Let's read verses 69 through
to the end. Now Peter sat without in the
palace, and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with
Jesus of Galilee. But he denied before them all,
saying, I know not what thou sayest. And when he was gone
out into the porch, another maid or young lady saw him and said
unto them that were there, this fellow was also with Jesus of
Nazareth. And again, he denied with an
oath, I swear, I promise you, I do not know the man. And after
a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter,
Surely thou also art one of them, for thy speech bereath thee,
or evidence against you. Then began he to curse and to
swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock
crew. And Peter remembered the word
of Jesus. which said unto him, Before the
cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept
bitterly." He went out and wept bitterly. Bitter weeping over
denial and remembering the Lord's word to him. Bitter weeping.
Simon's denial was the most bitter memory in his life. I am certain
that he never got over this. Like David, he would always say,
my sin is ever before me. But God, through this story,
He brought about Peter's conversion through this denial. You see, though we are offended
in Him at times, He is not ashamed to call us brethren. This is
our salvation, you see. If we learn anything from this,
learn this. that He saves us in spite of
ourselves. Though we're offended by Him,
He is never offended in us and not ashamed to call us brethren. Though we forsake Him, every
one of us, He said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Though we deny Him, He cannot deny Himself. He cannot deny those whom He
is united to. And He graciously calls back
and heals the backsliding of every one of His people through
the gospel. The gospel that says, go tell
my disciples and meet them. Luke 22. Go over to Luke 22 with
me. It's a little more in-depth account
of what happened before Peter's denial. Luke 22. As said before, Peter's denial
and ours begins a long time before we deny him. Peter and us were
born in denial. We were brought forth from the
womb. Well, in sin did our mothers conceive us and brought forth
from the womb in sin and unbelief. We were raised, we were brought
up in denial. We live in denial. Through our
many years, 30, 40, I don't know how long you lived before the
Lord revealed Himself to you, but you were in denial. You had
no thoughts of God, no thoughts of Christ, and even still we
all deny Him by our words, by our actions, by our attitude,
by our unbelief, by our silence. These are all denials. But God,
you see I cannot preach the gospel without those two words. The
word convicts us, convinces us of sin. It says, and you, and
you, and you, and you, and you who were dead, you who walked
according to the course of this world, and you who have denied
Him, and you. But God, but God chose Simon,
loved Simon. bought Simon, called him by his
word, called him by his gospel, saved him by his grace. Simon
belongs to the Lord. He is not his own anymore. He is bought with a price. And
the Lord is not going to let him go. Remember after all this
he said, I am going fishing. Go ahead, but the Lord's coming
back after you like He did the first time. If He bought you,
you're His, you're not your own. And you can't, you can't leave.
Where's the bill of your divorcement, He said? You can't leave. And Simon's
whole life was a lesson in this, and ours is too, in that you
did not choose me, I chose you. And that you do not provide for
yourself, you're not kept by your own faith or power, you're
kept by my power. Even in our sins and our denials,
This is all for God's glory, to the praise of the glory of
His love. He loves His own to the end. To the praise of the glory of
His mercy, His ever merciful, long-suffering, His grace, His
faithfulness. David said, deliver me in Thy
faithfulness and Thy righteousness. Oh, He will. He will, if that's
your hope. Luke 22, verse 19, the Lord,
remember, He said, well, verse 20, 21, He said, Behold, the
hand of Him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table. The
Son of Man goeth, as it were determined. They all, remember,
began to say unto Him, Lord, is it I? Is it I? That's a safe place to be. That's
the place to be. Suspicious of yourself. Not trusting
yourself. That's a good place to be. Examine
yourself. Not to see what progress you've
made. If you really examine yourself,
what you'll find is What you'll think is, I haven't made any
progress at all. And you'll be wondering if you're
a child of God at all. You'll see more sin in there
than you did in the beginning. But here's what it says, examine
yourself to see if you be of the faith. That is, who you're
trusting. Who you're trusting. Who you're
looking to, to save you. Self-examination is good. And
they all came to the Lord and said, Lord, you decide this. He said, I. Is it I? If it is, don't let me do this,
please." They all did that. But then it wasn't long after
that. Look at the next verse, verse 24. Unbelievably, there
was a strife among them, which should be counted the greatest. Where's all this, Is it I? Every one of them got involved
in that. How can this be? How can this be? Because the Spirit is willing,
but the flesh is wicked. They're all flesh. That which
is flesh is flesh, and flesh is proud and sinful. If the Lord leaves us alone for
a minute, we'll begin to be puffed up with pride. Oh, my. Has anyone in here ever been
offended because someone didn't call on you, didn't include you
or whatever, you feel like you're unloved and unnoticed and not
appreciated? Anybody? Anybody? Is there anybody that hadn't?
