
shall not lack. Feed us and lead us and restore
us. companionship and righteousness
and everything. Christ is all. He provides all
for us. Do you lack anything? Have we
not received great mercy and grace and help in time of need
all of our lives? Have we not received everything?
Have we lacked anything? Nothing, Lord, nothing. But then
he says here, and this may be puzzling to you, and it has been
to me for years, but I think I have some understanding through
Brother Gil and Brother Matthew. He says, But now he that hath
a purse, let him take it, likewise his script, and he that hath
no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. I say unto you that
that as written must yet be accomplished in me. He was reckoned among
the transgressors. And they're going to come for
him, like the Scripture said, okay? As a band, a band of soldiers
and priests and all that are going to come for him very shortly.
And he proved one last time that they don't protect themselves,
that he protects them, right? And when he went out in front
of all that whole band and said, And they said, Jesus is mad.
He said, if you seek me, you've got to let them go. John, they
were coming for all of them. Right? Simon Peter. You're going
to see this. Simon Peter took one of those
swords. And he was going to take them
all. The Lord showed us Simon really meant it, didn't he? He
really meant it. But Simon's got to see that sword's
not your protection. I am. Christ is. That no one
or nothing can have you unless I say so. I'm your shield. I'm
your strength. I'm yourself. Christ is yourself.
But Simon took up that sword and the Lord told him, put it
up. Didn't he? The Lord is not calling them
to arms. Many people take this as a call
to arms. See? Got a right to bear arms. That's
not what he's saying. What he's telling them, reminding
them, in the previous chapter he told them, he said, they're
going to kill you. They're coming after you. There's
not one of you that's not going to be killed except one. There's
going to be one here that's going to see the kingdom of God. That's
John. The only one that didn't die. The rest of them died horrible
deaths. And none of them ever carried
a sword. Never. Paul talked about all the perils
he faced of robbers and thieves. He did not carry a sword. In fact, he said, put on the
whole armor of God, didn't he? He said, arm yourselves with
this, the sword of the Spirit, that He is your shield. They
didn't carry swords. What our Lord is telling them
is things are going to get so bad, you're going to wish you
had a sword. But you don't need one. Because one of them said,
well, here's two. And Mike, what Gil said was the
Lord said this like, that's enough. That's enough. Like, that's all
I want to say on the subject. Here's two swords among eleven
men facing an army? It's not the sword. He's not
telling them to take up the sword. What he's been telling all along
is, And showing them all along that Christ is their Savior. He's their shield. And He's their
salvation. And He's their righteousness.
And He's their shepherd. And He's their wisdom. And He's
their everything. That's what He's been telling
them. He's all of them. He said, troubles are coming. They're coming. You're going
to fail. The enemy's going to be after
you. But I'm your Savior. Keep looking to me. I pray that
your faith fail not. That you keep looking to me.
Don't look to the memes. Don't look to these things. Don't
try to defend yourself. Look to me. I'm your defense.
I'm your salvation.