Now, why is that? And it makes strife, doesn't
it? It puts bitter envy and strife in you against your brother.
Why aren't they calling me? Why don't they call them? What we're saying is, I deserve
to be called upon. They ought to be including me.
How could they do this to me? That sort of, that's pride is
what that is. If you really esteem yourselves
as a chief of sinners, you will indeed esteem others better than
yourself. Peter, after he's converted, Peter, after he lifts up himself
above his brethren, and it's right after this, Peter said,
well, they all may leave you, but not me. Peter, after he's
converted, after it's all over, when he really finds out about
himself, Peter is thinking, If I'm one of his disciples, I don't
see how. And if my brethren will include
me, it will be great grace if they'll let me back. That's what
he's thinking. I don't deserve to be among them,
but I sure would appreciate it. That's conversion. to be brought
out of self, to hate self and love others, to loathe self and
esteem others, to obey self and lift up others. That's conversion. And our Lord said in verse 31,
said unto Simon, Simon, now this is directed at him, Satan hath
desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. Simon's
the one that, he's pretty much the leader of these apostles,
wasn't he? So he was Satan's chief target. And the Lord knew it. And He
warned Simon, Satan hath desired they sift you like wheat. Now, the God of this world, people,
the God of this world holds captive everyone in this world, except the Lord's chosen ones. They've been delivered. They've
been redeemed. They've been set free by the
Son of God, Spirit indwelling. And Satan knows this. Like Job,
he knows it, that he can't touch them unless God allows it. He knows that. But Satan doesn't
know everything. And he doesn't believe in the
perseverance of the saints. He doesn't believe in that. And he desires to sift like wheat. And if the Lord lets us go according
to His will and His purpose like He did Job, we're easily sifted. easily tempted,
easily drawn away. But our Lord, here is Peter's
salvation and ours. In verse 32, he said, I have
prayed for thee, but God, but I. Satan desires you and if I let
you go, he will sift you, turn you inside out. Have you ever
sifted anything? There is nothing left. But I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not. I have prayed for you." You see,
we're not saved by our prayers, we're saved by Christ's prayer.
He ever lives to make intercession for us. There are times we go
and we don't do much praying, is it? Anybody? But our faith is this, He is
the object of our faith. That our faith fail not. Our
faith is not a creed. Our faith is not a doctrine.
Our faith is not things we believe. Our faith is a person. You see, we're faith... Scripture
says we're saved by the faith of Jesus Christ. by the faith
of Him. His blood, His righteousness,
His power, His prayers, that faith will never fail. The one
who trusts Christ will never fail. We fail, but He shall not
fail. And He's able to keep us from
falling, but will allow us to fall like He did Peter here for
our conversion. We'll never fall away completely. God's people that are in Christ,
that trust in Christ, will never fall away. I mean, I heard a man preach, and
we were thrilled by this illustration. He said, Noah, he was in that
ark, wasn't he, for a year. He was in that ark. One morning
he got up and he tripped and he fell. But he didn't fall out
of the ark. He fell in it. He was shut in. He didn't fall out the door.
The door was shut and sealed with pitch. He fell in it and
hurt, but he didn't fall out of it. You see how vital it is
to be in Christ, to trust Christ? Even in the face of your worst
sins, when Peter heard it was the Lord, what did he do? He
was in that boat and he denied Him. He felt like he was an unbeliever,
not wanting to decide. What did Peter do when he heard
it was the Lord? He could not get to Him fast
enough. You can have all these fish.
It is suddenly dawned on me. that the one thing I need is
Him. And when converted, we go through
this denial. We all do and will and shall
in bitter trials, we see ourselves for what we really are. He says
this, strengthen your brethren. As said, Peter felt the worst
of the worst. He felt like he didn't belong.
But, you know, they all forsook him, didn't they? Didn't they?
They all forsook the Lord. Every one of them. And so they
all knew, we're no better than you, Simon. Peter came back and
they said, we're no better than you, brother. We all forsook
him. This story is bitterly familiar
to all of God's people who have done this very thing. Verse 69
says, Peter sat without in the palace and he was a far off. He followed the Lord a far off.
Remember that? You can't follow the Lord a far
off. You can't do it. You'll be in outer darkness.
You'll be cold. You'll find yourself sitting
with the enemy, sitting with the people of this world. And
that's what he did. He sat by their fire and tried
to warm himself with their fire, with their company. And it can't
be done. Peter was not comfortable. Blessed
God, Peter was not comfortable with them. And if you find yourself comfortable
with the people of this world, the people who hate your God
and hate Christ and never mention Him except to curse His name,
there's something wrong with you. Judas was very comfortable
around them. Satan's sifting is very
subtle. What harm can there be to sit with unbelievers? Doesn't the very first Psalm
tell us? The very first psalm says that
David, a man after God's own heart, said, My companions are
them that fear God. He said, I will not sit with
the wicked. He said, Blessed is the man that
walketh not in a counsel ungodly. He's not listening. He's not
listening to what they have to say. Nor standeth in the way
of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. His delight
in the law of the Lord. The law of the Lord. The people
of God. Simon Peter was fine as long
as he was companions with Bartholomew and Thomas. They're all sinners,
yeah. But they knew the Lord. And their conversation and their
life was Christ. And so David said, I won't do
that. I'm not going to sit with them. We have nothing in common.
When they blasphemed, listen to me, here's the denial. Peter
wasn't saying anything. Peter wasn't saying anything. And you tell me, we work with
them, we have to, we deal with them, the people of the world,
we have to. Paul said that, he said, not
to keep company with fornicators and so forth, he said, but it
doesn't mean that you have to go out of the world to avoid
that completely. He said, how can light have fellowship? How can you feel comfortable
around? And when they blaspheme, if I
don't, When they blaspheme and stand
the railroad, I work there. It's every other word in it. And when they blaspheme and I
don't speak up on behalf of His name, I've denied Him. And in their complaints, they
complain about everything, the weather, about everything, especially
the weather, rain. That God ought to dry it up,
shouldn't He, Nancy? Ought to completely withhold
it forever. And when they complain and we
don't speak up and say, oh, bless the Lord for this rain. We don't
deserve it. He ought to be like, no, that's
got to be, brother. We've denied Him. And their praise of men, they
praise men and they exalt and extol and honor men. If we don't
speak up and say, man is worthless. There's only one man ever lived
that's worth mentioning here and honoring here. Only one man
God is well pleased with, that's Jesus Christ. If we don't do
that, we're denied Him. Right? Anybody guilty? Best not to sit
with them then, unless to save them. or else our silence denies
Him. That's a fact. As I said, our
Lord sat with publicans and sinners, ate with them for one reason.
He had His elect. And He preached to them every
time. He glorified God and He preached to them, told them the
truth every time. There was time that he said he
passed by whole cities. We're not going to stay there.
We don't have any elect there. We're not going to spend any
time with them. Well, a damsel came, verse 69,
a damsel, a young lady. Was she pretty? Was she fair? How easily Satan can sift or
tempt the strongest man by a mere maid, by a damsel, or a woman
for that matter, with a man. You know, it's never been considered
manly to be a Christian. Fact is, though, It takes a man
of great courage like our Lord to stand for the truth against,
even though everyone does not. I love Martin Luther. Oh, I love
that man. I love that man. And he practically
stood alone. He said, here I stand against
all the scorners, against the whole world. I can do no other. Any man, oh my, we've all been
a little self-conscious about being thought a churchgoer
or a Christian or whatever, before or after the service. Oh my. God, forgive us. God, forgive
us. Verse 70, but he denied before
them all. They said, he was with them,
and he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou
sayest. This is why we should not be hasty to utter anything
before God. Peter said, though all Though all shall be offended,
not I. So the Lord, it says, He denied
before them all. We need to put our hands over
our mouths. Be sure the sin of pride will
find us out. If we belong to the Lord, the
sin of pride, and it's perhaps the worst. God hates a proud
look more than any other thing. We will fall. It always goes
before a fall. Let's hope it's for our conversion.
to make us less than the least, not fit to be called a disciple,
unworthy, and esteem our brethren higher and esteem this gospel
as the most unworthy and blessed and high privilege that we could
ever have. That's the reason. That's conversion. Verse 71, And when he was gone
out in the porch, another maid, another young lady, saw him and
said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus
of Nazareth. See, they all began to recognize
Him. The longer we walk with Christ, the more recognizable
we will be. Oh boy. So our denials bring
even greater reproach on Him. Verse 72, and again He denied
with an oath, I do not know the man. I promise you, I swear I
don't know him. with an oath. You know, if the
Lord hadn't, who was it I read on this, it said, the Lord will
allow us to fall. And sometimes even a believer
can fall and fall and fall and keep getting deeper. And if God hadn't already before
determined how far he would fall, he would completely fall away.
Our Lord said about Peter, he said, Peter, you're going to
deny me three times. Once is bad enough. Two is awful. Three is, he's lost. No. No, the Lord said, hitherto
shall you go. And no further. And a rooster. reminded him. Everything is to the praise of
His glory. The Lord sends little things,
everything, anything. He can use anything to remind
us of something He said, of His blessed promises, of our failures
and yet His faithfulness. A rooster. Makes me want to get
a rooster so that every morning I hear Him crow. I don't think
it's of the Lord's mercy that I'm not consumed. But I got Wanda right here. to read every morning to remind
me the Word. Remember thy Word to thy servant,
David said, upon which you caused me to hope. And verse 73, And
after a while they came unto him, they that stood by those
that he was warming himself with. And at the time he was with them,
they had no clue that he was a believer. He didn't give any
evidence. to them while he was sitting
by the fire with them. He didn't give any evidence that
he was a believer. And then they finally recognized
his face and said, surely thou art one of them. for thy speech bereath thee."
Surely. Now listen to this for our comfort.
Turn to Proverbs 29 real quickly. Proverbs 29. I'm out of time,
but I have a few more things I want us to see here. Proverbs
29. Something I want us to see here, look at Proverbs 29, and
this is the truth throughout God's Word. Verse 23, you have
it? Proverbs 29, 23. through 25,
a man's pride shall bring him low. Honor shall uphold the humble
in spirit. Whoso's partner with a thief
hateth his own soul, he heareth cursing and bereath it not. He doesn't say anything. The
fear of man bringeth the snare. See that? That's exactly what
Peter did. But whoso putteth his trust in
the Lord shall be safe. By the way, John The beloved
disciple did flee like the rest. He had to. The Scripture says
so. But, it says John came back and
went right in there with the Lord. And he never left his side
after that. Went all the way to the cross,
didn't he? And stood at the foot of the cross with the Lord. And
you wonder why John was so close. Well, the Scripture says the
disciple whom he loved. I wonder why John had so much
peace, so much comfort. He left and it scared him to
death and he went running back. He wasn't talking. He wasn't
saying, I'll die with you. He just ran. He's the one that
told the girl to go out and get Peter. He's the one that told
the girl, my friend's out there, Simon Peter, go let him in. And
that's the first one to say, you're one of them too. And Peter verse 73 in our text
says, or verse 73 says, your speech bereath thee. Now, listen
to this for our comfort. Even in Peter's denial, there's
hope that he's not a reprobate. She said, your speech bereath
you. Though he denies the Lord, there's
something undeniable about him, his speech. They'd been silent
for a while, but Peter was a changed man. Yes,
he was. He knew the Lord. He loved the
Lord. The Lord said so, didn't He? Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
Me to you, but My Father which is in heaven. Thou art Peter
the robber. And other people had heard him and saw him all
those days, didn't they, leading up to this. They'd seen him.
They'd heard him. He'd talked to them. And his conversation
had changed. His conversation was in the gutter.
He had old fishing cronies that heard him all those years. And
they said something different about this old Simon. Oh, yeah. His speech was different. His conduct. He left everything. Now, are you going to find Simon
Peter? Where are you going to find him? He's with the Lord
and with His people. That's where he is. But now,
this has to happen. This has to happen according
to Scripture. According to Scripture, the Scripture might be fulfilled
because Christ has got to go it alone. Even John has got to
leave it. He's got to. And this has got
to happen for Peter. This has got to happen for us.
For our complete conversion. That boasting may be excluded
by everyone. And pride abased so that we'll
all know we're just sinners saved by grace. Does Peter start getting
lifted up? A little knowledge puffeth up,
doesn't it? Peter went out and wept bitterly
after this. There's a song, I almost sung
it for you today, but I just didn't feel like it. A song that
says, He washed my eyes with tears that I might see. I might see myself. I might see
Him. He would never deny me. Oh, that will convert you. Lessons
learned from this, pride goes before the fall. Count on it. We ever get lifted up in any
way, especially above our brethren, get ready to take a terrible fall. Evil communications corrupt good
manners. What more can the Lord say to
us than He had said? Clean doesn't rub off. Clean doesn't rub off. We're
saved, here's a lesson we learned, we're saved by the sovereign
power of God. We're kept by the power of God
all the days of our life. Peter, the first thing out of
his pen, 1 Peter 1 verse 5, we're kept by the power of God. Here's a lesson, the best man
on earth is altogether vanished. is a man at best. So, strengthen
your brethren just like you. Later on, after Peter saw Christ suffer
on the cross for him. Later on, after the Lord called
for Peter, said, tell old Peter to come back. And he came back. Later on, Peter was given another
opportunity. And he went out preaching. And
he stood up in that temple. And he started preaching Jesus
Christ. Now he knows the message. And
him crucified. And they came and they laid a
old hold to him and said, you can't do this. He said, you can't
stop me. and they threatened him and they
beat him. He and John, I believe it was,
they beat them both and said, don't you ever preach in that
name again. And it says they went skipping
home. He was rejoicing that he got
another opportunity to suffer shame in His name and not deny
Him. May the Lord give us opportunities
such as that.